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The return of GamerGate’s troubling online misogyny: Was it ever truly gone? | Gaming

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a A few months ago, I wrote about the consulting firm Sweet Baby Inc., which was at the center of a conspiracy theory: disgruntled gamers on the Steam forums wrongly concluded that the small company was somehow mandating that its games include more diverse characters. The sad but predictable result was a massive amount of targeted harassment against the people who worked at Sweet Baby and all journalists (especially women) who wrote about the company. It was a disturbing echo of Gamergate, the online harassment campaign from a decade ago that initially began with the extreme accusations of a vengeful ex-boyfriend of a game developer.

The lingo has changed a bit over the past decade. Whereas before we were pissed off at “SJWs,” or social justice warriors, now we quibble over a different acronym: DEI (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion), or just good old fashioned “woke.” But the sentiment of this group is the same: games are for us, and only us, and if you want games to change, or tell stories other than the simplistic male-centric power fantasies we grew up with, well, that’s not going to be allowed. We won’t tolerate it. In fact, we’ll actively harass you to try and kick you out of this space altogether.

Unfortunately, the anti-woke “campaign” has shown little to no let up in the months since. Led by the usual crew of charlatans, they have covered issues such as, in no particular order, the fact that Aphrodite, the goddess of love, isn’t attractive enough in Supergiant’s Hades II, the fact that all the female characters in recent game trailers have “square” jaws and “masculine” body types, and the fact that a journalist gave the recent PS5 game Stellar Blade (pictured below) a bad review because the female characters were not attractive. Too Hot (Note: It’s not, the game has
Metacritic Score
81) There are way too many games featuring the “DEI haircut” (fun to interpret) And Ubisoft for some reason
The dark forces of Awakening are trying to make the protagonist of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed game (pictured above) a black samurai.
Historical evidence
This last claim was backed up by the king of nasty posters himself, Elon Musk, who responded to a tweet about this manufactured outrage with, “DEI kills the arts.”

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows executive producer Marc-Alexis Côté spoke about Musk’s tweet in an interview.
Stephen Totilo from Game Files
Last week, Elon Musk tweeted, “Elon Musk is just stoking hatred. A bunch of 3-word replies came to mind. First thing I wanted to do was go back to the X I deleted and just tweet it back… What Elon is talking about is not the game we’re making. People need to play the game for themselves. And if you don’t agree with what we’re doing within the first 11 minutes and 47 seconds, debate.” Incidentally, the game’s depiction of Yasuke, a black samurai, has ample historical basis.

Shortly after the end of Summer Game Fest, anti-woke gamers found a new target.
IGN Report
has credibly and comprehensively uncovered the history of sexism at the development of Black Myth: Wukong, the upcoming Planet of the Apes-meets-Sekiro action game. Amazingly, the response has been to attack the woman who wrote the game and spark ridiculous conspiracy theories about IGN blackmailing the developer. You could immerse yourself in the astounding nastiness of any one of these manufactured controversies, but in my opinion, it’s just not worth it.

Stellar Blade. Photo: Public Relations

This reactionary underbelly of gaming enthusiast media, mostly based on X and YouTube, doesn’t actually have the slightest influence on how games are made, or what games are made. Look at GamerGate. What has it actually accomplished? There is more diversity in games than there was 10 years ago, not less. In the flurry of trailers and demos at this year’s Summer Game Fest, I saw more non-white male faces and characters than I’ve ever seen in the nearly 20 years I’ve covered games. But they can still make people’s online lives hell for a while. I know that much, because I’ve been there many times.

When Gamergate began, I was running Kotaku’s UK branch, so I had a front row seat to their harassment tactics, which included sending the most nasty threats imaginable through every online channel available to them, emailing game publishers and my bosses with a record of my professional misconduct and journalistic failures (i.e. writing about video games from a feminist perspective) in an attempt to get me fired, trying to find my and my colleagues’ real addresses, phone numbers and family (and, once found, posting the details on their subreddits), and creating insane Google docs that drew connections between “SJW” journalists and developers. One of these insane documents featured briefly in a recent Netflix documentary about 4chan, with a couple of friends texting me screenshots and asking if I knew I was some old “alt-right” conspiracy figure. Unfortunately, I did.

It’s happened several times since then, for a variety of reasons. Dealing with online mobs is unfortunately part of the job for many journalists these days, and for game developers too. As a woman covering video games, I’ve dealt with a variety of harassment over the years, and still wish I didn’t have to write about politics. But I know how awful it feels when they rally against you, especially if it’s the first time. They search Google Images for the most unflattering image of you, use it as a cutout for a YouTube thumbnail image, and rant for 10 minutes over screenshots of your article. They tweet big names in the games industry to get them to publicly discredit you. They turn their followers on you. You can’t help but respond to their manufactured anger with your own authentic anger.

It’s tempting to attack these people endlessly, but anger breeds anger, especially now that you can literally make money posting inflammatory nonsense on X or YouTube. If GamerGate has proven anything, it’s that you don’t have to pander to or listen to toxic gamers who stoke your anger. That said, I don’t think there has been enough public backlash against this online harassment over the past few months, even as major publishers in the gaming industry have been caught in an online storm over the consultancies they work with, the journalists and pundits who cover them, and even their own developers. Take my word for it, a voice goes a long way.

What to Play

This thing on an oil rig in the North Sea…still waking up the deep sea. Photo: Incognito mode

Chinese Room, whose previous game, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, became a creepy British classic, is taking a more horror-thriller direction with their latest game. Awaken the Abyss (Pictured above.) It’s basically The Thing, but set on a creaky, dark, dank rig in the desolate waters of the North Sea, where a band of workers encounters something much worse while drilling for oil.

I’ve played the first few hours and the attention to detail in depicting life on a rig in 1970s Scotland is exceptional, right down to the faded tartan carpets and lived-in feel of the crew’s dormitories (one guy has National Front leaflets pinned to the wall), and I also love the delightfully authentic Scottish dialogue. that It’s scary, which to me is its advantage, but it’s atmospheric and incredibly well-made, so you really feel like you’re there – it’s worth playing just for that feeling of being there.

Available on: PC, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5
Estimated play time: Six hours

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HiFi Rush by Tango Gameworks. Photo: Tango Gameworks

  • Developer Tango Game Works Takeo Kido (the creator of Hi-Fi Rush pictured above)
    Very sad photo From the studio’s final day. It was acquired by Microsoft in March 2021 and closed down.


  • Really interesting long article

    Kotaku’s Kenneth Shepherd talks about the ongoing debate over how to portray it Romance in Video Games: Should characters be “playersexual” and do what the player wants? Or does depicting the queer experience in particular lead to two-dimensional characterization? There’s a lot more that could be said on this topic, but this article is pretty comprehensive, so be sure to read it.

  • Yesterday’s big news Nintendo Direct It was the announcement of a new Zelda title that would actually let you play as Princess Zelda for the first time (no doubt to the delight of those aforementioned online crowds).
    Also announced There was the release of the Marvel vs. Capcom bundle, Mario Party Jamboree, the Romancing SaGa 2 remake, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which is due for release in 2025.

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Question Block

Subnautica: Sub-Zero. Photo: Unknown World

Today’s question comes from reader Diana.

“When making a game, to what extent should developers listen to player feedback? People who paid for access to the pre-alpha version on Kickstarter can give their feedback. Should their feedback fundamentally change the game, or should it just improve the game as the developer intended?”

From what I’ve heard from developers working on Kickstarter and Early Access projects, where players are welcomed into the game long before it’s actually finished, their input is absolutely essential – as long as it’s in good faith. Developers can learn so much by seeing how people actually play – whether that’s finding out where people get stuck and smoothing out the difficulty curve, seeing which elements and ideas players respond most favorably to, or balancing online multiplayer gameplay. Sometimes, players just don’t get the idea.
do It changes the game, and usually for the better. Games like Kerbal Space Program, Subnautica (pictured above), and even Baldur’s Gate 3 have benefited greatly from releasing in Early Access.

But should developers change their games so much for the players that they compromise their original creative vision? Only if that vision doesn’t work in reality. Especially in games, where players never Really You won’t know if things are going well until quite late in development. Generally, if the developer is smart, the game is pretty finished by the time it enters Early Access or public alpha/beta testing. At that point, player data and feedback become an opportunity for the developer to better realize their vision.

If you have a question for Question Block, or anything else you’d like to say about the newsletter, please click “Reply” or email us at pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.

Source: www.theguardian.com

First Glimpse of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – 300GB Packed with Espionage, Undead Threats, and Historical Figures

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MaMicrosoft didn’t skimp on its Xbox showcase this year. After a string of layoffs and studio closures, the company tried to give gamers what they wanted at its Summer Game Fest on Sunday night, culminating with a 40-minute preview of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, a massive 300GB download. Continuous online access Even in single-player mode, the textures are streamed from a remote server due to the large amount of textures. As expected, the Xbox version will be available on GamePass from day one, but will not be platform exclusive. The PlayStation version will also be released on the same day, i.e. October 25th.

