Indie platformer Gris was celebrated at launch for its beautiful art (among other things), and plenty of folks took notice of its gorgeous sense of style. Now, it seems that one designer took too much notice and copied many elements of the game’s style in their own work for wellness app ‘The Fabulous’.

Gris publisher Digital Devolver publicly accused the app makers of ripping off Gris’ artwork in a tweet, which includes a side-by-side video of the app running alongside Gris. In the tweet, they warn other developers to be careful of “big companies and brands stealing creative work” from them.

The Fabulous took notice, and took the video down. Speaking with Gamasutra, Fabulous’ CEO Sami Ben stated that the team’s wrongdoing was “unintentional,” and that the team has been inspired by several other games in their work, including Journey and Monument Valley. “We have a team of two artists and freelancers, and that video was created a few months ago,” Ben said. “We’re still investigating this as all of this has been sudden, but any wrongdoing from our side is not intentional. It might be that one of our artists or freelancers got inspired by a game that they liked.”

Fabulous also followed up on Twitter, directly tweeting at Devolver Digital about the situation.

Following this, The Fabulous conducted an investigation, and ultimately made a post on Medium with a direct explanation from the designer who made the video in question. “When I was about to start the animation, I told our design lead that I was gonna get inspired from a game called ‘Gris’ for the animation,” they wrote. He never played the game, so he gave me the OK for ‘getting inspired’. I took the word ‘inspired’ way too far.”

“I took things way too far and what I thought I was managing got slipped out of my control without me even noticing. Our lead designer had no idea about that since he, like I said, didn’t play the game. I am the only person responsible for this catastrophe. As a content creator, I am ashamed that I ended up copying someone else’s hard work, and believe me this is the first time that I know of this has happened to me.”

Gris launched on PC and Switch late last year, and also came to iOS in September 2019.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/wellness-app-dev-apologizes-for-plagarizing-indie-/1100-6471238/

Rockstar Games has released another update for Red Dead Redemption 2‘s PC version amid ongoing complaints about the performance of the game and the launcher client.

The new game update, 1.14, includes various improvements to help fix problems that caused Red Dead Redemption 2 to crash if users had anti-virus software installed.

The Rockstar Games Launcher, meanwhile, has received an update as well. With the update applied, players should no longer experience as many crashes when booting the launcher.

GameSpot tested the new Red Dead Redemption 2 update and founded that it seemed to work. In our test, the game hasn’t crashed since applying the update. These are just the latest updates for Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC, as an earlier one was released on November 5.

Red Dead Redemption 2 PC players have also reported issues related to audio and FPS, but there is no word yet on when fixes may be delivered for these issues.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is available on PC through Rockstar’s own launcher and the Epic Games Store, while the Western will come to Steam in December.

Did these updates improve the Red Dead Redemption 2 experience on PC for you? Let us know in the comments below!

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/another-red-dead-redemption-2-pc-update-aims-to-fi/1100-6471237/

A lot of big companies are getting into gaming with their own streaming services, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and others, but don’t expect Netflix to follow suit.

Speaking at the DealBook 2019 event, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings confirmed that the company has no plans to enter that market. Instead, Netflix is spending its time focusing on highly compelling TV shows and movies that will encourage people to put down the controller and boot up Netflix.

“No,” Hastings said when asked if Netflix might make a game-streaming service. “We’re really focused on doing incredible series and films and unscripted.”

Earlier this year, Netflix said the company competes more with Fortnite than HBO when it comes to entertainment usage. There are a finite number of hours in the day, and even fewer that people can spend consuming entertainment, so Netflix sees Fortnite as a competitor in that regard.

“There are a lot of other things people do to entertain themselves, including Fortnite. And the original quote was that we compete with Fortnite more than we compete with HBO. Fortnite gets a lot more hours of viewing,” he said at the event today. “Ultimately it’s about competing for those hours of viewing. But we don’t compete with Fortnite better by doing something like [a streaming service] because we’re not very good at that. We compete by doing the most amazing TV shows you’ve ever seen so you put down Fortnite and you come to watch our shows.”

In 2011, Netflix announced plans to offer Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii games for rental by mail, though it scuttled these plans not long after announcing them. At the time, the company said it was “still considering” offering games to rent by mail but this never happened.

In the initial Qwikster announcement, Hastings himself spoke about how enthusiastic the Netflix audience was for games. “Members have been asking for video games for many years, and now that DVD-by-mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done,” he said.

The next major new game-streaming service to launch is Google Stadia, which is primed to launch on November 19 in the US.

For more on what’s new on Netflix in November, check out this roundup of all the new TV show and movies on Netflix.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/netflix-wont-make-a-game-streaming-service-were-no/1100-6471234/

Though Blizzard lessened Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai’s punishment following the overwhelming backlash, some Hearthstone developers thought the company’s handling of the professional player was “too harsh.”

In an interview with Kotaku at BlizzCon 2019, game director Ben Lee wished Blizzard took better care of the Blitzchung situation. “The initial decision was too harsh. Absolutely,” Lee said. “Definitely should have taken more time to consider something more reasonable, but we can’t take that back.”

While creative director Ben Thompson ultimately supports Blitzchung’s right to free speech, the Hearthstone developer felt a professional tournament wasn’t the place to express those views.

“Of course I celebrate–as we all do to some extent or another–free speech. You should be able to say what it is you want to say,” Thompson said. “I also understand what [Blizzard president] J. Allen Brack himself addressed in his own internal communications and later on to the world at large, which is that being able to speak your mind and say how you feel from a personal level is always and should always be a welcome thing. Doing so from a platform very much not your own and done from a voice not your own to take control, so to speak, or on behalf of another is not free speech. That is on behalf of something that’s not yours to do with.”

Blitzchung was initially banned for one year and lost all of his prize winnings after expressing support for democracy in Hong Kong during a post-match Hearthstone Grandmasters interview. Blizzard received widespread criticism online and from protesters, to which the company responded by reducing Blitzchung’s ban to six months and giving back his thousands of dollars in winnings.

“We’ve had a chance to pause, to listen to our community, and to reflect on what we could have done better. In hindsight, our process wasn’t adequate, and we reacted too quickly,” Brack said in a statement. “We want to ensure that we maintain a safe and inclusive environment for all our players, and that our rules and processes are clear. All of this is in service of another important Blizzard value–Play Nice; Play Fair.”

Brack addressed the controversial decision during BlizzCon’s opening ceremony, stating the company failed to adhere to its principles. “We moved too quickly in our decision making, and to make matters worse we were too slow to talk with you,” Brack said. “We didn’t live up to the high standards we really set for ourselves, and second, we failed in our purpose. I’m sorry, and I accept accountability.”

Hong Kong has seen several protests in recent months. A protest also occurred at BlizzCon, where participants demonstrated outside the Anaheim Convention Center venue on November 1.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/hearthstone-devs-felt-blitzchungs-punishment-was-t/1100-6471229/

Disco Elysium has released to near-universal critical acclaim, delivering a story-driven detective RPG where your character is trying to solve a murder investigation while suffering from alcohol-induced amnesia. One of the game’s more noteworthy features is the Thought Cabinet, an inventory system that allows you to unlock benefits from internalizing certain thoughts. Apparently, it wasn’t always so beneficial.

“The original effects of the Thought Cabinet projects were to be more negative,” Disco Elysium lead writer Robert Kurvitz said, according to VG247. “Oftentimes you would get straight up curses.” Developer ZA/UM shifted gears on the Thought Cabinet in order to inject a little positivity in an otherwise fairly bleak story–redesigning the feature to showcase the thoughts the detective was mulling over, instead of obsessions warping their mind.

Kurvitz believes that humans can sometimes become too preoccupied with the notion that our ability to think is ultimately one of our biggest downfalls. In Disco Elysium, the protagonist’s Thought Cabinet was redesigned to reflect the notion that, though human thoughts can be bad, they can also be a saving grace in dark, difficult times–a lifeline to keep people grounded. “Sometimes when I’m overwhelmed by negative emotions, I like to go on Wikipedia,” Kurvitz said. “Read an article on Sir Francis Younghusband, Pleistocene megafauna, whatever. It’s not only torturous to think–to be the kind of animal us humans are. It is also an absolute pleasure and a privilege.”

Disco Elysium is the 16th game in GameSpot’s history that the website has given a 10/10 review score. In GameSpot’s Disco Elysium review, David Wildgoose wrote, “Disco Elysium is a mad, sprawling detective story where the real case you’ve got to crack isn’t who killed the man strung up on a tree in the middle of town–though that in itself, replete with dozens of unexpected yet intertwined mysteries and wild excursions into the ridiculous, is engrossing enough to sustain the game. Rather, it’s an investigation of ideas, of the way we think, of power and privilege, and of how all of us are shaped, with varying degrees of autonomy, by the society we find ourselves in.”

Disco Elysium is currently only available for PC. Console ports for PS4 and Xbox One are scheduled for 2020.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/one-of-disco-elysiums-more-noteworthy-features-was/1100-6471226/