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Dying Light 1 gets free audio and visual “enhancements” this week, but they won’t be coming to Switch

by admin June 25, 2025

It’s a big year for Dying Light; the open-world zombie series is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and developer Techland is marking the occasion with a variety of projects. That includes a newly detailed audio and visual refresh for the series’ debut instalment, which arrives in a free update – titled Dying Light: Retouched – this Thursday, 26th June.

“One of the best things about working with your own engine is that the people building it are just next door,” Techland explains on its blog. “Over the past couple of years, we’ve added a lot, customised a lot, and learned how to squeeze more from the tech we already have. One day, someone just started applying those learnings to some old assets – and it just clicked that we could do that across the whole game.”

As such, players can expect increased texture resolution and quality, as well as improved lighting and physics-based rendering. Techland also promises a new 8K Ultra shadow quality (“a lot of surfaces that previously looked rather flat now really pop out and get depth!”, it writes), and there’s an increased maximum level-of-detail option for those with hardware to support it, meaning Dying Light’s most detailed assets can now be seen much further away.

Dying Light 2 standalone expansion The Beast arrives in August.Watch on YouTube

As far as audio goes, original composer Pawe&lstrok; Blaszczak has remastered Dying Light’s soundtrack for the update, while new tracks and ambient sounds have been “woven in” throughout. That’s alongside “seriously juiced up… hit reaction audio in combat”, which is said to sound “more satisfying [and] more impactful.”

Techland does, however, take great pains to stress that Dying Light’s Retouched update is all about “enhancements” and is “not a complete overhaul or remaster.” Additionally, the “level of changes” players can expect will “vary by platform”.

Dying Light: Retouched launches Thursday, 26th June for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Notably absent from that list is the original Switch, which received an impressive port of Dying Light back in 2021, and Techland has confirmed to IGN the update is “not coming” to Nintendo’s platform. Don’t expect a version of Dying Light for Switch 2 either, as Techland says it has “no plans [to release one] at this moment.”

Instead, it’s apparently all-hands-on-deck for the studio’s upcoming 18-hour standalone adventure, Dying Light: The Beast, which launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 22nd August. And there’s more planned for the series beyond that; Techland previously revealed it’s working on “multiple unannounced projects” that “go beyond video games”, including board games, a webcomic series, merchandise, and “more”.

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June 25, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Sony really won’t be putting new first party games on PlayStation Plus day one any time soon

by admin June 25, 2025

Sony is sticking to its guns, and won’t be releasing its first party games day one on its PlayStation Plus subscription service.

Speaking with GameFile, vice president of global services at PlayStation Nick Maguire said the company was “not looking to put games in day and date” on PS Plus, and will instead stick with its current way of doing things.

This is, of course, very different from Xbox, which often puts big first party releases such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and many more on Game Pass from the get go.

FBC: Firebreak Preview – How Does It Play And Is It Good? Watch on YouTube

Sony, meanwhile, has added some third party games like the excellent Blue Prince and Stray to PS Plus on the same day as their initial launch. But the likes of God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West – both from Sony’s first party studios – weren’t added to the service until around a year after their initial release.

“Our strategy of finding four or five independent day-and-date titles – and using that to complement our strategy of bringing games in when they’re 12, 18 months old or older – that balance for us is working really well across the platform,” Maguire continued, before adding:

“If there were six or seven great opportunities, then we would go for them as well.”

When asked if the company had considered the benefit of putting its own first party live-service titles on PS Plus, with Concord – the debut game from Sony’s FireWalk Studios, which was taken offline just two weeks after its PS5 and PC debut – being used as an example, Maguire declined to give a specific comment. The Sony exec did say, however, that PS Plus has “proven itself to be a great way to introduce new players to franchises” when they arrive on the service.

“There’s always going to be a moment for any game where there’s the right time for it to go into Plus, when it’s ready to reach a wider audience or… to find new fans or new parts of our platform that it hasn’t already reached,” Maguire said.

This month, Remedy’s multiplayer Control spin-off FBC: Firebreak was available to all those on PlayStation Plus’ Extra and Premium tiers day one. However, even when included on a subscription service, some live-service games still flop. Square Enix’s Foamstars, for example, failed to set the world alight despite being part of the PS Plus catalogue.

