On 11th October 2024, three video game studios announced themselves near-simultaneously as the creators of “spiritual successors” to ZA/UM’s mournful Marxist RPG Disco Elysium. First came Longdue, a conspicuously corporate operator who are making an untitled “psychogeographic RPG”. Dark Math Games followed around lunchtime – they’re making a sexy Antarctic ski resort mystery called XXX Nightshift. Finally, there was Summer Eternal, the mouthiest and Marxiest of the lot, who have set themselves up as a workers co-operative and have yet to announce a specific project.
Kadokawa has now confirmed the report, with a note from CEO Takeshi Natsuno issued after shares in the company skyrocketed on the news.
“There are some articles on the acquisition of Kadokawa Corporation (hereinafter ‘the Company’) by Sony Group Inc,” Natsuno said. “However, this information is not announced by the Company. The Company has received an initial letter of intent to acquire the Company’s shares, but no decision has been made at this time. If there are any facts that should be announced in the future, we will make an announcement in a timely and appropriate manner.”
Sony has so far declined to comment.
Kadokawa’s business extends into areas that fit into Sony’s broader entertainment offering, which includes anime, manga, TV, and film. Kadokawa is a prolific publisher of anime, and Sony already owns anime streamers Crunchyroll and Funimation. As well as FromSoftware, Kadokawa owns Danganronpa developer Spike Chunsoft, Octopath Traveler developer Acquire, and RPG Maker and Pixel Game Maker developer Gotcha Gotcha Games.
Kadokawa is the majority owner of FromSoftware, with around 70% of the company. Sony already owns around 14% of the developer, with Tencent owning around 16%.
Piers Harding-Rolls, Research Director at Ampere Analysis, told IGN that news of a potential deal isn’t that surprising. “Sony’s interest in Kadokawa’s games publisher FromSoftware was made more concrete in 2022 when it acquired a roughly 14% share of the company following up on its long-time collaboration with the company,” Harding-Rolls said.
“At the time, Sony mentioned a broader interest in cross-media development of anime and games IP to support its other media businesses. So, in that sense any deal for the parent company Kadokawa, which also operates extensively in manga and anime, is a natural extension of this earlier deal. These other areas align nicely with Sony’s anime businesses.
“The market conditions for acquisitions have changed dramatically over the last two years but Sony will always be looking for opportunities that can fuel its growth and that bolster its IP portfolio, and that represent value. There may also be a defensive element to this move. FromSoftware is an important partner for Sony’s games business, and it will not want a competitor taking control of Kadokawa and potentially disrupting that relationship. It helps that Kadokawa is also active in areas which are a strong fit with Sony’s wider business.”
For Sony, its gaming business has already suffered significant layoffs this year and the closure of multiple studios, including Concord developer Firewalk. In February, it announced a round of layoffs affecting 900 staff, or about 8% of its global PlayStation workforce. The layoffs impacted a number of PlayStation studios, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, and Firesprite, but PlayStation’s London studio was hit hardest with a notice of closure. Since then, Sony-owned Bungie has also suffered devastating cuts as Destiny 2 struggles to find commercial success.
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.
A new report from Reuters has emerged that reveals Sony is potentially in talks to purchase Kadokawa, a Japanese media conglomerate that serves as parent to dozens of entertainment companies.
In the gaming space, Kadokawa owns Spike Chunsoft, Acquire, Gotcha Gotcha Games, and FromNetworks, while also owning a majority stake in FromSoftware alongside Tencent and Sony. We imagine that FromSoftware is proving particularly attractive for Sony, since the studio is responsible for the likes of Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and the Armored Core franchise.
Bethesda’s Starfield has seen 15 million players since launching in September 2023.
Starfield hit six million players on its day of release to become the biggest launch in Bethesda Game Studios history, surpassing the likes of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Fallout 4. Those player numbers were boosted, of course, by Starfield’s day one launch into Game Pass.
“We’re thrilled that so many of you have embarked on this journey with us, and we appreciate your feedback,” Bethesda said in a post on its website. “We are always looking for ways to improve your experience playing the game.”
To that end, Bethesda has released a new update that makes a number of important changes and additions. Creations by Verified Creators now have the option to be achievement friendly, there are two new free creations (a vehicle and a quest), and there are new quality-of-life improvements, such as an uncapped framerate option for Xbox Series X. However, Achievements will not retroactively unlock on previous game saves with Creations, even if those Creations are now achievement friendly.
