May 2021

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a gift that keeps on giving. We may have to wait to see if Cal Kestis and his adorable droid BD-1 return in a video game sequel, but until then, Hasbro continues to keep the game's spirit alive and well through its awesome Black Series of action figures.

Today, as a part of the May 4 Star Wars Day celebration, Hasbro announced two new Jedi: Fallen Order figures. No, we're not getting the coveted Greez Dritus figure just yet, but we are getting a Nightbrother warrior! This is a pick no one saw coming, and will be a great addition to the ever-expanding lineup of figures based on this game.

Hasbro also revealed an awesome Flametrooper figure is on the way. This sculpt has shades of Ralph McQuarrie's brilliance to it, and I love how the tip of the gun is flaming hot. You can see both figures loose and boxed in the gallery below:

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Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, has resigned from CD Projekt following claims of workplace bullying.

As reported by Bloomberg, Tomaszkiewicz had been the subject of a months-long investigation over allegations of "mobbing, a Polish term for office bullying." Tomaszkiewicz has denied these allegations, and Bloomberg reports that in the email to CD Projekt staff, Tomaszkiewicz writes that a commission had been formed to look into the allegations and "had found him not guilty."

"Nonetheless, a lot of people are feeling fear, stress or discomfort when working with me," wrote Tomaszkiewicz, who apologized to staff "for all the bad blood I have caused." According to the email to employees obtained by Bloomberg, he also says the decision was agreed upon with the company's board.

"I am going to continue working on myself," wrote Tomaszkiewicz. "Changing behavior is a long and arduous process, but I'm not giving up, and I hope to change."

He confirmed his departure to Bloomberg, telling the outlet he was "sad, a bit disappointed and resigned," while CD Projekt declined to comment. 

Microsoft has responded to recent reports that the publisher is planning to reduce the amount of money it makes on each and every Xbox game sale. According to the industry giant, it currently has no plans to take any less of a stake in the sales of any Xbox platform software.

The rumor came about following the publishing of a confidential document by The Verge. The presentation slide, which is titled "Microsoft Store Policies & App Store Principles" and was written in January 2021, seemed to suggest that Microsoft was preparing to readjust its revenue on each game to 88/12 in a developer's favor, down from the 70/30; the standard for most of the AAA gaming industry.

But in a new statement to The Verge, Microsoft openly said that it has no plans to adjust revenue share on Xbox games. The publisher originally stated "We have no plans to change the revenue share for console games at this time", before later returning with a far more definitive "We will not be updating the revenue split for console publishers".

It's easy to see why people could consider the adjustment a possibility. Microsoft recently adjusted the revenue share on PC games to 88/12, in keeping with similar schemes offered by publishers such as Epic Games Store. Applying this same strategy to consoles would have serious ramifications throughout the industry, possibly forcing the hand of both PlayStation and Nintendo to follow suit or risk losing out to Xbox exclusivity deals. While such a strategy would be bold — not to mention better for developers — it seems that Microsoft is choosing to stick with the status quo.

In news that might be apropos of nothing, Sony Interactive Entertainment has officially trademarked the Sunset Overdrive brand, making the former Xbox exclusive an officially owned Sony IP.

When developer Insomniac Games took its crazy, hypercolor shooter to Microsoft way back in 2011, part of the exclusivity deal was Insomniac retaining ownership of the Sunset Overdrive IP. Insomniac Games would, of course, be purchased by SIE in August 2019, bringing Spider-Man and other Insomniac brands into the Sony portfolio.

This new trademark registration, (spotted by Resetera user Sillegamer) could simply be be a case of Sony finally rubber-stamping its ownership of Sunset Overdrive — dotting the i's and crossing the t's, as it were — but the news has understandably gotten franchise fans antsy for the possibility of a PlayStation remaster or, even better, a brand new sequel.

Both of the Zhongli Historia Antiqua story quests in Genshin Impact not only show him during "downtime," but enlighten us about Liyue and its lore.

The post Each Genshin Impact Zhongli Story Quest is Packed With Lore appeared first on Siliconera.

When I used to compete in Counter-Strike 1.6 tournaments, I would do so with a print-out of the map we were playing taped to the wall by my monitor. Today's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players go several steps further in the pursuit of being better at clicking on heads than the other team.

To aid them, Valve have launched a new subscription service called CS:GO 360 Stats. For $1 a month, players get access to match stats from their Competitive, Premier and Wingman game mode matches.

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Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who served as game director on CD Projekt's acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, has resigned from the company following an investigation into workplace bullying.

As reported by Bloomberg, Tomaszkiewicz had been the focus of a months-long investigation into allegations of bullying at CD Projekt.

