Electronic Arts has stressed that it has no worries about the future of BioWare, despite recent high-level staff turnover and a few “blips” in the company’s development history over the years.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson said during an earnings briefing (via GI.biz) that that BioWare is an “incredible studio filled with incredible people who do incredible work.” He acknowledged that BioWare has had “some blips in their delivery” in recent years (a presumed reference to Anthem), but Wilson suggested that such shortcomings are actually a good thing. He’s proud that BioWare pushed “deeply into innovation and creativity,” even if it didn’t work out completely the way the studio might have wanted.
Wilson went on to say that EA feels “very confident” about BioWare’s future with the new Dragon Age and Mass Effect games it’s working on. In addition to those projects, BioWare just announced the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, which launches in May and is expected to be a hit.
Regarding the news that BioWare veterans Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah left the company, Wilson said this kind of turnover is only natural in a creative field like game development. Wilson remarked that EA has confidence in the current leadership at BioWare.
For more on BioWare, check out a special episode of GameSpot’s Audio Logs where we speak with BioWare’s Mac Walters about characters who were cut from Mass Effect 2 and more.
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Destruction AllStars is Sony’s first PS5 exclusive of 2021, and having just been released online as a free game with a valid PS Plus subscription, the experience has been smooth sailing, except for one aggravating detail: the game’s decision to enable teamspeak by default through the PS5 DualSense controller.
Without a headset, that turns the peripheral into an input device that regularly shrieks at you from a variety of sources. These range from gung-ho drivers to screaming children, users who don’t realize that nobody wants to listen to their Spotify soundtrack in the background and people whose junk food habits make for some of the grossest sound effects ever transmitted through a microphone.
Destruction AllStars: How to mute random chatter
While Destruction AllStars has no option for turning this online chatter off in its own menus, you can save your eardrums from distress with two other methods on your PS5. The quickest route towards a handy mute is to wait for voice chat to start in the game lobby, then press the PS Home Button, and finally on the Activity card press Square to mute the voice chat.
Of course, this goes both ways as you don’t want to be an audio irritation yourself. You can temporarily mute your own microphone by pressing the button beneath the PlayStation icon, at which point the PS5 will inform you that you have toggled the option.
For a more permanent option, navigate to the Settings menu, make your way down to the “Sound” menu, and then select the “Microphone” option. Select the option “Microphone status when logged in” and you’ll be able to make your microphone mute on default whenever you switch your PS5 console on.
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The PS5 is nearly three months out from launch, and with 2021 in full swing, the PlayStation Store is starting to ramp up its digital deals and offers. The Critics’ Choice Sale is the latest promotion on the PlayStation Store, adding over 100 more deals on games, bundles, and DLC, and there are some great options available. This is a nice opportunity for PS5 owners to snag deals on both current-gen and last-gen games to play on their new console, but of course, there’s plenty here for PS4 owners as well. The Critics’ Choice Sale runs until February 18, so be sure to check it out and grab anything on your wishlist before then.
One hidden gem in this sale: Annapurna Interactive’s The Pathless, which launched alongside the PS5 last November. Though it’s also available on PS4, the open-world action-adventure game looks stunning on PS5 and makes full use of the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. The Pathless is down to $32 (from $40) in this sale, the first discount we can recall seeing on its digital edition.
Best Critics’ Choice Sale Game Deals
Some of the best game of the past console generation are also seeing major markdowns this week, including our 2019 Game of the Year, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The latest game from Dark Souls developer From Software has dropped to $39 this week, and you’ll get its Game of the Year Edition with bonus DLC. Resident Evil 7 is down to 10 bucks and is an excellent pick-up for those who missed it and want to play Resident Evil Village. You can also snag Red Dead Redemption II for $30, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 for $30, and both Doom Eternal and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for just under $20 each.
There’s more than what we’ve mentioned here, so you can check out the full Critics’ Choice Sale on the PlayStation Store below. There are other sales happening right now on PS5 and PS4 as well. For those on a tight budget, the Games Under $20 sale is still running until this Thursday, February 4, while the Remasters and Retros sale is available until February 11, offering steep discounts on games like Devil May Cry HD Collection and Gravity Rush Remastered.
As part of Sony’s latest earnings report, the company announced that it is losing money on every PlayStation 5 that it sells–but this is not unusual for Sony or the wider gaming industry.
In its statement, Sony said it is incurring a loss of every PS5 due to its decision to set a “strategic” price point for the next-generation system. The consumer price of the disc version of the console, $500 USD in the US, is less than what it costs to manufacture it, thus leading to an overall loss.
Sony did not provide a specific dollar amount for how much money it’s losing on every PS5, but the company said its results during the October-December period were also negatively impacted due to higher general and administrative costs associated with launching the PS5.
The report does not provide a breakdown between the disc version of the PS5 and the digital-only edition, which costs $400 USD, but presumably the losses apply to both.
Although Sony sustained losses on PS5 hardware, the gains in revenue that the company posted for software and network services–which were booming–were enough to offset the losses, according to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad.
Ahmad also reminded people that the PS4, too, was sold at a loss when it originally launched back in 2013. It took “a few months” before Sony was able to make it a profit-driving machine.
The PS4 now makes money, and Sony said in the report that PlayStation division’s revenue was positively impacted by “higher profit margins” on PS4 hardware. Sony sold 1.4 million PS4 consoles in the October-December period, and each of them made money.
Selling a lot of consoles is good, of course, for bragging rights and revenue, but the real money in games comes from software and services. Phil Spencer laid this out in a 2019 interview with The Verge:
“The business isn’t how many consoles you sell. The business is how many players are playing the games that they buy, how they play. I think it’s easy from the outside to judge the health of our business around how many consoles any company sells. In the end, how many subscribers you have to something like Game Pass, how many games people are buying, those are much better metrics on the health of the business.”
Nintendo, however, has bucked the trend in recent years. In 2016, prior to the release of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo said it would make money on every Switch it sold right away, according to VentureBeat.
Sony sold 4.5. million PS5 consoles in the October-December period, and it could have moved even more were it not for the supply constraints.
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Save the date(s): IGN is excited to bring you a whole new way to celebrate all of your favorite games, movies and TV series: IGN Fan Fest. On February 26 and 27, the free, two-day digital event will feature exciting first looks, exclusive gameplay, cast reunions, new details, and interviews from around the world, spotlighting some of the biggest and most anticipated entertainment and games of the year.
The virtual event will be streamed across IGN’s website, social and video platforms, apps and even on your Samsung TV (here’s a full list of how and where to watch IGN Fan Fest). And it’s not just about the news, exclusives, and sneak peeks – IGN Fan Fest is all about the fans. See which titles will be spotlighted and how you can submit fan questions for IGN Fan Fest below.
IGN Fan Fest 2021: Full Lineup and Schedule
IGN Fan Fest will bring you panels for some of the biggest upcoming games, movies, and TV series. Each panel will boast exclusive interviews with cast members and creative teams, as well as exciting new footage debuts and behind-the-scenes first looks.
Check out the full list of headliners below, and stay tuned for more exciting updates and schedule announcements about the IGN Fan Fest lineup in the coming weeks!
Batman Beyond – Cast Reunion and Table Read
Bethesda’s DEATHLOOP
Amazon Prime Video’s Invincible
Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy
Netflix’s Shadow and Bone
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
& more surprises!
Keep reading for more information on each panel:
Batman Beyond: Cast Reunion and Table Read
Relive the beloved animated series in a whole new way with the cast reunion of Batman Beyond. Join stars Kevin Conroy and Will Friedle, casting and voice director Andrea Romano and more special guests as they perform a table read of a fan-favorite Batman Beyond episode.
