🎮 Diablo 4 New Class Leak, Beyond Good & Evil 2 Might Utilize Gen AI and Plans for Next Resident Evil Remakes...
Diablo 4 New Class Leak, Beyond Good & Evil 2 Might Utilize Gen AI, Plans for Next Resident Evil Remakes, Max Payne Remains in Full Production and more!
Hello friends,
Today is August 21st 2025 and I hope you’ve had a great week 🙌
In today’s news:
🎮 Diablo 4 New Class Leak
🎮 Beyond Good & Evil 2 Might Utilize Gen AI
🎮 Plans for Next Resident Evil Remakes
🎮 Max Payne Remains in Full Production
⚡ Lightning Round!
🫡 True Tribute!
😄 Personal Update
All of this is brought to you in a 5 min format ⏲️
Let’s dig in!
🎮 Diablo 4 New Class Leak
It looks like my prayers have been answered. According to one of the recent leaks shared by GameRant, Blizzard could be planning to add Paladin to their next expansion.
Originally, the news surfaced on the Spanish Diablo fansite DiabloNext. Apparently, someone has spotted a new build called “2.5.Xpaladin.67961” on Blizzard’s servers. Of course, that is purely a speculation at this point, as the company hasn’t confirmed anything about a new class being added sometime soon. But to this day, Paladins remain the most anticipated class for Diablo 4, and many (myself included) can’t wait to play it.
My best guess is that it’s currently being under development and the devs are planning to introduce it along with the next expansion sometime next year, same as they did with a Spiritborn class.
Since the last time I played the game, Blizzard really hasn’t added anything new. I mean, sure, they did some rebalancing, added a bunch of seasonal grinding content, but appart from that, nothing. And my guess is that this is the case for a lot of people who are not content creators. So, I’m really hoping they’d add something of value to the game soon 🤞
🎮 Beyond Good & Evil 2 Might Utilize Gen AI
And while everybody is still on the fence when it comes to AI, another rumour surfaced recently that suggests that one of the most anticipated games from Ubisoft.
Despite the fact that the game was in development for more than a decade, a report from Comicbook suggests that the team plans to use Gen AI for the game’s NPCs, among other things. According to a notable leaker:
🔥Leak Express: Beyond Good & Evil 2
- At least until early this year, it was still in development
- A change in the game's name was considered
- Specialists in generative AI for NPCs have been brought into the project
- A story trailer was made that was never released
Of course, all of it should be taken with a pound of salt. The good news is that the game is still allegedly in development, and the team is at least somewhat close to narrowing things down when it comes to the story. Or maybe they are already rethinking it…
Whatever it is, I think that the fact that Ubisoft is even working on this project, considering the turmoil it’s been through, is already a good sign. Beyond Good & Evil was one of the first games that I played as a kid on PlayStation, and I would love to see it brought back to life, provided the company is cautious with Gen AI and doesn’t sacrifice the quality of the game just to populate it with empty NPCs…
What are your thoughts on using Gen AI in this manner?
🎮 Plans for Next Resident Evil Remakes
AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem is back at it again with another scoop of information related to Resident Evil, and this time it’s about a couple of remakes that have been in development for a while.
According to them, the next batch of remakes to tie off the series might be released sooner than some of us thought:
The next remakes are Resident Evil: Code Veronica & Resident Evil Zero. They should be releasing in 2027/2028, though I'm unclear this second which is coming out first & which second. But that's what I'd say to expect.
Said this many times over almost two years now it feels.
And if you are hoping to hear something about Revelations, in response to another user asking whether we should expect Revelations 3, they responded with this:
I hope some day, but at present no. There was a Rev 3 in dev for a few years, but it got cancelled in 2022 because it wasn't turning out good, & they needed to prioritize RE:4, RE9, & their recently greenlit Code Veronica & Zero Remakes over rebooting it.
Maybe one day.
Again, as with any leaks of this kind, take it with a grain of salt.
As a person who never played either Veronica or Zero, I kind of don’t know what to expect. On one hand, their recent remakes were quite good, though some of them were much shorter than I was hoping for. So, we’ll see where this road leads us as well as whether any of this info is actually true or not 😅
If you haven’t subscribed yet, this button is just for you ⤵️
🎮 Max Payne Remains in Full Production
And some good news for people who are still patiently waiting for a Max Payne. According to an official Remedy Entertainment Plc: Half year financial report January–June 2025, the game seems to be going well and is currently in full production mode.
The report itself is substantial to read through, but when you scroll down to the “games in development” section, you can see this statement:
The Max Payne 1 & 2 remake project continues its progress and remains in full production. In the second quarter, the team built on steady momentum from earlier in the year. Collaboration with Rockstar Games remains close and productive, ensuring alignment as the project advances toward its next major phase.
It’s interesting that both companies are collaborating on this one. And it would be even more interesting to know to what degree, but we probably never will.
Which is great. I think the world has definitely lost something without the Max Payne games of old, and my personal hope is that Remedy would at least try getting the feeling right with these remakes when it comes to both shooting and the story 😅
Are you still waiting for these remakes?
⚡ Lightning Round!
1…2…3…Go!
🎮 Targeted Cost Initiatives and AI use at Embracer
While we are still on the subject of AI, Embracer Group recently released a Q1 Report where they shared that AI is “an increasingly supportive force” and a bunch of goals that the company will be following to “improve profitability and free cash flow”:
IP-led focus – We are doubling down on our greatest strength: empowering talented teams to deliver unforgettable experiences based on globally loved IPs. We accomplish this by an increased capital allocation to our core IPs. Over many years and across hundreds of game releases, our core IP had 3.1x ROI vs non-core at 1.6x. Core IP stood for 20% of capex a year ago, is expected to reach 40% this year, and it could reach 80% longer term, as we continue to reduce investments into non-core IP. Game development cycles are 3-5 years, and we are almost 2 years into this transition.
Operational discipline – We are not just renaming our group, but significantly rewiring the business to create one powerhouse unit within PC/Console. This comes through smarter collaboration, increased streamlining, shared services and with AI as an increasingly supportive force. These factors will be key to unlocking value and expanding margins.
Targeted cost initiatives – We focus on continuous improvement as well as targeted cost initiatives relating to underperforming businesses, to free up capital to deploy with better returns. These initiatives could potentially include divestments. Assets that we so far have categorized as non-strategic had a negative Adjusted EBIT contribution of SEK 250 million and margin impact of 2% percentage points on a pro forma basis over the past twelve months.
I’m always confused by these corporate statements that sound amazing, but what does it actually mean, and how is it going to reflect on the company and the projects?
🎮 Krafton Responds to the Lawsuit from Subnautica 2 Devs
After being sued by the former Unknown Worlds executives for firing them, claiming “the former leadership abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them”, Krafton is finally answering the legal action.
According to a more than 100-page document submitted to the court, the publisher claims that after dividing $200 million each from the $500 million sale of Unknown Worlds, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire (2 of the 3 executives who brought the complaint) abandoned Subnautica 2's development, focusing instead on personal projects. Whereas Ted Gill (the 3rd one), who got $60 million from the initial deal, aimed to release Subnautica 2 as quickly as possible in order to get his share of the bonus payout.
It would be interesting to see how exactly these guys are going to counter all the arguments that Krafton brought forward 👀
🎬 New Teaser for Fallout TV Show
Finally, some news arrived for Fallout Season 2 in the form of a poster to give us a glimpse of things to come.
With the more details promised to be revealed at Gamescom, as you can see, the picture shows the main characters walking in the desert with a welcome sign of New Vegas showing up in the background.
Can’t wait to see more details 😁
🫡 True Tribute!
Today I wanted to salute my partner, who has been a content creator for a while, but she recently decided to step it up and start sharing all her beautiful illustrations!
If you like to see some of her work and support her on her journey, take a look!
😄 Personal Update
With Gamescom being underway, I’m trying to catch everything that’s going on. A lot of news is going around, and so little time to cover everything 😅
On the bright side, we’ve got our first AB Bounce update out the door today, so everybody is pretty thrilled in the studio. I’m hoping that everything goes well with it and everybody appreciates our efforts to make this game even better. So far, we’ve been among the top 10 games on Apple Arcade, and I’m hoping that we continue to do well or even better with this update.
And while we are waiting for some feedback from our players, the work continues. We’ve got so many different plans for more updates that hopefully will continue to delight our players!
This is all the news I have for you folks today.
Thanks for making it this far! 🙌
If you feel like supporting me and my work, consider Powering-Up GameDev Relay 🎮
Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay.
So happy they're going with RE: 0 and Code: Veronica. These are 2 games that are full of great ideas but just fumbled the execution; to be honest? I've always detested RE5 too 😬
+1 Subscriber to your partner. :)