Gaming News

Subnautica 2 Has Sold So Well That Krafton Has to Pay That $250 Million Earnout to the Devs

Subnautica 2 has sold so well that publisher Krafton has reportedly agreed to pay a $250 million earnout to the developers — a bonus that was at the heart of its high-profile legal dispute with the fired Unknown Worlds leadership. The underwater adventure has sold a mammoth 4 million copies since its early access launch on May 14, achieving more than 467,000 peak concurrent players on Steam. But its development was turbulent, with Krafton firing Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill and other senior team members in the summer of last year. At the time, Krafton said the game's launch had also been delayed — something it blamed on Gill — even though its team had been working towards an early access release that would have seen them eligible for...

View full article »

007 First Light Teases First Content Update

007 First Light developer IO Interactive has teased what fans can expect from the game's first content update, and it should be a treat. After players complete the main story, they'll notice an ad in the game's main menu that teases new content coming to TacSim, the game's challenge mode. The ad confirms that a future update will add the Valhalla Protocol, a mission that features the souped-up Aston Martin that you briefly see in the main story. While its role in the main story is small, it appears that the new TacSim update will add a larger course for players to drive through, blasting and blowing stuff up. This would be a pretty big departure from the other content in TacSim. Right now, there's only a handful of levels in the...

View full article »

Bungie Is Letting Players Try Marathon for Free for a Limited Time

Bungie is opening the gates to Marathon next week and letting players jump in on the action, free of cost. As part of Marathon Season 2's launch, the full game will be getting a free trial from June 2nd to June 9th on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. All of the progress you make during this time will carry over to the full game, so it's a great way to try before you buy. It's a clear move from Bungie to try to win over players, as Marathon has had soft sales and underwhelming player counts for a new game. Marathon Season 2 also plans to add more PVE content to the game as a way to lure in more players who are turned off by core modes in the game. The extraction shooter genre has had some massive wins, like Arc Raiders, but the premise can...

View full article »

Paralives Early Access Review

If you’re a fan of life simulators, you’ve no doubt heard critics, developers, influencers, and all manner of social media-savvy people wax lyrical about the complexity of creating a compelling social simulation. As I said in my own inZoi review last year, curating a world that’s both representative of the murky mess that is being human and enjoyable to play is a seemingly impossible undertaking that few have managed. And yet, after spending 35 hours in Paralives crafting families, building homes, and sowing discord among residents, I have a renewed hope. This ambitious challenger to The Sims’ throne has captured not only the practical elements of humanity but, importantly, the weird ones we sweep under the rug, too. While its Early...

View full article »

Opinion: With A $949 Steam Deck, The Steam Machine Will Probably Be Very Expensive

In the six months since Valve announced the Steam Machine, PC gaming hardware has continued to get more expensive, and now that the Steam Deck has an official price increase, anyone hoping to get a Steam Machine for less than a thousand bucks is probably going to be disappointed. When I visited Valve to take an early look at the Steam Machine last year, I was told that the price would be competitive with a comparable gaming PC. My gut feeling at the time was that would mean a $1,200 sticker price, which I walked back on once I started doing the math, figuring it would settle at around $800. But I wasn't taking a months-long RAM crisis into consideration. Welcome to The Desert of the RAM In the months since this all started, there...

View full article »

Steam Deck Price Increase Announced by Valve

Valve has announced a substantial price increase for the Steam Deck. The company announced today that all new OLED models are officially back in stock after months of being out of stock, but they will be getting a price increase. The lowest-tier model, the 512GB OLED Steam Deck, was previously $549 and will now cost $789. The premium 1TB OLED Steam Deck was previously $649 and will now cost $949. Valve stated that "these new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole." Refurbished LCD Steam Decks sold through Steam will not suffer a price increase, though it does appear that the refurbished OLED Steam Decks will still cost more than their original price. The...

View full article »

007 First Light Composers Reveal the One Rule They Were Given for Scoring the New Bond Game

It’s one of the most iconic musical themes in pop culture history: a plucky guitar riff that explodes into a symphony of brass. You probably know it well, even if you’ve never seen a James Bond movie or played a 007 game. And now the iconic Bond theme is back in the spotlight thanks in no small part to video game music veterans The Flight. I spoke with the duo, composed of bandmates Alexis Smith and Joe Henson, ahead of the release of IO Interactive's 007 First Light to talk about the challenges of building a new score around such a classic theme and the surprising lack of rules they encountered while scoring the game. “The main thing from IO Interactive was to hold back those [big orchestral] moments to give it to the player when...

View full article »

Destiny 2 Fans Plan Mass Protest to 'Crash the Servers' and Beat Marathon's All-Time Player Record

Destiny 2 fans distraught over Bungie's decision to end support for the franchise are planning to try and "crash the servers" to demonstrate that there's still huge interest in the game. In a lengthy thread on reddit, Destiny fan w1nds0r has issued a call to arms for all Destiny players to return on June 9, when the game's final ever content drop arrives. Bungie stunned fans last week with the announcement it was ending content updates for Destiny 2 to focus instead on its more recently-released extraction shooter Marathon, which has reportedly failed to meet sales expectations. Subsequent reporting has suggested that no Destiny sequel is currently in the works, and that Bungie is also now set for "significant" layoffs. "We need to...

View full article »

Blizzard Boss Wouldn't Rule Out Overwatch Animated Series, Knows Fans Have Wanted It for Years

Ever since those initial Overwatch cinematics made their way onto our screens, the prospect of an Overwatch animated series has been an exciting one. For the past decade, rumours of such a thing have come and gone, but there may still be hope. In a recent interview, I asked Walter Kong, Overwatch general manager and head of live games and mobile development at Blizzard, if a TV show translation of the hero shooter could still find its way to us. “I would not rule it out,” Kong replied. “Every time we release assets, whether it’s a hero trailer or an event piece, there are all of these comments about, ‘Hey, we would love an Overwatch animated series. Blizzard, what the hell? When's that happening?’ Kong continued. “So we certainly hear...

View full article »

Crimson Desert Mini-Review: The World’s Widest Playground

Let’s get this out of the way first: Crimson Desert won’t be for everyone. Players looking for a deeply emotional story, layered worldbuilding, or complex character relationships may find it a little lacking. But for anyone who enjoys chaotic sandbox adventures packed with activities, surprises, and pure spectacle, there’s a lot to love here. The story exists, but it’s not really the main draw. It leans heavily into familiar fantasy tropes and well-worn ideas, serving more as a backdrop for the real experience: exploring a huge world filled with entertaining systems and unpredictable moments. And that’s exactly where Crimson Desert shines. This is the kind of game you’ll talk about with friends because of the absurd situations it...

View full article »

No Man's Sky Launches The Swarm Update, Adds Mysterious Death Star Like Construct to the Game

No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games has announced The Swarm update, which adds a “mysterious Death Star like construct” to the sci-fi adventure. The Swarm update adds “something new, huge and foreboding" to the sky above planets. Hello Games said it's "unlike anything we've seen before.” Patch notes, courtesy of the No Man's Sky website, are below. “Players are going to need a combined community effort to figure out what is going on,” Hello Games chief Sean Murray teased. “Travellers will boot up to be greeted with a personality test, dividing players into three factions, each will need to co-operate, strategise and compete to counter the Hive of Glass, an existential threat to the universe.” “A war effort is being launched from the...

View full article »

Mina the Hollower Review

After the opening hour of Mina the Hollower, I found myself dropped into a hostile world with no obviously “correct” path to follow and roaming enemies that could kill me in just a few hits no matter what direction I chose. That’s about when I realized this retro RPG was hiding far more than I expected beneath the surface – and once I burrowed on in, I never wanted to come back up. Mina is a tough-as-nails adventure gorgeously done up in the style of the Game Boy Color’s best, and it isn’t shy about those influences. It borrows The Legend of Zelda’s open-world structure, adds a healthy amount of Castlevania’s horror setting and haunting chiptunes, and peps things up with a surprising dose of FromSoft’s Souls games in its combat and...

View full article »

Planet Zoo 2 All But Confirmed Following YouTube Page Update

Frontier Developments may not have formally announced a sequel to its delightful zoo sim, Planet Zoo, but that hasn't stopped someone trimming up the game's YouTube channel with some not-so-subtle hints that Planet Zoo 2 is on the way. As spotted by our friends over at Eurogamer, if you head over to the series' official YouTube page, you'll find both the head and the avatar image has been updated with a '2' on the end. This isn't a clue as much as full confirmation, even though there's been no firm announcement... yet. It's not entirely a surprise, of course; Frontier did tease that a follow-up game was in the works when it released a trailer celebrating the sim's sixth anniversary at the end of last year. However, it's our closest...

View full article »

EXCLUSIVE: First Look at EA Sports FC 26 The World's Game Update

With the World Cup just weeks away, IGN can reveal The World’s Game update for EA Sports FC 26 and EA Sports FC Mobile with exclusive screenshots and details. The World’s Game Update, due out May 28, lets players lead a nation in a new 48-team international tournament mode starting June 4. EA Sports doesn’t have the official license for the FIFA World Cup itself (EA Sports’ FIFA series switched to EA Sports FC for the 2023 entry), but the new update features 53 fully licensed and playable national teams, 41 of which are competing in the actual World Cup. Fully licensed and playable national teams include Brazil, England, France, Cabo Verde, and Uzbekistan. New stadiums include Gillette Stadium and BMO Field, alongside Central Maw, “a...

View full article »

Resident Evil Requiem Now Has a Demo, 3 Months After Launch

Capcom has finally released a Resident Evil Requiem demo, allowing you to try its Game of the Year contender for free. Arriving three months after Resident Evil Requiem's February debut, this trial version is available to download now on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, and on PlayStation 5, Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S. "The demo version allows you to play part of the game's early stages," Capcom said today in a statement. "Please note that save data from the demo version cannot be transferred to the full version of the game." Fans who have already downloaded the demo report that it features Grace Ashcroft's initial exploration of the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center (after she wakes hanging upside down), as well as a brief...

View full article »

Marathon Developer Bungie Drops Season 2 Cinematic With Big Horror Vibes

Marathon developer Bungie has dropped a sneak peek at what's to come when Marathon's second season launches next month. Looking more like Destiny than ever — from the tense atmosphere to the unsettling score — the trailer sets up unseasonably spooky events as night falls across Tau Ceti IV. Crucially, the teaser is cinematic, so not actual gameplay, and content is subject to change, but much like Destiny's Nightfall mode, it looks like Marathon's second season ups the stakes, offering a much tougher challenge for the Runners prepared to take it on. We don't yet have any of the details — who these new foes are, what they want, or why they're tracking us — but we do get a little flavor of what's to come with the video description...

View full article »

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Minimum Requirements Set to Change Ahead of Songs of the Past Expansion

CD Projekt has signalled changes to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt minimum requirements ahead of the release of the just-announced third expansion, Songs of the Past. In a blog post, the developer said that with new content coming to The Witcher 3, it will need to update its system requirements "to ensure smooth performance and compatibility going forward." These requirements will become effective starting from the next update. The Witcher 3 new minimum requirements: CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i5-8400 GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB VRAM: 6 GB RAM: 12 GB Storage: 70 GB SSD OS: 64-bit Windows 11 CD Projekt said these minimum requirements reflect “how hardware capabilities and software usage have evolved...

View full article »

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past Expansion DLC Announced, First Details Confirmed

CD Projekt has announced a third expansion to The Witcher 3, called Songs of the Past. The DLC is due out in 2027, 12 years after the 60 million-selling The Witcher 3 came out in 2015, and 11 years after the second expansion, Blood and Wine, came out in 2016. The Witcher 3's first expansion, Hearts of Stone, was released in October 2015. In a note to press, CD Projekt said it is co-developing the expansion with Fool’s Theory, a team comprising "industry veterans" who worked on The Witcher 3. More details on Songs of the Past will be released in late summer 2026. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past first details: Songs of the Past is a third expansion coming to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt It will launch in 2027 on PlayStation...

View full article »

Kingdom Come: Deliverance Developer Teases Its Lord of the Rings Open World RPG

Warhorse Studios, the team behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance, has teased its upcoming Lord of the Rings game, and it sounds very exciting indeed. Last week, Warhorse confirmed it is making a new game set in the Lord of the Rings universe following months of speculation. When Warhorse announced the Lord of the Rings game, it called it an “open world Middle-earth RPG,” so it's unclear which era of Tolkien’s fantasy setting the game takes place. But it seems likely to follow the template established by the studio’s hugely popular Kingdom Come: Deliverance games. The project is expected to still be a ways off from releasing, meaning we probably won't see it for a while. However, Warhorse teased some details during a recent community...

