Category: Video Games

League of Legends strategy game Teamfight Tactics is getting a temporary single-player PvE mode called Ao Shin’s Ascent later in September, Riot Games has announced.

Teamfight Tactics is the 2019 spinoff of Riot’s enormously popular MOBA League of Legends based on Dota Auto Chess. Eight players build teams and fight to be the last person standing, with their units automatically battling after being placed strategically on the game board between rounds. Riot describes TFT as “the world’s largest PC strategy game.”

TFT is traditionally a PvP game, but Ao Shin’s Ascent, due out September 24, is its first-ever progression-focused PvE mode. Players take on escalating PvE battles and bosses, with roguelite progression that grants permanent power in the mode’s Journey Track.

Ao Shin

Here’s the official info, from developer Riot Games:

SUMMIT THE MOUNTAIN: Climb the mountain while strengthening your board, arming yourself with powerful Augments, and preparing for an ultra-powerful Boss.

CRAFT YOUR PATH AND CHALLENGE: Select your difficulty, your Guide, the Boss you’ll fight, and more to make every run feel and play differently!

KEY MECHANIC; GUIDES: The odds aren’t stacked in your favor at the start — recruiting a selection of unlockable Guides can help turn the tides by giving you access to novel strategies and power! Take Zoe for random loot, or grab a bundle-exclusive Guide like Battle Queen Gwen to access powerful Items from various TFT sets!

PROGRESS TO THE SUMMIT WIN OR LOSE: Make progress on your climb win or lose, via the Journey Track. The more runs you take on, the stronger you get!

UNLOCK GUIDES AND POWER WITH THE FREE JOURNEY TRACK: Unlock Guides, and power through the Journey Track. Clear the summit with at least 12 Guides to claim a free Ao Shin’s Ascent Portal reward.

PURCHASE BUNDLES: The Ao Shin’s Ascent Guide Pack (575 RP) comes with an emote and both Bundle-exclusive Guides: Truth Dragon Yasuo and Battle Queen Gwen. And the Ao Shin’s Ascent Mega Bundle (2780 RP) comes with that Emote, both Guides, Legendary Little Legend: Awakened Ao Shin, the Little Legend Sol Harbinger Ao Shin, and the second K.O. Coliseum Pass Plus!

Christina Jiang, Events Product Lead for Teamfight Tactics, said: “Ao Shin’s Ascent represents everything we love about TFT — experimentation, strategy, and a dash of chaos — while introducing a roguelite twist that challenges players to adapt and persevere. This progression-based mode is our most ambitious PvE experiment yet, building on the strong global player engagement we’ve seen with Set 15, K.O. Coliseum. It marks a major step toward giving TFT players more ways to play, more ways to test themselves, and more reasons to return for the next climb.”

And here’s a comment from Michael “Skip” Scipione, Senior Game Designer for Teamfight Tactics: “With Ao Shin’s Ascent, we wanted to push TFT forward with bold new mechanics that expand on its core gameplay. Bosses evolve with shifting modifiers, and the new progression system means each run builds toward the next, letting players experiment with different approaches against an ever-changing challenge. It’s a way to expand TFT’s core mechanics while giving players new stories to create with every climb.”

Teamfight Tactics: Ao Shin’s Ascent launches on September 24 at 10am Pacific Time, shortly after the release of patch 15.5. The mode will be available until the end of patch 15.6 on October 8.

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.

Director Tetsuya Nomura has heard the cries for updates on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 and Kingdom Hearts 4, and he’s happy to report that development is “progressing really smoothly.”

It’s a largely inconsequential but still welcome update for two of Square Enix’s most anticipated games that arrived during the recent Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis second anniversary broadcast. As reported on and translated by Gematsu, Nomura took the opportunity to address waves of comments from fans hoping to see the team make an announcement.

“Apparently, [co-director Motomu] Toriyama mentioned in an interview that something might be released around the second anniversary [of Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis],” Nomura said when addressing comments specifically related to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series. “So that’s probably where those expectations are coming from. Right, so things are progressing really smoothly. I can’t really say more — if I suddenly went, ‘Well, actually…,’ everyone would be really surprised! [Laughs.]”

Nomura goes as far as to say that the “release timing has already been decided” but stops short of clarifying when exactly Square Enix will share more. For now, he asks fans to be patient, adding that work on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 is “moving forward according to that schedule.”

RPG fans have been on the hunt for news about the next entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series since its last installment, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, launched in early 2024. We know development started as early as June 2022, with Square Enix saying last year that its goal is to see it launch by 2027. Excitement for the third and final chapter in the trilogy grew even more when the team revealed that it had completed its story earlier this year.

Development for Kingdom Hearts 4, meanwhile, is progressing in a similarly positive direction, though Nomura says even less about when any further updates may arrive on this front.

“And this has also come up in the comments here and there,” Nomura added, “but Kingdom Hearts IV is likewise steadily moving forward according to schedule, so please look forward to it.”

Kingdom Hearts 4 was announced in 2022, and updates have been distressingly few and far between since. It wasn’t until May 2025, not even four months ago, that Square Enix was willing to share a substantial update, and even then, all fans had to hold onto was a handful of new screenshots and a short message from the team.

“We’ve seen how excited you are, and we are truly grateful from the bottom of our hearts,” Square Enix said at the time. “We are equally excited and can’t wait to share more about Kingdom Hearts IV when the time is right. Until then, we appreciate your patience.”

There’s no telling when exactly we can expect to hear any additional updates on Kingdom Hearts 4 or Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3. In the meantime, you can read up on everything we know about the former here. You can also learn about why the team behind the latter says it “will not cheat” when it comes to Final Fantasy 7’s iconic airship.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Former Bethesda Softworks marketing boss Pete Hines has opened up about the Fallout 76 bag controversy of 2018, saying it led to “probably the dumbest thing” he ever did at the company.

Hines, who served as senior vice president of global marketing and communications at Bethesda before announcing plans to retire in 2023, touched on the infamous Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition during an interview with DBLTAP. The first true multiplayer Fallout experience came with too many issues to count at launch, but it’s the goodies promised with its collector’s edition that live with the former Bethesda executive to this day.

The company unveiled the pricey Power Armor Edition with the promise it would include a T-51B Power Armor Helmet, an exclusive steel case, collectible figures, and, of course, a canvas West Tek Duffel Bag. Players who picked up their copies upon the launch of Fallout 76 in late 2018, however, were surprised when the package included a cheap, nylon bag instead.

It led to quite the uproar from the Fallout community, which wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea that Bethesda may have pulled a fast one on the group of dedicated fans who paid $200 for the special release with only a small amount of in-game currency to show for it. It was a flub the company was quick to correct, offering fans an opportunity to request a replacement canvas bag by filling out a form by May of the following year.

Hines doesn’t remember this element of the launch of Fallout 76 fondly, recalling how his involvement in the contents of the Power Armor Edition led to one of his biggest mistakes at Bethesda.

“My first reaction was, ‘When the f**k did we add a canvas bag to this collector’s edition?’ Because the version I approved did not have one,” he said. “They were trying to add more value to the Collectors Edition. We were always fighting with the finance people about margins, right? I would throw shit fits around. ‘We cannot charge $300 for this, it’s f***ing insulting.’ But in this case, their hearts were in the right place.”

Hines continued, explaining that the decision to include a nylon bag came as a result of a canvas shortage.

“There was literally a canvas shortage, and some folks decided we’re going to do this instead. My biggest failing there was not pushing immediately for making and sending one to everybody that wants one. Because I was still annoyed that the damn thing was in there in the first place, and nobody had told me and that this canvas shortage happened. It’s probably the dumbest thing I ever did at Bethesda.”

Fallout 76 had a notoriously rough start but is generally regarded to be in much better shape these days. Bethesda has delivered an ocean of updates and post-launch content in the years since, with the CAMP Revamp update arriving just a few days ago. We gave the multiplayer Fallout game a 7/10 in our updated review last year.

For more on Bethesda’s history, you can read up on how Hines feels about gaming subscription services like Game Pass. You can also see what the former Bethesda executive had to say regarding the naming of Arkane Austin’s 2017 immersive sim, Prey.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

When Arkane Austin delivered its cult-classic immersive sim, Prey, for PC and consoles in 2017, not everyone at Bethesda Softworks was happy shipping the sci-fi immersive sim with that name.

After Prey 2 met an untimely demise in 2014, fans were elated to see the series return with a completely new look and feel with what was believed to be a reboot in 2016. The problem was Arkane’s Prey doesn’t actually have much to do with the series it pulled its name from.

Instead, what fans received when Prey launched in 2017 was something that was more of a System Shock spiritual successor, leading many to question why it was ever named Prey in the first place. Even director Raphael Colantonio has commented on its title in the past, saying that he wanted to use a different name but was eventually forced to stick with it.

Former Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines, who announced his retirement from the company in 2023, spoke about the name of Arkane’s now-beloved 2017 game during a recent interview with DBLTAP, saying that he was one individual at Bethesda who feared the baggage that the Prey name carried.

“Don’t even get me started on that,” Hines said when asked about Prey’s name. “I definitely pissed some people off internally over that because I fought so hard against using that name. I’m the head of the spear, but I had a lot of people across my team – brand, PR and community – and we feel like we’re burdening it with a name where we spend more time explaining why it’s called Prey than we do talking about the game.”

Hines adds that he regrets losing the battle to give the 2017 Prey a fresh start. He adds, “But nobody on this planet could have put more of a good faith effort into changing minds on that.”

“My whole point was, look how much time we spend talking about what the game is versus why it’s called this and like, that is wasted energy,” Hines continued. “That is wasted excitement. We could be turning that into something positive.”

Prey is now seen as one of the better immersive sims for more reasons than one, but it took some time for it to achieve cult-classic status. In addition to the confusion surrounding its title, game-breaking issues for PC players at launch helped tarnish its reputation out of the gate.

Bethesda eventually issued numerous fixes for those on that platform, but the damage had already been done. Tech issues almost certainly hurt Prey’s commercial performance, with Colantonio believing that its strange name also contributed to lost sales.

We gave the 2017 Prey game an 8/10 in our review. At the time, we said, “Prey’s space station is fantastically explorable and its shape-shifting enemies maintain tension when combat doesn’t.”

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Bethesda Softworks’ former senior vice president of global marketing and communications, Pete Hines, says gaming subscription services like Xbox Game Pass are “worth jack s***” if the game developers who create content for them are not properly supported.

The ex-Bethesda figurehead, who announced his retirement in 2023 after 24 years with the company, opened up about the state of the gaming industry during a new interview with DBLTAP. In addition to touching on the early days of the company behind Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, Hines spoke about what he feels the future of services like Game Pass looks like.

He admits his retirement from the Microsoft-owned Bethesda means his view on the matter may not be up to date. However, Hines says he witnessed what he “considered to be some short sighted decision making several years ago” that now appears to be “bearing out the way I said.”

“Subscriptions have become the new four letter word, right? You can’t buy a product anymore,” Hines said. “When you talk about a subscription that relies on content, if you don’t figure out how to balance the needs of the service and the people running the service with the people who are providing the content – without which your subscription is worth jack s*** – then you have a real problem.”

Gamers have discussed the viability of platforms like Game Pass since its launch in 2017. While a service flooded with hundreds of games for subscribers to play sounds like a dream come true for players, how the developers behind these games receive support has been hazy.

As Game Pass pushed forward into the early 2020s and PlayStation eventually established its own PlayStation Plus-centered competitor, more question marks popped up. Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden is one of many who recently critiqued the gaming subscription service model, calling the “’Netflix of gaming’ idea” a “danger” that has him questioning, “…is it healthy for the developer?”

Microsoft touted that Game Pass achieved $5 billion in revenue over the last year this past July after laying off hundreds of workers across its gaming branch earlier that same month. Today, Hines adds that the pressure of an ongoing gaming subscription service is affecting the very developers it needs to exist in the first place. It’s a reliance on this model that he feels is “hurting a lot of people.”

“You need to properly acknowledge, compensate and recognize what it takes to create that content and not just make a game, but make a product,” he elaborated. “That tension is hurting a lot of people, including the content creators themselves, because they’re fitting into an ecosystem that is not properly valuing and rewarding what they’re making.”

Two Bethesda studios – Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks – were shut down in May 2024, though the latter was eventually saved after PUBG publisher Krafton acquired it from Xbox. In the wake of mass layoffs and studio closures, original Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio called Game Pass the “elephant in the room” and an “unsustainable model.” He added, “I don’t think GP can co-exist with other models, they’ll either kill everyone else, or give up.”

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

With Hollow Knight: Silksong out now, many players are celebrating its unexpectedly low $20 price tag. But some independent developers are pointing out that great as this may be, it could lead to unreasonable expectations for other indie games that can’t afford to sell for that low.

This comes from a number of threads on social media from developers of games such as Unbeatable, Dorfromantik, and others. In one Bluesky thread, Unbeatable director RJ Lake says that Silksong should cost $40, “and I’m not even joking.”

But Lake isn’t upset at Team Cherry for charging $20 – that’s their perogative. But it will have an impact on gaming audiences. As Lake explains:

“millions of people will probably buy silksong on day one, and it was a game that had a very ‘low’ budget, because the budget is ‘these devs worked on it without direct pay for however long they wanted to do that,'” Lake writes. “it had a ‘these devs are independently wealthy’ budget of ‘effectively zero dollars.’

“they can price however low they want, as a result. their return on investment is infinite no matter what they do. but by charging such a low amount, they are causing lizard brain signals to fire off saying ‘this kind of game is worth twenty dollars. you should expect this game for twenty dollars.’

“if enough of those lizard brain signals fire, some kinds of games with actual budgets to pay people who need to live are going to get priced out of existence unless they can get the kind of organic groundswell you can’t plan for”

A lot of other indie devs think Lake might have a point here, including folks from Deck 13 and Red Squirrel Games. Over on Twitter/X, Basti Games, the developer of Lone Fungus: Melody of Spores, asked the audience how much Lone Fungus should cost given Silksong’s $20 price. Basti had originally been planning on making Lone Fungus $20, too. But because it’s shorter in length than Silksong, should it be cheaper?

As a dev making a smaller Metroidvania than Silksong, which I originally though would be fairly priced at 20 USD… what should I price it now?

It’ll be a 10-15+ hours game, but it was made by one person with limited dev time and funds, I can’t afford to give it away for free. https://t.co/FFcgz6TI1z

— Lone Fungus (@BastiArtGames) September 1, 2025

Fortunately for Basti, the replies overwhelmingly encourage them to price it at $20 if that’s what’s required. “Dude charge 20$,” wrote one fan. “Price is not about the game is about context. They are able to price 20$ for a bigger game because they steem to receive a million times the cost. You are a small company, dude charge 20$ you deserve thst”

Another wrote, “10-20 is totally fair imo. Team cherry could have made silksong 40 and still sold hotcakes, the fact they didn’t just means they are cool as fuck. Don’t hold yourself to standards of giants, or else you’ll have to climb a staircase.”

Still, other developers are worried too. In an Eurogamer article on the subject, Dorfromantik developer Toukana’s co-founder, Zwi Zausch, said that the studio’s next game, Star Birds, would have its pricing impacted by Silksong.

“We’re trying not to compete too directly with Silksong, both in terms of release date and pricing. Of course, these are two very different games with potentially different player bases, but there’s definitely some overlap. That makes things tricky, especially since Star Birds is a joint project between two studios, together employing more people than Team Cherry.”

Indie game prices has historically been a challenging subject, as teams balance needing to ensure all their members are adequately paid, uncertainty around sales numbers, and the volatility of audiences in deciding not to buy smaller games at prices they perceive as too high. As AAA game prices climb fro $60 to $70 to $80, there has been renewed discussion on where indies should fall – many can’t afford to go lower than $20, but many will also lose sales if they don’t.

“People have less money now and are buying fewer games,” says Mike Rose, founder of No More Robots, “so you have to set yourself up to hopefully be that one game they buy when they do have money. And if you are a higher price, it’s now actually a bit offputting.”