News
Keys For Friday the 13th Kickstarter Backers Stolen, Sold On eBay
Exclusive keys and items intended for Kickstarter backers of ‘Friday the 13th: The Game’ where stolen from an employee of Gun Media’s distribution partner and then sold on eBay for $100 a piece.
The key’s sales on eBay were uncovered by one Reddit user who monitored the eBay account’s activity which included the selling of in-game outfits, which raised suspicion. The eBay user’s feedback page shows that they made tens of thousands of dollars due to this activity.
Gun Media responded to the thread on Reddit and confirmed the stolen keys while also stating that the keys had been stolen from “one of our distribution partners”, announcing the cancellation of any unredeemed keys.
“We previously assumed that backer-content keys being sold on eBay were the same as you; a fan who got in early and purchased extra keys” the company said in a statement.
“After reviewing the information that you have posted, it is absolutely clear that this is not the case. With some investigation, we quickly determined that the keys being sold come from a theft at one of our distribution partners.
“The company has worked to resolve the situation, but unfortunately, both we and the company were unaware of the digital portion of the theft until these auctions were brought to our attention. While there is not a never-ending source for these codes, we will be cancelling any unredeemed codes that have been affected by this theft. Again, thank you for the effort you put into this, and for bringing it to our attention.”
Limited Run Games, who distributed the Kickstarter rewards, has confirmed that the keys were likely stolen by one of its temporary contract workers although they did not identify the person.
“Up until last December, we often utilized many temporary contract workers to assist with the various busy work that shipping thousands of packages on an irregular schedule requires. It’s our best guess that one of these workers took it upon themselves to illicitly access the codes. This was not sanctioned by us nor Gun and neither of us knew it had happened until the community brought it to light.
“We stopped utilizing temporary workers in December when we noticed that our game inventory was off. Without those previous workers around, the inventory loss stopped. We don’t have any reason to believe that the person in question still works for us. Unfortunately, we don’t know who the specific culprit is. We foster a very open and friendly environment at our office and we never expected something like this to occur. These actions completely betray the trust we had in whoever this person is.
“We’re moving into a new office next week that provides deeper levels of security for our partners, our inventory, and ourselves. Rather than utilizing temporary workers, we’re now relying on the killer team of full-time shippers that we’ve built up, love, and trust. All of our employees know that we have a hardline policy against eBay and resellers. The actions of the person selling these codes were not authorized by us and do not reflect us or our values in any capacity.”
Console
Microsoft Unveils Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit


Xbox has officially unveiled the Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit which is aimed to help creators reduce energy consumption and measure carbon emissions during game development processes.
The Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit includes resources that include:
- Power Monitor tools
- Certification reports
- Power consumption dashboards
- Best practices
Ubisoft and 343 Industries were named as early users of the Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit with 343 Industries able to reduce energy use by 15% without impacting the player experience at all.
Ubisoft and Xbox are co-developing an energy-efficient eco-mode for users.
You can check out the full report right here.
Business
Epic Games Store Hits $820 Million in Player Spending During 2022


Epic Games has officially released financial data related to it’s growing marketplace on PC, showing that $820 million was spent on the Epic Games Store during the 2022 year, and promised support for third-party subscription services and new ‘content hubs’ to help companies promote their titles.
According to the data:
The numbers
- Total users of Epic Games Store PC: 230 million (up 19% year-on-year)
- Epic cross-platform accounts: 732 million
- Daily active users peak: 34.3 million
- Monthly active users: 68 million (up 10%)
- Total spending, incl. Epic’s games: $820 million (down 2%)
- Spending on third-party games: $355 million (up 18%)
- Free games claimed: 700 million
- Number of new PC releases: 626
- Total library of PC games: 1,548 (up 68%)
Epic Games stated on it’s blog that more PC games launched during the 2022 year than in any year prior.
Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, Rocket League, Genshin Impact, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were among the most popular titles related to player engagement and player spending, and Epic Games looks to deepen their focus in 2023 as they aim to improve the store launcher’s performance.
Epic Games also aims to add support for subscription services from third-party publishers and live service products by the end of the 2023 year, adding that they are also working on ‘content hubs’ which will be separate from product pages and will enable publishers to “share information with users in a robust editorial format.”
Business
California Judge Dismisses Gamers Lawsuit Filed Against Microsoft


A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the group of 10 plaintiffs “[lacked] allegations” in their lawsuit filed last year that claimed Microsoft’s ownerships of Activision Blizzard would harm consumers and competition in the video games market, according to a filing shared by Reuters.
While US District Judge Jacqueline Corley dismissed the case, she also gave the plaintiffs 20 days to refine their lawsuit and resubmit it, and the group’s lawyer, Joseph Saveri, said that there are plans to officially submit an amended lawsuit with “additional factual detail” that will address the judge’s concerns.
It marks a victory for Microsoft, but their battles are far from over as they still face a hearing over the Federal Trade Commission’s legal complaint, which is currently slated to take place in August of this year.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard originally expected the transaction to be complete by June 30, 2023.
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