Plus Steam confirms you are only licencing games and Game Freak hit with data breach
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia for their support of SIFTER.
KYLE: Hi I’m Kyle Pauletto
KYLE: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
Just me today, as Fiona is having a well deserved break.
KYLE: This week, Steam acknowledges that you don’t own the games you’re buying, Game Freak is hit with a massive data breach, and I run through the highlights from the Xbox Partner Preview.
Here is the news for Sunday 20th of October. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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KYLE: On Thursday, Xbox held its latest Partner Preview showcase, and we were treated to a bunch of trailers for games coming to Xbox in the near future.
It was a solid mix of triple A and indies with some clear standouts.
Fans of the Control slash Alan Wake-iverse will have been pleased to see not just a trailer for Alan Wake 2: The Lake House, but also the first taste of a brand new first person co-op shooter set in the same world, titled FBC: Firebreak.
It looks pretty weird and fun, and will be coming to Game Pass next year.
Sticking to the spooky themes was Chronos: The New Dawn, a third-person horror shooter from the beloved Polish developers Bloober Team, who just released their remake of Silent Hill 2.
And - it was announced that the side-scrolling puzzler Animal Well, the first game by publisher Big Mode, is available on Xbox as of right now.
KYLE: We got a good look at Blindfire, a new multiplayer FPS that is played in nearly pitch black darkness. Neon highlights and explosions give glimpses of your surroundings, but you have to pick your shots carefully to avoid giving away your position. It’s out in early access now.
Subnautica is getting a sequel that looks fantastic or terrifying, depending on how you feel about the massive unknowable expanse of the ocean. It’s out in 2025 and will feature a four-player co-op option.
And Mouse: P.I. For Hire is a steamboat willy styled first person shooter that is a great example of why characters entering the public domain can be a really good thing. If you like the dedication to authentic art style homage of games like CupHead, be sure to check this one out.
Of course we don’t have time to talk about everything that was shown off, so be sure to check the link in our shownotes to catch up on everything we missed.
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KYLE: Steam has gone and said the quiet part out aloud this week, adding an extra line of fine print at checkout for Californian users that confirms what we all fear about our purchases.
A new law has been introduced in the state of California that basically says if your game can’t be downloaded and played offline until the end of time, you’re not allowed to use the terms buy or purchase when selling it.
Now, to comply with new laws, your Steam checkout screen will disclose that “a purchase of a digital product grants a licence for the product on Steam,” rather than a straight up purchase of the product.
KYLE: It’s great to see these kinds of issues being taken seriously by some governments.
But as subscription models continue to become the standard, and we edge closer to a world where personally owning the media you purchase is no longer possible, It’s hard not to feel cynical about the future of buying video games.
One good thing is that online retailer GOG has made it super clear that their DRM-free installers aren’t licences, and they can’t be taken away from you.
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KYLE: If you’re a Game Freak employee, it’s time to update your passwords, as the developer has acknowledged the studio was hit by a massive data breach.
In a statement made late last week, Game Freak confirmed that 2000 pieces of information about current and former employees was stolen by an unauthorised third party, including full names, addresses, and contact details.
The developer apologised to those affected, and claims to have fixed the issue that allowed the attack.
KYLE: Alongside the serious stuff, there was a heap of random Pokemon game-related content leaked.
We’re talking a bunch of unreleased pokemon concepts, a supposed in-house game engine build, a new multiplayer game, new anime content, and plenty more inside-baseball stuff for super pokemon nerds.
I’m not suggesting anyone go looking for illegally leaked content, but there may or may not be an adorable peanut pokemon concept out there that is just delightful to behold.
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KYLE: And lastly some bad news for God of War fans, the TV Series is going back to the drawing board.
After being first picked up by Amazon in 2022, and with reportedly multiple scripts completed, the series will be starting from scratch after executive producers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, as well as showrunner Rafe Judekins left the project.
KYLE: God of War and Ragnarok Director Corey Barlog is still involved, as well as a bunch of the creatives from the Sony side of things, but the timeline has been significantly pushed back as Amazon searches for a new showrunner.
So don’t expect any live God of War action in the near future, boy.
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KYLE: That’s it for the big headlines, here are the games coming out this week
KYLE: Windblown is the newest game from French studio motion twin, the beloved indie team behind the metroidvania roguelike ‘Dark Cells’. It’ll be hitting early access on October 24 on PC and has been drawing comparisons to Hades for its fast, frenetic room-based combat.
ADAM: JRPG fans have been eating well these last few weeks, but if you want even more to play, Square Enix are releasing their remake of Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven on PS5, Switch and PC. The cult 1993 game has been rebuilt from the ground up and makes the transition into 3D graphics for the first time. That’s out Thursday.
KYLE: Out on the 25th we have Sonic X Shadow Generations. Well kind of. Shadow Generations isn’t actually available as a standalone game, but is instead kind of like a DLC that’ll be bundled with the remaster of Sonic Generations which was originally released in 2011. Look if you’re all over sonic, you know what to do, Grab it on all platforms this Friday.
ADAM: And finally, we have Call of Duty Black Ops 6. There’s a lot riding on this latest COD, after fans revolted against the previous release which was closer to a DLC than a full game. Black Ops 6 is out Friday on PC, Xbox one, Xbox Series S and X, and PlayStation 4 and 5. And keep an eye on the Drop Rate feed for our review coming soon.
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KYLE: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Kyle Pauletto, thank you so much for listening.
KYLE: Hey - do you hate Elon Musk as I do? Miss when twitter wasn’t bloated with weird verified alt-right figures and neo-nazis invading your timelines? It just so happens that Sifter is now on Bluesky and Mastodon - Huzzah!
We regularly post on both platforms and we’d love to see you there. As alway our username is @ sifterHQ ! Give us a search and come find us it’d be great to see you.
KYLE: SIFTER is produced by myself, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. The episode is edited by both Senior Producer Mitch Loh and Executive Producer Gianni Di Giovanni, who is also Walkthrough’s script editor.
KYLE: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
KYLE: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday. See you then.
