Cooperative healing in handheld hybrid form.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we’ll be running several features focused on how video games of all types have helped us through periods when we were struggling with our mental health.
Today, Tim speaks to therapists to discover how they are using Switch and video game therapy to help patients…
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!
Dear Villagers
The Land Between Us – May 13
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
A turn-based, rogue-lite action dungeon crawler. Use powerful skill combos and stylish weaponry to battle your way through the Underworld known as Annwn. Enjoy challenging dynamic encounters and discover the mysteries of this mythological world.
Top Hat Studios, Inc.
Athenian Rhapsody – May 14
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
A comedy RPG in which you’ll explore the World of Athens. Your goal is to build your very own Rhapsody – the story of you (the player) and your epic tale in this world. You’ll be faced with many challenges, and you’ll have to fight (or hug) your way through the world by either battling, or awkwardly trying to make friends with your opponents through esoteric knowledge, abstract jokes, memory games, and other strange and funny interactions.
Weakfish Studio Publishing
Chip and Charge – May 14
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery6
A classic arcade-style tennis game with customizable characters and equipment as well as a wide variety of game modes to choose from, like Bomb mode where you don’t let the ball hit the ground. You can also play co-op with your friends.
Afil Games
Ziggy – May 14
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Get ready to jump, slide, and unleash the power of the dash in a game that will test your abilities and your capacity for triumph. Conquer the 30 challenging levels and become the ultimate master of Ziggy!
Sometimes You
Awesome Pea 3 – May 15
Xbox One X Enhanced
The final chapter, now in shape of a fast precision platformer where you must run and jump through a series of challenging stages. What you’ll definitely find in this game: nearly 70 different stages to show your skill, stylish pixel graphics, and a chiptune soundtrack.
Thekla, Inc.
Braid Anniversary Edition – May 15
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Control the flow of time to solve subtle platform puzzles in this update of the indie classic Braid, featuring refreshed artwork and seriously in-depth creator commentary. Travel from a city house through a series of interconnected worlds where time behaves strangely, searching for an elusive Princess.
Eastasiasoft Limited
Electronics Puzzle Lab – May 15
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Awaken your inner engineer with the brainteasing circuitry of Electronics Puzzle Lab! In this fun and educational 3D puzzle game, your task is to inspect circuit boards and adjust power LED lights. Take a seat at your workbench, cut wires, flip switches and more as you trace the path of the current.
Silesia Games
The roads are broken again. And so are paths. Sidewalks. Lakes. Oh dear. And now it’s your job to fix them all! Each level gives you a limited set of tools that will help you get all the cars, boats, trains or animals from point A to point B. The mentioned animals include, of course, kittens, dogs and… cute ‘ol pink llamas.
Two Cakes Studio
Time Trap: Hidden Objects Remastered – May 15
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Time Trap is a hidden object game telling a detective story with distinct realistic visuals, puzzles, and challenges. A journalist has gone missing after investigating a hazardous disaster. Now it is your job to follow in his steps and uncover the secrets of the danger zone.
Midnight Works
Turbo Dash Kart 2024 Racing – May 15
Xbox Play Anywhere
Get ready for the ultimate adrenaline rush with our action-packed kart racing game. Choose your champion driver, customize your ride, and dominate challenging tracks to become the undisputed ruler of the asphalt jungle! Buckle up for a heart-pounding adventure where strategy and skill meet lightning-fast laps.
Chorus Worldwide Games
Read Only Memories: Neurodiver – May 16
ES88 is an esper tasked with capturing Golden Butterfly, a psychic entity hiding in the memories of others. Play as ES88 and join her cyborg colleague GATE, and the creature known as a NEURODIVER to help repair the memories Golden has damaged and stop them in their tracks in this “psy-fi” adventure!
Nightdive Studios
PO’ed: Definitive Edition – May 16
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
An adrenaline-pumping space shooter that features gameplay elements inspired by generational powerhouses Doom and Quake. Play as a chef who crash lands on an alien planet infested with extraterrestrial foes.
