Alessio Palumbo

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is just a few days away from its PlayStation 5 launch, but the rave critic reviews have already kicked up the hype even further. Our Kai Powell rated the game with a perfect score, and the average review score from critics is the highest for the whole series since 2000's Final Fantasy IX.

Bandai Namco has announced today that Tekken 8 has surpassed two million units sold in its first month. This follows Circana (formerly the NPD Group) confirming that Bandai Namco's fighting game was the top new game of January across the United States, beaten only by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III in the monthly chart.

Square Enix announced that the second DLC for Final Fantasy XVI, The Rising Tide, will be unveiled at a PAX East 2024 panel scheduled to take place at the Albatross Theatre on Friday, March 22, at 8:30 AM Pacific Time or 11:30 AM Eastern Time. Producer Naoki Yoshida, DLC Director Takeo Kujiraoka, and Localization Director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox will be on stage to talk about The Rising Tide. The panel will also be streamed on the official Twitch channel of the convention, allowing everyone to check it out comfortably from home.

Despite being less than a month away from release, Rise of the Ronin developer Team NINJA still had to clarify whether a few key features would be included in the upcoming game. They just did so by adding a FAQ section to the game's product page on the PlayStation Store website.

Nintendo has been pretty much synonymous with console videogames for over forty years, thus securing a huge and extremely loyal fanbase that keeps loving and purchasing its consoles and games. Sometimes, you can find some of its most hardcore fans in the most unexpected places - such as Hollywood. Academy Award winner Brie Larson, for instance, is a huge Nintendo aficionado, as she confessed to The Hollywood Reporter.

NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. Games announced that Mortal Kombat 1 will get a big update next week, adding crossplay functionality and a new DLC guest fighter, Peacemaker.

During the Age of Empires 'New Year, New Age' live stream, Microsoft has just announced that Age of Mythology: Retold will be released this year on PC and Xbox consoles. As with all Microsoft games, it will be available from day one on the Game Pass subscription service.

Team NINJA is back today with another Rise of the Ronin Behind The Scenes (BTS) video. The Japanese developer said the action system featured in their open world game is the culmination of their previous titles, which include the likes of Ninja Gaiden, Nioh, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, to name a few.

Following the rumors and then the confirmation from Microsoft that several Xbox exclusives (Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush) would launch on rival consoles from Sony and Nintendo, many gamers took that as an admission of defeat in the console war. However, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter shared a completely different view in his latest appearance on Pachter Factor, believing that to be an incorrect perception of Microsoft's true gaming plans.

Last week, Hello Games released the OMEGA update for No Man's Sky. On the occasion, the British independent studio also made the game free to play that weekend, hoping to attract new players.

Ubisoft Montpellier's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was the first relatively big game to be released this year, and it was a success. The game earned a 9/10 score in Wccftech's review by Francesco De Meo:

Today is the seventh anniversary of the launch of NieR: Automata in Japan, so PlatinumGames took some time to celebrate the occasion with a blog post. The studio also revealed that the game has now surpassed eight million units sold to date.

Today, NVIDIA announced and released the brand new eponymous app that aims to unify the functions of GeForce Experience and the old Control Panel under a new, sleeker hood.

Today, Riot Games has finally revealed the name of its long-awaited Project L fighting game: it will be called 2XKO.

As promised by developer Insomniac Games a couple of weeks ago, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will receive the highly anticipated New Game Plus mode in early March, specifically on Thursday the 7th.

A few days ago, Techland announced the upcoming launch of Dying Light 2 Reloaded Edition. This version of the game features all content released post-launch, including the premium Bloody Ties DLC, and debuts today alongside the big (and free) Firearms update, considered the largest to date by the Polish studio.

Yesterday, Microsoft formally unveiled those four games that are coming to other consoles: Obsidian's Pentiment and Grounded, Rare's Sea of Thieves, and Tango's Hi-Fi Rush. While the former two games are coming to PlayStation platforms and Nintendo Switch, the latter two are only coming to PS5.

Today, Lionsgate has released the official trailer for the Borderlands movie. Originally announced four years ago when the COVID pandemic was about to explode, the film adaptation of Gearbox's first-person shooter franchise has had its fair of troubles getting to theaters.

Today, Bandai Namco announced SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream. Fans of the franchise know that the universe's lore is based on protagonists playing VR MMORPGs, but ironically, the games never allowed that.

The makers of the Fallout London mod have announced many impressive details about the game, which we'll recap later in this article, but the latest news from the final progress video is that none other than Neil Newbon will lend his voice acting chops to the game.

Fans of collectible card games (CCG) can look forward to Cards of Eternity, a newly announced CCG based on The Wheel of Time fantasy franchise. The developer is Aether Games, which made the eponymous trading card game (TCG) Aether, which features blockchain and NFTs support and is therefore only available via the Epic Games Store (Steam does not allow blockchain or NFTs).

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer was interviewed at last week's DICE Summit by journalist Stephen Totilo, sharing some noteworthy comments about the future of Xbox and the industry as a whole. He began by saying he's very confident in the future of Xbox:

Bethesda Game Studios announced the release of a new Starfield patch that introduces support for AMD FSR 3 and Intel XeSS.

After a long wait and many rumors prompted by the developer's Steam backend tweaking, FromSoftware has finally announced that the first gameplay trailer for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will air later today at 4 PM Central European Time (7 AM Pacific Time) on YouTube. The trailer will be three minutes long.

Today, ArenaNet revealed that the second content update for Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, called The Realm of Dreams, will be available for free starting February 27.

Sony's PlayStation Portal has been hacked to allow running the PPSSPP emulator, as revealed on Twitter by Andy Nguyen. PPSSPP, as some of you may be aware, is a free and open source PlayStation Portable (PSP) emulator available on most platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows PC, macOS, Linux, Nintendo WiiU and Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S and X, and more.

Criterion Games surprised fans by announcing another year of support for Need for Speed Unbound, 2022's installment in the racing game series. It's partly due to Need for Speed celebrating its 30th anniversary, they said.

NACON, the French publisher previously known as Bigben Interactive, announced a new edition of its Connect live stream. NACON Connect will return on February 29 at 7:00 PM Central European Time / 10 AM Pacific Time, airing on the publisher's official YouTube and Twitch channels.

Canadian developer Inflexion Games had previously announced its debut project, the survival crafting game Nightingale, would support both AMD FSR 3 and NVIDIA DLSS 3 when the game launches on early access.

CAPCOM might be preparing to release a Dragon's Dogma 2 demo on PC. Reddit user CannedBeanofDeath spotted an interesting new Steam app related to the game that will be 'free on demand'.

Respawn Entertainment introduced a new beloved character to the Star Wars universe with Cal Kestis, the protagonist of the acclaimed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor action/adventure games.

While the second installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, Rebirth, is mere days from launching on PlayStation 5, fans are already wondering about the status of the next game in the remake project, Part 3.

Back when Xbox Cloud Gaming was still in its infancy, during the late 2019 Project xCloud preview, Microsoft promised via Corporate VP Kareem Choudhry that players would be able to play their owned games via cloud in 2020.

It's been a while since we heard any new rumor about Fable, the reboot of the fantasy franchise in development at Playground Games.

Italian developer Jyamma Games announced the release date of its hotly anticipated Soulslike game Enotria: The Last Song during yesterday's Streamer Awards 2024.

There are only three days left before the PC early access debut of Nightingale, the first game released by Canadian developer Inflexion Games.

Following yesterday's Xbox Business update, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer provided extra details on what gamers can expect in an interview with The Verge.

Alan Wake 2 received widespread critical acclaim when it was released in late November. Our own Francesco De Meo gave it a 9/10 and said:

Ori developer Moon Studios announced No Rest for the Wicked at the last The Game Awards. Developed for publisher Private Division, it's labeled as a visceral top-down action RPG that Moon Studios has been prototyping even before they released the first Ori game.

Baldur's Gate 3 has once again won the biggest prize, Game of the Year, at the 27th annual DICE Awards. The winners were announced during yesterday's ceremony held at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS).

Nightingale, the debut title of Canadian studio Inflexion Games, is scheduled to launch on PC early access via Steam and the Epic Games Store next Tuesday.

During the hotly anticipated Xbox Business Update delivered by executives Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty, Microsoft announced that Diablo IV will be the first Activision Blizzard game to land on Game Pass.

