gaming

diablo-ii-streamer-finds-1-in-3-million-item-drop,-instantly-sells-it-for-laughs

Diablo II streamer finds 1-in-3-million item drop, instantly sells it for laughs

Blizzard, Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo II, gaming, speedrun, steamer, twitch / /

Gold digger —

Many players have never even seen a Zod rune drop over decades of play.

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Mere seconds before an epic livestreamed troll moment.

Enlarge / Mere seconds before an epic livestreamed troll moment.

The Zod rune has a mythical place in Diablo II lore. The incredibly rare socketed item, which can make other in-game gear indestructible, has just a 1 in 2,987,183 chance of dropping from the game’s highest class of enemy, according to one calculation.

To this day, it’s not hard to find dedicated players admitting online that they’ve never seen a legitimate copy of the rune despite years of play (though duplicated versions made using glitches can be less rare).

So when Diablo streamer and speedrunner Kano saw a Zod rune drop during a livestreamed Diablo II: Resurrected run Wednesday (as noticed by GamesRadar), it was something of a legendary moment. And when Kano sold that rune for a relatively unimportant 35,000 in-game gold mere moments later, it was something of a legendary troll.

“Please, for the love of all that is holy…”

“Yo, that’s my highest speedrun rune—here we go,” Kano said calmly on-stream when the rune dropped, projecting a cool detachment that belied the import of the moment. “That’s the first-ever Zod I’ve found, by the way. Like, ever.”

Viewers seeing the moment live on Twitch chat were not nearly so detached. “That’s easily the rarest thing ever dropped in a speed run, lol,” Twitch user R__A__C__E stated, probably accurately. “I just opened the stream WHAT THE F hahahha” Twitch user creatingmadness added.

The chat’s mood changed mere moments later, though, when Kano left the dungeon, walked to an in-game vendor, and quickly sold the incredibly rare item. “Do not vendor that!!! Please for the love of all that is holy,” YouTube viewer Ragnar begged, to no avail. “YOU ASSHOLE,” Twitch user R__A__C__E added in all-caps outrage.

Kano just chuckled a bit to himself at the reactions he was getting from his viewers. “What, dude, it’s 35K, it’s good… it’s good money,” he deadpanned. Later in the same stream, he feigned ignorance over why the sale would even generate controversy. “Why would they be angry at me for selling a Zod, dude? It’s 35K gold. I don’t get it. What’s the problem? I think I should be more angry at people who keep a Zod rune, to be honest.”

Kano’s full stream. The Zod rune drops at around the 8: 15: 30 mark.

Elsewhere in the stream, though, Kano dropped the act and fully appreciated what had just happened. “I can’t believe it, like, that’s so sick,” he said. “Hello, it’s my first ever Zod rune, dude. Now, whenever people ask me the question ‘What’s the highest Rune you’ve ever seen in a speedrun?’ I can finally say it’s a Zod, man.”

Diablo II streamer finds 1-in-3-million item drop, instantly sells it for laughs Read More »

what-would-an-xbox-without-console-exclusives-even-look-like?

What would an Xbox without console exclusives even look like?

console wars, exclusives, gaming, Halo, microsoft, PlayStation, ps5, rumor, Sony / /
The world's most expensive domino set.

Enlarge / The world’s most expensive domino set.

Aurich Lawson

It’s been a busy time in the Xbox rumor mill of late. Last weekend, the Verge reported that Microsoft was considering launching a version of Bethesda’s upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PlayStation 5, alongside plans to port last year’s Hi-Fi Rush to other consoles. That same weekend, Xbox Eras published more lightly sourced rumors suggesting that prominent Xbox exclusive Starfield would be getting a PS5 port.

While Microsoft hasn’t directly commented on these reports, Xbox chief Phil Spencer wrote on social media that Microsoft is “planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox.”

The churning rumor mill has set off something of an existential crisis among some Xbox superfans, content creators, and influencers, who are worried that Microsoft is planning to essentially abandon their favored console. “Genuinely feel terrible for convincing my sister to get an Xbox instead of a PS5,” XboxYoda posted in a representative social media take. “Like I actually feel like I let her down… .”

“If you like being lied to that’s a you thing,” social media user XcloudTimdog posted. “I have a set of standards, that’s all. Cross them and, well, I respond.”

These and other more apocalyptic reactions might seem like hyperbolic whining from territorial console misanthropes. But they also have the germ of a point. Exclusive games have long been the primary way console makers argue for players to choose their console over the competition. If Microsoft effectively changes that argument in the middle of the current console generation, Xbox owners will have some legitimate reason to be upset.

A world without Xbox exclusives

To see why, start with a simple thought experiment. Say it’s early 2020 and Microsoft announces that it is abandoning the idea of console exclusives entirely. Upcoming Xbox Game Studios titles like Halo Infinite and Starfield would still be released on the upcoming Xbox Series X/S, of course, but they’d also all see equivalent versions launch on the PS5 (and sometimes the Switch) on the same day. Sony does not respond in kind and keeps major franchises like God of War and Spider-Man exclusive to the PS5.

Spider-Man 2 on the same console?” height=”427″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Starfield_03_ExploringPlanets-800-1024×683-1-640×427.jpg” width=”640″>

Enlarge / You mean I could have visited this planet and played Spider-Man 2 on the same console?

In this hypothetical world, convincing someone to buy an Xbox becomes much more difficult. On the one hand, you have a PlayStation console that can play all of the major big-budget games published by both Microsoft and Sony. On the other, you have an Xbox that doesn’t have access to the significant Sony half of that gaming equation.

There are other reasons you might still consider an Xbox in this world. Maybe you think the reduced price of the Xbox Series S delivers more “bang for the buck.” Maybe you prefer the Xbox controller layout or some of Xbox’s system-level OS features. Maybe you’re convinced cross-platform games will look or play better on Microsoft’s machine.

But in the console market, these kinds of concerns often take a back seat to the prospect of a system’s exclusive games and franchises. The biggest exclusive titles are called “system sellers” for a reason—they’re the games that make many gamers plunk down hundreds of dollars on hardware just for the possibility of spending more on this must-have software.

In this hypothetical, Microsoft would essentially be trying to sell the Xbox without any exclusive system sellers.

What would an Xbox without console exclusives even look like? Read More »

disney-invests-$1.5b-in-epic-games,-plans-new-“games-and-entertainment-universe”

Disney invests $1.5B in Epic Games, plans new “games and entertainment universe”

Disney, epic, epic games, fortnite, gaming / /

Steamboat Willie in Fortnite when? —

Major move continues Disney’s decades-long, up-and-down relationship with gaming.

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What is this, some sort of

Enlarge / What is this, some sort of “meta universe” or something?

Disney / Epic

Entertainment conglomerate Disney has announced plans to invest $1.5 billion for an “equity stake” in gaming conglomerate Epic Games. The financial partnership will also see both companies “collaborate on an all-new games and entertainment universe that will further expand the reach of beloved Disney stories and experiences,” according to a press release issued late Wednesday.

A short teaser trailer announcing the partnership promises that “a new Universe will emerge,” allowing players to “play, watch, create, [and] shop” while “discover[ing] a place where magic is Epic.”

In announcing the partnership, Disney stressed its long-standing use of Epic’s Unreal Engine in projects ranging from cinematic editing to theme park experiences like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Disney’s new gaming universe will also be powered by the Unreal Engine, the company said.

Content and characters from Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars subsidiaries were some of the first third-party content to be included in Epic’s mega-popular Fortnite, helping establish the game’s reputation as a major cross-media metaverse. Disney says that its new “persistent universe” will “interoperate with Fortnite” while offering games and “a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters, and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and more.”

While a $1.5 billion investment sounds significant on its face, it only represents a small portion of a company like Epic, which was valued at $32 billion in a 2022 investment by Sony. Since 2012, nearly half of Epic has been owned by Chinese gaming conglomerate Tencent (market cap: $356 billion), an association that has led to some controversy for Epic in the recent past.

Here we go again

In announcing the new Epic investment, Disney CEO Bob Iger called the partnership “Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games… offer[ing] significant opportunities for growth and expansion.” But this is far from Disney’s first ride in the game industry rodeo; on the contrary, it’s a continuation of an interest in gaming that has run hot and cold since Walt Disney Computer Software was first established back in 1988.

Two logos plus an X means a partnership is official, right?

Enlarge / Two logos plus an X means a partnership is official, right?

Disney / Epic

That publisher, which operated under several names over the years, mainly published lowest-common-denominator licensed games based on Disney properties for dozens of platforms. Disney invested heavily in the Disney Infinity “toys-to-life” line starting in 2013 but then shut the game down and left game publishing for good in 2016. Since then, Disney has interacted with the game industry mainly as a licensor for properties such as the Sony-published Spider-Man series and Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts 3.

After acquiring storied game developer LucasArts in 2012 (as part of a much larger Star Wars deal), Disney unceremoniously shut down the struggling game development division just six months later. But in 2021, Disney brought back the Lucasfilm Games brand as an umbrella for all future Star Wars games.

While today’s announcement doesn’t include any specific mention of linear TV or movie adaptations of Epic Game properties, the possibility seems much more plausible given this new financial and creative partnership. Given the recent success of linear narratives based on video game properties from Super Mario Bros. to The Last of Us, a Disney+ streaming series targeting Fortnite‘s 126 million monthly active players almost seems like a no-brainer at this point.

Disney’s stock price shot up nearly 8 percent to about $107 per share in 15 minutes of after-hours trading following the announcement, but has given back some of those gains as of this writing.

Disney invests $1.5B in Epic Games, plans new “games and entertainment universe” Read More »

new-6gb-version-of-the-rtx-3050-may-be-nvidia’s-first-sub-$200-gpu-in-over-4-years

New 6GB version of the RTX 3050 may be Nvidia’s first sub-$200 GPU in over 4 years

gaming, GeForce RTX 3050, rtx 3050, Tech / /

clearing a low bar —

Exciting? No. New technology? Also no. But it ought to be better than a 1650.

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New 6GB version of the RTX 3050 may be Nvidia’s first sub-$200 GPU in over 4 years

Gigabyte

Nvidia launched three new GPUs last month, part of a Super overhaul of the RTX 40-series designed to improve the value of the company’s $600-and-up graphics cards.

But today, the company is quietly doing something that it hasn’t done in over four years: launching a sub-$200 graphics card. As spotted by TechPowerUp, Nvidia partners like Gigabyte have begun officially announcing a 6GB version of the old RTX 3050 graphics card, albeit with less memory and memory bandwidth, fewer CUDA cores, and lower power requirements.

The announcement follows a few days of leaked retail listings, which generally point to an MSRP of roughly $179 for the new-old card. This would make it Nvidia’s first sub-$200 graphics card launch since the GeForce GTX 1650 Super came out in late 2019, a four-year gap caused partially by a cryptocurrency- and pandemic-fueled GPU shortage that lasted from late 2020 into mid-to-late 2022.

RTX 3050 6GB RTX 3050 8GB GTX 1650 Super GTX 1650 RTX 2060 6GB RTX 3060 12GB RTX 4060
CUDA Cores 2,048 or 2,304? 2,560 1,280 896 1,920 3,584 3,072
Boost Clock 1,470 MHz 1,777 MHz 1,725 MHz 1,665 MHz 1,680 MHz 1,777 MHz 2,460 MHz
Memory Bus Width 96-bit 128-bit 128-bit 128-bit 128-bit 192-bit 128-bit
Memory Clock 1,750 MHz 1,750 MHz 1,500 MHz 2,000 MHz 1,750 MHz 1,875 MHz 2,125MHz
Memory size 6GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 4GB GDDR6 4GB GDDR5 6GB GDDR6 12GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6
TGP 70 W  130 W 100 W 75 W 160 W 170 W 115 W

We weren’t in love with the original 8GB version of the 3050—”weird,” “overpriced,” and “could’ve been worse,” we wrote of it during the depths of the GPU shortage in early 2022—and the 6GB version is cut down even further. Its 6GB of memory is attached to a narrow 96-bit memory bus. And while reports differ on exactly how many CUDA cores we can expect—TechPowerUp and Tom’s Hardware say 2,048, while Gigabyte’s 6GB 3050 product pages list 2,304—it’s clear that there are fewer than in the original RTX 3050, and their clock speed is lower to boot.

These specs should make it an OK card for 1080p gaming at medium to high settings, depending on the game. It should also be a decent fit for small-form-factor systems—one of Gigabyte’s versions is a low-profile card suitable for many office desktops—and its 70 W power requirement should mean that the cards can draw all the power they need from the PCI Express slot, without the need for an external power connector.

As a cut-down version of a 2-year-old card based on a 3.5-year-old last-generation GPU architecture, the RTX 3050 isn’t very exciting. But it gets more interesting once you consider that Nvidia’s partners are currently selling the old non-Super version of the GTX 1650 for around the same price. It’s difficult to predict how much the narrower memory bus will impact the 6GB 3050’s performance, but compared to the 1650, it has a significantly higher number of newer CUDA cores, ray-tracing support, another 2GB of RAM, GDDR6 instead of GDDR5, and support for Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology (albeit not DLSS Frame Generation, which remains exclusive to the 40-series).

The new card also complicates one of AMD’s selling points for its new Ryzen 8000G processors, which include reasonably capable 1080p integrated GPUs. AMD compared the cost of a $329 Ryzen 7 8700G favorably to the cost of a Core i5 CPU and a GTX 1650 GPU, which deliver similar performance for more money. But the RTX 3050 should decisively outrun the 8700G, and AMD’s pricing argument was already being undercut by the extra expense of socket AM5 motherboards and DDR5 memory.

Nice as it is to see at least some twitch of life in the entry-level GPU market, we’re still a long way from where we were in the mid- to late-2010s, when sub-$200 cards like the GTX 1050 Ti and the 1650 launched not long after the other cards in the same series and used the newest GPU architectures available at the time. There’s a laptop GPU in the RTX 4050 series, but a desktop version looks highly unlikely at this point—to say nothing of a desktop version at or under $200. But a belated, uninspiring improvement is an improvement nonetheless.

New 6GB version of the RTX 3050 may be Nvidia’s first sub-$200 GPU in over 4 years Read More »

fans-preserve-and-emulate-sega’s-extremely-rare-‘80s-“ai-computer”

Fans preserve and emulate Sega’s extremely rare ‘80s “AI computer”

ai computer, gaming, history, Sega, sms power / /

Welcome back to the stage of history. —

Prolog-based Japanese education hardware sported an early touch-panel, speech synthesizer.

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Enlarge / “Expanding the Possibilities…..with Artificial Intelligence”

Even massive Sega fans would be forgiven for not being too familiar with the Sega AI Computer. After all, the usually obsessive documentation over at Sega Retro includes only the barest stub of an information page for the quixotic, education-focused 1986 hardware.

Thankfully, the folks at the self-described “Sega 8-bit preservation and fanaticism” site SMS Power have been able to go a little deeper. The site’s recently posted deep dive on the Sega AI Computer includes an incredible amount of well-documented information on this historical oddity, including ROMs for dozens of previously unpreserved pieces of software that can now be partially run on MAME.

An ’80s vision of AI’s future

The Sega AI Computer hardware, complete with keyboard and Sound Box accessories.

Enlarge / The Sega AI Computer hardware, complete with keyboard and Sound Box accessories.

