Publisher News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

The Super Mario Maker community rallied together to beat every single level uploaded to the game before the servers shut down earlier this month, and while the devs at Nintendo weren't initially aware of that effort, they now think it's pretty cool.

Cities: Skylines 2 is still having a very rough time, to the point where every player who bought the recent Beach Properties DLC will soon be offered compensation, and its devs are delaying the Bridges and Ports Expansion as well as the console release of the base game.

Paizo, fresh off a highly-anticipated refresh of Pathfinder’s 2nd edition ruleset, announced some big moves for the game’s ongoing narrative on Tuesday. The War of Immortals meta-event will kill a god, span multiple rulebooks, and restart the publisher’s line of hardcover novels. It will also introduce the first two original classes built following the company’s formal departure from the legacy Dungeons & Dragons ruleset and the OGL.

John Wiswell’s debut novel Someone You Can Build a Nest In was one of Polygon’s most anticipated SFF novels of 2024, and it lived up to that title. It’s an energetic, deeply strange, surprising book whose protagonist, a monster named Shesheshen, strongly reminded me of one of the decade’s most popular SFF protagonists, Martha Wells’ Murderbot. Like Murderbot, Shesheshen is a nonhuman character who struggles to understand human emotion and behavior, and is frustrated and even repelled when she starts experiencing it herself. They share a certain outlook — a loneliness they can’t acknowledge, and an attachment to one human in particular.

Months after release, Cities: Skylines 2developers Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive have issued an apology over the poor state of the game and its recent DLC, Beach Properties, along with the lack of updates to address player concerns about performance and the lack of content.

The developer of PC city builder Cities Skylines 2 has offered refunds for the game’s latest DLC amid a backlash from players over the state of the game.

The boss of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has addressed player concern about bugs (not those bugs) as the studio continues to release new content and new premium warbonds.

Hasbro, owner of Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast, is looking for potential partners to work on the future of Baldur's Gate.

Friday is here, and with it comes a brand new to solve. We had a little advantage in today's game since one of the categories lined up nicely with a previous job we had. Sometimes that's all the steam you need to score a win in this game, once you clear out a few words, everything else slowly falls in line.

Humble is currently offering a massive bundle of more than 130 pieces of Battletech fiction for just $30. The Battletech fiction collection includes a comprehensive collection of every Battletech Legends novel published since 2015, in addition to back issues of Shrapnel, the official Battletech magazine, which feature collections of technical readouts and short stories.

In the galaxy of Warhammer 40,000, the Imperium of Man is built off the backs of transhuman soldiers. There are the iconic Space Marines, who are gene-crafted and mass produced by the Emperor of Mankind, but when you need something a little more specialized, you might turn to the Adeptus Custodes. This group stands 10,000 strong, and each is a work of art. These philosopher warriors serve as the personal guards and agents of the Emperor, even in his currently skeletal state.

Following a two-month delay, Homeworld 3 is ready to launch on May 13, but you can play the game three days early with its epic Collector’s Edition. The Collector’s Edition has been available to pre-order for some time, and we recently got a detailed look at the minis and other items featured in its $174.99 release, which you can currently pre-order from Amazon, Target, and GameStop.

The surreal puzzle game Lorelei and the Laser Eyes hits the Nintendo Switch and PC on May 16, as revealed at Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase event. This is a big deal, as the game’s being developed by Simogo, the company behind the mind-blowing adventure Sayonara Wild Hearts, which was one of our favorite titles of 2019. It’s also being published by Annapurna Interactive, who helped steward games like Stray, Open Roads and Cocoon to digital store shelves.

Take-Two Interactive, publisher of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, has just reduced its workforce by laying off around 5% of its staff.

UK developer and publisher Kwalee is cutting around ten per cent of its staff.

Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto, has announced plans to cut around 5 percent of its workforce, or around 600 people.

GTA 6 publisher Take-Two Interactive has announced it's laying off 5% of its workforce and canceling several projects.

GameStop is currently offering a buy two, get one free sale on its entire catalog of pre-owned titles. Add three eligible games to your cart, and the cheapest one will be free. The pre-owned prices on most of these games aren’t much lower than what you’d pay for a new copy, but the inclusion of a free game and plenty of new releases to choose from makes this worth checking out.

RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic, the park management sim that turned us all into greedy, and occasionally sadistic capitalists, is currently on sale for its lowest price ever on Steam. Normally $19.99, this title is discounted to just $4.99 through April 22 to celebrate the game’s 25th anniversary.

Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends has got a confirmed release date from developer Catch & Release, and publisher Humble Games have announced. The laid back sushi restaurant management sim will be available on PC, and Xbox Game Pass day one on June 4th. A brand new trailer for Rolling Hills has been released too.

