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The latest Sony first-party release to make the jump from PlayStation to PC is Ghost of Tsushima. The Director’s Cut version of the game arrived on Steam and the Epic Games Store overnight to a very positive reception from players. The PC port doesn’t appear to have any major issues, and by most accounts, the game runs well on a variety of configurations. But what about player turnout? Well, it’s good, but still falls below a certain release from 2022. Read more View the full article

It's free game Friday! The sun is out shining so what a great day to sit inside and play some games to keep cool. Even cooler is that they're free to keep. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

You might remember Enotria: The Last Song as the Italian-inspired Soulslike that shifted its release date from June to August to avoid Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree... but found itself nestled next to ****** Myth: Wukong. Well, scratch that August release, as now it's been shifted back to September instead! But hey, there's a demo coming out real soon that'll hopefully give us a better sense of what the game's like. I imagine it'll involve a lot of fighting spindly monsters, dying, and resurrecting at whatever object they've decided will be the equivalent of Dark Souls' bonfires. Likely something Leonardo da Vinci made or drew or invented. That man's stats were specced high. Read more View the full article

Valve released another two updates recently. The first is SteamOS 3.6.3 Preview for Steam Deck continuing to fix up issues, and a stable Steam Client Update for desktop PCs and Steam Deck. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Strategy game specialist Creative Assembly is reportedly working on a Total War Star Wars video game. DualShockers reports Total War: Star Wars is one of three new Total War games in development at the *****-owned studio. IGN has asked ***** for comment. Creative Assembly has endured a difficult time in recent years, with the cancellation of its live-service shooter Hyenas as well as the sales ******** of Total War: Pharaoh, released last year. The studio also apologized for various missteps it had made with Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC. In March, ***** announced sweeping layoffs that affected ***** Europe, Creative Assembly, and Sonic Dream Team developer Hardlight. Meanwhile, ***** off-loaded Company of Heroes and Dawn of War developer Relic Entertainment At the time, ***** told IGN that Creative Assembly “continues to have multiple projects in development with Total War and a new unannounced project.” Total War fans have called on Creative Assembly to give a Star Wars game a shot for years, although there are equally vociferous calls for the studio to follow its Warhammer trilogy of Total War games with a similar effort for Warhammer 40,000. That’s all we have for now. Creative Assembly has traditionally used gamescom as a platform to show off its games. Perhaps we’ll know more when gamescom 2024 launches in August. Wesley is the *** News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

A breakdown of the game's 21 games, including the new viper and pictomancer jobs for the new expansion. View the full article

The Early Access release will include the opening chapters of the quest, alongside the game's first companions. View the full article

I've clocked up nearly 400 hours playing BioWare's big fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Inquisition, which is not a stat I'm particularly proud of. I'm not ashamed either, partly because, as has been identified by artist Corey Brickley, via the Maw, there's a lot of filler. Brickley has collated a list of suggested mods to slim down Dragon Age: Inquisition from a potentially 80 hours-long epic to a trim 40 hour story-focused romp, which means you might be able to play through it again in time for the launch of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf - which is a direct sequel to Inquisition. I find this list of mods interesting! It's a way to change the game quite substantially without exactly transforming it, and it's very in-keeping with my campaign to make games 60% smaller. Still, there's at least one item on there I'd push back on, but also this isn't really a new problem for Dragon Age as a series. Read more View the full article

Ok, so, you remember when it looked an awful lot like Take-Two was shutting down both Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games and Roll7 - the studio behind Rollerdrome and OlliOlli World - earlier this month? Well, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has now said that it "didn't shutter" the studios, leaving us all wondering whether they still, er, actually exist. Yes, this is a thing. If you're out of the loop, the shutterings - hinted at by internal documentation from Roll7 and a notice filed with the Washington State Employment Security Department - were reportedly part of cuts Take-Two revealed plans for via an SEC filing in April. Naturally, both people in the industry and players weren't exactly pleased to hear either bit of news, but Zelnick now seems to have cast some doubt over what's actually happening in pretty baffling fashion. In response to IGN asking during yesterday's Take-Two earnings call why the apparent closures of Intercept and Roll7 had happened, the CEO said the following: Read more View the full article

This fast-paced first-person RPG is set to release later this year. View the full article

