Kingmakers has too much going on to easily summarise, but I’ll try. Really, though, you should just click below and watch the trailer, which will surprise and delight you with its twists and scope in a way my words will not.
Legends never die.
Last month, Riot Games announced a substantial number of layoffs within the company, and one of the casualties was the Riot Forge publishing arm. Over the last few years, Riot Forge partnered with various indie developers to produce a diverse lineup of single-player games set in the world of Runeterra, and these games all proved to be pretty good while being completely different from each other. Presumably, whatever projects it had in the works for the rest of this year have all been cancelled, making the latest release—a cozy RPG called Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story—the last hurrah of Riot Forge. Bandle Tale offers a decent, enjoyable take on a Stardew Valley-esque life sim, and though it has its issues, it feels like a good send-off for one of Riot’s most interesting initiatives.
Bandle Tale is set in the mystical realm of Bandle City, which is linked to the expansive land of Runeterra via magical portals. You play the role of a humble yordle living with their grandpa in the quiet region of Yarnville, which is mostly disconnected from other yordle settlements. Events kick off when you sneak out with your best friend to attend a party, where you inadvertently cause an enormous magical incident with a nearby portal that destroys the entire portal network and throws the entirety of Bandle City into disarray. Luckily, your character has been training for the past century in a magical form of knitting, so they set out to repair the damage done to the portal network and explore the other yordle settlements that they never got to see.
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Our first look at Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will arrive in the form of a trailer tomorrow morning, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have announced.
The game’s official X/Twitter account revealed the news in a social media post, promising to deliver a first look at the long-awaited DLC at 7 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. EST. The developers have not said what exactly it’ll show, but the video’s description at least promises a three-minute trailer.
The first trailer for #ELDENRING Shadow of the Erdtree will be revealed in 16 hours. Join us at 15:00 UTC.https://t.co/vdG8dJvcet pic.twitter.com/lBbKJYxW2z
— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) February 20, 2024
Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC was announced around one year ago, promising to add on to FromSoftware’s already gigantic action RPG world. The only official information we’ve received since then, however, is a look at some appropriately foreboding concept art. The Dark Souls developer revealed in November 2023 that development on the new content was “proceeding smoothly” while players continued to wait patiently. However, tomorrow’s trailer will provide our most substantial look at the new adventure yet.
Tomorrow is proving to be a busy day for gaming fans. Just before we take a peek at Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Nintendo will debut a new Direct focused on some of its partners and the games they hope to release in 2024. The FromSoftware DLC, meanwhile, is still without a release date, but let’s hope we hear a concrete schedule tomorrow.
Elden Ring was released on February 25, 2022, meaning its two-year anniversary is just on the horizon. In our 10/10 review, we said, “Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path.”
For more on Elden Ring, be sure to read up on the project’s recently announced mobile spinoff. While FromSoftware finalizes its work on the DLC, there’s always the chance we have even more from this world to look forward to.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
Gigantic, the free-to-play team brawler from a former StarCraft and Guild Wars designer, which launched (fully) in 2017 and closed the following year, is returning as Gigantic: Rampage Edition. It’s no longer free-to-play, but a “premium and definitive release” of the original, and it’s due on April 9th.
Phil Spencer appears to be dispelling recent rumors that Xbox is fully ditching physical disc, while remaining clear-eyed about the increasing consumer demand for digital games.
In a recent interview with Game File, journalist Stephen Totilo asked Spencer about a slate of rumors last month that Xbox was shutting down its physical game production divisions, exacerbated by leaked court documents showing an enhanced, all-digital Xbox in the works. Though Spencer made a point to address a number of the recent Xbox rumors in a podcast and Xbox Wire post last week, he skipped over the physical games question until pressed on it in the Game File interview.
“Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive,” he said. “And this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. And when you think about cogs that we’re going to go put in a console — and as you have fewer suppliers and fewer buyers — the cost of the drive does have an impact.
“But I will say our strategy does not hinge on people moving all-digital,” he added. “And getting rid of physical, that’s not a strategic thing for us.”
He also told Totilo that the reports Microsoft had laid off people on the teams responsible for physical games, while true, were more about “alignment of our teams across ZeniMax, Activision and Xbox. So we have teams that are in charge of physical retail, inclusive of selling games in physical outlets. So that’s what the team action was. It wasn’t about us getting rid of the capability.”
Digital gaming has been on the rise ever since it was introduced, and in recent years a number of publishers have seen it make up an overwhelming share of their total sales. For instance, Take-Two just reported earlier this month that 95% of the company’s total net bookings were digital. Though Take-Two is an extreme example, other publishers aren’t far behind, making it unsurprising that companies like Xbox might at least back off of releasing every game as a physical edition. And indeed, games such as Alan Wake 2, and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name are foregoing discs entirely even as companies like Best Buy start to phase out physical media sales.
For now, it seems Xbox is committed to continuing to offer at least some physical games. But don’t be surprised if more and more games across all publishers go digital in the coming years.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
In 2023, more than 500 games earned more than $3 million (around £2.3 million) in gross revenue via Steam, according to Valve. The stat was shared as part of their annual summary, a breakdown of the platform’s past year in terms of new features and performance.
“I made sure to preserve what I believed to be valuable”.
Shiren the Wanderer is one of the longest-running roguelike series in the world. Debuting back in 1995 as the second entry in the Mystery Dungeon series, Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer introduced the world to the young boy who would explore many procedurally-generated dungeons over the next few decades.
Amazingly, despite being such a long-running franchise, there are actually only five mainline games in the series, and twelve in total (counting mobile games and spin-offs), but Shiren has a loyal following. In the West, we were oblivious to these endless tower-climbing, dungeon-trawling adventures until 2008’s punishingly difficult Wii title, Shiren the Wanderer.
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Hey Xbox Insiders! We are releasing a new Xbox App for Windows build to Xbox Insiders who are enrolled in the PC Gaming Insiders preview! Thank you all for being Xbox Insiders. Continue read to learn about fixes and known issues. Make sure that you update the Xbox app, and Gaming Services to ensure you get all of the fixes!
New Versions of PC Gaming prerelease products:
Xbox App version: 2402.1001.20.0
Game Bar version: 7.124.2141.0
What’s new?
Xbox App Bug Fixes:
Game Bar Bug Fixes:
How to Get Xbox Insider Support
Don’t forget! If you encounter any issues, you can leave feedback by navigating to the feedback option on your profile menu.
You can also provide feedback, as well as interact with the community, on the Xbox Insiders Subreddit. Please be as specific as possible when providing feedback.
When posting to the subreddit, please look through most recent posts to see if your issue has already been posted or addressed. We always recommend adding to threads with the same issue before posting a brand new one. This helps us support you the best we can!
For more information regarding the Xbox Insider Program follow us on Twitter. Keep an eye on future Xbox Insider Release Notes for more information!
Thank you to everyone who participates in the Xbox Insider Program! Your feedback helps us continue to build a great gaming experience in the Xbox app on PC.
The post Xbox Insider Release Notes – Xbox App [2402.1001.20.0] appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Helldivers 2 Patch 1.000.10 is starting to roll out on Steam and PS5, which developer Arrowhead hopes will address some of the numerous issues that fans have encountered over the past week.
Chief among them are issues with matchmaking and server issues, as well as the PC black screen problem. Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt wrote on X/Twitter, “Patch going out now. Highlights include resolved matchmaking and prep for increased server load. Let’s gooo!”
Patch going out now. Highlights include resolved matchmaking and prep for increased server load. Let’s gooo! pic.twitter.com/tjWS9PZ6zI
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) February 20, 2024
In addition to the problems listed above, the Helldivers 2 patch also addresses ragdoll momentum, tunes the difficulty for the extract civilian missions that have been wrecking players, and implements an automatic retry mechanism for quickplay.
Helldivers 2 has been a hit since its release, even sparking renewed interest in Starship Troopers, the film from which it draws quite a bit of inspiration. We praised it in our review as the “rare modern multiplayer game that does almost everything right.” Over the weekend it passed the all-time Steam concurrent record set by Grand Theft Auto 5 despite a server cap intended to address stability issues.
But while well-received among fans, Helldivers 2 has been wracked by the “servers at capacity” issue among other problems since launch, with some fans refusing to log out to ensure they keep their spot. It’s been bad enough that even Pilestedt has cautioned against buying the game until its issues can be full resolved.
In the meantime, you can read the full patch notes below. For more, check out our Helldivers 2 best weapons tier list and the Terminids and Automatons Enemy List.
These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
It appears Lady Gaga is going to make an appearance in Fortnite Festival, as the singer is teasing an upcoming collaboration with Epic Games.
In a post on X/Twitter, Gaga posted an image of what appears to be her Fortnite character but is masked by a bright light and smoke. The bottom right corner of the screen reveals a Fortnite Festival-related announcement is coming on February 22.
*fortnite https://t.co/1FwPHmMfRJ pic.twitter.com/9BSG6S23zh
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) February 20, 2024
The more interesting part of this is Lady Gaga made this teaser post by quoting a post she made on X/Twitter over four years ago when she asked her followers (and anyone who saw the post) what “fortnight” is, with the singer more familiar with the Fortnite franchise given her proper spelling of Fortnite in the most recent post.
Lady Gaga is the latest musical artist to collaborate with Epic Games and the Fortnite property. Previous examples include the Travis Scott Astronomical event held in Fortnite nearly four years ago, which had the rapper performing a concert live inside Epic’s widely popular free-to-play battle royale. More recently, The Weeknd debuted a new music video for his song “Popular” in the Fortnite Festival.
In our review of Fortnite Festival, which scored a 4 out of 10, my colleague Luke Reilly wrote: “Fortnite Festival’s limited, isolating gameplay and overpriced tracks may turn Fortnite players into rhythm game fans, but it won’t turn rhythm game fans into Fortnite players.”
Despite a rough start when it was released last December, including a lack of support for plastic instruments, Epic said that controller support is a “priority” for Fortnite Festival. Additionally, we exclusively revealed last month that PDP is teaming up with Epic to release a new wireless guitar that is compatible with Rock Band 4 (and eventually) Fortnite Festival.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
