Category Archives: Gaming

Palworld Developer Says Pokémon Lawsuit Will Prompt More ‘Disappointing’ Changes

Gaming

Palworld developer Pocketpair has released a statement regarding changes to its monster catching survival game which were made due to its ongoing Pokémon lawsuit, Eurogamer  reported. 

Nintendo announced it was suing Pocketpair for infringement of “multiple” patents toward the end of last year. It was later confirmed the lawsuit was targeting three patents in particular. Then, as part of a winter update, Pocketpair subsequently removed the ability to summon creatures by throwing Pokéball-style Pal Spheres.

Writing on social media platform X earlier today, Pocketpair expressed disappointment that such actions were required back then, before stating it was not having to make “yet another compromise” due to the lawsuit. 

The developer said it understood this would be “disappointing for many”, just as it is for the Palworld team. However, it said the changes are “necessary in order to prevent further disruptions” to the game’s development, and it remains “committed to delivering exciting new content for players.

Video Games Chronicle reported: Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair Company filed a lawsuit in Japan last year, alleging that Palworld infringes on three patents that are related to the monster catching gameplay, all of which were initially filed by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company between February and July of last year. Palworld was released on January 19, 2024.

On Thursday, Pocketpair confirmed it had previously patched out the ability to summon Pals via ‘Pal Spheres’ due to legal action, and confirmed that further changes were coming in order to avoid disrupting future development and releases.

“On November 30th, 2024, we released Patch v03.11 for Palworld,” it said. “This patch removed the ability to summon Pals by throwing Pal Spheres and instead changed into a static summon next to the player.

“Several other game mechanics were also changed in this patch. As many have speculated, these changes were indeed a result of ongoing litigation. Everyone here at Pocketpair was disappointed that this adjustment had to be made, and we fully understand many players feel the same frustration.

“Unfortunately, as the alternative would have led to an even greater deterioration of the gameplay experience for players, it was determined that this change was necessary.”

PCGamer reported: Today, Palworld received a new patch. Update v0.5.5. doesn’t add any new features, Pals, or environments. It doesn’t fix any bugs or offer any optimization improvements. Instead, the accompanying Steam news post from developer Pocketpair only includes patch notes.

Mechanics Adjustment: The mechanics for gliding with a Pal have been changed. Until now, you could use certain Pals as a glider, however, from this patch you will only be able to glide using a glider. Glider Pals will now provide a new passive partner skill effect while gliding, but the player must have a glider equipped to actually glide.

Pocketpair offered additional context for the update in a post on X, explaining that the adjustment to Pal gliding was “another compromise” made in response to Nintendo’s ongoing lawsuit, which alleges that Pocketpair infringed on a series of patents protecting Pokémon game mechanics.

 

 

Xbox Cloud Streaming Expands Beyond Game Pass To Games You Own

Gaming, Microsoft

Microsoft is starting to open up Xbox Cloud Gaming to existing Xbox game libraries today. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can now stream 50 games that they already own, including Balatro, Balder’s Gate 3, a variety of Final Fantasy titles, and Hogwarts Legacy, The Verge reported.

The expansion to 50 or more games is just the beginning of opening up the Xbox game library to cloud streaming. “Our library of cloud-playable titles will continue to grow, as we work with our parterres around the world to bring you a diverse and expansive selection of great games across devices,” says Ashley McKissick, corporate vice president of Xbox Experiences and platforms engineering.

The 60 additional games will be available through TVs, smartphones, tablets, and PCs through a web browser. Microsoft is also planning to bring Xbox library streaming to Xbox consoles and the Xbox app on Windows next year.

The original Project xCloud was supposed to launch with game library streaming in 2020, but it never did, and Microsoft then announced it would support game libraries on Xbox Cloud Gaming in 2022. That never happened either.

While thousands of games will eventually be available through Xbox Cloud Gaming, some publisher will hold certain games back due to licensing requirements.

Microsoft and Xbox reported: “Stream Your Own Game With Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta)

We are happy to announce that over 50 great games are now available for streaming. Our library of cloud-playable titles will continue to grow, as we work with our partners around the world to bring you a diverse and expansive selection of great games across devices. You can stream any version of these games below that you own, for example Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – complete Edition.

