Category: IGN

In recent weeks, reports have surfaced that Take-Two is shuttering Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games and OlliOlli World developer Roll7. Now, IGN has learned that not only are these closures imminent, but they are a part of a larger move by Take-Two to either sell off or shut down the entirety of its indie label, Private Division.

Earlier this month, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told IGN that Take-Two “didn’t shutter” its owned indie studios Intercept Games and Roll7. At the time, that was technically true; both studios are currently operational, but they won’t be for long. Speaking to multiple anonymous sources familiar with the matter, IGN has independently confirmed that Intercept Games is set to close on June 28, following a notice period required by the Washington State WARN Act. Roll7, too, is similarly winding down, though a small team remains to tie up loose ends.

Meanwhile, Take-Two wants to offload Private Division, one way or another. In February, IGN understands employees were told layoffs were imminent, but not given specifics on how many, why, or what was happening. Then, at the end of April, employees of the label were told by management that Take-Two would no longer support Private Division, at which time almost all the staff were laid off.

A small crew remains to support the remaining announced games with which Private Division has publishing deals: Moon Studios’ No Rest for the Wicked (which is currently in early access), Wētā Workshop’s Tales of the Shire, and an untitled project from Game Freak. Take-Two has backed out of two other publishing deals it had previously agreed to under the label – one previously reported deal with Bloober Team, and another sources described to us that would have been with Ghostrunner developer One More Level.

Though Private Division and its associated studios appear in danger of vanishing entirely, Take-Two is looking for other options…albeit with mixed success. The publisher has been in talks to find a buyer for the Kerbal Space Program IP, with or without Intercept Games attached. IGN has learned that discussions took place for such a deal with strategy game publisher Paradox Interactive, but fell through, and it’s unclear if another buyer will materialize in time.

Take-Two is also in discussions to sell off Private Division, and has found interest from a private equity firm. Though a deal has not been agreed upon yet, sources were aware that conversations are being facilitated in part by individuals with connections to Moon Studios leadership. But two of my sources expressed apprehension about such a deal and its connections, citing a 2022 VentureBeat report alleging “oppressive” work conditions at Moon Studios. One source I spoke with confirmed that “everything” in the report was “true and worse” and another called the studio’s founders “cruel” and “a nightmare” to work with.

All those I spoke to for this story expressed frustration at Take-Two leadership for alleged mismanagement of the label, and called out chief strategy officer and Private Division head Michael Worosz for poor leadership. Sources say the label was often saddled with unreasonable sales targets, and pressured to release games before they were ready, with Kerbal Space Program 2 being a notable recent example. And yet, all of those I spoke to shared feelings of sadness surrounding the fate of Private Division, citing the team’s sincere mission to help smaller, independent studios, especially those that were newer and less established.

“The people at Private Division were amazing, talented, passionate individuals who loved what they did and also really cared about each other as a team and as people,” one person said. “We loved our projects, we worked hard, and we fostered a great environment internally. I would love to work with any of them again. The pain point was always Take-Two and associated leadership forcing our hand. The whole layoff situation proved what we already felt. Take-Two could not care less about its employees.”

Take-Two declined to comment for this piece; Moon Studios did not respond in time for publication.

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

Toys for Bob, the Crash Bandicoot 4 developer and Call of Duty support studio that left the Xbox-owned Activision in February 2024, has signed an agreement with Xbox directly to publish its next game.

Revealed in a post on X/Twitter, Toys for Bob confirmed reports from March 2024 that claimed it would team up with Xbox once again. Its next game, which the studio said will return it to its roots, is still in “very early development,” but it’s partnering with Xbox to publish it.

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be partnering with @Xbox to publish our next new game. We’re still very early in development, so you might not hear from us for a bit – but know that we’re working hard on an experience we’re so sooo inspired about! Can’t wait to share more 💜 pic.twitter.com/6EqrQbabpv

— Toys For Bob (@ToysForBob) May 31, 2024

“We’re excited to announce that we’ll be partnering with Xbox to publish our next new game,” Toys for Bob said. “We’re still very early in development, so you might not hear from us for a bit, but know that we’re working hard on an experience we’re so sooo inspired about. Can’t wait to share more “

Toys for Bob has been active since 1990, but was acquired by Activision in 2005 and became known for developing the Skylanders games. It later remastered the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot trilogies before creating Crash Bandicoot 4.

In more recent years, however, it’s spent most of its time as a Call of Duty support studio, helping other Activision developers create the annualized franchise.

But amid mass industry acquisitions and layoffs, Toys for Bob announced it would be leaving Activision and Xbox to return to being an independent studio. “Over the years, we’ve inspired love, joy, and laughter for the inner child in all gamers,” it said at the time. “This opportunity allows us to return to our roots of being a small and nimble studio.”

Toys for Bob remains independent despite this new partnership with Xbox, as the console maker will essentially provide funding for its game and receive some of its profits without owning the game itself.

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

Fast-paced first-person shooters may be a dime a dozen these days, but Anger Foot has a unique gameplay hook that is literally kicking the door down for your attention. This colourful and completely chaotic shooter from the makers of Broforce is like a first-person take on the compelling, room-clearing carnage of Hotline Miami, with an emphasis on using your left foot of fury to violently smash a path through locked doors, obstacles, and gangs of anthropomorphic animal enemies. It’s a shoot and boot ‘em up that feels like John Wick with some extra kick, and I enjoyed the two hours I spent playing an early build of Anger Foot every skull-stomping step of the way.

There are guns too, of course, but the pistol in your hand is merely a support act to the size 12 snuffer of life at the end of your left leg. There’s no ammunition to pick up and reload, instead once you’ve run out of rounds to chamber you just throw your empty gun at an enemy to stun them, jump-kick them into next week, and catch their freshly dropped uzi or shotgun before carrying on your merry, murderous way. Enemies can be booted directly into their friends behind them like dim-witted dominoes, and there’s never any shortage of explosive gas canisters or oil barrels to be found in each gang den you crash through, allowing for spectacular chain reaction kills – or your own instant death should you accidently shoot them at close quarters.

In fact, I’ve died a lot during the two-dozen levels I’ve played so far, since you’re every bit as vulnerable to one-shotted deaths as the enemies around you. A continually shuffling roster of enemy types and combinations meant that Anger Foot consistently kept me on my anger toes, forcing me to find new strategies to most efficiently deal with each new threat. When riot gear clad birds arrived I started firing off a round to make them reflexively raise their shields so that I could run in and boot their bulletproof barriers straight back into their beaks. Meanwhile I was delighted to find that the grenades thrown by puffer jacket-clad goons could be volleyed back at them with a well-timed kick, forcing them to watch their own bomb blow up in their faces like they were the producers of the Madame Web movie.

Surviving all the way to each level exit earns you a star, but there are a further two stars to claim per level for optional challenges such as completing a level within a stricter time limit, or killing a certain number of enemies using only your foot. Some of these additional objectives seem seriously challenging, and although each level only takes a couple of minutes to complete I can see myself spending hours trying to earn all the stars in the finished game – although I don’t know how I’m supposed to beat a level in under 30 seconds when I keep getting distracted by the playable Broforce arcade machines found along the way.

The more stars you earn, the more special shoes you can unlock and lace up, with each pair of kicks granting you a unique gameplay buff not unlike the animal masks from Hotline Miami. You might strap on a pair of high tops that earns you a precious round of ammo for every bad guy you boot in the face, or slip into a pair of sneakers that activates a big head mode to make it easier to headshot enemies from long range. I also found footwear that could charge up kicks into room-clearing dash attacks, as well as another pair that let me come back from the dead once per level. Talk about a sole revival!

I also unlocked a slightly embarrassing pair of socks with sandals that allowed me to deal extra damage during boss fights, although this did mean that I was able to easily stomp out Anger Foot’s first major boss like it was a house spider under a work boot. Given how tricky the levels that preceded it were, including one against an unseen sniper that instantly snuffed out my sprints between cover, it seemed slightly disappointing to dispatch the leader of the Violence Gang with a mere handful of half-hearted highkicks. Hopefully there’ll be some heavier head honchos to contend with in the three other gangs to take down in Anger Foot – namely the Pollution Gang found in the sewers, the Business Gang found in the high rises, and the Debauchery Gang found in… I don’t know, one of P. Diddy’s mansions, probably.

Basic boss fights aside, Anger Foot’s evolving combat and cartoonish charm kept a goofy grin on my face during my playtime, and its rousing, bass-heavy techno groove had me tapping my toes while I was capping my foes – from rooftop shootouts with heavily-armed gangbangers to subterranean stoushes with snakes and giant squid tentacles in the sewers below. It remains to be seen if the instantly gratifying action of Anger Foot will have the anger legs to go the distance in the finished game, but based on what I’ve played so far it seems like this is one frantic first-person shooter that’s truly putting its best foot forward.

Tristan Ogilvie is a Senior Video Editor in IGN’s Sydney office. He likes to wear sneakers… for sneaking. Follow him here.

Wordle owner The New York Times has legally challenged the one man developer behind location guessing game Worldle despite saying it’s “fine with [similar games]” in 2023.

As reported by the BBC, The New York Times has accused Kory McDonald of “creating confusion” among consumers and attempting to capitalise on the success of Wordle, which it purchased for a seven figure amount in 2022.

Worldle shows a Google Street View location to players each day and asks them to figure out where in the world they are. Just like Wordle, it gives them six guesses to reach the correct answer, and is “nearly identical in appearance, sound, meaning, and imparts the same commercial impression”, according to The New York Times.

This comes one year after the company’s head of games Jonathan Knight told the BBC that “imitation is the best form of flattery” and that it’s “always been fine with [similar games] and think that they just help keep the game fresh and alive for people].”

McDonald said he was surprised and disappointed in the legal challenge but has no intention of stopping. “There’s a whole industry of [dot]LE games,” he said. “Wordle is about words, Worldle is about the world, Flaggle is about flags.”

Amid speculation Microsoft plans to launch a new, more expensive tier of Game Pass, the company has confirmed Call of Duty Black Ops 6 will be playable upon launch on all existing tiers.

This week, Microsoft announced the arrival of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 day-one on Xbox Game Pass. It is the first Call of Duty game to do so, and follows Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft has faced tough questions around the potential cannibalization effect of Game Pass, particularly on games that launch on the service day-one. While Xbox executives have insisted sales can be boosted by a game’s presence on Game Pass, some publishers remain unconvinced. Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick, for example, was always against putting Call of Duty into subscription services. Unlike Microsoft, console rival Sony does not release its new exclusives straight into its subscription service.

Speculation is rife that Microsoft plans to make significant changes to Game Pass to accommodate the launch of Black Ops 6 straight into the service. Some have wondered whether Microsoft planned to launch a new, more expensive tier of Game Pass strictly for day-one titles, locking the likes of Black Ops 6 behind it in the process.

However, a statement issued to Eurogamer by a Microsoft spokesperson ruled that out, at least for the launch of Black Ops 6 later this year.

“Upon launch, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be playable on Xbox and PC for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass for Console members,” a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN.

It’s worth digging into what this statement does not say, as much as what it does say. For a start, it does not rule out a price hike for any or all tiers currently available to subscribers. The statement leaves room for Microsoft to charge more ahead of the launch of Black Ops 6, if it feels that is the correct step.

Similarly, the statement leaves room for Microsoft to make changes to the existing tiers while making Black Ops 6 available on them at launch. Mooted changes include the addition of ads, price rises, or a combination of both.

New Call of Duty games sell for $70 and usually shift around 25 million copies, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. By releasing this year’s Call of Duty straight into Game Pass, Microsoft potentially risks cannibalizing those sales. Of course, Activision will also launch Call of Duty across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC as a game that can be bought outright. But with Game Pass subscriber numbers failing to grow meaningfully Microsoft is under pressure to attract new customers. Adding a mainline Call of Duty game at launch will no doubt help with that.

Microsoft is in the process of cutting 1,900 staff from its gaming business. Earlier this month, the company shocked the video game world by announcing the closure of Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall developer Arkane Austin. There are fears more cuts are to come.

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.

Dale, Matt P. and Emma chat about everything shown and announced in the May 30th PlayStation State of Play, including an Alien VR game, Monster Hunter: Wilds and the biggest new announcement of all; the return of Astro Bot! Dale has also seen the Stranger Things live theatre show, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and needs to rave about its amazing production.

As ever, there’s also the regular dose of madness thanks to your feedback, including a hideous pasta pudding concoction.

Send in your food nonsense to ign_ukfeedback@ign.com (or questions and thoughts about games, TV, and films – we should probably stay on topic at least 60% of the time).

IGN UK Podcast 751: The State of Astro Bot

• IGN UK Podcast 750: Scrotus, Erectus, and Other Good Boys
• IGN UK Podcast 749: The Worst Way To Roast a Chicken and Other Stories
• IGN UK Podcast 748: Microwaved Bacon and Other Horrors
• IGN UK Podcast 747: A Great Time for Sweaty Films
• IGN UK Podcast 746: Is Gravy on Fish Wrong?

Is GTA 6 coming to PC after console? PC gamers have assumed it would ever since Rockstar unveiled perhaps the most-wanted video game on earth for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S only. Now, the boss of Rockstar parent company Take-Two has issued a vaguely-worded statement that, if you read in between the lines of the corporate doublespeak, suggest that yes, GTA 6 will eventually come to PC.

During an interview at a TD Cowen conference this week, as reported by VGC, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick responded to a question about whether Rockstar’s lack of a PC announcement was set in stone, or if a PC version would be announced later.

Here’s Zelnick’s response in full:

Well, the lack of an announcement is not something that could be set in stone as near as I could tell, because the only thing that happens after the lack of an announcement is an announcement, I suppose, or a continuing lack of an announcement, I guess that could happen too. It doesn’t seem to me that either would be set in stone.

But Rockstar has an approach to platforms which we’ve seen before, and they will make more announcements in due time. I do believe that the right strategy for our business is to be where the consumer is, and historically what this company has done is address consumers anywhere they are, on any platform that makes sense, over time.

Zelnick dances around the inevitable PC version of GTA 6, but he does point to Rockstar’s release strategy for its previous games. Fans of Rockstar games have noted the studio’s historical reluctance to release other past games on PC day-and-date with console, as well as its fraught relationship with the modding community over the years. Still, some had hoped that a game as big as GTA 6 could be a turning point for the studio’s PC gaming attitude, only to have those hopes dashed.

Big Rockstar titles tend to get to PC eventually, but the question of how long PC gamers will have to wait for what could end up being one of the biggest games ever remains. Given GTA 6’s fall 2025 release window, it seems likely PC players won’t get to play the game until 2026 at the earliest.

In December, a former developer at Rockstar attempted to explain why GTA 6 is coming to PC after it hits PS5 and Xbox Series X and S, and called on PC gamers to give the studio the “benefit of the doubt” over its controversial launch plans.

The first official GTA 6 trailer is the most-viewed video game reveal on YouTube within 24 hours. Set in modern-day Leonida, a fictionalized version of Florida, GTA 6 will let players control Lucia and an unnamed male that some fans speculate is named Jason.

Questions have swirled around GTA 6’s release date ever since the initial reveal, with fans going feral over details like website updates. Internal conflicts over Rockstar’s return to office policy has led to questions over whether GTA 6 will ultimately be delayed into 2026. However, as of right now, it looks like Take-Two and Rockstar are determined to get GTA 6 out the door during its intended release window.

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.

Mobile game Command & Conquer: Legions is getting characters, units, and stories from the beloved Red Alert universe.

Red Alert launched in 1996 as the second game in the legendary Command & Conquer real-time strategy series. It acts as a prequel to the original 1995 game, taking place in an alternate early history when Allied Forces battle the Soviet Union for control over the European mainland.

Developer Westwood Studios created fondly remembered FMV cutscenes for Red Alert’s story, which revolved around Albert Einstein traveling back in time to meet a young Adolf Hitler and creating a new timeline in which the Soviet Union grows even more powerful under Stalin, kicking off an alternate World War 2.

Voice actor Jason Griffith says he once recorded “hours” of content featuring Shadow the Hedgehog dropping the F-bomb.

Griffith spoke about his time voicing the Sonic character during a conversation with GameLuster at MomoCon. The actor says that when developing 2005’s Shadow the Hedgehog, Sega was, at one point, shooting for a “Mature” rating with the ESRB and asked him to record different versions for many of Shadow’s lines. Griffith says that in these M-rated takes, “they had me say f*** in every single line.”

“It was just every sentence, I would be yelling ‘Sonic, give me that f***ing Chaos Emerald!’ or something like that,” Griffith added. “I had no idea what was going on but I just went with it, and I had fun. There’s a hard drive somewhere with hours of recordings of Shadow yelling f*** at Tails and Sonic and stuff.”

Sega typically keeps curse words out of its anthropomorphic mascots’ mouths. Sonic is a series suited for children with one major exception: Shadow the Hedgehog. The spinoff game sees Sonic’s edgy other half using a variety of firearms as players navigate a choose-your-own-adventure-style campaign. It’s a darker take on the Sonic universe that even sees Shadow saying things like “damn” just before threatening to send Eggman to “hell.” It’s a lot, but apparently the ambivalent hedgehog almost used some other choice words, too.

Alas, Shadow the Hedgehog wound up with an E10+ rating when it eventually launched for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. This is the first we’re hearing of Shadow’s more colorful vocabulary, and it’s unclear if those recordings are truly out there somewhere or if they will ever see the light of day.

IGN has asked Sega for comment.

Shadow is having quite the moment, as Sega has gone as far as to dub 2024 the “year of Shadow.” The character, who first appeared in Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast, is getting the spotlight in more ways than one. He’ll make his theatrical debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (with voicework from Keanu Reeves) when it premieres later this year. There’s also Sonic x Shadow Generations, a remaster featuring extra red-and-black-hedgehog-themed content that is set to release this fall.

Meanwhile, we didn’t love Shadow’s standalone game when it first released in 2005. We called it “bad” in our 4.7 review, saying that its speedy gameplay “doesn’t make up for the game’s long list of shortcomings, from stupid level design, unrefined controls and useless gunplay to disappointingly outdated graphics.”

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.