We’re seeing the first signs of serious vulnerabilities’ impact on game developers and their games.

Epic Games’ Fortnite team in a Friday evening forum post briefly outlined how the “Meltdown” vulnerability is affecting its popular online multiplayer game.

A spokesperson addressed recent login and instability issues, saying, “All of our cloud services are affected by updates required to mitigate the Meltdown vulnerability. We heavily rely on cloud services to run our backend and we may experience further service issues due to ongoing updates.”

Meltdown has been confirmed to affect the past 20 years-worth of Intel-based systems, meaning potential wide-ranging impact on game development and online services. Security patches to protect these systems from attack cause notable slowdowns that reportedly amplify in correspondence with the CPU workload, which means cloud services are especially affected.

You can see the significant jump in CPU workload below on one of the game’s hosts following the implementation of a Meltdown patch:

For Fortnite and countless other software and services, developers will continue with the patches to mitigate vulnerabilities for the foreseeable future.

More on Meltdown and its cohort “Spectre” here.

Watch the Paladins World Championships live on Steam.

The first-ever Paladins World Championship takes place at Hi-Rez Expo, and will bring top teams from the Paladins Premier League to face off against teams from China, LATAM, Brazil, SEA, Oceania, and CIS.

Welcome to Next Week on Xbox where we bring you the latest details on upcoming games coming soon to Xbox One! This coming week we have two new games coming to Xbox: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III — available as a Games with Gold title — and the survival horror game Outbreak: The New Nightmare. Read on below for more details on these games and we’ll see you back here on Next Week on Xbox.

Games

January 01, 2018

Games with Gold Title Return as the legendary monster hunter one last time in The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III. This time, Van Helsing will take up arms against his most dangerous foe yet in this explosive final chapter in this classic gothic horror third-person ARPG.

Games

January 03, 2018

Trapped in a dying city with only a few remaining survivors after a deadly virus outbreak, you’ll have to scavenge the environment for supplies, fight off the undead, and do whatever it takes to survive in this unforgiving survival horror experience.

Just when you thought that games couldn’t get any weirder – or any more awesome – here comes Pato Box. This brawler is developed by Bromio and has been on Steam Greenlight for a while, but now it’s headed to the Switch eShop, too.

Pato Box is an adventure and fighting game inspired by the Punch-Out!! series, taking place in the building of a corrupted corporation. Judging from the video above there is also a bit of a MadWorld vibe going on too, which we just love.

In the game you play as none other than Patobox himself, a boxing champion with a special distinction of having a duck’s head in a man’s body. He has been betrayed by members of Deathflock, the same company that has been sponsoring him during his career. Patobox will find retribution by finding Deathflock’s henchmen while discovering the dark secrets the company hides and the truth behind his treason one fight at a time.

Well it all sounds rather intriguing to us. Let us know if this will be on your instabuy list when it pops up on the Switch eShop to buy later this year.

Hamster is taking a break from fighting games next week to bring to the Switch a game of volleyball. If you have worn out the ARMS volleyball mini-game, Video System’s (of Aero Fighters fame) 1994 Power Spikes II might just be up your court. 

This sequel brings several features from the Super Nintendo Hyper V-Ball game to the Neo Geo system, with the biggest addition being the futuristic Hyper League joining with the more traditional male and female competitions. 

Instead of traditional points, in Hyper League you must use your special shots to take energy out of the opponent’s team before they do the same to you. Consider Power Spikes II the 2020 Super Baseball or Soccer Brawl equivalent for volleyball games.

All these futuristic sports games just remind us how insanely good Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe still is. If you are looking for more traditional alternative and are taking a cue from Alex’s latest GameCube video, Sega’s Beach Spikers remains a solid option.

Any volleyball fans out there in the comments section? What are your favourite volley video games of all time? Will you pick Power Spikes II on January 18th? Jump serve your comments below.

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is Now Available for Pre-Purchase on Steam!* Pre-purchase now to help unlock additional pre-purchase rewards, including packs of in-game items and the final reward tier of a free copy of SWORD ART ONLINE RE: HOLLOW FRAGMENT. Check out the store page for more details.

In Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, experience an original story where you are the protagonist in the world of Gun Gale Online. Create your own avatar and explore devastated lands while experiencing exciting third person shooting in this action RPG.

*Offer ends February 23rd at 10AM Pacific Time.

First major global professional city-based league opens new era in eSports

Overwatch League to be broadcast on Twitch, in addition to OverwatchLeague.com, MLG.com, the MLG app, and the new Overwatch League companion app

IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The inaugural season of the Overwatch League^™ kicks off today, beginning an epic showdown between teams from some of the world’s top sports and esports leaders—and the best Overwatch players on the planet.

