The fallout from the bloodbath that is this week's unprecedented cuts to Microsoft's gaming division, which saw 1,600 Xbox employees lose their jobs immediately and will ultimately result in 3,200 cut jobs before the end of fiscal year 2027, continues with another high-profile departure. We're now learning that 27-year Bethesda veteran and lead character artist Christiane Meister, who worked on the Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, has been let go.

The news was spotted by Elder Scrolls scholar Lady Nerevar (via PC Gamer), and confirmed via Meister's LinkedIn, which now reflects that the developer is a "former" Bethesda character artist and now open to work. "I was in charge of design, creation, and management of character art assets throughout all of the Elder Scrolls projects, starting with Morrowind to our latest title, Skyrim," reads her bio.

Of course, there's an unfathomable human toll to any mass layoff, but the loss of such an enduring talent – Meister wrote in a 2022 blog post about redesigning Skyrim's Khajiit and Argonians, as well as the game's horses – really underscores the fundamental level at which Xbox is willing to cut core talent behind its most beloved IP, despite the company's renewed focus on those tentpole franchises.

Meister isn't the only veteran losing her job, as Xbox's latest layoff blitz has impacted a 37-year Microsoft veteran who served as lead of the Xbox Backward Compatibility program for Xbox 360 games on Xbox One, Kevin LaChappelle.

It makes sense then that groups like the Bethesda Game Studios Union are sounding the alarm on what it calls a "cycle of cuts in pursuit of ever-greater profits," and one which I'll note isn't exclusive to Microsoft or Xbox. The games industry has been in a years-long downsizing crisis for years now with little sign of slowing down. Firings like Meister's not only come across particularly callous but also chip away at the visual identity of franchises gamers have depended on for invaluable escapism for decades.

Fallout and Elder Scrolls union says Bethesda layoffs didn't hurt Microsoft's "14 layers of management" – "We lost dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers"

While Microsoft's seemingly unending spree of Xbox layoffs has often swept right over core tentpole studios like Fallout and Elder Scrolls maker Bethesda Game Studios, this week's historic downsizing was different.

Among 3,200 cut jobs – 1,600 of which were eliminated immediately – Elder Scrolls Online studio ZeniMax Online, Avowed and Pentiment developer Obsidian, and Doom studio id Software were all impacted by significant cuts. Perhaps most surprisingly, even Bethesda Game Studios proper, the studio currently working on The Elder Scrolls 6, had its workforce reduced as part of the restructuring.

Many US-based BGS employees are protected by the Bethesda Game Studios Union (BGSU), which ideally will help to provide adequate severance pay and support for impacted developers, but the labor union is nonetheless outraged by what it sees as a continuous punishing of workers for mistakes made my management.

A previous statement blasted Microsoft's repeated layoffs as "a stressful annual routine," and a new message shared to Bluesky confirms what everyone had suspected: that the layoffs primarily targeted developers on the ground, not management.

"Yesterday’s layoffs at Bethesda Games Studios were not a cut of '14 layers of management,'" reads the post, which refers to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's layoff announcement and the mention of a byzantine management structure as one focus of the company's big reset. "We lost dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers. Many of whom worked at BGS for decades," says the BGSU.

One way you can show Microsoft your concern is here through the XBOX Player Voice feedback platform: feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/ide...

— @bethesdaunion.bsky.social (@bethesdaunion.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-08T19:11:02.752Z

The BGSU advises fans who are worried the latest Xbox cuts will impact the quality of the studio's games, "like [The Elder Scrolls 6," to make their voices heard. The union points to a post shared to Microsoft's feedback portal that demands Xbox "end studio closures and stop the cycle of layoffs" and lays out a list of requests co-signed by over 1,900 votes.

This week's Xbox's layoffs are the largest to ever hit the company and will stretch through the end of the 2027 fiscal year. That means some 1,600 Xbox employees will be nervously anticipating bad news for almost another year. Now it just boils down to hopes that we won't see additional cuts to Microsoft's gaming division.

Bethesda boss says the company must focus on its "strongest franchises" as Xbox layoffs reportedly hit The Elder Scrolls and Fallout makers hard.

Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian is reportedly making a big creative pivot following the latest Xbox layoffs, turning its attention to a new Fallout game and canceling a planned sequel to its 2025 RPG Avowed.

Per Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Microsoft's Xbox restructuring has resulted in the loss of 25% of Obsidian's overall workforce, a devastating downsizing with equally seismic implications for the studio's slate of new projects. Bloomberg reports that Obsidian had been making good progress on a sequel to Avowed, an underrated RPG overshadowed by generational launches like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and massive blockbusters like Assassin's Creed Shadows. That, alongside other unannounced projects, are reportedly canceled.

Instead, Obsidian is said to be working on a new Fallout game, which lines up with Xbox's updated messaging, not to mention explicit guidance from Bethesda president Jill Braff, that tentpole franchises like Fallout need to be a bigger focus going forward. Details of the new Fallout are unclear - including its relation to the already confirmed Fallout 5 - but New Vegas director and Obsidian design director Josh Sawyer is said to be at the helm.

Bloomberg reports that Sawyer had previously been working on an RPG similar in structure and theme to Fallout, but without the Fallout name, at Obsidian. It's unclear if this new Fallout project is related.

I'm disappointed that we're missing out on a potential Avowed 2 due to even more layoffs at Xbox, but some Obsidian employees are reportedly continuing to work on the project in the hopes that it's one day revived. On the other hand, as much as any new developments that emerge as part of Xbox's reset are somewhat overshadowed by such a massive amount of lost jobs and livelihoods, there's no denying the potential in a new Josh Sawyer-directed Fallout game.

After 37 years at Microsoft, veteran who led Xbox Backward Compatibility program has been laid off: "I look forward to watching how Xbox evolves going forward"

A game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is catnip for completionists. There's just so much to see and do, so you can sink into the RPG for hours upon hours. Now that the game's over a year old, the curators of a digital checklist for everything you can find have revealed the five most overlooked items.

The site Game Checklists has a complete rundown of all the equipment, loot, and rewards to be gotten in your quest to save Lumière. In case you're wondering, there are 1,161 items in total, and the site's team has gone through data from the over 4,000 players who use their resources to track what they picked up in the role-playing adventure. As an added measure, only people who've gotten as far as the Root of All Evil Expedition Flag are included.

This information has revealed that only 2.5% of those fans managed to get Gustave's Anniversary Haircut. However, there's a large caveat for that one, since these hair-dos only arrived in April 2026, and many people have since moved on to other games. The actual top bit of kit here is the Baguette Weapon, which 6% of users have.

First, you can only get it in New Game Plus, something many probably didn't bother with, and if they do, they're probably ill-equipped due to spending their Festival Tokens. See, you need to keep one for the entire run, then in this mode, you can exchange it for the baked blunt object.

The game doesn't provide this information, instead giving you sellers with whom to exchange your tokens normally. It's a secret driven largely by luck and or incidental ignorance.

The next two are rewards for beating Simon the Divergent Star and Clea Unleashed, in third and fourth, respectively; both sub-bosses that came in the Thank You Update. As such, there's the same asterisk by these as for the haircut, though less so, since the added challenge of these bouts will have attracted plenty of attention from experienced players who want more to do.

Fifth is a haircut for Maelle from the Thank You Update. You need to beat a puzzle for this one, and the cosmetic nature probably means many have glossed over it. As Game Checklists notes, there's really only one entry here that's completely meaningful, and that's the baguette, since it's the only thing everyone could access from the jump on Sandfall Interactive's release.

So, really, that's the rarest pickup you can get. A nice, freshly baked roll of bread. Honestly, that feels like the perfect in-joke for a French team. No wonder they were honored by the government of France.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director thinks devs will eventually "be able to churn out a game in 5 seconds with a prompt," but he hopes they're not any good

The Blood of Dawnwalker is shaping up to be this year's most ambitious RPG. Helmed by The Witcher 3 game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the debut game from developer Rebel Wolves will see players dropped into south-east Europe during the 14th century – where time is not on their side.

As the remote Vale Sangora reels from the Black Plague, ancient vampire Brencis muscles in on the region, enforcing blood tithes in exchange for protection from the sickness. When village-boy protagonist Coen is forcibly turned into a vampire by Brencis, the process goes wrong and Coen is caught between two states – fang-toothed undead by night, (mostly) human by day. As Coen, we'll have just 30 in-game days and nights to save his family from Brencis; set loose in an open-world where our actions move time forward and cause rippling consequences.

I got to play the first four hours of The Blood of Dawnwalker, and found that while Rebel Wolves' many CD Projekt Red veterans have continued to build upon The Witcher 3's open-world sensibilities, there's a degree of the old-school RPG friction we're seeing make a comeback in the likes of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Baldur's Gate 3, and Dragon's Dogma 2.

From Dusk Till Dawn

Much has been made of The Blood of Dawnwalker's time mechanics, but in play, the feature is unobtrusive. I step into Coen's shoes on the morning before mass, which, under Vale Sangora's new ruler, has been perverted into a bloodletting ritual. A bar on the top-right of the screen, broken into eight segments, shows how much time you have left in the day or night. Only specific activities move time forward. Exploring and fighting won't, for example, but quests, certain side activities, and even leveling up will. These are clearly signposted and often only take one hour, creating the sense not that you're rushing through The Blood of Dawnwalker to meet a deadline (the game doesn't end with Coen's 30-day limit), merely being asked to consider how your time in its world is spent.

To begin the day, I'm asked to visit the local healer to fetch herbs for Coen's sick mother, to ensure she's strong enough to survive the upcoming mass. Along the way, I bump into Coen's siblings and decline their request to help them fish – which would take an hour – but a little further down the road, agree to find a villager's missing brother. It's on the way, so I do so – taking the time to track him down with Witcher-esque heightened senses and investigative powers – and rescue him from an unearthed barrow, though decline to spend longer escorting him home.

With all of that done, I still have time to fetch the herbs, set two hours aside from an optional Latin lesson, teach the neighborhood bully some manners, spar with Coen's ex-mercenary father, and solve the case of a missing banner – all in time for mass. Frankly, I manage more in one day here than I do in the real world. And as a reluctant congregation gathers at the church, I realize that The Blood of Dawnwalker is less interested in tracking the minutes, and more focused on how they're spent.

All day, I've heard whispers of rebellion. The banner hanging over the church font – stolen by another villager and returned by Coen earlier in the day – doesn't help ease the tension, depicting humans bleeding to death on a tree of thorns. The priest begins his sermon with a speech acknowledging the tapestry's horrors, while it visibly agitates the congregation, and I'm pleased to see just how much of an impact my decision to return it makes. Similarly, having retrieved medicine for Coen's mother and correctly prepared it, her distress is kept mostly in-check. Comparing my experience to another, I learn that not only can she die during the mass if not properly medicated, and by returning the banner I unknowingly saved its maker from a grisly execution.

Later that night, the townsfolk rise up against Brencis' garrison – fighting their way into an off-limits silver mine to arm themselves. But, as is apt to happen in game prologues, catastrophe strikes. The would-be rebellion is rumbled, Brencis turns Coen into a vampire, and his family is hauled away as their village burns. It's a brilliant opening salvo: for as much as I've waited to see The Blood of Dawnwalker's open world for myself, I'm now itching to hunt down Brencis and his lieutenants.

In theory, I can do just that. Similarly to how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild lets players beeline to their showdown with Ganon at any point, it's possible to march straight to Brencis' fortress. But, my preview is limited to one segment of the map, so instead I take stock of the leads I'm offered and step into the night.

Creatures of the night

The Blood of Dawnwalker's passing of time creates an interesting dynamic with Coen, whose vampiric transformation leaves him with a foot in both worlds. By day he's human, relying on a sword in combat and left to make do without his supernatural powers. When the sun goes down, the fangs come out.

A Dishonored-style blink can be used to vanish and reappear elsewhere at will, while Coen takes notes from Dracula and can walk up walls and on ceilings – meaning he can only climb towers to reveal nearby locales at night. Get into a scrap, and Coen can keep his sword sheathed to instead put his claws to work. Eating food will only heal him during the day – when the moon is out, only blood will provide succor. Wildlife can be hunted for small amounts and you can shadowstep behind humans for quick gulps in combat, but the most filling meals are found by sneaking up on someone unaware and draining them into unconsciousness or even death.

As a long-suffering Oblivion vampire, I'm giddy to see Rebel Wolves commit entirely to vampiric mythology – limitations and all. If you don't keep Coen's thirst slaked, he can lose control during dialogue and fatally feed upon his conversation partner. At one point in my preview, I convince someone to leave a burning building – dying inside is supposedly preferable going outside with a vampire – and inadvertently prove him right, as I lose control and set upon the toasty treat.

In fairer fights, The Blood of Dawnwalker's combat lands somewhere between Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's exacting swordplay and The Witcher 3's sword-and-sign dance. Trading blows with sword and claw, directional input means you decide which angle to attack from (mixing it up makes your opponent less likely to block), while parrying attackers requires the inverse, matching your defense to wherever the blow is coming from. It's quick, fluid, and can be very challenging – particularly when outnumbered – but feels thrilling, particularly against tougher foes who can trade consecutive blows for longer. I did find Coen's active abilities tricky to use, however, as I could only use them by bringing up a clunky ability wheel – leaving them ignored more often than not.

