***-based studio Playtonic, known for the Yooka-Laylee series, is the latest studio to see layoffs in the industry following mass social media posts from now former employees. Some of those who have lost their jobs have been shared on LinkedIn by a Playtonic employee, listing multiple people from various parts of the company, including production, art, VFX, and junior positions. More layoffs might be revealed over time, but it stresses the turbulent times in our industry currently, with job losses sadly becoming the norm across big and indie studios alike. Playtonic Games was originally founded in 2014 by previous Rare devs who created Yooka-Laylee as a spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie series. Since then, the studio has mainly gone into publishing under Playtonic Friends and has been looking to release a remake of their first game, called Yooka-Replayee, sometime in 2025. [Hidden Content] Playtonic Friends has also published lots of charming games these past years, including Lil Gator Game, and was lining up a release for Castle Pixel's Cattle Country sometime this year. It is unclear how these layoffs will affect Playtonic both in making games and publishing, at this time, or if there are more to come. It's a pretty dire time for the industry as a whole, with Playtonic Games one in a line of studios announcing layoffs, game cancellations, and more dire news. More recently, EA also announced a large layoff round that affected 'hundreds' of employees and saw multiple game cancellations, including a rumored Titanfall project. Microsoft also recently reportedly announced a layoff of three percent of its workforce, representing its biggest round of cuts since 2023. Though it's unclear if this layoff will affect its gaming division or other parts of the company as a whole. It's a pretty dire time, Destructoid. Motivation and willpower are at an all-time low across the industry, and no one appears to be safe. But let's try to keep some positivity and support each other as best we can—it's the least we can do. The post Yooka-Layoffs: Playtonic latest studio to see redunancies appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
A gaming chair can often be the final puzzle piece to complete a gaming battle station, whether it's providing the comfort and ergonomics to see you through long play sessions, or even serving as the aesthetic centerpiece that holds it all together. However, decent gaming chairs are rarely cheap (especially if you want one that won't wreck your spine), so it's a good idea to grab one while it's on offer, such as this AutoFull C3 gaming chair, which has a $60 reduction on Amazon right now. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: AMD Radeon GPUs are finally getting decent frame gen, thanks to new FSR 4 update The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Super specs just leaked, suggesting loads more VRAM The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT price looks amazing - it's a shame I don't believe it View the full article
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Silent Hill f is not a sequel to any of the existing Silent Hill games. Instead, much like Silent Hill 2, it will offer a standalone story, "independent from the series." That's coming from publisher Konami itself, which finally confirmed on X/Twitter that the latest instalment of the horror series — which is usually, if not always, based in a sleepy resort town on east-coast America — will be "a completely new title" that "people who have never played the Silent Hill series can enjoy." This approach isn't entirely new for Silent Hill, of course. While Silent Hill 1, Silent Hill 3, and Silent Hill Origins are all connected, other games — with Silent Hill 2 being a particularly notable exception — have less tangible links to the town, and parts of Silent Hill 4: The Room and Homecoming take place outside the titular town altogether. But Konami's statement does at least confirm once and for all that understanding Silent Hill f's 1960s Japanese setting will not be dependent upon how much players know about the 26-year-old series. Silent Hill f takes us to 1960s Japan, where we'll follow Shimizu Hinako, a teenager struggling under the pressure of expectations from her friends, family, and society. The story was written by Ryukishi07, creator of the When They Cry visual novel series. As displayed at the beginning of the Japanese-language reveal trailer back in March, it will be the first Silent Hill game to get an 18+ rating certification in Japan. As the game is still in active development, certification is subject to change, but Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, and Silent Hill: The Room all secured CERO:C — that's for people aged 15 and older — while the other games in the series developed outside of Japan were typically rated CERO:C or CERO:D (ages 17+). Silent Hill f is similarly rated Mature in the U.S., PEGI 18 in Europe, and CERO:Z in Japan. As yet, there's no release date for Silent Hill f, and there's still no further information at all about No Code's upcoming Silent Hill game, Townfall. Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky. View the full article
