Category: IGN

Months after its console and PC release, beat ’em up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is the latest game to head to mobile for Netflix subscribers.

Yesterday, Netflix announced the game’s arrival on mobile with a trailer. According to Netflix’s in-app description, the mobile port still features controller support and online multiplayer gameplay.

Inspired by arcade beat ’em ups of the ’90s (and including quite a few improvements to their combat systems), TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge sees the classic Turtles, along with a few newly playable characters, taking on new foes through a campaign mode and an arcade mode.

IGN gave TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge an 8 in our review, praising its “fun combat, a charming and nostalgic pixel aesthetic, and one of the best soundtracks of the year so far” despite its occasionally tedious level design.

In recent months, Netflix has added quite a few notable games to its roster, including indies like Spiritfarer, Into the Breach, and Before Your Eyes. The streaming service is also developing games of its own, including what seems to be an AAA shooter game, through its new studio.

However, Netflix hasn’t had an easy time getting subscribers to play its games, with less than 1 percent of subscribers playing games via Netflix as of August.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Ubisoft has announced that it has, for the sixth time, delayed Skull & Bones, as well as canceled three more unannounced games amid “major challenges” in the industry, the underperformance of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023, and an upcoming “restructuring.”

In a press release today, Ubisoft outlined a new strategy for the remainder of its fiscal year, as well as lowered expectations for the last fiscal quarter. Ubisoft explains the move as a result of the company “facing major challenges as the industry continues to shift towards mega-brands and long-lasting titles than [sic] can reach players across the globe, across platforms and business models.”

While Ubisoft notes its goal has been to build large, overarching, global brands, the release adds that “games from this investment phase have yet to be released, while our recent launches have not performed as well as expected.” Specifically, the press release later calls out Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope as underperforming in the final weeks of 2022 and early January despite “an ambitious marketing plan.” Just Dance 2023 underperformed as well.

In response to these issues, Ubisoft is delaying Skull & Bones for the sixth time, and is also canceling three unannounced projects on top of the four it already canceled last year.

Developing…

EA Sports is planning to remove the CPR touchdown celebration from Madden NFL 23 after Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed on the pitch on January 3.

As reported by CBS, EA is working on an update that will remove the CPR celebration in the coming days.

Though the animation has been in the game for three years, many players called for its removal after Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and received CPR for around 10 minutes on the pitch.

“EA Sports is taking steps to remove the celebration from Madden NFL 23 via an update in the coming days,” a spokesperson said.

The animation in game can be triggered after scoring a touchdown, and sees one player lie down on the ground as another pretends to perform CPR on them. A third player imitates the use of a defibrillator.

Hamlin is expected to be released from hospital in the next 48 hours after improving considerably. His heart had to be restarted twice after collapsing during the game and he was left in a critical condition.

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

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has revealed he was “blown away” by Sony’s upcoming PlayStation VR 2 virtual reality headset.

Replying to a tweet from head of PlayStation Indies Shuhei Yoshida (below), Luckey said he’d had the chance to try the new headset recently and has high expectations for its future.

“I was blown away when I used PSVR 2 recently,” he said. “The first PSVR was arguably the biggest success of the generation, [and] this version will do even better.”

PlayStation VR 2 will seemingly be a major upgrade over the original headset, not just because it’s being released seven years later, but due to the inclusion of brand new VR specific controllers.

The upgrade in tech has naturally created an increase in price, however, as where the original PSVR was the best “budget” headset on the market, Sony’s latest costs a hefty $549.99 – $50 more than the required PlayStation 5 console itself.

A Horizon: Call of the Mountain bundle will also be available from launch on February 22 for another $50, though users can still buy it separately alongside the other 20-something launch games.

It’s the only official PS VR2 bundle confirmed so far, though Sony has also announced a $49.99 controller charging station as an optional accessory.

Details on the software available at launch are still a little hazy, as while Sony has announced several games coming to the PS VR2 including Ghostbusters VR and Resident Evil Village, release windows for most remain at a vague 2023.

Other games announced for the platform include Crossfire: Sierra Squad, The Light Brigade, Cities VR – Enhanced Edition, Cosmonious High, Hello Neighbor: Search and Rescue, Jurassic World Aftermath Collection, Pistol Whip VR, Zenith: The Last City, After the Fall, Tentacular, and more.

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

Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida has denied that the upcoming Square Enix game will appear on PC, telling interested fans to buy a PlayStation 5.

A video clip published to Japanese website Nico Video was shared on Twitter by industry insider Genki (below), who translated Yoshida’s comments (which have been verified by IGN) regarding a PC version of Final Fantasy 16.

“Nobody said a word about a PC version releasing,” said Yoshida. “Why is it like a PC version is releasing six months later? Don’t worry about that, buy a PS5. Sorry, I went overboard. We did our best, so please look forward to it.”

Yoshi-P on rumors of a Final Fantasy XVI PC version!

“Nobody said a word about a PC version releasing. Why is it like a PC version is releasing 6 months later? Don’t worry about that, buy a PS5! (laughs) Sorry, I went overboard. We did our best so please look forward to it” lol pic.twitter.com/o5i1JsNnbc

— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) January 9, 2023

The claim that “nobody said a word about a PC version” is untrue, however, as Square Enix itself did. The original reveal trailer for the game claimed blatantly that it is “also available on PC”, and while Square Enix mysteriously scrapped this claim soon after, the PS5 exclusivity was brought into question again in November 2022.

An advertisement for the PS5’s DualSense controller said Final Fantasy 16 would only be a “PS5 exclusive for six months”, implying that it would arrive on another platform (whether it be Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC) in December 2023 – six months after its June 22 launch.

The exact nature of its exclusivity is still unclear though, and based on Yoshida’s comment, this is even the case at its developer. IGN has reached out to Square Enix for comment.

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

It’s a slightly quieter start to January for Xbox Game Pass, with only six more games confirmed to be hitting the service so far this month. We already knew about all six of these, including the three Xbox has chosen to highlight in their first Xbox Wire Game Pass blogpost of the year. But, there are normally several other Game Pass announcements across every month, so we could still hear about even more games to come in January.

For now, the most recent announcement has reaffirmed Game Pass will be getting Persona 3 Portable (January 19), Persona 4 Golden (January 19), and Monster Hunter Rise (January 20) on console, PC, and cloud gaming. These are two iconic Japanese franchises, and despite the limited selection for January, all three games will certainly be making their way onto a lot of gamers’ libraries on console and PC this month.

Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden on Xbox Game Pass

After January 19, Persona 3, 4, and 5 will all be available for Xbox Game Pass members on console, PC, and cloud gaming. This was initially announced back at Xbox’s summer showcase, and we have since seen Persona 5 Royal enter the service in October 2022.

Everything Coming to Xbox Game Pass in January 2023 (So Far)

• Stranded Deep – January 3 (Console, PC, Cloud)
• Persona 3 Portable – January 19 (Console, PC, Cloud)
• Persona 4 Golden – January 19 (Console, PC, Cloud)
• Monster Hunter Rise – January 20 (Console, PC)
• Age Of Empires 2: Definitive Edition – January 31 (Console, Cloud)
• Inkulinati – January 31 (Console, PC)
• Roboquest – January TBA (Console)

Everything Leaving Xbox Game Pass in January 2023

• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Nobody Saves The World (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Pupperazzi (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Anacrusis (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• We Happy Few (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Windjammers 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

A new speedrunning world record has been established in Super Mario Galaxy 2, with Twitch streamer Jhay managing to beat their own record by just over four seconds.

In case you missed it or want to see it again (who wouldn’t??), BIG GGs to @NotImJhay for getting the WR in Super Mario Galaxy 2! GGs to HardcoreGaming, @SuperT302, and MutantsAbyss for the great race as well, whew! #AGDQ2023 pic.twitter.com/vQgCluJ9rP

— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 10, 2023

The new record was set during the Awesome Games Done Quick stream, which saw Jhay take on Mutantsabyss, Hardcoregaming, and Supervipert302 in a speedrunning race. Jhay’s Any% with Bank run — a reference to the Bank Toad who is required to unlock the game’s final galaxy — was completed at 2:54:51.33, which was 4.4 seconds faster than his previous record of 2:54:55.

Jhay celebrated his new record by tweeting in all caps, “I just got WR live at GDQ in front of 80k people how in the actual universe. I have peaked in life. Galaxy forever.”

I JUST GOT WR LIVE AT GDQ IN FRONT OF 80K PEOPLE HOW IN THE ACTUAL UNIVERSE

I HAVE PEAKED IN LIFE

GALAXY FOREVER ????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/N6wGvpmeEm

— Jhay ??????? (@NotImJhay) January 11, 2023

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of many speedrunning events taking place during Awesome Games Done Quick, which is running all this week on Twitch. Other notable events include runs through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and other popular games.

Awesome Games Done Quick will run until Saturday, January 14, with all proceeds from viewer donations benefiting the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Tough boss fights are the highlight of any Team Ninja action game, and it looks like Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be no different. For today’s IGN First, here’s an exclusive first look at one of the game’s earlier bosses, Aoye. Aoye is a fictional creature that appears in the ancient Chinese text Shan Hai Jing, also known as Classic of Mountains and Seas. It is described as a bull-like being with long hair reminiscent of a straw rain-cape.

In Wo Long, Aoye appears as a giant monster that attacks with its long hair and creepy tentacles. While it often lays itself open to attack, each of Aoye’s strikes are heavy and can be fatal. Aoye also has an attack that spreads ice throughout the battle area, which makes it necessary for the player to fight carefully within a more confined environment.

In our gameplay video with Aoye (see it at the top of the page, and then check the 10 minutes of new gameplay we had last week directly above if you missed it), the player character wields the Halberd, a never-before-shown weapon type. Here’s what director Masakazu Hirayama has to say about it.

“The Halberd is best known for warlord Lu Bu’s Sky-Piercing Halberd. It’s a heavy weapon that can mow down enemies like the Glaive. At the same time, it also has some long-range vertical thrusting attacks like the Spear. Utilizing the Halberd’s shape, this weapon type also has a Martial Art (a powerful move that differs per individual weapon) in which you can hook a far away enemy with your blade. You can use this attack to draw the enemy towards yourself and attack from a closer range.”

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is set to release on March 3 for PS5/PS4/Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One/PC and will be available on Xbox Game Pass day one. With Wo Long as January’s IGN First, expect many more exclusives throughout this month. Be sure to check out our gameplay video of the TIanzhushan area as well as a detailed article on the game’s weapons.

Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan. He wants to master Wo Long’s Staff.

An estimated 20 developers who worked on The Callisto Protocol were reportedly left out of the game’s credits by Striking Distance Studios.

According to GI.biz article, the individuals omitted from the end game credits included senior developers, directors, team leads, and a number of employees who worked on the project for over a year and contributed heavily to the game.

“I understand if a contractor does a small amount of work for a few months and is left off, but we’re talking full-time employees with over a year invested in the title, and had a hand in significant parts of the product,” said one unnamed developer. “That’s where the surprise has come from for a lot of us.”

Sources also aired grievances related to the general level of inconsistency present in the crediting of The Callisto Protocol. A number of developers were labelled as having provided “additional” help, while others were clumped together into a “miscellaneous” category that came at the very end of the credits.

“There was definitely some amount of playing favourites with the people who got credited,” said another source. “My impression is that they pretty much picked people they liked or had some sort of relationship with, and those would get credit and the others wouldn’t.”

Furthermore, according to the sources, Striking Distance Studios had not communicated any policy explaining that developers would be omitted from The Callisto Protocol’s credits if they left before the project was complete.

In a Tweet prior to The Callisto Protocol’s December 2022 release, Glen Schofield revealed that the team had been crunching to get the game ready for launch by working long hours for “six to seven days a week”.

In a subsequent interview with Inverse, Schofield took responsibility for the intense development cycle. “We’re a small-ish team and we were so good about it through the entire development, but at the end I messed up and we worked more than we should have,” he said. “That one got away from us”.

The intense working conditions leading up to the release of the game made being left out of the credits particularly difficult for one of the unnamed sources.

“Game [development] can be intense, especially delivering a product of this magnitude, you don’t always strike the best work-life balance,” said the unnamed developer. “My issue is those of us who took part in that culture, who put in that time, and worked intensely to help craft this product, were punished with a credit omission for not going the extra mile… to stay until it shipped.”

The sources also commented that the studio’s approach to the crunch conditions were contradictory, with representatives stating in meetings that steps would be taken to address the workload, and then later praising those who worked long hours.

Despite the crunch conditions, a number of the sources reported enjoying their time working at the studio while giving their own view as to why developers were left out of the near 20-minute credit roll.

“I actually had a great time working there, and I felt I had a great relationship with everyone on the team, up to the C-staff and Glen,” another source is quoted as saying. “I don’t have anything bad to say about Glen… The only time there was some friction was on exit, and I think devs who left were punished with credit omissions.”

Another disgruntled source echoed this sentiment. “I think the Sledgehammer guys like loyalty, and they can be punitive if they detect a lack of it… [The credits omission] felt like an obvious F-U to those who were left out. Somebody wanted to send a message, and the message was, ‘Next time have a bit more loyalty to us.'”

In our review, IGN awarded The Callisto Protocol a 7/10, stating that it was “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.

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

Several developers from Xbox’s Forza Horizon developer Playground Games have left the company to form a new studio, Maverick Games.

As reported by Eurogamer, former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown will lead the new studio and is joined by five other former Playground employees. The development team is at work on a “premium open world game for consoles and PC” and has already secured “significant seed funding”.

The other developers making the jump to Maverick Games include Playground’s lead producer Tom Butcher, technical director Matt Craven, technical art director Gareth Harwood, audio director Fraser Stachan, and art director Ben Penrose.

“For players, we’re already at work on an exciting ultra-high quality title, and for developers, we’re building a home where everyone is encouraged to take risks, be curious, be creative, be innovative, be themselves, and above all – be a Maverick,” the developer said.

Playground Games was founded in 2010 and until recently has only developed Forza Horizon games. It made the switch to something new in 2020, however, when Xbox announced it would be working on Fable, the latest game in its fantasy RPG franchise.

“I just look at what Playground has done with the Horizon series – that attention to detail, the ability to represent these naturalistic landscapes,” said head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty around the time.

“They also have a real passion for the IP and a unique point of view on what’s core to Fable. Everything I’ve seen as the game progresses tells me this is going to be a very high-quality release.”

In our 10/10 review of Forza Horizon 5, IGN said: “Forza Horizon 5 is the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game available.”

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