Steam Deck has spent its entire life thus far without even a temporary price drop. That ends today, as the Steam Spring Sale has launched with the first official Steam Deck savings – a 10% cut across the range – alongside the more expected dealsplosion of discounted games.
What’s more, this sale could also be the last time that the Steam Deck joins in a Steam sale, at least for a very long time. Lawrence Yang, a Valve designer who recently spoke to us about the Deck’s first year in the wild, has also told me that the company are “looking at this as a one-time deal in celebration of Steam Deck’s anniversary.” You’ll therefore have until March 23rd, when the Spring Sale ends, to seize a saving on the handheld PC before it returns to base pricing – maybe for good.
All three Steam Deck versions are part of the sale, shedding exactly 10% apiece. The 64GB model is down from £349 / $399 to £314.10 / $359.10, the 256GB model drops from £459 / $529 to £413.10 / $476.10, and the top 512GB model falls from £569 / $649 to £512.10 / $584.10. Unlike the sad old days of 2022, there’s no lengthy waiting period once you put your order in, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes the full two weeks of Valve’s one-to-two week delivery estimate, what with the likely surge in demand.
For the month before the 3DS and Wii U eShops close for new purchases on 27th March, each day we’re going to highlight a specific eShop game for one of those consoles and give a short pitch as to why we think it deserves your love and attention — before it’s too late. The chance to add these to your library will be gone for good soon and, for one reason or another, these eShop-exclusives are close to our hearts.
Today, Liam highlights a classic retro racer that started out life in the arcades…
Anno 1800 Console Editionis now available on Xbox Series X|S, and you can play the award-winning city-building strategy game for free from now until March 23. If you have an Xbox Live Gold subscription or an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, you can also access Anno 1800 Console Edition on your Xbox Series X|S through the Xbox Free Play Days event from now until March 24. During the Free Week, you can play all of Anno 1800’s main content, and if you want to continue building your empire after March 23, your progression will carry over if you buy the game.
Set during the Industrial Revolution, Anno 1800 lets you build large cities, establish logistical networks, charter expeditions around the world, and take on your opponents diplomatically, commercially, or militarily. Protect your cities, help your economy grow, and be ready to adapt to any situation that may occur. Explore the story in campaign mode; customize your opponents, victory conditions, and difficulty level in sandbox mode; and challenge friends or play co-op in online multiplayer.
Anno 1800 Console Edition is available in both Standard and Deluxe versions. The Standard version comes with the base game and all the free game updates released for the PC version, while the Deluxe version adds three cosmetic packs: the Amusements Pack lets you add amusement parks; the Pedestrian Zone Pack comes with a variety of ornamental trees and shrubs; and the Vibrant Cities Pack provides diversity among your common Old World city buildings. The PC version’s DLC and Season Passes are not planned for release on consoles, however nine Cosmetic Packs are already available for purchase and a few more are coming soon.
Take advantage of the Free Week in Anno 1800 from now until March 23 on Xbox Series X|S and get ready to build a new world and guide your cities to prosperity!
Beautify your cities with the Deluxe Edition! Includes three Cosmetic Packs: Amusements Pack, Pedestrian Zone, and Vibrant Cities to enjoy a wide variety of ornaments and skins.
A RICH EARLY ADOPTER OFFER: contains a digital art book, a digital game soundtrack*, the access to the Imperial Pack and the Console Founder Pack!
A complete package that will totally immerse you in the world of the Industrial Revolution of Anno 1800™.
Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age in this city-building real-time strategy game. Experience one of the most exciting and fast-changing periods of all time as you discover new technologies, regions, and societies, implement your own strategy, and build a new world to your design.
Play solo or use the online mode to play PvP or co-op modes: How the world remembers your name is up to you.
THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA: Prove your skills as you create huge cities, plan logistic networks, settle lush new continents, send out expeditions around the globe, and dominate opponents by diplomacy, trade, or warfare.
BUILD YOUR OWN EMPIRE by constructing large metropolises, managing a thriving economy, and protecting your creations from others. To guide your cities to prosperity, you’ll need to learn to adapt to any situation that arises.
A UNIQUE CITY-BUILDER EXPERIENCE: Includes a story-based campaign, customizable sandbox mode, and a multiplayer experience.
NEW FEATURES FOR A NEW AGE, through expeditions across the globe to seek fame and fortune and a new workforce feature that will make the management of your factories more demanding and realistic.
DIFFERENT WAYS TO PLAY: You decide what you want your game to be! Challenge yourself with a variety of AI characters or focus on building and beautifying a huge empire.
