Following news that Nier mobile game Nier Reincarnation shuts down in April, publisher Tencent has reportedly cancelled an unannounced Nier mobile game that was in development for nearly two years.

As reported by Reuters, Tencent “halted development” of the mystery mobile game in December 2023, “marking a setback in the Chinese gaming giant’s hunt for new hits”.

Tencent reportedly failed to work out a “compelling” monetisation model given the “expensive” development costs and franchise rights (which Square Enix owns). IGN has asked Square Enix for comment.

Blockbuster hit Nier: Automata is approaching its seventh birthday with no new mainline game announced so far. Square Enix producer Yosuke Saito said in November 2023 that while Nier chief Yoko Taro is alive, another entry in the Nier series will be released at some point.

Action role playing game Nier: Automata launched in 2017 and wowed critics and fans with its vast locations and zany combat. It was a surprise breakout hit for Square Enix and went on to sell an impressive 7.5 million copies. There have been many crossover events since, plus Nier-related promotions, a remaster of the first game, and even a Nier anime.

As for Tencent, recent rumblings suggest all is not well with the company’s gaming effort. Reuters reported in January 2024 that Tencent Chairman Pony Ma said the company’s gaming business, which accounts for more than 30% of revenue, was under threat because some of its recent games had fallen short of expectations.

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.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse almost made a popular glitch from Insomniac’s Miles Morales game canon.

During the latest episode of Sony’s Creator to Creator series, makers of the animated movie and the video game chatted about their work on all things Spider-Man.

“[There were] people on our crew that were like, playing your game while they were working on the film,” said Across the Spider-Verse director Joaquim Dos Santos. “We almost put one of your guys’ glitches that made it into… Like, we almost put a heater, like a space heater, swinging through.”

Bryan Intihar, senior creative director of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, acknowledged the glitch came from 2020’s Miles Morales before mentioning Spider-Man 2’s infamous Spider-Cube bug. “Well, there’s a cube one in this game, so we fixed that,” he said.

“I think the fact that we had a crew member that brought that up and said, ‘What about if there’s like a space heater?’ Like that’s true love,” Dos Santos continued.

Miles Morales’ patio heater glitch, dubbed Spider-Lamp, did the rounds on social media back in 2020, with fans naturally finding it hilarious.

I found one in the new Spider-Man game, where I turned into a patio heater for no apparent reason. pic.twitter.com/ApChq2nB1s

— Andy H (@DoctorCuriosity) November 27, 2020

Spider-Lamp was but one of several Miles Morales glitches IGN covered at the time, with the likes of Spider-Trash and Spider-Brick also taking to the streets of New York City. Back then, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse producer Phil Lord noticed Spider-Lamp and even threatened to put it in the movie, much to Insomniac’s embarrassment.

Equally as embarrassing as it is heart-warming https://t.co/LV0xGri7hD

— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) November 28, 2020

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse includes a ton of references already so perhaps there just wasn’t enough room or time to squeeze in Miles Morales’ Spider-Lamp.

A third film, Beyond the Spider-Verse, is currently in the works but doesn’t have a release date. Glitches from Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 could therefore make it into this one, or perhaps from other incoming Marvel games from the studio, which is also working on New Game Plus for Spider-Man 2.

Image credit: Sony

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.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has become the Yakuza series’ fastest-selling game to date, passing one million units sold within its first week on sale.

Publisher Sega and developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio are celebrating by giving players some free downloadable content too. The Celebratory T-Shirt Set will be released “at a later date”, with Sega advising fans pay attention to its social media channels to learn when the pack will be available.

It’s also unclear what the pack entails, but Infinite Wealth leans into the ability to change characters’ outfits in battle, and goes even further in the post game, so Ichiban, Kiryu, and the team will likely be able to don a ridiculous looking t-shirt in battle and elsewhere.

Infinite Wealth arrived January 26 as the eighth mainline entry in the Yakuza (renamed Like a Dragon) series, but as a direct sequel to its somewhat reset Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It continues that game’s story and turn-based combat, though brought in some classic Yakuza influence by featuring longtime protagonist Kiryu alongside newcomer Ichiban in dual protagonist roles.

It also features the Yakuza series’ biggest map to date, lets players become a samurai, surfer, and housekeeper, features the series’ most infamous character, and has an entire Pokémon game inside it.

Publisher Sega has caused some frustration, however, as Infinite Wealth’s New Game Plus mode is exclusive to the Deluxe and Ultimate versions of the game, which come in at $15 and $40 more expensive respectfully.

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “Sprawling, enthralling, and packed with dynamic brawling, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth isn’t just the best turn-based Like a Dragon game, it’s one of the greatest games in the entire series.”

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

During the recent Xbox Developer Direct, we were treated to a deeper look at how Obsidian’s upcoming RPG, Avowed, will handle player choice via a close look at a certain sidequest. But that left us wondering: what’s the natural endpoint of a game emphasizing choice? Will Avowed have multiple endings?

I was able to learn the answer to that by speaking to game director Carrie Patel not long after the direct, where she confirmed that yes, Avowed will indeed have multiple endings. Obviously! “I mean it’s an Obsidian game,” she said. “What else would we be if we didn’t have a few different endings?”

Patel didn’t specify further about how many endings there would be or how different they would be from one another, but we did talk further about how player choice could be expressed in the game, and how players will experience it. Patel tells me that it’s not just about pushing dominos – one event happens somewhere every time the player does something. What matters more is player expression, and how the player understands and interprets the world reacting to them, especially in a game where parts of the world are open and players may not see every single reaction or interaction.

“You have to approach it with a degree of range, both in the spread and placement of those consequences and also the nature of those consequences,” she says. “Some things need to have surprising but believable outcomes. If everything plays out exactly as you expect, it could feel a little boring. And at the same time, not every quest needs to have world-ending consequences. Some absolutely do have huge impacts for the characters in the world around you, but sometimes the story you’re experiencing is just a very deeply personal one for the characters involved. And that’s okay too.

“I think the great thing about RPGs is there’s a lot of room for that spread in terms of the tone and type and scope and nature of content. And so you’re giving players a big world where they can find a lot of very different experiences that all sort of add up to their experience as the protagonist of this game.”

It won’t be much longer before we’ll get to see exactly what choices Obsidian has in store, as Avowed got a 2024 release window recently. It was first teased back in 2020 with more footage shown at a 2023 Xbox showcase. We also spoke to Patel about why Avowed is foregoing romances to focus on different kinds of companion relationships, and why players can only pick an elf or a human in the character creator.

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

Sweet liberty! One of my favorite PS4-era shooters is back with a whole new perspective and it’s up to me and my friends to defend Super Earth in glorious co-op! After going hands-on with Helldivers 2 for three hours, I’m sold on the bold pivot from the original’s top-down view to the sequel’s new third-person perspective, the appetizing roster of deadly gadgets, and the outrageous comedic tone that expertly channels the low-budget action film vibes that pair perfectly with the developer’s live-service ambitions. I’m a bit concerned at the moment that it won’t have enough content to go the distance long term, with only two enemy factions (so far as we know), procedurally generated levels that can feel a bit one-note, and no real live-service roadmap at launch, but with such a strong, effortlessly fun foundation, it’s definitely off to good start. With all the over-the-top gore and patriotic pageantry of Starship Troopers, Helldivers 2 is the kind of wonderfully silly shooter that me and my friends could easily lose many Friday nights to.

By far the biggest way Helldivers 2 switches things up from the original is by moving to the third-person perspective, and so far I’m pleasantly surprised how well that transition works. I was initially skeptical about the change given how much the bird’s eye view was part of the original’s DNA, but it only took a matter of seconds for my concerns to disappear. Getting closer to the action feels great and allows for some really hilarious moments, like when I accidentally called in an airstrike that took out the rest of my team or when I found myself surrounded by absolutely terrifying robots and used my jetpack to leap to safety. Plus, you get to see the hideous bug creatures and murder-loving automatons closer than ever before, which is a nice bonus – each faction had lots of variety too, from chainsaw-armed androids who slowly closed in for the kill to heavily-armored beetles who charged at me with reckless abandon.

As I fought through armies of lethal insects, I got to try out a whole bunch of helpful gadgets that played a central role in my success. On one mission, I deployed a turret to keep the area clear of hostiles, while in another I threw down a bubble shield to give the team some much-needed cover, and in another I made use of the “guard dog,” a floating robot who followed me around to lay down suppressing fire. Unlocking new toys and communicating with your team to ensure you’ve got everything you might need is absolutely necessary to survival. For example, some enemies are so heavily shielded they can only be put down by explosive weapons capable of tearing through the steel, so you’ll want to have at least one player who can call down the Recoilless Rifle, a rocket launcher that’ll make short work of anything that stands in its way. It’s especially cool that any equipment summoned can be shared with anyone on the team, encouraging teamwork and allowing your friends to benefit from your untimely demise by looting your corpse.

And that’ll happen more often than you might think, because Helldivers 2’s enemies are no pushovers, especially on harder difficulties. Death is an intentionally common occurrence, because instead of being a beefed-up hero with lots of health and enough firepower to take down hundreds of enemies unscathed, you’re put into the feeble boots of a grunt who makes a better sandbag than a soldier. At the beginning of each level, your team is given 20 revives, where your killed-off character is replaced by an equally unimportant peon anytime you fall in battle. And with friendly fire always on and bad guys far outnumbering my ragtag crew of four, dying at some point or another felt like a certainty. This was especially true when we attempted to complete a level on the hardest difficulty and were utterly grinded to a pulp, which was hilarious and a complete blast even in humbling defeat. I’m really looking forward to seeing if I can actually best one of these levels once my character’s been properly leveled.

The numerous deaths my crew suffered played right into Helldivers 2’s comedic setting as well, which features a satirical futuristic version of Earth where people are treated as disposable. That hilariously dystopian backdrop added the perfect level of pseudo-patriotic B-movie cheesiness that made me smile through all that dying.

If there’s anything that concerned me about my time with Helldivers 2, it’s that after three hours I felt like I’d played a whole lot of the content available in the game, which makes use of procedural generation to drop players onto the surface of various planets to complete generic objectives like launching an ICBM or destroying a specific military target. With no story mode or alternate game modes, I’m curious how much there will be for players to do beyond grinding the same missions ad nauseum, especially with no clear content roadmap laid out as of yet. That said, with only two enemy factions at the moment, it seems likely the third one from the original Helldivers could be added into the mix at some point, which could easily keep the good times rolling.

The good news is that, even if content is light initially, what I played of it was more than enough to get me excited about laughing with friends as we blast our way through killer robots, and I can’t wait to play more.