Modern Times Group has acquired a majority stake in Snowprint Studios for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition will see the digital entertainment company provide the Swedish-based studio with tools and knowledge to help it "diversify [its] revenues and expand [its] player base," said MTG group president and CEO Maria Redin.

"Snowprint Studios brings great experience in developing, launching, and growing mobile games as well as the proven ability to work successfully with global entertainment IP owners like Games Workshop and the Warhammer 40,000 franchise," Redin added.

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George Fan is the creator of Plants vs Zombies, alongside fascinating, playful, elegant games like Octogeddon. He's also seen as having created the best ever GDC talk, "How I got my mom to play through Plants vs Zombies." It's a beautiful bit of applied thinking about game audiences and tutorials.

More recently, he's been working on a game called Hardhat Wombat. I've been playing a build for the last few weeks and it's as elegant and interesting as ever. You play a wombat construction worker who must build various structures from - well, I'll let George explain that.

With Hardhat Wombat launching soon, I got to chat with Fan about his work in games, his early doubts, and why he likes to build projects around game jams.

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Footage has been published showing a pair of LAPD cops ignoring police calls to instead drive around and play Pokémon Go while on duty.

The video, which was published by 404media following public records requests, shows the car being driven erratically as the officers race to catch a Snorlax and then a Togetic - the evolved form of Togepi.

The two cops talk excitedly about catching Pokémon while, in the background, radio calls can be heard - including a request for backup at a local shopping mall where a robbery is in progress.

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When I tried out the NZXT H5 Flow PC case, I liked it so much that I simply left all the components I’d installed inside it and declared it the new home of the RPS test rig. Now’s a good time for you to switch to this breezy, build-friendly chassis yourself, as its white version is up to 22% off as part of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sale.

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Tencent, Apple, Nintendo, and Ubisoft reduced their carbon emissions from 2021 to 2022, while companies including Sega, NetEase, and Unity saw increases year-on-year.

That's according to AfterClimate's 2023 report, looking into the games industry's CO2 emissions for the year 2022, how they've evolved compared to the previous year, and progress against net zero targets.

Tencent was the company that achieved the most improvement, with emissions reduced 13.73% year-on-year, followed by Apple with a 11% drop, and then Nintendo at 2.95%, and Ubisoft at 0.14%.

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Disney's CEO Bob Iger is reportedly being pushed to acquire a major video game publisher, such as EA.

That's according to Bloomberg (paywall), which stated Iger's deputies are keen for the exec "to consider a bolder transformation of Disney from gaming licensee to gaming giant". This could be done through the acquisition of a major publisher, with EA being specifically cited by the publication.

But while Iger's advisors are suggesting that Disney do purchase a company such as EA, at the present time Iger is reportedly remaining "non committal" to the idea. So, do not expect to hear any big announcements in the near future.

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Freed from his tenure as a US talk show host, Gavin and Stacey star James Corden yesterday teamed up with controversial boss Bobby Kotick to host a townhall meeting for Activision Blizzard employees.

The internal event, held days before Microsoft is expected to finally close its $68.7bn takeover of the company, was not available to view publicly, but Windows Central has reported on what was discussed.

Kotick reportedly reminisced about Activision's journey as a company so far and also dropped several hints about its future - including an intriguing mention of the long-dormant Guitar Hero franchise.

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The UK's Video Games Tax Relief has driven an estimated £2.4 billion in additional economic growth since it was first introduced in 2014.

That's according to analysis by Games Investor Consulting, shared with GamesIndustry.biz, that also shows the Treasury has issued over £1.1 billion to UK companies between 2014 and 2022.

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A new update for Diablo 4 - released on 17th October alongside Season of Blood - will bring a major change to the way damage is calculated.

Previously, Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage were calculated separately, meaning players could use skills with these attributes to pile on huge amounts of damage.

Now, Critical Strike Damage will be capped at 50 percent and Vulnerable Damage at 20 percent as part of a "baseline multiplicative bonus" - bonus damage will be added together and multiplied by these percentages for each.

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Stardew Valley is bringing its first concert tour to London in April next year.

Festival of Seasons will begin in February 2024, touring North America and Australia before it reaches London. The programme has been curated by Stardew Valley creator (and composer) Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, and will showcase music from the game performed by local chamber orchestras.

The show will be divided into four sections, to represent the four seasons, and fans can expect to hear tracks such as Stardew Valley Overture, Spring (The Valley Comes Alive) and Dance of the Moonlight Jellies, as well as "plenty of surprises and fan-favourite deep cuts".