The Blood of Dawnwalker's willingness to put players on the back foot is right up my street. More surprising is how quickly and effectively the RPG draws me into its world. The effect is partly physical: hemmed-in by the Carpathian Mountains, Vale Sangora perpetually has a second horizon above the eyeline. More engrossing still, the valley feels old. Vale Sangora is a melting pot of central to Eastern European mythology, and although vampires here have become a reality, other folklore creatures make their home here too. An abandoned mine, thought haunted, is actually infested with sneaky goblin-like creatures with a penchant for mischief and flesh; while wall paintings in a tomb detail heroic tales so old they seem to have been forgotten entirely.

By planting one foot in fairy tales and another in the realities of medieval life, Vale Sangora reaches similar liveliness to The Witcher 3's Continent. Both come across as believably ancient, and as an RPG fan drawn to worlds that feel like they've existed long before I joined them, I'm immersed in The Blood of Dawnwalker from the get-go. That's no small feat, playing in a crowded room filled with PCs.

Even after playing for four hours, I still feel like I've barely scratched The Blood of Dawnwalker's surface and would have gladly played for longer in a single sitting. From its combat to story and world, there are a lot of beat-by-beat draws. But frankly, I'm thrilled to play a fresh RPG with the nerve to be so big from the get-go. Every game I've compared The Blood of Dawnwalker to was built upon an existing series – success affording them the luxury to iterate – whereas Rebel Wolves has outlined plans for a "saga" before its first game has debuted.

With the RPG's passing time and Coen's uneven powers, I get the impression that the veteran cohort at Rebel Wolves see their fresh start as an opportunity. But what truly surprises me is how well The Blood of Dawnwalker comes together already – for all of the boundaries it pushes, nothing feels risky or gimmicky in play. What remains, then, is an ambitious love letter to role-playing itself – and although The Blood of Dawnwalker is launching in a slew of new games, what I've seen so far is enough to guarantee I'll be back to play more come September 3.

We have interviews with The Blood of Dawnwalker's developers, and more thoughts from our own playtime, still to come. In the meantime, here are the best RPGs to keep busy with.

The team behind Elder Scrolls Online is one of many that's been impacted by ruthless cuts being made by Xbox at the moment. Purportedly up to half of the devs behind Bethesda's MMO have lost their jobs, and a former designer on the fantasy sandbox has been quick to point out the game's unsung glories.

In the wake of the redundancies, Andrew Young, a senior content designer on Elder Scrolls Online who worked on the online RPG from 2012 through to 2024, vented his frustrations on Twitter. "I'm just so angry today," he says. "People will never know the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making ESO or how we basically funded other failing projects while never getting enough resources to really keep up with our release cadence."

He adds that fans may never realize just how integral Elder Scrolls Online was to Bethesda. "Talking to people today and realizing there’s really no one left and no changing it now makes my heart ache," he says. "For the people, our game, who we were as a team and a studio. This is a serious loss, and I don’t think people know how much."

No specifics are given, but my mind immediately jumped to Blades and Legends, two free mobile spin-offs that came out in the 2010s. The former was all about constantly getting into swordfights, while the latter was a digital card game. Both have since been unceremoniously closed, and Young could be talking about other projects within the umbrella of Bathesda's parent company ZeniMax, either.

Elder Scrolls Online has been a reliable money-spinner, bringing in upwards of $2 billion across its lifetime to date. Those are decent earnings, especially when it comes to the currently over-saturated live-service and MMO market. The game adopted a new updated schedule in 2025, moving from yearly changes to a more seasonal approach, with Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk due to finish tomorrow, July 8.

Hopefully, this all helps those impacted by the job losses - which are expected to total 3,200 across Xbox and Microsoft by the end of the year - to find new opportunities. And maybe a little more respect will be put on Tamriel's Second Era as well.

Hitman and 007 First Light dev IO Interactive regains "full ownership" of its mysterious online RPG project after Xbox reportedly pulled funding

Hitman and 007 First Light developer IO Interactive has confirmed that it has "regained full ownership" of its upcoming online RPG, Project Fantasy, with plans to continue development "and fund it independently amongst our other projects" after Xbox reportedly pulled funding from it.

Last week, IO Interactive announced that "a relationship with an external partner on our own IP, Project Fantasy, has come to an end," and although the company said it'd "remain 100% committed" to the IP, there would be "short-term consequences, including staffing decisions." At the time, Bloomberg reported that it was Xbox that had pulled out of a deal to fund and publish the game – a claim IO Interactive didn't publicly confirm, but would hardly be surprising given yesterday's news of 3,200 Xbox employees getting laid off throughout fiscal year 2027.

Today, a statement from IO Interactive acknowledges the "end of our external finance partnership on Project Fantasy," adding that the company "has regained full ownership of the project and our IP. We will continue to develop and fund it independently amongst our other projects."

It explains: "With this context, we had to find a new balance for the long-term future of the studio, focused on the success of our main internal core titles instead of external projects and potential mobile game derivatives. This has meant making changes as well as proposed changes across our studios: the closure of our Istanbul studio and starting a process to part ways with colleagues who have been a meaningful part of what makes IOI what it is."

IO's "immediate focus is on supporting those affected as best we can through this period," it says, noting that it'd be thankful for any job opportunities and support that can be offered to any of the staff affected.

Furthermore, it calls its decisions "hard, but necessary" to "retain the long-term future of IO Interactive as one of the very few fully independent AAA" developer and publishers, in addition to giving "Project Fantasy the best possible foundation to succeed under our own passion and direction." It reiterates its commitment to the IP, noting that "we cannot wait to share the love with you."

Project Fantasy was first announced back in 2023, at which time IO teased that "it feels familiar, yet at the same time IOI is going on a journey unlike any we have been on before."

While yesterday's Xbox layoff news is undeniably devastating, one silver lining – per CEO Asha Sharma – is that "none of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions." Several studios are parting ways with Xbox, however, with Psychonauts developer Double Fine and South of Midnight studio Compulsion Games both going independent.

Bethesda boss says the company must focus on its "strongest franchises" as Xbox layoffs reportedly hit The Elder Scrolls and Fallout makers hard.

As Bethesda is reportedly hit hard with layoffs from Microsoft, president Jill Braff has apparently told staff of the plan to focus on the company's strongest franchises going forward.

This week, Xbox announced its fifth wave of layoffs since purchasing Activision Blizzard, with this ongoing wave set to see 3,200 staff laid off over the next year. From the sounds of things, Bethesda is going to be one of the most affected targets of these layoffs, with former Bethesda project lead Jeff Gardiner reporting that 35 staff at Bethesda Game Studios are losing their jobs, while id Software is being gutted, reportedly losing 95 staff members.

On top of that, ZeniMax-owned studio Arkane is in the process of "beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options," while Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Double Fine, and Compulsion Games have broken off from Xbox during this latest restructuring, with the latter two going independent.

The layoffs at id Software are a major surprise, as they come alongside reports that Bethesda is set to change focus to its biggest franchises, which reportedly features Doom and Quake – two franchises primarily developed by id Software – alongside the expected push for The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5. While these were first reported by Bloomberg, an internal email from Braff acquired by IGN seems to back this up.

"These shifts also reflect the realities of our industry and business – and our responsibility to ensure Bethesda is operating from a more stable foundation." Braff says, adding: "To be successful in the future, we need to change course. We must strengthen our business, return to sustainable growth, and ensure we can continue investing in our franchises and our players."

She continues, "To best position Bethesda for future growth, we are shifting from a planning model primarily centered on what's next for each independent studio to one that focuses on our strongest franchises." Braff adds, "By working more closely across the organization, sharing expertise and capabilities, and focusing our investments on the opportunities with the greatest potential, we believe we can better support our franchises and IP with meaningful long-term potential."

Of course, one wonders why Microsoft took this long to shift Bethesda's focus and work on getting the next Fallout and Elder Scrolls games out as soon as possible. However, with a significant portion of the talent at id Software affected – which reportedly is focused on the coders working on the id Tech engine – it feels almost antithetical to the studio's plan to focus on its first-person shooter franchises, and evidence of the poor planning from Xbox management that has led us to this point.

Mere days after celebrating 40 million sales overall, CD Projekt Red reveals the RPG has hit its highest Steam player peak in three years.

That's right – CD Projekt Red just can't seem to stop winning. The neon light-laden gem has officially hit over 1,000 players on Steam (101,558, to be exact, as per SteamDB), which just so happens to be the highest number CD Projekt Red has seen for its game since 2023.

It isn't quite toppling the 274,526 player peak it saw then… but it's nonetheless an impressive figure, and the studio can't help but celebrate the milestone.

Lead quest designer and Cyberpunk 2 associate game director Paweł Sasko is thrilled, for one – and he's thanking the recent first look at Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2 and collab event with Wuthering Waves for the influx of new fans.

"Tons of new chooms seem to be discovering Cyberpunk 2077, thanks to Edgerunners and our collab with Wuwa," he writes. "Have fun, my dears, hope it’s going to keep you hooked, entertained, and inspired."

Global PR director Radek Grabowski notes the influx himself in a separate post, saying, "Today's peak player count on Steam surpassed 100k – the highest it's been since 2023. This is crazy! Thank you all for playing Cyberpunk 2077!"

He includes a screenshot of the Steam charts, highlighting this month's new peak. Joint CD Projekt Red CEO Michał Nowakowski then chimes in with a reply, dubbing it a "crazy player peak today."

He concludes: "So happy to see you all. Come and check out Night City. It's a really nice and cozy place to visit!" And, you know what? I'm inclined to agree, even if it's obviously a joke.

With the hundreds of hours you can sink into Cyberpunk 2077, it does oddly become cozy in a way – the same way The Witcher 3 does, I suppose. CD Projekt Red's fantasy RPG isn't struggling with some 30,000 players over a decade on, either.

Here's hoping Cyberpunk 2 – and other upcoming CD Projekt Red games, such as The Witcher 4 – impress as much as the studio's current RPGs clearly have.

Cyberpunk 2077 lead proves the RPG's "biggest scene" is so much more complex than The Witcher 3's that you can barely compare them

Guillaume Broche, the lead developer behind last year's hugely acclaimed RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, reckons we'll one day be able to prompt an entire game into existence, but that's a theoretical future that's scary for him and many other developers.

Asked about generative AI in the games space during a chat in Konbini's Video Game Club show, Broche clarified that his studio, Sandfall Interactive, isn't using the tech for any "creative" work. When it comes to administrative duties and coding, Broche says "it depends," but generating anything else feels "like it takes away from the joy of creating things."

Sandfall Interactive found itself in hot water last year when AI-generated textures were found in the final game. The developer swiftly removed the assets in question and explained they were placeholders not intended for release, though the mishap did lead to at least two of its GOTY awards being revoked. It sounds like the studio's next game won't be toying around with the tech in the same way.

"I think everyone's a little scared, though - of the road ahead, of how things might turn out," Broche continues. "With video games, we're still somewhat protected because, technically speaking, it's a different ball game. But I think the day will come when we'll be able to churn out a game in five seconds with a prompt. Will it be a good game? I hope not. But I think everyone's asking themselves the same question - and admitting it's a little scary."

At least, after the huge success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Broche and his team don't feel much pressure. "That's why I'm also glad… because we're a studio that's secure. So even if we're not doing things in the best way possible, we don't care."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is "sort of the successor" to Final Fantasy creator's overlooked JRPG Lost Odyssey, lead says: "Truly one of the most powerful, emotional experiences of my life"

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche thinks that "games that try to be perfect" often end up "really boring" – and despite his RPG winning countless awards last year, he thinks it includes plenty of "imperfections" that add to its charm.

Speaking in a new episode of Konbini's Video Game Club on YouTube (below), Broche talks about loads of his favorite games and influences, including the Devil May Cry series.

He thinks that the series' first game is "a bit of a mess" when you look at Dante's love interest, Trish (who looks like his own mother), and the "cheesy lines" the protagonist is always saying, but Broche reckons "these games are really endearing" because they're not perfect.

"You see their flaws, and you think to yourself, 'Yeah, it's lame, but I don't care,'" he says, adding: "Games that try to be perfect, that try to fix all their flaws – they're usually just really boring. My theory is that it's just like people. People who try to be perfect are boring because they have no personality. Whereas people who embrace their slightly weird side – in the end – are the interesting ones."

But what about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? It might be a GOTY winner, but when asked about its quirks, Broche has plenty of examples, including its "unbearable" minigames, the fact that "you could get absurdly strong in Act 3," and that some players could "breeze through the whole thing in one go and won't see all the content."

But to that, the devs simply thought: "'Who cares? It's just funny. That's what we love about it.'" And, as Broche says, "the imperfections are part of the charm."

I definitely think Broche has a point – I spent more time in the Only Up-esque Gestral Games climbing minigame than I'd like to admit, and it was agonizing, but looking back on my 70 hours in the RPG, making my way to the top of that ridiculous tower stands out as one of the highlights of the whole experience.

Personality is important, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has plenty of it.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead doesn't "care" if his next game isn't as popular as Sandfall's GOTY RPG, because "we're just going to do what we love again."

