Another week has gone by, and as usual, there’s plenty to be talking about in the gaming space, both good and bad.
Xbox held a major presentation at which several new games and release dates were announced this week, and much more has been going on besides, so you won’t be short of talking points.
Once again, without further ado, let us take up our time-travelling magnifying glass and take a look once more at what’s been going on in the world of gaming news this week.
Destiny is getting a mobile spinoff
It seems like every game and its dog needs a mobile spinoff these days, especially if that game (or its dog, we suppose) is popular, and it looks like Bungie’s first-person shooter Destiny is no exception.
Step forward Destiny: Rising, a new free-to-play mobile RPG from Chinese company NetEase that offers both first-person and third-person shooter gameplay alongside both single-player and multiplayer modes.
The game will apparently take place in an alternate timeline, which feels like a logical choice to us; after all, setting it in the main timeline would only have upset Destiny fans.
Xbox Game Pass gets yet more games in late October
Microsoft announced which games would be heading to Xbox Game Pass as part of October’s second wave this week, and there’s plenty coming to the service soon.
Games like South Park: The Fractured but Whole, Donut County, and MechWarrior 5: Clans are all heading to Game Pass in the latter half of October, as well as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (for some Game Pass tiers, at least).
We don’t know what November’s lineup will look like yet, but we do know it’ll offer the chance to try out StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft 2: Campaign Collection, so if you’re an RTS fan, prepare to eat well.
More Riot layoffs
League of Legends developer Riot Games this week engaged in its second round of layoffs this year, letting some of the MOBA developer’s staff go in order to ensure the team has “the right expertise”.
Though the number of affected employees wasn’t confirmed, Riot later told Eurogamer that 32 employees would be let go, with 27 of those employees working in development and five in publishing.
Strangely, Riot’s Marc Merrill says that the League of Legends dev team will “eventually be even larger than it is today”. Let’s hope Riot knows what it’s doing when it comes to staff organisation.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is in more trouble
Upcoming open-world RPG Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t having a great time of it recently, what with the delay to February and the (rather silly, if you ask us) controversy surrounding Yasuke.
This one wasn’t necessarily Ubisoft’s error; collectible company PureArts announced this week that it was pulling a statue of protagonists Yasuke and Naoe from sale due to an “insensitive design”.
The design in question depicts both protagonists next to a single-legged Torii gate, which is widely considered to be a symbol of the bombing of Nagasaki during World War II.
It’s very unlikely that either Ubisoft or PureArts intended this mistake to happen, but it’s still nice to see the company admitting its mistake, since this is an error that doesn’t feel as artificial as the Yasuke controversy.
Don’t Nod is laying off employees
Sadly, we’re back on layoffs now, as Life Is Strange and Vampyr developer Don’t Nod revealed this week that it may be cutting a number of jobs in response to tough market conditions.
The layoffs come as the result of a difficult time for the developer so far this year, with two of its major releases, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and Jusant, underperforming compared to expectations.
Don’t Nod isn’t out just yet; the studio still has a number of projects in development. Still, things aren’t looking great, and if sales don’t pick up soon, we might lose another developer next year.
Silent Hill 2 has sold a million copies
Naturally, we’re not referring to the original Silent Hill 2 here, but the remake, which was released last week and which has already hit a million sales, despite not being available for every platform out there.
The game, which is available for PC and PS5, managed to reach a million in just three days or so, and we likely have savvy marketing campaigns and a sense that Konami is finally returning to game development for this.
Of course, it wasn’t Konami that developed this one; it was Bloober Team, the studio behind the likes of Layers of Fear, who also admitted this week that some of its games haven’t been so great.
Xbox holds a new Partner Preview show
We got to see what Xbox’s partners are up to this week as part of a brand new Partner Preview showcase, and it looks like the brand has plenty of plans for upcoming games.
Big reveals include a first look at Subnautica 2, new DLC for Alan Wake 2, and a reveal for Remedy’s FBC: Firebreak, which is a multiplayer game set in the world of mind-bending action-adventure game Control.
We also got a new release date for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which, it turns out, is being released earlier than we expected, as well as a surprise Xbox release for secret-filled Metroidvania Animal Well. Hooray!
Spider-Man 2 comes to PC next year
We finally got a release window for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PC this week, although it’s a little vague. The superhero sandbox adventure is coming to Steam sometime in January.
Of course, since it’s a PC release overseen by Sony, it’ll be developed by Nixxes, and it’ll probably come with all the PC enhancements you’d expect from one of these ports: unlocked frame rates, enhanced resolution, and all that stuff.
Sony hasn’t announced what specs you’re going to need for Spider-Man 2 yet, nor do we know exactly what PC features we can expect, but we’ll probably learn more about that and everything else Spider-Man 2-on-PC-related soon.
