Roblox Moves to Take a Cut of All Brand Integrations on Its Platform | Exclusive
Roblox announced it will begin charging creators a fee for publishing brand integrations, with charges scaling based on user traffic and engagement, slated to roll out in 2027. The policy is presented as a move to standardize ad labeling, improve transparency, and fund safety and compliance efforts. Previously, creators could run sponsored content without platform fees, only sharing 30% of in‑game purchase revenue. The change aligns Roblox with other platforms that monetize creator‑driven advertising but introduces a new cost layer for developers.
Genies and Sanrio Partner on AI-Enabled Character Experiences
Genies, an AI avatar platform, has formed a strategic partnership with Sanrio, the creator of Hello Kitty and over 400 other characters. The collaboration will enable Sanrio’s iconic IP to be rendered as interactive, AI‑driven avatars that can speak, gesture,...
Zepeto Teams up with Bratz Dolls on Digital Runway
Zepeto, the avatar‑centric social platform with over 400 million users, announced a partnership with iconic fashion doll brand Bratz. The collaboration will launch the "Bratz × Zepeto Contest" on March 20, running four weeks with a fresh fashion theme each week. Participants can dress...
GeForce Now Adds Crimson Desert and 90 FPS Cloud Games on VR Devices
Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service now streams 90‑fps virtual‑reality titles across major headsets. The platform adds Crimson Desert, a highly anticipated open‑world RPG with over three million Steam wishlist adds, powered by RTX 5080‑class performance. Four new VR games debut, expanding...
Mabinogi Turns 18 with New Milestones for Nexon Online Game
South Korean publisher Nexon America announced the 18th anniversary of its flagship MMO Mabinogi, marking nearly two decades of online fantasy gameplay. To celebrate, the company will run a three‑week series of in‑game events featuring exclusive rewards and community‑driven statistics...
Mattel Announces Mattel Match, a Match-3 Game Starring Childhood Favorite Brands
Mattel, in partnership with Uken Games, has launched Mattel Match, a free‑to‑play match‑3 puzzle game available on iOS and Android. The title incorporates iconic Mattel properties such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Fisher‑Price, and blends classic match‑3 mechanics with modern...
‘Star Wars’ Launch Marks Fortnite’s Most In-Depth Creator IP Integration Yet
Epic Games announced on March 19 that Fortnite creators now have access to a suite of Disney‑licensed Star Wars assets, including characters, force powers, sound effects, and vehicles such as droid battle tanks. Creators can begin building and testing experiences immediately, but...
UGCon Wants to Be the Definitive Conference for User-Generated Content Creators
UGCon is debuting on May 21‑22 at Topgolf Las Vegas, targeting the fast‑growing user‑generated content (UGC) sector in gaming. The conference will spotlight UGC on platforms such as Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft, emphasizing brand and intellectual property integrations within virtual...
Maingear Drops 30 Systems as Limited Edition Crimson Desert Gaming PC
Maingear announced a Rush Crimson Desert Limited Edition gaming PC, a hand‑built collector’s machine tied to the launch of Pearl Abyss’s open‑world title Crimson Desert. Only 30 units will be produced, with orders closing on April 2 or when the final...
Fortnite Returns to Google Play Store Worldwide
Epic Games announced that Fortnite is now available again on the Google Play Store worldwide. The relaunch follows a settlement that resolved Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against Google over app‑store fees. The return coincides with the launch of the latest Battle...
How Mega IPOs Could Take All the Money Away From Smaller IPOs | Pitchbook
Pitchbook warns that upcoming mega IPOs could dominate market liquidity in 2026. SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are rumored to go public, potentially becoming the three largest VC‑backed IPOs ever. Their combined valuation may surpass the total value of all VC‑backed...
Build A Rocket Boy Moves to Self-Publishing for MindsEye
Build A Rocket Boy and IOI Partners have terminated their publishing agreement for the upcoming game MindsEye. Effective immediately, Build A Rocket Boy will assume full publishing responsibilities for the title. The shift moves the studio from a traditional publisher‑developer...
