In today's overkill digest newsletter, we look at Nintendo's ongoing efforts against piracy, Nvidia's new Steam Deck script, and more.
Hi, hello, and welcome to a new edition of the overkill digest newsletter.
I'm currently on vacation (off of my day job, but still at home — mostly catching up on One Piece, reading comics, and finally playing FFVII Rebirth), but since I probably can't send out another newsletter next week, I still wanted to at least send a short one today.
Also, here is one more teaser for the upcoming overkill redesign:
So, without further ado, let's get straight at it.
Big this week
Nintendo's Yuzu fight goes nuclear. It looks like Nintendo is still not done fighting Switch emulation. After going after Yuzu and (maybe) having their hands in the demise of Suyu, Nintendo has now forced GitHub to delete over 8.500(!) copies of Yuzu still available on the website.
If you are unfamiliar with how GitHub works: roughly explained, as long as a GitHub repo is public, other users can clone it – either to fork it and work on it themselves, or simply to have a copy of a repo in their own accounts. This way, whenever the original repo gets deleted, whoever has a copy, still has access to the code. And since these copies can be private, no one but the user who originally copied the repo sees it.
Well, the respective users and GitHub. This is how, with a single DMCA request, Nintendo was able to delete all 8,500 repos in one swoop. This also makes it much harder for other developers to use Yuzu as the basis for their own emulators, as Suyu did in the past.
So, right now, Ryujinx is still the way to go. (I hope no one at Nintendo reads this newsletter.)
In other news
- Nvidia released a script to install GeForce Now on Steam Deck. The script automatically installs Chrome, changes a few settings, and adds GFN as a shortcut to the Steam Library. While official support is admirable, the best way to access GeForce Now on Steam Deck is through this third-party app.
- Helldivers 2 forces PlayStation Network on Steam, gets review-bombed. When Helldivers 2 initially launched, users were required to link their game to the PlayStation Network to play. But this requirement has been dropped since the servers got hammered at launch. Until now, because starting tomorrow (May 6th), if Steam users want to continue playing the game on their PCs, they need to link Helldivers 2 with the PlayStation Network. And players are unhappy, review-bombing the game on Steam and amassing over 130.000 negative reviews! Sony’s reaction to all this? Delisting the game.
- Next Starfield Update brings an overhauled map. I don't know if this is too little too late, but the next update in preparation for the "Shattered Space expansion" brings an overhauled map, gameplay modifiers, interior decoration modes to ships, and more. I, for my part, am still waiting for proper mod support, as I expect that to be what the game needs to finally be good (I liked but didn't love the game). After my recent dive into Fallout 4, I'm back modding Skyrim with a huge collection downloading as we speak. Talking of Skyrim...
- We got the first Skywind progress update in three years. The Skywind project is a fanmade recreation of Morrowind in the Skyrim engine. It is a massive project that probably still needs years to finish. But from the update, we learned that significant parts of the 2D and 3D art are done, the level design is at 60%, and the main stopgap is still voice acting, with only 44 out of 300 planned voice actors working on the game. But casting is due to reopen this Summer, so if you want to be part of a game, head to the Skywind website.
- Proton 9.0-1 released, bringing support for many games. If you don't remember what Proton is, it's the magic sauce that makes Windows games run on Steam Deck/Linux.
- Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is 90% off. This deal is too good to pass, so if you want the first three remastered Mass Effect games, now is the time to buy them.
- All the news from Xbox's spring indie showcase. Still no Silksong news, but a major new update for Vampire Survivors and Palworld, more info on 33 Immortals, and more new games coming to Game Pass. We also got more news on another Xbox event happening on June 9th.
- A 3Ds emulator is coming to the iPhone. While I've never heard of Folium, I have to admit I very much like this new post-DMA future we're in. And iPad users will soon get in on the fun, too.
- Priest spent $40.000 on Candy Crush, using the church's credit card. Consider this your "WTF of the week".
Ok, that's all for today. And I thought this would be a short email...
For next week, I plan to finalise my review of the AYANEO Flip KB, write about a new product release, and tell you about this crazy project I'm working on called "SD DS".
Oh, and if you want more of my writing, I launched a personal newsletter called Into the Rabbit Hole. Expect, amongst other things, a lot of behind-the-scenes businessy stuff on overkill.
See you!
Kevin