Gaming software

Nintendo said domestic sales of Splatoon 3 hit a record in the first three days of the game being on sale. Splatoon 3 proved to be a hit in Japan, helping keep momentum for Nintendo's ageing Switch console.Philip Fong | AFP | Getty ImagesNintendo is likely to release a new Switch console this year, analysts told CNBC, as the Japanese gaming giant looks to capitalize on the interest in its characters ranging from Mario to Zelda.The Nintendo Switch first launched in March 2017 and marked a new type of hybrid console where…

A gamer uses a computer powered with an Nvidia Corp. chip at the Gamescon video games trade fair in Cologne, Germany, on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. Gamescon runs until Sunday, Aug. 27. Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesIt's not just human life that will be remade by the rapid advance in generative artificial intelligence. NPCs (non-playable characters), the figures who populate generated worlds in video games but have to date largely run on limited scripts — think the…

Powerball sign and lottery tickets are seen at a 7-Eleven store in Milpitas, California, on Nov. 7, 2022.Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty ImagesThe drawing for a record Powerball jackpot topping $2.04 billion was held Tuesday morning after a delay because of issues with just one state processing ticket sales. The headline prize climbed beyond its earlier $1.9 billion estimate.The winning numbers were white balls 10, 33, 41, 47, 56, and red Powerball 10. The Power Play multiplier was 2X.The drawing at the Florida…

A sign advertising the game Cyberpunk 2077.Mike Kemp | In Pictures via Getty ImagesShares of Polish game publisher CD Projekt rose sharply Wednesday after the company announced several major games it's working on in the next few years, including new installments in its popular Cyberpunk and Witcher franchises.In a strategy update late Tuesday, CD Projekt revealed a slew of new titles currently in development, including a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 codenamed "Orion." The game "will take the Cyberpunk franchise further and…

In this weekly series, CNBC takes a look at companies that made the inaugural Disruptor 50 list, 10 years later.Amid the popularity of free-to-play, downloadable games and gaming platforms like "Fortnite," "League of Legends," and Roblox, it's become extremely rare that a high-profile video game is released now without some sort of recurring payment strategy — a far cry from the typical $60 standalone game purchase that dominated the video game industry as recently as less than a decade ago.But as video games have shifted…

A young Beijing company's game called "Sheep a Sheep" went viral in China in September 2022.Evelyn Cheng | CNBCBEIJING — A new game that's gone viral in China hit people's screens with surprising speed at a time when gaming giants such as NetEase have waited months for approval to launch games.That's because the new game, called Sheep a Sheep, sits inside ByteDance's Douyin and Tencent's messaging app WeChat as a mini-program. Users can play the game within the apps."WeChat and ByteDance don't currently require a game…

Google is shuttering its digital gaming service Stadia, the latest ambitious project to get cut as the company looks to shed costs.The gaming service, which launched in 2019 and runs on phones and the Chrome browser, "hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected," wrote Phil Harrison, a Google vice president, in a blog post Thursday. "We’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service,” he wrote.related investing newsCiti says Amazon and Alphabet are 'top picks' following fall…

Netflix gift cards are seen in a shop in Krakow, Poland on June 13, 2022.Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesNetflix said Monday it will be opening an internal game studio in Finland.The development marks the company's first of its kind since the streaming giant entered the mobile gaming space in November 2021. It bought Finland-based Next Games for about $72 million and has purchased three external game studios over the past year. Netflix has a cache of over 20 mobile games available for download to subscribers, and…

Walmart is entering the metaverse with two experiences premiering Monday on online gaming platform Roblox.The retail giant's first foray into the virtual world will feature a blimp that drops toys, a music festival with hot artists, a bunch of different games, and a store of virtual merchandise, or "verch," which matches what customers may find in Walmart's stores and on its website.The two experiences are called Walmart Land and Walmart's Universe of Play.Walmart is experimenting with new ways to reach shoppers,…

In just three years, Beijing-based Well-Link Technologies has built a business on real-time cloud rendering, including helping miHoYo launch the cloud version of the hit game Genshin Impact.Ina Fassbender | Afp | Getty ImagesBEIJING — Singapore state investment firm Temasek is leading a $40 million funding round in a Chinese startup despite a dry spell of deals in the country.The startup, Well-Link Technologies, counts Chinese tech company Xiaomi and Chinese gaming star miHoYo as investors, according to business database…