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Hundreds of thousands of Minecraft players are downing pickaxes and revolting against what they feel to be Microsoft and Mojang's stingy approach to updating the decade-old sandbox building sim. The trigger is this year's Minecraft Mob Vote, a community ballot to decide which of three creatures will be added to the game. Many Minecrafters feel the Mob Vote (which has extended to potential new Minecraft biomes in the past) is needlessly parsimonious, and cynically divisive: given Mojang's current headcount and Microsoft's resources, why not add all three mobs to the game, rather than asking players to do battle over scraps? And now, those players are trying to shut the whole thing down.

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Forgive the surprise, but 80s action movies haven't typically made for the smoothest transitions to modern video games. Predator had Predator: Hunting Grounds, for instance, "a naff waste of great material". Terminator had Terminator: Resistance - "generic and boring". The infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines was admittedly followed by Alien Isolation and the enjoyable enough, fun-flamethrowing-with-friends of Aliens: Fireteam Elite, but still. When RoboCop: Rogue City was announced and subsequently delayed back in 2021 by Polish developer Teyon - the studio behind Terminator: Resistance and its sumptuously awkward first-person sex scene, no less - I can't, personally, say I was too optimistic.

And yet! I've played some of RoboCop's new demo in the current Steam Next Fest and actually… it's not bad? In fact it might actually be kind of good?

The setup here is simple enough, and delivered through a pleasantly hammy introduction of down-the-lens newscasting and caricatured bad guy monologues. There's a new threat in town - an unknown ringleader literally called The New Guy In Town by the city's press - and it's got all the preexisting gangs especially excited. You're thrown into a classic tower block raid, with some relatively simple whack-a-mole gunfights and a couple typical hostage situations providing a bit of basic fun.

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Disney is reportedly looking to acquire Electronic Arts or a company of a similar scale as a way back into games publishing.

As reported by Bloomberg, some Disney executives have allegedly suggested that CEO Bob Iger could transform the company from a gaming licensee to publisher by acquiring EA. Iger is reportedly "noncommittal" about the potential acquisition.

GamesIndustry.biz reached out to Disney for clarification.

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A second Chiikawa Spot the Difference puzzle book will be released on October 25, 2023. It will be titled “Chiikawa Wakuwaku Machigai Sagashi,” or “Chiikawa Exciting Spot the Difference.” The book is available to pre-order now on Amazon Japan and Rakuten Books. An English translation or release has not been confirmed, but the puzzles can likely be enjoyed without the need to understand Japanese. It will cost 1,100 yen ($7.40), tax included. [Thanks, Dengeki Online!]

The last puzzle book in the series was published two years ago, in 2021. Although some of the puzzles in the upcoming release will be quite difficult, the project will feature a range of challenges to appeal to all ages.

This book will include characters such as Chiikawa, Hachiware, and Usagi from the series Chiikawa by the Japanese illustrator Nagano. The manga’s full title is Chiikawa: Nanka Chiisakute Kawaii Yatsu (“Something Small and Cute”).

Steam will raise the prices for Melty Blood: Type Lumina in Argentina and Turkey. This price change will only affect those two regions, as well as the PC version of the game. According to Steam’s announcement on its community page, this is due to suspicious purchases made over the course of 2023. [Thanks, KaroshiMyriad!]

To summarize the statement, Steam originally did not increase regional prices for the game out of fear that it would unfairly impact players in Argentina and Turkey in particular. However, even though there has been an increase in Melty Blood: Type Lumina sales from those two regions, there has not been an increase in players who actually live there. As a result, Valve deduced that users outside of Argentina and Turkey are changing their region in Steam to purchase the game for less money.

In the community post, Steam also explained that it had no other choice but to increase the price of the game in those two regions due to so many taking advantage of the cost difference. The company ended the note by apologizing to those in the affected countries but asked for their understanding.

A collaboration with the manga series Saiyuki and Sanrio has been announced. An official website for the collaboration has opened, where you can view the new artwork illustrated by Kazuya Minekura. A pop-up shop selling goods from the collaboration will open in Akihabara, Shinsaibashi, and Nagoya in Japan. More information about specific products to be sold will be announced on the official website and social media account on October 16, 2023. [Thanks, PR Times!]

Mirai Things will produce the Saiyuki x Sanrio characters collaboration merchandise. The collection will feature new illustrations drawn by the original author and illustrator of Saiyuki, Kazuya Minekura. The chosen Sanrio mascots for the collaboration will be Hello Kitty, Kuromi, Pochacco, Badtz-Maru, Keroppi, Pompompurin, Cinnamoroll, and Little Twin Stars. The pop-up shops that will sell these goods will be open at different times from November 16, 2023, to February 11, 2024.

View the promotional posters in the gallery below:

Minecraft players have launched a petition demanding developer Mojang ends its annual mob vote - in which the community gets to vote on a new creature to be added to the game - saying the process 'leaves fantastic ideas on the cutting room floor' and only serves to highlight Minecraft's anaemic content release cycle.

