GDC Postponed, Animal Crossovers and Valorant

GDC Postponed amid COVID-19

Game Developers Conference which is the largest annual conference for game developers the world over has now announced that the event shall be postponed until the concerns of the Coronavirus (COVID – 19) can be mitigated. Event organisers announced, “After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone GDC this March.” The conference will be postponed until a date later in the year. Both Sony and EA have stated their disappointment in the cancellation however expressed their understanding of the health concerns. Despite the cancellation some developers and event runners will be going digital such as the GDC Awards and the Independent Games Festival which will be streamed on Twitch on the original dates of the 16th to the 20th of March. Looks like GDC will still run to some capacity in the virtual world.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal are coming out on the same day March 20th

Both game companies have decided to create crossover content to celebrate their shared day of release. All this attention to its shared release date has encouraged Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizon Twitter pages to exchange affection and fans have decided to make a strange little video showcasing their unlikely friendship. The animation by pixel artist Inx displays a day in the life of the Doom Slayer and Isabelle is they swapped places. The Doom Slayer gathers fruit, helps neighbours and goes fishing. Meanwhile Isabelle is destroying hordes of demons and crushing hell spawn. Looks like both games are taking advantage of the promotion the release date offers. If you’d like to check out the animation click here.

League of Legends developer Riot Games creates their first FPS called Valorant

On March 2nd Riot Games unveiled Valorant which has previously been code named ‘Project A’ with a video showing 3 minutes of gameplay. Valorant appears to be a fusion of CS: GO and Overwatch, combining tactical gunfights with specialised character abilities. Riot Games currently operates one of the biggest games in the world League of Legends and is their only release in the past 10 years. However, Riot Games have released spin offs from League of Legends it’s only now that Riot looks at a First-Person Shooter. With a strong focus on the competitive market if Valorant does well we could see another esport not too far in the future. If you’d like to check out the game-play footage click here.