Connect with us

Latest News

Escape Studios partners with Epic Games and leading European animation schools to deliver world’s largest training programme in Unreal Engine

Published

on

 

Mark Flanagan, Education Partner Manager, Epic Games said: “The Summer of Unreal is an incredible opportunity that is open to professionals in animation and VFX all across Europe, and we couldn’t be happier to invite the industry to participate. Escape Studios is a wonderful partner who, along with a number of Europe’s best animation schools, are running this programme, which is set to be the biggest Unreal Engine training that we’ve undertaken to date. We’re excited to help all learners find new ways to tell awesome stories and express their creativity using Unreal Engine.”

Saint Walker, Deputy Dean of Escape Studios, said: “The Summer of Unreal is a fantastic opportunity for animation and 3D CGI professionals across Europe to discover more about the cutting-edge technology on offer with Unreal Engine.

“We’ve worked with top animation companies to create a novel animation-centric way of teaching Unreal Engine, in one of the most ambitious training programmes that Escape Studios has been involved with – our vision of a pan-European festival of learning in Unreal Engine has gained us amazing academic partners in the form of some of the best animation schools in the world. We invite learners across Europe to join us. Make your summer staycation Unreal!”

The Summer of Unreal will be taught online in English and is free-of-charge to professionals working in the animation, motion graphics and VFX industry who want an informal group experience of learning Unreal Engine over the holiday period. The course will feature daily workshops covering all the major aspects of using Unreal Engine interspersed with practice time, teamwork, as well as demonstrations and masterclasses from some of Europe’s premiere companies and artists showing how they use the platform in their work.

Mark Spevick, Escape Studios’ Head of 3D VFX will be the main ‘showrunner’ for the Summer of Unreal. The unique role used in Escapes’ larger courses ensures that tutors get to hear and address the most important questions from the online shop floor through Mark’s advocacy. Mark combines teaching and programme design with senior industry experience, having worked at Peerless Camera, the production house co-owned by Terry Gilliam.

Partner quotes

Timothy Leborgne, Head of Talent & Skills Development, The Animation Workshop/VIA University College
“A course such as Summer of Unreal is very welcome. Whether you look at film, animated series, or games we can all see a growing demand for rapid development and competent animators. And Unreal Engine is one particularly advanced tool and software we can’t avoid as professionals in the future. So, I am excited and happy we bring such a valuable course to professionals in our industry. By partnering with such competent institutions and studios across Europe, we have ensured that the course will deliver the best training.”

Gilbert Kiner, President, ARTFX
“Since its creation in 2004, ARTFX has been dedicated to training students using the latest technology and software. Beyond using this engine for our Games courses, Unreal has also been integrated into the previz pipeline for our VFX programs. We are very happy and proud to have been chosen as the exclusive French partner for this collaborative initiative.”

Felix Balbás, Area Director of Animation & VFX at La Salle-URL
“Unreal Engine is a reality we can’t ignore. No longer only in videogames and recently virtual production, now more than ever the future of any visual content creation and in particular animation and VFX, must take this evolution into account. Not only in previs stage, but also in full production. This is why La Salle-URL’s commitment towards promoting state-of-the-art training along with leader institutions at a European level is reflected in the Summer of Unreal.”

Miljana Jovović, Executive Director, Crater Training Center
“We are happy to join the Summer of Unreal as partners for Southeastern Europe, as we see this project as a great chance to upskill and connect professionals across the continent. We have spent the first part of 2021 educating university professors in Serbia in Unreal Engine so they could implement the newly-gained knowledge to their study programs and introduce the software to their students.”

Katja Schmid, Visual Effects and Post Production Professor, Hochschule der Medien
“Many artists in the industry have been waiting for this course. Now the time has come. At the moment, Unreal is one of the most in-demand tools in the industry. The response to the course announcement has been fantastic. It’s just an amazing opportunity not only to get trained for free but also to be part of a most inspiring community! We are very impressed by this large-scale project and excited to be contributing.”

