An October 27 statement from employees of Don't Nod, the developer best known for making the original Life is Strange games, warn that the company is in danger of insolvency and layoffs, and accused its management of "illegal" practices that have caused staff "uncertainty and anxiety."

The damning statement comes from employees who are members of the French game industry union Le Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo, which revealed that Don’t Nod is currently under a safeguard to help protect itself from insolvency (meaning that the company wouldn’t be able to pay its debts).

The statement claims employees were approached by management and given “several financial scenarios” that could happen in the near future, both of which “included redundancies," with the worst case forecasting the “liquidation of the company through 2026.”

The message states that “nearly all of the non-managerial jobs” were cut at Don’t Nod, which reportedly included all animators, character artists, concept artists, associate producers, and most environmental artists, sound designers, level designers, programmers, QA testers, HR and developers. Half of its game designers were also laid off, according to the statement.

“Management is extremely clearly going for heavily individualized targeting and hasn’t been shy about their intent to keep selected people in rather than jobs, which is illegal,” the union wrote.

The statement goes on to claim that management is betting on outsourcing to take on the workload of these fired team members — a decision that the union feels is “out-of-touch.”

The letter then says Don't Nod employees have been “living on the edge, in uncertainty and anxiety” for the last two years, to the point where six workplace accidents occurred this year and an inquiry was recently launched into a “serious and immediate danger.” It also alleges that management “refused to let those who would be willing to leave earlier go through a voluntary leave plan,” saying they “do not care about the damage it deals to employees’ health.”

The statement ends on a striking note; a government agency that represents employees is set to make its ruling on November 3. After that, management will have 21 days to decide on a plan. If this plan is accepted by the government agency, it’s possible that employees could “get their firing letters on November 25.”

“If it were to be rejected however, management would have to go back to the drawing board and improvise because, as you might have gathered, planning for contingencies isn’t their forte,” the letter concludes.

This is the latest news to surface regarding Don’t Nod’s dire financial straits after it was warned by auditors in a financial report that it could run out of cash as early as November. Its latest game, Aphelion, was released earlier this year to middling reviews, and given this recent union tell-all, its next project could be in peril.

The 1993 first-person shooter Doom is legendary. Its place in history is both untouchable and inarguable. The details of that history, though, are currently being debated on social media. Not by fans, mind you, but instead by two of the very people that created it. Doom co-creator John Romero and Doom level- and game-designer Sandy Petersen took to X (formerly Twitter) to dispute each other's recollection of the origin of Doom's groundbreaking DeathMatch PvP multiplayer mode.

It started with Petersen posting a thread titled, "How Doom changed the world." He discussed his history in the video game industry prior to getting hired at id Software to work on Doom – specifically on a real-time strategy game released in 1990 called Command HQ, and how designer Danielle Bunten Berry "thought that since 65% of gamers had modems it would mostly be played head-to-head. It bombed. I think it had about 40,000 sales." That set up a memory he shared next about working on Doom, about which he said, "We all agreed at id that it was unlikely anyone would ever play Deathmatch, except in very small numbers. After all, zero games had a robust head-to-head experience, and my personal time with Command HQ just hammered home the point. However, everyone at id loved Deathmatch, so we kept it in the game. We figured, even if no one else played it, WE could keep doing it."

Romero responded to politely take issue with Petersen's recollection of the team's sentiment around DeathMatch prior to release. He posted, "Hi Sandy. Are you well? This is wrong. On January 1, 1993, we sent a press release saying that multiplayer would be in DOOM, a full 8 months before you joined the company. We knew deathmatch would be huge. In that press release, in January 1993, we said multiplayer would be 'the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world.' We were sure of it, and we needed no convincing. I understand you are proud of your work on DOOM, and you should be, but please also respect the accuracy of your statements, particularly around game history. My concern is that these false statements are designed to trigger replies (like this one), reposts, and outrage discussion, all with the view of increasing your followers and subscriptions, particularly since this false deathmatch story (among others) is so easily disproved. I’ve even welcomed you to reach out to me ahead of time. You seem to appreciate game history as much as I do. Could you not also make yours accurate?"

Petersen continued the discussion with Romero, responding with, "John. First, 8 months before release is before I joined the company. So I have no knowledge of what you did then. Second, AFTER I joined we had a discussion in which I talked about my experience with Command HQ and YOU YOURSELF agreed that Deathmatch wouldn’t be that big a deal. Do you not remember? Third yes we all wanted Deathmatch anyway. And I’m glad my predictions were wrong. Perhaps check your own memory before gaslighting mine. Hope you’re well."

Romero came back with, "I am well, thanks, and so is my memory. I do not believe your recollection is accurate and neither do other members of the team. We KNEW deathmatch would be huge from the beginning. We said so. Once it was in, those aspirations were confirmed." As of the publication of this story, that's the last post in their online discussion.

Regardless of who is correct about DeathMatch's pre-release history, it certainly blew up once Doom shipped in December of 1993, and every multiplayer first-person shooter released since can trace some part of its lineage back to Doom. For my part, Doom is one of my favorite games of all time, and I was fortunate to get to check off a personal and career Bucket List item by playing through the entire legendary first episode of Doom (called "Knee-Deep in the Dead") in co-op with Romero to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2013. Today, Doom of course lives on with the new-generation team currently at id Software, with the studio having shipped the amazing Revelations DLC for Doom: The Dark Ages earlier this summer.

Capcom is celebrating its highest software unit sales for the first half of a fiscal year in the company’s 47-year history, with games like Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil 2, and RE7 Biohazard leading the fray.

It’s safe to say that 2026 was a hugely successful year for Capcom, and its next fiscal year is already looking just as rosy. In the 2026 calendar year, the developer launched three Game of the Year contenders in Resident Evil Requiem, the new but ambitious Pragmata, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword, all of which were met with critical acclaim.

These recent titles aren’t responsible for making up the bulk of its profits for its current fiscal year, though. Instead, older titles like Monster Hunter World (a live-service game that released in 2018), Resident Evil 2 Remake (2019), and Resident Evil 7: BioHazard (2017) took the top three spots in its top ten best-selling titles for the first half of its 2027 fiscal year.

Given their popularity and prestige, it’s not a massive surprise that these three titles continue to do gangbusters for Capcom almost a decade after their release. For example, in July, Resident Evil 2 Remake officially dethroned Resident Evil 5 as the series’ best-selling game at 19.75 million copies sold — a number that, as of Capcom’s latest public financial report, has increased by 2.06 million to sit at 20.38 million total copies sold.

Monster Hunter World takes the cake far and away, though, sitting at 30.83 million units sold at a 1.17 million increase. RE 7 takes third place at 20.38 million units, with a 2.06 million unit increase.

The total list of Capcom’s top ten best-selling games in the first half of its 2027 fiscal year is as follows:

1. Monster Hunter World - 30.83m (+1.17m)
2. Resident Evil 2 - 20.38m (+2.06m)
3. Resident Evil 7 - 18.87m (+1.47m)
4. Resident Evil 4 Remake - 17.5m (+3.54m)
5. Resident Evil Village - 16.27m (+1.33m)
6. Resident Evil 3 - 14.93m (+1.56m)
7. Devil May Cry 5 - 14.78m (+1.83m)
8. Resident Evil Requiem - 8.51m (+1.59m)
9. Pragmata - 2.73m
10. Onimusha: Way of the Sword - 1.78m

It's worth noting that the newest Monster Hunter entry, Monster Hunter Wilds, isn't listed on here. However, the previous game in the series is still a juggernaut for Capcom, going to show just how unpopular Wilds is following oodles of player complaints in the year since it's February 2025 launch... and that's even after Capcom 'permanently' slashed the game's price.

According to Capcom's financial report, these figures mark the company's highest-ever total and catalog unit sales for an H1 period, and most of them were digital. This same report shows that a staggering 92.4% of sales were digital, with 57.1% coming from PC and 35.3% from consoles. In stark comparison, physical units make up just 7.6% of sales. (This is actually a bit of a drop from its previously reported digital sales figures back in Q1 2026, which was listed at 93.3%.)

This all comes hot off the heels of Capcom’s two newest film adaptations, with Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie becoming the most profitable in the series’ history and Street Fighter launching to number one at the box office during its opening weekend (news of a sequel, however, is still up in the air).

Pragmata also performed well for Capcom, with corporate officer Yoshikazu Shimauchi suggesting that sales were so good that the likelihood of a sequel is high. Combine that with Onimusha selling one million copies on day one, it’s clear that 2026 is Capcom’s year. Now, we just need to see how The Game Awards pan out.

With intense performances, a heady atmosphere, and sharp writing, The Wolf Among Us’ gripping neo-noir saga rivalled the prestige TV dramas of the time when it first came out in 2013, earning acclaim as one of Telltale’s greatest yet. Now, with a long-awaited sequel in the works, it’s been given a fresh coat of paint that’s gussied up locations and added a slew of behind-the-scenes content to sweeten the pot. Some holdover annoyances haven’t been addressed, like the original’s stiff and occasionally uncanny animations, which get in the way of The Wolf Among Us Remastered feeling truly definitive. Still, this story remains a fantastic one, and the enhanced set dressing even manages to deepen its sinister mood.

For those who didn’t play the original, The Wolf Among Us thoughtfully adapts Bill Willingham’s beloved graphic novel series Fables, in which folklore characters covertly coexist with humans in a New York suburb aptly called Fabletown. Set roughly 20 years earlier as a non-canon prequel, Telltale’s adaptation artfully draws on classic noir storytelling, dropping you into the shoes of Sheriff Bigby (aka the Big Bad Wolf) to solve a bizarre but gripping murder. With a decapitated head on his stoop and little more to go on than a ribbon and an etched ring, the marshal must use his keen nose and perception to find the culprit… and he has to do it fast. With humans investigating the case and the social fabric of the mythical community at stake, failure could cause their secret society to collapse entirely.

On top of that already immense pressure, there’s one more important piece of subtext to consider: after centuries of violence as a storybook baddie, Bigby’s constituents don’t necessarily trust him to get the job done and, naturally, watch his every move. As such, he’s forced to lean on familiar faces like Snow White, The Little Mermaid, and Bufkin from The Wizard of Oz to chase leads as he unravels a web of complex issues spanning class consciousness, poverty, and abuses of power. It’s a journey that proves to be thoroughly engrossing.

To peel back the seedy underbelly of Fabletown, your time as Bigby is loosely split into segments. For the most part, you’ll have intriguing conversations from a third-person perspective, choosing from a handful of responses as a clock quickly ticks down. Through this system, you can lean on witnesses who seem to be hiding something, threatening them if they continue to hold back. Or, if all else fails, you can resort to physical violence (assuming that aligns with your own moral compass). Cleverly, the language used in these interactions draws on its fairy tale source material without ever feeling corny. So, despite including terms like Witching Well and Magic Mirror, the conversations remain emotionally charged – a tribute to the writing underneath and the resonant, enduring performances of its cast.

What’s most important is that your reactions here are not one-sided. As you make certain decisions, a threatening notification pops up stating that the character you’re interacting with will remember what you did (a staple of the genre). For example, say you make a promise to deliver something and don’t come through – well, they might have a few choice words for you the next time you meet. In this way, The Wolf Among Us is not just about solving the whodunit; it is also about choosing whether Bigby will shake off his villainous origins and prove his status as Sheriff and protector.

What’s neat is that the choice is mostly up to you. If you want to, you can cruelly push the citizens to get your answers, or try as often as you might to take their side, even if that means going against the legal institution to which you are professionally bound. By exploring this curious grey area, I began to understand why the residents of Fabletown act as they do, eventually allowing me to empathise with their actions, no matter how desperate or depraved they may be.

Amidst these social calls, you’ll occasionally control Bigby directly as he picks through dingy locations – such as dive bars and ornate offices – interacting with clues to advance the investigation. Just like in conversations, there are even more ethical quandaries to consider, like whether you should interrupt a wake like an unemotional jerk or kick in a door instead of knocking like a gentleman. As the confusing haze of right and wrong settled in, I frequently struggled to maintain my good-guy persona, especially when provoked. It would be so easy to smack an obvious bad guy in the head to get the answers I needed more quickly, but then wouldn’t I be just as bad as him?

Last but not least are the interactive sequences, which require you to complete a series of quick time events to survive some of the higher octane moments throughout the tale. You’ll rip out throats, jump across city blocks, and even set broken bones, with failure occasionally leading to a game over. Thankfully, frequent checkpoints drop you right back into the action if you miss a beat. The variety and frequency of these moments do well to keep you busy as you piece together the killer's identity, particularly as many of them arrive with mesmerising (and sometimes gruesome) animations.

Mirroring the flow of the original, The Wolf Among Us Remastered takes place over five episodes that are about two hours long (all included in this single package instead of being sold individually). For the most part, the choices you make feel impactful, which keeps the momentum chugging along nicely. That is, until the penultimate episode, when the pace suddenly dips and characters start needlessly reiterating their points of view. In earlier episodes, I’d look under every stone to figure out who the villain was, and I was fairly confident I understood what was going on by episode four, so everything slowing down right when I was ready for the payoff felt slightly disjointed.

I do get why they didn’t alter this chapter more substantially; this is a remaster, not a remake, and major story alterations could ultimately do more harm than good if handled poorly. Besides, there are still enjoyable chats throughout the episode, so the dragging is only a minor blip in an otherwise brilliant story, with a finale that certainly clawed me back. But when the rest of the tale is so tight and considered, it’s still a bit annoying to spend a couple of hours rehashing information you’ve already worked hard to uncover.

That dissatisfaction is also softened by the fact that the locations you visit are so intentionally designed and brilliantly reflect the personalities of their inhabitants. While Bigby's tiny, sparsely furnished flat fits with his lone wolf status, the local watering hole’s scrappy yet warm atmosphere matches its down-on-their-luck clientele. The remaster's design glow-up further bolsters that environmental storytelling, as everything from couch upholstery to pawn shop artefacts has been redesigned with far more detail. For instance, those familiar with Aunt Greenleaf's apartment will see that it’s now even witchier than before, with hanging tassels and strewn curios. Elsewhere, the infamous Puddin ‘n’ Pie remains seedy but stylish, featuring Art Nouveau-esque pendant lights and extravagant neon piping.

With so much effort spent on the look, it’s a shame that not every detail received the same touch, and that there are still a handful of friction points on the technical side. Characters sometimes move as if on a swivel, and Bigby’s animations when finding clues tend to feel strangely rigid and occasionally robotic. In the 2013 original, these blips were passable, but in a 2026 remaster, the awkward animations and jerky movements stand out. That’s not to say they are so distracting that they undo all the impressive polishing elsewhere, just that I wish those edges had been similarly smoothed over in order to soundly mark this as the definitive version of the tale.

Harkening back to a simpler era of DVD extras, The Wolf Among Us Remastered also includes a gaggle of bonus features for fans who might want a peek behind the curtain of development. There’s a toggleable Noir game mode that lets you play out the tale in black and white, a digital gallery that compares old art stills with new ones, plus developer and cast interviews about the making-of. As someone who likes to sift through every scrap of lore, I found these additions certainly fun to pilfer through… even if the interface is a tad old-fashioned, leaning more toward sentiment than usefulness. The most compelling add by far is a handful of playable deleted scenes that, while rough around the edges, highlight interesting plot threads and deviations that are exciting to experience after the final credits roll.

Warhorse Studios — the developer behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance, its sequel, and an upcoming Lord of the Rings RPG — has been hit by a “serious” cyberattack. The company announced the news on its website.

The developer is currently working with cybersecurity experts to “secure its systems, investigate the incident, and assess its full impact.” Warhorse has also reached out to authorities to track down the culprits, who accessed company systems and data.

“This is a serious incident for Warhorse Studios and everyone affected,” said Martin Frývaldský, CEO of Warhorse Studios. “Our immediate priority is to secure our systems, establish the full extent of the breach, and take the necessary steps to protect our employees, partners, and community.

“We are dedicating the resources needed to address this situation and will communicate further information as soon as we responsibly can.”

Warhorse said it won’t comment further or conduct any interviews on the topic, so the extent of the attack isn’t clear at the moment. The studio will share updates as it can.

Warhorse Studios is currently working on a Lord of the Rings role-playing game, described as an “open world Middle-earth RPG,” and a new Kingdom Come game expected to be Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3 or a spinoff.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 launched last year to critical and commercial acclaim. IGN's Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review returned a 9/10. We said: "Armed with excellent melee combat and an exceptional story, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is one part sequel and one part coronation, bringing a lot of the original's ideas to fruition."

While Warhorse has enjoyed significant success with Kingdom Come: Deliverance, it has come under fire recently for its use of generatve AI. Daniel Vávra, the previous director of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, stepped down from his role in February to focus on making a Kingdom Come: Deliverance movie.

This month, Japanese developer Capcom was also hit with a cyberattack which saw 196 customer accounts compromised. Retailer Playasia was also taken offline. These hacks coincide with what security experts have dubbed “Black October” in which AI agents have disrupted internet security. It isn’t clear if Capcom, Playasai, or the Warhorse hack is related to that.

Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive has responded after confirming Chucky would be removed from stores last week, explaining that horror icons will "continue to have an open invitation to join (or rejoin)."

There was a bit of confusion amongst fans when the studio behind the hit asymmetrical horror game announced Chucky as the latest icon to leave its roster. Following the removal of Pinhead last year and Michael Myers just months ago, fans were sad to see another Killer exit stores so soon.

However, it's ultimately not up to Behaviour when it comes to the date some franchises may depart. In a statement sent to IGN, Behaviour said that, while its "goal is always to keep licenses" in Dead by Daylight forever, that can't always be the case. That's why, "despite our best efforts," Chucky and others have left and could continue to leave in the future.

No one wants to see Dead by Daylight's staggering roster of Killers and Survivors shrink for any reason, especially when Behaviour has consistently delivered variety in the decade since its launch. Unfortunately, that's what will happen come November 24, 2026, when the Chucky Chapter is made unavailable to purchase.

The upside, as Behaviour made clear in last week's announcement, is that anyone who purchases the possessed killer doll and any of his accompanying cosmetics will have the freedom to use them beyond the cutoff date. It means that, while Chucky may show up in fewer lobbies over time, he'll never truly be gone.

It's something Behaviour made sure to reiterate in its statement to IGN, reassuring fans that "Dead by Daylight will always be gaming's House of Horror." This means that, even when licenses expire, the Child's Play, Halloween, and Hellraiser franchises will always have the same invitation to enter the Fog that newcomers have. You can see the studio's full statement on Chucky's exit below.

"As with all live service games, players can expect regular updates, new content, and occasional changes over time," Behaviour said. "Our goal is always to keep licenses in our game forever. When they have to go away, it's because - despite our best efforts - it wasn't possible to retain them.

"We want to reassure our community that Chucky will remain part of the Dead by Daylight experience for existing owners. Players who already own The Good Guy, his perks, or any associated cosmetics will still be able to use that content after November 24, 2026.

"Dead by Daylight will always be gaming's House of Horror, and horror icons will continue to have an open invitation to join (or rejoin) us in the Fog."

It'll be painful to see one of Dead by Daylight's more unique Killers leave the Fog, but a return is definitely not off the table. One of the more famous examples of an IP leaving and eventually coming back was Stranger Things and its playable Demogorgon, which was removed from stores in November 2021 before being added back in November 2023.

For now, there's no telling when Chucky and Child's Play may return. Meanwhile, we recently found out that Terrifier's Art the Clown would enter the fray starting next month. Friday the 13th's Jason was added in June. For more, you can check out everything Behaviour announced during its 10th Anniversary Broadcast over the summer.

It's a good time to be a Palworld obsessive. The game recently teased its next update, Palworld: Side by Side, coming this winter, and now collectibles creator The Loyal Subjects has released the game's first official toy collection, featuring everything from articulated figures to mystery eggs. It's available now on Amazon.

Decorate your desk with the frankly adorable Chillet, take everyone's favorite oversized electric menace Grizzbolt out and about, and keep the perpetually vacant-looking Relaxasaurus in your pocket to remind you not to scream at your boss.

There are four different products in the collection, starting with a range of 4-inch articulated figures featuring Foxparks, Relaxasaurus, Grizzbolt, and Lifmunk. Each comes with its own Battle FX accessory, so you can make them fight without having to worry about a raid on your base.

For those who prefer their Pals a little smaller, because it's not the size of the Pal that matters but what you do with it that counts, there's also a 3-inch collector set featuring Chillet, Grizzbolt, and Relaxasaurus (see at Amazon).

And because apparently collecting Pals in the game wasn't enough, there are two different mystery collections to hunt down. The Cheebee Micro Blind Mystery Pal Egg 12-Pack includes a dozen 1.5-inch mystery figures, while the Blind Egg Incubator Reveal 8-Pack offers eight miniature Pals to hatch and collect.

As always, the blind-box format means there's no guarantee you'll get the Pal you're after, so happy hunting to all the completionists out there. At least these ones won't require you to craft hundreds of Pal Spheres.

The collection is available to pre-order now on Amazon.

Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney spent the weekend doubling down on his severe criticism of Valve, calling Steam’s AI content disclosure a “political act.”

The controversial majority owner of Epic is all in on AI, having recently triggered a “huge pivot” of the company to retool it for “maximum AI acceleration,” Sweeney said. Epic is a long-standing rival of Gabe Newell’s Valve, with the Epic Games Store struggling to make a dent in Steam’s dominance over the PC gaming market even as it offers developers more financially beneficial terms.

Sweeney is particularly upset with Steam’s AI content disclosure policy, which requires developers to disclose the use of AI in “creating content that ships with your game, and is consumed by players.” This includes content such as artwork, sound, narrative, and localization. It does not include “efficiency gains” through the use of AI tools.

On Friday, Sweeney hit out at Valve’s policy, saying “forcing developers to write a political statement to be used against them by the hate mob they’re helping organize is abhorrent.” This statement sparked a backlash online, with a number of people — developers included — confused by the suggestion that an AI disclosure was political in any way, and insisting that Valve was only providing clarity its customers wanted.

“Customers have a right to know what they’re buying,” David Goldfarb, founder of Metal Hellsinger developer The Outsiders and former Battlefield developer, replied. “They still bought Arc Raiders, they will definitely buy games they want to buy, AI use or no. Does it disadvantage small teams who need to leverage AI to survive? Jury’s out. Calling it a hate mob is far-fetched.”

Undeterred, Sweeney issued a number of social media posts defending his position, saying AI disclosures are “just as partisan as mandatory political essays or forcing developers to list their voting history to drive cancel campaigns and public struggle sessions.”

When one person challenged Sweeney on this, accusing him of being "anti-consumer" for forcing something consumers don't like on them, the Fortnite boss compared Steam's AI disclosures to Valve forcing developers to list their political affiliations.

"Say there is a large contingent of gamers that don’t like democrats or, equivalently, republicans. Should Valve force developers to list their political affiliation? Is that pro-consumer? Do you think that policy would have a positive effect on gaming?" he said. As you can imagine, this statement was ridiculed in the replies, with one person saying "equating AI to how a person votes is pure cope gymnastics."

Again, undeterred, Sweeney claimed that Valve is hitting developer revenue by “undermining their business with these AI hate campaigns,” insisting on “a real economic cost to Valve’s foray into forced political disclosures.”

He continued: “a substantial number of users would love to have mandatory political opinion disclosures for developers, with several saying they take it upon themselves to surface this info in reviews since it’s not disclosed on product pages.

“The primary use of both categories of disclosures is to drive cancel campaigns against games and deprive them of revenue and livelihood unless they get onboard with the movement’s political goals. Yes, blocking free choice to adopt productive technology is a political act.”

Earlier this month, Epic revealed a newly refreshed version of the Epic Games Launcher, its Steam-like platform that provides access to the Epic Games Store, your games library, social features, and a developer’s hub. And, in keeping with the company’s push for AI-assisted development, this new version of the launcher was created using generative artificial intelligence. “Programming is hard,” wrote Epic in a new blog post. “So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look.”

Epic then launched an Unreal Engine vibe coding contest with an image of a six-fingered hand, presumably as a joke about poor quality AI images.

Vibe your way to 50K.

The 2026 Epic AI MegaJam begins Nov 12: https://t.co/aAXEqj7zmE https://t.co/h3Kgs9Y5zH

— Unreal Engine (@UnrealEngine) October 22, 2026

Through it all, Valve has done what it does best: remain quiet. The long-running joke that Gabe Newell simply sits back and waits for his competitors to make mistakes seems particularly relevant here, as Tim Sweeney continues to tweet his outrage over Valve and Steam. Meanwhile, earlier this month Steam broke its all-time record for concurrent users yet again, with 43.5 million people logged in at the same time.

Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bandai Namco has revealed a 10th anniversary update for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 as fans await the fighting game series' third installment.

The publisher detailed the contents set to drop in the coming days on its website. Split between two major releases – one October 27, the other October 30 – all the new goodies will be available for anyone who has picked up Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, or Xbox Series X/S since it first launched October 25, 2016.

The first free update is said to bring login bonus rewards, special costumes, and an update for the Future Saga Chapter 4 DLC's Gallery of Time when it launches Tuesday. A true birthday celebration, called "Final Festival of Universes," will follow with hard-to-find items, as well as unlocks for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 rewards, come Friday.

"During the Final Festival of Universes, you will be able to raise your camaraderie level with characters who have accompanied you on your journey, choosing between Trunks, The Supreme Kai of Time, or Fu," according to an official description. "Doing so will unlock special illustrations. In addition, hard-to-obtain items will be coming back, and you will be able to earn 25 times more Star Coins than usual, making it easier than ever to exchange them for rewards."

Today marks 10 years since Bandai Namco launched its Dragon Ball action RPG follow-up. The Final Festival of Universes seems to be the publisher's sendoff for the sequel, which makes sense considering there's another game right around the corner.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 was re-revealed for PC and consoles in April of this year and promised to drop players into West City in Age 1000. In an official description shared at the time, Bandai Namco said, "The game combines an epic story-driven RPG experience that will take DRAGON BALL fans on an unforgettable, action-packed journey into this new universe and its cast of characters."

Fans were hoping the 10-year wait for a third installment wouldn't be too much longer when Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 was first revealed with its broad 2027 release date. Unfortunately, following narrowed release plans shared earlier this month, it's looking like we'll have to wait another year to go hands-on. When updates will arrive before then is unclear, with producer Masayuki Hirano attributing the slight push back to a desire to "fully realize our ambitions for both the launch experience and the content we plan to operate and support afterward."

The Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 festivities should help the more impatient fans for at least a little while longer. In the meantime, you can read IGN's original 7.5/10 review for the sequel, where we called it "an ambitious, if rough-edged experience, with deceptively deep RPG and brawling elements."

The #SaveMassEffect movement has picked up even more steam after videos from both Commander Shepard actors – and even posts from the Destiny community – helped its petition reach 200,000 signatures.

It's been a whirlwind week for Mass Effect players and fans of the now-shuttered legendary RPG developer BioWare. After EA announced it would be closing the studio and canceling development for Mass Effect 5, fans took action, and the result is something to behold.

In the first weekend of the #SaveMassEffect movement and its accompanying petition, more than 200,000 verified users have offered their signature to the cause. That's thanks in part to the wild amount of social media attention it's garnered in just a few days, but two of its most prominent supporters have already been backing Mass Effect for decades.

