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That’s why this weekend, in the Open Moshpit playlist, you’ll find “skill consideration is drastically reduced when matchmaking, with the goal of providing more varied match experiences and outcomes”. As Treyarch explains, this playlist will “match players with and against players of more varied skill differences than in the current Multiplayer matchmaking system”. This’ll apply to all maps and modes across that playlist.

While not explicitly confirmed, this suggests that the other playlist, Moshpit, will feature more traditional skill-based matchmaking. You can also expect additional Perk changes – “including slot assignment” – when the game releases next month.

“While these updates will not be in the Beta, we’ve heard your feedback and will be sharing more about them on the road to launch,” the developer said. “We can also confirm that we will be making reloading while Wall Jumping default behaviour for launch.”

Last but certainly not least, the team has been “closely following feedback” from Black Ops 7 players on time-to-kill (TTK), which is why you’ll see changes to the Dravec 45 and M8A1.

“We currently see these weapons well ahead of the pack in our TTK data, and they also have very high usage, which means they are contributing heavily to combat pacing right now in the Beta,” the update continued. “The goal of the changes outlined below is to bring their average performance closer to the other weapons currently available.

“Time-to-Kill (TTK) and overall weapon balance has been a conversation we’ve been keeping an eye on, along with evaluating in-game data from day one of the Beta. While we’re starting the Beta with a TTK in the range of Black Ops 6, we’re aware that some players feel it may be slightly faster than desired. As a result, we’ll be releasing a weapon balance pass in the coming days to adjust TTK and ensure all weapons available in the Beta are competitive within both their class and their intended role within Black Ops 7.”

Here’s the rest of the patch notes:

Maps

Permanently opened several doors throughout The Forge and Cortex. (See the mini-maps below for specific callouts.)
Increased the time that automatic doors remain open before closing from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
Increased the range at which doors will open automatically when approaching.

UI

Increased visible range of the minimap by 15%.

Movement

Increased allowable angle for side Wall Jump to reduce accidental forward Wall Jumps.

Spawns

Adjusted spawn logic for enemy player influence on nearby spawns.

Progression

Increased Weapon XP earn rates for both Multiplayer and Zombies.
Increased Overclock earn rate for the Skewer Scorestreak.
Increased Overclock earn rate for the Drone Pod Field Upgrade.

Stability

Addressed server stability issues with Training Course.
Addressed a stability issue related to turrets.
Addressed potential server stability issues when playing Overload.
Addressed server stability issues with the Gravemaker.
Addressed server stability issues with the Skewer.
Addressed server stability issues with the Vigilance Perk.

Zombies

Resolved an issue that prevented the Rampage Inducer from affecting gameplay after Round 55.
Addressed an issue in Training Course that could prevent players from reattempting Training Station 2.
Addressed a stability issue related to Toxic Growth.
Addressed some stability issues related to Exfil.
Addressed some stability issues when leaving a match.

Known Issues

Players are temporarily unable to complete an Exfil in Zombies Survival and Training Course playlists. Solo players are still able to Save and Quit to selectively end their match.

You can read more about the adjustments to individual weapons and maps on the website.

This week, the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta began in earnest, giving eager players the chance to try the game out before its launch on 14th November. But despite the beta requiring both TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot enabled on your PC to play, which Treyarch stated was needed to “create a more secure environment that catches more cheating”, within hours clips started appearing on social media showing off wall hacks and aim bots working in the beta.

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October 5, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Yet another Final Fantasy 11 server has been closed to new players because it’s too popular

by admin October 2, 2025

Square Enix is closing another Final Fantasy 11 server to new players because it’s proven too popular.

Back in July, the popular Asura server was closed, meaning new players would be unable to join. Producer and director Yoji Fujito said at the time the overpopulation “has led to a series of unexpected issues that have managed to affect the quality of that experience somewhat.”

As a result, players have instead moved to the next popular server, Bahamut, which has now met a similar fate.

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“Bahamut has consistently had the second most concurrent users out of all Worlds and has been close behind Asura in terms of total character population, leading many new adventurers to begin their journeys there,” said Fujito in a new statement.

“While we are pleased to see these Worlds bustling with activity, having too many concurrent users can overwhelm server processes on that World, which affects server responsiveness and increases the likelihood of other related issues.”

From 9th October, players will no longer be able to transfer characters to Bahamut, nor will they be able to create new characters. The Vana’diel Adventurer Recruitment Programme will also be suspended for the server.

Fujito added Asura remains closed as the server load remains unchanged despite a slight decrease in player population.

All of this is occurring 23 years after the MMORPG first launched.

So why are so many players returning or joining Final Fantasy 11? There were discount campaigns earlier in the year that have contributed, but it’s also due to a crossover with MMORPG follow-up Final Fantasy 14, which has seen a decline in players following its less popular Dawntrail expansion.

As for Final Fantasy 14, a Monster Hunter Wilds collaboration is on the way, which will add new mounts and a new battle scenario.

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October 2, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Lego Is Retiring One Of The Most Popular Star Wars Sets

by admin September 30, 2025

Not many Lego sets have the type of run the Darth Vader Helmet has enjoyed. Released way back in March 2021, the 834-piece display model of the classic Sith Lord from the Original Trilogy has outlived many Star Wars Lego sets released after it. The Darth Vader Helmet is practically ancient in Lego years, but it remains one of the best-selling Star Wars sets at major retailers to this day. Just in the last month, Amazon says it has sold over 2,000 Darth Vader Helmets, which is a higher total than a bunch of recently launched sets. But Dark Lord Vader’s life-support system can’t keep him alive in the Lego Star Wars universe forever. Lego has marked the Darth Vader Helmet as “retiring soon,” which means it’ll likely be sold out at major retailers before the end of the year.

If you want to add the set to your personal collection or are looking for an always-popular gift for a Star Wars fan this holiday season, the Lego Darth Vader Helmet is on sale for $62 (was $80) at Amazon and Walmart ahead of Prime Big Deal Days. This isn’t the all-time lowest price, but it’s one of the better discounts offered this year. We wouldn’t be surprised if both retailers sold out, and there’s no guarantee it would be restocked again. For context, the Lego Store is selling the set for full price, but it’s on backorder and won’t ship for two months.

You can pair the Darth Vader Helmet with deals on other Lego Star Wars Helmets, including The Mandalorian and Captain Rex, which are likely next in line for retirement. Walmart also has a stellar bundle deal featuring Kylo Ren’s Helmet and Command Shuttle that saves you over $40.

Lego Star Wars Helmet Models

Check out all five of the active Lego Star Wars Helmet sets as well as one retired model that has randomly popped back up on Amazon below.

After checking out the Star Wars Helmets, take a look at some of the other deals on soon-to-be-retired Lego Star Wars sets at the end of this story.

$62 (was $80) | Retiring soon

The Darth Vader Helmet is an 834-piece build measuring 8 x 5.5 x 5.5 inches. Designed for experienced builders, this model utilizes more advanced building techniques than some of the other smaller character helmets in the lineup. Along with the detailed exterior plating, the build includes Vader’s life-support system. The brick-built display stand includes a detachable nameplate with the Lego Star Wars logo.

Walmart was offering two different bundles with the Darth Vader Helmet earlier this month–one with the new UCS AT-ST and one with the Kylo Ren Helmet–but both are currently sold out.

$70 | Bundle with Kylo Ren’s Command Shuttle for $98 (was $140)

Speaking of the Kylo Ren Helmet, the 529-piece model of the helmet worn by Lord Vader’s grandson is still available in a bundle deal at Walmart. You can pair it with Kylo Ren’s Command Shuttle, a 386-piece model of the villain’s stealthy starship, for $98 (was $140). You’re essentially getting both Kylo Ren $70 sets for only $49 each.

Outside of the bundle deals, Kylo Ren’s Helmet hasn’t received any discounts since launching in May for Star Wars Day. The 529-piece build is exclusive to Walmart and the Lego Store. The completed model measures 7 x 4.5 x 5 inches.

$56 (was $70)

The Mandalorian Helmet released back in early 2022 and probably won’t be sticking around for much longer either. The 584-piece build recreates Mando’s Beskar plate armor. When connected to the stand, The Mandalorian Helmet measures 7 x 4 x 4.5 inches.

The Mandalorian Helmet is on sale for $56 (was $70) at Amazon and Walmart.

$56 (was $70)

The replica of the popular 501st Legion Clone Commander’s Helmet actually has the highest piece count of the Star Wars Lego Helmets actively being produced today. The 854-piece Captain Rex Helmet measures 8 x 5 x 5 inches and does a stellar job recreating the unique armor plating from The Clone Wars film and follow-up TV series.

You can get the Captain Rex Helmet for $56 (was $70) at Amazon.

$65 (was $70)

The 616-piece Jango Fett Helmet released alongside the Kylo Ren Helmet for Star Wars Day, so it’s not surprising that discounts on this one are small so far. The completed model measures 8.5 x 4.5 x 4 inches and has an adjustable rangefinder antenna.

Jango Fett has received a lot of attention from Lego this year. The bounty hunter’s starship from Attack of the Clones joined the UCS lineup for Star Wars Day, and a smaller playset version of the Firespray-Class Starship launched in August.

$70 | Retired / In stock at Amazon

Lego discontinued the Clone Commander Cody Helmet in February 2025. Since then, the helmet has disappeared from most major retailers, but Amazon recently restocked the 766-piece set for its original $70 MSRP. Clone Wars and Bad Batch fans should check it out while they can. The completed model with display stand is 8 x 5 x 5.5 inches.

Lego Star Wars: Droideka & Mos Espa Podrace Diorama

Walmart has one other in-stock Lego Star Wars bundle deal featuring a set that’s retiring soon, too. Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator is normally $70 on its own, but you can pair it with the Darth Maul Mech for only $62 (was $88). Another notable Star Wars set on its way out is the popular 583-piece Droideka Destroyer Droid for $52 (was $65). Two Ultimate Collector Series Star Wars Lego sets are being discontinued: Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Starfighter and massive Razor Crest Starship from The Mandalorian. The latter is on sale for a slight discount at Amazon.

There are currently 23 Lego Star Wars sets on the brink of retirement. Outside of the UCS builds, the list below focuses on the ones you can save money on right now. Multiple dioramas recreating scenes from the movies are discounted, including the Mos Espa Podrace from The Phantom Menace for $57 (was $80) and Boarding the Tantive IV from A New Hope for $44 (was $55). You can also get the 654-piece Tantive IV Starship display model for $64 (was $80). Those three sets and numerous others in the list below were part of the Lego Star Wars commemorative 25th anniversary series.

Heads up: The price of Lego Star Wars Mechs tends to jump considerably after retirement. So while the Luke Skywalker X-Wing Mech is selling for its full $16 MSRP, you won’t want to wait to long to snag one. Plus, look how cool this buildable action figure is:

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September 30, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Chick-fil-A launching new restaurant that won’t serve anything they’re popular for

by admin September 26, 2025

Chick-fil-A is preparing to test a standalone restaurant that focuses entirely on drinks, but fans hoping for chicken sandwiches or waffle fries won’t find them on the menu.

The chain confirmed to Today that the new concept, called Daybright, will debut in the Greater Atlanta area in 2025 under its subsidiary Red Wagon Ventures. Instead of Chick-fil-A staples, the spinoff will serve beverages like specialty coffees, smoothies, and cold-pressed juices, along with a food menu that hasn’t yet been detailed.

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Customers will not be able to order traditional Chick-fil-A items like waffle fries or chicken nuggets at Daybright, as the brand is positioning it separately from its core restaurants.

Facebook: Chick-fil-A Central & McCordChick-fil-A waffle fries and Chick-fil-A sauce are a match made in heaven.

A new lane for Chick-fil-A

Red Wagon Ventures was formed to explore ideas beyond the main business. Its name references founder Truett Cathy’s childhood, when he used a red wagon to sell Coca-Cola in his neighborhood.

Daybright enters the market as fast-food chains expand into customizable drink offerings, a space long dominated by Starbucks. Earlier this year, McDonald’s beverage spinoff CosMc’s closed after less than two years in operation, though some of its specialty sodas will now appear in select McDonald’s restaurants.

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Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s aren’t the only major fast food chains to open spinoffs over the last few years, either. KFC, another popular chicken restaurant, opened its first ‘Saucy by KFC’ restaurant in December 2024, which focuses on different types of sauce to spruce up its chicken offerings.

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September 26, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Tencent accuse Sony of trying “to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture” with their Horizon copyright lawsuit

by admin September 18, 2025

This afternoon, a choice of two raging videogame lawsuits to report on. Firstly, a snippet from the on-going courtroom scrap between former Unknown Worlds executives and Krafton over the state of Subnautica 2’s development, in which the former accuse the latter of changing their story about why the executives were fired.

I’ve decided not to write that one up because it feels like we are entering the realm of potshots over minutiae, rather than learning anything genuinely new about Subnautica 2 or its creators, but if you’re interested, GamesIndustry.biz has your back. The parallel Tencent/Sony bust-up has the virtue of relative novelty. It gives me a whole different kind of headache. What’s going on with this one, then?

Well, last November Tencent announced that they would publish Light Of Motiram, a post-apocalyptic adventure featuring robot mammoths, archery, red-haired ladies, and scrapmetal tribal aesthetics. An ungenerous commenter might assert that it’s a “slavish clone” of Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. That’s what Sony called it, anyway, when they announced in July this year that they were going to sue Tencent back to the Neo-Stone Age for copyright infringement.

In their California federal court filing, Sony alleged that Tencent had, in fact, approached them in 2024 and pitched a new Horizon game under license, even as development continued on Light of Motiram. As James noted in our write-up, the implication here is that Tencent were going to make their very own Horizon game regardless of whether Sony consented to brand it an official sequel or spin-off.

Sony sought to block Light Of Motiram’s release, arguing that it would cause “irreparable harm to SIE and the consuming public”, which is rather histrionic. I am picturing a solitary tear rolling down the face of a member of the Consuming Public as they plead with the storekeeper that they wanted the other 6/10 metal dinosaur game, not this one. Yes, it is I – the Horizon disliker. Still, I can’t deny that the games look rather similar, and it’s telling that Tencent have edited Light Of Motiram’s Steam page to remove some of the more obvious points of overlap with Horizon.

Tencent have now hit back against Sony’s accusations with even louder language. They contend that Sony are seeking “an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions”, and that Light Of Motiram ain’t even finished yet and as such, can’t be fairly assessed for what it invents or borrows. They also say that Sony are suing the wrong people.

As passed on by The Game Post, Tencent’s motion to dismiss the case comments that “at bottom, Sony’s effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property. It is an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony’s exclusive domain.”

Tencent further argue that Sony’s claims for Horizon Zero Dawn’s originality have been “flatly contradicted” by developers Guerrilla, citing a behind-the-scenes doc in which art director Jan-Bart Van Beek compared the game to Ninja Theory’s 2013 action-adventure Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. They also make reference to “the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolise through this lawsuit”.

They insist that Light Of Motiram “merely employs the same time-honoured tropes embraced by scores of other games released both before and after Horizon – like Enslaved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, Outer Wilds, Biomutant, and many more”. In summary, they accuse Sony of trying to “transform ubiquitous genre ingredients into proprietary assets.”

As regards Sony’s argument that Tencent wanted to make a Horizon game for them, and decided to proceed with their “slavish clone” despite not being given permission, Tencent’s court motion refers to a GDC meeting from March 2024 in which Tencent reps pitched a licensed Horizon mobile game. They claim that since no actual Tencent executives or employees were at the meeting, nothing at the meeting “is alleged to be an act of copyright or trademark infringement”.

As for the ‘suing the wrong people stuff’, Tencent’s motion notes that Sony’s lawsuit is against Tencent America, Proxima Beta U.S., and Tencent Holdings, whereas Light Of Motiram is being developed and published by Polaris Quest / Aurora Studios, who operate under Tencent Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, and Proxima Beta PTE Ltd, a company in Singapore “doing business as ‘Tencent Games’ and/or ‘Level Infinite'”. Tencent’s lawyers are of the opinion that “Sony’s threadbare, conclusory allegations improperly lump these Defendants together with the foreign companies alleged to be responsible for the core conduct at issue.”

I’m no lawyer, despite belated efforts to educate myself, but the last two paragraphs read to me like Tencent are trying to get off on a technicality. I sympathise more with the line about Horizon not being as original as all that, and certain ideas being public property. Except that I’m pretty sure that if the roles were reversed and Light of Motiram had launched before Horizon: Zero Dawn, Tencent would have been yelling blue murder about breach of copyright.

The discussion of what Light Of Motiram – out 2027 – yoinks or doesn’t yoink from Horizon is kind of fun to follow, because it’s comparing ideas and aesthetics. In general, though, I default to the position that picking sides in a copyright spat between two billion dollar videogame publishers is like deciding which cybernetic T-Rex you most want to step on you.

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September 18, 2025 0 comments

The main character of Silksong holds a sword against a red/orange background.

Game Reviews

Silksong’s Most Popular Mods Are All About Making The Game Easier

by admin September 9, 2025

Hollow Knight: Silksong is out. Did you know that? You probably pieced that together. After seven years of waiting, Team Cherry’s long-awaited 2D action-platformer is here and kicking people’s asses. But on PC, thousands of players are using mods to help them overcome the challenging game.

Silksong released late last week on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC after nearly a decade of waiting. And first reactions to the sequel are almost entirely positive, with fans loving the small tweaks to the Hollow Knight formula and the larger size of its world. Plus, that $20 price tag is nice in an era when everything is more expensive than ever. And Silksong, like Hollow Knight, isn’t the easiest game in the world. Many players are even claiming that Silksong is harder than the OG. This has led to a lot of discourse on the internet about how hard it is or isn’t, and about game difficulty in general. But if you’re playing on PC, there’s a solution: Just mod Silksong and make it easier.

If we hop over to Silksong’s mods hub over at NexusMods, a popular PC modding site, you can see there are already 60+ mods available for the recently released platformer. And many of the most popular mods available for the game make it much easier to play. The most popular mods for Silksong include one that adds health meters to enemies, another one that stops enemies from doing double damage to the player, and one that shows the player’s position on the map at all times. All of these mods have over 15,000 downloads. An automapping mod has 9,000 downloads. Another free PC mod that increases how much damage players deal to enemies has over 7,000 downloads.

In fact, the only mod more popular than all of these mods that make Silksong easier is the mod needed to run any of these other creations. That mod, “BepInEx 5 with Configuration Manager,” has over 28,000 downloads as of September 8. That’s a lot of downloads for a game that’s barely been out a week. Of course, not all the mods for Silksong are about making it easier. But those mods, like one that adds ultrawide support and a death counter, only have a few hundred downloads or fewer.

It seems that the people coming to NexusMods for Silksong mods mostly have one goal in mind: Make the game less challenging. I expect reactions to this will vary a lot, but personally, I land on the side of “If folks want to make a game easier or harder with mods, and it doesn’t ruin it for other people, then whatever.” But I’ve been on the web long enough to know that ain’t a universal take.

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September 9, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Nintendo wins a $2 million lawsuit against popular Switch modding webstore

by admin September 7, 2025

Nintendo has just won another major battle in its longstanding war against piracy. Earlier this summer, a US federal court ruled in favor of Nintendo in a lawsuit against Ryan Daly and the Modded Hardware website. The site was known for selling devices that allowed users to get around Nintendo’s piracy protections, including the popular MIG Switch flashcart that lets buyers play official Nintendo games without the need for a physical cartridge. Besides requiring Daly to pay $2 million to Nintendo, the lawsuit requires him to shut down the website and forfeit the domain to Nintendo as part of an all-encompassing permanent injunction.

The order also prevents Daly from any future involvement with devices that get around Nintendo’s guardrails, including creating, selling, contributing to, hosting other websites related to or investing in other businesses that deal in similar products. While MIG flash carts could be used as a backup for legally purchased physical games, it was more commonly used to pirate official Nintendo Switch titles. Nintendo has steadily fought against mods and pirating tools, including recently granting itself the power to brick Switches that have pirated games on them.

Nintendo is no stranger to taking legal action against those who defy its strict policies. In March of last year, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the makers of the Yuzu emulator. The suit was settled quickly, with the team behind the Nintendo Switch emulator agreeing to pay $2.4 million. Like the lawsuit against Daly, the team behind Yuzu had to surrender its website and permanently refrain from doing any activities that bypass Nintendo’s rules.

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September 7, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Hollow Knight: Silksong is so popular, even pirates are urging others not to pirate the game

by admin September 6, 2025

After Hollow Knight: Silksong released across multiple platforms yesterday, the game – which has a DRM-free version, and also comes with a rather low retail price attached to it – was quickly cracked.

In a post over on the piracy reddit titled “That was f**king fast!”, the community noted Silksong was cracked within 15 minutes of release. That’s even with all of the various issues which saw the likes of Steam coming to a grinding halt (“I can’t believe it is faster than Steam,” one reply joked). However, in a rather wholesome little turn up for the books, the pirating community is actually urging others to buy the game, rather than pirate it.

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“It’s a three to four person team that has done right by their fans at every turn. Making sure the PC release is DRM free. Making sure all original backers of Hollow Knight get Silksong free on their choice of platform. This is a time where if we can afford to support them, we should,” reads one reply in the thread.

“Hey, the game is pretty cheap. This one, we should not pirate,” another wrote, with a similar reply noting: “The only game I will feel bad if I ever pirated it.”

This reply made me smile: “Team Cherry has done so well that even r/Piracy members are buying their game.”

That was fucking fast!
byu/ALIIERTx inPiracy

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For more on Silksong, our Bertie spoke to several developers about the impact its low price will have on other indie games. Does it really matter, or has Team Cherry unexpectedly set a precedent for other indie games going forward? You can find out in Bertie’s feature: Is Hollow Knight Silksong’s ‘cheap’ price a problem for other indie games? Devs and publishers weigh up its impact.

This is a news-in-brief story. This is part of our vision to bring you all the big news as part of a daily live report.

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September 6, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Silksong is so popular, even people in the Piracy subreddit are encouraging others to just buy it: ‘If we can afford to support them, we should’

by admin September 4, 2025

Hollow Knight: Silksong finally went live today—you may have heard something about that—and its arrival absolutely demolished Steam, which simply could not hold up under the crushing demand of Skongmania. As Steam crumbled like a train bridge made of soggy noodles, GOG did what it does best: Took a shot from the shadows.

“It appears that Silkzillion gamers worldwide are trying to get their hands on Hollow Knight: Silksong, and digital storefronts are struggling to handle the traffic,” GOG posted on X. “But the DRM-free Bastion stands strong.” Naturally, there was a link to Silksong on GOG.

It appears that Silkzillion gamers worldwide are trying to get their hands on Hollow Knight: Silksong, and digital storefronts are struggling to handle the traffic.But the DRM-free Bastion stands strong 😎👇 https://t.co/XVbkDmXLceSeptember 4, 2025

I can’t say I’d really thought about it before seeing that post, but it caught me a little by surprise because it felt, well, incongruous. The value of DRM is debatable but generally speaking it does at least help cut down on day-one piracy; releasing one of the most eagerly anticipated games to come along in years on a platform whose number-one promo point is “No DRM” was surely a high-risk move.

Except, maybe not. Sure enough, Silksong was available through less-than-legal channels almost immediately after launch, but as noticed by GamesRadar, the 2.4 million strong Piracy subreddit seemed torn on the topic: Unexpectedly, quite a few of its members have been urging people not to pirate Silksong.

“I was planning on doing it, since every recent game costs around $80 and that’s a lot of money for a game,” one redditor wrote in a pre-release thread asking how potential pirates planned to proceed. “But after the price was revealed, $20, I thought, damn that’s good, and I’m not pirating it.”

Others felt the same way, “I think I’m just gonna buy this one. It’s only $20 and I really enjoyed Hollow Knight so, I’m sure I won’t be mad about spending the money on this one,” one respondent wrote.

“Apparently it’ll only be like 20 bucks with a three person team. I can and will definitely buy it after it’s been out a week or two,” another added.

“It’s a 3-4 person team that has done right by their fans at every turn,” No-Shape6053 wrote. “Making sure the PC release is DRM free. Making sure all original backers of Hollow Knight get Silksong free on their choice of platform. This is a time where if we can afford to support them, we should.”

Redditor Efrayl added: “I’m buying this game on GOG straight away, even though I will probably play it later (after a few updates and when it will be on discount).”

RandoT said he’s never purchased a full-priced game on launch day in the 10+ years he’s had his Steam account, but he’s doing it for Silksong: “It was Team Cherry that made me break my ‘vow’ to always buy on discount.”

Silksong’s release is the first time I’ve seen comments on the Piracy subreddit push for people to buy it instead.

— @airbagged.bsky.social (@airbagged.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T21:13:04.693Z

#Silksong has appeared on piracy websites for PC and r/Piracy is having arguments over pirating it, lmao

— @born2beslicker.bsky.social (@born2beslicker.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T21:13:04.668Z

To be clear, this is not a wholesale changing-of-ways. Plenty of people in the subreddit say they’re going to pirate Silksong regardless, some with the claimed intent of buying it later when their finances allow and others simply as a matter of because I can principle.

But the extent of the push to just buy the damned thing seems genuinely unusual. Much of that arises from the fact that Silksong itself is very unusual: A monster-hit (and, going by the current Steam rating, very good—we’re still working on our review but will have it up soon) game priced at $20, developed by tiny team that doesn’t seem too arsed about the accepted conventions of making and releasing videogames.

It’s not the sort of scenario that could be duplicated by Electronic Arts or Ubisoft, in other words, and I wouldn’t expect executives at any major or mid-sized publisher to look at this and think that maybe ditching Denuvo really is the way to go. Still, it does really drive home the notion that while you’re never going to stop piracy, you can sometimes turn some people around on it by asking a fair price, making a good game, and being genuine throughout. I think that’s kind of nice.

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September 4, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Researchers find alarming overlaps among 18 popular VPNs

by admin September 4, 2025

A new peer-reviewed study alleges that 18 of the 100 most-downloaded virtual private network (VPN) apps on the Google Play Store are secretly connected in three large families, despite claiming to be independent providers. The paper doesn’t indict any of our picks for the best VPN, but the services it investigates are popular, with 700 million collective downloads on Android alone.

The study, published in the journal of the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS), doesn’t just find that the VPNs in question failed to disclose behind-the-scenes relationships, but also that their shared infrastructures contain serious security flaws. Well-known services like Turbo VPN, VPN Proxy Master and X-VPN were found to be vulnerable to attacks capable of exposing a user’s browsing activity and injecting corrupted data.

Titled “Hidden Links: Analyzing Secret Families of VPN apps,” the paper was inspired by an investigation by VPN Pro, which found that several VPN companies each were selling multiple apps without identifying the connections between them. This spurred the “Hidden Links” researchers to ask whether the relationships between secretly co-owned VPNs could be documented systematically.

Starting from the list of the most-downloaded VPNs on Android, the researchers compiled data from each VPN’s business paperwork, web presence and codebase and sifted through it for connections. Primarily through identifying suspicious similarities in the code, they were able to sort 18 VPN apps into three groups.

Family A consists of Turbo VPN, Turbo VPN Lite, VPN Monster, VPN Proxy Master, VPN Proxy Master Lite, Snap VPN, Robot VPN and SuperNet VPN. These were found to be shared between three providers — Innovative Connecting, Lemon Clove and Autumn Breeze. All three have all been linked to Qihoo 360, a firm based in mainland China and identified as a “Chinese military company” by the US Department of Defense.

Family B consists of Global VPN, XY VPN, Super Z VPN, Touch VPN, VPN ProMaster, 3X VPN, VPN Inf and Melon VPN. These eight services, which are shared between five providers, all use the same IP addresses from the same hosting company.

Family C consists of X-VPN and Fast Potato VPN. Although these two apps each come from a different provider, the researchers found that both used very similar code and included the same custom VPN protocol.

If you’re a VPN user, this study should concern you for two reasons. The first problem is that companies entrusted with your private activities and personal data are not being honest about where they’re based, who owns them or who they might be sharing your sensitive information with. Even if their apps were all perfect, this would be a severe breach of trust.

But their apps are far from perfect, which is the second problem. All 18 VPNs across all three families use the Shadowsocks protocol with a hard-coded password, which makes them susceptible to takeover from both the server side (which can be used for malware attacks) and the client side (which can be used to eavesdrop on web activity).

Ultimately, a VPN provider being dishonest about its background and a VPN client running on slapdash infrastructure are symptoms of the same problem: these are apps designed to do something other than keep you safe online. Since all 18 were listed as unrelated products, it’s also clear that app stores are not an effective line of defense. The “Hidden Links” paper makes it all the more imperative to never download a free VPN without vetting it first, and to only use free VPNs that are supported by paid subscriptions, like Proton VPN.

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September 4, 2025 0 comments