Heart Machine, the US-based makers of Hyper Light Drifter, its multiplayer spinoff Hyper Light Breaker, and last year’s Possessor(s), have laid off "nearly everyone" on staff after an unnamed publisher pulled funding for their next, unannounced game.
There is an issue in 4X games. In fact, it's so persistent, that Amplitude Studios' co-founder and CEO Romain de Waubert de Genlis describes it as an "inherent problem", one his team have been attempting to solve since the first Endless Legend released back in 2014.
"One of the X's, 'explore', disappears after a while," de Waubert de Genlis explains. You've discovered the map for one thing, so there is no more world to uncover. But 'explore' can also refer to something more abstract, your strategy becomes fixed. Because you can see the lands, and you can see the resources, and you can see the enemies you face, you must decide on a course of action and there will rarely be much reason to change it.
But spotting the problematic 'X' is far simpler than fixing it.
When it comes to RPGs, I am an irredeemable savescummer. I admit it. I'll slam F9 at the drop of a hat (perhaps the hat was dropped as a result of a failed dexterity roll. Unacceptable. Reload).
So when I recently found myself reloading a Divinity 2 save for the umpteenth time in a single session, I started to wonder - in a genre that's supposedly about storytelling first and foremost, why am I viewing botched persuasion checks as something to be studiously avoided? And why is it that I feel totally different about making a horrible mess of things in tabletop roleplaying games?
After all, some of my fondest memories of real-life roleplaying are moments of extravagant failure: sometimes of the bathetic stepping-on-a-rake-instead-of-slaying-the-necromancer variety, and sometimes of the much more grounded, human, and affecting type.
It all got me thinking: how do RPG developers think about player failure? Would they recognise the distinction between digital and tabletop that I'm describing? And can they convince a savescummer like me to renounce my ways?
If you recently glanced at Total War: Shogun 2 and thought "gosh, lovely hip-and-gable roofs on that miniature of the temples in Kyoto, but this could really do with oh, let's say 50 additional groups of quarrelsome swordsmen", then congratulations, Creative Assembly are adding "50+" minor factions in Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition, an all-in-one remaster hamper due to launch on 13th October via Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store and GOG.
This fancified and expanderised, 64-bit edition of the 2011 strategy game will include both the Rise and the Fall of the Samurai DLC expansions, together with updated lighting, shadows and textures. Also: "modernised controls", which makes me frown a little in the absence of details, together with 1440p and 4K UI scaling, and Japanese and Chinese voice acting and localisation.
Apple is working on an AI server that would use Apple’s high-performance M-series Ultra chips found in Mac desktops. The potential product’s expected release in 2029 would mark the first Apple server to hit the market in nearly two decades—and could capitalize on the surging popularity of Apple hardware among AI developers.
The enterprise server would come in two configurations that include either two or four of Apple’s future M8 Ultra chips, according to The Information. The project reportedly received support from new Apple CEO John Ternus when it began a year ago, back when Ternus led Apple’s hardware engineering efforts.
This revelation coincides with booming sales for Apple’s Mac mini and Mac Studio as AI developers and companies snap up the Mac computers to run AI workloads. The popularity of such computing devices that rely on Apple’s M-series Ultra chips has undoubtedly encouraged Apple’s pursuit of an enterprise server using the same chips.
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Earlier this week, trademarks were spotted over at the European Union Intellectual Property Office for a videogame or videogame-related Something called 'Wonders of O'. The trademarks were registered by South Korean company Neowiz, who also happen to be the publishers of excellent puppet-powered soulslike Lies of P.
Given the shared title format, online sleuthyfolks have wasted no time identifying the project as the Lies of P sequel developers Round 8 teased back in 2024, alongside an untitled horror game.
No siree. We are not trying to fight those big bosses. It's arguably a bit of a weird thing for a publisher with Diablo and World of Warcraft in their arsenal to say, but that's the stance Blizzard are sticking to with their storefront Battle.net, even though it now boasts two big CD Projekt Red RPGs. Instead of an unknowably girthy hoard of games, the publishers say Battle.net's still designed to feel like a handpicked basket of things to play.
Update: Wadjet Eye's Dave Gilbert has confirmed on Bluesky that Nighthawks' "Adults Only" Steam label has been removed, meaning it's no longer locked in horny jail. "Everything is set for launch on the 22nd," he added. "Phew. What a roller coaster. Thank you everyone for your amazing support while we got this sorted."
Original story follows:
Disclosure: Nighthawks writer Richard Cobbett has contributed articles to RPS, with his most recent as of writing being a Fable-themed feature from 2018.
