Bulkhead's new game WARDOGS, a 100-player tactical first-person shooter, needed to sell 400K copies to keep the lights on. It's done five times that figure in under a week. According to the British studio (previously known for the World War II shooter Battalion 1944) and publisher Team 17, WARDOGS has sold over 2 million copies in less than 5 days after entering Steam Early Access on September 10. The game peaked at 428,666 concurrent players on Steam on September 13, per SteamDB. Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer claimed that the studio knew there was excitement, but nothing had prepared them for seeing that […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/wardogs-two-million-sales-five-days-bulkhead-crunch/

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has just published a new report detailing the collapse of Last Sentinel, the ambitious open world crime game backed by Tencent that was meant to go toe-to-toe with Grand Theft Auto. According to Schreier, the project has now effectively been shut down (although Tencent disputes this; more on that later) after six years of troubled development, with roughly 80 layoffs hitting the studio behind it this week. That studio was Lightspeed LA, which got founded in late 2019/early 2020 by Steve Martin, former head of Rockstar San Diego. Based in Irvine, California, the studio set out to […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/tencent-last-sentinel-gta-rival-collapses-layoffs/

Whether you love them or hate them, Naughty Dog have achieved their current position in-part due to the studio’s fun and approachable gameplay – while of course including plenty of major story and set-piece moments. We’ve seen some studios in the past take on this formula, but according to reports, Tencent is working on an ambitious AAA title inspired by the likes of Uncharted, The Last of Us and Tomb Raider.

As collated by Reddit user ‘Multiliv’ Tencent has for at least a year been working on a mysterious AAA third-person action-adventure project. Full details on the game’s current timeline can be found HERE, but for our purposes the most interesting part is the game’s description.

Across the various job listings, it appears as though this project (codenamed ‘T’) will be taking heavy inspiration from its contemporaries, with one of the listings directly referencing Uncharted and Tomb Raider. This can be seen with its gameplay details, currently listing features including:

• Climbing
• Jumping
• Taking cover
• Aiming
• Dodging
• Hand-to-hand combat
• Firearms
• Terrain traversal
• Fluid transitions between exploration and combat
• Dynamic cinematic camera
• Close-quarters combat
• Movement during combat
• Collective AI behaviour
• Dynamic AI decision-making during combat

The full list of mechanics is lengthy, and includes many staples seen across most video games. That said, putting all of the details shared together does paint the picture of a game which functions similar to the likes of The Last of Us Part II – with its blend of brutal melee and firearms-based combat, advanced enemy AI; a focus on terrain variety and the importance of movement, positioning and taking cover.

Of course, part of what makes Naughty Dog’s games so compelling are their narratives and mechanical polish, and so it will be interesting to see whether Tencent is able to match these elements.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the early details shared so far? Are you a fan of Naughty Dog’s game design? Other than Tomb Raider, has any other game been able to match the likes of Uncharted in its genre? Let us know down below.

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Back in 2024, Square Enix announced plans to bring Final Fantasy 14 to mobile platforms. The game, developed in collaboration with Tencent, launched in China to start off with, and was due to become available globally this year. However, Square Enix has since decided to end the licensing agreement, so now Final Fantasy 14 mobile will be shutting down instead. 

In a service termination notice, Tencent and Square Enix thanked fans for their support of Final Fantasy 14 Mobile (Chinese Edition), but “due to adjustments in business operations and changes in the market environment, Tendent and Square Enix have, through amicable negotiation, decided to terminate the licensing agreement”.

Due to the licensing agreement coming to an end, Final Fantasy 14 Mobile will end operations on September 30th 2026. This also means that the planned global rollout for the game will no longer be happening.

New user registrations and in-game currency purchases are no longer available as of this week. Then, in September, the servers will go offline for good. Finally, in mid October, the forums and customer service platforms for the game will also shut down.

KitGuru Says: Final Fantasy 14 mobile was a short lived experiment. On the plus side, the proper PC and console version of the game will be continuing well into the future, with a major new expansion dropping in early 2027. 

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NVIDIA's H200 AI GPUs are finally shipping to China, as reported by U.S. officials, marking the return of the banned chip. China Softens Its Position on NVIDIA GPUs As First H200 Shipments Now Headed To Chinese AI Firms The NVIDIA Hopper story in China has been a roller coaster ride so far. When Hopper was launched, US export restrictions for the Chinese market were in full swing. These pushed NVIDIA to release an export-compliant variant called the H20 for China, which ended up being severely cut down, but still a viable option against what China's domestic chipmakers had to offer. […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/u-s-officials-confirm-first-nvidia-h200-ai-gpu-shipments-to-china/

Even Realities, an ex-Apple team building camera-free smart glasses, raised $150 million from Meituan and Tencent at a $1 billion valuation.

Tencent is reportedly preparing to sell off stakes in several Japanese studios as part of a broader shift in its investment strategy. According to a new Bloomberg report, Tencent is reassessing those deals and considering exits from studios it views as underperforming.

One of the companies reportedly affected is Marvelous, best known for the Story of Seasons franchise, Rune Factory, as well as work on Monster Hunter Stories. Bloomberg‘s sources claim Tencent is evaluating whether the “envisioned synergies” with certain portfolio studios have lapsed, prompting the company to explore divestment. Marvelous was part of a wave of Japanese investments Tencent made around 2020, targeting creative houses it believed were undervalued at the time.

