There's a lot going on, so here's the short version of what happened in PC gaming this week:
• Republican politicians say videogames partly to blame for mass shootings (opens in new tab)
Politicians have predictably turned their attention toward games following two mass shootings. US President Donald Trump also called for (opens in new tab) an end to "gruesome and grisly videogames."
• Valve has put a stop to the Steam release date exploit (opens in new tab)
To appear in the popular upcoming games list on Steam, some developers allegedly set release dates on the backend that differed from their game's listed release date. Valve now requires devs to get in touch before changing a release date.
• Ooblets devs reveal threats of violence and racist abuse following Epic Store announcement (opens in new tab)
After the two-person Ooblets team announced they'd be releasing exclusively on the Epic Store, they received a flood of racist, threatening, and violent messages. Co-creator Ben Wasser responded this week, as did Epic, which issued a statement (opens in new tab) on 'misinformation and abuse.'
• 2K confirms sending private investigators to Borderlands streamer's house (opens in new tab)
The company says its actions are the result of a "10-month investigation" into YouTuber SupMatto, who denies any wrongdoing.
• Death Stranding is no longer listed as a PlayStation 4 exclusive (opens in new tab)
The removal has sparked a bit of hope that the PC release, which was briefly mentioned in 2015 and then never spoken of again, is still on. My guess is that Death Stranding will never release on any platform, and we're actually playing it right now.
• No Man's Sky Beyond will add 32 player support, powered bases, cooking, and alien milking (opens in new tab)
Remember the big controversy when No Man's Sky released without alien milking? It's finally being addressed.
• Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and others agree to start sharing loot box odds (opens in new tab)
It looks like sharing drop rates is going to become an industry standard. Epic Games also signed on (opens in new tab), and we learned this week that Rocket League will do away with paid loot boxes altogether (opens in new tab).
• Ark's next expansion, Genesis, brings giant sea turtle forts and a voiced AI companion (opens in new tab)
The expansion will come in two parts, and will include a new map, Ark's first speaking character, and a very big turtle.
More news
- E3 organizer leaks personal info of over 2,000 media and content creators (opens in new tab)
- Elizabeth Warren wants to give rural America better internet (opens in new tab)
- Discord is adding built-in gameplay streaming to its voice channels (opens in new tab)
- Infinity Ward says Modern Warfare isn't political (opens in new tab)
- More rejected Borderlands 3 cover art (opens in new tab)
- Twitch has launched its own broadcasting software (opens in new tab)
- Apex Legends tournament won't air on TV due to recent shootings (opens in new tab)
- Blizzard is helping people find old World of Warcraft friends (opens in new tab)
Tweet of the week
This miracle save originally happened a while back, but it deserved to be seen again. I'm one of the players who was left to defend two-on-three while Julez went to get his pizza.
0:00 pizza guy rings doorbell0:12 hold down the gas and boost with an elastic so i don’t get kicked for inactivity0:35 the most calculated save of all time??? pic.twitter.com/aKmUKS14ITAugust 7, 2019
Around the office
Andy Kelly is hard at work making a text-based survival game, which he says is "extremely immersive, with many deep, nuanced systems." You can follow his progress in the thread below, but be warned, it's not for the faint of heart—there's a terrible slip and fall, and a gruesome bear attack involved.
I'm making a survival game in Twine. It's already extremely immersive, with many deep, nuanced systems. pic.twitter.com/brhMWeL4nRAugust 7, 2019
Speaking of injuries, I stubbed my toe so hard the whole thing turned purple, but I couldn't miss a Borderlands 3 preview event earlier this week so I taped it up and limped on over anyway. Look for my impressions next week, which will only be slightly colored by distracting toe pain.
Meanwhile, Chris spent one of his evenings uncovering the year's biggest scandal: The NPCs in GTA Online win way more at the slots than he does (opens in new tab). Unacceptable!
Lauren investigated the difficulties of making penises in games (opens in new tab)(the short of it is that it's hard), James checked out some potent nostalgia art (opens in new tab), and Joanna refused to let her Sims do laundry (opens in new tab). It was a pretty normal week for us.
Have a great weekend. Be kind to yourself, be kind to others, and update your graphics drivers if you haven't recently.
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