Trump administration's "cruel and unnecessary" acts called out by Titanium Court developer during IGF award speech

AP Thomson, developer of surreal strategy game Titanium Court, has expressed solidarity with those affected by the litany of "cruel and unnecessary" practices currently being employed by the Trump-led US government. Taking to the stage to give an acceptance speech after Titanium Court was awarded the Independent Game Festival (IGF)'s Seumas McNally Grand Prize for the Best Independent Game, Thomson shared a message that ended in hope future awards shows will be able to see everyone come together "safe and thriving".

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Moonlighter dev's next haunt is ReVamp, a tower defence roguelike where Dracula is cursed to defend his castle forever

The devs behind Moonlighter are already back with something new. While they're still tinkering away with the early access release of Moonlighter 2, at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase they revealed another roguelike entirely: ReVamp, a tower defence spin on the genre that pits you as Dracula himself protecting his castle.

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Hazard Pay is a block-pushing puzzle game you can really sink your mop into

Video games are such funny things, because I think if you were to tell someone unfamiliar with them that there is genuine enjoyment to be had in pushing some blocks around in a virtual space they'd look at you as if you'd told them there's genuine enjoyment to be hand in pushing some blocks around in a virtual space. And yet it's true! It's one of the classic puzzle game genres, going way back to 1982 with Sokoban. And here we are now, many years later, with a new entry to the genre in the form of Hazard Pay, a dystopian take that sees you cleaning up mysterious messes in secret labs.

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PEGI announce plans to slap higher age ratings on games with loot boxes, daily quests, and paid battle passes soon

The folks behind PEGI - the age rating system used for games in Europe outside of Germany - have announced plans to update their criteria so that games which feature likes of loot boxes, harbour NFTs or blockchain-related bollocks, or pressurise players into returning via daily quests will automatically be given specific age reccomendations to match.

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"We're going to lay off 1,000 people and that's going to be on you": Ex-Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan says redundancy ultimatum led to his Blizzard exit

Former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has said his 2021 departure from Blizzard followed an ultimatum about redundancies which "ultimately broke" his resolve and led him towards the exit door. The developer frames that moment as the culmination of a number of tough years working on the hero shooter, which included a 2018 push into esports with the Overwatch League serving as a drain on resources for a team who were also trying to get Overwatch 2 off the ground.

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Microsoft confirm their PC game-running Project Helix should be in devs' hands by 2027, and packs next-gen AMD innards

Microsoft have shared some more details about the hardware Xbox's next-gen console - the PC game-running Project Helix - will be packing. The new box is set to run on AMD-built tech with support for FSR upscaling, and should start to rock up on developers' desks as of 2027. That last bit means it'll likely release in 2028 at the very earliest.

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"Valve does not cooperate with gambling sites" - Counter-Strike publishers issue rare public defence of lootbox mechanics, following New York lawsuit

In an unusual show of candour, Valve have spoken out publicly against a lawsuit filed in New York, USA that accuses them of "letting children and adults alike illegally gamble" via loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2.

With the caveat that I am no Atticus Finch-esque legal expert or even a Louis Tully-grade bumbler, I find Valve's rebuttal to be a mixture of whataboutery and tactical mitigation, with a couple of fair points. It basically sidesteps what I think is the lawsuit's most important argument – that lootbox mechanics are fundamentally manipulative. You can read the thing in full here, or you can read my slapdash summary-with-notes, below.

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