In late March, Epic Games cut more than 1,000 employees, roughly 23 percent of the company, and announced the permanent shutdown of three Fortnite game modes: Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage. CEO Tim Sweeney told staff the company had spent more than it earned for too long. He also announced $500 million in cuts to contracts, marketing, and open roles. Laid-off employees received four months base pay plus severance tied to tenure.

To understand why this stings, you need the numbers behind Fortnite.

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Game Director Daniel Vavra attempted to explain how the game is not woke while at the same time bragging about receiving a LGBTQ+ award nomination from Gayming Magazine.

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The original game includes a graphic depiction of sodomy between the player character, Henry, and the underage Hans Capon. Developer Warhorse Studios would eventually patch the game to age up Hans Capon to 20 years-old.

In the first game, the codex entry for the character clearly described him as “the underage son of Jan Jesek Ptacek and Hedvika of Dauba.”

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YouTuber, Kane's Games, recently dropped a 2-hour review of Resident Evil Requiem, an excellent work and a work of genuine effort given the constraints of regular work alongside doing YouTube as a hobby.

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Unlike so many soulless golems and tourists riding the Resdient Evil hype train and praising the game unobtrusively without a lick of critical analysis, Kane has graced YouTube with a heaping's worth of thoughts and feelings to chew on that you'll never find from the "post first" echochambering among the top influencers that reminds me of how great it feels to be niche.

Kane pulls no punches, mentioning the ubiquitous member berries, the confusing plot, and even retcons? What's astounding about today's consumer is that anyone who played the original games should be engaged in this kind of analysis due to their love of the franchise. But of course, the same people who are out and about social media touting this slop as a masterpiece are probably the same type of people who demand even more modern remakes of great games which, inevitably, turns everything into a generic Gears of War style over-the-shoulder third person shooters.

And don't assume, even for a moment, that the claim that tourists are mucking things up is without basis. According to Kane, Requiem boasted three times the amount of max players as any of the other Resident Evil games on Steam to date.

RE9 is about half of a good game, according to Kane, which he means to say that he didn't hate everything about the game. As a Resident Evil fan, he was genuinely looking forward to the game and even he couldn't help but feel hyped that he would get to play as Leon Kennedy. It is important he notes this because the distinct lack of critical thought and analysis on YouTube has far too many people engaging in content from a standpoint of hot or cold. Kane's mindset takes pattern recognition into account. Yes, pattern recognition, which is in very short supply in any industry nowadays because none of these companies want you thinking about how thoroughly their products have degenerated over the past ten or twenty years.

Capcom was once a company known for its quality in video games which contributes greatly to Kane's perspective about how badly Requiem was implemented. That being said, despite spending a long time ranting about the game’s many flaws, he makes it clear that he does not hate Resident Evil Requiem. In fact, he liked it more than Resident Evil 7 and 8, and even says that if it had released last year, it probably would have cracked his personal top five games of the year. Kane still sees real potential in the game, saying it is a step back in the right direction for the franchise compared to the more recent entries.

What makes him so critical, and what other critics ought to take note of, is that Kane is a genuine fan of both Resident Evil and Capcom. He is tired of watching the company repeatedly drop the ball on successful IPs they’ve already proven they can handle well (citing Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Monster Hunter as other recent disappointments) and he’s now worried about what they might do with Devil May Cry 6. He argues that RE9 could have been so much better with just a few smarter, more obvious decisions.

Kane’s core criticism is that the game feels like a game of extremes: it tries to mash together the over-the-top action of something like Resident Evil 6 with the slow, tense horror of RE7, but without splitting them into separate campaigns. The constant back-and-forth between Grace and Leon creates schizophrenic pacing, damages re-playability (a huge part of what makes Resident Evil special), and makes large portions of Leon’s sections feel tacked-on. Yet even with all those issues, the game still has that classic Resident Evil charm in spots, some genuinely high highs, and moments that made him reminisce about the older games.

Because of everything he covered Kane lands on a 7/10 which, in his estimation, is a slightly above-average game: worth playing for fans, but not worth $70 at full price given its short length (8–10 hours) and lack of extra modes like Mercenaries or Fourth Survivor. He recommends waiting for a sale (he picked it up on G2A for $40–50) or buying it discounted, rather than paying full price on launch. He hopes Capcom actually listens to feedback and fixes the obvious issues for the next game, but given the company’s recent track record, he’s not holding his breath.

Lastly, he also calls out the extreme “Astroturf” culture in gaming discourse, where every game is either complete garbage or an untouchable masterpiece, with no room for nuanced takes like his.

Overall, this closing perfectly sums up Kane’s feelings: the game has clear strengths and real potential, but it’s held back by a bunch of frustrating, avoidable problems that prevent it from being great. It’s “half of a good game,” and that’s exactly why he’s tough on it.

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In a shattered world where vampires have seized control of governments, media, and finance after a global collapse, humanity’s last hope emerges from the shadows: the Knights of Saint Michael. These twelve faithful warriors, armed with unyielding belief and blood that spells death to the undead, launch a desperate crusade against the immortal lords who treat mankind as livestock.

From legendary writer Chuck Dixon and visionary Vox Day, Midnight’s War delivers pulse-pounding action, dark intrigue, and raw defiance in a stunningly illustrated graphic novel that reimagines vampire lore with crusader intensity.

If you crave uncompromising heroes battling true evil, grab your copy today— the midnight world is waiting.

NEXT: NexusMods Removes Marvel Rivals Cloak and Dagger Elf Mod Over Race, Tells Designer to Stop Asking Questions

NexusMods removed a Marvel Rivals retexture mod turning Cloak and Dagger into fantasy elves, citing the designer’s alleged alteration of a racially marginalized character’s skin tone. The incident adds another chapter to the platform’s growing history of ideologically motivated moderation that increasingly contradicts the entire purpose of a modding community.

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The mod in question was titled “Cloak and Dagger Daring Duo - Albion,” a retexture inspired by elven folklore aesthetics. The designer’s intent was straightforward creative expression - reimagining the characters through a fantasy lens. NexusMods moderator Myrddin pulled the mod on April 14, 2026, issuing the following removal notice:

“This is not a fantasy race situation; this is you changing the race of a character from a marginalized group in the USA. The intention is to prevent divisiveness or hostility within the community.”

The designer, Tendo, pushed back on that characterization in Discord, pointing out the obvious: Cloak wasn’t whitewashed but depicted as made of birch wood, consistent with the elf folklore aesthetic the mod was built around.

Myrddin’s response ended any possibility of reasonable discussion: “We’re not talking about your moderation actions in here. Stop pushing it.”

That exchange tells you everything about how NexusMods handles dissent. The moderator issued a ruling, the designer asked a legitimate question about the reasoning, and the platform shut down the conversation entirely rather than defend its own decision.

The designer ultimately complied with the platform’s unspoken racial requirements, reposting the mod with explicit acknowledgment of the changes made to satisfy moderation. The new listing reads: “A retexture for Daring Duo inspired by elves and folklore. Now with a darker skin for Cloak.”

The artistic vision was compromised not because of quality issues or technical violations but because a moderator decided the character’s skin appeared too light.

For those unfamiliar, Marvel Rivals is NetEase Games’ free-to-play 6v6 hero shooter launched globally in late 2024. The game features 46+ Marvel characters battling across multiversal locations with team-up abilities and destructible environments. It became one of the most-played games of its launch window, drawing direct comparisons to Overwatch and generating a massive modding community almost immediately.

Cloak and Dagger are Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen, Marvel characters created by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan in 1982. Tyrone is Black, Tandy is white - the duo’s contrasting appearances are fundamental to their visual identity and symbolic relationship, representing darkness and light. Their Marvel Rivals appearance, titled “Daring Duo,” brings both characters into the game as a paired hero unit.

NexusMods is the largest PC modding repository in the world, hosting millions of mods across thousands of games. The platform built its reputation as the definitive destination for user-created game modifications - a place where creative freedom theoretically reigns because mods exist outside official development channels. That reputation has taken consistent damage from the platform’s moderation decisions.

The Captain America Trump mod removal in early January 2025 is the most publicized example. NexusMods pulled the Marvel Rivals mod replacing Captain America’s likeness with Donald Trump, citing a 2020 policy banning American political content. Biden and Obama mods were also removed under the same policy - a fact the platform loudly emphasized to deflect accusations of selective targeting.

But the Cyberpunk 2077 incident revealed more obvious ideological bias. NexusMods deleted a mod making Judy Alvarez romanceable by male characters while leaving a comparable mod for Panam and female characters untouched. The asymmetric enforcement drew immediate criticism.

The Oblivion remaster controversy cut even deeper. A mod changing character body type labels from “Type 1/Type 2” back to “Male/Female” was removed multiple times. NexusMods claimed the mod didn’t technically violate guidelines, then banned the uploaders anyway for “posting an intentionally antagonistic mod with intention to evade rules” - all without issuing prior warnings. Critics noted the platform effectively invented a rule to ban a mod it found ideologically objectionable.

The pattern across these incidents is consistent: NexusMods applies moderation selectively based on the ideological direction of changes rather than enforcing neutral content standards. Mods that move characters toward progressive representation survive. Mods that move in any other direction face removal.

This directly contradicts the philosophical foundation of modding culture. Mods exist because players want creative control over their gaming experience that developers don’t provide. The freedom to reskin characters, change appearances, alter gameplay mechanics, and reimagine fictional worlds is the entire point.

The Cloak and Dagger situation is particularly indefensible because the designer’s premise was pure fantasy aesthetics with zero racial intent. Elves in fantasy fiction have light features as a genre convention stretching back decades through Tolkien and beyond. Applying that aesthetic to characters in a birchwood-inspired elf retexture isn’t a statement about race.

NexusMods decided otherwise. A moderator applied a racial standard to fictional character appearances, shut down questions about that decision, and forced the designer to publicly acknowledge they’d added darker skin to comply. The platform turned a folklore-inspired creative project into a racial compliance exercise.

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When genetic engineering nearly doomed the species, humanity made a desperate bargain: let the frontier do what nature intended. In a harsh universe, these cadets have to make impossible decisions. Read Space Fleet Academy today.

NEXT: Marathon Is Bleeding Out In An Unprecedented Failure For AAA Gaming

Bungie released Marathon on March 28, 2026. Within two weeks, the conversation shifted from launch excitement to server population charts that look like a ski slope. Steam peaked at 143,621 concurrent users during a free promotional event. By April 10, that number had collapsed to 20,306. A 68% drop in under a month.

And the cost of that hemorrhage? According to Forbes’ Paul Tassi, Marathon’s development budget cleared $200 million before a single ad ran. Market estimates put it north of $250 million. Add Sony’s marketing machine and some analysts are floating a total spend approaching $400 million. At $40 a copy and 1.2 million units sold, the game generated roughly $50 million in gross revenue, before platform cuts, returns, and the ongoing cost of keeping servers alive.

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The math is brutal. Bungie needed its player base to spend just under $200 each, on top of the base game price, in microtransactions and battle passes just to approach break-even on development alone. It doesn’t appear to be working.

The Graveyard It’s Joining

Marathon doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s the latest entry in what’s becoming an expensive and embarrassing pattern for Sony and the wider AAA industry.

Concord. $400 million spent. Servers shut down September 6, 2025, two weeks after launch. Its Steam peak player count was under 700 concurrent users. Sony issued full refunds and posted a blog statement that read like a eulogy: “The game’s other aspects and initial launch did not land as we intended.”

Then came Highgard, called “Concord 2” by the gaming community, developed by Wildlight Entertainment, a studio staffed by Respawn veterans. Four years of development. A team of over 100 people. The game launched January 26 and shut down completely on March 12. Forty-five days. Wildlight’s own explanation: “inability to build a player base that could sustain the game in the long term.”

Marathon is currently trending in the same direction. The jokes about “Concord 3” aren’t really jokes anymore.

Why This Keeps Happening

Inven Global’s analysis, backed by industry insiders, points to two root causes: long development cycles and market saturation.

When a game spends five to seven years in production, the market it was designed for no longer exists by launch day. Player preferences shift. Competing titles lock in their ecosystems. And the game that shipped is answering questions nobody is asking anymore.

Marathon is an extraction shooter in a post-extraction-shooter hype window. The genre’s fatigue is real. Losing all your gear on death — a mechanic central to the genre’s tension — is punishing enough on its own. Add rampant cheating that accelerates those losses, and casual players don’t stick around to find out if it gets better. They just leave.

Creator B1gDaddyMarv laid it out plainly on April 9:

“Marathon had a budget of likely over 250 million per Paul Tassi. The majority of the player base is on Steam, and it has been on a steady decline. It’s the 106th most-played game on Xbox.”

106th on Xbox. For a game Sony acquired an entire studio for $3.6 billion to build.

ReforgeGaming cut through the noise on the $400 million total cost claim:

“It is HIGHLY unlikely that any marketing push from Sony for Marathon doubled its budget up to $400m. Matching 5-6 years of production cost with a few months of marketing wouldn’t be bullish. It would be economically insane.”

Even at the conservative $250 million figure, the numbers don’t work. And the trajectory of the player count makes it worse every week.

What Bungie Actually Needs to Do

The free-to-play pivot conversation is already happening. It’s the wrong one.

Marathon wasn’t built as a F2P title. The economy, the progression, the entire structure was designed around a $40 buy-in. Dropping the price tag generates a short-term population spike — and then you’re back to the same retention problem, except now with monetization systems that feel predatory to the players you just acquired for free.

The real fix is PvE content, and a lot of it. Strikes. Dungeon-style runs. Something that lets a dad gamer with 90 minutes on a Tuesday night drop in, have fun, and feel rewarded without queuing into a lobby full of players who have logged 400 hours since launch. An insurance system, a protected gear slot that survives extraction failure, would go a long way toward keeping casual players from rage-quitting permanently.

Bungie has pulled this off before. Destiny was a mess at launch. The Taken King changed everything. Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 was a disaster that got rebuilt from the ground up into one of the best MMOs ever made. Turnarounds happen.

But those turnarounds happened under different economic pressures. The industry wasn’t watching every live-service launch like a referendum on whether the model is viable at all. Post-Concord, post-Highgard, every failure lands harder.

On April 9, Bungie posted on their official blog: “We are prepared to play the long game with Marathon.”

That’s a confident statement. The player count is not a confident chart.

The AAA Problem Nobody Wants to Say Out Loud

The deeper issue isn’t Marathon specifically. It’s that the AAA model — massive budgets, years-long development cycles, live-service-or-die monetization expectations — is increasingly incompatible with how people actually play games in 2026.

The same week Marathon’s numbers were sliding, Arc Raiders was generating buzz. Smaller scope. Tighter budget. Faster iteration. Legendary Drops made the connection directly: “Emboldened by the success of Arc Raiders, and given PlayStation’s history with marketing, the size of Marathon’s campaign, the full costs are likely $400m all in all. Most games, especially live service, are killed by shouldering the insane expectations of executive management.”

That last line is the one that should be framed on the wall of every publisher’s boardroom. Executive expectations — the assumption that a big enough budget and a big enough IP can force a game into cultural relevance — keep producing the same outcome. Concord had a huge budget and died in two weeks. Highgard had pedigree developers and lasted 45 days. Marathon has Bungie’s legacy and $250 million and is watching its Steam numbers erode week over week.

The $3.6 billion Sony paid for Bungie was supposed to buy PlayStation a live-service future. Right now, it’s bought them a cautionary tale they can’t afford to repeat.

The die-hard Marathon purists insisting the game shouldn’t change may get exactly what they want, when the servers shut down.

