It’s a Black Ops world

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 released last week, and quite a few players jumped into the game. Also, the latest on a gaming copyright battle and Roblox institutes new rules for kids. All this and more. Let’s go!

Roblox attempts to evolve

After a recent article called Roblox a “hellscape” for children, they decided to make some changes. 

In an email sent from Roblox last week, the company said they would make changes to protect pre-teen children. The email was first reported by The Verge, but Games World Observer does a great job breaking out the main points:

• New accounts with parent privileges for viewing and updating parental controls, as well as accessing insights about daily screen time, friends, and other information about a child’s Roblox usage.
• Accounts with parent privileges will also let parents receive notifications about their child’s spending and other activities.
• Roblox will soon begin labeling games and experiences based on their content type rather than age, allowing parents to limit their children’s access to certain types of content.
• Starting in November, users under the age of 13 will need parent permission to access certain chat features, while kids under 9 will need permission to play games with moderate violence.

While changes are definitely needed, some say Roblox is still not doing enough.

The emulation question

Currently the only way for researchers to access the extensive library of games at the Strong National Museum of Play, is to travel to its home in Rochester, NY. Video game archivists wanted an exemption added to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), allowing them to emulate the physical versions of these games online for research. Last week, the US Copyright Office denied their request. 

In the decision the Copyright Office sided with the Entertainment Software Association, who argued, “the proposed remote access could serve as a legal loophole for a free-to-access ‘online arcade’ that could harm the market for classic gaming re-releases.” A report by the Video Game History Foundation last year that 87% of classic games are out of print did not sway the committee. From their decision:

While proponents are correct that some older games will not have a reissue market, they concede there is a “healthy” market for other reissued games and that the industry has been making “greater concerted efforts” to reissue games….Further, while the Register [of Copyrights] appreciates that proponents have suggested broad safeguards that could deter recreational uses of video games in some cases, she believes that such requirements are not specific enough to conclude that they would prevent market harms.

After the ruling, the The Video Game History Foundation issued their own statement:

We’re not done fighting here. We will continue our advocacy for greater access and legal allowances for video game preservation and working with members of the game industry to increase internal awareness around these issues.

We encourage members of the game industry who are disappointed by the Copyright Office’s decision to ask their leadership to push for greater support for the work of libraries and archives within their industry groups.

The decision means those who want to study games will either need to travel to a physical location or resort to piracy. Ars Technica has a great article on the recent decision.

Microsoft’s Black Ops

Microsoft studio Activision released Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 last week. Analysts believe the game could bring 2.5 to 4 million new subscribers to Xbox Game Pass, as it is the first Call of Duty game to be released on the service day one. To make the game more fun and fair, Activision says it wants to catch and remove those who cheat in the multiplayer aspect of the game within an hour of their first match. Some other notes on the game (and on Microsoft):

• Black Ops 6 is currently banned in Kuwait, as it is partially set in the country during the Gulf War. 
• The game peaked at 229,000 players on Steam the first day, putting it about 40,000 ahead of the last Call of Duty release, Modern Warfare 3. 
• In a shareholders meeting, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the company will continue bringing first-party Xbox titles to other platforms. The Call of Duty franchise is available on PlayStation, but Black Ops 6 does not have a platinum trophy on the device. 
• Nadella also says that 20 Xbox franchises have made $1 billion in lifetime revenue.

Are you playing Black Ops 6? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

🏪 In some areas, you can now buy Pokémon cards via vending machines at local retail stores. 

🧛🏽 Vampire Survivors is getting Castlevania DLC later this month. 

📉 A recent survey by the Game Developer Collective found that 56% of developers think virtual reality is either in decline or stagnation. 

🥽 Minecraft will officially stop supporting all virtual reality headsets in 2025. 

🪙 What happens when a secretive blockchain company buys your game studio?

🗳️ Games as politics merged last week as Bernie Sanders jumped on Twitch with a few popular streamers to campaign for Kamala Harris, while vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played Madden NFL on stream (and some Crazy Taxi). 

😱 If scary games are your thing, check out the announcements from The Indie Horror Showcase. 

👨🏻‍💻 Valve rejected the idea of yearly Steam Deck hardware releases, saying it’s “not fair to customers to come out with something that's only incrementally better.”

🕴️ Bungie's Creative Studios team has moved to PlayStation Studios to support its live service games.

👎 Netflix shut down its AAA game studio before it ever released a game.

🃏 Balatro added new card backs from Stardew Valley, Cyberpunk 2077, Slay the Spire, and Binding of Isaac. Additionally, you can now play Balatro in Dave the Diver. 

🕸️ Wizards of the Coast announced their 2025 Magic: The Gathering releases, including Final Fantasy, Spider-Man and more. 

🏈 EA Sports College Football 25 is the best-selling American football game ever.

👎🏽 The team behind Prince of Persia: Lost Crown has reportedly been disbanded after the game posted disappointing sales. One Baldur’s Gate 3 executive has a theory why the game sold so poorly. 

📺 Twitch has reportedly been banning sign-ups from Israel and Palestine for over a year, but re-enabled new accounts in those areas last week. 

🎮 The new Alan Wake 2 DLC has a Control 2 teaser. 

👖 Valve fixed a 17-year old Team Fortress 2 bug that made the Scout's pants the wrong color, but immediately rolled it back because “it conflicts with too many existing cosmetics.”

☢️ Fallout 76's next major update will be a '”traditional MMO-style dungeon” which will have “the biggest boss in a Fallout game.”

📈 Sales milestones: boxing game Undisputed sold one million copies in a week, indie horror game Crow County sold 100,000 copies and Arma 2 sold over 47 million games in 15 years. 

🎶 Musician Soccer Mommy wrote a love song for Stardew Valley’s Abigail for her new album.

🍎 Apple is making an Oregon Trail movie. Let’s hope it doesn’t die of dysentery.

New Releases this week: 

10/29: Life is Strange: Double Exposure (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
10/31: Dragon Age: The Veilguard (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
10/31: Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
11/1: Albatroz (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)

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