Even though Ubisoft seems to have completely abandoned Watch Dogs as a potential video game franchise, the publisher still appears to have high hopes for it on the silver screen. A movie adaptation of the first Watch Dogs was announced all the way back in 2013, with Zombieland and Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Rheese on board to write the movie's screenplay.

After almost a decade of development trouble, and the replacement of Wernick and Rheese with French genre director Mathieu Turi and writer Christie LeBlanc, it now appears as though the project is making some progress. In a new tweet by the official Ubisoft account, the publisher announced that filming has now wrapped on the Watch Dogs movie, sharing a picture of some of the crew behind a camera.

That's obviously great news for a project that's had such a troubled past, though we have no idea how long post-production will take. It can vary depending on the amount of editing needed, though you'd assume a grounded movie like Watch Dogs wouldn't need all that much. Still, we have no idea what it's like behind the scenes, and projects like the recently released disaster that was the Borderlands movie have spent years in post-production.

The main worry surrounding Watch Dogs at the moment is its potential quality. Having spent over a decade in the works, it's very possible Ubisoft could be about to deliver a potential stinker, though the publisher does have varied levels of success when it comes to adaptations.

Ubisoft is working with production company New Regency for Watch Dogs, which just so happens to be the same company behind 2016's woeful Assassin's Creed adaptation. Not a great sign, but the company does have quality titles like 12 Years A Slave, The Revenant, and Birdman under its belt. Ubisoft also managed to breathe new life into Rayman last year too, with the fairly well-received Captain Laserhawk Netflix series.

Unfortunately, there are too many unknowns with Watch Dogs to get a decent picture as to how it will turn out, though Ubisoft and New Regency will be hoping they can avoid pulling off another Borderlands.

Italian police have dismantled a retro game counterfeiting ring, seizing fake consoles and pirated games with an estimated combined worth of over $50 million. While details on the matter are limited, the seized goods reportedly infringed on Nintendo, Sega, and Atari's intellectual property, among others.

According to a 2023 study conducted by the Video Game History Foundation, only 13% of games published before 2010 are currently available for purchase through legitimate means. The older a given title is, the less likely it is to still be retailing in any shape of form. This state of affairs gave rise to the popularity of all-in-one retro consoles, which are essentially emulators that come bundled with numerous classic games. With few exceptions, these products are typically never properly licensed and therefore considered bootleg materials.

One Italian operation specializing in the trafficking of such products has been dismantled by Turin authorities in mid-September 2024, AFP news agency reports (via France 24). Alessandro Langella, a Turin financial police official heading its economic crime unit, said that the action resulted in the authorities seizing approximately 12,000 consoles that stored over 47 million pirated video games. The confiscated products have all been imported from China for the purpose of being resold via online retailers and specialized retro gaming stores, the official said, adding that this helped in tracking them.

While Langella estimated that the combined value of the seized materials is in the ballpark of €47.5 million ($52.6 million), the official did not provide a breakdown of how Turin's financial police arrived at this figure. Based on the cited numbers, the recently seized batch consisted of devices that stored around 4,000 pirated titles on average. For reference, many all-in-one retro consoles that can currently be purchased stateside are priced in the sub-$100 range, including those that come with tens of thousands of games preinstalled. This would suggest that this batch of 12,000 consoles may not have generated more than a low seven-digit sum in revenue were the traffickers able to sell it, even if the total value of the licensed games that it contained was theoretically much higher.

All of the seized hardware has already been destroyed. Turin's financial police arrested nine Italian nationals as part of the operation. They have all been charged with trading in counterfeited goods and are consequently facing up to eight years in prison if found guilty. Apart from containing pirated games, another issue with the seized consoles was that they were equipped with non-certified electrical circuits and batteries that did not meet EU safety or technical standards.

A detailed list of the seized products has not been made public. However, authorities said that the now-destroyed retro consoles infringed on numerous intellectual properties, particularly those from Atari, Nintendo, and Sega. Street Fighter, Super Mario, and Star Wars retro games were among the most numerous pirated titles found on the seized devices.

A few days ago, it was revealed that Flappy Bird will be getting a brand-new game, courtesy of "the Flappy Bird Foundation." At the time, it was confirmed that the Foundation acquired the rights to the game, but it was unclear what role, if any, original creator Dong Nguyen would play. Nguyen has now confirmed that he has no involvement "related with their game." In a post on X/Twitter, Nguyen stated that "I did not sell anything. I also don't support crypto." As reported by Insider Gaming, the new Flappy Bird website has some hidden pages that contain references to crypto currency.

While Nguyen has no involvement with the new Flappy Bird, the Flappy Bird Foundation's founding member is Kek, the developer of the 2011 game Piou Piou vs. Cactus. Following Flappy Bird's explosion in popularity, the original game began to draw comparisons to Piou Piou vs. Cactus, with many outlets noting similarities in both gameplay and character design. Speaking to Pocket Gamer in 2014, Kek pointed out these similarities, and seemed to be frustrated about the situation. However, he noted that he would not be pursuing legal action because he was unsure how strong the case might be.

Fast forward a decade, and Kek is now the owner of Flappy Bird. As Nguyen noted, he did not sell those rights; Nguyen's rights to the game lapsed earlier this year, which is how Kek ended up with them in the first place. The announcement of this new Flappy Bird wasted no time establishing a connection to Kek's 2011 game, with Kek noting in the press release that "It's so cool to see how influential Piou Piou has been for developers and hundreds of millions of gamers over the years." The trailer for the new Flappy Bird even shows playable characters flying over cactuses, just like in Piou Piou vs. Cactus.

It remains to be seen how the new Flappy Bird game will turn out, but the situation has resulted in strong feelings from gamers. Some fans of the original Flappy Bird argue that this is Flappy Bird in name only, while others are hopeful that the resulting game will be as addictive as the original.

Baldur's Gate 3 had a lengthy early-access period before its eventual release, and a lot of elements were changed between early access and full release. However, a lot of players aren't aware of these changes because Baldur's Gate 3's full release exposed the game to far more players than just the community who played during early access.

The Baldur's Gate 3 early access veterans recently came together on a Reddit thread to discuss the cut content from early access that they wish made it into the final game.

The top comment concerns Omeluum, the more likeable of the two sentient Mind Flayers the party encounters. He is first encountered in the Underdark, asking the player for help in finding rare mushrooms. Should the party comply, Omeluum may give the party a Ring of Mind Shielding which he says can help protect against their tadpoles.

In the full release, the ring just protects against charms and Omeluum admits as much later on. However, in early access, the ring actually did stop the player from accessing Illithid powers. This storyline may have been intended as an anti-Emperor route in early access but ultimately ended up being cut content.

Larian has never acknowledged her existence, but there was originally another origin character named Helia. She was a Halfling Werewolf, and data miners have found plenty of evidence of Helia's existence, including over 700 voice lines and dialogue from other characters referencing her like Karlach and Auntie Ethel.

"Early Access Wyll" is a bit of a meme in the Baldur's Gate 3 community as the character used to be much less likeable. However, a cooler aspect of Wyll's old writing was that he lost his eye to the Goblin torturer Spike which pushed him to make a contract with Mizora to get revenge. He would then communicate with Mizora using his prosthetic eye. While nobody enjoyed Wyll's attitude, his connection to the Goblin Camp would have been a neat aspect of his character.

People probably aren't seriously begging for this one to come back but it's worth noting. Cut content suggests that a male Dark Urge could have impregnated Minthara, or Minthara could have been impregnated by Orin already when the party meets her. This didn't make it to the final release.

A lot of the comments refer to Daisy, a precursor to your Guardian in the full release. Daisy was a psychological manifestation of the tadpole, a dream visitor who tried to convince the player to submit to their Illithid powers. It's widely assumed The Dark Urge was intended to be the intended player character, and Bhaal and Daisy would sort of fight over Durge's soul.

There's so much more cut content that could be talked about like all of the Upper City being scrapped, but Baldur's Gate 3 can only get so big. Still, it's fun to speculate and think about the narrative threads that didn't quite make the final release of the game.

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 released last week via PC with a massive amount of changes. Unfortunately, the update remains unavailable on console. This also means console players have no ability to interact with mods. The Mod Manager was one of the highlights of Patch 7, giving players the ability to browse, install, and use mods created by the community. And since then, lots and lots of mods have been created and download by players. How many downloads? Millions

The BG3 Patch 7 went live on September 5, and players on PC wasted no time downloading the best and most interesting mods. To this end, a developer on the game revealed, back on September 7, that in the last 24 hours alone there had been a million mods installed. How many have been created, we don't know, but that is a ton of downloads for a game over a year old.

Modding is a pretty substantial part of PC gaming, so it is no surprise to see BG3 players gravitating towards mods in a major way. What remains to be seen is whether or not Larian Studios will implement a similar mod manager on console, and if it does, how popular it will prove in relation to how popular it is proving to be on PC.

For those interested in the most popular mods, there is an in-game filter when using the mod manager that will sort by the most-downloaded. Of course, the more popular the mod the less likely it is to break elements and functions of other parts of the game as it has been tested more and passed the quality test.

Baldur's Gate 3 is available via PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X.

When Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 became available in early access for Gold and Ultimate Edition owners last week, it became instantly clear that the action title was going to attract quite the audience, seeing a peak of over 134,000 concurrent players on Steam. Now, having launched today in full for everyone who purchased the game, the game has seen even more impressive player numbers.

As per SteamDB, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 saw a peak of 225,690 concurrent players on Steam on the day of its full release (with over 183,000 concurrent players on the platform at the time of writing). That’s the highest peak concurrent count to date for a game developed by Saber Interactive, as well as for a Warhammer title, surpassing Sega and Creative Assembly’s Total War: Warhammer 3’s peak of over 166,000 concurrent players.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

A new Sony patent outlined an intriguing new prescription lens feature, potentially hinting at the company's research efforts regarding an all-new VR headset. This feature would require hardware that's not currently supported on PlayStation VR2, the current-generation VR headset from Sony.

Sales of the PlayStation VR2 waned in the months following its launch on February 22, 2023, leading many to theorize that Sony was planning to scale back its VR development efforts. Many attribute the VR headset's lackluster sales to its $549.99 price at launch and a shortage of compelling first-party and third-party titles during the launch year. In March 2024, a Bloomberg report claimed that Sony was halting production of PlayStation VR2, nearly a year after the VR headset's launch. This was due to low interest from players, leading Sony to hold onto a great amount of unsold PlayStation VR2 stock. Despite this, the VR headset has experienced a resurgence of sorts in recent months, thanks to steep discounts and the release of PlayStation's official PC adapter for PlayStation VR2.

According to a new patent from Sony, the company has researched a system that will detect prescription lenses added to a new VR headset. This patent was filed back on March 4, 2023, and made public a year and a half later, on September 5, 2024. As shown in the patent, the main goal of this system is to reduce the bulk and overall weight that comes with wearing vision correction eyeglasses and a VR headset like the PlayStation VR2 at the same time. In an effort to increase comfort and overall convenience, the system lets users insert prescription lenses into the sockets in the head-mounted device (HMD), instead of wearing traditional eyeglasses. Features like eye tracking and foveated rendering would still be supported on this new VR headset, as the HMD carries out many of the processes found in the PlayStation VR2.

It's worth noting that the headset shown in the patent is not a PlayStation VR2 headset, since Sony's current VR headset does not have a socket for interchangeable prescription lenses. It's possible that the patent could be describing a feature for an all-new revision of the PlayStation VR2 to capitalize on some of its newfound success from the summer, or the patent could be referring to a next-generation VR headset that's currently in R&D at Sony.

Despite PlayStation VR2's poor performance in its first year, the patent reassures fans that Sony is still working and trying to innovate in the VR space. Features and hardware shown in patents are not guaranteed to come to fruition, but this could be a sign that PlayStation fans may have more VR devices to look forward to in the future.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has broken multiple records for the franchise, with the recent beta being the biggest beta in the franchise's history. These records could be a sign that the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will set a new precedent for the Call of Duty franchise going forward.

The Black Ops 6 open beta was held from September 6 to September 9, giving all players the opportunity to try out the game's multiplayer a month before launch. In the open beta, players had access to a slew of weapons and gear, eight multiplayer maps, a few game modes like Mosh Pit and Face Off, and a max level of 30. While leveling up, Black Ops 6 beta testers unlock exclusive rewards that become available at launch on October 25, including a new weapon blueprint and emblem. In addition, Treyarch implemented various changes to the open beta based on player feedback from the Black Ops 6 early access beta, including a nerf to the powerful Jackal PDW SMG. This free open beta proved to be quite enticing to new players and returning Call of Duty fans, according to stats that Treyarch shared on September 10.

Activision's official Call of Duty Twitter account revealed that the Black Ops 6 beta was the biggest Call of Duty beta to date, breaking several records for the franchise. The beta experienced the largest number of total players to date for the franchise, with the most hours and matches ever played for a Call of Duty beta as well. Further, Treyarch confirms that the Black Ops 6 beta had the most playtime per player, setting another new record for the franchise.

Data from the Black Ops 6 beta was gathered during the early access and open beta periods by the development team at Treyarch. It's worth noting that exact statistics for each record were not disclosed by Activision and Treyarch, however. Nonetheless, the developers are excited for players to discover "more to come" when Black Ops 6 launches next month.

At launch, Black Ops 6 players will have access to 16 multiplayer maps, alongside various modes and a full suite of weapons, gear, and more. What's more, the game will feature an in-depth campaign mode and a traditional round-based Zombies mode, which are signature features of Treyarch's most beloved Call of Duty games. Players can also expect a year of post-launch support over the course of multiple seasons for Black Ops 6.