While Tencent might be dropping its investment in Marvelous, there are other Japanese studios that the report confirms won't be affected. This list includes the likes of Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Wonderful 101) and From Software (Elden Ring, Dark Souls). These studios are considered marquee partners and continue to align with Tencent’s long‑term goals.

Apparently, Tencent also wants to work with its investment teams to seek a more hands-on role in the studios it owns stakes in. Previously, Tencent had been a hands-off partner, but the report claims that Tencent would now prefer a more hands-on approach, which would also include more directly supporting studios with things like recruitment and talent scouting.

KitGuru Says: Like most other major publishers right now, Tencent is looking to reduce risk and focus on more on titles and studios with ‘hit game' potential.

The post Tencent may end investments in several Japanese game developers first appeared on KitGuru.

DON'T NOD, the studio behind the recently released Aphelion and the team behind the first two Life is Strange titles, is currently looking for a way to secure its future after Tencent decided against further short-term investment in the narrative-focused studio. Following claims made by French reporter Gauthier 'Gautoz' Andres that the studio is rapidly approaching a situation where it would be "out of cash," DON'T NOD responded to the claims in a statement sent to Game Developer. Though the studio did not claim the situation to be as dire as Andres put it, it confirmed that Tencent had decided […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/dont-nod-looking-to-extend-cash-runway-as-tencent-pulls-additional-funding/

At GDC 2026, LightSpeed Studios, a subsidiary of Tencent, unveiled its commitment to creating original IPs through a new initiative that leverages world-class talent, including Creative Director Feng Zhu and Motion Capture Studio Manager Kristin Gallagher. Known primarily for PUBG Mobile and Final Fantasy XIV Mobile, the studio now has several AAA projects in production, including Last Sentinel (an open world action game announced at TGA 2023 and set in a dystopian version of Tokyo) and an action game in development by former Dragon's Dogma and Devil May Cry designer Hideaki Itsuno, who joined LightSpeed in late 2024. We had […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/lightspeed-studios-aaa-interview/

It has only been a month since Highguard launched but the game's player base has only dwindled since then. Now after a round of layoffs, Wildlight Entertainment has revealed it will be shutting the game down.

The likelihood of the studio fulfilling their ambitious year-long content roadmap already felt slim when most of the development team was let go, leaving just a handful of ‘key developers' left to continue working on the game. Unfortunately since then, Highguard's player count has only continued to drop and as a result, the company is pulling the plug.

Here is the full statement from Wildlight:

“Today we’re sharing difficult news. We have made the decision to permanently shut down Highguard on March 12.

Since launch, more than 2 million players stepped into Highguard’s world. You shared feedback, created content, and many believed in what we were building. For that, we are deeply grateful.

Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term. Servers will remain online until March 12th. We hope you’ll jump in with us one more time to show your support and get those final great matches in while we still can.

The team is excited to release one final game update to enjoy in the remaining life of the game. We'll be adding a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and skill trees! Full patch notes are coming, and we're targeting tonight or tomorrow morning for patch release.

From all of us at Wildlight, thank you for playing, for supporting us, and for being part of Highguard’s story.”

This news follows a recent report claiming that Tencent, which had initially funded Highguard, had pulled funding due to the game's poor launch performance.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The 2025 Game Awards will now live in infamy thanks to this game.

The post Highguard is shutting down this month first appeared on KitGuru.

A new report from Game File points to the latest source of video game industry layoffs, this time coming from Tencent and its TiMi Montreal studio. In this case, the whole studio is getting shut down, leading to everyone on the team seemingly losing their roles nearly five years after the studio was founded with the intention of creating "AAA open-world multi-platform games." Game File's report comes after a now-deleted LinkedIn post from one of the studio's programmers shared that the studio had been shuttered, with employees having been aware of the situation "for some time." They also added that […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/tencent-reportedly-shut-down-open-world-developer-timi-montreal-studio/

Highguard burst on to the scene with very little build-up, but the game did receive criticism from the jump due to its positioning as the final game reveal at The Game Awards this year. Considering Wildlight is a brand-new studio, this caught many off guard but as it turns out, the company did have the backing of a games publishing giant – Tencent. 

According to Game File, Tencent was the behind-the-scenes partner for Wildlight Entertainment, helping to fund their first game, Highguard. Neither company has publicly discussed this financial relationship before, but at least now we have an idea of where the funding for the game came from. This isn't an unusual move for Tencent either, as the publisher has deals in place with many start-up studios in search of a major hit.

Unfortunately, that funding appears to have dried up pretty fast. The official website for the game went down earlier today, something that Wildlight Entertainment says is a low priority on its list of things to fix, as it is primarily focused on creating new content for the game to try and retain and grow its player base.

Two weeks after Highguard's launch, Wildlight Entertainment did also undergo a major cost-cutting initiative, letting go of a large chunk of the studio in favour of a leaner team. This smaller core team of devs will now be in charge of fulfilling the game's massive year-long content roadmap.

KitGuru Says: Have you tried Highguard since the new 5v5 mode was added to the game? 

The post It turns out Tencent helped fund Highguard first appeared on KitGuru.