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

[JEMC]

The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

(Click here for the top 100)

Minecraft is the first videogame ever to sell more than 300 million copies
https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-is-the-first-videogame-ever-to-sell-more-than-300-million-copies/
Developer Mojang Studios has announced that Minecraft, first released in early access in 2009, has now sold over 300 million copies worldwide. It is the first individual videogame to hit such a milestone, with its closest rival Grand Theft Auto V languishing behind on a mere 185 million copies (as of August 2023). Other series have sold more over multiple entries (Mario games are estimated to have sold over 800 million), and variations (Tetris on 520 million, 425 million of which are on mobile), but no single game has ever sold as many copies as this.
"As we approach the 15th anniversary, Minecraft remains one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 300 million copies sold, a milestone no one could have dreamed of when we were all placing our first blocks," said Helen Chiang, head of Mojang Studios.
The news came as part of Minecraft Live, and an accompanying blogpost shared an infographic about an average day in the game: 915 KM traversed on piggyback, 400,000 wolves tamed, 15 million pickaxes crafted, 6.7 million diamonds discovered, 15 million skeletons slain, and 700,000 cakes made.

GOG ha a new Deal of the Day: Space Hack will be 80% off during 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/space_hack.

Steam has several sales and new weeklong deals:

• The Division franchise is on sale with up to 85% discounts until the 23rd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/thedivision
• Forever Skies, still in Early Access, will be 20% off until October, 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1641960/Forever_Skies/
• Viewfinder also gets a 20% discount until the 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1382070/Viewfinder/
• Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga will be 40% off until the 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488200/Symphony_of_War_The_Nephilim_Saga/
• And the Kingdom franchise goes on sale with up to 90% discounts until the 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/kingdomfranchise2023
• Finally, here's a small sample of the weeklong deals:
  • Indies' Lies, that has a demo, will be 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1638390/Indies_Lies/
  • Papetura features a 35% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/593640/Papetura/
  • Lost Lands: Ice Spell Collector's Edition, that also has a demo, will be half its usual price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/846690/Lost_Lands_Ice_Spell_Collectors_Edition/
  • Palindrome Syndrome: Escape Room gets a 60% deal: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1374290/Palindrome_Syndrome_Escape_Room/
  • Press X to Not Die will be 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/402330/Press_X_to_Not_Die/
  • And the last one is Moon Hunters, with a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/320040/Moon_Hunters/

By the way, Steam has a page listing the most played demos of this past Next Fext, and some of them are still available.

The Humble Store has launched the Compete, Cooperate, Celebrate Sale, with up to 90% discounts during 6 days. The keys are for Steam, EGS and several direct downloads: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/compete-cooperate-celebrate-sale/.

Fanatical has launched the Funcom Publisher Sale, with up to 64% discounts. There's no sign of when this sale will end: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/funcom.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 545.84
https://videocardz.com/driver/nvidia-geforce-game-ready-545-84

Highlights
Game Ready for NARAKA: BLADEPOINT and Warhammer: Vermintide 2
This new Game Ready Driver provides the best gaming experience for the latest new games supporting DLSS 3 technology including NARAKA: BLADEPOINT and Warhammer: Vermintide 2. Additionally, this Game Ready Driver introduces TensorRT acceleration for Stable Diffusion to increase performance by up to 2x.
Gaming Technology
Introduces support for RTX Video Super Resolution v1.5.

Fixed Issues
Fixed General Bugs

• Some monitors may display random black screen flicker when in Display Stream Compression mode [4034096]
• Monitor colors are incorrect after coming back from display sleep [3420257]

AMD yeets its latest GPU driver in response to Anti-Lag+ causing bans in Counter-Strike 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/amd-yeets-its-latest-gpu-driver-in-response-to-anti-lag-causing-bans-in-counter-strike-2/
As reported a few days ago, Counter-Strike 2 players using Radeon Anti-Lag+ technology in the latest GPU drivers were finding that it didn't help matters at all. In fact, it resulted in accounts being banned as Valve's anti-cheat system didn't like the latency reduction system. AMD's response to the whole problem? Yank the drivers off the download page.
>> That's one way to solve it.

After saying 'We've been spending way more money than we earn', Epic turns on the money hose to lure game devs into releasing their golden oldies on the Epic Games Store
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-saying-weve-been-spending-way-more-money-than-we-earn-epic-turns-on-the-money-hose-to-lure-game-devs-into-releasing-their-golden-oldies-on-the-epic-games-store/
Epic has announced a foolproof plan to tempt devs and publishers to put their back catalogues onto the Epic Games Store: throw money at them. Announced yesterday, the Now On Epic program will offer game makers (and licence holders) 100% of the revenue generated by older games they put on Epic for the first six months of their time on the store, as opposed to the 88%/12% split that selling games via Epic usually entails.
It's the corollary and the inverse of the Epic First Run program that launched yesterday. That program offers devs six months of 100% revenue from their games so long as they commit to an equal period of Epic Games Store (semi-)exclusivity. Once those six months are up, the revenue split reverts to Epic's usual 88%/12% division.
The Now On Epic program, by contrast, offers a similar deal for games that are already out on non-Epic stores: six months of 100% revenue in return for releasing "a minimum of three products that have been released prior to October 31, 2023," although devs that don't have three products that meet those criteria can just bring over "all products that are live" on other stores instead. The program won't run indefinitely: devs will only be able to enrol in the program until December 31 next year, and the games they're bringing over have to launch before June 30, 2025.

Valve doesn't sell ad space on Steam so it can make room for surprise hits: 'We don't think Steam should be pay-to-win'
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-doesnt-sell-ad-space-on-steam-so-it-can-make-room-for-surprise-hits-we-dont-think-steam-should-be-pay-to-win/
As spotted by GamesRadar, the Steamworks Development channel posted a video earlier this month explaining the ins and outs of how games snowball into surprise hits like Dave the Diver—which we gave a smashing 91 back in July.
The talk's given by Erik Peterson of Steam's business team, and it's an enlightening little journey through Steam's design philosophy. "We don't think Steam should be pay-to-win. Not selling ads levels the playing field and makes [its] recommendations better for players."

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-None, sorry-

GAMING NEWS

The Division 2 Title Update 19.1 releases tomorrow and here’s its full changelog
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/the-division-2-title-update-19-1-releases-tomorrow-and-heres-its-full-changelog/
Ubisoft has announced that Title Update 19.1 for The Division 2 will release tomorrow, October 17th, and shared its full changelog. According to the release notes, Patch 19.1 will fix a number of issues that plagued Paradise Lost Incursion.

Cities Skylines 2 may release with major performance issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cities-skylines-2-may-release-with-major-performance-issues/
Colossal Order has issued a statement, claiming that Cities Skylines 2 may release with major performance issues. Cities Skylines 2 will release on October 24th and as Colossal Order stated, it was not able to achieve the performance benchmark it was targeting.
>> Gamers should react paying the same respect to the developer/publisher by holding their purchase until the game is finally finished. But we know that it won't happen.

Lords of the Fallen Patch 1.1.199 fixes multiple crashes on AMD GPUs
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/lords-of-the-fallen-patch-1-1-199-fixes-multiple-crashes-on-amd-gpus/
CI Games and Hexworks have been releasing patches for Lords of the Fallen on a daily basis. And, earlier today, the developers released Patch 1.1.1999 which resolves multiple crashes that could occur on AMD’s GPUs.