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Left 4 Dead lives on in The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu, a Lovecraftian extraction game from the creators of Zeno Clash

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Seeking relief from the terrible light of the Xbox resettification, I fall into the sweet, dank embrace of The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu, a 17th century extraction game in which four crucifix-wielding, musket-toting Spanish explorers venture to a jungle full of creatures inspired by Lovecraftian horror. Why would they set foot in such an awful place? For loot, of course. Why else do Europeans travel to other countries?

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Jagmas
22 minutes ago
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Round Rock, Texas
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What time does Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced release in your time zone?

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The Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced release times are just around the corner, and if you want to get a head start on the download, preloads are live, too. Ubisoft's reimagining of Assassin's Creed 4 has a staggered rollout, and the specific time depends on the platform where you're playing.



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Jagmas
22 minutes ago
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Round Rock, Texas
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Appa is a gorgeous, surreal card game about grieving siblings where every move your opponent makes can be reacted to

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I love a digital card game as much as the next person, but honestly, most of the time I feel that they're a bit of a letdown in the visuals department. There's never been one I've played where I've been satisfied in how it plays and how it looks. But! I am hopeful about the upcoming Appa, a deliciously surreal and vibrant looking narrative-driven card battler about a couple of siblings dealing with the death of their father.

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Jagmas
22 minutes ago
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Round Rock, Texas
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Overwatch is no longer Steam's worst-reviewed game

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Overwatch crossed a major milestone this week: Blizzard's hero shooter has gone from "Mostly Negative" (39% or fewer positive reviews) on Steam to "Mixed," based on user reviews. Cue the confetti and dance emotes.



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Jagmas
22 minutes ago
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Round Rock, Texas
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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 "literally changed everything" for Saber Interactive, Tim Willits says the studio's had to "turn down" more offers than it can possibly accept

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If you haven't played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, I highly recommend it, especially if you're going through something stressful. It's a great game for venting your frustrations. Apparently, putting it out was a turning point for developer Saber Interactive, as the studio is now enjoying a prosperous era of development.

That's no exaggeration either, since CCO Tim Willits says Space Marine 2 "literally changed everything" for Saber. "It not only changed the way that the team looks at making games, it changed how people look at us," he tells The Game Business. "I've seen this in my career, when you have a huge hit, when you go to make the next game, everything has to be awesome. It's like, 'This has got to be the most awesome toaster ever.' And it fuels success."

Since it was a licensed project, that opened more doors for the company. Nothing helps land a contract more than a good reputation, leading to Saber having to pick its battles in terms of capabilities. "Because we have a reputation of really doing well with licensed IPs, every major license holder wants to make a video game," Willits says. "It's just the way it is. Everybody. So, we are in a very fortunate position to turn down more than we can accept."

Apparently, there was a particular exciting opportunity Saber had to pass on for just this reason. Willits can't name them, of course, but he knows just how nice of a problem it is to have. "You know you're successful when you've turned down those guys. It's really nice to be in that position," he comments.

Indeed it must be. Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is Saber's last major outstanding release for the year, a first-person nightmare co-written with Barker himself that comes out in October, just in time for Halloween. Then, next year, we have Hitman Classic Trilogy Remastered, and the likes of Turok: Origins and the long-in-the-works Knights of the Old Republic remake to get dated at some point.

That's just a small sampling as well. Willits isn't kidding about how much is going across the myriad studios Saber operates, and it sounds like there may be more to come as well. I think we can rest easy that Space Marine 3 will happen, and when it does, who knows what Saber will do next. All I know is, more Cenobites, please.

Hitman and 007 First Light dev IO Interactive regains "full ownership" of its mysterious online RPG project after Xbox reportedly pulled funding



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Jagmas
22 minutes ago
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Round Rock, Texas
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Well At Least The Future’s Looking Bright For Bethesda’s *Checks Notes* ‘Strongest Franchises'

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Well At Least The Future’s Looking Bright For Bethesda’s *Checks Notes* ‘Strongest Franchises'

Monday’s Xbox layoffs hit the studios the company owns hard, and are set to continue to do so as the cuts roll through the next year. Workers who remain have to pick up the pieces, including at Bethesda, where a memo from president Jill Braff sets out a new direction for the studio that’s pretty uninspiring.

