PlayStation
- A game Will and I have talked about over and over again, Subnautica, is releasing on PS4 this holiday season. This too, is another title being handled by the talented devs over at Panic Button. That’s great for PS4 fans, although we do feel the lack of PSVR support is especially disappointing.
- In an interview with Buzzfeed, director Neil Druckmann confirmed a non-playable companion for The Last of Us Part II.
Well, so, Ellie used to be an NPC, but she’s the protagonist in this story, so the player is controlling Ellie. Umm, it’s safe to say with the game that we made in the past that there will be some NPC with you in this story, even though we’re not showing the NPC in this demo. And our general approach is to say, again, ‘How do we treat them like people? How do we get them to behave honestly as those people? How do we give them interesting characteristics so that they can navigate the world, make meaningful actions, and surprise you in the way people do?’
Nintendo
- Pokémon GO has reached staggering $1.8 billion in total revenue as the game celebrates its second anniversary. It’s worth noting the game surpassed $1B in January 2017, but bringing in $800M since then is nothing to balk at as it pulls in more than $2M per day globally. Here are some details:
– US 34%
– Japan 28%
– Germany 5%
– Great Britan 4%
– Taiwan 3%
– 58% of revenue is from Android with iOS at 42% -
Speaking of mobile Pokémon games, Pokémon Quest has hit 7.5M downloads on Switch, but we suspect a lot of those aren’t active users anymore and we definitely don’t suspect Quest is bringing in considerable amounts of money.
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While I was hoping for a Fallout 4 port, it’s been revealed that acclaimed studio Panic Button is porting the free-to-play online co-op hit Warframe to Switch. I played this when it launched on PS4 and stopped, but the title has received considerable amounts of free content since then, which may make me want to dive back in.
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To the surprise of no one, 2K games has now officially confirmed WWE 2K19 won’t be heading to Switch. Sorry wrestling fans, but did you forget how unforgivably abysmal WWE 2K18 ran? It was painfully obvious it was a sloppy port with next to no optimization for Nintendo’s slate.
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Nintendo spoke about indie games as part of its 78th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and it said something that has us, along with quite a few other members of the industry, a bit concerned: Nintendo is “looking to release 20 – 30 indie games” per week……we’ll dive into why this is a wholly bad idea in episode 123 of LAN party .
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Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi said in a newly posted video that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be receiving more updates, although we’re not quite sure what that means. One would think it could mean new content like tracks or characters, but it could also mean something else like the recently added LABO support.
Xbox
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Microsoft has released a new Sport White Special Edition Xbox wireless controller for $69.99.
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Xbox and Special Olympics partnered to facilitate a pilot video gaming tournament at a Special Olympics event, featuring Forza Motorsport 7 on July 2nd at the USA Games in Seattle, Washington. Players across the nation came together throughout the month of April to compete for a spot in the final tournament and a chance to win a custom-wrapped Xbox One X prize. The idea originated from a hackathon during last year’s Microsoft One Week, where employees spend an entire week to go work on passion projects. There, three employees came together to map out what a competitive video gaming tournament at Special Olympics would look like with the goal to make esports more accessible, and reduce the high bar to entry which currently causes competitors to feel intimidated. Xbox and Special Olympics put together a smaller-scale tournament, with high-quality production value, in hopes this model can be leveraged at other venues to empower all gamers that want to compete and bring the joy of esports to more people.
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Dolby Vision is coming to video content soon for Xbox One along with an improved narrator and dashboard avatars.
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Microsoft owned Mojang released phase 2 of it’s Aquatic Update for the Java and Bedrock editions of Minecraft. The update includes the following features:
* Over 3K types of procedurally generated tropical fish
* Variations of size for some adult mobs (salmon & squid)
* Nine ocean biomes
* New water physics and the ability for some blocks and water to exist within the same place (water-logged blocks)
* A new weapon called the Trident, which includes four special enchantments – Loyalty, Impaling, Channeling and Riptide
* Procedurally generated sunken ships containing chests along with treasure maps leading to more buried chests on land
* The addition of an undead aqua mob
* The inclusion of Realm support for Nintendo Switch
The Update Aquatic is also the first release where the Java AND Bedrock teams worked side-by-side to co-develop a fully featured update to both codebases within the same timeframe. -
Rocket League and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 released Xbox Game Pass this week.
Industry News
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AlphaDream, best known for its work on the Mario & Luigi game series, has listed job applications referencing the Nintendo Switch, along with game development for smartphones and also the PS4. What exactly this means at this point in time is hard to fathom, but at the very least, it could be a signal the company might finally be ready to move on from the 3DS.
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Mobile developer Niantic wasn’t exactly a household name until it released Pokémon GO, in partnership with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. Since then, the studio has become rather well known even if one of their original IP’s, Ingress, isn’t. The company is looking to change that this October after partnering with Netflix on an anemia based on the game called Ingress: The Animation. WWWWT or We Wonder What Will Thinks.
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In May, Blizzard teamed up with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) to sell a pink Mercy skin in Overwatch as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. Going for $14.99, Blizzard pledged to donate all proceeds to charity in an effort to help a cause it believed in. Well we’re happy to announce the skin raised over $12.7M for the foundation! Great work heroes! \<3
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EA has done what it always does and acquired another studio. This time Industrial Toys, the studio from former Bungie CEO and Halo co-creator Alex Seropian. His 14 person team will join EA’s Worldwide Studios and to new game concepts.”
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Slime-San has received a big update to version 1.2 that includes new content. To celebrate, you can grab the title for half off on platforms like Switch. Here are the patch notes:
New Content: Sheeple’s Sequel
– 20 normal and NG+ levels designed by Sheeple!
– 2 new play styles that totally change up the game!
– 70 BUGS to collect and spent in an art gallery!
– 2 new mini-games, a rythm & flying simulator!
– A brand new boss fight that pushes your skills to the limit!
– A brand new hub world, Sheeple HQ!
– Loads of new cutscenes and story elements to experience and enjoy!
– New secret characters and set-pieces to discover across your journey!
– New music by Meganeko!
– More neat secrets!
New Content: Superslime Edition!
– 10 new and very unique levels!
– A new play style… Where you can’t jump at all?
New Features
– Dynamic color mode where handpicked palettes are used for each world!
– Saturation slider, now you can adjust saturation as well!
– New custom camera slider, adjust how much it zooms in! -
Playtonic, the studio responsible for the Kickstarter darling Yooka-Laylee, is wrapping up the last of game’s Kickstarter stretch goals, including a developer commentary and a “64-Bit” tonic that functions like a demake, which looks particularly fun.
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Blizzard announced it has signed a multi-year deal with ESPN and Disney to broadcast the Overwatch League (OWL) on the network’s various different channels. This will see regular season play and major tournaments appearing on the likes of ABC, Disney XD and ESPN 1, 2 and 3. The first official broadcast was held on June 11, on Disney XD and ESPN 3 with Day One of the quarter-finals.
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Released this week, Fortnite’s Season 5 dropped with two new locations, an All Terrain Kart and some weird space-time rifts. Switch owners also now have gyro aiming while mobile players can take advantage of a new auto fire feature. Here’s how it works: If you are wielding a gun and someone happens to stumble through your aiming reticle, the game will automatically fire at them. It’s actually a bit smarter than that, as the game will only auto-fire if you’re in range. Aim at a sniper with a shotgun from 100 yards away and it won’t do squat. But if you rush into a room with an SMG, it’ll start firing away whenever you have the enemy in your sights.
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A number of creators have tweeted recently about YouTube terminating their accounts following uploads of videos teasing an upcoming Twitch stream. Many of these complaints are accompanied by further frustrations that creators were given no previous warning their accounts were in danger, leading to questions about whether YouTube was trying to cut down on users promoting their work on other sites.
Word on the Street
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Reports have been making the rounds that new Switch units have or are soon hitting the market which prevent hacking at the bootrom level.
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According to the Funko Reddit, a user stumbled across a Pikachu Pop figure at a Target in Ohio. It appears that it was not supposed to leave the warehouse or be sold to the public, meaning that an official announcement about Funko obtaining the Pokémon license should come soon. Unfortunately, the original post has been removed, but several reposts can be seen on the website. It was also stated that the Pikachu Pop is a Target exclusive–whether or not this will be the same for all Funko Pokémon figures remains to be seen.
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Epic Games announced today that it will be taking a smaller cut of sales made through its Unreal Engine Marketplace, where creators like digital artists, sound designers and programmers can sell products that game developers can use in their own projects. The previous split was 70/30 with Epic making 30, but after citing the massive success of Fortnite, the developer said they’re taking lowering their cut to 12%, giving asset creators 88%. Even better, Epic said all products solid since the storefront’s launch back in 2014 will retroactively get compensated for the difference.
New Trailers
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