Category: IGN

We finally got our first glimpse of Civilization VII’s gameplay during gamescom 2024, and it’s already looking much different than anything we’ve ever seen from the legendary series. That includes a huge shakeup to the way that Civilization VII progresses thanks to its new “ages” system, which is designed to break its progression into something like chapters.

We already checked out Civilization VII in first preview, which left us with a pretty positive outlook on the anticipated sequel. Still, we had plenty of questions for creative director Ed Beach, who sat down with us for an interview at gamescom. Read on for his thoughts on Civilization VII’s new structure, whether it will incorporate elements from the previous game’s Gathering Storm expansion, and much more. And for everything else announced during gamescom 2024, go here.

Civilization VII will release on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Switch on February 11, 2025.

I was telling you off-screen that I just got into Civ VI and now I have to relearn Civ VII, but I think that’s fine.

Ed Beach, Creative Director, Firaxis: We’re trying to make it so the barrier of entry is a little bit lower than before. Civ VI could get a little dense in places. If you jumped in at the end with all the expansions and all the content there, that’s actually not the easiest place to start. So I think Civ VII might be just the move you want to make.

Yeah, I’m really excited. So you’re leading me into my next question. So you’ve been consistently updating Civ VI and there’s a lot of mod support. So why is now the best time for Civ VII?

Beach: Well, we’ve been thinking about Civ VII for quite a while. We started working on the game before the pandemic, so it is been in development quite a while. The design team had ideas that worked really well in Civ VI, but had some side effects in terms of the game takes a really long time to play. By the time you get late in the game, there’s an awful lot of cities and units and so forth to manage, and we wanted to think about that and come up with a different approach so that we could make the game more manageable, more approachable, and actually just get players all the way to the finish line more often than had been happening in previous Civ games.

Yeah, I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve stayed up till 3am playing just one more round. It’s got me. So Gathering Storm and its global warming and mechanics offer such a dynamic change for the core gameplay. Is that something that’s going to be implemented in Civ VII?

Beach: So we’re not talking a lot yet about what comes after the exploration age after the Renaissance. The first age we’re diving all the way into right now and we have demos and so forth of that. We’re not going to forget about climate change, though it was very personally impactful when we got to work on that with Gathering Storm. I was the lead designer of that expansion.

I looked up a lot of things about climate change… I mean, we’re not a simulator type of game, but tried to get some of the things right in terms of how sea level rise works and storms move across the globe and so forth. So we brought a lot of that forward with us and what you can see in the game right now that we’re demoing with the Antiquity Age is there still are floods, there’s still volcanic eruptions. We still have the storms that sweep across the map.

So a lot of that Gathering Storm mechanics, ideas, whatever, that we still have those.

So is that part of the crises that is being implemented into this new system?

Beach: So those are sort of adjacent but similar. We have several different crises. The one that we’re demoing right now is an invasion crisis, sort of imagine you’re the Roman Empire and you’ve gotten too big and everyone wants a little piece of your action. And so those barbarians are at your gate and knocking on down the door. So that’s the one that we’re demoing in the build we have here right now. But we’re working on other types of crises, things like unrest in your population or plagues and some of those systems for crises use the same random event system that we use for the natural disasters.

So why did you switch to the age system?

Beach: So it is part of the trying to get people to have a game that is more manageable. 4X games have the problem in general, that you start with just your first unit, you get one city down, you think, wow, this game’s great. It’s very manageable when I get tens and dozens of cities and so many units to manage. Everything bogs down. And we wanted to break our game up into chapters very much like maybe a long book series or TV series that you might be enjoying breaks itself up into seasons or books.

So we could have big traumatic moments like these crises that you’re talking about, but then also give players a chance to breathe a little bit and reset things and simplify things. And that allows you to pace the player through a long experience in a more satisfying way than just saying, “Oh no, it’s just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and you just got to keep up.”

So it’s a nice new way to tackle that problem and we’re really excited about how it’s playing out.

As a new sort of player I’m very happy to hear that. But for returning players, do you think it’s still challenging enough that they’ll find this new system interesting?

Beach: Well, yeah. The experience is still just as long overall. So we actually do sort of a deeper, more immersive dive into the history of each historical age than before. And some of the gameplay mechanics, we can make deeper changes to them so that they unfold differently maybe in our antiquity age than in our exploration age, like our trade systems are different in all three ages.

