Latest news with #Nintendo64
ABC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
What is Stop Killing Games? Millions back EU petition to shape future of video game industry
Across the internet in recent weeks, influencers, streamers and video game fans have been calling for laws to "stop killing games". It's part of a grassroots initiative that has been picked up around the world, including in Australia, and is now picking up speed as it makes an eleventh-hour push for signatures on a petition to the European Union. This is what to know about the Stop Killing Games movement, and why it's getting so much attention. If you bought a game for your Nintendo 64 back in 1999, you could still dust it off, plug it into your console and boot it up to this day. But the same isn't possible for many released in recent years. That's because more games than ever require an internet connection to play, usually via online servers hosted by the developer. But when those companies decide they no longer want to keep the servers operating, they can shut them down and render the game unplayable. These games are usually sold for around the same prices as titles that can be played years down the line and aren't marketed as having a life span. Essentially, it's an issue of consumer rights. The Stop Killing Games movement says the issue also has bigger implications than just the video games industry. "The practice of a seller destroying a product someone has already paid for represents a radical assault on consumer rights and even the concept of ownership itself," its organisers wrote in an FAQ on its official website. "If this practice does not stop, it may be codified into law and spread to other products of more importance over time, such as agricultural equipment, educational products, medical devices, etc. "It is important consumers maintain a basic level of rights so as to not be overrun by predatory practices." Frustration around this practice of developers shutting down games has existed for years. But when Ubisoft announced plans to shutter its online racing game The Crew in 2024 and render the game unplayable, the situation reached a boiling point. Ross Scott, who runs the YouTube channel Accursed Farms, had been reporting news updates about developers destroying games for years, but believed The Crew was the clearest case of a consumer rights violation he'd seen in the space. He told his audience at the time he intended to pursue legal proceedings against Ubisoft, with the intention of setting a legal precedent against the practice. Out of that, the Stop Killing Games initiative was born. Since April 2024, supporters of the initiative in several countries have pushed for legislation to discourage the practice of destroying games consumers have already purchased. Supporters are asking for laws that would require games to stay in a working state when developers end support. "The irony is, most video games already do this," Mr Scott said. Stop Killing Games says two of the ways this can be achieved is by: The initiative is not calling for developers to be required to run servers for their games forever. "It's unreasonable to expect a developer to support a game forever," says Seán McLoughlin, who goes by jacksepticeye online, in a video posted to his YouTube channel. "I don't think anyone would expect that. But if a developer wants to stop supporting a game … put stuff in place where you can hand it over to the consumers, where they can start supporting it themselves, and put stuff out, and we can still enjoy the game." The movement's petition to the European Union has received an eleventh-hour groundswell of support, bringing the issue into mainstream discourse. The petition, which closes on July 31, had 12 months to collect at least 1 million verified statements of support in order to bring the matter before the EU's main executive body, the European Commission. For most of that time, it appeared as though it would fall short. But when prominent video game influencers, including PewDiePie, jacksepticeye, MoistCr1TiKaL, and Minecraft creator Notch offered public statements of support, the petition saw a massive boost. In little over a fortnight, it shot from around 454,000 signatures to 1.3 million. There are a few reasons. For one, getting enough signatures would guarantee the issue goes before the European Commission, meaning there's a better chance the EU will consider legislating against developers destroying games they have sold to customers. Mr Scott is hopeful that if the EU, or even Australia, introduces new laws, they would be enough to tip the scales worldwide. "The costs of implementing 'end of life' plans are trivial when compared to the potential profits from selling in those markets," he said. "At that point, I think it will become standard practice in the industry, because that is what will become the most profitable." This flow-on effect has been seen before. In 2022, the European Union ruled all smartphones sold within the bloc must be capable of being charged with a USB-C connection. That meant Apple was forced to abandon its brand-specific Lightning cables to comply, and rather than manufacturing models just for Europe, the company implemented the change worldwide. Similarly, in 2017, gaming company Valve lost a case against Australia's consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), in the federal court for misleading customers about their rights to refunds for faulty games. Valve, which owns the gaming platform Steam and has more than 2 million Australian accounts, only offered refunds on a case-by-case basis. But the court upheld that, according to Australian Consumer Law, every business selling products in the country was required to provide refunds for faulty products. Mr Scott attributes the case for prompting Valve to offer refunds on purchases with less than 2 hours of playtime for up to 14 days. Stop Killing Games has already received some optimistic commentary from the EU, with Vice-President Nicolae Ștefănuță voicing his full support and signing the petition. Emphasis has also been placed on Stop Killing Games's European Union petition because it marks one of the last avenues the initiative can pursue to see governments take up the matter. Past actions in countries such as Canada, the US and Brazil have so far turned up dead ends. In response to a class action lawsuit over the shutdown of The Crew, Ubisoft lawyer Steven A Marenberg argued the game's packaging made clear the game required an internet connection to be played, and that Ubisoft retained the right to revoke access at its own discretion. Having been able to play the game for years, he argued players "cannot complain now that they were deceived simply because Ubisoft did not then create an offline version of the discontinued game", he wrote in a filing obtained by Polygon. Video Games Europe, a trade association representing the continent's video game industry, has been critical of the Stop Killing Games initiative. In a statement released in early July, it said private servers were not a practical option for many online-only games. "We understand that it can be disappointing for players but, when it does happen, the industry ensures that players are given fair notice of the prospective changes in compliance with local consumer protection laws," the statement reads. "Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players' data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable. "In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create." A longer position statement argued such laws as Stop Killing Games is pursuing would erode intellectual property rights of developers and raise the costs of developing such games, creating a "chilling effect on game design". It added that forcing developers to allow privately run servers would risk reputational harm and expose players to security risks and "illegal or harmful content or conduct" in the absence of moderation. Mr Scott rejected the suggestion that requiring developers to have end-of-life plans in place would be too costly. "While it's not practical for all existing games, which we acknowledge, the costs to implement 'end of life' plans for games in the future can be utterly minimal," he said, adding that most games already allowed for continued play after support ended. He noted that the EU was an "enormous market" with a population of more than 450 million, meaning the potential profits from selling games there would outweigh the costs of implementing such plans. Other studios, including Warhammer 40,000 developer Owlcat Studios, have expressed support for the petition. Yes. Stop Killing Games petitioned the federal government last year, collecting more than 10,000 signatures. Former MP Stephen Jones, who was the assistant treasurer and financial services minister at the time, responded with a letter outlining current consumer law but did not commit to pursuing legislation. The ACCC said developers should be clear to consumers about whether they were purchasing a game as a product, or just a licence to play it. A spokesperson for the commission said "there is no requirement under the ACL that game developers need to continue to provide access to a game, or support the operation of a game, for any defined period of time". "If consumers are impacted by a game developer changing the nature of the product or service they have purchased and believe they have been misled, they should contact the business in first instance to try to resolve the issue. "They should also report the matter to the ACCC and their local state or territory consumer affairs or fair trading agency."
Gizmodo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
The People Behind the Most Accurate Game Boy Recreation Are Making an N64
No other company makes the retro gaming scene more onerous than ModRetro. The company behind the ModRetro Chromatic—fronted by the CEO of military contractor Anduril, Palmer Luckey—is at it again, announcing an enticing recreation of the Nintendo 64 meant to hook up to your TV and play all your old cartridges as if it were 1996 all over again. Drooling over this still unrevealed recreation console also requires you to put aside any inhibitions over Luckey's deep ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex and surveillance state. ModRetro's first big hit, the Chromatic, was an FPGA emulation device capable of playing Game Boy and Game Boy Advance cartridges. FPGA stands for field-programmable gate array, which, in layman's terms, means the programmable chip can copy the chip logic of the original device to play these games as accurately as possible. An FPGA Game Boy is far less complex than a console with 3D graphics like the N64. Luckey promoted ModRetro's M64, which will offer 'the best and most authentic way to play your favorite N64 games.' The Anduril founder said the device will cost as much as the Nintendo 64 did at launch—$200. ModRetro's newest product is M64. The best and most authentic way to play your favorite N64 games, bar none. Prepare your wallet and brace your mind. Launches at the same price as the original Nintendo 64. Inflation isn't nostalgic. — Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) July 24, 2025There's a good reason so many retro enthusiasts are enticed by an FPGA Nintendo 64 recreation. Nintendo designed the N64 architecture in such a way that it's more difficult to replicate through software emulation compared to most other gaming consoles. This results in awkward texture mapping in some games, among other graphical glitches that mar the experience. Luckey, always the capitalist, picked up on that demand after Analogue promoted its $250 Analogue3D, another Nintendo 64 FPGA console. That device promises to upscale games to 4K resolution from the N64's native 480×360. It also introduces a full '3Dos,' which will act as a backend to support in-game screenshots, save states, and more. Analogue delayed its device multiple times, most recently pushing the ship date to August. The company blamed Trump tariffs for the shipping issues, although the device still remains sold out anyway. Luckey doesn't actually have a console to show anyone yet. He wrote on X that what was displayed of the M64 was 'real gameplay on real hardware using our real core.' It's unclear if the device is still in the prototyping phase or if the company had to wait for 'final legal checks' before it could show off its recreation hardware. He cheekily referenced AMD in his post, implying the M64 will be using an FPGA chip from the company. The Analogue 3D, instead, bases its design on an Intel 220K LE Altera Cyclone 10GX FPGA. At least Luckey confirmed in a response to The Shortcut's Matt Swider that the M64 will have several different color options, and it will support the original triple-handed N64 controllers as well as a new 'M64 controller.' Like the Analogue3D, the M64 will support 4K resolution. However, the Anduril and ModRetro founder said, 'Upscale is the wrong word for what we're doing.' As with the ModRetro Chromatic, the bigger issue than how well the hardware recreates your favorite childhood moments is how much you want to support a man who unapologetically makes weapon-mounted drones, missiles, and now AR headsets for the U.S. military. Reports from Business Insider and Reuters indicated Luckey plans to get into digital banking, something that may be related to crypto. Let's just imagine a future where, after washing his hands of Oculus and Meta, Luckey instead started making Game Boys instead of weaponized drones.
Android Authority
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Android Authority
This cheaper N64 FPGA console might be the best way to play your N64 carts
Robert Triggs / Android Authority TL;DR ModRetro has announced pricing for its N64 FPGA console, the M64, at $199.99. This is $50 cheaper than the Analogue 3D, which ships next month. The video hints at a holiday release date, but no specs or details have been announced yet. The Nintendo 64 was one of the most interesting consoles of its time, but revisiting those classics isn't easy. Unless you still have a microfridge-sized CRT in working order, you're looking at spending hundreds of dollars on mods, upscalers, or converters to play the original hardware on a modern TV. Thankfully, there's another option that uses high-speed FPGA chips to emulate the console at the hardware level. Not only does this provide a nearly perfect recreation of the original experience, it also allows for upgrades like upscaling, HDMI output, and more — without the need for expensive dongles or mods. The ModRetro M64 is a cheaper alternative to the Analogue 3D. That's the promise of the latest N64 FPGA console from ModRetro, called the M64. Details are still light on the exact specs and features, but today it was revealed to cost $199.99, which is significantly less than alternatives like the Analogue 3D. At least, that's the early bird pricing ModRetro is offering to interested shoppers who sign up for the M64 waitlist. The Analogue 3D gained significant attention when it was announced last year, but even if you somehow managed to snag one on pre-order (it's been sold out for more than six months), the $250 price tag is a tough pill to swallow. That console ships next month for pre-order customers, but there's no guarantee that it will ever be back in stock. And if it is, it will almost assuredly come with a tariff-induced price hike. In the announcement video posted to ModRetro founder Palmer Luckey's X account today, the company takes several swipes at the Analogue 3D. Text from a flaming retro skull reads 'respect the trident' and 'black and white is boring.' The first is a reference to the 8BitDo 64 controller, which was designed in partnership with Analogue and drops the iconic trident design. The second is a clear swipe at the only colorways available on Analogue's N64 clone: black and white. The video doesn't fully reveal the M64 console itself, but it does hint at a potential launch date. A note on the covered console reads 'No peeking until Christmas,' which may indicated a holiday 2025 release. It's worth mentioning that Luckey is a very divisive figure in the gaming community. Apart from designing retro consoles and founding Oculus, he's also involved in arms and defence contracts via another company he founded, Anduril Industries. The billionaire also doesn't shy away from his controversial political beliefs, which likely led to him losing his job at Facebook after the company acquired Oculus. Regardless, the M64 is set to be ModRetro's second console release, following the Game Boy Color-inspired Chromatic. After selling out almost immediately, the Chromatic was made permanently available for purchase earlier this month. The Chromatic is designed as the ultimate Game Boy, but we don't yet know exactly what the M64 has in store. At the very least it should provide a cheaper way to play original N64 cartridges on modern TVs, which is great news for retro gamers. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Engadget
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Donkey Kong Bananza's creators reflect on the game's path to delightful destruction
On Tuesday, Nintendo published an interview with the creators of Donkey Kong Bananza . The second big Switch 2 tentpole title comes from the team that made Super Mario Odyssey . The developers explained how they laid the foundation for DK's first 3D adventure since the Nintendo 64 era. Destruction is at the heart of Donkey Kong Bananza . Everything in his environment can be smashed to bits. Not only is that a fun mechanic, but it also adds an element of verticality and freedom of exploration. That's an ideal fit for showcasing the Switch 2's processing power. As with so many other Nintendo creations, the first step in getting there was a no-brainer. Consult with Shigeru Miyamoto. "We'd built up a lot of expertise in gameplay development for 3D action games through our work on 3D Mario games, including Super Mario Odyssey ," producer Kenta Motokura said. "But we needed to dive deeper into the fundamental question of 'What is Donkey Kong?' So, our first step was to seek out Miyamoto-san and Nintendo Executive Officer Yoshiaki Koizumi." In their talk, Miyamoto emphasized DK's moves like hand slaps and blowing. Along similar lines, Koizumi pointed to the ape's massive arms, which he uses to punch and hoist heavy objects. That got the team thinking. After all, who doesn't want to control a giant ape who runs around, breaking shit? DK slapping a platform in the 2010 game Donkey Kong Country Returns. Shigeru Miyamoto emphasized the move as a starting point for the new version. (Nintendo / Retro) The Super Mario Odyssey team was uniquely suited to handle that challenge. First, the 2017 title included some light environmental destruction. (Think the cheese rocks in the Luncheon Kingdom and Bowser's smashing in the final level.) The team experimented with fully destructible environments soon after Odyssey 's release. (That was long before they knew they'd make a Donkey Kong game.) That included the adorably strange idea of putting smashing fists on a Goomba and setting it loose. Part two of the interview includes a short video of one of these tests. On a technical level, the key to that mechanic is using voxels (3D pixels). "In Super Mario Odyssey , we started using voxels midway through development, so the areas where we could apply them were limited," Motukura said. "But the trial and error we went through back then directly led to what we were able to do in Donkey Kong Bananza ." Another interesting tidbit from the interview is that they started working on the game as a Switch 1 title. "We originally began developing Donkey Kong Bananza on Nintendo Switch, but we ran into some challenges," Motokura said. "I think it was around 2021 when we started to think about moving development to Switch 2." In the comparison image below, you can see a much richer environment in the Switch 2 version. Art director Daisuke Watanabe explained that the new console's hardware opened new doors. "We first looked into how we could upgrade what we'd originally built for Switch to take advantage of Switch 2," Watanabe said. "One of the most obvious improvements was that we could place far more objects in the environment than before. Being able to place more objects in the terrain didn't just enhance the game's visual richness. More importantly, it increased the amount of things players could destroy, which amplified the exhilaration of being able to demolish anything and everything." There are many more nuggets in Nintendo's interview. This includes animal transformations and Pauline's role in the game. (She must be the forgiving type, given how they started.) The chat also explores how DK's modern art style evolved. You can visit Nintendo's website for the full lowdown. Donkey Kong Bananza will be available tomorrow, July 17.
Engadget
15-07-2025
- Business
- Engadget
Analogue says its delayed N64 remake console will start shipping next month
US tariffs continue to cause problems and supply issues in the gaming space. The latest to feel the effects is Analogue. The company announced today that its Analogue 3D, a modern remake of the Nintendo 64 console, will not start shipping until late August. Analogue noted that "last week's sudden tariffs" were the reason for this change. "We're absorbing the costs—your preorder price stays the same. No additional charges," the company said in a post on X. This isn't the first time the highly anticipated Analogue 3D has been delayed. It opened for pre-orders in October 2024 and was initially due to ship in the first quarter of 2025. In March, the company pushed the ship date back to July, although its blog post didn't provide a reason for that move. Many gaming brands have been forced to adapt to the fluctuating tariff rules. Nintendo , Sony , Razer and Anbernic are just some of the companies that have changed their product pricing, availability or launches in the US as a result of the ever-changing situation.
