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IGN Fan Fest is returning this October for its Fall Edition. Read more View the full article

Trade body TIGA is calling for stronger tax credit to support the UK games industry. Read more View the full article

Valve has updated Steam's revenue reporting system to make it easier for developers to "see the monetary impact of each discount that you have run." Read more View the full article

Darrell Gallagher, the former head of The Initiative, has left Xbox, following the shuttering of the studio earlier this year. Read more View the full article

Developer Pocketpair has announced that its hit creature-catching open-world survival game, Palworld, is finally launching out of Early Access and into version 1.0 in 2026. Palworld has been available in Early Access since January 2024, and centers on catching Pokémon-esque critters called Pals, which you can equip with guns to battle other monsters while aiding players in farming and crafting. In a developer update video, Pocketpair promises that a “massive amount of content” is being planned for the 1.0 update. However, the studio also acknowledges it wants to clean up Palworld’s remaining technical bugs before it hits 1.0. As such, the studio says the rest of 2025 will be “a little quiet from us” as it focuses on preparing the game for its full launch. Because cleaning up the game will be its primary focus, Pocketpair says its Winter update won’t be as big as last year’s Feybreak Island was, but stresses development will not slow down or scale back when it launches in full. The 1.0 announcement comes amidst an ongoing lawsuit with Nintendo, which began last September. The lawsuit, filed by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, accuses Pocketpair of infringing on several patent rights. Pocketpair publicly shared three specific patents from the lawsuit on its website, revealing they were registered after Palworld’s EA launch and were likely done to target the game specifically. These patents cover systems for capturing characters in a virtual space, an aiming system for deploying capture items, and rideable characters. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company seek payments of 5 million yen (plus late payment damages) each. Pocketpair stated it aimed to “assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.” Since launching into Early Access, Palworld has received five major updates introducing new Pals, raid battles, an arena mode, new landmasses like Feybreak and the island of Sakurajima, new factions, and even a crossover with Terraria. Pocketpair has also introduced many quality-of-life improvements and mechanics, such as cross-play. Palworld is currently on sale for 25 percent off for a limited time on Steam. Palworld took the world by storm when it first launched into Early Access on Steam and Xbox Series X/S in January 2024, amassing over 25 million players within its first month of availability and becoming the third-biggest launch on Xbox Game Pass at the time. It even has a spin-off dating sim in the works. Palworld is currently available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Mac. You can learn all about the game's origin and the history of its developer, Pocketpair, in our studio profile. View the full article

Dispatch, the narrative adventure game that puts you in charge of dispatching various superheroes and reformed villains to those in need in a city, launches next month. More specifically, Dispatch will launch on PlayStation 5 and PC on October 22, marking the beginning of its four-week release. Developed by AdHoc Studio, a team comprised of Telltale alumni, Dispatch consists of eight playable episodes, with the first two scheduled for release on October 22. Two episodes will be released each week for four consecutive weeks. The full season will cost $30, or you can purchase the Deluxe Version, which includes a digital artbook and four digital comics, for $40. Check out the Dispatch PS5 and PC release date trailer, courtesy of IGN, below: Dispatch launches on October 22 on PS5 and PC. We've enjoyed what we played of Dispatch during the June Steam Next Fest, and we learned a lot from AdHoc in our exclusive behind-the-scenes feature you can read here. For more, check out Game Informer's list of upcoming superhero games. Are you starting Dispatch next month? Let us know in the comments below! View the full article

