Horses, the indie horror game that was banned from both Steam and the Epic Games Store ahead of its launch two weeks ago, has nonetheless managed to sell over 18,000 copies, says publisher Santa Ragione. However, that’s not enough for the publisher to fund a new game.
This comes from a press release sent today by Santa Ragione, which says Horses has generated approximately $65,000 in net revenue thanks to sales on GOG and Humble [Disclaimer: Humble and IGN are both owned and run by IGN Entertainment, a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc.]. That was enough to pay royalties owed to creator Andrea Lucco Borlera, as well as pay off the loans the publisher took out to finish development.
But that’s not enough to begin work on a new game, and it doesn’t seem likely that amount will be reached despite the significant attention the game’s controversy gleaned. The team members are still planning to take on other jobs and projects, with the hope that the publisher may be able to fund a new prototype in the future if sales remain steady for long enough.
“While the launch of HORSES compares very favourably to our most recent launches on Steam, Steam’s economics rely heavily on multi-year long tail sales and, for our past projects, on Steam key distribution through bundles, which has also lately been restricted for low-selling titles,” the publisher said in a statement. “These structural differences are why a strong two week result on smaller storefronts does not tell us what a full Steam release could have looked like.”
Horses is a horror game that follows a young man who travels to a horse farm to work for several weeks during the summer, only to discover that the farm’s “horses” are actually naked humans with horse masks forcibly attached over their heads. The game explores themes of complicity and what horrors people are willing to participate in, via the farmer and eventually protagonist’s treatment and continued enslavement of these people.
The game contains a lot of disturbing imagery, including violence and sexual content, but none of that’s new for either Steam or Epic. Nevertheless, Horses was banned from Steam two years ago after the team submitted an in-progress prototype. While some suggestions were given as to the reason for the ban, no specifics were shared with the team at the time, nor was there an opportunity to appeal. Santa Ragione believes Valve may have objected to a scene present in the earlier version where a child “rode” one of the naked horses by sitting on their shoulders and being carried around. That character was aged up to an adult in the final version of the game, and there are no underaged individuals in the released version.
With Valve unbending, Santa Ragione said at the time it may have to close its doors, due to the overwhelming necessity of a Steam release for most games to recoup development costs. The publisher put its hopes in Epic, GOG, and Humble, but at the last minute right before launch, Epic also banned the game, with Epic citing violations of its policies on “inappropriate content” and “hateful or abusive content.”
Both bans prompted a wave of criticism from developers and audience members, who called out the banning of the game as both censorship as well as hypocritical, given some of the other content that’s allowed on Steam in particular. Santa Ragione specifically has called out Valve for having unclear policies and communication, problems that it feels essentially ensured the studio’s demise.
We also want to emphasize that this outcome should not distract from the broader issue at stake: the need for clearer rules, transparent processes, and meaningful accountability from near monopolistic distribution platforms and the systems they enforce. For every case like HORSES that becomes visible, there are many more games that are quietly banned, delisted, or trapped in indefinite review for unclear reasons, with developers too worried about retaliation or future approval to speak publicly. We are grateful to the journalists and outlets who have reported, and who will continue to report, on these cases.
Critical response to Horses has been across the board, with our own reviewer giving it a 7/10 and calling it “an affecting first-person horror game that, despite some repetitive tasks and signposting issues, delivers a harrowing story you won’t forget in a hurry.”
Publisher Santa Ragione has a long history of both developing and publishing standout games. Its most recent successes are Mediterranea Inferno, which it published from developer Eyeguys and which won Excellence in Narrative at the 2024 Independent Games Festival, as well as nominations for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Nuovo Award. Saturnalia, developed in-house and released in 2022, received generally positive reviews. Both games remain available on Steam and Epic.
“In short, yes,” Howard told BBC Newsbeat. “Fallout 5 will be existing in a world where the stories and events of the show happened or are happening. We are taking that into account.”
The Fallout TV show, which is set after all the existing Fallout video games, has sparked much debate within the fandom. Questions on how it fits into the overarching Fallout timeline and whether it makes particular video game endings canon have dominated discussion in the run up to each season’s release. Indeed, Fallout Season 2 had left fans wondering about the fate of New Vegas following the events of the video game, although the show’s creators have avoided making a clear call.
What Howard is confirming here is that TV show characters such as Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul and the events of the show must now be factored into Fallout 5, although we don’t know when or where the game will be set. Could either actually appear in Fallout 5? It sounds like it’s possible, but we’ll have to see what happens in the show itself.
It’s worth remembering that we’re guaranteed Fallout Season 3, and the hope is there will be more seasons after that. There’s a long way to go before the show wraps up, and there’s a long way to go before Fallout 5 comes out. In the meantime, could Bethesda follow The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and release a remaster of Fallout 3 or New Vegas, or perhaps even a Fallout: New Vegas 2 as a stop gap? In a recent interview with IGN, Howard remained coy on the possibility.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The holiday period is a great time to catch up on some of this year’s games that may have passed you by. If Ninja Gaiden 4 was on your list of games to play, Best Buy is offering a $15 discount on both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions right now as part of its Deal of the Day (see it here).
