LE(t’s)GO.
Black Friday is (almost) here, and My Nintendo Store UK is already getting into the savings spirit with a host of tasty discounts across a range of LEGO sets.
Naturally, the one that caught our eye first and foremost was the LEGO Legend of Zelda Great Deku Tree 2-in-1 set, which has been cut down from £259.99 to £181.99 — okay, it’s still a little eye-watering, but at least it’s slightly easier to stomach.
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Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has sparked backlash after confirming plans to make a “significantly lower level of investment” in the game’s second year.
Starbreeze’s struggle with Payday 3 after last year’s disastrous launch is well-documented, but its recent series of year one anniversary updates were well-received by players who had hoped for similarly significant updates during the co-op shooter’s second year. Indeed, Payday 3’s recent Steam user reviews are on ‘mostly positive’, with all reviews on ‘mixed.’
However, that goodwill may now be under threat after comments from Starbreeze acting CEO Mats Juhl in a financial report caused some Payday 3 players to express concern that the studio was now prioritizing its Dungeons & Dragons game instead.
The backlash revolves around Juhl’s comment on Payday 3’s level of investment for year two versus year one. It is below, reproduced in its entirety.
During the quarter, both the third and fourth DLCs for Payday 3 – “Chapter 3: Houston Breakout” and “Chapter 4: Fear & Greed” were released. In conjunction with both launches, a lot of free content was also released to all players, including a new free heist. Both DLCs received a very positive reception from the player base and the game’s rating on Steam, among others, has taken significant steps upwards. The game’s MAU (monthly active players) is holding steady considering that we in September left Xbox GamePass. The level of investment during Payday 3’s first year on the market, both through launched DLCs and “Operation Medic Bag”, has been at an elevated level. Ahead of year two, we are confident in being able to continue delivering amounts of value to our players with a significantly lower level of investment.
That last line (“significantly lower level of investment”) is the one causing all the damage here, and players are blaming it on Starbreeze shifting focus onto Project Baxter, its in-development Dungeons & Dragons game. Elsewhere in the financial report, Juhl said production on Project Baxter had ramped up (along with the payment of licensing fees to Wizards of the Coast), and that as Payday 3’s game-saving Operation Medic Bag updates ramp down, the game will enter year two “with a smaller team focused on continuously updating the game with new content.”
Disgruntled players have taken to Steam reviews to let their feelings about this be known. “Dead game,” reads one negative review, “like this time for real.” “Dropping this game as soon as it started to show promise is insane,” said another. “Significantly lower,” another review reads. “I’ve tried defending this game for so long, but it is really frustrating seeing the company executives kill this game before it has a chance to fully recover just to fund their next project that will more than likely flop, just like Payday 3,” another reviewer said. “Save your money and the headache; Payday 3’s future is genuinely grim.”
It’s a similar outcry over on the Payday subreddit, where fans are already hitting out at Starbreeze and Project Baxter.
Despite this, Starbreeze sounds like it still believes in Payday 3, even if some of its players do not. “Starbreeze remains financially strong, with a healthy balance sheet almost free of debt and a cash position to execute our strategy,” Juhl said. “Sales of Payday 3 still have great potential to improve, which is offset somewhat by continued relatively stable sales of Payday 2 and third-party publishing of, among other things, Roboquest. During the same period last year, we booked the revenue attributable to Payday 3’s launch, which makes the revenue in the comparison period uniquely high.”
Speaking of Payday 2, significantly more people are playing that game on Steam (27,553 24 hour peak) than Payday 3 (1,314 24 hour peak), despite the former being over a decade old. In September, Payday 3 director Miodrag Kovačević stepped down to work as a designer instead. Lead producer Andreas Penninger and global brand director Almir Listo were put in place to act as the “creative force” behind the game “in the interim.”
Starbreeze is still hiring for Project Baxter, meanwhile, as work on the game “continues at full speed.” “Internally, we have weekly playtests of Baxter, and active discussions with a number of industry-leading players regarding potential collaborations around Baxter’s development and launch,” Juhl said. Starbreeze said it has 191 total employees, most of which are based at its head office in Stockholm, Sweden.
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.
Joining the rare but always brilliant category of “games that sound like someone scratched the high concept into their arm at pub closing time with the sharp corner of a Frazzles packet” is Assassinvisible – a stealth game about an invisible assassin that’s so invisible the player doesn’t know where they are. True, games like Invisigun have experimented with this interesting concept before, but in Assassinvisible it’s framed by another – the whole game exists as doodles in a bored student’s notebook. Here’s the Tres-tray:
Rainbow Six Siege’s next update finally adds PC and console crossplay to the competitive multiplayer shooter.
The Year 9 Season 4 update, dubbed Operation Collision Point, launches on December 3 and also makes changes to anticheat, remasters an Operator, adds Siege Cup, and tweaks gameplay balance.
Despite approaching its ninth birthday, Siege remains one of the most popular competitive multiplayer games across PC and console, and is a mainstay of Steam’s top 100 most-played games. For embattled publisher Ubisoft, it is a reliable earner at a time when new releases such as Star Wars: Outlaws and Call of Duty competitor XDefiant have struggled.
The addition of crossplay means players will be able to play with friends from other platforms seamlessly, with console players able to join the PC player pool. Squads including a PC player will be automatically moved to the PC-matchmaking pool. However, PC players will not have the option to join the console matchmaking pool. Console players who play Ranked playlists with crossplay active will maintain a PC rank that is separate from their console rank, Ubisoft explained.
The anticheat updates include improved cheater detection to ensure fairness, Ubisoft said. With the arrival of PC and console crossplay, players with a Mousetrap Penalty will be forced into the PC matchmaking pool for 90 days. If crossplay is turned off, these players will be unable to join matchmaking until the option is turned back on. Additionally, matches with a detected cheater will be automatically canceled with no impact on MMR. “These changes reflect Rainbow Six Siege’s ongoing commitment to player protection,” Ubisoft added.
Related, Ubisoft has overhauled the Reputation Center to provide a clearer overview of how different actions affect player standing and thresholds for receiving warnings or penalties. Account-related information such as rank, reputation, and match replays will be concentrated in the new Career hub, with account stats coming soon, Ubisoft clarified.
Meanwhile, Blackbeard now has an upgraded Adaptable Shield gadget, and the Siege Cup beta is available to all players above Clearance Level 50. Siege Cup is Siege’s most competitive playlist, where five-player squads compete in skill-based ladder tournaments for Competitive Coins that can be used to unlock exclusive skin collections every two weeks.
And finally, Season 4 makes changes to Ballistic Shields and balancing updates for Attacking Operators Ying and Sens. The number of bullets needed to suppress Shield Operators have been reduced to add value to suppressive fire and improve Shield Operator counterplay. This allows suppression to occur sooner and last for a longer duration, Ubisoft explained. Operators will not take damage from melee attacks while shielded, but guard break intensity from melee attacks will remain the same. Ying’s rush has been changed “to encourage more precise gameplay” in addition to Sens’ R.O.U. Projectors update “that allows for more flexible and creative play.”
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.
Plus over 30 minutes of gameplay footage.
Following a release date announcement earlier this year, Koei Tecmo has now released its second official trailer for Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land. It’s also released some key art and more than 30 minutes of new gameplay footage, which you can check out below.
This game stars the new alchemist Yumia Liessfeldt and is scheduled to bring “vast open world” RPG action to the Switch and multiple other platforms on 21st March 2025. Although it’s in Japanese, this new trailer shows off more gameplay, the battle mechanics, and exploration.
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The weekend is officially here, and we’ve rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for Sunday, November 10, below:
The Samsung S90C is a 2023 model (superseded by the S90D for 2024) and was considered one of the best OLED TVs on the market last year, superior to even the LG C3. The S90C uses Samsung’s proprietary quantum dot (QD) OLED panel. QD OLED panels are brighter than traditional OLED panels without losing the color accuracy, range, and wide-viewing angles that OLEDs are known for. Compared to a traditional LED LCD TV, an OLED TV offers superior image quality, near-infinite blacks, near-infinite contrast ratio, and near-instantaneous response times.
Woot has quite a few different Keychron Mechanical Keyboard models on sale this weekend, which are perfect if you’re looking for a new keyboard. You can even save an extra $5 off the models on sale by using the code KEYCHRONFIVE! Be sure to get your order in while you can, as this coupon will end on Tuesday, November 19.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the first Mario & Luigi title on Nintendo Switch, acting as the first new entry in the series in over nine years. Developed by Acquire, this is the first 3D entry in the series, with plenty of new mechanics to discover. Join Mario and Luigi on this adventure to reconnect the world of Concordia and set sail to many islands on Shipshape Island!
This weekend at Best Buy, you can save on the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme model, where it’s priced at $499.99. This handheld device is perfect for exploring your Steam library on the go, with PC Game Pass support also easily accessible. If you’re a My Best Buy Plus member, you can save an additional $50 off this deal, scoring the ROG Ally for $449.99.
Amazon has Lies of P discounted to $39.99 this weekend, making now a perfect time to pick up on of 2023’s most popular games. In our 8/10 review, we said “Lies of P might not branch out particularly far from its soulslike inspiration, but like a marionette controlled by a skilled puppet master, it plays the part extremely well in a wonderfully dark fantasy world.”
Metroid Dread was the grand return of 2D Metroid on Nintendo Switch, with developer MercurySteam teaming up with Nintendo EPD to craft the long-awaited next chapter in Samus Aran’s story. Challenging puzzles, fun boss fights, and wide exploration combine to create one of the best games on Nintendo Switch. Don’t miss your chance to pick it up at a discount this weekend.
CPUs can be quite expensive, especially if you’re looking to build with the latest on the market. Amazon has a select group of Ryzen 5, 7, and 9 processors on sale this weekend, with up to 60% off. Both 5000 and 7000 series models are available, so now is a great time to score a CPU upgrade.
As part of Best Buy’s early Black Friday sales, you can save $250 off this M2 MacBook Air. With 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, this is a very solid option for those looking to either upgrade their current Mac or enter the ecosystem for the first time. This model includes features like TouchID for login, a display capable of up to 500 nits of brightness, and Apple Intelligence support.
Persona 5 Royal is by far one of the most beloved games of the last ten years. With a vibrant cast of characters and impressive narrative, there are well over 100 hours of gameplay here to discover. The turn-based combat system the Persona series is known for feels better than ever, with new mechanics to customize your gameplay the way you like it.
Amazon has Balatro Special Edition for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S on sale for just $19.99 this weekend. As one of the biggest games of the year, there’s never been a better time to jump in and experience this deck-building roguelike.
If you’ve never wandered the solar system of Outer Wilds, an experience like no other awaits. As a new recruit of Outer Wilds Ventures, you will seek the answers that await within these hand-crafted planets and moons. This package includes both Outer Wilds and Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, the game’s expansion.
“If you’ve got a cool idea for a game, you can pitch your cool idea for a game.”.
Raise your hand if you haven’t played a Jackbox game… okay, trust us, if this were a real room, this would have created a pretty solid visual for how prolific the Jackbox party games have become over the years. Almost everyone has played one, and this week, believe it or not, marks the 10th anniversary of the entire Jackbox series.
Besides kicking off the franchise as we know it today, The Jackbox Party Pack console release (which would come to Switch in 2017) cemented the standard for how players connected to a home console without a controller (as well as how players could brutally lie to each other).
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Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! This week, it’s Game Maker’s Toolkit and Mind Over Magnet mechanics knower, explainer, and designer, Mark Brown! Cheers Mark! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
Two-point(-and-click) perspective.
Back in 2018, the Switch’s touchscreen functionality made point-and-click games, once best played on PC, much more accessible for console players. In fact, many games on our list of Best Point And Click Adventure Games launched in the hybrid console’s second year – NAIRI: Tower Of Shirin among them. Six years later, Dutch developer HomeBear Studio continues the story with Nairi: Rising Tide. So does it rise to the occasion? Almost.
We’ll elaborate in a moment, but first a quick warning that mild spoilers for Tower Of Shirin lie ahead. The first instalment isn’t a prerequisite; if you haven’t played it or need a recap, Rising Tide has an optional narrative section in which Nairi tells the story of her previous adventure. That said, Tower Of Shirin players will come equipped with advantageous knowledge of the lore.
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Double trouble.
We are back, back, back with another edition of Box Art Brawl!
Last time, we matched up two Game Boy covers for the weird Tetris sequel, Hatris, and oh boy was it a close contest! The colourful Japanese design just about clinched it in the end, taking 51% of the vote over North America’s 49%. Talk about a photo finish!
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