As the first major global professional esports league with competition organized by cities, the launch of the Overwatch League is one of the most hotly anticipated moments in esports. For the first season, 12 franchises are representing major cities in Asia, Europe, and North America. The full list of teams and owners is:

• Boston Uprising (Kraft Group)
• Dallas Fuel (Team Envy)
• Florida Mayhem (Misfits)
• Houston Outlaws (OpTic Gaming)
• London Spitfire (Cloud9)
• Los Angeles Gladiators (Stan and Josh Kroenke)
• Los Angeles Valiant (Immortals)
• New York Excelsior (Jeff Wilpon and SterlingVC)
• Philadelphia Fusion (Comcast Spectacor)
• San Francisco Shock (NRG eSports)
• Seoul Dynasty (Kevin Chou)
• Shanghai Dragons (NetEase)

The teams met in combat for the first time during the preseason, December 6-9. The first regular-season games will be played later today, with the Pacific Division teams facing off: San Francisco Shock vs. Los Angeles Valiant, Shanghai Dragons vs. Los Angeles Gladiators, and Dallas Fuel vs. Seoul Dynasty. The Atlantic Division teams take the stage at the Blizzard Arena Los Angeles on Thursday.

“Connecting and engaging the world through epic entertainment is our mission,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “The launch of the Overwatch League will provide our very best professional players the chance to inspire our engaged, connected audiences around the world. January 10th is an historic day for esports and we are so grateful to our team owners, our media partners, our sponsors, and most of all our players for their pivotal role in the establishment of the Overwatch League.”

“The Overwatch League was created to deliver an awesome and unique experience for players, teams, and fans,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “With 12 first-class teams representing major cities from Asia, Europe, and North America, we’re confident that the inaugural season of the league is going to redefine what people expect from esports—and be a giant celebration of the Overwatch^® community as a whole.”

Viewers can tune in to catch all the action on Twitch, MLG.com and the MLG app (on iOS and Android), OverwatchLeague.com, and the Overwatch League companion app, which launched Monday for iOS and Android. Blizzard players also will be given easy access to the Overwatch League’s web presence via a new Overwatch League tab in the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App.

ZhanQi TV, NetEase CC, and Panda TV are expected to be the official broadcasting platforms of the Overwatch League in China, providing livestreams, VODs, feature programs, and other exciting esports content to Chinese audiences.

The first season of the Overwatch League will run until June, with playoffs and finals scheduled for July. For the inaugural season, all games will take place at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, a state-of-the-art live-event venue in Burbank, California, custom-renovated for Blizzard Entertainment esports events. Fans can purchase tickets to attend matches, which will be played each Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. A full schedule and information about ticket sales can be found at https://overwatchleague.com/.

The Overwatch community also will have new ways to join in the fun around the league. Overwatch League team uniforms are now available to purchase as in-game skins, giving fans a fun way to show their support for their favorite teams. All players who log in between now and February 13, 2018, will receive enough League Tokens to obtain a team uniform of their choice free. Skins are available for all 12 teams, and all 26 Overwatch characters, with 50% of the revenue from every Overwatch League skin sold going toward a shared revenue pool for all league teams.

The Overwatch League is supported by sponsors HP® and Intel®, with players competing on cutting-edge gaming hardware including HP’s OMEN gaming PCs, powered by the latest Intel® Core™ i7 processors.

About the Overwatch League^™

The Overwatch League^™ is the first major global professional esports league with city-based teams across Asia, Europe, and North America. Overwatch® was created by globally acclaimed publisher Blizzard Entertainment (a division of Activision Blizzard—Nasdaq: ATVI), whose iconic franchises have helped lay the foundations and push the boundaries of professional esports over the last 15 years. The latest addition to Blizzard’s stable of twenty-one #1 games,^[1] Overwatch was built from the ground up for online competition, with memorable characters and fast-paced action designed for the most engaging gameplay and spectator experiences. To learn more about the Overwatch League, visit www.overwatchleague.com.

© 2018 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. OVERWATCH, OVERWATCH LEAGUE, BLIZZARD and BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT are trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

[1] Sales and/or downloads, based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the dates, events and features of the Overwatch League, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

Source: Overwatch League

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180110005414/en/

Overwatch League
Mark Van Lommel, 949-955-1380 x61147
MVanLommel@overwatchleague.com

Source: Overwatch League

News Provided by Acquire Media

Even if a small studio has a number of titles under their belt, it doesn’t always mean it’s doing well financially. At the cusp of bankruptcy, it was time to look at alternative ways of producing games. “Money is always available from somewhere,” notes former Failbetter Games staffer Alexis Kennedy. 

