Much like its bloodsucking antagonist, Castlevania has lain dormant for many years, but Konami’s classic vampire-slaying franchise is finally beginning to awaken thanks to projects like Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania.
Released earlier this week, the heralded DLC stars Richter Belmont and Alucard in what Konami Return to Castlevania supervisor Tsutomu Taniguchi half-jokingly refers to as an isekai — slang for anime about characters suddenly being transported into a new and unfamiliar world.
“Is ‘isekai’ a buzzword ? Because this is how I would define this storyline,” Taniguchi told IGN in a new interview. “Let’s just say that Dracula’s Castle teleported on the Beheaded’s Island and what happened on the island stays on the island.”
No, Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania isn’t canon, but it is a fun reimagining of the old-school platformer, which got its start on the Famicom way back in 1986. The DLC has been heralded by fans and critics alike, with IGN’s review calling it a “shining blueprint of how to do a crossover right.”
‘Respectfully stolen’
According to Evil Empire chief operating officer Benjamin Laulan, it got its start at 2019’s BitSummit festival in Kyoto, which the studio attended in the hope of making a deal to sell Dead Cells in the Japanese market. A meeting with Konami convinced Laulan to shoot his shot and pitch a crossover, and was surprised to find a receptive audience.
“Back in France, we started working on it and well, since Dead Cells had ‘respectfully stolen’ so many elements from the series already, such as: the whip, the key art with the castle, the food hidden in walls… the ‘rogue-vania’ punchline… (oops!) It just made sense to continue this way, so we got lost into excitement and went all-in, the pitch quickly turned into a full DLC proposition,” Laulan said.
Laulan called Empire’s collaboration “really, really smooth,” saying Konami readily agreed to everything from Richter Mode to the Konami Code.
Taniguchi, for his part, said that Konami is “proud” that Castlevania had such an impact on Dead Cells.
“Seriously, knowing that Dead Cells, which is among the greatest indie games of the past ten years, was inspired by Castlevania is a huge source of pride for us,” he said. “When Evil Empire and Motion Twin came back with their full-DLC proposition instead of just this short featuring we weren’t really surprised and we were hoping for that to be honest. And we just thought we had to let them go full circle, because we knew they would use every ounce of their talent to honor the franchise. And also, I personally admit I just really wanted to see what a fight against Dracula in Dead Cells would look like!”
‘We know that our fans always want more’
Taniguchi wouldn’t say what the Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania means for the broader franchise, which hasn’t seen a proper release since 2014’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (the successful Netflix series aside), but did acknowledge the “excitement and enthusiasm of the fans online,” which is “really motivating for [Konami].”
“We tried to bring back the games that people loved and cherished with the Castlevania Anniversary Collection and the Castlevania Advance Collection, we also brought back Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night for our PlayStation fans and on mobile, and launched Grimoire of Souls on Apple Arcade to celebrate the lore of the franchise,” Taniguchi said. “But we know that our fans always want more, and we do too, so this opportunity to have this amazing crossover with Dead Cells was impossible to pass up on. “
Will Castlevania follow suit? We’ll just have to see. But in the short-term, Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is a tantalizing reminder of what could be for one of Konami’s most beloved franchises.
Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
The Finals is a fast-paced first-person shooter that focuses on arcade-y game styles and game-show mechanics. What makes it unique is that everything, and I mean everything, can be destroyed. It’s a lot to take in, but after playing a bunch of it, all of the elements manage to work really well together when the game isn’t stuttery and buggy.
All For The Fame
The premise of The Finals is that you’re a contestant in a virtual combat entertainment game show. You compete for fame, money, and the opportunity to get generous sponsors on your side. Developer Embark Studios has said The Finals was inspired by The Hunger Games, Gladiator, and other arena-style competitions. You can customize your own Competitor, which is pretty cool though the options are fairly limited.
The maps in The Finals matches take place in real-life locations that have dynamic time of day and weather conditions like fog and rain that are randomized each time you start a new game. I played in Monaco, a more horizontal close-quarters map, and Seoul, a vertical map with lots of height and layers to play on.
