Game Informer

No Man’s Sky is five years old today, and it's hard to believe that much time has passed since the astral-hopping adventures began. Hello Games is celebrating the occasion with a trailer chronicling the 16 free updates released for No Man’s Sky that helped the studio live up to its ambitious goals. The trailer looks at the past and gives a small glimpse at the future by announcing a new expansion called Frontiers. No content is shown of this new update, but the trailer concludes by saying Frontiers is "coming soon."

You can check out the anniversary trailer below, which cycles through the different iterations of No Man’s Sky and includes footage of Sean Murray and the Hello Games team doing press for the game leading up to release and fan reactions to one of the largest updates to the game, No Man’s Sky Next.

Game Informer Magazine Content Director Matt Miller reviewed the original version of No Man’s Sky back in 2016; while there are things he liked about the experience, this quote of his closing paragraph points out what he felt needed to be addressed in the original product:

Today is the five-year anniversary of the No Man’s Sky launch. Time flies when you’re having fun, right? Well, I didn’t have a great time during my brief initial foray into No Man’s Sky, putting barely any time into it and bouncing right off. Over the years, No Man’s Sky has often been regarded as one of the biggest improvements over time in games, offering players tons of significant content updates and patches. Today, I’m suiting up and going back in to play No Man’s Sky for the first time – again. Come join me for live impressions as I fumble around and try to learn how to explore the galaxies.

Think you got what it takes to best Geralt of Rivia himself? Test your might at an official Witcher school. 5 Zywiolow (5 Elements) in Poland is a company offering to make those Witcher dreams come true with a plethora of events that will feature actual lessons in real Polish castles. While it's no Kaer Morhen, these castles will offer a realistic backdrop for training schools designed to make those Witcher goals an impressive reality. This is the official LARPing experience for Witcher lovers that is so much more than just mimicking such a beloved universe. 

I first learned about this school in a modding discord that focuses on The Witcher franchise, and it looks incredibly immersive. "Become a Witcher and live an adventure of a lifetime," boasts the school alongside a calendar of events that are being offered to give fans an authentic experience. At the time of writing this, there are four events in total coming soon. There is one "Polish Edition" and three "International Editions" with the below dates: 

As we patiently wait for the next chapter in the Hellblade saga, the first game, Senua’s Sacrifice, just got a big optimization update for Xbox Series X/S. The 2017 action game, which already looked pretty sharp, runs better than ever thanks to tweaks that improve resolution, performance, and even adds a quality-of-life feature. 

Developer Ninja Theory, which is one of the third-party studios owned by Microsoft, announced on Twitter that as of today, Hellblade features ray tracing, 4K resolution, and 120hz refresh rate on both Series X and S. The team also dove in and spruced up some in-game details and particle effects. In terms of convenience, the game now has a nifty chapter select option as well. Here’s a trailer showing off the improvements in action.

Stern Pinball’s latest table explores the first two seasons of The Mandalorian and pushes the player to smack a Beskar ball across the galaxy to protect Grogu. This beautifully designed table features a giant Grogu statue, exclusive speech from actor Carl Weathers (in character as Greef Karga), and the show’s theme song with music from composer Ludwig Göransson. If you want to add it to your game room, it’s available now in three models: Pro (for $6,199), Premium ($7,799), and Limited Edition ($9,199).

The three models look different and offer several distinct features when the silver ball is in play. The Premium and Limited-Edition models feature a gravity-changing rotation Encounter. Stern’s announcement calls this feature an “innovative, motorized rotating playfield” that features six stand-up targets, lights, and two full-size flippers.” These models also offer a dynamic inner-loop shot that activates a horseshoe scoop ramp that Stern says delivers “fast, repeatable precision shooting.”

Netflix's The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is a self-proclaimed anime that serves as a prequel to the Witcher tales we know and love. Move over, Geralt of Rivia; it's Vesemir's time to shine and shine he does with the newest trailer to drop alongside a brand new poster. 

First up is the latest trailer where we see Vesemir approach a building that fans of this fantasy franchise will recognize: 

Shortly after the trailer was released, Netflix also showcased a new poster with Vesemir front and center: 

Netflix

For those interested in the casting choices for the upcoming prequel:

Elden Ring is coming to both PC and consoles, but there have been rumors and worries since its reveal that this would be another big title exclusive to Epic Games. There is good news for those in the pro Steam camp: the Elden Ring Steam page is officially live and states that a planned release on the platform is slated for January 20, 2022. 

Despite the official Elden Ring trailer showing off a Steam logo, that didn't stop the rumor mill from claiming Epic Games Store exclusivity. Now that the Steam listing is officially live, the debate can finally end. While we have seen switches in the past where a title would suddenly become an Epic Games exclusive or lose said exclusivity, as seen with Death Stranding, the current status of Elden Ring is that it will have a Steam release. 

At the time this article was written, Elden Ring on PC is slated to launch on January 20, 2022, though the global release is set for January 21, 2022. For those curious, here are the reported PC specs for the highly anticipated FromSoftware title: 

A trailer has surfaced for the canceled Duke Nukem prequel from Gearbox, a title that never saw the light of day over legal disputes surrounding the character himself. Though the Duke Nukem game was canned, that hasn't stopped it from sprouting up a few times over the years. This time, however, is a full trailer that shows off what could have been. 

The video at the top of the article shows what the setup would have looked like for Nukem's prequel story. Called Duke Nukem Begins, the origin story was meant to flesh out what we knew about the Duke himself, but unfortunately, it couldn't climb its way out of development hell. The trailer for the canceled game, directed by Gregor Punchats, shows off a full story proposal for the prequel. He has shared tidbits of this very same video in the past, most recently in 2019, but now he has decided to share it in its entirety with the world. 

"In 2008, when I was working for the good folks at Janimation in Dallas Tx, we were hired by Gearbox to create a vertical slice (an animated version of what the game will look like) for the game Duke Nukem Begins, a Duke origin story," reads the trailer's official description from Punchatz. 

Stardew Valley is the epitome of a relaxing game. Do your chores, interact with those in the village, enjoy the soothing soundtrack; there's a lot to love. As the resident Destiny 2 obsessor, however, I would be amiss if I didn't share this adorable little Stardew Valley mod that I stumbled on that brings little sprite versions of Osiris and Saint-14 from the Destiny-verse into the simulator game.

As seen in the image above, there are the fully-armored versions of both characters, and then there are more simplified looks, including Saint's Exo form. Now, you may be wondering: "Liana, you usually write more complicated mods than this; why Destiny sprites?" Well, dear reader, glad you asked! With Season of the Splicer coming to a close, all signs are seemingly pointing at Osiris being taken over by Savathun, an ancient enemy that is as cunning as she is dangerous. What that means for Osiris as himself remains to be seen, but I can't help but be a little overly concerned about what this means for both him and Saint, namely because Saint is his romantic partner and the two have been through more than enough already. So this? This gives me a little happiness over the cuteness and a much-needed balm for that Destiny worry. 

The Steam Deck gets compared to the Nintendo Switch a lot, but unlike the Switch, there are no color variations. Yet. Valve has confirmed that when the handheld PC platform launches later this December, the company will monitor the reception closely to look at where the next steps for the Deck go next. With several options available with various internal storage options, the 'ol razzle dazzle could come into play if enough people want it. 

In a recent interview with the folks over at PC Gamer, Greg Coomer and Tucker Spoffword, both of which worked as designers on the Steam Deck, said that different color options had been a hot topic internally. Coomer mentioned that there was a lot of fun talking about what sort of creative direction the team could take the Deck, "even discussions like ‘well, can we have lots of colors?’ We had all those discussions. We are continuing to have those now.”

So if this is something that the design team was interested in so heavily, why wait? According to Coomer, the decision to launch with just the standard grey and black was "logistical" in nature. "Having a lot of SKUs in the market is just a lot more complicated. There isn't really a better reason than that for right now."

At one point and time, a possible Bourne video game was being considered with the main star front and center, adapting the popular Jason Bourne movie franchise starring Matt Damon. Apparently, the actor was offered "a bunch of money" to reprise his role as the main character from The Bourne Conspiracy, though it was turned down with the reasoning being that he's not feeling the FPS genre. This explains the long-since question as to why he was not a part of the title released back in 2008. 

In a recent interview with Hot Ones, the actor confirmed that there was a game on the table, but a creative difference made that offer of "a bunch of money" not quite worth it. In the podcast, he confirmed that he was asked to be a part of the adaptation with both his likeness and his voice but that he couldn't see past the vision proposed to him at the time.

Microsoft has announced its Xbox Gamescom 2021 event with a special livestream slated to arrive later this month. While Gamescom in the past has usually meant an in-person gathering set in Cologne, Germany, the continued concern over COVID-19 has continued on the digital-only event trend. With this year's Xbox Gamescom 2021 event being a live-streamed affair, that means anyone interested can attend to see what Team Green has up its proverbial sleeve. 

The event kicks off on August 24 at 10:00 a.m. PT with the Opening Night LIve ceremony taking place the very next day on August 25 at 11:00 a.m. PT. The event will be co-streamed by the amazing Parris Lilly and Kate Yeager as they dive deeper into the games arriving later this year and beyond. To learn more about "our biggest games line up ever," there will be more updates from already revealed titles, including some of Xbox's third-party partners, as well as some more on holiday releases and news of Xbox Game Pass. 

The Ascent is a solid experience that, unfortunately, wasn’t created equal across all platforms. The cyberpunk co-op shooter is available on Steam as well as Xbox platforms, including Game Pass for console and PC. However, players quickly discovered that features present in the Steam version, such as ray tracing and DLSS, were missing from the Game Pass version. The experience has also suffered from numerous bugs. Players are justifiably miffed about the whole thing, and developer Neon Giant has taken the first step in righting the ship by releasing a patch aimed at correcting a number of issues.

The new patch is now live for Steam players and will be coming to Windows 10 and Xbox “shortly”, according to Neon Giant’s patch notes. You can read the full list of fixes here, but some big improvements include:

After a sudden rollback to the pandemic-induced extended ranges for Gyms and PokéStops in Pokémon Go, Niantic faced heavy pushback from fans. You can catch up on the specifics of the changes and initial backlash in Andrew Reiner’s reporting here. On Thursday morning, Pokémon-focused site PokéJungle joined the chorus with an open letter to the Pokémon Go developer demanding the COVID-era changes stay. Last night, Niantic made an official response to PokéJungle’s letter and those angry over the change, assuring fans it’s looking to find a way to move forward.

In its message to the Pokémon Go community, Niantic acknowledges the grief of the player base, saying, “We appreciate your letter and all of your feedback. We hear you. We are humbled by your response. Not every game has such a passionate, global player base that we’re fortunate enough to have.” The letter addresses the developer's steps to bring exploration back to the game in places where social distancing guidelines have been lessened. While the current wave of the COVID-19 Delta variant isn’t mentioned, Niantic does say, “we will continue to monitor health and safety guidance related to outdoor activities, and will make future changes if necessary.”

Besides the original game, enhanced features, and new multiplayer content, the director’s cut of Ghost of Tsushima will also include the Iki Island expansion. I’m jazzed to have a reason to jump back into the world again. A new island to explore and fresh storylines? Sign me up.

But here’s the thing. I’m still not over the game’s saddest moment. For anyone who hasn’t played Ghost of Tsushima yet – you really should, but I get it if you are waiting for the upcoming release – this is the time to bookmark this story for later and walk away because I’m jumping into massive spoilers.

The Last of Us TV show for HBO has its mainstay cast ready to rock and roll, and it looks like the world-building aspect of the adaptation is coming along nicely. New set photos show the series in action, and it paints a war-torn picture of Calgary in a world that has been made into a wasteland due to a pandemic that changed everything. 

The new on-set photos come by way of the @TheLastofUsNews Twitter page, showing off a few images of the transformation Calgary has undergone to bring the story of Joel and Ellie to life once more: 

Photos of the HBO's 'The Last of Us' set being built in Calgary.

(via CTV News) pic.twitter.com/m5HWqD38Jv

— The Last of Us Updates (@TheLastofUsNews) August 4, 2021

Some pointed out that the setup of the above photos means a Certain Scene has already been filmed, a sequence that begins at the start of the first game and lays the groundwork for Joel's development. We already knew that by a previous image that showed Pedro Pascal, who is playing the lead character Joel, in a car with his daughter and brother. For those that played the games, we know what happens next. 

Free Guy is the latest movie to star Ryan Reynolds and it centers around video game Easter eggs, but some of those gaming nods made an appearance in real life. With the film out now, the cast and crew celebrated with fans during a premiere event. With Halo Infinite hype still high after that first flight test, the appearance of a 1:1 scale of a Warthog from the Halo franchise was more than perfect. 

