Valve is taking a firm stance against intrusive advertising on Steam. It has updated its terms of service to prohibit games that force players to watch ads to continue playing or progress. This move aims to preserve the Steam experience and prevent it from becoming a haven for mobile-style, ad-filled …

Hotline Miami 2 is being pulled from PS5 in Australia due to an overlooked ban on the game in the country. Refunds are now being sent out.

Yesterday, I was playing a round of Counter-Strike 2 and something odd happened - someone on the enemy team actually got kicked from the game due to VAC, a very rare sight in my hundreds of hours of playtime this year. As it turns out, a lot of players were getting booted from games yesterday and now, we know exactly what is going on. Valve is clamping down on high-end keyboard features being used in-game. 

Alongside the latest cryptocurrency wave, NFT and blockchain games have started to bloom more than ever. At the moment, many developers are working on blockchain-based games with NFTs, and some are already on Steam. However, that will soon change, as Valve is banning all blockchain games and NFTs from its …

Roblox is one of the biggest games in the world, played by over 200 million people every month. A large proportion of these players are children, and so as a measure of ‘protection’ the online social sandbox game has now banned hand holding, kissing, and “other romantic gestures in a …

Just a few months ago, Twitch signed Dr Disrespect to a very lucrative exclusivity deal to keep streaming on the platform. Things took a rather drastic turn this week though, as he was banned, reportedly permanently.  There are plenty of rumours around why Dr Disrespect may have been banned but …

There is plenty of buzz surrounding Riot’s new shooter, Valorant. As a result, demand for closed beta access is incredibly high, leading to accounts being sold for over $150 on sites like eBay. Due to this, the ban hammer has been raised early, with a number of accounts being booted …

Despite being added to the US Entity list in May, effectively banning all US companies from trading with Huawei, the Chinese tech giant appears to be doing just fine. While the future of US-Huawei relations seems to be uncertain, the company hasn’t been resting on its laurels. Huawei has reportedly …

Apex Legends has been out since February and during that time, tens of millions of players have downloaded the game. Of course, as with any fast-rising, free to play multiplayer game, cheaters did flock in. In March, Respawn banned over 350K cheaters but new workarounds were eventually found. Now this …

Bethesda recently unleashed a ban wave in Fallout 76, seeing players that utilise cheat programs and mods locked from their accounts. These players have all received an email notifying them of their ban, ending with criteria for an essay that allows them to begin the appeal process. The email allegedly …

This week, the big story in esports has been the disbanding of OpTic India's CS:GO team, after Nikhil ‘forsaken' Kumawat was caught cheating at a tournament live on stage. Since then, the Esports Integrity Coalition has handed down a 5-year ban to the player and while he has the opportunity …

A few days ago, the esports world was rocked after a player was caught cheating live on stage during a tournament. Former OpTic India CS:GO player, Nikhil ‘forsaken' Kumawat tried to physically stop admins from checking his PC and then tried to quickly delete the cheat, but it was no …

Last week, Facebook managed to proudly clamp down on hundreds of accounts geared towards fake news and misinformation ahead of the US midterm elections. Due to growing tensions with Congress, however, the social network isn’t stopping there as Facebook broadens its policies against voter manipulation. While false dates, times, locations …

Ubisoft has been working on improving Rainbow Six Siege with frequent updates since release, many of which have revolved around stomping out bad community practises. This week, Ubisoft turned its attention to team killing, which will now result in an instant ban going forward. Up until now, players have been …

Last week, ZTE was hit hard as the US government banned the company. Under the ban, the China-based smartphone maker can't get hold of Qualcomm chips and it stands to lose its license to use Android. Now ZTE has spoken out on the subject, saying that the ban will “severely …

This week, Chinese smartphone maker ZTE came under fire in both the UK and the US. Here in the UK, the government warned that the company's devices pose a risk to national security, meanwhile the US Department of Commerce blacklisted the company. Due to the ban in the US, ZTE …

Maltese video game publisher Insel Games has been under fire recently, as an employee email leaked suggesting that it was pressuring its staff to write positive emails on its latest title Wild Busters. Strictly prohibited in Valve’s terms and conditions, this has led to the studio being forcibly removed from …

We've heard about various governments looking to crack down on cryptocurrency this year and now it looks like banks are joining in. Banks across the US have already begun banning Bitcoin purchases with credit cards and now the same thing is happening here in the UK. This week it was …

Two weeks ago, the folks at PUBG Corp announced that they would be taking down 100,000 cheaters in a single ban-wave. This move was applauded by much of the player base, but the final number of in-game bans in January turned out to be much more impressive. According to BattlEye, …

It seems that politicians in the US are also getting involved in the video game loot box debate. Earlier today, we learned that the Belgium Gaming Commission do consider loot boxes to be a form of gambling and now, politicians in Hawaii are calling out EA's “predatory practices” with Star …

Update: Bungie has responded to reports of players being unjustly banned in Destiny 2 on PC. In an updated blog post, the company outlined some of its policies when it comes to security in Destiny 2 and how the banning process works. However, the studio ultimately identified a group of …

The Steam Summer sale is usually a good opportunity for cheaters to pick up cheap copies of multiplayer games on alternate accounts. Fortunately, it looks like Valve has managed to keep on top of it this year, with 40,000 VAC bans being handed out on the 6th of July, the …

After deeming the Daily Mail as “unreliable,” Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the publication as a source for the online encyclopaedia. This isn't something Wikipedia often engages in, and it still cites a number of often considered biased publications, like Fox News and Russia Today. “The Daily Mail’s reputation …

Blizzard has taken a stern stance against cheaters in Overwatch since the very beginning, a move that has often been praised by the community. There have been several large ban waves in the past but this weeks was one of the biggest, taking down 22,865 cheaters playing on the game's …

Valve has announced that it will be cracking down on sites that allow people to gamble with their Team Fortress 2 game skins. It the short term it will be banning accounts associated with the sites, putting users at risk of losing items. In the future though, it may well look …

Do you partake in pornography that is considered “non-conventional?” Who knows right? That's a pretty vague term, but it's the exact wording of the currently under-debate, Digital Economy Bill, which is being pushed through parliament. If enacted, it could force ISPs to put blocks in place for any sites that …

While there is plenty of deliberate nudity to be found in Ubisoft's recent watch Dogs 2 release, it turns out fully rendered, realistic female genitals wasn't necessarily part of it. To address the problem of a player being banned because they shared an image of them on Sony's Live from …

Forza Horizon 3 has been relatively well received on the PC so far, though it has had a few issues here and there. One particularly concerning problem popped up this week, as a wave of players were permanently banned for cheating. This would normally be great news but it appears …

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive can quickly become a frustrating game if you encounter cheaters, especially in a competitive match. However, today it looks like someone revved up the Valve Anti-Cheat engine as more than 11,000 players were hit with the ban hammer in one of the largest ban waves of the …

Despite efforts by some of the more well known tube pornography websites to legitimise themselves as mainstream companies, Esports organisations are doing their best to push back on that narrative. Following a ban of Youporn's pro team from the ESL competition, the same has happened with Capcom's Pro Tour. Although the ESL …