Eurogamer Podcasts

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we look back at a week of headlines from Microsoft's time in court arguing its case to buy Activision Blizzard with the FTC. In the video game industry, courtroom drama does not get much bigger than this. Microsoft's Phil Spencer and Satya Nadella, Sony's Jim Ryan and Activision boss Bobby Kotick have all given evidence as the US weighs up whether to allow Xbox's enormous Call of Duty buyout to procede. The week has brought us some eye-opening opinions from these top industry execs, as well as a treasure trove of emails to pore through - and some badly-redacted documentation. Today, we recap the biggest stories of the week, including who else was on Microsoft's studio shopping list, and why Bethesda is upset at Call of Duty not being platform exclusive. Joining me this week are Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss yesterday's Mario-packed Nintendo Direct and Microsoft's suprise price rises. For Nintendo, yesterday's online extravaganza acted like a shot of adrenaline to the Switch's aging heart. There had been questions around how much Nintendo might still have for Switch, post Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Now we have answers - and a release schedule busier than either Microsoft or Sony's for the remainder of 2023. Switch 2 certainly now feels even longer away. Microsoft, meanwhile, took advantage of the Elephant Mario in the room to announce it's long-suspected price rises for Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Series X. It was an oppurtune moment for Microsoft to deliver the bad news, with the value of Game Pass demonstrated last week at its well-receieved Xbox Game Showcase. Still, was it really necessary? Or could it just get away with it because PlayStation blinked first? Joining me this week are Ed Nightingale and Liv Ngan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're back to wrap up the end of a tiring but intriguing week of Summer Game Fest and not-E3 announcements, which offered us the usual mixed bag of presentations, CG trailers, and the occaisonal musical interlude. What were our favourites? There was a real variety of things on offer, from Dont Nod's Jusant and Compulsion's stylish-looking South of Midnight to blockbusters like Star Wars Outlaws and Fable. And then, of course, there was the inescapable Starfield - which after nearly a full hour deep dive I still feel like we've only seen a small portion. Microsoft did well, I thought. Ubisoft did pretty good. Capcom... put in an appearance to delay Pragmata. But what were our favourite games on offer, and how convinced were we by Todd Howard's marketing spiel? Joining me to discuss all that are Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we react to last night's Summer Game Fest opening livestream, which offered us a first look at new Sonic and Prince of Persia games, plus a mouth-watering glimpse at Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth. What didn't we see? A little oddly, Square Enix decided not to showcase Final Fantasy 16 - the one which actually goes on sale in a couple of weeks. Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty was also missing, as was host Geoff Keighley's best pal Hideo Kojima. Once the conference concluded, discussion online focused on the lack of any women on stage, following appearances by a string of male developers - and also Nic Cage. On the upside, no one unexpectedly walked on stage and got arrested. So, how do we feel about all that, and how would we rate the conference overall? Was it a satisfying alternative to E3? Or are we hoping for more now from Xbox, Ubisoft and Capcom over the coming days? Joining me to discuss all that are Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Darkest Dungeon as a series grew out of one central and refreshing idea: "Being an adventurer is a shit line of work." What if all those horrors and killing your adventurers saw took its toll on them? What if they became stressed out and developed afflictions - both mental and physical - because of it? In this episode of One-to-One, we hear from Darkest Dungeon co-creators Tyler Sigman and Chris Bourassa about the creation of the series and the ideas behind it, and about their decision to make a sequel that is - at the time of recording - days away from being released. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss Sony's PlayStation Showcase event, and offer our thoughts on everything that was shown - and not shown - last night. We got an extended look at Spider-Man 2, and announcements of the much-rumoured Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, Bungie's next game Marathon, Haven's first title Fairgame$, and something called Concord. Actual gameplay and firm release dates were thin on the ground, however. And many of the games shown during PlayStation's event will also be available on Xbox. Was this a good games event, even if it wasn't a great PlayStation one? How do we feel about Sony's game roadmap now? Joining me to discuss all of that and much more are Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I wonder sometimes whether BioWare will ever do another trilogy of games again, because the more time that passes, the more I appreciate what an ambitious idea that was, with Mass Effect. Three games that would tell one story and that you could carry one hero all the way through - that's not just bold, that's borderline outrageous! Especially when you consider all the choices and consequences typically in one of the studio's games. And it's only now, really, when I see no one else attempting to do the same thing - not to that degree, anyway - I realise how special it was. Perhaps it was so hard to do, BioWare never wanted to do it again. It's a thought that leads me down a rabbit hole and to someone I've dubbed Mr Mass Effect - Mac Walters, the writer who spent 19 years at BioWare, and most of it writing and making Mass Effect. Here's the making of a trilogy, and beyond, through his eyes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast we discuss the latest headache for Microsoft - Redfall's negative launch reaction - and the eye-opening comments made by Xbox boss Phil Spencer as he subsequently discussed what went wrong. We also look beyond Redfall at the pressure now on Microsoft to deliver with Starfield, following various first-party