Category: IGN

Elden Ring creator and FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki has said he won’t allow the devastating video game industry layoffs to affect his studio as long as he’s in charge.

Speaking to PC Gamer, Miyazaki said he can’t 100% guarantee FromSoftware will be safe from job losses — which have so far seen thousands lose their jobs across the likes of Embracer Group, Microsoft, and Sony — but wouldn’t allow it “as long as this company is [his] responsibility.”

FromSoftware is owned by Japanese organization Kadokawa Corporation so the decision isn’t wholly in Miyazaki’s hands, however. Microsoft, for example, shut down Redfall developer Arkane Austin alongside Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire Tokyo developer Tango Gameworks in May 2024 despite posting a 17% increase in revenue and $21.9 billion in profit in its latest financial earnings report.

But Miyazaki appeared confident Kadokawa shares his opinion on layoffs. “Speaking to myself and this company, I want to say that this is not something I would wish on the staff at FromSoftware in a million years,” he said. “I’m pretty sure our parent company Kadokawa understands that and shares that view.”

He then referenced former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who famously took a pay cut himself when profits were down instead of resorting to layoffs. “I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world,” Iwata said at the time.

Miyazaki echoed this statement. “I think it was the old ex-president of Nintendo, Iwata, who said ‘people who are afraid of losing their jobs are afraid of making good things.’ I’m paraphrasing that, but I totally share this view,” he said.

“I think it’s true, and I think the people at Kadokawa, our parent company, understand that I hold this view very strongly. While we can’t say 100% — we can’t say with complete certainty what the future’s going to hold for From and Kadokawa — at least as long as this company is my responsibility, that’s something I would not let happen. So hopefully our players and our fans can take a little bit of assurance from that.”

Miyazaki’s comments come just as Embracer shut down Alone in the Dark developer Pieces Interactive after the game failed to meet expectations. Pieces Interactive joins Free Radical Design, Onoma, and Volition Games as studios closed by Embracer in the last year amid layoffs affecting thousands of employees.

Image credit: Daniel Boczarski / Contributor at Getty Images

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

Amid the increasing popularity of the Fallout franchise, some fans have called on Bethesda to remake the much-loved first two games in the series — but according to Bethesda Game Studios chief Todd Howard that’s not on the cards.

In an interview with YouTube channel MrMattyPlays, Howard said that some of the charm of Fallout 1 and 2 has to do with the fact they remain firmly rooted in the old-school PC role-playing game era of the mid-to-late 90s, so he’s happy to leave them where there while ensuring they run well.

“The main priority for us is to make sure they’re available and you can still play them,” Howard said. “So on the PC obviously they’re there for people to go and get and play, and making sure that they run okay. As far as beyond that, we’ve talked about it, but our priorities in terms of, hey let’s go do dev work and make certain things work, they haven’t been in those areas. So again, priority is, hey can people load it up and play it?

“We want it to load up and run well. The rest of it, I could argue some of the charm of games from that era and the original Fallouts is a little bit of that age. I would never want to paste over some of that with, well we changed how this works so it’s more modern. So as long as you can download it, as long as it loads up and runs, I’d like people to experience it the way it was.”

Led by Interplay producer Tim Cain, the original Fallout games enjoyed critical and commercial success on PC before the company collapsed. Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda later picked up the rights to the franchise and went on to release Fallout 3 in 2008, bringing the post-apocalyptic series into first-person and full 3D.

Despite their age and archaic design, Fallout 1 and 2 remain much-loved by fans of the series, and are often held up as two of the greatest role-playing games ever released. Indeed the recent franchise boost fueled by Amazon Prime’s breakout Fallout TV show affected the original games as well as the modern titles with increased player numbers across Steam.

And so, the calls to modernize Fallout 1 and 2 are louder than ever, but clearly Howard has more pressing matters to attend to, including ongoing updates for Fallout 76 and, eventually, Fallout 5, which is set to come out after The Elder Scrolls 6.

Howard even ruled out bringing Fallout 1 and 2 to console. “Anything is possible, but that’s going to be a longer dev throw,” he replied when asked if such a port were even possible. “And you have to ask yourself, is that where we want to put our time right now? Or is it best played the way it was on a PC? Right now, if you ask me, the best way to play it is on a PC, mouse and keyboard, the way it was.”

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.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has followed up last week’s release of the game’s big balance update and premium warbond with a new patch that applies a long list of fixes.

The highlight is a fix for the Spear support stratagem, which has suffered all sorts of problems since the PC and PlayStation 5 co-op shooter launched earlier this year. What should be a reliable monster of a weapon has for so long been fickle, with its anti-tank homing missile failing to properly track locked-on targets.

According to the update 1.000.402 patch notes, there’s a fix for the Spear not targeting several entities (spawners, compound objects, etc). This should encourage more players to bring the Spear onto the battlefield.

