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.

Late last week, tech news headlines were generated by a curious Qualcomm/NUVIA job advertisement. The presence of Xbox-related activities—at the US firm's Redmond, Washington office—has set off watchdog alarm bells. Microsoft's HQ is also located in this Seattle Metropolitan Area business hub. The job description outlined a sales director position—including interesting tidbits: "support sell-in activities for the next generation of Surface and Xbox products built on Snapdragon solutions" and "help define the next generation Surface and Xbox portfolios." Older leaks have suggested Microsoft's weighing up of ARM64 processor architecture, with next-gen Xbox designs in mind. Since the publication of widespread reportage, Qualcomm has edited out any mention of Xbox from the offending job ad. Given the latest evidence, fresh speculation has emerged from online media outlets. In theory, the company's hardware engineers could be formulating a next-gen Arm-based handheld—not directly related to "Project Kennan."

Jez Corden, executive editor of Windows Central, has dismissed many next-gen "handheld" or "home console" projections. Insiders believe that in-progress first-party development centers around AMD (x86) solutions. Similarly, Sony is reportedly collaborating with Team Red. The speculated PlayStation 6 (and a handheld offshoot) has been linked to Zen 6 and UDNA/RDNA 5 IPs. In response to initial claims, Corden reached out to shadowy industry figures. As disclosed in his opinion piece: "sources confirmed to me this morning that the next Xbox systems are not based on Qualcomm chips. There might be some third-party "Designed for Xbox" Arm-based offerings, like the Logitech G Cloud. But, the main plan from Microsoft, at least for now, is for the next-gen Xbox systems to have as much compatibility with your current library as possible. The overheads required to emulate games built for Microsoft's AMD-based systems are beyond what the Snapdragon line up is currently capable of." Today, Digital Foundry pointed out that Microsoft's "Xbox Play Anywhere" marketing campaign has created a looser categorization of related hardware. Thus providing extra scope for adjacent and supplemental devices (in the near future).

Hermen Hulst, CEO, Studio Business Group, Sony Interactive Entertainment: "today, I am thrilled to officially unveil a new studio in the PlayStation Studios family. teamLFG originated at Bungie, but has also rallied developers from across the industry to bring to life an ambitious incubation project that I'm very excited about. The studio is now fully formed and ready to be introduced to the world. I'll let teamLFG introduce themselves properly and give a tiny glimpse of what they've been working on."

teamLFG: "Hello, world. It's a delight to meet you, and we're very grateful to be joining PlayStation Studios. Our studio is headquartered in Bellevue, WA, with team members working both on-site and remotely throughout the U.S. and Canada. We are a team composed not just of industry veterans who have shipped titles like Destiny, Halo, League of Legends, Fortnite, Roblox, and Rec Room, but also industry newcomers with fresh creative perspectives and skills. We are passionate about exceptional action-based gameplay, moment-to-moment game feel, and richly social virtual worlds."

Hey everyone, Patch 1.1 is out now for The Last of Us Part II Remastered! This update fixes various crashes, and we've addressed long stalls that could occur in some locations. We've also fixed several bugs related to the user interface and ultrawide cinematics. Check out the patch notes below for more details. We are aware of player reports of autosave issues and are actively working on a fix.

Our investigation shows that issues can occur when OneDrive or similar cloud services block the save file from being written. As a workaround, we suggest that you pause OneDrive while playing the game: Right-click the OneDrive icon in the Windows taskbar, click the gear icon and Pause sync. The teams at Nixxes and Naughty Dog are keeping a close eye on player feedback and crash reports and are working on additional updates with more bug fixes and improvements. Thank you all for playing The Last of Us Part II on PC and sharing your feedback with us!

Not too long ago, Storm City Retro's Ebay store listed an unusual Steam Deck model—the original asking price was $2999.99, although potential buyers were allowed to bid with "best offers." The sales page was titled: "Early Valve Engineering 34 Prototype Steam Deck 256 GB, Tested, Please Read!" Gary_the_mememachine—a member of the Steam Deck subreddit—reported an eventual successful transaction, on April 8. The seller—a "primarily online" Kirkland, Washington-based retro video specialist—managed to attract a buyer; who apparently bagged "Engineering Sample No. 34" for a cool two thousand bucks. Given the presence of a sticker that states "not for resale," Valve is likely not enthused by the appearance of pre-commercial phase hardware via second hand channels. The company's Bellevue HQ is located not too far away from Storm City Retro's placement; both being in the Greater Seattle (Pacific NW) area. Kotaku reached out to its contacts at Valve, but a spokesperson has not provided a comment regarding the alleged leak of an AMD "Picasso" APU-powered engineering sample.

Handheld gaming device experts have analyzed saved screenshots and photos; prototype number 34 seems to of February 2020 vintage. It was compared to various "officially revealed" prototype units—as seen in an informative infographic. An exact match was not found in this compilation, but it is obvious that No. 34 differs greatly—externally and internally—when lined up against final retail models. In 2022, Pierre-Loup Griffais—one of the architects of SteamOS—provided some insight about a similar looking proto device: "the best part is that they (mostly) all still boot, serving as an exciting reminder of how far things have come since. This one has a Picasso APU, at about half of the GPU power of the final Deck. The flatter ergo was an interesting experiment and taught us a ton about comfort." The Steam Deck LCD model launched back in early 2022, with a custom 7 nm AMD Ryzen "Aerith" APU onboard—utilizing Zen 2 + processor cores and RDNA 2 graphics architecture. An OLED refresh arrived over a year later with a die shrink; now 6 nm. Team Red had kindly prepared a more efficient Ryzen "Sephiroth" mobile processor design.

Hello Kindred, we would like to share an update on the development and release window of Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. As Marco explained in the video (view it below), Bloodlines 2 will not be ready for release in the first half of 2025. Paradox Interactive and The Chinese Room are committed to delivering this game, and we believe that ensuring great technical quality is more important than sticking to a specific date.

The game is currently in a late development stage, and feedback from the community has been taken into account during this time. TCR is working hard on quality assurance to ensure it is stable and free of bugs that could disrupt the player experience. Bloodlines 2 will launch in October 2025 when the game meets the technical quality standards that you, our fans, rightfully expect and deserve. Please stay tuned for the game's exact launch date. We want to ensure that the content we share with you is high-quality and showcases exciting game features. With this updated release timeline, we will pause our development diaries so that the team can concentrate on refining the game.

We're just a few weeks away from The Last of Us Part II Remastered arriving on PC on April 3, and we here at Naughty Dog wanted to make sure players were prepared for the journey ahead. Whether it's your first time experiencing Ellie and Abby's acclaimed stories, or you've previously played and are excited to jump in via a new format, we have plenty of quality-of-life features and even new content in store.

PC features detailed
The PC version of The Last of Us Part II Remastered brings with it all the improvements and new features added in the PlayStation 5 version released in 2024, such as the roguelike survival mode No Return, Guitar Free Play, and hours of developer commentary. And in partnership with our friends at Nixxes Software and Iron Galaxy, Part II Remastered has been brought to PC with plenty of PC-centric quality-of-life features that further bring the snow-covered mountains of Jackson, Wyoming, and the rainswept streets of Seattle, Washington to beautiful life.

Square Enix's long-running Front Mission franchise was set to expand with an all-new entry—Front Mission 2089: Borderscape—first revealed back in April 2022. The Japanese multinational publisher announced BlackJack Studio as their chosen development partner on this fledgling project, destined for launch on mobile platforms (Android and iOS). Months later, this collaboration was terminated. Video game news outlets have picked up on a new-ish lawsuit; filed on March 13 in a Seattle, Washington court. Contained information indicates that Square Enix ended a licensing agreement and canceled development in October 2022. The 26-page legal document alleges that HK Ten Tree Limited (aka BlackJack Studio) had produced a "Front Mission-style" game that reuses assets from the shelved "2089: Borderscape" title.

BlackJack's Mecharashi IP is advertised on Steam as a: "mecha-themed tactical turn-based game. The game adopts a Front Mission-style combat system, where you can assemble mechas however you want, equip a wide selection of weapons, and choose your favorite pilots to engage in battle." According to the latest reports, Mecharashi/Metal Storm has already launched in China and Japan—a Western release is "coming soon." Square Enix seems intent on preventing the game from reaching a wider audience. According to Polygon, the Japanese video game giant has: "sent multiple DMCA takedown notices to get the game removed from storefronts; it was removed from Steam, but is back after a counter-claim was submitted. Square Enix said it also filed a lawsuit in Japanese court." Additionally, Square is seeking "maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for each copyright infringed." The Front Mission IP lives on in the shape of remakes—under license, Forever Entertainment S. A. developed and published Front Mission 1st: Remake (2022). Front Mission 2: Remake arrived roughly a year later, with Storm Trident S.A. taking care of development duties. Front Mission 3: Remake was unveiled last year at the Tokyo Game Show 2024.

Happy New Year, and welcome to a fresh and tasty Dev Diary from the team at The Chinese Room. We are starting the year by talking about the player character, Phyre, and how you can shape their legend and add to it as you play. As you'll see below your story will start wearing rags, but will it end in riches? Seattle's fate is in your hands.—Project Creative Director Alex Skidmore

An Elder of your choosing
As our game starts, an Elder that some call the Nomad wakes up in an abandoned building in Seattle. They don't know where they are or how they got there, but they are quick to adapt - the Nomad is old, and they have survived for a long time. It is clear that they have experienced the deathlike sleep of torpor. The last they remember was a smile and a piercing pain in the chest, delivered in their Haven in Tunis at the start of the 20th century. Now they are awake. What happened to them in their long slumber, and who woke them? Why does their Blood lack the strength and power they are used to? And why is their body carved with arcane sigils?

This announcement was shared with EA Entertainment employees by Laura Miele, President of EA Entertainment and Technology: "Hi Everyone, over the past six months, you've heard me talk about aligning our portfolio and organization to deliver on our ambitious growth strategy. One of the essential parts of delivering on our plans is making sure we are listening to our players and investing in the games they want to play. As Andrew noted in his EA Action, the reality of a creative business is that market conditions and players' needs are always changing. We're seeing a rapid player shift toward large open-world games, massive communities, and live services. With that in mind, we have shared the following updates with our teams:"

Respawn:
Respawn's unique ability to connect with players and create exceptional game experiences is unrivaled in entertainment. As we've looked at Respawn's portfolio over the last few months, what's clear is the games our players are most excited about are Jedi and Respawn's rich library of owned brands. Knowing this, we have decided to pivot away from early development on a Star Wars FPS Action game to focus our efforts on new projects based on our owned brands while providing support for existing games. It's always hard to walk away from a project, and this decision is not a reflection of the team's talent, tenacity, or passion they have for the game. Giving fans the next installments of the iconic franchises they want is the definition of blockbuster storytelling and the right place to focus.

Good evening Kindred, today we shared some very exciting news on our Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 news stream! We were joined by Sean Greaney (EVP of Darkness) and Ian Thomas (Narrative Director at TCR), who discussed some of the game's features relating to both narrative and roleplaying. In case you missed it, you can find it below. In the stream, we were introduced to the protagonist of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2; Phyre, an Elder vampire at odds with the voice in her head, who confronts Seattle's powerful elites at war over the City's fate.

Players choose Phyre's clan and gender and begin exploring a re-imagined Seattle filled with compelling characters while maneuvering through complex relationships. Choices and conversations (even outfits!) shape how the environment and characters react to Phyre, changing how the story unfolds.

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.