The IGF (Independent Games Festival) aims to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize independent game developers advancing the medium. This year, Game Developer sat down with the finalists for the IGFs Nuovo and Grand Prize nominees ahead of GDC to explore the themes, design decisions, and tools behind each entry. Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations under Informa.Consume Me is a bleakly funny look at dieting and eating, exploring a teenagers life and how every element of it is affected by the strange, sometimes alarming ways dieting makes people look at food. Game Developer caught up with Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson, co-directors of the multi-IGF Award nominated title, to talk about the design decisions that went into creating food-based minigames that would explore the challenges and effects of dieting, why they chose to explore this subject with humor, and the steps they took to try to keep their game from triggering those who have complex reactions to dieting and disordered eating.Who are you, and what was your role in developing Consume Me?Jenny Jiao Hsia, co-director: Hello, Im Jenny Jiao Hsia, co-director of Consume Me, and I started developing Consume Me as my capstone project during my undergraduate degree. Years later, I somehow managed to convince a bunch of other talented people to help make this video game with me. I do everything from protoyping the mini-games, storyboarding the narrative, figuring out the visual direction, drawing most of the characters in the game, tweaking the UI, and putting together most of the non-interactive sequences in the unity inspector with custom tools built by AP (Thomson). I guess I also technically lived through the experience of what the game and its story is based on Does that count? Related:AP Thomson, co-director: Hi, I'm AP Thomson, and I'm one of the co-directors of Consume Me alongside Jenny. In terms of roles, I did the vast majority of the programming, a good portion of the design (particularly the systems design), a big chunk of the writing, and also, I'm the guy singing and playing the guitar in the (spoiler) one musical scene in the game [laughs].Now these folks arent answering the interview questions, but lets get their names out there:Jie En Lee (aka Kelly) made a ton of art for the game, in particular nearly all the backgrounds!Violet W-P did the sound design!Ken coda Snyder made the music!What's your background in making games?Hsia: Growing up, I always loved to draw but I also hated video games. When it was clear that I was not cut out to Become A Doctor, video games somehow became my back up plan. What I mean by that is: during my second year of undergrad, I stumbled into Games 101 (an art history but for video games course @ NYU), met AP, began collaborating on projects, switched my major to Game Design, and the rest is pretty much history.Related:Thomson: I've been making games independently basically since I was in high school? During my undergrad I worked at the MIT Gamelab (then called the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab). After that, I went to get an MFA from the NYU Game Center. That's where I met Jenny. The two of us went on to make and release Stellar Smooch (nominated for Student IGF in 2015) and Beglitched (which won the Student IGF in 2016) along with a bunch of smaller projects over the years. I've also released some other games including Swap Sword (with Diego Garcia), Multibowl (with Bennett Foddy), and Fortune-499 (which was mostly a solo project with Jenny contributing some of the art).How did you come up with the concept for Consume Me?Hsia: I went through an extreme phase of disordered eating and dieting as a teenager and YEARS LATER, after playing Papers Please, I thought it would be cool to make a game that mechanically resembled my personal experience through that time period. I wanted to play around with the idea that you could attempt to reach your weight loss goals very much like a video game and felt that it could be cool to design consequences for the player to experience that go along with that.Related:Thomson: I didnt. Go ask Jenny [laughs].What development tools were used to build your game?Thomson: The standard answer here is that we used Unity as our primary game engine, Photoshop and Procreate to make 2D assets, Blender to make 3D assets, Ableton for sound effects, Google sheets for our spreadsheets, etc.. But while you're here, let me take the opportunity to shout out some specific plugins we made heavy use of: Super Text Mesh is how we got all the bouncy animated text in there, Rewired was an indispensable tool for setting up the gamepad controls, and (this one is kinda obscure) "Advanced Event" by ByteSheep Digital was an essential building block for making various editor tools we used throughout development.Consume Me turns food and calorie counting into an array of minigames meant to simulate the challenges around dieting and how it can reshape your perception of food. Can you tell us about your process in taking these thoughts around dieting and food and turning them into a minigame? Can you walk us through this process for the design of one of the specific minigames?Thomson: Jennys dieting is something that places pressure on her life in a multitude of ways and we wanted that represented properly in the game. Key to that is that theres more than one way to fail at dieting: you can eat too much, overshooting your calorie budget, or you can eat too little (or in a way thats unsatisfying) and end up hungry, OR you can counterintuitively do BOTH of those things at the same time. Additionally, eating is something you generally do everyday, so we needed to have a reusable mini game that wouldnt get old too quickly. The resulting food Tetris mini game mostly emerged from trying to reconcile all those constraints. Each food puzzle piece gets a fake calorie value, but thats unrelated to how it impacts hunger and craving (which is ultimately determined by the shape of the food) allowing for the aforementioned multitude of outcomes. Anyway, we had to iterate on it a ton before we arrived at the current design [laughs].Consume Me explores the ways in which dieting attempts to turn food into a mechanical, countable process despite many difficult-to control needs and feelings within the human body. What thoughts went into capturing this battle with the self within the gameplay and the player's limited controls within the minigames?Thomson: Theres definitely a balance between what the player can control vs not control, but more than that, theres a distinct contrast between systems the player is aware of (i.e. the fake calorie counting system, how hungry Jenny is) and systems that are hidden from the player. We ultimately wanted to trick the player into behaving like teenage Jenny by limiting information in this way. A lot of the hidden systems are built around the random encounters. Basically, the way these work is that theres a big deck of event cards and when the player gets a random encounter it just draws a card randomly from this deck. But actions the player takes can secretly add or remove cards from this deck. For instance, if Jenny goes to bed hungry (with her guts at < 50%), itll add a snack attack event to the deck where, if it gets drawn, Jenny gives into her craving and eats a big snack.Food-based games are not the entire experience as players must also carry out the protagonist's life and duties as well. What thoughts went into crafting the narrative and turning the main character's various activities into other minigames?Thomson: Dieting doesnt end the moment youre done with lunch. We wanted to explore the ways dieting overlaps with other aspects of Jennys life (how she balances it with school work, social obligations, keeping her mom off her back, etc.). To do that, we basically had to simulate the rest of Jennys life [laughs]. But even beyond that. Consume Me isnt just about the ways dieting Consumes Jennys life, its about how she jumps from obsession to obsession, piling more onto her plate with each chapter, following an arc similar to the one she followed in real life, so all the non-dieting parts of the game become more and more essential as the story proceeds.What drew you to the game's art style? What appealed to you about creating something playful and animated around this serious subject?Hsia: The current art style is basically the same art style I used to prototype the original mini-games. Back then, I basically tried to keep the decision-making simple: pick a limited color palette, the pencil tool in Photoshop, a few brush sizes. What mattered to me back then was getting the prototype working so I didnt have a lot of time to focus on the art side. As I continued developing the game, the look of the art changed, too. I think most artists would agree that as they evolve themselves, so does their art style.When Kelly joined the project to help me out on backgrounds it was a really fun opportunity to see what they could do with my guidelines from the prototyping phase. Since this game has been in development for many years, you can see how the character is drawn in many different styles. Its hard to stick to 1 style without feeling the need to redo it and I guess we just left my old art in the game alongside the new art styles. I also like to joke that the art looks like it had been made by a whole team of like 20 people when really its just 2 artists who