A standalone expansion for Disco Elysium, codenamed X7, has reportedly been cancelled and a quarter of developers at developers ZA/UM are at risk of redundancy. Around 24 employees are said to be affected, according to "sources close to the matter" who spoke to Sports Illustrated's video games site.
Payday 3 developer Starbreeze say their co-op heist 'em up is underperforming both in terms of sales and player numbers. They also say they're committed to turning around that performance, with updates to come in 2024 which will revamp progression, the UI, add a solo mode and an offline mode, and more.
V Rising remains on track to reach 1.0 in the second quarter of this year, in what finance people call Q2 but I like to call Aprilmayjune. The latest developer blog post goes into detail on some of the new features coming for the full release and in particular its changes to PvP, higher tier weapon and armour, and vampire fashion.
As promised earlier this week, Microsoft and Xbox executives Phil Spencer (head of Xbox), Sarah Bond (president, Xbox) and Matt Booty (Head of Xbox Game Studios) got together today to share some important "updates on the Xbox business." You can check out the full update below, but the headline is that four future formerly Xbox and PC exclusive games are coming to other consoles, but Spencer was not ready to reveal what those games are. They are games that are more than a year old that have been on Xbox and PC for awhile. A couple of the games, Spencer says, are community-driven and service-based games that have reached their full potential on Xbox and PC. They are franchises that Xbox wants to continue to invest in. Two are smaller games that were not built to be platform exclusives. Though he wasn't ready to share the game titles, he did confirm that Starfield and Indiana Jones are not in that group.
According to sources reported by The Verge, it seems the four titles may be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded.
Online co-op shooter Helldivers 2 contains a number of nasty enemies across its Terminid and Automaton factions. The Chargers are one such foe: Large, heavily armored Terminids, they will happily charge toward you and your party to send you all to your deaths. They can prove quite a challenge if you’re not prepared,…
On Thursday, the leadership of Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division shared an update on their plans for the platform going forward. And, surprise! It wasn’t exactly the earth-shattering paradigm shift the internet doomsayers had predicted. Yes, some Xbox games will be going multiplatform—we don’t know exactly which ones…
After weeks of reports, rumors, and speculation around Xbox first-party games coming to competing platforms and potentially even making an exit from the console market entirely, Xbox publicly addressed the elephant in the room in an episode of the Official Xbox Podcast. The show featured Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil…
After weeks of rumors and leaks about what the future holds for Xbox, the company finally shared some official news via a special episode of the Official Xbox Podcast. One lingering question that Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty addressed during the episode was just when Activision Blizzard titles would be…
After weeks of rumors regarding Xbox games’ exclusivity and whether or not big-budget titles like Bethesda’s Starfield or the upcoming Indiana Jones and The Great Circle would end up on other consoles, we’ve got some clarification. The February 15 special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast saw Microsoft gaming CEO…
Diablo 4 is coming to Game Pass this March.
Xbox's Sarah Bond made the announcement this evening, as part of the company's business update podcast.
In a follow up post on social media, Xbox said Diablo 4's upcoming Game Pass debut is part of Microsoft's "promise to offer Activision Blizzard games" on the subscription service, following its acquisition of the Diablo and Call of Duty makers last year.
Following mounting reports Xbox is preparing for some kind of multiplatform future, Microsoft has confirmed it'll be bringing four previously Xbox-exclusive first-party titles to PlayStation 5 and Switch later this year, with more likely to come in the future.
Reports that Microsoft was preparing to release a number of first-party games on competing consoles - namely Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush - first surfaced at the start of this year, but it wasn't until last week's claims high-profile exclusives such as Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would also be going multiplatform that Microsoft broke its silence, promising to reveal more in a podcast this week.
And now, as reported by The Verge - which was pre-briefed by Microsoft ahead of tonight's reveal - Xbox gaming boss Phil Spencer has confirmed the company has "made the decision that we're going to take four games to the other consoles". Bafflingly, Spencer does not name the games directly, only saying two are community-driven titles and two are smaller games.
Square Enix shared new details about the Forest and Sea Chocobo in FFVII Rebirth. In the original Final Fantasy VII, these type of Chocobo were known as the Green and Blue Chocobos due to the distinct color of their feathers.
Forest Chocobos show their strength by jumping on large mushrooms and sliding down the branches of large trees in the forest. Thanks to these Chocobo Cloud and company can enjoy exploring dense forests, where it would be easy to get lost otherwise.
Meanwhile, Sea Chocobos can move freely above the surface of the sea and rivers by spraying powerful water jets from their talons. Sea Chocobos can take players to secret areas that are unavailable by foot
There’s new cosmetic DLC for Sonic Superstars, and it puts Sonic the Hedgehog into a Shadow costume. It is now free on all platforms for consoles and PCs. [Thanks, Wario64!]
Note that the add-on isn’t a part of a patch or official update. You actually need to visit the eShop, PlayStation Store, Steam, or Xbox Store to download it first. Then, once you’re in-game, you will see it as an option in when you’re picking your character. After you choose who you want to be, say that would be Sonic, you can then select Shadow.
Here’s the official art of the Sonic Superstars DLC from Steam, which shows it will put Sonic the Hedgehog in a Shadow costume, rather than transform him into the other character.
Corsair's Shift series of power supplies are one of my go-to recommendations, thanks to their reliable power delivery and convenient side-mounted connectors, and now you can pick up a factory refurbished 850W 80+ Gold unit for just £84 from Scan, versus £145 for the very same PSU new at Amazon or £150 at Scan. That's a huge, nearly 50% saving, and well worth it - even for a factory refurb unit with a 12-month warranty.
The Logitech G915 Lightspeed TKL is a phenomenal gaming keyboard with low-profile mechanical switches, reliable Lightspeed wireless and a compact layout, yet Logitech normally ask well over £100 for it - and double that when it first launched! Today though, the G915 TKL Lightspeed is 55% off, dropping it to the more reasonable price of £99.
Embracer Group, the proverbial grim reaper of video game acquisitions, has been wreaking havoc on the studios and IP it has acquired in the past few years. From layoffs across several companies to shutting down of beloved studios like Saints Row developer Volition, and cancellations of big, exciting projects like a…
During a special episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Phil Spencer revealed the first wave of Xbox titles coming to rival platforms will include four games. “We are currently in the process of bringing four Xbox games to other platforms. These are titles which have been available to Xbox players for at least a year,”…
As part of a 'business update' confirming four first-party Xbox exclusives are coming to PlayStation 5 and Switch, Microsoft has moved to assuage fan fears it might be considering abandoning the console market, saying it's planning a new Xbox that will deliver "the largest technical leap...ever seen in a hardware generation."
That's according to Xbox president Sarah Bond, who was speaking on an "Updates on the Xbox Business" edition of the Official Xbox Podcast, alongside Microsoft Gaming boss Phill Spencer and head of Xbox game studios Matt Booty.
According to Bond, Microsoft has hardware plans for Xbox in both the short and longer term. Starting this "holiday", for instance, Microsoft will share "some exciting stuff coming out in hardware". An official Xbox tweet accompanying today's podcast expanded on Bond's comments, saying Microsoft currently has a "robust and innovative multi-year hardware roadmap" that'll include "more console and controller options...this holiday.
Dune: Part Two, the upcoming sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 sci-fi epic based on the Frank Herbert novels, is releasing in just two weeks, but somehow the team behind it kept one major star’s involvement a total secret. During the February 15 world premiere in London, The Queen’s Gambit actor Anya Taylor-Joy…
Microsoft has shared updated Game Pass membership figures for the first time since January 2022, saying the on-demand gaming service now has 34m "fully paid" subscribers, with "significant growth" coming from PC and cloud.
That update comes via Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer, speaking to journalist Stephen Totilo for his Game File newsletter (thanks VGC) ahead of this week's hotly anticipated Xbox 'business update' podcast - in which the company finally discussed its much rumoured plans to bring a number of its formerly Xbox-exclusive first-party games to PS5 and Switch.
Discussing Microsoft's latest Game Pass figures, Spencer assured Totilo the 9m subscribers added to the service since January 2022 - when Microsoft announced Game Pass had amassed a total of 25m members - were "fully paid" and did not include promotional players. "Those are people," Spencer reiterated, "fully paid subs."
Marvel Studios shared the first trailer for the upcoming X-Men '97 animated series and confirmed its release date as March 20, 2024. The new series is a sequel to X-Men: The Animated Series, which aired between October 1992 and September 1997.
The new trailer shows the X-Men facing new and familiar threats after Professor X’s passing in the original cartoon, and shows Magneto as his possible successor. The trailer also showed some voice actors reprising their roles in the upcoming new series, such as Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Lenore Zann as Rogue, and George Buza as Beast, and Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm.
You can take a look at the X-Men '97 animated series trailer here:
Meanwhile, some voice actors that participated in X-Men: The Animated Series will also return, but will voice new characters.
In a social media post about the Sora amiibo, Masahiro Sakurai announced that he has finished all of the work he needs to do for Super Smash Bros Ultimate (SSBU). This is because all of the fighters are now available as an amiibo.
This is a translation of Sakurai’s tweet about the Sora amiibo and game:
Sora’s amiibo comes out today! Thank you to everyone who worked on it (this was an amazing accomplishment). The design was always perfect, and the details and the colors look exactly as intended. The pose and sculpting look good as well. Now that all of the fighters have an amiibo, my work on Super Smash Bros Ultimate is basically done. Thank you for everything.
Sora of Kingdom Hearts debuted in Fighter Pas Vol 2 and is the final DLC character for Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Since SSBU is no longer getting regular updates in the form of season passes or DLC, creating the amiibos for it was likely the last bit of work for Sakurai and the team.
I've always found the concept of immortality to be horrific. How, as the years churn by, new memories and experiences drown the ones which lie at the foundations of your personality, eroding them until a new person inhabits your skin. You are not yourself anymore. Vampire mythology adds a physical stake to this curse - to be a vampire is to be a monster in body and appetite, but whether you become one in spirit is up to you. Do you try to preserve your humanity or indulge in the hedonism your new form makes so easy? Or become a creature trapped between the two? It’s these questions Cabernet, an upcoming narrative RPG, seeks to explore through its protagonist Liza - recently deceased.
While Cabernet may begin with Liza's funeral, she doesn’t truly comprehend her new vampiric nature until witnessing a fellow creature of the night transform into a bat. From here on, the outlook she takes on her undead existence is in your hands, with many of the dialogue choices and actions Liza can take raising either her humanity or nihilism metre. The differentiation between the two is clear: speaking honestly and treating people kindly increases her humanity as you try to preserve the person Liza once was, while revelling in her new powers and treating humans as mere playthings sees Liza embracing the darkest aspects of being a vampire and, in return, raises her nihilism.
When my daughter was learning to write her own stories at school - learning composition, I guess, in the language of education - she'd come home with poetry and essays about animals and little bits of this and that, all of which she was fine with, but never more than fine. When it all clicked is when they wrote stories - specifically silly, scary stories with ghosts and people falling on their butts and all that kind of jazz.
Silly, slightly scary stuff really clicked in fact - not just with my daughter, but with the whole class. For a few glorious weeks, alongside spelling and long division and the bus-stop method (something to do with division too I think?), the class was busy turning out pulps. She loved it. They all loved it. I loved it.
This came to mind this week when we realised that Helldivers 2 wasn't just a success, but a massive, horizon-filling smash. This sequel to a game that I have fond memories of, but not a lot of other people seem to remember playing, is suddenly everywhere. It's our game of the week, inevitably.
I've wondered for a while how best to explain my time with Flock's demo. The whole experience was a testament to the joy of flight - much as developers Richard Hogg and co intended - and I relished being able to glide effortlessly over the world. It felt free and easy. Yes, the flying in Flock was certainly a joy.
But that is not why I found myself so enamoured by the whole thing. Rather, it was because in a time when the world feels so full of noise and chaos, Flock gave me a sense of calm, away from the pressures and anxieties that come with everyday life.
Allow me to explain further. In Flock, you are essentially a shepherd, but rather than just your traditional land-based sheep, you are collecting a mixed bunch of eclectic creatures for your Aunt Jane. She is a professor of zoology, you see, so by gathering up these creatures you are helping her with her research. That is not to say there aren't also sheep in the game. There are, and these little fellows can help you by eating their way through grassy meadow patches, unearthing peculiarities hidden beneath. Then, once they have eaten a certain amount, they will grow a nice woolly fleece which you can shave off to use for mittens and the like.
Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedt is hoping the game's second weekend will go much smoother than its first.
In a thread posted on X, Pilestedt reflected on the changes developer Arrowhead Game Studios has made since Helldivers 2 released to huge success on 8th February for PC and PlayStation 5.
"I am completely exhausted by the success," he stated, but "very, very pleased."
As Microsoft opts to launch at least some of its Xbox exclusives on rival consoles, the company's gaming boss Phil Spencer has reflected on Sony's recent, hugely-successful launch of online, cross-platform shooter Helldivers 2 on PC and PlayStation 5.
"I will say, when I look at a game like Helldivers 2 - and it's a great game, kudos to the team shipping on PC and PlayStation - I'm not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox," Spencer told Game File. "If you try to twist yourself to say, like, somehow that benefited somebody somewhere.
"But I get it. There's a legacy in console gaming that we're going to benefit by shipping games and not putting them on other places. We do the same thing."
Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week: tombs, maps, and bats.
If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.
Nothing says Valentine's Day like launching someone you dearly love off of the side of a cliff, which is exactly what I did. Before you get all concerned, my husband is fine; I am of course talking about the one and only Lara Croft.
Alan Wake 2 is developer Remedy's fastest-selling game to date, but the studio is still to recuperate the project's development and marketing costs.
In its latest financial report, Remedy said Alan Wake 2 had now sold 1.3m units, with 1m of those occurring by the end of last year. This equates to 50 percent more copies and over three times more digital copies of Alan Wake 2 sold in the game's first two months than its previous release Control managed in its first four months (though it's worth noting Alan Wake 2 was a digital-only release).
Control has since gone on to sell over 4m units, and Remedy said it expected a similar trend with Alan Wake 2, as "a great game can generate excellent long tail sales". But, of course, games lose value over time - so copies sold after prices drop generate less revenue than at launch.
Because it’s somehow my job to worry about the technical fidelity of electronic toys, I’ve been eyeing the long-overdue arrival of Skull and Bones with some nervousness. After nearly a decade of delays, you’d probably just want to get it out the door, right? Skip straight to the open-world pirate adventuring, none of that 'making it work on a range of graphics cards' nonsense.
But nope. For all its other shortcomings, Skull and Bones performs alright on PC, very often more smoothly than its system requirements suggest. Though I’d still recommend abiding by its SSD storage requirement – following the rules might not be very piratey, but installing on a hard drive will curse you to some pretty tedious load screen waits. Geoffrey Rush would hate it, honestly.
While Edwin sequesters himself in the starting area, let’s head below deck for a closer look at Skull and Bones’ PC particulars. That includes a full rundown of its graphics options – which include ray tracing and DLSS – and a quick guide to the best settings for an ideal prettiness-to-performance ratio.
The first Streets Of Rogue was an RPS favourite when it launched back in 2019 (we literally couldn't stop playing it), and we've known for a while now that its sequel, Streets Of Rogue 2, is due to arrive later this year. Ahead of the game's launch, developer Matt Dabrowski has started releasing a series of dev diary videos detailing his design process and how it's all coming together. The latest is about how he creates the game's proc-gen open worlds and biomes, and it's a fascinating watch if you've ever wondered how its particular blend of randomised chaos works behind the scenes.
The latest, and very timely, update for Baldur's Gate 3 is now live across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Patch 6 has been teased by Larian Studios since last week, when we learned it would include more kissing animations and easier party management, but we didn't know when it would be rolling out - or everything else it would contain.
Well, the update is now live, and with it comes the usual delight of patch notes a la Larian, which are too lengthy to be contained in Steam's character limit (of course).
A Tomb Raider fan and modder has revealed that they put their own personal projects on hold for a very good reason: they have actually been leading the development of Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered.
XProger is the brains behind OpenLara, an open-source cross-platform engine of the classic Tomb Raider series. However, this project and others are now on hold, as XProger was scooped up by Aspyr's parent company Saber Interactive to work on its official Tomb Raider project.
"For the past year I've been busy with a dream project that has become the culmination of the last eight years of my life - Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered," XProger shared on X, thanking Saber for "trusting me to lead the project and assemble a dream team of true fans".
Payday 3 will finally be getting an offline mode - although we don't know exactly when.
Payday 3 hasn't exactly had the best of launches. It was plagued with matchmaking issues and online-only requirements on release, and subsequent patches were delayed. All this lead to developer Starbreeze admitting that sales and player activity were lower than it had hoped, but it would endeavour to turn this around with a series of prioritised improvements.
Now, we know more about what these upcoming improvements will be, thanks to the reveal of Operation Medic Bag. Here, the developer announced that an offline mode is coming to Payday 3, as well an overhaul to matchmaking (Starbreeze admitted that right now, "matchmaking isn't doing a good job of bringing people together"), tweaks to the UI, a solo mode and a quickplay option. Additionally, "challenges will be removed", with the developer stating it will "switch infamy progression to be tied to heist completion".
It’s been a whirlwind week or so for Xbox. The weekend of February 3, rumors began swirling that major console exclusives like Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones game would head to other platforms, and Xbox fans’ reactions were intense, to say the least. The backlash prompted head honcho Phil Spencer to announce…
Square Enix Music is streaming the FFVII Remake soundtrack on its YouTube channel. The stream will run until 11am JST on February 17, 2024.
Here's the stream now for folks to watch:
The stream will play the original FFVII Remake soundtrack, the Plus version of the soundtrack, and the soundtrack for Intergrade. As of the time of writing, the stream is playing “Let the Battles Begin! Break Through” from FFVII Remake. According to the chat, this is a very sudden atmospheric change from the previous song, and that the stream is going through the soundtrack in the order it is on the CD.
Square Enix announced that it will sell its Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories playing cards again. They will come out on April 27, 2024.
You can pre-order the cards from the Japanese Square Enix store. They cost 3,080 JPY, which would be around $20.50. During their initial run in 2023, pre-orders opened up in June 2023 and the cards shipped out on September 30, 2023. These cards are still not available in the North American store, which means that if you want to purchase them but you live outside of Japan, you’ll need to use a proxy service.
The 27th annual D.I.C.E. Awards took place yesterday. While it doesn’t have the mainstream flashiness of the Game Awards, D.I.C.E. is a more industry-focused (and arguably more prestigious) event that honors the best games and creators of the last year. It is hosted and judged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) along with votes from over 30,000 industry experts, developers, and studios.
You can view the full list of nominees here. The big winners were Baldur’s Gate 3, which won Game of the Year among other accolades, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which walked away with six awards. Additionally, legendary Nintendo composer Koji Kondo was inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame during the ceremony.
Here's the full list of award winners:
Game of the Year - Baldur’s Gate 3
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design - Baldur’s Gate 3
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction - Baldur’s Gate 3
Outstanding Achievement in Animation - Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - Alan Wake 2
Outstanding Achievement in Character - Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – Miles Morales
One of the best things about video games is that they can act as a form of wish fulfillment for the player. Save the world, go to space, or harness the power of dragons. But one of the newest additions to Game Pass offers one of my personal favorite bits of wish fulfillment: having a clean apartment. A Little to the…