Despite the investigation ultimately finding him not guilty, Tomaszkiewicz told co-workers in an email announcing his resignation, as seen by Bloomberg, "a lot of people are feeling fear, stress or discomfort when working with me."

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EVE Online is a massively multiplayer online game where players can mine planets, fight other players in all-out war, and fly through wormholes to reach new destinations. Now it’s helping scientists learn more about COVID-19.

Through a citizen science project called Project Discovery, players are able to help scientists in the real world solve problems that need human input, such as helping scientists discover new planets. Over the past year, they’ve been helping scientists learn more about COVID-19.

To date, 327,000 players have completed 1.37 million analysis tasks in-game, which has saved scientists 330.69 years worth of research into how the immune system responds to COVID-19. Speaking to IGN, EVE Online Creative Director, Bergur Finnbogason, explained how the project began.

“This is a project that was initially started by, or at least an idea from, [Massively Multiplayer Online Science CEO and co-founder Attila Szantner] a few years back where he was looking at citizen science projects around the world, all over the internet,” Finnbogason said. “He started seeing this pattern in these projects where basically... these fantastic projects would happen… with super worthy causes… but people would come in, try it once, and then never come back.”

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/04/eve-online-project-discovery-covid-19-gameplay"]

Seeing that people were so quick to drop these projects, the parties involved devised a way to merge citizen science projects with something that would make people want to stick around. That's where the idea of placing one of these projects in an MMO — a genre with communities of people who do the very opposite of trying something once and never touching it again — was born.

If you’ve ever played Destiny or Destiny 2 for more than 15 minutes, you’ve probably killed at least several Fallen. The bug-eyed bad guys frequently stand between your Guardian and whatever they’re trying to accomplish, and they just crunch so good when you thwack ‘em with a giant hammer. But I swear to god, if you…

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PlayStation is looking for a Senior Sound Designer to join its award-winning team to craft high-quality audio content for 1st party product development projects. ...

Call of Dutys expansion into both mobile and free-to-play is doing great things for Activision as the company reports new records in MAUs and, for parent Activision Blizzard, revenue. ...

Will the real Bad Batch please stand up? Lucasfilm may have the Star Wars community singing the praises of The Bad Batch, the latest animated series to hit Disney+, but fans of the video game, Star Wars: Republic Commando, have the right to raise a slight stink. The character ensembles featured in the show and game are nearly identical, with both focusing on distinct class-based squads of clone troopers.

Lucasfilm has to know of the similarities between the two properties, and we hope a crossover is planned at some point. Seeing the Bad Batch exchange pleasantries or laser fire with Delta Squad (the group from the game), would be amazing and exactly what fans on both sides would want...but we'll also take a sequel to the game.

Republic Commando originally released in 2005, but has recently been made new again through a slightly enhanced port on Switch and PlayStation 4. Today, Funko surprised Republic Commando fans with a Pop figure of Boss (also known as RC-1138 in the game). This figure can be preordered exclusively at GameStop right now, and is expected to ship on August 4. For reasons I can't explain, this Boss figure glows in the dark.

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The workplace culture at CD Projekt Red has been an ongoing topic of conversation in the gaming community in recent years and the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 has ensured that it will never be the same again. Where the road leads for the Polish studio remains to be seen, but the most recent news for CDPR is that Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has officially resigned. 

After several months of internal investigations regarding bullying, also referred to as "mobbing," Tomaszkiewicz was found not guilty of the allegations against him. The ruling was revealed via an in-house email obtained by Bloomberg where the director stated he was leaving the company. "Nonetheless, a lot of people are feeling fear, stress, or discomfort when working with me," he said. The letter also contained an apology to the team for the "bad blood" involved and announced his departure. 

The email continued, saying that the decision was mutual involving himself and the board. He added that he will be using this opportunity to work on himself and to begin the "long and arduous process" of changing and becoming a better person. Something we all strive to do in our daily lives, and is a goal worth supporting. 

The series of demos for Resident Evil Village have come and gone, but they were here long enough for some modders to already get to work. And while replacing characters like the Duke or Lady Dimitrescu is one thing, turning the castle's horrors into giant purple monstrosities is another.

As spotted by PC Gamer, modder Marcos RC has been showing off a few model swaps with the Village demo. Before their time ran out, they got one more implemented: a horrifying swap that puts the lovable children's mascot Barney in place of the castle's evil creatures.

Of course, modders have also been fiddling with things like extending the timer on the demo and other odds and ends, but this Barney mod is truly horrifying. Hopefully Capcom never sees this and gets any ideas. Or at least let the puppets handle it.

