Don't get banned

Booting Up. Sometimes you don’t quite end up where you planned, but it all works out in the long run. In 2005 a commercially unsuccessful game led to the foundation of a multi-billion dollar company. What game was it? And what’s the company built on this “Goober” of a game? Scroll down to find the answer.

Don’t speedrun the answer — you might miss today’s headlines. Or be left wondering why Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t have a set plan for an Xbox release.

— Derek Neville, Tim Rhyne, Jason Liu

HEADLINES

Baldur’s Gate 3 Players average 5 hours per day. According to Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, BG3 players are averaging 300 minutes in game per day. For reference, this is 2x that of CS:GO. What’s even more wild is that BG3 playtime has hovered at nearly 30% of total playtime across titles on Steam.

8 strikes and you're banned. Xbox released new community standards enforcement program in an effort to protect players. The more serious the infraction, the more strikes. Cumulating 8 strikes in a 6-month period results in a 1-year ban.

SPEEDRUN 2024 is open for applications. The A16Z Games accelerator returns seeking pre-seed startups that are looking to challenge the Games x Tech industry. The $500k capital investment pales in comparison to the ability to network and receive coaching from industry leaders and founders.

HUD

• 🚫 Trading in Diablo 4 was temporarily suspended yesterday due to a gold and item dupe exploit. Something, something, pickup item and potion from belt at same time?

• 🍔 PAX is partnering with DoorDash for Season 3 of Brand Wars, with creators battling it out in Fortnite while representing iconic fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King.

THIS DAY IN GAMING HISTORY

• ⛏️ Minecraft goes mobile in 2011 as Minecraft: Pocket Edition is launched on Google Play, exclusive to the Xperia Play.

• 🐉 BG3 might be all the rage now, but on this day in 1982 Mattel released Advanced Dungeons & Dragons on the Intellivision.

• 🏈 Just last year John Madden graced the cover of Madden NFL 23 as the cover athlete, following his passing the previous year.

DEEP DIVE

Why isn’t Baldur’s Gate 3 releasing on Xbox?

Baldur’s Gate 3 recently reached over 875K concurrent players, as fans campaign to get the game to 1 million concurrent players. While the early success of BG3 may have console players eagerly awaiting their chance to play, come September 6th, only those playing on PS5 will be able to start their journey.

Usually when a game is missing from a console, it can be chalked to up exclusivity, such as PlayStation’s The Last of Us series, or the highly anticipated upcoming release of Bethesda’s Starfield. However when it comes to Baldur’s Gate 3, the issue isn’t exclusivity. Instead, its technical limitations.

In November of 2020 Sony and Microsoft both released their next generation consoles, with both companies releasing 2 versions at different price points. Sony launched the base model of the PS5, along with a digital only version, with the only major difference being the price point and the lack of a disk drive in the digital version. Microsoft however made the decision to bring down the price and size of their cheaper offering - the Series S - by opting for lower processing power. Microsoft also promised parity in games on both platforms, meaning any game features available on the more powerful Series X must also be available on the Series S.

While this requirement for parity has caused under-the-radar headaches for developers over the past few years, the issue is now at the forefront of one of the biggest games of 2023 not being available to Xbox players, as BG3 developer Larian has pointed to the technical hurdles in making split screen co-op stable on the Series S as the main hang-up preventing Baldur’s Gate 3’s Xbox release. While Larian does have a team actively working on bring support to the Xbox ecosystem (and is reportedly working alongside Microsoft engineers to make it happen) their main focus is currently to continue to support and improve play on PC and PS5, meaning Xbox players could potentially have to wait until 2024 to see Baldur’s Gate 3 in the Microsoft Store.

PATCH NOTES

• League of Legends patch 13.16 goes live today. LoL is officially the most-played game in Korean internet cafes.

• Today’s TFT Patch claims “Demacia is getting more DEMACIA.” — Will you spin to win?

HIVE MIND

Relevant

Most popular reasons for playing video games according to gamers in the USA.

MAJOR W

• 📍Classic mini-map is coming back with Modern Warfare 3. Welcome back, red dot.

• 💍 MTG fan who sold 1-of-1 ‘The One Ring’ to Post Malone plans to continue to live modestly with his new $2M fortune.

• 🙇‍♂️ Destiny 2 game director apologizes to players for lowering their standards.

• 🍻 Genshin Impact developers overcame strong feelings about Zelda: Breath of the Wild Clone accusations.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Drew Holmes named IP Director for Ubisoft’s Far Cry franchise

Ubisoft writer Drew Holmes announced via his LinkedIn last week that he had been promoted to the role of IP Director for Far Cry at Ubisoft. Prior to this role Holmes served as the narrative lead for Far Cry 5, as well as Far Cry: New Dawn. Holmes also previously worked as the lead writer for BioShock Infinite, in addition to working on several titles from the Saint’s Row series.

While nothing has been confirmed by Ubisoft yet, leaks have suggested that 2025 could bring both Far Cry 7, as well as a stand alone multiplayer game, rumored to be an extraction-based shooter.

CREATOR SPOTLIGHT

Lucky Ghost — A Walking RPG Encyclopedia

Looking for a creator just as obsessed with RPGs as you? Lucky Ghost is bringing you all the content you need for ARPGs, MMORPGs — anything RPG!

With live streams, YouTube guides and reviews, and even written content, Lucky Ghost is your one-stop shop for all things Baldur's Gate, Diablo 4, and so much more.

Catch him live on Twitch daily at 8am PT. And if you're looking to level up your own RPG game, check out his beginner and build guides!

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Answer

2005 game flop? Or major success?

GooBall — developed by Over The Edge Entertainment. The company pivoted to focus on the development tools they had made for the game. In 2007, they changed names to Unity Technologies, makers of the Unity game engine.