🎮 Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 release, Space Marine 2 and PS5 Pro Teaser...
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7 is finally here, Space Marine 2 already has more than 100,000 players, Very subtle tease of PS 5 in the 30th Anniversary image, Another Emracer Studio faces layoffs and more!
Hello friends,
Today is September 10th 2024 and I hope you’ve had a great week 🙌
In today’s news:
🎮 Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7 is finally here
🎮 Space Marine 2 already has more than 100,000 players
🎮 Very subtle tease of PS 5 Pro in the 30th Anniversary image
🎮 Another Emracer Studio is facing layoffs
⚡ Lightning Round!
🫡 True Tribute!
😄 Personal Update
All of this is brought to you in a 5 min format ⏲️
Let’s dig in!
🎮 Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7 is finally here
Last week we finally got the chance to play the last major update to one of the most awarded games in history.
If you haven’t played it yet, I definitely recommend it, as besides the official mod support that includes the toolkit and the in-game interface, it also brings:
13 new cinematics that offer varying conclusions to your most evil playthroughs
New Honor mode legendary actions for bosses
A lot of UI improvements
Bug fixes and QoL
And more!
As you know, I couldn’t wait to play and it’s finally the time to get back to it and accumulate another 300 hours 😅 But I have to be honest, the new modding interface is very janky and requires a lot of patience. Not all the mods have found their way to Larian’s tool and it’s really hard to find what you are looking for (unless you are looking for Smooth Shadowheart mod). They even have a mod now to fix the modding interface 🤣 Seriously though, it’s the best time to get back out there and try playing as an evil character. For a person like myself, it’s definitely a challenge by itself as I never make evil choices if I can help it.
🎮 Space Marine 2 already has more than 100,000 players
Even before the game was out, the player base for it was already substantial. According to SteamDB, Space Marine’s 2 peak online so far is 134,302. Which in turn skyrocketed it to the number one top-selling game on Steam.
In comparison, World War Z, one of the titles developed by Saber Interactive that has similar swarm mechanics, classes and so on, managed to get an all-time peak of 6,714 players 😅
I have to say, these numbers are already impressive. But I’m probably going to wait a bit till all this excitement dies down and the game goes on sale in a couple of months. The initial price is a little higher than I expected, not to mention all the gold and ultra editions. But as one of the 6,714 people who played World War Z, I’m a big fan of this genre, plus I played the first Space Marine back in the day. So, I can’t wait to see what kinds of surprises Saber Interactive prepared here!
🎮 Very subtle tease of PS 5 Pro in the 30th Anniversary image
A few days ago Sony announced a few months of celebration to mark the 30th anniversary of the PS1 release. From September to January 2025 PlayStation players will be able to enjoy a number of events and releases, including the launch of Astro Bot and more.
But, as Insider Gaming noticed, there’s something more to the image that Sony released to mark this historic event. It’s very subtle and you can only notice that if you know what you are looking for. From the image below, you can see the PlayStation 5 Pro in the middle, with the standard PlayStation 5 (the revised/latest version) to the right.
So far there’s no official release date for the new console, but multiple sources already said it’s probably going to market in 2024 and one of the sources specifically mentioned November.
I can’t say I’m looking forward to it just because I’m spending so much time with my PC these days, but I remember the time when PS4 Pro saved me from complete boredom during Covid and now is saving my siblings who are getting acquainted with video games on it. But very subtle tease of the design, extremely subtle 😅
Are you looking forward to this new console?
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🎮 Another Emracer Studio is facing layoffs
Unfortunately, another sad news has surfaced this week and it’s again about Embracer-owned studio, Lost Boys Interactive.
Just last week the company announced via LinkedIn:
Lost Boys Interactive has made the very difficult decision to reduce our overall headcount in accordance with local laws and consultation processes. As a remote first company, this impacts employees across several states.
We are committed to supporting our affected staff in finding new positions as quickly as possible. Additionally, Lost Boys will collaborate with other studios and recruiters to help connect them with job opportunities.
As a co-development partner studio, Lost Boys is directly influenced by the projects and priorities of our development clients. The need to adapt to shifting market conditions within the video game industry has required us to reassess our operations to align with the evolving needs of our business and our partners.
As of right now, there’s no information as to how many people were impacted by this event, but if a company makes an announcement like that, it’s probably not just a few people.
Every time I hear an announcement like that, it sucks. So far, almost 12,000 people have been impacted by layoffs in 2024. And considering that we still a lot of time before the year is through, I expect this number, unfortunately, to grow… Press F for Lost Boys.
⚡ Lightning Round!
1…2…3…Go!
📱 Balatro is going mobile
The infamous poker roguelike is making its way to to iOS, Apple Arcade, and Android on September 26th. This would probably be a good time to try it out 😅
🎮 Roblox CEO announced some ambitious goals
During the Roblox Development Conference, David Baszucki (CEO) announced some of the goals for the company that one might say are just mildly ambitious: one billion daily active users, and 10% of all gaming content revenue worldwide happening within Roblox. Some perspective, currently the game has around 79.5 million daily active users and the population of the entire planet is around 8 billion people… I mean, good luck guys, but don’t you think it’s too ambitious?
🎮 Bungie are not done with Destiny 2
Bungie has posted a roadmap outlining some ambitious expansion plans for Destiny 2 that includes 2 major expansions all the way to the Spring of 2026. Game Director of the game also had to say this on the matter:
We recognize that it has become too rigid. Expansions have started to feel too formulaic and are over too quickly with little replay value. Seasons and Episodes keep getting bigger but can still feel like you are just going through the motions.
We believe it’s time for Destiny to change and evolve, and that our community wants this game to grow and innovate too. And to do that, we need to start breaking some of the molds.
🫡 True Tribute!
Today I wanted to salute
and the recent post about one of my favorite cartoons!I laughed so hard from this ranking that I’ve decided to rewatch the whole thing. Also, there is a lot other content on
, so you should definitely check it out!😄 Personal Update
It’s Baldur’s Gate time for me and my party 🎉
This weekend we spent a ridiculous amount of time browsing through the mod manager and trying to find the best items to fit our playstyle. We even have a new addition to our group that forced us to find ways to make our Honour run harder. I also had a painful reminder of why I hate the first 5 levels of Cleric (goddamned Sacred Flame) 😅
Also, it was quite a long weekend as I had to do a lot of work-related stuff since our project is approaching the end of another stage of development and I had to go through a ton of documentation to make sure that everything is in order. So, feeling overall very productive.
And the last thing. I wanted to say Thank You to everyone who wants to be a part of the community that I’m trying to organize. I never expected such positive feedback and in the following weeks, this venture is probably going to be the main one for me. I’ll keep you posted on any updates 😉
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the link to the Sunday’s post:
This is all the news I have for you folks today.
Thanks for making it this far! 🙌
If you feel like supporting me and my work, consider Powering-Up GameDev Relay 🎮
Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay.
And the Embracer debt fallout continues. There should be laws against such poor management.
Is the patch for BG3 only on PC? I've been playing on the PS. I don't mind playing this game forever hahaha.