It’s been a few months since we talked about how we want to approach shipping games with controversial content. In that blog post we talked about some of the tools we felt we needed to build and we thought it would be good to give you an update on where we are. We’ve done a number of things since that post, some which may seem unrelated, but if we are going to maintain an open view of what gets onto the Store, then you’ll need good tools to find the games you want, as well as avoid the things you don’t.
The first set of our changes focused on improving how you can find new games. We’ve added Developer & Publisher homepages so you can easily get from a game you love to others made by the same creators, or follow them if you want to be notified whenever they say or make something. We significantly reworked how our Upcoming Games Lists functioned, so they’re much better at showing you upcoming games that you might be interested in, or upcoming extra content for a game you’ve been playing a bunch.
A second set of changes was focused on improving how you can ignore things you’re not interested in. In the past you’ve been able to ignore individual games or product types (like VR, or Early Access) you didn’t want to see again. But now we’ve added ways for you to also easily ignore individual developers, publishers, and curators.
We’ve also improved the game tag filters on your account preferences. Previously, it was a list of 3 game tags that you wanted to see less of. We’ve now increased the number of tags you can list to 10, and made them into a harder filter – in short, the Store now assumes you want to ignore all the games that feature any of those tags in their most popular tags, instead of just using them as suggestions to our recommendation engine.
We did our best to ensure you can safely ignore swaths of games in the store, but still find them if you look directly via the search tool. If the game that we think you’re searching for is hidden due to your mature content settings, we identify that and let you know in a safe way. For example, if you have your preferences set to hide mature games with violence, but you search for The Witcher 3, you’ll see this:
If there are games that your search should contain that you’re ignoring for other reasons (due to its developer, or game tags, for instance), we’ll still include it in the list, but we’ll blur it out and when you hover over it you can see why it is darkened. For example, if you’ve chosen to ignore games by Valve, and then search for Left 4 Dead, you’ll see this:
A third set of changes focused on allowing you to have better control over the kinds of mature content you see. So far, the Store has allowed you to filter out games that feature Frequent Violence/Gore or Nudity/Sexual Content. After looking at the mature content in submissions we’re receiving, and at some games that are already in the Store, we’ve added two more options. The first is a general Mature Content filter. We often see developers who tell us their game contains mature content, but not sex or violence, and you can now filter those games out if you wish. The second is an Adults Only filter, which allows you to filter out games that feature explicit sexual content.
We’re also now requiring developers of games with violent or sexual content to describe the content of their game, and we’re using that information to help you decide whether a game is something you’re comfortable with. We think the context of how content is presented is important and giving a developer a place to describe and explain what’s in their game gives you even more information when browsing and considering a purchase. When you’re looking at the store page of a game with mature content, we’ll display that developer-written description to you. We’re also displaying it on the interstitial page we show you if you ever follow a direct link from outside steam to a game that should be filtered for you:
Finally, we’ve continued our efforts in removing bad actors from the Store. Last year we made changes to Trading Cards to address the ways a small set of developers were producing ‘games’ that generated revenue without anyone actually buying and playing them. Recently we made more changes to address other ways these bad actors were continuing to do it. We’ve also permanently banned several developers of games that we felt fit the “straight up trolling” description of games we’re not going to allow onto the Store. There’s actually a surprisingly small number of individuals behind almost all of these games, and their bans have been a straightforward series of decisions, thus far. You can read more about the shorthand of “straight up trolling,” and the process of making those decisions in the Q&A below.
With these sets of changes, we hope you have a better sense of how we’re approaching building a store that works for all developers and players. There’s still plenty of work to do. In our previous post we identified a range of things, from parental controls to tools for developers to manage their communities. In addition, some of the changes described in this post will require more options when we see new kinds of content in game submissions. Going forward, we aim to continue this strategy of shipping features as they’re finished, and posting periodic updates as to the nuts and bolts and the thinking behind their development.
Q&A
Q: What about games that are already in the store that include mature content?
A: Every developer will be encouraged to update their game with the customer-facing descriptions outlined above but in most cases Valve moderators will going back through the catalog and making sure games are complying with the new requirements.
Q: What do you mean, in practice, when you say you won’t ship games that are “outright trolling?” That seems vague.
A: It is vague and we’ll tell you why. You’re a denizen of the internet so you know that trolls come in all forms. On Steam, some are simply trying to rile people up with something we call “a game shaped object” (ie: a crudely made piece of software that technically and just barely passes our bar as a functioning video game but isn’t what 99.9% of folks would say is “good”). Some trolls are trying to scam folks out of their Steam inventory items, others are looking for a way to generate a small amount of money off Steam through a series of schemes that revolve around how we let developers use Steam keys. Others are just trying to incite and sow discord. Trolls are figuring out new ways to be loathsome as we write this. But the thing these folks have in common is that they aren’t actually interested in good faith efforts to make and sell games to you or anyone. When a developer’s motives aren’t that, they’re probably a troll.
Our review of something that may be “a troll game” is a deep assessment that actually begins with the developer. We investigate who this developer is, what they’ve done in the past, their behavior on Steam as a developer, as a customer, their banking information, developers they associate with, and more. All of this is done to answer the question “who are we partnering with and why do they want to sell this game?” We get as much context around the creation and creator of the game and then make an assessment. A trend we’re seeing is that we often ban these people from Steam altogether instead of cherry-picking through their individual game submissions. In the words of someone here in the office: “it really does seem like bad games are made by bad people.”
This doesn’t mean there aren’t some crude or lower quality games on Steam, but it does mean we believe the developers behind them aren’t out to do anything more than sell a game they hope some folks will want to play.
Q: Sometimes I see blurred out games on my Store front page. Why is that?
A: There are a number of sections on the front page that we fill with games, and to ensure the servers behind it don’t melt down as everyone tries to use it, we do a lot of data caching. This works great for data sets that we can easily pre-compute – so if there’s a game you shouldn’t see due to your mature content filters, you’ll never see it on the front page. But if you’ve chosen to do some more personal filtering of particular developers, or specific games, we can’t do that pre-computation as easily. As a result, it’s possible you’ll see a blurred out game on the front page because your personal filters should cause it to be hidden. In practice, though, this will only happen if you’ve filtered out so many games that it can’t find enough to fill a section of the front page, and again, like the search results, we’ll blur that game out and tell you why.
Q: Why do you KEEP asking my damn age throughout the store?
A: We’re with you on this. Unfortunately, many rating agencies have rules that stipulate that we cannot save your age for longer than a single browsing session. It’s frustrating, but know we’re filling out those age gates too.
When Bethesda announced the spinoff Wolfenstein: Youngblood at E3 this year, you might have wondered if Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus was the end of the story for series protagonist BJ Blazkowicz. If you did, your worries are misplaced. Wolfenstein III is coming, Bethesda vice president of global marketing and communications Pete Hines told Metro in a recent interview.
"Absolutely we're making a Wolfenstein III," he said. "They said on stage that they're taking a break from the larger story to do [Wolfenstein: Youngblood]. But we all have to see how that ends."
That's good news to fans of the story of Blazkowicz fighting the Nazis, but that's all we have to go on at this point regarding Wolfenstein. In the interview, Hines also touched on another Bethesda series with an uncertain future: Dishonored. When asked about the recent comment from a developer from Arkane Studios that Dishonored is "resting," Hines said, "Ah, I wouldn't read too much into that."
He continued, "Look, Arkane has two studios, they're working on a number of things. That's no different than Todd Howard saying, 'I'm gonna make a Fallout game and then I'm gonna make Starfield before I go back to TES6.' He didn't say I'm never making another… there's like, 'We have an idea for another thing here, we have an idea for another there.'"
Bethesda has a lot of big games planned for the coming years. Fallout 76 launches November 14. Doom Eternal, Rage 2, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood are scheduled for 2019. Beyond that, there's Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI, and now Wolfenstein III.
As for the next Wolfenstein game, Youngblood will be set in the 1980s and stars Jessica and Sophia, the twin daughters of BJ Blazkowicz, as they continue the war on the Nazi scourge. You can play it solo or in co-op. Also coming next year is the VR game Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot.
New Apple video details iPhone XS and XS Max in less than a minute
By Stephen Silver Friday, September 14, 2018, 02:09 pm PT (05:09 pm ET)
In a new video, Apple shows all there is to show about its latest flagship iPhone models that were introduced at a special event on Wednesday.
On Friday, two days after its “Gather Round” event in Cupertino, Apple released a video to its YouTube channel showing “everything to know in 54 seconds” about the new iPhone XS and XS Max. The video surfaced on the day those two devices opened for preorders.
Combining beautiful video of the two new devices with words illustrating its features, the video touts the iPhones’ big screens, water and dust resistance, gold color, improved Face ID, better cameras, A12 Bionic chip, and better speakers.
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“It’s not just one amazing iPhone,” the video concludes. “It’s two.”
It’s not clear whether the video will ever run as a TV commercial, but Apple typically saves summary clips for use on social media.
The video’s fast-paced format is similar to a clip Apple published summarizing all the big announcements from the “Gather Round” event.
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Apple’s iPhone XS and XS Max, as well as the new Apple Watch Series 4, went up for preorder earlier today on the company’s online storefront. Launch day supply of the handsets quickly sold out, with nearly all U.S. carriers showing depleted stock just 30 minutes after sales went live.
Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. Byte for byte this is one of the better editions of the year owing to two standout games, one a tactical combat game and the other an old-school-style RPG. We’ve also got a tabletop to digital conversion.
Out Now
Chaos Reborn: Adventures (iOS Universal) – Full Review Coming Soon!
A tactical turn-based combat game from the creator of XCOM? I’m listening. Recently ported to iOS so I can play it on my iPad? Now we’re talking. Chaos Reborn: Adventures is a grid-and-card-based combat game akin to Duelyst and Faeria, but in a premium pay-once-and-play-forever package. Combat is between two or more wizards, each armed with a deck full of spells driven magical style and gear rather than any deckbuilding efforts on the part of the payer. It requires good tactical planning thanks to considerations such as line-of-sight and high ground. Chaos Reborn also includes some cool mechanics like illusionary creatures. You can choose to cast a creature without paying its mana cost, which places a fully-functional copy on the battlefield. It’s able to attack and be attacked as normal, but, if the opposing wizard chooses to disbelieve the creature it disappears. Disbelieving is a free action if successful but costs the wizard their ability to cast another spell that turn if they are wrong, so it creates some interesting bluffing circumstances and yet another strategic layer.
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Chaos Reborn has a single-player campaign mode as well as online duels against another real-life human where you can choose live or asynchronous action. The AI is actually good and puts up quite a fight, especially as you work to ascend the game’s learning curve. As to that, I highly recommend playing through the tutorial. It’s long but does a nice job of layering in complexity as you go and is a good initial challenge in its own right.
Chaos Reborn: Adventures is a well-designed game and absolutely worth picking up if you love the tactical crunch of games like XCOM and Duelyst. The variety of different creatures and spells—a forest of crystal trees with a chance to transform into elven archers for example—should ensure the game remains compelling for quite some time. The premium price, with no packs to buy, is icing on the cake.
The king is dead, and without heirs his kingdom disintegrates into warring factions. A dark force grows in the power vacuum, The Witchmaster and his army threaten all in their path. Your village, Vamp’Ire, decides to raise a militia and you volunteer. Things…do not go well, and you’re left changed and seeking answers about what happened to you.
This is the setup for Vampire’s Fall: Origins, an old-school indie RPG built for mobile. Aside from the main quest line exploring your new circumstances, the game has side quests and plenty of random combat encounters. It’s also full of laugh-out-loud moments due to some witty and often sarcastic dialogue. The combat is good as well and is turn-based with an intriguing combo system. A normal turn allows you to make one attack or use one special power, but every three turns you can unleash a barrage of attacks and special powers limited only by the amount of energy you have available. It’s quite fun and adds an entertaining tactical layer to planning your attacks and energy usage.
As you complete quests and defeat foes you gain experience and gold. The former gains you levels and points with which you can improve your abilities and advance your way along three different skill trees called Blood Lines. Each point adds what appears to be a relatively minor benefit, but over the course of a couple levels you can make huge strides in terms of character capability and the blood lines offer a lot of different ways to optimize. Naturally, gold buys gear to kit out your ten different equipment slots (including both main and offhand weapons) and higher quality gear provides special benefits. This all combines for some satisfyingly deep character progression.
