How well would you say you remembered Activision's slate of Spider-Man games from the mid- to late-2000s? The company certainly produced a lot of them of varying quality, so they can tend to blur together a bit. One of those games, however, ended up inspiring the source material for last year's seminal Into the Spider-Verse film.

Last night on Twitter, just before Into the Spider-Verse won its Oscar for best animated film, Marvel comics writer Dan Slott started talking about the inspiration for the original comic run for the Spider-Verse arc. It turns out that the idea actually came from a visit to Activision studio Beenox to take a look at their 2010 Spider-Man game Shattered Dimensions.

#SpiderVerse origins:
6/9/09, @Beenox studios flew me to Quebec to show me their new game in development: Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions so I could write the story around it. It'd involve Spidey, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man Noir, & Spider-Man 2099, all in one big adventure. pic.twitter.com/HFQdozpvo6

— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) February 24, 2019

In 2009, after Beenox had fully mapped out the story for the game, they invited Slott to take a look at the title and get his feedback on the story. Shattered Dimensions brings together different Spider-Men in various gameplay and art styles, like Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Man 2099. Slott fell in love with the idea of a massive Spider-Man crossover story with dimension hopping webslingers from different Spider-Man runs. He called his editor to tell him they needed to do something similar but bigger.

Slott recalls the various bumps on the road, and the Doc Ock storyline threw a fairly lengthy wrench into the works by taking so long, but eventually they were able to have the massive Spider-Verse idea happen with Peter Parker and Miles Morales at the heart of it. This ended up being the source material for Sony Pictures' Into the Spider-Verse movie, which certainly could have also been nominated for best picture at the Oscars without anyone batting an eye.

And it all started with Beenox's game.

After Bungie announced they were leaving the Halo series in the hands of Microsoft and striking out on their own, Halo fans were justifiably worried about the future of the series. More than that, however, Microsoft itself was likely worried about what they do with Halo at that point. It turns out one of the possible options they were considering was going with Borderlands developer Gearbox as an option for taking development for Halo 4.

In an IGN sitdown, 343 boss Bonnie Ross talked a little bit about the paths not taken. While ultimately Microsoft decided to have all the development made in an internal team that was eventually known as 343, the idea of doing it externally was also an option. According to Ross, Gearbox was the one and only other outside partner they had considered before ultimately deciding to keep it in Microsoft.

Gearbox is not a particularly strange choice, as they have had some involvement with the series. They ported the first game to PC in 2003, so they would theoretically understand the basic building blocks of the series.

Interestingly, Bungie as a studio seemingly had no real love for Gearbox, which may have been the reason Microsoft decided not to go with the Texas developer. As part of their contract with Activision, which was made public during a lawsuit with former Infinity Ward developers Jason West and Vince Zampella, Bungie outlined that they were fine with ports of the upcoming Destiny but outlined specific studios they were not going to accept doing it. Bungie vetoed Valve, Epic, and Gearbox as possible studios to port the game, though their reasons are entirely unknown.

Rumors recently circulated that Halo Infinite will be a launch title for the next generation of Xbox platforms and will be trying to shake things up with things like decisions and RPG mechanics.

[Source: IGN]

Smeargle, the painting Pokémon, has been introduced into the realm of mobile augmented reality title Pokémon Go. But unlike every other Pokémon in the game, where you meet them during events or finding them on the map and throwing pokéballs at the Pokémon you were lucky enough to find in your area. Not so much for Smeargle.

To catch Smeargle, you need to use Pokémon Go's recently released snapshot feature, which lets you take pictures of the various Pokémon you have in your possession. When you're taking photos of your Pokémon, occasionally Smeargle will appear in the corners or blocking your shots by way of photobomb. When you exit the camera mode, Smeargle will just be on the map for you to battle and catch.

Don't worry, amateur photographers, you will also get a Smeargle-free version of your photo without its intrusion. 

It's not clear if there's any rhyme or reason behind how many times you have to take pictures until Smeargle appears, as you might need to take a lot before you can catch the artsy Pokémon. Still, it's an interesting way to introduce a Pokémon most don't think about all that often. Maybe it can get its own game, perhaps called Pokémon Let's Gogh?

Blizzard has abruptly revealed the newest hero for Overwatch, teased recently in a lore release a few days ago. Baptiste, the battle medic, appears to be medic who believes in healing for some and bullets for others.

You can check out Baptiste's backstory trailer below.

There's no other real information on the character so far, but it does mean that Lucio is no longer the only male support character, so that's certainly growing the roster.

What do you think of Overwatch's newest hero? Let us know in the comments below.

This month, Sega is moving its Japanese headquarters for the first time in decades, leaving behind their Tokyo office near Otorii station and moving north to Osaki, Tokyo. The new building has Sega Sammy branding over it, rather than the classic Sega logo on the older building, the land for which Sega sold for the equivalent of $47 million dollars.

The building is said to be torn down.

Yuji Naka, former Sega developer and head of Sonic team, tweeted wistfully from the front of the building about his old place of employment with his kids in tow.

セガ・エンタープライゼス本社の場所と建物が無くなると言うので、子供達と写真撮って来ました。ここの7階でパパがソニック作ったんだよと言ったら「へーそうなんだ」と言う感想でした。
たくさん人が集まって来たので、みんなセガの写真撮りに来たのかと思ったらポケモンGOのレイドバトルでした。 pic.twitter.com/o4XkFB0AFV

— Yuji Naka / 中　裕司 (@nakayuji) February 24, 2019

"It’s said that the building where Sega Enterprises was located will be gone, so I came to take photos with my kids," Yuji Naka wrote. "I told them that their dad made Sonic on the 7th floor of that building to impress them. I also saw a large number of people there and thought they came together to take a picture of Sega, but they were just there for a Pokemon GO raid battle."

Naka currently works at Square Enix.

You can check out Sega's admittedly pretty sweet new building below.

セガグループ本社は8月より大崎ガーデンタワーに移転し営業を開始いたしました！

業務エリアのほか、Coworking Spaceやカンファレンスルーム、Cafe・BAR・食堂が設けられ、ゲームやダーツ、LIBRARYを通じコミュニケーションの活性化を図ります。

詳細はこちら
⇒https://t.co/8T2PsEAddmpic.twitter.com/aPSmNUthbH

— セガ公式アカウント (@SEGA_OFFICIAL) August 24, 2018

Xseed and Marvelous Games were more than kind to share with us an early exclusive: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is coming to PS4 on March 26. 

This is the first entry in the Nihon Falcom’s Trails of Cold Steel series, previously arriving on PS3, Vita, and PC. You follow Rean Schwarzer, a young man who’s about to embark on his first day at Thors Military Academy, where he gets placed in the specialized “Class VII.” You’ll get to know your classmates on and off the battlefield by taking on assignments and spending free time with them, making the game draw comparisons to Persona for its relationship-building and Suikoden for its political themes.

The PS4 remaster includes dual audio for the first time on console. The English dub also contains over 5,000 additional lines previously only available in the PC edition. A special “Decisive” edition (pictured below) is available for physical release, featuring a musical selections CD with 21 full-length tracks, a Steelbook case with artwork, and your very own 50 mira collector’s coin. As another bonus, the 52-page physical manual will include ‘Alisa Reinford's Cold Steel Crash Course!’ comics. This edition costs $49.99, while the digital edition runs for $39.99, and you can pre-order now.

Xseed previously announced a remaster of the second Trails of Cold Steel entry will come to PS4 at a later date, while NIS America recently revealed that it’s bringing the third entry over this fall. This is a great chance to try out the series or give yourself a refresher.

For more on why you should play this criminally overlooked gem, you should head here. 

Nintendo has announced that it is livestreaming a Pokémon Direct on Wednesday, February 27 at 6 am Pacific with "roughly seven minutes of new information."

