Few things in life are more terrifying than hearing Moon Knight announce his ultimate attack in Marvel Rivals. Widely considered to have one of the best ultimate abilities in the game, Hand of Khonshu opens up a portal above opposing players and bombards them with area-of-effect attacks. This attack might have gotten even more powerful recently, as according to some testing done by the Marvel Rivals community, it's reportedly dealing double the damage it's supposed to.

Reddit user Sidewaysgts (via Kotaku) posted a video on the game's subreddit, showing off some of the absurd power of this ultimate in its current state. According to Netease, each talon summoned by the ultimate is supposed to do 75 points of damage, but Sidewaysgts showed off instances where training bots in the practice level were being hit with 150 points of damage instead. This seems to happen less often to bots who are further outside the field of influence, but if you're wondering why your Hulk or Thor is being absolutely shredded by Moon Knight lately, this might be the reason why.

It's not clear yet if this is a bug or intentional, but it does make Moon Knight one of the biggest threats in the Marvel Rivals metagame right now. Even without reportedly increased lethality, Hand of Khonshu is still the bane of many players as it'll continue to inflict damage even if Moon Knight is stunned or eliminated.

Gears of War Judgment and Outriders developer People Can Fly has revealed that it is co-developing Gears of War: E-Day with Microsoft's studio The Coalition. People Can Fly previously led the development of the spin-off Gears of War Judgment back in 2013.

"Returning to collaborate on the next chapter of this legendary saga is both a privilege and an exciting opportunity to build upon the intense, visceral action and rich storytelling that fans have come to love," said People Can Fly CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski in a statement. "We are deeply grateful for our partners' trust and support on this journey."

Back in 2023, People Can Fly announced it was working on Project Maverick, which was at the time an unannounced AAA game with Microsoft. While unconfirmed, it's likely that Gears of War: E-Day is Project Maverick. People Can Fly also recently let go of 120 employees, as well as scaled down Project Bifrost and suspended Project Victoria.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is breaking its Steam concurrent player record five years after its release on Valve's platform, all thanks to a huge Rockstar Games publisher sale that sees the western epic at its lowest price yet.

A number of Rockstar's games are currently steeply discounted on Steam, but it's the 70% off Red Dead Redemption 2 that is helping Rockstar's most recent title achieve its highest Steam concurrent player numbers ever. According to data from SteamDB, Red Dead Redemption 2's player numbers have been steadily climbing since the start of the sale on January 24, when the game became discounted to just $15. The game's concurrent players peaked at 86,717 on January 26, a bump of more than 10,000 players compared to the same time in 2023 and 2024.

It's an impressive resurgence for what is still one of the most critically-acclaimed games of all time. Red Dead Redemption 2 currently sports a 98 on review aggregator Metacritic, and in GameSpot's Red Dead Redemption 2 review, we called Rockstar's return to the Wild West "a thought-provoking" prequel with a rich, detailed world we didn't want to leave. We even awarded it as GameSpot's GameSpot's Game Of The Year 2018.

There was a point in time when it would have been unthinkable for Xbox-exclusive titles like Halo or Gears of War to ever make the leap to PlayStation 5. But the recent cross-platform push by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer may make those rumors into a reality. Now, Thomas Mahler--the creative director of Moon Studios and director of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps--has endorsed Spencer's approach and suggested that it may be what's best for the video game industry.

In a lengthy post on X, Mahler argued that it no longer makes sense for Xbox and PlayStation consoles to compete when the hardware is so similar and the user base is "stuck attracting the same 100-150 [million] players for over two decades now." He argues that the key to growth is to make it easier for players to get their desired games regardless of which console they buy... with the exception of Nintendo, which doesn't have to play by anyone else's rules. Mahler added that "rooting for one huge corporation to sell more boxes over another strikes me as fantastically senseless... We should all just share in the love for games!"

For now, Spencer's platform agnostic position has not been adopted by Sony, but Mahler suggested that the PlayStation maker has already bent towards that reality by bringing its exclusive titles to PC, including the recently announced Rise of the Ronin port.

A new trailer for the next EA Originals game, Split Fiction, has gone live and shows off more of the Hazelight-developed game in action. Narrated by game director Josef Fares, the gameplay trailer shows off two levels--one set in a sci-fi world, the other in a fantasy land--and how players will use unique co-op gameplay elements in each one to progress. For the sci-fi level, there are anti-gravity sections and bike chases to look forward to, while the fantasy level features shape-shifting gameplay mechanics.

The other big feature shown off in the Split Fiction video are Side Stories, optional one-off adventures that are hidden throughout the game's levels. Discovering one and exploring it will transport players to even more worlds influenced by sci-fi and fantasy fiction, with some of the levels including outer space, an Alice in Wonderland-themed world, and a stage that looks heavily influenced by the recent Dune movies.

Sega recently filed trademarks for Skies of Arcadia and Eternal Arcadia, leaving fans hopeful that some sort of remaster or new entry in the Skies of Arcadia RPG series.

According to Gematsu, the two trademarks were filed on January 16 and made public on January 24. Skies of Arcadia, known as Eternal Arcadia in Japan, was a critically acclaimed RPG from Sega that launched in 2000 for the Dreamcast. It was later ported over to the Nintendo GameCube in 2002 as Skies of Arcadia Legends.

Skies of Arcadia follows Vyse, Aika, and Fina, who are part of a group of air pirates called the Blue Rogues as they resist against the tyrannical Valuan Empire. Additional ports of Skies of Arcadia have been highly requested by fans throughout the years, although Skies of Arcadia Legends has never been released outside of the GameCube.

We have learned more gameplay details about an unannounced Warhammer RPG that Games Workshop and Nexon reportedly canceled prior to its reveal.

On January 18, a report from MP1st revealed that an unannounced Warhammer RPG had been canceled. MP1st reported that this Warhammer game was in the works at a new studio called Thought Pennies and spotted several LinkedIn resumes from developers suggesting that it was a third-person action-RPG with live-service multiplayer elements. A new report from Eurogamer today, January 27, revealed even more about this canceled title.

Namely, Eurogamer discovered that Thought Pennies was making a game based on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar tabletop RPG, the fantasy alternative to Warhammer 40,000, and that Nexon was involved in the project. In fact, Nexon and Games Workshop had teased this game in 2021, describing a "new Virtual World will feature a socially interactive player-versus-environment world supported by Nexon’s world-class Live Operations for sustaining the fun with new content and service" in a press release announcing their collaboration.

Nearly two years after its initial release, Hogwarts Legacy is getting official mod tools on PC. Avalanche Software has announced that the proverbial door is being opened for Hogwarts Legacy modders on January 30, and the developer has already lined up some curated fan-made creations that will be available to play as soon as the feature launches.

In the video above, some of the new mods are showcased for character creations and outfits. Additionally, there are options to exchange your brooms for a vacuum cleaner, a phoenix, or even a dragon. It's also possible to create new dungeons or to embrace some small bits of silliness by swapping out Hogwarts' official portraits with your own pictures.

This might go a long way towards extending the appeal of Hogwarts Legacy, which has already sold more than 30 million copies globally. Warner Bros. Games is reportedly producing a Hogwarts Legacy Definitive Edition with additional story content, but that has yet to be officially announced. All we know for sure is that Warner Bros. is making a sequel a priority for the gaming division. But if you still need a PC copy of Hogwarts Legacy, it's currently on sale for $16.19 at Fanatical.

After the recent release of Fantasian: Neo Dimension on PC and consoles, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi is currently working on another game as part of his farewell tour, one that he envisions as a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy 6. While Fantasian was supposed to be his game development swansong, the veteran game producer explained that his time on the game was highly enjoyable for him and that he couldn't turn down an opportunity to continue working with the Fantasian team.

"I was thinking of making Fantasian: Neo Dimension my final work, but the fantastic team that was assembled to complete this project was so enjoyable to work with that I found it hard to part ways," Sakaguchi said to The Verge. "Humans are greedy creatures, aren't we? For that reason, I'm currently working on a new project with the same team that worked on Fantasian: Neo Dimension. It's generally going to follow a similar style to my previous works, and it'll be something that can be a successor to Final Fantasy 6 in a good way--our goal is to create something old but new at the same time. It'll be part two of my farewell note."

Final Fantasy 6 was the final mainline game in the series to be developed in 2D, as the series shifted toward 3D game graphics with Final Fantasy 7. Highly regarded as one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time thanks to its deep gameplay systems, ensemble cast, and story-based focus, Final Fantasy 6 has been ported to numerous systems over the decades since it was first released. When asked last year by French YouTuber Julien Chieze, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase explained that a remake of Final Fantasy 6 in the same style as the recent Final Fantasy 7 remakes would be quite challenging to produce and would take about 20 years to complete.

The challenging times at Ubisoft continue, as the French gaming company has announced it is closing one studio and downsizing others in the firm's latest round of cost-cutting that will see about 185 people lose their jobs. Ubisoft underwent multiple waves of layoffs in 2024 as well.

Ubisoft has confirmed that it is closing Ubisoft Leamington, a support studio that contributed to titles like Star Wars Outlaws and Far Cry 5. The team created the DJ Hero series for Activision before being acquired by Ubisoft in 2017.

A spokesperson for Ubisoft told GameSpot that is is closing Ubisoft Leamington as part of the company's ongoing mission to "prioritize projects and reduce costs." In addition to closing Ubisoft Leamington, Ubisoft is undergoing "targeted restructurings" of Ubisoft Dusseldorf, Ubisoft Stockholm, and Ubisoft Reflections.

Following its recent launch on PC, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth broke a concurrent-players record on Steam for single-player entries in the franchise over the weekend. The RPG--which initially launched on PS5 in February 2024--saw over 40,000 people exploring the game with Cloud Strife and his friends.

Eurogamer reports that Final Fantasy XVI hit over 27,000 concurrent players on Steam last year. That falls far short of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's number of 40,564 from Sunday, per SteamDB. However, Final Fantasy XIV holds the overall record for the RPG series, seeing a peak of more than 95,000 concurrent players after the Endwalker expansion in 2021. Keep in mind that it's an MMO, though, where online co-op is a major feature of the experience.

Last week, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi clarified previous comments about Cloud and Aerith's relationship. Previously, Hamaguchi had inferred they had a sibling-like bond but has since explained to Automaton that "no one will make any official statements about who Cloud likes."

This month's brief ban of TikTok in the US saw Marvel Snap get caught in the crossfire, as it was inaccessible to US-based players for several days. After that issue was resolved, developer Second Dinner pledged to reward players for their patience, and it looks like there'll be a lot of free stuff to grab this week.

Second Dinner explained how this will work on its social media channels. First off, there'll be separate rewards packages for US-based players and the international playerbase. Each package will be subdivided based on collection level, with the higher collection levels getting the lion's share of the goodies. These are substantial drops, as Second Dinner will be handing out currencies, variant cards, and more. This stuff typically equates to hundreds of dollars if you were to buy them in the game's expensive microtransactions store.

It's worth pointing out that the existing US-based players are defined as accounts created before January 20 inside the US and have shown any activity in the last 30 days before the outage, Second Dinner wrote. The developer explained that if US players made use of a VPN service to get around the downtime, it will not affect their eligibility for the compensation package. "This includes players from outside the US VPN-ing into the US to try and receive the US Downtime Package," Second Dinner added.

A modding group has released a mod that brings GTA: Vice City content into the GTA 4 engine, despite efforts from publisher Take-Two Interactive to stop them. This project by Revolution Team, called GTA Vice City Nextgen Edition, ported missions, cutscenes, and the world from Vice City into GTA 4's engine and initially required players to own a copy of GTA 4.

The development team said its YouTube channel was taken offline by Take-Two. That led to the creation of a new channel that houses a launch trailer for the mod, as well as a decision to rework the mod's requirement. Originally, the mod required GTA 4 to play--something that was done to "show respect to the publisher." Now, that requirement has been dropped, and the mod can be downloaded and played as a standalone game. As always, though, you should be careful about what you download online.

"Our team's channel was deleted by Take-Two Interactive two days before the project's release. A lot of time and effort was invested into its development, including hundreds of hours of streaming," Revolution Team's statement reads on an updated teaser trailer.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has once again commented on the company's strategy as it relates to launching its own first-party games on other platforms. As Spencer has been saying for a long time already, he believes Xbox is strongest and best-positioned when it launches its own games on other platforms. A game remaining exclusive to Xbox in perpetuity "doesn't work for us" going forward, he said.

Speaking to Destin Legarie, Spencer was asked directly if he could confirm if Bethesda's RPG Starfield would remain exclusive to Xbox on console for the time being. Spencer said, "No."

He added: "There is no reason for me to put a ring fence around any game and say, 'This game will not go to a place where it will find players, where it would have business success for us.'"

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has said doubled down on Microsoft's commitment to the hardware space via Xbox, saying the company aims to "win" by providing the best experience out there. At the same time, Spencer admitted that times have changed. These days, it's a "game-first" market as opposed to "platform-first," he said.

Appearing on the GamerTag Radio podcast, Spencer said, "I want people to pick hardware based on the capabilities of that hardware and how that fits into the choices they want to make about where they want to play. We want our hardware to win based on the hardware capabilities that we have."

Spencer said the biggest, most-played, and most successful video games out there today are multiplatform games that are not locked to one device. Spencer said he's hopeful his teams can create a platform with Xbox that appeals to developers who make those kinds of games.

Assassin's Creed Shadows will be censored in Japan due to its depiction of gore and has received a mature rating from the country's video game rating system.

According to Ubisoft Japan (translated by Automaton), depictions of dismemberment have been completely removed from the Japanese version of Assassin's Creed Shadows. Other versions of the game will still have the ability to to toggle the dismemberment feature on or off.

『アサシン クリード シャドウズ』海外版（北米・欧州）と日本版 表現差異について#AssassinsCreedShadows pic.twitter.com/v3XrcppwMf

Assassin's Creed Shadows has also been rated CERO Z by Japan's video game rating system, which is the equivalent of North America's ESRB rating of M. The Japanese version will have some modified voice lines as well, but Ubisoft Japan didn't provide any additional explanation or details.

Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja have announced that Rise of the Ronin will hit PC on March 11. It was first released on PS5 back in March 2024.

The PC version of Rise of the Ronin will cost $50 on Steam. Additionally, players who purchase the game on PC by April 2 will receive the same bonuses that came with preordering the game on PS5--the Hayabusa-ryu, Nioh-ryu, and Aisu Kage-ryu styles for katana, as well as the Hayabusa-ryu style for naginata. Another bonus includes early access to Iga Ninja's katana and Iga Ninja’s armor set.

The Steam version has new features, such as 120fps support, customizable keyboard and mouse controls, ultra-wide and super ultra-wide monitor compatibility, and 8K resolution support.

Mass Effect 2 is celebrating its 15-year anniversary today, January 26, 2025. Below, we look back at its unique episodic structure, and how other developers have not picked up its torch.

Most RPGs are like fantasy or science-fiction novels. The cross-continental journeys of Final Fantasy X or Dragon Age: Origins feel analogous to The Lord of the Rings or The Wheel of Time. Even sandboxes like Baldur's Gate 3 lean on a linear set of events, the disruption of routine key to fantasy fiction. Mass Effect 2 is a serious contrast, instead modeling itself after a season of television. I'm not the first person to make this comparison, but even after a decade and a half of further RPG releases, ME2's structure remains striking. The format helped catapult ME2 to upper echelons of many greatest-games lists. It is still the most beloved entry of the franchise, beating out its incomplete and controversial siblings. However, without the novelty of experiencing it for the first time, ME2 feels more like a valiant first effort at something new, rather than the apex of the form.

To summarize, protagonist Shepard is tasked with recruiting 12 party members to accompany him on a "suicide mission." Outside of a few main quests, most of ME2's runtime concerns itself with recruiting those characters and helping them resolve their personal issues. ME2's main plot is ultimately inconsequential to the trilogy's broader machinations. Instead, the game's series of one-off missions steal the show, making ME2 more character-focused than its kin. One could argue that Baldur's Gate 3, with its three acts, or Dragon Age: Origins, with its hub areas, have episodic structures. But each mission in ME2 is essentially an episode of TV. Most are entirely self-contained, and few relate back to the main plot in any meaningful way. They act the way individual episodes in a television show might act. The game is a serious attempt to bring the long-term, routine-focused dynamics of classic Star Trek to a massive RPG.

A new Resident Evil movie is in the works, and there's reportedly a bidding war underway among four major studios to land it. That's because the upcoming Resident Evil reboot already has Barbarian helmer Zach Cregger attached to write and direct the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cregger's Resident Evil is described as "a revamp that will take the title to its horror roots and be more faithful to the initial games." That would be nice change of pace from the previous Resident Evil films. The most recent adaptation, 2021's Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, attempted to adapt the first two games in a single film, but it did very poorly in theaters. The six Resident Evil movies that came before that were largely focused on Milla Jovovich's Alice, a character who was created for the films. To date, there hasn't been a live-action Resident Evil film that truly captured the spirit of the games.

Sony's Screen Gems distributed all of the previous Resident Evil movies, but the rights to this one are up for grabs because Cregger has some box office clout. Barbarian was critically acclaimed and a cult hit, while his second horror movie, Weapons, is said to have very high screen-test scores, though it's yet to debut publicly.

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Catan, and the tabletop game is set to get its sixth edition this April. This is the first update to the settler-oriented multiplayer board game in about a decade, with the fifth edition--the version that transformed the name of the game from The Settlers of Catan to just Catan--releasing in June 2015. As the game celebrates its 30th birthday, the designers are hoping to maintain the game's place as a major go-to onramp for people discovering the joy of playing tabletop games.

"How do you keep an old game relevant even after 30 years, right? Especially when gaming has developed," managing director and game designer Benjamin Teuber told me. "The hobby continues to develop and grow, and there are so many great games. Every year, I have three new favorite games, and next year there [will be] three more and that's awesome, that's beautiful. But there is apparently still something to Catan because we still have very good sales numbers. ...There are always new people joining this hobby, and Catan still seems to be the entry level product, [the game] for many to find."

For Teuber, it doesn't matter that Catan is 30 years old. Even if many who tried the game and loved it may eventually move on to more complex or niche tabletop systems, Catan is going to keep being a new experience for someone. Teuber told me a story about how Village Romance developer Michael Palm recently messaged him about playing Catan with his kid, who screamed, "Klaus Teuber is the coolest game developer!" during the game (Klaus is Benjamin's father and the creator of Catan).