Category: News

The Game Awards 2024 Nominees

The nominees for 2024 have been announced, bringing a bit of discourse over the inclusion of the Elden Ring DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree. Elden Ring previously won game of the year in 2022. There’s a lot of nominees and categories, so here are a few:

Game of the Year

• Astro Bot
• Balatro
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

Best Art Direction

• Astro Bot
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
• Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Neva

Best Score and Music

• Astro Bot
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Silent Hill 2
• Stellar Blade

Best Independent Game

• Animal Well
• Balatro
• Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
• Neva
• UFO 50

Roblox Rules

Under 13s are now blocked from directly messaging others on Roblox outside of games or experiences in their latest effort to protect children and reassure parents. Additionally, under 13s will only be able to publicly broadcast messages inside of games, and users under the age of 9 will only be able access experiences rated Minimal or Mild.

Yet Another Consolidation

Sony appears to be gearing up to purchase Kadokawa, a parent to dozens of Japanese entertainment companies. Along with Kadokawa owning Gotcha Gotcha Games (known for RPG Maker) and Acquire (known for Mario & Luigi: Brothership), they also own a majority stake in FromSoftware. It’s unknown what this may mean regarding the company’s ability to collaborate with Nintendo, but a deal could be signed in the coming weeks.

News Nibbles!

Farming Simulator 25 has hit 2 million sales, and peaked at over 125,000 active players on launch day.

In Germany, Steam users have only been able to see games with an age rating since 15th of November. Developers will need to complete a questionnaire to receive a rating before being allowed to release in Germany.

Dungeons & Dragons The Twenty-Sided Tavern is a live, theatrical experience coming to Sydney in December this year, where the audience gets to control the quest and the dice rolls are real, meaning that no show is ever the same. It opens 15th December at the Sydney Opera House.

Upcoming Games

November 21st

• Dungeons of Dreadrock 2: The Dead King’s Secret – PC
• Star Wars Outlaws – PC
• On Your Tail  – PC, Switch
• Loco Motive – PC, Switch
• Servonauts – PC

November 22nd

• Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection (physical) – PS5, Switch
• Spirit Mancer – PS5, Switch, PC

This week in gaming news…

(more…)

In this week’s terrifying gaming news

Spooky Games

Dread XP hosted the Indie Horror Showcase featuring 60 indie horror games. Including a frightening typing game called Blood Typers, a game where you play a peeping tom called Tom the Postgirl and a deck building card game where everything is made out of hands called… Out of Hands.

Several hours after the presentation Moya Horror and Haunted PS1 announced that their yearly fright fest Eek3 would be airing withing the week but spookily it has been delayed due to technical issues.

That didn’t stop other horror games being announced though including a Death Note game with an Among Us social deduction vibe which is coming out next month and will be released day one Playstation Plus.

Concord Gone For Good

This year’s unprecedented disaster Concord, by developer Firewalk Studios has been quietly updating itself on steam ever since it was removed for sale. This led to speculation that the multiplayer character shooter was prepping to try again. These hopes have been smashed however as Sony has now officially shuttered the studio. Also in the firing line was Neon Koi who Sony acquired in 2022 to develop a mobile action title.

210 developers will be affected by the closures.

Nintendo’s Online Services Rise Again

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp is dead! Long live Animal Crossing Pocket Camp complete! A paid version of the online app will release on December 3rd and allow existing players to transfer their camps as well as new players to experience the game without microtransactions and other online features. The game will launch at $10 AUD but will increase its price on the 31st of January to $20.
Keeping the spotlight on themselves Nintendo also launched Nintendo Music a phone app that allows users of Nintendo’s Online Subscription to listen to soundtracks from their favourite games.

Playdate Dock Dead?

The little yellow handheld that could, the Playdate was originally announced to have a dock which would act as a speaker and a pen holder! After years of waiting the dock is not coming any time soon as Panic have been unable to find an acceptable manufacturer. At this point the products future is… uncertain!

New Ubisoft Games

Ever with their finger on the pulse, Ubisoft have released an NFT game. Champions Tactics is a web 3.0 game that will allow players to purchase champions for real money. The most expensive being $63K USD.

Ubisoft have also confirmed they are in the early stages of a new Rayman game with the series’ original creator Michel Ancel.

Upcoming Game Releases

Clock Tower: Rewind (PS5, PS4, Switch), Dragon Age: The Veilguard (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC), Horizon Zero Dawn – Remastered (PS5, PC), Shadows of the Damned: Hell Remastered (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – – November 1
Metal Slug Tactics (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – November 6
Planet Coaster 2 (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) – November 7

This week in gaming news…

Studio infamous for delays; delays game.

Cloud Imperium Games, the developers behind the perpetually delayed Star Citizen have announced that its spin-off single player game Squadron 42 (which was announced to be apparently feature complete last year) has been delayed until 2026.  The game was originally announced as a part of Star Citizen but has since been turned into a standalone project.

The game’s prologue was demoed at CitizenCon in Manchester, England (which apparently suffered from an assortment of bugs, glitches and crashes).

Cloud Imperium Games has in the over 12 years since its initial crowdfunding campaign made over 729 million dollars with still no release in sight for Star Citizen.

Ubisoft France Staff Strike

The STJV (Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo), an independent union that defends the moral and economical interests of workers in the video games industry (as described by their website) called for a three day strike from October 15 to the 17th over Ubisoft’s home working policy and pay.  The STJV’s site says as follows:

“Management just announced its decision to impose a return to offices for 3 days per week for all employees. This announcement was made without any tangible justification or any consultation with the workers’ representatives.

…

This decision is announced immediately after the failure of the profit-sharing negotiations. Exactly like previous salary negociations: management’s proposals were innaceptable, the negociations’ timetable was appalling, and management was deaf to the proposals of the various Employee representatives.”

News Nibbles!

Telltale has come out to confirm that the Wolf Among Us 2 is not canceled after rumors that the game was on the chopping block circulated.

Netflix has shut down one of their AAA games studios, known as team Blue, which had some pretty big names attached to it such as former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonn, head of creative on Halo Infinite Joseph Staten and God of War’s art director Rafael Grassetti.

Vampire Survivors is getting some spooky Castlevania DLC for Halloween! Ode to Castlevania will add over 20 characters and weapons and at least 10 hours of gameplay to the already stuffed to the brim game.

Valve has said they won’t be releasing a new Steam Deck console every year just for a small improvement.  Instead, to be fair to their customers, they want to “wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before [they] ship the real second generation of Steam Deck.”

Game releases!

October 25

Sonic X Shadow Generations (Playstation, Xbox, PC & Switch

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Playstation, Xbox, PC)

October 29

Life is Strange: Double Exposure (PS5, Xbox, PC)

Red Dead Redemption (PC)

Monster High: Skulltimate Secrets (Playstation, Xbox, PC, Switch

And that’s it for the news this week!

Gotta’ Hack ‘Em All

Game Freak has issued a statement that they experienced a data breach, affecting the cases of 2,606 current and former employees. The Pokemon developers assured that the vulnerability had been patched since.

The data leak also reportedly contained data such as:

• a yet-to-be-announced Pokemon game, reportedly codenamed “Gaia”,
• A project codenamed “Synapse”, which MIGHT hint towards a Pokemon MMO,
• Plot information for an unreleased sequel to Detective Pikachu movie (the one that was supposed to release this year),
• A live action show on Netflix,
• Switch 2 stuff,

And, reportedly, a lot more. None of that has been confirmed by Game Freak however.

Panic! At The Disco Elysium

The most Disco Elysium thing just happened… multiple groups of former Disco Elysium developers have each formed studios, and they have all had identical announcements: we will be making a spiritual successor to Disco Elysium.

Of course this has sparked debate about which one would be the ‘true’ spiritual successor, whatever that means. Each project is a little different.

Longdue Games Studios is making what they call a ‘psychogeographic RPG’, where the world and characters shift depending on your choices.

Dark Math Games has XXX Nightshift, which looks just like Disco Elysium in tone, UI design, and even voice acting.

Summer Eternal has come out with a dramatic, blood-red website, and a manifesto about the exploitation of game developers.

There is also a project by ZA/UM, but many key developers have been dropped from it, as well as a fifth studio that formed during all this called Red Info Ltd, with no projects announced as of yet.

So that makes five studios, four ‘Disco Elysium’ projects announced.

STEAM DECK

PAX Aus has treated us well this year, bringing the announcement that Valve will officially bring the Steam Deck to Australia in November! Preorders are open now if you want to lock one in, if preordering is your thing.

The 256GB LCD deck is $649, the 512GB OLED deck is $899, and the 1TB OLED deck is $1,049.

News Nibbles!

