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Booting up. We’re trying out something different today by going a bit deeper on select stories.

Let us know what you think (just hit reply)!

— Jason Liu, Tim Rhyne, Derek Neville

HEADLINES

Ready to launch. We now have the exact time for Starfield early access release — a bit earlier than we were expecting! It’s 8 pm EDT / 5pm PDT on Thursday, August 31st. Folks in Japan will have the entire day of the promised September 1st release from 9am onward as this will be a simultaneous, global launch. What a pleasant surprise.

Shadow Tactics developer decides to shut down. There have been some very ambitious games released this year and not all of them have a happy ending for their studios. Mimimi Games, the crew behind Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3 has decided that they will close up shop after 15 years in the biz. The co-founders announced that Shadow Gambit (released earlier this month) will be the studio’s final game and cited burnout as the main driver behind their decision.

Getting greedy with licenses. The sim racing developer, Motorsports Games, has been burning millions per quarter and most recently reported that they only have $1.4M cash remaining. With the cash crunch, they’re in the midst of several legal proceedings for withholding pay from employees. MG currently hold the official licenses for NASCAR, BTCC, Indycar, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the WEC — basically everything but F1.

• What’s at stake: MG buying up these licenses prevents other (and better established) publishers from creating official content. If MG were to continue to falter and sell assets, it could mean premier titles, like iRacing picking up the rights. Given the current state of MG’s titles (or lack thereof), this would be a welcomed change by fans. The current F1 World Champ called their 24 Hours of Le Mans event a ‘clown show’.

• Step back: MG is trying to be the EA of sim racing by spending big on licenses but ultimately has failed to deliver the goods. The COVID lockdown was a huge tailwind for the industry but things have since cooled. It was a classic industry roll-up play that has thus far failed.

HUD

• ⚖ Last week we wrote about the US Copyright Office’s controversial ruling that AI generated art can’t be protected under copywrite law. The office is now looking for your opinion on AI. Inbox is open today until October 18th.

• 🚫 GeForce Now, Nvidia’s cloud gaming platform, is shutting down its Russian operations on October 1st. Other cloud gaming services, such as Xbox Cloud Gaming and Boosteroid have also ended their services in Russia this year.

• 🍄 The upcoming Nintendo Direct, scheduled for August 31st, will be a 15-minute look at the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Nintendo confirmed Charles Martinet, who stepped down as the voice of Mario earlier this month, is not involved in the game — meaning the August 31st stream will be our first look at Mario’s new voice.

MAJOR W

• 👊 YouTuber beats Armored Core 6 with just punches.

• 🍆 A Futurama reference was found by a player on the Smite map — Death by snu snu.

• 💄 Armored Core 6’s deep cosmetic customizations are all free. No microtransactions here!

• 🔌 Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 15 on September 12th. Rumor has it we’ll finally be seeing USB-C ports.

F IN THE CHAT

• ♟ Chess’ ‘sex toy’ cheating scandal settles out of court.

• 🙅‍♀️ Players discuss most hated game mechanics. No pause in single player tops the list.

• 🍃 New Naruto episodes were made but we won’t be seeing them soon. Studio decides to hold them back to ‘improve quality’.

THIS DAY IN GAMING HISTORY

• 👊 Street Fighter was released to Arcades (1987) — the game received under 50% critic rating; yet today, Street Fighter is one of the most beloved fighting game franchises in the world.

• 💸 Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy (2004) — the name Acclaim and logo would be purchased by former Activision CEO Howard Marks for $100,000.

PATCH NOTES

• 🏰 Civilization VI gets an update to many of its leader abilities — the game’s entire $200+ Anthology is currently under 25 bucks on Steam.

• 🚀 Starfield’s first early-access patch will include performance and stability fixes.

HIVE MIND

Chapter 4 Season 4 just started and already players are experiencing uncontrollable laughter as they fly across the map in a car with the Rocket Ram.

DEAL FINDER

At least one of us is a big fan of Strategy titles; therefore, we wanted to make sure we took a minute to point out Steam’s Strategy Fest is going on through September 4th. While there are plenty of options for current titles, we have these on our wish list already:

• Stormgate — if you enjoyed StarCraft or Warcraft III, you will likely want to give this one a go.

• Infection Free Zone — we find the idea that any city can be used within this zombie survival simulator ambitious. It gives us hope that we will be able to defend incredible landmarks, from the Eiffel Tower to the Boll Weevil Monument.

• Total War: Pharaoh — were you not inspired by the dung beetle, aka scarab, like the Pharaoh was?

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