Matt Wales

Over 700 unionised Ubisoft employees working across the company's French studios have taken part in an organised day of strike action after annual salary negotiations collapsed.

Palworld developer Pocketpair has acknowledged the significant impact «cheating and the influence of fraudulent activities» is having on rule-abiding players of its hugely popular survival game, and has outlined some of the steps it'll be taking — including the introduction of an «external anti-cheat solution» — to tackle the problem.

As part of a 'business update' confirming four first-party Xbox exclusives are coming to PlayStation 5 and Switch, Microsoft has moved to assuage fan fears it might be considering abandoning the console market, saying it's planning a new Xbox that will deliver «the largest technical leap...ever seen in a hardware generation.»

Microsoft has shared updated Game Pass membership figures for the first time since January 2022, saying the on-demand gaming service now has 34m «fully paid» subscribers, with «significant growth» coming from PC and cloud.

Following mounting reports Xbox is preparing for some kind of multiplatform future, Microsoft has confirmed it'll be bringing four previously Xbox-exclusive first-party titles to PlayStation 5 and Switch later this year, with more likely to come in the future.

Post-apocalyptic RPG fans are in luck; the next batch of freebies coming to the Epic Games Store have been revealed, and two bonafide RPG classes — Fallout and Fallout 2 — have made the list alongside Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel.

A quarter of Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM's total workforce — approximately 24 employees — is reportedly facing redundancy following the cancellation of a standalone expansion for acclaimed RPG Disco Elysium, said to be «one to two years away from completion».

It's been fairly quiet on the No Man's Sky front since its previous big update, Echoes, introduced the world to a mysterious new robot race known as the Autophages last August, but all that changes today with the release of its new Omega update — which coincides with a first-ever free weekend for the exploratory space sim.

Sony president and PlayStation chairman Hiroki Totoki has spoken of the opportunities available in its approach to releasing first-party games on PC, saying it's «proactively [working] on» bringing more titles to other platforms as part of an «aggressive» profit margin growth plan.

Satirical sci-fi shooter sequel Helldivers 2 has got off to a flying start, and now its creator Arrowhead Game Studios has put out a call for fresh development talent so it can «accelerate and beef up» the game's content plans.

The Pokémon Company is bringing its hugely popular Pokémon Center pop-up store back to London for four days this April, with promise of more exclusive Pokémon merchandise.

Sony has unveiled its PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium game catalogue additions for February, which this month include Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Need for Speed Unbound, The Outer Worlds, Tales of Arise, and more.

Hideo Kojima dropped a bombshell at the end of January, announcing that — alongside development of Death Stranding 2 — he would also be returning to the action-espionage genre that put him on the map with the Metal Gear series, in the form of Physint for PlayStation 5. And now, in a new episode of his HideoTube web series, the designer has explained how a period of sickness and surgery — and thoughts of his own mortality — convinced him to 'change his priorities' and do something fans had been asking him to do for years.

The Walt Disney Company has announced it's acquiring a $1.5bn USD stake in Epic Games as it launches a multi-year partnership to create an «expansive and open games and entertainment universe connected to Fortnite».

Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds has moved to address fan concerns following publisher Krafton's announcement that the underwater survival sequel will be a multiplayer title adopting a «game-as-a-service model».

If you're a fan of The Sims and Sims-like experiences, it's quite an exciting time; work on The Sims 5, or whatever it'll be called, is officially underway. Then there's the imminent release of Paradox's Life By You following a number of delays, and even the charmingly lo-fi Tiny Life for old-school Sims fans. The game that's generated perhaps the most excitement since its unveiling in 2019, however, is Paralives, and after a long old wait — and five years of crowdfunding support — its developer has announced it'll be entering early access next year.

UPDATE 9/2/24: Helldivers developer Arrowhead Game Studios has pushed out a «rapid patch» on Steam to sort some of its issues.

A fresh set of weekly freebies has now arrived on the Epic Games Store, this time in the form of acclaimed visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! and rogue-like brawling RPG Lost Castle — with Dakar Desert Racing to follow next week.

Assassin's Creed Codename Red — which takes the long-running series to feudal Japan — will launch before Ubisoft's next financial year ends in March 2025, CEO Yves Guillemot has confirmed, with the publisher's open-world Star Wars Outlaws still targeting a release in 2024.

Stardew Valley creator Eric «ConcernedApe» Barone has shared an update on the farm-life sim's highly anticipated — and long-in-the-works — 1.6 update, saying he's now «done adding major new content» and that it'll «definitely» be out this year.

It's been five months since Paradox Interactive's surprise announcement Everybody's Gone to the Rapture developer The Chinese Room had taken the reins of its troubled Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2; in that time, the studio has been openly discussing its approach to the sequel, with its latest update now focusing on what it's calling «visceral immersive combat».

As The Last of Us Part 2 strides back in the spotlight thanks to its recently released PlayStation 5 remaster, developer Naughty Dog has announced an arrival date for its previously revealed making-of documentary, which will be available to watch on YouTube and in-game via an impending Remastered patch from Friday, 2nd February.

Fortnite maker Epic Games says it'll be launching a native iOS version of the Epic Games Store — and bringing Fortnite back to iOS devices — following today's announcement that Apple will soon allow sideloading and alternate marketplaces on its devices to comply with new EU rules. That's as Epic boss Tim Sweeney calls Apple's revised guidelines «hot garbage».

PC players who've been patiently awaiting the arrival of Horizon Forbidden West on their platform of choice now have a date to mark in the calendars: the action-adventure sequel is coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store in its Complete Edition guise on 21st March.

With new EU rules against anti-competitive practices looming, Apple has announced it'll soon be permitting developers to release Game-Pass-style catalogue apps, containing multiple playable and streamable games and programmes, onto its official App Store.

Ever since Netflix took its first tentative steps into video games back in 2021, the company has reported a relatively modest response from subscribers, but new figures suggest its recent partnership with Rockstar to bring GTA to the streaming service has paid dividends, with monthly mobile game downloads nearly tripling to 28m in December 2023.

People Can Fly, the developer behind the likes of Outriders and Bulletstorm, has reportedly laid off «over 30 people» working on a currently unannounced game — codenamed Project Gemini — that's set to be published by Square Enix.

Nexus Mods — one of the biggest modding sites on the internet — has confirmed it won't be hosting Pokémon-themed Palworld mods, saying doing so would «almost certainly… put us at risk of legal action» given Nintendo's history of litigiousness.

You might have thought the The Day Before's sorry saga had ended last year when developer Fntastic, amid claims of misleading marketing and Overwhelmingly Negative Steam reviews, yanked the game from sale and promptly shut its doors just four days into its early access launch. But no, the studio has now reemerged with a lengthy statement blaming the whole thing on a «hate campaign» orchestrated by «certain bloggers».

Supermassive's hugely entertaining PS4 slasher horror Until Dawn is reportedly making its way to PS5 and PC, with an official announcement said to be happening within the next two weeks.

Acclaimed management game Arcade Paradise is getting the VR treatment, and in the run-up to its release on Meta Quest, developer Nosebleed Interactive has shared a closer look at how the whole thing will play once you've shoved your head into its lovingly grimy recreation of 1993.

As Fortnite continues its apparent mission to feature all other video games within itself in some capacity (until presumably it then puts itself in itself, including all other video games within), developer Epic Games has revealed Solid Snake isn't the only Metal Gear characer joining the battle royale line-up — with Raiden also set to appear as a new premium skin.

Sam Barlow — the developer behind acclaimed investigative FMV adventures Immortality, Telling Lies, and Her Story — has announced he's working on two new horror titles, including a third-person survival horror said to be for old school Barlow fans «that played Silent Hill: Shattered Memories back in the day.»

A little over thirteen months after its grand unveiling, Death Stranding 2 could be readying for another big reveal — with a new leak claiming more information on Hideo Kojima's sequel, including its full title, will be shared in the next few weeks.