delays and disappointments over the past few years. As Xbox takes stock of its progress this console generation, big questions remain over how it competes in the years to come - with some potentially gloomy (for Microsoft) answers. Joining me to share their thoughts are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast we discuss the fallout from today's dramatic decision by the UK to block Microsoft's $68.7bn Activision Blizzard deal, and whether an appeal could still turn things around. With the UK regulator issuing a stern warning over how it sees the deal impacting competitiveness among cloud gaming companies, it remains to be seen how much more Microsoft could do to reassure the UK without structurally changing the deal. Or does, perhaps, Microsoft say the UK should not have given up on this so easily, by saying a block on the deal was simply the most straightforward option? So, do we think an appeal could still succeed? And what will it take? Joining me to share their thoughts are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast it's all about Zelda, and the many burning questions we still have surrounding the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom. Despite all the details to be found in Nintendo's final Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom trailer, there's still so much we don't know. How much has changed in Hyrule since Breath of the Wild, and how many new areas are there to explore? Are there proper dungeons in the game this time around? What are the Tears of the Kingdom? With less than a month until launch, it's time for one final round of theorising - as the internet begins to entertain some wild theories that Ganon is actually good, or maybe just pulling a Thanos. Joining me to discuss it all - and place bets on whether Zelda really is playable - are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you know how Vikings used to work out who'd die of their wounds and who wouldn't? And I mean internal wounds here, not obvious external ones. Onion soup. The Viking healers would feed the warriors really stinky onion soup and then, if the healers could smell it, it probably meant the stomach had been perforated and old Bjorn was on their way to Valhalla. Zoe Delahunty-Light told me that - Zoe who you'll know from the Eurogamer YouTube team. Not that she talks about morbid things there - but on TikTok it's a different matter. There, morbid history is entirely Zoe's jam, or um, grave wax as the case may be. Understanding Zoe's penchant for darker history goes a long way to understanding Zoe, which is why I'm telling you about it. And I found out about it while talking to Zoe here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the bleeding-edge technologies on show this week at GDC 2023 - from Epic Games' eye-popping Unreal Engine to Ubisoft's intriguing new Ghostwriter dialogue tool. Last night's startling State of Unreal presentation by Epic revealed a swathe of new features coming to the company's suite of game development tools - such as photo-realistic procedural generation on a massive scale, and the ability to translate iPhone video footage into pretty slick performance capture. Earlier this week, Ubisoft also showed off Ghostwriter, an "AI"-driven tool to suggest script lines for use in background dialogue. But are these advancements the future of video game development, or are they an encroachment by AI into the kinds of work previously the domain of human writers and animators? Or both? Joining me to discuss all that are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's it. Potentially the most prestigious TV adaptation of a game series has ended, and what an impact it made. But did HBO and Naughty Dog manage to get the balance right? Did it work when the series veered away from the games? Here, we assemble a mixed panel of people from Eurogamer who've all seen the show, some of which have played The Last of Us games as many as five times, and some who haven't finished it once, to see what their impressions of the TV series were. This episode is hosted by news reporter Victoria Kennedy, who's been writing detailed breakdowns of each episode of The Last of Us each week, and she's joined by deputy news editor Ed Nightingale, senior guides writer Jessica Orr, and senior staff writer Bertie Purchese. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we introduced our supporter programme about a year-and-a-half ago, we knew it might take some time to get right. That's why we've made some big changes to it, and the biggest of all: we've significantly lowered the price. Now, for the new price of £2.99/$2.99 a month, or £29.99/$29.99 a year, you get everything on offer. That includes Eurogamer without any adverts, exclusive articles - including a brand series by Eurogamer favourite Emma Kent - discounts on merch and tickets, and even free games. Yes, we've got a brand new Hitman key giveaway coming. Here's everything you need to know about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Hitman 3 recently changed its name to Hitman World of Assassination, it fulfilled a plan that had been 10 years in the making at Danish studio IO. A plan that had survived management buyouts and near bankruptcy, and which ended up making Hitman better and more popular than ever before. To call it a turnaround feels like an understatement: IO is in a completely different place now to five or 10 years ago. Here, IO Interactive co-owners Christian Elverdam and Hakan Abrak reflect on their remarkable achievement, and look ahead to James Bond and what's next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview podcast was recorded a few years ago now, at the end of 2018. It features author and game-lover Stuart Turton who, at the time, had just won an award for his debut murder mystery novel The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. He's since gone on to write a second novel, called The Devil and the Dark Water, and is not far off releasing a third. In this interview, Stuart Turton talks about his lifelong love of games, and how, unknowingly, that passion bubbled over and influenced his work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dana Nightingale is the campaign director at Arkane Lyon, the celebrated studio behind the Dishonored series and Deathloop. She's known for her work designing the Clockwork Mansion in Dishonored 2, and for fixing down the critical path in Deathloop - as in, who you have to kill and when - and how to track across a time-looping game and how to present it to you. Without her, we would have been lost. In other words, Dana Nightingale knows her stuff. Here, she talks about Arkane's secrets of level design, as well as the challenges she faced making Deathloop, and how a broomstick saved Dishonored 2 expansion Death of the Outsider. She also charts her roundabout route into games, and talks about why she loves level design in the first place. She says maps, or levels, are the vehicles or vessels for everything you do in a game. Cool, huh? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss Microsoft's next steps to get its $68.7bn Activision Blizzard buyout past regulators and over the finish line. Earlier this week, Microsoft went to Brussels to argue its case with the European Commission, one of three major regulators still needing to be convinced - and Eurogamer was in attendance. It had agreements with Nintendo and Nvidia in its pocket, but only an unsigned contract with PlayStation. Was it enough? And if not, what else must Microsoft now do? Does Microsoft still need to offer further concessions around Game Pass? Could we even see Microsoft let COD go onto PlayStation Plus to ensure full parity? Joining me to discuss all that and share our thoughts on whether we think the deal will finally get done are Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to the Eurogamer Newscast, which this week looks ahead to everything on the horizon for Nintendo Switch - and Nintendo itself. Of course, we recap last night's Nintendo Direct and discuss what we thought about Pikmin getting a dog and whether Zelda really will be playable in Tears of the Kingdom. But with the knowledge that Nintendo itself admits Switch is now firmly on the decline, the company skipping E3 this year and rumours of new hardware in 2024, we also discuss where Switch is now headed. For fans of Nintendo, there's plenty still to enjoy - even if it is now slanted to nostalgia, such as with Game Boy games, Metroid ports and a Baten Kaitos remake. But where does this leave Nintendo later this year, and next? Joining me to discuss all that and more are Ed Nightingale and Liv Ngan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to the Eurogamer Newscast, which this week is all about the best (and worst) video game adaptations. We've all been watching The Last of Us which has become a properly massive TV event - but it's not the first great video game adaptation by any means. Is it the best? It's certainly up there - though there's strong competition already from things like Netflix's Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and The Witcher series, and the wonderful League of Legends animation Arcane. Beyond those? We have some personal favourites - you'll have to listen to find out which. Joining me to pick out our highlights and lowlights are Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy, and yes, the Chris Barrie-starring Angelina Joie Tomb Raider film does indeed get a mention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UK charity SpecialEffect helps physically disabled people play games. Through bespoke equipment and software, it's changed lives. It's why Microsoft and Sony asked SpecialEffect for help while making their Xbox and PlayStation accessibility controllers, and it's why the charity has become a leading speaker in the movement for better accessibility in games. But really, fundamentally, it's about play. "A lot of the people we work with have had a lifetime of not being able to do things that they're capable of doing, that they want to do and they're seeing their brother and sister do, and they're seeing all their mates do, but they're unable to actually join in," SpecialEffect founder and CEO Mick Donegan says. "A lot of people come to us like that, and a lot of them have actually given up all hope. Their self image, basically, is of somebody who says, 'I can't do this.' And it's been going on for years. "It's that moment when, for the first time, they're actually able to play a game that they want to play for the first time; that moment. And you can see it on their face: it's the moment when it changes - that their self image changes from 'I can't do this' to 'I got this'. It's that moment. It's like you've helped them open the doors to this wonderful world of gaming, having just been looking in through the window for years and years and years." You can find out more about SpecialEffect on its website: https://www.specialeffect.org.uk/ (Note: an earlier version of this podcast has been intentionally replaced by this listing.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome back to the Eurogamer Newscast! We're already almost halfway through January 2023 and the video games industry is stirring. There are huge games on the horizon and plenty to look forward to - and look forward we will. 2023 promises to be a stellar year for video games, full of proper current-gen console exclusives, awesome indies and more than a few titles held up from last year (and the year before). The next 12 months should see all of these and more splurge out onto the scene for you to try. But where to start? Joining me to pick out our highlights for the year are Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan - and there's some surprising picks in there, as well as Pikmin 4! Apparently some new Final Fantasy game is coming out too, and Zelda's up to something. Beyond video games themselves, there's also The Last of Us TV show to look forward to - that's out next week! - and hopefully some recommendations from us for some lesser-known gems also waiting in the wings. Thanks for watching! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Game director Kevin Choteau recounts the entire development story behind acclaimed action adventure series A Plague Tale. He recalls how the original game was a mess and nearly ended in disaster, and how the original idea was formed. He also talks about the decisions surrounding the powerful ending to the sequel, and whether or not there will ever be a third game. You can read a written version of this story over on Eurogamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/how-a-plague-tale-came-back-from-the-brink Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ho ho ho and welcome to the Eurogamer Newscast News Quiz of the Year 2022! As the video games industry begins to hibernate over the holidays, we're still here for one last look back at the biggest headlines of 2022 - and of course, as we're all about games, we turn this into a game as well. From Microsoft's attempted Activision Blizzard takeover to Sony's PlayStation 5 price rise, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6 hack to the return of Silent Hill - we cover it all, with some Elden Ring underwear too. Going head to head in the Eurogamer Newscast News Quiz of the Year 2022 are our faithful news elves - Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan - and of course, if you're listening or watching at home, do join in. The format is simple! 22 questions on 2022, all based around news stories we've reported over the year. How much can you remember? We're about to find out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, it's the morning after the night before - and what a night. While The Game Awards 2022 dominated the news, Microsoft's $68.7bn Activision Blizzard takeover faced a major setback with the FTC and Diablo 4's big release date announcement was superseded by serious claims of mismanagement and crunch. The awards ceremony was an eventful affair, even without its climactic and rather concerning stage invasion. The typical array of trailers for games like Final Fantasy 16, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor and Street Fighter 6 came thick and fast, alongside big announcements for things such as Death Stranding 2, Hades 2, Horizon Forbidden West PS5-only DLC and Armored Core 6. Did Geoff Keighley keep his pledge to make this year's ceremony speedier? Not really. Somewhere, Christopher Judge is now on the second day of his acceptance speech. So, here for you today is a recap of everything we thought was really worth your time - and what we think Death Stranding 2 should actually be titled. Joining me this week are Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Wesley Yin-Poole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're discussing the PlayStation 6 - specifically, Sony's concerns about Call of Duty not being available on the upcoming platform, which we now know will debut sometime from 2027 onwards. It's been another week dominated by news of Microsoft's $68bn Activision Blizzard takeover attempt, which is currently being scrutinised by the UK's anti-competition regulator. Partially-redacted documentation from this process has now been made public, revealing some eyebrow-raising arguments from Sony - which is trying to block the deal. Both Sony and Microsoft have gone on the defensive to make themselves look the smaller fish - with Microsoft admitting Sony's exclusives are better and Sony saying any loss of Call of Duty would leave itself "extremely vulnerable", particularly if the series was made available through the popular Xbox Game Pass. So, should Sony be worried - or is this all just performative theatrics? Joining me this week to share their thoughts are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Ishraq Subhan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One thing I've always loved about the work I do is hearing about people's lives. I like hearing their stories, I like hearing about the things that shaped them, because they not only relate to me as a fellow human being but inevitably, they are the things that end up shaping what they make. The games they make. The games we love. It's a privilege to be able to focus on this in my podcast One-to-One, and I've had some wonderful guests. But few struck me the way Obsidian design director Josh Sawyer - the lead mind behind Pentiment - did. Sawyer was not what I expected - and I say this as someone who's met him a few times. But on those occasions I got only a glimpse of him. He demoed a game, or we traded pleasantries while thinking about what work we were doing next - it was that kind of thing. But this time I got a chance to sit with him for a chunk of time and hear about his life, hear about who he is. And there's much I didn't know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I can't believe it was six years ago that I met Doug Cockle, voice of The Witcher (Geralt) in the video games. He was a teacher back then, leading the acting course at Arts University Bournemouth - such an ordinary place to find a bonafide video game star. But a lot has changed since then. Doug Cockle no longer teaches there; he was debating a return to full-time acting when we talked, and shortly after, did exactly that. Meanwhile, The Witcher became a household name, propelled into the mainstream by the Netflix TV show. The star of that show, Henry Cavill, turned out to be an open admirer of Cockle's work, too, being a keen game-player himself. He even invited Cockle to the season one premiere in London, to hang out. And they did, as Cockle tells me in this episode of the One-to-one podcast show, now available everywhere and for everyone (search for "Eurogamer Podcasts" wherever you listen to them). We talk about a great deal of other things as well. In find out what Doug Cockle has been up to in these six years, and how his move back into full-time acting has gone. We talk about the games he's been lending his voice to - he has apparently just wrapped recording on something he thinks we'll find very exciting. But it's not The Witcher 1 remake because he hasn't been called up for that - yet. We talk about the films and TV shows he's been in, and the stage show he recently appeared in. And we talk about the many appearances he makes at conventions around the world, the most recent being MCM Comic Con in Birmingham, where he hung out with the voice actors for Triss, Dandelion and - and I love this - Eredin from the Wild Hunt. We talk about the craft of voice acting too, what it's like, and how Doug knows he's delivered something good. He is, as I think you'll agree, a lovely man and very entertaining and thoughtful to listen to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're discussing the now-widespread leaks of new Pokémon designs from the upcoming Scarlet and Violet games. Pokémon details always leak - often months before launch, but especially in the last few weeks as retail copies begin appearing in the wild. Should you look at spoilers? For some, uncovering the many unannounced creatures as they play is a