NFT’s. None fungible tokens. A controversial topic right now to be sure. Companies and Crypto-bros keep pushing that these are the future, while it seems almost everyone else is rejecting them outright.

One company not pushing NTF’s and crypto is valve, who have recently banned Crypto and block-chain based games. There was recently some outcry for devs of one of said blockchain based games, “age of rust” spoke out about their disappointment in this decisions, who claimed that steams point of view was that steam didnt want “items that had real world value” on the service… which is a bit strange and personally I am going to call fowl on the devs here because valve themselves have games which have items with real world values.

In a recent interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, valve co-founder gabe newel clarified that he has no issue with owning something digitally or taking part in a shared universe, however the negatives associated with NFT’s far outweighed any positives.

At one point steam actually accepted bitcoin as a payment method for games, but this functionality was cut due to the volatility of the market. Quote: 

“Like, why did I spend $497 one day to buy a game, and the next day I spent 47 cents, what’s going on here? Volatility is a bad thing in a medium of exchange. That was one problem, that sort of volatility was creating more pain for our customers than the value of having the option of using cryptocurrencies.”

With NFT’s, the problem is much more over people using them to engage in fraudulent behavior. Quote:

“With the actors that are currently in this NFT space, they’re just not people you really are wanting to be doing business with. That doesn’t say anything about the underlying technology, it’s just a reflection of the people right now who are viewing it as an opportunity to rip customers off, or engage in money laundering, or other things like that.”

Newel asserts that his issue is not with blockchain technology in general,but with the people using them in ways that impact players negatively. Steam banned NFT games back in october of last year, and they are not alone. Recently Square Enix confirmed that NFT’s would never be part of its popular MMO Final Fantasy 14 while unveiling the games 10 year roadmap.

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The post Gabe Newel banned NFT’s from Steam for being “sketchy” first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Steam had a fantastic year in 2021. At the start of 2021, the PC gaming retail and social platform’s user population surpassed 25 million peak concurrent users, and by the end of the year, it had surpassed 27 million. That momentum appears to be building in 2022. Steam’s highest concurrent user record was first broken on January 2nd, when it approached 28 million, then again on January 9th, when it crossed 28 million for the first time, and finally on January 16th, when it approached 29 million. Steam has already smashed its concurrent user record for the fourth week in a row in 2022.

Steam has added almost a million users to its top concurrent user record and crossed the threshold of 29 million users online at the same time, up from under 27 million prior to the start of 2022. The new record is 29,198,370 to be exact. It’s a remarkable success for a platform that began in 2003, reached 10 million users in 2015, 20 million users in 2020, and is now on track to reach 30 million users in the next months.

Surging Popularity for Steam in Recent Weeks

There’s no obvious explanation why Steam has had such a strong start to 2022, or why it managed to surpass 29 million concurrent users this week. The winter holiday sale has ended, the top-selling game of the week is the PC port of God of War: 2018 Edition, and there are no major events planned, such as Valve’s annual Dota 2 Tournament. This appears to be a straightforward result of Steam’s strong expansion.

While there is no obvious cause for Steam’s unexpected jump to over 29 million concurrent users, there are some contributing variables. Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel and Monster Hunter Rise were published this week and are already among the top ten games in terms of concurrent players. Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel even reached a stunning peak of 263,000 players. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and PUBG: Battlegrounds, Steam’s three most popular titles at the moment, are all doing exceptionally well. On its own, CS:GO had little over a million concurrent users.

The question that needs to be asked right now is how far Steam can go, both in the short and long term. Steam has significantly grown in both 2020 and 2021, with growth peaks around April in both years. As a result, another few months of growth for Steam in 2022, as well as more growth in late 2022, wouldn’t be surprising. There are also several major PC games in the horizon. On February 4th, Dying Light 2 will be released, followed by the MMO Lost Ark on February 11th, the Witch Queen expansion for Destiny 2 on February 22nd, and Elden Ring on February 25th.

Steam’s four-week streak of new releases appears to be on track to continue for some time. Steam could easily break its new concurrent user record on any given weekend, barring a single terrible week. The debut of the Steam Deck in February will only add to the excitement. Steam’s true peak may be millions farther ahead, but 30 million looks well within reach.

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The post Steam Has Broken its Concurrent User Record 4 Weeks in a Row first appeared on Get2Gaming.