As the wait for Cyberpunk 2 continues, CD Projekt Red continues to celebrate wins with its 2020 RPG – in fact, Cyberpunk 2077 now boasts over 40 million sales.

That's a solid five million more than CD Projekt Red unveiled in November last year, when Cyberpunk 2077 outpaced The Witcher 3 in its five-year success with 35 million copies sold.

For just eight months or so (not to mention the fact that it's been a good six years since the game launched), jumping up to 40 million sales is worthy of celebration – and the developers are doing just that, sharing their excitement online.

CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michał Nowakowski stands as one of the folks celebrating, calling this "another big milestone for Cyberpunk 2077 sales" in a thread on Twitter. "Thank you for your continuous support! Night City welcomes all travelers."

He's not alone, though, with lead quest designer – and Cyberpunk 2 associate game director, might I add – Paweł Sasko chiming in with his own celebratory post on the website.

"Incredibly thankful for your amazing support, my chooms," writes Sasko. "You are the reason we can do all this work, entertain and delight you."

All of this speaks to the grand comeback Cyberpunk 2077 made, honestly. After an initially disastrous release, CD Projekt Red clearly put in the work to ensure the RPG's quality matched that of its other titles, like The Witcher 3… not to mention its incredible Phantom Liberty expansion.

Here's hoping Cyberpunk 2 – and other upcoming CD Projekt Red games, such as The Witcher 4 – impress as much as Cyberpunk 2077 clearly has now.

"Limitation sparks creativity": Cyberpunk 2077 quest lead turned one character's appearance into "part of the story" because CD Projekt Red couldn't afford the alternative.

Haze Seas codes grants you a range of useful rewards in the One Piece inspired RPG, including tons of double exp so you can level up fast and progress through quests faster than ever.

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If you'd prefer some more general rewards that can be used in all of your experiences, then we've got the current Roblox promo codes covered too.

All Haze Seas codes

Here are all the Haze Seas codes you can redeem right now:

• SUB2XENOTY - Double Exp (20 mins) new!
• SUB2CAPTAINMAUI - Double Exp (20 mins) new!
• OKUCHI - 5x Race Spins new!
• PATCH - 25x Gems, Double Exp (15 mins)
• HAZESEAS2026 - 10x Race Spins
• RELEASE - Double Exp (1 hour)
• FREECASH - 50,000x Cash
• FREEGEMS - 50x Gems
• SUBSCRIBETOHAZEYT - 50,000x Cash
• SUB2NIKKOLAPZ - Double Exp (20 mins)
• SUB2BADITUBES - Double Exp (20 mins)
• SUB2BROSSIAM- Double Exp (20 mins)
• SUB2BUILDERBOYTV - Double Exp (20 mins)

As you can see from the above list, there are loads of rewards up for grabs with these Haze Seas codes. Whether you want to respin for a new race, earn exp faster, or grab some cash to spend, you're sorted as long as you redeem these codes before they expire.

Any Double Exp codes trigger immediately on redeeming them, so be sure to only do so when you're settling in for a gaming session. If you use more than one, the timer will extent, it won't further multiply your exp boost.

How to redeem Haze Seas codes

To redeem the above Haze Seas codes, launch the Roblox game, then click on the Menu button to the side of the screen. This opens up the menu, where you can then click on the Codes button that looks like a wrapped gift. Enter any code as it appears above, hit redeem, then make the most of your rewards.

Haze Seas codes aren't case-sensitive, so you only have to worry about getting spelling correct, but I'd still recommend you just copy and paste them from our list above.

Expired Haze Seas codes

• HAZEPIECE23 - 6x Race Spins
• UPDATESARECOMING - 3x Race Spins, Double Exp (30 mins)
• GOGOGAGA - 3x Race Spins, Double Exp (30 mins)
• LETSGET450K2024 - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• NEXTAT350KLIKES - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• WOW325KMLG - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• 425KNEXTCODE123 - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• NEXTCODEAT400KLIKES - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• VALENTINES2024 - 3x Race Spins, Double Exp (30 mins)
• LETSGO375KHAZE - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• XMAS2023 - Double Exp (1 hour)
• NEXTAT350KLIKES - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• WOW325KMLG - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• NEXT300KCOOL - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• 275KNEXTLETSGO - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• SHUTDOWN4 - Double Exp (30 mins)
• 220KLIKES4CODE - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• DRAGONUPDATE23 - 3x Race Spins, 20x Gems, Double Exp (1 hour)
• WOW190KFORNEXT - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• 160KLIKESFORNEXT - 3x Race Spins, 15x Gems, Stat Refund
• GROUPONLY - 10,000 Cash

Haze Seas has been around for a while now, so of course there are plenty of codes that have already expired. When current codes expire, I'll move them down here so you don't waste time trying to redeem codes that won't work.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche is a huge fan of turn-based RPGs (heck, his own multi-award-winning Game of the Year is a stellar example of the genre) – and he won't have any of the chatter that they're "old school."

The lead discusses as much in a new episode of Video Game Club via Konbini on YouTube (below) after sharing why he loves the Persona – a series of some of the best JRPGs (turn-based, of course) out there.

"I don't get this whole 'turn-based is old school' thing," he says. "I've never bought into that; I've always thought it was total nonsense. A lot of people say that, but it's just a game system. I like board games, too."

Those count as turn-based, right? It's not just the fact that all of these games are turn-based that makes Broche enjoy them, however.

"It's not just the turn-based aspect that I like. It's also the part where you prepare your team beforehand," he explains.

As a fan of JRPGs (and consequently, turn-based games) myself, I get where he's coming from – a lot of effort goes into planning before combat sometimes, and it feels great when it pays off.

"It's just that when you come up with a plan, you get into battle, and everything goes pretty much the way you want it to, and you see that all the pieces you've been preparing for 50 hours of gameplay before all fit together perfectly and everything works out great, and you take down the boss right in front of you – it's incredibly satisfying because you feel smart," as Broche puts it.

Other genres just don't offer that same sort of satisfaction.

The director uses Devil May Cry as an example: "Whereas, in an action game like Devil May Cry, I don't feel particularly smart – I just feel like I have quick fingers and good dexterity. But in a turn-based game, it's more your brain that gets rewarded."

I mean… I get it. Both are good for different moods. Devil May Cry is undeniably a stellar series, but you can turn your brain off and enjoy some action-packed (and far less strategic) combat.

Broche concludes that in a turn-based game, "It's kind of like math. You put things together, you work out the equation, you get to the end – x = 2 – that's the right answer, you beat the boss, and you're happy. And I love that." Same, Mr. Broche. Same.

Elden Ring and Dark Souls inspired Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director's approach to the RPG's story – "I didn't want to spoon-feed the player"

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche found inspiration in FromSoftware gems like Dark Souls and Elden Ring while developing his own RPG.

And, if you're wondering why, it all boils down to challenge – something FromSoftware just so happens to excel at – but in this case, maybe not in the way you'd first expect. He explains as much in a new episode of Video Game Club via Konbini on YouTube (below), first outlining what makes Elden Ring (and Souls games in general) so special.

"For me, what I love about Elden Ring is the exploration, not understanding everything, and trying to piece the puzzle together," he says. "I've played every single Souls game to death, but it's an obsession." Not a bad one, eh?

"In the Souls games, it's clearly something else entirely from what we're doing in [Clair Obscur: Expedition 33], but there's still that aspect where there's a story," he then notes, describing how most Souls players "finish the game the first time and haven't understood a thing." Yep, that checks out – and he had that same experience himself.

"Even though I loved the game, I didn't understand a thing," as Broche admits.

"Then, when you look into it, the lore is really cool – but you still get the sense that everything is written out, everything is well-crafted, and everything is incredibly coherent. Even if you don't understand it, you can feel it. That's what I love about it, whether it's in movies or games. It's that aspect where you can really put your brain to work to understand everything that's going on."

In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the lead states there's a similar dynamic. Even though it's easier to follow story-wise, folks don't totally get it all unless they truly give it some thought.

"There's still a story, there are cutscenes," Broche describes. "Overall, everyone more or less understands what's going on – but to fully understand it, I really wanted people to rack their brains too and be prompted to think for themselves."

He concludes, "I didn't want to spoon-feed the player all the answers" – which makes sense. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 might not be as "difficult" as the Souls games, per se, but it's not a surface-level ordeal by any means… and that's why I love it.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead doesn't "care" if his next game isn't as popular as Sandfall's GOTY RPG, because "we're just going to do what we love again."

Obsidian Entertainment, the beloved RPG developer behind several cult classic games, is reportedly not under threat of closure despite fears it was in negotiations with corporate owner Microsoft to avoid shutdown.

Numerous reports have claimed that Xbox is planning to carry out mass layoffs, cancel an undetermined number of games, and close entire game development studios soon. Compulsion Games (South of Midnight), Double Fine (Psychonauts), and Ninja Theory (Hellblade) are a few of the developers reportedly negotiating to stay alive.

A new report from The Game Business stated that Obsidian Entertainment is also part of that list, and is currently in negotiations with Microsoft in order to avoid closure. Fears were that certain developers under Microsoft's gaming division could spin off and become independent, find new buyers, or simply shut down for good, but Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier now reports that Obsidian Entertainment is, in fact, safe from closure.

"Despite a report this morning, I can confirm that Obsidian is *not* in negotiations to avoid shutting down," Schreier writes on Bluesky. "Plenty of details are still up in the air surrounding the layoffs (picture will be clear on Monday) but Xbox is keeping Obsidian, according to people familiar with the situation."

Obsidian Entertainment itself has been an absolute powerhouse in the RPG genre for over two decades. The developer first made a name for itself by working on sequels that sometimes eclipsed their older siblings – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Fallout: New Vegas.

After being acquired by Xbox in 2018, the iconic developer's been building out its own franchises with Pillars of Eternity and Avowed, The Outer Worlds and its sequel, Pentiment, and the Grounded duology. Every game publisher under the sun has been chasing bonafide multiplayer hits, and Obsidian arguably made two of them with its survival game series – in one console generation, no less. Needless to say, its closure would have been a huge loss.

Elsewhere, the potential Xbox closures and internal turmoil come amid what CEO Asha Sharma calls a "reset" for the business. "We're not in a healthy spot, so the next 100 days is going to be about resetting the business," she said last month.

Recent reports also claimed Sharma was looking to move faster on The Elder Scrolls, Halo, and Fallout games. Microsoft's fiscal year ended on June 30, 2026, so we should likely learn more about what that reset entails in the coming days and weeks.

We've also reached out to Xbox for comment on the Obsidian rumors, and will update this article if we receive a response.

Obsidian veteran Josh Sawyer thinks RPG choices are best when they're not "purely" good or evil, and Greek plays "knocked it out of the park 1000s of years ago."

Obsidian Entertainment design director and veteran developer Josh Sawyer likes his RPG choices best when they fall outside of the good versus evil moral binary, and thinks games could learn a thing or two from those Ancient Greek tragedies from thousands of years ago.

In a new YouTube video talking about where his inspirations and influences come from, Sawyer says he takes "a lot from plays, actually," since he originally went to school to study theater before switching to the history department. That background probably makes more sense when you consider some of the games he's directed, gorgeous whodunnit Pentiment and Fallout: New Vegas included.

"This will sound corny, but especially because of the games that Obsidian works on, I think a lot about Greek plays," he explains, pointing to Antigone and The Oresteia. "You have a lot of moral and ethical decisions that are extremely difficult [in those plays]. Characters are put in situations that are truly, in the literal sense, agonizing and they're forced to make terrible decisions and those decisions are never purely good or they're never purely bad... I think a lot about that when we think about our moral and ethical choices in games."

The long-time RPG developer isn't on a mission to make every player choice as "agonizing" as what Ancient Greek protagonists go through, but Sawyer reckons it's more interesting to have players "sit and think about it," even if those choices lead to uncomfortable feelings, "because it does force us to think about our values."

Strictly good and evil choices aren't totally off the table, he adds, but players don't really ponder those decisions for quite as long. Sawyer's theory is that many players will decide to build either a good or evil character, and then make choices that align with that moral stance for the rest of the game. To him, RPG decisions are best when "individual choices are just not that clear-cut." Again, choosing who to pass the blame onto in Pentiment is a really good example of this, and Sawyer is right to pat himself on the back for that one.

"So Greek plays, they knocked it out of the park thousands of years ago," he says. "Why not look at them?"

Modern RPGs have largely moved past that moral binary in recent times. Games like The Witcher 3 and Baldur's Gate 3 don't have a bar that goes from red to blue depending on who you smooch or smother, for example. And even Fable, a series that was famous for its totally good and totally evil choices, is ditching that black and white thinking in favor of a reputation system where your actions are subjective. Times are a-changing.

How a parchment of ideas evolved into the RPG work of art that is Pentiment.

As Bethesda Game Studios plans for the Switch 2 release of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, it reassures fans that the RPG remake will indeed be "available on a physical game card" – an assertion that catches the eye, to say the least.

In case you're out of the loop, fans of physical media have had a heck of a week. Yesterday, Sony announced that it's ending physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028, stating "general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs" – and, boy, did that cause a stir.

