A European consumer watchdog has filed a complaint against Epic Games, Electronic Arts, Roblox and other game publishers over deceptive in-game currency practices, Reuters reported. The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) said it has "identified numerous cases where gamers are misled into spending money" and called on authorities "to provide consumers with safe gaming environments."
The BEUC pointed out that consumers are unable to see the real cost of digital items price using in-game currencies, saying that in-game purchases should always be displayed in real money. It added that companies' claims that gamers prefer in-game premium currencies are wrong; consumers are often denied their rights when using such currencies; and that children are particularly vulnerable to these "manipulative tactics."
"Regulators must act, making it clear that even though the gaming world is virtual, it still needs to abide by real-world rules," said BEUC director general Augustin Reyna in a statement. "Premium in-game currencies are purposefully tricking consumers and take a big toll on children. Companies are well aware of children's vulnerability and use tricks to lure younger consumers into spending more."
Also named in the complaint is Microsoft's Activision Blizzard, Mojang Studios, Tencent-owned Supercell and Ubisoft.
In a separate statement, Video Games Europe, which counts members including Epic Games, Roblox, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Supercell and and Ubisoft, said that consumers are already well-informed around in-game currencies. "The PEGI (Pan-European Game information) Code of Conduct requires developers to ensure that the real-world cost is clear and unambiguous at the point of purchase of the in-game currency," it told Reuters. "Our members always respect European consumer laws in how they offer these purchases."
The use of premium currencies purchased with real money has been controversial, especially around young players. In 2022, Epic was hit by a record FTC fine, in part for making it possible for children to purchase Fortnite's V-Bucks in-game currency without parental consent until 2018. The regulator said that Epic ignored more than a million user complaints and employee concerns over wrongful charges.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/eu-complaint-urges-action-on-confusing-in-game-currencies-140028212.html?src=rss
The entire Annapurna Interactive team has left the company after its executives walked out, according to Bloomberg. Apparently, the video game publisher's president, Nathan Gary, had been negotiating with Annapurna Pictures' founder Megan Ellison to spin off Annapurna Interactive into its own entity. A company spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg that the parties had explored the possibility of a spinoff, but their discussions broke down. Gary and the publisher's other executives had resigned and walked out as a result, and the team's other members had followed suit.
"All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned," the team said in a joint statement. "This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly."
Annapurna Interactive, like other publishers, teams up with developers, funds their games, takes care of the QA process and then markets and distributes titles when they're ready for the public. Its partner developers have reportedly been scrambling to find out what the team exodus means for them over the past few days. Bloomberg says Hector Sanchez, an Annapurna Interactive co-founder, assured developers that the company will honor their agreements. Sanchez had been at Epic Games the past five years, but he recently rejoined the publisher as its president for Interactive + New Media. Annapurna will also reportedly hire new staff members to replace those who left, essentially building a brand new team.
"Our top priority is continuing to support our developer and publishing partners during this transition,” Ellison told Bloomberg News. “We’re committed to not only our existing slate of games but also expanding our presence in the interactive space as we continue to look for opportunities to take a more integrated approach to linear and interactive storytelling across film and TV, gaming, and theater."
The publisher made a splash when it debuted with What Remains of Edith Finchback in 2017, and it now has a number of critically acclaimed and popular games under its belt. Its games include the cat simulator Stray, a puzzle adventure game featuring a world-hopping beetle called Cocoon, pop album rhythm action game Sayonara Wild Hearts, and action adventure game Outer Wilds, which is set in a solar system trapped in a time loop.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/annapurnas-entire-video-game-team-has-reportedly-left-the-company-123045395.html?src=rss
A decade after its untimely demise and countless clones later, the original Flappy Bird is coming back. Under the banner of the Flappy Bird Foundation, some dedicated fans acquired the rights to the viral mobile hit, per a press release. Flappy Bird will return to iOS and Android as native mobile apps in 2025. But you'll be able to play it elsewhere before then. The team is planning to bring the game to other platforms, such as desktop and the mobile web, starting this fall.
The Flappy Bird Foundation has some big plans for the revived title, and it showed off some of those in a trailer. While maintaining the original game design is key, you can also expect new modes, characters, progression and multiplayer challenges.
A blend of difficult gameplay and a crude art style (including pipes that seemed very inspired by Mario games) helped Flappy Bird become a sensation. The challenge posed by tapping the screen to flap the bird’s wings and squeeze through gaps between pipes caught the imagination of legions of gamers — more than 100 million of them, according to the Flappy Bird Foundation.
Flappy Bird debuted in May 2013 but it didn't blow up until the following January. Developer Dong Nguyen soon revealed that the game was raking in $50,000 per day from advertising. However, Flappy Bird's success was all too much for its creator. Nguyen removed it from the App Store and Google Play in February 2014 for seemingly altruistic reasons (though he brought another version to Amazon Fire TV later that year).
“Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed,” he told Forbes. “But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever." Thankfully for fans (but maybe not people who were reselling old phones with the original game still installed), "forever" isn't necessarily permanent.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/flappy-bird-is-finally-returning-10-years-after-its-demise-142756765.html?src=rss
After slashing 1,900 jobs across Xbox and Activision earlier this year, Microsoft is laying off another 650 employees, according to an internal memo seen by The Verge. The cuts are again related to its Activision Blizzard acquisition and will mostly affect corporate and supporting functions, Xbox head Phil Spencer told employees.
"We have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming... to organize our business for long term success," Spencer wrote. "No games, devices or experiences are being cancelled and no studios are being closed as part of these adjustments today."
Microsoft completed its $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard in October 2023, following a 21-month battle with regulators in the US and UK. To clear the deal with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, Microsoft agreed to sell its cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft so that titles will appear on multiple game-streaming services.
Since then, the company has closed multiple game studios, including Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games and Roundhouse Games.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/microsoft-lays-off-another-650-xbox-employees-as-part-of-its-activision-deal-123042523.html?src=rss
The first-person shooter Doom has so many ports on so many different consoles and computers that modders have had to find new places to port the game like autonomous lawnmowers, digestive bacteria and even in Doom II itself.
One port that’s not nearly as popular or playable as the others is the Sega Saturn port that came out nearly four years after the game’s release. Gamespot’s Jeff Gerstmann called the Sega Saturn Doom port just about everything you can call a bad game without straying over the the boundaries of good taste: “completely worthless,” “drab,” “jerky,” “to be avoided at all costs.”
Bo, a self-described reverse engineer of Sega Saturn games, gave the Sega Saturn port of Doom another chance and he discovered a cheat code in the game that’s been laying dormant for more than a decade. He posted the secret cheat code he found on X.
Here's a cheat code for the Saturn version of DOOM that I think has gone unnoticed since 1997. Pause the game and press: X, Right, B, Y, X, Right, B, Y
The button combination X, Right, B, Y, X, Right, B, Y gives you the ability to see through the walls of the Mars substation and even Hell. It’s too bad the game doesn’t have a cheat code that lets you see a better version of Doom.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/someone-discovered-a-new-cheat-code-for-the-27-year-old-saturn-port-of-doom-230059377.html?src=rss
The first-person shooter Doom has so many ports on so many different consoles and computers that modders have had to find new places to port the game like autonomous lawnmowers, digestive bacteria and even in Doom II itself.
One port that’s not nearly as popular or playable as the others is the Sega Saturn port that came out nearly four years after the game’s release. Gamespot’s Jeff Gerstmann called the Sega Saturn Doom port just about everything you can call a bad game without straying over the the boundaries of good taste: “completely worthless,” “drab,” “jerky,” “to be avoided at all costs.”
Bo, a self-described reverse engineer of Sega Saturn games, gave the Sega Saturn port of Doom another chance and he discovered a cheat code in the game that’s been laying dormant for more than a decade. He posted the secret cheat code he found on X.
Here's a cheat code for the Saturn version of DOOM that I think has gone unnoticed since 1997. Pause the game and press: X, Right, B, Y, X, Right, B, Y
The button combination X, Right, B, Y, X, Right, B, Y gives you the ability to see through the walls of the Mars substation and even Hell. It’s too bad the game doesn’t have a cheat code that lets you see a better version of Doom.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/someone-discovered-a-new-cheat-code-for-the-27-year-old-saturn-port-of-doom-230059377.html?src=rss
Today, on the franchise's 10th anniversary, Bungie has released its roadmapDestiny 2. Buckle up, as we have quite some ground to cover.
Bungie will now release two expansions a year instead of only one. These expansions won’t be as large, but the team promises to make them interesting. They’ve already begun testing “non-linear campaigns, exploration experiences similar to the Dreaming City or Metroidvanias, and even more unusual formats like roguelikes or survival shooters.” Plus, they want to bring back the feeling of mystery older campaign storylines had.
Bungie
Since the expansion model has changed, so will the seasonal model. There will now be four major updates each year, one released every three months. Two of the major updates will coincide with the release of the biannual expansions. These updates contain various activities, weekly events, features and most importantly, rewards. Other changes include reworking the UI (the Director) and reward model, along with improving the Challenge Customization system.