Update 1.14.74 adds the newest land vehicle, the Deimog, as a “special gift” to all players for hitting the 15 million landmark, Bethesda said. Here’s the official blurb:
Built for speed and endurance, the Deimog features a fully enclosed cabin to keep you protected as you race through rugged landscapes. Its exceptional handling allows you to navigate even the trickiest terrain with ease, while a powerful rocket launcher ensures you’re prepared for any threats — be it hostile wildlife or clusters of enemies.
And the new quest is called The Perfect Recipe, made available to players for free “in the spirit of Thanksgiving.”
The Perfect Recipe invites you on a heartwarming journey through Akila City, where the past and present collide in the hands of an unlikely dreamer. This character-driven questline introduces you to Harbhajan, a gifted mechanic with a hidden passion for the culinary arts. When you stumble upon a dusty recipe book during your travels, you learn it belongs to Harbhajan — a once-hopeful chef whose ambitions were set aside for a more practical life. Returning the recipes ignites a spark, rekindling old dreams of becoming a galaxy-renowned chef. But could it be too late for a second chance?
The uncapped frame rate option is available again for Xbox Series X users.
The Message of the Day now displays more consistently on the Xbox.
Addressed an issue where some console commands did not disable certain achievements.
Shattered Space will now show ownership correctly for Steam users.
Features
Creation Kit: Lipsync animation data generation is now available.
Gameplay
The Annihilator Particle Beam damage-over-time effect no longer triggers companion reactions.
Resolved a Leadership skill issue that could cause companions to not speak up.
Improved function of the stealth bar while around crowd NPCs.
Addressed an issue where destroyed ships could load in without collision.
Addressed an issue where loading a save the relied on missing content could place the player in an undesirable location.
Trackers Alliance – Roach will now accurately track the number of completed bounties.
Trackers Alliance – Bounty targets will now appear in Akila, Gagarin, and Cydonia.
Trackers Alliance – Fixed an issue where the player could receive additional credits by extorting the target and then killing them.
Trackers Alliance – Bounty targets should now have a larger variety of appearances.
Trackers Alliance – Bounty targets will now be removed after being dealt with and leaving the area.
Trackers Alliance – Extorting or bribing a bounty target is no longer a guaranteed success.
Quests
The Starjacker – The correct quest objective will display when the player boards the Junker Watchdog.
Legacy of the Fang – Addressed an issue that could cause the key to no longer open the door if the player had left the area.
The Duel – If the player attacks Danika and gets arrested, they are now able to speak to her afterwards to complete the quest.
The Scaled Citadel – Anasko’s ID Key is now flagged as a quest item.
What Remains – Addressed an issue where having certain creations installed could make the hatch on The Oracle non-interactable.
What Remains – The Engineering Bay Access Card is now flagged as a quest item.
A House Divided – The doors in the Radiology center will stay unlocked during this quest if the player exits the area and returns.
A House Divided – The player can now obtain the keycard from Madri after the quest is completed.
Zealous Overreach – Fixed an issue that could occur if the Va’ruun Zealots at the exterior of Shadow Station Epsilon were killed before receiving the quest.
Zealous Overreach – Addressed an issue that could prevent the player from speaking to Razma or Viktor if the quest “Conflict in Conviction” is started at the same time.
Zealous Overreach – Vortex Phantoms will no longer spawn close enough to interrupt the negotiation scene.
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.
Ghostface is out now in Mortal Kombat 1, and players can finally see exactly who is under that most famous of horror masks.
Warning! Spoilers for Ghostface’s true identity in Mortal Kombat 1 are below.
Developer NetherRealm had confirmed Mortal Kombat 1’s Ghostface is none other than Billy Loomis, the main antagonist of the 1996 Scream film and the original Ghostface killer played by Skeet Ulrich. But now Ghostface is out Mortal Kombat 1 players can see the actual face behind the mask when they perform a Fatality or Fatal Blow against him.
While this clears things up on one Ghostface, what about the others? If you pick a Ghostface mirror match, dialogue between the two reveals one is Billy and the other is his friend Stu Macher, who in the original Scream films helps during the killing spree in Woodsboro. But the person behind the mask is always Billy (currently there’s no Stu model to be found.)
