Author: Game Infliction

War Thunder developer Gaijin Entertainment has apologized after using the explosion from the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in key art for the World War 2 massively multiplayer online game.

A forum post from community manager magazine2 said Gaijin “accidentally” used the explosion as it was part of a reference pack used by its artists. The explosion, which killed all seven crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger when the spacecraft broke apart 73 seconds after take-off, had a fairly distinct shape and was thus recognized by War Thunder players when used in the key art.

“Hey guys, we have accidentally used the explosion from the Challenger disaster in one of our key art images,” magazine2 said. “Please accept our sincere apologies for this. The picture was part of an aerial explosion reference pack used by our artists and the context was lost.

“We’ll be altering this artwork as soon as we can and will take measures to ensure that this doesn’t repeat again in the future.” Gaijin didn’t say what these changes would be and the image is still available on official channels.

This isn’t the first time controversy pertaining to real world events has surrounded War Thunder, though it’s usually in hot water due to real military documents leaking through its forums.

Documents related to the M2A2 Bradley Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicle were posted on the forums in December 2023, for example, and while not legally classified, still contained in-depth details the military considers sensitive.

Another instance saw an image of the DTC10-125 Tungsten Penetrator alongside a technical document detailing its specifications appear in June 2022. That followed others on War Thunder’s forums that revealed classified information on British Challenger 2 and French Leclerc main battle tanks.

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

Square Enix has asked Final Fantasy 14 players not to spoil the highly anticipated Dawntrail expansion upon its early access launch on June 28, 2024.

A blog post from Square Enix outlined the early access period, which begins at 2am Pacific / 5am Eastern / 10am UK and is available to anyone who preorders Dawntrail, but closed with a message asking players to be considerate to those waiting for the full launch.

“During the early access period, there will be no restrictions on what content you can discuss, post, or stream while following the Material Usage License Agreement,” Square Enix said, making clear spoilers will be out in the wild.

“However, we ask that early access users please be considerate and do their best to avoid posting spoiler-related content as there are those players who may start at the official launch or play at their own pace.”

The expansion officially launches July 2, 2024, but as it includes a major extension of the Final Fantasy 14 story, a whole new map, the Viper and Pictomancer jobs, plenty of raids and dungeons, and more, it will likely be much later before many players can experience everything.

Dawntrail promises to add a difficulty spike to the long-running MMO too, while a major graphical overhaul will refresh the entire Final Fantasy 14 experience. In March, chief developer Yoshi-P joked that Square Enix had hoped to release the early access a week earlier, but… “Elden Ring DLC.”

That was a reference to Shadow of the Erdtree, which came out on June 21. “We figured everybody would be interested in playing the Elden Ring DLC… I’ll give you one week!”

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

One of the developers of Steam and Xbox hit Palworld has teased the release of a PlayStation version.

Pocketpair community chief Bucky tweeted adding blue-colored hearts to Palworld’s existing black (PC), green (Xbox), and white (Mac) hearts. Blue is, of course, the color of PlayStation branding. With this context, a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 release now seems likely.

🖤💚🤍Palworld🤍💚🖤

I want to add more hearts, but not sure what colour would fit…hmm…how about….

🖤💚🤍💙Palworld💙🤍💚🖤

Looks good I think!

👀

— Bucky | Palworld (@Bucky_cm) June 22, 2024

Palworld, dubbed ‘Pokémon with Guns,’ launched in early access form in January 2024 on PC via Steam and on Xbox as a day-one Game Pass title. It saw enormous popularity overnight, becoming one of the biggest game launches of all time. But it’s also one of the most controversial. Pocketpair has said its staff has received death threats amid Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied. Soon after launch, Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue.

Player numbers have tailed off in the last half year, but the addition of a PS5 version would certainly provide Palworld with a shot in the arm. Whether Nintendo would greenlight a release on Switch is another matter entirely, of course.

Meanwhile, Palworld gets a major new update this week, called Sakurajima. It increases the level cap, adds new Pals, a new raid, a new faction and boss, and a whole new island. This update also comes with Xbox-dedicated servers, something the game had conspicuously lacked up to this point.

IGN’s Palworld early access review returned an 8/10. We said: “Palworld may crib quite a bit from Pokémon’s homework, but deep survival mechanics and a hilarious attitude make it hard to put down – even in early access.”

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.