The Tuesday news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

Steam has a few new deals:

• Frostpunk is going to be 85% off until next Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190/Frostpunk/
• The Landfall Publisher Sale has games up to 80% off until April 7: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/landfallsale
• Glyphica: Typing Survival, still in Early Access, will have a 25% discount until the 14th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2400160/Glyphica_Typing_Survival/
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate will be 50% off until the 14th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2996040/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_Splintered_Fate/
• ASTRONEER features a 67% discount until April, the 14th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/361420/ASTRONEER/
• And here are the new weeklong deals

Fanatical has three new deals for us:

• The new Star Deal is Paleo Pines and has a 67% discount during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/paleo-pines
• The Elder Scrolls Online game and DLCs are on sale with up to 78% deals during 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/the-elder-scrolls-online
• And there’s a Mystery Egg Bundle featuring up to 25 unknown keys to get in bundles of 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25, and there are extra prizes to get: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/mystery-egg-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

'We were at war with our customers': Unity's new CEO talks about arriving to the 'insane' post-runtime fee dumpster fire
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/game-development/we-were-at-war-with-our-customers-unitys-new-ceo-talks-about-arriving-to-the-insane-post-runtime-fee-dumpster-fire/
Unity's been having a rough few years—mostly due to its own foolishness, mind. Its prior CEO, John Riccitiello, couldn't seem to stop walking from bad decision to bad decision like a door-to-door fridge salesman in the arctic.
In 2022, he called developers "f*cking idiots". Then, he apologised for calling them "f*cking idiots". Then, he sprang a surprise, completely untenable runtime fee that'd see developers being charged every time they booted up a game. Then he stepped down. Wise.
The once-popular game engine's been walking that runtime fee thing back under the stewardship of its new CEO, Matt Bromberg, and trying to mop up its image at the same time. That mopping up has included tons of layoffs, though, which isn't great. Still, Bromberg seems keen to wrench developer goodwill back from the jaws of spite, as per a recent interview with The Verge.
"We were at war with our customers, effectively, when I arrived," Bromberg explains. "Folks were boycotting us. They were really unhappy with how we were charging them and how we spoke. And you can’t have a business where we’re [fighting our] customers. That’s insane."

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Sonic Adventure 2 Unreal Engine 5 Remake Demo 2.0 Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/sonic-adventure-2-unreal-engine-5-remake-demo-2-0-released/
Sonic fans, get ready for a treat. Remember the fan remake of Sonic Adventure 2 in Unreal Engine 5? Well, its creator has released a brand new demo of it. And no, this isn’t an April’s Fools joke.
For those unaware, Sonic Adventure 2 Redux is a ground-up reimagining of the 2001 classic Sonic game in UE5. The remake takes advantage of the Azure Framework to overhaul the game’s physics. Moreover, players can expect tweaks and QoL improvements to the camera, controls, and UI.
Players can take advantage of the terrain by building momentum to reach incredible speeds, bounce off platforms to reach higher ground with the bounce bracelet, and send themselves flying using the iconic spindash.
Demo 2.0 brings you brand new content. As such, you will now get to play Radical Highway, White Jungle, and Green Forest. Moreover, there are a bunch of level and boss fight updates.
>> The article has a slightly over 1 minute video.

Wizards of the Coast says it didn't mean to send a DMCA takedown notice to the Baldur's Gate 3 Stardew mod: 'We are in the process of fixing that now'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/wizards-of-the-coast-scores-pr-masterstroke-bullies-bg3-stardew-mod-that-had-swen-vinckes-personal-approval-off-the-internet-with-a-dmca/
Remember Baldur's Village, that charming Baldur's Gate 3 mod for Stardew Valley? It was the one that crammed all the best parts of Larian's opus in ConcernedApe's opus, letting you romance Shadowheart and Astarion but, like, on a farm this time.
It was a very cool thing that took at least a year to make, and when it finally released earlier this month it earned plaudits from none other than Larian CEO Swen Vincke, who praised the love that went into it and called it "Amazing work!"
Well, fun's over folks, because in a move that future generations of MBAs will surely call 'a PR masterstroke,' D&D (and BG3) license-holder Wizards of the Coast has swooped in to obliterate this heinous misuse of its intellectual property from the face of the Earth. A Nexus Mods spokesperson tells PC Gamer that WotC has made a DMCA takedown of Baldur's Village and, indeed, a peek at its page on the site just says it's been "under moderation review" since March 29.
Update: In a statement sent to PC Gamer on Monday, Wizards of the Coast said that the DMCA takedown notice was issued in error: "The Baldur's Village DMCA takedown was issued mistakenly—we are sorry about that. We are in the process of fixing that now so fans and the Stardew community can continue to enjoy this great mod!" The original story is below.
>> Maybe the comments about the takedown from Larian’s boss Swen Vicke had something to do with WotC changing its mind. In any case, the mod is back online.

GAMING NEWS

RuneScape: Dragonwilds is a new open-world survival game, powered by Unreal Engine 5
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/runescape-dragonwilds-is-a-new-open-world-survival-game-powered-by-unreal-engine-5/
Jagex has just announced a new open-world survival RuneScape game that will be using Unreal Engine 5, RuneScape: Dragonwilds. The game will come out on Steam Early Access in Spring 2025, and below you can find its announcement trailers.

Tekken 8 Patch 2.00 Released, Packing Major Character Changes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/tekken-8-patch-2-00-released-packing-major-character-changes/
Bandai Namco has just released Title Update 2.00 and Season 2 for Tekken 8, and shared its full patch notes. This patch brings major changes to pretty much all characters, so let’s see what Bandai Namco has brought to the table.

Tuesday news, part two and last:

Screenshots have seemingly leaked of the new Star Wars game from a team of former XCOM developers, and surprise: it looks like a Star Wars XCOM game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/screenshots-have-seemingly-leaked-of-the-new-star-wars-game-from-a-team-of-former-xcom-developers-and-surprise-it-looks-like-a-star-wars-xcom-game/
Developer BitReactor has been particularly coy about its upcoming Star Wars game. Though it was first announced in 2022, and the studio's since talked to us about its aims for the game and its ambitious vision for turn-based strategy, it's yet to make any official reveal of the game's premise, talk in specifics about its gameplay, or show any footage or screenshots.
It's not easy to keep something that under wraps in games for so long, and sure enough, this project seems to have finally sprung a leak. MP1st has found a selection of screenshots in an artist's online portfolio, and… well, it sure looks like Star Wars XCOM.

Palworld decides it wasn't April fooling after all, is actually making a visual novel dating sim where you can, uh, 'dismember and eat' some of its cast
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/palworld-decides-it-wasnt-april-fooling-after-all-is-actually-making-a-visual-novel-dating-sim-where-you-can-uh-dismember-and-eat-some-of-its-cast/
Around this time last year, on the day of the April fool, Palworld made a funny little jest towards the gaming public—what if we do an extremely original joke and say we're making a visual novel? He he, ho ho, wouldn't that be a laugh.
I can only imagine the meeting that followed where, staring blankly into space, someone decided to speak up and say 'okay, what if we actually make one?' Clearly, no-one was brave enough to fight against this act of divine injustice, because Palworld developer Pocketpair is absolutely making a visual novel.

A whole bunch of Korean studios are trying to convince Blizzard to let them make a new StarCraft game, including MMO specialist NCSoft
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rts/a-whole-bunch-of-korean-studios-are-trying-to-convince-blizzard-to-let-them-make-a-new-starcraft-game-including-mmo-specialist-ncsoft/
A new report in Asia Today (spotted by IGN) says that four different Korean publishers are pitching StarCraft games to Blizzard, in the latest attempt to bring back the iconic RTS franchise.
>> I hope this isn’t an April Fools joke, or a lot of people will get angry mad. Then again, it’s unlikely that Blizzard will agree so they’ll be angry anyway.

Dwarf Fortress dwarves are 'more human than human,' creator says: 'They're allowed to embody bigger emotions. They're allowed to make bigger mistakes. They're allowed to do anything'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/dwarf-fortress-dwarves-are-more-human-than-human-creator-says-theyre-allowed-to-embody-bigger-emotions-theyre-allowed-to-make-bigger-mistakes-theyre-allowed-to-do-anything/
At GDC 2025, I spoke with Tarn Adams, co-creator and lead programmer of Dwarf Fortress, about the past, present, and future of his 23-year procgen masterwork. We talked about how the looming threat of aquifer flooding encapsulates his approach to Dwarf Fortress difficulty and how he's generally bummed about AI. Towards the end of our interview, our conversation turned to dwarves themselves—and to what the stout, stubborn folk add to Dwarf Fortress's emergent storytelling that other creatures can't.

Eidos Montreal lays off more employees: 'We don’t have the capacity to entirely reallocate them to our other ongoing projects'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/eidos-montreal-lays-off-more-employees-we-dont-have-the-capacity-to-entirely-reallocate-them-to-our-other-ongoing-projects/
Less than a week after Crystal Dynamics laid off 17 employees "to better align our current business needs," Eidos Montreal has announced that it's letting go of "up to 75" employees, saying it doesn't currently have sufficient work to justify keeping them around.

Game director Soulframe Liang has used his online nickname for so long he even trademarked it in China, and when Digital Extremes and Tencent came knocking for the Warframe sequel? 'I'm not selling'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/game-director-soulframe-liang-has-used-his-online-nickname-for-so-long-he-even-trademarked-it-in-china-and-when-digital-extremes-and-tencent-came-knocking-for-the-warframe-sequel-im-not-selling/
I sat down for a demo of Chinese action game Phantom Blade Zero with two main curiosities. First was how its combat compares to last year's Black Myth: Wukong, and it turns out: pretty different. Second was the backstory of S-Game studio founder "Soulframe" Liang, who started his career with an RPG Maker game while studying architecture in college. Where did I go wrong in my life that I didn't end up adopting a pseudonym like Soulframe?

Inzoi and The First Berserker Khazan devs suggest ditching the latest Nvidia drivers if you're running an RTX 40-series graphics card
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/inzoi-and-the-first-beserker-khazan-devs-suggest-ditching-the-latest-nvidia-drivers-if-youre-running-an-rtx-40-series-graphics-card/
If you aren't one of the lucky customers to get their hands on RTX 50-series graphics card, and are stuck with something older, some popular game developers are warning against updating to the latest Nvidia drivers.
As reported by TechSpot, developers of popular recently released games The First Berserker Khazan and Inzoi have put out notes to FAQs and patch notes respectively. These notes recommend those on RTX 40-series cards skip driver version 572.83, in favour of 566.36 which launched last December.
Those on RTX 30-series cards are advised to get the latest driver, but the Inzoi patch notes state, "If issues persist, we recommend installing version 566.36".
>> That’s not good news for Nvidia.

The games for Humble Choice April 2025 have been revealed.

• 1000xRESIST
• Aliens: Dark Descent
• Diplomacy is Not an Option
• Distant Worlds 2
• DREDGE
• Nomad Survival
• Nova Lands
• Tomb Raider I-III Remastered

Bit of a mixed bag for me. Good that no non-Steam games. Only missing four games, but three of those are on my wishlist.

Thanks for sharing.

If you have half of them but three of the missing ones are on your wishlist, does that make it too good to pass?

In other news, MSoft really, really wants you to make a MSoft Account:

Microsoft has disabled the popular 'bypassnro' Windows 11 sign-in workaround in the latest Insider build, but there exists another
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/operating-systems/microsoft-has-disabled-the-popular-bypassnro-windows-11-sign-in-workaround-in-the-latest-insider-build-but-there-exists-another/
There are multiple ways to divert around Windows 11's insistence on a Microsoft account for first-time setup. It seems there'll be one less in the near future, however, as the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview build has removed the bypassnro.cmd script, seen by many as the easiest way of sneaking past Microsoft's account-forcing ways.

According to a Windows Insider blog post announcing Preview build 26200.5516 (KB5054687) the bypassnro.cmd script has been removed in order to "enhance security and user experience of Windows 11."

"This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account."

Well, darn. The bypassnro method was relatively simple, involving opening a command prompt window with Shift + F10 and entering oobebypassnro followed by an ipconfig /release command after restart. No longer, it seems—and if it's been removed from the Preview build, there's a strong likelihood it might reach a release build, too.

Back home bois. I'll do hardware news starting tomorrow.

Deep dive into the RDNA chip:

The shaders are the most interesting, as it looks a bit like a mix of hyperthreading and the way Bulldozer worked, as the chip has visibly 64CU pairs, but shares ressources between two of them so the final count of active CU is just 64. Edit: AMD just reorganized the ALUs from 1 FP and one Integer to 1 FP and one dual-function use, hence why they look similar now. Nvidia made that change with Ampere after adding the Integer ALU just prior with Turing. This is especially useful when lots of pixels need calculating, so the bigger the resolution, the bigger it's advantage. On the other hand, when the resolution gets smaller it's advantage vanishes, which is also why RDNA2+3 were stronger at lower resolutions. 

Also interesting is that AMD axed the L1 cache and instead doubled the size of the L2 cache and how AMD found spaces on the chip for the infinity cache, making the chip look asymmetric.

Finally, he talks about how a 96CU chip with 3gbit GDDR7 could look like and be between 4090 and 5090 in performance but only consuming ~450W and just measuring around 550mm² compared to 750mm² for a 5090, meaning 3 8-pin connectors could suffice for that card.

I haven't watched the video but not sure if I believe those power figures tbh. Power consumption of the 9070 XT is much more than 5070 Ti and 4080 despite slightly less die area and 9070 XT is slower than both. So around 450 watts while being faster than a 4090 has my doubts.

From Hardware Unboxed/Techspot:

https://www.techspot.com/review/2961-amd-radeon-9070-xt/

And remember, 7900XTX isn't very far off the 4090 power consumption by itself

https://www.techspot.com/review/2944-nvidia-geforce-rtx-5090/

My rough guesstimate (comparing dies sizes and wattage against RX 7000 series) puts it around 4090 level - which would be really good for potential 9080XT, especially if they go with sensible pricing (relatively speaking) of $999.

NVidia can completely shut down the RT cores, which AMD can't do yet. As such outside of RT the 5070Ti consumes quite a bit less. However if heavy RT is involved it doesn't consume much less than the 9070XT anymore.

Also, keep in mind how the 9070 non-XT is consuming less power than the 5070 despite being more powerful and having more VRAM, which is mostly due to a lower clock speed compared to the XT model. AMD could for a hypothetical 9080XT simply reduce the clock speeds somewhat (like 2.7-2.8Ghz instead of 3Ghz) to stay within the 450W power budget. Or reduce the voltage a bit, which really does wonders on RDNA4 cards.