Last week, publisher Skystone Games announced its Early Access shooter Boundary is going offline at the end of June. But what first sounded like a standard tale of an online game going down is actually more thornier than expected.In the announcement for the game's closure, Skystone claimed it'd give publishing rights to developer Surgical Scalpels. It then went on to claim the studio failed to update and improve the game, in turn leading to "growing concerns" from players.But as PCGamer spotted, Surgical Scalpels has a different side of the story. Per the developer's translated post, Skystone allegedly (and abruptly) decided to stop supporting Boundary, a move it called "unreasonable and unfair to [us] and the players.""We immediately negotiated with…
Square Enix revealed sales for its Octopath Traveler series have eclipsed 4 million copies sold.Both entries in the mid-size RPG franchise just launched on Xbox Game Pass, with 2023's Ocotopath Traveler II making its debut on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. The original game also just released on PlayStation 4 and 5.With this, nearly the entire series is available on current consoles, save for the mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent.Octopath II sold 1 million copies in three and a half months, and the first game sold 3 million in a little over four years. This milestone stops at June 2023, so it's unclear how much either has sold since then.
In today's Summer Game Fest presentation, Victoria Tran and Forrest Willard from Among Us publisher Innersloth announced a new indie funding initiative—dubbed Outersloth—and showed off a sizzle reel of projects currently slated for the new label. They noted the dismal funding environment in the current industry was the impetus to create Outersloth, offering "the kind of deals we would have wanted in our less popular 'Amongy' days," said Willard."This is our way of saying thank you to our crew mates, players, [and] peers, by helping some games and devs [get] the funding and freedom needed to ship their games," said Tran. "And then we all get to play them, which was the real plan!"
The Xbox showcase had more than games on hand. During the event, president Sarah Bond unveiled a new trio of consoles launching during the holiday season.Both the Xbox Series X and S will receive white, all-digital versions with 1TB hard drives, priced respectively at $449 and $349. The Series X will also get a special edition console in black that comes with 2TB of space and costs $599.Additionally, Xbox stressed these new consoles have "the same speed and performance" as their predecessors.Price-wise, these new consoles are roughly in line with the original $499/$299 pricing of the Series X|S at launch. Unlike the newer iterations of the PlayStation 5 from late last year, it doesn't appear Microsoft is phasing out the original versions of these systems.Last year, Xbox head…
French developer Voodoo Games has bought the BeReal social platform for €500 million (or $536.9 million).Known for free-to-play games like Helix Jump and Hole.io, Voodoo aims to use BeReal as a way to "strengthen [its] global position." As for BeReal, the tech company wants to "accelerate its growth" using the tech and knowledge Voodoo's learned over the years.BeReal was founded in 2019, and is chiefly known for being a social platform without likes or followers dictating the experience. Photos also automatically disappear 24 hours after posting, and it currently sports 40 million active users.
Hypercasual possib…
A £656 million (or $841.09 million) lawsuit has been filed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London against Valve. The developer is accused of using Steam to overcharge 14 million players across the UK.Per BBC, Valve is accused of demanding publishers to sign up to price parity obligations, which keep games from being sold on other platforms at cheaper prices. Vicki Shotbolt, a digital rights campaigner, also highlighted Steam's "excessive commission of up to 30 percent."In her words, that 30 percent means players "pay too much for purchasing PC games and add-on content." Shotbolt has previously accused Valve of breaching UK competition law and hopes to "get people back what they're owed."Valve has previously been criticized for the 30 percent r…
The Video Game History Foundation has recovered and released the potential first-ever TV commercial for a Nintendo system in the US and outside Japan overall.Per the VGHF, it found the 16mm commercial through game historian Chris Kohler in an online auction. According to him, the handheld is the Mego Time-Out. The commercial dates back to 1980, and it can be watched below.The Time-Out came about through a licensing deal between Nintendo and US toy company Mego. In the US, Mego released four early Game & Watch systems identical to the originals, but with its logo and new "Time-Out" branding.Four games for the handheld were made: Toss-Up, Fireman Fireman, Flag Man, and Exterminator. Toss-Up is the only one in the promo, presented as a sports game so good, athletes will play it …
Video platform YouTube is entering games through a new avenue: a free arcade of games that can be played directly in the app.Dubbed "Playables," the feature was first reported last summer shortly ahead of public testing. After a limited rollout in select countries, it's now getting a full launch over the next few months.At the moment, the arcade will have over 75 games that are instantly playable whether on computer, iOS, or Android. Players can even share games with friends using the three-dot "More" menu, and save game progress.According to YouTube, launch titles will include Cut the Rope, Angry Birds Showdown, and Tomb of the Mask.
The newly relaunched IP fighter MultiVersus has arrived on Steam with a softer launch compared to its 2022 beta. Per SteamDB, it opened with 114,515 concurrent players, down 25.4 percent from its peak of 153,433 players two years ago.Before being delisted in the summer of 2023, MultiVersus was the talk of the town. Its beta garnered 20 million players across all systems within a month and was briefly the most-played Steam Deck game at the time.Player First Games took it offline to rework the progression system and release cadence for new fighters. The new version, developed in Unreal Engine 5, comes with a PvE mode and new fighters like Jason Voorhees and The Matrix's Agent Smith.
During a recent business segment meeting, Sony Interactive's Herman Hulst opened up on the company's approach to PC versions of its first-party titles.Hulst, who'll be co-CEO of PlayStation starting in June, explained single-player games will come to PC after their initial PlayStation 5 launch to drive PC players to buy a console.Live-service games like Helldivers 2 will have simultaneous launches on both systems. Arrowhead's multiplayer shooter benefitted greatly from the same-day launch and quickly succeeded initial sales projections.Speaking to the "dual approach," Hulst called those narrative-based games "the backbone of PlayStation Studios. […] We’re finding new audiences that are potentially going to be very interested in playing sequels on the …
In today's Summer Game Fest presentation, Victoria Tran and Forrest Willard from Among Us publisher Innersloth announced a new indie funding initiative—dubbed Outersloth—and showed off a sizzle reel of projects currently slated for the new label. They noted the dismal funding environment in the current industry was the impetus to create Outersloth, offering "the kind of deals we would have wanted in our less popular 'Amongy' days," said Willard."This is our way of saying thank you to our crew mates, players, [and] peers, by helping some games and devs [get] the funding and freedom needed to ship their games," said Tran. "And then we all get to play them, which was the real plan!"
The Xbox showcase had more than games on hand. During the event, president Sarah Bond unveiled a new trio of consoles launching during the holiday season.Both the Xbox Series X and S will receive white, all-digital versions with 1TB hard drives, priced respectively at $449 and $349. The Series X will also get a special edition console in black that comes with 2TB of space and costs $599.Additionally, Xbox stressed these new consoles have "the same speed and performance" as their predecessors.Price-wise, these new consoles are roughly in line with the original $499/$299 pricing of the Series X|S at launch. Unlike the newer iterations of the PlayStation 5 from late last year, it doesn't appear Microsoft is phasing out the original versions of these systems.Last year, Xbox head…
The Xbox showcase had more than games on hand. During the event, president Sarah Bond unveiled a new trio of consoles launching during the holiday season.Both the Xbox Series X and S will receive white, all-digital versions with 1TB hard drives, priced respectively at $449 and $349. The Series X will also get a special edition console in black that comes with 2TB of space and costs $599.Additionally, Xbox stressed these new consoles have "the same speed and performance" as their predecessors.Price-wise, these new consoles are roughly in line with the original $499/$299 pricing of the Series X|S at launch. Unlike the newer iterations of the PlayStation 5 from late last year, it doesn't appear Microsoft is phasing out the original versions of these systems.Last year, Xbox head…
French developer Voodoo Games has bought the BeReal social platform for €500 million (or $536.9 million).Known for free-to-play games like Helix Jump and Hole.io, Voodoo aims to use BeReal as a way to "strengthen [its] global position." As for BeReal, the tech company wants to "accelerate its growth" using the tech and knowledge Voodoo's learned over the years.BeReal was founded in 2019, and is chiefly known for being a social platform without likes or followers dictating the experience. Photos also automatically disappear 24 hours after posting, and it currently sports 40 million active users.
Hypercasual possib…
A £656 million (or $841.09 million) lawsuit has been filed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London against Valve. The developer is accused of using Steam to overcharge 14 million players across the UK.Per BBC, Valve is accused of demanding publishers to sign up to price parity obligations, which keep games from being sold on other platforms at cheaper prices. Vicki Shotbolt, a digital rights campaigner, also highlighted Steam's "excessive commission of up to 30 percent."In her words, that 30 percent means players "pay too much for purchasing PC games and add-on content." Shotbolt has previously accused Valve of breaching UK competition law and hopes to "get people back what they're owed."Valve has previously been criticized for the 30 percent r…
The Video Game History Foundation has recovered and released the potential first-ever TV commercial for a Nintendo system in the US and outside Japan overall.Per the VGHF, it found the 16mm commercial through game historian Chris Kohler in an online auction. According to him, the handheld is the Mego Time-Out. The commercial dates back to 1980, and it can be watched below.The Time-Out came about through a licensing deal between Nintendo and US toy company Mego. In the US, Mego released four early Game & Watch systems identical to the originals, but with its logo and new "Time-Out" branding.Four games for the handheld were made: Toss-Up, Fireman Fireman, Flag Man, and Exterminator. Toss-Up is the only one in the promo, presented as a sports game so good, athletes will play it …
Video platform YouTube is entering games through a new avenue: a free arcade of games that can be played directly in the app.Dubbed "Playables," the feature was first reported last summer shortly ahead of public testing. After a limited rollout in select countries, it's now getting a full launch over the next few months.At the moment, the arcade will have over 75 games that are instantly playable whether on computer, iOS, or Android. Players can even share games with friends using the three-dot "More" menu, and save game progress.According to YouTube, launch titles will include Cut the Rope, Angry Birds Showdown, and Tomb of the Mask.
The newly relaunched IP fighter MultiVersus has arrived on Steam with a softer launch compared to its 2022 beta. Per SteamDB, it opened with 114,515 concurrent players, down 25.4 percent from its peak of 153,433 players two years ago.Before being delisted in the summer of 2023, MultiVersus was the talk of the town. Its beta garnered 20 million players across all systems within a month and was briefly the most-played Steam Deck game at the time.Player First Games took it offline to rework the progression system and release cadence for new fighters. The new version, developed in Unreal Engine 5, comes with a PvE mode and new fighters like Jason Voorhees and The Matrix's Agent Smith.
During a recent business segment meeting, Sony Interactive's Herman Hulst opened up on the company's approach to PC versions of its first-party titles.Hulst, who'll be co-CEO of PlayStation starting in June, explained single-player games will come to PC after their initial PlayStation 5 launch to drive PC players to buy a console.Live-service games like Helldivers 2 will have simultaneous launches on both systems. Arrowhead's multiplayer shooter benefitted greatly from the same-day launch and quickly succeeded initial sales projections.Speaking to the "dual approach," Hulst called those narrative-based games "the backbone of PlayStation Studios. […] We’re finding new audiences that are potentially going to be very interested in playing sequels on the …
The newly relaunched IP fighter MultiVersus has arrived on Steam with a softer launch compared to its 2022 beta. Per SteamDB, it opened with 114,515 concurrent players, down 25.4 percent from its peak of 153,433 players two years ago.Before being delisted in the summer of 2023, MultiVersus was the talk of the town. Its beta garnered 20 million players across all systems within a month and was briefly the most-played Steam Deck game at the time.Player First Games took it offline to rework the progression system and release cadence for new fighters. The new version, developed in Unreal Engine 5, comes with a PvE mode and new fighters like Jason Voorhees and The Matrix's Agent Smith.
During a recent business segment meeting, Sony Interactive's Herman Hulst opened up on the company's approach to PC versions of its first-party titles.Hulst, who'll be co-CEO of PlayStation starting in June, explained single-player games will come to PC after their initial PlayStation 5 launch to drive PC players to buy a console.Live-service games like Helldivers 2 will have simultaneous launches on both systems. Arrowhead's multiplayer shooter benefitted greatly from the same-day launch and quickly succeeded initial sales projections.Speaking to the "dual approach," Hulst called those narrative-based games "the backbone of PlayStation Studios. […] We’re finding new audiences that are potentially going to be very interested in playing sequels on the …
During a recent business segment meeting, Sony Interactive's Herman Hulst opened up on the company's approach to PC versions of its first-party titles.Hulst, who'll be co-CEO of PlayStation starting in June, explained single-player games will come to PC after their initial PlayStation 5 launch to drive PC players to buy a console.Live-service games like Helldivers 2 will have simultaneous launches on both systems. Arrowhead's multiplayer shooter benefitted greatly from the same-day launch and quickly succeeded initial sales projections.Speaking to the "dual approach," Hulst called those narrative-based games "the backbone of PlayStation Studios. […] We’re finding new audiences that are potentially going to be very interested in playing sequels on the …