*Access the digital artbook and soundtrack upon game release on the official Anno 1800 Console Page: https:\www.annogame.comconsole
A RICH EARLY ADOPTER OFFER: contains a digital art book, a digital game soundtrack*, the access to the Imperial Pack and the Console Founder Pack!
A complete package that will totally immerse you in the world of the Industrial Revolution of Anno 1800™!
Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age in this city-building real-time strategy game. Experience one of the most exciting and fast-changing periods of all time as you discover new technologies, regions, and societies, implement your own strategy, and build a new world to your design.
Play solo or use the online mode to play PvP or co-op modes: How the world remembers your name is up to you.
THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA: Prove your skills as you create huge cities, plan logistic networks, settle lush new continents, send out expeditions around the globe, and dominate opponents by diplomacy, trade, or warfare.
BUILD YOUR OWN EMPIRE by constructing large metropolises, managing a thriving economy, and protecting your creations from others. To guide your cities to prosperity, you’ll need to learn to adapt to any situation that arises.
A UNIQUE CITY-BUILDER EXPERIENCE: Includes a story-based campaign, customizable sandbox mode, and a multiplayer experience.
NEW FEATURES FOR A NEW AGE, through expeditions across the globe to seek fame and fortune and a new workforce feature that will make the management of your factories more demanding and realistic than ever.
DIFFERENT WAYS TO PLAY: You decide what you want your game to be! Challenge yourself with a variety of AI characters or focus on building and beautifying a huge empire.
*Access the digital artbook and soundtrack upon game release on the official Anno 1800 Console Page: https:\www.annogame.comconsole
With the recent launch of Destiny 2: Lightfall, the latest expansion for Bungie’s sci-fi action MMO, players have been diving deep into new activities, exploring a new elemental power in Strand, and discovering the secrets of Neptune’s hidden city of Neomuna. A new Destiny 2 expansion also means a new raid – Destiny’s challenging cooperative adventures designed for fireteams of six, built to test players’ skill, problem solving, and ability to work as a team. On March 10, Guardians all over the world delved into the latest – and arguably most visually stunning – raid to date: Root of Nightmares.
To celebrate the launch of Lightfall’s new raid, we recently spoke with three members of the Destiny team: Associate Designer Kailani Marrero, Staff Designer June Meyer, and Design Lead Brian Frank to get behind-the-scenes insights into what it’s like working on (and giving names to) some of the most mysterious, intriguing, and challenging content in all of gaming.
How does the Root of Nightmares raid move the narrative forward following the initial events of Lightfall?
June Meyer: Root of Nightmares sees players investigating The Witness’ pyramid in the aftermath of the end of the Lightfall campaign. In the raid, players get to see firsthand how the Traveler’s Light terraforms the landscape, bringing new life and disrupting the existing environment. We’ve never had a chance to see or influence this process, and the raid gives players the opportunity to transform the environment through their actions.
Kailani Marrero: It was important to ensure that the lessons the player (and the Guardian) learned on Neomuna translated to their journey in the raid. The Guardian spends some time learning to “go with the flow” – especially when coming to terms with Osiris and learning to wield Strand during the campaign – and we took that mentality into the raid encounter. Without spoiling things for those who haven’t experienced the raid yet, the Guardians know who the threat is, and they know that this entity must be taken out. Even in the face of overwhelming odds, there is work to be done and that confidence in yourself, and in your allies, still should remain true.
Q: What are some specific examples of Bungie incorporating narrative themes into the puzzle-like gameplay elements of Destiny 2’s raids?
Brian Frank: In Vow of the Disciple [from Destiny 2: The Witch Queen], the symbols and their meanings were designed as a system from which gameplay events would build statements about the places and characters in our world. Within the context of The Witch Queen’s themes of deception and illusion, they were intended to be evocative of truths, lies, or prophecies. They also help to illicit wonder from players in having to interpret and communicate them to the fireteam in order to progress through the raid.
KM: Narrative themes are often the bow on top of the experience that adds that extra “oomph” to a raid. Many mechanics are done ahead of time with the general narrative concept of the raid in mind and then more context is given by the narrative designer. The bones are there but then you get to build on top of it to make it even cooler and to give context where needed.
JM: The thematic goal with the mechanics of Root of Nightmares was that only through wielding both Light and Darkness can Guardians succeed in their fight against The Witness. Players begin the activity using solely Light and in the second encounter, both Light and Darkness are required but never combined. By the final encounter, players have learned how to combine these elements in truly meaningful ways.
Q: What are some of your favorite raid names from past expansions, and why?
KM: I’m sure that answer would change with every person you ask! I am completely biased and love Root of Nightmares over all of them. It took us a bit to get to a point of agreement – we had a good laugh about the unintentional “blank OF blank” formula – but Root of Nightmares won out because it was just too good to pass up.
