Arkane Lyon’s time-bending FPS Deathloop is free on PC for Amazon Prime members. You have until January 10 to download the game. Additionally, you’ll need to link an active Epic Games Store account, but Amazon has made it simple to do that right on the download page. This isn’t a rental. The game is yours to keep.

This isn’t the first time Amazon has given gamers a holiday treat. Last year, it was Dishonored 2, another Arkane classic. The company also tends to give away games to coincide with its Prime Day events.

As for Deathloop, it’s a fantastic title that marries the harried frenzy of a first person shooter with the intrigue of an old-school adventure title like Myst. We compared it to an escape room in our official review, and that pretty much sums it up. You’re trapped on an island in a Groundhog Day-esque time loop and have to figure a way out. The game’s filled with thoughtful puzzles and the combat is satisfying, which is no surprise coming from the folks behind Dishonored.

In other words, this is one of the most unique and flat-out fun releases of the current generation. It’s a steal at full price, so free is a no-brainer. Deathloop is also available on Game Pass, if that’s your bag. Developer Arkane is currently busy working on a game based on Marvel’s resident vampire hunter, Blade.

It’s been a terrible year for game developers, but an amazing year for games. 2023 kicked off with a fantastic remake of Dead Space and the breakout success that was Pizza Tower, and by the end of the year we had dozens more games vying for our attention. There were some missteps along the way — if you'd asked me to predict this list a year ago, I would've mentioned both Redfall and Starfield — but overall it's been a packed year unusually low on disappointment.

We’ve never tried to name a single title as "the Game of the Year." Instead, it’s become a tradition to get the whole team together to talk about our individual favorites. So here are those games, presented in alphabetical order to avoid hurting any of our writers’ feelings. Feel free to sound off about what your favorites are in the comments; there are no wrong answers. Except maybe The Day Before.

Alan Wake 2

I rarely have time to finish games these days, but I devoured Alan Wake 2 in just a few weeks. For me and my limited gaming time, that felt miraculous.

I'll admit, I'm a mark for Remedy Entertainment. I've been following its work since the first Max Payne arrived on PCs in 2001, right as I was gearing up to head to college and building my first desktop PC. (It had a 1.3GHz AMD Athlon Thunderbird and an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon GPU with a TV tuner. Yah, I was one of the cool kids on campus..)

Max Payne blew me away with its fluid slow-motion gunplay mechanics and immersive narrative. As a lifelong console gamer until then, it was a big step forward from something like Tomb Raider. Playing Alan Wake 2 brought me right back to my college days: Its storytelling is far more mature than Max Payne, but leagues more ambitious. I spent much of the game with a big stupid grin on my face, marveling at how the game balanced two different leads (Saga Anderson and Mr. Wake himself), an array of quirky characters, and some of the boldest gaming narrative choices in the last decade.

As Jessica Conditt said in her review, Alan Wake 2 works best when you're not in combat. I enjoyed chatting with the locals and digging up background details more than I did shooting a repetitive array of baddies. It also helped that I was playing it on LG's massive 49-inch UltraGear monitor, which at times made it feel like I was completely immersed in the game. It made the more idyllic environments in the Pacific Northwest seem all the more beautiful, while the scarier bits felt even more nightmarish. Get you a game that can do both.

Over two decades after I became a fan of the studio, I’m just as excited to see what Remedy is cooking next. It feels like college all over again. Maybe time really is a flat circle. Or maybe, as Alan Wake would say, it’s a spiral towards something greater, the accumulation of everything we’ve learned and all the mistakes we’ve made as we pursue the specter of perfection. Anyway, good game. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior Reporter

Armored Core 6

Elden Ring was my first foray into the FromSoftware universe since Chromehounds for the Xbox 360. Elden Ring is an all-timer and no more needs to be said about it, but coming off that I was a bit trepidatious about whether the developers could apply their learnings and innovations to something with a legacy like Armored Core. Silly me to ever doubt FromSoft, because they delivered a game worthy of their developer pedigree. While AC6 doesn’t feel like “Elden Ring with mechs" I'm honestly glad it doesn’t. The developers have done a masterful job of blending classic Armored Core depth, customization and combat with the scale, bombast and world-building they are known for.

Some of the bosses in this game felt impossible, like many of the best FromSoft bosses do, but as always there is a tweak to your gameplay style or strategy that can turn the tables in the end. The first actual boss fight with Balteus had me questioning if I was ever good at video games in the first place, and when I finally adjusted to beat him I had that same triumphant feeling of beating the best FromSoft bosses from games past. Something else less discussed, but still worthy of praise as well, is how FromSoft finds a way to make what is basically a radio play story feel important and impactful when mixed with the heavy action of the actual gameplay. In a game where you wouldn’t expect story or characters to have an impact, FromSoft does an excellent job making you care about its dystopian Mecha pilots and their handlers in a way I never expected.

AC6 is a game I couldn’t stop thinking about, and the one I probably felt the most fulfilled by following each session, after my heart rate dropped and my vice grip on the controller loosened. FromSoftware continues to prove that it's in a league of their own. — Justin Vachon, Lead Designer

Baldur’s Gate 3

The Game of the Year is my game of the year. I’ve dabbled with Dragon Age, spent a few nights trying to unravel 2002’s Neverwinter Nights, but Baldur’s Gate 3, while still unapologetically Dungeons and Dragons, smooths out the procedural part while still deciding the fates of heroes, villains and the world on the roll of a die. Plus modifiers.

The rules and numbers of D&D are all baked into BG3, but you can also just play it and let the rules take care of themselves. Even when I failed dice rolls (how things are decided in D&D games, pitting your character’s stats against “skill check” numbers), I was happy to see how this affected the story. Sure, you can save-scum (quicksave, fail, quickload and try again), but it eventually feels hollow when there are so many decisions to make.

I talked to a colleague about the game and he was leery about a game with so many options. He’d have to play, replay, choose different options, and feel short changed if he didn’t eke every plot twist of a game like BG3.

The game, the options, the side quests are all so dense with choices and branching paths that there are (almost) countless permutations, distractions and bad decisions to make. I found that oddly freeing. The game, divided into three parts, does block out parts of the world from act to act, but I never found that particularly limiting. In fact, it ensured I tied up the most exciting plot points or destinations before plowing further into the story.

Two tips: being evil is very much an option (as is a mid-game redemption arc) and be careful when you rest overnight, as that will tick the game’s internal clock over and could mess up your plans. Invaders, unsurprisingly, don’t wait. — Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief

Cocoon

My day-to-day job is mostly behind the scenes, editing stories and scripts, dealing with technical issues and managing a fantastic group of reporters. All of which is to say I actually only have five bylines on the site this year. Two of them are about Cocoon — 40 percent, baby! It stands to reason, then, that it's my personal game of the year.

You can read my review of the game for some expanded thoughts, but here’s the summary, at least: Cocoon is a near-perfect puzzle game in which you play a bug and who has to jump between worlds to progress. It’s a laser-focused experience that only lets you play around with one or two mechanics at a time, but stretches each of its ideas to its natural conclusion. It's also dirt cheap and on Game Pass, so what do you have to lose? — Aaron Souppouris, Executive Editor

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is sexy, well-written and replayable, and it’s one of my favorite games of the year, from one of my favorite studios of all time. Deconstructeam is responsible for Gods Will Be Watching and The Red Strings Club, two vibrant titles about the limits of humanity and society, and The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood brings these themes to a new plane.

