Two top executives at NetEase Games, the makers of a number of huge free-to-play and mobile titles like Marvel Rivals and the upcoming Destiny: Rising, were arrested this week in connection with allegations of bribery and corruption.
According to Bloomberg Law and Chinese outlet Leifeng (and spotted by Game Developer), two executives and seven other employees were reportedly taken into custody following an internal NetEase investigation. NetEase isn’t confirming any specifics as the investigation is still ongoing, but Leifeng noted that it concerns employees purchasing traffic.
Whatever the case may be, it involves a contract value that amounts to around 2 billion yuan (equal to approximately $278,506,000), and 27 other suppliers were involved. Yicai Global notes that the companies have been “blacklisted.”
Xiang Lang, the former esports chief, and Jin Yuchen, the former head of marketing, have both been implicated and are no longer with the company. There are varying reports on whether the other employees have also been affected.
For a long time, the China-based NetEase Games has partnered with various Western companies to make mobile and Chinese versions of larger titles. It previously had a long-running relationship with Blizzard Entertainment in making Diablo Immortal, along with Chinese versions of Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and other titles before the agreement expired in 2023 (although it that was renewed in April 2024). It’s also worked with Marvel Games, leading to the upcoming hero shooter Marvel Rivals, which will be out in December.
It also recently started expanding into the U.S. on its own, opening a studio in Austin, Texas, called T-Minus Zero Entertainment that employs Bethesda and BioWare veterans.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.