Crusader Kings 3 will finally let us play as the pope in the By God Alone expansion, launching on September 30. The power! The pageantry! The blood boys! Wait, what?

OK, so history has given us a lot of weird pope stories. One of them relates to the declining health of Pope Innocent VIII. As the story goes, in 1492 three boys were hired to bring the pope back to health with their blood. All of their blood. It went badly. All three boys died, of course, and so did the pope.

This was long before physicians understood the circulatory system, or even knew it existed, and some versions of the tale have Innocent VIII literally drinking from the lads. It's apocryphal. Obvious nonsense, and likely propaganda. But the story has gone from a tall tale full of inconsistencies to the first example of blood transfusion. It's not true, but it is compelling.

One of the reasons for that is the modern trend of wealthy psychopaths hiring blood boys to claw back their youth. The idea that the rich and powerful, the Silicon Valley execs, are literally feeding on us.

Inappropriate due to realism, not due to atrocity.

Jesse Henning, Paradox PR manager

As The Guardian put it in 2024, "What history can teach us is that finding a miracle cure for ageing has long been one of humankind’s most cherished dreams. And wealthy, white men have often been at the forefront of this quest—despite the dubiousness of the effectiveness or safety of anti-ageing treatments."

Now, Paradox games can get pretty weird. You can, for instance, eat the pope. And with the By God Alone expansion allowing you to play as the pope, you could theoretically turn him into a cannibal. Justice at last. But blood boys? Nope, that's not on the cards.

A trio of Paradox devs were asked, and while they did have to check—implying that it's not outside the realm of possibility—this is not a feature in By God Alone. But there's a practical reason. "Innocent VIII is at/past the end of the CK3 timeline, so they wouldn't be appropriate anyway," Paradox says.

"Inappropriate due to realism," joked Paradox PR manager Jesse Henning, who had to ask the devs this absurd question on my behalf, "not due to atrocity."

Maybe Europa Universalis 5 will add the feature.

More papal weirdos

Pope Julius II

Jules was an utter bastard, but I've gotta give it to him, his nickname, 'The Battle Pope' is badass. I mean, c'mon, who wouldn't want to be known by that moniker? He personally led soldiers into battle, but he seemed to like sex as much as war, and may have been riddled with syphilis. Which might explain why he had such a terrible temper.

Pope Benedict IX

The original Young Pope, he was pope three times, sold his title to his godfather and was described by a successor as "a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it".

Pope Sergius III

This lad allegedly murdered his two predecessors, had an illegitimate son who also became pope, and was accused of running a "pornocracy". What a legend.

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A great evil has come upon Soulframe. It long existed in the margins, its arrival seemed inevitable, yet one could hope that it would never come to pass. But there is no more space for ambiguity. Fishing is here, and Soulframe players now must contend with the horrifying reality of a game in which they are expected […]

Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) won't develop the next mainline Halo game because it's being what sounds like drastically reduced in size. Microsoft has instead given development duty to Activision, which is making "a new purpose-built team" separate to Call of Duty to make it.

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Microsoft's "reset" of the Xbox business continued today with the announcement of another giant wave of changes and restructuring to help the business become more successful in the future, or at least that's the plan. The major moves included more layoffs, the planned closure of another developer, and a significant shakeup for the Halo franchise, among others.

These major changes were announced just before Microsoft's fiscal Q1 ends on September 30. Here's everything we learned:

Layoffs

To begin with, Xbox boss Matt Booty said there will be a further 268 layoffs that affect Halo Studios, other first-party developers, and the Xbox Game Studios management and central functions team.

This latest round of cuts comes after Microsoft laid off 1,600 Xbox developers in July, including the studios it divested of. With these cuts, Microsoft is now about 3/4 of the way through its planned restructuring of Xbox, so more changes are still to come.

"I am deeply grateful for what our colleagues have built, and I know how difficult today will be for those leaving and the teams around them," Booty said.

Halo goes to Activision

Another major change is that Activision is expanding its remit to now cover developers Rare and World's Edge. Additionally, Activision is making the next Halo game, and it's being made by a "new, purpose-built team." This is separate from Activision's ongoing plans for annual Call of Duty games.

Going forward, only a "small team" at Halo Studios will continue, focusing on "supporting the Halo community and games in-market," Booty said.

Bethesda expands

Another big piece of news is that Bethesda is growing its footprint and will now cover Obsidian. That team's in-development projects will continue, including Grounded and a new Fallout game in production alongside Bethesda Game Studios.

King's kingdom grows

King, the developer of the juggernaut Candy Crush, will now cover Microsoft Casual Games. This will unite two of Microsoft's "global leaders in casual game design and live operations," Booty said.

Forza United

Microsoft's Forza developers, Playground and Turn 10, are now merging to become one studio that will focus on the Forza and Fable franchises. "These two studios have been creative and franchise partners for over a decade, and today’s changes will formally move their work into one team," Booty said.

State of Decay 3

Microsoft also confirmed that Undead Labs, the developer of State of Decay 3, found a "new publisher" and the game will launch into Xbox Game Pass on day one whenever it's released. The identity of the publisher remains a mystery.

Ninja Theory could close

Booty confirmed that "two separate agreements" for UK-based developer Ninja Theory to be sold "fell through." As a result, Microsoft is now entering the UK-mandated consultation period with Ninja Theory regarding the proposed closure of the studio. At the same time, Booty said Microsoft hasn't given up on its attempts to keep Ninja Theory alive in some form, saying it continues to "explore other paths forward."

Arkane remains in consultation

Arkane Lyon, the French developer behind the Dishonored series, remains under consulation pursuant to French labor laws. This process is expected to "continue through the end of the year," but there is no word on what could happen next.

Next update in October

Finally, Booty said there will be an internal town hall event at Xbox on October 6, during which Microsoft will "reflect on our progress." He also said Microsoft has one of the "strongest game lineups" in Xbox history, but did not divulge any specifics.

All of this is happening under the leadership of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who took over that job from Phil Spencer earlier this year. She made drastic changes right out of the gate in a variety of ways, including cutting the price of Xbox Game Pass and removing new Call of Duty games from the service. She also discussed plans for a return to exclusivity for big games. She also outlined her plan to "reset" Xbox, including mass layoffs, game cancellations, and studio closures.

Bethesda Game Studios is now managing Obsidian Entertainment – news that comes just two months after the two unveiled their mysterious, collaborative new Fallout game.

Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft's gaming arm, has managed Obsidian Entertainment for over seven years now since its acquisition of the legendary RPG developer in November 2018.

The jump to Bethesda isn't such a big one, then, but it is notable that the studio behind the likes of Fallout and Elder Scrolls is taking Obsidian on – especially seeing as we know there are various projects in the works currently that are relevant to both teams.

There's the new Fallout game that Bethesda confirmed it was working on alongside Obsidian back in July – but it's not clear which Fallout game this is. In the same breath, Bethesda also had said Fallout 5 is in pre-production and unveiled both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remasters as well.

So, could it be Fallout 5 the two are collaborating on? I'd wager it's more likely to be the Fallout: New Vegas revamp, seeing as Obsidian headed the original back in 2010, or potentially something else entirely.

It's exciting news nonetheless, especially when the industry is otherwise suffering quite a difficult time. After all, Microsoft's plans to cut 3,200 employees at Xbox hit both Bethesda and Obsidian, with the latter reportedly seeing around 25% of its studio impacted.

Following 1,600 layoffs taking place earlier this year, another 268 layoffs (of that total 3,200) were announced today.

I'll be keeping my own fingers crossed for what's to come from the dynamic duo now that they're working more closely together than before, that's for certain. Who knows – perhaps we'll see something entirely new come from the two rather than just a remaster. Only time will tell for sure.

Searching for more new games to keep on your radar? Browse through our roundup of all the upcoming Bethesda games to look forward to.

The long-term XBOX restructuring is set to continue, as it's revealed that we're only three-quarters of the way through the plan.

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