video games
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Source: Anadolu / Getty / Xbox
Xbox has been in the news A LOT as of late, primarily due to fanboys losing their sh*t about the company’s new direction, but this latest development is something many gamers are on board for.
Spotted on VG247, the Microsoft gaming division is reportedly looking to make a big splash in the handheld gaming department after seeing Sony’s surprising success with its cloud-based/remote-play PS5 companion device, the PlayStation Portal.
On a recent episode of the Xbox Two podcast, Windows Central managing editor Jez Corden claims the Microsoft gaming company already has working prototypes.
Per VG247:
Speaking on the Xbox Two podcast, Jez Corden said that he knows that “[Xbox] have got handheld prototypes right now.” He clarified that they are “new prototypes” and not old ones that were supposedly previously in the works, and he also made sure to point out that it’s “not a cloud handheld” it’s “a fully native Xbox handheld.” This was pointed out on the podcast too, but it should be noted that just because Xbox is working on a handheld prototype, if it is, that doesn’t mean it will ever actually release. Projects like these are cancelled all the time, so don’t go writing any comments complaining it never came out when it was never guaranteed in the first place.
A “Fully Native” Handheld Sounds Clutch
This news isn’t all that surprising because Xbox is pushing the plan to make Xbox Game Pass available on devices other than Xbox Series X, S, or PC.
You can now run the subscription gaming platform on handhelds like Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, Logitech G Cloud, the Lenovo-Legion Go, or your smartphones via a cloud gaming app still in beta.
However, a dedicated device would be a clutch, especially if paired with an Xbox Game Pass.
Gamers are reacting positively to the rumor of a “fully native” handheld console.
“I want a Xbox Handheld – its time As much as I like my ROG Ally, portable hardware that plays all my Xbox games with a simplified UI and not having to worry about system settings with improved battery life In other words a pick up and play experience,” Kinda Funny (XCast) and Gamertag Radio host Parris Lilly wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
1. From your lips to God’s ears.
2. We hear you Parris
3. It would be nice
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Source: Activision / Activision
Activision just dropped Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile and one of the millions of people who downloaded the app and gave it a spin was Memphis rapper NLE Choppa. The “Shotta Flow” rapper has been occupied with the whole rap star thing, so he now considers himself a former gamer.
Source: Activision / Activision
“I don’t have too much time for it now,” Choppa, who participated in Thursday’s (March 21) Warzone Mobile Streamathon, told Hip-Hop Wired. “Once upon a time I was deep. I still do it in my free time, though. I was like 2K, [Grand Theft Auto], Call of Duty, all of those different games.”
Apparently, becoming a star rapper takes up a lot of time (a record deal with Warner Bros., two hit albums and touring will do that) so his hours spent on the sticks had to suffer.
Nevertheless, Choppa stays in tune with CoD (“Every new Call Of Duty I’m copping.”), and he gave Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile a thumbs up even though it seems he’s better on a PS5. “I was just playing it in my green room it’s actually kind of cool with the joystick thing connected to the phone. I don’t know if I’m as sharp with the tapping it on the screen, but the joystick, I could be able to work that for sure.”
Back to the music for a second, he just dropped a song called “AMF” with Flau’jae, the female rapper who happens to currently be a star guard on LSU’s women’s basketball team. “It came together with her, her mom, my mom, and me. Just respecting the relationship they have as a daughter and a mom-a-ger standpoint and it’s the same thing with my mom and my /manager,” said Choppa. “We connected that way and just always supported Flau’jae from basketball and we got the track in.”
Speaking of Flau’jae dropped 14 in LSU’s win over Rice.
Choppa also says he’s seriously retiring his “Shotta Flow,” with the last, “Shotta Flow 7” having been released in February. He’s starting another series but for the sake of Activision, we won’t mention the somewhat NSFW title here. But back to Call Of Duty: Warzone Mobile and gaming in general, he’ll always find time for a good reason.
“Really it’s just a break from the world,” explains Choppa of why plays video games. “It’s just a break from who I am. To just be able to live that inner child feeling again, just to be able to play games is the goal for me, just to feel like a kid.”
Sounds like a plan. Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is available right now on iOS and Android mobile devices.
Source: Activision / Activision
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Source: Lightspeed Studios / Undawn / Will Smith
Even Will Smith wasn’t enough to prevent this video game from flopping like his film Wild Wild West.
Undawn, the zombie survival game featuring Will Smith, bombed epically, according to a report from Reuters. The website reported that the game was a “key” in-house project at Tencent and “flopped spectacularly” even with Smith’s involvement and the game’s closet to 1 billion yuan (around $140 million).
