ActuGaming.net Chris Avellone (Star Wars Jedi, Fallout New Vegas) rejoint Republic Games, studio fondé par un ancien de Quantic Dream La dernière fois que l’on avait quitté Chris Avellone, qui a été l’un des piliers […] L'article C

“Dungeons & Dragons” IP owner Wizards of the Coast is moving on from its “Baldur’s Gate” video game franchise with a new single-player action-adventure game set in the world of the popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game. From game developer Giant Skull, the untitled project based on the “D&D” world is “marks a definitive moment in both companies’ gaming ambitions,” per the Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast. The game is currently in development for PC and console as part of a new exclusive publishing agreement Wizards has signed with Giant Skull. Related Stories The deal comes on the heels of the end of Wizards’ pact with “Baldur’s Gate 3” maker Larian Studios. Popular on Variety In addition to this new project, Wizards of the Coast’s growing lineup of current and upcoming games includes: “Exodus,” an epic sci-fi RPG that puts players at the center of an emotional story; a game centered on Snake Eyes, the legendary ninja/commando from “G.I. Joe”; another “Dungeons & Dragons” action-adventure game centered around magic; and an untitled project from studio Skeleton Key that the company says “blends suspense, horror and memorable gameplay experiences.” The Wizards of the Coast team also continues to expand ongoing online game “Magic: The Gathering Arena.” Founded by CEO Stig Asmussen, who was most recently the game director of “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” and “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order” for Respawn Entertainment and EA, Giant Skull was founded in 2023. Asmussen has also previously worked as the game director on “God of War III” and the art director for “God of War II” at Sony Santa Monica. “Stig and the team at Giant Skull are exactly the type of exceptionally talented creators we want to work with, and I’m so happy to be reuniting with him on this new project,” Wizards of the Coast chief and digital gaming president at Hasbro John Hight said. “In our time working together on ‘God of War I’ got to see firsthand Stig’s artistry and expertise, and he and the Giant Skull team are the perfect fit for our new game. Worldbuilding and storytelling is in our DNA, and this collaboration reflects our evolution and commitment to our ‘Playing to Win’ strategy, building a stronger presence in digital play. We look forward to revealing more about this brand-new ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ game in the future.” “Our talented and experienced team at Giant Skull is built on creativity and curiosity,” Asmussen said. “Our goal is to craft a rich new ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ universe filled with immersive storytelling, heroic combat and exhilarating traversal that players will fully embrace.”

Former Star Wars Jedi director Stig Asmussen’s independent AAA studio Giant Skull was formally unveiled last March, with the developer confirming at the time that it was working on a AAA single-player action-adventure title developed on Unreal Engine 5. Now we know a little bit more about what the game will be. It has been announced that Giant Skull has partnered with Wizards of the Coast to develop an action-adventure title based on Dungeons and Dragons. Work on the AAA single-player title is underway, though further details on the game, what exactly players can expect from it, or when more will be unveiled are currently scarce. The game is in development for PC and consoles. Giant Skull CEO and former Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and God of War 3 director Stig Asmussen said, “Our talented and experienced team at Giant Skull is built on creativity and curiosity,” said Stig Asmussen, CEO, Giant Skull. “Our goal is to craft a rich new Dungeons and Dragons universe filled with immersive storytelling, heroic combat and exhilarating traversal that players will fully embrace.” President of Wizards of the Coast and digital gaming at Hasbro John Hight said, “Stig and the team at Giant Skull are exactly the type of exceptionally talented creators we want to work with, and I’m so happy to be reuniting with him on this new project. In our time working together on God of War I got to see firsthand Stig’s artistry and expertise, and he and the Giant Skull team are the perfect fit for our new game. Worldbuilding and storytelling is in our DNA, and this collaboration reflects our evolution and commitment to our Playing to Win Strategy, building a stronger presence in digital play. We look forward to revealing more about this brand-new Dungeons and Dragons game in the future.” Stay tuned for more details on the project in the coming months and years.

If you were wondering whether Mark Hamill might play Luke Skywalker once again as a Force ghost, think again. The legendary actor has ruled out a return to the world famous sci-fi franchise, saying it’s now time for Star Wars to move past legacy characters and focus on the future.In an interview with ComicBook.com to promote his new movie, The Life of Chuck, Hamill was asked about a potential return as Luke’s Force ghost in upcoming Rey-led Star Wars movie, New Jedi Order. His answer was loud and clear: no chance. After all, Luke left his robes behind in 2017's The Last Jedi.Mark Hamill first played Luke Skywalker in 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.“I am so grateful to George [Lucas] for letting me be a part of that back in the day, the humble days when George called Star Wars ‘the most expensive low-budget movie ever made,’” Hamill replied.“We never expected it to become a permanent franchise and a part of pop culture like that. But my deal is, I had my time. I’m appreciative of that, but I really think they should focus on the future and all the new characters.“And by the way, when I disappeared in [The Last Jedi], I left my robes behind. And there’s no way I’m gonna appear as a naked Force ghost.”PlayRey, however, is set to return to the world of Star Wars in the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy-directed sequel to the universally panned Star Wars: Episode 9 - The Rise of Skywalker. It will tell the story of Rey as she looks to rebuild the Jedi Order roughly 15 years after the events of that film.We know next to nothing about New Jedi Order. In January 2024, speaking to AlloCiné, Ridley teased a little more about her new film: "Once I knew what the story was and everything, I knew that it was something I really wanted to do," she said. “I think it's a really fantastic exploration of the Star Wars world. It's a really cool way of taking the story on in a bit of a different direction."In the shorter term, The Mandalorian and Grogu is due out 2026. Star Wars: Starfighter, Shawn Levy's Star Wars movie starring Ryan Gosling, is due out in 2027.Every Upcoming Star Wars Movie and TV ShowAt 2023's Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm announced three new Star Wars feature films: a Dave Filoni-directed New Republic film set in his Mando-verse, a Dawn of the Jedi movie led by James Mangold, and the aforementioned New Jedi Order.There is still so much that can and will change when it comes to upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows. But what we can be sure of is Mark Hamill playing Force Luke won’t be a part of them.Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images.Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

If you’re reading this, congratulations: You’ve survived live ten years past the impossible future of Back to the Future — the one from 2015 with flying cars, wall-sized televisions, and rehydrated pizzas. (Hey, one correct prediction out of three ain’t a bad batting average.) We live in the days of futures’ past.From this we can learn two things: One, the real world sucks compared to the one we were promised by the movies of our childhoods. And two, the science-fiction genre always needs to keep moving forward, because time always moves forward as well. Technology that sounded impossible 30 years ago looks laughably old fashioned today. Progress comes so rapidly (except when it comes to flying cars and rehydrated pizzas, I guess) that sci-fi needs to move fast too.Thankfully, the last ten years have given us an incredible array of futuristic (or sometimes dystopian) sci-fi visions. The list below collects the ten best, ranked in preferential order by yours truly. In a few years, their concepts and technologies will no doubt look just as outdated as Marty McFly Jr.’s adjustable jacket and psychedelic baseball hat. The movies themselves will endure anyway, because they are that good.The Best Sci-Fi Films of the Last 10 Years (2015-2024)These science-fiction films redefined a great genre for our modern world.Honorable Mentions (in Alphabetical Order):Arrival, Dune Part Two, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Martian, Poor Things, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Trek Beyond, Tenet, Upgrade, War For the Planet of the Apes.READ MORE: The 10 Best Comedies of the Last 10 YearsThe 10 Worst Sequels of the Last 10 Years (2015-2024)Audiences always push for sequels to their favorite movies. Sometimes, that backfires big time.

Electronic Arts has company reportedly shut down Seattle-based game studio Cliffhanger Games, not even two years after announcing the founding of the studio and revealing its flagship game: an open-world action game based on Marvel's Black Panther superhero.According to IGN—which first reported on the closure—the news was delivered to EA staffers in a letter sent by EA Entertainment president Laura Miele (the second-highest-paid executive at EA in 2024), who told workers that the move was part of a strategy to "sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities." Miele reportedly referenced other recent decisions along these lines, likely including the company's decision last month to lay off over 300 developers across its studios and cancel an Apex Legends spinoff in development at Respawn Entertainment, as well as January's arguably quiet layoff that impacted a number of developers at EA-owned BioWare.It's unknown if any developers impacted by the reported Cliffhanger Games closure came to the team following a reassignment from BioWare or Respawn. EA apparently also laid off workers on its mobile and central teams. Game Developer has reached out to EA regarding these events and will update the story pending a reply.Related:The drastic closure raises huge questions about EA's strategy and its relationship with licensed projects, which have previously made up a sizable portion of its release pipeline. Miele apparently told employees that the company is continuing to "invest" in Motive Studios' Iron Man game (another licensed project), and the third Star Wars: Jedi game in development at Respawn Interactive. (Respawn is also supporting the development of BitReactor's Star Wars strategy game Star Wars: Zero Company).Why do the brilliant business brains at EA keep bungling big games?In 2024 CEO Andrew Wilson announced that the company would spend over $125 million to lay off five percent of its workforce, and shift away from its reliance on third-party licensing to rely on its own intellectual properties.However, that support seems to already have waned as the teams behind EA-owned properties like Dragon Age or Titanfall (better known today for its battle royale spinoff Apex Legends) have been on the receiving end of the 'sharpened focus' reportedly mentioned by Miele. Layoffs at both studios followed a year where executive compensation reached a collective over $60 million despite a period of sizable layoffs at the time. IGN reports that the Battlefield, Sims, Skate, Mass Effect and Apex Legends franchises remain EA's primary non-sports franchises, though the company's actions regularly cast doubt on those priorities, such as the cancelling of various spinoffs of the Titanfall/Apex Legends series and apparent shake up its sequel strategy for The Sims, putting that series in another stressful position.Related:This also puts even more pressure on the developers of the Battlefield series, who have gone through multiple reorganizations and leadership changes since the underperformance of Battlefield 2042.So what other "significant growth opportunities" is EA pursuing? Generative AI, for one. So far, EA still hasn't shown off any of its AI initiatives beyond a literal cardboard box level—but it might be getting into generative AI voice acting, if the mass exit of the Apex Legends French dubbing cast is any indication.

Electronic Arts has canceled its Black Panther game and closed down developer Cliffhanger Games. IGN, which first reported the news, cites an internal email in which EA Entertainment president Laura Miele notified staff about the changes made to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.”“These decisions are hard,” Miele wrote, per IGN. “They affect people we’ve worked with, learned from, and shared real moments with. We’re doing everything we can to support them — including finding opportunities within EA, where we’ve had success helping people land in new roles.”The email continues, detailing that EA will now shift resources to the historically successful Battlefield, The Sims, Skate, and Apex Legends series. Miele also said that a game based on Iron Man is still in the works, as is the third entry in Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi series and BioWare’s next entry in Mass Effect.EA previously laid off around 300 employees across both Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Art’s Fan Care teams in April 2025. Variety reported at the time that EA had effectively canceled the next Titanfall game and another unnamed game in “early-stage incubation.”Polygon has contacted EA for comment and will update this story with any further information we receive.Black Panther was first announced by Marvel Games, EA, and Cliffhanger Games in 2023. The game was part of a three-game deal that Marvel Games reached with EA that also includes an Iron Man game developed by Motive. EA established the Seattle-based Cliffhanger Games in 2023 to work on the Black Panther game, which coincided with the 57th anniversary of the hero. The studio, led by former Monolith executive Kevin Stephens, was staffed by developers known for working on series like Halo, God of War, and Call of Duty.According to a Marvel press release, the Black Panther game was set to be “an original, third-person, single-player Black Panther game...that empowers players to experience what it is like to take on the mantle of Wakanda’s protector, the Black Panther.”See More:

A video game based on Disney and Marvel’s “Black Panther” has been scrapped at publisher Electronic Arts as part of the closure of the game’s developer, Cliffhanger Games. As a result of EA shuttering Cliffhanger, multiple employees have been laid off at both that studio and across EA’s mobile and central teams. Variety has confirmed the number of staffers cut is less than the 300 that EA let go last month when it canceled its next planned “Titanfall” game, and the company is working to place these individuals with other teams throughout EA. Related Stories In an email sent to staff Wednesday, EA Entertainment president Laura Miele said these moves were made to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.” Popular on Variety The cuts come as EA chief Andrew Wilson has made it clear the company’s priority is its biggest franchises, including EA Sports, “The Sims,” “Battlefield” and “Apex Legends,” and upcoming game “Skate,” rather than making licensed games. “These decisions are hard,” Miele said. “They affect people we’ve worked with, learned from and shared real moments with. We’re doing everything we can to support them — including finding opportunities within EA, where we’ve had success helping people land in new roles.” Representatives for EA declined to comment. This marks the third round of layoffs EA has made this year. In April, EA reduced its staff by more than 300 employees with approximately one third of the cuts made at developer Respawn, which was making “Titanfall” and one additional project, both of which were in “early-stage incubation,” according to Respawn. The layoffs mainly affected the teams working on games “Apex Legends” and “Star Wars Jedi.” IGN was first to report the news of the new EA layoffs and “Black Panther” game cancellation.