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Avowed Gets 30-Minute Deep Dive Revealing Third-Person Gameplay, Abilities

Obsidian Entertainment has posted a 30-minute deep dive for its upcoming fantasy action RPG Avowed, revealing an extended look at its gameplay in both first and third person.

This lengthy look at gameplay in the world of Eora comes directly from Xbox itself and goes into some of the magical tools players will have at their disposal when embarking on their adventure later this year. Game Director Carrie Patel touched on these details during the interview, but the feature that might have fans the most excited is the promise that you will have the option to play in both first and third person.

Other details touched on in the presentation include a few colorful conversations with NPCs like Yatzli and Kai. Patel also teases some of the ways the environment will change as Avowed goes from day to night, as well as the ways different NPCs will react to your character’s Godlike status.

Like other RPGs, Avowed has a selection of skills to allow players to choose how they approach encounters, and yes, you’ll be able to respec your trees if you eventually decide you don’t like the path you’ve set yourself on. We see one scenario that is handled two different ways: with combat and with stealth. Using combat to reach an important NPC could anger them, blocking the player off from certain dialogue options and potentially useful rewards. Trying stealth with the Shadowing Beyond ability, which essentially turns the player invisible, results in this same NPC allowing the player to leave with what they came for in peace.

Those who try stealth in Avowed should note that enemies have a “shout radius,” meaning you might be able to get away with dispatching a single enemy if they’re far enough away from their friends. Some of the enemies that players will be sneaking past or slashing through include tiny, blue-and-orange mushroom creatures. These odd beings come in different groups, with some able to attack from a distance while the other swarm with melee attacks.

Avowed’s deep-dive presentation follows its appearance at the Xbox Games Showcase yesterday, where Obsidian showed off additional gameplay, story details, and more from its vibrant fantasy world. It was a showing for the first- and third-person project that came and went without revealing a release date. However, just hours after the event concluded, Obsidian published – and then changed – a post announcing a release date of November 12, 2024. The date is now nowhere to be found, suggesting that Obsidian wasn’t quite ready to commit to that schedule just yet.

Avowed is officially only set to release before the end of 2024. Be sure to read up on everything else shown during the Xbox Games Showcase while we wait for Obsidian’s next RPG to launch on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X | S, and PC.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Releases First-Ever Gameplay Footage Ahead of Tuesday’s Reveal

Dragon Age: The Veilguard won’t have a full gameplay showcase until tomorrow, but BioWare just released a tiny sneak peek at in-game footage — its first ever — in the meantime.

You can watch the 20 seconds of gameplay below. In it, we see Rook, the name for the playable protagonist in The Veilguard, with Dragon Age mainstay Varric. “She’s the best damn detective I’ve ever met,” Varric is heard saying in the footage. “If she says she’s got a lead on Solas, I believe her.”

Solas, as fans know, is the former companion of the protagonist in Dragon Age: Inquisition who’s actually the elven god Fen’Harel, or the Dread Wolf. As for who is it that might have a lead on him, we could already glean from yesterday’s cinematic trailer reveal that Varric may be talking about Neve, who’s referred to as “The Detective” in the showcase of companions. But if that wasn’t clear enough, the quest objective of “Find Neve Gallus” that pops up should erase any confusion.

Otherwise, it’s just a brief look at Rook and Varric descending into the city of Minrathous, complete with a moody, foreboding atmosphere. It’s quite the departure from the lively cinematic trailer that debuted yesterday during the Xbox Showcase, which had some fans worried that The Veilguard would veer too far away from the darker tone and art style of previous Dragon Age entries.

The response had some, including BioWare cinematic designer Derek Wilks, urging Dragon Age fans to wait for tomorrow’s gameplay reveal before casting judgment. The early reaction to the quick look at gameplay has largely been positive, with fans relieved that it does still indeed look like a Dragon Age game.

Information on the decade-in-the-making sequel has slowly been trickling out since yesterday’s trailer reveal, including the fact that The Veilguard will let you play as a human, elf, dwarf, or qunari. Fans will have to wait for tomorrow’s official gameplay showcase for more, though.

In the meantime, check out IGN’s exclusive interview with BioWare general manager Gary McKay where he explains, among other things, why they changed the name of the fourth Dragon Age game from Dreadwolf to The Veilguard. And for everything that was announced during yesterday’s Xbox Showcase, check out our roundup.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Bungie Teases Destiny 2 Codename Frontiers, Coming 2025

Bungie has teased Destiny 2 Codename Frontiers, coming at some point in 2025 during what will be the series’ 11th year.

Teased at the end of a new video detailing what to expect from The Final Shape expansion’s upcoming three episodes was a solitary image, below. It reveals Codename Frontiers, which we know is due out in 2025. Bungie did not say anything else about this mysterious update, but with the codename Frontiers, some fans are already speculating that it may involve taking players to planets beyond the Sol System.

Some had thought Bungie might have teased Destiny 3 based on tweets from one of its developers, but it looks like the wait for that game, should it exist, goes on.

The Final Shape brings to an end the overarching Destiny that began with the first game in 2014, but it is not the end for the series. In Year 10, as Bungie calls it, three episodes will be released, each revolving around ‘echoes’ that spark significant change across the galaxy.

The first episode is called Echoes and is set on Nessus, with a focus on the Vex acting up. Players end up unearthing the secrets of a lost civilization and face a new enemy, although Bungie kept its cards close to its chest on this.

The second episode is called Revenant and revolves around the Fallen. This episode has more dark fantasy themes, and lets the player become a Slayer Baron, aka a vampire hunter. This episode introduces a new system called Potion Crafting. This includes combat potions and loot potions.

The third and final episode is called Heresy and revolves around the Hive pantheon. Heresy brings players back to the Dreadnought, the massive Hive spaceship introduced with 2015 expansion The Taken King.

After a Destiny 2 clan completed The Final Shape raid last week, Bungie unlocked a final mission for all players that concludes the main Destiny story. In previous videos, Bungie developers have teased that The Final Shape is not the end of Destiny 2 or even the series, with the developer — now owned by Sony — also working on multiplayer game Marathon.

For now, The Final Shape is going down well with fans, despite initial server problems Bungie ended up apologizing for. Check out IGN’s The FInal Shape review in progress to find out what we think.

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.

Doom: The Dark Ages Could Be the Series’ Boldest Reinvention Yet

Doom: The Dark Ages promises a bold new take on the long-running shooter’s legacy. Revealed in a short but loud trailer as part of the Xbox Games Showcase, it features dragon riding, mech battles, and a much darker, more ‘metal’ visual palette. But those grimdark ideas aren’t the only new elements, nor are they the most significant. For in the Doom Slayer’s left hand is a shield to protect him from demons. And in his right hand is a flail, the bludgeoning chain weapon of the middle ages. Yes, Doom’s going melee.

It must have been a challenge for developer Id Software to know where to go next after it had seemingly perfected the Doom formula with the deeply smart and relentlessly energetic Doom Eternal. The answer, of course, is to do what Doom has always done: reinvent itself. And so while the medieval-like setting and melee combat of Doom: The Dark Ages was something few of us expected, it wasn’t truly a surprise. Of course Doom was going to take a wild leap for whatever came next.

“It’s a medieval war against Hell,” said Hugo Martin, Studio Creative Director at Id Software, at IGN Live. “You say the word medieval and you gotta have melee weapons.” And so replacing the Doom Slayer’s chainsaw is a flail and shield, both of which appear to be integral to the reforged combat loop. The shield, a Captain America-like buckler, has revving chainsaw teeth around the circumference and can be hurled through enemy hordes. The flail, meanwhile, can strike foes from their demonic mounts. Joining them is the Doom Slayer’s own body, since his kick is as good a weapon as any mace. While guns are clearly still the key part of the toolset, it seems like close-quarters combat has been upgraded from ‘supplementary’ to ‘core’. That’s a strong new approach for the series that lives and breathes firearms.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Id Software has taken a bold step. In fact, Doom’s entire history is a series of energetic creative leaps. The 1993 original may have been built on the core tenets of Wolfenstein 3D, but Doom’s big push was the inclusion of networked multiplayer – the very mode that coined “deathmatch” as an immortal video game term. The following year’s Doom 2 was admittedly more conservative, but it brought with it the Super Shotgun; the powerful double-barrelled buckshot launcher that proved just a single weapon could reposition a whole game. The Super Shotgun is now arguably the most iconic gun to have ever existed in a video game, despite only being able to fire two shells per reload in a game that never lets up on enemies.

Doom: The Dark Ages’ flail and shield is a strong new approach for the series that lives and breathes firearms.

It was 2004’s Doom 3, though, that really proved Id Software’s guts. The vibrant reds and oranges of its formative games were exchanged for gloom and shadows as the series experimented with survival horror. While much too action packed to live comfortably alongside Silent Hill, Doom 3 was eerie and occultish in a way its predecessors weren’t. Its most fascinating mechanical innovation was a flashlight that could only be used when your weapon was holstered, forcing you to choose between seeing what horrors lurked in the pitch black and being able to blow their heads off. The system lent Doom 3 a distinct tone and unique pace, forcing you to be slower, more methodical, and more scared. It was a controversial mechanic, one that would be quickly removed by modders and officially eliminated by a 2012 re-release. But it was also emblematic of what Id believed Doom could be.

For Doom’s next regeneration, which started development in the late 2000s, the studio understandably looked to Call of Duty. The FPS behemoth’s cinematic campaigns proved alluring templates, but as production progressed the Doom 4 team recognised that none of those ideas worked for either their series or themselves. It was bold, true, but not the right flavour of bold. And so a back-to-the-drawing-board approach eventually resulted in 2016’s critically acclaimed Doom. Its name said it all: this was the definitive version of what Id Software made all those years ago. But that certainly didn’t mean it was conservative or nostalgic; this was a shooter with a huge emphasis on rhythm and speed, combining gameplay with music in a way that the developers of the ‘90s could never even dream of. The result was practically a heavy metal album with frenetic, fluid fights. Before Titanfall 2 arrived, Doom made it clear that movement was the fabric of the new generation of shooters.

If Doom’s headline feature was its speed, then its quietly revolutionary trait was how it dealt with health. The scrapped Doom 4 prototype had pilfered Call of Duty’s regenerating hit points, a system that demanded you take cover to patch yourself up. Doom 2016 rejected that idea entirely; if you wanted to heal then you had to kill in exchange. That philosophy spawned the Glory Kill executions, which tore apart enemies like pinatas to reveal the health kits inside. And in Id Software’s most recently released experiment, 2020’s Doom Eternal, this simple idea became the core.

“Ballistic resource manager” perhaps isn’t the sexiest thing to call your hyperkinetic FPS, but that’s exactly what Doom Eternal not so secretly is. Forget the financial economy, this is the bullet economy: you kill to harvest what you need to kill even more. This results in a chain of rapid slaughter where every kill is a decision – you must not only select the right weapon for the enemy you face, but also eviscerate that enemy in the manner that will produce the items required. Need armour? Then set thy foe aflame. Need bullets? Chew them up with a chainsaw. Need health? Rip and tear with your fists.

Through this approach, Id Software rethought the entire fundamentals of not just Doom, but the arcade shooter as a whole. For a series and genre that had historically been considered ‘mindless’, Eternal dials up the smarts. It rejects your wish to just kick back and blast away, forcing you to the edge of your seat with its demands of speed, precision, and forward thinking. It’s a design encapsulated by Eternal’s most polarising enemy: the Marauder, a beast that’s surely the progenitor for what comes next in Doom: The Dark Ages.

