Disney says that Kingdom Hearts is now a ‘billion dollar franchise’

In an investor-focused article on the Walt Disney Company website, the entertainment giant revealed an achievement that caught me off-guard: Kingdom Hearts, the mesmerizingly strange Final Fantasy x Disney crossover series, numbers among the company’s “billion-dollar franchises.” The article, “How Games Are Helping Shape Disney’s Next Chapter,” looks to be a combination victory lap/game plan…

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WoW’s haunted: Players report that their disconnected friends’ characters are starting to play the game on their own

Disconnects are an unpleasant fact of life in an MMO, and if you play WoW long enough you’ll start to recognize the telltale signs indicating one of your adventurer colleagues has fallen afoul of a network hiccup: They might simply halt in place mid-combat. If they were moving when the connection dropped, their character might…

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Thimbleweed Park 2 is happening because Ron Gilbert’s friend knows a rich guy who’s a big fan of the original and wanted more

BloombergHave you ever said to yourself, ‘If I was rich I’d get Looking Glass Studios back together and have them make a proper goddamn Thief sequel!’? Or, you know, whatever game gets you really wound up about such things. It’s a pleasant fantasy, but not something that ever actually happens—except, apparently, in the case of…

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Old School RuneScape began when a dev ‘found the 2007 server in their desk drawer:’ 13 years later, it’s setting subscriber records for the long-lived MMO

Back in June, RuneScape studio Jagex held its first live event outside the UK (and its biggest to date): Deadman All Stars, an Old School RuneScape PvP tournament. I had the chance to talk to OSRS creative director Kieren Charles at the event, and he explained his philosophy on running the 13 year-old fork of…

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US Senate launches investigation into Roblox: ‘Children on your platform are hurting. Congress will not look the other way’

It looks like another bad day for Roblox: The US Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism has launched an investigation into child safety on the platform, saying the company “appears to prioritize revenue and engagement metrics over the safety and well-being of our children.” A letter (via Kotaku) sent to Roblox CEO David…

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