It's been a while since we heard from Larian Studios regarding Baldur's Gate 3. There have been several hotfixes to the in-development RPG in the last few months, but the last substantial update was in February, when the druid class was added. Now, in a video interview with GameSpot, studio founder Swen Vincke has confirmed that Baldur's Gate 3 won't be leaving Early Access in 2021. "We are really trying to get the game done by next year," he said. "It's not gonna release this year for sure."The studio is currently busy improving what's in Early Access and completing the rest of the game at the same time. Vincke explained that the next update, whenever it comes, will be one that changes existing elements rather than adding a lot of new ones, so don't expect another new class, for instance. "It's an update that focuses on a lot of the feedback that we've been getting," he said. "It's more focused on features than it is on new content."Vincke mentioned that some of the feedback has been from players of melee characters who are finding they don't have as many options as they'd like. That's part of the nature of playing a fighter in Dungeons & Dragons, he explained. "[In] D&D, the fighter class is the tutorial class. At the tabletop it is used to teach you how to play, but as a result it gives you limited things at the get-go to work with."Finally, on the subject of whether a Game Master mode like Divinity: Original Sin 2 had is in the works, Vincke said that while Baldur's Gate 3 would obviously benefit from one, it's not in development at the moment. "We are so focused on making the game itself, and it's such a beast to develop," he said.

We are thrilled to announce that The Witcher Remake is being worked on!

Experience the true meaning of joyful chaos in Warcraft Arclight Rumble, a mobile action strategy game developed by Blizzard Entertainment.

CD Projekt has confirmed that a new Witcher game is in development, "kicking off a new saga for the franchise."The new game will be built using Unreal Engine 5 rather than CD Projekt's REDengine, which the studio said will begin "a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games.""It covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant," CD Projekt said. "We'll closely collaborate with Epic Games’ developers with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences."CD Projekt said that the change to the new engine was made to help streamline the development process.  "From the outset, we did not consider a typical licensing arrangement; both we and Epic see this as a long-term, fulfilling tech partnership," CD Projekt Red CTO Paweł Zawodny said. "It is vital for CD Projekt Red to have the technical direction of our next game decided from the earliest possible phase as in the past, we spent a lot of resources and energy to evolve and adapt REDengine with every subsequent game release. "This cooperation is so exciting, because it will elevate development predictability and efficiency, while simultaneously granting us access to cutting-edge game development tools. I can’t wait for the great games we’re going to create using Unreal Engine 5!"  The studio also confirmed that despite the shift to a new engine, the new Witcher game is not planned as an Epic Games Store exclusive.

Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it would buy videogame publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in cash, the largest deal in the sector.

Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 have been delayed from 2022 to possible 2023 release dates, Blizzard Entertainment announced Tuesday.

Developers over at Riot Games are broadening their strategies when it comes to countering behavior they don't like, and are going to trial new penalties for players who leave or engage in AFK behavior during matches. According to Riot, about 9% of players worldwide engage in consistent AFK behavior.Riot defines AFK as two behaviors that waste time for others: people who idle during matches and people who just up sticks and leave the match entirely. Right now, the worst those players can get is a queue delay: "Queue Delays are a speed bump on an offending player’s way to their next few games: Upon clicking the play button, the queue blocks them behind a short timer. The purpose of this is to change behavior," says Riot.Now, however, players can get escalating penalties of between 1 day and 14 days of a queue lockout. That means no playing at all: They're removed from the player population entirely. "We're removing the player from the population for a while so they can't continue to AFK in games," says Riot.For now, the new punishments are being trialed in specific regions, as Riot is concerned about certain region-specific connectivity problems. (The SEA region, at least in other MOBAs, is infamous for connectivity issues that players can't control.) Players who would be immediately subject to the new punishments have been reset to a lower tier, so they have a change to change their ways before the new punishments are levied.You can read the whole developer log, with stats, on the League of Legends site.Nice spot, Eurogamer.

Battlefield 2042, which was slated to release on October 22, has been delayed. Electronic Arts announced today that because of "unforeseen challenges" created by the Covid-19 pandemic, it has elected to push the game to November 19."Building the next generation of Battlefield during a global pandemic has created unforeseen challenges for our development teams," DICE studio general manager Oskar Gabrielson said in a statement. "Given the scale and scope of the game, we had hoped our teams would be back in our studios together as we move towards launch. With the ongoing conditions not allowing that to happen safely, and with all the hard work the teams are doing from home, we feel it is important to take the extra time to deliver on the vision of Battlefield 2042 for our players."

Overwatch is finally testing the new Deathmatch map Malevento, a peaceful Italian town with a very dark secret and potentially even a curse.

Amazon’s upcoming PC MMO, New World, is getting an open beta ahead of its September 28th release date, Amazon Games announced.