The botanical puzzles of Botany Manor have officially rotated out as the Epic Games Store shifts into a much darker, rain-soaked atmosphere for mid-February. From today, February 12, until February 19 at 11:00 AM ET, you can permanently add the cinematic thriller Nobody Wants to Die and the comedic mystery The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark to your library for zero dollars. This week’s rotation is a resourceful haul for fans of narrative-driven investigation, providing a high-quality double-feature that would otherwise cost you $40 at retail.
Nobody Wants to Die is a photorealistic, noir-inspired adventure built in Unreal Engine 5 that drops you into a futuristic New York City in the year 2329. You step into the role of Detective James Karra, a man using high-tech time manipulation tools to reconstruct crime scenes and hunt a serial killer targeting the city’s immortal elite. It handles heavy themes like transhumanism and class divide with a thick, atmospheric tone that makes it an essential pick for narrative junkies. While the Steam Store currently lists the game at its standard $24.99 price, it is a massive value-add to any library right now. If you happen to miss the 7-day window, you can typically find global keys on the G2A Marketplace (affiliate) for roughly $2.30 to $5.00 during major sale events.
Providing a sharp contrast to the grit of NYC, The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark is a pixel-art point-and-click adventure that prioritizes humor over horror. You follow Detective Francis McQueen through nine paranormal cases in the “mildly cursed” town of Twin Lakes, solving mysteries that range from ghostly disruptions to full-blown demonic urban legends. It relies on self-aware writing and classic adventure logic, currently holding an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on the Steam Store where it retails for $14.99. For a resourceful backup later on, the G2A Marketplace usually has keys for approximately $1.90 to $2.50, making it one of the most accessible cult hits in the genre.
If you are looking to spend some actual cash while the Winter Sale is active, the storefront is currently hosting some of the highest-rated games in the industry at significant discounts. For fans of massive, cinematic storytelling, the 90+ Metascore hit God of War Ragnarök is currently 33% off, providing a sprawling Norse epic for around $40. For an even deeper discount on a legendary title, Red Dead Redemption 2 is sitting at 67% off, which is a resourceful way to grab a 93-rated masterpiece for less than $20. Strategy enthusiasts should look toward Total War: Three Kingdoms, which is currently slashed by 75%, a price point that makes the 85-rated campaign an easy recommendation. Finally, for a perfect cooperative experience, the 88-rated It Takes Two is currently 80% off, offering one of the most inventive puzzle-platformers ever made for just a few dollars.
The post Investigation and Noir: Today’s Epic Detective Double-Feature appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
The Epic Games Store recently published its 2025 Year in Review, highlighting a record-breaking $400 million spent on third-party PC titles—a 57% increase over previous years. Total PC player spending hit $1.16 billion, supported by a catalog that has now expanded past 6,000 games. While these figures show aggressive growth, the platform still faces a long road to becoming a true competitor to Steam. Steam’s entrenched community features, social strength, and significantly larger library of niche and legacy titles continue to keep the majority of the gaming population rooted in that ecosystem. To keep the momentum, Epic is maintaining its developer-first approach, allowing studios to keep 100% of their first million dollars in revenue and offering flexible in-game payment solutions that bypass store fees.
Currently, you can claim Botany Manor for free until February 12 at 11:00 AM ET. This is a first-person puzzle game set in a Victorian estate where you play as a retired botanist researching how to bloom rare, forgotten seeds. It requires you to investigate clues throughout the manor, such as temperature charts and ancient textbooks, to solve the environmental conditions needed for each plant. If you prefer to have it on Valve’s platform, the Steam Store currently lists it at its full $24.99 price point. For a middle ground, the G2A Marketplace has keys available for approximately **$5.40**, which is a significant drop if you miss the Epic window.