The Game Developers Conference is an annual gathering of all manner of professionals within the gaming industry. The Game Developers Choice Awards, or GDCA, are one of the most highly anticipated events of the yearly conference, honouring game developers who excelled in audio, design, storytelling, innovation, and social effect in the previous year. This year’s event will be hosted in San Francisco, CA, through March 21^st to March 25^th, despite being hosted online for the last two years. The nominees for Game of the Year have recently been revealed.

There are five games in the running for the GDCA Game of the Year award, three of which will be known to those who watched The Game Awards in December 2021. Resident Evil Village, Arkane Studios’ time-hopping first-person shooter Deathloop, and TGA Game of the Year winner It Takes Two are all in with a chance for the GDCA prize. Inscryption, a horror-themed deckbuilder produced by Devolver Digital, and Forza Horizon 5 are also on the list.

Several of the candidates for the GDCA Game of the Year award this year have  been nominated in other categories too. Deathloop has been nominated for six awards, It Takes Two has been nominated for five, while Forza Horizon 5 has received four nominations. The GDCA ceremony on March 23 will announce the winners in all categories, and the event will be livestreamed on the GDC Twitch channel.

Here’s the full list of nominees for the Game Developers Choice Awards:

GAME OF THE YEAR

Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)

Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)

Resident Evil Village (Capcom)

Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)

BEST AUDIO

Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)

Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal / Square Enix)

Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)

BEST DEBUT

Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)

Valheim (Iron Gate Studio / Coffee Stain Publishing)

Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)

The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur / Annapurna Interactive)

Sable (Shedworks / Raw Fury)

BEST DESIGN

It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)

Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)

Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios)

Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)

INNOVATION AWARD

It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)

Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)

Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)

Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)

Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

BEST NARRATIVE

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal / Square Enix)

Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)

Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)

Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)

SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD

Before Your Eyes (GoodbyeWorld Games / Skybound Games)

It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)

Life is Strange: True Colors (Deck Nine / Square Enix)

Boyfriend Dungeon (Kitfox Games)

Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory: A Colorful Tale Team / Finji)

BEST TECHNOLOGY

Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios)

Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Hitman 3 (IO Interactive)

BEST VISUAL ART

Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)

Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)

Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)

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The post Game of the Year Award Nominees for GDC 2022 have been Revealed! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Thanks to acclaimed manufacturer SCUF, a PS5 Pro controller is finally on the way. SCUF is a high-performance gaming controller manufacturer that offers outstanding accessories and customizable gaming controllers for console and PC that are popular among both professional and casual gamers.

SCUF Manufacturing PS5 Pro Controller

Unlike the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, Sony is still yet to see their own controller receive the Elite treatment, but the SCUF Reflex promises to bring the competitive features that pro gamers expect from these controllers to PlayStation players.

The SCUF Reflex is still to be revealed, but according to the manufacturer, it has been “painstakingly designed from the ground up for instantaneous reaction times to get you the most wins.” “Removable paddles” and “bumpers that make all your movements smoother than ever before” will be included in the PS5 pro controller.

Pro gaming and e-sports are becoming more popular then ever. Constantly growing, more gamers are investing in hardware that will help them be as competitive as possible. In games like Battlefield 2042 and Fortnite, having the best controller can really make the difference and give you a competitive advantage.

Recently, SCUF released the SCUF Instinct Pro controller for Xbox Series X/S, launching with “pro” features such as back paddles, trigger tension options, and on-controller mute options. Fans can assume that similar functions have been added to the new PS5 controller.

Online multiplayer games continue to be among the most popular, so it’s surprising that Sony hasn’t released its own customizable Pro controller. Even though the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 has shown to have a sizable market. SCUF are clearly aiming to take advantage of this, particularly if Sony decides not to offer a pro controller for the PS5 this year.

You can register your interest in the SCUF PS5 Pro here. If you’re looking for some other PS5 or PC accessories, take a look in our store! You can also register your interest in PS5 stock updates too!

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The post PS5 Pro Controller Being Developed by SCUF Releasing Soon! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

With the buzz about Activision and its growing toxic reputation, a more exhaustive look at the gaming industry’s treatment of women is necessitated.

CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, was also critical of Activision’s lacking response to the situation and their continued defence of CEO Bobby Kotick. However, change starts at home – and PlayStation is now facing accusations of the same problems.

Former IT security analyst, Emma Majo, has filed a lawsuit against Sony in California on Monday. The suit claims that the company is liable for discriminating against female employees and for wrongfully firing Majo after she spoke up about the discrimination within the company.

Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that Sony has violated the United States’ Equal Pay Act. Female employees are not as well compensated financially and are often passed up for promotion in favour of promoting male employees. Majo even claims to have been ignored by a manager who only ever responded to men. She was continually passed over for promotions, which she claims is a common experience for female employees, and was fired after submitting a gender bias complaint to the company.

