Author: Trafficblast

THQ Nordic has opened a new studio in Spain that will develop a remake of Gothic as its first title. The studio is called Alkimia Interactive, and it’s based in Barcelona, Spain.

The studio will focus on “high-quality RPGs,” THQ Nordic said in its announcement. Work is already “well underway” on the Gothic remake, and THQ said fans can expect more news soon.

The Gothic remake is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. THQ released a playable teaser of the game back in 2019, and the publisher later announced it planned to develop it as a full game. According to THQ, it won’t be a simple remake but instead a “re-imagining [of] the whole thing.”

More than 180,000 people tried the Gothic playable teaser, and THQ had said part of its plan was to establish a studio in Barcelona to see it through, which is now happening.

“We are up for the challenge to develop a full Gothic Remake which will stay as faithfully as possible to the original experience and transport the atmospheric world of Gothic into a high quality look and carefully modernizing certain gameplay mechanics,” THQ Nordic’s Reinhard Pollice said.

In the summer of 2020, THQ Nordic started its new Barcelona studio and began assembling a team. The office is still ramping up, as it has more than 15 open positions on its website.

“We strive to build Alkimia Interactive as a top-notch RPG studio,” Pollice said. “Our ambition is to become one of the best addresses for PC/Console core game development in Southern Europe.”

The original Gothic was released in 2001. Multiple sequels were released, including Gothic 3 in 2006. A spin-off called Arcania: Gothic 4 launched in 2010.

Microsoft’s new Halo Pringles that taste like the extinct Moa bird are now on store shelves, and they’ve attracted the attention of one late-night TV host in particular.

Stephen Colbert’s late-night show dedicated some time to the Moa Pringles this week, with Colbert asking his audience, “If you’ve ever been blasting away at creatures in Halo and thought, ‘I wish I could eat them.’ Great news. Pringles and Microsoft–yes, you heard that right–have announced a new Halo potato chip that tastes like a space ostrich.”

Colbert goes on to joke that he hopes the Halo/Pringles collaboration goes over better than the Yoshi-flavored burgers at White Castle, which are not a real thing. You can check out the segment for yourself at around 3 minutes into the video below.

Limited-edition cans of Halo-branded cans with the “Moa Burger” flavor are now available to buy only at Walmart. “Our latest shipments from Reach have arrived, so be sure to grab them while you can,” Microsoft said in a tweet. Bear in mind that these are the “wavy” Pringles, not the standard chips.

The “Moa Burger” is a reference to an in-game ad from Halo: Reach. Restaurants in the game’s universe made burgers out of the flightless birds that call Reach home. The Moa was also a real bird that lived in New Zealand until it went extinct.

From the looks of it, these special Pringles cans don’t contain any bonuses or extras like double XP or anything like that, so they are purely a collector’s item.

Because Halo Infinite was supposed to release in Fall 2020, a number of marketing campaigns for the game have already rolled out. Microsoft’s partnership with Butterfinger included free DLC for people who bought the sugary snack, though the campaign is now over. Additionally, Microsoft teamed up with Monster Energy to offer double XP in Halo Infinite when it releases.

Halo Infinite will release in Fall 2021 on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game’s multiplayer element will be free-to-play with microtransactions.

Recently, developer 343 Industries released a series of images from the game’s campaign mode that show off a massive graphical improvement.

Pacer is a futuristic, high-speed racing game that’ll be immediately familiar to fans of the classic 90’s Wipeout series. After launching on PS4 and PC late last year, the game is now available to play on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

“The year is 2075. You’re a fresh pilot on the starting grid, ready to take on any and all challengers to make a name for yourself and become the Pacer world champion,” the official Xbox description reads. Normally priced at $40, Pacer is on sale at launch for $32 on the Xbox Store.

Pacer has been around in one form or another for a while now, first appearing as Formula Fusion in a 2015 Kickstarter campaign. The game released in early access that same year, before rebranding to Pacer in 2019 and finally seeing its full release in October 2020.

Always intended as a spiritual successor to the Wipeout series, Pacer studio R8 games includes some Wipeout veterans among its ranks, including R8’s founder Andrew Walker. The gameplay has players customizing their anti-gravity racers, collecting mods, weapons, and defenses, and of course racing to earn credits to pay for it all. Pacer features 8 different game modes, 4 speed classes, and 14 race maps with a broad array of map variants available.

Pacer is now available on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam.

Just before it went public via a direct listing on Wednesday, Roblox announced that it had reached a milestone of $2.5 billion mobile revenue between the App Store and Google Play–with $1.2 billion of that earned solely in 2020.

It was only October last year when Roblox passed its previous milestone of $2 billion in mobile revenue, meaning Roblox players have spent $500 million on mobile in the last five months. The game is free to download, with all Roblox’s revenue coming from the sale of its in-game currency, Robux. While players can also spend on other platforms, more than half of Roblox’s sales go through either the App Store or Google Play, with players from the United States accounting for 65% of that mobile revenue.

After multiple delays to its public listing, Roblox finally went public via direct listing on March 10. The New York Stock Exchange set a reference price of $45 a share, but the stock was up almost 55% to $69.50 by market close, as reported by CNN. The listing means the company is now valued at over $45 billion, higher than other industry giants such as EA and Take-Two.

After initially exploring an IPO, Roblox eventually went public via a direct listing. “For us, a direct listing seemed natural,” Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki told CNN. “It brings the whole community together and everyone is using the same price at the opening of trading.”

The director of the “John Wick” series has set up his next action outing.

New Line Cinema has won an auction for Chad Stahelski’s action-thriller “Classified,” per Deadline. The film is based on a story by Paranomal Activity: The Ghost Dimension writers Andrew Deutschman and Jason Pagan. There’s currently no word on who will star in the picture.

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The project was pitched as a cross between Die Hard and Indiana Jones. The film is set inside a secret government bunker like the one seen at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The facility contains artifacts recovered during World War II that prove to be dangerous. And then some Die Hard-style shenanigans proceed, presumably.

Stahelski made his name in Hollywood through stunts, serving as the stunt double for Keanu Reeves and a martial arts stunt coordinator for the original Matrix trilogy. Stahelski and David Leitch made their directorial debut in 2014 with the Reeves’ vehicle John Wick.

While Stahelski stayed attached to the series, helming the second and third entries, Leitch went on to direct blockbusters like Deadpool 2 and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

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Additionally, Stahelski is also set to helm a reboot of the cult fantasy film Highlander. He is also directing the fourth and fifth John Wick movies, which are currently in pre-production and set to be filmed back-to-back. John Wick: Chapter 4 will release on May 27, 2022.

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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

EA is investigating allegations that an employee, or at least someone involved with EA FIFA, is selling rare FIFA 21 Ultimate Team items in exchange for real money through a kind of makeshift black market.

Earlier this week, reports began spreading on social media that claimed to have screenshots of a text exchange between an alleged EA employee and a FIFA 21 player trying to purchase FUT Icon and Team of the Year cards. In the text exchange, the seller was offering rare cards for over $1,000 USD.

Typically, the legitimate ways to acquire these cards require trades between players or by purchasing random loot packs, making these cards incredibly rare. And it should be noted that Icon and TOTY cards aren’t just rare because of the famous players on them, but because their competitive stats are also some of the best in the game.

The exchange has since been named EA Gate on social media. You can check out the alleged details in a tweet from @FutArcade below.

#EAGATE

A special thanks to @RiberaRibell for the picture , he did an amazing work
(continue in the comments)#fut #fifa pic.twitter.com/bJIg2rpWtI

— Arcade-Fut (@FutArcade) March 10, 2021

It’s unclear exactly how these transactions begin, but according to the chat screenshots, a person seeking rare FUT cards just needs to provide their PSN and EA ID, and the appropriate funds. When asked by the buyer if there’s a reason to worry about being banned, the seller says there’s “no risk” but can’t divulge why out of concern for security.

The alleged seller appears to offer a menu of items, including 3 Icon cards for 750 Euros (~$895) or 3 Icon cards and 2 Team of the Year cards for 1,000 Euros (~$1193).

In a statement published on the official EA Sports FIFA Twitter account, the company says it’s aware of the allegations and has started an investigation.

“A thorough investigation is underway, and if we identify improper conduct, we will take swift action,” says EA. “We want to be clear — this type of behavior is unacceptable, and we in no way condone what is alleged to have happened here.”

pic.twitter.com/DtclTPandl

— EA SPORTS FIFA (@EASPORTSFIFA) March 10, 2021

IGN has contacted EA and received the same statement published on Twitter. We’ll have updates for when EA concludes its investigation.

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Matt T.M. Kim is a News Editor at IGN.

On this week’s episode of IGN’s PlayStation show Podcast Beyond!, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Brian Altano and Lucy O’Brien to discuss what implications the Bethesda deal  has on Sony’s current plans, how and what we think Sony can do to keep PlayStation Plus competitive and improve it, and our expectations for the future of PSVR and its successor.

Watch the new episode above!

