Last month, we sought revenge, conquered the shadows, and stormed the battlefield. Some big new releases included Ghost of Yōtei, Battlefield 6, Ninja Gaiden 4, Ball x Pit, and Digimon Story: Time Stranger.
How does it work? At the end of every month, PlayStation Blog will open a poll where you can vote for the best new game released that month. After the polls close we will tally your votes, and announce the winner on our social channels and PlayStation.Blog.
What is the voting criteria? That’s up to you! If you were only able to recommend one new release to a friend that month, which would it be? Note: re-released games don’t qualify, but remakes do. We define remakes as ambitious, larger-scale rebuilds such as Resident Evil 4 (2023) and Final Fantasy VII Remake.
How are nominees decided? The PlayStation Blog editorial team will gather a list of that month’s most noteworthy releases and use it to seed the poll.
Rockstar, the developer of Grand Theft Auto VI, reportedly fired between 30 and 40 employees in a move that the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is claiming was “blatant” and “ruthless” union busting.
According to Bloomberg, the workers fired this past Thursday were all UK and Canadian employees who were also part of a private trade union chat group on Discord, and were either union members themselves or trying to organize Rockstar. IWGB has issued a press release in response to the firing, claiming that the employees’ dismissal was explicitly due to union activities.
Rockstar has just carried out the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry. This flagrant contempt for the law and for the lives of the workers who bring in their billions is an insult to their fans and the global industry.
Despite this calculated attack on workers organising for a collective voice and to improve their difficult working conditions, the Rockstar Union remains undeterred. They will keep organising for respect and better conditions whilst continuing to pour their blood, sweat and creativity into games that are loved by millions.
The IWGB will pursue every legal claim possible to ensure our members are reinstated and receive interim relief.
In response, Rockstar has issued its own statement via a Take-Two spokesperson, countering that the firings were for “gross misconduct, and for no other reason.”
We strive to make the world’s best entertainment properties by giving our best-in-class creative teams positive work environments and ongoing career opportunities. Our culture is focused on teamwork, excellence, and kindness. Rockstar Games terminated a small number of individuals for gross misconduct, and for no other reason. As always, we fully support Rockstar’s ambitions and approach.
These dismissals occur as Rockstar is on the cusp of releasing Grand Theft Auto 6 in May of next year, with the game projected by some analysts to make $3 billion in its first year on sale and said by others to be one of the most important game releases of all time.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that a majority of the data that various AI models train themselves on do so without getting any sort of permission to do so. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, as they say, though in the case of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, they probably shouldn’t have taken that lesson to heart. That’s because Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) has requested that the AI developer stops using Japanese media to train its text-to-video model Sora.
Tabletop wizard and cool glasses-wearer Mike Pondsmith has teased having “ways” to bring Johnny Silverhand back in Cyberpunk 2077‘s sequel. Actor and serial whoa merchant Keanu Reeves hasn’t been shy about being open to reprising the role were the opportunity to crash through his door waving some mantis blades about, but reconciling such a thing with the events of the first game could prove a bit complex.
This isn’t the first time Pondsmith’s let loose potential details about Cyberpunk 2, which developers CD Projekt have otherwise remained pretty tight-lipped about while they work away at it. Back in May, he alluded to having chatted to a dev at the studio about a city which “feels more like Chicago gone wrong” that’s visited during the course of the game.
Dragon Quest is a remarkable, enduring game series, and now its creator, Yuji Horii, has received the recognition he well and truly deserves from the Japanese government (thanks, VGC).
In its Autumn decorations, the government has awarded Horii the Order of the Rising Sun 4th Class: Gold Rays with Rosette, one of the country’s highest honours. The only awards higher than this are the Order of the Chrysanthemum, and Order of the Paulownia Flowers, both of which are generally reserved for monarchs, prime ministers, senior statesmen, etc.
We’re approaching the five year anniversary of the PS5 console’s launch, and it’s amazing to see the number of incredible experiences PS5 has brought to players everywhere – and there are more adventures to come. Through these past five years, our players have shared their reactions of awe, excitement, and surprise at the extraordinary moments they’ve witnessed while playing PS5. That’s the inspiration for our new ad campaign – we’re capturing the spirit of these moments when the most unexpected and unforgettable experiences happen on PS5.
The ad campaign, launching today, will feature three distinct stories:
The Greatest Stunt Jump Ever
The Unexpected Catch
Everyday Problems in Extraordinary Vehicles
In addition to the ad spot, we’re also bringing some of these unexpected moments into the real world, physically. From November to December, players may come across some of these themes inspired by the campaign in various locations around the world – such as UFOs landing in Australia, Spain & Germany or mysterious creatures found in Mexico, Italy & the UK.
We look forward to seeing more reactions and extraordinary moments that our fans share online with the world. There are many more incredible journeys to come as it often happens on PS5!
So, what happened to Agent? Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption writer Dan Houser, now of Absurd Ventures, has finally offered fans a detailed explanation in an interview on the Lex Fridman podcast. According to Houser, despite multiple versions of Agent being attempted at Rockstar, the game never came together, and that’s because, fundamentally, an open-world spy game simply doesn’t work.
“We worked a lot on multiple iterations of an open-world spy game, and it never came together,” Houser began.
“It had about five different iterations. I don’t think it works. I concluded — and I keep thinking about it sometimes, I sometimes lie in bed thinking about it — and I’ve concluded that what makes them really good as film stories makes them not work as video games. Or we need to think through how to do it in a different way as a video game”.
The version of Agent Rockstar announced was set in during the Cold War in the 1970s, but Houser revealed this was just one version of many Rockstar tried and failed to turn into a fun video game. Indeed, there was a version set in the modern day that also failed to go anywhere.
“That was one of the versions,” he said. “There was another one that was set in the current… we had so many different versions of this game, we worked with so many different teams.”
He continued: “Espionage, assassinations… I don’t know what it would’ve been because it never really… We never got it enough to even doing a proper story on it. We were doing the early work as you get the world up and running. It never really found its feet in either of them. And I sort of think I know why.
“Because in one of those films, they’re very, very frenetic and they beat to beat to beat — you gotta go here and save the world, you gotta go there and stop that person being killed and then save the world. An open-world game does have moments like that when the story comes together. But for large portions, it’s a lot looser, and you’re just hanging out and you’re just doing what you want. And I want freedom. I wanna go over here and do what I want, and I wanna go over and do what you want. That’s why it works well being a criminal, because you fundamentally don’t have anyone telling you what to do. We try and create external agency through these people kind of forcing you into the story at times.
“But as a spy, that doesn’t really work because you have to be against the clock. So I think for me, I question if you can even make a good open-world spy game. So lots of things would work as open-world games, but I don’t know if a spy does.”
“We really got going on this one and worked on it for over a year. I remember working on a downhill skiing chase scene with guns for instance,” Vermeij said of Agent.
“The game wasn’t progressing as well as we’d hoped. It was inevitable that eventually the whole company would have to get behind the next Grand Theft Auto. We tried to cut the game down in an attempt to get the bulk of it done before the inevitable call from New York would come. We cut out an entire level (I think Cairo) and maybe even the space section.
“It became clear that [Agent] was going to be too much of a distraction for us and we ditched it. I think it was handed over to another company within Rockstar but never got completed.” Half of the Rockstar North team was working on Grand Theft Auto 4 DLC and Grand Theft Auto 5, while half was set to work on Agent before the importance of its premiere franchise took over.
Agent was developed as a spy thriller akin to James Bond, earning it the codename “Jimmy” within the Scotland-based Rockstar North studio, with Jimmy being a Scottish nickname for James.
“The game was to be set in the 70s, be more linear than Grand Theft Auto with a number of locations,” Vermeij said. “There was a French Mediterranean city, a Swiss ski resort, Cairo, and at the end there would be a big shootout with lasers in space. Classic James Bond. The vibe was very cool.”
Rockstar was kept busy otherwise with smash hits GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, releasing in 2013 and 2018 respectively. GTA 6 is set to follow next year.
Houser went on to say that rockstar also “played around with the knights concept,” following Agent’s demise, “trying to do a version of a mythological game that could have been fun.”
“Still love that idea, but never went very far with it,” he explained. “It never got to writing any of it. Just did some backstory and played around with a few ideas. But it was always something I thought I would never do, and then kind of fell in love with it a little bit.”
While Agent is dead, IO Interactive’s promising 007: First Light is due out next year.
Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Original Saints Row design director Chris Stockman is talking to the hellgods at Embracer Group about making a prequel open world game, possibly set in 1977 and containing absolutely no dildo bats. This comes almost two decades after Stockman left Saints Row development studio Volition, and a couple of years after Embracer closed Volition amid wider cuts.
Keanu Reeves would love to play Johnny Silverhand again, but how can he given the events of Cyberpunk 2077? It turns out Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith has worked out a way to make it make sense, and has told the much-loved actor: “contact me.”
“Absolutely. I’d love to play Johnny Silverhand again,” Reeves said when asked if he’d be interested in revisiting his legendary rockstar terrorist character in Cyberpunk 2.
Reeves’s love-affair with the Cyberpunk community began with his viral “you’re breathtaking” moment at E3 2019. Reeves, on-stage to announce the release date of Cyberpunk 2077, was interrupted by a fan who shouted out “you’re breathtaking!” Reeves’ response was to double-down with his own “you’re breathtaking… you’re all breathtaking!” Cue wholesome memes across the internet forever more. You can see the iconic gamer moment in the video below.
The question is, could Reeves actually play Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2 even if he wanted to? In other words, could Johnny Silverhand return in the sequel, given the events of Cyberpunk 2077?
Warning! Spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 follow:
While many players believe Cyberpunk 2077 provided a suitable ending for Johnny and V’s story, depending on which ending of the game CD Projekt makes canon for Cyberpunk 2, the door may be left open for Reeves’ return. Could Johnny return in cameo form perhaps, having downloaded himself into someone or something else? Canon ending dependent, could V end up becoming Johnny Silverhand in mind and body for Cyberpunk 2? Perhaps we could see Johnny as part of a flashback to events before Cyberpunk 2077, as Cyberpunk 2077 had?
It sounds like Mike Pondsmith has been thinking about this ever since Reeves’ interview with IGN. In a CD Projekt livestream to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Cyberpunk 2077, Mike Pondsmith said, matter of factly: “Not that long ago, I saw that Keanu would like to find a way to come back from the dead and play Johnny again. I have ways to do that, Keanu. Contact me.”
Pondsmith, understandably, did not reveal what those “ways” were, but as we’ve mentioned, there are plenty of theories fans have come up with to make it make sense.
Reeves isn’t the only big Hollywood name to appear in Cyberpunk 2077. Idris Elba starred in the successful expansion, Phantom Liberty, which Pondsmith was delighted by. Indeed, he revealed he worried that CD Projekt might get sued because his character, looked so much like Elba, before it was revealed it actually was Elba playing the role.
“‘So let me get this straight,'” Pondsmith recalled of his reaction to the news. “‘You got Keanu Reeves, and then you turn around and get Idris Elba. What’s next? Scarlett Johansson?’
“Scarlett, you know, I have roles for you. You can do anything.”
Scarlett Johansson in Cyberpunk 2? That remains to be seen. But Pondsmith has been chatty about the hotly anticipated sequel in the past. In May, Pondsmith teased some previously unknown details when he was asked about the scope of his involvement with Cyberpunk 2 (then known as Project Orion) at the Digital Dragons 2025 conference.
Pondsmith admitted he wasn’t as involved this time around, but said he does review scripts and had been to CD Projekt to check out the ongoing work.
“Last week I was wandering around talking to different departments, and seeing what they had, ‘Oh look, this is the new cyberware, what do you think?’ ‘Oh yeah, that’s pretty good, that works here.’”
And then, the morsel on the sequel: that it features a brand new city in addition to the Night City we know from Cyberpunk 2077. Pondsmith described this new city as “like Chicago gone wrong.”
“I spent a lot of time talking to one of the environment guys, and he was explaining how the new place in Orion, because there’s another city we visit — I’m not telling you any more than that but there’s another city we visit. And Night City is still there. But I remember looking at it and going, yeah I understand the feel you’re going for this, and this really does work. And it doesn’t feel like Blade Runner, it feels more like Chicago gone wrong. I said, ‘Yeah, I can see this working.’”
It’s worth pointing out that Pondsmith’s comments do not necessarily suggest the Cyberpunk sequel will feature a future Chicago, rather a city that has the feel of a dystopian version of the city. It may well be a take on future Chicago, but that isn’t confirmed based on these comments. There is also some debate about whether Cyberpunk 2 will expand upon the Night City that’s in Cyberpunk 2077 or feature a new version, and the extent to which it is playable.
It sounds like we’ll have to wait some time to find out. CD Projekt is of course focusing on The Witcher 4, and CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski has suggested Cyberpunk 2 won’t be out until at least 2030.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
We were late to the party with the last big horse game, Umamusume: Pretty Derby (I confess, I avoided it because I’m not that keen on gacha, though I am not above watching Gold Ship/Michael Jackson crossover memes on the toilet), so I’m getting in on the ground floor with Sha Beast Dressage.
It’s sure to be the next global hit. Who doesn’t want to parade around on a horse that looks like it’s made of ancient Egyptian embalming tools? Who doesn’t want to be trapped in “a perpetual cycle of non-consensual reincarnation” by a god of torture, forced to train up hellbeasts for exhibition to earn your freedom? Who doesn’t want to make the Nuckelavee do a croupade?