have worked on the project for a number of years whose art styles constantly evolved and who felt too lazy to redo the old scenes.Likewise, why was it important to you to explore dieting in a darkly humorous way? What benefits and challenges came from looking at this subject with bleak humor?Hsia: Lifes depressing. Especially right now. Lots of things look hopeless. Dont you want to laugh a little and make some jokes before you die? Thomson: This is actually one of my pet takes. Basically, I think art thats completely devoid of humour is also incapable of being serious. Now I dont mean that everything should be a comedy, exactly, but more that humor as emotional lightness contrasted with emotional heaviness is a really important part of the texture of any narrative. My go-to example here is that even Shakespeares famous tragedies (e.g. Hamlet) are suffused with humor throughout even if they arent comedies. Which is just to say, when making something about a serious subject, finding humor somewhere is a very important part of telling a real story, for whatever thats worth.The itch.io store page for this game mentions that this game came about from personal experiences with dieting and disordered eating. What difficulties did you face in exploring these memories and feelings while creating the game? Did you feel that creating art around these experiences has helped you or affected you in any way? Do you have any concerns about how this game may affect others who play it?Hsia: I got more emotional rereading my diary entries about my high school relationship and failing my classes in freshman year than I did about the dieting stuff. I actually feel like, as we expanded the games scope, formed an actual team, and turned this personal project into an actual video game, I became less attached to it, emotionally. Regarding my concerns about the subject matter, I dont want my experiences to trigger other people who are in a bad mental space with food and how they see their body, so we put a content warning.Thomson: We were definitely concerned about Consume Me being triggering or upsetting for anyone with a history of disordered eating. For that reason, we put a pretty hefty content warning at the front of the game. We also attempted a few maneuvers to detach it from real dieting and disordered eating while still evoking the feeling of those things (Stuff like removing specific weight numbers from the game and replacing calories with a fictional unit of energy called Bites). That said, were well aware that these interventions are insufficient for at least some portion of the audience, so we absolutely wont begrudge anyone for giving it a pass!

Tesla has issued a recall for 46,096 Cybertrucks in the US to fix a fault that was causing the steel trim on some vehicles to come loose or fly off while driving. The recall applies to every Cybertruck manufactured between November 13th, 2023, and February 27th, 2025, according to the report filed with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), with around one percent of the impacted vehicles believed to have the trim defect.This is the eighth recall for the Cybertruck since it launched in December 2023. A similar recall was issued last summer regarding a trim fault in the truck bed that also risked coming loose and creating road hazards. The latest issue has been reported directly to the NHTSA by several Cybertruck owners, alongside being documented online in Cybertruck owners forums and teardown videos posted to YouTube by Reid Tomasko and Cody Detwiler.Cybertruck deliveries had already been paused to address reports that steel trim panels were becoming detached from vehicles. The NHTSA notice says the fault affects the Cybertrucks cant rail, described as a cosmetic applique along the exterior of the vehicle, which is only attached via an adhesive that has been found to be susceptible to environmental embrittlement.As of March 14th, the recall notice says 151 warranty claims have been identified that may be related to the condition. Tesla says it isnt aware of any collisions, fatalities, or injuries but warns in the report that the panel could create a road hazard for following motorists and increase their risk of injury or a collision if they fly off while the Cybertruck is being driven.Tesla says it will replace the cant rail on recalled vehicles for free, which involves using new adhesive and clamping the panel to the vehicle with a nut.

When asked what they do for work, creative couple Jessie Char and Maxwell Neely-Cohen should probably just say yes. True professional multihyphenates, Chars gig history includes stints as a UI/UX designer, conference organizer, concert cellist, and Apple Genius; Neely-Cohen is a novelist, ballet dancer, and coeditor of the experimental literary journal The HTML Review. Together, theyve built everything from a real-life version of Cher Horowitzs Clueless closet to the sound design of a play with over 200 original sound cues. I asked them for a tour of the tech in their Williamsburg, Brooklyn, loft, where they regularly host literary salons, violin performances, and film industry mixers. We chatted about their shared reverence for old hardware, live coding, how they find comedy in sound, and why theyll never install a smart light switch.Max selects a record from the couples well-organized vinyl collection using a pair of multisided dice. The couple developed a game where house rules dictate whatever record is pulled must be played from start to finish.A de Sede DS-600 movable couch is the main furniture piece of the sitting area in their Williamsburg loft.How did you two meet?Max Neely-Cohen: It was at a Zoom reading group at the very beginning of the pandemic. We were reading Expanded Cinema [by Gene Youngblood] with a group of mostly designers and artists.Jessie Char: The book was about the early history of computer art and animation.And then what? Someone slid into the others DMs?MNC: First we stayed long on the Zoom callJC: Until everybody peeled off and then it was just us. So, we hung out on Zoom for a few hours, and then I slid into his DMs on Instagram right after.MNC: I mean, she beat me by seconds.JC: But there is another cute thing, which is the Color Chat app.MNC: Its this really cool art project where you could only communicate with each other by sending color swatches. You would select from this big rainbow wheel, and then it would send it and it would name the color. And I would send a lot of unintentionally flirty colors. I swear to God, I sent one that was lipstick red and then another that was just passionate fire. But it was also accurate. So, we would kind of joke about it, but it was also extremely real flirting.The first-floor bathrooms tunes are played via an iPod connected to 2004 Harman Kardon SoundSticks speakers.And then Jessie, who was living in San Francisco, moved to New York?JC: The first time I visited Max was November of 2020, and I was supposed to stay for a couple of weeks, but there was another covid wave, so I didnt want to fly. And basically, I just stayed forever. What were you both up to creatively at the time?JC: I was in the middle of losing my career. I used to produce a design conference that took place at the same time as Apples developer conference, WWDC. It was the kind of little sister conference of WWDC. And [when covid hit], obviously conferences stopped happening. So I was kind of floating through life trying to figure out what to do next. [I was] still doing design contract work, but I had kind of lost my big thing. I was still freelancing, but it wasnt anything fun. I actually cant remember the first creative thing that I did when I came to New York.MNC: It was live coding.Tell me about that.MNC: Its this still-emerging practice where you can perform music, visual art, all sorts of things, through writing code and executing it onstage. If you really think about it, all music involves manipulating machines that the audience mostly doesnt know and understand. Like, I dont know how a saxophone works. So this is a similar thing, where youre basically up there with these custom-made languages that make everything faster, performing music with the code youre writing.A mechanical keyboard fan. Max has an array of keyboard caps.On a shelf in the kitchen is a painting of their cat, Detective Blueberry, by Jessie, who is also a wonderful cook. The couple enjoy hosting gatherings, often with friends and collaborators.How did you both learn to code? JC: In the GeoCities days, pre-Neopets HTML, is what were talking about. As an adult, even though I was living in the Bay Area and working in tech, I never actually coded for work or fun really. It was just this thing that I knew how to do from when I was a kid. MNC: I didnt ever code for any other reason than that I wanted to make a weird thing, and then it evolved to learning how to do weird projection art, and I just needed to learn different things for very specific projects. JC: And I was making Spice Girls fan pages [as a kid].MNC: Live code was kind of my first foray back into learning a new coding language. Kind of remembering that I have this framework for how to program things.Which coding language?MNC: ORCA.Like the whale?MNC: Like the whale.JC: And I really wanted to impress Max. So I learned a programming language to impress himMNC: She learned it within days.Maxs collection of synthesizers.An homage to Nam June Paiks TV Garden sits under the stairs at the edge of the living