Infinity Nikki, set to be one of the most-played games of 2024, just got its long-awaited release date. The open-world gacha game will hit PC, mobile devices, and PlayStation 5 on December 5.
This date is actually special for the team at Infold Games (a part of Papergames) as it celebrates the 12-year anniversary of the series, which started with Nikki Up2U: A Dressing Story in 2012. Infinity Nikki is the fifth game in the series, but is the first one to make the jump from exclusively being on mobile. It’s also the first Nikki game to not be solely a dress-up gacha game. There are dress-up elements in Infinity Nikki, but it’s grown from being a free-to-play casual mobile title to a platforming, open-world exploration game with gacha elements.
Infinity Nikki has been marketed as the “coziest open-world game” ever, and that seems to be the case from some recent previews. Our writer found it to be very laid-back compared to other free-to-play gacha games like Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero, and it was laos one of the best games we played at PAX West this year. In it, the titular Nikki goes on an adventure throughout Miraland with her cat, Momo, where she’ll explore by platforming, taking pictures, and engaging in simple combat.
Nikki producer and studio founder Runhao Yao posted a letter posted on X announcing the release date, saying that it’s been a “one-of-a-kind” project that has proved challenging for the developers, who moved to Unreal Engine 5 and had to create a whole new type of game.
“It’s been tough, but our determination carried us through,” Yao wrote. “Our team has always believed in taking on the impossible, and because this was a Nikki project, we were even more motivated and inspired to pursue ‘infinity’ with everything we had.”
A letter to stylists from the producer of the Nikki series.#InfinityNikki #InfinityNikkiOfficialRelease pic.twitter.com/4NCsahHUjh
— Infinity Nikki (@InfinityNikkiEN) November 14, 2024
Infold Games announced that the game has already brought in over 30 million preregistrations after a closed beta in October that the developers say was “wildly successful.” This means players will get all the announced preregistration milestone rewards: 50,000 Blings, 300 Threads of Purity, 20 Resonite Crystals, and a four-star outfit called Far and Away. Infinity Nikki has drawn a ton of hype, so more rewards will be revealed soon.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.