Variety reports: “Podcasts started as an audio-only phenomenon. But now YouTube — the world’s biggest video platform — might be the biggest platform for podcasts. According to the Google-owned video giant, YouTube now has more than 1 billion monthly viewers for podcast content worldwide. In 2024, users watched more than 400 million hours of podcasts monthly on living-room devices, the company said.”
Polygon reports: “Warner Bros. Games is making big cuts, closing three studios — Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB Games San Diego — and canceling its long-in-development Wonder Woman game, the publisher told employees on Tuesday. All projects from those studios have been canceled.”
GamesBeat reports: “Livewire, a game marketing startup, has launched Gamer.ID, a next-generation identity framework within its Gameview technology stack. Powered by Optable’s identity management and data collaboration infrastructure, Gamer.ID is a gaming-native identity solution enabling brands and agencies to reach gaming audiences with precision, scale, and compliance.”
TechCrunch reports: “TikTok, including its Chinese counterpart Douyin, in 2024 became the first non-game app to reach $6 billion in in-app purchase revenue in a year. According to a new report from app intelligence provider Sensor Tower, TikTok also generated a record high of $1.9 billion in gross in-app purchase (IAP) revenue in the fourth quarter of last year.”
RouteNote reports: “SoundCloud has announced its partnership with Ticketmaster and Universe, Ticketmaster’s self-serve ticketing and marketing platform. The partnership allows Artist Pro users to list and promote their live events directly on their SoundCloud profiles. Artist Pro is SoundCloud’s premium subscription plan, offering features like unlimited track upload, monetisation, AI mastering, audience insights, and promotional opportunities.”
Breaking the News reports: “Google announced on Tuesday that it is launching a free version of its artificial intelligence coding assistant, Gemini Code Assist. The assistant will be powered by Gemini 2.0, and as of today, the public preview is globally available under the name Gemini Code Assist for individuals.”
The Hollywood Reporter reports: “Disney retained its spot atop the rankings of TV distributors in January, recording its highest share of viewing in the year-plus Nielsen has been compiling such figures. Netflix also hit its best mark so far. For the January reporting period (which ran from Dec. 30-Jan. 26), Disney outlets captured 12 percent of all TV use in the United States.”
Games Industry Biz reports: “Amazon has announced it will be discontinuing its Android Appstore on August 20, 2025. As reported by TechCrunch, the company said it wants to focus on supporting the Appstore for its own devices as “that’s where the majority of our customers currently engage with it.” The Amazon Appstore will remain available on Fire TV and Fire Tablet devices.”
VGC reports: “Announced earlier this week, Microsoft’s Muse is a generative AI model that it says can generate “game visuals, controller actions, or both.” In its announcement, Microsoft showed how Muse could generate game visuals using training data from Ninja Theory’s 2020 game Bleeding Edge.”
Broadband TV News reports: “Smart TVs have emerged as the main viewing device for US internet users, but in Europe broadcast TV still reigns, according to new research by Ampere Analysis. Among 18- 64-year-old Internet users, Smart TVs are now the predominant device for consuming content in the United States. Time spent watching content on Smart TVs has increased by 27% since Q1 2021. This means almost one-third (31%) of viewing time among Internet users is via a Smart TV – higher than any other connected device.”