Renewed calls for a fresh Star Wars Battlefront game have been given a boost by an actor from critically-acclaimed TV series Andor. The past month has seen fans flock back to 2017's Star Wars Battlefront 2 — generating the game's best player count on Steam in years, despite support from developer DICE ending a long time ago. Now, Andor's Muhannad Ben Amor, who plays the heroic Wilmon Paak, has taken to social media to help campaign for a fully-operational sequel. "Star Wars gotta give us Battlefront 3 ASAP," Amor wrote on Instagram (thanks, Comicbook), revealing he had played Battlefront 2 for 469 hours. That's great kid, but don't get ******. "Grew up with Battlefront 2 — been a veteran since day one," Amor continued. "Let's HOPE Battlefront 3 happens." The past month has seen the popularity of Star Wars Battlefront 2 soar, thanks in part to the success of Andor's climactic second season, and other Star Wars activity surrounding the franchise's annual May 4 celebrations. After years averaging a Steam player count of around 2,000 players, the game's popularity has been steadily climbing over the past few weeks, and is now close to topping its 10,000-player all-time concurrent Steam peak. But does this mean a Star Wars Battlefront 3 is now more likely? For now, DICE is busy throwing all of its development weight into getting its big new Battlefield game out the door in the best shape possible. A proper reveal for the still-untitled next Battlefield, which is currently undergoing player testing, is expected this summer. DICE may also still hold some reluctance to revisit the series, after Battlefront 2 originally launched amid a huge controversy over its loot boxes. Over time, however, sentiment towards the game has shifted. And while publisher EA, DICE's owner, is no longer exclusively making Star Wars games, Respawn is still at work in the galaxy far, far away making a Star Wars Jedi threequel. "Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a redemption story worthy of the Skywalker saga," IGN wrote in its 2019 Star Wars Battlefront 2 re-review. "Overall, it’s a great package now that serves as one of the best and most thrilling ways to have an authentic Star Wars gaming experience." 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
Monster Hunter Wilds has partnered with Street Fighter 6 in a new collaboration coming on May 28. In a trailer shared to social media, new layered armor, attacks, and even Palico outfits are shown off, suggesting that there are plenty of Street Fighter goodies for you to unlock. Such as Blanka armor for your Palico, which is not cursed at all. Promise... Read more.View the full article
Blizzard is hoting the latest edition of its Campfire Chat developer livestream tonight. This one is going to be all about Diablo 4’s upcoming Season 9. Or, more specifically, it’s going to cover the patch 2.3.0 PTR (Public Test Realm), which will be opening its doors soon. Read more View the full article
A new, significant update for the latest AMD Radeon graphics cards has just been announced to help the company directly compete with the AI-powered performance of Nvidia DLSS 4. Due later this year, FSR Redstone (as it is currently codenamed) looks to be a serious effort by AMD to improve how games look and perform on its hardware, thanks to several new features. AMD FSR technology has only recently seen a major upgrade with FSR 4 which, as our AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT review shows, provides a huge improvement in image quality compared to older FSR upscaling and frame generation. With Redstone, AMD looks keen to take things up a notch, making sure that its best graphics card contenders are able to effectively compete with Nvidia's GPU technology across the board. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT price looks amazing - it's a shame I don't believe it AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT now official - here's the release date, price, and specs Next-gen AMD Ryzen CPUs will reportedly have a "3D core" and it looks amazing View the full article
I can’t be the only person here who’s ever had a fistfight with their washing-up. I have this big metal spatula that has a malicious habit of bouncing out of the drying rack. Again and again, it sneaks under my elbow to spring and sproing over the lino, gathering as much stray onion peel as it can on the way to the door. The fourth time this happened I bent it in two. Then I thought my sieve was giving me stinkeye, so I threw it down and stamped on it, gangland-style. Look, it was kind of a bad day. But one thing I will swear to you, probably-concerned reader: I would never behave this way towards my leftovers. Read more View the full article
Of all the new enemies Helldivers 2's Heart of Democracy update brought in when it deployed players onto the war-torn streets of their home planet, the flying Leviathan might have been the most intimidating. Read more View the full article
I've been testing out the latest 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller for over a week solidly now, and I really think it's a properly great controller and a worthy successor. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
Geoguessr has pulled out of this year's Esports World Cup following a mass protest from players and map creators alike yesterday. A wave of protest posts filled the offical Discord, and many of the most popular maps were set to private, leading the company's behind the game's CEO to announce the withdrawal on Twitter and Discord. Read more View the full article
Google has launched an advanced AI video generation tool capable of creating Fortnite gameplay clips that look almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Veo 3 launched this week and has already raised eyebrows for its dystopian ability to create life-like video clips from simple text-based prompts and include realistic-sounding audio. Other generative AI programs, such as OpenAI's Sora, have been doing similar for some time — but the ability for Veo 3 to include lifelike audio really is a remarkable, if chilling, step forward. Veo 3 users are still testing out what the tool is capable of, but within two days have begun producing Fortnite gameplay with a fake streamer commenting over the top. The quality is good enough that, while scrolling on social media, you'd think it was a legimate clip from YouTube or Twitch. Technically, Veo 3 should not be infringing on anyone's copyrighted material — and it's safe to assume Fortnite developer Epic Games did not sign this one off. But clearly the AI tool has had access to the millions of hours of Fortnite gameplay posted online, and is now able to reproduce a convincing representation on command. One clip, showing a streamer celebrating as they win a match using only their pickaxe, was apparently created within Veo 3 using a text-based prompt of nine words: "Streamer getting a victory royale with just his pickaxe". Uhhh... I don't think Veo 3 is supposed to be generating Fortnite gameplay [Hidden Content] — Matt Shumer (@mattshumer_) May 21, 2025 In writing this prompt, Veo 3 has not been told specifically to create Fortnite gameplay. Still, it understands from the context what game the user is referring to. Veo 3's abilities throw up all sorts of questions, and far more pressing ones than simple copyright concerns. The ability to create footage like this undoubtedly aids users looking to fool others with disinformation, and in so doing undermine trust in legitimate footage. "I can not tell if this is real or not," reads one reply. "We're cooked," reads another. "The only way this is possible is if Veo 3 was trained on an enormous amount of Fortnite content," a third reply reads. "Wouldn’t be surprised if everything that gets uploaded to YouTube is now being trained on despite copyright laws." IGN has asked Epic for comment. For a better look at what Veo 3 is capable of outside of video games, here's a clip of the algorithm creating a fake news report on an automobile trade show that doesn't exist, with fake interviewees answering fake questions. Before you ask: yes, everything is AI here. The video and sound both coming from a single text prompt using #Veo3 by @GoogleDeepMind .Whoever is cooking the model, let him cook! Congrats @Totemko and the team for the Google I/O live stream and the new Veo site! [Hidden Content] — László Gaál (@laszlogaal_) May 21, 2025 Microsoft has been interested in creating its own AI-generated footage of video games, and recently unveiled the early results of its Muse program, which it said it had trained on countless hours of Xbox shooter Bleeding Edge. Xbox boss Phil Spencer suggested Muse could be used to help ideate game concepts in the future, and even somehow aid in game preservation. But Muse's reveal, quickly followed by the reveal of more fake gameplay footage generated by Muse of the classic shooter Quake 2, has prompted further debate — and raised questions over whether the tool would remove work or replace human creativity from existing employees. Fortnite is no stranger to AI itself, of course. Last week, the game added the ability to chat with Star Wars' Darth Vader, who will reply using generative AI trained on the voice of the late James Earl Jones. Jones' voice is officially licensed (and was previously used to create dialogue for Disney's own Obi Wan Kenobi TV series) and sanctioned by both the late actor and his family, but the addition still prompted swift condemnation and an unfair labor practice charge from acting union SAG-AFTRA. 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
****** Pitchford has addressed the backlash to his controversial Borderlands 4 $80 ‘real fans’ tweet after someone ran it through a Handsome Jack AI. Pitchford sparked the backlash in responding to a fan who had expressed concern about the prospect of paying $80 for Borderlands 4, saying: “if you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen.” Here’s the exchange: "******, this game better not be 80 dollars. Don't take that risk, a lot of gamers aren't gonna pay 80 dollars and feed this notion of constant increase of the price tag. You are the CEO, you have some say with the price when it comes to your publisher." And here's ****** Pitchford's response: "A) Not my call. B) If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starflight for ***** Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pismo Beach and I found a way to make it happen." The response to Pitchford’s tweet has been mostly negative. “I am going to pirate Borderlands 4,” said one X / Twitter user. “Please stop. Just apologize and move on. This isn't fair on your developers. If