Author: Game Infliction

Stellar Blade director and CEO of Shift Up Hyung-tae Kim has stated that without the use of AI, developers in smaller nations will struggle to keep up with studios in places like the U.S. and China.

As first reported by GameMeca, and picked up by Automaton, Kim addressed attendees at South Korea’s 2026 Economic Growth Strategy event and said that countries like China have an overwhelming advantage due to the sheer number of staff it can throw at video game development.

“We devote around 150 people to a single game, but China puts in between 1,000 to 2,000. We lack the capacity to compete, both in terms of quality and volume of content,” Kim said (via machine translation).

Using AI will not result in job losses, Kim insisted, but instead make employees more valuable, as “one person can perform the work of 100 people.” This week, Shift Up gifted its 300 staff an Apple Watch, AirPods Max, and a $3,400 cash bonus. A sequel, Stellar Blade 2, is in development, as well as Project Spirits, to be published by Level Infinite.

AI is, of course, a huge topic in gaming right now, with numerous companies forced to issue statements confirming they have not used AI to create games or the marketing materials that promote them. Just yesterday, January 12, we reported that Nintendo denied allegations that it used AI-generated imagery to advertise its new My Mario children’s toy range, while last month, a Fortnite artist was forced to defend their work after fans suggested numerous images found within the game’s new season were AI-generated, including a suspicious-looking poster showing a character in a hammock with an odd number of toes.

In November 17, Assassin’s Creed publisher Ubisoft had to remove an image found within Anno 117: Pax Romana that contained AI-generated elements after fans complained, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 players complained about suspected AI-generated images they had found across the game, following a trend of AI-Ghibli images from earlier this year. The Alters developer, 11 Bit Studios, and Jurassic World Evolution 3 developer, Frontier Developments, have similarly faced fan backlash.

More recently, Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian was embroiled in a genAI controversy of its own following the announcement of its next game, Divinity. It’s since pullled back somewhat from using the tech.

Opinion on the use of AI in games continues to divide studios and their fans, with some vehemently against its use, while others claim it’s an inevitable part of the future. Rockstar co-founder and former Grand Theft Auto writer Dan Houser recently likened AI to mad cow disease, but the CEO of Genvid — the company behind choose-your-own-adventure interactive series like Silent Hill Ascension — has claimed “consumers generally do not care” about generative AI in games, and stated that: “Gen Z loves AI slop.”

EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is “the very core of our business,” and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be “aggressive in applying AI.” Dead Space creator Glen Schofield also recently detailed his plans to “fix” the industry in part via the use of generative AI in game development, and former God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: “… if we don’t embrace [AI], I think we’re selling ourselves short.”

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 former veteran Bethesda developer has said the studio may end up with “hateful comments” even if The Elder Scrolls 6 ends up just being as good as Skyrim, which he considers to be one of the top 10 games of all time.

In an interview with Esports Insider, former Bethesda lead artist Nate Purkeypile, who worked at Bethesda Game Studios from 2007 before leaving in 2021, agreed with the assertion that the development teams behind The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout are in a “no-win situation” because of the expectation fans have placed upon both games.

“Yes, and that definitely factored into me leaving because Skyrim being one of the top 10 games of all-time, how do you beat that?” Purkeypile, who founded solo indie dev Just Purkey Games after leaving Bethesda, replied.

“If they do, great! And I hope it’s a great game, but even if it’s just as good as Skyrim was, you’ll still get so many people throwing out hateful comments. I’m sure there will be more death threats again. All of that stuff. It’s really unfortunate that that’s the way things have gone.”

In January last year, The Elder Scrolls 6 announcement became as old as predecessor Skyrim was when The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced. Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011, and The Elder Scrolls 6 was revealed on June 10, 2018 — 2,403 days afterwards. It is now seven-and-a-half years since the announcement, and we’re no closer, it seems, to the release of the game.

When the six-year anniversary of The Elder Scrolls 6 announcement arrived in June 2024, even Bethesda chief Todd Howard paused to say, “oh wow, that has been a while.” The Elder Scrolls 6 is at least in production, with Bethesda confirming it had entered “early development” in August 2023 and “early builds” were available in March 2024.

Last year, amid increasing pressure from fans for some information on the game, Howard said The Elder Scrolls 6 wouldn’t be out for some time yet. In an interview with GQ magazine to celebrate the release of Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition, Howard said The Elder Scrolls 6 is “still a long way off,” adding: “I’m preaching patience. I don’t want fans to feel anxious.”

More recently, speaking to Game Informer, studio design director Emil Pagliarulo pointed to GTA 6’s high-profile delays as the “smartest thing they could do.”

“What do fans really want?” he asked. “Do they want a game that comes out before it should and doesn’t meet their expectations? Or do they want the turkey that is in the oven for long enough to be delicious when it finally comes out of the oven, you know? That’s what I think people are going to want. So, we’re going to take our time and as long as it needs to be great.”

Purkeypile said he assumed Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls 6 so early because the studio was announcing Starfield at a time when it had already been so long since Skyrim came out, so “we needed to make sure people were not just pissed at us.” He continued: “it’s a very expensive way to do that, though. Those trailers are not cheap.”

Purkeypile added that Bethesda’s experience with the divisive Starfield shows it’s happy to delay games.

“I would imagine that they will take a while to deliver it because there’s so much pressure behind that title, and I think it’s been proven with Starfield that they’re finally okay, actually delaying stuff,” he said. “That was not really the case early on. On Skyrim, it was like, ‘It’s coming out on 11/11/11’ and we were like, what?! Oh boy, no pressure.

“I think there is less economic pressure to just get Elder Scrolls 6 out on a date, but there is more economic pressure to actually make sure it’s good, and I think that’s a good thing. That’s healthy so long as they’re also honest with the team about that.”

In the GQ article, Howard once again admitted that it had taken too long to get The Elder Scrolls 6 out the door, but did tease a The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered-style shadowdrop — without confirming anything.

“I do like to have a break between them, where it isn’t like a ‘plus one’ sequel,” Howard said of making The Elder Scrolls games again. “I think it’s also good for an audience to have a break — The Elder Scrolls has been too long, let’s be clear. But we wanted to do something new with Starfield. We needed a creative reset.” Bethesda is currently playtesting The Elder Scrolls 6, Howard revealed.

“I like to just announce stuff and release it,” Howard continued. “My perfect version — and I’m not saying this is going to happen — is that it’s going to be a while and then, one day, the game will just appear.” The Oblivion Remastered shadowdrop was “a test run,” Howard teased. “It worked out well.”

Earlier this year it was confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 will include a character designed in memory of a much-missed fan after a remarkable charity campaign that raised more than $85,000 for Make-A-Wish.

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.

Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios has released update 1.11.0 along with its patch notes, below. It adds the Abyss cosmetic set along with some fixes and balancing changes to the Trigger ‘Nade and Kettle.

These key nerfs to the Kettle and Trigger ‘Nade address some of the biggest complaints from Arc Raiders players in recent weeks. On the Kettle, Embark said it had reduced fire rate from 600 to 450. “The previous fire rate was only realistically reachable by players using macros, which creates an unfair dynamic that favors using third-party software,” Embark said in a post on Steam.

And on the Trigger ‘Nade, Embark admitted it had come to dominate PvP encounters, and “players favour picking it over all our other grenades.”

This nerf aims to make it less usable as a “trigger-in-air” grenade, while keeping its usefulness as a sticky bomb. Damage falloff has been rebalanced to concentrate the damage closer to the center of the explosion, and deal less damage farther away. The delay between triggering the grenade and it detonating has been increased from 0.7s to 1.5s, giving players more time to react, and making it harder to time the detonation in air.

Meanwhile, the update fixes a key card exploit that allows players to keep room keys after using them, and lighting has been lowered in some areas on Stella Montis Night Raid, making flashlights and listening more relevant.

Extraction shooter Arc Raiders is one of the biggest games around, selling over 12 million copies since its launch at the end of October. Embark just announced a free gift to all players to celebrate.

Elsewhere, we’ve got ongoing coverage of its ‘aggression-based matchmaking,’ as well as the current debate about aim assist.

Arc Raiders update 1.11.0 patch notes:

• Kettle
  • Dev note: Reduced fire rate from 600 to 450. The previous fire rate was only realistically reachable by players using macros, which creates an unfair dynamic that favours using 3rd party software.
• Trigger ‘Nade
  • Dev note: Trigger ‘Nade currently dominates PVP encounters, and players favour picking it over all our other grenades. This nerf aims to make it less usable as a “trigger-in-air” grenade, whilst keeping its usefulness as a sticky bomb. Damage falloff has been rebalanced to concentrate the damage closer to the center of the explosion, and deal less damage further away. The delay between triggering the grenade and it detonating, has been increased from 0.7s to 1.5s, giving players more time to react, and making it harder to time the detonation in air.
• Fixed a key card exploit that allowed players to keep room keys after using them.
• Lighting has been lowered in some areas on Stella Montis Night Raid making flashlights and listening more relevant.

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.

Capcom has announced a Resident Evil Showcase event that’s set to stream online later this week, featuring “brand new gameplay and news” for Resident Evil Requiem.

The Showcase will stream this Thursday, January 15 at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern or 10pm UK time. Following that, Capcom will host a “post-show” discussion stream via its YouTube channel, suggesting there will be plenty to chew over.

What could Capcom have left to reveal about Resident Evil Requiem, with just six weeks to go until its launch on February 27? Well, despite Leon S. Kennedy’s presence now being out in the open, fans still have plenty of questions about the game to be answered — such as, is any of it open world?

Earlier this month, a teasing trailer published by Nvidia featured clips of a bustling city environment not yet seen in demos or other trailers. Featuring cars and pedestrians, the snippet looked more like an open world game than a Resident Evil title. Is this just a scripted gameplay sequence, or will there be more to explore? Fans are keen to find out.

Artwork for the Showcase predominantly features the gun also seen on Requiem’s cover, alongside what looks to be red-colored bullets. Resident Evil Requiem’s director Koshi Nakanishi has previously suggested this gun will be important — perhaps we’ll soon learn more of its signficance, and why it seems to pass from Leon to Grace during the game’s events.

There’s plenty more fans want to know, too. How action-y will Leon’s sequences feel? Will any other classic characters make an appearance? What’s up with that mysterious mark on Leon’s neck that looks like a zombie bite? And what was up with GameStop’s leak that Rosemary Winters will be in the game? Tune in later this week and you may find out.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social