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Mike Futter

New York
As seen in: Virtual Economy, CorranCast, Mashable, Variety, Yahoo Finance, Polygon, VentureBeat, Game Informer, Unreal Engine, GamesIndustry.biz, GameDaily.biz and
You can find me on Discord (Futter), Bsky (futterish.fsquared.biz), or via email at mike@fsquared.biz.
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Finding Funding: So you need some money to make a video game...

Finding Funding: So you need some money to make a video game...

unrealengine.com — Making a video game is a series of creative challenges. Some of those challenges, you've prepared for. You've gone to school for programming, you've honed your visual arts skills, or you've built a career in sound design. Perhaps you've worked in a QA shop or done some freelance localization.
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[EXCLUSIVE] E3 2020 pitch proposes overhaul with 'queuetainment,' new floor plan, industry-only day

[EXCLUSIVE] E3 2020 pitch proposes overhaul with 'queuetainment,' new floor plan, industry-only day

GameDaily.biz — The ESA is hoping to turn E3 into a Gamescom-like 'festival', and an additional 10,000 consumers may pack the LA Convention Center. The ESA is trying to rebrand E3 as a "fan, media, and influencer festival" for next year's event.
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GamesBeat Rewind 2019: The year's biggest trends ... and where they're heading in 2020

GamesBeat Rewind 2019: The year's biggest trends ... and where they're heading in 2020

VentureBeat — The game industry is in a huge period of flux, but 2019 only set the stage for enormous paradigm shifts that the coming year will solidify. Companies are shattering long-held "rules" as cross-platform play becomes the norm rather than a dream.
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GameStop flounders in Q2 2019 as 200 more stores likely to close within 24 months [Updated]

GameStop flounders in Q2 2019 as 200 more stores likely to close within 24 months [Updated]

GameDaily.biz — The video game specialty retailer missed earnings and revenue, sending the stock price tumbling. GameStop's financial disintegration continues. The video game specialty retailer reported a net loss of $415 million and a 14.3% drop in sales to $1.29 billion in its second quarter.
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GameStop shares nosedive after quarterly earnings miss analyst expectations by $90 million [Update]

GameStop shares nosedive after quarterly earnings miss analyst expectations by $90 million [Update]

Yahoo Finance — GameStop has been trying to figure out how it fits into a post-physical media world since the start of the current console generation in late 2013. Attempts at realignment have involved selling mobile devices in its stores, a heavier emphasis on collectibles, and a recently announced a plan to restructure its stores to be gathering places and open an esports facility in Frisco, Texas. [Update] Following our story, a source contacted GameDaily with information that GameStop has laid off ThinkGeek's remaining marketing and website administration staff. The company moved quickly after communicating during its June 4 earnings call that it plans to sunset the ThinkGeek brand (see original story below).
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Trump administration 25 percent tariff proposal targets U.S. board game, game console imports

Trump administration 25 percent tariff proposal targets U.S. board game, game console imports

GameDaily.biz — Added costs could cripple the tabletop industry and impair the next console hardware cycle. The Trump administration is escalating the United States' growing trade war with China, with hobby gaming now caught in the crossfire.
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What We Can Learn From a Game Studio Co-Founder's Public Tirade

What We Can Learn From a Game Studio Co-Founder's Public Tirade

Variety — It should have been a celebration. It's been more than four years since the last "Borderlands" game and more than six since the last developed by series creator Gearbox. Instead, the "Borderlands 3" reveal has been almost entirely overshadowed by the behavior of Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.
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Why Video Game Industry Pushes Cloud-Based Gaming

Why Video Game Industry Pushes Cloud-Based Gaming

Variety — Playing video games used to be simple. You bought, borrowed, or rented a cartridge, gave it a good blow to "get the dust out", and popped it in your system. The advent of connected consoles, growth of digital distribution, and departure from physical media have muddied the waters.
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Game Industry Layoffs Driven by Past Mistakes, Uncertain Future (Analysts)

Game Industry Layoffs Driven by Past Mistakes, Uncertain Future (Analysts)

Variety — The video game industry is facing a seemingly never-ending string of layoffs and studio closures: Telltale, ArenaNet, Activision, and now EA. According to industry analysts, companies are facing declining earnings, diminishing product pipelines, and an uncertain future that is almost certain to be driven by new technology.
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What Game Workers Can Learn From Other Labor Organizations

What Game Workers Can Learn From Other Labor Organizations

Variety — One year ago at GDC, Game Workers Unite packed a room with developers from across the industry hoping to take a stand against challenging, sometimes abusive, work conditions. The group has had a significant presence at this year's event, with unionization even taking center stage during the Game Developers Choice Awards.
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GDC 2019: Steam's business update touts features, but no changes to revenue share

