The second part of the Thursday gaming news:

Arc Raiders' preload isn't working on the Epic Games store due to 'an unforeseen issue'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-preload-isnt-working-on-the-epic-games-store-due-to-an-unforeseen-issue/
(…two paragraphs of filler stuff...)
"Due to an unforeseen issue, preloading will not be available on the Epic Games store," Arc Raiders says in an official social media post. "Arc Raiders will be available to download on the Epic Games store starting at 10:30 am CET, Oct 30th. Apologies for the inconvenience, Raiders."

When Irrational picked a new writer for BioShock Infinite, it didn't realise he was in the next room, already working at the studio
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/when-irrational-picked-a-new-writer-for-bioshock-infinite-it-didnt-realise-he-was-in-the-next-room-already-working-at-the-studio/
The Outer Worlds 2's senior narrative designer, Joe Fielder, has worn a lot of hats in his 20 plus years in the industry. "I've been a level designer, I've been a puzzle designer, I've been a producer and a director," he tells us. "Sometimes, in the games industry, you take on the job that's offered to you." And that's how he ended up working for Irrational, as a producer on BioShock Infinite.
"I was an art producer and narrative producer for a while on BioShock Infinite," he says. "I'd come in on that as somebody who had also recorded and directed and whatnot. But at a certain point, there was a blind writing test because they were looking to expand their writing team, and I contributed."
Fielder completed the writing test, and then he waited. "This may be an apocryphal story, but apparently they read over everyone's samples, and they were like, 'OK, bring this person in.' And they looked up who it was, and they were like, 'Well, that'll be easy, it's Joe, he's in the next room.' So I was pulled in to work on that.

Hideo Kojima just found out that Konami turned down the chance to make a Matrix game 26 years ago: 'If someone had told me, maybe there could’ve been a way to make it work'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/hideo-kojima-just-found-out-that-konami-turned-down-the-chance-to-make-a-matrix-game-26-years-ago-if-someone-had-told-me-maybe-there-couldve-been-a-way-to-make-it-work/
In a recent interview with Time Extension former Konami executive Christopher Bergstresser revealed that, way back in 1999, the company was approached by the Wachowskis with an offer to make a Matrix videogame. The Matrix was released in June 1999 and had quickly become a smash hit, with this meeting apparently taking place in the runup to the film's theatrical release in Japan in September 1999.
"The Wachowskis were big fans of Kojima," said Bergstresser. "So Kazumi Kitaue, Kojima, Aki Saito (who still works with Kojima), and I were at the Konami HQ, and we got a call from the Wachowskis, who wanted to come in and meet with Kojima. So they did!
(...)
This came as news to Hideo Kojima despite his supposed presence in the room at the time. He recalls meeting the Wachowskis on multiple occasions, but was never aware such an offer was made. Kojima's own recollection of events varies slightly from that of Bergstresser, which is perhaps to be expected after nearly three decades.

Battlefield 6 reviews drop to 'Mixed' on Steam as players rail against pop-up ads, small maps, and feeling left behind by battle royale
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefield-6-reviews-drop-to-mixed-on-steam-as-players-rail-against-pop-up-ads-small-maps-and-feeling-left-behind-by-battle-royale/
Battlefield Studios first big live-service push for Battlefield 6 is proving more controversial than celebratory. While the reception of Battlefield Redsec—a free-to-play battle royale mode with its own map and class abilities—is largely positive, the wider player base isn't as happy with changes made to Battlefield 6 itself.
Namely, they're fed up with pop-ads for the new Season 1 battle pass, they're unhappy with the new map Blackwell Fields, and they're miffed that the only way to complete weekly challenges is to play battle royale, a mode that doesn't necessarily appeal to the folks who paid $70 for Battlefield 6 three weeks ago.
>> Some may also be pissed off with the locked behind a paywall radio station (link)

RuneScape players are being asked to vote on whether the game's microtransaction layer should be removed, and you can probably guess what the response is
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/runescape-players-are-being-asked-to-vote-on-whether-the-games-microtransaction-layer-should-be-removed-and-you-can-probably-guess-what-the-response-is/
After spending the year talking about the need to overhaul RuneScape's much-maligned microtransaction system, Jagex is putting the matter in the hands of the people: The company has opened a poll on the RuneScape website and if at least 100,000 players vote to scrap Treasure Hunter, the game's "major microtransaction layer," it'll be removed.

'We did it all for you': New World's final expansion contains a hidden goodbye from the developers
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/we-did-it-all-for-you-new-worlds-final-expansion-contains-a-hidden-goodbye-from-the-developers/
While Amazon's announcement that it would be ending updates for its MMO New World: Aeternum came as a surprise to many, given that MMOs with lower player counts have carried on for years, it didn't come to a surprise to all of the devs. At least, not to the ones who snuck a goodbye letter into the Nighthaven expansion released on October 13.
>> I bet there were rumors about it before Amazon made it official.

Legion Remix characters from 'Quality Assurance' guild breach containment, enter WoW proper with their godlike power intact—forcing Blizzard to quarantine Remix for the time being
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/legion-remix-characters-from-quality-assurance-guild-breach-containment-enter-wow-proper-with-their-godlike-power-intact-forcing-blizzard-to-quarantine-remix-for-the-time-being/
World of Warcraft's Legion Remix has been proceeding about as expected. That is, to say, a fun little romp through a beloved expansion where Blizzard has had to nerf elite farming, because if there's one thing a WoW player loves doing, it's optimising a grind so hard it requires intervention.
Remix is also a novel way to level up an alt or two. See, once the event ends, your Remix characters will be converted into Retail characters—with Mists of Pandaria Remix, you could only do this after the doors were shut. But Legion Remix is novel in that you can transport your character at any time.
Which, as the headline suggests, is part of the problem.

Only 3% of Stop Killing Games' EU initiative signees have failed verification so far—which is a great sign it'll progress to the European Commission
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/only-3-percent-of-stop-killing-games-eu-initiative-signees-have-failed-verification-so-far-which-is-a-great-sign-itll-progress-to-the-european-commission/
Stop Killing Games' EU initiative had a second wind earlier this year, going from a bit of doom and gloom to 400,000 extra signatures past the requirement to get it in front of the European Commission, via a European Citizens' Initiative.
(...)
That's not the case, fortunately. As per a post made to the StopKillingGames subreddit, the signature verification process is over halfway complete and going strong:
"Out of 1,448,270 signatures," writes user Mr_Presidentle, "689,035 are already verified, and 15 countries have met their thresholds. We are still missing the two largest countries—Germany and France—but based on our current progress, we are confident we have surpassed the required thresholds."
In a separate comment, Mr_Presidentle confirms that only "About 3%" of signatures failed verification, which is great news for the initiative. To do some quick napkin math if that number holds:

FF7 Rebirth director knows a whole heap of people hate yellow paint on ledges, but reckons 'there is definitely a need for that kind of thing'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/ff7-rebirth-director-knows-a-whole-heap-of-people-hate-yellow-paint-on-ledges-but-reckons-there-is-definitely-a-need-for-that-kind-of-thing/
As we've discovered time and time again, someone's hatred for the classic videogame yellow paint rarely ever outweighs their need for it. The sunny signposting has become a universal language for guiding players through levels, but it's also a regular point of contention in what some consider lazy game design.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi is the latest developer to weigh in on the debate after his own game was targeted for discussion in early 2024. "I get there is a debate about that: whether that fits with that world or not, whether some people want it, some people don't," he said in an interview with GamesRadar. "I think as a game, there is definitely a need for that kind of thing in a lot of ways. I think obviously different developers experiment, try different things about what works best, what fits best, the right way of doing that in their game."

