Plus Fallout: London is finally here and Humble Games lays off its entire staff
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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 and Apple for their support of SIFTER.
FIONA: Hi I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
KYLE: and Kyle Pauletto
FIONA: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
KYLE: This week Fallout London is finally out, video game voice actors are on strike over AI protections, and small scale publisher Humble Games has been abruptly shut down.
Here is the news for Sunday 28th July. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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KYLE: Five years on from its initial announcement, the fan-made Fallout London mod is finally here. As in, it's available right now!
Despite some delays due to the surprise Fallout 4 next-gen update earlier this year, these hardcore, determined, dedicated fans have managed to succeed in creating their vision for a London-based Fallout.
And it looks fantastic.
But before you get too excited, just know that getting your hands on this mod isn’t the simplest task.
FIONA: First off, you’ll need to own a copy of Fallout 4 bought on either Steam or GOG, as well as every piece of DLC that’s been released, and of course the mod itself.
And unfortunately thanks to the surprise update we mentioned earlier, you’ll need to downgrade your Steam copy of Fallout 4 so that it’s compatible with the London mod.
If you own it on GOG it’s already setup to go, but if you bought it on Steam you’re going to need some step by step instructions, which we’ll link in the show notes.
It’s a bit glitchy, but hey that means it’s a legit Fallout game but the modders are working like mad to fix bugs so you can enjoy life alongside the Thames.
Good luck, and god save the ghoul queen.
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FIONA: For the first time in seven years, video game actors are on strike.
The Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union have walked out after 21 months of failed negotiations with the major publishers over wages, safety, and of course, the ongoing threat of AI tools.
KYLE: In the firing line are big dogs in the industry like publishers EA, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two, Epic, and Insomniac, as well as major voice acting studio Formosa Interactive.
According to Audrey Cooling, who is representing the companies, common ground has been found on 24 of the 25 major issues that have been raised.
That final issue yet to be agreed on, according to SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, is for the fair compensation and the right of informed consent for the AI use of faces, voices, and bodies.
Which makes a lot of sense, given just this week it’s been reported that Activision Blizzard and Riot are going all in on AI for some upcoming projects.
FIONA: Meanwhile, developers from two Microsoft-owned studios have successfully unionised.
Devs at both Bethesda and Blizzard have joined the Communications Workers of America, or CWA, with over 700 members joining across the two studios.
The CWA said that unlike some department-specific unions commonly used in the industry, this is a wall-to-wall union covering artists, engineers, programers, and designers, and is the first of its kind for a Microsoft studio.
KYLE: To the members of those recently formed unions we say congratulations, well fought.
FIONA: And to all those striking we say good luck, and hold strong.
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KYLE: After much annoyance and frustration from Apex Legends fans, Respawn has said they’re going to make some changes to the new battle pass tiers.
The company announced a couple of weeks ago that the seasons would be split into two smaller ones, and players would have to pay real money for each pass. But now, after justified anger, Respawn said that players will be able to purchase the Premium track with in-game currency from September 17.
The only other change was that from August 6, when Season 22 launches, until that September date players can complete in-game challenges to get a premium pass.
FIONA: Otherwise that’s it. The team are still keeping to their smaller seasons and their four tiers, Free, Premium, Ultimate and Ultimate +.
Respawn posted on X saying that they recognised that they could’ve handled it better and that’s on them. They’ve promised that going forward they will be more timely and transparent in communications with their fans, but it’ll be interesting to see how these small changes go over with the players.
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FIONA: Speaking of game developers and recent changes, Microsoft has hit back at the FTC over its criticism of the recent Game Pass price hike.
Microsoft responded with their own letter to the US Ninth Circuit Court arguing that the new cheapest Game Pass tier is actually a better deal for the players, despite the US$3 per month increase, because the tier now allows online multiplayer.
Previously players who wanted multiplayer had to purchase it separately for an additional $US10 per month.
KYLE: In their letter they said it was wrong to call this a ‘degraded version’ of the discontinued Game Pass for Console subscription, and according to Microsoft the FTC wasn’t concerned about the subscription pricing during the Activision Blizzard acquisition court case.
However fans are still scratching their heads about these price changes. Is the addition of multiplayer on the cheapest tier really worth losing day 1 access to games?
Game Pass isn’t growing like Microsoft would like it to and no doubt these changes haven’t helped.
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FIONA: This week we saw the sad news of Humble Games shutting down but there has now been some mixed messages over what’s happening.
Originally it was reported that the publisher closed its doors and the entire 36-person staff were laid off without any warning, and considering they published a game just last week, the shut down is out of the blue.
Then in a statement provided to Game Developer, Humble said nope not fully shutting down. Instead the publishing label is just undergoing a restructure to ensure the stability and support of their developers and ongoing projects.
KYLE: Interestingly in a post on LinkedIn which was shared to X an art director at UVS Games, Chris Radley, said that it’s not a restructuring but instead a total shutdown of Humble Games.
According to Radley operations have been handed to a third party and there are no staff left.
Humble’s statement said they were ‘making the transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved’ but it’s a bit hard to do that when there aren’t any staff left.
FIONA: Stairway Games developers of the farming sim Coral Island have painted a different picture, they now don’t have any access to publish fixes or updates to ANY of their console versions and their pending Switch launch has been cancelled.
In an update published on Kickstarter, Community Manager Bene Maria said the studio had no idea how they could push the 1.1 hotfix to consoles with the collapse of Humble Games, and all they could do is offer Switch backers a Steam key.
We’ll keep you updated on this one.
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KYLE : That’s it for the big headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
FIONA: The Garden Path is a bite sized gardening sim designed to be played in little chunks of 10-30 minutes at a time in single player or with your friends. It’s got a stunning art style and you can find that on PC on the 30th of July.
KYLE: Thank Goodness You’re Here! Is a wild game starring Matt Berry and a cast of other incredible UK actors set in a cartoony little town in Yorkshire where you do increasingly odd jobs. Find it on PC, Switch and PlayStation on Yorkshire Day 1st of August.
FIONA: Also out on the 1st is the remake of 2002’s Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. Set between the events of The Phantom Menace and Clone Wars, you play as Jango Fett navigating the galactic underworld. That’s coming to all platforms.
KYLE: And after 16 years the absolute indie classic World of Goo gets a sequel this week from the original team. If you’ve somehow missed this series you build little gooey structures with your blobby critters to complete puzzles. Find World of Goo 2 on PC and Switch on the 2nd
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KYLE: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Kyle Pauletto.
FIONA: And my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus, thank you so much for listening.
KYLE: Hey if you’ve enjoyed this show why not join us on Discord, it’s a great place to hang out and you can share the creative things you’re working on. Head to sifter.com.au/discord to join the fun, that’s sifter.com.au/discord
FIONA: SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, myself, 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.
FIONA: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday. See you then.
