Dead by Daylight’s ‘Hooked on You’ dating sim spin-off is out now

Behaviour Interactive is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and it marked the occasion with a stream that showed off some things it has in the pipeline, including what’s next for Dead by Daylight. Back in May, Behaviour revealed that a DBD dating sim would arrive sometime this summer. Fans can now dive into Hooked on You, since it has just landed on Steam.

Hooked on You is the first DBD spin-off and it was developed by I Love You, Colonel Sanders! studio Psyop. It’s a visual novel in which you can romance four of the killers from the main game on (where else?) Murderer’s Island. The stories it tells combine humor, romance and horror, though they aren’t canon. Still, they could let fans live out some of their DBD fantasies.

As for Dead by Daylight itself, Behaviour shed more light on what to expect from the second Resident Evil chapter, which is coming soon. The Resident Evil: Project W DLC will introduce Albert Wesker (who is called The Mastermind in DBD) and two new survivors: Ada Wong and Rebecca Chambers. In addition, Behaviour is reworking the Raccoon City Police Department map that debuted as part of the original Resident Evil chapter, which arrived last year.

The first Behaviour Beyond showcase included some new game announcements as well. One of them is Meet Your Maker, a base building and raiding game that’s slated to arrive next year. You can assemble deadly maze-like outposts packed with traps and guards to protect sought-after genetic material from other players. Of course, you (perhaps with a friend’s help in co-op mode) will infiltrate other players’ bases to try and steal material from them. A closed playtest starts later this month.

Also on the way is a 3D brawler called Flippin Misfits. Up to four players can battle each other in space. The game will hit Steam in September. In addition, the stream offered a look at a title codenamed Project S. It’s an open-world puzzle game that features single-player, co-op and large multiplayer modes. Behaviour is working on Project S, which it plans to release next year, with Lunarch Studios. More details will be revealed soon.

Indonesia restores access to PayPal, Yahoo and Valve services

Indonesia has unblocked PayPal, Steam owner Valve and Yahoo (Engadget’s parent company), allowing them to resume operations. The country prevented residents from accessing services of several companies that missed a July 29th deadline to register with a government database. The Communications Ministry reopened access to PayPal, Yahoo and Valve services after they signed up.

“PayPal is fully committed to complying with applicable laws and regulations in the markets where we do business,” a PayPal spokesperson told Engadget. “We have registered as an Electronic Systems Operator in Indonesia, having connected directly with the Ministry of Communication and Informatics. PayPal customers can send, receive, and access their money as usual. We regret any disruption our customers may have experienced last weekend.”

Controversial licensing rules that Indonesia established in 2020 allow authorities to force registered platforms to turn over data from certain users. There’s a content moderation aspect as well. Platforms are required to remove content that “disturbs public order” or is considered unlawful. If the content takedown demand is urgent, they have just four hours to comply. Otherwise, they have 24 hours to yank the offending content.

Even though the rules were brought in two years ago, some notable companies are said to have scrambled to register on time and keep their services available. According to Reuters, Meta, Amazon and Google signed up just days before the deadline. However, it seems Epic Games Store and EA’s Origin service remain blocked.

Google is making it easier to find and support Asian-owned businesses

Google is making it easier for people to find and support Asian-owned businesses in their communities. Starting today, US merchants can now add an “Asian-owned” label to a verified Google business profile, which will appear in Search and Maps queries.

The move is part of Google’s efforts to support historically marginalized communities. It previously rolled out labels for Black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-owned, women-owned and LGBTQ+ owned businesses. 

In addition, the company says its Grow with Google initiative, along with the non-profit US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce, will help another 10,000 Asian-owned small businesses learn digital skills. To date, they’ve assisted more than 20,000 Asian-owned businesses with workshops on things like e-commerce, analytics-driven decisions and design.

Interactive musical series ‘We are OFK’ hits PlayStation, Switch and PC on August 18th

Back at the 2020 edition of The Game Awards, we learned about We Are OFK, a new project from Hyper Light Drifter co-designer Teddy Dief and their collaborators at Team OFK. It was supposed to debut in spring 2021 but, as has been the way of things for the last few years, it was delayed. Now, We Are OFK finally has a release date. Or, more accurately, release dates, since it’s an episodic series. The first two episodes will hit Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Steam and Epic Games Store on August 18th. The remaining three episodes will arrive on a weekly basis.

We Are OFK follows a virtual four-piece indie band called, strangely enough, OFK. It’s billed as an interactive musical biopic that OFK is making about its own origins. As Dief wrote on the PlayStation Blog, “What would it look like to create virtual musicians who watch performances of [pop stars] on their laptops in bed, and know they’re probably never going to play a stadium concert? We wanted to tell that story — how hard it is to make music, to write even one song, to record another video to post online and hope someone leaves a nice comment.”

The game costs $20. Along with each episode, OFK and Sony Music Masterworks will release a new single. A vinyl package of the singles will be available from iam8bit for $32. A limited-edition physical version of We Are OFK is available to pre-order for PS5 and Switch too. You can also pre-save the group’s first EP.

SEC charges 11 people over ‘textbook’ $300 million crypto Ponzi scheme

It’s a day of the week ending in the letter “y,” which inevitably means there’s news of anothermessysaga in the cryptocurrency world. The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged 11 people who allegedly set up and promoted Forsage, which it said was a crypto Ponzi scheme that pulled in over $300 million from retail investors.

The agency asserts that Forsage enabled millions of people to engage in transactions through smart contracts on the Ethereum, Tron, and Binance blockchains. It alleged that Forsage had essentially been operating as a pyramid scheme for over two years, wherein the main way for investors to make money was by luring other people into the scheme. “Fraudsters cannot circumvent the federal securities laws by focusing their schemes on smart contracts and blockchains,” Carolyn Welshhans, acting chief of the SEC’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, said in a statement.

“Forsage is a textbook pyramid and Ponzi scheme,” the SEC’s complaint reads. “It did not sell or purport to sell any actual, consumable product to bona fide retail customers during the relevant time period and had no apparent source of revenue other than funds received from investors.”

Four of those charged are Forsage’s founders, who were last known to be living in Russia, the Republic of Georgia and Indonesia. The SEC also charged three promoters based in the US, who the founders allegedly recruited to endorse Forsage on its website and social media. Several members of a group called Crypto Crusaders, a group that promoted the scheme, were charged with violating the registration and anti-fraud provisions of federal securities laws as well. Two defendants have agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying the allegations.

As CNBC notes, Forsage’s founders launched the platform in January 2020. Regulators in the Philippines and Montana tried to shut it down with cease-and-desist actions. The SEC alleged that the defendants continued to promote Forsage while denying claims made against the platform in YouTube videos.

Logitech and Tencent are making a cloud gaming handheld

Logitech and Tencent have announced that they’re working on a handheld cloud gaming device. They’re blending the Logitech G brand’s hardware knowhow with Tencent’s software prowess. According to a landing page (where you can plug in your email address to receive updates), the device is tentatively called the Logitech G Gaming Handheld.

The system should come to market later this year and it will “support multiple cloud gaming services,” Logitech said. Tencent and Logitech are working with the Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now teams at Microsoft and NVIDIA, respectively, so expect the handheld to support both of those platforms at the very least.

Whether the device actually goes on sale as scheduled remains to be seen, given the ongoing supply chain crisis that’s making production difficult for just about every electronics company. However, many cloud gaming services are accessiblethrough web apps on phones, so the device likely wouldn’t need a ton of processing might. It probably won’t need to be as powerful as, say, the Steam Deck. Using lower-power components that aren’t super difficult to come by could make it easier for Logitech and Tencent to actually build the handheld. In any case, we should find out more about the device in the coming months. 

Nearly 600 more TV writers call for Netflix, Apple to detail abortion safety policies

Last week, more than 400 TV showrunners, writers and producers called on streaming giants and traditional Hollywood studios to offer improved protections for workers in states where abortions are banned or limited. Now, 594 other industry figures (many…