Starting in Summer 2025, players can experience the first expansion of the year (right now it's been codenamed Apollo). Unlike older content, this expansion is a nonlinear adventure that lets you step into the boots of different characters at different times. The developers promise that the story will flow smoothly despite the nonlinearity. Other than the assumption that it will go live about six months after Apollo, there are no details yet on the second upcoming expansion (which they're calling Behemoth internally), so you’ll have to stay tuned for future updates.
These plans are ambitious, so let's hope Bungie can pull them off. Destiny 2's current expansion, The Final Shape, was delayed — a decision that was preceded a month earlier by layoffs at the studio.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/heres-bungies-roadmap-for-destiny-2-163138384.html?src=rss
Baldur’s Gate 3 modding has arrived for PC players. After a closed alpha in June and an open beta in July, the long-awaited Patch 7 — which may be the game’s last big update — is now available. It lets you play around with user-created weapons, armor, classes and subclasses, spells, dice skins and just about anything else you can imagine.
Mods are available through an official (mod.io-powered) in-game Mod Manager and external channels. “We will never prevent modding outside of our own official pipeline,” Larian Studios wrote. But the developer says its officially approved mods are targeted for stability and cross-platform compatibility. “It’ll also ensure a smoother experience, at the cost of more script-focused modding, which can still be done outside of our pipeline,” the studio wrote.
Larian said earlier this summer that Baldur’s Gate 3 mod support would arrive on PC first, with Mac and console support “shortly after.” But the developer clarified in an update today that console (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S) and macOS players can expect Patch 7 in October.
That presents some short-term compatibility issues. If you want your game save files to work across PC and console, you’ll need to hold off on installing Patch 7 on your PC. However, cross-platform save compatibility will return in October when the update lands on PlayStation, Xbox and Apple devices.
Larian Studios
Larian says Patch 7 in Baldur’s Gate 3’s console versions will include “an additional curation process” to determine which mods will be available across platforms. “While not all PC mods will become available for console, we’ll be sure to publish guidelines to help you understand what kind of content will pass our necessary checks — without blocking any unsupported creative mods on PC — so that we can continue supporting the modding community both inside and outside our official pipeline,” the studio wrote.
Mod support isn’t just a fun bonus for gamers; it’s also a way for Larian to keep the game alive as it pivots resources to new projects. CEO Swen Vincke said in June that opening the gates to modding would allow the developer “to say ‘ok, now it’s yours fully,’” according toEurogamer. Of course, the studio will still push updates for critical bug fixes, but today’s arrival of Patch 7 is likely the first stage of calling it a wrap on one of 2023’s best games.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/you-can-now-officially-create-and-use-baldurs-gate-3-mods-on-pc-210006703.html?src=rss
Are you tired of feeling safe and happy all the time? Is your daily life overrun by feelings of security, contentment and peace? Do you want an escape from all of the oppressive niceness around you? Well, look no further — these are the games for you.
Here, we’ve collected more than a dozen of the most evocative and disturbing horror games in recent memory. These selections cover a wide range of genres and styles, but each one comes with at least a tinge of unsettling terror. So take a peek, find your game, and prepare your skeleton for some fresh air because you’re about to jump out of your skin.
Astro Bot is not just for kids. Team Asobi clearly designed it for players of all skill levels, and that includes children and newbies, but at its core Astro Bot feels purpose-built for video game fans. It’s a skill-driven celebration of everything that makes the format so memorable and joyful, and at the same time, it’s an excellent introduction to the language of games. With precise and responsive controls, adorable characters, and an exciting variety of mechanics and environments, Astro Bot is easily one of the best games that Sony has ever produced.
Astro Bot is technically the fifth entry in the Astro universe, though it’s the series’ first fully fledged — and fully priced — installment. It follows The Playroom (a 2013 mini-game collection for PS4), The Playroom VR (a 2016 PlayStation VR jam), Astro Bot Rescue Mission (a 2018 PS VR platformer starring just the bots), and Astro’s Playroom (a 2020 DualSense demo that’s pre-loaded on every PS5). Astro Bot takes ideas from these earlier titles and compiles them into a focused 3D platformer with dozens of main worlds, a bevy of additional unlockable planets and a wide range of satisfying mechanics. On top of this, the robot protagonists are super cute in every situation. The fact that some of the characters and settings in Astro Bot are recognizable from popular video games only makes the whole thing sweeter.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Players are on a mission to rescue all 300 of their robot friends after an alien intercepted their spaceship, a super-charged PS5, and scattered the crew across six dangerous galaxies. Perched atop a lone DualSense, Astro scours 50 total planets and collects other bots by punching or kicking them — you know, in a friendly way — and then storing them inside the touchpad of the on-screen controller before dumping everyone on a secure world. At the same time, Astro is searching for the missing parts of the PS5 spaceship, which are being guarded by bosses in each galaxy.
The hub world, where the ship and rescued bots live, has customization portals for the DualSense and Astro, a gatcha machine with items that bring your bots to life, and a safari zone where you can take pictures with animals you find. There are also small regions to fix up with extra puzzles for Astro and his friends. Outside of the hub planet, the game’s baseline loop involves collecting coins, puzzle pieces and bots by completing platforming challenges and surviving Koopa-like enemies, but new dangers and even-trickier environments appear at every turn.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Many of the planets that Astro lands on introduce new mechanics, such as spring-loaded boxing gloves that look like frog faces, an octopus that blows Astro up like a balloon, a mouse backpack that shrinks him at will, a penguin-propelled swimming booster, and a stopwatch that freezes time for a short while. Stages are designed around these unique mechanics and the diversity on display is impressive, from a spooky castle filled with toxic-green ghosts and invisible platforms, to a deconstructed space station in a delectable cosmic setting, and an entire planet built out of giant, neon-lit casino props.
Even before picking up any cool new toys, Astro has a laser-propelled hover ability that lets him destroy enemies while jumping over them, plus a standard punch and a chargeable spin move. These three abilities, plus whatever tool he picks up, are the entirety of Astro’s arsenal. This mechanical focus allowed Team Asobi to perfect each move and then apply them all in a thousand different ways, and the result is a rewarding and robust platformer. All the cuteness is just an added bonus.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Astro Bot is not punishing, but it’s not easy either. Plenty of stages require patience, awareness and a high degree of platforming skill, though resets are generous and failure doesn't cost anything other than your time. Completionists will have a great time with this one — there are so many secret passages and hidden bots to find, most of them cleverly tucked away and easily missed unless you’re actively looking for them. On the flipside, speedrunners should enjoy Astro Bot as well, since it offers planets of platforming challenges with incredibly responsive controls.
There are 300 bots to find, and many are pulled from the wider world of gaming. Plenty of the branded bots originate outside of Sony’s stable, with big hitters from Capcom, Konami and Sega represented well — a few of them definitely made my partner yell in excitement, which was adorable in its own right. Some of the more memorable levels stem from popular Sony franchises like God of War, with Astro wielding Kratos’ ax on one planet. Team Asobi really mined Sony’s vaults, far beyond simple Crash Bandicootcallbacks, and into weird and wonderful games like LocoRoco and Vib-Ribbon.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
And now, allow me to really gush. Astro Bot is beautiful, and not just in a cartoony kind of way. Its landscapes are sharp and alive with interactive details, and it seems like every pixel has been polished to perfection. But it’s the game’s physics that energize everything — when Astro lands on top of a giant inflatable daisy, the material buckles under his little feet, indenting with each step and sway, and making the entire scene look utterly squeezable.
When skating in the snowy levels, Astro picks up speed and pivots on a dime, and the DualSense responds with the sounds and vibrations of a sharp knife slicing through thick ice. (Side note: I could happily play an entire game of just ice skating… as long as it’s not called Astro Glide.) Piles of tactile objects like sprinkles, dice, skulls and glass stars are scattered around the levels, and running through them is not only gratifying in an ASMR sense, but it sometimes uncovers a new secret. When rain hits Astro’s transparent umbrella hat, the sound is mirrored perfectly on the DualSense, along with the feeling of raindrops on the grips. Each stage has background music to match, funky or big band or synth-y, and always with a catchy hook. Astro Bot’s sound effects, haptics, graphics and physics harmonize flawlessly, transforming every surface into a playground. It’s magical.
Sony Interactive Entertainment
On the cute side of things, Astro reacts to his environments with endearing animations like shivering in the cold, quivering in fear and tapping his tiny metal feet in excitement, and his bot friends are similarly expressive. When Astro boops his head on an impassable ceiling, he makes the sweetest little flinching motion. The bots turn around and shake their booties at Astro right before he punches them into the DualSense. On the pause screen, you can flick all of your collected bots out of the digital controller and they flail in mid-air before landing safely back inside the touchpad. Pretty much everything the bots do is charming.
Astro Bot highlights the importance of play. It’s Super Mario Bros. for a new generation of video game fanatics, at once an introduction to common mechanics and also a significant challenge for seasoned players. In both cases, Astro Bot radiates joy. If this, alongside new titles like Lego Horizon Adventures, signals a new and less stuffy direction for Sony, then I’m excited to see what the future holds. For now though, you’ll find me trying to 100-percent Astro Bot, cursing and laughing the whole way through.
Psst: Astro Bot has now joined the hallowed ranks of our favorite PS5 games guide. You can view all of our picks — 21 at the time of writing — at The best PS5 games for 2024.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/astro-bot-ps5-review-one-of-the-best-games-sony-has-ever-made-120014494.html?src=rss