The Sega AI Computer sports a 16-bit NEC chip running at a blazing 5 Mhz and a massive 128KB of RAM (those adjectives were much less ironic when the computer was released in 1986). SMS Power’s research suggests the device was “mostly sold to Japanese schools” between 1986 and 1989, which helps explain its overall obscurity decades later. Ads from the time suggest a US version was briefly planned but never released.

Despite the Japan-only release, the Sega AI Computer’s casing includes an English-language message stressing its support for the AI-focused Prolog language and a promise that it will “bring you into the world of artificial intelligence.” Indeed, a 1986 article in Electronics magazine (preserved by SMS Power) describes what sounds like a kind of simple and wholesome early progenitor of today’s world of generative AI creations:

In the prompt mode, the child is asked about his or her activities during the day and replies with one- and two-word answers. The computer program then writes a grammatically correct diary entry based on those replies. In more advanced CAI applications, the computer is more flexible than previous systems. It can parse a user’s natural-language inputs and evaluate the person’s ability level. It can then proceed to material of appropriate difficulty, rather than simply advancing one level at a time.

Besides its unique focus on an ’80s-era vision of AI, the Sega AI Computer is also notable for its use of a controller that features a large rectangular touch surface that could be customized with overlays included in the software to make a brand-new interface. The system also features a built-in speech synthesizer that could re-create basic Japanese phonemes and an FM audio chip that could play back samples like those stored on some of the system’s cassette-tape software.

A preservation mountain climb

These '80s-era Japanese schoolchildren are ready to learn about AI with Sega's help!

Enlarge / These ’80s-era Japanese schoolchildren are ready to learn about AI with Sega’s help!

While the general existence of the Sega AI Computer has been known in certain circles for a while, detailed information about its workings and software was extremely hard to come by, especially in the English-speaking world. That began to change in 2014 when a rare Yahoo Auctions listing offered a boxed AI Computer along with 15 pieces of software. The site was able to crowdfund the winning bid on that auction (which reportedly ran the equivalent of $1,100) and later obtained a keyboard and more software from the winner of a 2022 auction.

SMS Power notes that the majority of the software it has uncovered “had zero information about them on the Internet prior to us publishing them: no screenshots, no photos or scans of actual software.” Now, the site’s community has taken the trouble to preserve all those ROMs and create a new MAME driver that already allows for “partial emulation” of the system (which doesn’t yet include a keyboard, tape drive, or speech emulation support).

The title screen of a Gulliver's Travels-themed piece of software for the Sega AI Computer.

The title screen of a Gulliver’s Travels-themed piece of software for the Sega AI Computer.

That dumped software is all “educational and mostly aimed at kids,” SMS Power notes, and is laden with Japanese text that will make it hard for many foreigners to even tinker with. That means this long-lost emulation release probably won’t set the MAME world on fire as 2022’s surprise dump of Marble Madness II did.

Still, it’s notable how much effort the community has put in to fill a formerly black hole in our understanding of this corner of Sega history. SMS Power’s write-up of its findings is well worth a full look, as is the site’s massive Google Drive, which is filled with documentation, screenshots, photos, contemporaneous articles and ads, and much more.

Fans preserve and emulate Sega’s extremely rare ‘80s “AI computer” Read More »

convicted-console-hacker-says-he-paid-nintendo-$25-a-month-from-prison

Convicted console hacker says he paid Nintendo $25 a month from prison

gaming, hacking, Nintendo, Switch, team xecuter, XS OS / /

Crime doesn’t pay —

As Gary Bowser rebuilds his life, fellow Team Xecuter indictees have yet to face trial.

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It's-a me, the long arm of the law.

Enlarge / It’s-a me, the long arm of the law.

Aurich Lawson / Nintendo / Getty Images

When 54-year-old Gary Bowser pleaded guilty to his role in helping Team Xecuter with their piracy-enabling line of console accessories, he realized he would likely never pay back the $14.5 million he owed Nintendo in civil and criminal penalties. In a new interview with The Guardian, though, Bowser says he began making $25 monthly payments toward those massive fines even while serving a related prison sentence.

Last year, Bowser was released after serving 14 months of that 40-month sentence (in addition to 16 months of pre-trial detention), which was spread across several different prisons. During part of that stay, Bowser tells The Guardian, he was paid $1 an hour for four-hour shifts counseling other prisoners on suicide watch.

From that money, Bowser says he “was paying Nintendo $25 a month” while behind bars. That lines up roughly with a discussion Bowser had with the Nick Moses podcast last year, where he said he had already paid $175 to Nintendo during his detention.

According to The Guardian, Nintendo will likely continue to take 20 to 30 percent of Bowser’s gross income (after paying for “necessities such as rent”) for the rest of his life.

The fall guy?

While people associated with piracy often face fines rather than prison, Nintendo lawyers were upfront that they pushed for jail time for Bowser to “send a message that there are consequences for participating in a sustained effort to undermine the video game industry.” That seems to have been effective, at least as far as Bowser’s concerned; he told The Guardian that “The sentence was like a message to other people that [are] still out there, that if they get caught … [they’ll] serve hard time.”

Bowser appears on the Nick Moses Gaming Podcast from a holding center in Washington state in 2023.

Enlarge / Bowser appears on the Nick Moses Gaming Podcast from a holding center in Washington state in 2023.

Nick Moses 05 Gaming Podcast/YouTube

But Bowser also maintains that he wasn’t directly involved with the coding or manufacture of Team Xecuter’s products, and only worked on incidental details like product testing, promotion, and website coding. Speaking to Ars in 2020, Aurora, a writer for hacking news site Wololo, described Bowser as “kind of a PR guy” for Team Xecuter. Despite this, Bowser said taking a plea deal on just two charges saved him the time and money of fighting all 14 charges made against him in court.

Bowser was arrested in the Dominican Republic in 2020. Fellow Team Xecuter member and French national Max “MAXiMiLiEN” Louarn, who was indicted and detained in Tanzania at the same time as Bowser’s arrest, was still living in France as of mid-2022 and has yet to be extradited to the US. Chinese national and fellow indictee Yuanning Chen remains at large.

“If Mr. Louarn comes in front of me for sentencing, he may very well be doing double-digit years in prison for his role and his involvement, and the same with the other individual [Chen],” US District Judge Robert Lasnik said during Bowser’s sentencing.

Returning to society

During his stay in prison, Bowser tells The Guardian that he suffered a two-week bout of COVID that was serious enough that “a priest would come over once a day to read him a prayer.” A bout of elephantiasis also left him unable to wear a shoe on his left foot and required the use of a wheelchair, he said.

Now that he’s free, Bowser says he has been relying on friends and a GoFundMe page to pay for rent and necessities as he looks for a job. That search could be somewhat hampered by his criminal record and by terms of the plea deal that prevent him from working with any modern gaming hardware.

Despite this, Bowser told The Guardian that his current circumstances are still preferable to a period of homelessness he experienced during his 20s. And while console hacking might be out for Bowser, he is reportedly still “tinkering away with old-school Texas Instruments calculators” to pass the time.

Convicted console hacker says he paid Nintendo $25 a month from prison Read More »

palworld’s-pokemon-pastiche-is-xbox-game-pass’-biggest-ever-3rd-party-game-launch

Palworld’s Pokémon pastiche is Xbox Game Pass’ biggest-ever 3rd-party game launch

Game Pass, gaming, palworld, steam, xbox / /

everyone’s pal —

To compare, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have sold over 23 million copies each.

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Palworld’s Pokémon pastiche is Xbox Game Pass’ biggest-ever 3rd-party game launch

Pocketpair

The unexpected success of Palworld continues to be one of the biggest gaming stories of 2024 so far, as developer Pocketpair says the game’s sales and Xbox downloads have exceeded 19 million, with 12 million in sales on Steam and 7 million players on Xbox. Microsoft has also announced that the game has been the biggest third-party launch in the Game Pass service’s history, as well as the most-played third-party title on the Xbox Cloud Gaming service.

These numbers continue a remarkable run for the indie-developed Pokémon-survival-crafting-game pastiche, which sold 5 million copies in its first weekend as a Steam Early Access title and had sold 8 million Steam copies as of a week ago. There are signs that the game’s sales are slowing down—it’s currently Steam’s #2 top-selling game after over a week in the #1 spot. But its active player count on Steam remains several hundred thousand players higher than Counter-Strike 2, the next most-played game on the platform.

Sometimes described (both admiringly and disparagingly) as “Pokémon with guns,” Palworld‘s unexpected success has driven some Internet outrage cycles about the possibility that it may have used AI-generated monster designs and allegations that its designers copied or modified some of the 3D character models from the actual Pokémon series to create some of the game’s more familiar-looking monsters.

The latter allegations circulated widely enough that The Pokémon Company issued a statement last week, saying it would “investigate” an unnamed game that matches Palworld‘s description; as of this writing, no actual legal action has been taken against Palworld or Pocketpair. Third-party modders who have tried to put actual Pokémon creatures into Palworld have apparently gotten some cease-and-desist letters, though.

Regardless, the game wears its influences on its sleeve. Aside from the Pals that look like Pokémon, the game’s progression and crafting mechanics owe a lot to games like ARK: Survival Evolved, and the actual monster-catching mechanics have a more-than-passing resemblance to Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

If you count the Xbox Game Pass numbers as “sales,” Palworld‘s combined numbers are on track to overtake those of the two main-series Pokémon titles on the Nintendo Switch, Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet. Nintendo says these games have sold 26.02 and 23.23 million copies, respectively, making them the sixth and seventh bestselling titles in the entire Switch library.

Nintendo doesn’t break out sales figures for each title individually, counting each sale of Sword or Shield toward the same total—this makes sense because they’re the same basic game with slightly different Pokémon, though it does mean there’s some double-dipping going on for fans who buy both versions of a given game for themselves. You have to look at proxies like Amazon reviews to get a sense of which individual version has sold better—Violet currently has more reviews than Scarlet, while Sword has more reviews than Shield.

Palworld’s Pokémon pastiche is Xbox Game Pass’ biggest-ever 3rd-party game launch Read More »

report:-deus-ex-title-killed-after-embracer-group’s-cuts-at-eidos

Report: Deus Ex title killed after Embracer Group’s cuts at Eidos

Deus Ex, Embracer Group, gaming, layoffs / /

Not the ending most people would have chosen —

Swedish firm’s acquisitions continue trend of layoffs and canceled games.

