gaming

google-mocks-epic’s-proposed-reforms-to-end-android-app-market-monopoly

Google mocks Epic’s proposed reforms to end Android app market monopoly

android, android app marketplace, Android Apps, anticompetitive behavior, Antitrust law, App Store, epic games, epic games store, gaming, Google, Google Play Store, monopoly, Policy / /
Google mocks Epic’s proposed reforms to end Android app market monopoly

Epic Games has filed a proposed injunction that would stop Google from restricting third-party app distribution outside Google Play Store on Android devices after proving that Google had an illegal monopoly in markets for Android app distribution.

Epic is suggesting that competition on the Android mobile platform would be opened up if the court orders Google to allow third-party app stores to be distributed for six years in the Google Play Store and blocks Google from entering any agreements with device makers that would stop them from pre-loading third-party app stores. This would benefit both mobile developers and users, Epic argued in a wide-sweeping proposal that would greatly limit Google’s control over the Android app ecosystem.

US District Court Judge James Donato will ultimately decide the terms of the injunction. Google has until May 3 to respond to Epic’s filing.

A Google spokesperson confirmed to Ars that Google still plans to appeal the verdict—even though Google already agreed to a $700 million settlement with consumers and states following Epic’s win.

“Epic’s filing to the US Federal Court shows again that it simply wants the benefits of Google Play without having to pay for it,” Google’s spokesperson said. “We’ll continue to challenge the verdict, as Android is an open mobile platform that faces fierce competition from the Apple App Store, as well as app stores on Android devices, PCs, and gaming consoles.”

If Donato accepts Epic’s proposal, Google would be required to grant equal access to the Android operating system and platform features to all developers, not just developers distributing apps through Google Play. This would allow third-party app stores to become the app update owner, updating any apps downloaded from their stores as seamlessly as Google Play updates apps.

Under Epic’s terms, any app downloaded from anywhere would operate identically to apps downloaded from Google Play, without Google imposing any unnecessary distribution fees. Similarly, developers would be able to provide their own in-app purchasing options and inform users of out-of-app purchasing options, without having to use Google’s APIs or paying Google additional fees.

Notably, Epic filed its lawsuit after Google removed the Epic game Fortnite from the Google Play Store because Epic tried to offer an “Epic Direct Payment” option for in-game purchases.

“Google must also allow developers to communicate directly with their consumers, including linking from their app to a website to make purchases and get deals,” Epic said in a blog post. “Google would be blocked from using sham compliance programs like User Choice Billing to prevent competing payment options inside an app or on a developer’s website.”

Unsurprisingly, Epic’s proposed injunction includes an “anti-retaliation” section specifically aimed at protecting Epic from any further retaliation. If Donato accepts the terms, Google would be violating the injunction order if the tech giant fails to prove that it is not “treating Epic differently than other developers” by making it “disproportionately difficult or costly” for Epic to develop, update, and market its apps on Android.

That part of the injunction would seem important since, last month, Epic announced that an Epic Games Store was “coming to iOS and Android” later this year. According to Inc, Epic told Game Developers Conference attendees that its app-distribution platform will be the “first ever game-focused, multiplatform store,” working across “Android, iOS, PC and macOS.”

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Three episodes in, the Fallout TV series absolutely nails it

amazon prime video, Bethesda Game Studios, culture, Fallout, gaming, Todd Howard, TV / /

I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire —

Hyperviolence, strong characters, cool visuals, and some humor make a good show.

–

  • Like the games, the show depicts a Vault Dweller making her way out into the Wasteland.

    Amazon

  • This Brotherhood of Steel Initiate is another central character.

    Amazon

  • And there’s The Ghoul, one of the show’s standout characters.

    Amazon

  • Lost‘s Michael Emerson plays a compelling supporting character.

    Amazon

  • Some scenes take place inside the games’ famous Vaults.

    Amazon

  • And, of course, there’s power armor.

    Amazon

Amazon has had a rocky history with big, geeky properties making their way onto Prime Video. The Wheel of Time wasn’t for everyone, and I have almost nothing good to say about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Fallout, the first season of which premiered this week, seems to break that bad streak. All the episodes are online now, but I’ve watched three episodes so far. I love it.

I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing the games that inspired it, so I can only speak to that experience; I don’t know how well it will work for people who never played the games. But as a video game adaptation, it’s up there with The Last of Us.

In my view, Fallout is about three things: action, comedy, and satire. In this spoiler-free review of the first three episodes, I’ll go over each of these touchstones and discuss how the show hit them or didn’t.

I hope to find the time to revisit the show with another, much more spoiler-y article sometime next week after I’ve seen the rest of the episodes, and we’ll save discussions about the story for then.

Fallout as an action spectacle

To say Fallout is about high-octane action might be a controversial statement, given the divide between fans of the first two games (turn-based tactical RPGs) and most of the newer games (open-world action RPGs).

Hyperviolence was being depicted and simulated in those original titles even if they weren’t part of the action genre, so I hope you’ll agree that one would expect some action and gore in a TV adaptation regardless of which Fallout games you liked.

Boy, does this show deliver. While there is some dispute over which genre the Fallout games are supposed to be, there’s no such confusion about Fallout the TV series. If it were at Blockbuster in the ’80s or ’90s, its box would be in the “Action” section.

All three episodes have at least one big-screen-worthy action set piece. They’re not expertly choreographed like a John Wick movie, but they’re thrilling regardless—mostly because of how extreme and darkly funny the violence can be.

