A modder working to overhaul GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mafia: Definitive Edition with VR support says he’s received an unexplained DMCA takedown notice from publisher Take-Two Interactive. Known as LukeRoss, he says the DMCA will force him to remove all content relating to games produced by Take-Two's subsidiaries such as Rockstar and 2K, including his VR mods. However, he also states the notice provides no clarification from Take-Two about how he's actually breaching their copyright.
]]>Twitch has been going through some major music copyright drama over the last few months, being hit with an onslaught of DMCA takedown notifications. In October, this culminated in the streaming platform straight up deleting streamers' clips and videos that had used copyrighted music without permission. Twitch didn't even warn the streamers affected beforehand, only letting them know after with a pretty generic email.
In a blog post published yesterday, Twitch apologised for the way they've been handling the situation, and explained plans to develop tools for streamers to better deal with copyright claims in the future.
]]>Stardock's Star Control: Origins has been pulled from sale on Steam and GOG following a copyright claim from the lead developers of the first two games in the spacefaring RPG series. Stardock did file a preliminary injunction to preemptively block any such attempts from Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III, but a judge denied that. By releasing Star Control: Origins despite knowing that the copyright was contested, the judge ruled last week, "the harm [Stardock] complains of is indeed of its own making." Stardock claim they'll need to lay off some staff now that income's halted.
Update: Stardock are now selling Star Control: Origins direct through their own store.
]]>It's easy to forget sometimes that games are a legal minefield, and so much of what we take for granted - mods cheekily using repurposed art assets, or fan-games bringing joy to the masses - are often technically illegal, at least under current American copyright law.
Recently, several groups including the Museum Of Art & Digital Entertainment (MADE to their friends), put forward the argument to the US Copyright Office that existing game preservation exceptions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) be widened as part of regularly scheduled legal revisions. This would allow for 'dead' online games to be more easily revived by entities other than their rights-holders.
Unsurprisingly, the ESA, representing a great number of major gaming publishers has spoken out against this.
]]>Retro beat 'em up River City Ransom Underground [official site] has been pulled from sale on Steam, following a legal tussle over rights to music used in the game. The game's composer, Alex Mauer, has used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to make claims against YouTube videos of the game and seemingly escalated to taking down the game itself. Developers Conatus Creative seem confident that the game will be back on sale soon. Previous DMCA complaints from Mauer knocked another game using music she composed, Starr Mazer: DSP, off sale but that has since returned.
]]>Project Genom [official site] the early access sci-fi MMO that was removed from the Steam store last week following a resentful argument between the development studio and one of its programmers, has been restored as those involved have come to an agreement over payment. Sorted.
]]>Project Genom [official site], an early access sci-fi MMO, has been removed from the Steam store by Valve following a bitter disagreement between the Russian development studio and an out-of-country programmer. It’s a bit of a mess but basically the argument involves copyright, payments, workloads and all the expected grievances between employer and employee that can lead to disastrous things like this. As usual, it looks like money is to blame.
]]>As the mighty PC strides into the future, a choice faces the great console developers. Support the biggest and most powerful platform on the planet or miss out on sales: seems like an easy decision, but the results can be questionable. When considering Capcom's Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition [official site], for example, exhibit A would be DMC4's original PC port in 2008, a straight-from-console affair that could only be controlled with a pad. Great game plus great hardware doesn't always equal great experience. So, with the Special Edition now launched, does this devil finally get his due?
]]>What would make The Devil cry? I've always thought him more the sort to shout and rage and punch a hole in the kitchen wall, but after he storms out the house to the pub I can see him returning at 2am weeping and sobbing. "I can't help myself," he says. "I've got a problem," his cracked voice lets out. "I don't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry. I just... why those filthy apes? I can't... what was wrong with me?" And god, you're tired, you are so tired of hearing this, always the same.
But I bet he'd be well cheered by the action of Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition [official site], which launched last night. Next time he's slumped in front of Songs of Praise, his claws digging deeper and deeper into the armrest, turn the telly over to that and watch his crooked smile lift.
]]>The Devil may cry, but only if he has twenty bob spare. With Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition [official site] a bit over a month away, Capcom have been sharing more about the snazzed-up re-release of 2008's demonic murderfest. A price, for starters: £19.99/24,99€/$24.99. A trailers and gameplay videos demonstrating new characters added to this release, for the main course. And for dessert, bless them, they've even bumped the PC release up a day to match consoles: June 23rd.
]]>The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt [official site] isn't meant to see an official release until May 19 but a couple of stores started selling the game a week early and already there have been a few streams broadcasting over Twitch.
Naturally, Twitch is cracking down on it. Just think of what might happen if someone set their poor goggle eyes on ol' Geralt in action before launch! Oh mercy, the anarchy.
