This week in gaming: itch.io goes all in for creators, DualSense now comes in two more colours, Battlefield 6 remains cross-gen, and more!
In the spirit of keeping our readers up to date with what’s happening in the video game industry, the Doublejump Digest is a brief collection of the major news stories from the past week. Keep an eye out for the Digest every Sunday night, and head on into the archive for news from weeks gone by!
FROM DOUBLEJUMP
- Ruby hopped on the nostalgia safari bus to review New Pokémon Snap.
- John endured hours of white-knuckled action to review Flowing Lights.
- Matt headed to Atropos to review Returnal. Matthew travelled to Atropos to review Returnal. Matt voyaged to Atropos to review Returnal
MAJOR NEWS
Itch.io holds first Creator Day, gives 100% revenue to developers
For 24 hours beginning at 5pm AEST this past Friday, content store itch.io gave its contributors “100% of sales after taxes and payment processor fees” in the first of its Creator Day events.
“We hope to make this a regular event to give developers an excuse to share and promote their works,” itch.io’s Director of Business and Content, Spencer Hayes, explained in the announcement post.
It’ll be interesting to see if other storefronts like the Humble Store, Steam, and the Epic Games Store will follow suit and offer similar timed events to support creators – especially since Epic Games is in the middle of legal proceedings against Apple and its 30 percent revenue cut App Store policy.
PlayStation shows off two new DualSense colours, adds DualSense support for Remote Play on Apple devices
Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Isabelle Tomatis has taken to the PlayStation Blog to reveal two new colourways for the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller – Midnight Black and Cosmic Red – that are “inspired by the unique vivid shades of red found throughout the cosmos”.
In related news, Remote Play users can finally use their DualSense controllers to play PS5 games on Apple devices but without haptic feedback, sounds through the built-in speaker, support for the built-in headset jack. Ah well, at least they’ll get to have fun with the Adaptive Triggers.
Yes, Battlefield 6 will come to previous-gen consoles after all
In what may be disappointing news to some (me included), EA CEO Andrew Wilson recently told investors that the next Battlefield game – which is set to be unveiled next month – will be released across both previous and current generation platforms.
When asked how this direction reflects EA’s previous statement about the game being a “true next-gen vision for the franchise”, Wilson explained that this was still true despite working with ageing hardware.
“The reference specifically from our prepared remarks is around the nature of gameplay: what we can do with fidelity of the game, what we can do with physics, artificial intelligence and the immersive nature of the game,” he said. “And in the case of Battlefield, what we can do with respect to the amount of players that we can have in the game and the nature of destruction of those ‘only in Battlefield’ moments that are truly next-gen opportunities that we’re able to do in the context of our next-gen franchises, because of the increased processing power in memory and output of the new consoles.”
Hmm, I’m not convinced. Games like Halo Infinite have shown that developers are held back by simultaneously working on two different console generations, and it’s unlikely that DICE has found a magic formula to avoid compromising on pushing boundaries while making Battlefield 6 playable on PS4 and Xbox One.
Discord rebrands to mark sixth birthday
To commemorate the communication service’s sixth birthday, Discord has rebranded its official “Clyde” logo, wordmark, and branding colour palette. The new Clyde eschews the original’s antennas for rounded bumpers that the company hopes will make it easier to include him “when printed on different types of materials, or when printed on really small surfaces such as a pin”.
Discord also borrowed from its fans to create official artwork of Clyde making a number of expressions using his button eyes.
As for the new wordmark, Discord created a new version of the existing “Ginto” font (which Jake affectionately called “basically New Comic Sans”) that features a capital D in the name to make the wordmark look “more legible”.
Discord’s new wordmark.Discord will also start using a new palette of colours to “bring more energy” to its popular messaging app.
Discord’s new colour palette.Classification Review Board unbans Disco Elysium: A Final Cut in Australia
After Australia’s Classification Board gave Disco Elysium: A Final Cut a Refused Classification this past March – effectively banning it from sale in the country despite what its continued Steam listing suggested – the Classification Review Board has overturned the original rating with an R18+ rating.
“In the Review Board’s opinion, while drug use linked to incentives and rewards cannot be accommodated at R 18+, this game does provide disincentives related to drug-taking behaviour, to the point where regular drug use leads to negative consequences for the player’s progression in the game,” the CRB explained. “It was, specifically, the disincentives for drug use that influenced the Review Board in making their decision. Drug use is not explicitly depicted within the game.”
The CRB confirmed that developer ZA/UM filed an appeal against Disco Elysium: A Final Cut’s original RC rating.
NOTABLE GAME RELEASES
- Mass Effect Legendary Edition (PS, PS5, & Xbox Series X|S)
- Subnautica: Below Zero (PC, PS5, Switch, & Xbox Series X|S)
VIDEOS AND TRAILERS
Katy Perry — Electric
Katy Perry hopes to recharge her career with the help of everyone’s favourite electric mouse!
Xbox — 20 Years of Xbox
Wow, it’s been two decades of Master Chief and Mountain Dew already?
FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE — Final Trailer
Yuffie is ready to kick some polygonal ass!
HITMAN 3 — Season of Pride
New contracts, new challenges, and a new Elusive Target await players.
Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer — Season Pass Trailer
Enter a neon world filled with feisty Vex and Fallen grenade babies.
OTHER NEWS
- Melbourne’s Inflation nightclub will host a pop culture-themed night called GLITCH: Kotaku Australia
- VALORANT’s Replication game made is live now: GameSpot
- The Coalition has moved Gears development onto Unreal Engine 5: Official
- Tencent and Xbox Game Studios are working together on new games: Engadget
- Bungie accidentally enabled cross-play between Destiny 2: Beyond Light on PC and Google Stadia: The Verge
- Capcom has shipped over 3 million copies of Resident Evil Village: Eurogamer
- Here’s a look at what Hyperius and Tovarus might look like in Halo Infinite: Halo Waypoint
- Among Us now features Discord invites and Twitch support on mobile: Engadget
- Blizzard’s shut down World of Warcraft Classic’s Auction House to get it ready for Burning Crusade: GameSpot
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