A December 2023 patent newly spotted by Windows Central provides a glimpse of Keystone, which would've been a streaming console for the Xbox ecosystem.It's been long enough to possibly forget, but Xbox was looking to get into cloud streaming hardware via the Keystone console and streaming stick. CEO Phil Spencer first teased the latter in 2022, only to then reveal it'd been shelved the following month out of pricing concerns.Had it seen the light of day, it would've accelerated Xbox's cloud streaming plans, which it'd been pushing that year via Game Pass and deals with the likes of Ubisoft, Meta, and more.Filed on June 1, 2022, the patent shows Keystone at multiple angles. Other than its square design (similar to the original PlayStation), it would've fun…
Little Kitty, Big City has topped 100,000 sales in two days, according to developer Double Dagger Studios. The team broke the news on X and thanked players for diving into its wholesome adventure.The indie title burst out the gates after launching on Steam, Switch, and Xbox on May 9, 2024, and seemingly didn't take long to win over players. Little Kitty, Big City also debuted on Xbox Game Pass but has evidently found an audience outside of the subscription platform.Little Kitty, Big City drops players into an open-world playground in the guise of a plucky, scrappy, frequently chaotic feline and tasks them with finding a way home. It launched to critical acclaim and currently has a 'very positive' rating on Steam from almost 2,000 user reviews.Double Dagger is currently worki…
Longtime Firaxis lead designer Jake Solomon has unveiled what he's been up to since leaving the studio in February 2023. Today he and a number of former Firaxis and Maxis developers announced the formation of Midsummer Studios, a new Maryland-area game developer that is working on an unnamed "life sim" game in the vein of Electronic Arts' The Sims.The studio is launching with $6 million raised by Transcend Fund in partnership with Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, Krafton, and Day Zero Productions.Solomon is joined on the leadership team by game director Will Miller and chief operating officer Neslie Birch (who will also serve as chief financial officer). The trio and their colleagues have set up shop in Firaxis' old office in Hunt Valley, …
GTA+, the monthly subscription service for GTA Online, has gotten its first-ever price hike. Eagle-eyed players (in a now deleted Reddit post) spotted the price has recently gone up from $6/mo to $8/mo on PlayStation and Xbox stores.Checking the GTA+ website, it doesn't appear Rockstar had informed players of the minor price bump beforehand. According to Rockstar Intel, the new price will hit existing players on June 11.Rockstar launched GTA+ in early 2022, and marks the developer's first-ever subscription service. Last year, it began adding older Rockstar games like Bully and Red Dead Redemption to its catalog.Like Xbox Game Pass, subscribers can choose to buy those games outright with a small discount added in.
The games industry has had countless layoffs and cancelled projects since 2023, and Tarn Adams is not happy about it.At this year's GDC (spotted by PCGamer), the Dwarf Fortress designer was frank in laying the blame for these events at the hands of executives, calling them "bad people.""These decisions, they don't sound practical," he continued. "They sound like they're driven by greedy, greedy people trying to make some kind of venture capital thing work out."This week has seen "only" three reported layoffs this far (over at IGN), but 2024 has been devastating. In March alone, several studios have either cut most of their staff or close down entirely.To Adams, executives have made a "stench of rot" that allows for staff cuts…
The games industry has had countless layoffs and cancelled projects since 2023, and Tarn Adams is not happy about it.At this year's GDC (spotted by PCGamer), the Dwarf Fortress designer was frank in laying the blame for these events at the hands of executives, calling them "bad people.""These decisions, they don't sound practical," he continued. "They sound like they're driven by greedy, greedy people trying to make some kind of venture capital thing work out."This week has seen "only" three reported layoffs this far (over at IGN), but 2024 has been devastating. In March alone, several studios have either cut most of their staff or close down entirely.To Adams, executives have made a "stench of rot" that allows for staff cuts…