core part of the games. For others, knowing what your new Starter Pokémon will eventually evolve into is a big deal. Whichever side of the debate you're on, there's no doubting the level of interest in new Pokémon designs - seen this week when the final evolution of Starter cat creature Sprigatito sparked an avalanche of dubious fanart after an image was posted by a leaker. Joining me this week to share their thoughts are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we react to Sony's eye-watering announcement of its PlayStation VR2 pricing, alongside Eurogamer's resident VR superfan and advocate Ian Higton as a special guest. The PSVR2 is a high-end device and it was never going to be cheap, but its £530 cost (£570 if you actually also want something to play) have placed it out of reach for many console players. Of the many headset options available, Sony's was expected to be the most likely to attract a wider audience and grow the budding VR scene. But with that price, and a line-up of games you can mostly play elsewhere? Join me, Ian, Ed Nightingale and Ishraq Subhan, as we discuss why the headset costs so much, what Sony could do to sweeten the deal, and what future we think PSVR2 now has at that price point. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I must admit, there was an element of selfishness involved in this podcast. I'm currently doing a creative writing course in my spare time (rather than in my news stories, ho ho) and one of the things I'm struggling with, weird as it is to admit, is the idea that I can write anything. I don't have to be bound by the rules of this world, or any world, or any rules. I can conceive of something totally and utterly new. And that's... I still can't quite wrap my head around it. But my guest on the podcast today, Cassandra Khaw, has long made their peace with this, producing works of - usually - pitch black horror that I'm not sure I'd have the nerve to imagine. The most famous of their pieces is probably the novella Nothing But Blackened Teeth, which was a USA Today bestseller when it came out roughly a year ago. So I wanted to find out from Cassandra, who seems to imagine new stories at the speed other people think of things to eat for dinner, where their ideas came from and how to shape them from there. I also wanted to find out where their life-long love of horror came from - and I was treated to a wonderful real-life Malaysian horror story when I asked. Cassandra isn't only a horror writer, though. They've written for Eurogamer and now they help write games. They've contributed to games like Fallen London and Sunless Skies and Falcon Age, and more recently were working at Ubisoft Montreal on Hyperspace (and some undisclosed projects) and, to get us right up to date, Gotham Knights. Cassandra's already gone on to two new game projects they're not able to talk about yet. They sound busy, right? Well, let's not forget their debut collection Breakable Things, coming out on 8th November. We talk about it in this podcast and it sounds great; it revolves around a theme of people pushing back against the world, like a werewolf out for revenge, or mermaids - who were pulled out of the ocean by humans, and impregnated - doing the same. There are some quieter explorations of grief too, including one tale that's personal and close to Cassandra's heart. They have two other books coming out next year, too. One is a twisted mermaid novella called The Salt Grows Heavy, due May 2023, and the other is a collaboration with Richard Kadrey called The Dead Take the A Train, due March. "Pathologic workaholic" is how they'd describe themselves, and on this evidence, I'd have to agree! Incidentally, the scary Malaysian film Cassandra mentions at the beginning is Impetigore, and the book recommendation is The Least of My Scars, by Stephen Graham Jones. Oh and apologies for a bit of keyboard clacking at the beginning of the recording - we relocate quickly to a quieter area. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're chewing over last night's Silent Hill: Transmission broadcast, and Konami's big plans to relaunch its survival horror brand. Silent Hill has lain dormant ever since Konami cancelled Silent Hills and unreleased Hideo Kojima's PT demo. The question is, will anything announced last night live up to that? There was plenty on offer - a remake, a new game, several spin-offs and a movie - from an array of developers. Still, it often felt like we were seeing little in the way of concrete details - release dates and actual gameplay footage. Will Konami's sudden onslaught of Silent Hill bring about a fresh start for the series? Tom Phillips, Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're back discussing Microsoft's big Activision Blizzard deal and the latest developments in the ongoing saga of the $68bn buyout being finalised. Yesterday, Microsoft leapt upon the latest concerned update from the UK's deal regulator and repeatedly tried to minimise its own importance in the video games market. Microsoft stated it was far from the leader in terms of console share and PC games sold, and lacked any real presence on mobile devices. In a particularly eye-opening claim, Microsoft even said PlayStation's userbase would be "significantly larger" than Xbox even if every COD player ditched Sony. At the same time, Microsoft also criticised the regulator for appearing to take Sony's own complaints about the deal at face value. Is this fighting talk from Microsoft, or squeaky bum time in Redmond over real concerns the UK will block the deal outright? Tom Phillips, Victoria Kennedy, Ishraq Subhan and Liv Ngan share their thoughts on whether the deal will go through, what changes Microsoft could make to get it over the finish line, and whether it should go ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find out more about supporting Eurogamer here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe It's Overwatch 2 week but not quite the week Blizzard will have imagined. The servers haven't worked, there are huge queues to play in the evening, and even when people can log in, there are overly complicated character unlock systems and bolshy Battle Passes to contend with. It's not entirely clear what's new in this second game when you can play it, either. Overwatch 2 is overwhelmingly Overwatch. It's the same conclusion Edwin Evans-Thirlwell came to in a quick