March 2020

Publisher Xbox Game Studios has today revealed the launch date of Minecraft Dungeons, the anticipated dungeon crawler spin-off set within the popular Minecraft universe. The game will launch on May 26 for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

It’s a slight delay from the April launch window originally disclosed back at X019, which the publisher blames on logistical challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. Xbox Game Studios cites wanting “to guarantee the health and safety of our teams, and empower them to deliver the best possible experience to the community.”

Pre-orders of Minecraft Dungeons will kick off from today for some platforms. There are two editions of the game available Standard Edition” for $19.99 USD and “Minecraft Dungeons – Hero Edition” for $29.99 USD. The Hero Edition contains a Hero Pass that includes a Hero Cape, two player skins, a chicken pet and two upcoming DLC packs.

Other information included with today’s press release includes confirmation that cross-platform play will not be available at launch. The team is apparently working to bring the feature to the game as a free update in the future.

For more on Minecraft Dungeons, you can watch a recent dev diary that offers some insight into the lore and story of the game’s universe.

The post Minecraft Dungeons Gets May Release Date; No Cross-Play at Launch appeared first on Twinfinite.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons doesn’t have any competitive multiplayer components or game modes built into the experience but that’s not stopping creative players from figuring out different ways for people to win money by competing in a variety of games.

Yesterday, I reported on a Reddit video that popped up over the weekend that shows players enjoying a game of musical chairs in which the winner would acquire a huge bag of Bells to help pay off their loans but today, a user that goes by SkeletonwhisKey posted a video of them and their friends going head-to-head in an obstacle course.

It was created by using the terraforming tools that you obtain once you surpass several key narrative points in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and it looks like a lot of fun.

SkeletonwhisKey spent about two-three hours to design this course so if you want some inspiration for things you can do with friends online, make sure to watch the video down below:

Persona 5 Royal is finally out today, and it adds a lot — and I mean a lot — of new story content. As if the 100 hour playtime of the original game wasn’t enough already, Atlus thought adding even more new stuff on top of that would be a great idea. I’ve played and beaten Persona 5 Royal. I’ve seen the new stuff. It’s quite good, but not as impressive as a certain dungeon from the vanilla game: the Pyramid of Wrath.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Pyramid of Wrath dungeon and Futaba Sakura’s character arc in Persona 5.

By far the biggest issue with Persona 5 was the weak main cast. As I outlined in my review of the original game, they all just felt like reskinned and less interesting versions of characters we’d already seen in past games in the series. There are a couple of standouts, but far and away the best and most well-written character in this game is Futaba Sakura.

The reason for that is simple: she’s the only character in the game (for base Persona 5, at least) who gets an entire dungeon dedicated to her and her inner self. The theme of Persona 5 centers around stealing the hearts of bad guys and criminals, and because of that, the dungeons are designed around the psyches of these villains that we’re only going to see for a short while before they disappear for the rest of the game.

That, in and of itself, is already an issue with the very foundation of Persona 5 because the game spends so much time focusing on these minor villains, all without pushing the main plot forward until a little more than halfway through its runtime, and without giving real development to the main characters.

inXile Entertainment’s upcoming RPG Wasteland 3 has been delayed until summer as a result of logistical challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The game will now launch on August 28, moved 3 months from its original May 19 date.

The news comes by way of a note from studio head Brian Fargo, who conveys his disappointment over the delay but points to positives as a consolation. He explains the team plans to use the extra time “acting on Beta feedback and suggestions, optimization, polishing and refinements, and making sure we have an awesome co-op experience.”

You can read the statement in full below.

As with most companies, we moved to a work-from-home environment some weeks ago, and that’s of course introduced new challenges that many of us throughout the world have been learning to manage. We’ve been excited to see the Wasteland 3 Beta so well received, but the reality is that with these new logistical challenges our release was going to be impacted.

We’re in a great position with both Microsoft and Deep Silver supporting our desire to ensure the game launches in the best possible circumstances, and to add a few extra months to ensure this is a stellar product on day one. With that, Wasteland 3’s new release date is August 28, 2020.

That’s time we’re putting into acting on Beta feedback and suggestions, optimization, polishing and refinements, and making sure we have an awesome co-op experience. We’re pouring our hearts into this game, and the last thing we want is to have anything but an amazing launch for a product we truly believe in.

We appreciate everyone’s excitement and continued support as we put a few more months into ensuring that on launch day Wasteland 3 is the experience you’ve been waiting for.

The survival game Hello Neighbor has been a big success for publisher tinyBuild, as proven today in a press release that highlights so impressive figures. Most notably, it’s been played over 30 million times and, thanks to strong sales of its spinoff book series, has earned $16 million in the process.

An accompanying infographic details various key facts and figures, including its audience of mostly 8-16 years old located in the US, China, Russia, Germany, France, South America.   

CEO at tinyBuild Alex Nichiporchik provides some supporting commentary, explaining that the current trend of the video game market is not in favor of publishers. Instead, success depends on the publisher innovating ways to create a long-lasting IP:

A model for designers and writers in developing stories for games that explains how to differentiate traditional storytelling compared to games. ...

With April just around the corner now, Pokemon Go developer Niantic has outlined some of the events that will be going on in its hit AR Pokemon game next month. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced much of the world into lockdown, April's schedule seems lighter than March's, but there are still a few noteworthy events happening in the game over the next few weeks.

First, Niantic is extending March's Team Rocket Special Research story quest, The Shadowy Threat Grows. You will now have until the end of April to finish this quest and rescue Shadow Entei from Team Rocket leader Giovanni.

Niantic will also offer a new batch of Field Research tasks in April, along with a new Research Breakthrough reward. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough next month, you'll get a chance to catch Alolan Exeggutor and earn some bonus Stardust as well.

Overwatch has always provided a steady stream of free updates that add limited-time events and new characters, but the latest may be the greatest yet. A new April Fools' update to the game appears to keep all the regular gameplay and systems intact, but adds a little something special to each character: googly eyes.

Yes, like the little plastic ones you get from a craft store.

Each character has a googly-eyed makeover, making them look much sillier than their usual selves. In fact, the more aggressive and threatening the original character, the better they look with googly eyes. Take a look at Doomfist, for example:

This month's free offerings for Twitch Prime members have been revealed, and if you're into classic first-person shooters, adventure games, and enigmatic puzzlers, then you're in for a treat for the month of April. Twitch Prime, which is included with any Amazon Prime member, is giving away five free games in April: the Turok remaster, Kathy Rain, and Etherborn as well as indie RPG Earthlock and first-person puzzle game Lightmatter.

Plus, there's still time left to claim March's free games: Bomber Crew, Whispers of a Machine, Mugsters, Furi, and Epistory: Typing Chronicles. These offers end tomorrow, April 1.

Twitch Prime's next batch of free games will be available to claim starting April 1. Once you own them, you'll have to download the Twitch client, where you can install and play said games. They're available throughout the entire month, so be sure to claim them before April ends. (Plus, check out our full roundup of all the free games you can claim right now--there are tons of freebies floating around these days.)

The team behind the roguelite shooter Risk of Rain 2 has released a major new update for the game. This patch introduces the "Artifacts" system from the original Risk of Rain to its sequel, rare items that modify play significantly. For example, in the original Risk of Rain, the Artifact of Honor caused only elite enemies to spawn. According to the patch notes, the developers expect these artifacts to radically increase the game's replayability.

The update also overhauls the game's UI and fixes a bundle of bugs, including some unfortunate late-game crashes. The team also overhauled some of the game's playable characters by introducing new variant skills and skins. The patch is currently live only on PC--according to the notes, it will be coming to consoles in the near future.

This new patch follows the game's last major content update, which caught up the console versions to the PC update that rolled out in December. That patch added the melee-focused character Acrid, as well as some new biomes, enemies, and loot.

Minecraft Dungeons, the action-adventure spin-off featuring co-operative dungeon crawling, has been delayed out of April. It's now launching on May 26, for Xbox One, PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. It will also be part of Game Pass on Xbox One and PC.

Developer Mojang apologized for the delay, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the slight reshuffle. "Around the world, the Minecraft team has been adjusting how we work and taking new precautions in light of COVID-19, with health and safety as our top priorities," writes Mojang on its official website. "These measures have unfortunately had an impact on our development schedule for Minecraft Dungeons, and we have decided to release the game on May 26."

You can pre-order Minecraft Dungeons on most platforms starting today, with pre-loading already available. Online play will be supported at launch, but Mojang says cross-play between all platforms will only be available sometime after.

Kojima Productions has introduced a new Death Stranding update, which adds a photo mode to the open-world game. The 1.12 update is now available on PlayStation 4, letting you capture snaps of the oddly lovely post-apocalyptic world.

According to Kojima Productions, the photo mode will let you change angles, adjust the color settings and frames, and change the expression of Sam Bridges. Death Stranding is set in an open world and by default it lacks infrastructure, so your photo log could represent the sparse time before Sam helps connect the world, or the after once you've helped rebuild society.

The word of a photo mode was first announced for the PC version, which is set to come in June. But studio head Hideo Kojima recently announced that PS4 owners will be able to try the photo mode too with this free update. The PC version will also include a high frame rate option and ultra-wide monitor support. This represents a trend of PS4 games heading to PC along with Horizon: Zero Dawn, but Sony says we shouldn't expect that to always be the case.

PUBG has unveiled its April Fools' joke ahead of schedule this year, and it's a doozy. Fantasy Battle Royale is a third-person squad-based gamemode where you play as classes from D&D-esque fantasy games, like a wizard or a barbarian. However, since you can't exactly find chainmail on Erandel, these classes are creatively-assembled from what they could find lying around--for example, the paladin's shield is a trash can lid, and the barbarian's sword is a repurposed saw.

According to the announcement, these matches will be fast and furious, with the so-called "blue-zone" moving much faster than in regular matches. These classes each have special weapons, too, with the paladin's Mendingstar healing your allies when you whack them, and the barbarian's Kick-Ash Longsword increasing your movement speed with every hit. The special Fantasy Battle Royale event will run from April 1 to April 7.

Wasteland 3 has been set for a May 19 release date on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but the difficulties introduced by remote work caused by the COVID-19 outbreak has pushed the game back to late summer. In a development update posted on Twitter, studio head Brian Fargo said that it will now release on August 28, 2020.

"As with most companies, we moved to a work-from-home environment some weeks ago, and that's of course introduced new challenges that many of us throughout the world have been learning to manage," Fargo said. "We've been excited to see the Wasteland 3 Beta so well received, but the reality is that with these new logistical challenges our release was going to be impacted."

He said the extra time will allow the studio to react to beta feedback, and generally optimize and polish the game. In particular, he said the extra time will allow for extra work on the co-op experience. "We're pouring our hearts into this game, and the last thing we want is to have anything but an amazing launch for a product we truly believe in."

Persona 5 Royal is releasing on PS4 at a very opportune time. With many holed up at home while practicing social distancing, passing the hours with a gigantic role-playing game has never felt more doable. Persona 5 Royal is an expanded version of the beloved 2017 entry in the series, featuring roughly 20 hours of new content and a wealth of changes and optimizations. If you're getting your copy of Persona 5 Royal today, we'd like to remind you that you can also nab all of Persona 5's DLC for free from the PlayStation Store.

The add-on content isn't loaded on the disc or baked into the install; you have to actually seek out the Persona 5 Royal Legacy DLC Bundle on PSN. Most of the add-ons are costume sets such as the Christmas and Swimsuit Sets, but you can also summon characters from previous Persona games such as Kaguya and Thanatos.

While April's PlayStation Plus freebies for PS4 leaked early, Microsoft's Games with Gold lineup announcement arrived at basically the latest possible moment. As always, the newest batch of four games will be staggered across the month, with the first two games unlocking tomorrow, April 1. Xbox One users get to keep Games with Gold free games in their library as long as they have an active Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Slightly Mad Studio's 2017 racing sim Project Cars 2 will be free throughout the whole month of April. Project Cars 2 features a staggering collection of more than 180 vehicles to choose from and 140 tracks across 60 locations. The realistic sim earned a 7/10 in GameSpot's Project Cars 2 review for its fine-tuned physics, dynamic weather system, and sheer variety of racing formats, which includes off-road contests with rallycross cars.

Xbox 360 title Fable Anniversary is also up for grabs on April 1. A remastered version of the original entry in the Microsoft series, the action-RPG also earned a 7/10 in GameSpot's Fable Anniversary review. While the original Fable never truly lived up to its pre-release hype, it's still a fun game that's worth checking out if you've never visited Albion. Fable Anniversary will be free for subscribers through April 15.

PlayStation Plus 12-Month (Digital Code) | $40 | Newegg | Use promo code EMCDEEG298

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Activision hasn’t even officially announced it yet but videos of what appears to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered are already on YouTube.

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The coronavirus has canceled or postponed almost every single major and minor social event across the world. Just this week, we learned that the 2020 Olympics will need to rebrand to the 2021 Olympics with the announcement that the games have been postponed until July of next year. Other sporting institutions like the…

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I don’t want to be grimmer than necessary, but let’s get realistic about one thing. If a place said they’re closing for two weeks, or if an April event has been postponed to May, here’s my advice: Don’t count on it.

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An exclusive Bokksu discount, Toy Story Collection, Sony X950G TV, and a site-wide Olivers sale lead off Tuesday’s best deals from around the web.

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April’s Xbox Live Games with Gold is a good deal for fans of racing games and RPGs. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription.

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The annual fan convention has been taking place since 1996

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Diablo-inspired action RPG will also be on Xbox Game Pass

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Social media has changed the nature of the game’s fandom

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The role-playing game was expected in May

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The 10-part doc was initially set for June

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Minecraft Dungeons - developer Mojang's exceedingly promising, if somewhat leftfield use of the Minecraft brand - will be making its way to Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on 26th May.

Dungeons, if you've not been keeping an eye on its progress, takes the classic Minecraft aesthetic and fuses it with a top-down dungeon-crawler very much in the vein of Blizzard's classic Diablo series. What follows is an appealing chunk of procedurally generated, co-op focussed monster bashing and treasure hunting for up to four players.

Despite its family friendly outlook, Dungeons is very much a fully realised take on the dungeon-crawler genre, packed with fearsome (if inevitably angular) enemies from the Minecraft universe, bosses and mini-bosses, oodles of loot, deadly traps, even different combat styles.

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After feeling like the longest month in history, March is nearly over - and frankly we could all do with a pick-me-up. Thankfully Xbox Games with Gold is here to help.

Next month Xbox Live Gold subscribers can get their hands on Fable Anniversary, the remastered version of the 2004 RPG classic. Players will also be able to access the 2017 game Project Cars 2 by Slightly Mad Studios, and the bundle edition of turn-based RPG Knights of Pen and Paper when it arrives later in the month. Then, if that still hasn't satisfied you, there's Toybox Turbos - the 2014 racing game by Codemasters.

It's worth noting each game is only available for a limited time: Project Cars 2 between April 1st-30th, Knights of Pen and Paper from 16th April to 15th May, Fable Anniversary from 1st-15th April, and Toybox Turbos from 16th-30th April. Still no word on a release date for Fable 4, though.

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Almost eight years after it was first announced, Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord finally arrived via Steam Early Access yesterday.

The medieval action role-player is doing well, too. Developer Taleworlds has trumpeted some impressive concurrent player numbers - enough, it says, to make it Steam's biggest launch this year.

These numbers have only grown over the past day, with upwards of 200,000 people now playing at the time of writing.

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Gamescom will scale up its digital portion this year with a "significantly expanded" Opening Night Live announcement show.

The event's "Gamescom now" streaming schedule, which features demos and interviews with developers, will also be ramped up.

As for the physical show - which last year welcomed a staggering 373,000 people to Cologne's cramped convention centre - organisers said today that no final decision has yet been made.

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While Japan had to wait for the Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories epilogue, everywhere else will have it at launch.

The post Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories Epilogue DLC Coming Westward appeared first on Siliconera.

For one day only, Dragalia Lost will become Doggo Lost--check out the details for Wagabond Pupper.

The post A Puppy Wanders into Dragalia Lost on April Fools’ Day 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

Did you preorder a Final Fantasy VII Remake digital copy? Check and see what your preload date is now.

The post Final Fantasy VII Remake Preload Date Seemingly Bumped Up appeared first on Siliconera.

While physical gamescom 2020 events will be evaluated in May 2020, digital events will proceed as planned in August 2020.

The post gamescom 2020 COVID-19 Response Will Involve More Digital Events and a May 2020 Evaluation appeared first on Siliconera.

Koei Tecmo asked fans for Atelier series feedback in a new survey, specifically asking about changes or features folks want.

The post Atelier Ryza Survey Asks What Features People Want in Atelier Games appeared first on Siliconera.