Category: Gameinformer

Industry veteran Patrick Söderlund, best known for his leadership roles at EA and on DICE’s Battlefield, announced his departure earlier this year. Now we know what he’s been working on, thanks to Nexon’s most recent earnings call.

It was revealed the publisher famous for its PC and mobile games, such as Mape Story and Dungeon & Fighter, have invested in Söderlund’s new studio called Embark and will act as worldwide publisher for its games.

It’s still early, so not much was revealed about Embark’s upcoming products, but Söderlund did give some insight into his goals. “I believe games are on the cusp of changing radically, thanks to new technologies,” he said in a press release. “Connected players, big data, speech recognition, cloud computing, advanced AI and more will open up new play, enabling developers to build a wider range of experiences, and for players to create and contribute. Embark is a group of veteran creators eager to move beyond current play experiences into the future.”

Söderlund founded Embark Studios to create “new types of interactive entertainment” that mostly focus on simulated online virtual worlds. He wants to take advantage of new technology, particularly across streaming, cloud computing, and A.I. The company is creating its own technology platform to accomplish this.

“What remains scarce is the ability to make deeply engaging online virtual worlds that appeal to a broad global audience that can grow for many years, ” said Nexon president and CEO Owen Mahoney. “The formation of Embark represents one of the most exciting developments for the future of online games.”

For why his new studio teamed up with Nexon, Söderlund added, “The partnership between Embark Studios and Nexon is built on a deeply aligned vision about the future of interactive entertainment, and about challenging the standard conventions and practices of how to create. Also, Nexon’s global leadership in nurturing online game worlds and communities for many years is critical to our mission.”

To learn more about Söderlund’s new studio, you can visit its official site here. 

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Final Fantasy fans are still reeling from yesterday’s news that director Hajime Tabata has resigned from the company and that all Final Fantasy XV DLC beyond March’s Episode Ardyn have been canceled. Regardless, Square is in a celebratory mood. 

The company is heralding the second anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy XV this month, and along with a new trailer for Episode Ardyn (which is also coming with an anime episode called “Final Fantasy XV Episode Ardyn – Prologue” comes a free collaboration event with online title Final Fantasy XIV (trailer above). Players in FF XV can participate in an in-game quest called “Adventurer from Another World,” which culminates in Noctis battling FF XIV’s Garuda for a Final Fantasy XIV-themed costume.

Also related to the anniversary is the standalone release of Final Fantasy XV Multiplayer: Comrades on Xbox One and PS4 on December 12 (below). The expansion includes 10 powerful bosses to its multiplayer, and those who already own it can download it for free.

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Mass Effect buzz may be at an all-time low given how generally off-put fans were by the release of Andromeda and how inactive the brand is at EA HQ, but the franchise is still popular enough that hardcore fans celebrate N7 day each year on November 7.

To kick off the festivities, today BioWare announced a free update for Mass Effect Andromeda on Xbox One X that adds higher-resolution graphics and HDR support. The update is available now.  The studio also put together this video: 

In addition, BioWare and Jinx teamed up for a new line of N7 apparel, which you can check out here. 

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If you can’t make it to Mexico City for the XO18 Xbox FanFest this weekend, Inside Xbox has you covered. Today, Microsoft announced a two-hour broadcast that will bring you all the news from the show, including updates for Crackdown 3, Forza Horizon 4, Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and State of Decay 2.

The show also promises news on the Xbox Game Pass lineup, with over a dozen new games to be announced. You can look forward to interviews with developers and Microsoft brass like Minecraft studio head Helen Chiang and Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer.

During the show, Microsoft will be giving out free in-game items for Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 4 for players who watch the show live on Mixer while logged into their Microsoft account.

Fans can watch XO18 from the comfort of their homes on Mixer, Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. To catch the event, tune in on Saturday, November 10 at 4:00 p.m. ET / 1:00 p.m. PT.

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Last night Treyarch dropped a new patch for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s popular Blackout mode that makes some key changes to improve the experience. 

Several weapons have received balancing passes – most importantly SMGs now have a little more stopping power to make them relevant – but the most critical change comes with the removal of the frequently spammed 9-Bang Grenade. We’ve noticed this powerful projectile has become an increasingly common crutch for people to use before engagements, so its removal is a welcome change.

In addition, the patch adds a new event bringing in the Blightfather from Zombies, a fearsome beast whom players can take out to earn big rewards.  If you see a pillar of red light rising to the sky, that’s your cue to head that way for the big encounter. You only have until November 13 to take this bad boy down.

These changes are live on all platforms right now. You can read the rest of the patch notes here.

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Starting tomorrow and going through November 11, Xbox owners can play PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 for free with no Xbox Live Gold membership required. Microsoft is unlocking Gold membership benefits for these two games only through this weekend for its Free Play Days for All event. 

Anyone interested in playing these games can download PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds here and Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 here. 

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is the online multiplayer battle royale that popularized the genre. Up to 100 unarmed players parachute onto an island but only one walks out. In order to emerge victoriously, players must scour the island for weapons and loot that can give them the edge in the fight. Currently, PUBG is only available for Xbox One, PC, and mobile, but there have been rumors of the game coming soon to PlayStation 4. 

Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 is the most recent installment of the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise. You can lead your favorite soccer team to victory in the sports simulation game that Game Informer‘s Mathew Kato gave an 8.5. 

The Xbox Free Play Days for All event lasts from November 8-11, so be sure to check it out this weekend for access to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and PES 2019. 

[Source: Xbox Wire]

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If you’ve been playing Red Dead Redemption II, you may have noticed an issue in the game’s second chapter, where people who should be important to the gang seem to not be available. While initially fans thought this was part of the game’s realistic nature, allowing characters to live their own lives and do their own activities, it seems that it is a bug related to the progression of a quest.

“If you completed the mission ‘Polite Society, Valentine Style’ at the start of Chapter 2, but needed to use the Retry Checkpoint feature, then Sadie, Jack, John, and Abigail will only appear in camp when they have missions for you to complete,” writes Rockstar on the game’s support site. “We are aware of the issue and are currently working on a fix to be included in an upcoming Title Update.”

If you haven’t yet gotten to the point, Rockstar advises doing your best to do the mission in one go, since there is no word on when the title update fixing it may come.

“In order to experience all vignettes and conversations, players must complete the ‘Polite Society, Valentine Style’ mission without using Retry Checkpoint. If the player fails any portion of the mission they should abandon and restart mission, or load a save before the mission failed.”

If you’ve long since passed it, then you might have missed out on a number of key interactions between Arthur and those characters, several of which are praised as the best-written characters in the game.

Hopefully the patch comes sooner rather than later, but if not, the old west was never about taking the easy way out.

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If you have been looking forward to the two newest Persona Dancing games, Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight, then you probably know that their release is imminent. The two separate rhythm games bring the Persona 3 and Persona 5 soundtracks with new arrangements to a dancing game using the characters. For fans of Persona 4 Dancing All Night, you already know how the game plays, but for everyone else, two demos have been released on PS4 to help familiarize yourself with your Persona music delivery system.

The demo, which is only available in the U.S., takes you through four tracks each from the games’ soundtracks. During the track, Persona characters dance choreographed numbers to the music, including fan favorites like Mitsuru, Joker, and more. Check out the demo trailer below.

Curiously, the demo is not set to be released in regions other than North America until December 11, which is after the game’s worldwide release date. So if you live in Europe, you will need to wait another month if you’re still on the fence.

Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight are going to release physically and digitally for the PlayStation 4 on December 4, with a pre-order pack containing both games and Persona 4 Dancing All Night. A Vita version is also releasing digitally only on the same day.

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If you subscribe to the computer, tablet, or mobile edition of Game Informer magazine, you can now learn even more about Warcraft III: Reforged. Following last week’s cover reveal, our digital issue is now live on web browsers and will be coming to iPad/iPhone later in the day. You can download the apps to view the issue by following this link. All of these digital options are included in a standard subscription.

The issue launches later this week on our third-party subscription apps including Google Play, Kindle, and Nook.

Not a digital subscriber yet? Convert your existing print subscription here or start a new subscription here.

Click the banner below to see what we’ve got planned for our month of Warcraft III: Reforged and bookmark the hub. New stories will be added fast, so be sure to come back often to learn more about Blizzard’s upcoming game.

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