We first reported on the game’s existence in May 2023. Before its June launch, 2.3 million people pre-registered to play it. That didn’t matter, as the game didn’t meet expectations.
In the game, which eerily resembles Smith’s film I Am Legend, the actor plays Trey Jones and serves as your guide in the game.
It was billed as a free-to-play mobile and PC game, as well as these other features:
Base construction and survival mechanics
An expansive open-world
Vehicular combat
Customization elements
PvPvE platform
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Per Reuters, through research firm Appmagic reporting, Undawn only brought in $287,000. The game’s poor performance resulted in Tencent shifting strategy in its mobile division, canceling a mobile game based on Square Enix’s Nier franchise and delaying the Assassin’s Creed: Jade mobile game.
News of the game’s flopping has taken many by surprise, with many people saying they didn’t even know it existed.
One person on X, formerly Twitter, wrote, “…there was a Will Smith-fronted zombie survival game called Undawn?”
“I’m not shocked as someone who’s only just hearing about The Will Smith-fronted zombie survival game Undawn,” another X user wrote.
Well, we knew. We just thought people didn’t care.
In the gallery below, you can see more reactions to Will Smith’s game, Undawn, flopping.
3. Apparently you and everyone else
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Although there hasn’t been a Princess Peach game since Super Princess Peach for the portable Nintendo DS in 2005, the gaming company is bringing her back to the spotlight to lead her own game.
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Out now with a retail price of $59.99 at Amazon, Princess Peach: Showtime! for the Nintendo Switch is a new adventure at the Sparkle Theater with Princess Peach and her group of Toads. With the help from the fairy Stella, Peach must save the theater with new abilities and costumes after the Grape and the Sour Bunch attack the venue.
And if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can order now and get your game delivered to your home in less than two days thanks to Prime Delivery.
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Not a member? Sign up for a 30-day free trial to take advantage of all that Amazon Prime has to offer, including access to Prime Video and Prime Gaming; fast free shipping in less than two days; in-store discounts at Whole Foods Market, access to exclusive shopping events — such as Prime Day and Black Friday — and more.
In addition, Princess Peach: Showtime! is available at Walmart, Best Buy and Target.
Princess Peach: Showtime!
As far as gameplay, you play as Princess Peach to clear levels and courses with special abilities and new outfits and attacks, including Swordfighter Peach, Detective Peach, Patissier Peach, Kung Fu Peach, Ninja Peach, Cowgirl Peach and other costumes.
After the success of last year’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it seems that Nintendo is leaning into Princess Peach’s (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy) popularity with this new game. In fact, her facial expressions in the new game were changed to closely resemble the character in the smash hit animated movie.
Priced at $59.99 at Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Target, Princess Peach: Showtime! is out now. In the meantime, watch the overview trailer for the game, below:
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Want more deals? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
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Source: Marvel / Skydance / 1943: Rise of Hydra
Marvel video game fans, we might have a banger! The first trailer for the Black Panther and Captain America game, now titled 1943: Rise of Hydra, is here and looks absolutely amazing.
We didn’t see what the Amy Hennig-led game looked like until now, as it was first unveiled during the Disney and Marvel Games Showcase during the D23 Convention in 2022 that was until now.
During the State of Unreal keynote, Marvel and Skydance New Media delivered an epic story trailer showcasing the power of Unreal Engine 5, and it’s f***ing awesome.
Per Kotaku via Marvel, the game’s narrative reads as follows:
As the game’s narrative unfolds, players will assume the role of four central characters: a young Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America; Azzuri, T’Challa’s grandfather and the WWII-era Black Panther; Gabriel Jones, a US soldier and member of the Howling Commandos; and Nanali, a Wakandan spy embedded in Occupied Paris.
In the gorgeous cinematic trailer for 1943: Rise of Hydra, we follow both Captain America and Black Panther as they take down Nazis in Paris. At the same time, Captain America is hunting Black Panther, and the two heroes eventually bump heads on a bridge, but we all know they will eventually team up at some point in the game.
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We have no idea how this game will play, but the trailer has already hooked us.
Gamers Are H Y P E D
Gamers on X, formerly Twitter, have been sharing their reactions, specifically showing love to actor Khary Payton (The Walking Dead), who plays T’Challa’s grandfather Azuri, who carries the Black Panther mantle in the game.
We also have to salute the fact that we have not one, not two, but three lead Black protagonists in a AAA video game.
What a time to be alive.
Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra will be released in 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Sorry, Nintendo Switch owners, you cannot take this ride.
You can see more reactions to the game in the gallery below.
2. SAY LESS!
3. We do too.
4. Yes, yes it is.
5. Video games have come a loooooonnnnnngggggg way.
6. He’s incredible
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Sony / PS5 Pro
The video game section of the internet was talking after specs for the PS5 Pro were “leaked” and then confirmed to be true. Sony is reportedly putting on its detective hat to find out who did it.
According to Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson, Sony is reportedly launching an internal investigation to determine how leaked documents about “Project Trinity,” aka the PS5 Pro, hit the internet.
The leak occurred over the weekend during a third-party developer rollout. It could lead to more security measures being implemented for additional third-party developer Push Square reports.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Henderson wrote:
As expected, Sony has launched an internal investigation into the leaked documents on Trinity as it leaked during a third-party rollout.
Not sure on the implications yet as I don’t think they can catch one individual, but Sony could reduce its third-party developer pool for new tech as a result.
According to the leaked documents shared by YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead over the weekend, the PS5 Pro boasts some impressive specs that could put it on par with powerful gaming PCs. Some say that on paper, it sounds like the PS5 6.
It could also set Sony up to push out more consoles when Grand Theft Auto 6 finally arrives.
The PS5 Pro Specs:
Rendering 45% faster than PS5
2-3x Ray-tracing (x4 in some cases)
33.5 Teraflops
PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling) upscaling/antialiasing solution
Support for resolutions up to 8K is planned for future SDK version
Custom machine learning architecture
AI Accelerator, supporting 300 TOPS of 8-bit computation / 67 TFLOPS of 16-bit floating point
We will continue to monitor this situation as it develops.
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / PlayStation VR2
According to reports, the PlayStation VR2 is looking like a flop.
Spotted on IGN via Bloomberg’s reporting, Sony has hit the pause button on the production of the PlayStation VR2 headsets.
The website claims the tech giant is trying to clear the backlog of unsold units, signaling what many have been saying about the PSVR2: it’s a flop.
Per IGN:
Bloomberg reported sales of the $550 virtual reality headset have “slowed progressively” since its launch in February 2023, causing a buildup of stock. According to the site, Sony produced “well over” two million PSVR2 units.
The relative success of the PSVR2 was called into question earlier this year when Sony announced a number of upcoming games for the device, none of which were from its first-party studios. Then, as part of a wave of devastating layoffs affecting 900 staff, Sony’s VR-focused London studio was earmarked for closure.
According to Sony, the PSVR2 sold nearly 600,000 units six weeks after its launch, and according to analysts, just over one million units in its first year.
Giving the impression that PlayStation VR2 did not sell well over the holiday season, SIE’s head of global business, Eric Lempel, told The Financial Times that the peripheral was a “bit of a challenging category right now,’ adding he believed “there was a higher expectation generally for what VR would do to gaming.”
Welp.
Meta Is Killing The VR Game
Sales of the PSVR2 were well behind Meta’s Quest 2 and 3 headsets during the holiday season.
The PlayStation VR2’s future is uncertain, but maybe its reported compatibility with PCs, a feature that Sony is currently testing, will help get it in the heads of more gamers.
Until then, the gallery below shows more reactions to the unsurprising news that PSVR2 is not selling well.
1. Fair point
2. More excellent points
3. Sounds about right
5. Sony listen to Nicholas
10. Do they?
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Source: Konami / WayForward / Contra: Operation Galuga
During my young gaming years, Contra on the NES was one of those games that had me and other gamers screaming at their televisions. The franchise is back, and WayForward and Konami put a fresh spin on the game, giving folks like myself a different take on the beloved classic and the opportunity to finally conquer this digital demon.
Forget Contra: Rogue Corps; that game didn’t happen. WayForward got that bad taste out of our mouths with a remix of the original NES classic Contra, with Operation Galuga, a proper love letter to the 1988 game that many still have not beat unless you used the cheat code.
Contra Operation Galuga doesn’t just reinvent the wheel. It brings back all of the nostalgia and feel of the original brutally hard run-and-gun shooter, but this time, it makes it more tolerable. Don’t worry, purists; the challenge is still there.
The main game, which you can beat in hours, features eight chapters and tries to deliver a remix of the 88 game’s original story. But when did people ever play this game for its narrative? The answer is never.
Like the original, you take on the roles of elite Contra commandos Bill Rizer and Lance Bean. They now get some help from other playable warriors to take on the Red Falcon army, which is after a mysterious otherworldly power on the island of Galuga to push their agenda of world domination.
Like a great B-action movie, the game’s plot won’t blow you away. The voice acting is fine, and the cut scenes are gorgeous, but in the end, this ride is all about the action—or, in this sense, the gameplay.
