Category: IGN

Liz Albl, the new BioShock game’s narrative lead, has now joined Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher studio CD Projekt Red.

The move follows 2K’s recent decision to “rework” development of its long-gestating BioShock 4 project, which has been in development now since at least 2018.

Albl joined Cloud Chamber, 2K’s secretive studio tasked with building a fresh BioShock chapter, back in 2022. Now, an update on LinkedIn makes clear that the former narrative boss departed the company back in August — at the time 2K indicated it was unhappy with progress and announced layoffs.

“Work on the next BioShock game has been underway for several years,” noted an email to Cloud Chamber staff sent at the time by 2K president David Ismailer, and obtained by IGN. “While we’re excited about the foundational gameplay elements of the project, we’ve made the decision with studio leadership to rework certain aspects that are core to a BioShock game, and in doing so are reducing the size of the development team to focus on this work and give the game more time in development.”

A Bloomberg report confirmed that Cloud Chamber Games studio head Kelley Gilmore had been removed, amid other layoffs, while creative director Hogarth de la Plante had been shuffled into a publishing role.

The timing of Albl’s departure from the studio in August also makes sense, then, and it was reported at the time that 2K Games had been particularly critical of issues with the game’s narrative. BioShock 4’s story is now expected to be overhauled, and development will be overseen by former Gears of War head and Diablo franchise lead Rod Fergusson, who 2K has installed as the new overall boss of both Cloud Chamber and the BioShock franchise.

Prior to Cloud Chamber, Albl had served two years at Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor studio Monolith Productions working on Warner Bros.’ now-cancelled Wonder Woman game. Prior to that, Albl had worked for several years at PlayStation’s Sucker Punch studio writing Ghost of Tsushima, and at Ubisoft working on the Far Cry and Watch Dogs franchises.

Little is known about the next BioShock game, though sporadic hints from job descriptions and other possible leaks have suggested it will be set in a brand new location, and feature open world elements. When IGN last asked Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick about the game’s progress, he reassured that BioShock 4 was “going to come out” for certain, but could not say when.

As for BioShock’s original creator Ken Levine, there’s little new word on his own long-awaited next project — the BioShock-esque Judas. Despite previously being expected by March 2025, we’ve not had a fresh update now in a little while.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Battlefield 6 players are split after the new 323 cosmetic pack introduced a collection of grounded infantry skins… and a $24 price tag.

EA and Battlefield Studios published their California Resistance Season 1 update today, adding a laundry list of fixes and features alongside a fresh store update. With another free gift and more cosmetics in rotation, Battlefield 6 fans hoping to see more grounded skins were happy to find The 323 pack cosmetic pack brings exactly the kind of customization options they were looking for.

“Yes DICE, these are the skins we want!” one popular Reddit post says. The downside, though, is players will have to cough up some serious cash if they want to wear them.

“Four American soldiers from different walks of life suddenly find themselves as the only defense when Pax Armata assaults the town of Eastwood,” a description for Battlefield 6’s The 323 skin pack says. “This guerrilla unit makes do with anything on hand, and clears through urban conflict block by block.”

For 2,400 Battlefield Coins, or $24 USD, you get the Class skins seen above, as well as access to the 323 unit and a few other cosmetics. There is an in-game bundle option to purchase 2,400 Battlefield Coins for $19.99, but it’s far from enough to stop players from dropping their jaws as they see how much these otherwise well-received skins cost.

“Obviously the most beautiful (and appropriate) ones are paid for, and on the battle pass they put the colored fluorescent ones that can see you at 100km,” one popular comment says. “Rascals!”

“It’s s**t like this that makes me realize I am not the target audience of this game,” another adds. “I’m the wrong kind of financially irresponsible to pay for garbage like this lol.”

The goofy skin debate has been nearly inescapable since Battlefield 6 launched for PC and consoles on October 10. It’s a movement that has seen vocal fans calling out some of the more vibrant infantry skins in the hope of warding off the controversial outfits seen in other shooters like Call of Duty. Even as BF Studios worked to address some of the more divisive skins, it’s remained one of the few topics the Battlefield community just can’t seem to shake.

High prices now add a new wrinkle to the discourse as fans weigh the value The 323 pack adds to the Battlefield 6 experience. As fears of goofy skins have mounted, so too have comments from select players who declared they would pay for high-quality grounded skins should they ever come to multiplayer. Now that The 323 pack is here with a high price tag and pages are dominated by dissatisfaction, other Battlefield 6 fans have been quick to fire back.

“That’s what y’all were asking for lol,” one Reddit user said. “Can’t even count the number of post where people said they would be willing to just give money for grounded skins rather than do challenges or if dice added grounded skins in the shop they would give them money.

“Also tired of people acting like theirs no grounded skin options, legit every launch skin (I guess other than the mastery skins because of the orange lol) are grounded.”

Another user replied: “Maybe if they were a reasonable price, sure. But a $20+ bundle? In a game we already paid $70+ for?”

While Battlefield 6 players continue to work out their disagreements about cosmetics, others are diving into the content introduced in today’s 1.1.2.0 update. These include the new Eastwood map and new weapons, as well as a host of bug fixes for both the base game and its REDSEC offshoot. More hot topics, such as map sizes, are said to be under review as Season 1 presses on.

For more, you can check out the smaller changes accompanying today’s main update. If you can’t decide whether to stick with Battlefield 6 or try out Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, click here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

EA has today announced that the 2026 Formula One World Championship will be coming as a paid expansion for the existing F1 25. The content update is set to reflect all the sport’s upcoming changes next year, with new cars, new drivers, and the new regulations.

The next full game in the series will be delivered in 2027. It will be “reimagined into a more expansive experience with new ways to play for fans around the world,” according to today’s statement. EA explained this plan comes as part of a “multi-year strategic investment” in the publisher’s F1 franchise.

“F1 25 has been an incredible success, fueled by the passion of fans and the energy of the sport,” said Lee Mather, Senior Creative Director at Codemasters. “With Formula 1’s momentum on and off the track, now is the perfect time for us to look ahead and build for the future. We’re fully committed to the EA Sports F1 franchise. Our multi-year plan extends this year’s excitement with the 2026 expansion and reimagines the F1 experience for 2027 to deliver even more for players at every level around the world.”

IGN’s F1 25 review described it as a far broader and better package than last year’s installment, and “comfortably the strongest the series has been since the fan favourite F1 2020.” Codemasters has been building Formula One games since F1 2009 for Wii and PSP, although EA also had its own history with the sport in the early 2000s, beginning with F1 2000 on PS1 and PC.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

Vedinad, developer of Megabonk, has withdrawn his game from The Game Awards following its nomination for Best Debut Indie Game, saying it doesn’t qualify for the category.

In a post to Twitter/X from the official Megabonk account, vedinad made the announcement today:

“I’m withdrawing from The Game Awards.

“It’s an honor and a dream for Megabonk to be nominated for TGA, but unfortunately i don’t think it qualifies for the category ‘Debut Indie Game’

“I’ve made games in the past under different studio names, so Megabonk is not my debut game 🥸

“i really appreciate the nomination, support and votes, but it doesn’t feel right in this category. you should vote for another one of the amazing debut titles, they are all amazing games!

“thanks again! new megabonk update coming soon ✌️”

It’s unclear whether or not this means Megabonk will actually be removed from the voting pool or awards by the organization. At the time this piece was written, Megabonk was still listed under Best Debut Indie, along with Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Despelote, and Dispatch.

Critically, Best Debut Indie is awarded to the “best debut game created by a new independent studio.” So what counts as a new, independent studio? This definition certainly can get a little fuzzy – game dev teams are often Ships of Theseus, with certain groups sticking together, hiring others, and rebranding. For instance, Dispatch was made by AdHoc Studio, and is the team’s collective first original game. However, AdHoc was founded by a team of former Ubisoft and Telltale developers who had previously been working together. Cocoon, by Geometric Interactive, won Debut Indie back in 2023 and was arguably in a similar situation with former developers from Playdead. But by that logic, it’s also unlikely anyone’s “first game” would ever make it to The Game Awards, as most people’s first projects are small, student, or experimental.

Vedinad’s argument at least makes a bit more sense for himself, given that he is effectively a solo developer and has worked on other projects under other names. But even solo developers have help: Miguel Angel, for instance, is credited with the OST, Giovanni Fim made the Steam art, and there are a handful of names listed as playtesters, as well as a “special thanks” to vedinad’s mom. Vedinad seems to be as close to a solo dev as anyone really gets. What really is a game studio, anyway?

What this ultimately seems to boil down to is that there’s at least some level of confusion about what the categories of The Game Awards actually mean. This isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2023, Dave the Diver – a game made by a subsidiary of Korean gaming giant Nexon – was up for Best Indie, leading TGA creator Geoff Keighley to respond that indie can “mean different things to different people,” and even the director admitted the nomination was confusing. We’ve also seen some oddities like Sifu being up for Best Fighting Game in 2022 (it’s an action beat-em-up), and even some recent eyebrow raisers like Monster Hunter Wilds being nominated this year for best RPG.

Define it all however you want, but Megabonk’s developer has spoken. Will he be heeded? IGN has reached out to The Game Awards for comment. You can catch up on all the other 2025 nominees right here, and check out our early thoughts on Megabonk here.

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 nearly here: Black Friday sales are kicking off this week. And if you’re a fan of board games, you’ll probably want to have an idea of what to expect deal-wise on popular tabletop titles. You’ve come to the right place. I’m the board game editor at IGN, and I’ve been following all the Black Friday board game deals for years. Let’s dive in.

Buy 1, Get 1 Half Off on Board Games Right Now

You don’t actually have to wait for Black Friday to save on board games. Right now, both Amazon and Target have sales that get you half off a board game when you buy one at regular price. This applies to a decent number of popular games for board games, including Catan, Splendor, and Horrified. But tons of classics and family board games are also eligible, like Scrabble and Mouse Trap.

What Games Will Get Discounts?

When it comes to Black Friday board game deals, such a wide swath of games go on sale each year that basically nothing is off the table (please excuse the pun). If this year is like years past, you’ll be able to save on just about every board game on the market.

The discounts we saw last year ranged from 20% off games all the way up to 65% off. You could save on popular standards like Azul and Pandemic. You could save on family-friendly games like Exploding Kittens and UNO. You could save on horror-themed board games like Alien: Fate of the Nostromo and Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Whatever games you’re interested in, you can likely find something on sale that you’ll want to pick up.

Additionally, for Cyber Monday last year, Amazon ran a “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” sale. Since many of the games were already discounted, that was like a deal on top of a deal. So keep an eye out during Black Friday 2025 for opportunities to stack discounts.

Which Retailers Will Have Board Game Sales?

As for the retailers where the deals can be found, the main ones to look at are Amazon, Walmart, and Target. If you want to branch out a bit, Barnes and Noble is usually a good place to look for discounts as well. With Amazon’s Black Friday sale kicking off on November 20 this year, that will likely be the first place you should start looking for deals.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

Yoko Taro, the creator of the Nier and Drakenguard games, has been awfully quiet lately. Though he’s worked on some smaller projects (writing scenarios for Voice of Cards, and a few mobile games), the lack of a proper Nier follow-up or other new major game from him has been getting under fans’ skin. But according to Taro, he has been working on projects. They just keep getting canceled.

This comes from his remarks at Korean gaming convention G-Con 2025, which were reported on by 4gamer and translated by Automaton. The panel, which featured Taro and Bayonetta and Okami director Hideki Kamiya, saw the pair asked for updates on recent projects. Kamiya mentioned the upcoming sequel to Okami, while Taro said he’d been very busy with new projects, they just keep getting canceled partway through.

“I often get told stuff like ‘Why aren’t you making a new sequel to NieR’ or ‘Yoko Taro isn’t doing anything,’ but that’s because recently, a lot of projects I was involved in got discontinued midway through development,” he said.

“I’ve actually been working on some stuff, it’s just that it never ended up seeing the light of day. I got paid for it, so I personally have no issues with that, but people seem to think that I haven’t been doing anything just because none of the work I’ve done is being released.”

However, Taro isn’t discouraged by this, apparently. He continued, saying he’d rather fail repeatedly and eventually create something good, rather than put out multiple mediocre works. “I believe that if I’m going to release something weird, I’d be better off not releasing anything at all.”

Ahead of the Black Friday sale event next week, there have been some excellent video game deals already popping up across various retailers.

If you’re using this opportunity to stock up your library with some new picks to play over the holidays, we’ve come across plenty of discounts worth your time and money.

At the moment, Amazon is offering very nice deals on Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake for Nintendo Switch 2 (which has dropped to $49.99) and Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake for Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X (all down to $34.99).

If these games have been on your shopping list, now is a great time to grab them.

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake usually retails with a price tag of $59.99, but this discount has dropped it down 17% so you can save $10 on it. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, on the other hand, is down a whopping 42% from its $59.99 price, which is a very nice deal for those who have been wanting to pick it up.

Both of these received very high praise from us with glowing 9/10 scores in their respective reviews. IGN’s Logan Plant said Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake “is a shining example of how to remake a classic RPG and a brilliant reminder of why the original is an essential work,” while writer George Yang said of the Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake that it recaptures “the retro magic of the originals while giving them a modern facelift.”

If you’re wondering what video game deals are still to come as we get closer to Black Friday, check out our breakdowns of what deals we expect to see this year from PS5 and Xbox to see some of our predictions for the sale event. And for Switch users, Nintendo has already announced its Black Friday sale so you can see what deals the company has planned this year.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

The CEO of Genvid — the company behind choose-your-own-adventure interactive series like Silent Hill Ascension — has claimed “consumers generally do not care” about generative AI in games, stating: “Gen Z loves AI slop.”

Jacob Navok, a former Square Enix director, evidenced his claim by reminding us that the biggest game of the year, Steal a Brainrot, “had 30m concurrents or approximately 80x the Arc Raiders concurrents, and is named after/based on AI slop characters.”

“For all the anti-AI sentiment we’re seeing in various articles, it appears consumers generally do not care,” he wrote on X/Twitter (thanks, GamesRadar+). “All the brainrots are just 3D models of AI slop. Gen Z loves AI slop, does not care. The upcoming generation of gamers are Bane in Dark Knight Rises saying ‘You merely adopted the slop, I was born in it.’

Arc Raiders has enjoyed huge popularity and big sales despite an online controversy around its use of generative AI to generate character voice. Streamer Shroud has suggested this AI controversy held Arc Raiders back from being considered for the Game of the Year award at this year’s The Game Awards.

Yesterday, November 17, we reported that Assassin’s Creed publisher Ubisoft was forced to remove an image found within Anno 117: Pax Romana that contained AI-generated elements after fans complained, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 players promptly took to social media to complain about AI-generated images they had found across the game, following a trend of AI-Ghibli images from earlier this year.

The Alters developer, 11 Bit Studios, and Jurassic World Evolution 3 developer, Frontier Developments, meanwhile, similarly faced fan backlash recently when they were caught using undisclosed AI images, which doesn’t quite track with Navok’s assumption that “consumers do not care.”

Suggesting that a “tipping point has been reached,” Navok also stressed that because “Activision isn’t shying away from AI, neither is Arc Raiders,” the tech was here to stay.

“I should add that in-game art and voices are merely the tip of the spear. Many studios I know are using AI generation in the concept phase, and many more are using Claude for code,” he added. “It will be hard to find a non-indie title that isn’t using Claude for code, and ignoring Claude’s AI use because it’s code while focusing purely on art shows that a lot of AI sentiment is being driven by emotion rather than logic.”

In Navok’s defence, it certainly feels as though his comments ring true, at least across other big developers and publishers, too. EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is “the very core of our business,” and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be “aggressive in applying AI.” Dead Space creator Glen Schofield also recently detailed his plans to “fix” the industry in part via the use of generative AI in game development, and former God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: “… if we don’t embrace [AI], I think we’re selling ourselves short.” Conversely, Nintendo has bucked the trend, with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto previously stressing that the company would rather go in a “different direction” than the rest of the video game industry when it comes to AI.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Escape from Tarkov game director Nikita Buyanov has apologized to players for the “rough” release of the extraction shooter’s 1.0 version and Steam debut, saying the team is “willing to continue fighting” to “finally crack the performance problems.”

On Steam, Escape from Tarkov currently has a ‘mixed’ user review rating, with most of the complaints around server issues that are causing long queues, performance problems, and bugs.

Writing on Twitter/X, Battlestate’s Buyanov thanked players “for this overwhelming interest for the game,” adding: “servers get full really fast so we[‘re] adding more and more servers worldwide to cut matching times more. We are also fixing all of the incoming bugs, and as I said, we will continue to improve and fix the game for the next months.

“The release was rough for sure, sorry for that. But we are willing to continue fighting for everything good against bad. We will continue to provide to you, actual fans of the game, things that you will enjoy. We need to finally crack this performance problems, outdated stuff and legacy bugs which [are] left. Yes, a lot of things were fixed in release version, but it’s not enough.”

In a separate statement posted to Steam, Battlestate thanked players for “supporting the project throughout all stages of development and testing, and for deciding to share this important event,” and said, “despite careful preparation, unforeseen situations may arise during the process. Your bug reports help us quickly find and fix issues, making your gaming experience more comfortable and stable.”

Battlestate also promised in-game compensation for all players in the near future: a Bear Classic and USEC Night Patrol set. If these sets have already been purchased, an in-game reward will be credited, the developer continued.

A technical update released on Monday, November 17, issued a handful of issues. Patch notes are below:

• Fixed an issue with a broken character model appearing in the Hideout in certain cases;
• Fixed the game client freeze when switching to Trader interaction screen from the Hideout;
• Fixed the incorrect lighting for Jaeger when SSR is enabled in graphics settings;
• Fixed the cause of main menu elements appearing during matching in certain cases;
• Disabled several PostFX settings;
• Fixed the cause of bots teleporting while using stationary weapons in certain cases;
• Fixed the cause of bots flying in the air in certain cases.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Rebecca Heineman, known best for co-founding original Fallout developer Interplay alongside Brain Fargo, Jay Patel, and Troy Worrell in the early 1980s, has died aged 62.

The news was shared by her friend Heidi McDonald, who wrote on BlueSky that “my trailblazing game industry bad-ass friend Rebecca Heineman has passed away. F**k cancer. Friends, let’s not forget her.”

On a GoFundMe page set up by Heineman shortly after her diagnosis, she described herself as “the very first video game champion, creator of Bard’s Tale 3, Dragon Wars, and one of the founders of Interplay Productions and MacPlay. Creator of Sailor Ranko the webcomic and software archivist.” The fund remains open to support Heineman’s family.

In her final message, penned yesterday, November 17, she wrote: “It’s time. According to my doctors. All further treatments are pointless. So, please donate so my kids can create a funeral worthy of my keyboard, Pixelbreaker! So I can make a worthy entrance for reuniting with my one true love, Jennell Jaquays. My daughter Cynthia Elizabeth heineman, will be making the arrangements.”

Heineman rose to fame when she won a national Space Invaders tournament in 1980 aged 14, then carved out an impressive gamedev career, having taught herself to code by reverse engineering. Her development and publishing credits include Wasteland, Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, and The Bard’s Tale 3: Thief of Fate. She most recently served as CEO of Olde Sküül.

Bard’s Tale 3 stands out as one of her defining moments at Interplay and of her entire career, Heineman told Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play in 2024. “Being able to head the project and be the decision maker was what started me on the path to being a studio head,” she said. Heineman stayed at Interplay until 1995, watching it grow to upwards of 500 employees. She departed for a new entrepreneurial adventure, desiring a return to small but passionate teams.

She was honored as the 2025 Gayming Icon Award for “her advocacy for LGBTQ+ inclusion, accessibility, and diversity in tech has inspired countless developers and players,” (thanks, PC Gamer).

Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo called her “one of the most brilliant programmers around,” and said news of her death was “a real gut punch.” “Rebecca Heineman sadly passed away. Known her since the 80s when I’d drive her to work, one of the most brilliant programmers around. A real gut punch earlier today when she messaged me: ‘We have gone on so many adventures together! But, into the great unknown! I go first!!!'”

Rebecca Heineman sadly passed away. Known her since the 80s when I’d drive her to work, one of the most brilliant programmers around. A real gut punch earlier today when she messaged me: “We have gone on so many adventures together! But, into the great unknown! I go first!!!” 🙁 pic.twitter.com/lu3i0fyt5C

— Brian Fargo (@BrianFargo) November 17, 2025

Other game developers have also shared their memories, including Rami Ismail and Josh Sawyer, with many others sharing stories of Rebecca’s mentorship, kindness and support.

A game industry legend died a few mins ago, Rebecca Heineman (@burgerbecky), taken away by aggressive lung cancer. She oversaw the porting of Wizordum to the Mac OS most recently for Apogee. My local friends would often have dinner with her and I loved her industry stories and…

— Scott Miller – Apogee/3D Realms Founder ☢️ (@ScottApogee) November 17, 2025

Image credit: GoFundMe.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.