gaming

New Steam Deck competitor lets you easily swap in more RAM, storage

gaming, Tech / Paul Patrick / June 8, 2024

Plug and play —

Adata embraces the CAMM2 memory standard for its intriguing handheld prototype.

Kyle Orland – Jun 7, 2024 8: 17 pm UTC

A slide-up screen is just one of the novel features for Adata's Steam Deck clone. — Enlarge / A slide-up screen is just one of the novel features for Adata’s Steam Deck clone.

For PC gamers used to the modular design of a desktop rig, there are pros and cons to the all-in-one, pre-fab design of the Steam Deck (and its many subsequent imitators in the growing handheld gaming PC market). On the one hand, you don’t have to worry about pricing out individual parts and making sure they all work together. On the other hand, the only way to upgrade one of these devices is to essentially throw out the old unit and replace the entire thing, console-style.

Korean computer storage-maker Adata is looking to straddle these two extremes. Lilliputing reports on Adata’s XPG Nia prototype, which was shown off at the Computex trade show. The unit is the first gaming handheld so far to embrace the CAMM (Compression Attached Memory Module) standard that allows for easily replaceable and upgradeable memory modules, as well as a number of other mod-friendly features.

CAMM on down

Enlarge / Samsung shared this rendering of a CAMM ahead of the publishing of the CAMM2 standard in September.

If you’ve read our previous coverage of the emerging CAMM standard, you know how excited we are about the ultra-thin modules that can simply be screwed into place on a laptop or portable motherboard. That offers a viable replacement for the now-standard soldered LPDDR RAM, which saves space but is incredibly difficult to repair or replace.

The CAMM standard brings the same easy-to-swap design as the older SO-DIMM RAM stick standard but with a smaller footprint, thermal design, and power usage specially made for portable devices. Reports suggest the XPG Nia will use the low-power LPCAMM2 version of these RAM modules, which will be easily accessible by lifting up the kickstand on the back of the XPG Nia. Alongside a standard M.2 2230 slot for adding more storage, that should make the new handheld much easier to upgrade than the likes of the Steam Deck, which requires some serious hacking to push above the standard spec.

Enlarge / A Dell rendering depicting the size differences between SODIMM and CAMM.

Dell

The only real downside to CAMM2 memory modules, at the moment, is the price; a recent CAMM2 offering from Crucial runs $175 for 32GB or $330 for 64GB. That’s significantly more than similar, bulkier SO-DIMM modules, but those prices should come down as more device makers and RAM manufacturers start supporting the standard.

A “circular computing device”?

Thus far, the XRG Nia’s modular design doesn’t seem to extend to the planned AMD Phoenix APU or Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor. That said, users will reportedly be able to remove the entire motherboard from the portable case, which can then be inserted into a smaller, screen-free enclosure for a potential second life as an Arudino/Raspberry Pi-like mini-PC.

Adata says it also plans to release the system’s 3D design files and pinout details publicly, letting modders and third-party manufacturers design their own cases and accessories. It’s all part of what Adata is calling a “circular computing design” that’s part of its “sustainable future” initiative.

GGF Events talks with the makers of the Adata XPG Nia prototype at Computex.

There are a few other features that set the XRG Nia apart from the waves of me-too Steam Deck clones. In addition to the rear kickstand, the entire screen enclosure slides up on a sort of pivot, providing a shallower viewing angle that requires less neck tilting when holding the device in front of your chest. Adata is also promising a front-facing camera that can be used for streaming as well as eye-tracking, which could theoretically power some fancy foveated rendering tricks for extra graphics horsepower.

It’s way too early to know how all of these features will shake out in the move from prototype to final device; reports suggest the company is aiming for a release sometime in 2025. Still, it’s nice to see a company trying some new things in the increasingly crowded space of handheld PC gaming devices that Valve has unleashed. If Adata can deliver the portable as an actual consumer product at its target of 1.5 pounds and $600, it could be one to keep an eye on.

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Marvel’s Midnight Suns is free right now, and you should grab it (even on Epic)

card battler, epic games, epic games store, firaxis, gaming, marvel's midnight suns, turn based strategy game, X-Com, x-com enemy unknown, Xcom / Rejus Almole / June 8, 2024

The Midnight Suns also rises (on a different storefront) —

Sadly overlooked on release, the card/turn-based battler is a real bargain.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 7, 2024 7: 32 pm UTC

Characters in battle, with cards in the forefront, in Midnight Suns — Enlarge / All these goons are targeting Captain America, as shown in icons above their heads. Good. That’s just how he likes it. (No, really, he’s a tank, that’s his thing.)

2K/Firaxis

I fully understand why people don’t want multiple game launchers on their PC. Steam is the default and good enough for (seemingly) most people. It’s not your job to compel competition in the market. You want to launch and play games you enjoy, as do most of us.

So when I tell you that Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a game worth the hassle of registering, installing, and using the Epic Games Launcher, I am carefully picking my shot. For the price of giving Epic your email (or a proxy/relay version, like Duck), or just logging in again, you can play a fun, novel, engaging turn-based strategy game, with deckbuilding and positioning tactics, for zero dollars. Even if you feel entirely sapped by Marvel at this point, like most of us, I assure you that this slice of Marvel feels more like the comic books and less like the overexposed current films. Just ask the guy who made it.

