Dark and Darker dev denies theft accusation: ‘As far as we know you cannot copyright a game genre’

Dark and Darker (opens in new tab) developer Ironmace has denied allegations that the game uses stolen assets and code, saying in a statement on Discord that all of Dark and Darker’s code was “built from scratch,” and its assets were either purchased from the Unreal marketplace or designed internally.

The claim that Dark and Darker uses stolen assets and code first appeared on Korean site This is Game (opens in new tab) (Google translated (opens in new tab)), which said that developer Ironmace includes former employees of Nexon who were “disciplined and fired” by Nexon, and are now building Dark and Darker using materials they worked on while at Nexon. A Nexon project revealed in 2021 as “P3 (opens in new tab)” was basically used as a prototype of Dark and Darker, according to the claim, and images from Project P3 definitely have a certain proto-Dark and Darker look to them.

(Image credit: Nexon)
(Image credit: Nexon)
(Image credit: Nexon)
(Image credit: Nexon)

Later in 2021, Nexon changed course to a different project, P7, a contemporary survival adventure. Around the same time, Ironmace was founded, at least in part by former Nexon employees. Ironmace’s website (opens in new tab) suggests that they did not part on the happiest of terms.

“We are a merry band of veteran game developers disillusioned by the exploitative and greedy practices we once helped create,” it says. “We are experts who have worked on many of the biggest hits in Korea.

“We’ve seen first hand how corporate game companies sell their soul for the easy payday. We are disappointed to see them doubling down on more and more exploitative practices, becoming more like casinos instead of bringing joy to gamers.”

Developers leaving big companies to try their hand at indie development isn’t at all unusual, but obviously swiping code and assets to use in a non-Nexon game is a very different situation. The report also alleges that former Nexon employees now working at Ironmace were caught trying to take other code, resources, and development documents from the company.

Ironmace, however, says none of it is true. In a message posted on the Dark and Darker Discord (opens in new tab), Terence (presumably Ironmace CEO Terence Seung-ha) said, “ABSOLUTELY NO stolen assets or code were used to make our game.”

“Our code was built from scratch,” Seung-ha wrote. “Most of our assets are purchased from the Unreal marketplace. All other assets and all game designs docs were created inhouse. This has already been audited by an outside agency. As far as we know you cannot copyright a game genre.”

(Image credit: Ironmace (Discord))

Seung-ha also addressed a lawsuit referenced in a separate This is Game report (Google translated (opens in new tab)), saying that it is a “separate personal matter” filed against a single Ironmace employee. “No lawsuit has been filed against Ironmace,” he wrote.

Korean news site YTN (opens in new tab) (Google translated (opens in new tab)) says Nexon did file a complaint against Dark and Darker relating to the “Unfair Competition & Trade Secrets Protection Act,” however, alleging that CEO Park Mo and other employees stole information about a game they were working on while at Nexon. Game industry commentator PlayerIGN said that case was initially filed in August 2022, but that Nexon has requested a “deeper investigation” as Dark and Darker has continued testing and growing in popularity. It’s not clear whether that’s the same action noted by Seung-ha.

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Seung-ha said he believes the rumors of stolen code and assets were raised by “a disgruntled third party,” although he provided no details as to who that might be or why they’re trying to stir up trouble. For now, Ironmace is attempting to handle the matter “privately,” Seung-ha said, but will defend itself against legal action if it has to. Nexon has not publicly commented on the matter. I’ve reached out to Nexon and Ironmace for more information and will update if I receive a reply.



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These are the 11 seasonal weapons you need to get before Lightfall launches

Lightfall is nearly here, and with it comes a new year of seasonal loot for Destiny 2. But what of last year’s drops? Thanks to the ‘Destiny Content Vault’, the preceding year of seasonal activities are swept away when a new expansion launches.

That means you only have until Monday, February 27—when Destiny 2 goes down for its 24 hour pre-launch maintenance period—to easily grab anything that you’re currently missing. Chances are the weapons of the past four seasons will still be available post-Lightfall, but earning them will almost certainly be more arduous. When The Witch Queen launched, the guns of the Beyond Light era were moved into Dares of Eternity’s drop table—a giant, rotating list of loot with no focusing option to make grinding less of a chore.

This last year we’ve enjoyed some incredible, meta-shifting weapons that deserve a place in your vault. So before Lightfall arrives, here are the 11 best seasonal weapons you need to get—along with a handful of honourable mentions from elsewhere in the game. If you can, try to unlock the crafting pattern on your seasonal weapon of choice. As long as you’ve earned that, you’ll be able to craft a new version from The Enclave at any time. You can progress the pattern via the seasonal vendor in the HELM—buying one red border per vendor per day. Otherwise you’ll need to try your luck at the associated seasonal activity.

Season of the Risen

Explosive Personality

(Image credit: Bungie)

I think this wave-frame could be a low-key monster next season thanks to the changes being made to Solar 3.0—particularly the introduction of Firesprites as the Solar version of Arc’s Ionic Traces. The reworked Ember of Tempering fragment will spawn Firesprites on Solar weapon kills. Firesprites naturally give grenade energy, and so will already pair well with the new Ember of Resolve fragment that procs Cure on grenade kills. But there’s also the new Ember of Mercy fragment, which also causes Firesprites to grant Restoration when they’re grabbed.

In short, Solar is going to let you build heavily into healing and sustain. None of that is specific to Explosive Personality, except for the fact that, if you want an easy way to secure a lot of Solar kills quickly, a wave-frame’s area attack is a fantastic choice. I expect to be building heavily into this for my solo run of Lightfall’s legendary campaign. If you prefer PvP, consider Disruption Break to make those swap kills even easier.

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Auto-Loading Holster or Stats for All
  • Fourth Column: Frenzy, One for All or Unrelenting

Piece of MindDestiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

Pulse rifle fans were eating well in Crucible this year. And while No Time to Explain is still the undisputed king of PvP pulses, Piece of Mind emerged as an absurdly good legendary option. So good, in fact, that it got slapped by a zoom nerf—reducing its effective range.

Despite the hit, it remains something of a monster for dad rifle enjoyers. Yes, you’re often better off with No Time to Explain—even after its own recent nerfs. But if your Exotic slot is already spoken for—you can pry Black Talon from my cold, dead hands—this is the gun to grab. As for PvE players: you’ll get some value out of Adrenaline Junkie as a damage perk, but honestly, there are better pulses to pick if they ever get a buff.

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Perpetual Motion or Overflow
  • Fourth Column: Moving Target or Elemental Capacitor

Under Your SkinDestiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

My favourite bow of the year—and just generally a solid choice given how often bows are part of the anti-champion meta each season. Pop on Archer’s Tempo and Explosive Head and you’ve got a reliable workhorse with a solid, always active damage boost.

But wait, there’s more. If you value fun over efficiency, ignore Explosive Head and go for Successful Warm-up instead. Where Archer’s Tempo reduces draw time on a precision hit, Successful Warm-Up reduces it on a kill. And the two perks will stack, meaning you’ll be flinging out arrows at unprecedented speed (we’re ignoring Hush—it was sunset). Whatever you pick it gets the job done, so it’s up to you: boring but reliable, or fun?

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Archer’s Tempo
  • Fourth Column: Successful Warm-Up or Explosive Head

Season of the Haunted

Bump in the NightDestiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

A rocket launcher I initially dismissed, but one that has become a DPS monster thanks to one particular perk: Chill Clip. If someone on your fireteam is running Gjallarhorn, the Wolpack Rounds it gives to a Chill Clip rocket launcher will repeatedly freeze and shatter the boss for a chunky damage increase. Just note that this strat does have diminishing returns. You’ll really only need one of these among your fireteam, with everybody else running the standard go-tos like Hothead or Hezen’s Vengeance.

