Neural MMO is a computationally accessible research platform that combines large agent populations, long time horizons, open-ended tasks, and modular game systems. Existing environments feature subsets of these properties, but Neural MMO is the first to combine them all. We present Neural MMO as free and open source software with active support, ongoing development, documentation, and additional training, logging, and visualization tools to help users adapt to this new setting. Initial baselines on the platform demonstrate that agents trained in large populations explore more and learn a progression of skills. We raise other more difficult problems such as many-team cooperation as open research questions which Neural MMO is well-suited to answer. Finally, we discuss current limitations of the platform, potential mitigations, and plans for continued development.

With the latest and greatest new PlayStation and Xbox consoles in high demand, the video game makers at Nintendo surely must be ready to dump its nearly five-year-old Switch game system, right? Sure, Sony and Microsoft's new systems, released in November 2020, are lusted after and still nearly impossible to find on store shelves. But the Nintendo Switch is not always assured to be in stock, either. The Nintendo Switch has been the top-selling video game console in the U.S. for the past 30 months – yeah, you read that right, the leading unit seller for 2½ years – according to research firm The NPD Group. That surpasses the previous longest streak (21 months) held by the Xbox 360 having from August 2011 through April 2013, according to NPD. 'We need to continue to innovate':How charities are using NFTs as a way to fundraise The Nintendo Switch may not be as powerful as the newer Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles, which play games in 4K and eventually could display 8K games.

Esports has become big business. Now, a video game app wants to make esports a "do-it-yourself" enterprise, allowing you to host your own online tournaments. A new tournament mode arrives today on Play One Up, an app launched a year ago to connect players in online matches on Xbox or PlayStation game systems, and let them wager on their skills. Play One Up tournament partners can create and host their own tournaments across games such as Fortnite, Madden NFL, NBA 2K or Call of Duty. Users can choose the game system, bracket size, cost to play and timing of the tournament.

The new Xbox Series X video game console will likely be a tough get when it arrives Nov. 10. But Taco Bell is teaming with Microsoft to give away a slew of the new game systems. Microsoft on Wednesday announced that the Xbox Series X game system, priced at $499 would arrive in stores on Nov. 10, the same day as the lower-priced Xbox Series S system ($299, no Blu-ray Disc drive on-board). But Taco Bell has two ways for customers to win an Xbox Series X before it becomes available in stores. Just download the Taco Bell app and join the Taco Bell Rewards Beta program.

Each evokes memories of the golden age of video games, which brought the first wave of consoles you could connect to your home television. But there's an oft-forgotten person from that era whose contributions to the industry still resonate today: a black engineer named Jerry Lawson. Lawson oversaw the creation of the Channel F, the first video game console with interchangeable game cartridges – something the first Atari and Magnavox Odyssey systems did not use. Those initial consoles had a selection of games hardwired into the console itself. But Lawson, an engineer and designer at Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp., led a team at the Silicon Valley semiconductor maker charged with creating a game system using Fairchild's F8 microprocessor and storing games on cartridges.

If you have a Nintendo Wii in need of repair, it may be game over for the video game system. Nintendo is no longer offering repairs for Wii systems in the U.S., the game maker says online. However, many issues can be resolved by following the troubleshooting steps on our support site," the company says on its customer support site. The video game company said Monday it is ending repairs for the game console in Japan as of March 31 because it has had trouble getting parts to repair the console. Several tech news websites including Engadget reported the announcement from Japan.

We propose the study of mathematical ludology, which aims to formally interrogate questions of interest to game studies and game design in particular. The goal is to extend our mathematical understanding of complex games beyond decision-making---the typical focus of game theory and artificial intelligence efforts---to explore other aspects such as game mechanics, structure, relationships between games, and connections between game rules and user-interfaces, as well as exploring related gameplay phenomena and typical player behavior. In this paper, we build a basic foundation for this line of study by developing a hierarchy of game descriptions, mathematical formalism to compactly describe complex discrete games, and equivalence relations on the space of game systems.

T owards an Angry-Birds-Like Game System for Promoting Mental Well-Being of Players Using Art-Therapy-Embedded Procedural Content Generation Zhou Fang 1, Pujana Paliyawan 2, Ruck Thawonmas 1 and Tomohiro Harada 1 1 College of Information Science and Engineering 2 Research Organization of Science and Technology Ritsumeikan University, Japan ruck@is.ritsumei.ac.jp Abstract -- This paper presents an integration of a game system and the art therapy concept for promoting the mental wellbeing of video game players. In the proposed game system, the player plays an Angry-Birds-like game in which levels in the game are generated based on images they draw. Upon finishing a game level, the player also receives positive feedback (praising words) toward their drawing and the generated level from an Art Therapy AI. The proposed system is composed of three major parts: (1) a drawing recognizer that identifies what object is drawn by the player (Sketcher), (2) a level generator that converts the drawing image into a pixel image, then a set of blocks representing a game level (PCG AI), and (3) the Art Therapy AI that encourages the player and improves their emotion. This paper describes an overview of the system and explains how its major components function.

American businesses are telling the Trump administration that an escalating trade war with China will hurt the U.S. economy. This comes as public hearings are being held to consider extending the 25% tariffs to practically all Chinese imports. Tariffs on imports from China could price one-fourth of U.S. families out of the market to buy a video game system this holiday season, game console makers say. Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative's Office dated June 17, wrote that tariffs could price an Xbox, Switch or PlayStation "out of reach for many American families." Those shoppers who do buy a new game system will collectively pay $840 million more this holiday season than they would have had tariffs not been imposed, the companies say, citing a study from the independent economic group Trade Partnership for the Consumer Technology Association.

Older video game systems are hot on the resale market as collectors seek items no longer in production. Are you sitting on a forgotten-gadget goldmine? Dusty video game systems, old TVs and record players, and abandoned iPods often seem like trash. "Vintage electronics are hot sellers," says Jordan Barnes, senior director for resale app Mercari. For instance, over the past 90 days, interest in the original Nintendo's GameBoy, Gameboy Advance and Gameboy Micro game players have surged to more than 200,000 searches, with sale prices topping $90, he says.