Activision Blizzard employees respond to handling of harassment suit
A group of Blizzard employees have penned an open letter criticising the company's "abhorrent and insulting" response to the ongoing sexual harassment suit. The letter, which has since amassed nearly 2,000 signatures from current and former Blizzard employees, calls on the studio leadership to "recognise the seriousness of these allegations and demonstrate compassion for victims of harassment and assault."
Halo Infinite's first playable preview could happen real soon
Developers 343 Industries recently confirmed that "hundreds of thousands" of players who register for the currently-live Halo Insiders programme will net an invite to the game's upcoming technical test - which could happen as soon as next weekend. According to their official development update, this first technical test will focus on the game's new Bot Arena mode that pits four players against four AI-controlled opponents.<...
2021-07-26 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Dead Space really is getting that remake
Following on from a spate of rumours over the past few weeks, EA Motive's remake of the 2008 sci-fi horror classic was officially announced during yesterday's EA Play Live showcase. We unfortunately didn't get a release date, though it was confirmed that the remake is next-gen specific - meaning PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S only. This hopefully means that it'll be a full bells and whistles remake, which is nice.
- According ...
2021-07-23 13:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Activision Blizzard sued for harassment by the state of California
The lawsuit was filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing this week following a two-year investigation into allegations of harassment, bullying, and unfair pay at Activision Blizzard. The lawsuit alleges that female employees (who make up around 20% of staff at Activision Blizzard) are regularly subjected to discrimination.
- The allegations presented in the lawsuit make for some incre...
2021-07-22 13:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Netflix confirm expansion into games
Following a spate of rumours to the effect last week, Netflix confirmed via their latest financial results that the company is "in the early stages" of developing a games offering. The expansion will apparently build on the foundation laid by earlier dalliances with games like Stranger Things and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Netflix also confirmed that, at least in the beginning, their gaming offering will be mainly centred around mobile games. Subs...
2021-07-21 13:01:05 +0000 UTC
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We're all a bit focused on Shadowlands, but back on Azeroth...
There's a huge list of world-ending (and beyond) weapons: Bioweapons, nukes, cannons, and more, all waiting to be utilised by bad actors or the Alliance or Horde military.
John put a bunch of time and effort into this video, so let us know what you think about our Blender-made scenes and animations. Would you like to see more?
2021-07-20 14:02:46 +0000 UTC
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Ubisoft's new Tom Clancy game is really colourful
Tom Clancy's XDefiant was revealed yesterday as a "high-octane" 6v6 arena shooter where "fast-paced firefights meet punk-rock moshpit." Despite surely being one of the most bizarre descriptions ever for a Tom Clancy game, XDefiant promises a mixture of realistic gunplay and special abilities split across different factions. These factions are inspired by other Tom Clancy titles - so you have Echelon, Outcasts, Cleaners, and Wolves.
...
2021-07-20 13:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Nintendo deny plans for further Switch models
Rumours of another upcoming upgrade to the base Nintendo Switch have been knocking around since the OLED model was announced a few weeks back. The prevailing belief among those disappointed by the lack of a full Switch Pro is that the OLED model is a sort of stopgap update, with a more pronounced one set to arrive on down the line. Nintendo may have just quashed those dreams, however, with confirmation that they "have no plans for launchin...
2021-07-19 13:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Valve reveal the Steam Deck
Following a spate of rumours in May, Valve have officially announced the Steam Deck - a portable gaming PC with a similar form factor to the Nintendo Switch. Set to release sometime this holiday period, the Steam Deck comes in three models with varying amounts of internal storage - the 65GB model costs $399, the 256GB model costs $529, and the 512GB costs $649. All three models support expandable storage via a Micro SD card, while the two more expensive mod...
2021-07-16 13:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Battlefield 2042 cross-play and cross-progression detailed
In a new official blog publisher earlier this week, developers DICE went into some detail on two of the Battlefield franchise's most requested features. DICE confirmed that both cross-play and cross-progression are features that they're "looking to build and test for Battlefield 2042." They also stated that they actually delayed a planned technical test from earlier in the month to "later this summer" in order to facilitate te...
2021-07-15 13:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Ghostwire: Tokyo delayed into next year
Confirmation came earlier this week via the game's official Twitter account. A statement from developer Tango Gameworks reads that, while they want players to be able to "experience the unforgettable version of a haunted Tokyo" present in the game, they also want to protect the health of everyone at the studio and polish things up as much as possible.
- Ghostwire: Tokyo was originally slated to release towards the end of this year, but...
2021-07-14 13:01:04 +0000 UTC
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Hideo Kojima isn't a fan of Sony's Director's Cut branding
The upcoming Death Stranding Director's Cut was a pretty interesting announcement to come out Summer Game Fest, but it turns out creator Hideo Kojima isn't too pleased with the title. In a series of tweets, Kojima very publicly voiced his displeasure at the insinuation that his vision was compromised for the original Death Stranding, and reiterated that the additional content for the Director's Cut is all newly-developed conte...
2021-07-13 13:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Witcher 3 next-gen update detailed
New information on the upcoming next-generation upgrade came courtesy from this weekend's WitcherCon. Developers CD Projekt Red reiterated that the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S version of the 2015 epic will release later this year - though we're still waiting on a concrete date - and it'll be a free upgrade for existing owners of the last-gen version.
- One of the stranger pieces of information to come out of the convention was news that the upg...
2021-07-12 13:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Suda51 and Swery65 are still working on that horror game...kind of
Goichi Suda and Hidetaka Suehiro (just in case you didn't know their real names) announced back in 2019 that they wanted to make a horror game Hotel Barcelona. They also mentioned that they wanted Devolver Digital to publish it, something Devolver had no prior knowledge of but were keen to hear the pitch at the very least.
- We haven't heard anything about the game since that "announcement", but Suda recently...
2021-07-09 13:00:08 +0000 UTC
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A live-service Assassin's Creed game is in the works
Ubisoft this week released a blog detailing a very intriguing future for the Assassin's Creed franchise. Rather than focusing on one specific time period, the currently-codenamed Assassin's Creed Infinity will act as a live-service title, offering an ever-expanding and evolving game world.
- Not a whole lot of additional information is known about the project, save for the fact that it's still a good few years away. It'll ...
2021-07-08 13:01:04 +0000 UTC
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Codemasters' CEO and CFO depart following EA buyout
EA confirmed this week that CEO Frank Sagnier and CFO Rashid Varachia are set to leave Codemasters at the end of the month. The pair leaving a full four months after EA's acquisition of the racing giant was finalised is a little curious, though EA's statement confirming the departures emphasised that they had "always been part of the plan", though the timeframes were walked up a little due to the speed of Codemasters' integration int...
2021-07-07 13:01:04 +0000 UTC
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This time, we talk about.... time!
The Bronze, the Infinite, Chromie, all of WoD, Elisande. Time is a difficult one to wrap your head around, but I think we managed to do a decent job!
Not to spoil the episode, but.... we come to some pretty strong realisations for how the future of the WoW story could unravel in a way that could tick every cosmic box and STILL stay relevant to Azeroth and us. Time's the key!
Thanks for the suggestion, everyone, it was a lot of fun!
2021-07-07 11:35:43 +0000 UTC
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New Switch system update makes juggling system storage a little easier
The recently released version 12.1.0 update lets players free up space to install new patches by first removing existing data from the game. This means that if a player wants to install a patch but their Switch storage is full, they can simply opt to jettison unneeded data rather than messing around with uninstalls.
- Aside from that, there isn't a whole lot going on in version 12.1.0. The rest of the upd...
2021-07-06 13:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Hey hey!
Here's the sweet loot that Jess & the art team have cooked up for this month. 'tis cozy!
2021-07-05 21:18:10 +0000 UTC
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https://www.notion.so/bellular/Research-c7d2281edf91419ea57a9a8fcbc0b049
We have a video guide scheduled for Tuesday on the BG channel - everything you need to do in the first week of season 2 of Shadowlands.
To make that video possible, Dackor did a lot of research and put together a doc for Michael to use when writing.
And like the last one... it was really good...
2021-07-05 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Doom Eternal's Invasion mode is no more, long live Horde mode instead
id Software's executive producer Marty Stratton confirmed over the weekend that Doom Eternal's Invasion mode, where players would sneakily invade other players' campaigns as demons, has been officially shelved. Instead, id will focus their efforts on a new Horde mode as well as giving Doom Eternal's existing Battlemode a bit of a revamp.
- Stratton attributes this change in direction to a combination of pa...
2021-07-05 13:01:04 +0000 UTC
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Hideo Kojima x Xbox collab reportedly takes another step forward
Rumours pointing to a collaborative project between Xbox and Kojima have been swirling around since April, and this week VentureBeat reported that Kojima has signed a letter of intent confirming that his studio will work alongside Microsoft on a new Xbox game. The supposed deal still isn't finalised, but it's reportedly so far along that Microsoft have already begun "preparing for what Kojima will need" to make the game....
2021-07-02 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to General Chat episode 2! This is technically the third, but the second one just wasn't good enough for you guys - our bad!
In this ep, we talk about Michael playing Survival Hunter, class design stuff, the launch of 9.1, Blizzard hiring a new associate game director to help Ion out... and a bit more! As an example, I completely understood how to enjoy World of Warcraft. It's a bit like Sailor Moon S.
Thanks for your support everyone - see you next week for an episode o...
2021-07-02 11:12:04 +0000 UTC
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Blizzard show off more Diablo IV details
A new blog post published earlier this week sees the game's art director, lead character artist, and associate art director go into some much-requested detail on the game's classes and enemies. The content on display is reportedly "pretty polished" and "a good representation" of the final product - which makes it the best look we've had at the game so far.
- The team showed off some new armour and items, and also outlined some o...
2021-07-01 14:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Remedy's Control is getting a spin-off and a sequel
Remedy this week announced plans to partner with publisher 505 Games on a number of additional Control-related projects. One is a co-op multiplayer shooter of all things, while the other is a "bigger budget Control game" that is intended to "further expand the Control franchise." So that's a lot of Control on the way.
- Control's world was a complex and intriguing one that was begging for additional exploration, so news of ...
2021-06-30 13:01:05 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone! As we've said a few times, we have a new full-time member of staff: Dackor.
He joined on a full-time basis so that he could lead our 9.1 content, and he has done a stellar job. He created a document that contains EVERYTHING that editors and writers needed to understand and create our content, and it's expansive.
So we figured.... Why not give it to you guys? Wowhead does an exceptional job, but sometimes a bit of simplicity and a table of contents is a lot mor...
2021-06-29 19:13:06 +0000 UTC
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Smash Bros. Ultimate's next DLC fighter is definitely its last
During the recent showcase for new fighter Kazuya Mishima, Smash Bros. game director Masahiro Sakurai reiterated that development work on the game will conclude once the next DLC character releases. Kazuya (of Tekken fame) is the fifth of the six fighters that make up Smash Bros. Ultimate's second DLC Fighters Pass.
- Sakurai is a tired man. Speaking during the showcase he outlined that, while gathering all these...
2021-06-29 13:01:04 +0000 UTC
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Here it is! An episode of Losing Our Marbles! General Chat 2 out tomorrow, and Lorewalking 3 soon after.
This episode is about our soft Patreon relaunch has went, the new hires, how 9.1 prep is going and even some talk about marketing a game at the end - including when our game will be revealed to the world, and why it's going to be a bit later on. tl;dr great stuff on all fronts!
Thanks for your support - we hope a look behind the curtain is enjoyable for you guys. If you have ...
2021-06-28 22:36:57 +0000 UTC
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CD 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 beside...
2021-06-28 13:01:05 +0000 UTC
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Pokémon GO fans aren't happy about a reversed pandemic change
Last year Niantic made a number of changes to Pokémon GO to make it still possible to play in the middle of a pandemic. These included extended Incense duration and new features like Remote Raids - but one of the most useful pandemic-era changes was the ability to interact with Pokéstops and Gyms from further away. Sadly, Niantic have announced plans to reverse this specific change starting sometime next month.