Several images can be seen in a post by the official Halo account, including Reynolds himself posing in front of the Halo-given vehicle. While it's nothing new, 343 has hosted events in the past specifically dedicated to Halo that features the same ride, but seeing it on a red carpet just hits different: 

Whether you're blasting your way through the streets of New Mombasa or stylishly cruising the highways of Free City, the versatile and venerable Warthog is always ready for action. 😎 pic.twitter.com/awkwMlpt0o

Platinum Games' chief game designer, Hideki Kamiya, penned a PlayStation blog post today unveiling an unexpected sequel to Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta, called Sol Cresta. Kamiya, known for his work on Devil May Cry, Okami, Resident Evil 2, and more, will helm the project as creative director. You read that correctly; Platnium Games is carrying on the series left dormant since the eighties. There is even an announcement trailer to prove it.

Initially developed by Nichibutsu, Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta were vertical-scrolling arcade games where the player takes the captain's seat aboard a starship. In shoot 'em up fashion, players flew through the galaxy defending humanity from destruction. It seems like the upcoming successor has taken several elements from the original titles. Kamiya emphasizes that the game will let players dock with allies, just like the titles did 36 years ago.

Alientrap has already proven its flexibility in genres through games like Apotheon and Cryptark, both of which offered stylistically novel takes on platforming and shooting, respectively. The studio is now turning its attention to a new crafting and adventure game called Wytchwood, and players can expect to see the results when it releases later this fall.

Detailed in a post on PlayStation Blog, Wytchwood puts you in the weathered old shoes of a swamp witch, whose potions and spells may be deployed to solve any number of problems. The witch in question has made what seems like an ill-advised dark pact, and she has no memory of how and why. As you journey out to find the answer, you interact with various fairytale-inspired characters and creatures.

Based on early descriptions, a big part of gameplay revolves around collecting and combining various spell ingredients gathered from different animals, plants, and monsters in the world.

Monster Crown is a neat little RPG that shares more than a few things in common with Pokémon. The presentation harkens back to the GameBoy games of old, and you’ll form bonds with dozens upon dozens of monsters to help you save the world from tyranny. After spending a year working out the kinks in Steam Early Access, the game is almost ready for primetime. On October 12, Monster Crown goes 1.0 and is also heading to consoles. 

The game takes place on Crown Island, which is threatened by a power-hungry young woman looking to assert her dominance. The island has a long history of being ruled by tyrants, and unless you want to live under the thumb of yet another evil lord, you’ll need to stop her before it’s too late. Doing so involves forming pacts with over 200 monsters, which you train to battle other monsters as well as other human tamers. Players can also fuse monsters to breed entirely new species. Want to socialize with friends and other players? Monster Crown also features online battles and trading. For an idea of what's in store, take a gander at the original Early Access trailer below.

Eidos-Montréal’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was Game Informer’s June cover story. We spent weeks talking to developers about the RPG mechanics, branching dialogue, and comic book action. More exciting footage was shown worldwide during E3 this summer, as well as a gameplay demo chock-full of third-person exploration and explosive combat. A new trailer dropped today, introducing Lady Hellbender. What’s more, the hulking warrioress spends a good portion of the cinematic flirting with the incredibly dry-humored Drax.

Lady Hellbender is the queen of Seknarf Nine and a monster collector. At the start of the cutscene, which you can watch above, she’s talking to a potential seller. Her next clients, the titular Guardians, arrive to talk but, instead, watch as the seller is torn apart by his own auctioned creature, the dreaded Tara-tara. When Hellbender comes face-to-face with Drax, it becomes apparent to everyone in the arena that his legendary reputation precedes him. Needless to say, the flirtatious conversation between Drax and Hellbender isn’t the crudest out there, but it’s definitely cringey (and humorous!). 

Destiny 2 players have been begging for any news about new PvP content, especially with the recent overhaul to balancing within modes like Crucible and Trials of Osiris. With the Witch Queen expansion on the horizon and Season of the Splicer coming to a close, Destiny 2 assistant game director Joe Blackburn just gave Guardians everywhere a little Light (puns) at the end of the tunnel regarding new PvP maps and new modes. 

Blackburn took to Twitter with a lengthy thread ahead of a showcase detailing season 15 and the Witch Queen expansion later this month. In the thread, he provided some insight into what Bungie has currently planned for Destiny 2 PvP, including the return of vaulted maps and the return of a Destiny 1 favorite. 

Golf Club Wasteland landed on our radar for its intriguing blend of arcade-style golf set amid the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic Earth. If you’ve been waiting until the end of August to hit drives over the vestiges of the human race, you can now circle September 3 on your calendar. 

