This week Maylee leads Peter and Cam through the week in Gaming News. Cam wonders the future of Mario while reviewing Super Mario Bros Wonder and Rani reaches high and talks climbling in a review of Jusant.
Bobby Kotick Is Gone
The now-former CEO of Activision Blizzard has officially stepped down now that the 2023 year has ended and the acquisition by Microsoft proceeds. He won’t be the only executive-level employee leaving, with more expected to depart as the transition process develops. Otherwise, the leadership teams for Activision Publishing and Blizzard will remain in place.
The now-vacant CEO spot won’t be filled, and instead executives will report directly to Matt Booty, President of Microsoft Game Content and Studios.
Minecrafters, Grab Your Picks…
If you forgot that there was a Minecraft movie on the way, well, here’s your reminder. And now you also know that Jack Black, who has played Bowser in the Super Mario Bros. Movie, will be starring as the main man himself, Minecraft Steve. You may also know Jack Black from a few other films. The movie will be directed by Jared Hess, known for Nacho Libre, and Napoleon Dynamite.
Jason Momoa had reportedly been in negotiations to voice Minecraft Steve last year.
The Minecraft movie has been in development since 2014, while filming began in December 2023. It is scheduled to release in early April, 2025, meaning it will have been in development for 10-ish years. It hasn’t been the smoothest journey for the movie, as a few directors have dropped out, and the initial release date of May 24th, 2019 obviously not working out.
The Mouse Is OUT!
And a horror game has already been created within 24 hours of ‘Steamboat Willie’ entering the public domain. The game, called Infestation 88, has a terrifying depiction of the mouse hunting the player down in a spooky warehouse.
Disney is rather infamous for its heavy-handed approach to protecting its copyright, as the company has been reported to discourage a stonemason from carving Winnie-the-Pooh into a child’s gravestone. In fact, Steamboat Willie was initially set to enter the public domain in 1984, but the company lobbied US copyright laws to extend to “the life of the author plus 50 years”.
Now that the fated day has finally arrived, along with Infestation 88, a horror movie has been announced, as well as NFTs created, dubstep remixes mixed, and just generally making the mouse do things that Disney definitely wouldn’t approve of.
The 2023 Steam Awards
Let’s round up another round of awards! The Steam Awards is pretty straightforward, nominate your favourite games and then vote for them! Games also can’t win more than two categories.
Sit Back and Relax went to Dave the Diver, and the Labour of Love Award was granted to Red Dead Redemption 2.
Better With Friends went to Lethal Company, and Most Innovative Gameplay went to Starfield.
Outstanding Story-Rich Game and Game of the Year goes to Baldur’s Gate 3.
Some News Nibbles
Peanut Butter, a shiba inu, will be participating in Awesome Games Done Quick, a charity speedrunning event. He is probably the first dog to get into speedrunning video games, and he will be beating Gyromite in front of an audience.
The PlayStation 5 has officially passed 50 million units, managing to sell 10 million units in the latter half of 2023.
Square Enix has expressed a desire to apply AI technology ‘more aggressively’ to create ‘new forms of content’ for consumers, with Square Enix president, Takashi Kiryu stating “I believe that generative AI has the potential not only to reshape was we create, but also to fundamentally change the processes by which we create, including programming”.
And now for some upcoming game releases!
January 11
That’s it for game releases. You have a week to work through your backlog before games start getting released again.
Greetings Gamers!
This week Paul heads the Zed Games crew with Cam and Peter to talk the week in Gaming News reported by Maylee. The team then discuss the 2023 Gaming Awards, before Paul takes us on a walk on the wild side through the Irish countryside in Highland Song, and Tobi rounds it out with an obsessive look into the idle game Progress Knight.
So grab your walking sticks and auto clicking macros listen here or find us at your favourite podcast player.
This week the Zed Gamers goes wild, with Maylee talking Roblox in Gaming News, Caroline travels through bits, chips, and cosmic insanity with a review of WORLD OF HORROR (ALL CAPS), and Cameron gets convoluted in a remake/remix/rewind twisty twisted review of Air Twister.
Take-Two Talks Taking More
Last week saw GTA 6 developer Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick have a different take on gaming pricing. While gaming fans hold the game time to price value high, Zelnick wants to take that on board with future titles with a statement to investors saying
“In terms of pricing for any entertainment property, basically the algorithm is the value of the expected entertainment usage, which is to say the per hour value times the number of expected hours plus the terminal value that’s perceived by the customer in ownership, if the title is owned rather than rented or subscribed to.” While this does sound like a dollar per hour measurement, he has clarified the statement this week that this is not a linear relationship, but rather a statement on the value of games. And we can definitely trust the CEO of Take-Two, a company whose biggest earner is GTA Online.
Game Engine Gamemaker Goes Game Dev Friendly
In the wake of Game Publishers Unity and Epic calling for price “restructuring”, Gamemaker, a popular tool for creating 2D and 3D games, has released their new price point and bucked the recent trend. Because of the recent three-fold increase in active users since they joined the Opera family, instead of gouging the user base and changing from a monthly model to a per game install or price per hour played, Gamemaker is celebrating the explosion in users by announcing a new free option for non-commercial use with the ability to export their games to Windows, Mac, and Linux without paying any fees. They’ve also included their asset bundles for use in this free tier. Upgrading is also simple, want to monetise? $99.99USD. Want to put it on consoles? Well, that’s an Enterprise subscription. With games utilising this engine like Undertale, Webbed, Honey, I joined a Cult, and over 290 more listed in Gamemaker’s showcase, we can be sure to see a gamut of Indi games from this engine in the future.
Roblox Sued Over Child Safety
In the pandemic years Roblox saw a massive influx of underage users (over 60% of users are under 16 years of age) due to the social nature and declaration of safety for minors that the platform claims. The community guidelines claim that ““Roblox is a safe space for meeting online friends, chatting, and collaborating on creative projects.” And “If your child is under 13, we make it extremely difficult for strangers on Roblox to contact them.”
However, a group of parents have filed a civil action suit against Roblox for not meeting their end of the deal, with claims of grooming, sexual content, and the inability to monitor their children’s purchases due to Robux obscuring transaction worth.
Roblox Corp provided a statement to PCGAMER disputing the allegations and reinforced that the site was safe “for people of all ages.”
Now for some quick gaming bytes!
The perfect way to play Bluey The Videogame: with a #Bluey Xbox!
Follow and RT with #BlueyXboxSweepstakes for a chance to win a custom @OfficialBlueyTV Xbox Series X & controller.
Ages 18+. Ends 12/13/23. Rules: https://t.co/o7jQCwIfzY pic.twitter.com/fNgd2iXjHe
— Xbox (@Xbox) November 17, 2023
Now it’s time for this week’s game releases!
Friday November 24, survive the post apocalypse in the side scroller shooter Evil Diary coming to PC and consoles.
Tuesday the 28th, take a train ride home through civil war in the RTS Last Train Home coming to PC.
On Wednesday the 29th, get stuck in time loops in puzzle/adventure game Orten Was The Case coming to PC and consoles.
And next week on the 30th, find yourself one cup at a time in Pixel Cafe coming to PC, Switch, and next gen consoles. Want to play FTL but as a roguelike with friends? Well, This Means Warp has you covered, coming to PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.
This week Zed Gamers, Paul, Hazel, & Zahra get all Up Close and Personal talking Gaming News, Paul picks apart the puzzler Talos Principal 2 from Croteam, and Zahra gets in early with some wholesome farming in Coral Island from Stairway Games.