The first big action sequence in the first episode reminded me that this show is coming to us by way of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, producers of HBO’s Westworld series. As in that show, Fallout‘s violence can be sudden, brutal, and casual. Heads explode from shotgun blasts like popped bubbles in Cronenbergian splatters. Someone’s face gets ripped right off, and another person gets a fork plunged into their eyeball.

Fallout‘s gore goes beyond Westworld’s shock factor into the territory of humor, and that’s clearly intentional. Homages to the Bethesda games’ slow-motion VATS kills are aplenty, with gratuitous shots of bullets tearing through bodies and painting the walls red.

It’s so over the top it that doesn’t bother me; it’s cartoon violence, ultimately. Most of the time, I enjoy it, though a couple of instances of dog-related violence didn’t feel too great. But if you’re squeamish, you’re going to want to steer clear. Of course, the games were like this, too. It just hits a little differently when it’s live action.

Fallout as a comedy

There are numerous executive producers attached to this show, including Nolan, Joy, and Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard, among others. But the two people most creatively responsible for what we’re seeing here are the writers Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Tomb Raider, Captain Marvel) and Graham Wagner (Portlandia, Silicon Valley, The Office).

That makes sense—you have one showrunner with action and video game adaptation chops and another known for comedy.

The Fallout games are hilarious—goofy, even, and that tracks right into the show. It’s not always as laugh-out-loud funny as I expected (though it sometimes is), but it’s definitely fun, and there are some strong jokes.

It’s hard to discuss them without spoiling some punchlines, but a lot of the humor comes from the fact that one of the show’s three central characters grew up deeply sheltered, both literally and figuratively. “Okey-dokey,” she says in the face of the most horrific situations imaginable. The contrast really works.

There’s humor in other places in the show, too, especially if you like dark humor. As I said a moment ago, the violence is hilarious if you have the stomach for it. Like the games, the show has many winks and nods.

I’d like to see a little more of this in the future than there is now, but it’s enough for it to feel like, well, Fallout.

Three episodes in, the Fallout TV series absolutely nails it Read More »

slay-the-spire-2,-vampire-survivors-meets-contra,-and-other-“triple-i”-games

Slay the Spire 2, Vampire Survivors meets Contra, and other “Triple-i” games

darkest dungeon, dinolords, early access, gaming, Indie games, palworld, Prince of Persia, slay the spire, steam, steam early access, the rogue prince of persia, triple-i, triple-i initiative, vampire survivors / /

Triple-i Initiative —

More than 30 games in 45 minutes, and a lot of them look wishlist-able.

–

Bloody battle scene from the game Norland

Enlarge / Norland is a game that communicates its intent well through screenshots.

Hooded Horse

The Triple-i initiative is a gaming showcase that gets it, and is also in on the joke.

The thing Triple-i gets is that most gaming “showcases” are full of corporate fluff, go on way too long, and are often anchored around a couple huge titles. Triple-i’s first event on Wednesday delivered 30-plus game trailers and teases within 45 minutes, and there was a consistent intrigue to all of them. There were some big names with some bigger studios loosely attached, and the definition of what is “triple-i” is quite vague, maybe intentionally. But there were a lot of games worth noting, especially on PC.

What kind of games? Triple-i’s website notes the announcement “may contain traces of rogue-lites.” At a breakpoint in the showcase, the omniscient text narrator notes there are “Only a few more rogue-lites (promise).” Triple-i was stuffed full of rogue-lites, roguelikes, survival, city-builders, deckbuilders, Hades-likes, 16-bit-esque platformers, Vampire Survivors and its progeny, turn-based tacticals, and then a car that sometimes has legs. There are strong trends in indie and indie-adjacent gaming, but also some real surprises.

The inaugural Triple-I Initiative showcase.

If you want a whole bunch of Steam wishlist ideas, go ahead and watch the whole thing. But here is a cheat sheet of the newest titles and notable updates I found most intriguing.

<em>Slay the Spire 2</em> has the same looks and card-based play of the original, but new mechanics are in store.” height=”1080″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/sts2_2.jpg” width=”1920″></img><figcaption> <p><em>Slay the Spire 2</em> has the same looks and card-based play of the original, but new mechanics are in store.</p> <p>MegaCrit</p> </figcaption></figure> <p><a href=Slay the Spire 2, the sequel to the 2019 game that launched hundreds of roguelike deckbuilders, announced its existence with a trailer that featured no cards. But look at the Steam page and you’ll see that the Ironclad and Silent characters from the original will return, along with The Necrobinder, a skeleton wielding a scythe and glowing with undead flame. The game is rewritten entirely from the original, with all-new visuals and “modern features,” according to the devs. The only bad news is the timing: It’s launching in early access in 2025.

<em>Dinolords</em>.” height=”1080″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/dinolords2.jpg” width=”1920″></img><figcaption> <p><em>Dinolords</em>.</p> <p>Ghost Ship Publishing</p> </figcaption></figure> <p><a href=Dinolords (trailer) has you building up a village in medieval England, fortifying it and training your troops to resist Viking invaders. Which is a game that’s been made before, except these marauding Danes have dinosaurs. They will ram right through the walls and eat your stupid villagers. A Stegosaurus will spin its spiky tail in a circle and knock a dozen of them over.

Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns DLC trailer.

Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns DLC feat. Contra tells you most of what you need to know if you’re familiar with the original. The “bullet heaven” auto-shooter will get 11 new characters, 22 new weapons, new stages (some of them with very side-scrolling perspectives), and lots of music remixes inspired by the “bullet hell” classic, Contra. It’s downloadable content that arrives on May 9.

The Rogue Prince of Persia trailer.

