Category: IGN

BioWare has confirmed layoffs within the Star Wars: The Old Republic development team as the game prepares to transition to a new developer.

Earlier this month, IGN revealed EA was nearing an agreement to move the ongoing development and operation of the long-running MMORPG from BioWare to third-party studio Broadsword Online Games.

The agreement sees SWTOR handed over to current Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot developer Broadsword Online, which is run by former Mythic Entertainment co-founder and BioWare VP Rob Denton, who previously worked on SWTOR in its early days.

At the time, IGN reported 70-80 people were part of the core development team of The Old Republic, more than half of whom were expected to move to Broadsword.

In a new blog post, BioWare general manager Gary McKay confirmed an undisclosed number of layoffs are set to hit those who do not transition from the studio to Broadsword.

“No big change comes without challenges,” McKay said. “Among them is the fact that most of the current team will be invited to accompany the game on its move to Broadsword, though unfortunately not every role will make the move. This is the hardest part of this transition, and these decisions were not made lightly. We are of course doing everything we can to support the affected team members, who have an opportunity to find new roles within EA.

“In addition, we’re aware that the team members who are being asked to move to a new studio will also be adapting to change, and we will be working with Broadsword to make the transition as comfortable as possible.

“In the long run, though, we are confident that this is the best decision for the game and its community. We at BioWare will miss being a part of SWTOR’s story going forward. But we also know that it will be in very good hands.”

One employee who is moving over from BioWare to Broadsword is Keith Kanneg, executive producer of SWTOR. In the same blog post, he said “decisions that impact our people are the hardest part of change and evolution, but I believe Broadsword is the right studio to continue to enhance and modernize our game — and also expand the number of people who can play it”.

BioWare has insisted all current plans for SWTOR are still in place, with new features set to be announced.

“As examples, we just delivered our largest story update in months, and a new story flashpoint with Game Update 7.3: Old Wounds, taking us back to the planet Voss, which we haven’t visited since our KOTET expansion back in 2016,” Kanneg said. “We will also be rolling out Game Update 7.3.1, which will contain our next Galactic Season, in the coming months. And stay tuned for details on Game Update 7.4, where players will see the story continue following the events of Old Wounds. And there’s even more on the horizon.”

BioWare is now focusing on its single-player games, with teams primarily in Austin and Edmonton. McKay provided a brief update on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next Mass Effect game: “For Dragon Age, we continue to build, polish, and tune an exceptional experience we know our fans will love. We can’t wait to share more on this soon. For Mass Effect, we continue pre-production with a core team of veteran storytellers who are bringing the deep franchise history forward in a spectacular new way.”

SWTOR was first launched in December of 2011, and IGN gave it a 9/10 in our review at the time. It was initially released as a subscription game but was converted within the first year to free-to-play after a steep drop-off, and has remained that way ever since to steady success.

While SWTOR never quite reached the heights of competitor World of Warcraft, it did achieve nearly $1 billion in lifetime revenue as of 2019. Last year, its creative director Charles Boyd left the company after 16 years.

The Old Republic remains a popular period within the Star Wars universe, with Lucasfilm acknowledging it as a potential setting for future movies and shows. A remake of the original Knights of the Old Republic is currently in development, but its status is unknown after being delayed indefinitely.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

For a team whose bread-and-butter is stern and serious motorcycle simulations, Milestone’s 2021 toy-based racer Hot Wheels Unleashed certainly seemed like a quirky fit at the time. However, buried amongst 30-or-so iterations of the Supercross, MXGP, MotoGP, SBK, and Ride series, Hot Wheels Unleashed shone like a die cast diamond. Combining the impeccable speed brandished by the likes of arcade racing icon Burnout with the twisted madness of Trackmania, Hot Wheels Unleashed boasts toy-sized racing that’s small on scale and massive on fun. After the positive reception for the original, a sequel is no real surprise – but how does Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged improve on the 1:64 formula? At least, other than just adding motorcycles, that is? Classic Milestone.

We’ve had a brief hands-on with Hot Wheels Unleashed 2, and it definitely seems largely in-line with the original at first blush. That is, tiny and impeccably detailed toy cars taking on wild and wacky plastic tracks draped across life-size environments.

The garage this time, however, is bolstered by a few extra vehicle types – including motorcycles and ATVs. They honestly look a little odd without riders and they’re too big compared to the cars, but both of those things are essentially out of Milestone’s control. Milestone is just emulating the actual Hot Wheels models, and in real-life the die cast bikes do skew quite large compared to the regular cars they’re ranged alongside of. About 10 years ago Hot Wheels debuted a range of bikes with little plastic riders that might’ve been a better aesthetic fit for the game, but the fact they’ve been out of circulation for some time now wouldn’t have helped their case. The bikes handle much like everything else in the game, but they do authentically lean left and right as they manoeuvre.

There was only a small smattering of vehicles available in the preview, but the final game will feature over 130 of them. The first game launched with 66, although over 80 more were added as DLC or rewards post-release. It feels plausible that Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 will arrive with fewer cars than the most dedicated returning fans may have ended up with in the original, but it’s not clear how many of the 130 will be returning cars and how many will be new. There were a few familiar models in the preview selection as well as some new ones, including a reissue of the Sol-Aire CX4, a knock-off Group C racer I definitely remember having back in the 80s. More of these older models would be welcome in the final product; I know some younger players may not recognise them but I’m sure others will; my kids can’t be the only zoomers who inherited a bucket full of Gen-X Hot Wheels!

I also spotted a Bugatti Chiron, so licensed models will still make an appearance. Hopefully we’ll see more entertainment models; last time we had the DeLorean from Back to the Future and the TMNT Party Wagon amongst several others, but it’d be nice to see them joined by some others this time around. The licensing for specific replica movie cars does admittedly seem to bounce between a number of die cast companies (so I do gather not everything Hot Wheels has ever modelled in its long-running Entertainment line may necessarily be up for inclusion in 2023) but I’m up for whatever we can get. Some Fast & Furious cars would be a good fit considering it’s been a significant pillar of Hot Wheels’ range for years, surely?

A new skill tree system for upgrading vehicles will be on hand, and broadly speaking you’ll be able to equip a specific amount of perks to a vehicle depending on its category level (which can also be improved with so-called ‘Upgrade Kits’). I’m hoping the overall system for this is extremely straightforward and features zero mobile game treadmill nonsense; the last thing anyone needs is another dose of Disney Speedstorm.

There were two track environments available in the preview – Backyard and Mini Golf Course. They’re both brightly lit and largely outdoor locations, and they both introduce dirt and grass as terrain. I’m guessing I’ll probably need more time with more vehicles to properly assess just what impact these different surface types have on the overall handling, but there is supposed to be an effect. The three other maps are called Dinosaur Museum, Gas Station, and Arcade. I’m liking the look of the neon-splashed diner in Gas Station, but Arcade looks like it has massive potential to be my favourite – and not just because I obviously have a soft spot for classic video game halls. In my opinion, the visuals of the original Hot Wheels Unleashed were at their absolute strongest in the Garage map, which features a fantastic contrast between more dimly lit zones and areas bathed in fluorescent light. I suspect the lighting in Arcade will be equally strong.

Milestone has added more race types to Hot Wheels Unleashed 2, which is a good move. As much as I truly enjoy the original, it is a little limited by the fact it only features standard races and time trials. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 adds elimination events, drift challenges, and waypoint time trials. There’ll also be some online-specific events, including a destruction derby-themed one, but we weren’t able to try that one during our preview.

Some other big additions are the inclusion of a lateral nudge move (which can be used to bonk into opponents beside you, or avoid incoming obstacles) and a jump move (which is tied to your boost meter). The jump move seems like a big swing considering how much of an effect that may have on shortcut hunting, but I’m going to reserve judgement until I can get a lot more time to explore the tracks. On first impressions, the checkpoints do seem to be placed a lot closer together, though. As such, I’m slightly worried about what this may mean for the cheeky and technical air-boosting shortcuts that were quite fun to fool around experimenting with in the original. Significant stretches of track can be skipped with varying degrees of skill (and luck) in the first Hot Wheels Unleashed, but I’m not sure yet whether the same will be possible in the sequel.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged is primed to hit the pegs on October 19, 2023.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has sold more copies physically than Resident Evil 4 Remake or Star Wars Jedi: Survivor sold period.

Revealed through the latest data from Circana (formerly NPD), the long-awaited Breath of the Wild sequel got off to an incredibly hot start, instantly moving to second place on the list of best-selling games of the year so far.

What makes this a particularly astounding feat is that Nintendo only shares its physical sales data, not digital, meaning none of Tears of the Kingdom’s eShop sales contributed to this number.

This means the physical version only fell to Hogwarts Legacy and otherwise outperformed Resident Evil 4 (which topped March’s sales charts), Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (which topped April’s), Dead Island 2, MLB: The Show 23, and every other game released in 2023.

The best selling games of 2023 so far are therefore: Hogwarts Legacy, Tears of the Kingdom, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Resident Evil 4, MLB: The Show, Dead Island 2, FIFA 23, Dead Space, Madden NFL 23, and Elden Ring.

Physical sales are also generally considered to be poorer performing compared to digital, with a report from January 2023 indicating digital sales accounted for an estimated 90% of games sold in the UK in 2022.

Tears of the Kingdom’s hot start wasn’t necessarily a secret, of course, as Nintendo announced the sequel sold 10 million copies within three days. That being said, overcoming 2023’s other hit games through physical sales alone is a significant accomplishment in an industry where major developers are giving up on boxed copies altogether.

In our 10/10 review of the game, IGN said: “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an unfathomable follow-up, expanding a world that already felt full beyond expectation and raising the bar ever higher into the clouds.”

And for help with everything Tears of the Kingdom, take a look at our Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough and Guide about making your way through Hyrule. In fact, you can start here:

• 16 Things to Do First in Tears of the Kingdom
• 14 Things Tears of the Kingdom Doesn’t Tell You
• How to Uncover the Full TOTK Map
• How to Expand Your Inventory in TOTK
• PSA: Your Old BOTW Save Unlocks Something Cool in TOTK

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

Microsoft would have kept Sega games multiplatform if it had bought the company, court documents have revealed.

As part of a strategy document released during the ongoing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) vs Microsoft trial to determine the fate of Xbox’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft outlined its operating plan for Sega, had its plan to buy the company behind Sonic came to be.

The document, reviewed by IGN, reveals Microsoft’s plan for Sega to report into Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty with the following operating principles:

• We will continue to develop and sell all acquired games and franchises on all relevant platforms (e.g., Android, iOS, PlayStation, Steam, Switch, Windows, Xbox, etc).
• We will bring previously exclusive to PlayStation and Nintendo titles to Xbox and launch future titles on Xbox in addition to other relevant platforms as rights permit.
• We will launch all acquired games and franchises with subscription exclusivity into Xbox Game Pass on console, PC, and cloud; future releases will ship into Xbox Game Pass on a day-and date basis.

The important point here is that Microsoft, in November 2020 when this strategy was outlined, did not plan to make Sega games such as Sonic Xbox exclusive. Rather, it planned to continue to make Sega games multiplatform, and bring exclusives to Xbox.

One of the key questions the FTC has put to Microsoft as part of its bid to block the Activision Blizzard deal is whether it would make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox. It has pointed to Bethesda’s upcoming space role-playing game Starfield, which is not coming out on PlayStation, as an example of Microsoft’s behaviour after it bought parent company ZeniMax. For its part, Microsoft has committed to keeping Call of Duty multiplatform for at least a decade if it buys Activision Blizzard. This note on its plan for Sega, should the deal have gone through, backs up Microsoft’s case.

According to an email similarly entered into evidence, Xbox head Phil Spencer specifically went to Microsoft CFO Amy Hood and CEO Satya Nadella to request approval to approach Sega and acquire its gaming studios (notably not including the rest of its business units). “We believe that Sega has built a well-balanced portfolio of games across segments with global geographic appeal, and will help us accelerate Xbox Game Pass both on and off-console.” Microsoft GM David Hampton simply replied “game on” to this email.

You can check out our daily roundups right here on IGN for updates on everything happening in FTC v. Microsoft, day by day, as well as catch up on our detailed analysis of day one and day two of the trial before it reconvenes today.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Nintendo has added a rewind mechanic to Pikmin 4 that lets players easily undo their mistakes.

It’s a tragedy every Pikmin player is familiar with: one simple mistake can lead to dozens of the little beasties being lost, but this seemingly won’t be an issue in the Nintendo Switch version.

As reported by Go Nintendo, Pikmin 4 has the typical day and night cycle of the franchise, though players can now opt to rewind time too if something goes wrong.

There won’t be a penalty for doing this, nor a limit to how many times it can be done, meaning players looking to make the most efficient use of their days now can.

The July 21 release date of Pikmin 4 is fast approaching and Nintendo is upping its promotion for the game as a result. It revealed a ton of new details during the June Nintendo Direct, for example, including information on its new Dandori Battle mini-game.

In our final preview of the game, IGN said: “Playing Pikmin has always felt like a warm hug, and [we’re] delighted to report that nothing in that regard has changed in Pikmin 4.”

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

Nintendo plans to give Switch players a “smooth transition” to its next console using Nintendo Accounts.

Speaking during an investors Q&A session, translated by Genki on Twitter (below), Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa indicated that Nintendo Accounts would be a staple for users going forward.

“As for the transition from Nintendo Switch to the next generation machine, we want to do as much as possible in order to smoothly transition our customers while utilising the Nintendo Account,” he said.

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa says they plan to make a smooth transition for customers from Nintendo Switch to the next-generation console by using the Nintendo Account!

– There are currently 290 million Nintendo Accounts across console & mobile.https://t.co/Y9O8vmeySz pic.twitter.com/OrIYQ1K5XU

— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) June 27, 2023

Nintendo isn’t historically known for a strong or consistent online infrastructure as Nintendo Accounts were only introduced with the Switch. The Wii U and 3DS both utilised a Nintendo Network ID, and while these can be connected to the modern service, the transition was considered far from smooth by many.

Furukawa said there are now more than 290 million Nintendo Accounts in use across console and mobile, however, seemingly giving the company a strong foundation to build its next generation infrastructure on.

This will therefore be a move similar to what Sony and Microsoft have been doing for years, with users’ PlayStation Network and Xbox Live accounts now having transitioned between three generations of hardware.

Chatter around a next generation Nintendo console has been slowly increasing recently, with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot saying earlier in June he regretted releasing Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope on the Switch, instead wishing he’d waited for the console’s successor.

Nintendo maintains the Switch is good for another year at least, however, saying in May a Switch successor won’t be released until April 2024 at the earliest. This comes despite a decline in Switch sales. The console sold close to 18 million units in the last financial year, down from 23 million sold the year before and 28 million the year before that.

Rumours surrounding a new console have been circulating for years, with even analysts unsure if Nintendo was planning to release the Switch 2 (for lack of a better name) as early as 2021. The new console was said to offer boosted graphics akin to the PlayStation 4 and its Pro model, but there is no official information regarding the next piece of Nintendo hardware yet.

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

Ninja Theory was acquired for $117 million by Microsoft, according to FTC filings. The FTC v. Microsoft case has revealed some new information recently about Microsoft’s proposed acquisitions.

FTC filings showed internal emails from Microsoft about which studios and publishers to be on the lookout for regarding potential acquisitions, and candidates included Bungie and Sega. In the internal email detailing a pitch to acquire Sega, there was a list of “precedent transactions” on page 10 and it noted previous acquisitions from many different companies including Sony, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts.

Within the list was Ninja Theory, which was noted to be bought for $117 million. It also mentions the date when the acquisition was made public, June 10, 2018. That was during E3 2018 where Microsoft also announced that it had acquired Turn 10, Playground Games, Compulsion Games, and Undead Labs.

Ninja Theory’s latest title, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, is set to release sometime in 2024.

Check out our daily summaries right here on IGN for updates on everything happening in FTC v. Microsoft, and get caught up on our detailed analysis of day one and day two of the trial before it reconvenes tomorrow.

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

IO Interactive’s upcoming online fantasy RPG may very well be an Xbox exclusive, according to internal Microsoft documents.

In evidence submitted in the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft trial over the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, one specific document detailed Xbox’s research into potentially acquiring a number of companies, including Hitman developer IO Interactive. On a page listing “expected and previously shipped games,” IOI was listed as working on something called “Project Dragon,” an RPG shooter for PC and Xbox Series X and S. Elsewhere in the document, it is stated that Project Dragon is “for XGS Publishing,” or Xbox Game Studios.

FTC’s legal battle to stop Xbox from acquiring Activision Blizzard continues on this week, and while the trial is off for today, a rash of evidence documents appeared online during the break that have brought to light some interesting clues about who all Xbox is interested in acquiring. Namely: Sega.

An internal Xbox document submitted as evidence in the ongoing trial shows the company’s acquisition strategy as of May 2021. The document begins by recommending multiple acquisitions to fill perceived content gaps in mobile development as well as “franchises with strong communities and deep engagement” and “casual, social, and cross-generational franchises.”