Author: Game Infliction

Former BioWare Lead Says Dragon Age: The Veilguard Team was ‘Jerked Around’ Due to EA’s Disinterest in the Franchise

Former Dragon Age series executive producer Mark Darrah says he doesn’t feel EA and BioWare efficiently supported his team during the early development of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

The ex-BioWare developer shed light on his time working on the legendary fantasy RPG franchise during a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel. His story recounts events that transpired throughout 2017 or, according to Darrah, “the most impactful 12 months in BioWare’s history.” He touches on not only decisions that affected the early development of last year’s Dragon Age game but how a change in attitude was tied to the final days of development on Mass Effect: Andromeda.

It starts in late 2016, when Darrah was moved over to the team that would handle the last stages of development on Andromeda. He says his “feeling at the time” was that the Dragon Age team felt “jerked around” and had “no support from BioWare or EA.” The hope was that Darrah could aid in getting Mass Effect out the door so the next Dragon Age could utilize more resources, though this ultimately didn’t quite pan out.

“This was the first time where we had this leadership discontinuity, where the person in charge of a project left that project to help someone else, some other project, while the project continued to run,” Darrah explained. “In the cast of Mass Effect: Andromeda, I don’t think the impact to Dragon Age was huge. It wasn’t very long, but it did set this precedent as this being a thing that we could do, and it’s not a good thing to do. It is incredibly dangerous to have a project run while it’s missing some of its core leadership.”

Mass Effect: Andromeda launched in March 2017 and, in Darrah’s own words, “it doesn’t go well.” Throughout this time, BioWare was still adjusting to a structural change that saw the team reporting to new leadership at EA that was “hyper interested” in its projects and plans. He calls the change dramatic, noting that the studio’s new bosses weren’t interested in continuing work on Mass Effect due to its recently troubled launch. However, Darrah didn’t feel like Dragon Age was getting the support it needed even after Andromeda was shipped.

The former BioWare lead says he approached current EA CEO Andrew Wilson and former EA executive Patrick Söderlund with his concerns and was reassured of Dragon Age’s importance to the company. While EA offered few resources in an attempt to maintain the studio’s work in the summer of 2017, Darrah along with the rest of the BioWare staff were told that studio veteran Casey Hudson would be returning. It was a major shakeup that staff was made aware of without notice.

“You have to remember: I am the second most senior person at BioWare,” Darrah said. “Casey was interviewed, and hired, and prepared to be brought back entirely without me being consulted in any way. Would me have being involved in the process have changed the decision? No, I don’t think it would have, but there is an immense amount of disrespect involved in making a hire of this impact, in making a decision of this import, without involving the second-most senior person at your studio in any way.”

Darrah then predicted that BioWare would shift its focus to Anthem. When his concerns were shared with EA, he was told that leadership was committed to giving Dragon Age the attention it deserved.

“As we all know, that’s not what happened at all,” he added.

EA’s interest in Anthem ballooned until its similarly troubled launch in 2019, all while Darrah felt his trust in the company was being “constantly hammered” and “constantly challenged.” Resources were continuously pulled away from what would eventually be known as Dragon Age: The Veilguard all the way through 2019, leading to what Darrah says were “fundamental” changes to the nature of the project.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard would go on to release in late 2024 as BioWare’s latest AAA fantasy RPG. Despite positive reviews from critics (we gave it a 9/10 in our review), EA painted its launch as a letdown, saying in February that it failed to “resonate with a broad enough audience.” These were comments former BioWare developers later pushed back on, with some suggesting the company should follow the lead set up by Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios.

Many Dragon Age developers were laid off in January of this year as the studio shifted its focus back to Mass Effect 5.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor 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).

GTA 6 Trailer 2 Delivers Massive Spotify Boost to The Pointer Sisters’ Hot Together

The Pointer Sisters’ Hot Together has seen a monumental increase in Spotify streams following its use in the new Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer, which premiered just yesterday.

Global Spotify streams for the 1986 tune shot up a staggering 182,000% in the two hours following the trailer’s premiere alone. Spotify numbers seem to have gone without an update since yesterday, as Hot Together still sits at just over 250,000 streams, though it sounds like that number will see a significant change in the near future.

“Grand Theft Auto cuts through popular culture like almost nothing else,” Spotify’s Global Head of Editorial Sulinna Ong said in a statement. “Music has been synonymous with the series since the very beginning, so it’s great to see fans both new and established connecting with an iconic track in this way.”