What do you think? Does Bungie have a real path forward, or are we watching the final chapter of one of gaming’s greatest studios play out in real time? Drop your take below.

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When genetic engineering nearly doomed the species, humanity made a desperate bargain: let the frontier do what nature intended. In a harsh universe, these cadets have to make impossible decisions. Read Space Fleet Academy today.

NEXT: Ashes of Creation’s $3.2 Million Collapse: The Most Damning Financial Document in MMO History

When Ashes of Creation shut down 52 days after its Early Access launch in February 2026, the gaming community had questions. Where did the money go? How does a game that raised $3.2 million on Kickstarter, sold 300,000 copies at $49.99 apiece, and attracted millions more in investor funding collapse before its first full year of operation?

YouTuber NefasQS answered those questions on April 11th by publishing what he describes as “the entire Intrepid Studios general ledger from 2015 to 2026,” a decade of financial transactions that paints, in his words, “a troubling picture of a company that was on the threshold of financial death at multiple points in its history.”

The document is public, and former CEO Steven Sharif, currently fighting multiple legal battles, says all of it is false.

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Final Fantasy XIV was once the comeback story of gaming. A catastrophically failed 1.0 launch became the foundation for one of the most beloved MMOs ever made, built on community goodwill, generous development philosophy, and storytelling that genuinely moved people. Now, as FanFest 2026 approaches in Anaheim on April 24-25, the game faces a crisis that no patch can fix.

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Blizzard revealed its much-hyped redesign of Overwatch’s newest hero Anran ahead of Season 2, and the result exposes the activist campaign demanding changes for exactly what it was: performative outrage that accomplished virtually nothing.

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One of the gaming community’s most prominent critics of progressive game design, Grummz, the online handle of former Blizzard developer Mark Kern, cut straight through the noise on X:

“It’s such a hard cope to claim you won with this change when all they changed was her expression and body stance. There is almost zero difference. They wanted older, uglier and Blizzard said nope.”

Kern’s read is accurate. Overwatch creative director Aaron Keller’s announcement confirmed the changes amounted to cosmetic tweaks with adjusted eyes for a more focused look, defined cheekbones and jaw, and raised eyebrows for a “more confident” appearance. The character’s design, body type, attractiveness, and youth remained completely intact. Blizzard gave the activists the language of change without delivering the substance of it.

The original controversy erupted when a vocal segment of the gaming community accused Anran of suffering from “Same Face Syndrome” - the criticism that Overwatch’s female heroes share identical facial structures regardless of their cultural backgrounds or character personalities. The criticism had a legitimate aesthetic component buried underneath the activist framing, but the loudest voices demanding the redesign weren’t primarily concerned with artistic variety. They wanted Anran made less conventionally attractive, older, and less feminine.

Blizzard didn’t deliver any of that. What they delivered was a PR exercise.

The voice actor Fareeha, who portrays Anran, had previously declared the criticism “a hill worth dying on,” lending the campaign credibility and momentum. Her enthusiasm for the redesign reveal was genuine: “Thank you so much for making this change, her new look is so STRIKING, and you all did so well, especially within the tech limitations at hand. I’m so happy and grateful this happened.”

Whether she actually examined the before-and-after images carefully is another question entirely.

Grummz knows Blizzard’s internal culture better than most commentators. As a former World of Warcraft developer who worked at the company during its peak creative years, his perspective carries weight that most gaming commentators lack. He built a substantial following on X precisely by identifying where activist pressure diverges from genuine fan interests - and the Anran situation fits that pattern perfectly.

The public comments on Blizzard’s announcement reflected the same divide Grummz identified. Many fans noted the minimal changes, while others claimed the redesign was dramatically different. The split response reveals how effective Blizzard’s strategy was: make small enough changes that the original design survives intact, but frame them loudly enough that activists can declare victory and move on.

This is increasingly the corporate playbook when dealing with progressive gaming activists. Full capitulation, as BioWare discovered with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, drives away the mainstream audience without satisfying the activist fringe. Blizzard found a more sophisticated middle path - acknowledge the complaint, announce a redesign, change almost nothing substantive, and let both sides argue about whether it counts.

Keller’s statement that Anran “didn’t fully land as the fiery and fierce sister of Wuyang that we hoped she would” was carefully worded to acknowledge criticism without conceding the activist framing. The team “focused on strengthening her overall presence,” language that sounds significant while describing changes barely visible without side-by-side comparison.

The activists who spent weeks declaring this “a hill worth dying on” didn’t win anything meaningful. Anran looks essentially the same. She remains young, conventionally attractive, and designed with the same aesthetic approach they criticized. The grandstanding produced raised eyebrows and very little else.

What do you think about game developers using announcement language to manage activist pressure without making substantive changes?

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NEXT: ‘God Of War’ Director David Jaffe Doubles Down On Calling ‘Crimson Desert’s’ Goblins Anti-Semitic

God of War director David Jaffe doubled on his accusation of antisemitism against Crimson Desert and specifically its depiction of goblins.

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Jaffe originally made the accusation in a post to X. He wrote, “Loving Crimson Desert. But...come on, Crimson Desert …this is some anti-Semitic [expletive] or at least it sure feels as such. Which hey, that’s your right. I support your right but I don’t gotta like it.”

“The nose, the job, the mission name, and Goldleaf may as well be Goldberg,” he added.

In a subsequent post, he wrote, “I understand twitter is the new 4chan, so I don’t really know what I expected when so often any comment beyond ‘THIS ROCKS!’ or ‘THIS SUCKS! is like discussing algebra with a Sea Monkey.”

“I also understand I didn’t say they should CANCEL Crimson Desert. I said I am LOVING it. And I am. It’s wonderful,” he continued. “But I also think their portrayal of the Goldleaf folks plays hard into antisemetic tropes. Agree, don’t agree. But it’s my take. And I don’t imagine it is intentional. But maybe it is. Who knows. Not me.”

“But even if it is intentional, that’s their right. I don’t agree with it and I don’t like it, intentional or not. But I support their right to express their views in their art. And that’s all I will say about it,” he concluded.

Alongside this, he shared Jon Stewart’s attack on Harry Potter and the depiction of goblins in the book.

Stewart infamously said back in 2021, “Here’s how you know Jews are still where they are. Talking to people, here’s what I say: Have you ever seen a Harry Potter movie? Have you ever seen the scenes in Gringotts Bank? Do you know what those folks who run the bank are? Jews! And they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s from Harry Potter.’ And you’re like, ‘No, that’s a caricature of a Jew from an anti-Semitic, piece of literature.’ J.K. Rowling was like, ‘Can we get these guys to run our bank?’ It’s a wizarding world… We can ride dragons, you can have a pet owl, but who should run the bank? Jews. Yeah, they look like Jews, but what if the teeth were sharper?”

He later added, “It was one of those things where I saw [the goblins] on the screen and I was expecting the crowd to be like, ‘holy shit, she did not in a wizarding world just throw Jews in there to run the [expletive] underground bank.’ And everybody was just like, ‘Wizards.’ It was so weird. Even Dobby was like, ‘That’s [expletive] up. Those are Jews.”

In a YouTube livestream he doubled down saying, “I’m just point out that, to me, that this kind of checks a lot of the boxes of [antisemitism].”

“And people, which I thought was so interesting, because this is kind of the narrative that you know when somebody has watched a streamer like an Asmongold or maybe even a JTSmash guy or whatever that has a decent enough following,” he continued. “You know that they’ve watched them because you get into these situations where they’re just parroting back the same thing. And what these guys are parroting back to me ad nauseum is that, ‘You’re the anti-Semitic, guy, because you see [a goblin as a Jew]. ‘I don’t see a Jew there. I just see a goblin. The fact that you would see that in a goblin is ridiculous. That means you are anti-Semitic.’”

