The second annual Access-Ability Summer Showcase has now ended. The 45-minute presentation highlighted the efforts that have been made in a number of new and upcoming games to make them more accessible to players with disabilities. “The Access-Ability Summer Showcase aims to be a place for disabled gamers to find out about cool upcoming and recently released video games, while knowing up front if they’re likely to be accessible for them upon release,” the show’s host Laura Kate Dale said during the intro....

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister has called on Xbox and PlayStation to temporarily end support in the Russian and Belarusian markets, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In an open letter published on Twitter, Mykhailo Fedorov called on the platform holders to “block all Russian and Belorussian accounts, temporarily stop the participation of Russian and Belorussian teams and gamers in all international esports events”. In a message addressed toXboxandPlayStation, the Deputy PM wrote: “To all game development companies and esports platforms, the Russian Federation has carried out a deceptive and outrageous military attack on my country!...

Unconfirmed reports claim that upgrade options for Sony’s new PlayStation Plus subscription service unfairly punish some players. Following the Asian launch of the revamped PS Plus service on Monday, some claims have emerged from players who purchased existing memberships using a discount or chose to stack subscriptions beforethe option was disabled earlier this month. Among the complaints being levelled at Sony, it’s claimed that players who purchased their existing subscription using a discount are beingchargedextrato upgrade to a differentPlayStationPlus tier, wiping out any previous savings....

Riot Games has announced plans to release tactical multiplayer FPS Valorant for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Players canregisternow to participate in a closed beta test that will begin on June 14, ahead of the game’s console release later this year. The free-to-play, 5v5 character-based shooter originally released forPCin June 2020. At the time,Valorantexecutive producerAnna Donlonsaid Riot wasexploring the possibility of bringing Valorant to consoles. But she toldGameSpotthat a potential console version of the game would need to have the same “strong level of competitive integrity” as the PC one....

Wario Land 4 is the latest Game Boy Advance game headed to Switch Online. As announced byNintendo, the 2001 platformer will be released onSwitchOnline’s GBA app on February 14. The final handheld game in the Wario Land series, Wario Land 4 sees Wario sneaking into a newly discovered Golden Pyramid to try and steal its treasure. Wario gets lost and has to make his way out while also dealing with the evil Golden Diva, the ruler of the pyramid....

Back in 1990, Nintendo released the perfect 2D platform game. Super Mario World is a tightly designed masterpiece that got everything right. There have been excellent 2D Mario games released since, but nothing has quite matched the SNES classic. After all, how do you top perfection? The 3D Mario series had suffered a similar challenge.Nintendonailed 3D Mario games at its first attempt in 1996. How could the developer possibly better Mario 64?...

WWE superstar Randy Orton says he’s played Elden Ring for around 600 hours. In an interview with current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes as part of hisWhat Do You Wanna Talk Aboutseries of videos, the wrestler said he had an obsession with the game. After discussing John Cena’s appearance inMortal Kombatas his Peacemaker character, Orton admitted that he used to make fun of Rhodes for playing video games a lot, and that now he did too....

Microsoft says Google’s upcoming cloud game streaming service Stadia is lacking the content required to attract a significant user base. Revealed atGDCin March and set to launch later this year,Google Stadiawill rivalMicrosoft’s own cloud game streaming platform,Project xCloud. “Emerging competitors likeGooglehave a cloud infrastructure, a community with YouTube, but they don’t have the content,”Mike Nichols,Xbox’s chief marketing officer, toldThe Telegraph. He believes Microsoft’s catalogue of first-party IP, plus its long-standing relationships with software makers and publishers, give it the upper hand over Google....

Xbox has introduced a new strike-based enforcement system for offensive player conduct. The platform holder has a range of enforcement actions that it can apply if players are found to have violatedMicrosoft’s services agreement orXbox’s community standards. Starting today, the new system will attach strikes to every enforcement, ranging in severity based on the inappropriate activity. For example, profanity or cheating will result in one strike, sexually inappropriate behaviour or harassment and bullying will result in two strikes, and hate speech will result in three strikes....

Game Pass Quests are coming to PC this week as part of an overhauled Xbox Rewards program. Rewards withXboxenables users to earn points by purchasing games, DLC and media content from theMicrosoftStore, which can then be redeemed for Xbox gift cards to spend on games and in-game content. Points can also be earned through gameplay, but starting today this feature will be restricted to adults. “This update aligns more closely with our continued commitment to foster positive, age-appropriate gaming experiences by making points earned through play activities available only to players 18 years and older,”the company said....

Infinity Nikki, the self-proclaimed ‘coziest open-world game’ helmed by a former Legend of Zelda designer, has announced a release date of December 5 on PC, iOS, Android, and PlayStation 5. Developed by Singapore-based Infold Games, Infinity Nikki sees players explore an Unreal Engine 5-powered world, performing activities such as fishing, pet grooming and fashion contests. Over 30 million players have pre-registered for the game, according to its developer. The game is being helmed by Kentaro Tominaga, who was previously sub-director for Zelda games The Wind Waker, A Link Between Worlds, and Twilight Princess....

The PlayStation 3 has received another system update, just a month before Sony was originally due to close down the PS3 digital store. System updateversion 4.88requires at least 200MB to install, but according toSony‘s patch notes it only “improves system performance”. It’s the 60th update the console has received since it launched in November 2006, though it should be noted that none of the updates have added anything of note for a number of years now....

The Epic Games store is giving away six free Batman games this week. The Batman Arkham Collection, which includes Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight, arefree to download for users, as well as Lego titles Lego Batman and its two sequels. Epichas also confirmed that the next free games on the store will be Metro 2033 Redux and Everything, which will be available from September 26. Epic originally launched a bi-monthly free game offer alongside itsPCstorefront in December 2018 but said in mid-May that it was increasing the frequency ofthe offer to one free game per weekuntil the end of 2019....