Author: Zach Barbieri

Despite the confirmed focus on graphics in the upcoming survival horror game Alan Wake II, it was recently confirmed that the game would feature a performance mode on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. This has been something both consoles have struggled with in recent months, Final Fantasy XVI on PS5 struggled to maintain a 60 frame rate and often dropped to 40 or lower, and Starfield was locked to 30 frames on the Series X. A question that was left from the announcement, noticeable due to specifically mentioning only the systems above, was whether the Series S would…

A season of large-scale downsizing in the video game industry is set to continue as Team17, the developer of the Worms and Overcooked franchises, as well as the Publisher of indie hits Dredge and Blasphemous, will also be laying off employees. This comes on the heels of last week, which saw major publishers like Sega, Ubisoft, Blizzard, and Epic Games all doing the same. Similarly to those other cases, the loss of jobs is being blamed on a “Company Restructure” and will eliminate 50 positions from the company. The majority of these positions will be from the Publisher’s QA department.…

Hogwarts legacy has had a mixed bag of a year all things considered. On the one hand, the title premiered earlier this year on the next-generation hardware to rave reviews. The PC release at the same time set a strong concurrent player count. The other hand presents Warner Brothers’ desire to not alienate portions of their player base by releasing the game on both the previous gen and the far more antiquated Nintendo Switch, the latter proving the most difficult. While this in itself is not a horrible thing for a developer or publisher to want, this process has proven…

With only 5 months remaining until Square Enix’s hotly anticipated follow-up to Final Fantasy VII Remake, entitled Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the age-old question of “Will we see the remake on another platform other than Sonys PlayStation?” once again began to make the rounds. According to Leaker NateDrake, in a post on Famiboards, the studio still has no plans to port the game to an Xbox console, or the speculative Nintendo Switch 2 at this point. While this remains par for the course with how the remake series has been handled up to this point, several facts have changed for…

With rumors persisting that several members of the media were able to go hands-on with the inevitable Nintendo Switch 2, it was only a matter of time until the discussion turned to what multiplatform games would be coming to it. It looks like, if you are a Nintendo fan looking for big games to play on the go, you should be in for an exciting few months. While we are still waiting for the official announcement of the platform, leaker Tom Henderson has suggested several games are set to announce the upcoming platform for release. As posted on his X…

FoamStars, the upcoming live-service 4v4 shooter from Square Enix, launched its open beta on September 29th for players on the PlayStation 5. While the beta gives the first solid look at what players can expect from the game matchmaking issues have made the game far from accessible for many people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD_XuyEgfOY On the game’s official X (formerly Twitter) page, this matchmaking issue has been stated to be due to “concentrated,” users access which has led to matchmaking errors, as well as long loading times. Currently, and unfortunately, the only solution being offered to this issue to to attempt Queueing again.…

Bloomberg has reported that Fortnite developer Epic Games is expected to lay off 16% of its workforce. In a statement from the CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, he confirmed that the layoffs are expected to impact roughly 830 employees within the company. In addition, Epic Games will be looking to sell Bandcamp, an independent music storefront that the company had only acquired last year, to musical licensing platform Songtradr. Sweeney went on to state that these layoffs are a direct reaction to Epic “spending way more money than we earn.”It was noted that within this statement, Sweeney does not…

Sega has canceled their upcoming 4v4 Live-Service Shooter Hyenas close to when the game was anticipated to launch. Sega announced this news in an official press release, citing that this decision was reached due to “the lower profitability of the European region.” Alongside the announcement that Hyenas would end development, Sega stated that several unannounced titles would also be terminated due to company-wide structural reform. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w7DCQx7ezY Hyenas was intended to be a long-form Live service title where two teams of heisters attempted to steal collectibles such as a Sonic The Hedgehog statue among other objects. To accomplish this the two…

During the Opening Night Live event of Gamecom 2023, hosted by Geoff Keighley Namco Bandai released the first trailer for the third game in the Little Nightmares series, Little Nightmares III. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFHOsobwFrA The trailer showcases that this next title will take place in a desert and will have multiple brightly lit set pieces, both of which are far cry’s from previous entries in the series. On top of that, two characters take part in this story allowing players to tackle the horrors of this new world alone or with a friend through online co-op. Despite these departures much of the…

Geoff Keighly has moved to put expectations in check ahead of the Gamescom Opening Night Live event next week. He stated that this year’s event is “Less about brand new announcements.” This year will mark the 5th year Geoff Keighley has hosted the opening night event for Gamescom, known for a solid slate of big-name games. While there have been some announcements in the past, the event has always been more commonly a stopping tour on the hype train for upcoming titles and this year seems to be no exception. Keighley described this year’s opening ceremony as an “exciting show…