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IGN Video Games

The Witcher 3's PS5 and Xbox Series X Upgrade May Feature Fan-Made Mods

Posted: 08 May 2021 09:32 AM PDT

The Witcher 3's PS5 and Xbox Series X/S next-gen upgrade may be implementing fan-made mods like The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project when it launches later this year. As reported by Kotaku, The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project's creator Halk Hogan announced that he has been in talks with CD Projekt Red about including his mod in the upcoming release. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/02/the-future-of-cyberpunk-2077-the-witcher-on-ps5-xbox-series-x-next-gen-console-watch"] "Hello my dear friends! It's been a long time since the last video," Hogan wrote. "I know I announced a new HDRP preview in early March but I was silent the whole time. Sorry for that. But in return, I have some good news, and the reasons why I was quiet and why I don't have too much to show. "I think the most important news is that I got an official message from CDPR about cooperation. While it's not certain yet, it's very likely that HDRP will be included in the official next generation update. I will inform you what's next. As always, I would like to thank you for all your support and kind words. The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project, which you can download now on NexusMods, has over 4.1 million downloads and "aims to improve the graphics by reworking models and textures to better quality." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2016/01/08/the-witcher-3-is-igns-game-of-the-year-2015"] Kotaku reached out to CDPR about this matter, and it responded by saying, "In addition to our own development efforts on the upcoming next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC, we are also in talks with the creators of various mods for the 2015 release of the game." CDPR confirmed there are currently no "binding agreements with any such party," but the discussions are happening. This would be another example of a AAA developer using the community to improve their games, much like Rockstar Games did when they implemented a fan-made solution to reduce GTA Online's loading screen time by 70%. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/31/the-best-games-of-the-ps4xbox-one-generation"] The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions are currently scheduled to be released in the second half of 2021. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The Untold Drama and History Behind Final Fantasy 5's Fan Translation

Posted: 08 May 2021 08:00 AM PDT

Most notable RPGs from Japan and other countries in modern gaming get official translations for other territories at or soon after launch, but that wasn't always the case. There's a long lineage of RPGs whose well-known English translations stem from fans, not developers. From the proto-Persona Shin Megami Tensei: if… to the beloved tactical RPG Bahamut Lagoon, many of the most obscure, yet beloved, foreign-language RPGs of the '80s and '90s have been painstakingly translated into English by hard-working amateurs. The proliferation of this phenomena can be traced back to a handful of teenagers whose disagreements and messy ambition ultimately paved the way for one of the most notable fan-works of the 1990's: a working English hack of Final Fantasy V. Of the members of RPGe, the group credited with producing the hack, none of them better reflect the heady days of early fan translation than Derrick "Shadow" Sobodash, a lonely high-school student who didn't let his lack of technical expertise or Japanese knowledge stop him from tackling such a demanding project. His relationship with other members of RPGe, like Myria and SoM2Freak, would lead to disagreements, drama, split partnerships, and more, but their collective work would produce renowned fan translations that are still frequently played to this day. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/03/final-fantasy-biggest-rpg-series-of-all-time-infographic-content"] And on that note, it's essential to understand that the final version of the famous '90s FFV English hack you can download on fan websites today is almost entirely the work of three people, known as "Myria," "Harmony7," and "SoM2Freak." However, prior to their involvement - which is well-explored in a 2017 Kotaku article on the topic - Sobodash and several other individuals in the nascent fan translation community were publicly working on a translation for FFV, and their project racked up thousands of views on the primitive internet. Sobodash and his compatriots may not have contributed to the hack itself to the same extent, but their promotion of the concept of English "fanslations" helped to inspire others to pursue their own projects. There was some tears shed and friendships broken along the way, but the impact that RPGe had on the world of fan translations can't be overstated.

'90s Script Kiddies

Sobodash was part of the first generation of kids who truly grew up online in the mid-to-late '90s. A self-described "script kiddie" who would use other people's code to access unauthorized computer systems for fun, Sobodash started using bulletin board systems (BBSes) in his early teenage years. Prior to his interest in hacking Super Nintendo games, Sobodash's dalliances with tools and malware he found online would occasionally land him in hot water. At one point, he accidentally emailed a copy of the controversial book The Anarchist Cookbook to every email address in his high school from the administrator's account after obtaining access with a "keylogger," a tool that records keystrokes made by a user. Though this stunt earned him a lifetime ban from his school library, Sobodash quickly found a new obsession: untranslated Super Nintendo games. Having already beaten most of the SNES library by sharing rented games with friends, Sobodash became fixated on the possibility of playing these lost games, immersing himself in the vibrant online Square fan community in the process. But his interest and passion developed into a directive after he stumbled upon an incomplete fan translation of the Japan-only Final Fantasy II by SoM2Freak and another user, "Demi." Even though the buggy FFII fanslation simply ran out of English text only an hour or two into the JRPG, it forever changed the then-14-year-old Sobodash. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-final-fantasy-game-review&captions=true"] Sobodash clung to the realization that hackers could translate these old games by manipulating their files. That might seem obvious now, but back in 1996, the idea of ROM-hacking was very much in its infancy. Though the Dutch group Oasis pioneered the concept of fan-translation back in the early '90s with hacks of MSX games like Hideo Kojima's Snatcher and cult JRPG The Legend of Heroes, the concept had yet to be popularized online. SoM2Freak and Demi never completed their Final Fantasy II translation, but it inspired Sobodash and other would-be hackers to reach out to the duo for tools and advice on how to start their own hacks. Sobodash didn't know much about SNES programming and had self-described "pretty terrible" understanding of the Japanese language, but he was determined to translate Final Fantasy V himself. SoM2Freak and Demi's abandoned translation of Final Fantasy II actually had begun life as an attempt to translate FFV, but the duo soon decided that that goal was too ambitious for a first project. (In fact, that project grew out of yet another FFV translation effort announced by a group called Kowasu Ku, which never produced any meaningful progress.) However, that didn't stop Sobodash from following in their footsteps. At the time, Final Fantasy VI (initially Final Fantasy III in English) was the latest and greatest game in the series, which meant that FFV was the next-best thing, and the next object of his ever-growing obsession. From his research, Sobodash also knew that an English translation had been released online in 1996 by a fan named Mark Rosa, which would make the process much easier, given his lack of Japanese skills. SoM2Freak eventually sent Sobodash some of the rudimentary fan-developed tools they used to translate FFII - a sprite editor and a text editor - but Sobodash quickly concluded that they were too clunky to use and decided to find his own. (One of them crashed every time he alt-tabbed out of it.) After obtaining a superior sprite editor from another fanslator's Dragon Quest I & II hack and a different hex editor, Sobodash sat down and put himself to work. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/09/10/final-fantasy-v-official-pc-release-trailer"] Armed with his 380-page paper translation of Final Fantasy V, his hex editor, and printed-out copies of the game's Japanese font, Sobodash began creating physical flashcards to teach himself which hex code corresponded to each Japanese and English character. While this might seem like a waste of time, the hex editor that Sobodash used was so primitive that it didn't have a table that would break up and sort the hex code for you. Instead, Sobodash was simply looking at unbroken lines of raw hex for hours at a time, which meant that memorization was important. Needless to say, it was tedious work. He would even carry a gigantic three-ring binder filled to the brim with hexadecimal tables and the English script to his high school, spending hours during class and lunch breaks transposing the hex code into romanji - Japanese characters rendered in English text. His translation project claimed casualties, too: the sheer amount of paper involved eventually led to the messy demise of his cheap family printer. While Sobodash admits that this low-tech approach was far from optimal, his teenage enthusiasm carried him through. He knew that the online Square fan community was hungry to play these games in English, and any translation project would draw a lot of attention. Though he had yet to produce much in the way of a usable hack, Sobodash promoted his project by manipulating images from FFV with Photoshop. He removed the Japanese text and replaced it with phrases from the English translation to give the illusion of miraculous progress to others. And like that, some poorly Photoshopped images led to word of Sobodash's project travelling fast around the Square fan community. Over the next few months, several fans reached out to the teenage translator to offer help. One of them was a college student who went by "Hooie." He and Sobodash quickly became friends, talking over the early IM service ICQ several times a week. Unlike many of the other would-be collaborators, Hooie brought substantial technical knowledge as a computer engineering major. He also wasn't shy about occasionally asking his Japanese instructors at his university to help him translate enemy or item names. With his help, the duo were able to use hex editing software to actually replace some of the game's Japanese text with English, and they even released a few patches on the Final Fantasy Mailing List. It was slow, arduous work, and the duo were not plugged into the fledgling emulation community, resulting in many bugs in the few patches they did release. But their progress still attracted a substantial amount of attention from fellow early internet enthusiasts, including rivals in the fan translation scene.

RPGe Lives

In mid-1997, a notable figure in the world of emulation known as "Zophar" accused Sobodash and Hooie of stealing the work of a fellow translator, David Timko, who was also working on his own English patch for FFV. Sobodash chalked the whole ordeal up to a misunderstanding, and Timko and Sobodash eventually buried the hatchet and partnered to produce one patch together. That sense of unity eventually led the group to coin an official name for itself, RPGe, which would be the label that Myria and Harmony7's completed hack would be released under the following year. Myria first stumbled on RPGe's projects while researching her own passion project, a version of Final Fantasy IV that would restore many of the changes localizers made to the English version, particularly the dozens of items deemed too complicated for Western audiences. While Myria's interest in FFV was relatively low, the challenge of translating an unknown game intrigued her, so she decided to check out the group's in-progress patches for herself. Myria quickly concluded that the hex-editing process the RPGe hackers like Sobodash were using to modify the game files would never be able to produce a complete hack. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=top-10-final-fantasy-bosses&captions=true"] In simple terms, they were modifying the text of the game directly without modifying the code, she explained. "In FFV, as with many older Japanese games, all of the Japanese characters were the same size. In English, imagine if the letter I and the letter W were the same width. It just looks bad. The Japanese version of the game is limited to 16 characters per line. If you think about Japanese as a language, that's fine, but it's way too low for English...It just wasn't going to work." Though RPGe presented a unified front on its webpage, as Myria recalls, the group was beset by internal factionalism even at the best of times. Myria tried to explain the shortcomings of their text-only approach to Sobodash, Timko, and their collaborators, but her arguments failed to convince her fellow hackers. "I basically just told them that the approach they were taking was completely wrong, and that we needed to modify the game code to make it work," she said. "Well, they wanted to continue what they were doing, but SoM2Freak agreed with me, so we just went and started our own version of the project." Once Myria determined the rest of RPGe didn't agree with her approach, she and SoM2Freak restarted the hack fresh from there. Over the next few months, Myria used a variety of tools to disassemble FFV's machine-level code into terms she could understand, and she eventually reverse-engineered the parts of the code that displayed text. She then modified those portions of the game code to better suit the English language. Their version would, of course, go on to be the famous fan translation that is still remembered fondly today. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2013/03/29/final-fantasy-v-ios-trailer"] Meanwhile, as RPGe's digital presence continued to grow as the group announced more and more ambitious translation projects, the pressure of e-celebrity took its toll on Sobodash. By promoting himself as the public face of the fledgling group, he opened himself up to a flood of hate mail and death threats from anonymous internet denizens desperate to play these unknown titles. Sobodash believed that RPGe was performing a vital service to the Square fan community by translating these lost games, and took the hobby very seriously as a result - perhaps too seriously. The fact that Myria and SOM2Freak had essentially taken over the FFV project that he helped start did bother him, but that wasn't necessarily the sole source of his growing anguish. Sobodash saw RPGe as an extension of himself, a group in fierce competition with rival organizations to blaze bold new trails in the fan translating scene. To Sobodash and many others, it was a neverending race to see who could translate the most games in English. It was a lot of pressure, even if somewhat self-imposed, for a teenager to handle. In early 1998, when fellow hacker Demi published a lengthy parody of Sobodash that painted him as lazy and selfish, Sobodash was absolutely devastated. Though Sobodash disagreed with the characterization, Demi was an influential figure in the community, and his opinions held a lot of sway. Not only was he one of the first fan translators on the scene, he owned one of the most popular rom-hacking forums of the day. Whether true or not, Sobodash felt like all of his online friends were laughing at him, and in his own words, he finally "snapped." He typed one last message to RPGe and then left the scene entirely. "I can't tolerate the number of people who send me flames and death threats, it's more than I can bear to handle," his final message reads in part. "I'm going off now to work on my own. Maybe I'll program, maybe I'll translate for myself, like I used to when it was fun, I don't know but please wish me well in whatever I do...I'm not sure who's going to take charge here, pull RPGe back together, and manage our many members. I hope they can keep the spirit of doing this all for fun alive and well." By the time of Sobodash's exit, all four of RPGe's co-founders had exited the organization, leaving Harmony7 and another hacker named "MagitekKn" to manage it. Meanwhile, the FFV translation had trouble of its own: when native Japanese speaker Harmony7 took a look at SoM2Freak's script, he made many corrections to it. According to Myria, SoM2Freak resented the fact that Harmony and Myria made changes to the script and ended up growing upset at them both as a result. "I think he was pretty mad at me," Myria recalled. "I honestly feel bad about how we handled it, but we were kids at the time." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=infographic-content-final-fantasy&captions=true"] The official release of the FFV patch - the first completed fan translation in English - didn't come until October 1998, but by that point, Myria wasn't even involved. She was too busy pouring hundreds of hours into Final Fantasy VII, which had released the previous September. "It was all Harmony7 at the end," she says, laughing. "All I did was the programming, and I was done by that point." By late 1998, Sobodash had completely exited the online Square fan scene and immersed himself at a job he got at a local pizza joint. He figured out pretty quickly that playing video games with his new friends was preferable to getting yelled at by strangers online. Still, though he dabbled with translations in his spare time as the years passed, he never quite felt the same passion for it than he did back in 1996. "In 1997, translating games was uncharted territory," he said. "There were few tools and few documents. None of us knew what we were doing: it was educated guesses, trial and error, and tinkering. I was learning and doing something few other people were able to do, and we were all able to teach each other....In most fields, you have to study and struggle for years to be an expert. However, if you invent a new field, then no matter how limited your knowledge is, you are an expert by default. I think that is what I was most after. I wanted more than anything else to be good at something no one else was." Today, it's difficult to draw firm conclusions about the legacy of RPGe. Much of the group's online presence has been lost to ever-churning fans of digital progress - the Wayback Machine captured only a handful of ancient pages that mention the group. Sobodash himself says that he doesn't even have any of the group's work on his own computer. What's clear is that Myria's machine-level reverse-engineering pioneered the approach that an entire generation of fan translators would use on notable English hacks, and it's still very much part of the basic procedure that hackers use today. Still, while early hacking groups like RPGe might have fallen apart due to changing tastes and personal differences, they promoted a concept that inspired many JRPG fans to recognize the importance of non-localized games like Mother 3, Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3), and Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Sobodash might have never lived up to his lofty teenage ambitions, but he and his fellow early hackers made a mark on history just the same. "Most people have stories of high school sports or funny anecdotes about school life and friends," he said. "In place of that, I have hundreds of hours of hammering away at [a] screen full of hexadecimal. I cannot say if that should fill me with pride or sadness." [poilib element="accentDivider"]

