Category: Video Games

Nuketown comes to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on November 1 ahead of Season 1 arriving on November 14, Activision has revealed.

A Call of Duty blog post outlined the wealth of updates planned over the next few weeks, beginning with the release of fan favorite multiplayer map Nuketown. This map is a recreation of the original Nuketown from the first Black Ops, meaning players can enjoy its 1950s motif and unabridged chaos.

“This remaster remains extremely faithful to the original design and layout of the map, even down to the precise placement of parked vehicles and other scenery harking back to the original three-lane design,” Activision said.

Two weeks later and the publisher promises a “massive content drop” in the form of Season 1. Little was said about the impending update but it will arrive for free in both Black Ops 6 and Warzone and add new maps, modes, and more.

“At the start of Season 1, deploy to the new Area 99 Resurgence map in the free to play Call of Duty: Warzone update,” Activision said.

“Also set in the Nevada desert, this top secret government site is just miles away from the original Nuketown location. See where it all began by exploring the mannequin assembly plant, the factory warehouse including pieces of the Nuketown homes in development, and much more, when Season 1 launches.”

Black Ops 6 is off to a strong start, outperforming both Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 on Steam in its opening weekend. Its launch is also special as it marks the first Call of Duty game to come to Xbox Game Pass on launch day. Analysts expected its release could boost the subscription service by up to four million new users, but at the cost of six million lost sales.

If you’re jumping into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer, check out our Essential Multiplayer Tips and Tricks to help you get started. We’ve also got a full weapons list (including the below ranking tool you can participate in), a guide to all multiplayer maps and game modes, and details on how to unlock all Black Ops 6 operators.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Concord’s initial development deal was around $200 million according to a report by Kotaku, offering a glimpse of how much it cost Sony to develop its disastrous live service game, which lasted just two weeks before being unceremoniously shuttered.

Kotaku’s report, which cites two sources familiar with the agreement, says that the $200 million was not enough to fund Concord’s entire development, nor did it include the purchase of the Concord IP rights or Firewalk Studios itself. Kotaku’s number aligns with an earlier report saying that ProbablyMonsters — Firewalk’s original parent company — raised $200 million in 2021.

Firewalk is signing off one last time.

Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer to a larger audience. Along the way we assembled an incredible team who were able to:
– Navigate growing a new startup into a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was…

— Firewalk (@FirewalkStudios) October 29, 2024

Firewalk’s goodbye post sheds additional light on its development costs. Looking back on the studio’s history, the note reflects on being a new startup during the global pandemic, and how Concord only entered full production in 2022. It also talks about building a “new, customized next-generation FPS engine in Unreal 4 -> 5, delivering top-tier gameplay feel, beautiful worlds, and a performant 60fps technical experience on a stable and scalable backend on PS5 and PC to hundreds of thousands of players in our beta.”

It all points to Concord being seen as an ambitious project that was expected to attract a large audience. Instead it launched to tepid reviews and low interest, prompting PlayStation to pull the plug within days of release. One estimate suggested it only sold around 25,000 copies.

Midia Research Analyst Rhys Elliott told IGN shortly before Concord was shut down, “Pivoting to live services is high-risk, high-reward venture, and the risk is heightening to levels that might not be worth it for many AAA console/PC publishers that aren’t already active in the space.”

Concord is hardly the only expensive live service game to fail to meet expectations, with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League facing similar struggles. Live service games are increasingly facing a calcified market dominated by the likes of Fortnite and Call of Duty while costing hundreds of millions dollars to make. Despite that, PlayStation continues to bet big on service games, with Fairgame$ and Marathon among the projects next on the docket.

PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst says Sony will learn from its experience with Firewalk Studios. “The PvP first person shooter genre is a competitive space that’s continuously evolving, and unfortunately, we did not hit our targets with this title. We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to advance our live service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area.”

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.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson says BioWare has returned to its strengths with the impending release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, praising its reviews while predicting that it has “breakout potential” thanks to what he characterizes as limited competition.

Speaking with investors in EA’s quarterly earnings call, Wilson reflected on some of BioWare’s troubled recent history, which has been defined in part by the failure of Anthem — a multiplayer game Wilson described as “very, very different than something that would be known as a BioWare game.” In the wake of Anthem, Wilson said a “big shift happened” that saw “BioWare really returning to BioWare-type games; really returning to BioWare’s strengths.”

“BioWare has rallied around what made BioWare a fan-favorite studio and a fan-favorite brand and the types of games they make – incredibly rich worlds, incredibly nuanced characters, really powerful and compelling stories with comaraderie and friendships and relationships, and decisions that matter in the context of gameplay,” Wilson said. “And I think it’s been that return to what made BioWare great and giving the studio time to deliver against what makes BioWare great in the context of the Dragon Age world is what amounts to Dragon Age: The Veilguard.”

Wilson’s comments come in the context of what has been reported to be a sometimes fraught relationship with EA. Rumors over the years have suggested that BioWare has been pressured to match the success of highly profitable modes like Ultimate Team, though the studio is adamant in saying that EA has been supportive of the studio. Our report on how BioWare managed to get Dragon Age: The Veilguard to the finish line after a tumultuous decade details some of the challenges that the studio has faced over the years.

Looking ahead to The Veilguard’s release, Wilson praised its solid reviews and suggested that it has “breakout potential” thanks to BioWare’s existing fanbase and the relatively clear release calendar. “We’re going into a market with limited competition for this category of game given some of the moves that has happened across the broader industry,” Wilson said, likely referring to Ubisoft’s decision to delay Assassin’s Creed Shadows into 2025.

Elsewhere, EA reported record earnings for its second quarter while adding around 15 million new players to The Sims 4 in 2024, and suggested that it isn’t interested in making Apex Legends 2. Dragon Age: The Veilguard, for its part, releases October 31.

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.