The second freebie this week is the Poison Retro Set for the competitive shooter Pixel Gun 3D. This DLC pack is a high-value claim for active players, bundling three poisonous variants of top-tier weaponry: the Digital Sunrise sniper, the Laser Cycler backup, and the Wave of Poison. It effectively gives you a pre-built, retro-themed loadout without the usual grinding or in-game currency cost. This set usually retails for $24.99 on the Steam Store, so claiming it on Epic for $0 is the most resourceful way to gear up before the rotation on February 12.
Epic’s Free Games Program remains its strongest hook, with 662 million titles claimed in 2025 alone. The report also notes that 78% of these games saw all-time peak concurrent player records during their free week on the store. Looking toward the rest of 2026, the company plans to launch “Epic Web Shops” and a completely rebuilt launcher architecture this summer to address long-standing stability and speed issues. They are also planning to introduce game-independent party systems and voice chat in the second quarter, features that are essential if they hope to eventually bridge the social gap that currently gives Steam its primary competitive advantage.
The post Epic’s $1.16 Billion Year 2025 and Weekly Freebies appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
The double-dose of goblin stealth from the Styx series has officially rotated out to make way for a much louder, more chaotic alternative. From today, January 22, until January 29 at 11:00 AM ET, you can claim Rustler (Grand Theft Horse) for zero dollars. It is a top-down, open-world sandbox that strips away the modern polish of AAA titles to focus on pure, unadulterated medieval mayhem.
Rustler operates as a satirical homage to the early, top-down era of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. You play as “The Guy,” a peasant thug navigating a world where horses are towed for illegal parking, knights engage in MMA-style cage matches, and “Round-Earthers” are treated as a fringe cult. The gameplay replaces high-speed car chases with drifting wooden carts and replaces radio stations with hired bards that you can “retune” by punching them in the face. It is a game that prioritizes slapstick violence and Monty Python-inspired humor over narrative depth.
If you miss the one-week window on Epic, there are still resourceful ways to snag a copy without paying full price. While the Steam Store currently lists the game at its standard $24.99, it frequently sees deep discounts during seasonal sales, often dropping as low as $3.74. For an even more immediate deal, the G2A Marketplace (affiliate link) is currently listing global Steam keys for approximately **$1.96 to $2.50**, which is a massive 90% discount compared to the official retail price.
Alongside the main PC giveaway, Epic is offering a specialized mobile freebie for the same January 22–29 period. You can download The Forest Quartet for free via the Epic Games Store mobile app on Android worldwide and iOS within the European Union. It is a story-driven puzzle adventure centered on love and loss, featuring a jazz-infused score and an intimate narrative that stands in sharp contrast to the loud carnage of Rustler.
Once the Rustler period ends on January 29, the store will transition into another indie favorite. Epic has already confirmed that Definitely Not Fried Chicken—a business management sim with a criminal underbelly—will be the next title available for free from January 29 to February 5. Make sure to add this week’s medieval madness to your library now, as the next rotation is already looming.
The post Horse-Theft and Bard-Punching: Rustler is Now Free on Epic appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
The recent collapse of Penta planet into a cold, dark void marks a surreal turning point in thezz Helldivers 2 Galactic War. It represents the second time in less than two years that High Command has decided the best way to secure a world is to ensure it no longer exists. While the average Helldiver celebrates the sheer spectacle of the Democracy Space Station (DSS) and its orbital power, any veteran with a sense of irony can see the hilarious contradiction at the heart of Super Earth’s foreign policy. We are witnessing the ultimate “if I can’t have it, no one can” tantrum on a planetary scale.
The precedent for this cosmic demolition was set months ago with the destruction of Meridia. Back then, the justification was biological necessity. The Terminid Supercolony had turned the planet into a pulsating hive so dense it threatened to contaminate the surrounding sectors like a cosmic infection. The solution was the deployment of Dark Fluid, which squeezed the planet into a purple, unstable singularity. It was a desperate move by a Federation backed into a corner, but it proved that High Command was willing to burn the house down to kill the bugs.
