A new game industry survey revealed that over 500 studios around the world are currently working on or maintaining live-service video games like Destiny 2, Suicide Squad, and Fortnite.
There's a bit of bad news if, like us, you were quietly hoping Citizen Sleeper 2 might just squeak out before the end of 2024; developer Jump Over The Age has confirmed there's still "around a year left of development" on its eagerly anticipated narrative sci-fi RPG sequel.
Jump Over The Age - AKA developer Gareth Damian Martin - announced they were working on a follow-up to the hugely well-received Citizen Sleeper back in June last year. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, as the sequel is known, introduces a brand-new Sleeper android protagonist in a new setting where players will need to build themselves a life among the stars, piloting their own ramshackle stolen ship populated by a crew they've recruited themselves.
An update in August gave us a first look at a new location in Citizen Sleeper 2 - a bustling way station known as Hexport - as well as confirmation it'll be releasing for PC via both Game Pass and Steam. What we didn't get, though, was any hint of an ETA for Citizen Sleeper 2 - and that's where Jump Over The Age's latest update comes in.
Sony’s massive State of Play presentation on January 31 gave us a look at a bunch of upcoming PlayStation 5 games, including the first-person shooter Judas, the action game Stellar Blade, and many more. Stunlock Studios’ 2022 breakout game V Rising also made an appearance, with an announcement that the open-world…
If, for whatever reason, you weren’t satisfied with the hopeful ambiguity of The Last of Us Part II’s ending, it sounds like Naughty Dog still thinks there’s at least one more bullet in the chamber for the series. Director Neil Druckmann has revealed in the Grounded II: The Making of The Last of Us Part II documentary…
This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian is joined by Game Informer's Charles Harte to preview Mario vs. Donkey Kong, the new Switch remake of the well-liked Game Boy Advance puzzle platformer. Before that, though, the two editors run down the latest news, and the show wraps up with an eShop Gem of the Week.
If you'd like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on Instagram/Threads( @BrianPShea) or Twitter (@BrianPShea). You can also follow Charles on Twitter (@chuckduck365).
The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry's most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to talk about what's happening in the world of Nintendo. Along the way, they'll share personal stories, uncover hidden gems in the eShop, and even look back on the classics we all grew up with. A new episode hits every Friday!
Square Enix shared an official interview with Britt Baron, the voice actress behind Tifa Lockhart in FFVII Remake and Rebirth. As part of that, she shared her favorite moments playing the character in both games, though her thoughts on the one from Remakeis less vague than the Rebirth moment to avoid spoilers.
When it came to her favorite FFVII Remake memory of Tifa, Baron brought up a point involving Tifa’s kindness. She explained how at one point, even though they are enemies, the character goes out of her way to help someone from Shinra.
My favorite scene to play in Remake, might have been on the train when Tifa saves one of the Shinra employees.
The roster for the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us grows bigger every day. The latest actor to jump on board the critically acclaimed adaptation of Naughty Dog’s series of games is Catherine O’Hara of Beetlejuice and Schitt’s Creek fame. She’ll be joining returning leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, along with…
The newest game in the Like a Dragon series, Infinite Wealth continues the series’ focus on interpersonal relationships. In fact, it even has a button dedicated to saying hi to people. And once you hit the streets of Hawaii, you won’t just say hello, you’ll say aloha, and will gain a friend in the game’s in-world…
It has been a big week for Sonic the Hedgehog fans. Not only did we get the Sonic X Shadow Generations announcement during Sony’s State of Play presentation, but we also have a new tease and a ton of casting news for the third live-action movie set to premiere on December 20. This teaser used a Sonic Adventure 2-style…
Pocketpair CEO and Palworld creator Takuro Mizobe shared on social media that the server costs for the game have drastically increased. The current server upkeep costs stand at 70.53 million yen (or approximately $475,500,) which is 359% more than the server fees cost in January 2024.
Mizobe made the original post on his personal X (formerly Twitter) account, where he shared a screenshot of the cost increases and its price. The post was accompanied by a Japanese caption that translates to the following:
Huh, am I going to go bankrupt due to server costs?
You can also check out the original post here:
Paradox Interactive has announced another delay for its ambitious Sims-like Life By You, which is now due to enter Steam and Epic Games Store early access on 4th June.
Life By You, the first game from Paradox's Tectonic studio (headed up by former Sims boss and Second Life CEO Rod Humble), was officially unveiled last March, promising a game that would let players "create humans and live out their lives without loading screens".
It is, essentially, the Sims, albeit with a few key selling points intended to differentiate it from the current iteration of EA's juggernaut franchise: it's fully open-world with no loading screens, it features "real language conversation", its digital humans can optionally be directly controlled, and "everything is customisable". It also sports a more realistic art style compared to the Sims 4, which, last year at least, unfortunately looked rather drab and bland.
Carl Weathers, the legendary Black actor who portrayed Apollo Creed in the Rocky films and starred in dozens of other movies and TV shows like Predator, The Mandalorian, and Toy Story 4, died on Thursday, February 1 at the age of 76. According to Deadline, his family released a statement confirming Weather’s passing.…
As technology advances and we keep asking relatively less from computers for most tasks, the mini PC in general becomes a more and more viable option. AYANEO, a company that’s established itself with its handhelds, is expanding into the market with its Retro Mini PC AM01. Is it right for you? We’ll try to help you answer that.
The packaging of the AYANEO AM01 makes tons of nods to Apple’s choices over the years, setting the stage for the product itself. It makes tons of nods to Apple’s choices, both in its early era and its modern-style box packing. Do these match with the era of the Macintosh Classic, the computer upon which the AM01’s design is based? Uh, not really, no. It’s a pastiche, much like other products in the Remake line. And maybe that makes sense for a product that looks like a Mac but runs Windows.
The materials and wallpaper use a pixelated version of the old Apple serif, which… is weird! It was used on print materials or large enough on the screen to not look like that. The interchangeable icon on the case where the Apple logo would be is a nice touch, if sort of unnecessary. It’s not like the AM02 model with its built-in screen, so we’re not sure how often you’ll be looking at the hardware itself.
Persona 3’s cast, much like the game itself, is the best one. This is only solidified by Persona 3 Reload’s new side stories that flesh out some of the cast into the best versions of themselves. The third iteration of the Megami Tensei subseries pivots into a supernatural, social sim-driven dungeon crawler. Part of…
Omnipresent brothers, Travis and Jason Kelce (who are NFL players, commercial stars, SNL hosts, podcasters, and members of Taylor Swift’s inner circle) are looking to add a game development feather to their caps—specifically, they want to reboot ‘90s classics Backyard Football and Backyard Baseball. Whether or not…
Jim Carrey will be returning as Dr Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. He will be reprising the role when the movie releases in theaters on December 20, 2024. [Thanks, Variety!]
The return of Jim Carrey for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was first teased on the official Sonic movie X/Twitter account. A short video featuring the movie’s logo was shown featuring Robotnik’s distinctive laugh. The return of Robotnik was then confirmed by Variety. A teaser for Robotnik’s return also featured during a post-credits scene in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be the third in the hugely successful movie series from Paramount. The first two movies have made a combined $870 million at the global box office. It’s one of the highest-grossing movies based on a video game ever released, alongside The Super Mario Bros Movie and Detective Pikachu. A TV series based on Knuckles is also in development.
After The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time reinvented the series in 3D and became its new gold standard, Nintendo followed up with a surreal sequel in Majora's Mask. Set two months after the events of Ocarina, Link finds himself transported to an alternate version of Hyrule called Termina and must prevent a very angry moon from crashing into the Earth over the course of three constantly repeating days. Majora's Mask's unique structure and bizarre tone have earned it legions of passionate defenders and detractors, and one long-time Zelda fan is going to experience it for the first time to see where he lands on that spectrum.
Join Marcus Stewart and Kyle Hilliard today and each Friday on Twitch at 2 p.m. CT as they gradually work their way through the entire game until Termina is saved. Archived episodes will be uploaded each Saturday on our second YouTube channel Game Informer Shows, which you can watch both above and by clicking the links below.
Catherine O'Hara has joined the cast of The Last of Us for the show's second season.
O'Hara, whose expansive career includes playing eccentric matriarch Moira Rose on Schitt's Creek and Kate McCallister in the Home Alone films, will play an undisclosed character in HBO's adaptation. However, previous rumours suggested she will have a recurring role as an all-new character known as Gail.
O'Hara joins Bella Ramsey's Ellie, Pedro Pascal's Joel, Kaitlyn Dever's Abby, Young Mazino's Jesse, and Isabela Merced's Dina for the second season of The Last of Us.
I am not reviewing Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League for Game Informer (that privilege belongs to looter-shooter expert Matt Miller), and for that I am grateful. But it’s not because the game is terrible. It’s because even after five hours, I still have no idea how I feel about it.
There is a scene in The Dark Knight Rises that I always assumed would become a meme, but never did. When Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle gets stopped trying to escape at the airport by Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake, he asks her about Bruce Wayne’s fate. In a fantastic one-line performance, she looks into his eyes with genuine uncertainty and fear and says simply, “I’m not sure.” And that’s exactly how I feel when someone asks me what I think of Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad.
In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, former Game Informer editor Jay Guisao joins us to share exclusive details about Apex Legends Season 20: Breakout and discuss our time visiting Respawn Vancouver. Marcus and Kyle discuss the early hours of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League; Charles breaks down his Mario Vs. Donkey Kong preview, then we round out the show discussing Persona 3 Reload.
Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Jason Guisao (@Jason_Guisao), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), Charles Harte (@Chuckduck365)
HoYoVerse revealed the full details of what to expect from Black Swan in Honkai: Star Rail. This five-star wind-type Nihility character will be making her debut in version 2.0 on February 6, 2024.
Black Swan can inflict a new DoT effect for Honkai: Star Rail. It’s called Arcana, and many of her abilities are focused on building this up. Arcana can be stacked any time a DoT effect is applied to an enemy, and will cause wind damage on an affected enemy’s turn.
Black Swan can use her basic attack, Percipience, Silent Dawn, to deals wind damage to a single target. This has a chance of inflicting Arcana, and if the enemy has Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn or Shock applied, there’s a chance for additional Arcana stacks to be added. Her Skill, Decadence, False Twilight, will do the same but for multiple targets. It also has a chance to reduce enemy DEF. Her Technique, From Facade to Verite, will apply a stack of Arcana at the start of battle too.
Black Swan can also use her Talent, Loom of Fate’s Caprice, to enhance the effects of Arcana. Depending on how many stacks are on an enemy, she can increase damage and even apply stacks of Arcana to adjacent enemies. If the player can apply more than seven stacks of Arcana, the damage will also ignore a percentage of the enemy’s DEF.
Jobs. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. In Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Jobs are simply another term for “Class,” and switching them up will alter your characters’ stats and reward them with new abilities as you increase their ranks. Some Jobs can be equipped on multiple characters, while others are…
In these turbulent times, we could all do with a little more lo-fi in our lives. Delivering said remedy to the tickling of gentle piano and soft sunset palette hues is Tranquil Isle, a lovely-looking combination of city-builder and resource-management roguelite drifting in on the waves later this year. (Or you can just make pretty islands, if you prefer.)
Kotobukiya announced a new Star Trek Bishoujo figure, and this time the hint suggests it is inspired by Captain Kirk. However, only a silhouette of the upcoming character appeared.
In this line of Kotobukiya figures, as is common with the Bishoujo collection, it focuses on depictions of female characters. This is the case even if they aren’t originally that gender in the source material.
For this figure, the Star Trek Bishoujo heroine’s figure has a dynamic pose. She is holding a phaser in her right hand and is speaking into a communicator in her left. She also appears to be perched on a rock of some sort. The art makes it look as though she is being beamed up.
As for the hints about it being a figure of a captain, two seem to suggest that. The first is that the silhouette is yellow, which is the color of Command uniforms in the original Star Trek. The second is that the English announcement on social media begins with “Space: the final frontier,” which is how Kirk would begin the show.
Video game publisher Activision Blizzard has been embroiled in controversy within the last few years, from allegations that a culture of sexual harassment was allowed to thrive to reports of union-busting by management. But in January 2024, when a new lawsuit was filed against the Call of Duty and Overwatch publisher,…
It's February, which means Steam Next Fest is upon us! If you're unfamiliar with what this festive celebration of games is, every year, Steam holds its Next Fest to highlight (mostly) indie games coming out this year and beyond with fun, often bite-sized demos. And the best part is the demos are completely free!
Game Informer got access to some of these demos before their launch when Steam Next Fest begins on Monday, February 5, and enjoyed quite a few. That's why in today's installment of New Gameplay Today, hosts Wesely LeBlanc and Kyle Hilliard want to showcase three games: Pepper Grinder, a fun momentum-based platformer, Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge, a cozy frog farming sim, and Dystopika, a chill cyberpunk city builder.
Check out gameplay of all three of these demos in the NGT below:
All three of these games are set to launch sometime later this year, but if you're interested, you can try each out (and dozens more) as part of Steam Next Fest, which begins Monday, February 5, and ends Monday, February 12.
Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Today right here.
It’s been over a decade since we’ve gotten a BioShock game and no official follow-up has been announced, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something on the horizon for fans of the franchise. Upcoming shooter Judas looks to be a BioShock game in everything but name, and it’s helmed by none other than Ken Levine, the…
Persona developers Atlus have promised there are no plans to follow up Persona 3 remake Reload with an expanded re-release like Persona 5 Royal, giving us all a welcome break from the tyranny of the letter R.
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The early access release of Paradox's big rival to The Sims has been delayed by another three months, the publisher has announced. Life By You was originally set to launch next month on March 5th, but will now enter early access on June 4th, which developers Paradox Tectonic say will allow them "to refine the visuals for its human characters and further improve gameplay".
A new scale figure of the protagonist of Persona 3 Reload is available to pre-order, this time courtesy of Kotobukiya and Sideshow. The figure will cost $160 or ¥24,212, with shipping expected sometime between August and October, 2024.
Standing at around 23 cm (8.86" tall), the figure is made in 1/8 scale out of PVC and ABS. The protagonist's S.E.E.S. patch and Evoker are prominent, but the figure also includes smaller details like his headphones, belt holster and music player. Additionally, the base of the figure features a bullet hole in the center and translucent parts to emulate the shattered glass aesthetic used throughout the game.
You can get a look at the figure in the gallery below:
As acclaimed first-person automation sim Satisfactory inches closer to the fifth anniversary of its early access launch, developer Coffee Stain Studios has revealed it's eyeing up a version 1.0 release "this year", and that the game has now sold over 5.5m copies.
Satisfactory released into early access back in March 2019 - initially as an Epic Games Store exclusive before making the jump to Steam the following year - and it quickly made a splash, thanks its co-operative, open-world spin on the automated resource exploitation loop popularised by developer Wube Software's much-loved Factorio.
In Satisfactory, Factorio's irresistably compulsive formula - in which you mine stuff to craft stuff that'll make mining more stuff easier so you can craft bigger stuff and so on - plays out in first-person across a vibrant, explorable sci-fi open-world, where up to four friends can work together to achieve their goals. It's a twist that's clearly resonated with people too, as Coffee Stain has now revealed Satisfactory has sold over 5.5m copies since early access began.
Can you believe it’s been almost half a decade since Satisfactory unleashed its gloriously pleasing factory-building hijinks into early access? And that, five years on, it’s still yet to hit 1.0? Well, you best believe it, as devs Coffee Stain Studios have confirmed that Satisfactory will finally reach the end of the early access conveyer belt sometime in 2024.
Kotobukiya will produce and release even more plastic model kits modeled after Capcom's Mega Man metaseries. The company newly revealed at Kotobukiya Collection 2024 that it will produce new model kits of Sigma from the Mega Man X series and Bass.EXE from the Battle Network series. It also unveiled new prototypes of upcoming kits based on special weapon variants from Mega Man 11 and Mega Man X3. [Thanks, Hobby Watch!]
The Mega Man franchise kits of Sigma and Bass.EXE are still in a very early development phase, so Kotobukiya has yet to share any prototype samples for either character. It instead published unpainted prototypes of the weapon variant Mega Men.
Given that Persona 3 Reload is taking you through almost a year in your character’s life, a lot of important dates come up! You might miss certain experiences if you don’t pay attention. Also, it helps you plan and prepare for tests in school or certain boss fights. Here’s what you need to know was you play.
Okay, so, here are all the dates you absolutely need to keep in mind as you go through the game. This collection consists of days you need to remember for exams, boss fight days, and certain social situations you don’t want to miss out on. Note that I also didn't mention dates for side stories for party members who don't have social links, like Akihiko.
February is in full swing, new games have arrived, and we’re looking at a month full of some pretty neat games to pick up in the coming weeks. So what are we here at Kotaku looking forward to spending our time with this weekend?
Readers, I must confess. I was watching Sony's State Of Play stream on Wednesday with a mind divided. I'd arranged with some pals to play an online board game with them that evening, and when news hit that it might actually be a reasonably big deal for us PC folks, I ambitiously thought: I can proooobably do both at the same time??? Reader, I was wrong, at least for the most part. The first 30 minutes of it was arguably fine, but then the 10-minute trailer for Death Stranding 2 arrived and I simply had to throw my hands up in defeat. I honestly did not understand what I was watching, and even several re-watches later, I'm still not 100% sure what Kojima thinks he's playing at.
But hot damn, do I love it anyway.
Steam Next Fest doesn't officially start until next Monday, February 5th, but what the heck, everyone's putting their demos live early this year, it seems, and another one that's just popped the cork ahead of time is Pepper Grinder, the excellent-looking pixel platformer where you're burrowing through bedrock with a heckin' great drill in your hands as you attempt to steal back your treasure from some pesky pirates. I was instantly smitten with this one when it was first unveiled at the end of 2022, and the more I've seen of it, the more it's risen into becoming one of my most anticipated games of 2024. Happily, its Next Fest demo doesn't disappoint, as it not only feels wonderful in the hands, but ooof, it really knows how to do a good plinky plink coin jostle. My word.
Imagine there's a restaurant known for its wonderful burgers. They're loved and respected in the industry. These Burgers changed the way all future burgers by other restaurants are sold. Now, imagine the place made a new dish. You're first in line. You have to have it. When the waiter comes, he serves you a nice, beautiful plate of saltine crackers and some cheese. This is how it feels to play Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League after playing Batman: Arkham Asylum.
One is a genre-defining game with innovative combat, a compelling and gripping story, and an overall unique presentation and approach. The other is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It's hard to fully grasp that Rocksteady Games made both titles.
The title of this game tells you the main objective and, admittedly, on paper it's a good one. You play as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang as they set out to, well, kill the Justice League. You see, the team has been brainwashed by Brainiac, who is now hours away from a total invasion of Earth.
Developer Shift Up Second Eve Studios made quite the splash at Sony Interactive Entertainment’s recent State of Play broadcast with a gameplay reveal trailer for Stellar Blade (previously known as “Project Eve”). The PS5 character-action exclusive is looking real good, thanks it part to its stylish combat and even…