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Adam Jensen of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, having coffee on the couch in diffuse sunlight

Enlarge / Adam Jensen of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, taking in the news that no last-minute contrivance is going to save his series from what seemed like inevitable doom. (Pun credit to Andrew Cunningham).

Eidos Interactive

Embracer Group, the Swedish firm that bought up a number of known talents and gaming properties during the pandemic years, has canceled a Deus Ex game at its Eidos studio in Montreal, Canada, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.

The game, while not officially announced, has been known about since May 2022. It was due to enter production later in 2024 and had seen two years of pre-production development, according to Schreier’s sources. Many employees will be laid off as part of the cancellation.

Embracer Group acquired Eidos Montreal, along with Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix Montreal, for $300 million in mid-2022, buying up all of Japanese game publisher Square Enix’s Western game studios. That gave Embracer the keys to several influential and popular series, including Tomb Raider, Just Cause, Life Is Strange, and Deus Ex.

Eidos published the first Deus Ex from developer Ion Storm, founded by id Software’s John Romero and Tom Hall. Gaming legend Warren Spector oversaw the development of the original Deus Ex, merging shooters, stealth, and open-world RPG game mechanics in a way that, for the year 2000, was wholly original. The game is often cited as one of the best PC games of all time and a progenitor of many immersive sims and RPG-inflected shooters to come.

Eidos Interactive was acquired in 2009 by Square Enix and became the primary developer of the Deus Ex series, starting with Deus Ex: Human Revolution in 2011. The last full-fledged title in the series was Deus Ex: Mankind Divided in 2016. Despite selling more than 14 million units across the series’ lifetime, and the perennial hunger by fans and critics to see a return to the series’ novel storytelling and sharp critique of mega-corp control, the reset button has been hit by a rather large corporation.

Another of Embracer Group’s notable acquisitions, the 2021 purchase of large independent developer Gearbox, looks to be unwinding, as well. Bloomberg’s Schreier reported in September 2023 that Embracer was looking to sell Gearbox after less than three years’ ownership. One month before that, Embracer Group shut down Volition, developer of Saints Row and Descent, after that studio’s 30th year of operation.

Ars has reached out to Embracer Group for comment and will update this post with any new information.

Most of the primary Deus Ex titles are on sale at the moment, at GOG and on Steam, for less than $5.

Listing image by Eidos Interactive

Report: Deus Ex title killed after Embracer Group’s cuts at Eidos Read More »

dungeons-&-dragons-turns-50-this-year,-and-there’s-a-lot-planned-for-it

Dungeons & Dragons turns 50 this year, and there’s a lot planned for it

50th anniversary, culture, Dave Arneson, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons, gaming, Gary Gygax, Role-Playing Games, RPGs, tabletop games, tsr, ttrpg, Wizards of the Coast / /

Critical Success —

It started with “a new line of miniatures rules” and became a global phenomenon.

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The three rulebooks fo Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History.” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/rulebooks-800×548.jpg”>

Enlarge / The three rulebooks fo “fantastic medieval wargames” that started it all, released at some point in late January 1974, as seen in Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History.

Wizards of the Coast/Ten Speed Press

“We have just fromed [sic] Tactical Studies Rules, and we wish to let the wargaming community know that a new line of miniature rules is available.”

With this letter, written by Gary Gygax to wargaming zine publisher Jim Lurvey, one of the founders of what would become TSR announced that a January 1974 release for Dungeons & Dragons was forthcoming. This, plus other evidence compiled by Jon Peterson (as pointed out by the Grognardia blog), points to the last Sunday of January 1974 as the best date for the “anniversary” of D&D. The first sale was in “late January 1974,” Gygax later wrote, and on the last Sunday of January 1974, Gygax invited potential customers to drop by his house in the afternoon to try it out.

You could argue whether a final draft, printing, announcement, sale, or first session counts as the true “birth” of D&D, but we have to go with something, and Peterson’s reasoning seems fairly sound. Gygax’s memory, and a documented session at his own house, are a good point to pin down for when we celebrate this thing that has shaped a seemingly infinite number of other things.

  • The evolution of The Beholder, through 3rd edition, in Dungeons & Dragons, from Art & Arcana: A Visual History.

    Wizards of the Coast/Ten Speed Press

  • The fourth and fifth edition versions of the Beholder, as seen in Art & Arcana: A Visual History.

As with playing a good campaign, you’ve got a lot of options for how you acknowledge D&D‘s long presence and deep influence. The game system itself, now under Wizards of the Coast, will this year push “One D&D,” a name the D&D leaders sometimes stick with and sometimes don’t. Whatever the next wave is called, it includes new handbooks, guides, and Monster Manual books that are not exactly a new “edition,” but also an evolution. Books like Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything will be codified and unified by a new sourcebook at some point, but all of it will be compatible with 5th Edition material.

Also, at some point this year, stamps celebrating D&D‘s 50th will be available from the US Postal Service, at least if you rush. Ten different designs, leaning heavily on the dragons, were commissioned based on existing illustrations. There’s a documentary from Joe Manganiello (still in pre-production, seemingly). And there’s a 500-plus-page non-fiction book, The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1976, with research help from the aforementioned Peterson, containing never-before-seen correspondence between co-creators Gygax and Dave Arneson.

