Gaming in Announces. Reviews, Walkthroughs, News

Genshin Impact is gearing up for its Version 4.5 update, Blades Weaving Betwixt Brocade. Coming right at you on March 13, 2024, Genshin Impact Version 4.5 has new weapons, characters, quests and more. I guess it’s time to leave all those Liyue New Year festivities behind and sprint towards Mondstadt to help out folks like Jean, Lisa, and the rest of the Knights of Favonius with their potion-mixing business.

Do you love playing Kingdom Rush? Well, then you’ll be happy to know that Ironhide Game Studio is busy making the next sequel of the series. They’re bringing out Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance, which is the fifth instalment in their much-loved tower defense series. It’s slated for release on Android, iOS and PC later this year.

MAGES. has announced Iwakura Aria, a brand-new suspense visual novel for Switch. It will launch on June 27 in Japan for 4,950 yen at retail and 4,400 yen via download.

In surprise news shared by GM/founder Lozy, longtime Race to World First contender Big Dumb Guild has announced their disbanding and retirement from competitive raiding, citing a decline in leadership, alongside the loss of core players and sponsorship. Beginning their raid history in 2014, BDG gained recognition for their World 9th finish in Ny'alotha, beginning a streak of top 10 finishes which include World 4th in Sanctum of Domination, Vault of the Incarnates, and Aberrus. Despite ups and downs throughout their illustrious career, BDG will be remembered for bringing humor and levity to their productions, proving themselves equally entertaining and competitive throughout the world race.

Following its decision to cut six percent of its workforce last March, EA has announced another round of layoffs — this time affecting five percent of staff (around 670 employees) — as it moves away from «future licensed IP» toward its «owned IP, sports, and massive online communities».

When will it end? According to GamesIndustry.biz, Electronic Arts announced today that it will be laying off approximately 5% of its workforce which equates to around 670 people. In a note sent out to EA staff, CEO Andrew Wilson indicated the move is part of the company “moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry.”

Genshin Impact officially announces the premiere date for its Version 4.5 Special Program, revealing all the new details about the game's next update later this week. The HoYoverse RPG's «Special Program» broadcasts have become a highly-anticipated part of the game's development cycle, with the developer revealing new information about the next update in advance of its release. Genshin Impact's ongoing Version 4.4 brought plenty of new content to the game, including new characters Xianyun and Gaming and new areas to explore. Now, players will learn all about Version 4.5 later this week.

Another gacha game is shutting down. Vespa is saying goodbye to its tower defense RPG, Time Defenders. The game’s servers will be turned off on March 29, 2024. Vespa is a Korean developer known for King’s Raid, another RPG. Keep reading to know what led to Time Defenders EOS.

NetEase Games has announced its newest triple-A game development studio, BulletFarm. As a “remote-first” developer located in Los Angeles, California, it’s led by David Vonderhaar, known for his work on Call of Duty (specifically the Call of Duty: Black Ops series).

Veteran Call of Duty: Black Ops designer David Vonderhaar has established a new “AAA game studio” with NetEase.

Former Call of Duty: Black Ops design director David Vonderhaar has established BulletFarm, a new AAA game studio, following his departure from Treyarch last summer.

Deck Nine, the developer behind Life is Strange: True Colors, has announced it has laid off 20% of its staff amid «worsening marketing conditions.» The Life is Strange: True Colors developer isn't alone, with many other studios making huge cutbacks at this moment in time.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced today that the corporation will cut around 8% of its workforce, or more than 900 jobs. Also, in the announcement, they stated that PlayStation Studios London will be closing.

American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy has shared a teaser for a surprise new horror series and while the cryptic clip barely gives anything away in terms of plot or even visual aesthetic, we're already in.

AI roundup: As the Mobile World Conference (MWC) 2024 has commenced, Qualcomm made a major announcement with its introduction of an AI hub that empowers 75 AI models for the Snapdragon platform. On the other hand, Truecaller announced its new AI call recording feature which can translate and summarize audio. Know more about what happened in the world of AI today, February 26, 2024.

Finnish smartphone manufacturer HMD announced its rebranding plans at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024 Barcelona. The company's name now stands for ‘Human Mobile Devices'. For the last few years, HMD (formerly HMD Global) has been Nokia smartphones. As part of its new multi-brand vision, it aims to create ‘HMD original devices' while it continues to sell Nokia phones. More importantly, the company also announced plans for a Barbie flip phone!

Xbox Game Studios has flaunted extraordinary lifetime player numbers for some of its most successful first-party games, including Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, Sea of Thieves, and more. Xbox's first-party portfolio is set to grow even larger this year, with several major titles planning to release, like Ninja Theory's Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 in May, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Avowed in the fall.

Activision has announced new security updates coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Warzone after banning more than 6,000 cheaters across both games earlier this month. Cheating in Call of Duty has already been bad before this, but a recent incident this February resulted in a massive surge of malicious players trying to exploit the game.

In a move that has set the tech industry abuzz, Elon Musk, the CEO of X, has officially confirmed the upcoming launch of Xmail. The announcement has triggered widespread speculation about the potential competition it could pose to Google's dominant Gmail service. Musk's revelation follows a whirlwind of rumors surrounding the alleged impending shutdown of Gmail, which had ignited a storm across the internet.

Microsoft has confirmed multiplatform release plans for four first-party titles.

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Iconic pop sensation Lady Gaga has announced that she'll be coming to Fortnite Festival. 

The Sims 4 will explore gems as a skill and occupation in its upcoming Crystal Creations Stuff Pack. The Sims 4 has four different types of DLC: expansion packs, game packs, stuff packs, and kits. DLC is categorized and priced according to how much content it'll bring to the table. Kits were the latest addition to The Sims 4, and after they were introduced, EA stopped releasing stuff packs for a considerable amount of time.

It appears Lady Gaga is going to make an appearance in Fortnite Festival, as the singer is teasing an upcoming collaboration with Epic Games.

Each year, Maxis releases various packs for The Sims 4, ranging from large-scale expansions to smaller additions that introduce new clothes and furniture. Since 2024 began, the Sims team has released various teasers for new kits and packs, with Crystal Creations being the first Stuff Pack to launch this year on February 29.

Nintendo has announced a new Nintendo Direct Partner showcase for later this week on Wednesday February 21.

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Four Microsoft first-party games will launch on Sony's PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch, the company confirmed late Thursday after weeks of speculation over its exclusive titles releasing on rival platforms. The announcement came on the Official Xbox Podcast from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, who also shed further light on the reasons behind Xbox's business decision and confirmed that the next generation of Xbox consoles were in development. Microsoft has not yet revealed the four Xbox exclusives coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, but The Verge reported that said games would be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded.

Expanding its family of Large Language Models (LLMs), Google on Thursday took the wraps off Gemini 1.5. The Mountain View-based company first debuted its next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) models just a few months ago, and it has been hard at work improving upon the capabilities of Gemini 1.0. Google says Gemini 1.5 is the fruit of rigorous testing and refining, aiming to deliver a “dramatically enhanced performance.” Here are 5 things to know about Gemini 1.5.

In September last year, Magic: The Gathering fans were rocked by the news that Sheldon Menery had passed away following a seven-year-long battle with throat cancer. Menery was considered by Magic fans as the pioneer of the Commander format, which has gone on to become the most popular format of Magic: The Gathering, and his passing was greatly felt in the community.

This March, a new Destiny 2 update will bring a lengthy list of ability changes as Bungie prepares the in-game sandbox for the launch of The Final Shape in June. The changes will target overperforming abilities, including Threaded Specter, while balancing and fixing other abilities for various subclasses in Destiny 2.

A new teaser trailer for EA Sports College Football has announced that the game will be released in the summer.

Yesterday, the newest No Man's Sky update went live on PS5, introducing a "complete overhaul" for expeditions. Bizarrely, there was no fanfare. Hello Games didn't reveal the update or give any details on what was included outside of in-game patch notes. That changed today, as founder Sean Murray officially announced Omega.

We don’t have to tell you this, but video games can be expensive. It’s not cheap to pick up the latest releases, and with this latest generation of console platforms, we saw a price hike. New AAA titles will cost you $69.99 here in the States. So, knowing what games to set aside on the back burner and which to purchase on day one is pretty crucial. Fortunately, sales are going on regularly to save you a bit of money, including one unveiled today by PlayStation.

