Microsoft have shared some more details about the hardware Xbox’s next-gen console – the PC game-running Project Helix – will be packing. The new box is set to run on AMD-built tech with support for FSR upscaling, and should start to rock up on developers’ desks as of 2027. That last bit means it’ll likely release in 2028 at the very earliest.
Valve has responded to the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit, stating it has “serious concerns with the alterations the NYAG claims are necessary to make to our games.”
The attorney general of New York, Letitia James, announced her office was suing Valve at the end of February, alleging the platform illegally promotes gambling to children. Following an investigation, the office of the attorney general “found that Valve’s video games, including Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2, enable gambling by enticing users to pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value.”
“In Valve’s most popular game [Counter-Strike 2], the process resembles a slot machine, with an animated spinning wheel that eventually rests on a selected item. The randomly selected virtual items have no in-game functionality but can be sold online for money, with one item reportedly being sold for more than $1 million. The lawsuit alleges that Valve has made billions of dollars luring its users, many of whom are teenagers or younger, to engage in gambling in the hopes of winning expensive virtual items that they can cash in on. With this lawsuit, Attorney General James seeks to permanently stop Valve from continuing to promote illegal gambling in its games and to pay disgorgement and fines.”
Unusually for Valve, the company has shared its response publicly, claiming it has been working with the AG since early 2023 to “educate” them on how virtual items are won and shared in its games.
“We shared with the NYAG that these types of boxes in our games are widely used, not just in video games but in the tangible world as well, where generations have grown up opening baseball card packs and blind boxes and bags, and then trading and selling the items they receive,” Valve wrote. “On the physical side, popular products used in this way include baseball cards, Pokémon, Magic the Gathering, and Labubu. In the game space, digital packs similar to our boxes date back to 2004 and are in widespread use. Players don’t have to open mystery boxes to play Valve games. In fact, most of you don’t open any boxes at all and just play the games — because the items in the boxes are purely cosmetic, there is no disadvantage to a player not spending money.”
Valve added that it has shared its efforts to shut down accounts found to be using its game items on gambling sites in violation of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, its efforts to combat fraud and theft of users’ items, and “our extraordinary measures to stop gambling sites from taking advantage of Steam accounts and Valve game items.”
“Valve does not cooperate with gambling sites. To date, we’ve locked over one million Steam accounts that were being misused by third parties in connection with gambling, fraud, and theft. We’ve also shipped features (like trade reversal and trade cooldown) to discourage gambling sites’ ability to operate and protect Steam users from fraud. And we forbid any gambling-related business to participate in or sponsor tournaments for our games,” the company stressed.
Valve also shared candid observations about the lawsuit, writing: “We have serious concerns with many of the alterations the NYAG claims are necessary to make to our games.
“First, the NYAG seems to believe boxes and their contents should not be transferable. They appear to assume digital mystery boxes and items in our games are different from tangible items like baseball card packs (which contain random cards), and to take issue with the fact that users have the ability to transfer the items they receive through Steam Trading or user-to-user sales on the Community Market. We think the transferability of a digital game item is good for consumers — it gives a user the ability to sell or trade an old or unwanted item for something else, in the same way an owner can sell or trade a tangible item like a Pokemon or baseball card. NYAG proposes to take away users’ ability to transfer their digital items from Valve games. Transferability is a right we believe should not be taken away, and we refuse to do that.”
It also claims that the NYAG wants to gather further personal data from Valve’s players — “beyond what we normally collect in the course of processing payments” — including “evasive technologies for every user worldwide.” The office is also demanding additional age verification, even though Valve stresses that most payment methods used by Steam users in New York already have age verification built-in. “Valve knows our users care about the security of their personal information, and we believe it’s in our and their interest to only collect the information necessary to operate the business and comply with law,” it added.
It also took issue with NYAG’s comments about the link between games and real-world violence, which Valve dismisses as “a distraction and a mischaracterization we’ve all heard before.”