The game itself is set during the geopolitical turmoil of the early 1990s, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Gulf War, and the transition of the US presidency from George Bush to Bill Clinton. As always, the campaign story is an airport-fiction spy thriller, dealing with undeniable CIA operations, covert power struggles, and conspiracies that reach all the way to the very top. Series regular Frank Woods is severely injured and retired from active duty, and is replaced by Troy Marshall, a feckless special forces leader, and Jane Harrow, a shrewd CIA handler. When a mission goes wrong, they are forced to mutiny, recruiting a ragtag team of tech nerds and charming assassins. your Your ass is in danger, sir.

Like most recent Call of Duty titles, Black Ops 6 promises a bit of variety in the way you tackle its campaign missions. Most set pieces, whether they’re set in the glitzy casinos of southern Europe or the tundra of northern Russia, allow for guns blazing attacks or stealth approaches. There are also sequences where players can converse with NPCs to open up new possibilities, such as bribing a senator to grant access to forbidden areas. Familiar faces from the era will make an appearance, including Saddam Hussein, George Bush and Margaret Thatcher, and thankfully Activision has confirmed that at least the latter will be making an appearance. Not a playable option.

Call of Duty titles are typically developed in a quick two years, but with this game, co-developers Treyarch and Raven had double that time. “We had the opportunity to redefine what a Black Ops game is,” says associate design director Matt Scronce. “Every decision we made along the way allowed us to be very deliberate. Previously, each game built on the previous one, but with this game, we really built from the ground up and redefined Black Ops.”

One of the biggest changes to gamefeel is a new system called Omnidirection, which lets players sprint and slide in any direction. “Movement fluidity was a big thing we talked about a lot,” says Yale Miller, Senior Production Director at Treyarch. “That led to a desire to see what we could do.”

One story… Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Photo: Microsoft

Scrance further explains, “Initially, we tried a 'jug', a quick side step. But when we thought about movement in Black Ops 6, it was all about keeping the player in the flow. It's about fluidity and fidelity, and something like a jug just didn't cut it. So we went back to the drawing board. For over 20 years, Call of Duty has only allowed you to sprint forward. So we looked to the best athletes in the real world: NFL players, NBA players, tennis players — players who can move quickly in all directions.”

Players can now sprint, dive, and slide with 360-degree movement, enabling a wider variety of evasive maneuvers. They can even roll onto their back and under cover, or recreate a classic move from Hong Kong action movies of the time: sliding backwards while shooting forward. Naturally, this system required thousands of new animation frames and motion capture, which wouldn’t have been possible without additional development time.

According to the team, accessibility has also been a key factor. A new intelligent movement system has been introduced, adding crouch, sprint and mantle assist that can be toggled on/off. Players can choose to fully automate jumping over walls and sliding under low obstacles. This was inspired by a variety of games. “We looked at the Forza series with traction control, anti-lock and turn assist,” Scronce said. “Also, mobile games are a good example of this, where you don’t have physical buttons. So what do they do?” The HUD is now also customizable, allowing players to move around on-screen information such as the minimap. This is a feature created with Call of Duty streamers in mind. They often want to add their own camera view in the game and have a hard time deciding where to place it without obscuring important information.

Key multiplayer components have been heavily tweaked, undoing some recent changes. There are 16 new maps, most of which feature the traditional three-lane design, while the Prestige system, which allows seasoned veteran players to show off their prowess with exclusive outfits, accessories, and classified weapons, has returned to the style of previous Black Ops games. Treyarch is also promising a vast arsenal of firearms from the era, with dozens of attachments.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Capitol Station. Photo: Microsoft

Meanwhile, the regular Call of Duty zombies mode is returning to its roots, which Treyarch first introduced with World at War back in 2008. While the most recent Modern Warfare title introduced a new type of open-world zombie game, Black Ops 6 returns to the older round-based structure, where players work together to survive wave after wave of the undead while unlocking new weapons and exploring confined environments.

The Call of Duty monster truck continues to roll, accompanied by concerns about the appropriation of recent historical events, the glorification of U.S. foreign policy, and an enthusiasm for military-grade weaponry. But like the best blockbuster war movies, the game has its charms, and Black Ops 6 seems to bring some interesting additions to the series’ atmosphere. Which may point to the benefits of giving the studio a bit more time. Scrance said: “Overall, the extra time allowed us to pay more attention to detail and really push the character fidelity, movement, animations, audio, multiplayer maps, and so on, to a point where we can all say this is the best we’ve ever made.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

An action-filled weekend of gaming reveals, featuring a fresh Call of Duty and Star Wars Outlaws

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debtFor nearly 15 years, I used to fly to Los Angeles every June to cover E3, the massive video game conference where major games and consoles were unveiled for the first time, from PlayStation to Wii U, from Fallout 4 to Final Fantasy VII Remake. However, due to the pandemic, E3 was canceled this year and replaced by a series of loosely connected events: Summer Game Fest, organized by The Game Awards’ Jeff Keighley, the Xbox Game Showcase, and the indie-led event Day of the Devs. It all kicks off tomorrow, June 6th.

Publishers like Ubisoft and Devolver are hosting their own broadcasts, while other E3 regulars like EA and Square-Enix are absent. Live Show From leading games and entertainment website IGN – I worked there during the height of E3 in the early 2010s, when companies would rent studios and broadcast basically all of their announcements over four consecutive days. What’s basically happened is that it seems like we still get as much gaming news as we get at E3, but now it’s much more spread out and crammed into one weekend instead of a week-long conference.

In short, it’s all a bit chaotic right now, but I’m on a plane to Los Angeles just like the old days, so I’ll do my best to play and cover as many interesting games as I can. If you’re looking to follow events other than E3 over the weekend, here are five things to keep an eye on (and where to watch them).

Summer Game Fest Live Stream – Friday, June 72pm PST / 10pm BST

It’s a two-hour live showcase hosted by Keighley from LA’s YouTube Theatre. Based on my previous experience with both SGF and the Game Awards, it’s going to be a series of blockbuster trailers interspersed with very tepid, very rehearsed conversations with developers. It’ll be an endurance test, but with all the big names in the video game industry in attendance, including Capcom, 2K Games, and PlayStation, there should be at least two major game announcements and it should be worth watching. Straight afterwards, for those staying up late in the UK, the Day of the Devs indie showcase (4pm PST/midnight BST) and Devolver Direct broadcast (5pm PST/1am BST) will showcase the satire and independent spirit of the games industry, dispelling any corporate chic.

Wholesome Direct – Saturday, June 89am PST / 5pm BST

If you’re looking for a cozy gaming vibe, this is the place. Farming simulators, dating games, anything with cats and frogs. I get a lot of emails from Pushing Buttons readers asking where to find non-violent, approachable games, and this is the place. In past years, this showcase has proven to be long-lasting enough to get cloyingly cute, and with over 70 games on display, it’s quite possible that will be the case in 2024 as well, but the wholesome intention behind it makes up for it for me.

Looks promising… Star Wars Outlaws. Photo: Ubisoft

Xbox Games Showcase – Sunday, June 9th9am PST / 5pm BST

I’m very interested to see how the rather embattled Xbox division will fare this year, having pushed through the Activision/Blizzard/King mega-merger last year and then made the very unpopular decision to close down some of their studios. With a new version of Xbox on the horizon, the Game Pass strategy seems to be shifting, and Microsoft now owning a lot of developers, should There’s no shortage of games to premiere, with the sequel to the Call of Duty Black Ops series (above), due to launch this year, also premiering shortly thereafter.

PC Game Show – Sunday, June 9th1pm PST / 9pm BST

PC releases tend not to get as much attention in the games media as console releases, so this will be a most exciting showcase for a readership that loves real-time strategy, 4x, Moba, team-based FPS games, CRPGs, and other genre acronyms that accompany PC-exclusive games. Organized by venerable magazine PC Gamer, the event is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Ubisoft Forward – Monday, June 1012pm PST / 8pm BST

Ubisoft’s lineup this year is promising, with the new Assassin’s Creed game set in feudal Japan and the promising Star Wars Outlaws alone being enough to keep me entertained for an hour, but I Mario vs Rabbids Kingdom Battle 2017 Edition Shigeru Miyamoto made an appearance, Rabbids creative director Davide Soliani got emotional, and it wouldn’t be E3 without a slightly embarrassing “Just Dance” performance.

What to Play

One of the best… Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Photo: FromSoftware

I have two long-distance flights coming up, so it’s time to get serious. Elden Ring On Steam – Fortunately, the best game of 2022 (and in fact one of the best fantasy games of all time) runs great on a portable PC console. Shadow of the Elder TreeThe expansion is out on June 20th and is small enough to be considered a mini-sequel. The good news for those of you who haven’t finished Elden Ring yet, like me, is that you don’t have to finish the game to the end before the expansion comes out, but you’ll still get to enjoy the brutal yet exhilarating rhythm of the combat (and Substantial We’ll be looking back at the game’s history before taking on a new challenge later this month.

Available on: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox
Estimated play time: 60+ hours (expansion will take at least another 15-20 hours)

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What to Read

Now on TV… Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Photo: SEGA

  • Amazon Prime Unexpectedly Live-action television series It’s based on the fantastic cult-favorite crime drama game, Like a Dragon (pictured above).

  • Sony’s State of Play showcase last week technically kicked off a summer of gaming-related announcements. Gamesradar There is an overview Highlights from the trailer Astro Botstarring an adorable little white robot who serves as PlayStation’s best mascot, is a playful mix of platforming, puzzles, and action that’s great fun.

  • In news that’s too depressing for me to even think about, IKEA plans to pay its employees the minimum wage. Virtual Roblox Store You wanted the metaverse? Here’s the metaverse. Working at IKEA for minimum wage. But now. Not real.

  • Actor and developer Abubakar Salim recently released his debut game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, with his studio Surgent. made a statement He talks about the targeted racist harassment he and his team suffered, part of a resurgence of the anti-woke culture wars that have resurfaced this year in the games industry and beyond. “There’s always going to be a reason why diverse stories can’t exist. These exclusionary rules keep piling up, and the goalposts keep shifting, until I, my studio, and people like us just sit back, shut up, and accept the fact that we’re outsiders. And I won’t,” he says.

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The Return of SpaceWar: Reviving the World’s First Gaming Computer | Computing

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oh
On my desk, next to my ultra-modern gaming PC, sits a strange device that resembles a spaceship control panel from a 1970s sci-fi movie. There’s no keyboard or monitor, just a few rows of colorful switches beneath a string of blinking lights. If you thought the recent proliferation of retro video game consoles, such as the Mini SNES and the Mega Drive Mini, was an amazing development in technology nostalgia, look no further than the PiDP-10. It’s a 2/3-scale replica of the PDP-10 mainframe computer, first introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1966. It was designed and built by an international group of computer enthusiasts known as the PiDP-10.
Obsolescence is certain
It’s a beautiful thing.

The project’s genesis dates back to 2015, when Oscar Vermeulen, a Dutch economist and lifelong computer collector, wanted to build a single replica of the PDP-8 mainframe that had fascinated him since childhood. “I had a Commodore 64 and proudly showed it to a friend of my father’s,” Vermeulen says. “He scoffed and said the Commodore was a toy. The real computer was the PDP, specifically the PDP-8. So I started looking for discarded PDP-8 computers, but I couldn’t find a single one. Now they’re collector’s items, very expensive and most of the time broken. So I decided to build a replica for myself.”

Ever the perfectionist, Vermeulen decided he needed a professionally made front panel cover. “The company that could make them told me I’d have to pay for one four-square-metre sheet of Perspex to cover 50 of these panels,” Vermeulen says. “So I made 49 extra ones, thinking I’d find 49 idiots to do it for me. Little did I know it would end up costing me thousands of dollars on my dinner table.”

At the same time, Vermeulen began posting in various vintage computing Google Groups, where he worked on software emulators for pre-microprocessor computers. As word spread about his replica, it quickly became a group effort that now has over 100 members. While Vermeulen focuses on designing the hardware replica (a front panel with working switches and lights), others are working on different aspects of the open source software emulation, which has a complicated history. At its core is SIMH, created by the ex-SIMH.
December Developed by employee and megastar hacker Bob Supnick, the program emulates a variety of classic computers, and it was later improved by Richard Cornwell and Lars Brinkhoff to add driver support for the PDP-10.
the Many other people were involved in the operating system and other MIT projects, some of whom collected and preserved old backup tapes, some of whom added improvements and debugging, and some of whom provided documentation and schematics.




Happy hacking! …PiDP-10 replica computer in Keith Stewart’s game room Photo: Keith Stewart/The Guardian

The attention to detail is incredible. The lights on the front aren’t just decorative. They show the instructions being executed, CPU signals, and memory contents, just like the original machine. Vermeulen calls it watching the heartbeat of the computer. This element was taken very seriously. “Two people spent months on one particular problem,” Vermeulen says. “You know, LEDs blink, but incandescent bulbs glow. So we studied exhaustively the LEDs to simulate the glow of the original bulbs. And we found that different bulbs from different years glow for different amounts of time. Measurements were made and calculations were applied, but the glow of the lamps was added. More CPU time was spent simulating that than simulating the original.”

Why? Why go to all this trouble? First, there’s the historical importance. The PDP machines, built between 1959 and the early 1970s, were revolutionary. Not only were they much cheaper than the giant mainframes used by the military and big corporations, but they were designed to be general-purpose, fully interactive machines. Instead of writing a program on punch cards, giving it to the IT department to run on the computer, print it out, and debug it maybe a day later, PDP let you type directly into the computer and test the results immediately.




A tedious task… In the 1950s, before the advent of PDP machines, mainframe computers took up entire rooms and used punch cards to input computer programs. Photo: Pictorial Parade/Getty Images

These factors led to an explosion of experimentation. Most modern programming languages, including C, were developed on DEC machines. The PDP-10 was the heart of the MIT AI Lab, the room where the term artificial intelligence was born. “The PDP-10 computer dominated the Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet,” says Lars Brinkhoff. “Internet protocols were prototyped on the PDP-10, PDP-11, and other computers. The GNU Project was inspired by the free sharing of software and information on the PDP-10. Stephen Hawking’s artificial voice grew out of the DECtalk device, which grew out of Dennis Klatt’s speech synthesis research begun on the PDP-9.”

The PDP made its way into university labs around the world, where it was embraced by a new generation of engineers, scientists, and programmers — the original computer hackers. Steve Wozniak got his start programming on a PDP-8, a small, inexpensive machine that sold by the thousands to hobbyists. Its operating system, OS/8, was the precursor to MS-DOS. Bill Gates and Paul Allen were teenage students who would sneak into the University of Washington to program the PCP-10, and it was on a PDP computer that MIT student Steve Russell and a group of friends designed a shoot-’em-up game.
Space War!was one of the first video games to run on a computer.




Pioneers… Steve Russell at the California Computer History Museum, 2011. Russell stands in front of the Digital PDP-1, a computer game he developed in the early 1960s. Photo: MediaNews Group/The Mercury News/Getty Images

This legendary game wasn’t the only one. There were many others at the time, because making games was a fun way to explore possibilities. “There were Dazzle Dart, a four-player laser tennis game, and Lunar Lander,” Vermeulen says. “Maze War was the first networked video game. People connected two IMLAC minicomputer/graphics terminals to the Arpanet via a PDP-10 mainframe, and used that million-dollar pile of hardware to chase each other through a maze or shoot each other.” And the original text adventures like Colossal Cave and Zork, as well as the first multiplayer online games like MUDs and Star Trek, were also written on PDP computers.

These machines are an essential part of our digital culture, the furnace of the modern gaming and tech industries. But to be understood,
Already used
“The problem with computer history is that putting old computers in a museum that aren’t being used communicates very little,” says Vermeulen. “You need to experience these machines and how they worked. And the problem with computers before about 1975 is that they were huge, heavy and nearly impossible to keep running. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen loved his PDP-10 deeply, and with the funds he had, he was able to hire a team of skilled technicians to repair and get it running. But it was very expensive, and sadly, his family decided to discontinue this after he passed away.”

The answer is emulation. The PDP replica has all the look of the original terminal, including the lights and switches, but the calculations are done by a Raspberry Pi microcomputer connected to the back via a serial port. To get it running at home, just plug in the Raspberry Pi, connect a keyboard and monitor, boot it up and download the software. Then flip the switch on the front of the PDP-10, reboot the Raspberry Pi, and you’ll be in PDP mode, with a window on your monitor emulating the old Knight TV terminal display. A command line interface (remember those?) gives you access to a range of the original programs, including games.

This is what I’ve been waiting for. We all know the important role SpaceWar played in the birth of the modern games industry, but actually playing it and controlling a spaceship battling amongst vector explosions against a flickering starry sky…it feels like you’re living history.

In the 15 years since Vermeulen began developing his personal PDP-8 emulator, the Obsolescence Guaranteed group has sold hundreds of replicas and continues to develop more, including a replica of MIT’s experimental Project Whirlwind computer from the 1950s (which ran a simple version of tic-tac-toe). Today, a company in Panama called Chiriqui Electronic Design Studio manufactures the hardware. What started as a personal project has become something much bigger. “We had an ‘official’ launch of our PiDP-10 replica at MIT in Boston, where the original machine was kept. The demo session was attended by about 50 hackers from the 1970s. It was fun to see people playing the multi-user Maze War game 50 years later.”

Another reason the PiDP-10 is worth it is because it’s fun. I never imagined seeing something like this up close, much less plugging it into a monitor at home and playing with it. It was an exciting, nostalgic, and weirdly emotional experience. Navigating the ITS disk system, the glowing green dot-matrix font, the appealing list of programs and games, the “happy hacking!” message above the terminal command line – it’s very evocative.




Impressive…PiDP-10 screen. Photo: Keith Stewart/The Guardian

Meanwhile, programmers who bought PiDP machines are creating new programs and games. They range in age from 80-year-old PDP veterans to 20-year-olds who want to relive a bygone era of programming. Memory and processing power were scarce, so elegant and super-efficient code had to be written; there was no room for bloat. “Quite a few universities are using the PiDP-11 and -8 in their classes,” Vermeulen says. “Partly to show computer science students our origins, but also because the super-low-level programming still required for microcontrollers and hardware drivers is the type of coding you learn very well on these dinosaurs.”