Dragon’s Dogma II director Hideaki Itsuno has announced that the game will have uncapped framerates.

If you have looked at any website for the past month or so, you have heard about Palworld. It is avoidable. Inescapable. Inevitable.

When Microsoft entered the gaming console wars in the early 2000s, many people questioned whether the American-born company could draw in players to its system: the Xbox. After all, Sony and Nintendo had experience under their belts, and Sony was busting out the PS2, which would eventually become the best-selling video game system ever. Nintendo was still cranking out incredible 1st and 3rd party titles, which wouldn’t end by any stretch. So, could Microsoft stand on its own two feet and make an impact? The answer was “yes,” but not in the overarching way. After all, they’ve had plenty of bumps along the road.

Today, the Chinese raiding guild Skyline (天涯) is officially retiring, citing financial burden and general exhaustion over seven years of competitive raiding. Widely regarded as the most accomplished group of eastern raiders, Skyline finished top 10 in every single Race to World First since the launch of Battle for Azeroth, including the #8 spot in Amirdrassil, despite stalling for nearly a thousand pulls against Tindral Sageswift.

Exciting news! Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been unveiled as the cover athlete for MLB The Show 24! Not only a phenomenal baseball player, but Guerrero also embodies the finest qualities of the sport. Coming from a baseball-centric family, his passion for the game and dedication to community service make him the perfect ambassador for MLB The Show 24.

Japanese game developer and publisher Acquire, which is arguably best known for co-developing Square Enix’s 2D-HD role-playing games Octopath Traveler and its sequel, Octopath Traveler 2, has been acquired as a “wholly owned subsidiary” by Kadokawa Corporation. 

CRKD has announced the Neo S wireless controller, a new collectible gamepad that sports nine unique designs, including three by artist POPeART.

Arrowhead Game Studios has released a statement, announcing that it is actively working on fixing problems faced by the PC release of Helldivers 2. Taking to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), a statement by game director Mikael Eriksson says that the studio has made a patch for Helldivers 2, which is set to come to PC first, followed by the PS5 version of the game.

The Government of Karnataka, in collaboration with the All India Game Developers Forum (AIGDF) will launch a digital detox initiative, with special emphasis on gaming and social media.

The Walt Disney Company has invested $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games, and has announced plans for a major collaboration with Fortnite.

Nexon has announced it is pulling the plug on its free-to-play PvP medieval fantasy game Warhaven just four months after it launched in early access.

The Last of Us Part 2's making-of documentary is releasing on February 2 with multiple ways to watch. Naughty Dog also announced that new The Last of Us Part 2 skins are coming to the game's remastered edition on the same day.

Developer Arthur 'Mr. Podunkian' Lee, who worked with ConcernedApe on Stardew Valley, has announced the release window for his own forthcoming life sim.

The long-awaited Version 2.0 update of Honkai: Star Rail is just around the corner! An announcement on YouTube delivers details regarding banners and new content coming to the game. If you missed it, or don’t have time to sit through an hour-long presentation, here’s a summary for you!

Epic Games has promised the return of Fortnite this year on iOS, over three years since it was pulled from the Apple App Store, but only in select regions.

Arthur “Mr. Podunkian” Lee, who previously worked on Stardew Valley at ConcernedApe, has announced Sunkissed City, a new life simulation game set in the city. It will launch for PC via Steam in Q4 2024, followed by consoles at a later date.

Intel Foundry has announced a "strategic" collaboration with the famous Taiwanese semiconductor firm UMC as they vow to move together in semiconductor development.

Popular upcoming mobile game Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Live has announced both the launch of the game's Global version and its shutdown date at the same time. The newest game from the massively popular idol anime franchise comes on the heels of its predecessor, Love Live! School Idol Festival, ending its service early last year. The original mobile rhythm game boasted more than 40 million players at its peak in 2018, split between the Global and Japanese versions. Now, the game has announced the launch of the Global version, while also confirming its end-of-service.

Microsoft has made the decision to lay off a massive 1,900 staff from its gaming division. While the majority of the Microsoft layoffs are coming from Activision Blizzard, staff at Xbox and ZeniMax are also believed to be affected.

Microsoft has announced that it will be laying off 1,900 members of its 22,000-person gaming division. 

ID@Xbox has launched a curated program to highlight the top indie games on its platform.

The mobile gaming peripheral manufacturer Backbone has announced a new limited edition version of its Backbone One mobile controller.

Following the end of Overwatch League, Blizzard has unveiled new plans for its competitive Overwatch esports circuit.

Sam Barlow, known for his work on experimental video games like Her Story, Telling Lies, and more recently Immortality, has announced that he is working on two new games. Currently titled Project C and Project D, both games are going to be distinctly different from each other, with one title being similar to Barlow’s more recent work, while the other would be more reminiscent of older titles that Barlow has worked on like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

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In yet another blow to workers in the video game industry, Riot Games has announced that it will lay off 530 staff members, or roughly 11% of its employees. The decision follows the unfortunate trend of studio shutdowns, game cancelations, and AAA game studio layoffs that dominated the industry in 2023.

Mintrocket, the studio behind Dave the Diver, has announced its newest project, a sci-fi MOBA called Wakerunners.

Square Enix announced a Summer 2024 release date window and showed off new gameplay for Visions of Mana at this week’s Xbox Developer Direct.

Atari has announced that qomp2, the follow-up to the 2021 Pong continuation, will be released on February 20 on PC and console.

Honkai: Star Rail has announced the date for its Version 2.0 Special Program stream. With the latest update coming in a few weeks, many Honkai: Star Rail players are looking forward to exploring Penacony and continuing the main adventure.

Wrestling series WWE will make its yearly return in March, publisher 2K has announced.

Genshin Impact’s Special Program for Version 4.4 is here, detailing all the new areas, events, characters, and banners coming in the next update. Here’s a summary of all the new content coming to Genshin Impact Version 4.4: Vibrant Harriers Aloft in Spring Breeze!

Award-winning indie game Sea of Stars is set to expand its reach with a physical release in spring 2024. The surprise announcement of its boxed edition arrived some five months after Sea of Stars debuted to critical acclaim.

The Lords of the Fallen publisher CI Games has recently announced that 10% of its entire team has been laid off. Game industry layoffs were among the biggest game news stories of 2023, and this unfortunate trend seems to be continuing into 2024.

Three months after a playable build randomly appeared on mobile platforms with zero fanfare, Bethesda has officially announced The Elder Scrolls: Castles, the next game from the team behind the similarly styled management sim Fallout Shelter. 

Swedish video game holding company Thunderful Group has announced plans to lay off a fifth of its staff.

Thunderful Group has announced a restructuring programme to decrease costs, which will include both "significant staff reductions" and potential divestments, the company said.

A new Xbox Wire post announced that the Final Fantasy 14 open beta for Xbox Series X|S is live, but Xbox quickly backtracked and provided some clarification. The Final Fantasy 14 open beta is not ready yet for Xbox, as the company reveals that an error was made while sharing the news.

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MINTROCKET has announced top-down team battle action game Wakerunners for PC (Steam). A pleytest is scheduled for February 5 to 12.

qureate has announced five new titles: shoot ’em up Maid of the Dead, romance adventure game Bunny Garden, and Fantasista Asuka for Switch and PC, and a new title in the Princess series and “an exciting new project of the titillating variety” for unannounced platform(s).

2023 was a hell of a year for fighting games, with Street Fighter 6, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising and Mortal Kombat 1 all releasing. Now Tekken 8 is imminent, and that means it’s time for the marketing to ramp up.

Bandai Namco has finally shared the release date of Sand Land , an action RPG based off Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama’s classic manga—and it’s well within sights. 

Adding to a painful week in gaming and tech layoffs, Discord is the latest company to announce downsizing, with a 17% cut to its staff.

Smite studio Titan Forge Games has announced a standalone sequel to its long-running mythology MOBA.

In an unexpected announcement, social platform Discord has announced that it will be laying off roughly 17 percent of its current staff to counteract inefficient growth. With other technology giants like Twitch laying off even more employees, audiences are growing increasingly concerned about the future of many online platforms.