Publisher News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Following Nintendo's decision to sue Yuzu, the popular Switch emulator, and the consequent shutdown of the project (with a massive $2.4 million to be paid in damages), two main forks have appeared: Suyu and Nuzu. While the latter turned out to be vaporware, Suyu is a real project with many dedicated developers behind it.

Publisher PLAION (formerly Koch Media/Deep Silver) and developer Dambuster Studios have announced the release date for the second Dead Island 2 expansion. Titled SoLA, it will be available on PC via Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X on April 17. Five days later, the whole game will also launch on Steam after the year of exclusivity on the Epic Games Store.

EA's The Sims is coming to the silver screen.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is finally here, and Capcom has been enjoying quite a lot of praise from both critics and fans in the run-up to launch. Unfortunately, it now seems to have thrown all of that hard-earned goodwill down the drain, as Dragon's Dogma 2 has launched to "Mostly Negative" user reviews on Steam after Capcom has seemingly added a series of "pay-to-win" microtransactions after the game's reviews were published.

Horizon Forbidden West's long-awaited PC port finally hit Steam earlier today, bringing Aloy's second adventure to an entirely new audience. It means that more people than ever can experience one of PlayStation's best titles, but it also means that it's much more at risk of piracy, and publishers are going to start wondering what the heck they have to do for their games to stop being pirated, as Horizon Forbidden West was cracked in just 30 seconds after release.

Everybody seems to be talking about 3 Body Problem, the new Netflix series based on Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past book trilogy. Fewer people are talking about the two series’ namesake: The unsolvable physics problem of the same name.

Publisher 11 bit Studios revealed that Indika — a very weird game from Odd Meter Studio that left a strong impression on me during February’s Steam Next Fest — will finally come out on May 8.

Red Thread Games and their publisher Spotlight by Quantic Dream have announced that Dustborn will launch on 20th August 2024 across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One and PC. Check out the new gameplay trailer.

There are a fair few games that task you with returning color to the world you play in, but Farewell North lets you do it as a dog - and it's set in the beautiful Scottish Highlands. This game looks inspired by the likes of Journey, Flower, and Okami, and it might just be the wholesome game that makes you want to grab your camping gear and head to Scotland.

Names like Skyrim and Morrowind are so ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget they were once ideas on a whiteboard. But in 1993, the world of Elder Scrolls was still very much a blank slate.

If Helldivers 2 isn’t delivering enough bug stomping for your liking, you might want to check out Humble’s EDF United Bundle. It combines the past nine years’ worth of Earth Defense Force games and their downloadable content in a package for $18. While this bundle doesn’t include the most recent entry in the franchise, Earth Defense Force 6, you’ll find every other game here that’s launched since 2015, including Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair.

Miniclip.com, the publisher of Subway Surfers, just dished out a new strategy game called Battle Rivals: Epic Clash. It’s not a global launch though. Battle Rivals: Epic Clash has entered early access in Italy and Portugal on Android for now.

An upcoming cozy Lord of the Rings game has shared a first look at its artwork after being announced in September, and there's "more to come soon."

There's great news for gamers interested in playing Dragon's Dogma 2 without having a beefy PC: NVIDIA has just announced that CAPCOM's open world game will be available at launch via its GeForce NOW cloud platform. Despite the fact that the previous installment is supported on GeForce NOW, the same was far from a given for the sequel. While the Japanese publisher has agreed to add games like Exoprimal, Resident Evil 2, 3, and 7, and Devil May Cry 5 to GFN, Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 are still nowhere to be seen, and the same goes for Street Fighter 6.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar is a great wargame, but it is a little dense - and publisher Games Workshop seems to recognize that, because it's launching a more accessible match type.

French regulators said Wednesday they were fining Google 250 million euros ($272 million) for breaching commitments on paying media companies for reproducing their content online and for using their material for its AI chatbot without telling them.

More than ever, publishers and console makers love to stress how incredibly detailed their games are, with cutting-edge graphics that are driving video game budgets to almost unsustainable levels. Almost every big publisher out there is keen to show off just how realistic and perfect their games look, but one of very few to buck that trend is Nintendo, which regularly pumps out brilliant games despite the limitations of the Switch's hardware.

Last year, Ubisoft announced that it had created an AI tool that could potentially generate NPC dialogue, much to the dismay of pretty much everyone. Ubisoft's games have never really had the most expressive or interesting NPCs, and many feared that giving them AI-generated dialogue would make them even blander than they already are.

After much anticipation, X-Men ’97, a direct continuation to X-Men: The Animated Series from the 1990s, hits Disney Plus this week. But it’s not the first time Marvel has dusted off the old series and revived it for a nostalgic new millennium.

Hero Quest: Idle RPG War Games is a new title that has been launched on Android. Published by Fansipan Limited, it’s free to play. Fansipan is a Hong Kong-based game developing company known for other popular titles like Monster Slayer: Idle RPG War, Stickman Survival: War Games and Family Farming: My Island Life.

It should be no surprise: Stardew Valley, despite being released in 2016, is still wildly popular. In fact, it’s more popular than ever. Following the Stardew Valley 1.6 update published yesterday, the farm-and-life simulator hit a peak Steam concurrent player count of 147,612 — that’s more than double the peak concurrent players at the game’s launch in 2016. Stardew Valley’s previous Steam record was just under 100,000 players after the 1.5 update launched in late 2020, according to SteamDB. Stardew Valley is the eighth most played game on Steam at the time of writing, just a few thousand players below Grand Theft Auto 5.

With only one week to go, your chances to back Ostia Pirates is slowly fading away. Listen folks, take it from me, if you want to pick up a game from UCHIBACOYA you do not want to wait. These games generally will not hit retaliers in the West, and I’ve already disappointed myself by missing out on their games multiple times. Yes, the price might be a bit concerning, but these are games that hold their value and will be something you are happy to have in your board game collection!

A new VR publisher and developer VRAL Games has launched at GDC this week.

If you cast your mind back to 2019, you might remember that the cult classic RPG Alpha Protocol was surprisingly removed from Steam, becoming unavailable to purchase and play digitally. Later on, Sega clarified that the delisting was down to the expiration of its publishing rights, leaving the game stranded and the only way to play it being to obtain a physical copy.

It might be a while until Alienware’s stellar 4K QD-OLED curved gaming monitor that’s new for 2024 gets a big discount from its $1,200 price. However, if you can settle for 1440p resolution, there’s a sweet deal happening on this model’s predecessor. Alienware’s 34-inch 1440p QD-OLED gaming screen is $899.99 during Amazon’s spring sale, down from its normal $1,099.99 price. Notably, this temporary price cut is happening on the AW3423DW model that has Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate, indicating that it has stellar HDR, and low latency gameplay, not the lesser AW3423DWF model that’s typically discounted.

During Amazon’s spring sale, it’s marking down the fantastic AirFly Pro wireless accessory. This gadget plugs into any device that has a headphone jack, like a Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, a laptop, or an iPad, and lets two Bluetooth headphones (including AirPods) connect to it for joint listening. It’s very handy to have if you and a travel partner want to watch shows and movies together, or use it to enjoy game audio. Normally $54.99, the AirFly Pro is discounted to $43.99 through the end of this week.

The ambitious, yet flawed Alpha Protocol is available for purchase once again. The 2010 game, which was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Sega, was removed from all platforms in 2019 because Sega’s music licensing rights had expired. The game is making a comeback as a DRM-free exclusive on GOG.com, available today for $19.99, with an additional 10% launch discount lasting through April 3.

Finnish games firm Remedy has reported €33.9 million ($36.8 million) in revenue for 2023.

Empire of the Ants, for those who don’t know, is an old-school real-time strategy game which first launched in 2000 for PC. In this PS5 reboot, publisher Microids is partnering with developer Tower Five to create what might be one of the most photorealistic PS5 titles to date. Seriously, this is pushing Unreal Engine 5 to its absolute limits.

At this point, there’s a pretty good chance Microsoft’s going to port its Forza Horizon franchise to PS5 – but until that day arrives, The Crew Motorfest remains a welcome alternative. And with its third full season of content available now, publisher Ubisoft has announced the title’s first-ever free weekend, scheduled to get underway from 14th March through 18th March.

