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Wednesday’s announcement by Hasbro, the parent company of Dungeons & Dragons creator Wizards of the Coast was that it will acquire D&D Beyond. This acquisition is one of the most popular digital toolsets licensed under the trademark and an online shopfront. Wizards said on its official website it has “no plans to stop supporting D&D Beyond,” and all purchases made by consumers will be honored going forward.

D&D Beyond is the creation of Curse, and launched in 2017. The platform is, at its core, a web application and mobile app that provides players and Dungeon Masters (DMs) with the tools they need to play D&D in person or online. Features include a character builder, a character sheet, and a digital dice-rolling function. It allows DMs to digitally purchase campaign books, and other material for their campaigns. Prices for D&D books are traditionally more or less the same on D&D Beyond as they are on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at your local game store.

D&D Beyond was purchased by Fandom in 2018 and, according to Hasbro, the relationship has been very lucrative since that time.

“Over three years, Hasbro’s royalty to D&D Beyond was a substantial contribution to Dungeons & Dragons’ fastest-growing source of revenue,” Hasbro stated. That is undoubtedly true, as financial disclosures show that Wizards — and its attached digital properties, including Magic: The Gathering Arena — earned more than $1 billion for the first time in 2021.

Wizards has become a massive part of Hasbro’s overall earnings since the launch of 5th edition D&D in 2014. With an operating profit of $547 million in 2021, Wizards’ business unit accounted for 72% of Hasbro’s operating profit for the year. Taking that into perspective, the purchase of D&D Beyond from Fandom for $146. 3 million in cash seems like a small price to pay in order to lock down a platform with reportedly close to 10 million users — many of which have rushed in over the past two years of the ongoing global pandemic.

But Cynthia Williams, the new Wizards president has greater goals.

” The strategic acquisition of D&D Beyond provides a relationship with fans and valuable data-driven insight to unlock growth opportunities in product development and live services, as well as regional expansions,” Williams stated in a press release. “As part of Wizards, the brand’s leadership will soon be able to drive a unified, player-centric vision of the world’s greatest role-playing game on all platforms.”

Does that mean players will one day be able to purchase a book with a digital code inside, unlocking that content inside D&D Beyond? That’s unclear, but a similar strategy was employed not long ago for Magic: The Gathering, which for a time sold commander decks with digital codes inside that unlocked cards online.

Meanwhile, Wizards does not sell 5th edition D&D materials as PDFs. Books like Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and the upcoming Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel exist only as physical products or as in-app content for D&D Beyond and other licensors like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. Through a partnership agreement with OneBookShelf, Wizards sells its back catalogue, which includes first and third editions, in PDF format.

Destiny 2 developer Bungie announced Tuesday that it will move toward a “digital-first” studio culture, meaning many employees won’t have to physically work at the studio’s Bellevue, Washington headquarters. In a year where some companies — like Activision Blizzard and Riot Games — are mandating a return-to-office without mask or vaccine requirements, Bungie is transitioning many positions to this “fully remote” structure in seven approved states.

Sony Interactive Entertainment purchased Bungie for $3. 6 billion in January. Sony has not said whether any other studios will operate with a similar structure. Polygon has reached out to Sony for clarification.

“Bungie is going digital-first,” Bungie tweeted Tuesday. These states will have most current and future positions that are fully eligible for remote work. More information coming soon !”

Washington, California, Oregon, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas are the seven states currently approved for remote work with Bungie. Destiny 2 game director Joe Blackburn tweeted that the approved states are limited due to state regulations around taxes: “It takes time to setup a business this large to operate legally in so many different territories.” We’ve reached out to Bungie for more information.

Bungie has dozens of open positions listed on its careers page, many of which are approved for hybrid or remote work options in those seven states. Few positions will require that you work in Bungie’s Bellevue location.

This shift to a digital-first office culture contrasts with other gaming companies like Activision Blizzard or Riot Games which require employees to return to their physical offices. At California-based Activision Blizzard, more than 100 workers walked out of work in early April to protest the company’s dropped COVID-19 vaccine mandate and its return-to-office policy. Since then, the company’s guidelines have been adjusted to permit individual studios to take their own decision. The overall policy for the company, however, is that vaccination against the coronavirus is not required.

Riot Games, based in Los Angeles, similarly asked workers to return to its offices in April. Some employees expressed anger and confusion over the dropped mask and vaccine requirements, while others have embraced a return to the physical office. Workers can work from home on Monday and Friday, while Thursday through Saturday are mandatory. Masks are “strongly” encouraged, but optional, at Riot and the company is doing contract tracing via an app and RFID chips, employees told Polygon. An employee described the first week of work as “quietly chaos .”

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In a statement to Vice, a Riot Games spokesperson said Riot followed the lead of California’s local regulations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, video game companies around the globe switched largely to fully remote work. While this transition led to delays in games due to studios adapting to it, workers have more freedom and better work/life balance. It keeps employees safe during ongoing pandemics, and it allows people to leave expensive gaming hubs such as San Francisco and Seattle. Working from home can make it less costly, which could lead to lower daycare costs and reduced commuting expenses.

“Parents with younger children may have to send their child to a daycare. This is costly and could increase the chance of getting infected,” an Activision Blizzard employee told Polygon. The .”

offices are miles from most affordable housing because gas prices have risen.

The industry is increasingly competitive, and studios will need to accommodate to attract diverse, top talent. Bungie intends to create a “digital-first studio culture” in seven of the approved states. Many of these same states are home to Epic Games, North Carolina, and other video games companies like Epic Games.

If you’re a latchkey kid at heart who pines for the old Thundercats, Wheeled Warriors, or Masters of the Universe, you might want to keep an eye on MythForce. The roguelite RPG, inspired by the syndicated cartoons that were a staple of 1980s UHF television, launches on Windows PC in early access on April 20, exclusively from the Epic Games Store.

The game’s trailer (above), and its workin’-for-the-weekend title song (below), pretty much say everything about where Beamdog and Aspyr Media are taking this project. “MythForce is pure, unadulterated joy — straight out of Saturday mornings in my childhood,” Trent Oster, chief executive of Beamdog said in a statement. “It’s a big departure from the RPG classics we’re known for, but the Beamdog DNA is evident if you know where to look.”

In MythForce, players will explore a procedurally generated dungeon, leveling up their characters and unlocking perks each time they begin the adventure. In a press release, Beamdog stated that players must start from the beginning if they are to be defeated in true roguelite fashion. “But every playthrough makes them a little stronger.”

MythForce‘s early access launch will include four playable heroes (apparently the ones in the trailer) in a rokken-like-Dokken first episode titled Bastion of the Beastlord. “Players can brave the dungeon alone or join forces with friends in online co-op mode for up to four people,” Beamdog said.

Aspyr Media on Wednesday also announced that it had acquired Beamdog. Tuesday’s news release called MythForce the first original title for the pairing. Aspyr, founded in 1996, has been mainly known for ports and adaptations of earlier works published to other platforms.

Beamdog was founded in 2009 by Oster, one of BioWare’s six founders. The studio is best known for publishing three Baldur’s Gate remakes between 2012 and 2016. It also developed and published Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition in 2018.

“MythForce is a feel-good game that speaks to the kid in us,” Oster said. “In early access, we want to collaborate with players who are excited by our wholesome, 80s vision for MythForce, and build up the best game possible. Community will be key to getting us to 1.0.”

In Grand Theft Auto Online, Rockstar has built an elaborate theme park around the fantasy of being an unchained rich criminal. Players can pull off daring heists in heavily guarded casinos and on private islands rich with cocaine and gold; they can buy expensive sports cars and race them on Hot Wheels-style tracks; they can also hang out with Dr. Dre. It’s a picture of avarice, wealth, and stability that feels downright surreal in 2022.

On a purely technical level, GTA Online still looks great, and with tools like the flying Oppressor motorbike and the nuclear-powered Koastka submarine, Rockstar is able to keep players focus on new content over the old. There’s just one noticeable exception: the feel of the world itself. Every Grand Theft Auto game is packed full of references, commentaries, and jokes that are appropriate to the period in which the campaign is set. But while Grand Theft Auto 5’s single-player story remains comfortably wedged in the 2010’s, GTA Online clumsily marches forward.

Some of this isn’t Rockstar’s fault, because 2022 is a hellscape that none of us could truly have predicted. But other parts are very much Rockstar’s fault, like the ambient atmosphere of the city itself.

Image: Rockstar Games

The running joke of a proposition to legalize medical cocaine still hits just fine, even though it’s not particularly funny after seeing it for nearly a decade. Other things, like the vast majority of civilian barks and idle lines, were already awkward and uncomfortable at launch and have stubbornly remained in the game. Women on the street make casting couch jokes, and chatter excitedly about all the hashtag selfies they love to take. Fat pedestrians brag about how much they love lying to their doctors about what they eat, and talk about the next culinary adventure they’re planning. A prominent delivery brand is ‘Post-Op’ with taglines like ‘No longer just mail.’ The brand name of a set of silly scooters? Faggio. Do you get it. Do you get it?

Playing GTA Online feels like the hideous experience of sitting at a table with an edgy guy who would like to tell you all his terrible jokes, peppered with assurances that he’s not bigoted — he hates everyone equally.

Meanwhile, the GTA Online main story missions seem aimed at getting the player to care about the characters and the stakes of the world. Lester, a supporting character in the main game, features prominently in GTA Online. He helps the player character set up their criminal empire, provides tons of useful utility (like clearing off wanted levels, for one) and is later the primary logistical force behind the Diamond Casino heist. He is refreshingly one of the few visibly disabled characters in the Grand Theft Auto canon, using both a cane and wheelchair as mobility devices, and it’s actually pretty nice getting to hang out with the guy and see a side of him the campaign never shows off. The player even plays matchmaker between him and investor Georgina Cheng.

Image: Rockstar Games

Our protagonist in GTA Online is silent; most of the modern storytelling and texture of the world comes from hanging out with characters like Lester, Georgina, and Dr. Dre. This already stretches immersion, as our protagonist just kind of watches and gestures at all of the animated, over-the-top personalities they encounter. Other characters even comment on it, talking about how creepy and silent we are. The player can read it as their character being gobsmacked by the ridiculous antics, or role-play as a quiet and professional mercenary. But when you get out of a cutscene and into the world proper, which is stuffed full of cruel jokes and immature punchlines, it’s hard to really give a shit about the world, let alone saving it from doomsday, financial collapse, or Elon Musk-style supervillains.

At this point, GTA Online feels like falling into some weird alternate history loop, where few of the world-shifting historical events over the last decade or so actually came to pass. Instead, it is set to be a forever-land of plenty, where little people can still be the hero by becoming the outlaw in a corrupt and broken system. It’s just a shame that the world itself is so interested in punching down, as the atmosphere of shitty, petty jokes makes any gravitas or weight GTA Online can muster largely inconsequential.

No Man’s Sky adventurers can get into the grim and gritty side of space travel with Wednesday’s free update, Outlaws. Outlaws focuses on the criminal underworld of No Man’s Sky, which has so far been window dressing for the space exploration game. While players can already hunt down rogue pirates, shoot up ships for loot, and sail with cargo, Outlaws gives us the tools we need to forge our own galactic crime syndicates.

Outlaws brings you space combat updates and the introduction of the first ship class in the game for more than 2 years, the solar sailship. The players will be able to hire and recruit their own squadrons. No Man’s Sky players had settlements filled with NPCs and kindly characters that ran frigates; now, we’ll have the ability to invite our friends to join us in combat.