#Gaming news

[renthony]

From the article:

NASA has released a free, original tabletop role-playing game, and it’s one part educational experience and another part sci-fi/fantasy epic with magic and dragons. The crux of The Lost Universe, the organization’s first TTRPG,involves a mystery: What would happen if the Hubble Space Telescope disappeared? It’s a simple premise and one that hides the complex backstory underscoring the events of the role-playing game. Without getting into the weeds, the game takes place on a planet called Exlaris, which was once thrown into chaos when a black hole moved too close and kicked it out of its orbit. The planet has since gone back to some degree of normalcy and is now almost completely dedicated to academia. In one city, a scholar named Eirik Hazn made a spell to connect with Earth to study the Hubble Space Telescope, which has famously collected data on black holes. However, the spell and telescope are stolen by a dragon, and researchers working on the project have been disappearing, so the players — Earthlings who worked on the telescope at NASA who were brought through a portal to Exlaris — have to save the day. The official 44-page gameplay book is available to download for free on NASA’s website. You can play it in a party with 4-7 players, but you may need to fudge a few things to graft this narrative onto your TTRPG system of choice. The book says it’ll take around 3-4 hours to get through the adventure.

#NASA made a tabletop game??? #NASA???? #I gotta play this now #NASA #tabletop gaming #gaming news

[sophie-baybey]

Don't use Project 64.

Hey all, a new extremely dangerous vulnerability was discovered in Project64, a very popular N64 emulator. If you emulate N64 games, I highly highly recommend switching off P64 for an alternative, such as Mupen.

#this is from kaze who is extremely trustworthy about this stuff #n64 #nintendo 64 #emulation #gaming news #Youtube

[tailschannel]

SEGA of America employees officially forms the largest union of its kind in the United States

With a result of 91 to 26, the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA, or AEGIS, has won its organizing election.

The guild, representing around 200 employees at SEGA of America's office in Irvine, California, now becomes the largest multi-department video game union in the United States.

AEGIS intends to contact the publisher for a bargaining agreement.

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sega #gaming #gaming news #aegis #unions #sonic news

[iww-gnv]

The entire game industry is still reeling from yesterday's bombshell announcement that Microsoft—hot on the heels of its $69 billion acquisition of Activision—would be laying off 1,900 employees across Activision-Blizzard and Xbox. Inevitably, Twitter is awash with reactions highlighting the human cost, both from dazed devs waking up in a world in which they no longer have jobs, and from others wondering what this all means for the months and years ahead. The posts by former Blizzard devs are too many to count. "After years of applying," wrote former QA learning specialist Cole McElwain in a much-retweeted post, "I finally secure a job at Blizzard. I move to California and am welcomed with an incredible team. I couldn't be more excited to start… "Four months into the job, I'm laid off. What the hell, Microsoft?"

#news #labor news #gaming news #gaming industry #gaming layoffs #gaming industry layoffs #tech layoffs #tech industry layoffs #layoffs #2024 layoffs

[facts-i-just-made-up]

New leaked Elden Ring DLC details confirm Malenia/Miquella duo bossfight:

FIJMU News 2-12-24 by Godfrey G. Godricksen

The video game world recoiled in terror today as Elden Ring's toughest boss appeared with her brother in a duo boss fight leaked from the upcoming Elden Ring DLC, "Shadow of the Erdtree." According to gaming expert Amy Gesper, "Oh God no. Please, please God no. Why?"

Malenia, an optional boss from Elden Ring, has been decried as one of the most difficult and unfair bosses in game history, and Elden Ring's "Godskin Duo" fight has been received as a similarly unbalanced challenge. The combination of this most difficult resurrected boss with another boss in an "Empyrean Duo," though it matches developer From Software's history with near-impossible double bosses, as well as the keeping of her unavoidable and deadly "Waterfowl" attack and Miquella's new promised "Anatidaephobian Obliteration" attack that deletes a player's save file, promises a terrible challenge for any who would play the new addition to the modern masterpiece.

Other leaked materials include new NPCs such as Martineq, Uncle of Miquella and Tiffany the Gloam Eyed Queen; new weapons such as the Distant-Land Lasso and Thomspon's Submachinegun; and a look at new sorceries like Glintstone Kidneystone, which causes enemies an extreme amount of pain while matching damage with amplified aggression and attacks to the player.

According to game creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, "If you complain we will add a another Bed of Chaos during their runback. Boom, You Died."

#shadow of the erdtree #elden ring #from software #gaming #gaming news #unreality

[bloodbrown]

Lies of P DLC likely to arrive in the later half of 2024.

#lies of p #lies of p dlc #gaming #gaming news #neowiz

[mossflavouredbaby]

Happy Pokémon Day/Night! (Yesterday) :)))))

CAN you name them all??

#pokémon #pokemon #pokemonlegends #pokemon day #nintendo #pokemon presents #fanart #pokemon fanart #pokemon art #digital art #artists on tumblr #line art #doodle #sketch #drawing #my art #nintendo direct #gaming news #pokemon news #pokemon quiz

[destielmemenews]

"In a brief note sent to press and shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), Rockstar co-founder and president Sam Houser said that the timing of the trailer was to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the hugely influential studio.

It will also be over 10 years since the last GTA game, Grand Theft Auto 5, was released, during which time it has sold over 185 million copies and become the second-best-selling game of all time."

source 1

source 2

#destiel meme #destiel meme news #united states #us news #news #world news #gaming #video games #gta #gta 6 #gta vi #grand theft auto 6 #grand theft auto #gaming news

[renthony]

From the article:

Nearly one in five gamers are members of the LGBT+ community, yet LGBT+ storylines and characters account for less than two percent of all games. That's according to the first ever GLAAD Gaming Report, the global leader in advocacy for LGBT+ representation, alongside market research company Nielson. A previous report from Nielson three years ago stated 10 percent of gamers were LGBT+. Now that's up to 17 percent - an increase of 70 percent.

#gaming news #queer news

[allisas]

Life by You

Paradox Interactive just teased a new life simulation game called Life by You. Old sims players like myself will recognize the name Rod Humble as the man behind the wheel of TS2.

More news will arrive at an announce ment event on March 20th.

How are we feeling about this? 😄

#life by you #new life simulation game #gaming news #i'm excited to see what this will turn out to be! #and i believe that competition is good for the genre

[tailschannel]

SEGA of America accused of mass layoff threats and improper bargaining in new labour complaint

An unfair labour practice complaint has been filed by the Communications Workers of America against Sonic the Hedgehog publisher SEGA of America amid allegations of improper bargaining with its union, the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA.

The complaint alleged that SEGA threatened to outsource the jobs of union workers to their Japanese and European departments, in a described "phase out" of all temporary workers at the publisher's Irvine, California office.

The proposal was tendered directly to the employees in a compulsory company meeting, as opposed to bargaining with the guild, potentially in violation of U.S. labour laws.

The layoffs is reportedly expected to eliminate around 80 positions, which is around 40 percent of the newly-formed union. The guild is largely comprised of workers from the departments of QA and localization.

"SEGA will not be allowed to get away with this unlawful behaviour," said SEGA quality assurance tester Elise Willacker in a statement to Kotaku.

"We call on the company to make all temporary employees permanent and return to the bargaining table in good faith. There is no other just alternative," said Willacker.

The complaint will go to the U.S. National Labour Relations Board, but action may not be taken in time before the layoffs occur.

SEGA has not responded to media requests for comment.

(files contributed by MC for the Tails' Channel newsfeed.)

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sega #gaming #gaming news #aegis #unions #sonic news

[iww-gnv]

Technical artist Farhan Noor’s website, Video Games Layoffs, has been tracking confirmed games industry job cuts since the start of last year. According to the site, an estimated total of 10,500 game industry workers lost their jobs in 2023. At the time of writing, the estimated total for 2024 on the same site currently stands at 3,770.

#news #labor news #gaming news #gaming industry news #gaming industry layoffs #tech industry #tech industry layoffs

[mischiefmaverick]

It was dying even before Covid, but damn I’m still gonna miss it.

#e3 #gaming #gaming news #electronic entertainment expo

[webshootersandwingdings]

Screenshots from the Gotham Knights Gameplay Launch trailer give us a first look at the Jim Lee suits in game. Captured by PlayGKnights

#Gotham Knights #jim lee #video games #gaming #dc games #Nightwing #red hood #batgirl #tom drake #barbara gordon #jason todd #dick grayson #wb games #gotham knights game #gaming news

[ajaxgb]

#gaming news #zero punctuation #the escapist #second wind #yahtzee croshaw

[rpgsandbox]

5th-level Banish Rumour (Abjuration). Casting time: 1 Action. Components: Verbal, Material (A single public statement).

Dungeons & Dragons is in a bizarre place right now—it's on the verge of the totally-not-a-new-edition ruleset revamp and an in-development virtual tabletop project, riding high off the back of Baldur's Gate 3. But Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has also suffered from a massive round of layoffs, and the bruises of the catastrophic OGL fiasco a year ago are still smarting.   This has laid the groundwork for a swarm of rumours regarding a potential sale to Tencent—a massive conglomerate and holding company with its fingers in dozens of different pies including Remedy Entertainment, Paradox Interactive, FromSoftware, Epic Games and (most importantly to the matter at hand) Larian Studios. Said whispers began when the Chinese news outlet Speed Daily (as translated by Pan Daily) reported that WotC parent company Hasbro was "seeking to sell its well-known IP 'Dungeons & Dragons'", citing Hasbro's "financial crisis" as a reason for the speculation. That's despite D&D being a huge earner for Hasbro, achieving record years (as per a financial report last October) for the company. 

Shucking D&D as a property entirely would be like throwing a crate of diamonds overboard to stop your ship from sinking—not something you'd do unless you were definitely about to drown. Which isn't completely out of the question. That same report noted Hasbro's total revenue was down "13-15%", and repeatedly cites a difficult situation for toys across the board. Still, I'm not sure if things are dire enough for a spontaneous bout of violin-playing. That's been confirmed in a comment provided to Dicebreaker, where Wizards of the Coast writes the following: "We regularly talk to Tencent and enjoy multiple partnerships with them across a number of our IPs. We don’t make a habit of commenting on internet rumours, but to be clear: we are not looking to sell our D&D IP. We will keep talking to partners about how we bring the best digital experiences to our fans. We won't comment any further on speculation or rumours about potential [mergers and acquisitions] or licensing deals." So there you have it: D&D isn't being sold to anyone. What's more likely is that Tencent—which owns a 30% stake in Larian Studios—might be thinking about pouring money into another D&D game. That should surprise nobody, considering the meteoric success of Baldur's Gate 3. Another licensing deal isn't just 'not out of the question', it's a plain good idea. Under any other circumstances I'm not sure any of this would've made waves in forums and headlines. But the environment surrounding D&D at the moment is, understandably, one of fear. Hasbro's layoffs included several senior members of staff. Game designers, art directors, and Liz Schuch—the company's former Head of Publishing and Licensing, who was with Wizards of the Coast for 28 whole years.  There's a bordering-on-zero percent chance something like this would actually happen, but the background radiation of 'strange times' has a lot of TTRPG fans without a fuller scope of the situation willing to buy into speculative panic, and I can't say I necessarily blame them.

#RPG #Dungeons and Dragons #Wizards of the Coast #gaming news