So I think there’s plenty for people to dive deep in. We’ve recently demoed the game to a whole bunch of our community veterans. They’re really excited about the possibilities and theory crafting and everything. So there’s going to be plenty for everyone.

What was the best piece of feedback you got back from the community?

Beach: I think one thing we had to be really careful about is now that we’ve broken the game up into ages, we make you really think about who you are, which leader in civilizations are representing you in the game, and you get a chance to a unique historical pathway.

Maybe you start as Rome, and where did Rome evolve? Maybe it evolved into another European Civ and that would get you to a Germany or a Britain or France by the end of your game. And players like that historical storytelling and immersion. And we did allow some wackier combinations, and some of our fans love that because they love the theory crafting, I want to mix this with that and I’m going to be super overpowered in science.

But we also had to think about what those players who wanted the more historical pathway through our game. And so we’ve got the game set up so that that’s the default way that both the human and the AI proceed through the game and then you have to, it’s up to the player to opt into that wackier play style.

Okay. So you’re speaking about being able to change the leaders with each age.

Beach: Yes.

What is the wackiest combination that you’ve seen so far?

Beach: Well, we’re not talking about all the leaders and Civ’s that we have now, but you can do things like, you can have Augustus Caesar lead India, you can have Hatshepsut of Egypt lead Rome. So some of the things do strike you as a little bit wacky, but there are really good reasons and compelling reasons to try those things out… leaders that don’t normally go together might have bonuses in the same part of the game and you just want to explore, wow, what if I get really powerful in culture or in my military strategies?

And so those combinations are really compelling. Our quality assurance department who’s playing the game all the time is like, “Oh, you got to try this one with that one, because that’s amazing.” So it’s great to hear that kind of stuff.

Okay, great. I’m definitely more military forward… So I think I will try one of those combinations that sounds very compelling to me… Well, thank you so much for speaking with me about this. I’m very excited to start a lot of wars in Civ VII that I can’t finish.

Ed Beach: All right, well hopefully it just draws you in and you just stick with it because you want to see how it all ends and get all the way through.

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

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Nintendo fans are still anxiously awaiting news on the Nintendo Switch 2, which isn’t expected to be out until after April 2025. But Amazon Games CEO Christoph Hartmann says fans should be patient, praising the Switch as a “great device” and saying that the label will support the next-gen Switch whenever it arrives.

“Yeah, we obviously plan to develop games for it and I can’t wait for it to be out. I mean, honestly, I’d rather have them wait a year and get it perfect than rush it to the market and then we all complain about what doesn’t work,” Hartmann says. “Switch has been such a fantastic product, I can wait another year if I have to. And from development, I think most non-Nintendo developers are not exclusively doing titles for the Switch. They’re always part of a portfolio mix of platform mix. Just wait.”

Hartmann’s statement is especially notable given that Amazon Games has not yet released a game on a Nintendo platform. To this point, games like New World and Lost Ark have mainly been PC releases. While Amazon Games will be releasing Throne and Liberty on console this fall, it will be supporting PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Right now we can only speculate about the Switch 2’s specs, but previous rumors have suggested that it’s at least powerful enough to support the Matrix Unreal Engine 5 demo. As for the release date, we can only guess when the Switch 2 will actually be released. We may have a clearer picture of the Switch 2’s progress should it hold its customary Nintendo Direct in September.

In the meantime, Nintendo has several games planned for the fall, including Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Mario & Luigi: Brothership. Looking further down the line, Nintendo is planning to release Metroid Prime 4 sometime in 2025. You can find our complete list of fall 2024’s biggest releases right here.

As for Hartmann, he talked about a range of topics in his exclusive new interview with IGN, among other things touching on Tomb Raider, the Lord of the Rings MMO, AI, and more. For more, check out all of the biggest announcements from gamescom 2024.

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

The bosses in Crimson Desert are powerful. I mean really powerful. As the formidable Staglord grabbed me by the ankle and hurled me into a wall, the bone-crunching impact reminded me of how The Stranger’s blows catapulted Kratos through tree trunks and mountains in God of War. This intense, deity-like physicality lends Crimson Desert’s battles a sense of genuine spectacle – these are the gladiator battles of myths.

