It’s been another eventful week for the gaming world, although since so much is going on inside the industry on a daily basis, that’s almost unnecessary to say.
Still, this week we’ve seen the release of a brand new Nintendo tentpole game, as well as delays, new sequel announcements, and more besides.
Pull up a chair and join us as we take another expedition through a week of gaming news. Hopefully, it won’t all be as glum as the real news has been over the past few weeks.
Tales of the Shire gets a new release date
Hey, that hobbit life sim got a new release date this week. Having been delayed to 2025 earlier in September, Tales of the Shire is now officially launching on March 25th.
If you’ve ever wanted to turn your nose up at the call to adventure inherent in much of the Lord of the Rings setting and settle down in a tiny hobbit town instead, this game is very much for you.
Early previews of the game are fairly positive across the board (although there are some dissenters), so it sounds like this one will be right up your alley if you want another cosy life sim to play.
Behaviour Interactive buys Darkest Dungeon’s developer
If you’re familiar with Behaviour Interactive, it’s probably because you’ve played the studio’s asymmetrical multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight.
Well, now the developer has another string to its bow; it’s purchased Darkest Dungeon developer Red Hook, and together, the two are pledging to expand the Darkest Dungeon series.
Whether that means another Darkest Dungeon game is in the works remains to be seen, but for now, Red Hook has a brand new parent company, so hopefully, the two will go on to do great things.
My Time at Evershine is a new My Time sequel
This week, Pathea Games announced a new My Time game in the form of My Time at Evershine, a sequel to My Time at Portia and My Time at Sandrock.
The Kickstarter campaign for the game asked for around £150,000 initially, and at time of writing, it’s raised over £1 million, so clearly, the folks at Pathea are doing something right.
In fact, the cosy farming RPG has already hit every single one of its stretch goals, so Pathea has been adding more, including the ability to adjust your character’s height and more.
PlayStation holds a State of Play
Sony held a new State of Play showcase this week, showing off some of the games that are coming to PS5 in the near future, and there were some big announcements.
We got to see a brand new Ghost of Tsushima sequel in the form of Ghost of Yotei, which will follow a brand new protagonist named Atsu and take place around three hundred years after the first game.
Other announcements include a Horizon Zero Dawn remaster (yes, really), a release date for Monster Hunter Wilds, and remasters of the first two Soul Reaver games. Hooray!
Assassin’s Creed Shadows delayed to 2025
Originally intended to release in November, Assassin’s Creed Shadows was delayed to February 2025 this week, following what Ubisoft calls “learnings” from the flop launch of Star Wars Outlaws.
While the studio put the delay down to a need for extra polish in its announcement post on X/Twitter, it also updated its financial targets for the fiscal year, pointing to Outlaws’ disappointing launch, among other things.
Additionally, Ubisoft will now release all of its PC games on Steam on day one, and you won’t be seeing Season Passes in Ubisoft games anymore. That sounds like a win to us.
Doom mod gets embroiled in political battle
This week in slightly silly news, a modder who created a mod for Doom and Doom 2 known as Thatcher’s Techbase saw his mod being removed from Bethesda’s mod browser.
Said modder was told to take the mod down because it revolved around a real-world political figure, prompting him to cheekily reupload the mod with all references to real-world politics removed.
However, Bethesda saw through this ruse and removed the mod once again, accusing the modder of “deliberately disobeying a Zenimax employee”. Better toe the line, we suppose.
A Ubisoft strike might be on the cards
It looks like Ubisoft workers could go on strike next month over controversial changes to the company’s remote working policy, as well as what French union STJV perceives to be inadequate salaries.
The strike is due to take place in mid-October and revolves around Ubisoft’s decision to require French employees to return to the office for at least three days per week, a decision STJV says was made with no “tangible justification”.
It remains to be seen whether Ubisoft will give in to STJV’s demands, which include a new remote working agreement and a salary increase for all workers, before the strike is due to take place.
The Last of Us season two trailer released
This week, we got a look at the second season of HBO’s prestige show The Last of Us, which will once again star Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie.
It looks like the season will be based at least partly around the second game, so (spoiler alert!) it remains to be seen just for how long Pascal’s character will remain in the picture.
Still, the trailer shows off a season that looks pretty much exactly like what you’d want from a second helping of The Last of Us, so if you’re into that kind of thing, you’ll likely enjoy it!
The Simpsons: Tapped Out is tapping out
Towards the end of the week, Electronic Arts announced that The Simpsons: Tapped Out, a legendary mobile game that has been running for twelve years, will end service.
EA says that the game will become unavailable via app stores on October 31st, and that you won’t be able to play it anymore starting from January 24th.
The studio says the decision to end the game’s service is “an emotional one”, offering “sincerest thanks” to those who’ve stuck with the game for all this time.
