Gaming

Mobile gaming is a behemoth in terms of annual revenue, and our gaming news coverage includes iOS, Android, mobile web and more, including companies like Netflix trying to get a foot in the door. We also report on the AAA gaming studios, which are increasingly a target for acquisitive giants like Microsoft and Sony.

iGBA was an ad-supported copy of the open-source project GBA4iOS that offered a Game Boy game emulator for iOS.

Apple pulls a Game Boy emulator for App Store violations, but says game emulators are allowed

What does Taylor Swift have in common with a group of improv comedians pretending to be wizards? They can both sell out Madison Square Garden (… and also, their fans…

A Dungeons & Dragons actual play show is going to sell out Madison Square Garden

Apple News is testing a new game for iOS 17.5 called Quartiles, which requires players to organize a grid of 20 syllables into 5 four-syllable words. Spotted by Gadget Hacks,…

Apple News is testing a game that kind of looks like NYT Connections

Featured Article

Shure MV7+: The best USB podcast mic gets better

I was happy — excited, even — to check out Shure’s latest USB microphone. Its predecessor, the MV7, has been my default podcasting mic since it was launched toward to end of 2020. I’ve recorded more than 100 episodes of my show on the thing — not to mention using…

Shure MV7+: The best USB podcast mic gets better

Apple updated its App Store rules Friday to allow emulators for retro console games globally with an option for downloading titles. However, the company warned that the developers are responsible for…

Apple changes App Store rules to allow retro game emulators globally

Featured Article

Ten years later, Facebook’s Oculus acquisition hasn’t changed the world as expected

Every year, Time Magazine issues a list of the 200 best inventions of the past 12 months. Frankly, I don’t know how the editors do it. The dirty secret of this job is that true, game-changing inventions rarely cross your desk. In fact, you’re extraordinarily lucky if you average one…

Ten years later, Facebook’s Oculus acquisition hasn’t changed the world as expected

Bitkraft Ventures — a games investor based out of Denver, Colorado, but with European founders — is raising its third fund, coming in at $275 million. The fund will make…

Against games industry doldrums, Bitkraft Ventures raises $275M to back studios and platforms

Five months ago, Rooms, a 3D design platform made by ex-Google employees, launched its beta version on the App Store. Today, the free iOS app is getting a big update…

Rooms, a 3D design app and ‘cozy game,’ gets a major update as users jump to 250K

Turkey has gained a well-earned reputation as being a veritable cauldron of mobile games startups, leading to the rise of VCs dedicated to the sector. The latest to join this…

A new games-focused VC in Turkey shows the industry there continues to gain steam

Video game giant Activision is investigating a hacking campaign that’s targeting players with the goal of stealing their credentials, TechCrunch has learned. At this point, the hackers’ specific goals —…

Activision investigating password-stealing malware targeting game players

With the Vision Pro finally available, many consumers are curious about Apple’s AR/VR headset and the apps that come with it. While some are from companies you recognize — Disney+,…

Apple’s Vision Pro is here: These are some of the most exciting indie apps and games

The Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general filed a massive lawsuit against Apple on Thursday morning, accusing the company of monopolistic smartphone practices. Meanwhile, Fortnite maker Epic Games…

Apple’s antitrust suit is a silver lining for Epic Games

On Sunday, the world of video games was shaken by a hacking and cheating scandal. During a competitive esports tournament of Apex Legends, a free-to-play shooter video game played by…

Apex Legends hacker said he hacked tournament games ‘for fun’

On Sunday, two competitive esports players appeared to get hacked during a live-streamed game, prompting the organizers to postpone the tournament. Players were competing in the Apex Legends Global Series,…

Esports league postponed after players hacked midgame

LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned social platform, has made a name for itself primarily as a platform for people looking to network and pick up knowledge for professional purposes, and for recruitment…

LinkedIn plans to add gaming to its platform

AI models that play games go back decades, but they generally specialize in one game and always play to win. Google DeepMind researchers have a different goal with their latest…

Google DeepMind trains a video game-playing AI to be your co-op companion

Google announced a number of new features for Google Play listings for games, including AI-powered FAQs, displaying the latest YouTube videos, new immersive ad formats and support for native PC…

Google Play will show AI-powered FAQs and recent YouTube videos for games

Earlier this year, Readyverse Studios — co-founded by blockchain tech company Futureverse and Ernest Cline, the mind behind the sci-fi franchise Ready Player One — announced “The Readyverse,” an interactive…

Ready Player One creator debuts ‘Open,’ a metaverse battle royale experience

Sea’s Garena has yet to launch its popular mobile title Free Fire in India, more than six months after announcing plans to do so, a prolonged delay that has raised…

Free Fire India relaunch in limbo six months on

The NYT Games app is debuting a new redesign to help users discover games and track their progress more easily. The redesign comes nearly a year after the New York…

NYT Games debuts redesigned app to boost discovery and simplify navigation

Featured Article

NFT fantasy sports startup Sorare lays off 13% of staff as web3 gaming continues to sputter

Web3-enabled fantasy sports platform Sorare laid off 22 employees based in its New York office in February. The move comes as the startup wants certain teams to be concentrated at the company’s Paris headquarters to improve communication and efficiency, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. “As we plan…

NFT fantasy sports startup Sorare lays off 13% of staff as web3 gaming continues to sputter

DISH-owned streaming service Sling TV announced today the launch of its new gaming platform called “Arcade,” featuring classic arcade games like Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Sweet Sugar, Solitaire Clash, Poker…

Sling TV now lets customers play free arcade games while watching live TV content

Making a video game successful is already hard. Doing so while complying with the growing number of child safety laws and regulations around the world is an almost insurmountable task.…

k-ID launches a solution that helps game developers comply with ever-changing child safety regulations

The much-teased and oft-leaked Nothing Phone (2a) is now officially official, just under a week after it made its limited debut at the company’s MWC after party. Nothing’s third phone…

Nothing’s budget Phone (2a) hits preorder at $349

“Denial is a river that flows through Cupertino!,” said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, a notorious Apple critic who also sued the tech giant for anticompetitive practices, in a post…

Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney calls out Apple’s ‘bitter griping’ after its EU fine over anticompetitive practices

Featured Article

HTC Vive became an enterprise product while you weren’t looking

A lot has changed at HTC in the decade since a small team broke off to form its mixed reality division. In fact, it’s a fundamentally different business in several meaningful ways. For one thing, you can’t call HTC a phone company any longer. Contrary to popular perception, the Taiwanese…

HTC Vive became an enterprise product while you weren’t looking

Sony is laying off around 900 employees in its PlayStation division, the company announced on Tuesday. The cuts will impact 8% of the division’s global workforce, as Sony becomes the…

Sony is laying off 900 employees from its PlayStation unit

Hardware is difficult, to paraphrase a famous adage. First-generation products from new startups are notoriously so, regardless of how much money and excitement you’ve managed to drum up. Given all…

Humane pushes Ai Pin ship date to mid-April

PlayStation VR often gets overlooked in conversations about mixed reality. These days, it seems all anyone wants to talk about is Apple Vision Pro versus Meta Quest. But Sony has…

Sony’s PS VR2 is getting compatibility, possibly by end of year

The company’s decision to test the waters for an equity crowdfunding round comes after it sold several million dollars worth of goodies to its fanbase on Kickstarter earlier this year.

As VCs slow gaming investments, Frost Giant turns to community for fresh capital