It’s now been 24 hours since Rockstar Games revealed its latest look at GTA 6, with the trailer itself already boasting an incredible 77.7 million views on YouTube at the time of this story’s publication. Hot Together’s newfound success is quite the sight to see, but it’s also far from a shock. When Rockstar’s latest saw its first trailer revealed in late 2023, the song it featured, Tom Petty’s Love Is A Long Road, saw a similarly massive boost in Spotify streams. Its popularity brought on such a moment for gamers that many began to spin theories about how it might connect to GTA 6’s story, though no such creativity has emerged for Hot Together – yet.

Rockstar is giving eager fans lots of good music to listen to while they wait for its (recently delayed) GTA 6 release date of May 26, 2026, to arrive. In the meantime, you can read up on some of the best Trailer 2 fan theories we’ve seen so far, as well as our list of 89 details Rockstar tucked into the video.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor 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).

After Some Said GTA 6 Trailer 2 Looked Too Good to Have Been Captured on a Base PS5, Rockstar Confirms It Really Was — and There’s Even Gameplay in There

Is GTA 6 Trailer 2 too good to be true? Some cast doubt on the small print shown at the end of the trailer that said it was captured on PS5, suggesting the footage came from either a PS5 Pro or a PC. Not so, according to Rockstar.

In a social media post, the developer said GTA 6 Trailer 2 was captured “entirely in-game” from a PS5, and not only that, but it contains “equal parts” gameplay and cutscenes.

Here’s the statement in full from Rockstar:

Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2 was captured entirely in-game from a PlayStation 5, comprised of equal parts gameplay and cutscenes.

With that in mind, it makes GTA 6 all the more impressive. The footage in Trailer 2 is astonishingly detailed, and, we now know beyond any doubt, running on a five year-old console. By the time of GTA 6’s May 26, 2026 release date, the PS5 will be five-and-a-half years old.

The developer wizards at Rockstar are working their magic once again, but their mention of gameplay in Trailer 2 also sparks questions about which moments it’s talking about here. The most obvious one, already picked up by the GTA 6 community, is what looks like a cutscene to gameplay transition moment when Jason enters his apartment.

In this part is the gameplay about to start?
byu/Silent-Ad-3862 inGTA

What else? GTA 6 fans will be going through the trailer as we speak to try to sort the gameplay from cutscenes.

While we wait to find out, we’ve got plenty more on GTA 6, including all the details we’ve discovered so far, a roundup of 70 brand new screenshots, and all the GTA 6 fan theories emerging from Trailer 2 itself.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Nikoderiko: The Magical World – Director’s Cut Released as Free Upgrade

In 2024, indie developer VEA Games released Nikoderiko: The Magical World, their love letter to classic platformers. Now, they’ve released a Director’s Cut that refines gameplay and adds new content, and they’ve offered it as a free upgrade.

If you missed out on Nikoderiko the first time around, it’s a family-friendly platformer with an art style inspired by Saturday morning cartoons. It stars mongooses Niko and Luna and can be played in single-player or couch co-op. You travel through the game’s varied worlds on a quest to retrieve an ancient relic stolen from you by the nefarious Baron Grimbold, and you can team up with animal mounts to defeat his Cobring army and save the local tribes.

Since the release of the base version of the game, the dev team has received extensive feedback from players and worked to improve on as much as possible with the Director’s Cut.

“We have a lot of emails; I personally read and answer every email,” said Dmitry Smirnov, founder of VEA Games and director of Nikoderiko. “We tried to implement all the necessary features you asked for. There are a lot of ideas for the game and how to improve the game. It really helps us to make a good game a great game.”

One of the biggest improvements to the Director’s Cut is the expansion of its difficulty options, which target a wider range of players and experience levels. For hardcore players, there’s a new Hard Mode with level modifiers.

“It will push players,” Smirnov said. “There are more challenges, more hard but honest mechanics. We would like to give you the experience of a soulslike game in a family platformer.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Easy Mode has been made easier, lowering the barrier to entry for younger players or those new to gaming or the platformer genre. It is a family game, after all.

“We decided to make it more accessible for kids and younger players,” Smirnov said. “While we were developing Nikoderiko, it was nice to know that my kids will be able to feel the same impressions like I did in my childhood.”

Keeping with the theme of making Nikoderiko accessible to as many people as possible, the Director’s Cut adds text and voiceover options for several languages, including German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. It also adds Steam Deck compatibility for the first time.

