PlayStation
- Sony is skipping next year’s E3, ditching its traditional booth and press conference in a move that will have a significant negative impact on the video game industry’s annual trade show. This is yet another blow to an industry event that has seen multiple publishers drop out over the past few years. EA now holds its own event in Hollywood in the days leading up to E3, while last year Microsoft rented out a theater at L.A. Live, a few minutes away from the convention center where E3 takes place. Nintendo has spent the past five years eschewing traditional press conferences in favor of pre-recorded videos, and with Sony gone, one of E3’s other marquee press conferences will now also not be present in 2019.
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We’re fast approaching Thanksgiving here in America, a time when everyone is thankful and we celebrate the shitty horrid foundation our country was built on. I guess that’s why we have Black Friday to make ourselves feel better. Well Sony announced some PS4 and PSVR deals to help warm our hearts:
- PS4 1TB bundle including Spider-Man ($199)
- PSVR with Astro Bot Rescue Mission or Moss or Superhot VR ($199)
- DualShock 4 controllers—yes—even the colored ones ($39)
- PlayStation Plus 12-month discount
- Discounts on various games for PS Plus subscribers
- Sony has postponed the shutdown of PS3 servers that provide online access to Warhawk, Twisted Metal, PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale, and Sound Shapes. The closure has been extended to January 31, 2019 at 12:00 AM PT. So keep playing while you still can!
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According to reports from outlets like Push Square, Fallout 76 runs kind of shitty on PS4, specifically during combat with the game suffering from a jittery framerate .
Nintendo
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Netflix will stop supporting the Wii after January 30, 2019. To be completely honest, I’m a little surprised it supported the platform this long. I’m sure rec rooms across America will be a little more boring now.
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The first trailer for the live-action Pokémon movie titled Pokémon Detective Pikachu has arrived. Check it out below! Will you be going to see it May 10, 2019?
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Nintendo has been so very slow at updating the functionality of the Switch’s eShop while the actual speed of the eShop has been rapidly degrading. Anyway, users can now filter games on the search page by genre, price range, games with demos, and games with DLC.
- Nintendo announced some Black Friday deals of their own:
- Switch Console with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe download ($299)
- Two white Joy-Con Wheel accessories ($15)
- Yellow/Red 2DS with Super Mario Maker 3DS ($79)
- After rumors and leaks from dataminers, Smite has officially been confirmed for Switch and has already released by the time you’re reading this.
Xbox
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Microsoft is continuing its journey of bolstering the Xbox platform and it’s stable of first party studios. After buying quite a few studios and announcing them at E3, Microsoft has recently acquired two new studios: Obsidian (Fallout: New Vegas) and inXile (Wasteland 2).
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The official 1.0 release of Subnautica will release for Xbox One on December 4, 2018. Those like Will and myself who have the preview build will receive the game update automatically while others will be able to purchase the game
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Also planned to leave Xbox Preview will be Astroneer on February 6, 2019 for PC and Xbox.
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Microsoft held XO18 and had a lot to say:
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Xbox Games Pass will receive the following games which are either available now, will be upon release, or are coming some time in the future:
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
- Ori and the Blind Forest
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
- Thief of Thieves Season 1
- Void Bastards
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
- The Good Life
- Kingdom: Two Crowns
- Aftercharge
- Supermarket Shriek
- Mutant Year Zero
- Pathologic 2
- Secret Neighbor
- The Good Life
- Agents of Mayhem
- MXGP 3
- Thomas Was Alone.
- Microsoft has rolled out mouse and keyboard support for Xbox One via an update and Epic games has announced Fortnite will be one of the first games to support it. Here are the games that support it now:
- Bomber Crew,
- Warface,
- Children of Morta
- Minion Master
- DayZ
- Warframe
- Strange Brigade
- Deep Rock Galactic
- Warhammer Vermintide 2
- Moonlighter
- Wargroove
- Vigor
- War Thunder
- X-Morph: Defense
- Fortnite
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Crackdown 3 has been given a release date of February 15, 2019 for PC and Xbox and will be a day one Games Pass title as expected.
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Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, and Final Fantasy XII will all come to Xbox One sometime in 2019 and Final FantasyXIII is getting backwards comparability.
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Sea of Thieves is getting a new game mode called The Arena that pits crews against each other to see who can get the most treasure and, therefore, the most pirate glory. It will appear in the game sometime in “early 2019.”
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Phil Spencer said he’s taking a “bigger leadership role” to oversee the smoothing out of Windows Store and Xbox game integration.
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Civilization V is already backwards compatible with Xbox One, but a new version is coming out that features Xbox One X enhancements.
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State of Decay 2 is adding new weapons, gear, and enemies in a new update titled Zed Hunter. The dev team also teased the possible return to Trumbull Valley which is the location from the original game.
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Cats and Pandas are coming to Minecraft. I actually don’t know how cats don’t already exist in that game, but whatever.
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Winter of Arcade is coming later this year
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Forza Horizon 4 is getting a new expansion later this year that will take players to Fortune Island where they’ll experience lightning storms and aurora borealis. The seasons will also mix up.
Industry News
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THQ Nordic has acquired Bugbear Entertainment and announced Wreckfest will make its way to PS4 next year.
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The Video Game Awards official site has listed their nominees for each award. You can go check it out on their site because it’s way too much to list here.
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Swatter Tyler Barriss, 26, pled guilty to the crimes that led police to forcibly enter the home of Wichita resident Andrew Finch, who died from an officer’s gunshot wound. Barriss originally pled not guilty to this fatal instance of swatting, which occurred over a dispute in Call of Duty in 2017. The Associated Press reports that Barriss pled guilty to 51 charges in a plea deal and could face between 20 and 25 years in prison. Don’t be a piece of shit people.
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According to a report from GameDaily, Telltale Games is now entering the liquidation phase of its closing process. Currently, you will no longer be able to buy Back to the Future: The Game or Tales of Monkey Island from Valve’s digital storefront. As of the time of writing, both games are still available on GOG.com. This may have more to do with licensing issues for both titles instead of the liquidation process, but the games are likely to disappear from other storefronts in the near future. If you’ve been eying picking up either game on PS3 or PC, make sure to do it now before they completely disappear.
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Square Enix is working on a new AAA title for the PlayStation 5, according to the LinkedIn profile of a 3D Character Model Artist at Luminous Productions. While the resume has since been updated to remove any reference to Sony’s next-gen system, the Internet managed to screen grab it ahead of time.
Word on the Street
- Sony filed a patent in 2017 for a controller that looks virtually identical to the DualShock 4, but with a touchscreen where the touchpad is located.