Game Pass Ultimate members can stream select cloud-playable games you own, even if they’re not included with Game Pass Ultimate, directly on various devices. This includes Samsung Smart TV’s Amazon Fire TV devices, Meta Quest headsets as well as other browser supported devices like PC’s smart phones, and tablets. 

Engadget reported Microsoft has announced a long-anticipate feature for Xbox Cloud Gaming. Starting today, you’ll be able to stream select games that you own on TVs and Meta Quest VR headsets, as well as supported browsers on phones, tablets and PCs in every country where Xbox Cloud Gaming is available. 

Microsoft plans to expand the feature to Xbox consoles and the Windows Xbox app next year.

You’ll still need to be an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member to use this feature, but it means that you’re no longer limited to streaming only the games that are on that service. The “stream your own game” option include support for 50 titles at the outset, with more to be added later.

In my opinion, as a gamer, I think Microsoft and Xbox will provide a lot more gaming content than ever before.

Roblox Adds Parental Controls After Claims It Compromises Child Safety

Gaming

Roblox is adding more protections to its platform for its youngest users, a move that comes about a month after short-selling firm Hindenburg Research accused the videogame company of favoring growth over child safety, The Wall Street Journal reported.

San Mateo, Calif.-based Roblox said new parental controls and gatekeeping features launching Monday were planned and in development long before Hindenburg released its report. The company has denied the firm’s allegations, which include that it inflate the user metrics it shares with investors.

The safeguards Roblox is adding include the ability for parents to create their own accounts that link to their children’s accounts, allowing them to set daily usage limits, block access to specific game genres, and more.

Games will also get ratings similar to movies that are based on the kind of content they contain so parents can more easily determine which ones they are comfortable letting their children play. In addition, users under 13 will no longer be allowed to text chat outside of games. They already can’t voice chat.

Roblox posted: “Major Updates to Our Safety Systems and Parental Controls”

Safety is and always has been foundational to everything we do at Roblox. We’ve spent nearly two decades building strong safety systems, but we are always evolving our systems as new technology becomes available. We regularly ship updates to our safety and policy systems. We’ve already shipped more than 30 improvements this year.

Today, we are sharing the latest updates to our safety controls, including significant improvements to parental controls, how users under age 13 can communicate on Roblox, new content labels, and built-in protections for younger users. We are excited to share these extensive updates today.

These changes were developed and implemented after multiple rounds of internal research, including interviews, usability studies, and international surveys with parents and kids, and consultation with experts from child safety and media literacy organizations. 

We are making these changes for our youngest user by: (1) making it easier and more intuitive for parents to manage their child’s settings, and (2) updating our built-in limits to provide certain protections, independent of parental controls. These changes have been supported by partners, including the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) and the Family Online Safety Institute.

TechCrunch reported: Roblox will not let users under the age of 13 to message others outside of games and experiences on the platform, the company said on Friday. Roblox also announced a series of other built-in protections for young users, such as age-gating certain experiences, along with enhanced parental controls.

Shortly after the Bloomberg report was released, Roblox said it would introduce changes to keep children on its platform safe. Now, it’s officially rolling out protections and giving parents more insight and control into their child’s usage of the platform.

In my opinion, Roblox is doing the right thing by alerting parents that they can use safety tools to control their children’s use of the platform.

Pocketpair Says Nintendo And Pokémon Company Seek $65K In Damages

Gaming

Nintendo and the Pokémon Company are seeking approximately $65,700 in compensation from their lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair. In a press release, the studio issued on Friday, Nintendo and the Pokémon Company want ¥5 million each (plus late fees), for a total of ¥10 million or $65,700 in damages, Engadget reported.

At first glance, that’s a paltry amount of money to demand for copying one of the most successful gaming properties ever, particularly when you consider Tropic Haze, the creator of the now defunct Yuzu Switch emulator, and agreed to pay $2.4 million to settle its recent case with Nintendo. While Nintendo and the Pokémon Company may well have wanted to sue for more, their legal approach may have limited their options somewhat.

As you might recall, when the two sued Pocketpair in September, they didn’t accuse it of copyright infringement. Instead, they went for patent infringement. On Friday, Pocketpair listed the three patents Nintendo and the Pokémon Company are accusing the studio of infringing. 

Per Bloomberg, they relate to gameplay elements found in most Pokémon gams. For example, one covers the franchise’s signature battling mechanics, while another relates to how players can ride monsters.