Resident Evil Village: All Goats of Warding Locations

Posted: 08 May 2021 12:09 AM PDT

Resident Evil Village: Don't Miss The Secrets of Castle Dimitrescu

Posted: 07 May 2021 07:03 PM PDT

New Pokemon Snap - How to Unlock All Illumina Orbs

Posted: 07 May 2021 06:15 PM PDT

How Epic's 'Project Liberty' Weaponized Fortnite Fans Against Apple

Posted: 07 May 2021 03:01 PM PDT

On August 14 last year, just 24 hours after Fortnite was removed from the App Store over Epic's bypass of Apple's internal payment system, Epic launched Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite. The video, a parody of an old Apple ad from the titular year, positioned Epic as a hero fighting back against the Orwellian Big Brother Apple, destroying the "App Store Monopoly" with a sledgehammer. All of this was accompanied by the hashtag "#FreeFortnite" as a call to action to its playerbase: Fortnite, the beloved video game players love, was in danger. And Epic had arrived to stop the bad guys who wanted to take it away.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/13/fortnite-1984-apple-parody-video-short"]

The very put-together and professional-looking Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite did not come together as some kind of knee-jerk response to Apple doing something completely unexpected. The video was clearly a planned, calculated move from Epic, prepared months in advance in case Apple made the decision to show Fortnite the door. In fact, the entirety of #FreeFortnite and its associated video propaganda, in-game character skins, and competitions to win hats was a movement to turn public sentiment against Apple and force the multi-trillion-dollar corporation to do what the multi-billion-dollar corporation wanted it to do. With the game removed from mobile storefronts and smartphone players unable to play any longer, Epic wanted to make sure the audience knew who to blame. Epic, the sledgehammer-wielding hero, was here to beat up the mean ol' monopoly.

In the gaming industry especially, which thrives off hype cycles, it's often easy for audiences to ignore the motivators behind the pushes for player support. Companies will frequently make statements about wanting to listen to the fans, expressing gratitude for their players' passion and enthusiasm and encouraging them to rally around the company. At its best, these calls for support are as harmless as asking for patience and understanding in the wake of a game delay — fine and good. At very worst, calls for support can advertently or not end up weaponizing fanbases in some pretty scary ways.

The PR play Epic made last year was obvious enough at the time to anyone who scrutinizes media. But as the Epic v. Apple trial kicked off this week, Epic's specific strategy was laid bare. Among the many documents submitted as evidence were multiple fascinating slide presentations entitled "Project Liberty Update," one dated May 13 of last year, another dated July 1, and a third from July 27. These multi-slide documents detailed Epic's strategy for what would happen once it pulled the trigger on direct payments in Fortnite on mobile, with Epic itself telling the board of directors on July 27 that "significant planning has gone into Project Liberty, Epic's war against mobile platform fees." It even plotted out the timing, expecting that dropping Project Liberty just before the Marvel Season would "add pressure" to both Apple and Google.

[caption id="attachment_2510800" align="aligncenter" width="720"]A slide from Epic's July 1, 2020 Project Liberty Update presentation. A slide from Epic's July 1, 2020 Project Liberty Update presentation.[/caption]

Though other documents revealed through the case acknowledge the possibility of Apple and Google's acceptance or willingness to negotiate with Epic, the Project Liberty Update "assumes Apple/Google do not accept proposal," and dives straight into their legal, business, partnership, and PR plans for what would happen when Fortnite was removed from both mobile storefronts. This includes all the ways in which Epic plotted to work its audience, partners, and the media to get a favorable response from the public, and who it would in turn use to put pressure on Apple to either lower platform fees, let apps use their own payment platforms, or permit third-party app stores within the App Store.

In the May 13 slideshow, Epic outlines its expectations for the launch of the campaign, expecting that sentiment would largely be on its side and that both players and press were likely to "highlight 20% savings" for using Epic's payment system. But Epic also knew that negative sentiment would grow if the game was blocked. It goes over its talking points: Epic fights for players and developers in a "battle" against store monopolies, resulting in "greater savings and greater rewards." It suggests responses to "anti-Epic messaging" as well, putting forward talking points like emphasizing savings, potential free incentives, avoidance of the "nuclear" option of accepting refund requests, and trying to refocus the narrative on Apple and Google "deny[ing]" players savings.

A later slide begins outlining the goal of getting "players, media, and industry on "Epic's side,'' suggesting a focus on the "savings benefits" for players using Epic's payment system over the platform's. There's also a line in there about giving media Epic talking points so "they can have an informed opinion in discussions," and another about providing interviews with "key friendly media outlets in tech, business."

In the July 1st doc, there's talk of using the press to "apply pressure and drive support" and influencing groups that might have impacts on Apple and Google. Then there's a section on paid media efforts, including a petition, which Epic determined was the "most effective way to demonstrate consumer support on an issue," with Epic projecting potentially millions of supporters participating depending on how much was spent on such an endeavor. Epic at one point plots to start a 501(c)4 organization to advocate for its policy concerns, which it ended up doing. There's a lot of language throughout all these slides of Epic waging a war, fighting a battle, and generally being like a hero that stands up for the little guy.

If you're relatively media-savvy, most of this language and battle plan isn't really shocking. Companies are constantly trying to garner goodwill from their audiences. Happy audiences spend money on whatever companies are selling, and companies — regardless of what their mission statements might be — broadly exist for the purpose of making money. Without the context of a court case, this could probably be any marketing document for any kind of media campaign.

[caption id="attachment_2510803" align="aligncenter" width="720"]A slide from Epic's May 13, 2020 Project Liberty Update presentation. A slide from Epic's May 13, 2020 Project Liberty Update presentation.[/caption]

But in Epic's case, the media campaign around #FreeFortnite was something new entirely. Video game companies get into legal battles constantly — Take-Two Interactive was involved in at least eight in 2019 alone, and another four in 2020, according to public records. But never has a gaming company gone to the lengths Epic has to sway public opinion in its favor with the goal of putting pressure on a legal opponent as it headed into a massive, potentially industry-shaking court battle.

Through Project Liberty, Epic has successfully transformed a court case that should have been interesting only to business and tech journalists into a hashtag, a social event being streamed on both Twitch and YouTube, and an event worthy of live-tweeting like one would an E3 conference. Its in-game events and contests and freebies, while entertaining, were for Epic's benefit, not ours. While it's impossible to say whether or not Epic feels differently now that it's mid-testimony, Epic clearly had careful marketing plans to spark a surge of public pressure on Apple and Google to get what it wanted. How that ends up playing out in conjunction with the courts is anyone's guess.

None of this to say whether or not Epic or wrong or right about this particular battle. If Epic wins, that victory could potentially mean massive changes for not just the games industry, but to apps and tech in general. Some of those changes are probably good. Epic isn't the first to criticize Apple's walled garden verbally or legally, and Epic's lawsuit could genuinely bring about positive change for both consumers and developers. It could also have other, unintended or unknown consequences, either for how Apple or other platforms work. It's all very fuzzy, and depends heavily on how Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rules. and how a lengthy, inevitable appeal process goes.

But regardless, it's a reality that the vast majority of the millions of people playing Fortnite every month are probably not dialed in to what most of this trial means. Why would they be? Digital monopolies and App Store terms and rich CEOs duking it out in court is trivial to the vast majority of our day-to-day lives. But with Epic taking gaming marketing tactics into the courts, it's become increasingly critical for audiences to be aware of the ways in which hype marketing like this is being used to craft narratives that may result in real, industry-shaking impacts. It's unlikely that Epic is finished using player sentiment as a sledgehammer, or that other companies won't eventually follow suit — for good or ill or whatever shades of money-making gray lie in-between. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Days Gone PC Won't Support DLSS Or Ray Tracing

Posted: 07 May 2021 02:50 PM PDT

Days Gone is the latest PlayStation exclusive to head to the PC. Today, developer Bend Studio has shared some details about what settings players can expect to find on the PC version. Unfortunately, Days Gone on PC will not support DLSS or ray tracing. In an FAQ for Days Gone's PC version, Bend revealed that the upcoming PC release will not support Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology which uses deep learning to upscale lower-resolution images in real-time. It's a pretty cool bit of tech that increased frame rate substantially depending on the game. Likewise, ray-tracing won't be supported on PC either meaning the powerful light rendering techniques in new-gen systems will be absent on PC for Days Gone. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/03/25/days-gone-story-trailer"] However, Days Gone will boast a bunch of customizable options for PC. Everything from an increased level of detail, foliage draw distance, shadow quality, renders, textures, Field of View, and more will be scalable to varying degrees. Days Gone also supports 60 FPS or unlocked framerate as well as ultra-wide monitor support. PlayStation's last PC port, Horizon Zero Dawn, also lacked ray tracing and DLSS support, which was notable because Horizon ran on the Decima engine. The same engine Kojima Productions used for Death Stranding, which supported DLSS on PCs. Still, despite some framerate issues which were patched, Horizon Zero Dawn's visuals on PC were applauded and the added power will likely help Days Gone when it makes its way over to PC later this month. The Days Gone series has reportedly been put on something of a back-burner after reports came out saying a sequel was shelved. Days Gone's director has said if players want a sequel, they should purchase games at full price. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.

How Long Does Each (Numbered) Resident Evil Take to Beat?

Posted: 07 May 2021 02:43 PM PDT

Resident Evil Village is officially available, and according to early players, it takes around 10 hours to beat. How does this compare to the other original numbered entries in the Resident Evil franchise? According to the Main Story completion on howlongtobeat.com, Resident Evil Village is the fourth-longest Resident Evil game behind Resident Evil 6's 21.5 hours, Resident Evil 4's 16 hours, and Resident Evil 5's 12 hours. That makes it longer than Resident Evil 7: Biohazard's 9 hours, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis' 6.5 hours, and Resident Evil 2's 6 hours. Here's the full breakdown. Resident-Evil-Time-Infographic In our review of Resident Evil Village, we said that it "is like visiting a disturbing and deadly Disneyland, where every attraction is a house of horrors." For more, check out our best tips and tricks for getting started in Resident Evil Village and the first 15 minutes of the game if you want to see if it is too spooky for you. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/05/resident-evil-village-review"] IGN's parent company Ziff Davis owns howlongtobeat.com [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Returnal Releasing Patch Tomorrow That Won't Corrupt Your Save

Posted: 07 May 2021 01:47 PM PDT

After Returnal's previous major update resulted in players having their save files corrupted, developer Housemarque has announced that May 8's patch will solve the issue.

Housemarque made the announcement Friday on Twitter. The Returnal 1.3.6 patch will go live on May 8 at 11 AM GMT/4 AM PDT, but warned players to still disable the auto-update feature on their PlayStation 5 in the meantime.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/29/returnal-review"]

Though Returnal received generally positive reviews for its blend of bullet-hell action and roguelike progression, including from IGN, a common criticism was that Returnal's single-life runs could take upwards of two hours. That issue is compounded by the fact that you can't save your game mid-run. The only way to theoretically "save" your progress is to put your PS5 in rest mode, but any auto-update applied to Returnal would result in your current run being wiped.

Housemarque released Returnal's 1.3.3 patch on Wednesday, which contained a number of standard bug fixes, but unexpectedly resulted in players having their save files corrupted. At the time, the only way to fix the issue was to redownload Returnal. Housemarque quickly released a patch that reverted the game back to its 1.3.1 state.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/03/april-2021s-best-and-worst-reviewed-games-reviews-in-review"]

Now, Returnal's 1.3.6 patch will also address a number of bugs and issues, including stability fixes, pre-order cosmetics blocking progress, incorrect healing behavior, custom controller mapping issues, and more.

In the age of excellent roguelikes such as Hades, Returnal has spurred plenty of discussion on what makes a great roguelike adventure. IGN's own senior news editor Kat Bailey says that Returnal isn't too difficult, it's just too long for its own good. If you're wondering how to have a better run in Returnal, check out our wiki guide where we answer what to do first in Returnal, 23 things Returnal doesn't tell you, and how to unlock the secret ending. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/patch note for IGN.

Resident Evil Village is Breaking Series Records on Steam

Posted: 07 May 2021 01:38 PM PDT

Resident Evil Village is setting new records for the series on PC. According to Steam Database, it's currently sitting at 101,376 concurrent players, which is a new high-water mark for Resident Evil on Steam. It's enough to beat the Resident Evil 2, the previous record, by about 25,000 concurrent users. Resident Evil 2 topped out at 74,227 concurrent players, while Resident Evil 3 was able to attract just over 60,000 players. It's a far cry from 2017, when Resident Evil was considered to be a struggling series in some quarters, along with the rest of Capcom. It was in 2017 that Capcom released Resident Evil 7, and while it ultimately peaked at only about 20,000 users, it nevertheless set the stage for its comeback after the troubled release of Resident Evil 6. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/05/resident-evil-village-review"] Fast-forward to 2021, and Resident Evil Village is a major next-gen release that is enjoying strong reviews. We gave it an 8/10, calling it a "disturbing and deadly Disneyland" that may nevertheless disappoint due to its relative lack of psychological horror. If you're one of the 100,000 or so people who happens to be playing Resident Evil Village right now, you may find our guide on how to avoid Lady Dimitrescu of use, as well as some of our essential tips. We also delved into how parity clauses relate to games like Resident Evil Village. Resident Evil Village released on PS5, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia, and PC earlier today. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.  

Resident Evil Village and Parity Clauses, Explained

Posted: 07 May 2021 12:52 PM PDT

A few weeks ago, when a portion of Capcom's contract with Sony for Resident Evil Village circulated on social media thanks to ongoing digging into the Capcom data leak, a lot of folks got rather upset. To many who don't stare at legal documents for a living, a portion of these papers seemed to suggest Sony paid Capcom to make the game effectively worse on other consoles, holding back features so that the PS5 version would look good. Another tweet suggested that Sony paid to have the PC version of Monster Hunter World delayed.

It didn't take long for lawyers and other games industry experts to step in and reassure everyone that this was utter nonsense.

These accusations revolved around something called "parity clauses," a standard inclusion in many games industry contracts between platform holders like Sony, Xbox, Nintendo, and some of the PC game stores. Parity clauses are so boring that of the three legal experts and two publishers I asked for comment for this article, multiple were baffled I was asking at all, with one of them telling me that asking them about parity clauses was the equivalent of asking them if I had copper or PVC pipes under their sink, or asking them about the weather.

But while they are a standard part of the day-to-day for many games industry folks, understanding parity clauses does provide an interesting bit of insight into one of the ways publishers and platform holders try to protect their own businesses and ensure everyone playing their games has a good time regardless of platform.

What are parity clauses?

Broadly, parity clauses exist to ensure that the things you buy are roughly the same no matter where you buy them. Parity clauses exist in a lot of other industries beyond gaming, with Gamma Law managing partner David Hoppe offering the hotel industry as an example: a "rate parity" clause might require a hotel to match the lowest room rate they provide to other online travel agencies.

In the games space, Whitethorn Digital CEO Dr. Matthew White offers a retro example:

"In the 90s, games could appear dramatically different on two different systems and be sold for the same price with the same SKU," he said. "...I mean, you had dramatic graphic and audio differences between systems. Sometimes it'd be whole features missing and things. And so I think that's what console manufacturers today can easily look back on. No parity means that if a developer encounters some kind of framerate hitch on PlayStation for whatever reason, instead of going and seeking out help from the platform to resolve that, or working with their technical support, they just release it that way."