The company hasn't specified what the new information exactly pertains to, but hopefully it's something about the 2019 Switch Pokémon title from Game Freak, which we have some ideas about.

[Source: Nintendo]

It all starts with dreams of a rabbit in a tuxedo. Ni No Kuni II's The Tale of a Timeless Tome DLC starts when Evan and his friends investigate and find the rabbit, calling himself The Conductor, at the Goldpaw Inn. The subsequent adventure – releasing on March 19 – introduces a new battle arena, combat styles, and more.

The two new Methods are Wizard's Companion and Martha's Method, the first of which harks back to the first game, and you may need them in the new Solosseum Slog arena taking on powerful enemies for new items.

Fans of the series will also like the DLC's first screens, which hint a wedding for Queen Nerea and Nella.

The Tale of a Timeless Tome comes out on March 19 and costs $14.99 or is free if you bought the season pass. 

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

Today Rockstar revealed that a large update for the online component of Red Dead Redemption II has gone live. The Red Dead Online update brings a huge host of additions to the world.

Here the most noteworthy additions:

• A rare, brass plated shotgun is now available for purchase at gunsmiths. A more powerful repeater is also "coming soon." PS4 players get early access to a new melee weapon, the Jawbone knife.
• New clothing, including boots, coats, hats, and vests.
• New reaction emotes, as well as greets and taunts.
• New gameplay events, including daily challenges, races, fishing challenges. Competitive modes are on the way as well.

Alongside the new content, Rockstar is also making a large number of changes to current systems. Player blips are reduced over long distances on the map, addressing a big complaint that has been consistent since launch. Outlaws who cause too much of a ruckus in the world will find themselves pursued, not just by other players, but powerful NPC bounty hunters as well.

Those who log onto Red Dead Online by March 5 will receive a complimentary cache of goods that includes snake oil, tonics, revivers, arrows, and more.

For more on Red Dead Redemption II, here are 101 things you can do in the game.

Digital storefront GOG (short for Good Old Games) has laid off "around a dozen" people. A representative reached out to Kotakuto confirm the news but also cautioned against the layoffs being seen as a bleak sign of things to come for the store.

 “Letting people go is never easy,” the company told Kotaku. “We have been rearranging certain teams since October 2018, effecting in closing around a dozen of positions last week. At the same time, since the process started we have welcomed nearly twice as many new team members, and currently hold 20 open positions.” However, Kotaku also notes that an anonymous employee with the company suggested that GOG's financials were more in the red than the company was letting it go.

The company also announced that its Fair Package Program, which gave costumers from countries where a title they purchased was more expensive than its country of origin store credit to make up the difference, is ending.

[Source: Kotaku]

A new trailer dropped for the Pokémon Detective Pikachu movie this morning and it shows off a lot more Pokémon, and some of the major plot beats, like the fact that protagonist Tim's father may not actually be dead. Arguably the biggest reveal of the trailer, however, is MewTwo, who bursts through a gigantic exploding Pikachu balloon in dramatic fashion.

A new poster was also revealed for the movie, which you can see below.

Ryme City, Best city. Case closed. But still open! Until #DetectivePikachu solves it! pic.twitter.com/OFOEVUZOWb

— POKÉMON Detective Pikachu (@DetPikachuMovie) February 26, 2019

If you head to the movie's official site, you can actually play a simple game that reveals the 15 Pokémon hidden in the poster, including MewTwo, Snorlax, and more. You can find that here.

Pokémon Detective Pikachu releases in theaters on May 10. For more on the Detective Pikachu movie, head here. You can also check out some of Ryan Reynolds' acting process for playing Pikachu in the clip he released below.

“Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances” – Sanford Meisner. Point is, there’s a new Detective Pikachu trailer tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/g9dRTOJHL1

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) February 25, 2019

For many Lovecraft enthusiasts, The Sinking City has been a grim delight lurking on the horizon. The game was initially due out March 21. However, that looks like that might no longer be the case.

 The astute folks at PC Gamer have noticed the release date for the game has disappeared. Where March 21 once was, a new description appears: 2019.

No word yet from Frogwares or publisher Bigben Interactive but it looks like you'll have to wait a little while longer to get your supernatural sleuth on.

[Source: Steam via PC Gamer]

World War Z, the co-op, third-person shooter, is finally getting a release date: April 16. Announced all the way back in December of 2017, it's been a while since we've heard much about the game's progress, but the impressive  zombie tech behind the large hordes seems to have remained intact from that initial showing.

The game is co-op up to four player, so it seems to be interested in picking up the slack for the seemingly defunct Left 4 Dead series. We'll just have to wait a couple more months to see if it can match those games' staying power when it launches on PS4, Xbox One, and the Epic Games Store.

All month long we've been rolling out exclusive features on The Outer Worlds, hopefully we've answered a lot of your questions about the game but we wanted to give the community once last chance to have their most burning questions answered. In an upcoming episode of The Game Informer Show podcast, we're Skyping in the game's co-directors Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky.

Leave a comment below with your question for Cain and Boyarsky about Obsidian's The Outer Worlds or their long history developing games like Fallout or Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

You can subscribe to the podcast and get ready for this week's interview by clicking here.

Hitman 2 developer IO Interactive is inviting new players to test out its 2018 stealth game with Hitman 2 – Starter Pack, a free download available now that lets players experience the game's first mission in its entirety.

The opening campaign mission is called "Nightcall" and is set in a "luxurious oceanside property" in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. Players take on the role of Agent 47 as he infiltrates the compound to assassinate certain targets. Progression earned in Hawke's Bay will carry over to the full game if players decide to purchase it. (Which they totally should.)

Additionally, Hitman 2 – Starter Pack lets players participate in a Elusive Target mission – limited time, in-game events that give players one opportunity to eliminate high profile targets. Players who download the starter pack can participate in Hitman 2's upcoming Elusive Target, "The Politician," which runs from March 8-17 in Hawke's Bay. The target is Dame Barbara Elizabeth Keating, who is described as "a disgraced former New Zealand Minister of Trade and Foreign Affairs who was forced to resign after the discovery of her charity funneling funds to her offshore interests." Players will need to be keen-eyed to take her out, as her body double roams Hawke's Bay too.

If you need more incentive to try Hitman 2, read our review, our watch how we killed Sean Bean when he was an elusive target.

During the lead-up to the Battlefield V launch, DICE laid out the many ambitious ways it hoped to evolve the first-person shooter series. The evolution of the fan-favorite Battlefield 1 mode Operations, dubbed Grand Operations, would add a new array of objectives to the playlists to keep the evolving battles fresh. A cooperative mode called Combined Arms would provide an evolving PvE destination. A new “Company” system would give players a greater level of flexibility for tweaking and saving class/vehicle loadouts for any battle scenario. And not one to be left on the sideline while battle royales took over the world, Battlefield V would also have its own unique take on the popular mode, dubbed Firestorm. 

When the November 15 release date arrived, only one of these promised features – Grand Operations – was included in its intended state. As crazy as that sounds, it almost didn’t ship with that mode either. Grand Operations only made its way into the Day One feature set after fans busted out the torches over news that the first major feature EA touted in its pre-release press blitz was going to come out shortly after launch and EA was forced to backpedal. 

As I said in my review, this incomplete picture made Battlefield V a tough game to evaluate on launch day. Although the gorgeous graphics impressed and DICE made many smart, smaller evolutions to the classic squad-based play, the litany of missing features made the game feel like an under-construction early access title rather than a fully featured experience on par with previous entries in the series. Fast-forward three months, and we’re still waiting for the full slate of promised features, let alone any meaningful additions that evolve the game in interesting ways. 

