Pam K Ferdinand

Xbox users are reporting that the new quality mode in Fallout 4 isn’t working. For years, fans of the post-apocalyptic franchise have been waiting for Bethesda to release Fallout 4’s next-gen update for Xbox Series X/S and PS5. That day finally arrived on April 25, though not without a fair few issues.

Resident Evil creator and Tango Gameworks founder Shinji Mikami has shared his thoughts on the announced closure of the renowned game studio. On May 7, Microsoft revealed that it was shutting down four Bethesda studios: Redfall developer Arkane Austin, mobile studio Alpha Dog Games, Roundhouse Studios, and Tango Gameworks.

Nintendo has revealed that fans can expect an announcement about the upcoming Switch successor, or Switch 2 as it has come to be known, sometime before the end of the current fiscal year. Rumors about the next iteration of the Nintendo Switch have been swirling for the past couple of years, which is understandable considering that the company’s unique hybrid console originally launched in 2017. Even upon its release, the Switch was considered to be one generation behind the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and many gamers have been waiting for Nintendo to release hardware that could compete graphically and technically with ninth-generation consoles.

TikTok personality Malik Ambersley, who has become well known in recent months for his Spider-Man’s Miles Morales NPC livestreams, was robbed on camera at the end of April. The NPC livestream trend grew in popularity mainly thanks to PinkyDoll, who pretends to be a video game NPC reacting to gifts sent to her by TikTok viewers. Since her whirlwind debut, PinkyDoll, real name Fedha Sinon, has amassed over 1.7 million followers on the social media platform and at one point earned upwards of $3,000 per stream.

Xbox Game Pass is making four more games available to subscribers, including a day-one launch title and three additions for Core members. Xbox Game Pass Core, which launched in September 2023, replaced Xbox Live Gold and did away with the two free games subscribers received each month. Instead, for the same price, Core offers a catalog of more than 25 games for members to enjoy at their leisure, and the selection of titles changes about two to three times per year.

In the latest step in its restructuring initiative, Embracer Group has announced that it will be splitting into three different companies. Embracer is a Swedish video game and media conglomerate that got its start in 2011 as Nordic Games Licensing, taking over the intellectual properties of defunct publishers like JoWooD and THQ. In the years since, the company has grown into a major presence in the video games space.

Red Hook Studios' 2023 roguelike dungeon crawler Darkest Dungeon 2 is officially coming to PS4 and PS5 consoles on July 15. The sequel to 2016’s award-winning game known for its punishing difficulty and well-executed gameplay, Darkest Dungeon 2 was initially released only on PC. But like its predecessor, it seems that the game will gradually be doled out to other platforms as well.

The classic survival horror game Dementium: The Ward is finally coming to non-portable consoles and will be released on PS4 and PS5 on April 19. Developed by Renegade Kid, Dementium: The Ward originally released on the Nintendo DS in 2007 and received a 3DS port in 2015. While the game received overall mixed reviews when it first launched, it has gained somewhat of a cult following and is now considered by many to have been generally underrated.

A significant number of game developers are unsure about the long-term sustainability of the live-service monetization model, according to a recent survey. Generally, live-service games are those that receive continual updates after launch, often divided into seasons or chapters, and are usually accompanied by a monetization scheme like battle passes. The goal is to keep players engaged and continuously playing the game and spending money, and the model has proven extremely lucrative for developers.

Harold Halibut, a unique narrative game developed by Slow Bros. is releasing day one on Xbox Game Pass, and subscribers will also be able to upgrade for free to Grounded: Fully Yoked Edition. Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass continues to offer an appealing library of games for members to enjoy, and the selection changes every month as new titles are added and others are removed.

David Gaider, the former leader writer of the incredibly popular Dragon Age franchise has revealed that he doesn’t think creating a TV adaptation based on the series would be a great idea. The success of the recently released Fallout live-action series on Amazon Prime has gotten a lot of fans speculating about other popular games, like Dragon Age, that might result in a solid screen adaptation.

Some Ubisoft Connect users are reporting that The Crew has essentially been removed from their accounts and is no longer accessible. One noteworthy element of The Crew was that it was only playable online, which meant it was inaccessible without an internet connection.

Botany Manor, a relaxing puzzle and adventure game developed by Balloon Studios, is now available as a day one launch title for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and the highly rated interactive story Kona is also making a return to the service. Set in an expansive estate in 1890’s Somerset, England, Botany Manor is an immersive sim that puts players in the role of Arabella Greene, a retired botanist who continues to dabble in her passion and research. Many players will enjoy spending several relaxing hours completing Arabella’s botany research, growing rare plants, and filling out her botanical record.