Penta, however, feels different. This wasn’t a frantic act of containment; it was a demonstration of the Star of Peace superweapon. By folding the planet into a stable black hole, the Ministry of Truth did more than just eliminate an Automaton stronghold. They effectively removed a piece from the board to spite the opponent. The irony is staggering: we are told we are “liberating” these sectors for the glory of the Federation, yet our primary strategy has shifted toward deleting the very real estate we are supposed to be conquering. We are essentially fighting a war for territory by making sure there is less territory to fight for. It is the purest form of Managed Democracy—managing the map until there is nothing left for the enemies of freedom to stand on.
From a gameplay perspective, this scorched-earth policy is a fascinating way to handle map fatigue and Major Orders. Usually, in live-service games, the map is a static background that resets every few weeks. In Helldivers 2, the map is a living document that can be permanently edited by the community’s collective will. When the player base voted to obliterate Penta, we weren’t just choosing a mission; we were choosing which part of the galaxy to erase from the game files forever. It is a rare example of Arrowhead Game Studios allowing the players to permanently break the world in the name of the narrative.
There is something darkly comedic about a Federation that claims to be building a future while it systematically turns its own solar systems into a collection of gravitational anomalies. At this rate, the “future” won’t be a thriving empire of colonized worlds, but a very large, very empty map of black holes. We aren’t just winning the war against the Bots and Bugs; we’re winning the war against geography itself. As the DSS reloads for its next target, one has to wonder how much of the galaxy will be left to inhabit once the mission is finally “accomplished.”
The post The Great Erasure: Why Super Earth is Deleting the Galaxy to Save It appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
I missed that Styx: Shards of Darkness – Deluxe Edition was part of the free games in the last update, but Epic has indeed provided both entries of the goblin-assassin saga for free this week. Yesterday’s rotation officially retired the tower defense hit Bloons TD 6, shifting the store from colorful monkey strategy to gritty, dark-fantasy infiltration.
Until January 22 at 11:00 AM ET, you can claim both Styx: Master of Shadows and Styx: Shards of Darkness – Deluxe Edition for zero dollars. These aren’t modern “action-stealth” games where you can easily fight your way out of a blunder; they are pure infiltration titles where being spotted usually leads to a quick death. The Deluxe Edition of the sequel is particularly resourceful as it includes the Akenash Outfit and the Dagger of Akenash, giving your clones and assassination attempts a technical edge from the start. While these typically retail for $19.99 each on the Steam Store, you can currently find keys for the first entry on G2A for roughly **$2.60** if you miss the Epic window.
_20220122223252For those looking for a cinematic heavy-hitter, Detroit: Become Human is currently sitting at an 80% discount on Epic, bringing the price down to $7.99. The game follows three androids as they navigate a futuristic dystopia where their choices determine the fate of both their kind and their human creators. It is one of the most polished interactive dramas ever made, featuring branching storylines that actually respect your decisions. If you are looking to shave a bit more off that price, the G2A Marketplace (affiliate link) is offering Global Steam keys starting at **$9.53**, ensuring you can secure this AAA title for under ten dollars regardless of which store you prefer.
The massive World War II tactical shooter Hell Let Loose has its Deluxe Edition on sale for 67% off right now. This is a noteworthy deal considering the base game was a featured Epic freebie back in January 2025. The Deluxe version provides the essential 50v50 combined-arms experience, along with several cosmetic packs, such as False Front and Lethal Tide. It is a game that prioritizes communication and squad-based tactics over individual kill counts, making it a perfect pick for players who want a more realistic combat loop. Between the free Styx bundle and these deep discounts, this week provides some of the highest value-per-hour gameplay we’ve seen in the new year.
The post Double Styx Giveaway and Tactical War Deals: This Week on Epic appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
Steam has once again pushed the scale of digital gaming. Earlier today, Valve’s platform shattered its previous records, reaching a staggering 42,042,778 concurrent players. While the service has been on a relentless upward trajectory since its inception, this latest peak confirms that PC gaming is entering its most dominant era yet.
