May 1, 2026
ESA's iicon was a promising start, but needs more commitment and more candour | Opinion
The ESA's first event since the late, largely lamented E3 has been built with a very different objective. Rather than a brash, sprawling conference centre with consumers as the explicit audience and implicit attendees, iicon took place on one stage and a handful of meeting rooms in a new, sparsely-populated casino towards the bottom end of the Las Vegas strip. The audience could be counted – just about –...
The ESA's first event since the late, largely lamented E3 has been built with a very different objective. Rather than a brash, sprawling conference centre with consumers as the explicit audience and implicit attendees, iicon took place on one stage and a handful of meeting rooms in a new, sparsely-populated casino towards the bottom end of the Las Vegas strip. The audience could be counted – just about – in hundreds, rather than tens of thousands; the stage presentations were about strategy, government policy and brand partnerships. The attendee list was ruthlessly policed, the news value was negligible, the coffee was good: the only similarity to E3 was the timezone and the logo on the invite. Read more
Related News
May 7, 2026 · News
Xbox's "closer look at Project Helix" was mostly just a re-run of its March GDC talk, but more next-gen news is coming "later this year"
UPDATE 6pm: Microsoft's promised Xbox Game Dev Update showcase is now available for viewing, featuring roughly 85 minutes of - as its name suggests - developer-focused Xbox news, including the company...
May 1, 2026 · News
Gamescom Latam shows Brazil's dev scene has huge potential, but it's waiting for a spark | Opinion
Eliana Russi, head of B2B at Gamescom Latam, gives an emphatic answer when I ask what Brazil's game development scene needs to take it to the next level. "Money!" she cries, hands in the air.
Apr 28, 2026 · News
Diablo 4 needs "aspirational content" to challenge players, director agrees, but don't discredit more casual gameplay like fishing
The ARPG has a balance to maintain
Apr 27, 2026 · News
Call of Duty was never the right fit for Game Pass | Opinion
Call it a strategic retreat. A couple of years after the gung-ho announcement that Call of Duty would be avaliable to Game Pass subscribers on launch day , Microsoft has climbed down from that commitm...