The single aspect that most surprised me in the new trailer was seeing the Doom Slayer parry a Hell Knight. I was instantly reminded how battles with the Marauder demanded much more precision and timing than a regular Doom shootout, with split-second dodges and perfect reactions to its telegraphing eye flash required to defeat it. This unusual switch in tempo meant many disliked how the Marauder interrupted their flow, but I relished its challenge. Doom: The Dark Ages’ use of a parry suggests that it has found a way to reinvent the fundamentals of the Marauder, using those split-second reactions to turn the tables on enemies.

What we don’t see in the trailer are any Glory Kills. And the combat itself seems much more forward-momentum heavy, rather than the enemies-from-all-sides battle arenas from the previous two games. And so it appears that The Dark Ages could be an even more significant departure from what was laid down in Doom and Doom Eternal than just the melee factor. We’ll have to wait to see exactly what all the components of this new, more grimdark iteration of the series are, but whatever they turn out to be, I’m pleased it’s more of the same; more of Doom’s insatiable appetite to reinvent itself every time.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

Microsoft ‘Is by No Means Abandoning’ the Stories Told in Gears 4 and 5, Despite Decision to Do a Prequel Next

After the announcement of Gears of War: E-Day during the Xbox Games Showcase. some fans expressed concern that Microsoft and Gears developer The Coalition were walking away from the story set out in Gears 4 and the most recent game in the series, Gears 5.

Not so, according to Microsoft. In a post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft touched on the future of Gears, insisting “this isn’t the end of other ongoing stories in the Gears series.”

“The team is content with the stories told in Gears 4 and Gears 5 and is by no means abandoning them, but the collective passion for such an iconic origin story was simply too great to ignore,” Microsoft said. ”The story of E-Day and the origins of Marcus and Dom are such powerful, pivotal events that The Coalition couldn’t wait to tell it.”

Warning: Spoilers for Gears 5 follow.

2019’s Gears 5 ends on something of a cliffhanger, with Kait telling Marcus Fenix she’s off to hunt down Queen Reyna. Beforehand, the player, aka Kait, decides to save either JD Fenix or Del, leaving Reyna to kill the other.

Gears of War: E-Day, however, is set 14 years before the events of Gears of War 1, and tells the story of Emergence Day (the day the Locust burst out from under the earth to attack Sera).

In the Xbox Wire post, The Coalition creative director Matt Searcy and brand director Nicole Fawcette discussed the decision to make a prequel next, rather than the perhaps expected Gears 6. “We’re super proud about Gears 4 and Gears 5 and the stories that were told,” Fawcette said. “We’re not retreating from that storyline in any way. But in [this] moment, we had an opportunity to write our next step, and this one just felt too good to miss.”

In a follow-up interview with IGN, Searcy expanded on the decision. “For us, there is a story here for our studio of how we found our way to E-Day that was about reflection,” Searcy explained. “And part of it is just the energy that rolls up about, this was the story we wanted to tell at this time. So it wasn’t really about picking between these things, it was just a snowball of the stuff that was on the table and this is the one we wanted to do right now.

“We love those characters. It’s really nice to have a franchise where we can tell stories in different places. For us, this is just the one we wanted to work on now, this is the one that felt right.”

The decision to go with a prequel was a topic of discussion when IGN interviewed Xbox boss Phil Spencer at IGN Live. Spencer said doing a prequel instead of Gears 6 is “a nice opportunity for that team to establish their Gears.”

“Following on Gears 5 just because of the numerical thing, I think it would just… this was an opportunity for them to take it back to an origin story that has a lot of real depth to it in terms of Emergence Day and tell that story through The Coalition as it is today,” Spencer said. “I thought, what a great opportunity. I was excited.”

The question, of course, is with Gears of War: E-Day in active development at The Coalition, it may be some time before Microsoft continues the overarching Gears storyline with a potential Gears 6. Some fans have suggested another team be handed the responsibility of continuing the story in partnership with The Coalition, but Microsoft has yet to indicate a willingness to do so.

Gears of War: E-Day is currently without a release window. For more of what Microsoft has up its sleeve, check out everything announced at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024.

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.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Lets You Play as a Human, Elf, Dwarf, or Qunari

A snippet of new information about Dragon Age: The Veilguard has emerged regarding the races players will be able to play as in the game.

In BioWare’s fantasy role-playing game, players assume the role of a protagonist called Rook they can customize. In already released promotional material for the game, we can see Rook as a Human. According to tweets from Bioware’s Mike Gamble, who is leading the next Mass Effect at the studio, you can also have your Rook be an Elf, Dwarf, or Qunari.

Another snippet of info from Gamble is confirmation that companion armor can be changed out, which is an important feature for fans.

BioWare’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard reveal leans heavily on the cast of seven companions who join Rook on their adventure. Indeed Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s first trailer, shown off during Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase, introduces all seven companions. Here’s the list, per publisher EA:

  • Bellara, a creative and romantic Veil Jumper obsessed with uncovering ancient secrets.
  • Davrin, a bold and charming Grey Warden who has made a name for himself as a monster hunter.
  • Emmrich, a necromancer of Nevarra’s Mourn Watch who comes complete with a skeletal assistant, Manfred.
  • Harding, the dwarven scout, returns to the fray as a companion with her big heart, a positive outlook, and a ready bow – as well as unexpected magical powers.
  • Lucanis, a poised & pragmatic assassin who descends from the bloodline of the House of Crows, a criminal organization renowned throughout Thedas.
  • Neve, a cynic fighting for a better future, both as a private detective and a member of Tevinter’s rebellious Shadow Dragons.
  • Taash, a dragon hunter allied with the Lords of Fortune who lives for adventure and doesn’t mind taking risks.

BioWare previously confirmed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be centered around these companions, prompting the name change from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. In an exclusive interview with IGN, BioWare general manager Gary McKay revealed some more details on what to expect from The Veilguard, as well as explaining some of the logic behind the name change.

“One thing that’s important to remind fans is that every Dragon Age game is a new and different experience and this game, more so than ever, is about you and your companions – a group that you must rally to fight by your side,” McKay told IGN at the time. “…“In the end, it was most important for us to have a title that was authentic to the companions that are the heart of this adventure we’ve created.”

The Veilguard has a fall 2024 release window, with a gameplay reveal set for June 11.

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.

The Big Phil Spencer IGN Live Interview: on the Health of Xbox, Handhelds, and More

Hot on the heels of Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase, CEO Phil Spencer sat down with IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey at IGN Live 2024 to run through what some have called the best video game showcase in years.

The reveal included fresh looks at upcoming big hitters in Xbox’s now enormous arsenal of franchises following its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Xbox mainstays Gears of War, Fable, and Perfect Dark were joined by the likes of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Diablo… all these huge series got their time to shine. It was a blistering showcase focused squarely on the games, and based on initial feedback online, the games looked good.

But Microsoft’s showcase has hit the headlines during one of the most troubling times for Xbox in recent memory. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced 1,900 staff would lose their jobs across its gaming business, and then came the shock closure of Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks as part of devastating cuts at Bethesda. Is any studio, regardless of critical or commercial acclaim, safe?

Meanwhile, Microsoft faces difficult questions about the future of Xbox consoles, which have seen sales plummet year-on-year, as well as an apparent struggle to grow subscription service Game Pass. Microsoft is bringing even more of its games to rival platforms with the announcement that Doom: The Dark Ages will launch on PlayStation 5 alongside Xbox Series X and S and PC. When it comes to Xbox, the times certainly are changing.

During our interview, Spencer discussed all this and more. Read on for the complete IGN Live interview with Phil Spencer.

Ryan McCaffrey: I think you just had the best showcase you’ve ever had. I said it before you got here.

Phil Spencer: Thank you, Ryan.

Ryan McCaffrey: It really was fantastic. Now I know you plan these things months and months in advance. For anybody that doesn’t know, planning for this starts like the beginning of the year. So I’m curious, at what point do you, with this one this year, do you get a feeling that, oh, this one’s looking pretty good?

Phil Spencer: Honestly, until our fans, the customers, you guys give us the feedback… Aaron Greenberg and I were talking about this two weeks ago. The thing that probably hit me the most was obviously just the passion of the teams of putting their amazing work on stage and seeing so many teams do great work. But it was, I’d say two months ago, when I just looked at the scale of the franchises, how much work the teams were doing to show up in the way they did and the partners that we had in the show. I was in awe of the show.

Ryan McCaffrey: There’s a couple games I want to ask you about specifically before we’ll talk about some other stuff too. For me, of all the great stuff from today, stole the show for me was something I wasn’t expecting to see today again, which was Perfect Dark.

Phil Spencer: I knew you were going to say that!

Ryan McCaffrey: Perfect Dark, a first-person spy espionage, some parkour, a little Mirror’s Edge in there, which I love.

Phil Spencer: All playable, all in-game.

Ryan McCaffrey: And that game’s been cooking for a long time.

Phil Spencer: It has. Our partners at Crystal [Dynamics] have been doing amazing work there.

Ryan McCaffrey: So what has it been like for you to follow the very long trajectory of that game from, that started with Darrell Gallagher starting a studio [The Initiative].

Phil Spencer: Just down the street.

Ryan McCaffrey: And now we’re finally here. So how has it been getting to this point with Perfect Dark?

Phil Spencer: In parallel, building a studio while you’re building a game, and something that Perfect Dark back to N64 and obviously us with PDZ on 360, like there’s just such anticipation for that game, and I really appreciate everybody’s patience because we’ve been talking about this for a long time. And my team can verify this – when I saw it, I said, this is the one that Ryan’s going to love. Because we know his love for spy and I said, this is the one. I’m just so proud of the team and it really just came together so well.

A cool little story: Darrell had our other studio heads down at the studio just yesterday and walked through that same section in-game to show them, this is a game being played. And I love seeing our community of creators coming together that way.

Ryan McCaffrey: The one more thing, which we were all hoping for and got was a new Gears of War game, but it wasn’t Gear 6!

Phil Spencer: It was not!

Ryan McCaffrey: You have a visibility into everything, but I’m curious, when you’re in a meeting with, maybe it’s Matt Booty, maybe it’s Alan Hartman, but The Coalition folks, but when you learn they’ve gone down the E-Day road, the prequel road rather than Gears 6, what was your reaction when you found out that that was going to be the next direction for Gears of War?

Phil Spencer: Well you know this, we’ve had some changes in leadership at the studio. Rod [Fergusson], who was there, is now leading Diablo for us. So I actually thought – a Diablo game I’m playing a ton of – I thought it was a nice opportunity for that team to establish their Gears. Following on Gears 5 just because of the numerical thing, I think it would just… this was an opportunity for them to take it back to an origin story that has a lot of real depth to it in terms of Emergence Day and tell that story through The Coalition as it is today. I thought, what a great opportunity. I was excited.

And then you probably saw, I know you heard it, the Mad World tune, for those of us who remember the 360 commercial, how iconic was that? So when they went back and sourced that and brought that through the piece, I think it just showed that they stayed true to what Gears is, but tell a new story, a new arc.

Ryan McCaffrey: Now you’re wearing a very cool Xbox Pride shirt today, but a year ago at the Xbox Showcase, you freaked out people like me by wearing a Hexen shirt, which is a game that I have very near and dear to my heart. You had just acquired Hexen. You own that as a part of many other things. But then today I see the reveal for Doom: The Dark Ages, and I go, wait a second…

Phil Spencer: How awesome was that?

Ryan McCaffrey: … are you secretly making a Hexen game in the Doom universe? I know you and I share the love for this.

