If you’re in the UK, then congratulations on having survived the summer’s first mini-heatwave! We’re sure there will be many more to come before September rolls around.
As usual, though, we’re not here to talk about the weather. No, we’re here to recap what’s been happening in the gaming world over the past seven days, and that’s exactly what we intend to do.
Here, as has become customary on a Monday morning, is our roundup of the most significant stories in gaming news over the last week!
Stellar Blade hits a million PC sales in three days
If you were wondering how popular Shift Up and Sony’s action game Stellar Blade would be on PC, then wonder no more, as the game sold pretty darn well during its launch week.
In just three days, Stellar Blade managed to shift (ahem) a million copies on PC alone, which means it’s now broken the three million sales barrier across both PC and PS5.
A sequel is in development, and given the game’s stellar (ahem once again) sales performance, we suppose that makes perfect sense. Sadly, there’s no release timing for Stellar Blade 2 yet.
Marathon has been delayed, surprise surprise
In a move that will probably shock nobody at all, Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter Marathon has been delayed, and the game has been given no new concrete release date.
Bungie says it wants to ensure Marathon is a game that “truly reflects” the “passion” of its community, and as such, it won’t be making the September 23rd release date anymore.
According to Bungie, more will be revealed in autumn, at which point the studio will “share the progress” it’s made on the game, as well as a new date. We don’t know exactly when that will come, though.
Xbox’s next hardware generation might include other storefronts
This week, Xbox provided a look (well, more of a hint, really) at what the next generation of Xbox consoles will be like, and it sounds like the company’s approach is going to be pretty broad.
As per a new video, Xbox will be teaming up with AMD to create machines that are “not tied to a single store or device”, and that are “fully compatible with your existing Xbox game library”.
We’re probably not close to new Xbox releases at all, so it’s hard to say exactly what this is going to mean in a practical sense, but it might mean Steam, Epic, or other PC stores on your Xbox console in future.
Warner Bros. has restructured its gaming leadership
Following a pretty disastrous year for the company, Warner Bros. has made the decision to restructure its leadership around four key IP pillars, according to a Variety report.
Those pillars are, as you might expect, as follows: Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, the DC universe, and Harry Potter. Given how big a hit Hogwarts Legacy was for the studio, that’s to be expected.
Three existing WB execs have been chosen to head up these departments, with two overseeing two franchises each and one being in charge of “game and publishing technology”, among other aspects of the business.
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time’s free DLC is a roguelike mode
The free DLC that Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time players will be receiving is, in fact, an open-world roguelike mode, according to developer Level-5.
The mode will take players to “an evolved version of Ginormosia” and will be geared towards “both experienced players and newcomers alike”.
Expect the chance to win lots of new stuff, as well as to immerse yourself in another aspect of Level-5’s hugely successful open-world cozy RPG.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launches, except it doesn’t
Confusion reigned this week when an advert for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was spotted on the London Underground, with the ad proclaiming the game was “out now”.
Unfortunately, Nintendo subsequently confirmed to Eurogamer that the ad was a mistake and that Metroid Prime 4 is not, in fact, currently available for purchase.
We don’t have a release date for the game yet, and given that Nintendo has promised to release it sometime in 2025, we can probably expect an announcement to that effect sometime in the near future.
Hypnospace Outlaw sequel Dreamsettler has been cancelled
Dreamsettler, the upcoming sequel to 90s-inspired browser puzzler Hypnospace Outlaw, has officially been cancelled, according to a new video released by its creator.
In the video, developer Jay Tholen says the Dreamsettler team, which consists of himself and two other developers, “way over-scoped” the project, which is a refreshingly honest thing for a developer to admit.
He says “money and practical concerns” led to the cancellation of Dreamsettler, but that material from the game, including a potentially playable build, may be released in the future.
A Duke Nukem show could be on the way
This week, it was revealed that Castlevania and Devil May Cry producer Adi Shankar has acquired the rights to none other than gaming’s most foul-mouthed protagonist Duke Nukem.
In the above-linked Esquire interview, Shankar says he’s “being approached with different IPs and companies” that want to collaborate with him, and that he’s purchased the rights to Duke Nukem from Gearbox.
Sadly, Shankar doesn’t have the video game rights to the character, so we’re not about to see a new Nukem video game anytime soon, but perhaps an animated streaming series will set things right.
FBC: Firebreak’s numbers aren’t great, but updates are coming
This week saw the launch of Remedy’s FBC: Firebreak, a multiplayer shooter that definitely is not a live-service game, and it’s not off to a particularly promising start, unfortunately.
Per SteamDB, the game launched to around 2,000 concurrent players on Steam, and it has just 200 players playing at time of writing. Granted, Firebreak also launched on PS Plus and Game Pass, but whether those numbers are enough to make up the Steam shortfall is unclear.
Despite this, Remedy is working on updates for some of the community’s biggest problems, including the game’s opening hours not being particularly satisfying for players.
