Valve’s lawyers won’t be able to file away one of the legal legalings they’ve been dealing with for a little while now, at least not yet. A tribunal have ruled that the £656m lawsuit brought against the company by digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt and law firm Milberg London LLP last year – the one that could net UK dwellers who’ve bought stuff on Steam since early June 2018 up to £44 in compensation – can go ahead.
As a result, Valve’s Lionel Hutzes will have to face the lawsuit’s accusations that the company have used Steam’s “dominant position” in the PC market to behave “anti-competitively”, with the end result that regular folks are “paying too much for PC games and in-game content and have lesser PC Game platform alternatives”.
An Intelligent Systems top-down adventure also on the way.
We now know the launch line-up for the Virtual Boy – Nintendo Classics service, coming to Nintendo Switch Online on 17th February 2026. And while it’s all worth getting excited over, there are two never-before-released games coming out later in the year that Nintendo enthusiasts should be particularly excited about.
Right at the end of the brand new overview trailer (at around 3:07), Nintendo showed off footage from two cancelled Virtual Boy games that will be playable for the first time ever via Nintendo Switch Online — Zero Racers and D-Hopper (also known as Dragon Hopper). Both of these will be coming to the service sometime in 2026.
Helldivers, do you ever find the squad standing before a towering foe with impenetrable fortifications and wish you had something to smash through them? The Ministry of Defense has just the Warbond for you. Let’s get to smashing, divers!
Weapons & Stratagems
So what are the tools that will break down the door to the enemy compound? Let’s start with the new and improved version of a beloved Helldivers weapon: the LAS-16 Trident! This big, bold, and shotgun-like updated classic fires six beams compared to the original’s three! Nothing’s gonna stand in the LAS-16 Trident’s way.
But if you need to make a statement when you break down the bulwark, you might want to bring the CQC-20 Breaching Hammer stratagem. This sledgehammer can do straight smashing, or it can have an explosive charge attached to its head to drive the point home.
Let’s say you get tired from all the hammer-swinging, though, and you need a way to simplify your destruction. Why not use the GL-28 Belt-Fed Grenade Launcher that lets you continuously fire grenades in a non-stop, explosive barrage?
And if you’re only interested in sending a single, strong message, we’ve also included the EAT-411 Leveller that fires one high-yield missile.
Finally, the perfect companion to an offensive loadout like this one is a good defense. The G/SH-39 Shield is a throwable emplacement that generates a spherical, projectile-blocking shield. Make your own barrier while you bust down all the others.
Armor & Capes
As for the rest of your defense, we have the heavy SA-8 Ram armor, evoking heavy plate armor and blast shields, to turn you into a blockade-battering force. Similarly, the medium armor, SA-7 Headfirst, still looks well-defended, but allows for the flexibility and speed you might need to get past the roadblock.
These armors are outfitted with the Supplementary Adrenaline passive, which allows the wearer to regain some stamina whenever they take damage, turning you into the tireless battering ram at the enemy’s wall.
These armors have coordinating capes and player cards, starting with the Rags of the Fashionable, which comes pre-tattered to signal your participation in previous enemy sieges. There’s also the Wedgeful Tricorn, which has a saw-tooth shape along the bottom edge.
Emotes, patterns, and more
To coordinate your squad, we have also included a pattern for your shuttle, exosuits, hellpods, and FRV called Churned Earth. Siege Breakers also includes the Display of Brawn emote, for both regular and victory poses! And when you show it off, why not equip the Bunker Buster player title, too, to look like the formidable opponent you are.
Hold your ground just a bit longer, Helldivers. The walls will crumble at your feet on February 3!
*Requires base game, paid purchase of Super Credits, and game progression to unlock.
Quick confession: every time I come up with an absolute Frankenstein’s cocktail of allusion-cobbling Google-bait like the headline for this article, a fairy dies. But that’s OK, because Hell Express is a top-down 3D extraction shooter about delivering letters to the dead. When I play it – there’s no release date yet – I will convey a note of apology to the soul of the fairy I’ve just slain with my appalling SEO practices. This may be difficult, however, because many of the underworld’s denizens are hostile. The only thing you’ll be delivering to them is bullets, fire and explosives.
A UK court has ruled that the unauthorized stealing of in-game currency can be legally classified as criminal theft.
Former Jagex developer Andrew Lakeman was charged with allegedly stealing 705 billion Gold from almost 70 RuneScape players, with a real-world value of over half a million pounds, equivalent to around $750,000. He then sold this currency online for Bitcoin.
Although Lakeman had no access to player accounts in his position at Jagex as a content developer, he allegedly accessed them by “hacking and/or using credentials of members of the account recovery team.” In all, 68 players allegedly lost gold to Lakeman, starting around 2018.
Here comes the science bit: the defendant’s defence claimed that the in-game currency could not be classed as property under the definition of the UK’s Theft Act, and initially, the court agreed, concluding that as RuneScape gold is not real — or “pure information” or “knowledge” as it’s legally defined — it could not technically be stealable.
The judge at the time also deemed RuneScape’s supply of Gold as being infinite, and it wasn’t “rivalrous” given that having a piece of Gold doesn’t deprive another player of getting Gold, too. The Court of Appeal, however, disagreed and last week handed down a judgment while explaining its reasoning.
“We differ from the Judge in his reasoning for reaching the contrary conclusion on rivalrousness. The two reasons which the Judge gave in his ruling do not, with respect, bear analysis,” Judge Popplewell wrote. “The first was that ‘one gold piece is like any other, and their supply is infinite.’ This does not, however, distinguish them from many other forms of rivalrous property. One paper clip from a given manufacturer is like any other; and the manufacture and supply of them infinite, in the sense that is not capped at any finite number. Yet each paper clip constitutes property. The same is equally true of gold pieces.”
“[RuneScape’s gold is] properly described as something which can be stolen as a matter of normal use of language,” the judgment added. “They do not fall within any of the established exceptions. They are not ‘pure knowledge:’ functionally, they exist as identifiable assets distinct from the code which gives rise to them and outside the minds of people. There is no good policy reason for excepting them from the category of property which can be stolen.”
The judgment concluded: “On the contrary, they are assets which have an ascertainable monetary value and which may be traded for that value both in the game and outside the game. Within the rules of the game they represent money’s worth as the product of purchase of a bond. Outside the game they are regularly traded for money’s worth. They are capable of being subject to dishonest dealing which deprives their possessor of their use and value. It would be surprising and unsatisfactory if such dishonest dealing did not amount to the offence of theft.”
It’s a judgment that could have profound implications for the games industry, as up until now, vendors that sell (or re-sell) in-game currency have existed in a grey market wherein technically, no theft has occurred if the digital asset stolen did not meet the definition of an intangible item under the definitions of theft in that country. The dubious line of when ownership of any such in-game currency transfers from the developer to the player — if at all — further compounds an already complex issue, too.
With the issue of whether removing gold from player accounts constituted theft now settled, the case against Lakeman can proceed.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
The developer of Highguard has confirmed streamer Dr Disrespect did not attend a preview event after he created a fake badge and pretended to have been invited to play the game early.
On January 24, Dr Disrespect (real name Guy Beahm), tweeted to say: “Last week we took the Lambo to LA to check out #Highguard. Monday, January 26th at 10am PST, we enter another dimension! Yayayaya.”
Last week we took the Lambo to LA to check out #Highguard.
Monday, January 26th at 10am PST, we enter another dimension!
That comment, which pointed to Highguard’s confirmed release date, came alongside an image of a supposed Highguard event badge, which some have speculated may have been generated by AI.
Following Highguard’s launch, questions were raised about the validity of Dr Disrespect’s post. Then, Wildlight Entertainment creator manager Chin Pua took to X / Twitter to confirm Dr Disrespect had not attended the event, and that the badge was not official. “I can confirm DDR was not invited to any Highguard event past or present,” Pua said, “and the badge was not an official badge.”
So why did Dr Disrespect post the tweet and its image? In a stream playing Highguard yesterday, he laughed the post off as a joke, and expressed disbelief at the social media controversy it had generated.
Dr Disrespect said on-stream: “‘Last week we took the Lambo to LA to check out #HighGuard.’ That’s all we said. Did we say we went to the event? Did we say we got hands on? Did I say I was going to give you my review and feedback today? Huh? Did we say we were going to give our feedback and review today? ‘We got hands-on Highguard.’ Did I say that? Did we play the game? No. We just put together a photo poking fun. All these f***ing people took it seriously. Holy s**t. How brain dead is this f***ing industry? How stupid is this industry?”
Dr Disrespect went on to hit out at his critics, defend his current brand, and insist he remains relevant. Dr Disrespect returned to YouTube in September 2024 three months after he was demonetized and suspended from the YouTube Partner Program following allegations regarding past conduct with a minor. Beahm has denied any wrongdoing.
Photo by Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
You’re shuffling through the desert scrub, wondering if the clawed beasts just a few yards away have spotted you yet. You’ve made sure to pop a Stealth Boy just to be extra safe, and told Raul that if his knees creak at an inopportune moment, he’s on his own. Then, you realise you brought Rex along, and he’s gotten stuck on a rock several meters behind you. Finally freeing himself, the good boy bounds towards you at full speed. This should be the point in some Fallout New Vegas stealthing that you realise it’s brown trousers time.
It isn’t, because Obsidian weren’t total sadists when they designed the thing. It does take you out of your Mojave roleplay a bit, though. Thankfully, I can report that a modder has taken it upon themselves to ensure that New Vegas now benefits from the finest in sneaking dog technology.
Nintendo has announced that Splatoon 3‘s next update is expected to launch later this month, bringing a fresh dose of battle balances to the Splatlands.
As revealed by the official @SplatoonJP Twitter account, the update is currently planned for a 29th January arrival, with “balance changes to battles and changes to some battle-related systems” (translated via Google) being the main attraction this time.
Highguard launched last night as planned, and met with big Steam concurrents but also a flood of negative user reviews.
The free-to-play “PvP raid shooter” was the big new game reveal at the end of last month’s The Game Awards, but developer Wildlight then went dark until the game’s January 26 release date. Highguard hit a peak of 97,249 concurrent users on Steam — a significant number for any new game launch on Valve’s platform — but Wildlight will be particularly concerned by its “mostly negative” user review rating.
Currently, just 32% of the 14,500 user reviews are positive. While some of the negative reviews revolve around PC performance problems, most criticize Highguard’s game design, and question some of the decisions made by the developers.
Chief among the criticisms is that the size of the map feels too big and empty for a 3v3 competitive shooter. You’re able to summon a mount to get about faster (the mounts are one aspect of Highguard that players seem to universally like), but some players believe a 4v4, 5v5, or even 3v3v3 mode would have been a better fit.
There are complaints about the resource-gathering phase of each map, too, which involves what some are calling boring mining and loot farming. The gist here is there is too much downtime and a lack of excitement, although players seem to be enjoying the raid phase of each match, where combat is concentrated. There is also criticism of the playable characters, which are differentiated only by two abilities each on a cooldown. Some are calling Highguard’s visuals bland, too.
Indeed, the top post on the Highguard subreddit reinforces this sentiment. “I’m sorry but this is boring as f**k,” it reads. “Gathering is boring as f**k, looting is boring as f**k, 3v3 with short TTK is boring as f**k. No PVE is boring as f**k. The only good thing in this game is the f***ing horse mount. What were they thinking?”
The Steam portion of Highguard’s release doesn’t tell the whole story, of course. It also launched as a free download on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, but neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public.
Here’s how Highguard works. You play a Warden in a team of three, and select a base to fortify. You then ride out into the map to loot and harvest resources, upgrading your gear along the way.
Teams end up fighting over what’s called the Shieldbreaker, which can be used to trigger a raid of the enemy base. This phase — certainly the most exciting in the match — forces teams to attack and defend. Usually, one raid isn’t enough to destroy the enemy base, which triggers a new loot phase, a new Shieldbreaker to spawn, and the potential for a new raid to finally end the match. Check out IGN’s Highguard review-in-progress to find out what we think.
Yesterday, Wildlight talked about Highguard’s first year of content already being in the works, and outlined its roadmap for updates. It’s making all the right noises about being in this for the long haul. As a free-to-play game, Highguard’s success will rest on its ability to get as many people as possible to continue to play the game, fueling revenue from its live service. As we’ve seen, live service is a particularly brutal space to be in right now, so it will be interesting to see if Highguard can improve this launch sentiment and maintain interest in the months ahead.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Reader, I am about to venture into that terrible ninth circle of videogame journalist cringe known as pitching your own game in an article. A while ago, I mused aloud on Xitter that a Batman game (or offbrand spiritual homage) from the perspective of people trying to commit petty crimes in Gotham City would be Interesting and/or Countercultural.
You could portray Batman himself as both a lone vigilante and a pervasive environmental factor – a morbid, hallucinatory tendency of the architecture itself, gradually provoked and intensified by tiny acts of larceny and vandalism. Kind of like the Eye of Sauron, but it’s the Bat Signal, and instead of fighting the urge to wear the Ring, you’re stealing candy bars and writing on toilet walls.
