Top Stories

Crimson Desert's AI art was 'unintentional,' developer says (3 min read)

Pearl Abyss admitted Crimson Desert shipped with undisclosed generative AI art, calling the inclusion "unintentional" and pledging a full asset audit and patch replacements. The incident adds to growing industry pressure on studios to disclose AI use upfront. (Polygon)

Major industry survey finds that, surprise surprise, 9/10 game devs think generative AI use should be more fully disclosed on Steam - PC Gamer (7 min read)

A GamesIndustry.biz survey of 826 developers found 88.4% believe Valve should require full generative AI disclosure on Steam, with 48.7% opposing Valve's current policy of only requiring disclosure for player-facing AI content. (PC Gamer)

Business & Finance

New Blood boss Dave Oshry 'quadruples down' on supporting GOG after worrying about its future, committing to sales, demos, one-click mods, plus day-and-date releases alongside Steam (6 min read)

New Blood CEO Dave Oshry is committing to full GOG parity for its releases — including day-and-date launches, demos, sales, and one-click mods — after publicly questioning the storefront's long-term viability. (PC Gamer)

Games & Releases

With Steam reviews at 'Mixed', the developer of Half Sword addresses differences between the early access game and its hugely popular tech demo: 'The final version of the game will differ from what has been shown previously' (6 min read)

Half Sword's early access launch landed "Mixed" Steam reviews after players found combat significantly different from the viral tech demo. The dev team clarified the demo was built on an older build and never represented the final game. (PC Gamer)

Cat Parents amasses over 100,000 wishlists in just 3 days, leaving its indie devs speechless: 'We never imagined that our little dream would spark interest in so many people' (5 min read)

Indie cat-care sim Cat Parents surpassed 100,000 Steam wishlists within three days of announcement, a notable benchmark for a small studio. Developer Gaze In Games says the response far exceeded expectations; no release date has been set. (PC Gamer)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) Steam version suddenly surpasses 62,000 concurrent players — over 60x its usual count (1 min read)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) hit a Steam peak of ~62,000 concurrent players after a 90% off Spring Sale discount, up from its typical ~1,000. The game only arrived on Steam in 2023, years after its original Battle.net-exclusive PC launch. (Automaton)

Death Stranding 2 devs thought 'Brutal' mode was hard enough, but pushed the game to 'the upper limit' with its new difficulty option on PC (6 min read)

Kojima Productions added a new "To the Wilder" difficulty to Death Stranding 2's PC release after player feedback that existing "Brutal" mode was too easy. Lead level designer Hiroaki Yoshiike described it as "the upper limit" the team could design while still finding it enjoyable. (PC Gamer)

Psychonauts and Keeper developer's Game Pass party game Kiln gets a release date, and it's coming really very soon (2 min read)

Double Fine's pottery-themed online party brawler Kiln launches April 23 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, with day-one Game Pass Ultimate availability. An open Steam beta runs April 9–11. (Eurogamer)

Creator Who Released 10 Games on Steam in One Year Announces New Title — An Inexplicably Adult Horror Game About Game Development. 'Game Game Developer' Store Page Now Live (15 min read)

Prolific solo developer UNCHIREFIREFLY (known for releasing 10 Steam titles in a year) has opened a store page for Game Game Developer, an adult horror walking sim themed around indie game development, coming soon to PC. (GameSpark)

AI/Tech & Tools

Resident Evil developer Capcom "will not be implementing any AI-generated assets into our video game content," but plans to "actively" utilize the tech to "improve efficiency" (5 min read)

Capcom confirmed to investors it won't ship AI-generated assets in its games, but is actively testing AI across graphics, sound, and programming departments to improve internal efficiency. (GamesRadar)

Culture & Community

Ex-Blizzard president says gamers need to 'Man up' over AI usage in games after Crimson Desert devs issue apology (7 min read)

Ex-Blizzard president Mike Ybarra sparked backlash after telling developers to "man up" and stop apologizing for AI asset use, following Crimson Desert studio Pearl Abyss's apology for shipping unintended AI-generated artwork. (PC Gamer)

Cult online action RPG Marvel Heroes, after more than eight years offline, has player-run servers at last (5 min read)

Marvel Heroes, the Gazillion-developed action RPG shut down in 2017, is playable again via a community-built server emulator that hit v1.0. A solo offline mode is also available through a GitHub release. (PC Gamer)

Hero modder restores the coolest bit of Elden Ring cut content: The heartbreaking tragedy of the second guy you meet that actually kinda justifies the game's most evil ending (5 min read)

Modder Transquility has restored Merchant Kalé's cut questline in Elden Ring, making previously datamined voice content fully playable for the first time. The quest originally tied the early NPC to the Frenzied Flame ending, offering narrative context that didn't make the final release. (PC Gamer)

From a 'single save-passing exercise' to an 'international community': How GTA’s world-hopping Chain Game has endured through hundreds of rounds—and how it's preparing for its biggest test yet with GTA 6 (9 min read)

The GTA Chain Game — a community relay where players pass a single save file until a game hits 100% completion — has run for hundreds of rounds across multiple GTA titles and is now eyeing GTA 6 as its next challenge. (PC Gamer)

gg! see you in game!

-james