Ethan Gach

Report: Activision Blizzard Calls Policy To Make Hiring More Diverse ‘Unworkable’

Earlier this month, Activision Blizzard was asked to institute some version of the Rooney Rule, a policy requiring employers to interview diverse candidates when hiring, according to a new report by Motherboard. Lawyers for the massive publisher behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft responded that such a policy would be “an unworkable encroachment…

Even the White House is getting questions about GameStop. “Our economic team, including [Treasury] Secretary Yellen and others are monitoring the situation,” Psaki said when asked about the gaming store’s unprecedented stock price surge during today’s daily press briefing

GameStop Stock Drama Continues As Price Soars And Hedge Fund Blinks

GameStop’s stock price continued to soar in after-hours trading last night to over $300. While many are waiting for it to come crashing back down, it might be too late for some major hedge funds. With the stock still sitting at well over $250 a share (unthinkable just last year when it was trading at…

Xbox Game Pass now has 18 million subscribers, up 20% from the fall, Microsoft announced during a call with investors today. It also said it sold more Xbox Series X/S’s than during the first month of any other console launch. The company still won’t release specific numbers though.

GameStonk day three: the billionaires are at it again For a third day in a row, GameStop stock is posting ridiculous numbers, once again climbing past $140 a share at one point. *Sigh*.

Sea of Thieves first season begins January 28. The live-service pirate sim announced it was shifting to a more seasonal flow of updates, including adding a battle pass, last month. The new progression path will have free and paid versions.

Age of Empires II Is Still Getting New Civilizations, More Than 21 Years Later

The classic real-time strategy game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings just keeps growing, and growing, and growing. Its latest expansion, decades after the game was originally released in 1999, is calledLords of the West and adds three more campaigns and two completely new civilizations: Burgundians and Sicilians. Out today on PC, Lords…

Two Developers Are Turning Bloodborne Into A Playable PS1 Game

PS1-style demakes are in right now. From Cyberpunk 2077 to Untitled Goose Game, idle developers have been creating low-poly homages to Sony’s first gaming console, warping modern aesthetics and sensibilities into late ‘90s jank. Bloodborne PSX is another project in that vein, but unlike lots of other demakes, its creators want to make the retro…

GameStop Has Another Record-Shattering Day On Wall Street [Update: And Another One]

Update – 6:28 p.m. ET, 1/26/21: Closing over $145 after another record day, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas reports that GameStop was the most traded equity in the world today. It’s even continued to rise in after hours trading, bobbling over $200. DeepFuckingValue, the Redditor instrumental to starting this whole thing, reported he’s now up $22…

Reggie Fils-Aimé, Jack Trenton, and Robbie Bach are getting together on Twitch to tomorrow to talk about the gaming industry’s past and future. The discussion between the former head Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox executives respectively kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET ahead of the 2021 New York Game Awards

Cyber Shadow Is Another Fantastic Homage To Classic NES Games

What 2D side-scroller Cyber Shadow is missing in personality it makes up for with amazing visuals and action sequences that challenge your timing and reflexes without ever feeling tedious or cheap. I’ve been loving my time with its pastiche of classic NES games, even if, so far, its story hasn’t measured up to everything else…

GameStop’s Stock Price Soars To New Records Because Capitalism Is A Shell Game

Struggling retailer GameStop’s stock curiously hit an all time high today. But it’s not because Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo suddenly decided to stop selling their games digitally. And it’s not because a new set of Funko Pops has taken the internet’s imagination by storm. No, the stock price jumped to an all-time high because some…

Capcom has apparently changed directions with its remake of Resident Evil 4, potentially delaying the game’s release until 2023, according to a new report by VGC. If you were wondering why it didn’t pop up in yesterday’s Resident Evil livestream, that may be the reason.

Here’s February 2021’s Xbox Live Games With Gold

Perhaps to try and take a bit of the sting out of announcing that Xbox Live Gold will now cost $120 a year, Microsoft announced some pretty good Games with Gold for next month. February’s lineup is headlined by Gears 5, which is excellent and also just got a very good DLC expansion. Dandara is…

Microsoft Doubles Cost Of Xbox Live From What It Was A Year Ago

Xbox Live Gold, Microsoft’s online service for Xbox, is about to get more expensive. The company announced this morning that subscriptions will go up by $1 to $11 a month in the coming weeks. The new cheapest option for an annual subscription is paying for the $60 six month plan twice, double what a year…

Destiny 2‘s Best Loot Mechanic From Last Year Is Coming Back

Destiny 2‘s Umbral Engrams and Prismatic Recaster from season 11 are coming back in season 13, Bungie announced in this week’s blog post. That’s great news, considering it made for one of the better loot grinds in the game’s recent past. Unlike most Legendary Engrams in Destiny 2, which decrypt into random gear you have…

Report: $250 Collector’s Edition Of Cyberpunk 2077 Gets Refunded, Player Gets To Keep It Anyway

For the last month, digital storefronts, brick-and-mortar retailers, and developer CD Projekt Red have been processing refunds for Cyberpunk 2077’s busted console version. That includes the game’s $250 collector’s edition, which in one case CDPR refunded without making the customer in question return it, according to a new report by Vice Games “I was surprised…

PUBG‘s New Reputation System Will Let Other Players Know If You’re An Asshole

PUBG’s latest update adds a souped-up new sports car, more improvements to test out in the lab version, and most importantly a reputation system that will try to give you a score based on how toxic you are as a player. That sounds amazing. More games should have this. Out today as part of patch…

Lucky Winners Of Newegg’s Lottery Get To Pay Full Price For PC Parts

A lottery for prized graphics cards and processors went up briefly on PC part seller Newegg’s site yesterday. It’s a testament to the ongoing shortage of all things gaming during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. The “Newegg Shuffle Event,” screencaps of which were saved over on Imgur and first reported on by PCMag, invited customers to…

Late capitalism roguelike Going Under has a new update out called Working From Home that adds more locations, outfits, and modes. You can start playing it today on PC, but will need to wait until February 25 for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch.