Hello, everyone, and welcome back to this week’s installment of the Weekly Gaming Rundown. Sorry for being a little late, but what started off as a slow Monday turned into a bunch of minor announcements throughout the week, so here is the news:
Activision Blizzard Settle US EOC Lawsuit for 18 million
Activision Blizzard CEO and Sith Lord lurking in the shadows Bobby Kotick called a settlement reached with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission “constructive” and promised to “be vigilant” against harassment, stating that “there is no place anywhere at our company for discrimination, harassment, or unequal treatment of any kind”.
The lawsuit was filed by the EEOC earlier that day and was settled out of court for 18 million dollars. The settlement is intended to be a fund to compensate employees affected by the discrimination and harassment they experienced while being employed there.
The deal will also allow for a third-party equal consultant review the companies’ new initiatives, and any money not given in compensation is to be divided between charities that “advance women in the video game industry” or “promote awareness around harassment and gender quality” as approved by the EEOC.
Battlefield announces beta test
Bummed when the news broke that Battlefield was going to be delayed a few more weeks? For those of you itching to get back into the action, Battlefield 2042 will be hosting an Open Beta for all those who pre-order the game, or current EA play members from October 6-9.
Fall Tournament in Super Smash Bros Online
Nintendo of America has announced that there will be a new Nintendo VS US Challenge Cup for Super Smash Bros Ultimate, split between two different tournaments to be played via Nintendo Switch Online. The first event will happen on November 6, and the second will be on November 20th. The events will be held from 3pm-6pm pacific time.
There is no fee to enter these contests, all that is needed is a membership to Nintendo switch online, a copy of Super Smash bros Ultimate, a reliable high speed internet connection, and for the gods to grant Nintendo the ability to make their online service more dependable by that time.
Super Nintendo World’s Donkey Kong Expansion planned for 2024
The wait is over because your favorite naked gorilla with a tie is finally getting his due. Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan, is expanding to include a Donkey Kong Land which will be placed adjacent to their current Nintendo attraction, The Mushroom Kingdom.
DK Land will feature a brand-new rollercoaster, as well as an assortment of Kong based interactive experiences. It will also contain original merchandise and food, to further fleece it’s attendees. The new attraction is scheduled to open in 2024.
PUBG update 14.1 drops next month
PUBG is getting a Halloween based update on October 6th for the master race, aka PC players, while the console update will go live on October 14. This will include Halloween decorations, unique weather effects such as fog or a blood red moon, as well as a new gameplay feature known as Carry. This will allow players to pick up downed teammates, allowing them to be carried to a safe place for revival, or pick up an enemy to use for cover against incoming opposition.
Game Awards Announced for December 9, 2021 & will be in person
The Game Awards announced that they will be back this year on December 9 and will be an invite-only in person event. For all of you who aren’t going to be invited (which, let’s face it, is going to be everyone who listens to this podcast), the show will still be streamed across more than 40 different platforms.
Starfield announces Localization for Japan
Sticking with Xbox and the Tokyo Game Show, Todd Howard, aka The Todd Father, aka the lost Howard brother, aka Todd the Sod, aka Hey, Look, it’s that guy with more Starfield news, mentioned even more starfield news last week. Howard stated that the game will have complete Japanese localization, which includes over 150,000 lines of dialogue upon release.
Halo teams with Hyperkin to make a Cortona Duke Controller
Playing the last few weekends of the Halo Flight have you itching for more nostalgia? Well, have no fear because Hyperkin, maker of the Duke Xbox One Controller is releasing a brand-new Cortana themed controller just in time for the Xbox 20th anniversary, as well as the release of Halo Infinite. The controller looks just like the original, larger than life Duke controller released on the OG Xbox, with purple coloring and a picture of Cortana’s face on the right side of it.
Expect the controller to hit shelves later this year on November 15, which gives you all 3 weeks to get used to that behemoth before the PVP matches go live.
343 vows to ban players who use racist comments in chat
Brian Jarrard, community manager for 343 industries, stated that they will be permanently banning players for racist or hateful actions and words in Halo multiplayer matches. This is a much stronger reinforcement of their policy mentioned in June of 2020, when Jarrard stated that their “BanHammer” was warmed and ready. Jarrard continued the last announcement by including that 343i are relying heavily on the community to make them away of any incidents that happen during gameplay.
Game pass gets a few big titles
Game Pass announced some heavy hitters this past week, with Scarlet Nexus coming to the service along with Marvel’s Avengers becoming available, a move that Microsoft hopes will make hypocrites out of all those gamers crying wolf that Crystal Dynamics joining the development of Perfect Dark is a horrible look for Xbox and The Initiative.
Xbox Cloud gaming beta on console began this past week
Microsoft announced last week that some owners can now test Cloud gaming on their home Xbox consoles. Xbox is sending the ability to test out this service to randomly selected Xbox insiders in the Alpha-Skip ahead and Alpha rings. This is a huge step for people who can’t get their hands on the newest generation of console, as well as for those who are running out of space on their current Series X and S’s and want to try out more games.
Xbox Game Pass hits 30 million subs
In a digital event called TheGrill put on by The Wrap, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that Game Pass Subscriptions have reached the 30 million mark. At the mention of this, Phil Spencer reached over and the table and slapped Zelnick across the face. He actually stated that the last official number was 18 million, which was released back in January of 2021. Zelnick replied with a “It’s more than 18”. If the numbers are correct, that means subscriptions to game pass would have doubled since their announcement of 15 million subscribers last fall, in September of 2020. Stockholders of Microsoft immediately went out and purchased a new yacht at the release of this number.
Tango Games working on new title, says Shinji Mikami
Shinji Mikami, Studio founder of Tango Gameworks, revealed that a new title is in the works at their studio, and this one is being headed up by the director of Evil Within 2. Mikami appeared in a video with Phil Spencer at the Tokyo Game show, hinted that John Johanas is working on a brand-new game when asked about fostering young new talent at the studio. No other information was provided on what Johanas might be working on.
Black Widow, OG cult classic arcade game remaster gets announced
Black Widow, the OG cult classic two stick shooter arcade game, is getting a remaster! 40 years after getting it’s first release in arcades across America, Black widow recharged will launch this Halloween. You are, as the name states, a black widow, hellbent on protecting your web from invading Beetles, Mosquitos, and several other bugs. The game will have 30 challenges to test your skills and a global leaderboard to see where you stand across the globe. I remember playing this game back when I was a kid in the late 80’s, and I was horrible at it.
Epic Announces Soundwave Series for Fortnite
Epic began a series of musical shows with artists from all around the world called “The Soundwave Series”, which featured it’s first artist, Egyptian superstar Mohamed Hamaki this past weekend. Over the next few months, Australian singer songwriter Tones and I, Brazilian rapper Emicida, Japanese pop artist and music producer Gen Hoshino and French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura will have their own show experiences in Fortnite. This is huge news for those all over the world who aren’t risking it all to bathe in the fluid of 10,000 dancing people listening to some DJ in Chicago or something.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition receives rating in Korea
A game first reported of being in development back by Kotaku in August of this year, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition received an age rating in South Korea this past week. The prior report also stated that the trilogy, being developed by Scottish Studio Rockstar Dundee, would be released for PC and consoles as early as this upcoming November for everyone wanting to get back to committing an endless number of crimes in Liberty City after all these years.
Netflix acquires Night School Studios
In an effort to get into the ever-expanding gaming space, Netflix has purchased indie developer Night School Studios. Night School, the developer of indie darling Oxenfree, has worked with Netflix before on a Stranger Things game. This past July, Netflix announced it was getting into gaming starting with ad free games available on mobile devices for already existing subscribers to their service.
Bloober Team drops Layers of Fear Teaser Trailer
Polish gaming studio Bloober Team, makers of The Medium and Blair Witch, released a teaser trailer for a new Layers of Fear game, out sometime in 2022. Bloober team and Konami announced a partnership back in June this year, which had most game media outlets speculating that they might have been working on a new Silent Hill game. No other news has been released.
Wanted:Dead announced by Publisher 110 Industries and Soleil
Soliel, a game development studio comprised of Team Ninja veterans who worked on both Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises, along with publishers 110 Industries have announced Wanted:Dead, a brand new action adventure game where you play as Lt. Hannah Stone, leader of the Zombie Unit, as she traverses through a sci-fi version of Hong Kong using melee combat and exciting gunplay. The game is scheduled to be released in 2022, with the trailer showing early alpha footage of the game.
Sony Acquires Demon’s Souls Remake Studio Bluepoint Games
In a move that was called out by a few different podcasts and gaming sites a month ago, PlayStation announced that they have acquired Austin-based studio Bluepoint Games, the developers of the Demon’s Souls and the Shadow of the Colossus remake. Marco Thrush, president of Bluepoint Games, later added that they are working on an original game for the PlayStation 5, but they cannot talk about it at this time.
Marvel’s and Insomniac’s Spider Man 2 compared to Empire Strikes Back
Bill Rosemann, creative Vice President at Marvel Games, just gave every Marvel fanboy an even bigger boner by comparing the next installment of Spider-man 2 to the nerd’s original little blue pill, The Empire Strikes Back. In a recent podcast, Rosemann stated that Spiderman 2 will be a little darker compared to the first one. The gaming public went insane when the sequel was announced at last month’s PlayStation event, and Rosemann told listeners to keep an eye out for easter eggs in future trailer releases.
Sony offering free trails of games in UK
For all 1 of my UK listeners (I see you, Jingham1251), Sony is offering trial periods for two of it’s newer releases, Death Stranding Directors Cut and Sackboy: Big Adventure. Owners of the PlayStation 5 will be able to try these games out until later this month, October 28, for a limited amount of time. Just how limited? Death Stranding will be playable for 6 hours, and Sackboy will be playable for 5 hours. This offer is only available for those in the UK, and the timed trial starts as soon as you select Download Trial on the console, so I hope you all have a quick internet connection.
Twisted Metal Revival in the works Along with MGS, Silent Hill (Rumor)
I don’t like to cover rumors, but here are a few huge ones that I could not ignore, so I will go over them briefly.
Rumor has it that Destruction Allstars developer Lucid Games is working on a new entry in the Twisted Metal franchise. This would be a perfect fit, since Lucid really loves making car-based destruction games.
In another rumor that began to burn down the internet this past week, it was whispered that Kojima Productions was developing a new Silent Hill, along with a new installment of Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation 5. This was later boiled down to Konami being rumored to be rebooting both franchises, for maybe an exclusive release on PlayStation systems.
Game Releases this week:
- New World – MMORPG New World finally fully released for PC September 28.
- Lemnis Gate – The time warping, turn based multiplayer combat strategy FPS experience developed by RatLoop Games, Lemnis Gate, was released on September 28 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC ecosystems.
- Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye – All of you ready to head back to the universe of Outer Wilds are in luck! The first and only expansion, Echoes of the Eye, was released on September 28 for all systems.
- In Sound Mind, a first-person horror experience that pits players against the unpredictable dangers stirring within memories, launched on September 28 for the PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series S/X, Nintendo Switch and PC.
- Hitman 3: Season of Envy is the sixth chapter of the seven-part DLC expansion collection for Hitman 3, which takes place after the base game. It was dropped on September 28 for wherever you want to play hitman and on Google Stadia.
- Elyon – Elyon is an open-world action-combat MMORPG set in the continent of Harth, where two sovereign realms, Vulpin and Ontari are at war for the control of a portal that leads to paradise. It was released on Sept. 29 on PC.
- Astria Ascending – Explore a vast world on the brink of chaos in the mature, emotional JRPG Astria Ascending, released on September 30 for Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
- Hot Wheels Unleashed – for those who were fans of the Hot Wheels/Playground Games team-up back in Forza Horizon 3, Hot Wheels Unleashed is a yet another exciting video game to build upon the legacy of hot wheels. Released on September 30 on everything.
The Eternal Cylinder – The open world survival game on PC, PlayStation and Xbox was released on September 30.
Industria – Surreal narrative first person shooter Industria, a love letter to Half-life, released on September 30 for PC.
FIFA 22 – Finally, the annual release of FIFA, FIFA 22, was unleashed upon the earth on October 1.
That should do it for this weeks “Weekly Gaming Rundown”. You can follow me on twitter @thebr0keg4m3r, as well as occasionally writing articles on The Open Tab News, among other sites. Until next time, thanks for reading, and have a great week of gaming!
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