Published in full at IGN, the memo tells Bethesda staff that “For decades, Bethesda has organized its business around the individual roadmaps of our largely independent development studios, supported by centralized publishing and corporate teams… To best position Bethesda for future growth, we are shifting from a planning model primarily centered on what's next for each independent studio to one that focuses on our strongest franchises and determining the content roadmap that best serves our players and Bethesda as a whole.”

This echoes what Xbox head Asha Sharma wrote in her first memo in early June, where she suggested Xbox had “over extended” itself around games and had “not adequately funded” its “industry defining franchises.” 

Braff wrote, “By working more closely across the organization, sharing expertise and capabilities, and focusing our investments on the opportunities with the greatest potential, we believe we can better support our franchises and IP with meaningful long-term potential.”

So what does Braff think these “strongest franchises” are? She doesn’t say. There have been large cuts at Doom studio id and The Elder Scrolls Online team. Xbox is interested in capitalizing on the television success of Fallout, but with Fallout 5 existing mostly as SEO-baiting speculation online and no sign of any remasters, there isn’t much to work with there beyond Fallout 76 or mobile game Fallout Shelter. The Elder Scrolls 6 is basically a meme, and I can’t imagine anyone is excited to pay for another version of Skyrim. There’s a Wolfenstein TV show in development, which could light a fire for a new Wolfenstein game, and Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier wrote that Bethesda still plans to work on “Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake.” But as things stand right now, it’s hard to imagine which faucet labelled “successful series” remaining workers are meant to crank on the double until money gushes out.

Of course, this is likely part of what has inspired Xbox’s badly-named “reset,” where the company’s games take a long time to make and can go a long time between new entries. And I certainly understand the business case for “do more of what works.” But even if Schreier writes that Bethesda “will NOT be reduced to only Fallout and The Elder Scrolls,” Braff’s memo feels like it heralds a more risk- and experimentation-averse Bethesda, one where games might be evaluated less on their own merits and more on their potential to become series and media crossovers. Braff writes that Bethesda will bring its “studios’ and teams’ identities, talent, and expertise… together around our franchises and IP,” a bit of requisite business lingo that I find it hard to get excited by. 

Reading the memo, I can’t help but think about Arkane Lyon, whose fate is currently in flux as Microsoft negotiates under French labor laws. The studio is making a Blade game, and previously made Deathloop and the Dishonored series. Its US arm Arkane Austin, which made the well-received Prey and less well-received Redfall, was closed by Microsoft in 2024. I don’t personally care much about Blade–the MCU is impenetrable to me–but Dishonored is one of my favorite series: the kind of immersive sim gameplay that’s seen me spend days of my life replaying its levels, set in a distinctive, unique world. The games might not have been breakout hits, and I’ve long given up on any serious hope of more of them, especially when the games I do have will last me a lifetime. But whatever happens to Arkane Lyon, it’s hard to imagine this new Bethesda or this new Xbox being willing to put its money into games cut from the same cloth, into niche genres or wholly-new worlds that might not pay off.

This shift isn’t entirely unique to Xbox–as money gets tighter and making things gets more expensive, games, movies, TV, and more are playing things safe and looking for whatever is closest to a sure-fire hit. And I don’t think this newly-focused Bethesda will sacrifice the quality or creativity of its studios in pursuit of success. But as a fan of the kinds of games Bethesda has been divesting itself from for years now, it’s hard to feel inspired by whatever the company is planning to transform itself into. And it’s hard to see from here how the loss of so many peoples’ jobs could be worth what could come out on the other side: less interesting games, and more profit for Microsoft. 

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Jagmas
22 minutes ago
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Round Rock, Texas
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