This week was packed with Elden Ring news stories, some of which were good, some great, and some like the Melania fight – absolute bullshit. But this week is a bit different. It's been a while since the game itself, FromSoftware, or Bandai Namco have been in the news, as opposed to the Elden Ring community. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly a triumphant return to this roundup for Bandai Namco.
Bandai Namco Confirms It Was Hacked, Customer Data Possibly Stolen
Early last week, reports started rolling in that publisher Bandai Namco was victim of a major hack. While a lot of the following leaked data was fake, Bandai Namco later confirmed that it had indeed been hacked and customer data may have been stolen.
“On July 3, 2022, Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. confirmed that it experienced an unauthorized access by third party to the internal systems of several Group companies in Asian regions (excluding Japan),” said a statement by the studio. “There is a possibility that customer information related to the Toys and Hobby Business in Asian regions (excluding Japan) was included in the servers and PCs.”
Elden Ring Is A Top 10 All-Time Best-Seller In The US, Or Is It?
While the publisher was busy cleaning up that mess, Elden Ring was busy hitting new milestones. In just under five months since its launch FromSoftware's masterpiece became one of the best-selling games of all time in the U.S. The news came from analyst Mat Piscatella of NPD.
However, Piscatella later retracted his statement as there were certain elements he overlooked. "Because the ranked charts do not include the full history for all titles and all platforms - across both physical and digital sales - this note was worded too definitively for what is an incomplete comparable universe," he explained.
Modathon Takes Place This Week
Mods have that special something that can either make a game better, or make it so cursed that you never want to play it again. Think Skyblivion vs Randy Savage dragons. But the fact remains that modders deserve some reward for their efforts which is exactly what the Elden Ring Modathon aims to do, with cash prizes for the Most Cursed, Best Reskin, and Game Changer categories.
“The 2022 Elden Ring Modathon is coming on July 15 with a total prize pool of $1,000 for three event categories and judged by the likes of modders such as LobosJr, Amir, Zullie the Witch, and myself,” said organiser LeKevDev. You can take part in it solo or with a team, and amateurs – or those looking to get into modding – are encouraged to participate.
Player Maxes Out Playtime Counter
Is there such a thing as playing too much Elden Ring? According to the game itself, there is. Anything over 999 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds might be a bit too much, even for Elden Ring, as that's where the playtime counter stops. This was discovered by Reddit user JayZRebellion, who managed to max out the counter at level 648.
Just in case you wanted to attempt this, you'd have to play the game for 7.35 hours a day for 143 days. Or for JayZRebellion, every day since the launch of the game.