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Rick And Morty Creator Leaves Studio Behind Huge Game Pass Hit

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Image: Squanch Games

Justin Roiland is leaving Squanch Games just a month after comedic shooter High on Life became 2022’s most popular Xbox Game Pass launch. The studio co-founder who voices many of High on Life’s characters is currently facing two felony domestic abuse charges from 2020.

Squanch Games announced the news late on Tuesday, shortly after Adult Swim revealed that it was dropping Roiland from Rick and Morty as well. But the CEO’s resignation apparently actually occurred over a week ago on January 16, four days after news of the domestic abuse charges first surfaced (which Roiland pled not guilty to), and three days after Kotaku first reported on a 2018 lawsuit accusing the studio of workplace harassment and discrimination (and which it settled in 2019).

“The passionate team at Squanch will keep developing games we know our fans will love while continuing to support and improve High On Life,” the studio tweeted yesterday. Squanch Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why Roiland resigned, whether it was aware of any other allegations related to him or the studio, and whether he still holds any equity in Squanch.

Co-founded by Roiland and former Epic Games executive producer Tanya Watson back in 2016, Squanch Games’ early projects included virtual reality games Accounting and Dr. Splorchy Presents: Space Heroes. Those were followed in 2019 by action platformer Trover Saves the Universe. Each of them leaned heavily on voice performances by Roiland that were heavily reminiscent of his work on Rick and Morty.

Last year’s High on Life, which began as a Google Stadia exclusive, was the studio’s biggest game by far, however. In Kotaku’s own review, writer Alyssa Mercante found the humor grating and felt that the running gags overstayed their welcome, but she was pleasantly surprised by the visual style and gunplay. The game similarly divided other critics, but audiences flocked to it on Xbox and PC where it was available day-one on Game Pass.

Whether because of the game’s own merits or the fact that it showed up at the tail end of an otherwise anemic year for Xbox exclusives and blockbusters, it immediately shot up to the top of the charts on Game Pass. Shortly after release, Microsoft crowned it “Xbox Game Pass’ biggest launch of 2022, the biggest 3rd party Game Pass launch of all time, and the biggest release of a single player-only game in the service’s history.”

That accolade came after a big promotional campaign for the game on the platform, including a podcast interview between human Xbox mascot Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb and Roiland, where the latter discussed the game and its influences. That’s gone quiet now, with the Xbox Game Pass Twitter account not tweeting about High on Life since news of the domestic abuse charges first broke.



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Darktide’s Xbox Release Delayed So PC Version Can Be Fixed

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Image: Darktide

Warhammer 40K: Darktide released on PC late last year, a dark and chunky take on Left 4 Dead set in Games Workshop’s grim, distant future. It was OK! Had its problems, but was OK. Those problems have persisted into 2023, though, and so the developers are shelving an Xbox version of the game while they get to work fixing them.

In a statement released earlier today, Fatshark say they set out to “create a highly engaging and stable game with a level of depth that keeps you playing for weeks, not hours”, but “fell short of meeting those expectations”.

As a result, they’re not only delaying “seasonal content” for the PC version, but will be delaying the release of the game on Xbox Series X|S as well.

OPEN LETTER ΤΟ OUR PLAYERS

We take enormous pride in our ability at Fatshark to deliver a game that millions can enjoy. This was what we set out to do with Warhammer 40,000: Darktide to create a highly engaging and stable game with a level of depth that keeps you playing for weeks, not hours.

We fell short of meeting those expectations.

Over the next few months, our sole focus is to address the feedback that many of you have. In particular, we will focus on delivering a complete crafting system, a more rewarding progression loop, and continue to work on game stability and performance optimization.

This also means that we will delay our seasonal content rollout and the Xbox Series XIS launch. We will also suspend the upcoming releases of premium cosmetics. We just couldn’t continue down this path, knowing that we have not addressed many feedback areas in the game today.

Thank you for playing and providing feedback. We really appreciate it. It has and will continue to help shape the game we love.

