It might not completely take the sting away from GTA 6’s delay, but it remains one of the best games ever made. Of course, for those who can’t experience it on PS5, the PS4 version is also available. Other notable titles this month include rogue-like driving title Pacific Drive (which recently got an expansion) and first-person narrative horror Still Wakes the Deep, both playable on PS5.

Multiplayer fans who enjoyed Battlefield 6 might want to check out Insurgency: Sandstorm, which offers another modern setting with realistic gunplay on PS4 and PS5. If you’re keen on something more light-hearted, there’s the British comedy title Thank Goodness You’re Here! Another underrated addition, at least for puzzle gamers, is The Talos Principle 2 (with the original receiving a remaster earlier this year).

Monster Jam Showdown and MotoGP 25 offer solid racing, while Premium subscribers get access to Tomb Raider: Anniversary on PS5 and PS4.

According to Insider Gaming, Saber Interactive confirmed the New World Interactive layoffs to be a restructuring of the studio.

“Saber can confirm there have been restructuring changes involving our New World Interactive subsidiary,” said the company in a statement.

“This reorganization has unfortunately resulted in layoffs at the studio. We are working to fill existing open roles within Saber with individuals affected by these changes wherever feasible and we will be providing severance packages to those employees impacted.”

The company has also confirmed that New World Interactive will be continuing development on its multiplayer shooter Insurgency: Sandstorm, as well as projects that are currently unannounced.

“Development will continue on Insurgency: Sandstorm, as well as unannounced future projects.”

Originally caught by Nick Calandra of Second Wind, the layoffs were originally thought to be a prelude to New World Interactive being shut down by Embracer.

Quite a few studios have been seeing layoffs and shutdowns as a result of Embracer’s ongoing restructuring. The end of November saw Fishlabs laying off around 50 employees, while earlier in the month, internal documents indicated that TimeSplitters developer Free Radical Design was next on the chopping block.

Embracer Group’s interim strategy officer Phil Rogers recently called the process of laying off employees from its studios as “agonizing” but “necessary”.

In not so great news… I'm hearing from sources that New World Interactive is the next studio shutdown from Embracer… happened this morning apparently and no public statement has come out yet.

Super sad to hear this as I did the documentary on that studio and they're great. pic.twitter.com/aBtwE3HMX1

— Nick Calandra (@nickjcal) December 4, 2023

Beyond that, on November 17, Dune: Spice Wars will be added to Game Pass for PC, as will action RPG Ghostlore’s early access version. On the same day, 2D platformer Lapin will become available to subscribers via cloud, console, and PC, while point-and-click adventure title Norco will become available via cloud and console.

November 22 will bring the day one Game Pass launch of high-octane action shooter Gungrave G.O.R.E. for cloud, console, and PC subscribers, followed by Insurgency: Sandstorm (cloud and console) and Soccer Story (cloud, console, and PC) arriving on November 29. Finally, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will be available with PC Game Pass on day one upon its launch on November 30.

Insurgency: Sandstorm features a number of competitive and co-op modes, with up to 20 players participating in a single match. As suggested by a previous blog post from Focus Entertainment, the game will be targeting a resolution of 4K at a frame-rate target of 60 fps on current-gen consoles. More enhancements for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are also confirmed, which will be arriving sometime in the next year.

The game will be available in two editions, including a standard edition which comes at $40, a Deluxe Edition, which costs $70, and finally, a Gold edition, which costs $80.

Focus Home Interactive recently released its yearly earnings and reported $143 million revenue. Perhaps to no one’s surprise, Giants Software’s Farming Simulator 19 has been a huge success. The title has sold over two million copies since release. Furthermore, the developer has launched an esports league for the game with a €250,000 prize pool (seriously).

Other noteworthy successes include Dontnod’s Vampyr, an RPG that’s sold over one million copies. Thanks to the game’s success, Dontnod will be working with the publisher again on a new project that promises to be its “most ambitious to date”, while Vampyr itself is also slated for a Switch release as well. New World Interactive’s Insurgency: Sandstorm has also done very, selling over half a million copies on PC via Steam.

Overall, Focus Home Interactive had a good year and beat their overall target by 20 percent. Other big titles like The Surge 2 are coming up in September, and the publisher has announced that it will bring its titles to Xbox Game Pass for PC. Stay tuned in the coming months to see how things pan out for Focus Home Interactive.

After several months of closed beta testing and years of development, New World Interactive’s Insurgency: Sandstorm is now available on PC. Those who own the original game will receive a 10 percent loyalty discount, but another discount will also be available till March 2019 end. Check out the launch trailer below.

Insurgency: Sandstorm emphasizes a more realistic form of modern military shooting. It has both co-op and PvP, with a focus on teamwork, tactics, and objective play. Suffice it to say that conserving ammunition and not taking too many risks (thanks to the low time-to-kill) is paramount.

New World Interactive isn’t done with the base launch though. It’s promising new maps, weapons, mod support, cosmetics, and much more in the future. All of this will be free of charge to players, thus ensuring the community isn’t split. For console players, Insurgency: Sandstorm is still slated to release in 2019, so stay tuned for more updates on development.

The long-in-development Insurgency: Sandstorm has been delayed to December 12th. The tactical FPS was originally slated to release in September, but has been pushed back to ensure a more polished experience.

In a recent statement, developer New World Interactive said, “This was one of the hardest decisions our team has ever had to make and not one taken lightly. However, we feel it is in the best interest of the game and our community to spend more time working to ensure we deliver the best possible experience.”

The developer was “acutely aware” of beta players not having the “ideal experience” that it wanted to deliver. As a result, the beta has been extended. “By extending the beta and moving our launch date to December, the additional time will allow us to make significant improvements to the game with continued input from you.”

A few of these improvements include optimizing the game and upgrading to Unreal Engine 4.20; improvements for level visuals and gameplay; more variations for cosmetic items and a new cosmetic forearm tattoo that players can see in first-person; and a server browser and support for community-run servers.

If you own the first Insurgency on Steam, then Insurgency: Sandstorm can be purchased for 10 percent off, courtesy of a loyalty discount. This discount will be available till the end of March 2019.

Insurgency: Sandstorm will also be coming to Xbox One and PS4 along with its PC release. What are your thoughts on the delay? Let us know in the comments.

Focus Home Interactive will be present at E3 2018 in a big way. The publisher has announced its booth will be West-Hall #4512 on June 12th to 14th. Along with hands-on demos, there will be closed door presentations for upcoming games.

Some of the upcoming games will include the following major releases:

• Insurgency: Sandstorm – Dedicated multiplayer session with attendees and journalists
• Farming Simulator 19 – First ever gameplay reveal along with an “exciting surprise” to be announced at E3
• The Surge 2 – “Never-before-seen” gameplay of Deck 13’s Soulslike action RPG follow-up
• A Plague Tale: Innocence – A new gameplay walkthrough that introduces siblings Amicia and Hugo. Rat hordes en masse also expected to appear.
• Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game – Behind closed doors presentation with an exclusive walkthrough from Cyanide
• Greedfall – Spiders’ newest RPG, full of diplomacy and choices, will be showcased behind closed doors
• Space Hulk: Tactics – Playable in face-to-face sessions with Cyanide (who also developed Space Hulk: Deathwing) in Focus’s Public Area

A hands-off session for Necromunda: Underhive Wars behind closed doors with developer Rogue Factor and Fear the Wolves developer Vostok Games appearing for interviews have also been confirmed.

If that’s not enough, there will be stations for attendees and journalists with the latest releases including Dontnod Entertainment’s Vampyr, Deck 13’s The Surge – Complete Edition and Saber Interactive’s Spintires: MudRunner. Which game are you looking forward to hearing more about at E3 2018? Let us know in the comments below.

Focus Home Interactive and New World Interactive have announced they are going to be bringing Insurgency: Sandstorm to the PC, Xbox One and PS4 sometime in 2017. This is good news for fans of the online hardcore shooter, Insurgency who were promised the title was going to be coming to current generation games in the near future. The original game was lauded by gamers and critics because of the interesting “one death per player” feature, as well as the fact that the game doesn’t have an aiming reticle so the shooting seems to fee far more realistic when taking aim at enemies.

The two companies announced Sandstorm is going to be putting players “into a gritty, visceral combat experience that delivers first-person gunplay as immersive as it gets, with support for team-based online multiplayer and a brand new story mode set within the Middle East.” There isn’t a great deal known about the game just yet beyond the fact that it is planned to be coming sometime next year but you can certainly jump to some conclusions based on what the first game in this franchise brought.

Whether or not this game is an actual sequel or just another title in the same vein won’t be known until later this year or early next either. Insurgency: Sandstorm is coming to the PC, Xbox One and PS4 sometime in 2017.