After just 6 days, hot new FPS The Finals is changing its skill-based matchmaking for "better quality games"

You'd think considering the length of time Marvel has been a massive success - both before the MCU was even a thing and after it launched the franchise into the stratosphere - that pretty much every toy and collectible on the market would have teamed up with the creators of Earth's Mightiest Heroes by now, but no. Well, not until now. Youtooz, collectible figures modeled after countless iconic characters, previously didn't have any Marvel characters on its roster, but that changes today.

Apple may have crossed the $3 trillion valuation mark this year, making it the most valuable company in the world, but that does not mean the California-based firm had the most successful run in 2023 because other technology giants outperformed it by quite a fair margin. In fact, according to the latest report, Apple suffered its longest revenue slide in 22 years, with several challenges expected to make attempts at its growth in 2024.

The original Dragon's Dogma from developer Capcom took some time to find its audience, but it eventually became a cult favorite in the years following its 2012 release. As Capcom's first attempt at an open-world action RPG, it blended a swords and sorcery high-fantasy conceit with the developer's pedigree for delivering fast and epic action from similar games like Monster Hunter and Devil May Cry.  But with the upcoming sequel, the developers are looking to up the ante in many ways -- even including ideas that wouldn't have worked for the first game. In a recent issue of Play magazine (issue 35), which is on sale now, game director Hideaki Itsuno took some time to reflect on the original game and what he hopes to achieve with the long-awaited sequel -- and how exactly he came up with the sequel's massively upgraded world.

The Finals has hit 10 million players worldwide, just 15 days after its stealth launch.

The Day Before will be officially retired, with servers taken offline next year on January 22.

Wordle was a lockdown phenomenon: one of those games that, merits aside, simply landed at the right time. I've kicked the habit now but like pretty much everyone else I had a Wordle phase with the family WhatsApp group and, yes, when I'm nearly out of chances I have gone running to my six-letter friend Google. Wordle's enormous popularity was such that, in January 2022, the New York Times purchased the game from creator Josh Wardle for a sum «in the low seven figures.»

Last month Path of Exile 2 was selected as the #9 Most Wanted game in PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted. The sequel to the long-running ARPG Path of Exile is coming soon, and with work on Path of Exile 2 now well underway, we flew to New Zealand to talk to developers at Grinding Gear Games about how they're approaching a game that needs to be firmly rooted in the original while offering both new players and veterans something fresh and different.

Twitch has taken back a rule change it made just two days ago. After seeing what some streamers did with the freedom to stream «artistic depictions of nudity,» the site said it «went too far.»

Amazon has released Season 4,Eternal Frost for New World today after originally planning its release for yesterday. The rollout has been facing some issues, with the team holding maintenance and making adjustments while they fix any lingering issues, including reports of crashes.

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

A new hotfix for The Finals has been released, which aims to improve the game's skill-based matchmaking.

With the future of the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic remake up in the air, Disney has at least signalled its commitment to the much-loved role-playing game.