2020 News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Hades, 2020 Game Award winner for Best Action Game, finally has a release date for Apple devices via Netflix Games. According to Netflix, the Greek mythology action-roguelike is set to release on March 19 and is available for pre-registration today.

Hades, one of the best roguelikes ever made, is coming to iOS devices via Netflix later this month on March 19.

Meta Quest owners have a little over three weeks to make sure they've migrated their old Oculus accounts to a Meta one.

PlayStation 5 was nearly impossible to find when it launched in 2020, with inventory shortages hitting every retailer immediately after a restock. That's no longer the case, however, and PS5 is now readily available wherever you look. One of the most useful PS5 features is backward compatibility with PS4 — allowing you to play your old games without needing to cling onto the aging hardware. That also means you can transfer your PS4 data to PS5, ensuring none of your adventures are forgotten when upgrading to the new-gen console.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is out now, and that means players are naturally bullying a returning nerd called Chadley, just like they did four years ago in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Embracer Group gobbled up a lot of studios during its 2020-era spending spree, but perhaps the biggest acquisitions were Saber Interactive (World War Z, many, many ports) and Gearbox Software (Borderlands). It’s clear Embracer had big plans for Saber and Gearbox, as both were spun into entire company divisions with other smaller studios reporting to them, but those plans have changed – Embracer’s fortunes took a turn when a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia fell through and the company has been desperately cutting costs since. Apparently, this means two of their crown jewels have to go.

If you played through 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake, you might have an inkling of what to expect from Rebirth (which releases today on PS5).

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director says the new action-RPG is reaching for a level that was never possible before today's technology, and that's just like the original 1997 game.

Now that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is out in the world, it's only natural to wonder how many chapters it has. Or you might prefer to call them missions or levels.

Yesterday, shortly after EA laid off 670 employees and canceled a new Respawn game, a report has revealed Mass Effect 5 is still alive, and in pre-production.

IDW's groundbreaking limited series, TMNT: The Last Ronin, was published between 2020 and 2022 and told the story of the last of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Michelangelo, as he embarked on a quest to avenge his three fallen brothers, Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael. Hailed for taking the Turtles back to their grittier roots, The Last Ronin also set the stage for a new generation of turtles, whose adventures will take place in the time after the end of The Last Ronin.

With the long awaited 1.6 update to Stardew Valley finally coming on March 19, fans have taken the opportunity to speculate about what’s to come, including what a little raccoon on the official image could mean. 

It turns out one Pokemon fan predicted Pokemon Legends Z-A two years ago, but no one was thinking quite on their level.

Three days before Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth releases, a patch has suddenly tweaked some elements of Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

PCGamesN parent Network N has acquired a controlling stake in event firm Roucan.

FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki is "happy" so many people want a Bloodborne remake, but isn't ready to confirm one just yet.

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.

Two prominent members of OpTic Gaming have filed a lawsuit against Activision. Per Bloomberg Law, the lawsuit alleges Activision and the Call of DutyLeague created a monopoly on competitive CoD.

When Square Enix announced the Meister Quality Hydaelyn & Zodiark figure back in January, along with its associated in-game emote Apocalyptic Charades, players were left shocked by not only the price of $350 but also by the accompanying emote’s limitations. According to the item description, Apocalyptic Charades was character locked. 

Dragon Ball Z fans have the next DLC release to get excited for when it comes to Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. This game was launched in 2020, but support is still pressing onward. The developers over at CyberConnect2 have released two season passes so far, and next week, we are getting the last of the DLC for season two. But with it comes an exciting rematch that fans might be eager to see unfold. 

Yoshitaka Murayama, co-creator of Suikoden and writer, producer, and director of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, has passed away.

As part of Sony’s third-quarter earnings report, and as reported by Bloomberg, Sony has described the PlayStation 5 as entering the “latter half” of its life cycle. 

Suikoden creator and Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising director Yoshitaka Murayama has passed away due to complications with an ongoing illness.

Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator of Suikoden and its spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicle, has passed away.

Some new PS5 Pro details might have been revealed, including a possible price point for the rumored powered-up PS5 console.

It’s been confirmed that Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator of the Suikoden series and head of the Japanese developer Rabbit & Bear Studios, has died “due to complications with an ongoing illness.”

Bungie has confirmed in its Feb. 1 “This Week in Destiny” newsletter that it’s finally ending its four-year partnership with Prime Gaming. Since January 2020, Bungie has released a monthly package containing free shaders, sparrows, emotes, and other cosmetics that Amazon Prime members can redeem for free. The 49th and final Prime Gaming exotic package will include a timed-exclusive shader and will be available through Mar. 7, so make sure to log in and claim your rewards before they leave for good.

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.

Square Enix has ordered a complete review of its developmental pipeline to increase the quality of future games and streamline, optimise, and synergise its way into increased profit margins. That's under the direction of Square Enix Holdings president Takashi Kiryu, responsible for the company's "aggressive" pivot to AI, who announced the news during Square Enix's latest financial results briefing.

February 12th brings a brand new collection of and today's answers shouldn't be too difficult for fans of the game to solve. The categories aren't too obscure or niche and there aren't too many words that could be confused with other sections.

A couple of weeks ago, Hideo Kojima announced that he was returning to the action espionage genre with a new game, codenamed Physint.

After reports speculated that a deal might be close for the sale of RuneScape developer Jagex from UK’s Carlyle private equity group to CVC Capital, the deal is now official.

Hideo Kojima announced a new “action-espionage game” named Physint at Sony’s PlayStation State of Play event last month. And to hear the founder of Kojima Productions describe it, Physint sure sounds a lot like a new take on Metal Gear, the stealth series that Kojima created, but taken to its extremes.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's creative director, Tetsuya Nomura, has revealed that the first draft of the final game in the Remake trilogy's story has already been completed.

The CEO of indie publisher Devolver Digital, Douglas Morin, has stepped down.

The recently released Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League attracted less than half the concurrent player base of Marvel's Avengers in its first 24 hours.

At some point late in 2019, the UK very likely became the sixth largest games market in the world, and the second biggest in Europe. As first reported on our partner site PocketGamer.biz, that’s according to Newzoo predictions, which also expect that video game industry revenues in the nation would have reached $5.1 billion by last year’s close; a 10% year-on-year lift. 

Moana 2 is officially on its way, and the sequel is coming out way sooner than you think.

There’s an interesting detail in a previous rumor about Nintendo’s next console that we need to reexamine a week later.

IO Interactive announced back in 2020 that it had started development on a James Bond game, tentatively being called Project 007, but details on the game since then have been scant. A job ad that has recently surfaced might be pointing to a particularly interesting tidbit about the game, however.

Obsidian has confirmed that Avowed won't feature a traditional approval mechanic for its companions, meaning they won't abandon you if make the wrong decision. Sadly, it also seems to suggest that romances won't be a thing, either.

People at Epic Games must be celebrating. Thanks to a slate of new legislation in the EU, Fortnite, which has been absent from mobile app stores since 2020, is finally making its way back natively to iOS. It’s not going to be stand-alone on the App Store, but it’ll be available through an Epic Games Store app that’ll launch soon.

When Universal Pictures acquired the rights to Lego in 2020, the logical assumption was that another sequel to or reboot of The Lego Movie might be in the works. The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie were big hits for Warner Bros. Pictures, and with unlimited brick-building possibilities, the IP was a potential goldmine if a studio could crack the code again. But the first project to come out of the deal won’t resemble anything like the animated movies of the past. It may not resemble any movie at all.

Todd McFarlane's Spawn reaches its landmark 350th issue in February and Image is promising big changes ahead for the record-breaking comic.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the biggest Yakuza series game launch on Steam by a long way.

Following Apple's announcement of enabling third-party app stores for iOS users in the European Union, Epic Games confirms that it'll be bringing Fortnite back to the iPhone and iPad in Europe later this year — by way of a new Epic mobile games store. This will mark the title's official return to Apple's platform since it was yanked back in August 2020, after Epic offered discounts to payments made directly to its own store, instead of Apple's App Store and Google Play which would take a 30-percent cut. iOS users have had to rely on Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce Now to play Fortnite, but this will soon be a thing of the past for those based in Europe.

Bleach: Brave Souls developer KLab and Palworld developer Pocket Pair will jointly develop and operate a hybrid-casual game for smartphone, the companies announced.

Fortnite is coming back to iOS this year, at least in Europe, Epic Games announced today. It will do so by taking advantage of the Digital Markets Act law passed by the European Union, which will let the Epic Games Store on iOS.

A hastily deleted video posted to a Universal Studios Instagram account for employees shows Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma overseeing some sort of construction at the park, prompting a whole lot of speculation that the long-rumored Zelda expansion to Super Nintendo World is finally underway.

The Last of Us Part II’s about to be seen in a whole new way. Grounded 2, a making-of documentary for The Last of Us Part II, premieres next week.

Microsoft is laying off 1,900 workers — or around 8% of Microsoft Gaming’s 22,000 employees — from its gaming division. The majority of layoffs are at Activision Blizzard, according to the Verge, though cuts will impact Xbox and ZeniMax employees, too.

Black Forest Games is apparently the latest Embracer Group company to face job cuts.

The newest is available to be solved and today's answers could ruin a few long-standing win-streaks. Many of today's words can fit into multiple categories and with only four mistakes available, it's not always easy to score a full win.

Just weeks after Google agreed to settle the $5 billion class-action case regarding its tracking of user data even in Google incognito mode, the tech giant changed the disclaimer recently. For the unaware, Google was hit with a lawsuit in 2020 that alleged that Chrome still collected user data such as browsing history and IP addresses even when browsing in incognito mode. While Google defended itself saying that it warned users that some websites collected data, the judge ruled against the tech giant, stating that it did not explicitly mention the continued data collection by websites. Last month, Google agreed to settle the lawsuit. Later this month, the settlement terms will be presented to the court. Now, the tech giant has discreetly added a disclaimer that explicitly states this information it collects in incognito mode. Know what's new.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the best-reviewed Yakuza game to date.

If there were any lingering doubts about the multi-device future of PlayStation, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida dispelled them in a video interview with the Norges Bank Investment Management. The executive said PlayStation would remain on console, but the gaming experience will be expanded to PC, mobile, and cloud.

CD Projekt's new joint CEO Adam Badowski revealed plans to incorporate AI into the studio's development cycle and also offered updates on the upcoming The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 sequels. 

Palworld's explosive rise continues even as it attracts a whole lot of criticism for its similarities to Pokemon. One person who's very much unimpressed is a former head of The Pokemon Company's legal team.

Nintendo fans have been spoiled in the last several years with love from the Persona series, which after a long history married to PlayStation consoles has finally been creeping onto the Switch, game by game. Which is why fans felt snubbed after Persona 3 Reload, a remake of Persona 3, was announced for basically every major platform except Switch. But while a Switch announcement still hasn't happened, the game's director and producer are hinting that the idea hasn't been fully abandoned.

Strategy and simulation games remain my go-to genres whenever I pick up the latest Atari console or turn on my rig to see the Windows XP startup. The reason is and always will be simple: I like to keep my brain ticking along, slightly delaying the decay that would lead to dementia. I am in my mid-thirties now; it's just a ticking time bomb; were this the middle ages, I would be the village elder. So, I will stave off this decay for another year with multiple roles of general, businessman, or village elder.

Batteries are doing such a great job replacing petroleum in car engines that it's natural to think they might do the same in the skies. Efforts to make a working airplane prototype, however, perennially come up short. Kitty Hawk, the startup backed by Google co-founder Larry Page that hoped to make an electric flying car, quietly abandoned the project after five years in 2020. Last year, two separate proposed battery planes being developed by ventures including Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc and Nasa were dropped within a month of each other.

The British military is using Fortnite Creative as a recruitment tool, seemingly in a bid to appeal to younger audiences. The army plans to livestream the private map, Operation: Belong, next week.

Avowed, the upcoming first-person action-adventure game from Fallout: New Vegas studio Obsidian Entertainment, has officially set a Fall 2024 release window. And just in case you're having deja vu, we previously knew the game was launching sometime in 2024, but now we have a slightly more narrowed-down window.

The solo developer of the most anticipated city builder on Steam says his girlfriend expected him to get around 7,000 wishlists - but now he's crossed two million.

CI Games, the Polish game developer and publisher associated with the Lords of the Fallen and Sniper: Ghost Warrior games, is planning to lay off around 10% of its staff.

Game Pass subscribers have had plenty to celebrate in January. The service saw some heavy hitters arrive in the first half of the month, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and the Resident Evil 2 remake. But it’s not done yet. More games are coming to Game Pass to round out January.

The Last of Us 2 Remastered's director doesn't understand the mixed response to the re-release, arguing, "it's the best way to play."

The new Apple Bengaluru office is located at Minsk Square in the center of the city, near iconic buildings including high court, central library, Chinnaswamy cricket stadium, and one of the largest green parks within the city. In fact, what will surely appeal to employees and visitors, it is quite close to Cubbon Park metro station and that means public transit is easily accessible.

I'm pretty picky when it comes to city-builders - a requirement in a genre so full of excellent, unique attempts to put a spin on the ideas that SimCity laid down so long ago - but there's one that I've had my eye on for a while, and it's finally coming out in just a couple of months.

Bandai Namco is putting the Nintendo Switch on the highway to the danger zone, announcing that Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Deluxe Edition will be coming to Nintendo's hybrid console on July 11.

Lovecraftian horror game The Sinking City is now back on PC storefronts following a dispute with its original distributor.

Not gonna lie, it's a bit of an eclectic shotgunning of deals here today. But hey, sometimes that's how we like to hunt—digging our hands into a big bundle of chaos, like the physical bargain bins of yore. Who even knows what's in there? It could be your next favourite game discounted, an empty Coke bottle, or some random kid's booger deposits. Brick 'n' mortar shopping experience, I do not miss thee much.

Noah Hawley says his Alien prequel series will ignore the backstory provided by Alien: Covenant and Prometheus.

By Billy Givens on

Naughty Dog’s 2020 masterpiece has received a re-release in the form of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. It won’t turn heads on a technical level, but it does pack some new content that makes it worth considering even if you’ve experienced the epic tale already.

The United States Supreme Court has denied a request to hear Epic Games v. Apple, the antitrust lawsuit regarding Apple's practices in its app store.

Developer GSC Game World will finally release S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl on September 5. The first-person shooter will launch on Xbox Series X/S and PC. 

It was a sunny spring day in 2020, amid the social isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, when I beatThe Last of Us Part 2. As its long credits rolled, I paced around my small apartment living room unpacking what transpired. I adored the sequel’s first two acts and its multifaceted discussion of cyclical violence, but I found myself critical of its California-set finale. It seemed to backtrack on all the nuance of Ellie and Abbey’s struggle by introducing a definitively evil faction that I wouldn’t feel bad about shooting with a machine gun. It was a discordant note at the end of a symphony, but I was determined to dig below my surface and try to understand what Naughty Dog was going for. It had earned that.

The very first The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered comparison video has surfaced, comparing the visuals and performance of the new remaster to those of the original PS4 game.

The Last of Us Part II hit PlayStation 4 exclusively in 2020. Developer Naughty Dog brought us back into the world of cordyceps, Fireflies, Ellie, and Joel alongside new threats and characters like the WLF, Abby, Yara, Lev, and more. Game Informer gave the game a 10 out of 10 – read the review here – and I would have agreed with that score in 2020. I still agree with that score today, too.