Fortnite OG Details Revealed Ahead of Its Launch Tomorrow, December 6

Fortnite OG, which will once again take players back to the first days of Fortnite Battle Royale, will launch tomorrow, December 6, and The Fortnite Team has revealed more details on what fans can expect from this trip down memory lane.

Fortnite OG will begin with Chapter 1 – Season 1 and the team plans to recreate those early days of the battle royale, complete with “loot pool changes and feature introductions.”

Season 1 will end on January 30 at 11pm PT/January 31 at 2am ET, which will end up being shorter than Season lengths in the main game, so fans can expect their anticipated additions to arrive in a timely fashion. Don’t worry, though, as Solos, Squads, and Zero Build will be available at launch.

The loot pool will include much of what was found at the beginning of Fortnite, including Assault Rifle, Burst Assault Rifle, Scoped Assault Rifle, Pump Shotgun, Tactical Shotgun, Pistol, Revolver, Submachine Gun, Tactical Machine Gun, Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle, Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Damage Trap, Ceiling Zapper, Wall Dynamo

While Fortnite OG is taking players back in time, there will be some Quality of Life changes put in place to make for a better overall experience, and you can check them all out below from The Fortnite Team;

  • Building mechanics will be uniform with Battle Royale as it is today.
  • As far as traversal goes, players will be able to sprint, slide, mantle, door bash, and move while healing.
  • Some of the rough edges from that era have been preserved, while others have been polished. For example, players will find Reboot Vans and be able to see the glare from a sniper scope, but Max building resources are set to 999 and Double Pump is enabled for Shotguns (for now).
  • Of course, the original map that Fortnite Battle Royale launched with in 2017 is back! Great care has been taken to ensure that every tree, Chest, car, and object is right where players remember it. In Zero Build, there will be Ziplines and Ascenders to help players get to hard-to-reach locations.

Players will also be able to purchase the Fortnite OG Pass and work their way to earning 45 tiers of “retro rewards with a modern twist on classic items and Outfits.” Speaking of Outfits, Renegade Rebel, Aerial Assault Bomber, and Skull Commander are the ones players will work towards in Season 1, and each will have an unlockable alt style as well.

It’s important to note that Epic Games did just raise its Battle Pass price for the first time ever ahead of Fortnite OG, so we wanted to make sure everyone was aware of that ahead of this upcoming launch.

Fortnite OG first launched back in November 2023 and the reception was overwhelmingly positive. In fact, it saw Fortnite enjoy its “biggest day” ever with over 44.7 million players.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

Infinity Nikki Website Temporarily Hacked to Display Offensive Message and Reference to Genshin Impact

Sensitivity Warning: The following article contains references to self harm which some readers may find disturbing. Please proceed with caution.

The official website for Infinity Nikki, the open-world dress up role-playing game from former The Legend of Zelda director Kentaro Tominaga, was temporarily hacked to display an offensive message and reference to Genshin Impact.

The highly anticipated game arrived on PlayStation 5, PC via the Epic Games Store, iOS, and Android today, December 5, but many users visiting the official website to download it were instead met with the offensive message.

Though it usually, and does again, feature colorful advertisements, information, and the actual download links for Infinity Nikki, alongside details on how to claim the launch rewards released by developer Infold Games, the website temporarily featured a blank white screen and the message: “Kill yourself! Or just better try Genshin Impact PRIVATE SERVER!” A QR code was also featured.

Many users posted the message on social media including Infinity Nikki’s Reddit page, though IGN won’t include links to such posts for security risks surrounding the QR code, which should not be accessed.

As for the reference to Genshin Impact, this likely comes as a result of vague comparisons between the two games. Though there are more differences than similarities between Infinity Nikki and Genshin Impact, both are open world gacha games with colorful anime art styles.

The brief website hack is seemingly just a small blemish on an otherwise successful launch, however, as players are sharing positive feedback for the game itself and it performed well with critics too.

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “Infinity Nikki has deep open world exploration, a quirky story, and some of the most beautiful in-game outfits you’ll ever see – you just have to be ready to navigate a maze of menus to get them.”

If you are having suicidal thoughts, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the U.S. is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255. A list of international suicide hotlines can be found here.

Blade Ball Festivities Update Adds Gingerbread Spin and Holiday-Themed Crate

Roblox sports experience Blade Ball is charging into the holiday season with a Festivities Update to help celebrate winter.

