Gaming

Surgent Studios, the developer behind Tales of Kenzera: Zau, has announced it is laying off just over a dozen employees. This follows the release of its first game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, back in April, which launched to good reviews. 

Surgent doesn’t explain why; it says it’s focusing on supporting those affected, continuing work on Tales of Kenzera: Zau, and looking ahead to future projects. 

Here’s the studio’s statement, in full: 

“Unfortunately, Surgent has joined the growing number of games studios impacted by layoffs this year with just over a dozen people affected. It’s a difficult time in the games industry, but we remain incredibly proud of our entire team’s work on Zau, and of the praise it has received from critics and players alike. Our focus now is on supporting those affected, continuing our work on Zau, and looking to the future with our next creative projects.” 

Studio head and founder Abubakar Salim, who also voiced the titular Zau in the team’s first game, released his own statement addressing the layoffs: 

“Thank you so much to those who have checked in. This hurts deeply. This isn’t the news I wanted to share today. I am so proud of what that team have achieved over the course of these 4 years. When things got tough, every one of them stood so strong, it was inspiring. So to be delivering this news today really sucks. I know we’re not alone here, but that doesn’t make it easier. 

“The focus now is to continue supporting those affected in anyway we can. I will be replying to this with links to posts from our affected team members. If you have any opportunities available or know of any going, please consider these incredible talented people.” 

Surgent Studios grows an unfortunately ever-growing list of studios affected by layoffs in 2024. 

Last month, Paradox Interactive closed its Paradox Tectonic Studio the same week it canceled its first game, Life by You. Earlier that month, Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive laid off 95 employees. Fae Farm and Dauntless developer Phoenix Labs laid off the majority of its staff and canceled its in-development games back in May, and that same week, Square Enix announced it will begin layoffs as part of “structural reforms.” 

In May, Xbox closed four Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall studio Arkane Austin. Take-Two Interactive closed Rollerdrome studio Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 studio Intercept Games alongside major layoffs to its indie-publisher Private Division label. That same week, we learned Deliver Us Mars developer Keoken Interactive had laid off nearly its entire staff. 

Elsewhere in the year, EA laid off roughly 670 employees across all departments, resulting in the cancellation of Respawn’s Star Wars FPS game. PlayStation laid off 900 employees across Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, and more, closing down London Studio in the process, too. The day before, Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games announced it laid off 90 employees. 

At the end of January, we learned Embracer Group had canceled a new Deus Ex game in development at Eidos-Montréal and laid off 97 employees in the process. Also in January, Destroy All Humans remake developer Black Forest Games reportedly laid off 50 employees and Microsoft announced it was laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax teams, as well. Outriders studio People Can Fly laid off more than 30 employees in January, and League of Legends company Riot Games laid off 530 employees. 

Lords of the Fallen Publisher CI Games laid off 10 percent of its staff, Unity will lay off 1,800 people by the end of March, and Twitch laid off 500 employees. 

We also learned that Discord had laid off 170 employees, that layoffs happened at PTW, a support studio that’s worked with companies like Blizzard and Capcom, and that SteamWorld Build company, Thunderful Group, let go of roughly 100 people. Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive also reportedly laid off 45 people, too. 

The hearts of the Game Informer staff are with everyone who’s been affected by layoffs or closures. 

Amazon’s big Prime Day 2024 event is nearly here. The sale takes place July 16 and 17, but there are already a ton of great early Prime Day deals out there’s already a huge selection of movie and TV show Blu-ray box sets for sale. We’ve dug through all the listings to find the best movie, TV, and anime Blu-ray box set deals ahead of Amazon Prime Day 2024, and round them all up in the lists below. Also be sure to check out our round-ups of the best deals on video games, board games, and more available before Prime Day 2024.

Amazon Prime Day 2024 Early Deals

The current deals include standard and 4K UHD Blu-ray releases, collector’s editions, steelbook editions, and more. Starting with movies, right now is a great chance to grab full collections of big franchises like Fast and Furious, Terminator, and the Bourne series. You can also preorder the upcoming 4K steelbook collection of the Lord of the Rings trilogy for $153, which saves you 10% on its standard $170 list price.

For TV series, you can grab big box sets of classics like Batman: The Animated Series and Better Call Saul. You’ll also find limited steelbook editions of new shows like Andor, WandaVision, and Halo Season 1 and preorders for Season 2.

