An unknown number of employees have been laid off at Warframe developer and Wayfinder publisher Digital Extremes today. According to Polgyon, at least 20 employees in total were let go. It appears Digital Extremes is closing their external projects division which publishes games like the recently Early Access release title Wayfinder. Instead, the company will shift its focus towards internal projects like Warframe and Soulframe.

We reached out to Digital Extremes who co??nfirmed the information and provided the following statement

“We can confirm we have made the difficult decision to cease operations of our external projects division. We have had to say goodbye to a number of hardworking and highly valuable team members as a result.�/p>

The representative also confirmed that Digital Extremes is looking to transfer Wayfinder in its entirety into the ha??nds of the developer, Airship Syndicate.

"“We're working with Airship to transition full control of Wayfinder to them in coming months."

Just a few weeks ago there was a leadership change at Digital Extremes as well, with C?hief Creative Officer Steven Sinclair replacing Founder James Schmalz as CEO of the company.

Rough times in the video games industry

These kinds of articles are never easy to write, especially when the video game industry seems to be suffering layoffs several times a week. Just yesterday Embracer Group laid off ??staff at developer Free Radical, after doing the same just last month at Cryptic Studios and Zen Studios. Ubisoft Montreal also suffered layoffs earlier this week.

This list has grown so big it almost feels easier to name the companies that have not conducted layoffs compared to those that have. According to the website VideoGameLayoffs.com, over 6,500 employees from over 100 com??panies in the games industry have ?been laid off this year alone.

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Airship Syndicate and Digital Extremes have released the final mid-season update before Season 2 of Wayfinder, titled The Reaver King. The update for the Action RPG MMO brings a trove of new content ahead of Season 2 which is expected to release later this year. Players with any Wayfinder foun?der's pack can jump into The Reaver King starting today.

The Hollow Heart Opens

The main story of Wayfinder will proceed forward with The Reaver King, with four new main quests and three side quests. This is the biggest Wayfinder update yet, and will ??culminate in player??s taking on The Reaver King.

??An existing Lost Zone, Hollow Heart, features all new content and secrets for players to explore as they attempt to make their way towards the two new bosses: Wormwood and The Reaver King. Each boss comes in the form of new hunts.

Players will also have?? access to a third Imbuement Slot for the Shadow element which to continue altering the existing Lost Zone threats and rewards. Rewards include three new weapons each with their own abilities that players ??can acquire. The three new weapons are:

• Rose & Thorn â€?Blood-stained flower petal-esq daggers. Ability: Thorn Blossom - Slam into the ground, shooting thorns up from the ground in an area below the Wayfinder. Enemies hit will be inflicted with Rose Blossom for 10 seconds, taking additional damage each time they are hit.
• Eclipse â€?Two-handed axe that consumes all light around it. Ability: Steel Vortex - Throws the axe to spin in a vortex in front of the Wayfinder, dealing damage multiple times before returning. Deals additional damage for each level of Momentum consumed.
• Nightshade â€?A sword and shield that predates humanity. Ability: Wyvern’s Fury - Reloads the gun with an empowered clip. During this clip, the weapon is fully automatic and every bullet is infused to apply a stack of Poison on hit. Poison is a small DoT that stacks up to 20 times and deals damage over 6 seconds.

Those interested in the full patch notes for Wayfinder The Reaver King can find them here.

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Big updates are on the way for MMO Wayfinder. Developer Airship Syndicate revealed the updates during their Wayfinder Wednesday blog post. In the near future, a mid-season update is on the horizon bringing a new live event called Call of the Void as well as some new content. Later, Season 2 will kick off and see the release of a new Wayfinder character named Gre??ndel. An in?-depth look at the new content from the mid-season update will be coming in early October.

The Fierce Beast Grendel

A new Wayfinder named Grendel will be joining the roster of characters with Season 2. The ferocious beast will be available immediately for players who have an Awakened or Exalted Founder's pack. Other players wi??ll have the ability to farm the components required to craft Grendel, who will then be permanently unlocked.

Other than the teaser trailer, Airship Syndicate hasn't released much about Grendel just yet. According to?? his description, Grendel is an enraged berserker who explodes into battle in a whirlwind of speed and fury. His full reveal details will be comin??g soon.

Mid-season Live Event and New Content

The first-ever live event, Call of the Void, will have st?ranger rifts appearing all across the Highlands. Players will be able to seek out and explore the rifts which are full of mysteries and surprises. Two new quests will lead players into the flames as they confront the Highlands Fire Lord. Another quest titled The Final Score will unlock the Drill Machine, a new secret weapon constructed deep in the Mines.

A new Lost Zone, Gloom Dungeon, and a new weapon called Juggernaut are also coming in the update. Wayfinders who complete the event will gain access to an exclusive Gloom Da?gger skin called Dawnin??g Hope.

Finally, a slew of quality-of-life and balance updates will be coming to Wayfinder in phases. You can find the full patch notes full of fixes on the Wayfinder Wednesday blog post.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Season 2 was titled Call of the Void. Call of the Void is actually a live event that is part of an upcoming mid-season update with new content, whereas Grendel will come to Wayfinder w??ith Season 2. We apologize for the incorrect information!

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Don't lose your way (finder)

Airship Syndicate is teaming up with the studio behind Warframe for a new multiplayer title. Wayfinder is a co-op action RPG th?at mixes fantasy and tech for some co-op action RPG adventures.

Revealed at tonight's Game Awards 2022, Wayfinder is a new action RPG for PC and consoles, aiming for 2023. Creative director Joe "Mad" Madureira, of Battle Chasers fame, is at the helm with Airship Syndicate. Digital Extremes, the company behind Warframe, is publishing.

Wayfinder is set in the wor??ld of Evenor, which is ?gradually being consumed by Gloom. Wayfinders (the players) take up the mantle and fight the Gloom, working to fight back against its spread together.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYFU7jrMAIM

Each Wayfinder has their own unique story to explore and pl??ay style to utilize. You can collect and craft gear to improve your loadout, while also boosting up your character themselves. Runs can be customized with unique modifiers and challenges to offer special hunting and gathering chances.

The draw is multiplayer, and it looks like you can set ??out with a pretty decently sized party. Alongside fighting the Gloom, there's also an at-home customization element with the player's A??partment.

Finding a way forward

While Airship Syndicate and Digital Extremes are aiming for 2023 on PC and console, you'll potentially be able to play Wayfinder before the year's out. A closed playtest is being held for Wayfinder starting on Tuesday, December 13. If you want to try it out, you can head over to the Wayfinder PC playtest sign-ups here. Meanwhile, PlaySt??ation playtests will be held in January.

Then, in spring 2023, the duo of Airship and Extremes aims to launch Wayfinder into Early Access on PC and PlayStati??on. A free-to-play full launch is expected to follow in fall 2023, and embrace Digital Extremes' "free-and?-fair" monetization policy, according to a press release.

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No need to stay in one lane

Riot Games has spent the last several years building up numerous efforts that all came to a head now, at the tail end of 2021. Projects like Arcane and its Riot Forge publishing arm, alongside stories within games like Legends of Runeterra, are all expanding the world of League of Legends outwards. And Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is no exception.

Ruined King is published by Riot, but developed by a team that isn't a stranger to making a role-playing game. Airship Syndicate previously got some acclaim for its work on Battle Chasers: Nightwar, and in a lot of ways, Ruined King feels like a spiritual successor. Its combat, art, and general flow instantly brought back memories of the short time I've spent with Nightwar.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUkyg3sUdWc

But really, Ruined King has impressed me in how it re-contextualizes so many characters, plot points, and settings for the larger world of League of Legends. I've been playing League off and on since 2010. I'm well aware of who ch?aracters like Miss For?tune, Yasuo, and Ahri are.

What's worked so well for Ruined King is how it puts these characters in completely different situations. Set in Bilgewater, the anything-goes haven for pirates and scallywags in Runeterra, you work with these characters as they all gradually come together under a shared cause. The Harrowing, a terrible and disastrous phenomenon, is set to run o??ut from the Shadow Isles and into Bilgewater unless this ragtag group can put aside their?? differences and fight evil together.

The difference up front is obvious, in that it's a single-player RPG rather than a five-on-five competitive MOBA. Rather than worrying about laning well and managing toxic teammates, you get to spend time exploring the world and seeing these characters interact. There's a lot of dialogue, and Ruined King takes some extra time to hel??p these champions?? and their world feel fully realized.

In one of the earlier dungeons, there was an entire side-story about a?? haunted mansion I could stumble into if I took the non-critical path at the fork. Its reward was one locket, which has admittedly been a good piece of equipment so far. But i??t was also some extra world-building, as I got to explore the real horrors inflicted on the folks who had once lived in Grey Harbor.

Side stories and quests like this litter the map, tucked away just off the beaten path for you to explore. If anything, I felt like it was pretty easy to miss these events. Some I walked right by, only to stumble upon later once I decided to see if I could really go into certain doors or not. These little avenues within Ruined King took me to stories abo?ut grumpy diners, missing blueprints, and a bard in dire?? need of inspiration.

Even the champions get a lot mor?e depth here, thanks to having more opportunities for character writing to come through. Yasuo's lingering regrets and issues with self-medication were a surprise, as was the simmering tension between characters like Ill?aoi and Miss Fortune (who is just as often referred to as Sarah Fortune here). One particular highlight was Ahri. Her story starts out with a pretty big emotional hit, diving into her internal conflict between self and nature.

