Get Your Game On: Lawsuits, Cryptocurrency, and Emulation

Hey, welcome to GYGO! I’m Kael, and I’m still slogging through Kingdom Hearts. I spent a couple hours yesterday trying to synthesize all of the items to obtain the ultima keyblade, and then I thought to myself, “why?” and went off towards the final boss. Anyway, do y’all want news? Because I got some.

Cryptominers in MY Steam Library? It’s More Likely than You Think…

The game Abstractism, previously hosted on Steam, has been accused of secretly mining cryptocurrency while the game runs. This comes at a time when Steam is publicly shifting away from moderating the games on its platform, taking a free-for-all (at least, all who can pay the listing fee) approach. Notably, Steam removed Abstractism from its digital shelves after the accusations were made, but I’m pretty sure this is only the latest in upcoming news about the saga that is Steam’s quality control.

Creators of Detroit and Heavy Rain Face French Courts

French courts have ruled in favor of a former Quantic Dream employee who was fighting to have their departure from the company be considered an “unfair dismissal,” which affords certain rights under French law. There have been harrowing reports about the allegedly toxic work environment at David Cage’s studio, which landed publications who reported on it with their own lawsuits. While this employees case has no official bearing on Quantic Dream’s case against the French publications, it does do a lot toward illustrating what kind of duress at least one worker was under.

Nintendo is Out for Blood and Shuttering Emulation Sites

Nintendo is filing lawsuits against two popular emulation sites, causing one to shut down and the other to stop listing Nintendo property. The lawsuits weren’t just DMCA notices,but involve up to $150,000 to be paid for each Nintendo ROM hosted on the sites. Clearly Nintendo is taking a stand against emulation, almost certainly due to their new classic line of retro consoles (which are themselves emulators). Emulation is one of the few ways to encourage the long term conservation of games (though it comes with dubious legal and ethical ramifications). The true hypocrisy of the case comes from the possibility that Nintendo used a downloaded ROM to release a virtual console version of Super Mario Bros.

Games Site Escapes Dereliction Thanks to Enthusiasts

The Escapist, a largely abandoned games site that took a sympathetic stance toward Gamergate in the mid-2010s was purchased by Russ Pitts and partners at Enthusiast Games, with a dedication to “leaving politics at the door.” Whether or not that’s a smart idea, considering the site’s history, remains to be seen.

In Other News…

• Kaori Fujita—character designer, illustrator, and mangaka for Suikoden—passed away on July 13, 2018.
• One of the hackers known for cracking Denuvo’s DRM system has been arested by Bulgarian police for doing so.
• In an interview with Kotaku, the creators of Dead Cells discuss how game development works when every employee owns the company, and takes home the same wage.
• Stardew Valley multiplayer releases today!
• Kotaku’s collected some of the best cosplay from San Diego Comic Con.
• Voice actors for Spider-Man PS4 have been announced, including Laura Bailey as Mary Jane and Stephen Oyoung as Mister Negative

• Fanatical has created a browser extension that automatically compares prices on Steam to their own (often cheaper) site.
• PAI Partners, a private equity group, is in talks to purchase the publisher behind Settlers of Catan, Asmodee.

Games Bleat

Hey there, I’m Joesph, yes the same Joesph who was giving you news and ranting about Kingdom Hearts just a bit ago. Now I’m here to give you a different sort of news—specifically new games and sales!

First in new releases is Enlightenment. It’s cool looking post-apocalyptic roguelike with 3D graphics rare for the pseudo-genre. The player delves into a mysterious facility, coming up with off-the-cuff solutions to procedurally generated problems. I’m personally interested in a roguelike that encourages all-out action gameplay over methodical planning and resource conservation.

Next is Heaven Will Be Mine! Many Sidequesters have been waiting on bated breath for the second game from Pillow Fight, creators of We Know the Devil. HWBM is a visual novel about being messy and gay in a mech battle. I gotta be honest, I made it to the tagline “Sext your enemies” and added the game to my ‘to play’ list.

Finally, we have the release of Yakuza 0 for PC! I’ve been hearing people in games talk about Yakuza for months, so it’s great I finally have the option of playing it on a platform I own! The premise is pretty self-explanatory—be a yakuza member and fight some dudes. What the title won’t tell you, however, is the game’s emotionally engaging storyline and bizarre quirkiness unique to itself.

Now for the deals!

PC Peregrin $3.74 Downwell $0.74 Symmetry $5.99 Superhot $14.99 Superhot VR $18.74 Dead Cells $19.99	Moonlighter $16.99 Diluvion $3.99 Where the Water Tastes Like Wine $13.99 Oh…Sir!! The Insult Simulator $0.79 The Shrouded Isle: Sunken Sins $8.39 Submachine: Complete Collection $23.75
Nintendo Old Man’s Journey $7.99 The Way Remastered $10.49 Dandara $8.99 Shu $5.99	PlayStation No Man’s Sky $29.99 Dandara $8.99 GoNNER $7.49

And that’s it for this week,s bleat! Catch us next week for some great news, deals, and releases!