Tim Sweeney, the boss of   Fortnite   maker Epic, believes the future of gaming is, well, Fortnite. Speaking at the Unreal Fest in Seattle, as reported by   PC Gamer , he said that “a lot of games are released with high budgets, and they're not selling nearly as well as expected”. According to the executive, this is because players are gravitating towards the “really big games where they can play with their friends”. While other titles fail, Fortnite is going from strength to strength, according to Sweeney. He said the Battle Royale – which has become more of a platform of late – attracted record highs of 110 million active users over the last holiday season, demonstrating a “generational change” for the industry. Sweeney believes the value of a game “grows in proportion to the number of your friends you can connect to”. Fortnite has really innovated in this area, too: it’s not just a shooter, but also a place where you can watch live concerts, drive cars, and build world...

  In the aftermath of the release of Call of Duty Black Ops 6’s live-action reveal trailer, fans have unearthed a number of secrets, Easter eggs, and hidden details — and perhaps even a pointer to the game’s first Zombies map. Activision’s marketing so far has revolved around teasing fans with cryptic nods to the Gulf War of the early ‘90s, and the trailer, below, continues the conspiracy theories with a few words of wisdom from world leaders central to the military action that took place in Iraq during the decade. Former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, as well as ex-UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Iraq leader Saddam Hussein, combine to utter words from the shadows that allude to some grand conspiracy the player will presumably unravel over the course of Black Ops 6’s campaign. To accompany the release of the trailer, Activision released a single piece of key art for Black Ops 6. On the face of it, this image, below, rekindles memories of Black Ops ...

 Palworld 's creator wants the development studio to stay small because "big-budget triple-A games are not for us." Palworld certainly performed like a big-budget blockbuster as the monster-taming survival game had over two million Steam players logged in at the same time, rivaling the very biggest hits on the platform. Pocketpair CEO and director Takuro Mizobe now claims the team won't substantially grow, despite the game's staggering success. "We are and will remain a small studio," Mizobe explains in an interview with Bloomberg. "I want to make multiple small games. Big-budget triple-A games are not for us." The studio previously developed card-battler Overdungeon, party drawing game AI: Art Imposter, and the genre-blending open-worlder Craftopia, though all were relatively inexpensive projects. alworld itself reportedly cost around one billion yen (or $6.7 million) to develop, a number that's minuscule compared to the unsustainable budg...

  Like returning to a beloved amusement park as an adult, Contra: Operation Galuga instantly reconnected me with the 2D run-and-gunners from the quarter-slinging arcade days of my youth. And just like revisiting a childhood fancy, I quickly remembered why I had so much fun with this series, while also feeling a bit underwhelmed by how little things have evolved in all that time. This reimagining of the original Contra offers a perfectly adequate modernization of a bonafide classic that makes for an enjoyable jaunt alongside your friends, but it’s also perhaps overly faithful to its predecessors, allowing for only the slightest tweaks. I don’t regret the handful of hours it took me and my buds to get through all of Operation Galuga, but it’s one of those games that’s likely to fade from my memory just as quickly. This sidescroller plays it safe with the reliable, if not particularly exciting, formula of fighting through stages filled with enemies before taking on a boss. Despite bei...

  During a   Hasbro investor's call , the American toy and game company revealed that Baldur's Gate 3 has earned it $90 million since the RPG's official release last year, thanks to a licensing deal. According to Hasbro's Q4 2023 earnings call, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast's revenue increased 7% following the release of Larian Studios' 2024 Game of the Year award-winning D&D role-playing game alongside Monopoly Go! Baldur's Gate 3 released for PC in August 2023, followed by PS5 in September and Xbox in December. “Our refreshed leadership team is bringing innovative new products to our fans," Hasbro chief executive officer Chris Cocks said during the investor's call. "At the same time, we are taking the necessary actions to transform Hasbro and deliver long-term profitable growth starting with driving significant profit growth across our segments in 2024 and building momentum in our innovation pipeline between now an...

  As Fortnite continues its apparent mission to feature all other video games within itself in some capacity (until presumably it then puts itself in itself, including all other video games within), developer Epic Games has revealed Solid Snake isn't the only Metal Gear characer joining the battle royale line-up - with Raiden also set to appear as a new premium skin. Fortnite, which is currently a month into Chapter 5 Season 1, released its first major update of the year - officially known as 28.10, number fans - earlier today. It includes new Bonus Reward styles for it Battle Pass skins, and, more notably, unlocks the ability to earn the previously announced Solid Snake Battle Pass skin and themed cosmetics by completing in-game quests. As is often the case, a range of new store-bound premium cosmetics were also squirrelled away in today's update, and all ten were swiftly unearthed and shared by dataminers - including one depicting Solid Snake's Metal Gear pal Raiden. An...

  The undeniable overlap between Pokemon and Palworld has dominated discussion around   the survival game's record-setting launch , and   with actual, straight-up Pokemon mods already   working to replace the lovable, legally distinct Pals, the game's budding modding community is drawing a line in the sand to hopefully ensure "that Nintendo's lawyers don't nuke all of us."   The Palworld Modding Community Discord, linked at the top of the newly formed and rapidly growing PalworldMods subreddit, is distancing itself from Pokemon mods for the sake of the mod scene as a whole. In a statement posted to Discord this morning, server admin Archery 100 writes: "Hey y'all, I'm sure many of you have been seeing all the content regarding the Pokemon mod for Palworld. While the memes and such are hilarious, the mod alone hosts a giant risk to the community and we'll need to take precautions so that Nintendo's lawyers don't nuke all of us with liti...

  Think of your favorite video game character. Picture them in your head, remember their stories and the actors’ performances that made them stick with you long after you put the controller down. Maybe you’re thinking of Astarion from  Baldur’s Gate 3 , whose actor Neil Newbon recently won the  Best Performance award at the 2023 Game Awards . Or maybe your mind went to your favorite iteration of  Link from  The Legend of Zelda  franchise, who has stayed with you over the years with each new game in the series, despite never speaking. Remember that everything you love about that character was created by a team of writers, artists, and actors who combined their immense talents to bring that hero, villain, or companion to life. Nvidia, the company responsible for many of the graphics cards in high-end PCs, announced an AI-powered NPC generator called Omniverse Avatar Cloud Engine alongside AI tech company Convai  last year . It attempts to emulate the sam...

  While  Final Fantasy 7 Remake  remains mostly faithful to the original game, it still introduces a handful of new elements and characters along the way. Most of the  new characters  only play small roles but are able to stand out in big ways. The best example of this is Roche, an unhinged SOLDIER who performs ridiculous motorcycle acrobatics from the moment Cloud meets him. Roche fans are in luck as the character seems to make a comeback in  Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth . Square Enix’s latest trailer for  Rebirth  is short, clocking in at just one minute. But at the 20-second mark, you can see Roche riding his bright red motorcycle for a split second. Until this point, we’ve had no way to know whether Roche would ever appear again. Roche appears in Chapter 4 of  Remake  when Cloud and Avalanche break into a Shinra warehouse. However, we never see Roche again past that chapter aside from a small little cameo in the Episode Intermission DLC. ...

  It's been a rocky start for Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. After an   initial leak , the game was   officially announced by the studio   in August 2020, though this arrived in the wake of   sexual harassment accusations . Since then, the game was delayed, the studio's   co-founders left , and   reports of a battle pass   became a hot debate. Last year we finally got a look at the game in action during Sony's PlayStation State of Play, but the reaction was somewhat negative and   once again it was delayed . More recently, an alpha tech test took place in December but spoilery footage   swiftly leaked . "It's always disappointing when you have leaks. I think it's unavoidable in this day and age," Suicide Squad game director Axel Rydby told me at a preview event for the game. "The short answer is that it's a bummer, but at the same time, we know that the game is really good. And we know that it's a very unique game. ...