In The News
Don’t worry, Evan may look like a hostage in our Weekly Talkthrough but he’s doing just fine. And yes, those are baubles and tchotchkes.
Xbox will be more hesitant on game announcements in the future, according to Microsoft Studios Publishing general manager Shannon Loftis. They will be more cautious, Polygon’s Chelsea Stark explains, because Crackdown 3 was announced too soon.
“‘I think we probably announced Crackdown too early,’ Loftis told Polygon during a Gamescom interview in Cologne, Germany, this week. Crackdown 3 contains three distinct game modes, Loftis explained, and the three studios working on the title — Reagent Games, Sumo Digital and Cloudgine — needed more time to push the quality bar higher. The game was most recently delayed to a 2018 launch last week, but that was only the latest setback to hit the title, originally promised for the second half of 2016.”
A former Half-Life writer has posted a pretty cool Half-Life 2: Episode 3 “fictional letter” that seems to detail a possible plot ending. Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett writes that it’s a “letter written by ‘Gertie Fremont,’ and features stuff like a ship called the ‘Hyperborea’ and alien bad guys called the ‘Disparate.’”
“Road to The International Dota 2 Championships” wants to show that traditional sports stars love esports just as much as us computer dwellers. Its final episode, VentureBeat’s Stephanie Chan reports, “will star Brooklyn Nets point guard Jeremy Lin as he attends Valve’s The International, the biggest Dota 2 event of the year. It will air on August 25 at 10 p.m. Pacific time on TBS.”
EA is promising FIFA 18’s story will be bigger and better than ever. Engadget’s Nick Summers reports that “EA is building on the mode with a “second season” for rising star Alex Hunter. It promises a “global” story with more football clubs, branching pathways and some character customization, culminating in a campaign that should feel less scripted but no less cinematic.”
This director pretty much said “eh” when asked about nude mods for his game. Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy XV, told PCGamesN’s Ali Jones, “‘I don’t think it’s a good thing, but we’re going to leave it to the moral sense of all the players out there. I basically want, as a principle, to give as much freedom and as little limitations on it as possible.’”
Nude away, modders.
Digital game sales are on the up and up, according to SuperData. “The worldwide digital video games market grew 16 percent year-over-year in July to $7.8 billion,” AListDaily’s H. B. Duran writes. “Mobile and console segments experienced significant growth last month as well—up 17 and 21 percent, respectively while premium PC grew only few eight percent year-over-year.”
Is this the end for the Vive? Bloomberg’s Ed Hammond, Jonathan Browning and Mark Gurman are reporting that HTC is “exploring options that could range from separating its virtual-reality business to a full sale of the company, according to people familiar with the matter. The Taiwanese firm is working with an adviser as it considers bringing in a strategic investor, selling its Vive virtual reality headset business or spinning off the unit, the people said.”
The king keeps his throne. Crash Bandicoot is #1 on Australia and New Zealand’s sales charts. It blipped down to #2 briefly for a week, but is now back on top.
“It’s apparently been No. 1 on the all-platforms physical game sales charts since launch back in June. The IGEA released the latest weekly charts for the period ended August 20, and the N. Sane Trilogy is still No. 1 in both countries,” GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch reports.