Microsoft’s main Perfect Dark studio, The Initiative, confirmed yesterday that its co-development agreement remained in place with Crystal - despite the latter changing hands. On Monday, Square Enix announced it was selling off its western development studios - including Crystal Dynamics, Guardians of the Galaxy studio Eidos Montreal, as well as Square Enix Montreal - and IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain for just $300m....

To celebrate, Playtonic Friends - the publishing arm of Playtonic - also released an all-new teaser trailer yesterday, showing off “a tour of an arcade paradise through the twists of Cayenne Canyon to the turns of Lavendel Forest”. You can check it out below: “Giving retro a fresh lick of paint, Victory Heat Rally is set to burn rubber on the race track. Are your engines ready?” teases the game’s description on Steam, adding the release date is “when the green flag drops”....

Twitch’s controversial raid feature was originally designed as a positive community tool that would enable streamers to redirect all viewers currently watching their broadcast to a target channel as an “easy way to share audiences”. However, malicious users quickly began exploiting the feature, setting up dummy accounts and bots to flood the chats of often marginalised streamers and subject them to doxing, harassment, and attack. Despite Twitch conceding it needed to “do more to address these issues”, many streamers were unhappy with what they saw as a continued lack of meaningful response from the company, leading to a successful 24-hour protest last month....

A post on Twitch’s UserVoice, originally added in December 2020 by streamer SaltyWyvern, has gathered momentum and now become the most voted post on the forum. It requests for Twitch to change both the revenue split and the minimum payout. By comparison, YouTube and Facebook Gaming appear more streamer-friendly. YouTube offers a 70/30 split in favour of streamers, with multiple ways to monetise streams. It’s also possible for streamers to set custom membership tiers, choosing prices and channel perks....

Get the Crucial P5 Plus 1TB SSD for £82 (was £127) Get the WD Black SN850 500GB SSD for £59 (was £130) For reference, the SN850 provides sequential read and writes speeds of 7000 MB/s and 5300 MB/s respectively, making it one of the fastest drives for PS5 or PC. While those peak sequential speeds are undoubtedly impressive, it’s the up to 1000K IOPS that really sets the SN850 apart- this stellar random performance cuts down game load times significantly, making this one of the best SSDs for gaming....

The publisher/developer - which says the safety and wellbeing of its teams and their families are its “primary concern” - has two studios in Ukraine; one in capital Kyiv, the other in Odessa. Whilst earlier this week the company told Eurogamer it did not have “more details to share at this time”, information is now emerging of a raft of measures it has enacted to help aid its employees. “Across Ubisoft, our hearts are with our teams in Ukraine, and we are providing them support and assistance as they navigate this difficult time,” Ubisoft told The Loadout....

Launched at the tail-end of 2020, Fenyx Rising followed the same pattern as all new Ubisoft PC releases since 2019, skipping Steam in favour of a dual launch on Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store - where Epic was, perhaps not coincidentally, wooing publishers and developers with a 12% revenue cut compared to Valve’s 30%. However, it appeared Ubisoft’s position on its preferred storefronts was about to shift in November after listings for a Steam version of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla were discovered, and the move was confirmed by the publisher itself in December, when Valhalla, Anno 1800, and Roller Champions were all announced to be heading to Valve’s platform....

The bill, which specifically targets scalpers using bots to snap up online inventories of in-demand items in order to resell them at significantly higher prices, doesn’t limit its focus to the video games industry, but it would certainly cover items such as consoles and graphics cards - both of which have been hit particularly hard by scalping as a result of supply chain issues worsened during the pandemic. “These third-party sellers use bots to bypass security measures and manipulate online sales systems to buy toys,” the press release announcing the bill explains, “leading to some toys being almost impossible to buy online or in stores at retail prices, exacerbating shortages caused by stressed supply chains....

Not everyone will be able to give it a try just yet, though, as right now it’s only available as part of “a limited beta”. Valve said it’s holding off from a public release in order to ensure the app works on “so many different phones and devices”. “We’ve rebuilt the app on a new framework and modernized the design,” Valve said in a brief blog post on the website, before cheekily adding: “(2015 called and wanted their app back)....

Along with this news, we also have a brand-new trailer to enjoy. Expect plenty of chaos to unfold here, as we meet gunslinging ornery cowboy type Jesse Rentier. To my eyes, Evil West looks like a mashup of Red Dead Redemption and Resident Evil but with more lightning. See what you think below. Evil West is the latest game from Flying Wild Hogs, the developer behind the Shadow Warrior reboot from a few years back....

This latest glitch - which some may remember also briefly caused havoc in the original Warzone game - came to light over the weekend after players took to Reddit and social media with clips of them being taken out by players they cannot see. Literally. Whilst its unknown how widespread the issue is, videos posted to social media show plenty have been on the receiving end of the frustrating glitch and it’s currently unclear if it’s just a random occurrence or something sneaky players can turn on and off at will (thanks, PCGN)....

It had been a while since a shotgun of this style, and thankfully, it’s a standout all around. Introducing itself as lever-action shotgun, it feels akin to its rifle counterpart, packing the punch of a shotgun instead. This page will cover how to unlock the .410 Ironhide in the swiftest way possible, and the best .410 Ironhide loadout and .410 Ironhide class recommendations to make the most of it. On this page: For more explainers, read our selection of best Warzone weapon recommendations, as well as deep dives into popular picks such as the CARV....

It wouldn’t be a Call of Duty game without a prominence of powerful assault rifles, quickly positioning themselves amongst Vanguard best weapons, and this option certainly fits the bill as an all-rounded rifle that is great at all distances, especially with the right attachments. This page will cover how to unlock the STG44 in the quickest way possible, and the best STG44 loadout and STG44 class recommendations to enhance its capabilities even further....

The bumper stream is set to last 40 minutes, so grab a late night coffee and settle down for plenty of updates on Nintendo Switch games due over the remainder of 2021 - such as Metroid Dread, Mario Party Superstars, Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp, and Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain. It’s also time we heard about the final character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Birdo, we’ve been rooting for you since launch), as well as that Animal Crossing: New Horizons update Nintendo previously teased (Brewster, please)!...

Youtuber xLetalis yesterday released a new video detailing the discovery, which concerns the character Vivienne in the Blood and Wine DLC. Quest designer Philipp Weber had previously hinted at Vivienne’s “last secret”, something fans brought up with him during a CD Projekt Red charity stream on Twitch. “It’s on Skellige,” he said and the secret “goes quite a bit further” than they might expect (thanks PC Gamer). So what is the secret?...

Guilty Gear’s reputation precedes itself. Perhaps it would be better to say Guilty Gear’s reputation hangs around its neck like a cowbell. Bong! Here comes another Guilty Gear. Head for the hills! This one’s even harder than the last! Long combos, brutal timing, multiple complex mechanics and tricky characters - Guilty Gear has it all and then some. Play online as a newcomer against the series’ modest but seriously properly into it fanbase and, well, you can imagine how hard things can get....

For the uninitiated, the aim of Wordle is to work out a daily five-letter word within six guesses. The fewer the guesses, the better - and if you fail to guess it at all, you’ll break your streak. The latter is why working out today’s Wordle answer is such a priority, as players pride themselves on keeping their streak going. So why gamble on a risky final guess when you can learn a few clues and, failing that, get the definitive answer?...

For the uninitiated, the aim of Wordle is to work out a daily five-letter word within six guesses. The fewer the guesses, the better - and if you fail to guess it at all, you’ll break your streak. The latter is why working out today’s Wordle answer is such a priority, as players pride themselves on keeping their streak going. So why gamble on a risky final guess when you can learn a few clues and, failing that, get the definitive answer?...

It’s a topic that was touched upon in the briefest of manners in Microsoft’s original press release announcing the deal, with the company stating, “Activision Blizzard games are enjoyed on a variety of platforms and we plan to continue to support those communities moving forward.” Spencer has now repeated a slight variation of that sentiment in conversation with Bloomberg, telling the publication, “I’ll just say to players out there who are playing Activision Blizzard games on Sony’s platform: It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remained committed to that....

There was plenty more shown off, with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 thankfully dialling back some of the anime excesses of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - there was not a single improbably proportioned sidekick to be seen - while restoring some of the scale and wonder of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Set on the planet of Aionios, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is set against a backdrop of warring factions from the nations of Keves and Agnos, and a world in which people have pre-determined lifespans of 10 years....