Phil Spencer: Yeah. No, I would like to say I’m actually smart enough to predict anything like that. I wasn’t. But definitely if you look at Doom: The Dark Ages, and thanks to Marty [Stratton] and the team they let me introduce that. I was going through all my old-school stories, for those as old as me who remember it’s Doom 1 on a floppy. My only PC that could run it was my PC at Microsoft. So I would sneak in at night, put it in so I could play. So the opportunity to stand there and get to announce a Doom, and then Doom: The Dark Ages, which definitely has some Hexen in it, and I just thought, Hugo [Martin] and the team, fantastic work. I’m so proud.

Ryan McCaffrey: Now I can’t help but bring up something that’s been a topic of conversation a lot recently, which is that Doom: The Dark Ages is also going to ship on PS5, something that you’ve done with some other games. So from a business level, can you walk me through… you paid $7.5 billion to acquire Bethesda / ZeniMax. So what’s the calculus? What’s the process there for deciding, okay, new Doom, let’s keep it multi-platform as it has been rather than just put it on Xbox? So what’s the thought process there?

Phil Spencer: Well, on Doom, it’s definitely one of those franchises that has a history on so many devices. I think they have Doom running on a lawnmower somewhere. It’s a franchise that I think everybody deserves to play. And to be honest, I was in a meeting with Marty and the team a couple of years ago and I asked Marty what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to ship it on all platforms. I said, let’s go do that. It was as simple as that.

Now I want to bring it back though, because I get a lot of questions about, hey, if I’m an Xbox owner, what does it mean? And what I want to say – and I thought it showed up so well in the show today – you saw an amazing collection of games that are coming to Xbox. They’re going into Game Pass day one, and Game Pass showed up so well. If you buy the game on our console, you get to play it on PC. So the cross-entitlement stuff is all there.

And we’re focused on future hardware with forward compatibility. Our commitment to our Xbox customers is you’re going to get the opportunity to buy or subscribe to the game. We’re going to support the game on other screens, and you are going to see more of our games on more platforms. And we just see that as a benefit to the franchises that we’re building. And we see that from players and the players love to be able to play.

Ryan McCaffrey: You haven’t really commented publicly much in the last couple months, so I wanted to ask you about the studio closures and Tango Gameworks and some of the thoughts behind the decision-making there. I mean, you had a critical darling in Hi-Fi Rush. You had folks like Aaron Greenberg saying it checked all these boxes for us and did all the right things here. So walk me through the decision of why really Tango specifically, not to disrespect the other studios that were closed, but that was the one that really seemed to kind of stick in the community’s craw a bit. I’m hoping here that you can take the opportunity to address that closure and some of the recent changes in Xbox.

Phil Spencer: Yeah, the closure of any team is hard, obviously on the individuals there, hard on the team. And I try to spend all of my focus, as you said, I haven’t been talking publicly about this, because right now is a time for us to focus on the team and the individuals. It’s obviously a decision that’s very hard on them and I want to make sure through severance and other things that we’re doing the right thing for the individuals on the team. It’s not about my PR, it’s not about Xbox PR, it’s about those teams.

In the end, I’ve said over and over, I have to run a sustainable business inside the company and grow. And that means sometimes I have to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make. We will continue to go forward, we will continue to invest in what we’re trying to go do in Xbox and build the best business that we can, which ensures we can continue to do shows like the one we just did.

Ryan McCaffrey: On the Activision Blizzard saga…

Phil Spencer: You call it a saga?

Ryan McCaffrey: Well, just from covering it and watching it it felt like it put five years on my life to somebody that covers Xbox. I can’t imagine how it was for you. But as that came to a close and you started integrating Activision Blizzard King into Xbox Studios, has that changed the way that you think about running the business at all? Because the organization just got quite a bit larger almost overnight in a sense.

Phil Spencer: No. I mean we’re still, and I hope we showed this today, we’re going to be about building great games for people to play, about giving them choice on Xbox to go play. We’ve got a broader library of games. The thing I’m starting to see, which I really love, is the organic collaboration between our teams that are coming out and trying to build that community of creators that, I mean, you and I will go back to the time of Xbox where we basically had four games: Fable, Forza, Gears, Halo. And we would just literally, every four years I would have to come to E3 and I’d somehow try to make those four games seem different every year for the community.

And now what we have in gaming is just an amazing collection of teams and franchises that are doing great work. I feel an added responsibility as somebody who loves this industry for the franchises that show up on our stage. But I still think in the end it’s about putting amazing games out. I’m really proud of the work that Ninja Theory did with Hellblade and the response to that. And we have an amazing internal team now that’s focused on us doing a bunch of Unreal games as an example. And then you see things like South of Midnight, which might’ve been my game of the show, I thought it looked so good, you got Perfect Dark, you have Gears.

So for us, as the organization gets bigger, I think it’s just more important that we can take bets together and try to do innovative, creative things, and that will continue to drive us.

“I’m really proud of the work that Ninja Theory did with Hellblade and the response to that.

Ryan McCaffrey: Phil, you and I in the past have talked a lot about the past of Xbox because there’s a lot of great memories. But the present, as we saw today on the Xbox Game Showcase is great. The future looks super promising here, and the Xbox business has changed dramatically.

Phil Spencer: It has.

Ryan McCaffrey: And so when you make an almost $70 billion acquisition, do you start hearing from your bosses more? Or are they still staying out of your way and letting you run the business? Because that’s not an insignificant amount of money to spend on growing the business.

Phil Spencer: It’s definitely not an insignificant amount of money! No. The support we get from the company, and my boss is the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella. Hey, Satya. We are given a ton of leeway to go and run and grow our business. But I’ll say the thing that we challenge ourselves to do is to try to do new things.

If I go back eight years ago, we said, hey, we’re going to go ship all of our games on PC and console, and if you buy one on one, you get it on the other. And I got some reaction from people of, this is the worst decision ever. This is going to be the end of Xbox. We announced Game Pass and we started doing Game Pass, and I know some people looked at that and said, oh, you’re going to teach people that games are free and you’re going to undermine the value in games.

And what I can say sitting here today from our decisions on cloud, on Game Pass, on console, right now we have more Xbox console users than we’ve ever had in the history of Xbox. And even when I look at things like the impact of Game Pass, because I watch that and I love Game Pass, how it showed up in the show today I think was fantastic. But we also want people to be able to buy games. So I go back and I look and I say, okay, over the last five years, what’s happened to game sales on our platform? We’re up double digits every year over the last five years on game sales, on Xbox consoles.

Doing a $70 billion acquisition will push us to try to do more. It’ll push us on cloud, it’ll push us to go find customers in new places, continue to think about access to amazing games, enabling creators to do great work. But I actually think for the team, that’s just a self-motivation that the team has and it’s fun to be a part of.

Ryan McCaffrey: Black Ops 6 day one Game Pass.

Phil Spencer: Some people said I wouldn’t do that.

Ryan McCaffrey: Most people in this room have probably been used to spending 60, 70 bucks on it every year. Now if they’re already subscribing to Game Pass they’re good to go.

Phil Spencer: But it’s a choice. We didn’t say to anybody, you have to subscribe to play. If you want to buy Black Ops, great. It’s great for us, it’s great for the developer. If you want to subscribe, it’s also great. I want to give you the choice on how you play your games and who you play with and not try to do slimy platform things to force you to do what I want you to do. Give the players choice and what they want to do and who they play with.

Ryan McCaffrey: So the Activision Blizzard thing, we watched it play out in courtrooms.

Phil Spencer: With my tie on!

Ryan McCaffrey: I’m curious, what was the biggest unexpected challenge for you and the team at Xbox during the course of that?

Phil Spencer: For the management team like Sarah Bond, Lori Wright, Linda Norman, who’s our lead lawyer at Xbox, we all had our same job of running Xbox and doing the things that we needed to go do. Matt Booty. But then we actually added this second job in the time of having to work through regulatory.

It’s my fault as the head of the business, I didn’t really internalize that in the beginning of what a drain that would be on the team. And I think we saw that. I think we saw it in our execution on a couple things that we were doing multiple things at that time that we hadn’t planned for. And I’ll say it’s really nice to be post the acquisition working with those amazing teams. I mean, how they showed up in our show today… fantastic. I just thought it was great. I mean, we had World of Warcraft in an Xbox show. It’s just crazy.

Ryan McCaffrey: Was there ever a point in the process, because it really, between the CMA and the FTC and all these places, was there ever a point where you thought, oh, this might not happen, this might get rejected?

Phil Spencer: Well, we always have to plan for all contingencies. We consider everything. You have to in running the business. But we felt like we were on the side of right, meaning we weren’t doing this so we could pull Call of Duty from PlayStation players. It was never in our plan. I mean, I think my whole inbox leaked on the internet, so if anybody wanted to find that that was the plan, you would find it somewhere and it wasn’t there.

So we believed we were in the right on getting this deal done, so we stayed convicted. But there were dark days, like when the CMA came out and said, no, this isn’t going to go through. And the drag on the teams, the teams at Activision, Blizzard and King, they’re dealing with this uncertainty. So it’s so nice to have it behind us, and now we can just focus on building great games together.

“We love that we have so many PC players, more than we’ve ever had. Our console’s doing so well.

Ryan McCaffrey: On that topic, we talk about all these huge changes to not just the industry, but again, specifically your business, the Xbox business over the last five or so years. What is today as we sit here now, what’s the thesis statement? What’s the modus operandi for Xbox today, and how has it changed over the last five years?

Phil Spencer: Yeah, I see some of the feedback that our messaging from some people that maybe our messaging hasn’t been consistent, and I always hear the feedback and I take it. Feedback is great. I will say from early on, we would say, when everybody plays, we all win. How do we get in a place where everybody can play video games? And we’ve made different progress on PC. Now PC is a huge business for us. We love that we have so many PC players, more than we’ve ever had. Our console’s doing so well.

But I think if you sit back and you try to frame this industry through the lens of the tradition of who sold a console today, and that’s the only solution to making gaming better, I think Xbox is doing something different than that. We love our consoles, we love our PC players, but really it’s about creators and players and amazing games coming to them.

Ryan McCaffrey: It has, admittedly, for all of us, creators, players, it has been a weird generation because it started weird in this pandemic. And I’m curious, would you do anything differently in this Xbox Series generation if you could go back and tell yourself?

Ryan McCaffrey: I’m not really a regrets guy. There’s a hundred decisions I made that, yeah, in hindsight, maybe I would make it different with all the data. But you got to just bet. You got to bet on yourself and bet on the teams, have a vision of what you’re trying to do. When you get punched in the face, you get back up and you try to go do things. So I’m not really one who looks back and say, I wish I would’ve done this or that. If you’re in a position like this, with the team that we have, you just have to believe and you have to keep pushing forward and take the feedback from amazing customers that talk to us every day.

Ryan McCaffrey: Has the calculus changed? You spoke to Game Pass and how much of the value proposition has increased after today even. But has the calculus changed on how much Game Pass subscriptions are valued at Microsoft versus direct sales? Because when Game Pass started, it was, wow, this sounds really cool, and you’ve pledged to put every first-party release in there. And at the beginning there weren’t a lot of those, but now you’re almost like you had a whole show full of them. So what is that metric for success? How does Game Pass influence the success of the business?

Phil Spencer: The thing I look at every morning is how many people played on our platforms and how long did they play? If they played through the subscription or they paid for their games, or they’re playing a free-to-play game, honestly, that’s not the most important thing.

So Game Pass, I love it. The thing I really love about Game Pass in our show today, a game like Mixtape. Nathan Vella [co-head of Annapurna Interactive] and I can have a conversation and say, with a team that’s been in Game Pass before, when you think about the studio behind it, they had great success, now we’re going to do a second game. Or Winter Burrow, another just awesome game that we can go invest in.

And Game Pass gives us an ability… you can go invest in Call of Dutys and Diablos all day, and we love that, but you also get to invest in new things that come out, and we just think that’s a really important part of the equation.

Game Pass is up double digits. PC is growing really well, cloud’s growing really well. But if somebody decides they want to buy their games and build their library, peace. There’s no, we need to turn everybody into this or that. We just want people to play.

Ryan McCaffrey: I want to talk about Fallout for a second. So you guys are currently having an awesome pop culture moment. But I can’t help think about that a year or two ago I was sitting with Todd Howard with a camera rolling, and I asked him, well Fallout 5, you want to do that yourself? Or maybe now there’s all these Xbox studios, you could maybe have some help with it. And he said, no, that’s mine. I’m going to direct that.

Phil Spencer: Todd likes his things!

Ryan McCaffrey: But Fallout, I would argue, is Xbox’s biggest cultural moment in quite a while.

Phil Spencer: Outside of gaming, yeah.

Ryan McCaffrey: And so after the TV show blows up and there’ll be a season two, and I’m sure it’ll probably keep going past that, do you talk to Todd about like, you can’t stop The Elder Scroll 6 and say go do Fallout 5, but you have all these studios. Do you have a conversation about, well, how can we do a big new Fallout while the iron’s really hot here with the TV show?

Phil Spencer: Yeah. I’ll just say that Todd’s recognized the success of the television show on his own. He doesn’t need me to kind of go and… It is amazing to see how gaming is now playing such a role all up in pop culture. As an old comic nerd, I go back 10 years and it seemed like every Hollywood thing came from the comics. And now you see video games, and this art form that we’ve loved for so long, whether it’s the Mario Movie, Last of Us, Fallout show, you see our creatives in our industry being recognized for the worlds and storytelling that they can go do.

For us specifically, Fallout’s been amazing. And yeah, Todd’s looking at the plans on what he’s doing. I’m not going to get into it, but I’ll say Todd has recognized the success on his own and is thinking through what that means.

Ryan McCaffrey: I guess while we’re on the subject, have you seen The Elder Scroll 6 lately? I know you get to take a look at a lot of stuff.

Phil Spencer: I’ll refrain from comment!

Ryan McCaffrey: I think we all know what you mean by that! Well ask Todd to, you know… We’re waiting here, pal!

There’s one other thing I wanted to ask you about that I thought we actually might hear something about from you – I mean, you had a great show, I’m not complaining – but I thought, well, there’s something that’s been rumored, that’s been talked about. And that is an Xbox handheld. You’ve been building the business around this mantra of, go where the players are, whether it’s on PC…

Phil Spencer: So we should have handheld? I think we should have a handheld, too!

Ryan McCaffrey: You want to say anything about that?

Phil Spencer: No, I don’t want to say anything! You’ll have to have Sarah Bond on, our president of Xbox, who is awesome. But the future for us in hardware is pretty awesome. And the work that the team is doing around different form factors, different ways to play, I’m incredibly excited about it.

Today was about the games. We showed some of our gen nine console Series S, Series X, the work that we’re doing. But we will have a time to come out and talk more about platform, and we can’t wait to bring ’em to you.

Ryan McCaffrey: Hypothetically, if Microsoft did an Xbox gaming handheld PC device, would it be a Steam Deck-like dedicated piece of hardware that I can play offline, or would it be something I would need a wifi connection to stream things from?

Phil Spencer: I’ll put it this way: I like my ROG Ally, my Lenovo Legion Go – fantastic – my Steam Deck. I think being able to play games locally is really important.

Ryan McCaffrey: You can read between the lines on that as you will!

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.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Will Complete Its Currently Announced Roadmap, but Warner Bros. Quiet on What Happens After

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will complete its currently announced roadmap, publisher Warner Bros. has confirmed to IGN.

After Rocksteady’s live service shooter flopped to the tune of $200 million, some players called into question Warner Bros.’ support for the game and the prospect of additional content beyond the already released Season 1.

Players asked even tougher questions after a report from Bloomberg into Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s troubled development, with reporter Jason Schreier writing on X/Twitter Rocksteady was currently giving the game “some barebones support, definitely not as much as they’d originally planned.” According to Schreier, Rocksteady is helping out with a director’s cut of Warner Bros.’ smash hit Hogwarts Legacy while management pitches a return to single-player.

But Warner Bros. told IGN that Rocksteady will see out Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s first year of support, while declining to comment on what happens afterwards. “We are not yet discussing anything that is not announced,” a spokesperson added.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was panned by critics upon launch and has extremely low player numbers on Steam. Some of the frustration stems from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League not being another Batman game from Rocksteady, despite being set within the Arkhamverse. The developer’s single-player Arkham series is much-loved by fans, with 2011’s Batman: Arkham City in particular held up as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, superhero video games of all time. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, on the other hand, is a live service third-person shooter in which Batman is a villain. Soon after the game’s February 2024 release, publisher Warner Bros. admitted the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League contributed to a $200 million hit to revenue.

So, what can players expect? Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s current roadmap includes four seasons’ worth of content. Seasons two, three, and four are each set to add a new playable character, three new playable environments, new weapons, themed gear sets, activities, and mid-season updates.

Rocksteady recently teased the introduction of Mrs. Freeze as a playable character for Season 2 after Season 1 added the Joker. Datamining has suggested playable characters on their way include Mrs. Freeze, Lawless, and Deathstroke. Based on Warner Bros.’ comment, players now know they will see this content.

Will this be enough to spark renewed interest in the game? After Season 1 and the Joker’s arrival failed to move the needle on player concurrent numbers on Steam (Microsoft and Sony do not make player numbers on Xbox and PlayStation public), it seems unlikely the following three lesser-known DC characters will do so.