I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, never actually playing Dungeons & Dragons, but its influence shaped vast amounts of my playtime and curiosity. I loved playing Hero Quest, without knowing that it was essentially an on-rails D&D setup. My cousin and I spent large parts of one summer attempting to play Marvel Super Heroes without understanding its D&D roots (or that it would always be a bit awkward with just two people).

And, of course, every video game, comic, novel, and other media I consumed that made a point of explaining how different classes worked, or the theory behind spells, owed something to D&D—by way of J.R.R. Tolkien and centuries of folklore tradition, of course. Tales keep inspiring other tales, and it’s largely to our benefit.

Take a moment on this occasion to look back through some notable D&D coverage at Ars:

Dungeons & Dragons turns 50 this year, and there’s a lot planned for it Read More »

analyst:-switch-2-will-have-a-massive-8-inch-lcd-screen

Analyst: Switch 2 will have a massive 8-inch LCD screen

gaming, Nintendo, screen size, Switch / /

Bigger is better? —

Larger screen size could lead to a larger device footprint than the current Switch.

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The 7

Enlarge / The 7″ screen of the Switch OLED (top) seen next to the 6.2″ screen of the original Switch.

Sam Machkovech

Nintendo’s follow-up to the aging Switch—which is widely rumored to be aiming for release later this year—will sport an 8-inch LCD screen. That’s according to Omdia analyst Hiroshi Hayase, who is cited in a Bloomberg News report focused on the upcoming handheld’s potential effects on the market for “amusement displays” over the next few years.

An 8-inch screen (measured diagonally) would put the Switch 2 near the extreme upper end of portable gaming screens historically. Among mass-market devices, only the recently launched PlayStation Portal (8-inch screen) and Lenovo Legion Go (8.8-inch screen) have broken past the 7-inch barrier for dedicated gaming handhelds.

That said, the 6.2-inch screen on the original Nintendo Switch also set portable gaming records when it launched in 2017, easily surpassing the once-luxurious 5-inch screen of 2011’s PlayStation Vita. The 2021 launch of the Switch OLED increased the diagonal screen measurement to 7 inches, a screen size that has since become somewhat standard on subsequent portable gaming devices like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally.

The Switch OLED achieved its screen size increase over the original model primarily by reducing the thickness of the black bezel surrounding the screen itself. An 8-inch screen on a Switch 2, on the other hand, would likely require the console’s physical footprint to increase. At a standard HD aspect ratio, an 8-inch (diagonal) screen would measure 7 inches (horizontal) by 3.9 inches (vertical), or a bit wider than a standard Switch without Joy-Con’s attached (about 6.8 inches wide).

The 6.2-inch screen of the Switch seen alongside the 5.5-inch screen of the Switch Lite.

Enlarge / The 6.2-inch screen of the Switch seen alongside the 5.5-inch screen of the Switch Lite.

A potential return to an LCD screen for the base-model Switch 2 might also be disappointing for players who have gotten used to the brighter colors and deeper contrast of the Switch OLED (or the recently launched Steam Deck OLED). But OLED screens cost 20 to 25 percent more to produce than similarly sized LCD screens in the smartphone market on average, according to analyst reports. And since the Game Boy’s 1989 launch with a low-resolution black-and-white screen, Nintendo has often eschewed support for the best display technology available in favor of lowering hardware costs (and consumer prices).

In November, Digital Foundry engaged in some informed speculation on the potential hardware power of an upgraded Nvidia chip that it thinks is the “best candidate” for use in a Switch follow-up. Reports from over the summer suggest developers have been shown demos of the upcoming hardware supporting modern graphical effects like ray tracing and DLSS.

Other reports from later in the summer suggest the new console will still include some sort of cartridge slot for physical media. Thus far, though, Nintendo has offered only vague answers to whether the next Switch will be backward-compatible with games designed for the current model.

Analyst: Switch 2 will have a massive 8-inch LCD screen Read More »

resident-evil-kart’s-fixed-camera-angles-make-for-a-charmingly-frustrating-classic

Resident Evil Kart’s fixed camera angles make for a charmingly frustrating classic

Classic, gaming, Nintendo, resident evil, retro, rom hack, super mario kart, Super Nintendo / /

As it was meant to be played —

“WELCOME TO THE WORST THING I HAVE EVER CREATED!”

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Is this <em>Super Mario Kart</em> or <em>Where’s Waldo</em>?” src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/rekart-800×694.png”></img><figcaption> <p><a data-height=Enlarge / Is this Super Mario Kart or Where’s Waldo?

Here at Ars, we’re big fans of emulators and ROM hacks that actually improve on the limitations of classic games in some way or another. Today, though, we’ve found ourselves enamored with a Super Mario Kart ROM patch that easily makes the game much, much worse.

Longtime Super Mario Kart hacker MrL314 calls Resident Evil Kart “the worst thing I have ever created,” and it’s not hard to see why. As implied by the title, the ROM patch replaces Super Mario Kart‘s usual over-the-shoulder tracking camera with something more akin to the awkward fixed-angle “perspective shots” of the original PlayStation 1 Resident Evil games. The perspective automatically jumps between these fixed cameras around the track as your racer moves from section to section, forcing you to judge turns and obstacles from very skewed angles.

Resident Evil Kart release trailer.

