I’ve always found Dune: Awakening an oddball concept – it’s been repeatedly made clear, by Zendaya no less, that Arrakis will immediately kill, flay, and digest anyone who pokes a toe into its sands without an impossible sci-fi techsuit and a lifetime of edged weapons training. Not, you’d suspect, an obvious setting for a survival crafting game where genre conventions demand you begin life as some naked loser picking up sticks.
And yet, Awakening has turned out alright, hoisting desert exploration and ominous sci-fi atmospherics above the tedious 24/7 resource gathering that has choked out certain peers. PC performance is workable too, with enough concessions towards low-end rigs, though it’s not crysknife-sharp either: some technical mishaps need a prompt patching, while Unreal Engine 5 is up to its usual stuttering nonsense.
IGN has reported on The Veilguard’s development before, detailing how it was rebooted from a single-player game into a live-service multiplayer game and back again. Now, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has revealed new insights into the goings on at BioWare during the making of The Veilguard, revealing exactly why it ended up disappointing some fans with a lack of meaningful choice and consequence — key qualities BioWare’s best games are best-known for.
Schreier revealed that many of The Veilguard’s issues were a hangover from the pivot from multiplayer back to single-player RPG, including its tone, dialogue, and lack of tough choices for the player. One tidbit stands out: BioWare was spooked by the failure of Square Enix’s Forspoken, worrying The Veilguard’s now out of fashion snarky tone would fuel a similar fate. So a “belated rewrite” of the game’s dialogue was ordered to “make it sound more serious.” This, in turn, resulted in tonal inconsistencies.
There were also internal concerns about how The Veilguard was being marketed (“an initial trailer made the next Dragon Age seem more like Fortnite than a dark fantasy role-playing game, triggering concerns that EA didn’t know how to market the game”).
EA declined to comment to Bloomberg on the piece.
The upshot of The Veilguard’s failure is that a small team is working on Mass Effect 5, but there are concerns about BioWare’s future. Dragon Age appears dead following the failure of The Veilguard, which when counting Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem is BioWare’s third flop in a row. Could EA close it down?
Bloomberg quoted TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz as saying that while EA needs more than sports to be successful, “if they shuttered the doors [of BioWare] tomorrow I wouldn’t be totally surprised. It has been over a decade since they produced a hit.”
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.
“It should have been an OLED screen from the get-go”.
One aspect of the Nintendo Switch 2 that has generated a lot of interest is its display. While Nintendo released an OLED model of the original Switch, which massively improved over the launch model’s LCD screen, for Switch 2, it has opted to return to LCD technology.
On the whole, it’s fair to say that the decision has gone down fairly well; as we reported after our first hands-on sessions, the panel used in the Switch 2 is leagues ahead of the one we got back in 2017, with superb brightness and bold colours.
A sold-out 700-strong crowd at the BBC’s famous TC1 studio in West London’s Television Centre was treated to an awesome demonstration of racing on Gran Turismo 7 on Saturday, 7 June. With a display of stunning cars gracing the Helios Circle outside the iconic venue, and a big screen relaying the action to those without a ticket, there was a festival feel as some of the world’s fastest SIM racers gathered in the UK’s capital city for Round 1 of the Gran Turismo World Series 2025.
First up was the Manufacturers Cup, a team competition in which the drivers represent their favourite automotive marque. Present for Round 1 were the team members who had qualified online for the Asia-Oceania region. The combination was Gr.3 cars racing around the Tokyo Expressway – South Counterclockwise.
First blood went to Team BMW’s Seiya Suzuki who took pole position in a two-part qualifying session. Lining up alongside him was two-time Manufacturers Cup champion Takuya Miyazono representing Team Subaru. Lined up in P3 was Team Porsche’s 911 RSR, driven by Shota Sato.
The Grand Final saw strategy play a decisive role. Teams were required to make one pit stop and had to choose between soft- and medium-compound tires. The early stages of the race saw drivers hold their positions, assessing both the track and their rivals. But once all the competitors had completed their sole pit stops, the tone shifted dramatically. The gloves came off, transforming the contest into an all-out battle royale.
Lap 16 delivered a moment to remember. A fierce midfield battle involving multiple cars erupted, and in the chaos, the Porsche 911 RS was nudged from behind, sending it to the back of the field and effectively ending its race. The race culminated in a tense final showdown between Sato in the BMW and Miyazono in the Subaru. The two drivers traded the lead several times, but it was Miyazono who executed a flawless pass in his BRZ GT300 at the last hairpin, slipping by Sato’s M6 GT3 to take the checkered flag and the six championship points. BMW settled for five points, while Team Mazda, led by veteran Ryota Kokubun in the RX-VISION GT3, claimed the final podium spot and four points.
In the Nations Cup the Le Mans 24H track provided a fitting setting for the Sprint Race, a week before the 93rd running of the famous race, and the Aston Martin Valkyrie the right car for the job. Spaniard Jose Serrano kept countryman Pol Urra at bay with a victory that rewarded him with pole position for the Gran Finale.
As is tradition in the Gran Turismo World Series, the drivers would switch to the Red Bull X2019 Competition cars adorned in their nations’ colours for the Grand Final race run around the reverse configuration of Gran Turismo 7’s Gran Valley Highway. Nearly every driver on the grid chose to start the 20-laps on medium-compound tyres. However, the Netherlands’ Kaj de Bruin, starting from P10, opted to gamble on softs. His bold strategy paid off early, propelling him into the lead by the fourth lap. Yet he struggled to maintain the pace under relentless pressure from Serrano, Urra, Kylian Drumont of France, Takuma Miyazono and Takuma Sasaki of Japan, and Italy’s Valerio Gallo.
Exceeding 320 km/h on the straights, the drivers left nothing on the table. Tyre strategy played a pivotal role: de Bruin made two stops, while most others managed with just one. Miyazono and Drumont chose hard-compound tires for their final stints, a gamble against the favoured mediums and softs. In the closing laps, a fierce wheel-to-wheel battle for the lead unfolded between the two Spaniards, each pushing the other to the limit. The fantastic sold-out crowd watching the action live was on the edge of their seats, gasping and cheering with every turn and attempted overtake.
Ultimately, Serrano emerged victorious, crossing the finish line first by just over two-tenths of a second. Urra settled for 2nd, with Gallo completing the podium in 3rd.
With a spectacular Round 1 complete, the action moves from London to Berlin where Round 2 will be hosted in the Uber Eats Music Hall close to the East Side Gallery.
Tickets are on sale now here. Round 3 tickets for The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles are also available here. Add the Gran Turismo World Series to your calendar and come and join us for more thrilling action.
Round 1 – London, UK | Saturday, 7 June Round 2 – Berlin, Germany | Saturday, 20 September Round 3 – Los Angeles, USA | Saturday, 8 November World Finals – Fukuoka, Japan | Saturday, 20 and Sunday, 21 December
Wondering just how powerful the Nintendo Switch 2 is in terms of raw computing power? One developer has said it’s closer to the Xbox Series S than the PlayStation 4.
In an interview with wccftech, Takuto Edagawa, producer of Koei Tecmo’s Wild Hearts S, said that while it’s difficult to generalize about the power of the Switch 2, the Series S is a decent comparison.
There are a lot of characteristics when it comes to raw computing power so it’s difficult to generalize, but I think it can be thought as closer to the Series S.
The Xbox Series S is the less powerful alternative to the Xbox Series X. It launched alongside that console in 2020, in direct competition with the PlayStation 5, and this November turns five years old.
If the Switch 2 is similar in power to the Xbox Series S, that suggests it will run most third-party games. Microsoft mandates that any game that launches on the Xbox Series X also launches on the S, so any developer working on a game for the current-gen Xbox must ensure the S is capable of running it.
Indeed, Switch 2 released with a number of third-party games to flesh out its launch lineup, including CD Projekt’s demanding Cyberpunk 2077. Where the Switch lacked many third-party multiplatform games, perhaps the Switch 2 will thrive.
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.
Mindseye, the game from ex-Rockstar president Leslie Benzies-helmed studio Build a Rocket Boy, has arrived. Its launch has gone, er, a bit glitchily, currently landing the game at a mixed reception on Steam. That said, the studio have at least confirmed an update designed to improve Mindseye’s performance is on the way.
