Jett: The Far Shore and Sword & Sworcery developers Superbrothers are making a new “2D mystery action pixel videogame”, in partnership with an unnamed publisher. In what feels almost like a pivot away from the developers’ previous, magnificently hipster experiments, it’s billed as “satisfyingly finite, immediately legible, entertaining, funny, and generally satisfying for a broad audience”.
PlayStation co-CEO Hermen Hulst has said artificial intelligence will never replace the “human touch” of video game development but still expects AI to feature prominently in the industry.
Hulst told the BBC he believes AI has the potential to “revolutionize” video game development but studios will have to strike the right balance between using it and creating games through the traditional route.
“I suspect there will be a dual demand in gaming: one for AI-driven innovative experiences and another for handcrafted, thoughtful content,” Hulst said. “Striking the right balance between leveraging AI and preserving the human touch will be crucial.”
This comes as many fans and creators of video games are growing increasingly concerned with the use of AI-generated content, though executives at various publishers have shared different perspectives on it so far.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is at “the very core” of its business, for example, while others, such as Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, have expressed more caution. AI can be used “in creative ways,” he said in July, but its use “also raises issues with intellectual property rights.”
AI isn’t quite ready to replace human developers, however, as support studio Keywords Studios tried creating a video game solely using AI only to deem the technology was “unable to replace talent.” But one area it is impacting already is voice over, with a video game voice actor strike currently ongoing under The Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).
Myriad voice actors have commented on the threat of AI already, including Metal Gear Solid and Mass Effect actress Jennifer Hale. “The truth is, AI is just a tool like a hammer,” she said. “If I take my hammer, I could build you a house. I can also take that same hammer and I can smash your skin and destroy who you are.”
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lead Doug Cockle similarly expressed caution and frustration at the growing presence of AI within the video game industry, calling it “inevitable” but “dangerous.”
Cissy Jones, a voice actor known for her roles in Disney’s Owl House, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, Shin Megami Tensei 5, and more, has started a company called Morpheme.ai to let voice actors embrace AI and gain control of their own voices going forward.
Image Credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
If you’re the naughty sort, legend has it that on Christmas Eve a portly bearded chap will descend down your chimney and leave behind a lump of coal. The dwarven heroes of today’s game are much the same, except instead of using the chimney they will deploy pickaxes and power tools to burrow straight through your living room wall, and will make off with any minerals in the house rather than leaving them behind in a sock.
PauseStation.
Those with an appetite for Nintendo history likely will have heard of the ‘SNES PlayStation‘ — a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony which was intended to bring CD-ROM gaming to the former’s latest console.
The partnership never materialised, naturally, with Nintendo announcing that it was pivoting to work with Phillips at the very same event that Sony would unveil the console. Yikes. It’s one of the most notorious double crosses in gaming history, and now, in celebration of the PlayStation’s 30th birthday, former Sony executive Shawn Layden has shared what the jilting felt like from the other side.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Path of Exile 2 developer Grinding Gear Games has confirmed plans to make the Early Access launch available to pre-download, and announced the game’s global release times.
Path of Exile 2 is GGG’s hotly anticipated free-to-play action role-playing sequel set years after the original game. Players return to the world of Wraeclast and seek to end a spreading corruption, with six character classes, each with two Ascendancy Classes, available to play at the launch of Early Access later this week. There’s co-op for up to six players, but you can play solo. Check out IGN’s Path of Exile 2 preview, where we gave the Mercenary class a whirl and got a first look at the endgame, for more.
In a forum post, GGG said it’s making the standalone PC client available to download at 5pm PT on December 5, or 1am GMT on December 6 in your local time. The developer noted that when patching begins for the Early Access, players may also have a few remaining files they’ll need to update as well.
Once you’ve downloaded the client, you won’t be able to log in until the Early Access launch itself, which is set for 11am PT on December 6, or 7pm GMT on December 6 in your local time. You can get the client download through the Path of Exile 2 website, but GGG said it’ll make a torrent available with the client download at the same time.
