Daily Briefing: Tuesday 26th January

Warner Bros' Upcoming Titles Have A 'Heavy Focus' on Live Service

An advertisement for an intern opening at WB claims that their new projects have a heavy focus on live service. Hogwarts Legacy, Suicide Squad and Back 4 Blood are the likely candidates for a live service focus among their offerings, while Gotham Knights has been confirmed by developers to be designed not as a live service game.

• It's unsurprising to see a live service push from a publisher, but tying big-name IP like Hogwarts and Suicide Squad to live services is going to have us all worried. The big live service IP that comes to mind is Marvel's Avengers, and look how that turned out - an expensive flop, missing live service deadlines and generally being a lot of hype that went nowhere.

IO Interactive's 007 Aspirations

On the back of a (mostly) successful Hitman 3 launch, IO are seeking to expand significantly to meet the challenge of making a Bond universe. Not a game, but a universe - they previously hinted that they could 'easily imagine' a trilogy. Their director, speaking to Danish website DR, revealed he expects the studio to double in size from 200 to over 400 employees over the next few years.

• IO have been allowed to create an entirely new story and Bond, rather than relying on an existing Bond actor or movie tie-in. This is unprecedented for Bond games, and given IO's Hitman success, they're the perfect studio to do it.

343 Begin Monthly Halo Infinite Updates Next Week

After a no-show in 2020 due to criticism of revealed gameplay resulting in internal shakeups, Halo Infinite is the big one to watch out for this year - and rather than stay silent and work in the background, 343 are going to start updating us on a monthly basis, starting next week.

• A lot of people will be worried for Halo Infinite after seeing it last year, and the more 343 can show off that looks good until launch, the better it'll be for Halo hype. Let's just hope a 9-10 month delay is enough to make the necessary changes.

Star Wars Battlefront II's 19M Free Downloads

While free for a week on the Epic Games Store, Battlefront 2 was downloaded 19 million times. Servers were falling over, leading many to miss the community server feature from older Battlefield games, but this proves interest in the game is extremely high, despite its contentious, microtransaction-ridden launch.

• Despite the controversy, the game was overall received well. With Star Wars receiving new life under Lucasfilm Games' multiple rumoured projects, a Battlefront 3 or similar title is almost guaranteed with this kind of success.