January 2021

In its efforts to improve the performance and stability of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red unintentionally introduced a game-breaking bug with its Patch 1.1 earlier this month. Today, a new hotfix has been released to address the “Down the Street” quest bug.

Available on consoles, PC, and Google Stadia, Hotfix 1.11 makes the following changes (via the game’s official website):

• Item randomization has been restored to the previous state.

The save/load loot exploit will be investigated further.

• A bug in Down on the Street quest has been fixed.

It occurred for some players during a holocall with Takemura, when using a save made on version 1.06 with Down on the Street quest in progress at “Wait For Takemura’s call” objective. After loading such a save on version 1.1, the holocall would lack dialogue options and block interactions with other NPCs.

In related recent Cyberpunk 2077 news, CD Projekt RED released the first wave of tools to support mod creation for the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 is currently available for PS4 (if you can find a physical copy), Xbox One, and PC. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S updates are coming in the second half of 2021.

For those who haven’t already, do check out Twinfinite’s review of Cyberpunk 2077.

This week's Red Dead Redemption 2 updates focuses on the amateur cooks and chemists of Red Dead Online. Hunters and crafters can take advantage of these experimental improvisers with a number of bonuses and discounts available throughout the week.

Those who craft any item at a campfire will receive three collectables to trade with Madam Nazar. Crafting anything at Gus' Store will also earn you a reward for a free hat below rank 15 and 50% off any pair of boots. Meanwhile, purchasing any pamphlet will reward you with a treasure map.

On top of this, all clothing items crafted in Gus' Store can be acquired at a 40% discount, while hunters can nab 30% off the cost of Gus' Trinkets and improved bow variants. Those who play Red Dead Online between now and February 1 will also be rewarded with 5x gun oil and 50 small game arrows to help with any hunting endeavours.

Epic Games has revealed a number of statistics that speak to the growth and success of the Epic Games Store in 2020. The company also reiterated that it will continue to release free games every week on the store in 2021.

By Epic's latest count, the Epic Games Store has now reached 160 million users on PC, with daily active users rising by 192% to 31.3 million. The company also disclosed that the Epic Games Store reached a new peak concurrent user record of 13 million in 2020, which compares to 25 million for Steam. Monthly active users in December specifically hit 56 million, compared to 32 million in December 2019.

Part of what has helped fuel the growth of the Epic Games Store is how the company pursues exclusives that you can only get on its store. These will continue in the future, as Epic has announced partnerships with the developers of Control, The Last Guardian, and Limbo for their next games.

2021 marks the 25th anniversary of Lara Croft's video game debut, and current Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics plans to celebrate with a year's worth of events.

"25 years is such a major milestone so we really want to celebrate with the community as we look back on Tomb Raider's legacy," Crystal Dynamics community and social media manager Neha Nair said in a video that the official Tomb Raider account tweeted.

Starting in February, each month of 2021 will be themed around a different Tomb Raider game and will feature developer interviews, cosplay livestreams, and fan art. The original 1996 Tomb Raider game developed by Core Design will kick off the celebrations, with Crystal Dynamics hinting at a reveal of what lies in store for the franchise and its future.

The sci-fi game Journey to the Savage Planet from former Assassin's Creed and Far Cry boss Alex Hutchinson and Typhoon Studios is now available to buy on Steam. The game originally launched a year ago this week as an exclusive for the Epic Games Store, but now it's out on Valve's platform following the end of the exclusivity deal with Epic.

Additionally, the game is marked down by 40% through February 15, while you can save even more if you buy the base game and the Hot Garbage DLC bundle. The game has a landing page on Steam but it doesn't appear to have gone live just yet for sale--that should happen soon.

A first-person adventure game with a comedic bent, Journey to the Savage Planet takes players to an alien world where they must explore and learn about the flora and fauna. The game is playable solo or with two-player online co-op.

In the midst of a stock surge that has taken the financial world by storm, the popular stock-trading site Robinhood has halted trades of the key stocks at the center of the story. This comes as the Robinhood app itself is surging in popularity, along with Reddit where the trades are being organized.

Bloomberg reports that several clients have said they've been unable to trade GameStop Corp. or AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. stocks. Instead, those stocks are being given a "not supported" note. This follows a similar stoppage from TD Ameritrade.

Robinhood has now issued a statement on its policy, chalking it up to monitoring for market volatility.

Actress Jeanette Maus, who plays several characters in the upcoming Resident Evil Village, has passed away. Maus had been battling colon cancer. She was 39.

Capcom paid its respects on Twitter, writing, "We here at Capcom R&D 1 are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Jeanette Maus, the talented actress who helped bring several several different characters, including our witches, to the world in Resident Evil Village."

"Our hearts go out to her family and loved ones."

A New God, the first DLC for Ubisoft's open-world adventure Immortals Fenyx Rising, is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Stadia. In addition to the launch of A New God, Ubisoft has also released a free demo for Immortals Fenyx Rising on all platforms.

The Trials of the Olympians is the focus of A New God, tasking Fenyx with overcoming the trials in order to earn their place in the inner circle of the Greek pantheon. On top of completing the challenging trials built by the gods, players will also be able to explore Olympos Palace and unlock a new gear set with perks that let you perform additional jumps, among other advantages.

A New God also introduces four new ability upgrades for Fenyx. Immortal Field Barrier, an Athena's Dash upgrade, allows players to pass through the Immortal Fields and deal more damage when dashing. Colossal Strength, a Herakles' Strength upgrade, lets player manipulate colossal objects and deal more damage when throwing objects. Windgust, an Ares's Wrath upgrade, creates an airstream for a few seconds after charging Fenyx's uppercut, so players can rise higher when delivering the final blow. Finally, Phosphoros' Swap gives players the ability to swap positions with a decoy for one chunk of stamina.

One of 2020's best-selling video games, Madden NFL 21 is headed to yet another platform this week with its launch on Google Stadia on January 28.

This is the first EA Sports game on Stadia, but FIFA 21 is also coming to the platform at some point in 2021. It's not the first EA game on Stadia, however, as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order came to the streaming service at the end of 2020.

To mark the launch of Madden NFL 21 on Stadia, Google is letting all Stadia Pro subscribers play the game for free from January 28-February 1.

After being allegedly threatened with legal action from Sony over its plan to sell unofficial faceplates for the PlayStation 5, peripherals company CMP shells has revealed its new range of products for the console and how they can be attached.

Originally trading under the name of PlateStation 5 before rebranding to CustomizeMyPlates.com in October 2020 and then once again in January to its current title, CMP Shells now offers black, red, and blue shells for both the digital and regular versions of the PS5 console.

Only 1000 shells will be made in the initial batch that is due for release by the end of February, which CMP showed off in a new video:

CD Projekt Red is changing the way it sells The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on Nintendo Switch, and it's removing the Complete Edition at some point in the future.

For now, you can buy The Witcher 3 through the Complete Edition (with the base game, both expansions, and all DLC) or you can buy each piece separately. In a statement, CD Projekt Red said it's doing this to give users "more flexibility" in how they can purchase the RPG.

The Complete Edition, however, will be removed from sale at some date in the future. It's still available, but only for "the time being," the Polish studio said.

Japanese game publisher Capcom is doing exceptionally well right now in terms of its business. The company has announced its highest-ever profit thanks in part to the firm's continued push into the digital market and sales of Monster Hunter World and Resident Evil 3.

Thanks to another strong period, Monster Hunter World: Iceborn has now sold more than 7.2 million units worldwide, while Resident Evil 3 has hit 3.6 million copies sold. The total number of games sold by Capcom during the financial year has reached 19.8 million, and 16.2 million of them were digital sales. This is good news for Capcom, as the company makes more money on digital games than physical titles.

Overall, Capcom pulled in revenue of 64.8 billion yen and made a profit of 17.5 billion yen, which is a record for the company over its 41-year history. All of these numbers pertain to the nine-month period ended on December 31, 2020.

We're gearing up for a huge Nintendo release (or should I say, another re-release that's probably going to be a huge hit) soon enough with Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, but for now, we feast on indies.

There's a lot of them today! Olija, Tohu (not that Touhou), and a handful of others like Golden Force. Amazingly, The 3DS is getting a new game today in Bricks Pinball 4, and the Wii U is hosting Seasonal Assistant. It's a miracle!

This sort of dual-release, no matter how small, hasn't happened in a good while. Usually we get a 3DS or Wii U game on their own every few months or so, but to see these systems still alive in some form puts a smile on my face.

Pocket Worlds emerged into social mobile games with Highrise in 2015, and the company is looking to expand in that space with the help of some additional funding from the likes of BITKRAFT Ventures. ...

[Update: In this roller coaster of a saga, four months after announcing that he was departing the role of Sonic with a broken blue heart, voice actor Roger Craig Smith tweeted out a picture of a mended heart, noting: "I hope to honor your support and passion as I'm officially back voicing Sonic the hedgehog in games."

Uh what? I mean, that's good news, but maybe some sort of contract deal got worked out on the backend, possibly involving Smith voicing the character in Sonic Prime? This news comes right on the heels of May's Sonic news stream, so maybe we'll hear more about it tomorrow.

Either way, we got a taste of Smith coming back to voice something Sonic related in this recent inspirational Sonic video from Sega.]

Odds are you've heard Roger Craig Smith speak before.

Perhaps as Chris Redfield in modern Resident Evil games? Or in cartoons like Regular Show, as a host of different characters. He's even been the voice of Batman several times! But many ardent fans will always think of him as the main voice of Sonic following Jaleel White's turn in the role: until today, that is.

Shared on Twitter by the man himself, Smith had the following to say today: "Welp, 10 years was an amazing run. Onward to new zones! Much love to the fans who've been so kind. It's been an honor."

The Epic Games Store now has over 160 million users on PC after an "incredible year of growth." ...

Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that Housemarque's bullet-hell roguelike Returnal will not meet its March 19 release date, and will launch on PS5 on April 30.

In a brief message on Twitter, SIE noted the decision was made to push the interstellar adventure back in order to give the team "extra time to polish the game to the level of quality players expect from Housemarque." Returnal already looks pretty dang slick, but the short delay should at least give the Resogun devs the opportunity to fine-tune its weird world.

Returnal will tell the story a Selene, a space explorer who finds herself caught in a death-and-rebirth timeloop, ala Edge of Tomorrow. Players will guide our hero as she explores a beautiful but dangerous universe, using an arsenal of ridiculously powerful weaponry to press further forward with each demise, pressing closer and closer to the source of the planet's chrono-conundrum.

This fifth part will cover Tears, Elizabeth's perception by the player, and how her Tears behave compared to other resources and enemies ...

According to an in-depth report by Vice, Activision Blizzard is resisting a union-led suggestion that it interviews "at least one diverse candidate" for any of its future company vacancies, with the publisher's legal team calling the rule "an unworkable encroachment".

The so-called "Rooney Rule" - adopted by the National Football League back in 2003 - mandates that employers interview diverse candidates whenever looking for coaches, managers, or other office positions within their respective teams. The AFL-CIO labor federation, which works with Activision and Electronic Arts, requests that a similar rule be applied to both publishers' hiring practices going forward.

But it appears Activision has not taken warmly to the suggestion. According to a letter received by Vice, an Activision attorney told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that "While the company has implemented a Rooney Rule policy as envisioned [for director and CEO nominees], implementing a policy that would extend such an approach to all hiring decisions amounts to an unworkable encroachment on the Company's ability to run its business and compete for talent in a highly competitive, fast-moving market."

Activision also responded directly to Vice's report. "Our talent is the lifeblood of Activision Blizzard." said the publisher. "We value the diversity of the Activision Blizzard community and understand that our employees and players come from a wide array of backgrounds. In order to deliver epic and engaging entertainment for a diverse, growing global audience, our workforce must reflect these communities."

Valve has updated Steamworks to make it easier for developers to share patch notes with players when they release an update. ...

On GDC Podcast episode 16 we're joined by Greg Kasavin, creative director at Hades developer Supergiant Games. We talk narrative design, his journey from game journalist to game developer and the allure of the roguelike genre. ...

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Returnal’s release is now pushed by just over a month, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced today.

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Dragon Quest Tact is a big hit in Japan, with more than 10 million downloads since its 2020 release. It’s now available worldwide for iOS and Android devices, giving fans everywhere a chance to collect cartoony monsters and make them kill each other. Yay!

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For over 10 years, Roger Craig Smith has been an integral part of the SEGA family. He brought the voice of Sonic to life, and we are forever grateful for his never-ending enthusiasm in helping the community and spreading joy. Thank you, Roger, for all you've done for Sonic.

Welp, 10 years was an amazing run. Onward to new zones!

During the January 4 showcase of Disney and Lucasfilm’s upcoming slate of new projects set in the era of the High Republic, Skywalker: Family at War author Kristin Baver took a moment to introduce Krystina Arielle, the new host of Star Wars: The High Republic Show. It’s a bi-monthly YouTube series delving into the…

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