The pre-download is already available on Xbox, although GGG said there will likely be updates on launch. As for PlayStation, Founder’s packs should go live 24 hours before Early Access starts (so, 11am PT on December 5). If you buy one of these packs, you’ll be able to pre-download on PS5.
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.
Ubisoft have discontinued their PvP shooter XDefiant and laid off roughly 277 employees at the studios who worked on the multiplayer game. “[We’ve] not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market,” said Ubisoft executive Marie-Sophie de Waubert in a statement to workers that was later posted on Ubisoft’s website. Over half the team who worked on the game will lose their jobs at Ubi studios in San Francisco, Osaka, and Sydney. The remaining workers are “transitioning to other roles within Ubisoft.”
The Switch eShop version is out next week.
A week out from the arrival of Victory Heat Rally on the eShop, Limited Run Games has announced this retro-style arcade racer will be getting a physical Switch release.
The catch is you’ll have to wait until at least June 2025 to get your hands on it – with this hard copy estimated to ship between 1st – 30th June 2025. The standard copy will set you back $39.99 USD or you can get a “game & CD soundtrack bundle” for $54.99 (or your regional equivalent). Pre-orders are now live on the Limited Run Games website and will close on 5th January 2025.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
In a recent behind-closed-doors demo, we played a section of Monster Hunter Wilds and asked the developers about changes made to weapons and other systems, the biggest being the separation of Equipment Skills between weapons and armor. Read on for more details.
As I played the demo, I realized major changes have been made to the Skills system, where damage-increasing skills and weapon-specific skills like Attack Up and Focus can only be found on or applied to the weapons themselves – a pretty impactful change.
Watch new gameplay of Monster Hunter Wilds above, including footage of Seikret and camp customization.
This is the new Equipment Skill system. In interviews, the dev team referred to skills for your weapons casually as Weapon Skills. Running with that unofficial terminology, let’s call equipment skills for weapons Weapon Skills, and equipment skills for armor Armor Skills. This means that equipment skills in Wilds are split up into these two categories. Weapon Skills generally include skills that affect actions and damage output, while Armor Skills assist in other ways.
Armor Skills include support skills like Speed Eating and Divine Blessing. This new system also affects slots, and the devs confirmed that weapons can only use decorations with skills categorized as Weapon Skills, while armor can only use decorations with skills categorized as Armor Skills.
This really opens up a lot of new ideas. I asked director Yuya Tokuda about his intentions here, and he replied, “Only armor had [built-in] equipment skills until now, but when a piece of armor had a type of skill only effective when used with a certain weapon type, that meant you would have to choose the corresponding weapon. This led to an unavoidable situation where it was harder for people to use those kinds of armor pieces.” The new system solves that issue.
Monster Hunter Wilds now lets you take two weapons with you on a hunt, which must have been another reason behind the change. Since you can now swap to a sub-weapon mid-hunt, it’s great to be able to keep on hunting while maintaining the skills you need to increase your damage to a suitable level or handle your weapon better.
There is one thing I’m still curious about. While I was able to confirm that skills like Guard are indeed on weapons that can block, I’m still not sure which type of equipment utilizes skills like Evade and Evade Distance.
Weapon Balance
Next up is weapon balancing. Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto confirmed that there will be significant weapon balance changes in Wilds. He told me, “There will be major changes not just after what we saw in the open beta, but also in the form of changes we had always intended to add to the final product.”
Tokuda said, “In particular, we plan on putting quite a lot of work into the Lance, Switch Axe, Insect Glaive, and Sword and Shield based on feedback from the open beta.”
He continued, “We’ve tweaked values across the board relating to weapon damage and overall balance, including balance regarding endgame content.” In addition to these numerical changes, the four aforementioned weapon types have (quote) “plenty of work put into how they feel to use.”
While the development side is certainly listening to the voices of the players, they were already taking a proactive stance toward weapon balance changes, and it seems that a proper announcement about the topic will come at a later date. Seeing their attitude put me at ease; the game is clearly in good hands. We’ll see how their intentions pan out when the final game is released in February 2025.
Next, the team told me about the direction and concept of the Switch Axe and the Insect Glaive.
Insect Glaive Changes and the Return of Vaulting Dance
The Insect Glaive is one of my main weapons, and my very first impression was that there were fewer aerial attacks available. It made me wonder if the concept was to reduce the relative number of aerial attacks and make it a primarily grounded weapon. I brought this up with Tokuda, and he began by revealing to me that Vaulting Dance is making a return! This is one of the actions that was so important to opening up possibilities for aerial combat with an Insect Glaive.
As to why it wasn’t there before, Tokuda said, “We were concerned that putting it in this time around would cause players to use nothing but existing movements, rather than focus on the new parts of the game. That’s why we decided to remove Vaulting Dance for a time.”
As for the reason it was brought back, he replied, “Many players at gamescom and Tokyo Game Show told us that it’s not about how strong or weak it is, but that Vaulting Dance is part of the Insect Glaive’s very identity. We realized that we weren’t on the same page as our players there, and so we immediately decided to bring Vaulting Dance back while balancing the ability.”
I was happy to hear about this balance decision as an Insect Glaive user. That said, I did have difficulty during the open beta with the controls for its new charge attack, and I’m hoping that they’ll make it easier to use as well.
Updating the Switch Axe to be More Attractive to Players
I then asked about what direction they want to take with the Switch Axe. Tokuda told me the concept of the Switch Axe had not fully gotten across to players, and that the dev team is balancing it in order to convey what makes it a good weapon. Specifically, he said, “The Full Release Slash that comes at the very end of an attack didn’t fully stand out, both in terms of feel and numbers, making it less attractive when compared to similarly positioned attacks for other weapons. We’ll be sure to address that.”
After hearing about the developers’ plans to balance the Switch Axe to make it a more attractive weapon, it’s clear to me that it’s being properly discussed. Their process to come to the decision to make changes to the Switch Axe backs that up even more, so I don’t think that should be a point of concern any longer.
I’m sorry to admit that I can’t go into as much depth on the Switch Axe as with the Insect Glaive, as it isn’t one of my main weapons, but other media outlets were also present at this hands-on session, and I’m sure some of them include players who go hard on the Lance, the Gunlance, the Bow, the Long Sword and more, so keep an eye out online for more information on your favorite weapon!
Translated by Ko Ransom.
Multiple bugs have also been addressed.
Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP wasn’t in the best state at launch, but the developer Dragami Games has rolled out multiple updates since then smoothing out some issues, fixing bugs, improving performance and even adding some bonus content.
With this in mind, the latest update (Version 1.07) has now gone live across multiple platforms including the Nintendo Switch. As highlighted by the company CEO Yoshima Yasuda it comes with various bug fixes as well as a “pin-up outfit” for Juliet.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Ubisoft is officially discontinuing XDefiant in 2025, the publisher announced Tuesday, with all new purchases and registrations being discontinued immediately. As part of the shutdown, the publisher plans to shut down its production studios in San Francisco and Osaka, with up to 177 employees losing their jobs. Roughly half of the XDefiant team will be assigned roles elsewhere.
Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert revealed the news in an email sent to Ubisoft employees that was subsequently posted online, saying that the shooter was “not able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market.”
The full message can be found below.
Today, I wanted to share with you that we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue development on XDefiant.
Despite an encouraging start, the team’s passionate work, and a committed fan base, we’ve not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market. As a result, the game is too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will be sunsetting it.
Concretely, that means that as of today, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available. Season 3 will still launch, and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, out of appreciation for both our dev teams who worked on it and for XDefiant’s active players.
Unfortunately, the discontinuation of XDefiant brings difficult consequences for the teams working on this game. Even if almost half of the XDefiant team worldwide will be transitioning to other roles within Ubisoft, this decision also leads to the closing of our San Francisco and Osaka production studios and to the ramp down of our Sydney production site, with 143 people departing in San Francisco and 134 people likely to depart in Osaka and Sydney. To those team members leaving Ubisoft, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your work and contributions. Please know that we are committed to supporting you during this transition.
Developing Games-as-a-Service experiences remains a pillar of our strategy, and we’ve achieved significant successes, like Rainbow Six, The Crew, and For Honor, among others. It’s a highly competitive market, and we will apply the lessons learned with XDefiant to our future live titles.
Globally, we are determined to take the necessary steps to put the company back on a path to growth, innovation and creativity and make sure we can set you up for success. This means continuing to radically evolve our mindset for Production and Business practices, which we will share more about soon, and doing targeted restructuring when necessary. I know that the situation brings questions and expectations, and we will share regular and transparent updates.
My sincere thanks for your continued dedication as we navigate these trying times together.
XDefiant Executive Producer Mark Rubin also shared a message thanking fans and saying he was “heartbroken.” He also shared refund details, saying that any purchases made within the last 30 days will be fully refunded and that those who purchases the Ultimate Founder’s Pack will also get their money back. Refunds should happen automatically with 8 weeks, he said.
I am unfortunately here today to announce that XDefiant will be shutting down. Starting today (December 3, 2024), new downloads and player registrations will no longer be available. We will still release our Season 3 content in the near future (exact date TBD) and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025.
For those who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack, you’ll receive a full refund. Players who made any purchases within the last 30 days will also be fully refunded. Those refunds should happen automatically within 8 weeks of today and you can find more details on our official website, https://XDefiant.com.
A few years ago, Ubisoft and the SF Dev team embarked on a bold adventure to develop a new arcade shooter called XDefiant. It was from the start, an incredible challenge. Not only were we trying to shake up the genre by removing Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) while bringing back a more “old-school” arcade shooter experience, but we were also diving into the high-risk, high-reward realm of free-to-play. And for that I want to applaud not only the Dev team but also Ubisoft leadership for taking that chance!
Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey. Many free-to-play games take a long time to find their footing and become profitable. It’s a long journey that Ubisoft and the teams working on the game were prepared to make until very recently. But unfortunately, the journey became too much to sensibly continue.
I am, of course, heartbroken to have to be writing this post. Yes, this game has been a personal passion for me for years and yes, I know that not all challenges lead to victory, but I also want to recognize all of the developers who are being affected by this closure. Each and every one of them is a real person with a real life separate from our own and they have all put so much of their own passion into making this game. And I hope that they can be proud of what they did achieve. I know that I will always be proud and grateful to have worked with such a great team! A team that really punched above its weight class.
And what they achieved is truly remarkable. The early response from players when XDefiant launched was amazing—we broke internal records for the fastest game to surpass 5 million users and in the end we had over 15 million players play our game! That is something to be extremely proud of, especially considering how tough this genre is. So, thank you to all of the developers who put their passion into making this game!
If there’s one thing, I hope we can all take away from this experience, it’s the importance of open, honest communication between developers and players. This “player-first” mentality along with respectful, non-toxic conversations between developers and players has been one of the standout differences that made XDefiant so special. From my very first post about XDefiant, this was the vision I wanted to champion, and I hope it leaves a positive mark on how the game industry treats its players and communities.
To our players, THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, I want to express my deepest gratitude for the incredible community that has grown around XDefiant. Your passion, creativity, and dedication have inspired us every step of the way.
With the utmost of love and respect,
Mark
XDefiant joins Concord as the latest service game to abruptly shutter not long after launch. Unlike Concord, though, XDefiant will be given a bit of grace, with its servers not due to shut down until June 3, 2025. Ubisoft also plans to go forward with releasing Season 3, though downloads and purchases will no longer be available.
First announced in 2021, XDefiant endured several delays before finally launching in May. We wrote in our review, “XDefiant joins the free-to-play shooter crowd as a respectable competitive FPS built around various Ubisoft franchises, but little makes it really stand out.”
Developing…
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
