Game Informer

Back in September, Nintendo revealed that the Kingdom Hearts "Sora" Amiibo for the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate line was coming sometime next year. Now, Nintendo has revealed exactly when: February 16, 2024. 

Nintendo revealed the release date late last night, on December 6, with a short video on Twitter showcasing the Amiibo. As expected, it adopts the look of Sora in the first Kingdom Hearts – a fan-favorite – with his trademark smile and keyblade hoisted over the shoulder. 

Check out the Sora Amiibo teaser for yourself below: 

The #SmashBros #amiibo of Sora will be released on 2/16/2024! #KingdomHearts pic.twitter.com/y3zdbaLplz

In this exclusive cover story video, Game Informer sits down with Massive Entertainment's senior leadership – Ditte Deenfeldt, Drew Rechner, Anne Reid, and Chella Ramanan – to discuss the making of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which releases this week. Read our review of the open-world adventure right here.

The Making Of Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora:

Open Roads, the narrative adventure game starring Keri Russell (The Americans, Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker) and Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End), finally has a release date, nearly three years after its initial reveal at The Game Awards 2020. It hits consoles and PC on February 22, 2024. 

Publisher Annapurna Interactive announced this release date today with a new trailer that features Russell talking about the game. Check out the Open Roads release date trailer for yourself below: 

Alongside the launch of Fortnite Chapter 5: Season 1, Epic Games revealed Lego Fortnite, a new experience that takes the familiarity of Fortnite and mashes it together with Lego for a new survival adventure experience. Today, Epic Games and Lego released a cinematic trailer for Lego Fortnite that reveals crafting, combat, multiplayer team-ups, a massive world to explore, and more. 

The trailer begins with a standard Fortnite character – Brite Bomber – running into a reality-shifting rift that transports her to a Lego-fied world. There are Lego sheep, castle-like structures, rolling hills and plains, and, unfortunately for this character, a storm. She runs into the castle to discover a crafting bench of sorts where she crafts an axe, and that's where her survival adventure begins.

Check out the Lego Fortnite cinematic trailer for yourself below: 

Mortal Kombat 1 launched back in September and became one of our favorite games of the year – read why in Game Informer's Mortal Kombat 1 review here. Since its release, developer NetherRealm Studios has released additional characters, like Invincible's Omni-Man, while teasing other new fighters like Quan Chi and DC's Peacemaker. Now, Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon has teased even more new content on the way. 

During the recent CCXP23 event in Brazil, Boon revealed that story DLC is coming, as reported by IGN. 

"Just like we did with [Mortal Kombat 11], we're going to release a second part with more story and we have a big surprise after that," Boon told the crowd at CCXP23. 

Developer Rockstar Games released the first official trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI earlier this week and in 24 hours, it surpassed 100 million views while also nabbing the record for the most views in 24 hours. YouTuber Mr. Beast previously held that record before the GTA VI trailer. At the time of this writing, the trailer has 104 million views on YouTube. 

If you missed it, watch the Grand Theft Auto VI reveal trailer below: 

Rockstar celebrated the achievement yesterday with a quote-tweet of Mr. Beast's tweet revealing the "most views on YouTube in 24 hours" record now belongs to GTA VI. Check it out below: 

🙌❤️ https://t.co/x1eKOE0Qde

Reviewed on: PC
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Massive
Release: December 7, 2023

The Avatar films are great fun but have never blown me away with original storytelling. Instead, the translation of familiar formulas into a vibrant and visually arresting alien world elevates the films. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora follows that same tack, featuring first-person exploration and combat that borrows liberally from franchises like Far Cry. But here, an enormous and detailed fantasy world breathes life into the experience, making it both more engaging and sometimes needlessly obtuse – but always with a flair for the source material.

In September, Konami announced it was going back to Contra's 2D roots with a sort of reimagining of the NES original dubbed Contra: Operation Galuga. The game, developed by Wayforward, features six playable heroes, and a new trailer runs down each one and what they bring to the table.

The trailer also provides another look at Operation Galuga’s modernized run-and-gun action, which harkens back to the classics with up to four players working together to blast apart enemies. Operation Galuga serves as a reimagining of the first Contra game with a roster of heroes bringing the fight to the Red Falcon terrorist faction, which Konami breaks down below:

Bill Rizer: Field leader of the Contra unit, possessing exceptional physical strength, agility, and mental fortitude. Proficient in all manner of armaments and well-versed in military science. 

Lance Bean: An expert marksman adept with machinery. Was active as a guerrilla fighter before being recruited into the Earth Marine Corps by Bill Rizer.

Ariana: A tremendously skilled warrior from the Galuga Archipelago. After her village was nearly wiped out by Red Falcon's attack, she wages a one-woman war against the enemy forces. 

With Grand Theft Auto VI taking players to a modern-day Vice City, you've likely asked yourself: just how Florida is Rockstar's portrayal of the Sunshine State? Watch Game Informer's two resident Florida men, Marcus Stewart and Wesley LeBlanc, provide their expert analysis of the hotly anticipated trailer, point out everything that's frighteningly real, and give their thoughts on what else GTA VI needs to be the ultimate Florida simulator. 

Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games.

Platform: PlayStation 5
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Naughty Dog
Release: January 19, 2024
Rating: Mature

The Last of Us Part II Remastered arrives in January, and we got to take a hands-on tour of its new roguelite mode, No Return. The mode tasks players with surviving a randomized series of levels as their favorite The Last of Us characters with ever-changing stipulations, enemies, and perks. Join Marcus Stewart and Charles Harte as they break down No Return's features and give their overall impressions so far.

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.

Nintendo and Universal's partnership has been a fruitful one. Universal Studios Japan's version of Super Nintendo World kicked it all off in late 2020 and early 2021 with a magical experience for Nintendo fans (learn more about our experience here), then in February 2023, Universal Studios Hollywood's Super Nintendo World opened its doors (see our photo tour of that version here). The collaboration to this point culminated shortly after that with the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which garnered strong fan reactions and grossed more than $1 billion at the box office.

Developer Rockstar Games announced last week that it was going to release the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI on Tuesday, December 5. However, the studio released the trailer a day earlier – watch the official GTA VI reveal trailer here – after it leaked online. The trailer confirmed GTA VI will be released in 2025 and now, thanks to a new press release from Rockstar parent company, Take-Two Interactive Software, we know it's coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. 

Curiously, the press release only mentions those two platforms, leaving out PC. Here's what it says: 

We learned last week that Rockstar Games was going to release the first official trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI this week. It was set to release on Tuesday, December 5, at 9 a.m. E.T., but after leaking online today, the team released the trailer early.

In this first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, the highly anticipated sequel to Grand Theft Auto V more than 10 years in the making, we get a glimpse at our dual protagonists, the setting of Vice City, and more alongside a 2025 release year. A press release from Rockstar Games says the game will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2025, with no mention of PC. 

Check out the official Grand Theft Auto VI trailer for yourself below: 

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has been a long time coming, and a new teaser trailer – arriving on Dragon Age Day, appropriately – provides a glimpse of its continent, Thedas, while also announcing when Bioware will properly reveal the game. 

The trailer provides a cinematic flyby of Thedas’ map and a few scenic shots of locales as out-of-context musings from several characters set the tone. It wraps up with a message announcing a full reveal coming next summer. 

It’s a bittersweet announcement. It’s good to know when we’ll finally see what Dreadwolf actually is. We're just bummed to get a teaser for a trailer that's months away. There’s always the chance Dreadwolf launches a few months after its grand debut (it’s happened before with several other big games), though the game was announced as being in the middle of full production last year, and with Bioware’s recent restructuring resulting in layoffs, a 2024 launch may be optimistic. 

Starbreeze, the studio behind games such as Payday 3, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and The Darkness, has announced a partnership with Wizards of the Coast to develop and publish a new cooperative multiplayer game set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

The title is codenamed Project Baxter and is slated to arrive in 2026. In a press release, Starbreeze states that Baxter is being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and “will carry the signature Starbreeze game cornerstones of co-operative multiplayer, lifetime commitment through a Games as a Service-Model, community engagement and a larger than life experience.” Although D&D is a role-playing game, it's unclear what genre Project Baxter will be. 

We are excited to unveil Dungeons & Dragons® as the IP for our next game, codename ”Project Baxter”. A co-operative multiplayer title to be released on all major platforms in 2026!

Read more here: https://t.co/JROgMApCzl pic.twitter.com/2SIOUZycyV

— Starbreeze Entertainment (@StarbreezeAB) December 4, 2023

Project Baxter is slated to launch on all major platforms and will feature cross-play. Starbreeze released a piece of concept artwork, posted above, as a small visual hint of what's to come.

Next week, Mortal Kombat 1 is getting its second DLC fighter in the form of the Nether Realm’s favorite wizard, Quan Chi. His gameplay trailer makes no bones about the fact that he’s an extremely formidable fighter.

Quan Chi sports his usual arsenal of necromancy-based offense, such as summoning skeletons and firing skulls, but he can now conjure giant tentacles from presumably another reality. He also tag teams with upcoming Kameo fighter Khameleon, who becomes available in January. We particularly enjoy seeing Quan Chi and Shang Tsung make perhaps the most delightfully eye-rolling Deadly Alliance reference ever, plus the bonus tease of another impending guest fighter, Peacemaker, who arrives in February.  

Owners of Mortal Kombat 1’s Premium Edition or Kombat Pack get access to Quan Chi early on December 14. Everyone else will have to wait until December 21. Quan Chi follows Invincible’s Omni-Man, who hit the game last month, on the DLC character roadmap, leaving Ermac, Takeda, Peacemaker, and The Boys’ Homelander. 

For more on Mortal Kombat 1, you can read our review here.

After years of waiting, Amazon Studios has released the first trailer for its upcoming TV adaptation of Fallout. The series is set to premiere on April 12 on Amazon Prime, and this teaser proves that visually speaking, the series appears to faithfully capture the essence of Bethesda’s beloved RPG.

Fallout is brought to life by Westworld showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, with Bethesda head Todd Howard serving as executive producer. The cast includes Ella Purnell as a freshly emerged Vault 33 dweller named Lucy and Walton Goggins as a gunslinging ghoul aptly dubbed “The Ghoul,” and the series synopsis reads as follows:

Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly violent universe waiting for them. 

The trailer packs in what a lot of fans would expect from a Fallout adaptation: power armor, vaults, irradiated, mutated creatures, exploding headshots, and a dark sense of humor. Here's hoping it can live up to recent live-action success stories such as The Last of Us and Twisted Metal.

Botany Manor is an enigmatic puzzle adventure game that tasks players with solving riddles to grow plants within a mysterious estate. The game first raised eyebrows during its reveal at a Nintendo Direct last November, and we can exclusively reveal that it’s arriving next spring.

Players control Arabella Greene, a retired botanist looking to bring life back to her massive collection of rare, long-lost plants. Doing this involves exploring a giant 19th-century manor in search of clues, notes, and other items to uncover the proper methods and conditions to make her plants grow. This involves finding the ideal habitats to place seedlings, for example, which may require some creative problem-solving and mature plants have mysterious qualities. 

As players find and examine clues, they’ll also learn about the ups and downs in Arabella’s life, both personally and professionally. Overall, the game has a peaceful atmosphere accented by a calming presentation and a pleasant soundtrack. Botany Manor is the debut title by the small team at Balloon Studios and is published by Whitethorn Games. 

Botany Manor is coming to Xbox consoles, Switch, and PC. It will also launch day one on Xbox Game Pass.

This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian is joined by YouTube and Twitch personality Fadel AKA GamesCage to nerd out about all the little surprises and delights found in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Both Brian and Fadel have 100%'d the game, so be warned that this episode contains full spoilers for any and all portions of the latest 2D Mario platformer.

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 Fadel on Twitter: @GamesCage_, YouTube: @GamesCage, and Twitch: GamesCage.

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!

Alongside a new trailer showing what Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth will sound like in English, Sega also confirmed Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name's English dub will release for free this month. The new trailer shows scenes that will be familiar to anyone who watched the Japanese trailer back in September, but it's nice to hear familiar voices connected to this new footage. The trailer also gives us a chance to hear Daniel Dae Kim's Masataka Ebina and Danny Trejo's Dwight. Here's what Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has to say about the two characters.

Ebina is the de-facto leader for the Seiryu Clan, a yakuza syndicate whose current chairman is incarcerated. Dwight leads the Barracudas gang in Hawaii and supervises the world's largest counterfeit goods market, aided by his sharp sense of business and even sharper machete.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth releases January 26 PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Turns out CD Projekt has even more plans for Cyberpunk beyond its 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty earlier this year. During a stream detailing the update with developers Paweł Sasko and Monika Janowska, the team at CD Projekt revealed Cyberpunk will be getting a 2.1 update soon that will add a fully functional metro, radioport, replayable car races, boss fight improvements, accessibility features, and more. The update will be available December 5 (the same day Rockstar is launching the trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto), which will also mark the release of Cyberpunk 2077's Ultimate Edition.

The metro system, called NCART in the game, lets players move around the city and take in the views. The Radioport will let players listen to music outside of vehicles. The update will also allow players to to invite their in-game significant others to "quality time" together in V's apartment. The other previously mentioned updates are a little more self-explanatory, though CD Projekt did specifically mention that the boss updates were specifically applied to the late-game encounter with Adam Smasher. He is also now equipped with Sandevistan, which was seen in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. New vehicles will be added like the Porsche 911 Cabriolet and others, motorcycle handling has been improved, and there are also technical updates like larger fonts and the option to turn off timers in the Breach Protocol minigame.

After teasing that it would be releasing a trailer in early December about a month ago, Rockstar confirmed an exact date and time this morning. The trailer for the next be Grand Theft Auto will premiere Tuesday December 5 at 9 a.m. ET.

pic.twitter.com/BguwiJokQt

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) December 1, 2023

Rockstar shared the tweet above without any context, so it's worth noting that it is technically not confirming that this trailer will be for the next Grand Theft Auto. All it says is "Trailer 1" and a date. But, considering its early November tease explicitly read, "We are very excited to let you know that in early December, we will release the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto," it's safe to assume that this is what the tweet is referencing.

The art of the tweet also offers the first official tease for the game's tropical setting. It has long been rumored that the next Grand Theft Auto would return to Vice City and a massive leak in September where 90 video related to the game also made that apparent.

After suffering a delay to next year, we now know that the driving-focused roguelite survival game Pacific Drive is arriving on February 22.

The news comes courtesy of today's PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted. Pacific Drive is a first-person adventure that unfolds in a surreal version of the Pacific Northwest. Players drive a station wagon to explore a forest filled with supernatural threats related to a government agency’s experiments gone wrong. Check out a recent story trailer below.  

As a run-based game, the world shifts with every trip into the forest, and the only thing keeping you alive is your trusty vehicle, which you’ll repair, reinforce, and modify using materials found while exploring the unsettling landscapes. Your car will need to stay up to snuff in order to withstand dangers such as the Zone Storm, a recurring maelstrom that obliterates everything in its path, meaning players will have to outrun it to stay alive. 

Pacific Drive will be available on PlayStation 5 and PC. For more on the game, you can check out our extended preview of the game here.

The year is not over yet, but arguably its biggest rush of video game releases have completed, which means now we actually need to play all of them. Or at least play as many as we can. On this week's episode Marcus Stewart, Kyle Hilliard, and Charles Harte discuss the games they're trying to catch up on including The Talos Principle 2 and Dave the Diver, and of course Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Batman Arkham Knight, and Grounded. We also answer questions from the community and reflect on our 2023 Thanksgiving meals.

Follow us on social media: Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), and Charles Harte (@chuckduck365).

The month of December brings many things: cold weather, the holiday season, and this year, a new crop of games on Xbox Game Pass. Highlights this month include Remnant: From the Ashes and Remnant II, giving subscribers a chance to try out both games if they haven't yet. It also gives them day one access to SteamWorld Build, the latest in the genre-shifting SteamWorld series. And for fans of big-budget open-world adventure games, subscribers will also get access to the latest entry in the Far Cry series. Below is the full list, their dates, and our reviews.

What's Coming To Game Pass

Remant II

Remnant: From the Ashes (Cloud, Console, and PC) – November 30 | Our Review

Remnant II (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) – November 30 | Our Review

Spirit of the North (Cloud, Console, and PC) – December 1 | Our Review

Look up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a superhero game – several of them! Fans of spandex-clad saviors have several titles based on their favorite comic heroes to look out for, regardless if you love DC, Marvel, or (preferably) both. We’ve gathered the biggest announced superhero titles and arranged them in chronological release order to know when to expect these games to swoop in and rescue you from boredom.

Jusant is all about climbing a mountain, and Don’t Nod’s superb execution of this premise has propelled this small, meditative adventure to stand among the year’s finest titles. In my review, I wrote that the game’s “ingenious climbing system, beautiful art direction, and intriguing world-building, inching toward the top is worth the effort.” That effort can be attributed to Don’t Nod honing in on the game’s central mechanic, climbing, and building a fascinating world and lore around it. I spoke to the game’s lead designer, Sofiane Saheb, and art director, Edouard Caplain, to better understand how Don’t Nod spent over three years bringing Jusant to life. 

Caplain states Jusant’s development began after Don’t Nod finished work on Life is Strange 2. After releasing another narrative-heavy experience with heavy, often depressing themes, the small team was eager to tackle something more lighthearted, smaller, and, most of all, different from the studio’s usual output. Don’t Nod turned to a few games for inspiration, the primary title being Journey. The 2012 adventure’s whimsical, enigmatic vibe and singular focus – walking to a mountain – provided a great example of the atmosphere and scope the studio aimed to achieve.

We found out last August that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was set to hit theaters on December 20, 2024, but a new teaser gave us another glimpse at its newest star: Shadow the Hedgehog.

I say “another” because Shadow briefly appears during Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s mid-credits scene, setting him up as presumably the antagonist of the third film. While we still don’t know his exact role or who will voice him, today’s image, posted above, provides a good look at Shadow below the neck (does he have a neck?), namely his signature air shoes. 

Off and RUNNING. #SonicMovie3
Only in theatres December 20, 2024 pic.twitter.com/BUIlurNIC0

— Sonic the Hedgehog (@SonicMovie) November 29, 2023

Production on Sonic the Hedgehog 3 had stalled due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, and today’s update confirms work has resumed following the strike's suspension. Jeff Fowler remains in the director’s chair, and the returning cast includes Ben Schwartz (Sonic), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (Tails), Idris Elba (Knuckles), and James Marsden (Tom Wachowski).

Remakes tend to be more exciting than remasters because the improvements often go beyond mere bumps in resolution or framerate. At best, studios reimagine classic experiences in exciting new ways, sand away rough edges, and somehow retain the intangible x-factors that made fans fall in love with these titles in the first place. At the very least, remakes offer a great way to play antiquated or less accessible experiences on modern hardware. 

The remake boom has been in full swing in recent years to the point that it’s starting to get tough to keep track of all the projects in the works. Thankfully, we’ve gathered as many of the announced remakes (not remasters) that we could find and gathered them in one neat list, arranged chronologically by release window. This will be an evolving list that will be updated as new remakes are announced and released, so be sure to keep an eye on it over the coming months. 

Beyond Good & Evil - 20th Anniversary Edition is arriving early next year. The news was accidentally posted early to the Xbox store and was even briefly available to play (albeit in unfinished form) on Ubisoft Plus. 

According to its now-deleted Xbox Store page (which was shared by Wario64 on X), the 2003 adventure will now feature 4K graphics and 60 FPS with improvements to controls and audio. It will also feature auto-save and cross-save functionality. Here’s the full blurb:

Capcom held a new showcase for Dragon’s Dogma 2, showing off more of the game’s fantastical action but giving fans the one thing they’ve wanted most: a release date. The hotly anticipated sequel is coming on March 22.

If that date looks familiar, that’s because it was accidentally leaked not once but twice. The first instance occurred earlier this month, thanks to a PEGI rating that revealed the March 22 date. The second leak occurred just hours before today’s presentation courtesy of the game’s Steam page. But if you missed both early reveals, today is probably a nice surprise. 

A new trailer shows off more of the game’s story while also offering up new gameplay footage. The trailer showcases the new Trickster Vocation alongside new enemies, such as the towering statue, mythical beasts, and, naturally, dragons. 

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is launching on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Crossover skins are extremely commonplace for in-game stores in 2023, and Among Us is no different. Their latest collaborative effort introduces skins from a list of popular indie games; Undertale, Celeste, A Hat in Time, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Untitled Goose Game, Alien Hominid Invasion, and Castle Crashers. The cosmetics from all seven games will be included in a Cosmicube, which can be purchased with 7000 beans. The crossover includes 25 hats, 18 skins, 12 nameplates, 9 visors, and 6 pets. You can see a gallery of the featured skins below.

Last month, something odd happened in the streets of Gotham. With no prior announcement or fanfare, people booting up Batman: Arkham Knight were greeted with a skin from 2022's The Batman starring Robert Pattinson. But then, as quickly as it appeared, it was removed, all without comment from the developers. While we still don't know exactly why the skin was added accidentally, we know exactly why it was created: it's a timed-exclusive suit launching with the Batman: Arkham Trilogy on Switch.

The collection brings Rocksteady's beloved trio of Batman games to Nintendo's hybrid console, complete with all previously released DLC. The trilogy will also include the aforementioned suit from The Batman, but it won't be limited to the Switch forever – other platforms will get access to the suit "at a later date."

After a series of vague teasers and press releases, we finally have a first real look at what Amazon Prime's Fallout TV series is going to look like, courtesy of Vanity Fair. The images showcase all the classic iconography you'd expect from the series, including vaults, ghouls, and power armor.

Ella Purnell as Lucy

The Vanity Fair article goes on to give us the first concrete details of the show, thanks to an interview with co-creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, who also created Westworld. The series will star Ella Purnell as Lucy, a "doe-eyed" woman who emerges from her vault with naivete and optimism but is forced to face the horrors of the wasteland. 

Since premiering in late October, Five Nights at Freddy’s has become a big box-office success. It’s already the highest-grossing horror film of 2023, and it has now become horror production company Blumhouse’s highest-grossing film of all time.

The film adaptation of the popular 2014 horror game hit theaters on October 27, grossing a strong $80 million in its opening weekend, the best for any horror film this year. That’s even more impressive given that it premiered on the streaming service Peacock the same day it was released in theaters (becoming the most-watched title on Peacock during its first five days). 

Five Nights At Freddy’s has continued to gain traction over the past few weeks and has now grossed over $295 million ($136 million domestically, $160 million overseas) during the month it's been in theaters. That ranks it at the top of Blumhouse’s highest-performing films, a record previously held by M.Night Shyamalan’s Split, while also climbing over top performers such as Halloween (2018), Get Out, and Glass. 

Following the round of layoffs that recently hit Bungie, it had been reported that Destiny 2’s next big expansion, The Final Shape, had been internally delayed to the summer. Bungie has now confirmed that to be the case.

Originally slated to launch on February 27, The Final Shape now launches on June 4. In a blog post, Bungie states that the expansion “needs more time to become exactly what we want it to be”.

“The Final Shape is the culmination of the first ten years of Destiny storytelling and, for Guardians everywhere, countless hours spent together,” Bungie writes in the post. “We want to honor that journey, so we’re taking the time we need to deliver an even bigger and bolder vision, one that we hope will be remembered and treasured for years to come.”

The delay has caused some changes to the content roadmap. Destiny 2’s Season of the Wish begins tomorrow and runs until The Final Shape launches. Guardian Games has been bumped up to March, with Bungie stating it will have a “refreshed focus on class vs. class competition.” Three new PvP maps are slated to arrive in May. 

Chinese company ByteDance is best known for its ownership of TikTok, the international video platform, but it owns a number of other companies as well. One of those companies is Nuverse, a game publisher best known in the West for its work on Marvel Snap. Fans of the superhero card-battler had reason for concern this morning, as an article from Reuters reported that ByteDance had plans to leave the gaming space entirely, with intentions to "divest from titles already launched." This seemed to spell doom for Marvel Snap.

However, the official Marvel Snap X account issued a statement today that this would not be the case.

Dear SNAPPERS,
Some of our players have expressed their concerns regarding reported structural changes at Nuverse.
We wish to thank you for your concern and assure you that regardless of any changes at Nuverse, SNAP will continue to operate and flourish in the future!

Bloober Team has unexpectedly provided a light update on its upcoming remake of Silent Hill 2, ensuring fans that its development is “progressing smoothly”. You'll just have to wait for Konami to share more details. 

In an X post, the team behind The Medium and Layers of Fear asks for fans’ patience in regard to new information on the game while stating that development is going according to schedule. Konami announced the Silent Hill 2 remake last October with a lengthy trailer showcasing the 2001 classic’s updated presentation. The game currently has no release window but will launch on PlayStation 5 and PC. 

Here is Bloober Team’s full update: 

Reviewed on: PC
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Thunderful Publishing
Developer: Thunderful Development
Release: December 1, 2023
Rating: Everyone 10+

The most endearing aspect of the SteamWorld series is how each of its games relates to one another despite their disparate genres. From tower defense to turn-based RPG, each title offers a unique spin on a specific gameplay experience while adhering to a shared mythos, resulting in a fun collection of games that coalesce thematically. SteamWorld Build, Thunderful's city-builder/RTS hybrid, serves as the latest iteration of this formula. Sporting streamlined genre mechanics, intuitive controls, and charming visuals, many essential parts are in place. Unfortunately, despite a solid foundation, SteamWorld Build struggles to maintain an engaging experience throughout its campaign.