Majo notes that Sony claimed her termination was due to the closure of an internal department, but Majo never even worked in that department.

Sony representatives have yet to provide an official statement regarding these allegations.

Majo is also seeking court approval to extend the suit to a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all women who have worked for PlayStation in recent years.

Unfortunately, gender bias seems to be an ongoing issue in the gaming industry since its origins. As players and staff, women have often been made to feel less respected than their male counterparts. Having a feminine voice, I’ve endured my fair share of abuse in the online gaming sphere. And where voice chat is not involved, men assume every player is male until stated otherwise. It’s an exclusionary environment, and the problems with the player base are also reflected in the development sphere.

Only last year, Ubisoft was called out for similar issues. According to the organisation ‘ABetterUbisoft’, none of the staff demands for a better and more inclusive environment have been met. Will we ever see real change in the industry, or is it going to be this routine series of waiting for the controversy to blow over without enacting change?

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The post Former PlayStation Employee is suing for Gender Discrimination first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Riot games, best known for League of Legends, has finally shared more information on its upcoming, currently untitled 2d fighting game, internally being referred to as Project L. As well as the release of a band new, over 6 minutes trailer for the game, Project leads Tom and Tony Cannon spoke more about the fighting game set in the league of Legends Fighting game.

Project L was announced all the back in august of 2019, but aside from it being a fighting game developed by riot we knew basically nothing about it. A later livestream confirmed it was set in the league of Legends universe, but for over 2 years now that was it.

As part of a blog Post, Tom Cannon explained “Our initial reveal back in 2019 showed a potential direction that we could take the game. But Project L is in R&D: the phase of game development where we’re exploring options and finding the fun. Today, our explorations have borne fruit, and we’ve landed in a spot that we’re all pretty excited about! So now felt like a great moment to bring you up to speed, especially with all the Undercity Night’s festivities happening across Riot.”

Tom added later on “We’re excited to share that Project L will be a tag-team style fighting game, where you’ll build and pilot a team of two different champions. In this preview, you’ll see we’ve updated the game’s art style and included a breakdown of a champion’s kit. You’ll catch a glimpse of how we’re approaching controls with an easy-to-learn but hard-to-master mentality.”

“We also talk a little about one of our top priorities for the game: to build the absolute best in netcode that you can get in a fighter. Of course we’re starting with rollback as a foundation, and we’re adding in existing tech from Riot like RiotDirect, which does a great job at minimizing ping for League of Legends and VALORANT.”

Unfortunately, we are likely not going to see Project L until at least 2023.

“Our goal is to build a super high-quality fighting game that the FGC can invest deeply in, playing for years or even decades. That takes time to get right, and we’re not going to rush it.” 

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The post Riot Talk more about 2d Fighter “Project L” first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Former Nintendo of America VP of Marketing, Perrin Kaplan, talks about Nintendo’s decision to make the GameCube purple.

Plenty of anniversaries have rolled around this November, including Xbox’s 20th on the 15th. The Nintendo GameCube also reached its two-decade mark, celebrating its twentieth anniversary for its US release on November 18th.

A former Nintendo executive spoke about the conception of the Cube behind scenes. She revealed that GameCube’s iconic color was quite controversial within Nintendo, with many employees expressing concern about the purple colour.

Several former Nintendo employees recently spoke to Video Games Chronicle about the company’s last two decades. Among them was Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America’s former Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Affairs.

She revealed that the American branch was not a fan of the GameCube’s purple plastic, pressing for a black or silver console instead. However, Nintendo’s then-President Hiroshi Yamauchi overruled the objection. While Nintendo would eventually roll out white, black, silver, and orange versions of the console, but purple remains the most iconic GameCube colour.

According to Kaplan, the American branch worried that purple would be too ‘feminine’ for a console marketed primarily to boys. Kaplan also worried that the console would be mocked for its appearance when it was revealed at E3 2001.

The GameCube did well enough though, selling 22 million units. It wasn’t as successful as the Nintendo 64, however. Nintendo lacked big exclusives at the time and also was burdened with the reputation of being a console just for kids. The console has gained a better reputation by virtue of nostalgia.

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The post Nintendo’s decision to make the GameCube purple first appeared on Get2Gaming.

All eyes are on Activision Blizzard since the publishing of an investigative report by the Wall Street Journal. The article directly implicated Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in perpetuating sexual misconduct during his tenure and suppressing calls to fire other top executives for doing the same.

