Crimson Desert Dev Confirms Boss Rematches, Hard Difficulty, Enemy Territory Recapture, and a Whole Lot More Is Coming Soon

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss has outlined a number of significant changes coming to the game in the coming months, each addressing various community complaints that were highlighted recently.

There are some real crowd-pleasers in Pearl Abyss’ blog post, including boss rematches, enemy territory recapture, and difficulty settings. But beyond that, Pearl Abyss also confirmed upgrades to the two secondary characters, Damiane and Oongka, to bring them more in line with main playable character Kliff, new pets and mounts, new outfits, and significant changes to storage.

Meanwhile, user interface and control improvements are on the way, as well as improvements to distant scenery quality. Perhaps the most important change is you’ll be able to hide items on Kliff’s back (finally!).

There’s a lot to unpack here (all the details are below), but let’s start with ‘re-blockading:’

“Peace is fleeting, and darkness does not retreat so easily. Enemy remnants are waiting for their chance to reclaim liberated locations. Drive out the forces that have seized these locations once more and continue proving the strength of the Greymanes.”

That’s a timeline upcoming change, given we reported just this week that some players with hundreds of hours under their belt had started to complain that the world had become too peaceful because they’d basically killed all the enemies.

The changes to difficulty settings are welcome, too. Here’s the note:

"A difficulty settings feature will be added so that everyone — from new Greymanes to the more advanced — can enjoy the adventure at the level that suits them best. You’ll be able to choose from easy, normal, and hard difficulty."

As IGN had reported, some players had called for a hard mode because they felt updates had made the game too easy. But now we know we’re also getting an easy mode, which should be good news for those who prefer a more easy-going experience (Crimson Desert can be brutal in places, particularly with some of the bosses). It will be interesting to see how the game changes with each setting.

And this is a really important one: new skills for Damiane and Oongka:

"We fully understand your feedback about the need for Damiane and Oongka to have skills comparable to 'Force Palm' and 'Axiom Force.' To address this, both characters will receive new abilities equivalent to those skills."

This is key, because players have found that Damiane and Oongka are limited in scope compared to Kliff, and indeed much of the game simply can’t be completed while using either of the characters because they don’t have the same abilities to, for example, solve puzzles. Hopefully with this change, Damiane and Oongka will become genuine alternative choices.

Other quality of life improvements are also welcome. Crafting from camp storage is a big deal for a game that currently forces you to take resources out of your storage box and pop them into your inventory every time you want to use them. And more summonable mounts and new pets will be added.

Overall, all this is good news for Crimson Desert. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a developer make such sweeping improvements to a big, AAA single-player open world video game this quickly before, and Pearl Abyss is rightly being praised for it. The pace of change with this game really is remarkable, and you wonder each week what’s coming next. Pearl Abyss said the changes, below, will be rolled out from April to June.

Changes coming to Crimson Desert April-June 2026:

◆ New Content and Features

We’re preparing new challenges so you can continue testing yourself throughout your journey across Pywel.

■ Boss Rematches
The powerful bosses you encountered across Crimson Desert are waiting to challenge you once again. With boss rematches, you’ll have the opportunity to face off against any boss again, test how much you’ve grown, and further refine your own combat style through different strategies and approaches.

■ Re-blockading
Peace is fleeting, and darkness does not retreat so easily. Enemy remnants are waiting for their chance to reclaim liberated locations. Drive out the forces that have seized these locations once more and continue proving the strength of the Greymanes.

■ Difficulty Settings
A difficulty settings feature will be added so that everyone—from new Greymanes to the more advanced—can enjoy the adventure at the level that suits them best. You’ll be able to choose from easy, normal, and hard difficulty.

We’re also working on new combat-focused content, so stay tuned.

◆ Improvements to Character Play

■ New Skills for Damiane and Oongka
We fully understand your feedback about the need for Damiane and Oongka to have skills comparable to “Force Palm” and “Axiom Force.” To address this, both characters will receive new abilities equivalent to those skills.

■ Hide Back Weapons
A new option to hide the weapons on your character’s back will be added, so certain equipment worn on your back won’t break immersion during combat.

■ Addition of New Outfits:

New outfits for characters will be added.
Additionally, certain outfits that can only be sold or donated will be updated so that they can also be worn.

◆ QoL Improvements and Life Features

■ New Specialized Storage
- Food storage: We plan to add a new food storage, from which you can directly take out ingredients for use in cooking. When preparing meals, you’ll be able to use ingredients from both your food storage and your inventory.

- Wardrobe: A new wardrobe storage will be added so that you can store your headgear, armor, gloves, footwear, and cloaks.