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Parity clauses can cover a lot of different aspects of a game. As technology and gaming attorney and counsel to Stein IP, LLC Marc Whipple put it: "First and foremost it's going to be about player experience parity. Significant features, unless they're just not available on a particular platform for technical reasons, have to be comparable across all platforms. Content has to match up (no leaving out significant quests or stories or characters or whatever.) DLC, support/backend if the developer is providing those, etc come after that. And of course if the versions are meant to release at the same time, that will be provided for as well. But mostly it's about consistent experience."

Games industry attorney Angelo Alcid also mentioned price parity clauses, suggesting that platform holders might ask that games be sold at the same price on every storefront. But he added that price parity clauses are currently receiving scrutiny from the EU and now US governments and "are considered by some to be anti-competitive," meaning they may be going out of style.

Who signs parity clauses?

Parity clauses are traditionally signed between platform holders and publishers. So the three console makers, plus PC storefront owners like Valve and Epic Games, all have parity clauses included in contracts with publishers who want to put games on their stores. They're in basically every contract in some form, though the specifics will differ.

An anonymous publisher I spoke to who was familiar with parity clauses told me the publishers with several games will frequently sign a blanket agreement with a platform holder that covers all their games over a certain period of time and applies to all of them. Meanwhile, Whipple mentioned that very small independent developers might be less likely to sign them, especially where the developer is fulfilling the same role as the publisher, or where only one game is in question rather than a portfolio of multiple titles.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=In%20the%2090s%2C%20games%20could%20appear%20dramatically%20different%20on%20two%20different%20systems%20and%20be%20sold%20for%20the%20same%20price%20with%20the%20same%20SKU."]

And Whipple had another group of people to add to those in gaming interested in parity clauses: license holders.

"If I license a property like Star Wars or Marvel Heroes or whatever, that licensor is going to have [sic] signoff on every licensed game," he said. "And they're either going to have explicit parity clauses or they're going to insist at signoff that if Platform A version is awesome but Platform B version sucks, either Platform B version doesn't launch, *neither* version launches until they're both approved, or they can just pull the license altogether."

It's also worth pointing out that parity clauses often interact with exclusivity deals in relevant ways. Alcid suggested that parity clauses can occasionally inadvertently create exclusivity "in a roundabout way."

"If a dev/publisher really wants to release on a particular platform, but maybe doesn't have the resources to develop several versions in parallel, they may end up only developing for the platform that is pushing for release parity," he said. "Conversely, such a dev/publisher may find that parity clause off-putting enough to decide to go exclusive on another platform altogether, or may have already released the game in some form elsewhere and think it isn't worth the trouble trying to open a dialogue around an otherwise-disqualifying parity clause. In this latter case, the parity clause ends up inadvertently causing exclusivity for someone else."

But while exclusivity deals are a separate thing, platform holders who want the business of certain publishers may be willing to bend their parity rules to get their hands on a really juicy game for their storefronts.

Who enforces this stuff?

One thing everyone I spoke to was clear about was that while parity clauses are important, they aren't exactly well-enforced. Alcid recalls Microsoft being criticized around the early days of its ID@Xbox program for enforcing release date parity for its independent partners, but notes that it's since softened its stance.

Some of the lack of enforcement is intentional, and most is for the better. One obvious reason why parity might not be enforced is that it's impossible. As an example, White suggested that a Nintendo Switch is never going to be able to match the performance capabilities of an Xbox Series X, and a mobile phone isn't going to match either. Furthermore, a game released on all three systems will inevitably have slightly different control schemes on each, as well as possible shifts in UI or other small tweaks to account for the inherent differences between platforms. This is normal, and those I spoke to said that the industry is largely fine with these differences.

In other ways, that lack of enforcement is less driven by necessity, and more chalked up to an "everyone is doing it" attitude. Alcid told me that feature parity is pretty important to everyone involved -- cross-saves, language options, and so forth -- but "content" can be a bit murkier.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/25/spider-man-in-marvels-avengers-ign-now"]

"The 'content' piece in particular can come into play with DLC and other add-ons as well, preventing a game from releasing platform-specific content for someone else," he said. "Like Spider-Man only being in the PS4 version of Avengers -- if Microsoft were still particularly concerned with their parity clause, they might have taken issue with that." For the record, Alcid was not referencing any specific knowledge of Microsoft's contract with Square Enix for Avengers; this was just a hypothetical example.

The anonymous publisher I spoke to noted that this is why we sometimes see timed exclusives, or different exclusive content on different systems.

"They might do something where the special DLC pack that comes out as a player incentive is exclusive, but only for the first six months," they said. "And then they eventually bring it to the Xbox. And then by doing that they have kept their commitment to have parity. Or sometimes they will claim to have given parity by giving something special to Xbox that PlayStation 5 doesn't get. But in order to keep parity with Xbox, they give Xbox consumers a special bonus thing of some sort also."

Those I spoke to also mentioned that lax enforcement is usually the reason why occasionally games do come out that are a little bit worse on one console or another at launch. In these cases, while differences can be noticeable in comparison footage or to media outlets and players looking for them, as long as the disparity isn't so stark that one set of players is clearly having a horrendous time of things, it's not worth a company taking legal action over. Usually, some post-launch patches end up clearing things up anyway. And if you're already rushing to the comment section to remind me of whatever game you just thought of that was significantly worse on one platform, know that there are always going to be outliers. This is just how most games work.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=We%20want%20to%20avoid%20the%20fast-food%20burger%20effect%2C%20where%20the%20burger%20in%20the%20ad%20is%20this%20beautiful%20thing.%20And%20then%20you%20get%20it%20and%20it's%20lumps%20of%20garbage."]

All that lax enforcement aside, though, both publishers I spoke to suggested that they themselves and the publishers they know generally will self-enforce, and for good reason. It'd be terrible PR, White told me, for a game to come out on PS4 and Xbox One and be an awful, messy experience on Xbox and a good one on PS4. Not only would Microsoft be mad and be less interested in working with the publisher in the future, but players would also be upset, and they'd risk losing a chunk of their audience.

"Sometimes this does mean that you do have to intentionally delay a game on one console to match the parity on the other console, but that's not because you're trying to take a dump on gamers on one system or something," White said. He told me that in his experience, publishers will plan marketing spend and PR around a simultaneous launch. In a scenario where a game is struggling to, say, hit a framerate bar on PlayStation 4, it's unlikely that Sony is breathing down their neck to delay both that and an Xbox One version of the game. It's far more likely that the publisher makes the call to delay them both to be sure the game stays in budget.

"In that scenario, we have [a few] main motivations that come to mind and parity clauses are not one of them. One is, we want every person who sees [our] ad to go to whatever console they own and have a similar and high-quality experience. We want to avoid what I call the fast-food burger effect, where the burger in the ad looks like this meticulous, beautiful, well-crafted thing. And then you get the burger and it's something that somebody threw into a bag, and it's just lettuce and lumps of garbage. That's what we want to avoid."

How do parity clauses impact us?

The people I spoke to had mixed responses to how parity clauses actually impact consumers. Both White and the anonymous publisher felt they were largely consumer-friendly, and that the current dynamic of publishers doing their best and platform holders avoiding rigid enforcement was, for the most part, working well enough to ensure games weren't launching with awful parity discrepancies (though they acknowledged there were always occasional exceptions.)

"Consumers have had lots of instances of dealing with a terrible port of a game to a platform," the anonymous publisher said. "And what these [clauses] are really there to prevent is for watered down, cut down versions of these games -- and it's not perfect, it's not always going to stop every version of this from happening. But the fact that publishers sign these agreements and take them semi-seriously and have to commit to delivering a comparable experience across the platforms, means that you're not going to have a game as often that runs great on one platform, but then is just missing everything and has been cut down to nothing on some other platform.

