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Roblox is implementing some major changes to the control it gives parents over their *********** accounts following damning reports that its platform was rife with child exploitation and ******. In an email sent to parents who manage children accounts on Roblox, which IGN has obtained, the company details that it's finally introducing Roblox accounts with parental privileges. Prior to this, Roblox parental controls allowed parents to essentially set a PIN on a child's account that only the parent would know. This unlocks the ability to change settings like what type of content the child can access and set spending limits. Now, PINs are going away. Instead, parents must create their own separate Roblox accounts and link them to the child account. This gives parents the ability to update parental controls from their own device, as well as access information about the child's time spent in Roblox and friend list. Additionally, users under the age of 13 will now require a parent's permission to use certain chat features, and users under the age of nine will require parental permission to engage with any Roblox experiences labeled as having "Moderate" content maturity ratings. Here's the email in full: Dear parent, We’ve been working on a series of important changes that we’ll be making to your child’s account, [NAME], next month. About Roblox accounts with parent privileges Next month, we’re changing the way parents manage their child’s experience on Roblox by introducing Roblox accounts with parent privileges. After linking your account to your child’s, parents can view and update parental controls for their child all from their own device. Parents also get access to insights about their child’s Roblox usage, such as their daily screen time and on-platform friends. Given these changes, starting next month, parents will no longer be able to set a parent PIN, use Account Restrictions, or receive account-related notifications to their parental email. Instead, you will need to use an account with parent privileges. Existing verified parental emails on child accounts will continue to be used for account recovery. Any settings previously set using a parent PIN will not change, but you will need an account with parent privileges to make updates going forward. As always, if users are interested in an added layer of security on their account, you can set up 2-factor authentication. Updated content maturity settings As we shared with the community in July, to help provide parents and users more clarity into the types of content available on Roblox, we’ll soon begin labeling experiences based on the type of content users can expect in an experience, rather than by age. Experience Guidelines will be renamed Content Labels, and you’ll be able to set limits on the type of content accessible to your child through the content maturity setting in parental controls. New default settings for users under the age of 13 As part of Roblox’s commitment to safety, we are also updating certain default settings for our youngest users. Starting next month, users under the age of 13 will need parent permission to access certain chat features. Users under the age of 9 will also need parent permission to access experiences with content maturity “Moderate,” which may contain things like moderate ********* or moderate crude humor. Your child’s settings will be updated when they reach certain ages, if you and your child haven’t previously made changes to them. You and your child will be notified of these updates in advance. We will share more information on these setting updates when the changes go into effect next month. Next steps To continue receiving notifications about your child’s account related to spending or other important activity, you’ll need to set up a Roblox account with parent privileges and link to your child’s account. When these changes take effect, your child will receive a notification inviting them to add a linked parent account, and we’ll send you an email with instructions. Since day one, Roblox has been committed to building safety features and tools into the design of our products. We will always continue to explore different ways to update our parental controls to make them even more useful for parents. Roblox [/url] Roblox's changes come on the heels of a report from investment firm Hindenburg Research that accused the company of, among other things, being a haven for groomers and pedophiles due to a lack of up-front screening of new accounts. It claimed to have found open trading of child ************ on the site as well as violent and hateful speech and ********* explicit content in numerous games marketed to kids on the platform. Roblox responded, saying that "safety and civility" have been "foundational" to Roblox since its inception. However, Hindenburg followed up by pointing out that it had not addressed allegations of Roblox being a "pedophile hellscape." Roblox's response is an abject ******** to address the two core allegations in our report, including: 1. Evidence that Roblox has been systematically lying for years about the number of people on its platform and their genuine level of engagement. 2. That the platform is a… [Hidden Content] — Hindenburg Research (@HindenburgRes) October 8, 2024 And this is far from the first time Roblox has been accused of fostering an unsafe and exploitative environment for children. Back in 2018, the company faced criticism after a mother reported her seven-year-old daughter's Roblox character was violently ********* assaulted by several other characters. Around the same time, a six-year-old girl was reportedly invited into a "**** room" in the game. In 2021, reports were highlighted of users recreating real-world mass shootings in the game, and People Make Games published a report alleging that Roblox's business model exploits child labor. In 2022, a San Francisco lawsuit accused Roblox of enabling the financial and ******* exploitation of a 10-year-old girl. In 2023, it was sued both for allegedly facilitating "an ******** gambling ecosystem" and more generally for having lax child safety protocols that allegedly led to financial loss and *********** exposure to ****** content. Earlier this year, the platform announced it reported over 13,000 incidents of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2023, resulting in the arrest of 24 predators who allegedly groomed and abused children on Roblox. This number is up 3,000 from 2022. A Bloomberg report suggested that there remained a number of other abusers on the platform who had managed to evade capture. At the time, Roblox referred to itself as "one of the safest online environments for our users, particularly the youngest users." Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article

Brace yourselves, people who start salivating and jumping up and down whenever something that's potentially about the Nintendo Switch's successor - I'm gonna say it: the Switch 2?!? - surfaces. Yooka-Replaylee, the amusingly-named remaster of Yooka-Laylee, has just been announced to be coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and unspecified "Nintendo platforms". Read more View the full article

Image: Intel Intel’s flagship Core Ultra 200S-series processor runs more efficiently, but PC gaming performance is disappointing. Continue reading… View the full article

Fans have been taking notice of the dialogue changes presented in Sonic X Shadow Generations, with some of these alterations getting mixed reactions. A current-gen remaster of 2011s Sonic Generations is set to launch in full on October 25, with players who pre-ordered the game already able to jump in through early access. Far more than just the original anniversary platformer with a new coat of paint, Sonic X Shadow Generations features a brand-new story campaign detailing what Shadow the Hedgehog was doing while Sonic and his friends were celebrating the Blue Blurs 20th birthday. View the full article

Intel is ready to unveil its latest Core Ultra desktop CPU series. With a tile-based design, Arrow Lake marks a major architectural shift, aiming for improved performance and efficiency. Read Entire Article View the full article

Whether you enjoyed or hated the Star Wars sequels, you gotta admit Kylo Ren (Ben Solo) was a pretty great villain, in part thanks to Adam Driver's nuanced performance throughout the three movies. Many fans had been asking for more stories centered around him, and now Lucasfilm and Marvel Comics are answering with an ongoing series written by Charles Soule. Read more View the full article

World of Warcraft has been around since 2004—doesn’t time fly? The 20th Anniversary event for one of the most influential MMORPGs in history runs from Oct. 23 to Jan. 6, 2025, and it’s worth checking out, no matter your character’s level and gear. Here’s a breakdown of the main trio of events that are part of the 20th Anniversary celebrations in WoW, looking at how you can take part and some handy tips and tricks for winning. View the full article

Overcoming this issue was crucial for Nvidia, as it aims to maintain its dominant position in the AI chip market. As demand for high-performance AI computing solutions continues to surge, the successful launch of Blackwell will play a pivotal role in providing the necessary hardware. Read Entire Article View the full article

New Polish studio From Chaos consist of former members of Witcher developers CD Projekt Red, Frostpunk developers 11 bit studios and 4X household Paradox Interactive, led by erstwhile Gwent programmer Tomek Dietrich - so it's no huge surprise that their debut game, Liegecraft, is a big beardy historical strategy RPG. It's a hex and turn-based experience in which you play a dinky little despot running around a medieval world building castles, taking vassals, mustering armies, and going on quests that involve branching dialogue. It's got a pleasant upstairs-downstairs vibe. On the one hand, you get to paint toy towns on hexagons, as in a traditional 4X or Civ clone; on the other, you can smash-cut to a banqueting scene and watch a ******** dignitary throw a goblet at your master of horse. Here's the trailer. Read more View the full article

The developer of the Yooka-Laylee remaster has teased a release on the Switch 2, announcing today the game is set for launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and “Nintendo platforms.” That’s a clear nod to Nintendo’s next console, which the company has yet to formally announce. But that hasn’t stopped a handful of developers from indicating they’re working on bringing their games to Switch 2. Last month, with Nintendo fan excitement for Switch 2 reaching fever pitch, Pathea Games, developer of the multi-million selling RPG/farming/life series My Time, announced My Time At Evershine by saying it was “committed” to launching on PC, Xbox Series X and S, PS5, and “future Nintendo platforms yet to be announced.” Now *** developer Playtonic has got in on the act, announcing that Yooka-Replaylee, the remake of its 2017 spiritual successor to Rare's Banjo-Kazooie, is headed to PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and “Nintendo platforms.” While there’s no release date yet, Yooka-Replaylee’s latest trailer includes the Nintendo logo, as opposed to the Switch logo, with the game’s trademark googly eyes resting on top of “Nintendo.” “Experience the definitive version of Yooka and Laylee's very first adventure on a platform of your choice when the game launches on... wait, too soon for that,” Playtonic teased. "Ssssstay tuned." Nintendo has also said it won’t release the Switch 2 before the end of its current financial year, which runs to March 31, 2025. When it does eventually release the console, Nintendo expects to have plenty of stock available, which in turn will hopefully combat scalping. So, what other games can fans expect to see on Switch 2? Last year, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot said he regretted releasing Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope on the Nintendo Switch, and wished the company had instead waited for the console's successor. Perhaps we will see a Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope Switch 2 port, then. For more on what may eventually become the Switch 2, you can read everything else we know about the company’s next console. Wesley is the *** News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