Unsurprisingly, folks aren't thrilled… and it's not too difficult to see why. The move away from discs and cartridges has been a hot topic. Bethesda, however, isn't dipping out of producing physical copies of its games just yet – and it's reassuring players that Oblivion Remastered on Switch 2 is no exception in that regard.

A new post from the company (which, mind you, went live mere hours after Sony announced its plan to axe physical disc production for PlayStation) reads that "The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered Deluxe Edition is available on a physical game card."

You know, "for those seeking to add to their collection!" The attached video shows the cartridge itself being waved around front and center, just to get the message across. That's totally just a conveniently timed coincidence and most definitely not a jab at Sony… right? Well, it's not like Bethesda names any names here or anything – but it does appear the community finds the timing amusing.

"This after Sony announces that they'll end disc production in 2028," as one fan's reply puts it. Another jests, "Alright, Bethesda. You got my attention!"

Honestly, I'm glad – joke or not – that Bethesda is still letting fans choose between going digital or physical. It's not as though Sony is the only big name to make moves away from the latter, anyway, with Nintendo having sparked similar controversy with its introduction of game-key cards on the Switch 2 last year.

That wasn't a complete wipe of physical copies for Nintendo's console, however, but it shows that times are certainly changing.

As someone who enjoys collecting games myself, I do hope more companies follow suit here and let consumers choose whether or not they want digital or physical releases. Choice is the key here, I'd say – and stripping that away is the core of the contention.

"Pretend we kept patching Oblivion. What would we have done if we kept supporting it?" – Todd Howard explains the "thought exercise" Bethesda went through for its remaster.

I hope that Clockwork Revolution doesn't mark the end of an era for Xbox. Every time I see it in action, I feel like I'm getting a glimpse into the future of role-playing games.

inXile Entertainment is showcasing an experience built on a foundation of depth and flexibility; an RPG where you're charged with changing the past to take control of your future. Expressive combat and detailed customization combining with a spiraling approach to choice and consequence. If Clockwork Revolution delivers on its potential, it'll show what can be achieved when a talented team is afforded six years to raise its creative ambitions.

Following the Xbox Games Showcase, CEO Asha Sharma announced an internal reset. While she stated that "a reliable pipeline of first- and third-party exclusives and new IP are critical to our success", it was also acknowledged that Xbox has "over extended" itself after expanding too rapidly under old leadership. Rumors of widespread layoffs and studio closures have followed.

I suspect the version of Xbox that exists by 2027 will be one that prioritizes shorter development cycles, less creative risktaking, and a pivoting of resources to support faster deployment of "industry-defining franchises" like Fallout, Forza, Gears, and Halo. Which is to say, it won't necessarily be an environment where something like a Clockwork Revolution is possible.

Clockwork has this neat system built around the lives of companions. As you reach into the past, pulling at threads to reshape the steampunk city of Avalon, the worlds of your favorite characters can change in unexpected ways. "The crew you come back to might not be the same one you left," teases game director Chad Moore. It's a big creative concept layered atop wild time manipulation / displacement powers, and storytelling split across different timelines.

There's a reason Clockwork has been selected as the first Xbox console-exclusive of 2027. It could be a genuine system-seller, the sort the Series X desperately needs. There's also a chance it'll be the last of its kind. Clockwork Revolution will technically mark the first inXile release for Xbox. The team was acquired in 2018, and spent its first two years in the XGS ecosystem shipping Wasteland 3. Six years later, the most ambitious RPG in inXile's history is almost here.

In an era where development is more complicated, expensive, and time intensive than ever, it's going to take that sort of timeframe to create something capable of pushing genre boundaries. My fear is that a changing Xbox, one more brutally responsive to industry pressures, may no longer burden the risk of producing new IP in this way. Clockwork Revolution is among my most anticipated games, I just fear it'll mark the end of Xbox's acquisition misadventure.

Related Stories:

PATCH NOTES: v02.09.2026 – Project Fantasy is in turmoil after a publishing partner, which sources corroborate to be Xbox Game Studios Publishing, pulled funding of the online fantasy RPG from developer IO Interactive.

What's going on with IOI's Project Fantasy?

• IOI announced that its relationship with an "external partner" had ended.
• Losing the backing of this partner has forced IOI to restructure
• Development of Project Fantasy continues as IOI remains "100% committed" to the project

Why is this happening now?

• Xbox is recalibrating its entire business model
• New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is assessing how and where it invests
• Xbox changes are impacting the industry beyond its first-party studios

Developer Comment

Meta Shift:

• IOI has been on a victory lap since the release of 007: First Light.

The studio has had a lot to celebrate right now. First Light is the best Bond game since Goldeneye, Hitman: World of Assassination continues to grow, and there's a remaster of the original Hitman trilogy moves into production with Saber Interactive. The news highlights just how quickly things can change in this industry.

This is another example of Xbox's changing priorities as CEO Asha Sharma attempts to recalibrate the business. Microsoft says that it's "taking a fresh look" at where it invests to ensure it is "focusing on our highest priorities."

For independent studios like IOI, this means the funding thought to be once secure can slip away in an instant – impacting game development timelines and prompting studio layoffs.

Known Issue:

• Very little is known about Project Fantasy, which was first announced in 2023, and that is now unlikely to change any time soon.

When I spoke with IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak in June 2026, he told me that development of this new adventure – an online fantasy RPG, one that draws creative inspiration from the 'Fighting Fantasy' books – was progressing well. "Hopefully the world will see the original IP that we're working on, we're going to reveal that soon."

"It might be revealed sooner than you think," Abrak told me a few weeks ago, adding that the prospect was "pretty damn exciting" with IOI finally establishing itself as a studio capable of maintaining multiple projects at once. "I acknowledge that IO Interactive has always been known as the Hitman studio, but I think that's about to change… Who knows what the future of Hitman, Bond, Project Fantasy, and the other exciting things we're working on is going to bring, but our confidence is pretty high right now."

When reached for clarification on whether the studio's plans to reveal Project Fantasy "soon" have changed following recent developments, IOI has no comment beyond the statement it made to the public.

Patch Notes Summary:

• Project Fantasy hasn't been canceled, but it has lost its publisher.

While sources tell GamesRadar+ that the game was due to be revealed soon after years of development and investment, it's likely that the next update we receive on the project will surround who is funding it rather than gameplay details.

IOI could (in theory) support Project Fantasy as an independent studio, or it could seek outside investment in an effort to bring its ambitious multiplayer game to life. For now, it seems like IO's fantasy of becoming a developer who can support multiple IPs at once has become more of a nightmare.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche is aware that Sandfall Interactive's next game might not be as big a hit as its award-winning 2025 gem – but that's totally fine.

The RPG lead admits he doesn't mind how well his studio's upcoming game does in a new episode of Video Game Club via Konbini on YouTube (below), first saying, "We're just going to do what we love again."

If that project – the one the developers pour this "love" into – flops a bit… Well, "I don't really care," states Broche. "It's weird to say, but we didn't make the first game to please anyone. And I think that's why it worked."

That's why, "for the next game," Sandfall will "make some drastic decisions too, and maybe people won't like it. That's life. Whether people follow us or not is their decision. But that's how we see the future."

Broche sees this as the better way for devs to approach their game releases. Otherwise, there'd be quite a lot of stress surrounding them. "I think that's the healthy way to approach it – at least if we don't want to be crushed under the pressure."

He's still realistic about launches. As the director concludes, "Of course, if we sell zero copies, we'll still have problems. But normally, it'll be fine." Honestly, something tells me that Sandfall Interactive will be fine come its next project, whatever that might be.

A quick look at the short but impressive history of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 supports this, although its success definitely does make it more difficult for future titles to make as much of a splash.

The turn-based RPG won various awards, after all, standing beside Baldur's Gate 3 as the second game ever to win all five major Game of the Year awards: Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards, D.I.C.E. Awards, GDC Awards, and BAFTA Games Awards.

It still stands on Steam with a perfect five-star rating, too, earning "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews to boot. In other words, it's one heck of a game.

Here's hoping that whatever Sandfall Interactive does next finds similar success – and that even if it doesn't, the studio carries on with its stellar work.

Final Fantasy 14 devs pulled off the best relaunch "in the history of video games," Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says.

Josh Sawyer isn't taking any credit for Fallout: New Vegas's conception, despite the fact that he directed the beloved RPG at Obsidian.

Like most games, Fallout: New Vegas was a collaborative effort with various leads at Obsidian spearheading different elements of the world and story, but in terms of the initial concept, it's fairly established history that studio co-founder Chris Avellone came up with the idea for the starting incident, which is the courier getting shot in the head and being buried in a shallow grave. Sawyer, as director, set the overall vision of the project, but he makes clear in an interview with The Examined Game that he wasn't involved in the initial discussions at all.

"I wasn't part of any of those early conversations," he says. "When I was at Obsidian around 2009, I had been a lead designer on an Aliens project that went very badly," he adds, referring to the canceled horror RPG Aliens: Crucible, "and it was the owners who had been talking to Bethesda. I had no idea that any of this stuff was going on.

"But then Feargus Urquhart, who's the studio head of Obsidian, he came to me and he said 'hey, we're talking to Bethesda about making a Fallout game – I think it was called Fallout 3: New Vegas or Fallout 3: Sin City – but it was a proposal that I believe [Obsidian co-founder] Chris Avellone had written, and I was completely unaware that they were doing this really, but basically he said, 'would you be willing to direct it?', and I was like, 'yeah, what? Of course.'"

Hearing this, I can't help but be reminded of a recent video from Sawyer's old Obsidian co-worker and fellow Fallout royalty Tim Cain, in which Cain explains how he "fumbled" his way through his early career, including his time at Interplay in which he created the Fallout series. According to these two generational RPG developers, the trick to success in this industry is just to really make sure you're in the right place at the right time.

"I didn't pitch New Vegas. New Vegas almost literally fell in my lap, because Feargus just sort of said, 'here you go', and yeah, it was just luck. It was just pure luck, like most things in my career," Sawyer adds.

There's a good reason Fallout: New Vegas remains on our list of the best RPGs to play in 2026.

After claiming Steam's fees cost Valve some of the biggest games around, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney doubled down, insisting that "lower fees and more openness might increase Steam profit." Sweeney pointed to companies "like Epic, Riot, and MiHoYo" as notable Steam skippers, and was swiftly reminded that Genshin Impact maker MiHoYo, now more commonly known by its HoYoverse or Cognosphere arms, has a growing presence on Steam.

A recent Twitter post from Sweeney wades into discussion of his comments regarding Steam. He responded to a user who sarcastically said "it is Steam's fault that Epic won't put their game on there apparently."

In full, Sweeney replied, "Here’s what’s happening economically: Steam charges such high fees that developers with strong brands and big enough audiences, like Epic, Riot, and MiHoYo find it more profitable to go it alone. Ironically, lower fees and more openness might increase Steam profit."

This quickly earned Sweeney a Twitter community note which clarifies that MiHoYo has had games on Steam since the 2021 relaunch of Honkai Impact 3rd, and, just weeks ago, released its action RPG Zenless Zone Zero on Steam to great success and reviews.

Additionally, new files spotted in the HoYoverse launcher suggest a Steam version of Genshin Impact may be on the way. However, this could also be a consequence of shared code that's not indicative of future changes.

Zenless Zone Zero came to Steam alongside the release of its big 3.0 update, a major season-like milestone. Genshin Impact is six weeks away from a similar milestone, update 7.0, which would be a tidy anchor for a Steam release. Speculation whirls that HoYoverse will push to reach more players with the final known chapter of Genshin's current regional storyline, which will begin with the release of the Snezhnaya area in update 7.0, perhaps by entreating the Steam audience.

There are a few other factors in the mix here. Zenless Zone Zero is the smallest of the modern HoYoverse games, trailing Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail in virtually all known metrics. A relevant counterpoint here is the game's presence on PC and PlayStation, with Sony showering partner awards on ZZZ amid chart-topping results, making mobile-only comparisons less useful. Zenless' seemingly much smaller audience may have made it a more appealing test for a Steam version. Importantly, Zenless also allowed account linking, letting existing players move to the Steam ecosystem and bring their account and potential purchases with them.

Sweeney doesn't specify it, but Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail are available on the Epic Games Store, which takes a smaller cut of sales than Steam. HoYoverse made a big show of its Epic partnership back in 2021, and it's unclear what terms Epic offered the company.

The latest Epic Games Store annual report confirms that fellow gacha RPG Wuthering Waves, Honkai: Star Rail, and Genshin Impact are, in that order, all among the store's top five "Mythic" PC games. Zenless Zone Zero, meanwhile, is in Epic's "Legendary" game tier alongside Grand Theft Auto 5, Infinity Nikki (another gacha game), Dead by Daylight, and EA Sports FC 26 (a gacha game in disguise).

By Sweeney's own logic of fees versus reach, revenue split alone may not explain HoYoverse's decision to skip Steam until recently. The Epic Games Store only attracts a small portion of the PC audience, and only 16 to 18% of users brought in by free games actually buy games on the store afterward, so with the Epic partnership, HoYo surely would've done some math on what it stood to gain when you put additional players on the scale with migrating players and third-party fees.

