On Zed Games this week Zahra, Hazel and Caroline discuss the recent Stardew Valley: Festival of Seasons performance at the Brisbane City Hall, then the team talks game reboots and their needs, wants, and desires for their faves. And not to forget the week in Gaming News brought to you in extended Tobi-Vision.

Games Getting the Thanos Snap
This week saw a couple of games added to the growing list of paid games ripped from digital libraries and slipped from support and server maintenance. PlayStation has chosen to decommission the servers of LittleBigPlanet 3 following the technological issues which resulted in the servers being shut down in January. The multimedia giant seems to have given up trying to fix the problems and instead has decided to just shut up shop, removing support for core gameplay loop of creating and sharing levels. In worse news, Ubisoft has created a new category in your digital library called “Inactive Games”. This is specifically for owners of the purchased game The Crew. When opening the game through the launcher you are now greeted with the message “You no longer have access to this game. Why not check the Store to pursue your adventures?”. Attempts at bypassing said launcher are met with either game key requests or a limited access demo version of the game launching. Ubisoft claims this was necessary “… due to server infrastructure and licencing constraints.”
This trend has been tipped to continue with a report published that claims 70% of game developers are concerned with the sustainability of live service titles. This is also compounded with the overwhelming majority of those surveyed working in teams dedicated to said live service games.
So, what can we do as gamers? The movement to get political is now in full swing with people calling for the preservation of video games. Personally, you can head to stopkillinggames.com and click the “Take Action Here” and follow the links, perhaps even signing the parliamentary petition EN6080 calling for the government to enforce our ownership of games like I have.

Fallout Resurgence
In more positive news, in the wake of the well-received adaptation of the Amazon Prime Fallout series – which if you didn’t know is all canon to the Fallout lore according to Todd “it just works” Howard – the series has incited gamers to return to the base games with sales of Fallout 4, earlier titles, and even the critically panned Fallout 76 jumping up the charts with player counts hitting new peaks or even breaking old records. And for all those living out their postapocalyptic dream for the first time or returning to the series, the games have either received or scheduled to receive next gen updates as this broadcast goes live (April 25^th), and probably with all the trademark issues/glitches/problems we have come to expect from Bethesda.
And for the series fans, you’ll be happy to know that Amazon has confirmed a second season is on the way.

Game Industry Biz News
This week videogame company Embracer Group announced they would be dissolving the company and splitting their assets into three separate companies; the first Asmodee Group to focus on the companies table top assets, the temporarily named “Coffee Stain & Friends” to take over the indi to AA game operations, and the – again temporarily named – “Middle-Earth Enterprises and Friends” to take over the high end AAA assets like Tomb Raider and The Lord of the Rings franchises. The CEO of Embracer Group, Lars Wingefors, is bucking the trend of blaming the volatility of the industry, and is taking responsibility, saying;

“As a leader and an owner, sometimes you need to take the blame and you need to be humble about if you’ve made mistakes and if you could have done something differently.
“I’m sure I deserve a lot of criticism, but I don’t think my team or companies deserve all the criticism.”

Atari is also bucking the trend with the relaunch of Infogrames as a publishing label, with purpose of publishing and acquiring IP outside of the Atari brand, and has already purchased the game Totally Reliable Delivery Services from tinyBuild.
And PlayDate – that niche console you’ve heard about from some of our announcers – the maker Panic has shared that of the 70 thousand shipped, over half of the owners have made purchases on the storefront. Because of this support, Panic has revealed that developers of the 181 games have received a sizable payout of over $500 thousand US dollars.

Now Have We Got Some Time for Some Quick Bytes?
Team Fortress 2 has finally gotten 64-bit support, now boasting up to 20% more frames per second! No updates on the bot issues though, but the game has only been out for a meagre 17 years so…
And there’s a new operating system on the horizon. With Meta announcing its new Meta Horizon OS for the VR ecosystem in partnership with ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox.

And now for some upcoming games.
On April the 25^th the “sah gaa” continues with Square Enix’s SaGa: Emerald Beyond coming to PC, PlayStation and Switch, while Bandai Namco brings the manga SAND LAND to life in … wait for it … SAND LAND (all caps) coming to PC, PlayStation and the Xbox series S & X.
Friday April 26 brings us Manor Lords, a medieval strategy where you can sit on your high horse, coming to PC. Or if you feel like turning into a spandex clad Beyblade with a sword and flashing lights, join the masses with Stellar Blade coming to the PlayStation 5. Or go for a different kind of spin in the tennis sim with some big names in Top Spin 2K25 coming to PC and next gen consoles.
And to round out the month, after hitting 40 million players, Sea of Thieves is finally coming to the PS5 Tuesday April 30.

And that’s all this week, in gaming news.

