Bad Press: Saudi Arabia Did Not Ban 47 Games Over Child Suicides


If you’ve been reading the news this week, you may have come across a story that the Saudi General Commission for Audio-Visual Media has banned a list of 47 video games following the suicide deaths of a 13-year old girl and 12-year old boy. You might be more confused by the fact that the two were playing the “Blue Whale” social media game and not a video game at all, let alone one on the list of banned titles. The news piece caught me by surprise as I was fairly certain that I had read about games like Yo Kai Watch and Okami being banned in Saudi Arabia years ago.

Your confusion would be well founded, because much like the Blue Whale game itself, this appears to be a case of fake news with patient zero as none other than the Associated Press. Other than the AP’s claim that the ban list was associated with the Blue Whale Game, there has been no confirmation and the AP article even admits that the agency did not specify a connection. If you try to check local Saudi news on a new video game ban wave, you won’t find anything.

Thankfully the crack investigative team at MMO Fallout was able to get their hands on a list of prohibited games dating back to June 2017, showing that not only is the AP report incorrect, but that the conclusion it leads to is rather easily fact checked. Through the power of the Web Archive (please excuse the slow servers), you can view the list of prohibited titles published in June 2017. The list includes numerous titles that are on the current list: Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, Yo Kai Watch, God of War, Assassin’s Creed, etc.

Unfortunately the web archive only goes back to 2017 for the Saudi website, but it is evidence enough that the AP’s report on the General Commission is inaccurate. MMO Fallout is not the first to bring this to light, as Ubisoft’s head of communications and localization for the Middle East took to Twitter to call out the Associated Press and request a retraction on the article. The AP report is still up as of this publishing, as are most of the websites that source their news stories from the AP.

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Among the press that carried this coverage, Nick Santangelo over at IGN pointed out that there are no secondary sources for the AP’s claim. Games Industry has fully retracted their article. None of the other press websites at this time appear to have altered or retracted their coverage.

IPE Update: Class Action Lawsuit v. Trion Worlds Responds To Amended Complaint


It’s been quite a while since we last checked in on the ArcheAge class action lawsuit, so I figured we’d go ahead and see if anything has changed over the past few months.

First, a recap for those keeping score. Back in what feels like the far flung past of September 2015, two individuals by the names of Aaron Van Fleet and Paul Ovberg launched a lawsuit against Trion Worlds regarding ArcheAge. It’s probably irrelevant to most readers, but noteworthy that they didn’t “launch” a class action lawsuit but filed a lawsuit and are seeking class action status that won’t be ruled on until 2019, just an oversight that a lot of people (including myself) probably haven’t made clear.

The plaintiffs were willing to admit under oath that they had purchased the $149.99 collector’s edition of ArcheAge, and are now suing for a myriad of reasons including the infamous 10% discount and allegations that ArcheAge’s lootbox system violates California law on illegal lotteries.

In my initial discussion on the lawsuit, I noted my doubts that the lottery claims would hold up and that the plaintiffs might be damaging their case by including their exhibit A (and only exhibit) as 50 pages of random players complaining in the forums about loot boxes. Trion Worlds attempted to have the lawsuit moved to arbitration and lost, appealed their case to the First District Court of Appeals…and also lost there. Then the lawsuit went back to the San Mateo County Court and the plaintiffs were given an opportunity to file an amended complaint.

Well they’ve filed their amended complaint and of all that has changed, well, there isn’t much of it. James Longfield has been named as a plaintiff, the screenshots are of much higher quality in the copy available on the court’s website. Apart from one sentence that is changed from present tense to past tense, this is exactly the same complaint, word for word. Nothing outside of the addition of a new plaintiff has been amended in this amended complaint.

Which means that the lawsuit’s pitfalls are still there. The plaintiffs make virtually no attempt to show how Trion’s loot boxes violate the lottery penal code, nor does it actually explain the penal code in any real capacity, an oversight to be sure since it’s basically a large portion of the lawsuit. As far as I could find in the docket, they didn’t even bother citing the penal code that they are attempting to prove violation of. I noted the California lottery penal code in my previous article, the plaintiff apparently didn’t bother and still has not done so. There is also the matter of the 50 pages of forum complaints that are hardly relevant to the case at hand and basically come down to players musing the idea that “this is probably illegal because I don’t like it.”

Trion Worlds has filed a demurer, an objection that questions the validity of the plaintiff’s claims, and unsurprisingly it mostly targets the question of the illegal lottery claim. The demurer mostly attacks on the basis that items obtained in ArcheAge have no measurable value, and thus can not be covered by the penal code definition of property. In addition, Trion argues against the idea that the plaintiffs can claim that they lost money or property, as they exchanged real money for digital goods and received exactly what they paid for. Finally they attacked the lottery on the same merits that I did, that the plaintiffs didn’t really bother staking a claim on the rules of the penal code or how Trion even allegedly violated them.

Notably absent from Trion’s demurer is commentary in relation to whether or not the 10% discount offer change constituted misleading advertising, but presumably the demurer is to carve up the lawsuit and get rid of the extra fat so that the main points of contention can be handled either during the trial phase or in a supplementary demurer. Considering this lawsuit has now gone on for three years and has rulings and applications for various statuses dated for early to mid 2019, I’m sure Trion is just trying to bring this closer to some kind of resolution.

I have included a link to the docket down below, thankfully San Mateo’s county court allows you to view their dockets at no cost. MMO Fallout will continue covering this lawsuit when any noteworthy events happen.

(Source: San Mateo Docket)

Germany Outlaws Pre-Orders With Vague Release Dates


In the gaming industry, it’s become increasingly common for retailers to offer pre-orders earlier and earlier into a game’s development, promising vague release dates like “coming soon” or “spring 2019.” If you’re in Germany, this won’t be an issue moving forward, as the Higher Regional Court of Munich has ruled that such tactics are illegal.

Originally decided in regards to the smartphone sector of the electronics market, retailers are no longer allowed to sell pre-orders for items without a concrete date that the item will arrive by. Presumably this will lead to retailers and manufacturers using placeholder dates, which stores in the United States like Gamestop and WalMart have a tendency to place on their websites once a game is announced.

 

(Source: GI.biz)

This Week’s Update Killed Old School RuneScape’s Economy, So Jagex Rolled It Back


Old School RuneScape is reeling from a massive bug that resulted in the servers being taken offline for a few hours and, in an unprecedented move, Jagex rolling characters back to pre-update. An unfortunate oversight in this week’s update allowed players to turn various items into fat stacks of cash upon death. As you can imagine, Jagex didn’t want players generating coins in the billions out of thin air and out of concern for the integrity of the game, they delivered a quick Vulcan nerve pinch and brought the servers offline so the bug could be fixed.

When converting a stack of items into a stack of coins, it’s appropriate to check that the calculation doesn’t overflow the max integer limit of the game’s language (2.1 billion). Unfortunately, the logic used for this calculation was incorrect, and when executed on stacks of other items (not the pouch itself) the result was to convert the stack to 2.1b coins. Regrettably, although the pouches were found to be acting correctly during testing, the flaw affecting other items was not spotted as it was not expected to have changed.

Unfortunately MMO Fallout investigations have discovered evidence that Jagex didn’t so much reverse the update as much as it did transport all of us to a timeline where the bug never happened, and all of us happened to conveniently disappear around the same time. Keep an eye out for doppelgangers.

(Source: RuneScape)

Fantasy Survival Game Rend To Launch In Early Access This Month


Frostkeep Studios has announced today that their title Rend will launch on Steam early access later this month. Dubbed a faction-based fantasy survival title, Rend was created by a studio formed from veteran Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends developers. Rend introduces RPG mechanics, sandbox elements, win/loss conditions, and massive battles. Early Access will be available on July 31, with the game available for $29.99.

“Early access marks a pivotal moment for Frostkeep Studios,” said Jeremy Wood, co-founder and CEO, Frostkeep Studios. “We have been developing Rend side-by-side with our players since we first announced the game and are grateful for the invaluable feedback they provided to help shape Rend into what it has become today: the game they want to play.”

Wild West Online Looks At Reboot Two Months Out Of Launch


A lot has happened since Wild West Online launched in May. The review score has boosted quite positively toward 61% from 37% overall, although population has dropped to a few dozen concurrent players. 612 Games as an entity has vanished as quickly as it showed up, with its name seemingly being scrubbed from everything related to Wild West Online and no indication that the entity still exists. Oh and DJ2 Entertainment plans on rebooting the game just two months after launch.