League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced it's laying off 530 employees — roughly 11 percent of its total global workforce — saying it's making the decision as it refocuses on «fewer, high-impact projects to move us toward a more sustainable future.»

With a sequel now just months away, developer Ninja Theory has temporarily slashed the price of its acclaimed action-adventure Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice to a mere £2.49 on Steam, meaning you can currently pick up one of 2017's best games for less than the price of an unspecified hypothetical object costing £2.50 or above.

Developer Rocksteady have detailed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's initial post-launch plans, confirming The Joker will arrive as a playable character in a free content update accompanying the game's first «season».

CD Projekt has confirmed it's «considering» multiplayer elements for its Cyberpunk 2077 sequel during an update on the studio's current development plans — which also included word it's aiming to start the production phase for its next Witcher game this year.

Sony has revealed the next batch of titles bidding a fond farewell to its PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscription tiers in February, which this time include the likes of Resident Evil 7, Tekken 7, and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown.

Eye-catching 'Pokémon with guns' survival game Palworld has already sold a staggering 1m copies according to its developer Pocketpair, just hours into its early access launch on Steam and Xbox Series X/S. That's as the studio addresses the lack of 32-player dedicated servers on Xbox and PC Game Pass, saying the situation is «not up to us».

As The Elder Scrolls Online thunders toward its 10th anniversary this April, Zenimax Online Studios has whipped back the sheet to reveal the fantasy MMO's latest expansion chapter, Gold Road, which launches for PC and Mac on 3rd June with a PlayStation and Xbox release to follow a few weeks' later on 18th June.

Microsoft's January Xbox Developer Direct has been and gone, bringing first looks and long-awaited release news for some of the company's most highly anticipated titles. MachineGames' Indiana Jones was the biggie of course, showcasing first gameplay and featuring confirmation of a 2024 release, but there was more besides, with Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Avowed, and Oxide Games' Ara: History Untold all putting in an appearance.

35 percent of game developers have been impacted by layoffs in the last 12 months and half are concerned more job cuts are on the way. That's according to GDC's newly published 2024 State of the Game Industry report, which highlights current sentiment among developers based on a snapshot of 3,000 industry professionals polled.

Rockstar has announced it's removing Grand Theft Auto Online's clips editor on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One from 20th February this year, explaining it's making the move as it approaches the «limits of what's possible» on previous-generation consoles.

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, the acclaimed turn-based tactics game from Complex Games, is launching for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Series X/S on 20th February.

Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker, the duo that co-founded acclaimed Batman Arkham studio Rocksteady before departing to «start a new adventure together in games» in 2022, have set up a new AAA London development studio, Hundred Star Games.

Minecraft's long-in-the-works movie adaptation continues to pick up steam, with the news White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge has now joined its cast.

Developer Supermassive's acclaimed PS4 cinematic horror game Until Dawn is being turned into a movie by the writer and director of 2017 horror hit Annabelle: Creation.

Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has vowed more legal action against Apple, just days after the US Supreme Court dismissed both parties' further attempts to appeal a 2021 California court ruling on the Epic vs. Apple antitrust lawsuit.

With Diablo 4's third season of post-launch content — now officially titled Season of the Construct — rapidly approaching, Blizzard has finally deemed it time to share some details about what it'll bring when it arrives on 23rd January next week.

We've not heard much about Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered since its unveiling back in September last year, but now developer Aspyr has emerged to share further details about what players can expect — including control toggles and a photo mode — when Lara Croft's spruced-up early adventures come to PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC, on 14th February.

It looks like the wait for Final Fantasy 14 Online on Xbox Series X/S could be ending very soon; Microsoft today announced that an open beta for the acclaimed MMORPG was now «officially available» before yanking the post and tweeting to say it had «incorrectly» shared the news.

Sea of Thieves' 11th season is right around the corner, and it looks like its arrival next Tuesday, 23rd January, could very well bring the most radical overhaul for the multiplayer pirate adventure since its launch back in 2018. Behold the advent of fast-travel.