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Ubisoft has confirmed it no longer plans to launch a second major Assassin's Creed Shadows expansion, something that previously would have formed part of the game's now-abandoned season pass. Shadows' first — and now, it seems, only — major expansion launched in September. The 10-hour Claws of Awaji had previously been described as the "first expansion" included in Shadows' season pass, an offer that was formally scrapped a year ago when Ubisoft delayed the game's launch from November 2024 to February 2025. As an apology to fans for the game's delay, Ubisoft said it instead would gift Claws of Awaji for free to all pre-order customers. But fans still assumed a second expansion would follow at some point, as has become custom for every other major Assassin's Creed title over the past decade. "As of now, at this moment for Year Two, there is no expansion on the size of Awaji that is planned," associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois said in an interview with JorRaptor. Lemay-Comtois caveated his answer by noting some exceptional examples in the past where Ubisoft had changed its plans to make more add-on content than it had originally envisioned (such as with the recent Saudi-funded DLC that arrived two years post-launch for Assassin's Creed Mirage). But, currently, it seems clear that no second expansion is on the cards, and there's no suggestion that Shadows' post-launch plans will extend into a Year Three. It's an extremely surprising decision by Ubisoft, which followed up the launch of 2017's Assassin's Creed Origins with two expansions (The Hidden Ones and The Curse of the Pharaohs), 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey with two expansions (Legacy of the First Blade and The Fate of Atlantis), and 2020's Assassin's Creed Odyssey with three expansions (Wrath of the Druids, The Siege of Paris, Dawn of Ragnarök) alongside numerous other smaller DLC drops. 2023's smaller-scale Assassin's Creed Mirage was itself originally planned as yet another Valhalla expansion, before it was ultimately released as a standalone game. "We're still working on content for post-launch and supporting it, but it's not a full-on DLC the way a season pass would have had in the previous years," Lemay-Comtois said, confirming at least that Ubisoft still had plans for smaller additions to Shadows within 2026. "We're trying to re-adjust for Year Two a little bit," he continued. "There's learning from Year One we can apply to Year Two. Any content we want to do in Year Two will probably be more sparse, not a drip-feed... but chunkier updates that shake things up a little more. I'm not announcing anything at this point but our strategy for Year One was to be quick and reactive, so it means smaller drops often, but for Year Two we don't need to put fires out or anything, so it's more what good, chunky little piece of meat... we can drop and have people come back and enjoy it." Digging into Lemay-Comtois' comment, the suggestion here is that Ubisoft's decision to change course on Shadows following its pre-release reception impacted the company's plans for post-launch support, with priority placed on fighting immediate "fires." And indeed, Shadows has enjoyed a series of recent patches that have added numerous fan-requested features, in a clear bid to turn sentiment around. Going into further detail, Lemay-Comtois also suggested Shadows had been a tougher game to develop technologically, further complicating plans to get post-launch content ready. "I think with Shadows, we had a big jump in generations," he continued. "The engine work that we had to do on Shadows took a lot of time and a lot of our resources. So the planning for the post launch was not really clear as soon as it would have been on another [game] where the technology was more stable and well known. "We started fairly late on Shadows... because I remember during pre-launch we had the Season Pass," he admitted. "And the situation changed when we pushed back on the release date. That plan changed quite a bit and then we had to kind of adapt to the situation. So because of the new tech, because of the new generation, because of the pushes we had in production, we chose an approach that was way more, let's put our ear to the ground when the game launches... and react." For 2026, Lemay-Comtois suggested Shadows would receive updates "not to the size of a DLC or expansion, but like yesterday's update plus," referencing the free update that arrived this week that added a new story quest, the game's Attack on Titan crossover, as well as a significant Isu Easter egg. "At minimum this size," he emphasized, without stating whether these updates would continue to be provided for free or not. "And whether or not this is the right way to go, or a good learning, I think it's more of an experience we're trying with Shadows, to keep things small and reactive and see how the community feels about it and reacts to it," he concluded. "And the learnings that come out of that will be applied to whatever other projects we do next." Of course, it's to be expected that Shadows' lead developer Ubisoft Quebec is already planning its next major Assassin's Creed project (and indeed, it was previously reported that the studio had begun early pre-production work last year on a now-scrapped entry set in the post-U.S. Civil War *******). But the mention here of those projects is interesting, alongside confirmation of what sounds like smaller plans for Shadows in 2026 than fans have seen this year. And then there's what else fans expect is coming: a remake of Assassin's Creed: ****** Flag reportedly waiting in the wings, as well as numerous other Assassin's Creed projects that Ubisoft has already confirmed, including a multiplayer spin-off and the witchcraft-themed Assassin's Creed: Hexe. Amongst all that, and coupled with Shadows' delay drama, Ubisoft seems to have simply decided a second Shadows expansion isn't necessary. If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest ****** Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full ****** Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals. Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social View the full article

Where Winds Meet continues to be a big hit on Steam and it works quite well on Desktop Linux but it needs a lot of improvements on Valve's Steam Deck. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

The Epic Games Store has officially announced The Jackbox Party Pack 4 and The Darkside Detective as its December 4 freebies. The former will mark the first entry in the popular series that the platform has given away in almost seven years, with Epic Games Store users having exactly one week to claim it. View the full article

Diabloand Dark Soulshave both spawned countless imitators, but interesting combinations of both aren't as common. If you want to shell out for a game in early access, there's always No Rest for the Wicked. If you don't, however, you might want to check out an upcoming game with a lower barrier to entry. View the full article

Marvel Rivals' big anniversary event has finally arrived, bringing with it the absolutely chaotic 18v18 Annihilation mode that I definitely won't be spamming Scarlet Witch in, alongside a boatload of freebies for you to scoop up in the multiplayer game. If you haven't logged in for a while, you'll want to at least grab the goods, seeing as there are enough Units being dished out to buy yourself a premium outfit. Plus, there's a free Jeff skin; praise Jeff, love Jeff. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: All Marvel Rivals codes and how to redeem - November 2025 All Marvel Rivals characters and full roster The 30 best Marvel Rivals skins View the full article

Opinion | ****** Ops 7's Endgame is part extraction shooter, part Destiny 2 power grind, and a really odd way to end the co-op campaignView the full article

Paradox Interactive has announced it’s making a multi-million dollar write-down of developments costs for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 after poor sales. After numerous delays the game was finally released on October 21, but Paradox says an updated sales forecast made 30 days after release suggests it won’t hit the numbers it expected. As a result, it’s decided to make a non-cash write-down of 355 million SEK ($37.4 million), which means it’s reducing the value it previously assigned to the money spent on developing the game. Read More... View the full article

There are so many beloved characters in Baldur's Gate 3 that are the hot topic of conversation, such as Shadowheart, Karlach, and Astarion, as well as the other origin characters to a certain extent. But BG3's list of amazing characters extends well beyond the core lineup, and there are countless NPCs with extremely compelling stories that deserve more attention. View the full article

You ask me (which, by clicking on this article, you did), Yakuza 0 is one of the best games I ever played. It's so good—such a pitch-perfect blend of high drama and high camp, and with perhaps the most engrossing minigame known to man packed in—that I kind of struggle to pick up other Yakuza games. I feel like I've already spent 100+ hours with the best one... Read more.View the full article

Before landing on the design that made it into Halo: Combat EvolvedView the full article

There is increasing concern that skyrocketing RAM prices will impact high-end gaming not just in the short term, but the long term. With the explosive growth of generative AI, AI data centers are hoovering up the world's memory and storage supply, sparking price hikes that some experts fear could last for decades. Cheap SSDs, DRAM, and HDDs are pretty much a thing of the past, with prices rising as AI demand outstrips supply. This has already caused price rises, with PC retailer CyberPowerPC announcing a hike for memory modules across the U.S. and the *** “due to market conditions.” “Recently, global memory (RAM) prices have surged by 500% and SSD prices have risen by 100%,” CyberPowerPC said. “This has had a direct impact on the cost of building gaming PCs since 10/1/25.” Price rises thus kick in on December 7. The impact on PC gaming could be significant and long-lasting, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney tweeted. “RAM price increases will be a real problem for high-end gaming for several years,” he said. “Factories are diverting leading edge DRAM capacity to meet AI needs where data centers are bidding far higher than consumer device makers.” The situation has become so out of control that, as PCWorld reports, stores are beginning to sell RAM at 'catch-of-the-day' market prices. As CyberPowerPC pointed out, these price rises come with the holidays right around the corner, which is less than ideal. Just checked the price of the RAM that is currently installed in my gaming PC; the AI bubble cannot implode fast enough. [Hidden Content] — Rin | 凛 (@TheIshikawaRin) November 24, 2025 "Bro stop being such a loser, get a gaming PC" CPU: $500 GPU: $1000 Motherboard: $300 RAM: Notify me when available Primary SSD: $150 CPU Cooler: $150 PSU: $150 Case: $125 OS: $50 Just take my kidney and go [Hidden Content] — Bahamut (@Icewallowcumin) November 23, 2025 But the issue may stretch out for years to come. “The AI build-out is absolutely eating up a lot of the available chip supply, and 2026 looks to be far ******* than this year in terms of overall demand,” Dan Nystedt, vice president of research at TriOrient, told CNBC. As CNBC points out, AI servers primarily run on processors from chip designers like Nvidia. These AI processors heavily rely on High-Bandwidth Memory or HBM. Nystedt said AI server companies are willing to pay top dollar for premium chips. “It could be very bad for PCs, laptops, consumer electronics and automotive, which depend on cheap memory chips,” he added. And there is concern for the price of video game consoles, too. There are online rumors that Microsoft may soon be forced to up the price of Xbox consoles again in reaction to the RAM crunch. Valve has yet to announce a price for its next-gen Steam Machine, and fluctuating RAM prices may have something to do with it. If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest ****** Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full ****** Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals. Photo by Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed/Anadolu via Getty Images. Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

The update is live today also bringing in new weapons, Sync Strikes, and some feature improvements for actions and battles. View the full article

In this The Forge crafting guide I'll explain how the entire crafting system works as well as some advanced tips like armor variations (Dark Knight/Samurai) and Ore trait combos. This guide is meant for beginners but non-beginners might also learn something useful. Here's my complete The Forge crafting guide. Table of contentsThe Forge Crafting ExplainedOre Multipliers ExplainedOre TraitsDark Knight and Samurai Armor VariationsThe Forge Crafting Explained Here's a run down of how crafting works in The Forge: Weapon Basics: Once you start adding ores and have 3 you can craft a Dagger class weapons and from there the more Ore you add the more chance you have to craft "larger" class weapons. The number of ores you put in doesn't increase the stats of the weapon, just the size category. "Larger" size category weapons tend to have more base damage but less attack speed while it's the opposite for "smaller" categories. For a full breakdown of size categories check out our Weapon tier list.Armor Basics: It's a similar case for armor as well except the size categories are Helmet as the smallest then Leggings then Chestplate as you add more Ore. Then you move into the next tier which is weight so it goes from Light (Helmet>Leggings>Chestplate) to Medium to Heavy. For Armor, the larger and heavier the more Defense/Health you get so go for Heavy if you can.Weapon Variations: There are different weapon variations within each weapon category. For example the Dagger category has Daggers, Gladius Daggers and Hooks and you'll see the odds of crafting a specific variation on the left. Let's say you put in 5 ores so that your crafting chance is 86% for Daggers and 14% for Straight Swords. Whatever category you get, the game will then roll another number to determine what variation in that category you will get. Some variations are locked behind a certain level to unlock.Armor Variations: These work similarly to Weapon Variations however variations like the Dark Knight set or the Samurai can only be crafted on Island 2, not Island 1.Optimal Crafting Chances and Ore Requirements: Below you'll find a table of how much Ore you need for each weapon and armor categoryItemMin OreOptimal OreDagger33Straight Sword48Gauntlet711Katana915Great Sword1220Great Axe1637Colossal Sword2146Light Armor33 (For Helmet, More for Leggings/Chest)Medium Armor10 (Helmet)17Heavy Armor20 (Helmet)46 Pro Tip: Here's how to farm money in The Forge. Ore Multipliers Explained Each Ore has a Multiplier that modifies the base stats of weapons/armor you forge like Damage or Defense. The higher rarity Ore you use the higher the multiplier and the higher the damage/defense. If you're mixing different Ores with different multipliers the game will use the average so the combined sum of the multipliers divided by the number of different multipliers. So if you put in a few ores that have a multiplier of x2 and a few ores that have a multiplier of 1x the end result will be a 1.5x multiplier. Better ores have higher multipliers. For weapon buffs the ore with the higher amount in the bunch gives all the buffs from the ore rarity. If you put in 15 common ores and 3 Legendary ores you get no buffs from the Legendary ore. But if you put in 10 Legendary ores and 6 common ones you'll get buffs from the legendary ore. Check out all The Forge Ore Stats and Locations for details on each one. Ore Traits Some of the Ores I listed below in a table have special traits that apply to your weapons and armor when you craft them using these Ores. You need at least 10% to 15% of the ore with a trait when forging for that item to have the trait once crafted. The optimal amount is to have 30% for the best stats from the trait. For example, if you want armor with the Obsidian Defense trait and you want to craft it using 10 Ores, 3 Ores should be Obsidian for the optimal trait effect. Here are all Ores that have traits. Ore & RarityDrop ChanceRock Node (All except Poopite are Island 2)MultiplierPriceTrait Poopite Epic 1/131Pebble, Rock, Boulder (Island 1)1.2x18$Deal % poison damage around you for X seconds, fearing enemies. Activates when below 35% HP and has a 15 second cooldown. Obsidian Epic 1/333Volcanic Rock2.35x35.25$30% extra defense on Armor Rivalite Epic 1/569Basalt Vein, Volcanic Rock3.33x49.95$+20% critical strike chance on Weapons Uranium Legendary 1/777Basalt Vein3x66$5% of player max health as AOE damage while in combat, on Armor Mythril Legendary 1/813Basalt Vein3.5x52.5$15% extra defense on Armor Eye Ore Legendary 1/1333Basalt Rock, Basalt Core, Basalt Vein, Volcanic Rock4x37.5$-10% health, +15% damage boost on Weapons/Armor Fireite Legendary 1/2187Volcanic Rock4.5x67.5$20% burn for 2 seconds with 30% chance on-hit on Weapons Magmaite Legendary 1/3003Volcanic Rock5x75$50% AOE explosion damage with 35% chance on-hit on Weapons Demonite Mythical 1/3666Volcanic Rock5.5x82.5$20% burn for 2 seconds with 15% chance on-hit & ******'s Backfire passive on Armor Darkryte Mythical 1/5555Volcanic Rock6.3x94.5$Armor Only: Upon taking damage, there is 15% chance to turn into a shadow to dodge the attack.Dark Knight and Samurai Armor Variations [/url] [/url] [/url] There are two Armor variations which are the Dark Knight Heavy Armor variant and the Samurai Medium Armor variant. These can only be crafted on Island 2 since they don't show up as options on Island 1. There's no variation for Light armor even on Island 2. The odds for these special armor options are usually 1/2 instead of the default 1/1 for base variations. Both Dark Knight and Samurai give more Health than the base version of the armor. For example, see the picture above comparing the base Heavy Armor Knight Chestplate and the Dark Knight Chestplate. That's it for my The Forge crafting guide. Check out my The Forge race tier list for more guides. The post The Forge Crafting Guide – Multipliers, Variants, Traits & More appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

While you can spend dozens of happy hours shooting, slashing, and drop-kicking zombies in Dying Light The Beast (trust me, I would know), the most dedicated players have likely hit the end of the line by now. If you've rolled credits, completed every quest, and got your gear exactly in the spot you want, you've probably moved on by now. However, the new Dying Light The Beast update is designed to lure all you hardcore players back. While hundreds of improvements and visual enhancements arrive in patch 1.4, the biggest additions help create an even deeper endgame experience. Legend Levels and New Game Plus are finally here. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dying Light The Beast docket codes November 2025 New Dying Light The Beast update makes your enemies value their lives more, but you don't have to accept their surrender Dying Light The Beast reveals 11 weeks of freebies and its most-requested new mode View the full article

Want to know more about the upcoming Blood: Refreshed Supply? You're in luck as we have a fresh developer video from Nightdive Studios. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

After a tumultuous and dramatic year for Grand Theft Auto 6 fans that's been full of delays, Rockstar Games controversies, and the proliferation of hoaxes, leaks, and rampant rumors, it's a little nerve-racking to think about what next year may bring in terms of GTA 6 news. View the full article

Cyberpunk 2077 completed its redemption arc last year when the game briefly attained an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam. The numerous updates, additional content, and fantastic Phantom Liberty expansion turned the game into the one we'd initially been promised. Read Entire Article View the full article

All before 1.0, tooView the full article

It's okay, even the best of us can have the worst opinionsView the full article

You'll definitely be able to hear that tank before it gets too closeView the full article

SIDE EFFECTS from developer Free Lives takes the idea of Buckshot Roulette and puts a brutal pill-popping spin on it. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Handheld gaming PCs have made PC gaming more relevant than ever before. One of the greatest advantages of gaming on a PC as opposed to a console is the nearly inexhaustible library of games. Unlike consoles, which eventually lose backwards compatibility at some point in their life, even the oldest of PC games can be revisited. At this point, there are literally tens of thousands of PC games for you to choose from. The tradeoff, in the past, was mobility; either you had to settle for an immovable desktop computer, or lug around a gaming-worthy laptop. Not so anymore. With the advent of gaming PC handhelds, your entire library of PC games is at your fingertips. Now you can play Clair Obscur, Hades, Silksong, or Baldur's Gate on a device that's not much ******* than a Switch console. Some of these handhelds are pretty expensive, and the highest end models can cost upwards of $1,000. Fortunately, a couple of SteamOS models happen to have major discounts for ****** Friday, including one of our favorites. SteamOS is more intuitive to use on a handheld than Windows and anyone who wants an easy, bug-free plug and play experience that "just works" should stick with this over a Windows-based handheld. Lenovo Legion Go S Z1 Extreme SteamOS Edition Best Buy's ****** Friday ***** has officially kicked off with some great deals on gaming hardware. Possibly the very best deal I've found so far is on the Lenovo Legion Go S Z1 Extreme SteamOS handheld gaming PC, which has dropped to just $649.99 after a $250 instant discount. This is the more powerful model with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip and it is easily one of the best Steam-based gaming handhelds currently available. It's essentially a souped up Steam Deck. Check out Jackie's Legion Go S review, in which she concludes that it is one of the "best handheld gaming PCs on the market, and a legitimate Steam Deck alternative." Lenovo Legion Go S Z2 Go SteamOS Edition Also on ***** is the Legion Go S Z2 Go Edition, which is currently $449.99 after a $200 discount. Despite the fact that the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go is a 2nd gen chip, it's less powerful than the Z1 Extreme, but more powerful than the Steam Deck's APU. Since this version also runs SteamOS, you'll get generally better performance out of it, especially if you knock the resolution down to 1280x800. There are other advantages over the Steam Deck, such as a ******* 8" display with smoother 120Hz refresh rate, storage capacity that matches the most expensive Steam Deck models, and a faster charging rate. Steam Deck 256GB LCD Edition For ****** Friday, Steam has discounted its base model with a 7" 1280x800 LCD display and 256GB of storage to $319.99, a 20% discount from its $400 list price. If you're pinching pennies, you won't find a less expensive gaming handheld PC. Every Steam Deck is equipped with the same processor, so the base model will still run games just as smoothly as the highest end $650 system. You can also upgrade the storage yourself with some technical know-how. How to Follow IGN Deals Recommendations The IGN Deals team has over 30 years of combined experience finding the best discounts and preorders available online. If you want the latest updates from our trusted team, here’s how to follow our coverage: Sign up for our IGN Deals NewsletterSet IGN as a preferred source in GoogleFollow us on social mediaIGN Deals on XIGN Deals on InstagramIGN Deals on FacebookIGN Deals on Tiktok[/url] Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time. View the full article

Quentin Tarantino's brand new animated Kill Bill sequence, The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge, has now been glimpsed for the first time — and yes, it really does include Fortnite's famous banana. A new trailer for the short, which is set to be included in Kill Bill's upcoming Whole Bloody Affair re-release, shows Uma Thurman return once again as heroine The Bride, via a performance captured through Epic Games' Unreal Engine. Fortnite fans will be the first to watch the new sequence in its entirety when it debuts in-game this Sunday, November 30 at 2pm ET, as part of a wider partnership between Tarantino and Epic Games. That collaboration also sees Fortnite characters appear in the animated short, including Peely and Skull Trooper. For those wondering what is going on, this Lost Chapter adapts a sequence that Tarantino originally intended to include within Kill Bill: Part 1, where Gogo Yubari's sister Yuki pursues The Bride back to the US in order to exact a bloody revenge. The plotline was dropped, though has been revived here two decades later. Regular theatergoers will get to watch The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge within Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair when the newly-combined movie experience gets a limited run beginning on December 5. Tickets at some participating theaters will include a GoGo Yubari Fortnite skin. Before all of that, Thurman's The Bride will first pop up within Fortnite this Saturday, November 29 as one of the many, many characters enlisted to help save the day during the game's end of Chapter live event (alongside everyone from the KPop ****** Hunters, Superman and Scooby Doo). Attend that and you'll get the Yuki Yubari skin free, meanwhile. If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest ****** Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full ****** Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals. Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social View the full article

As the debate around the use of generative AI to build video games rages on, Tim Sweeney, boss of Fortnite developer Epic Games, has waded in to call on Valve to ditch its AI Generated Content Disclosure for Steam games. Valve’s rules mean developers must disclose their use of AI-generated content on a game’s Steam store page. For example, the Steam page for Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders includes a note from the developer on how the game uses AI-generated content: “during the development process, we may use procedural- and AI-based tools to assist with content creation. In all such cases, the final product reflects the creativity and expression of our own development team.” Activision’s Call of Duty also includes an AI disclosure: “our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets.” Sweeney, though, believes there’s no point in having such disclosures because pretty much all video games will use AI. Responding to one X / Twitter user who called on Steam and all digital marketplaces to drop the “Made with AI” label because “it doesn’t matter any more,” Sweeney agreed, adding: “the AI tag is relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure, and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation. It makes no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production.” Sweeney’s tweet has sparked much debate about the rights and wrongs of Steam’s policy here. While Sweeney may be right to say the use of generative AI during video game development is becoming more prevalent, some say removing AI disclosures would make it harder for some customers to make informed purchasing decisions. Activision was dragged into this debate recently when Call of Duty: ****** Ops 7 players complained about AI-generated images they had found across the game, primarily focusing on calling card images with a Studio Ghibli-esque styling, following a trend of AI-Ghibli images from earlier this year. A member of U.S. Congress subsequently called Activision out, demanding tighter regulation to "prevent companies from using AI to eliminate jobs." I havent really looked at the Multiplayer and Zombie calling cards as closely and im willing to bet they're using ai on those too but its only the Campaign and endgame calling cards that are this type of blatant Sora/Grok artstyle [Hidden Content] — Kume (@Kumesicles) November 14, 2025 In the case of art — particularly art sold in premium bundles or battle passes — it seems reasonable to expect a generative AI disclosure to help inform customers about their purchasing decisions. But this is not backed up by law, and Valve is enforcing this policy because it believes it is the right thing to do. And it's worth point out that using generative AI to make in-game art and selling it to gamers is of course different to the use of AI in, say, NPC behavior or animation work — something that has been a part of video game development for years. The ever chatty Tim Sweeney then used shampoo to reinforce his point in a response to another tweet — although, as many have pointed out, letting customers know about shampoo isn’t quite the same thing as, say, letting them know they've replaced artists with AI-generated slop trained on their work. Why stop at AI use? We could have mandatory disclosures for what shampoo brand the developer uses. Customers deserve to know lol. — Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) November 27, 2025 It's no surprise to see Sweeney take this position on AI, given Fortnite's extensive use of the technology. Over the summer, Epic released AI Darth Vader into Fortnite and announced plans to let people create their own AI NPCs. The original Darth Vader was voiced by James Earl Jones, who died in September 2024 at the age of 93. The AI version of his voice, powered by Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash model and ElevenLabs' Flash v2.5, was used with the Jones family's permission. Within an hour of the feature going live, Fortnite players manipulated Vader into saying the kind of things very much associated with the Dark Side of the Force, including swearing. Epic soon patched it out. Speaking to IGN in June, Sweeney predicted that small teams would soon be able to use AI prompts to make video games on the scale of Nintendo masterpiece The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. "AI characters giving you the possibility of infinite dialogue with a really simple setup for creators means small teams will be able to create games with immense amounts of characters and immense and interactive worlds," he said. "What would it take for a 10-person team to build a game like Zelda Breath of the Wild in which the AI is just doing all the dialogue and you're just writing some character synopsis? That's totally going to be within reach over the next few years.” If you're hunting for the best offers this week, we're actively rounding up the strongest ****** Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full ****** Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals. Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

A new game from two of the creators behind GoldenEye and TimeSplitters is coming soon, but it’s not an FPS. Beyond Words is the latest game from Steve Ellis and David Doak, who had previously founded Free Radical Design. Ellis was one of the key programmers on GoldenEye while Doak worked on the level designs and AI scripting (and also appeared in the game as Dr Doak). The pair then teamed up to found Free Radical co-create the TimeSplitter series. Read More... View the full article