Australian retailer EB Games will remove The Elder Scrolls Online from its bricks and mortar shelves on January 13, a Kotaku AU source claims. If the report is true then it serves as fresh evidence that Bethesda intends to scrap the MMO’s monthly subscription fees in favour of a free-to-play model.

Both boxed copies of the game, as well as pre-paid subscription cards, will reportedly be discontinued.

The development follows news late last year that players can no longer purchase six-month subscriptions to the MMO, which was met with mixed reviews when it launched last year. While a moderator on an official French TESO forum claimed the six-month blocks were discontinued due to lack of demand (ie, customers prefer to buy shorter blocks), evidence is certainly mounting that a change is imminent.

We will keep you upto date on this story, as we’ve not reviewed the game since release, however if Free to Play does happen, we’ll have another look at the game which we were underwhelmed by during the betas

After some of its users found that password-protected RAR archives located inside some of the game installers they used were making it difficult to impossible to install and play their games properly, GOG has announced that it will remove them.

The issue first surfaced in November of last year, although it picked up steam just last month as more users found they were having problems, most of those users of Linux-based operating systems. Seems that the tools used previously were no longer able to handle the archives and rightfully a few people were annoyed.

GOG explained that the passwords had been added to around 30 games with large install files as a method to prevent less tech-savvy users from breaking games by not installing them properly through the installer provided, but admitted that due to the feedback from the more advanced users they had just caused a whole new issue entirely.

“We’ve heard your concerns regarding this solution and we do agree it could have been better. Although the same could probably be said about many other answers to this problem, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to do better for our community,” the team wrote. “To that end we will be removing the mentioned archive protection from the select Windows installers that had it until a better solution, both technically and philosophically, is ready.”

They did warn however that because of their goal to offer hassle-free and user-friendly experiences for all the installers could not be guaranteed to stay the same and thus some incompatibility with unsupported third-party programs was to be expected, although it had not been their goal to purposefully break it this time.

Evolve has gone gold today, getting its certification. Not that this is any surprise given that we know it’s coming out this February, but it is important for one other reason and that reason is charity.

Back in January Turtle Rock announced that they were taking a “No Shave ‘Til Ship” pledge. Basically this meant that until the game passed its certification the bearded members of staff would not shave their beards and the other non-bearded staff wouldn’t be cutting their hair. For every inch of hair grown and cut at the end of the end of the time period, the studio would donate $50 to charity Child’s Play. The final total was 227.5 inches which meant a respectable $11,375 would be donated and with published 2K agreeing to match that donation a massive $22,750 has been donated to charity today as a result. Wow.

Turtle Rock are now turning their attention the the upcoming Open Beta, which is only open to Xbox One owners although there will be a small “closed technical test” for PC players from January 16th. Conditions to be included aren’t known but there’s been some rumours around that having been in the Alpha test will increase your chances of getting in.

Click to enlarge.

A couple of months back, HTC released the RE Camera – a portable, waterproof, accessorisable camera that you can connect wirelessly to an iOS or Android-powered smartphone for wide-angle photography and video without taking out your phone – and now, it’s good for live YouTube streaming too. As of tomorrow, the camera’s Android app will be updated to add a YouTube live broadcast feature; with a similar update for iOS users promised by the end of the quarter – given the portable nature of the RE Camera makes it easy to attach to the strap of a rucksack and the camera’s waterproof exterior, with this new update we may just see the RE Camera become a new favourite with the outdoor explorer types who like to live broadcast their adventures.

Its been a long road, but the 2015 Smite World Championships are finally upon us. January 9-11, eight teams from around the world will gather in Atlanta, GA to compete for over $2 million in prize money. This tournament is the culmination of the Smite Pro League competitions and wild card matches, leading up to this massive event. Theres a lot to take in this weekend, but fear not. We’ve got your one stop guide to the SWC right here! Read on for schedules, teams, brackets and more.

The Format

SWC will start with the Placement Stage on Friday, January 9th. Teams will face off in a Best of One format with the winners advancing on to the Semi-Finals. The losers of these matches will compete in wildcard matches, with the two winners advancing to the Quarter-Finals. The Quarter-Finals will be a Best of Three format, with the winners of the Wildcard facing the losers of the Round Three placement matches. Once these matches are decided the Best of Three Semi-Finals will narrow it down to the two teams that will compete in a Best of Five Grand Finals. The losers of the Semi Finals will compete in a Best of Three Consolation Match.

If this all sounds horribly complicated, check out the handy bracket below:

The Teams

Hailing from all across the world, the teams of the Smite World Championship are diverse and unique in terms of play style. They hail from North America, Europe, China, Latin America and Brazil.

North America

. 

Cognitive Red [COGR]:

DAGARZ- Jungle

SNOOPY- Hunter

EONIC- Support

DIVIOS- Solo

THEBOOSH- Mid

Cognitive Prime [COG]:

ANDISTER- Jungle

BARRACUUDDA- Hunter

JEFFHINDLA- Support

OMEGATRON- Solo

MLCST3ALTH- Mid

Europe

Titan [TITAN]:

REPITAS- Jungle

ATARAXIA-Hunter

KANYELIFE- Support

CONFREY- Solo

PRETTYPRIME- Mid

SK Gaming [SK]:

ZYHROES -Jungle

REALZX- Hunter

BADGAH- Support

MANIAKK- Solo

CAPTAINTWIG- Mid

China

Oh My God [OMG]:

NIFENG- Jungle

NEVER.ANS- Hunter

FIGHTINGJ- Support

ENJING- Solo

MINGZHIYU- Mid

Latin America & Brazil

Name Not Found [404]:

HUASO- Jungle

OXILEDEON- Hunter

ZETHSU- Support

BARBARROJA- Solo

NICERCHILE- Mid

We Love Bacon [WL8]:

NANN- Jungle

QE3Q- Hunter

FIREMANCERSKULL- Support

OREITROLL- Solo

AIMLESS- Mid

How Do I Watch?

If you don’t have a ticket to go see all the action in person, you can hop on over to www.twitch.tv/smitegame . The entire championship will be live streamed, and there are a few goodies for those of you that would like to buy the Digital Pass. Priced at $24.99 splurging on a digital pass will net you the 2015 Tyr Convention skin, the SWC Ares God Skin, the SWC Ward Skin, access to the subscriber only chat and exclusive Twitch chat emotes. If you don’t want to drop the cash, never fear, all the live content will still be available to you free of charge.

The complete live schedule can be found HERE.

Teams To Watch

Cognitive Red and Cognitive Prime were powerhouses of the Smite Pro League in 2014, and will almost certainly put on a show at SWC. Coming out of Europe SK Gaming will be a definite contender. The Chinese and Latin American teams are less of a known quantity, but my money is on OMG and We Love Bacon.

Coming off of the Cog Teams, be sure to keep an on Andister from Cog Prime and look for Snoopy to make big plays as the Hunter for Cog Red. In my opinion, SK is more of a team fight…team. Look for the rotations and group engagements as they attempt to press the map.  As for China and Latin America, I for one plan on just sitting back and learning about teams that I’ve seen relatively little of up until this point.

For everything SWC, stay in your comfy padded cell here on Sanitarium.fm