If you’re out of the loop, the sort of GTA-ish/Cyberpunk-ish game’s road to release had been plenty weird prior to it breaking cover. Build a Rocket Boy co-CEO Mark Gerhard had seemingly suggested on the game’s Discord server that he believed people were being paid to say negative things about Mindseye, and two other high-profile execs had departed the studio not long before release.
Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has confirmed his upcoming game, Haunted Chocolatier, is “larger” than the already sizeable Stardew Valley.
How much bigger, or in which way it’s bigger? Sorry — Barone didn’t elaborate. “The world of Haunted Chocolatier is larger than Stardew Valley” is the full extent of his message. If he’s referring to the length of the game, however, How Long to Beat? has the average Stardew Valley playtime listed as over 50 hours for just the main story, and around 168 hours for a completionist run.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, these 10 words sent a ripple of excitement through his fan communities, with one exclaiming: “[Concerned Ape] STOP TEASING. I MEAN- DONT STOP TEASING. I MEAN- IDK IM SO EXCITED BUT I DONT WANT U TO RUSH TAKE UR SWEET ASS TIME WE LOVE U.”
Last month, Barone admitted that he “didn’t want to just be the Stardew Valley guy,” explaining that was why he’s currently working on Haunted Chocolatier. We shouldn’t expect a release date anytime soon, though — there’s “still a lot to be done,” Barone recently admitted, particularly as he feels it’s “got to be better” than Stardew Valley.
However, he also suggested that he may “eventually make a Stardew Valley 2.” Before you get too excited, however, the developer also said it’s “so much easier to just add more stuff to Stardew Valley than to make a whole new game from scratch.”
“It’s all the systems — all the major systems — are already all done. That’s the stuff that’s not fun to do. When I make an update [for Stardew Valley now], it’s like, you know, oh, throw in this, throw in that. Let’s add green rain — like, these random, whimsical ideas.”
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.
Lars Wingefors, founder of Swedish gaming company Embracer, is stepping down from his CEO role. Current deputy CEO Phil Rogers will assume the position from August 2025.
In April 2024, Embracer announced plans to split itself into three separate companies: Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends to “unleash the full potential of each team and provide them with their own leadership and strategic direction.” The restructuring and closures saw 1,387 workers lose their jobs and 29 unannounced projects canceled. It recently announced plans to spin off Coffee Stain Group and renamed its The Lord of the Rings business Fellowship Entertainment.
Wingefors isn’t leaving Embracer entirely, however, and has been appointed executive chair of the board, with current chair Kicki Wallje-Lund moving to deputy chair. Wingefors will also be appointed director of the aforementioned Coffee Stain Group.
“With the start of this new phase, I am thankful for the years and lessons learned as CEO of Embracer,” Wingefors said in a statement (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). “While the road has not always been straight, I am incredibly proud of the achievements made possible by our talented teams, which have created some incredible experiences for gamers.
“This new phase allows me to focus on strategic initiatives, [mergers and acquisitions], and capital allocation, ensuring Embracer’s continued growth and success. I am more convinced than ever that the best is still ahead of us. Having worked very closely with Phil over the past years, I have high confidence in his abilities. I look forward to a continued close collaboration to further strengthen the business and drive value in the coming years.”
Looking to the future, Embracer owns or controls over 450 franchises, with a long list of subsidiaries that includes THQ Nordic, Plaion, Coffee Stain, Amplifier Game Invest, DECA Games, Dark Horse, Freemode, and Crystal Dynamics – Eidos. It has 73 internal game development studios and over 7,000 staff.
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.
Ian Proulx, the CEO of Splitgate 2 developers 1047 Games, has apologised for wearing a ‘Make FPS Great Again’ cap while talking about the game’s battle royale mode on stage at Summer Game Fest. As you might have guessed, the hat drew unfavourable comparisons to US president Donald Trump’s MAGA hats.
It’d have been a pretty dumb, controversy-baiting stunt for a games company CEO to pull at any point in recent history, but especially hasn’t gone over well given the timing. As the SGF show happened, a large number of anti-ICE protests also began in response to violent immigration raids, and later that weekend Trump deployed the National Guard onto the streets.”