QUByte Interactive
A fast-paced action game where you take control of Musashi, the most famous warrior from feudal Japan, as he fights for his life against unspeakable monsters. The enemies come from both sides of the screen and must be attacked with precise blows to bulging weak spots shown in their bodies. Challenge your friends to see who the most precise warrior.
ChiliDog Interactive
Claws & Feathers 3 – May 17
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
The birds and cats are back in an all-new puzzle adventure that sends them soaring across the galaxy in search of a new home! When a zombie apocalypse ravages their home planet, the birds set off for the stars. But they’re not alone. Their eternal rivals, the cats, snuck on board and will do everything they can to make the journey an unpleasant one!
Ratalaika Games S.L.
FoxyRush – May 17
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Foxy is a little fox who loves to eat cherries. One day, his supplies were stolen! Now he must go through many levels and collect all the cherries to get his supplies back. Run, jump, slide on walls, cling to ropes, and dodge various traps and enemies!
naptime.games
Not Not – A Brain Buster – May 17
Xbox Play Anywhere
Ready to push the limits of your brain and challenge your intelligence? The ultimate brain-busting challenge is finally here! Do exactly what the cube says in a limited amount of time to test your reflexes and your thought processing speed.
Merge Games
Mordbid: The Lords of Ire – May 17
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Morbid: The Lords of Ire is a continuation and reinvention of the critically acclaimed isometric Souls-like ARPG Morbid: The Seven Acolytes with the heroic Striver returning once more to do battle with horrific creatures in a dark and twisted world of pain and suffering
Dead Drop Studios LLC
Outbreak The Fedora Files: What Lydia Knows – May 17
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
Super and extra-natural phenomena around the world are officially disavowed. In the United States, these phenomena are unofficially investigated by an elite squad of agents known as the Federal Disaster Organic Response Agency, FEDORA. These are their stories…
NintaiStudios
Spellcats: Auto Card Tactics – May 17
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Experience the excitement of collecting and summoning a wide variety of magical cats, each with their own unique abilities. Use these feline allies strategically to overcome challenges and vanquish enemies. From a small alley kitten to a majestic mountain cat (literally a mountain), the power of these cats will be at your command!
The post Next Week on Xbox: New Games for May 13 to 17 appeared first on Xbox Wire.
God of War: Ragnarok is the next PlayStation exclusive to launch on PC, according to a fresh report.
Reliable PlayStation Store leaker billbil-kun, writing for Dealabs, claimed Sony Santa Monica’s hugely popular action game will soon land on PC, although they failed to offer a release date. An announcement, billbil-kun said, is set for sometime in May.
God of War: Ragnarok launched on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in November 2022 and was a monster hit with critics and players. It became the fastest-selling first-party game in PlayStation history, shifting 5.1 million units in its first week. As of November 2023, God of War: Ragnarok had sold over 15 million copies. Last year’s Valhalla DLC was equally well-received. A PC release this fall would come two years after the game’s console debut.
Sony has form when it comes to launching its games on PC, with Guerrilla’s Horizon Forbidden West, Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 1 all launching on Steam in recent years. Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima launches on PC on May 16 having launched on PS4 in July 2020.
This is all part of Sony’s increasing push to make more of its PlayStation games by releasing them on PC also, but it has so-far resisted the temptation to follow in Microsoft’s footsteps by launching its console exclusives on PC at the same time. There have been a handful of exceptions, however. This year’s smash hit shooter Helldivers 2 launched on PC and PS5 with cross-play, but it’s worth noting that Arrowhead’s game revolves around co-op and live service, as opposed to single-player story.
Sony is yet to comment on the latest report, but rumors are swirling that it is set to host a State of Play broadcast in May.
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.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is a sprawling role-playing game that usually requires hundreds of hours of gameplay before players can reach Level 80 and fight the infamous Ebony Warrior, but one player has condensed all that down to less than 10 minutes.
Speedrunner and YouTuber nucular uploaded his record-breaking Skyrim Ebony Warrior speedrun (which can also be viewed below) where he defeated the foe, which only appears at Level 80, in just nine minutes and 55 seconds. How the heck? Well, it’s complicated.
