Tech Story

Why is Dark and Darker no longer on Steam?

Renowned hardcore action RPG Dark and Darker, created by Ironmace, is still embroiled in legal issues because Nexon, the distributor from South Korea, issued a cease-and-desist order that caused Steam to remove the game.

The DMCA takedown notification that Nexon has issued is the most recent in a string of legal actions the company has taken against the hapless independent publisher.

It all started with claims that former employees had used stolen assets and codes in Dark and Darker. In Dark and Darker, gameplay that is reminiscent of Escape from Tarkov’s survival extraction is combined with aspects of traditional dungeon crawling.

Also Read: Is it possible to transfer games between PCs and Steam Deck?

Dark and Darker’s gameplay loop immerses players in a hostile dungeon where their objective is to endure until a portal appears and they can escape. Currently, in open beta, the game has experienced a huge increase in popularity and has rapidly risen to the top of the charts on Steam. However, the Korean publisher Nexon has taken note of this achievement.

According to Nexon, the founders of Ironmace were discovered trying to steal code and other resources from the P3 project and then utilizing these assets to make the popular game Dark and Darker.

Although Ironmace has formally refuted these claims, the legal dispute has reached a point where Korean police have recently searched the company’s headquarters. A cease and desist order was issued on March 24 and, apparently overnight, the game was taken down from Steam.

Players first noted that the game’s online functionality, assets, and screenshots had been removed and that the game had vanished entirely from the platform.

The delisting of Dark and Darker from Steam, one of the biggest and possibly the most significant gaming platforms, could deal a fatal setback to the title as it continues to undergo beta testing. Ironmace must submit a Counter-Notice to Steam, agreeing to the authority of a US Federal Court, and describing why Dark and Darker was incorrectly flagged under risk of perjury in order to have the game relisted.

After that, Nexon has 14 days to file a lawsuit against Ironmace in US Federal Court. Steam will relist the game if no suit is launched. To prevent costly litigation, Ironmace and Nexon will probably settle these disputes in a settlement agreement.

Also Read: We may soon get an Xbox mobile gaming store. Is it a good move?

The competitive and well-liked game Dark and Darker is regarded as an independent treasure by many. Nexon has a lot at risk in this conflict as evidenced by its actions, including the removal of the game from Steam and high-profile accusations of theft made by the Ironmace team.

To prove the veracity of its mission and the studio as a whole, Ironmace must succeed. The fate of Dark and Darker and Ironmace as a whole is currently very up in the air, but one thing is for sure: the RPG and the dungeon-delving audience will be eagerly awaiting the outcome of the impending legal dispute

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Why is Meta being sued by its home county, San Mateo?

The school board in Meta Platforms Inc.’s home county filed a lawsuit against the business for allegedly encouraging student addiction to its social media networks and causing a crisis of mental health.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook has been named in a lawsuit by the San Mateo County Board of Education filed against Google, TikTok, and Snap-on March 13. The distance between Redwood City, the county seat, and Meta’s offices in Menlo Park, California, is roughly four miles.

The complaint is comparable to a first-of-its-kind lawsuit brought by the Seattle school district in January, which claims that the companies deliberately created their social media platforms to be alluring and to send harmful content to children and teenagers.

Also Read: What’s behind bitcoin’s latest surge?

Numerous other school systems, as well as numerous children and their parents, have filed lawsuits in places like Florida and Arizona. According to the complaint, San Mateo’s board of education claims it is allocating “unprecedented resources” to help children harmed by excessive time spent on screens and diverting funds from traditional educational objectives to deal with psychological issues that “have no historic analog,” such as increased suicide rates.

According to Antigone Davis, the global head of safety at Meta, the company wants teenagers to stay secure online and provides over 30 safety tools for children and families, including age verification technology and parental control.

In a statement, Davis said, “We automatically set teens’ accounts to private when they join Instagram, and we send notifications encouraging them to take regular breaks.

We don’t allow content that promotes suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders, and of the content we remove or take action on, we identify over 99% of it before it’s reported to us.”

The billionaire CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, has previously supported the educational change, contributing $120 million to San Francisco Bay Area schools almost ten years ago.

Also Read: Why Google suspended China’s Pinduoduo app?

But in the 116-page lawsuit, Facebook and Instagram are referred to as a public nuisance, and Meta and the other businesses are charged with racketeering, gross negligence, conspiracy, and unfair competition.

At a Congressional hearing on Thursday, issues related to social media addiction were brought up as TikTok CEO Shou Chew fought back against efforts by US legislators and the Biden administration to compel the business’s Chinese parent firm, ByteDance, to forfeit its shares of the unit or shut it in the US.

The meeting was attended by the parents of a 16-year-old boy who committed suicide after using TikTok. The pair filed a lawsuit against ByteDance, claiming that TikTok sent their son over 1,000 videos about self-harm, suicide, and hopelessness.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

The Rise of Ivan Glasenberg: Mining Magnate’s Success Story

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

Ivan Glasenberg is a South African businessman and previous CEO of Glencore, one of the biggest commodities trading and mining enterprises in the world.

Early Life

Ivan Glasenberg was born to a Jewish household in South Africa. His father was a luggage maker and importer born in Lithuania, and his mother was South African. The family resided in Illovo, a Johannesburg neighborhood. In his early 20s, Glasenberg, an athlete, had won the national junior race walking championship.

Glasenberg was born to a Jewish household in South Africa. His father was “a luggage maker and importer born in Lithuania, and his mother was South African.

Also Read: Guillaume Pousaz: From Small Village to Billion-Dollar Empire

The family resided in Illovo, a Johannesburg neighborhood. In his early 20s, Glasenberg, an athlete, had won the national junior race walking championship.

Success Story

Glasenberg began working for Glencore in 1984 and spent time in Australia and South Africa in the coal division. From 1989-1990, he oversaw Glencore’s offices in Beijing and Hong Kong. In 1991, he was named head of the organization’s coal division.In 2002, he was appointed CEO.

Glasenberg was identified by BusinessWeek in 2005 as a significant player in the clandestine commodity dealing of Marc Rich’s business, Mark Rich & Co. AG. Rich, a multibillionaire commodities trader, was subsequently granted a pardon by US President Bill Clinton after being accused of tax fraud and engaging in unlawful business with Iran.

Glencore became the corporate successor to Marc Rich & Co AG. In 2011, Glasenberg began acquiring more Glencore stock through his own dividends, spending up to an extra $54 million. Glasenberg was listed as owning more than 15% of Glencore’s stock in April 2012, making him the 20th wealthiest mining billionaire, according to Forbes, which pegged his total wealth at $7.3 billion.

Ivan Glasenberg was appointed CEO of the combined business after Glencore and Xstrata successfully completed one of the biggest mining company mergers in history, creating an $88 billion company. Originally, Glasenberg would have been President and Xstrata CEO Mick Davis would have been CEO in a merger of equals transaction; however, due to Qatar, a major Xstrata shareholder, refusing to participate, it turned into a takeover target.

Also Read: From Zero to Billionaire: The Inspiring Journey of Piotr Szulczewski

As a result, the new company, Glencore Xstrata, was formed with a 3.05 Glencore to 1 Xstrata share exchange, and Glasenberg was named CEO. In July 2013, Davis quit the company. Since 2002, Glasenberg has served as an executive director of Xstrata. He has also served as a non-executive director of Minara Resources Ltd., Rusal Plc., and Century Aluminum Co. between 2010 and 2011.

Following Glencore’s IPO on the London Stock Exchange, Glasenberg paid £240m in taxation to Rüschlikon. After a public vote, the residents’ tax rate was reduced by 7%, which was supported by a large majority of the villagers but drew condemnation from some of the villagers for what they perceived to be Glencore’s questionable business practices. His net wealth as of 2022 was $9.1 billion USD.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

What’s behind bitcoin’s latest surge?

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

In the midst of a gloomy winter at the beginning of the year, bitcoin was in bad shape after 2022 marked by falling cryptocurrency prices, company scandals, and bankruptcies.

In fewer than three months, bitcoin has regained its luster. It has outperformed other significant commodities this year with gains of over 70%, and on Wednesday, it was trading close to its highest level in nine months.

The first and largest cryptocurrency has been through this before; over its 15-year existence, it has experienced both dizzying price increases and drops. Interest rates are driving the increases.

Also Read: Why Google suspended China’s Pinduoduo app?

According to six investors and analysts from the crypto and conventional finance industries who spoke to Reuters, markets anticipate that central bank increases in the cost of credit are reaching their peak, which is expected to support risky assets like bitcoin.

Other factors are also in play, such as the banking industry’s unrest and persistent but unfulfilled hopes that bitcoin will become a widely accepted method of payment. On Sunday, Bitcoin recorded its greatest week in four years and has since increased by 45% in just 12 days.

Suggestions that bitcoin is an asset resistant to risks in conventional finance have gained momentum as the failure of American firms Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank served to prompt the takeover of 167-year-old Credit Suisse by competitor UBS on Sunday.

According to Usman Ahmad, CEO of Zodia Markets, a cryptocurrency exchange run by the venture arm of Standard Chartered and Hong Kong-based BC Technology Group, “It’s rather narrow-minded to say that bitcoin is going to succeed because a bank failed. But confidence is almost a critical factor – confidence in the banking system has been damaged.”

Significant changes in bitcoin’s price in the past have been closely related to changes in global monetary policy. Stay-at-home investors fueled a six-fold gain for bitcoin between September 2020-April 2021 as stimulus measures inundated the worldwide financial system during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These actions, combined with growing interest in cryptocurrencies from bigger investors and businesses, led proponents of the technology to proclaim that there was less chance that it would experience the violent crashes that have historically occurred after bitcoin rallies.

Bitcoin, however, fell by over fifty percent from the all-time high of $69,000 in merely 75 days as rates started to rise as signs of rogue inflation late in 2021 drove central government agencies and banks to curtail stimulus packages.

Also Read: With GPT-4, are we one step closer to losing our jobs?

The decline of a significant crypto token in 2022, brought on by higher interest rates, caused the closure of significant hedge funds and crypto lenders, and a drop in bitcoin of over 65%.

Regulatory issues and the abrupt collapse of the FTX market further battered it. Despite the claims of its supporters that bitcoin is a secure haven asset in periods of economic and political stress, the disastrous year served as another warning of its susceptibility to outside shocks.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Why Google suspended China’s Pinduoduo app?

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

After malware problems were discovered on versions of the Chinese e-commerce application outside Google’s app store, Google suspended the Play edition of PDD Holdings Inc.’s Pinduoduo app for security reasons, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said in a statement that “Off-Play versions of this app that have been found to contain malware have been enforced on via Google Play Protect,” adding that the Play version of the app has been suspended for security reasons.

Pinduoduo, a well-known e-commerce app in China, frequently gives users discounts when they purchase several items. Users were advised by Google on Tuesday to remove any Pinduoduo apps that hadn’t been downloaded from the Google Play Store.

Also Read: Trump returns to YouTube and Facebook after a two-year ban

Websites that enable users to download mobile apps without visiting official stores frequently have downloads of Android and even iOS apps available. According to Google’s statement, the enforcement of Google Play Protect has been configured to prevent efforts to install the aforementioned malicious apps.

Users who downloaded malicious copies of the app to their devices are notified and asked to uninstall the app. Pinduoduo was still available for download from Apple’s iOS store on Tuesday, but it was unclear whether there were any comparable security issues with the app for Apple users.

With the help of Google Play Services, Google Play Protect scans Android-based gadgets for possibly harmful apps and works to stop the downloading of malicious apps.

A Pinduoduo spokesperson told Reuters in an email that “Google Play has informed us this morning that Pinduoduo App has been temporarily suspended as the current version is not compliant with Google’s Policy, but has not shared more details.”

According to Pinduoduo, there are a number of additional apps that Google Play has temporarily suspended. He added that there are numerous causes for this.

Pinduoduo, which is primarily used in China, has been suspended amid heightened tensions between the United States and China over Chinese-owned apps like TikTok, which some American lawmakers claim pose a danger to national security.

According to their claims, these applications could be utilized to surveil American users. TikTok is at an impasse as legislators appear nearer than ever to taking the historic step of completely blocking the app.

The U.S. app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, may be compelled to sell it to another business under duress from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which examines transactions that might have an impact on national security.

The RESTRICT Act, a bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate this month, empowers the US Commerce Secretary to impose sanctions against foreign technology firms and urges the intelligence community to make risk assessment information publicly available.

Also Read: Amazon to Cut 9,000 More Jobs, Deepening Biggest Pullback Ever

On Tuesday, shares of PDD Holdings decreased 1.8% in premarket trading. The development coincides with U.S. government efforts to strengthen its cyber security measures in response to a constant rise in hacking and other cybercrimes targeting the nation. China and Russia were cited as the two biggest threats to the USA in the government’s newly released cybersecurity strategy.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

We may soon get an Xbox mobile gaming store. Is it a good move?

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

Microsoft is preparing to open the Xbox mobile game store early in the following year.

The software behemoth previously disclosed its ambitions for an Xbox mobile store, and now Xbox CEO Phil Spencer claims the store is being built in preparation for corporations like Google and Apple being compelled to make their mobile app stores public.

In a Financial Times interview, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stated, “We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play.

Also Read: Microsoft to Improve Default App Settings in Windows 11?

Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up.”

Microsoft first made mention of a “next-generation store” in the early months of last year, just one month after the organization revealed its intended acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The Xbox mobile store will rest on Activision Blizzard content like Call of Duty: Mobile and Candy Crush Saga, two hugely popular mobile games released by Activision and King, respectively, in order to compete with Apple and Google’s dominance in the mobile gaming store market.

Microsoft is developing an Xbox mobile store, but in order for it to succeed on iOS and Android gadgets, regulators will need to take some action against Google and Apple. Alternative stores are not permitted on Apple’s iPhone and iPad products, and most nations do not support competing payment options either.

Microsoft and Spotify are among the companies hoping that the EU’s Digital Markets Act will compel Apple and Google to alter the way they distribute mobile apps, eventually allowing for the opening of their portals and stores to competition.

Additionally, Microsoft is developing a larger Xbox mobile platform. Developers will also be able to manage their own app stores inside of Microsoft’s Xbox mobile platform thanks to the forthcoming Xbox mobile store.

Microsoft still needs regulatory clearance for its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in order for any of this to materialize. Microsoft has lately engaged in combat with the CMA, calling attention to “clear errors” in the regulator’s financial calculations. The Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission are both conducting regulation investigations into Microsoft.

Also Read: Is the PS5 Pro really coming to market in 2024?

The FTC filed a lawsuit to stop the Microsoft deal last year, and it is still in the document discovery phase. An evidentiary hearing is set for August 2nd, despite reports that the EU is likely to approve Microsoft’s deal.

Microsoft’s “next-generation gaming ecosystem,” which might allude to the company’s plans to develop its Xbox mobile gaming store, was the subject of a recent document request from FTC lawyers.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Follow Us