Letters have been sent by the US Federal Trade Commission to the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe, reminding them that there could be hell to pay if they deny customers access to their services because of said customers' political or religious views. Potential discrimination against those with Trumpy views are the body's main concern, but their push could also impact the buying of NSFW games.

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The mystery of what you should price your game is one that I am sure will continue to remain mostly unsolved. There's just no right answer, and to make matters worse, there's currencies other than your own to consider. On Steam there have been plenty of occasions where regional pricing differences haven't gone down well, primarily due to games costing too much based on local wages. However, a new Steam update should now make it easier for devs to set better regional prices.

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Like many people at companies preoccupied with discovering the next "goose that lays the golden egg", Half-Life 2 and Portal writer Erik Wolpaw has been "poking around" with generative AI. He and a small team at Valve have been testing out different applications, in what Wolpaw assures us isn't a "concerted" effort at implementing the soul-regurgitating, workforce-abrading gadgetry in any particular new game.

Wolpaw's current feeling is that generative AI isn't very good at anything "creative", like cracking jokes. But he does think Large Language Models could make for entertaining NPC voice reactions in games such as Grand Theft Auto and, indeed, Wolpaw's own Left 4 Dead, because AI is marvellous at being a fawning little gopher. It is fantastic at "going along with whatever insane thing you say and kind of adjusting to the flow of that".

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Recently, my gaming desktop of 10 years ground to a screeching halt and died pathetically while my hopes, dreams, and Steam library evaporated. While I search for a good deal on a new one, I’ve had to make do with laptops that only have space for one or two titles. While we get spoiled for […]

Drakantos is one of the cuter indie MMORPGs we’ve been keeping an eye on over the last few years, so we’re happy to hear that it’s gearing up for yet another beta test in May. Unlike the last one, this test will focus on PvP tuning, though you don’t have to engage and can play […]

As promised, RuneScape Dragonwilds’ 0.11 patch has entered the survival sandbox’s early access chat today, bearing the uncomfortable name Dowdun Reach, which either sounds like “dowdy” or reminds me of Downton Abbey every single time I see it. The patch itself is anything but dowdy, however, as players are looking at new quests, new building […]

Sure, we’ve seen a couple of games that combine creature collecting and survival sandbox mechanics before, but what if that game format were more about ARPG combat and also let players directly control the companions they capture? That seems to be the elevator pitch of Never Wither, a developing multiplayer survival crafting ARPG from studio […]

The Honse game lives, and indeed, Equinox Homecoming has just released its first content patch since its formal launch at the top of March. Indie studio Blue Scarab has rolled out chapter four, seven new main quests “where you’ll come face to face with a conspiracy gripping the island,” five side quests, new cutscenes, a […]

PUBG Blindspot was probably always doomed to be in MMORPG fans’ blindspot, given that it was a multiplayer tactical shooter, but you still might’ve though Krafton would be able to make it stick in the games industry with the word “PUBG” attached to it. Apparently not: Over the weekend, Krafton’s ARC Team (no relation to […]

Project Gorgon always has been quite the social MMORPG, but now it’s going to have more structure to back that up thanks to the debut of its guild system. Players can form a guild for 200 ancient coins and five members, and they can share a bank and a special guild chat channel. “Please note […]

In the middle of layoffs and future uncertainty for Fortnite, the popular PvP title is latching onto Game of Thrones for its next cross-promotional boost. There’s going to be a new ice area while players can grab skins for Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and the Night King. And this is just the beginning of the rest of […]

This week’s Massively Overthinking is inspired directly by something MOP reader Zulika said last month in comments about Smed’s new MMOFPS. “More and more I am just glad past me was around to experience MMOs starting in 2000.” OK, obviously Zulika was throwing deserved shade on some of 2025’s excesses, but let’s talk about more […]

If you haven’t played Gamigo’s core MMORPG Trove in a while or ever, you might not realize that modding has always been a big deal in the game, and we’re not just talking about Trion and then Gamigo’s programs for putting player-made gear and structures directly into the live MMO. Trove’s fanbase maintains several mod […]

Way back in April, Astroneer studio System Era Softworks announced a spinoff of its OG multiplayer space sandbox, but still set in the Astroneer universe. Called Starseeker, the new game sounded even more multiplayer-oriented than its predecessor. Now, System Era has gone into more detail on what to expect, courtesy of this week’s gameplay reveal […]

This week saw the first season arrive to the early access mulitplayer sandbox of Skate, and like all games that run a seasonal model, this one is once again making sure that players are made aware that it has a battle pass – sorry, skate pass – that offers up cosmetic goodies to earn. The […]