Tactical deckbuilding is fun

The game was very well-regarded by most critics but was not a financial success upon release in December 2022, or was at least “underwhelming.” Why any game hits or doesn’t is a combination of many factors, but one of them was likely that the game was trying something new. It wasn’t just X-COM with Doctor Strange. It had some Fire Emblem relationship-building and base exploration, but it also had cards. The cards blend into the turn-based, positional, chain-building strategy, but some people apparently saw cards and turned away.

“Before, I never had an experience where people had expressed disappointment before playing, you know,” Jake Solomon, the now-departed director of Midnight Suns and XCOM, told Rock Paper Shotgun in an interview. “As we told people from the beginning, it’s not an accident, we don’t share a single mechanic with XCOM. … And so I think when people play it, they get it, it’s really fun, and you can get as addicted to this as you can to XCOM. But I also totally get it when people look at images coming out and go ‘What the fis that? Are those… are those cards? Cards!?’ So yeah, I can sympathise with people for that reason, I guess.”

Blade is in charge of training, i.e. upgrading your cards. He’s tough, but fair!

2K/Firaxis
As with XCOM, you’ll eventually get mission choices, with different rewards and expiring deadlines.

2K/Firaxis
Most battles are in big arenas, but some make you figure out the best angles very up-close.

2K/Firaxis
Socking goons into each other, and into that ambulance over there, is real fun.

2K/Firaxis
In X-COM fashion, the moves and bad guys occasionally get a close-up.

2K/Firaxis

Folks, the cards are fun. The resources you gather go into upgrading your cards, which are all your moves in combat. There are strategies inherent to each character, like chaining attacks, moving enemies through portals, area-of-effect attacks, and the like. But then you can min-max heroes’ abilities, focus on your favorite heroes, and laugh when things go horribly awry or ridiculously in your favor.

You don’t build one deck in Midnight Suns, you build a whole team of little decks. As a designer for deckbuilder Cobalt Core told Ars, deckbuilding puts you “in this space where no two turns are ever exactly the same, so players get to keep figuring out new optimal solutions. But even though the options are always huge, they’re made up of pretty simple building blocks, so it’s not overwhelming.”

The other big change from XCOM and similar games is a rich use of both a destructible environment and rag-doll enemies. Having Magik set up a portal, then Iron Man blasts a goon through it, then seeing that enemy fly through the exit portal into an overloaded battery that explodes, knocking out two more baddies—it’s a great feeling.

Even devout Marvel fans will find some characters they'd never delved into previously, like Nico Minoru of the Midnight Suns crew. — Even devout Marvel fans will find some characters they’d never delved into previously, like Nico Minoru of the Midnight Suns crew.

2K/Firaxis

Comicbook Marvel, not movie-stars Marvel

The thing that most often happens in between missions is talking. You seek out and talk to your teammates, respond to things they say, go on excursions with them. It gets to the point where you can join a book club with Captain America, Blade, Captain Marvel, and, reluctantly, Wolverine.

It can be a bit much, but the dialogue and voice acting is well-done, in my estimation. In some comic-book-but-also-movie games, the lack of rights to an actor’s face can be hard to get past, if you’re used to seeing them in that superhero getup. Midnight Suns has both pretty close approximations of various heroes, or alternate faces that didn’t bug me after the first few sightings. And if none of the world-building/friend-making stuff is for you, you can hold a button and skip through toward more goon-bashing.

Solomon noted in that same RPS interview that he is a “really, really, like, super Marvel Comics nerd.” That comes through in how each character is framed, how they interact, and their motivations. There’s still a good bit of the modern Marvel quip quotient, but it’s palatable. Going on friend dates with the Scarlet Witch may not be something you seek out in your turn-based tactics, but give it a try. It gives you some motivation to see your heroes succeed and work together.

Epic has the base Midnight Suns game free through June 13 at 11 am. You could add on some DLC if you like, with new characters like Storm, Venom, Morbius, and Deadpool (if you’re _really_ okay with quipping). You’ll see various costumes and in-game currencies available for sale, too, but none of them are at all necessary to play and succeed at the game. If you’re enjoying the game, and wish it ran a bit faster, consider disabling the 2K launcher in the Epic Games version.

A lot of games release every day, and some of them end up being games I wish I could have written about and recommended. Midnight Suns has long resided in that mental space for me. For the price of zero dollars, plus whatever level of commitment is required for an Epic Store download, it’s an easy game to recommend.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is free right now, and you should grab it (even on Epic) Read More »

Civilization VII looks like 2K’s next big game announcement

2K, civilization, firaxis, gaming, Sid Meier, simulation / Kris Guyer / June 7, 2024

Tell Gandhi to prep the nukes —

Logo drop comes amid publisher’s “beloved franchise” tease for Summer Games Fest.

Kyle Orland – Jun 7, 2024 3: 52 pm UTC

2K Games is expected to show the first trailer footage of the upcoming Civilization VII as part of this weekend’s Summer Games Fest marketing extravaganza after a logo for the game leaked on 2K’s website this morning.

Eagle-eyed gamers at ResetEra and Reddit both noticed the Civ VII banner atop the publisher’s official site early this morning, alongside a “Coming Soon” label and inactive links to a trailer and wishlist page. The appearance comes just ahead of the trailer-filled Summer Games Fest livestream, which will premiere at 5 pm Eastern Friday afternoon.

In May, the Summer Games Fest Twitter account teased that 2K would be using the event “to reveal the next iteration in one of [its] biggest and most beloved franchises.” Civilization VII now seems primed to fill that pre-announced slot, which may be unwelcome news for fans of 2K-owned franchises like Borderlands, Bioshock, and NFL2K (which was first publicly mulled for a revival in 2020).

