Epic Games Sells ArtStation and Sketchfab to KitBash
The sale reflects Epic's stated pivot toward its core engine and store infrastructure, handing off two creator platforms it acquired in 2021.
Automaton
Industry
Video Research Forum 2026 Set for October 7 With TV Asahi, Dentsu, Hakuhodo Execs
The forum shifts from discussing 'Next STANDARD' to presenting concrete paths for its implementation, with top executives from three major industry players on stage.
GameBusiness.jp
Nippon TV HD Posts 36.6% Operating Profit Drop on World Cup Costs
The results show the broadcaster's traditional spot advertising base shrinking even as content sales and merchandise revenue grow, with World Cup production costs compressing margins for the full year.
GameBusiness.jp
Anthropic Stands Apart From Open-Weight Letter Signed by 270 Companies
Anthropic's absence from a letter backed by the industry's largest AI developers and chipmakers signals a widening strategic split over whether frontier model weights should be released publicly.
ASCII.jp
LINE Manga Launches First Anime Streaming Service With d Anime Store
The launch marks LINE Manga's entry into anime streaming, letting users move from reading a manga to watching its anime inside one app.
Magmix
AMD to Acquire Taalas to Embed AI Models Directly Into Semiconductors
The acquisition gives AMD a path to specialized inference silicon that embeds models directly, complementing its Instinct GPUs and EPYC CPUs in a full-stack AI platform.
GIGAZINE
Anthropic Recruits Engineers for Custom AI Chip Team
Anthropic's move to build an in-house chip design team signals a strategic shift away from sole dependence on external compute partners as demand for Claude grows.
GameBusiness.jp
Demis Hassabis Steps Down as Google DeepMind CEO to Become Chairman
Hassabis is moving from running day-to-day operations at Google DeepMind to a strategic role as chairman and Alphabet chief scientist, with Koray Kavukcuoglu taking over leadership of the lab.
GIGAZINE
Jeff Dean Leaves Google to Found AI Research Firm Discovery Loop
The departure of four senior Google DeepMind figures into a new AI public benefit corporation signals a notable shift in where top machine learning talent is directing its efforts.
GIGAZINE
Creative Studio ILMATKA Launches With Games, Stage, AI Focus
The studio's launch formalizes a cross-media approach that treats games, stage, and AI as extensions of a single worldview, with a stated goal of building lasting attachment rather than one-off consumption.
ASCII.jp
Kotoba's Koto Powers Salesforce Agentforce Voice in Japanese
The adoption places Kotoba's Japanese speech AI inside Salesforce's enterprise agent platform, marking a step toward production use of the technology in contact centers.
ASCII.jp
Minerva Growth Partners Follows On in X Mile Series C
The follow-on investment signals Minerva's continued confidence in X Mile's platform model for non-desk industries, backed by concrete growth metrics.
ASCII.jp
Gamescom Dev Leadership Summit Sets PlayStation and Tencent Speakers
The summit gives PlayStation Studios CTO Luis Villegas and Tencent's Amir Satvat a closed forum to discuss technology bets and labor market disruption without press or recording.
GameBusiness.jp
Amazon AI Project Costs Exceed Budget by 860 Percent
The cases show that AI adoption can dramatically increase costs for tasks that were cheap with traditional coding, and Amazon is now building guardrails to prevent such overruns.
GIGAZINE
Reddit Q2 Revenue Up 61 Percent, Stock Falls on AI Traffic Fears
The earnings call shows investors are worried that AI-driven search changes could erode Reddit's traffic and user base, even as the company posts strong financial growth.
GIGAZINE
GENDA and SBI Holdings Form Capital and Business Alliance
The alliance ties an amusement and karaoke operator with roughly 1,100 facilities to an investment fund backing IP production, signaling a push to merge physical entertainment venues with content-driven promotions.
GameBusiness.jp
KDDI Launches Buffmee, a 980 Yen AI Service Built on Licensed Content
Buffmee is KDDI's attempt to answer AI's unauthorized content use by building a service that pays content providers and cites sources, creating a revenue channel for publishers instead of bypassing them.
GameBusiness.jp
Meta Signs EU AI Act Code of Practice on Transparency
Meta's signing commits it to the EU's transparency obligations for AI-generated content, including disclosure and machine-readable labeling, as the AI Act's related provisions begin applying in 2026.
GIGAZINE
Warner Bros. Discovery Sues Amazon Over Executive Poaching
The lawsuit could reignite debate over fixed-term employment contracts under California labor law and the practice of tech companies poaching executives from traditional media firms.
GIGAZINE
METI's IP360 Content Subsidy Draws 1,709 Applications, 162 Selections
The low 9.5% selection rate, far below typical SME subsidies, shows IP360 is a narrow gate despite a budget expanded more than threefold from its predecessor JLOX.
Denfaminicogamer
EA Faces Layoff Concerns After $55 Billion Take-Private Deal Closes
The completion of the take-private deal shifts EA from public to private ownership while loading it with debt that its own EBITDA may not comfortably cover, making cost reductions and likely layoffs a near-term reality.
Automaton
VeSync Japan Sponsors Chiba TV Child-Rearing Gift Project
The sponsorship extends VeSync's COSORI and Levoit brands into a regional family-focused initiative, positioning its kitchen and air-care products as supports for new parents in Chiba.
ASCII.jp
Made in Japan XR Project Picks Sausage as First Development Theme
The theme choice reflects a marketing strategy aimed at global casual users, prioritizing intuitive fun and viral potential over core gamer content.
ASCII.jp
Disney and TikTok Sign Global Deal for Fan-Made Content
The agreement opens Disney's library of franchises, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and FX, to TikTok creators while routing selected fan-made videos back to Disney+, a two-way content pipeline between the platforms.
Denfaminicogamer