Plus Valve removes some of the most vile games from Steam and Candy Crush staff reveal what’s happening with the layoffs
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou and Chris Button. 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 video game screen adaptations dominate the news with Zelda, Assassin’s Creed and Donkey Kong, Valve responds to pressure and removes some of the most vile games from its platform, and rumours suggest Fallout 5 is now going into full production
Here is the news for Sunday 20th of July. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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KYLE: Let’s get ready to go to the movies! Popcorn ready Fiona? Have you got your choc bomb?
The live action The Legend of Zelda movie revealed their main cast this week.
Posted on Nintendo’s social media, Miyamoto revealed that Zelda will be played by Bo Bragason and Link will be played by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth.
Bragason has previously been in BBC’s Three Girls and The Jetty and Disney+ Series Renegade Nell and Ainsworth is known for his work in the Haunting of Bly Manor and the voice of Pinocchio in the remake.
Oh and fun fact if you google either of those names you get a fun little message at the top of the search.
I’m pretty happy to be honest with this choice, I was more worried they were going to use really well known actors. We still don’t know anything about the film so who knows what Zelda game it’ll be based on or if it’ll be a new story.
Miyamoto also announced that the film is scheduled to be released on May 7 2027.
FIONA: a live-action Assassin’s Creed TV series got the greenlight this week, 5 years after the confirmation of Netflix’s partnership with Ubisoft.
It’ll focus on the Templar and Assassin conflict that has played out in every game, but we don’t know yet if it’ll be a new story or adaptation of an existing one.
They haven’t yet announced what time period it’ll be set in but Netflix has said that Robert Patino, executive producer on Westworld and a writer for Sons of Anarchy, and David Wiener, the executive producer of Halo and Homecoming, are attached as creators, showrunners, and executive producers.
Can’t wait to see what they do with Assassin’s Creed, because that movie was a stinker.
KYLE: And finally eagle eyes spotted that an Untitled Donkey Kong movie project has popped up in the copyright Public Record System.
Honestly it isn’t a surprise as we’ve already had the Super Mario Bros Movie. This one will also be done by Universal Pictures.
Will Seth Rogan be back to voice the big ape again? Let's a-go
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FIONA: Just a quick warning this next story does contain references to sexual assault.
Valve has been forced to remove a bunch of abhorrent games from its store after payment processors raised concerns this week.
Australian group Collective Shout who campaigns against sexual assault depictions in media wrote an open letter this week to the payment processors like PayPal and they quickly responded.
Steam users have been taking to various platforms to complain that PayPal wasn’t working when they were attempting to purchase certain titles.
It turns out payment processors like PayPal have much stricter rules of what’s acceptable than Steam does, and surprisingly also have the power to block their services if you try to use them for purchases through Steam that they deem unacceptable.
KYLE: Valve has chosen to remove a heap of games from the store in response.
Steam hasn’t confirmed that PayPal was the processor at the heart of all this, but told Gaming on Linux it will be notifying developers and issuing app credits in case they want to upload new games in the future.
FIONA: Look, for yours, Kyle’s, and my own mental health, we won’t go into the exact titles or the themes, but I’m sure you can imagine.
And if you really need to know we’ve linked an article by Gaming on Linux in the show notes that has all the details.
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KYLE: Cygames, the dev team behind Umamusume: Pretty Derby, have put out a statement telling fans the correct etiquette when at a real life horse stables.
If you haven’t heard of the game, it's a horse racing and training sim based on real-life famous horses, but they’ve all been redesigned into anime horse waifus and their backstory is inspired by their real life counterparts.
It’s become so popular that it’s driven an increase in interest towards horse racing in Japan and now people are going to visit the horses that the characters are inspired by, and obviously some people broke the rules whoops.
FIONA: In a blogpost Cygames outlined how visitors should behave when they visit real-life horse stables to not interrupt the working stable and impact the horses.
It’s also clear that the devs don’t want the bad behaviour to reflect on the company and gaming fans, as a whole.
Apparently the stable housing the real-life horse Haru Urara received heaps of notifications on a recent birthday post for the horse, a sudden increase of people following the stable’s account, and reservations to visit the horse that retired years ago is also filling up.
The gaming community never fails to surprise me. If you want to read their Guidelines for Visiting Stables in Japan, we’ll link it in the show notes.
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FIONA: We heard a few months ago that King, the studio behind Candy Crush, would be letting people go in a round of layoffs but now anonymous sources are coming out revealing what exactly is happening.
Speaking to mobilegames.biz, anonymous devs have said that many level design and user research staff and practically half of the London-based Farm Heroes Saga team are going to be made redundant, with many more told that they’re at risk.
The devs have said that some staff have spent months building tools that use AI to help make level design quicker however those people have been let go and now they’ve essentially been replaced with those same AI tools.
KYLE: The company sent around an internal memo saying that the industry is changing fast and their business hasn’t been growing, so they’re making changes to the business including many more AI tools.
Sounds like they’re really keen to get rid of people.
Some developers have claimed that a recent internal survey showed morale at an all-time low and some staff are being targeted by HR for expressing dissatisfaction internally.
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KYLE: And one for the rumour mill, fans of the Fallout series get excited based on a single comment, Fallout 5 has been greenlit for development.
Reporter Jez Corden speaking on the Xbox Two podcast said that some of the project cancellations at Zenimax and Bethesda was about reallocation of funding towards the RPG.
FIONA: Take this with a grain of iodised salt because it’s based on a bit of background conversation Corden has been having, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
At any rate it’ll still be a fair way off, with plans for it to arrive after new Starfield DLC and The Elder Scrolls VI.
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FIONA: That’s it for the headlines…Here are the games coming out this week.
KYLE: Out on the 22nd is Misc. A Tiny Tale. It’s a really fun, wholesome little puzzle platformer where you play as tiny robots and it’s Australian made. SIFTER’s own Nom has been playing it so keep an eye on our feeds for her review coming soon, and pick it up for yourself on PC or Switch this Tuesday.
FIONA: Releasing on the 23rd is Wheel World, an open world racing cycling adventure game with a fantastic cell shaded art style. Customise your bike and race to save the world when this one comes to PC, Xbox, and PlayStation on Wednesday
KYLE: We’ve got a brand new soulslike out this week, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. You play as a cursed pirate warrior fighting off the forces of evil in a semi historical Ming Dynasty. That’s out on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox series S and X on the 24th.
FIONA: Next up is Killing Floor 3. Set 70 years after the events of the previous game, a mega corporation has developed an army of monsters, and it’s your job to deal with them in first person shooter chaos. That’s out on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox series S and X this Thursday.
KYLE: Also out Thursday is Endzone 2, an isometric point and click survival game set in a stunning and brutal post apocalyptic setting. Explore, build, and survive against the odds when Endzone 2 comes to PC on the 24th
FIONA: And last up is Look Mum No Computer, a twin stick RPG shooter set inside the workings of rogue machines. Take down the evil machines with synth based attacks in a perfectly executed 90s gameboy aesthetic. Check it out exclusively on PC this Thursday.
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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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.