And here’s another helpful fix: Hellbombs now get called down facing the player, rather than away from the player. Players have got used to Hellbombs facing away from them, so there will be a bit of unlearning to do with this one.

Arrowhead updated the known issues list, too, outlining what the studio is working on fixing with upcoming patches. Of note: the Bile Titan sometimes does not take damage to the head, and the Charger’s butt does not take damage from explosions. What an arse!

Last week was a big one for Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead, which recently revealed it was in the process of setting the studio up so it could “make more and better stuff” in the long-term. In an introductory post on reddit, new CEO Shams Jorjani, who recently replaced previous Arrowhead CEO and now current Chief Creative Officer Johan Pilestedt, said the studio has had to adjust to the enormous success Helldivers 2 has brought to the company.

Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation game of all time, having shifted an incredible 12 million copies in just 12 weeks since going on sale earlier this year. Amid the huge revenue Helldivers 2 has generated, Arrowhead itself has suffered a number of crises, including launch server problems and, most recently, a battle with Sony itself over the console maker’s controversial attempt to force Steam players to account link to PlayStation Network.

Helldivers 2 update 1.000.402 patch notes:

Overview

For this patch, we have made improvements and changes to the following areas:

• Quality of life improvements
• Crash fixes
• General bug fixes

Fixes

Crashes

• Fixed various crashes that would sometimes occur when changing settings.
• Fixed potential crash or corrupted font texture when changing the language
• Fixed a crash that might occur after exiting a mission.
• Fixed a crash that occurs when opening the social menu with more than 100 friends. As a result we have also limited the friends list visibility to 100. You will remain friends with anyone over 100, but you may not be able to see them if they are offline.
• Fixed crash when opening social menu and having many blocked players and/or friend requests.
• Fixed a crash when minimizing after changing fullscreen mode.
• Fixed rare crash which could occur when picking up equipment.
• Fix a crash when a client interacts with a terminal in a waiting state after host migration.
• Fix a crash related to minefields.

Misc Fixes

• Fix issues with dodge and prone.
• Fix not being able to stand up when wielding the ballistic shield.
• Fixed the Recoilless reload speed.
• Fixed issue where users couldn’t write a description on console when reporting a player.
• Fixes vehicle preview not despawning in Warbonds when quickly scrolling through the catalog.
• Fix Spear not targeting several entities (spawners, compound objects, etc).
• Sentries have a higher destruction value so most explosions do not instantly destroy them regardless of the damage amount.
• Fixed bug where operation progress would be lost when kicked due to inactivity,
• The “Remove Friend” and “Block Player” buttons are now hold-to-confirm instead of a single click.
• Fix bug where dying would try to enter ADS.
• Fix a soft lock if you receive an interact emote while holding a grenade.
• Fix projectile to crosshair inaccuracies in ADS when the player is in different stances
• Fixed broken player model in career tab when on someone else’s ship.
• Adjudicator: fixed incorrect recoil values.
• Fixed armory terminals losing their functionality if the last client player who interacted with them leaves the host’s ship.
• Fix missing localization for flying patrols operation modifiers.
• Fix issue where throwing knives could be left floating in the air.
• Support for non-latin fonts in the game’s install folder path.
• Vehicle skins are now applied to all vehicle variations when equipping directly from Warbonds.
• Fixes flag objectives not properly tracking Helldiver’s position while on a Combat Walker.
• PH-202 Twigsnapper helmet: fixed missing description.
• Fixed the issue where the shuttle would clip through Bile Titans and terrain during landing sequences.
• Improved performance on PS5 when CPU bound
• Fixes FX remaining when destroying Spore Spewer
• Ensure stim vfx remains on screen for the entire duration of the stim effect when med-kit bonus is present.
• Fix for emote receiver players being able to use their weapons during emote animation
• Hellbombs now get called down facing the player, rather than away from the player.

Known Issues

These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.

• Sending friend requests via friend code in game currently does not work.
• Players may be unable to be joined or invited to the game.
• Players added to the ‘Recent Players’ list will appear in the middle of the list.
• Players may experience delays in Medals and Super Credits payouts.
• Available Operations are generated again after reconnecting after getting AFK kicked.
• Enemies that bleed out do not progress Personal Orders and Eradicate missions.
• Arc weapons sometimes behave inconsistently and sometimes misfire.
• Most weapons shoot below the crosshair when aiming down the sights.
• Plasma Punisher is unable to shoot out of the shield generators.
• Stratagem beam might attach itself to an enemy but it will deploy to its original location.
• “Hand Carts” ship module does not reduce Shield Generator Pack’s cooldown.
• Bile Titan sometimes does not take damage to the head.
• Charger’s butt does not take damage from explosions.
• Players may become stuck in the Loadout when joining a game in progress.
• Reinforcement may not be available for players who join a game in progress.
• Planet liberation reaches 100% at the end of every Defend mission.
• “Raise Flag of Super Earth” objective does not show a progress bar.
• Mission count in the Career tab is being reset to zero after every game restart.
• Some weapons’ descriptions are out-of-date and don’t reflect their current design.

