Category: Gaming

Palworld developer Pocketpair has released an update for the Xbox and Windows PC version of the game that addresses some of the issues players are having.

The smash hit ‘Pokémon with guns’ survival and crafting game launched in early access form on January 19 on Steam as well as Xbox consoles and Windows PC, but the Xbox version lags behind the Steam version in a number of key areas.

For example, Palworld players can create and join dedicated servers that enable up to 32 players to play in the same world and create guilds together. But on Xbox and Windows PC (so, everyone playing on Game Pass), Palworld players cannot create or join dedicated servers, which means online co-op is limited to 2-4 players. Crossplay between Xbox and Steam is also currently unavailable.

Palword Xbox players had assumed they were playing an older build of the game, given some of the missing features, but Pocketpair denied this was the case, insisting both versions will always be different until crossplay is enabled. The lack of parity across Xbox and Steam, Pocketpair said, had to do with updates having to work their way through Microsoft’s certification process, whereas on Steam there is no such hurdle.

Here are the Xbox Palworld patch notes in full:

[The following issues have been fixed]

<Xbox>

・When starting the game app, it goes black and cannot proceed further.

<Microsoft Store PC version>

・When starting the game app, it goes black and cannot proceed further.

・Controller is not recognized

・Key guide display is not displayed correctly

・Exit game button is not implemented

Pocketpair is yet to properly explain Palworld’s lack of dedicated servers on Xbox and Windows PC. Last week, Pocketpair said: “We’d like to have dedicated servers on Xbox but it’s unfortunately not up to us and is quite difficult to negotiate at this time!” a Pocketpair representative said. “But… we are trying!”

It’s unclear what Pocketpair means when it says the addition of dedicated servers on Xbox is “not up to us”, when other games do have dedicated servers on Xbox. IGN has asked for comment but has yet to hear back.

While Palworld is a smash hit, it is not without controversy. Pocketpair has said its staff have received death threats amid Pokémon “rip-off” claims, and Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod. Palworld’s enormous launch has seen its servers struggle, too.

Check out IGN’s Palworld Early Access Review in Progress to find out what we thought.

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.

Riot Games is laying off roughly 530 people, or about 11% of its global workforce, in a move the company says is “a necessity” and not “to appease shareholders.”

In a letter to staff shared publicly, Riot Games CEO A. Dylan Jadeja explained that the layoffs are occurring because since 2019, the company has been making “a number of big bets,” “broadening our portfolio,” and growing “quickly,” with the company size doubling in “just a few years.”

However, those big bets do not seem to be paying off in the way Riot hoped:

Today, we’re a company without a sharp enough focus, and simply put, we have too many things underway. Some of the significant investments we’ve made aren’t paying off the way we expected them to. Our costs have grown to the point where they’re unsustainable, and we’ve left ourselves with no room for experimentation or failure – which is vital to a creative company like ours. All of this puts the core of our business at risk.

Over the past several months, we’ve tried to alter our trajectory in many different ways. We asked leaders to make tradeoffs in the things their teams are working on. We rolled out hiring slowdowns, and in some cases hiring freezes. We put an emphasis on controlling costs while strengthening our revenue growth. All of which has without a doubt been tough for our teams.

But as I’ve dug in with leaders across Riot, it’s become clear to all of us that these changes aren’t enough. We have to do more to focus our business and center our efforts on the things that drive the most player value – the things that are truly worth players’ time. Unfortunately, this involves making changes in the area where we invest the most — our headcount.

Jadeja goes on to explain the plan for the layoffs rollout, which will begin over the next hour and finalize in the coming weeks depending on local laws. Riot is offering six months of salary minimum to all laid off, cash bonuses, and a number of additional benefits and supports. Additionally, the company is asking everyone to cancel meetings in the coming week and work from home if possible while team members process the situation.

In addition to the layoffs, Riot Games is also axing its Riot Forge label following the release of Bandle Tale. Riot Forge was announced in December of 2019 as an indie publishing label to produce games from third-party studios using Riot IP. In the ensuing years, it’s been behind games such as Song of Nunu, Ruined King, Hextech Mayhem, and The Mageseeker. “While we’re proud of what we’ve created in this space, and we’re grateful for the Forge team and for our external partners who made these games happen, we don’t view this as core to our strategy moving forward,” Jadeja wrote.

As for the rest of Riot’s portfolio, the company says that League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift will be “more ambitious than ever” and that their teams will be prioritized. Legends of Runeterra will continue, however the game has faced “financial challenges” and costs more to develop and support than it makes, so the team is being downsized and focusing on the PvE Path of Champions.