The latest update to developer Wiggity’s strategic dodgeball game, titled V6.5, arrived over the weekend. It comes with a new Gingerbread Hourly Spin and a special festive crate alongside a host of bug fixes, new swords, emotes, and more. It’s unclear exactly how long the Festivities Update-related goodies will be live, so make sure you start getting those spins in sooner rather than later.

The Festive Crate can be found in the lobby and grants access to specific rewards. Wiggity didn’t reveal everything the crate can hold and instead teased just one item: an OP-tier sword called Northstar Reaper. Players who advance to the Gingerbread wheel’s center, meanwhile, will be rewarded with the OP-tier sword, Frostbane.

Blade Ball’s latest update also comes with changes to a few abilities. The team says Calming Deflect and Quantum Arena have both received buffs, while Dragon Spirit, Swap, Golden Ball, Necromancer, and Phantom have been nerfed. Some clan tweaks include the ability to change your clan’s name for 99 Robux, while players are also now able to contribute up to 100 crowns every 10 minutes.

The Festivities Update follows November’s Thanksgiving Event update, which included a number of new themed additions, features, and bug fixes. Highlights included an in-game turkey NPC to visit as well as other unique rewards. That event is still underway and will remain available until December 7.

For more on Blade Ball, you can check out all active codes here. You can check out everything included in the latest update in the full patch notes below.

Blade Ball V6.5 Update Patch Notes

Festivities!

Festive Crate

– Find the Festive Crate in the lobby to unlock awesome rewards like:

– OP Tier sword “Northstar Reaper” (VFX, Slash) – 0.05%

Gingerbread Hourly Spin

– Get a free spin every hour!

– Advance to the center to unlock a LIMITED QUANTITY sword:

– OP tier sword (VFX, slash) “Frostbane” (5K Exists)

Clan Changes

– Contribute up to 100 crowns every 10 minutes

– Change the clan’s name for 99 R$ (under the manager, as the first option).

– Vote 2 abilities to ban in clan wars.

– New OP 2.5K Existing BACKSWORD “Celestial Whisper”.

Ability Changes

– Calming Deflect Buff

– Quantum Arena Buff

– Dragon Spirit Nerf

– Swap Nerf

– Golden Ball Nerf

– Necromancer Nerf

– Phantom Nerf

Bug Fixes

18 Swords

5 Explosions

6 Emotes

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.

Friday the 13th: The Game Developer IllFonic Hit With Layoffs

Friday the 13th and Predator: Hunting Grounds developer IllFonic has been hit by layoffs as the team has “re-aligned to a refined strategy.”

IllFonic CEO & Co-Founder Charles Brungardt shared the message on X/Twitter saying, “Today we had to accept the harsh reality that the state of the industry has impacted us here at IllFonic.”

“It is with the heaviest of hearts that cuts to our team had to be made as we re-aligned to a refined strategy,” he continued. “There is a lot of talent in this group and if you or your team is hiring, please reach out so people can be connected to open roles. Thank you.”

IllFonic was founded in 2007 and has studios in both Lakewood, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington. It is currently unclear how many people were impacted by these cuts, but these layoffs are taking place just a few months after the release of the studio’s latest game, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game.

In our Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game review, we said, “is as silly and entertaining as the movie that spawned it, and that makes for a surprisingly compelling asymmetrical multiplayer game to boot.”

Alongside the previously mentioned games, IllFonic has also developed and supported such games as Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, Arcadegeddon, Dead Alliance, Star Citizen, Armored Warfare, and Evolve.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

Anime Last Stand Tournament Update Adds New Game Mode and a Wave of New Features

Roblox tower defense strategy game Anime Last Stand’s new Tournament game mode is here alongside a quality-of-life update that adds a seamless retry feature, bug fixes, and more.

There’s a lot to go over when it comes to this latest update, but its new mode is the centerpiece. Developer Boss Studio says the mode asks players to deal as much damage as possible over a 20-minute period. The team says leaderboards reset every week, confirming that brackets will be added “soon.” With Tournaments also comes a Tournament Shop, which allows players to spend currency called Tournament trophies on items and new units.

Two new units also arrive with the Tournament update – Pirate King (Celestial) and Soul King (Shiny) (Exotic) – as well as seven new Evolutions: Pirate Lord, Fused Warrior (Blue), Idol (Pop-Star), Flame Breather (Demonic), Noble Caption (Blood War), World’s Strongest (Prime), Kon (Rage). Some of the more substantial changes involve new features, such as seamless retry, which allows players to restart stage instantly. Evolving now increases a unit’s stats, too, with a 5% chance to increase stats twice.

