Download it today.
Pokémon isn’t the only game that’s been updated today, it seems Monolith Soft and Nintendo have also released a patch for the excellent Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
Compared to the previous update, Version 2.1.1 is quite small. It contains some bug fixes tied to the Expansion Pass and addresses a battle issue. You can get the full rundown courtesy of the official patch notes below:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
In some big Sims news today, EA has confirmed that The Sims 5, codenamed Project Rene, will be “free to download when it’s ready.”
“This means that when Project Rene is ready and fully open to players, you will be able to join, play and explore it without a subscription, core game purchase or energy mechanics,” EA elaborated in a blog post today during a new Behind the Sims presentation. “We want playing to be super easy for you to invite or join friends and experience new features, stories and challenges.”
The blog post went on to say that the next Sims game won’t replace The Sims 4, but that the two will exist “side by side”: “We will continue to support both at the same time and will plan to bring more exciting content to The Sims 4 community for the foreseeable future,” it added.
EA further clarified that Project Rene “won’t begin with everything you have in The Sims 4,” but they “plan to add new experiences and content to Project Rene over time.” Unsurprisingly, EA still plans to sell DLC for Project Rene, but promises to switch it up a bit.
“For example, basic weather may be added to the core game for free, for everybody,” EA continued. “And in the future, a pack for purchase may be focused on winter sports with activities like ice dancing or a snowman building competition.”
The news doesn’t come as a huge shocker, as EA previously posted a job listing that called Project Rene “free-to-enter.” Still, it is the company’s first official confirmation that it’ll be free at launch, along with the fact that it won’t replace The Sims 4. And while The Sims 4 wasn’t free to play at its 2014 launch, it has been since October 2022, which is also when EA first teased the next generation of Sims.
We still don’t have a release date for The Sims 5 – or Project Rene, whichever you prefer – but EA said today it’s still in the “early stages” of development.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Star quality.
Bandai Namco has uploaded the music to both halves of the Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster, ahead of its launch this Thursday and Friday.
From today, you can stream the music from Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean and Baten Kaitos Origins on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and a variety of other streaming services. You can also purchase both soundtracks on Apple Music and Amazon Music in some regions.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The next Sims game currently goes under the name Project Rene rather than The Sims 5, but that aside, we know a growing amount about EA Maxis’ next social simulation. During today’s latest Behind The Sims community update, they shared more, including the news that the next entry in the series would be free-to-play and without energy mechanics or a subscription.
Game developers aren’t happy with a new policy from Unity that will cost developers a small fee every time someone downloads a game built on Unity’s game engine.
It’s called the Unity Runtime Fee, and the new pricing model will apply to developers who reach a certain amount of installs and revenue.
“We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user,” Unity’s announcement reads in part. “We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed. Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement, unlike a revenue share.”
The Unity Runtime Fee is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024, and it’s been universally panned by developers on social media since its announcement earlier today.
SIGH pic.twitter.com/YgJEKGVQEI
— AGGRO CRAB (@AggroCrabGames) September 12, 2023
Unity’s blog post details what games will qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee, based on two key criteria:
Unity further lays out the minimum revenue and install count to qualify, with different thresholds for developers using Unity Personal/Unity Plus, Unity Pro, and Unity Enterprise. For smaller indie developers who use Unity Personal/Unity Plus, they’ll have to pay Unity $0.20 per install once their game passes $200,000 in revenue over the last 12 months and 200,000 life-to-date installs. This new policy has caused a lot of backlash among developers, who are raising concerns about free-to-play games, charity bundles, and more.
One big concern is surrounding “freemium” games that cost nothing to download and rely on in-game purchases for revenue. For instance, if a free-to-play game has made $200,0000 in the last 12 months but has millions of people installing it, the developer could end up owing Unity more than the profit earned from in-game purchases.
> make a game
> game is fremium
> game makes 200k from in-app purchases after being installed 3 million times
> now owe Unity 20c per 2.8M installs, $560K
> that’s 360K more than we made https://t.co/6fe6Ob35Oj— michael j foxney 🌵 (@kurtruslfanclub) September 12, 2023
Others are worried this could lead some smaller developers who built their games on Unity to pull titles from digital storefronts to prevent more people from racking up downloads.
“I bet Steam, Epic, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft will love having waves of developers pulling their games,” writes Forest from Among Us developer Innersloth Games. “Innersloth has always paid Unity appropriately for licenses and services we use. I’m not a discourse guy, but this is undue and *will* force my hand.”
I bet Steam, Epic, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft will love having waves of developers pulling their games.
Innersloth has always paid Unity appropriately for licenses and services we use. I’m not a discourse guy, but this is undue and *will* force my hand. https://t.co/zLC9a8lBED
— Forest (@forte_bass) September 12, 2023
Other developers are actually asking people online to not install their game built in Unity, with Paper Trail developer Huenry Hueffman writing, “if you buy our Unity game, please don’t install it… demos also count, dont install this demo, you’ll literally bankrupt me”.
if you buy our Unity game, please don’t install it
— Huenry Hueffman (@HenryHoffman) September 12, 2023
This new pricing model has some developers considering rebuilding their game in an entirely different engine, calling on Unity to refund lifetime license costs for everyone.
So uh, do I just rebuild my whole game in a different engine?
spent a small fortune on pro licenses to develop the game over several years, seems kind of insane that Unity can just throw this out there on a whim.
They should refund the lifetime license costs for everyone.
— Sanatana Mishra (@SanatanaMishra) September 12, 2023
Some have pointed out that toxic, angry gamers could organize mass-install campaigns against developers they don’t like. They could get as many people as possible to download a Unity game from a small developer to attempt to financially harm them.
In a statement to IGN, a Unity spokesperson said they’re already working on preventing malicious install harassment campaigns.
“We do already have fraud detection practices in our Ads technology which is solving a similar problem, so we will leverage that know-how as a starting point,” the Unity spokesperson said. “We recognize that users will have concerns about this and we will make available a process for them to submit their concerns to our fraud compliance team.”
Unity also clarified that the fee will not apply to charity games or charity bundles. Unity defended the pricing model, saying it’s designed to only charge developers who have already found financial success.
We only succeed when you succeed. Our 5% royalty model only kicks in after your first $1M in gross revenue, meaning that if you make $1,000,001 you owe us 5 cents. And this is per title!
Also, revenue generated from the Epic Games Store will be excluded from that 5% royalty. pic.twitter.com/OamPlB05FD— Ari Arnbjörnsson (@flassari) September 12, 2023
“The program was designed specifically this way to ensure developers could find success before the install fee takes effect. The developers who will be impacted are generally those who have successful games and are generating revenue way above the thresholds. This means that developers who are still building their business and growing the audience of their games will not pay a fee.”
Unity also said it will track installs with its own proprietary data. Speaking to Axios, Unity also confirmed that if a player deletes a game and re-installs it, that counts as two installs, and two separate fees.
Folks who work on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine — which is Unity’s biggest competitor — are capitalizing on Unity’s bad day by pointing out that Unreal’s 5% royalty model kicks in only after a game grosses $1 million.
Unity has been under pressure lately, laying off hundreds of employees in the first half of 2023. Riccitiello also came under fire in 2022 for referring to developers who don’t focus on microtransactions as the “biggest f*cking idiots” before apologizing. Featured in everything from Cuphead to Beat Saber to Pokemon Go, it has been lauded for ease of use. However, trust in the platform has been declining over the years, leading many developers to look to alternatives.
“Now I can say, unequivocally, if you’re starting a new game project, do not use Unity,” wrote developer Brandon Sheffield in a post summing up the feelings of many creators. “If you started a project 4 months ago, it’s worth switching to something else. Unity is quite simply not a company to be trusted.”
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
Today marks 20 years since the release of Steam, as we wrote about earlier today. Valve have now posted their own reminiscence about the history of their digital distribution platform over on the Steam site.
And in typical Steam fashion, it’s also a sale.
Game developers are not happy with the news.
Unity has announced plans to charge developers a fee each time a video game using the Unity engine is installed. Unity Plus is also being retired for new subscribers, starting today.
