Gaming News | TechCrunch

World of Warcraft turns 20

Anthony Ha — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 22:26:25 +0000

Blizzard Entertainment first released World of Warcraft in November 2004, so The New York Times celebrated the anniversary by outlining the many ways we can still see the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game’s influence’s 20 years later. For one thing, while multiplayer games and early social networks such as MySpace already existed, WoW provided a […]

Consumer tech is bouncing back, and consumer founders like Brynn Putnam are bouncing back with it

Connie Loizos — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 01:14:09 +0000

When Brynn Putnam sold her last company, Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million at the start of the pandemic, it looked to this editor like she’d sold the smart fitness company too soon. Instead, the timing proved brilliant. The home fitness craze crashed nearly as abruptly as it peaked during that first year of lockdowns. […]

Roblox adds safety measures to ban kids under 13 from social spaces and other experiences

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 17:47:27 +0000

Throughout the years, several reports have accused Roblox, the popular gaming platform aimed at preteens, of lacking strict safety protocols for children, which exposes them to dangers such as grooming, explicit content, and violent or abusive material. In a significant update to its safety policy, Roblox plans to keep users under the age of 13 […]

Hacker says they banned ‘thousands’ of Call of Duty gamers by abusing anti-cheat flaw

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 16:50:21 +0000

The hacker, who goes by Vizor, tells TechCrunch that they exploited a bug in the popular game's anti-cheat software for months.

Decart’s AI simulates a real-time, playable version of Minecraft

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 21:24:36 +0000

Decart, an Israeli AI company that emerged from stealth today with $21 million in funding from Sequoia and Oren Zeev, has released what it’s claiming is the first playable “open-world” AI model. Called Oasis, the model, which is available for download, powers a demo on Decart’s site: a Minecraft-like game that’s generated on the fly, […]

Krafton backs IMM Investment’s first India fund

Manish Singh — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 04:30:46 +0000

The Indian arm of gaming firm Krafton has backed IMM Investment’s first India fund as an anchor limited partner. Seoul-based IMM Investment, an early backer of Krafton and an investor in roughly half of South Korea’s unicorns, has marked the first close of the India fund and has hired former Legend Capital partner Prakhar Khanduja […]

Nintendo tries again on mobile with a $10 Animal Crossing game arriving in December

Lauren Forristal — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 18:25:54 +0000

It was a sad day when Nintendo announced that its free mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp would soon shut down. The app is ending its service on November 28; however, it’s also getting a revival. This time, though, it’ll be a paid game. On December 3, Nintendo is launching a paid version of the […]

The original source code for Backyard Baseball is long gone. Mega Cat Studios remastered the game anyway.

Amanda Silberling — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Backyard Baseball 1997 is back in all of its nostalgic glory, sliding onto Steam like Pablo Sanchez when he steals a base. But before Mega Cat Studios could remaster the cult favorite PC game, founder James Deighan had to sift through almost 30 years of detritus. Playground Productions, a children’s media company, scored the rights […]

Xbox will soon let players buy games directly in its Android app following Google antitrust ruling

Aisha Malik — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 14:38:12 +0000

Xbox president Sarah Bond announced that players will soon be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly from the Xbox app on Android. The announcement comes as a U.S. judge ordered Google to stop forcing developers to use Google Play’s billing system on Monday. The ruling forces Google to open up its app store to […]

Never mind the Switch 2, Nintendo launches a $100 sleep-tracking alarm clock

Brian Heater — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 15:58:35 +0000

That Nintendo gadget that showed up on the Federal Communications Commission’s site last month is sadly not the Switch 2. While the gaming giant confirmed in May that a Switch successor is, indeed, in the works, fans are going to have to settle for Alarmo. The $100 motion controlled alarm clock brings sounds from titles […]

Investors are betting on user-generated content in video games. Gamebeast’s founder explains why

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 15:22:04 +0000

Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan sat down with Zander Brumbaugh, the 22-year-old founder of Gamebeast, a startup that offers Roblox developers tools like A/B testing and LiveOps to modify games without needing to release a new version or interrupt a user’s ongoing game. Gamebeast recently raised a $3.7 million pre-seed round, led by J2 Ventures […]

The New York Times is testing a new game called Zorse

Amanda Silberling — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:29:19 +0000

The New York Times is working to expand its ever successful gaming section with Zorse, a game the company is testing in beta. Per a report in Semafor, this will be a phrase-guessing game where each puzzle is a mashup of two phrases. You know, like a Zorse — a zebra horse. Gaming has been […]

This device charger has Apple’s Find My tech built in

Brian Heater — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 13:35:10 +0000

PlugBug starts at $70 and has earned the title of "first USB-C charger that includes Find My.”

Series, a GenAI game development platform, has quietly raised $28M from Netflix, Dell, a16z, others

Julie Bort — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 16:10:00 +0000

It’s been quite the year for game industry exec Pany Haritatos.
Last month, he quietly closed an oversubscribed $28 million from Netflix, Dell a16z, and others.

Indian game streaming startup Loco sells majority stake to Redwood

Manish Singh — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 05:36:42 +0000

UAE-based Redwood has acquired a majority stake in the game streaming platform Loco as the Indian firm looks to expand focus to international markets, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed. Redwood, a newly formed investment firm, has signed a $65 million deal with Loco, an investment that also gives full exit to all existing Loco backers. […]

Meta discontinues Quest 2 and Quest Pro

Brian Heater — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 17:18:15 +0000

With the budget Quest 3S now up for preorder, Meta will no longer sell the Quest 2 and Quest Pro once back stock is deleted.

Backyard Baseball ’97 is back, with a re-release coming soon on Steam

Amanda Silberling — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Backyard Baseball 1997 is being remastered and will be available October 10 for $10.

Cards Against Humanity sues Elon Musk’s SpaceX for trespassing

Rebecca Bellan — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 20:20:44 +0000

Cards Against Humanity (CAH) is suing Elon Musk’s space exploration company, SpaceX, for $15 million after it allegedly dumped construction equipment all over the game company’s private land in Texas. An email, posted on Threads, went out to around 150,000 Cards Against Humanity Saves America donors. Those donors each contributed $15 seven years ago to […]

HTC takes on Apple’s Vision Pro and PC Gaming with $1,000 Vive Focus Vision

Brian Heater — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 18:44:59 +0000

The Vive Focus Vision has enough firepower under the hood to appeal to PC gamers tethered via the DisplayPort.

The 22-year-old building Roblox developer tools to make gaming more efficient

Dominic-Madori Davis — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 13:31:07 +0000

Gamebeast is a live operations tooling platform that lets developers modify games without needing to release a new version or interrupt an ongoing game.