Inflexion Games are closing their UK office, laying off staff and restructuring their main Canadian studio after failing to find commercial success with their Victorian fantasy survival game Nightingale. Reportedly, at least 22 people have been let go.
Microsoft shut down Redfall and Prey developer Arkane Austin in a sudden, devastating move earlier this year, and the studio founder has now called the move “stupid” and “not a good decision.”
In an interview with PC Gamer, Arkane Studios founder and current head of WolfEye Studios Raphaël Colantonio was asked about the move. Colantonio, who left Arkane in 2017 to found WolfEye, had some thoughts to share:
“I think if you look a little bit, it’s obvious that Arkane Austin was a very special group of people that have made some cool things and that could pull it off again,” he said “I think it was a decision that just came down to, ‘We need to cut something.’ Was it to please the investors, the stock market? They’re playing a different game.”
PC Gamer asked Colantonio if he knew why Microsoft had made the decision to shutter the Austin studio. Colantonio didn’t claim to know — he’s been gone from the company since well before Microsoft acquired it, after all. The most logical theory, people have speculated, is due to the struggles of Arkane Austin-developed Redfall, but Colantonio didn’t float that in the interview.
“The rules that they play, we might not understand them. It’s a different thing. It’s hard to know why they did what they did…The only thing that I stand by is saying that the specific choice of killing Arkane Austin, that was not a good decision.”
The interview continued with Colantonio expressing that recreating a similar team to Arkane Austin would be “impossible” or, at best, would “take forever.” “When you have that magic of Harvey [Smith] and Ricardo [Bare] etc that all come together, it’s a specific moment in time and space that just worked out this way, that took forever to reach. Those people together can really make magic. It’s not like, ‘Doesn’t matter, we’ll just rehire.’ No, try it. That’s what big groups do all the time. They try to just hire massively and overpay people to create those magic groups. It doesn’t work like this. So to me, that was stupid. But what do I know?”
Arkane Austin was closed alongside Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Games. Arkane Lyon remained intact, and Tango Gameworks was acquired a few months later by Krafton. In a letter to staff at the time, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty said the cuts were due to a “reprioritization of titles and resources” at the company. Microsoft had previously announced plans to cull 1,900 staff from its gaming workforce. The company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, received a $30 million pay raise last year.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Ironically, no trading allowed.
Digital card games like Marvel Snap have seen a lot of success in recent years with short, satisfying matches that you can finish in a few minutes. The mobile release of Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket almost seems like a direct answer to this trend. From uncomplicated card text to simplified rules, it axes much of the complexity of the original Pokémon TCG while still wrapping it up in an addictive collection loop that looks to have players checking their phones daily and maybe even spending real-world money on microtransactions to get more cards.
After spending a little too much time opening booster packs and battling friends and randoms, we can say TCG Pocket is as predatory as a Pidgeot stalking a Caterpie and more mesmerising than a Swoobat using Attract. On the collection side of things, at least.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The post S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: How GSC Game World Battled Real-Life Danger appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Baldur’s Gate 3 players have downloaded more than 50 million mods in less than two months, including 10,000 that renamed Withers “Bone Daddy.”
Developer Larian Studios shared the milestone in an X/Twitter post, saying the feat had been achieved in the time since official modding support arrived via Patch 7 on September 5. This means traditional mods created outside of the Patch 7 modding tool aren’t counted in the 50 million figure, so the actual number will be much, much higher.
“Together, you’ve downloaded more than 50 million mods since Patch 7 introduced modding support,” Larian said. “Apparently 10,000 of those downloads were you renaming Withers to Bone Daddy. So, uh, glad we could facilitate that.”
Modding the beloved Dungeons & Dragons based role-playing game appears to be snowballing in popularity, as only 15 million had been downloaded by October 1. More than double that amount has since been downloaded in basically the same amount of time.
Mods released so far include one that adds real-time combat to the otherwise turn-based RPG and another that brought entire new maps to Faerûn, including the highly requested Avernus.
Patch 7 otherwise added official content including an “absolutely metal” ending for Karlach and a hidden evil ending. Players will also be relieved to hear that it’s not the final major Baldur’s Gate 3 patch after all.
In our 10/10 review of Baldur’s Gate 3, IGN said: “With crunchy, tactical RPG combat, a memorable story with complex characters, highly polished cinematic presentation, and a world that always rewards exploration and creativity, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the new high-water mark for CRPGs.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Stationeers and Icarus developers RocketWerkz are making a spiritual successor to beloved space sim Kerbal Space Program, which is currently titled “Kitten Space Agency” in a flagrant display of adherence to wholesome internet trends. It’s based on an actual Kerbal Space Program 2 pitch the studio threw at Take-Two subsidiary Private Division back in the day. RocketWerkz CEO and original DayZ creator Dean Hall has hired several former KSP and KSP2 developers to work on the game, and is describing it on social media as a “KSP killer”.
Sony has revealed the global release times for Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered across PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
A PlayStation Blog post outlined Sony’s launch plans for the somewhat controversial remaster of Horizon: Zero Dawn, which arrives later today, October 31, for $49.99.
Those looking to play the game on PS5 have an easy answer: Horizon Zero Dawn: Remastered launches at midnight local time, meaning it’s already available on console. But PC is a different story, with different launch times around the world.
The remastered version of Horizon: Zero Dawn has 10 hours of re-recorded dialogue and visual enhancements. The original earned a 9/10 in IGN’s review, in which we said: “Horizon Zero Dawn presents us with a beautiful world full of unforgettable challenges.”
Sony doubled the price of PlayStation 4 version following the reveal of Horizon: Zero Dawn’s PS5 remaster, as it jumped from $19.99 to $39.99. The game was at the previous price point for years as part of the PlayStation Hits collection, and other entries such as God of War and The Last of Us Remastered have remained at the typical $19.99 price.
This came after Sony pulled Horizon: Zero Dawn from the PlayStation Plus Extra Games Catalog in May, meaning it’s gone from free for subscribers to $19.99 and now $39.99 in the last four months, or $49.99 for those wanting the best version.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
From developers Cannibal Interactive, the creators of Purgatory Dungeoneer, springs forth a new labyrinth game. This one is called Labyrinth of Wild Abyss: LayeRedux and it has labyrinths. Except the labyrinths don’t just have single paths to their centres, but tube monsters covered in eyes who’ll stalk you slowly and methodically as you meander. Personally, it’s not the vibe I’m after when I sit down in the evening and I think, “I would like to play a video game that makes me feel somewhat pleasant”. But hey, it might be for you.
“It’s kinda like using your Nintendo Switch as a music player”.
The Nintendo Music app is awesome. The chance to listen to official Nintendo music from Nintendo might not seem like too big of a deal, but after all these years of asking, it certainly feels like one.
However, with a library of iconic soundtracks now at our fingertips, some have started to reminisce about when Nintendo did this before. Not in an app, but in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Come on, don’t tell us you had forgotten about the music player!
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Almost ten years after Inquistion offered up a thrilling herb-harvesting adventure, today sees the release of Dragon Age: Veilguard. I’ve popped the release times below. The internet’s Aged Dragons are naturally quite excited, and there’s been some lovely interactions over on Le Epic Musk Zone, where veteran Bioheads are celebrating the RPG studio’s history of animation quirks, specifically the ‘Bioware Turn’. Here’s a clip:
