REDMOND, Wash. — Jeffrey Steitzer, voice of the Halo multiplayer announcer, has been fired from Halo Studios following offensive comments made in the aftermath of seven player deaths.

“Seven people died today in a matter of 30 seconds. The general public may not realize just how devastating of a kill count this is. The Red Team only has four players on it. That means three of them came back to life only to be killed by the shooter a second time,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “And as it’s all happening, this Halo announcer is shouting ‘Triple Kill! Overkill!’ — making a mockery of their unlimited lives. It’s a tragedy. Red Team, I’ll see you in Valhalla. Or maybe Blood Gulch or Ragnarok depending on which Halo we’re playing.”

Many folks have taken to social media explicitly calling for the firing of those like the Halo announcer celebrating violence.

“Disgusting behavior coming from the Halo announcer celebrating this political violence. Shouting “Killimanjaro” for everyone to hear, are you kidding me?” said Laura Loomer in Twitter post. “My heart goes out to the Red Team. Those were good, conservative, Christian Spartans under that red armor. Sure they may just be be pixels on a screen, but they didn’t deserve this. They were champions of free speech, which is why I’m calling for the immediate removal of this lunatic @Microsoft @Xbox @Halo @Reggie.”

Halo Studios alongside parent company Microsoft released a statement concerning Steitzer’s employment status.

“We strongly object to the recent comments made by Mr. Steitzer celebrating these on-screen deaths,” a Halo Studios spokesperson said. “His words are inexcusable and we’ve made the decision to retroactively remove Mr. Steitzer’s voice lines from all Halo games. Multiplayer games will continue for now without announcements, but we are fast tracking new audio recordings with Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld to be implemented shortly.”

At press time, the FBI released a statement confirming the announcer to have been inspired by “black ideology” upon discovering Kilimanjaro is the name of a mountain in Africa.

The post Halo Announcer Fired After Celebrating Killimanjaro appeared first on Palette Swap.

Square Enix recently released the first part of an interview with Ayako Yokoyama, co-director of the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles. Yokoyama’s entry into Square Enix came not through game development, but through PlayOnline, the company’s early internet service. Her background in HTML and web design gradually transitioned into support roles on [...]

Not saying they're perfect, but they're certainly worth looking at

The post ‘Kei’ And ‘Midi’ Are Much More Interesting Video Game Definitions Than ‘Indie’ Or ‘AA’ appeared first on Aftermath.

After 3.5 years of work, the long-awaited English translation of Illusion City for the MSX Turbo-R is finally here!

Originally released by Microcabin in 1991, Illusion City is a legendary cyberpunk RPG known for its dark atmosphere, cinematic storytelling, and advanced use of Turbo-R hardware. Now, for the first time, the full game can be experienced in English on its original platform.

Highlights of this release:

Complete English translation of the intro, end demo, and 150 in-game scripts.

• Faithful adaptation of the original text, retaining the gritty cyberpunk tone.

• Hundreds of fixes and improvements applied throughout the game.

• Includes both disk and ROM options:

- The original disk version is fully supported.

- A custom patch tool has been created to convert the game from disk format into a single ROM, allowing it to run fast and smooth — with no loading delays.

Please read the included text file for detailed patch information, credits, and usage notes.

Step into the neon-lit streets of Hong Kong, uncover the mysteries, and experience one of the most ambitious RPGs ever made for the MSX — now fully translated into English!

...

PORTLAND, Maine — Taylor and Shannon Zimmerman became first-time parents this week, welcoming their new son, Chat Zimmerman, named after the father’s Twitch chat.

“Chat has always had my back, man,” told Taylor Zimmerman in a Facebook post. “Who’s always been there to clip that when I need something clipped? Chat. Who’s always confirmed whether or not something is real when I ask, ‘Chat is this real?‘ Chat has, that’s who. I had to honor how poggers they mean to me by bestowing my firstborn with the their name.”

The Zimmerman extended family was delighted to welcome in a new member.

“This isn’t the first time this has happened,” said Taylor’s sister Cecily Zimmerman. “At his and Shannon’s wedding, he had named his chat the best man. For the speech, they just had the DJ read incoming Twitch messages off his laptop for 15 minutes. All and all, it was more moving than you’d think. Chat really has been part of this family, and now we have two Chats.”

Chat’s mom Shannon Zimmerman had more to add regarding her son’s name.

I was really against the name ‘Chat’ at first. I even tried to find a middle ground by suggesting ‘Chet’ or ‘Chad’, but my husband wouldn’t budge,” said Shannon Zimmerman. “At the end of the day, Gift Subs put a roof above our head. We owe Chat our livelihoods. The baby registry is still up by the way. If you’d like to contribute, just type ‘!registry’ in the chat and Nightbot will drop the link.”

At press time, a VoD of Chat’s birth could be found on the Zimmerman family YouTube page.

The post Twitch Streamer Names Newborn ‘Chat’ appeared first on Palette Swap.

REDMOND, Wash. — The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently granted Nintendo and The Pokémon Company a patent that states any game running at 12 frames per second is a direct infringement of their copyright.

“This is absurd,” read a post from Agumon89 on X, formerly Twitter. “Most of the games still running on Switch 1 are going to receive legal penalties because of this—even games that Nintendo themselves have made! I mean, have you gone back and tried to play Echoes of Wisdom on base hardware lately? Eiji Aonuma better lawyer up while he can.”

Doug Bowser, president of Nintendo of America, clarified the decision.

“It’s important that we maintain a strong sense of brand identity,” explained Bowser. “Choppy frame rates, inconsistent loading times, and a general sense of being slapped together at the last minute are what diehard fans of Pokémon have come to expect from the franchise in recent years. If we have someone waltzing in on our territory, doing what we do best, it might start to make these games look better by comparison. And that’s just going to confuse a whole lot of people.”

Pocketpair, the developers of Pokémon competitor Palworld, shared their thoughts on the news.

“Well at least I think we’re in the clear now,” said Takuro Mizobe, founder of Pocketpair. “We were able to release the game in a state that’s relatively finished, and it’s able to sustainably hit 60 frames per second, thank god. Now, if Nintendo receives a patent on the use of copy-pasting generative AI models, then we may really be in a pickle.”

At press time, Nintendo filed another controversial patent covering “electronic games in which players manipulate images on a video screen.”

The post Nintendo and The Pokémon Company Receive Patent on Running Games at 12 FPS appeared first on Palette Swap.