The Rogue Prince of Persia is from publisher Ubisoft, which doesn’t typically evoke “indie,” even at the “iii” level. But developer Evil Empire, one of the two teams behind rogue-lite action classic Dead Cells, is the one taking the Prince of Persia license into rogue-y directions. As you might expect, you will jump, you will fight with impossible elegance, and you will die a whole bunch. The art style is eye-catching, and the run-by-run changes should open up more approaches. The expected release date is May 24.

Norland release date trailer.

Norland, due out May 16, calls out its inspirations of Rimworld and Crusader Kings right upfront on its Steam page, and I believe it. The game looks like a fun mix of goofy, grim, tactical, and oh-God-it’s-all-falling-apart chaos, with some ruling-class concerns, too. Nasty, brutish, short, but also pretty fun?

In no particular order, a few other highlights of Triple-i:

  • Risk of Rain 2 is getting some free content, a “Devotion Update,” which includes some Dead Cells skins.
  • Kill Knight is a brutal, dark, grim isometric game, but your demonic knight has guns.
  • Laysara: Summit Kingdom takes city builders and civ games to new heights, literally, on mountains, where you deal with avalanches and sky bridges.
  • Cataclismo, from the Moonlighter folks, is a brick-by-brick castle builder and defense game.
  • Darkest Dungeon 2 is getting a new play mode, “Kingdoms.”
  • What the Car? has you play a car with legs. Sometimes you race, sometimes you cook. It’s silly time on Sept. 5.
  • Palworld is getting an arena mode, sometime in 2024.
  • Mouse, the “some kinds of Mickey Mouse are public domain now” first-person shooter, actually looks a lot more interesting than my snarky intro clause suggests.
  • V Rising, the open-world vampire game, will launch out of early access on May 8, along with a Legacy of Castlevania crossover. Finally, you can bring down the (literally) holier-than-thou Simon Belmont.

Slay the Spire 2, Vampire Survivors meets Contra, and other “Triple-i” games Read More »

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Intel is investigating game crashes on top-end Core i9 desktop CPUs

Alder Lake, CPU, desktop CPU, gaming, gaming PC, intel, intel core, raptor lake, Tech / /

i’m giving her all she’s got —

Crashes may be related to CPUs running above their specified power limits.

–

Intel's high-end Core i9-13900K and 14900K are reportedly having crashing problems in some games.

Enlarge / Intel’s high-end Core i9-13900K and 14900K are reportedly having crashing problems in some games.

Andrew Cunningham

If you own a recent high-end Intel desktop CPU and you’ve been running into weird game crashes lately, you’re not alone.

Scattered reports from Core i9-13900K and i9-14900K users over the last couple of months have pointed to processor power usage as a possible source of crashes even in relatively undemanding games like Fortnite. Games like Hogwarts Legacy, Remnant 2, Alan Wake 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Part 1, and Outpost: Infinity Siege have also reportedly been affected; the problem primarily seems to affect titles made with Epic’s Unreal Engine. Intel said in a statement to ZDNet Korea (via The Verge) that it’s looking into the problems, escalating it from an “isolated issue” to something that may be more widespread and could require a more systemic fix.

Related CPUs like the i9-13900KF, i9-14900KF, i9-13900KS, and i9-14900KS may be affected, too, since they’re all the same basic silicon. Some user reports have also indicated that the i7-13700K and i7-14700K series may also be affected.

“Intel is aware of reports regarding Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen unlocked desktop processors experiencing issues with certain workloads,” an Intel spokesperson told Ars. “We’re engaged with our partners and are conducting analysis of the reported issues.”

While Intel hasn’t indicated what it thinks could be causing the issue, support documents from Epic Games and other developers have suggested that the processors’ power settings are to blame, recommending that users change their BIOS settings or manually restrict their processors’ speed with tools like Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU). Most enthusiast motherboards will set the power limits on Intel’s processors to be essentially infinite, squeezing out a bit more performance (especially for i7 and i9 chips) at the expense of increased power use and heat.

Epic suggests using a BIOS power setting called “Intel Fail Safe” on Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte motherboards—its name makes it sound like some kind of low-power safe mode, but it’s most likely just setting the processors’ power limits to Intel’s specified defaults. This could result in somewhat reduced performance, particularly when all CPU cores are active at the same time. But we and other reviewers have seen sharply diminishing returns when letting these chips use more power. This can even be a problem with Intel’s stock settings—the recently announced i9-14900KS can use as much as 31 percent more power than the standard i9-14900K while delivering just 1 or 2 percent faster performance.

If power limits are to blame, the good news is that users can adjust these in the short term and that motherboard makers could fix the problem in the long run by tweaking their default settings in future BIOS updates.

Updated April 9, 2024, at 2: 12 pm to add Intel spokesperson statement.

Intel is investigating game crashes on top-end Core i9 desktop CPUs Read More »

apple-now-allows-retro-game-emulators-on-its-app-store—but-with-big-caveats

Apple now allows retro game emulators on its App Store—but with big caveats

App Store, Apple, Apple App Store, Emulation, gaming, iOS, ipad, iPadOS, IPhone, retro games, Tech / /

RETRO GAMES —

It’s probably not the Wild West of game emulation you’re hoping for. Here’s why.

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A screenshot of Sonic the Hedgehog on an iPhone

Enlarge / The classic Sega Genesis game Sonic the Hedgehog running on an iPhone—in this case, as a standalone app.

Samuel Axon

When Apple posted its latest update to the App Store’s app review and submission policies for developers, it included language that appears to explicitly allow a new kind of app for emulating retro console games.

Apple has long forbidden apps that run code from an external source, but today’s announced changes now allow “software that is not embedded in the binary” in certain cases, with “retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games” specifically listed as one of those cases.

Here’s the exact wording:

4.7 Mini apps, mini games, streaming games, chatbots, plug-ins, and game emulators

Apps may offer certain software that is not embedded in the binary, specifically HTML5 mini apps and mini games, streaming games, chatbots, and plug-ins. Additionally, retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games. You are responsible for all such software offered in your app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws. Software that does not comply with one or more guidelines will lead to the rejection of your app. You must also ensure that the software adheres to the additional rules that follow in 4.7.1 and 4.7.5. These additional rules are important to preserve the experience that App Store customers expect, and to help ensure user safety.

It’s a little fuzzy how this will play out, but it may not allow the kind of emulators you see on Android and desktop, which let you play retro games from any outside source.

Retro game emulators run what are colloquially called ROM files, which are more or less images of the game cartridges or discs that played on console hardware. By now, it’s well-established that the emulators themselves are completely legal, but the legality of the ROM files downloaded from ROM sites on the Internet depends on the specific files and circumstances.

There are ROMs that are entirely public domain or in some license where the creator allows distribution; there are ROMs that are technically copyrighted intellectual property but where the original owner no longer exists, and the current ownership is unknown or unenforced; and there are some ROMs (like many games made by Nintendo) where the owner still has an interest in controlling distribution and often takes action to try to curb illegal sharing and use of the files.

Additionally, many game publishers use emulators to run ROMs of their own retro games, which they sell to consumers either as standalone games or in collections for modern platforms.

It’s not completely clear from Apple’s wording, but our interpretation of Apple’s new rules is that it’s likely only the last of those examples will be possible; companies that own the intellectual property could launch emulator apps for downloading ROMs of their (and only their) games. So, for example, Sega could offer a Sega app that would allow users to download an ever-expanding library of Sega games, either as part of a subscription, for free, or as in-app purchases. Sega has offered its retro games on the iPhone before in emulation but with a standalone app for each game.

“You are responsible for all such software offered in your app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws,” Apple writes. And it specifically says “retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games” in the list of exceptions to the rules against “software that is not embedded inside the binary”—but it doesn’t list any other method for retro game console emulator apps.

Whatever the case, this update is not limited to the European Union. Apple has been subjected to regulatory scrutiny in both the EU and the United States regarding its App Store rules. It’s likely the company is making this change to preempt criticism in this area, though it did not name its reasons when announcing the change other than to say it has been made to “support updated policies, upcoming features, and to provide clarification.”

Apple now allows retro game emulators on its App Store—but with big caveats Read More »

new-catan-game-has-overpopulation,-pollution,-fossil-fuels,-and-clean-energy

New Catan game has overpopulation, pollution, fossil fuels, and clean energy

ars cardboard, benjamin teuber, Board games, Catan, gaming, klaus teuber, Settlers of Catan / /

The Unsettling of Catan —

If pollution levels go too high, the game ends for everyone. It’s a fun escape!

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Catan: New ENergies box in a green hill landscape with nearby wind turbines

Enlarge / If you didn’t know what “New Energies” meant, this promotional image puts a windmill on it.

Catan GmbH

In Klaus Teuber’s Catan (previously Settlers of Catan), the player is tasked with starting from scratch and building as much as they can: the largest army, the most cities, the best sea ports for easy trading, even the longest road. It’s all beneficial, and the only real drawback is that you have to prioritize certain things over others. There wasn’t direct conflict or battle, but there were scarce resources, and the savviest player could corner the market for them.

Catan was released in 1995. Now, in 2024, Teuber’s son, Benjamin Teuber, is releasing Catan: New Energies, which he developed with his late father. While it is “rooted in classic Catan mechanics of trading, harvesting, and building,” there are some decidedly 2024 issues at play now that the Vikings have settled in for more than a millennia.

As detailed by Benjamin Teuber in a Fast Company interview, New Energies will see players:

  • Choosing between cheaper fossil fuel power or research-intensive renewables
  • Limited in resources as pollution grows
  • Ending the game entirely if pollution hits a certain level
  • Countering pollution with “green tokens” from renewable building
  • Dealing with the effects worldwide climate change exacts on smaller islands
  • Realizing that “As in real life, the most sustainable player does not always win.”

It is, however, a hopeful game. The game comes by its “meaningful, evidence-based message” as sincerely as is possible for a mass-produced product. New Energies is printed and assembled in the US, contains no plastic, and uses sustainably sourced wood and paper materials. It’s available now for preorder at $70 and due in the spring of 2024.

  • Catan: New Energies with all pieces and boards laid out

    Catan GmbH

  • A player board from Catan: New Energies. The brown pieces are drawn more frequently at the beginning, but gradually transition to green tokens.

    Catan GmbH

  • Dev cards from Catan: New Energies.

    Catan GmbH

As with Catan games in general, the game’s competition for land and resources is balanced by the presence of other players, whose actions, appetite for trading, and even collaboration can affect outcomes.

“Very often at the end of the game, you see everybody completely freaking out, like, ‘Oh man, we’ve got to save the world!’” Benjamin Teuber told Fast Company. “But the pollution is already here, like what did you expect? And then maybe people start working together, and that’s a really nice effect that makes you think ‘if we do all work together and all did our share, then it can work, and all it cost is that we grow a little bit slower.’”

If you haven’t played a Catan game in a while or missed most of the variants and alternate settings, New Energies might provide a distinctly fresh experience. The artwork, by Ian O’Toole (On Mars, Rococo, Fit to Print), is distinct from the original. And the new systems look like they’ll provide some new layers of strategy for those who might feel too familiar with the core Catan concepts.

At a minimum, you can test your friends’ patience and sense of humor by playing as a game-ending cheap coal villain. Global footprint marker? Environmental inspector? Not your problem.

This post was updated at 3: 30 p.m. Eastern to note the game’s overall hopeful nature, which might not have been apparent at first glance.

New Catan game has overpopulation, pollution, fossil fuels, and clean energy Read More »

discord-starts-down-the-dangerous-road-of-ads-this-week

Discord starts down the dangerous road of ads this week

ads, discord, gaming, Social Media, Tech / /

Sponsored Quests —

Discord’s first real foray into ads seems minimally intrusive.

– Updated

The Discord logo on a funky cyber-background.

Discord

Discord had long been strongly opposed to ads, but starting this week, it’s giving video game makers the ability to advertise to its users. The introduction of so-called Sponsored Quests marks a notable change from the startup’s previous business model, but, at least for now, it seems much less intrusive than the ads shoved into other social media platforms, especially since Discord users can choose not to engage with them.

Discord first announced Sponsored Quests on March 7, with Peter Sellis, Discord’s SVP of product, writing in a blog post that users would start seeing them in the “coming weeks.” Sponsored Quests offer PC gamers in-game rewards for getting friends to watch a stream of them playing through Discord. Discord senior product communications manager Swaleha Carlson confirmed to Ars Technica that Sponsored Quests launch this week.

Discord shared this image in March as an example of the new type of ads.

Enlarge / Discord shared this image in March as an example of the new type of ads.

The goal is for video games to get exposure to more gamers, serving as a form of marketing. On Saturday, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that it viewed a slide from a slideshow Discord shows to game developers regarding the ads that reads: “We’ll get you in front of players. And those players will get you into their friend groups.”

Sellis told WSJ that Discord will target ads depending on users’ age, geographic location data, and gameplay. The ads will live on the bottom-left of the screen, but users can opt out of personalized promotions for Quests that are based on activity or data shared with Discord, Swaleha Carlson, senior product communications manager at Discord, told Ars Technica.

“Users may still see Quests, however, if they navigate to their Gift Inventory and/or through contextual entry points like a user’s friends’ activity. They’ll also have the option to hide an in-app promotion for a specific Quest or game they’re not interested in,” she said.

“Users may still see Quests, however, if they navigate to their Gift Inventory and/or through contextual entry points like a user’s friends’ activity. They’ll also have the option to hide an in-app promotion for a specific Quest or game they’re not interested in. “

Discord already tested the ads in May with Lucasfilm Games and Epic Games. Discord users were able to receive Star Wars-themed gear in Fortnite for getting a friend to watch them play Fortnite on PC for at least 15 minutes.

Jason Citron, Discord co-founder and CEO, told Bloomberg in March that the company hopes that one day “every game will offer Quests on Discord.”

Discord used to be anti-ads

It may be a nuisance for users to have to disable personalized promotion for Sponsored Quests when they never asked for them, but it should bring long-term users at least some comfort that their data purportedly doesn’t have to contribute to the marketing. However, it’s unclear if Discord may one day change this. The fact that the platform is implementing ads at all is somewhat surprising. Discord named its avoidance of advertising as one of its key differentiators from traditional social media platforms as recently as late January.

In March 2021, Citron told WSJ that Discord had eschewed ads until that point because ads would be intrusive, considering Discord’s purpose of instant back-and-forth communication and people’s general distaste for viewing ads and having their data shared with other companies.

“We really believe we can build products that make Discord more fun and that people will pay for them. It keeps our incentives aligned,” Citron told WSJ at the time.

That same year, Citron, in response to a question about why being ad-free is important to Discord, told NPR: “We believe that people’s data is their data and that people should feel comfortable and safe to have conversations and that their data is not going to be used against them in any way that is improper.”

Sponsored Quests differs from other types of ads that would more obviously disrupt Discord users’ experiences, such as pop-up ads or ads viewed alongside chat windows.

A tight-rope to walk

Beyond Sponsored Quests, Discord, which launched in 2015, previously announced that it would start selling sponsored profile effects and avatar decorations in the Discord Shop. In March, Discord’s Sellis said this would arrive in the “coming weeks.” Discord is also trying to hire more than 12 people to work in ad sales, WSJ said Saturday, citing anonymous “people familiar with [Discord’s] plans.”

Discord’s Carlson declined to comment to Ars on whether or not Discord plans to incorporate other types of ads into Discord. She noted that Sponsored Quests “are currently in the pilot phase” and that the company will “continue to iterate based on what we learn.”

In 2021, Discord enjoyed a nearly three-times revenue boost that it attributed to subscription sales for Nitro, which adds features like HD video streaming and up to 500MB uploads. In March, Citron told Bloomberg that Discord has more than 200 million monthly active users and that the company will “probably” go public eventually.

The publication, citing unnamed “people with knowledge of the matter,” also reported that Discord makes over $600 million in annualized revenue. The startup has raised over $1 billion in funding and is reported to have over $700 million in cash. However, the company reportedly isn’t profitable. It also laid off 17 percent of staffers, or 170 workers, in January.

Meanwhile, ads are the top revenue generator for many other social media platforms, such as Reddit, which recently went public.

