An award-winning British video game developer has reassured shareholders that its performance is in line with expectations.
AIM-listed Codemasters issued the statement on the London Stock Exchange in response to “the recent share price movement”.
The company specialises in racing games including DiRT, GRID and the BAFTA award-winning official F1 series of video games.
The company confirmed that its trading in the year to data is “in line with its expectations”. It has generated revenue of £35.5 million in the five months to the end of August 2018, which includes sales of Onrush, F1 2018 and its back catalogue of games.
“The company’s financial performance in the year to date, together with the future contribution expected from both existing games and planned game launches in the remainder of the financial year, support the board’s full year expectations,” Codemasters said.
Tech giants told to take online child abuse seriously
Tech giants have been told they need to do more to help tackle child sexual abuse online in the UK.
Sajid Javid said he was “demanding” companies to take more measures or face new legislation, warning that he will “not be afraid to take action”.
The Home Secretary said some sites were refusing to take online abuse seriously – but praised the progress made by the likes of Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter.The tech giants stressed they were committed to tackling the issue.
Referrals of child abuse images to the National Crime Agency (NCA) have surged by 700 per cent in the last five years, according to new figures.
The NCA estimates that about 80,000 people in the UK present some kind of sexual threat to children online.
Skype reverses ‘Snapchat-like’ features
Microsoft has said it will remove a number of Snapchat-style features from Skype following complaints from users.
The messenger service was updated in June last year but the software giant faced criticism from users.
Microsoft has admitted that many of the updates “didn’t resonate” with most users and that the new features “got in the way” of its core uses.
The company will remove the ‘highlights’ feature introduced last year and will bring back a simple interface.
“This past year we explored some design changes and heard from customers that we overcomplicated some of our core scenarios,” the business said in a blog post.
“Calling became harder to execute and Highlights didn’t resonate with a majority of users.”
Engineering firm deploys VR factory
A North West thermal engineering firm has created a virtual reality simulation of its entire factory to boost productivity.
Genlab’s project has been supported by LCR 4.0 – a European funded Liverpool programme to help manufacturers take advantage of the “4th industrial revolution”.
The Virtual Engineering Centre worked alongside the business to develop a digital replica of its factory floor. This was done in a bid to examine whether changes in layout could increase efficiency.
As a result of the data collected from the VR simulation, it has reduced the assembly time of each product by 30 minutes, a 5 per cent increase in productivity, with the potential to increase annual output by 20 per cent.
“This collaboration has enabled us to review our internal structure quickly and easily, without risk or interruption to our daily operations,” said Phil Crompton, finance director at Genlab.
“Factory simulation has validated our ambitions to grow the business and our presence in Widnes and the wider Liverpool City Region.”