]]>If a publisher shuts down a game's online bits, current US copyright law says, you're technically not allowed to modify the game to use different servers or work offline. It's gone, that's it, bye-bye. That's a bummer for players, not to mention folks trying to preserve our short but already fading history. American digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation have been trying to change this, and are currently arguing for an exception for abandoned online games letting folks revive and save them.
According to the Entertainment Software Association, a trade association representing mostly publishers, this would be a bad thing. Oh dear.
]]>We might have missed out on the Definitive Edition of DMC: Devil May Cry on PC but the Special Edition of 2008's Devil May Cry 4 is coming our way. It'll arrive on June 24th, a few days after the console release, but will include all of the same goodies. Those goodies include a new "Vergil game mode", allowing players to control Dante's devilish brother, as well as a mode that replaces the original game's controllable characters (Nero and Dante) with Lady and Trish.
]]>Ooh, mods! Lovely, lovely mods. But while mods can add all sorts of lovely new things to games, a game letting folks fiddle its files might also make it vulnerable to cheaty cheats. The difference between a rad dinocop skin and a spiked model is artistic intent. Dying Light [official site] is being a bit overzealous in its attempts to block the bad, though.
The latest update's changelog includes "blocked cheating by changing game's data files", which also blocks things like editing weapons. Some modders have even had mods they uploaded to public file hosts removed through copyright protection laws.
]]>It happens a lot: a game is loved, but that game is old, and its original developers or publishers switch off the servers required for it to function. At that point the game's community often steps in by breaking open the code to either find ways around the online copy protection, or to allow its multiplayer modes to function on new player-controlled servers.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organisation who fight for consumer's digital rights, have now filed paperwork to make this process a guaranteed exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In other words, the practice would stand on firmer legal ground.
]]>Devil May Cry: Devil May Cry is a reboot, designed by a new studio and starring a new character with an old (old) name. Dante’s back with a new attitude, a new haircut and a new voice. He loves the ladies but he really hates The Man, and when he settles into the rhythm of demon-killing and corporate takedowns, he’s surprisingly good company. Here’s wot I think.
]]>Capcom apparently first announced Remember Me at GamesCom last year, but ironically most of the internet doesn't remember that and has treated it like a new reveal today. Regardless, we have a trailer to watch, a confirmation that it's on PC as well as the consoletoys, an elaboration on the Total Recall-esque story (but set in 'Neo-Paris' rather getting its ass to Mars), and a lead female character with kung-fu skills, mismatched gloves, brain-tapping abilities and clipped English tones shouting stuff like "WHO ERASED MY MEMORY?" and "I'M THE HUNTER! WHY AM I BEING HUNTED?' It's perhaps our answer to the question "what if Inception was penned by the writer of the Wicker Man remake?"
Dialogue aside, it looks pretty snazzy/frenzied.
]]>Right: I'm going to mention piracy. That isn't an open invitation to go absolutely barking, spitting crazy, okay?
So, lately it's looked as though Capcom - traditionally very much a console publisher - have really been cosying up to the PC. The Devil May Cry 4 port was pretty slick as these things go, and soon we're getting Street Fighter IV. The dark times are over!
But there's a problem.
]]>Because - much like big girls - PC Gamers don't cry. Anyway - due to being confused and drunk a lot - in fact, I'm drunk right now - we didn't post it earlier this week. We make our amends by posting this RIGHT NOW. Martin Lee was the first to mention that there's a demo available for Devil May Cry 4. There's two versions there, one just under 500Mb and one just under 900Mb. But I have no idea what each one does, due to the site being written in exciting foreign. Well - I do now, as Gamershell makes it clear that the smaller one is a benchmark and the other is the actual demo. Hell, with 300Mb difference, download the bloody demo already. Devil May Cry is a videogame and Leigh Alexander likes it and not just because it features bosoms.
]]>Capcom's demon-taunting sword-'n'-shooter isn't traditionally a game that we desktop-box types to get particularly excited about, but Devil May Cry 4 really did have some of the most ludicrous scenes in any videogame, and hey, the sword action isn't so bad either. The good news is that it's going to be enormously scalable on PC, allowing folks with higher end 3D cards and multi-core CPUs to run amped-up game modes, as illustrated by the cramped fight going on that screenshot.
]]>Last year I had quite a bit of fun playing Capcom's hack 'n' quip demon-slaying game, Devil May Cry 3, on the PC. Needless to say there were guffaws from DMC console fans about its conversion to PC (and to the Old Man's Method of mouse and keyboard) but it worked. It must have sold a few copies too, because Devil May Cry 4 has been confirmed for PC, albeit confirmed for an indistinct time after the 360 and PS3 versions.
More on foppish demon slaying after the jump.
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