I like this thought…

❤️💙

#MassEffect #Femshep #broshep #N7 https://t.co/wnCS1I1w0u

— Jennifer Hale (@jhaletweets) October 24, 2026

"You know what I like to think about?" actor Jennifer Hale, who famously played the female version of Commander Shepard for the first three Mass Effect games, said in a video over the weekend. "I like to think about a world where the fans come together to create a Kickstarter, and then a couple of investors join them, and then a really cool game company joins them. Then a collective is formed to bring Mass Effect back to life for the community, for the creatives – for all of us – and it's amazing. That's what I like to think about."

It's a scenario that fans have pushed for, and one Hale believes in. She had already spoken out about the sadness surrounding BioWare's closure after a leaked trailer for its canceled Mass Effect: Universe project found its way online. At the time, she felt "weirdly hopeful," and just a few days later, she donned the #SaveMassEffect hashtag in a post.

When Hale first shared her feelings about EA's decision to lay off staff and bring the game side of the franchise to a halt, she wasn't alone. Joining her during an Instagram livestream was male Shepard actor Mark Meer. He echoed her thoughts, saying that it was "very sad news" for BioWare's home location in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and the industry as a whole. He returned to social media to share a similar video, #SaveMassEffect in tow.

I like it too.

Hold the line.

#MassEffect #SaveMassEffect #N7 #MassEffectIsAlive #CommanderShepard https://t.co/vx22yejYbR

— Mark Meer (@Mark_Meer) October 24, 2026

"I just saw my friend, Jennifer Hale, post about an idea, and I think it's a pretty good one," Meer said. "Save Mass Effect. Hold the line. I should go, and you should go… sign that petition."

At the time of this story's publication, the #SaveMassEffect petition on Change.org, which aims to "prominently illustrate to EA the significance of this iconic series" and demand it continue, has crossed the 200,000-signature mark. It's thanks in part to the continued signal boosting from notable figures like Hale and Meer, who may not have even been included in new Mass Effect games, but they aren't the only ones without a stake in the franchise's future who chose to speak up.

Destiny players, who did their own fair share of organizing when Sony moved to cease development of Destiny 2 content earlier this year, have been a vocal force in the aftermath of BioWare's closure. Although it's hard to say whether organization of this magnitude might impact any decisions to give BioWare developers and their ideas a path forward, the effort is a bit heartwarming to see.

Others from different gaming communities have also done their best to lend a hand. You don't have to search too hard to find posts encouraging anyone who's ever had a brush with Shepard's fight against the Reapers to lend their signature to the cause. Another significant helping hand arrived from developer Owlcat Games, which used the official X/Twitter account for its upcoming game, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, to ask followers to consider signing the petition in a currently pinned post.

#SaveMassEffect https://t.co/6J8yg2dfCQ

— Guardians For Destiny 3 📀 (@GuardiansForD3) October 24, 2026

The Expanse show was saved by fans in the past. So the #SaveMassEffect movement has our full support.

Please consider signing the petition (link in the quoted post).

— The Expanse: Osiris Reborn (@TheExpanseRPG) October 25, 2026

Don’t forget, Guardians. We share a bond with Mass Effect. Do your part.

#SaveMassEffect https://t.co/EKq0hjssTx

— Jessie Yun (@JessieYun4music) October 24, 2026

Last month, Destiny players were shocked to hear that Bungie was revisiting its plans for the franchise after its community spoke up. In general, revivals at this level are unlikely, and there's no telling if Mass Effect fans will be quite as lucky, but for now, fans don't seem to show any sign of stopping. While we wait to see what is, hopefully, next for the legendary sci-fi RPG series, you can learn more about Mass Effect: Universe thanks to some recently leaked gameplay details. You can also read about the fans hoping to organize a boycott against EA. And for a trip down memory lane, our own Xbox guru Ryan McCaffrey shared his memories of the original Mass Effect and its powerful story in celebration of Xbox's imminent 25th anniversary.

A new weekend has arrived, and today, you can save big on Persona 3 Reload, Pikmin 4, The Adventures of Elliot, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Star Wars Zero Company, and more. Check out our top picks for Saturday, October 24, below.

Persona 3 Reload (Switch 2) for $24.99

Dead by Daylight fans are beside themselves after Behaviour Interactive announced that all Chucky content would no longer be available to purchase starting next month.

The developer behind the popular asymmetrical horror game confirmed plans to pull the Chucky Chapter from sale in posts shared across social media. The message followed rumors that the possessed killer doll would soon be removed from the game, with the official statement promising that those who have purchased related content will be able to use it even after it is removed from shelves starting November 24, 2026.

"We welcomed The Good Guy out of his box and into The Fog nearly three years ago, but it's now time for the Chucky Chapter to leave the shelf," Behaviour said. "On November 24, 2026, the Chapter and its associated content will be removed from in-game and first-party stores. Any content unlocked before that date will remain available to use in-game."

As detailed in an FAQ post shared by the developers, these changes to the Chucky Chapter mean a few things for Dead by Daylight players. Its Killer, known in-game as The Good Guy, will no longer be available to purchase, though bug fixes will still be supported. The collection of outfits and cosmetics he's gained since being added in 2023 will also be made unavailable, and no future add-ons for the character will be added.

In other words, if you're a Chucky fan who's been waiting to pull the trigger, you might want to start thinking about it. To help ease players into the idea of losing one of Dead by Daylight's most unique Killers, Behaviour is holding a sale for all items related to the Chucky Chapter starting Monday, October 26. The "Last Chance" sale runs until his November 24 removal date and slashes prices by 50% across all platforms.

Dead by Daylight and its collection of Killers has often been referred to as 'horror Super Smash Bros.' by fans, but Behaviour has plenty of experience when it comes to pulling Killers. Hellraiser's Pinhead was pulled from digital storefronts in 2025 after first joining in 2021. Halloween's Michael Myers, the first major playable Killer to join Dead by Daylight after its launch in 2016, was removed this past January.

@DeadbyDaylight I THOUGHT WE HAD A NICE LICENSE AGREEMENT!!!!! https://t.co/bOMgT44DQt

— Freaky Nikki For DBD (@Ghostface_4_MK1) October 23, 2026

Although Behaviour refrained from sharing more details about why exactly the Child's Play rep is being removed, fans usually assume licensing issues are to blame. Hellraiser and Halloween both received new game announcements in Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival and Halloween: The Game that just happened to arrive around the time their respective properties were pulled from Dead by Daylight. Friday the 13th's infamous licensing kerfuffle is also allegedly what kept Jason Voorhees out of The Fog for years before he finally joined a few months back. Stranger Things is another example, with its first chapter's Demogorgon content removed before returning in 2023.

Like Chucky, players who purchased pulled content can still use it freely even after it's removed from stores, but that doesn't mean other players can't feel the impact. Content being removed from purchase not only means that players won't be able to buy it in the future; it means that content will likely show up less frequently during matches.

That affects just about everyone who likes having their Survivor matches shaken up by new Killer abilities to keep them on their toes, as a player doesn't need to have purchased a chapter to play against its respective Killer. Considering Michael Myers left Dead by Daylight earlier this year and Pinhead was removed not much longer before that, players are feeling Chucky's pull from sale more than many of the previous Killer removals.

"Hold a license challenge: impossible," one fan said.

"How do you keep losing licenses bro?" another fan speculated. "I thought you had a good relationship. Chucky had many skins WTF :("

goodbye chuckster. i will always love you https://t.co/h6sUaDGrwI

— Demo🌸 (@RatLivers) October 23, 2026

Again, Behaviour has not explicitly stated why new players will not be able to purchase Chucky after that November cutoff date. IGN has reached out to the Dead by Daylight team for comment.

"This makes me so sad," one player on Reddit said. "Chucky is such a huge license and we've lost Michael and Pinhead already within the last two years. Not blaming BHVR for it, I get it's business. It just sucks."

"It's strange though. You'd assume they'd change their contractual agreements after losing Demogorgon the first time to prevent this from happening with recent Killers," another replied. "Michael/Pinhead are a bit understandable since those were older licenses, but I'd assume Chucky would've had a proactive contractual agreement to prevent this from happening?"

Although losing three Killers in the span of a year and a half might sting, Behaviour has continued to add new notable characters and franchises into the mix. After Tokyo Ghoul's Ken Kaneki and Five Nights at Freddy's Springtrap were added last year, the studio brought Stranger Things villain Vecna into The Fog. Jason joined in the summer of this year, and Terrifier's Art the Clown will be added next month. Although the majority of the game's licensed Killers have remained available for years and are still available to this day, how long they will remain available for purchase is unclear.

BioWare was shut down by EA earlier this week. While the studio had struggled through a long stretch without putting out a genuine classic, it’s no lie to say it was behind some of the best RPGs of all time. At its peak, with games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare was a pioneer of not only building worlds, but filling those worlds with characters I (and so many others) actually cared about.

But BioWare went so much further than just writing some witty dialog and calling it a day. I always think back to the Mass Effect 2’s climactic suicide mission, where, unless you’ve completed all of your companions’ loyalty quests and built up those relationships, there was a real chance they would just die, never to return in the trilogy’s final chapter. BioWare built personal, heartbreaking consequences into its stories.

The games BioWare made in its heyday were incredibly influential, but I don’t think there are any games from other developers that tried to build on those successes that truly hit the same level. Even BioWare struggled to capture that same magic in its latter games. But while I don’t think there is anything out there close to the ultimate quality of the Mass Effect trilogy or the first three Dragon Age games, the spirit of BioWare’s best work does live on in the work of the games they inspired.

Just in the last few years, there have been plenty of games that draw straight from BioWare’s well, and there are quite a few projects in the works, including two that look like they could just be new BioWare games. So if you’re hunting for more BioWare in the wake of this terrible news, here are six games to keep in mind.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Now, obviously BioWare made the first two Baldur’s Gate games, so of course they had a massive influence on the third one. But each time I go back to Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3, the influence from Mass Effect and Dragon Age becomes more obvious. The way it introduces your companions and encourages you to build close relationships, for example, is extremely BioWare.

That’s not to mention the complicated web of different romance options in the game. I ended up wooing Lae’Zel, and spent hours building her into a reliable tank to carry me through the late game. And then I made a really bad decision involving a mind flayer, and she just straight up left my party for good. I had to figure out how to adjust my party (and my broken heart) from there.

Earlier in that playthrough, I ended up accidentally killing a potential companion, just because of some choices I made when trying to help some fellow paladins in Act One. It wasn’t until my next playthrough that I even realized they were someone I could recruit, and when I did realize it, I felt awful. In many ways, this chain of action and consequence mirrors what I love so much about Mass Effect 2’s suicide mission, but in Baldur’s Gate 3, it spans the entire game.

Even outside your little web of companions, the choices you make are core to what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 tick. From the outset, the game throws seriously consequential decisions your way that can come back to bite you in the ass depending on what you choose to do with them. Early on, there’s a commune of druids that are having a spat with some visiting Tieflings, and the way you handle that doesn’t just affect the scenario, but begins a domino effect that extends through the whole campaign. There are some pretty dark ways that situation can play out, too, and that’s just one of the dozens of encounters you have to deal with that shapes your character and playthrough.

The Outer Worlds

Most of the time, The Outer Worlds feels like Fallout: New Vegas in space. That’s a pretty natural conclusion, considering it’s developed by New Vegas studio Obsidian Entertainment. But just like Baldur’s Gate 3, The Outer Worlds frequently feels exactly like a BioWare game, thanks to the way it handles its six companions. No matter how many wild situations the game puts you through, the thing that always sticks with me when I go back to The Outer Worlds is how fleshed out the companions are.

All of them have their own distinct needs, leading to side quest chains that will ultimately decide their fate. And, similar to both Mass Effect and Dragon Age’s decision-tallying finales, there’s an entire tree of different endings that change depending on the choices you make. A lot of the questlines that dictate those endings cross over each other too, creating this tangled web of possibilities that can potentially make every playthrough just a little bit different.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered

CD Projekt Red and BioWare go way back, with the original Witcher game being built on the same engine as Neverwinter Nights. So, it’s not surprising that The Witcher games have carried the spirit of BioWare’s approach to storytelling for years. And that feels a little weird to say, because when I think of BioWare, I think of RPGs with a protagonist that you create yourself, and companions that surround you for the entire course of the game – two things The Witcher doesn’t have. In all of the Witcher games you play as Geralt of Rivia and, occasionally, other characters from the books, and the allies you gather aren’t party companions in the BioWare sense of the word.

I go back and forth with myself all the time over which of these games I love the most, but The Witcher 3 is probably the best example of CDPR taking BioWare’s legacy and running with it. You spend most of your time in The Witcher 3 on your own, trying to find Geralt’s adoptive daughter, Ciri. But even though you are by yourself most of the time, there’s a huge focus on doing side missions for supporting characters to build up allegiances ahead of when – spoilers – the villainous Wild Hunt attacks your fortress home of Kaer Morhen. Right off the bat, that leaves a lot of potential for an ending reminiscent of Mass Effect 2’s iconic final mission, but unfortunately not a lot happens if you fail to recruit friends to help defend the Witcher fortress.

Still, The Witcher 3 is a game I’ve played through four or five times, and even though I know there’s not much of a gameplay purpose to recruiting everyone, I still try to get all my friends into that castle in the mountains, even if it just means unlocking dialog that makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Exodus

It’s no secret that for the last decade or so, even before EA shuttered BioWare, things were rough for the studio. A lot of talented people jumped ship, especially in the run-up to Anthem. One of the studios that formed from these talented ex-BioWare folks is Archetype Entertainment, and its first game, Exodus, is due out on April 7 next year.

We’ve actually got the chance to play a bit of Exodus early, and from what I’ve seen and read from my colleagues, it looks as much like a new Mass Effect game as yesterday’s leaked trailer. It’s a squad-based sci-fi RPG, and one of your squadmates is an octopus in a giant mech. That sounds ridiculous, and it is, but just look at the wild and wonderful companions we got in Mass Effect. In the trailer we got at Gamescom, there were scenes that made it look like we’re going to meet their family. So, it at least seems like there’s going to be some suitably wild companion quests in the game.

Crucially, though, Exodus has Drew Karpyshyn as its Narrative Director, and that is more exciting for me than any amount of marketing. This is the guy who wrote the original Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic, two of BioWare’s all-time best games. Karpyshyn leaving BioWare was, as far as I’m concerned, the biggest red flag that Anthem wasn’t going to turn out well, and while I’m not happy that my gut feeling was right there, at least we can see what he’s been working on for the last five years in just a few months.

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn

Just like Exodus, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is another spiritual successor to Mass Effect, although its scope is maybe a little less fantastic. It’s based on, well, The Expanse, the popular hard sci-fi novels and their TV show adaptation, so it already has a deep well of lore to draw from, and there’s a ton of potential there. Probably. I’m going to be honest, I haven’t read any of the books or watched the show, so I don’t really know much about the world of Osiris Reborn.

But I am familiar with Owlcat Games, which has been making some of the biggest cult-favorite RPGs of the last few years. Most recently, it made Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, an excellent, deep CRPG set in Games Workshop’s 40K universe. But while Owlcat knows how to make a rich RPG, Osiris Reborn is the studio’s first foray into making an Action RPG with realtime third-person shooter combat, and its wearing Mass Effect’s influence on its sleeve for all to see.

It does look like Osiris Reborn is going to be a bit more narrow in scope compared to Exodus, with less aliens and time dilation shenanigans, and more of a focus on politics and your own personal struggle. But from everything I’ve seen of the game, it still feels like a Mass Effect game, from the way you choose dialog options to the squad-based combat.

I’m not sure when The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is actually going to arrive. Right now, it just has a vague ‘Q2 2027’ release date on Steam, so hopefully I’m able to get my hands on it before summer. But, even if it does get delayed, maybe it’ll give me a chance to actually watch the show and read some of the novels to brush up on the lore.

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic was revealed nearly a year ago at The Game Awards 2025, and at this point we still don’t know much about it. The teaser looks awesome, and shows a jedi on some desolate planet looking angry as she walks into some mysterious room. Not a lot to go on there. So it would usually be a bit too early to really say that this game will carry on the spirit of BioWare, but it just so happens that it’s helmed by Casey Hudson, who directed the original Mass Effect trilogy and Knights of the Old Republic.

In the press release shared by the newly-founded Arcanaut Studios when it announced the game, it says its “crafting an adventure about choice, destiny, and the timeless struggle between light and dark.” And even without seeing any of the gameplay or how conversations with NPCs will look, it sounds like it’s a true successor to Knights of the Old Republic. It’s important to remember that in a lot of ways, Mass Effect was also a spiritual successor to KOTOR, and I expect a lot of the DNA from that game is going to carry over into this new Star Wars RPG.

The catch, though, is that while Osiris Reborn has some shaky ‘Q2 2027’ release date looming over it, I have no idea when Fate of the Old Republic is going to see the light of day. Hudson did come out and respond to people that were memeing about the game not coming out until 2030, where he said it’d be coming out a bit sooner than that. But with a game of this scope, I’d be surprised if we saw it before 2028.

Regardless, the prospect of a big Star Wars RPG directed by Casey Hudson with everything he learned from Mass Effect is exciting. It’s still early, but even though I’ve seen very little, this is probably the one I’m most excited about, it just sucks that it’s the one we have to wait the longest for.

Humble Bundle is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a new Sci-Fi Exposure bundle that features Bungie's Marathon, RoboCop: Rogue City, Ghostrunner, and 5 more games. For as low as $25, you can add all 8 of them (which you can see below) to your Steam library, which sure beats paying the usual total cost for all of them together at $375, if you ask me. It's only available for another 20 days, though, so the countdown has begun to add this stack of sci-fi games to your PC library.

Humble Bundle 15th Anniversary Sci-Fi Exposure Bundle

I’m taking a look back at each of the core Grand Theft Auto games and replaying them in the lead-up to the arrival of Grand Theft Auto 6. What we’ll be putting together won’t be traditional re-reviews, and they won’t come with any new IGN score, but they will re-examine what made each GTA remarkable upon the time of its release. By the end of the project, using GTA’s previously six-star wanted level, you should be able to get an idea of where each of these games roughly rank in my long-term love for this series.

Our last stop in this series is Grand Theft Auto V: a game so nice, they released it thrice.

13 years. Three console generations. 230 million copies. Over $10 billion in revenue. The numbers that tell the story of Grand Theft Auto V’s longevity and success are wildly impressive and virtually unprecedented. The only other games even in the conversation are Minecraft or, depending on your criteria, about 200 different versions of Tetris. The numbers, however, don’t tell us why GTA V still sells more copies every few months than most games will ever total. They don’t tell us why people can’t get enough of it, and they don’t tell us why it’s special. So how did we get here? I guess it was the weather.