impressions piece published this week while he works on his full review. And it's hard not to agree with him. Faced with the same maps and the same characters, Overwatch 2 feels like the same game so many of us will have played so many times before. The differences are there, though, and given time, they make themselves felt. Overwatch 2 is the talking point of the week, then, and I've invited Edwin onto Weekly to talk about it. My other guest this week is news reporter Victoria Kennedy, who joins us to talk about Gotham Knights, Moonbreaker and CD Projekt Red as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find out more about supporting Eurogamer here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe How much do you know about horses? I don't know very much. As far as I'm concerned, they really can do press-ups like Roach in The Witcher 3, or double-jump like Torrent in Elden Ring. Alice Ruppert knows a lot more about horses than I do. She's been obsessed with them ever since she was a child. She would draw them, play games about them, and many years later she would eventually make games about them. How she got her horse-break in games makes for a great origin story. The way she tells it, she complained so much about bad horse representation in games that eventually someone gave her a job and told her to do better, and that's what she's doing now, making Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch, which is coming out really soon. A lot of that complaining - her word, by the way, not mine! - happened over on her brilliantly named website The Mane Quest. There, she looks in depth at horse games, points out some common mistakes they make, and offers tips on how they can do better. To hear her at full gallop - ahem - tune into Episode 24 of One-to-one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast we're discussing the avalance of announcements to come from CD Projekt Red, maker of The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. Taking a leaf out of Ubisoft's recent playbook - when it lay the entirety of its Assassin's Creed plans on the table - CD Projekt Red has done similar, discussing projects which we'll see release across the whole of the next decade. There's going to be a new trilogy of new Witcher games, a Cyberpunk sequel, a new IP and various other spin-offs - though there was no word on Cyberpunk's standalone multiplayer portion, and still no firm date for The Witcher 3's long-awaited current-gen console update. With questions still to answer about what we'd known was coming, how likely is it we'll see any of these fresh projects soon? And if not, why announce them now? Tom Phillips, Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Ishraq Subhan share their thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast we're discussing the failure of Stadia, and why Google's cloud gaming gamble struggled from the start. The announcement of Stadia's demise came as a shock to some - including many developers with titles only weeks from launch - yet still feels like it was on the cards for some time. After a rocky launch and the closure of Google's internal game development studios, what future did Stadia have left? Eurogamer editor-in-chief Martin Robinson weighed in earlier today with his thoughts. Could Stadia have been a success? What does this all mean for game preservation? And if Google failed, with all of its billions, what future does cloud gaming have elsewhere? Tom Phillips, Ed Nightingale, and Liv Ngan share their thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Were you fortunate enough to make it down to EGX London this year? It was this past weekend, and, if you ask me, there was a nice vibe around the place. It was nice to be back playing games together relatively unimpeded by the pandemic, and the show is feeling much more like its old self again. But what caught our eye there? That's what I'm talking to my two Weekly guests Martin Robinson and Liv Ngan about today. What did Liv think of Wo Long, did Martin like Street Fighter 6, and why was everyone talking about new card game Wildfrost? Elsewhere in today's show, I catch us up on some of the reviews we've missed while we've been away - sorry for the gap in our programming, but I've had some time off - before getting onto what will probably be the hot topic of the week: the FIFA 23 review. It's the final FIFA-branded game, and there's a lot to both like, and loathe, about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast we're discussing video game leaks, following last weekend's devastating hack of Rockstar Games which saw almost an hour of in-development Grand Theft Auto 6 footage spilled onto the internet and promptly dissected by the masses. The sheer fact Rockstar had been hacked in this manner was itself shocking - but the damage felt worse due to the negative comments this work-in-progress content then received. The hack has robbed Rockstar of its oppurtunity to show the game on its own terms - and for what benefit? We discuss. After that, we turn our attention to the YouTuber who accidentally outed themselves as being behind an "insider" Twitter account after posting under-wraps information they had been given by Ubisoft. Join Tom Phillips, Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Ishraq Subhan for their thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find out more about supporting Eurogamer here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe It's been nearly 10 years since my guest today started working at Eurogamer. And when they began, their mission was simple: make YouTube happen. We had barely an audience there at the time. Oh, we'd tried video - you might remember Johnny Minkley and Eurogamer TV - but we missed the YouTube wave. So along came Ian Higton, my guest today, to make it right. He didn't solve YouTube alone or overnight of course - to do that he would need a team and time. But it was his tireless work, largely alone for two years, that laid the foundation for what was to come. And his continued work has helped shape Eurogamer on YouTube into the channel it is today: a popular and welcoming place Ian is super proud of. Listen to him talk about it in the podcast - it's lovely. I didn't realise how long he'd worked in TV beforehand, though. I knew Ian had worked for a shopping channel, which is brilliant, but I didn't realise he was there for 10 years! He