- Gatherables Storage: A new gatherables storage will be added, from which you can directly take out items for use in tempering and crafting. This storage will be able to hold a variety of crafting materials, including insects, stones, ores, and more.

- Collections Storage: A new Collection Storage will be added, giving you a place to keep quest items tied to your adventures, along with recipes and other items you've collected on your journey.

■ Pets & Mounts
More summonable mounts and new pets will be added. Also, in addition to existing horse tack sets, dedicated armor for other mounts is also being planned.

◆ System and Graphics Improvements

■ UI Improvements
To improve legibility, we’ll be adding a minimum font size adjustment option. Since Crimson Desert supports 14 UI languages, fully optimizing this feature across all of them will take some time, but we plan to introduce it first to help make the game more comfortable to play. We also plan to continue improving various UI elements and QoL features, including improvements to the map, inventory, and housing.

■ Improvements to Controls
We are carefully reviewing your feedback about controls. To provide a better gameplay experience, we plan to add customization options for certain controller inputs. We will also expand the range of configurable keys for keyboard and mouse to improve usability.

■ Improvements to Distant Scenery Quality
We are working on enhancing the realism of distant backgrounds so you can enjoy Pywel’s landscapes in greater depth. Please note that the patch size may be somewhat larger due to improvements to how distant scenery changes and the quality of rendering under different conditions. Take a look at the image below for a preview of how Pywel will look after the update.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

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Marathon Reportedly Had a Budget of Over $200 Million — and While the Pressure Is on Bungie to Gain More Players, It Is Not Facing an Imminent, Concord-Style Shutdown

A new report has claimed Marathon’s budget is over $200 million, and while player numbers have fallen significantly since launch, Bungie’s extraction shooter is allegedly not facing an imminent shutdown.

Forbes reported that the Marathon budget is likely more than $250 million. It’s worth noting that this spend allegedly does not include ongoing costs for the live service game, nor the development of post-launch content.

Last month, one analyst said “Marathon hasn't exactly made the splash Sony and Bungie wanted,” estimating sales at around 1.2 million copies. That, Alinea Analytics said, amounted to gross revenues of around $55 million across PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S.

On Steam, Marathon hit a peak concurrent player count of 88,337 at launch. But that number has fallen steadily over the past month, with the latest 24-hour peak hitting 25,392 players. Of course, Marathon is also out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, but neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public. Still, PC is clearly the dominant platform for Marathon with an estimated 70% of the sales, so those Steam concurrents give us a decent idea of how it's tracking.

Bungie is under pressure to deliver for Sony after recent and very public financial failings. In November, Sony said Bungie had failed to meet its sales and user engagement expectations, recording a 31.5 billion yen (approx. $204.2 million) impairment charge as a result of Destiny 2’s underperformance. That was significant enough to drag down profits at Sony’s Game & Network Services Segment, which includes Sony Interactive Entertainment.

According to Forbes, Bungie developers are working hard on new content, and there is no danger of an imminent shutdown. But after what happened to Sony’s own Concord and, more recently, Highguard, everything surrounding Marathon feels a little on edge.

We’ll probably have to wait for Sony’s next set of financial results to find out if it’s happy with Marathon's commercial performance. As for Bungie itself, it may have made a game so hardcore that it is impossible for it to hit the kind of mainstream sales fellow extraction shooter Arc Raiders enjoyed last year — at least without significant changes or additions. Marathon is a difficult game; if you die, you lose all your gear. And not just what you looted while out on the battlefield, but what you brought in. And given how easy it is to die in Marathon, it can feel like a brutally punishing video game. Are people bouncing off Marathon because of this? Were some put off by its steep learning curve?

Bungie has repeatedly said that while Marathon has a steep learning curve, over time, recovering from a bad loss gets easier. But then Marathon’s recently launched raid-like experience, Cryo Archive, doubled down on the ultra hardcore experience, with several requirements you need to meet in order to access it.

Former professional Counter-Strike player, Shroud, has said that while Cryo Archive offers an incredible experience, it's too difficult for casual players. Speaking in a recent stream, the influential gamer said: "Cryo Archive is insane. It's the most elaborate extraction shooter map I've ever seen in a game ever. The loop that they made is truly something special. The problem is, is it too elaborate? Is it too complex? Is it too much of a grind? Is your 9-5 grandma and grandpa going to be able to do it? I don't know."

Where does Bungie go from here? Marathon is far from a Concord-style live service disaster, but it’s clear Bungie needs to do something to increase sales. Simply making Marathon easier may not be enough to do the trick, and would run the risk of alienating those who currently love it the way it is. Making it free-to-play this soon after launch would just anger those who paid full price. Could a single-player or PvE campaign spark renewed interest? Could a traditional PvP mode help?

And should we be surprised by word of Marathon costing north of $250 million to produce? Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier recently talked about AAA games developed in the U.S. and Canada, where developer salaries are typically higher than in other parts of the world, costing $300 million or more to produce.

Indeed, Concord's initial development deal was around $200 million, according to a report by Kotaku. In 2023, new documents submitted as part of the Xbox Federal Trade Commission case accidentally revealed The Last of Us: Part II and Horizon Forbidden West each cost more than $200 million to develop.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

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World of Warcraft Fans Think Blizzard Is About to Try and Revisit Its Least Popular Expansion

World of Warcraft: Midnight is a very purple expansion, thanks to its primary antagonist being the Void. There's a big purple beam shooting from the sky in the distance all the time. Most of the enemies are purple. Two out of three of the major raids and several dungeons and delves are purple. And the main villain, Xal'atath, is very purple.

Given all the purple going around, it's not too much of a shock that Blizzard finally brought back one of its simultaneously best-loved and most-hated purple characters for a plot twist at the end of the most recent raid. What is shocking, though, is the news that character delivered: a hint that we might be careening toward a revisit to one of World of Warcraft's most maligned (and only occasionally purple) expansions: Shadowlands.

Warning: Spoilers follow for World of Warcraft: Midnight's story so far, up to and including the cinematic that plays after The March on Quel'Danas. Read on at your own risk.

WoW: Midnight opens with Void harbinger and baddie-of-the-decade Xal'atath unleashing the Voidstorm above the Isle of Quel'Danas in an effort to corrupt the Sunwell and turn it into a void-powered Darkwell. For the majority of the expansion's questing, dungeons, and raids, we the adventurers are trying to find a way to stop her from succeeding, while the Army of the Light holds off the void's influence as long as they can manage to protect the Sunwell.

However, at the end of The Voidspire raid, Xal'atath manages to release the dark Naaru L'ura from her prison inside Alleria Windrunner, and uses L'ura to finish the corruption of the Sunwell, creating the Darkwell. In response, the various armies hanging out around Silvermoon City unite to try and retake the Darkwell from Xal'atath, with the effort taking place in the most recently-released raid, the March on Quel'Danas. The second and final boss is none other than the dark Naaru herself, L'ura, and we manage to defeat her before she can fully make use of the Darkwell's power to ruin everyone's day.

But that still leaves Xal'atath hovering around and making quips and threatening to destroy everyone. Yet another confrontation with her plays out in which she has the upper hand (this happens a lot), but she's interrupted by none other than Sylvanas Windrunner, former Horde Warchief, former Ranger General, and night elf genocider extraordinaire. Sylvanas manages to blast off one of Xal'atath's funky void shoulder decorations with an arrow, only for Xal'atath to repair it easily and disappear. Sylvanas cryptically announces to her sister Vereesa and nephew Arathor: "The Shadowlands are not at all what they seem. I cannot rest until I uncover the truth. Still, I hope to see you both again, before the end begins."

Okay?!?!?!?!?

Sylvanas, Revisited

If this isn't having the impact on you that it is on me, let me recap a bit of what's been going on with Sylvanas lately. Sylvanas has a long, long history in the Warcraft universe that would take a whole Wiki article to cover, but sufficient for this is to know that she was a beloved "antihero" character to the fanbase for many years. She's tortured and tragic, but also powerful, noble, ruthless, and dedicated to her people, the Forsaken. Through a series of complex events, she became Warchief of the Horde during a time of tense, tentative peace between her faction and the Alliance. Sylvanas, however, was convinced that peace could never last, and that the Alliance would inevitably come back and try to destroy the Horde. So in response to events that hadn't even happened, Sylvanas made the absolutely unbelievable decision to commit genocide on the Night Elves by burning down the world tree, Teldrassil.

This, understandably, pissed off a lot of Sylvanas fans (and haters!). Sylvanas had always been ruthless, calculating, and cynical. But outright, remorseless genocide was never something they had considered to be within her character description. In the ensuing chapters of the story, both Alliance and pissed off Horde members chase her around for awhile, at one point laying siege to the Forsaken capital Lordaeron, where Sylvanas makes another unhinged decision to drown the place in Blight rather than allow it to be taken. All the while, Sylvanas keeps making cryptic comments about Death and her "master" and how one day everyone will understand why she's doing what she's doing, etc.

After she demolishes two beloved capital cities, it is eventually revealed that Sylvanas has been working for some evil being called the Jailer who rules the Shadowlands, the realm of death and the titular setting of the Shadowlands expansion. Her goal, which she also thinks is the Jailer's, is to subvert death and restore true free will to everyone in the world. Surprise surprise, the Jailer is evil and actually just wants to subjugate everyone, an obvious fact that Sylvanas doesn't figure out until she's already done tons of war crimes. She eventually agrees to help the heroes defeat the Jailer and stands trial for her crimes, ultimately being sentenced to free the souls in the Shadowlands that she had condemned by her actions until every last one was at peace - a task that could easily take literally forever. She's been down there ever since.

Back into Shadow

Sylvanas' cryptic comments before heading back into the Shadowlands leave us with more questions than answers.

I don't think anyone was surprised to see Sylvanas herself again - she's one of WoW's most recognizable and beloved (at least at one time) characters. But her insinuation that there might be unresolved plot in the Shadowlands is genuinely a surprise, and one that's being met with mixed reactions.

Shadowlands was...not a popular expansion. A lot of that genuinely had to do with the aforementioned Sylvanas story, and the ways in which a number of other previously-beloved characters acted in ways that did not make sense with past lore. The reveal of what happens after "death" in Azeroth ended up weird, confusing, and inconsistent plot-wise with a lot of other established facts about the world, while simultaneously trivializing death in the universe entirely. There was also a lot of "all will make sense when the true plan is fully revealed" going around during that time without a satisfying payoff. Many players were also annoyed that an expansion-long trip to the literal realm of death didn't offer more opportunities to meet more beloved deceased characters and see how they were doing in the afterlife. Yes, we did certainly meet some, but a lot of others were conspicuously missing.

The end of March on Quel'Danas and what the hell is going on? (a theory I saw online)
by u/Internal_Cellist_676 in wow

On top of that, Shadowlands had long stretches of time between patches where there just wasn't much to do, and when activities were introduced to keep people busy, they were pretty grindy, boring, and slow, so a lot of people fell off. There was also the Covenant system, which many felt forced them to choose between committing to a story and aesthetic they enjoyed for a lot of the endgame content, or playing something less fun, but more optimal for raids.

Some folks have come around on Shadowlands a bit in the years since, as WoW does tend to have cycles of players disliking an expansion when it's current, then praising it years down the line (see: Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor). But Shadowlands is still broadly spoken of with a sour taste in the mouth. Many players have been happy enough to simply move onto different storylines unconnected from the Jailer or whatever's going on in the land of the dead. It's done, it wasn't great, why bother thinking about it anymore? But with Sylvanas coming back and suggesting something else is wrong down there, players are now speculating that Blizzard is preparing to embark on a journey to salvage those plot threads via a retcon, or at least a recontextualization.

The potential Shadowlands/Order 'retcon' should be handled with care
by u/MagnaClarentza in warcraftlore

It's unclear what form this could take. On one hand, it could be as simple as doing a Shadowlands Remix in between the next two expansions, ala Mists of Pandaria or Legion Remix. On the extreme end, we could very well end up back in the Shadowlands for an entire expansion or at least a major patch, either in a familiar zone or an unfamiliar one, picking apart what exactly the "truth" is of the Shadowlands that Sylvanas is talking about.

Shadowlands Re-Contexted?
by u/TubbyNumNums in wow

Revisiting Shadowlands, in whatever capacity, would also give Blizzard the opportunity to revisit Sylvanas. She's been out of the picture for several expansions, with Blizzard rightly recognizing the character needed a lore break. But bringing her back in any context, even after a hiatus, is full of challenges. Her personality, motivations, desires, and fears aren't really clear anymore after the plot pulled her in so many different directions for multiple expansions, and bringing her back would require settling on some sort of firm outline of who Sylvanas is, now, after everything. It would also require basically every character excusing the Night Elf genocide enough to allow her to be around in a more permanent way, and an awful lot of players would likely feel a bit uncomfortable with that scenario. Probably the Night Elves, first of all.

Also, not for nothing, but Sylvanas supposedly was being guarded by a big owl. How is she even leaving the Shadowlands without getting into owl trouble? Why did she show up, shoot off one of Xal'atath's decorations, and then disappear? Heck, why did Xal'atath leave when Sylvanas appeared, apart for the fact that she emerges victorious and then vanishes mysteriously at the end of every big encounter we have with her?

Soooo…does ____ just not care?
by u/brumgar in wow

In the end, we don't know what Blizzard is planning. Maybe this was all just an excuse to tie Sylvanas back into the Windrunner-heavy plot and offer some path to reconciliation with her nephew Arator (who seems stoked to see her), and sisters Vereesa (who gives her a big hug in the cinematic) and Alleria (who fell into a big void fountain at the end of Voidspire and whose current status is unknown). For all we know, we never see Sylvanas again! Or, as others are speculating, it's all connected, Pepe Silvia-style, and Blizzard is concocting some ridiculous plan that will make all the Shadowlands issues make sense, tie in the current plot stuff with Xal'atath and the World Soul and the Titans and all, and redeem Sylvanas somehow all in one fell swoop. That seems like a tall order to me, but what do I know? I can barely keep all the Dragon Aspects straight.

We're just going to have to sit tight. March on Quel'Danas literally just came out, and upcoming patch 12.0.5's most exciting introduction is a prop hunt mode (though that is admittedly pretty exciting). We've got months of raiding ahead of us before anything Sylvanas- or Shadowlands-related could even begin to manifest itself. We're also, dare I say it, in the middle of a pretty fun expansion generally as far as questing, raids, dungeons, delves, and world activities go. I'm personally fine with letting Blizzard cook on this one... even if I did roll my eyes into the next county when I saw two of Blizzard's numerous tragically conflicted purple women have a brief, inconsequential staredown.

We'll get Xal'atath next time, I hope.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

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Pokémon Champions Developer 'Sincerely Apologizes' For Launch Issues, Details List of Bugs to be Fixed

Following a rocky launch, the maker of Pokémon Champions has apologized for the game's various technical issues and released a list of bugs it's currently planning to fix.

Champions, billed as the Pokémon franchise's new competitive battle platform, launched this week for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, but has received a mixed reaction from fans.

There have been complaints of technical issues — some of which are now in the process of being fixed — but also wider criticism of the game's lack of features, limited graphical polish and reduced Pokémon roster. And while it may now be reassuring to see the game's developer already responding to early issues, the list of problems officially listed to be fixed below is by no means exhaustive.

Indeed, there's no sign yet of a solution for the eye-opening bug that leaves docked Switch 2 players at a lower resolution than intended — a situation that requires you undock and re-dock the console to fix, every time you boot up the game.

"Thank you for enjoying Pokémon Champions," reads a note from the game's developer, posted online today. "We have confirmed that the following issues are currently occurring:"

• The description of the "Leech Seed" state is incorrect. Incorrect: Takes damage equal to 1/16 of maximum HP. Correct: Takes damage equal to 1/8 of maximum HP. However, the calculation is correct during battle.
• Under certain conditions, when both Pokémon Mega Evolve simultaneously, the order may be unintended.
• The gender of some Pokémon in the tutorial is incorrect.
• The gender of some Pokémon in the released coordinated teams is incorrect.
• When in Encore state, the ability "Lightning Rod" may not activate correctly.
• When viewing move details during battle, if you hover the cursor over "Mega Evolution" and press the B button, you cannot select the move. If this phenomenon occurs, you can avoid the inability to select the move by opening and closing the surrender window with the "-" button.

"The above bugs are scheduled to be fixed in future data updates or maintenance," the note continues. "We will continue to investigate other issues not mentioned above. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Thank you for your continued support of Pokémon Champions."

An earlier issue surrounding the transfer of Pokémon from the cloud-based Pokémon Home service has already been fixed, it's reported.

Players have branded the game as still feeling "like a beta test," though it is still early days. Pokémon Champions has pitched as the home of the franchise's competitive battling scene for years to come, with more creatures and features to be added in future. Indeed, The Pokémon Company has said it will add more features to Pokémon Champions over time — potentially until there's 10,000 Pokémon species, rather than the current 1,000-odd. Right now, however, the game doesn't feel seem to have left a particularly positive initial impression.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

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Pokémon Champions Launch Woes Continue as Switch 2 Players Discover They Must Manually Dock and Undock Consoles for Best Graphics

Pokémon Champions has shipped with a bug that blocks higher 4K visuals when playing on a docked Switch 2 — unless you manually undock and then re-dock your console.

The graphical issue, discovered by players following the game's launch yesterday, adds to the growing list of grumbles around the free-to-play battle game — such as missing features and modes, sluggish 30fps gameplay, and a small roster of supported creatures.

Now, players say that the Switch 2's version is stuck at 1080p when playing docked — until you pick up your console, take it out of the dock, then put it back in. After doing this, the game will actually register it is connected to a docked Switch 2 console and shift to a higher 4K framerate (the game will still be stuck at 30fps, though).

A widely-shared post on social media by Pokémon fan account CentroLeaks suggested the game's docked Switch 2 resolution was "halved" unless players perform the redocking trick to fix the issue. The trick must also be repeated every time the game is booted while playing in docked mode, it's been claimed.

"Can confirm I tested the resolution but going around for Pokémon Champions on Switch 2," added Joe Merrick, who operates top Pokémon fansite Serebii.net. "If you boot it docked it won't load in increased resolution so undock it and re-dock it then it will.

"ILCA and Unity," Merrick continued. "What a duo." The reference here is to video game engine Unity and ILCA, the development studio founded by The Pokémon Company to handle work on its lucrative franchise outside of its mainline games. ILCA previously handled the cloud storage software Pokémon Home, which Champions uses to import creatures, and the poorly-received Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes, launched back in 2021.

Yesterday, players branded the game as feeling "like a beta test," though it is still early days. Pokémon Champions has pitched as the home of the franchise's competitive battling scene for years to come, with more creatures and features to be added in future. Right now, though, the game features a tiny fraction of the franchise's total Pokémon roster, and fans say its technical side needs improvement.

And while Champions is a free-to-play game, it has arrived with various paid options to spend money — including a 12-month membership priced $49.99 (also available monthly, with a recurring $4.99 cost). For this, players can store more Pokémon and have more Battle Teams usable at one time, as well as unlock exclusive missions and battle music. A separate, one-off $9.99 Starter Pack also increases Pokémon storage space, and there is of course a Premium Battle Pass (priced at $6.99), which adds extra rewards and exclusive clothing.

How have you found the game so far?

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

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How James Bond Could Have Prevented Call of Duty From Ever Existing

In a new interview, development veteran and Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey (Dead Space, Call of Duty: WWII) has detailed how a decision on a development partner to handle the PC port of 2002’s 007 Nightfire could have had huge ramifications on the actual existence of the Call of Duty franchise as we know it today. Condrey discussed the matter with writer Cade Onder during the production of a documentary the latter has produced on the making of 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Back around the early 2000s, Condrey spent eight years working at EA on a number of James Bond games – as a producer on The World Is Not Enough, Agent Under Fire, and Nightfire, and later in a development director role on Everything or Nothing and From Russia With Love.

“GoldenEye sits on this pedestal, as you know, right?” Condrey began. “Arguably one of the greatest, most transcendent shooters on console. And so we were working on the sequel to that, The World Is Not Enough, and from there we continued to build out experiences.

“Eventually in the series order we were working on a title called Nightfire. We were looking for a PC developer. Now this would’ve been 2001, 2002. We were shopping the game for PC developers who could come in and take our console game – we were focussed on consoles at that time – and deliver a PC version. And there were several interesting PC developers we talked to; one of them happened to be Vince [Zampella] and Jason [West].”

At this time, Zampella and West were part of Oklahoma-based developer 2015, Inc., the studio behind 2002’s highly esteemed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, published by EA.

“They presented us 2015,” said Condrey. “They were shopping for their next gig; they needed funding. They pitched to do [007 Nightfire] PC. I still have Vince’s card, God rest his soul.”

However, EA ultimately partnered with Gearbox to handle the PC version of 007 Nightfire, which was received very poorly and went on to earn an unenviable reputation as an infamously terrible PC port. Despite the significant critical and commercial success of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, EA opted to bring the Medal of Honor franchise in-house and ended its relationship with 2015, Inc. Resultingly, a number of key personnel from 2015, Inc. – including Zampella and West – accepted a deal from Activision that led to the founding of Infinity Ward and the establishment of the Call of Duty series. Had 2015, Inc. been hired to take on the 007 Nightfire port at that time, Condrey is uncertain that things would have played out the same way.

“[2015, Inc.] wanted the game,” he said. “They wanted the game, and we went with a different PC developer. And you want to talk about a weird multiverse… we met with them, walked through the process, did the due diligence; had we hired Vince and Jason and 2015 to do James Bond PC, who knows what? That’s a weird moment.”

Condrey would go on to leave EA in the wake of his work on the original Dead Space, and in November 2009 he founded Sledgehammer Games with his former Visceral Games colleague Glen Schofield. Sledgehammer Games would later partner with Infinity Ward for 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

“It’s kind of a funny story of just all the creative decisions and business decisions that led to them starting Call of Duty and, of course, us joining with them on MW3,” said Condrey.

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The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin Review

The Seven Deadly Sins universe is something of a monster, providing fans with buckets of content spanning manga collections, TV series, spin-offs, games and films. Sure, it’s not One Piece or Bleach, but it’s still a substantial mountain to climb if you want to truly understand what’s going on. Adding to the lore's existing complexity is Netmarble’s gacha consolidation, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, a time-bending mystery that plays with fan expectations, delivering an original story to unpick one quest at a time. Origin seems like a compelling character-action game at first, backed up by vibrant, series-appropriate visuals. Alas, like many of the lower-tier attempts at this saturated genre, its repetitive gameplay and resource-riddled submenus provide far too much friction as you get into the meat of the dreaded gacha midgame.

Set in a version of the Kingdom of Britannia, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin centres on Prince Tristan of Liones and Tioreh, the children of key figures from the original show and manga. One day, the duo uncover a dangerous cavern that, in addition to serving as a handy tutorial area, causes the world around them to shift. With extratemporal events popping up all over the place and a strange, nefarious infection sending chills through the world, your job is to tie up as many loose ends as you can to get the realm back on track, a process replete with the usual perspective puzzles and combat encounters. Regardless, as a fan of the anime who has since lost their spark for the series, this clever twist on the lore reminded me of what I loved about The Seven Deadly Sins to begin with: Its loveable range of characters pulling off stylish moves, framed by beautiful fantasy backdrops – though Origin’s nostalgic charm offensive is only effective at maintaining this mirage for so long.

As you crest your first hill in the glorious land of Britannia and feast your eyes on the cel-shaded world ahead, it’s easy to get distracted. Questions like: "Is that a treasure chest behind that rock?” and “What do you think is hiding in that giant bird's nest in the sky?” flood the mind and elicit a kind of excitement only an open-world landscape can provide. It’s a pity, then, that these questions slowly give way to mechanical answers that require sustained investment and optimisation to enjoy. Despite the visual smokescreen, you soon realise how cold the world feels to actually explore.

This is in part due to a lack of technical polish that plagues Origin’s loot-covered terrain. Rabbits shimmy in unison like professional backing dancers, and textures are blurry up close, particularly when you press up against them in search of dodgy objective markers and inventory-bolstering goodies. Moment-to-moment character animations aren’t convincing either — Prince Tristan’s climbing stance is dubious at best, a far cry from the body contortions Link pulls off in Breath of the Wild.

You soon realise how cold the world feels to actually explore.

Further issues with camera positioning forced me to restart the game multiple times, which only added to the overall sense of irritation. While none of these problems are dealbreakers in isolation, they do stack up to put a damper on the adventure, the creaking edges of the game creating disconnection from the overarching story, which is genuinely interesting. It felt like the only way I could feel a sense of achievement was through clearing objectives as fast as I could, and following the golden path whenever it was presented, lest I summon some kind of game-breaking issue. Standout locations like the castle grounds of The Kingdom of Lionel and the pastoral glades that surround it help mitigate this sense of frustration somewhat by providing carefully recreated spaces to wander through. Ultimately, though, I found myself hungry for a more considered, holistic gacha experience like Genshin Impact

Thankfully, you unlock movement abilities early on in The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, which helps to distract you from your disappointment. I was pleased to see open-world essentials like the ability to climb and swim, as well as a Da Vinci-esque wooden glider I could deploy to whizz through the sky. There is one more addition to your movement toolbelt, too, and that’s a pig-steed that fans of the show will recognise as the loyal garbage-eating scamp, Hawk. Alongside allowing you to speed down roads and across dragon-bone graveyards, the chunky swine’s brand of adorable humour helps to pave your path through the game with light banter as you uncover more of its mysteries.

With the only barrier being a surprisingly generous stamina bar, Origin’s traversal skills allow you to cheese your way across Britannia as soon as you’re cut loose from the tutorial. Don’t get me wrong, there are some particularly egregious progression-shaped roadblocks that require you to complete certain missions and acquire items to progress into new areas, but at the very least, I was glad that Netmarble provided these skills up front, so I could experiment even so.

As you stretch your legs, you’ll uncover glowing Warp Points that reveal the map’s busy topology and allow you to jump between central locations as you please. Initially, these additional goalposts prompted me to get creative, sneaking past fiends or flying across peaks to reveal more of the world. (Shoutout to all the Breath of the Wild sickos out there who opted to unlock every Sheikah Tower before doing the main story…) Still, once you’ve pushed through the limited pool of self-inflicted challenges, Origin seems more concerned with keeping you playing by rewarding you with repetitive busywork rather than providing any kind of meaningful progression. Inevitably, as a result, I found myself losing interest in Prince Tristan’s plight, fueled only by the serotonin boost that comes from seeing the ‘mission complete’ banner when wrapping up another dull task.

Seven Deadly Sins: Origin’s saving grace is its familiar, tried-and-tested combat system, which meets the bar set in the genre. On top of a jump, dash, and dodge, each character has a normal attack, a special attack, and a skill attack, with the latter two dealing more damage but requiring you to wait for them to cool down before triggering them again. On top of that, each hero also wields a unique ultimate move whose heightened damage arrives courtesy of well-animated character-dependent sequences – I’m still not sick of seeing Prince Tristan brandish his sword with volcanic intent. It’s a bright, flashy game in motion, yet remains approachable thanks to a simple control scheme.

It’s a bright, flashy game that remains approachable thanks to simple controls.

Unfortunately, the enemies don’t hold up their end of the depth bargain. They aren't nearly as reactive as you may hope, operating more like sentinels than living, breathing bad guys. Say you’re strolling down a hill and get spotted by a sentient shrub. They’ll do nothing but chase you within their designated zone of operation and wallop away until the screen turns black. I was by no means expecting the intricate back-and-forth of a series like God of War here, but the bar is so low in gacha games that it feels egregious not to try something different. I would have preferred more cohesive fights that took advantage of Origin’s supernatural effects and mechanical additions – something like Monster Hunter’s part-breaking brawls – to really differentiate it from every other character action gacha game out there.

This issue feels particularly flagrant during boss battles, which were rarely complicated enough to make me break a sweat, let alone elicit any kind of heart-pounding emotion. Simply put, you’ll chase and hack away at your target regardless of their imposing stature, navigating a barely perilous arena to unseat their health bar. The enemy designs do much of the heavy lifting here, making reference to the funky creatures you find in the source material, like the towering speckled Albion. Even so, it feels like a huge waste to provide such a gratifying combat system when there’s no reason to actually master it, so long as button-mashing to the next checkpoint gets the job done.

Early on, I faced off against a lumbering beast that smacked the ground like an infant in a tantrum, sending fireballs raining down on me from above. My job was to avoid getting hit by the immolating stones while smacking the baddie's fists until they fell backwards, revealing a glowing orb in their stomach. I’m sure you’re getting Deja Vu while reading this…From here, I needed to scale the monster, Shadow of the Colossus style, and whack the orb on repeat, before it would get up and start losing its temper all over again. The smoking gun was that stamina limitations meant I had to wait patiently before I could climb the beast to smack the orb, leading to idle moments in the middle of the fight that killed the pacing, and my broader sense of enthusiasm towards Origin’s gacha-poisoned architecture.

Many of the game’s most important battles feel highly derivative by default, lacking unique design elements or crafty quandaries to separate them from the established norm. I shouldn’t be sitting there reminiscing about boss battles from Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage due to a comparatively lethargic encounter in 2026. Is it too much to ask for a gacha game to lean into the context of its IP, or find another way around this tried-and-tested formula that could provide a deeper sense of challenge? I can concede that encounters like those in Origin are deliberately simplistic and designed to be moreish, but is that in service of the player or to direct them towards the storefront with greater efficiency and speed? It doesn’t feel like Netmarble is too interested in finding the fun in this regard, and it’s fairly damning when compared to something like Arknights: Endfield, where the factory-building system provides a refreshing and inspired throughline to follow alongside a more conventional structure.

I barely earned enough for more than a handful of gacha pulls over 50 hours.

At first, your team of heroes in Origin consists only of Tristan and Tioreh, though it soon grows to include up to four members thanks to the looming gacha systems that hand you additional characters throughout the odyssey. You’ll earn a currency called Star Memory, which can be forked over to pull randomised gear and new companions. It’s a recognisable loop that, like much of Origin, doesn’t stray from the norm in pricing or style, and despite my own affinity for the genre and a rose-tinted lens on the source material, it still stings to glance at the Shop tab and see so many convoluted systems propagating through the mid to late game, reducing my favourite characters and their journeys into marketing tools.

On the upside, Origin doesn’t require you to spend money to succeed, though notably, it doesn’t provide you with much premium currency through organic gameplay either. Despite spending over 50 hours grinding, I barely earned enough to pull the gacha more than a handful of times, and even then, my pulls were more often than not total duds. That’s the ball game, at the end of the day, but I was at least hoping for some kind of glitzy fanfare to accompany my hard work, or a means to demonstrate how these pulls could enliven my moment-to-moment experience. Instead, all I got was a pop-up menu from the shop prompting me to enter my details so I could roll the dice again.

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