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Arrowhead Game Studios and Sony's Helldivers 2 was the big winner of the 2024 TIGA Awards, taking home the Best Technical Innovation and Game of the Year prizes last night. Sony Interactive Entertainment also won awards for Best Use of a License, thanks to Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and Best Narrative in Games for The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. Ninja Theory and Microsoft's Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 won two awards, for Best Action & Adventure Game of 2024, and Diversity in Games. So did Newfangled Games' Paper Trail, for Creativity in Games and Best Casual Game of 2024, and The Chinese Room's Still Wakes the Deep, for Best Audio Design and Heritage in Games. Over in the business categories, Dlala Studio won Best Small Studio of 2024, Rebellion won Best Large Studio, while nDreams went home with the Best Publisher of the year award. A couple of individual recognitions were given as well, with Red Kite Games' studio director Simon Iwaniszak winning the Outstanding Leadership Award, and Stainless Games' founder and CEO Patrick Buckland winning Outstanding Individual of the Year. The awards recognise excellence in the UK games industry, and are organised every year by trade body TIGA. Here's full list of winners of the 2024 TIGA Awards: GAMES CATEGORIES BEST ACTION & ADVENTURE GAME 2024 Ninja Theory, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II BEST ARCADE GAME 2024 Playtonic Games, Elsie BEST AUDIO DESIGN 2024 The Chinese Room/Secret Mode, Still Wakes The Deep BEST USE OF A LICENCE 2024 Sony Interactive Entertainment, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 BEST CASUAL GAME 2024 Newfangled Games, Paper Trail CREATIVITY IN GAMES 2024 Newfangled Games, Paper Trail DIVERSITY IN GAMES 2024 Ninja Theory, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II BEST EDUCATION, SERIOUS OR SIMULATION GAME 2024 Slitherine, Command: Modern Operations HERITAGE IN GAMES 2024 The Chinese Room/Secret Mode, Still Wakes The Deep BEST NARRATIVE IN GAMES 2024 Sony Interactive Entertainment, The Last of Us Part II Remastered BEST PUZZLE GAME 2024 Sad Owl Studios, Viewfinder BEST SOCIAL GAME 2024 Prideful Sloth, Go-Go Town! BEST STRATEGY GAME 2024 Brightrock Games, Galacticare BEST VISUAL DESIGN 2024 Sony Interactive Entertainment, Helldivers 2 BEST VR/AR/XR/MR GAME 2024 Ubisoft Reflections & Ubisoft Leamington, Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR BUSINESS CATEGORIES BEST SMALL STUDIO 2024 Dlala Studios BEST ART, ANIMATION & TRAILER SUPPLIER 2024 Big Farmer BEST AUDIO SERVICES PROVIDER 2024 SIDE BEST CO-DEVELOPMENT PARTNER 2024 Flix Interactive COMMITMENT TO ESG 2024 Room 8 Group COMMITMENT TO WORKPLACE WELLBEING 2024 Dovetail Games BEST EDUCATION INITIATIVE 2024 University of the West of England BEST EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION 2024 Staffordshire University BEST LARGE STUDIO 2024 Rebellion OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP AWARD 2024 Simon Iwaniszak, Founder & Studio Director, Red Kite Games BEST LEGAL SERVICES 2024 Lee & Thompson LLP BEST PUBLISHER 2024 nDreams BEST QA/LOCALISATION PROVIDER 2024 PTW BEST RECRUITMENT AGENCY 2024 Big Planet BEST SERVICES PROVIDER 2024 PitStop Productions BEST TALENT DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE 2024 Rocksteady Studios BEST TAX & ACCOUNTANCY PROVIDER 2024 Johnston Carmichael BEST TECHNICAL INNOVATION 2024 Sony Interactive Entertainment, Helldivers 2 OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL OF THE YEAR 2024 Patrick Buckland, Stainless Games GAME OF THE YEAR 2024 Sony Interactive Entertainment, Helldivers Source: Games Industry
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Tencent has acquired approximately 37 percent of the shares of Wuthering Waves developer Kuro Games from Hero Entertainment, and now holds a 51.4 percent controlling stake in the company. Tencent is now also the only external shareholder of Kuro Games. In an internal memo, Kuro Games said that while Tencent’s shares now surpass those held by Kuro Games itself, Tencent has assured the company that its strategy of independent operations will remain unchanged, similarly to how Tencent operates with subsidiaries Riot Games and Supercell. Kuro Games said that it believe the change will create a more stable external environment for the company and support its long-term strategy of independent operations. source: Gematsu
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Focus Entertainment has announced that the Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 player count has hit a pretty impressive milestone just under three months after the game's initial launch. In a post on social media platform X, Focus says that Space Marine 2 has attracted five million players since its release on September 9th. The studio specifically hasn't framed this number as sales, so it's possible it includes those who are streaming the game as part of subscription services like GeForce Now. Still, five million players is pretty solid, and it's likely the bulk of that number is players who've bought the game, so Focus and Saber can rest assured that they've kept the legacy of original Space Marine developer Relic Entertainment (which recently went independent) intact. Space Marine 2 proves there's still an audience for good old-fashioned games. Space Marine 2 was originally announced during the 2021 Game Awards ceremony, alongside the likes of Bokeh Game Studio's Slitterhead and Remedy's Alan Wake 2. It sees original game protagonist Captain Titus making a return, although this time, he's not battling the greenskin hordes; instead, he's fighting Tyranids, as well as Chaos Space Marines. Story-wise, the game sees Titus disgraced following the events of the original game. After serving his penance, Titus is admitted back into the Ultramarines chapter, where he's tasked with exterminating a Tyranid infestation on the planet of Kadaku. In gameplay terms, Space Marine 2 is, much like its predecessor, a third-person shooter that emphasises both ranged and melee combat. Titus has access to a variety of lore-faithful weapons, including the all-important bolter, as well as a chainsword and a range of explosives. Alongside its single-player campaign (which can also be enjoyed in co-op), Space Marine 2 also offers a co-op Operations mission mode and PvP multiplayer, and Focus and Saber have pledged to update the game regularly with new content. What's more, these updates will never take the form of microtransactions. You can check out Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 right now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and you can check out my review here to find out whether Titus' second adventure is a fitting tribute to his glorious Emperor source.Techraptor
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Threads is rolling out yet another Bluesky-inspired feature, with your various feeds now set to remain visible on the home screen, so you can more easily switch across to your “Following” or “For You” recommended stream, or any of your custom lists. As you can see in this example, shared by IG/Threads chief Adam Mosseri, now, rather than having to tap on the Threads icon at the top of the feed to make your alternative feed options show, they’ll be present on-screen, while you’ll also be able to easily swipe across to each. Which also means that the current Threads functionality of indicating “Like” or “See less” by swiping left or right on a post will be gone. As per Threads: “Some of you have asked about swiping on posts. Now, tap the heart to like a post if you want to see more like it. If you want to see less of something, tap the three-dot menu, then “Not interested.” So Threads is going back to the more traditional social media functions, as opposed to using swipes as an indicator. Which I’m guessing not many people used anyway, as it’s not a well-known, and thus, overly intuitive UI. So after months of requests for a default Following feed, a better process for growing followers, and improved search, Threads has now rolled out all of these within the space of a few weeks. Which has been spurred by Bluesky, and the sudden rise in attention for the Twitter clone, decentralized social app. The U.S. election seemed to be the trigger, with many finding that Threads’ algorithm-defined feeds were virtually useless for keeping up with the latest news on the day. Because Threads is optimizing for engagement, not timeliness, while it also actively supresses political content. So, unsurprisingly, when major political news is dominating discussion, Threads is no good, and that seems to have pushed more users to at least try out Bluesky instead. And what many have found (and most importantly, journalists), is that building an audience, and getting reach for news content, is easier on Bluesky. Which makes sense. The ability to default to your “Following” feed on Bluesky gives users more motivation to actually populate that stream, by following users in the app, while Threads’ emphasis on algorithmic recommendations renders following obsolete to some degree, as you can just rely on the algorithm to show you the best stuff, relative to your interests. Bluesky also doesn’t suppress links, nor political content, and with all of these factors, you can see why it appeals to writers and publishers, who are using social platforms to boost referral traffic, as much as they are to engage. Which is exactly why Meta’s entertainment-focused, non-political, algorithmic approach, which has worked on Facebook and IG, will not work on Threads. A key consideration, in terms of building a rival to what Twitter had been, is that only a small proportion of Twitter users ever actually posted anything in the app, with the vast majority of users passively consuming content. In fact, 80% of Twitter users, on average, never posted, liked, commented, or engaged in the app in any way. They just went to the app every day to get the latest news. Which is what Twitter was good for, keeping up with the latest, up-to-the-minute updates in whatever niche you’re interested in. Conversation around sport, politics, business sectors, TV shows, all of this is where Twitter was hugely valuable, with key voices sharing their thoughts, and their dedicated fans tuning in. Those posts, updates, and ideas would then get disseminated to other apps, which meant that while Twitter never had comparable audience size to Facebook or Instagram, its influence remained significant. But the key point is, if you’re trying to build a Twitter-like platform, you’re appealing to that key segment of active users to keep the app flowing. And right now, for at least some of these key users, Blueksy is holding more appeal. Does having more followers give you more reach? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s not even relevant, because the people who are actively posting are going to feel more aligned to the app where they can build their own audience. These users want to share links, and discuss whatever topic they choose without the fear of reach penalties. Bluesky offers this, and while it’s still only a fraction of the size of Threads, the Threads team still needs to wake up and recognize the unique value of real-time social apps, in variance to its other platforms. A Bluesky seems to have provided that wake-up call in some respects. And now we wait and see whether Threads can re-capture the “trending app of the moment” title. source: Socialmediatoday
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In recent past, Bluesky has been growing substantially. It quickly ballooned to over 20 million users, and at a point, the service was adding over a million users a day. Between the ban on X in Brazil earlier this year, as well as the results of the 2024 US presidential election – a large group of people have been choosing to leave X. But, they’re not leaving for Meta’s Threads, the more popular X alternative at the time – they’re going for Bluesky instead. Rise of Bluesky For one reason or another, people are picking Bluesky over Threads. It could be the fact that they prefer the look and feel of Bluesky, or just that they don’t want to support another social media platform owned by Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. Either way, the sudden rise of Bluesky is seemingly scaring Meta. There’s been a number of Twitter alternatives that people have tried using since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, including Mastodon, Pebble (formerly T2), Bluesky, Threads, Hive Social, Post.news, and even Tumblr. Between all of those options, a number of them either completely shut down, or the companies failed to gain popularity – and for a solid while, it was looking like Threads was going to be the only viable alternative. Until now. Meta is scared Threads had grown to over 200 million users since its launch in July 2023, and Meta probably thought they had this whole “Twitter alternative” game in the bag. While Threads was a viable social media platform, the company definitely hadn’t put a lot of effort into actually catering to it’s users. For example, I’ve personally never been a fan of how Threads doesn’t allow you to switch your default feed from For You to Following. Sure, X does the same thing – but Threads also hid the feed switcher by default, requiring users to tap on the Threads logo at the top to present that menu. They really wanted you to use For You. Now, both of those things aren’t the case, with the feed switcher being displayed prominently, and Threads is “testing” the option to set Following as your default feed. These are all small features that Threads could’ve added at any moment, but chose not to. Now, these features are all here, probably to make the platform more appealing. Copying Bluesky features In recent weeks, Threads has also copied a number of Bluesky features, including custom feeds and starter packs. Custom feeds allow you to create a feed of a specific group of people, allowing you to easily track one topic or community. Starter packs allow you to easily follow a group of people who all have something in common. These two features were key to Bluesky’s growth, and made it far easier to curate an engaging feed. Starter packs aren’t live on Threads quite yet, though the feature has already been discovered by reverse engineers. Custom feeds are already live on Threads for all users, seemingly. Competition is a good thing Ultimately, it’s unclear who’s gonna end up winning this “Twitter alternative” race, but one thing is clear – Bluesky and Threads are the key contenders here. At the end of the day, I don’t really care which platform “wins”, but this is an ultimate case of competition being a good thing. Meta wouldn’t suddenly care about implementing all of these key user experience improvements on Threads if they had no reason to. source: 9to5mac
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No, I can’t sleep if the lights are on. I need total darkness to sleep.
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I’m currently listening to Case closed by Kevin Gates.
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Forumpromotion is one of the sites I visit daily, and Administrata is another that I visit regularly. Does anyone here have specific subreddits on Reddit that they like to visit?
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The Premier League VR game is Launching exclusively on Meta Quest on December 3, 2024, Premier League Player features all 20 teams, players, stadiums, and football kits. Relive iconic Premier League moments from the 2023-24 season and score game-winning goals in Moments mode. Test your skills as a goalkeeper, perfect your accuracy in competitive solo or co-op play, and more
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The Cabin Factory is a new psychological horror game, coming to PC (Steam) on December 13, 2024. Inspired by psychological horror walking simulators such as P.T., Pools, and The Exit 8, The Cabin Factory is developed by indie dev, International Cat Studios. Step into the shoes of a newly hired cabin inspector and carry out a simple job: inspect the cabins and decide whether they’re haunted or not. If you stumble across anomalies... get out of there!
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I also use this method. It’s extremely important to not use the same password anywhere.
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First shift on Paramount was the last movie that I watched.
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I’m currently listening to Can’t talk cashing a check by Paul wall.
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I enable two factor authentication on a lot of sites that I’m on. I also avoid clicking suspicious links.
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I’m currently listening dont question by Lil bam.
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According to a report from Insider Gaming, Ubisoft is currently working on a voxel-based social simulation game in the vein of Animal Crossing. The project is codenamed Alterra and has allegedly been in development for 18 months following the cancellation of another title that used Ubisoft's voxel generation technology. The latter title was in development for four years prior to its cancellation, the report suggests. An Animal Crossing/Minecraft Hybrid In Alterra, the player inhabits an island and interacts with denizens called Matterlings. You will be able to leave your home island and travel to different worlds, each with a unique biome, enemies, resources and Matterlings. Supposedly, Matterlings have large heads and smaller bodies, and are inspired by both mythical and real-world creatures. There are also multiplayer aspects where the player will be able to interact with other players. According to Insider Gaming's source, the building will be similar to that of Minecraft, with the player able to freely build using the resources they've gathered from different biomes. It's unknown if this will include terraforming, or if an island's landscape is static. Ubisoft is currently going through a tumultuous time, with the company's stock price having dropped 57 per cent over the last year. There has reportedly been discussions between the founding Guillemot family and the gaming conglomerate Tencent, which has significant investment in Ubisoft, to buy out the company's other investors and take Ubisoft private. Ubisoft hasn't explicitly denied this, saying it "regularly reviews all its strategic options in the interest of its stakeholders..." The public's perception of Ubisoft has been negative after a string of high-profile underperformance, with the most recent example being Star Wars Outlaws. The company's next big release is Assassin's Creed Shadows, which is set to release on February 14, 2024, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. source: Thegamer
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Roguelike indie card game Balatro has generated almost $4.4 million in gross mobile revenue two months after its release on the App Store and Google Play. A poker-inspired card builder, Balatro was first released on PC and console this February before expanding to mobile on September 26th, where it proceeded to make $1 million in its first weekaccording to AppMagic. Now, following a spending surge last week, LocalThunk’s debut game has overturned a six-week decline and suddenly surpassed the $4 million mark. The premium model Being a premium game available for an upfront $9.99 payment, Balatro’s near $4.4 million on mobile has come entirely from players purchasing the game to begin with. There are no in-app purchases and no ads, making revenue reliant on reaching potential new players and earning their installs. As a result, Balatro’s mobile earnings peaked early as eager players paid the upfront fee and have had nothing more to spend on since. The title made $162,000 on launch day and peaked at almost $200,000 on September 29th. A sharp decline began on October 3rd, down 33.5% from the day prior to $118,000. Spending - and therefore downloads - continued to fall throughout the month and averaged out at $71,000 per day. LocalThunk confirmed that Balatro on mobile will never feature "predatory monetisation" or in-game ads either, so this declining revenue had no clear path to turning around without attracting an increasing number of new players. However, revenue began to climb again on November 18th, and daily revenue has been back to six figures since the 22nd, which necessarily means a boost in the number of people downloading Balatro for the first time. In fact, last week ended up being Balatro’s second-most lucrative on mobile to date, earning $727,000. November 18th was also the day Balatro was nominated for five awards at Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards 2024, including Game of the Year and Best Mobile Game. Evidently, its nominations have helped land Balatro in front of new audiences who are curious enough about the title to pay that premium entry point. source: Pocketgamer
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I’m currently listening to what boston sound like by 8 zipp
