Halo Infinite Battle Royale Was Real and ‘Could Have Been a Game Changer,’ Dev Says

The Halo Infinite battle royale mode which Microsoft reportedly scrapped was in fact real, with one developer saying it “could have been a game changer” for the beloved Xbox franchise.

GameSpot spotted mention of the Halo Infinite battle royale in the LinkedIn page of Mike Clopper, the former game director at Halo support studio Certain Affinity. Clopper now works for Raven Software.

“I led a large team of designers working on a canceled Battle Royale mode for Halo.” Clopper said. “I believe this product could have been a game changer for the franchise. We loved playing it and working on it was a fantastic experience in spite of its cancelation.”

I believe this product could have been a game changer for the franchise.

Though a Halo battle royale has been rumored for years following the success of the likes of PUBG and Fortnite, a report in January revealed it had been in development but is now shelved at Microsoft. Clopper is the first developer to comment on it publicly, however, with everyone else at Certain Affinity, Halo Studios, and Xbox all staying quiet.

Certain Affinity president and COO Paul Sams did tease a large project in September 2022 though, and Certain Affinity itself posted on X/Twitter in April 2022 to say it was “further evolving Halo Infinite in some new and exciting ways.”

Halo has otherwise undergone some dramatic changes over the last few years, most recently with developer 343 Industries being rebranded as Halo Studios. This came after player numbers for Halo Infinite dropped off dramatically after launch as fans expressed frustration over a lack of content, poor progression systems, monetization, and more.

Microsoft is seemingly trying to restore some excitement to the flagship Xbox franchise with the rebrand, however. It also announced a shift to Unreal Engine 5 and said “multiple projects” are in development.

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

BioWare Confirms Dragon Age: The Veilguard PS5 Pro Enhancements

Dragon Age: The Veilguard developer BioWare has revealed exactly how its upcoming fantasy role-playing sequel will benefit from PS5 Pro.

BioWare said in a blog post that Dragon Age: The Veilguard includes fidelity and performance modes targeting 30 frames per second and 60 frames per second respectively on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S, but it is also “specifically enhanced” for the $700 PS5 Pro.

PS5 Pro has an AI-powered upscaling feature called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) that can automatically improve the image clarity of games, but PS5 Pro Enhanced games take particular advantage of the beefier mid-gen upgrade’s features.

According to BioWare technical director Maciej Kurowski, Dragon Age: The Veilguard “will lean into the power that PS5 Pro unlocks”, and that players “will immediately notice the improved experience with PS5 Pro.”

What this amounts to in-game is an improvement to both the aforementioned fidelity and performance modes on PS5 Pro, including improved resolution in 30fps fidelity and 60fps performance modes. Meanwhile, Kurowski said there will be “various improved visual settings” across 30fps fidelity and 60fps performance mode on PS5 Pro.

“The team at BioWare is proud of how immersed players will be when they enter the beautiful world of Thedas, with upgraded image quality thanks to Sony’s new AI-based upscaler, PSSR,” Kurowski continued. To that end, BioWare has enabled Raytraced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO) in the 60fps performance mode, which previously was only available on the base PS5 with 30fps fidelity mode.

This realizes Sony’s expectation that PS5 Pro will let players enjoy all the visual bells and whistles normally reserved for fidelity or quality modes in higher frame-rate performance modes.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard joins the likes of God of War Ragnarok and Diablo 4 in a list of over 60 games with confirmed PS5 Pro Enhanced updates, according to eagle-eyed fans who’ve been keeping an eye on the PlayStation Store (IGN has a list of all the PS5 Pro Enhanced games so far).

At a recent PS5 Pro preview event, we spoke with the technical leads of some of PlayStation’s biggest games, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and The Last of Us Part 2, to discuss the improvements fans can expect to see now there’s a more powerful PS5 on the market.

In another interview with IGN, Saber Interactive chief creative officer Tim Willits said he’s hopeful the PS5 Pro will improve Space Marine 2 by default via PSSR, but did not confirm a PS5 Pro Enhanced patch.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard launches on October 31, with PS5 Pro following on November 7.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Eagle-Eyed Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Fans Spot Chapter All-but Confirmed to Get Cosmetic Pack After the Dark Angels

This week, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 publisher Focus Entertainment released a new trailer, below, showing the DLC coming to the game as part of its first year of post-launch updates. It confirmed the imminent arrival of the Tyranid Hierophant Bio-Titan enemy type, the new Neo-Volkite pistol, and the hotly anticipated Dark Angels chapter cosmetic pack.

But, it seems, that is not all it confirmed.

Eagle-eyed fans have also spotted a number of pieces of DLC neither Focus nor developer Saber Interactive have announced, although some of it has been strongly hinted at via datamining. First up, we see what looks like confirmation that the Ravenwing chapter of Space Marines is set to get a cosmetic pack after the Dark Angels get theirs.

In the video, we see the menu screen for the Dark Angles cosmetics, and at the top of the screen we can see the Raven Guard symbol next in-line.

This tallies with datamined assets of the Mark 6 Corvus and Mark 7 Aquila Astartes helmets, which strongly suggests Saber plans to expand the game’s Space Marine customization beyond variations of the latest Mark 10 Tacticus power armor.

Space Marine 2, which is set in Warhammer 40,000’s current and ongoing Indomitus Era, features Primaris (bigger, stronger, better) marines and thus focuses on the latest armor sets in the tabletop. However, this datamine suggests old favorites are potentially on the way, and it’s the “beaky” helmet popularized by the Raven Guard chapter of Space Marines that’s got Warhammer 40,000 fans most excited.

What we don’t know at this point is which Space Marine 2 class is set to receive the Raven Guard skin. The Heavy already has one, and, soon enough, the Bulwark will have its Dark Angels skin. That leaves the Assault, Sniper, Tactical, and Vanguard up for grabs.

The expectation is the Raven Guard skin won’t be released before 2025, with Season 2 set to kick off very soon and run until the end of the year. Season 3 sounds like a decent bet.

Meanwhile, fans have spotted additional Space Marine 2 successor chapters in the trailer. Redditor R97R compiled a helpful list, below:

  • Angels of Absolution
  • Angels of Redemption
  • Angels of Vengeance
  • The Unnamed
  • Blades of Vengeance
  • Cowled Wardens
  • Bringers of Judgement
  • Angels of Defiance (potentially)

Now here’s where things get really interesting, and credit to Warhammer 40,000 YouTuber Chapter Master Valrak for spotting this. At one point in the trailer, where we see a Space Marine battling a Thousand Sons Chaos Marine, we see what very much looks like a Tzaangor Shaman (the demon mounted atop a flying Disc of Tzeentch).

Check the out of focus Tzaangor Shaman in the top left of the screenshot below:

The addition of new enemies is on the Space Marine 2 roadmap, and indeed Focus has said Seasons 3 and 4 will add new Tyranid and Thousand Sons enemies. A Tzaangor Shaman would fit the bill, perhaps throwing magic bolts around in a new PvE Operations map.

Here’s an image of the Tzaangor Shaman model from Games Workshop itself:

Saber recently released Space Marine 2’s game-changing patch 3.0, which made a seemingly innocuous change to the ending that got Warhammer 40,000 fans excited. Fans have also unearthed interesting and unannounced Space Marine 2 cosmetics by datamining the game.

Meanwhile, IGN interviewed Saber Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits about Space Marine 2’s record-breaking success. He revealed the boost he expects the PS5 Pro will give Space Marine 2, discussed how the breakout success of Space Marine 2 had “changed everything” for the studio, and how protective Games Workshop is over the Warhammer 40,000 brand.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Sony Confirms Astro Bot Post-Launch Speedrun Levels and Special Bots Release Schedule

Astro Bot’s free post-launch speedrun levels kick off tomorrow, October 17, with a new one released every week.

Five new levels each with two new Special Bots to rescue begin rolling out from tomorrow with the release of the Building Speed level, Team Asobi studio director Nicolas Doucet said in a post on the PlayStation Blog.

“These levels will test your platforming skills and alongside an online leaderboard, will give you the chance to compete against all your PlayStation friends,” Doucet said.

“In Building Speed, with the help of Barkster, the bulldog booster, you will blast your way through a sky-high city,” Doucet continued. “Dodge cranes, smash through crates, and even speed through a flying car wash on the way to rescue your stranded crew.

“Following on from this we will release a brand new speedrun level each week, so by the time you have perfected every jump, hover and spin in one level, a new challenge will await you.”

Here’s Astro Bot’s DLC speedrun level release schedule:

  • Oct 17: Building Speed
  • Oct 24: Let it Slide
  • Oct 31: Spring-loaded Run
  • Nov 7: Helium Heights
  • Nov 14: Rising Heat

All Astro Bot updates from October 17 to November 14 will be available every Thursday at 6am PT / 2pm BST / 10pm JST.
This free DLC will end up adding 10 new Special Bots to the game. Sony has already revealed Eve from Stellar Blade and the Helldivers. “However, as for who is next, well that’s for you to find out,” teased Doucet. “So, get busy rescuing.”

Doucet then teased more post-launch support for Astro Bot, saying: “That’s all we have for today, however watch this space as there may be even more surprises coming soon.”

Sony’s critically acclaimed PS5-exclusive 3D platformer features 173 bot cameos from PlayStation games past and present (check out IGN’s feature, Astro Bot: Every PlayStation Character – Easter Eggs, for more). Iconic Final Fantasy characters are conspicuous by their absence, however — an omission fans were quick to pick up on in the context of Final Fantasy’s long-standing association with PlayStation. That means no Cloud from Final Fantasy 7, or any other character from the famous role-playing franchise.

Last month, Game File asked Doucet about Cloud’s absence from Astro Bot. According to Doucet, Team Asobi had hoped to get Cloud in the game but failed for some reason. “It’s difficult to comment on that,” Doucet said, before adding: “We really respect the choice of each publisher.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

EA Takes Plants vs. Zombies 3 Offline for ‘Major Overhaul’

EA has pulled Plants vs. Zombies 3 offline for what it called a “major overhaul” as it works to once again improve the game before a worldwide launch.

In a blog post, EA said in-app purchases are no longer available and the game is no longer available to download. November 15, 2024 is the final day to play. After that, the servers go offline and Plants vs. Zombies 3 will be inaccessible in all territories.

Any earned or purchased coin balances as of November 15, 2024 will be saved as long as you’ve connected your account through Google Play, Apple ID, or your EA Account. Boosts, game progress (including levels and unlocked units), and narrative will all be reset.

Plants vs. Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia is a 2024 free-to-play tower defense mobile game developed by EA-owned PopCap Games and published by EA on iPhone and Android in January this year. That followed a soft launch in select regions in 2020, a re-work and subsequent re-launch in April 2022, then another soft-launch in October 2022. A worldwide launch was then planned for later in 2024, but clearly PopCap is still working to get to the root of the game’s issues.

EA said it’s now “excited to re-tool” the game and “bring you an even better PvZ3 experience soon.”

“We’ve been grateful for your enthusiasm and feedback during our soft launch,” EA said. “We’ve always had love for our plants, and yes, even our zombies, and it has been a joy bringing life to Dave, his niece, Patrice, Nate, and many more in PvZ3. It’s clear that we’re onto something great and following the recent releases of Choose Your Seeds and the manual activation of Grapes of Wrath, we want to go even further to make the game truly special.

“That’s why we’re taking the game offline for a major overhaul, and we can’t wait to share what’s taking root!”

The Plants vs. Zombies franchise has suffered a difficult time in recent years, with various spin-offs failing to replicate the phenomenal popularity of the first two games. Fans often call on EA to release a third game in the third-person shooter spin-off series Garden Warfare, which has been dormant since the release of Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville in 2019.

A canceled single-player Plants vs. Zombies game had been in the works within EA from about 2015 to 2017. Read all about what happened to that in a special IGN investigation.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

EA Sports FC 3 Title Update 3 Makes Some Much-Needed Balance Changes, Nerfs Overpowered Trivelas and 5 at the Back Formation, and More

EA Sports has released a significant balance update for FC 25 addressing some of the key issues with the game.