Brinkhoff agrees that while these machines have a certain nostalgia, they also have something to teach us: They’re functional. “I enjoy writing new software for the 10, like a program to display fractals or generate QR codes,” he says.

“I hope it becomes more widely accepted, because if you don’t do anything with PiDP, it just sits on a shelf and the lights flash. It looks pretty, but I don’t think the computer can be truly happy unless you program it.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

My undying affection for the distinctly uncool Amiga gaming console

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I I told my wife that I wanted a Mini Amiga for Christmas. I know it’s only April, but she’s making what she wants in hopes that this is what her wife will think when she shows up unexpectedly at the house next week. she He bought it for me. I’ve used this method to discreetly purchase seven game consoles, a stuffed tarantula, and a fryer. In a world of contradictions, I like the way this institution of marriage works.

I read the review and was surprised to see two words that appeared that had no connection whatsoever to the original Amiga. They are “cool” and “cool”. Love. It may seem strange to say that the Amiga wasn’t loved, since so many people bought and used it. But people use things they don’t like every day: electric shavers, perseverance, door handles, trains.

people loved ZX Spectrum.They are loved mega drive. When I talked to the owner, Any Nintendo machines, from the Game Boy to the Switch OLED, now sound like Romeo talking about Juliet, like Meredith Gray talking about Derek Shepherd, or like Elon Musk talking about himself. Masu.

As someone who was actually there in the 80’s and 90’s, the Amiga didn’t enjoy that kind of love. why? Because it looked bad. The Game Boy looked like an alien artifact from a trendy 70s sci-fi show. The PlayStation is what you get when you combine a high-end vinyl turntable with the sexiest sandwich maker imaginable. The Xbox 360’s curves were the definition of glamor. He was one of those rare machines that looked just as beautiful lying down as standing up. Even now, when I see one in the wild, I run my finger along its curves.

The Amiga looked like something a bank teller would use. It’s not a cool bank-related job like stopping a robbery.

Amiga 500. It’s very dignified. So boring! It’s so gray! Photo: Felix Chu/Alamy

I know the Amiga is a computer, not a console, but so was the ZX Spectrum, and it looked tasty enough. The Atari ST didn’t look great either, but at least they angled the top row of function buttons to make it look that way. considered Its aesthetics.

They should have at least cut off the corner of the Amiga. That would have helped. It was also usable on Game Boy. (Actually, it first worked on the Fender Stratocaster.)

personally?I really did Love Amiga. I’ve had more great nights on this machine than any other in terms of play time and quality of that time. It gave us the best party game ever with Sensible Soccer, the best futuristic (and best-looking) sports game with Speedball 2, and the best time-consuming game with Championship Manager, which slightly beats Sim City. And I don’t know if there’s ever been a more mathematically accurate sports game than Jimmy White’s whirlwind snooker.

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Party time…soccer with flair. Photo: Wise Software

The Amiga provided Lemmings and Worms with the most originality and humor. In IK+, 3 player play fighting game. In the early ’90s, even whispering something like that could get you burned in a giant wicker box. I had never read the Dune books, so watching the Dune movie reminded me of my first introduction to that world, the amazing Dune 2 Amiga game.

Secret of Monkey Island is the best adventure game ever made, and it might just be the funniest game ever. “Cannon Fodder” was also interesting, but at the same time it was poignant and sad. Could there have been a better game developer than Sensible Software? Game development now sounds fun and cool, not the words we used to associate with game developers.

Amiga was solid. It was reliable. Even before I played the game, it felt good to put the floppy disk into the slot. That pleasant thunk sound. The way it grabbed the last few millimeters of the disc and pulled it in was very reassuring and believable.

Phwoar … Vintage 80s Commodore Amiga 500 Game Console. Photo: Neil Godwin/Future/Getty Images

I don’t remember anything breaking on my Amiga. I don’t remember any games that didn’t load. The peripheral equipment was also solid. I can’t believe my delicate little cheetah bug joystick took such a beating from Sensible Sucker alone and survived. All I have to do to break his R1 button on the Xbox controller is look at it with disapproval.

Like the Spectrum before it, the Amiga allowed people who couldn’t afford a PC to play games on their computers. Then the PCs killed it. Microchips were getting cheaper and the Amiga just didn’t work fast enough and seemed to die really quickly.

We couldn’t love the Amiga enough. We were like Andy getting Buzz Lightyear and then putting Woody in the cupboard. Unfortunately, Pixar doesn’t feature the Amiga in a single scene in the movie. Instead, Toy Story featured Speak and Spell. Have you ever played Zool? that?

Source: www.theguardian.com

Blockchain News: Introducing AI-Powered Layer 3 for Gaming with Arbitrum Orbit and Gelato RaaS Integration

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Zug, Switzerland, April 17, 2024, Chainwire

abnormalityannounced the launch of the first AI-powered zero-gas layer 3 gaming platform leveraging play-to-airdrop mechanics to reach Telegram's 900 million daily active users.mounted arbitram orbit and use gelato Rollup as a service (RaaS), Anomaly's new Layer-3 fully abstracts the complexity of blockchain while leveraging an AI-enabled game engine to enable developers to create immersive, decentralized gaming experiences at unprecedented speed. We plan to redefine the gaming industry by allowing you to create.

Anomaly streamlines the UX of blockchain games with account abstraction, enables user onboarding through social platforms, and leverages SocialFi for game monetization. At the core of the new game layer 3 are: Abnormal SDKThis enables advanced AI features such as AI-driven matchmaking, decision-making, player model training, automatic quest creation, and asset generation in Web3 games. This aims to save developer time, address the cost challenges of AI integration, and significantly improve user engagement and experience within the Anomaly gaming ecosystem.

“At Anomaly, we are not just launching another gaming platform. We are pioneering a new paradigm for Web3 gaming, which will fundamentally change the blockchain gaming industry,” said Long Do, founder of Anomaly. says. “Anomaly Layer-3 acts as a decentralized gaming layer with a native AI technology stack to facilitate interoperability and platform experience.”

Utilization of Arbitrum anytrust DAC technology, the Anomaly Layer-3 Orbit chain inherits a fast, secure, and scalable execution environment, boasting 250ms block times with near-instantaneous transaction finality, processing thousands of transactions per second, It stands out as one of the fastest EVM Layer-3. Commercial roll-up. The chain features the native gas token $nom, which ensures smooth navigation between game areas.

“Anomaly’s implementation of the Arbitrum Orbit technology stack addresses fundamental problems facing blockchain games,” said Cooper Midroni, Product Manager at Offchain Labs. “The Anomaly Layer-3 ecosystem will allow on-chain games to offer the same level of fun and seamless experience as traditional games.”

The chain operates with a gasless user experience designed to provide a Web2-like user experience gameplay. Start with Gelato, Gelato's industry standard Web3 service. relay person, Web3 featuresand VRF. These services enable fully automated and immersive gaming experiences and provide a verified on-chain randomness source for fair gameplay. The chain will also soon be equipped with key infrastructure such as the Blockscout block explorer, which provides easy access to block, transaction, and address data, and a standard bridge UI serviced by Gelato.

“Anomaly came to us looking for a future-proof gaming platform that would support millions of users,” explained Hilmar Orth, founder of Gelato. “We have created a game-centric, full-service, auto-scalable, layer 3 infrastructure that allows Anomaly to attract community and liquidity, and ultimately support distribution.”

Anomaly Layer-3 will also leverage Gelato's latest Node-Sale-as-a-Service solution to sell validation node licenses and enable the community to participate in securing Anomaly's infrastructure. , harden rollup security. Anomaly's launch will feature a private sale of AI-based node NFTs to Telegram's early supporters, highlighting the platform's focus on a community-driven ecosystem. Additionally, Anomaly makes it easy for all users to operate their nodes using a cloud-based subscription that can be done by paying monthly directly within Telegram.

Anomaly is revolutionizing Web3 gaming by working with the Telegram, Discord, and Farcaster communities. This approach provides an in-platform gaming experience that accommodates users wherever they are, avoids onboarding challenges, abstracts blockchain complexity, and provides an experience comparable to Web2 gaming.

About anomalies

abnormality is an avant-garde AI game studio and layer 3 blockchain innovator poised to redefine gaming by fusing Web3 and SocialFi and leveraging AI to create immersive experiences. Anomaly is at the forefront of gaming evolution, focused on leveraging the synergies of AI and blockchain. The studio is dedicated to rapid game development and deployment, community engagement through social platforms, and innovative approaches to gaming, setting new benchmarks in interactive entertainment.

About Arbitrum Foundation

of Arbitrum Founded in March 2023, the Foundation supports and grows the Arbitrum network and community by securely scaling Ethereum. Introduced in March 2023, Arbitrum Orbit is a permissionless path to launch customizable, dedicated L2 and L3 orbit chains using Arbitrum technology. Arbitrum Orbit leverages secure, scalable, and cost-effective blockchain scaling technology to enable features such as custom gas tokens, dedicated throughput, customizable permissions, and interoperability. Over 25 Orbit chains have been officially announced, and over 50 more are in active development to date.

