Amid the many and varied documents coming out of Microsoft’s battle to buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion are emails and strategy slides revealing companies on Xbox’s potential hitlist. It seems most video game publishers have at one point fallen under the eye of Microsoft's mergers and acquisitions team, including Square Enix, Sega, and even Nintendo.
Capcom, the company behind Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter, is often mentioned as a potential acquisition target. But how would Capcom respond if Microsoft came calling?
That’s exactly what Capcom COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto was asked during an interview with Bloomberg at Tokyo Game Show 2023. His answer: no thanks.
“I would gracefully decline the offer because I...
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Cyberpunk 2077's popularity has spiked following the release of Update 2.0, with the game rocketing to eighth place on Steam's most played games list ahead of expansion Phantom Liberty's launch on September 26.
Data from SteamDB shows CD Projekt Red's futuristic role-playing game has overtaken the likes of Grand Theft Auto 5 and Rust thanks to the release of Update 2.0, which completely revamps the base game with features such as a new perk system and improved AI.
Cyberpunk 2077 has a 24 hour peak of 169,711 concurrent players on September 25, with the strong figure coming even before its one and only expansion Phantom Liberty launches the next day.
Bethesda's space epic Starfield sits ahead of it with 187,483 concurrent users in...
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed the one game we would love to see revived: MechAssault.
MechAssault launched for the original Xbox in November 2002, and was one of the first games to support Xbox Live online multiplayer. Day 1 Studios’ third-person action game went down well with fans, and spawned a sequel MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf, released in 2004. A Nintendo DS game, MechAssault: Phantom War, launched in 2006. Day 1 Studios is now known as Wargaming Chicago-Baltimore, and works on World of Tanks.
In 2017, Mitch Gitelman, who previously worked as the head of FASA Studio (Day 1 Studios worked with FASA on MechAssault), revealed Microsoft decided to pull the plug on the franchise after MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf didn't sell well...
CD Projekt has confirmed the global release times for Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty on PC and console.
The hotly anticipated expansion, which follows last week’s release of the game-changing Update 2.0, launches at 1am CEST on September 26 on PC, and midnight local time on Xbox Series X and S and PlayStation 5. Pre-load on console is available now.
Here’s the list of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty release times worldwide:
Los Angeles (United States) - PC: September 25 at 4pm PDT
Los Angeles (United States) - Console: September 26 at 12am PDT
Mexico City (Mexico) - PC: September 25 at 5pm CST
Mexico City (Mexico) - Console: September 26 at 12am CST
New York (United States) - PC: September 25 at 7pm EDT
New York (United...
A third game in the Star Wars Jedi series is in the works, the actor behind its protagonist has confirmed.
Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order launched in 2019 to critical and commercial acclaim, with more than 20 million players and over 10 million copies sold. It spawned a sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which launched in April 2023.
The series stars young Jedi Knight, Cal Kestis, who fights against the Galactic Empire in a story set in the years after Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith.
Speaking during the Star Wars: Jedi Game Series Panel at Ocala Comic Con 2023 on September 16, and captured in a video published to YouTube, Cal Kestis actor Cameron Monaghan discussed the unannounced project.
“We’re working on the...
Dustborn appears to be many things. It’s a road tripping adventure across an alternate United States that involves maintaining relationships between the members of a rebel gang posing as a rock group, and staying off the radar of an oppressive police force called Justice. It’s a rhythm action game, requiring you to tap buttons in time with on screen prompts to sing along with the car radio or complete performances with your band. In some instances, it’s a Streets of Rage-inspired beat ‘em up that lets you take a baseball bat to hordes of robot soldiers. Yet all the while, Dustborn is also a comic book that your decisions are helping to shape on the fly.
In a novel twist, or perhaps a graphic novel twist, the completion of each chapter...
When it was released eleven years ago, Dragon’s Dogma stood out as a bold open-world action-RPG that didn’t conform to any pre-existing mold for the genre. From its one-of-a-kind Pawn mechanic that encouraged you to frequently swap out AI controlled companions from a network populated by creations from other players to its action centric combat that had you climbing all over giant monsters in order to specifically target weak points and bring them down to size, there’s nothing quite like it. Even to this day.
My big takeaway after playing an hour of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is that Capcom is doubling down on everything that made Dragon’s Dogma so unique, with a big focus on refining and polishing those elements to a shine. And in that regard...
At first glance Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior appears to be a stylish but somewhat straightforward isometric hack ‘n’ slash in the vein of Hades, but after having some hands-on time with it at Tokyo Game Show it’s clear that there’s considerably more to it. While rewinding time has become a common function in everything from platformers to racing sims over the years, Lysfanga implements its time manipulation in a surprisingly interesting way - allowing you to basically record yourself completing a series of attacks, rewind, and then fight alongside a time-shifted duplicate of yourself who serves as a sort of deadly instant replay of your previous run.
Thus each and every enemy encounter in Lysfanga quickly blossoms into an all-out...
At a special showcase for members of the press at Bandai Namco Entertainment in Tokyo, Japan, I had a chance to play an early build of Tekken 8. While renowned director Katsuhiro Harada’s latest sequel will launch with 32 characters, only 16 were available during this meeting. The roster included a blend of old and new faces, including long-established stars like Paul Phoenix and Jin Kazama alongside more recent creations like Claudio Serafino and Lars Alexandersson. However, series producer Michael Murray stated that all Tekken 8 models have been redesigned from scratch, befitting the transition from the Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.
With a series that celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, Tekken walks a tricky line. The...
Announced earlier this year, Bandai Namco's Sand Land looks to translate a cult Japanese comic into an open-world adventure. Playing it on the floor of Tokyo Game Show, I came away intrigued about the characters and story, but less thrilled about actually playing the full game.
Sand Land debuted in the year 2000 as a short-lived tale of a demon prince exploring a desolate wilderness – hence the title. Created by Akira Toriyama, a manga artist of major renown for his Dragonball series as well as his contributions to many games such as Dragon Quest, Sand Land remained a print-only phenomenon until 2023. A feature-length film debuted this summer, with this game serving as the next multimedia tie-in.
The demo opens on a strong note...
We live in a time of exceptional video game quality and abundance: There’s always too much to play (especially as I type this in September of 2023). So it’s all the more surprising that The Making of Karateka, which focuses on a game from nearly 40 years ago, totally captivated me. Part classic game collection and part documentary, wrapped in an interactive historical experience, The Making of Karateka follows the true story of a teenager’s path to publishing a hit video game in 1985. And the story is a good one. While Karateka is not a particularly fun 2D-fighting game to play, exploring its story in this weird and wonderful package is very much so.
What makes this story extra special is twofold: First, the surviving documentation...
If you're bummed that Starfield is not more like No Man's Sky, where you can seamlessly travel from space to planet, there's now a mod available that does just that.
Spotted by PCGamesN, modder 105gun has introduced a mod that finally adds seamless space travel into Bethesda's sci-fi RPG. As described on NexusMods, when installed, the mod Slower Than Light allows Starfield players on PC to control the speed gear of their ship using hotkeys. The maximum speed is the equivalent of "hundreds of times the speed of light," allowing players to travel between planets without fast travel and, more importantly, no load times.
As you can see from our captured footage, the mod allows for much faster traversal through space without having to...
Konami has unveiled new information about the expected resolution and framerates of the three games in its upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. But fans aren't happy with what they're seeing, particularly regarding Metal Gear Solid being locked to 30fps across all consoles.
The table above was shared on an official Konami website for the collection earlier today, and most notably has Metal Gear Solid locked to 30fps across all platforms. Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, on the other hand, both run at 60fps on everything but Nintendo Switch. What's more, all the games are stuck at 1080p resolution on everything (except the Switch's handheld mode, which doesn't support it) and never make it to 4K.
As fans are pointing out...
The pile of squid ink spaghetti, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get you some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.
Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.
We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.
Where Is Xûr Today?
Xûr's location can be...
Payday 3 had a less-than-spectacular launch yesterday, as Starbreeze Studios' first-person shooter was plagued with server issues. With the developer under scrutiny, the studio's CEO has apologized for the issues.
In a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren acknowledged the release day issues. "We are so sorry that the infrastructure didn't hold up as expected, and although it's impossible to prepare for every scenario – we should be able to do better," Sjögren wrote. "We work tirelessly until we have restored all services and our players can get back to heisting again without issues!"
Less than 24 hours after acknowledging the issues with the server, Starbreeze posted on the official...
EVE Online's starry realm of New Eden is a vast expanse of more than 7000 star systems, which we have so far experienced almost exclusively from a distance aboard swooping starships or in the colossal interiors of mega-scale space stations. But all the while, I've imagined what might be going on down on these lonely planets I'm sailing by at impossible speeds. EVE Vanguard, a new shooter module for EVE Online built in Unreal Engine 5, will let us set foot on them and scavenge their riches in person. Well, sort of.
This isn't CCP's first attempt at an FPS set in the EVE universe. From 2013 to 2016 they operated Dust 514, an on-foot experience that was eventually shut down due to low player numbers. Vanguard represents a fresh attempt...
EVE Online has featured several of the biggest PvP battles in gaming history, but it only lets you fly one ship at a time. Set in the same universe but from a very different perspective, EVE Galaxy Conquest is a multiplayer 4X strategy game that puts you in command of your own outpost and an entire fleet.
The factions and warships should be familiar to EVE fans, but you'll be able to command large numbers of them without having to yell at a bunch of mercenaries over discord to stick to the freaking plan.
In typical 4X fashion, a foray into a contested star sector will begin with a humble stronghold surrounded by unexplored space which can be captured, exploited for resources, and fought over. Galaxy Conquest is PvP-centric, with the...
Announced at EVE Fanfest, the next expansion for the 20-year-old space sandbox MMO is called Havoc, and it's focused on new factional gameplay for players who align with the chaotic and criminal element of New Eden.
Space piracy has long been a part of the EVE ecosystem, but as a mostly informal affair. Now, you'll be able to align yourself with the swashbuckling Guristas and Angel Cartel groups and take part in large-scale player conflicts as a destructive interloper.
Last year, the Uprising expansion added a new frontline system that brought along new mechanics for faction wars over contested areas of space. Piratical players in Havoc will gain ways to mess with these systems, as pirates will be able to set up a Forward Operating...
His name may quite literally be the title of the game, but Alan Wake is not the only main character in Remedy Entertainment’s upcoming survival horror. The ‘2’ in Alan Wake 2 doesn’t just point to its sequel nature, but also to the duality that runs through the entire game. Two protagonists. Two perspectives. Two worlds. And two approaches to gameplay.
“Obviously we're making a sequel and we knew that Alan was going to be a big part of it,” says Kyle Rowley, Alan Wake 2’s game director. “But we also knew that we wanted to have a different perspective for the players who are maybe not familiar with Alan Wake 1.”
The second perspective is that of Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating a ritual murder. For September’s IGN First we...
Baldur’s Gate 3’s much-anticipated Patch 3 is live now, bringing significant changes to the Dungeons & Dragons-themed role-playing game as well as the full release of the Mac version.
The patch notes are once again too big for Steam as they exceed the platform’s character limit. As such, the patch notes in full are on the Baldur’s Gate 3 website (beware spoilers!).
Developer Larian recommended Mac users fully uninstall the early access version of the game and remove any mods before installing the latest version to minimize potential compatibility issues. The minimum and recommended specs for Mac users have also been updated: Larian recommends an M1 Pro processor and FSR enabled to run the game at high or ultra settings on a Retina...
Rockstar Games has announced that players subscribed to its $5.99 GTA+ membership on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles will now get access to a “rotating assortment” of classic titles, beginning with Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition.
The reworked trilogy is comprised of GTA 3, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas, all of which were billed to have benefitted from a slew of graphical and gameplay improvements. The collection released in November 2021 in a pretty rough condition, but Rockstar has since pushed out a series of patches that have alleviated some of the many bugs and graphical issues faced by players at launch.
In IGN’s 5/10 review we noted that the new features “are slight and only partially...
While HoYoverse is perhaps best-known in the west for Genshin Impact and the recently released Honkai Star Rail, but it has a third, older game it’s been running since 2016: Honkai Impact 3rd.
At Tokyo Game Show 2023, HoYoverse announced Honkai Impact 3rd Part 2, which sounds like a full-blown sequel due out in February 2024. According to HoYoverse, this new chapter upgrades the combat system, adds a new story set on Mars, and lets players assume the role of a team supporter named ‘Dreamseeker’.
Here’s the official blurb:
“In the previous story of Part 1, the world of Honkai Impact 3rd is corrupted by mysterious energy known as Honkai. A tenacious resistance formed by brave girls called Valkyries, leads humanity in a war of...
Hispanic Heritage Month is here, and what better way to kick off the season than to look back at some of the most iconic Hispanic video game characters? From heroic protagonists such as Spider-Man’s Miles Morales to unforgettable side players like Jackie Welles of Cyberpunk 2077 and villainous favorites like Sombra from Overwatch, there's no shortage of excellent Hispanic characters in gaming.