The demo window is open a little while longer, but it won't be long until Resident Evil Village is out for all on May 7. If it's anything like Resident Evil 2's modding scene, look forward to even more model swaps, I guess.

The question of which studio is helming this year's Call of Duty title has been answered. Sledgehammer Games is leading development on the still-untitled Call of Duty for 2021.

On an earnings call earlier today, Activision Blizzard confirmed that Sledgehammer Games would be taking charge. At the same time, the Sledgehammer account posted a GIF of The Undertaker rising from the coffin without a caption, later confirming that they are "leading the charge on [Call of Duty] this year and can't wait to share more."

We’re so excited to be leading the charge on @CallofDuty this year and can’t wait to share more. https://t.co/pMuaFybT1r

— Sledgehammer Games (@SHGames) May 4, 2021

Sledgehammer previously led the charge on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Call of Duty: WWII, and assisted fellow CoD studios Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Raven Software with both 2019's Modern Warfare and last year's Black Ops Cold War. The studio will also be expanding with a new team in Toronto, CA.

In its quarterly earnings, Activision Blizzard noted that 88% of its revenue was generated via digital full game downloads or in-app purchases. Call of Duty Mobile has also passed 500 million downloads.

The Last Blade 2's Hibiki Takane has always been an emotional sort. It's totally understandable, given the young swordswoman's exceptionally tough and violent childhood.

In her short video game career, Hibiki has been both a delicate flower and a throat-slitting executioner at one and the same time. Recognizing this, SNK has given her recent Samurai Shodown iteration a very novel twist, allowing the player to designate Hibiki's mood as they see fit, toggling Takane's mood between that of stoic, reluctant expertise, or vengeful, fiery-eyed fury — both of which I can relate to on any given day at Destructoid.

Flashback 2, the sequel to 1992 rotoscoped platformer Flashback, has been announced and has original creator Paul Cuisset at the helm. In a press release, Cuisset notes that, "Developing a sequel to Flashback is an idea I’ve had for a very long time."

There is, oddly, no mention in the press release of the last time he developed a sequel to Flashback, 1995's Fade To Black.

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The trial between Epic and Apple over app store practices is underway and previously private details of the Fortnite developer's business are spilling. We're not a business site and ordinarily I wouldn't care, but ooh, it's good goss isn't it. For example, we now know that Fortnite made over $9 billion in its first two years of release.

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Another day, another collection of very funny and insightful documents being released as part of the Apple vs Epic lawsuit. For tonight we have a 2015 email from Epic’s Tim Sweeney to Apple CEO Tim Cook, where one executive issues an impassioned plea for marketplace reform, and the other says, “Who is this man?”

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Tuque Games creative art director Stefan Leblanc took to the PlayStation Blog to share some unique Dungeons & Dragons metal-inspired art. The key? Just don't care about the way the world looks, and that's a philosophy we can get behind. In the blog post, he shares never before seen Dark Alliance concept art and to him, it's every metal fan's dream. 

Leblanc shared concept art for Dark Alliance from Vincent, Victor, Stanimir, Jorge, Fred, Dimitri, and Even, and everything shown looks nothing short of gorgeous. "The concept of Dark Alliance is simple," he said. "It’s you and your friends versus this alliance between legions of monsters. The monsters really started to take on a life of their own as we developed the game. In a way, they’re the stars of the show. They’re what you are going to remember when you talk about Dark Alliance with your friends."

You can see a plethora of new images from the world of Dark Alliance in our gallery below: 

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I loved watching The Simpsons, but I can't remember the last time I sat down to see what this family has been up to. It feels like it was at least a decade ago. With 32 seasons under its belt, this show has unprecedented staying power, and Disney+ could breath new life into it, especially with shorts like today's Star Wars Day surprise.

Titled Maggie Simpson in The Force Awakens From Its Nap, the newest Simpsons short is loaded with Star Wars fan service, and doesn't overstay its welcome. In any given scene, you may want to pause the show just to see how much Star Wars content is crammed onto screen. I especially loved the cameo of what appears to be a baby version of Kylo Ren.

True to Maggie's form, the episode is designed as a silent comedy, although BB-8 does talk through most of it. The episode delivers a lightsaber battle, a pretty damn good Death Star joke, and an unexpected death. It's well worth watching, and even impresses with its credits sequence, which features a number of pieces of art that again blend Star Wars and The Simpsons in fun way.

I don't think this short will get me back into The Simpsons, but I did walk away pleased by it, and knowing that there's still plenty of life left in this long-running animated series.