Valve closed by writing: “We respect New York’s right to determine the laws governing behavior in the state. We will of course comply if the New York legislature passes laws governing mystery boxes — something it has not done despite considering the issue a few times. Such laws would be the result of a public process, presumably with input from the industry and New York gamers.” However, it claims the commitments demanded by the “went far beyond what existing New York law requires and even beyond New York itself,” and while it “may have been easier and cheaper for Valve to make a deal with the NYAG, we believed the type of deal that would satisfy the NYAG would have been bad for users and other game developers, and impacted our ability to innovate in game design.
“Ultimately, a court will decide whose position — ours or NYAG’s — is correct. In the meantime, we wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential impact to users in New York and elsewhere.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Pokémon Pokopia has launched big on Nintendo Switch 2, and sold 2.2 million copies over its release weekend.
Across four days, the new Pokémon life simulation game shifted 1 million copies in Japan alone, despite supply constraints for its physical version being reported in several countries.
Indeed, such has been the game’s popularity that Amazon recently raised the price of its boxed copy by $10, up to $80. Nintendo shareholders have also reacted positively to the game’s performance, sending the company’s stock price shooting upwards.
While 2.2 million copies is less than the 5 million already sold by Resident Evil Requiem, it’s important to remember that this game is an exclusive for Switch 2 — a console which still has a relatively modest userbase.
Just over 17 million Switch 2 consoles have been sold so far, meaning just shy of one in every eight owners also now has a copy of Pokémon Pokopia. The game has already beaten the sales to date of Kirby Air Riders (1.76 million) and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (less than 1 million on Switch 2).
The sales even compare quite favourably with those for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the highly-anticipated franchise title which introduced a new menagerie of Mega Pokémon. That has sold 3.89 million copies to date on Switch 2 since its launch last year (though was also available on Switch)
With a big launch and a very positive reception from both players and critics alike, Pokopia looks like a new evergreen hit for Nintendo as more players take the leap to Switch 2. Could it eventually become the best-selling Pokémon spinoff of all time? It seems possible. N64 classic Pokémon Stadium currently holds that title with 5.4 million sales, though the combined sales of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red and Blue are slightly higher, at 5.8 million.
Looking to join in the fun for yourself? IGN’s Pokémon Pokopia review returned a 9/10 score, and dubbed the game as “an enjoyable building and town simulator that capitalizes on the charming personalities of its monsters in a way that appeals to both the creative and collector alike.”
If you’re already playing, be sure to check out our list of all the Pokémon in Pokopia, and take a look at our Things to Do First in Pokopia guide to make the most of your first few days. To help you get started, we’ve also got a list of 17 things that Pokopia doesn’t tell you, plus How to Raise the Environment Level and How to Raise Pokémon Comfort Level.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
“I literally thought I’d retire from the place”.
Before Blizzard’s free-to-play multiplayer shooter Overwatch 2 arrived on the scene, there was the original paid experience led by game director (and fan favourite) Jeff Kaplan.
You might recall how Kaplan made an abrupt exit from the company behind Diablo and Warcraft in 2021, after almost 20 years of service. It left a lot of fans concerned about the future of Overwatch at the time, and now he’s finally broken his silence on Lex Fridman’s podcast.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Just in time for the movie!
Super Mario is currently celebrating his 40th anniversary, and one other announcement for MAR10 Day this week is a new Tetris 99 Maximus Cup and Grand Prix.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Silent Hill f is a part of a new generation for the legendary horror franchise, one that sees the ethereal and eerie titular setting extending its horrific manifestations into different places around the world. This title was an opportunity for us at NeoBards to harness what makes Silent Hill the psychological horror staple it is and shape a fresh new experience that brings the terror in both familiar and new ways.
I’m Al Yang, studio creative director at NeoBards and game director for Silent Hill f. I’m excited to share a slice of my Game Developers Conference (GDC) Festival of Gaming session for the PlayStation community, giving you all a behind-the-scenes look into the systems behind the first melee-only Silent Hill title.
In Silent Hill f, the secluded town of Ebisugaoka is consumed by a sudden fog in 1960s Japan, transforming lead character Shimizu Hinako’s home into a haunting nightmare. We initially spent some time considering what types of weapons we wanted to use from Showa-era Japan, doing some prototyping work along the way. With many horror games that emphasize action, there’s gunplay and other ranged combat in the majority of them. What if we flip the script here? It isn’t something horror players are entirely unfamiliar with, but not quite to the extent we’re proposing.
When players say they want to play a horror game and that they want to be scared, I think what they really mean is they want to feel tense. Jump scares are scary, but if you’re giving nonstop jump scares, players become numb, and it detracts from the atmosphere. The real fear lives in the anticipation and build-up, which became a guiding philosophy for how we built story and combat in Silent Hill f.
There’s intentional design that yields crucial tension for the typical survival horror experience. Slower rhythms with things like aiming and reloading, resource management and scarcity, and pacing. How do we translate these things into our game?
There is a lot of data across the history of survival horror on how to create tension despite the power of guns. For example, let’s look at resources when you encounter a monster in your path. Having 4 bullets in this situation creates a very different feeling from seeing that creature and having 100 bullets. The player’s fear and approach change entirely.
There are no bullets in Silent Hill f, so we showcase resource management with weapons breaking. Every time you hit a monster, you see the durability bar go down. But you don’t know exactly how much damage you’re doing. It isn’t like an RPG where you see numbers or a bar above the enemy’s head. Having concrete values shown significantly decreases the tension, as a large part of the tension of horror games relies on giving the player incomplete information.
How enemies behave is key as well. With guns, monsters will take shots to different body parts and keep shambling unless you hit them in the head or another critical spot, causing them to react differently. We deliver this with the Focus system. With patience and the right timing, you can do a counter or focus attack. It is like aiming down the sights with a gun, so you can hit those vulnerable spots.
If you get in a really meaty hit, you’ll see it in how the creature reacts. You’re not quite sure how close you are to defeating the enemy, but you know that your attacks are having an effect.
Just as important as building tension, it is important to have a period of release. A way to impact pace and inject those moments of tension release in combat is something we call a master key. It is a system breaker, entirely subverting the gameplay rhythm the player has been engaging with thus far.
Many combat systems can be distilled down to a rock, paper, scissors design, where certain weapons work better against certain monsters. That rhythm builds tension and, to release it, we have the master key. In a horror game with ranged combat, a master key could be a grenade or rocket launcher—a weapon or item that doesn’t care about balanced design and just damages your enemy no matter what. You don’t have to think; you turn your brain off and get this thing out of your way. Players are diverse and are challenged by different situations, so it’s important to have systems where they can choose when they want to break out on their own terms.
In Silent Hill f, that is the fox arm, which is a part of Hinako’s transformation throughout the game. The focus hit system I mentioned before is also a much lighter sample of that master key experience.
GDC is a major knowledge-sharing hub where developers and other industry professionals share insights into the many different things that bring your favorite games to life, and I appreciate this opportunity to give some insight into how the NeoBards team crafted a new survival horror title while respecting and engaging with the long history of horror gaming that has come before us. For those who have played or those who have yet to play, I hope you enjoyed getting some new insight into this game that we’re very proud of.
Nintendo says it believes in the idea that “it is more fun to destroy that which is beautiful,” which is why it stuffed hundreds of millions of voxels into at least one of the layers in Donkey Kong Bananza.
Nintendo producer Kenta Motokura and programmer Tatsuya Kurihara peeled back the layers of last year’s Nintendo Switch 2 Donkey Kong game during a GDC panel attended by IGN earlier today. The hour-long session offered a deep dive into the crust of what made the game special, including information about its ties to Super Mario Odyssey and, of course, its destruction mechanics.
Outside of his love for bananas, Motokura says one of the first things that comes to mind when many others think about DK is that “his arms are big and strong” and allow him to do things most humans are incapable of. The Nintendo team kept this in mind when challenging themselves to deliver a unique experience with Donkey Kong Bananza, which eventually led to its core feature: destructable environments.
Voxels, which Kurihara describes as 3D versions of pixels, were used in Super Mario Odyssey for elements like snow and cheese. Following that game’s launch in 2017, Nintendo experimented with the technology (one famous example saw the team strap arms onto a Goomba) before completely destructible terrain became the core feature in Donkey Kong Bananza.
