Weekend Highlights (January 25-26)

Xbox will continue to release its games on competitor platforms, Cooking Simulator and Underdose developers suffered a hacker attack, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth became the second most popular game in the series on Steam — here’s a recap of the major events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

• In 2024, Microsoft changed its policy regarding exclusives and began releasing its games on competitor platforms. During a recent interview with journalist Dustin Legarie, the head of the company's gaming division, Phil Spencer, confirmed that Xbox will continue this strategy. Specifically, Starfield will be released on other consoles later. "There are no reasons that would compel me to build a fence around any game and declare it won't be released where players expect it and where it will be commercially successful. […] Keeping games off other platforms is not our path, it doesn't work for us," said Spencer.
• Hackers infiltrated the internal network of Polish studio Big Cheese Studio, known for the cooking simulator Cooking Simulator. According to the hackers, they managed to steal game source codes and the personal data of players, employees, and investors of the studio. The perpetrators are now blackmailing the developers, threatening to leak everything online unless they receive 100,000 PLN (24,800 USD) in the coming days. In a comment to PAP Biznes, Big Cheese Studio representatives stated that they indeed faced a breach but managed to implement security measures. The developers added that the hackers actually failed to steal anything and only disrupted the studio's website operation. Big Cheese Studio is currently consulting with lawyers.
• The Tagansky District Court of Moscow ruled that the blockchain game Age of Mars illegally collects personal data of Russian users. As reported by TASS, which reviewed the court's verdict, the platform requests players’ names, surnames, patronymics, birth dates, and photographs but does not ask for consent to process personal information, violating Russian laws. Following the verdict, Roskomnadzor received grounds to include the game in the registry of personal data rights violators. However, at the time of writing, Age of Mars was not listed in the registry.
• On the evening of January 26, the number of concurrent players in the Steam version of Red Dead Redemption 2 reached 86,717 for the first time, according to SteamDB. The record was achieved amid a major discount — the game is currently 80% off its usual price. For comparison, the previous peak online for Red Dead Redemption 2 on Steam was 77,655, recorded in November 2023. Recall that the PC release of Red Dead Redemption 2 took place on December 5, 2019.
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth also achieved high online numbers on Steam. The game was released on PC last week, nearly a year after its debut on PlayStation 5, and quickly became popular. According to SteamDB, on the evening of January 26, its peak online on Steam reached 40,564 players. Among other parts of the series, only the multiplayer Final Fantasy XIV previously demonstrated higher online figures on the platform — 95,150 players.