There’s also a new secret eighth world for players to unlock, with its own hidden treasures and new boss. With the new world comes new music from veteran composer David Wise, who composed the soundtrack for the base game. Wise has worked in gaming for more than 30 years and is probably best known for his composing work in the Donkey Kong Country series.

“On my fourth birthday, I got a present and it was Donkey Kong Country,” Smirnov said. “I always loved to play with my brother, and it changed a lot of my direction in life, because I was very inspired by the graphics and the mystical and atmospheric music.”

In addition to all the new content in the Director’s Cut, it also refines what was already there. Graphics have been upgraded, animations have improved, and performance has been optimized across all platforms.

If you’ve already bought Nikoderiko, the Director’s Cut is available as a free update and is compatible with your previous saved games, so you don’t need to start over. For the achievement hunters, the update adds new trophies and achievements on the appropriate platforms.

If you haven’t picked it up before, the Director’s Cut has replaced the base game on all platforms, so buying it now will get you the expanded version. It’s available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Amazon Luna, so it’s safe to say you probably have access to it. It’s also offered on sale pretty regularly, so you can always wishlist it on your preferred platform and buy it when it’s at a price you’re comfortable with.

For the collectors among you, a physical release was recently announced and is scheduled to release on August 22. The base game will be available on its own, and there will also be a Collector’s Edition that comes with the game, David Wise’s soundtrack on CD, and an official artbook with around 100 pages.

For more information, check out the game’s official website or join the community on Twitter for updates.

Best Xbox Game Pass Deals and Bundles Right Now (May 2025)

With so many great games coming down the pipeline, now’s a great time to hop on the Xbox Game Pass bandwagon. If some titles joining the catalog this year have caught your eye and you’re itching to join in on the fun, you can choose between one or three month Game Pass Ultimate membership options at Amazon. Unfortunately, there aren’t any discount deals available at the moment, but we’ll update this when a new one drops.

You can learn more about options for signing up, what’s coming soon to Game Pass this month, and the big releases still to come below.

Navigate to:

Best Xbox Game Pass Deals

While there aren’t any deals available at the moment, we’ve included where you can buy a one month Game Pass Ultimate membership above at Amazon. This will set you back $19.99. Amazon also has a three month Game Pass Ultimate membership option available for $59.99, if you want to stock up on a few months to get you started.

What’s Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass?

Game Pass has a nice rotation of new titles to play every month. If you’re curious about what’s in store for the start of May, we’ve got you covered. The Xbox Game Pass May Wave 1 lineup is:

It’s important to note that the Game Pass Standard tier (available for $14.99/month) does not give users access to day one releases – that’s exclusive to the Game Pass Ultimate tier. If you’re looking to play big Xbox exclusives and other new games on the day they release, you’ll need to be subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate.

What Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass?

Unfortunately with new games joining the catalog it means a few must take their leave. Below, we’ve listed the games that’ll be leaving Xbox Game Pass on May 15.

  • Brothers A Tale of Two Sons (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Chants of Sennaar (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Dune: Spice Wars (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Hauntii (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • The Big Con (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Biggest Games Releasing on Xbox Game Pass

Xbox’s Summer Showcase last June was a massive success, revealing an incredible amount of new games coming to the platform. The showcase included Doom: The Dark Ages, Perfect Dark, Fable, Gears of War: E-Day, and so many more. But which of these titles will appear as day-one releases on Game Pass? Thankfully, quite a few! Including all of the previously mentioned titles.

The latest big release on the platform is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In our review, IGN’s Michael Higham said, “Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 paints itself into the pantheon of great RPGs with a brilliant combat system and a gripping, harrowing story.”

If you’re looking for even more savings on all things Xbox, have a look at our roundup of the best Xbox deals. There, we’ve highlighted all of the latest and greatest discounts on the platform, from incredible game deals to fantastic offers on high-quality headphones. Or, if you’d rather see what’s going on with other platforms, check out our roundups of the best PlayStation deals, the best Nintendo Switch deals, and our overall roundup of the best video game deals.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

Despair at prospect of new PlayStation live service game lifted by mysterious mention of frogs

Sony have announced a new PlayStation studio made up of former developers of Destiny, Halo, League Of Legends, Fortnite, and Roblox, plus a few industry newcomers. Called teamLFG – where “LFG” stands for Looking For Group, not the other, naughty phrase you’re thinking of – they’re based in Bellevue, Washington, and are dedicated to “exceptional action-based gameplay, moment-to-moment game feel, and richly social virtual worlds”. Uuuuuurrrgh. Their first project is a “comedic” and “lighthearted” team-based action game set in a new science-fantasy universe.

