Over the weekend, developer Red Candle Games found itself at the center of controversy after players discovered disparaging remarks about Xi Jinping, the president of China, in the studio’s recently released horror game, Devotion. Now, after an intense review bombing of the game from Chinese players, Devotion has been removed entirely from Steam. In a third statement released today on Steam, the studio said, “the whole team of Red Candle Games bears the responsibility of this awfully unprofessio

Review bombs are stale beyond being cliché but here’s one with a novel twist: A game included a mocking reference to China’s president got review bombed on Steam by Chinese gamers, and the Taiwan-based developer has apologized. The game in question is Devotion, a horror game that launched on Steam on Feb. 19. It was enough to worry folks about the Chinese launch of Kingdom Hearts 3, which features the character. “As a game company, Red Candle Games has immense room for improvement,” the studio s

In this week’s This Week at Bungie, Bungie’s weekly blog, the studio announced some big changes coming to Destiny 2 in Season of the Drifter. Shotguns have been a cornerstone of players’ loadouts since the original Destiny — with a brief hiatus in Destiny 2 Year 1. In all PvE activities, shotguns will now deal double damage (except the exotic heavy shotgun, Legend of Acrius). Yet, the rate of fire — how many rounds they fire per minute, or RPM — of the most popular shotguns will decrease. Bungie

Untitled Goose Game now has an untitled release date. Previously slated for an early 2019 launch, the game is now coming “later” this year, nothing more specific. A bit of news: due to circumstances beyond our control — see video — our goose game will not be arriving until later in 2019. This means we’ll be able to make the best goose game possible! Untitled Goose Game is one of our 50 most anticipated games of the coming year.

Epic Games has announced the first details on the Fortnite World Cup, which will have its finals hosted in New York City from July 26-28. Players who hope to compete in the World Cup will first have to fight their way in through online qualifiers. The top qualifiers throughout the 10 weeks will then advance to the Fortnite World Cup Finals. The tournament finals will include 100 Solo players and 50 Duo teams, all competing for their portion of the remaining $30 million prize pool. Epic will also

Publisher Strictly Limited announced plans to finally release the title this year on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, but boutique retro hardware outfit Analogue announced today that Hardcore will come bundled with its upcoming Mega SG console, meaning the game will run on what is effectively “native” Sega Genesis hardware. The Super NT — its excellent Super NES clone — came bundled with the previously unreleased Super Turrican Director’s Cut. Like the Super NT, the Mega SG is an FPGA-based c

For almost a week now, Red Dead Online fans on Xbox One have been playing in ghost towns. What little can be done within Red Dead Redemption 2’s online component in this state, players say often just freezes or crashes the game. Those who can load into Red Dead Online right now often find eerily empty maps. Red Dead Online, which is currently in beta, is slated to get a big content update early next week that will bring a variety of new features and modes to the game. Xbox One players are afraid

Couples who love playing Final Fantasy 14 Online together can now get married with an officially licensed wedding themed after the in-game Eternal Bonding Ceremony in Japan. Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida confirmed that the reservations for the service should open in a few weeks. Square Enix and Bridal Hearts held the first mock Final Fantasy 14 wedding on Feb. 14, in Kobe, Japan. The wedding ceremony will also have FF14 music played throughout and special themed food at th

Fallout 76’s new mode, Survival, arrives in March along with new missions, new items and more features. The Scouts’ missions will deliver “a customizable backpack for increased utility,” Bethesda said. (arriving April 9) and the Pioneer Scouts quests are a series called Ever Upwards (May 7). The scouts missions will offer merit badges for completion. (arriving April 9) and the Pioneer Scouts quests are a series called (May 7).

GameStop’s annual tax season sale, which the company has chosen to brand as a “Tax ReFUN” sale, kicks off this weekend. (I refuse to type that name more than once, so moving forward I will refer to it simply as the tax season sale). Most of them overlap, but there are a few deals exclusive to either Pro Day or the tax season sale. The full listings for both Pro Day and the tax season sale will be available at GameStop’s website when they go live. Pro Day will take place on Saturday, Feb. 23 and

Niantic and The Pokémon Company will finally let Pokémon Go players change their team allegiance in a forthcoming update to the mobile game. A Team Medallion will cost 1,000 PokéCoins when it goes on sale later this month. Players can purchase PokéCoins from Pokémon Go’s in-game shop with real money, but they can also be earned through play. There are some other minor restrictions, as outlined in a post on the Pokémon Go website:Any of your Pokémon that are in Gyms when you change teams will be

Paradox Interactive, publishers of the Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron franchises, and the upcoming Stellaris: Console Edition, will bring modding support to the Xbox One versions of its games. Paradox Mods, as the platform is called, will begin as a free update to Surviving Mars, the extraterrestrial city-builder that launched in March 2018. Players will have more than 30 mods tested and ready for Surviving Mars’ Xbox One version, with support for additional Paradox titles is coming later thi

I’ll cut to the chase: Nintendo eShop is looking barren this week. — but otherwise, Nintendo’s only big sells are Ubisoft’s Trials Rising and a Pokémon: Let’s Go! Rising is the first Trials game to make it to a Nintendo console, an impressive feat for Ubisoft’s nearly 20-year-old multiplayer racing series. This is also the first new Trials game since 2014’s Trials Fusion, a game Polygon found to be a disappointing step backward. Hopefully, Trials Rising is a more successful return to form for ha

Valve is paring down its video offerings on Steam, and will now limit the service to movies that are directly related to video gaming or are adjunctive to ones sold on Steam. “In reviewing what Steam users actually watch, it became clear we should focus our effort on offering content that is either directly related to gaming or, is accessory content for games or software sold on Steam,” Valve said on Tuesday. Steam’s managers now expect that video content will be discovered “via the associated g

Patrick Söderlund, previously the head of Battlefield developer DICE and chief design officer at Electronic Arts, left EA last summer, but he wasn’t out of the spotlight long before announcing his next venture, Embark Studios. Now we have an early idea of what Söderlund and the team at Embark are working on, thanks to a sneak peek at some early gameplay concepts. In one concept piece, a giant mechanical monster looms in a cloud of fog. Embark’s first game will seemingly take place on a large lan

Far Cry New Dawn’s best trick is its post-nuclear juxtaposition of bloom and dilapidation. Its most endearing mission, “A Thousand Words,” leans into this spectacle by bringing together past and present, via photography. As well as encouraging detailed exploration of the map, this opens up a gateway to Far Cry 5. Far Cry New Dawn is a smart piece of business by publisher Ubisoft, which has made use of Far Cry 5’s expensively produced assets to create a spin-off that feels like a new game. Ubisof

Apex Legends has been one of the most-watched games on Twitch since its launch earlier this month. Now, Twitch and developer Respawn Entertainment have partnered to give some loot and rewards to the streaming platforms’ many Apex Legends fans. Anyone with a Twitch Prime membership can get access to an exclusive legendary skin for Pathfinder, as well as five Apex Packs. From there, you’ll see an option to claim rewards for Apex Legends. This is the first partnership of its kind for Apex Legends,

Battle royale games can feel, particularly for newcomers, like a monumental challenge. Battle royale games can almost feel like a host body rejecting its players, allowing only the absolute best to enjoy victory. Conversely, the legends in Apex Legends remain on equal footing. It’ll be interesting to see how — or if — Respawn will expand upon Apex Legends’ lore and stories. The very concept of becoming the last combatant standing is a core tenet of battle royale games, but it has also kept the g

Today, Wander announced a new game called Airborne Kingdom, which involves a flying city and a search for desert migrants. Prior to making A Case of Distrust, he worked at Visceral Games, part of a unit of four people who designed multiplayer modes for shooter Battlefield Hardline. Airborne Kingdom is a city management game with a twist: The city is mobile. Since the closure of Visceral, the team members have variously worked at Crystal Dynamics, Motive Studios, and on projects outside gaming. I

On Sunday, two of Pokémon Go’s biggest personalities woke up to find their YouTube channels gone. In a video about losing his channel, Martyn explained that YouTube first issued him a warning about a single, seemingly innocuous video. Martyn and Oyzon contacted YouTube to argue against their terminations, and YouTube reinstated their accounts before the end of the day. The changes have been in the making since disturbing events like a YouTuber’s arrest on child pornography charges in 2017 and th