Hello Games is once again back with a massive No Man's Sky update called OMEGA. The headline feature is the addition of the titular Expedition (due to run for four weeks), which the studio said has been created from scratch to be the ideal introduction to newcomers. The over 25 free updates released to date might feel overwhelming from the outside, but this Expedition will guide new users through the basics of base building, trading, space combat, lore, and more, thanks to a series of milestones and quick missions. At the same time, the OMEGA Expedition features some of the best rewards available through Expeditions, such as a particularly cool starship.

Today, on the fifth anniversary of the launch of Metro Exodus, 4A Games announced that the latest mainline installment in their franchise has sold 10 million units, thus averaging two million per year. Previous sales milestones include six million units two years ago and 8.5 million units as of last March.

During the latest episode of Giant Bomb's Game Mess Mornings, journalist and insider Jeff Grubb claimed that the new Astro Bot game might be released this year.

A couple of months ago, PAYDAY developer Starbreeze announced it was making a Dungeons and Dragons co-op game after licensing the popular franchise from Wizards of the Coast.

This morning, the Embracer Group released its Q3 fiscal year 2023/2024 financial report. The company managed to deliver slightly above expectations thanks to non-core game divisions like Asmodee, Middle-earth Enterprises, and mobile, while the PC and console segment was down 9% due to a lighter release schedule.

NVIDIA has released a new Game Ready driver for its GeForce graphics cards. Version 551.52 is available for download via the official website or through GeForce Experience.

The development team behind iRacing, the subscription-based racing simulation PC game, has announced a major milestone: the upcoming addition of dynamic rain.

Following the Q3 2023 earnings release where Sony announced the latest PlayStation 5 sales figures, the earnings call provided interesting tidbits from Sony executives.

During its Q3 2023 earnings release, Sony updated investors on the new PS5 sales milestone. Just in December, it had announced 50 million units sold. The latest PlayStation console has now reached 54.8 million units sold since its November 2020 launch, having sold 8.2 million units in the last quarter.

Today, on the sixth anniversary of the launch of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Warhorse Studios has revealed to fans that the first-person open world action roleplaying game has now sold over six million units. Warhorse had conducted a pre-release Kickstarter campaign where fans pledged £1,106,371; the crowdfunding later continued on the official website to surpass $2 million raised. The Czech studio then signed a publishing deal with Deep Silver. It was later discovered that the total budget (including marketing) was around $36.5 million.

When I interviewed Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden developer Don't Nod, they told me NVIDIA DLSS 3 support on PC was a possibility. I assumed they meant for a post-launch update, but as it turned out, NVIDIA's Frame Generation technique is already in the game at launch. Indeed, I played the game with DLAA used in combination with Frame Generation and enjoyed great performance throughout the whole playthrough, as noted in my review of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden:

Immortals of Aveum was the debut game of Ascendant Studios, an independent developer with triple-A ambitions. Founded by former Electronic Arts and Sledgehammer Games Creative Director Bret Robbins, the studio wanted to deliver a sci-fi single player shooter focused on magic, and it partnered with EA to publish the game.

This morning, developer Cygames announced on Twitter that Granblue Fantasy: Relink has become a million seller eleven days after its launch. The Japanese studio also promised 'more updates' to the game are on the horizon.

Today, Amazon Games announced the fifth Season coming to the MMORPG New World. Season of the Guardian will officially begin on March 12, adding a new Seasonal Trial called Winter Forge where groups of up to 10 max level players will have to overcome Rune puzzles, slay an Icey Construct, and face an Ancient Ice Guardian to get 'unique rewards'.

With only eight days left before the early access launch of Nightingale, their debut survival crafting game, Inflexion Games invited media to a remote presentation that served to recap what the game will be all about while also sharing some new details.

Helldivers 2 continues to improve on its player figures. After easily topping God of War off the first spot when it comes to PlayStation launches on Steam, the cooperative sci-fi third-person shooter peaked at 155K concurrent users yesterday.

It's been a year since Avalanche Software released Hogwarts Legacy, the first open world action RPG set in the Harry Potter universe. The game went on to become the biggest commercial success of 2023, having now surpassed over 24 million units sold to date, according to publisher Warner Bros. games. It has outsold the likes of Call of Duty and FIFA (now EA Sports FC), not to mention rising to the top in an incredibly packed year of great game releases.

AMD FSR 3 has been added to the cooperative first-person shooter game Starship Troopers: Extermination with Update 0.6.2. The game developed by Offworld Industries (the team behind Squad) debuted on Steam Early Access last May, finding a small but faithful community as shown by the 89% average user review score.

EXODUS was one of the most interesting game reveals at The Game Awards 2023. It is the debut project of Archetype Entertainment, an Austin-based studio helmed by former BioWare legend James Ohlen (who worked on classics like the first Baldur's Gate games, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins) and owned by Wizards of the Coast. Shortly after its foundation, the studio was joined by another ex BioWare veteran: writer Drew Karpyshyn, known mostly as the lead writer of the acclaimed first two Mass Effect games.

Cloud Imperium Games announced a new Star Citizen free fly event available now until February 15. Players will have access to the following five in-game ships:

Jagex, the game developer and publisher headquartered in Cambridge known mostly for RuneScape, is once again changing ownership. The company has been the target of several private investment groups in the past few years, starting with Insight Venture Partners (2012-2016), then Hongtou (2016-2020), Macarthur Fortune Holding (2020-2021), and The Carlyle Group since 2021.

Nexus Mods, arguably the biggest repository for game mods on the Web, has crossed the impressive milestone of 10 billion downloads.

Swedish developer Arrowhead Game Studios (Magicka) has released the third-person shooter game Helldivers 2 on PlayStation 5 and PC, immediately achieving strong results on the latter platform. According to Steam data, Helldivers 2 peaked at 81K concurrent players around five hours ago, surpassing God of War's previous record of 73K for a PlayStation launch.

NVIDIA has updated the RTX Remix runtime to version 0.4.1, improving compatibility thanks to a series of changes made to the bridge component. The full changelog is available on GitHub:

The previously announced D&D open world roleplaying game in development at Hidden Path Entertainment has now been officially paused by the studio based in Bellevue, Washington.

Team NINJA, one of the most acclaimed action game studios thanks to its portfolio of franchises like Ninja Gaiden, Nioh, Dead or Alive, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (not to mention the spinoff Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin), is readying its release of Rise of the Ronin.

This week started with lots of high-profile rumors suggesting that Microsoft would soon switch its strategy on exclusive games. Following the previous rumors of titles like Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush, we heard from various journalists, leakers, and insiders that big games like Bethesda's Starfield, MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and possibly even The Coalition's Gears of War could be landing on other consoles like Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Switch.

Angela Game has released the 1.0 launch trailer for Myth of Empires, the multiplayer war sandbox game slated to go live in a couple of weeks on Steam.

Today, ATLUS announced that Persona 3 Reload is the fastest-selling game in the franchise, having surpassed one million units sold within the first week of the launch date.

[UPDATE] Unknown Worlds Entertainment has shared a public statement to clarify the Subnautica 2 bullet points mentioned by KRAFTON.

A new Steam Next Fest is now in full swing, featuring tons of interesting demos, including that of Stormgate.

Today, CD Projekt RED announced a series of high-profile hires for the development team working on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel codenamed Project Orion.

It's not even the end of January yet and the games industry has already announced layoffs for several thousand employees, showing that 2024 could be even more problematic than the already troublesome 2023 in this regard. We reached out to MIDiA Research Senior Analyst and Strategy Director Karol Severin to discuss the state of the games industry in this post-pandemic, high-inflation environment.

Homeworld 3 was finally available to play thanks to the War Games demo available as part of this week's Steam Next Fest. However, the feedback from the demo has apparently pushed developer Blackbird Interactive and publisher Gearbox to delay the game once more.

Keen Games, the development team behind Enshrouded, shared a new beginner tips video as the highly successful indie survival game has now passed 1.5 million players. The reception has also been positive thanks an 86% approval rating from user reviews.

GTA VI was unsurprisingly brought up several times during Take-Two's Q3 2024 earnings call. When an analyst from BMO Capital Markets asked how the publisher and Rockstar would settle on the release date, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in response:

Disney announced a $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games, acquiring an equity stake in the maker of Fortnite and Unreal Engine. It's part of a wider partnership to create a new persistent universe within Fortnite based on Disney's prized franchises.

Square Enix is planning a major internal restructure of its game development system, as reported by Bloomberg Japan. The news came directly from Representative Director and President Takashi Kiryu, who spoke at the financial results briefing for analysts held on Monday.