Author: Game Infliction

LA Billboard Shouts Out ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’ Game Studios Ahead of Major Showcases

Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and more “gone but not forgotten” video game studios were honored by a Los Angeles billboard ahead of this week’s major summer showcases.

Spotted by Stephen Totilo on X/Twitter, the electronic billboard was created by publisher New Blood Interactive in the wake of brutal industry lay-offs and studio closures.

“Gone but not forgotten,” the billboard reads, before listing affected studios and their 2024 closing dates: Arkane Austin, Roll7, Tango Gameworks, Volition, and Sony’s London Studio. It also shouts out “everyone laid off, downsized, and made redundant.”

“Thank you for your great games from your friends at New Blood,” it added. “We love you. We mss you. We hate money.”

Microsoft shut down Redfall developer Arkane Austin alongside Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire Tokyo developer Tango Gamework in May 2024 in a move met with shock and anger by industry peers and fans. Xbox owner Microsoft posted a 17% increase in revenue and $21.9 billion in profit in its latest financial earnings report. Xbox executives have blamed the move on the video game industry’s lack of growth and a need to prioritise other games and studios.

OlliOlli World developer Roll7, meanwhile, was seemingly shut down by Take-Two Interactive in the same month despite its CEO Strauss Zelnick refusing to confirm this in an interview with IGN and dodging follow-up questions. Last month IGN reported on how the closure of Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games and Roll7 are a part of a larger move by Take-Two to either sell off or shut down the entirety of its indie label, Private Division.

“Thank you for your great games from your friends at New Blood. We love you. We mss you. We hate money.

The embattled Embracer Group shut down Saints Row developer Volition in 2023, while Sony shut down its London Studio in March 2024 amid layoffs affecting 900 staff across the PlayStation business.

The billboard will be seen by many still in the video game industry as it looms over downtown LA in the lead up to a number of summer events, including Summer Games Fest, a showcase featuring several high profile announcements in the place of defunct video game event E3. Microsoft is set to host an Xbox showcase followed by a Call of Duty Direct, where it will unveil Black Ops 6.

Xbox and PlayStation are both confirmed as SGF partners, though Nintendo, as usual, is a no show. As for what to expect, a LEGO game based on Horizon: Zero Dawn, Sonic X Shadow Generation, what’s seemingly a console version of Amazon’s New World, and Civilization 7 have all leaked.

Image Credit: Stephen Totilo on X/Twitter

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

Civilization 7 Leaks via 2K Games Website

An announcement for Civilization 7 appears imminent after an image for the game was spotted on 2K Games’ official website.

As spotted by users on ResetEra and Reddit, the banner for the unannounced strategy sequel was briefly available on the 2K website homepage and even pointed to a currently non-existent trailer and Steam page for wishlisting before it was removed. The leak suggests an announcement at Summer Game Fest today, June 7. 2K is yet to comment.

In May, Summer Game Fest said 2K Games would reveal the “next iteration in one of its biggest and most beloved franchises” during the show. The tease instantly got fans speculating on the possibilities, with many wondering whether BioShock 4 would finally be revealed after a five year wait. Others suggested it might be Mafia 4 or Borderlands 4. It seems likely now that the tease is related to Civilization 7.

Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 was developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K on PC in 2016, before ports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and mobile were released. IGN’s Civ 6 review returned a 9.4. We said: “Civilization 6 is fully loaded with features and makes some very smart changes to its winning 4X strategy formula.”

Given the game’s enormous popularity (Civ 6 remains in the top 20 most-played games on Steam and the franchise has sold an impressive 71 million copies to date), a seventh entry in the long-running series was inevitable. Indeed, in February last year Firaxis announced it was working on the next mainline Civ, although it didn’t call it Civ 7 at the time.

That’s all we have to go on for now, with more sure to be revealed during Summer Game Fest.

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.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Support Reportedly Scaled Back at Rocksteady Following Disastrous Launch

What now for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League? The live service shooter flopped to the tune of $200 million upon its launch earlier this year, and ever since players have wondered just how long support would last.

Following a Bloomberg report into the development of the game, the author of that report, Jason Schreier, has tweeted to say Rocksteady is now providing “some barebones support, definitely not as much as they’d originally planned.”

That’s a worry for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s small but loyal fanbase, which is made up of fans who continue to play the game despite its failings. And it calls into question how long publisher Warner Bros. will have Rocksteady devote resources to the game.

According to Bloomberg, staff at the studio are currently working on a director’s cut of the phenomenally successful Hogwarts Legacy, while leadership pitches a return to single-player following this live service misstep.

Warner Bros. has so far failed to respond to IGN’s request for comment.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League did look set to receive new content (the game recently teased the introduction of Mrs. Freeze as a playable character for Season 2) in the short-term, at least. But Rocksteady has yet to announce Season 2 or what it will add to the game. Season 1 added Joker as a playable character. Datamining has suggested playable characters on their way include Mrs. Freeze, Lawless, and Deathstroke.

