{"id":604209,"date":"2026-04-24T19:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T19:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/604209\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T19:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T19:35:07","slug":"madness-returns-dev-put-dildos-on-a-snail-to-shut-ea-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/604209\/","title":{"rendered":"Madness Returns Dev Put Dildos On A Snail To Shut EA Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

A retired PlayStation boss makes the case for PS5 games on PC. Atari expands its retro game emulation capabilities. And the \u201cefficiency\u201d purge at Meta continues. It\u2019s your Morning Checkpoint for April 24, 2026, where we can safely report that the next Halo game is not a pottery spin-off<\/a>. I can\u2019t tell you what might come out of this bouncing, talking Ditto\u2019s mouth,<\/a> but I can tell you it will be roughly $33 to find out.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest is underway this weekend in Anaheim, California. It\u2019s packed,<\/a> and former Kotaku writer Harper Jay MacIntyre<\/a> will be on the ground covering it for Kotaku\u00a0as Square Enix reveals the next expansion for its popular MMORPG: Evercold<\/a>. Too bad the new Square Enix cafe isn\u2019t opening up in nearby Los Angeles for another couple of months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A piece of Alice: Madness Returns trivia you probably haven\u2019t heard before <\/p>\n

Former id Software designer American McGee recently shared some fresh nuggets about the development of 2011\u2019s Alice: Madness Returns, which was published by Electronic Arts. \u201cIt would be fair to say that there was a fairly big disconnect between the game I wanted to make and the game EA Marketing wanted me to make when we were developing Madness Returns,\u201d McGee wrote in a new thread about the game.<\/p>\n

It would be fair to say that there was a fairly big disconnect between the game I wanted to make and the game EA Marketing wanted me to make when we were developing Madness Returns.<\/p>\n

The marketing team felt strongly that a Hard M title focused on gore, horror, and featuring a\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/HddXtHuWXz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 \ud83d\udd2a American McGee \ud83d\udda4 (@americanmcgee) April 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe marketing team felt strongly that a Hard M title focused on gore, horror, and featuring a \u2018psychotic\u2019 Alice was what audiences would respond to best,\u201d he continued. \u201cI did NOT want portray Alice as a psycho, cover her in blood, or \u2018make things more sexy\u2019 (yes, that was a request). Famously, I pasted dildos onto the head of a giant snail in response to the \u2018sexy\u2019 request and emailed that to the Marketing team. They stopped making those requests.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGee added that his ability to retain creative control came from unusual financial terms that revolved around bank loans and Hollywood-style movie production arrangements. Of course, when development was wrapping and the team needed more time, EA responded with similar \u201cgfy\u201d energy.<\/p>\n

Resident Evil Requiem sells 7 million copies <\/p>\n

That makes it the fastest-selling entry in the survival horror franchise\u2019s history. Not entirely surprising considering it\u2019s the first entry in years to have a simultaneous release on a Nintendo console. Game director Koshi Nakanishi shared the good news<\/a> on his Instagram (via\u00a0Twisted Voxel<\/a>). There was a multi-tiered cake and everything. Even Geoff Keighley apparently came into town<\/a> for the party.<\/p>\n

Retired PlayStation veteran makes the case for PS5 games on PC <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was working on the game development side, first-party at PlayStation, from a strategy standpoint, we [were] not allowed to bring our triple-A games to other platforms like PC,\u201d Shuhei Yoshida said during his recent Alt. Games Festival speech in Australia<\/a> (via Respawn First<\/a>). \u201cAs the game development scale and investment became larger and larger, it makes sense for me that in [the] PS5 generation they started to move their big games to PC.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cReleasing games on PC after a couple of years must have helped recoup the investment of these big budget games and help the team and company to reinvest that money into their new games\u2026[I\u2019m] not seeing any proof of them changing the strategy this generation, [but] it\u2019s going to be interesting to [see] how [Sony is] able to maintain the investment on the big-budget games on [the] first-party side going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The secret to success on Steam? Make good games <\/p>\n

Valve product and UI designer Alden Kroll revealed that startlingly obvious piece of advice only half-jokingly on a recent podcast<\/a>. \u201cCertainly, people explore Steam and discover games that way,\u201d he said (via Gamesradar<\/a>). \u201cBut also, people learn about games all over the internet. So it\u2019s useful to think about how you can reach and engage players in places around the internet where they might be discussing or learning about the kind of games that you make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kroll explained that Valve tries \u201cvery hard\u201d to not let Steam be easily gamed by various marketing strategies. Instead of there being a secret to gaining visibility in the PC gaming storefront\u2019s vast seas of new releases, he argued developers \u201cshould make a good game and probably get word out so that the day you launch in Next Fest is not the first time anybody has ever heard about your game.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s finally Nintendo music on Spotify, for now <\/p>\n

The Super Mario Galaxy\u00a0and\u00a0Super Mario Galaxy 2 soundtracks have arrived on the streaming platform in a first for Nintendo\u2019s vast back catalog of classic video game music. \u201cThe magic isn\u2019t limited to the music, however,\u201d reads the press release<\/a>. \u201cAs the songs play, the beloved character Luma will appear directly on the playback bar within the Spotify app for Premium subscribers. It\u2019s a delightful detail designed to deepen the connection between fans and the Super Mario universe.\u201d The playlists are tied to the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.\u00a0and seemingly won\u2019t hang around forever.<\/p>\n

The new Toei Games reveals its first three projects <\/p>\n

The Japanese entertainment giant revealed its new gaming division earlier this week, and now it\u2019s ready to reveal which three projects it will be publishing first. KILLA<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Black Tangerine is a 3D murder mystery story with some Persona-style animations,\u00a0HINO<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0UnGloomStudio is a 2D dark fantasy game in the style of an Edward Gorey print, and\u00a0DEBUG NEPHEMEE<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Nephemee Studio is a top-down old-school adventure with a retro chiptune soundtrack.<\/p>\n

Atari gets into the PS1 emulation game <\/p>\n

The revived retro gaming company has added 32-bit games to its repertoire with the recent acquisition of \u00a0Implicit Conversions, GamesBeat reports<\/a>. Atari has quietly become a big deal when it comes to resurrecting classic games. \u201cAlongside the Bakesale Engine (Digital Eclipse) and the Kex Engine (Nightdive), we now have an enviable suite of proprietary tools, and more engineering talent that will enable us to continue to expand our capabilities across our own catalog as well as the back catalogs of our IP partners,\u201d Atari CEO Wade Rosen said.<\/p>\n

Meta purges another 8,000 employees from its payroll as it pivots to sunglasses and AI <\/p>\n

That\u2019s 10 percent of the social media company\u2019s workforce. The latest round of mass layoffs<\/a> comes as Mark Zuckerberg races to catch up on AI after burning billions on virtual reality efforts that delivered some cool tech and good games, but no new platform shift.<\/p>\n

ICYMI: Watch this:
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