There’s even more going on with this Ghostface. As IGN had reported ahead of the DLC character’s launch, NetherRealm has used Ghostface to secretly bring back two characters from a 20-year-old Mortal Kombat game. Ghostface is actually three characters in one, as you can switch to temporarily playing as The Enforcer or The Assassin by holding a button during certain moves. The lore justification here is Ghostface has been transported to Lui Kang’s timeline without his partners from the movies, so recruits two members of the Black Dragon clan to help him out.
Mortal Kombat fans had identified moves that are directly related to Kobra (Enforcer) and Kira (Assassin), two human Black Dragon members who each made their debut in 2004’s Mortal Kombat: Deception. With Ghostface’s release, Mortal Kombat modder @thethiny confirmed Kobra and Kira are indeed the two other Ghostface killers who help Billy out.
So far, players have yet to uncover faces under the masks for Kobra or Kira, as it’s always Billy no matter which version of Ghostface is in play when the Fatality or Killing Blow is performed.
Ghostface in Mortal Kombat 1 is voiced by Roger L. Jackson, who has voiced the character throughout the Scream franchise. Up next is Conan the Barbarian and T-1000 Terminator.
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.
In 2015 a flight by Germanwings carrying 144 passengers and six crew crashed into a mountain in the French Alps. Later, the authorities who investigated the crash judged it was intentional – somebody in the cockpit had purposefully crashed the plane in an act of suicide, killing themselves and everyone on board. Mouthwashing begins with the same premise, albeit in a sci-fi setting. You’re piloting a spaceship with a crew of five, clicking on its various controls to override the safety and turn the ship towards a nearby heap of space rock. You mean to crash. The words that appear moments before this sequence are chilling in their simplicity: “I hope this hurts.”
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World has confirmed the global release times for its hotly anticipated post-apocalyptic shooter.
In a tweet, GSC said the November 20 release date for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl kicks off at 8am PT / 11am ET, and is consistent across both PC and Xbox Series X and S. It also launches straight into Xbox Game Pass as part of Wave 2 of November 2024’s lineup.
GSC has also confirmed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s final PC system requirements. The game provides four graphics presets: low; medium; high; and epic, as well as a target resolution and FPS for each. The high graphics preset is what GSC calls ‘recommended,’ and provides 60fps gameplay at 1440p. For that high graphics preset you’ll need a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti / RTX 4070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU and 32GB of RAM. Low and medium require 16GB of RAM and less powerful GPUs. All graphics presets, however, require 160GB of SSD storage, which is a significant footprint worth bearing in mind if you’re planning on playing.
Meanwhile, GSC confirmed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 features upscaling options for DLSS and FSR. Specifically, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 launches with DLSS 3 and Reflex, which means GeForce RTX 40 Series gamers can activate DLSS 3 with Frame Generation and Super Resolution from day-one, accelerating performance.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl global release times:
November 20, 2024
Seattle: 8am PST
New York: 11am EST
São Paulo: 1pm BRT
London: 4pm GMT
Prague: 5pm CET
Kyiv: 6pm EET
November 21, 2024
Beijing: 12am CST
Tokyo: 1am JST
Sydney: 3am AEDT
Auckland: 5am NZDT
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has suffered a number of understandable delays, most recently in July when the game was due out in September. Ukrainian studio GSC said at the time that the extra two months would give the developers the chance to fix “unexpected anomalies,” aka bugs.
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.
If you’ve been wanting more Pokémon avatars for your Switch, the Switch Online ‘Missions and Rewards’ program is now offering new and returning icons.
As highlighted by Serebii.net, you can now get icons based on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet‘s DLC offerings. The first wave is now underway and will be followed by multiple other icons featuring trainers and various Pokémon from the newest entries.
Updates for Xenoverse 2 and The Breakers are now live.
The new Dragon Ball Daima anime series launched last week and as part of this, there’s some new themed content on the way to multiple Bandai Namco games.
First up, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will be receiving some new DLC, officially titled ‘Daima: Adventure Through the Demon Realm‘ with part one “coming soon”.
Genshin Impact Out Now on Xbox – With Rewards for Game Pass Ultimate Members
Sam LaiHead of Global PR and Communication, HoYoverse
Summary
Play Genshin Impact, the open-world adventure RPG for free today on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Cloud Gaming and claim the Wings of Fate’s Course Intertwined.
