March 2023

Panic has revealed that it will hold a Playdate Update showcase next week. 

More specifically, the showcase will air at 9 a.m. PT on March 7 and during it, Panic will reveal new Playdate games and more. The presentation will run for 13 minutes and will also include an update on Catalog, which is Panic's "own curated, on-device and web browser storefront for Playdate software." 

For the uninitiated, Playdate is a piece of handheld hardware that began shipping to customers in April of last year. It's a small device with a black and white screen and a unique crank on the side of it. This crank is integrated into many of the games you can play with it.

Since last April, more than 25,000 Playdate units have shipped to customers. Playdate is not yet availabe on demand for would-be purchasers but you can preorder the device to receive one in the next wave. 

The Playdate Update showcase will air on the official Panic YouTube channel. 

Do you have a Playdate? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below!

Given that Dead Island 2 has been in development for the better part of a decade, it’s understandable to have some trepidation about its quality (and general existence). Developer Dambuster Studios hopes to convince players that Dead Island 2 is not only close to finished but is a worthy follow-up by releasing an extended gameplay walkthrough that provides the rawest look at its action. 

The guided demo follows Irish punk rocker Dani, one of the game's six playable characters, and shows off a lot of the moment-to-moment action across various locales. The gory F.L.E.S.H. system is on full display, as is the wacky makeshift weaponry, including electrified Wolverine-esque claws. We also get a look at the card-based perk system and one strange sidequest involving pizza. 

Dead Island is slated to launch on April 21 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. We recently featured the game on our cover and you check out a month’s worth of exclusive features by visiting our coverage hub.

Nintendo revealed last month that it was targeting a spring release for Wave 4 of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass and today, the company revealed that this wave of DLC will hit the Switch next week. 

More specifically, Wave 4 will hit Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on March 9. While we already knew this DLC wave would include Birdo as a playable character and a new course called Yoshi's Island, we didn't know the full track list. Nintendo released a gameplay trailer today, however, that reveals all of the courses coming to the game in this new wave. 

Check out the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass Wave 4 trailer for yourself below: 

As you can see, Wave 4 brings back returning favorites like GCN Waluigi Stadium from Mario Kart Double Dash, tracks from Mario Kart Tour, and even a brand new track developed just for this game called Yoshi's Island. Plus, Birdo joins the roster of playable racers. 

In case you missed it, here's every course coming to the game in Wave 4: 

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor director Stig Asmussen of Respawn Entertainment wants the series to be a trilogy. 

This news comes from a new IGN Unfiltered interview with the director, which is where Asmussen revealed that even before the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in 2019, the team was already discussing sequel ideas. For Asmussen, Cal's story has always been a trilogy in his head. 

"We were already talking about the second game," said Asmussen. "I mean, frankly, we were talking beyond. And these are conversations that, when we're breaking this story with Lucasfilm, it's like: 'Well, where are we going with the second game?' I always wanted to see this as a trilogy. How can we take Cal and the crew to new places beyond what we were doing in the first game." 

Asmussen continues, stating that Respawn had a good idea of where Survivor, which is due out April 28, takes place in terms of the Star Wars timeline. The team also knew what the stakes were going to be, what the tone was going to be, what Cal was going to be up against, and how his crew was going to be factored into all of that. On top of that, Respawn thinks about the ideas "that we could do beyond that as well." 

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Developer: Team Ninja
Release: March 3, 2023

Team Ninja has earned a reputation for crafting some of the most satisfying action games around, nimbly transitioning from the high-octane action Ninja Gaiden series to the Soulslike thrills of Nioh. Its latest effort, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, is an unforgiving but deeply rewarding showcase of freneticism that lives up to this lineage. The smooth swordplay, brilliant boss fights, and novel systems further prove Team Ninja’s ability to craft unrelenting experiences. Although its back half is hampered by a lack of enemy variety, its lightning-fast duels make it one of the more gratifying titles in recent memory.

Set in a version of 2nd-century China inspired by the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, we follow an unnamed militia soldier as they’re drawn into a war over an immortality-granting elixir. While fans of the book will likely enjoy fighting alongside their favorite figures, this narrative does little to communicate their nuances or depth, with storytelling that serves as little more than set dressing.

Sony has announced a new collaborative initiative called PlayStation PlayMakers. The console giant will partner up with celebrity fans of the brand to “celebrate their passion for gaming and PlayStation” by creating unique experiences for players. One of those famous names is NBA superstar LeBron James, who helped design a limited-edition PlayStation 5 accessories.

The special console plates and DualSense 5 controller were co-designed by James and will release in select countries. The hardware is adorned with artistic elements (including obligatory crowns) and personal inspirational messages by LeBron. There’s no word yet on the prices, but you can only pre-order these items through direct.playstation.com. sometime this year. You can read LeBron's thoughts on the project by visiting the PlayStation Blog. 

Telltale Games has announced that The Wolf Among Us 2 has been delayed and will now arrive in 2024. In a statement to IGN, the team explains it wants to avoid crunching the team and releasing an unfinished product as it moves development into Unreal Engine 5.

Telltale released a brief message on Twitter announcing the delay, but CEO Jamie Ottilie shares more context with IGN. Ottilie discusses the challenges of relaunching the studio in 2019, which were then compounded when the COVID-19 pandemic began the following year. That includes announcing the game when the studio was still staffing up to help secure early funding. Despite those early hurdles, Ottilie states that development has been going well since then, but the team recently decided it wants to adopt Unreal 5 to take advantage of the engine’s new features. Unfortunately, that meant having to redo a lot of the work that had been created in Unreal 4.

Deck 13, makers of The Surge and Lords of the Fallen, have announced their next big action RPG, Atlas Fallen, launches in May. The game was revealed during last year’s Gamescom and centers on players manipulating sand to explore and survive in a fantastical desert world.  

The game supports single-player and two-player co-op and takes place in a massive sand-covered world filled with monsters and gods. You’ll take them down using shape-shifting weapons born out of the sand and other customizable magical abilities. You can check out the cinematic announcement trailer from Gamescom 2022, and a batch of new screenshots, below. 

With Diablo IV, Blizzard aims to revamp the danger-infested hellscape of Sanctuary. The world’s five explorable regions – Kehjistan, Scosglen, Fractured Peaks, Dry Steppes, and Hawezar – offer their own flavors of topography, cultures, quests, and, of course, monsters. Blizzard is going to great lengths to ensure these regions are not only fun for players to explore, but feature more narrative cohesion and a stronger sense of place. 

Diablo veterans have explored regions of Sanctuary before, but this time they’re more than one-note areas highlighting a single climate or element, such as snow or desert. Each of them is biodiverse in its own right, with multiple biomes and threats exclusive to them. These realms also blend more naturally together; the lush green of one area gradually withers away into the parched brown of another region's dry canyon, for example. Villages and their residents better reflect the cultures and stories of their local areas, reinforcing the sense that regions feel like self-contained worlds filled with history, both new and old. 

We spoke to Blizzard art director John Mueller, senior game designer II Dini McMurry, associate game designer Madeleine James, and senior game designer II Harrison Pink to get a snapshot of what these areas have to offer, including video clips highlighting each of them.  

Electronic Arts has reportedly laid off more than 200 quality assurance testers at its Baton Rouge office in Lousiana. 

This news comes by way of Kotaku, which reports that EA laid off these workers, who worked primarily on the publisher's battle royale Apex Legends, during a surprise Zoom call yesterday. The publication reports that its three sources were able to confirm the news, which began making rounds on Twitter when both current and former QA testers at the Lousiana office began to share what they had learned. 

EA just fired its entire Baton Rouge studio, which is essentially their entire Apex Legends QA staff.

— Ben (@TopMarx420) February 28, 2023

Kotaku reports that around 8 a.m. CT, QA testers were invited to an unscheduled but mandatory Zoom call with Magnit Global, which is the contract agency that manages the workers. It was during this meeting that the entire QA team at the Lousiana office was "disbanded," according to Kotaku. 

Meta dropped the prices on two of its VR headset packages this weekend, dropping the US price of its recently released Quest Pro headset by one-third and partially undoing a 2022 price hike to the 256GB version of its Quest 2 headset.

The Quest Pro, which launched at a $1,500 price point last October, now sells for $1,000.

The 256GB Quest 2, which saw its price raised from $400 to $500 last July, now sells for $430.

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At a glance

The UK games market posted strong sales in February due to the performance of two products: Hogwarts Legacy and PlayStation 5.

2.8 million console and PC games were sold across the UK during February, up 11% over the year before. This data is for all physical games, plus AAA titles from most major publishers (courtesy of GSD).

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Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix has announced that it will move its main offices in Japan to Shibuya.

As reported by Siliconera, after the construction of a new building is complete in November 2024, the firm will relocate.

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The games industry is full of dreamers, but way too many times have I seen those dreams shattered, including my own.

People perceive the games industry as something cool and fun while also being a good business opportunity – and they are mostly right.

I've met many people attracted to the idea of either working in the industry or funding their own company, more often so while the business was in a booming state, but it still happens now and will likely happen more once the recession is over. But the market is more competitive than ever. So, what are essential aspects both newcomers and veterans should be aware of while building their studio?

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It’s an exciting time to be working on a video game.

Despite the economic doom and gloom, there has never been a better time to release and market a game. Audiences around the world continue to grow, and with an increasing number of social media platforms and technologies, there are now more ways to reach potential fans than ever before.

But there are a number of problems that companies can run into when they are in the midst of preparing a video game for release.

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An Austrian court has ruled that loot boxes in FIFA violate the nation's gambling laws and have demanded that affected players be refunded.

German publication GamesWirtschaft reported that the district court of Hermagor has classified FIFA Ultimate Team's card packs as illegal gambling. This is because players' ability to sell cards on a secondary market means it's possible to make a profit, giving the randomised items some level of financial value.

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Ubisoft is ongoing a "strategic reorganisation" across some of its "European business subsidiaries," the firm said following rumours of office closures.

As reported by NME, a Resetera user shared on Friday what they claimed to be an internal Ubisoft email, indicating that "Ubisoft Benelux" will reportedly be closing down on April 1, 2023.

It's unclear which office(s) they're referring to but Ubisoft only has one in the Benelux region, in Utrecht, Netherlands.

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Hogwarts Legacy narrowly holds onto No.1 for a fourth consecutive week in the UK.

The game's retains the top spot in the physical retail charts despite a 30% drop in sales week-on-week.

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It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.

If you have new appointments or transitions in your company that belong here, please send the names of the appointees, new role and company, and prior role and company to newhires@gamesindustry.biz.

Moon Beast Productions has appointed Diablo co-creator Erich Schaefer as its chief creative officer.

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This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check back every Friday for a new entry.

Here's a fun fact. The Xbox One had been on shelves for barely two and a half years when Microsoft announced its mid-cycle refresh, the Xbox One X, at E3 2016 under the name "Project Scorpio."

The Xbox Series X|S has now been on shelves for almost two and a half years, so maybe it's about time to start wondering when we're going to see an Xbox Series Z, or whatever unhinged naming convention Microsoft's marketing team is cooking up. Then again, perhaps not.

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Twitch streamer Kai Cenat has broken the record for the most subscriptions within a month.

The 21-year-old content creator announced on Twitter that he hit 300,000 subs on February 28.

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The GamesIndustry.biz team gather around their mics to discuss the biggest stories of the past week.

On this episode, we begin with the report that 2023's Call of Duty release will be a follow-up to 2022's Modern Warfare 2 that originally began an expansion. It will plug the previously reported gap that could have seen this year become the first since 2005 not to see a full new entry in the series, with Treyarch's next game pushed to 2024.

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The US Congresswoman leading efforts to learn more about how the games industry is dealing with the rise of extremism in online multiplayer games has expressed frustration at the response from leading publishers and platform holders.

Representatives Lori Trahan told Axios that of the 14 companies who responded to her questionnaire – which include Microsoft, Sony, Tencent, Epic Games, EA and Activision – only five detailed what they're doing to assess and tackle extremism in their games.

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What will it take for VR to grow beyond its niche status and become an important commercial pillar of the games industry? It's quite literally a billion dollar question – many billions, in fact.

Ever since Oculus kickstarted the current VR market ten years ago, there has been a fairly steady progression for the technology, with improvements in hardware and software alike coming at regular intervals.

The addressable audience has grown too, but for the most part that growth has been linear. Meta's range of Quest headsets are probably the best-selling devices in the space, selling around 20 million devices cumulatively. That's good growth, but it's not breakout growth – it shows VR becoming a larger niche, not VR breaking out of niche status entirely.

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Yosuke Matsuda, the president and representative director of Square Enix, will step down from his role later this year.

The proposed changes were detailed in a statement to investors, spotted by RPGSite, and if approved will mark the end of a decade in which Matsuda has led the Final Fantasy published.

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The 2023 BAFTA Games Awards nominations have been revealed, with the event scheduled for Thursday, March 30.

Sony Santa Monica Studio's God of War leads the nominations with a mention across 14 categories. Meanwhile, BlueTwelve's Stray has picked up eight nominations, and FromSoftware's Elden Ring is up for seven awards. All three titles have been nominated for the Best Game award.

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Reuters is reporting that the European Commission is expected to approve Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard without demanding it sell off parts of the publisher first.

The outlet cites "three people familiar with the matter" who indicated that the Xbox maker's previous pledges to keep Call of Duty available through platforms and services owned by other companies will be sufficient to satisfy the commission's concerns.

"Our commitment to grant long term 100% equal access to Call of Duty to Sony, Steam, NVIDIA and others  preserves the deal's benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market," a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters.

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Knockout City was one of many casualties in the wave of online games that are scheduled for closure this year.

The multiplayer game, which pits teams of players against each other in a fantastical version of dodgeball, is due to shut down on June 6 – roughly two years after it first debuted. GamesIndustry.biz caught up with Guha Bala, co-founder of Knockout City's developer Velan Studios as well as long-running studio Vicarious Visions, to find out more about the reasons for this once-promising game's demise.

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Yuji Naka, former Sonic Team boss and ex-Square Enix employee has admitted to insider trading charges.

As reported by VGC, per NHK, Naka acknowledged his guilt at his trial for violating Japan's Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.

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Why I Love is a series of guest editorials on GamesIndustry.biz intended to showcase the ways in which game developers appreciate each other's work. This entry was contributed by Andy Cargile, lead designer at Smart Technologies, which launched the rogue-like strategy card game The Last Kids on Earth: Hit the Deck last month on PC.

Have you ever been to a movie where it's completely genre-changing and forever memorable? That's happened a few times for me.

It happened in 1977 when I saw Star Wars in the theater. It happened in 1979 when I saw Alien opening night. And it happened again in 1993 when I played Myst. I just remember seeing this beautiful immersive world, and thinking "Oh my god! What do I do? Where's the UI?" I'd never seen anything like it before. What's fascinating is that 20 (nay 30!) years later, it still feels so utterly different from anything else out there.

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At a glance

The Federal Trade Commission has addressed Sony's objections to Microsoft's subpoena for internal documents, and has rejected the majority of them.

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The Wolf Among Us 2 will not be releasing this year, Telltale Games announced.

Speaking to IGN, the studio said it's pushing the awaited sequel back to 2024 to avoid crunch and burnout among the staff, but also because it's making the switch from Unreal Engine 4 to UE5.

Telltale Games CEO Jamie Ottilie also mentioned the challenges of building the studio during the pandemic and directly addressed wanting to avoid crunch as well, a stance he had already committed to when the studio relaunched in 2019.

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Meta is planning at least three more virtual reality Quest headsets in the next few years.

That's according to The Verge, which had access to an internal Reality Labs presentation that took place on Tuesday, detailing Meta's roadmap for AR and VR products.

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Development services provider Room 8 Group has launched Heroic, its new production studio.

The firm said that Heroic will focus on creating high-end trailers for PC, console, and mobile titles.

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Toshinori Aoki and Toshimichi Mori have unveiled their new games firm Studio Flare.

As reported by Siliconera, the company is based out of Gotanda, Tokyo, and was backed by funding from NetEase.

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ESL FaceIt Group (EFG) has purchased esports technology firm Vindex.

Vindex offers gaming, streaming, and esports analytics via its Vindex Intelligence Platform. It also provides content production for in-person events and tournaments.

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As Sony Interactive Entertainment's head of third-party portfolio and acquisitions, Shawne Benson is in a good position to trace the platform holder's evolving strategies when it comes to – in her words – "making PlayStation the best place to play."

Benson has been with Sony in a portfolio role since early 2017, and took over her current title in 2021. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz ahead of this month's DICE Summit, Benson says she's seen a significant change in what her role entails as part of the larger PlayStation strategy, in part due to where the company has been in the console generation lifecycle.

"In the time that I joined, and I was watching my predecessor manage the team, he was really focused on driving value for the masses in our PS4 audience, and also really focused on PSVR. And a lot of the partnerships were really about driving engagement on the platform, so the types of games we brought would tell that 'breadth and depth' story and also showcase some of the innovations on PS4.

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