In this GDC 2016 session, Kennedy goes over how the company used open publishing techniques to steer themselves away from bankruptcy and toward being financially stable with their game, Sunless Sea. 

The talk discusses how Kennedy incorporated a “bundle of techniques” (which he dubbed as “open production”) used by other successful indie studios during the development of Sunless Sea, going over topics like Kickstarter and interacting early with the community to establish a collaborative relationship. 

Developers curious to see if open production is applicable to their projects can now watch the talk completely free via the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend.

This week’s highlights include why Warframe is a (somewhat more) ethical approach to free-to-play, bringing Arizona Sunshine to PlayStation VR, and lots more.

Well, it’s the New Year, and there’s a LOAD of stuff going on already. Regarding GDC 2018 announcements, we had a bunch of announcements this week, including the Independent Games Festival finalists for 2018, and more Vision Track talks – Supercell’s CEO & the brilliant Frank Lantz – as well as the Game Developers Choice Awards nominees – a plethora of standout games being honored by their peers here.

And we’ve got quite a few more things to come – look out for a Classic Postmortem announce that I’m personally tickled by, next week, and a bunch of other neatness besides – our talk line-up is really swelling in size. And while you’re waiting for the show, why not check out a bunch of neat links about vidya games?

Until next time…
– Simon, curator.]

——————

2017 In Interactive Fiction (Emily Short / Interactive Storytelling – ARTICLE)
“Traditionally I try to do some kind of year-in-review post about trends in IF for the year. There’s always the risk that I’ll be leaving out a lot when I do this. That’s especially true this year, when I’ve had an especially demanding work and travel schedule, and haven’t played nearly all the games I should have played. But with apologies for many omissions, here are a couple of items I noticed.”

Top ten games of 2017 (Tom Chick / Quarter To Three – ARTICLE)
“This is the first year that none of my ten favorite games were popular AAA titles from larger publishers (with the possible exception of my #9 pick). I liked plenty of popular AAA titles from larger publishers! Destiny 2, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Warhammer II, Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Wolfenstein II, for instance. But there were at least ten games I liked better. [SIMON’S NOTE: You haven’t seen a Top 10 like this anywhere else!]”

Game Design Deep Dive: Bringing Arizona Sunshine to the PSVR Aim (Trevor Blom / Gamasutra – ARTICLE)
“The core mechanic in Arizona Sunshine is shooting zombies, so it is the most important thing for us to get absolutely right. Needless to say, we got really excited once we heard about the Aim controller and that the launch for this peripheral was close to our intended launch date of the Playstation port.”

We Made Our Own Myths in 2017’s Photo Modes (Dia Lacina / Waypoint – ARTICLE)
“As I watched my friends and colleagues stress over their end of the year lists, I immediately opted out. Because amidst all the great games this year, what mattered most to me was clear—this was the Year of the Photo Mode. [SIMON’S NOTE: Waypoint’s Pantheon Of Games series has a whole bunch more ‘best of’ and ‘2017’s trends’ articles that are well worth checking out.]”

Developers Share Their Favorite Games Of 2017 (Thomas Faust / IndieGames.com – ARTICLE)
“2017 has been a banner year for videogames, with many successful and important titles getting released throughout the year. Instead of presenting you our favorite 2017 games, we asked developers which titles resonated with them instead. [SIMON’S NOTE: I noticed last week that IndieGames.com turned 10 years old (!!) just after Xmas. I originally asked Wee Tim Boon to host and pay for his independent gaming blog on the UBM/Gamasutra URL and servers back in 2007. Happy anniversary!]

The Shrouded Isle (Errant Signal / YouTube – VIDEO)
“The Shrouded Isle is a game about sacrificing people in the name of a dark elder god who probably doesn’t like you. It’s moody and monochromatic and maybe a little sacrilegious. Also you can steal cookies from people you’re torturing, so that’s a plus.”

How the Endless series reimagined the 4X strategy genre (Robert Zak / PC Gamer – ARTICLE)
“But between 2012 and 2017, a trifecta of games from an upstart French developer shook up this 4X hegemony. Amplitude Studios’ Endless Space (2012), Endless Legend (2014) and Endless Space 2 (2017) reinterpreted the 4X playbook, working within its strict rulesets to push the genre further than it had ever gone before.”

How Warframe built an ethical free-to-play economy (Ben Kuchera / Polygon – ARTICLE)
“While Digital Extremes won’t talk about the conversion rate of free to paid players or how large the audience is, outside of noting the daily active players of 2017 was double what it was in 2016, they will talk about how they got here by crafting one of the few non-abusive free-to-play systems in the industry.”

