<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="325c6637d13c8f8754f012d5d43c9c71c95e243b"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/325c6637d13c8f8754f012d5d43c9c71c95e243b/0_0_7028_4219/1000.jpg" alt="A giant screen suspended from the celing showing video game play, with players sitting on a podium below." width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> The League of Legends world championship finals in the O2, London, on Saturday. Photograph: Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images </figcaption> </figure>

Given the deluge of bad news emanating from the games industry over the past 10 months, it was somewhat reassuring this weekend to sit in a crowd of 20,000 happy, passionate fans, watching the biggest event in the esports calendar: the League of Legends world championship finals. The event, at the O2 arena in London, was the culmination of a globetrotting five-week competition to discover the best team in the world. Never having attended before – mostly because the final is usually held in Asia, where the best players tend to come from – I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Would I be able to follow what was happening? Would I care? It turns out the answers to those questions were “sort of” and “hell, yes”. For the uninitiated, League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game (Moba for short) in which two teams of five players choose warriors from a selection of 170, and then battle to control a fantasy-themed map before destroying the other’s home base. The arena is divided into three lanes with an area known as the jungle in the middle, and each of the team members patrols their own specific section – like any traditional team sport. Adding complexity is the fact that all the champion characters have their own skills, weapons and magical attacks, and throughout the game, they also have to defeat monsters and dragons to earn experience points that make them more powerful. It’s both a deep strategy game and a bewildering riot of stomping warriors, galloping horsemen and levitating wizards. This year’s final was between experienced South Korean side T1 and Chinese newcomer Bilibili Gaming (BLG for short). The latter were riding high after smashing local rival Weibo Gaming in the semi-finals, but T1 were the firm favourites having claimed the cup four times already. They’d almost been knocked out of the competition in an earlier stage, but apparently have a habit of charging back into contention just when everyone has written them off. In the arena, I manage to get a seat next to James Lynch from esports news site <a href="https://www.dexerto.com/">Dexerto</a>, who volunteers to talk me through the action. He describes T1 as the League of Legends equivalent of the 1974 Dutch World Cup side – freewheeling, unconventional and filled with neurotic genius. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, widely considered to be the greatest player in League history, is the master at the centre of it all – their Johan Cruyff. “His movement is so weird and unpredictable,” says Lynch. “He is so hard to kill.” Before the final even commences, there’s a 10-minute mini-concert featuring US rapper Ashnikko and Linkin Park, boasting astonishing art direction with pyrotechnics, giant LED displays and dozens of dancers. The whole thing has the feel of a major sporting event mixed with a K-pop gig – a riot of colour, passion and stagecraft. In the hours leading up to the final, fans gathered at the venue, buying personalised merch, meeting friends from the community and of course dressing as their favourite League of Legends characters. It turns out I was extraordinarily fortunate that this was my League of Legends spectatorship debut. It’s a thrilling encounter. Once the showdown begins, the best-of-five-games format gets pushed to the limit, with the two teams taking it in turns to slaughter each other for the first four matches. Throughout the final, Faker is the dominant playmaker, continually leaping in and out of skirmishes, taking down enemies and then somehow escaping with barely a millimetre of his health bar remaining. In the arena, we view the action on huge screens suspended above the stage where the 10 young players duke it out. Rather than separating us from the action, these displays draw us in. The crowd of mostly twentysomething fansloudly roar their approval at clever moves and chant when their side gains the upper hand. The decider is a cagey affair, the warriors prodding and poking at each other while warily skulking around the map – until the whole thing explodes into a sprawling clash that makes the Battle of the Bastards look like a minor scuffle outside a kebab shop. It was T1 that emerged victorious, but this was also a win for the whole concept of esports. The scene has struggled – at least economically – to live up to the hype of the 2010s, when inflated estimates of its global value attracted big investors and sponsors, which lead to oversized team organisations and bloated salaries for star players. Last year saw a slew of those organisations, events and tournaments closing, including Activision Blizzard’s much-hyped Overwatch League. However, this weekend’s event attracted a peak viewing audience of 6.94 million – most watching from home on streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube – a new record for esports. It’s easy sometimes to think about video games as an industry, rather than a culture that brings people joy. Sometimes, it’s important to look beyond sales and viewing figures, and to sit in an arena with 20,000 adoring fans. Outside the O2 megaplex, I spoke to one attendee, Morgan, perfectly dressed as Aphelios (in his Heartsteel outfit, to be precise), who explained the appeal: “There’s such a competitive spirit, everyone is here to root for their favourite teams, but it’s very good-natured. There’s also so many different communities in League, it’s great to see them coming together and being able to bond over the one thing they have in common and are really passionate about. That’s the really beautiful thing about this.” <h2>What to play</h2> Released in 1996, the original Metal Slug was an exciting pastiche of the side-scrolling military shooter in which lone muscular soldiers took on whole armies of swarming bullet fodder. The brand has never really gone away, with dozens of sequels and spin-offs over the past 30 years – the latest of which is Metal Slug Tactics, which takes the look and feel of SNK’s franchise and turns it into a compelling, stylish turn-based strategy game. Here you assemble a team of warriors and face-off against the Rebel Army, using a huge range of customisable weapons and special attacks. Acknowledging its heritage as a “run and gun” game, the emphasis is on movement and dodging, with characters powering up their defences as they take more steps, giving each turn a dynamic feel. And while there’s genuine depth to the strategic play, the isometric pixel art visuals perfectly capture the lighthearted feel of the series. Metal Slug veterans will love it, of course, but fans of Advance Wars, XCOM and Into the Breach will get a real kick out of it, too. Available on: PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC Estimated playtime: 20+ hours <h2>What to read</h2> <ul> <li>PC Gamer has a great feature about <a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/a-college-student-put-on-a-free-stage-adaptation-of-silent-hill-2-to-make-a-truly-frightening-theatrical-experience-all-without-an-appearance-by-pyramid-head/">an immersive stage production of</a> Silent Hill 2 by Niko Wilkins, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University. I’m certainly looking forward to the West End musical adaptation.</li> <li>Thank you, Polygon, for this handy guide to the best board games of 2024. It’s a diverse bunch <a href="https://www.polygon.com/what-to-play/24144632/best-board-games-2024-new">featuring everything from city building to alien spotting</a>; I particularly like the sound of Burning Banners: Rage of the Witch Queen.</li> <li>GamesIndustry.biz has an interesting piece on the accessibility issues facing <a href="https://www.gamesindustry.biz/how-accessible-is-being-a-gaming-content-creator">video game content streamers</a>, including the punishing demands of YouTube and Twitch audiences.</li> <li>Minecraft fans looking to populate their Christmas lists may be interested in The World of Minecraft, a <a href="https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-world-of-minecraft-edwin-evans-thirlwell?variant=40786447958094">hefty new tome featuring lots of concept art</a>, archive materials and interviews with the team at Mojang about the creation of the game.</li> </ul> <h2>What to click</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/oct/29/call-of-duty-black-ops-6-review">Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – annual military shooter fixture hasn’t felt this fresh in years | ★★★☆☆</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/nov/04/mario-luigi-brothership-review-nintendo-switch">Mario &amp; Luigi: Brothership – seafaring adventure will help your troubles sail away | ★★★★☆</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/oct/31/life-is-strange-double-exposure-review-supernatural-drama-gets-caught-up-in-its-tangled-timelines">Life Is Strange: Double Exposure – supernatural drama gets caught up in its tangled timelines | ★★★☆☆</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/nov/02/wilmot-works-it-out-review-hollow-ponds-richard-hogg-finji">Wilmot Works It Out – gently therapeutic puzzler that turns jigsaws into works of art | ★★★★☆</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/nov/05/the-sega-saturn-at-30-pioneering-console">The Sega Saturn at 30: a pioneering games console ripe for rediscovery</a></li> </ul> <h2>Question Block</h2> This week’s question comes from reader Turlough: “I always avoided the FromSoftware games thinking they would be too difficult. Then, in 2021, I experienced a very painful bereavement and started playing Elden Ring. It helped me work through my grief and was one of the best games I have ever played. I have worked through all the FS Souls and Souls-like games, which also helped me through a particularly rough patch at work (I’m a child psychiatrist). Are there any other Souls likes that are as good? I’m playing Lords of the Fallen, which is definitely fun but lacks the magic of the others. I fear that FromSoftware have slightly ruined all other games for me, apart from the Zeldas.” Thank you for your question and for your reminder that games can help us through difficult experiences. I hope things are getting easier for you. On the subject of Souls-likes, a lot of my colleagues really enjoyed Lies of P, a complex adventure based on the Adventures of Pinocchio – although the narrative is extremely dark. Alternatively, I really enjoyed the Nioh series from Team Ninja, which provides incredible depth in terms of the combat and weapons systems; the Nioh Collection on PS5 brings together remastered versions of the original game and its sequel. If you’re prepared to move a little further away from the Souls archetype, I’d also recommend Hollow Knight, Stellar Blade and Nier Automata,which all contain elements of what makes FromSoftware’s games so beguiling and immersive.

The industry may be struggling, but sitting among 20,000 devoted fans in London, I was reminded that it’s not just a business but a culture that brings endless joy

At the League of Legends finals, I saw unmatched gaming talent – and joy on 20,000 faces

<figure class="element element-image element--showcase" data-media-id="dd4477f047e1ae12bcf858090294b70e5c5ecdb4"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/dd4477f047e1ae12bcf858090294b70e5c5ecdb4/0_356_5340_3204/1000.jpg" alt="The Kid Laroi on stage" width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Rap prodigy the Kid Laroi gives a keynote at SXSW Sydney – and delights the crowd when a delivery from local chicken shop Clem’s is brought out on stage. Photograph: Nina Franova/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney </figcaption> </figure>

To get the most out of the SXSW music program, you have to make peace with some dissonance. En route to a conference session about the damaging impact of music streaming fraud on indie artists, you might pass an “immersive experience” reimagining email, or an electric vehicle “cityscape track” overlooking Darling Harbour. Later you’ll snack on free Tim Tams while absorbing the infinite, world-altering possibilities of AI in a room that screams corporate off-site. That night, in a pub usually frequented by uni students, an artist will pour out their anti-establishment truths in front of a banner emblazoned with sponsor logos. Such were the strange yet frequently enjoyable contradictions inherent in the second year of SXSW Sydney, whose not-that-profound slogan “The Future Belongs to the Curious” was inescapable across the city last week. Like the oversized <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/sxsw">original event in Austin, Texas</a> – which has been licensed to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/oct/23/sxsw-festival-sydney-music-program-2023-the-lansdowne-pub-spotify-house">run in Sydney for at least five years</a>, in its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/oct/10/sxsw-sydney-what-is-it-events-concerts-films-technology-october-15-22">first international iteration</a> – this year’s program spanned music, technology, gaming and screen, with all streams crammed into one anxiety-tweaking app. Also like the Austin event, each day and night was beset by brands, from the activation pile-up at Tumbalong Park (just steps from the calming Chinese Garden of Friendship) to the hot sauce-sponsored Rolling Stone House in the bowels of UTS Tower. For the music-inclined, most conference sessions took place at the International convention centre in Darling Harbour, JMC Academy and the University of Technology Sydney, while the night-time music program spread across pubs, bars and music venues in and around Chippendale. Wherever you turned, a helpful volunteer was ready to scan your pass or point the way past the toilet paper pop-up. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/oct/23/sxsw-festival-sydney-music-program-2023-the-lansdowne-pub-spotify-house">SXSW Sydney’s music program: did the Austin festival survive in a city averse to nightlife?</a> </aside> The music program got under way on Tuesday night with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/14/i-dont-even-know-how-to-be-me-quite-yet-jorja-smith-on-self-doubt-body-positivity-and-her-stunning-second-album">Jorja Smith</a> playing at ICC Sydney Theatre. Despite the 8,000-seat venue possessing all the atmosphere of a multi-storey car park, the British R&amp;B singer radiated easy warmth as she worked through a set list of more than 20 songs. Backed by an exceptionally tight band that occasionally overwhelmed her voice, Smith silenced the room with an unadorned version of her break-up ballad Don’t Watch Me Cry, before a dance-y final stretch that had everyone on their feet. Elsewhere across the week, international artists were largely lesser-known and aligned with specific showcases. On Wednesday night at the Lansdowne hotel’s British Music Embassy takeover, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/20/jeshi-uk-rapper-universal-credit-interview">punkish London rapper Jeshi</a> marvelled at the intimacy of the crowd (“I can see all your faces”), while Thursday’s all-Taiwanese lineup at the Abercrombie hotel featured a charming headline set from the Taipei-based experimental pop band I’mdifficult. Meanwhile, at the conference, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/28/why-young-pop-stars-are-suddenly-playing-arenas-lewis-capaldi">high-powered music agent Lucy Dickins</a> regaled a packed auditorium with stories of discovering Adele and bringing Mumford &amp; Sons to the New South Wales country town of Dungog. Later, in a much smaller room, panellists discussed the vast opportunities in India’s music market, including a very on-message catchcry of “We love brands!” On Saturday Sydney’s own <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/28/i-missed-out-on-being-a-kid-the-kid-laroi-on-fame-fans-and-coming-home-to-australia">rap prodigy the Kid Laroi</a> began his keynote at a packed-out Darling Harbour by admitting “this is probably the most nervous I’ve been in my life”. Joined onstage by friends and collaborators Nooky, Keanu Beats and Dopamine, the 21-year-old stayed mostly in the safety of platitudes (“trusting your own opinion on your music is really cool”) though the panel went “off the leash” – just slightly – at the mention of record labels and industry malpractice. “If someone comes to you tomorrow and says, ‘You listen to everything I tell you and you’re gonna be the biggest artist in the world,’ –fuckin’ run!,” Laroi said. To the crowd’s delight, the session ended with a surprise delivery from his favourite Newtown chicken shop, Clem’s. Deeper insight from local success stories was found in smaller forums, for example the Mess Hall’s Jed Kurzel detailing his evolution to Hollywood film composer – delivered from the stage of an esports “arena” in Central Park Mall. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/19/australia-live-music-industry-live-nation-ticketmaster-investigations">The crisis facing Australian live music is older and bigger than just Live Nation</a> </aside> At night, homegrown artists shone brightest. On the outdoor basketball court at a Chippendale coworking office, the Sydney drill sensation Kahukx rapped through a balaclava while a huddle of offstage hype men mimicked every word. On Friday, when the vibe was notably looser, the APY lands hip-hop group Dem Mob lit up the tiny Knox Street Bar with equal parts joy and righteous anger. Later that night the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/21/beckah-amani-captures-the-chaos-growing-up-right-now-were-stuck-in-this-whirlwind">folk-pop singer-songwriter Beckah Amani</a> played one of the week’s standout sets in the no-frills upstairs band room at the neighbourhood bar Sneaky Possum. For a crowd many times smaller than her warm-up slot for Jorja Smith, Amani’s performance offered a tingly intimacy that made all the branded noise fall away. As a general rule, SXSW Sydney was at its best when exciting emerging artists were winning over new fans. The set-up of venues invited unplanned discoveries and pleasing vibe shifts – within five minutes of dancing to the New Zealand pop artist Yahyah at Sneaky Possum, you could be inside the artfully refined performance space Phoenix Central Park soaking up the oddball energy of the Filipino-Japanese performer Ena Mori. In the downtime between performances, you might wonder who all this was for. With prices ranging from $140 for a music showcase wristband to $1,295 for a “primary access” badge, it could be hard to distinguish the curious attender from the professionally committed. But while the main event could feel annoyingly insular (especially for the lanyard-less regulars turned away from their favourite bars and pubs on Friday), organisers stepped up the free programming at the weekend, including a well-attended inner west street festival on Sunday with a host of local bands. Beyond all the grand ideas and corporate manoeuvres, good old grassroots passion gave SXSW Sydney its pulse.

