Not that there was much doubt, but now it's confirmed, and it's good news for Larian fans. Borislav Slavov, the creator of the Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 soundtracks, is composing the music for the studio's next game, Divinity.

"We wouldn't be able to stop him even if we wanted to," Larian boss Swen Vincke responded when asked about Borislav's return during today's AMA on Reddit. "He's been very busy composing and recording new material. It's pretty great."

It's not entirely a surprise: Slavov posted on X that "we are back" when Divinity was revealed at The Game Awards in December 2025. Still, it's nice to have official word from the top, and the interest in Slavov's return runs deep enough that the question was asked twice. Larian publishing director Michael Douse fielded the second one, writing, "Bobby never left. He's cooking."

(They call him Bobby, you see.)

Slavov began working with Larian on Divinity: Original Sin 2 after the unexpected death of Kirill Pokrovsky, the composer on every Divinity game through Original Sin, in 2015. Pokrovsky was well-known and loved among the Larian fan base, but as tough as his act was to follow, Slavov has done an admirable job of it, earning plaudits from fans and critics alike, not to mention a BAFTA award in 2024 for the Baldur's Gate 3 soundtrack.

Prior to his time at Larian, Slavov composed scores for numerous other games including Gothic 3, Crysis 2 and 3, Two Worlds 2, and Ryse: Son of Rome.

Larian's AMA was a big one: The studio also swore off the use of generative AI art during the development process (though it is still "trying things out across departments" related to generative AI), gave us a hard no on WASD controls in Divinity, and talked about why that Game Awards reveal trailer—the one with the pustules and vomit and the guy in the thing—is the way it is.

Remember that Divinity reveal trailer at The Game Awards? It was a banger, alright, from the puke-eating pigs to the orgy in front of the guys getting burned to death Wicker Man-style and then the big finish, where everyone dies horrifically—except the pig, which I thought was a nice touch. It is dark, to put it mildly, and doubly shocking in the moment because it came from Larian, the guys who gave us horny grinning bears (and voyeuristic squirrels) in Baldur's Gate 3. What a turn, right?

Well, not really: Once the moment had passed, we all recalled that the very first Baldur's Gate 3 announcement trailer was pretty grody too. Want to watch a guy barf out his own teeth?

In that light, the Divinity reveal trailer maybe isn't so shocking after all. And either way, it's not just about shock value: Speaking in today's AMA on Reddit, ostensibly but not really about Larian's use of AI in game development (which, by the way, it was now forsworn, in a limited sense at least), writing director Adam Smith said the real purposes of the trailer is to establish a baseline for what players can expect in a game world that many of them may not be familiar with.

"If you've seen our announcement trailer, you have an idea of how dark the world of Divinity is," Smith wrote. "We want to give players the opportunity to be the light in that darkness—an inspiration, a hero, a champion. We'll also let them leave the world even worse than they found it. We're pushing as far as we can on player agency."

Truthfully, the Divinity setting has never struck me as particularly dark as fantasy RPGs go, but that's doubtlessly in part because it's never made any sort of lasting impression at all. I like the games an awful lot, but primarily for their systems and environments rather than the stories they tell. I feel much the same way about The Elder Scrolls games so maybe it's a me thing, but either way I applaud efforts to make the setting more memorable, and given Larian's experience with Baldur's Gate 3, my hopes are high.

Baldur's Gate 3 is also likely a factor in Larian's desire to set the table so definitively. The Divinity setting predates BG3 by a couple decades and a half-dozen games, but it sasn't until the studio took on D&D that it became a household name among gamers, rather than a favorite of RPG nerds. That means a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 players will be coming into Larian's bigger work without any real idea of what to expect. Well, now they've got a little warmup, so to speak.

I left it to the end to avoid any unnecessary spoilers or gross-outs, but in case you haven't seen it, or want to see it again for some reason, here's that Divinity reveal trailer from The Game Awards. That dude sure takes a long time to die, eh? Glad the piggie made it out, though.

