Plus more funding support for Aussie devs from Screen Australia and all the highlights from the Pokémon Presents
Pocket Casts: You can now rate the show on Pocket Casts, give us a five star review learn more by heading here https://pocketcasts.com/ratings
Apple Arcade: Enjoy unlimited access to over 200 incredibly fun games with no ads and no in-app purchases. From puzzle and adventure games to sports, racing, and multiplayer action games, everyone can count on finding something to love. Head to sifter.com.au/arcade to start your free trial* of Apple Arcade today and you'll be supporting independent video games journalism. *New subscribers only. AU$9.99/month after free trial. Plan automatically renews after trial until cancelled.
You can support SIFTER's independent gaming journalism by
☕ Tipping us on KoFi https://www.ko-fi.com/sifterHQ
👕 Wearing our merch https://sifter.store/
💬 Talking to us on the SIFTER Discord https://www.sifter.com.au/discord
SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou, Chris Button and Naomi Jackson. Cat Jahne is Social Producer, Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER.
FIONA: Hi I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
KYLE: and I’m Kyle Pauletto
FIONA: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
KYLE: This week some awesome Aussie games get support, why your favourite indie games store had to hide games on it’s platform, plus news on Elden Ring Nightreign, Pokémon and Battlefield.
Here is the news for Sunday 27th of July. Let’s go!
—
PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
—
KYLE: Some good news for Aussie developers and gamers worldwide, Screen Australia will provide a share of $1.4 million to a bunch of new games in development.
The funds will go towards 26 new games, as well as more funding for Freeplay, an indie organisation that runs festivals for developers and the community.
More support for Australian developers to tell Australian stories is always a good thing.
We have a beautiful, rich, storied, and troubled history in this country, and the nuances of that history are sometimes left unmentioned in games set in or featuring Australia.
FIONA: If you've read our Death Stranding 2 review by SIFTER’s own Adam Christou, you’ll understand why this is worth mentioning, because that game, despite being set in Australia, doesn't really include any of our incredible 60,000 years of cultural history.
Like at all.
We’ll link to that article in the show notes, and we’ll also include a link to the Screen Australia media release so you can check out the games that will score some funding.
And of course keep listening to Walkthrough for all the latest on up and coming Aussie games.
—
FIONA: The biggest news this week has been the ongoing saga surrounding the campaign against payment processors targeting games hosted on Steam.
And now, indie platform Itch.io has been forced to hide any title tagged NSFW with some wide ranging consequences.
In particular a bunch of games made by queer creators on Itch, were made invisible in search.
KYLE: This comes after the owner of Steam, Valve, admitted to cracking down on adult games that violated the ‘rules and standards’ of payment processors, removing them from Steam completely.
Itchio said in a statement on its website that it’s also under pressure from payment processors, as well as controversial activist group Collective Shout, they were put in the position where they’d need to stop taking payments for every single game or deindex games tagged NSFW from search.
FIONA: You might be wondering why mastercard and Visa might feel so much pressure to crack down on companies like Itchio and Valve. Like what is the link?
Well an act passed by US congress in 2018 called the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) put liability on these websites, meaning they can be sued, if their website is seen to be promoting sex trafficking.
In 2022 a judge ruled that Visa could be taken to court over a case against Pornhub as the court could ‘comfortably infer’ that Visa intended to help Mindgeek, Pornhub’s owner, monetize illegal content. The judge said that Visa ‘provided the tool used to complete a crime.’ This caused Visa to stop processing payments for Pornhub.
KYLE: It’s an incredible mess and a lot of people are worried that legitimate artistic expression, especially from marginalised communities will be caught in the crossfire, though some worry that’s by design.
—
KYLE: The Pokémon Company held a Pokémon Presents this week and as always there were a stack of announcements.
There is a new title called Pokémon Champions, a battle-focused game where you recruit pokemon to your team rather than catch them, or bring your faves over from Pokémon Home.
And a new puzzle game called Pokémon Friends dropped the day of the showcase, a daily puzzle game where you solve a variety of Pokémon themed brain teasers to earn items and yarn to make Pokemon plushies which you use to decorate a virtual room.
It’s available for free on Android and iOS devices but does cost on the Switch.
FIONA: The fun Netflix TV series Pokémon Concierge is back with a new season on September 4 with Haru and Psyduck continuing their work at the island resort and getting into some more mischief.
I’m pretty excited for that one.
But I’m also excited for a new series called Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d and Pichu due for release in 2027 produced by Aardman, the studio behind Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.
And of course plenty of updates for current titles like Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet and more info about the upcoming Pokémon Legends Z-A as we gear up to that launch.
You can check everything out in the show notes.
—
FIONA: Good news if you have only a single mate who shares your love of soulslikes, multiplayer Elden Ring Nightreign will be getting a two player mode soon.
The duo expeditions mode will be here later this week, which means you can now play solo, as a pair or in a group of three.
KYLE: Speaking to IGN earlier this year, Junya Ishizaki said the lack of duos mode at launch was basically a balancing decision.
More ways to play is always better in my book!
—
KYLE: Battlefield 6 is officially the next game from EA DICE, as the game heads back to its contemporary military setting.
A private military is causing chaos and sets the scene for this conflict, that doesn’t sound like real life events at all.
This series has a bit of a soft spot for me as Battlefield was the first series where I really got into the multiplayer, but I’ll be real this trailer does feel a bit hoo-rah military propaganda to me.
FIONA: There are lots of destructible environments, a single player campaign for the first time in years.
Rumours are pointing to a launch pretty soon, maybe even as close as October this year, but bad luck if you’re on PS4 or Xbox One, this game will likely drop those consoles.
—
KYLE: That’s it for the headlines…Here are the games coming out this week.
FIONA: Open world sequel Grounded 2 is out in early access on the 29th. Dive back into the backyard as a shrunken survivor, this time with the ability to tame and ride insects. Uncover the hidden mysteries of the suburbs on PC and Xbox Series S and X this Tuesday.
KYLE: After massive delays, the cosy Hobbiton life sim Tales of the Shire is finally releasing. Sifters own Cat Jahne got her hands on it early and absolutely loved it, try it for yourself when it releases on all platforms on Wednesday. And keep an eye on our feeds for Cat’s thoughts.
FIONA: Next up we have Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. It’s a hack and slash throwback side scroller by the team behind Blasphemous. It looks slick and nostalgic, pick it up on all platforms on the 31st.
—
PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
—
KYLE: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Kyle Pauletto.
FIONA: And my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus, thank you so much for listening.
KYLE: Hey we’ve been sharing heaps on our website lately, with features on video game collectors, local cooperative game dev hubs and more, the best place for you to go is visit sifter.com.au, and check in regularly. Reviews, interviews and feature articles are all there so check it out.
FIONA: SIFTER is produced by myself, Cat Jahne, Kyle Pauletto, Adam Christou, Naomi Jackson, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and video editor, and Gianni Di Giovanni is SIFTER’s Executive Producer, and script editor.
KYLE: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
FIONA: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday, see you then.
