The Black Friday savings are coming in thick and fast now, as Abylight Studios announces another eShop sale.

The company has reduced all of its published games on Switch by 50%; the deals found below are valid across Europe, the US and Japan, and will remain active right up until 2nd December.

Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition ($9,99)

Drifting in a mysterious world to find a cure for a deadly illness… and no, it isn’t the plot of 2020! It’s the insanely challenging and uniquely atmospheric indie masterpiece by Heart Machine, plus extra content of the Special Edition by Abylight. Enter the dark and detailed world of lost technologies, dangers and echoes of a violent past in this action adventure RPG inspired by the best of the 16-bit classics.

Cursed Castilla EX ($6,99)

Have you met Mouras, Ojáncanos, Nuberus and Malismos? You will in Cursed Castilla! Classic arcade gameplay meets European folklore to which the creatures mentioned belong. In this neo-retro masterpiece by Locomalito and Gryzor87, a demon used tears of a young witch to open a gateway to hell. You play as Don Ramiro, the King’s devoted knight, on his adventure to fight and banish the evil invading the lands of Tolomera.

Super Hydorah ($9,99)

In the mood to escape to space? Say no more, and get Super Hydorah, this shoot ’em up from Locomalito and Gryzor87! You’ll become the most skilled and dangerous pilot in the universe, tasked with freeing the star of Omios from the invasion of biomechanical critters. Liberate planets, destroy enemy bases and discover the mysterious force behind the invasion. Now, select a route, equip your ship, and let’s go!

Qbics Paint ($2,49)

Unleash your inner artist with Qbics Paint, the cute and chill game where you sculpt and paint 3D figurines with your fingers on the Nintendo Switch touchscreen. Pick the Maker mode to create your own Qbics, or have fun with the ones you’ve unlocked. Need inspiration? There’s plenty in Image Mode with a wide range of stock images. In these crazy times when relaxing is key to sanity, Qbics Paint would be an awesome game to enjoy together with the entire family.

We also reported on a similar Black Friday sale this morning from Kemco, which has reduced the prices of a number of its RPGs, and there are plenty of savings to be found on Nintendo products, too.

Have you found any Black Friday bargains so far this year? Let us know down below.

Unity Connect was first launched back in 2016 as a sort of social hub for Unity developers. Due to declining interest Unity have announced Unity connect will be closing by February 4th, 2021. Users were sent the following email announcing the closure:

Hi User,

Today we’re announcing that on February 4, 2021, Unity Connect, our dedicated talent and sharing marketplace, will shut down. We’re proud of the community that rallied around Connect and we are inspired by the great sharing and discovery that came from it.

We want to make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone who uses Connect. If you are an active user on the platform, click here to learn more about the alternatives that will be provided for some Connect features. If you would like to download any part of your profile, please feel free to do so before we delete your information on February 4, 2021.

If you head on over to the Unity Connect website you will see a notice of the upcoming closure with the following details:

We launched Unity Connect almost four years ago in an effort to provide a free community tool for all users, of all experience levels, to connect with each other. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on February 4, 2021, we will retire Unity Connect. Some features, e.g. posting new content, creating job posts, will be locked prior to this date.

We understand that these changes might cause inconvenience, therefore, we have made sure to provide alternatives for some of the most popular Connect features, please read on to learn more.

You can learn more about the Unity Connect closure and the alternative services available for Unity Connect users in the video below.

Famitsu’s Japanese chart figures are now in for 9th – 15th November, revealing that the Switch has had a very solid week despite the next-gen arrivals from Sony and Microsoft.

In the software charts, Switch titles accounted for half of the top ten, with two new PS4 entries gobbling up the top spots. New entry Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin managed to just fend off Animal Crossing: New Horizons to be the best-selling game on Nintendo’s system this week.

