Doublejump Digest: August 4, 2019

This week in gaming: Infinity Ward talks Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Epic announces the Fortnite Champion Series, Roblox crosses a major milestone, and more!

In the spirit of keeping our readers up to date with what’s happening in the video game industry, the Doublejump Digest is a brief collection of the major news stories from the past week. Keep an eye out for the Digest every Sunday night, and head on into the archive for news from weeks gone by!

FROM DOUBLEJUMP:

• Matt weighed up the pros and (Joy)cons of the Nintendo Switch Lite.
• Harry marked his debut with a discussion of the changes that made Destiny 2 a compelling experience.

MAJOR NEWS:

Epic announces the Fortnite Champion Series:

The five-week long competition is set to begin on August 17 during Fortnite Season X and culminate in finals that will take place between September 20 and 22 and feature the “top teams in each server region”. This “inaugural” competition will only feature teams of three, with Epic Games offering “up to millions of dollars in prizes” over the course of the five weeks.

Roblox now boasts more than 100 million monthly users:

Roblox Corporation has announced that more than 100 million people log on to its titular multiplayer game every month and spend “more than one billion hours” exploring its content. To commemorate the milestone, all Roblox players can claim a free “gold bar shoulder accessory” item for a “limited time”.

Report: Google is testing its competitor to Apple Arcade:

According to Android Police, one of its readers sent screenshots seemingly revealing that Google has begun quietly testing its “Play Pass” Android app and game subscription service. The service, which is tentatively priced at US$4.99 per month, will function as Google’s competitor to Apple’s Arcade iOS game subscription service.

Valve apologises for leaking Street Fighter V character reveals:

Valve has taken to the game’s Steam Community Hub to apologise for accidentally premiering a new trailer for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition that reveals the return of E. Honda and Poison as well as the series debut of Lucia. According to the company, a “mix-up in the publishing process” resulted in the trailer going live early and forcing Capcom’s hand in the process. The three characters will be available for purchase from this Monday.

Riot Games is officially working on a fighting game:

Three years after it acquired Rising Thunder developer Radiant Entertainment, EVO and Radiant co-founder Tom Cannon confirmed that his team is “working on a fighting game for Riot [Games]” during an EVO 2019 Day 1 livestream.

While Cannon did not reveal much else about the game other than the fact that it won’t be coming out “for some time”, his comments about his team’s previous game hint at a focus on making fighting games accessible to more people.

“The reason why we did Rising Thunder in the first place was because we felt like fighting games just deserved to be enjoyed by way more people,” he said. “As big as things are, we think [that] it has the potential to get bigger.”

NOTABLE GAME RELEASES:

• Madden NFL 20 (PS4 and Xbox One)

VIDEOS AND TRAILERS:

Borderlands 3 — Zane Character Trailer:

Gotta love his accent!

Borderlands 3 — Moze Character Trailer:

Who doesn’t love having a mechanised sidekick?

Control — Story Trailer:

Remedy is dialling up its tense storytelling to eleven!

Fortnite — Season X — Story Trailer:

That orb is not good news.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint — PC Features Trailer:

PC players have some neat stuff to look forward to.

GRID — Havana Gameplay feat. IMSA Prototypes:

I wonder if the folks behind Forza and Project CARS are worried about this game at all.

OTHER NEWS:

• CD Projekt RED is developing a card game based on Cyberpunk 2077: Eurogamer
• No Man’s Sky BEYOND is due later this month: Official
• Showtime has revealed more members of its Halo TV series cast: Deadline
• Showtime has also delayed its Halo TV series to 2021: Deadline
• SEGA has delayed the Mega Drive Mini to October: Eurogamer
• Red Dead Online’s next update will add player roles: Rockstar Newswire
• Bungie has delayed Destiny 2: Shadowkeep to October: Bungie
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor started off as a Batman game: Game Informer
• The Outer Worlds is coming to Switch: Twitter
• Ninja has signed a deal with Microsoft to stream exclusively on Mixer: Engadget
• Rockstar Games has reportedly been dodging the UK’s tax watchdog for ten years: GamesIndustry.biz
• Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered is slated for an October release: Eurogamer
• WipeOut Omega Collection and Sniper Elite 4 are this month’s free PlayStation Plus games: EU PS Blog
• Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 6 lead this month’s Games with Gold offering: Xbox Wire

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Originally published at Doublejump.