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A true contender to Overwatch‘s control of the hero shooter genre, one that’s supported by a globally recognized IP, has finally gotten into the hands of the general playerbase via a closed alpha test. The first closed alpha for Marvel Rivals officially went live at 7pm CT today; however, only roughly 30,000 players could acquire initial access, and only in the U.S. and Canada. Players can pick from an assortment of iconic Marvel heroes and villains that fall into either the tank, DPS, or support categories. There are 19 available heroes during the closed alpha, but images of over 20 unannounced heroes have leaked online already. View the full article

HoYoverse celebrates high engagement from Honkai: Star Rail fans in the online Robin fan letter event by releasing a new promo code for all to redeem. The new promo code will be available for a limited time during Honkai: Star Rail Version 2.2, the update that serves as the culmination of the Penacony storyline. View the full article

A new side-by-side video comparatively shows that Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 has seen a substantial graphical upgrade since its first gameplay reveal. With its May 21 launch right around the corner, Microsoft has actively ramped up the marketing for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, and developer Ninja Theory is in the final stretch of polishing the game. View the full article

Asus recently confirmed to The Verge that it will release a hardware update to its ROG Ally handheld PC this year. The new model, the ROG Ally X, will receive a full unveiling on June 2. Pricing details will likely be revealed then, but the company confirmed that the revision... Read Entire Article View the full article

Developer Metamorphosis Games spotted some unforeseen issues from their last round of testing. View the full article

While Final Fantasy 14’s North ********* servers have stabilized since the May 6 DDoS *******, it seems overseas players haven’t been as lucky. Of the three continued attacks on the servers, Europe has been caught in every single one for five consecutive days of intermittent outages. So far, none of the outages have been as severe as the worldwide DDoS ******* on Monday, which started 12 hours before the scheduled all-worlds maintenance and five hours after for a total of 17 hours of worldwide downtime between May 6 and 7. There have been three more confirmed DDoS attacks since; a six-hour outage on NA, EU, and Oceanic servers on May 7, a four-hour outage hitting Japan and EU on May 9, and the ongoing ******* affecting EU and JP servers—now lasting over 15 hours. View the full article

Amid all the debates around the canon status of Fallout: New Vegas since the release of the Fallout TV series, there's one particular faction ending that makes a lot more sense. The Fallout TV series is the latest in the timeline, which means it inevitably incorporates details from all the games. These can be both major and minor, ranging from people and places referenced on posters seen briefly in the background of one shot, to entire recurring factions who play a major role in the story. View the full article

Helldivers 2's PC version has been delisted from the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. Many players were unable to purchase Helldivers 2 in the wake of the controversial PlayStation Network account-linking update after developer Arrowhead Game Studios' hit cooperative PvE shooter was removed from over a hundred countries. Unfortunately for players, their troubles might not yet be over, and more delistings might be in the game's future. View the full article

A Honkai: Star Rail chart reveals four-star characters that have gone over patches without getting their reruns. Every Honkai: Star Rail update gives at least two characters their own reruns, allowing players to obtain a duplicate of their favorite units. These playable banners appear on temporary event warps and can only be obtained with Special Rail Passes. View the full article

Fishing makes for a relaxing and often somewhat rewarding way to pass the time in Destiny 2, but as one recent and rather unfortunate game clip makes clear, it does still have a problem which can cause players to miss out on their loot if they're not paying attention. Despite the activities introduced with Destiny 2's recent Into the Light update attracting most of the attention at the moment, there ******** a healthy variety of fishing enthusiasts in the game who prefer to take a much more peaceful approach to acquiring loot. View the full article

Bungie and Aleph One Developers have re-released the classic first-person shooter game, Marathon, on Steam for free. Most gamers attribute Bungie's pedigree in the FPS genre to being the creators of Halo and Destiny. While those two series are what Bungie is arguably most well-known for nowadays, the Marathon series is what helped the developer get a solid footing in the gaming landscape. View the full article

Management and tycoon games, from Tropico 6 to Planet Zoo, are a good time. As entries to the genre like Jurassic World Evolution 2 show, they can be an even better time when part of the player's management duties involves taking care of strange creatures. Galacticare is a game that understands this, offering a combination of the healthcare simulation aspects of Two Point Hospital and the sci fi creativity of Stellaris. It's looked like a smart idea since we first saw it announced last year, and now we're happy to see it's just received a launch date that's much closer than we anticipated. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: New Steam management sim Galacticare takes Two Point Hospital to space View the full article

Much like Escape From Tarkov, Arena Breakout: Infinite has missions that require you to collect specific items from various points on the map and successfully extract with them.One of the first quests that you’ll encounter in Arena Breakout is Personal Package. One of your contacts, Evita, needs you to collect a special envelope from the Artificial Lake on the Farm map. Thankfully, you get a quest marker on the map for this one, but it’s still hard to find where the envelope is hidden.Arena Breakout Infinite Envelope LocationScreenshot: PC InvasionTo start this quest, load into the Farm map. Your destination is the Artificial Lake, a POI located in the northwestern corner of the map. Sometimes you’ll spawn right next to the Artificial Lake, but you might get unlucky and end up starting your raid on the eastern edge of the Farm. It’s a small map anyway, though, so it shouldn’t take too long to get there.Once you reach the Artificial Lake...View the full article

Last year's Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is getting story-focused DLC in the form of Stray Gods: Orpheus, which will star the titular mythical bard rather than base game protagonist Grace. Coming back to earth for a new story, Orpheus will once again be played by Anthony Rapp, the ********* actor and singer best known for his performance in the original run of the musical Rent, the film version of the same show, and most recently (and to most of you, my fellow nerds) in Star Trek: Discovery... Read more.View the full article

Throughout its three acts, Baldur's Gate 3 throws an overwhelming number of choices at the party, all while they try to focus on saving Faern. While some might seem small at first, they can have a large impact on a playthrough later down the road. Some other decisions might not directly affect the party but will have negative consequences for other characters or even the world. View the full article

Ghost of Tsushima is on the verge of release for PC, and a new Nvidia GPU driver is ready for it. The Nvidia GeForce driver will help Ghost of Tsushima players to make the most of their Nvidia graphics cards to deliver visually impressive graphics and a smooth frame rate. View the full article

Bungie's first real shooter hit, Marathon, has been released on Steam for modern hardware as Classic Marathon, a fan-led port that has Bungie's blessing to release. Classic Marathon is completely free, letting you have the rare experience of playing a classic game not only easily but with zero time spent hunting down an old copy and fighting with compatibility... Read more.View the full article

Even with its shortcomings at launch, I was always strongly affected by Cyberpunk 2077's portrayal of living on borrowed time. The denial, the bargaining, the pills you're prescribed that barely seem to do anything: it's all cut from a very real cloth, one I know well after a half year of preparing for something only marginally better than my central nervous system getting slow-cooked by a neuro-degenerative **********. Thankfully, my prognosis looks less grim now, but I'll never forget experiencing the two side by side... Read more.View the full article

Last December, Ubisoft announced it was delisting its MMO racing game The Crew from all digital storefronts but shutting down the servers on March 31, 2024. Weeks after the servers were slated to shut down, Ubisoft began notifying players who owned a copy of The Crew that it was removing it from their Ubisoft accounts. Though Ubisoft is not the first company to shut down servers for an online-only game, the recent closure of The Crew’s online servers has inspired one individual to push for legal and government intervention to address the ever-growing industry trend. It's a trend that has sparked even debate in the industry after Microsoft announced the closure of Arkane Studios, the developer behind Redfall. This decision has led to the cancellation of future updates and planned DLC for this online-only game. Although Redfall's servers are still operational, its long-term support ******** uncertain, as it ******** to be seen how long Microsoft will keep the servers up and whether or not it will provide an offline mode once it finally sunsets its support for Redfall. "Due to the game's size and France's strong consumer protection laws, this represents one of the best opportunities to hold a publisher accountable for this action,” Scott wrote on the official website for Stop ******** Games. “If we are successful in bringing charges against Ubisoft, this can have a ripple effect on the videogames industry to prevent publishers from destroying more games.” If you REALLY think about... if The Crew franchise continues to have vehicle transfer it's THE biggest cop out to shut the games down "oh well we're shutting this one down but your cars did and will import to the next games so who cares right?" [Hidden Content] — SidWaj (@WajSid) December 18, 2023 The Crew is shutting down next year and since it's online-only, it will be ***** for good. Looks like I was off by 2 years. It's still one of the largest open world driving games made. What a great business model throwing all that effort into the trash.[Hidden Content] — Accursed Farms (@accursedfarms) December 14, 2023 In a statement sent to IGN, a Ubisoft spokesperson told IGN it had “no further comment” regarding The Crew's shutdown. The spokesperson reiterated that although the news could disappoint players, “it was necessary” for Ubisoft, citing server infrastructure and “licensing constraints.” The painful limits of online games Scott’s efforts are an attempt to address a trend that has been going on for years now, but in recent years has only become more acute Newzoo Senior Market Analyst Michael Wagner says that in the past, it was common for games to lose online support after a certain *******, usually when the “player bases move on to other titles.” Still, extra features would keep the game playable, like a single-player campaign, local multiplayer, and the option to set up private servers. However, in recent years, the idea of online games being completely unplayable has become “a fairly new phenomenon,” Wagner explains. According to Wagner, publishers shut down games because of dwindling player bases and the need for more profitability of upkeep when newer entries are released in existing franchises, with examples including Battlefield and Call of Duty. Wagner explains how older games could threaten the newer games’ ability to turn a profit. “Players may continue with older iterations but may not spend within the game the new game. Removing functionality, in theory, means increased revenues for the new title.” Liam Deane, principal analyst at Omdia, shares similar sentiments, noting “almost all online-only games have a finite lifespan.” While there are a few rare exceptions, most notably Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, Deane reiterates Wagner’s comments on player bases dwindling after a few years as a main reason for publishers shutting down servers. “Almost all online-only games have a finite lifespan.” “Until the mid-2000s or so online games typically allowed players to host private servers,” Deane explained. “But these days, the publisher usually shoulders the cost of maintaining the game servers. At some point, this is a cost which they are going to want to stop paying once a game’s player base drops below a certain level.” With an increase in live service games and in-game purchases becoming a big source of revenue, the worrying trend of online-only games will continue for the foreseeable future. Deane explains that “across the entire industry,” 54% of revenue comes from microtransactions or in-game purchases, according to his research. The proportion is “obviously even higher” for live service games, where it’s common to have a surplus of microtransactions or in-game items purchasable for players. When the player base dries up, so does the revenue, and with it, the chances of a game’s survival. Nevertheless, the games industry is industry placing more and more emphasis on multiplayer games, particularly live service titles, such as Fortnite, Palworld, and Helldivers 2. These projects not only rely on a player base consistently coming back to play the game, but also on players being online to access this content. When they shut down, they take their communities with them. Friday the 13th, which will have its servers permanently turned off on December 31, 2024, is just one game suffering this fate. Scott explains that while licensing agreements can prevent companies from selling additional companies of a game once the license expires, it does “not prevent existing buyers from continuing to use the game they have already paid for.” Yet, the ownership of some games ******** a gray area, especially in the ******* States, where legal precedent has significantly stripped consumers of their rights. The most significant legal case impacting this is ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenbger, which reworked U.S. Contract Law, allowing the courts to defer to End User License Agreements. Essentially, the case meant that these agreements allow publishers to be absolved of any accountability and obligation owed to consumers who purchased a product and assert authority over when their online-only games become unplayable once support ends. "If you bought a game, if you made a game, if you love a game, technology shouldn't get in the way. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has led the ****** for ownership rights in the since 1990, with the agency mainly focusing on advocating for creators, technologists, and technology users' digital rights. As Cory Doctorow, EFF Special Advisor, emphasizes, "If you bought a game, if you made a game, if you love a game, technology shouldn't get in the way of that game's ongoing existence. Instead, technology should preserve that game for players who love it today, for the people who are proud of making it, for players who come later, and for games makers of the future." However, the challenge is wider than the ******* States. In countries like Canada and the ***, there is little precedent preventing companies from revoking a purchase post-*****. In contrast, the EU and Australia need help getting a governmental examination of the issue. One common global challenge is lobbying groups' influence, particularly in the gaming industry, which may work to maintain the status quo of an uneven balance of power between game companies and consumers. A domino effect Nevertheless, despite the varying degrees of laws influencing consumer rights worldwide, Scott explains that this proposed domino effect of filing complaints to the DGCCRF would still have a worldwide impact. For example, in 2014, when the *********** Competition and Consumer Commission sued Valve for not providing customers an option to refund games on Steam, the company had no choice but to modify its policy to allow refunds on Steam in Australia and other countries like the ******* States. Ultimately, Scott and Doctorow encourage individuals to advocate for the change they want. They encourage fans to file complaints and force governments to examine the company's behavior and practices. In the meantime, Scott's initiative is gaining momentum in raising awareness and urging players to defend their rights and challenge this frustrating trend dictated by publishers. “I think by taking the customer's money, that creates an obligation for publishers to give customers a reasonable expectation to run the game in some fashion,” Scott says, “even after support ends.” Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster. View the full article

Photo by IDA MARIE ODGAARD/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images GameStop, the used video game retailer that’s become increasingly associated with other kinds of speculative investments, wants to cash in on the resurgent card collecting craze — staffers have told Pokébeach, Polygon, and The Verge that stores will begin buying and selling rare Pokémon cards, and possibly other cards, as soon as next week. GameStop apparently doesn’t want just any cards, though: employees across multiple states say they’ll only be buying cards that have already been graded by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) at an 8, 9, or 10, meaning they’re in near-mint condition or better with only slight imperfections. And yet, GameStop won’t accept the rarest cards valued at over $500, either, Pokébeach and Polygon report.... Continue reading… View the full article

Nvidia has started to test and verify its cooling modules for upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, which are codenamed "Blackwell." The new RTX 50 series GPUs are speculated to launch in the second half of 2024 at the very earliest, and a full reveal by Nvidia could happen as soon as Q3 2024 begins. View the full article

Animal Well is one of the top sellers on Steam a day after its launch. On September 21, 2022, popular internet personality Jason Gastrow, also known as Dunkey, announced that he was co-founding a video game publishing company named Bigmode with his wife, streamer and YouTuber Leahbee. Many reacted with cautious optimism, awaiting proof of concept, and that optimism grew when Bigmode's first release, Animal Well, was finally shown off. View the full article

Valve released an update to Proton Experimental for Linux and Steam Deck today which continues to expand the controller support available for various games launchers, amongst a bunch of other improvements. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Electronic Arts is currently working on inserting more “dynamic” ads into its AAA titles, and this development has produced a lot of justified eye-rolling from gamers as a whole, despite how “thoughtful” CEO Andrew Wilson says the company is being about it. AAA games already cost a hefty $60 or $70 to buy, and as long as games have existed, not being served ads has always been included in that premium price. At the end of the day though, publishers like EA will consider anything that brings in more money over time. And for that reason, they should consider something I’ve been thinking about for some time, especially now that they want to include ads: make EA FC free-to-play. View the full article

The first hotfix for the 1.0 full-release version of V Rising is live with various bug fixes, including a solution for Rift Incursions not spawning on PvP servers. With a large amount of new content added to V Rising, bugs were expected. The quick release of the hotfix, as well as a list of known issues the team is working on, highlights the dedication to a proper functioning game for the community. View the full article