It’s been a fantastic couple of years for fighting games, and SNK is aiming to keep the run rolling with Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. While not specifically announced for any platforms just yet, it’s probably safe to assume this will release on PS5, as that’s where the bulk of the fighting game community’s audience plays. The outing is expected in 2025.

The collapse of the utterly reckless Embracer Group continues to occur publicly, as juggernaut development unit Saber Interactive has announced plans to split from the embattled Swedish organisation. The division will be purchased by Beacon Interactive, a new holding firm controlled by Saber Interactive’s co-founder Matthew Karch. But as detailed in a press release on the divestment, there’s still plenty to be untangled between the two titans.

Physics shooting sensation Squirrel with a Gun is gunning for PS5, with publisher Maximum Entertainment on deck to help developer Dee Dee Creations bring the viral title to consoles.

Princess Peach Showtime! is about to release in just a couple of days, meaning reviewers are already getting their copies of the game and expressing their first thoughts on the internet. This game is a bit different from other Nintendo first-party games, but it reminds many of the DS game Super Princess Peach. However, some reviewers are already claiming this game is short, easy, and definitely created for a younger audience.

After being developed by a solo developer for nearly seven years, the Creepy Metroidvania-inspired game Animal Well will finally be released later this year on May 9.

Don’t you know? It’s time to return to Elden Ring to polish your character before the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion drops in June. For those who haven’t played the base game at all (oh, how I wish I could experience this game again with fresh eyes), you have an opportunity to snag a rare discount on Elden Ring, which is required to own if you ever plan to play the upcoming DLC. If you need more convincing, even after it took home Polygon’s game of the year prize in 2022, check out our Elden Ringreview.

The breadth and depth of crowd-pleasing patch notes teased so far for Stardew Valley’s new update, simply titled “1.6 update,” makes it clear that the game’s creator Eric Barone (known as ConcernedApe) still has plenty of ideas for the title 8 years after its launch. He’s been busy on a number of other things, too, from continuing development on his new game, Haunted Chocolatier, to co-authoring the official Stardew Valley cookbook, and showing up to show support the Stardew Valley live concert series, which is happening now worldwide.

If you’re in the mood to wreak a little havoc and aren’t keen on playing the good guy for once, you might want to check out Monster Never Cry. This new F2P action-packed anti-hero RPG has just dropped on Android.

Microsoft has revealed the titles they’ll be adding to Xbox Game Pass on PC and consoles in late March and very-early April, and it’s a pretty packed lineup. The headliner is Diablo IV, one of the first major Acti-Blizz games to jump to Game Pass following Microsoft’s acquisition of the publisher. Other notable additions include The Quarry, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2, and the new-release indie game Open Roads.

ASTRA: Knights of Veda started pre-registrations a couple of weeks ago. Now, they have dropped a fresh promotional video to boost their pre-registration. The game is expected to drop in the first week of April. So, what’s all the hype about? Follow along to get the full scoop!

Terra Invicta launches on PC Game Pass and the Microsoft Store on March 26, publisher Hooded Horse has announced.

Last year’s controversy surrounding the Dungeons & Dragons Open Gaming License not only damaged Wizards of the Coast’s relationship with its biggest fans, but also helped to turbocharge the sales of competing game systems. Chief among them was Paizo’s Pathfinder, which sold through nearly a years’ worth of stock in just a matter of weeks. Now the Washington state-based publisher is throwing some serious funding behind its marquee fantasy role-playing franchise. It’s next effort, Pathfinder Lost Omens: Tian Xia World Guide, boasts a team of more than 40 authors. Polygon sat down with senior designer James Case to learn more.

A demo for Sand Land is out now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam, publisher Bandai Namco has announced.

AMD has published the first demo of its Radeon RX 7900 XTX "RDNA 3" GPU handling Work Graphs, providing much faster and more efficient rendering.

Target is offering a great opportunity to stock up on essential board games for less. If you add two games participating in the sale to your cart, the retailer will knock 50% off one that’s of equal or lesser value. Some of our favorite tabletop titles are included in this promotion. For instance, if you wanted to pick up the fourth edition of Twilight Imperium and its expansion, Prophecy of Kings, you’d only pay $167.99 instead of the usual price of $204.99 for the star-spanning epic.

Break out your hot pink Joy-Con because Princess Peach Showtime! is almost here. If you’re as excited as we are to play as the royal lady of House Toadstool in her very own platformer, you can currently save $20 on Princess Peach Showtime!.. First-time QVC customers can use the code WELCOME20 at checkout, discounting the price to just $39.99 before tax and shipping.

The Dungeon Masters Guild is currently offering the Uncaged Anthology Bundle and its 100-plus one-shot D&D adventures for just $12.77 (was $31.92). The PDF version of this five-volume anthology includes the Ennie award-winning Uncaged Goddesses, and features printer-friendly versions of each module, in addition to player versions of the maps needed for each module. However, if you’d prefer hardcover versions of these adventures, each volume in the Uncaged saga can be purchased piecemeal for around $25.

Breakout 2024 poker roguelite hit Balatro is coming to Apple and Android mobile devices, according to solo developer LocalThunk. That’s great news for all of us currently invested in creating the highest-scoring poker hands, and bad news for our productivity related to anything else.

Chris Paulson, a former executive at Activision Blizzard, has joined the team at Skybound Games, a division of The Walking Dead company Skybound Entertainment. Paulson will serve as executive vice president and general manager of games publishing.

YouTube sensation Dunkey, aka videogamedunkey or Jason Gastrow, has added game publishing to his resume. He started a company called Big Mode last year, which is releasing its first title on May 9. Animal Well is a sidescrolling Metroidvania platformer that will show up on the PS5, the Nintendo Switch and PCs. There’s a trailer that’s absolutely oozing with retro-gaming goodness.

Mutsumi Inomata, the illustrator known for her work on the Tales series of games by Bandai Namco, has passed away at the age of 63.

On the near first anniversary of first-person dungeon adventure Dark and Darker's removal from Steam, developer Ironmace has announced its launch on the Epic Games Store. 

Arriving twenty years after the original Outcast, a sequel, Outcast - A New Beginning is out now, and to herald its launch, publisher THQ Nordic and IGN partnered up to send the Adelpha Edition of the game to space. To make this stellar outing even better, one lucky fan will win the Adelpha Edition that actually went to space, plus another sealed version for their collection. Read on for details on how to enter for your chance to win.

Industry veteran Marcus Lehto has said he hasn't said much about his recent departure from EA because he has nothing nice to say about the company.

As original RuneScape creator Andrew Gower marches toward the release of his new MMO, Brighter Shores, later this year, he's comforted by the fact that his small team of just eight developers only has to answer to themselves.

Pokémon’s new TCG set, Scarlet and Violet — Twilight Masquerade, is bringing Ogerpon to the card game on May 24. While pre-release events for this set start on May 11, avid collectors will likely want to pre-order it early.

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It's time to saddle up, partner, because Magic: The Gathering is headed to the Wild West with its latest set, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, launching on April 19. This set draws inspiration from the romantic ideals of the American Wild West, chock full of gunslingers, masked bandits, and vigilante justice. As its name suggests, the theme of Outlaws of Thunder Junction centers around a group of villains planning a heist, using a clever mash-up of Western tropes and arcane magic.

Blizzard re-released the first two books from the «Diablo: Book of» series, Book of Cain and Book of Tyrael, on March 12. These decade-old books have finally made their return, just in time to potentially give us a refresher on key bits of lore in the Diablo universe. Preorder Diablo: Book of Cain Preorder Diablo: Book of Tyrael At the time of publication, the price is $29.95 USD for the Book of Cain and $27.87 USD for the Book of Tyrael.Diablo: Book of Cain was originally published on December 13, 2011, while Diablo: Book of Tyrael was published on October 1, 2013.

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Steam isn’t the only PC storefront that kicked off an annual spring sale. The Epic Games Store is offering exclusive discounts on a number of excellent titles through March 28, several of which aren’t available on Steam. Alan Wake 2, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Ultros, and hundreds of other games are on sale, and we’ve highlighted some of our top picks below.

Starting Thursday, The Sims 4 publisher Electronic Arts is giving away the Backyard Stuff pack for free across all platforms (EA App, PlayStation, Steam, and Xbox) until April 13.

Old emails uncovered in a lawsuit against Valve have revealed that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney was previously very disgruntled with the changes to Steam revenue splits announced in late 2018, and went as far as to call Valve "assholes" in a message to president Gabe Newell.

Steam’s annual spring sale has arrived, offering awesome discounts on an impressive collection of titles through March 21. While we haven’t seen any discounts on Valve’s Steam Deck or Valve’s VR hardware, there are countless discounts available, including some on our favorite games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Resident Evil 4, Diablo 4, Against the Storm, and more.

Supercell has dropped that their board game-inspired title is calling it quits on development. Yes, Clash Mini is shutting down by late April 2024. Sadly, the game is meeting its untimely end, all before even hitting the global stage. Follow along to learn more about the shutdown!

It was only a matter of time until Helldivers 2jumped off the screen and into reality. As a reflection of the game’s runaway success on PS5 and Steam, PlayStation has unveiled a lineup of merchandise made by Ripple Junction, including shirts, hats, coffee mugs, keychains — the whole deal. It’s full of cheeky game references, letting you wear the button combo to execute an Orbital Precision Strike strategem, or wear select quotes of Super Earth propaganda that your character is usually screaming as you annihilate bugs or robots.

Embracer Group confirmed it is selling Saber Interactive to Beacon Interactive on Thursday morning, following rumors of a sale last month. Saber Interactive is a massive company that not only develops games like Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game but also owns several studios.

As expected, the Embracer Group has sold much of Saber Interactive, which is known for the Metro series, Gloomhaven and remakes of classic Star Wars titles. The buyer is a group of private investors under the umbrella of Beacon Interactive, which is run by Saber co-founder Matthew Karch.

Troubled European publishing giant Embracer Group has sold Saber Interactive as part of a bid to leave Russia.

Embracer Group has entered into an agreement to sell Saber Interactive to Beacon Interactive, a company controlled by Saber Interactive co-founder Matthew Karch, for a purchase price of USD $247 million, the company announced.

Recent reports had indicated that Saber Interactive was on the verge agreeing a deal with parent company Embracer Group that would see it going independent. That has now been officially confirmed.

Troubled video game publisher Embracer has announced the sale of more of its assets — this time, large portions of Saber Interactive, for the price of $247m.

Pre-orders for the latest wave of 4K Blu-rays featuring Disney Plus original shows are live. The collector’s edition Steelbooks for the first seasons of Andor, Obi-Wan,Moon Knight, and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier vary in price, and can currently be reserved at Amazon or Walmart ahead of their April 30 launch.

Would you like to take a trip back in time to when mammoths roamed the Earth and survival was an everyday job? Then you’d love Stone Age, the Digital Edition of the classic board game. You can now pre-register for Stone Age: Digital Edition on Android.

The latest gaming bundle from Humble features nearly every game from the Saints Row and Red Faction franchises for a paltry $10. For comparison, Steam has a similar bundle available that’s much pricier. The Plaion the Hits bundle includes Saint’s Row 2, the remastered version of Saints Row: The Third, as well as the final entry in the series and its DLC, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell. But, for me, the real star here is Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered.

Grid makes gorgeous, shadowbox-style pieces that showcase the guts of gaming’s greatest gadgets. It’s currently having a big spring sale, discounting many of the items in their store by 15%. That’s good, but what’s even better is that Grid’s offering Polygon readers a special 18% off code instead. Just enter the code S18 at checkout to save a little extra.

Everyone’s favorite Chrono Trigger-esque RPG, Sea of Stars, is getting a three-player couch co-op mode. Publisher Sabotage Studios dropped a trailer for the upcoming feature, which has been dubbed Single Player+.

One Piece fans deserve a treat to keep them waiting for season 2 of Netflix’s live-action adaptation, so Loungefly made a new collection of apparel that new or longtime fans of the popular anime or manga will love. It’s a small, yet focused lineup of gear, including multiple backpack options, a zip-around wallet, pins of the main characters, and a Jolly Roger keychain.