Hasbro has already invested over $1 billion in its internal studios as part of an ambitious long-term strategy, according to Wizards of the Coast head of game studios and publishing Dan Ayoub.
"Video games are an integral part of Hasbro's strategy going into the next 100 years and we have to make sure that everything that comes out is top quality, is authentic, and is something we can build upon,” explained Ayoub in an interview with gamesindustry.biz at the Game Developer’s Conference in March. “Because we're talking about a couple studios and a couple games right now, but we have much larger ambitions for that."
Hasbro’s IP licensing strategy has been extremely profitable for the toy-maker in recent years, with Larian Studio’s...
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Bethesda has given Starfield fans a first look at what might be its most-anticipated feature yet: land vehicles.
The Fallout and Elder Scrolls game developer very briefly touched on the upcoming addition in an announcement video for the upcoming Starfield May update. As the footage shows, vehicles will allow players to traverse Starfield’s wide, open areas much faster. It’s a change players have wanted since Bethesda’s latest launched last year, though it's unclear when they'll arrive.
The moment was cut out and shared by @GPTGamingNews on X (formerly Twitter). In the clip, Lead Creative Producer Tim Lamb can be seen teasing that “the team is working on our first land vehicle.”
The few seconds of footage shows a rover driving...
Star Wars returns to Fortnite on May 3, one day before the annual May 4 Star Wars celebrations.
Update v 29.40 adds Star Wars content to the entire Fortnite offering, including Battle Royale, Lego Fortnite, Fortnite Festival, and Rocket Racing.
Starting with Battle Royale, there’s a new Camp landmark to rescue Chewbacca, who supports players in battle using his iconic Bowcaster. You can also pick this weapon up from Imperial Chests at Stormtrooper roadblocks across the Island. Elsewhere, new reward quests and returning gameplay like the Darth Vader boss battle, Stormtrooper NPCs, and E-11 Blasters are available through to May 14.
Here's the official blurb on the Battle Royale Star Wars content, from Epic:
Lego Fortnite...
Sony has unveiled the PlayStation Plus games for May 2024, revealing four games active PlayStation Plus subscribers can redeem as one of their many perks for being a member.
As detailed in a new PlayStation Blog post, starting on May 7th, the following games are free to redeem for PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium members: Tunic, Destiny 2: Lightfall, Ghostrunner 2, and EA Sports FC 24.
Tunic is an action-adventure game initially released on PC and Xbox before making its way onto Nintendo Switch and PlayStation consoles later that same year. The game may remind some of early entries from The Legend of Zelda series, which is no surprise considering that Tunic designer Andrew Shouldice said NES-era Zelda games inspired...
Starfield is set for a significant update in May that adds a number of highly requested features to the space game.
The update, currently in Steam Beta before going live for all players on May 15, finally adds detailed surface maps. In the patch notes, Bethesda acknowledged players have called for improved maps ever since Starfield came out in September last year. “We’ve heard your feedback, and we’ve made some big improvements to surface maps, so you’ll always know just where to go and no longer ‘get lost’ on the way to your parents’ place (and they weren’t buying that excuse anyway, you should really go visit them),” Bethesda joked.
Elsewhere, there are new difficulty options in the settings menu, the addition of ship decoration to...
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 gets its Season 3 Reloaded update today, May 1, and with it a long list of new content.
The Reloaded update is rolling out across all platforms, and Activision has published the patch notes detailing all the changes. Players can expect various gameplay improvements, weapon balance changes, and bug fixes.
There are two new 6v6 maps, a new weapon (BAL-27 Assault Rifle), three new Aftermarket Parts, and three new modes (Escort, Minefield, and Arcade).
But the headline change is probably the addition of Weapon Prestige Camos, a new progression system for players to “flex mastery of their favorite weaponry in Modern Warfare 3.” The debut Weapon Prestige Camo is One Trick, unlocked upon earning 150,000...
Eight years after the last Batman: Arkham game, Warner Bros. has announced the next in the series: Batman: Arkham Shadow.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a VR game set for release exclusively on the Meta Quest 3 later in 2024, Warner Bros. and Meta said. It’s developed by Camouflaj, maker of the Iron Man VR game, and Oculus Studios, in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC.
Warner Bros. failed to say who voices Batman in the game, but promised more details will be revealed during Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest on June 7 at 2:00pm PT. The teaser trailer is below:
Here’s the official blurb:
The reveal of Batman: Arkham Shadow comes just three months after the launch of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League...
Digital Sun’s previous outings, The Mageseeker and Moonlighter, were both fun games, but Moonlighter delighted me not only with its quality, but also its unusual genre combination. In this, Cataclismo is shaping up to be quite the worthy successor. While Moonlighter was half classic Legend of Zelda and half shopkeep simulator, Cataclismo is half tower defense and half base-building real-time strategy (with base-building inspired by LEGO). It’s also loads of fun, based on the hours I’ve already spent playing it. If the studio nails the landing with the full release, I’ll be spending far more time in its eerily charming world.
While a combination of base building, resource gathering, and RTS combat might not seem unusual, Cataclismo...
Since we're all replaying Fallout 4 right now anyway, it seems as good a time as any to put together a list of dream settings for the next installment, which will presumably be called Fallout 5 (or potentially Fallout 77). It'll give us something to mull over as we pick through the ruins of Boston and nearby chunks of Massachusetts. Like with the Grand Theft Auto franchise, knowing the location of each Fallout tells fans a lot: likely spots they'll visit, the tone of the game, even some of the story elements that will probably be in play, like the kinds of factions they might encounter or the sort of moral quandaries they may face.
Given Todd Howard already confirmed that the series will never leave America, we've got plenty of time...
Fallout 4’s next-gen update suffered a troubled launch, but it was PC players of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic role-playing game that endured the most issues. Now, some of the most popular mods for Fallout 4 let players “downgrade” the game to a pre-patch point.
The PC-specific update for Fallout 4 broke a number of crucial, long-running mods for the game, including Fallout 4 Script Extender (F4SE), which itself is used by many other mods for compatibility. The most high-profile casualty of the patch was the long-awaited Fallout London mod. Its developers were forced to delay the mod just days before it was due to release out of fear the next-gen update would break it, and so it proved.
As reported by VG247, some of the most popular...
A new report has revealed launch timings for Xbox games throughout the rest of 2024, spilling the beans on when to expect everything from the next Call of Duty to Indiana Jones.
The Verge reported that Bethesda is currently targeting a September release for the Starfield expansion Shattered Space. In a recent interview, Bethesda development chief Todd Howard announced a fall release window for the expansion.
Elsewhere, Activision plans to release the next Call of Duty, which some fans believe is called Black Ops V, in late October, according to The Verge. The same report claims Obsidian’s Avowed and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 follow in November, leaving MachineGames’ hotly anticipated Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to launch...
This week, Microsoft announced the timing of its Xbox showcase event in June as well as a follow-up Direct for a mystery game that looks like a clear tease for the next Call of Duty.
This year’s mainline Call of Duty is reportedly a Treyarch-developed Black Ops game set in the Gulf War. Some had even thought it might be called Call of Duty Black Ops Gulf War, following the naming convention set out by the previous Black Ops game, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War.
However, following Microsoft’s tease, eagle-eyed Call of Duty fans are giving the image included the zoom and enhance treatment, and believe the redacted section conceals the words Call of Duty Black Ops V.
As many fans have pointed out, you can almost make out the ‘OPS’...
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has issued a statement on recent changes to the way ricochet works in the game after members of the community pointed out one weapon in particular was killing players more than it should.
After this week’s release of patch 01.000.300, which tweaked a long list of weapons, stratagems, and enemies, a debate emerged about the state of ricochet. According to the initial patch notes: “Shots that ricochet from heavy armored enemies will now properly hit the Helldiver who fired them. Trigger discipline is highly recommended.”
Players then reported getting killed more often by shots that ricochet, but there was confusion about what exactly was happening. Clips shared on social media appeared to show players...
Bethesda has made Fallout 4’s free next-gen update available to those who received the game via PlayStation Plus Collection.
Not all who received Fallout 4 via PlayStation Plus were able to upgrade to the native PlayStation 5 version for free when the update went live last week, sparking confusion among PlayStation gamers. Bethesda eventually made it available to those who have Fallout 4 via a PlayStation Plus Extra subscription, apparently leaving those who grabbed the game via the PlayStation Plus Collection promotion out in the cold.
However, Bethesda has now made the next-gen update available to all PS Plus subscribers, including those who received Fallout 4 via the PlayStation Plus Collection. In a statement, Bethesda said this...
Not to embrace my inner Palpatine and deal in absolutes, but Star Wars Squadrons (PC, XO) going for $2.99 is an absolutely sith hot deal. First of all, it's just a great game. Second of all, it has cross-platform multi, which means you're much more likely to find like-minded pilots to explode. And lastly, (on the platforms that support it) it provides some of the best wish fulfilment VR action one can buy—for two dollars, ninety-nine.
In retro news, I'm marking the legs 11th birthday of 2013's Mortal Kombat with a big asterisk on the celebrations. You see, while it sounds crazy to say it now, the original release of this title was refused classification in our country because we didn't yet have a R18+ rating for video games. After...
Manor Lords, the medieval-themed strategy game released in early access last week, recently got a mod that allows it to be played with a VR headset, and it's even caught the attention of the game's developer.
Flat2VR, a community of modders and developers aiming to port "flat" games into virtual reality, announced on X/Twitter that there is now a VR mod for PC players looking to play Manor Lords on a virtual reality headset. Flat2VR notes that the mod currently uses mouse and keyboard controls and that "it works perfectly" in six-degree-of-freedom VR (6DOF VR). It's made possible thanks to UEVR, a mod that allows developers and modders to make VR mods for games powered by Unreal Engine.
A video shared by the modding group caught the...
Rise of the Ronin may be a little shy over a month out from its release on PlayStation 5, but that isn’t stopping the action RPG's sales from outpacing its spiritual predecessors, Nioh and Nioh 2.
News of Rise of the Ronin’s sales comes from Koei Tecmo’s recent financial report. In the report, Koei Tecmo noted that Rise of the Ronin’s sales are surpassing the Nioh series and that it might usher in a “significant step toward mid to long-term growth” for the holdings company despite being a new triple-A game.
No specific sales figures, however, were mentioned. Back in 2022, Team Ninja had announced that the Nioh series collectively had shipped 7 million units worldwide.
In tandem with Koei Tecmo’s internal findings of Rise of the...
Longtime Tekken character Eddy Gordo has always been a little polarizing, particularly in Tekken 8, and one streamer has found a way to make him even more of a pain to fight, rising through ranked mode using a script that spams one button.
Over on Twitch, jimmashima is currently streaming ranked mode matches of Tekken 8 using Eddy Gordo as his fighter. The streamer is using a script that keeps spamming "3," or the Left Kick move, to attack their opponent. Aside from the obvious repeated kick show on stream, jimmashima also provided a little UI for the controller, showing the button inputs and the repeated pressing of the "X" button to attack.
The jimmashima "3ddy" bot has caught the attention of the community outside of Twitch, too...
Assassin's Creed fans embedded into the Apple hardware ecosystem can rejoice, as Ubisoft announced today that Assassin's Creed Mirage for iOS and iPadOS will arrive in early June.
In a press release, Ubisoft revealed that Assassin's Creed Mirage will be released on June 6 for the iPhone 15 Pro series and iPad Air and Pro tablets powered by the M1 chip or newer. This will be the most recent port of Ubisoft's open-world game since its initial release on October 5. This will be the first time an Assassin's Creed game that was originally released on consoles and PC will be available natively on iOS and iPad.
Although pre-ordering is now available on the App Store, Ubisoft has not publicly shared how much this port will cost. However, it...
Blizzard has announced the next season for Diablo IV called "Loot Reborn," but instead of introducing new mechanics and focusing on a seasonal story, season 4 will be all about reconfiguring itemization, buildcrafting, and addressing a myriad of tweaks and improvements requested by players.
In an advance showcasing of Season 4, IGN sat down with Loot Reborn's leadership team to discuss this major deviation from what players have come to expect from a typical Diablo IV season.
"For this season we made an assessment along the way where, it really seemed like what we should be focusing our time on is making really substantial update to the item game," lead producer of seasons Tim Ismay explained. "This season, very differently from...
Bethesda has released the hefty patch for Fallout 76 that removes a ton of bugs but weighs in at around 20 GB on console.
With all things Fallout now enjoying a significant boost following the breakout success of the Fallout TV show, Fallout 76 is enjoying a significant rise in player numbers. Last week, Bethesda announced that Fallout 76, its most recent mainline Fallout game, saw over one million people play in a single day.
Fallout 76 launched in November 2018 across PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and was savaged by critics and players at release. However, over the last five years, Bethesda has worked to improve the game, turning around sentiment to such an extent that Fallout 76 now enjoys a ‘mostly positive’ user review rating...
Epic Games has announced plans to bring back the iPad version of Fortnite, but it will only be available for countries in the European Union (EU).
In a post on X/Twitter, the Epic Games newsroom announced that EU Fortnite players who miss playing the free-to-play battle royale natively on Apple's tablet will soon be able to play it again. The statement follows a recent announcement by the European Commission that it now requires Apple to have iPadOS comply with the same rules iOS must abide by as part of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Epic had already said it planned to bring the iOS version of Fortnite back to the EU App Store thanks to the DMA. This comes as part of a wider effort to launch the Epic Games Store on Android and iOS...
Realistic first-person shooter Gray Zone Warfare is currently Steam's best-selling game as extraction rival Escape From Tarkov endures a community revolt, though its also being panned with "mixed" user reviews.