Last year, developer Firaxis announced that it had started development on the “next mainline game in the world-famous Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise,” under the guidance of Civilization VI Creative Director Ed Beach and newly promoted studio head Heather Hazen (who previously worked with Epic Games and Popcap). “We have plans to take the Civilization franchise to exciting new heights for our millions of players around the world,” Hazen said in a statement at the time.

Civilization namesake Sid Meier holds forth with fans at a Firaxicon fan gathering in 2014.” height=”426″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/firaxicon39-640×426.png” width=”640″>

Enlarge / Civilization namesake Sid Meier holds forth with fans at a Firaxicon fan gathering in 2014.

Kyle Orland

Civilization VII will be the first entry in the storied strategy franchise in at least eight years, a historically long gap for a series that has seen a new numbered entry every four to six years since its debut in 1991. When Civilization VI hit in 2016, we praised the game for its smoother, more easily accessible interface and focus on fraught decision-making.

In an interview with Ars just after the launch of Civ VI, series namesake Sid Meier said his official role as franchise director has evolved over the years into more of a support structure for younger designers. “I’m there to kind of represent the history of the game,” Meier told Ars. “My role is just to be supportive. Designers have huge egos, and they’re easily bruised. Making a game can be a painful process. Part of my role is to be encouraging—’that idea didn’t work, try something else.'”

Elsewhere in early Summer Games Fest leaks and announcements, we can expect more info about Meta Quest VR-exclusive Batman: Arkham Shadow, a Lego-fied version of Sony’s Horizon series, and new footage for cinematic survival game Dune Awakening, among many other planned announcements.

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Sony removes still-unmet “8K” promise from PS5 packaging

8K, gaming, graphics, packaging, PlayStation, PlayStation 5, promise, resolution, Sony / Mike M. / June 6, 2024

8K? We never said 8K! —

Move could presage an expected resolution bump in the rumored PS5 Pro.

Kyle Orland – Jun 6, 2024 5: 00 pm UTC

The new PS5 packaging, as seen on the PlayStation Direct online store, is missing the “8K” label in the corner.
The original PS5 packaging with the 8K label, as still seen on the GameStop website.

When we first received our PlayStation 5 review unit from Sony in 2020, we reacted with some bemusement to the “8K” logo on the box and its implied promise of full 7630×4320 resolution output. We then promptly forgot all about it since native 8K content and 8K compatible TVs have remained a relative curiosity thus far in the PS5’s lifespan.

But on Wednesday, Digital Foundry’s John Linneman discovered that Sony has quietly removed that longstanding 8K label from the PS5 box. The ultra-high-resolution promise no longer appears on the packaging shown on Sony’s official PlayStation Direct store, a change that appears to have happened between late January and mid-February, according to Internet Archive captures of the store page (the old “8K” box can still be seen at other online retailers, though).

A promise deferred

This packaging change has been a long time coming since the PS5 hasn’t technically been living up to its 8K promise for years now. While Sony’s Mark Cerny mentioned the then-upcoming hardware’s 8K support in a 2019 interview, the system eventually launched with a pretty big “coming soon” caveat for that feature. “PS5 is compatible with 8K displays at launch, and after a future system software update will be able to output resolutions up to 8K when content is available, with supported software,” the company said in an FAQ surrounding the console’s 2020 launch.

Well over three years later, that 8K-enabling software update has yet to appear, meaning the console’s technical ability to push 8K graphics is still a practical impossibility for users. Until Sony’s long-promised software patch hits, even PS5 games that render frames internally at a full 8K resolution are still pushing out a downscaled 4K framebuffer through that HDMI 2.1 cable.

Enlarge / A slide from TV manufacturer TCL guesses at some details for the next micro-generation of high-end game consoles.

At this point, though, there’s some reason to expect that the promised patch may never come to the standard PS5. At the moment, the ever-churning rumor mill is expecting an impending mid-generation PS5 Pro upgrade that could offer true, native 8K resolution support right out of the box. If that comes to pass, removing the outdated “8K” promise from the original PS5 packaging could be a subtle way to highlight the additional power of the upcoming “Pro” upgrade.

Enlarge / A slight majority of participants in a double-blind study saw no discernible difference between a 4K and 8K image video clips.

So will console gamers be missing out if they don’t upgrade to an 8K-compatible display? Probably not, as studies show extremely diminishing returns in the perceived quality jump from 4K to 8K visual content for most users and living room setups. Unless you are sitting extremely close to an extremely large display, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll even be able to tell the difference.

Sony removes still-unmet “8K” promise from PS5 packaging Read More »

What kind of bug would make machine learning suddenly 40% worse at NetHack?

AI, bugs, CUDA, gaming, imitation learning, machine learning, moon phase, nethack, reinforcement learning, roguelike, roguelikes, software bugs / Kris Guyer / June 4, 2024

Large Moon Models (LMMs) —

One day, a roguelike-playing system just kept biffing it, for celestial reasons.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 4, 2024 6: 52 pm UTC

Moon rendered in ASCII text, with — Aurich Lawson

Members of the Legendary Computer Bugs Tribunal, honored guests, if I may have your attention? I would, humbly, submit a new contender for your esteemed judgment. You may or may not find it novel, you may even deign to call it a “bug,” but I assure you, you will find it entertaining.

Consider NetHack. It is one of the all-time roguelike games, and I mean that in the more strict sense of that term. The content is procedurally generated, deaths are permanent, and the only thing you keep from game to game is your skill and knowledge. I do understand that the only thing two roguelike fans can agree on is how wrong the third roguelike fan is in their definition of roguelike, but, please, let us move on.

