In the mid-1760s, an English aristocrat published The Castle of Otranto, widely recognized as the first gothic novel. In the mid-2010s, a French-Canadian composer put kitchen knives on his piano strings to see if he could scare himself with the resulting sound. He did, and Dead by Daylight, one of the most popular multiplayer games, found its main theme – and its voice.  The thread connecting these seemingly disparate events is stronger than you might initially think. I spoke with composer Michel April; audio director Frédéric Poirier; Behaviour’s head of partnerships Mathieu Côté; and senior creative director Dave Richard about the game’s enduring appeal. I also spoke with Laura Westengard, professor of literature, gothicism, and trauma studies at the City University of New York about how that appeal is closely intertwined with horror traditions stretching back to the 1760s and how Behavior evolved them in a way that speaks to modern audiences on an intimate level.

The parallels between Metaphor ReFantazio’s political setting, the rebirth and widespread acceptance of fascism in modern politics in the real world, and the growing divide between classes and races are striking and unsubtle, and very intentional from the game’s creator.

20 years is a long time to tell a story, but that’s what developer Nihon Falcom has done with the Trails series, spinning out plot developments and narrative surprises over 12 games split into four distinct arcs. Trails through Daybreak, the first in a new subseries and the latest to release around the world, represented several important milestones for Falcom and their work on the Trails franchise. Not that any of those victories came easily. I spoke with company president Toshihiro Kondo during Anime Expo 2024 about the challenges that helped Falcom forge a strong new identity for the series with Daybreak and what makes it an important departure from previous games in the series.

Believe it or not, Brad Pitt played a part in bringing the latest Yakuza game to American audiences. Well, sort of. The Yakuza games are known for their specific (and sometimes absurd) depictions of life in modern Japan, expertly translated for American audiences by the studio’s localization team. But the crime-drama franchise faced a new challenge when it transposed its story to the 19th century in the 2014 title Like a Dragon: Ishin! Parts of the game take place in Kōchi, a region located on the island of Shikoku in southern Japan, but explaining the local Tosa dialect to foreign audiences proved difficult. Then, the team had a breakthrough.

Several employees tell GLHF that the policy, which is only in place for QA workers, also threatens the well-being of those who remain with the company. Activision Blizzard is implementing a permanent return-to-office policy for QA employees at its Activision campuses in El Segundo, Austin, and Minneapolis, effective Jan. 1, 2024, the ABK Workers Alliance said in a recent statement. The Alliance shared a copy of the statement with GLHF ahead of its publication and said that the decision threaten

When you think of space, your mind probably goes to something John Williams composed – maybe the theme from E.T. or one of Star Wars’ big pieces. Films and TV have filled the soundless void with specific styles that shaped the genre, from sweeping orchestral arrangements for epic tales and synth-fueled punk in harder sci-fi stories. Starfield composer Inon Zur wanted something different for Bethesda’s space game, however, and he tasked himself with creating a new kind of soundscape representative of a future that’s not so out of reach. The journey took him on a space odyssey of his own that lasted the better part of a decade and produced one of the more ambitious soundtracks of 2023, and Zur spoke with GLHF about the process of bringing it all to life.

Composing video game music is tough at the best of times, and it's even more daunting when you're departing from an established style and creating a whole new culture and world with your sounds. Such was the task facing CD Projekt Red composers P.T. Adamczyk and Jacek Paciorkowski when they started designing the score for Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion, and they tell GLHF that while the sounds and styles of Dogtown presented a unique challenge for them, it was also an exciting chance

Long before the days of free trials up to Heavensward and thousands of fans eagerly waking up before dawn to run through a new patch's dungeons with friends, Final Fantasy 14 was in trouble. A now-renowned complete rework, FF14: A Realm Reborn, was eventually released to critical acclaim. There are many reasons why it succeeded – but among them is the improved English script.

When Nintendo launched Splatoon in 2015, it catapulted the ink-splatting game into an environment rife with hostile players and graphic violence. Here was another online shooter, but one seemingly meant for children, with a cartoonish look and what amounts to ink-filled water guns instead of assault rifles and rocket launchers. Seven years later, Splatoon 3 continues to draw fans as likely to celebrate their newest in-game fashion as they are a big win, in contrast to hyper-competitive shooters that once defined the genre.

While the growing trend in interactive entertainment prefers to blur boundaries between video games and traditional mediaby giving viewers ever more influence in shaping the experience, Easy Allies has a different vision for the future. The streaming group recently launched a new series called Mysterious Monsters that blends traditional trivia-based game shows with role-playing games, and while it’s found success with the gaming crowd, the show’s producers hope it can help start a broader trend

Localizing a video game is a monumental task under the best of circumstances, but there’s an additional layer of pressure when working on a sequel with a devoted fanbase that has held out hope for over ten years. This was the situation Square Enix’s English localization team found itself in while developing NEO: The World Ends With You, a direct follow-up to the 2007 JRPG The World Ends With You. The team went through great lengths to capture and expand the tone of the original, but that was...

Ryu Ga Gotoku studio’s latest depicts the profound social and emotional consequences of bullying at school. While the game’s school stories offer a break from the main narrative, their themes hit close to home for those of us who had a tough time fitting in as youngsters.

"Feast and famine": How the pandemic influenced games public relations Is the pandemic a blip or the herald of a new age of public relations? 2020 was a real Tale of Two Cities scenario for the games industry. It was the best of times, with record-breaking revenue and significant increases in the number of people playing video games. It was the worst of times, with countless delays, layoffs, and an untold amount of human suffering.