This offer brings its price down from $69.99 to $54.99, which is a nice little early holiday treat to jump on. Again, since it’s part of Best Buy’s Deal of the Day selection, the timer on its sale page has already started counting down until the end of today. Now is the time to take advantage of this limited-time deal and add it to your library for a little less.
Save $15 on Ninja Gaiden 4 (PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X)
Ninja Gaiden 4 was one of our favorite action games of 2025, earning a runner-up spot in our IGN Awards. Our 8/10 review from IGN’s Mitchell Saltzman said, “When it comes to combat, there are few games I’d consider to even be in the same ballpark as Ninja Gaiden 4. It is quite simply the most fun I’ve had with a 3D action game since Devil May Cry 5.” With praise like that, why not add it to your list of must-play games over the holidays?
If you’re grabbing this game as a gift for a Ninja Gaiden fan this year and are on the hunt for more gaming-related items to pick up before the holidays, we can help there, too. Our roundup of the 10 best gifts for gamers features even more recommendations we think are worth gifting this year, from hardware to apparel to the very cool LEGO Game Boy build. If something catches your eye, now is the time to buy to make sure you have it in time.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Superhero workplace comedy game Dispatch has just popped up on the Nintendo eShop for Switch and Switch 2, and is already available to pre-order.
There’s been no formal word yet by developer AdHoc Studio, but the Nintendo eShop listing is now live in Australia, where Switch owners can pre-order the game. There’s even a release date, too: January 29, 2026.
For Nintendo Switch 2 owners, a free upgrade pack will be available to download separately, providing a version of the game with enhanced resolution and improved frame rates. As of yet, there’s no sign of the game arriving on Xbox — though we’ll update this article again when AdHoc makes any formal announcement.
Dispatch first launched back in October for PC and PlayStation 5, where it quickly won over a legion of fans for its quirky, episodic storytelling, and shifted 2 million copies over its first month on sale — something its team had projected the game would reach after two years.
The game features an ensemble cast of heroes voiced by some famous faces, including Aaron Paul, Laura Bailey, Jeffrey Wright, and Matthew Mercer, while its development team features key personel from Telltale Games’ heyday, who previously worked on The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and Tales from the Borderlands.
“Dispatch is a sharp-witted workplace comedy that charms with its smart dialogue choices, great writing, and lovably aggravating cast,” IGN wrote in our Dispatch review, scoring the game with a super 9/10.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
November 2025 was a shockingly terrible month for video game sales in the U.S. While we traditionally think of November as a huge sales month what with Black Friday and all, November 2025 was the worst November in video game hardware unit sales, and the worst in physical software dollar sales the U.S. has seen since 1995.
That’s according to Circana’s monthly report, which paints a pretty dismal picture of last month’s commercial performance. The industry in the U.S. saw declines across the board in hardware, accessories, and console spending for an overall drop of 4% year-over-year, at $5.9 billion in total spending.
Hardware
More specifically, hardware spending was down a whopping 27% year-over-year to $695 million, the lowest hardware spending total for November since 2005’s $455 million. Even worse, unit sales reached 1.6 million, which is the lowest November total since 1995’s 1.4 million.
And that’s representative of declines across the board. Xbox Series hardware sales were down 70% year-over-year. PS5 sales were down over 40%, and combined unit sales of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 were down over 10% from Switch sales last year, despite this being a launch year for the Nintendo Switch 2.
What’s going on? As pointed out by Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, video game hardware has never been more expensive, reaching an all-time November high of $439 per unit, up 11% year-over-year. The Xbox specifically saw its average price per unit increase by over 30%, perhaps confirming one reason why folks aren’t so keen to buy Xboxes specifically.
With the Nintendo Switch 2, Piscatella says he’s watching its sales “very closely,” and offers this analysis of its current situation:
With six months in the market, it remains the fastest-selling video game hardware in U.S. history. However, part of what was driving that was its availability to be bought during its launch window. It’s been extremely rare to have such a successful new device not suffer supply constraints going into its first holiday sales period. Unit sales of Switch 2 were lower than those of Switch 1 during each console’s first November, but the price points are also quite different. The average price paid for a new Nintendo Switch in November 2017 was $309 (which, if adjusted for inflation, is approximately $405 in November 2025 dollars), compared to the $486 for Switch 2 in November 2025. Perhaps it is a case of demand having been pulled forward earlier in the year because people could find them. Or perhaps the mass market is not as quickly adopting Switch 2 as it did Switch. Or perhaps consumers are looking elsewhere for holiday gifting as the prices continue to rise in video game hardware. Tough to say at the moment.
