May 2022

Square Enix has sold off its western studios and over 50 intellectual properties to Embracer Group for just $300m.

The sale, which is set to go through by September this year, means Embracer owns Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal, as well as IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain. That amounts to around 1100 employees.

As already announced, a new Tomb Raider is in development at Crystal Dynamics, built on Unreal Engine 5. Thoughts now turn to other games potentially in development at these just-bought studios.

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Embracer Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal from Square Enix alongside a catalog of intellectual properties that includes Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and more than 50 others too. 

Embracer Group is paying $300 million for these studios and associated IPs and it's doing it on a “cash and debt-free basis, to be paid in full at closing,” according to the company. In total, this acquisition will result in roughly 1100 employees from these three studios, across eight locations around the world, becoming Embracer Group employees. This purchase is expected to close during the second year of Embracer’s 2022-23 financial year, or in other words, sometime between July and September of this year. 

“We are thrilled to welcome these studios into the Embracer Group,” Embracer Group co-founder and group CEO Lars Wingefors writes in a release. “We recognize the fantastic IP, world-class creative talent, and track record of excellence that have been demonstrated time and again over the past decades. It has been a great pleasure meeting with leadership teams and discussing future plans for how they can realize their ambitions and become a great part of Embracer.” 

Comic book covers are often just as exciting as the art and story within the actual book. In the case of former Rockstar Games illustrator Mark Scicluna, though, the covers might come out on top. 

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: CI Games, United Label
Developer: Fallen Flag Studio
Release: July 29, 2021
Rating: Teen

Last summer’s challenging action game Eldest Souls gets a beefy – and free – expansion today called Depths of the Forgotten. The update treats fans and newcomers alike to three new locations, each housing a powerful boss waiting to be conquered. Additionally, the expansion introduces a new Boss Shard (with 12 infusions), four new weapons, weapon customization, and additional lore bits to further flesh the story. 

It’s been a long six years for Deus Ex fans, who’ve understandably been concerned that the long-dormant cyberpunk series would remain untouched. But today, in the cold, harsh light of an industry-shaking acquisition, we’re feeling…is it hope? This is what hope feels like, right?

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Collecting every spell in Elden Ring is quite an undertaking, so it's nice when some of them are simple and easy to round up. In the case of the visually-impressive sorcery Meteorite, you can snag it by simply defeating an easy boss at an evergaol in a mid-game area. In this guide, we'll tell you where you can do just that so that you can mark one more spell off your list.

Meteorite explained

Meteorite is a sorcery that requires 30 Intelligence to cast. It summons small meteors from the sky to do damage to enemies in an AOE fashion, though there's a randomness to their trajectories, making it a bit of a literal hit-or-miss spell to use on groups of foes.

Meteorite's item description reads:

One of the glintstone sorceries that manipulates gravitational forces. Summons a void that emits a rain of small meteorites. Hold to continue the effect. The sorcery originates from the Onyx Lords, who had skin of stone, and were called lords in reverential fear of their destructive power.

Where to find Meteorite

Meteorite can be obtained by defeating the Onyx Lord at the Royal Grave Evergaol in northern Liurnia of the Lakes. To access this spot, however, you'll first need to make your way through Caria Manor on the upper left side of the biome. Once you've defeated the boss there and exited through the back of the manor, head east until you reach the evergaol.

Apex Legends Season 13 kicks off May 10, adding Bangalore's brother, Jackson Williams, as the new playable legend--he's masquerading as Newcastle, a man who repeatedly tried and failed to enter the Apex Games. Alongside Newcastle, Season 13 makes some map changes to Storm Point, with developer Respawn seemingly putting a greater emphasis on implementing player-vs-environment (PvE) play with the addition of IMC Armories.

Every battle royale map in Apex Legends has its own flavor, and Storm Point has leaned towards PvE from the very beginning, launching with prowler and spider nests scattered throughout. The wildlife presented a risk-vs-reward system for players; moving through them offered what could potentially be a more direct route to the zone and the chance to earn more loot, but at the risk of having to contend with dangerous beasts.

Fighting off prowlers or spiders also ran the risk of creating enough racket to attract nearby squads, sandwiching you between the wildlife and other players. Few things in Apex Legends are more nerve-wracking than hearing the slow wind-up of an enemy Devotion in one ear and the hungry roar of a prowler in the other.

The ongoing chip and semiconductor shortage, which has been affecting technology across a wide range of products--including game consoles--has been going on for about two years now, but Intel's CEO says we could see it continue until 2024. That could mean continued supply problems on everything from the PS5 to new cars.

Speaking to CNBC, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said the chip shortages have begun hitting the equipment needed to manufacture products, and "some of those factory ramps will be more challenged." The company's previous estimate had the shortage going into 2023, but the volatile nature of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made it pretty much impossible to nail down a firm date.

Intel is taking matters into its own hands to avoid supply bottlenecks in the future, as it's building a $20 billion chip production facility in Columbus, OH. However, this facility won't actually be operational until 2025, at which point it's possible these ongoing supply issues will no longer be as severe.

It's another light month on the gaming calendar, but May still has an appealing number of smaller releases scheduled for launch. From samurai epics to 2.5D action-RPGs, this month has some interesting games across a wide variety of genres. May also brings a return to long-distance assassination and a groovy icon revving up his chainsaw. Here are the biggest upcoming games releasing in May.

Trek to Yomi (May 5)

A samurai action game from publisher Devolver Digital and developer Flying Wild Hog, Trek to Yomi places you in the sandals of Hiroki as he makes his way through the Edo-era Japanese countryside. You'll need to make certain that your sword skills are sharp, as bandits and other supernatural threats are ready to end your journey prematurely in this game that uses a retro black and white filter to give it the appearance of an old samurai film.

The Initiative has confirmed that it'll still be working with Crystal Dynamics on the upcoming reboot of Perfect Dark after Crystal Dynamics was acquired by Embracer Group. Following Embracer's announcement that it had purchased the Tomb Raider studio--as well as Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix Montreal in the sale--The Initiative tweeted that work with Crystal Dynamics was continuing.

"We're excited to see Crystal Dynamics take these next steps with their studio," it said. "Our teams have made great progress in building Perfect Dark together as co-development partners, and we will be continuing this work with them in their next chapter."

Square Enix has shed more light on its decision to sell its Western game development studios and IPs to Embracer Group, as the Japanese company says the deal will further help it invest in the blockchain and other technologies.

The deal--which is valued at $300 million--will see Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal join Embracer Group's portfolio of studios, as well. IPs in the sale include Tomb Raider, Deux Ex, and Legacy of Kain, among others.

"The transaction will assist the company in adapting to the changes underway in the global business environment by establishing a more efficient allocation of resources, which will enhance corporate value by accelerating growth in the company’s core businesses in the digital entertainment domain," Square Enix said in an official statement via Business Wire.

Aside from investing in the blockchain, Square Enix also plans to explore the fields of AI and the cloud, a move it says is meant to optimize its business structure as part of a medium-term business strategy that was unveiled last year.

Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda expressed an interest last month in the company creating more blockchain games with play-to-earn elements, as he explained that the traditional video game business model would not be enough to secure the future of the company. In a letter, Matsuda wrote of his belief that blockchain games "hold the potential to enable self-sustaining game growth" by pushing the play-to-earn concept further.

Mobile gaming is one of the industry's fastest-growing sectors, and it keeps getting bigger. It generated $93.2 billion in 2021, comprising more than half of the gaming market. With mobile gaming on the rise, big publishers are taking notice. Players like Take-Two and Xbox Game Studios have recently made major mobile gaming acquisitions, betting on continued growth.

A significant driver of this growth is that technology is catching up with ambition. LTE had the speed for gaming, but mobile players could run into latency issues that made massively multiplayer games somewhat frustrating and unresponsive. The same was true for cloud gaming, which allows players to enjoy console or PC games by streaming them. Cloud gaming requires the network to do the heavy lifting--normally the job of the console--which makes network latency critical in order to ensure low input lag and responsive controls.

Embracer Group has announced that it has acquired Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, Square Enix Montreal, and a catalog of IPs from Square Enix. The $300 million deal will see IPs such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain and more than 50 back-catalog games added to Embracer's portfolio.

"We are thrilled to welcome these studios into the Embracer Group. We recognize the fantastic IP, world class creative talent, and track record of excellence that have been demonstrated time and again over the past decades. It has been a great pleasure meeting the leadership teams and discussing future plans for how they can realize their ambitions and become a great part of Embracer," said Lars Wingefors, co-founder and Group CEO of Embracer Group, in a press statement.

The deal will see Square Enix offload all of its Western game development studios to Embracer Group, which includes games like the upcoming Tomb Raider that is currently in development at Crystal Dynamics. The purchase is expected to be completed during the second quarter of Embracer's financial year, which is July-September 2022.

In a press statement, Square Enix said that the deal "enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud."

"Going forward, the company's development function will comprise its studios in Japan, Square Enix External Studios, and Square Enix Collective. The Company's overseas studios will continue to publish franchises such as Just Cause, Outriders, and Life is Strange."

If you have children, or friends or family with children, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Fisher-Price’s “Laugh & Learn Game & Learn Controller."

Between memes, jokes, and more, the controller has gained a touch of infamy online, and now, one Elden Ring player has modded it to be playable on PC, as reported by The Verge. Going even further, they’ve played Elden Ring using it. Controller modder Rudeism (on Twitter) posted a clip yesterday of him using this modded controller to play Elden Ring and while that alone is impressive, what makes it better is that the Fisher-Price controller still lights up and makes all the sounds it usually does. 

here's the Fisher Price Xbox controller in action!

let me know what games you'd like to see me play with it

and thanks to @Wario64 for the off-hand joke that inspired me to make this happen 😂 pic.twitter.com/3OETvcsEsI

Respawn has just announced that Apex Legends Mobile will be launching worldwide this month. Fans will be able to play the game on iOS or Android devices sooner than expected, as the call for pre-registration wasn’t too long ago.

This version of the game was built from the ground up with mobile devices in mind, so there isn’t any crossplay functionality between it and the other versions on PC and console. With that said, this also means that there are mobile-only modes and features that can’t be played anywhere else.

The excitement for the next season has been building as the launch date approaches, and Respawn has just dropped the gameplay trailer for Apex Legends Season 13: Saviors. The video gives us a good look at Newcastle in action without going in-depth on details for abilities, while also showing the updates that are coming to Storm Point.

We get to see the new IMC Armories that can be found at different locations across the map, the carcass of the giant monster that the Legends fought in the launch trailer, and even some battle pass cosmetics.

Ranked mode is also getting changed next season — though, the trailer doesn’t actually go into detail with the specifics of what’s being adjusted.

You can check out the gameplay trailer for Apex Legends Season 13: Saviors right here for yourself to see some of the new action that’ll be coming to the game soon.

It’s like we’re back in the 2000s. Cropped cardigans are making a comeback, Biden is still in the White House, and Nintendo dropped a Wii Sports sequel in the form of Switch Sports. The nostalgia is so uncanny that players of Nintendo’s quirky sports simulator are once again flinging controllers from their hands…

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Netmarble released another English trailer of Level-5’s online JRPG Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds.

This time around, we get a rather funny introduction of another playable class in the game, the Rogue, following the swordsman, the witch, and the engineer we saw earlier.

It’s worth mentioning that the game has already been active in Japan for several months, while pre-registration is already available in the west for iOS and Android. You’ll receive an “Explorer Outfit” if you register and the game will also be playable on PC.

You can check out all three trailers below.

If you’re unfamiliar with Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, here’s an official description.

A story where reality and fantasy collide.
A grand journey awaits you upon arriving in another world via the virtual reality game [Soul Divers].
Experience the epic that unfolds in 『Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds』, where endless adventures await.

We have some good news here today for those who prefer watching English dubbed anime — The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 SimulDub will begin this week, on May 4 at 5:00 pm ET / 2:00 pm PT on both Crunchyroll and Funimation.

Season 2 is already underway, but that’s only if we’re talking about the subbed version, which is currently on episode four.

These are the voice actors that fans will be hearing in this English dub of the second season:

• Stephen Fu (Wonder Egg Priority) – English voice of Naofumi Iwatani
• Erica Mendez (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba) – English voice of Raphtalia
• Brianna Knickerbocker (The Seven Deadly Sins) – English voice of Filo
• Amber Lee Connors (Komi Can’t Communicate) – English voice of Ost Horai
• Dawn M. Bennet (Black Clover) – English voice of Eclair Seaetto 
• Sean Chiplock (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind) – English voice of Kyo Ethnina

For those who can’t wait to see the dubbed episodes as they get released, you can also watch the subbed airings on Wednesdays at 6:00 am PT. No matter what your preference is, you’ll be able to see Naofumi, Raphtalia, Filo, and a few new characters stand in the face of the Calamity Waves.

Today is a pretty big day for fans of the popular doujin franchise Touhou Project, as we get announcements and a release.

First of all, we get the reveal of The Touhou Empires, a real-time strategy game developed by Neetpia and published by Phoenixx that will launch on PC via Steam at some point in 2022 including an English localization.

Below you can watch a trailer and read an official description.

“The Touhou Empires is a real-time strategy simulation game (RTS) in which you lead Touhou Project characters and fairies with various abilities to fight!

Players command Touhou Project’s catactors and fairies to complete the prepared missions while responding to ever-changing situations!

The game flow is as follows: players collect resources from the map, construct buildings to expand their own camps, and organize their armies to advance and march.
Then, organize your army, march forward, and battle the enemy to complete the mission!

The deciding factor in the game is the “Spell Card”!
Use the abilities of each character to kick the enemy’s ass!

It's been a barren few weeks for gaming and technology news, but it looks like things are finally picking up! John, Rich and Alex share initial findings on PlayStation 5 VRR, discuss Valve's new 40-60Hz display support for Steam Deck... and what to make of the PlayStation "Preservation Group"?

First up, the long-awaited arrival of variable refresh rate support, also known as VRR, on the PlayStation 5. This technology has long been part of the landscape on PC and Xbox, but makes its PlayStation debut this week. The idea here is smoothing out uneven frame delivery, eliminating screen tearing and judder without the heavy input lag penalty of traditional v-sync. Recent PS5 releases like Elden Ring have really underscored the need for the tech, so does this release put the PS5 on feature parity with the other platforms? As always, the devil is in the details, and our testing unearthed some unique quirks to the implementation that are worth discussing in a weekly gaming tech show.

Another big release comes in beta form for the Steam Deck: user-adjustable screen refresh rate support. Rather than opting for 60Hz, which the Steam Deck can't deliver in all titles, you can now manually set the refresh rate to anything between 40Hz and 60Hz, which makes it easier to ensure even frame delivery and therefore a visually smoother experience than a frame-rate that ping-pongs between 30 and 60. 40Hz is exactly between 30Hz and 60Hz when it comes to frame times (16.66ms -> 25ms -> 33.33ms), which is why we've seen it appear as an option in some Insomniac games on PS5, for instance.

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Friends don’t excitedly text me their black, yellow, and green Wordle clusters anymore. They no longer boast about how quickly they completed the daily word puzzle game, nor do they complain about how the New York Times totally rigged it after buying it from its creator, Josh Wardle. For the most part, Wordle has…

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It’s time once again to reset the clock on the innovative and weird milestones players are up to in the Elden Ring community. This time around, a gamer modded a children’s toy into a playable Xbox controller. This isn’t an Onion article, you’re in the right place.

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The video game industry is undergoing a tidal wave of consolidation right now, and Swedish holding company Embracer Group is riding it to become one of the newest players in a rapidly shrinking space. A few years ago most people had never heard of it. Now it’s bigger than rivals like Ubisoft and Capcom, and set to get…

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As 2022 continues to be the year of acquisitions, with news that Square Enix is selling Embracer Group three of its western development studios and more than 50 IPs, it seems Sony is still looking to bolster its first-party family.

That’s because the company is now hiring for a Corporate Development Director, “responsible for identifying inorganic growth opportunities through acquisitions,” and more, as discovered by Roberto Serrano’ on Twitter and reported by Video Games Chronicle. It’s not surprising that Sony is looking to hire somebody like this, especially when you look at the current video game landscape – it feels like every other week, a major acquisition is announced. 

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When Halo Infinite launched last fall, it came with something new to the franchise: weekly rewards. Some players said these challenges “weren’t Halo” and wrote them off. Others deemed them tedious and unrewarding. But a select few actually stuck with the slog for the entire season. Kotaku caught up with one to see…

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Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was released on March 25. At launch, the game suffered from numerous server issues and problems with lag. Eventually, a lot of that was fixed. However, 38 days later, crossplay across certain platforms is still a mess. And so, tired of waiting for the crossplay woes to be resolved, I finally…

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Jinkees! A brand new fan-made Scooby-Doo project has just debuted on Youtube. Titled, Mystery Incorporated and directed by Dante Yore, the project takes a different look at the franchise, telling a new story through a modern lens, similar to shows like Riverdale.

You can check out a brief description of the plot, the overall vision of Mystery Incorporated, and the pilot episode, “Welcome to Coolsville,” right down below.

Mystery Incorporated is a fresh new series designed to tell the story of the characters from Hanna-Barbera’s “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” with a modern filter for a new generation.

Set in the small town of Coolsville, OH and inspired heavily by shows like “Supernatural”, “Riverdale”, and the original “Scooby-Doo” cartoons. We enter a world where monsters are real, demons guard every crossroad, and spirits lurk in the dark.

The journey begins as Fred Jones sets out to investigate the creature who murdered his parents. His search leads him into resident skeptic Velma Dinkley and the two must form a quick bond to fight back against the evil they have accidentally unleashed.

The cast for Mystery Incorporated includes:

Today third-party developers had more screenshots and a release to share about Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons.

We start with Qbit, which is working on a Boeing 737-800. We get plenty of new screenshots including the 3D modeling both of the exterior and the flight deck.

The aircraft is going to be freeware and will go open source after release. The developer is aiming to “create the best 737 simulation possible” and is looking for people skilled with the Rust programming language willing to help.

If you’d like to follow the project’s progress, you can do so at Qbit’s Discord server.

Wataru Hokoyama has been composing and orchestrating scores for TV shows, films, and video games for decades. Thanks to the music he created for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, alongside his mentor of six years, Mark Mothersbaugh, he’s now an official American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers awards winner. 

That’s because Hokoyama has received the Video Game Score of the Year award for Rift Apart by way of the 2022 ASCAP Screen Music Awards. Of course, Mothersbaugh helped create the score as well, but he’s not with ASCAP, so the award, on paper, goes to Hokoyama alone. In a new interview with Game Informer, though, the composer, who also has credits on Thor: Ragnarok, Resident Evil 5, Knack, Halo Wars 2 and Halo 2: Anniversary, and more, said winning this award wouldn’t have been possible without Mothersbaugh. That’s because Mothersbaugh is the reason Hokoyama got the opportunity to score Rift Apart in the first place. 

Osceola County Sheriff’s Office deputies opened fire on four suspects believed to have stolen Pokémon cards and a pizza, Vice reports. One died after being transported to a hospital, while two others were charged with petty theft.

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