The game comes from Demagog Studio and imagines a not-too-farfetched future where corporations have depleted Earth of its resources and the wealthy elite have fled to Mars. Occasionally, however, the survivors grow nostalgic and revisit the remains of their home planet. You control one such person, who chooses to relive his Earthly years by playing a few rounds of golf. With every hole you play, you’ll uncover the causes of humanity’s near-extinction while also jamming out to the laid-back tunes and talk shows of a Mars radio broadcast. Take a look at the new release date trailer below. 

In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, we discuss a handful of games we've been digging recently, including Halo Infinite, The Ascent, Last Stop, Nier Reincarnation, and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

It's that time again, friends, a new Back 4 Blood beta is here, and we are going all-in when it comes to causing pure, unfiltered mayhem. Earlier this week, we detailed what the latest beta period will have to offer, including a new playable character and more enemies! If you missed that, you can learn more about the latest early access period here. Or, you could just join us later today to see it all firsthand! 

We will be checking out two new maps for the Swarm PvP mode, the new co-op maps, and what new weapons and cards the team at Turtle Rock included with this new beta. We're also going to be running maniacally through the map as we did during our first run at streaming this game, so brace for that as we show off those sweet, sweet skills and those moments we can't help but to panic shoot. It happens; we're not ashamed, we're not proud. 

In a year rife with delays, Evil Dead: The Game has hopped atop the growing pile. Although the adaptation of the popular film and TV franchise never had a concrete release date, it was projected to launch sometime later this year. That’s no longer the case, as developer Saber Interactive announced on Twitter that it will now launch the game in February 2022.

As reported by GameSpot, the announcement states that the team needs extra time to give Evil Dead the polish it deserves. Saber also states that they’ll use the time to work on a newly revealed single-player mode. Up to this point, Evil Dead has been presented as an asynchronous multiplayer horror game in the vein of Dead by Daylight. Players take control of iconic characters such as Ash to work together to take on player-possessed monsters. Single-player will allow players to enjoy the game without buddies in tow, but Saber didn’t divulge further details. However, the studio did tell fans to expect new character updates, a new gameplay video featuring Cambell, and pre-order information in the near future. 

Bad puns aside, the latest controller creation from Pope Art looks like the perfect grab for any Halo fan. This Xbox Series X wireless controller is designed with the beloved weapon in mind and dons a familiar purple theme with a grey backdrop, translucent blue buttons, and the telltale pink-hued needles themselves. 

The Halo Needler controller comes by the one and only Pope Art. Pope began his creative journey by crafting expertly designed controllers and console skins modeled after some of our favorite games. It didn't take long before his talent caught the eye of many in the games industry, leading to some impressive collaborations with some of the biggest names in the business. That includes the exclusive Claptrap-themed Borderlands 3-inspired Xbox Series X console design that the artist collaborated with Gearbox on. But we're not here to talk about Borderlands; let's dive into that Halo Needler love: 

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

Night School Studio is known for its graphic adventure titles - games that convey stories through environmental interactions. Moreover, witty, realistic dialogue and low-poly but vivid art is used effectively in past projects like Oxenfree and Afterparty. A few months ago, Night School Studio unveiled the sequel to the former game (Oxenfree) and a set platform: Nintendo Switch. Today, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals got a PlayStation launch announcement as well. You can watch the trailer below.

The first Oxenfree follows a ragtag crew of angsty teenagers traveling to an abandoned island for a weekend party. Horror ensures when protagonist Alex inadvertently activates a dimensional rift that leads to a bevy of supernatural occurrences and ghostly sightings. Players use a handheld radio to solve puzzles and mysteries while also talking to their companions with branching dialogue options. Kim Wallace reviewed Oxenfree for Game Informer and deemed it a 7.75 experience:

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, have just signed a whopping $900 million deal with ViacomCBS, and a new report says that part of that investment is being put towards a brand new South Park game. 

As reported by Bloomberg, Parker and Stone have signed on to create more episodes of the hit comedy TV series for Comedy Central and "several spinoff movies" for Paramount+, a streaming service under the Viacom umbrella. Earlier this year, both Parker and Stone solidified a $600 million credit with HP Investment Partners LLC, a company that confirmed that South Park's library is worth an estimated one billion dollars. Because of that, there are several other South Park-related projects in the works. 

Many of you logged well over 100 hours into Assassin's Creed Origins and got to know protagonist Bayek of Siwa quite well as he took on the Templars in Ptolemic-era Egypt. Sideshow Collectibles is bringing this popular lead back in a high-end statue limited to just 1,500 units.

BioWare has revealed a lengthy 'behind-the-scenes' look at Dragon Age 4 that both told so much and so little at the same time. Since then, we've had numerous concept art drops to reveal even more puzzle pieces about what the future of Thedas looks like. True to BioWare's nature, we won't actually know how much was hidden in plain sight until after launch, as was the case for previous entries in the franchise, but that hasn't stopped fans from diving deep into everything we've learned thus far. Hi, it's me. I'm fans. 

I've done literally nothing to hide my love for BioWare since starting here at Game Informer, and with over 20 playthroughs of the Dragon Age franchise and numerous re-readings of the books and associating comics, that love isn't going away anytime soon. That much time spent in Thedas has given me a lot of up-close-and-personal time with the Dragon Age lore and I can't quite absolve the nagging theory that is always in the back of my head revolving around a certain egg-headed elf. 

Obviously, there will be spoilers for Dragon Age Inquisition below. Last chance to back away slowly and pretend this never happened. It's not you, it's me; I understand. 

Fatal Fame producer Keisuke Kikuchi mentioned recently that a possible sequel could be coming down the pipeline following the positive reception seen with the Maiden of Black Water re-release. Depending on how well the re-release performs in sales, he mentioned that he "would love" to tackle a sequel if that's what gamers want. 

The re-release of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is poised to make its debut later this year, just before the holiday season commences. In an interview with the Japanese site Famitsu, Kikuchi responded to whether or not a new entry could be something fans can expect. He replied, saying, "That's what I'm hoping, we're releasing this game to commemorate the series' 20th anniversary. We're hopeful a lot of fans will take the opportunity to play the game." He added, "We'd love this to lead to a new title."

Fatal Frame has always been a beloved horror experience on the PlayStation console. With the re-release also launching on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, that franchise love is about to see a reawakening. Hearing that this new wave of horror appreciation could lead to a new game is exciting, especially since it's nearly been 16 years since the initial release of Black Water. 

With over 89.04 million units sold, Switch is just 12 million units shy of eclipsing Wii (at 101 million units) to become Nintendo's most successful console venture to date. The numbers come from Nintendo's latest financial results, showing the company shipped another 4.45 million Switch units in the first quarter of this year. These numbers are down 21.7 percent from the previous year, with net sales coming in at $2.94 billion, a decline of 9.9 percent.

Nintendo's first-quarter sales last year were lifted by Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game that sold over 10 million copies in that time. Animal Crossing: New Horizons' sales haven't slowed much, making it the second best-selling Switch game with 33.89 million units sold. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sits in the top slot at 37.08 million units, with Super Smash bros. Ultimate ranking third at 24.77 million units, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in fourth with 23.20 million units.

Switch's booming numbers push it beyond the successes of Sony's PlayStation 3 (which sold 87.4 million units), and Microsoft's Xbox 360 (which sold over 80 million units). PlayStation 2 remains the top-selling console of all time with over 155 million units sold.

Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor has departed his position as creative lead on the studio's new game Open Roads following allegations regarding the company's work culture. A new report from Polygon shares a deeper look into the "toxic" work environment at Fullbright, following shortly after the game's Twitter account shared a notice of the leadership change. 

The official Open Roads Twitter account offered a message to fans about Gaynor's change in position. "We are a small team passionate about making an inclusive, poignant, story-driven game that gives players a feeling of discovery," begins the social media post. "We care deeply about creating games that have a positive impact. We are also fervent believers in fostering a work environment that is healthy and collaborative, where we can work with transparency, autonomy, and trust.

pic.twitter.com/OX11QJo6Qe

The state of California is currently suing Activision Blizzard following a two-year investigation into the company's behind closed doors workplace culture. The lawsuit addresses various labor abuse allegations, including sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and a "frat boy" culture regarding internal behavior. As more details surface in relation to the lawsuit, an investor's call took place on August 3, and the overall feeling of the meeting felt different than the usual shareholder conference. Though advertising goals and release timelines were addressed, including news about Diablo II and Overwatch 2, a portion of the call took on a somber tone as questions from stakeholders were fielded about the future of the company. 

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick opened the call with a statement that was similar to his public acknowledgment of the labor lawsuit last week. "I want to start by making clear to everyone that there is no place at our company where discrimination, harassment, or unequal treatment of any kind will be tolerated nowhere," said Kotick when he opened the August 2021 investor's meeting. "We so appreciate the current and former employees who have come forward in the past and recent days with courage."