While GTA IV’s Liberty City sandbox was a dense, modestly-sized, and entirely urban environment, GTA V’s vision of the city of Los Santos was considerably more sprawling and varied. Yes, it retained a grid-like downtown district packed with tall buildings and a few particularly sizable skyscrapers, but Los Santos otherwise has a wholly different identity to that of Liberty City – and the map encompasses an area way beyond Los Santos itself.

The aesthetic shift is stark. Weather depending, the beating San Andreas sunshine gives vehicles a dazzling gleam, casts crisp shadows, and saturates the whole place with a sharp, sun-bleached vibe. It’s not the stylised orange tint that illustrated the oppressive heat of 1992 Los Santos in GTA: San Andreas, but it’s bright, effective, and a striking visual departure from the cold, drab, and gritty appearance of Liberty City.

It’s also such a different place to explore. The town is splintered into dozens of distinct districts that seamlessly blend from one to the next – from the affluent mansions of Vinewood Hills and Richman to the spectacle of Vinewood itself, glowing under a thin layer of grime and entertainment industry sleaze, and from the sun-kissed sand and beach bum backalleys of ageing Vespucci to the graffiti-tagged and struggling suburbs of South Los Santos.

Outside Los Santos, the countryside opens up to include desert, forest, mountains, and a handful of other small towns dotted around the map. It’s essentially a greatly expanded vision of the southern segment of GTA: San Andreas’ map – the section that features Los Santos, Mount Chiliad, and its immediate surroundings. It’s actually more than twice the size of GTA: San Andreas in its entirety, even if it doesn’t always feel that way, considering you can’t travel beyond the fringe of the county to find a fully-fledged San Fierro or Las Venturas. However, that’s more of a statement about how utterly special GTA: San Andreas’ map really is, rather than an indictment of GTA V in any real way.

That is, GTA V’s map remains a stunning achievement. It’s a world that – even after 13 years – I’m still spotting signs, storefronts, and subtleties that I don’t think I’ve overtly noticed before. Like all the best developers, Rockstar understands that true immersion emerges through accumulation: a single graffiti-tagged wall, bill-covered pole, or interesting piece of architecture might not be hugely remarkable on its own, but combined they become something else altogether. Funnily enough, a world full of thousands of such details can make an entire city so realistic you essentially stop noticing it. It’s almost counterintuitive; things don’t stand out, because they look so authentic, lived-in, and normal.

Streiht Up Menace

The smartest way Rockstar exploits this densely detailed map is through GTA V’s defining innovation: its trio of protagonists. You swap between Michael De Santa, a retired criminal becoming increasingly agitated at his otherwise comfortable suburban life; Franklin Clinton, an aspiring, small-time hustler looking for a real payday to get him out of his rundown neighbourhood; and Trevor Philips, a wildly volatile Canadian psychopath who was formerly partners with Michael.

The system is much more than a novelty. Switching between them allows Rockstar to prod us into different parts of the world to explore, without relying on a single character to experience everything. For a map this large, it makes a lot of sense.

For clarity, following the release of its single-player expansions The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, GTA IV also ultimately featured three protagonists – and three different lenses through which we could view and interact with Liberty City. Similarly, it was a really smart way of squeezing more value out of the map, and drilling down on parts of it Niko Bellic’s story never really took him to. But while you could certainly regard this as a first draft of a multi-protagonist approach, you can’t switch between them in real time in GTA IV; you have to pause and load into the expansions separately.

In GTA V, the transition between characters is far, far more rapid, and occurs after just a brief zoom out and back in again, dropping you into Michael, Franklin, or Trevor’s life in the middle of whatever they happen to be doing at the time – which may well be dropping a man off a bridge. The transitions give the illusion that these guys continue to exist beyond the missions in which they appear.

Do It (’Til You’re Satisfied)

GTA V’s missions are typically far more varied and layered than those in GTA IV. After experimenting with it in The Ballad of Gay Tony, GTA V introduced mission checkpoints and finally shed what had arguably become the most frustrating characteristic of the series – the need to completely start from scratch after failing a mission.

This is what allows GTA V’s missions to be longer and regularly more wild than ever. With checkpoints as a safety net, Rockstar could really push the boat out with what it asked us to attempt – free from the sometimes debilitating concern that messing up at the last minute will result in a long drive and a lot of backtracking over things we’ve already done.

Of course, the highlight here is the focus on multilayed heists, taking the fan-favourite Three Leaf Clover bank robbery mission from GTA IV and blowing that concept out to make it the central pillar of GTA V’s campaign. There are multiple big scores that can be tackled in overtly different ways, something made easy to experiment with thanks to the ability to easily replay missions from a list of those you’ve previously completed. With the exception of The Ballad of Gay Tony, in past GTA games, the only way to play the missions again was to start over from the beginning.

The heists are where the three-character structure becomes most effective. We’re not just passengers on these huge marquee missions; rather, GTA V builds elaborate on ramps to these heists focused on planning and preparation which typically draw on the different skills and traits of Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. It gives the heists, and the campaign as a whole, a sense of scale and variety that would’ve been difficult to achieve through a single character.

Higher Love

Beyond the multiple protagonists and the escalation in mission variety, GTA V also made major changes to the car handling and significant refinements to the shooting. Vehicles are certainly more approachable to drive in GTA V than they are in GTA IV; they brake hard and respond sharply to steering input. The result isn’t superficial or overly light, but it does feel very grippy. It’s a handling model that I think is particularly suited to sure-footed sports cars, although I have to concede a part of me prefers the way older vehicles feel with the “slidey cars” cheat on. It’s just more drift-friendly.

In terms of vehicle variety, however, GTA V is very much a welcome shift back to the broad spectrum available in GTA: San Andreas after things were scaled back significantly in GTA IV. As a result, one minute you could be fanging an 18-wheeler down the freeway, and the next kicking tyres and lighting fires in a fighter jet. GTA V dialled things up rather than back, so go ahead: land that jumbo on the beach and escape via a jet ski. Why the hell not?

Combat was polished too, with more nimble movement and more dependable cover shooting. The highlight for me is the sound of firefights, as guns bark and bullets thunk into car panels. It’s brilliant stuff. The integration of the weapon wheel, which functions similarly to Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3, also means you can carry way more hardware – as well as multiple weapons within a single class. The weapon wheel stores all of the weapons you collect and you’ll never lose them, even if they run out of ammo or you get busted.

Party All The Time

When GTA V launched on Xbox 360 and PS3 in September 2013, both of those consoles were approaching the end of their lifespans. With the Xbox One and PS4 arriving in November that same year, you could probably make a strong case that GTA V felt like the last great statement of that generation. Many people did. However, I think there’s more to it than that.

A couple of weeks before its September 17 release, I was fortunate enough to conduct the world’s first hands-on with GTA V for IGN. Revisiting and playing it again so extensively this week has very effectively taken me back to how blown away I was in that moment. I was stunned by what I was playing, and utterly convinced GTA V was outright good enough to upstage both Microsoft and Sony’s new consoles. In fact, I wrote never mind November; the next generation will start when Rockstar says it does. In 2013, that was a comment reflective of just how ahead of its time I believed GTA V was; that it was simply streets ahead of its peers, squeezing next-generation scope and ambition out of a console that first launched in 2005. Simply put, it felt like a new benchmark for an era that hadn’t even officially arrived yet. On September 3, 2013 – two weeks before GTA V came out – maybe that’s a bold claim. But with new and improved versions of GTA V going on to loom large over the generation to follow, and then doing it all over again for the generation after that – all to the tune of 230 million copies – I don’t think it was ever an exaggeration.

Verdict

Grand Theft Auto V was a game so preposterously future-proof upon its 2013 launch on Xbox 360 and PS3 that its subsequent ports to modern machines remain the benchmark for open-world action-driving games. At the conclusion of this GTA Legacy Review project I find myself too emotionally attached to the PS2 pair of Vice City and San Andreas to push past my adoration for the style and soundtracks of those period piece classics and place anything above them but, make no mistake, there are very few games I’ve played more than GTA V. Combining an enormous and extraordinarily detailed world, three compelling protagonists, a thrilling set of varied missions and heists, and the foundation for a world of multiplayer that is simply a whole separate discussion, GTA V is the peak of the series. At least for the next few weeks, that is.

For more reflections on the incredible Grand Theft Auto series, you can read our new Legacy Reviews of Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto IV.

Cyberpunk 2077’s surprise 2.5 update added a new dual-wielding playstyle, fresh ways to customize protagonist V’s look, extra quests and plenty more, but players have discovered that developer CD Projekt Red secretly added a range of new The Witcher 3-themed cosmetics, too.

The Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners update snuck in some sweet new clothes for V to wear, as well as the professor spectacles Geralt can wear in The Witcher 3.

The Witcher 3 items added in the Cyberpunk 2077 2.5 update:

• Boar Carver — a small knife, similar to what Geralt pulls out to take a trophy from beasts.
• Sihil Sword — a cool sword with ancient writing down the shaft and spiky rivets across the edge.
• The Professor's Spectacles — a mask in The Witcher 3’s Hearts of Stone expansion that once belonged to the Professor. It can be purchased at the auction during the main quest, Open Sesame!
• Ursine Jacket — a jacket based on the Bear School gear in The Witcher 3.
• Ursine Pants — trousers based on the Bear School gear.