Operation Galuga Adds New Features & Stays Faithful To The Orignal Contra
Source: Konami / WayForward / Contra: Operation Galuga
Contra: Operation Galuga isn’t just the 1988 game with a fresh coat of paint on it. Yes, WayForward did a fantastic job with Operation Galuga, reimagining the original game while paying homage to those games before it.
As soon as the first level begins, you are taken back to those NES days because the jungle location is very familiar. Other areas, like the waterfall and inside the giant alien (if you made it that far), will tug on your nostalgia pearls.
The enemies, who are not the most innovative AI-controlled bots in the world, still pose a challenge even though they carry out simple commands and come at you from all angles, forcing you to take out challenges quickly.
Those “floating footballs” filled with your favorite weapon power-ups like the spread shot, flamethrower, homing rockets, laser, grenade launcher, or machine gun return. You will find yourself landing on a favorite; for me, it was the homing rockets and spread gun.
What’s new with the weapons is that if you collect two of the same type, they become even more powerful. An added boost is the addition of an overcharge feature that introduces a secondary effect like a shield, floating turrets, or slowing down time.
Contra was also known for its epic boss battles, and that continues to be the case here with challenging bosses and sub-bosses that you might find familiar from the previous games.
New Features Make It More Accessible, But It’s Still Challenging
Source: Konami / WayForward / Contra: Operation Galuga
In Operation Galuga, I was thrilled to learn that WayForward also included a life meter, giving your player three hits instead of the classic one-shot death from the original game.
For the purists, the one-shot death is still available if you want to keep the challenging feeling of the 1988 game.
Source: Konami / WayForward / Contra: Operation Galuga
Also introduced into the game is a new perk system, giving the game a roguelike feel and allowing you to begin levels with certain advantages like an extra life bar or starting with a weapon power-up. You can purchase perks after completing each mission using the currency you acquire during missions.
Other welcome features include not having to start from the first level after you run out of lives, starting from mid-points if you get deep into a level, and a 4-player coop that adds a new dimension to Contra.
Plus, being able to play with different characters also adds a unique experience to each playthrough because no character is the same.
Final Thoughts
Source: Konami / WayForward / Contra: Operation Galuga
Contra: Operation Galuga isn’t a perfect game, but it checks all the boxes for a solid remake. It’s the definitive experience for gamers who have never experienced the original game, Operation C, or Super Contra on the Super Nintendo.
For those who played those games listed above and even the awful spinoffs, this is a refreshing reboot of Contra that introduces many new features, a rebooted story, and tons of new characters added to the Contra lore.
The replay value isn’t extremely high, but different modes will keep you entertained during road trips or flights while playing on your Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, or PlayStation Portable.
Contra: Operation Galuga took me back to my childhood and allowed me to put the finishing touch on a game my five-year-old self thought I would never finish.
Operation Galuga is available now on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Steam.
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*Steam code for Contra: Operation Galuga provided by Konami.*
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / PS5 Pro
After months of speculation, the PS5 Pro is real and will reportedly arrive this holiday season.
Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson has confirmed the leaked PS5 Pro specs that hit the web this week are indeed real. They confidently confined the news after speaking with a source under anonymity.
Per Insider Gaming:
Speaking with sources, who wished to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to talk about company plans, we can confirm that the leaked documentation from the YouTube channel Moore’s Law is Dead is real, despite the criticism of the leaker and the leaked specs. Insider Gaming can confirm that the documentation leaked is from a PlayStation developer portal, which was sent out this week to a wider band of third-party developers.
July 2023, word on the video game streets that a PS5 Pro-model code-named “Project Trinity” was in the works and game studios would begin getting their devkits in November of that same year.
The confirmed specs for the PS5 Pro are:
Rendering 45% faster than PS5
2-3x Ray-tracing (x4 in some cases)
33.5 Teraflops
PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling) upscaling/antialiasing solution
Support for resolutions up to 8K is planned for future SDK version
Custom machine learning architecture
AI Accelerator, supporting 300 TOPS of 8 bit computation / 67 TFLOPS of 16-bit floating point
Devikits and Testkits Are Rolling Out
Those are quite impressive, which means the PS5 Pro is pretty close to performing on par with powerful gaming PCs. It also sounds like it could be called the PS5 6.
Insider Gaming also reports that devkits have been available to first-party developers since September 2023, third-party had theirs since January 2024, and testkits close to the final product will be available in Spring 2024.
The PS5 Pro is tentatively on track to release in the holiday of 2024 and will arrive before the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, which could benefit immensely from more powerful hardware.
