Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is Currently 50% Off at Best Buy, Down to Just $34.99

Best Buy’s Presidents’ Day sale has been full of some excellent deals, including on a variety of video games. One of our absolute favorites to come out of the sale is the standard edition of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

It’s marked down 50% at the moment to just $34.99 for both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, which is worth taking advantage of given it usually runs for $69.99. This is a game that’s well worth adding to your collection, especially at this price. Head to the link below to pick up the game for yourself today.

Save 50% On Star Wars Jedi: Survivor at Best Buy

At the time of its release last year, we gave Star Wars Jedi: Survivor a 9/10. In our Star Wars Jedi: Survivor review, we stated that it “takes what Fallen Order achieved and wall-runs with it, then double-jumps and air-dashes straight into an epic lightsaber battle.” We believe that: “it’s a sequel that does virtually everything better than the original – which was already an exceptional Star Wars game.”

This isn’t the only gaming deal going on at the moment. Right now, you can also pick up some select Nintendo Switch games (both physical and digital) for just $40 at Amazon, including Super Mario Odyssey, Metroid Dread, Link’s Awakening, and a few more.

To see even more deals on games, check out our roundup of the best video game deals today where we’ve gathered together our favorite deals for various platforms. If you want to zero in on your preferred console, though, we also have roundups for the best PS5 deals, the best Xbox deals, and the best Nintendo Switch deals that you can check out for more detailed discounts.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology Out a Day Before the Fallout TV Series

With less than two months to go until Fallout hits the small screens, Bethesda has announced a new compilation based on its popular post-apocalyptic franchise.

Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology is a compilation featuring seven Fallout games. Like the Fallout Anthology released a few years back, this compilation includes Steam codes for the PC versions of the games, as well as a Mini-Nuke replica. The compilation costs $60, with preorders now available at the Bethesda Gear shop, though the anthology is supposed to be sold at other retailers.

The Mini-Nuke replica is a lovely collector’s item for fans of this nuclear-fuelled franchise that stores the cards and features a sound effect that produces an explosion. Or, if you are really creative, you can use it as a case for a gaming PC.

What’s interesting about the packaging, as seen in the image above, is the compilation includes seven S.P.E.C.I.A.L. cards. Based on the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. cards found in 2018’s Fallout 76, each card is printed with a P.C. code for the seven Fallout games. You can see the complete list below:

Not a bad compilation for newcomers to the series or longtime fans who have yet to collect all the Fallout games in their digital library. Of course, if the only Fallouts you are missing are the classic games like Fallout Tactics, you could wait until later this year when the Epic Games Store gives them away for free.

Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology releases on April 11 — one day before the Fallout T.V. series premieres on Prime Video.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Best Video Game Deals Today (February 2024): Enjoy Discounts on Console Bundles, SD Cards, and More

Buying new video games, hardware, and accessories for your preferred console doesn’t need to make a massive dent in your wallet. In fact, deals happen all the time for items like these, so you can save money while investing in your favorite hobby.

TL;DR – Our Favorite Video Game Deals

These sales even occur outside of events like Prime Day, Black Friday, or publisher events like Nintendo’s eShop sale in the summer or PlayStation’s Days of Play. And while we’ll always keep you up to date on those sales and what’s included in them, here, we’ll provide you with year-round deals that are worth taking advantage of. Whether you play on PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC, you’ll find the very best deals listed below.

Get Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon on PS5 for $37.99 & More Game Deals

One of our favorite deals right now is on Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon for PS5, which has dropped down to $37.99 after clipping the 5% off coupon. You can also pick up Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Launch Edition for Xbox Series X for $39.18, and in the world of Nintendo, Super Mario RPG is discounted at Walmart to $48.80 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder is down to $48.99 at Walmart as well! Check out the links below for even more great deals.

More Video Game Deals:

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Get $40 Off the Anker 737 Power Bank (Perfect for Steam Deck)

If you’ve been looking to pick up a power bank to use with your favorite devices, you can never go wrong with options from Anker. To see even more excellent power bank options, check out our picks below.

More Power Bank Deals

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Xbox Console & Bundle Deals

There are a few console bundles on sale at the moment alongside a great deal on the 1TB Series S and Series X. One of our favorite deals leftover from the Black Friday/Cyber Monday season is on the Diablo IV Xbox Series X bundle, which you can get for $464.50 at Walmart. You can also get the Series S Starter Bundle for just $269.99 at Target. Outside of bundles, the 1TB Series S has a deal at Dell right now, down 14% to $299.99, and the Xbox Series X is $50 off at Best Buy in their Presidents’ Day sale.

Perfect Switch SD Card for $25.99 (and More Deals)

The best Switch SD card should be fast, reliable, and as future-proof as possible. That last one is important, as it’s quite likely we’ll be getting a Switch successor / the next Nintendo console within the next year or so (if rumors are to be believed). Therefore, you’re going to want to opt for the latest in SD card tech, which is a micro SDXC UHS-I U3 A2 V30 memory card. That’s a lot of random letters, so to save you a bit of time we’ve left our top suggestions and deals just below for your convenience.

More Switch Micro SD Card Deals

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Get Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 For Free With This PS5 Bundle

You can still save on a Spider-Man 2 PS5 Slim bundle, which includes the brand-new game alongside the new Slim console and a DualSense wireless controller. It’ll set you back $499, which is 11% off its usual price of $559.99. This was the most popular deal for IGN readers over Black Friday, and retailers are finally starting to sell out of the impressive bundle in 2024. Stay tuned for even more amazing PS5 deals and bundles in the near future (and maybe even a PS5 Pro Model?)

Enjoy Discounts On Select Xbox Controllers

In need of another Xbox controller? Well, you’re in luck, as there are quite a few discounted right now. In my opinion, you can never have too many controllers. You never know when someone will pop on by and want to play Overcooked or It Takes Two, or any local multiplayer game.

More Xbox Controller Deals:

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How to Avoid Xbox’s Game Pass Price Hike ($44.99 for 3-Months of Ultimate)

By securing 3-months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $44.99, you can actually avoid the hiked up Game Pass price. We recommend securing your current subscription for as long as possible. You can stack up to a maximum of 36 months of Game Pass, meaning you have the option to accumulate 3-month subscriptions up to 12 times.

Admittedly, this approach might put a strain on your wallet, totaling $539.88 if you purchase the 3-month package from the link above. However, when you compare it to the new cost of Game Pass Ultimate for 36 months at $16.99 per month, amounting to $611.64, you’ll realize you’re saving $71.76 on your subscription for the next three years. Otherwise, secure your membership for at least a year to lock in at least some savings overall.

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Amazing 4TB PS5 SSD Deal for $173.66

Could your PS5 use more storage? Prices have been dropping since Sony started letting people upgrade their SSDs. Right now you can get an absolutely massive Verbatim 4TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD for $173.66. This is absolutely worth investing in for your PS5, and you can find even more great SSD deals below.

More PS5 SSD Deals:

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Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Official Guide for $27 (Save $18)

With these, you’ll have a detailed overview of Hyrule, a helpful walkthrough to get you through the game, and much more. Not only that, but they have gorgeous covers as well, especially the Collector’s Edition. The Standard Edition has an MSRP of $29.99 but is on sale for $18.74, and the Collector’s Edition normally runs for $44.99, but you can get it for $26.85. Plus, if you want to complete the set, the Breath of the Wild guidebook is also down to just $22.49 right now as well.

With how expensive gaming is getting in 2024, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.

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Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Need for Speed Unbound Gets Surprise Second Year of Live Service

Need for Speed Unbound is back with a second year of live service.

Developer Criterion issued a year two roadmap blog post, saying: “Surprise! We’re still here, and not just here — we have a whole year’s worth of content coming to you!”

Another 12 months of content is planned from a small team, Criterion confirmed, although it warned players: “We’ll be honest and admit we can’t build everything everyone wants right now, but we can decide together what NFS should be in the future.”

“Our vision is that through our second year of live service, you can, for the first time, begin to play the ultimate NFS experience in one place,” Criterion said. “Your feedback and gameplay will help shape the future of this iconic franchise.”

Fans can expect four new volumes of content in the next year, each launching every few months. At least one new major mode, two new cars, and a new Speed Pass (with optional premium track) arrive as part of each volume. “And when we say cars, we mean cars in the NFS sense, like no one else creates,” Criterion teased. “We aren’t just talking base models here and stock paint there; we are talking cars that come with fully customizable body kits with a myriad of interchangeable parts so you can tweak your ride just the way you want it.”

More events, challenges, ranks to earn, and new progression are also part of the plan, as are bug fixes and improvements. “We see this as a year to test and learn and understand what works best for you,” Criterion added.

Need for Speed Unbound launched late 2022, receiving a 7/10 from IGN’s review. “Need for Speed Unbound hasn’t strayed very far from the fundamentals of 2019’s Heat, but its bold new animated style impresses,” we said.

EA has remained quiet on the future of the series since, and is yet to announce a brand new Need for Speed game for the future.

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.

Epic Games Store Giving Away Classic Fallout Games For Free Later This Year

The Epic Games Store will give away three classic Fallout games for free later this year after pulling them from the next week’s offerings.

Speaking to IGN, an Epic Games Store spokesperson confirmed Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel will still be part of the storefront’s free giveaways in 2024, but just won’t arrive next week as originally announced.

Epic advertised the three games as being available to download for free for anyone with an account from February 22 to 29 before quietly pulling the announcement with no explanation, and didn’t offer a reason to IGN when asked either. Super Meat Boy Forever replaced the three Fallout games as next week’s freebie.

The original Fallout, not developed by current franchise owner Bethesda but Interplay Productions, launched in 1997 and laid the groundwork for what would become one of gaming’s most iconic franchises. Players would explore a wasteland littered with wild and wacky characters and engage in turn-based role-playing combat to defeat all manner of mutants.

Fallout 2 is perhaps the most beloved of the pre-Bethesda games, offering a similar game to the original but improving systems across the board. “With its great storyline, huge game world, and well written scripts, Fallout 2 gave [us] many, many hours of totally absorbing gameplay,”
IGN said in our review

Finally, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel takes that beloved world and applies tactical, squad-based combat. “Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel does just about everything right. The only problem is that there’s too much of it,” we said in our review.

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

Should You Buy Helldivers 2 Right Now? Arrowhead CEO Says It’s Worth Waiting Until the Servers Problems Are Fixed

As Helldivers 2 continues its struggle to cope with the influx of players, the boss of its developer has cautioned against buying the game right now.

Yesterday, February 19, Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios said it would release updates on PlayStation 5 and PC this week that aim to tackle the “most serious problems” the game is currently facing, including login, matchmaking, and server load. The first of these fixes arrives today, February 20, but Arrowhead warned players “no single update will solve all the issues.”

Helldivers 2’s explosive launch has seen an astonishing peak concurrent player count of 411,359 on Steam. That’s high enough to pass the all-time Steam concurrent peaks of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5, Bethesda’s Starfield, and Bungie’s Destiny 2. But the influx of players has caused significant server issues, with a dreaded black screen affecting PC players specifically, and “servers at capacity” message plaguing the game across both PC and PS5.

There’s evidence to suggest players are losing patience with the game, too. On Steam, Helldivers 2 now has a ‘mixed’ user review rating after an initial positive reception. Pretty much all the negative reviews revolve around the server issues.

Now, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has responded to one user on Twitter / X who said they wanted to buy Helldivers 2 but can’t afford it right now, to recommend they hold off until these server problems are sorted out.

“If you have no cash, get it later,” Pilestedt said. “While we made a really fun game it’s worth waiting until the servers can support the capacity.

“I mean, as a CEO I of course want the game to be as profitable as possible, but if you spent yr last $ and got stuck in server queues I’d be 💔”

Pilestedt’s comment appears to have gone down well with the Helldivers community, with redditor LittleBlueCubes saying “honesty is the best policy”.

This week, IGN reported on how the Helldivers 2 community had called for Arrowhead to add an away from keyboard (AFK) auto kick feature to the game after some players admitted leaving it on all day and theoretically at least blocking others from getting in. Pilestedt has suggested Arrowhead is working on a fix.

In our Helldivers 2 review, we said its “combat feels fantastic, its missions stay fresh and interesting, and its smart progression system doesn’t nickel and dime you.”

For more, check out how Helldivers 2 has sparked renewed interest in Starship Troopers, and if you’re playing, our comprehensive Helldivers 2 guide.

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.

This 4TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink Is Only $173.66

SSD prices are trending upwards for 2024, which makes this deal even more amazing. Right now Amazon (or more specifically, Amazon Japan) is offering this massive Verbatim 4TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive (SSD) for only $178.14. Even better though, it even includes a slim PS5-compatible heatsink. This would have been an outstanding deal even during Black Friday.

Verbatim 4TB SSD (PS5-Compatible) with Heatsink $173.66

The Verbatim Vi7000 meets all the requirements for your PS5 SSD upgrade. It supports transfer speeds of up to 7,400MB/s read and 6,500MB/s write which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. It also includes a robust looking aluminum heatsink that fits right into the slim PS5 drive bay.

The PS5 is an outstanding gaming console, but the 1TB SSD is a real bottleneck. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, for example, can exceed 200GB alone. NBA 2K23 weighs in at 150GB and even older games like God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West require 90GB of space. Future games like Grand Theft Auto VI will undoubtedly demand even more space.

Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase Announced for This Week With 25 Minutes of Games Coming to Switch

Nintendo has announced its first Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase of 2024, and it is set to take place on February 21, 2024, at 6am PT/9am ET and feature “around 25 mins of info focused on #NintendoSwitch games coming in the first half of 2024 from our publishing and development partners.”

No further information was given on what this Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase will contain, but we won’t have too wait too long to find out what secrets it may hold as Nintendo will drop the Direct on-demand via YouTube in just a couple of days.

The most recent Nintendo Direct took place in September 2023. One of the most significant announcements from the event was that Nintendo revealed a remake of Mario vs. Donkey Kong and a remaster of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. The last Direct also revealed release windows/dates for Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD and Princess Peach: Showtime!

Nintendo’s February 2024 Direct presentation comes after both Xbox and PlayStation held its own showcases recently. Both provided sneak peeks and updates to games slated to release on its platforms in the coming year.

Many Nintendo fans are surely waiting for any news on the yet-to-be-announced-and-named Nintendo Switch 2, but reports have recently said it has been delayed into the “early months of 2025.”

Nintendo has revealed, however, that the Switch has passed 139.36 million units sold and that its software sales continue to be led by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s astonishing 60.58 million units stold.

For more, check out the best Switch deals right now and our picks for the best Switch games of all-time.

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

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Helldivers 2 Devs to Begin Rolling Out Updates to Fix the ‘Most Serious Issues’ on PS5 and PC Tomorrow

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has said it will be releasing updates on PS5 and PC this week that aim to tackle the “most serious problems” the game is currently facing, including login, matchmaking, and server load. The first of these fixes will arrive tomorrow, February 20, but Arrowhead wants us to remember that “no single update will solve all the issues.”

Arrowhead took to Discord to share the message, saying it has a plan to make “continuous improvements over the days and weeks to come” to ensure a smooth experience for all players.

“Hello there Helldivers,” Arrowhead wrote. “We have improvements rolling out this week focused on the most serious problems in the game: login, matchmaking, and server load. You will see one update for PC and PS5 tomorrow, though please keep in mind that no single update will solve all the issues. Rather, we will be making continuous improvements over the days and weeks to come.

“We’re all working hard to make sure that the game is a stable place to spread Managed Democracy to every planet in the galaxy. Thank you, as always.”

Helldivers 2 has been a massive success since its launch, and its Steam concurrent record of 409,367 was enough to pass the all-time Steam concurrents of games like Grant Theft Auto V, Starfield, Counter-Strike, and Destiny 2.

Unfortunately, this has led to all the issues mentioned above. To help with the server load, Arrowhead has limited concurrent players to around 450,000 to improve stability. Rest assured though, Helldivers, as Arrowhead is doing its part to fix all the problems out there so you all can get back to taking down more bugs and bots.

In our Helldivers 2 review, we said its “combat feels fantastic, its missions stay fresh and interesting, and its smart progression system doesn’t nickel and dime you.”

For more, check out how Helldivers 2 players who refuse to log out to ensure they keep their spot in the servers are “ruining it for others” and how Helldivers 2’s director called renewed interest in Starship Troopers after the game’s success “incredible.”

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

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Exclusive: Ikumi Nakamura Opens Up About Kemuri, Avoiding Crunch, And Why Okami Still Inspires Her – Fan Fest 2024

In the fall of 2006, Capcom released Okami – a game that mixed Japanese folklore with the exploration of Zelda. It was praised for its lavish cel-shaded visuals, which at the time were among the best ever seen on the PlayStation 2; many even said it was better than The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which released that same year. Among the team at Clover Studio, where Okami was developed, was a young Ikumi Nakamura, who was just getting started in the industry as a “newbie” artist.

Nakamura remembers that time as something like the Wild West. Many of the shaders commonly used today were not available, the visuals were comparatively low-res, and there were “lots of limitations.” Challenging as it could be, though, she also remembers it being “really fun” discovering different development techniques that could aid her as she went. It was an experience that would inform a career that has spanned 20 years and numerous classic games.

Today, Nakamura runs Unseen, a studio she formed in 2022 in the wake of her departure from Tango Gameworks, where she helped spearhead the development of Ghostwire Tokyo. Nakamura’s energetic performance at E3 2019 made her a fan-favorite, and in her subsequent appearances she’s made a point of playing up her role as studio mascot. But talking to her in a Google Meet call, she comes across as soft-spoken and deliberate. In real life, she’s a mother who splits time between her day job as a studio head and her passion for urban exploration, with her first book due to be released in March.

She is coming off the reveal of Kemura, her stylish new action game blending “traditional Japanese folklore, modern culture, anime aesthetics and international flair.” It is in many ways a summation of her career to this point, which has taken her from Capcom to Platinum, then to finding fame introducing Ghostwire Tokyo at E3 2019, and finally on to running her own studio. Revealed at The Game Awards 2023, Kemuri reflects Nakamura’s childhood love of the supernatural with its array of spirits and fashionable Yokai Hunters.

It moves at the pace of Bayonetta, with Yokai Hunters able to run down surfaces in much of the same way as that game’s Umbra Witches, and it carries on Ghostwire Tokyo’s theme of “making the supernatural, natural.” In many ways it’s more ambitious than either of those games, though, mixing freeform exploration with multiplayer gameplay, though she’s hesitant to compare its scope to what she considers to be “true” open world games like Cyberpunk 2077.

So with Kemuri…in a way it’s like the combination of all these things and all these experiences…

Kemuri’s biggest influence is also one of Nakamura’s formative experiences in the games industry. Okami was where she got her start, and its visuals are a big part of the look and feel of Kemuri. In a 2020 interview with IGN Japan, Nakamura said that Okami 2 was the project that she wanted to “make reality the most.” Kemuri isn’t exactly a sequel, but Okami’s artistic flair remains alive and well within it. In one example, Nakamura describes a technique she derived from her time at Okami, and how she passes it on to her artists.

“[W]henever I’m actually working with a character artist to, let’s say develop the character’s face, for instance, I always tell artists to really put in quite a bit of attention to detail on just one single stroke, even on the face and stuff like that. Just to give a certain impression or certain detail. And this idea is definitely from my experience with Okami, for sure,” Nakamura says.

She ticks off the games she’s worked on and how they’ve influenced Kemuri over the years. “Okami, I was actually working on coming up with a visual design and stuff like that. With The Evil Within, I was working more towards a leadership or management role on top of doing art and design,” she says.

She remembers working on Bayonetta, and how director Hideki Kamiya was heavily involved in the world design and writing, but couldn’t draw so much as a basic sketch to help artists with his concepts (“He was an F Minus,” Nakamura remembers.) This led to a somewhat inefficient process in which artists had to create “countless” images before Kamiya would finally say, “This is it.” Nakamura was better than most at being able to hone in on his particular vision, leading him to give her more responsibilities as a lead artist. In her own projects, Nakamura tends to be similarly uncompromising in her vision.

In 2010, Nakamura helped found Tango Gameworks with Shinji Mikami, where she remained for nine years. Ghostwire Tokyo was her first chance at the director’s chair, and it was a game that was made out of “all of the stuff that she likes” – an urban setting, a mix of the natural and the supernatural, and action. She worked on it for four years before ultimately deciding to leave in the middle of development.

“Maybe my lack of experience was why I couldn’t quite finish it to the end,” Nakamura says. She admits that she’d been “stuck in a closed-minded world for quite a while, so I felt the need for a mental reset.”

Still, she says, it’s not so easy to leave behind what you love in your childhood.

“Ghostwire Tokyo is the first time I ever actually became a director, so I was in a place where I got to make what I like,” Nakamura says. “So with Kemuri…in a way it’s like the combination of all these things and all these experiences…Perhaps that’s what Kemuri is.”

An oasis in a troubled games industry

Not long after leaving Tango Gameworks, Nakamura visited Sony Santa Monica and met Cory Barlog. It was an experience she enjoyed so much that she considered working there, but “all such discussions vanished” when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Still, the experience had a positive impact on her, and she began to wonder if she could recreate the “friendly vibe” of Sony Santa Monica in Tokyo.

The result was Unseen, which she describes as something like an “international school” – a vibrant and diverse collection of artistic talent from all over the world. Among them is Unseen Chief Technology Officer David Steinberg, who moved from France to Tokyo in 2010. The approach is not without its challenges – work is frequently slowed by the need for constant translation – but it gives Unseen an optimistic air that it likes to highlight as much as it can.

The studio’s workspace is housed in a disused warehouse, but manages to feel cozy thanks to touches like fake bonsai trees and a plush tent filled with comfortable chairs and pillows (Nakamura jokingly refers to the area as their “glamping” space). In many ways Unseen feels very like a space built by artists for artists, with a layout that was painstakingly modeled within Unreal Engine.

Nakamura resists comparisons to family, seeing it instead as a diverse team of professionals working toward a common goal. Still, its warm atmosphere stands out in a troubled games industry where funding is drying up and studios large and small are racked by layoffs. Nakamura has experienced her own share of upheaval, having been part of the transformation of Clover Studio into the independent company that would eventually become PlatinumGames.

“We recognize the difficulties faced by other studios in the industry, and our hearts go out to those who have encountered layoffs and funding challenges. In such a dynamic landscape, we’ve prioritized a people-first approach, ensuring the well-being of our talented team members while maintaining a creative and collaborative atmosphere,” Nakamura says.

“Our talented crew is our most valuable power-up, and we’re committed to ensuring their well-being on this epic quest. Unseen’s office and the artists’ home offices have been officially designated as the ‘Layoff-Proof Zones,’ Because who needs downsizing when you can have a fortress of creativity and job security?”

Of course, such a sentiment plays a little differently in Tokyo, where Unseen is based. As Nakamura herself acknowledges, layoffs are difficult if not impossible in Japan. Still, its commitment to a worker-positive environment makes it seem like an oasis of positivity in an otherwise struggling industry. Indeed, layoffs elsewhere have led many developers to apply at Unseen, though Nakamura says the studio is quite selective owing to its emphasis on studio culture.

Another way Unseen stands out is in being a woman-led studio in the still male-dominated games industry, where progress for women into leadership positions has remained painfully slow. “It’s definitely a minority in Japan for sure, for a woman to actually start the company and become a CEO and stuff like that,” Nakamura tells IGN.

… A studio that can ship a very high quality game without the crunch is our goal

She talks about how she “didn’t really think much at all about being a woman” while going about a career. But when she started Unseen and gave birth to her daughter, she found herself struggling to adapt.

“Many strange things happen to your body after you actually give birth. And just having all these changes in [me], and also running a new job, CEO… it was quite different for sure,” Nakamura says. “And then for a while, [I] couldn’t really adapt fast enough through these drastic changes in being a CEO and also being a mother and stuff like that. This is where it really made [me] realize, ’Oh, I am a woman.’ That’s about it for how I feel about women running a studio.”

In a video posted recently on Unseen channels, director Misuzu Watanabe and Nakamura talk frankly about the challenges of being a mother in the games industry, with Watanabe working remotely from home in Osaka during the day while looking after her child. According to Watanabe, “very few companies” told her it was okay to be a mother. Nakamura’s message to Watanabe?

“Don’t give up anything.”

Ahead on their way

Having finally revealed Kemuri at The Game Awards, Unseen is ready to begin an extended period of development. Nakamura isn’t revealing release timing or even which platforms it’s coming out on, but she’s conspicuous in her praise for Steam and PC gaming in general, saying that it’s “essential to recognize the dynamic pulse of PC gaming.”

“Particularly, the accessibility of high-performance PC setups has led to a noticeable shift, with a growing number of players embracing PC gaming. This trend empowers developers to create more sophisticated and intricate games, providing players with a broader spectrum of genres and experiences,” Nakamura says.”

She singles out Steam, which has become much more popular in Japan over the past several years. “As a digital distribution platform, Steam has undergone remarkable evolution, offering players easy access to a plethora of new titles and providing developers with a stage to showcase their unique creations. The growth of Steam injects innovative energy into the entire PC gaming industry, promising ongoing evolution and anticipation for what’s to come.”

Whichever platform it’s released on, it may be a while before fans get to play Kemuri. According to Nakamura, Kemuri is currently experiencing a “healthy delay” that she chalks up to Unseen’s “dedication to pushing artistic boundaries and meticulously considering how to translate their passion into an unparalleled user experience.”

Asked to elaborate, Nakamura points to some of the challenges inherent in communicating in English and Japanese. She’s also keen on crunch within her studio, which is an environment she knows all too well through her long career in the games industry. She specifically points to Hades developer Supergiant Games as an inspiration on that front.

“They actually completed a very hype-worthy game…without the crunch,” Nakamura says. “I really like the idea, but at the same time in my experience for working for many different studios before Unseen, I have no experience of really shipping a title without crunch. So I don’t really have a precise vision of or image of how we can actually do that…but a studio that can actually ship a very high quality game without the crunch is our goal.”

One way or another, Nakamura and her team are just beginning their journey, and it’s far too early to say how it will end. But in an increasingly grim industry, Unseen is at least one studio where optimism still reigns.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.