We’re inching ever closer to the E3 period (or what would traditionally have been considered the E3 period, at any rate), and while you might think that could mean a lack of gaming news, that’s not been the case at all.
This week has been a rather explosive one in the world of games, with major studio closures and big announcements from huge tentpole companies to chew over.
Let’s have a look at what’s been happening in the world of gaming this week, shall we?
An announcement for the Switch 2 will be made sometime this year
This week, Nintendo made an announcement that news about the Switch 2 will be available sometime before April next year.
Company president Shuntaro Furukawa made reference to “this fiscal year”, which isn’t tracked on a December-to-December basis; fiscal years usually begin in April and end at the end of March.
It’s exciting to think that before too long, we’ll finally be hearing about what we can expect from the Switch 2 (and no, it almost certainly won’t actually be called that, although you never know).
Take this with a very large pinch of salt, but specs for the Switch 2 also supposedly leaked this week, although that same article also says that multiple different leaks exist, which is rather confusing.
Xbox closes four Bethesda studios
IGN reported this week that Xbox has closed four studios under Bethesda’s name, including two fairly high-profile companies responsible for pretty major games.
Arkane’s Austin branch, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios will all be closed in one form or another. Roundhouse will be absorbed into ZeniMax Online Studios, makers of The Elder Scrolls Online.
The news prompted a wave of criticism from fans and non-fans alike, especially since Xbox executives made some pretty questionable comments following the closures.
It looks like the developers were surprised by the news as well; a Redfall update adding online play was apparently in development, so we don’t think the devs had time to process the news.
Perfect Dark isn’t looking so perfect
All the way back in 2020 (if you can cast your mind that far back, that is), Microsoft announced a Perfect Dark reboot. The shooter is apparently in development by The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics.
However, according to industry analyst Jeff Grubb, the Perfect Dark reboot might be in trouble. Grubb says he hasn’t heard anything good about the reboot, saying it’s in a “very rough state”.
Gaming personality Liam Robertson, meanwhile, says that the new Perfect Dark game is a “big, protracted mess”, indicating that things aren’t going well for the game.
Microsoft has remained silent about Perfect Dark, but that could be damning in and of itself, of course; if things are going badly, then there’s nothing to announce.
The Joker joins MultiVersus
When news of Kevin Conroy’s very sad passing reached the world, legendary Joker voice actor Mark Hamill said he would never play the character again, as he couldn’t play opposite Conroy.
It seems that he’s found a happy loophole to this rule though, as he’s returning to voice Batman’s nemesis in Warner Bros’ fighting game MultiVersus.
Conroy provided his voice for Batman in the game before his death, so Hamill’s appearance doesn’t contravene his one rule, so to speak, which we’re sure Batman would approve of.
It’s exciting to think that we’ll once again see these two legends squaring off against one another, even if we won’t get another Arkham game with the two at its head.
Dead by Daylight is getting a Dungeons and Dragons crossover
Dungeons and Dragons feels like it’s having something of a moment right now, and that moment is continuing thanks to a crossover with popular horror game Dead by Daylight.
The game, which has groups of survivors trying to outwit a single killer, is getting some kind of Dungeons and Dragons content soon, although we’re not sure what it is yet.
The very short trailer to announce the collaboration seems to feature a Beholder slamming itself against some bars, so perhaps survivors will be fleeing from just such a monster?
We also don’t know whether a unique survivor will be coming to Dead by Daylight with the collaboration, so you’ll just have to keep an eye on Behaviour’s socials for more.
Sony hasn’t learned its lesson with Ghost of Tsushima
Sony and Arrowhead got into trouble recently for delisting Helldivers 2 in countries where players couldn’t sign up for a PSN account, and now, it looks like a similar thing might be happening with Ghost of Tsushima.
The open-world historical epic is coming to PC soon, but it now looks like anyone in a region that PSN doesn’t support is being automatically refunded for their purchase of the game by certain storefronts (and by Steam itself).
This is because Ghost of Tsushima’s multiplayer mode can’t be played without PSN, although its single-player mode very much still can, so why the refunds are being issued is a bit of a mystery to us.
It doesn’t look like the PSN account requirement for Sony games on Steam is going away anytime soon, so if you’re a PlayStation fan and you want to play on PC, you’ll have to lump it, sadly.
Marvel Rivals says content creators can’t say mean things
Recently, a disgruntled content creator took to Twitter (sorry, Elon) to share their disappointment with Marvel Rivals’ terms and conditions when it comes to a recent playtest.
Supposedly, content creators were being held to a “non-disparagement” clause that stopped them from making “disparaging or satirical comments” about Marvel Rivals, including “subjective negative reviews”.
Developer NetEase subsequently responded to these allegations in a Discord statement in which the developer apologised for “inappropriate and misleading terms” within the contract.
We suspect the damage has been done by now, but it’s still good to see NetEase owning up to a mistake that could have proved extremely embarrassing in the short-term and the long-term.
