Category: News

Well… Concord Didn’t Last Long

Ryan Ellis, Game Director at Firewalk Studios, has released a blog post stating that feedback has been received loud and clear and that “your support and the passionate community that has grown around the game has meant the world to us”.

Concord, a first person shooter that launched on 23rd of August, didn’t have the most robust launch, pulling in only 697 concurrent players on Steam at its peak. Reviews towards the game were generally average, with nothing particularly glaring. It just didn’t catch on. And now it won’t have the chance, with sales ceasing as of the 6th of September, and full refunds will be offered to players over the coming weeks.

It’s implied that they’re going to make some changes, and “explore options, including those that will better reach our players”, but otherwise that makes it 2 weeks since it launched, to it shutting down.

But Maybe More Games Could Last Longer

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, has joined forces with the BFI National Archive in the UK, and The Strong National Museum of Play in the US, to put out the call for improved game preservation across the globe.

A worldwide survey was held, to formally discover and acknowledge that current measures are just not good enough, due to a lack of established resources, difficulty accessing game material, and not enough collaboration between communities. Many gamers are familiar with the feeling of not being able to play an old favourite again due to it being impossible to obtain through ordinary means, and with an estimated 87% of classic video games deemed ‘missing’ in a 2023 study, even piracy or emulators might not be an option.

With the organisations teaming up, the NFSA wants to establish more structured collaboration between organisations, develop a framework so that games can be preserved legally and safely, as well as pushing for an understanding of how important this can be.

“For the last half-century, video games have become not only a massive industry, but an art form connecting people around the world through play. It is vital that institutions work together globally to preserve the history of this revolutionary medium before it is lost,” says Jon-Paul C. Dyson, Director of The International Center for the History of Electronic Games.

Good Bye Itsuno…For Now

Hideaki Itsuno, a senior developer at Capcom, has bid the company farewell at the end of August, 2024. Dragon’s Dogma being his dream game, it seems fitting for him to move on after releasing the sequel (although there might be an expansion on the way).

He’s not done with games though!

“From September, I will start developing a new game in a new environment. I hope to create fun, beautiful games that are as memorable as, or even more memorable than, the ones I have created so far”, he says.

News Nibbles!

I didn’t know where else to put this, but Bethesda removed a Doom mod due to complaints about its…political tone? It’s about the former UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, being resurrected in “The Tenth Circle of Hell: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.

Attendees for PAX Aus, 2024, will be able to witness TWO unholy matrimony ceremonies. “We are literally building a real Cult of the Lamb Temple for this!” the studio, Massive Monster, said on socials.

Console players of Stardew Valley… we’ll need to wait a little longer for update 1.6. ConcernedApe has acknowledged that it’s taking a long time, there are reasons for this, but the bottom line is that it’s just not out yet. People waiting for his next project, Haunted Chocolatier, will have to wait, as development won’t continue until Stardew 1.6 is finalised.

And now for some upcoming games!

September 6

• Ace Attorney Investigations Collection – PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One
• Astro Bot – PS5
• NBA 2K25 – PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
• Perennial Order – PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, iOS
• Fitness Boxing Featuring Hatsune Miku – Switch
• El Paso, Elsewhere – PS5
• Age of Mythology: Retold – PC, Xbox Series S/X

September 9

• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 – PC, PS5, Xbox

September 10

• Yars Rising – PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox, Switch
• Towerborne – PC, Xbox Series S/X

Nintendo Showcases

Nintendo held a double direct event this week starting with an Indie World direct followed by a Partner Showcase.

Kicking off Indie World there was a reveal of free DLC for this years mega indie hit Balatro. The  Friends of Jimbo update adds cosmetic cards from titles such as The Witcher, Vampire Surviviors, Dave the Diver and Among us.

Fans of the visual novel series Coffee Talk got a surprise with Coffee Talk Tokyo showing the path forward after the 2022 death of the series original creator Fahmi. The spin off features much of the same talent from the original games including the composer and Kimitaka Ogawa who did the Japanese translation of the original game has moved into a writing role. The game is expected in 2025.

The Indie World Presentation wrapped up with the announcement that cult hit Pizza Tower would be releasing on switch. The 90’s cartoon, Wario Land inspired platformer will be release3d…. right now!

The Partners showcase featured Tetris Forever, a celebration of the Tetris franchise releasing in time for the original game’s 40^th anniversary. It includes classic tetris games like Tetris! Tetris 2 + Bombliss! and Tetris Battle Gaiden, plus a new mode named Tetris Time Warp that switches the player between game styles at random. Tetris Forever is due later this year.

A new Capcom fighting game collection was announced and the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection got a release date. The Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection launches September 12^th as a digital release and November 22^nd for physical. Capcom Fighting Game Collection 2, features Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, Plasma Sword and most importantly Power Stone and Power Stone 2 including online play.  The Collection is scheduled for a 2025 release.

A collection of the Nintendo DS Castlevania games was announced and released. The Castlevania Dominus Collection, contains Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia and Dawn of Sorrow.

The show ended with the announcement that Yakuza Kiwami would be coming to the Switch and would be available on October 24^th.

There was lots more to see so check out the presentations online.

News Nibbles

Foamstars, the Splatton inspired Playstation multiplayer game is going Free to play on October 4^th.

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp will be closing down its mobile services on November 28th. Nintendo will release a paid standalone version of the game players can transfer their camps into.

Sonic 3, the movie that is has a trailer featuring Keanu Reeves as Shadow the hedgehog and double the Jim Carrey.

In the cleanup from Gamescom there was a pack Future Games Show stream. There were many announcements and updates but perhaps the most surprising was a theme park simulator based on Mars using the Mars Attacks license called… Mars Attracts.

Wizards of the Coast announced that along with the release of the new updated rules for 5^th edition they would remove the existing content on the D&D Beyond platform that players had paid for.  They have since backed down from the decision following massive backlash.

Valves worst kept secret, Deadlock the 5vs5 hero shooter, has finally been officially announced. This was after a weekend where the game was ranked #3 on steams most played leaderboard.

Concord, Playstation’s latest attempt at a live service game has had an unspectacular release with less than 700 concurrent players on steam on release day. This has led to many meme comparisons including pointing out that the this number is worse than the launch of the much maligned The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

Game Releases

Akimbot (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC), Bloodless (PC), Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club (Switch), Gori: Cuddly Carnage (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), Gundam Breaker 4 (PS5, PS4, Switch, PC), Monster Jam Showdown (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), Squirrel With a Gun (PC), Visions of Mana (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC), Star Wars Outlaws (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) – August 30

Sumerian Six (PC) – September 3

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), Star Trucker (PC) – September 4

Age of Mythology: Retold (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC) – September 5

Gamescom 2024

On the morning of August 21 here in Australia, Gamescom 2024 went live. And dropped a Santa sack of goodies onto the web. Here’s a highlight reel of what happened…
In the 30-minute preshow we got; Dave the Diver crossovers with Balatro and Potion Craft coming October, life sim Inzoi, and game announcements for Sniper Elite Resistance.
Then in the actual main show a teaser for Borderlands 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 coming October, Goat Simulator Remastered coming later this year, Persona 3: Reload DLC – Episode Aigis pitting you against Joker from Persona 5 coming September, Kyle Crane returns in Dying Light: The Beast, Arc Raiders got a price tag and release for 2025, Path of Exiles 2 is coming to early access in November, Xbox mecha fans are getting a closed beta in August for Mecha Break, Little Nightmares creators are returning in Reanimal, while Supermassive Games is continuing the series in Little Nightmares 3 coming 2025, more info into the upcoming survival MMO Dune Awakening, Marvel Rivals will release December, Civilization 7 is coming February 2025, be the Batman in VR with Batman: Arkham Shadow, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is coming to Xbox and PC December, and Peter Molyneux took to the stage to announce Masters of Albion

“So I’ve looked at Dungeon Keeper – I’ve taken some things that I’ve wanted to explore further with Dungeon Keeper. I did the same with Black & White – I’ve taken some things from Black & White. I’ve done the same with Fable.”