Vampire’s Fall: Origins is a surprisingly strong mobile RPG with lots of single-player content, sarcastic NPCs, a PVP mode, and plenty of room to improve over time. It’s built by a small indie crew and is completely free-to-play with no ads or freemium mechanics. The developers plan to add optional IAP down the road to support future development (implementing a clan system is one goal) but are dedicated to not mucking up the user experience. If you’re a fan of RPGs, especially on mobile devices, you should absolutely go grab this one.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions is a new CCG with the physical game landing on shelves earlier this summer. Now, the digital version has officially launched. You pick one of four Grand Alliances: order, chaos, destruction, and death and go to battle using its champions and blessings. Warhammer doubles down on the two-lane system made popular by Elder Scrolls: Legends. Quite literally, in fact, as there are four lanes, one for each of your champions. The more-unique twist is that turn by turn the champion cards rotate 90 degrees, offering up different effects as they do. The other interesting difference from other CCGs is the fact you can scan your physical cards and make use of them in the digital game.
Uwe Rosenberg’s two-player quilting game is also on sale on both iOS and Android. It’s easy, colorful, and has a good amount of strategy without being overwhelming.
Challenging puzzle game Cosmic Express has reached its lowest price ever. It’s about finding the best train route for a series of space colonies. It’s a lot of fun and worth a look for puzzle fans.
Seen anything else you like? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
Play on outdoor rinks and journey from the ponds to the pros in new game modes. Compete with and against 200 of the greatest hockey legends to ever hit the ice, highlighted by Wayne Gretzky. Powered by cutting-edge new gameplay technology, experience explosive-edge skating that delivers more acceleration, speed and responsiveness.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout Beta Is Live On Xbox One And PC
PS4 players got to check out Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's private Blackout beta earlier this week, but it's now available for Xbox One and PC players who have pre-ordered the game. The beta went live September 14 and will last until September 17. A PC open beta is scheduled to begin September 15, giving players a chance to play without having to pre-order.
Blackout is the series' first battle royale-like mode, in which a large number of players drop onto a map, search for gear, and try to be the last one standing as the playable area shrinks, ushering everyone closer together (and making them more likely to get into firefights). Unlike similar modes in Fortnite and PUBG, Blackout contains many elements found in previous Call of Duty games, including zombies and returning Black Ops characters.
Developer Treyarch made changes big and small throughout the PS4 beta, doing things like upping the player count from 80 to 88 and decreasing the amount of time it takes to pick up items. The developer says it will continue to make changes on a daily basis.
The Xbox One and PC private beta will be available until September 17 at 10 AM PT (1 PM ET / 5 PM GMT). The PC open beta begins September 15 at 10 AM PT (1 PM ET / 5 PM GMT) and ends on September 17 at the same time as the private beta.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is set to arrive on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 12. It comes in a number of editions, each of which offers a different set of add-ons. You can find full details in our Black Ops 4 pre-order guide.
Niantic touts 35 percent growth in active players for Pokemon Go
Newsbrief: Since Pokemon Go’s explosive launch, its playerbase has shot up and down on a rollercoaster ride that can only be expected when a game has become one of the world’s most popular MMORPGs. But in a company blog post today, Niantic has confirmed that its number of total active players has once again been ticking upward, touting a 35 percent growth since May of 2018.
The blog post, which also takes time to discuss the company’s partnership with the Knight Foundation, slipped in this statistic while discussing how players have been coming together for the last few months. In June, Niantic released Pokemon Go’s social update, which implemented a full friend system and gave players the ability to send gifts to their friends.
These new features, along with a slew of community and company-organized events, appear to be the driving factor behind the new growth.
Now Available on Steam Early Access – World of Warplanes
Save up to 80% in the Made with GameMaker sale during this week’s Midweek Madness*!
GameMaker Studio 2 is the latest and greatest incarnation of GameMaker! It has everything you need to take your idea from concept to finished game. With no barriers to entry and powerful functionality, GameMaker Studio 2 is the ultimate 2D development environment!
Over 40 games made with GameMaker are on discount during this sale as well as GameMaker Studio 2 at its lowest price ever on Steam! Whether you want to play these amazing games or start making games, check out the deals today!
Pre-Load of Open Beta Starts September 3, 1 am PT (10 am CET)
Open Beta Early Access Starts September 4, 1 am PT (10 am CET)
Open Beta Available for Everyone September 6, 1 am PT (10 am CET)
Open Beta Ends September 11, 7 am PT (4 pm CET)
Why are We Doing an Open Beta? The Battlefield V open beta lets us test the game running in a live environment with a high player count. We’re testing technical aspects like server stability as well as gameplay – things like weapon balancing and progression. It’s also an opportunity to collect feedback from participating players. Give us your comments and feedback on the open beta here on the Battlefield V forums.
