In a statement today, Valve announced their plan to discontinue the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) after the 2023 season, but reassure the community that their annual tournament The International will continue. Launched in 2017, the DPC aimed to clarify & formalise invites for The International, but Valve now claim it led to a less varied and exciting competitive Dota scene.

Bryan Intihar previews the expanded NYC and ‘next-gen’ gameplay of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which is coming out October 20. Looks stunning, visually - and damn, that loading time (or lack thereof) on fast travel is unreal.

In their latest Direct, Nintendo provided an update on its work to convert an old plant in Kyoto into a museum celebrating its history. Set to finish by March next year, they also reveal plans to paint the iconic question block on the museum’s roof. Cool.

Supergiant has provided an update on the much anticipated Hades II. Early Access is set for Q2 2024, and a limited technical test is planned. Much like the first one, major updates post-launch to expand content and story. Can’t wait.

Valve are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Steam, which launched on September 12, 2003. As well as games being on sale, there’s a neat retrospective site that looks back through the annual highlights. Love the artwork by Claire Hummel!

Game engine Unity has announced their plan to implement a monthly “Runtime Fee” for game installs, effective Jan 1, 2024. This would mean that developers are required to pay based on - among other things - how many times their game is installed, including for instances like free Game Pass installs, or even people reinstalling. Catastrophically stupid.

Australia’s new Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO) program has announced its inaugural board members; Johanna Egger, Managing Director of Two Bulls, and Morgan Jaffit, known for his work at Defiant Development (Hand of Fate). They’ll serve three-year terms advising on DGTO applications, which provides a 30% tax rebate for game developers with costs exceeding AUD $500,000.

This week a new bill passed the Australian Senate, marking the initial step in modernising the National Classification Scheme. It empowers industry classifiers, expanding video game classification options. Hopefully no more stupid boomer-brained bans of videogames downunder.

With one strike already underway, SAG-AFTRA announced that it will seek authorisation for a second strike against major video game companies. In a statement, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, blasted game companies for their ‘greed and disrespect’: “once again artificial intelligence is putting our members in jeopardy of reducing their opportunity to work, and once again, SAG-AFTRA is standing up to tyranny on behalf of its members.”

New DLC for The Case of the Golden Idol has been released, which is a good opportunity to shout out what was one of the best, most slept on releases of 2022. It’s called The Lemurian Vampire and it I can’t wait to get stuck into it. And if you like detective games and haven’t played Golden Idol, what are you waiting for?