Really? Really! Okay then.

Last week I talked about how studio Naughty Dog and their publisher Sony has been abusing the DMCA to falsely copyright strike Youtube channels talking about the big leak concerning The Last of Us 2. The good news in the follow up is that some channels have gotten their videos back, but some have received new strikes and some have gotten strikes for merely talking about others getting strikes.

It's no secret that YouTube does everything in their power to not have to do anything, but they really need to start doing something about this. I get that telling Sony off is a scary thing, but it has gone too far. It seems that no major game news outlet has even mentioned this scandal, and this coupled with YouTube’s “hands-off and let the algorithm handle it” attitude, means that companies like Sony can just do whatever they want to private citizens. Or can they? Some of the afflicted content creators have contacted lawyers and according to at least one, this is the kind of situation Sony would not want to go to court for.

As I also mentioned last week, the Streisand Effect, or the more you try to hide it - the more people talk about it, is in full swing. The cat is out of the bag and there is no stuffing it back.

In other news Bethesda, publisher of Id Software's Doom Eternal has royally ticked off the community. Doom Eternal, which released on March 20th this year garnered good critique. It seemed most if not all aspects of the game were well met, until now.

Just a few days ago, Bethesda updated the game to now include Denuvo, a widely hated DRM program that is supposed to protect against piracy and cheating.

The problem is, that hackers have always cracked Denuvo within days of a games release, rendering the point of the program moot. To make it worse, many players (and payers) have reported through the years how Denuvo makes their games unplayable, which means that it punishes the legit customers, while leaving the pirates unaffected.

To make it even - even worse, this version of Denuvo goes CPU deep. It goes to the root of your PC and grabs hold with ADMIN RIGHTS! Meaning that if a hacker sneaks in through Denuvo, he has your entire system at his fingertips. If Denuvo crashes, it can take your machine with it. This is not okay. No one can think this is okay. Not even Bethesda who has chosen to implement this over a month after release as they must have known it would hurt sales if it happened at launch. As I'm not a lawyer I can't say whether this is legal, but if it is, it shouldn't be!

Finally, on a more amusing note than tragic, have you heard of a game called The Culling? Well, it was one of the first Battle Royale games in modern gaming. However, it wasn't very popular and as soon as PubG came along it pretty much died. Sad, but these thing happen. It isn't always the first version of a new thing that becomes the biggest. It did however put the idea of the Battle Royale games out there.

Now it is back with The Culling: Origins. If you own the previous version, you have to new one. Xbox now and PC later. Otherwise about $6 to buy new and... how do I say this nicely? In a courageous move they charge per match. In a Battle Royale game where you can be out in seconds of starting! One match free per day and you can win more matches or just pay and pay and pay.... Come on. This isn't even scummy, it's insane!

Well, that me done. Join me again next time and until then, stay safe, wash your hands (covid-19 isn't over yet) and have a fantastic week!