room. Images on the CRT TVs are responsive to the sounds created at the console to its left.How did you transition from live coding to working as sound designers in theater? JC: The writers strike.MNC: Yeah, because of all the strikes. We didnt know what would happen with the directors guild at that point. A lot of our friends, who were mostly working in TV and film but were trained in theater, started getting jazzed about theater projects because [the writers strike didnt affect theater]. So our dear friend Maia [Novi] came to us and said, I have a play. I want you all to sound design it. JC: She was like, Youre both good at computers and music. And we had no idea [what sound design was]. We were like, Yeah, well get some bug sound effects and play them on a laptop. We had no idea how the process worked, what the software was, but we kind of figured it all out on the job and really fooled everybody into believing in our competence. Since that first run of Invasive Species, where we had no idea what we were doing, weve basically been working in theater nonstop for the past two years. So how did you approach the sound for Invasive Species? What did that process actually look like? JC: I think that Max and I have the tendency to take things to their absolute furthest ends when we have the means to do it. So instead of it just being the sound effect of a bug flying around, it turned into basically a fully scored play where we wrote an underscore for the whole thing.Whats an underscore?MNC: Just music that plays underneath the play. It isnt just one-hit sound effects, like a door slamming or whatever. Its music that the actors would kind of choreograph themselves to and work with, and [it requires] sophisticated queuing setups, which is kind of a form of programming in QLab.How long did it take you to write?MNC: Two weeks.You wrote the whole score of a show in two weeks? Is that normal?JC: Theater is normally pretty fast, but we didnt know any better. And I think, realistically, a typical sound designer probably does about 1/20th of what we ended up putting out because we just didnt know what the world expected of this. We just went really, really hard. How are you assembling the sound that gets included? Are you making music? Are you sampling?MNC: Yeah, all of it. We were mostly making music through every way available to us. This is a little different from Jessie, but my most successful things as a theatrical sound designer have been the things Ive made as jokes that then end up in the show.A homemade cardboard tank for Detective Blueberry.Detective Blueberry fan art.Does it feel funny in the show or does it feel like its a joke that only you get?MNC: No, its not that its a joke in the show. Its just that, in whatever rehearsal and then tech process, Im like, Wouldnt it be funny if I made this? And at that moment, I dont know if its actually going to be good, right? JC: But there is a lot of comedy in the sound. I think that we do have a sense for how to infuse a very specific type of comedy into the sound design. Its not like its a rubber chicken and spring boingy sounds; its not cartoonish in any way. But I think that the sound design is able to capture a lot more of the writing and storytelling.So youre doing a lot of theater work together. Are you collaborating in other ways?JC: I want to say yes, but I have to think of what collaborations are. Aside from our entire lives together.Jessie and Max worked with Automatic Audio in Montreal to customize their sound system.Lets talk about your individual creative interests. Max, you have two highly specific titles on your resume: a fellow at the Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab and a consulting dramaturge at the New York Choreographic Institute at the New York City Ballet. You should probably start by telling me what a dramaturge is.MNC: Its a great question. A dramaturge in dance, opera, or theater is a person who helps develop the themes and narrative qualities of the piece, kind of across departments. Particularly in dance or opera, there isnt the same relationship between director and writer. There are all these departments making all this art, and it can be really helpful to have someone whos almost taking on the mantle of: What is the audience going to see? What are they going to take from this, and how does that affect the story and its structure?Tell me about your approach to technology in your home.JC: We are really specific about it, arent we? MNC: Yeah. We hate any smart home things. We banned them.Many of Max and Jessies retro gaming devices are still in working order.A Tetris power user, Jessie has her Game Boy models and the original Tetris game cartridge in the couples vintage collection.What do you dislike about smart home tech?JC: I think that with the rise of the internet and Wi-Fi, a lot of companies that make software rely on the fact that they can just keep releasing updates. And I dont want to have to do a software update on my light switches or my refrigerator. I just really like things that are guaranteed to work and are fixable because I know how to do hardware repairs I have certifications for it and I like knowing that if something isnt working properly, I can personally address the issue. But so many smart home devices are proprietary; they are inaccessible, and that worries me a little bit. MNC: Yeah, we were not going to buy toilets that we could not fix ourselves.JC: Because toilets are technology!MNC: Likewise, the speakers we have, we wanted to make sure that we could always open them up and solder the wires back together. Which is not true of a Bose soundbar.JC: I just see technology as a really wonderful tool. I dont see it as an assistant, and I think thats the kind of distinction that I like making. Anything that I can use as a tool, I absolutely love, and anything thats trying to help me in some way isnt as useful to me. An homage to Nam June Paiks TV Garden sits under the stairs at the edge of the living room. Images on the CRT TVs are responsive to the sounds created at the console to its left.Tell me about your TV garden and your synthesizer library.MNC: It was an evolution that began in the last apartment we lived in, which started before we met when I wanted to put all the instruments I owned on one rack. So, the first version was actually a beat-up dish drying rack from a supermarket that got discarded. The setup we have now is driven by this principle of being able to flip one switch and everything turns on. We can use it for professional stuff, but an eight-year-old kid can also start making sound with it right away. Its a place for play.MNC: Its a place for play. And the TVs were a way for us to have this little visual synthesizer in a fun way. Given the space under the stairs, we didnt want it to just be a bunch of televisions on the floor, so we designed it as an homage to Nam June Paiks TV Garden.Cable management goals.Jessie taps on the Arturia Keylab 61 in her office. Does your home itself play a role in your creative work? Is it the primary place youre both working from? JC: Yes, and our space is intentionally designed with a lot of flexibility. Most of our furniture, if possible, is on wheels so that we can roll things around to different places, trade desks if we need to, and just set our space up for whatever crazy scheme we have going on. I mean, sometimes thats a TV on wheels so I can watch Love Island while Im chopping vegetables. Theres really no part of our home that wasnt designed with the considerations around our work.See More:

At GDC yesterday Unity unveiled their 2025 Unity Development Roadmap, a look into what we can expect in the near future (Unity 6.1) and further ahead (Unity 6x and Unity 7). Highlight features of Unity beyond Unity 6.x include:Unity is built around a clear focus in 2025: providing you with a performant, optimized, and stable engine that helps you succeed on any platform. Whether youre a solo developer or a large studio, the Unity Engine is designed to support the unique challenges of modern game development whether thats reaching a global audience, optimizing performance, operating a live service game, or shipping on tomorrows hardware.Heres a small glimpse of what were working on bringing to you this year beyond Unity 6.1:AI assistance and asset generators Deeper integration in the Unity Editor workflows to improve productivity, more advanced code generation, and the ability to automate repetitive tasksProject Center Guided experimentation with reliable first-party and third-party tools, services, and features from the Unity ecosystem tailored to your visionSwappable physics backend Simple switching of physics engines through Project SettingsBut we arent stopping there. Were investing in several initiatives to update our Engine foundations with support for CoreCLR. We are modernizing Unitys content pipeline, unlocking a step change in iteration time. We will also preview a new animation system with improved tools and workflows, including procedural and runtime rigging for all skeletal asset types, and a new, powerful hierarchical state machine built to handle thousands of states, blend graphs and transitions. We look forward to sharing more with you as we make progress on these initiatives in the future.Key LinksUnity 2025 Development Roadmap BlogFull Unity Roadmap VideoYou can learn more about the future of the Unity game engine and quickly run through the Unity development roadmap in the video below.

IGN has confirmed that Ubisoft has quietly released a day-one patch for Assassins Creed Shadows that makes a number of important changes, including to temples and shrines.Ubisoft provided IGN with the patch notes for this update, which the company confirmed were not included in any public announcement.Assassins Creed Shadows day-one patch notes:This update brings various improvements and fixes, including:Players no longer getting stuck inside movable objects after dodging forward and interacting with them in kofunsFix for procedural weapons being removed incorrectly when selling itemsAdjustments to prevent players from going out of bounds when proning against objectsImproved horse navigation, reducing issues with turning and blocked pathsLighting adjustments for cave, kofun, and architectural entrances/exitsFixes for cloth clipping on Yasukes outfits (while riding) and Naoes outfits (while crouching)Citizens without weapons no longer bleed when attacked, reducing unintended blood spill in temples/shrinesTables and racks in temples/shrines are now indestructible (Some objects like drums or bowls can still be broken as they are generic ones present everywhere in the world) (Tables are still dynamic objects, so players can still move/push them).The headline here is the change to tables and racks in temples and shrines, which are now indestructible in the Feudal Japan-set game, and the change to citizens without weapons, who will no longer bleed when attacked and thus reduce blood spill in temples and shrines.Ubisoft told IGN the day-one patch is for all players and not Japan-specific, but its hard to see these changes in particular being anything but a response to the controversy surrounding the game in the country.PlayYesterday, March 19, Shigeru Ishiba, the Prime Minister of Japan, responded to a question about Assassins Creed Shadows during an official government conference meeting. The Assassins Creed Shadows question was asked by Japanese politician and member of the House of Councillors of Japan, Hiroyuki Kada. Kada, who will campaign for re-election this summer, said:I fear that allowing players to attack and destroy real-world locations in the game without permission could encourage similar behavior in real life. Shrine officials and local residents are also worried about this. Of course, freedom of expression must be respected, but acts that demean local cultures should be avoided.Prime Minister Ishiba responded:How to address this legally is something we need to discuss with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Defacing a shrine is out of the question - it is an insult to the nation itself. When the Self-Defense Forces were deployed to Samawah, Iraq, we ensured they studied Islamic customs beforehand. Respecting the culture and religion of a country is fundamental, and we must make it clear that we will not simply accept acts that disregard them.The Complete Assassin's Creed TimelineThe shrine being defaced in pre-release Assassin's Creed Shadows gameplay videos is Itatehyozu Shrine in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, which is within Kadas constituency. He said that he had consulted with representatives of the shrine, who confirmed that Ubisoft did not seek their permission to show the shrine and use its name in the game.While Masaki Ogushi (Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry) responded that government agencies will work together to handle matters if the shrine seeks consultation, in a work of artistic expression Ubisoft would probably be clear legally to use the shrine under the Constitution of Japan.Responses from both ministers were vague at best and seem unlikely to result in any particular action, especially as Ubisoft appears to have addressed these concerns proactively with this day-one patch.Irrespective of the games success or otherwise in Japan, there is enormous pressure on Assassin's Creed Shadows to do well for Ubisoft globally after a number of delays and the sales failure of last years Star Wars Outlaws. Indeed, Ubisoft has suffered a number of high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations in the run up to Assassin's Creed Shadows' release.IGNs Assassins Creed Shadows review returned an 8/10. We said: By sharpening the edges of its existing systems, Assassins Creed Shadows creates one of the best versions of the open-world style its been honing for the last decade.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The failure of the TV adaptation of Halo certainly hasnt put Microsoft off more adaptations of its video games. Thats according to Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer, who has said fans can expect more in the future.Spencer spoke to Variety ahead of the launch of A Minecraft Movie, the big screen, Jack Black-starring adaptation of the Microsoft-owned sandbox video game Minecraft. Big things are expected of it, and if it does well, it could spawn sequels.Its the latest Microsoft video game to get either a movie or TV show, and follows the phenomenally successful Fallout Prime Video series (Season 2 is on its way). But the TV adaptation of Microsofts flagship Xbox game, Halo, failed, suffering a cancelation after two big-budget seasons were poorly received.PlayMicrosoft has learned from Halo, Spencer told Variety, and is gaining confidence in the space. And so, expect more to come.Were learning and growing through this process, which is giving us more confidence that we should do more, Spencer said.We learned from doing Halo. We learned from doing Fallout. So all of these build on themselves. And obviously well have a couple that miss. But what Id say to the Xbox community that likes this work is, Youre going to see more, because were gaining confidence and were learning through this. The question is, what Xbox game could we see adapted next? In 2022, Netflix announced a live-action film adaptation and animated television series based on Gears of War. Unfortunately weve heard little since, save MCU star Dave Bautistas occasional call to be cast as Marcus Fenix.Upcoming New Video Game Movies and TV Shows: 2025 Release Dates and BeyondLets have some fun speculation. Perhaps, given the success of Fallout, Prime Video might be interested in an Elder Scrolls / Skyrim TV show? With The Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time, Amazon may feel it has fantasy covered though.Sony made a Gran Turismo movie and against all odds it seems to have been successful. Could Microsoft give the go-ahead to a Forza Horizon movie?Microsoft owns Activision Blizzard, of course. Perhaps its finally time for a Call of Duty movie, or another stab at a Warcraft adaptation. In his book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, reporter Jason Schreier revealed that Activision Blizzard had series in development with Netflix for Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo, but they all fell by the wayside. Could Microsoft help revive the projects?On a more family friendly note, Microsoft now also owns Crash Bandicoot, which youd think would be good for an animated movie or TV series, given the success of the likes of Mario and Sonic on the big screen. Id love to see Fable, which is set for a reboot in 2026, enjoy an adaptation of some kind.And finally, could Microsoft give Halo another go with a big-budget movie?Microsoft's console rivals Sony and Nintendo seem further along this process. Sony has seen huge success from the Uncharted movie, HBO's The Last of Us, and even Twisted Metal is getting a Season 2. Sony has announced a Helldivers 2 movie, a movie adaptation of Guerrilla's Horizon Zero Dawn, and an anime adaptation of Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima. The God of War TV show is already down for two seasons.As for Nintendo, it has the most successful video game adaptation of all time under its belt: The Super Mario Bros. Movie. A sequel is in the works, as is a live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

SummarySouth of Midnights soundtrack, created by Olivier Deriviere, is available today on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Bandcamp. To celebrate, we spoke to Deriviere and Audio Director Chris Fox to find out how they created a unique gaming musical experience.South of Midnighthas also gone gold! Compulsion Games has reached a major milestone, with the games development now complete and approved for release.South of Midnight will be available on April 8, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox app for Windows PC, Steam, cloud, and will be available day one with Game Pass. And with Xbox Play Anywhere, play on Xbox consoles, Windows PC, and cloud with full cross-entitlements and cross-saves. Play up to five days early, starting April 3, 2025, and get access to digital extras with the Premium Edition.Pre-order The Art and Music of South of Midnight, developed in collaboration with Dutch design house and publisher Cook and Becker. The box set includes a two-LP vinyl with the full soundtrack of the game presented in a beautiful gatefold alongside a 160-page art book, a comic book inspired by the game, and more.Composer Olivier Deriviere has a very elegant way of summing up South of Midnights approach to music: This game is singing with the player.Xbox Wire spoke to Deriviere, and Audio Director Chris Fox, on an important day for the team South of Midnight had just gone gold, with development complete ahead of the games April 8 global release date. On the day this article publishes, its another important milestone South of Midnights soundtrack is now available on all major streaming platforms. It felt only natural, then, to discuss how this game uses music in an all-new way for the genre.In most games, the soundtrack is something like a mood board something to prompt you on the fact that youre in an important battle, or experiencing the joy of exploration. But Compulsion Games has woven music far more intricately into the experience of playing South of Midnight. As you progress through its levels, melodies and harmonies repeat, snatches of lyrics float like a breeze through the experience, offering hints at the wider story youre taking part in. And, as you reach each levels crescendo, taking on the games mythical creatures, it explodes into life as a fully performed track, ebbing and flowing, reacting to your actions, and telling the creatures tales through lyrics.It was, as you might imagine, a complex task. Its the biggest music production Ive ever done, explains Deriviere. But, at the beginning, it wasnt supposed to be like this. Musical IntroductionCompulsion did a huge amount of research in the early parts of production, with Creative Director David Sears and his team undertaking multiple trips to the American South in order to properly capture the look, feel, and stories of the region they aimed to depict. And it was at the end of one of these trips that Sears returned with an idea.Audio Director Chris Fox tells the story that started it all: David came back from one of his trips to the South and said, I really feel like Ive had this epiphany players actions should equal musicality. So that was kind of the first big challenge, and then I had to go away and kind of think about what that meant.Music is a huge part of the identity of the South blues, country, jazz and more can all trace their roots to the region and that was always going to be represented. But the gauntlet thrown down to Fox and Deriviere was to create a game in which that music needed to feel tied to what the player was doing, where they were, and what story they were unravelling.So I was like, OK, how can someone make music while they play, but not [just make] a music game? explains Fox. That was how it started, and then we just went into lots of brainstorms. David came back from one of his trips to the South and said, I really feel like Ive had this epiphany players actions should equal musicality.Chris Fox, Audio DirectorIts rare for an action-adventure like South of Midnight to try something like this, and its rarer still for the songs created to have lyrics. This wasnt just about creating a technical system for how music reacts to the player, but for how it told distinct stories around them.We started with story, of course, says Fox. We needed to know the story of the creatures first, which then spawned the narrative our version of the [real-life] tales which in turn spawned the lyrics. The lyrics and the narrative have to go hand-in-hand. We worked with the narrative team, and then we had to make sure Olivier had what he needed. I was very pleased with the content that we got its always a worry at the beginning when you talk about making original songs, its not something thats normally done. Anything could happen and the most important thing was just to put trust in everyone.That trust meant that Olivier was given another unusual task to create a concept song, in the same way a games production will often begin with concept art.This was the first time Ive had to think of [traditional] songs within a game, Deriviere continues. How can we make a song happen, and how is this relevant? How do we arrange the song? The starting point was this concept song and I had to sing it. And when the song was there, just by me, it was enough for David and Chris to be like, OK, with that, we can go into production. The Art of ScienceFrom here, the team worked together to create the full suite of songs youll hear in the final game. And unexpectedly, at least for Deriviere, the practical element of getting the game to adjust its music to how youre playing was actually one of the easier parts of the process.Technology in video games has immensely improved over the time, and we are now able to very much tailor throughout any situation in a game [how the music reacts to] whatever we want. The difficulty is that you have the technology, but you still have to have the creativity and the coherency of using the technology in the right way. For instance, for music, you dont want the system to be complex [to the point where it] doesnt make musical sense. Its just years and years of practicing and experimenting. And we did experiment its fail-and-retry, basically.The systems Fox and his team created mean that the soundtrack will know if youre stopping to explore, or charging headlong into a combat section, adjusting the track around that to feel right, while still carrying the core themes.We had to deconstruct each song to make it work within the levels, Deriviere continues. At the end of the level, you visit the creature and you have this song at its peak but previously [in the level], you have sections that are building up, and its not in the same form as the final song. Its a completely different form, with different harmonies, different melodies. Sometimes theres even a corrupted aspect to the melody, because the world is corrupted, and we wanted people to feel this way.In effect, its turning music into a part of the wider soundscape the same way a game will have different sound effects for walking through water as opposed to mud. I think thats why I wanted to work with Olivier, enthuses Fox. He sees the audio and not just music. Its music woven into sound effects, sound effects woven into music. Its the audio experience for the player, and theyre not separated necessarily.Pushing that idea even further, in South of Midnight, music is quite literally a character: At the end of the level, the song is always performed by a top-talent singer, but within the levels its by a kids choir, explains Deriviere. The kids are basically the star of the show theyre all over the place, and they mean so much to the game. These are the Strands, the entities, whatever magic you want to call them, that are helping [lead character] Hazel find her way through this magical world. Southern CharmAnd to add to the complexity of all this, there was a final piece of the puzzle for Fox and Deriviere going all the way back to those original research trips, the music needed to feel as if it belonged in the South, across multiple regions, while still offering up a single, coherent soundtrack.At the beginning, you know, talking with Chris and David, it was more about trying to find something that would be interesting, get something inspired by the Deep South, but create something that was unique for the game, explains Deriviere.He realized that, in order to do that, he needed to look outwards, not inwards: Oh, we may need to hire some talents to record live music. But [then it became] multiple talents, on a scale that Ive never done. [We had] more than 50 people involved, not even including the orchestra.This was a much bigger task than the team had gone in expecting. It was something that evolved over time, says Fox. We started with like an hour of music, or something ridiculous like that, which was obviously way too little. But at the beginning of a project, you just dont know what the needs are.I appreciate the belief in us that when I said, Weve got this really cool idea, we need to we need to go with live performers. And then later on, Oh, actually, I know I said we werent going to use an orchestra, but we actually need to go and record an orchestra now. For the higher-ups here at Compulsion to say, This wasnt necessarily budgeted, but we think youve got a strong vision, and what youre doing with Olivier seems really good, so here we go that was something I really appreciated from Compulsion and Xbox, to roll with us on that. You can feel, hopefully, when youre listening to the soundtrack or the songs, that there are people there. It feels like theyre there, and they want to provoke emotions, move you, tell the story, bring you into this world.Olivier Deriviere, ComposerBut even with all of this in place, Deriviere needed to create music that managed a tricky balance:We worked with various established musicians from the South, but we were never willing to copycat it would have been inauthentic, because Im not from there, you know? It was not the goal. The goal was to be inspired and to turn the music into something else. So yes, there is of course influences from country, bluegrass, blues, jazz. But the best reaction was from these [musicians] one of them plays blues, one of them country and they were playing the songs, and they were like, Oh, I wouldnt do this, but this is super interesting!They were doing what they were used to, but with the twist that I would do. I thought they would be a little bit lost in the process, but it was completely the opposite. They embraced it so much. For me, thats the success in this production, working with these people, getting their genuine, authentic vibe from the South, and [bringing them] into the world of Compulsion, the world of this music.The result is a soundtrack that Deriviere and Fox believes represents the South, but doesnt simply copy its homework this was a true collaboration with the real musicians from the region:You can feel, hopefully, when youre listening to the soundtrack or the songs, that there are people there, says Deriviere. It feels like theyre there, and they want to provoke emotions, move you, tell the story, bring you into this world.Its an idea that lends extra weight to the idea that South of Midnight sings with you its not just the game itself singing, but the many, many people who made that music.South of Midnight will be available on April 8, 2025, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox App for Windows PC, Steam and cloud, and arrives on day one with Game Pass. If you want to immerse yourself into the macabre and fantastical world of South of Midnight early, get the Premium Edition to play up to 5 days early, and get access to digital extras.The South of Midnight soundtrack is available to stream today on all major streaming platforms. You can also pre-order The Art and Music of South of Midnight, developed in collaboration with Dutch design house and publisher Cook and Becker. The box set includes a two-LP vinyl with the full soundtrack of the game presented in a beautiful gatefold alongside a 160-page art book, a comic book inspired by the game, and more. South of Midnight Premium EditionXbox Game Studios$49.99Pre-orderImmerse yourself into the macabre and fantastical world of South of Midnight with the Premium Edition, which includes the full game, up to 5 days early access, and digital access (in English) to: South of Midnight Artbook Original Soundtrack composed by Olivier DeriviereThe Boo-Hag Comic book by Rob GuilloryMusic Video: Songs & Tales of South of Midnight Documentary: Weaving Hazels Journey, Directors CutUNRAVEL THE PAST From the creators of Contrast and We Happy Few, South of Midnight is a spellbinding third person action-adventure game set in the American Deep South. As Hazel, you will explore the mythos and encounter creatures of Southern folklore in a macabre and fantastical world. When disaster strikes her hometown, Hazel is called to become a Weaver: a magical mender of broken bonds and spirits. Imbued with these new abilities, Hazel will confront and subdue dangerous creatures, untangle the webs of her own family's shared past and if she's lucky find her way to a place that feels like home. A DARK MODERN FOLKTALE When a hurricane rips through Prospero, Hazel is pulled into a Southern Gothic world of memory made real and must embark on a journey to rescue her mother and safeguard her hometown. In this folktale for modern times, Hazel will need to reconcile the weight of family, history, and legacy against her own identity. CONFRONT MYTHICAL CREATURES Wield an ancient power to restore creatures and uncover the traumas that consume them. Cast weaving magic to fight destructive Haints, explore the diverse regions of the South, and reweave the tears in the Grand Tapestry. HAUNTING BEAUTY OF THE GOTHIC SOUTH Discover the lush, decayed county of Prospero and its locals. Experience a crafted visual style, touching storytelling, and immersive music inspired by the complex and rich history of the South. South of MidnightXbox Game Studios$39.99Pre-orderFrom the creators of Contrast and We Happy Few, South of Midnight is a spellbinding third person action-adventure game set in the American Deep South. As Hazel, you will explore the mythos and encounter creatures of Southern folklore in a macabre and fantastical world. When disaster strikes her hometown, Hazel is called to become a Weaver: a magical mender of broken bonds and spirits. Imbued with these new abilities, Hazel will confront and subdue dangerous creatures, untangle the webs of her own family's shared past and if she's lucky find her way to a place that feels like home.A DARK MODERN FOLKTALE When a hurricane rips through Prospero, Hazel is pulled into a Southern Gothic world of memory made real and must embark on a journey to rescue her mother and safeguard her hometown. In this folktale for modern times, Hazel will need to reconcile the weight of family, history, and legacy against her own identity.CONFRONT MYTHICAL CREATURESWield an ancient power to restore creatures and uncover the traumas that consume them. Cast weaving magic to fight destructive Haints, explore the diverse regions of the South, and reweave the tears in the Grand Tapestry.HAUNTING BEAUTY OF THE GOTHIC SOUTHDiscover the lush, decayed county of Prospero and its locals. Experience a crafted visual style, touching storytelling, and immersive music inspired by the complex and rich history of the South.

If you can believe it, weve been enjoying Assassins Creed games for nearly two decades weve come a long way from Altair and Ezio and the Templars. Each entry was an incredible achievement in breadth and scope as well as a unique chance to step into history. Now, with the release of Assassins Creed Shadows on Xbox Series X|S, were traveling to a realm that fans have been eager to see ever since we took our first steps into the Animus: Feudal Japan.Assassins Creed Shadows isnt just a brand-new adventure its a bold new chapter in the acclaimed series that introduces a new way to play (weve never seen anything like Yasuke), but also new stealth mechanics that have us truly feeling like a master assassin. Not to mention how much more immersive the game can be with a fully-voiced cast of Japanese actors.To highlight some of these new changes to the series, weve compiled some of the more notable ways Assassins Creed Shadows breaks from previous entries to give you an even more engaging and thrilling experience to play on Xbox Series X|S.Mind the ShadowsOne of the unique elements of Assassins Creed Shadows is that it goes through a period of four seasons Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer giving you four distinct environments to play in, shifting roughly after every hour or so of gameplay, and theres the occasional storm that sweeps through the area. It really makes the whole world feel alive. But what really helps your ability to succeed as an assassin is the time of day and how that plays into the games dynamic lighting system, affecting how you choose to come after your targets and striking from the shadows. For example, infiltrating a castle at night versus during the day gives you a bit more leeway from detection by guards, with more shadows to take advantage of beyond just ducking into haystacks and bushes. Even if daytime infiltration is your only option, you can knock out lanterns and snuff out candles when inside structures, allowing you to sneak through darkened, shadowy hallways and take on your targets by surprise. Also, some armor and weapon types can give a damage bonus when used at night, so keep an eye out for those when looting crates.Customizable Base-BuildingHaving a home base isnt a new feature for Assassins Creed Shadows, but having one be as highly customizable as this is. For example, you can choose where you want your expanding village to take shape, what statues to place in the yard, the type of gravel youll like to use on the pathways, and even place dogs all over the place to fill it out (I have eight Akitas running around mine).Each of these buildings is upgradable as well, which is essential as you dive into the higher-level zones of Feudal Japan. Youll want to invest in your Forge early on so you can upgrade your armor and weapons, and Study so you can have additional Scouts to feed into what we talked about earlier, being able to source the location of your targets and tag resources to be smuggled out of hideouts.Viewpoints Dont Tell You Everything, Encourge ExplorationObserve your surroundings, Naoe is frequently told early on in Assassins Creed Shadows, and it is good advice, as identifying objectives, treasures, and enemies has been tweaked from previous entries in the series. To start, simply climbing a synchronization viewpoint doesnt give you granular details of everything in the area. At most, it pops a few question marks on the map, denoting places you should check out, for well, finding out whats there is a huge part of the game. When you get to that point on the map, dont expect an NPC to come running; just know youre closer to your destination. Once again, observe by holding down LT and looking around will identify objectives (blue dots), treasures and supplies (gold dots), and other notable items (white dots). Where theres treasure, you can expect resistance. Pressing down on the right thumbstick as Naoe activates Eagle Vision, an Assassins Creed staple, making enemies glow red, even though walls. Then: observe them with LT held to keep them marked, even when you look away.If you just want to go from point to point, like the old days, check out the Guided Exploration Mode option. Point, click, assassinate.Gaining Knowledge, Seek Inner PeaceIts worth checking out these points of interest on the way to your next objective, as many play into the new Mastery Point system. While leveling up, hitting major story points, and assassinating key enemies earn you those valuable points, the new Knowledge Rank system unlocks higher tiers of the skill tree, giving you more options on where to develop your characters. Back to those question marks: upon close observation, some will become a red-orange circle on your map, denoting a Knowledge Rank-earning opportunity. Early on, I stumbled upon a place for Naoe to sit near a shrine, which led to a meditative QTE event, eventually giving way to a meaty flashback about Naoes first taste of battle. Over time, I encountered more of these Kuji-Kiri opportunities, revealing essential bits of Naoes past, while helping me unlock the next tier of abilities for her to use in the future.Two Very Distinct HeroesThis is a little stating the obvious its one of the most unique features about Assassins Creed Shadows but the two characters play styles are very dramatic from one another. As Naoe, youre an agile assassin who relies on stealth and guile; Yasuke is a devastating tank that can quickly leave a bloody path through a courtyard in a manner of seconds. But how (and when) you choose to use them in Assassins Creed Shadows is just as important. The opening hours of Assassins Creed Shadows will primarily have you playing as Naoe, learning the art of swordplay, stealth, assassination basically learning how to be a badass ninja. You learn to become reliant on your speed, tools, and unique approaches to expose an enemy she is closest to what you may have played previously in an Assassins Creed game.Yasuke on the other hand, unlocked after you complete Act 1 (you cant miss it), has no need for these tricks. What he lacks in unique Assassin Creed-like abilities (he cant sense through walls, for example), he makes up for it with sheer brutality, soaking up hits and parrying with lethal results making him great for crowd control. Youve never played anything like him before in an AC game and it brings an exciting new dynamic to how you choose to play. Especially since youll be able to freely swap between these heroes at numerous points later in the game and sometimes even mid-mission allowing you to have a multi-pronged attack when it comes to checking off the next target on your list.Multiple Weapon Options Open Up CombatAs we detailed in our Assassins Creed Shadows weapon guide on Xbox Wire, Naoe and Yasuke can each equip two different weapon types, providing unique strengths and strategies for combat Yasuke with his long katana, naginata (polearm), kanabo (massive club), bow, and teppo (rifle); Naoe with her katana, hidden blade, kusarigama (spiked ball and chain), and a variety of throwable tools.There are also several ways to enhance your weapons as each type has a specific mastery tab where you can allocate mastery points to boost damage and unlock new abilities. Weapons also have levels; you cannot use a weapon that exceeds your current level, but with a Forge built in your Hideout, you can upgrade lower-level weapons to match your player level, improving their base stats. Best of all, these weapons can be hot-swapped during combat encounters (right on the D-Pad). For example, you could start off with your katana with Naoe and then switch up to your kusarigama if you get surrounded. Or as Yasuke, you could open the battle with a ranged attack with his bow or teppo, then swap to his kanabo to bash foes. Its a flexible dynamic that makes combat in Assassins Creed Shadows feel more exciting than any of the series and is one of the strongest aspects of the game in my opinion.Scouts Are Vital to SuccessOne of the elements Ive liked the most is that Assassins Creed Shadows doesnt hold your hand as tightly as previous entries when it comes to finding your target. Instead, youre given access to an intel network of Scouts who can help you pinpoint your targets general location the rest is up to you to put the pieces together.Not only does this feature make us feel more like an assassin tracking their target and looking for clues, but it also encourages us to get out there and explore this beautiful recreation of 16th Century Japan. Scouts are also useful for smuggling resources back to your hideout as you begin to become bolder in your infiltration of castles and the like, youll come across Stockpiles that you can tag for them to bring back to your base at the end of the season (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer), allowing you to invest in upgrades or create additional structures like a Forge. Scouts will also automatically replenish at the end of these seasons as well, but can be refilled for a cost at Kakurega (unlockable safe houses) if you dont want to wait.Canon Mode vs Immersive ModeJapan has long been a requested setting for an Assassins Creed tale, and if you really want to immerse yourself in the vibe, there are two settings worth considering. As Naoe and Yasuke, youll frequently be making dialogue choices that affect how other characters perceive you. But what answer is canon? Wonder no further, Assassins Creed Shadows offers a new Canon Mode, where the story plays out in a set way. As a fan of recent hit series Shogun, I found the interplay of Japanese and Portuguese speakers in this era fascinating. Immersive Mode replicates this; characters speak in their native language with subtitles. And with that, we hope you enjoy the most ambitious Assassins Creed title yet.Assassins Creed Shadows is available now for Xbox Series X|S. Assassins Creed Shadows also supports Stream Your Own Game for Game Pass Ultimate members if you own the game, you can play it via the cloud on the supported devices you own. Learn more here. Assassin's Creed Shadows Digital Deluxe EditionUBISOFT89Get it nowThe Assassins Creed Shadows Digital Deluxe Edition includes: The base game The Sekiryu Dual Pack including gear and weapon sets for both Naoe and Yasuke, the Sekiryu Beast, and Dragon Tooth trinket The Sekiryu Hideout Pack including four unique ornaments to customize the hideout for your shinobi league Five mastery pointsExperience an epic action-adventure story set in feudal Japan!Become a lethal shinobi Assassin and powerful, legendary samurai as you explore a beautiful open world in a time of chaos. Switch between these two unlikely allies as you discover their common destiny. Master complementary playstyles, create your shinobi league, customize your hideout, and usher in a new era for Japan.ENTER FEUDAL JAPANExplore the captivating open world of feudal Japan, from spectacular castle towns and bustling ports to peaceful shrines and war-ravaged landscapes. Adventure through unpredictable weather, changing seasons, and reactive environments.MASTER COMPLEMENTARY PLAYSTYLESBecome Naoe, a shinobi Assassin, and Yasuke, a legendary samurai, as you experience their riveting stories and master their complementary playstyles. As Naoe, use stealth to avoid detection and agility to confound your enemies. As Yasuke, strike your foes with lethal precision and power.MAKE INFORMATION YOUR WEAPONTravel the world and build your own network of spies to be your eyes and ears across locations to hunt down your next target. Along the way, recruit new allies with unique abilities to help accomplish your missions.BUILD A PLACE TO CALL HOMECreate a fully customizable hideout for your growing shinobi league as you train your crew, craft new gear, interact with key characters, and choose your bases building layout, decorations, and accessories.Internet connection and Ubisoft Account required to redeem digital content.Internet connection, Ubisoft account and Microsoft Account required to access online features.Assassins Creed ShadowsUBISOFT125Get it nowExperience an epic action-adventure story set in feudal Japan!Become a lethal shinobi Assassin and powerful, legendary samurai as you explore a beautiful open world in a time of chaos. Switch between these two unlikely allies as you discover their common destiny. Master complementary playstyles, create your shinobi league, customize your hideout, and usher in a new era for Japan.ENTER FEUDAL JAPANExplore the captivating open world of feudal Japan, from spectacular castle towns and bustling ports to peaceful shrines and war-ravaged landscapes. Adventure through unpredictable weather, changing seasons, and reactive environments.MASTER COMPLEMENTARY PLAYSTYLESBecome Naoe, a shinobi Assassin, and Yasuke, a legendary samurai, as you experience their riveting stories and master their complementary playstyles. As Naoe, use stealth to avoid detection and agility to confound your enemies. As Yasuke, strike your foes with lethal precision and power.MAKE INFORMATION YOUR WEAPONTravel the world and build your own network of spies to be your eyes and ears across locations to hunt down your next target. Along the way, recruit new allies with unique abilities to help accomplish your missions.BUILD A PLACE TO CALL HOMECreate a fully customizable hideout for your growing shinobi league as you train your crew, craft new gear, interact with key characters, and choose your bases building layout, decorations, and accessories.Internet connection, Ubisoft account and Microsoft Account required to access online features.

The embarrassment over the state of Siri continues, with the discovery that the intelligent assistant doesnt even know what month it is.My colleague Zac Hall suggested that things are now so bad the Siri brand is irredeemably tarnished, and any new version should be given a completely new name but some think Apple should go further than this, and let us replace Siri with our own choice of AI chatbot Siri has been an embarrassment for a decadeSiris lack of progress has been the source of complaints for a decade now.I could go on (and on and on), but you get the idea.But things have recently gone criticalThose criticisms greatly increased when ChatGPT and other generative AI models demonstrated the huge gap between their own capabilities and those of Apples elderly voice assistant.Ive been doing my best to be fair to the company, acknowledging that Apples high privacy standards do pose a much bigger challenge for Siri, but reports that the relaunch has again been pushed back, this time to 2027, really do make it tough to give the company a continued pass.Just how critical things have now become couldnt be better illustrated when long-time Apple commenter and one of the companys closer friends John Gruber went full-on thermonuclear on Siri.Referring to Apple advertisingSirifeatures which dont yet exist,he argues that the companyis in disarray if not crisis, is making bullshit claims, and has squandered its reputation with a fiasco.Ive argued that Apple could at least mitigate the reputational damage by a more open and honest approach, but some think its too late for this, and that a new approach is needed.Apple could let us replace SiriAs John Gruber noted, developer Gus Mueller has suggested that Apple should let us choose our own intelligent assistant.I was grousing to some friends that Apple needs to open up things on the Mac so other LLMs can step in where Siri is failing. In theory we (developers) could do this today, but I would love to see a blessed system where Apple provided APIs to other LLM providers.ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta heck, even DeepSeek if youre crazy enough.He notes in updates to the piece that hes not the only one to be suggesting this.Apple will of course raise its usual objection: that opening up the system to third-party apps creates privacy and security risks. But its already lost this argument thanks to the EU, we can already set third-party apps as default system apps in many categories, including:Web browserMail appPhoneMessagingPassword managerTranslationApple already ensures each app has to request each of the system permissions it would like, and adding an intelligent assistant as a new category would be no different.Indeed, Mueller argues in a follow-up piece that this could even improve privacy and security by allowing us granular control over the permissions we grant to a Siri alternative rather than simply accepting Apples choices.As a user, Id love to be able to say sure, capture whats on the screen and scrape the text out of that, but nope you better not track where Ive been over time.This would benefit both users and Apple itselfThis would be great for users, as wed no longer be forced to wait around until Apple finally launches its new Siri (or insert replacement brand name here). If we want a more intelligent assistant today, we could choose from all the LLM models out there.But it would also benefit Apple. First, it would relieve it of the time pressure its currently under. Since users would be free to choose an alternative for now, it can really take its time with Siri, and launch the service it really wants, once the company is completely happy with its performance.Second, Apple could boost its own Siri development efforts by gathering a vast amount of data about the chatbot requests iPhone users make of their third-party services. This would be massively valuable in steering the companys own decisions. Of course, Apple should ask user permission for this, but Id certainly be happy to grant that, and I suspect most other iPhone users would too. Helping Apple develop the best possible Siri is in all our interests, even if its only to add to incentivize our preferred chatbot to keep innovating.Should we be able to choose a Siri alternative?Assume we have a free choice of the main LLMs, for example:ChatGPTLlamaClaudeGeminiDeepSeek (not that Id recommend that!)Assume also that we grant granular permissions for access to different categories of data: contacts, calendar, location, on-screen text, and so on.Please take our poll, and share your thoughts in the comments below.Highlighted accessoriesPhoto bySteve JohnsononUnsplashAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? 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Google has confirmed it is investigating an issue causing low quality in playback of videos and Shorts through the YouTube app on iOS.Recently, a large number of YouTube users on iOS including iPhone and iPad have noticed that video playback is of very low quality. Despite a strong connection, videos might only load in 144p, leading to a very poor viewing experience.In a post on its Community Help forums, Google has confirmed it is aware of this issue and is investigating. Its added that this issue could also be affecting desktop use or even smart TVs, though reports of that seem far fewer than those on iOS.Google explains: Were aware some of you are experiencing lower than usual video quality when trying to watch Videos and Shorts.Heres what you might be seeing:YouTubestreaming at 144p or 360p despite strong internet connectionBuffering when changing to higher qualityVideo quality could be impacted on IOS mobile, desktop, orSmart TVRest assured, were actively looking into this!Over 2,000 comments have hit the post from affected users, showing that this is a very widespread problem. There are also dozens of threads on Reddit from the past few days showing many affected users.No fix is available yet, but Google says that its post will be updated as new information is available. Let us know in the comments below if youve run into this problem.More on YouTube:Follow Ben:Twitter/X,Threads, Bluesky, andInstagramAdd 9to5Google to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Google experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel