In an impassioned end to his keynote address on the opening day of Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show in Bangkok, Dead Space creator and industry veteran Glen Schofield has declared that the games industry is in dire need of fixing, and he believes he knows just how to go about it.

“We need to fix the gaming industry right now,” said Schofield to a room of games industry professionals. “It’s broken. It’s beaten, it’s battered, our developers are battered, they’ve been taking it on the chin for the last couple of years. We need to bring it back to what it was, right? Instead of all this negativity.”

The first and arguably most controversial step to take in Schofield’s opinion, is for the games industry to widely embrace the use of generative AI as a standard part of their development tool set.

“AI isn’t here to replace us,” continued Schofield. “It’s here to make us faster, better, and more efficient. And AI is for all of us, it really is. It’s not just for directors and artists, it’s for writers and marketing execs.

“So, I think [games industry] executives, owners, founders… Let’s start training our people on AI. Start it as soon as you can. Who cares if I’m EA or Activision or Namco or whatever, we should be working together at least in training and training our people up. That would be a huge help because I know we’re going to start hiring people back again.”

Next up, Schofield believes that investors need to loosen their purse strings and start spending more on games development, as well as putting the right people in charge of each studio.

“Come on, investors and execs, let’s stop this madness,” said Schofield. “You want to make a AAA game for like eight million dollars? You gotta get your guts back again. If we start putting money into the industry again, we know it’s going to make money.”

“To me, you picked the wrong people to run the teams, to run the games, right? In my opinion [you need] a big, creative person who’s running it. And then you put people around to help with this and that. That’s the way I work these days, right? I still run my studio in ways but I have people to help now so I can be 100% or 98% on that. That’s what these games need. I saw some of the people that were chosen and they were really good people, but there’s no way they were ready to direct a game.”

“So I said, let’s start putting money in, do due diligence a little better on that. We know we’re going to make money. But we have to make quality games, and you have to give them to the right people.”

Lastly, and perhaps most strangely given that he was presenting the opening keynote address at a rival games industry show, Schofield wished for the return of E3.

“Bring back E3,” said Schofield to soft applause. “I mean, come on. E3 is the granddaddy of them all. And I will tell you every single E3 that I went to made my games better. And I know there’s no formula to show a [return on investment] on that, [but] every game got better when you went there. You talked with your friends, you talked with colleagues, everybody’s thrilled to help you with the next technologies, or showing you mechanics. When the companies started going outside of E3 I knew this was the end, and I started boycotting those because [that] was not an industry that was working together, this is an industry that’s fragmented. And so now there’s no E3.”

Schofield concluded his address by reiterating that while he’s fully onboard with AI, the most important aspect of games development were the people making them, not the machines.

“Remember, ideas are the lifeblood of the industry,” said Schofield, speaking to the developers in attendance. “And those ideas? They come from you.”

How do you feel about Schofield’s plan to “fix” the games industry? Sound off in the comments below!

Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN’s Australian office, currently attending Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show.

A new offline mode for Ubisoft’s The Crew 2 is available now, which will allow owners to play the racing MMO offline if desired. The functionality – dubbed Hybrid Mode – has been explained in full on the publisher’s website.

According to Ubisoft, Hybrid Mode gives us the “freedom to choose” how we want to play The Crew 2. That is, online mode (which is “the original experience as it was designed from the start, complete with multiplayer features, leaderboards, summits, and community sharing”) or offline mode (which the publisher describes as “a new experience”).

“Whether you’re looking to preserve your progression for the future or simply enjoy the freedom of playing without a connection, Hybrid Mode ensures The Crew 2 remains accessible for years to come,” explains the publisher.

To transfer progression into offline mode, players can simply select “Export to Offline Save” after a session online. Doing so will create a copy of current progression in the game’s multiplayer world stored locally on a personal PC or console. Ubisoft notes online and offline saves are separate, however, so progress made offline will not carry back over into online saves. Players will be able to re-export online saves to update offline files at any time.

Custom liveries will not transfer to offline saves.

An offline mode for The Crew 2 was announced last year in the wake of the the shutdown of the original game in March 2024. Disappointed players of The Crew (which was not a free-to-play game, but became inaccessible for its owners to play after its shutdown – even solo) were justifiably concerned about The Crew 2 suffering the same fate.

“We heard your concerns about access to The Crew games,” Ubisoft said at the time. “Today, we want to express our commitment to the future of The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest. We can confirm an offline mode to ensure long term access to both titles.”

Ubisoft was subsequently sued after the shutdown, a lawsuit the publisher responded to by insisting that buying a game doesn’t give players “unfettered ownership rights” to it, but rather only a “limited license to access the game.”

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

The November 17 release date on Steam and Xbox PC for action RPG Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE is quickly approaching, and to celebrate, it will have a booth at TwitchCon in San Diego this week where players can try out a new demo and win special merch.

Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE lets you step into the world of the massively popular Solo Leveling franchise, centering on protagonist Sung Jinwoo. It’s been built for PC and console (it’s scheduled to release on consoles in 2026) and includes the original story along with new adventures that are exclusive to the game.

If you’re not familiar with the series, it takes place in a world where people with supernatural abilities known as Hunters must protect mankind from a never-ending onslaught of monsters. Usually, Hunters’ abilities and strength level are determined when their powers first manifest. But Jinwoo gets a unique ability: he can level up. So even though he starts off as a low-tier Hunter, he can grow more powerful the more foes he defeats. And now he’s on a personal quest to become the world’s strongest Hunter.

It should be pretty obvious why this premise lends itself to a game, it basically already has RPG progression systems baked in. Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE builds on that base with a skill tree that branches into eight different job advancements. Through the course of the webtoon, Jinwoo transforms into the Ultimate Monarch of Shadows, and now you can experience his evolution for yourself.

As you can see in the video above, Jinwoo can switch between weapons and combine basic attacks with flashy special abilities to build up combos. But you can’t just mindlessly attack, you need to keep an eye on enemies and respond to their strikes and AoE attacks. You can execute perfectly timed parries or dodges to cancel out damage and unleash powerful counterattacks to keep the fast pace flowing and combo meter climbing.

However you defeat enemies, they’ll drop loot that you can use to craft new weapons, including ones pulled directly from the original webtoon, like Kasaka’s Venom Fang and the Demon King’s Daggers. There are several weapon types available, and your combat style will be determined by your weapon and skill tree choices. That makes for a variety of styles, like in the original story, giving you the opportunity to try out different options and figure out what works best for you.

You’ll face off against a ton of enemies and bosses solo, but some are too strong for even a leveled-up Jinwoo to deal with. That’s where multiplayer comes in. You can team up in four-player co-op raids to take on commanders that series veterans will recognize, and you can play as Jinwoo or one of the other available Hunters with their own set of unique skills.

If you’re interested in seeing more, don’t miss TwitchCon, which starts Friday, October 17 and will be open until Sunday, October 19. The Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE booth is open to the public, so any in-person attendees can come by and try out the demo. And there will be some popular streamers playing the game at the booth (iiTzTimmy, RDCGaming, EsfandTV, Agent00, ExtraEmily, and more). The booth will also have activities available, and people who complete them can earn exclusive merch.

If you’re not able to attend in person, no worries. There will also be streamers dropping by the in-booth streaming room to play the demo and share gameplay with their channels. The game releases November 17 on Steam and Xbox PC, with a planned release on consoles next year.

It’s available for pre-order now, and the story, boss raids, and multiplayer content are included. If you want to stay up to date on the latest info, you can check out the official website or follow on Twitter, YouTube, or Discord.

If you’re looking for a Pokémon TCG card to invest in before it gets to over $1,000 raw*, Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat is a solid bet right now.

Originally announced in 2023 with Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, and later given out as a treasure hunt prize on exiting the exhibition, Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat is the infamous 85th promo card in the Pokémon TCG’s Scarlet and Violet series.