Gait Games

The UK government have announced a ban on social media platforms for British people under the age of 16, encompassing Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X.com (known hereabouts as MechaHitler.com or Xitter, among other lousy putdowns). The ban is expected to come into force in spring 2027, and will have far-reaching impacts on ye olde videogame discourse, because people do so love to share and talk about games on social media.

The under-16s ban will also directly apply to certain gaming “services”, though prime minister Keir Starmer and his minions have yet to specify which. It won’t, apparently, “affect the ability for children to participate in multiplayer games online”.

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Xbox Games Studios boss Craig Duncan and chief of staff Louise O’Connor have left Microsoft, according to reports, with all the studios under Duncan’s watch now operating under Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty until a replacement is found.

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“There is a hole in the world,” writes Ursula K Le Guin in The Farthest Shore, “and the light is running out of it.” Alas, The Farthest Shore contains no terrible mechanical instruments of hole-digging. For that, we must turn to MOLE, “a psychological horror experience with tactile simulation elements about madness, faith, and the depths we choose to dig”.

Out now on Steam, it makes me think of Mike Klubnika’s clicky torture instruments, of Iron Lung‘s unseen exteriors, and of Mouthwashing‘s workaday cabin fever. In brief, it seems like an effective delivery system for some extraordinarily bad vibes.

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Make a purrfect home

The post Cat Isle Is a Pixel-Art Management City Coming to Steam Next Month appeared first on Gamezebo.

Saturdays are for realising that there are ASMR playlists for Frictional’s Amnesia games. ASMR playlists, for games that make use of subliminal crackling noises to suggest mounting delirium, and Shepard tones to create the impression that a life-saving generator is always just about to run out of fuel.

What on earth is wrong with you people? And why can’t I stop listening to the Rebirth one? What is it about the sound of a thousand ghoul talons raking a blackboard that goes so well with a bowl of Shreddies? It is too late for me, I fear. Here’s what the rest of the team are up to.

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Online play is built around rollback netcode

The post Royalty Free-For-All Is a Super Smash Bros.-Like Coming Soon to PC and Consoles appeared first on Gamezebo.

Xbox are reportedly closing or spinning off Psychonauts developers Double Fine, Hellblade studio Ninja Theory, and South of Midnight creators Compulsion Games, as Microsoft commence efforts to yet again “reset” their billion dollar gaming business after already laying off thousands of staff, cancelling games, and closing several studios over the past couple of years.

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Mostly decent open-world ninja sim Assassin’s Creed Shadows is getting its last big update today, as Ubisoft begin the process of shooing players away from the year-old RPG and towards the gleaming, nipple-adding newness of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced. The Shadows patch even includes an unlockable outfit based on Edward Kenway’s pirate garb, displaced only 150 or so years out of its appropriate time period for your synergistic brand awareness pleasure.

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In the time-old tradition of marketing, EA have announced something ancient as though it’s just been thought up by the boffins in the advertising lab. Their big new moneymaking wheeze to squeeze every last penny out of their games: billboards.

In a press release that stretches into essay-length territory, EA sing the praises of their new ad platform, which is “transforming how brands connect with audiences”. Companies looking to hock their wares can now pay EA to plaster themselves over any and all in-game advertising slots.

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We’re over the hump of this week’s Steam Next Fest now. The vent wraps up on Monday, so really we only have the weekend to muscle through and then we’re free from the demo life. We can go back to consuming games only in their entirety, leaving these pintxos of play behind.

As ever, thank you for your recommendations in the comments. While we won’t get through all 5 billion demos before the 22nd, I feel like we’ve already unearthed some winners.

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