Category: IGN

Double Fine Productions CEO Tim Schafer has touched the development of a lot of video games, so it’s natural that he’s hard-pressed to pick a favorite. But his answer is ultimately driven by one of Schafer’s most closely-held values: the importance of being present with other people.

I’m asking Schafer about his favorite projects at an opportunity ripe for reflecting on his industry impact: DICE Summit 2023 in Las Vegas. We spoke just hours before he was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, in recognition of his over 30-year impact on the games industry. This honor puts him on a roster of past winners including Ed Boon, Connie Booth, Bonnie Ross, Todd Howard, Hideo Kojima, and many others.

Beginning with The Secret of Monkey Island at LucasArts up to his most recent work, Psychonauts 2, Schafer’s directly been involved in the development of over 25 games. Via Double Fine, he’s helped publish almost ten more, and within Double Fine itself has helped support the development of still more than that. And then there are all the games Double Fine has supported via Day of the Devs over the years, an annual festival of game demos that has helped spread the word about countless indies.

At first, to answer my question about his greatest career highlight, Schafer proceeds to name Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and Psychonauts before admitting he’s just going to name every game he’s ever worked on.

So I nudge him a little more. Surely, in over 30 years, something sticks out? He arrives at probably two of the least-known games he’s ever worked on: Double Fine Happy Action Theater and its sequel, Kinect Party, both Kinect games for the Xbox 360.

“What I love about those, if you’ve ever seen them, is that there’s no barrier to entry, so your grandparents can walk in the room and just all of a sudden be playing this game,” Schafer says. “And it’s this augmented reality-type game where we put kids and fill their living room with lava, and they dance around…and I still put it on all throughout my daughter’s life. I know she had a birthday party, and kids still stand in front of it and scream and yell and jump around. I’ve never made anything that I can visibly see the joy on people’s faces when they play it, because adventure games usually play like this…”

Schafer makes a very serious, focused face, as if concentrating very hard on playing a game.

“Not very joyful. I mean people are enjoying it. But this Kinect game, watching them jump around and being happy, and people who normally would not think of this as gamers. It has just been something I’m really proud of, and I don’t think many people know about that game at all.”

More, Weirder Games

The theme of accessing joy and creativity by physically being in community with others was one that ran both through his DICE Summit Fireside Chat keynote with Outerloop Games co-founder Chandana Ekanayake, as well as our interview. When I ask him about the biggest changes to how games are made he’s witnessed in his career, he lightly touches on voice-acting and 3D before thinking of how developers communicate with communities, and the ways in which that allows them to witness the joy people feel through the games they make…as well as all the other emotions.

“We used to have print magazines and just not talk to anyone except for our conferences. Maybe we’d meet someone who played our games once, or we’d wait a month for a review in Computer Gaming World, and now it’s just interface all the time. Before we launch a game, during, and after we launch a game, just talking to people about it. It’s so interactive, in a way, with our communities. Those are big changes, our relationship with our community. Especially because we’ve done crowdfunding, that changes your relationship with your community where they’re like your patrons in a way. They always were, but…it’s challenging.

“We’ve done it twice, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily a good fit for games, just because games take so long to make that people… it stresses them out to wait so long for their goods to be delivered, you know what I mean? But it was great to get past the gatekeepers a little bit and say, ‘We do want adventure games again. We do want platformers and stuff.’ So, it’ll continue to evolve, I think.”

One of the other biggest changes for Schafer personally was Double Fine’s acquisition by Xbox, a move that opened a number of new doors for the studio. As Schafer puts it, Double Fine historically tends to make “weird” games that tend to be difficult to find funding for. But with Xbox’s support, he’s not only had the funding, but he’s also had the boon of Xbox Game Pass to put those weird games in front of people who might not have ever tried them at full price.

“Game Pass lets us reach people who maybe would’ve been too nervous to drop 70 bucks for a physical copy of a thing,” he says. “But they see it and it looks really compelling and they’re like, ‘Oh, I’ll just download it and play it.’ That’s a great place for us to be, so that changes us, and I think it’ll lead to us being more like ourselves and more creative…It’s allowed me to move forward projects that I had on the back burner, thinking, ‘I would never be able to pitch this to a publisher. It’s just too strange-sounding.’ And now we can make those games, so they’re going to get weirder, that’s all.”

It’s worth pointing out that Schafer isn’t referring to Psychonauts 2 here – it was already in development when Double Fine was acquired. But he does add that Xbox’s support meant being effectively asked, “How would you finish Psychonauts if you had resources?” His answer was to put the boss fights back in and polish it far more than he’d been able to otherwise, and that’s what the team did.

Instead, Schafer’s “weirder games” remark is referring to Double Fine’s future output, which he’s not able to talk about just yet. He does confirm that the studio still does internal game jams, and he’s got a whole list of game ideas in his head that he wants to work on some day. I ask him if he’s thinking of revisiting some of his old games at any point, and while he’s not opposed to the idea entirely, that’s not what he’s up to right now.

“Starting with Broken Age, we were like, ‘Let’s make an adventure game again,’ which is kind of a nostalgic thing to do,” he says. “And then we started remastering all the old adventure games, Grim, and Day of the Tentacle, and Full Throttle. And then we made a sequel to Psychonauts, which is considered officially a retro game now. I saw someone was discussing CRT TVs and which are the best ones, and then Psychonauts was their demo. And I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s a retro game.’ We’ve been looking towards the past and taking care of our past, and archiving it and preserving it in these remasters. But now, we’re really excited about doing all new stuff. We’re doing new games in the studio, and everything is 100% new.”

Schafer is also still playing lots of games despite, he says, the temptation to stop playing as he gets older and busier raising kids. He’s been playing Cult of the Lamb a lot, and Stray, and he tells me he wants to get around to finishing some of the big blockbusters like Elden Ring…but keeps coming back to Vampire Survivors. He’s excited for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom too, and says that its predecessor Breath of the Wild is probably his favorite game of all time (that he didn’t make). It supplanted Super Mario 64, which influenced Schafer’s shift from making point-and-click adventures to 3D adventures, though he cautions that fans probably shouldn’t expect him to draw similar inspiration in the future and make anything as big and ambitious as Breath of the Wild.

Schafer briefly ponders doing something like Animal Crossing – a game about tending and caring for something – but Nintendo already nailed that, he says, so maybe not. Above all, whatever Schafer does next, his biggest concern is keeping his creativity alive.

“There’s types of games I would like to make, and it’s more like I think the biggest effort is, I’ve always been mindful of not losing that fire in your belly. How do you tend that, how do you stoke that? How do you not suffocate that, how do you let in enough air? All these metaphors for, ‘How do you make sure you still love what you do?’ And it always involves moving towards a project that excites me the most, because there’s a lot of pressure to get pulled into maybe business development or other areas of your job that are important, but will make you wake up one morning and that fire’s gone. So, I’ve always avoided that, so I would just maintain pursuing that, and just always chasing what inspires me and everyone at Double Fine.”

Human Beings, Making Games

But Tim Schafer’s job isn’t just to noodle away in a room by himself and make games. Schafer is vocal about games being a team effort, and therefore the importance of building a healthy, sustainable environment for the human beings working on them. One major way he’s demonstrating this is through the release of a 32-part documentary on the making of Psychonauts 2 created by 2 Player Productions, who embedded in the studio throughout development to offer a very transparent look at how Double Fine works. It’s an unprecedented move in a normally very secretive industry, and a massive gamble to commit to before the game is even made. What if Psychonauts 2 had flopped?

Schafer says he was prepared for that when he signed off on the Kickstarter for the documentary.

“Look, this is the story of how games get made, and sometimes it goes well, and sometimes it goes off the rails,” he says. “And Psychonauts did kind of go off the rails, and then the team brought it back, and so I think it’s a great story of that. Maybe I’d feel differently if the game turned out bad, but I’m very happy with the game getting nominated for Game of the Year and stuff.”

One big reason this level of transparency was critical to Schafer came from his own experience as a child, writing into a magazine asking how he could get a job making video games. He recalls he never got an answer, and just assumed for years that games were made by “really advanced people, somehow super smart, different than me, serious scientists and stuff.” Making a documentary, he says, was his way of answering his 8th grade self…and all the other kids out there now who might have the same question.

“I’ve always been struck by how once you’re on the other side and you’re inside the world of games, there’s so many jobs that you don’t know exist when you’re a kid, like sound editor, or dialogue editor, or producer, and tools programmer. This is the thing, people are like, ‘Well I can’t program a character, so I can’t work in games.’ There are a lot of jobs in games that people don’t know about, they don’t know someone just maybe makes skeletons for not even the outside of the characters, just the inside of the characters, sometimes that’s just one person’s job…Showing all those in a documentary is part of that, pulling back the curtain and letting people see that they could probably get a job in games.”

What’s more, Schafer isn’t done. 2 Player Productions is still embedded in Double Fine, documenting whatever it is they’re working on next. It sounds like a scary process in an industry rife with toxic work culture, crunch, and other struggles that other studio owners might not be so keen to have on camera. But Schafer has put a lot of thought into creating an environment that he isn’t embarrassed to show, and he admits that years of experience and learning from mistakes certainly helped him avoid those pitfalls in his later career.

And, he emphasizes, that doesn’t mean problems never occur. But listening to the team when they speak up about issues and creating an environment where they feel comfortable doing so is critical.

“It’s hard, because people do want to work hard on something they love, when they care about the games so much, a lot of people want to throw themselves into it completely. And managing that balance between being really productive and making something you’re proud of, but while also watching sometimes just basic habits, like going home at 5:00 and seeing your loved ones, just getting enough sleep, some basic caring about yourself and your team or something. It got harder during quarantine, because we couldn’t really watch what people were doing. It’s easy in the office to be like, ‘Hey everyone, go home.’ Early in my career, if I needed to leave early, I’d kind of sneak out, no one saw me. And then later I was like, ‘I need to walk down the hallway and yell goodbye to everybody at 5:00, so everybody sees that I’m leaving, so they start to go like, “What am I doing here?”’ ”

Schafer adds that while it’s not hard to set limits on hours worked, there are different levels of crunch, and it never comes from just one source. He describes it like a machine with levers: one for budget, one for game quality, another for the schedule, and another for quality of life of employees. And a company might, he continues, treat the quality of life knob as flexible but the other knobs as fixed. But that shouldn’t be the case.

Which is another good reason, he says, to publish the documentary. Double Fine has done a lot of work to learn how to create a sustainable culture, and Schafer wants to share it with others. Especially, he says, because he’s actively interested in creating a more diverse industry – which means breaking down barriers that have historically blocked out more diverse individuals from being a part of it.

“I think it’s about transparency because a lot of these things have been exposed recently where there have been managers who don’t think they’re being abusive, they’re just being themselves. And they don’t realize being in a management role is having an amplifier, and all your little funny quirks are now having an effect on people and affecting their quality of life…I think it’s good that the industry is talking about that,” Schafer says. “I think hopefully it’ll lead to some idea of almost like a curriculum of management training for creative endeavors specifically in video games. Because it still feels like a young industry even though it’s been around for 50 years now, but I feel like it’s something that has been handled like the Wild West in a lot of ways still.”

Feelin’ Double Fine

In his DICE fireside chat, Schafer says that he isn’t interested in writing for film instead of games, because “games are fun.” I later ask him a similar question, but about other endeavors – he’s a writer, after all. Would he ever write a book? Maybe, Schafer says – it’d be amazing to be fully in control of his own creation. But he adds that it seems “kind of lonely also.”

“I’ve heard someone say this about opera, but I think it’s more true for games, which is that they bring all these art forms together,” Schafer replies. “If you’re making a game, you’re working in engineers and also painters, 3D modelers, singers, musicians, violinists, painters, and I said painters already. But you bring together all these actors, you bring together all these disciplines together and then you’re putting on the show together that’s super exciting.

Our conversation has circled back to this idea of collaboration, and how much Schafer just likes other human beings, working with them, and being creative with them. He’s not especially interested in any new technology lately, for instance, but he tells me he’s really interested in seeing how other developers make games and tell stories, and frequently derives inspiration from seeing what the incoming new industry talent is doing with what’s already there.

“Doing Day of the Devs exposes us to a lot of really inspiring indies,” he says. “I like that people are getting more serious about inclusivity and diversity in game development. Because I think that means there’s a whole bunch of stories and points of view and perspectives that are going to be new and bring a lot more life into games in the next few years, as people get serious about giving opportunities to people of color and women, and different groups that haven’t been represented in games before.”

So he’s making new games, he’s working to spread transparency around positive working cultures, and he’s deriving inspiration from other developers – where does that eventually take award-winning developer Tim Schafer? In ten years, what does Tim Schafer making video games look like?

“Um, I’m sitting in a hot tub, I got my feet up,” he says. “I’m having a blast now because I’m prototyping some ideas, just a couple people. And no one’s really looking at it, talking about deadlines or anything. I’m just messing around with what a game could be, and that’s really fun. Because they’re not like, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to run out of money in three months.’ I’ve got people working on new games, and I’m working on new ideas, and that’s a really fun place to be.

“I’m always trying to build up Double Fine so it could survive if I got hit by a bus, but I don’t plan on getting hit by a bus anytime soon. I think I’ve just been very dedicated to making sure it’s always fun for me still. I think by holding on to the parts of the job that I like, like writing, and not giving those up, which can cause trouble. But I still maneuver things to Double Fine so that I really enjoy my job, and I work with people I like, and that it enriches me more emotionally more than it drains me. So, I think that allows me to stick around.”

As we wrap up, I ask Schafer if there are any questions he wishes someone would ask him that he never gets asked.

“’Do you have any ideas how I should invest $45 million?’ That’s a question I want. I’d say, ‘Well, I’ve got a game pitch I’d like you to hear.’”

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Cities: Skylines and Crusader Kings publisher Paradox Interactive held a showcase today, showing off updates on previously-announced games and some entirely brand new titles. From the newly-revealed Cities: Skylines II to a new expansion revealed for Crusader Kings III, read on to learn everything announced at today’s event.

Colossal Order Reveals Cities: Skylines II

Cities: Skylines II is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC later this year. The reveal promised the most realistic city simulation ever created, with transportation and economy systems, construction and customization options, and more modding capabilities. This sequel to the 2015 original will let players build any type of city they want, from a tiny village to a huge metropolis.

Crusader Kings III: Tours & Tournaments Expansion Revealed

Crusader Kings III is getting a new PC expansion titled Tours & Tournaments. This expansion to Paradox’s strategy RPG will let players tour their monarch’s realm to check in on vassals, host or fight in grand tournaments, and plan royal weddings.

The Lamplighters League Is a New Tactical Turn-Based Strategy Game

Paradox revealed a new turn-based strategy game from Harebrained Schemes, the studio behind the Shadowrun Trilogy. The game is called The Lamplighters League, and it’s a stylish pulp adventure set in an alternate 1933. In addition to strategy combat, players will also make choices that will directly determine the world’s fate.

Europa Universalis IV: Domination Expansion Revealed

Paradox revealed a new expansion for its strategy game Europa Universalis IV titled Domination. This expansion has new mission trees for the Ottoman Empire, Ming China, France, Russia, and more, which change the types of alternate histories available. There are also new military units for several nations, political Estates to manage, and dozens of added historical events.

Surviving the Aftermath: Rebirth Expansion Reveal

Paradox revealed a new expansion for Iceflake Studios’ Surviving the Aftermath. Titled Rebirth, this expansion introduces terraforming for players to modify and revitalize the environment.

Paradox Arc Shows Off Two Titles and an Expansion

We got a look at Knights of Pen & Paper 3, the next entry in Paradox’s pop-culture infused turn-based RPG series. We also saw Mechabellum, a sci-fi auto-battler where players compete with armies of mechs, robots, and heavy weapons. Finally, Across the Obelisk: The Wolf Wars is the first expansion for last year’s deckbuilding RPG, which introduces a new zone and character.

Stellaris: Overlord and Stellaris: First Contact Release Date Revealed

Paradox revealed the release dates for its pair of Stellaris expansions. Stellaris: Overlord adds empire management features, and it’s coming to consoles on March 8. Stellaris: First Contact adds new civilizations and cloaking technology, and is coming to PC on March 14.

Paradox Tectonic Project Teased

Paradox Tectonic was founded in 2019, and the studio is finally teasing its debut project. The full reveal will happen on Monday, March 20. The project is led by Rod Humble, who is best known for his work on The Sims and Second Life.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

When it comes to accessibility in games, the first aspect people always look for is an options menu. From customizing controls, adjusting subtitle size, or even activating varying colorblind filters, these settings help to dismantle any inaccessible barriers that could appear. And this constant search for features has become the primary topic when examining a title’s overall accessibility. Disabled players praise or criticize developers on social media platforms, and even content creators and publications will release videos or articles exploring menus to help disabled players make informed purchases. Yet, options alone do not make for an accessible game.

Before I explain further, I am not advocating for the removal of accessibility settings. I regularly scour menus to find features that suit my needs. I rebind keys, increase my mouse sensitivity, or even toggle actions like aiming or sprinting. I understand the importance and necessity of innovating, especially with groundbreaking settings like Audio Descriptive Cutscenes. But this notion that a game’s accessibility is solely based on what it does or doesn’t include in a menu ultimately holds back the greater accessibility movement.

Exploring Inclusive Design

The disabled experience is incredibly multifaceted. Even people with the same disability as me – Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type II – have varying levels of strength, stamina, and general mobility. While certain accessibility features are crucial for me to play games, some options may serve no purpose or may not be enough for other players. This is where inclusive design practices thrive.

Battlefield 2042 players have found an Easter Egg from EA’s Mirror’s Edge hidden in the game’s new map.

As reported by Eurogamer, Battlefield 2042’s Season 4 update added the Flashpoint map and with it a throwback to one of developer DICE’s previous projects. Most known for its fast-paced parkour around vertigo-inducing environments, the Mirror’s Edge reference can naturally be found at the top of a very tall object.

By flying to the top of a crane, players can find the sneakers worn by protagonist Faith in the Mirror’s Edge games. As mentioned previously, however, this is likely just a fun reference to DICE’s older games rather than an indication that more Mirror’s Edge content is coming.

Looks like someone lost their running shoes on Flashpoint…?#Battlefield2042 #Battlefield #Mirrorsedge @Battlefield @T0TALfps pic.twitter.com/9Uo3HKQaxp

— Carpo (@Carpo_vp) March 4, 2023

A series revival was attempted in 2016 with Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, though it didn’t gain much traction. While IGN said the original 2008 title was “a solid first attempt at a new type of game”, we said of Catalyst that “Mirror’s Edge’s return shines in some regards, but is ultimately a disappointment”.

Alongside the Easter Egg and new map, Battlefield 2042’s Season 4 added new hardware and a recon specialist when it launched on February 28.

In our 7/10 review, IGN said: “Its current batch of modes is overstuffed with players and utter chaos, though Hazard Zone scales things down in an interesting, high-stakes way.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners has been named the best anime of last year at Crunchyroll’s 2023 Anime Awards, overcoming the fierce competition of Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, and more.

Announced at the awards show in Tokyo over the weekend, the Netflix series from Studio Trigger and CD Projekt Red overcame Attack on Titan’s Final Season Part 2, Demon Slayer’s Entertainment District Arc, Lycoris Recoil, Ranking of Kings, and Spy x Family.

The show’s official Twitter account posted a celebratory message (below), saying: “We’d like to thank everyone for their support, votes, and for watching our anime”.

Today at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards ceremony, Cyberpunk: #Edgerunners was awarded Anime of the Year and Best VA Performance (EN)!? It’s a great honor! We’d like to thank everyone for their support, votes, and for watching our anime ?? pic.twitter.com/kwq1W8WCp6

— Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (@edgerunners) March 4, 2023

Cyberpunk Edgerunners premiered in September 2022 to high praise from fans and critics. even sparking in a resurgence in Cyberpunk 2077 that saw upwards of one million players jumping in each day. Fans also became enthralled in its story, and added elements like Cyberpsychosis to the game via mods.

IGN gave it a 9/10 in our review, saying: “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners delivers a satisfying return to Night City that does a better job exploring why Mike Pondsmith’s famous location became so iconic in the first place.”

Matching Crunchyroll, we also named it the best anime of 2022, adding that “Edgerunners makes a strong argument that CDPR might have something solid to build on for future Cyberpunk stories”.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Warning: Full spoilers ahead for episode 8 of HBO’s The Last of Us.

HBO’s The Last of Us episode 8 has arrived and this time we see Ellie tangling with David and Joel stepping up his torturing game. But how close does the show compare to the game?

To help answer this question, we’ve gathered images from episode 8 of HBO’s The Last of Us and put them next to stills from Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us game to see how faithful the adaptation is. Check out the slideshow, or watch the video above to see the scenes from both the show and the game in action.

In our The Last of Us episode 8 review, we said “As Ellie reaches her most desperate moment, darkness comes knocking in an outstanding episode of HBO’s The Last of Us. A chapter that explores the depraved depths humanity will plummet to in order to survive, it’s endlessly engaging and hard to turn your eyes away from, even when you want to. Packed full of crucial character moments and flashes of ferocious action, it’s as horrific as this world can get, even when the infected remain firmly below it.”

For more, be sure to check out our similar comparison for last week’s episode.

The PSVR 2 is here and I’ve never been more excited to jump back into a virtual world of reality. Sure, we have our fair share of PC VR headsets and two generations of Meta’s standalone Quest, but it’s been almost seven years since we’ve gotten a console VR headset. PlayStation sure did take its time to bring us this new virtual tech, and as someone who’s been using the Quest since way back when it still said ‘Oculus’ on the box, I noticed quite a few differences that, in my opinion, make the PSVR 2 far superior to its main competition.

Comfort

Let’s start with comfort. The PSVR 2 is by far the best fitting VR headset I’ve ever used. The halo design makes it easy to adjust and the actual visor portion feels extremely lightweight. One of the Quest’s biggest advantages is also a downside: it’s all-in-one, but it’s also all on your head – and the elastic straps do little to help it stay there.

I even avoided wearing glasses with the Quest 2 because I already had a problem with light leakage because there’s nothing to really help block out environmental light. With the PSVR 2, however, it has a built-in rubberized housing fixed to the visor, which blocks out almost all environmental lighting. What’s more, the visor can be adjusted separately to make room for glasses, should the wearer, like me, do so. This is the first time I’ve been able to play VR with complete clarity and that’s huge.

Display

Good-looking games look stunning on the PSVR 2, thanks to its 2,000 x 2,040-pixels HDR OLED display. If you’re looking for vivid images that really pop and showcase the graphical fidelity of the games you’re playing, this is it! The PSVR 2 takes full advantage of the PS5 hardware too, so the games look noticeably better than anything on the Quest 2, with its 1,832 x 1920-pixels LCD display. Of course, you can play higher-end PC games if you tether the Quest 2 to your gaming PC, but you won’t get a crisp picture because its LCD display is simply no match for PSVR 2’s OLED screens.

Snap back to (virtual) reality ✨I’m checking out for a minute #PSVR2 pic.twitter.com/Te4OMRnu88

— Akeem Lawanson (@geekheavy) February 23, 2023

Immersion

PSVR 2’s rumble feature really adds to the overall immersion while you’re playing and is very similar to what PlayStation has been doing for years with its controllers. And with PSVR 2’s eye tracking, visuals are optimized in your direct line of sight thanks to its foveated rendering technology, which is a fancy way of say it reduces pixel count in your peripheral vision. I really noticed it while playing Horizon Call of the Mountain and navigating the in-game in-game using my eye movements is a nice touch.

Additionally, I used PlayStation’s Pulse 3D headset to really push the immersion, because the audio is isolated. Quest 2 has 3D audio but for me, audio immersion was ruined since you can still hear outside sound. You can of course plug in your own set of headphones, but the PSVR 2 comes paired with a set of earbuds, which is quite useful.

A lot of skeptics might hold off on the PSVR 2 because of its current library of games, but the truth is it’s only just getting started. Right now the majority of games coming out for PSVR 2 are ports of Quest 2 games, but the few you cannot get on the Quest 2 are well worth the investment if you’re interested in VR. Resident Evil Village is an amazing VR experience, and one that’s only on PSVR 2 right now. And some of the games you might’ve already played on Quest 2 are further enhanced thanks toPSVR 2’s OLED display and PS5’s hardware.

PlayStation has major plans for the PSVR 2 and I’m sure game devs will take advantage of its capabilities. So if you’re passionate about VR, or are just plain curious about how far virtual reality has come, PSVR 2 is the best experience. PlayStation has single-handedly made me excited about the future of games in VR, and I’ll be slipping on the headset every time a new release comes out.

While its important to take all this with a grain of salt and wait for official confirmation, there have been some rumors circulating that Counter-Strike 2 may be on the way very soon.

Richard Lewis, a notable journalist and caster within the Counter-Strike community, claims to have received evidence from sources that Valve is getting ready to release a new version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in the near future and that a beta may arrive as early as this month or in April.

This project is said to have a working title of Counter-Strike 2 and to have been in development “for some time.” Lewis mentions that Counter-Strike 2 has been a priority for Valve and is one of the reasons why the current version of CS:GO has been “largely unattended to for some time.”

According to these sources, Counter-Strike 2 will run on the Source 2 engine and that move “should improve the optimisation and graphical fidelity of the game.” It is also said to have, much like Valorant, 128-tick servers, which is a number that describes how fast a game’s server can process information.

Matchmaking will also be improved in this new version and Valve appears to be hoping that third-party services won’t be necessary to put players together in a more efficient way.

According to the sources, Counter-Strike 2 is “about ready to go,” but it is said to be unclear what this new version would mean for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and its competitive scene. As Lewis mentions, Dota 2 moved to Source 2 with a new version called Dota 2 Reborn and it lived alongside the original. Eventually, the two versions merged into one.

Another piece of evidence that may hint towards this rumor being true comes by the way of Gabe Follower 2, who noted that the latest NVIDIA drivers “introduced support for unknown app executables called ‘csgos2.exe’ and ‘cs2.exe.'”

Gabe Follower 2 also says that they have “fairly reliable information that Valve has been testing CS:GO on Source 2 with the help of third-party QA companies in the US and EU since at least early December. I can’t confirm this 100%, but it’s decent enough to share.”

They also say that this new version “won’t be new game, it won’t be Counter-Strike 2, it won’t be even a rebrand, just CS:GO Source 2. And your skins are fine, they will be available in new version.”

Something weird just happened. Latest NVIDIA drivers introduced support for unknown app executables called “csgos2.exe” and “cs2.exe”. Why project is called Counter-Strike 2 and what are you cooking @csgo? https://t.co/U9YKlAjwgy pic.twitter.com/PU8Op9uGLq

— ‎Gabe Follower 2 (@gabefollower) March 1, 2023

Once again, it’s important to take all of this with a grain of salt and wait for official confirmation, but at least it appears we won’t have to wait long to see if this is true, unlike some of the more nebulous “I heard so and so is in development” rumors out there.

Despite being released in 2012, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive remains one of the most-played Steam games, and is currently sitting at 583,156 concurrent players, according to SteamDB. The next highest game, Dota 2, has 262,745 players.

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