Valheim, the hit indie Viking survival game from developer Iron Gate AB and Coffee Stain Publishing, is finally coming to PlayStation 5 in 2026. It's currently unclear, though, if this version of the game will be 1.0 or Early Access. Valheim launched into Early Access on PC back in 2021, quickly climbing up the Steam charts to become one of the most popular survival games of the year. That excitement continued well into 2022, with the audience growing in 2023 when Valheim launched into Game Preview on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, featuring cross-play as well. Now, Valheim is finally coming to PS5, and you can check out a new trailer celebrating the news below. Since Valheim's Early Access debut in 2021, it has garnered a 94 percent "Very Positive" rating on Steam, based on over 477,000 reviews and 12 million copies sold. Since that launch, Iron Gate AB has released various updates, including the following: Hearth and Home: enhanced survival and base-building mechanicsMistlands: introduced a new fog-shrouded biome filled with dangerous creatures and magic to masterAshlands: introduced treacherous cliffs, boiling waters, and new threatsCall To Arms: the latest update, which updated combat and added new enemies, weapons, armor sets, and crafting materials Valheim launches on PS5 in 2026. It is currently available on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One (including Xbox Game Pass), PC via Steam Early Access, the Microsoft Store, PC Game Pass, and the Mac App Store. Are you still playing Valheim? Let us know why we should be playing it in 2025 below! View the full article

TV adaptations of video games drive an average player growth of almost 140%, according to new research by Ampere Analysis. Read more View the full article

Pocketpair is aiming to release Palworld 1.0 in 2026, despite the company’s ongoing legal battle with Nintendo. Read more View the full article

Game Republic New Horizons has confirmed comedian Maisie Adam as the conference’s final headliner. Read more View the full article

Studios are reconsidering certain in-game features due to the new rules set out by the UK Online Safety Act (OSA), a top law firm has said. Read more View the full article

Clovers studio head and chief game designer Hideki Kamiya feels "a very strong responsibility" to protect the studio during the current climate of industry layoffs. Read more View the full article

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 tops 4.4 million copies sold | News-in-BriefView the full article

Valve reportedly no longer permits games with "mature themes" to be released in early access. Read more View the full article

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Deep Silver Developer: Reikon Games Release: September 2, 2025 Rating: Mature Poland-based studio Reikon Games has only been around since 2014, but in its decade of development, it has made a name for itself creating stylish, action-forward cyberpunk games. Its debut, 2017’s Ruiner, was itself a great isometric shooter, but in hindsight, it was a look toward the studio’s future and its second game: Metal Eden. Like Ruiner, Metal Eden is a futuristic neon-lit shooter set in a cyberpunk dystopia, but this time, from a first-person perspective. It blends excellent first-person gunplay with movement tech that turns the city of Moebius into a parkour playground, and the resulting gameplay is hyper-fast, frantic, and fun. Though its narrative and level design sometimes get in the way of that, the entire package is still a setpiece-filled action romp and one of the year’s best shooters. In the world of Metal Eden, Hyper Units are disposable androids capable of inhuman feats thanks to a cyberpowered armor that allows them to dash, grapple, jetpack, and wall-run through just about any environment, and each unit is trained for cybernetic warfare, with a seven-gun arsenal in tow. You play as Aska, a special Hyper Unit tasked with saving the citizens of Moebius from imminent destruction. That leads her through derelict factories, deserts, mining facilities, and into the realms of Engineers, who possess Cores she desperately needs for her mission. It’s a solid foundation for the 7-hour adventure, and a voice-in-your-comms doesn’t let you forget about it, sometimes to the detriment of the game. While the voice acting is great, when you’re not engaged in multi-wave arena battles, there’s almost always a voice in your ear discussing their motives, their history, and their desires, all through sci-fi jargon that eventually bounced right off of me. Reikon is attempting to tell an enriched narrative, and I enjoy how much the studio focuses on walking players through Aska’s journey to save Moebius, which has been threatened with what is essentially a ticking time bomb; its finale leaves a lot to be desired, but I still found the overall story to be a commendable effort from Reikon. Its biggest flaw, though, is how often it gets in the way of the real star of Metal Eden: the action. That said, the action was more than enough to pull me through each mission, as I constantly looked forward to the next setpiece, the next weapon, or even the next upgrade station to make my shotgun or grenade launcher more powerful. Metal Eden isn’t stingy with Dust, the currency used to upgrade weapons, found in canisters placed throughout levels or given upon defeating enemies. By the time I finished the game, only one of my seven weapons wasn’t fully upgraded, and I appreciate Reikon allowing me to unlock most of Aska’s potential in the first playthrough. Each weapon, whether it was the standard-issue submachine gun with unlimited ammo but a temperature-related cooldown, the energy weapon that melts enemy armor, or my personal favorite, an assault rifle with a secondary fire option that turns it into a powerful sniper, proved useful in combat. Firefights get so hectic that there were countless encounters where I used every single weapon at my disposal, whether it was a strategic need or because I ran out of ammo for another gun. Though I always enjoyed the combat, I wish it were more diegetic rather than arena-based. My favorite moments were when Metal Eden channeled another Poland-based studio’s game, Ghostrunner, to turn linear sections into parkour runthroughs where I needed to kill enemies with quick precision to advance and maintain momentum. But most of the combat happened when I entered a large arena, and a random sci-fi voice told me when I finished a wave and when another wave was beginning. These arenas are well-designed, with armor, health, and ammo pickups strategically placed about, and excellent wall-running and grapple opportunities, too, but they still grew dull. It doesn’t help that the runs between these arenas were often the type of combat encounters I actually wanted more of. Regardless, Aska only became more and more fun to use throughout Metal Eden as I unlocked more of my weapons’ potential and became more comfortable firing them while running on walls or grappling through the air, using my jetpack to extend my airtime. When I fully understood Aska’s set of weaponry and movement tech, and more importantly, how to take advantage of both in combat, each subsequent encounter felt like an extreme dose of adrenaline. Similar to the narrative’s intrusion into the excellent first-person gameplay, there were a handful of times in Metal Eden where levels went wide, allowing