Kurihara describes the game’s Canyon layer, just one of its 17 nearly destructible levels, as “rather big,” saying that it contains roughly 347,070,464 voxels. Each voxel on any one level can contain properties that include things like density, wetness, destructibility, and more. Voxels materialize as terrain and NPCs, and are always moving, with individual voxels also carrying varying resolutions, too.
Motokura, Kurihara, and the rest of the team felt each detail packed into the voxels helped make exploring layers more satisfying. It’s a complex, dynamic system that Nintendo strived to bring to life. DK’s destructible sandbox takes elements from Super Mario Odyssey and brings them to a new level, but achieving these goals was easier said than done.
Building a foundation on voxels while maintaining 60fps proved difficult, especially when the project was originally in development for the original Switch. It wasn’t until the technological advancements offered by the Switch 2 that the team was able to build DK and Pauline’s journey to the planet’s core with more freedom.
“There were times confusion permeated the team. There were even times when I wanted to say, ‘Oh, banana,'” Motokura said via translator, quoting DK’s Bananza catchphrase. “Even in those times, we understood each other’s ideas and continued forth, like when Donkey Kong gives a thumbs up.”
Donkey Kong Bananza launched exclusively for the Switch 2 July 17, 2025. Its DK Island and Emerald Rush DLC added new locations to dig through and mechanics to uncover when it launched for $19.99 in September. We gave the base game a 10/10 review upon its release, calling it “a truly groundbreaking 3D platformer, with satisfying movement, powerful abilities, impressive destructible environments, and clever challenges.”
Photos by Rebekah Valentine/IGN.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
In an unusual show of candour, Valve have spoken out publicly against a lawsuit filed in New York, USA that accuses them of “letting children and adults alike illegally gamble” via loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2.
With the caveat that I am no Atticus Finch-esque legal expert or even a Louis Tully-grade bumbler, I find Valve’s rebuttal to be a mixture of whataboutery and tactical mitigation, with a couple of fair points. It basically sidesteps what I think is the lawsuit’s most important argument – that lootbox mechanics are fundamentally manipulative. You can read the thing in full here, or you can read my slapdash summary-with-notes, below.
Edgar Wright-ing the Edgar Wrongs.
It has been a little over a week since Scott Pilgrim EX arrived on Switch 1 and 2, and today, Tribute Games has released its first proper update to tackle some of the post-launch issues.
The ‘Update 1’ patch — as it is titled on Steam — targets all sorts of progression blockers, softlocks and online multiplayer issues that have been reported since the game’s release. The following Switch-specific fixes were also applied to the Nintendo versions:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Even the beautiful sight of cherry blossoms and festive masks won’t stop the zombie horde from destroying everything in sight! My name is Julia Wolbach, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Dead Drop Studios. I’m delighted to introduce you to the Sakura Ridge district just as Outbreak: Shades of Horror joins Xbox Play Anywhere and adds cross-platform multiplayer!
No Place to Hide When the Infected Can Strike AnywhereThe many frights and blights of Cypress Ridge can now be experienced whenever and wherever with Xbox Play Anywhere. Looking for a quick four-player co-op online rush with friends? Hop into Raid Mode online on Xbox Live on your Xbox Series X|S console. Have time at work to make a little progress in the tense Chromatic Split: Enhanced Edition campaign? Craft the items you need to survive on handheld with the ROG Xbox Ally X. Prefer to get creative with artsy shots of a city under siege at your desk? Boot into the robust Photo Mode (usable across the whole game) on Windows PC and snap away. With Xbox Play Anywhere, when you purchase Outbreak: Shades of Horror, you can enter the fray on your preferred platform and pick up exactly where you left off with cross-save support. Need more? Cross-platform multiplayer across all versions of the game is now live!
The Ruined City of Cypress Ridge Expands with New Sakura Ridge AreaAs part of our major Spring update, players can now explore the scenic Sakura Ridge region in a stunning new map. Lay waste to and dismember legions of zombies as they ravage this once serene locale. Protect civilians for as long as you can by fortifying your defenses, building traps, and shooting the skin off of never-ending waves of enemies in Invasion Mode. Reach the evacuation point in a suspenseful Raid Modescenario where the longer you dawdle, the more difficult and powerful your foes become. Can you distract yourself from the gorgeous scenery long enough to avoid becoming a zombie chew toy?
