Plus Fornite devs are under fire for their AI Darth Vader voice and Gearbox CEO says to just deal with the increase game prices
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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
CAT: and I’m Cat Jahne
FIONA: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
CAT: This week an Elden Ring film adaptation has officially been announced, Fortnite comes back to iPhones and gets sued by the actor’s union, and Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford courts chaos once again.
Here is the news for Sunday 25th of May. Let’s go!
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FIONA: Ok it’s a really sad turn of events this week, because the biggest news is that Elden Ring is getting a movie adaptation and Kyle isn’t even here to share it with you. Sorry Kyle!
The incredibly cinematic game world will be transformed for the silver screen by a team at studio a24 and written and directed by Alex Garland who previously worked on films 28 Days Later, Ex Machina and Dredd.
Game Of Thrones author George R.R. Martin worked extensively with Bandai Namco on the Elden Ring game and will also work as a producer on the film adaptation.
And it’s just in time for the launch of Elden Ring: Nightreign later this week - what are the chances? haha
CAT: There is no release date announced for it yet, but you know the Elden Ring fan in your life will updated you with every single tiny detail between now and then.
Maybe that’s actually you and we’re actually stoked you’ve got that in your future,
I heard that when you buy a ticket for the film and sit in Row M seat 34 then run and change to row D seat 1 at the 57 minute mark you unlock an extra film adaptation.
It was in a nine hour video essay on YouTube you should look it up, nah hang on I’ll send it to you.
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CAT: Fortnite developers are under fire from SAG-AFTRA because of their new Darth Vader AI Voice.
The AI-powered James Earl Jones Darth Vader allows players to ask him questions about all sorts of things, however the gaming union has filed an unfair labor practice charge as this change infringes on the union's right to negotiate major changes to its collective bargaining agreement.
FIONA: They said that the company had made ‘unilateral’ changes to the terms and conditions of employment when they started using the AI-powered voice.
It also means actors including those who have previously provided voice acting as that character have missed out on an opportunity.
The union’s Interactive Media Agreement strike is still in progress and hinges on AI protections for voice actors in video games, and no doubt this situation will just add to those concerns.
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FIONA: Speaking of Fortnite, the game has returned to the iOS Apple App Store in the US after 5 years.
The game was kicked off the App Store after Epic Games added its own in-app payment system to the game which went against Apple’s rules, however thanks to a major court ruling in the Epic Games v Apple case, the game is now available on US iPhones again.
But as always it wasn’t a simple thing to get it back up, the drama continues.
Epic submitted the app to Apple a couple of weeks ago but then last week they said Apple had blocked Fortnite’s return and the game has also become unavailable on other alternative app stores in the EU.
CAT: But of course Apple said they didn’t remove the live versions of Fortnite from any alternative distribution marketplaces.
Epic asked the judge in the court case to order Apple to review its Fortnite submission on May 16th, but the judge came back basically saying that Apple was capable of resolving this issue without further briefing but if they couldn’t sort it out the Apple official would have to appear in another hearing.
Clearly they didn’t want that because the game is now back on the store.
Never knew there could be so much drama with a game and an app store.
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CAT: Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford, a man not unfamiliar with controversy, has come under fire for basically saying we should just suck it up and deal with the increase in game prices.
Recently a fan expressed concern of potentially paying US$80, approximately A$130-140, for Borderlands 4 and that it was out of the reach of players.
To which Pitchford responded that it wasn’t his call but if you’re a real fan you’ll find a way to make it happen.
Yikes.
FIONA: He then went on to say that his local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 and he was working minimum wage and found a way to make it happen.
People are pretty angry at the response.
Pitchford did release a clip recorded at PAX East which lays out the realities of game development costs but it didn’t put a lot of water on that fire. Take a listen.
RANDY PITCHFORD: It's an interesting time, right? We've got the the on one level. We've got a competitive marketplace where people want to or the people that make those choices want to sell as many units as possible, and they want to be careful about people that are price sensitive. So there's some folks that don't want to see prices go up, even the ones deciding what the prices are. There's other folks accepting the reality that game budgets are increasing, and there's tariffs for the retail packaging and like it's getting gnarly out there. You guys, Borderlands 4 has more than twice the development budget than Borderlands 3, more than twice. The fundamental philosophy is we want, yeah, we want people to buy it so we have the resources to make more, but we want everyone who buys and plays a gearbox game to feel certain that they got the better end of the bargain.
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CAT: That’s it for the headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
FIONA: Keita Takahashi developer of NobyNoby Boy and Katamari Damacy is back with To a T a cute story about a kid stuck in a t-pose - it’s cute and weird and it’s out on PlayStation, Xbox and PC on the 28th
CAT: Enter a chaotic courtroom where socks play lawyers, prosecutors and judges in Guilty as Sock! Use absurd evidence, craft wild arguments and deliver verdicts in this online party game sure to keep you laughing. Get ready to shout “objection” this Thursday the 29th, coming to PC.
FIONA: Rune Factory is back with Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. Set in Azuma you’ll use your power as an Earth Dancer to fight corruptive forces, restore the land, farm and rebuild seasonal themed villages. That’s out on Switch and PC on the 30th.
CAT: Disney Illusion Island is the multiplayer sidescroller with an absolutely stunning cartoony style. You know how Cuphead was basically evoking the classic animation style of early cartoons? Well the mouse and his pals come back to claim it for themselves on Friday on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
FIONA: and the big release of the week- Get ready for the Kyles in your life to be running at absolute top speed as Elden Ring Nightreign releases on Xbox, PlayStation and PC. The multiplayer focused spin off title is sort of roguelike, and set in a parallel dimension to the original games. It’s a bit of a departure but if you’re ready for it you can jump in on Friday 30th. We know Kyle will be - lets see if he’s here next week.
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CAT: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Cat Jahne.
FIONA: And my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus, thank you so much for listening.
CAT: Every thursday over on the SIFTER instagram, that’s @sifterHQ if you aren’t following us yet… I try to get my favourite example of video game history through a gauntlet of actually good games in my efforts to find the best game of all time…as long as it’s snoopy. It’s worked so far so who will stop me. Will it be you? Follow us on @ sifterHQ on instagram to join the fun.
FIONA: SIFTER is produced by myself, Cat Jahne, Kyle Pauletto, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is SIFTER’s Executive Producer, who edited the video and the script.
CAT: 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.