Aska to morph into a ball – yes, it’s very reminiscent of Metroid Prime – where you zap enemies and target them with lock-on missiles. While cool in theory, these sections are easily the worst, and rolling around as a metal ball in no way compares to the excitement of first-person shooting, wall-running, and jetpacking through this dystopia. Throughout my time in Metal Eden, I couldn’t help but imagine just how good a sequel I hope Reikon makes could be. This is a great start in the FPS genre for the team; its ideas are strong, and with refinement, Aska’s next mission could be as excellent as the Ghostrunner and Doom Eternal adventures it’s clearly inspired by. Though the star of the show – its first-person shooting and movement – is sometimes weighed down by an overreaching narrative and boring morph ball sections, when Metal Eden shines, it’s as bright as the sun that sheds light on Moebius’ dark underbelly. Score: 8 About Game Informer's review system View the full article

Dungeons & Dragons, despite its unparalleled popularity in the tabletop role-playing space, is undeniably tough for newcomers to approach. There are so many elements to keep track of, and if you're playing analog, not enough space to do it on a standard character sheet. While Dungeons & Dragons has released Starter Sets and Essentials Kits for Fifth Edition in the past, their latest iteration, Heroes of the Borderlands, is the most accessible version yet. It provides a simplified version of the game, chock-full of physical elements like cards and tokens that make the game easier to grasp. After getting a copy to check out myself, I'm impressed by how it all came together, and would easily recommend it as an introduction to anyone interested in trying the hobby. First, a crucial disclaimer: I have not played this adventure, save for a brief session at Gen Con earlier this year. As such, my impressions are based on my solo dissection and reading of the box and its contents, as well as my comparison to past sets. The most immediate difference between Heroes of the Borderlands and similar D&D box sets is its weight. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, the most recent starter set, weighs about 1.2 pounds, containing only a few character sheets, a pair of booklets, and a set of dice. Meanwhile, my copy of Heroes of the Borderlands weighs a whopping five pounds; it's densely packed with character class boards, cards for spells, monsters, and weapons, tokens for players and enemies, and nine double-sided maps. The latter game is more expensive ($49.99 rather than $19.99), but it earns that price point through material cost alone. Of course, D&D doesn't require most of the materials listed above, but they're extremely useful for bringing new players into the fold. The premade character class boards are easy to read, and leveling up is as simple as flipping from one side to the other. They also have empty spots specifically for cards and tokens to represent weapons, spells, and hit points, so you don't even need a pencil, and it's a bit easier to visualize all the details that go into making a character work. Most crucially of all, it lowers the amount of knowledge the player needs to have prior to starting a game; as long as you have the right cards and tokens on your board, the bright, color-coded design is enough to guide you once you start playing. The DM tools are just as useful. I always hate having to flip to the back of a book for a monster's stats or copy extensive details into my notes. The purpose of a module is to take some of the prep work off a DM's hands, and the adventure books do exactly that. Each room or encounter starts with a description of what to expect, including character names and quick run-downs on their relationships, and it also gives a list of which materials you'll need, including tokens, cards, maps, and other handouts. One of D&D's biggest criticisms is the workload placed on the DM compared to other players; one person is tasked with keeping track of the world and all its details, both narrative and mechanical, while others get to focus on their own immersion. The tactile, organized, information-first approach to introducing people to the DM role is a huge step in the right direction, so much so that I find myself hoping to see it in higher-level modules someday. Ideally, a role-playing game is played in a flow state, where the mechanics become a tool everyone uses to fluidly tell a collective story. The biggest hurdle for new players is getting enough of a grasp on those mechanics to transform them from an obstacle to a launchpad, and by sanding down some of that barrier to entry with so many tactile tools, it's never been easier to get into the game. View the full article

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC Publisher: Annapurna Interactive Developer: Light Brick Release: September 15, 2025 Rating: Everyone Every completed Lego set is a collaboration between the designers and the builder; it's fun both because a team made a beautiful set and because you're the one who put it together. Lego Voyagers, a co-op puzzle platformer from Light Brick Studio, made me feel the same way. Its adorable aesthetic and wordless storytelling make this brief adventure one worth sharing with family or a friend, but its distant camera angle and visual filters were frustrating obstacles on an otherwise picturesque road. At the end of the journey, though, my partner and I are the ones who completed the puzzle, and that makes it so much sweeter. As a fan of couch co-op, I've been delighted to see a resurgence of two-player experiences over the past several years, and Lego Voyagers is an exciting addition to that lineup. Like Hazelight Studios' Split Fiction and It Takes Two, Lego Voyagers is a strictly two-player experience: you cannot play it solo. Luckily, I have a fiancée at home now, and after taking one glance at the game, she was more than happy to play alongside me. If you don't have a fiancée (which is fine, by the way), Lego Voyagers comes with a Friend's Pass so that you can play for free with a friend online. This game stars a pair of Lego pieces, one blue and one red, that goofily roll around the map, which is also gorgeously crafted from Legos. It's visually charming, from its intricately crafted mountainsides to its minimalist animals, like butterflies represented by a tiny, flapping triangle. In addition to flopping around, one button is dedicated to "speaking," which makes your respective Lego piece make a cute babble of gibberish. An exception to this is near a train section, where pressing the button makes the characters say "choo choo.” It’s as cute as it sounds. While many surfaces are smooth, some have studs – those little nubs that allow Lego pieces to stick together – and the tap of a button here has your Lego guy lock onto the grid to move, allowing for more precise movement and platforming. That same button picks up loose Lego pieces, which you'll use to build solutions to puzzles. I was slightly disappointed in this regard, solely because 80 percent of constructions are just bridges or ramps, but the last hour of the game cranks up the creativity to wonderful effect. You can also attach yourself to the other player to link up into one long Lego piece and roll around together. In addition to building sequences, Lego Voyagers has you solve simple puzzles, like bringing generator pieces from one area to another or operating machinery to help your partner reach distant platforms. My favorite genre of puzzle is when the game has you collaborate to pilot a vehicle, like a boat or car, with one person steering and the other controlling the acceleration. These puzzles make the most of the game's co-op nature, and I understand why single-player isn’t an option. Lego Voyagers is also a platformer, which I did not enjoy as much as the puzzles. You can use the build button to snap your character to studs in surfaces, allowing you to zip to platforms you need to reach, but these platforms are usually just a single stud wide and barely the full length of your jump, so some sequences take a few attempts. This only becomes frustrating because of the distant, angled camera. Lego Voyagers rightfully wants to show off its beautiful visuals, but this means making the players very small on the screen. When you combine that with a fixed camera and visual effects like bloom, depth perception is a challenge, and trying to make precise jumps feels unintentionally difficult. Lego Voyagers doesn't punish you for dying, but some of the platforming sequences are just messy enough that I worry whether a co-op party of two young kids would be able to make it through. Couple that with one particularly difficult rocket minigame near the end, and I'd go as far as to say that, despite its extremely kid-friendly aesthetics, I'd recommend this game for slightly older kids, maybe 10 and up, who might have an easier time getting through it. Despite my misgivings with the platforming, however, the story more than makes up for it. Despite a vague start, you'll know exactly what's going on by the end, and it's a stunning, bittersweet tale. The last hour in particular is so effective and simple that it's become one of my favorite story moments of the year – if you start this game, you owe it to yourself to finish it. While I wish it had an adjustable camera or the ability to tweak visual settings on console, I had a great time regardless. Ultimately, whether it's online or local, the dedicated two-player experience is Lego Voyagers' secret weapon. The game is intentionally abstract and open to interpretation, so you'll fill in the gaps with your partner: you create a relationship between your Lego avatars, shorthand for game terms to get through levels, and eventually build a new, player-specific version of the game for yourself. Light Brick Studio did a great job designing Lego Voyagers, but the experience I built with my partner is what will stick with me. Score: 8 About Game Informer's review system View the full article

Hell is Us' creative director, Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, has described Team Cherry's surprise reveal of Hollow Knight: Silksong's release date just two weeks before its launch as "a little callous." Read more View the full article

Poncle founder and Vampire Survivors creator, Luca Galante, has said the team established publishing arm Poncle Presents to "give something back to the indie community." Read more View the full article

Balatro’s 1.1 update has been delayed indefinitely, with creator LocalThunk explaining they’ve returned to working on the game "as a hobbyist." Read more View the full article

Gearbox Software has addressed concerns from fans regarding Take-Two Interactive’s terms of service, including claims that Borderlands 4 may include spyware. Read more View the full article

Supergiant Games' Hades 2 is leaving early access on September 25, 2025, launching as a timed console exclusive on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. Read more View the full article

The Witcher Season 4 to premiere on October 30, 2025 | News-in-briefView the full article

Claim Puzzle Chambers for free on Steam! Puzzle Chambers is a fun 2d puzzle game with dark humor and pixel ... View the full article

It has been a jam-packed week of video games here at Game Informer and at large. We reviewed Borderlands 4, interviewed the developers behind it on The Game Informer Show this week ahead of its launch, got our butts kicked in Silksong (again and again), and survived the onslaught that was today's Nintendo Direct. As you might expect, we here at Game Informer love playing video games, and we love writing about them because it's our best way of speaking directly to you – our audience. We enjoy sharing the games we're loving, the ones we're not, what titles fascinate us, what we're looking forward to, and occasionally, what we had for lunch (carne asada is back at Chipotle, so I indulged in a burrito there today). We used to do a weekly series called Weekend Warrior, where we discussed what we're planning to play in the forthcoming weekend. We're still experimenting with bringing something like that back to the site, but we want to go deeper. We don't want to just talk ad nauseam about the games we're playing (which often include embargoed stuff where we have to annoyingly/cheekily call it REDACTED), but instead, use this space to highlight interesting things happening in games you might have missed, new perspectives we've gained on old favorites, reminders about upcoming titles, and more. In this edition, you'll find words from Game Informer editors about why now might be a great time to jump back into Marvel Rivals if you haven't in a minute, the strange (and normal) ways we play Hollow Knight: Silksong, what it's like watching someone else play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and yes, a quick tease about an upcoming first-party PlayStation 5 game we can't talk too much about yet. So without further ado: Hey Listen* *ReadBelow, we'll list the names of Game Informer editors and their thoughts for this week's edition of whatever we end up calling this. Matt Miller Marvel Rivals Season 4 If you've been away for a few months (or you've yet to try out the comic book-inspired title), today's launch of Season 4 is a good reason to hop back in. Alongside a new season pass filled with the expected mix of cool costumes (Dark Phoenix!), the new storyline focuses on a sort of battle between heaven and hell, exemplified through two new heroes entering the roster -- Angela and Daredevil. Angela is already in the mix, and her tank-oriented Vanguard playstyle is different from others we've seen in that role, going back and forth between free flight and on-the-ground axe attacks. We're just getting started learning her moves, but it's always fun to see how new characters shake up the experience. Kyle Hilliard Ghost of Yōtei, Hollow Knight: Silksong I am allowed to say that I am playing Ghost of Yōtei and that our review will post on Thursday, September 25 at 9:00 a.m. ET. But that’s all I can say! Don’t ask me anything else. For my own, non-professional gaming time, it may shock you to learn I am trying to make my way through Silksong, but the going has been slow. I have also been enjoying The Rogue: Prince of Persia quite a bit, so I would like to spend more time with that, as well. I wish I had it on Switch 2, though. Wesley LeBlanc Metal Eden Metal Eden is a game I'm right on the cusp of finishing – I'm on the final level, actually – and I look forward to writing a review for it on Game Informer next week. It's there where I'll talk about why I like this game so much, but it's here I'll discuss why I love covering games like Metal Eden. It is a game I checked out on a random whim during a June Steam Next Fest, and I loved its demo. Fast forward a few months to its launch, and I didn't get around to the full release until weeks later due to life and other work priorities. Man, am I so glad I did. Amidst a backlog and current log of triple-A releases like Death Stranding 2, Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and more, Metal Eden is a great reminder that there are games worth seeing and playing outside of the typical triple-A circuit of marketing. Sure, Metal Eden didn't appear in a major first-party showcase, but it's still a game worthy of your time if you like shooters, games like Ghostrunner, and the sights and sounds of cyberpunk dystopia. For me, Metal Eden was one part a good time and another part a personal check that it's always good to keep an eye on some of the smaller, less marketed games of the year. Charles Harte The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom While my recent weeks of gaming have been spent chasing the latest trends, my fiancée Alyssa has finally been getting into Tears of the Kingdom, thanks to the Switch 2 upgrade. She recently found the last of the geoglyph memories, which was a reminder for me of just how beautiful and tragic the game's story is. It's also nice to see that, as a contrast to my direct, progression-focused playstyle, Alyssa doesn't need to finish a game by a certain day or rush to avoid spoilers. On one hand, I'm glad she's enjoying the journey. On the other hand, I'm extremely eager for her to get to the ending, because I've been talking up this final boss for like two years now and I want to see if she thinks it lives up to the hype. She'll save Hyrule eventually, but she's probably going to spend a few more hours collecting horses first. Marcus Stewart Donkey Kong Bananza, Hollow Knight: Silksong I'm still punching my way through Donkey Kong Bananza. I'm over halfway through the game with only one Bananza transformation still missing, but I'm still not tired of wrecking everything in sight. It's rather cathartic. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get DK and Pauline to the planet's core this weekend, as I'll be dedicating most of my gaming time to a secret review game. Beyond collecting bananas, I've been chipping away at Hollow Knight: Silksong. Getting it on Switch 2 makes it great for quick sessions before bed, because I apparently enjoy going to bed angry at not beating a difficult boss for the fifth straight attempt. At least Shakra's soothing and catchy hymns calm me down. Alex Van Aken Hollow Knight: Silksong Hollow Knight: Silksong has enchanted me, its gorgeously rendered world calling for me to continue exploring its many areas. I love stumbling across new characters or items that change my character build. I’m spending the weekend closing out Act 1, and I can’t wait to dive in after work! View the full article