Martin Wahlund CEO & Co-Founder of Fatshark

I didn’t think the PC version was that bad! Sure it had problems, but online games from smaller teams like this often do. Then again smaller teams often don’t have the resources to do everything at once, so if this is what they want to do with what they’ve got then this is what they’re going to to do with what they’ve got!

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Technology

The Masters Of Stealth Tactics Are Back With A New Pirate Game

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Image: Mimimi

There are few studios out there on top of their respective games like Mimimi are. From Shadow Tactics to Desperadoes 3, they’ve proven themselves the master of the modern stealth tactics game, and in 2023 they’re back with an all-new game, this time about pirates.

This is Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, which is due out towards the end of the year. It won’t take long in the trailers below to see some familiar sights: the mix of real-time action combined with stealth tactics and special powers is one Mimimi have been perfecting over the past decade, and after dabbling with some magic in their last game they’re fully committed to it now.

Here’s the game’s reveal trailer:

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew – Cinematic Reveal Trailer

And, more helpfully, here’s the game’s debut gameplay trailer:

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew – First Gameplay Trailer

Aside from the obvious thematic shift, from one colourful era of history to another, this will all look very familiar to fans of Shadow Tactics and Desperadoes 3. Which, let’s be clear, is a very good thing. Those two games have come about as close as games can come to perfecting a genre, so Shadow Gambit will be messing with things around the edges of the Mimimi experience, not making wholesale changes.

Shadow Gambit will be out at the end of 2023 on PC, Xbox and PlayStation. And if you think I’ve been more hyperbolic than usual in talking about these games, know that I have good reason. Here’s how I wrapped up my impressions of Desperadoes 3:

I can’t speak highly enough of Desperados 3. It’s almost the perfect stealth experience, tense but not terrifying, empowering but not easy (it actually gets really tough in parts), and if this is the pedigree that Mimimi are building for themselves in this space, I can’t wait to see what comes next.

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Technology

Destiny 2 Feels Like It’s Held Together With Duct Tape Lately

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Image: Bungie / Kotaku / Kat Ka (Shutterstock)

Free-to-play online MMO looter shooter Destiny 2, released in 2017, is one of my favorite video games. I play it all the time. I have multiple characters. I own all the recent seasons. It’s fantastic. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned for the game’s future, as with each passing season, it seems to become more prone to breaking. In fact, as I write this very paragraph at around 4:00 p.m. on January 24, the game remains offline as Bungie continues to investigate the latest problem. Meanwhile, many players are hoping for a brand-new engine and game, likely in the form of Destiny 3. But things are never that simple.

Earlier today, Destiny 2 was taken offline across all platforms as Bungie investigated players losing progress on triumphs and seals, which operate like in-game achievements and challenges. It’s not the end of the world, sure, but just last week a few players reported losing their characters along with all their progress and items. And before that, it was a new mission not updating properly for players. And before that it was something else. In 2023, after years of updates, expansions, and more, it feels like Destiny 2 is starting to buckle under its own weight.

Taking a peek at Bungie’s official support account on Twitter—which often updates frequently to let players know about upcoming patches, server issues, and other vital info about Destiny 2—you can find a lot of tweets that amount to Bungie going “Welp, this isn’t working. We are trying to fix it. More info later.” Online games not working every day isn’t new and it’s not a problem exclusive to Destiny 2. But is starting to become a more prevalent issue with the aging shooter. Looking at that support account, a lot of the tweets about bugs or broken missions don’t have weeks between them, but just a few days or less.

Anecdotally, my time playing Destiny 2 lately has been buggier than ever. This new season brought with it both cool new heist missions and weird lag that I’ve never seen before. I still run into the problem of the game not counting every PvP match, making us play more to finish challenges and weekly quests. And I’ve just accepted that in-game bounties tied to kills, missions, or other activities won’t always update as they should. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I and other players I know have just gotten used to Destiny 2 not being reliable. And it seems to be getting worse, not better, as the game expands and adds more layers and systems.