Sony has announced PlayStation: The Concert, a world tour that’ll display a compilation of music from various Sony games, like The Last of Us, and God of War. Europe’s tour dates and stops have been announced, the United States and other countries (hopefully that’s us!) will have to be patient.

Tetris Forever will be released on November 12th! A celebration of Tetris, it’ll contain 15 classic Tetris games, an hour-long documentary, and a new ‘Tetris experience’ where players can warp through different Tetris eras.

Those involved in the lawsuits contesting that the Activision Blizzard aquisition in 2022 have settled, where both sides agreed to dismiss the case permanently, and pay their own legal fees.

Until Dawn will be in theatres in April, 2025! Directed by David Sandberg, it’s a live-action adaptation of the 2015 horror game, which is basically an interactive movie to begin with. No word on whether it’ll be released outside of the United States however.

And now for some upcoming games!

October 17th

• Blazing Strike – PS5, Switch, PC
• A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead – PS5, Xbox, PC
• Super Mario Party Jamboree – Switch

October 18th

• TMNT: Mutants Unleashed – PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC
• Unknown 9 Awakening – PS5, Xbox, PC

October 22nd

• Forest Hills: The Last Year – PC
• Lynked: Banner of the Spark – PC

Silent Hill Fans Are Not Silent

The Silent Hill 2 Remake has launched, and the Wikipedia page had to be locked due to editors just stating lies like the game had “received the worst reviews imaginable” despite receiving very positive reviews, and otherwise vandalising the page.

The motivation? Unclear, although there was some discourse about the remake being ‘woke’ due to changes to characters’ facial features and clothing, discourse about Bloober Team being the ones to develop the remake, and discourse about there being a remake at all.

I just hope everyone is having fun and that you all win.

Screen Queensland Funding

Nine independent studios in Queensland have been awarded a collective amount of $1.3 million in funding, securing the development of 12 games, and supporting an additional 40 positions for developers throughout the region.

Benefiting from the Games Grant funding includes studios Sbug Games, who developed Webbed, Maxart, who is developing Servonauts, 5 Lives Studio, who are developing Cozy Caravan, and many more.

“We are proud to be driving a step-change in ambition and opportunity across an industry where Queenslanders can be world leaders in the creation of unique and innovative games… we achieved a 133% increase in the number of projects we are now supporting and these indie games are driving real ‘bricks and mortar’ highly skilled technical jobs,” stated Jacqui Feeney, Screen Queensland CEO.

If you’re a dev, next round for grants commences in December 2024.

Epic Games vs Google

Epic Games butted heads with Apple in 2023 regarding the App Store, where Epic alleged that Apple were engaging in monopolistic behaviour, and although they weren’t successful in their case, they were successful in requiring Apple to allow alternative payment methods on the App Store.

Now Epic Games has taken Google Play to court and has won a significant antitrust case, compelling Google Play to open up and offer alternatives to its Google Play store for downloading apps on Android phones. Epic appears to be building up their mobile market, after recently launching its own mobile store. There are plans to draw in developers with a free games program, reduced commission fees for studios using Unreal Engine, and more.

Google do plan to appeal the Epic Games verdict, stating that Apple and Google compete directly for consumers and for app developers, and that ‘Android is open and Google Play is not the only way to get apps’.

Epic and Google will form a small committee to review technical issues with Google’s compliance.

Less Timewarping For You

If you’re a World of Warcraft fan, you’re probably familiar with Timewalking events, where old dungeons and raids are available at their current level, earning rewards and experience. As a recurring event, there is an array of mounts, toys, pets, badges, and Timewarped gear to earn. However, collecting the Timewarped Badges necessary will be a bit more difficult, with the number of badges you earn being nerfed.

With a quest that would’ve originally given you 500 badges, players can only expect that reward for their first character on their account. Subsequent characters will only earn 300 badges for the raid, and 200 for the dungeon.

Right before World of Warcraft’s 20th anniversary event on October 22nd. Fans aren’t too happy.

News Nibbles!

Paradox Interactive seems to be done with Vampire: The Masquerade, according to deputy CEO Mattias Lilja. “It is not in our strategic direction to make this kind of game, so if Bloodlines 2, God willing, is successful, Bloodlines 3 [will be] done by someone else… we don’t know that stuff, so we should probably let other people do it.”

The Shinobi series by Sega will be getting a film adaptation! The hack-and-slash games followed Joe Musashi, a ninja fighting evil, although plot details haven’t been revealed. Stuntman and filmmaker Sam Hargrave will be a director, along with Ken Kobayashi writing the script.