Playing catch-up isn’t necessarily a new thing for DICE. With seemingly each new Battlefield game, the studio infamously reintroduces problems it already solved in previous games. Bad Company 2 inexplicably split squads of friends during matchmaking. Battlefield 3 launched on PC without an in-game server browser thanks to EA’s stubborn insistence players use the browser-based Battlelog. Battlefield V also had its own easily correctable problem. When the contentious TTK-TTD fiasco dominated the fan feedback loop in the weeks following launch, DICE could have explored a fix the way most modern games do – on a test server. However, there was one small problem – Battlefield V inexplicably shipped without the Community Test Environment, which has been a series staple since Battlefield 3. Instead, the entire player base was subjected to a rollercoaster of rushed hotfixes that wildly altered the gameplay. 

In the aftermath of that controversy, DICE is still slowly chipping away at its to-do list of previously promised features, none of which are capturing the imagination of its passionate player base. Practice Range and Combined Arms are ultimately onboarding-centric experiences meant primarily for newcomers that should have been included at launch; the fact that they weren’t reinforces the idea that this game was rushed to market to capitalize on holiday spending even though it wasn’t ready. Combined Arms was originally intended to be much more ambitious, with a dynamic mission generator and a ramping difficulty that made squads make the tough choice to extract with whatever assets they already had or see the mission through to the end at the risk of losing it all. But the version that shipped a few weeks ago is a generic and unremarkable PvE experience with none of that promise. 

The list of previously advertised features still missing three months in is surprisingly long. The battle royale mode isn’t expected until spring. The Company feature still doesn’t let you save multiple class loadouts, which means players fumble through menus to make sure they are outfitted in the best possible way for the map and mode on hand. You still can’t drag downed players behind cover to attempt a revive, and the rent-a-server and hardcore mode features from previous games are nowhere to be seen. What I wouldn’t give for a map rotation that pretends the horrible Fjell map never existed. 

Meanwhile, DICE has only released one new map, Panzerstorm, which currently only supports three game modes (Conquest, Breakthrough, and Grand Operations). Maps have traditionally been the lifeblood of Battlefield games, serving as the focal point for post-launch content. Keeping a steady infusion of new play spaces is critical to keep the fan base from peeling off to other, more compelling shooters. DICE used to have this cadence down pat. Both Battlefield 3 and 4 offered four-packs of maps via paid expansions within the first three months after launch. The days of receiving 20 maps post-launch are likely gone given the transition from paid to free post-launch content, but if Battlefield V has any chance of growing or retaining its player base, a healthy infusion of new maps is a must. 

Games like Rainbow Six Siege have proven that if a publisher commits itself to fixing a game’s problems and continually releasing new content, players will come. Battlefield V still has potential to turn the corner in the same fashion, but if the game is going to make up for its massive sales projection shortfall over the coming months and years, EA needs to send reinforcements sooner rather than later, moving past old promises and into the future. 

Yesterday, Blizzard surprisingly announced the newest hero coming to Overwatch, a battle medic by the name of Baptiste. While the developer released a backstory video for the new Haitian hero, there were little to no details about how he might play beyond his balance of healing and hurting. However, no Baptiste is on the PTR, and we have a better sense of what he can do.

Baptiste wields a healing SMG, called the Medic SMG, which has a three-round burst with hitscan. The hitscan means that the bullets just have to be aimed at someone to heal them, there's no travel time from the gun to the target, theoretically making Baptiste the fastest healer with that method. Of course, like Ana, shooting enemies damages them, too.

The alt fire on the gun blasts a healing grenade that does no damage, but heals teammates in an area-of-effect range. The grenade and the SMG have separate ammo counts, so you can switch around as the situation demands.

Baptiste's skill involves creating a regenerative field around him to heal himself and allies, similar to Lucio's music, but differs in that allies do not not have to stay near Baptiste to retain the active regeneration. He also has Exo boots, which allow him to crouch into a superjump for mobility enhancement.

Amplification Matrix, Baptiste's ultimate, creates a matrix field that doubles the damage and healing effects of any friendly projectiles that pass through it, so proper spacing of the matrix can turn the tide of victory.

Blizzard hasn't announce when Baptiste might escape the PTR to join the rest of the servers and console versions, but it probably shouldn't be too long.