Mojang has now revealed all three mobs that'll be put to the vote ahead of a grand results unveiling during this weekend's Minecraft Live - the crab, the penguin, and the armadillo - and it's a selection a newly launched fan petition describes as "three equally great options".

The petition, which at the time of writing has received 295K signatures from Minecraft fans in the three days since its launch, argues, "Mojang somehow releases less content WITH Microsoft's backing than they did without, [meaning] players see minimal content to the game they love". It continues that by "leaving fantastic ideas on the cutting room floor, and teasing content that will never be seen in the game", players must "watch as possibly the one thing to get them to play again is ripped from them".

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Sega has revealed three new prize figures of Anya from Spy x Family. These collectibles will come out in Spring 2024. Sega Prize figures are items you can get via UFO catchers (claw machines) in arcades in Japan. Some stores offer the prizes as something you can directly purchase, though. [Thanks, Hobby Watch!]

It’s unknown if Sega plans on releasing more Anya prize figures or if these three will be the only variations. One of the figures depicts Anya in her detective mode, and the other shows her ready for an “ooting,” in her own words. The final Anya figure features her wearing pajamas while leaning against a giant penguin plush.

Lexar's NM790 4TB NVMe SSD thrums at the heart of my most beautiful , functional computer, the Digital Foundry CPU test bed. And now it can thrum at the heart of your PC too, as this capacious drive has dropped in price from $210 to $177 at Amazon US.

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This Halloween, a new horror narrative-driven adventure game, Little Goody Two Shoes, will creep its way onto Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. The project will be published by Square Enix Collective, a division of the Japanese developer that specializes in indie titles. A demo of the game has been released to kick off Steam Next Fest.

The newest release date trailer shows off gameplay and animations from Little Goody Two Shoes. In the video's cutscenes, the art style is reminiscent of anime from the 90s and early 2000s. The gameplay segments also feature a chibi pixel art style evocative of classic RPG Maker JRPGs.

Watch the release date announcement trailer below:

Newly released dashboard camera footage shows two Los Angeles Police Department officers ignoring an active robbery in order to catch some rare creatures in Pokémon Go. The footage shows how the driver ignored stop signs, sped through quiet residential areas, and drove the wrong way down a one-way road. All this was…

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Rocket League developer Psyonix has announced the game will no longer support player-to-player trading as of 5th December this year, as the studio moves to "align with Epic's overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies".

Trading was introduced to Rocket League in 2016, giving players the opportunity to exchange certain earned items, including cosmetics dropped at the end of matches and revealed blueprints (but not premium DLC), with other players and third-party trading sites.

From 4pm PST on 5th December this year, however, player-to-player trading will be removed from the game. Explaining the change in a post to its website, Psyonix - which was acquired by Epic Games in 2019 - insisted this would align Rocket League with Epic's "overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies, where items aren't tradable, transferrable, or sellable."

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If you’re a Crunchyroll user in the United States, you are eligible for approximately $30 of payment from the company. This is because Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment settled a class action lawsuit with Salvador Beltran and company on September 15, 2023. You have until December 12, 2023 to submit your claim. [Thanks, ANN!]

In 2022, a subscriber named Lisa Cuevas sued Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment. She accused the companies of disclosing subscribers’ personal and private information to third parties such as Facebook. While Sony Pictures Entertainment and Crunchyroll denied the claims, they settled “to avoid the uncertainties and expenses associated with continuing the case.”

Selling user information to third-party companies on its own is not illegal. However, in Crunchyroll’s case, it is alleged that the company did not inform or ask for consent from its users before doing so. This goes against the US Video Privacy Protection Act, which decrees that companies must get user permission before disclosing their data to third parties such as Meta.

LG makes a ton of monitors, so it's perhaps unsurprising that I wasn't familiar with their 34WP60C-B ultrawide model. This unassuming choice normally retails for $450, but does offer a higher-than-average 160Hz refresh rate to go along with a 34-inch VA panel and 3440x1440 resolution.

Today though, this monitor crashes into new relevance as it's been discounted to just $200 at LG's US store, an incredible price that makes it almost an impulse buy pickup for anyone that wants to try out the majesty of an ultrawide monitor.

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Hasegawa, a Japanese company specializing in creating Buddhist altars, has released a miniature “Oshi Altar” for your favorite anime characters. You can decorate the podium with LED lights for display purposes. Hasegawa also sells attachments you can use to hang them from your walls, as well as additional miniature balcony-like shelves if you want to show off your entire collection like this. The Oshi Altar costs 13,750 JPY ($92.45).

The altar uses real Japanese cypress in its construction. In Japan, Japanese cypress, or hinoki, is often the material that builders use for palaces, temples, shrines, baths, and traditional noh theaters. Because of the small size of the pulpit, the maximum size of your oshi should be around 16 centimeters tall. You can display figures, Nendoroids, acrylic stands, as well as multiple characters onto the podium depending on the size and type of merchandise you own.

