Tag: game development

Sued Over Video Game Addiction

A lawsuit in Arkansas, United States, has been filed against Microsoft, Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, and other companies claiming that they ‘use patented designs, algorithms, and marketing containing addictive features and technology’, subsequently leading to addiction.

The concern over gaming addiction isn’t new, with a clinic in the UK being established to help those with ‘gaming disorders’ experiencing a massive influx of new patients in recent months.

Tina Bullock, the attorney representing the family who filed the lawsuit, states that she believes video game addiction is serious, and should be treated as such. The firm she represents claims that this is only the first of many lawsuits that will be filed in the foreseeable future.

Revenant Hill Ain’t Coming

We got to see Revenant Hill unveiled earlier this year during the PlayStation showcase, in development by the same team behind Night in the Woods, and in a similar style, and unfortunately development won’t be continuing. The reason? Key developers impacted by severe health issues.

“We are a cooperative, and we make decisions as a group. For us, this was the clear path to take for the well-being of the team, which is frankly more important than games.” says The Glory Society in a statement on their website.

Live Action Zelda: It’s Happening

Wes Ball, the director of the movie Maze Runner, will be directing the live-action movie based on The Legend of Zelda franchise. Shigeru Miyamoto, Legend of Zelda creator, and Avi Arad, who produced Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, will also be involved as producers, with the movie being co-funded between Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

“I have been working on the live-action film… for many years now… It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it.” said Miyamoto on socials. So it’ll still be a bit of a wait.

Video Games In School

No no, I’m not talking about Coolmath Games, and I’m not talking about the games of CounterStrike you’re definitely not supposed to be playing. Thanks to the increasing popularity of esports there’s some renewed conversation among parents and teachers about the future of welcoming online video games into school.

With 50,000 students from over 300 schools taking part in the Fuse Cup, an international esports competition for children, it’s no longer just a fun oddity, it is becoming as embedded as traditional sports. Recently 60 players from 25 schools across Australia competed in the national esports finals on the Gold Coast. Although the esports scene isn’t quite as lucrative in Australia as it is in Europe or Asia, it was an Australian teen, Lucas Malissa, who was crowned champion in the Olympic Esports Series held in Singapore earlier this year.

Of course, this acceptance also means that schools can delve into topics with their students about healthy gaming habits, keeping themselves safe online, and other fun stuff like that.

And now for some upcoming games!

November 10

• Air Twister – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

November 13

• Spirittea – PC, XSX, XBO, Switch

November 14

• Gods of the Twilight – PC

November 15

• Checkmate Showdown – PC
• Lake: Season’s Greetings DLC – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO
• The Last Faith – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
• Teardown – PS5, XSX

November 16

• • Flashback 2 – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
  • Jagged Alliance 3 – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO

• Loddlenaut – PC

That’s it this week in gaming news!

Rani’s back with a BANG! Joined by Paul and Caroline the team talks Gaming News and the death-knell of Bandcamp and it’s effect on gaming music. Then Rani chats with Directors Ricard Cussó & Tania Vincent and Producer Ryan Greaves from Brisbane’s Like A Photon Creative and their new film based on the game Scarygirl . Zed then gets uncomfortable while Paul reviews the audio visual experience that is Decarnation.

It’s Done

It’s been in the works for a while, but Microsoft has finalised its deal to acquire Blizzard Activision for a whopping $68.7 billion. It has taken 20 months of duking it out with regulators, restructuring the deal to appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, and defeating the Federal Trade Commission in the US federal court, but now it’s finally done.

“We love gaming. We play games, create games, and know first-hand how much gaming means to all of us as individuals and collectively, as a community. And today, we officially welcome Activision Blizzard and their teams to Xbox,” says Phil Spencer, Xbox chief. “As one team, we’ll learn, innovate, and continue to deliver on our promise to bring the joy and community of gaming to more people.”

And just so you know, Activision or Blizzard games will NOT be coming to Game Pass this year.

300 MILLION SALES

Minecraft has officially become the first video game to hit 300 million sales. To put that in perspective, Minecraft’s biggest rival in sales is Grand Theft Auto V, which has sold over 185 million copies. (Tetris doesn’t count as it’s considered a series). It is suspected that a good portion of these sales might be from people purchasing multiple copies.

Minecraft has been available since 2009 in its pre-release version, before being officially launched in November 2011. And it still has a grip on the gaming community to this day. Congratulations!

Epic Gains Bandcamp, Employees Lose

Epic Games acquired Bandcamp a year ago, a platform that co-founder Ethan Diamond hoped would “bring the power of healing to everyone” through music.

Well, Epic Games sold it to Songtradr, and following it, roughly half its staff laid off. Songtradr, the music licensing company, states “… the operating costs of Bandcamp have significantly increased. It required some adjustments to ensure a sustainable and healthy company that can serve its community of artists and fans.”

50% of Bandcamp employees have accepted offers to join Songtradr, with the remaining 120 employees being laid off with 6 months severance, while negotiations with Bandcamp’s union continue.