RockPaperShotgun reported: Palworld developers Pocketpair have finally revealed which patents Nintendo and the Pokémon Company are suing them about. It looks like they’re focusing on test act of throwing capsular items to catch or release monsters, together with the usage of monsters as mounts.

When Palworld hit Steam in January, there was an outcry from some Pokémon players that it had broken Pokémon’s copyright. After an ominous interlude, Nintendo announced legal proceedings agains Pocketpair in September, declaring the the corporation would “continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties  it has worked hard to establish over the years.”

Kotaku reported: The reason patent attorneys get paid so much money is that no one in their right mind would ever want to be a patent attorney. Thus, we can all nod and smile as if we understand as Palworld developers Pocketpair releases a statement about precisely which patents Nintendo is claiming the Pokémon-alike game is violating.

The statement also includes the details on the damages Nintendo is seeking, for what it’s claiming is a violation of intellectual property. The company wants 10 million yen to be equally split between Nintendo Co., Ltd., and The Pokémon Company. That works out to just under $33,000 each.

In my opinion, Pocketpair is likely going to have to face the consequences of allegedly stealing Nintendo’s copyright on all of its various Pokémon. 

Netflix Closes AAA Game Studio Before It Ever Released A Game

Gaming, Netflix

One of Netflix’s most intriguing video game studios is no more, Game File reported.

The company’s Southern California game studio, one of a handful of internal studios assembled by Netflix in recent years as part of its expansion into video games, has been shut down, Game File has learned.

The studio, also known as team “Blue,” seemed poised to break the mold of what Netflix is doing in gaming. Early hints about the team’s work suggested it was pursuing a big-budget multi-device strategy, signifying the ambitious edge of Netflix’s initial mobile-focused expansion.

The company’s Southern California game studio, one of a handful of internal studios assembled by Netflix in recent years as part of its expansion into video games, has been shut down, Game File has learned.

According to Game File, in late 2022, Netflix wooed Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny from Blizzard to build its SoCal studio. In spring 2023, Netflix’s SoCal studio added Joseph Staten, a longtime creative lead on Microsoft’s Halo franchise at Bungie and 343 Industries. Netflix also recruited art director Rafael Grassetti, who had nearly a decade of experience at Sony Santa Monica where he’d most recently been the God of War studio’s overall art director.

The Verge reported the first cracks are starting to show in Netflix’s push into gaming. First reported by Game File and confirmed by Netflix, the streaming company has quietly closed one of its studios, the first in the three years since the company began its foray into gaming.

Netflix has released a steady stream of games on its platform since the beginning of its gaming experiment in 2021. Though it started with a small handful of hyper-casual mobile games. Netflix’s offering has expanded to include mobile exclusive ports of iconic games like Grand Theft Auto, and Hades, its own internally developed exclusives like Cosy Grove: Camp Spirit and Oxenfree II: Lost Signals.

Netflix has also acquired or spun-up a number of studios to support its gaming pipeline. The most recent additions were a mobile game studio in Helsinki, a new studio in southern California, and Cozy Grove developer Spry Fox. But with the closure of Blue, Netflix’s trend of expansion may be over as well as its grander AAA ambitions.

Kotaku reported: From the moment it was announced that Netflix had hired a team of former Blizzard, Bungie and Sony developers to create a AAA game, it felt too likely that little or or nothing would come of it. Non-gaming companies deciding to try to grab a slice of the giant pie by spending money to recruit big names often seems to end this way.

Netflix’s attempts to break into video games have been more successful than some, albeit, mostly as a result of buying studios already making a game, and then releasing it under its own branding. For instance, Night School Studio and releasing Oxenfree II. But given the streamer’s (sensible) focus on mobile gaming, it was a contrary move to have hired some serious industry bigwigs for a larger project.

In my opinion, Netflix should have focused not only on the big names it hired, but also the rest of the people who were working on those games. Perhaps some of them will end up in a different game-making company.

Steam Tells Gamers They Are Buying A License, Not A Game

Gaming

Steam appears to have started posting a notice in its shopping cart that purchases on its storefront are only for a license and not a game, according to a notice spotted by Engadget reported. It looks like an attempt by the company together ahead of a new California law coming next year that forces companies to admit that buyers don’t actually own digital content.

