Edge December 2022

One of the most irritating things about the GTAVI hack was the fact that no one benefited. If these things have to happen, we should at least get something worthwhile out of it, right? What we got instead felt a bit like the videogame equivalent of the section of that work-in-progress trailer for The Mummy in which Tom Cruise bounces around a plane interior with odd placeholder audio – something difficult to get excited about because it’s not ready to be consumed in the context of trying to make you excited. Rockstar will be seething that its game broke cover this way and not via the kind of pitch-perfect trailer that famously accompanied IV and V. It must also be aggravating because of the stature of the project, which is…

After a two-year, pandemic-induced hiatus, the 2022 Tokyo Game Show’s tagline – ‘Nothing stops gaming’ – is as debatable as it is defiant. It reflects, however, a broader eagerness in Japan to return, finally, to the way things were. The country has been slower than most to ease its lockdown policies. Everyone is still expected to wear a mask, even outdoors, and the country remains closed to tourism, while demanding business visitors complete a quest of Miyazaki-esque opaqueness to unlock a travel visa. This conservatism is proving increasingly costly: the yen is currently at a 24-year low against the US dollar, and hundreds of businesses that rely on foreign visitors, including many of Tokyo’s last bastion of arcades, have been forced to close during the past 24 months. Against this…

The three-storey shell of a former Burger King, around the back of a Stevenage shopping centre, might not be quite the spot you’d imagine for a reawakening. But it’s where Newvu has chosen for the first of its planned chain of social gaming spaces – akind of small-scale answer to the Belong arenas operated by Game across the UK. And, as the country’s leisure industry continues to recover from the disastrous effects of the pandemic, Newvu is just one example of businesses embracing in-person game venues with fervour. It’s also something of an unusual one, in that it doesn’t have an alcohol licence. Having started to spring up in force before the pandemic, gaming bars are now coming back stronger than ever. The past year has brought a new Peckham…

Humble Bundle’s executive vice president and general manager Alan Patmore came to the company in 2019, having previously founded Surreal Software and then taken senior roles at Double Fine, Zynga and Kixeye. As Humble’s growth in stature and fortunes continues apace, we ask him about what brought him here, how the company has changed, and its mission for the future. What drew you to the role at Humble? I’d heard of Humble Bundle, and really valued their purpose, which is being a force for good in gaming. But then, I was in free-to-play for about seven years, and was really getting burned out with it and wanted to get back to my roots of game development. The publishing side of the [Humble] business really connected with me. I saw…

What’s a little killing between friends? The original Itch version of Brainwash Gang’s PVP shooter had a more murderous title, one that’s been changed for its forthcoming Steam release via Raw Fury. But the concept is largely the same: it’s a 1v1 or 2v2 online shooter where playing your cards right is as important as your aim. Friends Vs Friends’ deckbuilding side grants you a variety of outlandish abilities – letting you fire vampire bullets that heal you, or increasing the size of your opponent’s noggin, making it easier to land headshots. As you level up, you can add new cards to your hand or boost the power of your current favourites. Building a new kind of shooter naturally led to the Madrid studio experimenting with different aesthetics. While it adopted…

Out of all the attractions offered by your local pub, darts is perhaps the closest relative of videogames, with play involving simply pointing at a target and unleashing a shot. That makes it particularly appropriate for some interactive gubbins on top, as demonstrated by Augmented Reality Darts, which uses a projector to create special targets depending on the chosen game mode, as well as handling scoring automatically. Importantly, the system uses normal steel-tipped darts, ensuring that seasoned players can get stuck in easily, with a board provided by dart industry stalwart Unicorn. Developed by UK company 501 Entertainment, ARD has already been installed across a number of venues in its homeland, but a recently inked distribution deal with Sega is intended to push the hardware into worldwide markets. Whether or…