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Throne and Liberty – the latest South Korean free-to-play fantasy MMO to get a western release courtesy of Amazon Games – is off to a strong start this week, hovering near the top of Steam’s concurrent charts (albeit still behind that infernal Banana game) despite mixed reviews.

Currently, Throne and Liberty – which promises exploration and “massive-scale combat” for “thousands of players at once” across a “dynamic” open world – is Steam’s sixth most played game, with 251K concurrent players according to SteamDB. That puts it just behind Black Myth: Wukong, Banana, PUBG, and perennial Steam favourites Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2.

It’s a strong start for Throne and Liberty, but its early launch week peak of 326,377 concurrent players pales in comparison to Ama…

UPDATE 1/10/24 9am UK: Today brings fresh condemnation from Google of Epic’s latest legal foray. A statement this morning from Dave Kleidermacher, VP Engineering, Android Security and Privacy, shared with Eurogamer, describes the litigation against Google and Samsung as “dangerous”.

“Epic’s latest lawsuit is a meritless and dangerous move,” Kleidermacher said. “Google did not request that Samsung create their Auto Blocker feature.”

Epic has argued that Samsung’s introduction of a new security feature, Auto Blocker, unfairly restricts competition by dissuading users from downloads made outside of Google and Samsung’s own stores.

“While Android allows sideloading, Google and the security community have warned users for years about the real risks associated with …

Microsoft has announced the next roster of titles set to join Xbox Game Pass in October. (Can you believe it’s October already? No, me neither.)

Headlining this month’s first crop of additions is Sifu, the kung fu combat action game that we dubbed as “elegant” in Eurogamer’s Sifu review.

The full list of Xbox Game Pass titles for October 2024 is as follows:

MLB The Show 24 (console) – 2nd October
Open Roads (console) – 2nd October
Sifu (cloud, console and PC) – 2nd October
Mad Streets (cloud, console and PC) – 7th October
Inscryption (cloud, console and PC) – 10th October

Eurogamer Newscast: When it costs £700, who exactly is the PS5 Pro for?

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Microsoft has shared an update on its sustainability efforts on Xbox from the past three years. In that time, the company has reduced its emissions by over 3bn car miles – that’s over 1.2m metric tons of CO2e.
The reduction is largely due to two initiatives. The first is players switching to the Xbox console’s energy saving options to reduce their carbon footprint by optimising updates and downloads to a time when renewable energy can be utilised.
That also includes the Shutdown (energy saving) option, which reduces power consumption while the console is turned off. This can reduce power use by 20 times compared with Sleep mode.

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Concord game director Ryan Ellis has reportedly stepped down after the beleaguered 5v5 shooter was yanked offline amid apparently disastrous sales, with staff at developer Firewalk Studios said to be in limbo while they await Sony’s decision on the future of the game.

Concord was removed from sale earlier this month, just two weeks after its launch on PS5 and PC, with Sony offering full refunds to players. In a statement released at the time, Ellis wrote, “While many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognise that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended.”

Ellis added that Firewalk would “explore options” and “determine the best path ahead” once the game was offline, but no further statemen…

Atlus will sponsor the Haas racing team at this weekend’s F1 Singapore Grand Prix to celebrate the forthcoming release of Metaphor: ReFantazio.
If that seems like an odd pairing, there’s actually a clear crossover. Metaphor features a red-headed elven knight called Hulkenberg, while Nico Hülkenberg is one of the drivers for the Haas F1 team.
Naturally, then, both Hulkenberg and the game’s protagonist will adorn the noses of cars driven by Hülkenberg and teammate Kevin Magnussen respectively.

Metaphor: ReFantazio — The King’s Trial | Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC

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EA CEO Andrew Wilson has stated AI is “the very core of our business” and the company has over a hundred “active novel AI projects” to assist with game development.
Yesterday, the company held its Investor Day 2024, detailing its next games and innovations: including the likes of The Sims, Star Wars Jedi and Battlefield.
Yet AI was a major part of the presentation. Speaking of generative AI, Wilson said: “This remarkable technology is not merely a buzzword for us, it’s the very core of our business.”

Eurogamer Newscast: When it costs £700, who exactly is the PS5 Pro for?

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Police have arrested nine Italian nationals thought to be selling counterfeit retro games and consoles for a video game trafficking ring estimated to be worth almost £42m (€50m / $55.5m).
The pirated material included 12,000 counterfeit “Nintendo, Sega, and Atari” consoles holding 47m fake versions of retro games like Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and Star Wars.

Eurogamer Newscast: When it costs £700, who exactly is the PS5 Pro for?

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EA has shared early first details for the next instalment in its Battlefield series, confirming the multiplayer shooter will be returning to the modern era for its next outing, and that the unpopular Specialists system has been jettisoned for good in favour of more traditional classes.

That’s according to Respawn head and Battlefield boss Vince Zampella who, in conversation with IGN, teased a back-to-basics approach for the series’ next outing following 2021’s poorly received Battlefield 2042. That starts with a return to the modern era, with Zampella explaining, “If you look back to the peak or the pinnacle of Battlefield, it’s that Battlefield 3… Battlefield 4 era where everything was modern. And I think we have to get back to the core of what Battlefield i…

Last night, the industry was shocked to learn the entire staff at indie video game publisher Annapurna Interactive had resigned. This exodus followed after negotiations with Annapurna owner Megan Ellison met an impass.
As Matt reported last night, these departures caused “chaos” among Annapurna Interactive’s game developer partners. An Annapurna spokesperson confirmed all existing games and projects will remain with the company, while new president Hector Sanchez reportedly told developers all contracts will be honoured and that all Annapurna Interactive staff will be replaced.
In the time since, many developers have taken to social media to assure their communities of the status of various projects tied to the publisher.

Mixtape – Reveal Trailer – Xbox Games S…