biteho.com

CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński appeared on a video today to apologize on behalf of the company and the leadership team over the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Iwiński promises more updates will be regularly delivered along with free content, including the promised free next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X, now targeting the “second half of 2021”

CD Projekt never revealed when a next-gen upgrade for Cyberpunk 2077 will be released, other than that it would be released for free sometime in 2021. But now, Iwiński confirms that players will likely not see the update until the latter half of the year.

As Iwiński says in the video, Cyberpunk 2077 was developed with PC first and foremost in mind. This was reflected in IGN’s review of Cyberpunk 2077 where the PC experience was relatively smooth but nearly unplayable on base PS4 and Xbox One systems.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/11/cyberpunk-2077-graphics-comparison-ps5-vs-ps4-base-model”]

Currently, console players, even those with PS5 and Xbox Series X systems, are playing a backward-compatible version of the PS4 and Xbox One game.

The performance issues for Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles are so widespread, CDPR opened up an unprecedented refund policy, and companies like Sony even removed digital versions of Cyberpunk from the PlayStation Store. CDPR is also currently being investigated by the Consumer Protection Agency regarding the launch.

Iwiński’s video, which is nearly five minutes long, briefly touched on several questions about Cyberpunk 2077’s launch, including why there’s such a gap between PC and console versions of Cyberpunk 2077, and over how it handled review copies.

Dear gamers,
Below, you’ll find CD PROJEKT’s co-founder’s personal explanation of what the days leading up to the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 looked like, sharing the studio’s perspective on what happened with the game on old-generation consoles. pic.twitter.com/XjdCKizewq

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) January 13, 2021

 

In regards to bringing Cyberpunk 2077 to consoles, especially older ones, Iwiński says “things did not look super difficult at first, while we knew the hardware game, ultimately, time has proven that we’ve underestimated the task.”

He says the main culprit was the in-game streaming system, which is “responsible for ‘feeding’ the engine with what you see on screen, as well as the game mechanics.” Iwiński cites the disk bandwidth performance on older systems as being unable to keep up with the packed city design.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/28/class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-cyberpunk-2077-publisher-ign-news”]

Iwiński also says its internal testing “did not show many of the issues” players experienced and that each day of work “saw significant improvements” to performance. But even then Iwiński says the developers were working on optimizing the console version for the Day 0 patch up until launch. This accounts for the delay between getting PC review codes out and console review copies out on December 8th, according to Iwiński.

As for early 2021, CD Projekt will push several patches regularly throughout the year. The first update will be released “in the next 10 days” and a larger “more significant update” will be released weeks after that.

There are still plans to release free DLC as with The Witcher 3, but they may not target “early 2021” as previously expected as CDPR has shifted its priority to “working on the most important fixes and updates” and DLC will follow afterward.

CD Projekt Red faces several hurdles since launching Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2020. The company faces lawsuits over “misrepresenting” Cyberpunk 2077 as a product and have had to deny rumors about its development problems. Despite these issues, Cyberpunk 2077 sold over 13 million copies, despite refunds, and earned back its full development and marketing costs.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Following the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in December, developer CD Projekt Red has released a statement from studio co-founder Marcin Iwinski in which he offers a personal explanation of what happened in the days leading up to the game’s release.

“Despite good reviews on PC, the console version of Cyberpunk 2077 did not meet the quality standard we wanted it to meet. I and the entire leadership team are deeply sorry for this, and this video is me publicly owning up to that,” Iwinski said.

“Please, don’t fault any of our teams for what happened. They are all incredibly talented and hard-working. Myself and the board are the final decision-makers, and it was our call to release the game. Although, believe me, we never ever intended for anything like this to happen. I assure you that we will do our best to regain your trust.”

Iwinski proceeds to dive deep into the specific issues with the last-gen console versions of Cyberpunk 2077. He said the technically complex nature of the game led to some issues. In particular, he said the “main culprit” for the issues was related to how the team had to constantly improve the in-game streaming system for old-gen consoles. The hard drive bandwidth of the last-gen consoles was a constant challenge for the developer.

The studio’s own testing of this streaming technology showed improvements, and the studio felt the last-gen edition may be in a good place with the Day Zero patch, Iwinski said.

The executive pointed out that issues related to COVID-19 and working from home led to some further complications and problems for Cyberpunk 2077.

CD Projekt Red has already released three hot fixes for Cyberpunk 2077, but the company isn’t stopping there. The goal is to fix more bugs and crashes, and the next update will arrive within the next 10 days, Iwinski said. Another, more significant update is coming in the following weeks.

In addition to that, CD Projekt Red still plans to release free DLC packs for Cyberpunk 2077 later this year, while the free next-gen update for PS5 and Xbox Series X is planned for the second half of 2021.

A FAQ page posted to CD Projekt Red’s website has some further insight on what the studio is doing to make things right. In particular, the studio says it is trying to avoid crunch–the industry term for developers working long hours to finish a project–for the upcoming patches. “The team is working to bring relevant fixes to the game without any obligatory overtime. Avoiding crunch on all of our future projects is one of our top priorities,” the studio said.

Additionally, CD Projekt Red said it hopes to be able to work with Sony to bring the PS4 edition of Cyberpunk 2077 back to the PlayStation Store soon.

“We are working on fixes and updates, and are working with Sony to bring Cyberpunk 2077 back to PlayStation Store as soon as possible,” the studio said.

Despite the issues, Cyberpunk 2077 was one of 2020’s biggest games commercially, selling 13 million copies–and that includes refunds.

Cyberpunk 2077 FAQ

Q: Why is there such a gap between PC versions of Cyberpunk 2077 and old-gen consoles?

A: Cyberpunk 2077 is huge in scope, it features a multitude of custom objects, interacting systems and mechanics. In the game, everything is not stretched out over flat terrain where we can make things less taxing hardware-wise, but condensed in one big city and in a relatively loading-free environment. We made it even more difficult for ourselves by first wanting to make the game look epic on PCs and then adjusting it to consoles — especially old-gens. That was our core assumption. And things did not look super difficult at first, while we knew the hardware gap, ultimately, time has proven that we’ve underestimated the task.

Q: What was the main issue that made development for consoles that difficult?

A: The main culprit was having to constantly improve our in-game streaming system for old-gen consoles. Streaming is responsible for “feeding” the engine with what you see on screen, as well as the game mechanics. Since the city is so packed and the disk bandwidth of old-gen consoles is what it is, this is something that constantly challenged us.

Q: Didn’t you test old-gen consoles to keep tabs on the experience?

A: We did. As it turned out, our testing did not show many of the issues you experienced while playing the game. As we got closer to launch, we saw significant improvements each and every day, and we really believed we’d deliver in the final day zero update.

Q: Why was there a gap between PC and console reviews?

A: We started sending out PC review keys to start the review process in the first week of December. Come December 10th, launch day, we had a really good start with PC reviews, and while it’s not perfect, this is a version of the game we were, and still are, very proud of. When it comes to the review process for consoles, at the same time PC codes were sent out we were still working hard to improve the quality of the game on old-gen consoles. Every extra day that we worked on the day zero update brought visible improvement — that’s why we started sending console codes for reviews on the 8th December, which was later than we had planned.

Q: What have you done since launch to make the game better?

A: Our top priority since launch has been to fix bugs in Cyberpunk 2077. We have already released three hotfixes which have improved the game, but these are just the beginning.

Q: What are you going to do going forward to fix Cyberpunk 2077?

A: We are focused on fixing the bugs and crashes players are experiencing across every platform. You can expect more in the way of patches — both small and large — to be released regularly. The first update will drop in the next 10 days, and it will be followed by a larger, more significant update, in the weeks after. Our plans for supporting Cyberpunk 2077 in the long-term are unchanged, and we will continue to introduce updates and patches to give all players across all consoles and PCs a better experience with the game.

Q: You have said there would be free DLC for the game in ‘early 2021’, will this be impacted by improvements?

A: We’re still planning on releasing free DLC for the game, just like with The Witcher 3. However, we have decided that our priority is working on the most important fixes and updates. We will be releasing free DLC afterwards — we’ll have more to say about that in the coming months.

Q: When can we expect the next-gen update for Cyberpunk 2077?

A: For those who are playing the game on next-gen consoles via backwards compatibility, we are planning the free, next-gen update for Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox Series consoles, and PlayStation 5, this year. We’re aiming for the second half of the year and we’ll reveal more when we have more to share.

Q: Are you making the team crunch to work on the patches?