While Discord’s first real ads endeavor seems like it will have minimal impact on users who aren’t interested in them, it brings the company down a tricky road that it hasn’t previously navigated. A key priority should be ensuring that any form of ads doesn’t disrupt the primary reasons people like using Discord. As it stands, Sponsored Quests might already put off some users.

“I don’t want my friendships to be monetized or productized in any way,” Zack Mohsen, a reported long-time user and computer hardware engineer based in Seattle, told WSJ.

Updated April 1, 2024 at 5: 32 p.m. ET to add information and comment from Discord. 

Discord starts down the dangerous road of ads this week Read More »

largely-cut-off-from-western-games,-russia-looks-into-a-homegrown-game-console

Largely cut off from Western games, Russia looks into a homegrown game console

gaming, russia, video games / /

The new digital iron curtain —

How hard could it be?

–

A Cold War-era arcade cabinet that serves as an example of what happened the last time Russia was forced to create a home-grown video game market.

Enlarge / A Cold War-era arcade cabinet that serves as an example of what happened the last time Russia was forced to create a home-grown video game market.

It’s been over two years since major players in the international game industry united to largely cut off the Russian market in response to a request from a beleaguered Ukraine. The relative isolation has apparently forced Vladimir Putin’s government to contemplate the kind of homegrown gaming hardware and software that characterized Cold War gaming behind the Iron Curtain.

PC Gamer brings word of a series of recently approved Russian economic orders from the Kremlin. Amid talk of airport and museum funding, ocean shipping, and road construction is the somewhat bewildering instruction for the government to (machine translation):

consider the issue of organizing the production of stationary and portable game consoles and game consoles, as well as the creation of an operating system and a cloud system for delivering games and programs to users

Oh, is that all?

A massive undertaking

Gaming technology isn’t a completely new area of focus for the Russian government. In 2022, the Ministry of Digital Development reportedly started discussing the possibility of creating a homegrown domestic Russian game engine. But building an entire gaming platform from scratch would be an even bigger undertaking.

To be fair, building your own game console today is a bit easier than it would have been in a different era. Open source platforms like Android can provide a good starting point for a bespoke gaming operating system (it worked for Ouya, kind of), while off-the-shelf, system-on-a-chip solutions can save a lot of the hardware engineering work needed to develop a new console.

But even if those issues get “solved,” the Russian government would still have to build the other scaffolding that supports a robust gaming platform. Crafting features like payment processing, game downloads, online play, moderation, quality control, and more is not a simple undertaking, even for major conglomerates like Microsoft or Valve. And that’s before you get into attracting the developers that would need to create the actual games for this new platform.

Building a bare-bones Steam Deck competitor isn't nearly as hard as building out the platform that supports that hardware.

Enlarge / Building a bare-bones Steam Deck competitor isn’t nearly as hard as building out the platform that supports that hardware.

Valve

Speaking to Russian-language newspaper Kommersant, Anton Fomin, the head of retail projects for mobile phone company Fplus, said, “In Russia, no one has the expertise that would allow them to produce their own PlayStation or Xbox-level console” (according to a machine translation). An unnamed expert source also told Kommersant that creating a full system would take Russia 5 to 10 years and 5 to 10 billion rubles ($54 to $108 million) just to get a gaming platform that would “lag behind already existing foreign solutions in terms of parameters by 10 to 15 years.”

The fact that Russia is even contemplating this kind of move might reflect the wider state of the country’s gaming sector. A 2023 survey found a significant majority of Russian gamers resorting to piracy for their gaming fix as legitimate access to foreign games dwindled. Russian job listing data from last year also suggests that Russia’s domestic game development has withered by up to 40 percent since the start of the Ukraine war.

But this isn’t the first time Russia has been forced to bootstrap its own homegrown gaming industry. In the waning days of the Cold War, Soviet engineers cut off from the Western gaming market created a variety of odd knock-off arcade machines and hundreds of amateur computer games, including many with surprisingly activist themes. If that era of Russian gaming could create something like Tetris, maybe the idea of a new Russian gaming platform isn’t completely ridiculous.

The Russian government has until June 15 to make its recommendations about the feasibility of any domestic game console creation plans.

Largely cut off from Western games, Russia looks into a homegrown game console Read More »

cities:-skylines-2-gets-long-awaited-official-mod-support-and-map-editor

Cities: Skylines 2 gets long-awaited official mod support and map editor

cities: skylines 2, city builders, colossal order, gaming, modding, Paradox Interactive, simulation game / /

Cities: Skylines 2 —

Modding was seen as the most important next step by developer’s leader.

–

View of a rooftop terrace with sun umbrella in Cities: Skylines 2's Beach Properties expansion.

Enlarge / Kudos to the designer of this umbrella-shaded rooftop terrace at Colossal Order, perhaps the only worker who can imagine a place that isn’t overwhelmed by Steam reviewers.

Paradox Interactive

Under the very unassuming name of patch 1.1.0f1, Cities: Skylines 2 is getting something quite big. The sequel now has the modding, map editing, and code modding support that made its predecessor such a sprawling success.

Only time will tell if community energy can help restore some of the momentum that has been dispersed by the fraught launch of Cities: Skylines 2 (C:S2). The project of relatively small developer Colossal Order arrived in October 2023 with performance issues and a lack of content compared to its predecessor. Some of that content perception stemmed from the game’s lack of modding support, which had contributed to entire aspects of the original game not yet available in the sequel.

When Ars interviewed Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen in December, she said that modding support was the thing she was most looking forward to arriving. Modding support was intended to be available at launch, but the challenges of building the new game’s technical base, amid many other technical issues, pushed it back, along with console releases.

