After recent patch notes drummed up interest, Valve has confirmed its Linux-powered SteamOS will support upcoming, non-Steam Deck handhelds.Designer Lawrence Yang told The Verge third-party devices can eventually run its operating system, beginning with ASUS' ROG Ally. Yang told the outlet support was in the cards back in late 2022, as a potential herald for the Steam Controller or Machine's return.However, he stressed this feature "isn't ready to run out of the box yet." Valve is making "steady progress," and it sounds like it wants to have support for multiple handhelds prepared before pushing it out."The note about ROG Ally keys is related to third-party device support for SteamOS," he explained. "The team is continuing to work on adding support for additional handhelds."When Yang spoke with The Verge in 2022, he said a separate release of SteamOS 3 (the Deck's operating system at the time) was planned. That effort has also made progress, and he's now said Valve will make Windows drivers for the Steam Deck OLED available for use.That feature will let users switch between that and the Windows OS, which could expand …
The annual Scottish Games Week will be a no-show for 2024.Per founder and director Brian Baglow, the organizers put it on rest mode due to "disruption across the video game ecosystem and political landscape." With "ongoing" delays in funding and government support, Baglow says he doesn't want 2024 to have a "substandard" showing.Since its start in 2022, SGW has been billed as Scotland's biggest games event. While temporary, its loss creates a further rift between the country's developers and that of other UK regions like London.Baglow assured SGW would return in October 2025 "bigger, better, and more creative than ever." As preparation for that, the event is now looking for partners, sponsors, and advisors.Additionally, organizers are seeking out developers from Scotland to join the SGW Advisory Board and help "build more connected and collaborative events in the future."Interested individuals and partners are encouraged to contact Baglow here. As for sponsors, the SGW has released a simplified sponsorship deck, which can be read here.…
Prime Video is developing a new video game show, this one an anthology focused on various titles from multiple developers.Per Deadline, the series is dubbed Secret Level. Episodes will be set in the worlds of games including Spelunky and Amazon's MMO New World, along with unspecified PlayStation properties.Deadpool director Tim Miller will head up the show through his Blur studio. The company previously worked on Love, Death, & Robots for Netflix, and was name checked as a specific source of inspiration for Secret Level.For Prime Video, this marks its second video game-based show following Fallout this past April. On its own, Secret Level is the first major anthology series for the game-to-adaptation pipeline.Publishers like PlayStation and Xbox have made clear their plans to adapt their games to different mediums. But not every game may have what it takes to land on a streamer, either because they weren't built with that in mind, or they're just too old or obscure.In theory, Secret Level's anthology format could split the difference. Older games can have some time in the spotlight that could result in a popularity surge, as we've seen with Fallout and …
More changes have hit Steam, this time for its user reviews. After being spotted by players last week, Valve has implemented a helpfulness system that prioritizes informative reviews on a game's store page.As Valve explains it, helpful reviews have typically been sorted by the number of user votes designated as such. But that system's been easily exploited and made it so jokes reviews (or memes) can take center stage and go viral, which is substantially less helpful.With the new change, one-word reviews, or ones made of memes or ASCII art, will be placed behind actual reviews. Even so, the developer acknowledged those "humorous, but unhelpful posts" can be toggled back onto the store page proper through the "display" drop-down menu.Valve also said the new system "doesn't impact how review scores are generated for each game; it is simply changing the order that reviews appear on each store page."The system is a work-in-progress, and the studio said it will take "quite a while" to analyze new and current reviews to determine their helpfulness. It's unclear how this system will work when it comes to concertrated review-bombin…
Perennial spender turned layoff merchant Embracer Group says its plan to transform into three standalone businesses is on track, but feels there's room for improvement in some areas.In its fiscal report for the first quarter ended June 30, 2024, the Swedish conglomerate indicated it must improve profitability within its PC / Console Games segment by focusing on its "own and controlled key IPs, which typically have better unit economics." That comes with net sales in the unit decreasing by 34 percent year-over-year to SEK 2.65 billion ($253.2 million).Elsewhere, Mobile Games net sales decreased by 3 percent to SEK 1.39 billion. Tabletop Games net sales fell by 5 percent to SEK 3.04 billion, and Entertainment & Services net sales tumbled by 54 percent to SEK 848 million.Combined, those downturns resulted in consolidated net sales falling by 24 percent to SEK 7.9 billion ($754.8 million) across Q1. Adjusted EBIT totaled SEK 0.8 billion ($76.4 million). Pro forma net debt stands at SEK 14.3 billion ($1.36 billion).Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said performance is "in line with management expectations," and highlighted "growing profitability year-on-year …
Newsletter platform and indie advocate Pantaloon is paying it forward to other indie studios with a free platform to help those interested in self-publishing.The titular hub includes brand plans and guidelines, templates for press releases and pitch decks, and a campaign roadmap. Per Pantaloon, the hub will be updated with new resources on a monthly basis.Indie teams have been no stranger to helping each other, but that typically takes the form of a publishing label for teams in a similar position. For those wanting to self-publish (either by necessity or choice), Pantaloon's hub will be invaluable.
Pantaloon seeks to "expose as much of the publishing machine as possible"
Founder Jamin Smith noted that with the industry's "fraught year," self-publishing may be more likely for among smaller teams. "We want to expose as much of the publishing machine as possible and connect developers with tools and services that can help," he explained."Even for studios…
Arkane Studios art and co-creative director Sébastien Mitton says Marvel’s Blade builds on all of the studio’s previous development experience and releases, and yes, that does include Redfall.Over on Bethesda’s official website, Mitton reflects on previous Arkane projects as the studio celebrates its 25th birthday, starting with the 2002 action-RPG Arx Fatalis, which Mitton calls “a bold project” that ” ignited our passion for creating immersive worlds and letting players loose in them to find amazing (and often surprising!) ways to overcome challenges and tell their own story.”He then touches on early collaborations with other studios on “a series of ambitious projects”, some of which “never saw release.” Mitton doesn’t name any specific projects, but before Bethesda recruited Arkane to make Dishonored, the studio worked with various studios including Ubisoft for the 2006 action-RPG Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Valve for the canceled Half-Life spinoff Ravenholm, and Ubisoft for the canceled parkour game LMNO. During that time, Arkane also developed the multiplayer component of Call of Duty: World at War and helped with “design, animation, and art” on BioShock 2.”T…
Dragon Ball Sparking Zero doesn’t fully release until tomorrow (it’s been available for a couple of days for early access buyers), but fans are already discovering additional DLC that hasn’t been revealed before.First reported by ComicBook, if you had over to Dragon Ball Sparking Zero’s SteamDB page and scroll down, you’ll see a list of ‘Downloadable Content’ for the game, including known expansions like the ‘Anime Music Pack’ that lets you change the music in the game and the ‘Ultimate Upgrade Pack’ that includes cosmetics, emotes, player card backgrounds, and an item “that increases a character’s fighting ability”.However, if you look closely, right in the middle of the list is something called the Dragon Ball Sparking Zero Martial Arts Pack, and that’s the one Bandai Namco has yet to reveal. For that reason, we have no idea what it might include, or even when it’s coming, but it’s confirmation that Dragon Ball Sparking Zero isn’t done getting DLC beyond what’s already been revealed.We know the season pass includes three DLC packs that’ll add more than 20 characters to the already gargantuan fighter roster, so there’s a good chance the Martial Arts Pack will add even more. It’s w…
A spiritual successor to narrative-driven cRPG Disco Elysium, which will let players literally shape the world with the choices they make, is in the works from a new indie studio made of former developers from ZA/UM, Bungie, Rockstar, and Brave at Night.The studio is called Longdue, and its currently-unnamed psychological RPG will be its debut project. As per a press release, it’ll explore “the delicate interplay between the conscious and subconscious, the seen and unseen” in a world where “the lines between the mind and the environment blur,” meaning the landscape is constantly changing and evolving with each decision you make, in a physical, visual, and thematic way.Speaking to GamesRadar+, narrative director Grant Roberts tells us that Longdue’s project is “continuing a legacy” of cRPGs from the last 30 years, following a through line established by “Fallout and Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale,” as well as Disco Elysium, which itself “set the bar very high.” Rather than being daunted by that, however, Roberts thinks that being able to “continue in that legacy and stand alongside something as successful as Disco is really exciting.” This new project isn’t meant to be a compet…
XXX NIGHTSHIFT – A true detective RPG. Dialogue Gameplay Trailer – YouTube
Watch On
A second Disco Elysium spiritual successor has been announced from a different group of developers from ZA/UM.In a remarkable sequence of events, today, Friday, October 11, two separate studios made up of former Disco Elysium developers have been announced, and they’re both working on follow-ups to the acclaimed 2019 RPG. We already covered the first one and interviewed new studio Longdue, so we’re mainly going to be talking about the other new studio, Dark Math Games, and its debut project, XXX Nightshift (stylized XXX NIGHTSHIFT).You can watch the very cryptic three-minute trailer just above, which shows off some decidedly Disco Elysium-esque visuals and centers a conversation between the player character and someone named Rivers Dark. “It was inevitable,” she can be heard whispering at the start. “Why?” you ask. “It’s on,” she replies.Without any contextual clues, it’s hard to decipher much from the conversation, but it goes on for another couple of minutes before we see a partially obscured character resting in a massive bed. “Many chinchilla fur blankets cover the biggest bed you’ve ever w…