About gelato

gelato All-in-one Ethereum rollup as a service platform Built without limits. Designed to be ultra-fast, incredibly secure, and infinitely scalable, Gelato Rollups provides full-service Layer 2 and Layer 3 chains that are natively integrated with industry-standard Web3 tools and services. Anyone can build, deploy, and launch a production-ready Web3 development environment. One click.

contact

head of marketing
Ella Jonas
Gelato Digital GmbH
press@gelato.digital

Source: www.the-blockchain.com

Arbitrum Orbit and Gelato RaaS Join Forces to Create AI-Powered Layer 3 Gaming Solution on Blockchain

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Zug, Switzerland, April 17, 2024, Chainwire

abnormalityannounced the launch of the first AI-powered zero-gas layer 3 gaming platform leveraging play-to-airdrop mechanics to reach Telegram's 900 million daily active users.mounted arbitram orbit and use gelato Rollup as a service, Anomaly’s new Layer-3 fully abstracts the complexity of blockchain while leveraging an AI-enabled game engine to enable developers to create immersive, decentralized gaming experiences at unprecedented speed. We plan to redefine the gaming industry by allowing you to create.

Anomaly streamlines the UX of blockchain games with account abstraction, enables user onboarding through social platforms, and leverages SocialFi for game monetization. At the core of the new game layer 3 are: Abnormal SDKThis enables advanced AI features such as AI-driven matchmaking, decision-making, player model training, automatic quest creation, and asset generation in Web3 games. This aims to save developer time, address the cost challenges of AI integration, and significantly improve user engagement and experience within the Anomaly gaming ecosystem.

“At Anomaly, we are not just launching another gaming platform. We are pioneering a new paradigm for Web3 gaming, which will fundamentally change the blockchain gaming industry,” said Long Do, founder of Anomaly. says. “Anomaly Layer-3 acts as a decentralized gaming layer with a native AI technology stack to facilitate interoperability and platform experience.”

Utilization of Arbitrum anytrust DAC technology, the Anomaly Layer-3 Orbit chain inherits a fast, secure, and scalable execution environment, boasting 250ms block times with near-instantaneous transaction finality, processing thousands of transactions per second, It stands out as one of the fastest EVM Layer-3. Commercial roll-up. The chain features the native gas token $nom, which ensures smooth navigation between game areas.

“Anomaly’s implementation of the Arbitrum Orbit technology stack addresses fundamental problems encountered by blockchain games,” said Cooper Midroni, Product Manager at Offchain Labs. “The Anomaly Layer-3 ecosystem will allow on-chain games to offer the same level of fun and seamless experience as traditional games.”

The chain operates with a gasless user experience designed to provide a Web2-like user experience gameplay. Start with Gelato, Gelato's industry standard Web3 service. relay person, Web3 featuresand VRF. These services enable fully automated and immersive gaming experiences and provide a verified on-chain randomness source for fair gameplay. The chain will also soon be equipped with key infrastructure such as the Blockscout block explorer, which provides easy access to block, transaction, and address data, and a standard bridge UI serviced by Gelato.

“Anomaly came to us looking for a future-proof gaming platform that would support millions of users,” explained Hilmar Orth, founder of Gelato. “We have created a game-centric, full-service, auto-scalable, layer 3 infrastructure that allows Anomaly to attract community and liquidity, and ultimately support distribution.”

Anomaly Layer-3 will also leverage Gelato's latest Node-Sale-as-a-Service solution to sell validation node licenses and enable the community to participate in securing Anomaly's infrastructure. , harden rollup security. Anomaly's launch will feature a private sale of AI-based node NFTs to Telegram's early supporters, highlighting the platform's focus on a community-driven ecosystem. Additionally, Anomaly makes it easy for all users to operate their nodes using a cloud-based subscription that can be done by paying monthly directly within Telegram.

Anomaly is revolutionizing Web3 gaming by working with the Telegram, Discord, and Farcaster communities. This approach provides an in-platform gaming experience that accommodates users wherever they are, avoids onboarding challenges, abstracts blockchain complexity, and provides an experience comparable to Web2 gaming.

About anomalies

abnormality is an avant-garde AI game studio and layer 3 blockchain innovator poised to redefine gaming by fusing Web3 and SocialFi and leveraging AI to create immersive experiences. Anomaly is at the forefront of gaming evolution, focused on leveraging the synergies of AI and blockchain. The studio is dedicated to rapid game development and deployment, community engagement through social platforms, and innovative approaches to gaming, setting new benchmarks in interactive entertainment.

About Arbitram Foundation

of Arbitrum Founded in March 2023, the Foundation supports and grows the Arbitrum network and community by securely scaling Ethereum. Introduced in March 2023, Arbitrum Orbit is a permissionless path to launch customizable, dedicated L2 and L3 orbit chains using Arbitrum technology. Arbitrum Orbit leverages secure, scalable, and cost-effective blockchain scaling technology to enable features such as custom gas tokens, dedicated throughput, customizable permissions, and interoperability. Over 25 Orbit chains have been officially announced, and over 50 more are in active development to date.

About gelato

gelato All-in-one Ethereum rollup as a service platform Built without limits. Designed to be ultra-fast, incredibly secure, and infinitely scalable, Gelato Rollups provides full-service Layer 2 and Layer 3 chains that are natively integrated with industry-standard Web3 tools and services. Anyone can build, deploy, and launch a production-ready Web3 development environment. One click.

contact

head of marketing
Ella Jonas
Gelato Digital GmbH
press@gelato.digital

Source: the-blockchain.com

World’s First AI and Gaming Token to Launch on Top Exchanges – Exciting News in the World of Blockchain

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Chainwire, Dubai, Deira, April 7, 2024

R game marks an important milestone in the gaming world with the launch of the $RGAME token, scheduled for April 8, 2024 at 10am UTC.

This big step for R Games will launch on platforms such as DAOMaker. pools financeListed on top exchanges such as , Finceptor, and Paragen. Gate.io, mexico globalPancakeSwap, Raydium, BingX.

A strong community at Fabwelt Studios and WEMIX Play supports this release.

$RGAME is poised to transform the blockchain industry with artificial intelligence, precision engineering, and racing.

Ferrum Network, BMW Capital, Lavender Capital, Qu Ventures, Odiyana Ventures, IBC Group, Mario Nawfal, Sky Wee, Yuen Wong, Robbie Jo, Rajan Raj.

Main features of R game include

  • interoperable NFTs
  • User-generated content feature
  • Design using AI

This unique combination sets R Games apart as a frontrunner in the Web3 AI and gaming space, catering to both experienced gamers and beginners.

As the countdown to TGE and IDO begins, R Games invites gamers, investors, and enthusiasts alike to join us on a journey to revolutionize the gaming industry and unlock new possibilities in the Web3 world.

The future of R games

Looking to the future, R Games has ambitious plans in place.

Development work is focused on implementing upgrades such as an advanced upgrade system, virtual garage, and AI integration.

These additional features are designed to provide users with different opportunities to earn money using models such as:

  • develop and acquire
  • Watch to Earn
  • PLAY AND EARN

Players can tweak and electronically upgrade all vehicle models in the game within the Workshop, providing a customizable experience.

The integration of AI technology allows users to easily design car characters without any technical expertise.

Roadmap also includes diverse modes such as F1, Street Racing, Story Mode, and Off-Road Racing to cater to a wide audience.

About RGames

R game is a highly customized platform offering diverse game modes aimed at building the largest blockchain-based racing ecosystem.

The R Games team comes from the successful studio venture Gyros Studios LCC, formerly known as Fabwelt Studios LLC, which built numerous successful blockchain games.

Loet de Hooge, Abhishek Pegada, and Rubina Naaz are the visionary founders of R Games, bringing together diverse expertise and passion for gaming and blockchain technology.

Loet de Hooge is known for its technical capabilities and innovation.

Abhishek Pegada will contribute strategic leadership and business acumen, while Rubina Naaz brings a creative, user-centric approach to the team.

Website: https://r-games.tech

White paper: https://fabwelt.gitbook.io/r-games

twitter: https://twitter.com/R_GamesOfficial

telegram: https://t.me/RGamesOfficialChat

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rgames_official

discord: https://discord.gg/jPWWvdB42J

contact

Rubina Naats
gyros studio
Hello @r-games.tech

Source: the-blockchain.com

Introducing Galaxy Squad: 5 essential tips for selecting a gaming laptop

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When it comes to gaming, the experience is everything. Whether you’re into Fortnite or Baldur’s Gate 3, full immersion is key, and that requires a laptop that can keep up. According to expert Eleanor Alley, who coordinates events at the University of Warwick Esports Center, the laptop you choose will depend on the specific requirements of the game you want to play. From beginners to seasoned pros, there are certain technical aspects that everyone should be aware of…

What should you consider in a gaming laptop?
One crucial factor that can elevate your gaming experience is the speed of your computer. This directly impacts how smoothly the game runs and how realistic the graphics appear. Performance is influenced by three main components: the CPU (Central Processing Unit), which serves as the computer’s “brain”; RAM (Random Access Memory), which stores data required for quick access during operations, similar to short-term memory; and the GPU (graphics processing unit), which generates the images displayed on the screen.

What are the key features of a high-performance gaming laptop?
Nothing is more frustrating than a game freezing at a critical moment, indicating that your computer may not meet the game’s requirements. If the CPU, RAM, or GPU are not powerful enough, loading times and frame rates will suffer. Higher frame rates result in smoother visuals, while faster loading speeds lead to seamless transitions between scenes.

When shopping for a laptop, processing power should be a top consideration. The CPU, the main processor, typically contains multiple cores that handle instructions. While a “quad-core” processor may be adequate for some laptops, those designed for gaming should ideally have 8 or more cores. For top-notch performance, a processor with 16 cores, like the newly launched Intel Core Ultra 7 and Intel Ultra 9 in the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra, is recommended.

Immerse yourself in the action with high-quality audio

Increasing the amount of RAM can also enhance your gaming experience by ensuring smoother gameplay. Insufficient RAM can lead to lag, instability, and frustration. Gaming laptops should ideally have at least 16 GB of RAM, with options for more like the 32 GB available in the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra.

The final piece of the puzzle is the graphics processing unit, which is essential for better visuals and gameplay. A dedicated GPU, separate from the CPU, is crucial for improved performance, especially in demanding games like Red Dead Redemption 2. The Galaxy Book4 Ultra offers two highly acclaimed NVIDIA RTX graphics options.

For Lee, the overall gaming experience hinges on the integration of these elements.

Her recommendation is to compare your system’s specifications with the game’s hardware requirements and test your favorite games on the laptop you’re considering or try out more demanding titles like Baldur’s Gate 3.

What is the ideal screen size for gaming?
Lee suggests a minimum screen size of 15.6 inches, which is met by the 16-inch screen of the Galaxy Book4 Ultra. She advises opting for a screen resolution of at least 1080p and a refresh rate of 120 Hz for an enhanced gaming experience. The Galaxy Book4 series features a 3K screen resolution, providing a superior gameplay experience, especially for players who enjoy first-person games.

Modern laptops utilize AI and high-performance GPUs to create more realistic visuals. Vibrant colors and a visible touchscreen even in bright conditions further enhance the gaming experience.

Besides a great screen, top-notch audio is essential for gamers. Therefore, the inclusion of high-quality speakers and a studio-quality microphone with AI noise cancellation ensures immersive sound and minimal distractions.


How can I ensure my laptop is compatible with gaming hardware?
Portability is a key aspect of laptops. However, this should not limit your ability to use various hardware such as external screens, controllers, charging docks, headsets, and other accessories. Therefore, a laptop with multiple ports is essential. The Galaxy Book4 series laptops are equipped with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, along with USB, HDMI, headphone, and microphone jacks.

What are the most important factors to consider when choosing a gaming laptop?
As long as you have a capable CPU and GPU, sufficient RAM, and a quality screen, you likely have a great gaming laptop. While some may prioritize a 4K display, the graphics processor is more crucial and should be the main focus when balancing costs.

One of the advantages of laptops is their portability, as noted by Lee who values the ability to take it anywhere. In the past, this could mean compromising performance, but modern laptops maintain both portability and power.

For more information on which Samsung Galaxy Book4 laptop suits your gaming needs, visit: samsung.com/uk/galaxy-book

© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Source: www.theguardian.com

The Gaming Industry Must Take a Stand Against Far-Right Trolls, 10 Years After Gamergate

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T A few years ago, a game developer’s tormented ex-boyfriend published a vindictive article accusing her of trading sex to get positive reviews for her indie game. This took her to 4chan, the most disgusting corner of the internet in 2014, and a harassment campaign began, targeting all women working in video game development and gaming press, as well as her LGBTQ+ community in the industry. It has spread to. Sensing the bloodshed, his YouTube “alt-right” provocateurs and Steve Bannon’s Breitbart jumped on the bandwagon and quickly took control. And once this fabricated outrage became known, Gamergate mutated into one of the first front lines of modern society. A culture war sparked by social media, misogyny, and weaponized youth grievances. Many of those tactics became part of President Trump’s campaign strategy.

This week, 16 narrative design studios found themselves at the center of a conspiracy theory that holds them responsible for an insidious epidemic of “funny behavior” in modern video games. The group, which has more than 200,000 followers on the PC game store Steam and thousands of followers on its Discord chat channel, is the group that Sweet Baby Inc. has asked game developers to change the physical appearance, ethnicity, and They believe it is secretly forcing them to change their sexuality to fit the “woke world.” ideology. They believe that Sweet Baby has secretly created and controlled nearly every popular video game of the past five years, keeping straight white men out. As President Trump heads to the campaign trail again, this is part of a broader far-right panic about diversity and inclusion, resulting in regressive anti-women and anti-woke bills already being proposed in the US and other countries. is being brought about.




Pride Support … Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Photo provided by: Sony Computer Entertainment

Of course, the agency in question has done nothing of the sort. This is just a story development studio, the equivalent of a video game script doctor, working with game developers to make sure the plot makes sense and the characters aren’t embarrassingly disconnected. The consultancy’s mission is to “make games more engaging, more fun, more meaningful, and more inclusive.” For example, developers can’t dictate that a game feature a black female protagonist. I don’t have the power to dictate anything. But employees still bear the brunt of the online mob’s wrath. They are anonymized, threatened and abused online.

Ten years ago, it was female gaming journalists and critics who were at the forefront of the firefight. This time I’m a narrative designer. But the conspiracy theorists’ message is the same. There is no diversity in the game. If you are a woman, gay, or person of color working in this industry, you should expect the worst.

Nathan Grayson aftermath and Alyssa Mercante Kotaku They investigated the origins and spread of the Sweet Baby conspiracy theory. Its supporters paint a picture of the consultancy’s ludicrous ties to BlackRock and a funding crisis affecting the gaming industry as a whole. This is not the first time since Gamergate that this kind of harassment has spread. Depressingly, systematic mistreatment of game developers has now become somewhat commonplace, especially when they do something as bold as incorporating a Pride flag into Spider-Man’s Manhattan or taking the time. Masu. Implementing MOD support For Baldur’s Gate 3. All his 91% of developers investigated Last year’s Game Developers Conference said player harassment was a problem, with 42% calling it a “very serious” problem.

When Gamergate was happening, the silence of much of the video game industry was deafening. Instead of coming to the defense of those targeted, nearly everyone who wasn’t directly attacked by the Gamergate mob tried to stick their fingers in their ears and pretend nothing was happening. Media publishers, game developers, and publishers alike are motivated by fear of making the situation worse and alienating what they fear is a significant portion of their audience. As a result, women were unable to speak up in defense of women until it was too late. not at all. IGN was the most popular gaming website in the world at the time. published A surprisingly weak movement of bipartisanship about “recent unpleasant events,” one could not even call the movement by name.

The situation did not subside because the gaming industry did not have a decisive voice. Inaction did not deter the mob. Those who have been harassed in some cases and forced out of their homes or workplaces have simply been left feeling alone, enraged, and often fearful. The main targets at the time were female developers, journalists, and commentators. This is a gathering of narrative consultants.

In the decade since Gamergate, the culture wars instigated on gamer forums have spread and contaminated nearly every aspect of our lives. The last decade has taught us that these people aren’t going away. There may always be people who believe that the mere presence of women and minorities in video games, Star Wars, or the halls of cultural and political power is meaningless. This is an insult and a symptom of the “woke virus.”




“Alan Wake 2” developer Remedy Entertainment has denied accusations that story production company Sweet Baby ensured the main character would be a black woman. Photo courtesy of Remedy Entertainment

But we also learned that ignoring them doesn’t help. That will only make the situation worse. The people who work at Sweet Baby shouldn’t be left to suffer because of the studio that employs them. Independent developers are getting braver in speaking out on social media these days: ‘Alan Wake 2’ director Posted A conspiracy theory that Sweet Baby forced developers to change the ethnicity of its characters is “absolutely not true”. and Mary Kenny, associate director of Marvel’s Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games. tweeted a strong denial. But companies themselves need to follow suit. Publishers and developers who have worked with Sweet Baby Inc include Warner Bros. Games and PlayStation’s Santa Monica Studios. Where can I find their support? Are they going to publicly protect those who contributed to the multi-million dollar game from false accusations, or are they going to let the trolls control the narrative?

No one is forcing diversity into video games. It’s happening naturally as players and developers themselves become more diverse. Gamergate didn’t blackmail women out of video games ten years ago, and we won’t be blackmailed now. The gaming industry knows that, no matter what some struggling gamers think, a wider range of content, made with contributions from a wider range of people and featuring a wider range of characters, is good for creativity and good for business. Now we must make that support fully and clearly articulated.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Pressing Buttons: Layoffs Hit PlayStation, Revealing Troubling Trend in Gaming Industry

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I
Last week, we discussed the long-standing rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation, and how Microsoft’s strategy of releasing games on all platforms, including rival consoles, could signal the end of gaming as we know it. I touched on the potential beginning of this shift. Now, recent news has emerged: Sony is laying off 900 employees across its global studios. Why would a company behind the highly successful PlayStation 5, which outperformed its competitors 3 to 1, take such drastic measures? The end of the console wars may be inevitable, rather than a choice. The landscape of the gaming industry has drastically changed from how it operated in the past.

The announcement of PlayStation’s decision to lay off 8% of its workforce came in a company-wide email from outgoing CEO Jim Ryan less than a week ago. Celebrations at London’s studio were overshadowed by the departure of many employees. Studios like Firesprite are being closed permanently, with other UK branches facing functional reductions. Major studios like Guerrilla Games, Naughty Dog, and Insomniac have also been affected. US-based Sony employees are awaiting further details on how they will be impacted. The email concluded with an ironic appeal for kindness amongst employees.

PlayStation Studios Head Hermen Hulst provided context for this decision in a blog post, citing the evolving landscape of the industry as a driving force behind the layoffs. The demand for high-quality, socially connected gaming experiences necessitates a reevaluation of operational strategies. While growth is essential, it must be purposeful. Some projects have been deemed unfeasible to pursue given the current industry climate.

Analysis points to widespread overinvestment during the 2020-2021 boom, fueled by pandemic-induced demand and surplus capital. The subsequent decline in investment left many studios vulnerable. Despite the profitability of the industry, anticipated layoffs and cost-cutting measures across various gaming sectors are expected in the upcoming years. The closure of Danish studio Die Gute Fabrik serves as a recent example of this trend.

The inability of even industry leaders like Sony to sustain large-scale game development poses significant concerns. Escalating production costs and a focus on continual revenue streams through “live service” games have heightened anxieties about job security within the industry. The success of individual titles like Marvel Spider-Man 2 and PlayStation 5 console sales have not shielded developers from workforce reductions. The sustainability of the console business remains a pressing issue.

The trend towards blockbuster titles with escalating budgets reflects a stark departure from the medium-sized game landscape of the past. Studios once relied on major releases to support smaller projects, fostering a diverse gaming ecosystem. However, the modern industry climate demands unparalleled success, leaving little room for niche or medium-sized games to thrive.




Die Gute Fabrik, the indie studio behind Saltsea Chronicles, has halted production.
Photo: Di Gute Fabric

…

Source: www.theguardian.com

Review: Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered – A Fantastic Revival of Lara Croft’s Lost Ark | Gaming

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IWhile modern games are about sports cars, flashy, fast, expensive, and noisy, the original Tomb Raider is about shopping carts: clunky, slow, and not much to look at. It’s a pain to operate, especially if you’re used to automatic gears and navigation. It’s quiet apart from the odd wheel squeak. It’s really great at doing what it’s intended to do. And it can be yours for just £1.

Well, £24.99, that’s the asking price for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered. This product includes Lara Croft’s first three adventures and expansion packs from 1996 to 1998. Each game has received a complete graphical overhaul, with a fresh coat of paint rather than a complete re-plaster. Lara’s world still has a flat, polygonal appearance, full of sharp edges, origami enemies, and Toblerone boobs.

However, the lighting is now more natural, water effects have been greatly improved, and new high-resolution textures have added an impressive amount of detail. Vegetation looks more realistic and surfaces are smoother. Cracks in the grain of the marble walls of the Venetian Palazzo no longer look like they were built in Ceefax. These visuals would have been shocking back in 1996, when Tomb Raider was first released, but they don’t match modern gaming standards. The remaster makes him fall into the uncanny valley between the two. I think he was around 2005. But these graphics are a perfect fit for the dated gameplay, and are a clear improvement over the original version, which was so blocky and ugly that it would shatter the lenses of your rose-tinted glasses.




Harmful effects… The colonial stereotypes of the original version have been dispelled.
Photo: Aspyr Media

However, some of the series’ memorable moments are diluted. The appearance of the iconic Tyrannosaurus in the first game was quite frightening, as the dinosaur suddenly appeared in view from the endless pitch-black night. This was not an artistic choice, but a technical limitation that prevented me from drawing details in the sky and background. The showdown is currently taking place on a rainy afternoon, with the edges of the battlefield visible. As a result, the scene is still tense, but no less frightening. Just like in Jaws, it’s scarier when you can’t see the monster.

The good news for purists is that you can switch between the original and upgraded graphics at any time with the push of a button. You can also choose to play the entire game using the original tank controls, or use the new system that lets you run around with Lara like a modern-day action hero. This makes her movements more fluid and reduces those frustrating moments where the camera can’t keep up. However, accuracy is sacrificed when navigating grid-based environments. This is essential for completing the more complex platform sections. The solution is to keep switching between her two control systems via the pause menu, but this is difficult to use. Unfortunately, this also cannot be toggled with her single press of a button.

There’s no option to turn off problematic content that appeared in some of the original games, such as racist depictions of South American natives as dancing cannibals. Instead, the remaster includes a warning about these “extremely harmful and intolerable” stereotypes. The content remains unchanged “in the hope that we will recognize and learn from its harmful effects.” This seems like a reasonable argument. Recent Tomb Raider games have sought to move away from racial stereotypes, tackling issues surrounding colonialism and the theft of cultural artifacts. The remaster’s problematic scenes remind us why this is important.

There’s no doubt that the games in this collection feel outdated. When it comes to glossy graphics, intuitive controls, and fast-paced action, it can’t match today’s Uncharted or Assassin’s Creed. But they have something that many modern games lack: confidence.




It doesn’t look clear. Lara’s world is still flat and polygonal.
Photo: Aspyr Media

The original Tomb Raider never holds your hand. The environment is free of Tipp-Ex’s awesome doodles, highlighting where to go next. It’s not packed with random items to collect or boring letters to read. You don’t have to craft your own weapons, upgrade your armor, or choose an amulet to attach to your magical necklace to slightly increase the impact of your air kicks during melee combat.

You can’t climb everything you see. You can’t traverse an entire cliff face by just holding up the thumbstick and pressing the X button. Navigation requires precision, which means losing your life. There’s no strong soundtrack. In fact, there’s almost no soundtrack. There are no loud buddy calls in your ear, no maps, and no hints. Do what you like.

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This is what makes Tomb Raider so great. It’s a game that trusts the player. You’ll find that you keep moving forward, even through the frustrating and difficult sections, because the satisfaction of having achieved it is enough. There’s no need for constant gratification, and no promise of big prizes at the end, like big shiny swords or long cutscenes. New vistas and a few bars of sublimely beautiful strings are all you need. This is a game for adults.

So Tomb Raider Remastered isn’t really a shopping cart. It’s a classic car, well cared for and polished to a decent shine. Yes, the handbrake is sticky, the CD player is broken, and the butterscotch leather seats have cracks. But it’s still fun to take it for a spin. They won’t let them be like this anymore.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Understanding the Job Cuts in the $180 Billion Gaming Industry

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I
It's widely agreed that 2023 was a great year for video games. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Marvel's Spider-Man 2… Barely a week has passed without a blockbuster or independent masterpiece appearing.

But behind these accolades there is a sadder and more worrying story. This year also saw widespread layoffs in the industry, a trend that continues into the first weeks of 2024. Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees after acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. .Publisher Embracer Group
lay off at least 900 staff
In addition to shutting down veteran British developer Free Radical Design, it has ended activity across many of the company’s studios. Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, one of his most successful titles of this decade, has laid off 830 employees.electronic arts
6% reduction in workforce, which equates to approximately 780 jobs. There were similar harrowing stories from Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, Sega, and Unity.Big publishers and small studios alike
is affected

Why did this happen? Why is the entertainment industry, said to be worth $180 billion a year, cutting staff at such an alarming rate?

In some cases, there are certain factors that promote redundancy. In the case of Activision Blizzard, one of the reasons is the duplication of roles after the purchase is completed. “Microsoft obviously already had a publishing business, but they bought ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's parent company, and another publishing business,” said James Batchelor, editor-in-chief of GamesIndustry.biz. “The company then acquired two publishing businesses, Activision and Blizzard, which operated somewhat separately. Think about the number of departments that have doubled here, including human resources, public relations, marketing, and accounting. So you end up with a lot of people doing the same job within the same company. This is a case of rationalization.”




Even though Fortnite has been a huge success, the publisher is still cutting back on employee numbers.
Photo: Zuma Press/Alamy

Sweden's Embracer Group is a game publisher that owns 135 studios around the world, including Tomb Raider creator Crystal Dynamics. After a period of accelerated expansion, the company was forced to close developers, cancel games, and make staff redundant. “The company had a very aggressive merger and acquisition strategy, but we now know that it was dependent on outside investment,” Batchelor said. “But last year, deals worth at least $2 billion were reportedly struck by Saudi investors.
was canceledThis meant we had to make major adjustments to our plans. Embracer is a classic example of a company that is too big to survive. There are thousands of people working on the Embracer game, but we didn’t have a big seller to sustain that number. ”

However, one event looms large in the background: the new coronavirus pandemic. Interest in video games exploded during lockdown. He had two effects. For one thing, strong sales of titles like “Animal Crossing” and “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” have boosted revenues and sent stock prices soaring, attracting the attention of outside investors and flooding the industry with money. That means I did it. In response, arrogant publishers commissioned more ambitious projects and hired accordingly.

But the bubble didn't last. Sales declined as lockdowns eased and people continued to live their lives. “We've seen a lot of games canceled over the last few months. I think there are more that we just don't know about,” Batchelor says. “If we cancel a project and focus on a few games that we know will do well for the studio, we will unfortunately be putting the jobs of the people working on the projects that are being scrapped at risk.”




