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A new Windows Central report claims Microsoft and Activision Blizzard quietly opened a new studio. Its purpose? Developing and releasing spinoffs of popular Activision Blizzard franchises.The outlet spotted several King employees updating their LinkedIn profiles reflecting the shift to a new team. Further, their sources allege this studio is tasked with making smaller double-A games, like how Nintendo treats Mario and Zelda.At time of writing, it's unclear what systems these hypothetical titles will release for, given King's status as a mobile studio. Likewise, it's unknown what ABK franchise would be this supposed new team's debut project.

Can a double-A focus give Xbox a win?

Why launch a smaller studio inside a bigger one? Because making games is expensive!Triple-A titles have become infamously more costly to make, and not all of them sell enough to break even. Smaller, double-A titles provide a reprieve for Microsoft, and let it put marquis games out at a faster clip than its tentpoles.In the case of Activision Blizza…

Developers at Bungie have spoken out about what led to the studio's newest round of layoffs earlier this week, which had been reportedly planned for some time.Talking to Bloomberg, current and former staff say Bungie "grew too fast" and overextended itself with potential projects. They also put much of their ire on CEO Pete Parsons, who reportedly "failed to take accountability" for his part in these cuts.Following these new layoffs, several former Bungie employees (and Destiny 2 players) actively called on Parsons to resign, alleging he was to blame for the studio's "overly ambitious" failures.According to the outlet, Bungie received an influx of cash after Sony acquired it in 2022. The developer immediately went to work on incubating various projects, including an alleged mobile version of Destiny 2 and remakes for its older games.One notable project was "Payback," described as a co-op spinoff influenced by Genshin Impact and Warfame. The title was canceled in June to work on the extraction shooter revival of Marathon, now aiming for a 2025 launch."Payback" was reportedly helmed by longtime Destiny 2 co-director Luke Smi…

Swedish publisher Paradox is having a rough time. Since the turn of the year, the company has cancelled Life by You, shuttered its Tectonic studio, struggled to rehabilitate Cities Skylines II after a botched launch, and conceded it needs to address ongoing quality issues.Now, the company has indefinitely delayed Prison Architect 2 one month before it was due to launch on September 3. Paradox said it needs more time to "improve both the game's performance and content," but hasn't indicated exactly how long that will take."Our continuous internal reviews and beta test groups have highlighted areas that we need to focus on more, mainly performance and content, which we need to address before launch to ensure that you, the players, get a good experience in the game. We need to raise the quality a bit more to meet the standards we'd like to achieve with this sequel," reads a post on the Paradox forum.Paradox apparently remains "confident" the sequel will deliver the goods when it does eventually land, but said it must ensure the title "lives up to the franchise's legacy" and is released in a state that satisfies both players a…

Amber Studio, an agency for specializing in game development, has acquired Colombian developer Madbricks for an undisclosed fee.Both companies have previously worked together, which laid the foundation for this acquisition. It's also the start of the agency's push to "expand its global workforce" by integrating third-party studios that hail from "emerging markets."CEO Mihai Pohonțu noted this also gives Amber a chance to "solidify our presence" in South America's slice of the game industry.Madbricks has split its time as a work-for-hire studio and making its own titles. Looking at its website, its past and current work includes Ekko: Occlude the Void, Kaiju Rampage Studio, and Seitites.For CEO Miguel Benavides, the acqusition gives Madbricks "bigger projects and the opportunity to learn from a developed organization. With [Amber's] vast, global resources, we'll tighten our efficiency even further and tighten our efficiency even further."The press release also calls Madbricks a "leading studio" for Colombia and the South American game industry. Amber's past clients include Epic Games, WB Games, and Uni…

What happened to Contraband? Honestly, it’s a great question – and one that I sadly do not have the answer to. The game was unveiled back in 2021, the latest adventure from Just Cause, Mad Max, and Rage 2 developer Avalanche Studios. Three years later, and there’s exceptionally little new information out there right now.Still, given the history of Avalanche Studios, Contraband remains of one GamesRadar’s most anticipated upcoming Xbox Series X games. The development team’s collaboration with the Xbox Game Studios group is sure to deliver strong results, so we’re eagerly anticipating new details. While you wait, keep scrolling to get caught up on everything we know so far about Contraband. There’s no Contraband release date confirmed yet Unlike most of the games shown during Microsoft’s star-studded E3 2021 conference, the mysterious Contraband was given no release date whatsoever. What we do know, however, is that whenever this intriguing Microsoft exclusive does arrive, it will launch on Xbox Series X and PC. Microsoft also confirmed that Contraband will be a day-one entrant into the Xbox Game Pass list.  While Avalanche hasn’t said so outright, it does…

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What is Fortnitemares?

Fortnitemares quests

When does Fortnitemares end?

The Fortnite Fortnitemares 2024 event will be launching on October 11, to kick off the traditional annual Halloween celebration across the battle royale and beyond. There will be plenty of spooky challenges to take on, while you visit areas of the island that have received a chilling makeover, along with the return of the Horde Rush to eliminate waves of monsters heading your way. We’ve already seen the arrival of Billy, the puppet from the Saw franchise, which is possibly one of the creepiest skins made so far – especially when trundling around on their tricycle! For the lowdown on everything, here’s what we know so far about the Fortnite Fortnitemares 2024 event.What is the Fortnitemares event The Fortnite Fortnitemares 2024 event is a little over three-week event in Fortnite during which limited-time quests and rewards are added to the game, all Halloween themed, along with certain new weapons, enemies, locations, and NPCs added to the map. Most of these new map and gameplay additions are featured in the quests in some way, so players will need to find all of the new eleme…

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Rotating cube combinations

Rotten Area

Desolate Area

Ruined Area

Optional photo

The Silent Hill 2 Remake rotating cube puzzle is at the center of the Labyrinth, a massive green cube filled with stairs that you can turn using a nearby head, found between Maria’s cell and the strange corridor filled with arms. Depending on how you rotate it you can cause new bridges to extend out to doorways and wander around inside the cube itself, and while the layout remains the same, the angle you turn it to changes how you can explore it – you can’t walk along the underside of a staircase, after all, even in something as surreal as the Silent Hill 2 Remake.Found after you complete the Silent Hill 2 Remake gallows poem puzzle and leave the prison, the rotating cube puzzle is ultimately a kind of crossroads through the Labyrinth. Here you can access three new areas: the Rotten Area, the Desolate Area and the Ruined Area, and you’ll have to go through all three. However, working out the angles you need is more art than science, so if you want help with the Labyrinth Rotating Cube puzzle in Silent Hill 2 Remake, I’ll show you what you need to set it to.Silent Hill…

Visual Concepts are beginning to drip feed NBA 2K25 locker codes, and they’re worth grabbing as the upcoming year of virtual basketball unfolds. Active NBA 2K25 locker codes bring boosts in MyTeam and MyCareer, but are usually only available for a limited time – so be sure to grab them as soon as you can. We explain how the method works in our expired and active NBA 2K25 locker codes guide.Active NBA 2K25 locker codes Active NBA 2K25 locker codes will appear here across the coming year. As of Wednesday, October 9, there is only one, and it requires a little bit of work on the user’s part to acquire it. You need to sign up (or sign) in to the official NBA website, then highlight the account button in the top right corner of the screen. After that, click the Benefits, Voting & Badges prompt. Click the panel for each reward, then ‘Access Benefit’ to generate your personal code.NBA 2K25 Rewards Level Up: 1 Hour 2XP Coins (MyTeam), 1 Hour 2XP Coins (MyCareer), 10 games of skill boosts, 2 level skipsHow to use NBA 2K25 locker codes The system works similarly to WWE 2K24 locker codes. NBA 2K25 locker codes can apply to various modes – but the easi…

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Fieldwork types explained

Completing Destiny 2 Fieldwork tab quests is how you get upgrades for the tonic lab, making brewing easier and more efficient in Revenant. The Fieldwork quests you undertake under Eido’s vendor menu are also very short and sweet, with the only major issue being unlocking each quest as it’s quite a complicated Destiny 2 system. You might also be getting menaced by a message telling you to find the Act 1 Fieldwork Tab which never goes away but this is down to a bug and can be largely ignored. To help you understand exactly how the Fieldwork tab in Destiny 2 Revenant works, I’ve explained the whole thing below.How to get rid of the Destiny 2 Act 1 Fieldwork Tab message If you’ve just brewed your first tonics and have spoken to Variks and then Eido, you’re probably stuck with a tutorial message at the bottom of your screen telling you to “navigate to the Act 1 Fieldwork Tab”. You can find this tab clearly on Eido’s vendor screen – it’s the dark green rectangle with a white potion icon under the “Fieldwork Items” header – and while clicking it takes you to the exp…

With whispers that StarCraft “is not dead” over at Blizzard Entertainment, there are more questions than ever about what could be next for the real-time strategy series, but one StarCraft 2 veteran hopes that whatever a sequel might bring would be something “radically new to advance the genre.”Recent StarCraft rumors came by way of Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who, while speaking to Podcast Unlocked, claimed that while he was writing his new Blizzard-focused book, a StarCraft shooter was in development. Blizzard hasn’t confirmed if this is true or not, but speaking to GamesRadar+ in a recent interview, StarCraft 2 production director Tim Morten tells us he’d hope that the next game in the series could spice things up a bit.”I would hope to see StarCraft 3 try something radically new to advance the genre, like being an open world or introducing game modes that are radically different for accessibility with a greater ability to game with friends,” Morten says.Morten isn’t at Blizzard now, it should be noted – he’s now the CEO of Frost Giant Studios, which recently released the RTS game Stormgate in early access. Even so, there’s no doubt that many fans would want the same…