radiofloyd Posted July 3, 2019 Share Posted July 3, 2019 Unexpected good news. The Langrisser collection is being released in English. https://gematsu.com/2019/07/langrisser-i-ii-coming-west-for-ps4-switch-and-pc-in-early-2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted July 3, 2019 Share Posted July 3, 2019 cool. I'm not sure about some of that art, but I never got around to Langrisser, it looks pretty decent. Someone should do dragon force next 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Interesting viewpoint from an indie dev about key (re)sellers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-48908726 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 2 hours ago, shinymcshine said: Interesting viewpoint from an indie dev about key (re)sellers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-48908726 I was watching something about this, the short version for those not clicking the link is that if people end up buying a stolen key from G2A it means that when it gets deactivated or runs in to problems the devs end up spending time trying to work out what the issue is, and sometimes end up getting the money for a refund taken from their account (if someone used a stolen card to buy the key) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Those pesky kids emptied my bank account buying packs for FIFA (NS): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-48908766 Might have been a good opportunity to clearly explain what FUT and FIFA boxes are all about, but an opportunity missed. Speaking of which; A bit of a PC fail by the BBC with their picture of Kim Hunter (The Journey) who doesn't appear in the NS version of FIFA IIRC - albeit lots of other women footballers, many who are much more familiar after the World Cup, do (albeit does women's football feature in FUT?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 Not sure if anyone cares, but this was shaping up to be a cool little horror game. It turned out some artist placed a meme taking the piss out of the Chinese president, so the developers pulled Devotion from sale by way of apology (the Chinese apparently don't like their leaders being made fun of, here most of us would just nod). Initially Devotion was pulled to remove the art and check there wasn't anything else hidden, then they seemed to just be waiting until the time was right, or finishing up the game quietly, but it seems like the abuse may have carried on even after the game was removed Quote Taiwanese game developer Red Candle Games has issued a new statement on the status of its horror game, Devotion, which was pulled from Steam in February over a Winnie the -Pooh joke. And it appears the developers will not be re-releasing the game. In its new statement, Red Candle confirmed it will not be putting Devotion back up for sale, following controversy about an included joke that referenced Chinese president Xi Jinping and Pooh together.“For the past four months, the art asset incident related to ‘Devotion’ has caused immeasurable harm to Red Candle Games and our partner. We would like to offer our most sincere apology to all impacted teams and personnel,” the Red Candle Games team writes in a public Twitter statement. View image on Twitter redcandlegames@redcandlegames Greetings, we are Red Candle Games from Taiwan. To all of our players, industry and media friends, we would like to provide an update on ‘Devotion’. 2,279 11:00 AM - Jul 15, 2019 1,093 people are talking about this Twitter Ads info and privacy And although Red Candle says it’s still in “business mediations” the Red Candle co-founders, “have reached a unanimous decision to not re-release ‘Devotion’ in the near term, including but not limited to obtaining profit from sales, revision, IP authorization, etc. to prevent unnecessary misconception.” Ign Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 Quote Video game developers could be prosecuted if they fail to prevent children gambling using items featured in popular games such as Call of Duty and Counter-Strike, MPs have been told. In an evidence session with the digital, media, culture and sport select committee, which is examining links between gaming and gambling, the UK’s betting regulator said it had “significant concerns” about products such as skins and loot boxes. Skins are in-game items that can be won in the game, such as weapons, outfits or particular football players, while loot boxes invite players to pay a certain amount for a mystery reward. Such products are not defined as gambling under English law, due to the fact that the in-game items cannot be exchanged for cash within the game, despite the fact they can be bought and traded with real money on other sites and acquiring them may involve an element of chance akin to placing a bet. The Gambling Commission’s programme director, Brad Enright, said it was “constrained by the current legislation”, although it was prepared to regulate such products if the law were changed. But Enright said action could be taken against video games firms who were not doing enough to prevent players selling the items for cash, or gamble with them, on websites set up by third parties. “The popular game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the game we’ve seen the most inquiries about,” Enright told MPs. “We’ve had dialogue with Valve Corporation [which publishes the game]. Where we draw their attention to particular games where British consumers including children are gambling on those sites, they have closed them down. “We’ve said that’s not a sustainable approach. They’ve created this situation ... and there’s an onus and responsibility on them to address the byproduct of how they’re operating.” He said games companies could take action by having such sites shut down for breach of copyright but firms such as Valve were waiting for the regulator to flag such instances, rather than acting of their own volition. “Ultimately we have criminal powers to prosecute for providing the facility of gambling without a licence,” he said. Enright and Neil McArthur, the Gambling Commission’s chief executive, said they were less concerned by games developer EA, which they said was working harder to prevent players exchanging loot boxes available in the Fifa football games for cash. Committee member Ian Lucas questioned the extent to which games developers had any incentive to prevent their products being used to gamble. He said: “If businesses like EA don’t want to encourage gambling, why do they continue to use loot boxes? It seems to me that, bearing in mind children are using these games, that it’s creating an understanding of a process very close to gambling and that concerns me. It seems to me is that it makes money for EA.” McArthur said he was even more concerned about so-called social casino games, gambling-style products that mimic casino and slots games that can be played by children but do not offer the opportunity to win money. Such games require age verification if they are on a gambling company’s website, but the Gambling Commission does not regulate those found on social media such as Facebook. The Guardian has approached Valve Corporation for comment. Guardian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 I wonder if the UK can wrangle for loot boxes and the like to be classed as gambling if any company that used them would be liable to pay the 15% gambling tax and how that would effect those games getting released over here. Rather than put an entire team on developing a different version for such a small market, or pay out a big lump of extra tax, I can see a lot of companies just swerving us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49074003 As above, but the ruling is that loot boxes aren't gambling as they have no monetary value - but I guess what Bob is getting as is whether there would be a political imperative to change the definition of gambling so the government could then skim 15% from those companies involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 Yeah, basically they can't enforce what they might like to. It's more a problem with the current rules than what they group actual think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HandsomeDead Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 With the likes of Fifa I think they'll pay the tax because the amount they make from them still makes it worth it. Smaller games on the other hand I dunno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 17 minutes ago, DifferentClass said: With the likes of Fifa I think they'll pay the tax because the amount they make from them still makes it worth it. Smaller games on the other hand I dunno. Suppose it's not as simple as that - if it's gambling then it'll have to have an 16/18 age rating too, together with pop up warnings about gambling addiction etc - and that is likely to affect overall sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HandsomeDead Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 Yeah, I never thought of warnings in-game. It's not the kind of optics anyone wants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 Looking forward to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Posted July 24, 2019 Author Share Posted July 24, 2019 The studio that made Hand of Fate are shutting down. I never got around to playing the second game but enjoyed the first one. Shame but it doesn't sound like a case of people showing up to work to find closed doors and a couple of months wages missing. So that's nice. Trailer for what they were working on. Also EA access is on PS4 now with like 5 games lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallofbooty Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Grand Theft Auto maker has paid no UK corporation tax in 10 years – report https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jul/29/grand-theft-auto-maker-uk-corporation-tax-rockstar-north-games?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Posted July 29, 2019 Author Share Posted July 29, 2019 I felt legitimate disgust reading that article. Well done corporations, you've done it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinymcshine Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 16 hours ago, Bob said: I felt legitimate disgust reading that article. Well done corporations, you've done it again. Initially I felt the same, but I'd guess they've generated a lot of VAT on game sales etc, and essentially are just working within the framework that the government has allowed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted July 30, 2019 Share Posted July 30, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 This looks pretty delicious https://gematsu.com/2019/08/minoria-launches-august-27-for-pc-later-for-consoles From the makers of the Momodora series which I own but haven’t played... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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