"My goal on PC isn't to topple Steam": Epic Games Store boss says beating Valve isn't the plan – just getting "enough market share on PC that you have to be here no matter what."

Every so often, comparisons between The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 break out, as fans compare and contrast the two mammoth RPGs from CD Projekt Red. On the back of the latest round, a lead developer decided to shed some light on what makes the latter the more impressive project, at least when it comes to cinematics.

In this case, people are convinced Cyberpunk 2077 would've been better with some third-person cutscenes. Igor Sarzyński, cinematic director on the sci-fi RPG and senior cinematic designer on The Witcher 3, delivers an impassioned response on Bluesky.

"Doing third person cutscenes only sometimes would've been jarring af, I guarantee it," he writes. "And third person cutscenes for each scene is just, like, a completely different game."

He then points out that not having the power to use different angles in the way third-person allows is actually harder to implement. "Doing interactive, non-linear, real-time scenes with no cuts but camera, and often movement freedom is [three times] as difficult and expensive as doing old school cutscenes," he explains. "If we wanted to cut scope we would do [The Witcher 3] style scenes."

That's a bold statement, but then he shares a comparison between the editing bay of the largest scene in Geralt's third adventure, and the same for Cyberpunk 2077, and you can immediately see how much more complex it is. I'm a hobbyist video editor, and the layers and layers of effects and footage and whatever else in the Cyberpunk 2077 image would melt my brain.

btw

— @srznsk.bsky.social (@srznsk.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-01T16:10:05.008Z

This all really just goes to highlight how hard it is to understand the craft involved when you're simply looking at the finished product. Oftentimes, what might look simple to you is far from it behind-the-scenes, but the right people can make it look effortless. Whatever you may think, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 were huge endeavors, and the devs deserve some respect for that.

The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs put "a considerable amount of effort into side stories," Cyberpunk 2 lead says: "Quality in those was a must."

It's no secret that CD Projekt Red put a lot of work into Cyberpunk 2077 (before and after its shaky launch, that is) – but some of what we now commend as brilliant detail in-game stems from the studio's limited resources, believe it or not.

This story contains spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 – read on at your own risk.

According to lead quest designer Paweł Sasko, anyway, that's the case with Meredith Stout and her dead body, which players can find underwater at the bottom of the bay north of Watson – should they make the decisions that lead to her brutal death, anyway.

You might notice that, if you do come across her corpse, her hair has been shaved off and her feet are cemented in a concrete block. It's (as grim as it is) a pretty cool detail. Fans seem to think so, too, with one's post about it prompting a response from Sasko himself. In it, he explains Stout's appearance there – and a little more about his design process in general.

"I love packing details like this into my quests," he writes. "It often takes time for the players to discover, but the thrill and satisfaction are unforgettable. It shows nobody is safe in Night City, there is always a bigger fish, and stakes are everywhere."

Sasko then gets into the nitty-gritty of Stout's hair (or lack thereof), saying, "Her head is shaved because rigging and animating hair to gently move underwater was out of available budget." In turn, he had to make something work.

"I had to be scrappy with my design, so I turned it into part of the story. Anthropologically, I liked it, because shaving hair is associated with losing honor, face, and being overshadowed by shame."

He concludes that it's just "one of the examples how limitation sparks creativity." That it certainly is.

It's nothing new for CD Projekt Red, either. I'm immediately reminded of what Sasko previously stated about The Witcher 3 and how the studio faced various setbacks while developing the legendary RPG – it's similar to the Stout situation, if you ask me… and it speaks to the team's resilience.

If something works, it works, and in this case, it worked out pretty dang well.

The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs put "a considerable amount of effort into side stories," Cyberpunk 2 lead says: "Quality in those was a must."

Large-scale layoffs are widely expected at Xbox soon, and funding decisions at the company are already costing game developers their jobs. Xbox has pulled funding from Project Fantasy, the upcoming new IP from Hitman and 007 First Light developer IO Interactive. While IOI says it remains committed to the new game, the funding cut will mean layoffs at the studio.

"A relationship with an external partner on our own IP, Project Fantasy, has come to an end," IO Interactive says in its announcement. "This means we have to adapt to this new reality and its short-term consequences, including staffing decisions, which is what is happening as we write this update, and we are fully committed to supporting those affected through this challenging transition."

While IO Interactive did not specifically name Xbox as the partner involved with Project Fantasy, a spokesperson for Microsoft's gaming brand confirmed it in a statement to Bloomberg. "We're not reducing our overall investment in games," the spokesperson says. "We expect to invest about the same in content as we did last year. What's changing is where we're investing and the kinds of projects we're backing."

Xbox had apparently been set to publish Project Fantasy. The game, which was initially described as a "bold new online fantasy RPG," was first announced in 2023, but few details on it have come since. Today's news comes a month after the launch of 007 First Light, a game which launched to broad acclaim and strong sales, though the future of the series seems to be something of an open question given recent comments from James Bond IP holder Amazon MGM.

Regardless, IO Interactive says it's still going to finish its RPG. "Project Fantasy is a game, a world, and an IP that we absolutely love and remain 100% committed to, now and in the future," its statement insists. "This wonderful universe will see the light of day."

Major changes at Xbox have been expected since June 10, when a message from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty ominously warned of an impending "reset." Some studios may be sold to external buyers, or shut down entirely. Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games have all reportedly been on the chopping block, and a new report suggests that Dishonored developer Arkane, which is currently making Marvel's Blade, is also among the studios at risk. Multiple reports indicate that Xbox's layoffs will begin on July 6.

Xbox Game Studios head leaves after less than 2 years: "I'm proud to say we delivered many flawless launches."

I have found Love and Deepspace developer Infold Games guilty of fur-degree murder. The werewolf tech executive who was meant to become the dating RPG's sixth love interest on July 9 is instead face down, tail up in a puddle of blood after fan controversy led to his cancellation – and a moratorium on any future love interests coming to the game where only five sets of six-packs are clearly not enough.

Infold says in a June 30 letter to players and accompanied by the macabre hashtag #LADSValkoCanceled, "We have decided to cancel both the launch and any further development of the new love interest. We also commit that no additional love interests will be introduced in future content plans."

I've been destroyed by this. I was seriously considering buying a new phone just to have more storage for Valko, who, according to a promotional trailer revealed only a few days ago, experiences "INSTINCTIVE ATTRACTION" to my buttercream-sweet main character and is "GENETICALLY LOCKED FORCED TO OBEY" my expensive whims like a good doggy with a Rolex. I was really looking forward to riding side-saddle on this unconventional tech executive's Vespa Primavera, but some Love and Deepspace fans thought he was a symbol of patriarchal violence and an allusion to a real-life murder.

Why don't we pause there… People sometimes tell me they feel like they're having a night terror when I talk to them about Love and Deepspace, on account of it being a period tracker where you can plant Calla lilies and have PG-13 pool sex before marching off into a violent battle against alien mecha. But don't run from this.

I'll explain. Infold won't – it vaguely cited "conversations and feedback across all platforms" for its decision to stab and skin Valko, and it sort of alluded to fan controversy earlier this week in another apology on June 27, in which it said, "The way information about Valko was presented did not give sufficient consideration to your expectations and concerns." But, from my perspective, all that really happened was a few tumbleweed conspiracy theories kept gaining ground, and it turned into an avalanche.

One of these theories involves a tagline Valko received in Chinese promotional material, which, according to a fan's translation on Reddit, joked about cooking and "Rule No. 1: Never bathe in the pot." Warning: the next sentence contains details of a real murder. In their post, the fan explains that Chinese players worry this line references a real domestic violence case people call the "Iron Pot Wife Murder," in which a woman's abusive husband shoved her face in boiling soup, torturing and drowning her.

The fan says, "Infold's blatant disrespect for its female player base cannot be ignored." And I want to take a moment to acknowledge the disgusting nature of the Iron Pot Wife Murder, whose victim I wish peace upon, and the nauseating fact that, according to the UN in 2024, 137 women and girls on average were killed daily by their own family members. This statistic and other evidence of the way women are abused and discarded – some of which I am personally familiar with – sickens me. At the same time, I think it's important we all remember this started as a discussion about a fictional werewolf CEO. He has a hoodie that sort of leaves space for two fuzzy little doggy ears.

Another theory some fans had was that Valko looks too much like Infold CEO Yao Runhao, and that his name in Chinese, Ao Yin 敖尹, sounds like the CEO's name, too. I don't want to spend too much time on this theory, because one of these guys looks like a normal 38-year-old man with glasses and the other looks like an anime statue of Apollo with a slutty smirk and perfect nose for sniffing girl pheromones on account of the fact that he's a werewolf tech genius. I'll let you figure out which one's which.

pic.twitter.com/61cvKUV5ZS

Ultimately, I think the controversy surrounding Valko is baseless. I understand why women may feel the need to be extra vigilant when it comes to video game content, since it's historically so hostile to us, and upskirt-oriented. But I don't think my mathematical genius puppy husband should be blamed for his father's and forefathers' sins. He isn't like them. He's completely hairless, even though it's thematically confusing. Nonetheless, since he's a werewolf, both he and my period cycle are ruled by the full moon. Doesn't that still mean something?

World's most popular horny RPG with over 50 million downloads gives up on decorum in "divine" update that's probably illegal somewhere: "WAITT WHATT??? FROM BEHINDD?"

Bethesda has finally confirmed the release date for the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, but it's not inspiring a huge amount of confidence based on Skyrim on Switch 2 and Oblivion Remastered everywhere else.

Bethesda Game Studios closed out the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase earlier this year with news about its library coming to Switch 2, including the announcement of Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition and news about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but the big finale was that Oblivion Remastered would also be coming. And despite a Nintendo Direct no-show earlier this month, Bethesda has released a new trailer confirming the port will release on August 11, and despite word it would be a game-key card release, it will release on a proper cartridge after all.

The trailer is mostly a live-action segment showing the iconic Adoring Fan NPC from the 2006 classic following a man around, before showing a teeny-tiny bit of gameplay from the port at the end. Now, considering Skyrim's Switch 2 port was described as running "like wet ass" at launch (which, surely a wet ass would be smooth… Not important…) before getting a fix a few months later, the lack of gameplay isn't exactly inspiring confidence.

That's not to mention the fact that Skyrim is a game from 2011 with minimal improvements, whereas the remastered overhaul of Oblivion still has pretty terrible performance on PC, so how will the handheld handle it? "Will it actually work though?" one YouTube commenter asks, as another speculates: "There is a reason 80% of this video doesn't show any gameplay at all."

On top of Oblivion Remastered running poorly on other platforms, it hasn't been updated in some time, so some are hoping this new port will result in love for other versions. The YouTube comments on the trailer focus on this, with one user saying, "Please fix the performance issues on other consoles first," while another asks: "Does this mean it’ll get some patches for other consoles? I was bummed by how little post-launch support this got."

As Fallout 3 and New Vegas remake hopes and rumors persist, Bethesda's Todd Howard says he's actually "anti-remake" and prefers remasters like Oblivion's instead.

Still standing the test of time as one of the best RPGs ever created, Planescape: Torment is a genre gem – but it never got the sequel it deserved (and many fans still hope to see).

Sure, there was Torment: Tides of Numenera in 2017… but that doesn't exactly count, as it's more of a spiritual successor. An official Planescape: Torment 2 was actually on the table, though, believe it or not – Beamdog boss Trent Oster tells PC Gamer as much in a recent interview.

In fact, the studio "had some great meetings" with Wizards of the Coast, "and they were really into what we were doing," apparently.

"We were talking about how we could tie it in with a source book and everything. It was an exciting concept," Oster recalls. Wizards of the Coast ultimately decided not to financially invest, however.

"When we pitched it to Wizards, they were like, 'We don't have money for external development, we're not doing that right now.'" It's nothing new for the company, though, according to the Beamdog lead.

"Over time, Wizards has kind of gone through these cycles where they’re like, 'Oh, we'll do all the internal development.' And then, 'Oh my God, internal development's so expensive, we'll just license it all out. We'll let partners take all the risk.' [And then] 'Hey, wait, these guys made a ton of money, let's bring it internal again.'"

Sadly for the RPG veterans, it wasn't just Wizards of the Coast who didn't want to foot the bill.

"We searched around for funding, and nobody would fund it," as Oster describes. "Everybody we pitched at that time was like, 'Well, why would we spend our money making their IP worth more money?'" It's certainly disappointing to hear, especially as someone with a good couple of hundred hours in Planescape: Torment.

Sure, we've got Baldur's Gate 3 – but as a Dungeons & Dragons setting, Planescape just can't be beat… in my opinion, anyway.

The old game's storytelling remains peak even today. Heck, I think I hear "updated my journal" play through my head spontaneously still. Man, I really could use a sequel…

Baldur's Gate 4 could've been headed by a Baldur's Gate 2 veteran, but the RPG legend "wouldn't want to compete" against Larian: "That would be insanity"

Although we know that Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios is not going to be heading Baldur's Gate 4, the question of who will work on the sequel remains unanswered.

It's bounced around in discussions on the web for quite some time now, with folks wondering who would take the helm for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast's IP – but there's still no solid decision there, it seems. As per a new interview with PC Gamer, however, it apparently could have been a Baldur's Gate 2 veteran: James Ohlen, the 2000 RPG's director of writing and design, who was working on sci-fi RPG Exodus at Archetype Entertainment when Hasbro approached him.

"The day [Chris Cox, Hasbro CEO] knew they [Larian Studios] weren't going to do it, he called me," recalls Ohlen. "'Hey James, what do you think about doing Baldur's Gate 4?' And I was like, 'I don't, I would fail, and here's why I would fail.'"

According to Ohlen, he simply wouldn't be able to overcome the hurdles that Larian had and create something that lives up to the reputation that Baldur's Gate 3 has built.

"I wouldn't want to compete against that," he admits. "Doing Exodus is hard enough, but having to compete against Baldur's Gate 3? That would be insanity." It wouldn't be easy in any way, either – Baldur's Gate 3 was built in Larian's own engine, which means he would've had nothing to work with.

"We're talking about at least half a decade of horror, building all that stuff," as he says. He did ask if Hasbro could get Larian to license its engine out. You know, much like Black Isle Studios did back in the day with BioWare's in-house Infinity Engine. Even if that had worked out, though, Ohlen isn't convinced it'd have been enough.

Larian, including lead Swen Vincke, sits as the RPG genre king now. "Swen's always going to be the master of building those kinds of things. It's really hard to take him off that throne, just because of everything – the tools, institutional knowledge, team."

As for who could do it, and how, Ohlen believes they'd need to be original – no abiding by any preconceived rules.

"That was me back in Baldur's Gate. I was like, 'Everyone else sucks, and we're going to crush it.' It was us against all the other game studios, we're going to outdo them. And because none of us had built games before, we were all like, 'We're going to do everything different.' And sometimes you need that." Indeed, you do.

I'd argue that's exactly what Larian did, too – and that it's why it's so difficult to exceed the expectations that Baldur's Gate 3 set. Hopefully, we know who's taking the torch soon.

"Baldur's Gate 3 seems to have done it pretty well," but don't expect Obsidian's next story-based RPG to launch in early access, Grounded 2 lead suggests.

Time has been kind to Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian's ambitious spin-off action RPG. These days, players appreciate the nuances and sense of place wandering the desolate Mojave desert, but back in 2010, the game lived in Fallout 3's shadow. Once those comparisons faded, director Josh Sawyer believes the release got a fairer look.

"The reception of New Vegas, when it launched, by professional reviewers was positive, but kind of lukewarm," Sawyer says on The Examined Game podcast (below). "People were not jumping out of their seats like, 'This is amazing.' And some reviews were pretty critical."

He notes there were comments that New Vegas "feels like a mod," or "feels almost identical to Fallout 3," or "it feels like an expansion pack." My personal recollection is frustration over bugs and glitches, but viewing Obsidian's project as glorified DLC sounds about right too.

As Sawyer notes, there's a significant overlap in assets and visuals, and coming two years after Fallout 3, it would've been a difficult descriptor to avoid. He clarifies he's "not saying everyone hated it," just the sci-fi adventure didn't land quite as the team hoped.

"It was only over time that there was this sense that people were appreciative," he recalls. "It's kind of like they forgot about the fact that they were annoyed that we reused so many assets and the gameplay was largely the same."

The modding community helped here as well. You can now find a hearty mix of improvements and tweaks that make New Vegas smoother and more enjoyable to play. In any case, if you haven't already played through it, I recommend you do. Just maybe not right after a run of Fallout 3.

Fallout: New Vegas lead says Obsidian has a "Karma Police" force to make sure "however you built your character" in their RPGs, "it's not gonna be the same experience" twice.

Did you know that CD Projekt is, in fact, a company that's distinct from CD Projekt Red? I did, but that's only because my days are often occupied with polite but firm emails from PR representatives who are quite particular about these sorts of minutiae. Thankfully, the company has recognized that this state of affairs is extremely confusing, and is unifying its name to make things more consistent.

CD Projekt (without the Red) was founded back in 1994 as a distributor bringing foreign video games to the Polish market. CD Projekt Red was founded in 2002, and that name represents the development studio responsible for The Witcher and Cyberpunk games. Over time, the two names became basically synonymous in the minds of players, and while CD Projekt Red was technically a subsidiary of the broader CD Projekt, the company had a heck of a time getting anyone to recognize the difference.

Now, as part of an effort "ensure full brand consistency and facilitate the identification of the Company with its products on the global market," the whole thing is going to be known as CD Projekt Red. The announcement was buried in one of the company's recent reports, but was soon noted by Polish financial site Bankier.pl (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz).

I choose to believe that we – that is, the general gaming world – have bullied the whole of CD Projekt into appending that "Red" by resolutely refusing to recognize the company and its development house as separate entities. Remember when CDPR insisted that The Witcher 4 was not called The Witcher 4, up until the very moment it was confirmed to be called The Witcher 4? Same principle. This is the power of refusing to accept corporate brand guidelines as a restriction on actual language.

Here are all the upcoming CD Projekt Red games you need to know about.

To put it mildly, longtime Dragon Age narrative lead David Gaider, who's long since left Bioware to become a co-founder of Malys and Stray Gods maker Summerfall Studios, is not impressed by generative AI. To put it less mildly, he reckons the technology is a "virulent plague" among games.

Speaking with GamesRadar+ as part of a larger report unpacking why so many game developers don't want to use generative AI, Gaider examines the proposed benefits of the tech alongside its observable effects.

"I think the fact that generative AI is frequently trained on data regardless of whether creators or owners have agreed to have their data pillaged in this manner opens up any use of it to all sorts of future legal issues - even if one chooses to ignore the moral implications, which one really shouldn't," Gaider begins.

It's often unclear exactly what materials AI models were trained on, but given the track records of many of the biggest companies in the space, you can safely assume that a significant chunk of that material was scraped without permission. Gaider says, "'If we're not allowed to steal whatever we need, then the AI won't work as well!' isn't a very compelling argument."

He examines one commonly supported use case for gen AI in games: the "concepting or iterating phases," where there may be no plans for AI-made assets to be included in the final game. But he sees risks even with sparing or early use. We've already seen plenty of games mistakenly ship with placeholder AI assets. "All you'd need is one lazy developer or one temp asset that's been forgotten or was placed by someone who's since left the team and you'd have an issue on your hands," Gaider says.

"Honestly, what does it help with?" he wonders. "Does it make the work more efficient? Does it improve the work? It wouldn't be so bad if generative AI was seen more as an assistant, doing the drudgery while leaving more important tasks for the worker, but we seem to be seeing more and more of the reverse: the AI is set to do the important work and the worker is around to 'clean up'.

"In all my time as a narrative designer I've never once encountered a situation where editing an inferior product took less time than simply throwing it out and redoing it would have or resulted in anything better than mediocre. And while there's potential for AI handling the drudgery, I also think we have to be very careful about not eliminating every task which is useful for training juniors. How are we going to train up the next generation of devs if we eliminate every entry-level task?"

Gaider struggles to find an angle on gen AI that doesn't render "the entire thing problematic." He sees "some potential" for it as a "useful development tool" in theory, but not in the technology we have today. "It's not ready for prime time. There's just a lot of executives who really, really want it to be," he says.

So, he doesn't want to use gen AI at all. While he hopes there's potential in it, he stresses that "generative AI is terrible at iteration" because you can't "tell it to adjust minor things and get a consistent result," which is kind of the whole point of iteration.

"It would be frustrating as hell," he continues. "I can't even imagine using it for bigger tasks like programming. How does one bug fix 'vibe coding'? What's the point of creating prototypes with AI when the result is that nobody on the team has actually learned anything about how to make the final product? Why use AI to create concepts which are inevitably going to be soulless and contain errors and which aren't going to be something your own artists can replicate? Why have systems that nobody on your team really knows how they work? I could go on and on."

And he does, indeed, go on. Gaider echoes many developers who don't wholly reject the idea of supporting development with new technology in this space, but do wholeheartedly reject gen AI as we know it today. Asked how he wants to see gen AI treated in the games industry, Gaider minces no words.

"Until some regulation is in place? Until we can be confident that it's only trained on legally sourced data? Until the people making decisions regarding its use finally realize that it's not the source of cheap labour replacement they want it to be, and don't cut off their teams at the kneecaps to force it on them while expecting unrealistic results? It should be treated like the virulent plague it is."

As Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney blasts Valve over Steam AI disclosures, dev makes those disclosures even more noticeable and hides AI-aided games in search results.

One of many things that makes Fallout: New Vegas a standout within the franchise is how well balanced its classes are. Any build you make is distinct and gratifying, an uncommon experience when it comes to RPGs of any type. Josh Sawyer, New Vegas' director, puts this down to a special squad within developer Obsidian who sense-check the player's options.

"We just wanted to set up the player to believe, however you built your character, it's not gonna be the same experience," he tells the Human Can Opener podcast about Fallout: New Vegas. "We're not gonna let you down. We're not gonna leave you out to dry and not give you something to be excited about."

Sawyer, who still serves as a game director at Obsidian, wants to make sure the RPG remains worthwhile and intriguing to players. So, "We have an informal job on the design team called 'Karma Police,'" he says. "At a few points during development, we'll ask a designer to go through all the scripts – usually in dialogue, but also everywhere in the game⁠ – and see 'How often is Guns being checked? How often is Charisma being checked? How often is Barter being checked?'"

There's essentially a spectrum for encounters where one skill is needed, or could be more useful than another, and Obsidian aims to be within a certain threshold on all fronts. "Let's say there's 40 [checks] in Medicine, and there's like, 28 in Science. Great! Get in the ballpark," Sawyer muses. "You don't want to go huge stretches of the game and be like, 'Man, I invested in this skill and it never comes up.'"

I would agree, and I'd go further to say, if you make these internal stats too arbitrary – make them all 35 or something – players would start noticing the patterns through comparison. A little bit of randomness is good to keep us on our toes, and perhaps more importantly, to encourage replays. And if ever there's an RPG that's good for replaying, it's Fallout: New Vegas.

Fallout designer Tim Cain "fumbled" through his career and "didn't think about a sequel" to the first apocalyptic RPG or Arcanum while making them.

Before there was Fallout 3 in 2008, there was Van Buren – the sadly canceled, Black Isle Studios-led third Fallout – and even though it never came to fruition in the end, it could've been one heck of an RPG.

Or, at least, it sounds like it might've been. Obsidian Entertainment's Joshua Eric "Josh" Sawyer, now best known for his work on genre gems like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, seems to think it was shaping up to be quite a game.
He explains as much in a new interview with The Examined Game on YouTube (below), first noting that he "wasn't the lead" on Van Buren, that role belonged to Chris Avellone. He was the lead system designer, however.

Things were complicated over time after the team was stripped and left with a "skeleton crew," though, as Sawyer puts it. Resources "got taken away to work on another project outside of Black Isle." Considering the work that had been done on Van Buren, it was disappointing.

"This is such a bummer because we made a cool demo," as Sawyer recalls. "It looks very dated now, but… it was like 2003 when this demo was finished."

He notes that you can find said demo online, and after a quick search myself, I'll admit it does look pretty dated… but also pretty dang solid. It certainly fits the vibe of the first Fallout games a bit more than Bethesda Game Studios' own Fallout 3 does.

As Sawyer says himself, "I thought it was a really cool demo, and it showed that we were doing some pretty neat things." But, of course, nothing ever came from it, unfortunately.

According to Sawyer, however, publisher Interplay eventually did see it. "They said, 'Well, if we had known that you had made this, maybe we wouldn't have canceled it.'"

It's a frustrating consideration for the Obsidian dev and his former coworkers, as they "repeatedly" asked for acknowledgement of Van Buren. "We invited you over and over and over again, and you never came," he recalls. Sadly, as Sawyer concludes, "they weren't interested in it."

This all lines up with what others have said in the past. Fallout co-creator Tim Cain stated that the original canceled Fallout 3 could've shipped and been "a really good game," for example.

It's upsetting to know Van Buren won't ever see the light of day properly, I suppose – but for the time being, we do have fan-led projects like the Nexus Mods version of Van Buren that are playable for free.

Fallout designer Tim Cain "fumbled" through his career and "didn't think about a sequel" to the first apocalyptic RPG or Arcanum while making them.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has sold over six million copies in just over a year, meaning the massive RPG is already over halfway to beating its predecessor's sales.

While Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 became a behemoth that eclipsed every game when it came to award season last year, at the start of 2025, it really felt like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was the frontrunner for game of the year. The massive RPG got rave reviews and – perhaps more crucially – one of the most impassioned fanbases of any game in 2025. So much so, the game managed to sell three million copies in three months.

Warhorse Studios announces on Twitter that now – a year and four months removed from launch – that number has now doubled, with six million copies of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 now sold. "6 million Henrys. An achievement we couldn't have reached alone," the post reads, adding: "Thank you for being a part of this community, we're excited to have you with us on the adventure!"

Crucially, this places the game at over halfway to beating the impressive sales numbers of the original. Kingdom Come: Deliverance released back in 2018, and Warhorse Studios confirmed last year that the game had sold over 10 million copies in the then-seven years it was out.