But will Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice actually get these playable characters, or even subsequent seasons? The game’s community, such as it is, has declared the game dead following Bloomberg’s report. “I honestly don’t think the planned Seaons 2 to 4 are happening,” redditor Gizmo16868 said. Those in the game’s official Discord have already turned their attention to Rocksteady’s next game and the hope it will rekindle the excitement around the studio’s much-loved Batman: Arkham series.

For now, though, it seems a question of when, not if, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League goes the way of so many live service failures and its developer officially moves on.

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.

Satan’s Feeling Glum In Antonblast’s Wonderful Opening Cutscene

“Who is this red guy?!”.

Ahead of Antonblast‘s launch later this year on 12th November 2024, developer Summitsphere has released the game’s opening cutscene, and it’s pretty great.

It showcases Satan (naturally) who, after conversing with a magical mirror, discovers that there is a ‘red guy’ who happens to ‘shine more crimson’ than he. This, of course, is our protagonist, Dynamite Anton, so poor ol’ Satan decides to take what Anton loves the most, coax him into his lair, and ‘siphon his delightfully rosy tone’.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Looks Like Amazon MMO New World Is Coming to Console

Amazon’s MMO New World looks set to hit consoles after the game was spotted on the PlayStation Store.

Redditor OMG_R3A11Y saw New World appear on their console’s PlayStation Store and published a screenshot before the listing was apparently removed.

New World launched in 2021 on Steam and became a rare video game hit for Amazon. The free-to-play MMO set in an alternate 1600s America saw huge concurrent player numbers on Steam, and is currently the eighth most-played game on Valve’s platform all-time with a whopping 913,634 peak concurrents. Player numbers have declined since that peak, however, with Steam concurrents hovering around the 10,000 mark in recent weeks.

A console release would certainly provide a boost, and a confirmation seems imminent after the official New World X/Twitter account teased “an exciting announcement” for Summer Game Fest, which kicks off today, June 7, at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK.

Questions remain, however. The PlayStation Store insert is for a game called New World Aeternum, whereas the Steam version is simply called New World. Perhaps the console version is a different game entirely, or Aeternum is the name of a new expansion that will replace the original name across all versions.

Or, New World Aeternum may mark a new beginning for the MMO, similar to Final Fantasy 14 A Realm Reborn. Fans are also wondering whether New World is also set for Xbox Series X and S, given the insert was spotted on the PlayStation Store.

Image credit: OMG_R3A11Y / Reddit.

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.

Playing Bella Wants Blood is satisfying in the same way pulling clogged hair from a shower drain is

In my eternal quest to describe games concisely enough that you don’t feel robbed of time you could have just watched a trailer with, I am compelled to use many of the same words and word combinations ad nauseam. So, when a game like horror tower defence Bella Wants Blood comes along and uses some odd nouns, I get all excited. Here, that’s because I get to recklessly spaff out terms like ‘Blood Gutters’, ‘The Rattler’, and your friend and mine, ‘The Stabber’. Barely an atom quivers in Bella Wants Blood that hasn’t been stylised or made odd and alluring in some way.

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There’s No Bloodborne Remake, but There Is a Bloodborne Outfit for Astro Bot

Bloodborne fans have called on Sony to remake the game or release a sequel for years now. What they have instead is, well… it’s not quite what they expected.

During Sony’s State of Play showcase in May the company revealed a brand new Astro Bot for PS5, and the announcement sparked excitement from PlayStation gamers across the internet. Now, Sony has announced pre-order details for Team Asobi’s game as well as the various outfits set to hit the eye-catching platformer — and, you guessed it, one of the outfits is Bloodborne.

As detailed in a PlayStation Blog post, the Astro Bot Digital Deluxe Edition includes an early unlock for Astro’s Yharnam Tourist outfit, which is the one that’s caused a bit of a fuss across social media and forums today.

Most of the reaction is light-hearted, with plenty of jokes about Astro Bot now being the Bloodborne remake fans have been waiting for, a few perhaps wishful thinkers suggesting the skin is a sign of better things to come, and more than a few accusations that Sony is trolling Bloodborne fans hard. You have to imagine Sony knew what sort of reaction this outfit would spark, and it’s sure to drive plenty of Deluxe Edition sales as a result. Either way, we have a confirmed Sony acknowledgement that still Bloodborne exists, so there is that.

It’s worth noting that the Bloodborne outfit and all the others will become available during the adventure as you unlock their respective buildings on the crash site in-game, so what you’re paying for here is early access. But it is early access to something new for Bloodborne, so…

Meanwhile, the wait for an actual new Bloodborne game continues. In February, Bloodborne director Hidetaka Miyazaki, while promoting upcoming Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree, told IGN it wasn’t his place to talk about the possibility of a Bloodborne remake.

“We simply don’t own the IP at FromSoftware,” Miyazaki explained. “For me personally, it was a great project, and I have a lot of great memories for that game, but we’re not at liberty to speak to it.” No promises, no hints of anything in the works, and to hear Miyazaki tell it, the decision isn’t even really up to FromSoftware — it’s entirely on Sony, which owns Bloodborne.

Bloodborne fans have been desperate for a remake for years now. We gave the game a 9.1/10 when it first launched, but despite critical acclaim and incredible sales success, Bloodborne has remained relegated to PlayStation 4 exclusivity. There’s no dedicated PS5 version, nor is it available on PS5 or other consoles. With other FromSoftware games such as Demon’s Souls and the original Dark Souls getting a remake and numerous ports, respectively, hope has been kept alive. For now, FromSoftware fans will have to be content with… an Astro Bot skin.

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.

This game will be deleted from Steam unless players can beat the developers at it

Back in 2020, fresh out of high school and feeling unstoppable, Charles Maddock and a few friends “decided to code a game about Fish Wizards.” The result was Fishards, Magicka-inspired PVP arena action that has you out-squirt, out-splash, and out-spellcast your mates. It’s a charmer, but after two years of dev, release saw it suffer the same sad fate as many multiplayer-only indies. People would play for half hour, says Maddock, then refund the game because they couldn’t find others to play with.

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Original 5 Game Boy Mega Man Games Hit Nintendo Switch Online

Nintendo has added five classic Mega Man Game Boy games to the Switch Online subscription.

The games are Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge, Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3, Mega Man 4, and Mega Man 5, all now part of the Game Boy – Nintendo Switch Online library.

Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge launched on Game Boy in 1991, two years after the handheld came out. It kicked off an impressive run for Capcom’s action platformer series on Game Boy that ended with 1994’s Mega Man 5. Of note is that Thinking Rabbit’s Mega Man 2 was the only one of the five to be developed by a studio other than Capcom.

Nintendo said today’s release is part of this year’s Game Boy 35th anniversary celebrations. The Game Boy launched in 1989 with the likes of Super Mario Land, Tetris, Baseball, and Alleyway, all of which are now on Nintendo Switch Online. Other Game Boy games on the service include Metroid 2 – Return of Samus, Kirby’s Dream Land, Super Mario Land 2 – 6 Golden Coins, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX, and Wario in Wario Land 3.

As for Mega Man, the last mainline entry in the series is 2018’s Mega Man 11. While Capcom has released a number of collections in the years since, there’s no word on a potential Mega Man 12.

Here’s the official blurb on the five Mega Man Game Boy games out today on Nintendo Switch Online:

  • MEGA MAN: DR. WILY’S REVENGE – Dr. Wily is out for revenge, and this time he’s created his own “Mega Man Killer”! With this creation and his revived Robot Masters at his side, the bad doctor plans to embark on a quest for global domination. Play as Mega Man in his first portable adventure and save the world from destruction by sending Dr. Wily’s creations back to the trash heap.
  • MEGA MAN II – Dr. Wily has stolen the experimental Time Skimmer, which allows him to travel to the future for nefarious ends. Luckily, Mega Man and his trusty robot dog Rush are on the case! Collect items and power ups to defeat the Robot Masters standing between you and Dr. Wily – including a mysterious foe from the future: Quint!
  • MEGA MAN III – Mega Man’s battle against Dr. Wily takes him to the hottest place on Earth! Dr. Wily and his renegade robots are drilling to the planet’s molten core to collect energy that will power his latest evil invention. Join Mega Man and Rush in action packed levels through the sinister scientist’s fortress, battling various Robot Masters and collecting their weapons before facing Dr. Wily and his ultimate creation.
  • MEGA MAN IV – The World Robot Expo has been crashed by the deranged Dr. Wily! With the push of a button on his mind-controlling device, Dr. Wily turns all robots in the city into his personal rampaging reinforcements. The only robot not under his control is Mega Man, and together with Rush he plans to put a stop to Dr. Wily’s sneaky schemes once more! Collect power ups, blast Robot Masters and assemble circuits to build a powerful ally named Beat. Can this trio save the day, or will Dr. Wily’s mind-control machine be Mega Man’s downfall?
  • MEGA MAN V – During a peaceful outing with his sister Roll, Mega Man is attacked by a powerful robot named Terra who heralds an invasion of robots from space to conquer Earth. After regrouping in Dr. Light’s laboratory, Mega Man sets off to save the day with a powerful weapon – the Mega Arm! Battle through waves of cosmic foes, employ weapon upgrades, and call in companions to assist as you and solve the mystery behind this alien attack.

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.