More than two years on from Microsoft’s last mass round of layoffs, the company is laying off a huge amount of staff once again. As reported by CNBC, the tech giant is laying off 3% of employees across the entire company, meaning all levels, teams, and geographies. While nothing has been directly confirmed as of yet, this does include the possibility that some games studios it owns will be affected too – we’ll provide an update if there is one.
In a statement provided to CNBC, a Microsoft spokesperson said that the company will “continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace.” The spokesperson also said that one objective of the layoffs is to reduce layers of management. As always, a ridiculously heartless way to frame such a thing.
It’s been nearly six weeks since the Switch 2 Direct, and we’re now only three-and-a-half more away from the system’s launch. Overall, we were pretty impressed with the hour-long presentation Nintendo assembled to officially pull back the curtain at the start of April. Yes, some mixed messaging and unanswered questions could — and should — have been avoided, but the reveal itself contained loads of great games and a decent look at the hardware. A solid opening salvo after years of speculation.
If we had any notes, we probably wouldn’t have spent five minutes discussing a voice and video chat feature like it was some revolutionary new concept in video game communication. But hey, maybe with some distance from the announcement, we’d understand the angle and appreciate the approach a little more! Several weeks on, though, and we’re still not really sold on or excited about GameChat.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is set to release for Nintendo Switch, PS5, and PC on September 19. A remake of the 2004 JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, this new version follows the same adventure led by Joshua and Estelle, but with 3D graphics, new gameplay mechanics, and more quality of life improvements. You can preorder the game now at a variety of retailers (see it at Amazon). Read on for buy links, pricing info, and more.
There are no special, deluxe, or collector’s editions available for Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. So if you want it, the standard edition is your only option.
What Is Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter?
The original game, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, first released in Japan in 2004. It didn’t make its way to the West until 2011, when it came out here for PlayStation Portable. The game has two direct sequels, Trails in the Sky SC and Trails in the Sky the 3rd. The overarching Legend of Heroes series spans much more time, with entries releasing between the 1980s and now.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a remake of the first entry in this sub-series. In it, you play as Estelle and Joshua, two Bracers-in-training who travel around the world, helping people in order to earn full Bracer status. The main overarching storyline revolves around the mystery of what happened to Estelle’s father, who has gone missing. The game is known for its many characters and many lines of dialogue. It’s sort of a relaxed, slow moving, hang-out game that verges on visual novel territory at times. It’s great.
Instead of the PS1-style sprite-based graphics of the original, this remake features full 3D anime-style graphics that look basically like the Tales or Dragon Quest games. It looks pretty great, especially since the story of the original is so good. It will be nice to experience it with a more modern presentation. The original game is still available on Steam.
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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
Anyone that’s played a FromSoftwareSouls game knows how it tells its stories. You meet a wide range of characters, all of which mostly just talk at you in varyingly cryptic ways. There’s also tiny bits of lore offered up from weapons and items too, all of which build up a messy picture. But in something like the upcoming Elden Ring Nightreign, where the main focus is gameplay that encourages you to constantly be on the move, I’ve been left wondering how its story will play out. As it turns out, it’s quite different from the original Elden Ring.
For some time now, Tekken fans have been asking for a trip to Waffle House. Not in real life, mind you, but in-game. And while it sounds like Tekken 8‘s director is fishing for it, there hasn’t been a bit on the line from Waffle House.
Harada said he “fully understands” fans’ requests. So much so, in fact, that he’s already been thinking about it, and apparently taken action to try and make something happen.
“Over the past year or more, I’ve actually tried to make contact through several different channels,” said Harada on X/Twitter. “However, and this is purely my own speculation, I suspect that the lack of response may be due to the fact that the project I’m known for revolves around ‘fighting-themed video games.'”
To be honest, within the bounds of what I can say, I fully understand your (you guys) request—that’s precisely why I had considered taking on this challenge. In fact, I had already been thinking about it quite a while ago.
