Throughout the Spring season, Electronics Arts (EA) has reduced development team numbers across several of its international first-party game development studios. According to a fairly fresh IGN news report, another North American operation has been shutdown. Cliffhanger Games was working on a triple-A Black Panther intellectual property, with Marvel's full approval—as teased back in mid-2023. IGN's inside sources have leaked an email—allegedly authored by Laura Miele, EA Entertainment's president—that was addressed the latest round of layoffs at Cliffhanger Games, and unspecified "mobile and central teams." Apparently these adjustments are necessary; Miele (reportedly) believes that these changes will: "sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities...These decisions are hard. They affect people we've worked with, learned from, and shared real moments with. We're doing everything we can to support them—including finding opportunities within EA, where we've had success helping people land in new roles." In recent times, company leadership had openly discussed a move away from licensed IP projects. Supposedly, Miele's email mentions a focus on core EA franchises going forward: The Sims, Skate, Battlefield, and Apex Legends.

eXtas1s, a somewhat unreliable source of inside track info has weighed in with related news. The Spanish leaker shared an offbeat claim: "I have learned that around 400 more layoffs are coming at EA, the total closure of Codemasters HQ, and that those developers will be integrated into EA Sports (F1), and a new Need For Speed that is already in development." Going back to late April, EA declared that an unspecified number of layoffs were underway at Codemasters. Earlier this month, the long-running British racing game specialist had stopped working on the popular WRC franchise. Since then, NACON—a French publication house—has picked up the FIA World Rally Championship license. Within the same time period, an official announcement outlined the cancelation of two unannounced projects at Respawn Entertainment. Prior to cessations, the Los Angeles, California-based outfit was working on two "early stage" titles—insider reports suggested that one of these mystery IPs was some sort of nascent Titanfall title. Interestingly, Respawn's leader—Vince Zampella—is steering the next Battlefield game. Several EA studios have been roped into a multipronged production approach.

As the days grow longer and the flowers bloom, GFN Thursday brings a fresh lineup of games to brighten the week. Dive into thrilling hunts and dark fantasy adventures with the arrivals of titles like Hunt: Showdown 1896 - now available on Xbox and PC Game Pass - and Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree on GeForce NOW. Whether chasing bounties in the Colorado Rockies or battling chaos in a cursed land, players will gain unforgettable experiences with these games in the cloud. Plus, roll with the punches in Capcom's MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, part of 11 games GeForce NOW is adding to its cloud gaming library - featuring over 2,000 titles playable with GeForce RTX 4080 performance.

Spring Into Gaming Anywhere
With the arrivals of Hunt: Showdown 1896 and Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree in the cloud, GeForce NOW members can take their gaming journeys anywhere, from the wild frontiers of the American West to the shadowy forests of a dark fantasy realm.

Greetings, heroes! Tribute Games, Dotemu, and Marvel Games assemble today to announce MARVEL Cosmic Invasion, an arcade-style beat 'em up featuring an incredible roster of characters from Marvel's golden eras!

A Cosmic Battle awaits!
After Annihilus has launched an unprecedented attack across the galaxy, all life hangs in the balance. Nova, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Phyla-Vell, Captain America, and many more heroes, both earth-born and cosmic, will join forces in a star-spanning brawling adventure against the deadly Annihilation Wave. Get ready to brawl through the streets of New York City and all the way to the depths of the Negative Zone to foil Annihilus' plan to spread death across the cosmos!

More than 700 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. Following the release of DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation for Avowed (via NVIDIA app DLSS Overrides) and Star Wars Outlaws, this week sees the addition of the performance multiplying tech to Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Marvel Rivals. Additionally, DLSS Super Resolution and DLSS Frame Generation are available at launch in Legend of Ymir, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, and Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. For all the details, read on.

Marvel Rivals DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation Update Launches Tomorrow
NetEase Games' Marvel Rivals is one of the top 5 most played games on Steam. If you're unfamiliar with Marvel Rivals, it's a Super Hero, team-based PvP shooter set in the Marvel universe. Assemble an all-star Marvel squad, devise countless strategies by combining powers to form unique Team-Up skills, and fight in destructible, ever-changing battlefields.

We're happy to share that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is Steam Deck Verified! Experience two playable Spider-Men, traverse an expanded Marvel's New York and battle iconic Marvel Super Villains on your handheld device now! Be Greater. Together. The incredible power of the symbiote forces Peter Parker and Miles Morales into a desperate fight as they balance their lives, friendships, and their duty to protect in an exciting chapter of the critically acclaimed Spider-Man franchise on PC.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PC—Patch 3 Release Notes
Patch 3 is available now for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 on PC! This week's update includes stability improvements and bug fixes based on player feedback. We've also implemented the latest version of the NVIDIA Streamline SDK and included dozens of small visual bug fixes related to various aspects such as reflections, ray-traced shadows and textures. We are actively working on more updates with additional bug fixes and performance optimizations. Thank you to everyone for playing Marvel's Spider-Man 2 on PC and for providing feedback to help us continue to improve the game!

The GameSir X3 Pro integrated cooler mobile controller merges an advanced cooling system with high-quality performance. It is designed to enhance your gaming comfort and elevate your gaming experience with extreme esports sensation. It's compatible with Android devices and iPhone 15 and above, supporting phones with a length of 110-180 mm. Now available in exclusive Deadpool edition.

Officially licensed by Marvel, this edition showcases Deadpool's iconic black and red color scheme, capturing the essence of the beloved anti-hero. Equipped with a 900 mm cooling plate, it delivers an impressive 12 W of cooling power, keeping your phone cool even during long gaming sessions or in high temperatures. The GameSir Hall Effect anti-drift sticks offer 360° precision control, providing seamless and pinpoint accuracy. Combined with their durability, they meet the high standards that gamers demand for a top-tier gaming experience.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 debuted on the PlayStation 5 in October 2023, and a sizeable chunk of PC gamers have been looking forward to a PC port. Now that Nixxes Software has finally made that happen, it appears that the reception has been rather poor, despite making it to the trending section. Specifically, a substantial portion of buyers are complaining about intolerable technical difficulties and a poor experience overall. This is quite disappointing, considering that the game looked quite promising considering the relaxed system requirements, at least by modern standards.

"To say this is 'rough' is an understatement", voiced a user. Another review claimed that the game crashes every 10 minutes, with others stating that graphical glitches and errors are a common occurrence, making the game "nearly unplayable". Moreover, a plethora of other reviews complained about severe FPS drops, ray tracing issues, as well as extremely long loading times, even with solid-state storage. Overall, as of this writing, the game has amassed a total of 2,168 reviews, a whopping 1,228 of which are negative. It is more than likely that future patches will resolve many of the issues, although that does not make up for the poor experience faced by many of those who have already shelled out $60-$70 for the game.

Time flies and we're already at the end of January and we have another packed week of new releases. This week's major release is already a couple of years old if you own a console, but it's only managed to swing its way onto PC now. This is followed by doing some engineering in space, going on an epic adventure to prevent the world from crumbling, some shape shifting action, being part of the French resistance and finally you can be the first sentient AI running a city. In addition to the games below, this week also brings: Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. and Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 / This week's major release / Thursday 30 January
Be Greater. Together. The incredible power of the symbiote forces Peter Parker and Miles Morales into a desperate fight as they balance their lives, friendships, and their duty to protect in an exciting chapter of the critically acclaimed Spider-Man franchise on PC. Steam link

Dear Rivals, exciting news for Season 1! Marvel Rivals is now supported on NVIDIA GeForce NOW, NVIDIA's cloud gaming service. Transform nearly any device into a high-performance, GeForce-powered gaming rig. Two new maps have been added for first half of season 1 for the Empire of Eternal Night in New York City: Sanctum Sanctorum and Midtown.

Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum stands as the last beacon of hope in a city consumed by darkness. Protected by ancient wards and powerful magic, it serves as a refuge for those battling the chaos unleashed by Dracula and his legion. Explore its eerie corridors and powerful secrets as you prepare to face the chaos unleashed by Dracula's dark forces.

Steam has set a new record of over 39 million concurrent players, breaking its earlier record of over 38 million set back in September. Some of the recently launched games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Marvel Rivals, and Path of Exile 2 are doing quite well.

As spotted by DSOGaming, the newest Steam record for concurrent players is set at 39,205,447. It took around three months to break the previous record of over 38 million concurrent players set back in September. When it comes to the list of most played games in the last 24 hours, Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 are still holding the top two places, but some recently launched games are also doing quite well.

It's no secret that 2024 hasn't been kind to live-service games, with recent months seeing games like XDefiant and Concord shut down—although not always without reason—so it's a bit refreshing to see the recently released Marvel Rivals hit what can only be described as a home run. Not only is the game already at "Mostly Positive" in terms of Steam reviews, the free-to-play hero shooter also managed to draw in massive amounts of players in its first week on Steam. According to SteamDB, Marvel Rivals peaked at 444,286 concurrent players a mere two and a half hours after its launch on Friday, December 6.

The game launched on the same day as Path of Exile 2, which had an equally successful launch, despite its Early Access fee and some serious technical hiccups along the way. These two games have not been the norm, although Marvel Rivals signals that gaming properties based on Marvel characters may have finally found their audience. In previous years, both Marvel's Midnight Suns and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy made their own impacts, scoring big with both reviewers and audiences. Of course, neither of the aforementioned games garnered quite the player count as Marvel Rivals, but that's likely simply due to the free-to-play nature of Rivals.

Intel has released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, the version 101.6319 Beta. Surprisingly, the product compatibility list still does not include support for the new Arc Battlemage B500 series graphics cards, so we expect yet another driver release when they become officially available. It also does not fix any bugs, and the known issues list is the same as with the previous WHQL drivers release. On the other hand, the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers version 101.6319 Beta adds Game On Drivers support for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, Marvel Rivals, and Path of Exile 2 on Intel Arc A-series GPUs and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6319 Beta

More than 600 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. This week, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Marvel Rivals launch with DLSS 3, Path of Exile 2 enters Early Access with day-one support for DLSS Super Resolution, and the Delta Force PC Global Open Beta kicks-off, also with day-one DLSS Super Resolution support. On December 9th, Forza Motorsport's next update introduces support for immersive Ray-Traced Global Illumination lighting. And in the near future, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's next update introduces support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Launching With DLSS 3 & Ray Tracing
Uncover one of history's greatest mysteries in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on December 6th with the game's Digital Premium Edition Advanced Access launch, followed by its general release on December 9th. Step into the shoes of Indiana Jones and embark on a single-player, narrative-driven journey that spans the globe during the height of the legendary archaeologist's career. From the hallowed halls of the Vatican and the sunken temples of Sukhothai to the pyramids of Egypt and the snowy peaks of the Himalayas.

Marvel Rivals is set to launch on PlayStation 5 at the end of this week, Friday, December 6, and Sony has finally revealed some of the technical details that will ship with the upcoming PvP shooter. On the base-model PS5, Marvel Rivals will supposedly run at a stable 60 FPS at 1440p resolution, with UE5 Lumen Global Illumination and Chaos Destruction tech. Meanwhile, High Frame Rate mode will deliver 120 FPS, likely dropping the maximum resolution and quality settings to reach the higher frame rate, although Sony neglects to mention the resolution in this mode.

The PS5 Pro steps things up somewhat, thanks to the improved processing power and AI enhancement features. On PS5 Pro, Marvel Rivals will run at up to 4K and 60 FPS in Pro Mode, with an optional 120 FPS High Frame Rate Mode promising higher frame rates and resolutions than on the base PS5, although again there are no specific resolutions quoted here. The PS5 Pro also adds Lumen Reflections, which is a ray tracing implementation that allows for better, more accurate reflections off of a wide variety of surfaces, theoretically enhancing things like water effects, diffuse reflections, and indoor and outdoor lighting, making all the aforementioned more realistic. In addition to improved visuals and performance, PS5 and PS5 Pro players will get access to two special skins as in-game purchases or PlayStation Plus add-ons, namely Peni Parker's VEN#M skin and a PlayStation-exclusive Scarlet Spider skin for Spider-Man.

Welcome to the first week of December and the first of advent for those that celebrate it. This week's AAA release is the 2024 release of a FPS shooter that first saw life back in 1998, but under a new developer and publisher. If this isn't your cup of tea, then you can try your luck in beating humans, demolishing things, surviving a bullet hell, finding your lost memories or pretending to be a superhero.

Delta Force / This week's AAA title / Thursday 5 December
Delta Force is back! The iconic series returns as the definitive free-to-play modern team-based tactical shooter and featuring three distinct gameplay modes: large-scale PvP warfare, intense extraction shooter action, and a remake of the legendary Black Hawk Down campaign. Steam link

GameSir, a World-renowned brand in gaming peripherals, is proud to announce the launch of the GameSir G7 HE Iron Man officially licensed, limited edition wired controller. This stylish new controller, designed for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One X|S, Windows 10/11, and Steam, brings the precision and excitement of Tony Stark's iconic suit to the fingertips of gamers. The GameSir G7 HE Iron Man limited edition wired controller is available for £59.99/$59.99 from the GameSir Official Website.

The GameSir G7 HE Iron Man controller is officially licensed by Marvel and features Iron Man's classic red and gold colors, along with an image of this popular superhero. Holding this controller allows gamers to channel the power of Iron Man, making it a unique addition to any gaming setup. The GameSir G7 HE Iron Man controller stands out with its Hall Effect sticks and triggers, ensuring exceptional durability and precise control. The GameSir Hall Effect sensing stick boasts a lifespan of up to 5 million cycles and features wear-resistant anti-friction rings for anti-drift performance. The Hall Effect magnetic triggers offer consistent travel distance and depth, providing smooth and precise control, crucial for racing, FPS, and action games. They are even accurate up to 0.1 mm, providing extremely accurate movement.

More than 500 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. Starting today, Marvel Rivals Closed Beta is available with DLSS 3 and Reflex support. Plus, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess recently launched with DLSS 3. FINAL FANTASY XIV Online: Dawntrail, F1 Manager 2024, and Dark and Darker are available now with DLSS 2, Trepang 2 Bladekisser DLC launches July 25 with DLSS 2, and the newly announced open-world RPG Neverness to Everness will launch with DLSS and ray tracing. Learn more about each game below.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Available Now With DLSS 3, Ray Tracing & Reflex
In Capcom's unique, Japanese-inspired, visually captivating Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, players will play as protagonist Soh, making sharp strategic decisions and use of skillful dancing sword skills, while working with rescued villagers and the Maiden Yoshiro to overcome the challenges ahead. During the day, explore the village and purge demonic defilement by rescuing villagers and wisely assigning them roles and positions to help attack the evil Seethe at night. During the night, the villagers will fight alongside Soh to protect Yoshiro from the swarm of Seethe. In this intense action-strategy game, face the formidable Festering Seethe, purge the village's defilement, and return peace to the mountain.

More than 500 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. This week, Dungeonborne and Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn will launch with day-one DLSS 3 and Reflex support. And gamers can sign up for the Marvel Rivals Closed Beta, which begins next week and features support for both DLSS 3 and Reflex. THRONE AND LIBERTY also has an Open Beta starting this week featuring DLSS 3 and Reflex, and Stormgate is coming soon with DLSS 3 and Reflex.

Stormgate Coming Soon With DLSS 3 & Reflex
Stormgate is the upcoming free-to-play real-time strategy game from the team at Frost Giant Studios, featuring developers who've worked on some of gaming's most popular RTS games, including Warcraft III and StarCraft II. In Stormgate, you'll explore an ever-evolving story through thrilling campaign missions where science fiction and fantasy collide. Alternatively, battle opponents around the world on the competitive 1v1 ladder, or team up with your friends to challenge the AI in the 3-player co-op modes. Developed in Unreal Engine 5, Stormgate sets itself apart from past RTS games with unmatched responsiveness and features rollback technology for smooth online play. Stormgate supports high-resolution HD visuals at 4K, with hundreds of units on-screen in epic, large-scale wars across a variety of maps and tilesets.

NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction maximizes frame rates on GeForce RTX GPUs, and renders more immersive and realistic ray-traced effects and lighting in games using AI. At Computex 2024, we've announced that DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction will be available in Star Wars Outlaws, launching August 30th. To demonstrate the incredible quality and performance delivered by DLSS 3.5, we're showcasing a new, exclusive trailer from the game. Additionally, Marvel Rivals will launch with our AI-powered, performance boosting DLSS 3 technology, and we've got a new trailer showing it in action in the new, upcoming game.

Upon release, these new games will join an ever-growing list of over 500 games and apps that are enhanced with RTX technologies. Such is the pace of adoption, barely a week goes by without new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex and advanced ray-traced effects, ensuring GeForce RTX players receive the definitive experience in their most anticipated titles. In the last month alone, Capes, Die By The Blade, EA SPORTS F1 24, Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, Gray Zone Warfare, Homeworld 3, INDIKA, MotoGP 24, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Serum, Ships At Sea, Ships That Fight Underground, and Wuthering Waves have all launched with support for DLSS, and Star Citizen introduced support for DLSS 2.

NetEase Games and Marvel Games are excited to announce their latest collaboration: Marvel Rivals, a cooperative, Super Hero team-based PVP shooter! Players can assemble an ever-evolving all-star squad of Super Heroes and Super Villains, while battling with unique super powers across a dynamic lineup of destructible maps from across the Marvel Multiverse. Marvel Rivals is in development for PC by a NetEase team composed of global talent, who previously worked on hit franchises such as Call of Duty and Battlefield.

"We are overjoyed to bring Marvel Rivals to players around the world. We have always loved Marvel's universe and its characters, and we are so excited to be developing this game," said the Marvel Rivals Producer Stephen Wu. "This is the game we want to make, and we feel very lucky to be the team who made all of this come true."

Skydance New Media, helmed by award-winning writer and director Amy Hennig, and Marvel Games today shared new details on their upcoming narrative-driven action-adventure game, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. A new trailer gives fans a sneak peek into an original story that takes players on a WWII-era adventure with an ensemble of four heroes playable at different points in the game.

As the game's narrative unfolds, players will assume the role of four central characters: a young Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America; Azzuri, T'Challa's grandfather and the WWII-era Black Panther; Gabriel Jones, a U.S. soldier and member of the Howling Commandos; and Nanali, a Wakandan spy embedded in Occupied Paris.

Plextor, one of the most iconic names in PC storage once known for high performance and quality, has announced it will cease operations. Parent company Kioxia has decided to retire the Plextor brand name for solid state drives (SSDs). Instead, it will market products under its Solid State Storage Technology Corporation (SSSTC) brand going forward. The move comes after Kioxia acquired Plextor and its parent company Lite-On's SSD business back in 2019. Since then, Plextor has struggled to keep pace with new storage technologies. With PCIe Gen 4 and PCIe Gen 5 SSD controllers coming to market, Plextor failed to adopt the new Phison and InnoGrit platforms, instead sticking with Marvell controllers, lagging behind at that time.

Now, SSSTC and Kioxia will strictly focus SSD sales on the enterprise, data center, and industrial segments rather than the consumer market. The Plextor website is already redirecting to SSSTC.com, which no longer lists any drives for client PCs. While current Plextor SSD owners will continue to receive warranty support and RMA services, no new Plextor drives are expected to be released. The company had a history stretching back over 30 years of making top-performing optical disk drives and SSDs. Similarly to OCZ after its acquisition by Toshiba, the Plextor name will now fade into history. But in the fast-moving storage business, companies live and die by their ability to adopt cutting-edge technologies. Hence, companies are always on the edge of their seats, trying to survive.

As we celebrate the 57th anniversary of Black Panther's comic debut this July, we're thrilled to announce Cliffhanger Games, a new triple-A development studio based in Seattle, is working on an original, third-person, single-player Black Panther game in collaboration with Marvel Games. Our mission is to build an expansive and reactive world that empowers players to experience what it is like to take on the mantle of Wakanda's protector, the Black Panther.

Led by Kevin Stephens (ex-Monolith Productions), Cliffhanger has already brought together accomplished talent with leaders from the critically acclaimed and innovative action-adventure game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, along with veterans of top franchises including Halo Infinite, God of War, Call of Duty and others. "We're dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game. Wakanda is a rich Super Hero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do," said Kevin.

Everyone at Insomniac Games is thrilled to announce that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will launch on Friday, October 20th, 2023, only on PlayStation 5. After the amazing fan reception for Marvel's Spider-Man in 2018 and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales in 2020, the team has worked tirelessly over the past few years to make this third installment in the franchise the sequel you have been waiting for. Built from the ground up for PlayStation 5 console, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will unlock the power of the console with better visuals, faster web swinging (and web wings!), 3D Audio, and near-instant character switching. We speak for all our collaborators and friends at PlayStation and Marvel Games, when we say that we cannot wait for you to get your hands on this incredible single-player open-world experience.

In Marvel's Spider-Man 2, players will get to experience Marvel's New York as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. As you saw in the PlayStation Showcase last month - the main storyline of the game will have you take control of both Spider-Men at different points of the campaign. In the open world, you will be able to switch nearly instantly between them as you explore Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. Both Spider-Men have stories and missions in the world exclusive to each of them.

Each week we're bringing you the latest news on games launching with NVIDIA DLSS. Last week, Redfall launched with support for NVIDIA DLSS 3 and NVIDIA Reflex, and this week Diablo IV's DLSS 3-enhanced Server Slam Beta begins!

Additionally, Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel, No One Survived, and Someday You'll Return: Director's Cut are adding support for DLSS 2 via game updates, giving GeForce RTX gamers the fastest frame rates possible.