Halloween: The Game is banned in Australia because incentivized drug use is bad but incentivized ultra-violence isn’t

Halloween: The Game is the next multiplayer horror game from Illfonic, the studio behind Friday the 13th and Predator Hunting Grounds. Like Friday the 13th it’s an asymmetrical affair: one player takes the form of psychotic masked serial killer Michael Myers, while everyone else plays the hapless survivors. It’s set to release on September 9,…

Read More

id Software dev says mass layoffs like Microsoft’s are weakening the games industry, because developers ‘don’t have the incentive to care anymore’

At the end of last month, id Software lead services programmer Chris Hayes offered a blunt appraisal of Xbox’s management during an interview with YouTube channel Auf ein Bier, saying Microsoft’s repeated mass layoffs have proved that its leadership “fundamentally don’t understand art.” Elsewhere in the interview, Hayes expanded the scope of his criticism beyond…

Read More

50 Cent is producing a Payday project for ‘the screen’

Payday-in-Fortnite isn’t the day’s only big news out of everybody’s favorite violent clowns rob banks franchise. Starbreeze, in partnership with Vice Studios, has also done a deal with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s G-Unit Film and Television to “executive produce” an adaptation of Payday. What sort of adaptation is being made—that is, television or movie—isn’t specified….

Read More

Grand Theft Auto 5 averages more copies sold per year than most megahits manage in their entire lifetime, with a total of 230 million since 2013

You won’t win any prizes for guessing that Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold well since its initial 2013 release, several lifetimes ago, but on a recent Take-Two earnings call, CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed the up-to-date, astronomical figure: 230 million copies. “The Grand Theft Auto series once again exceeded expectations, and to date, Grand Theft…

Read More

Battlefield 6 player claims to have received Steam refund after 470 hours due to surprise mode removal

First spotted by Eurogamer, ExplorEverythingOnce on the Battlefield subreddit claims to have received a full refund on Battlefield 6 from Steam support after 470 hours logged, well in excess of the platform’s standard refund window of two hours within two weeks. ExplorEverythingOnce supplied a redacted screenshot of their Steam purchase history, showing a full refund…

Read More

‘Thank you so much for the best weekend ever’: The id Software gang got together at QuakeCon, and it sure looks like everyone had a great time

The recently concluded QuakeCon was a big one, marking the 30th anniversary of the game that started it all and, more notably, bringing id Software co-founders Adrian Carmack, John Carmack, Tom Hall, and John Romero together for the first time in a very long time. I had wondered, in the lead-up to the event, if…

Read More

Steam user data ‘may have been compromised’ by a cyberattack targeting Valve’s European shipping partner

Earlier this morning, Valve began contacting customers who have purchased Steam hardware in Europe to notify them that one of its regional shipping partners, CEVA Logistics, was the subject of a recent cyberattack that “likely” exposed their personal information. In its email—shared by notified users on Reddit and elsewhere—Valve said the attack took place sometime…

Read More