Clock in, Cash Out
The Finals has lobbies of four teams of three vying for the most amount of money cashed in. So the only way to earn points for your team is to bank money. Throughout the map there will be Vault spawns that teams can capture. Once you unlock the cash in the Vaults you have to carry the box of cash in your hand, so whoever is carrying the cash cannot use their weapons, but does have free range of movement like climbing, ziplining, jump padding, and running.
With the box of cash in hand, you have to run it to a Cashout location where you can bank the money for your team and move up in the leaderboard. Securing the actual deposit for your team takes a long time. So you can choose to stay and defend it from enemy teams that may try to steal the upload, or you can try to run and grab more cash or steal someone else’s upload. While the actual deposit time seemed a little too long, I did really enjoy the aspect of potentially being able to steal someone’s $30,000 deposit from them last second because we were able to hijack the upload right before it finished.
In the Tournament mode, the matches are basically the same but they start with a Knockout Round where the top two winners from the lobbies move on and continue on till a winner is announced. So the matches are a bit longer in terms of time length just due to being roped into an actual tournament formatted game.
Adding to the Hunger Games-like competition, there are announcers who commentate on the game, noting which teams have been wiped, random events that may start, such double damage, and when a team has successfully cashed out. It’s a fun mechanic that I actually really enjoyed since it prevented any team from just camping out somewhere and hiding since the announcers would tell everyone in the lobby what was happening.
Insert Coin To Play
The Finals isn’t a battle royale; it allows for multiple respawns whether or not your team revives you through a timer that counts down and requires you to “enter coin” to respawn once that timer is gone. You have a limited amount of respawns, two per person in the Standard Quickplay matches, but again your teammates can revive you at any point. In Tournament matches, you have two respawns per person as well but can get one extra coin each time you qualify for the next round. To encourage your teammates to revive you, they can even drag your trophy around to get to a safer position to get you back in the fight.
Speaking of picking up trophies, you can pick up virtually (pun intended) anything in the environment. As with the usual game logic, you can pick up flammable canisters and throw them at walls to destroy them or throw them at players to injure them. There are also toxic gas canisters and The Finals’ signature Goo containers you can throw to utilize as well.
The Goo containers, grenades, and guns utilize The Finals’ concept of this weird expanding foam looking wall. It looks like a little plush cloud barrier that deploys and hardens as it lands and provides you a bit of cover. It seems pretty cool but I didn’t find myself using it too much.
Chaos Incarnate
The most unique aspect of The Finals is the fact that everything can be destroyed. All the walls, buildings, new Goo element… you name it. The destruction happens server-side, so everyone experiences the same destruction in the same lobby. It’s easily the most fun aspect of The Finals where you can run around and literally take the ground away from an enemy team and snatch their money from them.
This makes The Finals stand out from any other shooter where you have to be strategic with where you position yourself or breach a room from. Here, you can breach wherever you want and no corner is safe. You simply cannot play The Finals like your typical shooter and I love that about it. It’s chaotic and unpredictable which is really refreshing for a first-person shooter. No more camping out in corners when you can just RPG the floor and walls to expose the enemy team trying to cash out.
Of course, with fully-destructible environments, there is a good and bad side to the chaos that creates. The good side is that you can constantly confuse and terrify your enemies as you destroy the ground they stand on and bash through any walls between you and them. The bad side is that while you’re confusing your enemies, you’re probably also going to confuse yourself and create an environment where you can’t see a single damn thing around you.
There were several points in matches where there would be so much destruction I could not see my teammates or enemies or where I was and I was just always falling through the ground. I don’t feel that this is a terrible thing, but it’s a lot of visual clutter and will most likely be extremely overwhelming to new players trying to learn the game and get a bearing for how gunplay and movement work. Maybe with more time in the game it’ll get easier to understand, like with Overwatch or Apex, but it was definitely a lot when trying to get my feet underneath me.