The Monkey King Rises

The highly anticipated action RPG, Black Myth: Wukong, has officially launched. Based on the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West,” the story follows the transforming Monkey King as he is faced with regrets, sacrifice, and fate all while seeking redemption. Developed by Chinese studio Game Science, the game is filled with Chinese folklore and mythology and has garnered a massive hype.
Since its release, Black Myth: Wukong has quickly climbed the charts, and at the time of writing Steam’s second biggest game ever with 2.2 million concurrent players.
However, the release has not been without controversy/ragebait. A leaked streaming agreement explicitly prohibits content creators from discussing politics, China, or feminist topics. While this was not extended to journalists who did not receive the same brief, it has raised concerns about censorship and the influence of the developers’ guidelines on free speech.

Now for some Gaming Bytes

Nerfs ahoy with Sorcerers in Diablo 4’s Season of the Infernal Hordes getting buffed… a little too much. The Fractured Winterglass item was causing so many Splintering Energy procs in one build it was causing server lag. A nerf was quickly released halving the procced spell numbers but doubling the damage. This still halved the damage output of the sorcerers and you’re only hearing about it because it is the build I play and I’m salty.
Helldivers 2 released a new update full of “balancing” nerfing flamers and more. The backlash has led to players purposely failing Major Orders, traitorous player killing, and more generally – uninstalling the game.
A PSA to Counter Strike players: Don’t go out and get the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro or Wooting’s Snappy Tappy keyboards for that sweet SOCD strafing because Valve has just banned them and if you use them, you too can get hit with the ban hammer.
And at Devcom 2024 those attending were surveyed and 90% of the devs say that games don’t need microtransactions and games can be “…financially successful just by being Buy-to-Play.”

And finally some game releases

Hey look, it’s another power up team-based shooter called Concord coming to PC and PS5 Friday August 23. Then on Monday August 26 World of Warcraft’s newest expansion The War Within releases. Tuesday August 27 why not chase taxes and collect debt in Debtors Club on PC. And Wednesday August 28 clean up the cutest afterlife as a cat in Crypt Custodian coming to PC and all major consoles. And in more cat themed adventures, why not become a giant monster cat and destroy cities in Monster Run: Downfall of the Empire on PC. Or you can shout PARKOUR in Supermoves coming to PC.

Misty’s Voice Actor Passing Away

Voice actress Rachael Lillis, has passed away at the age of 46 due to breast cancer. She was most well-known for her roles as Misty and Jessie in the English dub of Pokemon, before the cast was changed in 2006. She also voiced  Utena in the English dub of Revolutionary Girl Utena, some Pokemon, including Jigglypuff in Pokemon Detective Pikachu, and Princess Charlotte in the English dub of Beserk.

In May 2024, her sister had created a GoFundMe to help raise money for her care, a campaign that many of her fellow voice actors contributed to.

Turkey Bans Roblox

Roblox, the very popular free-to-play online game, has recently been banned in Turkey over concerns of child exploitation.

Roblox has faced some criticism since launching in 2006, with reports suggesting that the game isn’t safe for minors. Bloomberg reported that in July, Roblox submitted over 13,000 reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2023, and an executive suggested that perhaps the game could “provide jobs to kids living in slums”. The company had released a statement claiming that the majority of creators are over 18, and the company has never hired teenagers.

Turkey’s ban was largely driven by reports of alleged child exploitation, as well as reports of in-game sexual content.

A Roblox spokesperson has stated “We respect the laws and regulations in countries where we operate, and share local lawmakers’ commitment to children. We look forward to working together to ensure Roblox is back online in Turkey as soon as possible.”

Well, Borderlands 3 Is Doing Well

Borderlands: The Movie, hasn’t had the easiest time at the box office, with a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and only pulling in $8.9 million USD in its first weekend. However, Borderlands 3 has had an increase in players with the movie’s release, peaking at 12,379 players, a significant increase for a 5 year old game.

Borderlands 2, Borderlands, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel has also had an uptick in players, at least according to Steam.

Gearbox did launch a feature for Borderlands 3 that allows the player to skip the main campaign with a new character, as long as you’ve previously beaten the campaign once and have a max-level character, so returning players will have an easier time getting to the endgame, so that works out well.

Toxic Chess

Amina Abakarova, a Russian chess player, has allegedly attempted to poison an opponent using mercury, a famously toxic element. Chess, like any game, can get pretty heated, and extremely competitive, but normally these heated interactions fall within the realm of fair play.

In this case, a chess tournament in Dagestan was cancelled when one of the players, a European champion named Umayganat Osmanova, became very unwell quite suddenly. After an investigation which revealed the presence of mercury on her table. Footage supposedly shows Amina spreading the metal across the table.

Umayganat is in stable condition, and Amina has been temporarily suspended from participating in all competitions until the conclusion of the investigation. She is likely to face legal consequences.

News Nibbles!

We still don’t know when the Switch 2 will launch, but it is not coming before April 2025. We don’t even really know if it’ll be called the Switch 2, nor do we know much about its specs, but we should receive an official announcement during the company’s current financial year, which wraps up in March 2025.

Cult of the Lamb now has local co-op in its most recent update, Unholy Alliance. The update has also added new items, quests, buildings, chores, and more. For local co-op, you just need to plug in a second controller and set up co-op through the pause menu.

Tango Gameworks, the publisher for Hi-Fi Rush, has been adopted by Krafton, welcome news after the studio was set to be shut-down by Microsoft.

And now for some upcoming games!

August 15th

• Dredge: The Iron Rig (DLC) – PC, Xbox, PS5, Nintendo Switch
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits – Xbox

August 16th

• Madden NFL 25 – PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC
• Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland – PC, Xbox, PS5

August 20th

• Black Myth: Wukong – PC, Xbox, PS5
• Dustborn – PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC

August 21st

• Enotria: The Last Song – PC, PS5

That’s it this week in gaming news!

Game Informer shuts down:

After 33 years of publishing, the iconic magazine Game Informer has announced it is closing its doors for good. The decision was made by the parent company GameStop in response to increasing financial issues and market changes. It was a complete surprise to the staff who were “about 70% done” with the next issue when they found out. To make matters worse, GameStop quickly shut down the Game Informer website erasing decades of content from the internet.

Civ VII Updates:

If you’re excited about the upcoming Civilization VII game, I’ve got a date for your calendar. Three weeks from now, on August 28th, 2K is promising a first look at new features, civilizations,
and gameplay mechanics.

THQ Nordic Showcase

The showcase, which aired in the early hours of August 2nd, was packed with announcements for upcoming games.

• The showcase started with the announcement of Wreckfest 2, a demolition derby racing game that builds off the gameplay from the original with new modes, new features, and more customisation. There’s no release date yet, but you can wishlist it on steam to stay up to date.
• Another highlight was a new gameplay trailer for Titanquest 2, unfortunately, there wasn’t a release date for this one either, but it still showed off the build system and some shiny visuals.
• We also saw more of Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, a remake of the 2010 game with major visual upgrades. This one will be released later this year on the 24th of September 24.
• Finally, we got a teaser for a not-yet-named game from Tarsier. It featured a giant pig with intestines falling out of its stomach, who warned “They’re coming”. Who are they? Who knows! But I doubt they’re friendly

Dead by Daylight gets spooky

During its 8th anniversary stream earlier this year, Dead by Daylight teased a crossover with Castlevania, and we’ve finally received confirmation of its release. DBD’s 33rd chapter will release on August 30th and will let players play as (or against) iconic characters like Trevor Belmont or “the Dark Lord” Dracula. While there’s no map coming with this DLC, you might be able to see his iconic castle looming on the horizon.

Adding to the excitement, Dead by Daylight has also announced a crossover with Five Nights at Freddy’s. This is something fans of both games have been asking for for years and came as part of FNAFs 10th anniversary. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a wait until Freddy Fazbear makes it to the mists since the DLC isn’t set to release until the northern hemisphere’s summer 2025.

Upcoming game releases

Arcade Paradise VR – August 8th
Cat Quest III -August 8th
Steam World Hesit 2 – August 8
Sam and Max: the devils playhouse remastered – August 14th

XBLA is Dead. Long Live XBLA

This week saw the final closure of the digital marketplace for the Xbox 360 and XBLA after 19 years of operation. The service was a major part of the mainstream popularisation of independent digital games. Fans spent the last days trawling for deals and titles that will now become unavailable for purchase. Personally, I nabbed Suda 51’s action baseball game for Kinect, Diabolical Pitch and if hearing that makes you think you’ve missed out the meta critic is 56.

The spirit of the XBLA lives on though and this year particularly is paying quite the tribute to 2008 with the release of the Anniversary addition of Braid, World of Goo 2 got a new release date of… TOMORROW! (That’s August 2^nd) and perhaps the most unexpected announcement of all… Castle Crashers is getting new DLC 16 years after launch! Painter Boss Paradise gives the game a new coat of paint, a new official character and officially Steam workshop support which allows for custom content.  The DLC will not be available for the original 360 release. For reasons why, see the start of this news story.

Activision… don’t worry it’s good news!!!

Do you dislike Skill Based Matchmaking? Well statistically you’re probably wrong. Activision have release a white paper revealing they have been doing extensive AB testing with Call of Duty’s player base where they would gradually turn down the feature for some of the player base.  The results were clear with players without skill based match making playing less and quitting more often.

Activision didn’t stop there however and have also released a huge data set for Call of Duty: Warzone’s Caldera map for academic use.  The data includes data on how players move throughout the map giving opportunities for game design research and AI training.

News Bytes

In this week’s layoff news. Bungie will reduce its workforce by 17%.

The International Olympics Committee ended their relationship with Nintendo and Sega for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series to explore NFT’s and eSports.

After a 36% price drop PSVR2 sales spiked by 2000%. Additionally, the steam PSVR2 app will be released on August 7^th.

Game Release Calendar

World of Goo 2(Switch, PC), Operation: Tango (Switch), Thank Goodness You’re Here! (PlayStation, Switch, PC), Tomba! Special Edition (PlayStation 5, Switch, PC), The Mortuary Assistant (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One) – August 2

Fields of Mistria (PC) – August 6

Pepper Grinder (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One), Volgarr the Viking II (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S) – August 7

Creatures of Ava (Xbox Series X/S, PC) – August 8

This week in gaming news. Busy-ness in Games, Esports, and a smorgasbord of Gaming Bits and Bytes.

Let’s start this week’s news with a run down on what happened in the back rooms of game development this week.
On Tuesday Humble Games Business Development Manager Nicola Kwan announced via LinkedIn that all 36 employees “…were being let go and that the company is shutting down.” Humble quickly released a press statement saying it was not shutting down, but it would be restructuring the operations of Humble Games. The statement continues, saying that this would not impact on the releases of upcoming games, or the operations at Humble Bundle.
Warner Brothers is also doing the game dev shuffle this week. With the announcement that NetherRealm’s mobile team was shutting down through LinkedIn job asks came earlier this week with around 50 staff being affected by the cuts. This was speculated to effectively close the live services to Mortal Kombat Mobile, Injustice 2, and Mortal Kombat Onslaught, however Warner has clarified that Mortal Kombat Mobile and Injustice 2 will continue to receive support. Possibly with the recent acquisition of the developer of MultiVersus, Player First Games. With WB Games President stating that the new team will add “… to our extensive development capabilities.”
In better news, Bethesda now has a wall-to-wall union with all 241 either signing up to or indicating the desire for representation with the “Communications Workers of America” or CWA. The union has been recognised by their benevolent overlords at Microsoft, even after their most recent layoffs by closing down Zenimax Studios. And in more studio news, staff from the Pixelberry Studio layoffs earlier this year have rallied to create Candlelight Games and are looking at announcing their debut project soon.
This week also saw gamers voting with their wallets, with 2.2 million people buying the Deluxe pre-order of EA Games College Football 25, and all for the juicy bonus of playing the game three days early. And Comscore’s 2024 State of Gaming Report has revealed that 82% of US gamers purchased some sort of in game content in freemium titles in the 23-34 financial year. They also speculated that over 80% of Gen Z and millennials consumed esports content.

Speaking of Esports content last weekend was Evo 2024, the biggest in the Evo history, where 10 thousand of the best fighting gamers congregated in Las Vagas. Some notable events of the weekend were when “Punk” defeating “Bigbird” to bring home the first Street Fighter for America in over 20 years, 41-year-old Hayao performing physical stunts of celebration as well as an “astounding” parry in the losers quarterfinals of the Street Fighter IIIL Third Strike, with some now referring to the moment as “Evo Moment 38.”

“WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?” #Evo2024 pic.twitter.com/FKlprooTFT

— Evo (@Evo) July 21, 2024

And it was announced the thrown into a volcano he definitely is dead villain Heihachi Mishima from Tekken that will be resurrected in the next instalment, even though producer Katsuhiro Harada has previously confirmed his permanent demise. That’s not all, but it’s all I have time for, click here to learn more!

Continuing the Esports news. The International Olympics Committee has partnered with the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia to create the First Olympic Games to take place in Saudi Arabi in 2025. The media release from the IOC states that the reason for this is to support “our young people” and the game titles  will be chosen to promote “… gender equality and engagement…”, however the gaming community are not so happy. While Saudi Arabia does have the money to support this endeavour (and the prizes to attract players), it’s treatment of the women, migrants, and the LGBTIQ+ community are a genuine concern to the safety of players seeking to participate.

@dailymailgaming After taking first-place prize in Mortal Kombat 1 at EVO 2024, SonicFox made a statement to encourage more minorities to break into the games industry. #sonicfox #evo #lasvegas #mortalkombat #gaming #esports #evosesports ♬ original sound – Mail Gaming

Warframe’s Tennocon also happened over the weekend with a few announcements. Firstly, the prequel Warframe; 1999 is coming and is hitting some nostalgia notes. With romancable team members through archaic Instant Messenger CRT Screens and an alternative earth-based timeline. Basically, Warframe in all-new earthy environments, plus a 90s styled infected boyband called On-Lyne. Coming this (northern hemisphere) winter

They also announced the upcoming new title Soulframe. This game will utilise magic instead of the space magic we’re used to from Warframe in what some are calling the baby of Warframe and Elden Ring.

I think it’s now time to start of that smorgasbord of gaming bits and bytes
The FTC have taken to arms over the recent tier and price changes to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, Labelling the new plan a “degraded product” and claims it constitutes “exercising market power post-merger”, this the FTC claims is in direct opposition to Microsoft’s arguments during the merger trial last year. In rebuttle Microsoft states that “The FTC barely mentioned subscription at trial, instead focusing on the theory that Microsoft would withhold Call of Duty from Sony’s console.” Not mentioning that day-one access to first-party titles – like Call of Duty – would no longer be included in the new “Standard” tier.
Bloomberg has reported that workers at Roblox Corp do not feel satisfied with the child safety protections the platform has, and is now the “de facto spot for predators.”  Roblox Corp disputes these claims, and that safety is “foundational” to Roblox.
A new study has pointed to steam CS:GO trades as being used for money laundering. The study looked at the anonymous trading and found significant market manipulation and trading frequency of top traders warranted suspicion.
ConcernedApe has reassured players of Stardew Valley via twitter that “…on the honor of my family name, i will never charge money for a DLC or update for as long as I live.”
Paramount has killed the Halo TV adaptation after its second season. But Xbox will not rest quietly and is already shopping for a new network.
Fortnight is getting the Tesla Cybertruck and players have already announced their intention to either take aim through the huge windscreen or just destroy it on sight.

Get your retro on because in a recent shareholder meeting at Capcom one attendee asked what their plans were for Mega Man, their response? “Mega man is one of our highly-valued IPs and we are considering how to create games for it on an ongoing basis.”
And if you have Netflix and haven’t checked out their game list, now is the time. In their latest earnings call Netflix Co-CEO Gregory K Peters called games a “big market” and even with the “over 100 games launched so far” they have over 80 games currently in development and from this month are planning to release “about one new title per month.”

And now it’s finally time for some game releases!

Friday, July 26, the 2022 Kickstarted indie RPG Wéko the Mask Gatherer is coming to PC

On Monday, July 29, grab a friend and get cooperating in the action roguelite Deathless, coming to PC.
Tuesday, July 30, get multitasking in the tower defence cross match three mashup Cats on Duty, coming to PC, and Consoles. Or get cyberpunky in the FPS roguelite Deadlink on PC. Or maybe you need to relax in a hand drawn cozy life sim? Then grab The Garden Path coming to PC and Switch.
And to round out the month, Wednesday July 21, Save the dog in indie platform shooter Biogun coming to PC. And sci-fi interactive fiction Minds Beneath Us is finally coming to PC

Starting us off in on Thursday August 1^st is the remake of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter  coming to PC, and Consoles. Dive into the depths and find the answers in Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss also for PC.  And lastly get slappy in Thank Goodness You’re Here! from the developers of Untitled Goose Game, coming to Mac, PC, PlayStation and the Switch.

PAX Aus 2024 Indie Showcase Winners

PAX Aus has announced the winners from this year’s Aus Indie Showcase, all made by independent creators around Australia. The showcase will be a part of PAX Aus 2024, from October 11-13.

The six winners of the Digital category:

Untethered by True Anomaly Entertainment

Anticitizen: Red by Queebly Software

Ascending Inferno by Oppolyon Studios

Rita by SporkTank

The Rewinder 2 by Misty Mountain Studio

And last, but not least, Max Mustard, the VR game developed by Queensland studio Toast Interactive.

The six winners of the Tabletop category:

Fight with Spirit by Storybrewers Roleplaying

Oracle by Oracle Games

Glade by Teafrog Games

Frayed Ally by Button Fox

Nimbus by Neural Forge

MEAN! by Mean Games

The Olympic Esports Games

The International Olympics Committee has announced a 12-year partnership with Saudi Arabia to host the Olympic Esports Games, a standalone event. Saudi Arabia had hosted the Esports World Cup, which did result in a number of people boycotting the event over human rights concerns.

Esports has been ramping up over the last couple of decades, with schools and universities creating their own teams, competitive events gaining more and more popularity and viewership, and the introduction of esports events in the 2022 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, where people from the Olympic Committee attended and were like ‘ok, now we get it’ according to Alban Dechelotte, CEO of G2 Esports.

Keeping esports as a separate event is intended to ‘give more space for a celebration of gaming and esports’, rather than being one of the additional sports.

Rocket League, League of Legends, and Street Fighter are likely picks considering that they were a part of the Commonwealth and Asian Games.

Gotta’ Croc ‘Em All

If you are a wearer of Crocs, and a fan of Pokemon, listen up. We’re getting four new designs inspired by some generation one Pokemon: Charizard, with a flame-like marble print; Gengar, which is giving ghostly ‘glamoflage’; Snorlax, with a dreamy blue marble print; and finally Jigglypuff, all pink and pastel. Each pair of Crocs comes with some jibbitz, with the Pokemon the Croc is based off!

No Console Required

Amazon now has a handy-dandy Xbox “No Console Required” bundle, launching alongside their Fire TV Stick Xbox Cloud Gaming app. What this means is that Xbox Game Pass users can stream games straight to their TV without requiring a console.

Microsoft has also released an ad that parodies the Scream movies, promoting the rollout with “you don’t need an Xbox to play Xbox”, although some Xbox fans do feel that the console itself has been deprioritised by Microsoft, while expanding Game Pass, and their reach across PCs, mobile phones, and now TVs.

Remember that there have been a lot of changes made to Game Pass and the tiers available, as covered in the news last week by Paul. Only the Ultimate Tier will allow for Fire TV integration.

News Nibbles!

Axis Studios, the animation and VFX team, is officially going into administration, affecting 162 employees. The studio has worked on a variety of trailers and cinematics for Destiny, Halo, League of Legends, and more.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, is the video game continuation of the film, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, which was released last year. A Heartful of Games, the team developing the game, will be keeping that stylised art-direction from the movie!

If you’ve been participating in the early access period for EA Sports College Football 25, you might have encountered a placeholder bug when trying to select your game mode. Players were given two options: a placeholder image titled ‘Lorem Ipsum’, and a placeholder image titled ‘Lorem Ipsum’. Oops.

And now for some upcoming games!

July 18th (that’s today!)

• Flintlock: Siege of Dawn – PS5, XSX, PC
• Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus – Nintendo Switch, PS5, PC

July 19th

• Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess – PS5, PS4, Xbox S/X, Xbox One, PC

July 23rd

• Exophobia – PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox S/X, Xbox One, PC
• F1 Manager 24 – PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox S/X, Xbox One, PC
• The Star Named EOS – PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox S/X, Xbox One, PC, macOS

July 25th

• Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure – PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC, macOS
• Frostpunk 2 – PC

Big changes to Gamepass, farewell to the Wii-U, Aussie games media takes a hit and Epic and Apple are still at it.

(more…)

Crazy Taxi Reboot
At the 2023 Game Awards Sega teased reboots for several of its classic titles like Jet Set Radio,
Streets of Rage, and Crazy Taxi. A recruitment video for the Crazy Taxi reboot, features the
current team including Kenji Kanno, (the director of the original Crazy Taxi game) sharing details
about the project. They aim to preserve the gameplay of the original games, navigating a city at
breakneck speeds, but also to adapt it for the modern audience. So, what does the modern audience want?

Large-scale, open-world, massively multiplayer games of course. It’s a significant shift but might be what the team needs to make it the AAA hit they’re aiming for.
There is currently no release date for Crazy Taxi (or any of the other reboots) so we’re in for a wait.

Xbox partners with Amazon for console-less gaming

Microsoft has announced that later this month (July 2024) Xbox subscribers will be able to
access a wide range of games through their Fire TV Stick, without the need for an Xbox console.
You’ll need one of the newer Firesticks (4K or 4K max), a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, and
a Bluetooth controller, but that’s still likely to come in cheaper than a console.

Don’t Nod Delays Game Release
Life is Strange: Double Exposure, developed by Deck Nine, will be released in October 2024. It
centers around Max Caulfield, the protagonist from the first Life is Strange Game which was
developed by Don’t Nod.

Don’t Nod, which is no longer involved in the Life is Strange series, is currently working on Lost
Records: Bloom & Rage. This game was set to be released in Q3 2024 but has been postponed
until early 2025. A statement on Twitter revealed that this decision was made to avoid
competition between the two games. “We know you’re all excited for both Lost Records and the
new Life is Strange game, and we wanted to ensure both have adequate space to shine. The wait
will be worth it!”

Frostpunk 2 Delayed

The release of Frostpunk 2 has been delayed from July 25th, until September 20th
This follows the game’s recent beta where several notable issues were highlighted. 11-bit
studios say they want time to fix those issues and add several additional features before
release. We want to ensure Frostpunk 2 meets the high expectations of our fans and provides a
seamless and engaging experience.” They also promised that until release they would provide
behind-the-scenes updates to show how things are progressing.

Upcoming Game Releases:
Zenless Zone Zero will be released for PC, PS5, iOS, Android on July 4th.
July 5th gives us Cyber Citizen Shockman Zero on PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One & Xbox Series X
July 11th will see the release of Once Human and The Crush House, both on PC.
Finally, Anger Foot will be released for PC on July 10t