'Counter-Strike 2' is back

The first big Counter-Strike 2 competition of the year has just gotten underway, with group stages starting on 22nd of Jan.

The competition will run until Sunday 28th, pitting the best teams in the world against each other. They’re each trying to get an illusive invite to the Spring Finals, as well as a share of the $190,000 prize pool. Day 1 had G2, Navi, Vitality and Astralis coming out on top.

Players and fans alike are keeping a close eye on these matchups to see who is in top form after a long winter break, especially with the Majors – 'Counter-Strike''s biggest competition – coming up in March.

More Layoffs

Today Riot Games have announced plans to lay off around 11% of their entire staff, or around 530 jobs. The move is intended to “create focus and move us toward a sustainable future.”, according to CEO Dylan Jadeja and co-founder Marc Merrill. Covid was a time of massive growth for gaming and tech companies, and seeing giants like Google continually adjusting staff levels through layoffs it’s not surprising that the same is happening to gaming companies.

Since Jan 2023, more than 10,000 staff at various gaming companies have been laid off, affecting people in Ubisoft, Sega, Telltale, EA, Activision/Blizzard and Epic.

Hopefully, the end of this post-COVID correction will come soon, and with it the stable environment developers need to get back to making great games.

GamerFest Discounts

GamerFest, Ireland's biggest gaming convention, has offered discounted tickets until Jan 31st to help fight off the January blues. Simply use promo code JANSALE15 at checkout to get 15% off of your purchase. Now running both summer and winter expos, GamerFest is the best place in Ireland to experience the latest and greatest in gaming, as well as meet thousands of other like-minded people.

Ubisoft doesn’t want you to own games

In a move that’s maybe not so surprising, considering Ubisoft’s leanings towards “live service” games, Director of Subscriptions Phillipe Tremblay has said that players need to get used to the idea of not owning games. This has been met with anger from many gamers, with some even promising to “put their pirate hat back on”. While we are almost past the age of physical media for games, the idea that we won’t own the item we’ve paid for isn’t sitting well with most. The industry has already seen a lot of backlash when older live service games are de-listed or servers are shut down, removing even the option for single-player gaming if they’re no longer supported.

Thankfully not all publishers and developers feel the same as Ubisoft, and maybe the backlash will encourage them to reconsider their path forward.