Welcome back to New Gameplay Today! On this episode, Matt Miller, Ben Hanson, and Jeff Marchiafava show off some new levels from the beloved Ubisoft series. Trials Rising is out today on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. Miller is currently working on the review for the game, so check back later for that!

(Heads up: This is a kind of disturbing story in that it goes into one of the darker parts of the web. If you're faint of heart for whatever reason, I'd advise caution.)

Earlier today, THQ Nordic, the company behind games like Darksiders III, announced on Twitter that they would be holding an "Ask Me Anything" session on the image board 8chan. This shocked many observers, as 8chan's reputation as being the border of the dark web and home to content not welcome on other websites was fairly well known. The resulting trainwreck has resulted in at least one major apology from the company's public relations department and scores of onlookers stating a lack of belief in their explanation.

We're not going to link the website and you definitely should not go there, even out of morbid curiosity. Googling the site will lead you to Wikipedia articles and news stories about the image board, but not a link to the site itself, as Google has banned its result. In an article published in 2015, The Washington Post described it as "the more-lawless, more-libertarian, more 'free' follow-up to 4chan" as the first sentence of a story describing multiple reports of child pornography being hosted on the site. The board has, on its best days, entertained subject matter such as provocative pictures of minors in skimpy clothing and on its worst days been a hub for the exchange of links for much worse.

Seriously, there's a non-zero chance going there will put you on an FBI watchlist. Don't do it.

When THQ Nordic posted that they would be answering questions there, it baffled many who assumed the game publisher's Twitter account must have been hacked. Further replies suggested that this was not the case, as the company explained that they were given the opportunity and credited someone named Mark who they were told "will take care of the nasty stuff."

We reached out to THQ Nordic PR and other associated PR agencies while this was going on but weren't able to confirm at the time that this was being handled by the company. Meanwhile, the AMA was ongoing, with THQ employees Phillip (PR & Marketing director Phillip Brock) and Reinhard (product director Reinhard Pollice) answering questions in a thread filled with racism, anti-semitism, slurs, and pornography. When asked about lolis, the term for underage girls on parts of the internet, with accompanying anime-style art of a naked adult standing behind two younger girls, the accounts joked along with the question. It continued on like that for some time, with the THQ employees nodding along and agreeing with the sentiments posed.

The question & answer session lasted about an hour, after which the THQ Nordic Twitter account updated again with a quoted apology from Brock. The marketing director insisted he had never heard of 8chan's reputation for these things and did not do his due diligence investigating it. He apologized and took the blame as the single person responsible, despite there being other THQ employees involved.

When asked by GamesIndustry.biz why he continued answering questions despite seeing the things being posted, Brock mostly avoided answering the question. "I was f---ing overwhelmed with a plethora of different emotions to be honest," he told the outlet. "I am not a white supremacist, nor into child pornography, nor do I think this AMA was smart in hindsight and if I could, I would undo."

It seems genuinely impossible to Google 8chan without finding information about the board and the various controversies, such as a hosted sub-board for sexual depictions of toddlers, simply out in plain view. If Brock is being truthful, then he would have simply had to do zero research into it at all, including simply typing the words into Google.

"This was not about being edgy," Brock wrote on Twitter, "this blew up and I very much regret to have done it in the first place."

Frank Herbert's Dune is among the most influential sci-fi books ever written.  And though elements of the Dune series have undoubtedly served as inspiration for many games, the number of officially licensed Dune games is surprisingly small. But that's about to change.

Funcom has announced a licensing agreement with Herbert Properties LLC and Legendary Pictures (the studio behind the upcoming Dune movie) that allows Funcom to develop Dune video games.

Beyond the fact that Funcom's Oslo studio will start development later this year, no other information of the games was announced. That studio's most recent title is Conan Exiles. 

Dune: The Battle for Arrakis on Genesis (pictured above) is currently the high bar for Dune-related games, since it is often credited as the first mainstream RTS title. That's going to be hard to top, but we'll see what Funcom has in store.