Author: Game Infliction

Roblox has announced significant changes designed to protect children who play on the platform amid increased scrutiny and concern from parents.

As part of the changes due in the coming months, users under the age of 13 will no longer be able to directly message others on Roblox outside of games or experiences (also known as platform chat).

Roblox will also introduce a built-in setting that limits users under the age of 13 to public broadcast messages only within a game or experience. By default, users younger than 13 will not be able to directly message others. Parents can change this setting in Parental Controls.

From today, users under the age of nine will only be able to access games or experiences with content labeled Minimal or Mild, with parental consent required to access Moderate content.

Roblox’s changes come on the heels both of a damning Bloomberg report this summer about the prevalence of child predators on the platform and, more recently, a report from investment firm Hindenburg Research that accused the company of, among other things, being a haven for groomers and pedophiles due to a lack of up-front screening of new accounts.

It claimed to have found open trading of child pornography on the site as well as violent and hateful speech and sexually explicit content in numerous games marketed to kids on the platform. Roblox responded, saying that “safety and civility” have been “foundational” to Roblox since its inception. However, Hindenburg followed up by pointing out that it had not addressed allegations of Roblox being a “pedophile hellscape.”

“We’ve spent nearly two decades building strong safety systems, but we know there’s always more to be done,” Matt Kaufman, Chief Safety Officer at Roblox, said in a note to the press issued today.

“Last quarter saw a record average for daily active users on Roblox – over 88 million – and as our platform has grown in scale, we have always recognised that our approach to safety must evolve with it. Today’s launch represents the next stage in that evolution. It is the culmination of many months of product development and consultation with online safety experts, and follows the rollout of more than 30 new safety feature enhancements this year alone, as we continue on our mission to build a safe and civil space for play, learning and creativity for millions around the world.”

Also from today, accounts with parent privileges will be able to view their child’s screen time over the past week, set daily screen time limits, and view their child’s friends list. In addition, accounts with parent privileges will be able to access existing Roblox tools that allow parents to set spend restrictions, limit or enable certain chat functionality, and determine the type of content their child has access to.

In the coming months, Roblox will also introduce new restrictions to prevent users under the age of 13 from searching, discovering or playing experiences that have yet to be assigned a Content Label. Restricted content will remain blocked until a user is at least 17 years old and has verified their age by uploading a selfie and a photo of a valid government-issued ID.

Last week, Roblox announced that it will age-gate certain experiences for users under the age of 13, based on the type of user behaviors sometimes found in those experiences. These new restrictions apply to experiences that are primarily designed for socializing with users outside of their friends list and experiences that allow free-form writing or drawing, such as on a chalkboard or a whiteboard.

Back in 2018, Roblox faced criticism after a mother reported her seven-year-old daughter’s Roblox character was violently sexually assaulted by several other characters. Around the same time, a six-year-old girl was reportedly invited into a “sex room” in the game. In 2021, reports were highlighted of users recreating real-world mass shootings in the game, and People Make Games published a report alleging that Roblox’s business model exploited child labor.

In 2022, a San Francisco lawsuit accused Roblox of enabling the financial and sexual exploitation of a 10-year-old girl. In 2023, it was sued both for allegedly facilitating “an illegal gambling ecosystem” and more generally for having lax child safety protocols that allegedly led to financial loss and children’s exposure to adult content.

Earlier this year, the platform announced it reported over 13,000 incidents of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2023, resulting in the arrest of 24 predators who allegedly groomed and abused children on Roblox. This number is up 3,000 from 2022.

A Bloomberg report suggested that there remained a number of other abusers on the platform who had managed to evade capture. At the time, Roblox referred to itself as “one of the safest online environments for our users, particularly the youngest users.”

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Sony’s $700 PlayStation 5 Pro gives games such as God of War: Ragnarok and Baldur’s Gate 3 a big performance boost but it’s also enduring teething problems, with players reporting issues in the likes of Silent Hill 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

The recently released remake of beloved survival horror game Silent Hill 2 perhaps has the most complaints, with Eurogamer having spotted a number of fans flagging that both developer Bloober Team and publisher Konami have yet to comment on graphical issues headlined by a shimmering or flickering effect.

“I immediately knew something was off without even seeing gameplay previously or even playing the game before this,” said Unlocky-Soil-2456 on Reddit. “That’s how bad this is. I can’t even bring myself to play it in this state because it’s so distracting.”

Several other games are affected by this similar shimmering issue too. “I love my PS5 Pro for the most part, most games look wonderful, but there seems to be an issue with some games,” said Chaystic on ResetEra. “There’s this weird shimmering, aliasing, whatever you wanna call it. One big example is Black Ops 6, I thought my Pro was faulty or something, but it turns out I’m not the only one who noticed it. I’ve seen several social media posts who reported the same.”

Fellow PS5 Pro owners in the comments pointed it out in Spider-Man 2, Stellar Blade, and Alan Wake 2 as well, while Digital Foundry discovered what it called “severe image quality problems” in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. “There are severe image quality concerns when elements like foliage interact with ray tracing,” it said. “The end result is a strobing image quality downgrade that makes this Pro patch difficult to recommend.”

The PS5 Pro arrived November 7 as Sony’s now standard mid-generation upgrade. More than 50 games received PS5 Pro specific patches upon its launch but, as this list includes Alan Wake 2 and Black Ops 6 among others receiving complaints, it’s worth proceeding with caution.

In our 7/10 review of the PS5 Pro, IGN said: “The PlayStation 5 Pro is an impressive console with noticeable boosts in performance and graphics for games that take advantage of its powerful hardware. But for $700, you’ll need to think twice about whether or not the upgrade is worth the price tag.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Ubisoft has clarified that Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t getting a battle pass amid rumors that the Animus Hub, the rebranded Assassin’s Creed Infinity set to house all future games in the franchise, will feature paid content.

The Animus Hub team posted on the Assassin’s Creed Reddit to correct leaks claiming the hub would contain paid rewards for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, leading many to believe a battle pass style system was being implemented.

“It has come to our attention that inaccurate rumors have been circulating online regarding the upcoming Animus Hub (ex-codename Infinity),” Ubisoft said. “We wanted to take this occasion to clarify that all the rewards available in the Animus Hub will be entirely free.”

The post went on to clarify “there are no paid subscriptions or paid battle passes featured in the Animus Hub” and “players will have access to regular content and missions at no extra cost.” More details will be revealed closer to the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which was recently delayed from November to February 14.

Ubisoft is also ditching its main paid content model of releasing a Season Pass with two main, paid expansion drops in the year after launch. The faux “early access” period that sees publishers charge players more to play on the actual release date instead of three days later has also been scrapped.

Releasing myriad pieces of downloadable content for free will perhaps bring some Assassin’s Creed fans back on-side in what’s otherwise been a particularly rough pre-launch campaign for Ubisoft.

Issues began as some fans expressed frustration with inaccuracies in the game’s depiction of Japan, leading the development team to issue an apology and say the game is not intended to be a factual representation of history but instead “a compelling, historical fiction.” This despite art director Thierry Dansereau telling IGN that Ubisoft looked to make Shadows as “authentic as possible to match historical events” just two months prior.

Concern was also raised when the developer used a flag from a Japanese historical re-enactment group in artwork for Assassin’s Creed Shadows without permission. Ubisoft apologized for doing so but refused to remove the artwork from the aforementioned and presumably already printed artbook available in the Collector’s Edition. The historical re-enactment group said this was not good enough, but Ubisoft hasn’t publicly acknowledged it since.

Yet another controversy came as collectible figure maker PureArts removed an Assassin’s Creed Shadows statue from sale over its “insensitive” design.

All this comes as fans are already frustrated by the delay to the game, which puts Assassin’s Creed Shadows in more direct competition with PlayStation’s Ghost of Tsushima sequel, Ghost of Yotei. This is also expected in 2025 and is another open-world action adventure game set in Feudal Japan.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot maintained confidence, however. “There’s a lot of space for very high-quality games, and those two games can sell very well,” he said in the company’s latest earnings call. “The focus is to really make sure that we deliver a fantastic experience with this dual protagonist approach and two different and complimentary gameplays.”

Assassins Creed Shadows indeed features two protagonists, stealthy assassin Naoe and savage samurai Yasuke. The game’s story will weave between the two but players can otherwise switch between them at will as they explore Ubisoft’s open-world take on Japan.

It will also begin a new modern day story, perhaps linked to the Animus Hub, as Ubisoft admitted it’s “struggled to find its footing” with that aspects of Assassin’s Creed in recent years.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has sparked backlash after confirming plans to make a “significantly lower level of investment” in the game’s second year.

Starbreeze’s struggle with Payday 3 after last year’s disastrous launch is well-documented, but its recent series of year one anniversary updates were well-received by players who had hoped for similarly significant updates during the co-op shooter’s second year. Indeed, Payday 3’s recent Steam user reviews are on ‘mostly positive’, with all reviews on ‘mixed.’

However, that goodwill may now be under threat after comments from Starbreeze acting CEO Mats Juhl in a financial report caused some Payday 3 players to express concern that the studio was now prioritizing its Dungeons & Dragons game instead.

The backlash revolves around Juhl’s comment on Payday 3’s level of investment for year two versus year one. It is below, reproduced in its entirety.

During the quarter, both the third and fourth DLCs for Payday 3 – “Chapter 3: Houston Breakout” and “Chapter 4: Fear & Greed” were released. In conjunction with both launches, a lot of free content was also released to all players, including a new free heist. Both DLCs received a very positive reception from the player base and the game’s rating on Steam, among others, has taken significant steps upwards. The game’s MAU (monthly active players) is holding steady considering that we in September left Xbox GamePass. The level of investment during Payday 3’s first year on the market, both through launched DLCs and “Operation Medic Bag”, has been at an elevated level. Ahead of year two, we are confident in being able to continue delivering amounts of value to our players with a significantly lower level of investment.

That last line (“significantly lower level of investment”) is the one causing all the damage here, and players are blaming it on Starbreeze shifting focus onto Project Baxter, its in-development Dungeons & Dragons game. Elsewhere in the financial report, Juhl said production on Project Baxter had ramped up (along with the payment of licensing fees to Wizards of the Coast), and that as Payday 3’s game-saving Operation Medic Bag updates ramp down, the game will enter year two “with a smaller team focused on continuously updating the game with new content.”

Disgruntled players have taken to Steam reviews to let their feelings about this be known. “Dead game,” reads one negative review, “like this time for real.” “Dropping this game as soon as it started to show promise is insane,” said another. “Significantly lower,” another review reads. “I’ve tried defending this game for so long, but it is really frustrating seeing the company executives kill this game before it has a chance to fully recover just to fund their next project that will more than likely flop, just like Payday 3,” another reviewer said. “Save your money and the headache; Payday 3’s future is genuinely grim.”

It’s a similar outcry over on the Payday subreddit, where fans are already hitting out at Starbreeze and Project Baxter.

Despite this, Starbreeze sounds like it still believes in Payday 3, even if some of its players do not. “Starbreeze remains financially strong, with a healthy balance sheet almost free of debt and a cash position to execute our strategy,” Juhl said. “Sales of Payday 3 still have great potential to improve, which is offset somewhat by continued relatively stable sales of Payday 2 and third-party publishing of, among other things, Roboquest. During the same period last year, we booked the revenue attributable to Payday 3’s launch, which makes the revenue in the comparison period uniquely high.”

Speaking of Payday 2, significantly more people are playing that game on Steam (27,553 24 hour peak) than Payday 3 (1,314 24 hour peak), despite the former being over a decade old. In September, Payday 3 director Miodrag Kovačević stepped down to work as a designer instead. Lead producer Andreas Penninger and global brand director Almir Listo were put in place to act as the “creative force” behind the game “in the interim.”

Starbreeze is still hiring for Project Baxter, meanwhile, as work on the game “continues at full speed.” “Internally, we have weekly playtests of Baxter, and active discussions with a number of industry-leading players regarding potential collaborations around Baxter’s development and launch,” Juhl said. Starbreeze said it has 191 total employees, most of which are based at its head office in Stockholm, Sweden.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Rainbow Six Siege’s next update finally adds PC and console crossplay to the competitive multiplayer shooter.

The Year 9 Season 4 update, dubbed Operation Collision Point, launches on December 3 and also makes changes to anticheat, remasters an Operator, adds Siege Cup, and tweaks gameplay balance.

Despite approaching its ninth birthday, Siege remains one of the most popular competitive multiplayer games across PC and console, and is a mainstay of Steam’s top 100 most-played games. For embattled publisher Ubisoft, it is a reliable earner at a time when new releases such as Star Wars: Outlaws and Call of Duty competitor XDefiant have struggled.

The addition of crossplay means players will be able to play with friends from other platforms seamlessly, with console players able to join the PC player pool. Squads including a PC player will be automatically moved to the PC-matchmaking pool. However, PC players will not have the option to join the console matchmaking pool. Console players who play Ranked playlists with crossplay active will maintain a PC rank that is separate from their console rank, Ubisoft explained.

The anticheat updates include improved cheater detection to ensure fairness, Ubisoft said. With the arrival of PC and console crossplay, players with a Mousetrap Penalty will be forced into the PC matchmaking pool for 90 days. If crossplay is turned off, these players will be unable to join matchmaking until the option is turned back on. Additionally, matches with a detected cheater will be automatically canceled with no impact on MMR. “These changes reflect Rainbow Six Siege’s ongoing commitment to player protection,” Ubisoft added.

Related, Ubisoft has overhauled the Reputation Center to provide a clearer overview of how different actions affect player standing and thresholds for receiving warnings or penalties. Account-related information such as rank, reputation, and match replays will be concentrated in the new Career hub, with account stats coming soon, Ubisoft clarified.

Meanwhile, Blackbeard now has an upgraded Adaptable Shield gadget, and the Siege Cup beta is available to all players above Clearance Level 50. Siege Cup is Siege’s most competitive playlist, where five-player squads compete in skill-based ladder tournaments for Competitive Coins that can be used to unlock exclusive skin collections every two weeks.

And finally, Season 4 makes changes to Ballistic Shields and balancing updates for Attacking Operators Ying and Sens. The number of bullets needed to suppress Shield Operators have been reduced to add value to suppressive fire and improve Shield Operator counterplay. This allows suppression to occur sooner and last for a longer duration, Ubisoft explained. Operators will not take damage from melee attacks while shielded, but guard break intensity from melee attacks will remain the same. Ying’s rush has been changed “to encourage more precise gameplay” in addition to Sens’ R.O.U. Projectors update “that allows for more flexible and creative play.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.