Plus, little touches help add even more onto these characters. Ahri charms people in dialogue, with the telltale pink heart zipping across when she does so, just as it does in League of Legends. In dungeons, you can perform an attack with your active character to add special effects to battle; Braum slams the ground ??with his shield, while Illaoi whips out a tentacle and slams it o?n foes.

And of course, combat in Ruined King is where it all comes together. It admittedly took me a while to click with the sheer breadth of options, both for fighting in combat and customizing moves and stats outside of combat. Ruined King is a lot denser than it first appears, but luckily that starts to fade away as you can parse out the proper nouns and look at what system??s are doing.

Ruined King combat comes down to the lanes, so fitting for an RPG based on a MOBA. Characters act on a timeline, with different moves having wind-up and cooldown periods between?? use. Sometimes this means jetting out a protective shield ahead of a big enemy attack, or delaying an ability to ensure you can use it in the more damaging Power Lane. Different hazards and boons will slide down the lane?s too, rewarding or punishing you for landing in their windows.

I've described MOBAs once as hyper-competitive RPGs, and Ruined King does a lot to prove tha?t. Signature characteristics like Yasuo's gathering wind and focus on critical strikes or Miss Fortune's Strut and Tap effects translate effortlessly into RPG combat. Airship Syndicate has done a lot of work in making sure these characters play well, and feel like their MOBA inspirations too.

Illaoi is maybe the most interesting change, as she's a bruiser in League of Legends but takes on the role of healer in Ruined King. This could have easily been fumbled, but I really, really like what Airship Syndicate has done with Illaoi for Ruined King. Her healing gaining power from the Tentacles she has out encourages a sort of paladin playstyle, dealing damage and heal??ing in kind.

I'm still roughly working my way through the campaign, which seems modestly sized. Most estimat??es I've seen place it around 20 to 25 hours for credits, which is hefty enough without becoming an 80-hour colossus. And it seems like the side quest content is plentiful as well.

But really, what's going to keep me seeing Ruined King through is watching these League characters interact in new and interesting ways. I've wondered before if projects like the card game Legends of Runeterra or the Netflix Arcane series are attempts to get players into League of Legends, and I don't think that quite fits. Instead, there are increasingly more ways t??o e??xperience this fantasy world, outside of just the MOBA.

If you don't want to dive deep into the competitive League part, you can play the autobattler, or the rhythm-runner, or look ahead to the fighting game. Or simply settle in with what's a pretty enjoyable RPG in Ruined King. If anything, it's a testament to ho??w well even more s??ide games could work in this universe.

_{[These impressions are based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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The League of Legends RPG goes live as Riot Forge shows off several of the projects it has in the works

Today, Riot's partner publishing platform Forge showcased some of its upcoming lineup of games. And alongside one previously announced title, Riot Forge surprise-dropped Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, while giving a glimpse ahead at what's to come for?? Runeterra.

Ruined King takes place in the world of League of Legends, starring a party made up of popular League champions. Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Pyke, Ahri, Yasuo, and Braum join forces to stop Viego—the Ruined King—in a single-player RPG adventure. Developer Airship Syndicate previously worked on games like Darksiders Genesis and Battle Chasers: Nightwar, and Ruined King certainly seems to take after the latter.

//youtu.be/eUkyg3sUdWc

It's available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store. PS4 and Xbox One versions are forward-compatible with next-gen systems. Owners of those versions get a free upgrade to the next-gen version, within console family, when those launch at a later date. Ruined King will retail for $29.99, with a digital Deluxe Edition offering som?e extra goodies for $39.99.

Those who want a little extra can go for the Collector's Edition, which has an art book, vinyl soundtrack, cloth map of Bilgewater, mug, notebook and pen, and an exclusive sketch from artist Joe Madureira for $129.99. Anyone who picks up Ruined King: A League of Legends Story within? 30 days of launch will get an in-game weapon for Yasuo too.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE7EjTdsmlw

Alongside the release of Ruined King and the rhythm runner Hextech Mayhem, which is also out today, Riot Forge showed off a few of its future projects. The first is the previously announced CONV/RGENCE, a 2D action-platform??er from Do??uble Stallion starring Ekko that will launch next year.

//youtu.be/9E5BCiqg9Rs

Riot also announced Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story, from RiME developer Tequila Works. It's seemingly cu??te, heartwarming adventure coming to PlayStation and Xbox consoles, Switch, and PC sometime in 2022. L??astly, the Riot Forge teased a forthcoming game, ambiguously placed in the Demacia region, home to Garen and Lux.

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is available now for consoles and PC, while Hextech Mayhem is out for Switch and PC, with Netflix coming sometime later.

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