About Batman Beyond: Batman Beyond recently celebrated its 20th anniversary with the release of Batman Beyond: The Complete Animated Series Limited Edition, a six-disc Blu-ray special edition featuring approximately 1,500 minutes of entertainment, including two new inside looks at the beloved television series, led by Nostalgic Tomorrow, a gathering of Batman Beyond production talent and cast led by executive producer Bruce Timm and actors Kevin Conroy and Will Friedle, the voices of Batman and Terry McGinnis, respectively. Batman Beyond made its anticipated debut on the WarnerMedia streaming series HBO Max in January 2020, where it is available to stream in its entirety.
An Inside Look at Bethesda’s DEATHLOOP
The developers behind DEATHLOOP, Game Director Dinga Bakaba and Art Director Sebastien Mitton, will take you deeper inside the innovative first-person shooter with an exclusive inside look at the new title from Arkane Lyon, the award-winning studio behind the critically acclaimed Dishonored franchise. DEATHLOOP will continue Arkane’s signature gameplay design, challenging gamers to play their own way.
About DEATHLOOP: As Colt, players are trapped in a time loop on the enigmatic island of Blackreef, doomed to repeat the same day for eternity. The only chance for escape is to break the loop by assassinating eight key targets before the day resets. However, lurking in the shadows is rival assassin Julianna, equipped with her own equally powerful abilities and weapons, on a mission to protect the loop by assassinating Colt, and restarting the cycle. DEATHLOOP is launching exclusively for PlayStation 5 and PC on May 21, 2021.
Amazon Prime Video’s Invincible: Extended Sneak Peek
Join creator Robert Kirkman and the stars of this superpowered lineup for a preview of Amazon Prime Video’s new, action-packed adult animation series, Invincible — plus, get an exclusive extended look at the first episode!
About Invincible: From The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, and based on the Skybound/Image comic of the same name by Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, Invincible is an adult animated superhero show that revolves around seventeen-year-old Mark Grayson (Yeun), who’s just like every other guy his age — except that his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). But as Mark develops powers of his own, he discovers that his father’s legacy may not be as heroic as it seems.
Introducing Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy
Ahead of the upcoming epic new superhero series Jupiter’s Legacy, comic creator Mark Millar and series star Josh Duhamel come together for the exclusive first interview about the highly anticipated project. In this exclusive conversation, we’ll get new details from Millar and Duhamel on how the expansive graphic novels jumped from page to screen in Netflix’s new series. New character details, new plot details and an Easter egg from Frank Quitely, we’re delivering answers on this superhero saga that has been years in the making.
About Jupiter’s Legacy: After nearly a century of keeping mankind safe, the world’s first generation of superheroes must look to their children to continue the legacy. But tensions rise as the young superheroes, hungry to prove their worth, struggle to live up to their parents’ legendary public reputations — and exacting personal standards. Based on the graphic novels by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely, Jupiter’s Legacy is an epic superhero drama that spans decades and navigates the complex dynamics of family, power, and loyalty. From executive producers Mark Millar, Frank Quitely, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Dan McDermott, Steven S. DeKnight, James Middleton, Sang Kyu Kim, Jupiter’s Legacy stars Josh Duhamel, Leslie Bibb, Ben Daniels, Elena Kampouris, Andrew Horton, Mike Wade, Matt Lanter and Tenika Davis.
Netflix’s Shadow and Bone: Exclusive Cast Q&A and Sneak Peek
Prepare to enter the Grishaverse. We’re bringing the cast and creators of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone together for their first group appearance to offer an exclusive sneak peek at the epic fantasy series, discover how the show will adapt Leigh Bardugo’s ambitious novels for the screen, and will peel back the curtain on some of your most burning questions.
About Shadow and Bone: Based on Bardugo’s worldwide bestselling Grishaverse novels, Shadow and Bone finds us in a war-torn world where lowly soldier and orphan Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) has just unleashed an extraordinary power that could be the key to setting her country free. With the monstrous threat of the Shadow Fold looming, Alina is torn from everything she knows to train as part of an elite army of magical soldiers known as Grisha. But as she struggles to hone her power, she finds that allies and enemies can be one and the same and that nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. There are dangerous forces at play, including a crew of charismatic criminals, and it will take more than magic to survive.
Justice League: Inside the Snyder Cut with Zack Snyder
Zack Snyder will offer fans an inside look into the making of the Snyder Cut, answering all of our questions — and yours! — about the HBO Max release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
About Zack Snyder’s Justice League: In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman (Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.
IGN Fan Fest is a virtual event where fans from all over the world can come together and celebrate their most anticipated games, movies, and TV shows. From Zack Snyder’s Justice league to Arkane’s Deathloop, we’re super excited to bring you exclusive content like interviews with cast members of upcoming shows, new gameplay from unreleased games, and first looks at some exciting projects coming later this year. If you don’t want to miss it, here’s everything you need to know to join in on the fun.
IGN Fan Fest 2021 Dates and Start Time
IGN Fan Fest 2021 will take place over the course of two days and will start on February 26 and run through February 27. We’re still locking in the details of our schedule, but we’ll add all the information here once the times are set.
We previously announced the lineup of IGN Fan Fest panels and teased there will be more surprises coming soon. Below, we’ve included a list of panels already confirmed for the event and we’ll continue to update this list as we learn more:
Panels confirmed for IGN Fan Fest:
An Inside Look at Bethesda’s Deathloop
Invincible: Extended Sneak Peek
Introducing Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy
Netflix’s Shadow and Bone: Exclusive Cast Q&A and Sneak Peek
The Snyder Cut: In Conversation with Zack Snyder
Batman Beyond Cast Reunion and Table Read
How to Watch IGN Fan Fest 2021
As a free and live virtual event, IGN Fan Fest will be streamed across IGN.com and all of our social channels. We’ll also be embedding the stream in this article, so feel free to bookmark this page for easy access. Here’s the full list of places we’ll be streaming IGN Fan Fest so you can watch it on your preferred platform:
Barely two month into 2021, and the biggest story of the year so far has been GameStop’s stock price benefitting tremendously from the ongoing war between subreddit group r/wallstreetbets and hedge fund investors banking on short stocks.
While the feud has seen plenty of memes, movie deals struck, and even the White House declaring that it had begun officially “monitoring” the situation last week, the only way to prove that you were really there for the Wall Street drama is with a T-shirt.
Spotted by RPGSite’s Alex Donaldson, UK retailer GAME has decided to cash in on the meme and has released its very own ‘Game$tonks’ T-shirt that’ll take you straight to the moon–lunar trips probably not guaranteed.
Something really surreal about GAME cashing in on the meme stock stuff with a product that has a pastiche of their US opposite number’s logo all while enduring the same struggles GameStop is. Anyway. Wankers pic.twitter.com/ijTLo2iFcv
“These unisex T-shirts have been produced to stand with the supporters of gaming retailers,” GAME said on its website, where the T-shirts will be available exclusively from February 12.
The T-shirts are also constructed from cutting-edge cotton materials, which just so happens to be a perfect material for absorbing panic-sweat when you watch your investment in GameStop stocks bounce frantically between being profitable and a poor impulse-driven investment on the New York Stock Exchange rollercoaster.
The Game$tonks T-shirts will cost $18 each, with proceeds from the merchandise definitely helping the struggling retail game retailer as it takes advantage of the meme culture that has sprung up around its US counterpart.
Author George R.R. Martin has provided an update on The Winds of Winter, the next chapter in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. Posting on his Not A Blog, Martin said he made good progress on the long-awaited novel, but he won’t make any promises about when he will finish it.
“I wrote hundreds and hundreds of pages of The Winds of Winter in 2020,” he said. “The best year I’ve had on WOW since I began it. Why? I don’t know. Maybe the isolation. Or maybe I just got on a roll. Sometimes I do get on a roll.”
Martin said he still has “hundreds” more pages to write before it’s finished. In 2021, he hopes to be finished with the book, but he can’t guarantee that he’ll finish it this year.
“I will make no predictions on when I will finish. Every time I do, assholes on the internet take that as a ‘promise,’ and then wait eagerly to crucify me when I miss the deadline. All I will say is that I am hopeful,” he said.
Martin’s plate is currently very full with “a zillion” other things beyond The Winds of Winter, he said. “My plate is full to overflowing. Every time I wrap up one thing, three more things land on me. Monkeys on my back, aye, aye, I’ve sung that song before. So many monkeys. And Kong,” he said.
Kong is Martin’s pet name for The Winds of Winter. The book has been in the works for a very long time. For more, check out GameSpot’s breakdown below.
In regards to Martin’s other projects, one of them is the video game Elden Ring, which he is consulting on for the lore and mythology.
Also in the blog post, Martin reflected on how the tumultuous year that was 2020 affected him personally. He remarked that 2020 was the worst year of his life. “So much happened, and so much of it was dire, but all the rest dwindles in importance in the shadow of hundreds of thousands of Covid deaths,” he said.
Martin said the worst of the pandemic may still be come, but he also sees a glimmer of hope thanks to the new vaccines that are being distributed now. Martin himself hasn’t received one, but he is on the list for one and for the time being, he is wearing a mask and staying in quarantine as much as possible.
Martin said he and his wife Parris are healthy, though he remarked that “growing old is no fun.” Some of his friends were not as fortunate. “Personally… well, I lost a number of friends, some very near and dear to me. I have several other friends who are in failing health, so I fear that there may be more losses to come,” he said.
In other news, HBO is moving forward with numerous Game of Thrones spin-off ideas, both live-action and animated.
The ill-fated GoldenEye 007 Remaster for the Xbox 360 was canceled back in 2008, but a nearly-complete build of the project has now leaked online (thanks, VGC). Fans of the classic game are posting screenshots and footage of the unauthorized leak all over social media, and it looks quite impressive.
Thinking of holding a DF livestream this afternoon to discuss and play the Goldeneye 360 leaked version. It’s really good. Any interest? pic.twitter.com/h9J84JymMP
A video showing off the leaked build was posted online a few days ago, triggering a surge of interest in the cancelled game. Like other remasters such as Halo: The Master Chief Collection, it gives fans the option of switching between the revamped graphics and the N64 original. However, the online multiplayer mode that was supposed to be included isn’t in the build.
Despite its status as one of the most beloved console shooters of all time, GoldenEye 007 has never been officially remastered. GoldenEye composer Grant Kirkhope–who wasn’t involved in the project, but was at Rare during its development–told VGC last week that the Xbox remaster was cancelled due to the multiple stakeholders involved in the project, which include Activision, Microsoft, and Nintendo. A Wii reimagining of the game was released in 2010, but it changed almost every aspect of the game, including changing Bond from Pierce Brosnan to Daniel Craig.
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Overwatch is once again celebrating the Chinese lunar new year, and that means a bevy of new skins coming for the event. This will be the Year of the Ox, and Blizzard has started debuting some of the new looks coming when the event launches on February 4.
So far we’ve gotten a detailed look at just one of the new skins, the Tiger Huntress for Ashe. It swaps out her usual Old West look for a Chinese huntress and gives her omnic assistant BOB a cool tiger look. A teaser for the Year of the Ox as a whole also showed D.Va debuting what may be a new intro, triggering fireworks by exploding her mech suit.
Blizzard usually doles out teasers for a handful of skins ahead of special events like this, leading up to release when we get to see them all. As always, you can obtain these special event skins and other cosmetics through randomized loot crates or purchasing them straight-up with your saved credits.