Here are the top 10 (first numbers are this week’s estimated sales, followed by total sales):

1. [PS4] Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (SIE, 11/13/20) – 84,475 (New)
2. [PS4] Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft, 11/10/20) – 45,055 (New)
3. [NSW] Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin (Marvelous, 11/12/20) – 32,906 (New)
4. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo, 03/20/20) – 32,585 (5,974,018)
5. [NSW] Pikmin 3 Deluxe (Nintendo, 10/30/20) – 31,073 (270,347)
6. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo, 10/18/19) – 24,115 (1,807,723)
7. [PS4] Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin (Marvelous, 11/12/20) – 22,955 (New)
8. [PS4] Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (SIE, 11/12/20) – 22,882 (New)
9. [NSW] Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory (Square Enix, 11/12/20) – 22,813 (New)
10. [PS5] Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition (SIE, 11/12/20) – 18,640 (New)

Things get a little more interesting in the hardware charts, with the first sales of the new consoles now starting to trickle in. Combined Switch sales (including the original and Lite model) were narrowly beaten by the sales of the new PS5 consoles, although supply issues meant that PS5 could have easily sold more. It’s a similar story for the new Xbox systems which only sold around 20,000 units, partly owing to a lack of stock.

Here are this week’s figures, followed by lifetime sales in brackets:

Nintendo Switch – 93,671 (13,215,665)
Switch Lite – 22,596 (2,824,591)

PlayStation 5 – 103,901 (New)
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 14,181 (New)
PlayStation 4 – 2,903 (7,674,109)
PlayStation 4 Pro – 71 (1,575,100)

Xbox Series X – 16,247 (New)
Xbox Series S – 4,287 (New)
Xbox One X – 14 (20,980)
Xbox One S – 11 (93,662)

Nintendo New 2DS / LL – 474 (1,746,460)
Nintendo New 3DS LL – 23 (5,888,770)

< Last week’s charts

Any surprises this week? Let us know in the comments.

For many years now, it’s been an accepted fact that, despite numerous attempts to better it (including a remake), the N64 title GoldenEye 007 is the best Bond game ever. So good, in fact, it’s even had a spoof movie made about it, and has also inspired a full-blown documentary into its creation.

Many have tried and failed to topple Rare’s FPS masterpiece (we still shudder at the memory of James Bond: 007 Legends), but most would agree that Hitman studio IO Interactive has the best chance of succeeding. The company has just revealed that it is working on an “original Bond” project which serves as an origin story and will allow players to step into the shoes of a young Bond as he attempts to secure his coveted ’00’ status.

No platforms have been confirmed for Project 007 (that’s a working title, by the way), and IO Interactive has stated that it is currently “recruiting elite talent from the around the world” to work on the game, which it will also be publishing itself.

Given that it’s quite likely to be several years away, it would perhaps be unwise to expect a Switch version, but – depending on whether or not a more powerful Nintendo console is available at the time of release – we could potentially see Project 007 come to the Switch as a “cloud” version, as has happened recently with Control and will happen soon with IO’s Hitman 3. Or maybe not.

Whatever happens, if any studio can come close to matching Rare’s seminal shooter, IO Interactive is it.

This week at Bungie, the Crow has found a new nest.

Hello, and welcome to the second TWAB of Beyond Light. We’ve got a bit to cover today, so we won’t spend too much time on introductions. Season of the Hunt kicked off proper on Tuesday. If you haven’t jumped in just yet, we have some wonderful web lore to get you prepared. I wasn’t mentally prepared for part 2…

IMMOLANT PT. 1 // IMMOLANT. PT 2

TWO DRINK MINIMUM

Wrathborn Hunts have begun. We still have the Deep Stone Crypt Raid, The Dawning, Trials of Osiris, Iron Banner, and more to look forward to over the course of the Season.

First stop: The raid.

On Your Marks. Get Set. Raid. 

Season of the Hunt isn’t the only thing making its grand entrance this week. At 10 AM PST on Saturday, November 21, the Deep Stone Crypt will become available.

We’ve talked through Contest Mode, shown off some fancy rewards, but we wanted to get in a final reminder before the show begins.

World First Verification Timeline 

Contest Mode Reminder and a Quick Stasis Update 

Quick bullets that all should be aware of:

There Will Be Loot 

Now, it wouldn’t be a race if there wasn’t something on the line. While many of you may have seen these rewards on our Instagram or even a preview on the Bungie Store website, we wanted to make sure to show these off in a TWAB before the raid released!

World First Raid Title (don’t call it a belt) 

The first Fireteam of 6 to complete the Deep Stone Crypt raid will be declared World First by Bungie from @Bungie on Twitter after verification from our analytics team. Official rules can be found here.

Day 1 Raid Emblem 

Complete the Raid within 24 hours with Contest Mode active (by 10 AM PST on Nov 22) to unlock this unique emblem.

Jacket Quest: Parka Edition 

Complete the raid by 9AM PST on December 1 to unlock the Bungie Rewards Deep Stone Crypt Raid Jacket for purchase.

Additionally, there are two deadlines that players should be aware of:

• Deadline to Claim Reward Code: December 31, 2020 9 AM PST
• Deadline to Purchase: December 31, 2020 11:59 PM PST

Now, only a few questions remain…

See you Saturday. It’s going to be a blast.

Securing the Entrance 

For a quick explanation of what’s coming, our friends from the Security team will be taking the stage to walk you through the process of SMS verification.

What is SMS verification? 

Bungie is implementing a quick account validation step for free-to-play players who want to access our high-stakes PvP modes in Destiny 2 on PC. Free-to-play accounts (PC only) will need to link and verify a cell phone number to their accounts via Bungie.net before being able to access those activities.

What activities are high-stakes? 

Trials of Osiris, Iron Banner, and Competitive PvP playlists are examples. As this feature rolls out, we will be looking to how it can grow, and potentially expanding it to alternate activities in the future.

Why are we doing this? 

Unscrupulous players can negatively impact everyone’s gameplay experience and undermine the hard-earned achievements of others. Bungie takes the threat of cheating seriously. We will continue implementing systems to help verify that accounts engaging in Destiny 2 activities are honoring our Code of Conduct and Terms of Service.

What do you need to do? 

If you are a free-to-play Destiny 2 PC player you will receive a notice in-game the first time you try to access a protected activity. This will provide you with a “Verify Now” link to follow to Bungie.net and process your SMS linking. When you enter your cell phone number and request a verification code you will receive a quick text message with “Bungie Code: ######”.  Once you enter that code on the Bungie.net page to complete your verification process you can sign back into the game to get immediate access to the activity you want to play.

Once this feature is live, free-to-play PC players will see an image in-game which will walk them through the signup process.

Game2Give 2020 Fundraising Campaign – Light Keepers 

Over the years, this community has proven time and time again that gaming does good. You’ve acted as Guardians of the world, providing aid to people in need, no matter the challenge. We’re excited to announce our next initiative, partnering with Game2Give, starting on December 1! Without further ado, we’ll pass the mic over to the Bungie Foundation to run us through this wonderful event.

Bungie Foundation: Gear up for our second annual Game2Give charity event in support of the Bungie Foundation and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, benefitting sick kids across the country. We invite the Bungie Community to join us in celebration of what we can accomplish together through games and giving.

On Giving Tuesday, December 1 at 10 AM PST, we’ll be kicking off a 24-hour streaming marathon with some of your favorite influencers from a variety of channels including Twitch and Facebook Gaming. We’ll have featured live streams taking place throughout the entire 2-week campaign, so be sure to follow us @BungieLove to receive the latest information!

We are excited to share the sweet prizes we have to thank our donors for their amazing contributions to help kids. Check them out:

Donation Incentives

• A $25 donation will earn you the 2019 Mist Blossoms Emblem and Gilded Shell Exotic Ghost.
• If you missed them last year, this is your chance to get your hands on them!
• A $50 donation will earn you the above items, plus the new Light Keepers Emblem.

• A $100 donation will earn you the three items above and will enter you to win an item from the Bungie Prize Pool. Prizes include GameStop/EB Games gift cards (U.S. and Canada only), Destiny 2: Beyond Light Digital Deluxe Editions, and Destiny 2: Beyond Light Physical Deluxe Editions.

Best of all, 100% of donations go directly to the charities. All in-game digital incentives will be automatically redeemed via donors’ Bungie.net ID and will appear in the Destiny 2 Collections tab on or after Tuesday, December 1.

This year, we have also partnered with the online fundraising platform Omaze. Gamers from around the world can enter for their chance to win $20,000 to create the ultimate gaming rig and support this fundraising initiative! More details will come leading up to our campaign’s launch.

As we head into the holiday season, we want to extend our heartfelt gratitude for each and every one of you, who continue to bring smiles, joy, and hope for Little Lights everywhere. We hope you see yourself reflected in this mantra and hold it dear.

We are Light Keepers 

Those who dare to ignite hope in the face of uncertainty

By our united, global passion we protect those in need

Making a lasting difference for the Little Lights around the world

We are Light Keepers 

Love,

The Bungie Foundation

We’re also planning a few other goodies for you to unlock throughout the event when reaching certain donation milestones. Stay tuned for the full Game2Give 2020 article planned for December 1!

Tuning the Darkness 

It’s not often that an entirely new subclass makes its entrance into the ecosystem of Destiny 2. The team has been hard at work over the last year building abilities and Supers powered by the Darkness. Enemies around the solar system are shaking in fear of your Stasis powers, including your fellow Guardians in the Crucible.

Development Team: We have seen a lot of feedback on Stasis since Beyond Light launched last week. We’ve heard it’s a ton of fun to use, but certain aspects of this new subclass can be frustrating to go up against (looking at you, Shadebinder Warlocks). We have a few minor tweaks planned to go out in Hotfix 3.0.0.3 this week. Our goal here is to do some early tuning to rein Shadebinders back in while still maintaining their overall efficacy and power fantasy.  

Stasis Changes:  

• Stasis Breakout Damage reduced (110->90hp).  
• Adjusted the curve that reduces breakout damage using resilience. 
• Increased the damage reduction effect resilience has so that higher tiers of Resilience are more valuable.  
• Caps out at 90 Resilience. 
• Penumbral Blast (Stasis Warlock Melee) projectile speed reduced by 20%.
• Penumbral Blast (Stasis Warlock Melee) range reduced (was 28m now 16m). 
• Winter Wrath (Stasis Warlock Super) duration reduced (30s -> 24s). 
• Winters Wrath Light Attack (Stasis Warlock Super) cost reduced (5% per burst -> 4.5% per burst). 
• Cold Snap seeker speed reduced by 23%.

Against Guardians:  

• Cold Snap freeze duration lowered (4.75s -> 1.35s). 
• Ice Flare Bolts freeze duration lowered (4.75s -> 1.35s). 
• Penumbral Blast (Stasis Warlock Melee) freeze duration lowered (4.75s -> 1.35s). 
• Winters Wrath Heavy attack (Stasis Warlock Super) no longer affects players who are not encased. 

With all that said, we believe strongly in the “cosmic ice” wizard fantasy in PvE so we’re trying to target changes where we can towards the PvP experience specifically. With Stasis we’ve tried to push the sandbox in new directions and that increases the likelihood we introduce something spicier than normal.

When it comes to crafting new abilities, we believe the risk of shipping something a little hot is better than playing it safe and shipping something that doesn’t get you excited. As always, we’re going to be using data, playtesting, and feedback to help refine our direction and we’re going to keep responding. This will not be the last change to Stasis this Season. As we get closer to future changes, we’ll make another appearance in the TWAB for a patch note preview.

Thanks for playing, and we’ll see you out there in the wild.  

Let’s Talk Loot 

Since Beyond Light launched, we’ve been working through a whirlwind of feedback. What feels good, what needs work, and most importantly, how are you feeling? Today, we’ll be talking through a bit of player feedback concerning loot, and some short term plans the development team is working on.

Development Team: As Beyond Light has launched we’ve been tracking your feedback around loot, particularly weapons, and wanted to take a moment to let you know how we are processing it. Today we’re going to talk mostly about the short-term, with more information to follow in the future around the long-term as we work through those problems.

Infusion caps are intended to help keep Destiny 2 evolving and ensure that every release the new rewards are exciting and relevant to the meta. However, we agree with your feedback that there’s currently not enough variety in the world loot weapons available to players this season.

To that end we are adding back in a selection of weapons that will help alleviate this issue. We will also be watching to see how the landscape changes with the addition of weapons from Season 12 and this week’s Raid launch. We also agree that getting near-cap weapons from random world drops is frustrating. Thus, we are removing those from the pool, and are weighting drops more heavily towards newer weapons.

Here’s a list of adjustments to the world loot legendary weapons pool you’ll see with our November 24 hotfix:

While we are not yet ready to dive into the long-term strategy yet, we are listening to feedback and watching how the player build landscape evolves over these first few weeks of Beyond Light, and incorporating that feedback as we plan out future Seasons.

Feedback never stops, and we’re always excited to hear how you’re feeling about Destiny 2. Keep it coming.

Bashing Some Bugs 

 

This last week has been a whirlwind. New content, new bugs, and new investigations. Destiny Player Support has a full report of what’s we’ve found, and what we’re still on the hunt for.

This is their report.

Today, November 19, maintenance for Hotfix 3.0.0.3 will begin. Below is a timeline of events:

• November 19, 8 AM PST (1600 UTC): Destiny 2 maintenance for Hotfix 3.0.0.3 begins.
• November 19, 8:45 AM PST (1645 UTC): Players will be removed from activities and won’t be able to log back into Destiny 2 until 9 AM PST when Hotfix 3.0.0.3 will be available.
• November 19, 9 AM PST (1700 UTC): Destiny 2 Hotfix 3.0.0.3 has begun rolling out across all platforms and regions. Players will now be able to log back into Destiny 2. Ongoing maintenance is expected to conclude at 10 AM PST.
• November 19 10 AM PST (1800 UTC): Destiny 2 Maintenance is expected to conclude.

HUNT OR BE HUNTED 

This week, Season of the Hunt activities and story content unlocked for Season Pass owners. In order to access the Season intro mission, players should make sure to have completed the initial Forsaken and Shadowkeep story missions, which are free to all players.

Players should also make sure to have space in their quest inventory prior to interacting with Spider or the Crow in order to acquire Seasonal quests.

ARTIFACT PICKUP 

We are currently investigating an issue causing players who acquired the Seasonal Artifact before completing the full New Light Tower introduction to be blocked from progressing in the Season of the Hunt story and missions.

New Light players should be sure to complete the full Tower introduction prior to picking up the Seasonal Artifact from Zavala’s office.

We are continuing to monitor for reports of veteran players encountering this issue. If you believe you’ve been impacted by this issue and are not a New Light player, please report to the #Help forum.

DESTINY ADD-ONS 

Players who encounter issues with their Season Pass, expansions, or Beyond Light Character Boost are encouraged to view our Purchased Destiny Add-Ons Help article for information and troubleshooting steps they can take. Click here for more information.

PC MIGRATION AND BATTLE.NET LOGIN ENDING SOON 

Beginning on December 1, 2020, at 9 AM PST, logging in using Blizzard Battle.net accounts will no longer be  possible on Bungie.net or the Destiny Companion app, nor will users be able to migrate their Battle.net account to Steam. 

Users who only have a Battle.net account linked to their Bungie profile are strongly encouraged to either link another platform to their profile, or to perform PC migration to Steam (unless you already have a Destiny 2 Steam account). Click here for more information.

KNOWN ISSUES 

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

• We’ve identified an issue where the Vanguard strike Playlist difficulty was unintentionally set to 1100 Power.
• We are developing a fix to reduce the Recommended Power of Vanguard strikes Playlist to 1050.
• The Exo Stranger’s weekly challenge is mistranslated in languages other than English – players need to defeat combatants with or affected by Stasis off of Europa.
• Sparrows on Europa are not properly despawning.
• Meleeing as a Titan while using the Stasis subclass can result in a visual of multiple rapid punches.
• The lift tubes in the Warden of Nothing strike can close before all fireteam members are successfully through.
• The lift tubes in the Warden of Nothing strike fully drain Super energy.
• The Warsat Heroic Public Event in the Mothyards of the Cosmodrome doesn’t count completions for objectives.
• Yellow subtitles will appear as white even when the yellow option is selected.
• The Braytech RWP Mk. II no longer appears as owned in Collections for some players.
• High value target reward chests do not grant the proper amount of Glimmer.
• The holograms on the Stella Incognita bond and Bond of Last Departure ornament bounce aggressively.
• The eyes on the Phenotype Plasticity Mask no longer glow red.
• Adored cannot be reacquired from Collections.
• In-game PlayStation friends lists are missing large amounts of online friends.
• Player heads may not render when inspecting players in the Tower.
• Later Crucible rounds may display an inaccurate round timer.
• Vest of the Great Hunt clips through the Moonfang-X7 Cloak.
• The Titan Shiver Strike and Glacial Quake melee have inconsistent hit registration.
• Reaching Power Level 1200 may result in a “New Adventure” popup even though Adventures are no longer available.
• An incorrect amount of Orbs of Power may drop than what is displayed to have dropped when defeating enemies with a Masterworked weapon.
• In Survival, players may not enter into overtime when both teams have an equal amount of lives remaining.
• PlayStation Remote Play controls may no longer function for some players.
• Mida Mini-Tool and Drang cannot accept ornaments for their Baroque versions.
• Fallen Empire and Stasis Fragment quests can be purchased even with a full quest inventory.
• Participant kill audio plays in the Crucible even when not involved in a player kill.
• An increase in ARUGULA errors for players completing the Beyond Light campaign.
• In the Insight Terminus strike, Kargen will continuously perform ground slams and not allow players to progress past the conflux space.
• Combat Drill bounties say they require Clash kills, but actually requires kills in Elimination.
• Players may be directed to reacquire the Seasonal Artifact from Zavala’s office when they already have it in their inventories.
• The Garden of Salvation and Crown of Sorrow Warlock armor sets are not visible in Collections.
• The Unsecured/Outcry ship has the rocket engine effects floating behind the ship model.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Always Watching 

We’ve been spending a lot of time over the last week and a half watching players reacting to live events, expansion launches, and more. There have been a few moments where we were watching players taking advantage of some interesting bugs, too. Don’t worry, we aren’t keeping a naughty or nice list. You’re all still winners in our hearts.

Well, sort of. The actual winners for MOTW put out some fun videos that creep me the hell out. Festival of the Lost may be over, but there are still echoes of darkness reverberating through our Creations page.

Movie of the Week: Truth 

Movie of the Week: The Curse of Bad JuJu 

Movie of the Week: Risen (Warning – Strobing Lights/Imagery) 

An Artistic Touch 

I will always have great appreciation for those with a green thumb, but even moreso for those with a green thumb for art. These skills are earned through hours, days, weeks, months, and years of practice… but I will always be amazed at the pieces we see shared throughout our community. This week, we have an amazing take on Beyond Light, and more.

Featured Art: Go Beyond the Light 

GO BEYOND THE LIGHT! Hope you like my Beyond Light poster! ❄️??#Destiny2 #BeyondLight #destinythegame #DestinyArt #xbox #XboxSeriesX #SeriesX #PlayStation #ps5 #Halo #Commission pic.twitter.com/vz7powNNPp

— jack ? (@jackdrawss) November 14, 2020

Featured Art: Immolant Pt. 2 

?☀️ IMMOLANT PT.2 ☀️ ?

//In that last moment she seemed

as wholly luminescent as the Sun,

and I wished to be so brave.//#Destiny2 #destinythegame #DestinyArt pic.twitter.com/cvnrsPUXKL

— StellarStateLogic ❄️?? { Comm.: Full 3/3 } (@PedanticAuspice) November 17, 2020

Featured Art: Europan Fireteam 

ローンチおめ！(再掲) pic.twitter.com/I31Q2e3ARk

— ??????❄️ (@tmaaaaa3) November 11, 2020

If you have any Destiny inspired art, make sure to tag it with #DestinyArt on Twitter, Instagram, or whatever image hosting site you use! Each week, we pick a few and grant unique emblems to their creators.

I’ll admit, this TWAB has been somewhat difficult to write. Don’t get me wrong, what’s said above is incredibly important! Charity initiatives to help those in need, the upcoming raid race, new security measures, and Stasis tuning are great things to see. It’s always a fun time collaborating with the various teams of Bungie to get you a weekly dose of information.

Cheers,

-dmg04