Assassin's Creed Mirage was envisioned as an homage to its franchise—a celebration of how it began and what it accomplished between 2007's Assassin's Creed and 2023's Mirage. Beginning as an idea for a DLC expansion that would take Eivor to the Middle East, it grew into a standalone prequel starring Basim, the enigmatic Hidden One from Valhalla. Developed as a shorter experience by Ubisoft Bordeaux, the return-to-roots game presented a distinctive set of challenges, which are explored in the March 22 GDC talk "Between Legacy and Modernity: Creating an Homage Game to the 15-Year-Old Assassin's Creed Franchise."

During the talk, Creative Director Stéphane Boudon and Lead Producer Fabian Salomon discuss the game's beginnings, its growth into a "remoot"—that is, something between a remake and a reboot - and how a streamlined approach helped them make tough choices and focus the game on the Assassin experience. To find out more, we spoke with Boudon and Salomon about some of the early concepts behind the game, a few features that didn't make the cut, and how Mirage re-introduced and redefined stealth as a gameplay pillar.

Our favorite thing about Zau might surprise you. Or, it might be the first thing you noticed. In a recent Discord Q+A (viewable below), ZAU Creative Director Abubakar Salim throws the deceptively simple question to Lead Artist Ackeem Durrant and Lead Designer Zi Peters: what's your favorite thing about our main character? Since our reveal in December, we've been completely floored by how many of you took the leap to pre-order ZAU. We worked hard to give the game a fair price—and a 10% discount to everyone who buys before launch day - plus carefully crafted in-game content that feels special while not detracting from our central vision for the game. We're incredibly grateful for your support. Thank you.

Wield the dance of the shaman. Reclaim your father's spirit
A grieving boy begins to read a Bantu tale written by his late father. Adventure into the beautiful and treacherous lands of Kenzera as Zau, a young shaman who bargains with the God of death to bring his Baba back from darkness. With your cosmic powers and untried courage, you advance into unknown mythological lands. Once bursting with life, Kenzera is now rife with lost ancestral spirits. As Zau advances toward his goal, 3 mighty beings lie in wait, fearsome in their strength yet somehow strangely familiar. Will you embrace the dance of the shaman?

Have you ever dreamed of having a real conversation with an NPC in a video game? Not just one gated within a dialogue tree of pre-determined answers, but an actual conversation, conducted through spontaneous action and reaction? Lately, a small R&D team at Ubisoft's Paris studio, in collaboration with Nvidia's Audio2Face application and Inworld's Large Language Model (LLM), have been experimenting with generative AI in an attempt to turn this dream into a reality. Their project, NEO NPC, uses GenAI to prod at the limits of how a player can interact with an NPC without breaking the authenticity of the situation they are in, or the character of the NPC itself.

Considering that word—authenticity—the project has had to be a hugely collaborative effort across artistic and scientific disciplines. Generative AI is a hot topic of conversation in the videogame industry, and Senior Vice President of Production Technology Guillemette Picard is keen to stress that the goal behind all genAI projects at Ubisoft is to bring value to the player; and that means continuing to focus on human creativity behind the scenes. "The way we worked on this project, is always with our players and our developers in mind," says Picard. "With the player in mind, we know that developers and their creativity must still drive our projects. Generative AI is only of value if it has value for them."

Helldivers 2 has exploded onto the gaming scene in a massive way. This co-operative third-person shooter packed with danger, action, humor, and surprises has already become one of this year's most talked-about games. What some people may be less familiar with though is its progenitor. The original Helldivers, which debuted in 2015 (and is still active) is a co-op, multiplayer overhead twin-stick shooter packed with action, intensity, and plenty of challenging situations that a player might find themselves in.

We asked Johan Pilestedt, CEO & Creative Director at Arrowhead Studios about the process of adapting the original overhead-view gameplay of Helldivers into the third-person format-after first congratulating him for the rip-roaring success of the game. We asked how the team felt about the positive reception. "Overwhelmed and ecstatic! Over the last 15 years, we've seen a keen interest in the types of games we make and it was great to see our work recognized at this scale."

Every choice we made when developing Outcast - A New Beginning had, at its core, one motivation: freedom. It was important to us not to limit where players could go at any point; instead, we gave them the tools to navigate the detailed open world we've spent the last few years crafting. We're incredibly proud of Outcast's world and want players to share its richness with us. As players set out across Adelpha, we want to reward them for their curiosity and sense of adventure. Whether it's blitzing through an invader base and unlocking a new weapon module, zipping through gliding challenges to earn jetpack upgrades, or simply taking in the sights, we've strived to make every second spent on the planet of Adelpha feel meaningful to players.

Traveling in style
Knowing that players would be spending a lot of time in Cutter Slade's boots, it was important to us that it felt fun to maneuver him through the world. Open-world games often ask players to cross great distances, and it's our job as developers to ensure that you always feel invigorated by navigating the wilds of Adelpha. When designing how Cutter moved through the world, we didn't want to gatekeep fun traversal abilities for later in the game. From early in Outcast - A New Beginning, you can take advantage of Adelpha's teetering precipices and deep valleys with your gliding suit, swooping across the alien landscape.

Western Digital Corp. ("Western Digital" or "the Company") today provided an update on its previously announced plan to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies. On track for the second half of calendar year 2024, significant progress towards the completion of the separation is underway with key transactional projects including global legal entity establishment, customer and supplier contract transfers, final stage preparation for government filings, and initial executive leadership appointments for both HDD and Flash companies post-separation.

Announced on October 30, 2023, Western Digital plans to separate its HDD and Flash businesses, creating two independent, public companies with market-specific, strategic focus. The company's separation will better position each franchise to execute innovative technology and product development, capitalize on unique growth opportunities, extend respective market leadership positions, and operate more efficiently with distinct capital structures.

As many of you know, two weeks ago, there were a series of changes made to the Overwatch team, as well as other teams across Blizzard. Writing a public blog is difficult in the wake of these events. I want to express gratitude for the absolutely amazing people who worked on our game that are no longer on our team. I want the community to feel informed, and I want to convey our excitement about what is to come in Season 9. To be honest, it's a lot to balance—but one of the things we've been most proud of is how we've kept lines of communication open between the team and our community, and we intend to continue that.

In that spirit, yesterday, we shared the exciting changes you are going to experience with Competitive starting in Season 9. I'd like to give a bit more insight into why we are making these changes. In our previous Director's Take, we talked about improving the game's core PvP experience. There are different ways that we look at improving the game, but one of the biggest is listening to your feedback. Season 9 starts in less than a week, and the two biggest and best changes coming to the season and a lot of it is driven by feedback from you - our players along with our team's vision to make the game more fun and challenging for everyone.

Good evening Kindred, in our recent Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 stream, we shared exciting news about the game and our first extended gameplay trailer. On the stream, The Chinese Room (TCR) Community Manager Josh Matthews was joined by Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director at TCR, who shared insights on the game, the narrative background, and how the game plays. If you missed the stream, you can check it out below. The gameplay stream contains several spoilers, and if you wish to avoid them, there are sections marked in the video timeline, or you can watch the trailer version of the gameplay video, which does not contain any major spoilers.

Matthews and Skidmore highlight an early-game mission, discussing why the player character, Phyre, infiltrates an abandoned warehouse to uncover clues about the mysterious mark on their hand. Players must choose their actions wisely, whether confronting the court's secret keeper like Willem or meeting unruly ghouls and illusions that cloud the environment. Acting as "The Sheriff" of the Court, Phyre's choices impact how the world perceives them and bring them closer to uncovering Seattle's secrets.

With his long silver hair, enormous odachi blade and epic theme song composed by legendary Nobuo Uematsu himself - Sephiroth is one of the most recognizable antagonists in RPG's history. The one-winged angel debuted in the original Final Fantasy VII in 1997 as a once-loved war hero and first-class SOLDIER who descended into madness and promised to destroy the planet upon learning of his unnatural creation. But there is much more to Sephiroth than just that. In Final Fantasy VII Remake, Sephiroth appears sporadically, mainly as a haunting memory, as the story focuses on Cloud and his friends trying to stop the evil corporation Shinra from killing the planet by using its life essence, mako, as an energy source.

In the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, however, we will see Sephiroth in his full glory. We asked Producer Yoshinori Kitase to discuss reimagining this iconic character in the Remakes: "The story in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth starts after the team has escaped Midgar and continues all the way up to the Forgotten Capital. In the original game, Sephiroth barely appeared during this section, but in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, he is the driving force that pulls the story along to fill that void. He is depicted in even more depth than in the original game, and I think this makes him an even more charismatic and appealing antagonist than before."

At the recent Xbox Developer_Direct 2024 broadcast, Obsidian Entertainment shared its most comprehensive look yet at its upcoming fantasy-action RPG, Avowed. But even that only scratched at the surface of what's coming your way this fall. On today's special episode of The Official Xbox Podcast, Avowed Game Director Carrie Patel and Gameplay Director Gabe Paramo shared an extended look at the quest showcased during Developer_Direct, providing more detail on the moment-to-moment experience of the flexible combat system, and where this side quest fits in the larger narrative of Avowed.

This latest look at Avowed gives us a good idea of what to expect from Shatterscarp, one part of the ecologically diverse island of The Living Lands, all in the same universe as Obsidian's CRPG series Pillars of Eternity. But what makes Avowed a very 'Obsidian game' goes far beyond the commonality of setting in the world of Eora. "It's really about our player-centric approach to role play," Patel shared during this week's Podcast. "The way we really approach consequence and choice is giving players the opportunities to define who they are in this world, how they want to behave - what fantasy, what challenges they want to undertake." It's all part of Obsidian's "your worlds, your way" approach, and players will feel the weight of their choices moment-to-moment with every slash, parry, and spell cast.

The corporate world of semiconductor companies has seen some restructuring lately, and today, we learn that Ryan Shrout of Intel is leaving the company. Most recently serving as Senior Director of Client Segment Strategy, CCG at Graphics and AI Group, Ryan Shrout joined Intel over four years ago. Mr. Shrout started at the company as Chief Performance Strategist in 2018, and later, in 2020, he changed his role to Senior Director of Technical and Competitive Client Marketing. After that, he made a switch and was Senior Director of Gaming, Graphics, and HPC Marketing (AXG Marketing). His most recent role was relatively short-lived, only lasting for three months.

Many people in the community may know Mr. Shrout from his time at PC Perspective, which he founded and managed as Editor-in-Chief in 1999. However, today, on his Twitter/X profile, we're learning that he is departing Intel to take on another role. "Fall is a season for change! Yesterday was my last day at Intel. I'm going to take a couple weeks with the family then I'm excited to talk about what's next," the post stated. With such extensive experience in the PC industry, we are eager to see where Mr. Shrout lands next.

Ex AMD Director of Technical Marketing Robert Hallock has joined Intel as Senior Director of Technical Marketing after a sabbatical. During his sabbatical, Hallock ran his own company that focused on aftermarket car mods. Hallock had a 12 year tenure at AMD and was the face of many of AMD's more technical videos and also took part in some keynote product instructions when it came to the more technical details of product introductions.

According to a post by Hallock on LinkedIn, his new position will apparently focus on AI for consumer processors, something that ties in with what Intel is about to announce at Intel Innovation 2023. As such, we might be seeing Hallock doing some of the presentations at Intel Innovation 2023 in September. Hallocks post on LinkedIn talks about AI accelerators, again suggesting that he will be mainly involved with the ex Movidius team, but as he mentions client computing, his responsibility might still extend outside of just the AI side of things. Time will tell if he gets a similar role at Intel as he had at AMD, or if he'll just be one of many directors at the company.

NVIDIA today announced that it has named to its board of directors Melissa Lora, who spent three decades as an executive at Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., before retiring in 2018 as president of Taco Bell International.

She has also been appointed to the board's Audit Committee.

"Melissa is a great addition to our board of directors," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "She brings senior management and operating experience, as well as extensive finance expertise, gained in a large corporate setting. We will benefit immensely from her guidance."

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment's Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is due for release this summer - many fans are looking forward to jumping back into mecha-heavy combat scenarios with a linear progression system. This long-running action game series has stuck to a traditional mission-based format (for the most part) since premiering on the original PlayStation console back in 1997. FromSoftware's sixth mainline entry is set to be no different, although the design team has recently revealed that other options were explored at the beginning of development.

Masaru Yamamura, director of Armored Core VI, stated in an interview conducted by South Korea's Ruliweb: "In the process of developing the sequel, there was also an opinion to make it in a different game style. However, as a result of discussions, it was concluded that it should not be made into a title centered on movement and exploration, such as the Elden Ring or Soul series. In the Armored Core series, depending on the assembly, the movement performance of the character changes and affects the play. Because that is the charm of the series." His team has taken the traditional design route in order to concentrate on assembling detailed and fun gameplay environments: "I think you will be able to feel a different pleasure from exploring every nook and cranny of the carefully crafted map as you move."

We are thrilled to announce that F1 Manager 23 is available now for pre-order! Secure your copy today ahead of launch on 31 July. Frontier Developments are back this season in partnership with F1 to deliver the ultimate motorsport management experience. F1 Manager 23 brings every lap to life with stunning broadcast-style visuals and drivers going wheel-to-wheel across six F1 Sprint events. The game features all 23 circuits, including the brand-new Las Vegas Strip Circuit. Watch the dramatic action unfold across multiple on-board and trackside cameras, plot your strategy from the updated 3D map, or immerse yourself in every heart-in-mouth overtake through the new visor cam. Behind the scenes, manage your team at all levels from the financials to the development and application of cutting-edge parts for your cars.

Everyone who pre-orders will receive three exclusive Race Moments including one for the Las Vegas Strip Circuit. Purchase the Deluxe Edition to get a head start with access to the game four days early and twelve unique Starting Grids and Race Moments in the Exclusive Scenarios Pack. This year's edition of F1 Manager hosts a plethora of improvements and new features based on your suggestions from F1 Manager 22. From fully simulated F2 and F3 seasons, to a whole new game mode, discover new ways to lead your team to victory.

Nintendo has released another of its "Ask the Developer" discussions, the first segment of this week's edition is obviously part of a marketing drive to drum up even more interest in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (scheduled to launch this Friday). Included in the roundtable conversation is Eiji Aonuma, project manager of the The Legend of Zelda series, who has RPG development experience dating back to the SNES and N64 days at Nintendo. The veteran developer confirms that the follow-up to 2017's Breath of the Wild functions as a direct sequel - the fanbase has long suspected that this was always the case - in his introduction he gets down to the facts sharply: "Once again, it takes place in the vast land of Hyrule after the conclusion of the previous game."

Aonuma reiterates the chosen setting: "Yes, this title is set in Hyrule shortly after the end of the previous game. There are many reasons why we chose this setting. After finishing development on the previous title, we wondered if we could make it possible for players to continue exploring the world after they've reached the game's ending." Given the previous entry's massive success in terms of sales - Breath of the Wild is approaching 30 million units sold - and critical reception, it would be natural for Nintendo to build on that foundation. A section of the fanbase has been critical of Nintendo's decision to not produce an unconnected sequel - Aonuma addresses this matter when he is asked whether an entirely new setting/visual style was in the cards: "No, not really. Although The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, has its own conclusion, we started to come up with new ideas that we wanted to bring to life in this already realized version of Hyrule, so our direction in making a sequel did not change."