News

Mutant Football League Making Return

Published

5 years ago

January 3, 2018

Anthony DiMoro

Looking for a blast from the past? Get ready, because Mutant League Football is making a return to consoles in 2018.

The 1993 Sega Genesis classic Mutant League Football has always had a special place in long-time gamers’ hearts and will launch January 19th on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

PCs brought back the 90’s classic back in October, but consoles are ready to bring it back this month.

Sometime in February or March, Chicago-based indie studio Digital Dreams, who created the game, will publish a free update to Mutant Football League adding a multi-season dynasty mode to the game.

“From the community’s reaction, they’re ecstatic with it so far,” Michael Mendheim said. While the PC launch scored an overall positive but middling response from critics, fan reviews on Steam are very positive.

“I feel really good about our game,” Mendheim said, “and I feel like we fulfilled our promises. We fulfilled every Kickstarter promise — well, with the exception that we have to add demons and werewolves; We’re building our models now and should have them in game soon.” Those will also be a free update.

“After the Kickstarter disaster (in 2013) we listened to the community,” Mendheim said. “They said we want a console game, and want it to be next-gen console game, and they said ‘Go build that, because we don’t want it to be a crappy mobile game.’ The most venomous critics yelled at me and almost castrated me.”

Looking for more nostalgia? Mutant League Football is bringing Tim Kitzrow in as play-by-play commentator.

You’ll remember Kitzrow as the voice of the “Boom-sha-kalaka” voice of NBA Jam.

“I think his voice and his humor have added so much to the product,” Mendheim said. “I think Tim was the olive in the martini. I was debating back and forth, ‘Can I do this, can it work?’ but it worked beautifully and I’m super happy about it.”

In case you’re wondering what the new mode will entail, Mendheim spoke at length about it.

“Dynasty mode wasn’t something we would have tackled before our ship [date],” Mendheim said. “Four weeks before that, the feedback was pretty resounding that people wanted more depth. We have really good engineers [Digital Dreams’ coding partners are in Ukraine] but only seven core people built this game. We’re hoping we can get it out in February, or March, and everyone will get it as a free upgrade. People will have a more robust Mutant Football League experience.”

“Our goal for Mutant Football League was to put out the best game we could with a reasonable amount of features that would allow us to ship the product,” Mendheim said. “We kept the scope in check, to avoid the pitfall of so many indie developers, to add a feature here and there, and they don’t end up shipping.

“But am I sick of the project? Hell no, I love this game,” Mendheim said. “I’m in love with sports played by mutants. I hope to make more of these games, and improve on the game we have.”

Console

Microsoft Unveils Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit

Published

3 months ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

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

Published

3 months ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

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

Published

3 months ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

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.