Maps You’ll Fight On and Game Modes You’ll Tackle Among the snowy Norwegian landscapes of the Narvik map, you’ll be able to play both Conquest and two “days” of the Grand Operation Fall of Norway. Those are in-game days, by the way. Grand Operations contain several of these days, with one game mode featured in each. In Fall of Norway, Day 1 will be spent in the Airborne mode, where you’ll paradrop down to the battlefield and be on either side of a fight where explosives are deployed on control points. Day 2 features Breakthrough, where your team either attacks or defends vital sectors. In this mode, stay aggressive and tactical as an attacker, or use on-the-fly planning to keep the enemy at bay when defending.
Then there’s new scenery to explore: Rotterdam. You’ll fight in the streets of the Dutch city in its pristine, pre-war state before battles left it in devastation. Deploy on this map and try the signature Battlefield V game mode: Conquest. Returning to classic rules, Conquest is a 64-player fight where two teams fight for control over key flags on the map. Hold the majority of these points to drain the opposition’s score and win the day.
Vehicles and Reinforcements Five iconic World War II tanks and seven aircraft will be at your disposal in the Battlefield V open beta. Deploy as a Tanker and bring the big guns to the fight including the Valentine Mk VIII, Churchill Mk VII, Churchill Gun Carrier, Panzer IV, and the Tiger I. If you prefer soaring through the skies, support your team from above in the Spitfire Mk VA, Spitfire Mk VB, Blenheim Mk IF, Bf 109 G-2, Ju 87 Stuka B-2, Ju 87 Stuka B-1, and the C47.
In addition, you’ll be able to fend off flying foes with stationary and towable AA Guns. Tanks giving you trouble? Use the Anti-Tank Guns, also stationary or towable.
A Squad Leader who’s collected enough Squad Points will get the thrilling opportunity to unleash the powerful reinforcements. If you played any of the closed alphas, you’ll recognize the terrifying sight of the two heavy tanks: the British Churchill Crocodile and the German Sturmtiger.
Also returning from the Alphas are the JB-2 and V-1 Rocket Strikes that will send enemies flying. New this time around are the Supply Canister Drops. These are sources of health and ammunition, paradropped in the battlefield at the cost of 7,500 requisition points.
Classes and Combat Roles The four main classes are available in the Battlefield V open beta: Assault, Recon, Medic, and Support. Each class will have several combat roles in Battlefield V, and in the open beta you’ll get to try one for each class.
Every combat role comes with unique traits. If you, for instance, play as Recon, its sniper combat role will grant you the tactical retreat trait, meaning you’ll sprint faster in critical health states. The field medic combat role comes with a syringe revive trait, which allows you to revive all teammates (not only those in your squad) with your syringe.
Weapons Picking a class in the open beta also means – to some extent – picking a weapon type. The Support class wields the powerful light machine guns, such as KE7, Bren Gun, and FG-42 – but also the M30 Drilling Shotgun. Medic players can play the objective with the sub-machineguns STEN, Suomi KP/31, MP40, and EMP.
If you’re in the heat of the battle with the Assault class, use semi-automatic weapons like the Turner SMLE, M1A1 Carbine, and Gewehr 43, or the StG 44 assault rifle. If you’re further from battle with the Recon class, rack up headshots with bolt-action rifles – here you can choose between the Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk I, ZH-29, or the Kar98k.
Add sidearms, melee weapons, grenades, and gadgets to this and you’ll have a powerful, versatile arsenal to try out in your Open Beta fights.
A Taste of the Tides of War With Tides of War, you and your personal soldiers of your Battlefield Vcompany will embark on a journey through themed, different chapters of World War II, filled with events. With each chapter of Tides of War, players will have all-new ways to play while also being able to earn the latest and greatest themed Battlefield V vanity items. The open beta will be your first early look at how parts of the Tides of War will work.
A five-part Tides of War event will be part of the open beta. Players who complete this challenge before Sunday, September 9 will earn an exclusive in-game dog tag in Battlefield V at launch. Note that the Shock Troops event is just a small taste of Tides of War – much, much more is coming. Make sure to give us your feedback on how the flow of playing these challenges feels like.
Enjoy the Open Beta Have fun in your battles on Narvik and Rotterdam. We hope you’ll enjoy the unexpected WWII moments that the open beta will feature. Also, remember that this is a chance for you to give feedback and help shape Battlefield V.
