Investigations News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

The European Union's competition regulator said Tuesday it was looking into Microsoft's investment into ChatGPT developer, the CEO Sam Altman-led OpenAI to see if it merits further investigation under the bloc's merger rules. The European Commission said in a statement it was "checking whether Microsoft's investment in OpenAI might be reviewable under the EU Merger Regulation".

Baldur’s Gate 3 players on Xbox, rejoice. Game director and CEO of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke, has confirmed that the root of the problem causing save files to occasionally go missing on Xbox Series X|S has been found, and a fix is on the way. 

Has any other demo had the impact of Hideo Kojima's genre-redefining PT? That stunning playable teaser for the scrapped Silent Hills may be a decade old now (sorry, yes, that made me feel ancient, too), but its legacy is still undoubtedly shaping the games we play today. One of the latest to pay homage, Supernormal, says it's the spiritual successor to Allison Road rather than PT itself, another unreleased game that was heavily influenced by Kojima's aborted horror project. But doing the one thing Silent Hills and Allison Road couldn't, Supernormal has actually made it into our hands – and while it doesn't leave the same impact as its inspirations, it certainly has a few moments worthy of them… as long as you're prepared to get through its underwhelming first half to see them.

As Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian works with Microsoft to investigate concerningly common account suspensions handed out to people seemingly just sharing clips of the RPG's romance scenes, Xbox support has officially advised players to disable auto-upload for gameplay clips featuring "sensitive content."  

It’s always nice to think that certain industries are “above harassment” or other things that have weighed down our world. But, sadly, that faith is rarely rewarded. The places and companies that should be the most “sound of mind” sometimes turn out to be the most corrupt or have some of the most hate-filled people around. For example, the video game industry is full of horror stories about the working conditions of certain places and the abuses made by those in power. And that says nothing about gamers themselves. But in the case of Activision Blizzard, they had an issue that was so grand that it resulted in several lawsuits, and those suits keep on coming.

Activision-Blizzard has been the centre of a lot of controversy over these past few years. After a lawsuit went public, detailing «numerous complaints about unlawful harassment, discrimination, and retaliation» and a «frat boy» culture, plus claims from former CEO Bobby Kotick that the whole thing was just an «aggressive labour movement,»  the company finally settled last year.

In a groundbreaking revelation, the XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory, spearheaded by Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has provided an initial glimpse of the extraordinary data it will soon gather as it embarks on its scientific operations later this year. A snapshot released by the satellite's science team showcases a conglomerate of hundreds of galaxies and a spectrum of stellar remnants from a nearby galaxy, offering scientists an intricate understanding of its chemical composition.

Civil liberties advocates are mounting a new challenge to the use by police of Google search data for help solving criminal cases, as the practice draws greater scrutiny nationwide. After a Pennsylvania woman was raped in 2016, police submitted a search warrant to Alphabet's Google for information about users who had typed the victim's name or address into the search engine in the week leading up to the attack, according to court papers. Google responded with the IP address of a user who had searched for the victim's address twice shortly before the incident, court papers show. That breakthrough prompted police to begin monitoring a corrections officer, who was ultimately arrested and convicted.

One of the last things I did in 2023 was round-up the year's crypto fails, during which I checked-in on an old favourite. In late 2021 mega-influencer Logan Paul, now probably best-known for the PRIME energy drink range and his burgeoning WWE career, began promoting a blockchain project called CryptoZoo, a videogame where players would buy NFT eggs, hatch them into animals, breed them, trade them, and so on.

Title card: The Grand Theft Auto 6 Sunscreen Mystery. Fade in: Interior. A detective's office. Shutters keep the glow of street lamps at bay. A lone figure paces around the room, kicking away cans of empty aerosol sunscreen that spill from an overflowing trash bin. They mutter to themself as they light up a cigarette. On a corkboard we see a map of Miami beach broadwalk, and a diagram charting the course of the Atlantic Coast sun. They're close. They can taste it.

You wouldn't download a train—but you might conceivably want to repair one. Those worries have led to a massive controversy in Poland, as train manufacturer Newag has come under fire for likely adding DRM-style protection to stop its vehicles from being repaired at competitor facilities.

Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian is looking into reports that Xbox players are getting their accounts banned for posting "'gameplay content'".

Starbucks has found itself under hot water after a consumer protection group has made claims that the coffee chain has been profting from an unfair app payment system. The allegations suggest that a staggering $900 million profit has been made over the course of five years.

UK police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl in a VR metaverse, in what seems like the first criminal investigation of its kind. The chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, Donna Jones, told the BBC that the complaint was made in 2023 and the inquiry is ongoing.

For those looking to carry the spooky vibes over to the new year, Aksys Games gave Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II a release date. The third entry in the series heads to PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC on February 15, 2024.

Shadows of Doubt, the ambitious procedural detective noir sandbox from developer Cole Jefferies, is introducing new cases themed around infidelity on 25th September, as part of its first major update since entering Steam early access in April.

Earlier this year, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company finally lifted the lid on Detective Pikachu Returns, and with the adventure title’s October launch drawing closer, more details on it have now been revealed, courtesy of a new trailer at the recent Pokemon Presents broadcast.