Another week, another bumper crop of gaming news.
With the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S still going strong and rumours of a Nintendo Switch 2 reveal persisting, there’s always something happening, so let’s take a look at what’s been happening in the gaming industry this week!
Helldivers 2 continues to do numbers
Some may say that live-service games are dead, but Arrowhead Game Studios’ PS5 and PC effort Helldivers 2 begs to differ.
This week saw the game going from strength to strength, passing the concurrent player record of Grand Theft Auto V on Steam and prompting outcry regarding players who don’t log out to give others a spot.
In fact, later in the week, developer Arrowhead increased Helldivers 2’s server cap in order to try to ensure that players would be able to log in and enjoy the game over the weekend.
Don’t expect this one to go away anytime soon; players are loving blasting bugs to smithereens in Helldivers 2’s seemingly Starship Troopers-inspired world.
Nintendo Switch 2 reportedly delayed
One of the biggest drawbacks of talking about the Nintendo Switch 2 is that pretty much everything we can say about it right now is essentially hearsay.
Nintendo hasn’t announced anything official regarding the console or its release date, after all, and so we’re relegated to the realm of speculation.
Still, that didn’t stop analysts reporting this week that the Switch 2 has apparently been delayed from a late 2024 release to early 2025, which caused Nintendo shares to tumble.
It makes sense that Nintendo would be reluctant to push out the successor to what has become a phenomenally successful console, but the Switch really is starting to show its age right now, so we think Nintendo is living on borrowed time.
Pokemon Presents and Nintendo Direct presentations revealed
This week, Nintendo revealed that a Pokemon Presents showcase is on the way for next week. It’ll air on February 27th and will feature exciting news about what’s in the works at Pokemon Towers.
A Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase was also revealed, although that aired the same week as its announcement.
The Direct presentation contained announcements for a multi-platform release of JRPG Shin Megami Tensei V, as well as a surprise launch for the 3D platformer Penny’s Big Breakaway.
Since it was a third-party showcase, it didn’t contain any information regarding upcoming first-party Nintendo projects, so we’ll have to wait for a future presentation in order to learn more about those.
Elden Ring gets Shadow of the Erdtree DLC gameplay reveal
From Software’s RPG adventure Elden Ring was one of the most popular games of 2022, so it’s no surprise that the studio has been hard at work on DLC for the game.
This week, we finally got to see what Hidetaka Miyazaki and company have been cooking up for Shadow of the Erdtree, and it looks suitably spectacular.
It’s got all of the ruined landscapes and terrifying boss designs you could want, plus some nice ambiguous lore for VaatiVidya and his ilk to pore over.
The DLC also got a release date of June 21st, so it won’t be much longer until we can finally get our hands on it and end this Elden Ring drought.
Xbox “exclusives” get release dates on other platforms
As part of the Nintendo Direct presentation this week, we also got to see which Xbox exclusives will be heading to Switch soon, with the first two titles on the platform being Pentiment and Grounded.
Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves were also confirmed to be leaving the Xbox exclusivity pen in search of PlayStation pastures, and thrillingly enough, Sea of Thieves will be the first Rare game ever to appear on a PlayStation console.
Sea of Thieves is destined for PlayStation 5 on April 30th, while Hi-Fi Rush arrives on PS5 on March 19th.
Pentiment is actually available for Switch right now, and we’d highly recommend giving it a shot, as it’s an overlooked classic in the making in our opinion. Grounded comes to Switch, PS5, and PS4 on April 16th.
The League of Legends fighting game has a name
The League of Legends fighting game spinoff, which was previously known as Project L, now has an official name, and it’s…well, it’s pretty strange.
The name of the game is – are you sitting comfortably? – 2XKO. Riot says the name is pronounced “how it’s spelled”, which doesn’t really make any sense, although we’re guessing that means it’s pronounced “two X kay-oh”.
Honestly, it’s not a great name, but the fact that it’s so unique could well work in Riot’s favour. It also makes a little more sense when you consider that 2XKO is a two-on-two fighting game, although the same could be said for other games that have less silly names.
Whether or not the name will prove a hindrance to 2XKO is something we’ll just have to find out as time goes on.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League fell short of Warner Bros’ expectations
This week, we got to learn just how big of a failure Rocksteady and Warner Bros’ live-service game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League really was.
We hate to say we told them so (largely because we were mainly talking to ourselves), but Suicide Squad has apparently underperformed and undershot Warner Bros’ expectations.
Warner Bros naturally hasn’t divulged sales figures or discussed exactly what this might mean for Rocksteady or its future, but if the publisher is anything like EA, we can perhaps expect Rocksteady to be dismantled sooner rather than later.
If you ask us, that’s commercial suicide; Rocksteady produced consistently excellent work prior to Suicide Squad, so putting the studio back on single-player adventures would, in our opinion, be the right move.
Still, releasing Suicide Squad in the first place arguably wasn’t the right move, so Warner Bros might not have its collective head screwed on. At least Hogwarts Legacy managed to perform well for the company.