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.

Paradox Interactive announced that its long-delayed The Sims-style life sim Life by You is officially canceled in a post on their website today.

Life by You was initially announced in May of 2023. At the time, an early access release was planned for September of that year. It was initially delayed to May of 2024, then in February, Paradox announced an additional delay, pushing Life by You’s Early Access release to June 4th. Two weeks before the June 4 release, it was delayed again, this time without a release date, because, in the words of Paradox Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja, “additional time [was] needed.”

Paradox Interactive released a statement from CEO Fredrik Wester explaining the decision on its website. The full statement is as follows:

Paradox Interactive (Paradox) has today decided to cancel the release of the game Life by You. This means that the second quarter of 2024 will be impacted negatively by MSEK 208 from the write-down of the game’s total capitalized development costs.

For a long time, we’ve held hopes for Life by You and the potential we saw in it, but it is now clear that the game will not be able to meet our expectations. A version that we’d be satisfied with is too far away, and therefore we are taking the difficult decision to cancel the release. Moving forward, we should perform at a much higher level, and it’s obvious that we have work ahead of us, said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive.

We’ve performed poorly in recent releases, continued Wester. Even though we now start new projects in a different manner, it is clear that we must make further changes so that quality is more consistent and the promises we make to our players are met. We have to evaluate how we manage projects and how we organize, for we will and must get better. We have a very solid financial position and a strong core game portfolio, which keeps us confident about our future.

This disclosure contains information that Paradox Interactive AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 17-06-2024 21:45 CET.

Bethesda Softworks head Todd Howard knows fans are looking forward to Fallout 5, especially in the wake of the Prime Video show’s success, but he isn’t interested in rushing it out the door.

Howard opened up about the future of the hit post-apocalyptic RPG series during an interview with YouTube content creator MrMattyPlays. He says Bethesda spends a lot of time plotting out how to handle the direction of its franchises.

“For other Fallout games in the future, you know, obviously I can’t talk about those right now, but I would say, sort of rushing through them, or we kind of need to get stuff out that is different than the work we’re doing in 76…we don’t feel like we need to rush any of that,” he said. “The Fallout TV show fills a certain niche in terms of the franchise and storytelling.”

Blizzard Entertainment is teasing an Overwatch 2 Transformers crossover when Season 11 arrives in just a few days.

The quick tease arrives at the tail end of a new Season 11 trailer that premiered earlier today. It takes up so little space in the video that there’s a good chance many may have missed it, but those who stuck around to the end will catch the familiar Autobot logo and its iconic transformation sound effect.

That’s all we can see from what will inevitably become a full-fledged collaboration between Overwatch 2 and Transformers for now. Thankfully, this is far from the first time Blizzard has tied its hero shooter in with another property, so we at least have a few guesses about how the Autobot and Decepticon content will eventually roll out.

One of the earliest collabs saw One Punch Man skins making their way into the game, giving characters like Doomfist, Genji, Soldier 76, and Kiriko outfits themed after characters like Saitama, Genos, Mumen Rider, and Terrible Tornado. This same crossover event introduced additional anime-themed challenges, poses, voice lines, and more. Other crossovers brought IP like Cowboy Bebop, Diablo, and even Porsche into the fold, with each giving at least one character special skins for players to purchase and wear into battle.

While the Cowboy Bebop event saw Overwatch 2’s resident cowboy, Cole Cassidy, getting a Spike Spiegel skin, we can probably guess that some of Blizzard’s many robotic characters will be the ones gifted Transformers skins this time around. Our eyes are on heroes like Bastion, Orisa, Zenyatta, Ramattra, and Echo.

Overwatch 2 Season 11 drops June 20. While it’s unclear how and when the Transformers content will appear, today’s trailer gives players a look at a lot of the other highlights the forthcoming additions will bring. This season’s battle pass is Ultrawatch superhero-themed, introducing a long list of very ’90s, Power Rangers-like cosmetics to suit up with. Ashe gets the Mythic skin this time around, meaning her robot counterpart, B.O.B., gets some powerful new threads, too. Other promising additions include items that celebrate Overwatch 2 reaching the 100 million-player milestone, a new Push map called Runasapi, a Mythic weapon for Reinhardt, and a rework for the Colosseo map.

For more on how Blizzard is keeping Overwatch 2 up to date, you can read up on why the studio chose to remove its Hero Mastery Gauntlet PvE mode last month. Then be sure to check out our 8/10 Overwatch 2 review, where we said, “Overwatch 2’s switch to a 5v5 format breathes new life into what was once the sharpest shooter around. It just hasn’t quite recaptured all of that glory – yet.”

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.

Warner Bros. Games’ long in-development Wonder Woman game appears to have suffered a leak stemming from an online marketing survey.

Users on Reddit and ResetEra posted concept art and a synopsis of the Wonder Woman game, currently in development at Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor maker Monolith Productions, based on this apparent survey. The concept art was subsequently removed from Imgur and various social media posts “in response to a report from the copyright holder.” It is unclear when the marketing survey was released. Warner Bros. declined to comment when contacted by IGN.

NEW look and concept art from Monolith’s WONDER WOMAN game pic.twitter.com/GH3IIyPqTY

— Wonder Woman Game Updates (@WWGameUpdates) June 16, 2024

IGN will not publish the leaked artwork or details, but the leak is worth being aware of if you’re hoping to go into the game completely fresh when it eventually comes out.

Monolith Productions is famous for Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis System, which in that game generates seemingly endless possibilities for the enemies you face, the way they act, and the stories that emerge as they face you again and again. The Nemesis System returns for Wonder Woman, Warner Bros. has confirmed.

Wonder Woman was announced in December 2021 with a brief teaser trailer and description. Warner Bros. has remained largely quiet on the project in the years since, although we do know Wonder Woman is a single-player action adventure set in a “dynamic” open-world, is played in third-person, and lets players become Diana of Themyscira in an original story set within the DC universe. Based on what we know of the game and what we’re hearing now, Wonder Woman sounds like a mix between the Batman Arkham games and Monolith’s own Shadow of Mordor.

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.

Bethesda Game Studios chief Todd Howard has responded to a backlash over Starfield paid mods, confirming the developer will look at its pricing model for Creations content.

On Steam, Starfield’s recent user reviews are now on ‘Mostly Negative’ after disgruntled players hit out at Bethesda for charging $7 for a single Starfield mission. The second mission of the recently released Trackers Alliance is only available as a Starfield Creation and costs $7, or 700 credits.

Creations are built via Starfield’s Creation Kit, and include free and paid-for mods. Creations include new missions, gear, skins, and weapons. Here’s the official blurb from Bethesda:

Trackers Alliance establishes the first of several missions enabling you to live your best bounty-hunting life. The first mission, The Starjacker will have you in contact with a mysterious Tracker located in settlements throughout the Settled Systems. From there, let the hunts begin!

The second Trackers Alliance mission, The Vulture is available within the new Creations menu. And what bounty hunter is without their trusted methods to get the job done?

FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki has said the studio may consider including “beginning to end, total co-op” in future games.

Elden Ring’s co-op summoning system can be a lifesaver for tarnished in need of a little help to take down a troublesome boss. However, its design leaves some pretty significant barriers to players hoping to enjoy a sustained co-op experience. For example, players are booted back to their own world rune arc in hand the moment the area boss is defeated, or as soon as they unceremoniously bite the dust. Summoning also prevents you from riding atop your trusty steed Torrent, which can make Elden Ring’s expansive open world seem a little too expansive on occasion.

To get around these limitations, Elden Ring’s modding community created the seamless co-op mod for the PC version of the game, which theoretically allows a band of up to five tarnished to complete the entire game from tutorial to conclusion in a single uninterrupted session. It’s a pretty significant overhaul of FromSoftware’s vanilla Elden Ring co-op experience, which removes the fog walls that ordinarily restrict a party’s movement, while ensuring that the death of a boss, or player, won’t boot your compatriots back to their respective worlds.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer ahead of htis month’s launch of Elden Ring’s first and only DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, Miyazaki revealed that he has no hard feelings over the unsanctioned multiplayer overhaul, or its burgeoning popularity.

“It’s definitely not something we actively oppose or want to downplay, wanting to go through the whole game together,” explained Miyazaki. “In terms of where we were with Elden Ring, it was simply a case of wanting that more loose, casual style — drop in, defeat a boss, drop out. It doesn’t put any technical restrictions on the player, it just sort of lets them complete this focus and then move on, so to speak.”

During the interview, Miyazaki revealed that FromSoftware may consider taking a more comprehensive approach to cooperative play in subsequent titles, which would prove to be a popular decision among the over 3.7 million PC gamers who have already downloaded the unofficial mod. “That’s not to say we won’t consider other ways, like you and your friend played, from beginning to end, total co-op — that’s not to say we won’t consider ideas like that with our future games,” said the FromSoftware president.

Shadow of the Erdtree is set to expand on Miquella’s story, and introduce a host of new enemies, bosses, weapons and fighting styles to FromSoftware’s hit RPG when it releases on June 21. Be sure to check out IGN’s comprehensive guide detailing how to get your tarnished warrior ready for everything that the DLC has to throw at you, and be wary of spoilers that have emerged online.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer