Pillars of Eternity‘s much-anticipated turn-based mode debuts in PC open beta form on November 5th, with Obsidian seeking more input on their very nice tenth anniversary gift before rolling out a final version. That’s not to say the devs haven’t already been working to ensure “very reasonable criticisms” of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire‘s own turn-based mode, though, as outlined by director Josh Sawyer in the beta’s announcement video.
Only 10,000 units separate it from the DS.
We’ve been positively itching to see the latest financial report from Nintendo, as we had expected the Switch to finally surpass the Nintendo DS and become the company’s best-selling console of all time.
Alas, that hasn’t quite happened yet. At 154.01 million units, the Switch is a mere 10,000 units away from the DS, and considering the data is only viable to the end of September 2025, it’s likely that the gap has already been closed in the couple of months following.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Ghouls ‘n Ghosts returns.
Following Halloween last week, Capcom has now released a Ghosts ‘n Goblins Gala Fighter Pass for Street Fighter 6.
This pass (featuring some free unlocks) comes loaded with premium rewards including new EX Colours for Blanka and A.K.I., new titles, new challenger screen illustrations, sounds and effects, avatar gear, emotes, stickers, and perhaps most exciting of all, the classic game Ghouls ‘n Ghosts.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Listen to this.
Last week, Nintendo surprised fans with the announcement Animal Crossing: New Horizons would be getting a 3.0 Update and Switch 2 Upgrade early next year.
To help pass the time, it’s now added the Nintendo 3DS soundtrack Animal Crossing: New Leaf to its Nintendo Music app. This album contains “all tracks” and as long as you have this app downloaded and an active Switch Online membership, you can listen to it right now.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Unfortunately, we are here yet again with another games studio that will seemingly be closing its doors for good. A couple of years ago, Greg Street, known for his work on World of Warcraft and League of Legends, set up Fantastic Pixel Castle. There, it was announced at the time, he would lead development on an MMO codenamed Ghost, with NetEase serving as publisher. Except in a LinkedIn post earlier today, Street shared that Fantastic Pixel Castle will be shutting down.
Friendslop games may come and go, but the (for all intents and purposes) progenitor of them all, Lethal Company is still the one I think of most. It’s scary, it’s funny, it’s otherworldly, literally, there’s so much mystery to it that you just want to spend time in its world. But while it will likely go down as solo dev Zeekerss’ most notable work, he did just release a brand new horror game 10 years in the making. And in a recent interview, he spoke of how he got his start in horror, and the roots that make up his latest work.
It’s a show to remember.
We’re all waiting for the next mainline Persona game, but there’s a reason SEGA and Atlus have sat pretty with Persona 5 for so long: Because it just won’t stop selling.
Sega Sammy has published its latest business report (via Persona Central, Push Square), and the Persona 5 series has sold over 13 million units since its debut in 2016. That’s up from 10 million back in December 2023.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The Stop Killing Games campaign‘s petition to the UK government urging action against publishers rendering online games unplayable when servers are switched off has been debated in parliament.
The petition, which amassed just under 190,000 signatures prior to its closure in July, received a response from the UK government back in February, when it hit 10,000. “There are no plans to amend UK consumer law on disabling video games,” this reply read. “Those selling games must comply with existing requirements in consumer law and we will continue to monitor this issue.” As is the process, once it hit 100,000 signatures, it was eligible to be debated by parliament’s petitions committee.
Pillars of Eternity is the surprise recipient of a patch to add turn-based mode, developer Obsidian has announced.
Fresh from releasing Avowed, Grounded 2, and The Outer Worlds 2 this year, the Microsoft-owned studio has gone back to its isometric, party-based fantasy RPG over a decade after it came out with a fresh update.
Obsidian announced a new public beta for Pillars of Eternity opens on November 5 for players on Steam and Xbox PC, which adds the turn-based mode. The reveal comes alongside a message from game director Josh Sawyer (last seen directing Pentiment), with his thoughts on what turn-based mode means for Pillars of Eternity.
“Fans who enjoyed experimenting with turn-based mode in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire will find familiar ground here, but with key improvements shaped by your feedback,” Obsidian said in a blog post. More details are below.
As this is a public beta, please expect bugs and ongoing adjustments, Obsidian warned. The beta will run for “some time” as the developer continues to roll out updates and prepares for a full release.
IGN’s Pillars of Eternity review returned a 9/10 back in 2015. We said at the time: “Obsidian (and its Kickstarter backers) have done it: Pillars of Eternity is one of the best RPGs since Baldur’s Gate.”
Obsidian followed PoE up with Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire in 2018, before Microsoft bought the company later that year. Obsidian went on to release the likes of The Outer Worlds and Grounded, and has become one of the most prolific Xbox Games Studios developers Microsoft has on its books.
Will there be a Pillars of Eternity 3? Sawyer has commented on the prospect in the past. In 2023, for example, Sawyer said he would love to develop Pillars of Eternity 3 — under the condition the game receives the same budget as Baldur’s Gate 3.
“I think if it truly was an unlimited budget, I think I would try Pillars 3 because I know what the budget was for Deadfire, which was not a whole lot and I have heard from multiple people what the budget was for Baldur’s Gate 3, and I’m not gonna talk about numbers, but if I got that budget, sure, I’ll make Pillars 3,” he said.
Sawyer added that if he were to make Pillars 3, he would employ a turn-based combat structure. Obsidian has yet to announce its next game.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Last month, Heart Machine announced that they would be ending development on their roguelike follow-up to the seminal indie RPG Hyper Light Drifter, Hyper Light Breaker. As a result, as is far too common in the industry these days, a number of staff were laid off – including a writer on the yet-to-be released Possessor(s). As a result, a post cropped up on the Possessor(s)’s discussions page on Steam with some expressing discomfort at the idea of buying the game post-layoffs, prompting the game’s narrative director to explain why he (understandably) would still like it if you bought it.
