Gaming News

Activision Won't Remove Existing Games from PlayStation After Xbox Acquisition

Activision Blizzard has confirmed that it won't remove existing games from PlayStation after it has been acquired by Xbox - meaning that games such as Call of Duty: Warzone will seemingly remain multiplatform. The news comes from an employee Q&A filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In a question asking how the deal between Activision Blizzard and Xbox will impact existing partner agreements, the company stated, "We will honor all existing commitments post close. As with Microsoft's acquisition of Minecraft, we have no intent to remove any content from platforms where it exists today." After Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang developer Minecraft, the hugely successful game remained on PlayStation consoles, where it can...

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LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Release Date Revealed Alongside Gameplay Overview

Alongside a brand-new gameplay overview, it has been confirmed that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will be released on April 5, 2022. The much-delayed LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's newest breakdown shows off LEGO version of all nine films in the Skywalker Saga and how this game is changing up the formula that has been seen for so long in the LEGO games. We also get a glimpse of some of the over 300 characters that will be playable after being unlocked in-game. Alongside seeing more of the third-person (LEGO?) action that is much more up-close and personal than previous entries, we see that we get to pick to start from the beginning of the original trilogy, prequel trilogy, and sequel trilogy - giving fans of each period...

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Rey Mysterio is the WWE 2K22 Cover Superstar, March Release Date Revealed

The return of the WWE 2K series will be headlined by a superstar who’s no stranger to dramatic returns himself, as WWE 2K22 will feature future WWE Hall of Famer and Lucha Libre Legend, Rey Mysterio as its cover superstar. The news comes from a virtual press conference featuring Mysterio and hosted by WWE color commentator Byron Saxton and broadcast journalist Sam Roberts, who also announced the game’s release date of March 11, 2022. “This is an incredible moment for me,” said Mysterio. “To be able to represent the culture of Lucha Libre as the cover superstar of WWE 2K22, it’s a moment of great pride, not just for me, but for the generations that come after me and for all my people – for all of the latinos, this is a great moment.”...

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Windjammers 2 Review

Windjammers 2 answers the question: what do you get when you combine air hockey with a 2D fighting game? The result, as it turns out, is an absolute blast to play. Changing very little from the original Windjammers that came out on the NeoGeo 27 years ago, the sequel is simple, sweat-inducing, and extremely addictive. Even though it lacks a few key features you’d expect from something designed to be so highly competitive in this day and age and fumbles its attempt at telling any kind of story, Windjammers 2 is a more-than-worthy successor to the retro classic that came before it. At a glance, Windjammers 2 looks to be little more than a game of Pong – and in a lot of ways that’s not far off. You frantically move your character around...

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IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction - Maelstrom Protocol: How to Watch and What to Expect

In celebration of the launch of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction, IGN is proud to partner with Ubisoft to give fans a look at the end-game mode known as Maelstrom Protocol. Join IGN’s Stella Chung, Get Flanked, and Velly as they work their way through the Containment Zone as an elite REACT squad. IGN will be carrying the stream and, as usual, this watch guide will provide you with everything you need to know to watch the let's play, including when it starts, a list of places you join us, and what you can expect to see. IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction - Maelstrom Protocol Start Time The IGN Plays Rainbow Six Extraction livestream will take place on Thursday, January 20, 2022, at 2:45pm PT/5:45pm ET/10:45pm GMT. If you are tuning...

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The Activision/Xbox Deal by the Numbers

So, Microsoft is buying Activision for a startling $68.7 billion. It’s an acquisition unlike any other we’ve seen in the video game industry, and its impact will be felt for years and years to come. Because of just how monumental it is, we’ve gathered answers to some of the biggest questions around the deal, from studio acquisitions to which of the biggest gaming franchises will be part of Xbox Game Studios. Here’s the Activision Blizzard Microsoft deal, by the numbers. How Does the Xbox and Activision Deal Compare to Other Deals? Microsoft’s deal with Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest acquisitions in the video game industry’s history, and in fact, in the history of the entertainment industry, period. Check out the...

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Aussie Deals: Discounted Pokémon Legends Arceus, $98 Horizon: FW and More!

If you're all about press-ganging adorable creatures into your growing collection, today's your day. I've snooped around in the long grass and have found decent deals on Pokémon Let's Go Eevee and the cameratastic Pokémon Snap. The capstone deal, however, is Pokémon Legends: Arceus going for considerably less than RRP. Oh, and PlayStation fans should note that Horizon Forbidden West has gotten a tiny bit cheaper since last we spoke. Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch Purchase Cheaply for PC Exciting Offers for XO/XS Product Savings for PS4/PS5 Adam’s our Aussie deals wrangler. You can watch him game on YouTube. Continue reading...

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Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific Season 2 Delayed

Activision has announced it is delaying the start of Season Two for Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific and Vanguard. The new multiplayer season will now begin two weeks later on February 14 instead of February 2. In a blog post, Activision says that the additional time before the next season will allow the developers time to keep adding fixes to the different Call of Duty online games currently up and running, including 2021’s Vanguard and the ongoing Warzone battle royale. “To date, we’ve deployed a number of updates, but more needs to be done,” Activision writes in its blog. “For this reason, we have decided to reschedule the start of Season Two across Warzone Pacific and Vanguard to February 14.” The studio says that developers will...

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Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle Mode Still Broken Despite New Hotfix

Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle mode has been a sore point for fans for more than a month now. The matchmaking queues have had major issues, with larger parties having a tough time joining games since early December. Those who do make it are frequently disconnected. Today's Halo Infinite hotfix was supposed to fix issues regarding Big Team Battle, but it hasn't completely solved them. 343 community director Brian Jarrard took to Twitter to say that there have been minor improvements, but acknowledged that overall matchmaking issues persist. The team is going to continue working on the problem until matchmaking is stable again. To compensate players for their trouble, 343 Industries is offering five XP boosts and five Challenge Swaps...

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Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - The Second Age Explained

Update: With the recent reveal of the official plot synopsis for Amazon's Lord of the Rings series and the debut of the series' full title, we thought it was the perfect time to dig in on what the Second Age of LOTR is all about. Read on to learn more about the marvelous world author J.R.R. Tolkien created. As the streaming wars heat up, Amazon is betting big on The Lord of the Rings. The company is spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing a prequel series set long before the events of the movies. This series, dubbed The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, will be set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, an important time that literally reshaped the face of the planet. And now casting news is pouring in on the show, with Game...

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Dying Light 2 On Nintendo Switch Delayed

Switch players will have to wait just a little bit longer to get their hands on Dying Light 2, as Techland has announced the Switch cloud version will not launch alongside the other versions on February 4. Instead, the developer is aiming to release the Switch version "within six months" of the original date, meaning it should be out by early August. The studio delayed the game to provide Switch players, "with the gaming experience at the level they deserve." Dying Light 2 is still scheduled for February 4 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Dying Light 2 is the sequel to 2015's Dying Light, an open world zombie game with a dynamic day-night cycle. No matter what platform you plan to play on, Dying Light 2 is set to be a...

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The Price of CPUs and GPUs Are Expected to Go Up This Year

TSMC is reportedly increasing the prices for its silicon, which means that CPU and GPU prices are likely to go up this year. As reported by DigiTimes, the Taiwanese-based semiconductor manufacturer has informed its largest customers, including tech giants such as Apple, AMD, and Nvidia, that it plans to raise pricing quotes of its nodes by up to 20%. This increase in manufacturing will also impact the consumers as companies may increase the price of their products. Outside of an ongoing chip shortage, which is expected to drag well into next year, TSMC has also noted other reasons for increasing the prices of its chips. This includes material costs, freight, and logistics. As Tom's Hardware points out the price hike will...

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Expeditions: Rome Review

An RPG that has you leading armies against King Mithridates one moment and trading legal arguments with Cicero on the floor of the Roman senate the next is like catnip for a history fan like myself. I don't tend to root for the Romans, but the appropriately challenging Expeditions: Rome doesn't necessarily either. It's a well-written, nuanced depiction of a tumultuous era populated by many complex figures and very few real "good guys." It manages to capture so much of the spirit that has made the Late Republic fascinating to us for thousands of years, even if it does play fast and loose with some historical details. With three acts that can each break 20 hours depending on how meticulous you want to be, Expeditions: Rome has a lot to...

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Underworld Dreams: The False King Announced for Nintendo Switch

One-man development studio Drop of Pixel and publisher Skystone Games have announced Underworld Dreams: The False King, a new first-person horror game that is "built from the ground up" for Nintendo Switch (though it will also be released on PC via both Steam and the Epic Games Store). It is due out this Spring. Underworld Dreams is based on the work of Lovecraft and set in the 1980s (as the trailer below will give you a clear indication of from its VHS-style presentation), and its goal is to be the first in an Underworld Dreams series of games. In The False King, you play a man who has located his lost brother in a house that is creepier and more dangerous than you could've ever imagined. Publisher Skystone says you'll "dig into...

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How Nightingale Will Draw From the Lessons Of Mass Effect And Dragon Age In Crafting Its Magical World

Arryn Flynn is enamored with the idea of a sense of place. His Improbable studio in Edmonton, Inflexion, attests that it's devoted to "creating places," and by extension communities and spaces that feel meaningful to those who inhabit them. It's a goal that carries some significant weight coming from a studio staffed and led by the creators of Mass Effect's Normandy and Dragon Age's Skyhold. Flynn says it was this desire that served as the ultimate seed for Nightingale: Inflexion's upcoming survival crafting game set in a Victorian fantasy world. "[There's] this notion that a place is something that has human meaning in it, it's a construct for us mentally and physically, that we invest ourselves in, we put ourselves out there to be...

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Eastshade Studios Reveals Songs of Glimmerwick, an RPG About Attending a Musical Magic School

Many of us may have, at some point, felt a deep longing (probably spurred by a certain young adult fiction book series) to be swept away to a magical school of spells, potions, and general sorcery. Various games and other media have given us various ways to explore that fantasy over the years, but today, Eastshade Studios has announced a new, musical take on the idea with its upcoming RPG, Songs of Glimmerwick. Songs of Glimmerwick is a story-driven RPG where magic is cast through music. Players will attend magic classes, learn to play different songs to cast spells, grow a magical garden, make potions, and take on quests to get to know the various denizens of Glimmerwick. There are moth races, forest expeditions, and festivals to...

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Total War: Warhammer 3: The Final Preview

Ursun, the bear god of Kislev, is dead, and I have killed him. That's a lot to process on my very first turn of Total War: Warhammer 3, but the consolation prize isn't bad. Slaying this great, fuzzy enemy of chaos has allowed me to turn into a powerful Daemon Prince who can be named and customized with all kinds of different body parts and weapons. While the previously announced Chaos factions will focus on one particular god, the Legions of Chaos can pick any of the four they choose – or mix and match them all by choosing Chaos Undivided. Warhammer 3's main campaign is very story-driven. Even more than Warhammer 2's Eye of the Vortex. Ursun's death has sent shockwaves across the world that will periodically open up rifts into the...

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How to Save Money During February's Incredible Lineup of Games

February is looking like one of the biggest gaming months of the year already. For starters, Pokemon Legends Arceus is launching at the end of January, with Dying Light 2 releasing soon after on February 4, followed by PlayStation exclusive Horizon Forbidden West, Destiny 2's The Witch Queen expansion, and finally, Elden Ring rounding off the month on February 25. This will be a huge month, full of surprises, blockbuster review scores, and plenty of amazing games. But, unfortunately, it's still looking like an expensive one as well. To help with this, we've collected a few tips and tricks to help you get through this densely packed period, and relieve your bank account of, at least a little, stress. Here's how you can save some cash...

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XCOM, Civilization Veterans Form New Tactics Studio, Bit Reactor

A group of Firaxis Games veterans has announced a brand new Maryland-based studio called Bit Reactor which will be focused on turn-based strategy games. Bit Reactor will be headed up by former Firaxis art director Greg Foertsch, who worked with Firaxis for over 20 years on games including XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2, Civilization 3, and Civilization 4. Other members of the studio include former lead developers and creatives who also worked on the XCOM franchise. The studio will focus on turn-based strategy games, with Foertsch saying that the genre has been "greatly overlooked" amid the current new generation of technology and that tactics games have "an enormous amount of room for innovation." Multiple unannounced games are...

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Rainbow Six Extraction Review

In one recurring mission in Rainbow Six Extraction, your Special Ops veteran is transported into a hellish parallel dimension where they face off against a malignant, mutated facsimile of one of your fellow Operators from the Rainbow Six Siege cast. An armored, multi-tiered health bar appears across the top of the screen, and it depletes as you dump clip after clip of ammunition into their scaly carapace. It is a cosmic, apocalyptic boss fight, and it’s hard not to think about just how far this series has strayed from its once-dogmatic faithfulness to gritty Navy SEAL realism. In Extraction, Ubisoft successfully brings the series to its wildest frontiers yet, but while this high-stakes co-op creates thrills out of the gate, it doesn’t...

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Aussie Deals: 75% Off a Ton of Old Gold Back Compats, Reduced 2022 AAAs and More!

Weirdly, after dropping a mind-boggling 68 bil on Activision, Microsoft is still feeling generous today. For no particular reason at all, a slew of Xbox X/S enhanced backwards compat titles have gotten the chop. There's too many to mention all in one hit. I've just cherry picked the no-brainer acquires for any connoisseur unbounded by graphics. Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch Purchase Cheaply for PC Exciting Offers for XO/XS Product Savings for PS4/PS5 Adam’s our Aussie deals wrangler. You can watch him game on YouTube. Continue reading...

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Xbox Activision Blizzard Acquisition Shouldn't Break Antitrust Laws, Legal Expert Says

The Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition will bring together one of the game industry’s big-three companies, with one of the industry’s leading game developers. As Xbox continues its strategy of major acquisitions, will the Activision Blizzard purchase run afoul of antitrust laws? A legal expert says not likely at this stage. Remember how Xbox successfully acquired Bethesda without running into complications with antitrust laws? This is because it was a form of vertical integration where a distributor of content, like Xbox, purchased a content producer, like Bethesda. David Hoppe, a Managing Partner at the San Francisco-based Media and Tech law firm Gamma Law says Xbox’s acquisition of Activision runs on the same principle...

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Xbox Buys Activision Blizzard - Holy S&*% – Unlocked 527

Xbox continues its spending spree, buying Activision-Blizzard for almost $70 billion. We spent almost the entire podcast discussing it, from future game exclusivity to Microsoft's role in cleaning up Activision Blizzard's toxic workplace culture to whether or not so much consolidation is a good thing for the video game industry. Join us for the biggest Xbox story of the year (because we can't imagine anything else in 2022 topping this)! Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our new YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 download of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out our latest IGN Unfiltered interview, where Joseph Staten – one of Halo's original creators and now the head of creative on Halo Infinite –...

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The Best PS5 Games

Sony put together an excellent first year for PS5, selling over 13 million units and releasing a handful of great exclusives (Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Returnal, to name two). Between an exciting 2022 games lineup and a planned Xbox Game Pass competitor, this year has the potential to be even better for PlayStation owners. For now, however, we've sorted through the current catalog and curated this list of the 10 best PS5 games. Our list is updated to feature all PS5 games — no more PS4 backward-compatible games. Our main qualifier now is that, given how many cross-gen games there are, games on this list have to have a dedicated next-gen version available. Some games make excellent use of the DualSense controller’s innovative...