A: The team is working to bring relevant fixes to the game without any obligatory overtime. Avoiding crunch on all of our future projects is one of our top priorities.

Q: When is the game coming back to PlayStation Store?

A: We are working on fixes and updates, and are working with Sony to bring Cyberpunk 2077 back to PlayStation Store as soon as possible.

Q: What is the status of the Help Me Refund initiative?

A: The initiative is progressing according to plan and we just sent out the first wave of reimbursements.

Steam has released its 2020 Year in Review, which reveals that the hours played on Steam was 50.7% greater than 2019.

Steam began its 2020 Year in Review by acknowledging the COVID-19 pandemic that is still ongoing, and noted that while Steam was seeing “significant growth” before the lockdowns began, video game playtime surged when people began staying at home.

This change led to new record breaking stats for Steam, including 120 million monthly active players, 62.6 million daily active players, 24.8 million peak concurrent players, 2.6 million new purchasers per month, 21.4% more games purchased compared to 2019, and the previously mentioned 50.7% more hours played compared to 2019 statistic.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/30/the-best-and-worst-reviewed-games-of-2020″]

The increase in people purchasing and playing games led to a huge increase of traffic, with March 2020 seeing a 30-40% increase in total traffic related to game downloads. Cyberpunk 2077 also added to that server stress, with the game breaking records for download traffic with a peak of 52 terabytes per second, which doubled the previous record. This, and so much more, led to 25.2 exabytes of data being downloaded from Steam in 2020. For reference, an exabyte is 1 million terabytes.

While Steam had announced earlier this year that it made changes to game update downloads to manage bandwidth during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has now revealed here that “various countries’ government bodies approached us and other large Internet companies to see how we could help mitigate the rise in global traffic that ISPs were seeing, because it was getting to a point where it was affecting people’s ability to work from home and their children’s remote schooling.”

Steam also revealed that it saw 104 million SteamVR sessions, 1.7 million first time SteamVR users, 71% more VR revenue, and a 30% increase in VR playtime. VR game sales rose 32% year-over-year, and that’s not even counting Half-Life: Alyx, which added another 39% on top of that number.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=the-best-modern-pc-games-summer-2020-update&captions=true”]

Controller usage on steam also saw an increase, with 46.6 million players using a controller, 1.68 billion game sessions with players using a controller occuring, and 452 million game sessions with Steam Input happening.

Sales were also a big part of Steam’s 2020, and this helped lead to a 36% increase in the number of games that grossed over $100,000 from the 2019 Winter Sale to the 2020 Winter Sale.

In closing, Steam shared some initiatives it has planned for 2021, including Steam China, user experience improvements, steam login improvements, a possible revamp to the Steam Points program, improvements to Linux and Steam Labs, and much more.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/21/hades-igns-2020-game-of-the-year”]

For more on Steam’s 2020, check out its list of the top-selling and most-played games of 2020.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

With the revival of the Lucasfilm Games banner earlier this week and multiple game announcements, including a Ubisoft-developed Star Wars one, the galaxy far, far away is broadening outside the walls of EA Studios. And while the announcement may not be surprising given the turbulent stewardship of Star Wars at EA, it’s still an exciting prospect – one filled with hope for the future of Star Wars games and the potential freedom Lucasfilm Games may now have.

In fact, Lucasfilm’s moves in the gaming space this week appear to be following in the footsteps of another Disney-owned entertainment – Marvel.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/open-world-star-wars-game-in-the-works-at-ubisoft-ign-news”]

There’s Been an Awakening

Lucasfilm Games revives the pre-LucasArts branding from the ‘80s, and evokes classic adventure games like Indiana Jones, Monkey Island, and Sam and Max. However, its name appears to be a nod to the past, not a return to it – Lucasfilm promises to be “the official identity for all gaming titles from Lucasfilm, a name that encompasses the company’s rich catalog of video games and its eye toward the future.”

The rebranding announcement preceded the, erm, massive news that Division 2 developer Massive is working on an open-world Star Wars game to be published by Ubisoft, billed as “the beginning of a long-term collaboration with Disney and Lucasfilm Games,” as well as a new Indiana Jones adventure from Wolfenstein studio MachineGames and publisher Bethesda.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=every-ign-star-wars-game-review&captions=true”]

Lucasfilm Games’ mission statement and announcements, at least for now, indicate that the company isn’t opening its own internal game development studio. Gaming has long been something Disney has endeavored to have more of an impact on, even if just a couple years ago then-CEO Bob Iger admitted Disney “just never managed to demonstrate much skill on the publishing side of games.” Despite holding the keys to an increasing number of the biggest properties in entertainment. This was perhaps most obvious when Disney Interactive Studios shuttered in 2016 alongside the end of support for Disney Infinity, which threw Star Wars, Marvel, and all things Disney into one toys-to-life toybox that never quite took off.

But while Disney’s gaming brand nursed its wounds, and Star Wars remained locked (outside of VR, mobile, and LEGO games) in the hands of EA, Marvel quietly rebuilt itself into a formidable force in gaming.

A Disney (Business) Crossover

So far, this roadmap has worked for fellow-Disney owned Marvel Games. In 2016, Marvel Games publicly became the stewards of the brand, having previously been hamstrung by an exclusive deal similar to EA and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars arrangement. Marvel and Activision had an agreement stemming back into the early 2000’s for exclusive rights to X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man games. The partnership appeared to do so well in its earliest days, with hits like the Spider-Man 2 movie adaptation and the X-Men Legends line, that the two companies renewed the deal for Spidey and the mutants through 2017. But that partnership, as it continued on, resulted in underwhelming returns as the Spider-Man franchise lost its acclaim, and Marvel felt the pull of movie licensing for the MCU elsewhere. The relationship was eventually seemingly dissolved in 2014, but through the early 2010’s Marvel’s movie tie-ins led to a string of disappointing Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America games based on market needs rather than game ideas.

With its rebranding, Marvel Games made partnerships with different developers and publishers to produce a range of different games, unbeholden to any one exclusivity contract with a certain company or to satisfy tie-in needs for movies or TV. It’s partially why we can see an Insomniac-developed, PlayStation-exclusive Spider-Man series alongside a multi-platform Avengers series (that will also see Spider-Man… be PlayStation exclusive, but that’s another story entirely) released near to a Nintendo-exclusive Marvel Ultimate Alliance sequel.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/06/marvels-spider-man-miles-morales-review”]

Sure, each one of them hasn’t been the runaway success that Marvel’s Spider-Man has been, but it’s clear that Marvel isn’t precluding developers from getting to play around with the heroes they want to develop games for, or the types of games those heroes can play around in. Camouflaj can develop an Iron Man VR game and Crystal Dynamics can still use Tony Stark as a playable character in Marvel’s Avengers. Entirely different games with entirely different visions can be produced under the Marvel Games name, without console or publisher agreements prohibiting a specific company from working with Marvel. Marvel has already worked with Telltale Games, Capcom, Crystal Dynamics, Insomniac, Camouflaj, and more.

Keeping things centrally tied to a Marvel company has allowed for more experimentation and general variety than we might have seen had Marvel agreed to only let a single publisher or developer tackle certain Marvel characters. And that’s led to a dual benefit – when a partnership works, Marvel can continue working alongside a developer, and when a project doesn’t quite work out, Marvel isn’t locked in to only one deal with its vast wealth of memorable and beloved characters.

That’s of course the most exciting part about Lucasfilm Games being able to stretch beyond the EA-Disney deal. EA’s time with the Star Wars license has been, to put it politely, turbulent, remembered for publicly canceled, high-profile games like Amy Henig and Visceral’s Ragtag; years entirely absent of Star Wars games, and microtransaction debacles around the launch of Star Wars Battlefront II. Of course, not everything has been bad news, and EA turned the ship around in recent years – Battlefront II’s team continually added DLC, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order delivered the Jedi action-adventure game fans have wanted since, well, the partnership began, and Star Wars Squadrons proved smaller-scale projects could fit into the EA pipeline and offer entirely different wish-fulfillment out of the galaxy.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=every-ea-star-wars-project&captions=true”]

But even though things have improved in the last couple of years, there’s no denying that Lucasfilm’s new direction gives us hope. A more free Lucasfilm Games could indeed mirror Marvel Games, and deals with Ubisoft and more could signal the start of a much more plentiful era of Star Wars gaming.

It’s also worth noting that with Marvel Games-published titles, there’s no single canon developers have to adhere to, comics, MCU, or otherwise. On the other hand, every piece of Disney-owned Star Wars property, including games, has to seemingly stay true to and fit within the canon of the Star Wars universe. It’s unclear whether that will continue to be the case with Lucasfilm Games, but it might mean we see fewer studios doubling up on characters or specific eras, and instead start branching out, making something like the newly launched The High Republic a perfect place to carve out new stories that wouldn’t contradict existing narratives.

What Does This Mean for EA and Star Wars

But does the Ubisoft deal signal that Lucasfilm Games is entirely moving on from EA-produced Star Wars games? No, and, thankfully, it could mean an even stronger partnership between Lucasfilm and EA.

Alongside the Ubi news, EA released a statement, saying “We are proud of our long-standing collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, which will continue for years to come. Our talented teams have created some of the most successful games in the history of the Star Wars franchise, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and Star Wars: Squadrons. We love Star Wars and look forward to creating more exciting experiences for players to enjoy.”

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/15/star-wars-jedi-fallen-order-review”]

Removing the pressures of being the only Star Wars developers will let EA focus on what has worked for them so far. EA can work on a Battlefront III or a Jedi: Fallen Order 2 and not have to worry about it carrying the weight of an entire gaming universe of expectations.

Jedi: Fallen Order was in the top 10 best-selling games of 2019, and Squadrons apparently earned enough goodwill that the development team produced free DLC after launch, even though there were no intentions to keep making content after its debut. Some great games have come from EA’s partnership with Lucas, but it’s a partnership that is mired with the aforementioned cancellations, studio closures, and reshifting of projects. Freeing both companies from the pressure of the previous arrangement will likely lead to a better future for both, and, hopefully, for all Star Wars fans. And we’ve seen success like that come from Lucasfilm’s Star Wars gaming past when it could partner with a variety of companies. In the late ’90s early 2000’s, we saw such varied projects as the acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic series, Star Wars: Episode I – Racer, Republic Commando, and the Jedi Knight series. Sure, with every KOTOR there was also a Masters of Teras Kasi, but the sheer variety and freedom Lucasfilm had in licensing to so many developers just wasn’t possible under the recent EA deal.

More Than Just Laser Swords

Of course, Star Wars is, naturally front and center in the discussion of what Lucasfilm Games’ future will hold, but it’s worth noting that Lucasfilm has long produced non-Star Wars games, and some acclaimed ones at that. Lucasfilm Entertainment has also got a slew of other film and TV projects in the works, from Indiana Jones to Children of Blood and Bone to Willow, and the expectation should be the same on the gaming side.

We’re already seeing that play out – the first project announced under the new Lucasfilm Games is an Indiana Jones outing from Bethesda’s MachineGames. This partnership is important for a couple of reasons – as an opening statement, it makes clear Lucasfilm Games won’t just be about Star Wars games, and given the brand’s history, that’s a great thing. And second, MachineGames is a partner completely outside of recent Star Wars projects but is still a developer known for making acclaimed, mature games. It’s clearly an indicator that Lucasfilm has an eye on picking the right teams for the right projects.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/indiana-jones-bethesda-game-official-teaser”]

While new franchises are always welcome (and needed), it isn’t surprising to see Lucasfilm jump into another of its beloved properties as one of its first game projects. Nostalgia, after all, is at the heart of much of Disney and its many subsidiaries’ success. Does that mean we’ll see the revival of other classic Lucasfilm or LucasArts franchises, like Monkey Island? Quite possibly. Might they always play second fiddle to Star Wars commercially? Sure, but Lucasfilm Games is a name that carries plenty of meaning for plenty of reasons, and it would be shocking if the compay didn’t attempt to revitalize all aspects of what made it, and subsequently LucasArts, such a beloved name in gaming for so long.

However it chooses to carry itself from here, we’ve already learned quite a lot about Lucasfilm Games’ intentions as a revived brand in gaming. It’s a company that’s more than just Star Wars – though also very, very much about Star Wars – and is aiming to take big swings with its biggest franchises. Will everything be a knockout success? Like with Marvel Games, possibly not, but also like its sister company, seeing Lucasfilm make these big bets for the future and learn from both its and Marvel’s past is enough to offer fans a renewed sense of something Star Wars is fundamentally built on – hope.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. He is currently reading and loving Light of the Jedi. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

The version 1.1.0 patch for Immortals: Fenyx Rising will be going out this week, fixing multiple bugs and adding support for the upcoming DLC called A New God. The patch notes don’t give further details about the expansion.

The patch notes on the Ubisoft forums say that the patch will hit at 9 AM ET / 6 AM PT on Thursday, January 14. Those include a fix to a spoilery boss fight, and a few fixes to photo mode, among others. It also includes a few platform-specific issues, such as adding more haptic feedback on PS5, fixing save corruption on Xbox Series X, and aspect ratio, audio, and KBM bug fixes on PC.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising was released in December. In GameSpot’s Immortals Fenyx Rising review, critic Suriel Vazquez wrote, “But even as it lives in the shadow of better games, its puzzles, combat, and open-world loop come together often enough for me to not only see it through for a few dozen hours, but also want to keep filling out its almighty checklist, even if it led me by the nose most of the way through.”

If you’re just getting started on Immortals, check out some of our beginner tips and abilities to get first. Check out the full patch notes below.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising 1.1.0 Patch Notes

Highlights

• Added support for the upcoming DLC content “A New God”
• Multiple localization fixes.
• Various bug fixes and stability improvements.

Activities

• Fixed the issue when (REDACTED) stops fighting you in the Zeus Throne region main story fight.
• [Photomode] Fixed multiple issues when having more than 50 photos.
• [Photomode] Friend photos are now prioritized on the map and correctly identified.
• Fixed an issue where gameplay elements disappear after fast-traveling.
• Fixed an issue where the Fenyx would get stuck after fast-traveling.

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue when the player would get stuck behind an invisible wall after looting a chest In dungeons.
• Fixed an issue where customizing the “Dodge” action button would affect the “Sprint” action button and vice-versa on a controller.
• Adjusted the “Look, No Hands” obtention to be only in vaults as described.
• Fixed the “Galewind” bow behavior to fit its first perk description.

User Interface

• Visual Customization now stay applied when switching weapon or armor.

Graphics

• Guided arrow can now be seen from farther away.

System

• [XBOX Series X] Fixed a save game corruption over very long play sessions.
• [PC] Multi-monitors and special aspect ratio UI fixes.
• [PC] Resolved the audio cut-off when leaving a menu or entering a cutscene.
• [PC] Locked Target Switch now work when using the mouse and Keyboard control scheme.
• [PS5] Haptic Feedback added to various combat action.

The Mandalorian is playing a big role in Fortnite Season 5. He’s come to the battle royale as an NPC and attacks players who approach his ship on sight. Those who manage to kill him can pick up his mythic sniper rifle and jetpack–there is only one of each in every match. He’s come to be a thorn in the side of players all over the map.

The bounty hunter originally spawned close to the Razor Crest crash landing site near the center of the map, where he guards a piece of Beskar that players needed to collect. A recent update gave the bot multiple spawn locations–some players have found him swimming in rivers, fighting the IO Guards, and sneaking up on them with his signature thermal rifle. He’s left his ship behind.

“This dude legit showed up at Pleasant Park and steamrolled the IO Guards there,” said Redditor unlocked_. “I didn’t know he could move that far until now. I was so confused.”

NPC bosses came to Fortnite earlier in Chapter 2 and the feature was expanded in Season 4. Iron Man, Wolverine, and Dr. Doom were all NPCs at various named locations, guarding special mythical weapons and other rare items. The Marauders, a group of low-powered bots, used to roam the map wreaking havoc in much earlier seasons. None of these bots have been much of a challenge in direct one-on-one fights–but they can ruin your day given the opportunity.

“Be careful with Mando,” said Redditor S3BAXTIAN0. “If you get far away from him he will snipe you and you will regret being born.” The Mandalorian is easy to handle up close if you move around him rapidly, but his computer-controlled thermal rifle can hit you from hundreds of meters out. He has eliminated some players before they’ve even landed.

Adding recognizable, AI-controlled characters to the map is an interesting way to throw a wrench into normal battle royale action. The Mandalorian will often crash a fight, helping one side come out on top by distracting the other team. Epic Games has tried to encourage encounters like that by including all sorts of bots in the battle royale.

Star Wars is one of the anchors of Season 5. He roams the map, there are Beskar Quests that need to be completed to unlock pieces of his armor, and Grogu is the final piece of unlockable gear in the battle pass. It’s almost as if we’re playing in another licensed season with how big of a role the bounty hunter is playing.