The weeklong behemoth relishes its contradictions: punk gigs in front of sponsor logos; toilet paper pop-ups and Taiwanese pop stars; industry legends and new fans

SXSW Sydney: now in its second year, has the festival found its feet?

<figure class="element element-image element--showcase" data-media-id="8cd407bb738d451c82d2c7b1f17580de4e9163bf"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/8cd407bb738d451c82d2c7b1f17580de4e9163bf/421_1_4782_2869/1000.jpg" alt="Fans outside the Etihad Stadium before Manchester City's November 2023 match against Young Boys" width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Manchester City’s owners are rich enough to pursue hugely expensive litigation that could cripple football’s administrators. Photograph: Dave Howarth/CameraSport/Getty Images </figcaption> </figure>

Don’t look up! As the families of Westeros squabble, the undead gather beyond the Wall. As senior monks jockey to be the new abbot, viking longboats mass on the horizon. As the left bicker interminably over infinitesimal doctrinal differences, right-leaning billionaire tech-bros fund the march of quasi-fascistic populism. The problem with existential threats, from the climate crisis to Conquistadors to Covid, is that they always seem distant, somehow unreal. People are always predicting the end of the world, which makes it easy to dismiss the doom-mongers. When we’ve had so many warnings of the apocalypse, why should anybody listen now? But some day one of those prophets is going to be right. Nothing is eternal. Football has never been so popular. Crowds in England are at the highest they have been for half a century and, if you include non-league football, probably ever. The global television audience is vast. It is an all-consuming universal. And yet that is its very problem; football is so magnetic that it has drawn the interest of too many who see it not as a sport, not as cultural expression, but as an entity from which they may profit. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/oct/07/manchester-city-premier-league-tribunal-verdict">Manchester City claim victory over Premier League after tribunal verdict</a> </aside> Other sports, while never having&nbsp;quite football’s global appeal, have been unassailably popular in the past, only to decline: no one goes to the arena to watch gladiatorial combat any more, chariot-racing is defunct, cockfighting has had its day, even cricket – once England’s&nbsp;national sport – feels locked in a perpetual battle to survive, the rash of cash-boosting short-form tournaments reducing the schedule to unfathomable irrelevance. Football’s structure is different, but as new competitions are invented and existing ones expanded, its calendar does increasingly feel packed with content for content’s sake. Football has proved extraordinarily resilient for 150 years but the existential threat is there. As fans and pundits and media have quarrelled over the past week about just who “won” the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/oct/09/manchester-city-rage-against-machine-premier-league">Premier League v Manchester City legal battle</a> over associated party transactions (APT), taking up their pre-assigned positions behind the barricades, it’s all a bit Fuji and Kodak fighting a sales war 20 years ago: er, have you heard of digital? The sport is now in the hands of states, oligarchs and private equity funds, none of whom, it’s fair to say, are likely to care much for the long-term good of the game. They are all rich enough to pursue hugely expensive litigation that could cripple football’s administrators, a point made explicitly in the email published by Der Spiegel purportedly&nbsp;from City’s general counsel, Simon Cliff, that quoted the club’s chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, threatening “the destruction of [Uefa’s] rules and&nbsp;organisation” by suing them “for the next 10 years”. <aside class="element element-pullquote element--supporting"> <blockquote> Already at certain clubs there is a clear preference for high-spending occasional fans over regulars </blockquote> </aside> For a long time it’s been problematic that those who govern the game also run and derive profit from competitions, creating a nexus&nbsp;of interrelated incentives that has led to clientelism – but this is worse. What future does any organisation have if a member has the power effectively to decide that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/oct/08/manchester-city-premier-league-accusations-tribunal-verdict">it doesn’t have to obey regulations</a> voted for by the others, the “tyranny of the majority”, to use another phrase used by City? What the case seems to have established is that financial regulation is necessary to prevent successful clubs becoming a self-perpetuating elite, and that loans from shareholders to their clubs should incur interest at market rates so as not to count as a subsidy for the purposes of profita­bility and sustainability calculations. All of that&nbsp;seems entirely reasonable – and&nbsp;was already part of Uefa financial fair play regulations. City, it could be argued, have done the game a favour by closing a loophole that ensures tighter financial controls. However, if that were their aim, it seems odd that they would describe the Premier League’s plan to update the regulations accordingly as “an unwise course”, which “would likely to lead to further legal proceedings with further legal costs”. The broader issue now is whether they have isolated a procedural flaw that could undermine the Premier League’s 130 charges against them (they, of course, deny them all). There are those, often cloaked in free-market dogma, who argue there should be no restrictions on what clubs can spend. But then the rich win, generate more revenue, buy the best players and win even more. That’s why, until 1983, home teams in the English league paid the away team a levy and why a maximum wage was implemented in 1901. The maximum wage soon proved exploitative but the significant point was the rationale behind it: there has to be regulation to prevent the richest clubs developing what would in effect become monopoly positions – a principle that would be accepted by all but the most libertarian free-marketeers. No one ever seems to consider how the game should look. In an ideal world, how many points would the average Premier League champions get? What is a club? What happens when the investment funds of authoritarian states with&nbsp;command economies start dabbling in a free market? The issues are complex, global and would require an enormous, perhaps impossible, amount of consultation and collaboration to resolve – but these are questions that are not even asked. Everyone is wrapped up in their own self-interest, driven by their own greed. And that brings danger. Already at certain clubs there is a clear preference for high-spending occasional fans over regulars. Tournaments are bloating. The Champions League is a footstep from being a Super League. There is more and more content and less and less of it means anything. Financial bullies, celebrated by fans and partisan cheerleaders, seek the right to bully financially. Football is being dragged away from the communities that fostered it. What if the global appetite dwindles? What if this new audience moves on, to MMA or esports, or something else? If English football has ostracised its base, it might find there isn’t much left, and the self-absorbed mega-rich aren’t going to hang around to bail out the decades-old institutions they own; the medium-to-long term isn’t in their thinking. What if an infinitely rich owner bankrupts the Premier League? How might football end? Through the greed and monstrous self-interest of those who never really cared for that game, and the complacency of those who allowed it to happen. Winter may already be here.

Legal battle between Manchester City and the Premier League highlights the game’s existential crisis – and it may already be too late to save it

Apocalypse now: City wrangle shows the wealthiest owners could kill football | Jonathan Wilson

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="163951004d60fabc221f1b680837809fa477a188"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/163951004d60fabc221f1b680837809fa477a188/0_233_7909_4745/1000.jpg" alt="Vidit Gujrathi and Arjun Erigaisi at the chess Olympiad in Budapest" width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Vidit Gujrathi (centre) and Arjun Erigaisi (right) are part of an India team that are one of the favourites at the Olympiad in Budapest. Photograph: Dénes Erdős/AP </figcaption> </figure>

Magnus Carlsen, the world No&nbsp;1, competes for one of the few missing honours in his career at this week’s Olympiad in Budapest, where he leads sixth-seeded Norway. Carlsen’s Olympiad record is surprisingly modest. He has averaged just 70% in seven appearances, with his best performance a bronze medal in 2022. In 2010, he <a href="https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1594446">lost to England’s Michael Adams</a> after opening with the dubious North Sea Defence 1 e4 g6 2 d4 Nf6?! 3 e5 Nh5. The Olympiad got off to an uncertain start on Tuesday. Forty teams, 20 each from the Open and Women’s contests, were missing due to visa problems, the opening ceremony could not be broadcast live, and some early arrivals were charged ­triple the normal rate for hotel rooms. The drawing of lots for colours was an imaginative concept. The Olympiad torch was taken from Chennai through 11 countries, On its final journey through the streets of Budapest, the torch was carried by Judit Polgar, the all-time No&nbsp;1 woman, clad in an all-red outfit. Judit lit the on stage cauldron, then her double gold medal sisters, Susan and Sofia, entered to make the draw for colours by choosing one of two Rubik’s Cubes hidden inside a gigantic version. Every Olympiad participant received a Rubik’s Cube as a souvenir. Fide has special programmes to boost women’s chess and the rising proportion of mothers in national women’s teams. One of these is ChessMom, where Olympiad mothers with children under a year old plus their carers are all hosted as part of the team delegation. Fide has just announced that Google will be the title sponsor of the 14-game $2.6m Ding Liren v Gukesh Dommaraju world championship match, to be played in Singapore in November-December. The Fide congress, held during the Olympiad, will include a ­controversial motion to restore full voting and participation rights to Russia and ­Belarus, who were banned in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine. That year’s Olympiad was switched from Moscow to Chennai at short&nbsp;notice. Reports say that the motion already has enough votes to be ­carried. If it happens there could be consequences similar to 1939, when war broke out in the middle of the Olympiad, France and Poland refused to play Germany, and those matches were scored 2-2. England’s open team are seeded eighth, and England women 15th. Nine-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan, England’s youngest ever player in any sport, made her Olympiad debut in the opening round and <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast/45th-chess-olympiad-budapest-2024--women-matches-1-25/round-1/HWyodd7c/DCKBXdhV">defeated her South Korean opponent</a> in 42 moves. In the first two rounds ­England beat Taiwan 3.5-0.5 and Mexico 3-1. ­England women defeated South Korea 4-0 and Denmark 3-1. David Howell, the 2022 individual gold medallist, was held to a draw by GM Raymond Song. Who will win? The open event looks a race between the United States and India, with the latter ­having the edge due to youth, which is always an advantage in Olympiads. China won&nbsp;gold on their last appearance, but Ding, the world ­champion, is in poor form and could be a weak&nbsp;link. England, with an ageing squad, will do well to justify their high seeding. Only one of the world’s top 10 women, Nana Dzagnidze, is competing. Her Georgian team and India are the top seeds. China have a chance, but Beijing has the top four women in the world and China would have been long odds on if this quartet had taken part. England have their best women’s team for years, a blend of youth and experience, with the potential to improve significantly on its modest No&nbsp;16 seeding position. The Olympiad games can be followed move by move on either the <a href="https://chessolympiad2024.fide.com/live-games/open">official site</a>, <a href="https://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-olympiad-2024-live">chessbase</a> or <a href="https://lichess.org/broadcast">lichess</a>, starting at 2.15pm BST daily. Last weekend, Carlsen won the <a href="https://www.chess.com/">Chess.com</a> Speed Championship in Paris after defeating Hans Niemann 17.5-12.5 in their first live meeting since the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. when Niemann’s victory sparked cheating allegations and a $100m lawsuit. He was 10 points clear before relaxing in the last few bullet games. Afterwards he acknowledged Niemann’s recent advance to world No&nbsp;16 and said: “Niemann has become a good player, a very good player, but thinking that our levels were going to be close was unrealistic.” In his <a href="https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2767714">best game against Niemann</a>, Carlsen channelled his inner Bobby Fischer, initiating an attack in the US legend’s distinctive style. The finish could be 26 Rc7 Kg8 27 Bxg7 Qxg7 28 Bxd5! exd5 29 e6 and Black’s position collapses. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2024/sep/06/chess-players-from-orbiting-cosmonauts-to-the-wu-tang-clan-in-pictures">Chess players, from orbiting cosmonauts to the Wu-Tang Clan – in pictures</a> </aside> The semi-finals and final were played at a Parisian eSports venue, where the players sat at computers across from each other, wearing noise-cancelling headphones which played pre-selected music during the games. The hundreds of spectators were therefore free to talk and cheer as they watched from tiered seating. Carlsen went on to <a href="https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2767822">defeat the in-form Alireza Firouzja</a> by a record 23.5-7.5 margin in the final, concluding the match with an eight-game winning streak. The world No&nbsp;1 reflected on his performance: “Even though my average level has gone down a little from my peak, I feel I can still be very close to it on specific days. I think I’ll be around for a while still. They will have to earn it. I’m not going to necessarily give it to them.” The Carlsen v Firouzja final was a significant moment, because Carlsen had stated previously that Firouzja was the only opponent that interested him for a world championship match. The Norwegian declared that he wanted to be in his best form, and he was. Carlsen won by wide margins in the 5+1 and 3+1 blitz sections, and was at his peak in the final 1+1 bullet games. The overall impression given to viewers of this one-sided contest was that Carlsen, who in 2023 abdicated his classical world crown after a decade, was treating it as a substitute for the 2022 match against Firouzja which never happened, and was also making a statement for the continuing debate on whether Carlsen, Garry Kasparov or Fischer ranks as the greatest player of all time. 3937: 1...Qa3+ 2 Ke2 Qb2+ 3 Rd2 Bh5+! 4 Rxh5 Rxd2+ 5 Qxd2 c3! 6 Qxb2 cxb2 when Black queens her b2 pawn and wins with queen v rook.

The world No 1 will lead Norway at the event in Hungary shortly after defeating Hans Niemann and Alireza Firouzja at the speed championship finals in Paris

Chess: England seeded eighth as Carlsen targets gold at Budapest Olympiad

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="cbf3f9cf59acf8e03168ca4d2689cc814d74cd10"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/cbf3f9cf59acf8e03168ca4d2689cc814d74cd10/0_373_5957_3574/1000.jpg" alt="Newcastle fans display a banner before kick-off against Southampton." width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Newcastle fans still have great expectations of ending their trophy drought under PIF’s ownership. Photograph: Bruce White/Colorsport/Shutterstock </figcaption> </figure>

“I wish,” the Newcastle fan said, “that my club should have the richest owners in the world.” The monkey’s paw twitched. When Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund completed its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/07/newcastle-confirm-300m-saudi-backed-takeover-to-end-mike-ashley-era">takeover of Newcastle United,</a> in October 2021, that fan reacted with excitement; it seemed their wish had been delivered. Why should this fan fear the&nbsp;consequences? The image of the monkey’s paw derives from a 1902 short story by WW Jacobs, the motto of which is to be careful what you wish for – or at least that if you are granted three wishes, to be extremely precise in making them. For Newcastle, it may still be fine. A couple of astute signings before the window closes could be enough to get them back into Europe and the revenues that brings may be enough for slow and steady growth towards super-club status that is compliant with the profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). If the elephant of human rights can be left aside for a moment – something a lot of vocal Newcastle fans seem able to do very easily – this is a huge step up from the Mike Ashley era of drifting&nbsp;contempt. <aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail"> Related: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/aug/23/eddie-howe-cannot-guarantee-kieran-trippier-will-stay-at-newcastle">Eddie Howe cannot guarantee Kieran Trippier will stay at Newcastle</a> </aside> But this is not the future many imagined when the Saudi takeover happened and their fans – clusters of them on social media at least – sang about being the richest club in the world, having Cristiano Ronaldo cleaning the boots and Lionel Messi selling the pies. Even the more realistic supporters probably didn’t imagine that in the third summer after the takeover they would be haggling over the signing of a centre-back from Crystal Palace, hugely <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/aug/13/newcastle-united-crystal-palace-football-marc-guehi">gifted as Marc Guéhi is</a>. Another plausible reality now presents itself. Having the richest owners in the world does not necessarily mean having the biggest budget in the world and it brings pressures and discontents of its own. As Manchester City have found, it doesn’t take much to go from being regarded as long-suffering and deserving of better, to being resented as nouveaux riches tools of a questionable state. At least City have the league titles and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jun/10/rodri-breaks-internazionale-resistance-to-seal-manchester-citys-treble-glory">the Champions League</a> to show for it. Newcastle have managed to hang on to Bruno Guimarães and Alexander Isak despite suggestions one might have to be sold to fund further transfers, but that has come at the cost of two promising young talents, Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh, going to Nottingham Forest and Brighton respectively. Concerns persist that, thwarted by PSR from making the sort of eye-catching signings they would like, Newcastle are no longer the priority for the PIF, which has plenty of other sporting projects to focus on, including the Saudi Pro League, the 2034 World Cup, LIV Golf and various ventures in boxing, tennis, cricket, motorsport and&nbsp;esports. The perception was that qualifying for the Champions League in the first full season of Saudi ownership placed Newcastle ahead of schedule. A tough draw was a mixed blessing: on the one hand there was glamour but on the other it made progress exceptionally&nbsp;hard. Newcastle will always have the memories of the night when they welcomed Paris Saint-Germain to St James’ Park – Kylian Mbappé, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Ousmane Dembélé et al – and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/oct/04/newcastle-psg-champions-league-match-report">beat them 4-1</a>, but the European adventures perhaps took the edge off league form and the result was a seventh-placed finish. There’s no shame in that: other than the previous season, it was their best finish since 2011-12. But expectations have been raised. One season’s exceptional achievement rapidly becomes the following season’s par. For the most part, fans last season were understanding. There was a spell over Christmas as Newcastle, hammered by injuries, lost six out of seven in the league, when there was some grumbling, notably during <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/11/bournemouth-newcastle-premier-league-match-report">the defeat at Bournemouth</a>. Patience might have been severely tested had they lost in the FA Cup at Sunderland but <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/jan/06/sunderland-newcastle-fa-cup-match-report">that game was won </a>so easily that, having appeared a free hit for the Championship side, defeat was a major factor in the departure of Michael Beale. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/may/25/manchester-city-manchester-united-fa-cup-final-match-report">Manchester United’s surprise victory in the FA Cup final </a>cost Newcastle a place in the Europa Conference League which, while removing them from a competition they would have been among the favourites to win – and when a club hasn’t won anything since the Fairs Cup in 1969, the prospect of raising the trophy in Wroclaw was perhaps more appealing to Newcastle than for many – may not be a bad thing if the goal is to return to the Champions League. Whether Eddie Howe needs to achieve that to keep his job is, as with so much of the thinking of Newcastle’s directors, unclear. Dan Ashworth’s departure for Old Trafford and Amanda Staveley’s decision to sell her stake have removed two of Howe’s allies on the&nbsp;board. Peace appears to have broken out again, but the appointment of the performance director, James Bunce, by the new sporting director, Paul Mitchell, at the beginning of July led to much strained talk about “boundaries”. Howe seems relaxed but, with Lee Carsley appointed only as interim head coach of England, the national team job offers a potential route out of Newcastle if he did feel frustrated by transfer policy or perceived encroachment on his autonomy. But there is tension elsewhere, with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/aug/22/kieran-trippier-asks-to-leave-newcastle-with-everton-interested">Kieran Trippier seeking a move</a> after losing the captaincy to Guimarães and, seemingly, his place to Tino Livramento. That complicates the picture for the next week, with a right-back as well as a centre-back perhaps now needed. If agreement cannot be reached on Guéhi, Liverpool’s Joe Gomez, Chelsea’s Axel Disasi and Trevoh Chalobah or Bayer Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba represent plausible alternatives. Sandro Tonali will return from his gambling ban next week. Injury permitting, Newcastle have a squad that should challenge for Champions League qualification; the problem is that eight sides can say the same and there are four or possibly five slots. Would Howe be under pressure if Newcastle, say, lay sixth at the end of November? The truth is that nobody knows how the PIF would act or even really how much it&nbsp;cares. As Howe returns to Bournemouth on Sunday, the mood is better than it was on Newcastle’s last visit but, in a world of sensible signings and slow growth, the danger is stagnation and the monkey’s paw warning that they might have sold their soul to become an upper-mid-table club.

Having the richest owners has not led to immediate success amid concerns the club are no longer a priority for the PIF

Newcastle’s Saudi future may not be what many imagined as pressure hits | Jonathan Wilson

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="a55c533f535e14c37d833d256ea905acbbf59faa"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/a55c533f535e14c37d833d256ea905acbbf59faa/0_276_6192_3715/1000.jpg" alt="Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud speaks into microphones while seated at a desk, with adverts behind including Aramco" width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> The president of the Saudi Esports Federation, Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud, gives a press conference during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Esports World Cup in Riyadh. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images </figcaption> </figure>

Oil companies, petrostates, airlines and carmakers are among the big polluters bombarding the esports industry with adverts, a study has found. Esports, short for electronic sports, are competitive video games watched by spectators, with multiplayer games such as League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients 2 attracting peak viewer figures in the millions. The campaign group Badvertising counted at least 33 large-scale deals that carbon-intensive companies have struck with the booming industry since 2017. Most of the deals the researchers found were made with carmakers. A further five were made with fossil fuel companies, three with airlines, two with petrostates and two with the US military. “Our research shows that polluting companies facing the mounting pressure to move away from fossil fuels are doubling down on esports sponsorship to maintain influence,” said Andrew Simms, a co-founder of Badvertising. The first Esports World Cup draws to a close in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The oil-rich kingdom will host the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/12/saudi-arabia-olympics-esports">inaugural esports Olympics</a> next year, the International Olympic Committee announced last month. Simms said it would be “game over” for the industry if such events were used to make polluters more acceptable. Climate-damaging companies have long sought to improve their public image by sponsoring sporting events. They are now also looking to the fast-growing esports industry, which has an estimated half a billion viewers and is particularly popular among young people. Simms compared the companies and governments to “griefers” – players who go out of their way to harm others – and their sponsorship of esports to “cheesing”, a way of abusing the mechanisms of a game that falls just short of cheating. The oil company Shell has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/06/shell-fortnite-game-youth-marketing-campaign-fossil-fuels">come under fire from climate activists</a> for partnering with gamers playing Fortnite, one of the world’s most popular video games, to showcase its “ultimate road trips” promotion. Based on a virtual Shell-branded island, the campaign features statements such as “Fuel up at Shell with Shell V-Power NiTRO+ premium gasoline and feel your engine roar” and “Share your coolest screenshots using #ShellRoadTrips and get featured by your favourite gamers”. Saudi Arabia launched the Saudi Esports Federation with sponsorship from its national oil company Aramco. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar have followed with the Dubai esports and gaming festival and a partnership between Qatar’s Quest Esports and the French football club Paris Saint-Germain, sponsored by the state-owned Qatar Airways. The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/21/mohammed-bin-salman-says-he-will-continue-doing-sport-washing-for-saudi-arabia">said last year</a> he did not care about accusations that he was “sportswashing” his country’s human rights abuses with investments in sport. “If sportwashing is going to increase my GDP by way of 1% then I will continue doing sportwashing,” Prince Mohammed told Fox News. Brand sponsorship of sporting events is one of the most trusted advertising channels, according to research from the audience analytics company Nielsen, ranking above adverts on television, social media and influencers. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, criticised the fossil fuel industry’s disinformation campaigns in June and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/07/united-nations-fossil-fuel-ads-news-tech-media">called for a ban</a> on their advertising.

Oil firms, petrostates, airlines and carmakers ‘doubling down’ on sector that is popular with young people

Big polluters targeting esports industry with advertising deals, report reveals

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="58917bfd294975f685b0f2d74308579c850ba374"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/58917bfd294975f685b0f2d74308579c850ba374/0_115_2400_1441/1000.jpg" alt="‘I’ll miss the late-night rounds of Uno’ … a graphic depicting Xbox 360s." width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> ‘I’ll miss the late-night rounds of Uno’ … a graphic depicting Xbox 360s. Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP </figcaption> </figure>

The Xbox 360 digital store is the latest to go offline, following the Wii U and 3DS store shutdown in March. It shut down on Monday, taking about 220 games with it, according to analysis by <a href="https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/analysis-more-than-220-digital-games-will-disappear-when-the-xbox-360-store-closes/">Video Games Chronicle</a>. Preservation activists at the Video Game History Foundation even <a href="https://x.com/GameHistoryOrg/status/1817972923933589591">made a funeral cake</a>. Microsoft is definitely the best of the major companies when it comes to backwards compatibility and game preservation – despite those 220 lost games, a huge percentage of the Xbox 360’s back catalogue can still legally be played on later consoles. And it is remarkable that the Xbox 360 Marketplace lasted almost 20 years (the console was released in late 2005). It wasn’t the first digital store on a console, but it was the first one I ever used, and I assume the same was true for a lot of British players – the Xbox 360 was the most popular console of its generation in this country. In retrospect, the Marketplace was astonishingly ahead of its time. In the 2000s, brick and mortar video-game retail was still king, and the retailers held immense sway over the pricing and distribution of games. At the time, offering digital-only games at all risked retribution from the likes of Electronics Boutique and Game. I remember reporting on chatter at the time suggesting that some shops were threatening not to stock the Xbox 360 at all, because letting players download games digitally so undermined the retailers’ business model. (To be fair, they were right – video-game retail has been in an extended death spiral for years.) The Xbox 360 Marketplace didn’t move the needle all by itself. The transition to digital storefronts was gradual, and all the major players from Steam to Sony to Nintendo played their part over the years. “To begin with, digital was somewhat additive to retail,” says Chris Dring, head of GamesIndustry.biz. “Over 90% of console games during that time were bought in boxes on shelves at places like Game and Tesco, and it wasn’t until 2019 that the majority (51%) of AAA console games were being downloaded over being bought in a box. The Xbox Live Marketplace was primarily the place where people bought DLC or the occasional indie gem that could only be accessed via the digital store. But it fundamentally began the shift towards the digital future we now live in. Everyone now mimics what Xbox has done with Xbox Live and the Marketplace.” But what the Xbox 360 Marketplace really changed for console players was not how we bought games, but which games we could buy. On PC it has always been possible to download and play smaller, experimental games, but before the Xbox 360 you couldn’t do the same on consoles. I think the Marketplace directly enabled the indie renaissance of 2010 onwards, by giving smaller game developers and publishers a way to sell their games to millions of console players without the expense and logistical issues of releasing a boxed copy. Xbox Live Arcade, which began on the original Xbox but hit its stride during the 360 era, was revolutionary: every week there would be a new, small, downloadable game for £10 or less, from developers big and small. I played hundreds of games this way, and they were among the first games not in a box that I owned. Among them were Limbo, and Fez, and Geometry Wars, and Super Meat Boy, and the best-ever version of Uno (don’t @ me). There’s a strong case to be made that the Xbox 360 Marketplace introduced millions of console players to indie games. There are downsides to the digital transition, as Dring points out. “In 2005, Xbox (and PlayStation and Nintendo) was a platform. Now they are the platform, the distributor and the retailer. They control the whole chain. And increasingly, through their websites, YouTube channels and announcement videos, they’re becoming their own media, too.” We’ve become so used to digitally downloading games that it’s easy to forget how novel it once was. In saying goodbye to the Xbox 360 Marketplace, we’re also saying a final goodbye to an era of gaming where even DLC felt new and exciting. I do rather miss those times. And all those extended late-night rounds of Xbox 360 Uno. <h2>What to play</h2> The extremely British slapstick comedy game Thank Goodness You’re Here! is out today, and the reviews (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/31/thank-goodness-youre-here-review">including our own</a>) are glowing. It’s made by two Barnsley locals and set in the fictional northern town of Barnsworth, which has seemingly been constructed entirely around visual gags. It is short and sweet, but stuffed with excellent jokes and bizarre situational comedy that continues the tradition of Monty Python and The Mighty Boosh. Available on: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, PC Estimated playtime: 3 hours <h2>What to read</h2> <ul> <li>Guardian games correspondent Keith Stuart went to LA a few weeks ago to spend a couple of days with Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft’s crack at an open-world Star Wars game starring a Han Solo-esque renegade. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/30/star-wars-outlaws-ubisoft-galactic-adventure-kay-empire-strikes-back-return-of-the-jedi">It looks good enough to puncture the Star Wars fatigue</a>. </li> <li>Speaking of games retail: UK store Game is ending its rewards scheme today, 31 July. If you’ve got any points hanging around on your account, you have to spend them by the end of the day.</li> <li>How cute is this custom PS5 Astro Bot controller? Unlike most ultra-niche novelty game controllers, this isn’t just a marketing exercise, <a href="https://blog.playstation.com/2024/07/29/first-look-astro-bot-limited-edition-dualsense-wireless-controller/">you can actually buy it</a>. Pre-orders open 9 August.</li> <li>Wondering why there’s no official Olympics video game tie-in, such as the long-running Mario vs Sonic at the Olympic Games series? <a href="https://www.eurogamer.net/olympics-ditched-mario-sonic-series-to-explore-nfts-and-esports">Eurogamer reports</a> that it’s because the Olympics decided to pursue NFTs and esports instead. Ew.</li> </ul> <h2>What to click</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/30/dreamsettler-hypnospace-outlaw-pre-facebook-internet">Dreamsettler, a time capsule of the pre-Facebook internet</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/29/building-relationships-the-game-where-you-take-a-house-out-on-a-date">‘The windmill is pretty flirty’: Building Relationships, the game where you take a house out on a date</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/26/platformers-are-the-most-diabolical-gaming-genre-i-should-know">Platformers are the most diabolical gaming genre. I should know | Dominik Diamond</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/25/video-game-actors-strike-sag-aftra-ai">‘Enough is enough’: Hollywood’s video game actors go on strike</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/25/arranger-a-role-puzzling-adventure-review">Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure review – shifting expectations</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/25/black-myth-wukong-the-summers-most-exciting-and-most-controversial-video-game">Black Myth: Wukong – the summer’s most exciting, and most controversial, video game</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/24/horses-a-surreal-lynchian-horror-game">‘I’m not sure if it will sell, but it should exist’: Horses, a surreal Lynchian horror game</a></li> </ul> <h2>Question Block</h2> Reader Akshay asks this week’s question: “I recently finished Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon and found myself utterly listless in the days afterwards. Playing that game for nearly 180 hours had kept me in such a good routine and it hit me hard when I had to say goodbye. What is your best way to mitigate those feelings of post-game slump?” Oh, I know this feeling! I remember blasting through XCOM (above) in one weekend, saving the world, and having no idea what to do with myself afterwards, sitting there on my couch in my pyjamas with no sense of purpose. I played The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for so long that I remember leaving my flat after the end credits rolled and just wandering listlessly around town. I feel the same way about TV shows and books sometimes, when it’s time to say goodbye to characters and worlds I’ve lived with for a while. But we spend so much more time with games, and they’re so much more involving. Sometimes it feels like a breakup when they end. And just like after a breakup: jumping straight into a new game right away is not the way to go. It only invites negative comparison. So between big games I like to spend time on other things – being outside, picking up a novel, perhaps going for a drink with the friends I’ve temporarily been neglecting in favour of Breath of the Wild – until I really feel that I’m ready for something new. If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – email us on <a href="mailto:pushingbuttons@theguardian.com">pushingbuttons@theguardian.com</a>.

In this week’s newsletter: We’ve become so used to digitally downloading games now that it’s easy to forget how novel it once was, thanks to places like Xbox 360’s Marketplace

The Xbox 360’s pioneering online store has gone offline – and it marks the end of a gaming era

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="800252c031868b67428776cfc0c0993204808cfc"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/800252c031868b67428776cfc0c0993204808cfc/0_199_6048_3627/1000.jpg" alt="‘PlayStation Plus is confusing and expensive’." width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> ‘PlayStation Plus is confusing and expensive’. Photograph: Yelim Lee/AFP/Getty Images </figcaption> </figure>

Like everyone, I have come to massively resent the insidious creep of subscription services. I started off with an affordable, shareable Netflix subscription, many years ago. Then came Spotify, then Disney+ when I had children, then Prime Video, all of which I could just about justify. Then my Fitbit started wanting to charge me to unlock features in a device I’d already bought. Google now charges me monthly to store in the cloud the photos I take on my Google phone. I pay yearly for an app that lets me look at guitar tabs. Last week I tried to buy some protein powder and discovered I could only do so if I committed to a minimum three-month supply. Egregious. As for gaming: I’ve been a subscriber to Xbox Live, on and off, since 2003. PlayStation Plus came later, and then Nintendo Online, very belatedly, with the arrival of the Switch. I don’t play live-service games often, or I’d probably also be handing over the odd £8.99 for battle passes. Into this already fraught situation comes Microsoft, last week, with an update to its video game subscription offer that requires a spreadsheet to understand. There is now Game Pass Standard and Game Pass Core, two words which mean the same thing. There is also Game Pass Ultimate, and some of these options apply to PC as well, but not others. Some offer new Microsoft games on day one, others don’t; some include cloud gaming, others don’t. Also, they all cost more now. I am not stupid, and even after looking over these options several times I can’t 100% tell you what they mean and what the differences are without referring to a table. PlayStation Plus is now almost as confusing and expensive. The options are called Plus Premium, Plus Extra (another tautology), and Plus Essential, with linguistic clarity that makes me want to scream into a pillow. All of these come with different benefits, but you can’t play online with your friends at all without paying. As for Nintendo Switch Online, well, it’s barely got any benefits, making it feel like a Splatoon 3/Animal Crossing tax. But at least it’s simple, with only two options, and drastically cheaper than Xbox or PlayStation. I object to feeling as if I am paying a small mortgage to every entertainment and service company that exists. You could argue that every one of them is a choice, but it doesn’t feel like it. And outside of gaming, it’s been proven most of these services capture a market with cheap-ish introductory pricing, switch everyone over, then raise prices once the competition is far enough behind. This is why I’m suspicious of things like Game Pass in general: right now you can’t argue that it’s an enormously generous offer with a great library of games, but in 10 years, if Microsoft bought up even more of the games industry and then decided to charge you £30 a month to play Call of Duty, you’d be screwed. I often fondly mock my partner for his unwavering devotion to physical media – in addition to a thousands-strong record collection and shelves of Blu-rays and DVDs, he also still buys boxed games on discs and cartridges like it’s 2005. But his way of doing things is starting to look like an act of rebellion. At least we do still have the option to actually buy and own games, despite the diminished state of video game retail. In the future, when I am paying £100 per month for Ultra Super Game Cloud Box Plus to access and play a digital library of games that I already bought a decade or two previously, he’ll be the one laughing. <h2>What to play</h2> I’m reviewing Flock this week, a very simple, short and anxiety-soothing game about riding a bird around a colourfully strange landscape, identifying wild creatures and charming them into your entourage. Every animal looks a bit like a flying fish, but you get a sense for the difference between a Piper and a Greeb, a Bewl and a Drupe, and some of them hide themselves really well in the environment, making it feel a little like a puzzle game where you have to work out how to find a creature from one-sentence lines in your field guide. I thought there could have been a lot more to this game – the creatures that follow you around rarely do anything, for instance – but what’s here is relaxing and stylistically interesting. Available on: PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, PC Estimated playtime: 5 hours <h2>What to read</h2> <ul> <li>I reported last year on the Olympics’ <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/mar/08/pushing-buttons-olympic-games-esports-competition">somewhat faltering attempts</a> to include eSports. Now the IOC <a href="https://www.gamesindustry.biz/inaugural-esports-olympic-games-to-be-held-in-saudi-arabia">has signed a 12-year deal</a> with Saudi Arabia to host a new event series, the eSports Olympic Games. Saudi Arabia already hosts the eSports World Cup, and its Savvy Games Group has invested huge sums in various gaming companies – all of which can be seen as an expansion of its wider <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/mar/21/saudi-arabia-expands-its-sportswashing-ambitions-to-the-world-of-gaming">sportswashing efforts</a>.</li> <li>Old-school Rollercoaster Tycoon fans, listen up: Frontier has announced Planet Coaster 2, a sequel to its very detailed theme-park sim <a href="https://www.planetcoaster.com/">that will also let you build water parks</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://mobilegamer.biz/under-2000-people-have-paid-to-play-resident-evil-7-on-ios-estimates-say/">MobileGamer.biz reckons</a> that only 2,000 people have paid for Resident Evil 7’s technically impressive iOS port, looking at reported revenue numbers. If accurate, this really does beg the question of whether there’s a market for premium console-style games on smartphones at all.</li> </ul> <h2>What to click</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/16/sopa-interview-juan-castaneda-gabriel-garcia-marquez-video-game-potato-soup">A recipe for magical realism: Gabriel García Márquez and a video game about potatoes</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/16/college-football-25-could-this-be-the-uss-most-anticipated-sports-video-game-ever">College Football 25: could this be the most anticipated sports video game ever?</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/13/advergames-how-games-platform-roblox-became-a-corporate-marketing-playground">‘Advergames’: how games platform Roblox became a corporate marketing playground</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/12/the-last-of-us-score-music-gustavo-santaolalla">The Last of Us has three main characters: Ellie, Joel and Gustavo Santaolalla’s music</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/11/a-childs-eye-view-of-the-universe-curiosmos-makes-space-simulation-fun">A child’s-eye view of the universe: Curiosmos makes space simulation fun</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/10/zenless-zone-zero-review-stylish-enchanting-and-seductive">Zenless Zone Zero review – stylish, enchanting and seductive</a></li> </ul> <h2>Question Block</h2> My well of questions is running dry – please, send one in! I dug into the email archive for this query from Luke: “When it comes to games industry layoffs, the state of console gaming and the late-stage capitalism of it all: where does Nintendo fit into all of this? As the only one of the big three that is primarily a game company, rather than a division of a larger tech company, it quietly chugs along without huge rounds of hiring and firing. Is it a byproduct of their business culture, or something else?” There are lots of things that make Nintendo especially resilient: it has huge reserves of cash, sells consoles at a profit rather than loss-leading on hardware and profiting on games, and has incredible staff retention, which allows for the passing down of institutional knowledge. Much-missed former president Satoru Iwata made headlines during the Wii U era for cutting his own salary to protect staff from layoffs. It is not unique, however: Japanese companies in general do not go for rounds of hiring and firing, due to employment laws. This article from <a href="https://www.gamesindustry.biz/why-are-japanese-developers-not-undergoing-mass-layoffs">GamesIndustry.biz</a> explains the worker protections that Japanese developers enjoy: unless a company is facing bankruptcy it is more or less impossible to fire an employee. And that’s just one of many reasons why Japanese companies have not been affected by the current layoff bonanza – the industry is stable and indeed growing over there, due to investment from China and the size and profitability of the mobile game market. If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – email us on <a href="mailto:pushingbuttons@theguardian.com">pushingbuttons@theguardian.com</a>.

In this week’s newsletter: From Xbox Game Pass to PlayStation Plus, the new mainstream way to play games is costly, contradictory and most of all confusing

Video game subscription services are simply too complicated

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="366faa3847985a04443cf310e38ecbe3703896a8"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/366faa3847985a04443cf310e38ecbe3703896a8/0_145_4350_2610/1000.jpg" alt="Spectators watch video games as gamers play in Riyadh." width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Spectators watch video games as gamers play in Riyadh. Photograph: Ahmed Yosri/Reuters </figcaption> </figure>

Saudi Arabia and the International Olympic Committee have announced a 12-year agreement to host the new esports Olympics in the oil-rich kingdom starting next year. The partnership promises “Olympic Esports Games held regularly”, the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-announces-olympic-esports-games-to-be-hosted-in-the-kingdom-of-saudi-arabia">International Olympic Committee said</a> in a statement on Friday, beginning with the Esports Olympics in 2025. Saudi Arabia did not disclose how much it planned to spend on the competition. “This is a natural next step for our young athletes, our country and the global esports community,” said Prince Abdulaziz, who also heads the Saudi national Olympic committee. The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ioc-esports-olympics-video-games-8946bb61a4ba9fb9e20c4d0db05879cd">IOC said last month</a> it planned to launch video gaming Olympics to try to attract and retain young fans and audiences. In a statement announcing the Saudi Arabia deal, the IOC said the agreement had “ensured that the Olympic values are respected”, emphasizing the “promotion of gender equality and engagement with the young audience, which is embracing esports”. The announcement was made as the two-month Esports World Cup was held in Riyadh, the capital of the kingdom. The first formal hosting or sponsorship deal between the IOC and Saudi Arabia is the latest addition to the kingdom’s sprawling portfolio of sports events, including confirmation, due in December, to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-saudi-arabia-2034-ef76fa3cbcfab8eb6a13434fe3c34134">stage the 2034 World Cup in men’s football</a>. Sports and entertainment events are a key part of a program spearheaded by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, called Vision 2030, which aims to move the Saudi economy away from dependence on oil and to modernize its society. Saudi Arabia has hosted a swath of top-tier boxing events <a href="https://apnews.com/article/usyk-fury-score-heavyweight-championship-3539d0cb1203895291c114bf642e95a1">including heavyweight title fights</a> in recent years, and created the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tiger-liv-golf-pga-tour-cdd7b23e03600f004a9ec322436909e0">LIV Golf project</a> as a disruptive rival to the PGA Tour in the United States. The kingdom also will host the 2027 Asian Cup in men’s football, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/winter-olympics-sports-asia-saudi-arabia-cambodia-5f1feb502fc8e3855cd0db9356ae7bec">2029 Asian Winter Games</a>, which will take place in a ski resort specially built for it, and the multi-sport 2034 Asian Games in Riyadh. The Saudi sports minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, said the country “has become a global hub for professional esports”. Critics of Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights have said the push into international sports is in effect <a href="https://apnews.com/article/liv-saudis-golf-sportswashing-063c639305121c034b8dceaab24f26b3">“sportswashing”</a> to improve that reputation. The Saudi deal must be signed off by the IOC membership, which meets on 23 and 24 July in Paris, on the eve of Games. That approval is typically a formality for projects proposed by the Olympic body’s leadership. “We are very fortunate to be able to work with the Saudi committee on the Olympic Esports Games, because it has great – if not unique – expertise in the field of esports with all its stakeholders,” the IOC’s president, Thomas Bach, said. Last month, Bach said the video gaming event would have a financial model separate from the summer and winter Games, which share revenue with governing bodies of sports on those programs.

IOC signs deal with kingdom to host gaming Olympics over 12-year period amid criticism of Saudi human rights record

Saudi Arabia to host first ‘Olympics Esports Games’ in 2025

<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="5b455009bdf1da1188284a145979c73763f3c901"> <img src="https://media.guim.co.uk/5b455009bdf1da1188284a145979c73763f3c901/90_0_1800_1080/1000.jpg" alt="Screenshot of computer image of Wimbledon's Centre Court" width="1000" height="600" class="gu-image" /> <figcaption> Screenshot of Wimbledon from the Top Spin 2K25 game, which will be used for the tournament. Photograph: 2K Games </figcaption> </figure>

From Hawk-Eye to AI, Wimbledon traditionalists have spent 20 years railing against the introduction of computer technology on the hallowed turf. But now the oldest grand slam in tennis is experimenting with hosting a whole tournament in a virtual world. The 147-year-old championship is holding its first esports competition in an attempt to build a fanbase among young people. It has also been partnering with influencers to advertise its merchandise and produce content across SW19 to help build its social media presence and win over the next generation. And its new strawberry-themed merchandise is understood to target a younger market. “Our objective is to be at the pinnacle of sport and to be able to broaden the tennis audience, and you can’t do that by just retaining your current audience … We do try and acquire younger audiences,” said Usama Al-Qassab, the marketing and commercial director at the All England Club. Wimbledon’s “eChamps” will be the first tennis esports tournament hosted on the video game TopSpin 2K25. Qualifying rounds began this month and players aged 18 and over across Europe and the US can participate in ranked regional matches, which will conclude with in-person finals at Wimbledon on 12 September. The champion will win a gold-plated PS5 that is etched with their name by Wimbledon’s official engraver. Qassab said Wimbledon was also trying to appeal to even younger audiences with its animated YouTube series <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzLtOAAo6Lg&amp;ab_channel=Wimbledon">Blade &amp; Bounce</a>, aimed at under-fives, and its immersive 3D game WimbleWorld on Roblox, a gaming platform that is popular with school-age children. “Every day Roblox has more messages sent on it around the world than all WhatsApps put together. Last year WimbleWorld on Roblox engaged more youngsters in two weeks than the Fifa World Cup managed to in two months, and football is the opiate of the masses,” Qassab said. “We’re really proud of what we’re doing in this space. It allows us to acquire new and different audiences into tennis to engage with Wimbledon, and then hopefully go on to visit us or watch on TV.” Younger people watch less live sports than older generations, according to <a href="https://commercial.yougov.com/rs/464-VHH-988/images/YouGov-Sports-Whitepaper-v4.pdf">a YouGov report</a> released last year. Just 31% of global sports fans aged 18 to 24 and 36% aged 25 to 34 watched live matches on TV, compared with 75% of those 55 and over. Qassab said “an unparalleled” number of UK and overseas fans still wanted to visit SW19 despite increasing competition from other sports. “Geographical expansion is very important for us,” he said. “These marketplaces are very large, there are opportunities for us to engage them in tennis, it’s an opportunity to get them to watch more, and I believe that that’s part and parcel of why more people from the US are wanting to enter the ballot than ever before and come to Wimbledon.” To capitalise on the trend, the club has been working with foreign influencers, including from India and the US, such as 26-year-old Morgan Riddle, the girlfriend of Taylor Fritz, the world No 12. Qassab said the engagement through platforms such as Instagram had doubled year on year and the club could get more than a million likes for a single post. He said Wimbledon’s retail sales were “absolutely flying” with “well over double-digit growth” compared with last year. He said the club’s white cross-racket sweatshirt was the most popular item and its new strawberry-themed sweatshirt was second. “Part of it is down to the range, and part of it is actually promoting it and using influencers,” he added.

World’s oldest grand slam breaks with tradition to host ‘eChamps’ as part of efforts to attract younger audience