Logging into PUBG for the first time can feel daunting due to the various modes and playlists available. Casual Mode is one of the initial modes you might be tempted to play. While the developers originally created the mode to allow new players to get used to battle royale gameplay and the game before facing actual players, players have used it for varying reasons since it was introduced. View the full article

Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 isn't even available globally at the time of writing, but a Twitch streamer has already become the first player in the world to unlock a gold ******* camo. While Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 is set to launch globally on October 25, ********* fans and content creators are using the New Zealand trick on Xbox to play the game almost a full day before its worldwide release. View the full article

Denuvo has pushed back against some of the negativity surrounding its public image. The notorious anti-tamper software has been lambasted by PC gamers for years, and Denuvo is now on a mission to address the longstanding concerns against it. View the full article

Like almost every bit of news when it comes to Star Wars outside the official channels, take the following with a good dose of salt, but it's starting to sound like 2025 could mark Lucasfilm's big year when it comes to finally getting to ****** Star Wars movies that aren't a downsized season of television. Read more View the full article

Space can be a lonely place, and No Man's Sky typifies that. Its vast, expansive universe is often devoid of other humans, giving the game an authentic interstellar experience. View the full article

Jacques Treiner, a theoretical physicist at Université Paris Cité, has examined the effects of walking speed on the amount of rainwater a person encounters. His insights might just change your tactics. Read Entire Article View the full article

Another month, another Helldivers 2 Warbond for you to potentially consider grabbing, depending on what you think of its contents. This time, Arrowhead's gone for a Ministry of Truth theme, and the chance to look like you follow every order to the letter. Read more View the full article

We're just three days away from the official launch of the AMD Ryzen 9000X3D range, with the 9800X3D expected to be the flagship product of the new gaming CPU range. As we get ever closer to that launch, leaks of official images and performance data are arriving at a steady rate, with the latest ***** reportedly showing AMD's official figures for the expected performance of the new chip. With this processor firmly expected to be the new best gaming CPU option you can buy, hype has been huge in the lead-up to its launch, with rife speculation about its performance. We've already seen Intel admit its own upcoming Core Ultra 200 CPUs won't beat it, and seen several other AMD 9800X3D benchmark leaks, but today's ***** is reportedly of AMD's own official figures, and it also includes several other key details about the new chip. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D box art just leaked, and this new gaming CPU looks good If this leaked AMD Ryzen CPU is in the Steam Deck 2, then we're in for a treat New AMD Ryzen gaming CPUs are coming for your old motherboard, says ***** View the full article

The “What you can make dance by putting a little boogie in it, in an old joke” clue on today’s NYT Mini Crossword challenges you to find the right word related to this silly joke. It’s tougher than you might expect to solve this one. This is an easy clue to get stumped by, so here are some hints and the answer to help you solve the “What you can make dance by putting a little boogie in it, in an old joke” clue on the Oct. 24 NYT Mini Crossword puzzle. View the full article

Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 is rolling out across the world (in New Zealand first, as is Call of Duty tradition), and fans are already getting stuck into the shooter’s annual camo grind. For one Call of Duty streamer the race is on for world firsts — with one in the bag already. Call of Duty Twitch streamer Reidboyy, who IGN has reported on in the past for unlocking Modern Warfare 3’s most coveted camo after a near 76-hour grind, took just over an hour to obtain the gold camo for the XM4, and took to X/Twitter to declare the world first. FIRST PERSON IN THE WORLD TO HAVE GOLD CAMO IN #BlackOps6 GOLD XM4 [Hidden Content] — Reidboyy (@Reidboy24) October 24, 2024 ****** Ops 6 has four Mastery Camos to be earned in each mode (Multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone). The camo in question is the Gold Multiplayer Mastery Camo. This Tier 1 Mastery Camo is unlocked by earning all nine Military Camos and two Special Camos in the corresponding mode, and then completing the applicable Camo Challenge. It’s incredibly impressive that Reidboyy was able to achieve this in just an hour. Reidboyy has said his target is to unlock all of ****** Ops 6’s camos by the end of this weekend. If he hasn’t managed it by midnight Sunday, October 27, he’ll consider his grind an “L.” A "W," then, would mean getting all ****** Ops 6's coveted Dark Matter camos in Multiplayer. For the record, here’s everything involved in getting Dark Matter camo in ****** Ops 6, per Activision: Access by earning Mastery Camo Tier 2 for the designated number of Weapons across multiple ******* Classes in the corresponding mode, and then complete the applicable Camo Challenge. For example, a Multiplayer player must earn Dark Spine Camo on 33 Weapons (the number of launch Weapons in ****** Ops 6) before they gain access to the Dark Matter Camo Challenge on those Weapons. Just like Military Camos, Mastery Camos must be unlocked individually with each ******* and once unlocked can only be used with that *******. For example, if you’ve unlocked Gold Camo for the AMES 85, it can be equipped to the AMES 85 anywhere you use it, but not to any other ******* until you’ve separately unlocked Gold with that *******. As mentioned, ****** Ops 6 is rolling out now globally, although players across the world are using Call of Duty’s infamous New Zealand trick to access the game earlier than their timezone officially allows. Image credit: Reidboyy/Twitter. Wesley is the *** News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

***** has found great success with its series of Sonic the Hedgehog movies – so much so that it has inspired the company to more actively pursue big- and small-screen adaptations of its treasure trove of game franchises. Next up is Like a Dragon: Yakuza, an Amazon Original series based on the first game in the beloved series, which launches on October 24 – and ***** has plans to do even more. During Gamescom Asia, IGN Japan sat down with Justin Scarpone, Global Head of Transmedia at *****, whose resume includes 17 years working with games and entertainment at Disney and who joined ***** in April 2024. From adaptations of Shinobi and Golden Axe to early forays into the theme park space, Scarpone gave us the lowdown on *****’s plans to reach new audiences away from the game console. “The Like a Dragon franchise is one of our core pillars,” Scarpone said when asked how the new series was conceived. “We released a live-action film years ago, but I think the new series came about originally through conversations between the Amazon Studios folks and our Like a Dragon studio, and it became a cross-Pacific project where you had talent in both the US and Japan working on the project. It’s obviously filmed in Japan, with ********* talent, but leveraging some of the creativity that an overseas perspective brings. So it's a unique project for us.” Streaming TV has been a great home for episodic dramas set in Japan, with Shogun breaking records in awards season and Tokyo Vice showing shocking sides of Japan’s (fictionalized) ********* underworld. Scarpone said the success of these shows has been encouraging as Amazon prepares to launch the new Like a Dragon series. “Like a Dragon is a very ********* story, but it's also very universal,” he said. “And one of the differences between the previous live-action film and this new drama being shown on Prime Video is that in the years since the film came out, the Like a Dragon series has become very much a global franchise. We have an international team who are considering from day one how to make a compelling story set in Japan with universal themes that resonate in different cultures.” He says that the dev team at Ryu ga Gotoku Studio have been supportive of the Prime Video show, which is partly based on the original game but will tell its own original story. “(Masayoshi) Yokoyama has been quite supportive of this series,” said Scarpone. “As a truly creative individual, he's seeing a very interesting interpretation of the IP he lives and breathes, and he's very happy with the quality and the output. I think he's excited to see somebody else's perspective on it.” We have an international team who are considering from day one how to make a compelling story set in Japan with universal themes. The Like a Dragon game series has a setting that balances heavy ****** suspsense drama with more humorous themes tied to gameplay. The Amazon show seems to be leaning more toward the former, but when condensing a game with a storyline that is dozens of hours long into a TV show, it must be difficult to choose which elements to embrace and which ones to leave out. “In the format of a series where you have about five hours of storytelling, how can you tell a compelling, exciting, dramatic and concise story?” Scarpone pondered. “Some of the games in the series you could play for over 80 hours, which gives you a lot more flexibility to weave in other aspects of the characters than you have in a condensed, linear format. So I think the director, the actors and the screenwriters of the Amazon show needed to make a judgment call on how to tell the best story within the confines of that time. “The game series evolved over time, so if this Amazon series were to have a sequel, I think we could also experiment. The series hopefully will be a good starting point in that format, and maybe there'll be more in the future.” *****'s Sonic renaissance ***** has had huge success with the live-action outings for its mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. Since 2020, Paramount Pictures has released two hit movies and a TV spinoff, with a third movie landing in December and adding Keanu Reeves to its voice cast. “We have seemingly come to think of this ******* of the last decade or so as the renaissance of Sonic,” Scarpone told us. “There were a lot of stops and starts to try to bring Sonic to the silver screen – it didn't happen overnight. But once we were locked in and working on the first film, that was really *****’s entry point into transmedia, and thinking of Sonic as a franchise, and the way companies like Disney and Universal and Warner Brothers have always done it for decades. “We're offering new stories and new ways to experience the characters in different media. And so with Sonic, the film really expanded what Sonic could be in the eyes of the fans – and probably a lot of people inside of ***** as well.” Indeed, in an interview with IGN in 2022, Sonic Frontiers director Morio Kishimoto told us the success of the Sonic movies had inspired him and Sonic Team while making the games. ***** also has multiple other screen adaptations of its games in the pipeline, including versions of series that have been dormant for decades. One is Shinobi, which has both a game and a live-action adaptation in the works. The film is being produced together with Universal, which made the smash-hit Super Mario Bros. Movie, and directed by Sam Hargrave. Scarpone confirmed to us it is still in the “early stage” of development. As we reboot some of these franchises, it's important for us to really work on the story, to update it for younger generations. Classic series Golden Axe is also coming back, both as a game and as an animated series for Comedy Central. A Streets of Rage movie has also been announced, with a script by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. Of these adaptations of older ***** franchises, Scarpone said, “Our core pillars are franchises like Sonic, Like a Dragon, Persona and ****** Birds, but our so-called Legacy Initiative is really exciting because, while these stories have a foundation, we have a lot more new storytelling to work on, which is really cool. As we reboot some of these franchises, it's important for us to really work on the story, work on the lore, to update it for younger generations who weren't even alive when the ***** Genesis was around.” Scarpone also confirmed that ***** has multiple other screen adaptations in the early stages of development, but would not share which games these unannounced projects are based on just yet. And it doesn’t stop at screen adaptations. In recent years, Nintendo has had great success with its theme parks at Univeral Studios, while other games such as Monster Hunter and Resident Evil have been reimagined as excellent theme park attractions in Japan. ***** is an old hand in this business, with its Joypolis and other entertainment centres. Scarpone said ***** is keen to expand on this, offering the example of its upcoming collaboration with the Kai Tak Sports Park mall currently under construction in Hong Kong. “Within that complex, we're going to have Sonic Stadium, which is a destination for families and children in particular, as a ticketed area where you can be immersed in the world of Green Hills and Sonic and friends. “What Nintendo has done with Universal Studios is the gold standard, and we have similar aspirations. Attractions are another format to tell our stories and delight our fans, and we really want to be in that space. We’re not launching our own standalone theme park, but we are looking into different partnerships.” Daniel Robson is Chief Editor of IGN Japan. Follow him on twitter here. View the full article

Image: Activision Activision’s Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 is launching on Nvidia’s GeForce Now game streaming service on Friday, October 25th — the same day it launches on all other platforms. It’s the first time a Call of Duty game is launching day one on GeForce Now, which follows Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023 and a deal to launch its games on Nvidia’s service. New Call of Duty releases had exclusive content deals with PlayStation for many years, but Microsoft struck a deal with Sony as part of a promise it would bring parity for the franchise’s future launches when it acquired Activision Blizzard. Microsoft had to compromise in its buyout of Activision Blizzard to get past regulators, which included bringing games from the... Continue reading… View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Every Thursday we share the weekly Famitsu sales charts, which tracks physical boxed game sales and hardware sales in Japan. ... Read more View the full article

Yooka-Replaylee will be coming to consoles as well as its previously confirmed PC version, developer Playtonic says. According to the studio, the game will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and “Nintendo platforms”, implying a version will be coming to both the Switch and its as-yet unannounced successor. Playtonic is not yet ready to announce the game’s release date, however, saying: “Experience the definitive version of Yooka and Laylee’s very first adventure on a platform of your choice when the game launches on… wait, too soon for that.” Read More... View the full article

Image: Minecraft Minecraft will officially stop supporting all virtual reality headsets after March 2025, according to an update posted to the Bedrock changelog. The update means Minecraft will no longer support devices like the Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality headsets, or the Meta Quest (through Quest Link), as reported earlier by UploadVR. Last month, Minecraft developer Mojang also announced that the game would end support for PlayStation VR headsets next March. When Minecraft’s spring update rolls around, Mojang says you’ll still be able to “keep building in your worlds, and your Marketplace purchases (including Minecoins) will continue to be available on a non-VR/MR graphics device such as a computer monitor.” As pointed out by UploadVR, you’ll... Continue reading… View the full article