Gray Zone Warfare's Early Access began today, April 30, 2024, timed just as Escape From Tarkov players are sharing their frustration at "shameless" and "tone deaf" developer Battlestate Games. But while Gray Zone Warfare, which promises similar tactical FPS gameplay, is currently the best-selling Steam game above Manor Lords, Helldivers 2, and Fallout 76, players are having significant issues, including poor performance, frustrating design choices, unsatisfying gunplay, and connectivity issues.
"Can barely manage 60 frames...
Microsoft has announced its E3-esque Xbox Games Showcase for June 9, 2024, with announcements from Xbox Game Studios, Activision Blizzard, and Bethesda all promised.
Revealed on Xbox Wire, the showcase will take place at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK though Microsoft didn't say how long it would last. It did share a "Redacted" teaser image for what appears to be the next Call of Duty, however, which will have a dedicated Direct immediately after the Xbox Games Showcase. 2024's Call of Duty game is reportedly Black Ops Gulf War, with Treyarch leading development.
Microsoft certainly appears confident in the content it's showing off in the additional Direct, comparing it to last year's Starfield Direct, which gave a deep dive...
Funko Inc. and developer 10:10 Games have announced that 20(!) franchises will be a part of their upcoming Funko Pop-based co-op action game Funko Fusion. They also announced a release date for PC and consoles: September 13. Check out the new gameplay trailer above and a half-dozen screenshots showing off some of the crossover IPs in the gallery below.
Expect to see and play as Funko Pop characters from the worlds of Jurassic World, Back to the Future, Masters of the Universe, JAWS, Shaun of the Dead, Chucky, The Thing, Battlestar Galactica, Umbrella Academy, The Walking Dead, Invincible, and many more.
"Our vision at 10:10 Games is to create an incredible co-op videogame experience that will bring gamers from across the globe...
Housemarque has celebrated the third anniversary of Returnal with an announcement for a spin-off graphic novel titled 'Fallen Asteria'. It will be released on October 22, 2024, and is available to preorder now at Amazon for $19.99.
The listing description reads: "After Helios crashes onto a hostile alien world, Selene Vassos, a lone ASTRA scout must fight for her life against the horrific hostiles that live beyond every shadow and a trail of distorted memories. Can she hold on long enough to track down the White Shadow signal? Mystery shrouds the world of Atropos and Selene begins to wonder: will she find answers at the end of her journey, or is this nightmare inescapable?"
It's being created by the Housemarque brand team with...
Microsoft has announced the first wave of games coming to Game Pass in May 2024. Highlights include Little Kitty Big City, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
First up, on May 2, is Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition across Cloud, Console, and PC. Crystal Dynamics’ action adventure returns to Game Pass as the studio works on a brand new game in the series. IGN’s Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition review returned a 9/10. We said: “TR: Definitive Edition’s good looks are a bonus. It’s still Lara, great pacing, and clever design that make it amazing.”
Next up, on May 7, is Kona II: Brume (Cloud, Console, and PC). This first-person narrative game is set in a rural mining village in Northern Canada in 1970. Then...
If you've yet to play Cyberpunk 2077's incredible expansion Phantom Liberty, then we've got some stellar news for those on PC. The DLC is down to just $25.49 for a limited time, a 15% discount from its $29.99 MSRP, and the best price we've seen on the expansion since its launch last year. This is available for PC players who use GOG, which is DRM-free and requires no activation or an online connection to play.
Unfortunately, this does also require that you own the base game via GOG as well, but it's a good deal for anyone who originally opted to support CD Projekt directly with their purchase. If you want to own both on GOG, Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is down to $53.59, or Cyberpunk 2077 separately is down to $29.99 instead...
For years Fallout fans have wondered if a video game in the franchise will ever leave the United States for another country. According to Fallout lore, the nuclear war of 2077 upon which the franchise is based was not localized to the U.S., but a global event. And so, the idea of traipsing astound post-apocalyptic London or even Canada has long-been mooted by fans.
In a new interview with Kinda Funny Games, Bethesda development boss Todd Howard ruled out such a move, confirming that the studio’s plan is to keep the Fallout series set in the U.S.
Howard explained the decision by saying he’s a big fan of the “Americana naivete” that informs so much of Fallout’s tone. Fallout is set in a retro futuristic post-apocalypse in which players...
An Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim streamer created a mod which let his Twitch chat control what the game's NPCs said in real time, with expectedly hilarious and horrifying results.
As reported by Kotaku, Twitch streamer Blurbs shared a clip from the stream on X/Twitter, below, which shared a compilation of some of the most ridiculous results. Beyond the Twitch chat's comments merely appearing on screen, the mod converts them to speech in the style of the Skyrim characters and moves their lips to match.
"I have never made a game mod before. Chat can live voice NPCs. It's gonna go horribly," Blurbs said to open the stream.
One NPC he approached was a woman in Riverwood, who in her usual voice, declared: "It's said that the lord of all...