May 2021

Cottonee is in the spotlight May 4

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Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says PlayStation charges royalties to certain games

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Seeking to protect its long-held trademark, Blizzard has filed a Notice of Opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to block Fox from trademarking Diablo, one of the canine characters from the upcoming animated series Housebroken.

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An email between Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and Xbox head Phil Spencer, made public today as part of the ongoing Epic versus Apple trial, shows Sweeney trying to entice Spencer to take “free-to-play” multiplayer out from behind the Xbox Live paywall to coincide with Epic’s war against the App Store.

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Creating a new type of combat system inside a 60-hour RPG was a daunting task. Yet that's exactly what BioWare did with its classic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. ...

Late last March, Microsoft revealed two new Xbox Series X wireless controllers with the Electric Volt (which looks almost radioactive) and the Daystrike Camo Special Edition controller. Electric Volt became available last month to order and now it's the red camo design's time to shine. 

The Daystrike Camo wireless controller is more in-line with previous designs for Xbox. Xbox loves its camo, and this red take definitely carries on that tradition. This is the third Xbox Wireless Controller to debut from the ever-growing camo line following the Night-Ops Camo and the Arctic Camo. It's important to note that this controller will work on both Xbox Series systems as well as the Xbox One. 

Xbox

The newest controller, seen above, includes textured grips across the top of the surface where the bumpers are in order to "keep your grip locked in and on target." 

Here at Game Informer, we get a chance to play games. A lot of games. Surprisingly, I find myself here in 2021 talking about another game-of-the-year quality title in the roguelike genre. In fact, roguelikes have taken my GOTY slot fairly regularly over the last few years, from Slay the Spire to Hades. While roguelikes have always featured compelling gameplay, now we’re getting story, worldbuilding, and other narrative designs on top of systems and mechanics that the framework is known for. If roguelikes were ever waiting for their moment to go fully mainstream, Hades was certainly that flashpoint. 

Now, Returnal is a significantly different experience from Hades, but it does contain one of the most important elements that contributes to it being an incredible experience, and that is cohesion. The artistic components of Returnal feel like they’re drawn from the same united well, leading to a game that can somehow be lightning-fast arcade bullet-hell action and atmospheric, uneasy horror at the same time. These disparate factors come together to create a unified experience that feels like it was all cut from the same cloth. Art, music, gameplay, etc are parts of every game, but rarely do they sing together so well.

The button-mashing speedrunners over at Games Done Quick are getting set to sweat once again. The GDQ organizers have announced that sibling community Frame Fatales will be holding another fantastic, all-women's speedrunning event this coming summer.

Rebranded "Flame Fatales", the week-long event will see some of the world's greatest speedrunners gather online to showcase their twitchy, glitchy abilities. Game submissions are set to open on May 18 and will remain open until May 25. So if you're a fast lass and want in on the action, drop a DM to the Frame Fatales Twitter for access to the official Discord, where you can speak to the event organizers and meet the friendly Frame Fatales community.

The "Fleet Fatales" event back in November 2020 successfully raised over $80,000 for The Malala Fund, a non-profit organization that fights to ensure women and girls across the globe are afforded access to safe, free, and high-quality education, regardless of status, background, nationality or economy. The team will no doubt be looking to smash that number this summer, so be sure to check out the action come August. Don't worry, we'll be sure to remind you!

Flame Fatales takes place August 15-21. For more information, visit Frame Fatales on Twitter.

The first Pokemon Sword & Shield English manga volume will appear in August 2021 and involves a story inspired by the Nintendo Switch games.

The post Pokemon Sword & Shield English Manga Adaptation Will Appear in August appeared first on Siliconera.

The reveal trailer for Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer showcased what's next for Bungie's online shooter. It also revealed that the popular character Ikora Rey has seemingly been recast. Or perhaps not. We're waiting to hear from Bungie on the official word.