Finally, there’s also a big batch of anime box sets and collector’s editions on sale ahead of Prime Day. You can preorder the upcoming Berserk: The Golden Arc Memorial Edition Blu-ray set for $55 (normally $70) and Evangelion 3.0 + 1.11: Thrice Upon A Time steelbook edition for $30 (normally $37). Speaking of Berserk, you can also grab the beloved 1997 series on Blu-ray for 15% off. Select full series like Yu-Yu Hakusho are also available for nice discount, and you can snag deals on steelbook editions of numerous Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Boy and the Heron (preorder), and more.

Those are just a small selection of the many movie, TV, and anime box sets on sale ahead of Prime Day 2024. You’ll find many more deals in the lists below.

Movie Box Set Deals

TV Box Set Deals

Anime Blu-ray Deals

Updated July 5, 2024: Added a new code!

Enter the Allblox Battles arena, where you use the wackiest weapons to push your foes into lava. Enclose players in bubbles, stick them to surfaces with plungers, or slam them with wall chunks—whatever floats your boat. To get your hands on the wildest weapons fast, use Allblox Battles codes.

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• sniper — 200 Gold
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• spear — 600 Gold
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• bowandarrow — 300 Gold
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• There are no expired Allblox Battles codes right now.

Related articles: Tongue Battles codes and Monster Ghoul codes

Redeeming Allblox Battles codes is not difficult at all—just follow our instructions below:

1. Run Allblox Battles in Roblox.
2. Click on the icon with four squares in the top-left part of the screen.
3. Choose Code from the drop-down menu.
4. Input an active code into the Enter field.
5. Click on OK to grab your freebies.

With so many fun weapons in Allblox Battles, you’ll want to own them all. Codes can help you get there faster, and the good news is that our article will always have the freshest ones waiting for you, so make sure to come back regularly!

Zenless Zone Zero is easily one of the biggest releases of 2024 and another hit for miHoYo. The PC version runs pretty well across various hardware, but that doesn’t stop it from being immune to multiple server issues that past miHoYo titles have encountered. If you’re constantly running into the Zenless Zone Zero Download Failed 200 error, here is how you can get around it.

Currently, the only real way to get around the Download Failed 200 error in Zenless Zone Zero is to use a VPN service. After the download has been completed, you can turn off the VPN and play the game.

This is likely a regional server issue that is causing players from specific areas to be timed out while trying to communicate with the download servers.

The suggestions miHoYo’s team has provided to users don’t address this particular issue and read like generic catch-all recommendations for technical troubleshooting. Using a VPN is the only way to get around this for now.

You only need to use a VPN service when a download or an update (patch or hotfix) is available. After that, you can play the game without the need to turn it on. We have confirmed with multiple users that using a VPN allowed them to finally download the necessary files, and play the game. A lot of users, particularly from Czechia have been running into this issue, leading us to believe that it’s likely regional.

We hope that miHoYo is aware of this issue, and are working to address it in a patch. There have been multiple hotfixes since the release, so they are working on fixing technical issues. You can also contact customer support, and submit a report through the Hoyo launcher.

Once you’re in the game though, we recommend checking out how you can unlock the photo mode, and access all your shots. For more on Zenless Zone Zero, make sure to check out our dedicated section.

Two days after returning home from my vacation in Japan, Tokyo-based developer Nagai Industries Inc. released a trailer for its upcoming adventure game, InKonbini: One Store. Many Stories, and I was immediately taken back to my convenience store (“konbini” is Japanese for convenience stores, generally) adventures days prior. From Lawson’s excellent spicy chicken to 7-Eleven’s life-altering egg salad sandos, convenience stores in Japan are incredible, as strange as that is to write. InKonbini is a ’90s love letter to the konbinis of Japan, and after speaking with Nagai Industries founder Dima Shen about InKonbini, I couldn’t be more sold.

InKonbini puts players in the shoes of college student Makoto Hayakawa, who is taking a break from her studies to help her aunt run a small-town konbini. Nagai describes the game, due out on undetermined consoles and PC in 2025, as a “meditative narrative adventure/simulation game,” where, while playing, you discover the joy and wonder hidden behind the daily routine of a konbini worker. The idea began as a “Summer Project,” which is also the working title for InKonbini, between two friends. Shen’s friend was planning to move to Argentina, giving them one last chance to work closely together, “so I offered him to try and make a game in the span of one summer.” Today, Nagai has eight full-time employees and a few others working on the game.

Shen says their conversations led them to develop something “beautiful and cozy, with a positive mood, but also a bit sad,” like mixing the works of Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai. Shen tells me Japanese culture describes these mixed sentiments as mono-no-aware, which can be translated as “the sad beauty of mundane things.” After several iterations, Nagai landed on the 1990s konbini, and Shen got goosebumps the second this idea was born. Those goosebumps might have also resulted from Shen remembering the bright and welcoming konbini of Shenmue, one of his all-time favorite games (Nagai Industries is the cover-up name for a Yakuza group in one of the game’s locations).

Shen says Nagai aims to challenge and confront the notion that a developer can’t convert this occupation into a meaningful and exciting gameplay experience. The game’s trailer indicates InKonbini will have the kind of gameplay you’d expect in the shoes of a convenience store employee. But at the same time, Nagai expects players to find joy (and many other emotions) in the meta-gameplay born out of the other element of working at a konbini: talking to customers.

“The game is being built around a traditional Japanese concept of ‘ichi-go, ichi-e,’ which translates to ‘one time, one meeting,’” Shen tells me. “No situation in our life can be repeated; we never get to experience the same thing twice, and that’s what brings nostalgic flavor to some of our memories.”

Makoto Kayakawa will only spend one week working behind the counter, but Nagai thinks the new connections she gains and the stories she hears will resonate with players. However, don’t expect a mystery-driven plot or investigative narrative – InKonbini is about the joy of the seemingly mundane, although there is a connecting throughline.

Ultimately, Shen and Nagai hope players can recognize the power of slowing down in an otherwise fast-paced world, with Makoto Hayakawa standing in for us.

“The main takeaway wouldn’t be a big revelation, though,” Shen adds. “It’s the journey that matters, not the destination. We simply want players to be reminded that all the moments of our life are fleeting, and even the things we get used to, like a convenience store around the corner, won’t be here forever.

This article originally appeared in Issue 366 of Game Informer.

It’s easy to forget that not everyone plays video games on Windows. Some users prefer Linux, even on a desktop, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, not every developer supports Linux, which makes it challenging to find and play the games you want. So, can you play Zenless Zone Zero on Linux?

Zenless Zone Zero does not natively support Linux, but it does work. So long as developer miHoYo doesn’t make any significant changes, it should still run fine on Linux. The key is to download and install the game using Heroic. It’s a free-to-use, open-source game launcher capable of running Epic Game Store, GOG, Amazon Prime Games, and more on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Once you download Heroic and install Zenless Zone Zero, consider running the game via Proton Experimental. Most users seem to have luck there.

While Zenless Zone Zero isn’t on Steam and will likely never launch on Valve’s digital storefront, it does somewhat work on Steam Deck. There’s no official support, though. As such, you may run into numerous issues and poor performance.

If you want to try to play Zenless Zone Zero on Steam Deck, you can install the gacha game using Heroic or Lutris. It’s the easiest way to download and play the game on the handheld through the Epic Game Store.

Alternatively, the ROG Ally should have no trouble downloading the game, as it runs Windows natively.

While Linux remains in the air, what about controller support in Zenless Zone Zero? While you’re waiting for the game to install, now’s a good time to sign up for the Insider Gaming Newsletter!

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Allegations have emerged against the show’s creator, suggesting that the Netflix Horizon series may be scrapped.

In 2022, news broke that Sony had plans to develop a TV series based on Horizon Zero Dawn in partnership with Netflix. A few months later, they officially announced that Aloy would be the main character and that Steve Blackman, known for his work on The Umbrella Academy, would be directing the production.

The series was planned to join Netflix’s lineup of adaptations based on video games, alongside the Lance Reddick-led Resident Evil series, The Cuphead Show, the upcoming Bioshock movie, Castlevania, and more. Horizon also represents another TV venture for PlayStation, which is currently developing The Last of Us for HBO, God of War for Amazon Prime Video, and Twisted Metal for Peacock. PlayStation’s upcoming projects also include the forthcoming Ghosts of Tsushima film.

I’m disappointed to share that the unfortunate news has surfaced that they will not be “continuing with the series.” According to a report from Cheyenne Roundtree of Rolling Stone magazine, Horizon Zero Dawn and Orbital, another series that Steve Blackman was set to lead, have been canceled.

