Games industry shows COVID resilience August 5, 2020 | Sponsored Launched today, Ukie’s ‘Playing On’ report shows the UK games sector has risen to the challenges raised by the current pandemic, rapidly adapting to new ways of working and maintaining very high levels of productivity throughout difficult circumstances, without over-reliance on governmental and public funds for support. However, constraints in access to finance, business networking [...]
DIT is there to help gaming companies broaden their horizons August 5, 2020 | Sponsored The DIT provides Tradeshow Access Programme grant support to the UK games sector to enable UK games SMEs to exhibit at international trade shows such as Game Developers Conference, Gamescom and China Joy. DIT partners with the games sector to deliver trade missions, such as organising Chinese companies to visit Games London. DIT provides digital [...]
Flexibility key to Blazing Griffin’s soaring success August 5, 2020 | Sponsored Within 24 hours our entire games’ studio was working from home. Inadvertently, we had made the sudden transition slightly easier as have given staff the option to partially work from home for some time now and are used to flexible working. This meant that our work was already entirely cloud based, that we had device [...]
Tiktok faces EU privacy review over data collection methods August 5, 2020 Tiktok’s attempts to restructure its European operations are facing a review from EU privacy watchdogs, as the video sharing app prepares to sell its US arm to Microsoft. Last week, Tiktok shifted data about its UK, EU and Swiss users from computer servers in the US to holding bases in the UK and Ireland, as [...]
North East take support for gaming companies to the next level August 5, 2020 | Sponsored The North East of England is a powerhouse in the global gaming. It’s home to more than 60 internationally renowned, specialist gaming companies including Ubisoft Reflections, Coatsink and Sumo Digital. International blockbuster games made in the area include Mortal Kombat 11 and the Tom Clancy’s The Division franchise. Access to an established talent pool has [...]
Nottingham – where the living and working is easy August 5, 2020 | Sponsored “Nottingham is an easy city, easy to do business, easy to find talent and we’ve been able to grow our business here easily” said Halli Bjornsson, Co-Founder and CEO at Lockwood Publishing, creators of the hit 3D virtual world Avakin Life which has 500,000 Daily Active Users. Many more who live, work and run gaming [...]
Instagram rolls out Tiktok rival Reels in the UK August 5, 2020 Instagram has today launched Reels, a short-form video feature to rival Tiktok. Users can make 15-second videos inside the Instagram app using editing tools to help film different clips, which can be shared within a new tab on Instagram’s public Explore page. The social app, which is owned by Facebook, is seeking to capitalise on [...]
Amazon to pass on UK digital tax to sellers in fees hike August 5, 2020 Amazon is to increase seller fees next month, saying it will no longer absorb the UK’s digital services tax after talks with the government failed to progress. The e-commerce giant said it had taken on the impact of the digital services tax — a two per cent levy on the firm’s annual revenues — since [...]
Bytedance founder says Trump’s goal is to ban Tiktok, not secure a sale August 4, 2020 The founder of Tiktok parent firm Bytedance has told employees he believes the US is ultimately seeking a total ban on the app, despite allowing negotiations of a sale to Microsoft to continue. Zhang Limin also said there were misunderstandings on Chinese social media about Tiktok’s situation in the US, but that Bytedance could face more [...]
EU launches full-scale probe of Google-Fitbit merger August 4, 2020 The EU has decided to launch a full-scale investigation of Google’s proposed $2.1bn takeover of Fitbit, after an initial probe prompted concerns. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, closed a preliminary review today that determined further investigation of the deal was needed to ensure Google would not use Fitbit’s data to benefit its online [...]