Nvidia’s CloudXR 6.0 Supports Foveated Streaming on Apple Vision Pro
Nvidia announced CloudXR 6.0 now supports foveated streaming on the Apple Vision Pro, extending GeForce RTX‑powered graphics to the mixed‑reality headset. The cloud‑based solution streams high‑resolution visuals while dynamically allocating rendering resources to the user’s gaze, reducing bandwidth and latency....
Saudi Investment Firm EGDC Acquires 5% Stake in Capcom
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's MisK Foundation‑backed investment firm EGDC has purchased a 5% stake in Japanese game publisher Capcom, representing roughly 26.8 million shares. The shareholding was disclosed in a filing with Japan’s Kanto Local Finance Bureau on March 13 and is...
Nvidia Releases Open Physical AI Models for Healthcare Robotics
At its GTC conference, Nvidia unveiled a suite of open physical AI models tailored for healthcare robotics. The models provide pre‑trained control frameworks for surgical robots, enabling faster integration of AI into operating rooms. Early adopters include surgical robotics firms...
Synopsys Builds Hardware-Accelerated Agentic AI Stack with Nvidia
Synopsys announced a collaboration with Nvidia to create an open, secure, hardware‑accelerated agentic AI stack spanning from silicon design to system‑level applications. The stack leverages Nvidia GPUs and AI accelerators to deliver high‑performance inference and training for agentic models. In...
Nvidia DGX Spark and DGX Station with NemoClaw Deliver Autonomous Agents Platform
Nvidia announced that its DGX Spark and DGX Station systems, paired with the NemoClaw software stack, now deliver a full‑stack platform for building and running autonomous AI agents. The solution is designed to support always‑on agents that can reason, plan,...
San Sound Previews Sanwear Hardwire Gaming Wired-Earbuds
San Sound has unveiled its upcoming Sanwear Hardwire, a competitive‑gaming wired‑earbud set for a limited release in the first quarter of 2026. The earbuds are built from the ground up for low‑latency performance, targeting esports athletes, audio‑focused professionals, and audiophiles...
Razer Flexes AI Desktop Companion and Other New Products at GDC
At the Game Developers Conference 2026, Razer showcased a suite of AI‑powered products, headlined by an AI desktop companion designed to streamline gaming workflows. The company also introduced AI‑enhanced peripherals, including a smart mouse and headset, that promise real‑time performance...
Inside Baseball Hits 26’s Community-Driven Strategy Keeping Players Coming Back Every Day
Ares Interactive’s soft‑launch of "Baseball Hits 26" shows strong daily engagement, with 51% of players logging in seven days a week. The studio attributes this retention to a community‑first approach, sharing updates via Discord and actively soliciting player feedback. The...
‘The Train Has Left the Station’: The State of Child Safety and Age Verification in 2026 | GamesBeat Crossfire Recap
At GamesBeat Crossfire in San Francisco, ESRA President Patricia Vance and psychologist Rachel Kowert highlighted a looming wave of trust and safety reforms set for 2026. The discussion focused on tightening child‑safety tools and robust age‑verification mechanisms across gaming platforms....
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Dominates Game Developers Choice Awards
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive, swept the 26th Game Developers Choice Awards, securing the coveted Game of the Year trophy. The title added to its already extensive trophy cabinet, bringing its total...
Gameforge Unveils Shelf Heroes FPS Roguelite
Indie studio Fun Punch Games and publisher Gameforge have announced Shelf Heroes, a fast‑paced first‑person shooter roguelite that treats players as the loot they collect. The title lets gamers rebuild their toy hero piece by piece each run, mixing modular...
Discussing the Balance of Power in Gaming | GamesBeat Crossfire Recap
GamesBeat Crossfire, held on March 10 during GDC 2026, convened over 500 attendees to examine the shifting balance of power in gaming. High‑profile speakers including PUBG creator Brendan Greene and former EA chief creative officer Rich Hilleman led six sessions covering platform‑developer...
Offscript Media Launches 3BlackDot Gaming Media Platform
Offscript Worldwide, the parent company behind the Revolt media property, announced the launch of 3BlackDot, a consumer‑facing gaming media platform. The debut featured its flagship show, 3BD Weekly, streamed live from SXSW. 3BlackDot is positioned as a centralized hub that...
Ezra Raises $8M for AI-Powered Finance Platform
Ezra, an AI‑powered finance platform focused on asset‑backed transactions, announced an $8 million seed round led by undisclosed investors. The capital will accelerate product development and expand customer deployments. The funding responds to rising deal volume and the industry’s reliance on...
Xbox Future Reveal Impressions — Dev Kits Going Out in 2027
Xbox Vice President Jason Ronald announced at the GDC Festival of Gaming that dev kits for the upcoming Project Helix will be distributed in 2027. The reveal signals Microsoft’s next‑generation console strategy, extending the current Xbox Series X|S lifecycle. Ronald’s...
Tenstorrent Unveils RISC-V AI Workstation with Open-Source Stack
Tenstorrent announced the TT‑QuietBox 2, dubbed Blackhole, a liquid‑cooled AI workstation that runs directly on a desktop. The system can infer models up to 120 billion parameters and delivers teraflop‑class performance using a RISC‑V processor. It ships with a completely open‑source software...
Replit Introduces Agent 4 to Treat Software Development as Creative Work
Replit unveiled Agent 4, the latest iteration of its AI‑powered development platform, positioning software creation as a creative activity. The new system is structured around four foundational pillars that aim to bridge imagination with concrete implementation. While some fear AI could...
Intel Announces Intel Core Ultra Desktop Gaming Processors
Intel unveiled its Core Ultra 200S Plus series, branding them as the fastest desktop gaming processors to date. The lineup includes the 270K and 250K models, which Intel says deliver up to twice the performance for creator workloads compared with competing...
Elgato Brings Native Voicemod Effects to Wave Link and Stream Deck
Elgato, a Corsair brand, has deepened its partnership with Voicemod by embedding the voice‑changing software directly into its Wave Link and Stream Deck platforms. Streamers can now apply Voicemod’s professional voice effects as VST plugins in Wave Link without launching...
Activision Reveals Details of Black Ops Royale
Activision announced Black Ops Royale, a new battle‑royale mode slated for release on March 12. The mode pays homage to Blackout, the original Call of Duty battle‑royale map introduced in Black Ops 4 over six years ago. Players can expect familiar gameplay...
GB LIVE at GDC Festival of Gaming 2026, Presented by Xsolla
GamesBeat’s GB LIVE will broadcast an exclusive interview from the GDC Festival of Gaming 2026, featuring Xsolla President Chris Hewish and GamesBeat Editorial Director Dean Takahashi. The session is scheduled for Wednesday, March 11 at 11:00 AM PT and will be...
Nex Playground Previews Spring Lineup at GDC as Sales Inch Towards 1M
Nex announced that its active‑play system, the Playground, is on track to sell one million units this month. The company is using this momentum to unveil its spring game lineup at the GDC Festival of Gaming. A UK launch is...
How Disney Worked with Lego on Star Wars Theme for Smart Play
Lego unveiled its Smart Play platform at CES 2026, embedding electronics into traditional bricks for interactive experiences. Disney joined the launch, showcasing a Lego Star Wars Smart Play set that leverages the new technology. The partnership reflects an eight‑year development...
ProbablyMonsters Expands Leadership Team and Shows Off Nekome: Nazi Hunter Gameplay
ProbablyMonsters announced a major expansion of its executive team, adding Jonathan Lander as Chief Publishing Officer and David Reid as Chief Marketing Officer while promoting Mark Subotnick to Chief Product Officer. The new C‑suite structure aligns publishing, marketing, and product...
Gaming Websites See Traffic Surge From Google Discover | Exclusive
Google Discover has become a critical traffic source for gaming publishers as search declines. Raptive’s analysis of 197 gaming sites shows a 138% surge in Discover traffic from Q4 2025 to Q1 2026, with roughly half of tech and gaming...
Samsung Shows Off Support for Glasses-Free 3D on Monitor
Samsung Electronics announced that its Odyssey 3D gaming monitor will support glasses‑free, autostereoscopic 3D gameplay. The company demonstrated the feature at the GDC Festival of Gaming 2026, showcasing titles Hell is Us and Cronos: The New Dawn optimized for the...