The recent accusations against Blackman regarding the working environment have raised concerns. Allegations of bullying, manipulative conduct, and retaliation have surfaced. Representatives of Blackman have refuted these allegations.

There’s a chance that the series could come to life with someone else leading the way, but we will have to wait and see what the Netflix producers have planned.

While Nintendo of America has long-since cut its repair support of the Wii U, Nintendo over in Japan was still repairing the hardware. Now, it’s officially run out of spare parts, meaning that it can no longer repair any damage.

Announced on social media (via OatmealDome), Nintendo Japan revealed it’s run out of parts. While we knew it was running low on parts last year, it gave no indicator when the peripheral would officially end repair support.

[Wii U]

Nintendo has ran out of spare parts for the Wii U in Japan.

Because of this, they are now unable to repair broken Wii U consoles or peripherals.

(Wii U repairs already ended several years ago in North America.) https://t.co/ry151GMyTq

— OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) July 4, 2024

Nintendo has been weirdly strong when it comes to repairing hardware past its prime, and even the Wii U, the forgotten system Nintendo seems to want to forget, is no exception. For over a decade, it had been continuing to support repairs for customers. That said, the Wii U eShop shuttered last year and its online play functions closed earlier this year.

EA Sports FC 25 will be released in September.

That’s according to prolific game leaker Billlbil-Kun, who writes on Deallabs that the game will likely be revealed within the next 10 days.

The game will reportedly be released in a Standard and Ultimate Edition. Players who purchase the Ultimate Edition of the game will receive a week of early access, as has become standard with EA‘s football titles, it’s claimed.

EA Play players will allegedly also receive this benefit alongside their 10-hour trial. EA Play players will also reportedly receive a discount to in-game currency and will be able to transfer in-game currency between EA FC 24 and EA FC 25. This will be a one-time offer, as has been the case in recent years.

As the UEFA Euro 2024 championships are currently taking place, it’s possible that the game will be announced during the final game, which takes place on Sunday, July 14.

UEFA is partnered with EA for EA Sports FC meaning it’s possible that the announcement could be integrated with the tournament.

In VGC’s review of the current-gen versions of EA FC 24, we said: “EA Sports FC 24 isn’t the huge departure that we’d hoped for. While Ultimate Team devotees will likely be happy, the rest of the game feels like an afterthought in the transition away from the FIFA license.”

With a rather positive launch and a relatively large community, Nexon’s new title is off to a good start. The First Descendant is a third-person action title with looter shooter mechanics and online cooperative PvE gameplay. Players will have various skills and weapons to use against a well-developed variety of enemies. 

However, many users are complaining about something basic that happens at the beginning of the game once the player opens it. The community, in general, hopes that the studio will fix this issue soon.

Promoted as a kind of direct competitor to Destiny 2, this title, where players must work together to defeat various powerful bosses, is gaining quite a bit of popularity. The First Descendant is a looter shooter that allows players to choose all kinds of characters and skills in order to defeat various enemies controlled by artificial intelligence. It is a free-to-play game that has a ton of microtransactions.

Despite receiving a generally positive reception at launch, the community is beginning to voice complaints about the initial issues this title presents. One of these issues is that when the user opens the game, the Nexon logo emits a loud sound that seems to annoy players.

The title “Nexon” screen needs a nerf. Way to loud.
byu/thatoneguyy22 inTheFirstDescendant

Users report that the elevated volume of this particular sound literally blows their ears out once the player opens the game. Seemingly, it’s just an incredibly annoying problem, that should hopefully be fixed soon.

This is something the studio can quickly fix without making it too loud. Games like Fortnite, which often surprise players with a rather loud ambient sound during the loading screen, also exhibit this type of issue.

Another obvious possibility is that players may directly lower the game’s volume, at least in this particular area, or adjust their sound system settings. The game has other, more important issues.

Reddit users quickly recalled the famous THX sound, which also had the effect of practically blowing your ears out, in response to this complaint. In general, while the game’s reception is positive, social media does not seem to be actively talking about this title. However, it still has many active players on the various platforms where it is available. This title could be more successful in the coming months.

The First Descendant is not Nexon’s first game as a service; this South Korean developer also launched Warhaven, which unfortunately did not have a favorable reception from players. This could be the studio’s opportunity to create a game that becomes quite popular and receives periodic content. The success of such a game is seen only several months after its release, when the number of active players can be verified.

What are your thoughts on this player’s complaint? Let us know in the comments!