We who pay attention to the gaming calendar are beset by two major events in December: not only is Christmas just around the corner, but The Game Awards are happening this very week as well.
With that in mind, you can probably expect some slightly leaner times when it comes to juicy nuggets of news and info out of the industry, but, as we’re fond of saying here, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing!
Grab a chair, open up today’s date in your advent calendar (if you haven’t done so already, of course), and join us as we take a look at this last week in gaming news!
Don’t worry – Hitman isn’t going anywhere
IO Interactive assured Hitman fans this week that their favourite stealth-action franchise, starring their favourite barcode-tattooed assassin, won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
In an interview with Variety, the studio’s CEO, Hakan Abrak, said that despite the focus currently being on upcoming James Bond game 007 First Light, there will, “of course”, be a new Hitman game.
However, we’re not likely to hear anything about the game until next year at the earliest, so for now, it’s safer to get hyped for First Light. We know we are!
Styx: Blades of Greed has been delayed into next year
There’s more news for fans of stealth-focused games this week as well, as developer Cyanide and publisher Nacon revealed that Styx: Blades of Greed has been pushed back to 2026.
As usual, the game needs some extra time for polish and tweaks, but we do, at least, have a concrete release date for it now: February 19th. Add it to your calendar!
Hopefully, Blades of Greed won’t get delayed again, but hey, if it is, then we all know what Shigeru Miyamoto definitely didn’t say about delayed and rushed games, right?
Helldivers 2 is now much easier on your PC’s storage drive
Helldivers 2’s file size has been drastically reduced, making it much easier to install the game on a PC with limited storage space (or to justify its installation if you’re finicky about what’s on your drive).
Thanks to developer Arrowhead’s efforts, a game that once took up around 154GB on your drive will now take up a measly 23GB. This goal was achieved with the help of reliable porting studio Nixxes, apparently.
Right now, the storage space change update is in beta, but hopefully, it should be released to the public at large before long.
Shovel Knight’s Yacht Club really needs Mina the Hollower to be a hit
As reported by Bloomberg this week, Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games is really banking on its upcoming game Mina the Hollower to be a hit; if it’s not, the studio could be in trouble.
Essentially, it’s been a number of years since Yacht Club released anything, and Mina the Hollower’s development has been troubled, leaving the studio in a precarious position.
If you love Yacht Club’s work, then you know what to do: go wishlist Mina the Hollower on your platform of choice right now, and be sure to pick it up when it launches!
Tencent has agreed not to promote Light of Motiram in light of its Sony lawsuit
Currently, Tencent is embroiled in a legal battle with Sony over the former’s Light of Motiram bearing more than a passing similarity to Sony’s Horizon franchise.
This week, it emerged that Tencent has agreed not to promote its game or to run public tests while the lawsuit is ongoing, a decision that’s likely to have made Sony rather happy.
We still don’t know how the lawsuit will turn out, of course, but given Light of Motiram’s strong resemblance to Horizon, we can’t really see this ending well for Tencent.
Ambitious mod Skyblivion has been delayed
Have you been looking forward to playing Skyblivion? Well, unfortunately, it looks like you’re going to have to wait a bit longer for the privilege, as the mod has been delayed.
According to the mod’s development team, the Cyrodiil map is 100% complete, and all quest dungeons have been completed, but more work is needed on features like assets, quest implementation, and polish.
We weren’t given a new release date for Skyblivion, but hopefully, the mod will launch in good time so we won’t be waiting too much longer for it.
Total War: Medieval 3 is officially happening
What’s your favourite sub-series within the Total War franchise? Is it Warhammer? Shogun? Medieval? If you answered the latter, you’ll be pleased to know that there’s a third Total War: Medieval game in development.
The game will, apparently, push the development philosophy of the Total War: Medieval games “further than ever before”, promising the ability to “rewrite history”.
Right now, we don’t know too much about the game, which is in the early-ish stages of development, but Sega has promised more news soon.
Running With Scissors announces, then cancels, a new Postal game
This week, publisher Running With Scissors announced a new game in the Postal series by the name of Postal: Bullet Paradise, but the game was swiftly canceled shortly after its announcement.
That’s because developer Goonswarm Games was accused of using generative AI to create some of the game’s assets, something that the studio afterwards admitted was true.
Running With Scissors says it has always “operated with an unwavering commitment to the truth and transparency”, and that’s why it was so upfront about the reason for the game’s cancellation.
There appears to be a bidding war for Warner Bros.
Netflix announced this week that it would acquire the streaming and gaming wings of Warner Bros. following the company’s split with Discovery, but it seems things are more complicated than that.
Following Netflix’s bid, Paramount Skydance made its own offer for Warner Bros. for a staggering $108.4 billion, although Warner’s board of directors haven’t made any changes to their deal with Netflix.
Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, said that he “expected” Paramount’s proposal to happen and that he’s still “confident” his company will be able to acquire Warner Bros.
