In The News
Weekend in review:
The Witcher turns 10 this month, and CD Projekt Red is celebrating by releasing a touching little tribute video to Geralt and Co.
We’ve got more information on Xbox One mouse and keyboard support. Mike Ybarra announced at PAX West that “the first Xbox One games to support these peripherals are coming ‘soon,’ and that the company already has an idea as to how it’ll handle support,” Engadget’s Jon Fingas reports. “A lot of it will be ‘up to developer choice,’ Ybarra says, but Microsoft will ‘coach’ studios to make sure they add the feature responsibly — it’s aware that there are potential balance problems.”
Nudes are cool, but don’t go too far you perverts. Final Fantasy XV’s producer warned that they’ll have a limit on tolerance for nude modding when the game comes out on PC.
“Game director Hajime Tabata did express some hesitation, though. While Final Fantasy 15 modding won’t be restricted, nude mods, or presumably anything deemed salacious, are a worry of the developers,” PC Gamer’s Tyler Wilde and Steven Messner report. “While it’s ultimately up to the CEO of Square Enix, he says that ‘if things are taken a little too far,’ the mods for Final Fantasy 15 might affect the moddability of future Final Fantasy games. ‘So if there’s anything we can say, it’s try to be as controlled as possible.’”
Twitch intends to roll out more features for streamers, and the latest will focus on interactivity. “‘Twitch Extensions’ will allow Twitch streamers to customize their channel by giving viewers experiences they can engage with,” Glixel’s Blake Hester explains. “At launch, more than 20 plugins will be available for polls, music, leaderboards and more.”
Mario isn’t stressed on Thanksgiving, at least not anymore. Mario’s profile has been updated, and he’s no longer a plumber. A translation of the profile reads as “All around sporty, whether it’s tennis or baseball, soccer or car racing, he [Mario] does everything cool. As a matter of fact, he also seems to have worked as a plumber a long time ago…” Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft reports that “According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the character, then named ‘Jumpman,’ was ‘basically a carpenter’ in 1981’s Donkey Kong, because the game takes place on a construction site.”
“Sonic Mania contains a lovely tribute to a Sonic hacker who died tragically in 2013,” Eurogamer’s Wesley Yin-Poole reports. “Polygon Jim, real name Cody Lawrence, was a member of the Sonic hacking community who died in a car crash aged just 21. He was known for the Motobug the Badnik hack in the first Sonic the Hedgehog.”
Turtle Entertainment is suing Azubu (Smashcast) to the tune of $1.5 million “over an alleged fraudulent breach of contract regarding a two-year streaming partnership between the companies,” Dot Esports’ Thiemo Brautigam reports. “If Azubu loses the lawsuit, it could cost the self-proclaimed Twitch rival more than $1.5 million, the sum ESL charged per year.”
Noah Caldwell-Gervais is out with a 1-hour “retrospective” look at the Crysis series and what went wrong. “It’s a fascinating look at what went wrong with a franchise that used to be so ubiquitous that “Can it run Crysis?” was a joking question that was commonly used to judge new PCs,” Polygon’s Ben Kuchera writes.
Steamy sex is becoming a problem. “Valve has asked another developer to censor sexual content in order for their game to be sold on Steam,” GamesIndustry.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports. There’s a sex scene in Strangers in a Strange Land, “which is described by developer SOMG as an ‘erotic thriller,’ was released on July 28, but Valve subsequently removed it from sale due to its sexual content.”
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle couldn’t surmount Uncharted: Lost Legacy in physical United Kingdom sales. It came in 2nd for its first week out, GameSpot’s Oscar Dayus reports. “Below these, Codemasters’ F1 2017 drops one place to No.3, while Grand Theft Auto V and Crash Bandicoot’s N. Sane Trilogy continue to chart well in No.4 and No.5, respectively.”