As for those quality-of-life changes, rerolling stats has been tweaked to make it harder to accidentally skip a stat you want. Boss Studio says it has also implemented “some lag fixes” while buffing out a number of other bugs.

In other Roblox news, there are a variety of other popular experiences that have received updates big and small in the last few weeks. The recent Fisch Ancient Isles update added new fish, mechanics, and a megalodon event, bringing some of the game’s biggest changes so far. Anime Vanguards Update 1.5, meanwhile, came with additions such as Familiars and new Units when it dropped on November 23.

Anime Last Stand will celebrate its two-year anniversary come March, but there’s no telling how exactly the team at Boss Studio plans to celebrate. Until then, you can see our list of all up-to-date codes here, and check out the full patch notes for the Tournament and Quality-of-Life update below.

Anime Last Stand Tournament + Quality of Life Update Patch Notes

Additions

  • Tournaments!
    • Tournaments have been added to ALS. Survive for 20 minutes and deal the most damage possible. The leaderboard for the tournament is global and resets every week.
    • These tournaments have a traitless and traits leaderboard which rotate every week. 2 elements [a primary and a secondary] will have a raw damage boost and a new map will be chosen each week.
    • Brackets coming soon.
  • New Tournament Shop
    • Playing the new tournaments gamemode rewards you with “Tournament trophies”. These trophies can be used to purchase items (and tournament units) from the new tournaments shop.
  • 2 New Units
    • Pirate King (Celestial) [ Tournament Unit ]
    • Soul King (Shiny) (Exotic) [ Shiny Soul Capsule ]
  • 7 New Evolutions
    • Pirate Lord
    • Fused Warrior (Blue)
    • Idol (Pop-Star)
    • Flame Breather (Demonic)
    • Noble Caption (Blood War)
    • World’s Strongest (Prime)
    • Kon (Rage)

Abilities

  • “I’ll use EVERYTHING” [ Kon (Rage) ]
    • During his ability “Kon (Rage)” has a -50% SPA reduction and a 100% DMG increase to boss type enemies. Lasts for 100 seconds.
  • “Final Kamehameha” [ Fused Warrior (Blue) ]
    • Line attack that applies 10 electricify ticks, each doing 10x his Damage (100x Total).
  • “Concert” [ Idol (Pop Star) ]
    • Range and damage of all units in her range are increased by 20%. Her ability lasts for 35 seconds.
  • “Demon Bout” [ Flame Breather (Demon) ]
    • “Flame Breather (Demon)” transforms and increases his DoT damage multiplier to 500% [ 5x ] (This doesn’t stack with the initial 300%)
  • “Bankai” [ Noble Captain (Blood War) ]
    • Using this ability applies an extended hemorrhage and does damage equal to 3x his current damage.
  • “Sea Quake” [ World’s Strongest (Prime) ]
    • Using this ability does a larger version of his 3rd attack that does an initial 200m DMG. Afterwards he starts summoning smaller waves every 10 seconds for a period of 5 minutes. These waves deal 40% of his current damage.

Features

  • Seamless retry
    • Retrying a stage now does NOT teleport you to a different game place and instead restarts the game almost seamlessly.
    • This also applies to the “Next” button.
  • Stats increasement on evolving.
    • Evolving a unit now increases their stats.
      • A -> A+,
      • SS -> SSS.
    • And there’s also a 5% chance for that stat to increase twice.
  • Potions
    • ALS is now introducing Drop and Banner luck potions. The drop potion increases your drop chance of evolution items and more. Banner luck potion increased the odds of pulling rarer units from banners.
  • Clan Enhancements
    • Your clan’s name and clan image are now displayed above the player’s name.
    • Leaving a clan now requires you to click “Leave” twice (To prevent accidental leaving from your clan)
  • Visual Updates
    • Trait Animations have been reworked and look much nicer!
    • Added new icons and colours to the UI.
    • Teleport photos have finally been updated up to date as well!
  • New Bundles
    • Three new bundles have introduced:
      • Luck Bundle
      • Drop Bundle
      • Tournaments Bundle

QoL

  • Stat changes
    • Rerolling stats now gives you a confirmation so you don’t accidentally skip a good stat!
    • Stats now have a different % buff for every stat.
  • Lag and Bug fixes
    • Some lag fixes have been put in place. (Focusing on lag purely for next update).
    • A bunch of bug fixes regarding units and other MISC bugs.

