And here’s the third part:

Turns out Todd Howard is a full-time Reddit lurker just like the rest of us, says we'd 'be surprised how many great ideas' he gets from the site
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/turns-out-todd-howard-is-a-full-time-reddit-lurker-just-like-the-rest-of-us-says-wed-be-surprised-how-many-great-ideas-he-gets-from-the-site/

15 years before Dishonored, Thief devs considered letting Garrett shrink himself rat-sized so he could scurry through drains and mouse holes
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/15-years-before-dishonored-thief-devs-considered-letting-garrett-shrink-himself-rat-sized-so-he-could-scurry-through-drains-and-mouse-holes/

Jennifer English, star of Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, leaves Tides of Annihilation lead role
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/jennifer-english-star-of-baldurs-gate-3-and-clair-obscur-expedition-33-leaves-tides-of-annihilation-lead-role/
>> It’s to "properly look after [her] mental and physical health.", not because the of the game.

It could be a good Festival, but Valve needs to fix their refunds policy for short games first.

After all, we saw what can happen when the system is abused not even two weeks ago with that Paddle Paddle game, with people finishing the game in less than two hours, giving it a good review and getting a refund (and boasting about it!), and then last week we learned that the dev that raised the complain got attacked by a part, I repeat, a part, of the comunity for raising awareness of the problem.

So yeah, with this kind of people around, a festival like the one you say could end being a disaster... or the final push Valve needs to get its sh*t together and do something about this problem.

About fucking time. If only RAM manufacturers could do the same...

This ramp up does suggest they don't expect demand to fall any time soon, though. Maybe the AI/datacenter boom is less of a bubble than many think...

Agreed - though not sure how would they do that. Maybe current 2 hours policy might be trimmed down to 1 hour for short games, though that means devs would need to mark them as such - which brings another set of problems. 

Xbox paid more than S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 cost for one-year console exclusivity

https://videocardz.com/newz/xbox-paid-more-than-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-cost-for-one-year-console-exclusivity

GeForce RTX 50 GPUs reportedly crash on Battlefield 6 maps with large bodies of water

https://videocardz.com/newz/geforce-rtx-50-gpus-reportedly-crash-on-battlefield-6-maps-with-large-bodies-of-water

Start of a new era: gamers are now running GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 4060 GPUs on Windows 11 on Arm

https://videocardz.com/newz/desktop-geforce-rtx-4060-has-been-tested-on-windows-11-arm-for-the-first-time

Steam Deck sales reportedly fell by up to 82% after price hikes

https://videocardz.com/newz/steam-deck-sales-reportedly-fell-by-up-to-82-after-price-hikes

NVIDIA details Vera CPU with 88 Olympus cores, 176 threads and 1.2 TB/s LPDDR5X memory

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-details-vera-cpu-with-88-olympus-cores-176-threads-and-1-2-tb-s-lpddr5x-memory

RTX Spark To Have Two Variants With Different CUDA Core Counts, Top-End Version Features 6,144, According To Details Spotted In Windows 11 Drivers

https://wccftech.com/rtx-spark-cuda-core-counts-revealed-in-official-windows-11-drivers/

AMD Is Reportedly Pricing Its Helios Rack 40% Above NVIDIA’s Second-Gen Rubin, Confident That Customers Will Pay The Premium

https://wccftech.com/amd-is-reportedly-pricing-its-helios-rack-40-above-nvidias-second-gen-rubin-confident-that-customers-will-pay-the-premium/

The gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Marathon's experimental PvE mode is live, immediately tripling its daily player count
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/marathons-experimental-pve-mode-is-live-immediately-tripling-its-daily-player-count/
Today, Bungie launched Marathon's 1.1.5 update, featuring its awaited Vault Breaker experimental PvE mode which offers a two-week window for players to contend with the typically-endgame Cryo Archive map and its many hazards and puzzles without any twitchy, murderous squads of competing players hanging around.
Shortly after the Vault Breaker update went live, SteamDB charts showed that Marathon's concurrent player count had jumped to over 14,800 players. That's not a massive number compared to its peers on Steam's Most Played ranking, but it's roughly triple the activity that Marathon pulled at similar times of day throughout the last week—and the most concurrent player activity since player numbers started bleeding after the June free weekend.

Steam has four new deals and zero new sales:

• Primal Planet will be 60% off until the 24th of July: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2350270/Primal_Planet/
• Between the Stars gets a 67% discount until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/727130/Between_the_Stars/
• Level Devil will destroy your patience thanks to its 30% discount until July 28: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3242750/Level_Devil/
• Ultros has a demo and it’s going to be 75% off until August 4: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2386310/Ultros/

The Humble Store presents the Sonic 35th Anniversary Sale, with games on sale with discounts that go from 50 to 75% discounts during 5 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/sonic-35th-anniversary-sale/

And Fanatical has the new BYO Bento Deluxe XL Bundle features 28 titles t omake your bundles of 2+, 3+ or 5+ games. It will last 34 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-bento-bundle?v=6174

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

For the first time, Unity demonstrates 'an Unreal character running through a Unity world'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/game-development/unity-demonstrates-an-unreal-character-running-through-a-unity-world-for-the-first-time/
Unity has demonstrated a Unity Engine game running inside of an Unreal Engine game, marking a step in the direction of Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney's vision for an interconnected gaming ecosystem.
The demonstration took place this week at the Unite Seoul keynote, where Unity also announced the next version of its game engine. Unity's goal with the project, in partnership with Epic, is to allow Unity developers to publish their games in Fortnite.
"You will see, for the first time, a Unity game rendering natively inside Unreal Engine," said Unity senior director of technical product management James Stone as he launched the demo. "Now this is not live in Fortnite yet, but it shows what's possible for a shared foundation.
"What you're seeing here is a game simulated in Unity, rendered with Unreal. Now, that's not video streamed, there's no smoke and mirrors. This is all real time. But it's not just rendering. Watch the avatar. That's an Unreal character running through a Unity world. That's physics, lighting, input: all of it synchronized between engines."
"Connect ALL the engines!" Sweeney exclaimed on social media in response to the demo.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

PS5 Emulator SharpEmu Can Run Demon’s Souls Remake All the Way to Character Creation
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/ps5-emulator-sharpemu-can-run-demons-souls-remake-all-the-way-to-character-creation/
Earlier this month, I informed you about a new PlayStation 5 emulator for the PC, called SharpEmu. At the time, the emulator could boot Demon’s Souls Remake. Just one week later, it has made great progress. It can now launch the game and run all the way to the character creation screen.
This is truly impressive. I wasn’t expecting to see SharpEmu run Demon’s Souls all the way to character creation in 2026. And this happened in just a week. This is huge progress.
However, you should temper your expectations. This PlayStation 5 emulator is in a very early development stage. So, don’t expect to be playing all the PS5 games that have not come out on PC anytime soon. Still, I’m utterly impressed by its progress. So, who knows? We might be able to play Marvel’s Wolverine or Intergalactic on PC via SharpEmu in a few years.
>> There’s a 9 minutes video in the article.

A modder has brought No Man's Sky-style seamless takeoffs to Starfield, and even in beta they look pretty great
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/a-modder-has-brought-no-mans-sky-style-seamless-takeoffs-to-starfield-and-even-in-beta-they-look-pretty-great/
One of Starfield's big problems is that its core fantasy runs contrary to the tech it's built on. Bethesda's space RPG is meant to evoke the majesty and scale of the cosmos. It's about exploration, curiosity, and wonder.
And yet, it exists in an engine that necessitates a whole lot of loading screens, and so the final frontier feels like a series of small rooms. In particular, the game's takeoff and landing sequences drew criticism for shoving in loading screens where games like No Man's Sky had seamless transitions.
Well, no more! Sort of! A modder named 0xBobby is hard at work to rid Starfield's takeoff sequences of the loading screen scourge. Seamless Planet Takeoffs is a mod for Starfield that makes departing its planets an at least somewhat immersive experience. Rather than cutting to a third-person view of your ship as it jets away, you remain in the cockpit, watching the planet's atmosphere give way to the void as you ascend.
It's not perfect, which is probably why it's in beta. It's not removing the loads so much as it is masking them, which means that you can still kind of identify the point at which the game shunts you from one cell to another.
0xBobby writes that "the seamlessness of the transition will depend on the atmosphere and weather of the planet," and that they're "working on making the transition even smoother." Still, even in its current state it's much better than the default experience.
>> The article has a shorter than 30 seconds video showing the difference between the original and the modded experience.

GAMING NEWS

MXGP 26 Will Use Unreal Engine 5, Aiming to Offer Better Graphics & Physics
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/mxgp-26-will-use-unreal-engine-5-aiming-to-offer-better-graphics-physics/
NACON and Artefacts Studio have revealed the first gameplay trailer for MXGP 26, the official video game of the FIM Motocross World Championship. The trailer offers a glimpse into the major technological and gameplay innovations of this new installment, scheduled for release in October 2026.

New 8-Minute Gameplay Video for The Blood of Dawnwalker
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-8-minute-gameplay-video-for-the-blood-of-dawnwalker/
IGN has shared a new video for The Blood of Dawnwalker, featuring 8 minutes of new gameplay footage from it. The video showcases the Pearly and Precious mission, from start to finish. This is a relatively short adventure, but one that introduces a brand new creature: a sanzhana, or “pixie”.

The second part of the gaming news:

Darkest Dungeon—the original—is getting surprise DLC in August
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/darkest-dungeon-the-original-is-getting-surprise-dlc-in-august/
More than 10 years after it launched, and six years after its last DLC, Darkest Dungeon—the original—is getting more. The Fire's Edge, revealed today by Red Hook Studios, brings two new and possibly familiar hero classes to the game, along with new Trinket mechanics and three new districts in the hamlet.

Splitgate studio 1047 Games is laying off more people just a month after releasing its latest game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/splitgate-studio-1047-games-is-laying-off-more-people-just-a-month-after-releasing-its-latest-game/
A little less than a month after the release of its Titanfall-inspired shooter Empulse, developer 1047 Games has reportedly laid off more employees. While the studio hasn't made a formal announcement of the cuts, multiple employees on LinkedIn (via Game Developer) have said they've been let go in what one described as "the third wave of studio layoffs."

A new friendslop game is already Steam's 12th-most wishlisted game a mere week after it was announced
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/a-new-friendslop-game-is-already-steams-12th-most-wishlisted-game-a-mere-week-after-it-was-announced/
About once a week I head on over Steam to peek at the most wishlisted games because I want to know: what are PC gamers looking forward to most? Are there any highly anticipated games on the brink of release? And is anything new blowing up
This week I definitely spotted something new: Dear Passengers, a co-op game about running "the world's worst airline" with your friends, is now seated comfortably at number 12 on Steam's top wishlists. That's impressive because the chaotic friendslop game was only announced a week ago. Here's the trailer if you missed it.

Arc Raiders' matchmaking optimisation is live as Embark warns players they may experience longer queues than usual 'since it's now working harder'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-matchmaking-optimisation-is-live-as-embark-warns-players-they-may-experience-longer-queues-than-usual-since-its-now-working-harder/
The biggest thing to happen in Arc Raiders recently (if you don't count the Expedition near miss) was Embark's decision to rework the matchmaking to be more attuned to players' actions in solo, duo, and trio queues. The only problem with having better matchmaking is having to wait a bit longer in queue for the game to actually fulfil this promise.
"Starting today, we'll be testing adjustments to our matchmaking algorithm aimed at improving the quality of your matches," a dev explains in an official blog post. "One thing to note: the algorithm may take a little longer to find a match, since it's now working harder to find you a better one."

The Elder Scrolls Online is already feeling the impact of Xbox's layoffs, ironically hurting the cash shop
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/the-elder-scrolls-online-is-already-feeling-the-impact-of-xboxs-layoffs-ironically-hurting-the-cash-shop/
Earlier this month, Microsoft gutted The Elder Scrolls Online, with 379 staff across ZeniMax gone. And this is the second time it's happened in two years. As Harvey and I put it a few weeks ago, ESO's developers deserved better. The developer, now claiming to be the same size it was 10 years ago (similar to id Software), has just debuted ESO's new seasonal structure but will have to continue carving that path with reduced capabilities.
Mere weeks after these layoffs, and we're already seeing their effects. Community manager Kevin Gbolie posted an update on the ESO forums outlining updates to the Crown Store, the game's premium cash shop.

Star Wars Zero Company is going all in on Clone customisation, but my favourite armour is restricted to the Deluxe Edition
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/star-wars-zero-company-is-going-all-in-on-clone-customisation-but-my-favourite-armour-is-restricted-to-the-deluxe-edition/
While it's one of the biggest games this year, new details on Star Wars Zero Company have been few and far between, even after the gameplay trailer at the start of June. That changed yesterday when developer Bit Reactor hosted a Discord Q&A answering the community's questions on everything from the game's length to permadeath.

And here’s the third part:

Jimothy, a particularly round raccoon and the internet's latest sensation, has now broken into games
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/jimothy-a-particularly-round-raccoon-and-the-internets-latest-sensation-has-now-broken-into-games/
>> It’s all social media posts. Nothing about mods or game integration. Yet.

Palworld players have harnessed the power of selective breeding to create 'infinite bomb' Pals that can blow themselves up, repeatedly, forever
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/palworld-players-have-harnessed-the-power-of-selective-breeding-to-create-infinite-bomb-pals-that-can-blow-themselves-up-repeatedly-forever/

Hasbro takes $56 million hit over multiple game cancellations, but it's still talking about how Baldur's Gate 3 is key to its future success
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/hasbro-takes-usd56-million-hit-over-multiple-game-cancellations-but-its-still-talking-about-how-baldurs-gate-3-is-key-to-its-future-success/

Xbox's new VP of engineering quits just 2 months after taking the job
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/xboxs-new-vp-of-engineering-quits-just-2-months-after-taking-the-job/

Path of Exile 2 players broke the game by summoning 2,000 skeletons and then lured unsuspecting players into the ultimate frame rate shredder
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/path-of-exile-2-players-broke-the-game-by-summoning-2-000-skeletons-and-then-lured-unsuspecting-players-into-the-ultimate-frame-rate-shredder/

And here I had my worries about the profitability of the game... Sounds like that's well covered and there's nothing to worry about.

Reading the comments about this on the article Techpowerup has (link), there are comments saying that something similar happened in March with AMD GPUs, so I'm not sure if it's a problem with drivers or with the game.

Sorry, but Conina beat you to post this on Monday (here).

What is interesting, and kind of throws a wrench at the gears of the analysis, is that it doesn't take into account hardware shortages. You can clearly see in the graph that before the price hike there were shortages and sales fell of a cliff, but apparently that's not an issue anymore and the low sales are only because of the new price. 

It's hard to believe, more so with Valve maybe diverting some of the memory/storage away from the Deck to prepare the recent launch of the Steam Machine, and there's also the furute Steam Frame. 

Quite a bold move from AMD. Will it pay off? We'll have to wait and see.