January 2023

In October 2001, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto III – and the entire pop-culture paradigm shifted. It’s hard to say anything about GTA III that hasn’t been said a million times over the last 20 years, but suffice it to say, it laid a blueprint for open-world games so complete that the game industry still largely follows it today.

To celebrate the game’s 20th anniversary, we recently talked to Rockstar North art director Aaron Garbut over email about his time working on GTA III, what it meant for Rockstar as a company, and its overall legacy in 2021. Read more...

Each year, the tabletop RPG scene expands in exciting new directions. Whether it’s new worlds for long-running games like Dungeons & Dragons or exciting debut projects that tap into unexpected corners of storytelling, it’s a great time to enjoy role-playing with others.

2022 saw an impressive array of new games to tempt playgroups into an adventure. Here are ten of the best, presented alphabetically, each offering new and exciting vistas for discovery.

And if you like your RPGs with a side of excellent board gaming, don’t miss our recent awards for the Best Board Games of 2022.

Coyote & Crow
Publisher: Coyote & Crow Games

The Native American-led team that created Coyote & Crow began with a simple premise: What would America look like if it had never been colonized? Throw in a robust mix of mythology, science, and mysterious individuals gifted with supernatural power, and you have the makings of a fascinating role-playing game.

Dead Island 2 was announced just a few years after the release of the first Dead Island and a little over a year after Dead Island Riptide – the forgettable and repetitive sequel that did, at least, continue the story of the first game’s survivors. Publisher Deep Silver released some spinoffs after Riptide, like Escape Dead Island, Dead Island: Epidemic, and the 16-bit beat ‘em up Dead Island Retro Revenge, but a full-scale, numbered sequel hasn’t yet happened, despite being announced nearly a decade ago. 

This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian invites Game Informer's Kyle Hilliard to help him put a bow on 2022. That's right: It's the second annual All Things Nintendo Awards episode! Join Brian and Kyle as they talk about the best games across various categories and send 2022 off in style.

If you'd like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on his Instagram: @BrianPShea. You can follow Kyle on Twitter: @KyleMHilliard.

The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we can 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!

Be sure to subscribe to All Things Nintendo on your favorite podcast platform. The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and YouTube.

You could walk past this section of sidewalk a million times and not think about it once. It’s a 15-foot patch of concrete the same as the 15 feet ahead of you and the 15 feet behind you. No different than the 100 feet beyond that. It’s nothing.

Until you look around, then, all of a sudden, you can see through time.

I’m standing in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan, which, if it’s famous for anything, is its crosswalk, Shibuya Crossing, a massive scramble intersection allowing foot traffic to cross in all directions. For lack of a better analogy, you could call it Japan’s Times Square. You’ve seen it in everything about modern Japan ever. Read more...

Images of what appears to be a special The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED model have leaked online, but it's currently unclear if this is a real console or a believable fake. 

This news comes by way of Video Games Chronicle, which reports that the images of this console appeared on the Famiiboard forum last night from user Kysen. The user didn't provide many details about the potential special edition Switch, but as you can see in the images below, the photos are quite believable. There are pictures of the console, the packaging, the Joy-Con, and more.

Check out the possible leaked images of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED special edition for yourself below: 

Alleged photos of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom themed Switch OLED. Originally posted on Tieba (reshared on resetera/reddit). pic.twitter.com/PfgrOtvU4K

Metal Gear Solid creator and Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear Solid publisher Konami parted ways with each other back in 2015 and since then, there hasn't been a mainline entry in the famed MGS series (although there was the not-so-great Metal Gear Survive in 2018). 

While there's no reason to believe Kojima and Konami are teaming up again anytime soon, it seems the latter might be preparing for some kind of return to MGS. Longtime MGS producer Noriaki Okamura wrote in a recent issue of Famitsu that "2023 will be a year of many announcements," as reported by Gematsu. 

In this special end-of-the-year issue of Famitsu, multiple Japanese developers and producers wrote quick teases about what 2023 might hold for them. It's here where Okamura teased that 2023 will be a year of announcements for Konami Digital Entertainment. More specifically, he said "Other than [the educational edition of Momotaro Dentetsu announced last year], 2023 will be a year of many announcements," and that his keyword for 2023 is "long-awaited," as noted by Gematsu. 

Each year, we pull together picks for the best in the tabletop gaming scene, so we can share some of the coolest projects you might bring home to your table. 2022 brought an array of wonderful games, showing the ever-expanding scope and creativity unfolding in the scene. Here are ten of the most enjoyable, including cooperative and competitive experiences, running the gamut in scope from massive sprawling adventures to simple joyous party games and everything in between.

Each game this year turned out to be remarkably different from most of the others on the list, but each captures the fun and excitement of board gaming in a unique way. Check out the complete alphabetized list below, and check back soon for selections of the Best Tabletop Role-Playing Releases of 2022.

Ahoy
Publisher: Leder Games

Leder has developed a well-deserved reputation for asymmetrical competition and a unique artistic aesthetic that manages a rare feat in gaming – you know this studio’s games instantly, even before you play a session. The team’s newest success story is Ahoy, a swashbuckling pirate-themed adventure that is more manageable and easier to learn than some of the team’s prior efforts.

In this episode of The Game Informer Show, we share our favorite holiday traditions, plan the games we want to beat over the break and answer questions from our community.

Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Wesley LeBlanc (@LeBlancWes), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard)

The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join host Alex Van Aken every Thursday for a chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is still on track to release sometime next year, and developer GSC Game World has released its first trailer in six months, showcasing gameplay with some narrative trappings along the edges.

Courtesy of IGN, the new video shows that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is looking pretty darn good. The narrative-driven shooter is set in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone in a post-apocalyptic world laden with dangerous mutated monsters. Players must fight their way to the heart of the zone while steering the non-linear plot through choice-driven gameplay. 

Formally confirmed in 2020 after years of start and stop announcements, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has had a tumultuous development. After announcing and quickly canceling NFT plans due to fan backlash in December 2021, the project came to a screeching halt in February due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where GSC is based. Many employees were forced to evacuate their homes in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Other designers chose to defend the city. One of GSC’s designers who volunteered to fight, Vladimir "Fresh" Yezhov, was recently killed in combat. 

On February 25, 2022 Valve quietly premiered a trailer for a game called Aperture Desk Job. The video intentionally didn’t explain what the game was, but beyond including the word Aperture in the title, it was clear it took place in the Portal universe. The end of the trailer revealed it would be releasing only a few days later, and it would be free.

As promised, the game released on March 1 and it feels like nobody played it, which is a shame because it is a fantastic, “Playable Short,” as Valve refers to it.

Aperture Desk Job doesn’t have portals in it, but it is a Portal game. It features an established Portal character, as well as a new character named Grady, voiced by one of my favorite comedians (and maybe yours after you watch the clip below), Nate Bargatze.

Perhaps the most compelling pitch for the game for a Portal fan, though, is that it is canon. You spend most of your time with Grady, but you also spend time with Cave Johnson. Not only did Portal and Portal 2’s writers create more lines for the lemon-hating Aperture founder, but J.K. Simmons jumped into the recording booth to perform the new dialogue. Neither Cave Johnson nor J.K. Simmons’ participation was teased in the game’s limited marketing. It was a lovely surprise for me when I played, but I have decided to tell you because if you haven’t played yet, maybe that will push you over the edge to finally engage the download.

Two of the year’s biggest open-world games, Elden Ring and Pokémon Scarlet have been Frankensteined into one tantalizing entity thanks to the work of one talented modder.

The modder in question goes by the handle Arestame, who tweeted a trailer of their handiwork that drops Scarlet assets into the Lands Between. The mod outfits the Tarnished in the significantly less protective garb of Pokémon trainers, who cruise the dangerous landscape atop the motorcycle-like Koraidon. The video highlights how Elden Ring would be an even better game if it had Lechonks and Quaxlys roaming about, though that doesn't make it any less dangerous, as evidenced by one particuarly brutal Pokémon ambush. Check out the video by clicking the embedded tweet below. 

Elden Ring X Pokémon Scarlet is here! From Paldea to The Lands Between, expand your #Pokemon journey with new summons in #ELDENRING ! pic.twitter.com/djOWo9ogpg

Dead Island 2 will feature six playable survivors right from the jump. You might already be familiar with one, and that's Jacob, the Lenny Kravitz-inspired character featured in the re-reveal trailer for Dead Island 2. During my cover story trip, I played roughly seven hours of Dead Island 2, but I didn't go hands-on with Jacob. I did, however, play a few hours with both Dani and Ryan, two very different survivors that add their own flair to the story of this zomb-pocalypse. 

I came out of this cover story trip convinced Dani is the survivor for me, but Ryan is great, too. And there are still the other four survivors I didn't get to play. Nonetheless, I want to tell you about Ryan, and Dambuster Studios does, too (read about Dani here)

Each mainline entry of the Street Fighter series is an important milestone in the fighting game genre. Though every numbered entry received critical acclaim, Street Fighter V sticks out among fans as the outlier of the series; the game experienced perhaps the most tumultuous launch of any Street Fighter game to date. But out of that trouble emerged something great. Thanks to the team’s persistence, post-launch roadmap, and an injection of new blood into the project's leadership, Street Fighter V drastically improved its core gameplay, online play, content offerings, and more throughout its six-year lifespan.

With the benefit of those lessons learned, many team members that righted the ship are back to develop Street Fighter 6. The latest entry delivers myriad improvements, new features, and a sleek new aesthetic while simultaneously acknowledging and paying homage to each entry before it. Street Fighter 6 feels like yet another evolution of the fighting game genre ushered in by the franchise that pioneered it in the first place. Read more...

It’s the end of May, and I’m watching the credits roll in Elden Ring. After more than 150 hours roaming the Lands Between, I feel the familiar bittersweetness that occurs anytime I finish a game I love. I’d conquered unimaginable horrors and become Elden Lord in my own personalized adventure, all while cruising atop a cool double-jumping steed; now what? Recovering from this high would become a personal struggle for the remainder of the year.

Elden Ring dominated my life. When I wasn’t playing it, it was the only thing I wanted to do. When I chipped away at other games for work or pleasure, tasks like gaining access to Raya Lucaria Academy or conquering Malenia were in the back of my mind. I stopped eating Red Lobster because it caused me to suffer terrible flashbacks of getting relentlessly spat on by the giant crustaceans in Liurnia of the Lakes. Elden Ring joins the ranks of Grand Theft Auto III, Skyrim, and Breath of the Wild as games that became borderline obsessions for me, and the lull that followed was rough. 

Just in time for the new year, Sony has revealed the next batch of free games coming to PlayStation Plus. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Fallout 76, and Axiom Verge 2 will be available to download for all tiers of PS Plus starting Tuesday, January 3. PlayStation has not announced the new titles coming to the Extra and Premium tiers, but says that they'll be "announced soon." You can read the full blog post here.

Mortal Kombat was not supposed to die. Many regard Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe as one of the lowest points of the series. Its minigame-centric fights and awkward movement were damning, but it also lacked the silly, over-the-top violence Mortal Kombat is known for – a sad reality for appeasing license holder Warner Bros. Batman can cripple impoverished criminals, but he can’t be cut in half by Tarkatan blades.

It would have been disappointing to end on an ill-fated crossover, but Midway’s untimely demise could have made that so. Layoffs, uncertainty, and publisher implosion aren’t how franchises live; it’s how they die. But the then-newly formed NetherRealm Studios reinvigorated the entire franchise after its darkest period with one of its most beloved entries: the 2011 reboot, Mortal Kombat 9. Read more...

 

I am, admittedly, new to the world of Final Fantasy VII. I have vague memories of seeing a TV commercial for the original PlayStation game when I was young and remember playing the game’s first few hours in a friend’s attic between Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX sessions. It wasn’t until much later, when I found an inexpensive green label copy at a Circuit City, that I gave it another shot, but, again, I only made it through the first few hours. When Square Enix released it in such a way that I could play it on my PlayStation 3 and move it over to my PSP, I made it the furthest. I left Midgar, saved my game, and turned off my PSP, fully lying to myself that I would pick it back up again soon. That was more than 10 years ago.

All of that is to say my understanding of the world of Final Fantasy VII is limited. I know most of the main characters, I know what Midgar is, and I am aware of the Lifestream and the purpose of Mako. Thankfully, to my benefit and the benefit of those who love the original, Square Enix is spending an incredible amount of time and money to remake Final Fantasy VII. I played Remake in full when it was released, I look forward to its sequels, and I reviewed Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion earlier this year. I am starting to understand the world of Final Fantasy VII, even if I don’t understand how human flight is possible with one wing.

If you walked into an arcade in the 1990s, it undoubtedly had a Street Fighter II cabinet. If you went at the right time, you probably even saw a crowd gathered around it. As one of the most profitable games in arcade history, Street Fighter II drew more than its fair share of quarters and tokens during the arcade heyday. But the franchise transcends that one moment in time. To say that Street Fighter has sparked multiple revolutions in its genre throughout its history is not far-fetched.

Arcades aren’t omnipresent the way they once were, but the Street Fighter name has endured the ever-shifting grounds of the games industry. The fierce fistfights made the leap from mall game rooms to the living room, the internet, and even tournaments broadcast to massive, international audiences. As the franchise turns 35 years old, we met with the people involved to understand the series’ origins and how it remains relevant three-and-a-half decades later. Read more...

Microsoft’s road to acquire Activision Blizzard has been a rocky one, to say the least. The most recent (and significant) roadblock comes from the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which filed a lawsuit a few weeks ago to prevent the deal from going through. Now, Microsoft has fired back with a response, saying the FTC is violating their fifth amendment rights to due process. 

The full document (which you can read here) claims that the deal should be allowed to go through for several other reasons as well, stating that Xbox and Activision Blizzard are “just two of hundreds of game publishers.” The claims that the FTC violates the constitution are listed on page 34 and are just a handful of defenses against the lawsuit in a list of two dozen. 

While the basis of the FTC’s lawsuit is that Microsoft’s deal will suppress the competition by limiting access to certain titles, Microsoft’s response claims that “Xbox wants to grow its presence in mobile gaming, and three-quarters of Activision’s gamers and more than a third of its revenues come from mobile offerings.” The FTC does not appear to be concerned with this (their complaint excludes mobile gaming as a relevant market) and instead focuses on the fact that Microsoft will own one of the largest game franchises in the world: Call of Duty.

The story of Cuphead is indie gaming legend. Brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer worked for years, risking their finances founding Studio MDHR and hiring a host of talented artists and animators to bring their tough-as-nails run ‘n’ gun game to life. The gamble paid off in spades. Inspired by both 1930s animation and classic games like Contra and Gunstar Heroes, Cuphead has sold more than six million copies, amassing critical acclaim, legions of fans, a TV show, and multiple world records along the way.

With Cuphead’s staggering success, it’s not too surprising the team at MDHR wanted to deliver one more serving of sharp shooting excitement and aggravation. Opting for DLC as opposed to a full-on sequel, the Cuphead developer set about outlining The Delicious Last Course, released in June 2022. Early in production, MDHR decided that a boss concept from the original game, one scrapped due to time constraints, would be the perfect starting point for this newest outing. Read more...

<p><img src="https://www.gameinformer.com/sites/default/files/styles/body_default/public/2022/12/27/0a4f353f/marvel_vs_capcom_2_gi.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="marvel vs capcom 2 arcade1up" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-body-default" /></p> <p>Arcade1UP sent us the <a href="https://www.gameinformer.com/video-feature/2022/08/10/we-played-the-marvel-vs-capcom-2-arcade1up-cabinet-at-evo-2022" target="_blank">Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 cabinet</a> to set up in Brian Shea’s home arcade. Luring me to his house with promises of trading Pokémon Cards, I brought my camera to Shea’s house to film him unboxing and building the cabinet. Don’t worry; we sped up the build and captured Shea’s first impressions on camera.&nbsp;</p> <p>Thanks for watching, and happy holidays!</p> <iframe width="560" height="315" frameBorder="0" allow="autoplay" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c3yoOGKaDKU" width=""></iframe>

Dead Island 2 will feature six playable survivors right from the jump. You might already be familiar with one, and that's Jacob, the Lenny Kravitz-esque character featured in the re-reveal trailer for Dead Island 2. During my cover story trip, I played roughly seven hours of Dead Island 2, but I didn't go hands-on with Jacob. I did, however, play a few hours with both Dani and Ryan, two very different survivors that add their own flair to the story of this zomb-pocalypse. 

I came out of this cover story trip convinced Dani is the survivor for me, but Ryan was great, too. And there are still the other four survivors I didn't get to play. Nonetheless, I want to tell you about Dani, and Dambuster Studios does, too (read about Ryan here).

In today's installment of New Gameplay Today, hosts Wesley LeBlanc and Marcus Stewart discuss Clive 'N' Wrench, an upcoming 3D platformer inspired by games like Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro the Dragon, and more. You can watch roughly 15 minutes of gameplay alongside their discussion, including exploration in one of the game's multiple themed worlds and a fight against one of the early bosses. Enjoy!

As you can see in the video above, Clive 'N' Wrench is shaping up to be a fun 3D platformer to keep your eyes on ahead of its release next year. Speaking of which, Clive 'N' Wrench hits PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC (via Steam and GOG) on February 24, 2023. 

For more, check out this Christmas World trailer for Clive 'N' Wrench. 

Are you going to check out Clive 'N' Wrench next year? Let us know in the comments below!

Even though it’s a remake of a game released in 2013 for the PlayStation 3, The Last of Us Part I is, in most respects, the same game as the original The Last of Us. Players first experiencing the game through the remake will understand the plot in much the same way. They follow the same story to the same conclusion, meeting the same characters and feeling many of the same feelings. They experience the same vision of a post-apocalyptic United States, where one traumatized man, Joel, reckons with his inability to part with his surrogate daughter, Ellie.

But even a remake sticking as close to the original script and general design of its original as Part I is, ultimately, a new game in its own right. By making a game look “better” than it did before, it’s changed into something else. Whether in small or large ways, it is altered. Read more...

Nier: Automata is coming to the small screen. Beginning next month, NieR:Automata Ver1.1a will begin airing in the United States on Crunchyroll.

You can check out a brand-new trailer for the show below: 

From the looks of it, Ver1.1a will stick close to the storyline from the video game, released in 2017 as a partnership between publisher Square Enix and developer Platinum Games. Series creator Yoko Taro is also involved with the project. 

The series is in production at A-1 Pictures, a subsidiary of Aniplex. In the past, the production house has worked on series such as Black Butler, Your Lie in April, Fate, and Sword Art Online. Ver1.1a is being directed by Ryoji Masuyama, who's previously worked on KILL la KILL, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance and Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, as well as Gurren Lagann.

NieR:Automata Ver1.1a will begin airing in Japan on January 7, 2023. As of right now, it's not entirely clear what day it will hit Crunchyroll. However, the streaming service does often have the right to begin showing anime in the west within 24 hours of their original airtimes, so time will tell if Nier gets the same treatment. 

Publisher Deep Silver revealed Dead Island 2 in 2014 and Los Angeles was its primary setting (with a tease in the game’s logo that San Francisco might be in it as well). Fans were excited about the sequel for several reasons – that original reveal trailer was great – but the question on many minds was this: Why is Dead Island 2 set somewhere that’s not an island? 

I traveled to Nottingham, England to visit Dambuster Studios, and this was one of the first questions I asked. Unsurprisingly, considering this is the team that's been developing this game since 2018, lead narrative designer Khan had an in-depth answer. 

Simply put, Los Angeles has become an island, metaphorically speaking. 

Speed running organization Games Done Quick (GDQ) has announced that its founder, Mike Uyama, is departing.

Uyama established the event in 2010, and to date, it has raised over $41 million in charitable donations.

His successor will be GDQ's director of operations, Matt Merkle, who assumes the owner and managing director role.

Read more

A settlement for $1.85 million has been reached for a class action lawsuit over Cyberpunk 2077.

Originally received two years ago and filed in California, the suit alleged that CD Projekt Red misled investors about the state of the RPG on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles.

In January 2021, the Cyberpunk 2077 maker received a similar lawsuit from the Rosen Law firm.

Read more

The US Federal Trade Commission today proposed a new rule banning US employers from using non-compete clauses in contracts with workers.

The regulator called such measures that prevent employees from going to work for other companies in the same field for a certain length of time "a widespread and often exploitative practice that suppresses wages, hampers innovation, and blocks entrepreneurs from starting new businesses," and an unfair method of competition in violation of the law.

"The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy," FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said.

Read more

Vampire Survivors launched on Android and iOS last month, but Poncle developer Luca Galante had intended to bring the breakthrough hit to mobile platforms considerably earlier.

In an update to the game's Steam store page, Galante discussed the process of bringing it to mobile, saying, "Soon after the initial success of VS, I started to look for a business partner to work on a mobile version of the game. Unfortunately, nobody I spoke with was on board with the monetization I had in mind for the platform: non-predatory."

Poncle spent months unsuccessfully looking for a partner, but eventually opted to handle the mobile port in-house when "a large number of actual clones - not 'games like Vampire Survivors,' but actual 1:1 copies with stolen code, assets, data, progression - started to appear everywhere.

Read more

Chiyomaru Shikura, Mages' chairman and representative director, will be stepping down from the role and transitioning to an executive producer position.

As reported and translated by GamerBraves, per Gamebiz, the change comes months after Mages reported a loss of $4.7 million.

In Shikura's announcement on Twitter, he did not attribute the transition to the company's financial performance.

Read more

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At a glance

Sales of video games, consoles and accessories fell in 2022, due to ongoing stock shortages and a fall in popularity of older titles.

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As we begin 2023, the economic headwinds against the UK are very strong, currently facing a triple whammy of economic pressures.

According to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), inflation rose by 11% in the 12 months to November 2022. UK taxes are some of the highest on record; new analysis by the Tax Payers Alliance has found the five year average tax burden is at a 70-year high. And consumers are not feeling very confident, with PWC reporting that consumer confidence stands at -44 – a sentiment worse than the -26 at the start of the pandemic.

With news like that, every household has had to make hard choices during this cost-of-living crisis. One area of the household budget that could be construed as an "easy decision" is the amount spent on entertainment. When it comes to food, house payments and energy, discretionary spending on entertainment, by contrast, is often way down on the list of priorities.

Read more

Monthly games magazine Wireframe will be shutting down, retaining its online version.

In an announcement shared on Twitter, the publication said that the latest issue will be the final print edition, after four years of the mag being in circulation.

"Wireframe will return in an evolved form, so keep an eye on wfmag.cc and our socials for future developments," the company said.

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The Competition and Markets Authority has updated its timetable for its ongoing, in-depth investigation into Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The UK regulator was due to publish its findings from the phase two investigation on March 1, 2023. However, a new statement reveals this has been extended to April 26, 2023.

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At a glance

Sony made a number of announcements during its CES 2023 showcase last night, including the unveiling of a brand-new accessibility controller for the PlayStation 5.

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It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.

If you have new appointments or transitions in your company that belong here, please send the names of the appointees, new role and company, and prior role and company to newhires@gamesindustry.biz.

Game publisher Gameloft has appointed Alexandre de Rochefort as its new CEO.

Read more

EA has confirmed that a data storage issue last week was behind the corruption of users' Madden NFL 23 franchise save files.

The development team stated that players who attempted to log in from December 28 until December 29 received an error and were subjected to the problem.

"Unfortunately, if you logged into franchise leagues during this time, your data was affected due to a data storage issue that resulted in franchise files being corrupted," it said.

Read more

Gearbox Entertainment has announced its acquisition of 3D capture company Captured Dimensions.

The firm has worked with entertainment companies such as Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, 2K Games, and EA.

Captured Dimensions' services include 3D printing, prop scanning and cross-polarized texture photography.

Read more