MrL314 writes that the idea for this hack arose from time spent “researching how the camera system in Super Mario Kart works” as part of the development of the impressive-looking Super Mario Kart Deluxe. He first posted a concept video of the fixed camera system in SMK last July, before sharing an early prototype with his Patreon supporters.

Back then, he said, “this thing is a NIGHTMARE to play, but honestly I might actually release a polished version of it, since it is kinda cool honestly.” On Wednesday, he followed through with that plan, releasing a final version of Resident Evil Kart to the public as a ROM patch (which requires an original, unheadered, US Super Mario Kart ROM to be playable).

Watch where you’re going!

After playing the newly released public version of the hack this afternoon, we feel that MrL314 is, underselling just how difficult the fixed camera angle makes the game. The vagaries of the Super Nintendo’s Mode 7 scaling mean your racer is often reduced to a small blob of pixels that only give a vague indication of their true position and orientation on the course (a combination with that high-resolution Mode 7 mod might have helped on that score). Then, just when you’ve kind of gotten used to navigating from one perspective, the camera suddenly jumps to a new location and angle, forcing you to realign yourself on the fly.

A new perspective makes this ghost house even scarier.

Enlarge / A new perspective makes this ghost house even scarier.

Still, after a little practice, I found this “Nightmare” mode wasn’t impossible. With a few practice races, I could finish in first place on the first two Mushroom Cup tracks (at 50cc, at least) before finally giving up on Ghost Valley 1 and its destructible side barriers. Players who find it all too overwhelming can also cheat by glancing at the fixed, three-quarters Super Off-Road-style map view on the bottom half of the screen.

If nothing else, Resident Evil Kart makes us wonder what other classic games might take on new life just by changing their camera angles. Already, we’ve seen versions of Super Mario Bros. played from a first-person perspective and Virtua Racing played from the game’s dynamic “Live Camera” perspective. But how about reimagining Star Fox 64 as a top-down shoot-em-up or a first-person, VR version of Bubble Bobble? The sky’s the limit here, people.

Resident Evil Kart’s fixed camera angles make for a charmingly frustrating classic Read More »

microsoft-cancels-blizzard-survival-game,-lays-off-1,900

Microsoft cancels Blizzard survival game, lays off 1,900

Activision Blizzard, Biz & IT, gaming, layoffs, mergers, microsoft / /

Survival game won’t survive —

Job cuts hit Xbox, ZeniMax businesses, too, reports say.

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Activision Blizzard survival game

Enlarge / Blizzard shared this image teasing a now-cancelled game in 2022.

Blizzard Entertainment/Twitter

The survival game that Blizzard announced it was working on in January 2022 has reportedly been canceled. The cut comes as Microsoft is slashing jobs a little over four months after closing its $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Blizzard’s game didn’t have a title yet, but Blizzard said it would be for PC and console and introduce new stories and characters. In January 2022, Blizzard put out a call for workers to help build the game.

The game’s axing was revealed today in an internal memo from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer seen by publications including The Verge and CNBC that said:

Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.

Spencer said Microsoft was laying off 1,900 people starting today, with workers continuing to receive notifications in the coming days. The layoffs affect 8.64 percent of Microsoft’s 22,000-employee gaming division.

Another internal memo, written by Matt Booty, Microsoft’s game content and studios president, and seen by The Verge, said the layoffs are hitting “multiple” Blizzard teams, “including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions.” In January 2022, after plans for the merger were first announced, Bobby Kotick, then-CEO of Activision Blizzard, reportedly told employees at a meeting that Microsoft was “committed to trying to retain as many of our people as possible.”

Spencer said workers in Microsoft’s Xbox and ZeniMax Media businesses will also be impacted. Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, which owns Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion in a deal that closed in March 2021.

After a bumpy ride with global regulators, Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard purchase closed in October. Booty’s memo said the job cuts announced today “reflect a focus on products and strategies that hold the most promise for Blizzard’s future growth, as well as identified areas of overlap across Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming.”

He claimed that layoffs would “enable Blizzard and Xbox to deliver ambitious games… on more platforms and in more places than ever before,” as well as “sustainable growth.”

Spencer’s memo said:

As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth.

Laid-off employees will receive severance as per local employment laws, Spencer added.

Additional departures

Blizzard President Mike Ybarra announced via his X profile today that he is leaving the company. Booty’s memo said Ybarra “decided to leave” since the acquisition was completed. Ybarra was a top executive at Microsoft for over 20 years, including leadership positions at Xbox, before he started working at Blizzard in 2019.

Blizzard’s chief design officer, Allen Adham, is also leaving the company, per Booty’s memo.

The changes at the game studio follow Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s exit on January 1.

Microsoft also laid off 10,000 people, or about 4.5 percent of its reported 221,000-person workforce, last year as it worked to complete its Activision Blizzard buy. Microsoft blamed those job cuts on “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.”

Today’s job losses also join a string of recently announced tech layoffs, including at IBM, Google, SAP, and eBay and in the gaming community platforms Unity, Twitch, and Discord. However, layoffs following Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal were somewhat anticipated due to expected redundancies among the Washington tech giant’s biggest merger ever. This week, Microsoft hit a $3 trillion market cap, becoming the second company to do so (after Apple).

Microsoft cancels Blizzard survival game, lays off 1,900 Read More »