Since FC 25 launched last month, players have complained about a number of gameplay issues that have made competitive play frustrating, including overpowered Trivelas (shots taken with the outside of the foot) and a much-maligned five at the back formation that was incredibly difficult to break down.

Title Update 3, which is rolling out now across all platforms, addresses those concerns with sweeping balance changes to many aspects of gameplay.

The accuracy of Trivelas, for example, is “greatly reduced,” and the width of the defensive line for five defender formations is “greatly increased,” which will hopefully open up space. Meanwhile, first-time lobbed through passes are nerfed, as are driven passes.

There’s a general boost to attacking play, too, with attacking runs for AI players in certain roles given a shot in the arm among other tweaks. This will hopefully make attacking more effective in-game. Those annoying offsides should hopefully calm down, too, with improved AI player recognition of offside situations.

Elsewhere, there are fixes for various bugs and improved referee decision making when calling for fouls and penalty kicks. FC 25’s refs had become the focus of ridicule for failing to give obvious penalties in-game.

Last week, EA Sports issued FC 25‘s first live tuning update, which patched out an exploit that was ruining competitive play. Live tuning lets EA Sports roll out some changes without requiring a full title update like today’s. The developer said it can make tuning changes “faster and with more frequency while working on the balance of the game.”

Wondering what’s changed in FC 25? Here’s a list of everything new – we’ve also got the Best EA FC 25 Tactics Codes to help you prepare your game plan, plus a breakdown of every Skill Move in FC 25 and how to perform them.

EA Sports FC 25 Title Update 3 patch notes:

Gameplay

Made the following changes:

  • Reduced accuracy of First Time Lobbed Through Passes including when performed at extreme angles.
    • This change is most noticeable for players with high passing Attributes.
  • Greatly reduced potential accuracy of Trivelas.
  • Greatly increased width of the defensive line for 5 defender formations.
  • Reduced potential accuracy of Driven Passes.
  • Increased the frequency of attacking runs for AI players in the following roles: Shadow Striker, Inside Forward Attack, Inside Forward Roaming, Wide Playmaker Attack, and Wingbacks in scenarios with open space ahead of them.
  • Improved AI player decision making when considering diagonal runs into open space, and when considering runs into nearby open space.
  • Improved accuracy of shots taken in situations where the player is not being pressured and generally has a clear line of sight on goal, including 1 on 1 situations and open goals.
  • Improved AI Center Back decision making when attempting to provide a safe option for a pass.
  • Improved AI player recognition of offside situations.
  • The CPU AI will look to further prioritize passing during build up play instead of dribbling.
  • Reduced the speed of some slide tackling animations.
  • Slightly increased clearance accuracy.
  • Reduced Ground Pass and Through Pass ball velocity in wet weather.

Addressed the following issues:

  • During some long distance shots and corners, goalkeepers faced away from the ball unintentionally.
  • In some cases, defenders could have turned and faced away from the ball instead of trying to intercept a pass.
  • Right Wing Inside Forward AI players did not always position themselves as intended.
  • Improved referee decision making when calling for fouls and penalty kicks.
  • During a match, Half Wingers could not have changed sides when swapped with their counterparts in Team Management.
  • Players could have sometimes lost the ball too easily when making physical contact during a Skill Move.
  • In some scenarios goalkeepers were attempting to punch or deflect the ball instead of catching it.
  • Some passes could have resulted in the ball traveling faster than intended.
  • The CPU AI incorrectly ignored certain Skill Moves and did not perform them.
  • When remaining in control of the ball after a tackle attempt by the defender, a requested Lob Pass could have taken longer to execute than intended.
  • Some passes could have been more accurate than intended.
  • Improved animations that can occur when performing short passes.
  • In rare scenarios, the user could have lost control of a player receiving a pass.
  • During Set Pieces, an incorrect off the ball player animation could have occurred.
  • Goalkeepers could have sometimes unintentionally dived the wrong way when attempting to make a save.
  • In some dribbling situations, the CPU AI did not attempt to challenge for the ball against a user controller player.
  • In rare cases, goalkeepers could have gotten stuck around their goal posts when attempting to make a save.
  • Sometimes, automatic clearance animations were occurring outside of intended heading and goal line clearance situations.
  • The CPU Slider for Skill Moves previously only applied to Legendary difficulty.
  • Improved goalkeeper animations when dribbling with the ball.
  • The ball could have passed through a goalkeeper in some rare scenarios.
  • In some rare situations, players’ feet could have gotten stuck around goal posts instead of attempting to hit the ball.
  • During Rush penalties, the goalkeeper could have sometimes moved off the line and gotten stuck.
  • During Rush corners, players could have incorrectly positioned and continuously readjusted themselves until the corner was taken.
  • In certain scenarios, the opposing goalkeeper could have been controlled during set pieces by all players in a match.
  • During penalty kicks, players outside of the box did not always perform the correct idle animations.
  • When a Free Kick timed out, sometimes the automatic action could have resulted in a pass instead of an inaccurate shot.
  • Players could have run up directly to the set piece taker in some scenarios, ignoring the minimum distance they must keep.
  • Sometimes, sliding or falling shot animations could have occurred unintentionally.
  • In some cases, defenders going to ground could have applied more pressure to the ball carrier than intended.
  • Addressed instances of player switching not functioning as intended.

Ultimate Team

Addressed the following issues:

  • Attribute upgrades were not showing in the Player Bio when using an upgraded Evolution Item in another Evolution.
  • A stability issue could have occurred when claiming Season Pass, Objective, and Milestone Rewards.
  • After creating a Squad in Single Player Ultimate Draft, new tactics could not be created on the team management screen.
  • Loan Player Items in Seasonal Objectives were showing as having 0 contracts, this was a visual issue only.
  • Sometimes, the Objective notification would still be present even if all Objectives were claimed.
  • A stability issue could have occurred after swapping players and then making tactical changes in Ultimate Draft.
  • If a player forfeited a Rush match, they were not able to party up with their original group again with a new invite.
  • In rare situations, a Player Bio can be displayed after returning after Pack Preview.
  • After completing the onboarding in Ultimate Team, Learn and Upgrade was sending players to the FC Hub.
  • Stadium Items set to active on the New Items screen were not applied.
  • A Season Pass screen could have displayed when an Objective reward was claimed.
  • Sometimes, the match result was displayed when waiting in the match lobby.
  • In Evolutions, Role rewards did not display + or ++ symbols.
  • Some Stadium Items were showing a placeholder image on the Item.
  • In some circumstances, it was not possible to navigate to the SBC Storage.
  • Addressed instances of players not being able to preview rewards in the Season Pass.
  • Player profiles could overlap with Club Badges in the Rush lobby.
  • Sometimes, a Custom Tactics share code could have disappeared.
  • A player could have been assigned more than one Corner Kick Instruction.
  • Sometimes, a Goalkeeper could have come up for a corner kick unintentionally.
  • Addressed instances of stability issues when navigating SBCs.

Clubs

Addressed the following issues:

  • In a rare scenario, an incorrect match result was shown when the opposing team left the match.
  • Drop-in matches didn’t proceed to penalties if Golden Goal Extra Time ended in a draw.
  • CAM Avatars could have been placed in incorrect positions when selecting the Any option in some cases.
  • The Captain was not always able to interact with Quick Tactics.
  • Highlights in Rush displayed an incorrect time format.
  • After getting a Match Rating of 10 in Rush, it was not possible for it to decrease during the match.
  • Addressed a stability issue when using the Reset Tactic option.
  • In Rush, the pop-up message to join the team voice channel did not always display.
  • In certain situations, a Waiting for Clubmates message would display at the end of a match.

Career Mode

Made the following changes:

  • The Simulation gameplay preset is now the default for new Career Mode saves.
  • Added multiple settings when creating a new Career Mode save, including the ability to disable Club Growth Board Objectives.

Addressed the following issues:

  • Improved Growth Plan logic for secondary positions in Manager Career.
  • Addressed instances of social media posts not displaying as intended.
  • Youth Academy goalkeepers had lower Diving Attributes than intended.
  • Addressed an instance of conversations interrupting Calendar time advancement.
  • Youth Academy surnames could have repeated too often.
  • Sometimes in Manager Career, the Player of the Month award was not present.
  • In Player Career, created Players were not always displaying correctly.
  • Addressed instances of incorrect camera angles.
  • Addressed instances of Manager customization not displaying as intended.
  • In some cases, the Transfer tab could have been inactive.
  • Improved some UI transitions.
  • A stability issue could have occurred when firing a Scout.
  • Improved social media comment context.
  • The audio for goal sounds could play at inconsistent volumes.
  • Updated Youth Academy player body types.
  • Addressed visual issues when customizing players.
  • Addressed an instance of an incorrect task present in Women’s Player Career.
  • Addressed instances of Team Sheets not functioning as intended.

General, Audio, and Visual

Made the following changes:

  • Updated some art and UI elements, balls, badges, placeholder text, QR codes, kits, accessibility settings, stadia, audio and commentary, crowds, star heads, camera angles, and visual effects.

Addressed the following issues:

  • Sideline players and staff did not always react to shots as intended.
  • During Tournament matches, an NPC could have appeared standing in the middle of the pitch.
  • Adjusted the timing window for Suggested Tactic pop ups in game.
  • Addressed instances of incorrect lighting.
  • Sometimes after using the Rewind functionality, the EA connect widget can appear during gameplay
  • When connecting online in Kick Off, Main Menu settings could have overwritten Kick Off settings.
  • Some Tactical Suggestions did not display the Substitutions option.
  • In Kick Off some player roles were not highlighted when playing them in their preferred position.
  • Addressed instances of UI not displaying or functioning as intended.
  • In Learn To Play Rush, the game could have started on a full-size pitch.
  • [Xbox Only] The Online Seasons Leaderboard did not update correctly.
  • In Kick Off, the CDM role was not shown as an option in some formations.
  • When switching the player role from Goalkeeper to an outfield position in the create Avatar screen, the option to change gloves was not available.
  • The Lob Pass Skill Game did not always calculate scoring correctly.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

XDefiant Dev Says ‘We Have Done Very Little Marketing So Yes Our Numbers Are Down,’ Denies Support Could End After Season 4 if Player Count Doesn’t Improve

XDefiant, Ubisoft’s free-to-play Call of duty rival, has missed the publisher’s expectations since launching in May — that much CEO Yves Guillemot admitted during a recent financial call. But are there plans to shut the game down? Not so, its chief developer has insisted.

Rumors began circulating this week that support for XDefiant could come to an end after Season 4, which closes out XDefiant’s Year 1 roadmap, if its player count failed to improve. Ubisoft has yet to announce player numbers or revenue figures for XDefiant, with Guillemot promising to say more at the end of October.

Now, XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin, who works at Ubisoft’s San Francisco development studio, has responded to those rumors, insisting the company does not plan to shut the game down after Season 4.

However, in-line with Guillemot’s comments, Rubin — who was an executive producer on Call of Duty before making the switch to Ubisoft — admitted player numbers are down. This, Rubin said, was because Ubisoft has done “very little marketing” as it works to improve the game. Once XDefiant is in “a better place”, the marketing push will begin, Rubin said.

“To be crystal clear there are NO plans to shut down after Season 4,” Rubin tweeted. “I’ve literally been in meetings as of last week to discuss our Year 2 plans. But, right now we are super focused on improving the technical experience (which includes netcode) and adding more content for Seasons 3 & 4.

“We have done very little marketing so yes our numbers are down but that is just to give the team the time to get the game in a better place before we do bigger spends on marketing to bring new players to the game and to bring back players that have left.”

XDefiant launched into the brutal live service shooter market at a time when it had already claimed a number of high-profile victims. Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League flopped to the tune of $200 million after Starbreeze’s Payday 3 suffered a disastrous launch last year. Since then, things have only got more difficult, with Sony’s Concord going down as one of the biggest PlayStation disasters of all time.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft has endured an awful year with the aforementioned disappointing return from XDefiant and, most recently, Star Wars Outlaws. It delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows into 2025 following poor sales of Outlaws, and its staff in France are currently on strike.

In its recent note to investors, Guillemot acknowledged that the company’s “second quarter fell short of expectations” and vowed to launch “a review aimed at further improving our execution.” He also addressed some of the cultural conversations happening around the company lately, which have intensified around Star Wars Outlaws and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Things have got so bad at Ubisoft that its founding Guillemot family and shareholder Tencent are reportedly considering teaming up to take the company private following the collapse of its share price.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft has ditched Epic Games Store timed exclusivity for its PC games and gone back to day-one launches on Steam, a move clearly designed to boost flagging sales of its games. Ubisoft has yet to announce a Steam launch for XDefiant, but it feels like a certainty at this point.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

XDefiant Dev Says ‘We Have Done Very Little Marketing So Yes Our Numbers Are Down’ Amid Rumor It Could Shut Down After Season 4 if Player Count Doesn’t Improve

XDefiant, Ubisoft’s free-to-play Call of duty rival, has missed the publisher’s expectations since launching in May — that much CEO Yves Guillemot admitted during a recent financial call. But are there plans to shut the game down? Not so, its chief developer has insisted.

Rumors began circulating this week that support for XDefiant could come to an end after Season 4, which closes out XDefiant’s Year 1 roadmap, if its player count failed to improve. Ubisoft has yet to announce player numbers or revenue figures for XDefiant, with Guillemot promising to say more at the end of October.

Now, XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin, who works at Ubisoft’s San Francisco development studio, has responded to those rumors, insisting the company does not plan to shut the game down after Season 4.

However, in-line with Guillemot’s comments, Rubin — who was an executive producer on Call of Duty before making the switch to Ubisoft — admitted player numbers are down. This, Rubin said, was because Ubisoft has done “very little marketing” as it works to improve the game. Once XDefiant is in “a better place”, the marketing push will begin, Rubin said.

“To be crystal clear there are NO plans to shut down after Season 4,” Rubin tweeted. “I’ve literally been in meetings as of last week to discuss our Year 2 plans. But, right now we are super focused on improving the technical experience (which includes netcode) and adding more content for Seasons 3 & 4.

“We have done very little marketing so yes our numbers are down but that is just to give the team the time to get the game in a better place before we do bigger spends on marketing to bring new players to the game and to bring back players that have left.”

XDefiant launched into the brutal live service shooter market at a time when it had already claimed a number of high-profile victims. Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League flopped to the tune of $200 million after Starbreeze’s Payday 3 suffered a disastrous launch last year. Since then, things have only got more difficult, with Sony’s Concord going down as one of the biggest PlayStation disasters of all time.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft has endured an awful year with the aforementioned disappointing return from XDefiant and, most recently, Star Wars Outlaws. It delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows into 2025 following poor sales of Outlaws, and its staff in France are currently on strike.

In its recent note to investors, Guillemot acknowledged that the company’s “second quarter fell short of expectations” and vowed to launch “a review aimed at further improving our execution.” He also addressed some of the cultural conversations happening around the company lately, which have intensified around Star Wars Outlaws and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Things have got so bad at Ubisoft that its founding Guillemot family and shareholder Tencent are reportedly considering teaming up to take the company private following the collapse of its share price.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft has ditched Epic Games Store timed exclusivity for its PC games and gone back to day-one launches on Steam, a move clearly designed to boost flagging sales of its games. Ubisoft has yet to announce a Steam launch for XDefiant, but it feels like a certainty at this point.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Riot Lays off More League of Legends Developers While Promising to Increase Team Size

Riot Games has announced it will be laying off an unknown number of developers from the League of Legends PC development team, while simultaneously pledging to increase the size of the League of Legends team.

In a post to X/Twitter today, Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill shared “An Update on How We’re Evolving League” in which he announced the layoffs, explaining that this “isn’t about reducing headcount to save money.” Instead, the layoffs are apparently occurring so the company can make “sure we have the right expertise.”

“While team effectiveness is more important than team size, the League team will eventually be even larger than it is today as we develop the next phase of League,” Merrill continued. “For Rioters who are laid off, we’re supporting them with a severance package that includes a minimum of six months’ pay, annual bonus, job placement assistance, health coverage, and more.”

Merrill continued his explanation in a follow-up post, in which he said that the success of a development team is unrelated to its size. “If we’re solving the wrong problems, more resources won’t fix it. It’s about building smarter and healthier, not just bigger.”

IGN has reached out to Riot Games for more clarity on why these layoffs are occurring, how many roles were impacted, and if any of those individuals are being considered for placement in roles as a part of the planned team expansion. A spokesperson confirmed that 27 employees were impacted across League of Legends development team and an additional five roles on Riot’s publishing team. The spokesperson stated that those impacted would have the ability to use the company’s internal job board to apply for other roles at Riot, but declined to share anything else.

These layoffs come rather uncomfortably as League of Legends celebrates its 15th anniversary, which Merrill references briefly in the post “so that League continues to be great for another 15 years and beyond.” They also come nine months after Riot already laid off 530 individuals, roughly 11% of its staff, in an effort to cut costs after allegedly taking on too many “big bets” as a company.

According to a games industry layoff tracker, this puts the number of laid off game developers this year alone at over 13,000, with over 10,000 laid off in 2023 and over 8,000 in 2022. We wrote about how the ongoing industry mass layoffs have impacted developers earlier this year.

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

One of the Best PlayStation 5 SSD Deals for Prime Day Is Available Again on Amazon

We’ve seen the cost of SSDs trending upward for most of 2024, but lately it looks like prices have normalized and are even starting to drop back down. Today, Amazon is offering the PS5 compatible Lexar NM790 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SSD) with pre-installed heatsink for only $128.99. This was one of the best SSD deals we saw during Amazon Prime Day. It expired quickly after, but available once again for a little while longer.

Lexar NM790 2TB PS5 SSD for $128.99

The PlayStation 5 console comes with a 1TB SSD, but 300GB of that is reserved for the OS, leaving around 700GB left over for games. That space will run out quickly because some games take up an enormous amount of space, especially if you buy digital copies. For example, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and NBA 2K25 all require 140GB each. Even older games like God of War: Ragnarok, Gran Turismo 7, and Horizon Forbidden West require 90GB of space apiece.

Enter the Lexar NM790 SSD. Although we didn’t pick it as one of our favorite SSDs for the PlayStation 5, Lexar is a well known and established flash memory brand and its SSD has garnered plenty of positive reviews. The NM790 is a guaranteed fit with any PlayStation 5 console. Performance-wise, it boasts read speeds of 7,400MB/s and write speeds of 6,500MB/s, which is well above Sony’s minimum recommendation of 5,600MB/s. It’s also pre-equipped with a low-profile aluminum heatsink. The 2TB capacity triples the storage of a PS5 or doubles the storage of a PS5 Pro.

Alternative: Silicon Power XS70 2TB PS5 SSD for $127.99

Amazon is offering Amazon Prime members this Silicon Power XS70 2TB PS5 SSD for $127.99 shipped. The primary difference is that the Lexar NM790 is a DRAM-less drive and the Silicon Power XS70 has a DRAM cache. Instead of onboard DRAM, the NM790 uses HMB (host memory buffer), which basically means that it uses the system memory as cache. The XS790, on the other hand, has a dedicated DRAM cache built into the stick. Theoretically, having a DRAM cache offers fast random write performance, but both types of SSDs are so fast that there really any noticeable performance difference when it comes to gaming on a PS5 or PC.

If you want more options, here’s a list of the best PS5 SSD deals available right now. If you’re looking for deals on other PS5 accessories, check out our constantly updated best PS5 deals article. If you don’t yet own a PS5 console, note that the new PS5 Pro is currently up for preorder and ships out next month. This is a more powerful version of the PS5 with double the storage capacity at a significantly higher price.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.