This week on Zed we promote Maylee for Mayor of Gaming City, and ask you to Atone for this years 4zzz April Atonement. The team, lead by the possible mayor-elect Maylee, heralds the excellent Zahra and superb Peter in their reviews after chatting the week in Gaming News. Zahra talks tinkering to relax in a review of Assemble with Care from ustwo games, then Peter digs a happy bug filled hole in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor from Funday Games.

This week Paul leads the team with Zahra, Peter and Special Guest Tom from Netherworld to talk punching purple people in the new Prince of Persia roguelite in this weeks Gaming News. Paul praises new shooter Bears In Space from local dev team Broadside Games. Tom plays his cards right in a deck building review of Balatro from LocalThunk. And then Paul takes aim at speed run cult sniper Children of the Sun from René Rother.

This Week in Gaming News

League of Legends is getting a new PVE mode:

In a recent developer update, Riot Games announced that a brand-new PVE game mode will be released later this year. They’ve pitched it as a bullet-heaven, where you can mow down hordes of enemies with friends, or solo. We didn’t get many more details, but the mode is set to release during the League of Legends summer event (that’ll be our winter), so expect more details as we get closer.

Triple I Initiative:

In the early hours of April 11th, at 3AM AEST, we saw the first Triple I Initiative showcase stream live on Youtube, Twitch, bilibili, IGN and Steam. The Triple I initiative was spearheaded by Evil Empire, the studio behind Dead Cells, but was a collaborative effort from a huge number of indie studios. We were given over thirty announcements and here are some of the highlights:

• The showcase kicked off with the announcement of a sequel for the deckbuilding roguelike Slay the Spire. The short teaser didn’t show off much, but did say the game will be released in early access next year.
• Never Alone 2, was announced back in 2022 and we’ve heard very little about it since then, but this morning we saw the first official trailer.
• They showed a teaser trailer for Dinolords, a real-time strategy game with a medieval setting where you get to ride around on Dinosaurs. It’s coming to steam in early access, but we don’t know when.
• And there was the announcement of RKGK, an anime-esque graffiti platformer from Wabisabi Games and Gearbox. The trailer showed off bright, bold graphics, and a release for mid-2024.

You can watch the livestream here, or read a complete rundown here.

Xbox sets up Game Preservation Team:

In emails obtained by Windows Central, Microsoft discussed its plans to deliver “the biggest technical leap in a generation ever” with the next Xbox hardware. They aren’t just looking to the future though. The emails also revealed that Sarah Bond, the current president of Xbox, has formed a team to focus on game preservation and backwards compatibility. “We are building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy.” Sarah wrote in the email.

Life is Strange Developer Accused of Fostering a Toxic Culture:

Deck Nine, the studio behind Life is Strange: True Colors, and the remastering of the first two games, has been called out for creating a toxic workplace. The accusations, which were made to IGN by more than a dozen employees, claim that sexual harassment, discrimination, and hate speech are commonplace and that management wouldn’t address these issues for months, if at all. Employees found multiple racist memes and hate symbols that had been spread throughout the game. At first, things were subtle enough that staff assumed they were simple mistakes,
however as weeks went by, they found more and more. This issue was also met with a snailpace response from management.

Another shocking part of the report was a claim that publisher Square Enix suppressed discussion of the game’s diverse themes. The protagonist of Life is Strange: True Colors is bisexual, but this wasn’t mentioned in any press before release because Square Enix didn’t want it “to be known as the gay game.” I would have thought anyone who’s played any of the Life is Strange games, or just vaguely heard about them, could tell you they are gay games. But what do I know?

Upcoming Game Releases:

On the 15th of March, Retrowave World is releasing on the PC.
On the 16th of March Europa is releasing to PC and Harold Halibut is coming to PS4, PS5,
Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Also, on the 16th Grounded is coming to Switch.
On the 18th of March, Pine Harbor is releasing on the PC and No Rest for the Wicked is releasing
in early access

Hazel and Zara take control this week talking AI controlled Doc Oct armchairs from Razor and the week in Gaming News, and a rundown of the great prizes available in this years April Atonement at 4ZZZ. Paul digs deep in the indi game Pepper Grinder from Ahr Ech, and Zahra starts the carcinisation process in Fight Crab 2 from Calappa Games.

This week in gaming news

The I’s Have It

The Developers of Slay the Spire, Darkest Dungeon and Dead Cells have announced an new showcase event to help give a platform to larger indie titles. Benjamin Laulan, co-founder of Evil Empire who took over development of Dead Cells back in 2019 had this to say:

“on one side there are the big showcases such as the Game Awards, which are more for triple-A games and games with really huge budgets. And on the other hand, there are showcases that may be more focused on [smaller] indies. And we couldn’t really identify ourselves as a studio, I mean, between those two. We felt that there was this in-between spot that needed to be filled somehow.”

Slay The Spire’s Studio co-founder Casey Yano and Darkest Dungeon director Chris Bourassa talking to Gamers Social Club spoke of the difficulty in game funding currently with the “gold mine” of funding like Epic Store deals becoming far more difficult to acquire. Helping boost the Indie scene was one of the main motivations behind the new initiative.

The event is named the Triple-I Initiative and will air 3:00am on April 11^th AEST. Be sure to check out the Zed Games Event Calendar on our website.

What could be announced at such a showcase? It’s been revealed that Evil Empire has been working on a new Prince of Persia Roguelite due to enter early access this year and is likely the title the studio has alluded too.  But… what.. ELSE!!!!!!!!!!?

SILKSONG ALERT! SILKSONG ALERT!

Are you ready to have you hopes raised before being dashed spectacularly? On April 1^st a store page was made for the much-anticipated Hollow Knight Silksong on Xbox. The game is now visible on Nintendo eshop, PSN, Steam, GOG and Xbox Live. But that’s not all, the title has been officially rated by the ESRB, PEGI, the USK in Germany and the The Game Rating and Administration Committee in South Korea. All this leads to the inevitability it that Silksong will release sometime in the future, just like it could have any time in the last 5 years.

Fashion For your Dragons

If you’re into video games there is a non-zero chance that you also like Dungeons and Dragons and have at some point in your life been a consumer. If inclined you can embrace those two elements with some fashion crossovers releasing in the next week.

Converse will be releasing their Converse x Dungeons & Dragons Collection on April 11^th including all sorts of clothing including dungeon appropriate shoes. Black Milk Clothing however will be launching their Dungeons & Dragons lineup on April 9^th.

Game Release Schedule

Botany Manor (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), Children of the Sun (PC), Gigantic: Rampage Edition (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) – April 9

House Flipper 2 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S), Slave Zero X (Switch) – April 11

April Fools

Before we wrap the news, here are some of the funniest gaming jokes and pranks from April First this year

That’s all this week in Gaming News.

This week on Zed Games, Maylee, Paul, and Peter talk couch party games. Then the team chats the week in Gaming News where Paul talks Xbox Layoffs, Pepper Grinder release, and other new releases. Then Paul goes to the MAX in VR to talk Max Mustard developed by Toast Interactive, before Maylee tries to romance the big bad as a bard in Bard Harder! from indi developer Shark and Pelican Games.

Tabletop in SPAAAAACE

NASA has developed and launched a tabletop roleplaying game called ‘The Lost Universe’, which is available for free.

“A dark mystery has settled over the city of Aldastron on the rogue planet of Exlaris. Researchers dedicated to studying the cosmos have disappeared, and the Hubble Space Telescope has vanished from Earth’s timeline. Only an ambitious crew of adventurers can uncover what was lost.”

The mystery supports 4-7 players using level 7-10 characters, and is supposed to be easily adaptable to your preferred TTRPG system. It is available on NASA’s website.

GTA 6 Might Be Delayed

Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to release in early 2025, and might be one of the most highly anticipated games in history, with fans desperate for any scrap of news. Unfortunately, the initial release date may no longer be possible, with a late 2025 or 2026 release looking more likely, allegedly due to production slipping behind.

Employees have reportedly been mandated to return to work five days a week in April, rather than allowing employees, including those hired remotely, to work from home. This shift in policy has been attributed to improving security and quality. There are rumours however that this change is also to help avoid production slipping further behind.

Rockstar are still aiming for an early 2025 release, a late 2025 release seems more plausible, with the 2026 release being a “fallback plan”.

How Many Playdates Are Missing??

Two pallets of the handheld yellow consoles have reportedly gone missing from a shipping centre in Las Vegas. A simple stocktake revealed that $400,000 worth of Playdates aren’t where they’re supposed to be.

FedEx claims that they were delivered but “we have no trace of them”. A few weeks later, a different set of pallets of Playdates were delivered to the construction site next door to the shipping centre.

Those pallets were successfully recovered, which is good, as Playdate aims to start earning a profit this year.

More Help For Game Help

The PlayStation 5 has a feature called Game Help, that developers can use to provide hints for various games, assisting players who might be struggling with a game. Community Game Help will be added as a feature, allowing users to submit gameplay that is automatically captured during specific activities in the game. Once this footage is approved, it will be published as a hint.

This means that players who are stuck can easily access the relevant footage to use as a guide. Players can rate the quality of the hint, so only the most helpful hints are used.

News Nibbles!

A trailer for Sonic Toys Party, an unannounced battle royale party game from Sega, has been leaked, and it looks uncannily like Fall Guys. The trailer got taken down due to a copyright claim however.

Elder Scrolls 6 is playable and sounds fun, according to Bethesda. Yay.

And now for some upcoming games!

March 28 – that’s today!

• Open Roads – PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X
• Pepper Grinder – Nintendo Switch

That’s it this week in gaming news!

This week, Zahra, Hazel & Maylee talk Stardew Valley REVOLUTIONARY updates in Gaming News, Tobi and Peter double battle The Shroud™ in a review of Enshrouded from Keen Games, and Zahra relaxes while getting their life in order in A Little to the Left developed by Max Inferno.