On that front, the biggest story this week was Square Enix divesting itself of its Western IPs and studios, including giant gaming brands Deus Ex and Tomb Raider. It’s a surprising move - especially with the company apparently investing heavily in NFTs, cryptocurrency and other recent trends - and the implications are well worth discussion. Elsewhere, Halo Infinite Season 2 kicked off, and as well as new content it also brought some much-needed fixes for some nagging issues that have persisted from launch. In other Microsoft-adjacent news, the team discusses the rumours that Forza Motorsport 8 will be a cross-gen title despite a suspected release date years after the debut of the Series X. There are also some cracking supporter questions in this week’s show, with John offering some tips on how best to enjoy the Black Frame Insertion feature found on some modern TVs, and Alex tackling the rumours that the Steam Deck’s frame limiter adds input lag to many games.
00:00:00 Introductions 00:01:20 News 01: Square Enix sells off Western studios + IPs 00:10:10 News 02: Halo Infinite Season 2 launched 00:18:53 News 03: Is Forza Motorsport 8 cross-gen? 00:24:08 News 04: Prince of Persia Remake woes 00:29:17 News 05: Xbox VRR HDMI woes on AV receivers 00:36:23 News 06: 100TF Nvidia Lovelace GPUs? 00:45:35 DF Supporter Q1: Does the frame limiter in Steam Deck increase input lag? 00:55:27 DF Supporter Q2: My friends say Elden Ring “runs great” - does this vindicate From’s decision to not focus on technical performance when only the enthusiast crowd notices? 01:00:20 DF Supporter Q3: Do you think we’ll see GameCube emulation on Switch? 01:04:05 DF Supporter Q4: Mike Chi teased a TINK4K on Twitter - what do you think? 01:10:20 DF Supporter Q5: The games that best use Switch hardware tend to be from Nintendo or developers that work (almost) exclusively for Nintendo platforms. Will the Series S get into a similar situation where Microsoft / Bethesda make the best Series S titles? 01:15:35 DF Supporter Q6: Is HDR more trouble than it’s worth? 01:24:12 DF Supporter Q7: What kinds of games are best suited for Black Frame Insertion (BFI)? 01:28:05 DF Supporter Q8: Oliver, what’s your professional background?
In the latter half of the show, the team discusses the Tink4K - a promising device that could make upscaling retro consoles to 4K easier than ever before - and what the point of HDR is, anyway. The show closes out as it began - with the spotlight on DF Direct debutant Oliver as he explains his surprising pre-DF work history. We’re often blessed with some great questions for Digital Foundry Direct, so if you’ve got one cooking up we’d encourage you to check out the Digital Foundry Supporter Programme. As well as being able to chat with the team and ask them questions, you get unlimited access to our archive of high quality video downloads, bonus and early access material, entry to the DF Discord and a slew of other perks. Join us!
