Marvel Snap received heavy praise during a GDC titled "The Year in Free-to-Play" where Visible Entertainment founder Dave Rohri stated it had restored growth in the CCG genre.

The talk, which has been a mainstay for numerous years now, points to important lessons and developments in the last 12 months within the video game industry. Marvel Snap was held high as a great example of the ample space for innovation and room for growth in the CCG space.

According to their own personal analysis, Marvel Snap is making $300,000 a day, even with limited microtransactions compared to other titled on the mobile market.

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It’s completely absurd that the best part of twenty years have chundered along since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out. I barely feel old enough to have fully formed memories of doing things that long ago. But yes, fine, calendars don’t lie, and it really has been seventeen years, three console generations, and an entire global pandemic between the time that Oblivion first graced our monitor screens… and now.

It’s difficult to remember just how different the gaming landscape was back then. With the Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PS3 still months away from launch (and the latter stumbling its way out of the birth canal on a wave of bad PR), the Red Ring saga yet to hit Microsoft in the pocket, and Don Mattrick still working in relative obscurity at Electronic Arts, the Xbox brand was a serious, solid contender in the console space. It had beaten its contenders onto shelves by a full year, and by March 2006, the stage had been set for Next Gen to truly start.

Which it did. Despite Kaz Hirai’s flippant insistence that Sony, and Sony alone, would decide when the next generation starts, what actually kicked it off was a little game called The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, in what would be a watershed moment not just for Bethesda Softworks, but for RPGs in general.

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EA has shared the first Star Wars Jedi: Survivor story trailer, finally confirming the return of Merrin and Greez Dritus.

We've all been asking "where the hell are Greez and Merrin?" for a long while now, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's latest trailer has finally shown them off, even if we didn't see too much of Greez. Unsurprisingly, the tone of the trailer is on the darker side (pun not intended), with Cal Kestis trying to survive against the backdrop of the Empire. "The dark times are closing in as Cal Kestis seeks out a safe haven far from the reach of the Empire," reads the trailer's description. "Follow Cal and his crew's increasingly desperate fight as the galaxy descends further into darkness."

The game picks up five years after the events of the first one, presenting an older Cal, who now has a bit more experience under his belt. You can see in the trailer that he won't be the only Force user in the galaxy, including Merrin, who it looks like you'll be teaming up with. There's some gameplay in the trailer too, and it looks like you might be able to pull off some unique moves alongside some of your companions.

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Diablo 4 had its first beta over the weekend, and aside from some server issues, it also seems like players aren't feeling too confident about the procedural maps.

Like the third game, Diablo 4 has procedurally generated dungeons, as part of making the game replayable. In theory, that could work, if the way dungeons are generated produces interesting enough maps so as to not feel repetitive. Unfortunately, some players that got their hands on the beta this past weekend don't seem entirely happy with how things are currently shaping up (thanks, PCGamesN). A thread on Diablo 4's unofficial subreddit has players talking about some of things they don't like, with the original poster sharing a screenshot of how similar the various map layouts look.

As shared in the screenshot of nine different dungeon runs, most of them do have a pretty similar layout, with you always starting from the bottom of the map, and the boss always being in the middle. "Farming is too easy with predictable dungeons and they get boring after just a few runs," wrote the original user behind the thread.

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Bandai Namco has released some stats for Elden Ring, and unsurprisingly, everyone fought a whole lot of bosses, and died a ridiculous amount of times.

It's been over a year since we all stepped into The Lands Between, and it turns out, we all died a lot, as shared by Bandai Namco to celebrate the game's anniversary. "How much could we have died?" you might be asking me. "Surely it can't be that much? A few million perhaps?" Wrong. Over the past year, collectively we have died nine billion times. To add a little perspective to that, the global population is currently estimated to be a bit under eight billion. Essentially, we all died enough that if there were actually that many deaths, no one in the world would be left, and then some.

Some interesting stats were paired with those nine billion deaths, specifically with causes of death. The lowest amount was from other players, at just 2%, probably not too surprising as many do just play it as a single-player title. Falling to your death is a classic way to die, but only 14% of deaths were caused by falling, with 15% being a result of status effects like scarlet rot or poison. The biggest leading cause of death by far is from enemies, NPCs, and bosses, for a grand total of 69% (nice).

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Sonic Frontiers is getting its first bit of DLC later this week, bringing the Sights, Sounds, and Speed of the Stafall Islands update to the game for free.

Shortly after the game was released, SEGA announced that Sonic Frontiers would be receiving three rounds of DLC some time in 2023, all of which would be released for free. In an email sent to players, SEGA has now confirmed that the first free update, Sights, Sounds, and Speed will be out later this week, March 23 (thanks VGC). No specific details were provided in the email, though the name matches the first update shown off in the roadmap.

This first update will include a jukebox mode, likely one that just lets you listen to any of the music in the game, a photo mode, which is pretty self explanatory, and new challenge modes, which based on the image shown in the roadmap will be more challenges for each of the levels you can play in the game.

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First reported by the folk over at PCGamer, it appears that Steam users may be able to take ‘game notes’ via the gaming platform in future. SteamDB Creator and dataminer Pavel Djundik shared the discovery to Twitter, saying that game notes “will be available in the Steam library, and on the web.”

A ‘game notes’ system could, really, be anything. However, what most of us imagine is a way to easily take notes while playing a game, without the need to necessarily tab out. Think to when you’re bringing up the Steam overlay to invite a friend to a game, but you have your own personal notepad, too.

Of course, that’s simply my own insinuation as to what a ‘game notes’ system could consist of. It might be entirely different, and it might not happen at all. If it was introduced, I know it would definitely make my time solving puzzles in an array of games much easier. No longer will I be scrambling to find a working pen and blank sticky-note to jot down that code or dialogue combination.

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It’s safe to say that Capcom’s marketing for Resident Evil 4 Remake is well under way. After a horde of stellar reviews were shared last week, declaring the remake a complete success (our own 5/5 review included), Capcom has more under its sleeve to get players excited.

Capcom, of course, knows full well the chokehold that Resident Evil 4 has over its fans, both old and new. As such, a short, but sweet anime trailer for the game has been released showing off fan-favourite characters in a more charming, whimsical scenario (thanks, Kotaku). It certainly makes that quiet, parasite-ridden Spanish village look a lot more inviting.

This anime trailer comes with a lengthy title — ‘Resident Evil 4 Anime PV Resident Evil Masterpiece Theater - “Leon and the Mysterious Village” EP 1’ — and a short, 56 second run-time, and is well worth the minute of your time.

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The iconic Let Me Solo Her is back, this time with a new challenge: one that makes every enemy in Elden Ring Malenia.

Anyone that's managed to get to Malenia has probably heard the line, "I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella," way more times than they can count on several hands. She's a damn tough boss, and unless you're the legendary Let Me Solo Her, you're not gonna beat her without breaking a sweat. Let Me Solo Her decided that they were done with helping out the general public a little while ago, moving on to new pastures. But now, they've decided to stream a version of the game that sounds like hell for most, as they've been streaming Elden Ring, except every enemy is now Malenia.

When I say every enemy has been turned into Malenia, I mean every. Single. Enemy. Some random soldier patrolling at the start of the game? Malenia. Margit, the Fell Omen? Malenia, the Fell Omen. Watching the VOD above you can see that, understandably, Let Me Solo Her opted to not fight any of the Malenia's they came across, though of course does face off against compulsory bosses.

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The closed beta for Diablo 4 kicked off this weekend, but server stability issues have plagued many - thankfully, Blizzard has released a hotfix to help out.

If you're one of the many, many people that have been trying to play Diablo 4 this weekend, without much success, you're not alone. There have been some seriously lengthy queue times, stopping a lot of players from being able to actually play the thing. In particular, console players were struggling, with some just being unable to get through the queues. But an update has now been released, which is "targeted at fixing and improving the queue issues."

"Here to share updates on the latest hotfix that was pushed earlier this evening," wrote community manager filthierich about the update. "The hotfix contains updates to improve server stability issues. We included an update that is targeted at fixing and improving the queue issues console players have reported on since the early access launch."

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The Wii U and Nintendo 3DS eShops are both shutting down at the end of this month, so YouTuber Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil's solution was to buy them all.

Last year, Nintendo made the unfortunate decision to shut down the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS eShops, and that date is almost upon us. From March 27, you won't be able to buy any games from either online storefront, though you will be able to download any that you have previously purchased. There's a whole heap of problems there, one of them being that up to 1000 digital-only games will just completely disappear when this happens. So of course, that left Khalil with one option: buy them all (thanks, VGC).

To put this into perspective, that's 886 Wii U games, adding up to 1.2TB in storage size, and $9,673 (£7943) in cost , and 1547 3DS games, DSiWare, and DLC, making up 267GB in storage size, and $13,118 (£10,772) in cost. That's a grand total of $22,791, or £18,715, an absolutely heft sum of money.

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The first season of HBO's The Last of Us wrapped up just last week, but you shouldn't expect the second second season until at least 2024.

Last week the live action adaptation of The Last of Us finished, bringing back all those debates about the games ending once again, and obviously leaving things a bit uncertain between Joel and Ellie. Of course, anyone that's played the second game knows how things go (not great, arguably), but things could always play out slightly differently in the show's take on The Last of Us Part 2. According to Bella Ramsey, though, we shouldn't expect to see the second season until the end of 2024 at the earliest.

Speaking about the show on the Jonathon Ross show (via The Independent), Ramsey shared when they believe we should expect to see season two. "It will be a while. I think we’ll probably shoot at the end of this year, beginning of next," shared Ramsey. "So it’ll probably be the end of 2024, early 2025."

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Disney's take on Mario Kart, Disney Speedstorm, is finally launching into early access next month, April 18.

Those that regularly play Mario Kart and feel there just aren't enough cartoon mice that epitomise capitalism will be happy to hear that Disney Speedstorm is almost here, as the game's official Twitter announced you'll be able to head to the race tracks from April 18. The game will be available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, and will be free-to-play whenever it receives its full launch, but to play it in early access you'll need to purchase one of the game's founder packs.

The standard founder's pack is the cheapest way to get early access, but in turn it obviously offers less bang for your buck. With this pack you get to play the early access release, as well as have Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck unlocked, alongside one racer of your choice - plus a couple of bonus exclusive founding member racing suits for Mickey, Donald, and whichever racer you choose. And there's the usual live service affair too, like 4000 tokens (the in-game currency), and a couple of golden pass credits.

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We might not be getting a new Hitman for a while, but IO Interactive does have a James Bond game on the way, and has shared a few more details.

IO Interactive's Bond game was first announced almost three years ago, and we haven't really heard much about it since then. The studio also recently shared that Hitman is on a bit of a hiatus, at least in terms of a new game. But in an interview with Eurogamer though, chief creative officer and co-owner of IO Interactive Christian Elverdam and fellow co-owner Hakan Abrak have shared some new details on the upcoming Bond game, mostly to do with how they approached building an origin story, and pitching the story in the first place.

"First of all, it's extremely awe-inspiring and literally just inspiring to work with the team at Eon [Productions], the people who are behind everything Bond," Elverdam said, going on to note how he's "used to defending Agent 47," in terms of how other people might want to adapt the Hitman series (the games have received more than one film adaptation, none of which being hugely well received).

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If you're wondering how long you'll need to set aside for Final Fantasy 16, a new interview confirmed it will take about 35 hours.

In a new interview with Famitsu, Final Fantasy 16's director Hiroshi Takai and producer Naoki Yoshida shared their estimated playtime for the next entry in the classic series, setting it at around 35 hours (translations from aitaikimochi, thanks IGN). And for the completionists out there, it sounds like you'll have around 70-80 hours of gameplay to get through, according to Yoshida himself.

"If you want to master and level up all abilities, gather all accessories, do all the side quests, and fight all the monster hunts, you’re probably looking at about 70~80 hours of gameplay," said Yoshida. The producer noted that there's also an incredibly difficult New Game+ mode called the "Final Fantasy Mode," which lets you carry over all of your stats, adding even more hours to the final count.

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You're reading that right, Persona 5 is being released again, this time as a mobile and PC game, though it stars a new cast of characters.

If I had a nickel for every time that Persona 5 was released again, I don't even know how many nickels I'd have because it's happened so many times. I do know I'd have another one though, as Persona 5: The Phantom X was just revealed, an adaptation of specifically the fifth entry in the series coming to iOS, Android, and Windows. There is potentially a bit of a catch though, as currently there's no word on a release for the game outside of China.

As reported by IGN, the spin-off will receive a playtest that kicks off March 29 in China, and is apparently a full on sequel to the original game. This time you'll be playing as a new group of Phantom Thieves (sorry to those that love the original crew), and will have "desire" as its main theme. Being a mobile game, it will be free-to-play with in-app purchases, though how those will manifest isn't clear just yet.

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This is an interesting weekend for folks, especially if they like Diablo.

Those with keys can jump into the Diablo 4 Early Access beta this weekend - if they can get in: the queues are mighty long. But Blizzard is working to remedy that, so hopefully, more people will be able to get into Sanctuary soon. Until then, some of us will have to be patient.

Connor Makar, Staff Writer - Diablo 4 Beta

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The European Commission will decide on whether to approve or deny Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard on May 22.

Originally scheduled for April, the decision was delayed so that the commission is able to review more feedback from Microsoft's rivals and customers before deciding one way or the other, per Reuters.

This will also give Microsoft time to offer its games and Activision Blizzard titles to other services. It most recently made a deal with streaming companies Boosteroid and Ubitus which will see games from both companies arrive on the services.

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Prolific actor Lance Reddick passed away on Friday, March 17, from natural causes at the age of 60.

His passing was confirmed to Yahoo News by Mia Hansen, his representative at Portrait PR, who stated he would be "greatly missed."

Best known for his role in the John Wick films as Charon, the concierge at The Continental, Reddick starred in many motion pictures and television series. Movies include Angel has Fallen, Godzilla vs King Kong, I Dreamed of Africa, White House Down, and many others. Roles on television include Lost, Oz, The Wire, as Albert Wesker in the short-lived Resident Evil series on Netflix, and more. He also lent his voice to various series in the animation genre.

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Return to Silent Hill, the film based on the Silent Hill 2 game from Konami, has started casting actors for the movie.

According to Deadline, the Christophe Gans directed film will star Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) and Hannah Emily Anderson (Jigsaw).

Filming is slated to start in April with locations in Eastern Europe and Germany.

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