Author: Game Infliction

Good morning, happy Monster Hunter Wilds beta day! And what a day it is! A quick glance at SteamDB this morning indicates that a lot of people are playing the Monster Hunter Wilds beta this morning: over 463k at some point in the last 24 hours, with plenty of room to grow further over the weekend.

As of this morning, the Monster Hunter Wilds beta is currently the fourth most-played game on Steam, behind only Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, and Dota 2. It’s managed to surpass GTA 5, Call of Duty, Naraka: Bladepoint, and even Banana, the weird game that’s consistently had massive player counts for months despite just being a game about clicking bananas. Anyway, yes, Monster Hunter Wilds is more popular than clicking a banana.

That player count will likely only continue to grow over the weekend, as well, given that the current player count as I’m writing this at 5:45am PT on a Friday is 424k. Will Monster Hunter Wilds dethrone Dota 2? We’ll see!

The Monster Hunter Wilds beta has technically been out since October 28 on PS5 via an exclusive two-day early access period for PS Plus members, but it landed on PC, Xbox, and for the rest of PlayStation uses yesterday at 8am PT. It runs until November 3 at 7pm PT. The beta includes the character creator, with the ability to transfer characters to the full game, a bit of story content, and a full hunt for the monster Doshaguma.

In our most recent preview of the game back in August, we were pretty pleased with what we saw. We called it “a Monster Hunter that embraces the parts of Rise that made it so much more inviting, but also doesn’t shy away from the larger scale and spectacle that helped make World the more enduring entry.”

In case you’re waiting for the full release, Monster Hunter Wilds launches in full on February 28, 2025, and Capcom has shared the system requirements for PC players. We’ve already seen a number of trailers previewing what to expect, including a recent new monster reveal that’s…a farting pink ape? Neat?

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Alan Wake 2 continues to be a success for Remedy, with the company reporting today it has recouped “most” of the development and marketing cost of Alan Wake 2 as of the end of September.

In its quarterly earnings today, Remedy reported that while the game is not yet generating royalties, it’s close to fully recouping costs thanks to continued strong sales. The studio has released two expansions for Alan Wake 2 this year that have likely helped – Night Springs and, more recently, The Lake House.

Alan Wake 2 shifting to generating royalties seems inevitable, and will likely be a big deal for Remedy. It’s the company’s fastest-selling game so far, selling 1.3 million copies as of March 20 this year. Currently, the company’s only major sources of ongoing revenue are sales of Control and older Alan Wake games.

Fortunately, it’s getting infusions of cash from partner companies for the purpose of developing more games. For instance, Annapurna Pictures recently entered into a partnership with the studio that will fund 50% of the development of Control 2, while Annapurna creates film and TV spin-offs of Control and Alan Wake. Remedy reports that Control 2 development is on track to start full production in 2025, with a number of critical features already implemented.

As for Remedy’s other games in progress, Codename Condor, Remedy’s multiplayer Control spin-off, was announced recently as FBC: Firebreak. Remedy reports that Firebreak is still in full production, and focused on iterating on the core loop and implementing UI for player clarity based on playtesting feedback. Meanwhile, Max Payne 1&2 Remake is making “steady progress” in full production.

For the quarter, Remedy reported revenue up 128.6% year-over-year to €17.9 million ($19.4 million), largely due to the one-time payment from Annapurna Pictures to develop Control, as well as other development fees taken from other sources.

Alan Wake 2 itself seems excellent, netting a 9/10 from our reviewer who called it “a superb survival horror sequel that makes the cult-classic original seem like little more than a rough first draft by comparison.” Its most recent DLC, The Lake House, is also excellent, and appears to be teasing Control 2.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

It’s been close to three years since the January 2022 reveal of Showa American Story, whose B-movie style trailer depicting 1980s America as a colony of Japan became a viral hit.

Updates have been few and far between since then, but IGN can now exclusively reveal a new trailer along with a 2025 release window on PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam). The game genre is described as an “end of the century romantic RPG fantasy ensemble period drama”.

The dramatic trailer introduces new boss character named Shogun, a tough-looking villain who holds a shield like Captain America, a fluttering cape, and floats like Superman against the sunset. Elsewhere in the video, we see Shogun riding on the back of a pitch-black giraffe.

Creative Director XY.Luo told IGN, “Shogun is a boss character who stands 6 meters tall. He uses the giraffe’s long neck to strike, and he can also fly, throwing his shield to attack the player.”

Luo explained that the battle against such an oversized enemy who rides on the back of an even taller beast will create an epic scale reminiscent of Monster Hunter.