Carzy Zarx’s PC Gaming Emporium - Catch Up on All the Latest PC Gaming Related News

[JEMC]

Thursday news, part two:

'Lucky' Activision stock purchase that led to $60M profit under investigation
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/lucky-activision-stock-purchase-that-led-to-dollar60m-profit-under-investigation/
Three men who have links to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick are currently under investigation for alleged insider trading, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Producer and film studio executive David Geffen, Fox co-founder Barry Diller, and investor Alexander von Furstenberg are said to have purchased around $108 million worth of Activision shares just four days before the Microsoft acquisition was announced back in January (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). The purchase netted the trio a profit of around $60 million.
>> On one side, his could delay MSoft's acquisition of Acti-Blizz but, on the other, more happier, side, this could put Kotick in real danger.

Believe it or not, Ubisoft is looking for Skull and Bones testers
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/believe-it-or-not-ubisoft-is-looking-for-skull-and-bones-testers/
It's been five years since Ubisoft's multiplayer pirate game Skull and Bones was announced, and it has not been smooth sailing since. (...)
Now, after years of silence and a report detailing toxic work conditions at its lead development studio, it looks like some sort of forward progress might actually be made: Today Ubisoft unveiled the Skull and Bones Insider Program, which will enable a "selected few" fans to try out early builds and provide feedback to developers.

Electronic Arts gets $11M loot box fine overturned
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ea-gets-dollar11m-loot-box-fine-overturned/
Electronic Arts has successfully appealed a €10 million ($11 million) fine levied against it in the Netherlands over loot boxes in FIFA Ultimate Team. A ruling (via Google Translate) by the Administration Jurisdiction Division, the country's highest general administrative court, has determined that purchasing and opening FUT packs "is not an isolated game" but a component of FUT, and thus the game is not required to be licensed.

Russian invasion of Ukraine forces FPS studio to stop work and flee Kyiv
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/russian-invasion-forces-fps-developer-to-stop-work-and-flee-kyiv/
Survarium developer Vostok Games says it has "taken a break" from work on the game as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and that some of its team has now left the city of Kyiv, where the studio is based, for safer parts of the country.

4 years after its final patch, Chrono Trigger on PC is getting a new update with 21:9 support
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/4-years-after-its-final-patch-chrono-trigger-on-pc-is-getting-a-new-update-with-219-support/
The venerable Square RPG Chrono Trigger debuted on PC in February 2018, and the port's reception at the time was not good. Patches changed the picture dramatically, however, and it now holds a "very positive" ranking on Steam across more than 5,000 user reviews. The final update arrived in August 2018, five months later, and everyone seemed satisfied—but now it appears that there's another final patch on the way.

Steal VCRs and cassettes from the 1980s in this open world thief sim
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/steal-vcrs-and-cassettes-from-the-1980s-in-this-open-world-thief-sim/
The makers of popular thief simulator Thief Simulator are going back in time. American Theft 80s is the next open world thieving game from developer Noble Muffins, and there's a free demo out now so you can start slipping into houses in the dead of night and filling your backpack with defunct electronics and cold hard cash.

Square Enix is making a new strategy RPG, but it's not Final Fantasy Tactics or Ogre Battle
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/square-enix-is-making-a-new-strategy-rpg-but-its-not-final-fantasy-tactics-or-ogre-battle/
How many tactics RPGs is too many tactics RPGs? I'm not sure there actually is such a number, but after years of letting the Final Fantasy Tactics series lie fallow, Square Enix seems to have rediscovered that people really like these sorts of games. It just released one named Triangle Strategy for the Nintendo Switch and debuted another during a PlayStation State of Play event on Wednesday: The DioField Chronicle, out later this year. A trailer on Square Enix's official YouTube channel confirms it's coming to Steam.

Bungie stops selling Destiny 2 in Russia, makes a free emblem for the rest of the world
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bungie-stops-selling-destiny-2-in-russia-makes-a-free-emblem-for-the-rest-of-the-world/
In February, Destiny 2 studio Bungie promised to donate all of the proceeds raised during the first 48 hours of its Game2Give campaign to humanitarian aid efforts in Ukraine. Today it detailed the results of that effort: $120,000 raised for Direct Relief and the International Rescue Committee.

The Dying Light 2 item that makes weapons unbreakable got nerfed, and players want it fixed
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-dying-light-2-item-that-makes-weapons-unbreakable-got-nerfed-and-players-want-it-fixed/
There are loads of different zombie-smashing melee weapons in Dying Light 2, from axes to hammers to an old pistol welded to a pole (it's called a gunhammer). And while players will constantly find new ones and discard old ones as they rank up, it's hard not to get attached to a favorite weapon somewhere along the way.
The issue is, weapons degrade as you use them and they can't be traditionally repaired. The solution? A well-hidden easter egg trinket, the Korek Charm, which can be attached to a weapon to give it near-infinite durability.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R is confirmed for PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/jojos-bizarre-adventure-all-star-battle-r-is-confirmed-for-pc/
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle was a fighter that released exclusively for PlayStation 3 back in 2014, though it was available in Japan a whole year earlier. It's based on the manga series of the same name (sans All Star Battle) and pits characters from that series against one another in very flamboyant 3D scraps. An updated re-release is on the way, titled JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R, and it's confirmed to be coming to Steam.

The Cowabunga Collection brings back 13 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-cowabunga-collection-brings-back-13-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-games/
Konami has announced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, a sepia-tinged feast for nerds of a certain age (me). The Japanese publisher acquired the rights to the series in 1987, just as it began to explode in popularity, and set about producing a bunch of titles across different platforms: probably the most well-known being the 4-player TMNT arcade game.
>> I played some of those back in the day.

Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/
The website MobyGames was launched in 1999, the intention being to create a huge videogame database via crowdsourcing—a goal that it has certainly achieved, being one of the most useful repositories of things like game credits and box art there is. In November last year, Atari announced a potential deal to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million from owner Antstream, and this deal has now been completed.