Doublejump Digest: January 28, 2018
Microsoft strengthens its videogame subscription offering, Sony announces God of War’s release date, and EA delays Anthem.
In the spirit of keeping our readers up-to-date with what’s going on in the video game industry, the Doublejump Digest is a brief collection of the major news stories that happened in the past week. Keep an eye out for the Digest every Saturday night, and head into the archive if you’ve missed any!
From Doublejump:
Cai questioned the unpredictable world of crowdfunding, while Ayden found that SEMISOFT’s Legrand Legacy fell quite short of the quality of the Japanese role-playing games that the developer is paying homage to.
Major news releases:
Microsoft expands Xbox Game Pass to include new releases, Phil Spencer gets promoted:
In what could be a move that signals major publishers shift away from the traditional video game purchasing model, Microsoft Head of Gaming Phil Spencer has announced that “all new Xbox One exclusive games from Microsoft Studios” will be added to the Xbox Game Pass “on the same date as their global release.”
Rare’s Sea of Thieves, which is scheduled for a March 20 release, will be the first title to receive this honour, followed by Undead Labs’s State of Decay 2 and Sumo Digital’s Crackdown 3 later this year. Spencer also confirmed that Microsoft’s digital commitment also includes all upcoming Halo, Forza, and Gears of War titles.
“We’ve only scratched the surface of the opportunity this new model brings to the industry and what we can deliver to our fans,” Spencer wrote. “We firmly believe Xbox Game Pass will be a catalyst to create new opportunities for game developers and publishers to innovate in the way games are developed and delivered, leading to entirely new ways to play.”
This means that players can theoretically play through multiple new releases for AU$10.95 if they finish them within one month, and unlike with PlayStation Now, these games will be fully downloaded to Xbox systems instead of being streamed from servers.
Kratos returns to wage war this April:
The game’s Creative Director, Cory Barlog, took to the European PlayStation Blog earlier this week to announce that Kratos is set to blaze his way to PlayStation 4 on April 20. He also introduced a new story trailer that delves into Kratos’s struggle with balancing parenthood with godhood.
Barlog also revealed God of War’s Limited, Collector’s, and Digital Deluxe Editions, which include various goodies and extras for the game’s most eager fans:
Report: Anthem delayed until next year:
Kotaku’s Jason Screier has claimed that “three people familiar with the project” have revealed that BioWare’s Destiny competitor has been pushed back to a 2019 release, with one stating that its original spring 2018 release was “never realistic”.
Schreier noted that these unnamed developers expect Anthem to be published sometime before March 31 to avoid missing EA’s 2018–2019 financial year. He also added that other BioWare developers have grown more optimistic about the game’s prospect as production has “ramped up”.
“Over the last year, as Anthem’s production ramped up and BioWare began putting more and more of its staff on the project, things appear to have improved,” he wrote. “When I asked one source recently whether Anthem’s struggles fell more into the category of ‘this game is screwed’ or ‘game development is really hard,’ the source said that over time, it had veered from the former into the latter.”
Bungie delivers solid details on next week’s Destiny 2 update:
In the studio’s latest development blog post, several Bungie developers explained what players should expect to see in next week’s version 1.1.2 patch. Community Manager Chris “Cozmo” Shannon revealed that update will expand the game’s Masterworks upgrade system to armour, with players finally being able to decide each armour piece’s Instrinsic perks in addition to receiving an additional “3% damage resistance while using a Super” per piece. Shannon also revealed that the Crucible’s upcoming Iron Banner event is scheduled to take place between January 31 and February 7 AEDT complete with chances to earn new Iron Banner armour Ornaments:
Senior Designer Daniel Auchenpaugh later discussed how Bungie is revamping the Raid reward system to include armour that adds Raid-specific perks, to always drop Raid armour pieces when completing encounters, and to gift players with the opportunity to find an Exotic Raid Ghost named “Contender’s Shell”.
Finally, Senior Design Lead Tyson Green addressed players’ disappointment with not being able to manage large amounts of Shaders at a time by noting that the game tracks each Shader piece as individuals items despite being bundled together in the inventory screen. The game’s current code struggles with tracking the correct number of rewards that are handed out when dismantling “when an entire stack of shaders”.
The 1.1.2 update is scheduled to be rolled out early on Wednesday morning local time.
Crystal Dynamics is making “tremendous progress” with its Avengers title:
Scot Amos, Co-Head of Studio at Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics, noted that his company is making “tremendous progress” with “The Avengers Project” when announcing that Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Creative Director Shaun Escayg, former Visceral Games Director of Product Development Stephen Barry, and other developers from Monolith Productions, and Sledgehammer Games have joined his studio.
“We’re committed to delivering an incredible, completely original Avengers experience to our gamers, and that means we are always looking to add amazing developers to our existing best in class studio talent,” Amos said. “As development progresses, our studio continues to grow. The tremendous progress we’ve made on The Avengers Project further drives us toward our goal of crafting something all Marvel fans will be proud of, and will play for years to come. We can’t wait to show you what we mean in the future.”
Amos stopped short of announcing any further details about his studio’s game but given the pedigree of talent that Crystal Dynamics has just hired, it is safe to assume that it will be a third-person action title with a strong focus on storytelling.
Notable game releases:
- Monster Hunter: World (PS4 and Xbox One)
- Dragon Ball FighterZ (PC, PS4, and Xbox One)
Major video releases:
Monster Hunter: World — Launch Trailer:
Capcom’s hugely-popular multiplayer series has finally returned to the “big kid” consoles.
Dragon Ball FighterZ — “Rise of Android 21” Launch Trailer:
Goku and crew take on a new threat in Arc System Works’s latest fan-favourite fighting game!
SOULCALIBUR VI — The Agent in Black:
Combatants old and new are gracing the arena in weapon-to-weapon combat.
Overwatch — Developer Update | Popular Community Topics:
Director Jeff Kaplan address various community feedback topics including player toxicity and how the development team balances Heroes.
Other news:
- Facebook is trialling a new streamer-monetisation program: Gamasutra
- More than four million people have played PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS on Xbox One: Xbox Wire
- John Cena is reportedle in talks to star in a Duke Nukem movie: The Hollywood Reporter
- Gran Turismo Director Kazunori Yamauchi ruminated on what Gran Turismo 7 could be: DualShockers
- Shadow Warrior and Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India lead February’s Games with Gold offering: Xbox Wire
- Check out this new Dynasty Warriors 9 footage: DualShockers
- Epic Games is shutting down Paragon this April: Eurogamer
- PS4 players can unlock some neat Monster Hunter: World — Street Fighter V crossover content in both games: Capcom-Unity
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