Author: Game Infliction

Daniel Vávra, co-founder of Warhorse Studios, has denied a recent rumor that Saudi Arabia had banned Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 over an unskippable gay cutscene.

2018’s Kingdom Come Deliverance is a story-driven action role-playing game set in the medieval Kingdom of Bohemia. It pitches itself as an historically accurate representation of the setting, but its lack of people of color became a talking point in the months following release.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, due out February 4, 2025, once again leans on historical accuracy for its return to medieval Bohemia, but players can expect a slightly different experience. Warhorse has said that, because protagonist Henry is embarking on a journey from the countryside to a relatively cosmopolitan city that is besieged and occupied by an invading king, he will encounter a wide range of ethnicities and characters this time around.

The claim that Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was banned in Saudi Arabia reportedly emerged from a tweet by a Saudi Arabian news outlet, and was picked up by western media and spread across social media and forums.

Now, Vávra has taken to social media to deny the claim and provide clarification on how Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 works. Vávra tweeted to say it does not have unskippable cutscenes and was not and is not banned in any country, “at least not that we know of.”

Vávra then pointed to the fact that the first Kingdom Come Deliverance had gay characters, and said players are responsible for their in-game decisions. “If you want Henry to try a same-sex adventure, feel free,” Vávra insisted. “If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. All affairs are (and were in KCD1) purely optional. The characters are perfectly aware that it was a forbidden sin.”

Following the Saudi Arabia ban rumor, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 became the latest video game to be singled out for being “woke” or including “forced diversity” — a growing online trend that some developers and publishers have felt the need to counter in recent months.

In September 2024, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot responded to a backlash against Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Black samurai protagonist to address “an important problem of perception that has been affecting the company’s performance.”

“I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda,” Guillemot continued. “We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”

As part of his response to the online backlash against Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Vávra made it clear that he doesn’t like “forced diversity,” insisting “nobody was forcing us to do anything, and we are not forcing anyone to do certain things.” He then reiterated comments Warhorse had already made about why the sequel is more diverse than its predecessor.

“The game takes place in one of the richest cities in Europe which was besieged by a massive foreign army,” he said. “That´s the reason why the life in such a city is more diverse than the life in villages which were featured in the first game.

“Musa came to Bohemia with an invading army as a member of the royal court of King Sigismund, whom he met thanks to his engagement at the court of Sultan Bayezid. He’s an educated noble and renaissance man from the Kingdom of Mali.

“At the same time, Musa is a very unusual figure for the local Bohemian folk, and many of the situations around him in the game stem from this. So his presence makes sense and creates lots of interesting situations in the game. The way he talks and behaves has a reason.

“Everything displayed corresponds to the morals and social norms of 1403 Bohemia and is only there to make an interesting story, and not at all to appeal to a ‘modern audience.’”

“Modern audience” is a now common phrase used online to deride games that are perceived to be appealing to a diverse audience. In the ongoing culture war, “modern audience” has become a meme, and is referenced in the downfall of everything from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League to Concord.

Vávra concluded his response by hitting back at the anti-woke brigade whose fears he had worked to assuage. “Some of them sadly turned into exactly the same narrative they pretend to be fighting against,” he said. “The amount of hateful behavior is really sad and it will damage any cause associated with it.”

When contacted by IGN, Warhorse and publisher Plaion pointed to Vávra X/Twitter thread.

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.

Palworld released in Early Access one year ago today and, to celebrate, developer Pocketpair has revealed its 2025 roadmap includes crossplay, a final boss, and more.

An X/Twitter post revealed the “future roadmap” and then asked fans to continue supporting Palworld in its second year, suggesting all of this will arrive in 2025 (and perhaps the first three weeks of 2026). “We’ve been updating the game since the start of Early Access, and we’ll continue to update Palworld as we prepare for the official release,” Pocketpair said.

Alongside cooperative crossplay and a final boss and “ending scenario,” Pocketpair revealed “world transfers for Pals,” further ways to strengthen and improve Pals, “various new content such as new Pals and technologies,” and game collaborations such as the one with Terraria.

Also coming are improvements to world object placements, improvements to base Pals, improvements to optimization, and improvements to the user experience.

Pocketpair obviously didn’t mention what could be its biggest event of 2025 — the conclusion of its legal battle with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo.

Palworld, an open-world, multiplayer survival game dubbed “Pokémon with guns” by some, gained a staggering 25 million players in one month when it launched last year. Many drew further comparisons between it and Pokémon upon release, claiming various Pal designs were practically direct copies of official pocket monsters.

The Pokémon Company said in January 2024 that it intended “to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights” but went quiet for months after. Finally, however, in September 2024, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced it had launched a patent lawsuit against Pocketpair.

The developer didn’t appear particularly deterred by the lawsuit, initially saying “we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon” before going on to release Palworld on different platforms afterwords, and even release one of its older games on Nintendo Switch.

It later revealed the lawsuit was directed at patents that involve a catching mechanic: Pokémon are famously captured with Pokéballs, and Palworld are caught with a spherical object called a Pal Sphere.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Hollow Knight fans have been through the wringer recently, with cryptic X/Twitter activity from one developer sparking rampant speculation that the hotly anticipated follow-up Hollow Knight: Silksong will finally re-emerge at Nintendo’s Switch 2 Direct in April — and potentially even release on Nintendo’s next-gen console as a timed launch exclusive.

It all started when supersleuths on the Hollow Knight subreddit noticed that on January 15, co-director of Team Cherry William Pellen had changed his Twitter/X profile picture to a picture of a chocolate cake. Alongside this, Pellen tweeted: “something big is coming. keep your eyes closed tomorrow.”

At the time, Nintendo’s Switch 2 reveal was rumored for January 16, and so it proved — that was the day Nintendo finally announced the Switch 2. Had Pellen really asked followers to keep an eye out for the Switch 2 reveal? If so, why?

Fans then reverse-searched the picture of the cake, leading them to a recipe for Brooklyn Blackout Cake on cooking website Bon Appétit. The date the recipe was published: April 2, 2024. The date of the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct is April 2, 2025.

Fans also wondered what Pellen’s new X/Twitter handle, @everydruidwaswr, meant, if anything. Redditor Representative-True speculated that the “wr” in “everydruidwaswr” was the start of a word, perhaps “wrong,” or perhaps stands for “was wrong,” and pointed to the Druid of the Moss Temple Silksong NPC as evidence of… something.

Pellen had a new X/Twitter name to go along with the new handle and profile picture: “little bomey.” Fans noticed Little Boomey is a wine from Southern Australia, where Team Cherry is based, but the spelling is different. The upshot of all this was that some fans thought Pellen had kicked off a Silksong alternate reality game (ARG), but over the weekend comments appeared to pour cold water on this theory.

First, Hollow Knight YouTuber fireb0rn tweeted to say Team Cherry marketing and publishing chief Matthew ‘Leth’ Griffin had got in touch “to confirm there was no Silksong ARG and that the changes to William’s account and the tweet were a nothingburger. Apologies to have misled everyone. The cake was a lie.”

And in a post on the Hollow Knight Discord, Griffin backed this up, saying: “It wasn’t [an ARG]. But it was still some impressive sleuthing skills by the fans… like ya’ll are WAY beyond those 2020 riddles now.”

Griffin himself followed up to respond to one fan who wondered if Team Cherry had given up on Hollow Knight: Silksong. “Yes the game is real, progressing and will release,” Griffin tweeted.

This has done little to calm all the speculation, as you can perhaps imagine. And at the time of this article’s publication, Pellen’s tweet remains online. Pellen himself has yet to explain whatever his X/Twitter activity is all about, either.

It’s worth remembering that when Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced, Team Cherry confirmed the launch platforms as Windows, Mac, Linux, and Nintendo Switch. But that was six years ago. We have a few months to find out what this all means, but in the meantime, check out everything announced at Nintendo’s Switch 2 reveal.

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.

There is “hope” among some within the video game industry that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be priced between $80 and $100, one analyst has said.

In a wide-ranging presentation on the state of gaming in 2025, Epyllion CEO Matthew Ball said Rockstar’s guaranteed mega-hit “could re-establish packed video game prices after decades of deflation despite rampant cost growth.”

GTA 6, due out fall 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, is the long-awaited follow-up to 2013’s record-breaking GTA 5. Analysts have projected it will make an eye-watering $3 billion in its first year on sale, with $1 billion in pre-orders before it even launches. It seems likely that GTA 6 will be the biggest entertainment launch in history, with revenue ahead of any film.

But how much will GTA 6 cost the gamer? Most triple-A video games cost $70 as standard after a $10 price hike that kicked in with the current generation of consoles in 2020. Could Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two use GTA 6 as an opportunity to go higher five years later?

In his report, Ball reported that “some gamemakers hope GTA 6 will be priced at $80 to $100, breaking the $70 barrier and helping $50 titles to move up to $60, $60 to do $70, $70 to $80 etc.”

While this price hike would certainly raise eyebrows with the video game audience, Ball argued that a $70 GTA 6 would be the “cheapest” GTA game ever released, in real terms. That is, when taking inflation into account. In real terms, $91 would be average, Ball said.

“Packaged game prices have never been lower in real terms than they are today — even though budgets are at all-time highs and player growth is stalled,” Ball said in the report. “GTA 6 could re-establish packed video game prices after decades of deflation despite rampant cost growth.”

Ball’s report has sparked a discussion about the value of video games and the likelihood that Rockstar would actually go through with an $80 to $100 price range for GTA 6. Reacting to Ball’s comment, Michael Douse, publishing director at Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian, tweeted: “You’re not supposed to say this out loud!”

He continued: “A good company raises salaries in-line with inflation so that their staff don’t die or something, but games prices haven’t risen with inflation. This isn’t the reason the industry is in the shit for now, but it is an uncomfortable truth. On the other hand, the responsibility for a game developer is to make sure that the game they show lives up to that promise, and that investment from the player.”

There are a number of burning questions when it comes to GTA 6, including how exactly Rockstar will package the release. With GTA 5, Rockstar threw in its mega money-spinner GTA Online for free. Will it do so again with GTA 6? Could the single-player portion of GTA 6 be sold for the standard $70, but if you want GTA Online as well it will cost you more? And what about the inevitable microtransactions? Will pricing for those in the new GTA Online rise as well?

Taking to social media to follow-up on his report, Ball said he doesn’t actually think Rockstar will go to $100 with GTA 6, betting instead it will stick with $70 or at a push go for $80. “What I said is many in the market hope for $80 if not $99.99,” he clarified.

Might a price hike spark a backlash, though? “Can’t really speculate on a game that is barely even revealed,” Ball continued. “But the $70 bump from $60 in 2020 (which bought under three years of inflation control) was pretty without issue.”

Whatever price GTA 6 ends up selling for, its huge projected revenue is up against similarly huge development costs, estimated from the high hundreds of millions to as much as $2 billion. There’s a lot riding on GTA 6, then, but not just for Take-Two and Rockstar. In March last year, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella predicted Rockstar’s surefire hit would spark “renewed interest” in video games, before going one step further: “There’s probably never been a more important thing to ever release in the industry, so no pressure.”

GTA 6 is the kind of game that will sell consoles, too. Sony’s PS5 Pro will no doubt benefit greatly from interest in GTA 6, too. Let’s remember: GTA 6 is not coming out on PC at launch; to play you must own a PlayStation or an Xbox.

The almost guaranteed success of GTA 6 comes amid one of the toughest periods for the video game industry in recent memory. More than 33,000 people have lost their jobs since 2022, with huge layoffs at the likes of Microsoft and Sony. Indeed, Take-Two itself has suffered layoffs and studio closures.

All eyes are on Rockstar for a firm GTA 6 release date, or, as some are predicting, a delay into 2026. While you wait to find out, IGN has much more on GTA 6 to check out, including an ex-Rockstar dev who says the studio probably won’t be able to decide whether GTA 6 is delayed until May 2025, the boss of Take-Two’s coy response on whether GTA 6 is coming to PC, and the expert opinion on whether the PS5 Pro will run GTA 6 at 60 frames per second.

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.