The chaos is fun to deal with when I can actually play, though. In the original first preview version I played that was only open to a few press and influencers, it ran perfectly and never stuttered – even with the wild amounts of destruction that took place around me. However, in the current Closed Beta that players can enter by registering on Steam, performance has a huge step back that I can’t believe is the same game.
I can barely get 30fps especially when any destruction happens. The game looked like a slideshow at times and even when turning everything down to low and on Performance mode, The Finals just couldn’t keep up. There was also this awful static noise that constantly ran in the background of the game sounds that gave me a headache after trying to battle frame rates and game issues.
Choose Your Contestant
The equipment, abilities, and competitors are all great but they do leave a bit to be desired. You can customize your Contestant, your character, and choose between three builds (classes basically). These three base body builds have different speeds in running, HP levels, and select access to items,weapons, and signature abilities:
Light Build
150 HP, Fastest running speed, Sniper and Sub Machine Gun specialty
While the different abilities and signature weapons were cool, there was a heavy imbalance that was clear from the start. Having a build that is so small that the hitbox is almost impossible to hit was a huge problem, especially given that the Light build can run much faster than the other builds. So not only could they dodge bullets faster but they could also just dodge them easier with their default hitbox.
The Medium build had an issue where their healing stream was incredibly fast and efficient and would almost instantly heal your teammates. So if you had a dedicated healer, you could essentially never die. That and if you paired a Medium build with another Medium build, you could just have two healers on a Heavy build and never go down.
Speaking of the Heavy build, this is where the real problem lies. The Heavy gets access to a wall that basically is like Reinhardt’s shield where it stops bullets from hitting you but also allows your teammates to shoot through it. And the Heavy’s exclusive gun is the six-round Grenade Launcher that I found most players spamming since it knocks down walls, buildings, anything and also injures players heavily.
Balancing Act
There was no cap on how many players in a team could be a type of class, so virtually you could stack all Heavy or all Medium, or all Light if you wanted with the same guns. So I ran into a lot of teams running one Medium and two Heavy players to spam the grenade launcher while their Medium healed the Heavies who were then shielding their team from damage. With each update that The Finals implemented, it seemed that the game really struggled with finding balance with weapons and Builds. In the current closed beta, there are far too many one shot weapons that completely suck the wind out of getting into a fair fight.
The time to kill also never found its footing since the beta was completely different from the preview build and the balance kept shifting. I’d find myself having to switch to whatever gun was the most overpowered in that fresh update and use that while still getting one shot by the same weapon. I was incredibly frustrated just trying to spawn in and play the game and my teammates would often disconnect and just start a new game. The Finals is also hampered by destructible environments and visual clutter adding to the time to kill, since it’s incredibly easy for enemies to run away and recover health when you can’t see anything.
Otherwise, though, The Finals is a fun, fast-paced game that I really want to enjoy and see succeed ,but the balancing issues are very noticeable and make it frustrating to play and enjoy. However, the team at Embark were very quick to take feedback and make adjustments to the balancing issues with guns and abilities that show promise of The Finals being able to survive in the FPS world.
I genuinely want The Finals to live in the current FPS space. The amount of ambition in the game is exciting to see and it’s fun to play but there is a big potential that The Finals will not be able to find its footing with balancing to last as a major FPS competitor. I have major concerns about the way the game is being “balanced” in each minor patch but it’s still in beta so I’m giving it a chance. There was also no mention of how much the battlepass will be or how much cosmetics will cost once it leaves the beta so how the monetization will work is unclear.
The Finals is at the very least a unique take on the FPS space with strong mechanics, movement, and gunplay, but the current bugs and performance issues make me want to stay away until I know I can spare my eyes from 15fps. It was a huge disappointment to see the preview build and public beta build be completely different and full of many more issues.
Embark being quick to adjust to feedback does make me hopeful, but live service games are extremely difficult to keep up with on the developer and player sides. We’ll see what kind of audience The Finals ultimately attracts and holds after the beta and the full release.