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.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 In-Depth Hands-On: It Has the Potential to Be a Medieval Masterpiece

This Henry guy just can’t seem to catch a break. When we last left the blacksmith’s son-turned-knight at the end of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance, things were finally starting to look up for him. But the sequel, in true video game sequel fashion, starts by knocking him down a peg or two and dumping him into a new, larger open world to regain his dignity, one side quest at a time. And to be honest, that’s refreshing.

The story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II picks up almost immediately where the first one left off, but it’s certainly not essential to have played it to follow what’s going on, thanks to an extended intro that brings you up to speed on the broader strokes. The year is 1403. Henry is a village boy from Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic) who saw his home burned to the ground due to a civil war for the crown taking place between two half-brothers. He ended up in the service of the frustratingly good-looking nepo baby Sir Hans Capon to try and help out the supporters of the royal brother who isn’t going around burning down villages, and that plan got… a little sidetracked.

It’s not exactly a start back from square one, though. Henry began the first game as that kind of old-school RPG protagonist who is really just some random guy with no skills to speak of. He could barely hold a sword, and the unforgiving combat really made you feel that until you put in the time to master it. But Henry’s a seasoned adventurer now. He knows how to read, which is practically a superpower in medieval Europe. And while you were out partying, he studied the blade.

Taste My Blade

This is reflected in the changes to combat in KCD2, which the developers described as lowering both the skill floor required to play competently and raising the skill ceiling for the most devoted warriors. There are only four attack directions now instead of five. Thrust attacks are no longer a separate attack button, and have instead been folded into the combo system for weapons that make sense with them only. Parries are a bit easier to pull off, and much to my delight, blocking can now defend you from multiple attackers – as long as they’re all in front of you.

Basically, whether you mastered KCD1’s combat or not, the lower skill requirement at the very beginning models the fact that Henry is simply a better fighter by now. But careful stamina management is still the core of every scrap, and button-mashing is one of the quickest ways to die. I came across plenty of challenging encounters even as someone with more than 100 hours across two playthroughs in KCD1, and it’s not as easy to spam your way through them by getting a couple of powerful combo moves down to muscle memory.

Hill and Dale

The world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is quite a bit larger as well, with two distinct maps about the size of the first game’s that you can travel back and forth between once both are unlocked. The terrain feels fairly familiar, for the most part. We’re still in the Central Bohemian woodlands, basically just over the hill from where KCD1 left off. But the level of detail on the terrain and vegetation is a noticeable step up. And better yet, it’s way more optimized. My RTX 4070 Super still can’t run KCD1 – a six-year-old game – on max settings. But what I played of KCD2 rarely had any performance problems.

The centerpiece of this new world is the city of Kuttenberg, which is quite a bit larger, denser, and more vibrant than anything we saw in KCD1. It’s certainly no Paris or Prague, but navigating its crowded streets and markets, taking shortcuts through back gardens, and admiring its grand Gothic architecture is a complete change of pace from wandering around muddy woodland trails. It’s big enough to get lost in, built on a realistic scale that makes towns in a lot of other RPGs feel like tiny dioramas.

Tricks of the Trade

The side quests I got to play were also very open-ended and complex. The most notable example of this was an arc involving two rival sword schools in Kuttenberg, with the older and more established one (who just happened to support the wrong king) trying to force out the newcomers (who were loyal to our boy, the rightful heir). It fell on my shoulders to steal a ceremonial sword from the established school and display it on the walls of the town hall, which would be seen as an open call for challengers.

The quest doesn’t much care how you get the sword. I took a sneaky approach, picking a lock to the guild’s side entrance. But often you’ll be able to choose violence, or even diplomacy to solve your problems. What it does care about is whether or not you get caught carrying out this little false flag operation, as it can affect how the tournament between the two schools plays out. I, of course, maintained plausible deniability and won the competition for my school. But there are a variety of other ways it could have progressed, some of which having long-term consequences. Another quest gave me the option of killing or talking my way past some “bandits,” and I was told that if I didn’t kill them, they might show up later and present me with new opportunities.

Almost everything in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has to offer feels like a careful refinement of its predecessor.

Skills and perks have also been expanded upon, and the perks themselves are generally more powerful. Some of the ones in the first game offered a boon and a penalty, which made them feel more like side-grades. Perks in KCD2 are more straightforward upgrades – which they should be, if I’m going to spend my scarce, hard-won progression points on them.

