Netflix will no longer publicly share its subscriber numbers, the streaming giant has announced, as it reaps the rewards of its recent password-sharing crackdown. In a business update, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said the move was due to the ongoing evolution of its business model to incorporate revenue from advertising and from subscribers who now have to pay extra to add-on access for friends and family outside their primary household. This meant that deriving Netflix's success purely from subscriber figures was now "historical" maths, Peters said. Read more ..read more

No Rest For the Wicked launched in early access yesterday, but has unfortunately hit a few bumps on its debut. The Diablo-like game from Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios currently holds a mixed review average on Steam, with the top comment stating that while there are definitely the bones of a good release here, its developer "still needs to cook". "I want to like this, but the performance is just not in a good enough place for me to recommend it right now," one player wrote, while another adds: "Wait till further development/release if you have any self control." Read more ..read more

The upcoming Donkey Kong Country-themed expansion to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan has been struck by a delay. The huge new area, themed around Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, will now be fully bolted-on to the existing Mushroom Kingdom park in "late 2024", Universal Studios said today. That's a delay of around six months, as the Donkey Kong area was previously set to open sometime this spring. Readjust your holiday plans appropriately! Read more ..read more

Hello! Our Game of the Week is Life Eater, and let's just look again at that opening sentence from Bertie's review: "Few game ideas will turn your head quicker than one about abducting people and murdering them." That feels fair! There are lots of games about murdering people, sure, but the rest of it? Bertie wasn't entirely convinced by Life Eater, I gather, but I think he remains pleased that it exists. And that brings me nicely to the topic of this week's column: I am incredibly glad that Life Eater's developer, Strange Scaffold, exists. And I'm going to try and explain why I feel that so ..read more

PlayStation maker Sony is considering a purchase of movie studio giant Paramount, according to reports. Both The New York Times and Bloomberg report that Sony is interested in an offer for Paramount, which itself owns MTV, CBS and Nickelodeon, and operates streaming service Paramount+. Sony, of course, already has its own vast film and television empire, and has bought other movie studios before - most notably Colombia Pictures, home to Spider-Man and Ghostbusters. It's interesting to look at Paramount's franchises in that light, and imagine how PlayStation could elevate one of those in a sim ..read more

While Manor Lords may at first glance seem similar to the Total War series, its developer has said the upcoming strategy game should not be seen as a competitor. Writing on Steam, Manor Lords developer Greg laid out a list of things the game is not. Top of this list are the very plain to see words: Manor Lords is not a Total War competitor. Rather, developer Slavic Magic said its upcoming game is a "city builder with battles". Read more ..read more

Bethesda has been making headlines left, right and centre for its video games recently. That's right, we simply can't stop talking about...Fallout! Yes, that series hasn't had a new release in many, many years, but thanks to Amazon's hit TV adaptation, has seen a renewed interest from fans. Starfield, however, has not had the same reception despite being a more recent release and one which Bethesda proclaimed would be its next big thing. But, don't worry. Among all the noise of us falling over Fallout, the studio has finally remembered its space-based RPG actually exists. Speaking to IGN, Tod ..read more

Visions of Mana, the next entry in Square Enix's Mana series, sadly won't have co-operative multiplayer. 1993's Secret of Mana was celebrated for allowing players to join forces against its hordes of squidgy, colourful enemies and many games in the series since have played similarly. Visions of Mana, though, will be single player only due to the impact multiplayer would have on design and pacing. Read more ..read more

Eiyuden Chronicle developer Rabbit & Bear Studios will continue working on a sequel following the death of its creator Yoshitaka Murayama. Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes is set for release next week across PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Switch, but in a reddit AMA the developer stated it was "moving forward with a sequel". "That is the aim we are working towards," it said in response to whether a sequel was on the way. "We hope many players support this game." Read more ..read more

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week: twin-stick shooters, caving, and ink. If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive. On a whim I did the Daily Challenge in Spelunky the other day. It has been years since this was a regular feature of my life. I had lots of Spelunky nerves, a reminder I hadn't played in a while: the toothy plants made me shiver, and a door in Jungle with spike traps on either side was enough to make me doub ..read more