even rose quite high up. And he once dressed as Skeletor to covertly appear on camera for a Halloween special, and it was recorded so you can watch it too. That's the cheeky Ian we know! But it was Ian's lifelong love of games that tempted him away from TV and towards, I'm thrilled to say, Eurogamer, where he's remained ever since - and I hope will do for a long time to come. So here's to Ian, the king of jorts, and one of the most entertaining people I know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back again this week for another Eurogamer Newscast, focusing on the recent Nintendo Direct and PlayStation State of Play, plus the week's big news on the Yakuza franchise and what's next from Xbox Game Pass. It's been a busy week - full of Zelda, Pikmin, God of War and Yakuza 8 - but some corners of the internet are disappointed. True, we didn't see some of the things we had expected might materialise. This week was not when we saw Wind Waker on Switch, Silent Hill on PlayStation, or got some kind of assurance Nintendo remembered what Metroid even was. But that's not to say there isn't plenty to look forward to. Join Tom Phillips, Victoria Kennedy, Ishraq Subhan and Liv Ngan for our Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom theories, thoughts on new Switch hardware, and our expert opinion on where to start with Yakuza. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ubisoft has announced an array of new Assassin's Creed games, and Eurogamer has exclusive details on how Ubisoft's flagship franchise will be shaken up by the arrival of its ambitious new Infinity platform, which will redefine the scope and ongoing story of future releases. Outside of the Animus, this past weekend was also a major moment for Ubisoft itself, as it emerged from a period of relative silence following a bruising few years of scandal, takeover rumours, and further discontent surrounding its NFT plans. If you missed it, I spoke with Ubisoft boss Yves Guillmot about all of that. Ubisoft Forward seemed aptly named, with a look over the horizon to a brighter future for the company. But questions remain - as Tom Phillips, Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find out more about subscribing to Eurogamer here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe Take a break with a quick recap of the things you missed on Eurogamer, plus a bit more discussion on them. It's our Weekly podcast show. Joining me today are returning-from-holiday editor-in-chief Martin Robinson, who tells us all about Splatoon 3, which he's just reviewed. Why didn't he give it an Essential like all the other Nintendo games he reviews, hmm? With the help of news reporter Victoria Kennedy, we put him on the spot. Elsewhere, I talk about A Plague Tale: Requiem, which I played a healthy chunk of this week for a preview and have reservations about, though I'm still looking forward to it coming out next month. And we think about going back to Cyberpunk 2077 for Phantom Liberty, the newly announced story expansion that should be - if Witcher 3 expansion Blood and Wine is anything to go by - impressive. All that plus an excited look ahead at this weekend's notable events: the Disney and Marvel showcase, which should feature Amy Hennig's new game, whatever that is - Fantastic Four, reckons Victoria. And then on Sunday, the big Ubisoft bonanza, where we'll learn about the future of Assassin's Creed - and our Tom Phillips is all over it. He's travelling to France to be a part of it and will bring you all the news you could possibly want. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eurogamer premium supporters get these episodes first. Find out more here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe Our Chris is back from Gamescom and he's pooped, yet despite that, it sounds as though he had a nice time. Who needs all the hullabaloo when a quieter event allows smaller games some air? In today's episode of Weekly, Chris takes us back there, to Gamescom 2022, sharing what it was like on the show floor, as well as the games that caught his eye and the gossip he heard. It's particularly entertaining to hear about his meeting with Callisto Protocol boss Glen Schofield, who seems to have left quite an impression - an impression Chris delightfully re-enacts. We also dive into the big review of the week, Immortality, which Chris wrote. This is the new game from Her Story and Telling Lies developer Sam Barlow, so it arrives with anticipation. And it seems it dazzlingly lives up to it. And here we hear why. Also on Weekly: Liv Ngan, our work experience reporter, making her show debut. She tells us what she thought of Gamescom - she's a huge Dead Space fan so she's excited for Callisto Protocol - and what she thinks of working at Eurogamer. Gulp. All that plus a speedy look around the site at everything else going on. It's The Last of Us - Part 1 PS5 remake week, so there's loads of coverage to be had. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find out more about supporting Eurogmer here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe I was hoping they'd be on their boat while conducting the interview and they were! Bobbing along. They're super-keen boaters you see - well, not so much boaters as adventurers, which is absolutely appropriate and you'll know why when I eventually get around to telling you who they are. They've sailed across the Atlantic ocean on their own! They've sailed across the Bering Sea up near Alaska, though they took an experienced navigator to help them there. In fact, if it weren't for the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown that came with it, they'd probably still be boating and wouldn't have returned to games at all. But being landlocked meant they got bored and so decided, eventually, to make a game again. That, in and of itself, is a remarkable thing, because when these two people left games in the late 90s, they completely left. They didn't so much as look at a game in the two decades that followed. They didn't play a game, didn't keep up to date with the industry - nothing. That's doubly-remarkable when you consider who they are: Ken and Roberta Williams, founders of the original mega-publisher and game-maker Sierra On-Line. They were responsible for so many games through the 80s and 90s, not least the King's Quest series that would enshrine Roberta Williams as a game-design legend - see what I mean about adventuring being very on-trend? To go from that - 1000 people working for you and being the biggest business around - to nothing, well, it blows my mind. But then, they are a refreshingly unconventional pair, as I discover for myself here. It's part of the reason why their new game - a remake of Colossal Cave, the game that started it all for them - intrigues me so much, because they'll do it their way, whether we end up liking that or not. And have they still got what it takes to make a great game? I don't know! That's what's so exciting; it'll be nothing less than unique. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sony has announced a shock price rise for the PlayStation 5, and in a Eurogamer Newscast special, we're here to discuss why the company has pulled this undoubtedly unpopular move - and why it's likely to get away with it. Will Sony sell fewer PS5s as a result? It seems unlikely. But it's more pressure on PlayStation, which has already had to defend its £70/$70 price point for games - including the upcoming The Last of Us: Part 1 remaster - and just this week announced an expensive-looking new PlayStation 5 controller. At a time when all of us are looking at our bank balance's bottom line, an extra £30 to buy a PS5 marks not just an unprecedented decision by Sony, but a troubling sign of the times. Will Microsoft now feel emboldened to follow suit, or soak up any extra costs as a point of difference? Tom Phillips, Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Ishraq Subhan discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're picking out our favourite bits - and not so favourites - from this week's big Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase. It's a relatively quiet year for Gamescom - though it is lovely to see the show back on its feet and filled with sweaty attendees - and it's fair to say this was reflected in last night's showings. We got a big reveal for Dead Island 2 - which is not set on an island - and a release date for Return to Monkey Island, but otherwise, surprises were thin on the ground, and there were a lot of CGI trailers. Those aside, and ignoring Kojima shilling his podcast, we still got an array of interesting games to look forward to over the next 12 months, even if not all of them were AAA-sized or from franchises you might have heard of. I particularly liked the look of Moonbreaker, Atlus Fallen and Where Winds Meet, games I'd never heard of before last night. But what did everyone else think? Tom Phillips, Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eurogamer supporters get Weekly and One-to-one before everyone else. Find out more here: https://www.eurogamer.net/subscribe It's another Weekly, the podcast show where we - the writers of Eurogamer - recap what's been going on on the website for you. Joining me today are news reporter Victoria Kennedy, who you'll recognise from the Newscast, and the Strandmon of features, Christian Donlan. This week, we're revelling in the superbness of Roll7's new game Rollerdrome, we're delving into musical episodic adventure We Are OFK, and we're wondering about the accessibility potential of the PS5 DualSense pad and the fancy rumble features. We're diving into Sea of Thieves, splash!, years after release, and then whizzing around the bigger headlines this week. Relax as we bring you up to speed - gosh that sounds naughty - on Eurogamer goings-on. See you again on Friday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine getting a phone call from a guy called Gary Gygax in America and he's reading a newsletter you wrote for a games business you're running out of a messy flat in London, and he likes it so much he wants to send you a copy of a new game he's working on called Dungeons & Dragons. You end up loving the game and he likes what you're about, so he grants you exclusive rights to introduce Dungeons & Dragons to the UK, and to Europe, and to sell it there for three years. You can only afford six copies but it doesn't matter much: soon you'll be able to afford a lot more. That's not even the best story my guests today have! They've done so much and created so much. That games business they were running? Games Workshop, a business that would change the face of tabletop gaming. Not content, this pair would work well into the night to create a series of game books called Fighting Fantasy, making themselves best-selling authors in the process. The series has sold more than 20 million copies today. And that's not all: from there, they'd go on to sign video games like Tomb Raider and Hitman, and create studios like Lionhead and make beloved series like Fable. They'd receive awards and knighthoods - even be tasked by the government to evaluate the industry to see where it could do better. Without Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, my guests today, games simply wouldn't be the same. But it's about Fighting Fantasy in particular we talk today, on this, it's 40th anniversary - for which they've both written new books. It's eye-opening to hear how the original book didn't sell very well, and to hear how they actually put the complicated, labyrinthine game-books together. I hear about their favourite books, their favourite deaths in the books, and everything in between. One quick note: there were some technical difficulties with the recording platform that meant Steve had trouble joining us, though he did get there eventually, and that resulted in some odd audio glitches later on. There's nothing I can do about them but I am sorry in advance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're talking The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and Middle-earth in general - as the rights to Tolkien's world are gobbled up by game publisher Embracer. It's another huge get for the Swedish conglomerate, which owns an increasingly enormous share of the video games industry. It also means Embracer will soon be in charge of the Middle-earth film and TV rights - and it's already talking about a fresh set of spin-offs and sequels. But what does this mean for Lord of the Rings video games? Will Embracer put some/many of its 100+ studios to work on Middle-earth projects? And what kinds of games would we like to see - and by whom? Tom Phillips, Victoria Kennedy, Ishraq Subhan and Liv Ngan discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices