Uggggh. Capcom had their showcase yesterday and announced Pragmata has been delayed indefinitely.

And they did it in the best way possible. Because it's looking fantastic.

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Most capcom titles I've played are worth the wait and they can have my money anytime they want.


Looking at you Monster Hunter (insert any version here).

Today's News:
* For those interested, Bandai Namco confirmed recent reports and rumors that they will be delisting Soul Calibur V and all of its DLC from PSN and Xbox Marketplace on June 19th.
Link: https://twitter.com/soulcalibur/stat...75650299879424

* Also for those interested, Nintendo is currently holding a big sale on select first and third party games for the Switch on their eShop from now until June 25th.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/...09694933348368 , https://www.nintendo.com/store/sales-and-deals/

* The FTC recently requested for an injunction to be issued against Microsoft to prevent the company from closing its attempted purchase of Activision Blizzard prior to their anti-trust trial which is set to start this August. Official reason is due to their belief that MS will try to push ahead with finalizing their purchase of AB despite the current legal issues surrounding it. The FTC is currently asking for this injunction to be issued no later than June 15th and for it to remain in affect until the court makes it official decision regarding the legal status of MS' deal with AB.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/ftc-requ...purchase-sale/

* Embracer Group recently announced that they will be enterting a restructuring phase soon with layoffs and a number of company owned studios currently expected to take place. Official reason given was "we are now initiating multiple actions to strengthen our cash flow generation and leverage our portfolio of IPs to become a stronger company and setting out on a stable future to build even greater games to the benefit of gamers and fans across the globe.”
Link: https://embracer.com/releases/embrac...mplementation/ , https://www.destructoid.com/embracer...sures-layoffs/

Today's News:
* Update to the recent news of the FTC filing for an injunction against Microsoft to put their attempted purchase of Activision Blizzard on hold for this summer as the presiding court ended up granting their request and MS will now not be allowed to finalize their potential purchase until after FTC's lawsuit trial starts this August.
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/13/2...ftc-injunction

* Indie studio Motion Twin announced that a new 10-episode animated series based on their Dead Cells game is currently in production by Bobbypills studio and Animation Digital Network. It was announced that this upcoming new animated series is currently planned to be released in 2024.
Link: https://twitter.com/motiontwin/statu...82072797454338

* Geoff Keighley recently announced that this year's Summer Game Fest broke the record for largest ever event in SGF history and also confirmed that SGF will continue with the next event currently scheduled for June 2024.
Link: https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/st...38357608628225

Illumination studio is currently denying rumors and reports of them currently working on a new animated film based on Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series.

Link: https://www.thewrap.com/zelda-animat...is-meledandri/ , https://www.destructoid.com/illumina...f-zelda-movie/

If Link doesn't say "Well excuuuuuuuuuse me princess!" - we riot....

Today's news:
* Nintendo announced they will be airing a new Nintendo Direct episode tomorrow starting at 10AM EST. It was also announced that this upcoming episode will be around 40 minutes long and mostly focus on games being released this year for the Switch including Pikmin 4.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/...55958448529408

* EA announced that they will be realigning their studios into two EA-based brands with one being their existing EA Sports brand and the other being a new brand called EA Entertainment.
Link: https://www.ea.com/news/empowering-o...o-drive-growth , https://www.destructoid.com/electron...ertainment-ea/

Today's News:
* 343 Industries announced that they will no longer release narrative cutscenes for the release of new seasons for Halo Infinite due to them wanting to shift those resources into adding more features and content and improving other aspects of the game.
Link: https://twitter.com/ske7ch/status/1670926893078691841

* A new amended "Players" class-action lawsuit was recently filed against Microsofy claiming that they have evidence that MS' attempted purchase of Activision Bliizard is solely to try to put Sony's Playstation brand out of business. This evidence revolves around an internal email claimed to be proof of an "uncontroverted evidence that Microsoft had the intention to put its main competition, the Sony PlayStation, out of the market." In a statement to Stehpen Totilo, a MS rep stated that this email dates back to 2019 and well before any offer was made to AB for a potential purchase. Totilo speculated that whatever anti-Playstation sentiments MS had at the time likely would be unrelated to their current plans and strategy for their potential AB purchase.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/...e-playstation/ , https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/st...04215006773257

* Some notable highlights from today's Nintendo Direct episode:
- A remake of classic SNES RPG game Super Mario RPG is currently in development and is currently planned to be released on November 17th.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r5PJx7rlds
- Nintendo confirmed that the rumors of them currently working on a new 2D-based Mario game is true with their official announcement of Super Mario: Wonder for the Switch and a release date of October 20th.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JStAYvbeSHc
- A remake of classic PS1 RPG game Star Ocean 2 was confirmed to be currently in development for the Switch.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/star-oce...are-enix-site/
- The upcoming Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Volume 1 collection set was confirmed to also include a release for the Switch to go along with the previously announced PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S platforms.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/a-fairly...ing-to-switch/
- A new Princess Peach-based game was announced to be currently in development. This will be the first game starring Peach as the main character since Super Princess Peach in 2005.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/princess...tle-next-year/

The Mario RPG remake looks like it might "lose some charm" with its "cutscenes". We shall see. (Not me, because I won't play it)

Super Mario RPG remake was sadly the highlight of the Direct today. As much as I friggin' love that game, it also still plays really well on the SNES Classic and I don't see any reason to drop $60 (or whatever they inevitably end up charging for it) when I could just as easily play it right now and probably get the same good experience

Super Mario RPG and the Metal Gear Solid Vol 1 were the things I was interested the most from today's Nintendo Direct.

I don't have any of the current gen consoles so as long as the performance of the Switch port is good enough, I'm likely getting the MGS collection set.

Also the new Ganondorf amiibo since I'm close to hitting the 50 amiibos goal for my collection and that will definitely be one of them. I'm at 45 right now but technically 44 since the Dark Souls amiibo I have ended up being a bootleg fake one from AliExpress.

https://www.destructoid.com/wp-conte...ne2023_411.jpg

Yeah, dunno about the mario rpg remake. Looks so "plastic". Losing a lot of charm, as lockjaw said.

Gonna play the eff out of it.

Plus it looks like Queen Valentina's boobs didn't jiggle wildly after getting hit. Terrible!

Jiggle physics are trademarked to Dead or Alive only!

Based on a recent Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board meeting, the earliest that E3 might come back could be 2026 assuming it ever comes back. During the meeting it was stated that E3 was cancelled for both 2024 and 2025.

In a statement to Axios’ Stephen Totilo, an ESA rep stated that they have not made any official decisions yet regarding potential plans for an E3 event next year.

Based on current speculation, if E3 were to return for 2024 it probably would not take place in LA and instead a different city.

Link: https://www.resetera.com/threads/e3-...celled.733938/ , https://www.destructoid.com/e3-2024-...tourism-board/

Today's News:
* Bethesda reportedly is still around 5 years away from finishing development on their upcoming Elder Scrolls G game, according to video game reporter Stephen Totilo. Totilo reported that Bethesda officials currently are not even sure what platform the game will be released for due to how far out its release is at the moment.
Link: https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/st...14548995366935

* In even more potential bad Bethesda news, Bethesda recently announced that the Collector's edition of Starfield game will not include a game disc and instead just a download code for it. In a bit of a head scratcher, the standard edition of the game will include a physical disc though.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/starfiel...n-actual-disc/

* Based on a recent data mine, the current unannounced Metal Gear Solid Collection Vol. 2 is currently rumored to include Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This data mine hack came from a recent update for Vol. 1 that contained text data for a potential Vol. 2
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/metal-ge...mingly-leaked/ , https://twitter.com/Nitroid/status/1671647361783721985

The first one is about Elder Scrolls 6 being 5+ years out, not Starfield. Had me scratching my head for a second like Starfield just got a 5 year delay lol

My bad, mixed up the two games from skim reading today's news too fast from Destructoid.

It's becoming the norm with collectors editions. Which is sorta stupid.

Got the God of War: Ragnarok. Had a nice steelbook case, no disc. Just a download code for digital.

Feel like the discs are just embedded with the same thing though. Instead of having to put in a code, it just reads it from the disc itself. The disc does some of the install, and it downloads the rest..... last time I bought a disc game anyway.




But for a collectors edition or $$$$$$ any edition, that's shenanigans.

Today's News:
* Evo Championship Series announced that signups for competitors for Street Fighter VI for this year's upcoming EVO tournaments broke the records for most ever EVO tournament players in Street Fighter series history and most ever players for a specific EVO game tournament in EVO history. For some comparison, the previous SF record for an EVO tournament was over 5,000 players.
Link: https://twitter.com/EVO/status/1673466628636561408

* According to a report from IGN, Perfect Dark reboot is currently rumored to be at least 2 to 3 years away from a potential release. It was reported that the reason for the game currently being in development hell revolves around issues in 2019 between Microsoft's internal The Initiative studio and a third party studio named Certain Affinity that MS brought in to help with the game's development. This ended up having the opposite effect causing the game's development to slow down and issues with the direction of its development and serious behind-the-scenes issues that lead to a lot of people leaving the project. It was reported that this was the reason why MS ended up having Crystal Dynamics take over the project but causing the game's development to be delayed even more than what MS had originally expected.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/xboxs-p...ill-years-away , https://www.destructoid.com/perfect-...ee-years-away/

* According to a report from Variety, CBS Eye Animation Productions recently partnered up with Innersloth studio for the production of a new animated television series based on Innersloth's Among Us game.
Link: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/amo...is-1235655516/

Does anybody actually give a shit about perfect dark? The whole appeal of the original was that it was a spiritual succesor to goldeneye.

Now its just another shooter.

It also wasn't very good as a Goldeneye successor

I think you're going to be in the minority on that one.

Here's a minority take: goldeneye was only good because you hadn't played doom

I feel like they're too different to compare.

I played Doom but was probably too young to appreciate it, but when Goldeneye came around I loved it.

Who is the majority to argue with noted video game expert Lock Jaw?

Goldeneye was great at the time because there weren't many cool/fun couch co-op FPS games at the time

or rather "local multiplayer"... w/e you wanna call it

GoldenEye was special since it proved at the time you could have a PC-like quality FPS game on consoles. It was doing stuff with graphic effects and A.I. that wasn't really seen in console shooters or games before.

It wasn't even the 1st big 3D shooter on the N64 since Turok beat it by a few months but Turok didn't have multiplayer which was GoldenEye's big trump card and why it became a legendary game in the end.

Turok was the shiznite. Miss those games. Need a new one so I can shoot losers with a cerebral bore in 4k.

Turok was both the first 3D platformer and 3D shooter I ever played. Since I never really one of those type of game a before, it took me a good month just to get used to platform jumping in 3D and beating the first level.

There was one jump around mid-way in the level that I could never land the timing properly and would always fall to my death and running out of lives in the process. Forgot how I managed to figure it out but it was never an issue afterwards.

That game also had a big monster that I told my little cousin whenever he'd be at my house to watch me play or play the game himself was called the giant meatball man which would be the proto-origin to my original Smelly Meatball name on TPWW.

lol nice, gonna randomly call you Giant Meatball Man from time to time now.

Just remembered how awesome it was to charge up and fire the chronoscepter for the first time haha

the two things that made me come back to perfect dark and play a bunch on n64: the farsight and different bots you could enter into multiplayer.

Besides modernizing the controls for modern shooters gameplay style, the other really good thing the XBLA remake of Perfect Dark did was to get rid of the lingering blurry screen effect whenever you were punched or made dizzy.

That got really ridiculous at times with the N64 version and think it didn't reset if you died early into a dizzy state.

Although the XBLA remake did have its own questionable design choices with adding in a weird echo sound effect for some of the game's multiplayer maps.

Yeah the dizzy thing was the worst, surprised they left it in the originalYeah this is 100% wrong.

hell yeah all my homies loved MeatSims

Today's News:
* SEGA reportedly has dropped all of their plans related to blockchain and NFT gaming for the foreseeable future, according to Bloomberg. It was reported that SEGA will no longer be offering their biggest franchises to third party blockchain developers in order to not "devalue" their IPs. It was also reported that they are also currently reassessing its approach to their big-budget online multiplayer-focused "super games" involving Web3 tech that is currently planned to start arriving in 2026.
Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...inter-persists , https://www.destructoid.com/sega-hit...ckchain-plans/

* IO Interactive recently announced that they will be opening a new studio in Brighton, England as a support-level studio for their upcoming Project 007 and Project Fantasy games and help with the development of their Hitman series.
Link: https://ioi.dk/careers/ioi-brighton

* In some somber news, the creative director of Beyond Good & Evil 2, Emile Morel, recently passed away at the age of 40. Prior to his passing, Morel had spent the past 14 years working at Ubisoft and among the notable games he worked on included being the senior designer of Rayman Legends. Morel also had taken over as the creative director of Beyond Good & Evil 2 earlier this year following the departure of several high level directors for the project.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/emile-m...suddenly-at-40 , https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ubiso...01294336-I853/

* Nintendo recently sent an official warning telling people to stop blowing their Nintendo Switches and instead just "suck it out" in regards to issues with dust getting into the cartridge slot of the console. The company also warned to not use a cotton swab either due to how sensitive the terminal reader is for Switch carts and jamming anything in there could seriously damage it. Their solution is to use a vacuum cleaner if you needed to clean out any dirt or dust.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo...e-its-the-90s/ , https://twitter.com/nintendo_cs/stat...52599451869184

Today's News:
* EA confirmed the recent rumors of a new Black Panther game currently in development and a new studio called Cliffhanger Games as its developer. This new studio is located in Seattle, Washington and is lead by former Monolith Productions boss Kevin Stephens.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/ea-revea...by-new-studio/ , https://www.ea.com/news/meet-cliffhanger-games

* Elias Toufexis, current voice actor of Adam Jensen from the Deus Ex series recently revealed on Twitter that he might not be returning as the voice actor for a potential future Deus Ex game due to him currently being busy with several gaming projects. This new Deus Ex game is currently rumored to be development but in response to a fan question on Twitter, Toufexis stated that he not been contacted at all regarding work for this potential new game.
Link: https://twitter.com/EliasToufexis/st...76530758594561 , https://twitter.com/EliasToufexis/st...84138999549952 , https://www.destructoid.com/a-new-de...n-voice-actor/

* According to IGN Japan, Sonic series co-creator Yuji Naka was recently given a suspended prison sentence for his conviction of insider trading charges against him related to his time in Square Enix. Naka was recently sentenced to 2.5 years in prison but will have his sentence suspended for four years before it goes into effect. Naka was also given two fines of $14,000 and $1.1 million as part of his sentence.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/sonic-c...nsider-trading

God I hope they don't move on from Adam Jensen in the Deus Ex series. But nice to know Elias Toufexis is keeping busy.

I was just thinking about it the other day we're just about due for a new entry.

Microsoft's acquisiton moves forward
 

Initial injunction DENIED - things can move forward for now.




https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/11/2...-ftc-trial-win

Today's News:
* Besides Microsoft's victory over the FTC, the UK's Competition and Market’s Authority also agreed to pause their litigation against MS over issues regarding MS' attempted purchase of Activision Blizzard for a new round of negotiations. Despite the loss, the FTC stated they will still continue to fight against MS's attempted purchase of AB.
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/11/2...ors-cma-appeal , https://www.gamesindustry.biz/micros...tion-in-the-us

* SEGA's U.S. employees recently voted to form a union with the next step being official recognition by the National Labor Relations Board. The final tally was 91 votes in favor of unionization to 26 votes against it. This new union will end up being the largest in the video gaming industry and cover Sega of America’s Irvine, California branch. In an interesting note, Sega of America could have potentially avoided this whole thing had they just given their employees a 30% pay raise like Sega of Japan did for their employees earlier this year.
Link: https://twitter.com/takesAEGIS/statu...81056520101889 , https://www.destructoid.com/sega-of-...in-union-vote/

* Niantic, developer of Pokemon Go, is currently facing a lawsuit filed by a former female employee accusing the company of purposely underpaying their female employees and creating a toxic "Boys Club" work environment.
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/7/23...-pay-disparity , https://www.destructoid.com/new-laws...-club-culture/

Well the FTC has super easy grounds for an appeal of the decision (or whatever their next move is if not an appeal here). The judge's son works for Microsoft. Clear conflict of interest. Should have recused herself when that came up in the initial hearings a couple weeks ago but refused to do so.

Fwiw, her logic for why her sons employment didn't matter was that he doesn't work in the Xbox division. Seems like a dumb line of thinking though considering if Xbox benefits from the deal that it will make the company more valuable across the board.

On the flip side, the judge also pointed out how flawed the FTC was with their handling of their lawsuit by telling them they don't work for Sony over how heavily pro-Sony their arguments were instead of being pro-consumers.

For FTC to be successful with an appeal, they'd need to rethink and rework a lot of their arguments and handling of it.

The CMA's case against MS was a lot more tighter since they were not doing what the FTC was doing when it came to blocking MS's deal and looked at it from a pro-consumer standpoint and not a pro-Sony or others standpoint.

FTC has appealed, as expected.

Microsoft & Sony have cut a deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation if/after the Activision-Blizzard sale goes through.

https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-ha...ision-blizzard

Why does it seem like that is actually a loss for Sony?

I mean, really: that was their major argument against Microsoft. If you have the rival company put pen to paper to legally bind something they already promised to begin with, didn't you just shoot yourself in the foot?

Seems more like something is telling them this legal business isn't going to stand up, and they want to guarantee it isn't going to backfire by MS turning petty afterwards... again, a thing Sony would totally do themselves if all this were running in the opposite direction.

It'll all be a nothingburger at the end of the day.


You bet your ass after the 10 year agreement is up, they will make COD a "timed exclusive" the way Sony already does CoD and Destiny (at one point, unsure if this is still a thing).


As an Xbox console owner, I cannot play Final Fantasy XVI until after 12/31/23 - but that's okay. I don't understand the fuss tbh.

Its because Sony has been way too focus towards Call of Duty and not also towards everything else Activision & Blizzard has for games and IPs since right now CoD is a major cash cow for Sony's PSN.

If CoD ends up having another downturn period or goes to the wayside in the future, it won't hurt MS as much as it will Sony since MS' still gets to dip in AB's IPs catalog and as exclusive releases while Sony doesn't have that same privilege.

The funny thing, the biggest winner out of this whole legal mess and bickering has been Nintendo since they got the CoD series back on their consoles without having to lift a finger and since MS doesn't have any real bad blood with them unlike with Sony, it opens the door to MS being even more friendlier when it comes to the next Smash Bros game and getting a Halo or Crash rep for it.

Nintendo even got an easy win over the FIFA & EA feud since EA already promised to put their new non-FIFA game onto the Switch and not as some sort of lazy "Legacy" edition situation.

Today's News:
* The Last of Us series composer Gustavo Santaolalla recently teased that Naughty Dog is currently working on a new version of The Last of Us: Part 2. In a recent interview with BLENDER, Santaolalla accidentally revealed that this game is currently in development when talking about his cameo character in the original Last of Us Part 2 game.
Link: https://www.resetera.com/threads/gus...art-ii.741999/ , https://www.destructoid.com/the-last...n-of-the-game/

* As part of the recent FTC vs. Microsoft court case that was decided in favor of MS, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart had stated in a testimony that MS was predicting about 10 million in sales for Starfield and the upcoming new Indiana Jones games on Playstation platforms before they made the decision for both to be exclusive to Xbox platforms instead. Stuart had also stated that MS made that decision due to them feeling they can recoup those lost sales costs via Game Pass and extra Xbox consoles sold because of those two games.
Link: https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/st...07950706372611 , https://www.destructoid.com/starfiel...ays-microsoft/

* Microsoft recently revealed a new version of their Xbox Game Pass called Xbox Game Pass Core which is meant to be a replacement for their Xbox Live Gold subscription service and is currently scheduled to launch this September. It was also announced that those with active Xbox Live Gold accounts will automatically be changed into Game Pass Core accounts once this new service launches.
Link: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/07/...ame-pass-core/ , https://www.destructoid.com/microsof...box-live-gold/

Look, I get the concern over "timed exclusivity", and that generally you can't much trust executive speak, but the rationale was already given that restricting CoD "would be stupid" because they'd be cutting their own nuts with the profit margin losses that would be suffered by excluding over half the sales on launch day. Even if the game isn't on their console, they still get a massive cut, meaning they still win, so who cares?

And again, it's Sony doing all the bitching: the same place who wilfully tries to gather every actual console exclusive they can, nevermind timed exclusives. Same company doing the majority of cross platform play stonewalling.

Methinks thou doth protest too much.

Case in point: this sounds like a "You know what, Sony? Fuck you because of the lawsuit!" move. By trying to prevent a thing, they ensured it would happen elsewhere. Microsoft'd still lose too much potiential revenue by not simultaneously launching the Call of Duty cash cow, but walling off an unproven Bethesda IP and a movie tie-in is acceptable enough level of petty vengeance.

Ok so using that logic explain why they've made all Bethesda games exclusive? Sony has a larger share of the hardware market, so they are most likely cutting off more than half of their sales. Why would they do that? Why does that rationale suddenly apply to Activision/COD and not to anything else?

like they are throwing away a predicted 10 million in sales for Starfield on PS5 for....absolutely zero sales of it on Xbox because it'll be on Gamepass. Why would they throw that money away?

And like clockwork a letter from the head of Bethesda to ole spencer and co is expressing a bit of frustration and confusion about why they were stopped from making multiplat games lol

Thought that was reported on a month ago in an e-mail chain from 2022? Or is this something totally new?

It might be the same thing, not sure. The way the report I saw read was as if it was a new one though.

Yea it seems it probably the same one actually. IGN trying to pass it off as new news.

Here's another weird IGN report this morning: Microsoft trying to extend the deadline today so that Activision isn't wooed by another buyer. Who else was/is even in the market for them?

Extend? I think there was some hubub about the date the legal processes have to finish. I cannot remember all the info, but something like the judgment giving them "exactly" the time needed to close things up legally, but only if there weren't any further issues//delays.


See if I can find that story again.

FTC withdrew their case to block the merger.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...D=ansmsnnews11

Xbox Welcomes AntStream Arcade
 

Antstream, a decent arcade subscription service, has arrived on XBox.


Here's a complete list of the 1,470 ORIGINAL arcade games they have. Highlights such as:


Bad Dudes
Gauntlet
Double Dragon
Spy Hunter




tons and tons more, I'm sure you can find your own.


https://www.antstream.com/games

Today's News:
* ESRB recently responded to the online criticisms over a recent application they filed with digital identity firm Yoti to the FTC in regards to a new potential Facial Age Estimation App for phones that would be used to verify that children do not buy age-restricted games. In an email sent to IGN, the ESRB clarified their application for this potential new app stating "First and foremost, this application is not to authorize the use of this technology with children. Full stop. Nor does this software take and store ‘selfies’ of users or attempt to confirm the identity of users. Furthermore, this application makes no mention of using age estimation to prevent children from purchasing and/or downloading restrictively rated video games, nor do we intend to recommend its use in that way." The ESRB also claimed that this would only be used with parental consent and also claimed this is not a facial recognition system since the photos are not stored and does not work the same way as those systems nor would these scans be used for AI training or shared with anyone.
Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/esrb-fa...-tech-response

* CD Projekt RED is currently in the process of laying off around 9% of its total work staff which is around 100 people in total as part of a larger restructuring and change in developmental process for the company.
Link: https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/media/n...tional-update/ , https://www.destructoid.com/cd-proje...-of-its-staff/

* VGC and Kotaku reported that their sources stated that Ubisoft recently cancelled all development for a sequel to Immortals Fenix Rising. It was reported that this project had been in early development at Ubisoft Quebec studio before Ubisoft's management pulled the plug on it.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/...rising-sequel/ , https://kotaku.com/assassins-creed-r...uel-1850677731

* In a potential interesting Did You Know Gaming type fact, Half-Life 3D artist Gordon Freeman revealed in a recent interview with TheGamer that the inspiration for the notable/iconic old white haired and mustache man scientist in the game was not based on Albert Einstein but instead George Washington. Jones also revealed that the iconic G-Man was based on the Cigarette Man from the X-Files.
https://www.destructoid.com/wp-conte...size=640%2C360
Link: https://www.thegamer.com/half-life-c...ge-washington/ , https://www.destructoid.com/one-of-h...ein-after-all/

Oh man. Just keeps getting worse for Ubisoft.

According to a report from the VGC, Nintendo is currently expected to release the successor for the Switch in the second half of 2024.

Several of Nintendo's key partners and studios reportedly already have dev kits for this new console that will retain the hybrid console & portable model like the Switch and will also feature a LCD screen instead of an OLED screen to help keep costs down.

Also similar to the Switch, this new console will also contain a cartridge slot but it is currently not known if this means the new console will be backwards compatible with the Switch.

Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/...t-gen-console/ , https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo...nned-for-2024/

I know they don't want to make it backwards compatible so that people will have to buy their games again, but I feel like plenty of people just won't buy it if they can't play the games they own on it.

What bothers me is that they came out with the OLED Switch.

One would think that's a step in the right direction with the next Nintendo console coming along.

Instead, they're going the LCD route. So, why even bother creating an OLED switch in the first place?

In a recent investor's meeting, Square Enix stated that the recently released Final Fantasy XVI game has not met their high-end sales expectations.

Main reason is due to the huge sums of money they spent developing the game that they had expected would have been very quickly recouped. Some of the blame was also put on their year-to-year net sales decline in their MMOs division and also the PS5 since they were expecting a higher PS5 userbase by now and game sales from that platform when they made the decision to release the game only for that console.

There was also some confusion regarding some translation-related issues from Bloomberg over what Square Enix's President Takashi Kiryu had stated with some people and gaming websites being under the assumption that the game failed to hit SE's general sales expectations for it.

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...mobile-setback , https://www.destructoid.com/final-fa...-expectations/

It's a good game. There was some chatter going around that some DLC might get cooked up since there was a few things that went unresolved.

Microsoft recently slashed the length of their $1 deal for a trial of their Game Pass service from being one month long to now just being 2 weeks long.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Microsoft has nerfed its $1 Game Pass trial again.<br><br>It's now for just 14 days instead of a full month. <br><br>The change happened sometime in the last week. <a href="https://t.co/oAfQrRRBBH">https://t.co/oAfQrRRBBH</a> <a href="https://t.co/g2MmVypThH">pic.twitter.com/g2MmVypThH</a></p>&mdash; AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) <a href="https://twitter.com/ethangach/status/1688888019141500929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

meh... not news

Guess the forum didn't save the edit I made to that news post right after since its missing the stuff about the speculation that MS only did that trial slash due to Starfield being released soon and them not wanting to give away the game for practically $1 or have people plow through as much of the game as possible in a month for a $1 either.

Now onto Today's News:
* Nintendo recently released a plushie toy of Wiglett for sale at their official Pokemon Center Stores and that Pokemon ended up looking a lot more like a dick than before. For those wondering, the plushie is 10.25 inches long which is 2x above average dong size.
Link: https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-wig...hy-suspicious/

* The Associated Press reported that the writer of the Metro 2023 novel series, Dmitry Glukhovsky, was recently sentenced by a Moscow court to 8 years in prison for criticizing the Russian Army's actions and alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Making matters worse for Glukhovsky was that the Russian government had labeled him as a "foreign agent" last year due to his criticisms of President Vladmir Putin and the Kremlin. Glukhovsky was convicted under a law that was passed last year that made it a crime to spread "fake news" about the Russian military, which basically included any criticisms of it during its on-going invasion of Ukraine.
Link: https://apnews.com/article/russia-cr...a076bb1544fe4a , https://www.destructoid.com/metro-20...rediting-news/

* THQ Nordic confirmed reports of a game based on the TNMT The Last Ronin comic series currently being in development and released the debut trailer for the game as part of today's THQ Nordic Digital Showcase stream. The game was announced to be arriving for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S but no other details were given.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nx2ixJFWXcg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Today's News:
* The Japanese Cabinet Office recently announced that the country generated a 2.8% increase in GDP for the past fiscal quarter (April to June) compared to the previous fiscal quarter. The government also stated that they currently believe that the massive sales of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Capcom’s Street Fighter V, and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI were the main contributors for this growth. In regards to Tears of the Kingdom, MyNintendo reported that a lot of people on social media had mentioned that they took a holiday day off from work on the day of the game's release to play it.
Link: https://mynintendonews.com/2023/08/1...-gdp-increase/

* Famous film director Guillermo del Toro recently reached out to Konami on Twitter to gauge their interest in a potential revival of horror game P.T. following last week being the 9 year anniversary of the game's development being canceled.
Link: https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/1690528967802167296

Nintendo announced that Charles Martinet will be stepping down as the voice actor of Mario but will still work as an ambassador for the company.

No official reason for the decision was given. Prior to the announcement, Martinet had been the iconic voice of Mario since 1994.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We have a message for fans of the Mushroom Kingdom. Please take a look. <a href="https://t.co/U1ASicOuTO">pic.twitter.com/U1ASicOuTO</a></p>&mdash; Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) <a href="https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1693624002982314108?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

MS has waived it's "feature parity" requirement for Series X/S in regards to Baldur's Gate 3. Game will arrive later this year with split screen co-op on X, and without it on S.

Hope this leads to them reversing this policy in it's entirety.

It'll probably depend on how well BG3 does on X/S - which I have zero doubt it will be a wild success.


Then, they can have "data" that shows players will still buy stuff if they want it, regardless of the parity "requirements" they set forth. I get why they did it, but surely they had to see something like this coming....

I mean if some of the stuff I've read about how 3/4 of the Series install base is the S model, it may be a hard sell to get them to remove the parity requirement. They'd be punishing most of their users after specifically saying that this wasn't going to be an issue.

It's crazy how far behind in sales they are in general. PS5 has already sold like 70% of the total sales of the Xbox One generation. It's sold over 50% of Xbox One, Series S and Series X COMBINED. That's just wild.

Brand recognition and a MUCH better PR team I think.

I'm not loyal to one camp or the other, but my experience on Xbox, since 360 has outperformed Playstation at every level, for me. They've always been "ahead" a bit in terms of the "behind the scenes" stuff (game streaming, disc-less systems, etc.). Initially, they were shit on for it, and deservedly so.

If I had the expendable cash, I'd have a PS5 too. There are a few titles I'd like to play, but shelling out the $$$ to do that isn't worth it.

I'm in the other camp. I've had every system from both other than the OG Xbox, and Playstation has killed them every generation, with the only close one being the 360. But the reality is that now there is absolutely zero reason for me to own a Series X, even though I got one anyways, because I have a PC. There is nothing on the X that I cant access elsewhere and run better.

In terms of pure hardware comparisons, PS3 killed 360 across the board. Superior power and performance and a blu-ray player. Not to mention the god awful prevalence of the RRoD. Xbox One was more powerful than PS4, but the advantage translated to jack shit because PS4 ended up with games that looked and played better than anything on Xbox One even with the lesser power they had to do it. Xbox Series X is again more powerful, and again, what do they have to show for it? Nothing. The only real win for Xbox imo is their online service/gamepass. It is clearly the better service and has been, and they should be proud of that. But I don't need their console to access that so what's the point?

I keep getting these Xboxes and in the end they collect more dust than any other electronic device in my house. I have 3 kids and between them they might touch the Series X once every month or 2. They have no interest in it, even with gamepass. Every one of them would take a playstation or a switch over the Xbox every single time. And I'm just over here playing anything Xbox releases on my PC with superior performance to the console versions. If they continue with the requirement that all their games release on Windows as well into the next gen then I've already bought my last xbox console. I'm not going to buy another 4-500 dollar paperweight.

You know why the 360 was the close one? Because it actually had games. Something that's apparently been forgotten about over the last 2 generations.

Mmhmm, none of that stuff is lost on me at all. Younger me would 100p go get one right damn now, but nah.

The situation with your Xboxes is the same in our home, but with their Switches. They wanted one sooooooo bad, we got them their own customized ones, and they are not used at all.

We could have sold them, and they would have never even known :|

I think the backlash from the DDRM bullshit scared away a lot of studios, and xbox has never fully recovered from it.

Plus Don Mattrick being the worst boss in Xbox division history.

MS lost soo much momentum when they started to pivot away on what made the Xbox 360 a mega success in favor of Kinect. Add in their mishandling of Rare and losing Call of Duty exclusivity and that gave Sony the boost they needed for the surge in PS3 sales during the latter half of that gen and start of the PS4 era.

Today's News:
* Epic Games recently made a major change to the way their Epic Games Store operates for developers and publishers. This new change involves Epic now offering developers 100% of revenues generated for their games on EGS in return for signing a six-month exclusivity deal for their games on PC. After those six months, the deal will then revert back to the current split of 88% for developers and the rest for Epic for game sales on their store. The deal also only covers games that have not been already released on other digital storefronts on PC.
Link: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/...f-exclusivity/

* Kotaku reported that a man was recently arrested over theft charges that may or may not be related to him being a notorious leaker of footage of Starfield ahead of its release. The charges may or may not also be released to how this person was able to get his hands on multiple copies of Starfield ahead of its release and had tried to sell them at online store Mercari to prove his authenticity as the leaker. Besides gameplay videos, this person also posted videos of themself commenting about Bethsesda's legal efforts to shut down his videos and him holding copies of the game to prove he had them available for sale.
Link: https://kotaku.com/starfield-leak-fe...rly-1850773855 , https://www.destructoid.com/starfiel...rrested-video/

* Bioware announced that they recently laid off around 50 employees as part of their current restructuring plans to make them a "more agile and more focused studio." It was also announced that those laid off will be given the ability to find other jobs internally in the studio and at other EA-owned studios if possible.
Link: https://blog.bioware.com/2023/08/23/...te-of-bioware/

* As part of Microsoft's efforts to appease the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) government body, MS had restructured their deal with Activision Blizziard in regards to cloud gaming. This new revision will now see Ubisoft running AB games from their own cloud-based service and in return will get a one-time payment from Ubisoft to compensate MS for the cloud streaming rights to AB games. The idea being that this would limit MS's ability to monopolize cloud stream gaming to alleviate this being the biggest fearand obstruction that the CMA had over purchase attempt of AB.
Link: https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-i...e-acquisition/ , https://www.destructoid.com/microsof...-cma-concerns/

Lol, yet again the government sorely lacking in understanding of technology and "the cloud". Also feel like this is a play to get more eyes on Ubisoft +. IMO Ubisoft + is just another ploy to get someone like Microsoft to buy up their service, just like EA Access. Looks like it is slowly transforming into just that.


MS: Yo, can you just host this stuff for a while so people don't freak out?
Ubi: Sure.


After the agreement:


MS: Yo, you did great. We're gonna buy your shit and add it to Gamepass like EA.
Ubi: squeeeeeeeeeee



Microsoft's cloud gaming platform is very solid though. I don't think cloud gaming is "there" yet, but it will be in the next generation or two, easily.

Sony jacking up the price of PlayStation plus across all tiers.

Renew before September 6th or your wallet is gonna take a hit.

Daaaaaamn... a 30ish% increase with no additional offerings??




That's fucked.

Volition Games, developer of the Saints Row and Red Faction series, recently announced on LinkedIn that they are shutting down.

Official reason due to their parent company Embracer Group's current restructuring process since this past June that they had confirmed would include some of their studios being shut down as a result.

Link: https://www.destructoid.com/embracer...olition-games/ , https://www.linkedin.com/posts/volit...97351936-hkgT/

Embracer group quickly turning into the new EA.

Jeff Grubb mentioned on today's Giantbomb Bombcast that Embracer's whole strategy when it came to gobbling up a ton of studios and IPs pretty much revolved around them getting a huge sack of money from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

That would have then set them for life since the idea being that would have led to additional investments from others into the company to flush them with a ton of money.

Problem is they started spending a ton of money they didn't have over that assumption and when the Saudi deal fell apart, that caused other investors to also pull out and screwed their finances to such a point that Grubb thinks they won't be lasting that much longer as a big publisher or even as a company.

Grubb also mentioned that they've had some really good to great selling games over the past couple years but the money coming in was nowhere close to digging themselves out of that deep money pit devastating the company.

Today's news:
* Nintendo released an official video featuring Shigeru Miyamoto and now former Mario voice actor Charles Martinet discussing the new mystery voice actor for Mario going forward and Martinet clarifying what Nintendo meant by moving him to a Mario Ambassador role in the company.
Link: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/...84766932029753

* In a recent interview with Bloomberg Technology, Xbox boss Phil Spencer gave a mostly no answer in regards to if Bethesda's upcoming Elder Scrolls 6 game will be Xbox exclusive or if it will be multi-platform. Spencer stated that this would be a "case-by-case basis" for any decision and future games made by Bethesda would be "available in many different places" although he only specifically mentioned Xbox, PC, and cloud services.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@BloombergTechnology , https://www.destructoid.com/phil-spe...ague-response/

* Eurogamer reported that their sources stated that Nintendo showed off tech demos for the successor of their Switch behind closed doors to developers at this past August's Gamescom 2023 convention in Cologne, Germany. In regards to a potential release date, it was also reported that those spoken to stated that Nintendo is still leaning towards a second half 2024 date for the Switch 2's launch.
Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/nintendo-d...rs-at-gamescom , https://www.destructoid.com/nintendo...gamescom-2023/

Today's News:
* According to Reuters, Embracer Group is currently considering selling off Gearbox Entertainment as part of the company's current restructuring process. It was reported that Embracer is pushing forward with the idea after getting some interest from several third party groups for Gearbox.
Link: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deal...es-2023-09-11/

* Nintendo is currently rumored again to be working with Universal Studios on the production of a live action Legend of Zelda film.
Link: https://mynintendonews.com/2023/09/1...ndo-universal/

* Based on a recent patent filing, Nintendo is currently rumored to be working on new joystick tech that would resolve stick drift issues. This new tech doesn't rely on existing tech that had led to stick drift becoming a growing issue in gaming since at least the Xbox One/PS4 era. Its currently not known if this new tech would be featured in Nintendo's Switch 2 console or for a future console instead. It is also currently rumored that this new patent might not be related to resolving stick drift and instead would be for something similar to adaptive triggers like with the PS5's DualSense controller.

Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/nintend...d-drift-issues

Gearbox wouldn't be a bad addition to either Sony or Microsoft's studios.

But Embracer is probably asking for a ton of cash.

I haven't bought a first party controller in years due to the stick drift issues. The cheap wired ones get it too, but at least I'm only paying 20-30 to replace it instead of 60-70.

Today's News:
* Both Nintendo and Sony will be holding a new Nintendo Direct and State of Play episodes tomorrow. In regards to Nintendo, their upcoming episode will be focusing on Switch games releasing this winter and will be around 40 minutes in length. In regards to Sony, their upcoming episode will be focusing on previously announced games for PS5 and PSVR2
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfYfuAOKTxA , https://blog.playstation.com/2023/09...arty-releases/

* Unity Technologies is currently dealing with serious online backlash following their recent announcement of upcoming changes to their fees system for developers who use their Unity engine for games. The source of the backlash revolves around a planned new change to their pricing system that will now charge a fee to developers and digital store and game streaming providers on a per game install past a certain threshold and Unity initially confirming that this would mean developers could be charged multiple times for the same game download purchase and even demos if a game was installed and uninstalled multiple times. Adding to the backlash was Unity stating that this new pricing system would be retroactive for game downloads and not just for those post January 2024 and removing several features from Unity and Unity subs for developers. Following the backlash, Unity recently backtracked some of their planned changes with demo downloads to no longer be counted towards fees as long as they are attached to a paid full game and removing the ability for developers to be charged multiple times from a single game download.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/unity-ru...aws-heat-news/ , https://www.axios.com/2023/09/13/uni...y-marc-whitten

* In an official statement to Bloomberg, an EA rep stated that longtime game director Stig Asmussen recently left the company and the official reason due to him wanting to go in a new direction for his career. During his time in EA, Asmussen was the game director for several notable games including the Star Wars Jedi series.
Link: https://www.destructoid.com/star-war...is-leaving-ea/ , https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...leaves-company

lol unity's ceo is the former ceo of EA. So no shocker that he's pulling something like this. Thing is, this isn't going to just anger small developers. Bigtime players like Disney and Microsoft would have to pay the install costs for their products too. So I can see them backtracking this pretty quickly.