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

[JEMC]

The second part of the gaming news:

Xbox reportedly wants to put a stake in Blade and sell off Arkane, even though Todd Howard says development is going well
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/xbox-reportedly-wants-to-put-a-stake-in-blade-and-sell-off-arkane-even-though-todd-howard-says-development-is-going-well/
Microsoft has been extremely busy lately, taking a well-earned break from polluting the world with AI to eviscerate the videogame industry. The reports of potential layoffs and closures—coupled with the short-sighted strategies of other publishers, including main rival Sony—are devastating. And the bad news just keeps coming.
According to The Verge, Arkane's Blade is now on the chopping block as well. This wasn't entirely unexpected, granted. While Arkane's games tend to be critically acclaimed, immersive sims continue to be a hard sell. Dishonored 2 and Prey didn't meet Bethesda's sales expectations, and Redfall was just a complete mess.

Reinstated Subnautica 2 studio CEO immediately peaces out after Krafton agrees to pay the developer bonuses it went to court to avoid
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/reinstated-subnautica-2-studio-ceo-immediately-peaces-out-after-krafton-agrees-to-pay-the-developer-bonuses-it-went-to-court-to-avoid/
Culminating a messy, year-long legal spat, Krafton has agreed to pay bonuses to the studio staff of Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment, having reached a settlement with the studio's leadership—including ousted-and-subsequently reinstated-by-court-order CEO, Ted Gill.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Gill said he has voluntarily resigned as studio executive, having "mutually agreed to part ways" following the settlement agreement.

'There’s something we’ve been dying to tell you': The best city builder of 2023 is getting a survival game set in the same world
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/theres-something-weve-been-dying-to-tell-you-the-best-city-builder-of-2023-is-getting-a-survival-game-set-in-the-same-world/
Ever play a game set in a world so intriguing and enjoyable you wish there were other games, even of a different genre, that took place in the same setting?
Eremite Games, the studio that created roguelike city builder Against the Storm, has announced just that. "There’s something we’ve been dying to tell you," the studio said on Steam: it's been working on a new game that is "slowly taking shape as a survival game set in the Against the Storm universe."

Windrose might get wind
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/windrose-might-get-wind/
As a survival game, Windrose is an extremely forgiving one. Your weapons and gear never degrade. If your pirate ship sinks you can rebuild it with a mere 20 pieces of wood. You can't die of hunger or thirst, and your NPC pirate crew, well… they can't die at all.
It's such a streamlined survival experience that when you're sailing your ship across the sea, you can go in any direction you want at top speed at all times. That's because despite the title of the game, there is no actual wind in Windrose.
That might change in the future, says Kraken Express. In a devlog posted today, the studio outlined the first major update to the early access pirate survival game that includes a new biome, new pirate ship classes, more of the main story and sidequests, and yep, wind. Maybe.

Valheim will get a 50% price hike when it hits 1.0, and no changes to the ocean biome
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/valheim-will-get-a-50-percent-price-hike-when-it-hits-1-0-and-no-changes-to-the-ocean-biome/
Just over five years since its early access launch, Valheim will hit 1.0 on September 9. When that happens, the $20 Viking-themed survival crafting game will cost $30, and a new ice-themed Deep North biome will be added.
Iron Gate has confirmed as much in a new FAQ addressing most of the community's pertinent questions, among these being: does this spell the end of major content updates? The answer is ambiguous, verging "yes".

Blood Bowl's videogame rights have been acquired by Slitherine and at this point I'll take any change as a good sign
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sports/blood-bowls-videogame-rights-have-been-acquired-by-slitherine-and-at-this-point-ill-take-any-change-as-a-good-sign/
Slitherine, the publisher of the Panzer Corps series as well Warhammer 40,000 games like Battlesector and Gladius, has picked up the rights to publish the Blood Bowl series of fantasy sports parodies.

I'm learning to love autobattlers and it's because this Steam demo let me build a gnarly squad of combat freaks out of weird meat and goblin blood
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/im-learning-to-love-autobattlers-and-its-because-this-steam-demo-let-me-build-a-gnarly-squad-of-combat-freaks-out-of-weird-meat-and-goblin-blood/
Having been playing games almost as long as I've been alive, I've fought and killed more goblins than I could ever hope to count. While MMOs, RPGs, RTSes, and all kinds of other acronyms have happily enabled my lifelong war with goblinkind, Flask—an autobattler that just released a demo on Steam—is the rare sort of game that's prompted me to ask instead what's in a goblin's heart.

WoW's bug-filled April patch was actually from trying to fix too much too fast, says director Ion Hazzikostas—like an elevator from 13 years ago that blew up housing
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/wows-bug-filled-april-patch-was-actually-from-trying-to-fix-too-much-too-fast-says-director-ion-hazzikostas-like-an-elevator-from-13-years-ago-that-blew-up-housing/
World of Warcraft caught some heat earlier this year for a messy patch that broke a whole lot of stuff. Patch 12.0.5 was a bit of a disaster, taking an accidental wrecking ball to multiple systems and allowing some long-flagged issues to sneak their way into the game.
The takeaway that I—and many other players—had was that Blizzard's rapid patch cadence was impacting its QA, and while I still do partially wonder if that's to blame, at least in the case of problems that were long-flagged, Ion Hazzikostas has peskily introduced some nuance to my grand narrative. Gee darnit.