When you open your shopping cart with items inside and before going to payment, a notice at the bottom right states: “A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.”According to Engadget, this is the first time our editors hav seen of a notice like this (and we use Steam a lot), so it appears to be relatively new.

IGN reported Steam now includes an up front warning to customers that they’re buying a license, not a game ahead of a Californian law going into effect in 2025.

The change to Steam comes after California governor Gavin Newsom signed a law forcing digital marketplaces to make it clear to customers that when they buy media, they only buy a license to that media.

The law, AB 2426, prohibits online storefronts from using the words “buy, purchase, or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good or alongside an option for a time-limited rental.” 

The law won’t apply to storefronts that state in “plain language” that you’re actually just licensing the digital content and that license could expire at any time, or to products that can be permanently downloaded. Companies that violate the terms could be hit with a false advertising fine.

The law came in after a number of high-profile cases in which gamers saw their video games deleted following a server shutdown. Ubisoft sparked a backlash after it deleted The Crew from players libraries when that game’s servers went offline, meaning even those who paid full price for the open-world racer could no longer play it. Ubisoft eventually added offline modes to both The Crew 2 and the Crew Motorist, but said it wouldn’t bring back the original following its shutdown in March.

Gizmodo reported: You don’t own any games on your Steam library. It’s as true now as it was when Valve’s now-massive digital storefront went live in 2003. Now, Steam is making the fact very explicit every time you buy a game. Valve added a new message in your shopping cart before you hit “continue to payment” that you’re only getting a license to play the game on Steam and not a copy of the game itself.

The full message appears below Steam’s shopping cart page’s “continue to payment” option. It reads, “A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam” and then links to Steam’s Subscriber Agreement. Essentially, Steam has repeatedly reiterated this about game ownership on Valve’s platform, but now it’s made explicit every time you buy a new game.

In my opinion, California’s AB 2426 law will likely be a good thing because it will force gaming companies to explicitly make it clear to players that their games they play are – licensed — not owned.

NetEase Cutting Jobs At Ouka Studios Ahead Of Potential Closure

Gaming, ,

Bloomberg is reporting that Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studios is about to the shuttered by parent company NetEase, GameDeveloper reported.

The Japanese studio opened in 2020 and hired veteran developers from Capcom and Bandai Namco. It was tapped to handle production on Visions of Mana, a new mainline entry in the popular series published by Square Enix.

The action-RPG garnered a positive reception when it launched earlier this week, but NetEase is reportedly looking to shutter the studio responsible for that critical success. 

NetEase rival Tencent — another sprawling Chinese business with a taste for massive investments — is also reportedly rethinking its approach in Japan. The company has seemingly pulled out of several funding commitments in the region that would have financed multiple new projects.

IGN reported Chinese video game company NetEase has reportedly laid off most staff at Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studios with plans to shut it down all together.

Anonymous sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the studio which only opened in 2020, will be kept afloat by the few remaining members until its final games have been released. Visions of Mana only launched yesterday, August 29, 2024, and earned high critical praise.

The closure of Ouka Studios is reportedly due to major Chinese companies like NetEase and its rival Tencent shifting away from a Japan-centric approach. 

Bloomberg reported that Tencent is also reconsidering how much it invests in Japanese video game developers and has already backed out of several funding commitments. It had secured the rights to develop and publish the mobile version of anime-inspired game Blue Protocol, for example, but on August 28, Bandai Namco announced Blue Protocol would be shut down altogether, and its worldwide release, set to be handled by Amazon Games, was cancelled.

NetEase told Bloomberg it had “nothing to announce” regarding the closure of Ouka Studios. Tencent said it is “always making necessary adjustments to reflect market conditions.

VideoGamesChronicle reported Ouka Studios, the developer behind Visions of Mana, is reportedly set to close as part of an overall scaling back of investment in Japanese studios NetEase and Tencent.

Both Chinese companies have invested heavily in Japanese game development in recent years, acquiring numerous development studios and opening new ones.

Now, however, a Bloomberg report claims both companies are starting to rethink their strategy because it’s yet to bear any significant fruit.

According to the report, NetEase has “cut all but a handful of jobs” at Shibuya-based Ouka Studios, whose Visions of Mana was only released on Thursday.

The company reportedly plans to close the studio, with the remaining staff overseeing the release of its final games first.

In my opinion, it seems strange to me that Ouka Studios is suddenly laying off workers and only keeping a few around to finish up with the company’s final games.