Stella is a Video Producer, Host, and Editor at IGN. Her gameplay focus is on competitive FPS games and she’s previously reviewed Apex Legends, Hyper Scape, Halo Infinite Multiplayer, and Battlefield 2042. She regularly hosts and shoutcasts competitive Apex Legends and Halo Infinite tournaments when she isn’t streaming on her Twitch channel after work outs. You can follow her on Twitter @ParallaxStella.
A special event in tandem with the Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Update :
Nintendo of America has now publicised this same Super Mario Run event on its own social channels. This “special event” is being promoted in tandem with the upcoming release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. As part of this, the game is also half-price until 30th May. A follow-up tweet further explains the free stage unlocks:
Only two and a half hours after going live, Destiny 2’s latest raid, Root of Nightmares, was first conquered by a relatively unknown team of underdogs called Team Hard in the Paint.
Raids are Destiny’s ultimate endgame challenge, which involve six players working together to figure out complicated mechanics and execute them to perfection, all while avoiding being killed by hordes of enemies and powerful bosses alike. For many years, Bungie has observed the launch of their raids by hosting official “World First Races,” which document the first team to beat these dastardly gauntlets.
Bungie confirmed the world first victory, writing, “Guardians from around the world fought against an ancient threat in the Root of Nightmares raid this weekend during the World First raid race. A massive congratulations to Team Hard in the Paint for emerging victorious. As the first team to both beat the raid and the additional challenges, all six members will receive World First title belts and will forever be known as the World First Champions of Root of Nightmares.”
For the past couple of raid releases, the same team, Clan Elysium, has claimed victory, including last year’s Vow of the Disciple. Several other top contenders and previous winning teams were also highly watched on Twitch Rivals as part of the contest. The winner though, as it turned out, included a group of small content creators and speedrunners whose streams had far fewer viewers until it became clear they were on pace to win it all.
One such speedrunner, RoenXD, has only 9K followers on Twitch even after his team’s victory, a testament to his crew’s underdog status.
IGN reached out to RoenXD shortly after his raid accomplishments, who said of the victory: “It’s still pretty surreal because it’s been a long time goal of ours to achieve this. My team are the greatest friends I could ask for, and this is for sure one of the highlights of our lives. We prepared a lot for this raid and gave it our best, and it paid off.”
Rip out the nightmares, root and stem.
Congratulations to the World First Destiny 2 #RootofNightmares winners, Team Hard in the Paint:
Reacting to the surprise victory, commenters chimed in on Twitter to praise the winning team’s impressive speed, or to bemoan or celebrate the loss of competing teams.
Since Destiny 2: Lightfall’s debut last week, unfavorable reactions to the expansion and lots of bugs have cast a shadow over the long-running looter shooter, a fact that’s reflected in IGN’s own review in progress. However, there appear to have been few technical issues during today’s raid race, a marked improvement over last year, which may be just the morale boost the Destiny community needs.
No matter who you were rooting for, this is a gaming underdog story for the ages. And who doesn’t love a good underdog story?
Super Mario Odyssey came to Nintendo Switch on October 27, 2017. It’s kind of hard to believe but because time is an immutable constant, that date was almost five and a half years ago. In spite of that half-decade gap, we haven’t had a proper follow-up and Nintendo hasn’t really needed to rush into a sequel or successor because Mario is such a powerful property. It operates like a massive steam boiler: Mario is well into a red-hot operating temperature and only needs a steady stream of fuel to remain fantastically efficient. Mario is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Nintendo’s most important character, and I would argue nothing even comes close. No, not even Link, in spite of how excited we all are for Tears of the Kingdom.
What’s interesting about Mario’s importance to Nintendo is that originally, Mario was created because Nintendo couldn’t get the license for Popeye. Think about that for a second: In the infinite possibilities of the universe, there exists a dimension where we’re all anxiously waiting for the release of the Super Popeye Movie this year. Popeye’s foil Bluto was replaced with an angry ape called Donkey Kong. Olive Oyl, the object of Popeye’s affection and rivalry with Bluto, became “Lady,” and Popeye was replaced with a mustachioed everyman named… Jumpman. Mario was never intended to be anything more than a recognizable side-character, someone who would pop into future Nintendo games as a thread of commonality for the company’s works. And he did show up a lot in Nintendo’s NES games: calling the fights in Punch-Out!! or hitting the links in Golf, among others.
While Mario’s design is a result of the limitations of the hardware at the time, the mustache, red dungarees and cap that came about from those limitations now define Nintendo as a whole. Take any one part of that original design and show its modern equivalent to anyone with even a passing interest in gaming and they could put the pieces together. Mario’s hat alone became a supporting character in Odyssey (will the next game focus on a sentient mustache? We can only hope).
No Nintendo character has as much merch as Mario. Yes, Pokemon is a massive brand with literal tons of merchandise, but there’s no one single Pokemon that has the reach of Super Mario. It helps that Mario has such incredible range. Whether it’s 2D or 3D, RPG or sports, kart racing or brother smashing, Mario fits in everywhere Nintendo puts him. Part of this is no doubt because, not in spite of, his humble roots as a replacement sprite for a licensing deal gone sour. Since Mario’s character had so little in the way of backstory, it opened the character up for almost limitless possibilities. We have a “fiction” around Mario and his adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom, but because there was no real reason for Mario to jump over barrels and flames to reach his goal, his only motivation in games was to achieve a goal.
Since Mario’s character had so little in the way of backstory, it opened the character up for almost limitless possibilities.
Contrast that open endedness to another one of Ninteno’s biggest characters, Link. Obviously we have Link in Super Smash and Mario Kart, but in all the Zelda games, Link is and remains a variation on the “Hero of Time.” His is an incredible character with a level of openness allowing players to use him as a proxy for themselves, but he’s bound by certain rules and tropes that make him less of an obvious fit for wildly experimental uses.
I would also argue the Super Mario series as a whole, with its easy to understand gameplay loop, gives Mario an edge over the rest of the Nintendo stable of characters. You know almost everything you need to know about the entire Super Mario Bros. game within the first 10 seconds, whereas the first Legend of Zelda game on the NES sets our hero into a world where the objectives aren’t nearly as clear. You don’t even have a weapon when you start, something we take for granted now, but to a first-time player who’s not versed in the game’s vocabulary, it seems like an impossibility to explore the world of Hyrule when you can’t even defend yourself.
There’s a reason Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios is Mario themed right now, and it’s the same reason we’re getting a Super Mario movie: no other character comes close to Mario’s universal appeal and recognition, something Nintendo is acutely and shrewdly aware of. It’s an interesting quirk of the English language and our date system that gives us “MAR10” Day, but now it’s a whole event every year, with Nintendo offering discounts on the many available Mario games, as well as reflecting on the character. It’s “May the Fourth” for video gamers, but less punny.
If you still don’t believe Mario is Nintendo’s most important character, I ask you this: Is there any other character in popular culture with so much appeal that Nintendo would end a Direct by telling you they’ve made a replica of his boots to show off? I don’t think so.
The walking, talking black mold, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week’s reset. If you’re looking to get your some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.
Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he’s got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.
We’ve rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.
Where Is Xûr Today?
Xûr’s location can be found at The Tower on March 10 through March 14. To reach him, travel to the landing point at The Courtyard and make your way to the Hangar. Hang a left when entering the hangar and you’ll come face-to-face with space Amazon.com.
What’s Xûr Selling Today?
Exotic Engram
Coldheart – Exotic Trace Rifle
Sealed Ahamkara Grasps – Exotic Hunter Gauntlets
17 Mobility
11 Resilience
2 Recovery
2 Discipline
7 Intellect
20 Strength
Total: 59
Wormgod Caress – Exotic Titan Gauntlets
12 Mobility
8 Resilience
14 Recovery
9 Discipline
13 Intellect
7 Strength
Total: 63
Karnstein Armlets – Exotic Warlock Gauntlets
12 Mobility
9 Resilience
10 Recovery
6 Discipline
2 Intellect
23 Strength
Total: 62
The exotic armor offerings this week are pretty rubbish, frankly! Grab Coldheart if you don’t have one, but otherwise…yuck!
Exotic Weapons
Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon
Paracausal Shot
Chambered Compensator
Alloy Magazine
Opening Shot
Heavy Grip
Dead Man’s Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle
Cranial Spike
Corkscrew Rifling
Flared Magwell
Killing Wind
Hand-Laid Stock
Hawkmoon‘s roll this week is pretty dang good (Opening shot is always a blast with it), and Dead Man’s Tale is just okay. Hard to go wrong with Killing Wind, but aside from that there’s nothing standout.
Legendary Weapons
Firefright – Auto Rifle
Fluted Barrel/Smallbore
Alloy Magazine/Light Mag
Threat Detector
Focused Fury
Extrovert
Range Masterwork
Under Your Skin – Combat Bow
Agile Bowstring/Polymer String
Fiberglass Arrow Shaft/Straight Fletching
Hip-Fire Grip
Opening Shot
Land Tank
Accuracy Masterwork
Blast Battue – Grenade Launcher
Confined Launch/Smart Drift Control
Proximity Grenades/High-Explosive Ordnance
Killing Wind
Rampage
Reload Speed Masterwork
Disparity – Pulse Rifle
Arrowhead Brake/Extended Barrel
Steady Rounds/Alloy Magazine
Outlaw
Headstone
Ambush
Handling Masterwork
Night Watch – Scout Rifle
Chambered Compensator/ Full Bore
Tactical Mag/Flared Magwell
Subsistence
Rampage
Range Masterwork
Enigma’s Draw – Sidearm
Tactic SAS/Target SAS
Alloy Magazine/Flared Magwell
Full Auto Trigger System
Elemental Capacitor
Handling Masterwork
Far Future – Sniper Rifle
Arrowhead Brake/Hammer-Forged Rifling
Appended Mag/Alloy Magazine
Quickdraw
Demolitionist
Stability Masterwork
None of the weapons this week are going to blow you away, but my top pick is Night Watch with Subsistence and Rampage. Scout rifles are very useful this season against Champions, so having a reliable one will be important. Disparity also has some interesting potential with Headstone and Stasis’ favorable place in the meta right now.
Warlock Legendary Armor
For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Righteous set which includes:
Righteous Gauntlets
8 Mobility
9 Resilience
15 Recovery
13 Discipline
15 Intellect
2 Strength
Total: 62
Righteous Chest Armor
10 Mobility
20 Resilience
2 Recovery
6 Discipline
9 Intellect
12 Strength
Total: 59
Righteous Helmet
2 Mobility
22 Resilience
6 Recovery
2 Discipline
11 Intellect
19 Strength
Total: 62
Righteous Leg Armor
15 Mobility
14 Resilience
2 Recovery
16 Discipline
7 Intellect
9 Strength
Total: 63
Righteous Bond
The best Warlocks can offer this week are the 63-stat boots, which aren’t really too exciting.
Titan Legendary Armor
For Titans, Xûr is selling the Righteous set which includes:
Righteous Gauntlets
17 Mobility
7 Resilience
7 Recovery
16 Discipline
13 Intellect
2 Strength
Total: 62
Righteous Chest Armor
10 Mobility
6 Resilience
13 Recovery
6 Discipline
13 Intellect
9 Strength
Total: 57
Righteous Helmet
7 Mobility
10 Resilience
14 Recovery
2 Discipline
14 Intellect
13 Strength
Total: 60
Righteous Leg Armor
12 Mobility
14 Resilience
6 Recovery
12 Discipline
8 Intellect
13 Strength
Total: 65
Righteous Mark
Titans have one nice roll this week in their boots, though without any spikiness, it’s a tad unexciting — especially with such high Mobility.