Red Dead Redemption will finally be officially on PC on the 29th of October. Barbie Horse Adventure fans, it will soon be your time. We ride at dawn.

And now for some upcoming games!

October 11th

• Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero – PS5, Xbox, PC
• Europa – Switch
• Metaphor: ReFantazio – PS5, Xbox, PC
• Nick Jr. Party Adventure – PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC
• Starship Troopers: Extermination – PS5, Xbox
• Transformers: Galactic Trials – PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC
• Undisputed – PS5, Xbox, PC

October 15th

• Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition – PS5, Xbox
• Just Dance 2025 Edition – PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC
• Just Dance VR – Meta Quest
• Neva – Switch
• New World: Aeternum – PS5, Xbox, PC

Are there any PlayStation fans out there who had a bit of trouble getting online yesterday? You’re not alone! The Playstation Network suffered a major global outage that caused problems on both the PS4 and PS5. The outage lasted for around eight hours and meant players couldn’t sign-in, play multiplayer games, load videos, or play any singleplayer games with online requirements. Sony hasn’t said much about what caused this problem in the first place, but (at the time of writing this) things at least seem to be running normally again.

Pictures of the upcoming Sims game (Project Rene) have been leaked from it’s playtest and fans are not happy. This comes only weeks after EA announced that Project Rene is not, as most people assumed, the Sims 5 and they aren’t planning a Sims 5 at all. EA assured players they would be taking the series “beyond linear, sequential releases and offer more options for players than ever before.”Unfortunately, to a lot of players, these pictures from Project Rene suggest a bland, basic, and possibly micro-transaction fuelled mobile-gaming experience: Not what anyone is asking for.

On the 1st of October, Devolver Digital announced the launch of a new publishing label under its belt – “Big Fan”. This new branch will focus on working with indie creators who want to make games with existing IPs, as well as the people who own those IPs and want a game made. This isn’t about making marketing tie-in games for other media; it’s about creating fun and inventive games that stand on their own. In their own words “We believe (and have seen firsthand) that great games that propel existing franchises can offer a connection with a fan that only an interactive experience can offer. Independent games created in these universes can explore them in new and unexpected ways, and it’s our goal to raise the bar of what fans can expect.”

Upcoming Game Releases:

On October 4th –
• SpongeBob Squarepants: The Patrick Star Game is coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC
• Until Dawn is coming to PS5 and PC

Then October 8th is a big day for game releases, which will see:
• Turn-based tactic game Dead Season release on PC.
• Diablo IV’s Vessel of Hatred DLC will release on all platforms.
• The remake of Silent Hill 2 is coming to PC and the PS5.
• Annd if you have the ultimate edition, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will release on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|

State of Play

Sony held a State of Play this week to promote upcoming titles for the PS5.

Off the bat we saw the soon to be released DLC for Astro Bot,  featuring 5 speedrunning levels and 10 new bots including Helldivers and Stella Blade. Other DLC announcements included: A Sonic X Shadow Movie Pack featuring Keanu Reeves as Shadow releasing on December 12^th to tie in with the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film and the Final DLC for Alan Wake II , “The Lake House” which will be out in October and looks to be leaning heavily into the horror aspects of the franchise.

A remaster the classic games Soul Reaver 1 & 2 will be coming December 10th by Aspyr who were recently responsible for the Tomb Raider remasters.

Palword for the PS5 got a release date of,  that very same day and Monster Hunter Wilds finally got a release date of February 28^th 2025.

Despite many thinking Sony had already abandoned the platform, PSVR2 had a strong presence in the State of Play including Metro Awakening VR, Hitman World of Assassination and the newly announced The Midnight Walk made by the developers behind lost in random. A striking adventure game, entirely handcrafted in clay and stop motion animated, it’ s playable in VR and flatscreen.

The show ended with the big announcement. The sequel to Ghost of Tsushima was revealed. Set 300 years after the events of the original game and with a new protagonist players will be welcomed into the world of Ghost of Yotei in 2025.

News Nibbles

As if startled by the announcement of Ghost of Yotei, Ubisoft has announced Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been delayed until February 14th next year.  How romantic.

Nintendo, like a middle-aged giant tortoise is now 135 years old. Happy Birthday you absolute freak.

Meta have announced the Quest 3s! This  headset create an new more affordable VR entry tier giving the power of the Quest 3 with the optics of the Quest 2. It will be available at a starting price of $500 AUD

After recent layoffs and restructuring, Behaviour Interactive (Dead by Daylight) has acquired Red Hook Studios (Darkest Dungeon) in a bid to diversify and reduce the individual risk to both companies.

Platinum Games has done the near unheard of and managed to acquire the IP for one of their games from Nintendo.  The Wonderful 101 is now in the safe, loving hands of its developer.

Game Releases

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 (PS5, PS4, Switch), Mechabellum (PC),  Shadows of Doubt (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC), EA Sports FC 25 (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – September 27

Reynatis (PS5, PS4, Switch, PC) – September 28

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Plus (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC), Throne and Liberty (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) – October 2

In Aussie Gaming Headlines, Billy Mitchell has finally arrived on Australian soil in his bid to sue youtuber Karl Jobst for defamation. The disputed Donkey Kong record holder  is defending the claim that his actions against the late youtuber Ben Smith aka Apollo Legend were a “significant factor in Mr Smith taking his own life” and that he “hounded Mr Smith to death.” The case is ongoing.
Dungeons and Dragons has again been caught in the crossfire as an Albany council held a meeting regarding the removal of sex education books to be removed from the library. While the motion was defeated the group Keeping Children Safe Albany lead by former One Nation candidate Michelle Kinsella called the books “borderline pornographic”, and has previously claimed that transgender people hijacked Pride for an ”agenda” and that D&D could be used to “groom children.”
In better news, Australian Games Classifications will be updated from September 22 to push the classification of games that allow the purchase of chance, mystery items, or loot boxes with real money to the M rating (not recommended for children under 15 years of age) and any game containing simulated gambling to R18+.

On the Business side of gaming (also known as – hiring, firing, and foreclosures), all 25 staff from Annapurna Interactive have resigned after the gaming division failed to convince founder Megan Ellison to allow them to spin the gaming segment as its own company. After Ellison pulled out of negotiations earlier this month president Nathan Gary, and co-heads Deborah Mars and Nathan Vella resigned. Ellison has stated the company is still committed to the upcoming games releases such as Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth, Ghost Bike and Wanderstop. Annapurna Interactive is known for the games Stray, Outer Wilds, and more
Microsoft went through a round of restructuring September 12, laying off another 650 “mostly corporate and supporting” staff in from Activision Blizzard and Xbox to add to the 1,900 staff cut in January. Xbox chief Phiil Spencer announced the layoffs in an internal memo claiming the cuts were needed for to organise the “business for long term success.”

And now for the bytes.

• The monster collector/shooter Palworld’s twitter has clarified that the game will NOT go free to play or be run under a service model. However, we may see DLC or purchasable skins in the future. And in unsurprising news, Nintendo has finally filed for multiple patent infringements against Palworld’s developers.
• Despite AI claiming there will be a Bugsnax 2: The City coming October… there isn’t. There isn’t even anything being developed.
• Bungie and Nerf have apologised and will compensate the artist after it was revealed they stole the art of Tofu Rabbit for the Ace of Spades Nerf gun.
• In a cash grab Gametech Holdings grabbed the trademark Flappy bird and sold to a subsidiary of 1208 Productions after developer Dom Nguyen missed refilling. This “spearheaded” the return of Flappy Bird into web 3 and the crypto monetisation now present in the rebrand.
• And finally, I want to personally apologise for my contributions to the fact that Diablo 4 has now made over $1 billion USD from purchases and micro transactions. The horses and skins are so damned pretty, I couldn’t help myself.

Now for the Game Releases!

• Friday September 20 brings us EA Sports FC 25 and the long awaited Frostpunk 2 both coming for PC. Also, Matchbox: Driving Adventures and The Karate Kid: Street Rumble for PC and consoles.
• Saturday September 21 gets retro with Parking Garage Rally Circuit for PC.
• Monday September 23 brings us the 2D arena shooter Anarkade on PC and consoles, and survival sandbox City 20 is going into PC early access.
• Tuesday September 24 solve the mystery in A Death in the Red Light. Civ fans will want to check out Ara: History Untold coming to PC and Xbox Series X and Crusader Kings III: Roads to Power DLC us coming to PC. Get monster taming in turn based JRPG Bloomtown: A Different Story coming to PC and Consoles. Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is coming to PC and consoles. Developed by Spiders Greedfall II: The Dying World is hitting early access. Cozy doodler Tiny Glade is coming to PC. And co-op mega horror shooter The Forever Winter is coming to PC early access.
• On Wednesday September 25; Puzzle platformer An Everyday Story comes to PC. Get retro-futuristic with a guineapig in Beyond Galaxyland coming to PC. Shoot things in the run and gun arcade shooter Iron Meat for PC and consoles. Get your puzzle on in the hand drawn Murder on Space Station 52 or challenge the grid in The Puzzle Maker: Cebba’s Odyssey both coming to PC. And the TTRPG Aria, is coming to PC and consoles under the title Worlds of Aria.
• And finally, Thursday September 26; get driving with race manager Golden Lap or arcade rallyer #Drive Rally, both coming to PC. Relive WWII again in real time co-op strategy 63 Days, coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Do you like DayZ or Rust but you’re a duck? Get Duckside coming on PC. Feel the retro adventure JRPG in The Nameless: Slay Dragon coming for PC and Switch. And lastly, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom comes to Switch.

Details for the PS5 Pro Console

On Tuesday the 10th of September Sony held a technical presentation revealing the details of the
upcoming PS5 Pro console. It’s set to release on November 7th of this year and preorders will
open on the 26th of September. Alongside the technical specifications, Sony revealed that the
PS5 Pro will cost a whopping $1199 AUD.

So, what is the PS5 Pro offering to justify that mammoth price tag?

Well, the biggest improvement is higher-fidelity graphics and smoother frame rates which
they’re promising to deliver with a bigger GPU, Advanced Ray Tracing, and some AI-driven
upscaling. Storage is also getting an upgrade. Where the original console came with 825GB of
space, the PS5 Pro features a 2TB SSD.

There are some downgrades though. The PS5 Pro does not have a disc drive so if you have a
collection of physical games you’ll need to invest in a separate drive for $159 AUD. The PS5 Pro
is also missing the vertical stand that came with previous versions of the console, and yes you
can buy it separately but that will drive the price even further up.

Speaking of Sony….

If you’ve been paying attention to the games industry this year, there’s no way you’ve missed the
huge number of layoffs hitting studios big and small. It’s a depressing trend that’s forced a lot of
talented people out of the industry, but not everyone is sympathetic.

As a guest on a recent episode of My Perfect Console podcast Chris Deering, the ex-president of
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, disputed that the trend is a result of corporate greed.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed. If the money isn’t coming
in from the consumers on the last game, it’s going to be hard to justify spending the money for
the next game.”

There’s definitely truth to that, and Chris wouldn’t have come under fire if he’d stopped there,
but he didn’t stop there. “It’s like the pandemic,” he continued “You’re going to have to figure out
how to get through it, drive an Uber, or whatever. Find a cheap place to live and go to the beach
for a year.”

Rockstar Games slammed for Low Offer to Musicians.

In a post on Twitter, X, Martyn Ware from the British band Heaven 17 shared that Rockstar
Games had contacted him about using the song Temptation in GTA6. He was excited about the
opportunity until he saw what they were offering. $7500 for a buyout of any future royalties from
the game forever.

Considering GTA 5 has made over $8.6 billion in revenue, the offer does seem quite low, but
many people were quick to argue that the exposure from being in a GTA game was more than
worth it. To those people, Martyn only had one thing to say: “Ah, but think of the exposure… Go
fuck yourself”

Baldurs Gate 3 Gets a Big Update

Late last week, Larian Studios dropped a new update for Baldur’s Gate 3. Alongside typical
gameplay improvements and bug fixes, Patch 7 brings changes to honour mode, improved split
screen, and added an in-game mod manager.

OH! And a bunch of evil ending cinematics if that’s your thing. They even renamed the “Show
Cinematic Nudity” toggle to “Show Sexual and Violent Cinematics” so people can avoid “a few
select moments of extreme violence that may be distressing to some” in these new endings.
While Larian has said that Patch 7 isn’t the last they’ve got in store for Baldur’s Gate 3, future
patches will likely be a lot smaller as the team focuses on their next project.

Upcoming Game Releases

• Mexico, 1921. A deep slumber. is coming to PC & Mac on September 13th.
• Also on September 13th, Evotinction will release on PS5, PS4, & PC
• On the 16th, The Spell Brigade leaves early access on PC.
• And on the 17th we’ll see The Plucky Squire release to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Switch.

That’s all, this week, in gaming news.