The Turtle Rock developers while making Evolve added in a special identifier for when they played in-game as the monster. The special Turtle Rock Gold Skin was added specially for members of the development team so they could identify each other and also as a way to feel good about what they’d developed.

This weekend however as thanks to the support the community has given the game so far, Turtle Rock are making that skin available for players to get. It’ll be totally free to get and requires only that you play a few rounds of Evolve between Thursday March 5th 9:00pm PT and Sunday March 8th 9:00pm PT, and you’ll receive the TRS Gold skins for Goliath, Kraken and Wraith for your account.

The skins won’t be received right away they say, but they aim to deliver them sometime after the weekend but before Sunday March 14th.

Turtle Rock also plan to issue challenges and events in future to allow players to earn more rewards in-game, although the only hints we have about any of them is that the next event coming up will be the “St. Patrick’s Day Trapper Challenge”.

Last week the world said goodbye to Spock as actor Leonard Nimoy passed away at 83. As a mark of respect the studio behind MMO Star Trek Online held a vigil for the deceased on the game’s planet Vulcan in which many players attended. Now there’s been more tributes added in game, not just for Nimoy but for other notable Star Trek related people who passed away before Nimoy.

Cryptic Studios have added not one but two statues to the game, the first on the fountain where the players gathered to pay their respects with the inscription of “Live long and prosper”, replacing the central structure that was already in place. A similar statue will also be added to New Romulus  with the inscription “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” to commemorate the character’s drive towards Vulcan and Romulan reunification in the series.

Black flags of mourning will also be hung in Earth Spacedock, Qo’noS and New Romulus so everyone passing through those hubs can mourn Nimoy’s passing.

Memorial plaques will be put into each location as well, bearing not just Nimoy’s name but those of the other Star Trek people who have passed away in years past. The memorial plaques can be interacted with and along with the names will show the dates of birth and passing, as well as a personal quote where possible. The names on each plaque will be Majel Barrett, James Doohan, DeForest Kelly, Leonard Nimoy and Gene Roddenberry.

Valve made a whole bunch of announcements at GDC in the last few days, showing off the Steam Link, finally announcing when they aim to get the long-awaited Steam Machines out on sale and revealing that a new version of their Source game engine, Source 2, was upcoming.

Now more details on Source 2 have been released into the public, and Valve say that while Source 2 will be free and no cut of the profits will be asked for there is one stipulation for its use – you must sell any game made using it on the Steam Store.

Valve’s Erik Johnson explained that they are making it a mandatory thing for Source 2-made games to appear on Steam, probably so that Valve will be able to see some revenue from their new game engine (anything sold on Steam has 30% of the revenue going to Valve).

Of course, this doesn’t mean that a game has to be exclusive to the Steam store. You’re allowed to sell it anywhere else or any way else; be it through other digital stores, platforms or in physical copy shape. It just has to be on Steam as well as those other places.

And given that Source is free, doesn’t take a profit cut and gives access to a lot of Steam’s in-built system such as the Steam Workshop; the making it necessary for a game to be released on their digital store really isn’t going to drive many game developers away from Valve’s new engine.

At GDC Microsoft took an angle with their presentation that puts focus back on gaming on PC and Xbox. To that end Microsoft are bringing two of their key console ventures to Windows 10.

The first is the ID@Xbox program, a way for independent game developers and studios to produce and self-publish their games for the Xbox consoles. Now Microsoft are expanding it across to PC to help the same developers bring their new games to PC easier than before.

The second is the Xbox Live SDK which is going to be updated to account for development on Windows 10, part of Microsoft’s recent push to make universal apps that work across Windows computer, consoles and smart devices.

This is on top of the fact that all Xbox accessories going forward will be made compatible with Windows 10 as well as a wireless adaptor for the Xbox One controller being released.

Well it was a fun 12 years, but it's time to turn off the lights and put the key under the door. #RIPMaxisEmeryville

— Guillaume Pierre (@MaxisGuillaume) March 4, 2015

With those 117 characters, SimCity lead gameplay scripter and designer Guillaume Pierre revealed the sad news that Electronic Arts has closed down SimCity studio Maxis Emeryville. After 12 long years, the company have apparently decided to close the studio in order to consolidate Maxis IPs into existing Maxis studios.

EA confirmed the closure and intentions with the following statement:

Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne locations as we close our Emeryville location. Maxis continues to support and develop new experiences for current Sims and SimCity players, while expanding our franchises to new platforms and developing new cross-platform IP.

 

These changes do not impact our plans for The Sims. Players will continue to see rich new experiences in The Sims 4, with our first expansion pack coming soon along with a full slate of additional updates and content in the pipeline.

Although Pierre had additionally tweeted “everyone’s out of a job” in reference to the studio’s employees, EA included a further paragraph in their statement in regards to the affected employees:

All employees impacted by the changes today will be given opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios and throughout EA. For those that are leaving the company, we are working to ensure the best possible transition with separation packages and career assistance.

At this time, it’s unknown how many employees will be affected by the closure.

Maxis was founded by Will Wright and Jeff Braun in 1987, and was acquired by EA in 1997. The studios are well-known for their town-building and life-sim franchises, SimCity and The Sims respectively; but following the adoption of a new engine in their latest title, Sims 4, causing a large loss of content from that found in previous games; and a disastrous attempt to revive the SimCity franchise in 2013 as an online game which was plagued by numerous technical and design flaws as well as server instabilities, Maxis’ future under EA has found itself on an unfortunate downward spiral.