Weekly Retro: 3/4 – 3/8

PlayStation

• PS4 firmware update 6.50 has released and adds a feature that has been asked for pretty often—support for Remote Play to iOS devices! Simply download the update and install the PS4 Remote Play app for your iPhone or iPad. The app doesn’t support the DualShock 4 controller unfortunately, but you can use any MFi controller.

• Boarderlands 2 VR wasn’t as well received as Sony and 2K Games probably would have liked, but the title now gets PSVR Aim Controller support with the 2.0 update.

• Here’s a rumor that just won’t go away: The Last of Us: Part II is set to release this year. As crazy as it may sound, it does make some sense when you stop and think about it—between this game, Ghost of Tsushima, and Death Stranding, The Last of Us: Part II has always looked the most ‘complete’ of Sony’s exclusive lineup. Couple that line of thought with numerous sources saying that it’s coming in 2019, and it’s no wonder that the rumor just won’t die.

• PlayStation Now, Sony’s game streaming service that also lets you download some titles ala rival service Xbox Games Pass has added a few new games:
  * Battlefield 4 (PS3)
  * Black Knight Sword (PS3)
  * Black Mirror (PS4)
  * Dead Space 3 (PS3)
  * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
  * Mirror’s Edge (PS3)
  * Pool Nation (PS3)
  * Red Faction (PS2)
  * WWE 2K18 (PS4)

Nintendo

• Nintendo is known for taking risks, experimenting, and generally doing things differently, but this latest effort is something I didn’t see coming. The company appears to have jumped on the ASMR trend by uploading a special video marketing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. At nearly two minutes long, the video shows a person climbing theirr way to the top of a mountain and then taking a break to play Breath of the Wild on the Switch.

• After many many rumors, Nintendo officially unveiled VR for Switch in the form of Labo kits. There will be three in total initially.
  * Starter set + blaster
  * Expansion Set 1 camera + elephant
  * Expansion Set 2 bird + wind pedal

• Aaron Tager, a TV and film star, is perhaps best know in the gaming world for the role of Cranky Kong in the Donkey Kong show. Sadly, Tager passed away last Thursday at the age of 84. If you’re of drinking age, pour one out for old Cranky Kong!

• Did you love the Turok series on N64? I sure know I had a lot of fun with the Cerebral-bore in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil! Well you’ll be able to pick up the original Turok on Switch March 18 for the probably-too-expensive cost of $19.99……although I’d admittedly probably pay that for it’s sequel whenever it releases.

Xbox

• According to 343 Industries’ studio head Bonnie Ross, the team are looking at Halo Infinite as a ‘spirtual reboot’ of sorts. Bonnie’s full quote is below:

  We’re kind of calling it a spiritual reboot. That’s kind of how we talk about it… The Halo engine is a very technical, engineering-focused engine. It’s super hard for creatives to work in. It’s super hard for a lot of creatives to work in, at one time. We did a ton of work on Halo 4, on the engine, to get it to look… I think it looked amazing for being on the last-generation on the last year of the platform. We promised the team we would do the work on the tools and pipeline for Halo 5, so it wasn’t such a challenging environment to develop on. You know… best-laid plans… we didn’t do that and the team, rightfully so, basically called us on it… we want to do more with Halo… we want to have a team that can do their best creative work within our engine. So it really was taking the time off and, as we announced the Slipspace Engine last year, it is all to make sure we’re building the platform for the future of Halo.

• First detailed by Brad Sams, Microsoft has been experimenting with a discless Xbox One S console codenamed Xbox Maverick, with a launch window thought to be around Q1 2019. According to sources, Microsoft is reportedly set to call the digital-only console the “Xbox One S All-Digital Edition,” with pre-orders aiming for mid April 2019 and with general availability coming in early May 2019.

• At last year’s E3, Microsoft announced they’d acquired five new studios to help beef up their first party offerings for Xbox. According to a recent rumor, the company may be looking to acquire Relic Entertainment, formerly THO Canada, worked on previous games like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes with the studio currently developing Age of Empires 4 which is an IP Microsoft owns. which adds more weight to this rumor.

Industry News

• Apex Legends has hit a few mind-blowing milestones about a month after release:
  * 50 million players
  * 158 million finishers
  * 1.23 billion Ultimates activated
  * 31 billion “pings” placed on opponents

• The title also received it’s first real balance patch which ahs nerfed two of the most popular weapons—the Wingman and the Peacekeeper—by altering their rate of fire from 3.1 to 2.6 shots per second and decreasign their Skullpiercer Headshot damage from 2.5 to 2.25.

• A new adaptation of Dune is coming to movie theaters in 2020 because no one in Hollywood seems to have an original idea anymore. Naturally, in licensed movie-tie-in fashion, it’ll be getting some video games to go with it, according to Funcom, the makers of Conan Exiles, Age of Conan, and Secret World MMO’s.

• Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is getting its first expansion on March 28, CD Projekt Red announced. Crimson Curse will bring over 100 new cards to the game (throughout all existing factions) with the studio promising fresh card reveals over on the official Crimson Curse site

• Ys IX: Monstrum Nox will be releasing at some point in Fall 2019 for the PS4. As a big fan of Ys VIII on Switch I’m very excited to see the first glimpse of footage on March 24, 2019 at the Dengeki Games Festival. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t stay a PS4 exclusive!

• Epic Games has been a hot streak lately when it comes to locking PC exclusive releases and they show no signs of stopping. The latest title to launch soley for PC on Epic’s new storefront? Shakedown: Hawaii, the new game from Retro City Rampage developer Vblank Entertainment.

• While I understand the following tidbit isn’t gaming news per se, I still find it fascinating. The very rare Black Lotus is the most sought after Magic: The Gathering card, and a 9.5 graded one recently sold on eBay for $166,100! That’s more than twice what a similar card sold for in July of last year at $57K with a 9.0 rating!

• Telemundo Deportes has launched the first ever Spanish-language esports streaming channel in the US, showing just how big professional gaming competitions have become these past years. The programming division in charge of NBCUniversal’s Spanish-language sports events and magazine programs will livestream competitions and and playthroughs on both YouTube and Twitch starting with coverage of the FIFA19 FUT Champions Cup on April 5th to the 7th,