“And so to that, I will say this: Certainly, to a guy who was raised Jewish and had a bar mitzvah, I’m not Jewish. I haven’t been Jewish since I was 7. But I was raised in a Jewish household. A lot of people will tell you that I am culturally Jewish, which is fine. My Dad was Jewish. My Mom was Baptist. She converted,” he went on. “But regardless, though, I can tell you that I’m not ignorant to the ways of anti-Semitism and certainly not where we are at in the culture right now.”

After going on a tangent about the state of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, he said, “The fact that some of these guys are like, 'Dude, it's a [expletive] goblin,' I'm sorry, you're just not smart enough to have a conversation with me. And I don't mean to be condescending about it.”

”Yes, I know it's a goblin. I understand it's a goblin,” he said. “And I also understand that there's a very high chance that people in Korea have just simply -. This has been inundated and this has been sort of concretized into our culture and they don't even know what the anti-Semitic tropes are about the goblin character.”

He later added, “Do I think they need to change this? No. But do I think this is a reflection of those antisemitic stereotypes? Yea, I do. So what? I don't like it. The more you know better, you do better. So maybe don't do it again if you have a problem with it. But people have to make something out of everything."

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Dive into The Immortal Edge by Jon Del Arroz where Imperial Special Agent Ayla Rin uncovers a deadly conspiracy tied to a revolutionary immortality spore held by ruthless space pirates, forcing her into a high-stakes race across the stars to stop sinister forces from erasing humanity forever.

NEXT: Data Miners Claim ‘World Of Warcraft’ Will Introduce A Pride Event In June

David Jaffe, the director for the original God of War, accused Crimson Desert of antisemitism for its depiction and portrayal of goblins.

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In a post to social media, Jaffe shared a screenshot of a goblin from the game along with a quest titled “The Flames of Greed.”

He commented, “Loving Crimson Desert. But...come on, Crimson Desert …this is some antisemetic [expletive] or at least it sure feels as such. Which hey, that's your right. I support your right but I don't gotta like it.”

“The nose, the job, the mission name, and Goldleaf may as well be Goldberg,” he added.

In a subsequent post, he wrote, “I understand twitter is the new 4chan, so I don't really know what I expected when so often any comment beyond 'THIS ROCKS!' or 'THIS SUCKS! is like discussing algebra with a Sea Monkey.”

“I also understand I didn't say they should CANCEL Crimson Desert. I said I am LOVING it. And I am. It's wonderful,” he continued. “But I also think their portrayal of the Goldleaf folks plays hard into antisemetic tropes. Agree, don't agree. But it's my take. And I don't imagine it is intentional. But maybe it is. Who knows. Not me.”

“But even if it is intentional, that's their right. I don't agree with it and I don't like it, intentional or not. But I support their right to express their views in their art. And that's all I will say about it,” he concluded.

Alongside this, he shared Jon Stewart’s attack on Harry Potter and the depiction of goblins in the book.

Stewart infamously said back in 2021, “Here’s how you know Jews are still where they are. Talking to people, here’s what I say: Have you ever seen a Harry Potter movie? Have you ever seen the scenes in Gringotts Bank? Do you know what those folks who run the bank are? Jews! And they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s from Harry Potter.’ And you’re like, ‘No, that’s a caricature of a Jew from an antisemitic piece of literature.’ J.K. Rowling was like, ‘Can we get these guys to run our bank?’ It’s a wizarding world… We can ride dragons, you can have a pet owl, but who should run the bank? Jews. Yeah, they look like Jews, but what if the teeth were sharper?”

He later added, “It was one of those things where I saw [the goblins] on the screen and I was expecting the crowd to be like, ‘holy shit, she did not in a wizarding world just throw Jews in there to run the [expletive] underground bank.’ And everybody was just like, ‘Wizards.’ It was so weird. Even Dobby was like, ‘That’s [expletive] up. Those are Jews.”

Fandom Pulse is reader-supported independent journalism. Paid subscribers get exclusive scoops and investigative reporting daily.

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Dive into The Immortal Edge by Jon Del Arroz where Imperial Special Agent Ayla Rin uncovers a deadly conspiracy tied to a revolutionary immortality spore held by ruthless space pirates, forcing her into a high-stakes race across the stars to stop sinister forces from erasing humanity forever.

NEXT: Data Miners Claim ‘World Of Warcraft’ Will Introduce A Pride Event In June

A new report claims that data miners have discovered that Blizzard will introduce a Pride event with Patch 12.0.5 in June.

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A report from Wowhead notes that Blizzard will create a Pride event titled the Darkspear Dash that will run from June 27th to the 29th.

The event will reportedly provide players with a Darkspear Dash Tabard, a Darkspear Dasher title, and other items like the Pocket Rainbow, Rainbow Runners, or Pocket Sand.

The event appears to institutionalize a player-run event called the Running of the Trolls that took place on the Feathermoon server and was used to raise money for the LGBTQ+ activist organization, The Trevor Project.

If this report is true, it is another piece of evidence that woke is not dead and it is being shoved into a once beloved game.

No World of Warcraft player of sound mind should engage with this content and event. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear, “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts’ are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

On top of this, Dr. Matthew Petrusek notes the harm the ideology causes to society, “A candid assessment of Pride reveals it to be either dictatorially arbitrary or fiendishly depraved. There is no amount of kaleidoscopic fanfare, corporate-sponsored enthusiasm, or coercively moralizing legislation that can wish this conclusion away. To embrace the Rainbow!™ necessarily entails embracing its shadow. Pretending otherwise, fantasizing that we can dethrone heterosexuality and reality-based biology as natural and normative without letting the full panoply of Pandora’s Box of perversion out into the world, is, itself, to be bigoted—against reason and the evidence of our own eyes.”

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Tired of woke sci-fi that preaches at you? Templar Drin wields deadly nanotech for a galactic empire—until he crash-lands on a brutal desert world ruled by a tyrannical alien overlord. Now, armed with faith and firepower, one rogue warrior must fight for justice, free the oppressed, and save souls in a war that spans stars and eternity.

If you crave old-school military sci-fi like Star Wars and Warhammer 40K with unapologetic Christian heart, Justified is your next addiction. Grab it now before the empire strikes back!”

NEXT: Rumor: Nintendo Is Developing A Remake Of 'The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time'

A new rumor alleges that Nintendo is developing a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

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Scooper Nate the Hate shared on his recent podcast, “What I can share with you today is that in the second half of 2026, approaching the holidays, if not the holidays, we are going to receive an Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2. “

“And this is something I was a bit hesitant about in January. I was like, ‘I don’t know if they would do a full remake.’ I thought maybe they would do a HD remaster. But, no, I’m hearing an Ocarina of Time Remake."

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was originally released in November 1998 for the Nintendo 64.

Between 2002 and 2003, the game was ported to the GameCube as part of The Legend of Zelda Collector’s Edition as well as the standalone Ocarina of Time/Master Quest.

In 2007, it was also released to the Wii through the eShop via direct emulation.

A remake was created for the Nintendo 3DS back in 2001. The remake featured updated 3D models, improved textures, stereoscopic 3D visuals, touchscreen inventory management, gyroscopic aiming, and quality-of-life improvements. It included both the remade game and an enhanced Master Quest.

An emulated version of the original Nintendo 64 game is also available for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 through the company’s Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription service.

The service allows players to play a curated library of over 150 classic Nintendo games that were originally released on Game Boy, Game Boy Color, NES, Super NES, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Virtual Boy, and SEGA Genesis.

It’s unclear if this will be a completely new remake or if it will see the Nintendo 3DS version made available for the Switch. The company has not made any 3DS games available for the Switch or Switch 2 through its Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

Fandom Pulse is reader-supported independent journalism. Paid subscribers get exclusive scoops and investigative reporting daily.

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Step into the dying deserts of Barsoom like never before. In Guns of Mars by Chuck Dixon, a thousand years after John Carter’s legendary arrival, a hard-bitten survivor named Kal fights for his life across a savage, crumbling Mars, where honor clashes with betrayal, ancient weapons meet desperate grit, and every step could be your last.

If you crave classic Edgar Rice Burroughs adventure with a raw, unflinching edge straight from the master of action comics, this pulse-pounding tale is your next must-read. Grab your copy today and ride the red sands!

NEXT: 'The Abased' Lead Director Reveals Giant New Details About The Game

William Shatner turned 95 today, and he is spending part of the occasion reminding people that Star Trek Online is still blocked.

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A fan posted one of STO’s promotional images on X featuring generic actors in Original Series uniforms. The implication was clear enough that the fan put it into words: “They replaced you.” Shatner’s reply was brief. “I couldn’t care less. They have been blocked for years.”

When someone else amplified the exchange, Shatner added a detail that raised eyebrows in the Star Trek gaming community: “They deleted their tweets to me from back then before CBS saw them and pulled their license.”

That is a sharper claim than his prior statements on the subject. In 2021, he told fans trying to broker peace: “Don’t bother. Not interested in Star Trek Online. They’ve been blocked for years.” In 2018 he was similarly blunt: “I don’t want anything to do with Star Trek Online. Thanks.”

The origin of the block traces back to STO’s 2010 launch period, when the game’s official Twitter account and a community manager known in the player community as “BranFlakes” made repeated attempts to recruit Shatner for voice work or promotional involvement, noting that other Trek actors had already participated. Leonard Nimoy had done narration for the game. The outreach apparently crossed from enthusiastic into something Shatner found pushy enough to block permanently. The original tweets are gone, which Shatner’s comment today suggests was not accidental.

No record of those deleted tweets has surfaced publicly. The STO community has treated the whole saga as a running inside joke for years, with Reddit threads periodically relitigating exactly what the community manager said and whether the unconscious Kirk simulation appearing in one of the game’s missions was coincidence or editorial commentary.

The current STO community manager has acknowledged the incident on record, noting the person responsible no longer works there and that the team regrets how it was handled.

It reads, on balance, like a miscommunication that calcified. An overeager community team pushed too hard on a celebrity who does not forget being pushed. Shatner’s claim about deleted tweets adds an edge of deliberateness to the original offense, but without those tweets nobody can know whether the STO account crossed a genuine line or simply annoyed the wrong person at the wrong time and then buried the evidence out of panic.

None of this touches the actual game, which has used only archival audio from the 1960s series for Kirk’s appearances and never obtained Shatner’s participation in any form.

The birthday itself is going well otherwise. Pluto TV is running an all-day Original Series marathon today alongside all six Kirk-era films. Shatner has reprised Kirk numerous times over the decades and celebrated his 95th birthday on March 22nd with a free Trek TV takeover on Pluto TV. He has said a return to the role is “an intriguing idea” and that if there were a genuine reason for the character to appear rather than a cameo, he might consider it.

At 95, still active on X and still holding grudges, Shatner remains exactly the figure his fans expect: Captain Kirk to the end, which means he does not back down and he does not forget.

What do you think? Was STO out of line, or has Shatner held this grudge long enough? Let us know in the comments.

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If the golden age of Trek and Babylon 5 left a hole in your sci-fi diet, The Stars Entwined fills it — interstellar espionage between two civilizations on the brink of war. Read The Stars Entwined on Amazon!

NEXT: The Downfall of Joss Whedon: A Cautionary Tale Of Hubris

A new report has revealed significant details about what Stellar Blade developer Shift Up’s next project will be.

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According to Need4Games, the South Korean developer is working on a turn-based game currently titled Project Spirits that is inspired by Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

The outlet’s Dante Alexandru stated, “multiple sources have been able to confirm to me that this game has become a Turn-Based with the main inspiration being Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It became so recently, at first, I was told that it was a PVE hunting title.”

Additionally, Alexandru claimed that the game is primarily being made by the company’s Chinese development team and “employees were not that excited about the game.”

The project was initially titled Project Witches and was revealed back in May 2024 during the company’s investor presentation. However, no details about the game were released at the time.

A month later in June 2025, and the company retitled it Project Spirits and shared on its website that it was its “new flagship project, a subcultureross-platform title that embraces the concept of ‘EASTERN Fantasy.’ As a new IP following ‘Stellar Blade’ and ‘NIKKE,’ it is currently in development as a top-tier quality game for the industry, building on SHIFT UP’s proven track record and expertise in IP creation demonstrated through previous projects.”

In November 2025, it was announced that the company signed a deal with Level Infinite, the global publishing brand for Chinese conglomerate Tencent to publish the game.

A press release from Level Infinite shared, “Project Spirits is a cross-platform game for PC, consoles, and mobile developed on Unreal Engine 5, through a co-development collaboration between SHIFT UP and Tencent’s affiliate, Yongxing Interactive. Yongxing Interactive is dedicated to creating top-quality games. Its core team consists of senior members from leading game companies specializing in ACG games, bringing together solid industry experience and development capabilities.”

The companies previously collaborated with Shift Up’s mobile game Goddess of Victory: Nikke.

No other official details about the game have been released.

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Dive into Space Fleet Academy: Year One, the bold, unapologetic sci-fi epic that’s the real answer to woke Starfleet Academy nonsense! Humanity’s future hangs by a thread and Earth’s elite Space Fleet Academy trains the next generation of officers to defend civilization against cosmic threats, alien dangers, and internal decay. The book explores high-stakes space battles, rigorous training, and timeless values of duty, honor, and human excellence.

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NEXT: Charlie Cox And Vincent D’Onofrio Address Theories About Foggy Nelson Being Alive In ‘Daredevil: Born Again’

An anonymous veteran developer for Ubisoft shared why he believes his the company is now hated not only by the public, but even within its own company.

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The anonymous veteran developer spoke with Game File’s Stephen Totilo and admitted that the failure starts at the top especially after multiple failures and studio closures.

“Not being able to identify and fix this pattern of spiraling developments is a failure from Ubisoft management,” the anonymous developer stated. “No one has taken responsibility for that failure today, and the consequences fall on development teams, through their internal dismantlement and, ultimately, layoffs. The top management walks away unscathed, questioning all but itself in this major reset.”

Some of the more prominent failures for the studio include Star Wars Outlaws, Prince of Persia, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The company shared that “Star Wars Outlaws initial sales proved softer than expected” in September 2024.

In October 2024, the company also admitted, “This quarter saw the release of Star Wars Outlaws, which underperformed sales expectations.”

As for Prince of Persia, the company announced in January it was scrapping a planned remake of The Sands of Time as well as five other games that were in development. The company said, “Ubisoft has discontinued 6 games that do not meet the new enhanced quality as well as more selective portfolio prioritization criteria at Group level. These include Prince of Persia The Sands of Time remake as well as 4 unannounced titles, including 3 new IP’s, and a mobile title.”

Additionally, the company announced that it relocated employees who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown after it failed to meet internal sales expectations. Ubisoft told the BBC in October 2024, “Most of the team members who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have shifted to other projects that will benefit from their expertise."

Regarding Assassin’s Creed Shadows the game sold approximately 4.3 million copies in its first seven months according to data from Alinea Analytics. That’s the lowest selling game in recent history with Mirage even besting it with 5 million sold.

At the end of last year the game’s Associate Game Director Simon Lemay-Comtois informed JorRaptor it would not deliver on a previously promised second DLC for the game, “We live in a murky world these days. So with the caveat that anything can happen in the future because as Mirage just proved and as the crossover stories from Odyssey to Valhalla also proved before it, things could come up in the future. But, as of now, at this moment, for year 2, there is no expansion on the size of Awaji that is planned currently.”

From there the veteran Ubisoft employee declared, “Ubisoft is now hated by a big part of the public for a decade of disappointing releases, hated by many of their own developers for years of mismanagement, hated by the market for its poor editorial and financial planning.”

“With this amount of frustration on all sides, it's tough to imagine Ubisoft making a big hit ever again… Tough but quite far from impossible,” he added.

Fandom Pulse is reader-supported independent journalism. Paid subscribers get exclusive scoops and investigative reporting daily.

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Dive into The Immortal Edge by Jon Del Arroz where Imperial Special Agent Ayla Rin uncovers a deadly conspiracy tied to a revolutionary immortality spore held by ruthless space pirates, forcing her into a high-stakes race across the stars to stop sinister forces from erasing humanity forever.

NEXT: Quentin Tarantino Responds To Rosanna Arquette Criticizing His Use Of The N-Word In His Movies

Twitch streamer Zack Hoyt aka Asmongold addressed parting ways with Mythic Talent, a talent company he co-founded back in 2023.

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Mythic Talent first announced the split over the weekend on March 7th. The company stated, “We have spoken with Asmongold and mutually agreed to part ways.”

“Mythic represents creators from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives, and we are committed to fostering an environment grounded in respect and responsibility,” it added. “We remain focused on supporting our creators and continuing our mission to help them build sustainable, long-term careers.”

During a live stream, Asmongold addressed the split saying, “Actually, kind of felt bad for Mythic. I did. So, basically what happened is that-. So I haven’t really been involved like really with Mythic for like quite awhile. But like they just put out a statement yesterday that are like, ‘Yeah, we’re not involved with Asmongold. He’s now, you know, apart of Mythic or anything like that.’”

“And again, they kinda of told me about this-. I don’t really give a [expletive]. I’ve said it before. … I am at the point where now of basically like I don’t give a [expletive] about any streamer stuff at all anymore. There is like five streamers that I care about, maybe 10, that like I give a [expletive] about and I think matter and like have an opinion or something like that that I think is worth considering. But other than that I really just don’t give a [expletive] anymore,” he said.

“I have gone through so much drama in the last five years. We all know the names, we know the problems, we know the situations, we know the players, and we know-,” he continued. “So I’ve been dealing with this [expletive] for a long, long time. Like there’s been so many of my friends getting canceled. Everything. And it’s exhausting to deal with. It really is. It’s like the rapture is happening all around me and people are just being gamojed away.”

He then reiterated, “I don’t really want to be involved with any of this any way. Like I haven’t been involved in any decision making at Mythic for like, I don’t know, probably over a year. … And I just want to move on totally. And that’s the way I feel. It’s really the truth.”

Asmongold also stated, “I would rather advocate for things that I think are really meaningful and important. Like I’ve drawn a lot of attention to, I think, the Iranians that are being killed regularly and I’ve talked about, for example, we’ll do the fundraiser for the bald eagles. And so why am I in a world where I’m worried what streamers that get like 200 or like 1,000 viewers think about me. Why would I want to be in that world? Why would I want to put myself in that position?”

“I find infinitely more willingness to collab with somebody who’s not on Twitch versus somebody who is,” he said. “One thing that I’ve learned about people who are on Twitch, in general, is that they are extremely sensitive to public sentiment. … Basically people on Twitch are a lot more sensitive in general.”

Asmongold was not the only one to split with Mythic Talent. Nicholas Light also indicated he was as well. He posted on X, “While on vacation for my 1 anniversary with my wife. Mythic Talent, my talent agency, has parted ways with me as well.”

In a subsequent post, he added, “If you watch my content, I barely had sponsors over the past few years. So this really isn’t much of a difference. But I find the timing of this hilarious.”

“They only want to work with liberals and creators with safe opinions now,” he wrote. “I don’t want to be associated with people that bend the knee. This isn’t a loss for me, it’s a win.”

Fandom Pulse is reader-supported independent journalism. Paid subscribers get exclusive scoops and investigative reporting daily.

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Dive into Space Fleet Academy: Year One, the bold, unapologetic sci-fi epic that’s the real answer to woke Starfleet Academy nonsense! Humanity’s future hangs by a thread and Earth’s elite Space Fleet Academy trains the next generation of officers to defend civilization against cosmic threats, alien dangers, and internal decay. The book explores high-stakes space battles, rigorous training, and timeless values of duty, honor, and human excellence.

If you’re tired of sanitized reboots and craving a fresh, no-holds-barred academy adventure that actually respects heroism and exploration, grab this book now.

NEXT: Alex Kurtzman Claims "Science Fiction Is Not Really About The Future, It's About Now"

In a dramatic turn of events that has reignited passions among Minecraft enthusiasts, the source code for the game’s beloved PS3 Edition from 2014 was leaked online by a disgruntled former employee

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After Mojang, the parent company of Minecraft, was bought by Microsoft, fans were suspicious that their favorite game would be turned into a bloated, poorly managed, and microtransaction-filled game.

The fans weren’t left destitute at the time. They were promised that the original game, now known as Minecraft Java Edition, would be free of microtransactions and managed by the original company. For a while, this worked.

Minecraft was divested into three versions: the original, now Java Edition, the console editions developed by 4J Studios, and Pocket Edition, first developed by Mojang and then by Microsoft. Both Java and console editions were almost entirely free of any microtransactions. It was a one-time purchase for a functioning game. Pocket Edition, however, was not free of microtransactions and didn’t run well. It was a terribly running mobile game that Microsoft was moving to be the flagship version of Minecraft because it could run on anything and be filled with microtransactions.

And, earlier in February, Minecraft released a woke and degenerate black history month DLC that was quickly rejected by fans and majorly backfired on Microsoft because many children began killing and torturing the in-game civil rights leaders.

This was all well and good at the time, though. Those on Consoles had a version of the game that ran well, and computer players could play Java Edition. This all changed in 2019 when the console Editions were discontinued and replaced with Pocket Edition, now known as Bedrock Edition. Microsoft had killed the beloved console versions so they could achieve brand synergy and insert microtransactions into the most popular form of the game.

The console community slowly died out as their versions of the game ceased to be updated and became increasingly inaccessible. Console players were forced onto Bedrock Edition as the alternative that Microsoft wanted to replace the console editions of the game. But Bedrock was buggy and full of microtransactions.

This was the state of the community for the last six years as Minecraft became a more bloated game with cash-grab spinoffs and buttons for the marketplace and spending money getting conspicuously bigger than even the settings button. Microsoft was truly showing that all that they cared about was money. When you shrink a basic feature of the game in favor of microtransactions, it means that you hate the consumers and only care about money.

Then, on February 28th, everything changed when a disgruntled ex-4J Studios employee leaked the game's source code onto 4chan in a post saying, “Because Microsoft has ruined a beautiful game.”

The news quickly broke on X that the source code for Minecraft PS3 Edition in 2014 had leaked. This was quickly followed by modders sharing, copying, reading, and even modding the files.

The Minecraft modding community quickly got the game up and running on PC as a fully functioning game, now dubbed by the community as Minecraft Windows Edition. The release of the Minecraft source code files has led to an old, nearly inaccessible version of the game being free and available to fans and modders alike.

Neither Microsoft nor Mojang has responded to date as of March 4th, 2026.

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NEXT: Pop Culture Pundit Grace Randolph Praises ‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ As A Progressive Show After Race-Swapping Ser Bennis

Video game developer Calyxir and its Lead Director Gregory have shared giant new details about its upcoming Biblically-inspired game, The Abased.

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Earlier this week, the company revealed the game in an announcement trailer. It showed that players will take on the role of Elyhias, an individual suffering from leprosy, as he confronts mighty giants who are threatening early human civilizations.

Seemingly inspired by by David’s defeat of Goliath, Elyhias takes on the giants armed with a slingshot.

Fandom Pulse spoke with Calyxir’s Gregory, who is the Lead Director on the project, to find out more about the game’s story, the character of Elyhias, and find out more about the game’s gameplay.

Fandom Pulse (FP): What can you tell us about the game's story? From the trailer and Steam page we'll play a leper named Elyhias as he takes on a number of giants, but what is motivating him to do so?

Gregory: Elyhias is a man marked by afflictions, the most visible being leprosy. Because of that, he is cast out of his home city and forced into exile. After years of wandering around the great desert in search of healing, he eventually arrives at the city where the events of the game begin.

There he is offered a chance at atonement and cleansing before his body fully succumbs to abasement. In exchange, he is tasked with confronting the resurgent giants that are beginning to stir across the land.

FP: Why did you decide to make Elyhias a leper to begin with?

Gregory: We wanted to portray a man who is truly abased, someone pushed to the margins of society in the world of that time. Leprosy was one of the clearest ways to represent that condition.

We are drawn to stories that begin at the very bottom, where a character must face overwhelming hardship in order to seek redemption. (One of my personal favorites in that regard is The Count of Monte Cristo.)

FP: Can you explain how his leprosy affects gameplay, it looks like you can reduce it by visiting a well. How does that mechanic work?

Gregory: Wells will indeed be a key part of the leprosy mechanic, but they are not the only element connected to it. Leprosy is the most visible sign of Elyhias’ affliction, but it also manifests as a gradual weakening of his body, which is why you can notice a slight limp in the way he moves.

The progression of the disease and the physical impairment it causes can be delayed or temporarily reduced through acts of cleansing, with wells being a key place where Elyhias can slow that decline.

That said, the goal is not to make the gameplay frustrating. The system is designed more to calibrate the experience and reflect the character’s struggle, while still keeping the combat and movement responsive and enjoyable.

FP: You're describing the game as Biblically-inspired. Obviously, there's the David and Goliath reference with Elyhias using a slingshot and taking on giants, but is there more to it than that?

Gregory: The David and Goliath motif is certainly one of the most recognizable inspirations, especially with the sling and the giants, but the influence goes beyond that. The main inspiration is really the world itself.

Instead of the typical medieval European fantasy setting, the game takes place in a semi-desert, antediluvian inspired landscape that reflects the atmosphere and cultural tone often associated with Biblical narratives.

At the same time, it’s important to note that the story does not take place in the real Biblical world. It is our own fictional setting, simply inspired by the themes, environments, and worldview found in the Bible, where life unfolds along somewhat similar lines.

There are also other narrative and visual references. Elyhias’ affliction with leprosy echoes the trials of Job. We also reference the story of Samson through the symbolic importance of hair, feature a great ziggurat inspired by the Tower of Babel, and use the rainbow as a sign of peace. In our world it represents a covenant between humans and giants, who can be seen helping a shepherd in the fields. This was our way of showing that not every giant in the game is meant to be an enemy to slay.

Oh, and the donkey is not accidental either.

FP: The Steam page says there will be other enemies other than giants, can you talk about those?

Gregory: One scene in the trailer actually shows Elyhias dealing with a small group of human opponents, so giants will not be the only challenge in the game. We cannot reveal much more about the other enemies just yet.

FP: Will there be any kind of in-game political intrigue, the lore section on Steam indicates that there are wars and disputes. How might these affect Elyhias' mission and journeys?

Gregory: The cities surrounding the great desert have their own politics and complex relationships with one another. One of the consequences of poor leadership and neglected responsibilities is the failure to properly maintain the role of the Abasers, which in turn allows the giants to resurface and their unrest to grow once again.

At the same time, a mysterious instigator is quietly fueling the risk of a larger conflict. Beyond that, we cannot reveal much more just yet.

FP: One thing that stood out to me is that the more giants that are killed the more powerful the ones remaining become, will this be reflected in gameplay?

Gregory: This is a mechanic we have to approach very carefully so that both the narrative and gameplay remain consistent. Because of that, we cannot reveal the exact details yet, as the system may still evolve during development.

What we can say is that the traditional role of the Abasers was not to kill giants, but to remove their hair. Elyhias, however, will be able to choose between killing a giant or merely stripping it of its hair - and those decisions will have consequences.

FP: I would assume one of the more difficult challenges is making the giants unique not only in design, but also in how they act and fight, how did you all manage that?

Gregory: Creating visual and narrative uniqueness for the giants is actually not the hardest part, because there are countless sources of inspiration to draw from. The real challenge lies in designing the gameplay mechanics around them.

Our goal is to make sure both the sling and the blades have their own meaningful stages of use in combat, and that encounters do not feel like simple copy-paste fights with each giant. Because of that, refining these mechanics is one of the very first and most important areas we focus on, and we keep testing and iterating on them until the result feels right.

FP: Can you talk about the various weapons that will be at your disposal? Is there an upgrade mechanic of any sort? Different types of stones?

Gregory: When it comes to melee weapons, we prefer to leave those details for later, as Elyhias’ signature weapon is the sling.

Slings themselves come in different forms and have different parameters, and the same goes for the types of projectiles they can use. In the game we currently show stunning projectiles, scatter projectiles that can be useful against small groups of enemies or when accuracy is reduced due to Elyhias’ progressing blindness, and explosive projectiles, which can be seen in the final scene of the trailer.

There are also additional types of ammunition, but we will leave those for a later reveal.

FP: From the trailer, most of the encounters with the Giants appear to be straight-up charge-in encounters, but in the details on Steam it implies that you might be able to set ambushes and traps as you track down and hunt them. How do these encounters work?

Gregory: Too early to reveal.

FP: It looks like there are a variety of different climates and locations, can you share more details about that? How big is the world and what does traveling within it look like?

Gregory: The game takes place in the lands surrounding a great city, the one marked by the massive ziggurat, which stands at the edge of a vast desert. These are the first regions threatened by the returning giants, and where the events of the game unfold. They were once the domain of The Mighty themselves, their former kingdom many generations ago.

We aim for a strong sense of variety within that setting, while still staying grounded in semi-desert landscapes inspired by Biblical environments. As for the full scale of the world and the details of traveling through it, that is something we are not ready to reveal just yet.

FP: Is there a traditional starting area and then you advance to more difficult areas or will the game adapt to where you choose to explore first? Or is there a quest system that guides you on what missions and giants you should take on? One of the more intriguing gameplay details on the Steam page is the idea that the world reacts to imbalance, can you share more details on how that works? Is it primarily Elyphias’ soul or is it also among the peoples of the world?

Gregory: The city where the game takes place is not as ruthless toward lepers as Elyhias’ home city, from which he was coldly exiled. Still, being unclean carries real consequences, and not every place is open to him.

Some locations can only be entered after full cleansing, some after partial cleansing, and others remain completely inaccessible to the unclean. That is where the leprosy mechanic and the idea that “the world rejects the unclean” truly make a difference in how the player progresses through the world.

FP: What is your favorite part of the game?

Gregory: In the equipment scene you can notice several grasshopper-like insects resting on Elyhias. As we mentioned earlier, the third and most brutal affliction is being possessed by feral instinct. We cannot give a full explanation yet without spoilers, but if we had to describe it in one word, it would be: locust.

FP: Aside from working on The Abased, are there any games you would recommend?

Gregory: We love Gothic series, Shadow of Mordor and Fable.

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Experience Jon Del Arroz’s The Saga of the Nano Templar series, where elite warrior Templar Drin, wielding lethal nanotech, turns his back on the galactic empire’s endless holy wars after grappling with the true price of “justice”—only to crash-land on a harsh desert planet dominated by tyrannical aliens who enslave its inhabitants.

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NEXT: 'Highguard' To Shut Down On March 12th Due To Poor Player Base

Wildlight Entertainment announced that it will shut down its game Highguard later this month.

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In a post to social media, the company announced, “We have made the decision to permanently shut down Highguard on March 12.”

As for why, the company explained, “Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term. Servers will remain online until March 12th. We hope you’ll jump in with us one more time to show your support and get those final great matches in while we still can.”

The company did add that it did attract more than 2 million players to the game after it launched.

According to SteamDB, the game hit a peak concurrent player count of 97,249 when it was released back in January. That player count rapidly declined with the most recent 24-hour peak only hitting 460.

The game followed nearly the same lifecycle as Firewalk Studios’ Concord despite Wildlight deveelopers claiming that would not be the case back in January.

Concord released back in August 2024 and failed to break 700 concurrent players on Steam. Less than two weeks after its release Sony announced it was shutting the game down and refunding people who purchased it. The game was officially shut down on September 6th and then by the end of October, Sony shut down the game’s developer Firewalk Studios.

Wildlight developers including the company’s co-founder and CEO Dusty Welch as well as Game Director Chad Grenier claimed Highguard would not follow in Concord’s footsteps while making all the same claims that Concord developers made.

Grenier admitted to Variety that the game’s trailer did not help its cause, “I think we do have a very unique game that is unlike anything else out there on the market, and we’re really excited about it. Our trailer didn’t highlight that well, and we’ll own that.”

“But at the end of the day, we’re really excited just to get the game out on Monday and let it speak for itself, because I think that there is quite a bit there, as you’ve seen today, that is unexpected and new and refreshing,” he continued. “And there’s a lot of innovation in the game that wasn’t conveyed well in that one trailer.”

Welch added that he wished the “sentiment had been a little bit better” but acknowledged that “there’s a lot of awareness for the game and for people to show up on 1/26 and play it.”

Firewalk Studios developers made similar comments ahead of the game’s release. The company’s Director of IP Kim Kreines told VGC, “Yeah, that trailer. That moment is such a tiny slice of everything that we’ve been working on for years and years. We’re excited for the game and for the IP, [and] for the game to be in people’s hands, the IP to be in people’s minds.”

“I’m personally very excited for the IP for folks to delve into the galactic guide if that is something they choose to do, for these vignettes to come out on a weekly basis. You’ll start to fall in love with the depth of the characters. That’s something that you learn week to week. Their personalities will unfold, their relationships will unfold for you, their backstories. None of that is something that you can get in a tiny little slice of it.”

“But that’s a start,” Kreines added. “There’s something there. So I’m glad folks watched it. I’m glad they participated and I can’t wait for them to see more, to see everything that is there.”

Speaking specifically to how Highguard is different from Concord, Grenier said, “Concord specifically, they were not a free game. So one thing that we’re hopeful for is that being a free game, people will show up and see that our game is actually locked on, and stick around. We can grow that player base over time.”

He also noted that the team composition is different, “It’s 3v3, so it doesn’t take hundreds of people to start a match, which is in our favor.”

Welch also claimed that they have no plan on shutting the game down, “What we’re confident in is that we’re not going anywhere. We’re not going away. We as a team have a lot of experience in building franchises that have staying power. And this one, as Chad alluded to, we have a year’s worth of content that’s near completion that is going to engage an audience for quite a bit of time.”

“So we’re excited to be able to bring that. We have the experience, but that said, we’re humbled, and we hope people love this — but we’re ready to engage with them,” he added.

Concord’s Lead Character Designer Jon Weisnewski made similar comments to PC Gamer as well, “Insanely proud of the game, we’re strapped in and ready to push it for years to come.”

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NEXT: Woke Activists Accuse Gamers Of Misogyny After Balking At Rumored Female-Centric 'God Of War' Game

Numerous woke activists accused games of misogyny after they balked at a new rumored female-centric God of War game.

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A now-deleted LinkedIn bio for former Sony Interactive Entertainment Senior Writer Lauren Signorino originally revealed that Sony was working on at least one spinoff for its God of War franchise.

Her profile stated that she “helped shape narrative vision and creative direction at Sony Santa Monica Studios for a new franchise within the God of War universe, developing characters, storylines, and original lore that expanded the acclaimed IP.”

“Integrated story with gameplay and worldbuilding through scripts and narrative content, collaborating across disciplined to deliver emotionally driven experiences for a global audience. Contributed to long-term narrative and franchise strategy,” she wrote on her now deleted LinkedIn profile.

After this, leaker NateTheHate2 claimed that the company was developing a game “set within the God of War universe & the lead character will be Faye. Gameplay is said to differ from the Norse God of War games with more of a focus on action.”

“Current plan: Reveal this year/release first half 2027 - barring any delay,” he added.

Faye or Laufey the Just was a Jötunn warrior and the second wife of Kratos and the mother of Atreus in the God of War Norse saga.

Before her death, she instructs Kratos to cremate her body and then scatter her ashes atop the highest peak of the Nine Realms, which is in Jötunheim, and leads to the events of the 2018 game.

The character was voiced and modeled after Deborah Ann Woll.

Following this numerous gamers balked at the idea of the franchise having a female lead. In response to this a number of woke activists accused them of being misogynistic.

X user TNCarly_ wrote, “The fact some people are actually mad about Faye possibly being the protagonist in the next God of War project is insane to me - and I feel like it proves what people have been saying for years about misogyny in gaming.”

“Faye isn't just a random side character being forced to the front. She's a giant. She defied Odin, protected her people and set pretty much the entire Norse saga in motion. She chose Kratos and raised Atreus. The last two games happened because of her choices,” the user wrote. “But to some people, none of that matters. It doesn't matter how justified she is, how central she is to the lore or how much narrative potential she has - she isn't a grizzly man with a beard, so it's ‘pandering’.

”These are the same people that claim to care about the integrity of a story whilst ignoring the character who is arguably the foundation of it. If the rumours are true, I’m personally excited to see it play out and get deeper context for the decisions she made before everything unfolded,” she concluded.

In a response, the user attempted to explain what she meant when she accused gamers of misogyny, “To be clear, I'm also not saying that it's misogynistic to simply prefer to play as a man, it's a nuanced and very intense topic.

“My post is in response to people who do simply take issue with it being a woman and make hateful comments because of that,” TNCarly_ added.

Another individual wrote, “As expected, total meltdown across twitter at the thought of playing a female led God of War game. Faye is an absolute badass who also gave Kratos his axe and Atreus his bow. Grow up and stop being afraid of women.”

Another maligned gamers, “Anyone moaning about the potential Faye God of war game can suck my alls in all honesty. you [expletive] are all virgins who just aren't happy when a woman is the main character. Faye has insane potential gameplay wise as the MC”

Another wrote, “the amount of crying we're about to get over a female led God of War game will be generational.”

Betrigan wrote, “This tweet has made me realize how many gamers are misogynistic. We know nothing of this supposed game except that you play as Faye and people are trashing it because…Faye is a woman. It’s 2026, how are we still like this.”

He then explained, “We have seen nothing of the game. We don’t know the title. All we know is it’s being done by a different team and features Faye. We know nothing outside of that. So yes, saying it’s an awful game when all we know is it features Faye is pretty damn misogynistic.”

While there are numerous responses countering these claims, one of the major issues is the fact that there is an obvious agenda to not only push feminism that wants to subjugate men, but also to descend further down the slippery slope to where women can become men and vice versa.

One of the most obvious examples of this agenda is The Last Jedi. Bishop Barron explained that the film has an “aggressively feminist ideology” that elevate “all-conquering female” while depicting male characters as “bumbling, incompetent, arrogant, or morally compromised.” In contrast, the female characters are “wise, good, prudent, and courageous.”

Furthermore, the film replaced Luke Skywalker with Rey. Other examples include the recently released Ghost of Yotei, the 2016 Ghostbusters film, Terminator: Dark Fate, and the numerous sex swaps in the Marvel Cinematic Universe including Taskmaster, Ghost, Mar-Vell, Ajak, Flag Smasher, Sprite, and The Ancient One.

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Dive into The Immortal Edge by Jon Del Arroz where Imperial Special Agent Ayla Rin uncovers a deadly conspiracy tied to a revolutionary immortality spore held by ruthless space pirates, forcing her into a high-stakes race across the stars to stop sinister forces from erasing humanity forever.

NEXT: Sandy Petersen Explains Why Video Game Developers Aren't Pandering To The 2.6 Billion Christians In The World