Would Concord have faired better if it had released on PS Plus? | Image credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Today’s comments echo what the exec stated back in 2023, when Maguire said putting games on to Sony’s subscription service “a bit later in the life cycle” is working for the company. Therefore, this will “continue to be [its] strategy moving forward,” Maguire said at the time.

Earlier this month, meanwhile, Sony president Hideaki Nishino stated the company is open to adjusting the price of PlayStation Plus in the future, as it aims to “maximise profitability”.

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June 25, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Jony Ive and Sam Altman’s AI Gadget Won’t Be ChatGPT in Your Ears

by admin June 23, 2025

Over the weekend, OpenAI removed all promo materials related to its $6.5 billion buddy-buddy partnership with Apple design legend Jony Ive and their still unannounced AI-centric device. This wasn’t a falling out between the two titans in tech, but rather the result of something altogether stranger. The nixed webpages and videos are due to a trademark lawsuit filed by a separate startup, iyO, which is seemingly miffed about the companies names being a single letter apart.

On July 20, California federal Judge Trina L. Thompson granted a temporary restraining order against OpenAI that forced it to remove all mentions of Ive’s design company, “io.” You can still find the bromance video of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive—who helped bring us products like the iMac and iPhone—on YouTube through unofficial uploads. A page on OpenAI’s site that previously talked up its partnership with Ive now reads:

“This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from iyO about our use of the name “io.” We don’t agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options.”

What’s the distinction between iyO Inc. and io, other than the inclusion of everybody’s favorite sometimes vowel? iyO also makes “hardware and software allowing users to do everything they currently do on a computer, phone, or tablet without using a physical interface.” Which is to say, it’s an AI device company. Jony Ive and several other ex-Apple staff founded io in 2023. Since then, it poached some big-name Apple design stars, though the company hadn’t released any real products in that time. Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, helped design a button for a separate fashion designer.

iyO has been around since 2021, though its latest product—an in-ear headset called the iyO One—is still up for preorder. It’s a device that claims to replace apps by letting users talk in natural language to a chatbot that then computes for you. It requires an audiologist to make an impression of your ear and costs $1,000 for a version with Wi-Fi connectivity or even more for a version with LTE. The device maker claimed in its lawsuit it is manufacturing an initial batch of 20,000 units and is still looking to raise more funds. The AI device maker sued IO Products and OpenAI earlier this month and said it was seeking an immediate restraining order and injunction to stop Ive and OpenAI from using their two-letter brand name. iyO claimed it sought some investment from OpenAI and LoveFrom, though Altman told them in March that it was “working on something competitive so will respectfully pass.”

“Defendants [AKA OpenAI and Ive] have known about the existence of iyO, the iyO Marks, and the nature of iyO’s technology since at least 2022,” the AI device maker claims in its lawsuit. “Indeed, the parties had a series of meetings with representatives of OpenAI’s principal, Sam Altman, and designers from LoveFrom Inc., a design studio founded by Jony Ive, about the prospect of iyO and OpenAI working together.” For its part, OpenAI said in response to the lawsuit it had decided not to pursue any collab or funding with iyO. The makers of ChatGPT said it surveyed many existing commercial AI devices in the run-up to its May partnership announcement. Ive even went as far as to say the Rabbit R1 and Humane Ai Pin were “very poor products.”

The name “io” derives from a tech term referring to “input/output,” such as the “IO ports” like USB or HDMI you may find on a typical PC. In a statement published on the opening salvo for the lawsuit, iyO cofounder Justin Rugolo said OpenAI was trying to “trample” on the rights of his “small startup.” Rugolo also claimed he had messaged Altman saying that investors were concerned about confusion surrounding the company’s names. Rugolo complained that OpenAI had previously sued a separate artificial intelligence company, Open Artificial Intelligence, over a similar trademark claim.

At the very least, this lawsuit offers a few more slim details about what Ive and Altman have in store. In its response to iyO’s claims, OpenAI said, “io is at least a year away from offering any goods or services, and the first product it intends to offer is not an in-ear device like the one Plaintiff is offering.” OpenAI further suggested whatever spins out of io will be a “general consumer product for the mass market.”

It’s unlikely that we’ll see work stop on whatever Ive and co. are working on. There are more hearings surrounding this trademark case slated for the months ahead. The lawsuit offers yet another glimpse into the high-stakes world of AI wearable startups and just how hard it is to come up with a device that can match the versatility of an iPhone. We’ll still have to wait at least a year to see if anybody can cook up something more usable than an earpiece that lets you talk to a chatbot.

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June 23, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Elden Ring Nightreign does actually have a Relic limit, and it won’t let you play until you clear your inventory

by admin June 23, 2025

One of the most interesting features of Elden Ring Nightreign is the ability to modify your character over the course of several runs. That’s something FromSoftware borrowed from other roguelites, and it’s represented in game through Relics.

Relics are bundles of buffs that you attach to your characters to boost their latent abilities, proficiency with certain weapons/spells and more. They offer all kinds of useful bonuses that, when picked correctly, can really complement your chosen class.

That does create a bit of a problem, however.

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Because of the random nature of Relics, Nightreign players are incentivised to keep a storage of them until they need them. For instance, if you never use bows and arrows, and you find a Relic with a really strong bonus to archery, you’re more likely to save it until the moment you try Ironeye, or when you feel like doing a bow-only run.

That, of course, causes players’ storage chests to be cluttered with plenty of Relics waiting to be equipped. Some of them may even be so old that the player has likely received much better versions hours ago without realising.

Nightreign does offer an option to sell off your old Relics for in-game currency, but you get so little of it that most players don’t bother. Until now, when Reddit user Scufozzover1 discovered that the game does, indeed, have a limit to the number of Relics you can hoard.

You can’t play if you have too many relics
byu/Scufozzover1 inNightreign

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In fact, as you can see in their Reddit post, having a full inventory of Relics means you won’t be able to go on Expeditions. Scufozzover1 posted the error message the game throws out, which is not something many players have seen.

Of course, the game recommends using the Relic Rite feature to get rid of the ones you don’t need, which is really something you should be doing regularly as you continue playing and acquiring more powerful Relics.

The reason this took a while to be uncovered is that Nightreign doesn’t actually show an inventory limit for Relics, so players had no idea how many they can actually store. Scufozzover1 says it’s close to 1,000, which is a massive number.

If you’re not Relic hoarding, you probably know better, which means you’re going to appreciate our Elden Ring Nightreign guide. We recently updated it with Remembrance (character quests) walkthroughs for the Executor Remembrance quest, and Duchess Remembrance quest.

And, in case you missed it, FromSoftware recently introduced the first of several harder versions of the game’s Nightlords. The so called Everdark Sovereign bosses don’t just have more health and deal higher damage, they also use new moves against you.

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June 23, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

‘This happened because of the best elements of our community’: Borderlands 4 won’t have a minimap, but thanks to player demand it will have an optional combat radar

by admin June 22, 2025

I think we can all agree that an always-on minimap is bad. Like the TV in a bar, you find your eyes drawn to it even when there are other things you should be looking at. You stare at a corner of your monitor while ignoring the fancy grandeur of whatever expensive open world is taking up the other seven-eighths of your screen.

But the absence of navigational aids can be just as bad. I got lost more than once in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in areas where there was no map at all, and just had to loop around the place trying to find the one bit I was supposed to go to next. And in an FPS, you may not need to worry as much about getting lost, but you will need to worry about losing enemies when they duck behind cover.

When early footage of Borderlands 4 showed it lacking a minimap, some players were distraught. If you can hear psychos ranting but can’t tell exactly where they are, how will you figure out they’re actually on the other side of that hut in particular? Well, as Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford explained on the hatesite formerly known as Twitter, Borderlands 4 actually will have a combat radar in time for its September launch.

Explaining in detail why Borderlands 4 was initially designed without a minimap, Pitcfhord said, “Borderlands 4 is much larger than ever before, and seamless. There are main missions and side quests (lots of them) that often have objectives, sometimes multiple objectives, further than the scope of a useful mini-map. So we invest *more* into the main, big map—make it more useful, faster, better. And we invest in other features for navigation, like the compass and the EchoBot AI drone companion.”

Those other features sound pretty great. The drone can paint a path for you, like you’re casting clairvoyance in Oblivion Remastered, and the compass highlights targets as well as destinations, and indicates their height at the same time—something minimaps are often bad at. However, when Gearbox showed off Borderlands 4 on a recent world tour of preview events (Tyler Wilde attended one for us, and came away pleased with its consistency and also the cool hoverbike), some players did bring up the combat-usefulness of a minimap.

“The people who stuck with their feelings about a combat radar had a point”, Pitchford said. “WE got good at the compass for combat, but combat is all *feel*. Should we require everyone to learn the compass for enemy situational awareness?”

And so, the creative director and UI team pulled together and whipped up a combat radar—though it’ll be off by default. It wasn’t ready in time for the Borderlands Fan Fest, but it will be ready in time for the game’s release on September 12, when Borderlands 4 will be available on Steam and the Epic Game Store.

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June 22, 2025 0 comments

GOG one-clicking modding announcement image, showing Bloodlines, Doom 3, Fallout London, and Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

Product Reviews

GOG says it won’t repeat its ill-fated Daggerfall GOG Cut with its new one-click modding program, not least because it can send more than one message a day to modders now

by admin June 20, 2025

Remember the Daggerfall Unity GOG Cut? Odds are you don’t. It was, in essence, a pre-modded version of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, in the excellent fan-made Daggerfall Unity engine reimplementation. The idea was that if you wanted to play Daggerfall but didn’t want to go through the rigamarole of modding it into modernity, you could just download the GOG Cut and be on your way.

But there were issues. It quickly became outdated as the mods it included got new updates that GOG didn’t wrap into the GOG Cut, and even if it had kept everything on its latest version, some of the included mods just didn’t quite mesh. It wasn’t the best way to play Daggerfall in the 2020s, and ended up delisted from GOG’s storefront earlier this year after languishing there since 2022.

But GOG is taking another crack at modding with its one-click mods program, which will let you install stuff like Skyblivion, HoMM 3: Horn of the Abyss, and other meaty mod projects much like you install any other game on the platform. As it begins to flex its fan-content muscles, it says its learnt a lot from the DF GOG Cut experience.

“In this case, usually, for the mods it will be on them [to keep mods up-to-date],” says GOG’s Rudy de Marco. “They will have more access than previously, because at the end of the day it will be easier for everyone to trust them to actually update their stuff whenever they want, right? So that’s how we plan to go.”

(Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

So, presuming mod authors keep on top of their updates, we shouldn’t run into yet another scenario where mods on GOG end up woefully outdated compared to their counterparts on sites like Nexus Mods. It’s not a free-for-all, though: GOG of course has to approve which mods it hosts on its service, and de Marco tells me that the store does “give heads up” to studios whose games are being modded on the platform. “It’s for us, but for the mod creators as well, right? There are stories in the past where mods could have been shut down completely for a specific franchise, and it’s not something where we want to put anyone at risk… We are kind of a middleman to make sure that everything’s okay.”

I get the impression that GOG’s come quite a way from the first days of the DF GOG Cut. Which, you know, you’d certainly hope is the case. In our chat, de Marco told me that assembling the DF GOG Cut was so ramshackle that “Our main person in charge of [the GOG Cut] did not have a premium account on Nexus, so he could send one message a day to people that weren’t his friend.” Kind of made securing all the necessary permissions for mod authors a bit hard.

I’m interested to see where GOG goes with modding. The whole scene has hit interesting times in the wake of the departure of the 24-year head of Nexus Mods, with some users fearing the site’s new owners might put the stalwart platform on a path to enshittification. Perhaps we’re due a shake-up in the mod-hosting scene. Perhaps GOG is well-placed to take advantage of it. It probably has a premium account by this point.

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June 20, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Mashinsky Won’t Get Assets From Celsius Debtors

by admin June 17, 2025

Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky has agreed not to claim any assets from the Celsius bankruptcy proceeds.

In a motion filed on Monday, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York stated that an agreement has been reached between Celsius debtors and Alex Mashinsky, AM Ventures Holdings Inc., Koala1 LLC and Koala3 LLC that prohibits the distribution of proceeds from Celsius’ bankruptcy to the latter parties.

Source: Stretto

The agreement stipulates that Celsius debtors can distribute funds tied up due to claims made by Mashinsky and the three related entities.

Further, the court retained jurisdiction over all matters relating to this case; however, the court will not supersede the ongoing criminal case.

“The Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any and all disputes related to this Stipulation and Order,” the motion read.

Alex Mashinsky’s prison sentence

In May, Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison after a US judge found the former Celsius CEO guilty of committing fraud.

Related: Jury convicts ex-SafeMoon CEO on all charges

Mashinsky’s legal team highlighted his military service and pleading guilty in December as grounds for a more lenient sentence.

Prior to his sentencing, the US Department of Justice had sought a 20-year prison sentence for Mashinsky, though his lawyers cried foul, saying that it would be a “death-in-prison sentence.”

Celsius creditors get their money back

Celsius creditors have collectively claimed more than $1 billion in assets so far this year.

In August 2024, Celsius paid out more than $2.5 billion to over 251,000 creditors. However, as many as 121,000 creditors did not stake their claims due to the amounts being less than $1,000, with the vast majority losing less than $100.

In November 2024, Celsius stated that it would pay out $127 million from its “Litigation Recovery Account” to creditors, which included retail borrowers, retail depositors and users of its Earn program.

In July 2023, Celsius reached two settlements to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, which were initiated in July 2022.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a legal process in the US that allows businesses to restructure without having to face immediate repercussions from creditors.

Magazine: Older investors are risking everything for a crypto-funded retirement

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June 17, 2025 0 comments

$80 for Borderlands 4 too costly? Randy Pitchford says, "If you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make it happen"

Game Updates

Borderlands 4 special editions and price confirmed (and it won’t cost $80)

by admin June 16, 2025

With Borderlands 4’s September release inching closer, publisher Take-Two has announced pricing and a variety of special editions for the shooter. And there’s good news for anyone worried an $80 price tag might be on the cards following all that recent hoo-ha; the standard edition does not, it turns out, cross Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford’s “real fan” threshold.

Pitchford, of course, raised more than a few eyebrows last month, when he implied potential customers not willing to spend $80 on Borderlands 4 (amid a hypothetical discussion of its price tag) weren’t ‘real fans’. His statement – that “real fans” would find a way to get their hands on a copy of the game, even if it came with a $80 price tag – did not go down well, and Pitchford later attempted to justify his comments in a longer video. Unfortunately, he then followed that up with another ill-conceived social media post irritated fans quickly branded “tone-deaf”.

But it turns out Pitchford could probably have avoided needlessly annoying the Borderlands community if he’d just held fire a little longer. Take-Two has now confirmed Borderlands 4 will, in fact, cost $70 for the standard edition of the game – but the full story is a little more complicated given regional pricing, variations in platform pricing, and the usual scrum of special editions offering various strands of Borderlands stuff.

PC is where you’ll pick up Borderlands 4 cheapest; the standard edition costs £59.99 on Steam and Epic, and you’ll be paying £69.99 for the same version on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. That then climbs to £89.99 for the Deluxe Edition (which I suppose is now technically the Real Fan Edition given the price) and £119.99 for the Super (Fan?) Deluxe Edition.

And in case you’re wondering what the difference is, the Deluxe Edition features the game, the Bounty Pack Bundle (which includes four post-launch DLC packs promising new areas, missions, and bosses), plus Vault Cards containing more challenges and rewards, new gear and weapons, four new vehicles, Vault Hunter cosmetics, and the Firehawk’s Fury Weapon Skin.

The Super Deluxe Edition, meanwhile, includes all the above, plus the Ornate Order Pack (featuring Vault Hunter Skins, four Vault Hunter Heads and four Vault Hunter Bodies), and the Vault Hunter Pack. This latter includes two post-launch Story Packs, each bringing a new Vault Hunter, new story and side missions, new map regions, new gear and weapons, plus additional Vault Hunter and ECHO-4 cosmetics.

So to recap, Borderlands 4 – now with less toilet humour! – launches for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC on 12th September. But for something a little bit different, why not check out Connor’s investigation into the community of archivists racing to revive a dead Borderlands MMO.

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June 16, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Borderlands 4 Post-Launch Plans Include New Vault Hunters, But They Won’t Be Free

by admin June 16, 2025

Borderlands 4 developer Gearbox has outlined its post-launch plans for the game, which include new Vault Hunters. These new additions to the roster won’t be free, however, as they’ll be added to the game through the $130 Super Deluxe Edition. Gearbox has not yet revealed if they’ll be available as standalone purchases, but it’s likely that the new Story Packs or an upgrade can be purchased for the Standard or Deluxe Edition of Borderlands 4.

In addition to the new Story Packs adding more Vault Hunters, these will also throw in an entirely new region of Kairos with extended narrative content, Gearbox said in a blog post. Additional storylines and side missions will be included alongside various cosmetics and Bounty Packs that will feature “more tightly focused content” for players.

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Now Playing: Borderlands 4 – Official 18 Minute Gameplay Deep Dive Overview Trailer

Each Bounty Pack will feature a new area with fresh missions alongside a unique boss fight, loot, a new type of personalized Digirunner vehicle, and a Vault Card with its own set of rewards for completing certain challenges. Bounty Packs will be included in the Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions of the game.

The previous mainline Borderlands games have had four post-launch expansions. The first Borderlands game introduced fan-favorite character Moxxi in the Underdome Riot expansion, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep from Borderlands 2 was critically acclaimed, and Borderlands 3 brought back everyone’s favorite villain Handsome Jack–kind of–for a heist story.

Paywalling new Vault Hunters behind post-launch content isn’t unusual either for the series, as characters like Gaige, Krieg, Handsome Jack’s doppelganger Timothy, and Aurelia were all available as DLC or as preorder bonuses. The only exception to the rule is Borderlands 3, as all four playable Vault Hunters were available at launch and no additional characters were introduced as post-launch DLC.

Borderlands 3 also had a lot of free DLC added to it over the years, with one of the more notable examples being a block-shifting puzzle game that helped real-world scientists organize data. Millions of players took part in this project, and they were officially recognized as scientific contributors for their help. Borderlands 4 launches on September 12 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2, and ahead of its arrival, Gearbox has been sharing a few more details on the game.

We’ve already seen some of the big co-op changes that Gearbox has been working on, more details on the new Vault Hunters have been revealed, and the loot system has also been overhauled.

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June 16, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Marathon won’t be a disaster like Concord, Sony swears

by admin June 14, 2025

Marathon isn’t going to be the next Concord, according to Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst. In a recent “fireside chat” with investors, Hulst admitted that Concord fell short of Sony’s expectations, but added that the publisher had learned some valuable lessons in the wake of the hero shooter’s disastrous August 2024 launch and subsequent cancellation.

After praising the success of Helldivers 2, Hulst conceded that the publisher had also faced its fair share of challenges in recent months, using Concord as an example, and assuring investors that Sony has made moves to ensure that Marathon — the upcoming first-person extraction shooter from Bungie — won’t face the same fate. Hulst also praised the work that the now-defunct Firewalk Studios put into Concord, citing the competitive nature of the live-service genre and marketing issues as the main culprits behind the game’s failure, which ultimately led to refunds and the closure of Concord’s development studio.

”I think some really good work, actually, went into that title, some really big effort,” Hulst said of Concord. “But ultimately, that title entered into a hyper-competitive segment of the market. I think it was insufficiently differentiated to be able to resonate with players. And so we have reviewed our processes in light of this to deeply understand how and why that title failed to meet expectations, to ensure we’re not going to make the same mistakes again.”

Sony is determined to ensure that Marathon isn’t dead on arrival. Image: Bungie via Polygon

Hulst explained that new operating procedures have been implemented at Sony to ensure the publisher doesn’t repeat history when Marathon launches later this year.

“We’ve introduced much more rigorous processes for validating, for re-validating our creative, our commercial, our development assumptions and hypotheses, and we now do that on a much more ongoing basis,” Hulst said. “That’s the plan that will ensure we are investing in the right opportunities at the right time, all while maintaining much more predictable timelines.

“For Marathon, it’s our goal to release a very bold, very innovative, and deeply engaging title. It’s going to be the first new Bungie title in over a decade. So we’re really excited for that release. We’re monitoring, we’re going through the test cycles. We’re monitoring the closed alpha cycle the team has just gone through. We’re taking all the lessons learned, we’re using the capabilities we’ve built — and analytics and user testing — to understand how audiences are engaging with the title.”

Hulst admitted that although some of that user feedback has been “varied,” it has also been “super useful” in regard to Marathon’s development.

“That’s why you do this testing,” Hulst explained to investors. “The constant testing, the constant re-validation of assumptions that we just talked about, to me is just so valuable to iterate and to constantly improve the title, so when launch comes, we’re going to give the title the optimal chance of success.”

A former Firewalk Studios developer also seems to agree that Marathon deserves a chance.

“I worked on Concord, and did my best,” the developer shared on Reddit. “We came up short, please don’t punish others for our mistakes.”

Regarding Marathon, the anonymous dev said that they “really didn’t want to be ‘that’ dev, calling attention to myself as if I have a horse in this race,” adding, “But to call [Marathon] a failure before it’s even out is wild to me.”

Marathon is set to launch on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Sept. 23.

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June 14, 2025 0 comments