With the speed at which news comes out in the gaming industry we sometimes miss important or news worthy things. Some of these things we want to talk about in a way that is both easy for you guys and allows us to get all the facts together as some of these stories develop quickly. Sometimes we also just cover topics that we find interesting and want to discuss.
Tunngle Services shuts down
As of 4/30/18 The Global LAN Gaming Network known as Tunngle has closed its doors citing its inability to meet the new European General Data Protection Regulation. Tunngle Service was software that allowed gamers to play games together via a simulated LAN environment. This was great for those older games that had those had LAN support but the servers for online play were shut down long ago or games that straight up never supported online play. This service was extremely useful and something I used for a brief time to play some older games with friends that were too far away to invite to a LAN party.
Source: Brothersoft.com
Wiggin’s thoughts on the subject : While this is sad news because there are only a few bits of software left that allow you to simulate a LAN environment. Losing one means there is just one less that is around for those of us who want to play older games with friends and those games only allow for LAN gameplay. I wish that we had more options for LAN emulation in relation to gaming because there are some old gems that eventually won’t be able to be enjoyed because we have no way of playing them with friends.
Now I think it’s interesting to note the reason they list for closing down. They say the reason is they won’t be able to meet the requirements of the new European General Data Protection Regulation. I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert on this subject but I find it interesting that this is their quoted reason for closing down. It would seem that there are a lot of regulations going into effect for all companies that deal with EU personal information and many of the ones I read about seemed very reasonable. So this begs the question have some of these companies just been running rampant with customer information and only now are doing the “right thing” ? If you know more detail and want to let me know please feel free to comment below. From my understanding while it’s unfortunate that we are loosing Tunngle I’m glad that we are getting better data protection regulations.
Microsoft stops ElDewrito Halo Online Mod
Update (5/3/2018): Microsoft has put a stop to the distribution of the original unmodified Halo Online files. The ELdewrito mod is on pause now and has not been taken down. From the Halo Online subreddit: “ElDewrito requires a copy of 1.106708 ms23 from the original closed alpha of Halo Online”. This means that if you have an original copy of the ms23 file you would be able to play the modded version of Halo Online.
Microsoft blocked the ElDewrito mod, an abandoned Halo Online game meant for PC long ago as reported by PCGamer. While they have hinted at the next Halo game (Halo 6) being released on Windows 10, there is still no affirmative information on this.
This point is important “As we look ahead, we’re very excited about the prospects of an official classic Halo experience making its way to PC and we hope to be able to partner with the ElDewrito team and broader mod and content creation community” https://t.co/KVJbH5PfJI
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 25, 2018
Ozzy’s Thoughts: Wiggin was the first one to tell me about this mod and the first one to say “Microsoft doesn’t seem to care, its been around for awhile.” From then on it seemed to be gaining popularity more and more but I knew from the second I was told about it, that it wouldn’t last. I know Microsoft putting a stop to it is there right, it’s the property, I’m not disputing that. I’m disputing WHY have they not released a single, proper Halo game since Halo: Combat Evolve. I know they released Halo 2 on PC but it was on the bloody awful “Vista OS Only” restriction and was so broken on that OS. I’m sure it works on more stable systems now but where did the rest of the Halo’s go? We have been begging for a Halo game on PC since Halo 2 but they’ve barely delivered and with the mod showing just how much we want a proper Halo game to so many people. Even if before the mod came out they did have plans to release Halo 6 on PC the way they’ve shutdown this mod seems very much to me a “oh crap, maybe we should release a PC version, shut them down so they stop taking our sales.”
It just irks me, they could’ve said “stop” at any time before this, they were not hiding the mod, they were not doing anything monetized/illegal with the mod, but once it seems the popularity of it skyrocketed with a very large fan/player base, suddenly a cease and desist comes along.
Wiggin, Ozzy and Chaos spend an hour talking about their favorite games, interesting topics in gaming like Overwatch and trying to solve everyday gaming issues like alternatives to microtransactions. Come check out our first ever podcast on our Youtube channel!