Speaking to IGN, nucular broke down his extensive strategies and reason for doing so, explaining the run was conceptualised by legendary Skyrim speedrunner Waz, who held the previous world record of 14 minutes and 27 seconds.
But the methods used by Waz could be improved upon, nucular said, as they used an outdated version of something called the Restoration Loop, Skyrim’s best-known method of gaining a bunch of levels really fast.
The Restoration Loop works by drinking several Fortify Restoration potions in order from weakest to strongest, which multiplies their effectiveness exponentially. Items with a Fortify enchantment then get a serious buff due to Fortify being classed as a Restoration effect.
“By crafting and drinking a Fortify Restoration potion, re-equipping your Fortify Alchemy gear, and repeating, your Alchemy and Restoration effect multipliers will buff each other in a positive feedback loop until you can make extremely powerful potions,” nucular explained.
“This will give you an extreme amount of XP; enough to instantly raise your Alchemy from 15 to 100, so you can then reset it to 15, allowing it to be raised again.” Myriad items and gold are required to make these potions, of course, but a couple of simple vendor glitches allow these to be acquired easily.
Levelling in Skyrim is based on these skill increases, and once maxed out skills can be reset to gain experience from them again. Level 80 can therefore easily be attained using this method of gaining and resetting levels, but moving through the myriad animations required to do so can slow things down considerably (in the context of speedruns).
It’s this element that nucular focused on when he set out to beat Waz’s time. “All of the techniques in Waz’s run are essentially standard practice in Skyrim speedruns,” he said. “Since the run had no major mistakes, I needed to get creative if I wanted to beat it.”
But nucular detected two shortcomings in the strategy. “First, his Fortify Restoration loop could’ve been made faster simply by making more than one potion each time he used the alchemy lab,” he said. “It’s not entirely necessary to re-equip the Fortify Alchemy gear every time you craft a potion, and doing so would require duplicating the ingredients only one or two more times while greatly reducing the number of times Waz needed to go through the slow animation of entering and exiting the alchemy lab.
“Second, as soon as he was able to make extremely strong potions there were faster ways he could use that to power level some skill other than Alchemy. Some others pointed out that he could make a batch of extremely valuable potions at once and sell them individually to repeatedly increase the Speech skill to 100.”
The 14-minute run still required a lot of time, effort, and practice, of course, so no-one attempted to beat it themselves. But nucular’s attention was grabbed when YouTuber Sickliff outlined a technique dubbed “Superstacking”, which was claimed to be “an easier Restoration loop.”
Superstacking has players repeatedly click an enchanted item in their inventory to stack its enchantment effects, meaning if, for example, a Fortify Health +40 Ring was clicked 100 times, the player would gain 4,000 health.
“This sounds extremely useful, and can potentially be used to significantly speed up the Fortify Restoration loop by reducing the number of alchemy cycles, but it has some hefty requirements,” nucular said.
Players must be a Werewolf or Vampire Lord before they’re able to use Superstacking. This is because no pieces of apparel have valid meshes for these character models, and there are four specific items which don’t have valid meshes for specific races. This essentially means certain items can’t be equipped properly while in these forms and a bug is triggered that duplicates the enchantment.
Three of the four items, the Bone Hawk Amulet, Falmer Gauntlets, and the Worn Shrouded Cowl, are relatively hard to get in the context of speedruns, but the fourth is a simple Gold Ring, which can be crafted with just a Gold Ingot. Gold Rings don’t have valid meshes specifically with Khajit Vampires, and this obscure bug would lay the foundation for nucular’s first unconventional speedrunning decision.
Standard practice sees players choose the High Elf race because they have the highest movement speed of all Skyrim characters at 1.08. Male Khajits have a movement speed of 1.0 while female Khajits have a speed of 0.95, meaning nucular’s choice of race already put them at a disadvantage on paper.
Skyrim speedruns begin when players gain control of their character’s movement, “which is just a rule the whole community agreed on a long time ago for convenience, so we don’t have to sit through the whole carriage ride at the beginning of every speedrun,” nucular said.
His unconventional decisions didn’t stop with choosing a Khajit, however, as choosing to become a vampire also set them on a different route. Skyrim speedrunning typically sees the player literally jump out of the starting town of Helgen via a hole the dragon Alduin makes in a tower, instead of having to follow the typical route of moving through the sewers to emerge in a cave near Riverwood.
The usual speedrun route sees players escape to a nearby cave and use a technique called Load Warping to essentially trick Skyrim into thinking their bound hands from the start of the game have been untied by replicating an old save. The player can therefore continue as normal, running for a horse in anticipation of the next step.
The new technique changes things up though, as nucular instead heads straight for Haemar’s Shame to perform the Load Warp, as this is where he can become a vampire. While this is a lot farther than the usual spot, it’s right next to a horse “so it’s actually only a few seconds slower”, nucular said.
Horses aren’t needed for their natural speed increase, however, as by this point nucular has already performed a sprint glitch by pressing sprint, quick saving, releasing sprint, and quickloading in succession. This allows jumping while sprinting and stops stamina being consumed too. Horses are instead required for a movement glitch dubbed Horse Tilting, which lets the player move at supersonic speed across the map as long as there’s a body of water at the end for safe landing.
Now nucular had to decide on a destination, but as Gold Ingots or Gold Rings aren’t sold by any blacksmiths or jewellers or even equipped by any of Skyrim’s non-player characters, he had to think outside of the box again. Thankfully, an island to the north east of Windhelm has a random pile of Gold Ingots sitting on it.
The route to this island came with the added benefit of passing over Windhelm, meaning nucular unlocked the city’s fast travel point while shooting over it on a sound barrier-breaking horse. He therefore could travel back to Windhelm immediately after obtaining the Gold Ingots and carry out the rest of the speedrun there.
Now it was time for nucular’s own version of power levelling. It started the same as standard speedruns do, by brewing some potions, but instead of using the Restoration Loop, nucular used the exploit to make one super powered Fortify Smithing potion and one super powered Fortify Health potion, raising his Alchemy skill to Level 100 in the process. He then used the smithing potion to craft an incredibly powerful weapon (taking his Smithing to Level 100 too), gave it to a hired follower, provoked them, and survived the incredible hits with the Fortify Health potion.
“I could level my Block and Heavy Armor skills to 100 in a single hit,” nucular said. “This reduced the number of times I needed to open the Level Up menu from 18 to eight, since I’d already levelled Alchemy and Smithing to 100, so I just needed to level Block and Heavy Armor eight times each.
“I could quickly reset them both too in the same menu, because they’re conveniently right next to each other in the skill tree. I already made my super weapons, so once I hit Level 80 I can just walk outside and one shot the Ebony Warrior.”
This is an infamous, incredibly strong enemy in Skyrim who only appears once players hit Level 80, challenging them to a duel to the death. But instead of accepting his invite to meet later for the battle, nucular’s single attack brings the Ebony Warrior down before he even gets a chance to speak.
Using this unconventional strategy, nucular achieved a time of 14:27 and thus achieved a new world record for the Ebony Warrior speedrun, but unsatisfied with that alone, he then dropped it to 13:50, 11:47, and 11:25 in just a few days. But crossing the 10 minute mark required a bit more tweaking.
After experimenting with Horse Tilting further, nucular discovered a route which would take him right over Shor’s Stone, unlocking its fast travel point, on the way to the Gold Ingot island. Riften guards patrol this area, so doing something illegal would have nucular quickly taken to the city’s jail.
There was some risks with going to Riften though. Only one vendor sells enchanted gear, and just one at a time, meaning if nucular couldn’t get the Fortify Alchemy equipment on the first attempt he’d lose time resetting it. Additionally, the only follower in Riften is the magic-wielding Marcurio, meaning nucular would instead have to reverse pickpocket a regular NPC and provoke them into attacking, which could take some time.
Some of these concerns were soon mitigated, however, as the blacksmith in Shor’s Stone actually had a much better chance of stocking the required gear than the one in Riften. The city also has easily accessible ingredients for the Fortify Health and Fortify Smithing potions.
Reverse pickpocketing an NPC, meaning placing an item on them instead of taking one away, was still a challenge though. “It was surprisingly difficult to find a suitable NPC for this,” nucular said. “You want them to have a maximum Confidence value so they don’t flee from fighting you, but they can’t be already holding a weapon that they prefer it over the weapon you give them.
“I settled on the blacksmith in Shor’s Stone since he was right next to a grindstone where I could make the super smithed weapons, but since he doesn’t have a maximum Confidence value, I had to buy the Courage spell and cast it on him so he kept attacking me.”
But despite these additional complexities, nucular’s strategy worked, and he was able to drop the time to 10:17 before finally reaching his goal of getting under 10 minutes with the 9:55 final time. This is without loading times, a common mitigation in speedrunning communities so PC performance doesn’t affect results, but with loading times it came to 10:52.
“Getting under nine minutes without loads (and under 10 minutes including loads) is possible with my current route, and I do have a few ideas for how a time under eight minutes could happen eventually, but I’m taking a break from Ebony Warrior for now,” nucular said. “If someone beats my time, I’ll come back.”
In the meantime, nucular has his sights set on more of Waz’s records. “I’m going to beat as many of Waz’s times as I can,” he said. “A lot of his speedruns that are still world records actually used outdated techniques.”
But beyond that, nucular wants to plant his flag in the first serious take on an all Achievement run of Skyrim. This “is a category that no one has really taken seriously before,” he said. “No one has taken the time to plan out such a long category before. At least no experienced Skyrim speedrunner has done so, so I’ll be the first.”
An all Achievement run, as the name suggests, means unlocking all 75 Steam achievements for Skyrim, a feat which takes 80 to 100 hours of dedicated regular gameplay. It’s unclear how long nucular will bring it down to, but it will certainly be a lot shorter than that, and you can keep up with his progress (and other speedruns) on his YouTube page here.
Speedruns are one of the many ways players are still entertaining themselves with the 12 year old game. But as The Elder Scrolls 6 is still several years away, Skyrim will have to last a little longer. New technology is one way to keep things interesting, with one player creating a mod which lets their Twitch chat voice NPCs and another adding haptic feedback suits to an already $15,000 set up, letting them feel real pain when hurt in game.
The most sentimental of fans recently booted up their old Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s to “retire” their original characters too, showing how much Skyrim has remained in player consciousness in its more than a decade on the market.
In our 9/10 review of the beloved RPG, IGN said: “Skyrim is a rare kind of intensely personal, deeply rewarding experience, and one of the best role-playing games yet produced.”
Image and Video Credit: nucular on YouTube
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Xbox president Sarah Bond has indicated Microsoft will launch 2024’s Call of Duty game straight into Game Pass.
Earlier this week, The Verge reported that Microsoft was still debating whether to release this year’s Call of Duty, reportedly a Black Ops game set in the Gulf War, day-one on its subscription service. The same report claimed Microsoft is mulling a Game Pass price hike, too.
Microsoft has faced tough questions around the potential cannibalization effect of Game Pass, particularly on games that launch on the service day-one. While Xbox executives have insisted sales can be boosted by a game’s presence on Game Pass, some publishers remain unconvinced. Unlike Microsoft, console rival Sony does not release its new exclusives straight into its subscription service.
Call of Duty, of course, is another matter entirely. Having splashed out $69 billion on Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s gaming business is reportedly under increased financial scrutiny. This is one of the factors cited in reports surrounding Microsoft’s shock decision to shutter Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall studio Arkane Austin.
Will Microsoft risk negatively impacting Call of Duty sales by releasing the game day-one on Game Pass, or risk upsetting Game Pass subscribers by failing to do so? Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg’s Dina Bass at Bloomberg Tech in San Francisco, Xbox president Sarah Bond strongly suggested Microsoft has decided to bite the bullet and release Call of Duty 2024 straight into its subscription service. While she failed to namecheck Call of Duty, Bond said all Xbox games will release day-one on Game Pass.
“We know our core users love Game Pass,” Bond said. “Game Pass is a gaming subscription. You get a whole portfolio of games, but importantly, you get every single one of our games that we build day-one in Game Pass, and the quality and the breadth of those games has only been going up over time. You’re going to see some more really big games going into Game Pass later this year.
Bond was then asked if this included Activision games. “Across the whole slate,” Bond replied. “You’re going to see some really amazing things. And keeping that as something that is really special for Xbox players is central for us.”
That’s a clear sign that Call of Duty 2024 is a day-one Game Pass title, but of course it will also launch across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC as a game that can be bought outright, too.
With Game Pass subscriber numbers failing to grow meaningfully Microsoft is under pressure to attract new customers, and adding a mainline Call of Duty game at launch will no doubt help with that. But Microsoft is also under increasing pressure to reverse its gaming fortunes amid collapsing console sales and increased development costs. Selling video games, especially those at full price, will surely help with that.
Microsoft is set to hold an Xbox showcase event in June, where it will reveal this year’s Call of Duty and, reports indicate, announce the arrival of the Call of Duty back catalog in Game Pass.
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.
Open world fantasy RPG Runes emits a deeply powerful aura. I can tell it’s deeply powerful because MSI Afterburner’s fan control immediately went mental after I loaded up its free Steam combat demo. What do you mean ‘unoptimised’? That alarming sound is simply my computer shaking with awe at the fearless flippancy required to leave enemies fully untextured so they resemble Metal Gear Solid’s cyborg ninja. The promise of an indie fantasy RPG drew me in, but I must admit, I almost didn’t bother writing about this upon learning the demo is just a pre-Kickstarter combat slice. But something about it entrances me. What it lacks in textures, it makes up for in sheer moxy. You can’t optimise moxy! You can either make MSI shudder in terror or you can’t.
Update: Coming to Japan this July.
Update :
Well, it seems the leaks were spot on, as the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom soundtrack is very much a legit thing and is heading to Japan on 31st July 2024.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Xbox president Sarah Bond has responded to questions about Microsoft’s decision to shut a number of much-loved studios this week, insisting it was about ensuring the Xbox business remains healthy for the long-term during what she called “this moment of transition.”
Microsoft shocked the gaming world when it announced the closure of Redfall and Prey developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts targeted at Bethesda owner ZeniMax.
Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, the parent company of developers like Bethesda, Arkane, id Software, and more, in 2021 for $7.5 billion. Since then, it has bought Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.
In an email to staff sent by Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft blamed the cuts on a “reprioritization of titles and resources.” In the email, first reported by IGN, Booty said: “we are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games.”
Microsoft has faced widespread criticism from the development community and Xbox fans following the move, with many pointing out that Hi-Fi Rush was a critically acclaimed and, according to one Xbox executive, hugely successful release.
Not enough?#HiFiRush #TangoGameworks pic.twitter.com/3OLhYAPbxU
— KazuakiEgashira (@ega1002) May 9, 2024
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg’s Dina Bass at Bloomberg Tech in San Francisco, Xbox president Sarah Bond was first asked about the video game industry’s current lack of growth — a troubling factor Xbox boss Phil Spencer pointed to recently when asked for an explanation for Microsoft’s decision to cut 1,900 staff from its gaming business.
“You know, the last year or so in video games, largely the industry’s been flat,” Bond replied. “And even in 2023, we saw just some tremendous releases, tremendously groundbreaking games. But still, the growth didn’t follow all of that. A lot of that’s related to our need to bring new players in and make gaming more accessible. But all of that has been happening at the same time that the cost associated with making these beautiful triple-A blockbuster games is going up, and the time it takes to make them is going up.
“And so, so much of our focus as Xbox is about how we do things to help the industry all up, while also ensuring that our brand, everything that we do, is there through this moment of transition.”
Bond was then asked directly about this week’s decision to close ZeniMax studios. Responding, she pointed to the industry’s current failure to meaningfully grow its audience, and a desire to ensure Xbox survives this “transition.”
“You know, it’s always extraordinarily hard when you have to make decisions like that,” Bond said. “I’ll go back to what I was saying about the industry. And when we looked at those fundamental trends, we feel a deep responsibility to ensure that the games we make, the devices we build, the services that we offer are there through moments, even when the industry isn’t growing and when you’re through a time of transition. And the news we announced earlier this week is an outcome of that, and our commitment to make sure that the business is healthy for the long term.
“But that said, our commitment to having our own studios and working with partners to have games large and small, we’re a platform where you can play GTA, but you can also play Palworld, where you can play Call of Duty and you can also play Pentiment, that doesn’t change. And frankly, our commitment to Bethesda and the role that it plays is part of Xbox and everything we do.
“It’s actually been pretty fantastic. I don’t know if you’ve gotten a chance to check it out. The Fallout TV show was on Amazon and it’s been great to see people fall in love with that universe, but also what it’s done for the games themselves and people going back and exploring everything that’s inside of that. There’s some other great things that are coming from our studios later this year. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I was a big Indy fan growing up. It looks like you were two, so you should check that out.
“But really right now for us and our teams, our focus is on the people impacted and doing everything that we can do to help them through this hard transition.”
Bond was then asked specifically about the closure of Tango Gameworks in the context of Hi-Fi Rush’s success, and how it can be possible that a studio behind an award-winning, apparently commercially successful title can be closed just over a year from release.
Here’s Bond’s response:
“You know, one of the things I really love about the games industry is it’s a creative art form. And it means that the situation and what successes for each game in the studio is also really unique. There’s no one size fits all to it for us. And so we look at each studio, each game team, and we look at a whole variety of factors when we’re faced with making decisions and tradeoffs like that. But it all comes back to our long term commitment to the games we create, the devices we build, the services, and ensuring that we’re setting ourselves up to be able to deliver on those promises.”
Bond’s answer here is already going viral for failing to properly address the issue at hand. As IGN has reported, Xbox leadership held a town hall meeting with ZeniMax staff on Wednesday, May 8, and during it attempted to answer key questions around the decision to close Bethesda studios. IGN understands Booty told staff the closure of Arkane Austin was not about the failure of last year’s disastrous Redfall, rather about the future prospects of the studio. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has reported that ZeniMax was under pressure to make significant cuts, and chose Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin because they were in the process of pitching projects that would have required increased investment, rather than studios already working on greenlit games. One person in attendance at the meeting told IGN that the suggestion was that because these studios were currently pitching new games, they had the weakest legs to stand on when it came to picking who to cut.
In the town hall meeting, Booty reiterated that Hi-Fi Rush was a success, but, according to a person in attendance, staff were told the factors for that success had changed in the year since, and so the studio’s prospects had lowered. As has been reported, Tango Gameworks had pitched Hi-Fi Rush 2 as a follow-up project. IGN understands the Hi-Fi Rush 2 pitch was rejected in part because it was deemed too expensive.
Underpinning all of this is concern about the overall health of the Xbox business and the wider gaming industry. Microsoft, currently worth more than $3 trillion, faces declining revenue year-over-year for its gaming business when Activision is taken out of the equation, as well as stagnant Game Pass subscriber growth. Sales of Xbox consoles have collapsed at a time when development costs are rising. Add this to reported increased internal scrutiny on Microsoft’s gaming business following the Activision Blizzard acquisition, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Image credit: Bloomberg Live / YouTube.
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.
Former Microsoft senior PR lead Brad Hilderbrand has blogged about the recent closure of Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, making a familiar case that Microsoft’s gaming division are now expected “to cut expenses to the bone” in the wake of the wildly expensive acquisition of Activision Blizzard and amid slowing growth of the Game Pass subscription business. In Hilderbrand’s view, Game Pass will likely never be sustainable or profitable. Microsoft’s only chance on this front, he says, is “to put all the world’s biggest games on the service” – namely, Call of Duty, which still earns hundreds of millions annually in direct sales, or GTA 6, which, hahahaha.
Better late than never.
Developer Innersloth has shared a new roadmap for Among Us covering the remainder of 2024, even if a good chunk of the year has already passed.
As you can see, we already got The Fungle, and coming soon the game are “new roles”. Beyond this point, there are plans… “in no particular order” for a better lobby filter, prettier lobby settings, cosmetics, collabs, and a bunch of quality-of-life changes.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