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Hasbro has confirmed that a new Dungeons & Dragons video game is in development. While details about the project remain scarce, CEO Chris Cocks revealed in an interview with Bloomberg that the game is being developed internally by one of Hasbro’s owned studios. This announcement comes in the wake of the massive success of Baldur’s Gate III, which has reignited global interest in the D&D universe. Since its launch, Baldur’s Gate III has achieved remarkable commercial and critical success, amassing $90 million in its first six months and maintaining strong player engagement over a year later. Despite this momentum, developer Larian Studios has stated it will not pursue additional D&D projects as its next focus. Hasbro, however, is leveraging the franchise’s renewed popularity to explore video game adaptations further. Cocks emphasized Hasbro’s commitment to expanding its presence in the video game sector, with plans to allocate $100–150 million annually to individual projects as part of a broader $1 billion investment strategy. The company is also exploring opportunities beyond Dungeons & Dragons, including new games based on Magic: The Gathering, aimed at making digital versions of the collectible card game more accessible and appealing to casual players. A forthcoming game focusing on the popular Commander format is already in development. This strategic push into video games follows a challenging period for Hasbro. In 2023, the company faced significant layoffs, financial losses, and a class-action lawsuit over inventory management issues. By investing heavily in gaming, Hasbro aims to rejuvenate its portfolio and capitalize on its rich library of franchises. source: Techopedia
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Tencent’s upcoming free-to-play FPS title Delta Force has committed to a “zero tolerance cheating policy” for the new game. Bringing back the series’ large-scale open environments and tactical gameplay to a modern audience, developer Team Jade explain that defeating cheaters is of utmost importance for the game’s survival. In an interview with VideoGamer, game director Ricky Liao explained that cheating is a “long-lasting cancer of the genre”. The director revealed that “shooter games are probably the most difficult genre for developers” attempting to stop cheating, especially for free-to-play titles that don’t have a financial gate limiting how many cheaters get in. Delta Force devs are dedicated to fighting cheaters Speaking to VideoGamer, Liao explained that the team’s efforts to eradicate cheating players from Delta Force is extremely important. If cheaters plague the new free-to-play game, actual players, the kind who support the game with battle pass purchases, will eventually leave the title behind. “What’s more important is our commitment and how willing the team is to fight off cheaters,”Liao said. “As Delta Force is free-to-play, and we are really meaning to support the game for years to come, we know how crucial it is to battle cheaters for our game. “It’s not like Delta Force is one of those premium titles [like Call of Duty]… for us, Delta Force is here to stay and anti-cheat is our lifeline. It’s either us or the cheaters. For us, it’s not just about the player sentiment. It’s about the very survival of Delta Force and this community.” Alongside the inclusion of ACE anti-cheat, Team Jade has made sure to bolster its internal detection group to further eliminate cheaters in the game. Liao explains that the developer has a “dedicated live operation team that’s always on standby to address cheating issues”, allowing the team to rely on more than just its anti-cheat software. The ultimate goal is to make hacking not worth their while,” Liao said, hoping to drive nefarious gamers away from the free-to-play title. Killer moves While Team Jade is committed to continually improving its new free-to-play shooter after its upcoming December 4th release on PC, the team already has some killer moves for stopping the most prominent cheats in the game. With every FPS game suffering from wallhacking, Team Jade has created a “mist” system that stops cheating software from detecting anything the player can’t actually see., This is just one technique the developer has devised for the new shooter, but other anti-cheat mechanics are also in the works. Delta Force officially releases on PC via Steam on December 5, 2024 in early access. The game is also in the works for Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4, PS5 and mobile. source Videogamer.com
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Hyper Light Breakerdeveloper Heart Machine has laid off a "portion" of its workforce. The studio confirmed the news in a statement sent to Game Developer and said it will be providing all impacted employees with severance and several months of healthcare. The LA studio also committed to honoring existing revenue sharing agreements and crediting those who've been made redundant. It said the launch of Hyper Light Breaker won't be impacted by the cuts. "Hyper Light Breaker'supcoming launch will not be impeded by this sad news–in fact, a strong and timely launch will rekindle opportunities for those affected as we look to evolve and grow the game throughout Early Access. Our other projects, including Possessor(s), will also remain unaffected," said studio community and PR manager, Yiyi Zhang. "We really appreciate our communities who have rallied in support of our studio and others in similar positions, and are hopeful for what's on the horizon for our upcoming games, our colleagues, and the industry as a whole." Heart Machine is known for developing titles including Solar Ash and Hyper Light Drifter. The studio is working to expand the latter franchise with Hyper Light Breaker, an open-world, online, rogue-lite set in the same universe as its predecessor. Hyper Light Breaker is targeting an early access launch in 2025. source: Gamedeveloper
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I’m currently listening to Lost by Lil hab.
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Dark Matter is a sci-fi tv show that I recommend watching. It’s eye-catching and thrilling. It’s also a show that you’ll have to keep watching as it gets better and better after each episode.
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I wish the show Hightown had more episodes. It ended with only three seasons and was cancelled too soon.
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I prefer ice-cold drinks, except for coffee, which I only enjoy hot.