Epic Games responds to alleged ransomware hack, says there is ‘zero evidence’ right now

Pokemon TCG sales have suffered since the release of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, according to store owners. This is blamed on multiple factors, including the economy and series popularity.

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The eagerly anticipated New Game+ update is now available in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. It adds plenty of additions players have been asking for, and at least one no one had on their bingo card: access to a developer debug menu that messing around in could potentially corrupt your saves and disrupt Trophy progress.

Xbox Game Pass has confirmed another day-one game for 2024 in the form of The Alters. The next title from award-winning developer 11 Bit Studios is still without an official release date, although the Polish company committed to bringing it to PC, consoles, and Xbox Game Pass sometime this year.

Epic's plans to launch a version of its Epic Games Store on iOS in the EU have stalled after Apple terminated its developer account, calling the company «verifiably untrustworthy» — and the much-trumpeted return of Fortnite to iOS has been impacted too.

Australian studio Torus has laid off its team and will be on a hiatus for the foreseeable future.

Italian publisher 505 Games has shuttered several of its European offices in France, Germany, and Spain, the result of a business review conducted in September. Just yesterday, we told you that Remedy Entertainment had acquired full publishing rights for Control back from 505 Games.

Developer Remedy Entertainment has announced it has acquired the full right to the Control IP, something it previously shared with publisher 505 Games. Remedy reportedly paid 17 million euros for the privilege; however, 505 Games will remain publisher throughout 2024 while the transition takes place.

Naughty Dog president Neil Druckmann doesn't think he will be in the business of making video games forever, at least not at the scale we would expect from the storied creative. He is best known for his work on both Uncharted and The Last of Us; in fact, it was the experience of adapting the latter for HBO, something he «really enjoyed», along with moving into a stage of life where «your kids are number one», which prompted thoughts of a sea change.

Legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu says he probably won't compose the score for another complete game; instead, he prefers to spend his time on compositions or his band Uematsu Nobuo conTIKI. Amongst his long list of notable achievements, in addition to being the primary composer of the Final Fantasy series, he single-handedly composed the soundtracks of the first nine games.

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New research by academics based in Norway has found evidence that children and teens can face bullying from their peers if they refrain from buying skins, gear, and other items in free-to-play games like Fortnite. As the gaming industry has evolved, free-to-play games and microtransactions have become a bigger part of the experience for many players. This has prompted debate among gamers and industry observers about the ethics of these business practices and their impact on children who play games like Fortnite.