It's time for the Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

(Click here for the top 100)

Leaked slide reveals Sony’s PC games sales figures
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/leaked-slide-reveals-sonys-pc-games-sales-figures/
A leaked slide from Sony’s internal presentation has revealed the Steam sales for all of its ports that have hit PC over the past couple of years. Do note, though, that this slide is from February 2023. As such, it does not have any sales numbers for The Last of Us Part I.
According to the leak, the most successful PlayStation game on PC is Horizon: Zero Dawn. Up till February 2023, that game has sold 3.3 million units. Perhaps that’s also one of the reasons why Horizon: Forbidden West is coming so soon to the PC. Because let’s be honest here. It would make more sense to see Ghost of Tsushima and Demon’s Souls as the next PlayStation games to hit the PC. Instead, we’re getting the sequel to Horizon.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is in fourth place, with fewer sales than Days Gone. The leak also implies that the best strategy for Sony is to release its game 1-2 years after their console release. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered came out six months after its console release and fell behind Days Gone.

Steam has several deals:

• The Iron Oath is 25% off until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/699330/The_Iron_Oath/
• The Idle Game Variety Bundle, with 3 games, will be 50% off until the 21st: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34557/Idle_Game_Variety_Bundle/
• UNCHARTED™: Legacy of Thieves Collection will also have a 50% discount until the 21st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1659420/UNCHARTED_Legacy_of_Thieves_Collection/
• Scorn raises the deal to 60%, until the same day: https://store.steampowered.com/app/698670/Scorn/
• The Maui Strong Sale features up to 90% discounts until the same day: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/komodo-hawaii-maui-strong
• And there are also a bunch of weekend deals, but they're so little that you can check them out by yourselves.

At Humble we'll find three new deals:

• Humble Bundle has launched the Laugh Till You Die: Multiplayer Mayhem Holiday Encore Bundle, with 7 items to get during 27 hours: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/laugh-til-you-die-multiplayer-mayhem-holiday-encore
• The Humble Store has two new sales:
  • The Simulation Successes Sale brings up to 94% discounts during 6 days. There are keys for Steam, EGS, UPlay and direct downloads: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/simulation-successes-sale/
  • And publisher Merge Games will put its games on sale with up to 85% discounts during... 43 days?! That can't be right. Anyway, there are keys for Steam and direct downloads: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/merge-games-spotlight-sale/

Fanatical has a couple of things:

• The new Star Deal is We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie, 59% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/we-love-katamari-reroll-royal-reverie
• And there's a new contest to win a HyperX Cloud 2 Pink headset + Pulsefire Pink Mouse: https://gleam.io/bpibF/chance-to-win-hyperx-cloud-2-pink-headset-pulsefire-pink-mouse

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Also Empty-

GAMING NEWS

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 gets some new screenshots
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/warhammer-40k-space-marine-2-gets-some-new-screenshots/
Focus Entertainment has released some new screenshots for Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2. These screenshots showcase a couple of the game’s environments, as well as the space marines themselves.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League story details leaked, Rocksteady confirms
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-story-details-leak/
A new leak about the story of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League surfaced earlier today. Now the reason I didn’t write an article about this earlier was because I wasn’t so sure whether it was legit or not. However, Rocksteady has just confirmed that this leak is real.

Insomniac already has a working PC version of Marvel’s Wolverine
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/insomniac-already-has-a-pc-version-for-marvels-wolverine/
Hackers have leaked Insomniac’s entire upcoming lineup of games, and it appears that Marvel’s Wolverine will be also coming to PC. In fact, it appears that Insomniac has already a PC version of this game up and running.
>> Not only that, but...

Marvel’s Wolverine PC Dev Build May Have Leaked Online
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/marvels-wolverine-pc-dev-build-may-have-leaked-online/
Earlier today, we shared news about a big Insomniac leak that spilled the beans on a PC version of Marvel’s Wolverine. However, things could be much worse. From the looks of it, a PC dev build of the game may have leaked online, allowing people to actually play it.