GDC 2019: Steam's business update touts features, but no changes to revenue share

GameDaily.biz — Valve is addressing review bombing and antiquated storefront presentation, but not how much money it's paying out to devs. Developers hoping for a surprise announcement from Valve, possibly to bring Steam's revenue share in line with Epic's, are out of luck.
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Supernova Uses Funding, Leadership Coaching to Reduce Risk of Game Development

Supernova Uses Funding, Leadership Coaching to Reduce Risk of Game Development

Variety — Splash Damage has eight number one hits. It's never laid off a single employee. And over the past eight years, it's never missed a milestone. Studio founder Paul Wedgwood wants to share that success with other developers.
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GDC Google Stadia: The questions looming after the reveal

GDC Google Stadia: The questions looming after the reveal

GameDaily.biz — Google has to contend with entrenched consumer attitudes and its own failed policies. Google isn't playing around with its first foray into the mainstream video game market. The announcement of the Google Stadia streaming service was an hour of impressive video, technical flexes, and iterations on themes we've heard before.
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The Changing Face of Video Game Crowdfunding

The Changing Face of Video Game Crowdfunding

Variety — The video game Kickstarter movement began as part of the indie revolution against the very concept of publishers. Kickstarter was an integral part of indie validation at a time when small studios couldn't self-publish on consoles. Publishers weren't interested in anything but the biggest blockbusters, leaving no room for experimental titles or love-letters to franchises long left fallow.
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Vivendi sells remaining Ubisoft shares, closing book on hostile takeover

Vivendi sells remaining Ubisoft shares, closing book on hostile takeover

GameDaily.biz — Vivendi waged a long campaign to execute a hostile takeover, but confidence in Ubisoft management won out.
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The Future of Gaming Is Subscription

The Future of Gaming Is Subscription

Variety — What does it mean to "own" a game? In video gaming's infancy, it meant scribbling your name on the back of a gray NES cartridge. Today, it could mean having a physical copy of a disc in a box or ha...
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EA: YouTube creator's Anthem video removed for disclosure failure, not content [UPDATE]

EA: YouTube creator's Anthem video removed for disclosure failure, not content [UPDATE]

GameDaily.biz — EA rebuts YouTube creator Gggmanlives' allegation that he was 'blacklisted' for being 'too honest' in his Anthem critique.
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Video Games' 2019: Lawsuits, Streaming, Child Safety, Dying Retail

Video Games' 2019: Lawsuits, Streaming, Child Safety, Dying Retail

Variety — Each December, critics and analysts put on their glasses and give the preceding year a 20/20 hindsight wrap-up. It's important also to take a moment before getting swallowed whole by January's news blitz to look forward at what we might expect as 2019 starts to unfold.
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'Star Citizen' Dev Spent Over $4 Million a Month in 2017

'Star Citizen' Dev Spent Over $4 Million a Month in 2017

Variety — Kickstarter was still a brand new frontier in November 2012 when Chris Roberts' Star Citizen Cloud Imperium Games raised more than $2 million for its ambitious " Now, more than six years later, the company has raised more than 100 times that amount through private crowdfunding.
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Losing Steam: A By-the-Numbers Look at Epic Game Store

Losing Steam: A By-the-Numbers Look at Epic Game Store

Variety — There is a certain kind of complacency that sets in when you've been the king for as long as Valve has. Sure, GOG offers DRM-free games and itch.io allows developers to set their own revenue-sharing models. Neither of them, or any of the smaller players in the market, seem to have made a dent in Steam 's dominance (or its hubris).
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What THQ's Demise Can Teach About Telltale Games and Other Company Closures

What THQ's Demise Can Teach About Telltale Games and Other Company Closures

Variety — The video game world has lost so many studios over the decades that you'd think that the industry would be desensitized to it. And yet, when it was revealed that Telltale Games was laying off the majority of its 274 employees and beginning a " majority studio closure ," colleagues, journalists, and fans were shocked.
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SuperParent's Holiday Tabletop Gift Guide

SuperParent's Holiday Tabletop Gift Guide

superparent.com — This year, it's time to say goodbye to Chutes and Ladders. Level up with these great board game selections.
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Epic's move into digital game distribution is a shot heard 'round the gaming world

Epic's move into digital game distribution is a shot heard 'round the gaming world

GameDaily.biz — A year of successful disruption has positioned Epic to turn the screws on Valve on behalf of developers. Steam has a problem. Rather, it has many problems with a variety of stakeholders.
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Starbreeze's Stockholm offices raided under suspicion of insider trading [Update]

Starbreeze's Stockholm offices raided under suspicion of insider trading [Update]

GameDaily.biz — One as yet unidentified person has reportedly been arrested in connection with the raid.
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