The Stop Killing Games campaign’s petition to the European Commission surpassed a million signatures last week, meaning EU policymakers may soon be debating whether developers and publishers should have the option to render online games unplayable by shutting down their servers. Video Games Europe, a trade association who represent publishers and devs, have responded by outlining why they think that choice should stay on the table.
It’ll be interesting to see how any proper debates on the topic go, but the response is worth reading if you’re still trying to decide where exactly you stand on the issue YouTuber Ross Scott and Stop Killing Gameshave been campaigning about since Ubisoft pulled The Crew offline.
Despite its rapidly approaching August 8 release date for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, not much has been seen from Mafia: The Old Country, the upcoming prequel – and fourth mainline entry – in the popular mafioso action-adventure series. That changes today. Mafia: The Old Country is our IGN First “cover story” for the month of July, meaning we’ll have exclusive content all month long – specifically on Mafia Mondays!
We kick things off today with nine minutes of exclusive gameplay from the Villa section in Chapter 5 of the story. Note that this footage has been edited for length and to avoid some story/character spoilers.
Next Monday we’ll have our exclusive hands-on preview after playing three hours of the campaign. In the meantime, check out our chat with game director Alex Cox and Hangar 13 studio president Nick Baynes as well as Baynes and 2K president David Ismailer discussing the decision to price The Old Country at $50 and go back to Mafia’s narrative-driven, linear roots.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
The first is a turn-based strategy take on the classic Dave Theurer-developed arcade game Missile Command; one that shouldn’t work in theory, but genuinely does. The second is a misguided attempt to add context to the strategy gameplay by placing you in an underground bunker with a group of friends, forced to unlock its mysteries via first-person perspective. Frankly, I wish this second half had been left on the cutting room floor.
Activision has pulled Call of Duty: WWII on Xbox PC offline just days after it was added to Game Pass, amid reports of hacking via Remote Code Execution (RCE).
This isn’t about PC players cheating in-game via wall hacks and aim bots. Rather this is about unsuspecting Game Pass players losing control of their PCs through a security exploit.
According to Cloudflare, a remote code execution (RCE) attack is where an attacker runs malicious code on an organization’s computers or network: “The ability to execute attacker-controlled code can be used for various purposes, including deploying additional malware or stealing sensitive data.”
Activision failed to provide any further details in its brief statement, below, instead simply confirming Sledgehammer’s 2017 shooter was “brought offline” on PC while it investigates reports of “an issue.” However, players in the comments of the message, published on July 5, are reporting that their computers were accessed due to a security vulnerability that lets hackers take control of remote PCs, suggesting these reports and Activision’s action are linked.
📢 Call of Duty: WWII
Call of Duty: WWII on PC Microsoft Store was brought offline while we investigate reports of an issue
That was two days ago now, and there’s been no update since. IGN has asked Activision for comment.
The issue hit the headlines after X / Twitter user @wrioh75753 published a viral clip, below, appearing to show their game of Call of Duty: WWII suffering from a hack during a livestream. The post has so-far been viewed 2.3 million times.
The reports emerged in the wake of Microsoft’s sweeping layoffs, which hit its gaming business hard last week. Call of Duty developers were among the many Microsoft-owned studios to suffer job cuts, although Microsoft has so-far failed to detail exactly how many employees were affected. Black Ops 7 is due out later this year.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
“Celebrating 25 years of Final Fantasy 9 today,” said a tweet posted to the game’s official X/Twitter account yesterday, July 6. “When a theatre troupe set out for a royal kidnapping, Zidane and Princess Garnet are thrown into an emotional adventure that’s never left the hearts of those who’ve played it. What does FFIX mean to you?”
Then, in a follow-up message posted today (July 7), Square Enix invited players aged 13 and up in selected countries to submit their FF9 fan art between now and the end of October. If selected, it will then be used on the Final Fantasy portal site, as well as official social network accounts.
The X/Twitter account of passion project Final Fantasy 9: Memoria Project further stoked speculation earlier today by quote-tweeting Square’s post, adding: “When are we going to tell them, Square Enix?”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the game’s social media and Reddit communities have been full of shocked players commenting on the lack of news. “This CANNOT be it bro,” said one. “The remake. Announce the remake,” while another said: “At least confirm or deny the remake rumors plz.”
“The 25th anniversary is a big milestone and announcing it would be the best right now. My hopes are gone,” added another disappointed fan. Interestingly, though, some fans have taken this lack of announcement as a sign there may still be news to come.
“October is the month, boys,” said this excited player, while another added: “Cutoff date is the end of October because y’all will reveal the FF9 Remake in November, right?”
In a Reddit thread entitled, “You’ve reached a checkpoint. How are you doing given the so far disappointment of no announcement?”, one fan replied: “At this point I’ve played myself more than I’ve played the actual game. Just call me Zorn & Thorn ’cause I’m a certified resident of Clown Town.”
Even Domino’s Pizza can’t believe we haven’t had an announcement yet…
Final Fantasy 9 remake rumors have swirled around Square Enix ever since the unannounced game emerged as part of a 2021 Nvidia leak of upcoming titles. The list, confirmed legit by Nvidia but potentially outdated, includes a number of Square Enix games the company has either announced or released since, such as the Chrono Cross remaster, Kingdom Hearts 4, the Final Fantasy Tactics remake, and of course the Final Fantasy 7 remake for PC. However, Final Fantasy 9 remake has yet to materialize. Just a few months before the Nvidia leak, in June 2021, a Final Fantasy 9 animated series was reported to be in development, although we haven’t heard anything about it in the years since, either.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Evacuate your Deep Desert tents, Dune: Awakening‘s latest patch enacts a timer tweak aimed at eliminating cheeky PvP zone border camping. It’s also added some extra rewards to the Landsraad and switched up how goodies are distributed to PvE players.
This patch comes as Funcom continue to respond to player feedback about the endgame loop, having already moved to split the Deep Desert between PvP and PvE in order to placate folks who aren’t a fan of the latter. Griefing’s also been a big topic of debate, with ornithopters proving just as deadly as those big worms.
Intrepid fans have been doing some serious detective work on Nintendo’s N64 trailer from May and they think they’ve identified several as-yet-unannounced releases for Nintendo Switch Online.
As highlighted by @ImakuniVT (thanks, VGC), the section of the trailer showing off the app’s new CRT filter has the blurred game selection screen shown below the settings screen. Playing around with layers and a little Gaussian Blur, fans have been busy identifying potential games in the background, including Donkey Kong 64, Forsaken 64, Glover, Super Smash Bros., and Rayman 2.
Pokémon Go has teased the arrival of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Paradox creatures within the hit smartphone game.
Paradox Pokémon are new versions of familiar creatures from alternate past and future realities, and debuted in the series’ most recent mainline games, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for Nintendo Switch.
Artwork for Pokémon Go’s 9th anniversary shows the primordial Great Tusk, which looks like it’s wandered off the set of Jurassic World Rebirth, and the neon-coated Iron Treads, which could have rolled straight out of Cyberpunk 2077. Both are versions of the classic Pokémon Donphan — and now fans are debating how Paradox Pokémon will debut.
In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, players can encounter Paradox Pokémon in the wild — though in Pokémon Go, there’s an expectation that these powerful creatures will likely pop up in raids, similar to how the Ultra Beasts from Pokémon Sun and Moon debuted.
Paradox Pokémon originally being spotted in Scarlet/Violet’s “Area Zero” crater has meanwhile led some fans to suggest the species would be a good fit for this year’s Pokémon Go Wild Area event, which is designed to feel like something of a safari.
22 Paradox Pokémon species exist, with a selection of more common and Legendary Pokémon remixed. Jigglypuff gets a billion-year-old variant named Scream Tail, for example, while the Legendary Terrakion gets a new variant, Iron Boulder, that looks like an anime robot. Regardless of how some of the Paradox species are introduced, these new versions of Legendary creatures seem most likely to be found in raids.
One note of caution about Pokémon Go’s anniversary artwork is that the game has, on occasion, not always followed through with what these images have set up. Fans have been quick to point to past teases for Mega Mewtwo and fan-favorite Ghost critter Mimikyu in previous annual artworks, only to not materialise. But Pokémon Go’s developer has seemingly become wiser to these expectations — and indeed Paradox Pokémon are the logical choice for the next big selection of creatures to join the game, after the recent debut of Gigantamax creatures, the fully-launched Ultra Beasts and almost all Mega Pokémon now being available.
Other teases in this year’s artwork include Gigantamax Butterfree, which fans expect to debut soon, Mega Metagross, one of the game’s last remaining Mega species yet to turn up, and a player avatar receiving a virtual thumbs up (which some fans are taking as a sign that remote communication or even remote trading might be arriving).
And then there’s Zygarde, star of the upcoming Pokémon Legends Z-A for Switch and Switch 2. While already in Pokémon Go, fans are currently limited to having just one of the creature. Could we see more become available, and potentially through Mega Raids, if Zygarde does get a Mega in Z-A? As with the temporally-divergent Paradox Pokémon themselves, time will tell.
Are you pretty happy right now? Well, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, the follow-up to that Cyberpunk 2077 Netflix anime, will make you nice and miserable when it arrives.
CD Projekt revealed this past weekend that the upcoming series, which’ll deliver a fresh standalone tale set in Night City, is currently in production. Animation studio Trigger have returned to work on Edgerunners 2, with Kai Ikarashi directing and Bartosz Sztybor wearing many hats as writer/showrunner/producer. Right, from here on there’ll be spoilers for the first Cyberpunk Edgerunners series, so you’ve been warned.
The closure has affected 100 workers, writer The Journal, with one anonymous staff member calling it “a big shock” – especially since they’d had meetings with “the publisher” the day before. While the publisher aren’t named directly, former staff have mentioned Microsoft cuts in their announcements.
