We’re entering what we often think of as a lull period in the gaming calendar; between August’s Gamescom and September’s Tokyo Game Show, there often aren’t too many major announcements.
Of course, as is always the case when it comes to the world of gaming, that doesn’t mean nothing is happening at all; there’s still a lot to discuss from the past week!
Without further ado, then, let’s do what we always do and take a look at what’s been going on over the last seven days in the gaming world!
Ubisoft confirms Rayman isn’t dead
We begin with good news for fans of old-school platformers (and slightly less old-school ones): Rayman isn’t dead, and in fact, Ubisoft is still hard at work on new games in the franchise.
That’s according to a message posted on social media this week, in which Rayman “brand producer” Loic Gounon revealed that Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan are working on “the future of Rayman”.
Rumours currently abound that a remake of the first game could be in the works, and that the performance of said remake will dictate whether a fourth Rayman game sees the light of day or not.
Capcom reckons the PS5 is stalling Monster Hunter Wilds sales
In an interview with Japanese publication Nikkei this week, Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto blamed the high price of Sony’s PS5 for a lack of recent Monster Hunter Wilds sales.
Although the game started off strong, sales have tapered off in recent months, and Tsujimoto reckons it’s because of something he calls the “PS5 barrier” (according to Google’s machine translation, anyway).
Tsujimoto says that the PS5’s cost is “not an amount that can be easily reached, especially for younger generations”, and that this is a problem not only in Japan, but around the world.
A live-action Call of Duty movie is officially happening
Movie studio Paramount announced this week that it’s working on a live-action Call of Duty movie, although as you can probably imagine, details are pretty scarce right now.
The movie will, according to Activision head Rob Kostich, be an “unforgettable blockbuster movie experience” that’s set to please both the existing community and potential new fans.
We don’t know whether the Call of Duty movie will aim to retell the story of one particular game in the series or whether it’ll be something new entirely, but we’ll probably get more info later down the line.
The Perfect Dark reboot could have been saved by Take-Two
Take-Two, the parent company of Grand Theft Auto studio Rockstar, almost saved the doomed Perfect Dark reboot, according to a new report that emerged this week.
According to Bloomberg, Take-Two very nearly took over stewardship of the project, which was cancelled in July as part of a mass layoff wave at Microsoft and its gaming division.
However, disagreements over the “long-term ownership” of the franchise as a whole caused talks to stall, and as a result, the project was cancelled and developer The Initiative closed its doors.
007: First Light is releasing in March next year
Thanks to a new PlayStation State of Play presentation this week, we now know exactly when James Bond’s next videogame outing 007: First Light is launching.
The presentation revealed that the game is arriving on March 27th, and we got to see some more gameplay for Bond’s latest adventure as well. Surprisingly enough, it looks like a sort of evolved version of Hitman.
We got to see Bond using some of his signature gadgets courtesy of Q Branch, as well as some stealth, some action sequences, and more. It looks like a barrel of fun.
Amazon’s Tomb Raider series gets Lara Croft, production date
This week, we learned who’s going to be playing Lara Croft in Amazon’s upcoming live-action Tomb Raider series, as well as when the show is due to start production (although these things can be somewhat fluid).
As revealed by Variety this week, Sophie Turner, best known as Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones, will be stepping up to fill the archaeologist adventurer’s shoes.
Production, meanwhile, is due to begin on January 19th next year, although you may not want to inscribe that date on stone tablets, as it could change between now and then.
Hollow Knight: Silksong breaks storefronts
As you might imagine, the launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong dominated the gaming world this week, and the game turned out to be so popular that it essentially broke a number of storefronts.
Steam, the PlayStation Store, the Nintendo eShop, and Xbox Game Pass all chugged this week thanks to Silksong’s release, with issues even stretching to the payment stage.
Thankfully, it seems everything is back to normal now, and everyone is able to pick up Silksong on their platform of choice.
Civilization’s developer is hit by layoffs
Surprise surprise, another developer has made intimate acquaintance with the chopping block this week, and it’s none other than Civilization and Marvel’s Midnight Suns outfit Firaxis.
As confirmed to Rock Paper Shotgun (and a number of other outlets) by a 2K rep, Firaxis has undergone a “staff reduction” as the studio “restructures and optimizes its development process for adaptability, collaboration, and creativity”.
These layoffs may be linked to the slightly underwhelming performance of Civilization VII, which 2K boss Strauss Zelnick admitted was “off to a slow start” last month.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater has sold a million copies
Konami will be breathing a sigh of relief this week, since its second major remake of the last couple of years, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, has passed a million copies sold.
Not only did the game, which updates the original with new visuals and gameplay improvements, reach that sales milestone, but it did so on the day of its launch, no less.
Time will tell whether or not this leads to more Metal Gear, but if it does, it’ll be without the involvement of the series’ key auteur Hideo Kojima. Whether that’s a good thing or not, we’ll leave up to you.