People immediately noticed and commented that it doesn't sound like Gina Torres (famous for Joss Whedon's Firefly) providing the voicework for Ikora in the trailer. Comments about this were spread across the video's comments on YouTube and across Twitter and other parts of social media.

Bungie has yet to officially comment on this, but Ikora wouldn't be the first major Destiny character voiced by a celebrity to be recast. Peter Dinklage voiced Ghost in the original Destiny only to be replaced by prolific voice actor Nolan North due in part to Dinklage's very busy schedule. At the time, he was filming Game of Thrones, for example.

Not everyone is convinced that Ikora has been recast, with some commenting that Ikora still sounds like Torres. There could other reasons why she sounds different in the trailer, after all. We've followed up with Bungie in an attempt to get to the bottom of this.

Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who served as design director on Cyberpunk 2077 and game director on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, has left CD Projekt SA, Bloomberg reports. The departure follow allegations of workplace bullying, which he was cleared of.

The company formed a commission to conduct a months-long investigation into accusations of mobbing, a Polish term for office bullying, against Tomaszkiewicz. According to Bloomberg, he emailed staff to say the commission found him not guilty of workplace bullying. However, he has chosen to leave the company nevertheless.

In the email to staff, Tomaszkiewicz noted that he resigned because of the "fear, stress or discomfort" employees might experience when working with him.

"Nonetheless, a lot of people are feeling fear, stress or discomfort when working with me," Tomaszkiewicz said. He followed this up by apologizing to CD Projekt staff "for all the bad blood" he has created. Further, he told staff that he was "going to continue working" on himself and that he "hope[s] to change" his behavior.

According to Bloomberg, Tomaszkiewicz was said to play a pivotal part in CD Project's next entry in the Witcher series. He told the publication that he was "sad, a bit disappointed and resigned" when Bloomberg reached him for comment.

Zynga has announced a new partnership with top racing names Danica Patrick and Mark Webber, who will feature in mobile racer CSR Racing 2's new America Series event.

The in-game event introduces a festival-style roadshow into the game, set in the fictional city of Los Derivas. A Ford Mustang RTR Spec 3 is free with the event, while rare cars like the Mazda Furai--a 2007 concept car that only exists digitally--and CSR Racing 2's first ever IndyCar can be earned by racing in the America Series' 10 events.

“Over the course of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to race across the country at iconic tracks like these,” Danica Patrick said in the official press release. “CSR2’s America Series appealed to me because it gives everyone the opportunity to see these tracks from a driver’s perspective.”

CSR Racing 2 is a mobile online racing game for iOS and Android devices. Racers compete against players around the world in cars from real-world brands like McLaren and Ferrari. Danica Patrick's appearance in CSR Racing 2 is not her first foray into the video game realm, as she featured as a guest racer in Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed. She raced Sonic and his friends in the Danicar, a custom racer she co-designed with Hot Wheels specifically for the game.

According to the Roblox metrics blog and tools site RTrack, the game-making platform notched a staggering 202 million estimated users in April 2021, an all-time high and an increase of 10 million from March 2021.

These are impressive numbers by any metric. For comparison, Call of Duty had more than 100 million monthly active players in 2020, which drove record revenue. One source stated that Among Us clocked over half a billion (500 million) active users in November 2020, which made it the most popular game ever in terms of that measure. However, based on Among Us's SteamCharts, those numbers have decreased substantially in the intervening six months, though they're still quite healthy. Minecraft recently notched 140 million monthly active users. What makes Roblox so successful is the fact that these numbers have stayed consistent over the past few months.

To mark the Star Wars Day celebration, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella has released a chart that shows the top-selling and highest-earning Star Wars video games in the US.

The chart shows the best-selling games based on dollar sales between January 1995 and March 2021. EA's Star Wars: Battlefront is the top-selling Star Wars game in US history during the tracked period, with EA's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order coming in second. Rounding out the top five were 2017's Star Wars: Battlefront II, Lego star Wars: The Complete Saga, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Given the strong results for EA's games, it's understandable why EA and Disney are staying in business for additional Star Wars titles in the future. The publisher no longer has the exclusive license for console games, however, as Lucasfilm is now working with Ubisoft on a new Star Wars open-world game from the developers of The Division.

It's also rumored that Aspyr Media is making a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, but this has yet to be announced. More recently, reporter Jeff Grubb said Lucasfilm is in the process of making additional deals for more Star Wars games.

Actor Andrew Garfield is rumored to have a role in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In a new interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Garfield reacted to the rumors and gave a cryptic, non-committal answer when pressed.

Instead of confirming whether or not he's in the movie, Garfield responded to the hysteria surrounding the rumors in the first place.

"It's so crazy. Dude, it's f**king hilarious to me. I do have this Twitter account and I see how often Spider-Man is trending and it's people freaking out about a thing," Garfield said. "I wish I could be able to speak to everyone and just say, 'I recommend that you chill.'"

Host Josh Horowitz pressed Garfield for a simple "yes or no" answer to whether or not he's involved in No Way Home. Garfield didn't give a straight answer.

"I would've gotten a call by now, that's all I'm saying," he said. "I don't want to ruin anything. Maybe they're going to call me and say, 'Hey, people want this!' Maybe it's a market research thing..."

The Epic v Apple lawsuit is currently underway, and several very interesting pieces of information about Epic and Apple's businesses have already come to light. What no one could have expected was that the trial would also reveal that Wal-Mart is apparently working on a games streaming service.

As reported by The Verge, previously confidential Epic emails have detailed the experience of playing Wal-Mart's service, codenamed Project Storm. Epic co-founder Mark Rein discussed actually going hands-on with Project Storm all the way back in April 2019, right around when rumors of the service first began popping up. In the email thread, Rein described the experience as similar to "playing on PS4 and superior to playing on Android or iOS."

Star Wars Day 2021 is in full swing, bringing a slew of deals on Star Wars games, movies, merch, and more. It also tends to bring cool product announcements (like this cool Lego R2-D2 set) and bundles. One of the neatest offers we've seen pop up this Star Wars Day is over at Amazon, which is having a huge sale on Star Wars gear today. Only on May the 4th, you can snag this Baby Yoda-themed Fire TV Stick 4K and Echo Dot bundle, complete with Grogu's pointy ears on the Echo Dot. The brown stand with green ears makes the whole thing look like Baby Yoda's head is staring right at you.

A limited-edition R2-D2 Nebula mini-projector from Anker that launched last week has already gotten its first discount--but it's still pretty expensive. The capsule projector usually sells for $700, but with promo code WSMAY4TH at Amazon, it's $80 off just in time for Star Wars Day. That means you only have today, May the 4th, to claim the discount. And while you're at it, check out more of the best Star Wars Day deals.

The standard Nebula projector sells for $580, so you're paying a premium for the Star Wars look and special sound effects. The projector has a user rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars with more than 600 reviews.

Star Wars Day is a fan holiday celebrating the classic sci-fi franchise, which has since been adopted by Disney itself as the spot to roll out new merch and announcements. This year the date marks the premiere of the new animated series The Bad Batch, along with tons of discounts.

It appears that World of Warcraft Classic's first expansion, The Burning Crusade, might be releasing quite soon. Players have reported seeing a new pop-up ad on the Battle.net launcher that mentions a June 1 release date for The Burning Crusade.

WoWhead reports that the images "quickly disappeared" from the launcher, which might suggest that they went live early or were not intended for release in the first place. Officially, Blizzard has not announced a release date for The Burning Crusade.

GameSpot has followed up with the developer regarding these reports.

WoW Classic's Burning Crusade expansion is already available for beta testing, which likely signals that a full release may not be too far off.

Whenever it's released, WoW Classic players will have a choice as to whether they advance to Burning Crusade. You'll be able to keep your characters in the vanilla Classic version of the game, or move to them the Burning Crusade era.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic is included with any WoW subscription, so if you're playing the main game or Classic already, you'll get access to this content for free.

8Bitdo has made a name for itself by producing quality controllers for a range of consoles, but few are as revered as its range for Nintendo Switch. Especially since the Nintendo Switch' default D-Pad is so unreliable, alternatives have become sought after for precise 2D titles, with 8Bitdo delivering where it matters. Case and point, the 8Bitdo Lite Bluetooth Gamepad, which works with a range of devices including the Switch and Switch Lite, and is on sale today for more than 10% off, discounted to $21.10 at Amazon.

This controller isn't just designed for the Switch though. 8Bitdo says that you'll be able to easily pair it with Windows, too, letting you play games off Steam, the Epic Games Store, and more. There's also native support for Raspberry Pi, which might make it a great choice for any retro emulated titles you might have ready and waiting.

The 8Bitdo Lite Bluetooth Gamepad isn't the only controller on sale at Amazon today either. If you're looking to celebrate the launch of New Pokemon Snap, Hori has a deal on its Nintendo Switch D-Pad Controller with a nice black and yellow Pikachu aesthetic, which also comes with an improved D-Pad. PowerA also has a more traditional wireless controller for the Nintendo Switch on sale, with green Legend of Zelda-inspired Enhanced Wireless Controller on sale for just under $40.

The latest update for Red Dead Online has arrived, and this week will see big cash rewards handed out to players who engage in exploration and free roam missions. Developer Rockstar Games detailed all of this week's updates and more in a new blog post that you can read highlights of below.

Bonuses for hunting legendary animals this week

Hunting down and skinning any Legendary animal this week from free roam or the Sighting mission will earn players 100 rounds of Nitro Express ammo for the Elephant rifle, and weight management tonics. Bringing the carcass of the prey to Gus' Store will also see players rewarded with two fast travel rewards and a Snowy Egret Plume. On top of that, crafted trinkets and coats will result in a 40% discount off of an established or distinguished Naturalist item in stock.

Hunter and Naturalist players also receive a reward for 1,000 Naturalist XP and 5 Animal Revivers as further incentive, and Harriet Davenport's store will reduce the price of the Naturalist's sample kit by five gold bars for the next week.

Project L, the upcoming League of Legends fighting game coming from Riot Games, will not be seen until the end of the year at the earliest according to one of its lead developers.

Tom Cannon, senior producer at Riot Games, updated the game's progress on Twitter, confirming the game will not have a beta test in 2021 but the team is working on an update for later this year. "The game is on track with many core systems in place, but we still have a ways to go," the tweet reads. "[Please] do not expect a beta (public or private) any time soon, and [definitely] not this year."

Cannon then followed this tweet with another confirming that the team is "planning a dev update for around the end of this year to share more about the game. Until then, sit tight!"

Google Stadia's head of product has left the company. John Justice, who was also a vice president at Google, is no longer working with the technology giant.

He joined Google in 2019 and worked on the Stadia team where he oversaw the consumer experience. A spokesperson for Google confirmed his departure to 9to5Google. "We can confirm John is no longer with Google and we wish him well on his next step," the company said. There is no word yet, however, on what Justice may do next.

Stadia was recently updated with a search bar, while the service also got a sort/filter feature to help users find games more easily.

Stadia has been in the news a lot so far in 2021. In February, Google made the surprise announcement that it was closing its two game development studios, with 150 jobs impacted. While Google may no longer develop games itself, the company will release more than 100 titles on Stadia this year. One of the most high-profile releases so far in 2021 was Outriders, which launched on Stadia day and date with other platforms.

Unlike Fortnite, the Epic Games Store seems to be losing money for its operator. According to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, the digital storefront is "hundreds of millions of dollars short of being profitable."

According to Sweeney's testimony from the Epic Games Vs. Apple trial, the company's digital platform will be in the green "within three or four years." Additionally, the Washington Post reported that a document entered into evidence for the trial showed that the Epic Games Store required a $359 million investment from Epic Games from the year following its launch. According to another document given to the court on April 8, Epic expects the Epic Games Store to begin turning a profit for the company in 2023.

The Epic Games Store launched in 2018, moving into a market dominated by other digital game retailers. By that time, Valve's own digital storefront, Steam, had been in operation for 15 years and held an enormous share of the PC gaming market. The Epic Games Store also had to compete with other smaller digital gaming storefronts from game developers and publishers, like Ubisoft's Uplay and CD Projekt Red's GOG.

Epic's digital storefront has distinguished itself from its biggest competitor, Steam, by taking a reduced commission from developers. Valve takes a 30% commission from game purchases on Steam, while Epic only takes 12%.

The trial between Epic Games and Apple kicked off yesterday, almost seven months after Epic first filed an antitrust lawsuit against their fruity foes. In the lead up to the court case, we've seen plenty of info come out about how the two companies operate. But now, it seems some financial documents have been made public that Epic most likely did not want to be made public. They reveal that the company paid game developers almost $12 million (around £8.6 million) to be able to release their games for free on the Epic Games Store in the first nine months of its life.

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Developer Microids has revealed it's working on a direct sequel to 16-bit sci-fi classic Flashback - something of a surprising announcement, given it already has one.

The original Flashback, released by Delphine Software in 1992, followed the far-flung future adventures of agent Conrad B. Hart on the trail of shapeshifting aliens attempting to infiltrate human society - an investigation that, much like Delphine's earlier Another World, took the form of a platform-puzzler, complete with strikingly cinematic rotoscoped visuals.

Flashback proved to be enough of a hit that, in 1995, it received a sequel titled Fade to Black, which took the series into full 3D for some third-person adventuring - and it even got the 2.5D remake treatment, albeit one that wasn't especially well-received, in 2013.

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Patch 1.3.3 has been pulled and we are reverting back to 1.3.1 until it's fixed.

1. Star Wars: Battlefront (2015)
2. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
3. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2017)
4. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
6. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005)
7. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
8. LEGO Star Wars
9. Star Wars: Battlefront (2004)
10. Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire

Everything in the universe is connected

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Maybe this time the sci-fi classic will finally win over a new generation

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Yesterday I donned my three-week-old Oculus Quest 2 and decided to check in on Oculus Home, a personal 3D space that each Oculus user can customize with furniture and any number of faux-domestic polygonal accessories. But when I rezzed in, something was amiss. Or rather, everything was missing: My Home had been…

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Vinny Caravella, Alex Navarro, and Brad Shoemaker, foundational members of the Giant Bomb team, announced today they are leaving the site.

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Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, director of The Witcher 3, has resigned from his position at CD Projekt after being accused of workplace bullying, Bloomberg reports.

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Konrad Tomaszkiewicz departs CD Projekt but denies workplace bullying took place. ...

Day one of the Epic v. Apple trial granted us insight into Epic Games' financial history, and it looks like day two is giving us a peek at Epic CEO Tim Sweeney's email outbox. ...

With no Star Wars movies on the immediate horizon, and most of the live-action Disney+ shows currently filming, this year's Star Wars Day celebration hasn't been filled fireworks, but the day did start with a bang with the release of the first episode of The Bad Batch. This excellent continuation of The Clone Wars animated series was followed up with a little big of gaming collectible news: two awesome Black Series action figures based on Jedi: Fallen Order.

If the day's festivities have you itching to play a Star Wars game, you will find new content in a handful of titles. Star Wars Squadrons, the awesome dogfighting experience from developer EA Motive, received a small update in the form of new starfighter paint jobs (for the A-Wing and TIE Interceptor), as well as lightsaber cockpit items. In a tweet, EA says this is the final cosmetic drop that will be added to Squadrons.