There's an Xbox Direct showcase happening on January 22, and Microsoft has teased three games that will appear: Fable, Forza Horizon 6, and Beast of Reincarnation. In response to a post on X about said showcase, UsagiMoonlight wrote," More excited for Horizon 6 than GTA 6 atm," to which Microsoft responded, "Big year for games ending in 6, though."

Well.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is obviously the leader of that particular pack, but Forza Horizon 6 is a pretty big deal too. Ride 6 is also coming in February, if that's what you're into. But there's another 'game ending in 6' announced long ago and unheard of ever since that you might have forgotten amidst all the everything: The Elder Scrolls 6.

Elder Scrolls fans, however, have not forgotten. And as clocked by GamesRadar, some of them are taking the remark as perhaps a little more meaningful than it was intended.

"They're teasing us," one enthusiastic redditor stated simply, leading another to reply, "If they drop a Starfield update and a TES6 trailer at the same time, I’ll buy the new xbox. This is a threat."

Others were very slightly more measured in their responses, such as this poor individual, who acknowledged it's "a long shot" but also admitted they're "practically living off hopium and copium at this point."

tesvi from r/TESVI/comments/1q8b7fr/i_know_this_is_a_long_shot_but_maybe

A few see the decision to disable replies to the X post as, maybe, a sign that someone had accidentally let the cat out of the bag and was now trying to stop the word from spreading.

Of course, that's not going to keep anyone from re-posting, as definitive Elder Scrolls wiki the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages did, with a very rational response of its own:

One person predicted dire consequences for the social media manager who posted it:

Comment from r/TESVI

I think it's a lot of fun—I love performative freakouts in response to marginal statements, and the longer the shot the sweeter it is—but where does this all actually leave us? Anything's possible and I hate to throw cold water on anyone's dreams, but I would peg the likelihood of an Elder Scrolls 6 appearance at the Xbox Direct showcase as slim. Very slim. Todd Howard said in December 2025 that work on the game is "progressing very well," but he also said a month prior that it's "still a long ways off," too.

The marketing machine could certainly sputter up well before the game comes out (and likely will), but would Microsoft roll out the first real trailer for the next Elder Scrolls game—one of the most anticipated games of all time—without some substantial, hard-to-miss tease that it's coming? Yeah, no, sorry—I don't buy it.

There was a spot of skycontroversy earlier this year when former Skyblivion world designer Dee Keyes took issue with the mega-mod's planned launch in 2025. Keyes was critical of project management over "crunching" in pursuit of what he called "a pointless and unachievable release date." And it turns out he was right, at least about the 2025 release target being unachievable, because the launch has now been pushed to sometime in 2026.

"Unfortunately, as we're getting closer to the end of this year, it pains me to have to announce that our initial goal of releasing Skyblivion this year is no longer possible," project lead Rebelzize said in a delay video released today. "Despite the game being in the best state it's ever been, we still have some last challenges to overcome that are going to require a little bit more time."

"Many parts of the project are in great shape," Rebelzize continued, including the Skyblivion world map, which is now 100% finished and viewable via an interactive map at the Skyblivion website. All quest dungeons have been completed, along with "most" random dungeons and the majority of the interiors of houses, shops, castles, inns, and the like, except in the Imperial City; all major cities, except the Imperial City, have also been completed.

But there's also still a lot left to do. Along with the unfinished locations, the navmesh, essentially a triangle-based grid that enables NPCs to move through the game, still has to be completed, as do various quests, interface updates, asset implementation, and testing. Rebelzize also revealed that the team has been secretly working on an ambitious cinematic for the final showdown between Akatosh and Mehrunes Dagon. But this has proven more challenging than the team apparently anticipated, "and we lack the people available to create and render the final scene." Thus, they're looking for help—specifically, a renderer, a set dresser, a VFX artist, and a destruction sim artist.

Rebelzize also revealed that a couple of features planned for Skyblivion—underwater combat and spell crafting—have been cut, although he hopes the team will be able to add them at some point after the mod is out.

At this point, I can't help but wonder if maybe even a 2026 release target is a little optimistic, but Rebelzize said it's happening: "The game is closer than ever, and with the Imperial City being our last major hurdle, and some more time to polish and complete quests, Skyblivion will finally release in 2026. We thank you all for your continued support of this ambitious project I started more than 10 years ago, and I really genuinely cannot wait to get Skyblivion into your hands."

A Reuters report says Russia has blocked access to Roblox in the country over concerns that it is "rife with inappropriate content that can negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children." That may not be entirely wrong, but the allegations themselves certainly are: The ban was prompted by what Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor described as extremist content and "LGBT propaganda" being distributed on the platform, a position later confirmed by Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

That's quite a bit different from the usual complaints about the dangers to children on Roblox, which are more typically cited as the presence of predators and unmoderated sexual content on the platform. The attorney general for Kentucky, for instance, called Roblox "a playground for predators who seek to harm our children," while the AG for Texas accused Roblox of "putting pixel pedophiles and profit" ahead of child safety measures.

The Russian ban, unfortunately, is predicated in part on the mere presence of LGBT content in the game—which, to be perfectly clear, is not a danger to children or anyone else. It is, however, forbidden in films, television, and videogames in Russia, the result of a 2022 expansion of a law that had previously prohibited "the propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" in content for minors.

Roblox is hardly the first game to fall afoul of Russians censors. In 2022 Electronic Arts decided against releasing The Sims 4 expansion My Wedding Stories in Russia rather than remove same-sex couples, for instance, and in 2023 the Russian government began digging deeper for games "spreading information that affect one's consciousness and subconscious," with the ultimate goal of banning anything that didn't comport with officially accepted standards of 'normal' behavior.

The "extremist content" mentioned in the Reuters report isn't so specifically defined, but has previously been used in reference to anything expressing support for Ukraine, which is still battling the unprovoked Russian invasion that began in 2022. Russia has previously taken action against Ukrainian studio GSC Game World over the presence of "Ukrainian narratives" and "aggressive Russophobic content" in Stalker 2.

In response to our inquiry, Roblox provided a statement that might be even worse than Roblox Corporation CEO David Baszucki's bizarre interview with the New York Times: It utterly fails to even acknowledge the Russian ban, much less comment on its underlying rationale or address potential plans for moving forward. I share it here solely as evidence that I did in fact reach out for comment.

“We respect the local laws and regulations in the countries where we operate and believe Roblox provides a positive space for learning, creation and meaningful connection for everyone," a Roblox spokesperson said. "We have a deep commitment to safety and we have a robust set of proactive and preventative safety measures designed to catch and prevent harmful content on our platform.”

Original story: The saga of Horses has taken another unexpected twist as the Humble Store, which just a couple days ago affirmed that it would carry the game as a DRM-free download despite its ban on Steam and Epic, has now apparently stopped selling it.

Steam was the first major storefront to refuse to carry Horses, a first-person psychological horror adventure about "the burden of familial trauma and puritan values, the dynamics of totalitarian power, and the ethics of personal responsibility" set on a ranch where nude human beings in horse masks are treated as livestock.

Publisher Santa Ragione said in November that Valve declined to carry Horses because it contained "content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor." Santa Ragione disputed that characterization, but an appeal was rejected and the ban stands.

The Epic Games Store followed with its own ban on December 1, one day before Horses was set to launch. Which brings us, indirectly, to the Humble Store: In an email sent to PC Gamer following the Epic ban, Santa Ragione said the Humble Store had confirmed that it would continue to carry the game. Humble was initially going to sell Epic store keys for Horses, but with Epic not selling it, Humble was instead offering a DRM-free release for direct download.

Today, however, it's gone: The store page, previously at humblebundle.com/store/horses, has been completely removed from the Humble Store, without warning or explanation. A Santa Ragione rep confirmed with PC Gamer that Humble did have the DRM-free version of Horses up for sale yesterday when the game launched, but said they have no idea why it's gone now. The publisher has reached out to Humble to inquire, but as of now has not received any response.

That leaves Horses available for sale on GOG and Itch.io: Perfectly fine storefronts, but a significant reduction in the game's overall visibility. Making the matter even more frustrating is the fact that Horses is apparently quite good—or at least, it accomplishes what it sets out to do. The content is decidedly uncomfortable but reviews and reactions on social media are largely positive: By all outward appearances (and I haven't played it myself so I can't judge beyond that, but I'm talking about reactions from reputable gaming sites here), Horses is not low-effort, throwaway trash, but rather a game that genuinely seeks to provoke consideration and conversations.

The one upside for Santa Ragione is that the widespread bans may be drawing more attention to Horses than it would have had with a regular, uninterrupted launch, because where it remains available, it's doing quite well: It's currently the top-selling new release on GOG. Frankly, I hope the good old storefront makes a tidy bundle on it.

It's also currently sitting atop the best-selling games chart on Itch.io. (Note that you'll need to have adult content enabled on your Itch.io account in order to see it in the list.)

So that's a little bit of good amidst the bad, at least. I've reached out to the Humble Store for comment and will update if I receive a reply.

Cyberpunk 2077 launched on December 10, 2020, which means that the fifth anniversary is just over a week away. Despite that age, and the fact that it's a singleplayer RPG with no live service grind, its peak concurrent player count today on Steam—and only Steam—was nearly 44,000. That's genuinely astounding, especially when you consider that the game was such a mess at launch that it literally wiped 75% of CD Projekt's valuation off the books.

So here we are, five years later, and an awful lot of fans are holding out hope that CD Projekt is cooking up something big for the big birthday. Not just because five years is an obvious benchmark for such things, but because of a December 1 post on X.

• SECURE COMMS CHANNEL ESTABLISHED.
• STANDBY FOR INCOMING PRIORITY TRANSMISSION…
• CYBERPUNK 2077 — 10.12
• REED, SOLOMON — 12.12
• SONG, SO MI — 29.12
• END OF TRANSMISSION.

Well. Intriguing, no? Fans immediately glommed onto the message as a sign that something is in the pipe: A surprise update, some new content, maybe—dare to dream, maybe—a full-on DLC release.

The CD Projekt social team did its best to keep a lid on things, but people want what they want, and what they very obviously want is more Cyberpunk 2077.

It eventually fell to global community director Marcin Momot to pour a big bucket of cold water on things. "We’re not teasing anything," he wrote on X. "This is our monthly post announcing character birthdays, which we publish every 30 days. This time we also included the game’s anniversary info, but it’s not a teaser. Hope this clears things up!"

And yes, it's true: Here, for instance, is the November post marking the birthdays of Rogue Amendiares, Johnny Silverhand, and Judy Alvarez:

And this is October, the birth month of Valerie/Vincent:

So as much as it pains me to be the bearer of bad news on this one, it looks like a false alarm: CD Projekt wasn't teasing anything, it was just making some traditional birthday posts which in this case happened to include Cyberpunk 2077 itself.

But if you want to live in hope, don't forget that CD Projekt has told us in the past that it was finished with Cyberpunk 2077, only to punk us with surprise updates when our backs were turned,. And here's something else to hold onto: The Game Awards takes place on December 11, the day after Cyberpunk 2077's fifth anniversary, and while CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski said The Witcher 4 won't be at the show, he didn't explicitly rule out an appearance by Cyberpunk. And we all know what that means, right?

Well, no. We don't. But this guy has the right spirit, at least.

A week after the indie horror game Horses was banned from Steam, and just one day before it was set to launch elsewhere, Epic Games has decided that it too will not allow the game to be sold on its storefront. Publisher Santa Ragione said in a blog update that Epic informed it of the decision at 5 pm CET/11 am ET on December 1, saying the game violates its policies on "inappropriate content" and "hateful or abusive content."

Epic didn't tell Santa Ragione how exactly Horses violated its guidelines, according to an email from the publisher sent to PC Gamer, but only made what it described as "broad and demonstrably incorrect claims" about it. Santa Ragione filed an appeal, but it was rejected 12 hours later with no further explanation. Epic also indicated the game could be updated to bring it into compliance, but "the email did not include any information on what would need to be changed," Santa Ragione said, and even if it had there'd be no way to make extensive changes one day ahead of release.

Epic was not more forthcoming on the matter in a statement provided to PC Gamer. "We set clear guidelines for the content that can be distributed on the Epic Games Store and found violations of those guidelines during our extensive review," Epic Games communications director Jake Jones said.

Part of that review process, Epic told Santa Ragione, included filling out an International Age Rating Coalition questionnaire on Horses, which it says resulted in an Adult Only (AO) rating. This seems odd: Santa Ragione said it had already filled out the questionnaire as part of Epic's submission process, and did not receive an AO: "We received a PEGI 18 and an ESRB M rating, as currently displayed on the Horses coming soon page on the Epic Games Store." Both of those ratings can still be seen on the storefront.

Santa Ragione also questioned why Epic would redo the questionnaire at all, given that developers have to fill it out themselves in order to be allowed to sell their games in the first place. It further claimed that builds of Horses had already been submitted and reviewed by Epic, "with the final achievements-ready build being approved for release 18 days prior to launch."

As it did following the Steam ban, Santa Ragione argued that Horses "does NOT contain explicit or frequent depictions of sexual behavior."

"All nudity in the game is completely censored via pixelation," the publisher wrote. "There is never any visible sexual act involving genitalia and all animations are stylized and unrealistic. Additionally, in the three hours of gameplay contained in the game, there are only four brief and censored sexual sequences, with two of them happening mainly off camera. And finally, we explained that the content presented does not in any way promote abuse (including animal abuse). The game is a strong critique of violence and abuse in general."

Horses does have some nudity, though, as well as adult themes, and that can be vexing for an industry that's often more focused on selling product than making art, or even mere provocative statements—particularly when it's already facing pressure from major payment processors over adult-oriented content. Epic has always been more selective about what it allows on its storefront than Steam, which is home to numerous hardcore sex games, so it's not entirely surprising that Epic would bow out of Horses too.

But that it would wait until this last minute to make the move—literally the day before release—doesn't speak especially highly of its processes, and it makes me wonder if this isn't so much about the game as it is about the public's perception of it, largely the result of Steam's refusal to carry it.

Despite the Steam and Epic bans, Horses is still available on GOG, Itch.io, and the Humble Store: Humble had initially intended to distribute the game via Epic Store keys, but with the new ban in place it opted to go with a DRM-free direct download instead.

Shovel Knight was a major indie hit, with more than three million copies sold, an "overwhelmingly positive" rating on Steam, and a brand so recognizable it's spawned spinoffs and crossovers with games ranging from Bloodstained to For Honor. But in the 10 years since Shovel Knight first appeared, developer Yacht Club Games has struggled to produce a full-on follow-up hit, and in a new interview with Bloomberg, studio founder Cris Velasco says it will be in serious trouble if its next game isn't a success.

That 'next game' would be Mina the Hollower, a sort of gothic Link's Awakening that was revealed to the world in 2022. "It’s make-or-break for sure," Velasco said. "If we sold 500,000 copies, then we would be golden. If we sold even 200,000, that would be really, really great. If we sold, like, 100,000, that’s not so good."

Development of Mina the Hollower has been troubled, according to the interview. The game was proposed in 2019 and work began in earnest in early 2020, when Yacht Club split into two teams, one for the full-on Shovel Knight sequel—that 3D project we heard about back in 2020, apparently—and the other to handle Mina the Hollower, which was intended to be a smaller-scale project.

But Yacht Club itself struggled with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which landed in full force right around the same time, and the two-team structure, which ultimately didn't work out. The studio laid off some employees and turned everything it had left toward Mina the Hollower, which had grown dramatically in scope. The game industry as a whole, meanwhile, has been decimated by post-Covid contraction and the big-money embrace of generative AI over the past few years, an ugliness that still shows no sign of letting up.

Then came the last-minute delay: Mina the Hollower had been set to launch on October 31, but on October 6 Yacht Club hit the brakes, saying it needed more time "to apply some final polish and balancing to make the game truly shine." The delay would not be "major," the studio wrote, but a new launch date still hasn't been announced.

The upside for Yacht Club is that there's clearly demand for Mina the Hollower—a 2022 Kickstarter campaign raised more than $1.2 million—and a demo released earlier this year made a good impression: PC Gamer's Tyler Colp said it "awakened the GBA kid in me," which sounds like a bullseye in the making. But the game industry is fickle and unforgiving, and also tremendously crowded, and on the indie front especially there's just no such thing as a 'sure thing' anymore.

Yacht Club is apparently ditching its office and going fully remote at the end of 2025, and hopes to continue working on one game at a time after Mina the Hollower is out. As for what happens if Mina isn't a hit, that remains to be seen: Velasco said Yacht Club will "still be around," but added, "we would need more money."

Another year on this godforsaken rock is grinding to a close, and you know what that means: award season! The Golden Joysticks just wrapped up, The Game Awards are coming, and to kill some time in between you can now nominate your games of choice for the 2025 Steam Awards.

I'd actually wondered how Steam Awards nominations would be handled in 2025. Typically it happens during the Steam Autumn Sale, but with Valve moving the Autumn Sale back a couple months to give us a proper break before the Winter Sale hits, that wasn't going to be an option. The answer was obvious in hindsight: Just make a whole other sale and cram it in there, which is exactly what Valve did with Steam's first ever Black Friday Sale.

The nomination process for this year's Steam Awards will simplify things for you by listing eligible games you've played in 2025, as well as providing a rundown of "popular and recommended games" if you're more interested in being on the winning team than in throwing your support behind something you actually enjoyed.

There seems to be some kind of obscure eligibility requirements for the recommendation listings, although I haven't been able to suss out exactly what: For the Best Game You Suck At category, for instance, I'm told I haven't played any eligible games this year, and I can assure you I suck at a great many videogames.

(PC Gamer US editor-in-chief Tyler Wilde suggested this is actually evidence that I am good at all videogames, but no. I may not know what's going on here, but I know it ain't that.)

Likewise for the Best Soundtrack Award, Steam tells me the only eligible game I've played in the category is Fresh Tracks, even though I know full well that I've played other 2025 releases with standalone soundtracks.

Fortunately, it doesn't really matter: You can write in pretty much any game you want in each category, and as long as it was released in 2025 (or prior to 2025, in the case of the Labor of Love category), it'll be fine.

And because this is the nomination process, everything is wide open: If you want to nominate Bongo Cat for Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award, well, you can do that. (And I think you should.)

On the other side of the coin, the list of games I've played under the Sit Back and Relax category is spot on: Bongo Cat, obviously (Bongo Cat is everywhere) but also Herdling, Crashlands 2, Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted, and Find My Frogs. It's a perfect list of laid-back 2025 games, and that makes me wonder why so many other categories feel so random.

Anyway, you have until December 1 to nominate your favorites for the 2025 Steam Awards—as in previous years, nominating a game will get you the "Steam Awards Nomination Committee" badge, which can be upgraded through four levels by completing subsequent tasks. Voting on the five finalists in each category will take place during the Steam Winter Sale, which begins on December 14. Winners will be announced when that sale ends on January 3.

The 2025 Steam Autumn Sale popped a couple months earlier than usual for the simple reason that in every previous year, it fell too damn close to the Steam Winter Sale. The two big seasonal sales were separated, literally, by just a couple weeks: The 2024 Autumn Sale wrapped up on December 4, and the Winter Sale kicked off on December 15. That's just too much sale all mush into one month.

But if you thought that the shifted Autumn Sale meant no discounts on Steam in late November, boy, were you ever wrong. Because for the first time ever, Valve has capitulated to the gods of e-commerce and is holding its very own Black Friday Sale.

Unlike many online retailers, who view Black Friday as one of the most important sell stuff holidays* of the year, Steam's Black Friday Sale is a relatively small affair compared to the seasonal heavyweights: It runs for just one week, and there are no attendant Points Shop freebies or trading cards to earn for hammering through your discovery queue.

Which is not to say there aren't some sweet deals on offer, because there are. One obvious choice is Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, which is 60% off its regular price—that's $24/£22/€24, the lowest it's ever been on Steam.

Battlefield 6 is also on sale, for $59.49/£51/€59.49, which is just 15% off the regular price but still notable given that it's one of the biggest games of 2025 and has only been out for a little more than a month. Continuing in the vein of popular new games, Dying Light: The Beast is 20% off—that's $48/£40/€48—and Arc Raiders, one of the best games you can buy for $40, well, it's still one of the best games you can buy for $40. Sorry. Great deal even at regular price though.

At the opposite end of the pricing spectrum, which is where I like to play, I am going to once again recommend First Encounter Assault Recon, the game we all know as FEAR, on sale for just $2/£1.39/€1.79, which includes the base game and the Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate DLCs, both of which I would urge you to ignore.

(If you want to know why I'm still banging my shoe on the buy FEAR and actually play it table, here's PC Gamer's vid-maestro Scott Tanner laying out the facts: 20 years later, it's still one of the best to ever do it. There's even a recent fan patch that fixes it up nice for modern PCs.)

You can also snag a deal on the base model Steam Deck: The 256GB LCD unit is 20% off during the Black Friday sale, dropping it to $319/£279, which hardware writer Jeremy Laird said in September makes it "a stellar deal for entry-level portable PC gaming."

So there you have it: New games, old games, and things on which to play your games, all dolled up in a festively horrific apotheosis of capitalism that we just can't say no to because holy cow, these prices will not be beat! Until the Steam Winter Sale, anyway.

The first-ever Steam Black Friday Sale runs until December 1. The Steam Winter Sale 2025, since we're talking about it, kicks off on December 18.

Voice actor Erika Ishii appeared in no fewer than four videogames in 2025, including Ghost of Yotei, which was in the running for Ultimate Game of the Year at the 2025 Golden Joystick Awards. Ghost of Yotei also earned Ishii a personal Golden Joystick nom, for Best Performance. And when they were asked on the red carpet which game they thought deserved the top crown, Ishii left absolutely no doubt: Not Ghost of Yotei.

"Blue Prince!" Ishii shouted, grabbing the microphone like Vice President Joe Biden effusing about his favorite Wu Tang album. "Game of the year, baby, hands down. All the other games, I'm so sorry but it's Blue Prince, all day, every day! 300 days in, and I'm still discovering secrets. Blue Prince!"

Ishii isn't the only one still unravelling Blue Prince's secrets: Tonda Ros of developer Dogubomb said earlier this month that "there are certainly mysteries still in the game" more than six months after it came out.

Ishii was gracious when asked about the number-one GOTY contender, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. "That one's great. Clair Obscur's great. It's a great game," they said with exaggerated awkwardness.

Hey, you really can't blame someone for having opinions that maybe aren't perfectly in line with what you'd expect, especially when the enthusiasm is so obvious, as is the case here. Me, I didn't care for Blue Prince, although I didn't get very deep into it before I ran out of patience. I also occasionally think that I should give it another shot, entirely by fans like Ishii: People who like it, like it a lot.

Lest there be any doubt, having had an entire weekend to consider the matter, Ishii made it very clear on Bluesky that their position on the matter is unchanged: "I said what I said."

Blue Prince, for the record, did not win Ultimate Game of the Year at the 2025 Golden Joysticks, nor did Ghost of Yotei: The honor went to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which claimed seven wins at the show, tying the record set in 2023 by Baldur's Gate 3. Ishii's fave, and the game they starred in, didn't go home empty handed, though: Blue Prince won the Best Indie Game title while Ghost of Yotei took two, for Best Audio Design and Console Game of the Year.