"It's very likely that if these clauses didn't exist, even more people would try to take that route, instead of doing all the hard work to actually get a difficult feature to work on Switch or Xbox, they might just cut it and then those consumers would never have that feature."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/07/resident-evil-village-launch-trailer"]

The legal minds I spoke to had a different take.

"Like exclusivity agreements, I think release parity clauses are something that platforms want but consumers generally don't (outside of people cheerleading "their" platform at the expense of others)," he said. "When strictly enforced, they end up limiting the availability of games and keeping them out of reach of people who may not be able to afford one of each new console and a viable gaming PC, and I'm sure there's no shortage of stories of (particularly smaller) devs that end up releasing on only certain platforms as a direct result of the existence of these clauses."

Hoppe pointed out that parity clauses do create some friction for smaller developers, suggesting that such clauses "force them to prioritize one platform over another," and limit their potential revenue sources.

He added that they can also create some friction for players, though he said that a good portion of this was due to perception rather than to actual problems. "Parity clauses can lock player bases out of games either for a set period of time or forever. By now, most players are used to games that are indefinitely console-exclusive, particularly in the case of games that are developed by first- or second-party developers (second-party developers are owned by first parties).

"However, games that are timed exclusives or have console-exclusive content are often perceived as 'unfair', despite the fact that there is usually a good reason for the first party and developer to have come to that arrangement, such as the first party having provided financial or promotional support. And despite such negative perception, delayed releases can work in favor of the affected player base as the developers have time to remove bugs or add new features to improve the play experience over the period of the delay."

So what about Resident Evil: Village?

To go back to Resident Evil: Village and the parity clause highlighted a few weeks ago, all this is to say that the lawyers and business folks saying that there was no cause for alarm were absolutely right. With the caveat that no one I spoke to was willing to comment on any specific parity clause for numerous legal reasons, all the Sony and Capcom agreement really says is that if Capcom releases the game anywhere else in the next seven years, the PlayStation version has to be just as good. So Capcom can't make a new version exclusively for Xbox that has a bunch of features the PlayStation version doesn't have, and it can't make any DLC exclusive to any other platform. If Capcom magically concocts a version of the same game a few years down the road that performs better and wants to put it on Xbox, it has to put it on PlayStation also. That's all that's going on here.

Parity clauses can sound alarming when taken at face value, but as with any other legal agreement, it's critical to understand the actual context and effects before making a snap judgment about what it means. In reality, parity clauses are a normal aspect of the games industry, but the systems around them are instrumental in making sure we're all playing the same games regardless of what console we own. So the next time you buy a game on PS5 and it's basically the same experience as your friends are having on Xbox Series systems, thank a parity clause.

 [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

How RGG Studio is Charting a New Future With Lost Judgment and Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Posted: 07 May 2021 12:29 PM PDT

For over a decade the Yakuza series has quietly thrived. But while it's been incredibly popular in its native Japan, it's been something of a niche series in North America. Yakuza's fanbase continued to grow, though, and in the past four years — starting with the critically-acclaimed Yakuza 0 — Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio [RGG Studio] has hit something of a breakthrough. Not only was Yakuza 0 mentioned in many Game of the Year conversations, RGG Studio released two updated remasters (Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2), all the mainline Yakuza games on PC, and a new series called Judgment set in the same shared universe as Yakuza. In 2020 saw RGG Studio take the Yakuza series in a bold new direction. Yakuza: Like a Dragon introduced a new hero in Ichiban Kasuga as well as a new turn-based RPG gameplay format. The latter will be the norm for the series going forward, series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi says. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/07/lost-judgment-release-date-trailer"] "The Yakuza series has been transformed into a turn-based RPG," Nagoshi and producer Kazuki Hosokawa tell IGN in a joint written interview. For fans of the classic action gameplay, the style that defined the original games will live on through the Judgment series. "[RGG Studio] has accumulated resources and know-how of making flashy and exhilarating action games that are effortless to enjoy. We decided that we should let our signature action gameplay live on through Lost Judgment." Announced earlier today, Lost Judgment is a sequel to 2017's Judgment, starring yet another new hero: the lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami. Lost Judgment crosses between the legal world of Japan's court systems and the Yakuza-filled criminal underworld. Combat involves switching between different martial arts styles and brawling in the streets, but Judgment also has new mechanics like climbing and some light parkour. "Lost Judgment is different from [Yakuza] in that the protagonist is a detective, so we have tried to make the investigative gameplay elements fun and unique," the two producers say in our interview. "One example is the scene where Yagami can perform athletic actions, as you mentioned." The developers did concede that these new mechanics could work in a Yakuza game as well saying "it would be interesting to see the protagonist of a Yakuza game take on a mission with an entirely different feel from Lost Judgment with this gameplay element," and that such an idea isn't "that far-fetched." Indeed, Yakuza and Judgment serve as the two pillars for RGG Studio, and the developers are always thinking of what's next. Whether that's a sequel to one of its franchises or something new. "As long as there are fans, they will still expect the next game [in a series]," RGG Studio says when asked if there are plans for different game series set in the shared world of Yakuza. "So it's a balancing act of meeting those expectations while also wanting to challenge and try new things as creators." "As creators, we also have the desire to challenge ourselves with completely different titles." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=lost-judgment-screenshots&captions=true"] Lost Judgment's worldwide release on September 24, 2021, with dual audio options for Japanese and English, is part of RGG Studio's expansion beyond its cult status. It exemplifies the growing popularity of the Yakuza series outside of Japan. For fans of different forms of localization, Lost Judgment will include Sega's "dual script" option where players can choose to pair the English voice track with a 1:1 English script that matches the dub; or match the Japanese voice track with a localized English script that's closer to the original Japanese script. What's clear is RGG Studio is no longer working on games that are only popular in Japan. And as more players discover the world of Judgment and Yakuza, RGG Studio's transformation from a purveyor of niche Japanese action games to a known global entity will only grow stronger. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.

Genesis Noir, Spiritfarer, and Paradise Killer Lead IGF Award Nominations

Posted: 07 May 2021 12:14 PM PDT

The nominees for the 23rd annual Independent Games Festival Awards have been announced, with Genesis Noir, Spiritfarer, and Umurangi Generation leading the pack.

Nominees for the Seamus McNally Grand Prize include Genesis Noir, Spiritfarer, Umurangi Generation, Paradise Killer, Teardown, and Chicory: A Colorful Tale.

Genesis Noir, a noir adventure game set just before the Big Bang, touts the most nominations of all, including Excellence in Audio, Narrative, and Visual Art. Umurangi Generation, the photography game set in a world inspired by real-life (and sci-fi) natural disasters, follows up with three nominations, including the Nuovo Award, which is focused on pushing the video game medium forward.

Blaseball, the absurdist sports game featuring a sentient peanut god, also gets some love in the Nuovo Award category and a few honorable mentions in others.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/04/umurangi-generation-release-date-trailer"]

The IGF Awards are traditionally held just minutes prior to the annual Game Developer Choice Awards. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, July 21 2021 at 4:30 PM PT. The awards will be streamed as part of a virtual event.

You can read the full list of nominees and honorable mentions below.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize

Paradise Killer (Kaizen Game Works)

Teardown (Tuxedo Labs)

Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team)

Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)

Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)

Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)

Honorable Mentions: A Monster's Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) (Draknek & Friends), Blaseball (The Game Band), Bugsnax (Young Horses), Carto (Sunhead Games), Disc Room (Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Terri Vellmann, Doseone), NUTS (Joon, Pol, Muuutsch, Char & Torfi), OMORI (OMOCAT), Spelunky 2 (Mossmouth, BlitWorks), There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (Draw Me A Pixel) [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/30/the-7-dumbest-ways-we-solved-things-in-teardown"]

Excellence in Audio

Say No! More (Studio Fizbin)

Blind Drive (Lo-Fi People)

Sunlight (Krillbite Studio)

Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)

Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)

A Monster's Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) (Draknek & Friends)

Honorable Mentions: Ikenfell (Happy Ray Games), Stilstand (Ida Hartmann & Niila Games), BPM: BULLETS PER MINUTE (Awe Interactive), Creaks (Amanita Design), In Other Waters (Jump Over the Age), Olija (Thomas Olsson / Skeleton Crew Studio, Inc.), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team), Mixolumia (davemakes)

Best Student Game

Vessels (Local Space Survey Corps, LLC)

Dorfromantik (Toukana Interactive)

Some Old Stuff (Hao Fan, Harry (Weizhong) Chen, Haku (Minyan Cai), Emi Schaufeld)

Rainy Season (Inasa Fujio)

SYMPHONIA (Guillaume Roux, Nicolas Derio, Pierre Vrel, Guillaume Gille, Alexis Grand, Simon Larguier, Martin Lepretre, Corentin Pauvrasseau, Kilian Dufour, Alexandre Mansois, Quentin Vernet, Hicham Benrhannou, Olivier Esman)

Hadr (Dominik Konečný of Ateliér Duchů)

Honorable Mentions: Quest 4 Papa (Rumba Corp), Bots Are Stupid (Leander Edler-Golla), FAITH: The Unholy Trinity, (Airdorf Games), Liquidators (1986 CL3), Pink Gum (Mad Cream Games), Running Souls (Bar Levi, Asaf Kali, Yakir Oz, Michal Shoshan), Flicker of Hope (Studio Whip), Sketchball (Pincun Liu), Bunny Hill (Brendan Roarty)

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/23/15-minutes-of-spiritfarer-gameplay-gamescom-2019"]

Excellence in Design

Teardown (Tuxedo Labs)

Disc Room (Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Terri Vellmann, Doseone)

Shady Part of Me (Douze Dixièmes)

There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (Draw Me A Pixel)

Signs of the Sojourner (Echodog Games)

A Monster's Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) (Draknek & Friends)

Honorable Mentions: Boomerang X (DANG!), Ancient Enemy (Grey Alien Games & Jim Rossignol), Biped (NExT Studios), Ynglet (Nifflas & Triple Topping), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team), Moncage (Optillusion), Airborne Kingdom (The Wandering Band), The Last Cube (Improx Games)

Excellence in Narrative

Lost Words: Beyond the Page (Sketchbook Games)

Across the Grooves (Nova-box)

Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)

Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)

Haven (The Game Bakers)

In Other Waters (Jump Over the Age)

Honorable Mentions: Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus), NUTS (Joon, Pol, Muuutsch, Char & Torfi), Blaseball (The Game Band), Inkslinger (Gateway: Jacob Hvid Amstrup and Lucas A. V. Møller), Paradise Killer (Kaizen Game Works), South of the Circle (State of Play), Stilstand (Ida Hartmann & Niila Games), Blind Drive (Lo-Fi People)

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/08/call-of-the-sea-review"]

Excellence in Visual Art

Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)

Arrog (Hermanos Magia and Leap Game Studios)

In Other Waters (Jump Over the Age)

Shady Part of Me (Douze Dixièmes)

Call of the Sea (Out of the Blue)

Carto (Sunhead Games)

Honorable Mention: Stilstand (Ida Hartmann & Niila Games), Bloodroots (Paper Cult), OMORI (OMOCAT), Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory Team), Going Under (Aggro Crab), Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/10/blaseball-seasons-1-11-official-league-sanctioned-recap"]

Nuovo Award

Blaseball (The Game Band)

Nightmare Temptation Academy (Lena NW & Costcodreamgurl)

THAT NIGHT, STEEPED BY BLOOD RIVER (Taylor Swietanski)

Airplane Mode (Bacronym)

Welcome to Elk (Triple Topping)

Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital)

Chasing Light (Vittgen Inc.)

Kristallijn (Gaël Bourhis)

Honorable Mentions: Cai Cai Balão (LookUp Games at DADIU 2020), Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den), Gnosia (Petit Depotto), Liquidators (1986 CL3), Night Dreams (Salem Hughes), Rainy Season (Inasa Fujio), Stilstand (Ida Hartmann & Niila Games), There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (Draw Me A Pixel)

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/indie lover forever for IGN.

Every Game Delay Announced in 2021 (So Far)

Posted: 07 May 2021 11:15 AM PDT

Game delays have become even more prevalent in 2021 as the pandemic has progressed, with productivity continuing to be affected by the logistical challenges and limitations of working from home. And with the pandemic still affecting how studios operate for the foreseeable future, that trend will likely continue throughout the year. To track the pandemic's continued impact on game development, we've compiled a list of every game and notable DLC delay announced this year (so far). This article will be updated as more release dates and windows are inevitably pushed, but for now, here are all 25 delays announced in 2021. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-game-delay-announced-in-2021&captions=true"]

Outriders

  • Delayed from February 2 to April 1, 2021

Developer People Can Fly announced the delay in early January, saying, "We have decided to move the release date of Outriders to April 1st 2021 (no joke!). We will spend this extra time fine tuning the game and focusing on delivering a fantastic play experience at launch."

This is Outriders' second delay; it was previously pushed from Holiday 2020 to February 2021.

Pragmata

  • Delayed from 2022 to 2023

Pragmata's delay was quietly revealed at the end of a sizzle reel shown during Sony's 2021 CES panel. Capcom's mysterious new game was initially given a 2022 release window.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey

  • Delayed from Early 2021 to Late Spring (PC) and Fall 2021 (Console)

Frontier Developments delayed its upcoming Elite Dangerous expansion due to the "ongoing impact of the pandemic." The studio said the effects of the pandemic, "including the [U.K.'s] renewed lockdowns in 2021, continues to put added pressure on our teams and ultimately our development timeline."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/16/hogwarts-legacy-official-reveal-trailer"]

Hogwarts Legacy

  • Delayed from 2021 to 2022

On January 13 Portkey Games announced it was delaying its open-world Harry Potter action-RPG by a year. "Creating the best possible experience for all of the Wizarding World and gaming fans is paramount to us so we are giving the game the time it needs," read a statement from the developer.

Cyberpunk 2077 Free DLC

  • Delayed from Early 2021 to later in 2021

CD Projekt Red initially planned to begin releasing free Cyberpunk 2077 DLC in early 2021. However, that DLC may no longer hit its target window, as the developer has prioritized "working on the most important fixes and updates," specifically for the poorly optimized PS4 and Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk.

Riders Republic

  • Delayed from February 25 to later in 2021

On January 14 Ubisoft announced it was delaying Riders Republic from its former February release date to sometime "later" in 2021. "This additional time will allow our passionate team to deliver the best fun fueled experience to our players," said the company.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-delayed-movie-due-to-coronavirus-so-far&captions=true"]

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

  • Delayed from Late 2021 to 2022

Originally set to be released later this year, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will now arrive at some point in 2022. Publisher Nacon announced the new date for the stealth-focused Middle-earth adventure in late January, though it didn't provide a reason for the delay.

Returnal

  • Delayed from March 19 to April 30, 2021

Returnal was pushed from mid-March to late April "to give the team extra time to continue to polish the game to the level of quality players expect from Housemarque." The roguelike third-person shooter will be released exclusively on PS5.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake

  • Delayed from March 18 to "a later date."

The first game delay announced in February, and the ninth overall for the year, was Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. According to Ubisoft, the extra development time will allow the team "to deliver a remake that feels fresh while remaining faithful to the original." A new release date wasn't announced.

This is the remake's second delay; it was previously pushed from January to March.

New World

  • Delayed from Spring to August 31, 2021

In mid-February, Amazon announced it was delaying its upcoming MMO, New World, from spring to August 31. The development team will use the additional months to continue its work on "compelling end-game features," in addition to "polishing and fine tuning the whole game."

This is New World's second delay; it was previously pushed from August 25, 2020, to Spring 2021.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

  • Delayed from 2021 to an unannounced later date

Paradox Interactive delayed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 out of its 2021 release window without announcing a new target date. Alongside the delay, the publisher announced Hardsuit Labs will no longer be leading development on the project. "A change" was needed, according to Paradox, "and, as a result, more development time is required."

Originally slated for Q1 2020, Bloodlines 2's troubled development has included multiple delays and departures of key talent, including the game's former creative director and senior narrative designer.

Gran Turismo 7

  • Delayed from 2021 to 2022

GT7 was delayed from 2021 to 2022 due to "Covid-related production challenges," according to Sony. "With the ongoing pandemic, it's a dynamic and changing situation and some critical aspects of game production have been slowed over the past several months," the company added.

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New Need for Speed

  • Delayed from EA's fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2023*

EA delayed the next, currently untitled Need for Speed from FY2022 to FY2023 as developer Criterion Games temporarily moves off the upcoming racer to assist DICE on the next Battlefield — a decision made to combat the effects of pandemic-related working conditions and ensure EA's flagship shooter hits its target Holiday 2021 release window.

*EA's fiscal year runs from April through the following March, meaning the next Need for Speed is now expected between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023.

Guilty Gear Strive

  • Delayed from April 9 to June 11, 2021

Guilty Gear Strive was delayed by two months after developer Arc System Works received "valuable feedback" from the recent open beta. The additional time will be used "to polish some aspects of the game, such as the online lobbies and the server's stability," according to the developer.

The fighting game was previously delayed out of 2020 due to COVID-19-related development challenges.

Borderlands 3 Director's Cut Add-on

  • Delayed from March 18 to April 8, 2021

The Borderlands 3 Director's Cut add-on was delayed by three weeks due to the "severe weather that impacted Texas last month," according to developer Gearbox. The Director's Cut content includes a new raid boss, story missions, and challenges.

Gotham Knights

  • Delayed from 2021 to 2022

WB Games delayed Gotham Knights into 2022 to give the development team "more time to deliver the best possible experience for players." Announced in 2020 at DC Fandome, the co-op Batman game was initially given a 2021 release window.

Humankind

  • Delayed from April 22 to August 17, 2021

SEGA and developer Amplitude have announced the delay of 4X strategy game Humankind to a little later in 2021 in order to give the developers time to finetune the pacing, balance, diplomacy, AI, and accessibility of the experience.

Back 4 Blood

  • Delayed from June 21 to October 12, 2021

The Left 4 Dead spiritual successor Back 4 Blood has been pushed into October to allow the devs at Turtle Rock Studios time to deliver "the best game it can possibly be at launch." There will be an open beta this summer, though.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

  • Delayed from Spring 2021 to an unannounced later date

The upcoming LEGO Star Wars game will no longer hit its targeted Spring 2021 release window, as TT Games needs more time to complete what it's calling "the biggest and best-ever LEGO game." A new release window wasn't announced; TT Games will "provide updated launch timing as soon as possible."

The Skywalker Saga was previously delayed from 2020 to Spring 2021.

Deathloop

  • Delayed from May 21 to September 14, 2021

Bethesda's stylish, time-looping assassination game was recently delayed by four months. "We're committed to quality and preserving our team's ambitions for Deathloop while ensuring the health and safety of everyone at Arkane," read a statement from developer Arkane Studios. "We'll be using this extra time to accomplish our goal: create a fun, stylish, and mind-bending player experience."

This is Deathloop's second delay; it was previously pushed from its initial Holiday 2020 release window.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids

  • Delayed from April 29 to May 13, 2021

Wrath of the Druids, the first major expansion for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, was delayed by two weeks. The additional time will allow the development team to "deliver a more refined experience," according to Ubisoft.

Resident Evil Re:Verse

  • Delayed from May 7 to Summer 2021

Resident Evil Re:Verse, the multiplayer game initially set to be released alongside Resident Evil Village on May 7, has been delayed to Summer 2021, Capcom announced in late April. Capcom didn't reveal a reason for the delay, though it's worth noting the game's beta was previously suspended due to matchmaking issues.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach

  • Delayed from Early 2021 to Late 2021

The next Five Nights at Freddy's was delayed from early 2021 to late 2021. The delay is due to developer Scott Cawthon's decision to "put more time and money into [Security Breach] to make sure it's finished properly." As a consolation, Cawthon released a free FNaF beat 'em up called Security Breach: Fury's Rage on Game Jolt.

This is the second delay for Security Breach; it was previously pushed from late 2020 to early 2021.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Switch and Xbox versions)

  • Delayed from Summer 2021 to an unannounced later date

In April developer Mediatonic delayed the Switch and Xbox versions of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout out of their original Summer 2021 release window. The developer said the delay will allow for the implementation of additional features at launch, including crossplay. A new release window was not announced.

Fall Guys was first released on PS4 and PC in August 2020.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 (PS5 version)

  • Delayed from June 4 to an unannounced later date

The PS5 version of Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 was delayed indefinitely after CI Games discovered "unforeseen technical issues" while developing for the console. Alongside the delay announcement, CI Games shared that it will now be releasing the first major DLC for free on all platforms.

The sequel will come to all other platforms — Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, and PC — as scheduled on June 4.

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Which of these are you most disappointed by? Which games of 2021 are you hoping don't get delayed next? Let us know in the comments.

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Jordan is a freelance writer for IGN.

Podcast Beyond! Episode 700 Live Show Details

Posted: 07 May 2021 10:54 AM PDT

BEYOND! IGN's weekly PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond! turns 700 next week, and we'd like to celebrate with the Beyond! listeners and viewers with a day of livestreamed festivities. So join us on Wednesday, May 12 at 10:30 am PT for a live Podcast Beyond! Episode 700. Join Jonathon Dornbush, Brian Altano, Lucy O'Brien, and Max Scoville for a rundown of the latest PlayStation news and impressions, a chance to send in questions the cast will answer live, and, probably, a Bloodborne reference.

How to Watch Podcast Beyond! Episode 700

You'll be able to watch the episode right here on IGN.com, as well as on two of our YouTube channels: IGN's main YouTube page, as well as the IGN Games page. And speaking of Bloodborne, the show doesn't stop when the episode ends. Stick around after episode 700 because at about 11:25 am PT the Beyond! crew will be filming episode 2 of their Bloodborne let's play series live! Jonathon hasn't played Bloodborne for over a year, so see how he adjusts while returning to Yharnam as Brian, Max, and Lucy guide him through, cheer him on, and bemoan his (most likely) many, many deaths. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/30/beyond-plays-bloodborne-episode-1"]

Podcast Beyond Episode 700 Air Date and Start Time

Can't watch live? Well don't worry, episode 700 will be available on VOD everywhere you can normally expect the show, both in audio and video formats, and the Bloodborne let's play will be available as a VOD following the day as well. The full schedule:
  • 10:30 am PT: Podcast Beyond! Episode 700 begins
  • 11:15 am PT: Episode ends and intermission begins
  • 11:25 am PT: Bloodborne Let's Play begins
For more Podcast Beyond!, be sure to check out our latest episode, covering the Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart State of Play and more, or find all the platforms you can watch or listen to Beyond! below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps5-games&captions=true"] Podcast Beyond! is live every Wednesday. We hope you'll join us to celebrate episode 700. From the entire cast, this show is a joy to record every week, and a highlight of what we get to do at IGN. We so appreciate all of your support for the show, whether you've been listening since episode 1 (like I was), before any of us were even on the show, or if you just started listening to our antics last week. We're at the start of a brand new generation for PlayStation, and we can't wait to celebrate the show, our love for PlayStation, and, again, Bloodborne, on Wednesday, May 10. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead.
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