Q&A: Applying cubism and minimalism to game design in AER: Memories of Old (Gamasutra staff / Gamasutra – ARTICLE / VIDEO)
“Of everything we streamed last year, AER: Memories of Old was one of the most visually striking and emotionally calming games we encountered. We had a lot of questions about how AER’s small indie team figured out such a strong flying mechanic, so we invited game director Robin Hjelte to join us on the Gamasutra Twitch channel for a conversation about the game’s design.”

Observer (Critique Quest / YouTube – VIDEO)
“[SIMON’S NOTE: An excellent YouTube longform criticism channel that I wasn’t previously aware of.]”

What goes into creating a memorable soundtrack? (Sammy Maine / PC Gamer – ARTICLE)
“Whether you’re switching radio stations in GTA or trekking across epic mountains in The Elder Scrolls as a choir serenades you, music and games often go hand in hand. A soundtrack can make or break a game’s success, even more so when it’s emotionally and narratively driven.”

The Mysteries of 2017 (Ethan Johnson / The History Of How We Play – ARTICLE)
“Instead of how I did my post last year, stating rather matter-of-factly the things that I’ve heard, I am going to pose each bit of information as a question which will give some background on the question itself. [SIMON’S NOTE: This is a really good DEEP game history blog!]”

Deus Ex to Dishonored (Harvey Smith) – Noclip Sessions (Noclip / YouTube – VIDEO)
“We sit down with celebrated immersive sim designer Harvey Smith to talk about game design, maturing as a developer, life abroad and the long shadow of his early work.”

Eurogamer readers’ top 50 games of 2017 (Eurogamer staff / Eurogamer – ARTICLE)
“Happy New Year, everyone! We have high hopes for 2018, and happily it’s starting well with this, a list of the top 50 games of 2017 as decided by you. Thank you so much for all of your votes. Now, enjoy!”

Exposition Demolition: Just let us start playing the game (John Walker / RockPaperShotgun – ARTICLE)
“A challenge to game developers: let the first thing the player sees on starting a new game be the game itself. Let the player be immediately in control. And let them keep that control at least until it has at least become familiar.”

Tone Control Episode 17: Charles Webb (Steve Gaynor / Idle Thumbs – PODCAST)
“Charles Webb, self-styled “Senior Black Writer” at Hangar 13, joined the Mafia III team after a long and winding path that included writing narrative-driven cell phone games in the early 2000’s (!), a stint at Microsoft, a bit of professional film criticism, and more. Join us on the journey that led Charles to help bring one of the most fascinating game characters in recent years to life.”

The 12 Best Video Games Of 2017 (Kirk Hamilton / Kotaku – ARTICLE)
“We downloaded, we installed, we played. We nominated, we debated, we decided. Here, in alphabetical order, are Kotaku’s top 12 video games of 2017.”

Three Statistical Tests Every Game Developer Should Know (Elan Ruskin / GDC / YouTube – VIDEO)
“In this 2016 GDC session, Insomniac Games’ Elan Ruskin gives a how-to on statistics for answering questions like “does this new camera control scheme make players happier?”, “how many players do I need to test this design change on to prove whether it works better?” and “does the framerate really get faster when I do this thing or is it just a fluke of measurement?”

Tabletop games are exploding on Kickstarter, video games are flat (Charlie Hall / Polygon – ARTICLE)
“Crowdfunding for games was up overall on Kickstarter last year, with a massive increase of nearly 30 percent. But that boost was entirely due the success of tabletop games. Video games remained relatively flat. [SIMON’S NOTE: I got some additional stats & posted ’em on Twitter – as I noted, ‘Percentage of successful video game projects (21%) vs. table top projects (61%) is particularly interesting. (Though many board/card game projects have low goals to fund physical printing minimums, since the game’s already designed.)’]”

Where next for the video game power fantasy? (Simon Parkin / Gamasutra – ARTICLE)
“Forced to recount the litany of sins that we have committed in the virtual world to a priest, the average video game player might not exit the confessional booth for some time. It’s not just the body-count, which, for even the mildest-mannered of players, is of genocidal proportions.”

5 Classic Video Game Weaknesses, Psychoanalyzed (Merritt K / Dorkly – ARTICLE)
“As long as there have been video games, there have been protagonists. And yet, these heroes cannot stand alone: without the obstacles which define them, they are little more than collections of pixels, imbued with neither bravery nor resolve. Much as New York is herself a player in classic film, the hurdles faced by our friends Mario, the Toad, and Donkey Kong are characters themselves, tailored to test our heroes’ specific skills.”

——————

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at tinyletter.com/vgdeepcuts – we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra & an advisor to indie publisher No More Robots, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]