Seems that Hearthstone’s rather appealing and generous free-to-play setup wasn’t done by accident. It’s recently been revealed that the structure was planned out by Blizzard with the game’s long life in mind.

We’re here for the long run,” said producer Yong Woo. “We’re not here to make a quick buck. I want to be playing and working on Hearthstone 10 years from now… Instead of focusing on maximising immediate profit, Hearthstone is really about being able to play it how you want to.”

Production director Jason Chayes echoed the same ideals while elaborating “When Blizzard approaches a game it’s with the intention of making something that’s going to be around not for a month or two or a year or two but something that we’re really into for the long haul. A game that we plan to support for many many years to come, and that’s certainly the case with Hearthstone.”

Recently Blizzard also announced that they’d expansions planned for their other game World of Warcraft that would also hopefully carry the game forward until 2024.

Seems that Korea’s revision of their anti-gambling laws have smacked even the ‘casual’ games. A few days ago the country quietly blocked all microtransactions on games in Facebook, pending review by the country’s Game Rating and Administration Committee.

Under the new laws, any new games and existing unreviewed games will now need to pay to have their games reviewed, waiting up to 15 days for a decision. The law called the Game Industry Promotion Act states that games must be rated by a panel of nine experts, made up of professors, attorneys and industry watchdogs. Until then the games are available to be played by residents of the country, but all levels and unlockables must be earned through playing through the game; through ‘grinding’ basically.

The new law comes as part of a crackdown on social casino games by Korea, games that had previously escaped being covered by the laws covering gambling in the country.

It’s that time again, so let’s see what goodies Major Nelson has unleashed for us lucky XBox Live gold subscribers…

Xbox Live Games with Gold for September 2014

Coming up in September, Xbox Live Gold members can look forward to three new free games on Xbox One and Xbox 360. Super Time Force is coming to Games with Gold on Xbox One as a free download, replacing Strike Suit Zero (so grab it now if you haven’t already). Crimson Dragon will continue to be available for Xbox Live Gold members as a free download for Xbox One.

    

Then, on September 16th, Xbox Live Gold Members can download Halo: Reach (normally US $24.99) for free through September 30th.

    

*Titles are available as free downloads for qualifying Xbox Live Gold members in all markets where Xbox Live is available. Some regions may offer different titles depending on market availability.

Woah…   HALO Reach for free?    Well I know what I’m getting (and trading in my disc copy)

The PC port of GTA V was inevitable. All previous GTA games have found their way onto the platform, and I bet I’m not the only one considering checking it out when it does release. And Rockstar are making a lot of tweaks to be sure the game runs well for us.

There will be a lot of graphical tweaks, such as heavier traffic, thicker foliage and even some new animals dotted around to complement the mountain lions and sharks. What’s recently emerged though is that the radio stations of GTA V are also getting an update:

Back with @rockstargames to update my GTAV radio station Non Stop Pop FM for new versions coming this… http://t.co/ef2VSb0g9G

— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) August 29, 2014

The above tweet is from Cara Delevingne, a British model and host of Los Santos’ Non Stop Pop FM radio station in GTA V. It suggests that she’s been back in to record lines for the radio station for new versions which means that the sounds of the PC port will also sound hopefully as fresh as they could do and there may even be some new content to hear. It’s unknown if the other stations are also going to be updated but you’d have to assume that it’s a given they’d be polished too right?

Rockstar are also disputing rumours that have gone around recently about a change in the release date. As of speaking they’re still saying that the PC version will release during this year’s autumn window.

One of the announcements coming out of PAX this year has been that of an upcoming Super Meat Boy game, due to release next year. It’s surprising for two reasons, the first being that no one saw it coming and the second? Well Team Meat have said that the new game will capture the feeling of the original but without the use of “multiple buttons”.

Quite what this means isn’t yet clear, but given that the game will release on Steam and also mobiles and tablets it seems to suggest that the game will support touch controls upon release and that’s a bit confusing given that Super Meat Boy was all about timing and precision and such things are a lot harder to do with touch control.

Otherwise the game will feature randomly generated levels over six chapters, twice as many bosses as the original game and an ‘endless’ mode, whatever that entails. There’s no concrete release date, but they aim to have it out “sometimes next year”.