And to finish, here’s the least likely Ubisoft game to see released in 2023, or perhaps, ever. Which is incredibly sad.
The original 2003 Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was revelatory. An exceptional game that reinvented how all third-person action games should be played, with its astonishing rewinding time mechanic, and fabulous 3D platforming. Sadly, no one else ever had the sense to copy it, and 20 years later we remain stuck in a mire of action games that endlessly kill us, rather than let us keep going. Oh, and there was that Jake Gyllenyhaal film to rub salt in the wound.
A remake was announced in 2020, with the ambitious release date of January, 2021. Spoiler alert: that didn’t happen, and it was maybe for the best, given just how awful it looked in the trailer above. It was then rather optimistically delayed until just March ‘21, before they seemingly admitted to themselves that it looked like a PS3 game, and kicked it down the road. Later that year Ubisoft said it’d appear in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, then took it from Indian developers Ubisoft Mumbai and gave it to Ubisoft Montreal, before announcing yet another delay last May, without even guessing at a fiscal year.
Come last November, things looked even worse when Ubisoft cancelled all pre-orders and returned everyone’s money. Perhaps a useful lesson on why you probably shouldn’t pre-order games that don’t exist yet. The publisher insists the game isn’t cancelled, but has yet to suggest a new release date, meaning this is unlikely perhaps even in 2024.
But hey, it’ll still probably come out before Beyond Good & Evil 2.
Reports indicate that a bug in Grand Theft Auto V Online is putting PC gamers’ gameplay—and even, potentially, hardware—at risk.
The bug is allegedly allowing cheaters and modders to hijack, edit, or corrupt PC gamers account information. Some players report having all of their gameplay and account data erased, while others have said that their in-game currency has been stolen. Worse, the bug allegedly allows for “partial remote code execution,” which could allow malicious users to edit players PC files. While GTA’s publisher, Rockstar Games, hasn’t officially commented on the situation yet, many commentators have encouraged PC players to refrain from playing the game until we all have a better picture of what’s going on.
News of the troubles first started popping up in various pockets of the internet over the weekend, with one particular observer, the twitter account Tez2 (which regularly updates about Rockstar news), posting extensively about the exploit. Complaints also exploded in Rockstar’s official support forums.
“Gta online on pc is currently unplayable due to severe exploits, this needs to be fixed,” one user posted.
“Scared to play online,” another commented. “Please fix this rockstar, I really like this game.”
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Another merely said: “GET YOUR *** TOGETHER ROCKSTAR!”
Meanwhile, a subreddit devoted to the game has called for players to avoid the game until further notice. “As we’ve learned it is not safe to play the game on PC right now due to a very dangerous exploit that has just come to light,” reads a pinned post shared in the subreddit. “We need to mass-report this to Rockstar so they can’t ignore it.”
On the same subreddit, users have expressed frustration that Rockstar hasn’t addressed—or even confirmed—the security issue yet: “Absolutely the most unforgivable element of this. R* is more concerned with bad press than telling people the extent to which their game has been breached and what danger it poses to their personal information,” commented one user. “It really makes me think the worst, if they can’t even come out and say X is safe for now.”
Tez2, which has been monitoring the situation, has written that “Rockstar is aware [of the problem] and have been logging any affected account before the first mod menu started abusing the new exploits.” However, the company itself hasn’t published an official statement on the issue yet.
BleepingComputer has reported that the vulnerability associated with the exploit has already accrued an official CVE designation and is being tracked as CVE-2023-24059. The CVE describes the bug as allowing a hacker to “achieve partial remote code execution or modify files on a PC.” There aren’t a whole lot of details available about how the exploit is supposed to work, however.
Gizmodo reached out to Rockstar for comment on the apparent security problems but have not heard back. We will update this story if they respond.
If the bug does turn out to be real, it would be far from the first bit of security trouble that Rockstar has been through lately. Last year, a cybercriminal managed to compromise the gaming giant’s systems and proceeded to steal (and later leak) source code to the upcoming GTA 6.
After only two weeks, it should be pretty clear that HBO’s The Last of Us is catching on with audiences. From its spot-on adaptation of elements of the video game, to its dark extensions of that lore, to the terrifying reality of its world, fans and non-fans of the game alike seem to be eating it up. And, in the latest episode, there seemed to be less eating and more… kissing, which some may have found curious.
As discussed in our extended recap, episode two of The Last of Us ended with Tess (Anna Torv) sacrificing herself to save Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). She kind of had to, as she’s been bitten and is certain to turn into a mindless killer soon enough. But as the infected storm her location, and one of them notices her, instead of running at her in a fit of rage, he approaches slowly and gives her an open-mouth zombie kiss, with his living, squirming tendrils moving into her mouth.
It’s a moment that’s curious for a few reasons. One, it’s not in the game, so a decision was made to specifically do this. Two, we’re used to infected being incredibly violent with their victims, and this one is quite the opposite. And three, if Tess was already infected, was there any real point to it?
That third point can’t really be answered (maybe the kiss sped up the transformation or was just cool-looking), but the first two can and, in a new interview, co-showrunner Neil Druckmann talks about it. “These things don’t have to get violent unless you’re fighting them from spreading [the infection] further,” Druckmann said to Entertainment Weekly. “That is realized in this beautiful, yet horrific way with Anna.”
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So, because she’s made peace with becoming a zombie, she’s kind of brought into the mix in a non-violent way. Sure, we can buy that. But what about the tendrils themselves, which are also a new addition?
“Craig [Mazin] smartly said, ‘What can we do to separate our infected even further from zombies?’ It’s more than just a bite. There’s something else going on,” Druckmann added. “I wish we had that aha moment immediately, but we brainstormed so many different things that they could be doing. Some of them were pretty outlandish.”
And, if you thought this act of violence/romance was something, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Check out the moment in the latest episode of The Last of Us.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Late last week, Square Enix announced that its beleaguered2020 live-service game, Marvel’s Avengers, will no longer receive new content or major updates after March 31. And all official support for the game will end on September 30, 2023, with digital sales ending on that date too. While you’ll still be able to play it offline and online with friends after these dates, it’s effectively game over for the troubled online action game. Yet, even in death, developer Crystal Dynamics just confirmed that the character of Spider-Man will remain exclusive to the PS4 and PS5 versions.
This saga began when, shortly ahead of the release of Marvel’s Avengers, Crystal Dynamics announced that Spider-Man would be added to the game at a later date. However, the famous web-slinger would not be coming to the Xbox or PC versions. Instead, only PS4 (and later PS5) players would have access to the character. It took longer than expected, but eventually, in November 2021 Spider-Man popped up in the PlayStation versions. At the time fans theorized that it was because Spider-Man was owned by Sony and therefore Spidey was only on PlayStation. (That isn’t the case, as Sony merely owns film rights to the character.) But since then, the famous superhero has appeared in Midnight Suns across all platforms. So it’s not like Spider-Man can only exist on PlayStation consoles.
And yet, Crystal Dynamics confirmed in a blog post on January 20 that Spider-Man will still notbe coming to Xbox or PC. What a shame! Even as the failed live-service game dies, none of Spidey’s corporate overlords can agree to let him swing free across all platforms for the few Avengers players out there still enjoying the game.
Marvel / PlayStation
Kotaku contacted Marvel, PlayStation, Square Enix, Embracer Group, and Crystal Dynamics for comment, but didn’t hear back before publication.
I already know people in the comments or quote retweets will claim Sony completely owns Spider-Man (it doesn’t) or that Sony can’t legally allow the character to appear on other platforms (it can). Yet he’s in Midnight Suns, a game released on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. He’s in mobile games released across iOS, Android, and PC, too.