This time around, we wanted a name that sounded both mysterious and sinister, and this was the winner by far. Some players may have also picked up on hidden messages in Neomuna hinting at who they might face in the boss fight, and we wanted to pay that off with the raid name. If you know your Destiny lore, certain names immediately come to mind when you think “Nightmares.”
If I had to pick my top three though, it would be: Root of Nightmares, Vow of the Disciple, and Last Wish [from Destiny 2: Forsaken].
JM: Deep Stone Crypt [from Destiny 2: Beyond Light] will always be a special one for me because of its simplicity. The name of the raid revealed everything about the activity and nothing at the same time. We knew that the most important piece for players was letting them know where they were going, but we thought it was critical to keep the player journey under wraps. This was the first name proposed in our discussion and we didn’t bother coming up with other options because we knew it was the best choice.
Q: What goals does the team keep in mind when naming a raid?
BF: Our goal is for the name to capture a sense of mystery, for it to be evocative of an adventure you can imagine your character embarking on, or of a challenge to endure and overcome with your fireteam.
KM: Naming a raid means finding that combination of words that really capture the essence of the activity. They’re usually meant to toe the line between giving you absolutely nothing and everything all at the same time. It’s a difficult-yet-fun challenge!
Q: What else would the Bungie team like players – new or returning to Destiny 2 – to know about how raids fit into the experience?
KM: For me, Destiny raids are such a unique experience. You see a lot of different raid experiences across MMOs, RPGs, and the combination thereof, but to see it in an FPS, for me, is so cool. It’s a challenge for players who are willing to meet it and as a reward you get cool stuff and more story. Wins all around.
BF: As pinnacle cooperative activities, Destiny raids are designed to foster player stories. We set a high bar for coordination and mastery of the challenges unique to each raid. It is very rewarding to succeed, which requires reliance on your fireteam, when at the outset to achieve victory may have seemed impossible.
Q: How can Lightfall players best prepare to partake in the Root of Nightmares raid?
BF: If you’re up for the challenge, the Legendary campaign is a great way to acquire a set of gear that puts you right at the recommended Power level for the raid. Another approach would be to engage in Lightfall and Seasonal ritual activities that offer Power upgrades.
JM: Run Neomuna activities to unlock your Strand fragments, because grappling and mobility are great ways to stay alive in each of the raid encounters. Also, dungeons are a good opportunity to gear up and to dip your toe into more complex endgame activities without needing to get as many teammates together.
KM: Finding a great fireteam is paramount to having fun during any Destiny 2 raid. If you don’t know five other players to raid with, don’t worry! You can use the “Fireteams” feature on the Destiny 2 mobile app to either join an existing raid group or create your own from scratch.
Five ex-Criterion and Need for Speed developers, including former GM Matt Webster, have founded Fuse Games, a AAA studio focused on “blockbuster spectacle and player-centric innovations in social gameplay, self-expression, and creativity”.
Joining Webster, who will serve as the new studio’s GM, are head of content Steve Uphill, head of production Pete Lake, head of operations Alan McDairmant, and head of technology Andrei Shires, according to Eurogamer. The quintet of developers departed Criterion in December with over 90 combined years of experience at the prolific racing studio.
Fuse Games will develop for consoles and PC. Despite the developers’ experience with racing games, Webster told GI.biz the team hasn’t committed to a genre for its debut: “Obviously arcade racers and open world racers are what we know very deeply,” they said.
“But we have played around in other genres over the years, including Battlefront, Battlefield… VR. We know what we are good at, and that spans a broad range of things now. Once we select our genre, we want to lead that genre.”
Webster and his colleagues are looking to set up shop in Guildford, the same UK town Criterion calls home. The staff has already been built up to 17 employees.
The developers left Criterion just weeks after the studio shipped its latest Need for Speed game in December. IGN’s Need for Speed Unbound review praised its bold new style while noting its lack of innovation.
Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.
podcast. What are some of the bad launches we remember? What part do we play in this ecosystem? Are we just doomed to get bad PC ports for the next few years, or is this going to happen forever now.
Plus, a terrifying Tower Of Jocularity that challenges us to know when games came out (we do quite well, I think), the games we’ve been playing right now, and a trio of movie recommendations.
Danish developer IO Interactive made a name for itself over two decades ago when it released Hitman: Codename 47, the first in a long line of games starring everyone’s favorite sardonic assassin with a barcode tattooed on the back of his bald head. The series has spawned over half a dozen games, two major motion pictures, and lots of commercial success and critical acclaim.
Now, however, with the most recent Hitman game trilogy completed and all folded together under the Hitman: World of Assassination umbrella, IO Interactive is moving on to two other projects: a James Bond 007 game – of which little is known about so far – as well as a new online fantasy-RPG, which looks like it will come after Bond and we know even less about. Hitman, the studio says, is on hiatus for now.
All of this preamble is to set up what I’m about to say, and that is this: Microsoft, if it isn’t already, should be taking a long, hard look at IO Interactive as its next potential acquisition target – regardless of whether or not the Activision-Blizzard deal is approved by regulators, but especially if it isn’t. The fact is, there aren’t a lot of independent AAA game development studios left on the market. Embracer Group bought Gearbox (and a whole bunch of others), Sony took Bungie off the market, Microsoft has spent the past several years acquiring the likes of Obsidian, inXile, and Playground, etc.
To be fair, IO’s prowess outside of Hitman is, for now, relatively unproven. The original Xbox third-person strategy shooter Freedom Fighters was awesome, but that was a long time ago. The two Kane & Lynch games were also a long time ago, and they weren’t awesome. However, the studio seems like the perfect fit for James Bond, and if it works, that could develop into a long-term partnership with the licensor. The online fantasy-RPG is more of a wild card, but it’s so different from anything the studio has ever done that it’s bound to be, at the very least, a project that has creatively energized the IO team.
I’m not sure there’s a better bang-for-your-buck acquisition target out there than IO
As such, I’m not sure there’s a better bang-for-your-buck acquisition target out there than IO. Of course, that’s if they even want to be bought. They were owned by Eidos Interactive (later Square Enix) for many, many years, but the studio eventually negotiated its independence. That it has not only survived but thrived in the years since speaks to a well-managed organization. Microsoft would be wise to snap them up – again, if the studio is even willing to sit down at the negotiating table – and add hundreds of talented developers as well as one proven franchise (in a genre Xbox currently has no presence in), one potentially huge licensed game that could be to Xbox what Goldeneye was to Nintendo, and one fantasy-RPG that, well…OK, I guess Xbox already has plenty of in-house RPG talent. But hey, too much is never enough, right?
No doubt Phil Spencer has already picked up the phone and called IO Interactive at some point, but on the off chance he hasn’t, I certainly hope he will. I’m hard-pressed to think of a more talented studio that’s capable of delivering AAA success that’s not already been gobbled up by some other larger publisher or investment group. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what happens with the Activision-Blizzard situation first, but after that, I look forward to seeing what Microsoft does next.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
lawsuits and other messy goings-on at Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM recently, things are starting to look a little sunnier for this troubled RPG maker. Three of its lawsuits with former employees have been resolved this week, and today marks the arrival of a new mode in the game called Collage Mode, a daft and very entertaining screenshotting and diorama tool that lets you arrange Revachol’s many, many inhabitants in all sorts of weird scenes, poses and sizes. And yes, that is a giant Kim and Kuno up top there tormenting your tiny detective protagonist. What of it?
Arkane Studios has shared the official story trailer for its upcoming co-op shooter Redfall which shares the mad science origins of the game’s vampire apocalypse.
The lengthy three minute trailer (below) opens with an optimistic message from a character called Ava, who says a drop of her blood was promised to “free people from sickness and death”.
This seemingly turned into a dangerous experiment that resulted in her death, however, with the extracted blood not just healing people and granting immortality, but turning them into vampires too. These vampires took over the town of Redfall, which quickly collapsed into a broken society led by gangs of the savage monsters.
Some of the stronger vampires are also introduced in the trailer, suggesting that Redfall will be separated into four areas with vampire leaders at the helm of each. These include The Hollow Man, a winged vampire with protruding organs; Bloody Tom, a massive, muscly vampire; Miss Whisper, who seems to have branch-like growths all over her body; and the Black Sun, suggested to be the most powerful of all.
Various gameplay clips also featured in the trailer, showing how up to four players can take on the town at once to defeat facilities full of the vampires in a ton of creative ways.
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Alana thinks back on a divisive part of a beloved game as she peers into the middle distance, rocking back and forth,mumbling ‘Silksong, Silksong, Silkso—‘…
I’m a pretty reactive person. I’m anxious, I hate spiders, and I don’t like scuttling and scratching noises. But I absolutely love Hollow Knight‘s Deepnest.
Steam Deck has spent its entire life thus far without even a temporary price drop. That ends today, as the Steam Spring Sale has launched with the first official Steam Deck savings – a 10% cut across the range – alongside the more expected dealsplosion of discounted games.
podcast. What are some of the bad launches we remember? What part do we play in this ecosystem? Are we just doomed to get bad PC ports for the next few years, or is this going to happen forever now.
lawsuits and other