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Look online and you’ll quickly see players suggesting that Bungie needs to move on to a theoretical Destiny 3, a game that likely will happen—and is maybe in development already—but which hasn’t been confirmed. During today’s extended downtime, Destiny 3 was trending on Twitter as players argued over the shooter’s future and stability. For some, the idea of a new engine and fresh slate felt promising, giving hope it would solve many of Destiny 2’s problems. Others pointed out that a brand-new game isn’t easy to make or simple to launch, and would likely be missing features or content at release. Plus, there’s no guarantee it would fix all of the emerging problems.

Personally, I think a new Destiny would likely be a good move to eventually make. It could allow the devs to make something more flexible and able to handle the type of events they’ve spent years crafting and perfecting. But I also am not naive enough to believe it would fix everything or be easy to create. Still, I get the frustration players are feeling as Destiny 2 remains consistently inconsistent.

Like an old PC or blender, Destiny 2 mostly works, but it’s covered in duct tape, dents, and dirt. And every so often you have to kick it or mess with the cord to get it to start. Sure, it still rumbles to life for now, but you’ll probably need to replace it one day. And with Destiny 2, I get the feeling Bungie will be slapping on the tape for as long as it takes for Destiny 2 to survive through the end of its planned roadmap, which will likely see the final season arriving in 2024. Past that, well, I don’t know. Hopefully by then, the game will at least feel more stable and reliable, not worse.

 



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Technology

Overwatch 2’s ‘Sexual Harassment Simulator’ Made A Brief Return

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Image: Activision Blizzard

Trigger warning: sexual assault and harassment.

An inappropriate Overwatch 2 game mode reappeared, but it’s not one to get excited about. The mode, titled “sexual harassment simulator,” was played enough times that it appeared as one of the most popular over the weekend for some players, according to PC Gamer, which spotted the reappearance just before Blizzard quickly pulled it down.

Another “sexual harassment simulator” was discovered in October 2022, but both tasked players with knocking down Overwatch 2‘s female heroes (like Mercy and Widowmaker) while playing as the cowboy Cole Cassidy and repeatedly crouching over their bodies, apparently, as PC Gamer reported, with the word “raping…” until the character in question is labeled “pregnant” as an AI-controlled Torbjorn supposedly fills the role of the baby. This is disgusting on so many levels it’s not even funny, especially because players are forced to play as Cassidy, previously known as McCree, the same name as the ousted Activision Blizzard developer who took part in the controversial “Cosby Suite” meetups.

A screenshot of the custom mode was posted to Overwatch’s official subreddit by user Joyolo13, who simply asked: “What in god’s name?”

“Lol I remember seeing this every day in [Overwatch 1],” said Redditor sw1nky. “Can’t say I’m surprised it’s still around, [to be honest].”

“McCree is back in the game I guess,” said user FoulfrogBsc.

Kotaku was unable to find the custom game mode in Overwatch 2 as it appears Blizzard took the “sexual harassment simulator” offline—for now. So, it seems the company is aware that such a mode exists but might be having a hard time preventing it from reappearing in the game.

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“Inappropriate or explicit content has absolutely no place in our game,” a Blizzard spokesperson told PC Gamer when the outlet asked about the first version of the mode last year. “We immediately removed the user-created game mode once made aware of its existence. We are continually working to improve automatic filters to prevent inappropriate user-created content, and manually removing any that are not caught by the system.”

Kotaku reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment.

While this is at least the second time the “sexual harassment simulator” has popped up in Overwatch 2 specifically, players noted that a similar mode existed in some form in the original Overwatch game. At the time, players posted PSAs to warn the community about the offensive content. Of course, not all player-created game modes are this egregious. But it is concerning that this issue has come up more than once within a few months.

 



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Technology

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto Online Has a Serious Security Bug for PC Users

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Photo: Sergei Elagin (Shutterstock)

Reports indicate that a bug in Grand Theft Auto V Online is putting PC gamers’ gameplay—and even, potentially, hardware—at risk.

The bug is allegedly allowing cheaters and modders to hijack, edit, or corrupt PC gamers account information. Some players report having all of their gameplay and account data erased, while others have said that their in-game currency has been stolen. Worse, the bug allegedly allows for “partial remote code execution,” which could allow malicious users to edit players PC files. While GTA’s publisher, Rockstar Games, hasn’t officially commented on the situation yet, many commentators have encouraged PC players to refrain from playing the game until we all have a better picture of what’s going on.

News of the troubles first started popping up in various pockets of the internet over the weekend, with one particular observer, the twitter account Tez2 (which regularly updates about Rockstar news), posting extensively about the exploit. Complaints also exploded in Rockstar’s official support forums.

“Gta online on pc is currently unplayable due to severe exploits, this needs to be fixed,” one user posted.

“Scared to play online,” another commented. “Please fix this rockstar, I really like this game.”

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Another merely said: “GET YOUR *** TOGETHER ROCKSTAR!”

Meanwhile, a subreddit devoted to the game has called for players to avoid the game until further notice. “As we’ve learned it is not safe to play the game on PC right now due to a very dangerous exploit that has just come to light,” reads a pinned post shared in the subreddit. “We need to mass-report this to Rockstar so they can’t ignore it.”

On the same subreddit, users have expressed frustration that Rockstar hasn’t addressed—or even confirmed—the security issue yet: “Absolutely the most unforgivable element of this. R* is more concerned with bad press than telling people the extent to which their game has been breached and what danger it poses to their personal information,” commented one user. “It really makes me think the worst, if they can’t even come out and say X is safe for now.”

Tez2, which has been monitoring the situation, has written that “Rockstar is aware [of the problem] and have been logging any affected account before the first mod menu started abusing the new exploits.” However, the company itself hasn’t published an official statement on the issue yet.

BleepingComputer has reported that the vulnerability associated with the exploit has already accrued an official CVE designation and is being tracked as CVE-2023-24059. The CVE describes the bug as allowing a hacker to “achieve partial remote code execution or modify files on a PC.” There aren’t a whole lot of details available about how the exploit is supposed to work, however.

Gizmodo reached out to Rockstar for comment on the apparent security problems but have not heard back. We will update this story if they respond.

If the bug does turn out to be real, it would be far from the first bit of security trouble that Rockstar has been through lately. Last year, a cybercriminal managed to compromise the gaming giant’s systems and proceeded to steal (and later leak) source code to the upcoming GTA 6.



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Technology

Marvel’s Avengers Will Die With Spider-Man Stuck On PlayStation

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Image: Marvel / Crystal Dynamics

Late last week, Square Enix announced that its beleaguered 2020 live-service game, Marvel’s Avengers, will no longer receive new content or major updates after March 31. And all official support for the game will end on September 30, 2023, with digital sales ending on that date too. While you’ll still be able to play it offline and online with friends after these dates, it’s effectively game over for the troubled online action game. Yet, even in death, developer Crystal Dynamics just confirmed that the character of Spider-Man will remain exclusive to the PS4 and PS5 versions.

This saga began when, shortly ahead of the release of Marvel’s Avengers, Crystal Dynamics announced that Spider-Man would be added to the game at a later date. However, the famous web-slinger would not be coming to the Xbox or PC versions. Instead, only PS4 (and later PS5) players would have access to the character. It took longer than expected, but eventually, in November 2021 Spider-Man popped up in the PlayStation versions. At the time fans theorized that it was because Spider-Man was owned by Sony and therefore Spidey was only on PlayStation. (That isn’t the case, as Sony merely owns film rights to the character.) But since then, the famous superhero has appeared in Midnight Suns across all platforms. So it’s not like Spider-Man can only exist on PlayStation consoles.

And yet, Crystal Dynamics confirmed in a blog post on January 20 that Spider-Man will still not be coming to Xbox or PC. What a shame! Even as the failed live-service game dies, none of Spidey’s corporate overlords can agree to let him swing free across all platforms for the few Avengers players out there still enjoying the game.

Marvel / PlayStation

Kotaku contacted Marvel, PlayStation, Square Enix, Embracer Group, and Crystal Dynamics for comment, but didn’t hear back before publication.

I already know people in the comments or quote retweets will claim Sony completely owns Spider-Man (it doesn’t) or that Sony can’t legally allow the character to appear on other platforms (it can). Yet he’s in Midnight Suns, a game released on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. He’s in mobile games released across iOS, Android, and PC, too.

So it’s totally doable to have Spidey show up on other consoles if the people pulling the strings, cutting the deals, and making the contracts can agree to it. But apparently nobody cares enough about Avengers and its community to muster one last gesture of goodwill for players and let the web-slingin’ hero show up on Xbox and PC. If you want to play the complete version of the game after support ends in September, it seems you’ll have to own a PlayStation. Say it with me once again: Console-exclusive DLC sucks.

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343 Industries, Hit By Layoffs, Says It Will Keep Making Halo

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Image: Halo

When Microsoft—a company that made “$198 billion in revenue and $83 billion in operating income” in 2022—made the decision to axe 10,000 workers last week, a number of those came from their video game operations, particularly 343 Industries, the overseers of the Halo series.

343, hit now by a combination of layoffs and key departures, does not appear to be in good shape. As we reported last week:

“The layoffs at 343 shouldn’t have happened and Halo Infinite should be in a better state,” former Halo Infinite multiplayer designer, Patrick Wren, tweeted Wednesday night. “The reason for both of those things is incompetent leadership up top during Halo Infinite development causing massive stress on those working hard to make Halo the best it can be.”

Even prior to yesterday’s layoffs, 343 Industries has been facing wave after wave of high level departures as Halo Infinite struggled to ship new seasonal updates and features on time. The most notable was studio head Bonnie Ross’ departure last September. More recently, multiplayer director and longtime Halo veteran Tom French revealed he was leaving in December. And yesterday, amid the chaos, Bloomberg reported that director and longtime Halo writer, Joseph Staten, was headed to the Xbox publishing side of the business as the studio made the “difficult decision to restructure.”

Those hits led to reports last week that development on future Halo games was going to be handed off to outside studios, with 343 being relegated to a supervisory role. Reports that have seemingly led 343 to tweet the following statement on the official Halo account, denying them (to an extent) and saying 343 “will continue to develop Halo now and in the future”.

Halo and Master Chief are here to stay.

343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and in the future, including epic stories, multiplayer, and more of what makes Halo great.

Pierre Hintze

Studio head

That’s a short statement that does nothing to address the report that other studios could now also be making Halo games (which isn’t that new anyway, given Creative Assembly’s work on Halo Wars), nor does it address the scale of the layoffs it was just hit with, but it does at least affirm that 343 themselves will still be directly involved in some way in the series’ future.



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Technology

Discounts On Lego, Resident Evil, More

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Image: WB Games / NetherRealm

This week, all at once, a perfect storm of deals, discounts, and sales has hit the Nintendo Switch eShop. Batten down the hatches, open up your wallets, and check out some of these limited-time deals, including massive savings on numerous Lego titles, Mortal Kombat games, and hits from Capcom, Ubisoft, and Bandai Namco.

Before we go any further, just note that—with the exception of Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids—there aren’t any Mario, Zelda, or Kirby games on sale. Instead of first-party discounts, all of these sales are focused on third-party publishers and developers. But there are still plenty of great games to grab up for cheaper than usual, even if Mario and Luigi aren’t part of it.

Here are some of the best deals I spotted cruising through the various sales currently happening on the eShop. While all of these sales are ending at slightly different times, you more or less have until the end of the month (or a few days past that) to take advantage of these discounts.

Now, with that out of the way, here are the best deals I found so far. (The figures in parentheses are the normal prices.)

Lego DC Super-Villians Deluxe Edition – $11.25 ($75)
Lego City Undercover – $6 ($30)
Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 Deluxe Edition – $9 ($45)
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – $30 ($60)
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate – $15 ($60)
Dragon Ball FighterZ – $9 ($60)
Dragon Ball FighterZ – FighterZ Pass – $10.50 ($35)
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 Deluxe Edition – $18 ($90)
My Hero One’s Justice 2 Deluxe Edition – $20 ($80)
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization Deluxe Edition – $7.50 ($50)
Just Dance 2023 Edition – $30 ($60)
Immortals Fenyx Rising – $12 ($60)
Assassin’s Creed Anv. Edition Mega Bundle – $45 ($100)
South Park: The Fractured But Whole – $15 ($60)
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen – $10 ($30)
Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection – $35 ($60)
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin Deluxe Edition – $25 ($70)
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate – $12 ($40)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy – $15 ($30)

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That’s everything that seemed cool to me. What other bargains are catching your eye?

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Technology

Popular Steam Game Raises Price After 7 Years Without A Sale

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Screenshot: Wube Software

Critically-acclaimed base-building hit Factorio is an odd duck. Since its 2016 Steam release, the game has never gone on sale. And now, the developer behind Factorio is changing the price of its popular game, but it ain’t getting a discount. Instead, the price is jumping up $5 next week. The devs blamed inflation for the sudden price increase, and interestingly enough, the general reaction from the community has been mostly positive.

Since its release seven years ago on Steam, Factorio has been a popular game, even though it never, ever goes on sale. On the game’s Steam page, it straight up has a disclaimer letting folks know that its devs have no plans to “take part in a sale or to reduce the price for the foreseeable future.” That’ll still be the case after it goes from $30 to $35 on January 26.

“This is an adjustment to account for the level of inflation since the Steam release in 2016,” the official Factorio Twitter account tweeted. You might expect a flood of angry responses from players, but it appears that the devs have done a good job of being transparent with their community, for example by giving them plenty of heads up about the upcoming price change. Factorio has also avoided microtransactions and other exploitative or expensive DLC. The end result is that not only are people fine with this price increase, but many are suggesting the studio offer more ways for players to help financially support the game.

“Fine, but now give me an add-on to spend more money [on] this game!” tweeted one player. “Honestly, I would love to see other ways to support the game as I already own it,” tweeted another fan.

Wube Software

You might be wondering why a studio would never let its game be a part of any Steam sale for nearly a decade. According to the makers of Factorio in a 2016 forum post, it’s about respecting players who bought the game and not rewarding people who “hold off” on buying it at a lower price.

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“If you think [Factorio is] priced too high, then it is your choice to not purchase, and we hope that with enough time, and extra development, we will be able to convince you of its value.

Factorio isn’t the only game on Steam making changes to make more money as the economy continues to spiral down the drain. Military shooter Squad is going back on a promise its devs made about never doing paid DLC or cosmetics. In an upcoming update, Squad will get its first paid DLC in the form of new in-game emotes.

Here’s what the team behind the online milsim shooter had to say on Steam about the new, upcoming paid cosmetics:

As we look into the future we see a long and healthy life for Squad. It has a large and dedicated playerbase. We have plans for more updates and to support the game beyond 2023. While many of these planned updates will be free, we also realize that we need a way to continue to fund the development of Squad. Paid content like emotes is one such way to help fund that development and continue our work on improving the game.

Compared to how people reacted to Factorio’s price increase, the response from Squad’s player community has been far less positive, with some feeling betrayed after being promised that this wouldn’t happen. However, some were more open to the new option, understanding that developing a game isn’t easy or free and that at some point, studios need a way to bring in more income to help keep the lights on. That’s especially true as inflation continues to be a problem around the globe.



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