NetHack is great for machine learning…

Being a difficult game full of consequential choices and random challenges, as well as a “single-agent” game that can be generated and played at lightning speed on modern computers, NetHack is great for those working in machine learning—or imitation learning, actually, as detailed in Jens Tuyls’ paper on how compute scaling affects single-agent game learning. Using Tuyls’ model of expert NetHack behavior, Bartłomiej Cupiał and Maciej Wołczyk trained a neural network to play and improve itself using reinforcement learning.

By mid-May of this year, the two had their model consistently scoring 5,000 points by their own metrics. Then, on one run, the model suddenly got worse, on the order of 40 percent. It scored 3,000 points. Machine learning generally, gradually, goes in one direction with these types of problems. It didn’t make sense.

Cupiał and Wołczyk tried quite a few things: reverting their code, restoring their entire software stack from a Singularity backup, and rolling back their CUDA libraries. The result? 3,000 points. They rebuild everything from scratch, and it’s still 3,000 points.

<em>NetHack</em>, played by a regular human.” height=”506″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/13863751533_64654db44e_o.png” width=”821″></img><figcaption>
<p><em>NetHack</em>, played by a regular human.</p>
</figcaption></figure>
<h2>… except on certain nights</h2>
<p>As <a href=

What kind of bug would make machine learning suddenly 40% worse at NetHack? Read More »

Ridiculous, inventive party pack Sportsfriends is now free on PC and PlayStation

bennett foddy, gaming, sportsfriends / Paul Patrick / June 3, 2024

Good things for tough reasons —

Couch co-op collection lets you compete on the screen and in each other’s face.

Kevin Purdy – Jun 3, 2024 6: 24 pm UTC

Enlarge / How well do you know your friends and family? Can you smack a 2010-era controller in their hands to win intangible points?

Die Gut Fabrik LLC

If there is any reason to head into your garage or attic and dig out that PlayStation Move controller, it’s Johann Sebastian Joust. Actually, there’s a second good reason: that game, and three others with the same spirit, are all free now on Steam for PlayStation, Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The reason and timing are unfortunate, as Die Gute Fabrik, the Danish developer collective behind Sportsfriends, can no longer support or update the 10-year-old game. But the group is doing the right thing, making the game free on all platforms, including Steam, transferring ownership of the game to Bennett Foddy (Getting Over It), and working to open-source a version of the JS Joust game for Linux so that perhaps it can be fit to work with other motion-sensitive controllers or through some other scheme.

Sportsfriends launch trailer.

Sportsfriends, previously described at Ars as a “stellar pack of multiplayer-only gems,” are four games meant for “couch co-op,” i.e. playing in the same room as other folks holding controllers (or glowing Move sticks, in the case of JS Joust). Each one is a little masterwork of clever design and hard to encapsulate briefly, but if you don’t have time for the deeper dive, here goes:

Super Pole Riders, by Bennett Foddy, has you use the left PlayStation stick for your feet, and the right stick to angle and pivot a vaulting pole, then attempt to knock a ball through a hoop to score points or knock an opponent off their pole. (There’s an early web version.)
Baribariball is a one-on-one or two-on-two Smash Brothers-like experience, but with more old-school arcade dynamics and in-air movement.
Hokra, a kind of soccer game with Atari-esque visuals and deceptively simple controls.
JS Joust, in which you try to not get your Move controller jostled while goading or physically nudging other players’ controllers, with your ability to move dictated by Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.

Johann Sebastian Joust.

There are no solo versions of any of these games, and Joust does not work with Windows, because Windows does not support the Move controller. With any luck, this can be worked around. And while no controller may yet provide the kind of perfect combination of motion sensitivity and glowing colored orb that the Move controller does, opening Joust up to more hardware can only be beneficial. More people need to try to lightly assault their friends in the name of camaraderie.

Don't say they didn't warn you. — Don’t say they didn’t warn you.

Die Gut Fabrik LLC

Ridiculous, inventive party pack Sportsfriends is now free on PC and PlayStation Read More »

11 years after launch, 49M people still use their PS4s, matching the PS5

gaming, PlayStation, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, ps4, ps5, Sony / Rejus Almole / May 30, 2024

Gone, but not PS4-gotten —

But PS5 users spend more money and gameplay time on their consoles.

Kyle Orland – May 30, 2024 2: 39 pm UTC

Enlarge / After nearly four years of the PS5, a lot of people are still using their old PS4s.

If you’re still getting use out of your aging PS4 after nearly four full years of PS5 availability, new data from Sony shows you are far from alone. The Japanese electronics giant says that both the PS4 and PS5 currently have about 49 million monthly active users, suggesting a significant number of PlayStation players have yet to spend $400 or more to upgrade to the newer console.

The new data comes from an extensive Game & Network Services report presented as part of Sony’s most recent Business Segment Meeting. Those numbers suggest that about 42 percent of the 117 million PS4 units ever sold are still in active use, compared to 86 percent of the 56 million PS5 units sold thus far.

Despite the parity in active consoles, Sony also points out that the PS5 is responsible for significantly more gameplay hours than the PS4: 2.4 billion for the new system compared to 1.4 billion for its predecessor (it’s unclear what time period this comparison covers). Sony’s monthly user numbers also include any console “used to play games or [access] services on the PlayStation Network,” so an old PS4 that serves as a convenient Netflix box in the spare bedroom would still inflate the older system’s numbers here.

Still, it’s pretty impressive that nearly 50 million people are still regularly using a console first launched in 2013 (even considering 2016’s Pro upgrade). That could be in part because the PS4 is still seeing plenty of software support well after the PS5’s release; Sony’s PSN Store listings currently include 189 “just released” PS4-compatible games, including many “best-selling” titles that don’t require a PS5 at all. The fact that those PS4-compatible titles are also playable directly on the PS5 has probably helped convince some publishers to target the older console for their less graphics-intensive games.

Enlarge / PS5 owners are spending less money on full games and a lot more money on “add-on content.”

The PS4’s longevity doesn’t seem to have had a significant negative impact on the PS5’s bottom line, either. Sony’s gaming division has already earned $10 billion in profit off of $106 billion in sales across the nearly four years of the PS5 generation, compared to $9 billion in profit off $107 billion in sales across seven years of the PS4.

PS5 owners have spent an average of $731 each across games, services, peripherals, and add-on content. That’s up significantly from $580 in nominal spending from the average PS4 owner at the same point in that console’s life cycle, though what sounds like a big increase is actually pretty flat when you take inflation into account.

That per-console gaming spending is now concentrated less on “full game” purchases—which are down 12 percent between the PS4 to PS5 generation—and much more on so-called add-on content—which is up 176 percent between generations. We’re guessing that big-spending, loot-box-chasing “whales” have something to do with that increase.

Listing image by Sam Machkovech

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Sony apologizes for interview it says “misrepresented” a Last of Us creator

druckmann, gaming, interview, last of us, Naughty Dog, PR, Public Relations, Sony / Paul Patrick / May 29, 2024

Who said what now? —

Move comes after Druckmann publicly disavowed some quotes: “This is not quite what I said.”

Kyle Orland – May 29, 2024 4: 51 pm UTC

Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, seen here not questioning the accuracy of a PR interview. — Enlarge / Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, seen here not questioning the accuracy of a PR interview.

Sony has taken down an interview with Naughty Dog Studio Head Neil Druckmann (Uncharted, The Last of Us) that the company now says contains “several significant errors and inaccuracies that don’t represent his perspective and values.” The surprising move comes after Druckmann took the extreme measure of publicly questioning a portion of the PR interview by posting a lengthy transcript that conflicted with the heavily edited version Sony posted online.

The odd media saga began last Thursday, when Sony published the interview (archive here) under the heading “The Evolution of Storytelling Across Mediums.” The piece was part of the Creative Entertainment Vision section of Sony’s corporate site, a PR-driven concept exploring how Sony will “seamlessly connect multi-layered worlds where physical and virtual realities overlap to deliver limitless Kanto—through creativity and technology—working with creators.” Whatever that means.

Druckmann’s short interview started attracting attention almost immediately, primarily due to Druckmann’s apparent promotion of using AI tools in game development. Such tools “will allow us to create nuanced dialogues and characters, expanding creative possibilities,” Druckmann is quoted as saying. “AI is really going to revolutionize how content is being created, although it does bring up some ethical issues we need to address.”

Not so fast…

By Friday, though, Druckmann ended a months-long drought of social media posting by noting that, in at least one case, the words posted by Sony were “not quite what I said. In editing my rambling answers in my recent interview with Sony, some of my words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost.”

As evidence, Druckmann posted this “rambling” 457-word response to a question about a “personal vision or dream project” he hoped to create:

Well, I’ve been very lucky, in that I’ve already had that. I got the chance to make several of my dream projects. I am working on a new one right now. And it’s maybe the most excited I’ve been for a project yet. I can’t talk about it or our bosses will get very mad at me.

And I guess in general, there is something happening now that I think is very cool. Which is there’s a new appreciation for gaming that I’ve never seen before. Like when I was growing up, gaming was more of a kid’s thing. Now it’s clearly for everyone. But it’s like, if you’re a gamer, you know about the potential of games, and non-gamers, they don’t really know what they’re missing out on.

But my hope was, when we made The Last of Us as a TV show that we could change that. And why I became so involved with it. I wanted so badly for it to be good, because I wanted this to happen, which is like someone who will watch the show and really like it. And fall in love with those characters the way that we have fallen in love with those characters and their story. And then realize at the end, “Wait, that’s based on a video game?” and then go and check out the game and just see the wealth of narratives and everything that’s happening in games.

So now I feel like there’s kind of a spotlight on gaming. And you know, Fallout just came out. And that’s a big success for Amazon. And I find that really exciting. Not because games need to be movies, or they need to be TV shows, but I think it just kind of opens the eyes of a bunch of people that just weren’t aware of the kind of experiences that exist in games. I think right now we’ve hit a tipping point where it’s about to take off where people realize, “Oh my God, there’s all these incredible moving experiences in games!”

So, I’m not only excited for this game that we’re making—and it’s, it’s something really fresh for us—but I’m also excited to see how the world reacts to it. Because of The Last of Us, and the success of the show, people even outside of gaming are looking at us to see what it is that we put out next. I’m very excited to see what the reaction for this thing will be—and l’ve already said too much about it. I’ll stop there. So, you’re asking me for my dream projects. I’ve been very lucky to have worked on my favorite games with incredible collaborators and I’m very thankful for them.

For reference, here is the 127-word summary of that answer posted by Sony:

I’ve been lucky to work on several dream projects and am currently excited about a new one, which is perhaps the most thrilling yet. There’s a growing appreciation for gaming that transcends all age groups, unlike when I was growing up. This shift is highlighted by our venture into television with The Last of Us, which I hoped would bridge the gap between gamers and non-gamers. The show’s success has spotlighted gaming, illustrating the rich, immersive experiences it offers. This visibility excites me not only for our current project but for the broader potential of gaming to captivate a global audience. I’m eager to see how this new game resonates, especially following the success of The Last of Us, as it could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming.

While the gist of Druckmann’s original answer is more or less preserved, the condensed version loses a lot of the specific details and flavor Druckmann highlighted in his answer. The edited version also inserts some key phrases and ideas that Druckmann didn’t use at all, such as his supposed hope that his new project “could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming.”

Though we don’t know how much Druckmann’s other answers were clipped or amended in the editing process, Druckmann’s public annoyance with the edits was apparently enough to get Sony’s attention. Sometime after Tuesday night, the PlayStation-maker replaced the public interview with the following message:

In re-reviewing our recent interview with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, we have found several significant errors and inaccuracies that don’t represent his perspective and values (including topics such as animation, writing, technology, AI, and future projects). We apologize to Neil for misrepresenting his words and for any negative impact this interview might have caused him and his team. In coordination with Naughty Dog and SIE, we have removed the interview.

Journalists often edit interview responses for concision and clarity, but this interview skips the usual step of noting the existence of those kinds of edits near the top of the piece. And while press releases often contain executive quotes that have been carefully crafted in consultation with PR professionals, there was no indication in this article that the responses here were anything other than Druckmann’s own thoughts and words.

Game publishers and console makers have a long history of sharing developer interviews directly with the public rather than having those developers’ views filtered through the press. This is the first instance we can remember where the promotional process itself has become a source of controversy.

Sony apologizes for interview it says “misrepresented” a Last of Us creator Read More »

After you die, your Steam games will be stuck in legal limbo

death, estate, gaming, inheritance, steam, vaslve, will / Paul Patrick / May 24, 2024

Pushing digital daisies —

So much for your descendants posthumously clearing out that massive backlog…

Kyle Orland – May 24, 2024 4: 15 pm UTC

But... but I was just about to check out <em>Tacoma</em>.” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-485865905-800×533.jpg”></img><figcaption>
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With Valve’s Steam gaming platform approaching the US drinking age this year, more and more aging PC gamers may be considering what will happen to their vast digital game libraries after they die. Unfortunately, legally, your collection of hundreds of backlogged games will likely pass into the ether along with you someday.

The issue of digital game inheritability gained renewed attention this week as a ResetEra poster quoted a Steam support response asking about transferring Steam account ownership via a last will and testament. “Unfortunately, Steam accounts and games are non-transferable” the response reads. “Steam Support can’t provide someone else with access to the account or merge its contents with another account. I regret to inform you that your Steam account cannot be transferred via a will.”

This isn’t the first time someone has asked this basic estate planning question, of course. Last year, a Steam forum user quoted a similar response from Steam support as saying, “Your account is yours and yours alone. Now you can share it with family members, but you cannot give it away.”

Potential loopholes

As a practical matter, Steam would have little way of knowing if you wrote down your Steam username and password and left instructions for your estate to give that information to your descendants. When it comes to legal ownership of that account, though, the Steam Subscriber Agreement seems relatively clear.

“You may not reveal, share, or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account except as otherwise specifically authorized by Valve,” the agreement reads, in part. “You may… not sell or charge others for the right to use your Account, or otherwise transfer your Account, nor may you sell, charge others for the right to use, or transfer any Subscriptions other than if and as expressly permitted by this Agreement… or as otherwise specifically permitted by Valve.”

Eagle-eyed readers might notice a potential loophole, though, in the clauses regarding account transfers that are “specifically permitted by Valve.” Steam forum users have suggested in the past that Valve “wouldn’t block this change of ownership” via a will if a user or their estate specifically requests it (Valve has not responded to a request for comment).

Donating all those 3DS and Wii U games to someone else might be difficult for Jirard “The Completionist” Khalil.

There also might be a partial, physical workaround for Steam users who bequeath an actual computer with downloaded titles installed. In a 2013 Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal article, author Claudine Wong writes that “digital content is transferable to a deceased user’s survivors if legal copies of that content are located on physical devices, such as iPods or Kindle e-readers.” But if that descendant wanted to download those games to a different device or reinstall them in the case of a hard drive failure, they’d legally be out of luck.

Beyond personal estate planning, the inability to transfer digital game licenses has some implications for video game preservation work as well. Last year, Jirard “The Completionist” Khalil spent nearly $20,000 to purchase and download every digital 3DS and Wii U game while they were still available. And while Khalil said he intends to donate the physical machines (and their downloads) to the Video Game History Foundation, subscriber agreements mean the charity may have trouble taking legal ownership of those digital games and accounts.

“There is no reasonable, legal path for the preservation of digital-born video games,” VGHF’s then co-director Kelsey Lewin told Ars last year. “Limiting library access only to physical games might have worked 20 years ago, but we no longer live in a world where all games are sold on physical media, and we haven’t for a long time.”

After you die, your Steam games will be stuck in legal limbo Read More »

The ROG Ally X leaks, with twice the battery of the original and way more RAM

ASUS, asus rog ally, gaming, gaming handheld, handheld pc, ROG Ally, steam deck / Paul Patrick / May 24, 2024

Handheld gaming PCs —

This handheld has more RAM than my gaming PC, though the chip stays the same.

Kevin Purdy – May 24, 2024 3: 44 pm UTC

Heavily altered image of a ROG Ally X, with — Enlarge / VideoCardz’ leaked image of a ROG Ally X, seemingly having gone through the JPG blender a couple times.

Asus’ ROG Ally was the first major-brand attempt to compete with Valve’s Steam Deck. It was beefy and interesting, but it had three major flaws: It ran Windows on a little touchscreen, had unremarkable ergonomics, and its battery life was painful.

The Asus ROG (Republic of Gamers) Ally X, which has been announced and is due out June 2, seems to have had its specs leaked, and they indicate a fix for at least the battery life. Gaming site VideoCardz, starting its leak reveal with “No more rumors,” cites the ROG Ally X as having the same Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU as the prior ROG Ally, as well as the same 7-inch 1080p VRR screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate.

VideoCardz' leaked image, seemingly from Asus marketing materials, with the ROG Ally X's specifications. — VideoCardz’ leaked image, seemingly from Asus marketing materials, with the ROG Ally X’s specifications.

The battery and memory have changed substantially, though. An 80-watt-hour battery, up from 40, somehow adds just 70 grams of weight and about 5 mm of thickness to the sequel device. By increasing the RAM from 16GB to 24GB and making it LPDDR5, the ROG Ally X may be able to lend more of it to the GPU, upping performance somewhat without demanding a new chip or architecture. There is also a second USB-C port, with USB4 speeds, that should help quite a bit with docking, charging while playing with accessories, and, I would guess, Linux hackery.

How does it feel? Only Sean Hollister at The Verge knows, outside of ASUS employees. The sequel has lost the weirdly sharp angles on the back, and more of your hand fits around the back, without the rear buttons being accidentally triggered so easily. The triggers and buttons all seem to have received some feedback-based upgrades to durability and feel.

If Asus sticks close to the $800 price point (that was also leaked), it could compete with the Steam Deck OLED on features and flash, if not library and polish. But as I’ve said before, perhaps somewhat defensively, bring on the flashier handheld PCs.

Expanding the viability of handheld PC gaming means more developers targeting these systems, in specs or just accessibility. More demand for new types of handhelds makes the whole field more interesting and competitive. Microsoft, which is keenly aware of this developing market and is contemplating a more cloud-based and less Xbox-centered gaming future, can only make Windows better on handhelds because the bar is pretty low right now.

All of that gives me more games to play on the couch while the rice is cooking, whether or not the device I’m holding has more and faster RAM and better USB-C ports than my gaming PC.

The ROG Ally X leaks, with twice the battery of the original and way more RAM Read More »

Microsoft Copilot will watch you play Minecraft, tell you what you’re doing wrong

gaming, Microsoft Copilot, minecraft / Kris Guyer / May 21, 2024

Parasocial gaming department —

Microsoft demo is like chatting with GameFAQs when you don’t have a friend to hang with.

Kyle Orland – May 21, 2024 4: 37 pm UTC

In the recent past, you'd have to rely on your kid sibling to deliver <em>Minecraft</em> commentary like “Oh no, it’s a zombie. Run!”” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/zombie-800×429.png”></img><figcaption>
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Longtime gamers (and/or Game Grumps fans) likely know that even single-player games can be a lot more fun with a friend hanging out nearby to offer advice, shoot the breeze, or just offer earnest reactions to whatever’s happening on screen. Now, Microsoft is promising that its GhatGPT-4o-powered Copilot system will soon offer an imitation of that pro-social experience even for Minecraft players who don’t have any human friends available to watch them play.

In a pair of social media posts Monday, Microsoft highlighted how “real-time conversations with your AI companion copilot” can enhance an otherwise solitary Minecraft experience. In the first demo, the disembodied copilot voice tells the player how to craft a sword, walking him through the process of gathering some wood or stone to go with the sticks sitting in his inventory. In another, the AI identifies a zombie in front of the player and gives the (seemingly obvious) advice to run away from the threat and “make sure it can’t reach you” by digging underground or building a tower of blocks.

Real time conversations with your AI companion Copilot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o. pic.twitter.com/Ug7EWv2sah

— Microsoft Copilot (@MSFTCopilot) May 20, 2024

These kinds of in-game pointers aren’t the most revolutionary use of conversational AI—even a basic in-game tutorial/reference system or online walkthrough could deliver the same basic information, after all. Still, the demonstration stands out for just how that information is delivered to the player through a natural language conversation that doesn’t require pausing the gameplay even briefly.

The key moment highlighting this difference is near the end of one of the video demos, when the Copilot AI offers a bit of encouragement to the player: “Whew, that was a close one. Great job finding shelter!” That’s the point when the system transitions from a fancy voice-controlled strategy guide to an ersatz version of the kind of spectator that might be sitting on your couch or watching your Twitch stream. It creates the real possibility of developing a parasocial relationship with the Copilot guide that is not really a risk when consulting a text file on GameFAQs, for instance (though I think the Copilot reactions will have to get a bit less inane to really feel like a valued partner-in-gaming).

Just hanging out with my AI buddy

It’s unclear from the video clips whether Copilot is reading data directly from the Minecraft instance or simply reacting to the same information the player is seeing. But the social media posts came the same day as Microsoft’s announcement of “Recall,” a coming feature that “take[s] images of your active screen every few seconds” to provide a persistent “memory” of everything you do on the computer. That feature will be exclusive to Copilot+ PCs, which use an integrated Neural Processing Unit for on-device processing of many common generative AI tasks.

Microsoft’s Minecraft copilot demo brings to mind some of the similar conversations that OpenAI showed off during last week’s live demo of ChatGPT-4o. But the artificial game-adjacent conversation here sounds significantly more robotic and direct than the lifelike, emotional responses in ChatGPT’s presentation. Then again, ChatGPT has come under fire from actress Scarlett Johansson for using a voice that sounds too much like her performance in a 2013 movie about a conversational AI. Microsoft might be on safer ground sticking with a voice that is more obviously artificial here.

The casual cursing is what really makes an AI gaming buddy feel real.

Speaking of Her, we can’t help but think of one particular scene in that movie where Joaquin Phoenix’s Theodore asks for gaming advice both from the titular AI and a hilariously potty-mouthed NPC. Maybe Microsoft can add a casual cursing module to its Copilot gaming companion to really capture the feeling of hanging out with a dorm room buddy over a late-night gaming session.

Microsoft Copilot will watch you play Minecraft, tell you what you’re doing wrong Read More »

Songs of Conquest is the Heroes of Might & Magic rebirth we all deserve

gaming, heroes of might and magic, heroes of might and magic III, songs of conquest, strategy games, turn based strategy game, turn-based, turn-based strategy / Kris Guyer / May 20, 2024

Just one more turn, with dozens of things in it —

Every choice in this game has a cost. Choosing to play it seems like a good bet.

Kevin Purdy – May 20, 2024 4: 00 pm UTC

Hexagonal battlefield covered in fire and magma. — Enlarge / Battles get a wee bit involved as you go on in *Songs of Conquest*.

Coffee Stain Publishing

There are games for which I have great admiration, pleasant memories, and an entirely dreadful set of skills and outcomes. Heroes of Might & Magic III (or HoMM 3) has long been one of those games.

I have played it on just about every PC I’ve owned, ever since it chipped away at my college GPA. I love being tasked with managing not only heroes, armies, resources, villages, and battlefield positioning but also time itself. If you run around the map clicking to discover every single power-up and resource pile, using up turn after turn, you will almost certainly let your enemy grow strong enough to conquer you. But I do this, without fail. I get halfway into a campaign and the (horse cart) wheels fall off, so I set the game aside until the click-to-move-the-horsey impulse comes back.

With the release of Songs of Conquest in 1.0 form on PC today (Steam, GOG, Epic), I feel freed from this loop of recurrent humbling. This title from Lavapotion and Coffee Stain Publishing very much hits the same pleasure points of discovery and choice as HoMM 3. But Songs of Conquest has much easier onboarding, modern resolutions, interfaces that aren’t too taxing (to the point of being Verified on Steam Deck), and granular difficulty customization. More importantly for most, it has its own stories and ideas. If you love fiddling with stuff turn by turn, it’s hard to imagine you won’t find something in Songs of Conquest to hook you.

Songs of Conquest launch trailer.

Songs of Conquest has you move your horse-riding Casters (the Heroes of its inspiration) and their armies around a world map, using each limited movement point to liberate a new resource, pick up some treasure, get a temporary power-up, or engage in battle. When it’s battle time, you switch to a hexagonal grid, where your troops trade blows and you choose spells so your Caster can help. Win the battle (either manually or with an automatic “quick” decision), unlock a new area, harvest new resources, recruit more troops, and repeat until the map is clear or some other condition is met. You’ll get multiple Casters, new kinds of troops, and tons of new spells and artifacts as you progress, and you’ll follow a very swords-and-dragons story.

Moving click by click through a dark world, choosing paths, stopping by fountains for temporary boosts—the overworld is heavy with Heroes of Might & Magic III memories.

Coffee Stain Publishing
But not everything is the same. Building your central hub is more visually appealing, and likely more complex as you go on.

Coffee Stain Publishing
Your caster can do a lot to affect battle outcomes. You’ll have complete control over which spells they can wield, branching off into different schools of magic.

Coffee Stain Publishing
A map editor lets you torture your friends and random downloaders with constant which-way-to-go decisions.

Coffee Stain Publishing
The game’s campaigns have short cinematics and evocative stills.

Coffee Stain Publishing

The art is a mixture of intentionally granular (and pleasant) pixel art, throwback scroll-and-stone interface elements, and cutscenes and dramatic stills with a deliberate hand-painted look to them. Even if each element looks nice, I’m glad the game mixes it up, and you get a break from each. The properly medieval music seems well done, although it’s at a disadvantage, as my brain is making 45 decisions per minute and tends to block out brass, strings, and choirs.

There are four campaigns in the game, each with its own lands, enemy casters and units, spells, and lots of other new things to uncover and throw into your mental strategy RAM. It’s a good variety, especially combined with the difficulty and other campaign options you can set. Coming to this game from HoMM 3 memories, I’ve found the variety of map items, town/castle building, and Caster types new and engaging. My biggest quibble with the game is that managing the spells and upgrades of the Casters is too rich a field for me, somehow just one rich system over the line. Deciding which type of magic a Caster should specialize in and remembering the huge variety of spells available to put into their quickbar overwhelmed me.

As I noted up top, however, I’m not actually good at these games, I just enjoy the spell they put on me. Songs of Conquest is a rich new chapter for Heroes of Might & Magic fans, but it’s also a good jumping-in point if you’ve never been tempted before by the series with the unwieldy title and harsh difficulty ramp. Unlike your Casters, you can roam about its thousand little things at whatever pace you like.

Listing image by Coffee Stain Publishing

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