Haden Blackman, founder of Mafia 3 and Mafia: Definitive Edition developer Hangar 13, is stepping down as studio head and will leave parent company 2K, it has been revealed. Nick Baynes will take over as the new head of Hangar 13.

“It’s with mixed emotions that I share with you several leadership updates from Hangar 13,” reads a memo shared internally by 2K leadership. “Haden Blackman is stepping down as studio head of Hangar 13, and is leaving the company to pursue his passion at a new endeavor. We are grateful for Haden’s leadership in establishing Hangar 13, building and uniting teams in Novato, Brighton, and Czech, and releasing multiple studio-defining Mafia games and collections.

“What Haden helped build will continue to carry forward and grow for years to come. We support all of our employees pursuing their passions, and we wish nothing but the best for him in what’s next. Nick Baynes, studio head of Hangar 13 Brighton will take over as studio head of Hangar 13.

“With 30 years of industry leadership experience, Nick joined Hangar 13 in 2018 to establish Hangar 13 Brighton, and has spent the last four years growing the team, building up the studio’s capabilities, and launching terrific projects like Mafia: Definitive Edition and the Mafia Trilogy. I hope you’ll join me in thanking Haden and wishing him the best, and congratulating Nick on a well-deserved promotion. While change can be challenging, it can also breed new opportunities and success. We are confident the studio is in great hands heading into the multiple projects currently under way, and the team has 2K’s full support.”

The establishment of Hangar 13 was revealed in 2014 along with confirmation that Blackman, a LucasArts veteran, would be heading up the studio. At the time the team was working on a AAA game using proprietary tech. That game was 2016’s Mafia 3, which launched to mixed but mostly positive reviews. Following that, Hangar 13 worked on 2020’s remake of the original Mafia.

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Halo Infinite Season 2: Lone Wolves is now live, adding a brand new free-for-all game mode, Last Spartan Standing. The new mode is like a miniature battle royale, pitting 12 players against each other with limited lives. The mode also has a shrinking zone similar to battle royale modes, although it isn’t as aggressive. With rumors that Certain Affinity is making a true battle royale mode for the game, now is the perfect time to brush up on your skills. Here are some tips to help you dominate in Last Spartan Standing.

How Last Spartan Standing works

Before you start honing your skills and dominating your opponents, it’s important to understand how the game mode works and what your objective is. The 12-person mode is a free-for-all match, so each player is pitted against everyone else. Each player starts with five respawns, so once you die six times you’re permanently out. Every player starts with the same set of weapons and can earn better ones as they earn XP by getting kills, assists, or picking up bonus XP left by eliminated players. Once the game gets down to only a few players remaining, the play field will begin to shrink. The Last Spartan Standing wins the match.

Weapon upgrade levels

One of the most important parts of the game is that there are no weapons on the map. There are only grenades, overshields, and active camo drops around the map. Instead, players start with a single set of weapons that can be upgraded over the course of the game, similar to Gun Game in Call of Duty. You can choose to level up once you have earned enough XP, but you don’t have to level up. The reason this is important is that the weapon sets you upgrade to aren’t necessarily better than what you previously had. Instead, you should learn which weapons are available at each level and how much XP you need to get there, so you can always have the guns you feel most comfortable with. XP is cumulative, so it doesn’t go away when you upgrade. Here is every weapon set at every level and how much XP you need:

Level 1: Disruptor and MK50 Sidekick – base levelLevel 2: Disruptor and Mangler – 100 XPLevel 3: Mangler and MA40 Assault Rifle – 300 XPLevel 4: Commando and MA40 Assault Rifle – 650 XPLevel 5: CQS48 Bulldog and Commando – 1150 XPLevel 6: BR75 and CQS48 Bulldog – 1850 XP (max level)

Looking at the list of loadouts, it’s clear that there are some places where personal preference is going to come into play. Considering that Last Spartan Standing is played on a large map, the MK50 Sidekick works as a better ranged weapon than the Mangler. If you’re like me, you also don’t care much for the Commando and may want to hold out on leveling up until it comes with the shotgun.

Last Spartan Standing tips

While most Last Spartan Standing matches will be determined by which of the two final remaining players is more skilled, there are a few tips to keep in mind to help you make it to the final few players.

The first is to play cautiously. Now, I’m not going to condone camping here because that’s not a very fun strategy–plus you’ll struggle to upgrade your guns if you don’t get in on the action yourself–but I am going to suggest you make smart choices about when to engage. Halo Infinite can be a very aggressive shooter, with players rushing each other frequently. The reason that doesn’t work here is because the winner is determined by whoever can not die six times. It doesn’t really matter if you rush in and get 6 or 7 kills, if you get eliminated super early. The smart thing to do is look for two players fighting each other you can ambush and avoid being in the middle of a firefight.

The next tip is about the bonus XP drops that appear around the map. These are dropped whenever players are eliminated from the match and are typically worth 300 XP. That’s the equivalent of three kills, so it can be useful in getting you to the max weapon level. The important thing to know is that bonus XP drops take roughly five seconds to pick up. If you were hoping to snag these quickly, that’s not going to happen. You need to make sure you are clear to pick them up, especially if the player died in an open area.

The last tip is to look out for drop pods. The weapon pods, similar to the ones that drop in Big Team Battle, always contain one of two things, either active camo or overshields. These pods drop pretty frequently, and as there are fewer players later in the match, there can be a bunch left around. Having either one of these will give you a massive advantage over another player, so it’s important to seek them out whenever you can.

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The gaming industry can’t seem to go a month without big acquisition news, but the most recent of these was surprising for a different reason. Square Enix suddenly sold all of its Western studios–Crystal Dynamics and Eidos–to the Embracer Group. That includes high-profile franchises like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex. The move largely exits Square Enix from Western-made games, trimming its sails with an apparent focus on its own internal Japanese development. Analysts tell GameSpot that the move is somewhat of a “head-scratcher” financially, but ultimately suits its long-term goals of slimming down the organization and pursuing new revenue streams.

Lewis Ward, gaming research director at IDC, says that Square’s revenue growth and profits were decent over the last nine months, which may have prompted the company to sell “most of the crown jewels.” But then, he says, the sale price was surprisingly low if that’s the case.

“The problem I have with this scenario is that $300 million for a company that generated well over $2.4 billion last year doesn’t feel like a great haul at all,” Ward said. “If Embracer was throwing tons of money their way it would make sense to sell in this heightened M&A atmosphere, but $300 million strikes me as a price tag for a highly-distressed company given their recent revenue results. It’s closer to Activision’s proposed buyout by Microsoft from this perspective. So there must be more to the story that I just know about that helps explain it. It’s a bit of a head-scratcher.”

Piers Harding-Rolls, who runs games research at Ampere Analysis, sees this as a way to slim down the company as it pursues some of its long-term goals, and its other investments may have made it that much more eager to sell these assets.

“Square Enix has been seeking to offload this part of its business to restructure and focus its investments,” Harding-Rolls said. “It has struggled to get consistent commercial success out of those studios, and it wants to build a leaner organization with a more compelling growth and profit story for its shareholders.

“Setting aside the long term growth engines it has identified–AI, cloud and blockchain–this makes Square Enix more financially robust as a games business today. Considering the pipeline investments it was faced with making AAA games from these studios over the next five years, it was probably keen to sell considering its priorities. This will inevitably mean some reorganization in the Western offices which has responsibilities across all SE titles in Europe and North America.”

Square Enix has said that the sale will be used to invest in the blockchain, among other things. Meanwhile, Ward suggested this was a larger move toward Square Enix recentering itself on its home turf. “It sounds like Square is pulling back from international development efforts and refocusing on the output of its Japanese studios,” he said. “I think we have to assume they lost tens of millions of dollars on Marvel’s Avengers in particular. This sale of Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal may be read as a white flag on their recent forays into licensed Marvel content since both those [studios’] games apparently fell short of their sales targets last year.”

One reason the sale may not be a huge surprise is that for much of the last decade, Square Enix had developed a reputation for public statements indicating that its Western releases had underperformed. It made such comments regarding Tomb Raider, Marvel’s Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and its mobile games division, among others. While Square Enix never detailed its exact projections to gauge how much these various efforts fell short, it was understood that the company was not pleased with its Western investments.

Meanwhile, this only makes the portfolio larger for the Embracer Group, the company that is quickly buying its way into being a mega-publisher with tons of high-profile properties.

“I thought Tencent had been on an M&A tear until I reviewed the Embracer Group’s appetite for game studios in recent years!” Ward said. “I just suspect they’re super bullish on gaming’s growth in the next several years and so they’re being aggressive in buying up studios that they believe have a solid pedigree and, presumably, have some interesting projects in the works.

Harding-Rolls said that Embracer has put itself into a good position to make more than its investment back, though it may take some time for that return-on-investment to arrive depending on the state of current projects.

“Embracer faces substantial investment in these studios over a number of years before seeing any significant ROI, but it has also added a strong collection of IP and franchises with potential future value that could easily eclipse the $300m invested if successful,” Harding-Rolls said. “There is upside but investment risk associated with that. The lack of service game expertise, Marvel’s Avengers aside, will have counted against the negotiated price.”

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Come one, come all for another delightful round of Wordle. Today is May 4 and the answer for today is a very straightforward one. I like today’s word, not just because I got most of it on my first guess, but because it’s also one I use all of the time.

Have you tried today’s Wordle? It’s pretty manageable, boasting some pretty predictable vowels and vowel placement that should all but give the word away. As usual, I’d say go for the easy word rather than the trickier one. I thought Wordle might play me and cost myself a guess that would’ve gotten me the win in two guesses. One day, I’ll have a two-guess game again…

If you’re looking for more tips, we’ve got a handy guide with a long list of great starting words you can take advantage of to secure that win and streak!

Today’s Wordle Answer – May 4, 2022

If you’re looking for the answer, as usual you can scroll down to the last paragraph where it’s handily provided. However, I’ve got fun hints for you all to use that’ll all but guarantee you get your answer. Ready? Let’s go.

Hint 1: In RPGs, you often have to do small tasks in order to grind XP and levels ahead of a particularly difficult boss. In the fiction of the game’s world, you wouldn’t call it a grind though. Instead, you might say that your character has to do today’s Wordle answer.

Hint 2: Today’s Wordle answer is the most infamous recipient of a suplex in video game history.

Have you gotten today’s word yet? If not, don’t worry I’ve got your answer right here. Today’s Wordle is…train. If you were your RPG character, you’d definitely say that you need to train and get ready for the big fight. Speaking of trains, I still can’t believe you can suplex one in Final Fantasy 6. I really ought to get to that game. That’s all we’ve got for you today, but be sure to check back tomorrow for an all new round of Wordle hints!

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

All Elite Wrestling has revealed new details on its upcoming console wrestling game, including confirmation of the game’s official title: AEW Fight Forever.

The name was confirmed by AEW wrestler Evil Uno during an official AEW Games livestream on Twitch. Uno also confirmed that while the game is coming to consoles, there will be a PC version available at launch.

New footage of the game was shown, including trailers revealing two new wrestlers: Kris Statlander and Nyla Rose from the AEW women’s division. Previous wrestlers confirmed for the game include former AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry, and former AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida.

AEW: Fight Forever is the first game from All Elite Wrestling, the new wrestling promotion that began in 2019. It is slated to launch in 2022 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.

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