If you really want to top the damage charts, go for Demolitionist in the third column paired with a Starfire Protocol Warlock build. Pop a Witherhoard grenade onto the boss, stand in your Well of Radiance, and let your constantly regenerating fusion grenades reload your rocket launcher for you.

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Demolitionist or Auto-Loading Holster
  • Fourth Column: Chill Clip or Vorpal WeaponDestiny 2 seasonal weapons
(Image credit: Bungie)

What a year it’s been for submachine guns. It started with Funnelweb, a world loot pool drop that paired nicely with the Void 3.0 rework. And in the seasons that followed, each Light subclass received the perfect partner in SMG form. The returning Calus Mini-Tool is a top Solar SMG, thanks to the new Incandescent perk that, on kill, spreads Scorch to nearby enemies. Wade into a dense pack, and you’ll be firing off Ignitions without a care.

Incandescent is really the only thing worth rocking in the fourth column, but you’ve got some options for the third. Threat Detector buffs a handful of stats—including reload speed—when enemies are near, and Grave Robber reloads the weapon on melee kills. Personally, though, I’m using Unrelenting to proc health regen after a rapid killstreak. Thanks to the aforementioned explosions, you’ll be getting plenty of rapid kills.

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Unrelenting, Threat Detector or Grave Robber
  • Fourth Column: Incandescent

AustringerDestiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

Crucible players are spoilt for choice when it comes to 140 rpm hand cannons. Just this season, we were given both Rose and Exalted Truth—likely two of the best legendary PvP hand cannons in the game right now. Given that, is there any point in an Austringer?

Kind of. If you’ve already got a Crucible favourite picked out, Austringer can be safely skipped. But it’s one of just two 140 rpm hand cannons available for crafting, meaning it offers a deterministic way to craft a PvP god roll. And thanks to its access to enhanced perks, a little time investment means you can create a roll that can easily compete with the competition in one of Destiny 2’s most popular PvP archetypes. As for PvE, an Outlaw/Rampage roll would do the job if hand cannons ever get their much needed buff. Really, though, you’d be better off with the other craftable 140: Zaouli’s Bane from the King’s Fall raid.

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Eye of the Storm or Snapshot Sights
  • Fourth Column: Rangefinder or Opening Shot

Season of the PlunderDestiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

Look, I’ll level with you: I did not like Plunder’s guns. They’re a bit weird looking, for one thing. More than that, though, most of them just don’t stand out compared to other weapons in their archetype. I’m not going to use No Reprieve when Heritage is simply the best slug shotgun in the game. I’m not bringing Sailspy Pitchglass to a damage phase when Cataclysmic, Reed’s Regret and Taipan-4FR all exist.

The only exceptions are purely down to Plunder’s introduction of the incredible Voltshot perk. Get a kill, reload, and you’ll apply Jolt to the next enemy you shoot. Jolt is one of the best keywords in the game, able to chain lightning to easily clear out packs of adds. Brigand’s Law and Tarnished Metal were the first guns to have Voltshot as an option, with the edge going to Tarnished Metal as the more useful option for harder activities. Ultimately, though, neither are as good as the Voltshot weapon introduced in Season of the Seraph…

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Rapid Hit or Demolitionist
  • Fourth Column: Voltshot or Explosive Payload

Season of the Seraph

Ikelos_SMG_v1.0.3Destiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

In a year of SMG highlights, the Ikelos is arguably the best. Already a beloved gun based on its v1.0.2 re-release from back in Season of Arrivals, this new iteration is better still. The reason: that Voltshot perk. It’s even more perfect on an SMG, because the effective range is just more favourable (and enjoyable) for most of Destiny 2’s PvE activities.

Unlike Calus Mini-Tool and Funnelweb—both 900 rpm guns—the one downside to the Ikelos_SMG is that it only holds 28 bullets in the magazine. For that reason you’ll want a reload perk like Threat Detector or Feeding Frenzy in the third column—you’ll be reloading it all the time anyway, because that’s how you proc Voltshot. Really, if you prioritise one single gun from this list, it should probably be this. In fact, get two: I’ve seen plenty of people also rocking this in PvP with Perpetual Motion or Killing Wind in the third column, and Tap the Trigger or Rangefinder in the fourth column.

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Threat Detector or Feeding Frenzy
  • Fourth Column: Voltshot

Path of Least ResistanceDestiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

Coldheart has been my trace rifle of choice since the launch of Arc 3.0, thanks to the constant tick of Ionic Traces it provides. But PC Gamer’s own Tim Clark is a big advocate for this year’s legendary options: Hollowed Denial from Season of the Haunted, and Path of Least Resistance from Season of the Seraph. Both are great options for double-special builds, where you run two special weapons in order to guarantee more heavy ammo drops.

For Hollowed Denial, you’re looking at Lead From Gold and Repulsor Brace on a Void build. The former perk gives you special ammo on heavy ammo pickup. The latter gives you a Void overshield when killing Void debuffed enemies. Path of Least Resistance, meanwhile, of course benefits from the Voltshot perk. Pair it with Stats for All to secure those faster reload times. For extra spice, run it on an Arc build with Spark of Beacons to blind enemies with every kill while Amplified. And be sure to throw in a Special Finisher to ensure you’ve got a way to consistently generate special ammo—come Lightfall, it won’t even cost you super energy.

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Stats for All
  • Fourth Column: Voltshot

Judgment of KelgorathDestiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

The first aggressive frame glaive pretty much carried me through a solo flawless clear of the Duality dungeon. Just pair it with Karnstein Armlets, which grant health regen on melee kills, and stab your way to being functionally unkillable. The Season of the Seraph season pass already offers a great roll for Judgment of Kelgorath—at level 45 on the free track, you get Overflow and Close to Melee, a new perk that gives 10 seconds of increased glaive melee damage after a projectile kill.

My crafted version, meanwhile, is running Demolitionist and Incandescent. The scorch damage that spreads on an Incandescent kill still counts as weapon damage, which means any further kills from its damage-over-time will generate even more grenade energy from Demolitionist. It’s a cool interaction that mitigates Judgments one major downside: it’s appalling reload speed.

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Overflow or Demolitionist
  • Fourth Column: Close to Melee or Incandescent

Retrofit EscapadeDestiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

LMGs are getting a buff next season, and, given the general changes being made to difficulty across a variety of activities, could well become a legitimate pick in the PvE sandbox. There are plenty of choices when it comes to great LMGs—Commemoration from the Deep Stone Crypt raid is a particular favourite of mine. But Retrofit Escapade is up there thanks to having Target Lock in its perk pool.

With Target Lock, the gun’s damage increases the longer you fire on a particular target. That gives it some extra spice against meatier enemies such as champions. It’s void too, so will benefit from builds that incorporate Volatile Rounds.

Top perks:

  • Third Column: Fourth Times the Charm or Feeding Frenzy
  • Fourth Column: Target Lock

Non-Seasonal Weapons

Here are some honourable mentions that may also be harder to acquire after Lightfall’s launch. I’m ignoring weapons from raids, dungeons and other fixed locations that aren’t leaving next season—rather, these are the world loot pool drops and ritual weapons that may not be as accessible as of next week.Destiny 2 seasonal weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

Funnelweb: While this Void SMG doesn’t have any Void 3.0 perks in its pool, it does still pair perfectly with Volatile Rounds—either through the Void 3.0 fragments, or the Hunter’s Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk. Subsistence/Frenzy is a great roll, although—for my Warlock’s grenade-spamming Contraverse Hold build—I’ve started using Adrenaline Junkie instead. You can find it in the world loot pool, or as a potential drop from Season of the Plunder’s Veist Weapon focusing option.

