Four games developed by the studio formerly known as Square Enix Montreal will be shut down in January, it’s been announced. The developer, which wasrenamed Studio Onomalast month before the decision wasthen made to shut it down, stated on Twitter that the following four moble games will be ending: According to the announcement, all four games will be removed from theiOSApp Store andGooglePlay Store on December 1. Players who already own the games will be able to continue playing them until June 23, 2025, at which point they will lose access....

From Software boss Hidetaka Miyazaki has ruled out making a second Elden Ring expansion, but left the door open for a potential sequel. In an interview with Chinese siteZhihu, Miyazaki said the company has no plans for further DLC beyond the game’s first expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree,which will be released in June. He said the company would rather release one major expansion than split additional content into several parts, which would reduce the freedom of exploration and sense of adventure the game offers....

Gears 5 is off to a strong start on Xbox One, fuelled by the game’s availability on subscription service Xbox Game Pass. The game attracted three million players in its opening weekend and recorded the “biggest launch week” for a first-partyXbox Onetitle, taking into account the early access period. “The performance easily doubled the first week’s debut ofGears of War4 and madeGears 5the most-played Xbox Game Studios title in its first week since 2012’sHalo4,”Microsoftsaid....

Playstack’s hit card roguelike, Balatro, is now available to purchase on mobile devices. The game, which was released for consoles andPCearlier this year and currently has aMetacritic score of 90, is available throughApple Arcade, theApp StoreandGoogle Play. Celebrating two million copies sold last month, developerLocalThunkrevealed that the game’s first major update would be coming in 2025. “This update will bring new ideas and strategies to the game and as a token of huge appreciation to the game’s brilliant and passionate community, the update will be completely free,” they wrote....

Activision Blizzard plans to hire 2000 new development staff over the next two years and triple the size of certain teams, most likely those working on Call of Duty. The target was shared byActivision BlizzardCEOBobby Kotickduring a conference call yesterday to discuss the publisher’s Q1 2021 earnings. “From the start of 2020 through the end of next year, we intend to hire more than 2000 developers,” Kotick said. “We plan to triple the size of certain franchise teams compared to those team sizes in 2019 and we have aggressive hiring plans around the world, including new studios or major expansion in Poland, China, Australia, and Canada....

A group of designers whose credits include Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch and Sky: Children of the Light have formed a new studio called Gardens. Functioning as a fully remote studio, but based primarily in Portland and Los Angeles, Gardens was co-founded by president and creative director Chris Bell, technical director Lexie Dostal and narrative director Stephen Bell. Its goal is to create online games that foster meaningful multiplayer interactions and encourage players to be considerate of each other and world around them....

Avalanche Studios Group has announced plans to open a new office in Montreal, Canada. The move follows the acquisition of Monster Closet, a Montreal-based studio founded in 2021 by a team of veteran game developers with a shared history of working atUbisoft. Stockholm, Sweden-based Avalanche also has offices in Malmö (Sweden), New York (US) and Liverpool (UK). Avalanche specialises in open-world games. As well its Just Cause series, it developed 2015’s Mad Max and co-developed 2019’sRage 2withid Software....

Actress Kaitlyn Dever, who will portray Abby in the second season of The Last of Us, required extra security while filming, it’s claimed. The claim was made by castmate Isabela Merced, speaking on the Happy, Sad, Confusedpodcast. “There are people that genuinely hate Abby, who is not a real person,” Merced said. “Just a reminder, not a real person. Kaitlyn had to be extra secured by security when it came to the filming of this....

Like a Dragon developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio will hold a digital product showcase next week. The RGG Summit Fall 2023 edition will take place on September 19 at 8pm PT / 11pm ET (September 20 at 4am BST / 5am CEST). The presentation will be viewable on publisherSega’s Twitch and YouTube channels. Two Like a Dragon games were announced during last September’s RGG Summit Fall 2022 edition. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Nameis a spin-off which sheds light on Kiryu Kazama’s perspective following the events ofYakuza6: The Song of Life leading up to Like a Dragon 8....

Like a Dragon: Gaiden will launch without an English dub. As highlighted on Twitter by voice actor Yong Yea, the English dub of the upcoming game will be added in a post-release patch. There currently isn’t a release date for the English language voice pack. At launch, the game will be playable only in Japanese with English subtitles. Since Like A Dragon: Gaiden is a few weeks away and many may not know about this, thought I should let you know the English dub will not be available on the 11/8 launch date and will release as a post-launch patch (no official date yet)....

Luigi’s Mansion 3 will release on Halloween, October 31, Nintendo has announced. Developed by Vancouver-basedNext Level Games,Luigi’s Mansion 3will introduce online and local multiplayer, new skills and new character Gooigi, a gooey version of Luigi who can slide through fences and step across spikes that are inaccessible for Luigi himself. While we already knew specific release dates for some of the biggest upcomingSwitchgames, such asSeptember 20 for The Legend of Zelda: Link’s AwakeningandNovember 15 for Pokémon Sword and Shield, until now Luigi’s Mansion 3 was only confirmed for release in the fourth quarter of 2019....

Microsoft has revealed the details of its March system update for Xbox consoles, which brings Pin to Quick Resume, new controller updates andmore. Pin to Quick Resume will allow players to select games that support the feature and organise them in a menu that sits at the top of the ‘Groups’ tab in ‘My Games and Apps’. Also included in the update is the ability to remap the share button to serve multiple functions....

A free update for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is available now, and it reveals the names of the upcoming DLC cups. TheMario Kart 8 DeluxeBooster Course Pass, which costs $24.99 / £24.99, will provide 48 DLC tracks across six waves, the first of which will land on Friday, March 18. The courses will include remakes of classic tracks from across the series from games such as Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Kart Wii, as well as handheld entries and the mobile game,Mario Kart Tour....