Hispanic representation in video games has gone from sidekicks and villains to leading heroes and scene-stealing, beloved icons. Here are some of our favorites...
Carlos Oliveira (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)
While Carlos may share the spotlight with series protagonist Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and its subsequent remake in 2020...
Sea of Thieves is set to add one of its most significant updates yet: solo play.
Ever since Rare’s multiplayer-focused pirate adventure game launched in 2018, the developers have faced questions about the addition of solo play. Now, it’s finally coming as part of Season 10 in December. Finally, you won’t have to worry about rival pirates stealing your hard-earned treasure!
In a post on Xbox Wire, creative director Mike Chapman explained the decision. “Just as we hope that the Skull of Siren Song will encourage competitive play, we recognize that for some players, a quieter, more independent experience can be preferable,” Chapman said.
“That’s why, in December, Season 10’s third major feature will introduce an entirely new game mode...
We need to have a conversation about Starfield. In June, I wrote a story highlighting disabled players’ concerns regarding the lack of accessibility information for a game that’s been in development for years. We had no information aside from a brief mention of larger fonts from Todd Howard on Kinda Funny’s Xcast. Disabled people were cautious at best, and terrified at worst. And unfortunately, their fears were ultimately correct.
From an accessibility standpoint, Starfield is the most perplexing game I’ve played in years. Its accessibility menu is minuscule, but its control rebinding is almost flawless. It features numerous inclusive designs beneficial for an array of disabled players, but it locks them away behind specific...
Style can go a long way for an action game, where looking good is just as important as being good. Enotria: The Last Song got that message loud and clear, leading with remarkable landscapes and avant garde costumes to dress up its largely soulsborne-like combat fundamentals. I love some good soulslike clash and bang as much as the next gamer, but I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t ready for something new to the genre. Enotria, at least in theory, agrees with me there, and though my hands-on time was a great introduction to some bold new attempts to bring true combat classes and flashy special abilities into the very familiar system, it’s still a bit too early to know just how showstopping they are.
Enotria checks all of the...
The release of Spider-Man 2 is coming up quick (October 20, to be exact!), so there’s no better time than now to go back to the two previous games and brush up on everything that’s happened in the story. If you’ve yet to pick those games up for yourself, though, now’s a great time to do so. At the moment, you can save over $25 on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition for PS5 (see it at Amazon), dropping the price from $69.99 to $42.57. Get in on the web-slinging action and pick up this game for yourself at the links below.
Save on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition at Amazon and Best Buy
Also at Walmart - $42.57
Also at Best Buy - $43.99
This edition of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales also comes...
The Steam Deck has been a big hardware success for Valve, so it's not entirely surprising the company is already thinking about a successor to its portable handheld gaming PC. But if you're hoping for a Steam Deck 2 to come out anytime soon, we are still at least a "couple of years away".
Speaking to The Verge, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais said the next iteration of the Steam Deck could be released as early as late 2025, explaining that Valve wants the next iteration of the handheld to be both a great leap in performance while ensuring battery life won't be a significant issue.
"It's important to us that the Deck offers a fixed performance target for developers and that the message to customers is simple, where every Deck can play...
Oh my gosh, it's finally happening. After years of social media posts pining for a Lord of the Rings game where you can just be a cozy hobbit, it looks like someone's finally making it. That someone is Wētā Workshop, in partnership with publisher Private Division, with the two having just teased a new game called Tales of the Shire.
We don't know much about Tales of the Shire just yet beyond the tease, but just from what we saw today we know that it's explicitly cozy, and involves hobbits somehow. We can gather a bit more from what we know of the Wētā x Private Division partnership, though. They first announced it a year ago, at the time stating only they were developing a game set in the Middle-Earth universe. For those concerned...
This article contains serious spoilers for the Netflix animated series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update includes a touching tribute to the fallen cast of Netflix’s Edgerunners anime, which has led some to speculate that a character from the series could be hiding out somewhere in Night City.
The tributes were discovered by players exploring Night City’s Columbarium, a location on the eastern side of the game map that serves as a cemetery. Here, the cremated remains of the dystopian metropolis’ deceased residents are laid to rest, accompanied by a neon sigil representing their character, and a short epitaph.
Edgerunners’ 10-episode run saw the demise of a number of fan-favourite characters, some of which met their...