As mentioned by @SynthPotato on X / Twitter, you can access the items at V’s apartment once you get a text from Arianne about a gift. It’s a similar method used for other drops added to the game.

@SynthPotato They also added this knife that you missed (similar one Geralt uses to collect trophies in TW3) https://t.co/aWH0XwerMS

— vinal (@vinalxo) October 23, 2026

None of this was included in the official Cyberpunk 2077 2.5 patch notes, which mostly focused on the Edgerunners crossover and a new questline featuring Night City founder Richard Night. Those new Glamdocs look nice though — I’ve always wanted to pimp my chrome and add some color to those gorilla arms.

The Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime just got its second season. Set after the events of the game, Edgerunners 2 features a cast of fresh characters as they navigate the dystopian hell of Night City’s corporation-ruled future. Game director Hideo Kojima made a cheeky cameo in it.

CDPR has also partnered with Paramount to make a live-action movie based on the game. However, the Cyberpunk 2077 movie won’t retrace the game’s steps. Smile 2 star Kyle Gallner said he would love to play V, though the news that it won’t follow the games could mean V doesn’t even exist in the movie.

CDPR had ruled out Cyberpunk 2077 DLC, so this 2.5 update came as a welcome surprise. Some fans still want a Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, though, and are encouraged by The Witcher 3's upcoming expansion, Songs of the Past, which arrives 12 years after the base game launched. Meanwhile, Cyberpunk 2 is in development, as is The Witcher 4 and a number of other games.

Cyberpunk 2 associate game director Pawel Sasko revealed that a good chunk of the game’s staff are actually former modders who CD Projekt Red picked up to work on the highly-anticipated sequel.

Sasko made these comments during one of CDPR’s REDstreams on October 21, where the team discussed the bevy of exciting new updates coming to Cyberpunk 2077. As part of this discussion, they explained their decision to introduce cross-platform support for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S, saying this was done both to keep the game fresh and to actively support the creativity of its modders.

In fact, the good folks at CDPR have actually partnered with modders in the game’s community as part of these updates, and even credited them with helping keep the title afloat.

“The modding community is really keeping the game alive,” Sasko said. “I’m very often looking at what our modders are doing, what they’re building. It’s very exciting. There’s so much creativity. We as a studio always try to support our modding community as much as we can.”

Adding onto this discussion, Sasko revealed that CDPR has sourced quite a few of its staff working on Cyberpunk 2 from the game’s modding scene, saying that around half of its quest team — designers who create a game’s objectives and storyline segments — are former modders.

"A lot of modders, they were players who actually first played and actually got experience with customizing the game with the mods," he said. "For me, this is a foot-in-the-door technique, and a gateway into game dev," he continues. "You can see, and you can learn how things are made, how things can be built. We actually hired so many modders. I would say, at this point, half of the quest team is all former modders."

While this isn’t a completely new revelation as far as CDPR is concerned (Sasko actually revealed this information back in 2024), it certainly couldn’t come at a funnier time, given the ongoing discussion around the differing sentiments toward community patches, mods, and emulation happening between Western players and Japanese fans on social media right now.

It’s an exciting era for Cyberpunk chooms; Edgerunners 2 just released on Netflix to rave reviews, alongside a host of new additions to the actual game, which include a dual-wielding playstyle, fresh cyberware customization options, and even a mode that gives you a tour through Night City, on top of cute references to the anime spinoff.

You can read our review for Edgerunners 2 here, as well as our interviews with producer Bartozs Szytbor, who told us all about Roman’s backstory and why the show’s ending wasn’t what audiences anticipated.

Returning to Cyberpunk 2077 or playing it for the first time? We’ve got a new and improved Cyberpunk interactive map to help you find every mission, Iconic item, and collectible in the game. Plus, we’ve also got a full walkthrough for the base game, a Phantom Liberty walkthrough, and an overview of all the Cyberpunk 2077 endings so you don’t make a choice you regret. And we can’t ignore the various romance options you can smooch, which also impact how V’s story concludes.

Following the announcement that EA is closing down Mass Effect developer BioWare, staff at the studio behind the latest Skate game have also reported suffering layoffs.

The live-service skating game was briefly mentioned as an ongoing active project in the memo EA sent to staff about the dramatic cuts, but an undetermined number of Skate developers said they had been let go from the studio behind it, Full Circle.

Seasonal creative director, John Epler, wrote on LinkedIn (via VGC): “Well, as of today, my role at Full Circle has been eliminated. Coming up on my 19 year anniversary in the industry — and all of that time spent at EA — I can’t say I’m sad. A little nervous, definitely, but I’m looking forward to doing something new.”

Senior game designer Adam Martinazzi also confirmed his departure. “I, like many of the other talented people at Full Circle, was let go today,” he said. “Part of me is sad and frustrated. The other part accepts that this is a ‘just part of the industry.' And the other other part is grateful for the time I got to spend working on a cool game with lots of awesome people.”

Another senior designer, David Milne, was among those affected. “Looks like my position at Full Circle has been eliminated. Sad to have to leave. I really enjoyed working on Skate and loved the team I worked with. But it’s on to the next thing now.”

Full Circle was previously hit by a wave of layoffs back in February. “The teammates affected are talented colleagues and friends who helped build the foundation of Skate,” Full Circle said at the time. “Their creativity and dedication are deeply ingrained in what players experience today. This decision is not a reflection of their impact and we’re committed to supporting them through this transition.”

EA's memo to staff had this to say about Skate:

"For skate., we’ve had a lot of success in bringing players into the game, and we need to create an experience that keeps them engaged over the long-term. To do that, we are making changes to the studio to have a more focused, smaller team to deliver on a very clear roadmap for our community that we believe will build a healthier and more sustainable business."

According to Bloomberg, 400 jobs are going across EA, amounting to 3% of total staff. 50 of these were working on the next Mass Effect before BioWare's closure. Just two weeks ago, Full Circle published a statement addressing mods following the viral launch of a fan-made modding platform called ReSkate. This platform allows fans to play the game offline, create private servers, make their own maps, and more. Full Circle acknowledged the importance of community mods, but stood firm against those that bypass paid cosmetics or make money off of new features.

Full Circle went on to confirm that it was aware that players want “more freedom and custom features,” and revealed that it was building “official, secure access tools that enable broader, deeper community creation.”

EA went private earlier this year with Saudi Arabian involvement. "This moment recognizes the extraordinary people whose creativity, ambition and passion have made EA one of the world's leading interactive entertainment companies," CEO Andrew Wilson, who pocketed a compensation package of $38.6 million for the 2026 fiscal year, said at the time. Wilson had Battlefield 6 to thank for strong performance for the fiscal year, but a record-breaking launch didn’t stop EA from laying off staff across Battlefield Studios.

DevGAMM Awards has revealed the 70 nominated games for its third annual show, and not only do they come from 25 different countries, but more than half of the nominated titles were developed by teams of five or fewer.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal, on November 18 at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm GMT, and IGN will serve as the official streaming partner. This means you'll be able to tune into IGN.com and IGN's YouTube channel to watch the event. Alongside a night filled with honoring these games and studios, there will also be exclusive game announcements and major updates to look forward to.

There is a lot on the line as this year's show will feature $100,000 in cash prizes supported by Scorewarrior, plus more than $40,000 in sponsored category prizes from Epic Games Store, Unreal Engine, tinyBuild, Unity, and Godot.

With that all out of the way, let's get to the nominees, which were selected from a record 1,088 submissions by 987 teams across 80 countries.

DevGAMM Awards 2026 Nominees

Grand Prize

• Dead As Disco by Brain Jar Games
• Echoes of Mystralia by Borealys Games
• Mortal Shell II by Cold Symmetry
• MOUSE: P.I. For Hire by Fumi Games
• Phonopolis by Amanita Design

Excellence in Game Design

• Desktop Explorer by Recurring Dream
• Froggy Hates Snow by Crying Brick
• IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator by Nick Nieuwoudt, Dominik Latos
• Rewindead by Spellwork AB
• Timberborn by Mechanistry

Excellence in Visual Art

• Micromega by COVEN
• Midgardr by Holy Radish
• MOUSE: P.I. For Hire by Fumi Games
• Phonopolis by Amanita Design
• UNBEATABLE by D-CELL GAMES

Excellence in Narrative

• Call of the Elder Gods by Out of the Blue Games
• Desktop Explorer by Recurring Dream
• Ledgerbound by OmniMegaSuperCorp
• Pieced Together by Glowfrog Games
• Schrödinger's Call by Acrobatic Chirimenjako

Excellence in Audio

• Band Wagon by Bippinbits
• Dead As Disco by Brain Jar Games
• Phonopolis by Amanita Design
• Ratatan by Ratata Arts Inc.
• UNBEATABLE by D-CELL GAMES

Best Mobile Game

• Gambonanza by Blukulele (Paul Giovannini)
• Pirates Outlaws 2: Heritage by Fabled Game Limited
• Scritchy Scratchy by Lunch Money Games
• Servant of the Lake by Rusty Lake
• Twin Shot Deluxe by Nitrome Limited

Most Anticipated Game

• Cards & Cannons by Flamehead Games UG
• Crop by Carbonara Games
• Koshmar: The Last Reverie by Purple Ray Studio
• PinKeep by Okomotive
• Steel Soul Shaper by GENEPOP

Best Game in Early Development

• BANDIT KNIGHT by Game Float
• Bolt & Whalington by Orca Studio
• Burdenfall by Leftovers Games
• Code RAPID by Hitbreak Games LLC
• Hold Your Dragons by Igor Krutov

Best Small Team Game

• Compress(space) by B-Deshi Interactive
• Dobbel Dungeon by Gamepie
• MOLDRISE by Raffaele Picca
• Omelet You Cook by Bird Gang Games
• Worming from Home by Zach Northrop and Mason Sabharwal

Meaningful Game

• 1998: The Toll Keeper Story by GameChanger Studio
• Amnios by HES-SO (HEAD-Genève + HEdS)
• As Long As You're Here by Autoscopia
• Fishbowl by imissmyfriends.studio
• Grow Wild by SPECTRUM48

Best Game from Portugal

• ALL LIGHT IS GONE by Octupus Embrace
• Hanno: A Magical Tale by One Way Eleven
• NECROMENTAL by Digitality Games
• Shelf Heroes by Fun Punch Games
• War Doctor by Red Pine Studios

DevGAMM Choice

• Demon Bluff by UmiArt
• HOMURA HIME by Crimson Dusk
• inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories by Nagai Industries
• Monster Chef by Studio Pizza
• Wax Heads by Patattie Games

Partner-Sponsored Awards

Epic Games Store Indie Spotlight

• Dead As Disco by Brain Jar Games
• Fortune Seller by Kiwick Studios
• Hank: Drowning On Dry Land by My Next Games
• IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator by Nick Nieuwoudt, Dominik Latos
• Luna Abyss by Kwalee Labs

Best Unreal Engine Game

• Call of the Elder Gods by Out of the Blue Games
• Dead As Disco by Brain Jar Games
• Guns of Eschaton by Eschatology Entertainment
• Mortal Shell II by Cold Symmetry
• The Occultist by DALOAR Studios

Best Indie Game by tinyBuild

• Code RAPID by Hitbreak Games LLC
• Hell Hold'em by Hell Hold'em
• Meat Without Master by Neon Cocoa
• Rewindead by Spellwork AB
• Tattered Banners by CookieByte Entertainment

Best Made With Unity Game

• Dimraeth by Mudtek
• Last Moon by Sköll Studio
• Painted Kingdoms by Hectiq
• Seaward by THE ROOF Interactive
• Tempus Vitae by Whiteboard Games

Best Godot Game

• Band Wagon by Bippinbits
• Burn With Me by Nozomu Games
• MOLDRISE by Raffaele Picca
• My Card Is Better Than Your Card! by Utu Studios
• Pathogenic by Aberrant Labs

For more, check out all you need to know about the DevGAMM Awards on their website.

BioWare is dead, and my feelings are a strange cocktail of anger, sadness, and Jack’s Complete Lack of Surprise. The legendary RPG studio was bought by a private investment group earlier this year, and history shows that venture capital frequently kills what it touches, extracting whatever value out of it that it can before moving onto the next victim. It’s a hell of a contrast to the beginning of BioWare, which started out as such a pure thing. Two practicing doctors, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, quit medicine to pursue their dream of making computer role-playing games. Sure, the studio was bought and sold a couple of times between then and now, and yes, BioWare’s recent results haven’t lived up to its venerable past, but my goodness, what a legacy this studio leaves behind.

Everyone knows Baldur’s Gate now on account of Larian Studios’ Game of the Year-winning, 10 out of 10 Baldur’s Gate 3 from 2023, but what younger gamers might not know is that the first two Baldur’s Gate RPGs were built by BioWare in the late ‘90s. While they weren’t the studio’s first games – that honor goes to the 1996 mech action-sim Shattered Steel – they were the two that put BioWare on the map. Each was an incredibly deep and sprawling RPG based on the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset that was good for upwards of 200 hours of gameplay. At the time, they reset the bar for what a CRPG could be. Let me put it this way: Baldur’s Gate 1 took home IGN’s Game of the Year award in 1998… over Half-Life. That’s how good Baldur’s Gate was.

After another action-game pitstop in the form of 2000’s excellent MDK2, BioWare returned to role-playing with Neverwinter Nights, another CRPG that arguably brought video games closer to the pen-and-paper, pizza-party-at-your-best-friend/DM’s-house version of D&D than any game before it. It was the runner-up for IGN’s Best Role-Playing Game of 2002, finishing behind just one game: a little project you might have heard of called The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind.

Up to this point, BioWare had primarily been known in PC circles as a prominent CRPG developer. And then Microsoft made a deal with the studio and LucasArts to develop an exclusive new Star Wars RPG for the fledgling Xbox console. You already know what the result was: the absolutely unimpeachable Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which happens to be my personal favorite role-playing game of all time. My biases aside, it is unquestionably one of the best RPGs ever made. It’s also a lock for top-3 Star Wars games of all-time, and it has a strong case for No. 1 on that list. It told an incredible story in Star Wars’s ancient past and truly let you embrace the Light Side or Dark Side of the Force. I went fully evil just because KOTOR let me do so! And not only that, it embraced those choices. At one point, I distinctly remember triple-crossing someone – double-crossing the guy that I’d already double-crossed. Its plot twist is legendary, and on the off chance that the long-in-development-hell remake ever comes out, I won’t spoil it for you here. But whether it was visiting plenty of planets (including Kashyyk!), bonding with your party members (shout-out to my favorite droid, HK-47!), or planning out my evil Force attacks by stacking up my attacks in the turn-based combat system, KOTOR was the ultimate pairing of a beloved IP and an industry-leading developer.

Another Xbox console exclusive followed, albeit from a different team within BioWare. While KOTOR director Casey Hudson was planning something even bigger for his team’s next project, another crew at BioWare delivered the sublime and historically underrated Jade Empire, which was steeped in Chinese mythology. IGN gave it a 9.9 out of 10 (on a 100-point scale!) back in 2005, and while it was nowhere near the commercial success KOTOR was, it was every bit as big a hit with critics and fans.

And then came Mass Effect. BioWare promised us a space opera – a trilogy in which our choices in each game would carry over to the next and ultimately affect the ending to the whole story. Microsoft had wisely signed it as a console exclusive, and boy oh boy did it pay off. Mass Effect was one of the core memories most people have about the Xbox 360. It was released in fall of 2007, the greatest stretch in Xbox and quite possibly gaming history – and it actually delivered on its space-opera promise. As your custom Commander Shepard, the first in the trilogy introduced us to the universe and humanity’s place within it – including Shepard’s path to becoming a galaxy-protecting Spectre. It introduced the Reapers, and so many phenomenal companion characters from Wrex to Garrus to Liara among many others. And like KOTOR, it too allowed you to be a Paragon of good or a Renegade of evil. (And yes, I once again tested the limits of how bad BioWare would allow me to be.)

The first is my personal favorite of the trilogy, but for many that honor goes to Mass Effect 2, which leveled up your relationship with Shepard’s companions and more or less built the entire campaign around them. As promised, your save file imported into the sequel, bringing with it your Shepard’s look and choices from the first game. It also evolved Mass Effect’s gameplay from light turn-based, semi-tactical combat to more of a pure third-person cover shooter while sacrificing none of its role-playing elements.

The controversial trilogy-capper is best remembered for its ending, which upset fans so much that BioWare tried to improve it in a post-launch patch. But forgotten alongside that is how great the rest of it was. It took the time to really let you – and your Shepard – say goodbye to the friends you’d made along the way (or at least, the ones you hadn’t chosen to kill or sacrifice), and its combat was improved further over Mass Effect 2, making Mass Effect 3 a truly world-class third-person shooter alongside its well-established role-playing bonafides.

Whatever your thoughts of Mass Effect 3’s ending, BioWare had done what they said they’d do: They built a three-game space opera that spanned more than 100 hours of gameplay over the course of the five years it took to get all three games out the door. We developed meaningful bonds with its characters, in part because they’d been written so well. It was a bold RPG experiment, and one that, for my money, hasn’t been replicated or even attempted since.

The Mass Effect trilogy was, in hindsight, probably BioWare’s peak by just about any measure, but the studio kept going. Another original IP, Dragon Age, saw four RPGs released over a decade and a half – with the third of those, 2014’s Dragon Age Inquisition, taking home IGN’s Game of the Year Award. Anthem was a bold but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to bring BioWare’s storytelling talents to the hot-at-the-time live-service space. The studio cleaned Mass Effect up nicely for an excellent remaster of the trilogy in 2021 after the BioWare Montreal team’s disappointing Mass Effect Andromeda in 2017. Heck, BioWare even made a full-blown RPG starring Sonic in a team-up with Sega in 2008’s Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood!

And after announcing a fifth Mass Effect game that fans hoped would redeem the series after Andromeda, that project is now canceled alongside the studio being shut down. As sad as this day is – for both fans and BioWare employees who were there at any point during its 31-year history – I am left with a fulfilling sense of gratitude to this studio for all of the memorable gaming experiences it’s given me. With respect to CD Projekt Red, Larian, and Bethesda Game Studios, there’s never been a better RPG developer over a longer period of time than BioWare. It won’t be forgotten.