With Star Wars Day ending soon, it's not too late to enjoy other adventures in a galaxy far, far away. For more Star Wars celebration, check out some of our other coverage below: 

In today's contest you can win a Star Wars bundle from fun.com!

It's May 4th, and you know what that means -- tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo! Get your tacos and margaritas ready to appropriate foreign culture in the most American way possible!

Oh yeah, and today is Star Wars Day, so win this Star Wars t-shirt and plush bundle from our friends at fun.com! And May the fourth be with you, because for most of us, May the fifth will be a drunken blur.

It's 2021. Street Fighter V has been out for five years, it's receiving its final season of content, and a sequel appears to be on the horizon. What is it like to enter its highly competitive scene in this environment? Is it populated mostly by veterans who will absolutely destroy you? Or is there a healthy base of beginners? Here's what I learned on my journey through the ranks. 

For a little background, I'm not unfamiliar with fighting games. I've played plenty casually and got semi-serious about Dragon Ball FighterZ for a bit, but Street Fighter is a different beast. The unique combo timing and ground-based neutral game were foreign concepts to me. I had played it a bit on launch in 2016 but left due to not really understanding the game and a lack of content.

Credit to Capcom though, they have improved the game immensely since then. The new content and mechanics they've added have been stellar. Street Fighter V is in a great spot and the community is the happiest it has been with the game in a long while. 

But what is it like to actually rank up in 2021? Well, the good news is that, according to data compiled by Reddit user LimitlessCSGOTV, more than half of the players are in Rookie or Bronze. These numbers include inactive users as well but the player base seems to be healthy. 

The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has resigned from CD Projekt Red after an internal investigation into alleged workplace bullying, Bloomberg reports. Tomaszkiewicz, who was secondary game director and head of production on Cyberpunk 2077, denies the allegations, but apologised "for all the bad blood I have caused" in an email to CD Projekt staff.

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While the documents and emails being released as part of the Epic v Apple case are often important and full of detailed information, I am very much enjoying the ones—like this—where billionaire executives are forced into embarrassing apologies when their company fucks up.

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While many players keep occupied with seeing as much of Resident Evil Village as its one-hour demo allows, some folks go the extra mile.

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Vice President and Head of Product at Stadia, John Justice, who only joined Google in early 2019, has not just left his role at the streaming game platform but the company itself.

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Sega Legacy II AC Scratch Tickets are headed to PSO2 to give people a chance to get Yakuza, Space Channel 5, and 7th Dragon costumes.

The post PSO2 Yakuza and Space Channel 5 Sega Legacy II Scratch Tickets Dated appeared first on Siliconera.

[Update: What's in patch 1.3.3? A fix for "certain Trophies" not unlocking correctly (though you'll have to retrace your steps all over), "multiple stability fixes" for "crashes/hangs," and a fix for that one nasty bug with the pre-order suits that prevents item and door interactions, along with other "minor" touch-ups.

Housemarque has also upped "the number of scout corpses available in all biomes," something people had been wondering about — have you encountered any bodies yet? Maybe now you will.]

[Update 2: Some Returnal players are reporting corrupted save data and errors in the wake of this patch, which is bad news for permanent unlocks. Clearly, there are still some bumps to smooth out.]

Not to dive into the whole "lack of saves in Returnal" thing again so soon, but yeah, it's warranted. In a tweet today, Housemarque warned users to turn off the PlayStation 5's auto-update feature:

PSA: #Returnal patch and patch notes will go live tomorrow (May 5) at noon PST, 7pm GMT.

Set your #PS5 auto-update off to keep your run.
https://t.co/ICzxVHvCEq

Following on from their 2018 collaboration, Sony and Nike have announced a new pair of NBA star Paul George’s signature shoes are on the way, once again with PlayStation stuff all over them.

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PlayStation knows how to deliver a good shoe, and the gaming company has done it yet again with the newly revealed Paul George PG 5 PlayStation 5 Colorway pair. The new sneakers are designed to look like a PS5, which is a great way to remind yourself every day that the actual consoles themselves aren't in stock. 

The latest Nike collaboration is thanks to a partnership between PlayStation and NBA's Paul George of the LA Clippers. Some of the previous PlayStation-inspired shoes have been pretty hit or miss with aesthetics, but this new line actually does look stunning. 

Revealing the PG 5 PlayStation 5 colorway. A new collaboration between @Nike, @Yg_Trece, and PlayStation available in select regions starting May 14: https://t.co/723aNkuqSS pic.twitter.com/5naNZMzfKs

A Made in Abyss game called Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness will come to the PS4, Switch, and PC worldwide in 2022.

The post Made in Abyss PS4, Switch and PC Game Will Debut in 2022 appeared first on Siliconera.