Pokemon Van Gogh Cards Gone

The Pokemon and Van Gogh collaboration event, which involved giving a special promo card, Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat, to customers who bought any item at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, has been ruined by scalpers, because scalpers ruin everything.

Now collectors will have to spend a minimum of $30 on Pokemon Trading Card Game products to receive one of the cards. So, stop looking at that online listing that’s going for $500.

And now for some upcoming games!

October 20

• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – PS5
• Super Mario Bros Wonder – Switch

October 23

• Just Dance 2024 Edition – PS5, XSX, Switch
• Three Minutes To Eight – PC

October 24

• Cities Skylines 2 – PC, PS5, XSX
• Dark Envoy – PC
• The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria – PC, PS5
• Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Volume 1 – PC, PS5, XSX, Switch

Game Engine Dev News
After the backlash against Unity’s contentious plan to charge developers extra fees for each game installation as of last month, Unity is parting ways with CEO John Riccitiello. Riccitiello has stepped down as CEO, and all major seats at the Unity Table, effective immediately. Unity’s announcement of his near decade-long tenure ending rave about his contributions rather than his recent price gouging – sorry, I meant subscription model.
While the change in pricing structure from Unity was almost universally panned, it hasn’t stopped Epic from taking the idea on board with the announcement of a per-seat licensing fee for licensees in Film, TV, Automotive and other fields… but excluding the gaming industry. This would primarily affect studios using the technology for real-time CGI like Disney (The Mandalorian), Warner (The Batman), and HBO (Westworld), as well as small companies who primarily use the system for 3D animation (3^rd World Studios). This price restructuring also comes after a recent layoff of nearly 900 employees. CEO Tim Sweeney has attributed these changes to recent financial difficulties at Epic Games, primarily due to the company’s heavy reliance on Fortnite’s revenue over the last 6 years.

CD Projekt Makes Headlines
CD Projekt have announced the cost of bringing Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.0 to all platforms as well as the recently well received DLC Phantom Liberty totalled around $125.9 million dollars. That’s almost $200 million in Aussie dollar bucks.
In totally unrelated news also at CD Projekt, CD Projekt employees, along with others in the Polish video game industry, have formed a union in response to multiple rounds of layoffs at the studio in the last year (totalling around 170 lost jobs). The union’s goal is to improve workplace and industry standards with legal power and a stronger collective voice. The union aims to address these issues and protect the gaming industry’s potential by providing a stronger voice in times of crisis.
Hopefully this gives them the job security they need, unlike the Dragon Age: Dreadwolf QA unionised workers we reported on in June of 22 who have all been laid off in September. Bioware’s head of marketing, Liz Corless, said in an email this was due to “…the end of a fixed term client contract.” And according to a former employee Keywords Studio (their employer) has “…no more work available” while posting job vacancies for QA work. The union has filed a complaint against the studio this week.

Nintendo Formally Steps Away From The WiiU & 3DS.
Nintendo announced this week that they will formally be discontinuing the online support for the Wii U and 3DS in April of 2024. This will include all online play, ranking systems, and data distribution for all Nintendo titles. However, this does not include eShop support! You will still be able to update and redownload purchased software. And for you Pokéfans, the Pokémon bank and Poké Transporter will also continue to be supported until further notice.

And now for some upcoming games!
Friday October 13, get ready for Christmas with The Grinch: Christmas Adventures and Transformers: Earthspark – Expedition both coming to PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch.
Monday October 16, cozy hex strategy game Growth comes to PC.
Tuesday October 17, cyberpunk RPG Cyber Knights: Flashpoint comes to PC, or enjoy the roguelike autobattler Legend Creatures 2. Both coming to PC.
Oh and Sonic Superstars is also coming to everything the 17^th as well.
Wednesday October 18 brings us Alaskan Road Truckers coming to PC.
And next week on Thursday October 19 comes a heap with The 7th Guest VR for PC VR, Quest and PSVR2. Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express from developer Microids coming to PC and Consoles. Or how about you get your vehicle combat experience with Chaos on Wheels coming to PC. Pick up the twin stick shooter and tower defence game Endless Dungeon, coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Maybe battle for your sanity in the Lovecraftian horror Forgive Me Father 2 coming to PC. Or for a social experience, grab a friend to rob the rich to give to the poor in the co-op action game based in a Robin Hood world Gangs of Sherwood coming to PC and next gen consoles. Or shoot at your friends in the large scale, top down, multiplayer shooter Operation Valor coming to PC. Or just play a few games with them with The Jackbox Party Pack 10 coming to most platforms.

Video Games Fighting Sex Trafficking

A group of researchers from Texas, U.S.A. are utilising a federal grant to use a video game as a tool designed to extract data from the myriad of press releases and other datasets. Datasets that would normally be very inaccessible, and time consuming to sift through.

Instead, players of the game called “Dark Shadows” will be able to assist. How does it work? Players will get to act as an investigator for a fictional crime. As the player solves the crime and finds clues, actual human trafficking data will also be sorted by proxy. In time, the AI driving the program will learn to sort more effectively, and it is hoped that the algorithm may be able to make connections between various datasets for people to investigate.

GameStop’s Chairman Thinks GameStop Should Make Money

Ryan Cohen, chairman of GameStop, a major games retailer, has written a passionate email about the need to practise “extreme frugality”, and how “the company has no use for delegators and money wasters”, as the company continues to struggle.

GameStop has already initiated waves of layoffs in 2022, Ryan has already fired the CEO he himself picked, and the company has already tried NFTs and meme currency, so it’s not too clear what else could be done, however Ryan did finish his email with:

“I expect everyone to roll up their sleeves and work hard. I’m not getting paid, so I’m either going down with the ship or turning the company around. I much prefer the latter. It won’t be easy. Best of luck to us all.”

Who Is Crossing Over With Magic: The Gathering?

That’s right! Fans of both Doctor Who and Magic: The Gathering can look forward to five new cards, all themed around the good doctor and their timey-wimey adventures.These cards will be coming to the commander decks. Here’s what they’re called:

All of History, All at Once a Sorcery card.

Regenerations Restored, an Enchantment card.

Rory Williams, Legendary Creature – Human Soldier.

The Pandorica, a Legendary Artifact.

The Wedding of River Song, another Sorcery card.

Gaming Laptop Spotted In Court!

Donald Trump’s lawyer has been using what looks like an Asus laptop, complete with an underglow cycling from blue to orange, in court. There’s no point to this, it’s just a little funny to imagine.

And now for some upcoming games!

October 6

• Detective Pikachu Returns – Switch
• Sunshine Manor – PS4, XBO, Switch
• Sword Art Online Last Recollection – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO

October 10

• Forza Motorsport – PC, XSX
• Lil Gator Game – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO
• Roblox – PS4
• Wild Card Football – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

October 11

• The Front – PC
• Honkai Star Rail – PS5
• Total War: Pharaoh – PC

October 12

• Company of Heroes Collection – Switch
• Haunted House – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

BLUEY!

Whether you’re a parent to a child who is obsessed with the blue puppy, or you’re an adult with some form of emotional damage, you’ll be pleased to know that there is a video game coming out in November based off the cartoon!

Outright Games, a UK-based publisher, has officially announced Bluey: The Videogame, for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. The game has been developed by Artax Games with a lot of input from Ludo Studio, delivering a game that features a new four-part storyline that can support four-players, allowing you to play as the entire Heeler family.

The game will feature the voices from the English cast of the show, and you can expect to see some of your favourite characters, as well as existing and original music. It promises to be an “interactive sandbox adventure” with “story-driven, episodic gameplay”.

Sony’s State of Play

Sony recently had their little showcase, and here is a really quick summary of it:

The remake of Resident Evil 4 will get an update with playable Ada Wong and Albert Wesker, along with PSVR2 support on the way.

Avatar fans (the blue people) can experience a whole new part of Pandora, revealing the Western Frontier in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It is to be set between the first and second movies.

Foamstars, the Splatoon-style shooter by Square Enix, will be getting a playable open beta from September 29th to October 1st, but only for PS5 players in North America. Tragedy.

The second chapter of the Final Fantasy 7 remake project is on its way, and it’s bringing back something weirdly nostalgic for older gamers: experiencing a game across two discs! Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth comes out 29th February, 2024.

Spider-Man 2 by Insomniac Games expands out to Brooklyn and Queens! So you can patrol every single neighbourhood I guess.

Aaaaaand NINTENDO DIRECT TOO

Tis the season for game announcements and rumours. There’s some speculation about what a new Switch would look like, how much it would cost, blah blah blah.

In more exciting, tangible Nintendo news, we got to see Princess Peach: Showtime, where Princess Peach attempts to save a theatre from the Wicked Grape and the Sour Bunch.

F-ZERO 99 has come to Nintendo Switch Online, allowing you to race against 98 other players.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD will bring spooks in more definition, Mario vs. Donkey Kong will have the plumber facing off against the primate yet again, and detective pikachu returns in Detective Pikachu Returns.

We also got to see the Splatoon 3: Side Order expansion, Another Code: Recollection, from the DS and Wii, will be coming to the Switch, WarioWare: Move It! Was announced to be released on 3rd November, 2023. Exciting times for Nintendo fans.

And now for some upcoming games!

September 21

• Days of Doom – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
• Hellsweeper VR – PC VR, PSVR 2
• Payday 3 – PC, PS5, XSX
• Resident Evil 4 Remake: Separate Ways DLC – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4
• Super Adventure Hand! – PC, Switch
• Warhaven – PC

September 22

• Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: A New Menace – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
• Shuyan Saga – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
• Slaps and Beans 2 – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

September 25

• Project Planet – Earth Vs Humanity – PC
• Relic Hunters Legend – PC
• These Doomed Isles – PC

September 26

• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion – PC, PS5, XSX
• Mineko’s Night Market – PC, Switch
• My Time At Sandrock – PS5, XSX, Switch
• Paleo Pines – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
• Truck Driver: The American Dream – PS5, XSX

September 27

• Astronimo – PC

That’s it this week in gaming news!