EA is sunsetting three Battlefield titles on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this month.

The publisher confirmed Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield: Hardline will be removed from digital storefronts on Xbox 360 and PS3 on July 31, 2024. DLC and “all extra related content” will also be pulled from sale.

“Online services for these titles on these platforms will end on November 7th, 2024. While the online components of these titles close for these platforms, if you own the game, you will still be able to play the single-player component,” added EA.

Battlefield 3 will remain playable on PC, while Battlefield 4 and Battlefield: Hardline will remain playable on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

EA regularly delists older titles and on its website explains that “some games go away for legal reasons, or because players are asking for resources elsewhere.”

The publisher maintains a regularly updated list of titles facing an online services shutdown and will be giving others the chop in the coming months including FIFA 22 and Disney Sorcerers Arena.

News of online service shutdowns that render key multiplayer components unplayable or result in products being pulled from shelves often prick the ears of game preservationists. Fortunately, all three Battlefield titles remain playable on other platforms (for now).

Mystic Forge, a self-styled boutique publisher based in the Netherlands, has secured €2 million ($2.1 million) in funding.

The investment round was led by ForsVS and ROM Utrecht Region and will enable the publisher to expand its portfolio.

Mystic Forge was founded by Good Shepherd Entertainment vets Paul Hanraets, Randy Greenback, and Vernon Vrolijk, and wants to make and impact within the indie game market by deploying an “innovative collaboration model.”

“Specializing in strategy, simulation, and RPG games for PC, Mystic Forge adopts a proactive approach, selecting projects meticulously but also initiating collaborations by connecting developers within its extensive network,” reads a press release.

“This strategy allows the company to dedicate substantial resources and focused attention to each game, ensuring personalized support from the early stages of development and extending well beyond game launch.”

Mystic Forge co-founder Paul Hanraets said the company will use the money to sign new projects and intends to make some announcements later this year.

ForsVC venture partner Eric Diepeveen added the investment can help revitalise a publishing market calling out for change. “Mystic Forge’s unique approach positions them perfectly to seize this moment,” he continued. “We believe they will become a major player, delivering exceptional and engaging games.” 

Capcom spat a little squirt of news bile on us yesterday, like a hideous zombie vomiting up demos and release dates. One of the smaller chunks was a brief comment by Resident Evil 7 director Koshi Nakanishi, who confirmed that a new Resident Evil game is in the works. That’s not too much of a surprise – big franchise gonna franchise – but still, it’s nice to hear. “It was really difficult to figure out what to do after [Resident Evil] 7,” he said, “but I found it. And to be honest it feels substantial.”

We did not get more information than that, unfortunately. The quick and easy assumption to make is that this will be Resident Evil 9, or whatever the developers decide to call it. But Nakanishi stops short of saying this outright. Considering there are unconfirmed rumours that claim both Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil – Code: Veronica will be getting remakes, I feel iffy about jumping to conclusions about exactly which Resi this heavyweight director will be lending his overseership to. It probably is number 9, which has seen its own leaks and is reportedly called Resident Evil 9: Revenant Shadows. But still, no official confirmation of that.

Elsewhere in the Capcom Next broadcast, Nakanishi reminisced about Resident Evil 7’s shift away from action and back to horror.

“When we first started development [on Resi 7], Resident Evil was… well, if I’m being honest, as a brand we were off-track. The action element had been expanded and fans reacted much more negatively than expected. In the end an RE game has to be scary… the general consensus from fans of the series was that a Resident Evil game is one that should scare the hell out of you. That was the starting point for Resident Evil 7.”

If Nakanishi is heading development of Resident Evil 9, my hope is that he continues to push the team back into the dark realm of horror. Resident Evil Village was interesting, but I found it much more shooty than expected, especially after the seventh game’s hobbled houseboundness. Then again, I like my horror slow and creepy. I’d be happy if a Resi game came out with, like, three monsters in it. So long as it was dark and tense.

PC-loyal Resi fans desirous of the classics have seen some good news recently, now that the original 1996 Resident Evil is available to download on PC for the first time. And ye olde Resi 2 and 3 are coming soon, according to placeholder pages at GOG. No word on Resident Evil – Code: Veronica though, which holds the distinguished honour of being the only Resident Evil game with my granny’s name in the title.

Update (7/2/2024): Surgent Studios confirmed it laid off over a dozen of its staff. In its statement, it acknowledged the industry’s “difficult time,” and said it’d prioritize helping those affected by the reductions.

“I am so proud of what the team have acheieved over the course of these four years,” wrote Surgent founder Abubakar Salim. “So to be delivering this news today really sucks. I know we’re not alone here, but that doesn’t make it easier.”

The studio added that its current plans involve further support for Tales of Kenzera: Zau and “looking to the future with our next creative projects.”

Original story: It looks like Tales of Kenzera: Zau developer Surgent Studios is making layoffs.

Three former employees impacted by the cuts shared the news on social media. On Linkedin, level designer Peter Brisbourne wrote “the chapter entitled ‘Pete Works At Surgent Studios’ is coming to a close at the end of the month,” and indicated their departure was the result of layoffs.

Former Surgent technical artist Jordan Smee corroborated the news and said they’re “joining all the people affected by industry layoffs this year.” Over on Bluesky, another former Surgent employee said they have “officially been laid off.”

The reports come less than three months after Tales of Kenzera hit shelves. The EA-published metroidvania launched on April 23 for Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S, and PC.

It received praise from critics and players alike, and currently boasts a ‘very positive’ rating on Steam from over 400 user reviews. It’s unclear how well the game sold.

Surgent was founded by Abubakar Salim and is billed as a transmedia studio with “a pioneering philosophy to storytelling across film, television, games, and emerging platforms.”

The company has previously worked on films including Wild Goat Surf, Essex Girls, and Measure. Tales of Kenzera was Surgent’s first game project.

Layoffs have become commonplace in the game industry over the past year. Major players including Microsoft, Sony, EA, Embracer Group, Take-Two, and more have collectively axed thousands of jobs, shuttered studios, and canned projects in a purported bid to deliver sustainability and growth.

Game Developer has reached out to Surgent for comment. 

Nearly a full month after it was bought by Voodoo, BeReal has cut 28 positions.

As spotted by GamesIndustry, the social platform made cuts across its engineering, QA, and marketing divisions. Per COO Roman Salzman, the layoffs were “mostly part of a refocus on France/Europe-based talents.”

“Not going to bore with details, keeping it simple here: these folks scaled a social platform from 200,000 to 25 million daily active users in 18 months,” he wrote. “They all had to build it from the ground up and under tremendous pressure, and did it.”

Voodoo acquired BeReal in mid-June for €500 million (or $536.9 million), and with the express purpose of expanding into the hypercasual market. In turn, BeReal would use Voodoo to have a sustainable growth path previously unavailable.

PocketGamer noted BeReal’s headcount earlier this year was 60 employees, and was told by a Voodoo spokesperson those 28 were let go so the company could grow “in a sustainable way.”

“We made the difficult decision to let some team members go,” they said. “We are committed to maintaining BeReal’s mission and values and to continue to build a place where our users can connect with people they are closest to.”

Mergers and layoffs in the game industry

Layoffs aren’t uncommon in the wake of mergers, as we’ve seen with Xbox twice this year. But typically, those cuts come some months after an acquisition has been completed, not a handful of weeks later.

Voodoo affirmed it’ll support those being let go from BeReal, while Salzman listed all 28 employees in his LinkedIn post, offering himself as a reference for those who need it.

Guilty Gear Strive turned three years old in mid-June, and developer Arc System Works revealed the game has now crossed 3 million players worldwide.

The anime fighter originally released for PlayStation 4 and 5 and PC in 2021, followed by a Japanese arcade release in July that same year. It finally came to Xbox One and Series X|S in March 2023, in addition to Xbox Game Pass.

3 million players, but how many sales?

It’s unknown how this player milestone translates, sales-wise. As of last August, the fighter sold 2.5 million copies, and both Arc System and Bandai Namco have been mum on its commercial performance since.

Strive was the first mainline Guilty Gear entry since 2014’s Guilty Gear Xrd, and the first game in the series to release on current consoles.

Along with the typical post-launch DLC with new fighters, Strive will be further supported with an upcoming anime. Developed by animation studio Sanzigen (which made an animated music video for the game), the Dual Rulers show will adapt Strive’s story mode.

Fighting game franchises like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Tekken have jumped over to animation with continued success, so it makes sense Arc System would have its newest fighting game step into that ring to bring more attention to Guilty Gear.

Prime Day 2024 will, no doubt, be rich with deep discounts on PC gaming hardware. But when it gets fully underway across July 16th and 17th, it won’t be the only deals game in town. Not by a long shot. That’s why the RPS Anti-Prime Day guide has returned once more, to bring together all the worthiest hardware offers from non-Amazon retailers in the UK and US.

Why the focus now, when these sellers run PC gaming deals throughout the whole year? Ultimately, it’s still Amazon’s doing. Prime Day, as exclusive to Prime members as it is, still whips up enough of a buying frenzy to almost rival Black Friday – and like Black Friday, there are loads of others wanting a piece of a pie. To compete directly with Amazon’s lowered prices, PC gear retailers will slash down their own wares, matching and sometimes even beating the megacorp on value.

That means anything from the fastest SSDs to humble Steam Deck docks could you yours for a pittance this Prime Day, and you won’t have to give Amazon a penny in exchange – let alone sign up for Prime. I’ll be updating this page with my picks of these Anti-Prime Day deals, across all the same hardware types as our main Prime Day deals hub.

The best early Anti-Prime Day 2024 PC gaming deals so far

WD Black SN850X 2TB – £150 from Ebuyer (was £185)
WD Blue SN580 2TB – $120 from B&H Photo Video (was $150)
SanDisk Ultra 1.5TB – $110 from B&H Photo Video (was $241)
MSI MAG 274UPF – £450 from Ebuyer (was £550)

27in, 3840×1440, 144Hz, IPS panel, AMD Freesync Premium

Mountain Everest 60 – $20 from Newegg (was $140)
HyperX Cloud III – £70 from Currys (was £110)
Inno3D GeForce RTX 4070 Super Twin X2 – £529 from Laptop Outlet (was £800)
MSI Katana 15 – £1250 from Scan (was £1500)

15.6in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, Intel i9-13900H, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD

Razer Blade 15 – $1799 from Best Buy (was $2799)

15.6in, 2560×1440, 240Hz, IPS display, Intel Core i7-13800H, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD

Use the links below to jump to a certain category. For now, there are some early deals that could still suit your upgrade needs, though you can expect more products and likely better prices during Prime Day itself.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Best early Anti-Prime Day SSD and storage deals

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Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Best early Anti-Prime Day gaming monitor deals

UK deals:

LG 24MR400-B – £80 from Scan (was £90)

24in, 1920×1080, 100Hz, IPS panel, AMD Freesync

Asus TUF Gaming VG24VQE – £115 from Ebuyer (was £165)

24in, 1920×1080, 165Hz, VA panel, AMD Freesync Premium

HP Omen 27q – £179 from Currys (was £279)

27in, 2560×1440, 165Hz, IPS panel, AMD Freesync Premium

Cooler Master GP2711 – £299 from Scan (was £400)

27in, 2560×1440, 165Hz, Mini LED panel, AMD Freesync Premium

MSI MAG 274UPF – £450 from Ebuyer (was £550)

27in, 3840×1440, 144Hz, IPS panel, AMD Freesync Premium

US deals:

Asus TUF Gaming VG249Q3A – $140 from Best Buy (was $180)

24in, 1920×1080, 180Hz, IPS panel, AMD Freesync

Gigabyte GS32QC – $210 from Newegg (was $250)

32in, 12560×1440, 170Hz, VA panel, AMD Freesync Premium

Samsung Odyssey G51C – $250 from Best Buy (was $400)

32in, 2560×1440, 165Hz, IPS panel, AMD Freesync Premium

Samsung Odyssey G6 – $400 from Best Buy (was $700)

27in, 2560×1440, 240Hz, VA panel, AMD Freesync Premium Pro

LG UltraGear 34GS95QE-B – $800 from Best Buy (was $1300)

34in, 3440×1440, 240Hz, OLED panel, AMD Freesync Premium Pro

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Best early Anti-Prime Day gaming mouse deals

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US deals:

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Best early Anti-Prime Day gaming keyboard deals

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US deals:

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Best early Anti-Prime Day gaming headset deals

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Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Best early Anti-Prime Day graphics card deals
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US deals:

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Best early Anti-Prime Day CPU deals
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Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Best early Anti-Prime Day RAM deals

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US deals:

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Best early Anti-Prime Day gaming laptop deals

UK deals:

MSI Thin GF63 – £800 from Scan (was £900)

15.6in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, Intel i5-12450H, RTX 4050, 512GB SSD

MSI Cyborg 15 – £900 from Scan (was £1200)

15.6in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, Intel i7-12650H, RTX 4060, 512GB SSD

Asus TUF Gaming F15 – £1100 from Scan (was £1300)

15.6in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, Intel i7-13620H, RTX 4060, 1TB SSD

MSI Katana 15 – £1250 from Scan (was £1500)

15.6in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, Intel i9-13900H, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD

MSI Vector 16 HX A14V – £1899 from Ebuyer (was £2205)

16in, 2560×1600, 240Hz, IPS display, Intel i9-14900HX, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD

US deals:

Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8 – $780 from Newegg (was $1100)

15.6in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, Intel Core i5-13420H, RTX 4050, 512GB SSD

Gigabyte G5 – $1000 from Newegg (was $1100)

15.6in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, Intel Core i7-13620H, RTX 4060, 1TB SSD

HP Victus 16 – $1479 from Newegg (was $1769)

16.1in, 1920×1080, 144Hz, IPS display, AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, RTX 4070, 2TB SSD

Alienware m18 – $1750 from Best Buy (was $2550)

18in, 1920×1200, 480Hz, IPS display, AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD

Razer Blade 15 – $1799 from Best Buy (was $2799)

15.6in, 2560×1440, 240Hz, IPS display, Intel Core i7-13800H, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD

Capcom has made what may be its first studio acquisition in 2024 via the purchase of Minimum Studios for 888,888 New Taiwan dollars (or around $27,265).

Per Capcom, the acquisition was done “to sustainably bolster its developmental and technological capabilities, aiming to achieve its long-term management goal of 100 million units in annual sales.”

It acquired two-thirds of the Taiwan-based company, which was founded in 2018. Per its website, Minimum specializes in game and character animation across human, mechanical, and animal characters.

Capcom’s investment in Minimum makes sense

All three of those fall inside Capcom’s remit. In fact, Minimum has been working with Capcom since its founding, citing its facial and body animation work in Resident Evil 4 Remake, Resident Evil Village, and Dragon’s Dogma II.

Last year, Capcom made a similar acquisition with Swordcanes, which worked on Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush. Like Minimum, Swordcanes specialized in animation and art, and also helped work on Street Fighter 6.

Capcom also recently confirmed a new Resident Evil game was in development, with Resident Evil 7’s Koshi Nakanishi returning as director. Given Minimum’s majority resume is related to the survival horror franchise, the deal may have something to do with this new entry, or another project also in the works.