Hunter Legendary Armor
For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Righteous set which includes:
Righteous Gauntlets
6 Mobility
24 Resilience
2 Recovery
6 Discipline
2 Intellect
22 Strength
Total: 62
Righteous Chest Armor
15 Mobility
14 Resilience
2 Recovery
17 Discipline
2 Intellect
9 Strength
Total: 59
Righteous Helmet
12 Mobility
8 Resilience
9 Recovery
2 Discipline
17 Intellect
12 Strength
Total: 60
Righteous Leg Armor
9 Mobility
6 Resilience
16 Recovery
12 Discipline
16 Intellect
2 Strength
Total: 61
Righteous Cloak
Hunters have nothing good this week, despite an interesting and spikey pair of gauntlets.
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, Ollie nominates Severed, a delightful touch-based 3DS and Wii U eShop game (and Switch, in fact — we’ll get to that) from the excellent developers at Drinkbox Studios…
Xbox has confirmed that it will not be on the E3 2023 showfloor, but signaled support for E3’s digital week by confirming that it will be co-streaming the event when it kicks off on June 11.
In a new statement, an Xbox spokesperson told IGN, “We can’t wait to host our Xbox Games Showcase on June 11 and will share more details later. We also look forward to co-streaming our event as part of E3 Digital and will not be on the E3 showfloor.”
Xbox’s confirmation was in response to a list of questions sent by IGN on whether it would be taking part in E3’s week of digital events, which was announced yesterday, while asking for more clarity on the nature of its physical event, which did not receive a response from Xbox. E3’s digital week will roughly align with Xbox’s showcase, and will feature streams by Guerilla Collective and other graoups.
Beyond that, participation from AAA exhibitors remains unclear. Yesterday’s announcement simply said, “Exhibitors from AAA companies to indie darlings and tech companies will be announced leading up to the expo.”
Behind the scenes, IGN is hearing that participation continues to be unsettled, and that many publishers are unclear on who will be taking part in the event. Ubisoft has been the clearest in expressing interest in participating in E3, saying that, “If E3 happens, we will be there and we will have a lot of things to show.”
“Xbox is on the board of the ESA, and I think a successful and healthy ESA is critical to what we’re trying to go do. So we place our showcase, like we always have done, at a time where hopefully it’s convenient for press and even consumers that are going to the E3 event, and that’s what we’re trying to do now,” We will continue to work with ESA in terms of their plans. As I said, we’re on the board, and we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to help make the E3 successful.”
Xbox recently announced that Starfield will release September 6 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and that it will be hosting a deep dive “Starfield Direct” will more info on June 11.
E3 2023’s physical event, its first since 2019, will be split between business days for professionals and “Gamer Days” for fans. It will take place from June 13 to June 16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Disclosure: Kat Bailey is a former ReedPop employee, having previously worked at USgamer from 2014 to 2020.
Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
Sony is claiming it’s not happy with Microsoft’s latest Call of Duty offer, as the company said it would “irreparably” harm competition and innovation.
Also in these documents, however, were redacted details about Microsoft’s proposal to Sony to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for the next decade. In a new statement regarding these documents, Sony claimed that the 10-year deal in its current state would be bad for competition.
“Redacted versions of the observations filed by SIE and Microsoft on the CMA’s remedies notice were made public this week,” Sony wrote in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz. “Information regarding the terms of an offer made by Microsoft to provide future Call of Duty releases on PlayStation was redacted at the request of Microsoft. We believe their current offer will irreparably harm competition and innovation in the industry.”
In Sony’s filing to the UK CMA, the company wrote that it is “extremely sceptical that an agreement with Microsoft could be reached, much less monitored and enforced effectively.”
Some of Sony’s listed concerns included Microsoft raising the price of Call of Duty on PlayStation, lowering the quality of the PlayStation version, not investing in the multiplayer experience on PlayStation, or making Call of Duty available only on Game Pass.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
