Manor Lords is the Latest Indie Hit, Reaching 160,000 Concurrent Steam Players on Day 1

Like previous entries in the series, Mortal Kombat 1 is rolling out plenty of DLC fighters, with the game’s first “Kombat Pack” so far serving up Omni-Man from Invincible, Quan Chi, Peacemaker from Suicide Squad, and Ermac. And now NetherRealm Studios has provided a first peek at the second-to-last Kombat Pack fighter – Homelander from the Amazon series The Boys.

Manor Lords has a quirky bug that makes dead animal corpses stay in your village and contribute to your in-menu numbers, but the game's lead developer says the bug has already been squashed and awaiting deployment.

I should have been enjoying the beach. I was on vacation, far from my gaming PC, and close to soothing, rolling waves. But instead, my mind kept drifting to a landlocked chunk of 14th century Germany. Few games have wormed their way into my brain like Manor Lords.

No Rest for the Wicked, the new action-rpg/roguelike from Ori developer Moon Studios is out now in early access and eliciting a mix of responses. Most have been struck by the game’s obvious potential, but some have also complained the game is a bit overly demanding when it comes to PC performance, particularly considering it’s an isometric Diablo-like (albeit a very nice-looking one).

Between Palworld, Helldivers 2, and now Manor Lords, it’s been a year of games coming out of left field and achieving runaway success.

NVIDIA announced that GeForce NOW has a new beta installation method that automatically configures GeForce NOW's browser in Steam Deck's Gaming Mode. The installation script automatically installs Google Chrome to the device, then adds all the settings needed to help members log into NVIDIA's cloud platform and stream their favorite games.

The former NPD Group (now named “Circana”) has released its full North American sales data for March, and it seems like it was an up-and-down month for the industry. Players spent $4.9 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in March, up 4 percent year-on-year. This increase came from mobile and software spending, as hardware sales were down 31 percent year-on-year with PS5 #1 in terms of unit and dollar sales, Switch #2 in terms of unit sales, and Xbox Series X/S #2 in terms of dollar sales.

The big “E3” announcement season (E3 is dead, but you know what I mean) is almost here, and Microsoft has officially staked out their spot. Taking place in early June, the Xbox Games Showcase will feature games from Microsoft’s full portfolio of developers, including “Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, Xbox Game Studios” and even some third-party publishers. Interestingly, like last year with Starfield, this will be a “double feature” with a main showcase, and a “Direct” which will dive deeper on a specific game.

Helldivers 2 has dropped its latest update, and while it mostly focuses on balance changes, there are a lot of balance changes to talk about. Well over half the weapons in the game have received changes, with some, like the LAS-99 Quasar Cannon and R-36 Eruptor, getting pretty significant nerfs.

Manor Lords developer Slavic Magic, aka Greg Styczeń, has laid out the broad strokes of the game's first proper patch in early access. This follows a boisterous opening weekend that has seen the new city builder top purchase charts on Steam, causing Valve's mighty servers to crumble under the strain like overloaded oxen.

Manor Lords’ huge Steam wishlists have translated into a bumper launch that saw over one million copies sold in just a day.

In a rare move, Manor Lords publisher Hooded Horse has promised to frequently discount the game. The pledge was offered as part of the company's reflection on Manor Lords' launch.