Indeed, thoughts have already turned to Rocksteady’s next game, which many fans of the studio hope will play more like the Arkham games.

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.

Starfield’s June 2024 Update Introduces the Creation Kit

After teasing that a brand-new update would arrive in Starfield later today, Bethesda Game Studios has officially released the June 2024 update for Starfield, which introduces the Creation Kit, new Trackers Alliance missions, and more.

In a new blog post, Bethesda has detailed all the new features coming into Starfield update 1.12.30. Most notably, this month’s update introduces Creations, an editing tool that allows players to create mods and share them with other players via Bethesda.net. Players can pay for these mods via Creation Credits. The Creation Kit has been featured in several Bethesda Game Studios-developed titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4.

More interestingly, Bethesda notes that those who purchased the Premium Edition of Starfield will find 1,000 Creation Credits available on their account after installing the latest update. While it seems odd to provide those select players with Creation Credits, given the tool was just released, in an interview with KindaFunny in April, Todd Howard revealed that a Creation Kit for Starfield was given to some creators.

The announcement comes hours after Bethesda’s parent company, Xbox, held a Summer Games showcase. At the showcase, the developer also provided the first official trailer for its upcoming story expansion, Shattered Space, which will be released sometime later this year.

You can check out the full patch notes below.

Starfield Update 1.12.30 Update Notes

Update Highlights

  • Creations are here! Creations are now available in Starfield. What does that mean? You can now access and play new content in Starfield. Creations may include new missions, gear, skins, weapons, and more! You’ll also find Bethesda Game Studios Creations including one of the new Trackers Alliance missions, The Vulture. You can find Creations via the in-game menu. For those of you who own Starfield’s Premium Edition, you will also find 1000 Creation Credits within this menu.
  • If creating your own content for Starfield is something that interests you, you may also now download the Creation Kit for Starfield on Steam. Note, this is a separate download from the game download and is only available on Steam.
  • Trackers Alliance Missions Available New missions have been added to Starfield as part of this update. Trackers Alliance establishes the first of several missions enabling you to live your best bounty-hunting life. The first mission, The Starjacker will have you in contact with a mysterious Tracker located in settlements throughout the Settled Systems. From there, let the hunts begin!
  • The second Trackers Alliance mission, The Vulture is available within the new Creations menu. And what bounty hunter is without their trusted methods to get the job done?
  • Bounty Scanning and Mission Boards! This update also introduces the bounty scanner system that enables you to seek and destroy (or peacefully resolve…?) those targets with bounties on their heads. If you still want more, you can also check out the Elite Trackers Alliance mission board.
  • Armed and Ever Ready! Those of you who appreciate being extra crafty may now find new melee weapon tiers and the ability to modify melee weapons when crafting. For those that prefer the firepower approach, ammo crafting has also been added with this update. You can research your preferred ammo at a Research Station and craft them at an Industrial Workbench!

Bug Fixes

  • General: General performance and stability improvements
  • Gameplay
    • Gameplay Options: Addressed a sustenance issue that caused sneak attack damage to be too high.
    • Ship Decoration: Nova Galactic All-in-One 2×1 Habs will now declutter properly.
    • Ship Decoration: Items can no longer be placed on ladders.
    • Addressed an issue that could cause Guards to give up their chase too easily.
    • Fixed an issue that caused visited space locations to appear undiscovered.
    • Addressed an issue that could occur when modifying the player’s ship at The Key.
    • Addressed a rare issue that could cause some objects to behave as if they were in zero-g.
    • Fixed a crowd character issue that could appear when loading a save.
    • Removed the “Fast Travel to Ship” button from screens where it could not be utilized.
    • Fixed an issue that could occur when opening photo mode at the start of a conversation.
    • Fixed an issue that could occur when trying to exit the pilot seat while landing.
    • Addressed an issue with incrementing the “Ships Modified” stat when entering ship builder.
    • Quest Trackers should highlight the correct NAT station when traveling to the Lodge in New Atlantis.
    • Cora Coe should now accept books even if the Main Quest is skipped after entering the Unity.
  • Graphics
    • Fixed an issue which could cause a bright light when loading a save into New Atlantis.
    • Fixed an issue that could cause some objects to become hidden when they should be visible.
  • Outposts
    • Resolved an issue where the Power Management Robot could unintentionally reduce power.
  • Quests
    • Background Checks: Fixed an issue where the player could receive an unintentional trespassing message.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Here’s What Comes in Each Edition

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on October 25. This installment brings the sub-series up to the early 1990s, with in-game representations of world leaders like George H. W. Bush, Saddam Husseine, and Margaret Thatcher. As usual, it will include a single-player campaign, multiplayer, and zombies. It’s now available for preorder at all the usual retailers. Below, we have full details about where to buy it and how much it costs. Let’s dive in.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

PS5

Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One

PC

PS4 / PS5 (Cross-Gen Bundle)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Vault Edition

The Vault Edition of Black Ops 6 gets you the base game, plus these digital upgrades:

  • Hunters vs. Hunted Operator Pack (4 Operator Skins: Adler, Park, Brutus and Klaus)
  • Mastercraft Collection (5 Mastercraft Weapons)
  • BlackCell (1 Season) -(Includes: Battle Pass, 20 Tier Skips, 1,100 CP and more
  • GobbleGum Pack for Zombies (12 GobbleGums of high rarities)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Vault Edition Upgrade

The Xbox- and PC-exclusive Vault Edition upgrade is for people who either are playing Black Ops 6 on Game Pass, or bought the standard edition (perhaps because you wanted a physical copy). It upgrades your standard edition to have all the extras in the Vault Edition.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Will Be on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on Day One

If you don’t want to drop $70 all at once to play the new CoD, you can subscribe to Xbox Game Pass, because the subscription service will get Black Ops 6 on day one.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Trailer

Other Preorder Guides