Tuesday news, part two:

Armored Core 6 is adding ranked matchmaking like it's no big deal (it is) and it'll be arriving tomorrow, along with new parts and PvP maps
https://www.pcgamer.com/armored-core-6-is-adding-ranked-matchmaking-like-its-no-big-deal-it-is-and-itll-be-arriving-tomorrow-along-with-new-parts-and-pvp-maps/
Armored Core 6 just joined this year's surprising avalanche of quality-of-life updates and out-of-the-blue patches: like Baldur's Gate 3 adding a whole new epilogue and difficulty mode, or Cyberpunk 2077 finally making good on its promises of a working public transport system.
This one in particular will have FromSoftware's PvP community in a buzz, though: AC6 is getting ranked matchmaking.
As announced on the Bandai Namco Entertainment America YouTube channel today, Armored Core 6 will have ranked matchmaking effective tomorrow. This'll add a new PvP ladder, customisable nameplates, parts, and maps to the game—alongside a silo of balance changes.
>> And the best part is that this article is from yesterday, so this will happen today.

Baldur's Gate 3's charming devil Raphael now has seven different endings
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3s-charming-devil-raphael-now-has-seven-different-endings/
Picking a favourite Baldur's Gate 3 character is a bit like picking your favourite limb, but there's little question that the best villain in Baldur's Gate 3 is Raphael. The smooth-talking trickster cambion is as charming and charismatic as he is utterly, incontrovertibly evil, such that you kind of want to do what he asks of you even though it's clearly the worst idea ever.
(...)
"There's actually seven Raphael endings now," Smith said in an interview with IGN. "We added a whole bunch more. So he'll talk a little bit more about his plans. I'm really worried of spoiling too much."

James McCaffrey, the voice of Max Payne, has died
https://www.pcgamer.com/james-mccaffrey-the-voice-of-max-payne-has-died/
Max Payne and Alan Wake voice actor James McCaffrey has died after a battle with cancer, according to a TMZ report. He was 65.
McCaffrey's death was initially revealed by actor Kevin Dillon, who paid tribute to his "best friend" in an Instagram post. After some confusion about whether it was actually the actor who had died, TMZ confirmed the report.

Alan Wake 2 director says Remedy's confidence in the game was boosted by Everything Everywhere All At Once
https://www.pcgamer.com/alan-wake-2-director-says-remedys-confidence-in-the-game-was-boosted-by-everything-everywhere-all-at-once/
Alan Wake 2 certainly isn't afraid to be weird, whether it's letting you change the layout of a level at the press of a button, or suddenly turning into a full-blown musical. Making a game so wilfully out there must be a nerve-wracking experience, however, as you've got no idea whether your kooky ideas are going to land with the audience. Yet according to Alan Wake 2's creative director Sam Lake, Remedy's belief in the game was boosted during development by a film that is equally weird and brilliant.

This mind-blowingly open-ended RPG might be the next Baldur's Gate 3: 'If you have the patience, you could wipe out an entire town by just turning everyone against each other'
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-mind-blowingly-open-ended-rpg-might-be-the-next-baldurs-gate-3-if-you-have-the-patience-you-could-wipe-out-an-entire-town-by-just-turning-everyone-against-each-other/
Unforetold: Witchstone was maybe the biggest surprise for me at our PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted showcase. The Spearhead Games CRPG almost evokes Larian's first Divinity: Original Sin game in its presentation, but instead of pursuing cinematic RPG production values, Witchstone is like an alternate evolutionary path emphasizing the construction of an open-ended, RPG sandbox.

Iron Lung dev responds to accusations that he's only doing this for the money: 'Yes ... I make games for a living'
https://www.pcgamer.com/iron-lung-dev-responds-to-accusations-that-hes-only-doing-this-for-the-money-yes-i-make-games-for-a-living/
Iron Lung, an indie horror game so popular it's getting a movie adaptation starring Markiplier, has raised its pricing on Steam to $8 (£6.70), a price hike of two whole dollars. For some reason, this has upset people to the point where the game's developer David Szymanski felt the need to respond.
In a thread on Twitter (thanks, IGN) Szymanski writes: "Iron Lung's price went up because the game is worth $8 so I want to charge $8, because I want to earn more money," adding that people who still had a problem with it could "go pirate it or something idc."
>> I understand working for a living, but it's hard to justify raising the price of an already released game just because it has become popular. This could hurt the developer in the future.

Obsidian pitched doing a Fallout: New Vegas but for The Elder Scrolls, Bethesda said nah we're good thanks
https://www.pcgamer.com/obsidian-pitched-doing-a-fallout-new-vegas-but-for-the-elder-scrolls-bethesda-said-were-good-thanks/
Developer and writer Chris Avellone, formerly of Interplay and Obsidian Entertainment, has recently been musing on Twitter about some of the roads not travelled during his time at the latter studio. One of Avellone's biggest credits is his work on Fallout: New Vegas, regarded by some as the finest 3D Fallout and the closest in spirit to the original isometric games, and—as spotted by GamesRadar+—he says after that Obsidian wanted to do the same: but for The Elder Scrolls.
>> Well, of course they said no. They didn't want someone else to make a better Elder Scrolls than them!

Yeah, this is what I thought as well when I read that - they already had people praising NV for being better than FO3, the last thing they needed is for Obsidian to make better TES (which would've been almost guaranteed) than Bethesda themselves.

Here's mine: Bofferbrauer's STEAM YEAR IN REVIEW 2023 (steampowered.com)

What I played most:

And the types of games I tend to play:

The Tower Defense is almost all Bloons TD 6, while Capitalism is probably mostly Recettear.

Yeahhhh... still not very big on AAA titles.

This mind-blowingly open-ended RPG might be the next Baldur's Gate 3: 'If you have the patience, you could wipe out an entire town by just turning everyone against each other'
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-mind-blowingly-open-ended-rpg-might-be-the-next-baldurs-gate-3-if-you-have-the-patience-you-could-wipe-out-an-entire-town-by-just-turning-everyone-against-each-other/
Unforetold: Witchstone was maybe the biggest surprise for me at our PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted showcase. The Spearhead Games CRPG almost evokes Larian's first Divinity: Original Sin game in its presentation, but instead of pursuing cinematic RPG production values, Witchstone is like an alternate evolutionary path emphasizing the construction of an open-ended, RPG sandbox.

Oh FFS, is this going to be a thing now, "journalist" who can't tell their ass from their head will be comparing everything to BG3 (which is actually quite funneled and non-open ended).

That said, I always prefer CRPG teams that, given the choice, don't give a damn about more than descent presentation and go for substance, and Unforetold: Witchstone might be just the one.

Next-Gen Xbox rumored to feature AMD Zen5 and RDNA5 architecture

https://videocardz.com/newz/next-gen-xbox-rumored-to-feature-amd-zen5-and-rdna5-architecture

Likely when AMD finally catches up with software feature sets like Ai upscaling and etc. Idk if it will still be called "RDNA" however but as far as PC upgrades are concerned, it's best to not buy any CPU/GPU after the next generation of PC hardware comes out.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 6GB reportedly launches in February 2024 at $179

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3050-6gb-reportedly-launches-in-february-2024-at-179

3DMark Steel Nomad cross-platform benchmark to launch Q1 2024 as a free update to all 3DMark users

https://videocardz.com/press-release/3dmark-steel-nomad-cross-platform-benchmark-to-launch-q1-2024-as-a-free-update-to-all-3dmark-users

Well that's nice of them. Usually 3dmark doesn't do free benchmarks

That will be the replacement for the 2060 6GB. It's not terrible at that price but if you have money buy an 8GB model at least.

Idk feels like the 8GB model should be at that price in 2024 while 6GB should be $120-$140.

There could be a place in the market for a half slot version with no power cable and maybe passively cooled. I am shocked that Nvidia is offering anything under 200$.