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

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Monday news, the second part:

Feeling the post-Suicide Squad ennui, Warner Bros. announces it won't be 'trying to launch 10, 12, 15, 20 different games' anymore
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/feeling-the-post-suicide-squad-ennui-warner-bros-announces-it-wont-be-trying-to-launch-10-12-15-20-different-games-anymore/
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During a recent financial call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav revealed plans to zero in on four IPs. Those being DC ("in particular Batman"), Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, and Game of Thrones.
"We're through some of the worst—and it hasn't been pretty on the gaming business—but we have four games that are really powerful," Zaslav says, adding: "We're going to go away from trying to launch 10, 12, 15, 20 different games. I think we have a real chance now with focus to have the gaming business be steadier."

Things look grim for Multiversus as the Warner Bros. suits blame it for a $100 million writedown—'It hasn't been pretty'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fighting/things-look-grim-for-multiversus-as-the-warner-bros-suits-blame-it-for-a-usd100-million-writedown-it-hasnt-been-pretty/
"Hey, kid—Psst! Ya wanna buy some… um, some kinda Smash Bros.-style brawler with a buncha cartoon characters? How about a live service Harley Quinn game? Where ya goin' kid, hey kid I'm talking!" So goes the first scene of my unpublished script "Warner Bros. has a rough 2024 in games," which opens with panicked crowds fleeing the WB executive suites while the suits pursue, their pockets bulging with unsold pre-order bonuses.
Suicide Squad may be the poster child, with WB Games chalking up an eye-watering $200 million loss to the game, but it now turns out the whole Multiversus saga is responsible for another huge dent in the balance sheet.

Final Fantasy 14's upcoming patch promises improved 'character toe detail' across 118 footwear items
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/final-fantasy/final-fantasy-14s-upcoming-patch-promises-improved-character-toe-detail-across-118-footwear-items/
Final Fantasy 14's Dawntrail is getting its first major patch next week, adding the expansion's first alliance raid, ultimate raid, and new main story quests. It's also sprinkling a fair amount of quality-of-life changes in. There's a much-needed portrait update, new glamour dresser features, and, uh. Well, there's toes. Improved toes. 1,180 of them.
>> The patch will also fix a problem with the portraits.

Stardew Valley creator says he 'could work on it for the rest of my life' and wants to keep sharing new things with players
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/stardew-valley-creator-says-he-could-work-on-it-for-the-rest-of-my-life-and-wants-to-keep-sharing-new-things-with-players/
At some point, the Stardew Valley updates have to end, right? Creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has been working on it since 2011, and continually updating it since it launched in 2016. He's also working on a new game, Haunted Chocolatier. So surely the end is in sight. Except, it doesn't look like it is.
"I have so many ideas for Stardew," Barone told Nintendo Life. "I feel like I could work on it for the rest of my life, and just keep improving it, adding more stuff to it, more content, fleshing out the existing content."

Kojima Productions acquires Death Stranding IP rights, presumably meaning the series will only get more unhinged
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/kojima-productions-acquires-death-stranding-ip-rights-presumably-meaning-the-series-will-only-get-more-unhinged/
No director, whether in a game's production or elsewhere, is solely responsible for their team's artistic vision. But there is perhaps no man who currently enjoys a greater freedom to realize his creative whims than Hideo Kojima, and that freedom just got broader. Yesterday, Kojima Productions, the development studio founded by Kojima in 2015 following his departure from Konami, announced that it had acquired full ownership of the intellectual property rights to its Death Stranding series from publisher 505 Games.

Strategy studio Amplitude breaks from Sega: the Endless and Humankind developer is now indie again
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy-studio-amplitude-breaks-from-sega-the-endless-and-humankind-developer-is-now-indie-again/
Development studio Amplitude has announced that it is breaking with publisher Sega to once again become a fully independent studio. This comes after eight years of ownership by Sega. Ownership of the studio is "returning to some of our original founders and members of the team," Amplitude announced, alongside, apparently, the games of the Endless universe that made Amplitude famous—Endless Space and Endless Legend.

Sony isn't giving up on PSN account requirement for PC games: Company president says it's necessary so people can 'safely' play its games
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/sony-isnt-giving-up-on-psn-account-requirement-for-pc-games-company-president-says-its-necessary-so-people-can-safely-play-its-games/
It's fair to say that Sony's insistence on requiring a PlayStation Network account for PC versions of its games is not widely popular. Don't expect Sony to back off on it anytime soon, though. Speaking in today's investors call, Sony president, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki said PSN integration is necessary in order to ensure everyone can "safely" enjoy its games.
>> They can safely go f*ck themselves.

No Man's Sky gets cross-save on a dozen platforms and brings back Mass Effect's Normandy as a limited-time rewar
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/no-mans-sky-gets-cross-save-on-a-dozen-platforms-and-brings-back-mass-effects-normandy-as-a-limited-time-rewar/
Interplanetary exploration epic No Man's Sky has announced that a feature literally years in the making will finally release for the eight-year-old game: Cross-save between its many, many platforms.
That's not an exaggeration. Developer Hello Games earns double the manys by noting that their cross-save support will work on platforms "including PC, PlayStation 4 & Xbox One and Series X/S, Game Pass, GOG, Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, PlayStation VR 1 & 2 and PCVR."

'Please give it a chance': Brighter Shores studio asks players to have patience with its unusual progression system, promises it's actually a lot of fun 'once you get used to it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/please-give-it-a-chance-brighter-shores-studio-asks-players-to-have-patience-with-its-unusual-progression-system-promises-its-actually-a-lot-of-fun-once-you-get-used-to-it/
One of the more unusual things about Brighter Shores, the newly-launched MMO from RuneScape creator Andrew Gower and his brother Paul, is its profession system. As we explained in our recent dive into the game, professions are region-specific, so when you move from one episode to the next, your professions, including combat skills, are left behind. Not everyone loves the system, but in an update posted today on Steam, developer Fen Research asked that everyone "please give it a chance."

The best Black Ops 6 map for XP grinding finally got a 24/7 playlist, so you know what to do
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/the-best-black-ops-6-map-for-xp-grinding-finally-got-a-24-7-playlist-so-you-know-what-to-do/
When a double XP weekend kicked off this time last week in Black Ops 6, there was only one map my friends wanted to play: Stakeout, by far the smallest in BLOPS 6 that's essentially one apartment. Call of Duty fans love small maps because it shrinks CoD's already miniscule time-to-action from a couple of seconds to literally zero. Stakeout is sized as a 2v2 map, but it's also in Face Off, a 6v6 playlist consisting entirely of small maps designed for maximum carnage.
Stakeout is just one of four maps you can get in Face Off, but it's so popular that players regularly leave lobbies when it doesn't appear. That dedication is probably why Treyarch created a Stakeout 24/7 playlist, an honor usually only bestowed to fan favorites like Nuketown, which just went live today.