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Activision Needs Xbox to Take on Trillion Dollar Companies, Bobby Kotick Says

In his first interview following the news that Xbox is acquiring Activision Blizzard for close to $70 billion, current Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says the deal is necessary to compete with trillion-dollar competitors. Speaking to VentureBeat, Kotick says that Activision Blizzard is looking increasingly outgunned in a field that now includes companies like Tencent, Netease, Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Sony. “It’s a reality that started to factor into our thinking. There is more competition from bigger companies with more resources,” Kotick says. “Facebook is spending [billions] a year on the metaverse. I’ve never seen as much competition, and we’re seeing it even in the wage inflation.” Activision Blizzard makes...

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Pandemic Digital Board Game Removed from Sale Because of Quality and Reliability Issues

Nearly two weeks after the digital version of the Pandemic board game was quietly delisted from Steam for seemingly no reason, developer Asmodee Digital and publisher Z-Man have finally released a statement explaining their decision. Though some contemplated the decision was due to the impact of COVID-19, Asmodee's statement claims an alternate reasoning. "The Pandemic app was released 9 years ago, and we no longer feel the current quality and reliability of the game is on par with what Pandemic deserves on digital platforms," Asmodee said. "The time has come to make way for the digital future of Pandemic. " Asmodee clarified that current owners of Pandemic will not be impacted, and can still download and play the game. A multiplayer...

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Opinion: It’s Not a Console War, It’s a Content War

The notion of a “console war” is outdated, and has been for years now. What began as a silly rivalry between fans of different game systems secretly jealous of the games they couldn’t play has been a significant element fueling games community toxicity for 25 years. Because of that, one might think Microsoft’s bold intended acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion is cause for vitriol – no more Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles? – and proof that the conflict is still raging. In truth it’s the signal that it’s over, and the real fight has been revealed. Ultimately, nobody “won.” You could argue that perhaps all of us did, because the drive to secure increasingly impressive games pushed the capabilities of multiple...

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Pokémon Game Sales in 2021 the Best for the Series Since Gold and Silver's Launch

2021 was a great year to be a video game company, or at least it was if you had a big existing franchise to repackage and make tons of money off of. A surprising number of 2021's best-selling games were also best-selling games in 2020, and the rest were part of big, beloved franchises. Like Pokémon, for instance. In fact, 2021 was huge for the Pokémon games. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, despite being remakes of games from 2006, were the third best-selling games in December and the fourth best-selling games the entire year in the US, according to The NPD Group. They were also the best-selling games on Nintendo consoles for both the entire month of December and for the full year. Specifically, a lot of people were buying...

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Nobody Saves the World Review

How much I enjoyed Nobody Saves the World was constantly in flux as I played, which is somewhat appropriate given the transforming nature of its hero. The latest from Drinkbox Studios is a fun but uneven top-down action-RPG that has you somewhat clumsily swapping between 15 different unlockable forms, mixing and matching their abilities to overcome challenging dungeons. It’s a clever premise that’s bolstered by fantastic playstyle customization options and all the charm and humor I’ve come to expect from the developers of Guacamelee. After a slow start it’s good fun for a long stretch before the campaign loses steam once the chase of unlocking all the forms starts to come to an end. Nobody Saves the World’s straightforward story opens...

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Shadow Warrior 3 March Release Date Seemingly Leaks

An apparent leak from the Microsoft Store has revealed that Shadow Warrior 3 will launch in March. The Microsoft Store page for Shadow Warrior 3 currently shows a March 1, 2022 release date. While this could well be a mistake or placeholder, the Microsoft Store has mistakenly leaked release dates before, including the date for Halo Infinite. The Microsoft Store listing also states that pre-order purchases of Shadow Warrior 3 will come bundled with the first two games in the rebooted series, as well as a limited edition katana skin. Shadow Warrior 3 was announced back in 2020, and our IGN First series showcased gameplay last year. Originally set for a 2021 release, it was delayed into 2022. Should this release date prove correct...

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