The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), the organization that creates content ratings for games in North America, announced on Monday that they are adding a new ratings designation to account for loot boxes, gacha mechanics, and other randomized items. The new ratings label specifies if a game has in-game purchases with random items, which is an update to the previously broader "in-game purchases" warning label. Back in 2018, the ESRB responded to calls for their ratings system to...
Facebook is taking a deeper dive into the gaming realm. Facebook launched a new dedicated mobile app called Facebook Gaming on Monday, where people will be able to create and watch live gameplay. With this move, Facebook is angling to take on the likes of Amazon's Twitch, Microsoft's Mixer, and Google's YouTube. The original release date for the app was set for June, but with the coronavirus pandemic forcing people to stay in their homes and create their own entertainment, Facebook made...
Earlier this year, E3 joined GDC and several other conventions in cancelling their event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some events have adapted with their cancellations by moving some or all of their programming into an online format, much like Microsoft did with their Build conference last month. If you're itching to get the latest gaming news, the announcements start rolling out this Saturday. The PC Gaming Show , which is an annual live-streamed showcase of new games, exclusive gamepl...
Microsoft announced on Monday via a letter on Xbox Wire from Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, that they had acquired ZeniMax Media and publisher Bethesda Softworks. "Bethesda's games have always had a special place on Xbox and in the hearts of millions of gamers around the world," Spencer said in his statement. "Our teams have a close and storied history working together, from the amazing first DOOM, and its id Tech engine, innovating games on PCs to Bethesda bringing their first console game t...
IKEA is killing the social media game during Quarantine 2020. Between releasing their meatball recipe (complete with IKEA diagrams!) and a series of how-to-build your own blanket forts , they have been bringing humor to an otherwise frustrating time. Most recently, the company’s Taiwan division released an homage to Animal Crossing by replicating segments of their 2021 catalog directly in the game. It’s extremely clever, super creative, and definitely put a smil...
I’ll be honest: I’ve never quite understood speed running. I mean, yes, I understand the concept of speed running games and how it works, but I suppose I’ve never completely understood the overall appeal. That’s not to knock on speed gamers - you do you! - but I am more of a meanderer when it comes to my games. When I watch a speedrunner click rapidly through all of the dialogue or skip huge chunks of my favorite RPGs, I get a little squirrely. That ...
StarCraft II has been around for nearly a decade now and Blizzard has decided to celebrate with a fairly massive 5.0 update . They are currently in public testing for the update, which introduces new campaign achievements for every mission in the base game and all three expansions. The update also improves the map editor tool, putting more power into the hands of players who are looking to create their own custom campaigns. Absorbing several features from Warcraft III's game editor, Bliz...
If you’ve spent any time in the Stardock community, you know that we love mods here. Between Galactic Civilizations III , Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion , Star Control: Origins , and our other titles, there are thousands of available mods out there from an abundance of talented creators. A lot of us here play with mods not only on the studio’s games, but also games we’re playing from other studios. I know that one of the members of GalCiv’s creativ...
I am kind of a compulsive shopper (a habit I have been trying to curb over the last few years). Because of this, there is a small amount of dread and a large amount of summoned self-restraint every year when the Steam Summer Sale arrives. I haven’t bought anything yet this year - I guess I’m waiting for the last minute - but I noticed while perusing articles on gaming sites that Steam has introduced a new Points Shop . So, of course I had to go and check it out, though I&r...
In a b log post on June 24, 2020, Sony announced that they were launching a PlayStation Bug Bounty program. I think I've been playing too much Animal Crossing lately, because my first thought was along the lines of "Will they pay me 1.5x more than Nook's Cranny for my bugs, too?" Anyway. Seriously, wake your brain up woman. Wrong kind of bugs. "We believe that through working with the security research community we can deliver a safer place to play," Geoff Norton, senior director ...
Last Friday, organizers for the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) announced the cancellation of their 2020 event in San Francisco amid growing concerns over the coronavirus. Over the past few weeks, multiple companies including Sony, Microsoft, Epic Games, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Kojima Productions, Amazon, and more announced that they would be withdrawing from the event due to safety concerns. “After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry an...
Image Credit: TechCrunch On Monday, Facebook and its other affiliate sites were down and out for the count for a number of hours in a rare lengthy outage. This led to some outcry, as well as some pretty hilarious memes - but that's neither here nor there! Facebook announced today that they are rolling out the co-streaming feature for all of their creators on their Facebook Gaming platform. The feature allows users to team up and stream with each other, while enabling viewers to navigate...
Have you ever watched or participated in a speedrun for a video game before? Whether you have or not, you might want to consider giving it a try: the developer of Stardew Valley has created a new speedrun competition where the prize for the winning team totals $40,000. Now, if you've played Stardew Valley before, I'm sure your first thought is along the lines of what mine was: How the heck do you speedrun Stardew Valley ? It's a game that is literally designed to be relaxing a...
I learned today that there is a site called "Hackerone" that connects companies with users who like to hack and tinker with websites, apps, and other pieces of software. These individuals can then submit exploits and hacks to companies privately, and in exchange they are frequently compensated with a fair amount of money. This is precisely what happened earlier this week when a user called Drbrix found an exploit on Valve's Steam app. The Steam wallet exploit discovered by Drbrix would hav...
Discord has been testing the feature out on Twitter for the last few months or so, but was finally ready to launch its new "threads" feature yesterday. Threads has been a highly-requested update to the chat server, with its community of users looking for a way to make conversations in bustling servers easier to follow. Any server with "community" features enabled will be able to transform messages into threaded conversations on both mobile and desktop. Threads can be designated with their own...