PlayStation
- Detroit Become Human is, in my opinion, developer Quantic Dream’s best game to date. It has recently been announced it’s the company’s fastest selling having reached 2M units on PS4.
- That the PlayStation Classic is hackable, and was on the first day, isn’t a big surprise. Simply hooking up the correct type of USB keyboard and hitting the escape key lets you peel back the curtain to reveal a menu of concealed emulation options. Hackers have since discovered another way to get into the mini console and unlock it for other uses, such as playing other PSOne games that aren’t included. The reason for this is either a mistake or a feature, depending on your view of the PlayStation Classic’s designers. A console hacker (via Ars Technica) discovered that the device’s system is signed and encrypted with a key hidden, and not very well, in the unit itself as opposed to a key held separately by Sony.
Nintendo
- To my surprise, Bethesda and Panic Button aren’t done with updates for DOOM on Switch. Version 1.2 has released which brings with it improved performance, the ability to add recent players to your friends list, and—most impressively o me—added support for video capture.
- At long last, multiplayer has made it to Stardew Valley on Switch! The addition of multiplayer will work with both new and existing saves. A description of how it works is below
The state of the Stardew Valley game world, including the main storyline, is shared between all players on the farm, as well as the pool of money you accumulate. However, each player will have their own private inventories, skills, achievements, collections, individual relationships, quests, and crafting/cooking recipes.
- Nintendo released version 1.2.0 of Smash Bros which adds various game balancing tweaks and character adjustments along with a few other things.
- Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé confirmed that after this holiday season, NES and SNES Classics will be gone once they’re sold out with Nintendo not planning on continuing manufacturing after the end of this. year.
- Nintendo delivered December’s three Switch Online NES games as promised (Wario’s Woods, Ninja Gaiden, Lolo), but they also sprinkled a few surprises into the mix with two new SP games: Metroid and Dr. Mario. The former allows players to instantly jump to the Ridley fight with most of the map explored and the latter puts you in a precarious situation at level 20 high speed to view a unique scene.
- Nintendo may be renaming the eShop for Switch according to information from newly released court documents pertaining to a piracy lawsuit. The document calls out the “Nintendo Switch Online shop” that was “formerly Nintendo eShop”, so we’re left to wonder if this change will come to fruition.
- Niantic has released PvP battles for Pokémon GO and have reduced the barrier of entry to level 10 from the previous level 40 (which was ridiculous).
Xbox
- Microsoft released 1.8.0 of Minecraft bringing with it many changes and adjustments such as stray cats in villages, the addition of a new scaffolding climbable block, and more along with additions to the map maker.
Industry News
- Capcom is teaming up with CD Projekt Red to bring Geralt into Monster Hunter World via a free event in early 2019 before the next expansion titled Iceborne releases some time next Autumn.
- Speaking of the cold, Team 17 teased new Winter looking DLC for Overcooked 2. We have no word just yet on content, release date, or price.
- Forever Entertainment, a Polish developer, is partnering with Sega to remake the first two Panzer Dragon games with the first game planned for a 2019 release. The new versions will be have new graphics comparable to today with several modifications of the game to make them more attractive to modern players, while remaining faithful to the original in terms of story. No platforms have been announced and fans are already wondering gif a remake of the third game is a possibility.
- Overwatch’s Winter Wonderland event is now live with new game modes this year. Yeti Hunt and Mei’s Snowball Offensive make their return, and the Hanamura, King’s Row and Blizzard World maps are all frosty and winter-themed now. There are also six legendary skins and three epic skins for players to unlock with the new legendary skins costing 3,000 credits apiece. If that’s too rich for your blood, previous Winter Wonderland cosmetics are all available at discounted prices and we’re betting if you want to hold out on this year’s skins, they’ll likely get the same discounted treatment next year too. The legendary skins available are Sugar Plum Fairy Mercy, Krampus Junkrat, Biathlon Widowmaker, Snow Fox Lucio, Snowboarder Zarya and Figure Skater Symmetra.
- Ubisoft announced a series of 2019 concerts which will feature a symphony orchestra performing the best pieces of music from the stealth ‘n’ stab series, Assassin’s Creed. The tour starts in June in LA with more dates and cities to follow. You can check them out here.
- Fighting game fans are used to seeing ads in tournaments, but now they’re infiltrating the games themselves. Capcom is introducing “sponsored content” to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition on December 11th to promote its purchasable bundles, costumes and the Pro Tour. You’ll see them on costumes, in certain stages and on pre-fight loading screens. This isn’t concerning by itself as many sports have ads, after all, but Capcom goes out of its way to discourage you from turning the ads off. While you can do so, you’ll lose extra Fight Money and access to sponsored material like costumes. In essence, you’ll have to either live with the ads or accept that you won’t unlock as much content as your ad-friendly peers. All this wouldn’t be such an issue if players hadn’t already paid full price for SFV on top of add-on purchases. While Capcom isn’t running third-party ads (at least not at this moment), the move could be annoying if you’ve already spent a lot on the game and would rather not see further sales pitches.
- Epic will make it easier for developers to build cross-platform play into their games next year, as the company plans to launch “a large set of cross-platform game services” built for Fortnite that has been “battle-tested” by more than 200M players. This includes services like cross-platform matchmaking, cloud saves, voice chat, and game achievements. Launching over the course of 2019, these will be “free for all developers, and will be open to all engines, all platforms, and all stores,” Epic said on the Unreal Engine website.
- The Game Awards this year saw overall viewership increase by an incredible 128% worldwide. In fact, according to the host, over 26.2 million people streamed the event globally, which is a dizzying statistic – even if the numbers have probably been massaged. This also means that the show attracted an audience almost as large as The Oscars, although the comparison isn’t entirely fair given that the 26.5 million people who tuned in to this year’s edition of the prestigious movie ceremony were all located in North America. Either way, it means we can expect the show to return next year – and it’s something I actually look forward to these days.
- Capcom Legacy Collection has managed to sell 1M copies which is a first for the series in 15 years.
- In a Reddit AMA Spawn creator Tod McFarlane seemed to confirm Spawn is making his way to Mortal Kombat 11. When asked about the character being included, Tod responded with “I believe he’s on his way…”, so there it is.