Express Yourself with Unlockable Masks and More!When you load into Cypress Reel, the game’s feature-rich hub world, you’ll see the once-thriving theater has been decorated for the occasion! Take in the added pastel sights while you enjoy the game’s expansive content and modes. By completing special challenges and earning Seasonal Tickets, you can unlock seasonal cosmetics; this season marks the arrival of masks in Outbreak: Shades of Horror, and they can be equipped on any of the characters in your roster as you see fit. Combine them with the hundreds of already existing clothing pieces in the game to serve while you slay. Have you missed previous events? Don’t worry: you can still play previously added seasonal maps like Wordy’s Winter Wonderland and unlock older event rewards!
On top of upcoming seasonal and game crossover events, we are also hard at work on an ambitious new campaign. Story Mode will arrive in the future featuring sprawling maps with multiple paths, exits, and secrets, a gripping and emotional narrative, and even entirely new gameplay systems that we’ll reveal as we approach release. Existing owners of Outbreak: Shades of Horror will receive Story Mode as a free update when it’s available. Stay tuned for more details!
Until next time, may the gentle Spring air relax you…at least before you’re faced with a whole manner of nasty zombie brutes ready to tear you asunder! Happy surviving!
Dead Drop Studios LLC
BEWARE! Retro survival horror lives!
Outbreak: Shades of Horror is inspired by retro survival horror from the ’90s and ’00s! The title blends bleeding edge tech and modern gameplay mechanics with archaic concepts from the roots of survival horror, like a restricted inventory, heavy resource management, and crushing difficulty. If you’re an old hat, or a lover of the past, you’ll find a lot to love in the janky but crushing experience. If that’s not your jam, proceed with caution as this nightmare is unforgiving!
Welcome to Cypress Ridge!
Experience the harrowing beginning of a full-scale Zombie Apocalypse as it descends on the Midwestern city of Cypress Ridge. Start from the (relative) safety of the beloved local movie theater, Cypress Reel. Choose between a central cast of 9 characters, with loads more on the way, and then venture out into a city fundamentally changed with the goal to survive and outlast the mysterious horrors that have suddenly arisen?
Do You Want To Play a Game? Or maybe some shopping?
Between rounds of running and gunning, there is plenty to do at Cypress Reel. Shop ‘til you drop at Ferret’s Emporium, where you can earn new guns, weapon skins, and millions of different combos of clothing to customize your character just the way you like. If you are in the mood for a different kind of game, Cypress Reel Arcade has a vast array of small-scale mini modes to cleanse your palette before you go back to chasing zombie flesh. Can you survive the Boss Rush gauntlet? Will you be able to skip a creepy rural town in Looming Dread? Test your reflexes as you escape a flooding subway tunnel in Collapse! While short and sweet, these mini-games will put your skills through drills! Plus – with adjustable difficulties, there’s always new challenges to face.
Past Meets Present
Players will also have access to Outbreak: Shades of Horror Chromatic Split, the original prologue to Shades of Horror, and an all new side story, Trials of Hank.
Shades of Horror: Chromatic Split Enhanced Edition: Enjoy the classic, three act prequel to the main game, now enhanced with new weapons, items, and mechanics. Can Lydia get essential information from her contact in the Cypress Ridge underground before it’s too late?
Trials of Hank: While Lydia is traversing the underground in Chromatic Split, fan-favorite Hank hits the rooftops in this over-the-top side campaign where the answers to all of life’s problems are lead, explosions, and more lead! Will Hank complete his mission, or will the monsters that haunt the Cypress Ridge skyline be too much for him to handle?
Challenges and Events: Seasonal and game-crossover events begin immediately with a Halloween celebration and DINOBREAK-themed content and cosmetics. Players can enjoy fun decorations in the theater, thrilling seasonal maps, special challenges to complete, and unique rewards to earn. In addition, test your mettle with Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Crossover and Seasonal challenges.
The post Outbreak: Shades of Horror Devours XPA with Cross-Platform Multiplayer appeared first on Xbox Wire.