So it’s totally doable to have Spidey show up on other consoles if the people pulling the strings, cutting the deals, and making the contracts can agree to it. But apparently nobody cares enough about Avengers and its community to muster one last gesture of goodwill for players and let the web-slingin’ hero show up on Xbox and PC. If you want to play the complete version of the game after support ends in September, it seems you’ll have to own a PlayStation. Say it with me once again: Console-exclusive DLC sucks.
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Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot faced tough questions from some exhausted and fed-up staff about recent missteps and future plans in a company-wide Q&A session on Wednesday. The meeting comes just a week after the Assassin’s Creed publisher announced new cancellations, delays, and cost-cutting measures, and told employees “the ball is in your court” to help get the $3 billion company back on track.
“The ball is now in our court—for years it has been in your court so why did you mishandle the ball so badly so we, the workers, have to fix it for you?” read one upvoted question on a list submitted in advance through corporate communication channels and viewed by Kotaku. It was a reference to a now infamous email Guillemot sent to staff last week that appeared to shift blame for the publisher’s recent mistakes and hold lower-level employees accountable for fixing the situation.
Guillemot opened the meeting by apologizing. “I heard your feedback and I’m sorry this was perceived that way,” Guillemot said, according to sources present who were not authorized to speak to press. “When saying ‘the ball is in your court’ to deliver our lineup on time and at the expected level of quality, I wanted to convey the idea that more than ever I need your talent and energy to make it happen. This is a collective journey that starts of course with myself and with the leadership team to create the conditions for all of us to succeed together.”
While that clarification resonated with some developers, others who spoke with Kotaku still feel management is out of touch and found little in the meeting to reassure them. The hour-long affair was filled with industry buzzwords and business jargon and light on specifics. Chief financial officer Frederick Duguet said they needed to reduce costs and increase productivity. Chief people officer Anika Grant rejected a recent proposal for four-day work weeks and said requested raises to keep up with inflation were off the table amid the current financial struggles. None of the executives directly addressed the recent call for a strike over working conditions at the company’s Paris studio.
Guillemot remained vague about the potential for layoffs as well. “It’s not about doing more with less, but finding ways to do things differently across the company,” Guillemot said at one point.
The meeting comes after a particularly poor 2022 for the global publisher which included no marquee blockbuster as several projects were delayed, trapped in development hell, or shipped and failed to find an audience. “It appears that management is out of touch with games saying that we need to adapt to an evolving industry,”?” read one of the questions for the meeting that received hundreds of upvotes. “Why are we chasing trends instead of setting them?”
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Those trends could include the company’s 2021 misadventure with NFTs or its partnership with the now-defunct Google Stadia streaming service. It could also describe the publisher’s recent race to ship multiple free-to-play spin-offs of existing franchises and a crowded slate of battle royale and hero-based shooters. Some of these, like Hyper Scape and Roller Champions, have already launched and struggled to find audiences. Others like The Division Heartland were announced a while ago and have yet to actually come out.
Ghost Recon: Frontlineis another example. Revealed in 2021, it looked like a rip-off of Call of Duty Warzone but with some new gameplay twists. Internal testing reportedly revealed that it did indeed play like a Call of Duty Warzone rip-off and Ubisoft decided to can it last summer along with three other projects, leaving Ghost Recon fans scratching their heads and developers disillusioned.
In today’s meeting, Guillemot spoke of doubling down on Ubisoft’s core franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, andits Tom Clancy games, including Rainbow Six Siege, whose potential the CEO compared to Riot Games’ Valorant. Some see it as a retreat not just from chasing trends but from experimentation as well. “We need to acknowledge that the trends are for mega brands,” said Marie-Sophie de Waubert, senior vice president of studio operations, when asked about why the company didn’t pursue more varied, smaller games like Anno 1800.
One big criticism of Ubisoft in recent years has been the lack of variation between sequels and an over-reliance on an open-world blueprint that bleeds over from franchise to franchise. When pressed about the lack of inventiveness, Guillemot pointed to Far Cry 6 as a “good quality” game that was still considered “not innovative enough.” It remains unclear how Ubisoft will juggle the budget demands and production complexity of its big blockbusters with creative risks going forward.
Kotaku understands that developers onsome of the recently canceled projects will pivot to helping ship games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, a smaller and more traditional entry in the stealth action series. Originally planned as an Assassin’s Creed Valhalla expansion, Mirage grew into a full-fledged game in part out of the need to plug holes in Ubisoft’s release calendar. Instead it slipped into the fiscal year starting in April 2023, along with Skull and Bones and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Guillemot recently called that lineup and what comes beyond it the best in the company’s history, though if its recent past is any indication, it’s unlikely to go exactly as planned.
Ubisoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – 2002 Screenshot: Rockstar Games
Last year, footage of the next Grand Theft Auto—assumed to be GTA 6—leaked online. While Rockstar quickly tried to erase the videos from the internet and plug the holes in the ship, it was impossible to completely contain such a massive, unprecedented leak. So fans around the world got a very good look at the future of Grand Theft Auto. And now myself and others find it hard to go back to the aging GTA Online.
Late on September 19, 2022, 90 short videos of early gameplay of what would later be confirmed by Rockstar as the next GTA entry leaked online via a hacker. The footage revealed a lot about the next game in the massively popular open-world franchise, including that the series would be returning to Vice City, Florida, a fan-favorite location last seen in GTA: Vice City Stories, the prequel to the beloved PS2 classic, GTA: Vice City. It also gave us a good look at the new protagonists of this next criminal adventure and some of the missions we might experience when GTA 6 is eventually released. Fans even began mapping out the game’s virtual world using the leaks.
Rockstar undoubtedly hates the leak and likely wishes it could rewind time and prevent it from ever happening at all, but it did end up revitalizing the playerbase. For the first time in a long time, there was excitement and energy in the GTA community, which after years of GTA Online updates and poorly received remasters was in a pretty bad place prior to the leak. Even an early, unfinished or unpolished leak of GTA 6 was better than radio silence and glitchy remasters. People were pumped and hyped about the future of Grand Theft Auto in a way I hadn’t seen in years.
But then, once the leaks were scrubbed from the web and it became clear Rockstar wasn’t going to release any official teaser or trailer to capitalize on the moment, all I and other GTA fans could do was go back to GTA Online. And that’s harder to do now that I’ve seen the future.
Rockstar Games
The latest big and free expansion to GTA Online,Los SantosDrug Wars, was released late last year at a really bad time for me to play and cover it for the site. So I just…didn’t play it. For the first time ever in the history of GTA Online, I skipped a new update completely. I’ve still not played it. At first, I blamed my skipping of the latest update on bad timing and a busy schedule due to holidays and end-of-the-year content. But now, weeks removed from all that, with more free time to play stuff, I’ve still not fired up the new update. And I think it’s time to admit to myself that my growing burnout around GTA Online was increased greatly by that small taste of what’s to come. That look at the future of GTA in Florida ruined me.
I could go back and drive around the same highways and streets of Los Santos I’ve been cruising around since 2013. I could fire up the game and check out the newest business and missions connected to it. I could, sure. The thing is, I don’t know if I want to. I mean, eventually, I will play more GTA Online. I sort of have to as it’s part of my job here at Kotaku. Yet, if it wasn’t part of my career there’s a real chance that I might just never play GTA Online again.
To be clear: It’s not because GTA Online is worse today than it was a decade ago—it’s actually much better to play in 2023 than in 2013—but because getting a glimpse of a fresh new world has killed my desire to boot up the same old Los Santos after a decade of GTA Online and GTA V. I mean, just having new songs on the radio will be amazing. I love Queen’s “Radio Ga-Ga” but you can only hear it so many times in 10 years before you’re ready for new tunes, too.
At this point, I’m hoping the wait for Grand Theft Auto 6 and its sunny beaches, palm trees, and new characters isn’t too much longer, because I’m ready to leave Los Santos behind for a tropical vacation to Vice City.
The last few Assassin’s Creed titles have been gigantic games that can easily take over a hundred hours to fully complete, with huge maps crowded with POIs and tons of side quests to distract you from the main story. According to Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the upcoming spin-off, is smaller and more “intimate” because fans grew tired of these giant RPGs. And the devs were more than happy to go in this direction with the latest game in the franchise.
While I’ll be the first to say that modern Assassin’s Creed games have been a lot of fun, I’ll also admit that recent entries in the series like Odyssey and Valhalla have become far too big and bloated. More recent Assassin’s Creed games, starting with Origins, have evolved the franchise from a series of smaller, stealth games set in large cities into a collection of massive open-world RPGs often filled with hundreds of quests, side quests, collectibles, and places to explore. And if you, like me, long for a smaller, more focused Assassin’s Creed, well, we aren’t alone.
In an interview with GamesRadar, Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s creative director Stéphane Boudon explained that while Origins, Odyssey,and Valhalla were all “great games” that let players “live an epic journey” it was clear that those players were longing for something different and smaller.
“Amongst our fans, we started hearing the desire for a character-driven story, focused on the core pillars of the first ACs in a more intimate scale,” explained Boudon. “It resonates with us as well, as developers, and this was the starting point of the project.”
Read More:How Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Creators Snuck In Connections To Older Games
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Boudon also said that while Miragecame about from a “convergence of several inputs” the biggest driver behind the upcoming spin-off’s smaller scale and focus on narrative came from what the community was asking for after years of huge RPGs.
Further, Mirage pays homage to the OG Assassin’s Creed game starring Altair. Mirage is set in a similar part of the world—the Middle East during the 13th century—and features actual assassins and not proto-assassins as seen in recent games.
I think all of this is a great direction to take the franchise. I want to keep playing these games, but after Valhalla, I’m not sure I need yet another 200-hour epic RPG. This could really help mix things up and keep the franchise feeling fresh and fun. I hope this is the start of a new trend where we see a mix of bigger, open-world entries (Valhalla, Origins) and smaller games focused on stealth. The franchise can support this mix and it would help avoid burning out fans who play every new game AKA me.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set to release sometime this year for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
The Gecko Gods is an upcoming exploration and puzzle game by Louis Waloschek (and other collaborators) that puts the player in control of a gecko crawling its way around an open island. The game saw a bit of an uptick in interest yesterday as the developer announced it will come to Switch, and it sure looks cute.
What sticks out, to me, is how, because the gecko can climb on walls and ceilings, it opens up new dimensions for you to explore and for the team to design puzzles around. Because of this, entire rocky structures within its temples become space for level design, and it’s a neat way to have to think about the environment as you climb around it and solve puzzles.
The Gecko Gods also has sailing segments, and it’s adorable to watch the little gecko try to man the boat all by itself, as it has to steer with its mouth while also managing the motor to start and stop. It’s an interesting design decision that can ground you in what it’s like to be an inhuman thing operating something built for humans. Hopefully the novelty keeps that from getting frustrating. The exploration and puzzle solving seems to be broken up by combat sections, and while our gecko friend here isn’t sporting any weapons in the trailer, it looks like it has a mean bite and is quick on its feet.
The whole thing seems to take clear inspiration from different eras of The Legend of Zelda series. The sailing is evocative of Wind Waker, the environment and character design feels plucked from Breath of the Wild, and all-in-all, it just looks like it’s going for that sense of mystery and serenity. Color me intrigued.
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The Gecko Gods is set to launch on Steam and Switch in 2023.
In really stepping things up news, it’s just been announced that Amazon Games is set to publish the next Tomb Raider game. Following Square Enix’s retreat from the Western front, and the sale of both developer Crystal Dynamics and the Tomb Raider license itself, it was unclear what might happen to Lara’s ongoing adventures, coming up on five years since her last outing. Now we know, although we don’t know very much.
In a press release from both Amazon Games and Crystal Dynamics, the newlyweds announced an agreement for a multi-platform game to be globally published by Mr. Bezos and company.
Now, it’s not news that there’s to be a new Tomb Raider, not least because of course there is. But also because we learned earlier this year that Crystal Dynamics (CD) are planning to develop it using Unreal Engine 5. However, that was revealed a month before Square Enix’s surprise decision to sell off most of its non-Japanese assets to the Embracer Group, assets which included Crystal Dynamics itself, leaving everything mysterious for anyone outside of what must have been tumultuous circumstances.
It seems that as the dust has settled, Amazon has swooped in to claim a pretty enormous prize, and finally have a title in its gaming collection that everyone will have heard of. It’s also an opportunity for Crystal Dynamics to try to reclaim some lost ground, following the ongoingslo-mosightoftheveryblandMarvel’sAvengersbeingdriven into a bridge.
In a very press-releasy press release, everyone involved says how terribly excited they are to be working on such a wonderful property of such majestic joyfulness, but I imagine in the offices of both companies it was mostly enormous “PHEW!” sounds. While Amazon Games has delivered a couple of interesting MMOs, until now they’ve only had Bandai Namco’s Blue Protocol to boast about for next year, and that’s not a name that your aunt’s heard of. Tomb Raider will finally put the publisher on the map.
We know nothing whatsoever about the new Tomb Raider, not even its name. Today’s announcement calls it a “single-player, narrative-driven adventure,” which tells us not a bit, but does rather peculiarly describe Lara Croft as “multidimensional.” This is a power I’ve not seen her use before, if you don’t count coming back from the dead.
It’s been four years since Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and given how early this new game clearly is (we’ve still not seen so much as a piece of concept art), it looks like this follow-up could break the record for gaps between entries in the franchise. The last longest was between the close of the series’ best trilogy (fight me), 2008’s Underworld, and one of its worst entries, the awful, stupidly named 2013 reboot, Tomb Raider. I predict we’ll see this announced for March 2024, and it’ll release in November that year.
The attention-grabbing headline for this story, of games coming with Amazon Prime membership this holiday, would be “Ten Free Games!” But when the other nine are so old they’re starting to peel at the edges, that’d be pretty anticlimactic. The true news here is the utterly fantastic Dishonored 2 is yours, gratis, if you’re member of the Bezos Fan Club come December 27. And it will join an already decent crop for this month.
Let’s start at the start…of the month. To celebrate the birth of our lord, Santa, Amazon has already released a bunch of freebs for Prime members. These include the truly wonderful Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, psychedelic indie platformer Spinch, and the original (but updated for modern systems) Quake. And now, because ‘tis the season of corporate gestures, ten more are to be belatedly added to the list for your Chrimbo-break. And one of them is from this century!
Dishonored 2 was a stunning game from Arkane, back in 2016, and still very much holds up today. You don’t want to trust the negativity some sites met it with, because it was a corker. If you’re a Prime member and haven’t played it, this’d be a daft opportunity to miss.
Beyond that in the list, um, do you like SNK games from the mid-90s? Here’s everything coming from December 27 to January 3:
Dishonored 2
Metal Slug
Metal Slug X
Metal Slug 3
Real Bout Fatal Fury
The King of Fighters 2003
The Last Blade
The Last Blade 2
Twinkle Star Sprites
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection
They join this bunch that was added at the start of the month:
Quake
Rose Riddle 2: Werewolf Shadow
The Amazing American Circus
Banners of Ruin
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Spinch
Desert Child
Doors: Paradox
I know, what was I doing failing to highlight Rose Riddle 2: Werewolf Shadow and 1996’s scrolling shooter, Twinkle Star Sprites?
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You can add these games to your Prime account by clicking here. If you want to smash the system, and stick it to Jeffrey Bezos, you can get them if you sign up for the free Prime 30 days offer doodah, add the games, cancel it, and then keep the games forever. Ha ha ha! That’ll show’em.