Balatro runs into rating trouble

GOG, the gaming storefront owned by CD Projekt, is getting into cloud gaming by teaming up with Amazon Luna. Since the Luna cloud service streams games from Amazon's cloud servers, you'll be able to access the titles you've purchased from the store across any compatible device you own, including PCs, Macs, Android and iOS mobile devices, as well as smart TVs and Fire tablets. That is, so long as those devices are installed with the Luna app and you're connected to the internet. You'll also be able to use any Luna-compatible devices and controllers, such as Xbox One's and PS4's, to play your games.

Reddit said Friday that the Federal Trade Commission has opened an inquiry into the social media platform's sale, licensing or sharing of its users' posts and other content to outside organizations for use in training artificial intelligence models.

The solo dev behind the indie poker roguelike Balatro is disappointed over how games with "actual gambling mechanics" are given age ratings, after seeing their own game's rating skyrocket due to gambling-related concerns. This came despite the fact that Balatro doesn't actually feature gambling, and the developer is strictly against it. 

Localthunk, the enigmatic creator behind the new poker-themed deckbuilder Balatro, had no idea the game would be successful until the day before it launched.

A group of kids found themselves being questioned by police after driving their car into a lake during a stream hosted by former Twitch streamer Adin Ross. Popular livestreamer Aidin Ross tasked fans with insane challenges during a recent stream, which quickly devolved into chaos. Ross promised to reward fans with cash if they completed certain tasks, but things quickly got out of hand after several kids drove their car into a lake, prompting local authorities to arrive on the scene.

For those too young to remember, the Year 2000 Problem, also known as the Y2K scare, was a brief, glorious bit of chaos enjoyed in the late 90s when fears of a catastrophic computing apocalypse were rampant, a total collapse predicted because of differences in dating systems. We got to relive some of that magic today, as publishers EA and Square Enix were caught wrong-footed by the extra day in February, leading games from both to be temporarily rendered inoperable.

You may have heard about Balatro recently — it's the latest indie sensation currently doing the rounds, and it's truly excellent. The roguelike deckbuilder has you playing poker hands to score points, and using joker cards and other upgrades to amplify those points to potentially stratospheric levels — it's tremendous. However, that basic poker element at its very core appears to be causing some unforeseen problems.

Dragon's Dogma 2 has been given a full rating by the ESRB (the USA's ratings board), confirming that the soon-to-release action RPG is rated 'Mature'. That's not surprising in the least, but it's the game's content description that may raise a few eyebrows, as it reveals some additional details that haven't yet been covered.

Long-running Australian studio Torus Games is "hibernating" but not closing down.

Former Bungie composer Marty O'Donnell has announced his intention to run as the Republican Party candidate in Nevada’s third congressional district in the 2024 House of Representatives elections.

Playstack, the publisher of popular roguelike deckbuilder Balatro confirmed on Twitter that the game has been temporarily removed from some digital storefronts due to a sudden rating change. Apparently, the UK rating board PEGI changed the rating from 3+ to 18+ overnight due to “prominent gambling imagery” which prompted the sudden delistings. The problem here is that there is literally no gambling in Balatro.

Balatro publisher Playstack Games has taken to social media to defend its poker roguelike after fans noticed it had been removed from certain stores.