Daily Briefing: Monday 1st November

All Cyberpunk 2077 updates pushed to next year

That's according to CD Projekt Red's official roadmap for the game, which was recently amended to confirm that all "updates, improvements, and free DLCs" for Cyberpunk 2077 will not be launching until 2022. Before these changes were noted, the most recent roadmap update was back in August and detailed "multiple updates and improvements." This update still outlined the free DLC content as releasing later this year.

• It's been a long road of improvement for Cyberpunk 2077 and it looks like it's going to be a little bit longer still. The game released in a famously broken state last December and, even after nearly a dozen sizeable stability patches, the game still isn't in amazing shape. CDPR confirmed back in June that the game's performance is now "satisfactory" but, whether that's true or not, it'll be a long while before the once infallible studio manages to rebuild its reputation.

Sega and Microsoft announce cloud alliance

Earlier this week, Sega and Microsoft announced a new "strategic alliance" that will see the Japanese firm being able to develop games using Microsoft's own Azure cloud platform. The deal, which is apparently "agreed in principle," will see Sega create "large-scale, global games in a next-generation development environment built on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform."

• The deal will factor into Sega's longer term strategy and ambitions, and facilitate the creation of the intriguing "Super Game" they announced a wee while ago. This is seemingly a new initiative that will allow Sega to develop titles based on the company's four pillars of global, online, community, and IP utilisation. The overall purpose of the partnership being with Microsoft specifically is "to anticipate such trends as they accelerate further in future, the goal is to optimise development processes and continue to bring high-quality experiences to players using Azure cloud technologies.”

Amy Hennig confirms new Marvel partnership

Skydance New Media have announced a new partnership with Marvel Entertainment to develop a new, AAA, narrative-driven action adventure game set in the Marvel universe. The game will feature an entirely original story, and will constitute the first game from the new studio, formed recently by Uncharted creator Amy Hennig and EA veteran Julian Beak.

• Speaking in statement confirming the partnership, studio president Hennig said that she couldn't "imagine a better partner than Marvel for our first game" Jay Ong, EVP and head of Marvel Games, added that Hennig has been "setting the bar for narrative adventure games for decades," and that Skydance's  "ambition and vision for making innovative entertainment using beloved Marvel IP was obvious from our first meeting.” It'll be interesting to see what the two parties are cooking up, so watch this space.