Gareth Lee, Screen Skills Ireland Manager
“Screen Skills Ireland is hugely excited to be part of the Summer of Unreal. This is a unique opportunity for Irish screen sector professionals to learn about the powerful capabilities of Unreal Engine from industry experts, as well as connect with their peers across Europe.”

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Canada

XSOLLA STRENGTHENS COMMITMENT TO ATLANTIC CANADA’S GROWING GAME INDUSTRY WITH EXPANDED EVENT PRESENCE

Published

on

xsolla-strengthens-commitment-to-atlantic-canada’s-growing-game-industry-with-expanded-event-presence

Global Video Game Commerce Company To Support Industry Growth Through Panels, Workshops, And Community Engagement Across Atlantic Canada

Xsolla, a leading global video game commerce company, today announced its participation in two major gaming industry events taking place across Atlantic Canada from June 3-5, 2026, reinforcing the company’s commitment to supporting regional game development ecosystems and fostering industry collaboration.

Xsolla will participate in both Game Invest East and XP Game Connect Atlantic, joining developers, publishers, investors, and industry leaders for discussions centered on the future of game development, investment, and innovation in the local area.

At Game Invest East, held in partnership with Scaffold, Xsolla will contribute to conversations around funding, growth opportunities, and the evolving business landscape for game studios.

Featured on the panel titled “If You Can Make It Here,” Xsolla’s Manny Hachey, Senior Director of Developer Success, joins Kate Edwards, CEO and Principal Consultant of Geogrify, and Amir Satvat, Business Development Director at Tencent Games, founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), and a 2026 GamesBeat Visionary Award honoree, to explore how new regions and new entrants can survive and thrive in disruptive times.

Hachey, a native of Atlantic Canada, was personally requested by Scaffold to represent Xsolla at the event — a homecoming that adds a personal dimension to the panel’s central thesis. Having built her career and made her mark in Germany’s games industry, she returns with a firsthand perspective on what it takes to leave, build something meaningful abroad, and come back with proof of concept.

Xsolla will continue its Atlantic Canada engagement at XP Game Connect Atlantic in Halifax on June 5. John Nguyen, Regional Vice President, Canada at Xsolla, and Ted DiNola, Developer Evangelist at Xsolla, will host a workshop titled ‘Full Picture to Fast Lane: Xsolla Ecosystem Overview & Live SDK 3 Integration’, providing practical insights and actionable strategies for developers navigating today’s rapidly evolving gaming market.

Nguyen will also host a panel titled, ‘What Does the Future of Game Development Look Like in Atlantic Canada?’ where he will be joined by industry experts, including Ryan Filsinger from Iron Fox; Shawn Woods, CEO at Alpha Dog and VP of Interactive Society of Nova Scotia; George Greer, Founder of Besszong; and Jade Yhap, President of Interactive NB. The panel will explore the region’s growing role in the global games industry and the opportunities ahead for studios, talent, and ecosystem partners.

John Nguyen, Regional Vice President, Canada, at Xsolla

“Atlantic Canada continues to emerge as an exciting hub for game development talent and innovation,” said John Nguyen, Regional Vice President, Canada, at Xsolla. “Xsolla is proud to support these events and contribute to conversations that help empower developers, build ecosystems, strengthen industry connections, and accelerate growth across the region.”

Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla

“Events like Game Invest East and XP Game Connect Atlantic are critical for building stronger connections across the games industry,” said Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla. “Atlantic Canada has a growing community of talented developers, creators, and industry leaders, and we’re excited to be part of conversations that help to shape the future of gaming in the region while supporting studios at every stage of growth.”

Through its participation in these events, Xsolla aims to deepen relationships within the Atlantic Canadian game development community while supporting knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and long-term ecosystem growth.

For more information about Xsolla’s participation in these events across Atlantic Canada, visit: xsolla.pro/Atlantic-Canada

 

The post XSOLLA STRENGTHENS COMMITMENT TO ATLANTIC CANADA’S GROWING GAME INDUSTRY WITH EXPANDED EVENT PRESENCE appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

Continue Reading

ai-tools

SEON adds MCP server and new AI tools for fraud and AML teams Subheadline

Published

on

seon-adds-mcp-server-and-new-ai-tools-for-fraud-and-aml-teams-subheadline

Updates include Network Detection, AI Chart Builder and an AI Playbook, with integrations for third-party AI tools via the MCP standard.

SEON has rolled out new AI capabilities for its fraud prevention and AML compliance platform, including a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server designed to connect SEON data to external AI tools. The company said the MCP server, Network Detection, AI Chart Builder and an AI Playbook for Risk and Compliance Teams are available now to SEON customers.

The MCP server is positioned as a way for analysts to use third-party AI tools while pulling investigation context from SEON. SEON said analysts can connect tools including Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot to “900+ real-time risk signals spanning identity, device, behavioral, AML and IP data,” with signals accessible “in a single call” via the open MCP standard.

“The software world is moving toward a headless model, where teams don’t need to live inside a vendor’s dashboard to get full control over data and functionality,” said Tamas Kadar, CEO and Co-Founder, SEON. “Our job is to be the best command center for fraud, risk and compliance intelligence. We’re giving analysts the freedom to use whichever AI tools work best for them.”

SEON also introduced Network Detection and AI Chart Builder inside its platform. Network Detection builds on SEON’s network analysis features released last year, and “continuously scans the last two months of transactions across devices, emails, phone numbers and IP addresses” to surface suspicious clusters. AI Chart Builder generates data visualizations from natural-language questions using live SEON data, targeting reporting and dashboarding needs typically handled through BI teams or spreadsheet exports.

Customer TurboTenant said it is already using the MCP approach in production workflows. “The SEON MCP integration has fundamentally changed how our risk analysts operate,” said Eric Taylor, Manager of Trust and Safety, TurboTenant. “Before, they had to manually pull data across multiple systems to piece together what happened. Now, we pull a user’s entire platform journey and all of SEON’s risk signal context directly into Claude, and AI connects the dots on complex fraud patterns without us doing that assembly. It’s opened up OSINT capabilities that wouldn’t have been possible before.”

To support adoption, SEON said it is shipping an AI Playbook for Risk and Compliance Teams alongside the releases, including “pre-built agentic skills” such as a fraud analyst daily briefing and a decline spot-check, compatible with the MCP server. “SEON opening its data layer to any AI we want to use is exactly the kind of architectural decision that fits where the market is going,” said Mostafa Hassanin, CISO, SMG Marketplace.

The post SEON adds MCP server and new AI tools for fraud and AML teams Subheadline appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Continue Reading

Artificial intelligence

SEON Expands AI Capabilities Inside the Platform and Through Any External AI Tool

Published

on

seon-expands-ai-capabilities-inside-the-platform-and-through-any-external-ai-tool

New MCP server, Network Detection, AI Chart Builder and AI Playbook give fraud and AML teams more ways to put AI to work

SEON, the AI Command Center for Fraud Prevention and AML Compliance, has built a platform where flexibility is an accent of its architecture. With SEON, customers can ingest any custom field or data type, build any rule or alert they need, and investigate in system driven workflows that represent the way their team operates. Most importantly, they can choose a rules-based policy, one driven by AI or a hybrid decisioning model that leverages both. SEON has the capabilities to meet teams how and where they actually operate.

Today, the company extends that same flexibility to the use of AI in the fight against fraud and financial crimes. A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server opens SEON’s data layer to whichever AI tool a team prefers. Two additional capabilities, Network Detection and AI Chart Builder, connect SEON’s existing capabilities in automation and business intelligence. To support adoption, an AI Playbook for Risk and Compliance Teams ships alongside them, giving customers a practical starting point for putting their MCP connection to work quickly.

Access to AI Has Outpaced Access to Risk Data

For most fraud and AML teams, AI is accessible but still hard to put to real work. Analysts have ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini at their fingertips. What they don’t have is a clean way to get their investigation data into those environments. Instead, they manually paste in transaction records, customer profiles and risk signals, losing context at every step and creating security risks for their organization. According to the 2026 Fraud and AML Leaders Report, 98% of fraud and AML leaders are already using AI in their workflows. The tools are there. The data pipeline is not.

An Open Foundation for Any AI Tool

SEON’s MCP server addresses that gap. Analysts can link Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot or any custom agent to SEON’s 900+ real-time risk signals spanning identity, device, behavioral, AML and IP data. All signals are accessible in a single call, so the AI spends its token budget and processing time on analysis rather than pulling data from multiple systems. Because the integration uses the open MCP standard, customers are free to use whatever works best today and switch to a stronger option tomorrow without rebuilding anything.

“The software world is moving toward a headless model, where teams don’t need to live inside a vendor’s dashboard to get full control over data and functionality,” said Tamas Kadar, CEO and Co-Founder, SEON. “Our job is to be the best command center for fraud, risk and compliance intelligence. We’re giving analysts the freedom to use whichever AI tools work best for them.”

“The SEON MCP integration has fundamentally changed how our risk analysts operate,” said Eric Taylor, Manager of Trust and Safety, TurboTenant. “Before, they had to manually pull data across multiple systems to piece together what happened. Now, we pull a user’s entire platform journey and all of SEON’s risk signal context directly into Claude, and AI connects the dots on complex fraud patterns without us doing that assembly. It’s opened up OSINT capabilities that wouldn’t have been possible before.”

Meeting Teams Where They Are

Some customers are ready to run their entire risk operation through an agentic platform. Others want AI working inside the SEON interface they already use. Most are somewhere in between. SEON supports all team preferences, whether they work inside the platform or outside it.

Network Detection builds on the network analysis SEON released last year, including Similarity ranking and the Network graph. It continuously scans the last two months of transactions across devices, emails, phone numbers and IP addresses to identify clusters that are only suspicious when viewed together. Coordinated fraud rings and money laundering networks now surface before an analyst opens an alert.

AI Chart Builder turns natural-language questions about your business into instant data visualizations. Analysts no longer wait on business intelligence teams for dashboard projects or are forced to rebuild reports from spreadsheet exports. They ask a question and the chart appears, built on live SEON data.

These join an AI portfolio SEON has shipped over the past year. Existing capabilities include AI-assisted rule creation, scoring insights, AML screening analysis, automated case summaries and regulatory report generation.

“The next generation of fraud and KYC challenges won’t look like the last one. AI agents will interact with our marketplaces as customers, and AI agents will be used to impersonate and exploit our customers as well. Our team needs an intelligence foundation that’s ready for both,” said Mostafa Hassanin, CISO, SMG Marketplace. “SEON opening its data layer to any AI we want to use is exactly the kind of architectural decision that fits where the market is going.”

A Fast-Start Kit for Teams Ready to Build

To help teams get started quickly, SEON is also releasing an AI Playbook for Risk and Compliance Teams. The playbook is a practical guide to connecting AI tools to SEON and building investigation workflows that match how analyst teams actually operate. It ships with pre-built agentic skills, including a fraud analyst daily briefing and a decline spot-check, both compatible with SEON’s MCP server and ready to deploy on day one.

The MCP server, Network Detection, AI Chart Builder and AI Playbook are available now to SEON customers.

 

The post SEON Expands AI Capabilities Inside the Platform and Through Any External AI Tool appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

Continue Reading

Trending

Get it on Google Play

Fresh slot games releases by the top brands of the industry. We provide you with the latest news straight from the entertainment industries.

The platform also hosts industry-relevant webinars, and provides detailed reports, making it a one-stop resource for anyone seeking information about operators, suppliers, regulators, and professional services in the European gaming market. The portal's primary goal is to keep its extensive reader base updated on the latest happenings, trends, and developments within the gaming and gambling sector, with an emphasis on the European market while also covering pertinent global news. It's an indispensable resource for gaming professionals, operators, and enthusiasts alike.

Contact us: [email protected]

Editorial / PR Submissions: [email protected]

Copyright © 2015 - 2024 - Recent Slot Releases is part of HIPTHER Agency. Registered in Romania under Proshirt SRL, Company number: 2134306, EU VAT ID: RO21343605. Office address: Blvd. 1 Decembrie 1918 nr.5, Targu Mures, Romania