In a blog post released today (spotted via Game Developer), Unity revealed the ‘Unity Runtime Fee’. This new model be implemented from January 2024 and essentially means that developers will be charged a fee per install (compiled via a monthly charge) once a project crosses has made $200,000 in revenue over 12 months and achieved 200,000 total installs for Unity Personal and Plus. For Pro and Enterprise, the threshold is increased to $1 million in revenue over 12 months and 1 million total installs.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The Pokemon Company has teased a collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It seems like the collaboration will start on Sept. 28, and more information will be revealed soon.
The teaser trailer shows Eevee and Pikachu running through a field of sunflowers and then the sky turns into a post-impressionist Van Gogh-style painting. All of a sudden, a huge group of Sunflora come to greet the both of them. The trailer ends with a post-impressionist Sunflora painting. This is clearly a reference to Van Gogh’s 1889 still life painting, Sunflowers, which remains one of his most famous to date.
🖌 Pokémon × @vangoghmuseum, Amsterdam
🎨 From 28 September 2023
🖼 More information coming soon! pic.twitter.com/B9hKPH4hGB— Pokémon (@Pokemon) September 12, 2023
It’s currently unclear what the exact details of this collaboration will be. The museum could simply just put up other paintings of Pokemon in Van Gogh’s style. However, we’ll know more details about the collaboration later this month.
Pokemon has worked with other brands before, including Hatsune Miku for Project Voltage, a music collaboration that features 18 different songs. The Pokemon Company has also collaborated with Converse Japan to release a collection of sneakers.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
Apple says its iPhone 15 Pro represents the “next generation of mobile gaming”, with support for console and PC games previously unavailable on mobile hardware.
Revealed at today’s Apple Wonderlust Event, iPhone 15 Pro is getting a lineup of AAA games, including native versions of Resident Evil 4 Remake, Resident Evil Village, Death Stranding, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Apple also teased huge performance upgrades and ray tracing for gaming on iPhone.
This represents a huge milestone for mobile gaming, as Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s release on iPhone 15 Pro will mark the first time that a console/PC Assassin’s Creed game will run natively on iOS. Not to be confused with cloud streaming or the upcoming mobile-only Assassin’s Creed game, it appears the full version of Assassin’s Creed Mirage and these other titles will be available on iPhone 15 Pro. We’ll have to wait and see how well these games perform, and how AAA gaming impacts iPhone 15 Pro’s battery life, but the idea of playing modern AAA games on mobile hardware is fascinating.
As for release timing, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, and Death Stranding are coming to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max later this year, while Assassin’s Creed Mirage is coming in the first half of 2024. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set to hit PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 5, meaning the iPhone version is coming a bit later than the console and PC release.
Apple says the pro-class GPU is 20 percent faster, featuring a 6-core design with better peak performance and energy efficiency. Apple says its new A17 Pro enables, “next-level mobile gaming with fast, efficient performance and hardware-accelerated ray tracing.”
For more, check out everything announced at the Apple Wonderlust Event, including the new Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, iPhone 15, and more.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
Picross developer Jupiter is reportedly porting all nine Picross E games to Nintendo Switch after the 3DS eShop shut down and rendered them unavailable.
As reported by Nintendo Life, Picross S+ will launch in 2024 on Nintendo Switch for $4.99 / £3.99 / €4.99, essentially as a remaster of the original Picross E game. This will be considered the base game, while the puzzles featured in the remaining Picross E games will be made available as paid add-on content.
This will be the only way to play the Picross E series after Nintendo closed the 3DS and Wii U eShops in March 2023. This made digital only games like the Picross E series essentially non-existent to those who hadn’t purchased them already.
Users who buy Picross S+ and its paid content packs (the price for which have not yet been revealed) will be able to own the entire series again on Switch, however, in what’s likely a more sustainable digital format as players’ Nintendo accounts will persist beyond the Switch.
When the Picross E9 content pack is released for Picross S+, this will also mark the first time this game’s puzzles will be available in the west, as the original 3DS game was a Japan exclusive.
The latest game in the series, Picross S9, was released in April 2023 and featured hundreds of the nonogram puzzles for players to overcome.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
