Category: Video Games

MapleStory developer Nexon is being hit with a sizable fine by the Korean Fair Trade Commission over what the body says are deceptive loot box practices.

As reported by the Korean Times and Business Korea, Nexon is being fined some $8.85 million (about 11.6 billion won) for allegedly lowering the probabilities of some loot box items capable of upgrading player equipment,, known as Cubes, without telling players According to the Korean Times, it is the largest fine of this type levied to date.

What is OD? We don’t know much save that it’s being made in collaboration with Jordan Peele, and that it will feature a lot of familiar Hollywood celebs screaming silently into the screen. Probably.

Predictably, creator Hideo Kojima is calling it a game, a movie, and a “new form of media.” He’s also comparing it to Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand, a cult favorite series on GBA and Nintendo DS that was a big departure at the time for Kojima, who is best-known for his work on Metal Gear Solid.

It seems I have been acknowledged by creating games that go against the current of the times, such as “hide-and-seek” games where you sneak into a building without being detected by the enemy, or “delivery games” where you enjoy moving around in an open world, For me, the most…

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) January 4, 2024

In Boktai, you play a vampire hunter named Django (no, not that Django) who battles the undead with the help of a solar gun powered by real-life sunlight. The cartridge famously included a solar sensor that charged up the in-game weapons needed to defeat Boktai’s vampires. Writing on X/Twitter, Kojima recalled the “fierce opposition” he received when he first pitched Boktai.

“It seems I have been acknowledged by creating games that go against the current of the times, such as ‘hide-and-seek’ games where you sneak into a building without being detected by the enemy, or ‘delivery games’ where you enjoy moving around in an open world,” Kojima wrote. “For me, the most experimental game was ‘defeating vampires outside your house’ using actual sunlight around you. It was met with fierce opposition from the staff and even within the company. In that sense, OD is just as different.”

It’s just one more teaser for OD, which remains as mysterious as Death Stranding when it was first revealed. Peele, meanwhile, has claimed that OD will be “immersive” and “utterly terrifying.” We don’t know much else about OD, save that it’s being developed on Unreal Engine 5 and that will feature Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier. It will apparently “explore the concept of testing your fear threshold.”

As for Boktai, the series hasn’t been seen since 2007, but it did manage to get two sequels on GBA and a DS release titled Lunar Knights. The final game notably dropped the sun sensor that made the original so unique.

OD does not yet have a release date. For more, check out all the biggest games of 2024, which will apparently include Metal Gear Solid Delta.

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.

The actor behind Michael in Grand Theft Auto V, Ned Luke, openly endorsed Lucia, the playable female protagonist, in the highly anticipated GTA 6.

As part of our IGN’s GTFM video series, Luke was seen chatting with my colleague Akeem Lawanson. During the interview, Luke described the significance of Lucia as one of the two playable protagonists in GTA 6 while also addressing the claims that Rockstar has gone “woke” for adding her as one of the playable characters.

“Lucia’s hard, man. In the trailer, she looked good. You get a lot of these clowns out here going, ‘Rockstar’s going woke, they’re caving into the wokeness of the world,'” Luke said. “First of all, there’s been other female protagonists in the past, but not in something as huge as this.”

As Luke points out, it is a well-documented fact that a few games in the Grand Theft Auto series offered a female protagonist. Outside of the obvious one being the female custom character you can make in GTA Online, both Grand Theft Auto and the Game Boy Color (GBC) version of Grand Theft Auto II had at least one female protagonist in each game you could play as.

Yet, Luke’s point of mentioning the significance of Lucia in the next installment is still significant. Beyond what has already been pointed out, since jumping into the third dimension, the Grand Theft Auto series has been a critical and commercial hit for Rockstar, with GTA 5 being a major success since its release in 2013.

GTA 6 is currently in development with a 2025 release window. Beyond the name of our two protagonists and the confirmation that it will be set in a fictionalized version of Florida called Leonida, Rockstar has yet to share more in-depth details. Until then, check out 99 details we discovered in the first GTA 6 trailer.

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

With countless different endings and around 100 hours per playthrough, Baldur’s Gate 3 is jam-packed with rooms, lines of dialogue, and characters that players might miss. However, one player has shared their especially meaningful experience with one of the game’s lesser-known NPCs, and their story is now resurfacing thanks to a recent post from a developer.

In 2020, Larian forums user Solfalia shared a post thanking Larian Studios for releasing Act I of Baldur’s Gate 3 in early access — the game’s early release enabled them to play with their father, who played previous Larian games with them but had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

“This Early Access means that this Xmas I’ll be able to go on an adventure with him one last time, and I know he’ll enjoy it,” Solfalia wrote in the original post.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when we read that letter, and I volunteered to write Golbraith (I’m not super writer btw, and I’ll respect their privacy unless they want to reveal themselves). Really happy we got to honour the mighty mindflayer hunter ❤️ https://t.co/FefUkkbpWu

— Rachel Quirke (@quirkiltons) January 4, 2024

Nearly three years later, after the full release of Baldur’s Gate 3, Solfalia returned to the Larian forums to thank the team again — this time for a much more personal addition. After seeing their original post, an anonymous writer had offered to add a tribute to Solfalia’s father. Solfalia thought this might be a book or plaque, but the team surprised them by adding an NPC named Golbraith with his own cellar to explore, all inspired by Solfalia’s father.

“Not only did Golbraith look like my father, but he had multiple lines of dialogue,” Solfalia wrote. “Some really touching ones too (for me, at least). The different papers in the house were amazing, the stack of letters between Golbraith and his son put a lump in my throat. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t misty eyed. The secret mindflayer-hunter cellar was awesome.”

“As soon as I finished looking through the whole house, I told my Dad. He’s in a care home now, so can’t play the game, but he listened to my description with a child-like glee I haven’t seen in a while. He loved every moment of it. He loved the idea that his character has a monocle, and was proud his character has a secret cellar with weapons. He still talks about it from time to time during our weekly chats.”

Today, Rachel Quicke, a writer for Larian Studios, shared the original post, saying she had volunteered to write Golbraith (although she wasn’t the anonymous “superwriter” who had originally reached out to Solfalia).

“Really happy we got to honour the mighty mindflayer hunter,” Quicke wrote.

In part thanks to the little details like this, we gave Baldur’s Gate 3 a 10 in our review, calling it “a landmark moment in the genre.” Since then, it’s gone on to win Game of the Year at the Game Awards and a few of IGN’s own awards.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

PlayStation has listed the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, officially Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (the Δ is pronounced delta), as a 2024 game.

A trailer advertising various PlayStation 5 games coming in 2024 (below) includes lots of entries with established release dates (like The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth), but also quietly listed the release window for the highly anticipated remake.

Publisher Konami is yet to confirm any sort of release date or window itself, though given it was announced by PlayStation in 2023 and is coming to the PS5, it likely knows it’s stuff. IGN has reached out to Konami for comment.

Not stopping there, the PlayStation trailer also listed the Silent Hill 2 Remake as a 2024 release, seemingly dropping two major release windows in the space of two minutes.

Announced in May 2023 after a series of rumours, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater promises to be a faithful retelling of the original game and will implement the original voice acting that featured David Hayter. The exact voice acting situation is unclear though, as Konami reportedly isn’t recording new dialogue for the game.

The publisher has also had to explain why there’s a strange symbol in its name and that it’s not just coming to PlayStation 5 but Xbox Series and PC.

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