Author: William Hayes

Hopoo Games co-founders Paul Morse and Duncan Drummond have departed the Risk of Rain developer to join Valve.The studio broke the news in a post on X and revealed "many other talented [team] members" have also been hired by Valve. That cohort will be "working on game development" at the Half-Life maker and Steam owner.It's unclear how many Hopoo staffers have joined Valve in total, but it's enough for the studio to cancel upcoming project codenamed 'Snail' and bed down for the long nap."It's been an exciting and transformative 12 years. We feel lucky for the opportunities we've had, and deeply appreciate both our team and fans that have supported us and our games," wrote the studio."We love making games—and will continue to do so, for years to come. We're excited to be working side-by-side with the talented people at Valve. But for now—sleep tight, Hopoo Games."

Hopoo Games history

Hopoo was established in 2012 and found success with Deadbolt and Risk of Rain, with the latter even…

Sony is increasing the price of the PlayStation 5 and certain accessories in Japan.Breaking the news in a blog post, the company explained the standard PlayStation 5 (complete with disc drive) will now retail for 79,980 yen ($551) in the region. As noted by Reuters, that's an increase of around 20 percent on the previous price of 66,980 yen ($462).The PlayStation 5 Digital Edition will cost 72,980 yen ($504), which again represents a 20 percent increase on the old 59,980 yen ($414) price tag.

PlayStation accessories will also see a price bump

The updated RRPs will take effect on September 2, 2024, and will also result in consumers paying more for accessories including DualSense controllers, Pulse headsets and earphones, and the PlayStation VR2–the latter of which will soon cost 89,980 yen ($621).PlayStation 5 hardware has now received multiple price bumps in select markets since launching in 2020, with Sony previously blaming supply issues and inflation rates.Sony's latest fiscal report indicated PlayStation 5 hardwa…

Tony Pankhurst, an actor for Supermassive Games' Dark Pictures franchise, passed away this past May. He was 67.The actor's family published a tribute page, but offered no details on his passing. They called him a "dedicated football fan," and called for any donations to be sent towards Hospice in the Weald.Born in 1957, Pankhurst provided the likeness for the Curator, an in-universe narrator who occasionally talks to the player about their choices. The character appears across all four mainline games, and the 2023 Dark Pictures: Switchback VR game."[Tony] was the face of the Curator, and we loved working with him," wrote Supermassive. The developer donated £200 toward Hospice, thanking him for co-creating "a character loved by many."Outside of games, the UK actor had minor (and often uncredited) roles in big films like Rogue One, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the Tom Hardy-led film Legend."[Tony] is much loved and will always be remembered," concluded the Pankhursts. "We look forward to hearing your stories of times with him in due course."…

Ubisoft posted its financials for the first quarter of the 2024-2025 fiscal year, and the French developer is pleased with its performance in several areas.Net bookings for the quarter (which ended on June 30, 2024) hit €290 million (or $316.5 million). Not only is it up 8.3 percent from the same quarter for 2023-2024, it's also 5.5 percent ahead of the initial target of about €275 million.xDefiant, the studio's new shooter which released back in May, was singled out for its "encouraging" start. The game amassed over 10 million players in the first two weeks, and has generally outperformed expectations and "strong" average revenue per day."We delivered a solid start to the year with net bookings above target, reaffirming that we are on the right track," said Yves Guillemot. The Ubisoft CEO went on to affirm its 2024-2025 plans involve launching new games and "positioning them as long-lasting value drivers."

Ubisoft is confident in its 2024 releases

The two big upcoming releases for 20…

The Federal Trace Commission (FTC) had branded Xbox Game Pass a "degraded product" after Microsoft announced a price hike.Microsoft is increasing the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass for PC subscriptions. It's also introducing a new 'Standard' tier that ditches day-one access for first-party titles.As spotted by The Verge reporter Tom Warren, the FTC claims that new Standard plan is a "degraded product" that essentially forces consumers to pay more for less.The U.S. regulator noted these changes come less than a year after Microsoft completed its $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard—a deal the FTC heavily opposed—and claims the two are inherently linked."Microsoft is raising the price for its 'Game Pass Ultimate' product from $16.99/month to $19.99/month–a 17 percent year-over-year increase. Additionally, Microsoft is discontinuing its $10.99/month 'Console Game Pass' product. Users of that product must pay 81 percent more to switch to 'Game Pass Ultimate,'" wrote the FTC in a court filing.

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