2024-01

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Some of Palworld's Pal designs look similar to Pokémon, but just how close are they? We'll compare them, then you be the judge....

Blizzard Entertainment's survival game, which it informally announced in 2022, was reportedly canceled over engine issues during its six years of development, according to a new Bloomberg report. This report follows yesterday's news that Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax divisions. Alongside this news, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra also announced he was departing from the company, and we learned the aforementioned survival game had been canceled.  However, Blizzard didn't really touch on why the game it had just announced exactly two years prior was canceled. Bloomberg's new report details development struggles around the game's engine, which was prototyped using Epic Games' Unreal Engine before "Blizzard executives decided to switch, in part, because it wouldn't support their ambitions for vast maps supporting up to 100 players at once." The team behind this game, which Bloomberg says was called Odyssey,...

I've been tracking developer Ubisoft Singapore's naval warfare multiplayer game, Skull and Bones, since its reveal years ago, both as a massive fan of all things pirates and someone who specifically loved the high seas action of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I wrote Game Informer's Skull and Bones cover story back in 2022, and have played the game several times since then in previews, betas, and more.  Despite what various delays had me believing, Skull and Bones is actually shaping up to be, at the very least, a fun and competent experience. Because I've played so many of its disparate parts rather than the whole, I believe there's something really good in the game. However, without playing the full package, it's tough to say how it all comes together, a critical aspect for any live-service multiplayer game.  I'm going to...

Black Forest Games, the studio behind the recent Destroy All Humans! 1 and 2 remakes, has reportedly laid off about 50 people. This news comes from Kotaku, which learned from a source with knowledge of the situation that these layoffs were announced yesterday, January 24, and that more information about them would be provided next week.  Game Informer has reached out to Black Forest Games and will update this story if it learns more.  Kotaku writes that its source says creative directors and most, "if not all," of the managers at Black Forest Games will keep their jobs following the layoffs. At approximately 110 employees as of last year, 50 job cuts would equate to a roughly 50 percent reduction in staff at the studio.  Last August, publisher THQ Nordic, which is owned by Embracer Group, revealed that Black Forest Games was...

PlayStation console exclusivity used to be a permanent status for a first-party game to have, but in recent years, Sony has been sending its most popular first-party titles to PC as well. Today, we learned about the most recent instance of this – Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition is coming to PC on March 21. The news comes via the PlayStation Blog, where they revealed that both the base game and its 2023 expansion, Burning Shores, will come to the new platform as a package deal.  Brave a deadly frontier in distant lands: Horizon Forbidden Forbidden West Complete Edition comes to PC on 21 March. Wishlist now on Steam and Epic Games Store! 🏹 Read more: https://t.co/eNrR4Bnjic pic.twitter.com/XiWz9ygM0W — Guerrilla (@Guerrilla) January 25, 2024 Bringing the game to PC allows more people to play it, but it also allows people to take...

Earlier this month, developer Naughty Dog announced Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II would be coming to its recent release, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, in a post-launch update for the game. Now, we know exactly when this behind-the-scenes documentary will be live: February 2.  Grounded II will be added to The Last of Us Part II Remastered in a free update for the game on February 2, but you can also watch the documentary on YouTube the same day. The documentary and associated game update will both go live at 9 a.m. PT/Noon ET.  If you haven't yet, check out the Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II trailer below:  As you can see, Grounded II promises to dive into various behind-the-scenes aspects of Naughty Dog's latest and arguably most controversial...

Update, 2:50 p.m. ET/ 1/25/24: The Verge obtained the full internal memo sent to staff by Microsoft's game content and studios president, Matt Booty. In it, he says, following today's layoffs, the company is moving forward with a more focused strategy across Microsoft Gaming that sets it up for sustainable growth and a better alignment of talent. Booty also addresses Blizzard president Mike Ybarra's departure, and the cancelation of its in-development survival game project. He says Blizzard's next president will be announced next week.  You can read the memo, in full, below:  "Blizzard team,  As you may have read in Phil's note, today is a challenging day as we say goodbye to some of our colleagues. This is a difficult process, but it is one that will best enable Blizzard and Xbox to deliver ambitious games for our players on more...