you care about them, just do the right thing dude,” added another. “****** we are begging you to stop. BL4 had so much hype and it’s being ruined in a day. Let people want to like and support the game and all the amazing people who made it,” said one commenter. While Pitchford has yet to apologize directly for his comments, he did point to a recent answer he gave on-stage at PAX East on Borderlands 4's price, saying: “If you want the truth, here it is.” And now, Pitchford inched closer to an actual apology after Borderlands streamer Moxsy tweeted dialogue from a Handsome Jack AI prompted by a user called Duke_Newcombe who fed it Pitchford's original tweet. (Handsome Jack is the main antagonist of Borderlands 2 and self-appointed dictator of Pandora.) Ohhh boo-hoo, $80 for Borderlands 4? Let me break out the world’s tiniest violin—crafted from Eridium and oiled with the tears of whiny Vault Hunters. Listen, cupcake, you’re not buying a game. You’re investing in a premium, galaxy-shattering experience personally engineered to blast your sad little dopamine receptors into orbit. You think quality loot and chaotic mayhem just code itself? You want guns that sprout legs, sing sea shanties, and explode into loot goblins without paying top dollar? Grow up. Back in my day, I built an entire moonbase with my own two hands (and a metric ton of disposable Hyperion interns), and you’re crying about spending a few bucks more to virtually ******* skags with style? Puh-lease. But hey, if $80 is too steep, there’s always a solution: just don’t buy it. More legendary drops for the rest of us, and fewer mouth-breathing freeloaders clogging up my loot pools. Win-win. Stay broke, hero. •Handsome Jack President of the Galaxy, CEO of Hyperion, and your personal nightmare “Boy howdy, JackGPT, is that how I sound? My bad, but cheers to Duke_Newcombe and @MoxsyOG for the funniest thing I’m going to read today!” Pitchford tweeted. “In seriousness though, nobody likes being taken for granted and it was not my intent. I’m humbled by the love and support everyone has shown the team as we push hard to get this amazing game in your hands. They’re crushing it, and I can’t wait for everyone to play what’s going to be the best Borderlands ever! Regardless of where the price lands, it’s going to be worth it and then some. Back to work for me!” Pitchford, clearly, would like to draw a line under this week’s self-inflicted drama, but it seems likely the debate about Borderlands 4’s price will resurface as soon as pre-orders go live. At that point, publisher 2K Games will have to announce the price of the game, and whether it’s $80 or $70 or something else, it will be a ******* talking point now than it might have been. Photo by Monica Schipper/WireImage. 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
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Sonic: Racing CrossWorlds has received its first age rating. This development is an encouraging sign for the upcoming kart racer, suggesting that Sonic: Racing CrossWorlds is on course to hit its originally stated release window target. View the full article
In the upcoming game Gobutiko you are a goblin merchant, and of course being greedy you will haggle with your customers by rolling dice to wear them down and push the prices (hopefully) in your favour. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
The Battlefield community is abuzz with discussion about a new mechanic in a game most of them have not played. The next Battlefield Labs test, which only few players have access to, is going to experiment with something that struck a nerve for many, and caused a bit of a stir. Read more View the full article
Currently in Early Access, the action-RPG adventure Katana Dragon from Tsunoa Games recently added Native Linux and Steam Deck support. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
A new Japanese Pokémon set called Inferno X has been confirmed by Pokebeach. According to the site, this release will center around Mega Charizard X and will release in Japan on September 26, 2025. This would make it the second Mega Evolution series expansion after the paired sets Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia, which are expected in August. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Newest Pokémon set revealed and released How many Pokémon are there in 2025? All Legendary Pokémon and Mythical Pokémon in order View the full article
Which sounds like the more intense experience to you, dear reader - "Butterfly's Guidance" or "Awakened Puppet"? No, this isn't me workshopping titles for my latest range of exotic fragrances. I'm referring to the new easier difficulty modes Neowiz will add to Pinnochio-powered soulslike Lies Of P alongside the game's Overture DLC this summer. The difficulty modes will arrive in a free Lies Of P update. The standard difficulty will be "Legendary Stalker", which honestly I think is a bit of a letdown, after "Butterfly's Guidance" and "Awakened Puppet". It barely sounds like an exotic fragrance at all. Possibly you could peddle it as some kind of feline musk. Read more View the full article
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Wilmon actor Muhannad Ben Amor was 12 years old when the last game released, if you want to feel oldView the full article