Creative Assembly is reportedly making an officially licensed Star Wars game. According to DualShockers, as of October 2023, Total War: Star Wars was one of three new Total War games in development at the *****-owned studio. It’s unclear which of the games was the closest to completion, but ***** normally releases a new series entry annually, the last two exceptions being in 2021 and 2014. Read More... View the full article

It was late last week when Gamers Nexus published a video titled "Asus Scammed Us." Host Stephen Burke explains how the channel had returned an Asus ROG Ally handheld (bought to review) to Asus so it could repair a thumbstick problem under warranty Read Entire Article View the full article

Open world ******-a-thon GTA 6 will release next “fall”, according to publisher Take-Two Interactive’s latest earning report, via Eurogamer. This narrows the previously announced release window of “2025” down by, uh, infinity I suppose? A year is an effectively endless stretch in terms of release calenders. But “Fall”, despite not being a real season, is something I can work with. Read more View the full article

On May 17, it was reported Team Liquid is considering a major change to its Counter-Strike 2 roster. However, this news wasn’t met with a warm reception from fans, who see it as an illogical move. The North ********* CS2 team is reportedly reviewing the possibility of benching one of their newest additions, cadiaN, according to HLTV. The report notes the decision won’t be made until IEM Dallas 2024, however, which, if it goes through, could be the Dane’s last event under the Liquid banner. The news quickly spread to social media, where fans expressed their anger. View the full article

Take-Two plans to go big on Borderlands now it owns Gearbox Entertainment. In March, the embattled Embracer Group sold Borderlands developer Gearbox to Take-Two for $460 million. As part of the deal, Take-Two, which through its publishing division 2K already had a long history with Gearbox, now owns the franchises Borderlands, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem. Gearbox is joining 2K Games and will continue to be led by CEO and founder ****** Pitchford. Gearbox has enjoyed enormous success with the looter shooter Borderlands franchise over the years. It’s sold nearly 86 million units across all titles, with Borderlands 2 secure as 2K’s top-selling video game with 28 million sold. Borderlands 3 is 2K’s fastest-selling video game ever, and has sold nearly 20 million units to date. Currently, Gearbox has both a new Borderlands and "at least one exciting new intellectual property" in development. 2K Games plans to reveal the "next iteration in one of its biggest and most beloved franchises" at Summer Game Fest, which is set to take place on Friday, June 7. Fans speculate this game may be Borderlands 4. If so, it would match up neatly with the release of the Borderlands movie, which comes out on August 9. Gearbox CEO ****** Pitchford has teased Borderlands 4 in the past. "Look, we haven't even announced anything of it," Pitchford said back in March. "Clearly, we're working on something. And I know what we're working on, and holy *****... It's the greatest thing we've ever done. And I can't wait, but it's not time yet. It's not time yet. There will be a time." Speaking in an investor-focused call following its latest financial results, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said the company now plans to double-down on Borderlands, and had already identified “many potential growth opportunities” for the series. “Borderlands 3 outpaced our forecasts and we are thrilled that ****** Pitchford and Gearbox Entertainment are slated to join officially 2K’s renowned internal studios in the coming weeks,” Zelnick said. “We have already identified many potential growth opportunities for the Borderlands series and Gearbox’s catalog, which we plan to pursue once the studio is integrated into our organization. We are also excited to see growing buzz for the star-studded Borderlands feature film which is planned for release by Lionsgate this summer.” "We have already identified many potential growth opportunities for the Borderlands series and Gearbox’s catalog, which we plan to pursue once the studio is integrated into our organization. The Borderlands franchise has already expanded with a number of video game spin-offs and is set to expand further with the release of the aforementioned Borderlands movie, starring the likes of Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jamie Lee Curtis. One spin-off Take-Two has singled out as doing particularly well is 2022 action role-playing first-person shooter Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, which is set within the world of a fantasy-themed tabletop RPG. Expanding on the decision to buy Gearbox during the investor call, Zelnick said that when the opportunity presented itself to buy the company “on terms that we felt were reasonable, we frankly jumped at the opportunity.” “We have all the respect in the world for ****** Pitchford and his team,” Zelnick continued. “He has the ability to bring AAA products to market, responsibly and on a very reliable and rather rapid cadence. And he is a hit maker. And it's very hard to make a new hit, and [Tiny Tino] was a new hit. And of course, Borderlands just goes from strength to strength. So we're thrilled to have Gearbox in the family.” "Borderlands just goes from strength to strength. So we're thrilled to have Gearbox in the family. Based on Zelnick’s comments, we can expect plenty more Borderlands in the future now Gearbox is under the Take-Two umbrella. But there are issues elsewhere in the company. Earlier this month, Take-Two announced a cost reduction plan that included project cancellations and layoffs amounting to 5% of its workforce. Amid this announcement came reports based on internal documentation that seemed to confirm Take-Two was closing OlliOlli World developer Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games. But when IGN asked Zelnick why these closures happened, he replied: "We didn't shutter those studios.” Reports also indicate publishing label Private Division, which is behind was also gutted. This week, Take-Two narrowed the hotly anticipated GTA 6 release date window to fall 2025. Wesley is the *** News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

With the PlayStation 5 entering the second half of its life, figures from Sony indicate around half of all current PlayStation gamers are yet to upgrade to current gen. As pointed out by Game File’s Stephen Totilo, Sony announced this week that PlayStation has 118 million monthly active users (MAUs), up 9% year-on-year, but around half of those are still on the 11-year-old PlayStation 4. PS5 has sold over 59 million units since going on ***** in November 2020, and it has yet to see a price cut. Infact, Sony has raised the price of the console. Speaking to the investment community (as reported by Totilo) Sony president Hiroki Totoki painted a rosy picture of the situation, saying MAUs will steadily increase as PS4 players eventually upgrade to PS5, but as Daniel Ahmad, Director of Research and Insights at Niko Partners, pointed out in a tweet, the transition from PS4 to PS5 has so far been “slow.” On console PlayStation Network MAU’s have barely grown since the PS5 launch. It’s just been a slow transition from PS4 > PS5 — Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 16, 2024 So, why have so many PS4 gamers held off on upgrading to a PS5? Or, perhaps to put it a better way, why are so many PS4 gamers content to stick with the console they have? Mat Piscatella, Executive Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at Circana, suggested in a tweet that the most-played games in the U.S. are all currently available on the last generation of consoles, and that’s enough for most people. These games (Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, GTA 5, and Call of Duty), are all available on PS4. “Any console that can play a majority of, or all five, of these games will be just fine for many people,” Piscatella commented. This is not a situation unique to PlayStation, either, Piscatella added, as it affects all consoles. IGN has already reported on tumbling sales of the Xbox Series X and S, which looks like it will struggle to outsell its predecessor, the much-maligned Xbox One. Microsoft’s answer includes bringing its Xbox games to rival platforms, including PS5, but it has also committed to releasing a more powerful next-gen console, and there are rumors it plans an Xbox handheld, too. As for Sony, PS5 sales currently trail those of PS4 after the same amount of time after launch, but it’s worth pointing out the PS4 had undergone price cuts totaling $100 by now. Sony has said it expects PS5 sales to continue to decline, although it is also expected to launch a PS5 Pro later this year. Sony’s plan to increase sales and profits from PlayStation in the coming years depends upon its ability to expand the number of active PlayStation users and user engagement, and cutting business costs. In February, Sony announced a significant round of layoffs affecting around 900 staff, or about 8% of its global PlayStation workforce. The layoffs affect a number of PlayStation studios, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Firesprite, and, most significantly, PlayStation's London studio. Alongside the layoffs, a number of in-development games were canceled. Sony also plans to grow sales of first-party games. It has said this financial year ending March 2025 will not see the release of big new games in its major franchises, ruling out sequels in the Spider-Man and **** of War series. But Sony is expected to release a number of big-hitters from April 2025 onwards, including the likes of Insomniac’s Wolverine. Wesley is the *** News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

Yet another video game developer has been hit by layoffs. This time it's the Dauntless and Fae Farm developer Phoenix Labs, which posted its announcement regarding restructuring on LinkedIn late last night. The statement goes as follows: "Today is an incredibly difficult day. After a long ******* of evaluating how to navigate our economic environment, we have to significantly restructure the company to pave the path for a strong future. We are reorganizing Phoenix Labs to focus on our best-in-class live service titles, Dauntless and Fae Farm, and serving their communities." It continues by acknowledging the cost of such a venture. "This unfortunately means cancelling work on all other projects at the studio, which will impact many of our colleagues immediately. We are giving notices to everyone whose roles are affected. The restructure has not come easily, and has truly been the last resort to ensure Phoenix Labs can survive, and thrive in the long term. It's impossible to put into words how deeply we value every talented individual who has contributed their hard work and passion to every project at our studio." Read more View the full article

The free-to-play fighting game MultiVersus, featuring characters from multiple known universes, like DC and Tom and Jerry, is coming back for the full launch with an addition of a new PvE mode, and we’re finally getting more details about what this mode looks like. Velma, Finn, Jake, and a few other characters from MultiVersus revealed in a video breakdown on May 16 what we can expect from the upcoming PvE mode—Rifts. The PvE mode offers a new way to play outside competitive PvP and is an ever-evolving space for players of all skill levels. View the full article

*********’s Creed Shadows will be playable offline without an Internet connection, but there will be a mandatory download when you install the game. On May, 16, Ubisoft shared a post on X addressing the topic. “*********’s Creed Shadows will not require a mandatory connection at all times.” The key word here is “at all times.” The post continues: “An online connection will be needed to install the game, but you will be able to play the entire journey offline, and explore Japan without any online connection”. View the full article

A renowned Counter-Strike 2 leaker, Gabe Follower, revealed Valve is working on a six-versus-six hero shooter called Deadlock. On the same day, the creator posted the first leaked images from the game. Gabe Follower underlined many Deadlock pictures were appearing online, but the images he posted are ones he can “verify.” They showcase a bit of the title’s UI, two screenshots of heroes in action, and one hero named Grey Talon, who appears to be an archer. View the full article

G2 Esports have reignited the hopes of Western League of Legends fans by taking down Top Esports with a score of 3-0 at Mid-Season Invitational 2024. Gen.G have already made it to the final, and their AD carry predicts they’ll face the LEC champions in the grand final. After dismantling Bilibili Gaming on May 16, Gen.G’s Peyz talked a bit about the victory and the League tournament. Three powerful teams, T1, BLG, and G2 are left in the lower bracket, and Peyz predicts G2 will go all the way to the final. View the full article

Dauntless and Fae Farm studio Phoenix Labs is undergoing significant restructuring resulting in layoffs and project cancellations. While the number of layoffs being made by the company hasn’t been confirmed, former Phoenix Labs principal Engineer Kris Morness claimed “about 140” employees have been impacted. Canada-based Phoenix Labs, which has offices in Vancouver and Montreal, said the decision to restructure was a “last resort” to ensure the studio’s survival. Read More... View the full article

You can chill out. Take-Two has narrowed down the release window for GTA 6 from a year to a month in that year. Yup, despite the rumours of delays possibly pushing the game from 2025 to 2026, we've now had officialy word it's coming in fall 2025. Also, GTA 5 continues to fly off the shelves. While the GTA 6 hype train has been properly chugging away since late last year, when that first trailer arrived, we'd heard some potentially concerning things about its development in the interim. It seems as though you needn't worry though, you should be getting the thing next year. As part of its latest earnings report, Take-Two has officially confirmed that it's aiming to release GTA 6 in fall 2025 - that's autumn for us here in the *** - narrowing down the 2025 release window it'd previously cited. Read more View the full article

*****-wandering roguelike Hades 2 has received its first proper patch, and it does everything the developers said it would. You now sprint faster and, significantly, you can gather more than one type of crafting resource per run (as long you've unlocked the tool that lets you gather that resource). This means Melinoë can now go fishing, dig up seeds, mine silver, and gain the trust of errant shades, all in a single night's work. There is a catch though. Read more View the full article

It can't be over a decade since Grand Theft Auto V launched, it just can't be. That's a modern game, one that came out recently, not one that launched way back in 2013. So it's always a slight surprise that we're nudging at GTA 6 so soon. Today we received confirmation that we may be seeing the next title sooner than many expected, with Take-Two Interactive confirming the game's release window. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: GTA 6 release date window, trailers, and latest Rockstar Games news GTA 6 map explained - 7 locations we want to see New GTA 6 trailer isn't coming as soon as we hoped View the full article