🍪 Engines, Xbox Troubles, GDC Shift & GTA RP’s Big Break
Hello there, industry watchdogs, sharp-eyed and caffeinated. Today we’ve got browser engines in flux, Xbox pricing and retail woes, GDC’s rebrand drama, a funding boost for Midwest Games, and Rockstar giving RP the official nod. Let’s dig in.
🧩 Unity’s Web Gaming Crown Faces New Rivals
Playgama’s new research breaks down engine usage by genre — and Unity’s dominance is looking shaky.
Unity still powers more than half of all new web games in H1 2025, but it falls under 50% in 9 of 17 categories. Construct, Phaser, and Cocos are eating into 2D-heavy spaces like Puzzle, Strategy, and Arcade.
📢 Dmitry Kachmar, Playgama’s founder: “Engine choice is not random — it maps directly to genre. For now Unity remains unrivaled for 3D and complex projects, but in classic and casual genres developers increasingly choose lighter, faster stacks.”
🦊 Kiki’s Opinion: Unity’s acting like it owns the playground, but the 2D kids are building their own corner — faster, cheaper, and with way less baggage. If Unity doesn’t fix its mess and stop bleeding goodwill, Construct and Cocos are going to run laps around them in the browser wars.
🍪 Chip’s Reaction: Wide-eyed cookie scribbling “RIP Unity??” on a tiny chalkboard.
🎮🛒 Xbox Prices Up, Costco Pulls Out
Former Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra slammed Microsoft’s new Xbox price hike:
📢 “Console price increases are not tariff issues, they are profit issues. An excuse to continue raising prices, with no new increase in tariffs, is simply a different problem.”
Meanwhile, Costco Wholesale quietly stopped selling Xbox consoles in both the US and UK — their shelves now only feature PlayStation and Nintendo.
🦊 Kiki’s Opinion: Microsoft is pulling an EA playbook — jack up prices, spin the excuse, and hope nobody notices. But when even Costco doesn’t want your console in stores, that’s not tariffs. That’s your brand rotting.
🍪 Chip’s Reaction: Cookie holding a receipt, fainting dramatically at the total.
🎭 GDC Rebrands Into a Festival
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is now the Festival of Gaming.
📢 Organizers: “Our community needs more connection, visibility, and support. The Festival of Gaming exists to meet those needs — bringing the entire industry together at a moment that matters.”
🦊 Kiki’s Opinion: They slapped “Festival” on GDC like a coat of cheap paint. Everyone’s been begging for a change of city, but that’s still ignored — probably because they’re locked into a Moscone contract for years. Without that fix, this is just cosplay for the same old problems.
🍪 Chip’s Reaction: Cookie holding a suitcase, glaring at a “San Francisco → ???” departure board.
💰 Midwest Games Raises $2M to Back Indies
Wisconsin-based Midwest Games secured $2M from Prevail Private Capital to expand its “publishing-as-a-service” model.
📢 Ben Kvalo, CEO: “Prevail’s support is rocket fuel for our mission. We’re scaling to give more partners the strategy, marketing, and production expertise they need to succeed.”
🦊 Kiki’s Opinion: Finally, someone’s actually putting money behind indies instead of just hashtags and lip service. If this model works, Midwest could become the anti-Embracer — funding without the corporate chokehold.
🍪 Chip’s Reaction: Cookie shooting confetti out of a toy cannon.
🚔 NoPixel V Goes Official with Rockstar
The legendary GTA RP server NoPixel announced NoPixel V, now in collaboration with Rockstar Games.
📢 Rockstar: “We’re excited to support the NoPixel team as they create the future of GTA RP.”
🦊 Kiki’s Opinion: This is massive. GTA RP was already rewriting what “live service” means, and now Rockstar’s blessing it. If they don’t smother it with corporate nonsense, RP could outshine GTA Online itself.
🍪 Chip’s Reaction: Cookie wearing aviator shades, pretending to drive a tiny getaway car.
That’s today’s bite. Engines are diversifying, Xbox is stumbling, GDC is rebranding, and Rockstar is finally embracing the chaos it couldn’t control.
Stay critical of shiny rebrands.
Keep an eye on who’s really holding power.
Remember: the industry always looks cleaner in the press release than in the playtest.
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