There’s one piece of hardware that’s doing okay, and it’s not what you’d expect: the NEX Playground. It was the third best-selling piece of video game hardware of November by unit sales, surpassing the Xbox Series, while the more expensive Xbox Series beat it in dollar sales (the PS5 was first in both categories, the Switch 2 was second). Piscatella calls the NEX Playground a “remarkable story,” noting that while everyone else is having a bad time, it just had a superb November by comparison:
November 2025 tracked unit sales at U.S. retailers for NEX Playground were just 7% below its entire tracked lifetime sales at retail through October. With an average selling price of just over $200 in November, strong placement at retail, and some successful influencer and viral marketing efforts, the NEX Playground became one of the hottest video game products of the holiday season during the month. We’ll have to see how well the pace can keep up, as there are reports that the NEX Playground is now largely sold out, with secondary market prices on sites like eBay soaring accordingly.
There could be a lesson here that more affordable, family friendly gaming devices carry appeal during holiday gifting season.
Software
Things aren’t looking much better on the content side. While Circana reports that content spending was up 1% year-over-year to $4.8 billion, that’s with subscription spending rising 16% and 2% growth in mobile. Physical software sales, meanwhile, dropped 14% year-over-year to the worst November since 1995, the year Circana began tracking them.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 put the Call of Duty franchise back on top for another debut month in November as the month’s best-seller, marking the 18th year in a row a Call of Duty has launched to the top of the charts. That said, Circana reports that the franchise saw a double-digit percentage full game dollar sales decline when compared to November 2024.
It’s a little tricky to make precise comparisons between Black Ops 7 and its predecessor, Black Ops 6, given both games launched into Xbox Game Pass, and Black Ops 6 released in October last year, not November. Still, Piscatella tells me that Black Ops 7’s full game dollar sales finished below those of Black Ops 6’s last November. Additionally, Black Ops 7 is currently the seventh best-selling game of the year-to-date, and Piscatella anticipates that its rival, Battlefield 6, will end the year as the best-selling game of 2025. This isn’t the first time in recent memory it’s been beaten, with Hogwarts Legacy coming out on top in 2023. Notably, that year, Hogwarts Legacy beat Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, which did not launch into Game Pass, while Black Ops 7 this year did, almost certainly making its actual dollar sales total lower as a result.
It’s worth noting as well that accessories spending was down 13% year-over-year.
Red Flags
This is shaping up to be a pretty weird year. I asked Piscatella what he makes of all this, and what it means for the games industry. He pointed out that much of the story remains to be told in December, and that it’s possible consumers are waiting for better deals closer to the holidays. Alternatively, it’s possible that economic factors and price of consoles are pushing people to hold off on gaming purchases. Here’s what Piscatella had to say:
Retail spending had been holding up relatively well until now, despite the pressure from higher prices we’ve been seeing in the market. More affluent consumers have kept on spending so far, which has made up for some of the declines in spending from the less affluent portions of the market. Perhaps this is a sign that those higher prices are beginning to impact purchases of pricier items, like consoles. Perhaps not.
However, if the crunch on RAM pricing continues, if we see rising prices on consoles and gaming PCs over the coming months it could, theoretically, be potentially devastating to the dedicated gaming device market. Which would, of course, have potential carryover effects on the content side.
I certainly see some of the relationships between hardware unit sales and pricing we’re seeing in the November results as a red flag.
We won’t get the December and full-year results in until January, which will tell us a lot more about whether the games industry is about to enter a lean period, or if this November was just a goofy one-off.
November 2025 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (NEW)
Battlefield 6
NBA 2K26
Madden NFL 26
EA Sports FC 26
Pokemon Legends: Z-A*
Ghost of Yotei
EA Sports College Football 26
Minecraft*
Kirby Air Riders (NEW)*
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (NEW)*
The Outer Worlds 2
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
Donkey Kong Bananza*
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Red Dead Redemption II
Grand Theft Auto V
Borderlands 4
Forza Horizon 5
Digimon Story: Time Stranger
* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana’s data. Some publishers, including Nintendo, do not share certain digital data for this report.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Palworld has just pushed out a significant new patch, bringing a collab with Ultrakill and a ton of improvements as developer Pocketpair continues work to prepare for the launch of Palworld 1.0, the game’s eagerly-anticipated full release.
John “Bucky” Buckley, communications director and publishing manager, teased that this update, dubbed Home Sweet Home, “puts a lot of groundwork in as we work towards our MASSIVE 1.0 release in 2026, but we have lots of little surprises in this update so check it out!”
As part of the Ultrakill collaboration, you’ll find several “iconic weapons and armor,” as well as a V1’s infamous coin toss, while the Home Sweet Home update — as the name suggests — makes it a little more intuitive to put down roots and make your own cozy base.
Pocketpair said it had been “blown away by all the incredible builds that you guys have been sending us,” and knows we’ve “been eagerly waiting for more freedom in how you design your base.” That’s why this update brings a number of new building parts, including the ability to change the color of building pieces and the “much-requested triangular pieces.” The building menu UI has also been redesigned and reformatted into a list.