Harada noted that “no response” equals a very rare case. He also said if using a different name or format is acceptable, as long as “the core message is maintained,” then he would be willing to seriously reconsider and explore this again.
So it seems like Kazuya and Jin won’t be settling their familial differences beneath the yellow light of a Waffle House sign anytime soon. A parody version could happen though, or an in-universe facsimile. Harada suggested “Hustle House” in another post, which isn’t a bad option.
Tekken 8 is currently swinging into a new update with Patch 2.01, after confirming the impending addition of Fahkumram to the Tekken 8 roster. Back in April, Harada responded to fan frustration over Tekken 8’s Season 2, and said the tuning team is working “around the clock” to read feedback and work on future changes for the better.
Now, with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, that tradition lives on, with one player spending seven hours lining up books to get the Dominoes chain reaction just right.
Redditor Muaxh03 uploaded the video below showing their work. We see the books slowly fall and knock the following book in a satisfying fashion.
Muaxh03 said they did not use mods to place the books, rather placed them one by one, which sounds particularly grueling. They admit to spawning the books, however. The entire process took seven hours.
“… almost every time I loaded the save something broke, it was not reliable so yes I had to deal with books falling or glitching most of the time, that’s why you can see some desynchronizing on the books, some fall slower or faster,” Muaxh03 explained.
NPCs were disabled, of course: “I would lose my mind if there was NPCs walking around,” Muaxh03 said.
While this effort is a good start for Oblivion Remastered Dominoes, previous efforts in past Bethesda games were more elaborate and involved varied objects. But playing around with books in Oblivion, even Oblivion Remastered, is a lot harder than you might think because you can’t rotate and place objects in Oblivion in the same way you can in Starfield or Skyrim.
“I spent the first 1-2 hours trying to learn how to place them good, after that the stairs took 2-3 hours because every time I tested it, it gave me different results, every time I loaded the save something broke,” Muaxh03 said.
Reaction from Oblivion players has been universally positive, with a mix of disbelief at the time, effort, and patience that went into placing the books so precisely in a game as fiddly as Oblivion.
What next? “Cool now fill a bookcase!” joked one player. “I would sooner fight a god in hand-to-hand combat unarmed. Last time I tried to put a book back the whole room ended up in shambles — SHAMBLES!”
Oblivion Remastered, developed by remake specialist Virtuos using Unreal Engine 5, has a long list of visual and feature improvements. It runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, as you’d expect, but other changes are more meaningful. Everything from the leveling systems to character creation, and combat animations to in-game menus have been improved. Meanwhile, there’s lots of new dialogue, a proper third-person view, and new lip sync technology. The changes are going down well with fans, some of whom believe Oblivion Remastered would be more accurately described as a remake. Bethesda, however, has explained why it went down the remaster route.
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.
Earlier this year the Black Panther(‘s voice actor) suggested that Skydance New Media’s Marvel 1943: Rise Of Hydra would release in Christmas 2025. We all slept a little easier that night, knowing that King T’Chanda himself had all but rubber-stamped the WW2 action game’s launch window. Well, it turns out the Black Panther was lying to us. Skydance have just announced that it’ll now release in early 2026.
Nintendo has published a new Creator’s Voice video looking at the upcoming release of Borderlands 4 on the Switch 2.
It’s pretty much what we’ve come to expect from these videos at this point, with Gearbox developers Randy Pitchford and Randy Varnell hyping up the new console and explaining how it’s helped with game development.
A statement published by Skydance Games confirmed the delay, with the development team working to add polish. There’s a hint that Skydance may soon release new information or show a fresh look at the game, however.
Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is a narrative-driven adventure featuring Captain America, Azzuri, the Black Panther of the 1940s, Gabriel Jones of the Howling Commandos, and Nanali, a Wakandan spy embedded in Occupied Paris.
It hit the headlines early 2024 after an eye-catching trailer revealed as part of Epic Games’ State of Unreal event at GDC. It’s in development at the Skydance Games team, which is led by Hennig (Uncharted) and co-president Julian Beak.
Hennig’s Skydance team is also working on an untitled Star Wars game, which has yet to be fully revealed.
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.
GeoGuessr Steam Edition, a Steam reimagining of one of the world’s best-loved browser games, only released on May 8, but it’s already the second-worst rated game of all time on Steam.
The browser version of GeoGuessr is tremendously successful, boasting 85 million players and a whole host of customization options that let players tailor not only who they play against, but also what maps will spawn, if they’ll be dropped into an urban or rural setting, restrict spawns to certain geographical regions, toggle the ability to move, pan, or zoom — or not move, pan or zoom (NMPZ) — and more, including a smorgasbord of fantastic community-made custom maps.
Of the over 3,000 user reviews left thus far about the Steam version since last Wednesday, however, 84% are negative, with the majority of players complaining about the free-to-play game’s monetization system and stark lack of gameplay options compared to the browser edition.
In its defense, GeoGuessr does make this clear — in its FAQs, the developer states “having a GeoGuessr browser subscription does not grant you full access to the GeoGuessr Steam Edition, unless you have an Elite Yearly subscription” — and unlike the browser edition, which requires an annual payment, the Steam Edition Steam Pass is a “one-time purchase giving you access to the full game for the year.” It is also clearly marked as an early access title, so it can refine the gameplay, introduce new features, “and ensure the best possible experience with direct feedback from players.”
However, it’s clear from both the Steam discussion forums and GeoGuessr’s subreddit that the monetization model and lack of features has really taken players by surprise.
Though sold as free-to-play, GeoGuessr Steam arguably offers less than an hour’s free content (that’s how long it took us to complete it), hosts just one mode, Duels (wherein you ostensibly face-off against another human player), and lets you play in just one league: Amateur Division. That’s it. Without paying for the $2.50 monthly subscription — which does not bill monthly but instead requires a $30 upfront one-off payment — you cannot access higher ranks. There are no other modes at all at this time.
To be clear, GeoGuessr’s browser game is not free, either. While you can play three rounds a day for free, to unlock all modes, you need to subscribe to one of three premium tiers: Pro Basic at $2.49 a month, Pro Unlimited’s $2.99pm, or Pro Elite’s $4.99pm. Only the latter two include free access to the Steam game.
In an exclusive statement to IGN, GeoGuessr said it was “excited to have a first version of our game available on Steam, something that has been highly requested by our community for a long time.” It said that the Steam rollout “align[ed] with its vision of letting everyone explore the world, regardless of their preferred platform,” adding: “Bringing the game to Steam offers some great new possibilities, like connecting with Steam friends, enabling additional anti-cheat functionality, and so on.”
That anti-cheat functionality is hugely important to the GeoGuessr community, too. The browser game has long been plagued by cheaters using exploits, bots, or good ‘ole Google, despite it clearly being against the community rules, so it’s possible the developers hopes to lean on Steam’s architecture to help combat pervasive cheating.
“This is a major milestone for us, and also just the beginning,” explained head of marketing, Tomas Jonson. “The game is currently in Early Access, and we’re committed to expanding and improving both the free and paid experiences over time. Much of the feedback so far has been around the monetization of the game, with many wishing for a one-time purchase model.”
The developer said that as GeoGuessr relies on data from Google Street View, “where the costs for street view are ongoing and tied to the number of games played,” it based the Steam edition “on a model similar to what we use in the browser game.”
“The main exception that the Steam Pass is a non-recurring yearly purchase,” Jonson pointed out.
GeoGuessr suggests the Steam version will be in early access for “at least six months”, and it will “introduce new features and ensure the best possible experience with direct feedback from players.” It also states on its Steam page that it aims to “expand” the Steam game with “new modes, maps, and competitive features.”
“We really appreciate the high engagement and all the player feedback we have received so far. We’ll continue listening closely and working with the community as we further develop the Steam Edition,” Jonson concluded.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
