Author: Game Infliction

Steam Hit Content Warning Reaches 2.2 Million Sold After 2 Months

Steam viral hit game Content Warning has sold 2.2 million copies in two months, with a console version possibly waiting in the wings.

That’s up from the one million sold in mid-April, itself an impressive figure that came after an eye-catching free launch period.

Publisher Landfall released Content Warning for free for the first 24 hours, signaling that it planned to charge for the game after the launch period. The Lethal Company-style co-op survival horror saw an impressive peak concurrent player number of 204,439 on Valve’s platform off the back of the promotion, but some questioned whether it would prove successful in the long run.

Landfall said this week that over 8.8 million players own Content Warning on Steam two months after launch. 6.6 million players got the game for free on launch day, Landfall explained. There was also a tease for a console version in response to a user question on X/Twitter, although an announcement has yet to be made.

It’s a remarkable success for Content Warning, which was developed by just a handful of people and released on April 1 as part of Landfall’s tradition of releasing a game on April Fools’ Day. Take a look at IGN’s Guides for all the info we’ve gathered so far on the monsters, useful items available to purchase, and our tips and tricks for maximum views.

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.

Tactical Breach Wizards is refreshingly unlike XCOM despite wearing the same tactical underwear

We’ll never know exactly what sort of fiction Tom Clancy would have written if he was less interested in the calibre of specific bullets and their effiency at dismantling burgeoning socialist governments, and more so in the specific sigils required to blast a riot cop through a third story window. While charity shops across the land mourn this devasting loss to their paperback shelves to this very day, we do at least have a glimpse into what such a literary venture may have looked like. Oh, did you like that door? Was it your favourite door? Soz, pal. Strategy game Tactical Breach Wizards just hexed right through it with a new demo as part of Steam Next Fest. I’ve played it, and it’s very exciting stuff, not least for how differently it plays than what I’d expected.

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Like a Dragon: Yakuza Live-action Series Announced for Amazon Prime Video This Fall

Amazon has announced an original live-action series for Prime Video based on Sega’s successful Like a Dragon game series, previously known as Yakuza.

Simply titled Like a Dragon: Yakuza and including six episodes, this original series is directed by Masaharu Take, best known for the drama series The Naked Director. Made in Japan, the series stars the hugely popular Japanese drama and stage actor Ryoma Takeuchi in the role of Kazuma Kiryu.

Like a Dragon: Yakuza will be available on Amazon Prime in over 240 countries and territories worldwide, released in two batches on October 25 and November 1, 2024.

A new story loosely based on the original Yakuza

The live-action crime-suspense series is based on an original screenplay loosely inspired by the first game in the series, 2005’s Yakuza. It will be set mainly in the Kamurocho entertainment district, straight from the games, and follows Kiryu and three of his childhood friends in two time periods, 1995 and 2005.

Similar to the games, protagonist Kiryu is described in the show’s press release as a “fearsome and peerless Yakuza warrior with a strong sense of justice, duty, and humanity”, and the story will deal with the repercussions of his actions in the two time periods. Takeuchi commented that the show will include “​​intense fighting scenes”, alluding to the wild action the series is famed for.

The series was announced today at a press conference at the picturesque Hotel Gajoen Tokyo. At the event, Takeuchi and Take discussed the process of adapting the acclaimed game series for a live-action drama.

Speaking of the tattoo on his back and sculpting his body for the role, as seen in the key visual image released today, Takeuchi said, “You can’t play Kiryu Kazuma without getting into shape, so I knew I had to throw myself into it. This was a job not only for me but also for the costume and makeup teams. It took two and a half hours just to prepare for this shot.”

He added, “It’s partly Kiryu Kazuma and it’s partly me. I got so close to the part that it was hard to distinguish where he ended and I began. That included getting into shape for the part, the costume and so on. Rather than acting the part of Kiryu, I feel like he became part of the family.”

Director Take said, “Having someone with such a large physical presence as Takeuchi makes all the difference. I understood that he knows his body better than anyone, so I left it to him to get into shape. Takeuchi did all the action himself as well. It was impressive.”

Of Kiryu’s place in the story, Take said, “In 1995, the protagonist is still young and he makes a lot of mistakes, and these lead to him spending a decade in prison and the consequences he faces when he gets out in 2005. I tried to show those differences in the two time periods, and the cast helped to achieve this as well.”

Taking their positions in front of a golden folding screen emblazoned with a dragon reminiscent of the tattoo on Kiryu’s back, the actor and director made a symbolic prayer for the show’s success.

Meet the new Kazuka Kiryu

Takeuchi broke through with his role as Shinnosuke Tomari in multiple Kamen Rider projects. His credits include a cameo in 2019’s Detective Pikachu movie adaptation as a Pokémon trainer, as well as providing the voice for Justice Smith’s character Tim Goodman in the Japanese dub. He also has a successful career in stage acting, and before that was a budding soccer player.

In a press release, Masayoshi Yokoyama, head of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and executive producer of the new drama series, said, “While the games let you experience their world through the subjective lens, this adaptation will be the ultimately objective way to enjoy the show. I have no doubt that fans of the series will be drawn to how it brings the games to life and adds new surprises. Newcomers, I’m sure, will find themselves invested simply in the gritty realism of the show.”

The Like a Dragon game series is developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. The first game, upon which the Amazon series will be partly based, was released in 2006 in the West, with IGN praising its story and awarding it 8.2/10. The game spawned a globally successful franchise, with multiple sequels and spinoffs, a movie adaptation directed by Takashi Miike in 2007, and a remake of the first game titled Yakuza Kiwami in 2016.

The series was renamed Like a Dragon in 2022, and the most recent entry, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, was released globally in January 2024, receiving 9/10 scores from both IGN and IGN Japan.

Daniel Robson is Chief Editor of IGN Japan. Find him on Twitter here.

Switch Online’s Missions & Rewards Adds Donkey Kong Icons You Can Only “Get By Playing”

Play the arcade hit on the NES library to unlock them.

Nintendo has announced a new batch of Switch Online icons you can only “get by playing” its digital retro library.

It’s already hosted missions like this for Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and now it’s Donkey Kong’s turn. This time, Switch Online members will need to boot up the NES and arcade hit Donkey Kong via the app.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Here’s What We Know Won’t Be at Summer Game Fest

The final countdown to a week of game announcements, trailers, updates, in-person activities in Los Angeles, and general shenanigans is upon us. One of the major lynchpins holding it all together is Summer Game Fest, a showcase put together by Geoff Keighley with the aim of uniting the game industry around a summertime shebang of video game news. But as he does every year before this and other hosted events like Gamescom Opening Night Live and The Game Awards, Keighley is trying to temper wild fan expectations by clarifying some of the things we absolutely will not see at Summer Game Fest on Friday.

In a live question and answer session hosted on Twitch over the weekend, Keighley answered some burning questions from fans about the upcoming showcase, including a long list not just of what we should expect to see on Friday, but also what we shouldn’t.

As far as what will be there, Keighley confirmed we’ll see plenty of updates to existing games, such as Palworld and Kingdom Come 2: Deliverance. We’ll also see trailers for already-announced games, including Supermarket Simulator, Monster Hunter Wilds, Metaphor: Refantazio, Batman: Arkham VR, and Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO. He also confirmed we’ll be getting something from Blumhouse Games, and a new trailer for the Among Us animated series.

But in an interest of keeping surprises to himself, it’s no surprise that the list of what won’t be there is a bit longer:

No new GTA 6 trailer

Sorry, but anyone who was expecting another GTA trailer so soon after the last one needs to bring the expectations waaaaay down.

No Kingdom Hearts 4

Keighley said that a lot of people have been asking him about this for some reason, but that those expecting such a thing are “setting themselves up for failure.”

No The Wolf Among Us 2

No new news on this, but Keighley says it won’t be at SGF. Last we heard, it was delayed, and a collaboration with Deck Nine to work on a pre-production script for the game was cancelled. The game is still in production at Telltale, as of earlier this year.

No Def Jam game

This question came out of nowhere, but no, Keighley won’t be showing one.

No Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

Unlikely from the jump given Keighley’s criticisms of Konami.

No Judas

We saw Ken Levine’s next game revealed at The Game Awards in 2022, but Keighley doesn’t have an update at this year’s show. If you’re hungry to see more of Judas, though, we did run an extensive gameplay overview on IGN this past March.

No Beyond Good and Evil 2

Keighley claims he doesn’t know any more than we do about where this game, announced way way way back in 2017, went. Even if it were going to be announced during this time, Ubisoft has their own show they’re almost certainly want it in.

No Five Nights at Freddy’s

Help Wanted 2 came out last year, and non-VR ports are still planned for later in June, so that’s probably the main attraction in that universe for now.

No Hollow Knight: Silksong (probably)

Keighley actually didn’t directly say this, but when it came up on stream, he chuckled and said, “I think it’s gonna be a while.” So that doesn’t sound exactly promising. Don’t get your hopes up.

Probably no Nintendo games

Keighley didn’t specifically say Nintendo wouldn’t have anything in this showcase, but he did chat briefly about Nintendo’s ongoing absence from Summer Game Fest despite historically being interested in The Game Awards, and his tone definitely points to another Nintendo no-show. Nintendo usually has some sort of digital showcase of its own in June, so while we shouldn’t expect anything at SGF, there’s probably plenty to come later this month. And SGF will almost certainly have third-party games that will be available on the Switch…or whatever its successor ends up being.

No music acts, No Josef Fares, no “one more thing”

Though not explicitly games, Keighley confirmed a few other elements SGF would not be using. There won’t be any musical acts (save that for The Game Awards), and the notorious Josef Fares won’t be showing up to make any spicy, clippable remarks. We also won’t get a “one more thing,” an industry tradition of sorts where showcases conclude with a “and now, we have one more thing to show” remark from a host followed by a massive, exciting announcement to wrap things up. Keighley doesn’t care for this trend.

So that’s what we know, leaving four days left to wildly speculate about what we don’t know. For more info on how to watch Summer Game Fest, check out our guide, as well as our guide to all the other events around Summer of Gaming.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Read Only Memories: Neurodiver, Creator’s Diary

Happy Birthday, Neurodiver

It’s a few days before we submit our game to certification. Our release date announcement trailer is behind us and we’re adding in the last few updates to Read Only Memories: Neurodiver. For the eyecatch sequences, I give the Neurodiver itself a birthday: May 16, 2024, and we proceed to let it go out into the world.

The Day After

May 16 has come and gone and the game is out now. I’ve been working on this with several others who have come and gone for the past six years. A lot has happened with MidBoss, our team, and the world during this time, but the game is finally out and a wave of relief washed over us, followed quickly by a lot of anxiety. The game, after all, is shorter than our previous one, and its story is brisk. I still find myself playing and enjoying it in my off time, though, and I’m proud of what our team accomplished. I got to work and collaborate with a lot of wonderful people.

ROMN screenshot

Past and Present: Planning the Game

Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is a very personal project, both in its story– however brief it may be–and in its development. I was the original director and lead artist/animator for 2064: Read Only Memories. It’s a game I have a complicated relationship with. A lot happened with it, the original team, and myself. I’m finally comfortable sitting with my housemates and watching them play it as we celebrate the release of our current game. My head is spinning at all of the interactions it has and the logistics involved now. It’s very impressive that we pulled it off. I’m proud of that game just as well, but its development was at a great cost.

We couldn’t aim for the same scope as the previous game. It was simply out of the question. But after working out the initial story planning, ,  we were delighted with the result: an engaging] light and brisk adventure. A pseudo-sequel with an established protagonist that can dive into memories, chasing a rogue psychic that hides within them. Whose memories would we be exploring? I wanted to revisit some old friends from the original game, a chance to see how they’re doing five or six years later.

ROMN screenshot

Dive into the Details

Luna Cruz de la Vega, or ES88, is a young and ambitious psychic agent working at Minerva. The only one bonded to a special genetically engineered esper called the Neurodiver. This Neurodiver allows her to not only view and interact with memories, but also repair them. Each day she wakes up diving directly into work. ES88 wants to prove something to herself and her peers, and though she has confidence in her abilities, she still questions herself.

A psychic entity called Golden Butterfly is haunting people’s memories, fragmenting them, causing lingering anxieties to bubble up. These fragments range from something as simple as a lost password, all the way up to forgetting where you left off with someone important to you. It’s ES88’s job to repair these fragments and drive out Golden Butterfly. It’s a big task. Could it be too much? How much is she willing to push herself?

ROMN screenshot

Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is a capsule filled with a lot of the things we love. ES88’s days play out like an episode in an anime, commercial bumpers and all. She dreams of herself as a magical girl. The soundscape is filled with glossy, vibrant FM tones reminiscent of old Yamaha powered sound cards. It was a joy animating every expression. Every character is voiced exactly how we imagined them to be in our heads. And it’s all framed within an homage to Japanese adventure games of the past.

Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is a game that’s filled with our enthusiasm for the things we love. It was a chance to spend time with some old friends again while meeting some new ones, and while it’s a brief journey, I hope it’ll continue to stay in your memories.


Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER
Xbox Live

Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER

Chorus Worldwide Games

☆☆☆☆☆
3
★★★★★

$14.99
Get it now

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!

You Are A Psychic Agent
Take on the role of ES88, a young esper employed by MINERVA, a powerful organization specializing in information science, neurotechnology, and extrasensory phenomena. She has been tasked with tracking down Golden Butterfly, a mysterious psychic entity hiding in and fragmenting the memories of Neo-San Francisco’s citizens. Who are they? Why are they doing this? And how will you stop them?

The NEURODIVER
The Neurodiver is a bioengineered psychic creature made to assist in boosting an esper’s natural abilities. With its help, you’ll be able to collect clues and thoughts in your subject’s memories in an effort to piece together distorted fragments inside them, pushing Golden Butterfly out!

New And Old
Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER is a return to the vibrant sci-fi world of Neo-San Francisco from 2064: Read Only Memories with a whole new story, and a whole new cast of characters. It’s an adventure that newcomers can easily dive into, but those familiar with the original game might notice a lot of familiar faces making a comeback!

An FM Sound Sensation!
NEURODIVER’s soundtrack is inspired by the OPNA/YM2608 sounds of the PC-8801 and PC-9801 series of computers, brought to you by Scarlet Moon composer and sound designer, Ken “coda” Snyder (Tree of Knowledge)!

If you love the sharp and glossy tones generated by late 80s and early 90s FM chips found in a variety of old computers, sound cards, arcades and consoles, then you’ll be right at home here. Long live the power of FM sound! 🎹

The post Read Only Memories: Neurodiver, Creator’s Diary appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Just Cause Developer Avalanche Shuttering Two Studios and Laying Off 50 Workers

Just Cause franchise developer Avalanche Studios is laying off 50 employees as it moves to shutter its New York and Montreal locations in what it calls an “exceptionally difficult decision.”

The company announced the news in a post on its website, saying that the layoffs in these areas affect nine percent of its worldwide workforce. It says the decision is “necessary to ensure a stable and sustainable future for the company.”

“Our focus is now supporting all Avalanchers through this challenging time,” the studio says. “We’re grateful for the invaluable contributions of those leaving and remain committed to creating incredible gaming experience for our players.”

It’s currently unclear how Avalanche will be supporting those affected. The closure of its New York and Montreal spots leaves three remaining office locations in Stockholm, Liverpool, and Malmö. Its Montreal location opened only about eight months ago in October 2023, and its New York location opened in June 2022.

A Damaging Trend Continues

Layoffs at Avalanche, which is also responsible for helping create games like 2015’s Mad Max, Rage 2, and the upcoming Xbox-exclusive Contraband game, add to a growing list of layoffs sweeping the industry over the last year. It’s estimated that more than 10,000 developers lost their jobs in 2023 alone, with gaming giants like Sony, Microsoft, Riot, and EA going on to lay off large numbers of staff in 2024 as the year rolls on.

More recent examples saw Take-Two Interactive laying off 579 workers in April and Microsoft closing Bethesda’s Arkane and Tango Gameworks studios in May while Square Enix prepares for its own cost-cutting moves in the U.S. and Europe.

Meanwhile, 100 Avalanche developers managed to join Swedish trade union Unionen last October, and in April, the company agreed to sign a collective bargaining agreement with those who have unionized.

For more, you can read up on why some developers think layoffs have hit as hard as they have over the last year. Then be sure to learn more about the people they layoffs are affecting most.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

The Games Leaving Xbox Game Pass in June 2024 Have Been Revealed

Xbox Game Pass is losing High on Life and more on June 15, Microsoft has announced. Revealed on the Xbox website, High on Life is one of five games leaving the platform in June in the regular rotation of games available on the subscription service. Here are some of the most notable departures.

High on Life

High on Life is a bizarre first person shooter where players take on the role of an intergalactic bounty hunter that uses living, foul-mouthed guns to fight aliens. It launched straight onto Game Pass and quickly proved popular, immediately breaking three records for the biggest launch of 2022, the biggest third-party game launch ever, and the biggest single-player launch of all time.

Rune Factory 4 Special

Rune Factory 4 Special is a very different kind of video game with farming, dungeon crawling, romance, and more. “With dozens of hours of gameplay (and the option of playing well after the story ends) Rune Factory 4 is definitely a good time,” IGN said in our 8/10 review.

Bramble: The Mountain King

Also leaving this month is Bramble: The Mountain King, which joined Game Pass in June 2023. This adventure horror game inspired by Nordic folklore sees players embark on a journey through the dark world of Bramble and encounter towering bosses along the way.

In addition to the games listed above, Xbox Game Pass is also losing Spacelines from the Far Out and The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales. Those who want to play the handful of games should therefore do so before June 15, 2024, though all Game Pass titles can be bought outright and kept for good for 20% off their normal price.

For more, check out our guide to the Xbox Game Pass plans as well as all the rest of the biggest games coming out in 2024.

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

Helldivers 2 Major Order turns planet into black hole as rumours of returning Illuminate faction intensify

Honestly, I turn my back on shooter-of-note Helldivers 2 for (checks calendar)… one, maybe two weeks, and you all go and transform a planet into a black hole. “You” being the players who completed the metagame’s last Major Order and successfully pumped the Terminid supercolony of Meridia full of an experimental “Dark Fluid” – which Super-Earth, incidentally, pinched from the Illuminate faction during the First Galactic War, aka Helldivers 1.

Now, Meridia has imploded and become a radiant, wailing, purple-fringed disc of pure nothingness, with triumphant players rudely ejected from orbit via emergency hyperspace jump, but subsequently allowed to return and gaze into the dark heart of their victory. Great work, Inferno-plungers. I’m sure the consequences of this will be neither cosmic nor horrible.

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