Here are some more pictures of the Oshi Altar:

Samsung's 990 Pro PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD is the fastest gaming drive we've ever tested - faster even than the Crucial T700, a PCIe 5.0 SSD. And unlike that SSD, the 990 Pro works on a wide range of PCs and even the PS5, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

In fact, today it's down to $129.99 for a 2TB Heatsink model on Amazon as part of the firm's Big Deal Days, which is a pretty sweet offer - albeit one restricted sadly to Prime customers.

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Four years after its debut, developer Teyon's Terminator: Resistance is set to receive a Complete Edition on Xbox Series X/S - bundling together the base game and Annihilation Line DLC (which was previously unavailable on the console) for release on 27th October this year.

Terminator: Resistance originally released back in 2019, whisking players away to a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles - some 31 years after the events of Terminator: Judgment Day - for some first-person shooting action as they, in the role of resistance fighter Jacob Rivers, helped mount an assault against the Terminator menace.

Former Eurogamer editor-in-chief Wesley Yin-Poole wasn't too keen on the game when he reviewed it back in 2019, calling it "so generic that it has dissolved in my memory like a Skip on my tongue" - and that's despite Terminator: Resistance somehow managing to shoe-horn in two "inexplicably cringe" first-person sex scenes along the way.

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Have you ever wished you could exercise your Second Amendment right on a formidable video game boss? Well, one upcoming Soulslike will let you pull out a gun and one-tap bosses if it prove too impossible to “git gud” and vanquish them the normal way.

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Microids has published the full gameplay trailer for UFO Robot Grendizer: The Feast of the Wolves. While the company had released trailers previously, the October footage is the first to showcase the game's full interface and voiceovers.

In The Feast of the Wolves, the player will primarily control the Grendizer in the Dizer Mode with combat actions. The robot can launch various attacks ranging from Hand Beams to the signature Space Thunder. It will feature boss fights against the likes of Gorugoru and Damdam. The game will not only have action segments, but it will also include side-scrolling shooting elements when using the Spazer.

The new Grendizer gameplay trailer can be watched below with English voiceovers:

Last year was a strange one for Xbox. While Game Pass continued to be a big win for Microsoft, it failed to release any big exclusive, first-party games. But as we enter the final months of 2023, this year has been different. Microsoft has actually released games, including some big, popular ones. It’s a sign that…

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Detective Pikachu Returns, the new Switch adventure from Nintendo, is not great at a lot of things. It’s incredibly simple for an adventure game, only looks about as good as the original 3DS game did seven years ago, and even when it has its own take on things, a lot of its big twists have been undermined by 2019’s Det…

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The very first Stardew Valley concert will take place in February 2024. In total, the orchestra tour will consist of fourteen concerts that will take place in six countries around the world. Tickets will go on sale on October 13, 2023, and you can purchase them from the official website.

The concert tour is titled “Festival of Seasons,” and a key visual has been released for its announcement. The new artwork shows what looks like various members of the Stardew Valley cast sitting in the main town square area while playing instruments. The town location in the visual should be very familiar for players since it’s right by Harvey’s Clinic and Pierre’s shop, which are next to the path leading to your farm.

You can check out the full announcement below:

Here are the full dates and locations for the Stardew Valley concert tour:

Recently, Nintendo teased a new line of LEGO Animal Crossing sets. Today, a second trailer for the collaboration was posted on the LEGO YouTube channel, which gave us a deeper look at the project. The full list of the five LEGO original sets and their prices were also revealed on the official LEGO online shop.

You can watch the new trailer, which features LEGO mini-figures of the Animal Crossing villagers, below:

Here’s a complete list of the Animal Crossing LEGO sets and their prices in USD:

• Bunnie’s Outdoor Activities ($19.99)
• Isabelle’s House Visit ($39.99)

One thing that keeps luring me back to Starfield - other than the idea of building space stations out of onions - is a mysterious game within the game. Titled "Symbol Game", it consists of chunky, etched, sloping pieces and a 4x6 grid mat adorned with stars, dots and lines. You may have pocketed a few sets, during your journeys across the Settled Systems. They're not hard to find. But as far as I can tell, nobody has discovered the rules, though there are plenty of theories.

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Kotobukiya announced that it will re-release its ARTFX J figures of Vash the Stampede and Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun: Badlands Rumble in 2024. Pre-orders for both figures have also opened in Japan.

The 1/8 scale figures will be completely static with no movable parts. However, collectors can attach and remove the optional glasses on both figures. Vash will come with an additional figure of the mascot cat Kuroneko-sama. Meanwhile, Nicholas' figure set will have a chibi caricature of the series creator Yasuhiro Nightow as a bonus item.

You can see images of the Trigun: Badlands Rumble figures below: