Can you believe another week has already come and gone in the gaming world? It’s true, and this week also marked the official (meteorological!) beginning of spring, so that’s two causes for celebration in one.
As usual, we’ve got a lot to get through. There’s not a week goes by in the gaming industry without an absolute avalanche of news, and this week has been no different, so grab yourself your usual drink, sit down in your comfiest chair, and join us as we run down the week’s gaming news happenings!
Slay the Spire 2 has an Early Access release date
We’ll start with something we missed from last week, namely that card battling roguelike Slay the Spire 2 now has an Early Access release date.
The game will be launching on Steam on March 5th, which is a pretty packed day for releases; you can also look forward to Bungie’s Marathon arriving on that date, as well as Nintendo’s hotly-anticipated Pokemon Pokopia.
As you’ve probably surmised, Slay the Spire 2 won’t have all of its features on release, but the developers are pledging to add more content throughout the game’s development cycle, as is the norm for Early Access.
Blizzard has announced mobile shooter Overwatch Rush
Just a few days after its big Overwatch relaunch, Blizzard revealed Overwatch Rush, a mobile shooter that’s been built for the platform from the top down (so it isn’t just a port).
Overwatch Rush is a top-down shooter that incorporates many of the heroes and aesthetics you’ve come to love from Overwatch, but with a new gameplay loop that should suit mobile better.
We don’t have a release date or an idea of when to expect Overwatch Rush yet, but Blizzard is preparing for testing in “select countries and regions”. Hopefully, there’ll be a more public-facing test soon.
Marvel’s Wolverine arrives in September
It’s a release date bonanza this week, as not only did we get to learn when to expect Slay the Spire 2, but Insomniac also revealed the launch date for its upcoming Wolverine game.
You can expect the game to arrive on PS5 on September 15th, and while no PC release has been announced yet, we wouldn’t imagine it’s going to take long for Sony to break Logan out of his console exclusivity cage.
It’s worth noting that, although gameplay for Marvel’s Wolverine has been shown, we still don’t really know how the game will play, so you might want to hold your excitement until we get a more in-depth picture of the moment-to-moment feel.
WRC and Ravenswatch’s Nacon has filed for insolvency
Just a week or so after the announcement of its latest Nacon Connect presentation, WRC and Ravenswatch publisher Nacon filed for insolvency, which basically means it’s not able to pay off its debts.
The filing says that Nacon’s “available assets do not allow it to meet its due liabilities”, and so the company is asking for “judicial reorganisation proceedings” in order to “ensure the sustainability” of Nacon in the long term.
Let’s hope that some of Nacon’s upcoming releases can do something to stem the bleeding, although the indefinite Terminator: Survivors delay won’t help matters.
Amazon has dropped yet another game from its slate
Amazon has let go of yet another game that it pledged to publish, as this week, the company parted ways with UK-based studio Maverick Games and its as-yet-unannounced open-world driving game.
According to a statement given to The Game Business by Amazon, the split will “allow Maverick Games the flexibility to find a publishing partner whose strategic priorities are better aligned with bringing their game to market”.
For its part, Maverick says it’s going to continue working on the game and that it’s currently in “active dialogue” with other potential publishers. Perhaps we’ll get a full announcement for this game in due course.
Skate’s Full Circle has been hit by layoffs, surprise surprise
EA and Full Circle announced this week that the Skate developer has been hit by layoffs, with the studio claiming that the decision was made to “better support Skate’s long-term future”.
Full Circle says it will continue to work on Skate, and that its upcoming “transformation” will allow the team to focus on “the things that matter most” to the game’s player base. We can’t really see how firing employees helps the game become better, but we’re not execs, after all.
This decision comes shortly after EA and Full Circle made the decision to lock an upcoming map behind a paywall in the long term, contravening a promise made early on in Skate’s development.
The tenth generation of Pokemon has been revealed
This week, we got a first look at the tenth generation of mainline Pokemon games. They’ll be called Pokemon Winds and Waves, and we got to see the starter Pokemon lineup as well.
The game will take place in an open world, following on from 2022’s Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and the starters will conform to the usual typing trio of Fire, Grass, and Water.
Your starters this time around are the little chick Browt (Grass), the enthusiastic dog Pombon (Fire), and the sleek-looking gecko Gecqua (Water). The open world also looks like it will allow you to dive underwater, which is exciting.
Resident Evil Requiem has broken a series record on Steam
Resident Evil Requiem was released this week, and on the day of its launch, it managed to break a Steam record for the franchise as a whole, releasing to the highest number of concurrent players the franchise has ever seen.
At time of writing, Resident Evil Requiem’s all-time player count peak sits at just over 344,000, which puts it head and shoulders above its nearest rival, 2023’s Resident Evil 4 remake (which doesn’t even reach half of that number).
It’s safe to say that Resident Evil Requiem has been a huge success for Capcom, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the game debuted to multiple millions of sales across all platforms. Doubtless, Capcom will announce full figures shortly.