“[W]e can’t wait to have the support out there, so we can have the modding community ‘fully unleashed,'” Hallikainen said then. “Because I know they are waiting to get to work. They are actually already at it, but this will make it easier. … We just can’t wait to give them the full set of tools.” She noted that character modding, a “technically difficult thing to support,” would arrive further out, and indeed, asset modding is listed as “available later this year.”

The base-level modding support is now available, though in “Beta” and in a different form than fans are used to. Instead of working through Steam Workshop, C:S2 mods will be available through Paradox Mods to support console players. There are, of course, issues at launch, including slowdown with the in-game mod browser. Most non-incensed commenters and reviewers consider the tools themselves to be an upgrade over the prior game’s editing suite.

In addition to making mods, the in-game mod tools should make it easier to load preset “Playsets” of mod combinations. We’ll have to see how long it takes assets like Spaghetti Junction, the most popular mod for the original Cities: Skylines, to arrive in C:S2 so that all may experience the municipal engineering regrets of Birmingham, England.

Along with modding tools, Colossal Order issued some of its first proper DLC for C:S2. Beach Properties, an asset pack, adds both North American and European waterfront zoning and buildings, palm trees, and six signature buildings. There’s also a Deluxe Relax Station that puts 16 new songs and DJ patter on the soundtrack. The recent patch also contains a number of optimizations and bug fixes. Steam reviewers and Paradox forum members are asking why the beach DLC doesn’t contain actual beaches.

Cities: Skylines 2 gets long-awaited official mod support and map editor Read More »

dragon’s-dogma-2-is-gritty,-janky,-goofy,-tough,-and-lots-of-fun

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is gritty, janky, goofy, tough, and lots of fun

capcom, dragon's dogma, dragon's dogma 2, elden ring, Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, FromSoftware, gaming, RPG / /

Review —

This epic RPG reminds us of Skyrim‘s ambitious jank, but with way better combat.

–

Player shooting down a griffon with circling beams of light.

Enlarge / One day I will own griffons in such spectacular fashion. But I’m currently carrying a too-heavy backpack and clipped through a hut wall.

With all due respect to the Capcom team, which poured itself into Dragon’s Dogma 2 and deserves praise, raises, and time off, let me get right to it: I love this game for how dumb it is.

I mean “dumb” in the way most heavy metal lyrics are dumb, but you find yourself rocking out nonetheless. Dumb like when you laugh uncontrollably at the sight of someone getting conked in the head and falling over backward. Dumb as in the silliest bits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, just nowhere near as self-aware (unless, due to translation issues, this game actually is self-aware, then I apologize).

Dragon’s Dogma 2 (DD2) reminds me of playing another huge, dumb, enjoyable game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Not the first time you play through it, though. I’m talking about the second or third run-through (or that 100-plus-hour save in which you refuse to finish the game), and your admiration of this huge, rich world gives way to utter ridiculousness. You one-shot dragons with your broken stealth-archer build, you put buckets on the heads of NPCs to rob them, and you marvel at how the most effective fast travel is horse tilting. You lunge into possibilities, choose chaos, and appreciate all the ways you can do so.

Rogue-ish fighter Peter looks on as The Arisen finds himself done in by his greatest foe yet: the awning on a small village hut, next to a rocky hill.

Rogue-ish fighter Peter looks on as The Arisen finds himself done in by his greatest foe yet: the awning on a small village hut, next to a rocky hill.

DD2 gives me those multifaceted Skyrim thrills and chuckles (and a friend confirmed Morrowind works here, too). One time, I had to reload the game because my character—the “Arisen,” savior of the continent, heralded throughout the land—got stuck between a stone hut and an angled hill behind it. Someday, he will challenge the world-conquering dragon, but today, he can’t turn sideways or climb three feet.

Sorry, what's that about recruit training, Phill? I'm having trouble hearing you over the deadly hand-to-hand combat.

Sorry, what’s that about recruit training, Phill? I’m having trouble hearing you over the deadly hand-to-hand combat.

Another time, a band of nearby goblins launched an attack against my squad and a band of nearby knights. The knights’ leader, midway through a lengthy, high-falutin dialogue dirge, just kept talking. Even when a goblin set one of his soldiers on fire less than two feet to his right, he kept yapping.

DD2 has a huge, rich, and varied world, full of systems that just barely fit together, regularly bashing into one another in ways that delight, annoy, and astound. But there is a solid, if quirky, game at its core that rewards exploration and experimentation. The plot, while overwrought with nobility and rebirth and destinies, is intriguing in its broad strokes but let down by the aforementioned dialogue.

The game has made me say, “This is so ridiculous” and “This is amazing” to myself in roughly equal amounts, and that feels like an achievement.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is gritty, janky, goofy, tough, and lots of fun Read More »

take-a-trip-through-gaming-history-with-this-charming-gdc-display

Take a trip through gaming history with this charming GDC display

Game Developers Conference, gaming, GDC, history / /

Remember when —

Come for the retro Will Wright photo, stay for the game with a pack-in harmonica.

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  • Only the most dedicated “Carmen” fans—or North Dakotan educators of a certain age—are likely to have this one in their collections.

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • These “pretty cool stickers” came from a “Carmen Day” kit the producer Broderbund sent to school to encourage themed edutainment activities that went beyond the screen.

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • As a nearby placard laments: “When female human characters were depicted in early video games, they often fell into stereotypical roles”—nature-loving girls or sexualized adults being chief among them.

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • Despite the lack of diverse female representation in early games, early game ads were often equal-opportunity affairs.

