It’s time for another pull on the velvet rope labelled “too many games”. In fairness, this time the argument is a touch more involved than perennial moaning about backlogs – to whit, “there are too many games and it’s all the pandemic’s fault”. Nacon’s head of publishing Benoit Clerc has argued that the Covid lockdown years have bred too much investment in new games, and that we’re currently reaping the results in the form of an unsustainable glut of releases.
Elden Ring has received a slim update on PC, bringing the game up to version 1.10.1, but neither publisher Bandai Namco nor developer FromSoftware mentioned the highly anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree expansion in the notes.
Released on Bandai Namco’s website, the update specifically addresses the Steam version of Elden Ring, specifically updating its anti-cheating measures in accordance with a Steam operating system update. This obviously won’t change much for most players, but will be a relief for those still invading in Elden Ring, or engaging in its dedicated player versus player Colosseum areas.
This update was added more than a year ago now in December 2022, letting players face off in new competitive modes in the grand arenas scattered throughout The Lands Between.
It’s not the Elden Ring update fans are waiting for, of course, and every hint of movement from Bandai Namco or FromSoftware causes the internet to hold its breath. That’s because, as Elden Ring approaches its second anniversary in February, neither has revealed when fans might be able to play the much anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree.
The expansion was announced in March as a major expansion coming to Elden Ring. A single piece of concept art was released alongside the announcement but didn’t give much away, just showing a character atop a spectral steed looking towards the horizon that featured a dying Erdtree.
It will likely arrive as the only Elden Ring expansion (outside of a smaller piece of player-versus-player DLC) and be akin to the likes of Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters expansion or Dark Souls 3’s The Ringed City.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Future Press will be releasing a ’25th Anniversary Edition’ of the Dark Souls Trilogy Compendium, featuring the complete breakdown of every single minute detail from the legendary FromSoftware games. It will cost $59.99, with preorders now available via Amazon (see here).
For clarity, this is the 25th Anniversary of the first game guide published by Future Press, not the 25th Anniversary of Dark Souls (which was released on September 22, 2011). The original Compendium book is considered rare online and can be difficult to find or buy at a reasonable rate, which makes news of this reprint very welcome indeed.
Future Press describes the Limited Edition reprint as featuring, “The enemies, items, equipment, areas and NPC dialogue of each game are all presented in an easy-to-reference format. This beautifully laid out book is designed to make it easy to find what you’re looking for—each entry is color-coded by game, and everything is fully indexed.”
This is also a strictly limited one-time reprint, featuring “unique 25th Anniversary branding and some slight changes to the slipcase and cover” but otherwise the re-release will be identical to the original Dark Souls Trilogy printing.
The reprint features 480 pages that dive into the core story beats of the Dark Souls games, alongside a complete World Guide for each title and its DLCs, and even four unique bonus art prints “that show the beauty of FromSoftware’s character designs”.
Future Press is also responsible for the beautiful Official Strategy Guides for Elden Ring (Vol.1 & Vol. 2), which are also currently down to $44.99 at Amazon. Those in the UK can preorder the Dark Souls Trilogy 25th Anniversary Compendium directly from Future Press — costing £49.99 and release on February 29, 2024.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle appears to be the title of Bethesda and Lucasfilm’s new Indiana Jones game created by Wolfenstein developers MachineGames, if a recent brace of domain registrations are any indication.
Sonic Vs. Nine.
Netflix is cranking out new seasons of Sonic Prime seemingly faster than the ‘Blue Blur’ himself, with Season 3 now available to watch in its entirety.
It doesn’t seem that long that we were first reporting on the animated show and speculating what it would all be about, but now the story is kicking into high gear with Sonic going head-to-head against an alternate reality version of Tails called ‘Nine’. In fact, he even brings on some unlikely alliances in this new series to ensure the protection of the ‘Shatterverse’.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
D3 Publisher Inc. has announced the arrival of ‘Those Games’ on PlayStation 4 and 5 priced $9.99 / £7.99. It launched on Nintendo Switch and Steam last year.
Those Games, developed by Monkeycraft Co. and published by D3 Publisher, is short for YEAH! YOU WANT ‘THOSE GAMES’ RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET’S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM!, a minigame collection filled with challenges based on the inscrutable mobile game ads no-one can escape from.
Those Games briefly became a viral sensation in 2023, and speaking to IGN, producer Maya Ito said: “I see these mini-games on a daily basis and thought to myself, I want to play them; thoroughly and to my heart’s content!”
Mini games include the Pin Pull, Number Tower, Parking Lot, Cash Run, and Colour Lab. There are 250 levels overall set across the five mini games. You can collect coins and create customised nameplates, as well as compete with other players. Rankings are reset on the first day of each month.
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.
I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this somewhere already – I may have expressed it to a therapist – but when I was a lad, I had a recurring nightmare about a place called Snake World. It was a fizzing neon labyrinth that was both home to various evil snakes and sort of made of snakes in probably-Freudian ways.
Fortunately, I had a lucid dreaming strategy for escaping from Snake World: relax all my limbs as much as I could, then flail around violently to wake myself up. It doesn’t look like this will be an effective gambit in Digested, a bodycam horror game about being stuck on a barren, thinly forested and possibly irradiated island with a giant snake. Your tactical options seem to consist mostly here of running away.
An unannounced PS5 DualSense controller has appeared on Best Buy Canada’s website.
The listing, spotted by ResetEra user ezidro3, is for an $89.99CAD “PlayStation 5 V2 DualSense Wireless Controller – White”. While the controller appears to have the same dimensions as the existing model, it has what’s described as an “exceptional 12-hour battery life on a full charge,” which “supports long gaming sessions.”
If true, this would make for a significant upgrade on the existing DualSense, which offers a roughly six-hour battery life, depending on the game played. Elsewhere, a DualSense charging station is said to be included, offering “easy click-in charging.”
Best Buy’s full description reads: “Take the gaming action into your own hands when you play with the PlayStation 5 V2 DualSense wireless controller. With dynamic triggers, a built-in microphone and so much more, this gaming controller offers a truly immersive experience. The iconic comfortable design lets you play for hours and hours.”
Best Buy’s website published a number of images of this new DualSense too, which are below:
Sony has yet to announce such a controller, but IGN has asked the company for comment.
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.
Multiple other Nintendo games also nominated.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had an incredibly successful launch when it arrived on the Switch last year and since then it’s been receiving a bunch of Game of the Year nominations and awards.
Its latest ‘GOTY’ nomination comes from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, with the winners of each award to be revealed on 15th February 2024 at the 27th annual D.I.C.E. Awards. In the Game of the Year category, Tears of the Kingdom is going up against the usual line up including games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2. Cocoon also features.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
It’s an exciting start to the year for Indiana Jones fans, as according to Xbox itself, we’re finally getting an actual look at MachineGames’ upcoming Indiana Jones game next week at the Xbox Developer Direct. But a week in advance, one clever fan might have already sleuthed out the game’s title before Xbox was ready to reveal it. It might just be called Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Twitter/X user @Kurakasis shared their findings on social media today, pointing out that Lucasfilm appears to have been registering a number of domain names that are variations on that title since yesterday. These include https://indianajonesandthegreatcirclegame.com, https://indianajonesandthegreatcircle.com, and a number of others.
I might have found the official title of Bethesda’s Indiana Jones game developed by MachineGames:
INDIANA JONES AND THE GREAT CIRCLE
Lucasfilm registered several domains on January 9th, 2024, with that title, such as:
https://t.co/PtXjpar7N1 (this one leaves no doubt that it… pic.twitter.com/XGVVyasrbM— Kurakasis (@Kurakasis) January 10, 2024
These domains dovetail nicely with a trademark Lucasfilm filed in Europe two years ago for “The Great Circle” that seems to be related to video games specifically. It is worth noting that Lucasfilm seems to have had circles on the mind on that date in 2022, as the company also registered trademarks that day for The Galactic Circle and Circle of Resistance. At the time, a number of fansites speculated that these trademarks were for something Star Wars-related, given the words “Galactic” and “Resistance.” However, IGN wasn’t able to find any registrations for domain names that mirrored those naming schemes, which indicates Lucasfilm thinks it may need to sit on The Great Circle naming specifically very soon. Unless there’s more Star Wars coming down the pipeline in the next week or two, Indiana Jones would be the logical place for that need to arise.
Not for nothing, too, Bethesda posted a teasing gif earlier today that does feature a circle. Whether or not this is The Great Circle remains to be seen – it wouldn’t be the first time one of the most common basic shapes featured prominently in Indiana Jones stories, though the timing is certainly interesting.
The pieces are falling into place. Do you see what we see?
Tune in to learn more:
️🗓️ Thurs, 18 Jan
⏰ 9pm GMT
📺 https://t.co/kovkYgdcm2 pic.twitter.com/zgpypbOzaL— Bethesda UK (@Bethesda_UK) January 10, 2024
Still, even with all this evidence, it’s entirely possible this trademark is entirely unrelated to the game being shown off at the Developer Direct next week. Trademarks and domain names can often be good indicators of what’s to come, but not everything that companies squat on ends up becoming a full-fledged game. We’ll just have to wait for the showcase next week to see, though IGN did reach out to Xbox for confirmation or denial on this, just in case.
Indiana Jones and the…well, whatever it is, was first revealed way back in January of 2021 via a tweet from Bethesda. The game has an original story, and is being produced by Todd Howard in collaboration with Lucasfilm. At the time, we noted that Vatican City seems to feature in it, as the tease included a plane ticket to Rome dated for October 1937, and a map with the Sistine Chapel on it. We’ve since seen nothing else about the game, but we did learn that it will feature a “unique” mash-up of different genres and that, while it was originally conceived for a PS5 release, it will ultimately be an Xbox console exclusive thanks to Xbox’s acquisition of Zenimax.
Expect more at the Developer Direct next week on January 18, 2023, at 12:00pm PT.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