But that’s not all. Melee combat has been improved to make it “more viable and fun,” and now, when summoning a raid boss at the Summoning Altar, players can choose to either fight at their base as before, or take on the raid boss in a special Raid Area.
“These Raid Areas allow you to fight with all your might, without risking any damage to your base,” the team explained. “You can build temporary structures and take items into these special Raid Areas.” Which is just as well, as a new raid boss will also pop up after the update.
“2025 has been an incredible year for Palworld, and we’re excited to end the year with v0.7, Home Sweet Home!” Pocketpair exclaimed. “The purpose of this update is to begin improving existing features, and while this update may not be as content-rich as previous ones, we hope players understand that it’s necessary for us to begin laying the groundwork now as we work on the development of Palworld 1.0.”
Last but definitely not least, PvP! Though the studio admits PvP has been a topic of discussion in the Palworld community for a “long time,” and it’s “hard to fully integrate PvP into the game,” it is trying to make the dream a reality, albeit with some careful parameters.
“We are releasing all the necessary tools for players to set up their own PvP rules on their own terms,” Pocketpair said. “Show off your skills and compete with other Pal Tamers! Please note that PvP is experimental, and as such, there may be some balancing issues.”
Palworld v0.7 patch notes:
ULTRAKILL Collab!
Added V1 and V2 armor sets! Terrorize the Palpagos Islands as your favorite blood-fueled robot!
Added a pair of iconic weapons from ULTRAKILL!
Unique Mechanic – Coin Toss
Throw coins while using the Marksman Revolver to perform a Ricoshot! Bullets will ricochet off the thrown coin and deal devastating damage to nearby targets!
Base Building Improvements
Added 48 new building parts, including triangular pieces!
Added the ability to change the color of some buildings and foundations!
Changed the building UI to a list-based system.
Raid Boss Improvements
Added a new raid boss!
Added a new battlefield for raid bosses. Players can now choose to challenge raid bosses in their base or in a new separate battlefield.
Melee Combat Improvements
Improved the melee gameplay for swords, katanas and beam swords. Pressing left click (right trigger) will perform a new consecutive combo attack.
Special attacks have been added to the katana and beam sword. Holding either left or right click (left or right trigger) will activate these abilities.
New Features
Added PvP functionality (Experimental!).
[PC – Steam Only] Added Steam Workshop, allowing players to download and use mods.
Mechanic Adjustments
When placing a building, an arrow indicating the building’s orientation will now be displayed.
When placing a building, buildings with a set work location will now display a Cattiva icon indicating the work location.
Adjusted the Palbox so it can be aligned with foundations and roofs.
[Keyboard & Mouse Controls] Building controls have been made more intuitive, and continuous building has been changed to the default setting.
Balance Adjustments
Added new implants to the surgery table:
Implant: Mine Foreman
Implant: Logging Foreman
Implant: Fine Furs
Implant: Sleek Stroke
Implant: Work Slave
You can now get a Little Kinship Peach from a Pal when freeing them from an enemy camp.
The last hit done to an enemy while using mercy will now display “”MERCY HIT”” to indicate that no damage was done.
Changed specifications so that all Pals will no longer lose SAN when taking damage.
Reduced the impact of bad status effects:
Hungry… Attack, Defense, Work Speed -20% → -10%
Starving… Attack, Defense, Work Speed -50% → -20%
Cold… Work Speed -10% → -5%
Sprain… Movement Speed -10% → -5%
Overfull… Increased hunger loss rate by 100% → +50%
Ulcer… Work Speed -20%, Movement Speed -10% → Work Speed -10%, Movement Speed -5%
Fracture… Work Speed -10%, Movement Speed -20% → Work Speed -5%, Movement Speed -10%
Weakened… Work Speed -20%, Movement Speed -30% → Work Speed -10%, Movement Speed -20%
Depressed… -30% Work Speed, -20% Movement Speed → -20% Work Speed, -10% Movement Speed
Changed the attribute of the Broncherry’s unique skill “”Body Smash”” from neutral to the grass.
Changed the attribute of Rushoar’s unique skill “Heavy Charge” from neutral to earth.
Added “Item Decay Speed Multiplier” to the Options Settings.
・[Dedicated Servers] Police NPCs targeting players who have committed crimes will now only deal damage to the target player and their guild.
・The appearance of the work aptitude icon has been changed.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where Flopie would not collect dropped items in the field while her partner skill “Helper Bunny” was active.
Improved Pal pathfinding AI to make it easier to reach the target location within the base.
Fixed an issue where summoned Pals would attack visitors when set to “attack aggressively.”
Fixed an issue where attacking visitors in your base would not result in the correct attacking state.
Many other minor bug fixes.
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.
Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios has confirmed the end of new content development for the game, following layoffs at the company this summer.
Released in 2023, the latest and (for now) final entry in the Forza Motorsport series was launched as a reboot of Xbox’s veteran sim racing franchise, with years of new content expected. But the game launched to a mixed response, and around half of Turn 10 Studios’ staff were made redundant in July. (The studio remains open, with support for the more popular Forza Horizon brand now a key focus.)
Word that Forza Motorsport will not receive any further big updates is unsurprising, then, though a fresh statement in a blog post from the studio has now laid it out in black and white.
“As our team shifts its focus toward delivering the best possible experience with Forza Horizon 6 in 2026, we do not plan to introduce new cars, tracks, features, or regular bug fixes for Forza Motorsport,” Turn 10 Studios wrote.
“However, we will continue supporting the game by keeping online servers active, hosting special events and competitions, and reintroducing previously released Featured Tours and reward cars on a monthly basis, until all content is available for you to enjoy anytime.”
Turn 10 is now a co-development partner for Forza Horizon 6, which is primarily being made at British studio Playground Games. The latest entry in the series will be set in Japan, and launch at some point in 2026.
Microsoft has not officially detailed its cuts to Turn 10 Studios this summer, but one former employee stated at the time that around “120 people” were “gone from FM side” of the studio. “Turn 10 Studios has shuttered the Forza Motorsport space and the team is no more,” wrote a second former employee amid the layoffs. “A very sad day for one of the best car racing video games. I loved my time there.”
The first Forza Motorsport from Turn 10 Studios launched for the original Xbox in 2005, and established the racing franchise as one of Microsoft’s key gaming brands, as well as a serious rival to PlayStation’s Gran Turismo. Seven Forza Motorsport sequels launched since, across every Xbox console generation.
Is Forza Motorsport gone for good? In October, Xbox gaming boss Phil Spencer offered this comment to Famitsu on the franchise’s status, which seems to suggest that while not fully scrapped, it’s at least currently parked with the engine off.
“As for Forza Motorsport, we sometimes have to shift our focus to games that will be released earlier,” Spencer said. “And I also understand that many people reacted when the scale of Turn 10 Studios was reduced. As far as we are concerned, there are many games that we would like to support carefully, and sometimes we give the development team a little more time so that they do not continue to be in a state of tension.”
“Forza Motorsport is brimming with new features across the board, from its muscular new multiplayer to its much-improved handling, but its new RPG-inspired upgrade system feels like a step down,” IGN wrote in our Forza Motorsport review, handing the game an 8/10.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
The team behind the reimagining of the original Lara Croft adventure, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, have opened up on how they’re approaching the 1996 game’s difficulty and instakills, acknowledging it will have to be adjusted for “modern player tastes.”
Speaking at a press event and captured by GamesRadar+, Crystal Dynamics’ game director Will Kerslake said: “part of reimagining a game right is adjusting that game evolving for modern player tastes.”
He also hinted at what kind of gameplay we can expect to see, insisting “it is core to the Tomb Raider experience that there are puzzles in combat and traversal and death-defying action.” However, Kerslake stressed that the things we remember from the original game will remain, adding: “you’ll see big rolling balls, and you know, the things that you expect in a Tomb Raider game are going to be there in spades.”
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is due out at some point in 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam. Alix Wilton Regan will now play Lara Croft in both Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and 2027’s Tomb Raider: Catalyst, with Camilla Luddington, who portrayed Lara Croft in the Survivor Trilogy, issuing a heartfelt goodbye to the character this week.
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.
The Commodore 64 Ultimate is the most astonishing retro product I have ever reviewed. I was expecting it to be a straightforward, modern take on the all-time best-selling personal computer. I imagined it would be a newer version of the C64 Mini or C64 “Maxi,” with a selection of games and software built in and accessible through a bespoke menu system. Seriously, I would have been totally fine with a modern C64 that hooks to modern 4K displays and televisions and let me experience the C64 ecosystem on the big screen. And it does that, extremely well.
But it also does so much more, more than I could have ever imagined it would. Better still, it does all those things amazingly well. From the spot-on design of the packaging down to the perfection of the keyboard in every way, the Commodore 64 Ultimate is the kind of modern take on retro hardware that all future endeavors in the space should aspire to. They won’t. But they should.
What’s In the Box
The Commodore 64 Ultimate packaging looks the part of its predecessor, although dimensionally they differ. The original C64 box is a little taller and a little less wide, but otherwise the modern take evokes the exact same feeling as the original right from the packaging. It’s an excellent combination of both old and new, listing the modern capabilities of the device while using old-school images of people using the original on CRT displays.
The Commodore 64 Ultimate is what all future retro endeavors in should aspire to.
Right on the copy printed on the box, the Commodore 64 Ultimate positions itself as an antidote to the modern computing experience, which I’m completely into. As someone who’s been using the Internet since before Netscape was even a thing, I often think back wistfully to how much simpler it was when a computer was a tool you used to create things, not a device that serves you ads. The tagline on the back says “Classic Form. Ultimate Function. Distraction Free.”