Sharp and Shiny

Almost everything else Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has to offer feels like a careful refinement of its predecessor. Warhorse isn’t reinventing the wagon wheel here. Diplomacy still takes into account factors like what clothing you have on and how clean you are – with a new system of saved favorite outfits so you can quickly switch between combat gear and something more suited to a soiree. But this time, there’s more emphasis on picking the right thing to say for the situation, instead of just the option you have the best stats for.

Alchemy is back, allowing you to craft various potions and concoctions, and it’s been made less fiddly. There’s a new blacksmithing minigame for forging your own gear and making a bit of coin, following in Henry’s father’s footsteps. The reading skill has been replaced by Scholarship, which is gained by reading books and can provide boons like opening up new dialogue options. Henry’s still crap at reading Latin, though, and I’m not sure if that can be fixed.

And in addition to new, more diverse move sets for all kinds of melee fighting, Henry can finally get his hands on some guns. This is the early 1400s, so we’re talking about extremely primitive firearms. The kind that had the tendency to blow up in your hands. So don’t expect to be medieval John Wick. But if you point them the right direction from close enough range, there’s really no amount of armor that will save your foes from the blast. Then you probably want to grab a sword, because the remaining foes will not stand there and wait for the subjective eternity it takes you to reload.

On the Road Again

In just about every sense, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is shaping up as simply a smoother, prettier, more refined continuation of the things I liked about the original. The core mechanics are mostly the same, but sharper and with deeper progression. The world looks familiar, but broader and more grandiose. I had two whole days to play it and it felt like far too little. When I was first turned loose from the stocks to pick my own path to glory, I felt that tingly feeling you get the first time you play Skyrim or The Witcher 3, of a massive world full of diverse adventures that aren’t just clearing icons off of a map. I look forward to spending dozens of hours exploring, gearing up with authentic medieval weapons and armor, and progressing through the improved perk system. Maybe Hans will stop being a huge bag of dicks, too! You know, anything is theoretically possible. I’m just glad I won’t have to wait much longer.

For more, stay tuned all December long as our exclusive IGN First coverage of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 continues.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle PC System Requirements Revealed

Bethesda has revealed the PC system requirements for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle ahead of its December 6 launch.

A blog post revealed an array of different settings including Minimum, Recommended, and Ultra, plus Ray Tracing requirements too. Bethesda also confirmed an SSD is required to run Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on any settings.

To run the game at Minimum settings, meaning at low graphics presets, 1080p resolution, and targeting 60 frames per second, players will need an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, SUPER 8GB or AMD Radeon RX, or 6600 8GB or Intel Arc A580 graphics card. As for the processor, players will need an Intel Core i7-10700K at 3.8 GHz or an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 at 3.6 GHz, alongside 16GB of RAM.

Recommended settings require an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080Ti 12GB or AMD Radeon RX 7700XT 12GB graphics card, plus an Intel Core i7-12700K at 3.6GHz or an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 at 3.8 GHz processor, and 32GB of RAM.

As for the best of the best, players looking to run Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with ray tracing and at Ultra settings, with upscaled 4K resolution and targeting 60 frames per second, will need an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 24GB graphics card. This comes alongside an Intel Core i7-13900K at 3.0 GHz or an AMD Ryzen 7 7900X at 4.7 GHz processor and 32GB of RAM.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the highly anticipated release from Wolfenstein developer MachineGames and is Indy’s first proper foray into the video game space. Players are tasked with uncovering one of history’s greatest mysteries in the first person single player adventure.

“Generations of gamers both new and old should care [about this game],” IGN said in our preview. “Because as good as the studio’s recent Wolfenstein reboots were, The Great Circle might be even better.”

Those looking to play on the December 6 release date must pay $99.99 to do so, however, as Bethesda and Microsoft are deploying the faux early access period strategy that the likes of Ubisoft has already given up on.

Those only willing to spend $69.99 on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, or play it at no extra cost on Game Pass, must wait until December 9 to play.

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

Play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Xbox for $34 (or $29)

One of the best deals in gaming skipped the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday cycle and plopped itself down on the internet this morning. Woot (a deals-centric retailer owned by Amazon) has brought back a super low price on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. You can get a 3-month subscription for just $33.99. And if you’re a new customer, you can enter code GAMEPASS at checkout to get an extra $5 off, knocking it down to $28.99. Either way, that’s the best deal you’re going to find on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate anytime soon, and it happens to line up nicely with the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

3-Month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription for as Low as $28.99

Woot looks pretty barebones for a retailer, but it’s owned by Amazon, so it’s a legitimate outfit that won’t take your money and run. You can check out using your Amazon credentials, which is what I always do when making purchases there.

I often call Game Pass the best deal in gaming, but the standard price of the service has been ratcheting up over the years. If you buy it directly from Microsoft, it costs $19.99 a month, which is pretty pricy considering the release cadence (and quality) of recent years’ first-party Xbox releases. That said, the service has tons of third-party and indie games across all genres, so you can always find plenty worth playing. You can even stream many of the games from the cloud to your phone, laptop, Steam Deck, etc. Game Pass Ultimate is a great service and well worth the $11 per month this deal breaks down to.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Release Date

As for Indiana Jones, The Great Circle actually releases on December 6 if you buy one of the pricier editions. Game Pass subscribers can purchase a Digital Premium Upgrade for $34.99, which gets you the three-day early access, along with The Order of Giants story DLC, a digital artbook, and a Temple of Doom outfit.

Otherwise, all Game Pass Ultimate members can play on December 9. We don’t have a review up yet, but the trailers look great, and you can check out our final preview to see how it’s shaping up. (It’s shaping up nicely).

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.

Nintendo Switch Online Library Adds Game Boy Classic Donkey Kong Land 3

Nintendo has added Game Boy classic Donkey Kong Land 3 to the Nintendo Switch Online library.

A trailer revealed the platformer from developer Rare is available today, December 4, and wraps up the trilogy of Donkey Kong Land games which Nintendo has re-released onto its subscription service over the last month.

“Fame and fortune seekers have journeyed far and wide in search of the fabled Lost World,” reads the official synopsis. “Eager to find it first, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong set off to discover its entrance, unaware that Baron K. Roolenstein and his Kremling Krew are hot on their tail.

“Meanwhile, Dixie Kong is left behind to babysit her younger cousin, Kiddy Kong. But that won’t stop her from answering the call of adventure! Help Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong through 36 Kremling-infested levels, each containing their own secret areas and bonus levels.”

Donkey Kong Land 3 is available at no extra cost to users who have a Nintendo Switch Online membership and have purchased the Expansion Pass.

Nintendo periodically adds a handful of classic titles to its myriad Switch Online libraries, which also includes games from the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Advance, and more.

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

PlayStation Boss Hermen Hulst Says AI Will Never Replace the ‘Human Touch’ of Video Game Development

PlayStation co-CEO Hermen Hulst has said artificial intelligence will never replace the “human touch” of video game development but still expects AI to feature prominently in the industry.

Hulst told the BBC he believes AI has the potential to “revolutionize” video game development but studios will have to strike the right balance between using it and creating games through the traditional route.

“I suspect there will be a dual demand in gaming: one for AI-driven innovative experiences and another for handcrafted, thoughtful content,” Hulst said. “Striking the right balance between leveraging AI and preserving the human touch will be crucial.”

Striking the right balance between leveraging AI and preserving the human touch will be crucial.

This comes as many fans and creators of video games are growing increasingly concerned with the use of AI-generated content, though executives at various publishers have shared different perspectives on it so far.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is at “the very core” of its business, for example, while others, such as Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, have expressed more caution. AI can be used “in creative ways,” he said in July, but its use “also raises issues with intellectual property rights.”

AI isn’t quite ready to replace human developers, however, as support studio Keywords Studios tried creating a video game solely using AI only to deem the technology was “unable to replace talent.” But one area it is impacting already is voice over, with a video game voice actor strike currently ongoing under The Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).

Myriad voice actors have commented on the threat of AI already, including Metal Gear Solid and Mass Effect actress Jennifer Hale. “The truth is, AI is just a tool like a hammer,” she said. “If I take my hammer, I could build you a house. I can also take that same hammer and I can smash your skin and destroy who you are.”

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lead Doug Cockle similarly expressed caution and frustration at the growing presence of AI within the video game industry, calling it “inevitable” but “dangerous.”

Cissy Jones, a voice actor known for her roles in Disney’s Owl House, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, Shin Megami Tensei 5, and more, has started a company called Morpheme.ai to let voice actors embrace AI and gain control of their own voices going forward.

Image Credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images

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