Part of ensuring “long-term stability and success”.
Sumo Group, the UK-based games studio behind Snake Pass dev Sumo Digital and publisher Secret Mode, has announced that its development team will transition to work “exclusively on development services for partners” and has warned of “an impact on our studios and people” as a result (thanks to Push Square for the heads up).
Revealed in a business update on the Sumo Group website, the studio announced the “strategic decision to focus Sumo Digital exclusively on development services for partners”. While it claimed that it has “embraced opportunities to develop own IP” in the past, the decision is part of ensuring the “long-term stability and success of our business”.
Shuhei Yoshida, former president of Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment, has revealed that Nintendo and Xbox each orchestrated the two scariest moments of his long career at PlayStation.
Yoshida told MinnMax that the release of the Xbox 360 one year before the PlayStation 3 was “very, very scary,” as those who considered waiting for Sony’s console would be well behind in tasting the next generation of video games.
But Yoshida said “the biggest shock I had from an announcement from the competition” was when Nintendo announced that Monster Hunter 4 was going to be a 3DS exclusive. “That was the biggest shock,” he said.
Monster Hunter was a colossal hit on the PlayStation Portable, to the point where it had two exclusive games, but Yoshida had no idea Nintendo had secured this new game for its own console. To make matters worse, it then slashed the price of the 3DS by $100, putting it well below the PlayStation Vita.
“After launch, both Nintendo 3DS and Vita were $250 but they dropped $100,” Yoshida said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god’. And [then they] announced the biggest game… The biggest game on PSP was Monster Hunter. And that game is going to come out on Nintendo 3DS exclusively. I was like, ‘Oh no.’ That was the biggest shock.”
Yoshida retired in January after more than three decades with Sony, where he became a face of the PlayStation brand and was beloved by fans worldwide. His no longer being with the company has allowed Yoshida to share some previously unheard insight such as this, however.
Steam early access games that haven’t been updated in a long while will now be more prominently labelled as such, according to reports. As noticed by third-party tracking platform SteamDB, Valve have begun adding warnings to early access info boxes, making it harder to accidentally spend your pocket money on a promising project that hasn’t advanced in years.
Ever since its successful 2022 reinvention, 2K’s popular WWE series has continually made a host of iterative improvements in an attempt to not only build upon its winning formula but also justify its annual releases. WWE 2K25 certainly promises a new batch of iterations, including a brand new, online interactive world called The Island, a revamp of its story, general manager and Universe mode, a new hardcore match type called Bloodline Rules, and several more. However, I can’t say if all these new additions will elevate 2K25 above its predecessor because, unfortunately, I didn’t get to sample any of them at a recent preview event.
Instead of sampling this year’s most significant alterations, my time with 2K25 was largely focused on the (mostly) unchanged core gameplay and this year’s adjusted Showcase Mode, which focuses on The Bloodline stable of wrestlers. But while I was locked out of most of this year’s new ideas, I did appreciate some small but significant alterations. They’re enough that I’m confident WWE 2K25 will be another successful evolution of the series and most likely worth any wrestling fan’s time.
WWE 2K25’s Showcase Mode focuses on the history of the Anoa’i family, headlined by its most recent stars Roman Reigns and The Bloodline, but also celebrates previous generations like The Wild Samoans, Yokozuna and, most famously, The Rock. The mode now includes three types of matches: Ones where you recreate history, others where you create history, and most interestingly for me, matches where you alter history. I got to experience all three types in the shape of recreating Nia Jax’s Queen of the Ring victory from 2024, creating a dream Wild Samoans versus The Dudley Boyz match, and altering the history of the iconic Roman Reigns against Seth Rollins bout from the Royal Rumble in 2022. All three offered their own style of fun and unique perspective for any hardcore WWE fan and an improvement on last year’s showcase mode. But that’s not to say there aren’t still some small issues.
The Showcase Mode in last year’s WWE 2K24, much like the one in WWE 2K23 before it, was hampered by an over-reliance on switching to real-life footage that ran for multiple minutes – a system developer Visual Concepts dubs “Slingshot”. As I pointed out in my preview for WWE 2K23, “I found myself wanting to be back in the action and create these moments myself, not just watching clips of footage that are already burned into my brain.” Two years later, I’m happy to confirm that although the issue is not completely solved, progress has been made.
The cut to real-life footage is now gone, as is the over-reliance on taking you away from the action (at least as far as I experienced in the hands-on session). Key moments are recreated in-engine through animation, providing a less jarring experience and a level of satisfaction from seeing iconic moments realised in the game’s (mostly) gorgeous graphics. These sequences also seem significantly shorter, meaning less time away from controlling the action.
That’s not to say that all my prior gripes with staying in control have been addressed, though. During the conclusion of my Nia Jax match, complete control was taken away from me. Rather than stay in the ring, I was forced to embody a bystander during the 1,2,3. Ideally, I’d like more control during these important moments. I want to relive them with my own gameplay decisions, not merely observe as a passive bystander.
Elsewhere, 2K25 makes minor improvements to other rough edges. Previous showcase modes relied heavily on a checklist system, requiring you to complete often rudimentary manoeuvres to trigger the match’s live-action sequences. A common complaint is that this approach makes a match feel less like dynamic gameplay and more like a to-do list. This system is back, which no doubt will prove contentious once again, but it has been slightly refined for WWE 2K25, with added optional objectives on a timer. You’re rewarded for completing these actions with cosmetics, but most importantly you’re not punished for failing them as you were in previous entries. It’s a vital (baby) step in the right direction.
The standout addition to Showcase Mode is without a doubt the aforementioned ability to change the conclusion of certain historic matches. Where Roman Reigns once lost by disqualification to Seth Rollins, you can now experience how things could have played out should Roman have altered his temperament in the final moments. It’s a fresh experience for hardcore fans of WWE and I’m very excited to see what happens in the other unannounced change matches.
While there are notable changes in modes and match types, the core gameplay essence of WWE 2K25 is basically the same as before with some minor tweaks. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I was already happy with the grappling action in WWE 2K24, so I largely believe it’s a smart decision to stick with the proven, successful formula. There are though a few interesting additions and returns, however.
WWE 2K25 sees the long-requested revival of chain wrestling, a gameplay sequence that was sacrificed with WWE 2K22’s huge engine revamp. During the opening moments of a bout, instigating a grapple will now force players into a mini-game that allows you to gain the upper hand. After locking up you can choose to drive, wrench, attack and ultimately reposition your opponent into a spot that is advantageous to you. Like the trading blows mechanic introduced last year, chain wrestling adds another staple of WWE action, taking another vital step towards accurately recreating what fans see on TV every week.
Also making a return is the submission system, a mini-game in which you must either avoid or match your opponent’s colour block on a wheel. While it has an overwhelming U.I. presentation, it quickly becomes second nature, and I’m glad to see it return. If you’re less excited by its reappearance, it can fortunately be disabled in the options. The same goes for chain wrestling and other quick-time event moments – they’re all optional.
Wrapping a bottle of Logan Paul’s luminous juice around your opponent’s head certainly feels like the best use of the egregious electrolytes.
Without a doubt, my favourite gameplay feature from WWE 2K24 also makes its triumphant return: weapon throwing. Not only has the roster of weapons been improved, but the backstage brawls have now expanded into new environments that are perfect for weapon tossing. The best location I experienced in the demo was the WWE archives, which not only allows you to toss apples, footballs and megaphones, but also drops you into a WWE fan’s dream environment, littered with history and easter eggs galore. Oh, and you can also fight on top of a giant Wrestlemania sign and everyone’s favourite giant fist from the Smackdown days of yore.
As to be expected, much like in real life, the ring area is covered in Prime sponsorships. Say what you will about that, but it does allow you to use the Prime Hydration Station’s giant bottle as a weapon. For my money, wrapping a bottle of Logan Paul’s luminous juice around your opponent’s head certainly feels like the best use of the egregious electrolytes.
Perhaps the most notable gameplay alteration this year, though, is the long-overdue intergender gameplay. For the first time in a 2K WWE game, you’re able to pit the men against the woman in a match of your choosing. This, along with the largest roster ever (with 300+ wrestlers to choose from) finally opens the doors to a whole host of matchups that previously weren’t available.
Lastly, although the demo build featured a limited amount of new updates to explore, I did get some hands-on time with the brand-new match type called Underground. It’s a rope-less variation of an exhibition match that puts you in a Fight Club-like setting with lumberjacks around the ring. This is something completely brand new for the series and something I can share more about later this month as part of our exclusive IGN First content. Be sure to check IGN later this week to get a look at a full match, as well as a full, detailed explanation of the new match type from Visual Concepts developer, Derek Donahue.
WWE 2K25 continues the recent tradition of the series, layering new features on top of existing and robust fundamentals. Nothing right now feels particularly revolutionary as the formula feels largely consistent with last year’s offering just with some small-but-smart tweaks. Time will tell if the advertised big sweeping changes and new modes I didn’t get to see will truly make this edition stand out from its peers, but from my brief experience, it’s hard to say this is anything but a very incremental step for an already well-realised series.
Dale Driver is an Executive Producer of Video Programming at IGN and a lifelong WWE fan/apologist who acknowledges his Tribal Chief. Be thoroughly bored by following him on Bluesky at @daledriver.bsky.social
When I’ve had enough of fighting the dogs in a respectable, straightforward manner, I pick them up with my mind and – with a casualness that has to be extremely insulting if you’re a dog – drop them directly off a cliff. This ends the fight immediately. Sometimes I resort to this low move out of frustration, when a dull fight has dragged on for too long. Sometimes I resort to it out of panic, because I’ve accidentally set fire to every hard surface within ten feet, or frozen myself to a wall. Often it’s just for the pleasure of it.
In Eternal Strands, Yellow Brick Games’ debut title, you play the leader of a “weaver band”, a crew of freelance magicians, in a world where something extremely bad happened to magic. Some years ago, the Enclave, a city state acting as the isolationist heart of the world’s magic, exploded in a kind of power surge – one part tsunami, one part blown fuse – and just as quickly sealed itself off from the world outside. Somehow managing to breach the wall, your band finds themselves the first people to set foot inside the ruined capital since the calamity and sets about uncovering the mystery of what exactly went wrong.
Warhorse Studios’ medieval Europe action RPG sequel launched on February 4 across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, and soon shot to the upper echelons of Steam’s most-played games list.
On Valve’s platform, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 hit a peak of 159,351 concurrents, a number that will surely grow as it heads into its first weekend on sale. For context, the first Kingdom Come: Deliverance hit a peak Steam concurrent player count of 96,069 seven years ago.
It’s worth noting that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s actual peak concurrent player count will be bigger, given the game launched on console as well as PC. However, neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public.
In a tweet, Warhorse called Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 “a triumph,” suggesting it’s done the business for the Czech video game developer and its owner, Embracer subsidiary Plaion.
The question now is how big can Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 get? It’s currently the top-selling game on Steam by revenue, globally, ahead of the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Civilization 7, and Monster Hunter: Wilds, which suggests it will have legs for some time.
IGN’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review returned a 9/10. We said: “Armed with excellent melee combat and an exceptional story, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is one part sequel and one part coronation, bringing a lot of the original’s ideas to fruition.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Nintendo has provided a smidge more information regarding its upcoming Nintendo Direct in April, focused entirely on the much-anticipated Switch 2 console.
Scheduled to commence on 2nd April 2025, we now know that it will be broadcast at the following times:
The first wave of Nvidia 50 series GPUs have arrived. Now they’re gone. So, if you need an RTX 5080-prebuilt gaming PCs are currently your best bet of securing. While Dell has got some overpriced $5000+ Alienware 51 desktops up for preorder, there other (considerably cheaper, but not necessarily affordable) options up for grabs right now.
Vendrán Las Aves – “The Birds Will Come” – is a brief, quiet, hopeful game about burnout recovery. Summarised as a “slice of life tamagotchi” and available in Spanish and English, it’s a gamejam production from Francisco Riolobos, Chuso Montero and Deconstructeam, the Valencia-based developers behind The Red String Club and The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood.
It’s free to download from Itch.io, and takes the form of a snowglobe perspective of somebody’s one-room apartment. The person in question has just left their job after a rough spell, and has impulsively bought a guitar. They are also, however, totally exhausted, with barely the willpower to do anything beyond getting out of bed, let alone make music. Your task is to help them through each day and rebuild their morale till they feel able to pluck a few chords.
MultiVersus will shut down when Season 5 ends in May, but the sweeping changes to combat speed that were introduced in a new update have fans enjoying its gameplay now more than ever — and even sparked a #SaveMultiVersus trend on social media.
The community for the Warner Bros. platform fighting game woke up ready to dive into its fifth and final season when it launched yesterday, February 4, at 9am PT. Developer Player First Games had spelled out plans to shutter the project last week, teasing that the update would include DC’s Aquaman and Looney Toons’ Lola Bunny as its last playable characters. What was poised to be a somber sendoff for MultiVersus actually brought on extensive movement changes across the board, resulting in a much faster-paced experience overall. It’s a fundamental adjustment that players have begged Player First to implement for years, and it arrives just as things are coming to an end.
Players first took notice that combat in Multiversus had been sped up after Player First published a Season 5 Combat Changes Preview video on X/Twitter. For those who have played the free-to-play Warner Bros. fighting game in the past, the differences are impossible to ignore, as characters can be seen chaining together combos and moving across the screen faster than ever before. It’s a substantial shift away from the floaty gameplay fans criticized during the MultiVersus beta test in 2022, and it’s even faster than what was seen when it relaunched in May of last year.
Season 5 update patch notes reveal that the increase in combat speed comes as a result of a reduction to hitpause “across most attacks in the game.” It means stringing together combos will be faster than you remember regardless of who your main is, with a handful of specific characters receiving additional adjustments to their speed, too. Morty, LeBron, Iron Giant, Bugs Bunny, Black Adam, and many more feel especially quick thanks to changes that allow them to fast fall when using certain aerial attacks. Garnet, meanwhile, now has stronger ringout potential on the ground and weaker ringout potential in the air to help level out her impact as an already fast character.
MultiVersus Season 5 turns the nearly one-year-old fighting game into something almost completely different, and those diving in already are finding far more to enjoy than just two new characters. The problem is that this… is it. Just as Player First finds its footing with an update that delivers long-awaited gameplay changes, MultiVersus will completely shut down come May 30. Its demise will bring the end of seasonal content drops as well as its removal from digital storefronts as Warner Bros. Games guts online play from the experience entirely, leaving only offline modes for fans to experiment with.
Now, fans are left feeling shocked and powerless as MultiVersus becomes the experience they’ve always dreamed of just in time for it to completely shut down. X user @PJiggles_ commented on the changes, calling MultiVersus “the most interesting bad game in existence,” referring to its beta rollout, 2024 relaunch, and sudden combat speed increase. Professional Super Smash Bros. player and content creator Jason Zimmerman (a.k.a. Mew2King) replied to a Player First post to ask why movement speed was increased now and not earlier.
…but man, if this was how the relaunch started off we could’ve really had something.
“I know everybody’s been playing the blame game when there likely isn’t a single individual or even group who deserves the entirety of the blame,” one Reddit user said, “but man, if this was how the relaunch started off we could’ve really had something. (Apex Legends) is probably one of the worst monetization schemes out there but it lasted so long because it nailed the fundamentals at the start.”
It’s painful, especially as players gather not only to mourn the game’s demise but to celebrate such a drastic leap in quality. Reddit user Desperate_Method4032 said the Season 5 update fixed “every issue I had with the game,” explaining that things like touched-up shield animations helped turn MultiVersus into an experience that looks and feels far more polished. Although the gameplay shakeup follows confirmation of shutdown plans, they said the “potential” has them hoping Warner Bros. could reverse course.
“I’m not naïve,” Desperate_Method4032 said. “Just a fan with tons of love for the characters showcased in this game. But is it so wrong to have just LITTLE bit of hope that the game will make a comeback? There’s just far too much potential to let things end like this. Not when the game finally feels like it found its footing.”
Sooooo
You announced the game was shutting down but then fixed the thing that made players quit
Unfortunately, while some are expecting the worst and hoping for the best, Player First and Warner Bros. show no sign of backing down from their plan to cease service this summer. MultiVersus game director Tony Huynh took to X earlier this week to share a few closing thoughts while addressing long-unanswered player questions and concerns. Warner Bros. also disabled real-money transactions as of January 31, leaving players unable to purchase content without using previously earned in-game currency. The Season 5 premium battle pass has been made free for all players as one final gift.
MultiVersus will go dark, for good this time, at 9 am PT on May 30. While Warner Bros. has already initiated its shutdown plans, players are finding some joy by creating and sharing memes. It’s a bittersweet moment for the fighting game community as they relish a game that finally lives up to their expectations just before it meets its end.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor 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).
.png?width=1920&height=1920&fit=bounds&quality=80&format=jpg&auto=webp)
