DC Fandome gives gamers a new look at the upcoming Gotham Knights multiplayer action RPG with the shadowy Court of Owls enemy faction.

The Court of Owls is among the most macabre and fearsome enemies the Bat Family has ever faced. Run by a cabal of Gotham super-elite, the mask-wearing archvillains use their influence to rule the city from the shadows. The Court of Owls is centuries-old and their terrible whims are carried out by a force of assassins called Talons.

The new Gotham Knights game from WB Montreal will shed light on this mysterious group, borrowing source material directly from comics while telling their own unique story. Most of the footage is snippets of cinematic sequences to set a grim tone but we do get some clues on gameplay, like the hulking mace-and-shield toting Talon that's most assuredly a boss-type of enemy.

Sony's new API rendering engineer job listing may hint at early development of the rumored PlayStation 5 Pro.

Photo credit: Fritzchens Fritz

Sony is currently hiring a Senior Software Engineer for its Advanced Technology Group (ATG) that specifically focuses on the PlayStation 5's Rendering API. The goal is for engineers to help redefine what's possible with the next-generation platform by fortifying all the tools responsible for the PS5's high-end performance.

Applicants will directly contribute to the graphics API used to power PlayStation 5 games, including GPU software stack optimization tools used to deliver true high-end experiences (native 4K, ray tracing, etc). The listing also mentions the engineer will help craft "the architecture of multiple generations of PlayStation consoles."

Fortnite could've become a lot more like Roblox with user-generated content sold in a specific in-game storefront.

In 2019, Fortnite earnings dropped by 32% as per court documents. At the time, Epic was searching for ideas on how to reverse the dip and spark earnings growth. One idea saw Fortnite becoming more like Roblox, a billion-dollar competitor that servers up mini-games to users.

According to a recent countersuit in the Epic vs Google trial, Epic Games was exploring ideas to allow users to create monetized in-game content to sell in Fortnite's storefront. "Internally, Epic also hoped to revive and reinvigorate Fortnite by pivoting its business whereby player-developers could create new content and Epic could share a majority of profit with those creators."

Elden Ring gameplay footage has leaked out ahead of the game's presumable premiere at The Game Awards 2021.

The new leaked Elden Ring gameplay footage is brief and simple, showing players a small glimpse of the mythical cursed realm of The Lands Between. There's no actual fighting or exploration in the 27-second snippet. Instead the footage sets more of a somber, hallowed, and mystical tone to the in-game world--which is rightly so given the Lands Between are riven by corrupt magics, curses, and horrible abominations.

The gameplay footage itself wasn't all that graphically impressive and may be from an early build, possibly running on a PlayStation 4 devkit rather than a PS5, Xbox Series X, or PC. Let's not forget that Elden Ring's world is seamless without any loading zones so that may be the cause of the lower resolution/visual fidelity.

The Epic vs Apple trial may be over, but the Epic vs Google anti-trust suit is just getting started. Google has now filed a counterclaim against Epic Games with multiple accusations, including pre-meditated breach of contract.

Epic Games mostly lost its trial against Apple--the games-maker didn't get the rights to A) bring Fortnite back to the App Store, B) insert its own internal payment processing store within the game's app--and based on current documents filed from Google, it may also summarily mostly lose its anti-trust case against Google.

The Epic vs Google court case is in full swing and could go to trial. A new counterclaim from Google lays out its case against Epic Games, and the billion-dollar company makes compelling points.

Steam just banned all games dealing with cryptocurrency, blockchain, or NFTs. These games could find a new home on Epic's digital storefront.

Ever the contrarian to Valve's business models, Epic Games says it won't issue a wide-sweeping ban on blockchain games. These types of video games have been controversial due to their cryptocurrency and NFT payouts to players. These rewards have tangible real-world value that violate Valve's core developer guidelines and also have somewhat-messy legal and financial implications for storeholders.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney isn't ready to shut the door on blockchain games, however. The company tells The Verge that it's interested in helping mature this fledgling landscape and potentially explore new opportunities for growth (and disruption). Rules and regulations will need to be established and strictly enforced so there could be a messy period of adaptation and learning for games-makers and store operators like Epic.

Diablo 2 Resurrected's servers still aren't fixed and may not be for some time.

Diablo 2 Resurrected's online infrastructure is getting hammered right now. Too many people are playing the game and the old server databases simply can't handle it. This has led to seven days of continued instability during peak play times (which is, oddly enough, during the morning-noon EST periods). As a result Blizzard has had to perform emergency maintenance many times, leading to rollbacks and character progression losses.

Now the saga continues. Blizzard is currently making D2R players wait in an online queue in order to connect to servers and join/make games. This digital wait-in-line plan was put into place to help funnel gamers into a more controlled environment versus the free-for-all frenzy that has crashed the databases many times.

Activision-Blizzard, a company facing multiple lawsuits and investigations into employee rights violations, says it wants all employees to return to offices by January 2022.

COVID-19 has interrupted the games industry. Games are being delayed as publishers and dev teams adapt to the new normal: work-from-home and remote work instead of office-based jobs. Some companies like Eidos-Montreal are moving to four-day workweeks. Activision employees have also shifted from commute-based office jobs in expensive cities to remote work, but it might not last.

Activision-Blizzard, the industry's second-biggest billion-dollar earner, eventually wants employees back in offices...and soon. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier confirms the publisher plans to have workers "fully return to our offices by January 3, 2022."

Microsoft is making it easy to Xbox and chill with its new Series X Mini Fridge.

It's official: The Xbox Mini Fridge is being produced and consumers will be able to buy one this holiday season. The fridge, which started out as a meme, will cost $99 and pre-orders open up in just 3 days across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. There's no word on availability or how many units will be made so if you want one it's best to jump in ASAP.

Target will be the exclusive retailer offering the Series X Mini Fridge, and according to the website there's some restrictions: "Only available with contactless Drive Up or Order Pickup. Quantities limited. Limit 1 per guest."

A new Rockstar Games job listing may hint at features included in Grand Theft Auto 6, including advanced next-gen destruction and fluid physics.

Rockstar Games is hiring en masse to build up its dev teams for GTA 6. The next-gen Grand Theft Auto, which may not release before 2025, will apparently have next-level realism that goes beyond any other GTA game.

According to a VFX Artist job listing at Rockstar New England, GTA 6 could feature real-time skyscraper destruction (possibly from hurricane-force winds or tornadoes) and high-end fluid motion physics dealing with rainwater and building interactions.