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Podcast Beyond! is live every Wednesday. For more on PS5, check out our PS5 console review and our PS5 wiki guide for tips on how to best use your system. And for more Beyond, be sure to watch the first episode of our Bloodborne let’s play!

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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

In September last year, Blizzard asked World of Warcraft players to vote on a new mount that would be gifted for free to all players with Shadowlands active on their accounts. Players overwhelmingly voted for the Wandering Ancient–a big old walking tree you can ride on top of–and now it’s available in-game for eligible players.

Players were tasked with choosing between five unique options: the Wandering Ancient, Soaring Spelltome, Nerubian Swarmer, Curious Caterpillar, and Gooey Slimesaber. The options were listed with a brief description but without any visual aids, meaning players had to imagine the potential of each would-be mount.

The Wandering Ancient overwhelmingly came out on top, and the Blizzard team got to work bringing it to life, creating a walking tree mount that marks the first rideable Ancient in WoW. Just like the pint-sized Blossoming Ancient pet, the Wandering Ancient’s foliage will change with the seasons.

Players with Shadowlands will find the Wandering Ancient in their Mount Collection tab. If you don’t have Shadowlands yet don’t worry, you’ll be gifted the Wandering Ancient mount even if you purchase it at a later date.

While the Wandering Ancient was initially meant to arrive with the big Chains of Domination update, it’s instead dropped early with the smaller 9.0.5 update. While we don’t have a release window for the big Chains of Domination update yet, it’s set to bring a lot of changes and new content to the game when it drops.

Update:

As the investigation into Jay ‘Sinatraa’ Won continues, the Overwatch League has issued a statement regarding the matter. Prior to playing Valorant esports, Won was a key member of the San Francisco Shock Overwatch team, where he was crowned MVP for the team’s winning 2019 season.

Furthermore, Overwatch will refund an Overwatch League skin for Zarya that was inspired by Won as part of his MVP win during his time in the league. The Overwatch League operates under a franchise system, and the San Francisco Shock is operated by a third-party company.

In a statement to IGN, an Overwatch League spokesperson says, “The Overwatch League is aware of allegations made against former player Jay “Sinatraa” Won. We take any allegations of this nature seriously and unequivocally support victims of abuse.”

Overwatch League also says it will offer refunds for the “Alien” Overwatch League skin, which was designed to commemorate Won’s MVP win. Anyone with the skin currently can refund the skin for 200 League Tokens (retail: $9.99 USD) and have the skin removed from their collection. The Overwatch Championship and MVP badges will also be removed from the Alien skin in a future patch.

An official blog post on the Overwatch League website for how Won helped inspire the Alien skin has already been taken down and now redirects to an error page.

Here is the Overwatch League’s full statement below:

“The Overwatch League is aware of allegations made against former player Jay “Sinatraa” Won. We take any allegations of this nature seriously and unequivocally support victims of abuse. The League is offering a refund of 200 League Tokens for the “Alien” Overwatch League MVP skin to players who request one, at which point the skin will be removed from their collection. We’ll share more information on how refunds will work soon. The Overwatch Championship and MVP badges will be removed from the “Alien” skin in a future patch.”

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Original Story: Professional Valorant player Jay ‘Sinatraa’ Won has been suspended from the North American Valorant Champions Tour following allegations that he sexually abused a former partner.

Content Warning: details on sexual and emotional abuse follows.

In a statement yesterday,  Cleo Hernandez provides a detailed, graphic account of her relationship with Won, saying Won pressured her into sex on numerous occasions without her consent, even after she repeatedly told him no or expressed that she was in pain. She also accused him of being emotionally abusive and manipulative while they were together.

The account includes an audio recording in which Hernandez can be heard saying “No” repeatedly while a male voice, said to be Won’s, insists on continuing.

Today, Riot issued a statement through its official Valorant Champions Tour NA account authored by global head of competitive operations and Valorant, Alex Francois:

“We are aware of the current situation regarding Jay Won (Sinatraa) and have launched an investigation. Per our existing competitive rules and investigative process, a decision has been made to suspend Won throughout the investigation and therefore he will not be able to compete this weekend.”

Won’s team, the Los Angeles Sentinels, has also suspended Won with a similar statement:

“We are aware of the current situation regarding Jay ‘Sinatraa’ Won and have launched an investigation internally. While the investigation is pending, he is suspended from the team. We will provide a further update once the investigation has concluded.”

Won is a former competitive Overwatch player who used to play for the San Francisco Shock, before moving to the Sentinels and Valorant in 2020.

Won has yet to reply to these accusations. IGN has also reached out to the Overwatch League for comment as well.

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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.