Riot Games’ layoffs come as yet another blow to an industry already reeling from mass layoffs. Last year, an estimated 10,000 individuals lost their jobs industry-wide, and in the first month of 2024 alone so far the number is rapidly approaching 4000 amid studio closures, project cancellations, and industry funding drying up in a tragic trend that seems likely to extend well into the rest of the year.

Joker, the infamous clown prince of chaos, is confirmed to not only appear in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. But he will also be a playable character.

Announced in the third and final developer diary series for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Rocksteady Studios revealed the post-launch content plans for its upcoming game ahead of its release date. The studio detailed the roadmap for the first season of DLC, which will be released sometime in March.

Some additional content in season one includes new boss fights and enemy variants, a new playable environment based on Joker, and two new episodes with new activities, missions, and strongholds to partake in.

Three additional seasons of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League are planned, according to Rocksteady. Each season will introduce a new playable character and one new playable environment, among other things such as new weapons and activities.

The marquee of season one is that Joker will be a new playable character. Fans of Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse games are probably mystified at the idea, given the upcoming game is set five years after Batman: Arkham Knight and the Joker from that trilogy is dead. However, this is different from the Joker we have seen in those games; rather, this Joker was pulled from another dimension based on the Elseworld comics.

“The original Arkhamverse Joker has been dead for five years, but this is a new Elseworlds twist on the villain,” Rocksteady studio director Darius Sadeghian said in the developer diary. While Rocksteady Associate Design Director Johnny Armstrong revealed that this Joker “was part of the Suicide Squad in the Elseworld that he’s from, which already shows that he’s slightly more cooperative than the previous Joker we’ve had” before teasing that this Joker is “unhinged in a different way.”

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is out on February 2 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more, check out our hands-on preview.

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

Nintendo fans have been spoiled in the last several years with love from the Persona series, which after a long history married to PlayStation consoles has finally been creeping onto the Switch, game by game. Which is why fans felt snubbed after Persona 3 Reload, a remake of Persona 3, was announced for basically every major platform except Switch. But while a Switch announcement still hasn’t happened, the game’s director and producer are hinting that the idea hasn’t been fully abandoned.

Though the series has largely been the beloved child of PlayStation over the years, Persona 5 Royal made it to Switch in 2022, and Persona 4 Golden arrived this time last year. Nintendo players also got spinoffs Persona 5 Strikers back in 2020 and Persona 5 Tactica just this past November. Given that logic, it seemed that publisher Atlus and developer P-Studio was committed to the console, making it a bit of a surprise to fans that Persona 3 Reload was skipping it entirely.

The reasons for the snub still aren’t fully clear, but Persona 3 Reload director Takuya Yamaguchi and producer Ryota Niitsuma addressed the situation in a recent interview with Spanish language website Atomix.vg (quote via Google Translate, translation verified by IGN), suggesting that a Switch port may be in the cards somewhere down the line:

“Since we began conceptualizing everything that would come in Persona 3 Reload, we decided that there would be no version for the Nintendo Switch. Of course the idea is there, but it’s a matter of discussing it with the team and seeing what they think about it and we’ll see what happens.”

That’s not exactly an affirmative promise, but at least Yamaguchi and Niitsuma know the demand for a Switch version is there. It’s also always possible that Atlus and P-Studio have a Nintendo console version of the port in mind not for Switch, but for its heavily-rumored successor that many believe is coming this year. We’ll just have to wait and hope.

Persona 3 Reload is headed to basically every other major platform (PlayStation, Xbox, and PC) on February 2. We recently published our final preview of the game, asserting that it’s far more than a basic remake: “Persona 3 Reload isn’t a remake with a few alterations here and there; it’s a sincerely thought-through updated game that can seemingly stand on its own two legs in the competitive Persona lineup.”

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Tekken 8 releases January 26 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. The latest in a long line of fighting games from Bandai Namco Studios, this eighth mainline installment includes new game modes, a new mechanic called the “Heat System” that rewards aggressive play, and more. It comes in a variety of editions, each of which gets you a handful of extras beyond the game itself. Plus, you can take your pick of preorder bonuses depending on which retailer you choose (see it at Amazon). There’s a lot to cover, so let’s dive in.