The PlayStation blogpost announcing all this is a wearying paean to an idea of the live service game that dates back to the original Destiny in 2014. It’s written in the style of a cyborg that is trying to remember how to love. There is, however, a spark of eccentricity at the end that makes the labour of being preached to about engagement processes worthwhile: the team claim to be inspired by “frog-type games”. What is a frog-type game? A Frogger homage? A real estate sim about Finishing Rooms Over Garages? Did they just misspell “frag”? The mind froggles.

Read more

SEGA Announces English Voiceover Cast For Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut

David Hayter, Matt Mercer, and more.

Sega has announced the English voiceover cast for the upcoming Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut on Nintendo Switch 2, launching on 5th June 2025. In addition, the new theme song “Bubble” by Shōnan no Kaze has been introduced in a new trailer, which you can view above.

Headlining the cast is YouTuber and voice actor Yong Yea, who will be providing the voice for protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. Meanwhile, Topher Ngo will take care of singing duties during specific minigames. We’ve also got the likes of David Hayter, Matt Mercer, Kaiji Tang, Risa Mei, and more.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Meet the Cast of Empyreal – How Your Choices Can Create A Powerful Ally or Sworn Enemy

Meet the Cast of Empyreal – How Your Choices Can Create A Powerful Ally or Sworn Enemy

  • Joseph Rogers, Co-Founder & Creative Director, Silent Games

Summary

  • Empyreal is available on Xbox Series X|S on May 8
  • In Empyreal, character questlines and outcomes can differ wildly depending on your actions (or inaction).
  • New Game+ is a big focus for Silent Games – discover what the team is doing to make it a standout experience.

This week, everyone at Silent Games is preparing for the launch of our debut game. It’s been a long time in development and it’s a little surreal knowing that players will finally start exploring the world we’ve created.

Empyreal is an Action RPG set in a brand-new universe. The game begins “in medias res” as you arrive on an uninhabited planet to assist an Expedition that is attempting to explore a colossal Monolith built by an unknown, ancient, lost civilisation. Many of the Expedition Members believe they have found something that will have profound ramifications for all of humanity, but without your help they will not be able to realize their ambition in uncovering its final secrets.

So far much of the information we’ve shared pre-release has somewhat focussed on the Gameplay Mechanics and RPG Systems (of which there are many!). But today we are sharing a brand new “Character Trailer” highlighting the cast of Empyreal exclusively here on Xbox Wire.

This new trailer hints at the relationships you might build and some of the possible pathways in which their stories can unfold, each one featuring multiple – and wildly different – endings.

When the original story and structure of Empyreal was being refined, we had a clear distinction between “Story Characters” and “Vendor NPCs”. The latter intended to merely provide the player with various gameplay functionalities.

In the game code and our internal documentation, these “Story Characters” were designated as “VINPCS” – Very Important Non-Player Characters. This designation meant that these characters had lengthy personal questlines, offering the player character missions to run in parallel to the main story quest.

As we continued building Empyreal, we understood just how important these individual questlines were to the player’s journey and to fleshing out the universe. So, we ultimately did away with this distinction and created bespoke questlines for every character in the game, essentially upgrading them all to that “VIP” status.

The characters you’ll meet all have their own official role in the game as well as their own idiosyncrasies. Some might ask you for help right away, some might be very unimpressed with you, and you will need to work very hard to earn their respect while others have altogether more murky and questionable ambitions which you will only learn if you gain their trust.

Each of these “Character Questlines” explores a different facet of the human condition, based on the ideals of the individual themselves, the challenges they have faced, and what they hope to ultimately achieve.

You’ll also find that these characters are more likely to open up to you should you find their favourite drink to share with them in the Mess Hall at night. There are eight alcohols to find, each one corresponding to a specific character with  a fondness for that particular drink.

Character Questlines in Empyreal all feature multiple endings, with powerful unique abilities and mechanics to acquire if you manage to reach their conclusions. Depending on your actions (or inactions), the fates of these characters can be vastly different; one character may end up fighting by your side as a sworn ally but make different choices and that same character could ambush you and fight you to the death as a boss encounter!

These questlines a huge part of the game. It was very important to us to make every one of your many choices impactful. How each Quests ends very much depends on how you treat the Characters and your level of engagement with them. To have just the one outcome would mean your choices were just not very impactful. These Quests were also built to add more to the story. Bringing in the themes of each Questline allows the player the freedom to try different paths, depending on their own style, and to experience alternate outcomes in subsequent playthroughs if they wish.

To see them all, you’ll need to dive into Empyreal’s New Game+ mode. Rewards obtained from one ending to a Questline are kept in NG+ so it’s possible to collect all Rewards eventually.

NG+ has been a big focus for us at Silent Games, we wanted to ensure players have plenty to discover and experiment with during a second playthrough. You’ll be able toexperience all the quest endings you didn’t see during the first playthrough,as well as several features exclusive to NG+ which offer significant challenges, so you can really push your End Game Builds to the limit.

The narrative of Empyreal draws heavily from classical and existentialist philosophy, theology, and history and this is nowhere better reflected than in the character questlines. As you progress these quests and dig deeper into Empyreal’s themes and lore, perhaps you may even come across a little detail that piques your curiosity enough to look up its inspiration online and learn about the facts – or concepts – behind the ideas presented in the game. 

We can’t wait for you to jump into the world of Empyreal and start meeting the characters and uncovering their stories. Empyreal launches on Xbox Series X|S on May 8.


Empyreal

Empyreal

Secret Mode

☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★

Get it now

Empyreal is a complex, challenging, feature-rich action RPG.
In a far-flung corner of the galaxy an Expedition arrives on a hitherto unexplored planet to find a colossal Monolith built by a lost civilisation.

These are no mere ruins: the Monolith is filled with danger, and the Expedition is ill-equipped to unearth the secrets within.
All eyes turn towards an elite mercenary who may succeed where others have failed.
Venture inside the Monolith and face the automatons that yet remain, remnants of the impossibly ancient civilisation that built this unknowable structure. Survive and uncover revelations that transform our understanding of humanity itself.

Gameplay & Combat:
-Choose one of three weapon archetypes: The Glaive, The Mace & Shield or the Cannon. Each weapon has its own core move set giving each their own unique playstyle.
-Empyreal features a unique blend of RPG Systems and Skill-based Combat. Master the flow of combat with perfectly timed attacks, deflects, parries and even many Abilities that gain additional effects when perfectly timed.
-Find powerful new Equipment, adjust your stats via an extensive modification system and refine your build to perfection.

Abilities System:
-Empyreal features dozens of Abilities with a huge variety of effects including dealing damage, providing defence or healing, extra movement options and other utility.
-Find new Abilities as you progress through the game, many of the most powerful are well-hidden or locked behind lengthy Quests.

Extensive character customisations.
-Experiment with a multitude of Character Creation options or choose one of the 30 presets to jump straight into the action with.
-Choose your character’s background giving you a unique backstory and starting set of equipment. You will also occasionally have the chance to respond with special dialogue options which are specific to your background.

NPC Character Questlines:
-Each member of the expedition has their own personal questline. All of these questlines have multiple endings depending on your choices. It is even possible to fail them entirely…
-Paying close attention to your fellow expedition members will eventually grant powerful rewards but only if you stay the course.

Cartograms:
-One of the most important and unique features in the game. These ancient artifacts are blueprints for aspects you encounter in each level inside the Monolith.
-What enemies you face, what loot you find, how many lives you get, what elements you need a matching resistance to (and more) are all randomly generated. There are many ways each level is different depending on the attributes of the cartogram you use to access it.
-The levels themselves are all designed by hand, and you are rewarded for exploring; so find hidden details, shortcuts and seek out the secrets within.

Boss Battles:
-Each Cartogram contains an end boss. The selected Cartogram defines the loot table of the boss, and the chance of a drop. Epic boss battles enable you to target items you may need for future cartograms.

Sharing & Trading:
-Items including Cartograms can be shared with other players via a Mail system and a Trading Post.

Asynchronous Features:
-Although a single player game, Empyreal has a number of asynchronous features allowing you to feel the presence of other players inside the Monolith. One of these features is ‘Into the Aether’ allowing you to gift an item through a tear in the aether to another player, where it becomes “Aether Touched” and gains a significant stat boost.

The post Meet the Cast of Empyreal – How Your Choices Can Create A Powerful Ally or Sworn Enemy appeared first on Xbox Wire.