View full article »

Take-Two Forces GTA 5 Multiplayer Platform Rage:MP to Shut Down and Migrate to FiveM

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, has ordered the GTA 5 modding platform Rage: MP to cease operations. The developers of the platform relayed the news via a forum post on Monday evening, noting that Take-Two had formally requested they shut down. The reason is because Take-Two and Rockstar Games have their own modding platform, FiveM, and it's the only authorized platform for modding GTA, especially with regards to the online portion of the game. "We must share an important update about the future of RAGE: MP. Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have made it clear that FiveM is the only authorized platform for GTAV multiplayer modding, as defined in their Platform License Agreement (PLA)," said the...

View full article »

007 First Light PC Settings Guide

While 007 First Light is the first actually good James Bond game in quite some time, developer IO Interactive has been making well-optimized PC games for years. It’s not surprising, then, that 007 First Light runs extremely well, at least once you clear its somewhat steep system requirements. The game requires just an AMD Radeon RX 5700 or a GeForce GTX 1660 to run, but its recommended spec is an RTX 3060 Ti or a 6700 XT. That’s quite a difference, but I will say that after testing the 3060 Ti at 1080p, it runs incredibly well, although the low VRAM means you’ll probably want to turn down the texture quality a bit, even at that lower resolution. In fact, the textures in this game are like a little sponge for video memory, and if you...

View full article »

Official Metal Gear Solid 4 Remaster Retains Classic Real-World Brands and Meta Jokes

The remaster of Metal Gear Solid 4 is finally coming to current gen consoles this August as part of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2. A recent reveal of gameplay not only showed off the enhanced graphics, but also suggests that many in-jokes and brand tie-ins from the 2008 original will still be found in MGS4’s wartorn future. Over the weekend, Japanese freelance writer Mafia Kajita and voice actor Yuichi Nakamura played through Act 1 of the upcoming Master Collection Vol. 2 version of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots on their popular YouTube channel (Fun fact: Nakamura played Kevin in the Japanese version of Metal Gear Rising: Revengence). Right at the start, there is an infamous tongue-in-cheek joke in the cutscene...

View full article »

Alan Wake and Control 'Should Have Sold More,' New Remedy CEO Says, as He Accepts Skepticism of His Former EA Background

Remedy franchises such as Alan Wake and Control "should have sold more", the company's new CEO has said. Jean-Charles Gaudechon was appointed as Remedy's new boss back in March, prompting raised eyebrows from fans of the studio's offbeat single-player fare. Gaudechon's resume includes nearly five years at EA, with a particular focus on the PC and mobile versions of FIFA. Since then, he's worked on various sport-related ventures, including two years running a fantasy NFL platform. In a new interview with The Game Business, Gaudechon acknowledged some of the skepticism surrounding his past while stating that he knew Remedy's "one-of-a-kind" creativity needed to be "protected." At the same time, Gaudechon said he believed the company...

View full article »

CD Projekt Announces Official The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine Special Anniversary Stream as DLC Rumors Swirl

CD Projekt has announced an official special anniversary stream for The Witcher 3’s much-loved expansion, Blood and Wine, sparking speculation the studio may tease more DLC for the game. The stream, set for May 28 at 5pm CEST / 8am PT / 1pm ET / 4pm UK time, will see CD Projekt “return once more to the land of knights, vineyards, and vampires!” CD Projekt said in a tweet. There’s no suggestion that the stream will contain any announcements, but that hasn’t stopped fans from getting excited about the prospect of confirmation of the long-rumored The Witcher 3 DLC. One recent report pointed to the possibility of a 'Dune-style' location for the new, so far unnanounced adventure. This would potentially arrive later this year, adding to The...

View full article »

Marvel’s Wolverine, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and New God of War: What to Expect From PlayStation’s State of Play June 2026

Sony is back with another PlayStation State of Play on June 2, 2026 at 2pm PT/5pm ET/10pm BST, so get ready for a whole host of new PS5 game announcements, fresh looks at gameplay, and maybe even some other surprises. With only Marvel’s Wolverine currently listed as being part of the hour-plus long presentation set to share “updates, announcements, and gameplay reveals from top studios around the world”, there’s a lot to theorise about. For context, last year’s equivalent stream saw the reveals of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, Nioh 3, and Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, as well as fresh gameplay looks at 007 First Light, Silent Hill f, Ghost of Yotei, and Pragmata. But what can we expect to see this year? Well, let’s get...

View full article »

PS Plus Extra and Premium Get Destiny 2 on the Same Day Its Final Content Update Is Released

Sony has announced plans to put Destiny 2 into PlayStation Plus Extra and Premier tiers on the day it receives its final update. In a PlayStation Blog post, Sony confirmed that Destiny 2: Legacy Collection (2025), including The Final Shape expansion, will be available for Extra and Premium/Deluxe members from June 9. That’s the same day Bungie will release Destiny 2’s final live-service content update. Last week, Bungie shocked the video game world by announcing that support for Destiny 2 was coming to an end next month, effectively closing the door on the Destiny era that began with such fanfare back in 2014. There has been much hand wringing since, with some expressing concern for the future of Bungie itself amid impending layoffs...

View full article »

Every Way That Subnautica 2 Improves Over Its Predecessor

With its blend of deep-sea exploration, crafting, and survival sandbox gameplay, Subnautica quickly became a favourite among players when it launched back in 2018. More than eight years later, Subnautica 2 looks set to build on everything that made the original such a hit, while introducing a host of new ideas to pull lapsed players back into the depths once again. From improved visuals and smarter creatures to long-awaited multiplayer support, here are the biggest ways Subnautica 2 improves on its predecessor. Unreal Engine 5 Brings Improvements Beyond Just Visuals When the original Subnautica launched, developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment used the Unity engine to bring its underwater world to life. For Subnautica 2, however, the...

View full article »

Sony Confirms PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for June 2026, First Lineup Announcement Since Price Rise

Sony has confirmed the PlayStation Plus monthly games for June 2026 — and it includes one of the best Warhammer 40,000 games around. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide joins the subscription service alongside Microsoft's own Game Pass game, Grounded Fully Yoked Edition, and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, with all three available to all PlayStation Plus members from Tuesday, June 2 until Monday, July 6. As a bonus, EA Sports FC 26 will remain available as a PlayStation Plus Monthly Game until June 16, capitalizing on the start of the World Cup. But as a big Warhammer 40,000 fan, I’ll focus here on Darktide, Fatshark’s co-op focused first-person action game set in Games Workshop’s grimdark galaxy of the far future. While Darktide got off to a...

View full article »

007 First Light Review So Far

Like the man himself, a James Bond game should ooze style and swagger. There’s no point in a timid tie-in with neither the balls nor budget to bring the Bond fantasy to life, and I’ve never particularly wanted one that simply gaffer tapes all the loudest bits of Call of Duty together and stuffs them into a tuxedo. What I’ve wanted is a Bond game that’s confident and charismatic; one that both ebbs patiently and peaks violently as it segues between social stealth, dangerous infiltrations, gadget-driven shenanigans, and destructive, never-tell-me-the-odds action. What I’ve wanted is a Bond game like 007 First Light – and I’m having a fantastic time so far. Since its arrival at IGN over the weekend, I’ve put around 14 hours into First...

View full article »

Marathon Voice Actor Hits Back at Online Trolls and Says 'People Just Want to Hate'

Veteran video game voice actor Elias Toufexis has spoken out about the online "hate" directed at Marathon, following developer Bungie's decision to prioritize the game over Destiny 2. Speaking to PC Gamer before last week's shock news that Destiny 2 support will be completely wound down, Toufexis — who voices Marathon's Assassin — acknowledged the perception among fans that Destiny 2 had suffered so Bungie's extraction shooter could live. "I understand Bungie made a game, Destiny 2, that people loved, and then they kind of were like, 'We're gonna put that on hold and we're gonna work on Marathon,'" Toufexis said. "People got upset about that. Cool, don't play Marathon. That's fine, speak with your wallet, that's fine." However...

View full article »