The studio has also confirmed it's working on a "new Kingdom Come adventure," which it announced alongside confirming rumors that it is working on a new open-world Lord of the Rings RPG. With the fanbase Kingdom Come has amassed mixed with the massive Tolkien fandom, I can only foresee it being huge when it does release.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 studio Warhorse raises $65,000 to help preserve the real-life medieval castle that's Henry's homebase in the first RPG.

The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 arguably stand the test of time as two of the best RPGs ever developed – and a lot of this stellar reputation boils down to the quality of not just their main stories, but their side missions, too.

Heck, I don't think I'll ever forget the Land of a Thousand Fables – and I'm certainly not alone in feeling that CD Projekt Red does some excellent side stories. In fact, a thread over on Twitter about the developer's stellar "side quests and DLC" has prompted a reply from Paweł Sasko – quest designer on The Witcher 3 and quest design director on Cyberpunk 2077, who now works as associate game director on Cyberpunk 2. According to him, a lot of elbow grease goes into those "side" missions.

"We put a considerable amount of effort into side stories," writes Sasko. "Those most of the time have same budget and production timeline, talented teams, and more creative freedom (by not being tied to main story, mostly)."

Honestly, I'm not surprised to hear that – and in The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, he says, "quality in those was a must," not just a "nice to have" thing. That's not hard to see if you've played either RPG.

The Witcher 3 boasts nearly 200 hours of content (if you include its main story and the side quests), but I've easily poured hundreds more into it myself. Cyberpunk 2077 is similarly lengthy, and a quick browse on Steam shows folks with 1,000+ hours spent in-game leaving reviews.

In other words, many players find themselves lost within CD Projekt Red's various side missions and lively worlds – a testament to the studio's hard work.

It does beg the question – just how expansive will upcoming CD Projekt Red games be, like The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2? I'm willing to bet that they, too, will end up proving some of the greatest RPGs, with much of that falling to their optional content as well as their undoubtedly massive main stories.

Only time can truly tell, however… but for now, I think I'll go replay The Witcher 3 for the umpteenth time.

Joint The Witcher 4 and CD Projekt Red CEO says fully AI-generated games are coming, but he has "some doubts whether this is really the path to follow."

Putting together an RPG is hard. Regardless of type, they're nebulous projects that require all sorts of creativity to get right. The Outer Worlds and Avowed studio Obsidian Entertainment would know, since the studio's released quite a few, and according to its findings, putting out a beta build first doesn't necessarily help, though there are exceptions.

At Summer Game Fest 2026, Chris Parker, game director for Grounded 2, explained to us that letting players in earlier can work in some instances, but not for sprawling role-playing adventures. "Obsidian got its first real taste for this with Pillars of Eternity, which was not an early access game per se, it was a Kickstarter, but we were constantly updating the community and letting them know about stuff," he tells GamesRadar+.

"I think we recognized that that sort of relationship with the community can't be replicated with just a bunch of devs hanging out," he continues. "No matter how hard you try, and how Socratic your philosophical discussions may be, you're never going to get that huge big picture."

He admits that "it worked out amazingly well" for the first Grounded, but on the large narrative sandboxes Obsidian also develops, like The Outer Worlds games, the approach is less enticing. "It's not going to make sense for every game we make," he starts. "When you're making a huge, super crunchy story-based RPG, I think that's probably pretty hard to put into early access."

There are exceptions, as Larian Studios managed to figure out, but Parker considers that an outlier. "Baldur's Gate 3 seems to have done it pretty well, so maybe there's room for that," he muses. "But when we're starting a game, it's like, 'Hey, does this make sense for this game,' and I think you're gonna see sometimes for us it does, and sometimes it doesn't."

But, as he sees it, "for Grounded 2, it's perfect." The sequel became available for Xbox Series X/S and PC players in July last year, and PlayStation 5 fans can join in come August.

Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 show "RPGs are as vibrant" now as ever, Obsidian lead says, even if the genre can look "a little tired" sometimes.

The news that The Witcher 3 is getting a brand-spanking new expansion pack in 2027 might seem bizarre at face value. This is a game that was, by all accounts, settled. But in Songs of the Past, we're going to take old Geralt out for one last spin before Ciri takes the reins in The Witcher 4. What a way to say goodbye to one of the most iconic games of the last few decades.

Over the past ten years or so, we've been seeing a lot more old games getting expansions long after their original release, and I am so here for it. Baldur's Gate got Siege of Dragonspear in 2016, Titan Quest got Ragnarok in 2017. Hell, even Doom 2 got Legacy of Rust in 2024, 30 years after its initial release. As trends go, this one can seem a little self indulgent at first glance. It's easy to write these types of gestures off as cash grabs, rather than fully-fledged works with artistic intent, but you'd be wrong to do that.

Geralt, or the Collapse and Fall of Tech Advances

There are two main reasons that we're seeing developers return to older titles, and neither are as selfish as a cash grab. The first is that the speed of tech advancements has plateaued in recent years, meaning 10-year old games today feel far more playable than those from 20 years ago. This applies to The Witcher 3 specifically, but also to Mario Kart 8's booster courses that massively spiked the number of tracks, and Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary.

Think about games from the 2010s. Do they really look that much worse than games released today? Do they make you wince and gasp at their visuals? Of course not, because the tech plateau means we're more tinkering around the edges rather than creating any grand upgrades, particularly as a lot of titles get significant post-release update support anyway.

The Witcher 3 came out 11 years ago. Think about games that released in 2005, and think if there were any that you'd think still looked almost new in 2016. The closest that you'd come would be maybe Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360, but it's still distinctly an older game. If you want to go back even further, and examine the tech plateau from the peak of Mount Build Engine, consider that there are only 11 years between Duke Nukem 3D and Bioshock.

You can go home again

This is only one of the reasons I think older games are getting delayed expansions, though. The second is that we're now seeing some degree of sentimentality emerge from within game development's often frosty heart.

The games that inspired us are still widely played. Diablo 2's recent Reign of the Warlock expansion was clearly a labor of love, made partly by those who grew up on Diablo 2. The same can be said for Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, likewise for The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past – the expansion is being co-developed by Fool's Theory, the studio behind Witcher-inflected The Thaumaturge and headed by former CD Projekt Red dev Jakub Rokosz.

There is a clear throughline here, one that echoes how the games industry is maturing into something that allows for crosspollination: new games are being made, but studios still want to pay homage to the classics.

There's something special about games that allows for developers to pay their respects or build on the past without necessarily committing to a full reboot. Expansions and DLCs are unique to video games. Books can't release an additional chapter for you to enjoy decades later. You wouldn't see Quentin Tarantino adding another section to Pulp Fiction. Video games also have a leg-up on television and movies, as its characters don't age.

For all of the industry's flaws, the medium itself is flexible in a way that nothing else can be. I love that we're starting to see what happens when developers go back to their principles. Instead of decrying the idea that graphics aren't moving forward, let's appreciate that we are living through a golden age, where titles from a decade ago won't be shunned because they look rough: they hold up without any major touch-ups necessary. Let's appreciate, too, that even older games are having new life breathed into them by devs who grew up loving the original. Me? I'm holding out hope that we'll see a new expansion for Fallout: New Vegas.

The Witcher 3 is one of the best RPGs of all time, and there are plenty more like it.

For a series all about jumping from one disjointed Disney world to the next (and maybe stopping to chat with Final Fantasy friends in between), Kingdom Hearts 4 has been pretty shy about which movies might be depicted in the upcoming game. But Sora's long-time voice actor and Oscar-nominated child star Haley Joel Osment has had his picks locked down for ages: Star Wars and Marvel.

Kingdom Hearts 4 recently popped out of the shadows with a surprise new trailer earlier this month. Perhaps more surprising than its mere appearance was the omission of any Disney worlds or characters – though, from previous looks at the game, we do know Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, and Hades will appear – which has left the fanbase to speculate wildly off on their own.

Ravenous Kingdom Hearts fans aren't the only ones theory crafting, however. Haley Joel Osment himself took a couple guesses at which Disney properties might show up in the sequel in a 2024 interview with TheMovieDweeb that recently resurfaced thanks to all the Kingdom Hearts 4 hype.

"Now we're linked up with Marvel and Star Wars, right? I don't know if they ever would connect those," Osment said at the time. "That might be a little too complicated, like connecting all that, but you know, I would never put it past them [Square Enix]. It's a bunch of really creative people."

As for his favorite worlds in the series, well, they might surprise you. "We've done a Tron one. I like the Steamboat Willie one," he added, "the animation in that was really cool. So, yeah, all these [worlds] that may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Disney video game. I love when they really stretch in that direction. I'm excited to see."

Any deeper cuts seem preferable for the Sora actor, but the recently-reposted clip has now seen fans get involved as well. Comments under the video has droves of people begging for Treasure Planet representation. Oh, how I'd like to shake all your hands! Coco, Zootopia, The Incredibles, and Atlantis are other common suggestions.

In the meantime, the only Kingdom Hearts 4 worlds we've seen so far are Quadratum, the life-like city shown off in trailers that's implied to be an afterlife of sorts, and the tiniest glimpse of a green forest with what looks like a Star Wars AT-ST foot stomping about. Endor-coded, much?

Disney now owns so many properties that it's pretty easy to come up with a dream wishlist. Mine would probably include Sora being stalked by a Xenomorph before engaging in an overly long chicken-fight with Peter Griffin.

After voicing Sora in 12 RPGs, Kingdom Hearts actor says maybe "the best thing to do" is let the long-running series end: "Even if you have something that you love."

Obsidian Entertainment legend and Grounded 2 game director Chris Parker is no stranger to the world of RPGs, having been involved in numerous genre heavyweights over the last three decades, and even he thinks the roleplaying space is just as exciting as it's ever been.

Asked about the state of the genre in an interview with GamesRadar+, Parker says, "Sometimes it looks a little tired, sometimes it looks like it needs a little bit of a freshening up, but then something comes along and shows me that RPGs are as vibrant and exciting a genre now as they have ever been." Those somethings include two of the biggest hit games of the last few years, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Baldur's Gate 3, he says.

Parker's definitely not alone in that opinion, either, since both are the only games that have ever swept all five major Game of the Year awards uninterrupted.

But Obsidian Entertainment's also been a mainstay in the genre since its founding more than 20 years ago, and Parker is sure to acknowledge the studio's contributions as well. Both last year's fantasy romp Avowed and capitalist satire The Outer Worlds 2 "are super fun and great experiences, and brought something to the genre," Parker adds.

"I think RPGs will continue to evolve and be amazing, and in weird different ways, like your Disco Elysiums and stuff like that, right? And so I have complete faith in that genre, and at some point I'm not going to be making those games anymore," he acknowledges. "Part of me is just here encouraging everybody else who makes them [to] keep making them because I love them. I know there's room for them to grow, and I'm just looking for that from either our studio or any studio that wants to jump in there."

There you have it - the RPG genre at least seems as healthy as ever, and Parker's very different examples are good proof. Whether it be a turn-based RPG or an action-oriented one, a game pulling from JRPG classics or CRPG icons, I think the genre's diversity is helping keep it fresh.

Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach actor teases more about whether the "key cast" will return for the HBO sequel series

A new Deltarune Chapter 5 update targets bugs and makes its final boss slightly easier if you suck at the game. (Don't worry, this is a safe space.)

The Undertale offshoot launched yesterday to some impressive numbers, easily beating its previous Steam player peak as fans practically swarmed to find out what happens next in the episodic RPG. Theorists and casual fans alike had spent all year channelling their inner Charlie Day – and by that I mean speculating wildly – so its popularity isn't a huge surprise, but Chapter 5 didn't launch unblemished.

On social media, the developer shared a list of bugs that it was working on squashing, including one where "flirting can freeze the game" during a boss battle. A new hotfix update has now addressed that and more.

Using the 'flirt' act will no longer softlock the game when the music slows down during a certain fight that can't be named for probably spoilerific reasons (prepare your best one-liners, then), but Deltarune is more crash-resistant across the board now.

"Fixed a softlock when pressing Z&X simultaneously when interacting with a disappearing fox," the patch notes read. "Fixed a crash when knives spawn from an aqua-colored enemy, and after said enemy is defeated. Fixed a crash when collecting candy from a green-colored enemy."

Another curious bug would make Kris gigantic and the game unplayable if you had "modified your save file in a previous chapter," though that's also not a problem anymore.

Perhaps my favorite tweak is one that comes at the end of the episode. "The last boss of the chapter becomes gradually easier after losing an excessive amount of times in one play session," the dev writes. The game itself won't shame you for not gitting gud, but in the back of your head you'll know Toby Fox and co. just did the gaming equivalent of handing a toddler toy kitchen utensils. Restarting the play session will reset the difficulty, if you'd like to conquer the boss without any help.

"We will continue to address bugs as quickly as we can," the dev promises.

Deltarune Chapter 6 is "aiming for a 2027 release," Undertale legend Toby Fox casually reveals on Steam after Chapter 5's record-breaking launch.

Now that Undertale and Deltarune creator Toby Fox has finally released his newer game's Chapter 5, fans are already looking forward to what's next – and, apparently, they'll have to wait until next year… or so the developer seems to say, casually at that.

