The developer’s monthly active users (MAUs) total was down 13 percent year-on-year, to 26 million players. That’s despite the recent launch of Diablo 2: Resurrected in September. Indeed, that figure means Blizzard has overall shed a million active users since May, and three million total since the quarter before that, when it was at 29 million. On the upside, Blizzard’s revenue was up 22 percent year-on-year - mostly thanks to that launch of Diablo 2: Resurrected....

Valhalla comes to Steam on 6th December, with other Ubisoft titles such as city-building strategy Anno 1800 and free-to-play 3v3 sports game Roller Champions also set for release on the platform, albeit at a currently unspecified date. The confirmation means Ubisoft is the latest publisher to make its return to Steam after striking out on its own - or elsewhere, such as the rival Epic Games Store. Such a move has been signalled by several leaks, including listings for Steam versions of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Roller Champions spotted in code for Ubisoft’s own Connect launcher, and a subsequent Steam database listing for the latter....

Several things stand out. First, the upcoming Oskoreia Festival due sometime later this season. Interestingly, this is not the Halloween Samhain festival fans were expecting - an event which also forms part of Valhalla’s main campaign. Instead the Oskoreia Festival seems based on the folk myth of a monstrous Viking Wild Hunt led by Asgardian raiders, and sometimes Odin himself. An image for the event looks appropriately spooky. Another thing which caught my eye is a previously unrevealed game update coming later this autumn, named Title Update 1....

The news comes alongside the release of the soundtrack to JRPG Tales of Arise, available from today. That follows the release of Elden Ring’s soundtrack, which was made available on streaming services earlier this month. Watch on YouTube ELDEN RING | Behind the Scenes with The Budapest Film Orchestra. Tales of Arise is the most recent game in the 25m selling JRPG series, with a soundtrack from series composer Motoi Sakuraba....

Battlefield 2042 was initially due to launch on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC next month, on 22nd October, but will now arrive on 19th November this year. “Building the next generation of Battlefield during a global pandemic has created unforeseen challenges for our development teams,” DICE wrote in a statement shared on Twitter “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....

A thread on ResetEra revealed that as few as 979 players were shown to be taking part in the game on Steam earlier today, with a peak of 2411 players in the last 24 hours. In comparison, 2018’s Battlefield 5 had a peak of 20,913 players over the same 24-hour period. These numbers are pretty dire for such a relatively new game, especially one in such a longstanding series, but at this point aren’t a surprise....

While Avalugg, Bergmite’s evolved form, has seen use in competitive play in Pokémon Go, it’s only really seen in Master League. And since Bergmite is a relatively rare spawn, usually only seen in winter, and since it hasn’t had a Community Day event, there’s a good chance you’re missing a perfect 4* Bergmite or perfect 4* Avalugg. If this is one of your favourite Pokémon, there’s never been a better chance to go catch ’em all....

Below, you can shop our picks for this month’s top Nintendo Switch bundles right now, as well as offers on the Switch Lite and Switch OLED. If you’re not already familiar with the key differences between the three consoles, the standard Nintendo Switch comes with a 6.2 inch display, an improved battery, and can be connected to a TV or used in hand-held mode. The Switch Lite is a hand-held only version of the Nintendo Switch and features a slightly smaller screen....

If you’re looking for PS5 deals, you won’t find them here. They are however just next door at our dedicated PS5 deals page, where we gather as many of the best next-gen deals we can find. Our PS5 stock checker guide can also help you with finding a console. Today’s best PS4 deals UK US Also on this page: See deal See deal See deal See deal See deal See deal See deal See deal See deal See deal See deal...

This, of course, isn’t the first delay for the game; Blood Bowl 3 was initially due to launch for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC this August, but a June rethink saw Cyanide and publisher Nacon postpone its full release into February next year. However, that extended delay was to be sweetened somewhat by an early access PC launch this September. Now though, the game’s release has slipped once more, with Cyanide admitting its initial goal of a September early access launch “was a bit too optimistic” in a post to Twitter....

It’s been in development for some time, but a new trailer for the demake has announced a release date of 31st January 2022. It certainly looks faithful to the PS4 original, but wrapped in a style that’s authentic to the PS1. The trailer shows off the polygonal characters, foggy world and gory effects in all their glory, along with surprisingly smooth looking combat. “This might be a somewhat controversial take, but I always thought of the soulsborne games as retro in their feel, and I mean that as a form of the highest praise,” the game’s developer Lilith Walther told Kotaku....

Shockingly, the long-standing invisibility bug, which has plagued Warzone for months now, returned with the update. This awful bug, which allows entire squads to turn invisible during a match, was linked to this week’s return of the mini-gun variant of the helicopter. In response, Warzone developer Raven Software pulled the mini-gun chopper entirely from the game to investigate. This is not the first time this has happened. Attack helicopters hit Warzone in December but were quickly pulled because they were used as part of an exploit that made players invisible....

Axios has reported that those at Raven Software have now obtained approval from the National Labour Relations Board to move forward with a vote on whether to unionise. This is a major step for the QA team, as previous efforts for voluntary recognition from ABK had been denied. This latest approval means that legally, should the vote to unionise be won by the majority of workers, Activision Blizzard will have to recognise its workers’ terms and conditions....

Michał Nowakowski, CD Projekt’s vice president of business development, confirmed the news during a recent earnings call (thanks IGN). “We decided to develop one major expansion for Cyberpunk, which is going to take advantage of all the capabilities of the new-gen consoles,” said Nowakowski. “Having said that, we’re totally, fully committed to developing the Cyberpunk IP further, beyond this particular Cyberpunk expansion. Watch on YouTube Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.6: Xbox Series S 60FPS Update Tested!...

This is because the setting for Company of Heroes 3, due this November, is a delicate one. There are two campaigns, one in Italy and the Mediterranean, and the other, where this preview focused, in North Africa. The North African “theatre” of the Second World War is one dominated by armoured warfare, and is also the place were Erwin Rommel, the commander of the Nazis’ Deutsches Afrika Corps (DAK), earned his reputation as the “Desert Fox”....

Good SSDs don’t have to sit in your PC forever though, there are great external SSD options that you can unplug and take your games wherever you want. Portable SSDs are also a great option for console users, who can plug in an external drive to their console’s USB port so they can download as many games as they’d like. Crucial make some of the best SSDs around, both portable and non-portable, and their 1TB X8 external SSD is a fantastic choice if you’re looking to download games and take them with you....

The original Darkest Dungeon was also borne of early access, having launched on Steam back in 2015. The resulting pre-release refinements ultimately helped make an already fantastic game even better, and Darkest Dungeon’s punishing blend of dungeon crawling and visceral turn-based battling - in which your team of four misfits is at perpetual risk of unraveling in the face of multitudinous Lovecraftian horrors - released to significant critical acclaim. “This is a game that’s horrid in a way that means that you can’t look away,” wrote Christian Donlan in his Recommended review back in 2016, “a game of exhaustion and luridness and of terrible things happening in an awful, awful place....

But now I feel misled. Not because Darkwood isn’t scary, or because it uses jump scares - it has surprised me a few times (maybe there’s no getting away from this in horror), though not enough to suggest it leans on this as a scare tactic. But because reducing Darkwood to a conversation about scares misses so much of what I think it’s about. Darkwood is deep - surprisingly so....

Streamer and dataminer Lance McDonald has managed to get the game working on a non-jailbroken PS5 console. Essentially, a legitimate copy of P.T. is required as well as an active PSN account on both a jailbroken PS5 and a normal, fully updated PS5. The emulator is then transferred from one to the other. Watch on YouTube P.T. - Eurogamer Let’s Play LIVE McDonald has shared a video of his exploits on Twitter, with the comment: “Eat shit, Konami”....

Break the Bank is all about the gold, and its centrepiece is an opulent depository for unimaginable riches known as The Bank. Mechanically, this is quite a bit different from other biomes so far added to developer Motion Twin’s acclaimed rogue-like action-platformer, given that its entrance - a mysterious giant chest - will appear at random during a run. Provided you’ve first completed its sole unlock criteria - reach the Hand of the King once - the chest can appear in any of Dead Cells’ post-biome transition stages, and players will need to decide right then and there if they want to open it and delve into The Bank....