For those of you who weren’t born before 1980, the original Commodore 64 was not only the most successful 8-bit computer of the 1980s, it’s the best-selling personal computer of all time. So many Gen-Xers grew up with a Commodore 64 as their first home computer, and if they didn’t have one (like me), they knew someone who did. It debuted at $595 in 1982, but within a year, competition had cut the price in half. In the 1984 Sears Holiday Wishbook catalog it’s listed at $229.99, while the Coleco Adam just a few pages later is $700.
The C64 was affordable, well supported, handled business and productivity applications while also having a huge library of games. You could load software from 5.25″ floppies, cassette tapes, or cartridges. It was versatile, compact, extremely affordable and available everywhere. It also had a custom sound chip that let the C64 sing, literally, giving it a huge edge. The C64 produced an iconic sound modern chiptune artists like 8-bit Weapon still use.
Inside the box is the Commodore 64 Ultimate itself, which is actually available in three different versions. There’s the classic beige, a fully transparent and LED-lit model, and a special edition gold translucent version only available for those who backed the device early on. I’m going to get into the design later, but as soon as I opened the box I was struck by just how perfect this is in terms of replicating the look of the original.
There’s also not one, but two, small, double-sided sheets of Commodore-branded vinyl stickers. The stickers are great. They’re high-quality, not garbage paper ones like I would have expected, and it’s just another delightful part of the experience. There are a few for the logo, one for the classic “READY” prompt, a tiny tape drive and floppy drive sticker, and more. It’s great. I’m going to stick these things everywhere (except for the C64 Ultimate itself, of course).
There’s a transparent plastic AC adapter with different interchangeable plug styles for your region, and a generous 2.5 meter HDMI cable in a Commodore branded bag. The cable itself is not branded, however, which is maybe the only thing I can point to with the C64 Ultimate and say “I wish this were different.” The cable itself supports Ethernet over HDMI, for reasons I don’t understand, as well as 4K resolution.
Underneath it all, nestled in a protective cocoon of bubble wrap, is probably my favorite addition to the C64 Ultimate box: an honest-to-goodness spiral-bound instruction manual just like the original. And it’s an ACTUAL instruction manual, too. It’s not just a 4-page quick start guide translated into 16 different languages to pad it out. This is an almost 250-page tome of goodness we just don’t see anymore. It’s more than just a passing resemblance between the new and the old. Yes, there’s a quick start guide, but beyond that, the manual teaches you how to use the Commodore 64 Ultimate in the same way the original manual taught you to use the C64. There’s a section on BASIC, the computer programming language so many oldheads like me first learned, as well as Advanced BASIC.
The C64 Ultimate comes with an honest-to-goodness spiral-bound instruction manual.
This is probably my favorite thing about the C64 Ultimate: the fact it’s a modern version of the old hardware on which I love writing BASIC programs. If you’re not familiar with the language, its primary purpose was to make computer programming easier for beginners. In fact, the name BASIC is an acronym for “Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.” No one uses it anymore, not for anything serious. Ask anyone now and they’ll tell you to start with Python.
Well I’m here to say those people are wrong, and BASIC is the perfect place to start. One of the greatest things about having a hardware-indentical version of the original Commodore 64 is all those old magazines and books with page upon page of BASIC code will still work exactly as they were intended. You’ve probably seen engagement-farming social media accounts talking about how “back in the day” people would copy programs from magazines, by hand, into their computers line by line. Can confirm, we really did. And with the C64 Ultimate we can use those same programs, or just copy and paste them and load them in via USB. I think that’s cheating but I’m also not above it.
I haven’t delved deeply into the world of programming the C64 Ultimate, at least not yet, so I can’t speak authoritatively on whether or not there’s some string of code somewhere that won’t work on the Ultimate. Knowing what little I know about FPGA, I don’t think that will ever be a problem I’ll come across. The beauty of FPGA versus software emulation is the hardware works exactly like the original. Sure, someone out there writing in assembly might find some peculiarity with the system that wasn’t present in the original, but for me? Hell nah, let’s get some BASIC code going baby!
Back in the day people would copy programs from magazines, by hand.
The fact you’re taught BASIC in the manual, and then taught advanced BASIC, as well as sprite and sound manipulation, makes the manual even more of a valuable resource. This is exactly the kind of thing I love, and exactly the way computers used to be. You didn’t just buy a computer to passively entertain yourself, you bought one to do rudimentary spreadsheets, play some games, and create your own experiences. I love it. The best thing about learning any computer language is the fundamentals are all pretty much the same. Once you understand if-then statements, or “for” loops in BASIC, you’ll understand them in JavaScript, or C#, or pretty much any other language.