Taipan-4FR: A solid option in this, The Year of the Linear Fusion Rifle. Taipan isn’t the best linear, but it’s damn good for how easy it is to get. You can easily pick it up from The Enclave on Mars, as part of the questline that teaches you how crafting works. There’s no telling if this will change with Lightfall’s release—particularly as the economy around crafting is getting updated—so make sure you at least unlock the pattern before Tuesday. Linears are getting nerfed with Lightfall’s release, but they’ll probably still be very good for certain boss encounters.

Aurvandil FR6: Another world loot drop, this time for a Stasis fusion rifle. The prize here is the combination of Reconstruction and Chill Clip. The latter’s slow effect normally only applied to the top half of the magazine, but Reconstruction can overfill the magazine by double its normal size. That means, if it’s fully loaded, a full three quarters of your shots will be benefiting from Chill Clip. You can grab this as a possible drop from Season of Plunder’s Omolon Weapon focusing option.

Wendigo GL3: Heavy grenade launchers are getting a chunky buff for Lightfall, to the point that they could become a competitive option for boss damage in raids and dungeons. The returning Wendigo is still one of the best GLs for damage output, thanks to its perk pool containing Explosive Light—which gives a big buff to its damage when you pick up Orbs of Power. You can farm this from the Warden of Nothing Nightfall this week. Keep an eye out for a reload perk in the third column: Clown Cartridge, Field Prep or Auto-Loading Holster. Also consider Cascade Point in the fourth column—the big increase in rate-of-fire will make it a strong pick for burst DPS.


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8 games most likely to melt your PC in 2023


It’s a good thing my PC can’t talk because I think it would have a lot to say about what I’ve put it through over the years. I forced it to make The Witcher 3 (opens in new tab) look pretty no matter how loud the fans got; I tore out its guts and replaced them with all new hardware; and I made it churn through Cyberpunk 2077’s catastrophic bugs and performance issues. It’s done a lot over the years and probably needs a break.

Maybe next year, because there’s an army of games coming out soon that will probably bring it to its knees.



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Here’s when Sons of the Forest releases in your time zone

The long wait to play co-op survival game Sons of the Forest (opens in new tab) is nearly over, and soon you’ll be able to set foot on a mysterious and dangerous island, either on your own or with up to eight players in co-op. You’ll need to gather resources, find food and fresh water, craft weapons and gear, build a base, and defend it from the island’s terrifying cannibals in this sequel to Endnight Games’ The Forest (opens in new tab).

If you’re a survival fan you’re probably eager to play, especially since the release of Sons of the Forest has already been delayed a few times. Here are the Sons of the Forest release times, broken down by region.

Sons of the Forest release times

Sons of the Forest is set to release into Steam Early Access on February 23, and will unlock globally for players at 9 am PT. Here’s how that translates to other time zones:

  • Los Angeles: 9 am PT
  • New York: 12 pm ET
  • London: 5 pm GMT
  • Paris: 6 pm CET
  • Sydney: 4 am AEDT (Friday)

Click here (opens in new tab) to add your own timezone if it isn’t listed above.

Currently there’s no option on Steam to pre-load, or even pre-purchase Sons of the Forest, though the price is expected to be $30. The developers have said they expect the survival game to stay in early access for 6-8 months, though that may change based on player feedback.

If you’re looking for more information on Sons of the Forest, a multiplayer trailer showing co-op building and horrible fleshy nightmare monsters (opens in new tab) was recently released. It’s also become the most-wishlisted game on Steam (opens in new tab), even over Starfield, so you should have plenty of company if you decide to play it tomorrow.


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This fan remake of a Star Trek text game from 1978 is way better than it has any right to be



Lay in a course, Mister Sulu. You can almost hear the voice. And now, thanks to the enterprising programmer Emanuele Bolognesi, wannabe Captain Kirks can play the 1978 game Super Star Trek in a gorgeously overhauled audiovisual form.

Super Star Trek 25th (opens in new tab) is a remake / conversion of the strategy game Super Star Trek, written by Bob Leedom and David Ahl and published in the book BASIC Computer Games in 1978. Bolognesi has gone back to this title and overhauled it with the visuals and UI of the awesome 1992 Interplay game Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, following on from an earlier project that ported the 1978 original to PICO-8 (a virtual machine that mimics the 8-bit consoles of the 1980s).



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ASRock Phantom PG34WQ15R2B




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Valve lured 40,000 Dota cheaters into a trap before banning them in one day



With more than a little braggadocio, Valve has announced that it’s permanently banned over 40,000 Dota 2 accounts for cheating. In a post to the official Dota 2 blog (opens in new tab) yesterday, the company revealed that it had constructed a cunning trap to catch thousands of players that were using “third-party software” to “access information used internally by the Dota client that wasn’t visible during normal gameplay,” lending them an unfair advantage in-game.

It worked like this: Once it became aware of the exploit, Valve released a patch that created “a section of data inside the game client that would never be read during normal gameplay, but that could be read by these exploits”. Valve says that every single one of the accounts banned yesterday had read from that secret data, giving the company “extremely high confidence that every ban was well-deserved”.



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Elden Ring has sold over 20 million in less than a year since release

Bandai Namco has announced that Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s collaboration with George R. R. Martin and 2022’s game of the year by a distance (opens in new tab), has sold over 20 million copies in just under a year. The game was released on February 25, 2022, to near-universal praise and acclaim, a sentiment shared on Steam where just under half-a-million user reviews (opens in new tab) aggregate to ‘very positive’.

The news was shared by a tweet from the official account alongside a press release, which describes the game as allowing players “to enjoy highly flexible adventures in a vast world with a variety of situations.” I mean, I guess if being curb-stomped repeatedly by giant monsters is highly flexible then that’s accurate.

The release (opens in new tab) also flags some of the game of the year awards Elden Ring has received, before adding a line that more-or-less confirms DLC and/or a sequel is on the way: “The companies would like to thank everyone who has played this game from the bottom of their hearts, and will continue to develop various ways for the fans to enjoy the world of Elden Ring in the future.”

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Elden Ring is a very good game even if it hewed much more closely to the established Souls formula than expected: Even PCG’s resident grump Andy Chalk thought it would be rubbish before finding it taking over his life (opens in new tab). And figures like these really show what Fromsoft has built. Bandai Namco announced in March last year that the Dark Souls series, three games in total, had sold a combined 33.4 million, while Sony’s recent remake of Demon’s Souls (the game that began the series) had sold 1.4 million as of the last official figures (September 2021). 20 million over a year in that context is extraordinary.

And hey, Fromsoft, you want to boost those figures even more? Bloodborne PC. I’m just saying…

Elden Ring fans are now awaiting what feels like an inevitable DLC announcement, though some are arguably taking things too far (opens in new tab). There was also the curious insight recently that more players have completed the game with the Ranni ending (opens in new tab), requiring you to go somewhat off the beaten path, than the more standard route through the game. On PC at least there’s no shortage of things to do thanks to modders, with the most notable recent example being a mod that lets you fly around the Lands Between on a broomstick pretending to be Harry Potter (opens in new tab).



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Atomic Heart criticised for racist caricature in one of its Soviet-era cartoons

Atomic Heart (opens in new tab) is being criticised (via Resetera (opens in new tab)) for the presence of a racist caricature in one of the old Soviet cartoons that air in the game’s Resident Evil-style save rooms. Those rooms, which serve as a brief respite from the game’s robo-bashing combat, offer players a chance to kick back for a bit and watch old episodes of Nu, Pogodi! (Well, Just You Wait!) a beloved Soviet children’s cartoon that first aired in 1969. But at least one of the episodes featured might be a bit too reminiscent of its era.

Nu, Pogodi! is, in essence, Soviet Tom and Jerry, starring an impeccably-dressed Soviet disco wolf (Volk) as he tries and fails to get his hands on a mischievous hare (Zayats). Atomic Heart is being criticised for a segment in episode 12: “Museum,” from 1978. In a quick flash on the screen, the pair’s antics cause a statue—a racist depiction of an African tribesman—to fire the bow and arrow it’s holding, setting off a Rube Goldberg-style sequence of chaotic events that eventually deposits Volk in the sarcophagus of Ramesses the Great. You can see the episode in question on YouTube (opens in new tab) (content warning for racism).

It’s the kind of thing—like Dumbo or the Jungle Book—that would get a “This programme includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures (opens in new tab)” warning if it were shown on streaming services like Disney+ or Netflix, and it’s disturbing that it’s included in Atomic Heart without any warning or contextualisation. 

I’ve reached out to Mundfish and Focus Entertainment to ask if there are any plans to address the clip, and I’ll update this piece if I hear back.

Mundfish might yet patch the game to deal with the issue, but I suspect it didn’t even occur to the studio that it might be a problem during development: Nu, Pogodi! is a treasured icon of 20th-century Soviet and Russian culture. Like Cheburashka (opens in new tab), it’s a symbol of childhood that’s near and dear to the hearts of millions of inhabitants of the former USSR, a fixture of museums of Soviet culture (opens in new tab), and even appeared on Soviet postage stamps in 1988 (opens in new tab). In Russia, where a racist parody of Barack Obama (opens in new tab) appeared on government-funded TV as recently as 2020,  the notion that anything problematic could be in the cartoon would likely sound bizarre.


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EVO 2023 lineup features Street Fighter 6, and the surprise announcement of a fighting game classic

EVO 2023 is less than six months away, and we now know which games (opens in new tab) will be featured at the huge fighting game tournament. There are a few changes this year too, like bigger prize pools across the board and a slight adjustment to the traditional bracket format.

There’ll be a total of eight games running this year, most of them unsurprising mainstays. Street Fighter 6 is making its EVO debut, while Tekken 7 will be appearing at the tournament for the seventh time. Guilty Gear Strive, Melty Blood: Type Lumina and King of Fighters 15 are all returning for a second time, and Mortal Kombat 11 will be making its third appearance. Dragon Ball Fighterz will also be there, making its fourth appearance at EVO.

A surprising addition, however, is the return of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 as the “first EVO Throwback tournament.” The game last made an appearance as a side tournament in 2018 but hasn’t been a main tournament feature since 2017. It’ll be its seventh appearance at EVO, and its return has a ton of fans (opens in new tab) and pros (opens in new tab) alike understandably hyped. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 4, anyone? 

Personally, I’m excited to see Tekken 7 potentially have its last hurrah at EVO before Tekken 8 comes along, and this is likely one of the first major tournaments that’ll feature Street Fighter 6 following its June release date. I’ve never gelled massively with 2D fighters, but it’s hard to deny how goddamn stylish Capcom’s upcoming fighter looks.

EVO’s also making an attempt to make the winnings a little more enticing for entrants. Every game will have a $25,000 prize pool minimum to split among its top players. Fighting games have never been the most lucrative of esports, but between this and the next Capcom Cup offering a $1 million prize for its winner, things are starting to look a little better. Bigger games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 7 will likely see larger prize pools, but it’s nice to see smaller games receiving reasonable investment, too. 

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Instead of streaming its top eight players for each game, as is traditionally the case, EVO 2023 is opting to only stream the top six. It’s all in the name of efficiency and avoiding sets running over on-stream, which can be a fairly common occurrence.

EVO 2023 will run from August 4 until August 6, taking place at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. This will be the tournament’s second year back in person after the pandemic. It was originally meant to return in 2021, but was cancelled (opens in new tab) due to concerns about Covid-19.



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