Preorder Tekken 8 (Standard Edition)

PS5

Xbox Series X|S

PC

Tekken 8 Deluxe Edition (Digital Only)

The digital-only deluxe edition comes with the game itself, plus the following digital extras:

• Playable Character Year 1 Pass (4 additional characters)
• Avatar Skin: Kinjin
• Character Costume: Gold Suit Pack

Tekken 8 Ultimate Edition (Digital Only)

The digital-only ultimate edition comes with the game itself, plus the following digital extras:

• Playable Character Year 1 Pass (4 additional characters)
• Avatar Skin: Kinjin
• Character Costume: Gold Suit Pack
• Avatar Costume: Classic Tekken Tee Set
• 3 Avatar Skins: Kazuya, Jun, Jin

Tekken 8 Collector’s Edition

The collector’s edition is a Bandai Namco Store exclusive. It costs $299.99 and comes with the following extras:

Physical Items

• Exclusive Electrified Jin Figurine (25 CM)
• Special Face-Off Steelbook
• 8 Glossy Collectible Cards
• Leroy Smith Metal Ring with Velvet Pouch
• Arcade Token (5 CM)

Digital Items

• Playable Character Year 1 Pass (4 additional characters)
• Avatar Skin: Kinjin
• Character Costume: Gold Suit Pack
• Avatar Costume: Classic Tekken Tee Set
• 3 Avatar Skins: Kazuya, Jun, Jin

Tekken 8 Preorder Bonuses

If you’re looking for freebies, you have your pick with Tekken 8. Everyone who preorders will get a free Paul Phoenix avatar costume set. Preorder the PS5 edition, and you’ll also get two free avatar skins: Mokujin and Tetsujin.

Additionally, several retailers are offering their own bonuses along with preorders.

• Amazon – Jin’s Jacket controller skin (PS5 only)
• Best Buy – metal plate
• GameStop – magnetic fight glove keyring

Hori PS5 Fighting Stick Alpha – Tekken 8 Edition

Out January 26

Hori PS5 Fighting Stick Alpha – Tekken 8 Edition

See on Amazon

In addition to the game, a new Hori fighting stick with Tekken 8 branding is also launching on January 26.

Tekken 8 Demo Is Live

Want to try it before you buy it? You can download a free Tekken 8 demo on every platform the game will be available on. There’s no reason not to give it a shot, but you can also check out our Tekken 8 hands-on preview for more details about what to expect.

Other Preorder Guides

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Threads.

RoboCop: Rogue City just received a major update that adds New Game Plus as well as a new, harder difficulty.

Teyon’s launched last year and was well-received by fans of the iconic sci-fi movie. IGN’s RoboCop: Rogue City review returned a 7/10. We said: “RoboCop: Rogue City is the video game equivalent of a B movie in the best way, with the look and over-the-top action to capture the essence of the series.”

Now, a new update gives players a reason to jump back in. New Game Plus lets you start over with all of your previously unlocked skills and Auto-9 upgrades, for the full “invincible robotic law enforcement officer” experience, Teyon said in a post on the game’s Steam page.

To unlock the mode, finish the game after the update is applied. This can be done by reloading a save made just before completing the game, Teyon said. Once done, a new save file will be created, and loading it will grant you access to NG+. You’ll also unlock a new Golden Auto-9 skin as soon as you beat the game.

Elsewhere, RoboCop: Rogue City now has a new difficulty level that makes enemies deadlier. “If you’re up for a challenge, time to try the There Will be Trouble difficulty!” Teyon said.

Here are the RoboCop: Rogue City update’s patch notes:

• Added a New Game Plus mode
• Added a new difficulty: “There Will be Trouble”
• Added a new unlockable Golden Auto-9 skin, available once NG+ is available
• Added more Auto-9 Chips and Boards
• Fixed the shooting mode not properly resetting when exiting interiors
• Fixed RoboCop’s right hand disappearing when grabbing a human enemy while unaliving them
• Fixed the Stolen Vehicle investigation being skipped if Ben immediately opened the locker

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.

After announcing the series nearly two years ago, Apple has finally provided the first trailer for Constellation, an upcoming sci-fi thriller series hitting its streaming service Apple TV+ next month.

The first trailer is full of suspense and hallucinations, perfectly aligning with Apple’s previous explanation that the series will be a “conspiracy-based space adventure.” Constellation’s plot focuses on an astronaut named Jo, played by actress Noomi Rapace, who returns to Earth following a space mission only to realize that she is missing key parts of her life.

Other cast members confirmed in the series include Jonathan Banks, James D’Arcy, Julian Looman, William Catlett, and Barbara Sukowa. Constellation was created and written by Peter Harness, best known for his work on Doctor Who, Wallander, and the 2019 miniseries The War of the Worlds.

Constellation’s first three episodes premiere on February 21 exclusively on Apple TV+. The remaining episodes will be released every Wednesday, with the season finale set for March 27.

Constellation is Apple’s latest original piece of content to dabble into the realm of sci-fi following shows such as Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, For All Mankind, and Severance.

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

With all the pop-culture crossovers Magic: The Gathering has been getting lately, the board game Clue certainly isn’t one I was expecting to see. More than that, it’s not one I initially expected to be quite so much fun. Ravnica: Clue Edition is a standalone box that mixes the pick-up-and-play simplicity of something like Magic’s introductory Jumpstart packs with the murderous deduction mechanics of Clue, and we’ve got details on how it works, what’s inside the box, and an exclusive look at all the new cards hiding in its packs. I even got to go hands-on and play a round with a few folk from developer Wizards of the Coast, and the result of this unexpected tie-in is a strange but surprisingly compelling mix of a multiplayer Magic match and a family board game night.

You can flip through the two image galleries below to see all of the unique cards available exclusively in this set, as well as a bunch of photos of what’s inside Ravnica: Clue Edition’s box

Before we get too deep, you’re probably wondering how the heck you play. The answer is to that is actually deceptively straightforward – Ravnica: Clue Edition is meant to played with four players, with each player opening two of the eight included booster packs and shuffling them together to make their 40-card deck. Similar to Jumpstart, there are 10 different themed packs (with a little variation) that you could potentially open, each designed around one of the two-color guilds in Magic’s most iconic city, Ravnica. Players start at 30 life, but largely you are just playing Magic as usual.

The twist, of course, is in the parts of Clue that have been weaved into this box. In addition to the themed boosters, Ravnica: Clue Edition comes with a pack of 21 predetermined suspect, weapon, and room cards – and just like in Clue, one set of those is secretly put in an envelope at the start of the match, while the others are divided randomly amongst all the players. (These are playable Magic cards you could play in other decks as well, but for the purposes of this game they are essentially just used as reminder game pieces.) From there, you can win either by killing all three of your opponents like in Magic or correctly guessing the cards in the envelope like in Clue.

Mashing two games together like this can run the risk of feeling disjointed, but when I played Ravnica: Clue Edition myself I was impressed by how the deduction system has been used to incentivize a certain kind of behavior in the Magic game – specifically, that behavior is to play lots of creatures and make them fight. That’s because, also like Clue, you are able to ask other players if they have certain suspects, weapons, or rooms in their pile, but here making those guesses is restricted by Magic mechanics: you get the opportunity to do so only when you either deal combat damage to another player, or exile six mana value worth of cards from your graveyard at the end of your turn.

That means you’re basically playing a full game of Clue without the board, and in order to make any headway in your deductions you actively need to be attacking your opponents and casting spells instead of walking between rooms. Turtling up and not attacking may protect your life total, but stalling defensively like this isn’t really in your best interest in the long run since your opponents will still be taking swings at other people, asking questions and getting more intel while you hide in your fort. It’s an interesting way to mitigate the problem some creature-heavy multiplayer games of Magic can have, where players sometimes build up such menacing armies that no one wants to make the first move.

Everything Inside the Ravnica: Clue Edition Box

This playstyle is actively supported by the cards that have been put in each of the booster packs, too, which have plenty of ways to help you be aggressive with your creatures. The match I played felt very scrappy, with lots of interaction and combat decisions to make, both in terms of determining when you have a good attack and who you even want to hit for the most useful intel. You only get one shot when you decide to make your final guess and look inside the envelope for a potential win, but while guessing wrong here means you’re locked out of that alternate victory condition, it doesn’t stop you from still trying to come out on top by doing some murders yourself.

With all of the themed packs being based on Ravnica’s guilds, your forty-card deck is basically always going to be split between either three or four colors, but having the right colors of mana was a surprising non-issue in my match. The packs have plenty of ways to account for that built in, including dual-colored lands and other mana fixing cards, but one really clever rule is that revealing a Clue card as part of someone else’s guess also rewards you with a Treasure token. It’s extremely elegant – if you get stuck on mana and can’t cast stuff, you’re likely going to fall behind on board and get hit, which means more people will guess your cards, which means you’re more likely to get Treasures, which then fixes your colors and catches you up.

And while Ravnica: Clue Edition is designed to be packed back up in its box and stored like a little standalone board game, you could always use your own custom decks alongside these rules if you prefer. Now, obviously I don’t think the intent would be to roll in with some super efficient combo deck that kills the table all at once without ever caring about the Clue cards, but it does seem nicely suited for a more casual group of “battlecruiser” style decks looking to shake things up as they turn creatures sideways.

Of course, it’ll take more than just one game to determine how this unexpected combo holds up over time, let alone with decks not designed around it. But what I came in expecting to be a strange, one-off novelty is actually a pretty entertaining and thoughtfully designed package I’d like to try out again. If anything, my biggest takeaway is that while I may be an okay Magic player, I am downright terrible at Clue.

Tom Marks is IGN’s Executive Reviews Editor. He loves card games, puzzles, platformers, puzzle-platformers, and lots more.

Amid the explosive launch of Palworld, its developers have taken to social media to say they have received death threats.

Last week, IGN reported on how Palworld, aka ‘Pokémon with guns’, had sparked a vociferous debate online about whether it had “ripped-off” Nintendo’s famous franchise.

Some Pokémon fans say Palworld’s Pals are too similar to Pokémon, with a number of social media posts that place Pals next to Pokémon going viral.

Palworld developer Pocketpair has insisted Palworld is more akin to survival crafting games such as Ark Survival Evolved and Valheim than Pokemon, but that hasn’t stopped people from continuing to hit out at the game.

Pocketpair community manager Bucky, who has been active on Twitter / X and Palworld’s Discord, posted to say they had received death threats since the game went live in early access form on January 19.

“Frantically working through all my DMs and emails! I promise!” Bucky said. “However, you’ll excuse me if I skip over the death threats, threats to the company and massively outlandish claims.

“If you’re capable of writing like an actual human being though, I’ll reply asap!”

Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe also tweeted to say they had received death threats, and hit out at “slanderous comments”.

“Currently, we are receiving slanderous comments against our artists, and we are seeing tweets that appear to be death threats,” Mizobe said.

“I have received a variety of opinions regarding Palworld, but all productions related to Palworld are supervised by multiple people, including myself, and I am responsible for the production.

“I would appreciate it if you would refrain from slandering the artists involved in Palworld.”

In a new interview published by Automaton, Mizobe addressed the question of potential legal issues surrounding Palworld’s release and its likeness to Pokémon. According to the site, Mizobe said Palworld cleared legal reviews, and insisted there has been no action taken against it by other companies.

Mizobe said: “We make our games very seriously, and we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies.”

Last year, a new survey from the Game Developers Conference revealed a majority of game developers see harassment from players as a major problem for the industry. Of the 2,300 developers surveyed, 91% said player harassment and toxicity towards developers was an issue. 42% said it’s a “very serious” issue.

While Palworld is a clear smash hit, it is not without controversy. The Xbox version continues to lag behind the Steam version in terms of key features and updates, and Palworld’s enormous launch has seen its servers struggle, too.

Check out IGN’s Palworld Early Access Review in Progress to find out what we thought.

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.

Palworld’s astonishing success swelled over the weekend, with the ‘Pokémon with guns’ survival and crafting game shooting up Steam’s most-played games list and selling millions more copies.

Palworld launched on January 19 in early access form on Steam as well as on Xbox and Windows PC, day-and-date with Game Pass. Palworld overtook CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077 to set Steam’s fifth highest peak concurrent player count with 1,291,967 online at the same time on Valve’s platform. Palworld is currently the most-played game on Steam, ahead of behemoths Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG. It is just the sixth game ever to hit one million concurrents on Steam.

There are a number of Steam records that go along with this success on Steam. Palworld is now the most-played Japanese-developed game ever on Steam (its developer, PocketPair, is based in Tokyo), ahead of previous record holder, Elden Ring. And Palworld is the second most-played paid game ever on Steam, behind PUBG’s perhaps insurmountable peak concurrent figure of 3,257,248, which was set before the battle royale went free-to-play.

Meanwhile, Pocketpair said Palworld had sold over five million in about three days, with 86,000 copies selling per hour. For context, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man sold 3.3 million copies in its first three days on sale, Sony Santa Monica Studio’s God of War sold 3.1 million in three days, and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us 2 sold 4 million in the same time period. Palworld, then, has sold faster than the fastest-selling first-party PS4 exclusive ever in a three-day sales window. All this despite its availability day-one on Game Pass.

While Palworld is a clear smash hit, it is not without controversy. Last week IGN reported on how some Pokémon fans were taking to social media to point out striking similarities between Palworld’s Pals and the Pokémon themselves. Elsewhere, the Xbox version continues to lag behind the Steam version in terms of key features and updates. Palworld’s enormous launch has seen its servers struggle, too.

Check out IGN’s Palworld Early Access Review in Progress to find out what we thought.

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.