Game Informer

Square Enix has partnered with Fathom Events and Sony Pictures to bring the director's cut of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children to theaters for the first time. Premiering ahead of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s launch on February 29, the theatrical sequel to the original Final Fantasy VII will get its first run in U.S. theaters for just two days. 

Dubbed Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete, this expanded version of the 2005 CG film is 26 minutes longer than the original. Square Enix states it features “roughly a thousand revised scenes with expanded themes and improved visuals.” 

Before the film starts, though, fans who arrive early will witness exclusive introductory content, such as a history of Final Fantasy VII presentation that explains its ties to Advent Children. Gameplay footage of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be shown off, along with new interviews about the project with FF7 Remake creative director (and Advent Children director) Tetsuya Nomura, Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi, and producer Yoshinori Kitase. 

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children takes place two years after the events of the original Final Fantasy VII. Cloud and his friends tackle a mysterious illness spreading across Midgar, along with the appearance of new enemies tied to a familiar foe. Advent Children became a popular film due to its, at the time, impressive CG animation and action scenes.

Blake Hester is hard at work on Game Informer’s full review of the exceptionally long Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but while he is gathering his final thoughts, I wanted to share my impressions so far.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth can be deathly serious when it wants to be. A character with a negative first encounter with the game’s protagonist, Ichiban, soon reveals he is in over his head with the local Yakuza and spent time in jail, leading to heartbreaking difficulties with his significant other. Ichiban is sympathetic and builds him up with his unique and often excessive brand of optimism. The moment is well-written and genuinely moving. Those moments (at least in the first 11 hours) are rare and hit hard as a result.

Nintendo has revealed pink Joy-Con controllers for the Switch alongside a new Princess Peach: Showtime gameplay trailer. Fittingly, these new Joy-Con are pastel pink, just like Peach's signature dress. They will be available for purchase at select retailers and Nintendo's online store for a limited time, although Nintendo did not mention exactly when players can buy them. 

And speaking of Princess Peach: Showtime, in the latest gameplay trailer for it released today, we get a glimpse at several new iterations of the titular character, including Ninja Peach, Cowgirl Peach, and Kung-Fu Peach, as well as new looks at others like Patissiere Peach, Detective Peach, and Swordfighter Peach. 

Check them out for yourself in the new Princess Peach: Showtime gameplay trailer below: 

Princess Peach: Showtime hits Switch on March 22. 

Riot Games, the publisher-developer company behind League of Legends, has announced that it is laying off 530 employees. Plus, it's ending new game development under its Riot Forge arm, which produced third-party-developed games with the "A League of Legends Story" tag, like Ruined King, The Mageseeker, Song of Nunu, and the upcoming Bandle Tale, which will be the last in this line of releases. 

As for why, Riot CEO Dylan Jadeja and co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill sight the need to "move us toward a more sustainable future" in the announcement post released on January 22. 

"Minutes ago, we shared with Rioters that we are focusing on fewer, high-impact projects to move us toward a more sustainable future," it reads. "Now, we want to tell you what these changes mean for our games, everything around them (esports, Arcane, music, etc.), and what to expect going forward. 

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Developer: Bandai Namco
Release: January 26, 2024
Rating: Teen

The bar for the fighting game genre has been uppercut to astronomical heights in recent years. Exceptional one-on-one combat remains the primary bullet point, but other series have complimented their packages with robust suites of destinations, from cinematic story campaigns to comprehensive training dojos. Although Tekken 8’s fighting remains a treat thanks to some neat tweaks to its strong formula, the rest of the package, while respectable, falls short of some of its contemporaries.

Developer Rocksteady Studios has pulled back the curtains on the free seasonal content coming to Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League after the game's launch on February 2. Season 1 will kick off in March and includes the most famous villain in the DC roster: The Joker. Not only is The Joker joining the game, but he'll be a new playable member of the Suicide Squad. 

Notably, this take on The Joker is not the Mark Hamill-voiced character from the Batman: Arkham series. Instead, Brainiac is pulling Elseworlds together in an attempt to merge them into a unified multiverse. This is how The Joker in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League joins the roster. In his universe, he was already a member of the Suicide Squad. His playstyle is fast and dynamic and requires players to stay moving, according to Rocksteady. 

Check out The Joker in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League in action in the video below: 

As you can see, this video teases other villainous appearances and locations, like a Gotham City Police Department floating in space by flowing lava and a frozen locale that might be teasing Mr. Freeze. 

Reviewed on: Switch
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release: January 25, 2024
Rating: Teen

Outsiders of the Ace Attorney series might not be familiar with the name Apollo Justice, but fans know the character is a big deal. He's second only to Phoenix Wright in terms of playable appearances, and his new collection, the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, gathers all of those outings in one convenient package. While there's not much new content, quality-of-life improvements and a visual overhaul do a lot to modernize Apollo's courtroom saga, making it a worthwhile journey for fans new and old.

The collection includes three games: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice. While Apollo's name is only in one of these three titles, he's a crucial character in all three games, so the name is a fitting one. The package also includes DLC trials and outfits from the 3DS games, so if you want to rock Phoenix's classic suit in Dual Destinies or dress Athena as a maid in Spirit of Justice, you're free to do so. The DLC trials vary in quality (the second is great, the first is not), but they're meaty pieces of content that I'm glad made it into the final collection.

Last week, the internet began to speculate that Gothic and Elex II developer Piranha Bytes was being shut down after fans noticed the studio's website was essentially defunct. Many speculated Piranha Bytes was another casualty in owner Embracer Group's purge of studios that began last year after a planned $2 billion deal with Saudi Arabia-backed Savvy Games Group fell through in 2023.

Studio closures at the hands of Embracer include Saints Row developer Volition Games and reformed TeamSplitters team Free Radical Design. Game Informer reached out to Piranha Bytes following last week's speculation to see if it was, indeed, another closure at the hands of Embracer, and today, studio CEO Michael Rüve responded, stating the studio's situation right now is difficult but that people shouldn't write them off yet. 

Here's what Rüve's statement says, in full: 

With Wrestlemania 40 on the horizon, WWE 2K24 appropriately celebrates the milestone by highlighting four decades of the grandest stage of them all. The "American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes graces the cover of this year’s installment. Additionally, Bianca Belair and current Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley share the Deluxe Edition cover, making them the first women to receive a dedicated cover. 

First off, the gallery below shows off the cover art for each of the game's three editions (read on for details on each):

This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian is joined by Marcus Stewart, who gives his hands-on impressions of Another Code: Recollection, Nintendo's first published release of 2024. The series got its start on the DS before receiving a Japan and Europe-only sequel on the Wii. Now, both titles are available on Switch. The two also run through the latest news, give an eShop Gem of the Week, and discuss which Zelda game they'd like to see remade.

If you'd like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on his Instagram/Threads @BrianPShea or Twitter @BrianPShea. You can follow Marcus on Twitter: @MarcusStewart7.

The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry's most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to talk about what's happening in the world of Nintendo. Along the way, they'll share personal stories, uncover hidden gems in the eShop, and even look back on the classics we all grew up with. A new episode hits every Friday!

Game Informer asked Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's game director, Naoki Hamaguchi, 129 rapid-fire questions about the party's next adventure while visiting Creative Business Unit I during our recent cover story trip in Tokyo. During our chat, we inquired about the original Final Fantasy 7's rumored N64 version, Zack's importance in the remake, whether mainline entries will ever return to Nintendo consoles, and 126 other burning questions. Oh, and we also try to guess the next game's subtitle. My money is on "Reloaded."

Watch Our Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Rapid Fire Interview:

Please subscribe to Game Informer's YouTube channel if you enjoy this video, and visit our cover story hub for exclusive details about the game.

After years of excitement and skeptism, the Pokémon-like survival game Palworld is now available in early access. The game drops player into a collection of tropical islands inhabited by monsters called Pals that you can catch as your own. Pals can be used in battle or put to work, building structures and mining resources. You can also mow them down with guns. Yes, this game features realistic guns. It's a very strange but, thus far, entertaining experience.

Watch Marcus Stewart and Alex Van Aken dive into the Xbox version of Palworld from the beginning to see how the game performs in its first incarnation. For more on Palworld, check out our recent feature in which we spoke to developer Pocketpair about the studios' origins and Palworld's creation and features.

Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. You can also visit our second channel Game Informer Shows for more archived livestreams and series such as Super Replay and Game Informer Live. 

Street Fighter 6 is getting its third DLC fighter in February, and the psycho-powered boxer Ed is next in line. 

Although Ed was first introduced in Street Fighter IV, he didn’t become a playable fighter until Street Fighter V (included in the Season 2 roster of characters). The protege of Balrog sports the same psycho powers that M. Bison wielded, but he thankfully isn’t an evil mastermind. That doesn't make him any less brutal, though, and you can watch him clear a subway car full of Mad Gear gang members in the cinematic trailer below. 

Ed joins Street Fighter 6 as the third fighter in the Year 1 character pass alongside the previously released Rashid and A.K.I. (leaving Akuma as the final Year 1 fighter) and will appear in the story-driven World Tour mode too. For more, check out Game Informer's Street Fighter 6 review and see where it ranked in our Top 10 Games of 2023.

The revival of this long-dormant franchise moves into the gear-and-power-gated family of games colloquially termed Metroidvanias, thanks to its similarity to early classics like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It’s a genre that has been gaining traction in recent years, but Ubisoft’s return to the Prince of Persia franchise is one of the best we’ve seen in a long time. It's even managed to make a spot for itself on our list of the Best Metroidvania Games you should make a point to play. 

The Lost Crown is also notable for the way it advances this game style with novel ideas and mechanics. While not everything on this list is brand new, these features combine to make Ubisoft’s new adventure one of the most rewarding, approachable, and satisfying releases in the genre, and an early standout release at the beginning of 2024.

All About The Map

Early games like Super Metroid offered a large map for exploration, but much of it was unavailable until you had additional capabilities. That defining feature of the genre is present in The Lost Crown, but it allows clever players to leverage several in-game systems to reduce aimless wandering and instead keep the focus on interesting encounters and puzzles.

Whether you call them Metroid-likes, exploration-based action platformers, big map adventures, or simply Metroidvanias, this sub-genre has exploded in popularity. What was once a criminally underused design template has become one of the most commonly used formats in games. That’s especially true for indie developers, who seem more than happy to make up for prolonged droughts between actual Metroid and Castlevania titles by concocting their own unique spins on the style. While some 3D games have adopted the formula to success (see: Batman: Arkham Asylum), this list will only highlight 2D-style titles for the sake of clarity. Here are 10 great modern Metroidvanias, in reverse chronological release order, that you’ll have a great time getting lost in. 

Machine Games’ Indiana Jones game received an official name and got its first gameplay showing during today’s Xbox Developer Direct. We also learned that it’s launching later this year. EW.com also confirmed that though Harrison Ford's likeness will appear in the game, he will be performed by Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite).

The adventure is called Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and stars Indy in his prime doing what he does best: solve puzzles, explore tombs, and pummel Nazis. Set in 1937 between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, Indy is chasing a stolen relic to solve an ancient, globe-trotting mystery. 

Like Machine Games’ modern Wolfenstein games, The Great Circle is a first-person experience. Expect to engage in shootouts and fist fights in this more intimate perspective, but the game does switch to third-person during climbing sequences.

Indy will be helped by new character Gina, an investigative journalist pursuing her own goals that land her in a mutually beneficial (and banter-heavy) partnership with Dr. Jones. The pair travels to locations such as Egypt, the Vatican, the peaks of the Himalayas, and the sunken temples of Sukhothai to visit various tombs filled with puzzles that Machine Games teases have multiple solutions, either using your wits or, occasionally, by brute force. 

Today, during the most recent Xbox Developer Direct, Ara: History Untold, a new strategy game from Oxide Games, got a deep dive revealing gameplay and more. The game was first announced in 2022. 

Oxide talked up its "living world," a procedurally generated map for players to create the society they want in Ara. As the developers say, it will change over time based on players' decisions. You can watch the presentation starting at the 25:00 minute mark. 

Ara's Prestige System pits players to build a nation better than opponents'. The game's score system awards points based on what kind of leader a specific player wants to be. An example, as detailed during today's live stream, is building "Triumphs," or famous buildings throughout history that give large Prestige bonuses.

Oxide is a Maryland-based studio founded in 2013 by former Firaxis developers. Its previous games include 2016's Ashes of the Singularity and Star Swarm. 

Ara: History Untold is expected to be released on PC and PC Game Pass in the fall of this year. However, Oxide plans to keep its "Insider Program" after release, implementing player feedback.

During today's Xbox Developer Direct, Square Enix made a surprise appearance to pull back the curtains on Visions of Mana, the first new mainline game in the franchise in 15 years. Square Enix also revealed Visions of Mana will hit PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC this summer.

Executive producer Masaru Oyamada discussed the franchise's history, noting there have been 17 entries across its 30 years of existence. He also points out that what is now the Mana series today actually began as Final Fantasy Adventure in 1991. 

Mana series creator Koichi Ishii also joined this segment of the show to discuss how he has supervised the team on its work and implementation of taking what were originally pixelated monsters and converting them into the 3D monsters players will fight in the game. 

Notably, Visions of Mana is the first Mana game coming to Xbox. Oyamada expressed Square Enix's excitement about this first for the series while diving deeper into its real-time action combat. This real-time action combat is what originally separated Final Fantasy Adventure from the Final Fantasy series, which was strictly turn-based at the time. 

Obsidian has been working for years on Avowed, a first-person fantasy RPG set in the same world as its excellent Pillars of Eternity games. Unlike the isometric styling of those titles, Avowed is a first-person adventure more in the vein of something like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, or The Outer Worlds.

Today’s Xbox Developer Direct offered a deeper dive into several important aspects of the game, but the standout feature was an explanation of combat, which aims to be action-oriented but still tactically complex. Players are allowed to use customizable loadouts, including selecting different weapons or other tools for each hand. We saw combinations of swords, shields, wands, and spell usage, and pistols. Once in combat, the mix of various offensive skills with defensive capabilities like blocks and parries makes it look like a genuinely engaging approach to battles. I'm especially stoked about dual-wielding wands.

Beyond a slick combat system, we also learned more about Avowed and its approach to quests and conversations. The game seems to focus on morally complex and uncertain situations where the player must make choices that shape subsequent outcomes in the story. That’s pretty par for the course in the genre, but it was nice to see the system in action through a sidequest about several killed soldiers and a player character who had to decide if one of the soldiers had been a coward and fled, leaving the others to their doom.

Developer Ninja Theory appeared on Microsoft's Xbox Developer Direct stream to discuss its sequel, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. The big news from the footage is the game finally has a release date: May 21. Microsoft also confirmed that the game will be a digital-only release.

The developer revealed it is in the final months of development and outlined some elements to expect from Hellblade II. Senua is not in as much fear of her voices as she was in the original game, but she is still a Celtic warrior who struggles with psychosis. Like the first game, Ninja Theory is working with professionals like Cambridge's Paul Fletcher to ensure Senua represents an accurate version of someone struggling with complex mental issues.

There are a number of new characters she will interact with. Some will appreciate her perspective and consider her an ally, but others will reject her and consider her an enemy. Like the original game, Hellblade II takes 10th century Iceland (which the developer visited for research), and she is fighting against Vikings who are enslaving her people. Ninja Theory is focused on making the game historically accurate but with an obvious layer of fantasy on top.

Combat has been overhauled for the sequel, with the game focusing on the fact that Senua is not a superhero. The goal of the combat is to make players feel like they barely survived each encounter, and the gameplay footage of the combat looks brutal.

In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, the crew discusses real video games you can play, including our early Palworld hands-on reactions and The Last of Us Part II Remastered review. You might've heard us describe the former as "Pokémon with guns" previously, but Palworld's crafting and survival focus make it stand out as its own unique experience. After breaking down the updates packed in with Naughty Dog's rerelease, we shift our attention to Another Code: Recollection and Final Fantasy XVI. 

Watch The Game Informer Show:

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

Last year was a fantastic year for games, with standout triple-A releases like Baldur's Gate 3, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and great independent games like Jusant, Sea of Stars, and countless others. But in 2023 alone, more than 10,000 developers and people in games-adjacent industries were laid off. Plus, the unchecked rise of A.I. continued, and Unity burned developers with its controversial new game engine policies, not to name a few other not-so-great parts about 2023 – it was a great year for games but one of the worst for those who make them. 

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is now available, and if you’re a fan of games like Metroid, Castlevania, or Hollow Knight, and you don’t have it on your radar, that’s probably a mistake. The game is a thrilling adventure, with plenty of excellent combat, puzzle, and traversal challenges. Once you get far enough in the game, you’ll likely encounter one of the most challenging of them all; The Impossible Climb is a late-game platforming/traversal sidequest that demands careful timing, patience, and the use of nearly all the powers you’ve earned up to that point in the story. If you want to prove your mastery of The Lost Crown, it’s the sequence you’ll want to tackle.

How To Beat The Impossible Climb In Prince of Persia:

The video above is the result of dozens of earlier failed attempts, but it should give you an idea of at least one path through which you can beat the sequence.

For a bit more guidance, the following tips may be helpful:

CI Games, the publisher behind last year's Lords of the Fallen and the Sniper Ghost Warrior franchise, has laid off 10 percent of its staff, as first reported by GamesIndustry.biz. The publication says its sources pointed to laid-off staff posting about the job cuts on LinkedIn, but has since received confirmation from CI Games.

It's currently unclear how many people 10 percent of the company translates, too, considering CI Games is a publisher that also owns studios like Lords of the Fallen developer Hexworks and Sniper Ghost Warrior developer Underdog Studio. 

CI Games CEO Marek Tymiński told GamesIndustry.biz the following: 

"To preserve business strength and stability, CI Games has made the tough but necessary decision to implement a targeted round of redundancies, affecting approximately 10 percent of employees across the company," Tymiński told GamesIndustry.biz. "We would like to thank each of them for the part they've played during their time with us."

Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive has reportedly laid off 45 people, Kotaku has learned. The publication says those with knowledge of the situation at the studio said the layoffs only affected people at Behaviour's Montreal, Canada studio, with those 45 affected let go last week, between January 9 and 11. 

However, Kotaku notes it was also told layoffs at the company began in December. The layoffs reportedly included cuts in various departments at the studio. Last month, Behaviour Interactive announced it was working with Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games on The Casting of Frank Stone, a new single player game set in the Dead by Daylight universe. 

Game Informer has reached out to Behaviour Interactive PR to ask for confirmation of these layoffs and if affected employees will receive severance, and will update this story if it learns more. 

Another Code: Recollection is perhaps the best kind of remake. It takes two well-liked yet obscure graphic puzzle adventures in 2005's Trace Memory for DS, and 2009's Another Code: R - Journey Into Lost Memories for Wii (which never launched in the U.S.) and gives them a graphical and mechanical overhaul to make them readily available to a new audience.

Join editors Marcus Stewart and Kyle Hilliard as they show off Recollection's improvements and additions compared to the originals and discuss why you may not want to sleep on these adventures this time around. 

Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Today right here.

Bethesda has announced The Elder Scrolls: Castles, a new mobile experience from the team behind Fallout Shelter.

Like Fallout Shelter, Castles is a management sim, with Bethesda stating in an X post that “you'll build your own dynasty where every day in our world is a year in the game's world. Citizens are born, they die, rulers change, and can be betrayed.” Players control their own castle over multiple generations of rulers, families, and subjects. Decision-making dictates how well your kingdom operates and how content your subjects are; unhappy citizens may plot to overthrow you. 

Your castle can be expanded with new rooms and items, plus workstations for underlings. It appears to feature a turn-based combat system with players equipping heroes with gear to battle enemies and gather resources to grow their kingdom. Though the game's App Store page states that it includes in-game purchases, it is unclear if Castles is free-to-play or not. 

Developer Supermassive Games' branching-narrative horror, Until Dawn, which exclusively hit PlayStation in 2015, is the latest video game to get the film adaptation treatment. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Shazam! and Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg will direct the Until Dawn movie. 

It, Annabelle, and The Nun screenwriter Gary Dauberman is "doing a pass on the script," which was originally written by The Invitation writer Blair Butler, according to THR. This Until Dawn movie adaptation is being produced by Screen Gems and PlayStation Productions, two divisions within the wider Sony company. It is described as an R-rated horror movie. 

Notably, Until Dawn used various movie and television actors for its cast, including Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, Jordan Fisher, and more. There's no word about whether this adaptation will bring back any of them to reprise their roles. 

When Rock Band initially launched in 2007, Harmonix touted it as a platform for players going forward. While subsequent launches and peripherals joined the mix in the succeeding years, the main pillar for that claim is the developer's steadfast support of the Rock Band platform through its aggressive downloadable content schedule. Today, however, the studio announced the end of Rock Band 4 downloadable content.

The news comes more than two years after Harmonix was acquired by Fortnite and Unreal Engine developer Epic Games. Epic has since leveraged the studio's expertise for a side game within Fortnite called Fortnite Festival, which utilizes gameplay similar to the Rock Band. In the time since the studio's acquisition, the developer has closed the online servers for Rock Band 3, ended post-launch support for Fuser, and now, has ended Rock Band 4's more-than-eight-year run of weekly DLC.

According to Harmonix, the final DLC, which is scheduled to release on January 25, will reflect the team's feelings about this news. "We deliberated long and hard about how to frame the last blast of RB DLC of this era," Harmonix product manager Daniel Sussman wrote in a blog post. "The last two weeks will feature some tear-jerkers that sum up our feelings about this moment."

Thunderful Group, the company behind games like 2023's SteamWorld Build and Lego Brick Tales, has announced plans to lay off roughly 20 percent of its workforce, as first reported by GamesIndustry.biz. Kotaku notes that 20 percent of the company's workforce is about 100 employees. As for why, Thunderful CEO Martin Walfisz cites the company's need to reduce costs. 

"Since I joined as CEO in the fall of 2023, we have evaluated the current business and the future position of Thunderful," the company told GamesIndustry.biz. "To ensure and strengthen the viability of the group, we have found no alternative other than to reduce costs and focus the business on areas with the best future growth and profitability prospects.

"It has been difficult to make these decisions, and it saddens me that we will have to say goodbye to many skilled colleagues and partners. Nevertheless, I am convinced that this is a necessary direction for Thunderful and that these changes will make the company a stronger player in the market." 

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Developer: Open Roads Team
Release: February 22, 2024

PTW, a support studio that's worked with some of the industry's biggest companies like Blizzard, Capcom, and Sega, has laid off about 45 people, as first reported by Kotaku. PTW was previously called Pole To Win and its services include quality assurance, studio support, and localization. Last week, on January 11, someone with knowledge of the studio told Kotaku about the layoffs, noting that roughly 45 people lost their jobs. 

The person with the knowledge of PTW also told the publication that the majority of those laid off live outside the United States – it has studios in North America, Europe, and Asia – and were QA workers. However, jobs were cut in other departments, too, Kotaku notes. 

"PTW made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce in several countries where we operate," a PTW spokesperson told Kotaku. "This decision was not made lightly – Our company's core offerings stem from the people who enable us to deliver world-class products and services. We want to thank our departing team members for the time and effort they put into the company." 

Wakerunners is the next game from developer Mintrocket, which made a name for itself last year with the excellent Dave the Diver. Mintrocket did confirm to us that Wakerunners is being developed by a different internal team (apparently it has a number of projects from distinct teams going at once), but the pedigree is still worth calling out.

As for the game itself, you can check out the game's teaser trailer below.

Technically, the game was soft-revealed in 2022 as Project TB and is a 4v4 and 5vr top-down competitive action game. The game follows a collection of factions trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic earth. The combat leans on a fast-paced system where players glide across the arena using acceleration and deceleration to their advantage as they engage in close-quarters combat. You will apparently be able to swap characters mid-battle, which will obviously affect strategies.

Developer Embark Studios surprise-launched its free-to-play FPS, The Finals, back in December – Game Informer documented everything that goes into a stealth release like this – and the game has continued to garner a strong fanbase. Now, just a little over a month since its release, Embark is set to release Update 1.5.0 and a new limited-time mode, Solo Bank It, tomorrow, January 17. 

Embark calls this mode an "experimental" one, pitting 12 single players against each other in PvP matches. The first to obtain a total of 40,000 "Cash wins" takes home the win in Solo Bank It. Similar to standard Bank It, which is already in The Finals, contestants earn Cash by collecting and depositing Coins that drop from eliminated players; Coins can also be found in vaults around the map. 

Watch The Finals Update 1.5.0 trailer for yourself below: 

Elsewhere in this update, Embark is fixing plenty of bugs and making balance changes as well. Plus, Update 1.5.0 "comes with a security update to anti-cheat and fair play" and a store update, too. 

Update 1.5.0 and Solo Bank It go live in The Finals tomorrow, January 17. 

2K's tennis series is returning after more than a decade of dormancy with TopSpin 2K25, the company announced today. It did so with a quick teaser trailer revealing that it's "coming soon." Its announcement coincides with 2024's first Grand Slam tennis tournament, the Australian Open, which began Saturday, January 13. 

"Today, 2K revealed the return of TopSpin with the teaser trailer for TopSpin 2K25, the next must-play sports game from 2K that fully immerses fans into the world of tennis," a press release reads. It also notes more information about the game is "to come." 

Watch the TopSpin 2K25 announcement teaser for yourself below: 

2K did not reveal a release date or a release window, but given that "25" is in the title, it's likely releasing either this year or the next. The last TopSpin game was released in 2011 with Top Spin 4 during the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 generation. 

Are you going to check out TopSpin 2K25? Let us know in the comments below!

Grand Theft Auto V developer Rockstar Games and Alan Wake 2 studio Remedy Entertainment have a history that goes back years, namely due to the two's work on the Max Payne series. However, the companies are at the center of two trademark disputes filed by Rockstar's parent company, Take-Two Interactive, as first reported by RespawnFirst. In the disputes, Take-Two takes issue with Remedy's new logo it unveiled in April of last year, which features a stylized "R," claiming it's too similar to Rockstar's own "R" logo. 

The trademark disputes – here and here – were filed in the United Kingdom, and Take-Two, based in New York, is named as the "opponent" in it. The disputes were filed on May 11, 2023, which is a month after Remedy unveiled its new logo. 

Diablo IV’s third seasonal event, Season of the Construct, has been revealed and kicks off next week. This time, players will journey beneath Kehjistan to battle demonically corrupted machines.

The story centers on the demon Malphas getting his hands on an ancient device called The Loom. Created by Zoltun Kulle for benevolent purposes, it’s able to create mechanical constructs, but Malphas has warped the Loom for his own sinister intentions to unleash a plague of evil machines. However, you’ve got your own trick up your sleeves.

Namely, Season of the Construct pairs players with their own mechanized companion called a Seneschal. In addition to lending a hand in combat, tanking incoming attacks, and healing players, the Seneschal serves as the primary power gain system for this season. It features its own management UI and can be customized with specialized Governing and Tuning Stones built to tailor your playstyle. Twelve Governing and 27 Tuning stones of varying rarities bestow a range of upgradable perks and abilities to the Seneschal to aid players in combat. 

Arcane Tremors now cover the map. These areas are infested with elemental Constructs, the new seasonal enemies. Defeating them earns loot for season-specific items. Players can keep up with seasonal activities at The Gatehall, a central headquarters beneath Kehjistan featuring the standard assortment of vendors and portals accessing multiple zones of Sanctuary. 

The 2022 World War II horror game Martha is Dead is the latest video game getting a film adaptation. The game’s Italian developer LKA, is partnering with production company Studios Extraordinares to bring the psychological adventure to the big screen.

Martha is Dead is a first-person adventure that follows identical twin sisters, Guilia, the protagonist, and Martha. Set in Tuscany in 1944, during the final stretch of World War II, the sisters are fathered by a Nazi general and have a strained relationship due to the clear favoritism Martha receives from their mother. However, Martha is suddenly found dead, and their mother mistakenly believes Guilia to be Martha, forcing her to assume her late sister’s identity. Supernatural occurrences abound centering on the malevolent entity known as the White Lady.

The film follows the same premise. Studios Extraordinares is led by screenwriter/directors André Hedetoft and Andreas Troedsson, and the company’s website states it’s a “creative powerhouse writing and making high-end action, horror, and science-fiction films from original stories and extraordinary games.” The studio is also working on bringing last year’s sci-fi horror game Fort Solis to TV and film, as well as a movie adaptation of the upcoming horror shooter Veil. 

Developer GSC Game World will finally release S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl on September 5. The first-person shooter will launch on Xbox Series X/S and PC. 

The studio announced this release date in a quick trailer released today, which also calls September 5 the "final release date," indicating GSC Game World is confident it won't be delaying its long-awaited shooter any longer. The game was set to release in the first quarter of 2024 before today's delay.

Check out the Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl final release date announcement trailer for yourself below: 

Officially confirmed in 2020, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has taken some time to get off the ground after various starts and stops. Then, following what appeared to be smoother development, the team paused its work in February 2022 due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where GSC Game World is based. Employees were forced to evacuate their homes in places like Kyiv, which is Ukraine's capital. Some employees even volunteered to fight for Ukraine – developer Vladimir "Fresh" Yezhov was killed in combat in 2022, as reported by GameRant.

Developer 11 Bit Studio has unveiled the first full look at Frostpunk 2 gameplay. First announced in August 2021, the sequel to the bleak yet popular city-builder is also coming to Xbox and PC Game Pass.

The trailer provides a look at how decision-making appears in-game. The demands you’ll receive from your citizens appear to be as stressful as the first Frostpunk, as you control a Steward overseeing life in a city situated in an unforgiving tundra where resources are precious and everyone has their own ideas about how society should function. How do you ensure everyone gets fed? What does the education system look like? How do you keep the streets clean of literal and criminal filth? Set 30 years after the original game, citizens can vote to pass laws, and these decisions steer the city’s direction toward multiple outcomes and finales.

11 Bit also announced that Frostpunk 2 is launching on PC Game Pass, alongside Steam, The Epic Store, and GOG, in the first half of 2024. The game will also come to Game Pass on Xbox Series X/S at a later date and is targeting PlayStation 5 as well. 

You can read our review of the first Frostpunk here.