The video game streets are talking, following the news. You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
2. This is true
4. We can’t wait to see it
When 21-year-old singer ericdoa released the song “ >one” last March, he had an unusual collaborator: Valorant. That’s not another artist; it’s a popular shooter game that attracted millions of players in February. Riot Games, the company behind Valorant, used “ >one” — which references the game in its lyrics — in a trailer that introduced a playable character named Gekko. The track is now ericdoa’s second-most-popular song on Spotify, with over 36 million streams.
“That was a huge spiritual win,” says Maria Egan, global head of music and events for Riot Games. “Can we do that over and over again?” she asks. “How do we unlock our platform and other gaming platforms to be the new place that new artists can find audiences?”
It’s a question often asked in the music business as well. In recent years, the industry has struggled to find reliable ways to ensure that its songs reach a wide listenership. The gaming community is massive, youthful and interested in music — in other words, an ideal target for labels. Yet there have been few notable recent instances of games helping new artists break through or driving music discovery on a mass scale.
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“Like music, gaming is global and has significant cultural relevance, but scalability at this intersection is still a challenge,” says Geoff Sawyer, an agent in gaming and esports at UTA. “Players and revenue are scattered across an endless web of product categories and consumer affinities, and not all in one big bucket. While there are incredibly cool, bespoke integrations happening between games and musicians, the music industry would need to upend its licensing model to truly achieve scale in this category.”
In truth, gaming does not need more labels’ music to thrive — the gaming industry earned around $184 billion in 2023, dwarfing music (around $26 billion, according to the IFPI). As one prominent music tech executive puts it, “the business model for games doesn’t need to support music.”
And even within the popular games that foreground music, space remains highly competitive. “There are still a limited amount of slots in FC, a limited amount of slots in NBA 2K,” says Steve Schnur, president of music for Electronic Arts (EA).
The music industry would presumably benefit if there were more games with more slots for its songs. But gaming executives say the opaque licensing system makes this unlikely. “Every time I speak to a games publisher, they’ve always got at least one horror story about trying to navigate music rights,” says Ben Sumner, managing director at Feel for Music, which helps games and brands with music supervision.
One recording may have multiple master owners and writers, each of which could work with a different publishing company, and gaming companies have to get everyone’s approval. Vickie Nauman, who has licensed music for many games in addition to founding the music-tech consultancy CrossBorderWorks, once had to get 143 agreements complete to clear 20 songs.
This may simply take too long for a game’s timeline, explains Gavin Johnson, director of sync and partnerships at the electronic music label Monstercat. “Typically a game developer is creating content that’s quarterly or bi-weekly or even weekly,” he says, especially in the world of “live services games,” which are free to play and dynamic, updated on the fly to rejuvenate player interest and maintain consistent engagement. (Several of the most popular games of 2023 — as measured by monthly active users — were live service games, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Minecraft.)
In addition, the music industry usually requires large upfront payments to license songs. “Incorporating music is often an experiment for games, and they don’t want to pay millions of dollars for an experiment,” says Alex Tarrand, co-founder and COO of STYNGR, a company that offers games precleared music.
Between multiple rights holders impacting timelines and steep up-front fees, many game developers find it far easier and more fiscally prudent to commission music in-house. “If anything creates more cost in ways that aren’t really driving what a game is going after, they tend to think, ‘We probably shouldn’t be spending time and resources on that,’” gaming consultant Toa Dunn says.
Tarrand’s company STYNGR is working to reduce the friction between gaming and music companies by putting blanket licenses in place with all the major labels and publishers so game developers can come to STYNGR and pull music into their titles. Instead of paying STYNGR upfront, developers cut revenue-sharing deals.
Another company, Game Over, takes a very different approach, targeting gamers who watch live-streams on Twitch or enjoy gameplay montage videos on YouTube or Instagram. This allows them to sidestep the industry “arm-wrestling match” around rights altogether, according to partner Zach Katz. Labels are “still in the mindset that winning in the gaming space is tied to interacting with the [gaming] platforms,” Katz says. In his view, that’s “a mistake.” “The victory is ultimately to get the gaming audiences” and serve them music, which can be done in other places where gamers congregate.
Still, executives in both music and gaming dream of more in-game opportunities. “Licensing needs to be made easier and more scalable for games so that it’s not only huge franchises that can do it,” says BandLab CEO Meng Ru Kuok.
“What I’m hoping to do is create a dialogue where we can understand that, although synch relationships bear enormous amount of fruit, they still are limiting us,” Schnur adds. “Let’s take a look at what the term ‘synch’ means and what it should mean going forward.” He acknowledges, however, that music rights holders may be content with the current system — and wary that any calls for change could disguise a campaign to undervalue music.
For now, many creative ideas to bring more music into gaming “are just not coming to market,” Nauman says, “because of rights issues.”