Game Pass Ultimate members can enjoy recurring bonuses with each major version update.
Explore the newest map expansion of Natlan, and command the power of the skies to move and fight in mid-air
Genshin Impact, the open-world adventure RPG, has officially arrived on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Cloud Gaming, launching alongside Version 5.2 “Tapestry of Spirit and Flame.” Travelers can now begin or continue their journey through the world of Teyvat on Xbox, experiencing the latest stories and gameplay updates, along with exclusive, limited-time rewards! Plus, Game Pass Ultimate members can begin to claim recurring bonuses that will come with every major version update from here on out. Read on for all the details.
An Immersive Adventure on Xbox
As a Traveler from another world, your journey begins in the visually stunning and culturally rich world of Teyvat. In search of your long-lost sibling, you’ll explore the seven major nations of Teyvat, each with its unique landscapes, history, people, creatures, mysteries, and gameplay.
Xbox Series X|S is now ready to bring this massive fantasy world to life with vivid details, offering world-class console experiences, where players can enjoy HDR support on both consoles and 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X. Additionally, Game Pass Ultimate members can play on a variety of devices they already own via Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Special Bonuses for Xbox
Special rewards are also available for Xbox players. Travelers who reach Adventure Rank 2 will receive the “Wings of Fate’s Course Intertwined” as a gift in their in-game mailbox upon logging into Genshin Impact on Xbox.
Furthermore, Game Pass Ultimate members can enjoy special bonuses, with recurring rewards available with each major version update. These rewards can be claimed from your in-game mailbox, starting today with a bundle of useful items:
Intertwined Fate ×2
Northlander Billet Trove ×1
Hero’s Wit ×10
Mora ×100,000
Mystic Enhancement Ore ×15
Please note that rewards will be subject to change with future updates.
Play Genshin Impact Your Way
Genshin Impact offers a vast world, and the journey is yours to shape. The seven Elements that flow throughout the world are key to defeating powerful enemies, solving challenging puzzles, reaching various locations, and uncovering the rich lore of Teyvat. By triggering Elemental Reactions — combining specific elemental effects on targets — you can deal extra damage or affect your surroundings in creative ways.
The world of Genshin Impact is constantly evolving, with new landscapes, playable characters, stories, events, and diverse gameplay styles being introduced regularly. In addition to world exploration and Story Quests, players can enjoy limited-time challenges, mini-games, and long-term gameplay like card games and housing systems. Meanwhile, you can journey alongside over 90 playable characters, each with unique abilities and personalities.
While Genshin Impact offers an immersive single-player experience, you can also team up with friends for multiplayer adventures. The game supports cross-play and cross-progression across platforms including Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Android, iOS, and the Epic Games Store. The game now supports 15 text languages and 4 voice-over languages, allowing players to enjoy it in their preferred language.
Fly and Play Like Dragons
This summer, Genshin Impact introduced its sixth major nation, Natlan, where humans coexist with powerful local dragons known as Saurians. Known as the Nation of War, Natlan offers unique gameplay opportunities, allowing you to recruit elite warriors or transform into Saurians to enhance your movement abilities — whether it’s swimming swiftly through liquid and lava, soaring through the air, burrowing underground, or scaling cliff walls.
With the release of Version 5.2, new Saurian companions and powerful warriors Chasca and Ororon are introduced, along with the tribes and lands they hail from. Soon, you’ll command the power of skies to move and fight in mid-air, and explore an ancient, ruined city that towers into the clouds.
Genshin Impactis now available on Xbox, with more waiting for you to discover in the world of Teyvat. We look forward to seeing you very soon!
Genshin Impact is an open-world adventure RPG. In the game, set forth on a journey across a fantasy world called Teyvat. In this vast world, you can explore seven nations, meet a diverse cast of characters with unique personalities and abilities, and fight powerful enemies together with them, all on the way during your quest to find your lost sibling. You can also wander freely, immersing yourself in a world filled with life, and let your sense of wonder lead you to uncover all of its mysteries… Until you are at long last reunited with your lost sibling and bear witness to the culmination of all things at the end of your journey.
– Genshin Impact is a free-to-play game. You do not need to purchase Game Pass Ultimate or Core to play the game in Co-Op Mode.
– Players with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription can receive in-game bundles upon the game’s launch and after subsequent version updates, as well as play Genshin Impact on Xbox Cloud Gaming.
