Author: Zach Barbieri

OneBGS, the Bethesda Game Studios Union, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America union, has confirmed plans to protest outside of the Bethesda offices in Montreal, Rockville, Maryland, and Austin on July 15th. These protests will follow the 440 union member jobs that were cut from the company as part of Xbox’s devastating round of downsizing. This includes 100 layoffs from Doom developer Id Software, and more than 200 layoffs at The Elder Scrolls Online developer Zenimax Online. In a statement released by OneBGS, via Kotaku, the goal here is to show Xbox management that “We mean business.”…

Two of the more popular entries in the Call of Duty series, Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2, now have ports available on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. These titles have been released digitally across both platforms; however, they will come with a pretty pricey tag, given that these games are 16 years old and 14 years old, respectively. These games are not being sold as a bundle, meaning they have to be purchased individually at $40 for each game. This is the base game, too, with both titles having their season pass content also sold separately, with…

Developers on MindsEye who have lost their jobs are planning a protest outside of Build A Rocket Boy’s office in Edinburgh, Scotland, over what they have described as an “all-expenses-paid playtest day.” The IWGB Game Workers Union, the same union representing several fired GTA VI developers, has stated that the protest will take place on Saturday, July 11th, at 11 AM locally, alleging that the planned protest will coincide with the studio flying in fans to try out the new features being added to MindsEye. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHP4LRdUlYk In particular, the union has stated it plans to protest the studio for deciding…

Even after over eight years since its initial announcement, The Elder Scrolls VI, the long-awaited next entry in the long-running series from Bethesda still has a few years before release, This news comes via journalist The Elder Scrolls VI, who spoke on it during a Q&A discussion concerning the massive changes coming to Xbox following this week’s announcement that the company would be cutting 3,200 jobs across all its studios over the next 12 months, including at Bethesda, as well as the departure of four studios for new management. He stated the game is “two to three years away at…

Two and a half years after launching into early access, Palworld has crossed an impressive milestone, with developer Pocketpair stating the title has passed 40 million players. This is right before the title is set to release its 1.0 version, which will be available on July 10th. Palworld has been released through multiple avenues, including that of Xbox Game Pass, so this 40 million number does not strictly mean overall sales of the game. We do know that the title performed very well on Steam, with the title currently seeing 50,000 concurrent players, but the 1.0 release is listed for…

I still remember where I was when Assassin’s Creed Black Flag was announced. Then again, most people probably didn’t watch the E3 Ubisoft conference in a Ramada, having just helped their friend move all his stuff out of his house after he was thrown out. Nor did they watch it with a friend who fell asleep at the drop of a dime, and snored like a wilderbeast once they did. Either way, I couldn’t have watched it at my house, so this was the best it was going to get. I miss the Ubisoft E3 conference, weirdly more than all…

*This guide contains minor spoilers for Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynched. Sailing the Caribbean in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynched will bring players to a lot of interesting places, one of which is a small island near the bottom left-hand corner of the map, where you can find the port of Grand Cayman, in the literal bottom left corner of the Cruz region. You will eventually end up here if you are completing Templar Hunt sidequests. This is a small port on one side of the island, but it does hide one of the more interesting secrets to collect that…

Publisher 1312 Interactive, along with developer Brewed Games, has announced that the metroidvania title Winds of Arcana: Ruination is now available on Xbox Series and PC, as well as available through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Premium. The title is also part of Xbox Play Anywhere, which will allow handheld and cloud players to have access to the title on the go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jhi3X6z6Fo Released for PC on November 15th, 2025, being noted at the time that the Xbox release would follow at a later date. In the title, players take the role of Aryn, who is tasked with saving his…

Microsoft has announced that 3,200 members of its Xbox staff will lose their jobs during the current financial year. 1,600 of those layoffs will occur today, July 6th, while the rest will occur throughout the financial year, with no set or expected period for them yet. In addition, as part of this massive restructuring of the company, four studios on the Xbox Game Studios banner will now be departing the company in search of new management, with one currently in consultation over its future. https://twitter.com/asha_shar/status/2074124008795369482?s=20 In an email that was sent to the staff, current Xbox head Asha Sharma referred…

The newest fighting game from Arc System Works and PlayStation, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, has been blocked from sale in 132 countries. This appears to be another instance of Sony’s PSN Requirements barring a title from distribution on Steam, something we had previously seen with a Sony-published title, HellDivers 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjpJ2xwUagM The list of countries banned, which was listed on SteamDB, includes Serbia, Ghana, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Egypt, to name a few. While neither Sony nor Arc has issued an official statement, fans were quick to point out that all of these countries have something glaringly obvious in common. None…