Dragon Age: The Veilguard developer BioWare has released a new patch for the game and in the same breath suggested it’s basically done with it less than three months after launch.
As spotted by Eurogamer, Patch 5 includes a number of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, but it’s the wording from BioWare that suggests this is the final major patch Dragon Age: The Veilguard will get.
“Thank you all for playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard; we were so happy with the game’s stability at launch and hope you have enjoyed our Quality of Life patches since then,” BioWare said. “With the game being in a stable place, we are moving to monitor for any game-breaking bugs should those occur. Dareth shiral!”
Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the first new game in the fantasy RPG series in 10 years, but it came and went not with a bang but a whimper. This week, publisher and owner EA admitted Dragon Age: The Veilguard had failed to meet sales expectations by a whopping 50%; it had expected three million players, but the game managed only 1.5 million.
Mass Effect 5 now appears to be BioWare’s focus, although it seems far, far away still. And what next for Dragon Age? Given how Dragon Age: The Veilguard went for EA, it seems the publisher will take some convincing to greenlight yet another sequel any time soon.
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.
Cardy, Matt, and Wes are here to talk through January 2025’s Xbox Developer Direct and the impressive quartet of games featured; Doom: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Ninja Gaiden 4. Plus, there’s also some time for some hands-on impressions of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows thanks to Matt’s sneaking and slashing around rural Japan.
Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you’re enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
If you turn 33 years old in the next couple of months then, sorry, you are dead. I don’t make the rules, that’s just how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 explains the lack of elders in its very French yet very JRPG world. The fantasy game will see you journey across a dangerous landscape to stop the mad “paintress” who’s magically culling humanity at younger and younger ages every year. We’ve been keeping a weary middle-aged eye on its development, and yesterday it got a release date. It’s too late for most of us in the RPS treehouse. But watch the trailer for yourself, maybe you’ll make it.
Fatal Fury 2 and two other Super Nintendo Entertainment System games have joined the Nintendo Switch Online library.
A trailer released by Nintendo, below, announced Fatal Fury 2, Sutte Hakkun, and Super Ninja Boy are all now available in the SNES collection.
Fatal Fury 2 arrived in 1992 as a fighting game sequel and introduced new characters Kim Kaphwan and Mai Shiranui. They joined the classic roster of fighters such as Terry Bogard and Big Bear to round out the roster to eight.
Sutte Hakkun, meanwhile, hasn’t been released in English until now. This is side-scrolling puzzle game about gathering arinbow shards as a wee beastie called Hakkun.
Finally, the relatively ahead of its time Super Ninja Boy hits Nintendo Switch Online 34 years after its 1991 release. It blends role-playing game and with action elements as players control Jack and beat up baddies. It features multiplayer too, with a second player able to jump in at any time.
In just a single day, the company’s share price dropped by more than 16% from 142.35 USD to 118.58 USD. Things are levelling out somewhat at the time of writing, but it certainly marks one of the most volatile downturns in the company’s history.
Both Blizzard Entertainment and Grinding Gear Games have declined to say whether they plan to ban accounts belonging to Elon Musk after the X/Twitter owner reportedly admitted to cheating, leading some fans to accuse the developers of undermining the integrity of their games.
Screenshots of a private conversation between Musk, the world’s richest man, and a YouTuber showed Musk’s admission of paying for account boosting in action RPGs Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2.
Account boosting is a form of cheating where a player logs into another player’s account to raise (or boost) their rank to a higher tier and violates pretty much every live service video game’s terms of service. Blizzard’s end user licence agreement specifically warns players that account boosting or power-leveling, in exchange for payment, is prohibited.
Following Musk’s admission this week, Diablo 4 developer Blizzard Entertainment and Path of Exile 2 developer Grinding Gear Games have faced questions about whether they will now take action and ban Musk’s accounts for cheating.
“Are there any comments from GGG regarding this? Maybe in [Early Access] it’s not a high priority, or it’s garnering too much free press, but as a longtime supporter, this is a massive blow to the credibility of RMT [real money trading] enforcement.
“I’m not trying to shitpost or troll with this, I’m just extremely disappointed that GGG isn’t getting out the ban hammer.
“Anyone else feel this is undermining the integrity of the game?”
There’s a similar sentiment on Battle.net. “Is boosting against the rules?” asked one player. “If it is, then shouldn’t Elon Musk’s account get banned since he flat out admitted that he boosts his account? I assume he doesn’t get to break the rules just because…”
When contacted by IGN, Grinding Gear Games declined to comment. Blizzard also declined, saying it does not comment on individual player account behaviors or enforcements.
Musk had bragged about his gaming prowess on multiple occasions, most notably in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan in which he said he was in the top 20 players in the world for Diablo 4. More recently, Musk had a hardcore level 97 Path of Exile 2 character, although it has since perished. He has said he plays video games “to quiet my mind.” “Some days are real tough, so playing video games is my strange solace,” he added.
However, Musk’s self-proclaimed gaming prowess was brought into question as players began to take a closer look at his performance and knowledge of the games he plays. Some had questioned whether Musk was capable of dedicating the huge amount of time that would be needed to reach his high levels in Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 given his commitments as boss of Tesla, SpaceX, X/Twitter, and now as Donald Trump’s efficiency tsar. Then an early January livestream that saw Musk tackling endgame tasks in Path of Exile 2 drew criticism from fans who said he failed to demonstrate a basic understanding of the game’s mechanics.
Many had assumed that Musk might have been paying others to boost his Path of Exile 2 character for him, and so it proved. A video posted on Sunday by the Diablo player NikoWrex showed a direct message conversation with Musk on X in which Musk admits to account boosting, insisting it was the only way to compete with players in Asia.
“Have you level boosted (had someone else play your accounts) and/or purchased gear/resources for PoE2 [Path of Exile 2] and Diablo 4?” asked NikoWrex. Musk responded with a 100% emoji. He later added: “It’s impossible to beat the players in Asia if you don’t, as they do!”
“But when I post a video of a game or am streaming, that’s 100% me,” he added. Musk was asked whether he intended to take credit for having a high level hardcore Path of Exile 2 character. “No. Never claimed that,” he replied. “The top accounts in Diablo or PoE require multiple people playing the account to win a leveling race.” Musk then went on to question the need to apologize for his actions.
Following the revelations, the musician Grimes, who has three children with Musk from a previous relationship, tweeted in his defence, saying: “Just for my personal pride, I would like to state that the father of my children was the first American druid in Diablo to clear abattoir of zir and ended that season as best in the USA. He was also ranking in Polytopia, and beat Felix himself at the game. I did observe these things with my own eyes. There are other witnesses who can verify this. That is all.”
Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson – Pool/Getty Images.
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.
Good news for anyone eager to meet a big talking catfish. A new trailer for action adventure game South Of Midnight sees players battering monsters from the folklore of the US’ Deep South. It shows hero Hazel arguing with her mum before a supernatural hurricane cuts off the family drama and sends Hazel wandering the swamps to encounter giant alligators, giant fish, giant dolls, and giant people. Maybe Hazel is just very small. Either way, it also dangles an important morsel in front of our snapping jaws: a release date. Come see.
The Steam Deck is very much focused on the PC market, but even it’s seemingly been unable to avoid the excitement of the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement last week with a reported slump in sales revenue.
As highlighted by Twisted Voxel (via Steam Deck HQ), the Steam Deck is regularly trending at the top of the “top sellers” chart on Steam, but between 14th January – 21st January, Valve’s portable PC hardware dropped from the top three to the 47th spot. This is supposedly its “lowest global ranking since its launch in 2022”. At the time of writing, it’s now back up in second place on the charts – so it’s business as usual.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition will land on the Switch this March, and ahead of this Wii U title’s return, pre-order deals are now going live in North America.
If you’re planning on picking up a physical copy, you might want to check out Best Buy, as it will be offering a fancy mini metal poster and stand featuring the game’s key artwork. If you’ve already pre-ordered from this store, this should be added to your existing order.