In a move that's sure to be familiar to all you Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth fans, Bandai Namco is telling Elden Ring fans to "treat" themselves to 18 inches of Messmer the Impaler by picking up the Shadow of the Erdtree Collector's Edition. Quiet in the back, now.

Star Wars Outlaws is not out for a few more months, but as the release date slowly approaches, the game's ESRB rating summary revealed that a popular and nearly-forgotten card game is set to return as a playable mini-game.

It’s not often that a sequel really impresses us, but Dune: Part Two is one of our favorite movies of 2024. While there’s still ample opportunity to see this sci-fi blockbuster on the big screen (in fact, IMAX will extend Dune: Part Two showings starting this week), anyone who would prefer to see the second installment of the Dune saga at home can now purchase the movie digitally.

Manor Lords, the hotly-anticipated medieval city-builder that recently became the most-wishlisted game on Steam, has gained 500,000 prospective players in the past three months - far more than its solo developer's girlfriend predicted it would ever gain.

Over the last decade, Wizards of the Coast has rolled out a series of elaborate campaign books for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, each one customized for low-to-mid-level characters. At most, those products have topped out at around level 13, leaving fans to make their own way toward the game’s level 20 cap.

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Ubisoft has responded to the ongoing backlash against the Star Wars Outlaws season pass, insisting Jabba the Hutt is part of the experience for all players.

People have been thirsting over FromSoftware characters for years, but we rarely see the developer or publisher get in on the action. Today is a very different day.

Cliff Bleskzinski's Lawbreakers has made a surprising return.

Steam’s annual FPS Fest sale is in full effect through April 22, offering some excellent deals on an impressive collection of shooters. While events like this don’t offer discounts on the Steam Deck, it's still an excellent opportunity to stock up on shooters that may have otherwise slipped under your radar. Some of our favorites include the fantastic remakes Black Mesa and System Shock in addition to the entire Fallout franchise and hundreds of other awesome titles.

Quests from the Infinite Staircase, one of the latest adventures for Dungeons & Dragons, has roots (steps?) that lead back to the first editions of the legendary tabletop RPG. If you’d like to explore the origins of this epic anthology, you can currently get a bundle of seven standalone adventures that dive into the lore of The Infinite Staircase at DriveThruRPG and Dungeon Master’s Guild. The Infinite Staircase Classics Bundle is usually priced at $50.93, but this collection of one-shots is currently discounted to $31.99, making this a great opportunity to add some classic adventures to your next campaign.

Nintendo has confirmed that «after careful consideration» the company won't be attending this year's Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany.

PSV Games dropped a new action-packed title Battle of Mighty Troopers on Android recently. It’s a dynamic pixelated 2D roguelike shooter RPG. The game studio has published other titles on Android like Ninja Sword: Fighting Game and Lifeline: A Virtual Game Life.

Content Warning publisher Landfall Games has announced the viral Steam hit has sold an impressive one million copies even after its eye-catching free launch period.

Fallout 4's impending next-gen update will almost certainly "break" many mods, according to a Fallout London modder, causing the "game-sized" project to be delayed indefinitely.

Oh lord, keep with me on this one, people. Tipping is controversial at the best of times. A suggestion that we bring a tip option to video games is going to be met with all kinds of resistance. But you know, it makes sense.

Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who exited the publisher in January, would like to leave tips after completing some $70 games.

Jeff Strain has a pretty impressive resume, co-founding both Guild Wars developer ArenaNet and State of Decay creators Undead Labs, but things don’t seem to be going as well for him lately. Today it emerged that Possibility Space, one of the new studios Strain has founded with his wife under the larger Prytania Media umbrella, is closing for a rather unusual reason.

Possibility Space, an independent game studio with employees distributed across the globe, was abruptly shut down today by its CEO Jeff Strain, former employees revealed on Twitter. The studio launched in 2021 with the goal of creating a AAA title, and it had also hired industry notables like Waypoint's Austin Walker and Ubisoft designer Liz England. Its closure follows the shutdown of Crop Circle Games last month, another studio owned by Strain's Prytania Media, which he co-founded with his wife Annie Delisi Strain.

Modiphius has created miniatures for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare and Fallout: Factions based on the main characters of the Amazon Prime Video Fallout TV series. Dubbed the Hollywood Heroes expansion, this bundle contains four 32mm unpainted minis modeled after the main characters of the show, including Lucy, Max, The Ghoul, and certified good boy, CX404. The $34.99 expansion doesn’t launch until May 7, but you can currently reserve your set from Amazon and Modiphius.

Imitated, but never duplicated, Unpacking is a cozy game that tells a surprisingly emotional story through the meditative process of organizing your belongings in different rooms (it’s fun, but don’t just take it from me; it earned the number 13 spot in Polygon’s 2021 game of the year ranking). The game is a wealth of luscious pixel art, lovingly crafted for items ranging from the mundane to the truly distinct, each paired with a unique snippet of satisfying foley audio. Now, thanks to Serenity Forge, many of those same items are available for you to unpack in your own home.

Blue Dragon’s new RPG Firesky is now out on Android. It’s been published by Concept Haus who is known for other titles like Bashborgs. The action adventure RPG fighter takes you on a land filled with royal intrigue and samurai battles. Oh, and it’s totally free to play.

25 years ago, Nintendo began to promote an action-adventure game called Riqa, but that game quickly disappeared from the public eye and vanished into obscurity. But now, the game is back and playable thanks to one of the original devs at the defunct UK developer Bits Studios.

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While he may not be as well known as, say, Jim Ryan, longtime PlayStation fans will no doubt recognize the name Gio Corsi. As PlayStation’s former senior director of third party production, Corsi spearheaded a lot of initiatives – he was particularly noted as a booster of the PS Vita and was responsible for bringing a lot of Japanese Vita titles to a worldwide audience. He also was responsible for jumpstarting interest in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise worldwide after the series initially kind of sputtered out in the West.

Baldur's Gate 3 had a very successful night at the BAFTA Game Awards, taking home not just the Best Game award, but also accolades for the best music, narrative, and even players' choice. Speaking about the players' choice win, the CRPG's publishing director, Michael Douse, says it's "a testimony to the fact that a developer is not a dispensable asset."

Gearbox Publishing and Blackbird Interactive released a new cinematic for Homeworld 3 earlier this week, hoping to catch players up on the series’ story ahead of its release in May.

Baldur's Gate 3 cast members Neil Newbon and Amelia Tyler want to return for more Dungeons & Dragons games or even a sequel to the Honor Among Thieves film.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has published a call to action warning about the damage layoffs have on the industry.

Last year, it was announced that the open world racing title The Crew would be delisted from storefronts and have its servers shut down in 2024, as developer Ubisoft claimed it was necessary to do so due to "server infrastructure and licensing constraints." With The Crew being an online-only title, it meant that the game was made completely unplayable when the servers were eventually shut down on March 31.

Following rumours that EA had cancelled a Dead Space 2 Remake project at EA Motive, the publisher has taken the unusual step of shooting down the story with a public statement. Dead Space 2 remake wasn’t cancelled… because it never existed.

Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap, fresh off multiple Academy Award nominations for its blockbuster hit, Barbie, is taking on a new challenge — a film based on the board game Monopoly. The announcement was made Wednesday at CinemaCon. But unlike Barbie, where the climax centered around the toy’s original female creator as embodied by the diminutive Rhea Perlman, the circumstances behind the creation of Monopoly are fraught for an entirely different reason. Will LuckyChap rise to the occasion with another feel-good hit that opens the door to forgotten history, or will it work to further obscure the game’s origins?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin was one of the biggest comics of the last few years and a huge hit for IDW. Sequel series The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution started publishing in March and got off to a flying start - IDW has stated that 140,000 copies of the debut issue have been ordered to date, with a second printing on the way. 

Penguin Random House is publishing an official coloring book based on the Max series House of the Dragon. If you’re a fan of the show and want to engage in some meditative coloring ahead of the second season, you can pre-order the $18.99 book from Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Barnes & Noble ahead of its May 7 launch.

Players of wacky co-op horror game Content Warning are being asked by publisher Landfall if their wildest recordings can be used for a lost footage project which would see it hidden in-game for other players to find.

The challenging survival game Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition has seen a price cut from $4.99 to $0.99. So, if it’s been on your wishlist but you were holding it off, this might be the right time to check it out. Developed and published by Klei, the game first dropped on Android in October 2016.

Square Enix recently published a 42 minute Final Fantasy VII Rebirth “Special Talk Session” on its Square Enix Music YouTube channel. The video features series composer Nobuo Uematsu, writer Kazushige Nojima, and creative director Tetsuya Nomura.

2017's Gigantic was a fun MOBA experience while it lasted; the roster of heroes was fun and unique, the main Clash mode put a cool spin on the format, and each match played out in that sweet spot of «not too long, but not too short either.» It was poised to make a decent disruption in a then-crowded scene…but unfortunately, that disruption never came. Within a year, the game was shut down, lost to time, and thought to be forgotten.

Killing Floor maker Tripwire Interactive has promoted Matthew LoPilato (pictured) to CEO.

Juggling subscriptions can be tricky, especially with so many options across TV, movies, video games, and more. Odds are many of you carefully select which ones you keep active, and if EA Play is one of the subscription services in your current rotation, it might be time to take a look at how much you use it. EA will be increasing the price of its subscription service starting in May. The price hike will apply to those who pay monthly and annually, and will also affect both the standard and pro tiers of EA Play.

Earlier today, it was claimed that a remake of Dead Space 2 was in development at publisher Electronic Arts, but had been shelved indefinitely due to the original game's poor sales. Reputable industry insider Jeff Grubb claimed that the title was in the "concept" phase, before EA Motive were taken off the project to work on a new Battlefield and Iron Man title.

Sony revealed the batch of video games that will come to PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra’s Game Catalog over the next month. The headliners are three new day-one additions to the service, including the already-confirmed Tales of Kenzera: Zau andDave the Diver as well as Animal Well.

During today's Triple-i Initiative showcase, Gearbox Publishing unveiled a brand new game it's supporting from indie studio Wabisabi. The game is called RKGK, and it's a color-soaked love letter to 90s anime, 3D platforming, and Mexican graffiti culture.

RKGK has been revealed by Wabisabi Games and Gearbox Publishing, and it is a single player 3D platformer that is anime inspired. The announce trailer does not show any gameplay, and is instead cinematic. It shows main character Valah spray painted a building and the security bots that come to catch her out.

MOUSE has got a new gameplay trailer from developer Fumi Games and publisher PlaySide Publishing. The game has been inspired by the animation of 1930’s cartoons, and the main character is a mouse. It’s a gritty, noir. first person shooter, and you can see lots of cartoon mice (not Mickey Mouse) getting their heads shot off.

Amidst the glut of video game showcases from large publishers and Summer Game Fest, the Triple-i Initiative is trying something a bit different. This collective of top indie developers includes Evil Empire (Dead Cells DLC), Thunder Lotus Games (Spiritfarer), Mega Crit (Slay the Spire), and many more, who all gathered together to show off what they’re calling “iii games” — or “blockbuster indie titles.”

Publisher PlaySide and developer Fumi Games have unveiled a Spike-D gameplay trailer for their Steamboat Willie-like first-person shooter, Mouse, revealing some of the mechanics players can use to give their enemies the old one-two.

This April, several different indie studios have come together to hold a showcase of their own instead of relying on ones from companies like Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo. Over the course of this 45-minute event, developers and publishers such as Darkest Dungeon 2’s Red Hook Studios, 33 Immortals’ Thunder Lotus, Dead Cells’ Evil Empire, and Hyper Light Breaker’s Heart Machine will showcase new trailers for their upcoming titles.

Today’s the birthday of the Triple-I Initiative, a 45-minute showcase of game announcements and trailers from the likes of Slay The Spire devs MegaCrit, Darkest Dungeon devs Red Hook and Dead Cells custodians Evil Empire. What makes a “triple-I” game a “triple-I” game, as opposed to (hawk, spit) a regular indie? I've given it some thought, and I think the answer is: "has more money and status than most indies, but not, like, Call of Duty levels, and also one our partners is Gearbox Publishing, so this is perhaps ‘indie’ in the Geoff Keighley sense."

While the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X might dominate the gaming news spotlight, the PC continues to be one of the best gaming platforms out there. 2024 saw a variety of high-profile releases, and there’s still more to come.

Electronic Arts' Motive Studio is moving to work on the Battlefield franchise.

Blizzard has announced that its games are coming back to mainland China in summer 2024 after almost a year and a half off the market. Additionally, Microsoft (which now owns Blizzard) and NetEase have entered another separate agreement to bring NetEase games to Xbox and other platforms.

If you're an Avatar: The Last Airbender fan, chances are you were looking forward to the recently launched Fortnite collaboration that has seen Aang, Zuko, Katara, and Toph (sorry Sokka) head to the island. All four characters have been added to the Item Store to celebrate the collaboration, along with some emotes and Avatar-themed items, but many players have been coming away furious after seeing the prices.

Gearbox Publishing announced it is rebranding to Arc Games in the wake of its separation from parent company Gearbox Entertainment. Following Take-Two Interactive's purchase of the publisher's parent company and associated IPs, fans wondered how Gearbox Publishing might continue after it was left out of the sale by Embracer Group.

Blizzard has published a list of mounts and pets going away with Cataclysm pre-patch. Looking for activities to do before Cataclysm pre-patch? Check out our What to Do Before Cataclysm guide. What to Do Before Cataclysm

With Marvel's 'From the Ashes' era of the X-Men on the horizon this summer, the publisher is now getting into the side titles that will populate the rest of the new X-line beyond the three core series, starting with a new take on X-Force from writer Geoffrey Thorne and artist Marcus To.

There’s an art to making an ultra-long YouTube video. For one, you have to make sure it’s broken up into digestible, complete chunks so that people can take natural-feeling breaks. Second, you have to use the length to your advantage. These are all things that Quinton Hoover thinks of when he publishes a video for Quinton Reviews, a pop culture video essay channel that’s recently been devoted to recapping a series episode by episode or breaking down years of history for a show.

Two months ago, Disney Games announced a massive $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games to support the creation of a persistent universe within Fortnite featuring the company's major intellectual properties.