Category: IGN

With less than one week until its launch, Square Enix has confirmed that physical copies of Final Fantasy 16 have leaked into the wild and that it is investigating “illegitimate acquisitions” and is “acting to limit” the damage they may cause ahead of the game’s June 22 release date. So, my friends, be careful out there as there may be spoilers on their way.

Square Enix shared the news on Twitter, and it also asked anyone who gets an early copy to please respect those who have yet to play it by not sharing any screenshots or videos and to refrain from doing any livestreams with the game until June 22.

A message from the Final Fantasy XVI team. #FF16 pic.twitter.com/EwJQRu9loB

— FINAL FANTASY XVI (@finalfantasyxvi) June 17, 2023

“We’re aware that a small number of physical copies of Final Fantasy XVI are being circulated,” Square Enix wrote. “We are in the process of a thorough investigation into illegitimate acquisitions and are acting to limit this ahead of the official launch of the game on June 22nd.

“For those who receive a copy ahead of launch, we kindly ask that you do not share any aspect of the game; including screenshots, videos, and livestreams, until after Final Fantasy XVI has officially launched.

“Our priority is to ensure that the full game experience is not spoiled for our fans, and to do that we will be taking down any images, videos, or streams published ahead of launch day. We ask for your assistance and cooperation in this final week ahead of launch.

“It’s almost June 22nd, and we can’t wait for you to experience the full game the way the development team intended.”

If you can’t wait for Final Fantasy 16, you’ll be happy to know a playable demo is now available on PS5 that features the first couple hours of the game and will transfer your save data to the full game.

If you’d like to know what we’ve thought of the game, be sure to check out our hands-on preview of the first four hours, where we said, “From what I’ve seen so far, the future looks very bright for Final Fantasy 16.”

For more, don’t miss any of our IGN First coverage of Final Fantasy 16, including a mid-game boss battle, 18 minutes of dungeon-crawling gameplay, how side quests affect the story and vice versa, and how the game’s New Game+ will bring a whole new challenge.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The Callisto Protocol will receive a new piece of DLC called Final Transmission. It will launch as a timed exclusive on PlayStation for 48 hours on June 27, and then be released on all other platforms on June 29.

Striking Distance Studios posted a short teaser trailer showing protagonist Jacob Lee waking up and coming across a big robot that makes its way towards him. The studio calls it a “heart-pounding final chapter,” indicating that this could be the game’s only story DLC. However, it’s possible more non-story DLC could be added in the future.

Prepare for Final Transmission, the heart-pounding final chapter of The Callisto Protocol.

Play 48 hours early on June 27, exclusively on PlayStation, followed by a wider release on June 29 for all other platforms. pic.twitter.com/m6aBxqMGto

— The Callisto Protocol (@CallistoTheGame) June 16, 2023

The Callisto Protocol received plenty of updates since its release last December. In February, the game got an official hardcore mode and some Outer Way skins. In March, a Permadeath mode was added, as well as new death animations and skins. Last month, the game got the wave-based Riot mode where players have to fight through increasingly difficult waves of enemies.

Unfortunately, The Callisto Protocol also reportedly underperformed in sales when it debuted. In IGN’s The Callisto Protocol review, we said, “The Callisto Protocol is a satisfyingly gory spiritual successor to the Dead Space series, but it’s ultimately more of a striking modern mimic than a scary new mutation.”

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

In a panel “Campfire Chat” discussion via Twitch and YouTube, Diablo 4 devs addressed one of the game’s more annoying issues: inventory clutter.

Many Diablo 4 players have discovered that endgame looting requires numerous visits back to town to sell and store one’s goods, due to a high level of clutter. Chief among the list of things that quickly fill up a player’s limited inventory space is gems.

“There are many colors of Gems, there are many qualities of Gems, and this can have the effect of taking up lots of inventory space,” explained Game Director Joe Shely.

Thankfully, Blizzard has plans to address this issue in a future patch, which would remove those upgrade materials from your inventory altogether.

“The idea is to change the way you acquire Gems so they are a shelf in your materials or currency tab, rather than your inventory. The way that would work is you go to craft your Gem in the same way you do today and you just use a certain amount of that material,” said Shely.

While this would go a long way to alleviating some of the irritation that comes alongside multiple teleports back to town when completing a single dungeon, players should not expect that relief in the near future. True to their messaging prior to launch, Blizzard remains focused on fixing only the most crucial issues and creating new content, with quality of life improvements being added to later updates.

“We’re looking to get it in around season two,” Shely said.

In the meantime, there are plenty of updates, including a major patch before season one, for players to look forward to.

In an extensive Diablo 4 “Campfire Chat” on Twitch and YouTube, Blizzard discussed, among other things, the community concerns around server disconnects, and their plans for the first “real patch” due before the launch of the game’s first season.

It’s not been uncommon for players to get disconnected from Diablo 4’s servers in the few short weeks since they began exploring Sanctuary, and while only a minor inconvenience to most, it’s been a real problem for the game’s most hardcore players who play on the aptly named “Hardcore” mode. In this mode, a single character death results in that character’s permanent deletion, and Hardcore players have reported losing those characters due to disconnects from the server resulting in their character standing idle until killed.

The panel, which included Franchise General Manager Rod Fergusson and Game Director Joe Shely, talked about the issue and their plans to fix it.

“These can be some of the must frustrating situations for a Hardcore player, because in many cases it’s completely outside of your control,” Skely explained. “We have already a mechanism in the game that allows players to escape from boss fights that has very strict controls on it, called the Scroll of Escape. Because it has these controls in terms of being consumable and being a rare drop, this is the place where we want to add disconnect protection.”

“Basically the way this will work is: if you get disconnected, for any reason, if you have one of these Scrolls of Escape it will trigger even though you weren’t there to trigger it, and it will teleport you to town,” Shely added.

Skely specified that the team wants this mechanic to be limited, so it can’t be abused by those who might want to pull the plug on their computer every time they find themselves in a bind, to be consumed only in the rare, emergency situation.

Since Diablo 4 launched, a number of hotfixes (11 to be exact) have been deployed to address balance changes, improve game stability, and more, but Blizzard is already preparing for their first “real patch,” which may require server downtime to perform maintenance.

“We already have a big ‘real patch’ coming,” Fergusson announced. “That’s something that’s gone through certification. It’s out there. It’s going to address a lot of things, including performance issues.”

That patch, according to Blizzard, contains a whopping 13 pages of fixes and improvements that Blizzard didn’t delve into on-stream, but said would get a full set of patch notes once deployed. No specific date for the patch was given, but Blizzard shared it plans to deploy it before season one is launched and it may require server downtime.

Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.

The sack o’ mystery, 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 June 16 through June 20. 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.

The low-poly 254-player Battlefield-esque shooter BattleBit Remastered is off to a strong start following its June 15 launch. It jumped to the top of Steam’s global top-sellers list earlier this week, leaping ahead of big games such as Street Fighter 6, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Valve’s own Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

As noted by PC Gamer, the simplistically clean and blocky yet charming graphical style could easily lead some to mistake BattleBit Remastered for a Roblox creation. However, according to a concise one word FAQ response on the game’s website, this is assuredly not the case. Said website lists a core team of just three primary developers, who are being augmented by a “dedicated support team”.

Per the game’s Steam Store page, BattleBit Remastered offers players a high framerate modern warfare experience wherein up to 254 combatants battle it out in a series of impressively destructible environments replete with a wide range of vehicles including tanks, helicopters, and sea vehicles. Players can also choose from a pool of over 45 weapons, which can be augmented with a range of customization options to suit your combat needs.

Thanks for making us the #1 Selling Game Globally on Steam, this is unbelievable❤️. #BattleBitRises pic.twitter.com/aZYchWShPh

— BATTLEBIT ? JUNE 15TH ON STEAM (@BattleBitGame) June 15, 2023

BattleBit Remastered features six primary classes: Leader, Assault, Medic, Engineer, Support, and Recon. The developers have also implemented a dynamic day and night system, along with proximity-based voice chat, which allows for real-time interactions between both teammates and hostels alike.

At release, the early access title features 18 maps upon which players can participate in a slew of game modes ranging from the traditional rush and conquest zone capture fares, along with a number of smaller-scale options. This range of features is made all the more impressive by BattleBit Remastered’s refreshingly affordable $14.99 price tag.

At the time of publication, BattleBit Remastered was the 36th most-played game on Steam according to official stats, with 27,622 concurrent players. These achievements are magnified by BattleBit Remastered’s overall ‘very positive’ Steam rating of 88 percent from the over 2,900 reviews received to date, which indicates the multiplayer title is enjoying an smooth and stable launch.

Despite its meagre cost, BattleBit Remastered’s developers have stated that they currently have no plans to implement microtransactions in the game.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

The North American eSports business is in a sorry state according to a streamer who’s spending $1 million on a team.

As reported by PC Gamer, streamer Jeremy Wang (better known as Disguised Toast) released a video outlining why “the eSports industry is one of the worst things you can get into”.

Wang founded a Valorant team called DSG in January and later added a League of Legends squad to the roster. Five months in and Wang was told he was set to lose $1 million within the first year, twice what he initially expected to spend.

There’s little hope of making any money from the team, Wang said. “[My accountant] sent over this spreadsheet with all these red numbers, and I noted in the revenue section [that] it was blocked out,” he explained. “I asked him, ‘Why’d you block it out?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s not blocked out, there’s just nothing there. You’re not making any money.’ “

Wang said it’s not just an issue for his team either. “If you look at any eSports org in North America, all of them are either broke or going broke. And I do mean all of them,” he said.

“Some orgs will try and put on a front and say, ‘Hey, we’re still good, we look good, everything’s cool here.’ Trust me when I say, everyone is losing a lot of money. A lot of people are being fired. No org is safe right now.”

Companies are no longer interested in sponsoring eSports teams either, according to Wang, after being sold on exposure deals that haven’t came to fruition. “Brands are scared of eSports because they invested millions and millions into it, and they never got any significant return,” he said.

Wang plans to turn to Patreon and high quality merchandise to dig himself out the $1 million hole his team is currently in, though joked he may be making a video in another few months saying he’d now spent $2 million.

For more on eSports, check out IGN’s League of Legends Worlds 2022 coverage and our favourite moments from throughout the playoffs.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

CD Projekt is adding a legendary Witcher-themed sword to Cyberpunk 2077 through its upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion.

Announced on GOG,com, anyone who preorders Phantom Liberty and has their GOG account (CD Projekt’s version of Steam) connected will be rewarded with a series of goodies depending on which other games they’ve played.

Those who own The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt get a red and brown leather hoodie for V to dress up in that looks sort of like a 2077 version of the School of the Cat armour.

These players will also be awarded the Gwynbleidd sword, which is reminiscent of Aerondight from the original Witcher and the third game’s Blood and Wine expansion. Gwynbleidd is also Geralt’s nickname in Elder Speech, which translates to White Wolf.

The Witcher Card Game fans haven’t been forgotten either as those who have Gwent on their GOG accounts get a unique t-shirt and a special pistol called Scorch, named after one of the game’s most infamous cards.

All who preorder Phantom Liberty also get a Rarog vest, named after the mythical bird that dons CD Projekt’s logo, and the studio has promised there’s more to come in the future.

The Phantom Liberty expansion is set to add a wealth of content to Cyberpunk 2077 when it launches on September 26 and fundamentally changes several mechanics in the base game.

Vehicular combat, a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners inspired cyberpsychosis feature, and a clever nod to The Witcher are coming too, though at the cost of upping the game’s PC requirements.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

He began life as a mistake that sparked one of the greatest hoaxes in all video games. Now, 30 years later, he’s finally in a video game.

Sheng Long is the once mythical Street Fighter secret boss who was mentioned in Ryu’s victory quote from the original Street Fighter 2: “You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.” Fans vociferously speculated about the identity of the mysterious Sheng Long. Who was he? Where was he in the game? Is he Ryu and Ken’s master? Could he be unlocked somehow?

In the pre-internet era, Sheng Long was the subject of heated debate in playgrounds across the world. Little did players know, the name was simply the result of a mistranslation of “Shōryūken”, Street Fighter’s famous Dragon Punch.

“You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.”

ⓘ Official sources say this claim is disputed. pic.twitter.com/x0NgVR3ssR

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) November 18, 2020

Capitalising on the speculation, a 1992 April Fools’ prank by U.S. games magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly tricked people into believing Sheng Long was an unlockable boss character in Street Fighter 2. Cue more heated debate in playgrounds across the world as fans tried in vain to fight Sheng Long. Now, 30 years later, fans finally can in Street Fighter 6.

Spoilers for Street Fighter 6 follow.

In Street Fighter 6’s single-player campaign mode, World Tour, Sheng Long can be found on top of the SiRN building in Metro City at night as part of the Fighty Mighty side quest. It’s a bit of a fiddly trek to get to the level 90 beast. Head to Bayside Park Street and enter the SiRN building via the Construction Site. Climb the steps and ladders all the way to the top, using the control panels to call in the moving platforms to progress. Sprint past the aggressive NPCs if you can.

You’ll end up in the SiRN server rooms, which are packed with annoying robotic enemies. Sprint past them as you make your way up to the first floor of R&D. Get in the lift to the seventh floor, run down to the sixth floor, then up the stairs to the roof. From there, climb up to the crane platform and Sheng Long’s location. This video from YouTube channel lilfarmboi shows the way.

Sheng Long uses Ryu’s fighting style (of course he does), and looks like a sort of PS2-era Heihachi from Tekken. This is a design inspired by EGM’s prank, which involved unofficial art. Speak to him and he’ll say: “Begone. All who bear witness to me suffer terrible misfortune. Knowing this, do you still wish to face me in combat? Is this bravery born from ignorance? Or are you a beast whose hunger demands fell sacrifice? It matters not. Come. Face me with every fiber of your being.”