The journey to 42 million has been a consistent climb, fueled by a global expansion of the PC audience. Looking back at the data from the start of the decade, the acceleration is undeniable:
The most significant takeaway from this record isn’t found in the free-to-play charts. While “evergreen” titans like Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 remain at the top, the current Top 20 reveals a massive surge in paid, premium experiences. In an age of free-to-play saturation, players are increasingly willing to invest their money in high-quality software.
ARC Raiders is currently holding a commanding fourth-place position, proving that a premium price tag is no barrier to a massive player base when the gameplay is compelling. Similarly, the dual presence of Grand Theft Auto V (both Legacy and Enhanced editions) in the Top 20 serves as a loud message to Rockstar and Take-Two: the PC market for GTA 6 is a sleeping giant ready to explode.
Other paid titles like Baldur’s Gate 3, Battlefield 6, and Stardew Valley continue to hold significant territory against free alternatives. This shift highlights a healthy, diverse economy where “buy-to-play” models are thriving alongside their free counterparts.
A major catalyst for this renewed interest is Valve’s strategic move into the living room. The recently announced Steam Machine is designed to eliminate the friction between PC power and console convenience. By bringing a dedicated gaming box to the TV, Valve is successfully blurring the lines that once separated these two worlds.
This hardware push has invited a new wave of players who prefer a “plug-and-play” experience but want the depth and flexibility of the Steam library. The integration of SteamOS into a living room ecosystem may be one of the reasons we are seeing these record-breaking numbers today.
From the viral success of Bongo Cat to the technical showcases like Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals, Steam’s current state is one of absolute variety. The platform has effectively transcended its identity as a simple storefront, becoming a comprehensive hardware and software ecosystem. With the Steam Machine launch on the horizon and 42 million players already active, it is clear that Steam’s ceiling remains far out of sight.
The post Steam’s 42-Million Milestone: The Premium Gaming Renaissance and the Console-PC Convergence appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
If you have tried to jump into an official Competition race in Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) lately, you know the routine: you register, you wait, you join the server for free practice, and then… nothing. You can start your engine, but the game won’t let you engage first gear. The timer hits zero, the session never switches to qualifying, and everyone eventually gives up and leaves. Even hopes in newest livery update did not bring a solution for internal racing. This is a widespread issue in early 2026, and it’s reaching a breaking point for the community. Here is the reality of what is going on with the game’s internal competitive system.
The core problem is a systemic failure in the way Kunos handles session transitions. Since the release of the Season 25 libraries and liveries, the official servers have been plagued by a bug that effectively kills the race before it starts.
The most frustrating part for any racer is the lack of information. If you check the Kunos Simulazioni website, you won’t find a server status page or an official acknowledgment of the outage.
The reality is that ACC has been moved to “legacy” status. Most of the development team is now fully focused on Assetto Corsa EVO, which just saw a massive 0.4 update in December 2025. While Kunos still releases small cosmetic packs for ACC, the core infrastructure is currently unmonitored. There is no one “at the wheel” fixing the backend transitions that the competition servers rely on.
Since the internal solution is broken, the community has completely moved to third-party platforms. If you want to race seriously, you shouldn’t look at the game’s own menu. Instead, use these independent services:
| Feature | Official ACC Servers | Third-Party (LFM/SimGrid) |
| Status | Frequently Broken | Stable |
| Matchmaking | Broken “Practice Loop” | Working Elo/Rating System |
| Support | None | Active Admins/Stewarding |
It is painful to see a great sim like ACC struggle with its basic features, especially for new players who just want to race. For now, the “official” way to play is essentially a dead end. To get the experience you paid for, you have to look outside the game and join the community-run platforms.
Until Kunos releases a final stability patch, the community is the only thing keeping the competitive spirit of ACC alive.
The post Assetto Corsa Competizione: The Broken Competition System appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
I have played most of what is sitting below, and a few of these still live rent free in my head. This week's spread is less about filler and more about games that either defined a genre or quietly perfected it. If your backlog is already judging you, add two more and call it character building.
Contents
In retro news, I'm celebrating the 13th birthday of the PlayStation Vita. Though its life cycle wasn't one of roaring success, I still have a soft spot in my heart for its gorgeous OLED screen, impressive tech specs and games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, and Hotline Miami.
Aussie birthdays for notable games.
- Tetris (NES) 1990. Redux
- Super Street Fighter II Turbo (ARC) 1994. Get
- Grandia II (DC) 2001. Get
- Supreme Commander (PC) 2007. Get
- PlayStation Vita launch, 2012. eBay
- Catherine (PS3,X360) 2012. Redux
- Radiant Historia (3DS) 2018. eBay
Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.
Or just invest in an Xbox Card.
PS4
Or purchase a PS Store Card.
Or just get a Steam Wallet Card
Adam Mathew is a passionate connoisseur, a lifelong game critic, and an Aussie deals wrangler who genuinely wants to hook you up with stuff that's worth playing (but also cheap). He plays practically everything, sometimes on YouTube.
As with all creative industries, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been infiltrating video games.
Non-generative AI has been in the industry long before things like ChatGPT became household names. Video games would contain AI-driven gameplay systems such as matchmaking, non-player character (NPC) behaviour, or iconic fictional AI characters such as SHODAN and GLaDOS.
Now, generative AI is being used to produce game assets and speed up development. This is threatening creative jobs and fuelling worries about low-effort releases or “slop”.
If you buy a video game today, you may have no reliable way of knowing whether generative AI was used in any part of its development – from the art and voice work to the code and marketing.
Should developers disclose it? Since 2023, AI disclosure in video games has gone from non-existent to patchy. It’s arguably more to do with copyright concerns than being transparent with players.
Steam, owned by US video game company Valve, is the largest digital storefront for PC games. It’s also the closest thing to a baseline for AI disclosure – simply because it was the first major platform to formalise a position.
Amid the rise of AI in 2023, Valve rejected AI-produced games on Steam, citing legal uncertainty and stating the company was “continuing to learn about AI”.
By January 2024, Valve formalised its disclosure rules, requiring developers to declare two categories of AI use: pre-generated content (made during development) and live-generated content (created while the game runs).
While industry leaders are optimistic about AI’s role in game development, disclosure remains contentious. Tim Sweeney, chief executive of Steam’s competitor Epic Games, mocked Steam’s AI disclosure in late 2025 as being akin to telling players what shampoo developers use.
In recent weeks, Valve has narrowed its disclosure rules, clarifying that developers who submit games to their platform only need to report AI if the output is directly experienced by players.
This changes what counts as relevant transparency, effectively giving a green light to AI coding and other behind-the-scenes processes.
Valve’s focus on player-facing AI does provide consumers with some transparency and the game submissions are checked before release. However, it’s not clear what happens if the makers of a game don’t disclose AI when they should have.
The disclosure system also keeps Steam ahead of a legal grey area regarding copyright and generative AI output. If needed, Valve could quickly pull titles affected by AI copyright claims. Some AI models can memorise copyrighted material and reproduce it when prompted, so this is not an entirely hypothetical scenario.
AI disclosure on Steam doesn’t have a consistent format – developers simply have a text field where they can write their disclosure in free form. Since it’s not treated as an official tag, consumers also can’t search or filter for AI content when browsing for games in the store.
At the time of writing, a search of SteamDB – a third-party catalogue of Steam’s database – lists more than 15,000 games and software with Steam’s AI disclosure label, with no total count available on Steam itself.
In response, user watchdogs have stepped in. The Steam curator group AI Check tracks games with AI-generated assets and flags whether developers disclose AI use – and how.
Outside Steam, disclosure is inconsistent if not absent. Indie storefront itch.io provides a searchable “AI Generated” tag, but no disclosure is required on game pages.
There’s currently no clear AI disclosure on mobile app stores or console storefronts (Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox), and they’ve been criticised for letting “AI slop” flood their stores.
Epic Games Store and another major distribution platform, GOG.com, also lack clear AI disclosures. GOG recently faced backlash for using AI-generated artwork in its own storefront promotion.
All this leaves players in the dark, while developers face backlash for AI use that many consider harmful for the industry.
Many players care about AI use in games and when disclosure is missing. There are plenty of cases in which developers were “caught out” using generative AI and responded with ad hoc statements, asset changes, or even had Game of the Year awards rescinded.
But there are also cases in which suspicion has caused cancellations or wrongful accusations of games using AI art when it was actually drawn by a human artist.
Read more: Distrust in AI is on the rise – but along with healthy scepticism comes the risk of harm
This is why transparency on AI use is important. Many Australians report low familiarity with AI, and research suggests having more information can shift people’s views, helping people make informed choices and avoid witch hunts.
Many people have ethical concerns about AI use, or are worried about environmental consequences due to how many resources the AI data centres chew up.
All this means AI disclosure is currently a consumer rights issue, but it’s governed entirely by the platforms where people purchase the games.
Players don’t need to know what shampoo a developer uses. But they do deserve a clear view of whether the art was AI-generated, whether writers or voice actors were replaced, and whether a game built on AI-generated code is likely to survive an update.
Steam’s disclosure system is a start, but it means little if the information can’t be found or filtered for. Every game storefront should make generative AI use clear at the point of purchase – because players deserve better.
Thomas Byers receives funding from The Research Training Program Scholarship, supported by the Australian Commonwealth Government and the University of Melbourne.
Bjorn Nansen receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
RuneScape experienced a surge of popularity over the 2025 holiday season. While fan nostalgia for a game that is now 25 years old plays a role, the revival more clearly reflects recent changes to RuneScape’s controversial monetisation – changes that appear to be drawing players back.
I worked at RuneScape from 2008 until 2014. First as a content developer – a designer, writer and implementer for the frequent updates – then as a senior designer, design lead and product owner for non-subscription monetisation.
Runescape is a multiplayer fantasy roleplaying video game, originally played via web browser but now downloadable. It was venerable even when I joined, and the questions that were on my team’s minds at the time are still relevant now – particularly around risks and benefits of courting player nostalgia, preserving versus modernising the game, and how to monetise in a sensitive way.
Reliable player numbers for RuneScape are hard to come by. The game’s publisher Jagex publishes real-time concurrent player counts, which show clear long-term trends, but does not release monthly active user figures. While exact revenue breakdowns are not public, changes in active players still matter because engaged players are the most likely to subscribe or spend.
The RuneScape franchise includes the main game, which has been live since 2001, and Old School RuneScape. The latter was launched in 2013 as a deliberately preserved version of the game as it existed in 2007, aimed at nostalgic players.
A comparison of active players shows that Old School RuneScape doesn’t share the current surge in RuneScape’s popularity. It had a peak in April 2025, which is difficult to attribute because Sailing – Old School RuneScape’s first new skill since 2013 – was added later in the year.
The skill allows players to captain custom ships, explore vast oceans and discover new islands. Sailing itself highlights the fascinating dichotomy of making substantial additions to a game whose tradition and timelessness were such a selling point.
There’s much to be said about nostalgia as a player motivation; including players long absent from RuneScape returning to it, and those travelling back via Old School RuneScape. Research on World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft Classic suggests that nostalgia may be tied less to game mechanics than to social presence – the experience of a densely populated world. Returning players may find that this social dimension no longer exists in the same form.
RuneScape – balanced more toward modernisation than Old School RuneScape’s respect for long-standing players – is experiencing a revival of its own. Nostalgia may be a factor, but a more immediate explanation for December’s player spike lies in one of the game’s enduring development tensions: how far Jagex can modernise and monetise the game without alienating its most loyal players.
In 2012, RuneScape added options for microtransactions – additional payments on top of or alongside subscriptions. These included a conventional store and a game of chance for cosmetic upgrades or gameplay-affecting items.
An additional revenue stream is important to a publisher; a subscription limits how much can be earned from players with greater spending power and generates nothing from those who cannot afford it.
Resistance to microtransactions is well documented in western markets, particularly when players perceive them as double charging or as granting unfair competitive advantages. Publishers often continue despite negative reactions, as seen in the controversy around the Blizzard game Diablo Immortal in 2022.
This secondary monetisation was often heavily adjusted, even while I worked on the original implementation and oversaw that group in 2013-14. Since 2014, RuneScape also had a polls system and a remarkably powerful programme of letting player choice influence development.
October 2025 introduced a poll for players to approve a considerable rework to reduce and stabilise the impact of microtransactions on player progression. It passed the required 100,000 votes on the first day. The vote wasn’t left to chance, though. For Jagex, under new CEO Jon Bellamy, it’s part of a strategy to “restore” RuneScape “even if it hurts the bottom line”. The result of the vote was predictable but valuable in proving this viewpoint isn’t just a vocal minority.
The surge suggests it’s working so far. Whether these players remain active and subscribed remains to be seen: some may be returning from 2012, and their nostalgia for RuneScape as it was may not fit the current game. Others might have been long-term players had it not been for the monetisation. It may attract new players, familiar with the game but deterred by the billing model.
Also unpredictable is whether additional subscriptions will restore the lost revenue. Some of the key monetisation features remain – including Bonds, which allow cash-rich players to buy game-time that can be sold for in-game currency to time-rich players – so Jagex’s financial flexibility remains better than subscriptions alone. The move is “something most games wouldn’t dare” according to gaming news platform Polygon, and should be very popular with players. But will that goodwill translate into enough shifted revenue?
I’m pleased with the outcome and I suspect others who’ve worked on RuneScape monetisation would share that. That balance between happy players and the bottom line – which can easily fail in either direction – was always difficult to maintain. While contributing to studio health is satisfying, I hope there are several developers soon being freed up to work on other content.
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Matthew Holland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
First it came for our intellectual property, then it came for our workers, and now it's after our Steam Decks!
Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has announced his retirement from Microsoft after nearly 40 years, amid a major leadership shakeup for the gaming brand that'll see Microsoft's current president of CoreAI, Asha Sharma, take over the role. Additionally, Xbox president Sarah Bond will depart the company.
God of War actor Christopher Judge, the rumbling voice behind beardy Kratos, has suggested more news on the series' future could arrive "late summer".
If you're anything like me, the second Nintendo announced it'd be giving select Switch 1 titles a fancy Switch 2 makeover, you probably immediately starting compiling a wish list. The Xenoblade series was high on mine, but remained persistently unloved. Until now that is! Out of nowhere, Nintendo just released an upgrade for last year's Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition - and better still, it's available now.
Match of the Day football commentator Guy Mowbray has revealed he gave EA permission to create an AI voice clone of himself in order to assist with some of the more onerous aspects of recording commentary for EA Sports FC.
Is there a more terrifying sound in video games than the roar of a Reaper Leviathan or the irritated gurgle of a Crashfish as it suddenly torpedoes toward you from shadows unseen? I mean, yes, probably - but that's not the point. Every time I slip the word "horror" into conversations about Subnautica, it's usually met with dismissals and frowns. And sure, developer Unknown Worlds' sublime underwater survival adventure isn't technically horror, but I can think of few games capable of instilling such an ominous sense of dread in me, such a suffocating fear of the watery unknown, as this one. And with Subnautica's free Switch 2 update now here, what better time for reminiscences and to make myself unreasonably anxious all over again?
An advert released to promote Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been banned after the UK's Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints that it "trivialised sexual violence" following an investigation.
