There’s an unpredictable “Necropolis” event in Darkhaven that will slowly turn the entire world undead. It generates a Lich sarcophagus that spills a sickly wave of gloom, rolling across the procedural map to clog player waypoints and fill the alcoves with bony minions. Let the gloom thicken for long enough, and in theory, there will be nowhere safe for your character to spawn. A true apocalypse. You can transfer your character to a freshly generated world, but you might encounter something even hard to dispel: a volcanic eruption, rising floodwaters that breed Lovecraftian fish creatures, a sweeping ice age. Worse, you might encounter several apocalypses at once.
It’s 1996. The weather’s crap. You’re wandering the streets of a Scottish village that looks deserted aside from some lumbering horrors who seem intent on sticking weird needles into you. No, this isn’t the blurb of iconic film Trainspotting, it’s the setup for Silent Hill: Townfall.
A goose with your skillset must be able to honk freely, unconstricted. They must be versatile, capable, adaptable. They must be grounded, stable, constant. I believe you are ready, goose. Honk.
That isn’t quite what Keanu Reeves’ talkative tailor says in the reveal trailer for Space Marine 2 devs Saber’s Untitled John Wick Game, but it’s what I heard. The stubbled and suited hitman’s latest journey into videogamedom is touted as an uber-faithful putting of Wick’s cinematic martial arts brawling and gunfighting into your hands, but until Saber prove otherwise, I’m treating it as a spiritual twin to House House’s Untitled Goose Game.
The lovely, heartfelt 2D adventure Neva is getting a paid DLC expansion, and it’ll cost you less than the vast majority of Starbucks’ menu.
Launching on 19th February, Neva: Prologue will set you back a mere £2.49 in the UK and will reveal how the game’s key protagonists, Alba and Neva, first became involved with one another.
Sega has written off $200 million of its $776 million acquisition of Angry Birds maker, Rovio, stating the “profitability of [the mobile] business had fallen below the initial forecast” — corporate speak for, ‘this hasn’t made us as much money as we thought it would.’
Sega confirmed back in April 2023 plans to purchase Angry Birds developer Rovio for $776 million, with Rovio’s mobile game expertise intended to help boost Sega’s own position in the mobile market. The acquisition completed in September that same year.
Now, in its most recent financial report, Sega Sammy said that while Rovio was “a company with strong development and operational capabilities in the mobile game area, a sector with major growth potential,” the “business environment in the global mobile game market [has] rapidly changed, with multiple major titles emerging within a short period, and competition for customer acquisition [is] intensifying.” Which is why it’s now alerting shareholders of “extraordinarily losses and revision of operating results forecast.”
“Rovio found it difficult to advance its initially planned business development, and the profitability of this business has fallen below the initial forecast,” Sega admitted.
Because the “recoverable amount” related to the buyout fell “significantly” short, the company has written off $198 million (¥30.4 billion), essentially downgrading the value of Rovio to around $578 million — $200m less than it paid for it.
Rovio is just one of the companies Sega owns. It is also home to Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment, Two Point Campus developer Two Point Studios, and perhaps most notably, Persona developer Atlus.
And on the plus side, Sega’s tentpole Sonic series continues to impress. IGN’s Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review returned an Amazing 9/10 when it released in September 2025. “Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds fires on all cylinders with a fantastic roster, excellent courses, and lengthy list of customization options,” we wrote at the time.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
A developer who worked on Highguard has discussed the “hate” he received after the free-to-play shooter debuted at December’s The Game Awards, saying the game, and by extension its team, “turned into a joke from minute one, largely due to false assumptions about a million-dollar ad placement.”
Just two weeks after the free-to-play game’s January 26 launch, yesterday Wildlight let go all but a “core group of developers” despite the newly unveiled Episode 2, and despite debuting in the top 10 in weekly active users on US Steam, and the top 20 on both US PlayStation and Xbox.
Now, in a candid statement posted to X/Twitter, tech artist and rigger Josh Sobel — who was one of those let go — talked about the impact of the launch on himself and the wellbeing of the entire team.
“The day leading to The Game Awards 2025 was amongst the most exciting of my life. After 2.5yrs of passionately working on Highguard, we were ready to reveal it to the world. The future seemed bright. Everyone I knew who had any connection to the team or project had the same [positive] sentiments,” he wrote, adding that “unbiased” internal pre-reveal feedback was “quite positive,” and when it was negative, “it was constructive, and often actionable.”
“But then the trailer came out, and it was all downhill from there,” Sobel added. “Content creators love to point out the bias in folks who give positive previews after being flown out for an event, but ignore the fact that when their negative-leaning content gets 10x the engagement of the positive, they’ve got just as much incentive to lean into a disingenuous direction, whether consciously or not.
“The hate started immediately. In addition to dogpiling on the trailer, I personally came under fire due to my naïveté on Twitter, which almost all of my now-former coworkers had learned to avoid during their previous game launches,” he explained. “After setting my Twitter account to private to protect my sanity, many content creators made videos and posts about me and my cowardice, amassing millions of views and inadvertently sending hundreds of angry gamers into my replies. They laughed at me for being proud of the game, told me to get out the McDonald’s applications, and mocked me for listing having autism in my bio, which they seemed to think was evidence the game would be ‘woke trash.’ All of this was very emotionally taxing.”
Sobel acknowledged that there’s “much constructive criticism” about Highguard’s trailer, marketing, and launch, but also isn’t sure if things would’ve been any better had the game not been announced at The Game Awards.
“We were turned into a joke from minute one, largely due to false assumptions about a million-dollar ad placement, which even prominent journalists soon began to state as fact,” Sobel said. “Within minutes, it was decided: this game was dead on arrival, and creators now had free ragebait content for a month. Every one of our videos on social media got downvoted to hell. Comments sections were flooded with copy/paste meme phrases such as ‘Concord 2’ and ‘Titanfall 3 died for this.’ At launch, we received over 14k review bombs from users with less than an hour of playtime. Many didn’t even finish the required tutorial.
“In discussions online about Highguard, [Sony’s troubled live-service shooter] Concord, [Riot’s recently launched] 2XKO, and such, it is often pointed out by gamers that devs like to blame gamers for their failures, and that that’s silly. As if gamers have no power. But they do. A lot of it. I’m not saying our failure is purely the fault of gamer culture and that the game would have thrived without the negative discourse, but it absolutely played a role. All products are at the whims of the consumers, and the consumers put absurd amounts of effort into slandering Highguard. And it worked.”
As a consequence of this, Sobel said many of Highguard’s hitherto independent team will “now be forced” to return to the corporate industry “many gamers accused Wildlight of being a part of.”
“If this pattern continues, all that will be left are corporations, at least in the multiplayer space. Innovation is on life support,” he added. “Even if Highguard had a rocky launch, our independent, self-published, dev-led studio full of passionate people just trying to make a fun game, with zero AI, and zero corporate oversight…deserved better than this. We deserved the bare minimum of not having our downfall be gleefully manifested.”
Sobel finished on wishing the colleagues that remain at Wildlight “the best of luck,” and thanked a slew of “incredibly supportive journalists and creators” for their “empathy, intuition, and integrity.”
“Some of the best times of my life were spent with [the techart team],” he concluded.
A number of high-profile video game developers defended Highguard following the online backlash during the game’s launch. Developers from the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3 studio Larian, as well as Fortnite maker Epic, have hit out at the discourse surrounding Highguard, and the internet’s capacity to “hate” on video games at launch. Developers like Cliff Bleszinski of Gears of War fame, Epic executive Mark Rein, and Larian boss Swen Vincke spoke up against, in particular, negativity from critics.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Sharpen your fangs and chuck out all of the garlic bread in your house, Castlevania’s back with a new game co-developed by the folks who made roguelike-Metroidvania Dead Cells. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is the name of this fresh bout of vampire whippage set in medieval Paris, which publishers Konami have teased is just the first of many Castlevania things they have coming as the series turns 40.
Konami is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Castlevania series this year, and the celebrations officially began today with the announcement of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse for multiple platforms including Switch.
At the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in Las Vegas tonight Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took home an impressive five of the awards across 23 categories, including Game of the Year.
The Sandfall Interactive game has been a critical hit and a stand out at award shows since it was released in April 2025, and the development team was even given the status of Knight under the French Order of Arts and Letters in recognition of its work.
Ghost of Yotei took home three awards, including Outstanding Achievement in Character, while Arc Raiders won Online Game of the Year. Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells, former president and co-founder at the studio, was inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.
“The games recognized at this year’s D.I.C.E. Awards showcase the extraordinary range of talent and creativity that define our industry,” said Meggan Scavio, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
“It’s inspiring to see how these developers continue to elevate interactive entertainment through innovation, storytelling, and meaningful player experiences.”
This year the DICE Summit also marked the passing of Vince Zampella, the co-creator of the Call of Duty franchise, co-founder of Infinity Ward, and co-founder of Respawn Entertainment, who passed in December 2025. Hideo Kojima, Phil Spencer, Todd Howard and others from across the industry spoke about how his work had impacted both the world of video games, and them as people.
DICE Awards 2026 Winners
Outstanding Achievement in Animation – South of Midnight
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Outstanding Achievement in Character – Ghost of Yōtei – Atsu
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition – Ghost of Yōtei
Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design – Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Outstanding Achievement in Story – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Outstanding Technical Achievement – Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Action Game of the Year – Hades II
Adventure Game of the Year – Ghost of Yōtei
Family Game of the Year – LEGO® Party!
Fighting Game of the Year – Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection
Racing Game of the Year – Mario Kart World
Role-Playing Game of the Year – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Sports Game of the Year – Rematch
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year – The Alters
Online Game of the Year – Arc Raiders
Immersive Reality Technical Achievement – Hotel Infinity
Immersive Reality Game of the Year – Ghost Town
Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game – Blue Prince
Mobile Game of the Year – Persona5: The Phantom X
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design – Blue Prince
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Game of the Year – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
After multiple reports of a second collection, Konami has today officially confirmed Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 is on its way to the Switch and Switch 2 on 27th August 2026.
Like the original volume, this will also be getting a physical release. Konami has outlined exactly what you can expect, and unsurprisingly, it’s a Game-Key Card release on the Switch 2. And on the original Switch it appears you’ll also be required to download the collection.