AMD confirms focus shifts to RDNA3 and RDNA4, RX 6000 and RX 5000 lose day 1 game optimizations

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-confirms-focus-shifts-to-rdna3-and-rdna4-rx-6000-and-rx-5000-lose-day-1-game-optimizations

Reasons why I never buy Radeon GPUs lol. Talk about short term driver support. Imagine paying $1000 for flagship 6950XT in May 10th, 2022 which was only 3 years ago. Yikes! This might mean RDNA 2 might not get FSR 4 officially even though it's capable through modding.

Meanwhile Nvidia's Turning GPUs which was released in 2018 got the latest DLSS 4 Super Resolution updates and if Pascal was anything to go by, they will continue to get day 1 game ready driver support for a long time. 

Yeah, it's one (of many) weakness of AMD GPUs. Shame on them.

Radeon RX 5000 and 6000 being sunsetted sucks... Considering that RDNA 2/3 is still prolific in integrated graphics/APU's... Will likely impact their handheld chip crusade.

Disabling paid-for features on the RX 7000 is just stupid and anti-consumer.

RX 5000 I can sort of understand (more limited feature set more akin to Pascal on the NVidia side), but RX 6000 is really sad to see.

And I doubt RDNA3 will last much longer than UDNA1. RDNA4 however I do have hopes for longer-term support due to having mostly catched up to NVidia on the technical side of things now.

You may want to check your Windows settings for this:

Microsoft Copilot AI Collects Screenshot Text from Gamers
https://www.guru3d.com/story/microsoft-copilot-ai-collects-screenshot-text-from-gamers
Microsoft’s Gaming Copilot AI has stirred up a wave of privacy debates after users discovered that it quietly collects and analyzes screenshots by default. The feature works by scanning players’ screenshots using OCR technology to read any visible text, such as chat messages, in-game options, or menus. That information is then sent to Microsoft servers to help train its AI models. The problem? Most players never knew this was happening in the first place. The discovery came from a Resetera user named “RedbullCola,” who noticed strange network activity while testing an unreleased game under a non-disclosure agreement. He realized that Gaming Copilot was transmitting text data from screenshots without asking for permission. Since the game was still under NDA, this could have accidentally leaked confidential details, raising serious privacy and security issues. For anyone working in the gaming industry, this type of data collection is especially risky.

^Microsoft is the worst. Luckily it seems that I don't have Gaming Copilot enabled or even can enable it anywhere? I don't know what's up with that, but I'm glad - except that when it does eventually land on my machine, I won't remember to turn it off, because I don't really use the Xbox Game Bar for anything, so I won't notice if anything changes there.

Hm, AMD sort of had "fine wine' reputation with GPUs, due to their GPUs getting better with time and new drivers. This is really shitty move for them, especially for RX 6000 owners.

The Radeon 6600/6600XT/6650XT is one of AMD's best selling GPU's in recent memory, in-fact for budget systems it's -still- hard to ignore and is still available at various retailers... I.E. $250 AUD for the RX 6600 8GB is $100 AUD cheaper than the RX 7600 8GB and $200 AUD cheaper than the Geforce 4060 8GB.
.... And the Radeon 6600 is AMD's most popular GPU on the Steam Hardware survey. - The RX 7000 series was a GPU many skipped over as it just wasn't worthwhile if you owned a RX 6000 series part.

The Radeon RX 6750 GRE only released 2 years ago...

And on the other end of the shafted shit-heap...

The brand spanking new Asus Xbox Rog Ally has the Ryzen Z2 A processor... Which you guessed it. Uses RDNA2. - Released only a couple of weeks ago.
Thanks AMD! You shitgibben.

I am hoping AMD receives a shit storm over this and starts to rethink their approach, it's not acceptable... Plus there are still (New and old) issues with the RX 6000 series in games, that haven't been fixed.

Yeah, I'm hoping that category 5 hurricane consumer and hardware outlets shit storm hits them and they change their decision - after so long they finally managed to make a dent with RX 9000, and with this idiotic decision they're just gonna push consumers back to nVidia.