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is about building tarot decks, manipulating an election from afar, betraying a coven of witches, gaining power and seducing everyone. It’s bigger than anything Deconstructeam has ever made, with layered characters, branching narratives and strangely beautiful art. The witches, behemoths and otherworldly creatures in The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood fill the game with life and interwoven relationships, while the deck-building mechanic is surprisingly dense and designed to encourage creativity. The game pulled me in and didn’t let go until it was done with me, and even still, I find myself happily returning to it. — Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter

Dave the Diver

No matter if Dave the Diver is an indie game or not, it's still one heck of a good time. The pixel-soaked adventure breaks down into two main gameplay mechanics that shouldn’t mix at all, but somehow do. During the day you explore the sea, hiding from (or fighting) sharks and catching gobs of fish. At night, you run a sushi restaurant to sell those fish.

Each of these mechanics are completely different. When you’re under the water, it's exploration all the way, with mysteries around every reef and a constantly-shifting landscape. Running the restaurant is both a management sim, as you have to develop recipes and hire staff, and a fast-paced minigame that resembles the iconic arcade cabinet Tapper. This dichotomy is similar to another recent gem, Moonlighter. I loved Moonlighter, but Dave the Diver is even more addictive.

Both primary elements of the game are polished to a Nintendo-like sheen. In other words, it kept me up, night after night, as “one last run” turned into two and then three. But that’s just the beginning. As you progress through the occasionally hilarious story, Dave the Diver keeps adding new gameplay mechanics. Without giving too much away, there are mid-game additions that draw inspiration from Cooking Mama, Stardew Valley and others. Each of these elements are always a treat and never get in the way of the main gameplay loop. Also, you can hire a velociraptor as a server and Jason Vorhees as a sous chef. Good times. — Lawrence Bonk, Contributing Reporter

Dead Space

One of the best games of 2023 actually came out in 2008. The Dead Space remake landed in January and it stayed at the top of my GOTY list for the ensuing 11 months, slowly covering every other entry in globs of bile and blood. Developers at EA brought the terror and tension of the original Dead Space to modern platforms with thoughtful gameplay tweaks and a layer of visual polish, and in the process, they cemented the game’s reputation as an action-horror classic.

Dead Space spawned in an era of limitations. It was built for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, consoles that were powerful, but still constrained in terms of processing power and graphics; they couldn’t support massive, open-world games filled with procedural generation and AI-powered encounters. Innovation at the time had to stem from a game’s mechanics, and Dead Space was the first action-horror blockbuster to remove the HUD and the power of a headshot, creating an immersive and terrifying combat rhythm.

The remake paid tribute to everything that made the original Dead Space a living legend. The USG Ishimura was cold and maze-like, with a few more mysteries added to its corridors, and some boss fights were updated to take advantage of high-fidelity mechanics, but it still felt like the Dead Space I remember. It felt better, even. In an age of living games and open-world blandness, the Dead Space remake showcased the supreme power of restraint in game design. — Jessica Conditt

Diablo II: Resurrected

Aside from the quick turnaround following the original, the wait time between new Diablo games is more than a decade. So to my surprise, in a year when we got Diablo IV, I found myself spending more time playing Diablo II: Resurrected. That's not to say that the latest entry is a failure, because despite a drop in players and cratering views on Twitch, Diablo IV’s story is the franchise’s best yet and Blizzard nailed the look and feel of the game. Unfortunately, despite having faced similar issues with Diablo III, its endgame still needs a lot of work. This is why in 2023 I’ve had much more fun playing Diablo II, or more accurately Diablo II: Resurrected.

Thanks to a superb graphical overhaul, the game looks how I remember it in my head instead of the chunky low-res textures it actually had back in 2001. But more importantly, Blizzard fixed a ton of annoying glitches from the original (like enemy mana drain being way too strong) while implementing a bunch of handy quality-of-life upgrades such as automatic gold pickup and the shared stash. But the thing I like the most is that, since it came out in 2021, Blizzard has expanded upon the core game with additional patches and balance changes that have injected new life into the game while preserving its spirit. This year, specs like elemental druid and martial arts assassin suddenly went from being underpowered niche playstyles to top-tier builds, essentially undoing 20 years of neglect. The addition of Sunder Charms also made a ton of single-element specs way more viable and the addition of Terror Zones turned item farming into less of a grind while increasing the challenge.

Sure, melee classes still need a bit of love (maybe recalculate how attack rating works or add some more AOE abilities) and the cadence of new content has ground to a halt in the run-up to and subsequent release of Diablo IV. But for an update to a two-decade-old game, Diablo II: Resurrected feels like a great homage to an all-time classic and a wonderful example of a remake done right. Now I’m just hoping Blizzard finds some time to finally finish Act IV or maybe even add a brand new chapter onto the best ARPG ever. — Sam Rutherford, Senior Editor

F-Zero 99

Nintendo has carved out a little legacy of remixing gaming staples with its 99 (or 35) series, and F-Zero 99 is one of its most thoughtful battles royale yet. (I’d put it second behind Tetris 99.) From afar, it looks simple: the SNES arcade racer, but with 98 other people. But the addition of a persistent boost meter (which doubles as a health bar) and the ability to bank “Super Sparks” that you can spend to access a limited-time “Skyway” fundamentally changes how you play.

Do you throw caution to the wind, use more power this lap and try to hold on from the front? Do you hang back, try to increase your meter by knocking out other players and risk an insurmountable deficit? Where exactly on the track should you activate the Skyway? Winning still requires skill and track mastery — it’s F-Zero, after all — but there’s a new layer of strategy and resource management. What was once a sprint now becomes a horse race. You make more moment-to-moment decisions each time out. And decisions are what makes a game interesting.

All the other things that made F-Zero great 30 years ago still apply. The Mode 7 style. That iconic music. The distinction between the four supercars. The honest test of skill — this entry is a little more forgiving, but if you screw up, no Mario Kart shenanigans are going to come and save you. The course selection still has clear peaks and valleys, but F-Zero 99 doesn’t try to revise the past: It honors its source material, then makes considered changes that present it in a new light. In an industry that is constantly rehashing old ideas, that’s commendable. — Jeff Dunn, Senior Commerce Writer

Humanity

In Humanity, you play as a ghostly Shina Ibu who barks directions at a horde of humans to guide them toward a goal. That all seems simple enough, but like all great puzzle games, developer tha LTD plays around with the concept and keeps building on it until the very end. What starts as a fairly peaceful rumination about the controlled movement of humans soon segues into imaginative boss battles and mammoth lightsaber brawls.

There's a deeper story than you might expect from a game that's ostensibly about sheep herding mindless drones. What will stick with me from playing Humanity is a sense of optimism, an idealism that our species can achieve anything if we work together toward a common goal. That, and having the chance to take control of an adorable ethereal pup. — Kris Holt, Contributing Reporter

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a perfect game blending exploration, action, adventure, combat and puzzle solving. It looks and sounds beautiful, with Hyrule a wonderful clockwork world you just want to spend your days hiking through without a care in the world. The title’s standout feature, Ultrahand, enables players to construct anything they can imagine to help get them through tricky puzzles. Its technological prowess, given the limited hardware it runs on, has made it the envy of the game development and player world. I started 2023 having never played a Zelda title, and by the end, I’d sunk about 1,000 hours combined into Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

I don’t think it’s unfair to say that the game is also a lot.

Nintendo’s more-is-more approach means the triple-digit play times are a bug as much as they are a feature. This goes hand-in-hand with the freedom you’re given, which lets you play the game any way you choose. The two extra environments may have headed off complaints that it was a glorified DLC, but you can feel the stretching. The Depths is little more than a repetitious traversal zone while the Sky Islands are five puzzles repeated over and over. The company has found the limit of what a coherent single player experience can be, and then just wandered beyond it.

And then there’s the grinding, which extends well beyond the usual gripes around weapons degradation. If you want to reach the end game, you’ll need more than a wooden sword and shield, which means endlessly beating the mid-size bosses. Plus, you’ll need to put a shift in down the mines Depths to gather enough Zoanite to make Autobuild worthwhile. I kept my Switch offline ever since Nintendo nerfed the easy duplication glitch because I don’t have enough hours in the day to play. In fact, I’d pay good money for a “Grown Adult” version of the game where it respects your time more than the existing version does.

While I’m moaning, I might as well add that I hate how Lynels and Ganondorf can destroy your Zonai weapons during combat. If you’re not a gifted sword-fighter, and you’ve never quite got your parrying skill perfect, then crafting robot weapons was a neat workaround. The game lets you pick your preferred way to succeed, except when it really matters, when it eliminates all but the most tedious. I don’t think, after spending so long getting everything else done, I can be bothered to go back and defeat Ganondorf despite pledging to do it before the end of the year.

Still, perfect game, 10/10. — Daniel Cooper, Senior Reporter

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass

Even though Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be seven years old next April, we don’t need a new Mario Kart game. The title is still just as entertaining as it was brand new, thanks in large part to the massive expansion of new tracks Nintendo began dropping in March 2022. And while the waves have been slightly annoying, mostly due to the constant questions about their release dates from my nine year old, the steady cadence that wrapped up last month meant new challenges were arriving regularly for over a year.

The Booster Course Pass is well worth the money at $24.99. It’s less than a new game would cost and you get a new game’s worth of tracks (48) for that price. Not to mention added characters like Kamek, Petey Piranha, Diddy Kong and Peachette – all Steele family favorites. But for me, the best part is revisiting modernized versions of tracks from older Mario Kart games, the ones that endeared me to the series.

Rainbow Road from Wii is an all-time favorite and one course that I’ll go straight to when I only have a few minutes to play. Courses like Waluigi Pinball and Peach Gardens from DS are a lot more fun expanded to a big screen and I’ve enjoyed the road trip through major cities from Mario Kart Tour, a game I never played as karting on my phone didn’t really appeal to me. There are duds, of course, like Mario Circuit 3 from SNES that don't really translate as well to modern racing.

Maybe there will be a new game that flexes the muscle of the new Switch, but I’m not sure what there is to improve. I’d be perfectly happy to keep paying $25 every few years for a collection of new tracks, whether entirely new or inspired by the past, as this is a perfectly fine way to keep the game fresh for those of us who still really enjoy it. — Billy Steele, Senior Reporter

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Like a lot of recent PlayStation sequels, Spider-Man 2 takes everything that worked about the original game and gives us more. There’s more of New York City to explore, two characters that you can swap between at almost any time, more moves and suits and superpowers to take on the many enemies you’ll encounter throughout the adventure. It feels like the kind of game that easily could have gotten overstuffed and collapsed under the weight of what Insomniac Games was trying to pull off.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen, thanks in large part to some of the best mechanics in recent gaming. Swinging around the city remains an absolute delight, and the fluid fighting really makes you feel like a superhero. The new web wings give you another new way to navigate Manhattan and its boroughs, and getting your hands on the fabled symbiote suit opens up yet another new set of battle mechanics. Similarly, the open world map feels vibrant and alive, with tons to do when you’re ready to give the main story a break.

Naturally, the symbiote also takes center stage in the storytelling, as Kraven the hunter gives way to Venom throughout the game as the two main villains you’ll contend with. It makes sense to have two main baddies since there are two Spider-Men in this game, OG Peter Parker as well as his new protege Miles Morales. Each Spider-Man gets plenty of story development and heroic action sequences, and the roster of supporting characters has been fleshed out as well.

Ultimately, Spider-Man 2 is pretty easy to sum up. It’s just plain fun, with a great story, delightful mechanics and a wonderfully detailed NYC to explore. Whether or not you played the original game, it’s easy to get sucked right into this one and feel like a superhero. — Nathan Ingraham, Deputy News Editor

Moonstone Island

Moonstone Island asks the question, “what if Stardew Valley, but with Pokémon?” It’s the same kind of farming and dating sim you know and love, but with turn-based battles instead of manually swinging a pickaxe. Any creature you encounter can be captured and forced to fight in your stead, and there’s an element-based weakness mechanic pulled straight from Nintendo’s iconic pocket monsters.

They already had me with that Stardew meets Pokémon hook, but the developers didn’t stop there. This is a legitimate open world game with a large map that resembles the sky islands from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. There are dozens upon dozens of these islands and I had an absolute blast sequence breaking my way to dangerous locations in the early parts of the game, only to have my butt handed to me by high-level monsters. That’s my jam, right there.

I also love the art style and, in particular, the NPCs. The romanceable characters here are top-tier and, in my opinion, more interesting than rival farming sims. I want to be friends with the blacksmith Ferra and town scientist Zed. However, my heart belongs to the punk rock herbalist Gaiana. If anyone messes with Gaiana, they are gonna get a visit from a trio of level 99 Pikachus, er, I mean Capacibees. — Lawrence Bonk

Not finishing games

Finish a videogame? In this attention economy?! I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time that I actually made it to a game’s end credits. For as much as I enjoy the PS5 games I buy, there’s inevitably some real-life commitment that draws me away from them, or an unconquerable in-game skill challenge that saps my interest. Doesn't matter if it’s an indie like the therapeutically smashy Dysmantle or a AAA adventure franchise like Horizon and Assassins Creed — don’t even get me started on Seikiro or Elden Ring — I will invariably get bored at some point before the final boss and wander off towards whatever new shiny title comes out next.

As such, my 2023 GOTY is a toss up between Armored Core 6 and Baldur’s Gate 3, having played roughly the first half of each (multiple times, in BG3’s case). Sure, one is a frantic shooter pitting players against superior armed forces in high speed mobile gun battles, and the other is an inclusive high fantasy dating sim wrapped in an epic adventure RPG. They both offer me an opportunity to tinker, futz, fiddle and otherwise experiment with the physical rules and social mores of the in-game universe without demanding I clear the endgame content first.

In this way, every game becomes a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game (my absolute favorite genre growing up) and I get to assuage the FOMO anxiety I experience while playing titles with linear storylines. I’m not reverting to a previous save because I realize I messed up an earlier quest or accidentally closed off a storyline, I’m reloading just so I can figure out what all the other buttons and switches I didn’t push and pull also do. I find that freeing. There’s no pressure to “get it right,” only the opportunity to see what might happen.

Between AC6’s mission-based format and the ease at which I can manage save instances in BG3, I can load up any scenario I’ve played so far and try it again differently — maybe see how well an energy weapon-based loadout would work or what would happen if I fought with different companions or modified spell lists. Even though I know that there is a climactic endgame struggle (that the dev team worked really hard to produce) to get to and all the new game+ rewards that come with beating it, neither title really pressures me into getting there.

If I want to go off on a tangent and try my hand at pickpocketing an entire town, I absolutely can — then Groundhog Day the timeline back to before I started and do it all again, this time maybe wearing a different hat. Each gives me the flexibility to interact with their content as I have time and interest. — Andrew Tarantola, Senior Reporter

NYT Connections

New York Times

Wordle, the little word game that could, took over the first half of 2022. Every day, we had a new puzzle to look forward to — and potential bragging rights that would connect us with friends, family and strangers on the internet. Though Wordle fever subsided in 2023, my thirst for a daily word game remained. Yes, I could keep playing Wordle, but just one game wasn’t enough. Even as a subscriber and active user of the New York Times’ Games app, I needed more.

I didn’t want something as time-consuming as the full crossword each day, nor something as involved as getting to the Genius level on Spelling Bee. I wanted to be done in 5 minutes or less, which is why Wordle and the daily Mini crossword were perfect. In June, the New York Times introduced Connections, and it hit that sweet spot of being challenging enough to engage my brain but remaining casual enough that I didn’t need to derail my work day to finish it.

Connections’ mechanics are simple. Every day, you’re presented with sixteen tiles, each containing a word. You have to group those words into four sets of four based on what they have in common. And, like the app cautions, these categories are always more specific than “5-letter words” or “names” or “verbs.” At first, the game was straightforward and almost too easy. A few weeks in, though, and I’ve found the puzzles can get challenging, thanks to devious setups. For example, one time the grid included words like “Apple,” “Dell” and “Intel,” which tricked my tech-obsessed brain into thinking they were company brand names. It turned out that they belonged to other groups like “Synonyms for information” or “Fruit,” instead.

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Connections isn’t a unique idea that the New York Times thought up. Various iterations of a similar word game have existed before. Redditors pointed out its likeness to an app called Red Herring, while the host of a British television quiz show called Only Connect asked if the Times was aware “this has been a TV show in the UK since 2008?”

Sadly, though, if not for the Times adding Connections to its slate of word games, I would never have come across Red Herring. And because so many of the puzzles I play daily are in the NYT Games app, it’s much easier to check out all of them in the same place instead of installing a new app.

My daily routine now involves opening NYT Games, finishing Wordle, Connections, the Mini crossword, getting the Pangram on Spelling Bee and then bragging to anyone who will listen. That way, I feel like I’m giving my brain a bit of fun exercise before I drag my attention to my inbox or Slack for the real work of the day. — Cherlynn Low, Deputy Reviews Editor

Pizza Tower

The best “Nintendo platformer” of the year didn’t involve Mario, Kirby or Donkey Kong. It wasn’t even made by Nintendo. Instead, it stars a balding pizza chef named Peppino Spaghetti, and its development was led by a guy who goes by the pseudonym McPig. It’s called Pizza Tower — and while you could crudely describe it as “Wario Land 4 on cocaine,” it is one of the most refreshing and joyously creative games I’ve played in recent memory.

I waxed poetic about Pizza Tower in a write-up earlier this year, so go read that for a more complete picture. The big thing is that it understands how every platformer is fundamentally about movement. For a platformer to be fun, that movement needs to grab you from the off, then give you the space to explore where it could go. Mario games know this. Sonic games often forget that last part. Pizza Tower gets it right. Little Peppino dashes like a freight train teetering off the tracks, slamming through (not around) every enemy and obstacle in sight. You can Do Poorly, but you can’t die, so you have freedom to push the limits. It’s a constant kinetic thrill.

But it’s more than that. In that charming Nintendo way, every level in Pizza Tower presents new ideas, so it never gets stale. The music is incredible. The animation is both grotesque and immediately expressive. (How many other games look like this?) The boss fights actually respect you. The ending sequence might be the best I’ve played in a decade. It all makes for a game with a distinct sense of character and identity; it has clear inspirations, but it’s not pastiche. It is completely in tune with itself, both in aesthetics and design. And it’s fun as hell. — Jeff Dunn

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Jedi: Survivor is a game that the best sequels aspire to be. It improves on every single aspect of the original and pushes its systems to new heights while introducing many others that only enhance the base game. Like the greats of Mass Effect 2, Assassins Creed 2, Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Jedi: Survivor never stops upping the ante and pushing what a game like this can achieve.

In an age where there is far too much Star Wars content for any normal human to consume, from movies, TV, books, etc. Jedi: Survivor represents an experience you can hop into with only knowledge from Fallen Order at your disposal, and even that can be recapped for you in a nice short video within Jedi: Survivor itself. Your experience will only be further improved by a greater knowledge of the Star Wars landscape, new and old, but it isn’t a prerequisite to have a great time with this game.

The story of Cal Kestis and his group of rebels grows larger and makes the universe and world you inhabit feel big in a way the first game didn’t. The souls-like combat of the first game returns here and is improved upon in every conceivable way. The Jedi power fantasy that I’ve always dreamed about in Star Wars games has finally been realized within Jedi: Survivor. Many times I ended a fight in a flurry of saber swings and force powers and resolved feeling like I could conquer the world. There’s one sequence in particular involving a towering Imperial walker that is one of the most exhilarating and well-executed set piece moments in gaming since the days of Uncharted 2’s campaign. I had to put the controller down for 10 minutes after just to sit in awe and process what I had seen Respawn pull off.

At the core of Jedi: Survivor is a story and experience that feels more emotionally deep and original than Fallen Order did. Respawn hits their stride with this game from a writing and especially performance perspective that makes its best characters shine and its most impactful story moments hit that much harder. By the end, you’ll be pining for the conclusion to the trilogy in a way that few Star Wars properties have been able to elicit in years. — Justin Vachon

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

There are a few sure things when it comes to me and Mario games: I prefer 2D over 3D, and Super Mario World is my all-time favorite. As such, Super Mario Wonder was high on my list of games to try this year — the first new side-scrolling Mario game in over a decade. And while I really enjoyed the “new” Super Mario Bros. entries for the Wii and Wii U, those games were also a little too slavishly devoted to Mario’s past. Not so with Super Mario Wonder.

Between the entirely redesigned and more involved character animations (Mario grabbing his cap when he goes through a pipe is particularly cute) and wild level designs that feel entirely unique to the series, Super Mario Wonder feels like the first side-scrolling Mario game to really do something new in decades. That’s largely thanks to the Wonder flowers that twist every single stage into a psychedelic version of itself, but the level design is inspired even before you find that flower.

Nintendo also shook up the overall world map a bit, letting you pick your way through stages instead of putting you on a mostly linear path. And as you’re in the Flower Kingdom, not the familiar Mushroom Kingdom, there’s a lot more variety in the themes for each world. (No, world two isn’t the desert this time!) There are plenty of familiar enemies — what would a Mario game be without red and green Koopa Troopas? — but almost every level has a particular baddie that requires you to reshape your approach. And the badge system is a great take on the familiar power-ups, letting you choose a boost best suited to either the stage you’re on or the way you like to play the game. Also, Elephant Mario!

I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what makes Super Mario Wonder work so well, but hopefully it’s sufficient to say that it’s Nintendo at its best and most creative. That’s something I didn’t expect to see in a Mario game again. I can see myself playing Wonder for the next 30 years or so, just like I’ve played Super Mario World for the last 30 years. — Nathan Ingraham

Tchia

Tchia was the right game at the right time for me. As I sailed toward the sunset on a makeshift raft with rousing music filling my ears, I was filled with a sense of calm that I’d been seeking for quite some time. That was my favorite moment of any game this year, but the rest of Tchia isn't exactly lacking.

You play as a young girl who scours a New Caledonia-inspired archipelago in search of her kidnapped father in this open-world exploration game. While titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom aim to push the boundaries of the genre, Tchia is content to stay in its lane, albeit with some mechanics that provide plenty of opportunity to play as you wish.

Tchia can transform into a variety of fauna and inanimate objects thanks to her soul jumping ability. After you unlock the ability to summon a bird, you can take to the skies from almost anywhere in mere seconds. Each animal you can jump into has an ability, such as dogs digging, sharks biting and birds, uh, pooping.

There's not much in the way of combat. The only enemies you'll encounter are monsters made of fabric, and you'll need to use elements such as fire to dispose of them. But I didn't have a problem with that. Tchia is far more about the notion of discovery than slashing away at countless baddies.

This seems like a perfect introduction to open-world adventures for younger gamers out there. While there are some fairly bleak plot points, Tchia is a real charmer. It's an ideal length too, as a playthrough will take between around six and eight hours unless you go hunting for all the secrets and collectibles. Or you decide to spend a few extra hours simply sailing around these beautiful islands. — Kris Holt

We knew it was coming, but now we have a date: Bobby Kotick will officially step down as CEO of Activision Blizzard on December 29, 2023. Blizzard and King vice chairman Humam Sakhnini will also leave at the end of December, Activision Blizzard chief communications officer Lulu Meservey is out in January, and a handful of other executives will leave in March, according to an internal memo from Xbox head Phil Spencer published by The Verge.

Activision Blizzard vice chairman Thomas Tippl, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and King president Tjodolf Sommestad will remain at the studio and report to Matt Booty, Microsoft's president of gaming content and studios. Otherwise, leadership teams across Activision, Blizzard and King will stay the same, according to the memo.

Kotick has been the head of Activision since 1991. At Activision Blizzard, he oversaw massively popular franchises including Call of Duty, Diablo, Starcraft and World of Warcraft, and once the company acquired mobile studio King in 2016, he added Candy Crush to that list. The company is a AAA powerhouse and it generated $7.5 billion in revenue in 2022.

Activision Blizzard was sued by California's Civil Rights Department in 2021 over allegations of systemic sexism, discrimination and harassment at the studio, and executives were accused of fostering a frat-house style culture. At the time, all top leadership roles at Activision Blizzard were filled by white men. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a separate, related lawsuit against the studio a few months later. In November 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported Kotick had long ignored and helped cover up instances of sexual harassment at the studio. In response, workers at Activision Blizzard held walk-outs and demanded Kotick's resignation, but a shareholder vote in 2022 kept him in place.

Activision Blizzard settled the SEC lawsuit for $35 million in February, and it settled the California CRD suit for $54 million just days ago.

Microsoft announced its intent to purchase Activision Blizzard in early 2022, lawsuits and all. The deal was valued at $69 billion, and considering the scale of both companies involved, it faced intense scrutiny from regulators in the US and the UK. The acquisition was approved in October, after 21 months of legal arguments and concessions. Microsoft is now the third-largest video game studio in the world by revenue and it's the face of the ongoing consolidation craze tearing through the industry.

Once Microsoft's purchase went through, Kotick said he'd stay on through the end of 2023. According to Bloomberg, Kotick is set to make $375 million from the acquisition, and he's expecting a golden parachute of $14.6 million.

Welcome back to our weekly gaming news roundup. As the year comes to a close, we’re looking back on 12 months of massive change for the video game industry, driven by acquisitions, layoffs and unionization. You can read my story on consolidation for more on gaming's tough year.

This week’s stories

No Game Pass for Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is officially the Game of the Year and after months as a PlayStation console exclusive, it’s finally available on Xbox. However, if you’re waiting for it to become available on Game Pass, stop. Baldur’s Gate 3 is never coming to Xbox or PC Game Pass, according to Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke. It’s a fantastic, big and lengthy game sold at a standard price of $70 — take it or leave it.

The Last of Us Online is dead

Naughty Dog has canceled The Last of Us Online, its multiplayer spinoff that’s been in the works for years. This isn’t too surprising, considering the lack of updates about the game, but it is now official. Naughty Dog said it didn’t have the resources to support a live-service game and also create new single-player narrative experiences, which are historically its thing. The studio has more than one of these games in development right now.

2023 was a pivotal year in games

2023 was a year of upheaval in video games. There were three main factors molding the industry: consolidation, layoffs and unionization.

In terms of consolidation, the biggest story of the year was the approval of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard King for $69 billion. Microsoft is now the third-largest video game business in the world by revenue, right behind Sony and Tencent. Today, the Xbox umbrella covers nearly 40 studios, including Arkane, Bethesda, id Software, Infinity Ward, Mojang, Ninja Theory, Playground Games, 343 industries, and Turn 10.

Sony is more subtle than Microsoft about its attempts at total domination, but it owns 21 development teams, including Bungie, Guerrilla Games, Haven Studios, Insomniac, Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch Productions. It’s made a lot of purchases in the past three years, and invested heavily in studios like Epic Games and FromSoftware.

And then there’s Tencent, which has thousands of tentacles spread across the industry. Tencent owns a portion of Bloober Team, Paradox Interactive, PlatinumGames, Remedy, Roblox and Ubisoft, among others. It has a majority stake in Supercell, Tequila Works, Techland and others. It fully owns Riot Games, Funcom and, of course, others. It also runs multiple internal development companies and publishing labels.

Tencent also owns a 40 percent stake in Epic Games. This alone means any time you buy a game built on Unreal Engine, Tencent is getting a cut. If you played something this year, Tencent was probably involved.

There are clear short-term benefits of being bought by a larger company, but there are downsides to relinquishing independence. Acquired studios are held accountable by people outside of the actual development of a game, and the bigger the company, the further away its bosses are from the creative process.

The most extreme negative outcomes for an acquired indie studio are, of course, layoffs and closures. We saw a lot of these in 2023.

An estimated 9,000 people lost their jobs in the video game industry this year, up from about 1,000 in 2022. This is a crisis level of loss, and it was spurred by over-eager acquisition sprees by the companies at the top. Embracer Group, which owns more than 100 video game studios, laid off more than 900 people and it completely shut down multiple studios.

Unity laid off about 900 people this year. In November, the company reported a yearly revenue increase of 69 percent and executives told investors, “We continued to manage costs well.”

Epic Games fired about 830 people in 2023, including a chunk of the team at Fall Guys studio Mediatonic, which it purchased in 2021. EA dropped more than 1,000 employees this year, including significant cuts at Codemasters, a studio it purchased in 2021. CD Projekt RED, Sega, Ubisoft, and Microsoft’s 343 Industries also laid off at least 100 people each.

Looking back on the carnage this year, it feels like a warning — as consolidation efforts increase, more studios will be controlled by just a handful of companies, and they’ll be vulnerable to moves like mass layoffs and closures. We’re laying the foundation for the future of video games right now, and consolidation only makes the industry smaller and more generic. What will rampant consolidation mean for all of these acquired studios in five years’ time? What will it mean when these teams aren’t shiny, new investments any longer, and the people at the top are ready to get lean again?

Unionization is one approach that can help protect the livelihoods of people in the video game industry, and there was progress on this front in 2023. Developers at multiple studios now have union support, from small indies to AAA powerhouses. Microsoft is currently the home of the industry’s largest union, with representation for more than 300 quality assurance workers at ZeniMax Media.

Other companies with unions established in the past two years include Avalanche Studios, Anemone Hug, CD Projekt RED, Experis Game Solutions, Keywords Studios, Sega of America, Tender Claws and Workinman Interactive. We love to see it — and for the industry to remain stable, we need to see more of it.

Now playing

I’ve been unable to get The Talos Principle II out of my head since I previewed it and interviewed the developers a few months ago, and I’m finally, happily playing the game in its totality. I’m playing on a Steam Deck OLED, and I'm having a great time solving laser puzzles and talking about the meaning of life with a bunch of robots. I highly recommend you try the same.

This was a year of upheaval in video games. The industry has shapeshifted over the past 12 months, and it’s not all due to Microsoft’s lengthy acquisition of Activision, Blizzard and King. While Xbox executives were defending the legality of a $69 billion deal that would create the third-largest video game studio in the world, smaller companies were firing staff and shutting down entire teams, even amid fervent collective-bargaining efforts. It’s been a wild ride.

In 2023, the main factors molding the video game landscape were consolidation, layoffs and unionization, with each of these phenomena feeding into each other. This past year, the video game industry shrank, even as it grew financially.

Consolidation

When its purchase of Activision-Blizzard-King was legally approved on October 12, 2023, Microsoft became the world’s third-largest video game studio by revenue. As the owner of the Xbox ecosystem, Microsoft was already a massive player in video games, but purchasing a tentpole AAA studio solidified its position in the top three. Activision and Blizzard are the owners of Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Starcraft, but the real meat of this deal comes from King, the mobile division. King operates Candy Crush Saga, a game with 238 million monthly active users, which is more than twice as many as Activision Blizzard’s combined player bases. Candy Crush Saga has generated more than $20 billion in lifetime revenue, and King routinely outperforms Activision and Blizzard in terms of quarterly returns. Mobile gaming remains a huge business, especially in the Chinese market, which represents the largest and most lucrative audience in video games.

Though the $69 billion Activision deal was the biggest in Microsoft’s history — beating its purchase of LinkedIn for $26 billion in 2016 — it wasn’t the company’s first video game acquisition. Microsoft owns nearly 40 developers and it bought a chunk of those in the past five years. The Xbox umbrella covers 343 industries, Arkane Studios, Bethesda, Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, id Software, Infinity Ward, Mojang Studios, Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Tango Gameworks and Turn 10, among dozens more.

Charley Gallay via Getty Images

With these studios at its back, Microsoft is leaning hard into cloud gaming while attempting to build a device-agnostic ecosystem powered by the Xbox brand. These moves are designed to unlock the mobile market even more, putting Xbox games on all devices, everywhere, all the time.

Still, Sony is bigger than Microsoft by revenue. Though Microsoft is often the face of the game-studio acquisition spree, Sony is the owner of 21 development teams, including Bungie, Guerrilla Games, Haven Studios, Housemarque, Insomniac Games, Media Molecule, Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch Productions. Sony has been subtly expanding its roster — more subtly than Microsoft, at least — over the past three years, and it’s also made heavy investments in studios like Epic Games and FromSoftware.

With this lineup, Sony is betting heavily on ongoing games, and it has 12 live-service titles in production right now, on top of Bungie’s Destiny franchise. These include Haven’s Fairgame$ and a multiplayer Horizon title from Guerilla.

“By expanding to PC and mobile, and… also to live services, we have the opportunity to move from a situation of being present in a very narrow segment of the overall gaming software market, to being present pretty much everywhere," Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan said in 2022.

For the companies at the top, total domination is the goal.

Even still, Tencent is bigger than both Sony and Microsoft. Tencent is not a console manufacturer, so it isn’t a household name among most players, but it’s one of the largest companies in the world, and it wields a ridiculous amount of financial power in video games. Tencent owns a portion of Bloober Team, Bohemia Interactive, Don’t Nod, Epic, Paradox Interactive, PlatinumGames, Remedy Entertainment, Roblox and Ubisoft, among others. It has a majority stake in Supercell, Grinding Gear Games, Klei Entertainment, Tequila Works, Techland, Yager Development and others. It fully owns Riot Games, Funcom, Sharkmob, Turtle Rock Studios, and, of course, others. It also runs multiple internal development companies, including the Level Infinite and Tencent Games publishing labels.

Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images

Sure, Sony has a stake in Epic, but Tencent’s is bigger. This investment alone means any time you buy a game built on Epic’s Unreal Engine, Tencent (and Sony) is getting a cut. Tencent is the biggest investor in games, with thousands of tendrils across the industry — if you played something this year, Tencent was probably involved.

On a smaller scale, companies like Netflix and Devolver Digital have also dipped their toes in the acquisition pond recently. Devolver started buying studios in 2020, and it now owns Croteam, Dodge Roll, Doinksoft, Firefly Studios, Nerial and System Era Softworks. Annapurna Interactive bought South African studio 24 Bit Games in November. Netflix launched its Games division in 2021, and it’s already purchased four studios, including Oxenfree developer Night School and Alphabear company Spry Fox.

Night School co-founder Sean Krankel told Engadget in June that the move to Netflix was a boon for the studio, providing financial security, a dedicated working space and plenty of marketing support for its projects.

“A small subset of teams are good to go for the next 10 years, but others have these peaks and valleys, and we were somewhere in between,” Krankel said. “We weren't in danger of anything going sideways. But we were at a spot where we're like, it would be cool to tether to somebody who has a similar vision, and somebody that we could work with that would like, de-risk us.”

Netflix

This is the short-term benefit of being bought by a larger company, but there are downsides to relinquishing independence. Having a corporate overseer can result in rigid production timelines, hindering a studio’s ability to pivot, and despite all of the promises otherwise, developers may be forced to adhere to a specific tone, vibe or game-development structure. Owned studios are held accountable by people outside of the actual development of a game, and the bigger the company, the further away its bosses are from the creative process.

The most extreme negative outcomes for an acquired indie studio are, of course, layoffs and closures. We saw a lot of these in 2023.

Layoffs

The post-acquisition power dynamic is playing out in public and in real-time. It’s estimated that more than 9,000 people in video games were laid off this year and the firings affected teams of all sizes. This is a crisis amount of cuts. In 2022, just 1,000 video game jobs were lost, according to layoffstracker.com.

The Embracer Group provides the clearest example of rampant, surprise layoffs in 2023. Embracer has spent the past few years acquiring prominent midsize studios, including Gearbox Software (Borderlands), Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider), Eidos-Montreal (Deus Ex) and Square Enix Montreal (Deus Ex Go). In the past decade, Embracer grew its portfolio to cover more than 100 game studios, including Volition (Saints Row), Coffee Stain (Goat Simulator), Free Radical Design (TimeSplitters) and Zen Studios (Pinball FX). The holding company also secured the rights to The Lord of the Rings in 2022, promising to turn it into “one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world.”

Volition

In June 2023, Embracer announced a six-year, $2 billion funding deal had fallen through, and it was going to restructure — meaning, layoffs and studio closures. Since this announcement, Embracer has shut down Volition, Free Radical Design and Campfire Cabal, it divested Goose Byte and it’s fired developers at Saber Interactive. More than 900 people lost their jobs during these moves. Meanwhile, Embracer’s share price rose by 11 points in November.

This wasn’t the only layoff round of the year. Unity lowered its headcount three times in 2023, affecting about 900 jobs. In its quarterly financial results in November, Unity reported a yearly revenue increase of 69 percent and it told investors, “We continued to manage costs well.”

Sony cut 100 jobs at Bungie, a company it bought for $3.6 billion in 2022. According to developers that are still there, Sony executives are attempting to use this upheaval to wrest more control of the studio from Bungie founders and leaders.

Epic Games fired roughly 830 people this year, or 16 percent of its staff. This included significant job cuts at Mediatonic, the studio behind Fall Guys that Epic purchased in 2021.

Mediatonic

“For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn,” CEO Tim Sweeney wrote about the layoffs. He continued, “I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.”

Electronic Arts was one of the first video game companies to institute significant layoffs this year, with a reduction of 6 percent of its workforce, or about 800 employees, in March. EA later cut jobs at Dirt and F1 studio Codemasters, which it purchased in 2021 for $1.2 billion. EA culled an estimated 1,130 jobs in 2023.

CD Projekt RED and Sega each laid off about 100 people in the past 12 months, while Ubisoft fired an estimated 255 employees. Microsoft cut 10,000 jobs across its businesses early in the year, and that included about 100 people at Halo studio 343 industries.

343 industries

These are just some of the biggest names in layoffs in 2023. Looking back on the carnage, it feels like a warning — as consolidation efforts increase, more game studios will be controlled by just a handful of companies, and they’ll be vulnerable to moves like mass layoffs and closures. We’re laying the foundation for the future of video games right now and consolidation only makes the industry smaller and more generic, as accountants, investors and shareholders push for low-risk concepts, rather than innovation and change.

What will rampant consolidation mean for all of these acquired studios in five years’ time? What will it mean when these teams aren’t shiny, new investments any longer, and the people at the top are ready to get lean again? Remember that many of the shuttered studios listed above were purchased within the past three years.

Being acquired is a cost-benefit analysis for smaller studios, where the benefits are immediate and the costs are potential. It’s easy to say that won’t happen to us. But it can happen, and it does, and as consolidation increases, bulk layoffs are only going to occur more often.

Unions

Unionization is one approach that can help protect the livelihoods of people in the video game industry, and there was progress on this front in 2023. Developers at multiple studios now have union support, from small indies to AAA powerhouses.

Microsoft is currently the home of the industry’s largest union, with representation for more than 300 quality assurance workers at ZeniMax Media. ZeniMax is the parent company of Bethesda, id Software and Arkane, and Microsoft purchased the whole caboodle for $7.5 billion in 2021. Microsoft formally recognized the ZeniMax union this January and the parties started negotiating in April. In December, Microsoft announced it would hire 77 contract workers as full-time employees under the ZeniMax Workers United-CWA union. The deal guaranteed a pay raise, paid holidays and sick leave, and a copy of Starfield, the game they helped ship.

Bethesda Softworks

“We are now stronger at the bargaining table and are working to secure a fair contract for all workers — direct employees and contractors," ZeniMax union member Chris Lusco said. "We are all a part of ZeniMax Studio’s success and we all deserve our fair share. We hope to set a new precedent for workers across Microsoft and the entire gaming industry so that all workers, regardless of their employment status, are able to improve their working conditions through collective bargaining."

Meanwhile, executives at Microsoft’s newest acquisition, Activision Blizzard, spent the past few years stalling internal unionization efforts. However, QA employees at Raven Software, a subsidiary of Activision, successfully voted to unionize in May 2022. Microsoft has vowed to respect organization attempts now that Activision-Blizzard-King is under its control.

Other companies with unions established in the past two years include Avalanche Studios, Anemone Hug, CD Projekt RED, Experis Game Solutions, Keywords Studios, Sega of America, Tender Claws and Workinman Interactive.

Apple says it’s testing a new App Store feature called contingent pricing to lure customers into cheaper subscriptions based on their other purchases. This contingent pricing model will let developers offer discounts to customers who already have subscriptions to other services, be it those developers’ own apps or connected partner apps.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple says these bundled discounts will be highly visible to customers both on the App Store and “in off-platform marketing channels” — so elsewhere too. It’s starting with a select group of participants before rolling out to more developers “in the coming months.”

It’s been a year of increased scrutiny into Apple’s App Store and how it handles in-app purchases. Just this fall, Apple asked the Supreme Court to reverse the previous ruling that required it to allow developers to use outside payment systems, circumventing Apple’s 30 percent transaction fee. This is a way, of sorts, to get back in developers’ good graces.

— Mat Smith

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Baldur’s Gate 3 will never come to Xbox Game Pass

So says developer Larian Studios.

Larian Studios

According to Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke in an interview with IGN, Game of the Year, Baldur’s Gate 3, won’t come to Microsoft’s Game Pass. Vincke also noted this was always the plan, and the title had never been considered for Microsoft’s subscription gaming platform. Vincke says Baldur’s Gate 3 is a “big game” available for a “fair price.” He also touted the title’s lack of microtransactions and its complete story, saying “you get what you pay for.”

Continue reading.

Meta Quest headsets join the exciting world of Microsoft Office apps

Mmm, virtual Word.

Meta Quest users can now write reports, edit spreadsheets and create presentations — if they even want to do any of those tasks on a VR headset. Support for the basic Microsoft Office suite has arrived on the original Oculus Quest, the Meta Quest 2, the Quest Pro and the Quest 3. Users can now download Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint from the Meta Quest store for free. That said, typing on the Quest’s onscreen keyboard is not particularly easy, so you might want to bring your Bluetooth keyboard along for virtual office hours.

Continue reading.

Engadget Podcast: RIP E3

And diving into The Game Awards.

This week, Engadget Senior Editor Jessica Conditt joins Cherlynn and Devindra to talk about the death of E3 and what it means for the gaming industry. They also explore some of the highlights (and low points) of last week’s Game Awards, which couldn’t quite balance celebrating video games and functioning as a marketing tool. We’re particularly excited for Light No Fire, the next ambitious game from the folks behind No Man’s Sky. (Oh, you should check out Jessica’s video on the subject.)

Listen here.

The Chinese EV with 650 miles of range

From a 150kWh battery.

Nio

Chinese manufacturer Nio is about to start selling an EV with a “semi-solid state” 150kWh battery (140kWh usable). That’s the biggest battery of any passenger EV so far. Nio CEO William Li drove a prototype version of the ET7 1,044km (650 miles) in 14 hours, a distance surpassing many gas-powered vehicles. The ET7’s 150kWh battery will only be available on a lease separate from the car, much as we’ve seen with some cars sold in Europe. We’re unlikely to see this specific battery pack in the US, however. With the Biden administration’s latest rules, some US cars, like Tesla’s Model 3 Long Range, that use specific Chinese battery components will no longer receive the full $7,500 tax credit.

Continue reading.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Baldur’s Gate 3 to show up on Game Pass. It’s not happening, according to Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke in an interview with IGN. The game designer said point blank that “it’s not going to be on Game Pass.” Vincke went on to note that this was always the plan and that the title had never been considered for placement in Microsoft’s subscription gaming platform. These statements occurred just one week after the game officially launched on Xbox Series X/S consoles.

At the root of this decision is perceived value. Vincke says that Baldur’s Gate 3 is a “big game” that’s available for a “fair price.” He also touted the title’s lack of microtransactions and its complete story, saying “you get what you pay for.” To that end, a completionist run in Baldur's Gate 3 takes more than 140 hours, according to HowLongToBeat. That breaks down to about 40 cents an hour, which seems like a good value to me.

Larian Studios isn’t Microsoft. This is a small company that needs all the money it can get, with Vincke suggesting that players who pay full-price for Baldur’s Gate 3 will allow the developer to “continue making other games.”

This speaks to a larger issue within the gaming community regarding the “all-you-can-eat” nature of streaming subscription platforms like Game Pass. Obviously, paying $10 each month for access to hundreds of games is a great deal for consumers, but it remains to be seen how it impacts developers. Some smaller developers praise the added exposure that comes with launching on Game Pass, while others like Take Two call it a “lost opportunity” for publishers. Sony head Jim Ryan even called the platform “value destructive,” but he’s speaking about a primary competitor so, grain meet salt.

Microsoft has held steady to the idea that Game Pass actually increases sales of included titles, as players fall in love with certain games and want to own them outright. There’s some evidence to support this. Starfield was available on the subscription service since launch day but still managed to be the best-selling title of September, according to figures published by VentureBeat. However, that old adage about cows and free milk must apply to some gamers.

Most importantly, Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t need Game Pass. It’s one of the most popular and critically-acclaimed releases of the year, racking up a boatload of trophies at The Game Awards and selling around 20 million copies on Steam alone. The game’s also available on PS5 and, as mentioned, Xbox Series X/S.

Alas, The Last of Us Online will never see the light of day. Naughty Dog has announced that it has "made the incredibly difficult decision to stop" its development. It explains that the online team had a clear vision of the project and had already refined its gameplay. However, it soon became clear when the company was ramping the game up to full production that it was going to bite off more than it can chew. If it releases an online game, it has to dedicate all its resources to supporting post launch content in the future. That means becoming a studio that exclusively offers live gaming services — one with no capacity to release more single-player narrative games like the original The Last of Us titles. 

The studio first gave us a peek at concept art from the project in 2022, but it offered very little in terms of updates since. After the PlayStation Showcase in May, it admitted that it knows fans of the franchise are looking forward to hearing more about the game but that it realized that it needed more time to work on it and couldn't share details just yet. Bloomberg reported shortly after that, though, that the studio had already reassigned developers working on the project to other teams and was reconsidering its viability. Clearly, Naughty Dog has decided its path, and it doesn't lead to the release of an online title. The developer says it has "more than one ambitious, brand new single player game" in the works and will be sharing what's next when it's ready.

The Video Game History Foundation set up shop back in 2017 and offers a gigantic collection of gaming-related archival materials, from magazines to art books and even source code. Previously, you’d have to make the trek to Oakland, California to peruse the archive, but that changes soon. The VGHF just announced a digital library that will offer remote access.

These tools will be made available to researchers, academics and garden-variety gaming enthusiasts like the rest of us. The library will offer access to the collection “for free from anywhere in the world.” There’s a video that shows the archive in action, hosted by library director Phil Salvador.

The VGHF has an eventual goal of digitizing the entire archive, but this is a massive undertaking. It’ll be a while before the whole collection is digitized, as this stuff takes time. Just ask any museum curator. The organization has already been at it for two years, but some of that was spent designing the search technology and interface platform. The library is expected to launch sometime next year and will likely release with a sampling of the catalog. 

Once completed, however, this will be an absolutely crucial tool for preserving the legacy of gaming for future generations. The collection includes print magazines, design documents, audio assets, press materials, concept art and so much more. Some of the current physical archive is already grouped into handy collections, like media chronicling the atmosphere surrounding the Nintendo Entertainment System’s launch in the US. Perhaps the digital archive will do the same.

The VGHF has an extraordinary pedigree. The organization was founded by games journalist Frank Cifaldi, who ran a popular website about unreleased games called Lost Levels. Cifaldi is also known for his journalism work at Gamasutra. He's joined by a team of industry veterans like Game Developers Conference leader Simon Carless and Smithsonian exhibit creator Chris Melissinos, among others.

Beyond the archive, the VGHF is heavily involved with restoring media materials from companies like Bethesda, Capcom, SNK and others. The foundation is also an advocacy group for game preservation.

In October, Insomniac Games launched Marvel's Spider-Man 2 without key features like New Game+ and audio descriptions. Just before the game's release, Insomniac's community and marketing director, James Stevenson, shared that New Game+ "should" arrive before the end of 2023. However, Insomniac has now released a statement explaining that it's targeting the next Marvel's Spider-Man 2 update for early 2024.

Insomniac shared the news on X: "We know players have been eagerly awaiting features such as New Game+ and Audio Descriptions, among many more. We have been working vigilantly on these features and require more testing to ensure the quality is up to our standards. We are now targeting Early 2024 for the next game update, and we'll have a feature-complete list closer to its release."

Insomniac went on to explain that it's adding more "highly requested features" to the game, such as replaying missions and changing the time of day. Many users' responses on X were positive, encouraging Insomniac to take all the time it needs and expressing their love for the company — some of which got answers from the company sharing its thanks and appreciation.

The original Marvel's Spider-Man game has New Game+, allowing players to start the game over while holding on to items they acquired during previous gameplay. But, despite the few missing features, we're big fans of Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Gamers can play as Peter Parker or Miles Morales across a world that's expanded to include parts of Brooklyn and Queens. The story, side-quests, and more minor activities all added to the gameplay, creating a sequel that is "both bigger and better."