One of Australia’s most notable game developers has been sold to Nacon, a French video game accessories company that also publishes games.
Nacon is buying Big Ant Studios, the developers of various rugby, cricket, and tennis games, for a maximum price of €35 million, with a guarantee of €15M at the time the ink hits the paper. Big Ant might get even more money if it reaches certain performance targets through 2024, Nacon said in its announcement.
The deal is expected to officially close in February, pending final conditions.
A new limited-time Max Raid event is now underway in Pokemon Sword and Shield. To celebrate the Year of the Ox, the oxen Pokemon Tauros, Miltank, and Bouffalant are appearing more frequently in Max Raid dens in both games this weekend, and you’ll have a chance to encounter a Shiny Tauros in five-star Raids.
Like other “extra” Max Raid events, however, the Lunar New Year event will only be around for a couple of days. The event runs until 3:59 PM PT / 6:59 PM ET / 11:59 PM UTC on Sunday, January 24. Afterward, January’s regular Max Raid event will resume.
Before the featured Pokemon can appear in your game, you’ll first need to refresh your Max Raid dens. You can do so either by connecting online via the Y-Comm or by opening the Mystery Gift menu and selecting Get the Wild Area News.
The team behind the acclaimed games Limbo and Inside has shared some new insight on its next game, and it sounds like it will be quite different from its previous work.
Playdead’s current game is a third-person sci-fi adventure title that takes place in a “remote corner of the universe.” The game has no title yet. Some of the job ads include art for what might be the current game, though this is never explicitly stated. Check out the new artwork in the gallery below.
Gallery
This information comes from Playdead’s careers page on its website. The page also tells would-be applicants that the Copenhagen-based studio has a “very flat management structure” and is a relatively small team of about 50 people.
A brand new post on Xbox Wire has unveiled plans to increase the cost of Xbox Live Gold, the online gaming service Microsoft has been using on Xbox platforms for over 18 years.
According to Microsoft, this is taking place in order to evaluate the current “value and pricing” of the services provided. As a result, Live Gold is going to jump up in price. However, if you’re an existing Live Gold 6-month or 12-month member, the price isn’t changing and will renew at the value before the update.
For those who don’t fall into this bracket, Gold is still increasing. Going forward 1-month will now cost $10.99, 3-months is $29.99, and 6-months for $59.99 (or the local market equivalent). This means that the price of a 1-month membership has increased by $1, while the price of a 3-months is now $5 more.
Part of the blog post even pointed out a notable trick for Xbox users, where you can convert your existing Live Gold membership into Game Pass Ultimate. With this new update, the cost between the two services isn’t as dramatic either, with Game Pass Ultimate still costing $14.99 per month.
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has taken to change Xbox Live Gold recently after it decided to stop selling 12-month memberships on its platform. There has since been plenty of speculation about Game Pass becoming the primary focus for Xbox subscriptions going forward.
The Asus ROG Delta S has the full package. It creates a nuanced, clear sound. Its triangular, RGB-laden cans have a unique look that makes a strong impression. It’s light on your head, so it’s easy to wear. Asus’ new premium headset even has a few extras, like rendering support that allows you to get the most out of MQA specialty music files. Despite a few small kludgy details, the Delta S nails all the major aspects of the PC-forward gaming headset.
The Asus ROG Delta S features some strong technical upgrades, but the design of the headset is largely a carryover from the original ROG Delta headset, which launched in 2019. With vaguely triangular “D-shaped” earcups, lined with RGB light bars and logos, its flashy, eye-grabbing look comes on very strong. Even with the lighting off, the Delta S design feels like a statement piece that’s meant to stand out.
The Delta S is primarily furnished in black plastic hardware, with a plastic and steel frame. The top band is coated in black leatherette stamped with the full “Republic of Gamers” name on top, and padded with memory foam. The forks connect to rotating bases on the top band, allowing the cans to lay flat on your chest (or a table). Weighing in at 294 grams, it sits light on your head and the padding keeps you from feeling any weight on the top of your head. Likewise, the top band clamps softly so you rarely feel the padding of the cups pressing against you. Despite this, the earcups create a good seal to provide solid passive noise protection, minimizing but not wholly shutting out ambient noise.
On the cans, the Delta S keeps onboard controls to a minimum. On the left can, you have a switch to turn RGB lighting on, off, or switch to a “soundwave” lighting mode, which theoretically glows brighter when you speak into your microphone. There’s also a switch that can raise and lower volume levels, or press in to mute your mic. At the bottom of the triangle, there’s an audio port for plugging in the detachable boom mic.
In the cans, the Delta S features 50mm Neodymium drivers, and an updated version of the Delta’s quad-DAC. The ESS 9281 converter uses four separate chips to independently process four different ranges of tones – low, mid, high, and “ultra-high.” In theory, this allows the Hi-Res certified headset to produce clearer, more distinct sound throughout its range.
The Delta S is also the first gaming headset – among a small set of audio gear – that features rendering support for MQA-encoded high-fidelity audio files. “Master Quality Authenticated” or MQA files is an audio file format that can stream “studio quality” music. Pairing the headset with MQA files like Tidal’s “Master”-grade streaming tracks, which you can access with the service’s $19.99 HiFi-tier subscription, delivers a different grade of sound. Softer, clearer, and more balanced, the MQA-enabled versions of songs sound noticeably different than their streaming-standard counterparts.
The question is, how much are you willing to reconfigure your listening routine to get better quality music? If you rely primarily on streaming services for music, you’ll need to use the Delta S with a PC or Android phone and, potentially, switch to Tidal and/or a handful of more niche music streaming services to get MQA tracks. Considering the lengths audiophiles go to secure the best possible audio – spending thousands of dollars on specialty gear, downloading lossless files, and so on – this is a pretty easy way to get a taste of the difference between the good and hobby-grade audio gear. For many users, though, it’s still a big ask and, thus, a relatively niche upgrade for curious PC players.
The detachable unidirectional boom mic looks and feels conventional, but it’ll fool you. It has some great, upgraded features that ensure you’ll send strong, clear voice quality, including a larger driver (6mm versus 4mm in the Delta) and active noise-cancelling to keep ambient noise out of chat. The physical construction of the mic, however, leaves something to be desired. Its short, flexible stem is coated in a thick plastic that’s easy to bend, but difficult to bend precisely to the perfect pickup spot. The microphone also popped out of the audio jack just enough to stop working after I adjusted it, leading to unnecessary complications.
Next to the boom, you’ll find the base for the Delta S’ built-in USB-C cable. The cable is only 58 inches (4’10”) by default, which is fine for using with a laptop or a handheld Nintendo Switch Lite, but won’t reach from a console to a properly distanced couch. It comes with a USB-C-to-A converter cable, which extends the cable another 38 inches to a much more reasonable 8 feet. It feels like more of an inconvenience than it really is. PS5 owners should expect to plug the headset into the console’s front USB-A port, rather than use USB-C, but that’s the only real consequence.
Asus ROG Delta S – Software
On Windows, you can customize audio and RGB settings through Asus ROG’s configuration software, Armoury Crate. Crate allows you to adjust EQ settings, toggle virtual 7.1 surround sound, and software-based audio enhancements like bass boost and voice clarity. You can also set a noise gate for your microphone and adjust its enhancements, including noise-cancellation. On the lighting side, you can choose from seven different lighting patterns, and customize their colors.
As with many config apps, Crate can create multiple app-specific profiles with fine-tuned audio and lighting for different games and apps. Though you can only access the app on Windows, the changes you make on the default profile carry over to consoles. Still, there’s a big divide between what PC players can do with Delta S and everyone else between the config app and the MQA support.
Asus ROG Delta S – Gaming and Music
Though the Delta S definitely puts its best foot forward on PC, it’s an extremely capable headset that generates clear, detailed sound on all kinds of games. Testing primarily on PC and PS5, the Delta S produces all the little details in sound effects, like the differences between the firing sounds of different rifles in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, or the crackling of a campfire in Dead by Daylight. Reproducing the complete texture of sound effects is one of the clearest differences between a good headset and a great one, and the Delta S clearly asserts itself as the latter.
It also creates proper separation between sounds. In Immortals: Fenyx Rising, a game where gameplay voiceover interjects frequently during gameplay, the voices of Zeus and Prometheus are clear, but so are the sounds of your adventuring. Where a lesser sound system might muddle the mix, the Delta S allows you to focus on one or the other, or take in both clearly.
The Delta S features 7.1 virtual sound, which creates strong positional audio. In both Dead by Daylight and Call of Duty, I was able to pinpoint the direction and, often, distance of gameplay-relevant noises, which both enhances your immersion and becomes a useful tool. When playing as a survivor in Dead by Daylight, it’s much easier to avoid a killer when you don’t need a visual prompt to reveal their location.
HBO wants to have more Game of Thrones, and to that end, the company is taking meetings with a number of writers who are pitching their ideas for spin-offs. This is according to report from EW, which says HBO has taken meetings with “several top writers” who are pitching the network their ideas for where the fantasy universe could go next.
One of the ideas is a prequel series focused on the war, Robert’s Rebellion, that took place some time before the events of Game of Thrones, according to the report. Writer Bruno Heller, who created the period drama Rome for HBO, is said to have pitched this idea.
There is no word yet on any of the other high-profile writers who have pitched to HBO. However, EW reported that all of the new show ideas are prequels that are set in Westeros and Essos. The site dashed hopes to see more familiar characters and actors, as it’s claimed that none of the new show ideas are spin-offs of the timeline that ended with Game of Thrones Season 8.
A veteran PlayStation executive is stepping down soon. Tsuyoshi Kodera, who helped pioneer PlayStation’s online services, is leaving his position with PlayStation at the end of this fiscal year, which will be on March 31.
VGC reports that Kodera will move to a different role within Sony starting on April 1. The company has not announced Kodera’s replacement, or what his new role will be.
Kodera has been with Sony for decades and first joined SIE in 2010. He helped to launch the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Plus and Now services, along with the PlayStation Video and Music operations. He was made deputy president of PlayStation in 2016, and then briefly served as CEO and president between the tenures of Andrew House and Jim Ryan.
According to one of the game’s writers, the Mass Effect 2 character Jack was originally written as pansexual, but her romance options were apparently changed late in development to only allow for a heterosexual romance, seemingly because of critical response to the first game’s sex scenes, and a Fox News panel on Mass Effect.
In an interview with The Gamer, Jack’s lead writer, Brian Kindegran, said that the character was “essentially pansexual for most of the development of that romance.” There are references in Mass Effect 2’s dialogue to Jack’s interest in men and women, which is why many fans have since wondered why Jack was only romanceable by a male Commander Shepard.
Explaining the reasoning behind the change, Kindegran pointed to criticism from media outlets in the US: “Mass Effect had been pretty heavily and really unfairly criticized in the US by Fox News,” Kindegran told The Gamer, referring to a 2007 panel about the use of sex scenes in the first game.”
“The development team of Mass Effect 2 was a pretty progressive, open-minded team, but I think there was a concern at pretty high levels that if Mass Effect, which only had one gay relationship, Liara – which on paper was technically not a gay relationship because she was from a mono-gendered species – I think there was a concern that if that had drawn fire, that Mass Effect 2 had to be a little bit careful.”
Kindegran didn’t agree with the change, but told The Gamer that it was done in an attempt to “minimize the amount of critique that would be directed towards the community by outlets like Fox News again.”
“It wasn’t like some anti-gay person high up on the Mass Effect 2 team saying, ‘we’re not going to have that’.” Instead, it had to do with the firestorm of controversy that Mass Effect had received back in 2007,” Kindegran added. Changes to Jack’s romance options apparently came late in the game’s development due to the controversy, when the development team were told to “focus the relationships on a more traditional kind of vector.”
In other Mass Effect news, check out this concept art for the next Mass Effect game, which featured in the book ‘Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development. You’ll be able to return to the original Mass Effect Trilogy in the upcoming Legendary Edition, which you can preorder now, ahead of its rumoured March 12 release date.
Xbox Live Gold is about to get more expensive for some people. Microsoft confirmed on Friday that the cost of a one-month subscription is going up by $1 USD, while 3-month subscriptions will now cost $5 USD more.
The new pricing structure for Xbox Live Gold will be as follows:
1 month – $11
3 months — $30
6 months — $60
This is only a little bit less than a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which is priced as follows:
