Thursday, 12 September 2024

Game News Round-Up

Daily curated games-industry news digest for 12 September 2024.

General7 stories

Steam’s improved family sharing is out now for everyone

  • The Steam Families feature lets you share games with multiple people, manage parental controls, and approve requests to buy games.
  • Up to five family members can be invited into a group, which will grant access to a shared family library. Each person can create their own save files and collect their own achievements for games in the family library
  • The marquee development with the new family feature is that multiple people within the group will be able to play games from the shared library at the same time. And if you own multiple copies of a game, then multiple people can be playing that title at once. The caveat with family sharing is that a game developer may opt not to support the feature
The Verge

Dead Island 2 getting zombie-infested co-op horde mode next month

  • In addition to this new horde mode, the forthcoming update will also include New Game Plus. This will allow players to head back to LA (or, Hell A, as the Dead Island 2 team call it) for another crack at the main story, but with an additional skill slot and an increased level cap.
  • This free update will be arriving on 22nd October, and will coincide with the release of Dead Island 2's Ultimate Edition. This edition will include the base game, as well as both story expansions (Haus and SoLA) and a number of weapons and skin packs
Eurogamer

Payday 3’s director has been demoted following the game’s troubled first year

  • Former game director Miodrag Kovačević is now serving as a senior game designer on the project, according to his LinkedIn profile, while Andreas Häll Penninger and Almir Listo will be “the creative force behind the upcoming updates”.
  • Penninger was a lead producer on Payday 3 and a producer on its predecessor, while Listo is global brand director and head of community for the series.
VGC
Free Games / Subscription1 story

September’s PlayStation Plus Game Catalogue and Classics titles revealed

  • All of the games listed below will be available beginning on September 17.
  • Extra & Premium
  • The Plucky Squire | PS5
  • Under The Waves | PS4/5
  • Night in the Woods | PS4/5
  • Chernobylite | PS4, PS5
  • Wild Card Football | PS4/5
  • Space Engineers | PS4/5
  • Road 96 | PS4/5
  • Ben 10 | PS4
  • Far Cry 5 | PS4
  • Premium
  • Pistol Whip | PS VR2
  • Secret Agent Clank | PS4/5
  • Sky Gunner | PS4/5
  • Mister Mosquito | PS4/5
VGC
Business4 stories

Nexon spins off Dave the Diver dev Mintrocket into a full corporation

  • Mintrocket will still be supported by Nexon, which wants to 'expand' the studio in the wake of Dave the Diver's massive success
  • The "indie" corporation's Dave the Diver was a critical and commercial darling for Nexon last year, and managed to sell 1 million copies over a week after launch. It's now sold 4 million copies, following on from the 3 million milestone in January.
Game Developer

Cypher Games raises $10m in latest fundraising round

  • The Turkish developer says it marks a key milestone as it develops its "very first match-3 title to disrupt the mobile gaming industry."
  • Led by The Raine Group, the round secured funding from Play Ventures, 500 Global, Riccardo Zacconi (founder of King), Humam Sakhnini (former vice-chairman of Activision Blizzard) and Akin Babayigit (co-founder of Tripledot).
GamesIndustry.biz