Ubisoft has announced the launch of its first-ever blockchain game, the tactical NFT battler Champions Tactics: Grimora Chronicles. The company announced the game last June after of dabbling in blockchain, but has only now quietly launched it.

The game is on PC and free to start, though players can buy figurines with which to battle using either in-game gold or cryptocurrency. These figurines are NFTs and can be bought on the game’s marketplace from anywhere between $7 to $64,000. It seems to be possible to play the game without buying figurines, though those willing to pay extortionate prices will surely have more success in battles.

Battles themselves are turn-based affairs against other players with squads of three figurines. Francois Bodson, studio director at Ubisoft Paris, told IGN the game "offers deep strategic gameplay featuring unique in-game assets and several exciting innovations", comparing it with a physical trading card game.

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Ubisoft Previously Tried Its Hand In NFT Business

Here's the statement in full: "The team inside the Ubisoft Paris studio developing Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles partnered with Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovation Lab and Oasys to ensure that our use of blockchain was done in service of delivering new and innovative gaming experiences for our players. Our shared goal is to explore new ways to play alongside bringing more value to players based on empowerment and ownership. Champions Tactics offers deep strategic gameplay featuring unique in-game assets and several exciting innovations.

These include millions of procedurally generated figurines, each with distinct stats, assets shaped directly by players' choices, and an open marketplace letting players compose their teams on a peer-to-peer basis - much like a physical trading card game. For months, we have collaborated closely with our community through events and beta phases to build and refine Champions Tactics. We’re excited to keep expanding and enhancing the experience together."

Ubisoft has yet to comment on the game’s Adults Only rating, presumably for its blockchain basis and use of cryptocurrency. In December 2021, Ubisoft brought its own NFT platform called Quartz, with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint as the first game to offer a beta trial. It did not do well, appearing to have initially only sold 15 NFTs.

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Will NFT-based Game Work In 2024?

Ubisoft’s NFT bosses said in an interview afterward that players just “don’t get it.” It’s interesting for the company to still have released this project, considering other developers have slowly backpedaled on their enthusiasm for cryptocurrency. EA boss Andrew Wilson, after describing NFTs as "an important part of… the future of our industry."

"I believe that collectability will continue to be an important part of our industry and the games and experiences that we offer our players," he said during an earnings call in February 2022. "Whether that's part of the NFT and the blockchain? Well, that remains to be seen. And I think the way we think about it, is we want to deliver the best possible player experience we can. And so we're going to - we will evaluate that over time. But right now, it's not something that we're driving audience."

Amid a horde of announcements for new Apple hardware this week, developer CD Projekt has announced it's bringing open-world sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077 to Mac “early next year.”

Cyberpunk 2077 originally released in December 2020, received mixed reactions. Since then, CD Projekt has fine-tuned its launch day offering, fixing bugs and expanding on some of the game’s more heavily criticized elements, with the general sentiment being that Cyberpunk 2077 was in a good place by the time last year’s Phantom Liberty expansion launched.

Mac users would be happy to know that Cyberpunk 2077 will launch on the platform next year. The game will be available for all Apple Silicon devices through the Mac App Store and Steam, with CD Projekt promising "advanced features like path tracing, frame generation, and built-in Spatial Audio for even more immersive gameplay and stunning visuals."

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Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition Coming To Mac

The game will come to Mac in the form of an Ultimate Edition, bringing together the base game and CD Projekt’s acclaimed Phantom Liberty expansion. Moreover, owners of Cyberpunk 2077 for PC on Steam will gain access to the Mac version when it launches.

The game’s Mac release follows a bit of a push from Apple to tempt more triple-A games to its hardware in recent times, with the likes of Resident Evil 7, Death Stranding, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage all having come to the company’s computers and iOS devices in recent times.

Apart from Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt is currently developing The Witcher 4, with an update in August confirming pre-production was almost over and full production was due to start “soon.”

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GTA 6’s Most Detailed Map Leaked Online

When Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto VI’s reveal trailer in December last year, nobody would’ve thought they’d be sitting in October of the following year with an update. Certainly, with GTA VI still a year away from its planned launch, clearly, Rockstar Games was never going to spill any beans so soon. But a couple of screenshots wouldn’t hurt anyone until the company decided to reveal the gameplay.

GTA VI is set to break cover in the fall of next year, which could be anytime between September and November. With the launch date inching closer, Rockstar Games could shift gears in the coming months.

Thanks to ventures like the mapping project, fans are still hooked. For the unversed, the mapping project has been led by a group of fans who are using the game’s trailer as well as previously leaked data to make a mock-up of the game’s map.

If you are someone who was planning to use your old PlayStation 5 faceplates on the new PlayStation 5 Pro when it launches on November 7, Sony has some bad news. The company has confirmed that there is no compatibility between the two.

Word of a faceplate mismatch - not exactly unexpected given the PS5 Pro’s slightly thinner form factor compared to the original PS5 - first surfaced earlier today when a Reddit user shared the news after having "an opportunity to try the plates on" the new console.

"I had some Cobalt blue plates so I decided to try them out on the Pro," one user wrote, "and I can confirm the bottom plates match the Slim. However, the top plates do not match because while they're physically the same size, the teeth that connect to the system are [in] slightly different places. So you can't connect the top part."

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Sony Confirms No PS5 Faceplates For PS5 Pro

Now, the company has confirmed the news, telling IGN, "PS5 console covers are not compatible with PS5 Pro." The company did note, however, that "players will be able to swap out different console covers for PS5 Pro when they become available in the future."

PlayStation 5 Pro will come at a cost of £699.99 when it launches on 7th November, and if players are wondering whether it’s worth it, Digital Foundry recently had a chance to go hands-on.

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Sony Reportedly Chose AMD Over Intel For Its PS6 Console

Intel’s bid was blocked because they did not agree on how much profit Intel would make from each chip it would design as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) handled the manufacturing process.

Apart from the recent embarrassment of crashing Raptor Lake CPUs, Intel has been a bystander in the AI chip boom and ceded manufacturing of some next-gen tech to TSMC as it tries to rebuild its capabilities. The chipmaking division also racked up $7 billion in losses last year, and recently, the company announced 15,000 layoffs. Meanwhile, its upcoming chip plant in Ohio has been delayed, although it did secure Microsoft as a customer for its advanced 18A chip process.

While AMD has also trailed Nvidia’s leadership in the AI chip market and flagship GPUs its data center products now make up over half of its sales. During a recent interview, AMD exec Jack Huynh said that apart from merging its RDNA gaming graphics and CNDA data center efforts into a single “UDNA,” with its gaming priority set to increasing scale at lower price points.

Sony has announced its PlayStation Plus monthly lineup for November, and it includes a day-one release for an all-new Death Note game. As shared by PlayStation, PS Plus subscribers on the Premium, Extra, and Essential tiers will be able to play the game on the following three games from November 5th: Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 - Turbocharged, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Death Note Killer Within.

The standout here is Death Note Killer Within, which Bandai Namco only announced recently. It is described as the "first-ever social deduction game based on the legendary anime series".

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How Will The New Death Note Game Work

The new online game comes with support for cross-play and will see around 10 players face a choice between life and death.

"Split into two teams, players must uncover each other’s identities to eliminate L or seize the Death Note from Kira," reads the official blurb. "Kira and L are equally matched, each hiding their true identity while battling for control over the game. Engage in a game of wits either as Kira and his follower, or L and the investigators, as both sides vie for the hidden Death Note, leading to a thrilling showdown of truth and deception until one team prevails."

Players will be able to take on the role of Kira, L, Kira Follower, or Investigator on the game's release, with each role offering the chance to experience "unique gameplay characteristics." Moreover, the game will also be arriving on PC via Steam on November 5th.

As a reminder, PlayStation Plus members only have until November 4th to add October’s offerings - WWE 2K24, Dead Space, and Doki Doki Literature Club Plus - to their libraries.

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PlayStation Star Reward Points Will Now Only Last For a Year

Sony has brought a number of changes to its PlayStation Stars reward program which, among other things, will see earned points expire after a year instead of the 24 months they remained available previously.

PlayStation Stars, which was launched in October 2022 in the UK, is a part of the PlayStation App on mobile and rewards points based on the amount of money users spend in the PlayStation Store, as well as for completing in-app challenges. Points can then be redeemed against digital rewards, including “collectibles” and store credit.

As of March 2025, Sony is making changes to its definition of “eligible purchases,” which means payments for subscription services such as PlayStation Plus, will no longer churn Start points. Moreover, earned PlayStation Stars points will soon be required to be spent much sooner. 

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella has called the recent Black Ops 6 launch the "biggest Call of Duty release ever," saying its arrival set a record for "Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day."

News of the game’s success came at the company’s Q1 FY2025 financial earnings report, which saw the company once again reporting notable gains in gaming revenue, up 43 percent year-over-year.

That’s alongside a 61% YoY growth for Xbox content and services revenue, although growth was primarily a result of Microsoft’s $69bn Activision Blizzard acquisition. In contrast, Microsoft’s Xbox hardware revenue has continued to fall, this time by 29 percent YoY.

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Activision Blizzard Acquisition Helped Microsoft

The acquisition of Activision Blizzard also helped Microsoft bring good news for investors, thanks to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s recent launch. While opening weekend numbers saw physical sales of the game fall by 10 percent in the UK compared to Modern Warfare 3, likely due to its day one launch on Game Pass, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella trumpeted the launch in an earnings call, calling it the "biggest Call of Duty release ever".

While the CEO did not share specific figures to back his claims, he noted the game’s launch had set a "record for day one players as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day."

Nadella also revealed that Black Ops 6’s launch had brought in the highest number of opening weekend PC players in the franchise’s history, while unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were said to be up 60 percent year-over-year. Black Ops 6 developer Treyarch repeated several of Nadella’s record-setting claims in a message shared on social media before throwing in some of its own - adding Black Ops 6 had seen the highest number of total players in Call of Duty's history.

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Activision Is ‘Investigating’ Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Spawn Issues

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 players are frustrated with the new shooter’s respawn mechanics. If you check the game’s subreddit, you will see several complaints from players who are struggling to break die-spawn-die cycles, with one player saying they were killed twice on the same death.

"[I'm] getting spawn trapped, getting killed by a player, and then respawning and getting killed again, with both deaths in the same deathcam," said one player. "That's how to spot a bad spawn system. "On some maps, in some situations, it's worse than MW2 release spawning."

In a post on X, Activision said it was "investigating an issue where players automatically spawn in-game rather than spectating when joining in-progress," and said that any further updates about the issue will be fixed in the tweet above.

The Sims 4 might be getting old, having launched over a decade ago, but that doesn’t seem to slow it down in the long-running life sim series: EA just announced The Sims 4 has managed to gain more than 15 million new players this year alone.

To put that into perspective, it took The Sims 4 six years to amass 20m players after launch back in 2-14 - a figure that then skyrocketed after EA decided to transition the formerly premium title into a free-to-play game in October 2022.

That business model shifts more than multiplied four times The Sims 4’s audience, with EA boasting 85m players back in May this year, and we now know the past year has brought a total of 15m new players.

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EA Focus On The Game Contributed To Sims 4 Success

The most recent figure was unveiled as part of EA’s second-quarter 2025 financial earnings report, and helps offer additional context for its announcement earlier this year that, despite its age, The Sims 4 will continue to be "a foundational Sims experience" as the series moves "beyond linear, sequential Sims releases."

The Sims 4’s boost in popularity also shows EA’s renewed focus on the decade-old game, with the publisher having pledged more bug fixes more often this May as it seems to address years of technical issues. That’s on top of a range of new in-game initiatives, such as the new live-service style Reaper’s Rewards Event, and a continuing avalanche of new DLC.

Next up for The Sims 4 is the Life & Death expansion, which releases this Thursday, 31st October. Its launch follows a free base game update last week considerably expanding Sims’ ghost-form gameplay, and comes ahead of a new series of creator-designed DLC packs.

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Netflix Shuts AAA Game Studio Without Launching a Single Game

Netflix’s push into gaming might not be going as planned. First reported in Game File and confirmed by Netflix, the streaming giant has discreetly shut one of its studios, the first in three years since it started foraying into gaming.

According to Game File, the shut studio was known as Blue. In 2022, the company announced it hired former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny to run the studio. Since then, Blue has roped in several game industry veterans with experience working on high-profile franchises including Halo and God of War.

If reports are to be believed, Blue was developing a multi-platform AAA game for an original IP but was shut down before the could be announced or launched. Netflix has released a steady stream of games on its platform since the start of its gaming experiment in 2021.