Game engine Unity has announced their plan to implement a monthly “Runtime Fee” for game installs, effective Jan 1, 2024. This would mean that developers are required to pay based on - among other things - how many times their game is installed, including for instances like free Game Pass installs, or even people reinstalling. Catastrophically stupid.

Australia’s new Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO) program has announced its inaugural board members; Johanna Egger, Managing Director of Two Bulls, and Morgan Jaffit, known for his work at Defiant Development (Hand of Fate). They’ll serve three-year terms advising on DGTO applications, which provides a 30% tax rebate for game developers with costs exceeding AUD $500,000.

Let’s get it out of the way: the game has fun moments. The visual and sound design are great, the music is really nice, and of course there’s lots to do. Unfortunately… none of it is revolutionary - far from it - and it has many, many problems (not helped by Todd still telling sweet little lies). I wish the experience was more freeform and seamless, because the overshadowing of dated systems & what it could have been are hard to look past.

This week a new bill passed the Australian Senate, marking the initial step in modernising the National Classification Scheme. It empowers industry classifiers, expanding video game classification options. Hopefully no more stupid boomer-brained bans of videogames downunder.

With one strike already underway, SAG-AFTRA announced that it will seek authorisation for a second strike against major video game companies. In a statement, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, blasted game companies for their ‘greed and disrespect’: “once again artificial intelligence is putting our members in jeopardy of reducing their opportunity to work, and once again, SAG-AFTRA is standing up to tyranny on behalf of its members.”

New DLC for The Case of the Golden Idol has been released, which is a good opportunity to shout out what was one of the best, most slept on releases of 2022. It’s called The Lemurian Vampire and it I can’t wait to get stuck into it. And if you like detective games and haven’t played Golden Idol, what are you waiting for?

The good peeps at Playables - in partnership with Panic - have announced their new game: Time Flies. “A game about our limited time in this world.”

Check out the announcement trailer here. Cool.

FROM reinvigorate mecha gaming with their masterfully honed pedigree, elevating the genre to new supreme heights. The world is enthralling, the garage deep and addictive, and the combat tight and impactful. What can one say - they’ve done it again.

Finally, after like a year, we hear more about Soulframe - the new one from Digital Extremes, the team behind Warframe. A whole 31 minutes of gameplay even! Looks super cool.

IGN previews the ‘Nintendo-inspired’ visually stunning adventure game Plucky Squire, and interviews the team behind it. Can’t wait for this.