A suspect has been arrested for threats made against Nintendo in December 2023. Nintendo decided to cancel its Live Tokyo 2024 event, originally scheduled to be held on January 20-21, 2024, after an unknown person made multiple threats against company employees and attendees. As a precaution, Nintendo postponed several tournaments that were to take place during the Live Tokyo show.

The free PlayStation Plus games for April 2024 — Immortals of Aveum, Minecraft Legends, and Skul: The Hero Slayer — are now available for subscribers to download. These free PS Plus games cover a few different genres and should therefore offer something to suite most gamers’ varied interests.

Gearbox Entertainment has been hit with a wave of layoffs, mere hours after the game development company announced its pending acquisition by Take-Two Interactive. After recent rumors that the company was potentially up for sale, it was confirmed on March 27 that Embracer Group will be selling Gearbox for $460 million. This comes after nearly a year of the Swedish media conglomerate divesting itself, through sale or closure, of multiple subsidiaries to increase cash flow.

Sega has announced that three companies under its umbrella are facing layoffs, and it has also sold Relic Entertainment, the well-known developer behind multiple successful franchises. Since its founding in 1997, Relic Entertainment has released several popular games, including four Warhammer 40,000 titles, Company of Heroes and its two sequels, the first two games in the Homeworld series, and Age of Empires 4. The company has earned a reputation in the industry primarily as a skillful developer of real-time strategy games but has dabbled in other genres as well.

Plot Twist’s surreal Metroidvania The Last Case of Benedict Fox Definitive Editionreleases on March 26, and Xbox Game Pass subscribers are getting the new upgraded version of the game for free. The Last Case of Benedict Fox launched on Xbox Game Pass on day one, joining the catalog of titles available on the service in April 2023.

Capcom’s single-player action RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2 is already breaking records on its official launch day, March 22, with the concurrent number of Steam players hitting impressive numbers. The game had been steadily garnering attention as release day approached, thanks to several promising previews and trailers, and the overwhelmingly positive reviews Dragon’s Dogma 2 received only confirmed that players were justified in their growing excitement.

Xbox Game Pass has added another day one game, Lightyear Frontier,which is launching in early access on March 19. Developed by Frame Break, the indie game combines farming sim with mech gameplay, and adventurers can explore the colorful open world of Lightyear Frontier solo or co-op with up to three friends. Players will use their mech’s machine gun to plant seeds or equip it with a chainsaw to gather resources while establishing a homestead on a distant planet.

Palworld developer Pocketpair has revealed a few details about the game’s first raid, Bellanoir. The creature-collecting RPG has experienced runaway success, taking even the developer by surprise. Palworld hit the milestone of 25 million players in just a month and has filled the coffers of the small Japanese indie game studio.

Embracer Group has sold off some assets of Saber Interactive, the developer of the long-awaited Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, for $247 million. A couple of years ago, Embracer Group seemed poised to become a major player in the video games space as it acquired multiple key studios like Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and Limited Run Games, reaching an incredible 110 game development companies by April 2022 with plans to buy more. One of the companies acquired by Embracer was Saber Interactive in 2020, which became one of the conglomerate’s 12 major divisions thanks to its numerous subsidiaries.

Remedy’s award-winning action-adventure game Control is making a return to Xbox Game Pass, but this time it will be the Ultimate Edition that subscribers get to enjoy. The game first launched in August 2019, and within a few months of release, its developer reiterated that Control would not be coming to Xbox Game Pass. However, it did eventually make an appearance on Microsoft’s subscription service, which contributed to Control hitting the milestone of 10 million player within two years.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be picking up the mantle from the first game and putting time limits on some side quests. This is a feature that’s not often seen in gaming today but was fairly common in the past, and it may result in some people doing multiple playthroughs of Dragon’s Dogma 2 just to be able to experience most, if not all, of the quests.

Gamers are being inspired by the Willy Wonka fiasco that recently happened in Scotland, recreating the barren and meme-worthy experience in their favorite titles. Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Far Cry 5 have both gotten humorous renditions of the disastrous event, which drew in customers with its misleading AI-generated advertisements. The forlorn recreation of Roald Dahl’s magical world turned out to be a threadbare experience with a lone Oompa-Loompa rationing out jellybeans to children and The Unknown (a nonexistent character made up by AI) then jumping out to scare them silly.

Two indie games on Steam recently tried to scam players into thinking they were actually buying Helldivers 2. Since it launched on February 8, the third-person shooter developed by Arrowhead Game Studios has experienced unforeseen success, so much so that servers are frequently at max capacity and there are extremely long wait times to play. The problem became so extreme that Helldivers 2 players even stopped logging out to avoid having to wait in the queue again.

A company called Game Scent has revealed its new AI-powered device that lets players smell their games in real time. With the growing popularity of VR, as well as the introduction of haptic feedback in the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller, companies have been increasingly interested in stimulating all five of senses while people play video games. Horizon Forbidden West used DualSense haptics to try to emulate even the feeling of walking through grass, and the ambitions to create a fully immersive gameplay experience have only grown.

Free users of Nvidia’s GeForce Now will begin seeing ads on February 28. Nvidia’s subscription cloud gaming service launched in 2020 and is a good substitute or supplement for people who may not have the most powerful gaming rigs at home but still want to enjoy playing games with ultra settings. The GeForce Now catalog of games currently features nearly 2,000 titles ranging from indie to AAA and from a wide selection of genres.

Xbox Game Pass has added Dead Island 2 to its lineup of titles available to subscribers with no announcement from Microsoft or publisher Deep Silver. Two games were expected to become available on the service on February 22, but Dead Island 2 was not one of them. However, this wouldn’t be the first time a game was added unexpectedly, as Tales of Arise was also added to Xbox Game Pass on February 20 with no prior announcement.

Two more games, Tales of Arise and Return to Grace, are being added to Xbox Game Pass on February 20. Rumors about Tales of Arise possibly coming to Xbox Game Pass began at the beginning of the month when Bandai Namco’s action RPG briefly showed up in a “coming soon” announcement on Xbox Wire. The game was quickly scrubbed from the list, but not before eagle-eyed readers spotted it, shared it on social media, and dug up the cached version of the article. As it turns out, the announcement was just made a week too early.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers are in for a treat, as two very different yet fun indie games are being added to the service on February 15, 2024: PlateUp! and A Little to the Left. Gamers in search of a cozy and relaxing puzzle title will enjoy Max Inferno’s A Little to the Left, which is coming to PS4, PS5, and Xbox Game Pass. The meditative game about organizing and cleaning up messes is sitting at a “Very Positive” review rating on Steam. In fact, over a million copies were sold on PC and Switch in its first year, a notable feat for a little indie game that some people might consider niche.

The president of Bloober Team, the Polish developer behind the upcoming and long-awaited Silent Hill 2 remake, has stated that the recent combat trailer was handled by Konami. The video in question debuted during the January 31 PlayStation State of Play showcase and represented the first tangible gameplay footage of the Silent Hill 2 remake that fans have been clamoring for.

Shift Up’s upcoming PS5-exclusive action RPG Stellar Blade has been given an 18+ rating in Korea. This might not come as a surprise to many people, but it may render the game off limits for some players. In screenshots and trailers released so far, the game’s protagonist wears generally form-hugging outfits that don't leave much hidden, and the developer has even revealed that “special attention” was paid to Eve’s backside in Stellar Blade since players will spend most of their time looking at it.

One area hit during the recent round of layoffs at Microsoft were the departments focused on bringing physical Xbox games to retail. On January 25, word began circulating that Microsoft Gaming was laying off a massive 1,900 employees from its 22,000-person team. A large portion of this number apparently is coming from the customer service group at newly acquired Activision Blizzard, which up till now was known for having relatively solid customer service.

Pocketpal’s open-world animal-collecting adventure game Palworld has caught the attention of animal rights organization PETA due to its apparent cruelty toward animals. Prior to release, Palworld was marketed as “Pokemon with guns,” and as such, it doesn’t really hold back on the pixelated violence, even against the eponymous Pals that populate the game world.

YouTube content creator Thordan Smash has been arrested and charged with second-degree assault after being arrested during a stream. The YouTuber is fairly successful on the platform, having accumulated over 220,000 subscribers by making videos exclusively about Respawn’s battle royale hero shooter Apex Legends. Thordan also has a smaller Twitch channel and previously held managerial roles on a couple of Apex Legends esports teams.

Pocketpair’s monster-collecting adventure game Palworld has come out of the gate with guns blazing and experienced unforeseen success, but many people have noticed that the Xbox version is missing features that Steam players are enjoying. One of the most noticeable of these is the fact that Palworld Xbox players can’t create a 32-player dedicated server like Steam players can, limiting co-op on Microsoft’s platform to four players.

The multiplayer monster-collecting game Palworld is now available on Xbox Game Pass in early access. Developed and published by Pocketpair, the game is available to play on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, as well as PC via Game Pass and Steam. Palworld has been dubbed “Pokemon with guns” by the developer and offers players the chance to fight and team up with creatures called Pals, while also crafting and exploring the game's vast open world and dungeons.

Dave the Diver developer MintRocket has revealed its next game, a PVP team-based arena battler called Wakerunners. The studio’s first project,released in mid-2023, is a whimsical pixel-based adventure game. Its appealing gameplay loop sucked players in, leading Dave the Diver to be an unexpected viral success, surprising even the developer.