Daily Briefing: Friday 11th June

Elden Ring reappears, releases next year

Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest officially kicked off the E3 festivities last night and the undeniable highlight was a surprise appearance from Elden Ring. A new trailer showed actual gameplay for the very first time and closed with a release date - January 21st 2022 - we really couldn't have asked for more from the reveal.

• Seeing Elden Ring in action makes it look very much like an unofficial Dark Souls 4. Influences from all of FromSoftware's mainline titles are plain to see - environments are pure Dark Souls while the combat also incorporates elements of Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It even has Bloodborne's obsession with eyes except it's apparently with arms this time around. The game also supports 4-player online multiplayer and will receive a free upgrade on next-gen consoles.

CDPR quietly admit that data breach was more serious than originally thought

The studio suffered a cyber attack back in February that resulted in the loss of several pieces of source code and other unspecified "certain data." The source code has since appeared for auction online but last night CDPR also confirmed that the stolen information "may include current/former employee and contractor details."

• CDPR really chose their moment dropping this incredibly important piece of information while everyone was paying attention to Summer Game Fest - a decision that will do absolutely nothing to improve the studio's worsening public image. CDPR were unable/unwilling to confirm anything further than that, but you have to hope they're taking steps to contact those individuals whose information may have been compromised.

Nier Automata's 2B is headed to Fall Guys

The reveal was one of the silliest but most endearing to air during last night's Summer Game Fest Kickoff event. The outfit will be available to purchase on June 18th but we're still waiting on word of what it'll cost. 2B doesn't exactly fit in with the rest of Fall Guys' cast of elaborately dressed jelly beans, but even that is oddly endearing.

• News of the collab comes after Nier creator Yoko Taro voiced his desire to see Nier characters come to Fall Guys in a stream last year. Taro has also gone on record to say that his team would "gladly say yes to anything for money", so this may have been one of the most straightforward collaborations ever. A lot of folks were hoping for an update on Fall Guys' Xbox and Switch versions, but 2B will have to do for now.

Xbox could announce three new developer acquisitions during E3

That's according to journalist, insider, and scattershot leak merchant Jeff Grub who said on a recent podcast that he'd heard rumours of Microsoft pursuing three separate studio acquisitions. IO Interactive (Hitman), Crytek (Fay Cry, Crysis) and Avalanche Studios (Just Cause) are apparently all in the mix and Microsoft could be after any combination of the three.

• While there isn't any formal indication that these acquisition a) exist and b) will be announced at E3 - it would make a lot of sense. With all the moves they've been making lately all eyes are bound to be on Sunday's Xbox showcase and, with Microsoft previously confirming that they're still pursuing further acquisitions even after closing their $7.5bn purchase of Bethesda, more studio buys are certainly a possibility.