Eagle-eyed fans have spotted Fox's quiet reveal on the official Steam page for Deltarune, further down under the "FAQ" section of the RPG's description.

The first question asks whether Chapter 5 is the "last chapter," to which the dev replies, "Nope! The story is still continuing, and more Chapters will be added for free over time."

It's the next response that has really caught folks' attention online, however.

The second question reads, "Then when's Chapter 6?" Fox nonchalantly responds, "We are aiming for a 2027 release! Meanwhile, we will be periodically releasing information on the development progress of the game."

So, in other words, Deltarune Chapter 6 is probably coming next year – although we're not sure when for certain just yet. Still, that's pretty great news… even if it did seemingly appear on Steam out of nowhere.

This aligns well with what Fox said yesterday before the big Chapter 5 launch – that "it's on to the next chapter" for devs now. Evidently, the Deltarune mastermind and his team have started chipping away at Chapter 6 now.

As for how the fans who found the next chapter's release window feel, threads over on Twitter show that they're understandably both excited – and confused about why Fox didn't "put this in the fucking game."

I mean, I get it. It's what he did with Chapter 4. Don't get it twisted, though – the community is still thrilled. "Thank the lord," as another comment says. "I saw no release window at the end of the chapter and was like, 'welp, guess I'm going to have to wait two more years.'"

As reassuring as it is, there is still disappointment about Chapter 6 not coming more quickly as well – but I'm personally just grateful it's underway at all. Chapter 5 has seen a record-breaking launch on Steam, with the RPG immediately breaking its all-time concurrent player peak, so to say fans are hungry for more would be an understatement.

Deltarune Chapter 5 features a song Toby Fox wrote 10 years ago, to his mother's disappointment: "Sorry Mom."

Deltarune keeps outdoing itself. Each time a grain of sand falls in the hourglass since Chapter 5 released this morning, the episodic RPG breaks its personal best concurrent Steam player record.

Most recently, the Undertale companion game by prodigious developer Toby Fox hit an all-time peak of 291,816 players about four minutes before I started writing this. But please don't grow attached to that number – Deltarune first toasted its Chapter 5 launch with about 200,000 concurrent players, and the party has been bubbling closer to 300,000 all day.

Now, if Deltarune's concurrent player count eventually soars past 300,000, I wouldn't be surprised – which is in itself surprising, considering the fact that the game's peak a week ago was closer to a more modest 8,000, according to SteamDB.

That said, fans have been sitting with whiteboards and red string all year, scribbling detailed theories on what Deltarune Chapter 5 might entail based on Fox's teases, and I'm sure that self-feeding frenzy has contributed to why Steam players are sprinting to the game now.

No, not sprinting. Fans are swarming. Deltarune's constantly growing peak Steam player number is nearly triple its previous high of 133,930 concurrent players a year ago, which is when Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 came out. Before that, Fox was on a three-to-four year release schedule, with Deltarune initially releasing in 2018 and Chapter 2 rolling out in 2021. So I think it helps that Chapter 5 instead took just a year to follow Deltarune's other recent installments – it builds momentum for the game. Fans also believe the content of 3 and 4, in particular, helped establish Deltarune as a rich narrative experience worth freaking out about online.

So here we are. Deltarune's big and getting bigger.

Deltarune Chapter 5 features a song Toby Fox wrote 10 years ago, to his mother's disappointment: "Sorry Mom."

When it comes to Prime Day PS5 deals, there's no better gaming discount bang-for-buck then scooping up a fantastic new RPG to lose yourself in. The best RPGs are responsible for some of my favorite gaming memories ever, from thrills to outright heartbreak. Thanks to their often lengthy playtimes, little else comes close to this level of immersion.

Most Prime Day deals skew to focus on more recent releases, so my recommendations are limited to offers in that arena. But, I've played thousands of hours of RPGs, so all my picks are based on that foundation. From the best JRPGs, best ARPGs, best open world RPGs, and beyond, the sheer time investment means you don't want to waste time playing games you're not interested in, so I've been selective about what to include below.

Thankfully, in this year's Prime Day deals (which last through the week, oddly enough) there's been plenty of great PS5 gaming deals to pick from. And, I'm not going to complain about getting to discuss my special interests. Read on below for the best Prime Day PS5 RPG deals, and prepare for your next big adventure.

Want more? Check out our complete Prime Day PS5 deals guide!

With the latest Evomon codes, you can ensure you have enough gear to catch every monster you see in the Roblox creature collection game. After all, it's not often we see a good Pokemon-like game on PC, and Evomon is just that.

Once you've picked your starter Evomon, you need to ensure your bag is full of balls with which to capture wild 'mons like Mopebun and Budling in the Roblox experience, so you can fill out your party as quickly as possible and start taking on challenging bosses. So, redeem these Evomon codes and get battling.

For some more general rewards that can be used across all of your favorite experiences, then check out our list of the current Roblox promo codes, too.

All Evomon codes

These are the current Evomon codes you can redeem now:

• D50CREW - 10x Evolution Stones, 10x Omni Stones new!
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• 20000LIKES - 2x Trait Reroll Potions, 5x Medium EXP Fruit new!
• 12klikeS - 5x Medium EXP Fruits
• 10KCCU_ - 4,000 Coins
• 10kthx - 10x Advanced Ball
• 5000DC - 5x Advanced Ball
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• DC2K - 5x Medium EXP Fruits
• FORDC1200 - 1,000x Coins
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• DCGIFT - 10x Medium EXP Fruits, 5x Advanced Balls, 1,000x Coins
• EvomonVip - 5x Medium EXP Fruits

As you can see from our list of current Evomon codes, these promos grant you all kinds of rewards, from food to feed to your captured monsters to balls to catch them in in the first place. You can also get your hands on thousands of Coins to spend on cool new fits or at the nearest merchant.

How to redeem Evomon codes

To redeem the Evomon codes above, simply click on the Settings cog button at the top of the screen. At the bottom of the settings window, you'll see the code redemption box. Enter Evomon codes exactly as they appear above as they are case-sensitive, click OK, and enjoy your rewards.

Expired Evomon codes

• There are currently no expired Evomon codes

As Evomon only launched on June 16, 2026, there are currently no expired codes, and every code that has been released so far can still be redeemed in-game. As soon as this changes, we'll let you know and move expired codes down here, so you don't waste your time trying to redeem them.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Undertale and Deltarune creator Toby Fox is planning to release the latter game's Chapter 5 today – but before then, he's got a little newsletter to share.

Yes, the long-awaited Chapter 5 is finally launching today – and Fox has some words for folks eagerly anticipating its arrival. The Chapter 5 release newsletter, as he's so aptly dubbed his latest blog post, celebrates the new piece of the big Deltarune puzzle, with Fox letting fans know first that "if you bought the game, it'll get updated automatically with the new chapter."

That's on all platforms: PC, Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.

The mastermind developer also instructs excited players to"report any issues," including game crashes, should they happen. "And keep an eye on the FAQ page in the coming weeks," he writes, "as we'll be posting any known issues there at the top of the page." The work never ends for the Undertale legend, eh?

That's not all he has to say, though – he teases the game's new soundtrack from Chapter 5, too, letting people know it could be spoiler-y.

"I don't recommend you look at the track names until you've completed the game," Fox mysteriously states, adding, "But this time, many other people helped out with the music, so make sure to check the credits!"

I am personally looking forward to seeing who's on board the team… and what songs there are. After all, Fox did explain how it features a song he wrote 10 years ago, to his mother's disappointment – that, I have to see.

Fox closes his newsletter off with a heartfelt thank you to fans for their patience, saying, "I'm very proud of my team that we didn't have to make you guys wait too long this time. Otherwise, we would be really sorry to keep you waiting." He then adds, "Anyway, please enjoy this crazy thing I thought up 10 years ago! It's on to the next chapter for us! Ciao!"

Next chapter, hm? Chapter 6 is on both players' and devs' minds already, then.

Here's hoping Deltarune Chapter 5 impresses us all just as much as its predecessors and Undertale did – but something tells me we've got nothing to worry about there.

Toby Fox says Deltarune Chapter 6 is "developing well" and Chapter 7 may begin development "before the end of the year."

They say if you want something you have to go out and get it, but apparently when it comes to co-creating one of the most successful RPG series of all time, that's not always the case.

In a new episode in a long-running series I call Tim Cain Talking About Stuff, the veteran RPG developer yaps about his approach to career planning and how that's changed from his early days at Interplay, in which he would just let things fall into his lap as fortuitously as they did, according to Cain. As the video goes on he actively encourages young developers to plan out their careers more strategically, but having co-created the Fallout franchise and served as designer on Arcanum, it seems his passive work ethic paid off rather serendipitously.

"I fumbled my way through my career. Opportunities arose that I was just in a good position to take, but I didn't actually seek them out," says Cain. "I usually thought very short term – what am I doing on this game I'm working on now – to the point where I rarely even thought about a sequel."

Of course, there ended up being several sequels to Fallout, but Cain left the series during development of Fallout 2, a decision he explains in a genuinely insightful video from a few years back. And while Cain says he "didn't think about a sequel to Fallout while I was making it," (or Arcanum for the matter), he was originally against a sequel altogether but was assigned to it anyway despite his desire to work on something else. Poor Tim.

"I rarely thought long term, I'm talking five or 10 years in the future. That was just not in the Tim brain space," he says.

As an aspiring creative in an incredibly competitive industry, I have a friendly jealousy toward Cain for becoming one of the most noteworthy game devs of his time despite having such a nonchalant approach to the most formative years of his career. Again, he advises young developers to not take his early approach to career planning, but it sure seems to have worked out well for him.

Fallout co-creator says too many gamers "like hating things," which "doesn't lead to a better game" for devs: "I just tapped out, and that's sad"

Similar to GTA 6, the anticipation for The Elder Scrolls 6 is so astronomically high that any firsthand information about it, no matter how granular, is relevant in the overall conversation surrounding the project. That's even more true when it's coming from someone as integral to production as Todd Howard, executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios and game director on The Elder Scrolls 6. Full disclosure: this one's very granular. Like, if The Elder Scrolls 6 release date is Santa Monica State Beach, this is a single grain of sand on the docks.

Talking to EW, Howard repeated some stuff we already know about the game, like the fact that it's the "biggest project" in the studio's pipeline, and that "the majority of the studio" is working on it. That said, he did touch on arguably the biggest controversy BGS is facing at the moment: the fact that its games are taking a really freakin' long time to make these days.

It's now been eight years since The Elder Scrolls 6 was revealed, and Xbox's new CEO, Asha Sharma, is reportedly keen on shortening development cycles at BGS, so Howard's comment is particularly timely.

"We know we need to get it right and it's been a long time," Howard says.

Thanks, Todd. It really has been a long time, and I ain't getting any younger. Obviously, Howard simply acknowledging the lengthiness of the game's development cycle doesn't do anything to shorten it, but it's nice to know the guy at the top is aware that people are starting to lose their patience.

The Elder Scrolls 6 was a no-show at this year's Summer Game Fest, meaning it'll likely be months until we get an update, possibly during this year's Game Awards in December. Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty recently confirmed that he's seen the game in motion and said it looks "amazing" and is "coming along well," adding, "we'll make sure to announce it and really reveal it at the right time."

Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer Bethesda "will be fine" as "they make all the money," but layoffs for the rest of ZeniMax "have begun," Duke Nukem co-creator says

Deltarune Chapter 5 will release later this week, on June 24, a year after developer Toby Fox's last installment of his episodic role-playing game, though some people believe this new one could be more earth-shattering than anything Fox has done before. The fact that Fox has now revealed he's including a song in Chapter 5 he first wrote a decade ago helps this fan theory – though it doesn't aid Fox in earning his mother's respect.

"10 years ago I made a song that sounded like this," Fox writes in a Twitter post about a peacefully plaintive instrumental illustrated by Asgore's seven rainbow flowers, one of Deltarune fans' favorite subjects to speculate about. Encouraging more theories, Fox shares that his twinkly piano song is "called 'The Sunset of 7 Suns,' and "this is the hope for Chapter 5 from 10 years ago." Also, his mom doesn't love it.

"When I played this on the piano, my mom said 'you know, usually songs do more than just repeat…'" Fox recalls in a follow-up Twitter post. "Sorry Mom. Anyway, the version in-game sounds very different. Don't be surprised."

"Mama Fox would hate House music," one Deltarune fan accurately deduces. In any case, Deltarune sleuths are more preoccupied with analyzing every aspect of the song snippet Fox posted rather than interested in simply enjoying it with an afternoon tea and biscuit.

Some people are noting with fright that Fox's 10-year-old song sounds a bit like 'Finale,' a fan-favorite, optimistic melody from Deltarune 2015 companion game Undertale. Other Deltarune players are less interested in what 'The Sunset of 7 Suns' sounds like than they are in wondering why it was written a decade ago.

"Toby drops 'from 10 years ago' and everything else," nervously says one popular Twitter post. "Is this gonna be the most important chapter in the game."

It's certainly possible – but June 24 is arriving quickly, so try not to work yourself up with any more theories. We'll have our answers soon.

Toby Fox says Deltarune Chapter 6 is "developing well" and Chapter 7 may begin development "before the end of the year."