The Battle of the GDC Party Lists: Ty Taylor Tangles with Blueberry AI
Vice president of Seattle Indies Ty Taylor, who has curated the GDCparties.com directory for eight years, alleges that startup Blueberry AI copied the site’s underlying code and party listings, rebranding them on its own platform. Taylor disclosed the claim in...
Eve Frontier Enters Cycle 5: Shroud of Fear on March 11
CCP Games announced that Eve Frontier will enter Cycle 5 of its Founder Access program on March 11, under the title “Shroud of Fear.” The new cycle pushes the title further toward CCP’s long‑term vision of a hardcore space‑survival sandbox MMO. Founder...
Midwest Games Names Adam Orth as COO
Midwest Games, a publisher focused on non‑traditional gaming spaces, announced Adam Orth as its new chief operating officer. The company also appointed Cisco Maldonado and Charlotte Cook as executive advisers to steer publishing strategy. Orth brings operational expertise from previous...
Türkiye Makes Moves to Possibly Ban Valve’s Steam, Epic Games Store
Turkey's government is reportedly considering bans on major gaming platforms Valve's Steam and Epic Games Store. The move follows recent restrictions on Roblox and Discord, signaling a tightening regulatory stance. Turkey hosts more than 800 game development studios, whose access...
How ReadyM Brings Community-Driven Multiplayer to Single-Player Games | Exclusive
ReadyCode, a gametech startup, unveiled ReadyM, a sandbox platform that converts existing single-player titles into community‑driven multiplayer worlds. The service draws inspiration from grassroots ecosystems that propelled Minecraft, Roblox, and GTA V’s FiveM to cultural prominence. By overlaying a multiplayer layer,...
Kena: Bridge of Spirits Is Coming to Nintendo Switch 2 This Spring
Ember Lab announced that its award‑winning action‑adventure Kena: Bridge of Spirits will debut on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 in spring. The Switch 2 version will be feature‑complete, bundling the Anniversary DLC and the newly added New Game+ mode. This...
Cheer Raises $4.5M for Next-Generation Mobile Puzzle Studio
Cheer Games, a mobile puzzle studio with Turkish roots operating out of Barcelona, secured a $4.5 million funding round to develop next‑generation puzzle titles. The raise follows a $4 million round by fellow Turkish‑based Vento Games, highlighting regional investor enthusiasm. Cheer plans...
Roblox Creators’ Favorite New Tools and Features in 2026
Roblox has released eight new patches in the past month, each aimed at streamlining creator workflows and boosting platform performance. The updates introduce advanced terrain sculpting, faster texture streaming, AI‑driven asset generation, and a real‑time analytics dashboard. By delivering these...
Angry Birds Friends Debuts as a Web Browser Game | Exclusive
Rovio has launched Angry Birds Friends as a web browser game, extending the popular social title beyond mobile platforms. The browser version offers players immediate access without downloading an app and includes exclusive rewards that are only available to web...
AWS Launches DDos Protection for Games Running on Amazon GameLift Servers
Amazon Web Services announced a new DDoS protection service tightly integrated with its GameLift managed server platform. The solution leverages AWS Shield to automatically detect and mitigate volumetric attacks targeting multiplayer titles. By embedding security directly into GameLift, developers can...
Game Layoffs Slow Down but Are Still Concentrated in North America | Amir Satvat
Game industry layoffs reached 48 events, affecting 2,579 jobs in 2026, a slower pace than analysts predicted. Despite the overall deceleration, 17 of the last 20 layoff incidents occurred in North America, highlighting a regional concentration. Industry observers attribute the...
A Few Words (Mostly About Uncharted 2) with Lifetime Achievement Winner Evan Wells | Interview
Evan Wells, a longtime Naughty Dog veteran, received the lifetime achievement award at the recent DICE Summit. He joined the studio in 1998, contributed as lead designer on Crash Bandicoot: Warped, and rose to co‑president in 2005 before becoming sole...