During an hour-long hands-on session at gamescom 2024, I was able to go toe-to-toe with three different bosses, each of which showcased a different side of this fantasy action RPG’s approach to battle. The first, the aforementioned Staglord, is perhaps the most simple (although that does the towering, barbarian-like warrior a disservice.) He’s a relentless attacker, charging across the battlefield like a bullet train that can suplex you at its final destination. But, despite his endless strength and capacity to throw you like a baseball, he’s only human. I force distance between us, quickly firing explosive arrows to knock him out of his attack pattern and open up a window to bury my blade into his back.

The Staglord proves a real challenge of a fight. Crimson Desert is not even remotely a soulslike, but it’s not afraid to make you work really hard for victory. I spend much of the lengthy fight learning the complexities of the combat system. There’s no lock-on, so I have to be mindful of where I position my character and where his sword will land. Rolling forward allows me to instantly follow up with a sweep-kick that surprises my foe, and then hitting both the light and heavy attack buttons together unleashes a wide, particle-effects spraying strike that cleaves a chunk out of the Staglord’s health bar. All this is speedy without sacrificing weight. It feels fantastic, but it’s also easy to let things run away from you – I soon realise I need to be chowing down on health-restoring food with addiction-like frequency.

With the Staglord defeated, I take his mighty sword and shield and move on to the next fight. The demo skips ahead in the story, meaning I sadly don’t get to experience any non-boss gameplay, and throws me into snow-coated lands. Here, my gruff protagonist is looking for children who have seemingly been sacrificed to some kind of mountain god. Such a ‘god’ turns out to be the White Horn; a sort of antlered abominable snowdeer that showcases just how different each of Crimson Desert’s bosses can be. This colossal creature moves like a bucking bronco and its galloping charges cause the mountains around us to break out in miniature avalanches that leave me temporarily frozen in place. Thankfully, after striking it so much that its white fur is stained almost completely red, I’m able to clamber onto its back in the fight’s second phase and stab away at its neck. The moment had me recalling my battles with towering monsters in Dragon’s Dogma 2 earlier this year.

Each boss has three health bars, with each one eliminated increasing the intensity of the fight. But where the Staglord and White Horn scraps seemed to escalate much like many other action RPG boss battles – the enemy gets angrier and starts using more devastating attacks – my final battle, against the Queen Stoneback Crab, demonstrated Crimson Desert’s ambition to create memorable moments through very different mechanics.

The Queen Stoneback Crab is colossally big. It fills the screen. And, smartly, you can’t fight it by just hacking away at its shins. Instead, the battle is a puzzle set piece that’s clearly inspired by Shadow of the Colossus. I clamber onto the Crab’s stony shell and grab onto the grass and flora that forms its ‘fur’, holding on for dear life while pulling myself up towards a trio of rock formations. Using a special punch skill I shatter each of the rocks to expose a weak point that I plunge my blade into. Each opened wound causes a geyser of water to blast out, which not only provides a visual spectacle but also throws me high into the air. From above I’m able to float down, almost Zelda paraglider-style, and plan how to tackle the next stage. Now I’m tasked with destroying the pottery-like crown at the peak of the Crab’s mountain-like shell – a task a Pearl Abyss employee explained to me is completed by swinging Spider-Man-style from a web and colliding with the pottery at full speed. Seriously. I’m not sure how I’d have figured that out on my own, but I’m pleased such a mechanic exists. It’s all delightfully bonkers.

My hour-long session isn’t quite long enough to try all four bosses the demo has to offer, but a video presentation provided a quick insight into the only one I missed: the Reed Devil, a weird little guy who creates copies of himself that can only be defeated by destroying totems that are built during the battle. Along with the three I fought, all four bosses make a promise that Crimson Desert features an array of creative, unique centrepiece battles. If they’re all like this, then Pearl Abyss really could have something special on its hands.

I’m similarly impressed by the combat system’s fundamentals. Yes, it’s all quite fantasy RPG 101 – bows, swords, shields, parries – but it’s delightfully aggressive and properly impactful. There’s a seemingly deep combo system, too, and it’s because of that I wished the demo had a section that was a little more relaxed for me to sample. The heat of a relentless boss battle isn’t quite the space to learn and perfect button sequences, but I’ve got a good feeling you can pull off some cool stuff based on the combos I did learn.

Of course, I also wish I’d seen more so I could say if Crimson Desert’s adventure chops are as strong as its boss battles. What little dialogue and story there was to introduce each boss didn’t suggest anything remotely close to, say, The Witcher 3. But, even if its writing proves lacking, a strong approach to exploration and world design could carry it far. Hopefully Pearl Abyss will showcase that soon, because so far Crimson Desert’s mix of God of War’s weighty impact and Dragon’s Dogma’s creative spectacle has me very excited indeed.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

Infinity Nikki, an open-world dress up role-playing game from former The Legend of Zelda director Kentaro Tominaga, has hit 12 million pre-registrations before a release date has even been announced.

The game’s official X/Twitter account announced the huge milestone, thanking everyone who’s signed up already and encouraging more to sign up. A total of 12,206,661 players have signed up for the game so far, but developer PaperGames’ next target is 20 million, followed by 25 and 30 million.

“Look, some airborne friends are carrying Nikki across the vast sky with their blessings,” the post said. “Thank you to all the stylists for your support and enthusiasm. There will be more surprises ahead. Let’s aim for the next goal together.”

Reaching each milestone unlocks certain bonuses for everyone who signs up, with players so far having earned 50,000 Bling, 300 Threads of Purity, and thanks to the latest milestone, three Resonite crystals.

The 20 million milestone unlocks the Far and Away 4-Star Outfit, the 25 million milestone unlocks seven more Resonite Crystals, and the 30 million milestone unlocks another 10.

“Join Momo and Nikki as they embark on a new adventure collecting various pieces of clothing, solving puzzles, and uncovering secret areas in the world,” the official synopsis reads. “Dress for the occasion and equip different outfits to gain access to abilities such as fishing, insect-catching, and floating.”

Our own preview of Infinity Nikki had positive things to say. “[We never knew dressing up could be so much fun. [Our] time with Infinity Nikki left [us] eager to try on the finished game when it eventually arrives.”

Infinity Nikki is planned for launch on PlayStation 5, PC, Android, and iOS.

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

When Black State was first welcomed to the world via a visually impressive, Metal Gear Solid-ish teaser earlier this summer, some doubted its legitimacy as a game. Was it purely a tech demo injected with the purpose of showing off Nvidia’s shiny RTX tech? Was it another entry in the recent trend of “too good to be true” game reveals walking in the sorry footsteps of The Day Before? Well, I’ve played Black State, and am more than happy to report that not only does it appear to be a real game, but also a really promising one full of gory, explosive action and cinematic sci-fi style, powered by handsome visuals and a playful physics engine.

My demo started by taking control of a stealth-suited long-haired man aboard a cargo ship. It’s impossible to not be reminded of the opening moments of Metal Gear Solid 2 as you skulk along its main deck, admiring its reflective metals and the choppy waters around it. Omer Faruk Gungor, studio director at Black State’s Turkish developer Motion Blur, is keen to point out the game’s graphical prowess, and he’s not wrong to do so – it really is a stunner, shining brightly over the course of the short 20-minute demo. But what’s perhaps more impressive is how well it runs – even with ray tracing turned on the framerate rarely dips below 60, and the demo hits a steady 140 fps during non-combat situations on the RTX 4080-based rig I played on.

But as I mentioned, and as Gungor goes to lengths to insist, Black State isn’t a tech demo. It’s a story-driven action game of huge ambition. After making my way up the ship’s deck and entering one of its many doors, that scope all starts to become apparent. Doors in Black State aren’t your traditional gateways into neighbouring rooms, but instead portals to wildly different locations. After stepping through the heavy, bolted ship gateway, for instance, I find myself in a museum – its shiny hardwood floors and spotless glass cabinets a far cry from the industrial oceanic setting of moments before. Hopefully this trick will provide not only narrative intrigue, but ambitious level design that links multiple types of environments together.

Gungor reveals little of Black State’s story but hints at a sci-fi adventure that may deliberately confuse at first, before coming together and bringing its disparate, portal-gated worlds together through a linear storyline. He cites Inception as a key inspiration and the more I play, the more that rings true. It’s not just the dream-heist masterpiece I’m reminded of, though, but the sci-fi thriller movies of Christopher Nolan in general. There are hints of Tenet in there, not only through the aesthetic but in the gameplay too – a mix of shooting and close-quarters combat against black-clad commando units.

This isn’t the brand of tactical espionage action its opening cargo ship section initially conjured memories of. In fact, Black State plays much closer to Remedy’s brand of high-octane action than any of Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid entries. My first encounter is against a squad of enemies who rappel down into the museum’s corridor, the onlooking renaissance portraits looking down upon the ensuing carnage with disdain. I immediately do what I always do when the option is made available – push the button that triggers bullet time. The slow-down mechanic is on a cooldown timer, but one generous enough to let me use it with relative abandon. It looks and feels fantastic – just as it did back in the original Max Payne– to roll out of cover at quarter speed before unleashing a hail of bullets into an enemy stuck pathetically in real-time.

Four different weapons were available in the demo, allowing me to leave a trail of destruction frankly unbefitting of the classy surroundings. Alongside a relatively standard pistol and assault rifle combo, there’s a fantastically powerful shotgun capable of completely obliterating limbs at close distance, and the more sci-fi-flavoured Fusion Gun. This energy weapon discharges a burst of electricity into an enemy which, after a short delay, makes them explode into a gory pile of goo. It feels and looks fantastic, especially when paired with bullet time, allowing you to watch bits of blood and bone elegantly fly across the room. It’s disgusting, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I love it.

Alongside the guns is a selection of gadgets too. The ones I had access to were similar in nature to The Division’s Seeker Mines – homing grenades that scuttle towards your target before either blowing them up or stunning them. An electrical charge version was also ready to be deployed by the nameless protagonist, a device Gungor teases would be effective against robotic enemies that appear later in the story.

The playable section ends in a secret lab area found behind a keycard-locked door upon which the Mona Lisa sits proudly. It’s an area that brings together all of Black State’s apparent influences: the experimental science of Metal Gear Solid; the battle-ready scientists in bodysuits of Remedy’s Quantum Break; the clinical, orchestrated violence of Nolan’s Tenet. It makes for a lengthy combat sequence in which a dozen or more enemies attack from all corners, pressuring me to use all of the aforementioned tools at my disposal. If all of Black Slate’s combat encounters are this well structured, then I think it will prove to be more than just a robust shooter.

The resulting mess is one of great delight, as people become exploded innards and dress the bleach-white surfaces in lashings of deep red. This gory, bordering on over-the-top violence is another of Gungor’s touchstones – the often brutal spectacle of a Quentin Tarantino action scene. It’s a homage best showcased when a body flies across the room after taking a shotgun shell at point-blank range, à la Django Unchained’s final, bloody shootout.

Motion Blur is aiming high with Black State, then, and from what I’ve played it’s showing promising signs it can reach those heights, at least in the foundational gameplay department. It remains to be seen if the overall level design can continue to creatively support Black Site’s inventive place-hopping concept, as well as escalate with a hopefully ever-evolving toolset. I’m also largely in the dark on its narrative, and so can’t yet tell if Motion Blur’s writing talent matches its skill for slick firefights. But even if a full release is quite a while away yet, I’ve got a good feeling. The eye-catching reveal trailer certainly had my curiosity. But after playing it, its blend of intriguing sci-fi story and setting, brutal yet balletic time-bending action, and simply stunning graphical sheen now firmly has my attention.

Simon Cardy thinks Tenet is a good film. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.

Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford has responded to social media posts resurfacing his prediction that Steam would become a “dying store” amid the announcement that Borderlands 4 will ditch Epic Games Store exclusivity to launch on Valve’s platform at the same time.

Five year ago, Pitchford predicted that Steam “may look like a dying store” in the future, with “other competitive stores … the place to be.”

At the time, Fortnite maker Epic was at the height of its attempt to disrupt Steam’s monopoly on the PC games market by offering developers a more generous revenue split than Valve does. Borderlands 3 went on to launch as an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC, much to the annoyance of some PC gamers. Two years later, documents made available as part of Epic’s high-profile lawsuit with Apple revealed Epic paid Borderlands 3 publisher 2K $146 million up front to sell the game for PC exclusively through the Epic Games Store. That’s an eye-watering amount for exclusivity, but those same documents revealed Epic made back its $80 million minimum sales guarantee in the first two weeks.

Despite Epic burning through cash as part of its war with Steam for the hearts and minds of PC gamers, Steam remains the biggest player on the platform — and by a huge margin. And so now, following Borderlands 4’s reveal during Opening Night Live, and the confirmation that the series has ditched Epic Games Store exclusivity to launch on PC on Steam and the Epic Games Store at the same time next year, some have pointed to Pitchford’s inaccurate prediction and accused him of crawling back to Valve’s platform.

Responding, Pitchford tweeted to say that Epic had not pressed its advantage in the PC battle with Valve, something he called “a shame.”

“I’m a Steam customer, but sure wish they had more and better competition that was more favorable to artists, designers, and creators than to the retailer,” he continued. “I will continue to support competitors to Steam and also support Steam.”

Yeah, Steam is the leading store for PC games and Epic is not pressing their advantage (which is a shame). I’m a Steam customer, but sure wish they had more and better competition that was more favorable to artists, designers, and creators than to the retailer. I will continue to…

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) August 21, 2024

Pitchford went on to insist he’s less “anti-Steam” and more “pro-competition”. “It’s frustrating how much Steam takes given what they provide,” he said. “I will happily support competitive platforms that are more favorable to artists and developers and creators than favorable to the retail operators.”

And, in another tweet, Pitcford reiterated his disappointment that Epic has failed in its war with Valve.

“Epic did not press its advantage,” he said. “A lot changed there that was hard to predict. They also got in a big battle with Apple that was distracting to their focus on building the store. I am a Steam customer who is really hoping for real some competition!”

Valve’s cut of PC game sales revenue has been a hot topic for years now, but it seems uninterested in budging. Given Steam’s dominance of the PC market, there’s little reason for it to. Epic boss Tim Sweeney, who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars taking on video game platform holders in recent years, is an obvious vocal opponent of Steam’s platform fees, with are typically set at 30%. Meanwhile, the Epic Games Store remains unprofitable, by Epic’s own admission.

Borderlands 4 launches at some point from April to December 2025 across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S.

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.

Concord, Sony’s live service hero shooter, has been in development for around eight years.

That’s according to lead character designer Jon Weisnewski, who joined the development team at Sony-owned Firewalk Studios five years ago to work on the game.

Weisnewski tweeted to celebrate this week’s launch of Concord (it’s available to play now across PlayStation 5 and PC for Digital Deluxe Edition owners, but its full release is set for tomorrow, August 23).

“The game has been in development for around eight years and I’ve been there for almost five of them,” Weisnewski said. “We don’t get a lot of Launch Days in our careers so today is special for a ton of reasons. Oblige me some good vibes today.”

Concord is a 5v5 first-person shooter that follows Sony’s strategy with the phenomenally successful Helldivers 2 by launching on PS5 and PC at the same time and with a cheaper price. However, early indications are that Concord is set to endure a tough time on PC, with extremely low Steam concurrent player numbers for pre-launch betas. Sony does not make PlayStation player numbers publicly available.

And so, there is a degree of concern about Concord as a viable live service as the game launches. But, according to Weisnewski: “we’re strapped in and ready to push it for years to come.”

Concord’s eight-year development suggests a significant investment from Sony and a degree of pressure on the game to perform. Indeed, Concord has one of the 15 animated shorts that make up Amazon’s recently announced anthology Secret Level.

But Concord is perhaps also yet another triple-A video game that has taken years to make and launches into an already crowded market drowning in live service shooters. The most high-profile casualty of this live service push in recent years is Rocksteady’s much-maligned Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which flopped to the tune of $200 million for publisher Warner Bros.

Sony itself has scaled back its live service ambitions following big investment. In November last year, Sony president Hiroki Totoki said the company was reviewing the 12 live service PlayStation games it had in the works, and committed to launching only six of them by the end of financial year 2025. The following month, in December 2023, Naughty Dog announced the cancellation of The Last of Us Online, its troubled attempt to create a live service version of its hugely popular franchise.

Then, in February this year, Sony announced a significant round of layoffs affecting around 900 staff at its global PlayStation workforce. The layoffs hit a number of PlayStation studios, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Firesprite, and, most significantly, PlayStation’s London studio, which closed down. Alongside the layoffs, a number of in-development games were canceled. Last month, Sony-owned Bungie, maker of the Destiny series, suffered devastating cuts, with its PvP-focused extraction shooter Marathon still in the works.

Amid ballooning development costs and protracted development periods, the video game industry is enduring the toughest time in recent memory, with tens of thousands laid off, multiple studio closures, and various games canceled.

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 announced plans to shut down Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, seven years after the mobile game launched.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp released in 2017 as a mobile-only version of Nintendo’s incredibly popular farming and life sim. IGN’s Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp review returned an 8/10. We said: “Pocket Camp is a true-to-series Animal Crossing adaptation that delivers plenty of reasons to take this camping trip.”

The game goes dark on November 29, 2024, a week after its seventh birthday. Since service began on November 21, 2017, for approximately seven years we have been honored to see everyone’s lovely, diverse campsites grow and flourish,” Nintendo said in a statement.

“We extend our heartfelt thanks to the many users who have loved Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.”

After the online service ends, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will no longer be playable, Nintendo warned. There is a silver lining, however. Nintendo said it’s developing a paid version of the app to which players will be able to transfer their save data. This offline version will be released during the same period as the end of service for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Nintendo said.

The paid version will have the same basic gameplay and controls as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. However, this app will allow the player to use the included features with a one-time purchase, Nintendo said. There will be no in-app purchases or subscription services (like Pocket Camp Club).

It’s worth noting that since this app will not require a continuous online connection, some features that require that connection, e.g. Market Boxes, gifts, and visiting other players’ campsites will not be available. Similarly, Leaf Tickets will not be usable, and you will not be able to transfer them to the new app. Expect pricing and a release date in October.

Reaction from fans is mixed, with some expressing sadness that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is coming to an end, others seeing the positives in the paid app.

Literally same! this game has been like the sole constant in my life these past 7 years, its gotten me through the end my teen years, my associates and bachelors degrees, and every crazy thing in between. I actually cried when I saw the pop up 😔 (also! we’re close in game days!) pic.twitter.com/sQoBTDR1zx

— Ana 🌘 (@Go_Away_Ana) August 22, 2024

Honestly it’s fantastic that you are releasing an offline version instead of just deleting everything. This way long time players can keep playing. Most mobile games will come to an end eventually, this is just the best case scenario for such an event.

— Gay Bowser (@SoL0ngGayBowser) August 22, 2024

Nintendo has had mixed results from its mobile game efforts, which include Super Mario Run, Mario Kart Tour, and Pikmin Bloom. In 2020, Nintendo was reported to be retreating from the mobile gaming market. That apparent decision came amid the explosive, pandemic-fueled popularity of Switch exclusive Animal Crossing: New Horizons. However, there are a number of successful Pokémon mobile games, such as Pokémon Go, with more in the works.

Animal Crossing fans are already wondering what’s next in the franchise, following Pocket Camp’s demise and New Horizons seemingly a distant memory at Nintendo. Perhaps a brand new Animal Crossing for the Switch 2 is in the works? given the enormous popularity of New Horizons, it feels like an inevitability.

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.

Avowed was a surprising delight to play for the first time. After a lot of questions about the shift in art direction from the teaser trailer, questions about the length, and a combat demo on the Xbox stage that had many asking if the game was earlier in development than expected, I’m happy to report that Avowed is feeling great, looking great, and offering a compelling story based on the early slice I played at an event.

My journey began just after the opening main mission in Avowed, and we’ve been sent on a task to find an Aedyran Expedition team. It turns out, as it often does with RPGs, that fate had other plans for them. Kai, our green-skinned companion who just happens to be voiced by Mass Effect’s Garrus Vakarian actor Brandon Keener, keeps things light-hearted with quips and remarks about this new area we’re exploring. The banter is welcome and sparse, only chiming in occasionally to make a quip, like when I paused to admire the view.

And the view is very pretty. Avowed has done a great job leaning into the art style the larger Pillars of Eternity series is known for and had me stopping to admire waterfalls in the distance and moss-covered structures that set the aesthetic tone for this mysterious cavern we are diving deeper into. Avowed’s world design is shaping up nicely too, and as I dove deeper I would discover walls that could be blown up to traverse a new path, or puzzles that would open a secret new area with a large chest if I threw my shock explosives at a few tucked away circuits I found by exploring off the beaten path, only to find a hole in the wall. These puzzles have the added bonus of revealing coveted loot like a powerful ring that would offer some choice stat bonuses for my character.

When I wasn’t exploring the depths of the oceanic cave I had to swim through it only to find myself facing off against a Xaurip. These are Lizard-like creatures with your standard human weapons like swords, shields, and bows, and they make for good fodder as you learn your beginning attacks. Combat in Avowed is much better than I had anticipated. You quickly become accustomed to using flasks to regenerate not just your health, but more importantly your essence, which allows the execution of your most powerful attacks. As the barbarian, I found myself stalking spiders in the caverns and plotting my attack. To begin, I use Kai’s ability Fire and Ice via the radial wheel you access by holding down the left bumper (if you’re playing with a gamepad, obviously). Fire and Ice sees Kai Teleport to the target and then unload a powerful bullet into the spider’s Chelicerae, aka its face. Then I command him to use his area of effect attack, Leap of Daring, that has him slam into the ground and briefly stun everyone around him. During that time I’d been closing the gap, and using the two weapons I first charged up my right-handed axe which offers a powerful attack that inflicts frost damage accumulation to nearby enemies. After holding the right trigger to empower this attack I manage to freeze my opponents for just a moment. Then I unleash my more powerful essence abilities. First I shout to push back the smaller spiders who are also surrounding me, and while stunned, I then select charge and ram my body with force into the biggest guy in the room. Then, I follow it up with a flurry of blows with the left trigger, which holds my nimble sword for a small flurry of strikes that results in the dispatch of the last spider standing in the room.

Later, I would return as a mage, which was described as the most difficult of the three classes available to use. Abilities for this character included an ethereal staff that you could materialize with essence, orb projectiles that would track your target, and standard attacks that had you flicking your wand to and fro while smaller spells did damage to your target. Additional Essense abilities included a spear that was a bit faster than the staff (as you’d expect), and several different protection or buff spells to help your hits land with a bit harder thud. My personal favorite, however, was an ability that had you snap your book of magic shut to send a wave of damage-dealing aura at everything around you. It just looked cool seeing a book wreck everything in the immediate vicinity.

Make no mistake though, combat was also challenging. I was chugging potions with recklessness as I knew this was just a demo, but it was clear that you’ll need to master the balance between your spell casting, defense, and gear options for maximum efficiency. Digging into the menus, I found that you could spec out your character with a 2nd weapon set that would be accessed with the press of the Y button on the controller. The potential that something so simple offers had me excited because with one press you could access a significantly different playstyle. Combat felt clean, intuitive, and had a depth I didn’t expect. I can’t wait to dive into it more. And fortunately, the oomph of your attack animations that many felt were missing from a demo on the Xbox stage earlier this year have seemingly been implemented; enemies react how you’d expect them to when you slash them with a sword or blast them with a spell.

Eventually, on our journey, Kai and I would run into Caedmon, a young explorer who had managed to survive the Xaurip assault. His friends from the expedition team weren’t so lucky, however. After lamenting that he’s “never touched a girl” and his looming fate wasn’t fair, we were given several conversation options:

• “Kai, we can’t let this kid die a virgin. Can you help him?”
• “Give Caedmon a healing option. Let’s get you back on your feet!”
• “Toughen up kid. I’m not wasting my supplies on you.”

I, of course, picked the top one.

Kai responded: “Not with that… OH you mean with healing him.” He would then go on to make me offer my potion instead. Caedmon was back on his feet and offered us some advice that would help us continue our journey.

But because I also wanted to try out combat as a Mage, I got to see what happened if you always picked the bottom option. “Toughen up Kid!” my character shouted. Caedmon said something Kai called nonsense, and pleaded with me to help him. I however refused to offer him the life saving potion, resulting in his immediate death. Did I loot his corpse? You’re damn right I did.

It’s situations like this that will make Avowed really stand out if they are plentiful enough. Can you really be that evil? Apparently so, and I look forward to doing a sane-person playthrough where I don’t murder everyone if I can avoid it, and a playthrough where I’m the biggest jerk possible because… well, that’s where the fun lies now, isn’t it?

The demo ended with an encounter where we met Sargamis. Sargamis is a gold-skinned deity-like creature who sent us to find an item and return it. But like our explorer friends from earlier in the demo, there were other plans afoot and it wasn’t long until we came face-to-face with the Skeleton boss and a pesky Skeleton priest that would heal the large group of enemies we were facing off against. This was all triggered immediately after getting to the object Sargamis sent us to retrieve, to which Kai quipped, “It can’t be this easy… can it?” No, Kai, it apparently cannot be.

Once in battle and realizing I was greatly outnumbered, I ran out of the room to survey the battlefield. After taking out a few of the lower rank-and-file skeletons just outside of the priest’s healing aura, I identified the one thwarting my plans of murder (can you murder a skeleton?) and I turned his bones to ice and dust. Just as I had cleared the grunts, I was finally ready to take on the Skeleton boss with Kai, but just as I had him on the ropes…. The power in the building went out for everyone playing the demo.

It’s OK, though, because Avowed had made its impression. My doubts about it have faded away, and I’m left excited for its release in February. This small slice Obsidian gave us the opportunity to play was a treat, and while it’s a tiny glimpse, our 50-minute demo session flew by in the blink of an eye. And that’s always a good sign.