In a note to investors on Wednesday, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot acknowledged that the company’s “second quarter fell short of expectations” and vowed to launch “a review aimed at further improving our execution.”
But Guillemot also addressed some of the cultural conversations happening around the company lately, which have intensified around Star Wars Outlaws and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows (which was delayed to February 2025 today) in particular.
“We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”
“Finally, let me address some of the polarized comments around Ubisoft lately,” Guillemot said. “I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”
Otherwise, Guillemot stated an emphasis on “a player-centric, gameplay-first approach,” while focusing on “focusing on two key verticals – Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences.”
Read Guillemot’s full statement below.
Ubisoft last commented on some of the conversation surrounding Assassin’s Creed Shadows in July, issuing a controversial statement to its Japanese fans in which it apologized for promotional materials that “have caused concern” among its community.
Guillemot’s statement is one aspect of Ubisoft’s message to investors that’s been making headlines today. Elsewhere in the note, Ubisoft admitted that its most recent release, Star Wars Outlaws, had a “softer than expected launch,” and revealed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will mark a return to the company’s releases hitting Steam on Day 1.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
The AssCreed faithful have waited a thousand years for a sequel set in feudal Japan, birthplace of ninjas and samurai. Woe unto ye dreamers of Ubisoft takes on Tenchu, for you must carry that candle for a little longer. Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been delayed till next year. It was due to launch on 12th November 2024 – now, it will release on 14th February 2025.
Step Up Your Game with DJ Bagman, the Newest Character in 3on3 FreeStyle: Special Buff Ranked Season Now Live.
3on3 FreeStyle, the fast-paced street basketball game, features a diverse roster of 49 unique characters, each equipped with distinct skills and attributes. The latest addition to the lineup DJ Bagman, brings a fresh tactical dimension to the game and adds a new layer of unpredictability and excitement to the court.
Introducing DJ Bagman: A Mysterious Force on the Court
DJ Bagman is not just any new character; he’s a game-changer. With a unique skill set that makes him stand out from the crowd, DJ Bagman is designed to challenge and excite players on both sides of the court. One of his most remarkable attributes is his ability to create an illusion of himself every time he performs a dribble skill, adding a layer of unpredictability to his movements. This ability can be used to outsmart opponents, creating openings for aggressive offensive plays.
In addition to his illusion ability, DJ Bagman offers a diverse array of skills that make him a force to be reckoned with. He is immune to being knocked down while performing dribble moves, allowing him to maintain momentum in the heat of the game. Furthermore, DJ Bagman carries a special buff that increases his shooting success rate, making him a dangerous threat from all areas of the court. Whether you’re looking to confuse defenders with his illusions or capitalize on his increased shooting accuracy, DJ Bagman is the perfect addition for players looking to dominate the game with clever tricks and relentless offensive pressure.
New Competitive Season: Rotating Ranked Modes
The latest competitive season of 3on3 FreeStyle brings an exciting rotation of ranked modes, each offering unique challenges and strategies. The ranked modes now include the following:
Normal Ranked Mode: A best of three format where players must win two out of three rounds. In this mode, ability cards, position buff effects, and freestyle moves are active, allowing for deep customization and strategic play.
3X3 Ranked Mode: An eight-minute match with only character stats in play. Ability cards, position buff effects, and freestyle moves are disabled, making this mode a true test of raw character skill and team strategy.
Astro Buff Rank Mode : A fast-paced, three-minute single-round game where players benefit from a special ability buff on top of the standard ability cards, position buffs, and freestyle moves. This mode keeps matches short, intense, and full of surprises.
These rotating ranked modes provide fresh, engaging gameplay for every kind of player, whether you thrive on the depth of customization or prefer a purer form of competition.
Friend Invitation Event: Share the Fun and Earn Rewards
Now’s the perfect time to invite your friends to the court! The Friend Invitation Event allows players who are level 5 or above to invite up to five friends to join the game. Invited friends can use an instant code to claim special rewards, making it easy for new players to jump into the action. Returning users can also be invited, ensuring that everyone has the chance to reap the benefits of this event. It is a great way to build your team, strengthen your connections, and earn exclusive rewards that will enhance your gameplay experience.
Elevating Your 3on3 FreeStyle Experience
With DJ Bagman’s diverse skill set, the current ranked mode featuring Special Buff Ranked Mode, and the Friend Invitation Event, there’s never been a better time to dive into 3on3 FreeStyle. Whether you’re perfecting your competitive skills, customizing your characters to reflect your unique playstyle, or inviting friends to experience the thrill, 3on3 FreeStyle continues to push the boundaries of street basketball gameplay.
As the game evolves, we are committed to enhancing the overall player experience. In addition to new characters and modes, we are actively working on improving the user interface (UI) to make your time on the court even more seamless and enjoyable. With regular updates and a focus on user feedback, players can expect exciting new features and refinements in the near future to ensure the best gameplay experience possible. The game is now available on Xbox Series X|S, bringing its dynamic and strategic street basketball action to an even broader audience. Get ready for more exciting updates and keep honing your skills as we continue to improve 3on3 FreeStyle for our dedicated community.
Welcome to one of the most diverse and competitive but unifying sports in the world – street basketball.
3on3 FreeStyle features fast-paced real-time basketball match against live opponents. It is you with friends versus three of them!
You can play with your friends via online or at home. It is time for you to create your own style with turns you into a street basketball legend.
Features:
3 vs 3 Multiplayer Mode
1 vs 1 Multiplayer Mode
Kristen and I got a chance to go eyes on (and hands on) with the PlayStation Pro console for the first time, and first impressions are promising. Though we didn’t have to time fully investigate every one of the games at last week’s hands-on event, even a cursory review of the PS5 Pro Enhanced games on display revealed immediate and noticeable benefits compared to the current PS5 console.
It was interesting to see how different studios leveraged PS5 Pro’s advanced hardware. Many PS5 games currently allow players to choose between Fidelity and Performance modes to cater to players’ tastes. Some of the PS5 Pro games we saw seemed to combine the benefits of both high fidelity and high performance, taking the experience to another level.
This “best of both worlds” approach was fully apparent in Horizon Forbidden West‘s Pro Performance mode expected to land on November 7 with the launch of PS5 Pro. Compared to the stock Performance mode on PS5, the extra horsepower afforded by PS5 Pro allows for the same high framerate while massively improving image quality. Visual grittiness in fine environmental details like moss, leaves, and the red stealth bushes is banished, but even some textures and holograms looked noticeably cleaner and crisper. The Pro Performance mode also benefits the game’s volumetric effects; misty sunbeams were free of distracting shimmers and strobing we noticed in the PS5’s stock Performance mode.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sported an impressive PS5 Pro glow up, sporting a high framerate and pin-sharp presentation in its new Enhanced Mode due out November 7. While exploring the countryside, we observed crystal clear vistas devoid of distracting shimmering and visual noise, particularly in classic trouble spots like far-off trees and structures. Then we visited the Gold Saucer’s high-contrast environments, where the neon lights resolved cleanly against the darker environment surfaces. Perhaps more importantly, the high framerate had tangible benefits for combat and traversal, making this a significant upgrade.
The Last of Us Part IIRemastered gave another impressive demonstration of PS5 Pro’s vision of high visual quality married to a high framerate. Blades of grass and leaves resolved cleanly, without any distracting shimmering effects or visual noise. Similarly, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was observed running at both a high frame rate and crisp Fidelity-mode resolution and feature set, including its signature ray-traced reflections. It wove a gorgeous presentation overall, balancing small trade-offs to provide the best-looking Marvel’s Spider-Man2experience we’ve seen on PlayStation.
Which brings up another topic: ray tracing has seen a more than 2x performance boost on PS5 Pro. And while not every game leverages this unique technology, we’re seeing some very interesting results in early PS5 Pro testing.
Hogwarts Legacy is taking a unique approach for PS5 Pro by emphasizing ray tracing quality via its new Fidelity ray tracing Mode due out at the console’s launch. Based on what we saw, this new mode provides a big boost to the lighting system by adding raytraced shadows and enhancing raytraced reflections, all while targeting a stable 30 fps. Seeing your character realistically reflected in a suit of armor is a stunning demonstration of ray tracing’s potential, while the upgraded RT shadows bring another visual flourish to an already polished game. Though ray tracing seems to be the main focus for developer Avalanche, the game’s Performance Mode and Fidelity Mode will see quality enhancements too.
GT7 is targeting a November release for a new patch that will add several new PS5 Pro-focused rendering modes, including a Raytrace Priority mode that adds eye-catching new car reflections. F1 24 is upgrading its Quality mode to add new ray tracing effects that shined particularly on rain-soaked courses and made the tracks feel more realistic and immersive.
GT7 will also include an optional and experimental 8K/60fps rendering mode that emphasizes hyper-crisp, hyper-clean visuals (yes, you have to have an 8K display).
Those are just our first impressions. We can’t wait to get more time with PS5 Pro when it launches on November 7.
Ray tracing and high frame rate gameplay features only available on select PS5 games that have been enhanced for PS5 Pro when compared with PS5. PS5 Pro enhanced features will vary by game. Enhanced features require a compatible display.
The open-world adventure game was due out November 12, 2024. It now launches February 14, 2025.
In a statement, Ubisoft said it needs more time “to polish and refine the experience, pushing further some of our key features.”
Meanwhile, Ubisoft confirmed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will release on Steam, unlike the company’s previous major release, Star Wars Outlaws. Preorders will be refunded, and all future preorders will be granted the first expansion for free.
In a note to the investment community, Ubisoft said that while Assassin’s Creed Shadows was “feature complete”, the “learnings” from the release of Star Wars Outlaws “led us to provide additional time to further polish the title.” Star Wars Outlaws had a “softer than expected launch,” Ubisoft said.
“This will enable the biggest entry in the franchise to fully deliver on its ambition, notably by fulfilling the promise of our dual protagonist adventure, with Naoe and Yasuke bringing two very different gameplay
styles,” Ubisoft contined.
Developing…
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.
Not technically an Indiescovery-type deal, this, as Edwin already called attention to breathless FPS Echo Point Nova back when the demo came out. The full game has just released, though, and as someone with such chronic Titanfall withdrawal that I’ll ingest anything with a decent wallrun, I’ve bought it, played it, and am here to tell you why it rocks.
The PlayStation 5 Pro has officially been revealed, and developers will be releasing new-and-improved modes for their games that will take advantage of all that new horsepower. But what will it mean, really?
At a recent PlayStation 5 Pro preview event, we spoke with the technical leads of some of PlayStation’s biggest games, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, The Last of Us Part 2, and others, to discuss what improvements we can expect to see now that there’s a more powerful PlayStation 5 on the market.
There are three key features of the PS5 Pro as explained by lead architect Mark Cerny during the announcement presentation. The upgraded GPU will allow for 45% faster rendering for gameplay, advanced ray tracing will create better lighting effects, and the AI upscaler, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, or PSSR, will help further improve graphics.
All of which you’ll see in action in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 according to Mike Fitzgerald, Director of Core Technology at Insomniac Games.
“The first big improvement in the PlayStation 5 Pro is PSSR, which is PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, that lets us improve our old upscaling mode. We can render at a lower resolution, bring it up to a full 4K and get tons of extra detail out of the picture,” Fitzgerald says. “The second big thing is there’s new ray-tracing hardware in the PS5 Pro. We have really nice ray-traced reflections all across Spider-Man 2 and getting to run those faster and do more ray-tracing is a big deal.”
“And the third big thing altogether is these combined to make a new Performance Pro mode as we’re calling it on the PS5 Pro. You get the image quality and visuals of Fidelity Mode at the framerate of Performance Mode.”
Top of mind for several technical leads, including the folks at Naughty Dog, was how on the base PS5, players would often have to choose between Fidelity Mode, which offered better resolution at lower framerates, typically 30 fps, or Performance Mode which raised the frame rate to 60 at the expense of better graphical textures and ray-tracing. That choice is no longer necessary on the PS5 Pro, which can run games combining better resolution with higher frame-rates.
“Now we can focus on cool graphics stuff that we’re doing as opposed to just increasing pixel count.”
“Well the number one thing is gonna be the ability to play at 60fps in 4K, so that has been a huge deal,” Travis McIntosh, Naughty Dog’s head of technology says. “It makes it so we don’t have to compromise, so you don’t have to pick between high fidelity and good performance.”
The Last of Us Part 2 is one of the games that will be enhanced on the PS5 Pro, with the option to play the game with better visuals while still running it in 60 fps through a new Pro Mode. But McIntosh says that both the Fidelity and Performance Modes will also be improved on the PS5 Pro.
“There’s more than that, there’s also the fact that the high fidelity mode on the base PS5 actually looks even better when you’re on Pro. And there are some minor performance issues in performance mode on the PS5 base model that are also much better. Very solid 60 [fps], a lot less frame drops when you get to the pro.”
But McIntosh also says he’s personally excited for PSSR, which uses AI to upscale graphics.
“I would say I’m just really excited about the ability to use AI upscaling. Going forward as a developer, as a tech geek we spend a lot of time worrying about pixel throughput. It’s actually really tough to hit the targets of getting this many pixels through the game, and now we can focus on cool graphics stuff that we’re doing as opposed to just increasing pixel count. So that’s been a big benefit.”
McIntosh goes in-depth on the PSSR technology and how it upscales 1440p resolution to 4K, telling IGN that it, “produces just a way better result than previous upscalers because it can be trained not only on our game but on lots and lots of other games, and it learns and it improves at each iteration can improve and fix graphical errors, fix artifacting, and it learns how to make things look good. Foliage for instance is one example in our game that looks really good after the upscaler because the neural network is trained to do foliage really well.”
For Guerrilla Games World Lighting lead Roderick van der Steen, the biggest changes to Horizon Forbidden West all have to do with resolution and how improved they’ll be on the PS5 Pro, from better lighting to textures on characters.
“A big improvement that we could make by using the PS5 Pro is we could increase the resolution, increase stability of the image which is something we really focused on for this patch. And various other aspects like better filtering, better shadowing, and better volumetrics.”
Van der Steen says these improvements will be seen particularly in complicated models. “So fire, holograms, but also the skin rendering and the hair rendering where we could increase the shadow filtering to give a much more smooth and stable image.”
Lastly, ray tracing has been around for a few years now, but has often been sacrificed on consoles for anyone who prefers performance mode, which according to PlayStation is a majority of players. But the PS5 Pro is now able to add better ray tracing while maintaining a higher framerate. Just ask Jose Villeta, technical director at Avalanche Software, the developers of Hogwarts Legacy.
“So one of the few things we were able to improve on in our game thanks to the PS5 Pro is we focused on three areas,” Villeta reveals. “First we integrated PSSR – that gives a better upscaled image technology. And second we focused on ray-tracing, we tried to enable not only the best ray-tracing capabilities but improve the ray-tracing we had before. We were able to bring ray-tracing shadows, we were able to increase the percentage of ray-tracing reflections so they look sharper and have more content and detail.”
The improvements are a result of the better GPU which Villeta credits for giving Hogwarts extra heft. “The extra power we can actually make sure that all our visual modes, we have Fidelity, Fidelity with ray-tracing, and Performance mode, are all running at better framerate.”
Spider-Man 2, The Last of Us Part 2, Horizon Forbidden West, and Hogwarts Legacy are just four of the many games confirmed for improvements on the PS5 Pro, and we can expect to see even more Pro-enhanced games as we get closer to the new console’s launch on November 7.
For more on the PS5 Pro, check out our full hands-on preview, as well our interview on what more you can expect from the PS5 Pro.
Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Sony had made it clear on the God of War Ragnarok Steam page that a PlayStation Network account would be required to play Sony Santa Monica’s purely single-player adventure, but that failed to prevent a number of negative reviews singling out the policy.
One modder going by the name iArtorias took matters into their own hands by stripping out the PSN requirement. iArtorias’ NoPSSDK mod, which had been downloaded thousands of times from Nexus Mods before its removal, “fully strips the PlayStation PC SDK runtime requirement for God of War Ragnarok.”
But because the mod removed the PSN overlay from the game and mimicked an offline mode in the process, it was being used to bypass the PSN / Steam account linking requirement. IGN verified the mod worked before its removal.
But today, September 26, the mod is no longer available from Nexus Mods or Github. In a tweet, Nexus Mods insisted NoPSSDK had been removed from its site “by the author” and was trying to find out why. It seems likely Sony took a dim view of iArtorias’ mod, but it’s unclear at this point if the company got in touch to request its removal or whether iArtorias took it upon themselves to do so. IGN has attempted to contact iArtorias via Nexus Mods, and has asked Sony for comment.
Before the removal of the mod, iArtorias had received requests to release a similar mod for Sony’s other recently released PC games, such as Ghost of Tsushima. Ghost of Tsushima requires a PSN account for the Legends online multiplayer mode and to use PlayStation overlay, but it is not required to play the single-player game.
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.
Just the other day, Atari and developer Digital Eclipse announced that a new paid DLC expansion for Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration would be launching, er, tomorrow (that’s 26th September 2024).
Now, thanks to a reveal YouTube MetalJesusRocks, we now have a complete view of every new game being added to the new content in addition to some more of that lovely timeline loveliness. There are 19 titles in total, though there are a few, shall we say, “duplicates” (not really duplicates, but you get what we mean).
Gran Turismo players! The world’s fastest drivers will be in Tokyo on September 28 for GT World Series 2024 Round 3.
Get involved with special campaigns on Gran Turismo 7 including the Predict the Winners challenge where you can earn up to 2,000,000 in-game Credits
Tokyo is the penultimate round, with the Manufacturers Cup and Nations Cup Champions set to be crowned at the World Finals in Amsterdam from December 6-8 (tickets go on sale this weekend)
Round 3 of the Gran Turismo World Series 2024 takes place on Saturday, September 28 at Theater Milano-Za at the Kabukicho Tower in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo.
After a season full of stunning action and drama on track the event is sold out. But you can catch all the action live at the following times and platforms.
Manufacturers Cup – 00:00 PDT | EDT 03:00 | UTC 07:00 | CEST 09:00 | Local time JST 16:00
Nations Cup – 03:00 PDT | EDT 06:00 | UTC 10:00 | CEST 12:00 | Local time JST 19:00
As ever, there are plenty of ways to get involved in the World Series in-game. By clicking on the Predict the Winners campaign banner on the GT7 World Map, players can win one million credits for each of the Nations Cup and the Manufacturers Cup with votes cast right up to the start of the final race of each.
Simply watching the broadcast in-game will also unlock some special iconic Japanese race cars in GT7 through the Viewers Gift campaign. Players watching the Manufacturers Cup will receive the Mazda 787B while watching the Nations Cup in-game unlocks the Xanavi Nismo GT-R (GT500) ’08.
Players can also take part in two special challenges in Gran Turismo 7 that reflect the car and track combinations from the show in Tokyo. The Nations Cup Grand Final is mirrored with an Online Time Trial featuring the X2019 Competition car on the Grand Valley Highway 1 so that players can check how they compare with the Nations Cup qualifying times. A Daily Race in Gran Turismo 7 will feature Gr. 3 cars on Australia’s Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit, the same combination as the Manufacturers Cup Grand Final.
Gran Turismo World Series 2024 – The story so far
Round 1 Usine-C, Montreal, Canada Saturday, July 6
The Manufacturers Cup race saw a familiar face back on top of the podium when Igor Fraga drove a faultless race for Team Lexus at the Autódromo de Interlagos. The Brazilian headed Italy’s Valerio Gallo, driving for Team Honda, and Japan’s Team Porsche driver Takuma Sasaki.
In the Nations Cup Japanese driver Takuma Miyazono, 2020 Nations Cup Champion, showed exceptional speed and strategic guile at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta circuit to take the win by less than a second from hard-charging Spaniards Jose Serrano and Coque López.
Round 2 Divadlo Hybernia, Prague, Czech Republic Saturday, August 10
The Manufacturers Cup field was packed with some of the biggest names in competitive Gran Turismo racing. After a tense race, with weather conditions on Gran Turismo’s Dragon Trail Seaside circuit adding to the intensity, few would have predicted that a World Series rookie would take a highly impressive victory for Team Ferrari. Mohamed Buhdeima, a 20-year-old Briton, held off a strong challenge from another debutant, Team Porsche’s Benjamin Hencsei from Hungary, by just 0.092 seconds. France’s Thomas Labouteley, driving for BMW, completed the podium.
Team Porsche now heads to Tokyo with the series lead on 9 points. Montreal winners Team Lexus sits in second on 7 points, while Buhdeima’s excellent win in Prague takes Team Ferrari to third.
The Italian national anthem sounded a second time in Prague when popular 2021 Nations Cup Champion Valerio Gallo returned to form with an emotional victory in a truly spectacular Grand Final held at the Red Bull Ring. Gallo narrowly defeated France’s Kylian Drumont and an incredible drive saw Spain’s Coque López storm from the very back of the grid to claim 3rd place.
The results leave 2022 and 2023 champion López sitting atop the Nations Cup standings with 8 points. Valerio Gallo’s win moves him to second with 7 points, while Takuma Miyazono (who failed to score in Prague) is third on 6 points.
Watch this weekend for World Final ticket details
Details of how and where to buy tickets for the 2024 World Finals will be announced during the broadcast on Saturday.
Amsterdam will host three days of the very best SIM racing action in early December: The Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup starts proceedings on Friday, December 6; the Manufacturers Cup will re-unite all three drivers from the 12 manufacturer teams on Saturday, December 7; and on Sunday, December 8 the Nations Cup World Champion will be crowned at Theater Amsterdam. Keep an eye on https://www.gran-turismo.com/world/news/ for more details.
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