As posted on the official forums, Wild West Online is to receive a relaunch of sorts, one that will focus more on the rootn, tootn, shootn, cowboy gameplay that people seem to enjoy. The update will add on to the map, introduce new animal hunting, and drastically increase the number of vendors present in the world.

“What this “relaunch” plan means for you – our existing players ? to be honest it doesn’t really gonna affect you much – it will for sure will bring new players to the game, as well as add more stuff to do in a game, making user experience more in line with it being PVP shooter game.”

When asked about female characters, a feature promised for launch but still undelivered, they were referred to as a cosmetic feature of low priority.

“Female characters are coming, but with all honesty – this is pretty low on our priorities – it’s a cosmetic feature, not something that makes or breaks the game.”

The Culling 2 Is Dead On Arrival, Can’t Fill Single Match On Launch Night


What’s worse than not being able to fill a single 100 player match of Battle Royale? Not being able to fill a 50 player match. We’ve talked briefly about Xavient, a developer whose previous title launched into early access and over the course of two years managed to run its population down into the low double digits thanks to a series of missteps, only to abandon said game shortly after launch and begin work on the sequel. We wondered how players would react to the sudden announcement of The Culling 2 and whether or not the community would come back around for a second try.

Well the verdict is in and the answer is a resounding no, the community did not come around for a second time. While The Culling peaked out at over 12 thousand players, The Culling 2 hit launch day with a maximum concurrency of just 249 with less than 25 playing as of this writing. Reviews currently stand at a 13% “Very Negative” rating with nearly a fifth of all of the positive reviews being outwardly sarcastic in their praise.

And we’re not the only ones to notice. PC Gamers’ Christopher Livingston penned a piece reliving his experience winning a match before he even hit the ground, owing to his competition being one singular player who disconnected at the start of the round. Nadia Oxford over at Us Gamer noted the negative reaction from fans of the original title to the unveiling of The Culling 2. Even the official Culling Twitter account is aware of today’s launch performance.

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The Culling 2 is available on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.

[Video] 11 Things That Have Changed In No Man’s Sky


505 Games today released a video for No Man’s Sky detailing 11 major things that have changed since the game launched. Big updates since the game launched on PC and Playstation 4 in 2016 include the Atlas Rises, Path Finder, and Foundation updates. For more details on what has changed since launch, check out the video above.

No Man’s Sky launches on Xbox One later this month.

(Source: 505 Games Press Release)

Daybreak Game Company Wants Less Vehicles In H1Z1 Endgame


If you’ve been playing H1Z1 on Playstation 4, you’re probably well aware that the endgame mostly revolves around and relies on players obtaining vehicles, occasionally getting out of their cars to pop shots at one another until only one person is left alive. In a post on the H1Z1 subreddit titled “Wrangling the Car Rodeo,” Daybreak Game Company has posted its intention to diminish the valuable role that vehicles play in-game.

Now Daybreak has already enacted some measures to curb vehicle dependency, including the EMP grenade, air strike gun, and disabling collision with players, but the next update should do more to reduce the effectiveness of vehicles rather than simply implementing a counter to them. In addition to considering updates including a map-wide EMP that would disable all vehicles at a certain point presumably in the late stages, Daybreak will reduce the total gas by 50% and reduce damage resistance to all vehicles except for the ATV which already doesn’t prevent much damage.

(Source: Reddit)

After Abandoning The Culling, Xavient To Launch The Culling II


Following two years of early access, developer Xavient launched and then almost immediately abandoned its Battle Royale game The Culling in October of 2017. By the time the game launched, and thanks to numerous unpopular changes with the community, the average player base had sunk from its peak of 12,000 to not enough to fill a whole server. Current reviews sit at a 32% mostly negative rating.

But in case you’re still looking to toss your simoleons at a new Battle Royale game, Xavient is back to do it all over again. The Culling II has been revealed and it will launch, presumably not in Early Access, on July 10 for the sum of $20. The trailer, now available on Youtube, has been met with overwhelmingly negative response; a 9:1 negative to positive rating with players criticizing Xavient for abandoning the melee focus of The Culling and creating what is perceived to be a cheap PUBG clone.

The Culling II will also launch for Xbox One and Playstation 4.