Peripherals, Modern and Classic
What was maybe the most surprising revelation to me about the Commodore 64 Ultimate was its support for the original Commodore peripherals. Things like the cassette deck and iconic 1501 floppy disc drive will work with the C64. I don’t have the cassette deck, unfortunately, and while I have the floppy drive I don’t actually have any floppies with which to test it. The big batch of floppies I picked up earlier this year were all unreadable, so sadly I can’t speak to that, at least until I luck my way into another cache, one that hopefully works.
What I can say is the C64 Ultimate will work with a classic CRT monitor, and that just makes me all kinds of delighted. Is it more convenient to use it on a modern display? Yes, a thousand percent. Is it more fun? Not even close. Thankfully I have several CRT monitors compatible with the Commodore, including an original Commodore CM-141 monitor I drove two hours into the wilderness of Maine’s coast to acquire. Weirdly, the default settings were in PAL and so I had to go in to change them, but once I did, I was absolutely delighted by the CRT-goodness. I don’t have the correct cable to use the CM-141, but I do have one that let me hook it to an old Magnavox monitor that has a setting to output in a faux phosphor-green. Can’t complain about that!
I wish more retro-revival hardware had the option for analog video. I’m sure the people who want such a thing make up a very tiny percentage of the population, but for something as specialized as the Commodore 64 Ultimate, it is a perfect fit. The modern Commodore company sells the proper cables on its website, so I’m probably going to buy some just so I can plink away at my next BASIC program in front of the warm glow of a humming, 13″ color CRT TV.
Another odd peripheral I have is a Commodore 1670 modem, though the Commodore 64 Ultimate lacks the User Port from the original where it hooks up. Instead, the Ultimate has modern connectivity like Wi-Fi and an Ethernet jack. It’s probably for the best anyway – I’ve messed around with slow, retro modems on old hardware before and it’s fun, but 1200 baud makes even BBSes slow to use. And besides, if I do want that old-school experience, there’s modem emulation built into the system anyway.
While having Wi-Fi rules, at first I couldn’t get the Wi-Fi to work. I entered in my Wi-Fi password and waited for a while, tried it again, rebooted and tried one more time and it never showed the “Link Up” message on the Wi-Fi configuration page. It wasn’t until after I hooked it to a wired connection that it decided to come to life, after which I was able to disconnect from the Ethernet cable and have it maintain its wireless connection. Not sure if that was just a coincidence or a weird bug, but it gave me a brief jolt of disappointment.
I’m also sadly lacking in C64 game cartridges, which is a bummer since the Commodore 64 Ultimate can play those, natively, through the expansion port in the back of the computer. But since it can run those carts, it can easily run ROM files, ones that you of course own legally or are provided from reputable, legal sources.
Spot-On Design
The Commodore 64 Ultimate is indistinguishable from the original at first glance. Everything about it looks and feels exactly the same as the original. The beige case and brown keyboard is fantastically reproduced from the original, for better or for worse. It’s not until you take a closer look do you start to notice the differences, with the modern ports, a transparent window on the side and a much smaller port for the AC adapter.
The Commodore 64 logo badge on the top? Perfect. The red LED power light? Flawless. The keyboard? OK, like I said before, absolute perfection – for better or for worse. Let me explain myself.
Typing on the Commodore 64 Ultimate gives you the exact same tactile feel of the original. The key travel is perfect, the “clunk” of the switches, even the subtle texture of the plastic feels exactly like the original. It’s just fantastic. I think my love of modern mechanical keyboards can be directly traced back to this era of computing, and the feel is wonderful.
Keeping with the original in every possible way, however, is going to require you to unlearn some of the modern keyboard placements you’ve been using since things settled down to a standard layout. This isn’t a fault with the design, it’s unfortunately a byproduct of keeping things so perfectly retro. I find myself struggling with some of the key placement, like where the double-quotes are (they’re over the 2-key, by the way).
If the C64 is the computer you grew up on, your muscle memory might come back to you easily. But otherwise, there’s a little more hunting-and-pecking here than I’ve done in years. It’s not a fault of the design at all, and it can’t be avoided, but it’s just something that you’ll definitely experience when you shift from the modern keyboard layout burned into your brain. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
One major, positive design change is the power supply. The original C64 power supply was a brick almost literally, and pretty much every original C64 power supply is waiting to someday blast the original hardware with an overvoltage that will run it. The new one is cased in transparent plastic and doesn’t take up half your desk like the original monster.
It plugs in right next to the multifunction button, a rocker-style switch that turns the Commodore 64 Ultimate on and off and lets you switch to the special configuration menu. It took a little more effort than I was expecting, and it’s just a touch too small for my large hands. Turning off the Commodore 64 Ultimate requires you to push down and hold for 4 seconds, and I don’t like that. More than once, I thought I’d activated the button, but was instead standing there like an idiot with the button 90% pressed for 10 seconds. Given the change of configuration of slots and peripherals, I would have liked a two-position switch for power and a momentary switch to go between C64 and configuration modes.
Software
In keeping with the retro-modernity of the Commodore 64 Ultimate, there’s a USB stick in the shape of a cassette tape, complete with cassette case, included in each box. You plug it into a very modern USB port in the back and then access it via the configuration menu in a very old school, hierarchical file system type of way.
The software on the drive is generous, to say the least. There is so much here, it’s overwhelming. Rather than go through every single included piece of software (which I wouldn’t mind doing, honestly), I’m going to touch on some of the more notable programs.
But before I do that, I’m going to shout out a feature they didn’t need to include, but they did anyway: when you start up a program from the file browser, the Commodore 64 Ultimate starts whirring and clicking, with the occasional buzz for good measure. It’s making the sounds you would expect from a program loading from a floppy disc and it’s absolutely wonderful. When I was a kid using computers, I loved the feedback of those mechanical drives. I always felt like I was listening to the computer “think.” This little feature adds so much to the experience, in a way I didn’t expect at all.
Back to the software, there are dozens of demos on the USB drive, and not the ones we’re all used to. The demo scene, while still around, is a pale reflection of its former self. Basically, programmers and hackers would flex their skills by creating demonstrations of their programming prowess. They would push machines to do things that didn’t seem possible with custom animations and music, and you can see some of them here. One of the most notable and well-known demos is Bad Apple, presented here as Bad Apple 64. The Commodore 64 Christmas Demo is also on the USB, which is delightful. I’m nothing if not full of holiday cheer.
There’s also a huge selection of games on the USB, but maybe my favorite addition here is GEOS, a graphical user interface designed specifically for the Commodore 64. While I don’t see myself switching from macOS to GEOS any time soon, it’s so cool to see this rudimentary GUI running on original hardware. Unfortunately I can’t locate my compatible Commodore 64 mouse, but there are still dedicated hobbyists out there making them in our modern times, and Commodore sells compatible devices on its own site.
It’s so cool to see a rudimentary GUI running on original hardware.
I’m a little surprised you can’t use a modern USB mouse, which would have been much easier for the end-user. I don’t think it would have taken anything away from the experience, either. In fact I’d argue it would enhance it, given most people own at least one USB mouse but very few people own compatible Commodore mice. I dug through the various menus and didn’t find any options, but if there’s a way, please let me know.
I’m mildly obsessed with different GUIs, and will take any opportunity to try them out, so I’ll probably scour eBay for a mouse, especially because it also has a whole suite of GEOS software. If I really wanted to (and I do), I have the option to hook up a Commodore printer and print off my own beautiful GEOSPaint creations, or I can use the Virtual Printer and save generated files to the USB as .pngs. From there I can just open it on a modern computer and print it from there. And friends, best believe I’m going to be doing that once I get a compatible mouse.
Sucker Punch co-founder Brian Fleming is stepping down n the new year after three decades at the studio behind Ghost of Tsushima, Sly Cooper, and Infamous.
According to a post from Sony, on January 1, Jason Connell and Adrian Bentley will step into Fleming’s former role as co-studio heads, with Nate Fox continuing his role as co-creative director alongside Connell and Adrian also serving as technical director.
Our deepest thanks and gratitude to Sucker Punch Productions Co-Founder Brian Fleming, who is handing over the leadership reins as the studio begins a new chapter. Starting Jan 1, longtime creative and technical leaders Jason Connell and Adrian Bentley will step into new roles… pic.twitter.com/RvPzJfWHGl
Fleming first founded the studio in 1997 alongside Bruce Oberg, Darrell Plank, Tom and Cathy Saxton, and Chris Zimmerman following a stint at Microsoft. The group went on to start the Sly Cooper franchise, which Sony published. The two companies continued their publishing relationship into the Infamous series in 2009, and after the sequel Infamous 2 in 2011, Sony acquired Sucker Punch. Under Sony, the studio created Ghost of Tsushima in 2020, and most recently followed up with a sequel, Ghost of Yōtei, this past October. With Fleming’s departure, only Oberg and Zimmerman of the co-founders remain with the studio.
Connell and Bentley are long-time Sucker Punch veterans. Connell joined the studio in 2010 as a lighting artist and worked his way up to lighting director and eventually creative and art director, and recently co-creative director on the Ghost franchise. Bentley came to Sucker Punch as a programmer in 2004 fresh out of DigiPen Institute of Technology, and has worked there his entire career, moving up to become an engine programmer and later technical director.
Fleming hands off Sucker Punch in what seems from the outside to be a pretty positive state. The studio’s had multiple successful games both critically and commercially, with Ghost of Yōtei recently reviewing well (including our own 8/10 score) and selling 3.3 million copies as of November 2. An added New Game Plus mode just released a few weeks ago. It’s unclear what Sucker Punch will work on next under Connell and Bentley, or if the Ghost franchise will continue or something new is on the horizon for the studio.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
