Daily Briefing: Friday 18th June

Xbox cloud streaming is finally headed to Xbox One

The news comes courtesy of the Xbox Wire portion of Xbox and Bethesda's E3 presentation, which revealed that xCloud gaming will enable next-generation gaming on the base Xbox One. The announcement comes just a couple days after Microsoft confirmed that they are in the "final stages" of transitioning their cloud data centres to Xbox Series X hardware - they'd relied on Xbox One S until now.

• This shift to Xbox Series X hardware will drastically improve load times, fidelity, and general performance. It'll also allow users to play Xbox Series X versions of games, which is certainly one way to mitigate the fact that Xbox Series X|S consoles are still pretty hard to find these days. Kind of odd that the Xbox One will be the last device to receive next-gen cloud support after mobile devices, tablets, and browsers.

Turns out Hellblade 2 isn't in full production yet

Ninja Theory just released a new video for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 that gives a bit of an update on its development, and essentially reveals that the game is nowhere near done. The studio are currently working on a "good chunky slice" of the game before moving into full production to "build out the rest."

• The reason for the tentative progress is apparently because the team didn't want to do a "straight sequel" but instead wanted to take the time to make "something extra special" with "extra real and brutal" combat. It's always good to see developers being able to take their time to work towards an end product they're genuinely happy with, but given that Hellbalde 2 was announced alongside the Xbox Series X in December 2019, you would have thought development would be a little further along.

Ubisoft Massive boss is stepping down

S internal memo sent to staff this week revealed that David Polfeldt, the managing director of Ubisoft Massive, will be taking a sabbatical from July 1st - and will return to Ubisoft sometime in 2022 in a new strategic role. Polfeldt's replacement will be take over in October, though won't be announced just yet to avoid conflicts with their current employer.

• Polfeldt has been with Massive Entertainment for the past 17 years and was managing director for 12 of those. During that time Massive grew from a small indie outfit based in Malmö, Sweden to one of Ubisoft's premier studios - overseeing franchises like The Division and upcoming new projects based on Avatar and Star Wars.

Elden Ring is "very difficult, but it can be handled"

The slightly worrying assertion comes from director Hidetaka Miyazaki himself who, in a new interview with Famitsu, revealed that Elden Ring is about as difficult as Dark Souls III - but gives players more ways to overcome its challenges. This means that, while Elden Ring still doesn't have traditional difficulty levels, players should be able to carefully craft their build to deal with anything.

• Elden Ring's customisation elements are much more expansive than in previous games - with new ways to alter your character, fighting style, and party. Weapon arts can be attached to multiple weapons rather than being locked to just one, meaning that players can mix and match their load-out to best suit their playstyle. There's also multiplayer - so you and a group of friends can take turns getting slapped by Miyazaki.