Activision Blizzard staff have since held a virtual walkout for those still working from home, and in-person walkouts for those that are working at the Activision Blizzard offices.

The walkout was called by the ABK Worker’s Alliance hours after the report went public.

Activision Blizzard employees have also demanded for the immediate resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick. He has yet to concede.

Upper-level executives responded by holding a series of all-hands meetings with staff in order to boost worker’s morale. Staff were, however, unimpressed by the contents of the meeting.

Statements from staff members at the company have claimed that the meetings were nothing more than one-sided listening sessions with pre-screened questions with executives, and included a pre-recorded message from Mike Ibarra. Staff weren’t given any opportunity to voice their frustrations in the meeting, and I imagine it felt more like an indoctrination session than a ‘morale boosting’ affair.

Kotick did not speak during any of the meetings with Activision, Blizzard, or King employees. The board seems to have decided to continue their defense of Bobby Kotick and has made no actions to remove or even reprimand the CEO.

Rather than terminate Kotick from his role, Activision Blizzard seems to be hoping the situation will blow over.

Many of Activision’s shareholders, and big names in the industry such as the CEO of PlayStation (Jim Ryan), are showing solidarity with staff and those affected by calling out Activision’s inaction or joining staff in protest.

The attempts to win over their employees seem to have been maintained by Activision for a while now. They apparently gave employees a week off for Thanksgiving. However, obvious pandering and forcing staff to sit in on one-sided meetings isn’t going to do anything to erase the issues brought up by the ABK Workers Alliance.

No doubt, as this situation gains more public attention the staff and public alike will only be more frustrated with the company’s inaction.

Journalist Ben Fritz shared details in a Twitter thread.

Content warning for rape and assault:

A woman who worked at Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer said she was raped twice by her supervisor after she was pressured to drink heavily. She reported the incidents to HR, but the company took no action. pic.twitter.com/WcVBPTdJCK

— Ben Fritz (@benfritz) November 16, 2021

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The post Activision Blizzard employees disappointed with internal response to CEO criticism first appeared on Get2Gaming.

The studio behind Genshin Impact recently opened a new studio in Montreal, Canada to support the development of AAA games.

Genshin Impact is one of the most successful and profitable video games to date, reportedly earning 2 billion USD.

And with the 2.3 update headed this way, it’s only set to get bigger and bigger.

It’s no surprise, then, that all eyes are on MiHoYo’s every move. Everyone’s already buzzing about the upcoming game, Honkai: Star Rail. More excitement was stirred when it was revealed that MiHoYo were opening a studio in Montreal, Canada.

In this MiHoYo gains a foothold in one of the biggest development cities in the gaming industry, and also represents the continuation of Chinese investment in Western development spearheaded by Tencent.

MiHoYo have committed to hiring 100 new staff members for the new studio, and people have been monitoring their job postings to get an idea of what lies in the studio’s future.

One for a senior level designer describes an open world with urban areas and wilderness connected by a significant road system, with an emphasis on vehicular gameplay.

Part of the listings also state MiHoYo’s mission to “create a virtual world for one billion people by 2030.” Is that terrifying, or exciting? It seems the metaverse might have some competition, and they have the power of anime on their side.

Genshin Impact is available to download and play for free on PC, mobile, and PS4, as well as the PS5. If you haven’t been able to get your hands on the new PlayStation console, register your interest at our shop.

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The post MiHoYo’s next project is a paranormal open-world online game first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Microsoft is hosting a special Xbox anniversary event today to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first Xbox, which debuted alongside Halo: Combat Evolved. “While no new games will be announced, this broadcast will be a special look back at all the memories we’ve shared with the Xbox community over the last two decades,” Microsoft said.

While the event is intended to be a celebration rather than a news event, there could potentially be  some worthwhile news. It has been speculated that an early beta of Halo Infinite multiplayer will be released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Halo, but this is yet to go live if it is the case. Many Xbox enthusiasts have noticed odd patches to older original Xbox and Xbox 360 games.

When Is the Xbox 20th Anniversary Event?

The livestream will begin at 10 a.m. PT / 6 p.m. GMT on Monday, November 15th. If you miss the broadcast, there will be a replay available after the event. Microsoft is hosting the stream on Xbox’s official YouTube and Twitch channels and its Facebook page. There is a link to the YouTube stream above.

Celebrate Xbox’s 20th anniversary with us. Browse our extensive catalogue of Xbox games and products available in our store now!

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The post Xbox 20th Anniversary Event; Where to Watch first appeared on Get2Gaming.