Hyena, one of many games canceled in 2023.
Photo: Sega

The solution for many publishers has been to cut back on riskier projects and focus on “sure-fire” hits, but this may just be perpetuating the cycle. McDonald explains: “Publishers are signing fewer games, development costs are lower, and it takes longer to sign deals, but if you leave them without all the promising games for the next few years, You put yourself at risk.”

Macdonald believes there may be a bandwagon effect. “We're at a stage now where so many studios are having so many layoffs that some companies think it's an opportunity to make layoffs for more specific reasons. , many other studios will be in the spotlight for job losses. It's especially unfortunate that companies with billions of dollars in cash jumped on the bandwagon and made mass layoffs, and that cash It is likely that the interest increase alone could have covered all of these salaries.

Given the gloomy start to 2024, the effects of coronavirus and various acquisitions across the industry are likely to continue to impact the gaming business. And even if it recovers, another threat looms over staff: the rise of artificial intelligence in development and production processes. “We don't know how widely AI tools are being deployed, but there is talk that some reductions are being made in hopes of leveraging AI for content creation.” McDonald says.

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The use of AI could be attractive to publishers looking to reduce costs, such as by creating digital caricatures of an actor's voice.
Photo: David O’Donnell/The Guardian

For publishers looking to reduce development costs, the use of AI can be attractive, especially in areas such as quality assurance and performance capture. In January, the Sag-Aftra union
criticized An agreement reached with an AI company that will allow actors to create digital images that resemble their voices has sparked an uproar on social media.Starfield and Mortal Kombat actor Sunil Malhotra
I wrote to X: “I sacrificed going on strike for half of the last year to keep my profession instead of hoarding AI replicas.”

With their livelihoods threatened, more development staff are seeking to unionize, increasing pressure on the industry to self-regulate. Incumbent publishers are starting to see both as threats. Last June,
Electronic Arts Financial Report We have identified unionization and AI regulation as having the potential to negatively impact our business and performance.

So how can newcomers to the gaming industry protect themselves? “At the end of the day, job seekers always have to look out for themselves,” McDonald says. “Check if the company is profitable, has a history of layoffs, and if salaries are sustainable.”

Video game companies also have a responsibility to reflect on the past year and learn from it. But what lessons might they learn?

“I think the industry is going to get more attention and focus on known hits and safer bets,” Batchelor said. “This is unfortunate because the industry still needs to take risks. But ultimately those risks need to be maintained and funded by companies, rather than relying on external investment.”

“As companies become more streamlined and more sustainable, we hope to create a smarter industry.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Discover the Thrills of Prince of Persia: Lost Crown – Conquer a New Gaming Empire

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FA gigantic statue, frozen at the moment of destruction, is fixed above the entrance to Mount Kahu. In mid-autumn, fragments of shattered granite heads hang. In the castle’s intricate, trap-filled hallways, some characters haven’t aged a day in 100 years, while characters who arrived hours before you have already died of old age. Time does not follow normal rules in the Fortress’ cursed halls. If you want to complete Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, you’d better learn that lesson quickly.

These quirks of time lend themselves well to a game that reimagines and combines multiple generations of a series dating back to 1989. Developer Jordan Mechner’s original Prince of Persia was his 2D platformer that had you navigating a castle filled with fake floors, guillotines, and swords. -Swirl the guards around to fight the Grand Vizier. Meanwhile, in the hands of developer Ubisoft, later reimaginings of the series saw the titular hero gain the ability to control time, suspending and reversing time to solve puzzles in 3D worlds, and more. I was able to avoid the trap. With The Lost Crown, Ubisoft returns to the side-view perspective of early games while incorporating the time-lapse powers of later titles, creating a vast labyrinthine world littered with enemies and traps to overcome. is created.

Labyrinth…Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Photo: Ubisoft

You play Sargon, one of Persia’s legendary defenders, as you hunt down Prince Ghassan and his captors. You follow the group up to Cuff Mountain. The kidnappers aim to force the prince to abdicate there. You must reach the prince before they do. Sargon can jump through holes, swing from pillar to pillar, and jump between the walls of narrow shafts to climb the levels of the Calf, but even this athletic ability only allows him access to a small portion of the fortress. In many cases, you will be faced with gaps that are too large. Ledges too high to jump, ledges too high to grab, locked doors too far to attack with your sword. But as you discover the secrets of the mountain and defeat more bosses, you learn how to run through the air, double jump, and fix your body to a point in space from which you can teleport back. Combine these powers and you’ll be able to perform intricate aerial acrobatics and explore all-new districts of Calf.

The Lost Crown is a reimagining of Prince of Persia as a Metroidvania, and the series feels at home in the genre’s ever-expanding universe. You repeat the same areas of the map over and over again, discovering new secrets in old rooms thanks to the powers you acquire. Treasure chests that were previously out of reach will fall into your hands, locked doors will open before your eyes, and bosses that were too fast or too strong will also become vulnerable to your attacks.

That said, The Lost Crown has a tough difficulty curve, with later platforming sections and bosses requiring you to memorize tough attack patterns and develop the reflexes to pull off complex combinations of jumps, dodges, and parries. is required. Hitting these skill walls can be a frustrating experience, especially in a game where the joy comes from putting together uninterrupted acrobatics and combos of attacks.

However, the moment you encounter a frustrating blocker, you can explore other parts of the calf. Finding new power usually opens up opportunities across the mountain, not just one area. You can also upgrade Sargon’s weapons to make them more powerful, purchase health potion upgrades, and change the configuration of your amulet. These unlockable items allow you to enhance your hero’s abilities, for example increasing his health when he is at low health or reducing the damage he takes from poison attacks. If you find a boss that you can’t defeat, it’s comforting to know that you can make the fight easier by replacing some of the amulets you bring into battle.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is not a sequel or prequel to other games, but a new journey for the series, and its first step is a leap of faith. Not only are the most notable elements of the series’ various iterations (setting, traps, time forces, combat) all naturalized in this new form, but they are also the best of the newly selected games. That means you can play it like one of the games. This genre is as good a game as Metroid Dread or Hollow Knight, not an imitation of them. It’s been 13 years since the last completely new Prince of Persia game. If this is a new direction, I’m excited to see where it lands.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will be released on PC, PS4/5, Switch and Xbox platforms on January 18th for £50.

Source: www.theguardian.com

TikTok Achieves Landmark $10 Billion in Consumer Spending, Surpassing Gaming Apps

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TikTok’s short-form video app is reaching a new milestone. The app is the first non-gaming mobile app to reach 1 billion monthly active users in 2021 and generate $10 billion in consumer spending across the Apple App Store and Google Play combined, according to new analysis by the app intelligence provider. It is said that it became. data.ai. The only other apps to achieve this include all games including King/Activision Blizzard’s Candy Crush Saga, which is the top earner at over $12 billion, Tencent’s Honor of Kings, XFLAG/Mixi’s Monster Strike, Including Supercell’s Clash of Clans.

Image credits: data.ai

The report notes that TikTok already entered 2023 with more than $6.2 billion in consumer spending and has since added another $3.8 billion over the course of the year, representing 61% year-to-date growth. This figure is 15% higher than the total of $3.3 billion in 2022, according to data.ai. For reference, that report only includes consumer spending on TikTok across iOS and Google Play, and does not include third-party Android app stores in China. In other words, TikTok’s total consumer spending could increase further.

This spending comes from TikTok’s in-app purchases of “coins,” a virtual currency that users can spend on gifts to creators on the platform. These gifts reward creators for their content and can be cashed out as fiat currency, with TikTok keeping his 50% of the payments. The app’s most popular in-app purchase is a bundle of 1,321 coins for $19.99, which accounts for a quarter of its revenue. TikTok also generates revenue from other sources besides in-app purchases, such as advertising and e-commerce through the TikTok Shop, but these are not counted in data.ai’s analysis.

Image credits: data.ai

According to Data.ai, US consumers and Chinese iOS users accounted for the majority of the in-app spending that pushed TikTok to the $10 billion milestone, with both markets accounting for around 30% of each revenue and In other words, it drives 60% of the total. Total when combined. This was followed by other markets such as Saudi Arabia, Germany, the UK, and Japan, which together accounted for 13% of his in-app purchase revenue.

TikTok is the only non-gaming app to reach $10 billion, but other non-gaming apps have also made billions of dollars, but far behind TikTok. The next closest competitors are Tinder and YouTube, both of which have a $2 billion to $3 billion lead over TikTok, the report said.

Image credits: data.ai

“TikTok is poised to become the most profitable mobile app in history, approaching the $15 billion milestone in 2024. Consumers are tipping their favorite content creators with more than $11 million per day. , which makes TikTok the world’s most lucrative mobile game ever, surpassing the beloved Candy Crush Saga,” said Lexi Sydow, Head of Insights at data.ai. At the announcement About new milestones. “TikTokers will spend 40 hours of work time each month within the app by the end of 2024, a 22% increase from 2023,” she added.

office Predict TikTok’s revenue will rise again in 2024, with consumer spending reaching $15 billion.

Source: techcrunch.com