Daily Briefing: Monday 28th June
Added 2021-06-28 13:01:05 +0000 UTCCD Projekt Red are now happy with Cyberpunk 2077's performance
The confirmation comes courtesy of studio CEO Adam Kiciński who, speaking during a recent conference, outlined that the game's performance has now reached a "satisfying" level following six months of patches and updates. Kiciński also suggested that the studio now feel comfortable allocating additional resources to other elements of the game - like dealing with system issues, player complaints, and pretty anything besides general performance issues.
- While the majority of CDPR's 600 staff will continue to work on Cyberpunk 2077 - across things like content updates and the upcoming next-gen consoles version - this feels very much like the studio drawing a line under the game's contentious launch. This act feels a touch short-sighted considering playing Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 is still officially "not recommended" by Sony following the game's long-awaited return to the PlayStation Store - more work is clearly needed by CDPR are keen to be done.
Overwatch 2 will have "compromises" on Nintendo Switch
Whether Overwatch 2 would be coming to Nintendo Switch at all was pretty unclear, but a recent Reddit AMA with the team went into a bit of detail on the game's more portable outing. When asked how the sequel's improved visuals and performance would translate to Nintendo Switch, the team replied that the Switch is a "little more challenging" than other hardware and, as such, "some compromises" will have to be made.
- Technical director John Lafleur outlined that this means some of the higher-end visual effects may not be there, but emphasised that the plan is currently to ensure that all gameplay features are functional and then "accentuate with additional features as much as possible." It'll be interesting to see if Overwatch's second Switch outing is any more solid than its first, which definitely struggled from the visually chaotic nature of a standard match. While talk of "compromises" may sound scary, if the team can get Overwatch 2 running properly on Switch, then a few fewer particle effects may be a worthy trade-off.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Director leaves Ubisoft
Veteran director Eric Baptizat has departed Ubisoft after 16 years with the company to join EA Motive - the studio that is heavily rumoured to be working on some sort of Dead Space franchise reboot. Baptizat was part of the team that did Ubisoft's own suite of reboot work on Assassin's Creed - he was the lead designer on Origins and game director for Valhalla.
- Baptizat's arrival at EA Motive is made more curious by the ongoing wave of (still entirely unsubstantiated) Dead Space reboot rumours - especially considering EA haven't confirmed what role Baptizat will have at his new studio. We'll likely find out soon enough, though, given that EA are set to hold an EA Play Live broadcast next month that should include an announcement for a new installment of an established IP. Will it be Dead Space? Or could it be something else entirely?
A Mass Effect movie or show will happen eventually
That's according to Mac Walters, who served as creative director across Mass Effect Andromeda and the Legendary Edition, as well as narrative lead on Mass Effect 2 and 3. He recently told Business Insider that developers BioWare had received a lot of interest regarding potential film or television adaptations. There was even a movie in development at Warner Bros. at one stage but nothing really came of it.
- The problem with getting an adaptation off the ground appears to be the actual scope of Mass Effect's world. Walters said that "it felt like we were always fighting the IP" and that the various teams involved weren't sure what kind of story they could tell in "90 to 120 minutes." Still, Walters believes that a full adaptation is "not a matter of if, but when," and there were a few hints around something like that recently. Henry Cavill appeared to tease a Mass Effect project recently - perhaps suggesting that he'll soon be playing with a laser gun as well as swinging a sword around as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix's The Witcher.