Vampire RPG Nighthawks has been slapped with a mature content label just as its release beckons, in the latest high-profile instance of Valve's determination of what constitutes an adult game proving controversial. Developers Richard Cobbett and Wadjet Eye Games say they're working on convincing Valve to reverse the decision, which would allow the game to once again show up in Steam searches and no longer be banished to horny jail in some countries.
Not content with pulling in daily active user counts roughly equivalent to the population of Japan, game creation platform Roblox are planning to let developers release their games "as standalone apps across mobile, PC, and consoles, with Roblox powering the technology and services underneath." The news comes via this year's Roblox Developers Conference. They are calling the new initiative "Roblox Everywhere", two words that can surely only ever be uttered in the form of a Machiavellian giggle or a scream of purest terror.
Well, that report earlier this year was bang on the banana. A new StarCraft shooter, creatively dubbed StarCraft, has been announced for a 2030 release at this year's BlizzCon. Joining it among the headliners were Diablo 5 - which is due out in 2029 - and a new World of Warcraft branch dubbed WOW: Forever. Brave of them to name a Warcraft fork after the inevitable response which follows a WOW player revealing how long they've been playing the MMO.
There are probably many jokes one could make about mushrooms being edible, and mushrooms being like, edible, man in relation to Shroom and Gloom, a positively mycelial roguelike deckbuilder where you roam spore-filled dungeons with two decks of cards in tow. I won't do that though because that would mean having to think of them, and like Edwin before me, I just don't have it in me. What I do have is the ability to tell you about Shroom and Gloom, which is out in early access today.
Today marks yet another day in reporting on layoffs that have occurred in the games industry over the past several years, with this occasion unfortunately being GNOG and Goodbye Volcano High developer KO_OP. The studio shared word that 13 staffers were being laid off less than two weeks after the launch of the studio's latest game, Young Suns, explaining the process by which this took place in a statement that provides an example of what should really be just the bare minimum in these situations.
Update: Ubisoft have confirmed the Steam announcement post about them starting to test a new Ubisoft Connect Services Steam tool is genuine, and they've now stuck it in Prince of Persia The Lost Crown's regular Steam news feed so everyone can have a read.
Original story follows:
Ubisoft are planning to start testing a new tool that'll allow Prince of Persia The Lost Crown Steam players to access features only usually available via the publishers' Connect launcher without actually having to have said launcher installed. That's according to a Steam announcement post which only appears to be visible to folks who already own a copy of The Lost Crown on Valve's storefront.
You'd expect a game called Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists to be on the depressing side, but this choose-your-own-adventure RPG anthology from the designers of King of Dragon Pass is an absolute tonic. It's a witty procession of Orphic descents, in which you assemble a crew of four garrulous weirdos and pitch them against quest scenarios that might involve talking trees, holy riddlers, and conduits of boiling blood.
There's an infectious, venturesome lightness to the game, which somehow persists alongside dire blunders and supernatural calamities that may see members of your party being cursed, punctured or unhinged. I've only completed a couple of the 10 heists across two hours of play, which makes me reluctant to call this an official review, but it's got my provisional recommendation. Come, reader - get thee to Pandemonium apace.
I find it to be quite rare that when a game says it has a graphic novel art style that it actually has one. There's often just something that reads as slightly off, like it's not quite cut from the same cloth. I'm happy to say that isn't the case with Stack Order, a deckbuilding roguelike with a story all about layering your cards just right to maximise their effects that looks like you could find it in a hip and trendy French comic book shop.
No Man's Sky is a decade old. Let that sink in. No, seriously, you'll need plenty of water to survive the trips that the massive space game's 10th anniversary update allows you to embark on. It's now possible to get up close and personal with the stars that serve as suns in each system. Or, if the risk of fiery death's not your cup of tea, you can establish a new home by taking over as director of a space station or building an orbital base that floats among the stars.
Unionised Blizzard workers have voted to ratify a new contract with their employer that will "require" Blizzard to negotiate with workers over any usage of generative AI tools in their workplace, in addition to giving laid-off workers the right to be "recalled" into open positions across Blizzard for 14 months after the date of their layoff announcement.
"Low-poly dogs!" I hear you chant in the distance. "Low-poly dogs!" The war cry gets louder. "Low-poly dogs!" It's inescapable now, the low-poly dogs requested by the masses are here… Or, well, in the digital world of Old School RuneScape at the very least, as Jagex have added in a new members-only quest that allows you to pick up your very own puppy.
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