In 2023, Matthew McConaughey took the stage at The Game Awards to unveil his first video game project: Exodus. While I and many others initially only knew it in that context (and often referred to it as “the Matthew McConaughey game”), as more details and trailers emerged over time, it became apparent that this game was more than the actor who introduced it. Developed by Archetype Entertainment, a team founded by former employees of AAA studios like Naughty Dog, Halo Studios, and especially BioWare, Exodus is not just an ambitious and exciting RPG: it’s the next game to appear on the cover of Game Informer. You can check out the cover art, which features Salt the Awakened octopus, below:
Video editor Eric Van Allen and I traveled to Austin, Texas, to visit Archetype and play roughly four hours of its upcoming sci-fi adventure. Exodus is set 40,000 years in the future, when humanity had to leave the Earth behind. Now, they’re able to travel vast distances at near lightspeed, but this makes them experience time dilation: a phenomenon that causes you to experience weeks, months, or years in transit, despite feeling like only seconds have gone by. Time dilation, along with talking animals and highly-advanced Celestials, is a foundation of Exodus’ worldbuilding. In the game, it means your decisions don’t just affect the immediate future; you’ll see the impact decades later.
Eric and I explored an early mission set in the Traveler Launch Center that introduces Salt, a sentient Octopus who pilots a mech and stars on the cover of our September/October issue. Then, we got to stroll around Persepolis, Exodus’ hub city, and play a second mission set on Khonsu, a space station inhabited by a society of giant, talking frogs. Subscribers will be able to read all about it in the 14-page cover story, and we’ll also publish follow-up coverage on our website and YouTube channel, including a rapid-fire interview. We’ve also got six pages in the next issue from editor-in-chief Matt Miller, who spoke to author Peter F. Hamilton and folks at Archetype about all the non-video game Exodus projects, including the novels, the tabletop RPG, and the episode of Secret Level.
Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg that is this next issue. We’re also using this month to celebrate Game Informer’s 35th anniversary with a 12-page spread featuring some of our favorite covers accompanied by quotes from people who worked on them. Former editors like Elizabeth Olson, Andy McNamara, Ben Hanson, and Dan Ryckert indulge us with strolls down memory lane. We also included quotes from several legends across gaming history, including Ed Boon, Ken Levine, Takashi Iizuka, and even Tony Hawk. If you’re a physical subscriber, you’ll also receive an exclusive 35th anniversary poster: a collage of many of our 380 covers, shipped alongside your issue in the mail.
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We also tapped guest contributor Scott White to reflect on the legacy of Final Fantasy X (alongside quotes from Yoshinori Kitase), and guest contributor Alicia Haddick explores how film adaptations of indie games are the next big thing, with Japan leading the way. On the home team, executive editor Kyle Hilliard spoke with the developers of The Talos Principle 3, who told him that the next entry will be the series’ definitive end. Meanwhile, Marcus Stewart played 1666: Amsterdam in the titular city, and broke down his gameplay impressions across six pages. Finally, executive editor Brian Shea spoke with members of Sonic Team about the blue hedgehog’s legacy for the series’ 35th birthday (the same age as Game Informer – isn’t that cute?).
The Exodus issue will also be chock-full of our regular rotation of content, too. We’ve written previews galore, including looks at The Duskbloods, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Gears of War: E-Day, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, and Vampirium: 1997. We’re including reviews of Halo: Campaign Evolved, Beast of Reincarnation, Big Walk, Denshattack, The Mermaid Mask, Splatoon Raiders, and more. And we’re even including an expanded edition of GI Spy, featuring pictures of Game Informer staff across the company’s 35-year history.
Finally, if you missed yesterday’s news, it’s a doozy; we’re expanding physical subscriptions to a whopping 40 new countries! Subscribers in these new regions will get the Exodus issue as their first taste of the magazine, and we couldn’t be happier about it. Our editor-in-chief, Matt Miller, even wrote a special letter from the editor to mark the occasion and commemorate Game Informer’s 35th anniversary.
If you’re an international digital subscriber in one of our newly participating regions, you can upgrade your existing plan to a print subscription on the subscribe page. And if you’re not a subscriber at all yet, you can sign up today to receive 10 copies of Game Informer shipped to your door each year. All subscribers can read the digital edition right now, and if you just want to pick up a single issue, Game Informer is still available in bookstores and on newsstands worldwide.
For more Exodus, stay tuned: we’ll have plenty of written and video coverage of the game in the coming weeks on our coverage hub.