Joystick & Mouse | Video Games News & Reviews

No Union In GTA VI

The Ghostcrawler led MMO has a setback. We have some more union labor strife. Playstation ups their game streaming offering. When is a patent not a patent and we have some nomination for video game of the year.
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Show Notes

The MMO being led by former WoW and League of Legends designer Greg Street looks to be dead as his studio officially closes after NetEase ends funding
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/the-mmo-being-led-by-former-wow-designer-greg-street-looks-to-be-dead-as-his-studio-officially-closes-after-netease-ends-funding-while-wed-love-to-make-our-game-our-first-priority-is-to-help-our-developers-find-employment/

Rockstar, the developer of Grand Theft Auto VI, reportedly fired between 30 and 40 employees in a move that the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is claiming was "blatant" and "ruthless" union busting.
https://www.ign.com/articles/gta-6-dev-rockstar-accused-of-union-busting-in-sudden-firing-of-dozens-of-staff
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ah-shit-here-we-go-again-gta-6-developers-speak-from-the-picket-line-about-rockstar-north-union-busting

PlayStation is rolling out cloud streaming as a full feature for the Portal. Starting today, PlayStation Plus Premium members can stream thousands of games via the cloud on a Portal connected to WiFi.
https://gameinformer.com/2025/11/05/cloud-streaming-available-on-playstation-portal-starting-today

Remember our story about Nintendos patent on summoning NPE's to battle,  In a stunning development attributable to the public outrage and reflecting concern over implications for the reputation of the U.S. patent system as a whole, USPTO Director John A. Squires has personally ordered, at his own initiative, his organization to take another look at Nintendo’s patent.
https://gamesfray.com/huge-blow-for-nintendo-head-of-u-s-patent-office-takes-rare-step-to-order-reexamination-of-summon-subcharacter-and-let-it-fight-in-1-of-2-modes-patent/

The Video Game awards happen next month but last week there was another announcement of nominations of game of the year from the Golden Joystick awards and well, anything about video games with joystick in the name must be good.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1onju3g/golden_joystick_awards_2025_vote_for_your/

This Is Not Your Fathers XBox

.Sorry for the bad audio and lack of intro music at the beginning. I had technical difficulties and it sounded dumb to have the music just lead into us talking

... We have some microsoft XBox news on multiple fronts.  We learned some pokemon news by nefarious means. We take a look at another phycological study on video games and attention span in children. and finally we take a look at what the designer of Grand Theft Auto 5 has been up to lately.
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Show Notes

Recently, a rumor swirled online that Microsoft was canceling its next-generation Xbox plans, but that is apparently not true or the full story. Microsoft said in a statement that it is "actively investing" in future first-party consoles and devices that are "designed, engineered, and built by Xbox."
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/future-xbox-consoles-not-canceled-microsoft-says/1100-6535237/?utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=category%3Dnewsletter;name%3DGameSpot-Report;id%3D15200795;date%3D100625;lctg%3Db3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30

Game Freak suffered a data breach and it had some very interesting Nintendo Pokemon information in it. The breach seems credible because it had some very acurate information about Pokemon Legends ZA. So let's look at what was in the data.
https://thegamepost.com/pokemon-gen-10-leak-game-titles-theme-region-setting/
https://www.polygon.com/pokemon-wind-waves-leak-gen-10-game-freak/

It's understandable if Xbox users feel a little skittish about the future of the console, given the recent price increases for Xbox consoles in the US, as well as formerly exclusive titles heading to PlayStation 5. Over the holiday weekend, there were so many anecdotal rumors about Target, Walmart, and other US retailers pulling Xbox consoles and games that Microsoft decided it was necessary to debunk these reports.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-shoots-down-another-hardware-rumor/1100-6535401/?utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=category%3Dnewsletter;name%3DGameSpot-Report;id%3D15298898;date%3D101525;lctg%3D20cb827897db11f28a37f08b80d1d1fe8847e789eebd69af2959f3e006c92065

A psychologist tells us all about several studies dealing with video games and attention span in children.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/video-game-health/202507/do-video-games-cause-attention-problems

Leslie Benzies is well known for his work at Rock Star Games on Grand Theft Auto 5. Only the best selling game of all time. # years after it's launch He left to start his own studio. Here's what happened.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzn34gwvwo

Nintendo Patented What!?

... We have a large game developer go private. Nintendo doing more nintendo things and what makes a good remake?

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Show Notes

Electronic Arts has recently confirmed that an investor group composed of Silver Lake, Affinity Partners, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will acquire it for around $55 billion. This consortium will acquire 100% of EA, which will no longer be listed on the stock market after the transaction is finished.
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/electronic-arts-go-private-55-billion-deal-with-pif-silver-lake-2025-09-29/
https://gamerant.com/electronic-arts-acquired-saudi-arabia-private-55-billion/
https://www.google.com/search?q=games+produced+by+ea&oq=games+produced+by+ea&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTINCAEQABjwBRieBhjIBjIICAIQABgWGB4yCAgDEAAYFhgeMggIBBAAGBYYHjIICAUQABgWGB4yCAgGEAAYFhgeMggIBxAAGBYYHjIICAgQABgWGB4yCAgJEAAYFhge0gEINjQ0OWoxajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
In a world filled with remakes, remasters, ports, and mods, the quest for a truly definitive version of a game is a lost cause--and yet, that's precisely what makes the medium so interesting. Let's discuss if it is OK to change a game during the remake.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/is-there-a-right-way-to-play-a-video-game/1100-6535092/

Last week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company received a U.S. patent on summoning a character and letting it fight another. Yep, you heard that right. A system that has been in video games for years was just pattened by Nintendo. 
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/pokemon/this-nintendo-patent-was-apparently-granted-without-a-patent-examiner-looking-at-a-single-game-ip-expert-says-concerns-hundreds-of-games-could-be-affected-by-pokemon-summoning-patent-granted-amid-palworld-lawsuit-are-valid/
https://gamesfray.com/last-week-nintendo-and-the-pokemon-company-received-a-u-s-patent-on-summoning-a-character-and-letting-it-fight-another/#397patent

The latest Nintendo Direct was filled with a ton of exciting announcements for both Switch and Switch 2, and it also gave us a glimpse into how Nintendo will be celebrating Super Mario Bros.' 40th anniversary next year! Here's all the announcements.
https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-direct-september-2025-live-updates-everything-announced
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/heres-everything-announced-during-todays-nintendo-direct/

Gamescon 2025

Show Notes

... We'll take a look at a new wave of evidence-backed digital therapies. Nintendo is doing Nintendo things and we'll take a look at everything that was announced at Gamescon.
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Your therapist might not be a person anymore—or at least, not only a person. It could be a smartwatch that vibrates just before a nightmare consumes your sleep. It could be a video game that rewires your attention span. It might even be a headset that helps you rehearse exposure therapy in a controlled virtual environment.
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/your-next-therapist-could-be-a-video-game-or-a-wearable-and-it-might-actually-work/

Nintendo has secured another payout from a lawsuit it pursued against a producer of products designed to help pirate Switch games. Already notorious for its hardline approach to piracy, modding, and emulation, Nintendo has been granted a monetary judgment against Ryan Michael Daly by a Washington district court.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/court-orders-man-to-pay-nintendo-2-million-to-settle-modding-and-piracy-lawsuit/1100-6534548/

While we were away Europes largest gaming convention happened. Gamescon was quite the event so here's the highlights of what was announced.
https://www.thegamer.com/everything-announced-revealed-gamescom-opening-night-live-2025/
https://www.ign.com/articles/gamescom-opening-night-live-2025-everything-announced
https://www.pcgamesn.com/gamescom/announcements-2025

Game Review

Ghostwire: Tokyo

Do Video Games Make You Smart

...do video games make you smart? We have some union news. We'll talk about censorship of NSFW games along with follow up on a story we talked about last time and we have a list.
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Show Notes

Researchers have linked spending more time playing video games with a boost in intelligence in children, which goes some way to contradicting the narrative that gaming is bad for young minds.
https://www.sciencealert.com/playing-video-games-has-an-unexpected-effect-on-kids-iq-study-discovers

Quality assurance workers at Raven Software, one of the developers of Call of Duty, have officially ratified their first union contract with Microsoft three years after they first unionized.
https://www.ign.com/articles/call-of-duty-qa-workers-win-first-union-contract-with-microsoft-after-3-years?_gl=1*1ud8te6*_up*MQ..*_ga*NjgwNjE0MzAxLjE3NTQzNDk1NTc.*_ga_736S6FVMCL*czE3NTQzNDk1NTckbzEkZzAkdDE3NTQzNDk1NTckajYwJGwwJGgw

Game developers association decries 'financial censorship' amidst payment processor crackdown on NSFW games, calls for 'greater transparency and fairness in how adult games are moderated'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/game-developers-association-decries-financial-censorship-amidst-payment-processor-crackdown-on-nsfw-games-calls-for-greater-transparency-and-fairness-in-how-adult-games-are-moderated/
https://itch.io/docs/creators/faq#is-adult-content-allowed
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/australian-anti-porn-group-claims-responsibility-for-steams-new-censorship-rules-in-victory-against-porn-sick-brain-rotted-pedo-gamer-fetishists-and-things-only-get-weirder-from-there/
One of the Vice Presidents of the European Parliament, Nicolae Ștefănuță, publicly voiced his support for Stop Killing Games in a major win for the newly-minted EU Citizens' Initiative. On July 12, Ștefănuță posted a video on his Instagram story announcing that he had signed the Stop Killing Games petition and plans to continue helping the movement.
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/a-game-once-sold-belongs-to-the-customer-prominent-eu-politician-stands-up-for-stop-killing-games/

We have a list ... sort of. Let's take a look at the upcoming games for the rest of 2025 and see what we are looking forward to.
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls565219437/

Game Review

Donkey Kong - Bananza

Microsoft Bloodbath

Microsoft employees have a really bad day. Are digital games a good thing? We look at what some users are saying about the Nintendo Store and some more news about Microsoft and their desire to take over the world.
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Show Notes:

Microsoft laid off more than 9000 employees this past week. Along with the devastating effect on the lives of those people the ripple effect across the tech landscape did not miss the video game world. So let's take a look at what was impacted by this latest labor cut and what the industry thought of it.
https://www.trueachievements.com/news/xbox-canceled-games-and-studios-layoffs-2025
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/07/its-heartbreaking-the-pokemon-company-tech-vp-joins-industry-in-criticising-microsoft-layoffs

You buy a game on steam and it goes ito your library. You own that game, right? Well it doesn't seem possible but what if Steam went out of business? Can't happen, think Google Stadia. You would loose access to those games that you paid money for. Well a new online initiative called stop killing games aims to close that loophole.
https://wccftech.com/publishers-argue-stop-killing-games-proposals-would-make-online-games-prohibitively-expensive/
https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2024/000007_en

In another instance of some people have way too much time on their hands, users of Nintendo Online believe they have figured out a future release for the Switch 2. How you say? By crossing their eyes and turning their head slightly to the side and staring at blurry pixels in the background of the site.
https://www.ign.com/articles/fans-analysing-blurry-pixels-believe-nintendo-switch-online-is-getting-super-smash-bros-for-its-n64-catalogue-and-now-the-hunt-is-on-for-more?_gl=1*e7vdzw*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTg4MTU3Mjc3LjE3NTE5MzE4MTE.*_ga_736S6FVMCL*czE3NTE5MzE4MTAkbzEkZzAkdDE3NTE5MzE4MTAkajYwJGwwJGgw

Game pass is a good deal and almost everyone I know has it. But is it a good thing? Raphael Colantonio--one of the co-founders of Arcane Studios doesn't think so. Let's look at what He has to say.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/arkane-co-founder-unloads-on-game-pass-calls-it-unsustainable/1100-6532991/

AI in Video Games

Today we’re diving deep into a game-changing force that’s reshaping the digital worlds we explore: artificial intelligence in video games. From smarter enemies and lifelike NPCs to procedurally generated landscapes and adaptive storytelling, AI is no longer just behind the scenes — it’s at the heart of how we play, what we experience, and where the industry is headed.
http://www.joystickandmouse.com
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SHOW NOTES:

Mention the t-shirts and Patreon - shop.joystickandmouse.com
Are any of the game developers actually using AI for game development. You bet they are. According to a survey of over 300 respondents carried out by market research firm CIST, on behalf of game engine maker Unity. “62% of the studios we surveyed said they used AI in their workflows, mainly to prototype quickly and for concepting, asset creation, and worldbuilding,” Unity said in its latest annual market report 
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/almost-two-thirds-of-game-development-studios-are-using-ai-survey-finds/

AI or Artifiсiаl intelligenсe is trаnsforming numerous inԁustries, аnԁ the gаming inԁustry is no exсeрtion. So what can it do and how is it revolutionising gаme ԁesign аnԁ рlаyer exрerienсes аt а rарiԁ расe.
https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/news/how-ai-revolutionising-game-design-and-player-experiences/

https://www.coursera.org/articles/ai-for-game-development
Is the future of artificial intelligence in video games playing out in a cyberpunk ramen bar? Tech companies would like you to think so, but game writers aren't so sure. In a recent demo from the tech company Nvidia, a human player talked to two video game characters using a microphone — and the characters responded in real time using generative AI.
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/15/1238111971/video-games-ai-artificial-intelligence-nvidia

You see the bad guy on the screen. Your brain processes that it is a bad guy and then tells your fingers to move to the X button to fire your weapon. The console or PC interprets that  button press and then tells the game that you fired your weapon. If you are like me that time it takes to respond and push the button is measured in slug years. Well what if the round trip to fingers and controllers was eliminated? That's exactly what a study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin is trying to do.
https://www.psypost.org/brain-computer-interface-utilizes-ai-to-adapt-to-users-allowing-them-to-control-video-games-with-their-thoughts/

Best Of The Worst

Show Notes:

Wizards of the Coast announced an exclusive publishing agreement with Giant Skull development studios out of Los Angeles to begin work on the next video game in the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. No explicit details were released about the upcoming game, save that it is currently in development for PC and console, with more information to come at a later date.
https://www.cbr.com/dnd-moves-on-from-baldurs-gate-for-new-video-game/

More than 300 quality assurance (QA) workers at Microsoft’s video game subsidiary ZeniMax Media have reached a tentative agreement with the company, marking a first-of-its-kind contract for the U.S. video game industry.
https://uniglobalunion.org/news/microsoft-cwa/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/business/microsoft-video-game-union.html

The upgraded version of Nintendo Switch, the third biggest-selling video game console of all time, will be released on Thursday, June 5. The Japanese company hopes to match its earlier runaway success with Switch 2. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo... here's a roundup of the consoles that have marked video gaming history. 
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20250602-%F0%9F%8C%9Fthe-bright-side-ahead-of-switch-2-release-the-five-best-selling-gaming-consoles-of-all-time

Video game movies are numerous, and rarely any good. In the TV realm, The Last of Us and Twisted Metal have shown that with the right creative team and storytelling, you can have successful live-action video game adaptations, but it's not always the case. Nonetheless, even the most poorly reviewed video game movies and flops can still outshine the worst video game from the series they're based on.
https://www.thegamer.com/video-game-movies-at-least-better-worst-game-in-series/

Video Game Economics

We are talking about the economic state of video games and what it all means for us the gamers.
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Show Notes:

Mention the t-shirts and Patreon - shop.joystickandmouse.com
In another sign of the hard times in the video game industry EA Lays off hundreds of employees and cancels a game in development.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/electronic-arts-lays-off-hundreds-cancels-titanfall-game-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-04-29/

It has been over six years since Epic started undercutting Steam's 30 percent revenue share for developers, asking for just 12 percent of sales on its then-new Epic Games Store. Now, Epic is going even further by reducing those fees to zero for a game's first $1 million in annual sales.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/05/epic-games-store-completely-eliminates-revenue-fees-for-smaller-developers/

Yay, we have a release date for Grand Theft Auto IV but it is later than expected. 
https://www.ign.com/articles/grand-theft-auto-6s-delay-just-affected-the-entire-video-game-industry?_gl=1*phkmq0*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTgwMzY2NzUyMi4xNzQ2NDg1NjIw*_ga_736S6FVMCL*MTc0NjQ4NTYxOS4xLjAuMTc0NjQ4NTYxOS4wLjAuMA..

Following Sony's lead from earlier this year, Microsoft raised recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers around the world this week.
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/xbox-price-increase-bing-vs-google-windows-11
https://apnews.com/article/xbox-raises-prices-tariffs-microsoft-cd746a5aed59f3f5403ab262d6e149f0

So what do the tarrifs mean to video game prices?
https://www.theouterhaven.net/the-rising-cost-of-gaming-and-why-tariffs-are-just-the-beginning/

Nintendo Switch 2

The cost of the PS5 is going up. The cops get digital and all about the Switch 2.
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Show Notes:

If you still haven't purchased a PS5, you may want to do so in the very near future. No, it's not because of tariffs, well not directly anyways. Prices for the console are rising in several regions and it's probably only a matter of time before it hits the US. So let's talk about how much, where and when.
https://www.theverge.com/news/647869/sony-ps5-price-rise-uk-europe-australia-new-zealand
https://www.polygon.com/news/558161/ps5-price-increase-new-europe-uk

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-online-police-patrol-internet-denmark.html#google_vignette

Nintendo held another direct this past week. this time dealing exclusively with the Switch 2. Well here's all the things that were announced and how to order ... or not.
https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-switch-2-direct-everything-announced