A study from 2012 that suggested that violent video games, especially those involving a lot of gunplay, could improve a player’s marksmanship skills and even led to them being more likely to then use guns in real life has been retracted by its publisher Communications Research. The posted notice on this retraction states that a committee at Ohio University recommended the retraction of the study after they were “alerted to irregularities in some variables of the data”.

Published 4-5 years ago, the study ‘Boom Headshot’ written by Brad Bushman makes the claims that people who regularly play shooting games extensively become better at gun shooting in real life, as well as more prone to violent acts. The implications of this are pretty obvious, it’s only what a lot of mainstream media outlets have trotted out over the years – video games are the cause of several big shootings and should be banned. However, Dr. Patrick Markey contributed the other side of the argument to the same study, disputing the video games make murderers of gamers and was part of the reason why the study came under investigation in the first place, along with fellow researched Malte Elson.

Speaking on its retraction Bushman is quoted as saying “A Committee of Initial Inquiry at Ohio State University recommended retracting this article after being alerted to irregularities in some variables of the data set by Drs. Markey and Elson in January 2015. Unfortunately, the values of the questioned variables could not be confirmed because the original research records were unavailable. In 2016, Drs. Markey and Elson sent their report to Dr. Gibbs, one of the editors of Communication Research, who decided that a retraction was warranted. A replication of the study by Dr. Bushman is in review” but also called the move to retract the study as a ‘smear campaign’.

If you want to read more on this, check out the page on the retraction over on the Retraction Watch website.

In a blog post that detailed the move, Slick Entertainment who are responsible for recently released co-op brawler game Viking Squad have revealed that the studio has been bought and made a part of Klei Entertainment, best known for their Don’t Starve game as well as all its associated bits and pieces.

In the post Slick founder and programmer Nick Waanders said that it would allow the three-person team moving across to focus on the fun part of the development, “making the games”. It’s worth noting that Waanders and the founder of Klei Jamie Cheng once worked together at Relic Entertainment so it’s not as if Slick are going into a workspace with people they’re not familiar with. They’ve even worked together since forming their own studios on a number of projects over the years.

The purchase means that the three people at Slick will now be working on Klei’s games, but also will develop the Slick existing properties with Klei, who has bought the rights to them along with the studio.

“I’d like to thank all of you for the decade of support,” Waanders wrote to his studio’s fans. “It’s been an amazing journey and we couldn’t have done it without you!”

Obviously we can’t say that the move will work out for certain, but given the shared past between the founders and their past co-operative work, things look good.

After a period in beta, the update that allows for Steam’s controller mapping features are now live for all in the latest client update.

This means that a great number of controllers for consoles now work with the ‘advanced mapping features’ that are a part of the Steam Controller Configurator, without the need for third-party programs to bridge the gap. This includes a number of third-party controllers for the PS4, although not all of them. It’s likely that if you have official controllers they’ll work perfectly fine with no issues from now on.

Here are the controller patch notes:

• Added XBox 360, Xbox One, and Generic X-Input controller configurator support. This allows all recognized controller types to use the advanced mapping features of the Steam Controller Configurator. Note that because X-Input currently lacks per-controller means of unique identification, all controllers of that type will share personalization and configuration settings. As they share the same inputs, Xbox 360/One/Generic controllers will all see each-others configurations when browsing. Automatic conversion will be attempted when loading configurations from other controller types.
• Unrecognized Generic X-Input gamepad style controllers will be recognized by the Steam Controller Configurator once their buttons have been assigned to match a generic gamepad layout.
• Recommended configurations specified for a game by the developer will now attempt to assign based on Controller Type.
• Added option to disable Guide Button issuing a Steam focus change. This is available through the Big Picture controller options menu. This allows better interoperability with other applications which use the Guide Button, such as PSNow.
• Added Single Button simple button mode for trackpads. This allows a trackpad to be treated as a single giant button.
• Fix for free-floating on-screen keyboard running very slowly if a game was open but did not have focus or was running windowed.
• Added independent horizontal/vertical scaling to joystick move and joystick mouse.
• Joystick Move mode no longer shows mouse sensitivity option unless mouse output is selected.
• Added additional support for third-party PS4 controllers, including some HORI, MadCatz, and Armor pads and fight sticks.
• Fixed a bug with PS4 triggers where they were being scaled incorrectly, leading to maxing out of the value too soon.
• Added ability to change X-input controller order from the Controller Options menu – so in multi-controller setups of X-input games, the mapping of physical controller to X-input index can be swapped around. Note that this currently only applies to controllers that have opted into Steam Controller Configurator support.
• Fixed Configurator Switch Controller interface not showing controller icons.
• Re-enabled Gamepad outputs for desktop configurations for users of third party programs which hook into applications via the desktop configuration.
• Added Xbox Controller Rumble Support
• Added ‘Turn Off Controller’ Support for PS4 Bluetooth and Wireless Receiver
• Added Open Big Picture controller action binding.
• Fixed a bug where Steam Chords wouldn’t work reliably when multiple controllers were connected and disconnected in a single session.
• Fixed volume being muted when connecting a Sony Wireless Receiver in Windows
• Fixed analog stick on-screen-keyboard interactions not working inside of Big Picture
• Fixed Guide Button not switching into Big Picture when Steam has focus but Guide Button Focus option has been disabled.
• Add support for Emio PS4 “Elite” controller