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • Don’t be fooled by the wide variety of headshots on these boxes—you needed to invest in “Alter Ego: Female Version” to get the full suite of personas.

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • We’re struggling to think of any other video games that came packaged with a harmonica.

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • A standard Game Boy Camera hooked up to USB-C output via a customized board. VGHF used the setup to trade customized postcards for donations (see some examples in the background).

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • “EXTREME CLOSE-UP IS EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT.”

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • Be the coolest beachgoer in all of Zebes with these promotional sunglasses.

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • A ’90s photo of the Maxis team, including a downright baby-faced Will Wright (back row, second from left).

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • VGHF’s Phil Salvador told me that this cow was one of the top results when you searched for “’90s mousepad” on eBay.

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • The brief heyday of music-based CD-ROM “multimedia” experiences is rightly forgotten by most consumers, and rightly remembered by organizations like VGHF.

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

  • Ever wonder what specific pantone swatch to use for that perfect “Joker jacket purple”? Wonder no longer!

    Kyle Orland / VGHF

SAN FRANCISCO—Trade shows like the Game Developers Conference and the (dearly departed) E3 are a great chance to see what’s coming down the pike for the game industry. But they can also be a great place to celebrate gaming’s history, as we’ve shown you with any number of on-site photo galleries in years past.

The history display tucked away in a corner of this year’s Game Developers Conference—the first one arranged by the Video Game History Foundation—was a little different. Rather than simply laying out a parcel of random collectibles, as past history-focused booths have, VGHF took a more curated approach, with mini-exhibits focused on specific topics like women in gaming, oddities of gaming music, and an entire case devoted to a little-known entry in a famous edutainment series.

Then there was the central case, devoted to the idea that all sorts of ephemera—from design docs to photos to pre-release prototypes to newsletters to promotional items—were all an integral part of video game history. The organization is practically begging developers, journalists, and fan hoarders of all stripes not to throw out even items that seem like they have no value. After all, today’s trash might be tomorrow’s important historic relic.

As we wrap up GDC (and get to work assembling what we’ve seen into future coverage), please enjoy this gallery of some of the more interesting historical specimens that the VGHF had at this year’s show.

Listing image by Kyle Orland / VGHF

Take a trip through gaming history with this charming GDC display Read More »

“we’ve-done-our-job”:-baldur’s-gate-3-devs-call-off-dlc-and-step-away-from-d&d

“We’ve done our job”: Baldur’s Gate 3 devs call off DLC and step away from D&D

Baldur's Gate 3, DLC, Dungeons and Dragons, gaming, hasbro, Larian Studios, Wizards of the Coast / /

Baldur’s Gate Closed —

Larian boss says BG3 is “a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.”

–

Karlach, the tiefling barbarian, infernal heart glowing, axe at her back.

Enlarge / Sometimes your infernal-engine-powered heart just isn’t in it.

Larian Studios/Hasbro

Swen Vincke, director of the colossal entity that is Baldur’s Gate 3, is not leaving the door open to future expansions of that already fully packed game.

At this week’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), Vincke made it clear during a talk and in interviews that Larian Studios is not going to make any major new content for Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)—nor start work on Baldur’s Gate 4, nor make anything, really, inside the framework of Dungeons & Dragons’ Fifth Edition (5e).

Not that Vincke or his team are bitter. Their hearts just aren’t in it. They had actually started work on BG3 downloadable content and gave some thought to Baldur’s Gate 4, Vincke told IGN. “But we hadn’t really had closure on BG3 yet and just to jump forward on something new felt wrong.” On top of that, the team had new ideas that didn’t fit D&D 5e, which “is not an easy system to put into a video game,” Vincke said.

“You could see the team was doing it because everyone felt like we had to do it, but it wasn’t really coming from the heart, and we’re very much a studio from the heart. It’s what gotten us into misery and it’s also been the reasons for our success,” Vincke told IGN.

After returning from winter holidays, Vincke told the Larian team, “We’ve done our job. It’s a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. So let’s pass the torch to another studio to pick up this incredible legacy.” The team, he told IGN, was “elated.”

Onto the next act

Vincke’s enthusiasm for having determined Act 1 of “this thing I’ve been working on,” as he posted on X (formerly Twitter) in early January 2024, has some new context from this new dialogue. Larian, it seems, is working on another RPG, just not one involving a certain port city in a particular tabletop scheme.

At GDC, Vincke said Larian was “a company of big ideas… not a company that’s made to create DLCs or expansions,” according to PC Gamer’s recap. “We tried that actually, a few times. It failed every single time. It’s not our thing. Life is too short. Our ambitions are very large,” Vincke told the crowd.

As you might imagine, Larian Studios is ready to say goodbye to D&D games, but Wizards of the Coast and parent company Hasbro almost certainly are not. As of February, BG3 had made around $90 million for Hasbro. Hasbro’s CEO followed up on that report by noting that BG3 was “just the first of several new video games that will be coming out over the next five to 10 years.”

One of those is likely to be “an innovative hybrid of survival, life simulation, and action RPG,” from the makers of the notably survival/life/RPG-like game Disney Dreamlight Valley. Gameloft Montreal pitches the game as a space where “the rich lore of this legendary franchise meets real-time survival in a unique campaign of resilience, camaraderie, and danger at nearly every turn.

It feels safe to say that you will not be able to romance Beast, Maui, or Mike Wazowski in the next big D&D game. Larian’s time in the Forgotten Realms is over, and the team is likely to have many people waiting to see where they’re going next.

“We’ve done our job”: Baldur’s Gate 3 devs call off DLC and step away from D&D Read More »