🎮 Xbox closes more studios, Hades 2 first impressions, Switch 2...
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Hello friends,
Today is May 9th 2024 and I hope you’ve had a great week 🙌
In today’s news:
🎮 Xbox closes more studios
🎮 Hades 2 was worth the wait
🎮 Assassin’s Creed: Red gameplay reveal is almost here
🎮 Nintendo is planning to reveal Switch 2
🎮 Dragon Age: Dreadwolf to be released by March 2025
🎮 Arena Breakout: Infinite closed beta gameplay
All of this is brought to you in a 5 min format ⏲️
Let’s dig in!
🎮 Xbox closes more studios
This is from IGN. They received a copy of the email from Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios saying that a number of studios from Bethesda and ZeniMax umbrellas will be closed effective immediately.
The studios in question are:
Arkane Austin - Dishonored series, Prey, Redfall and it was rumoured that they were working on Marvel’s Blade game
Tango Gameworks - Hi-Fi Rush, The Evil Within series
Alpha Dog Games - Wraithborne (action RPG for mobile)
Roundhouse Games - prev. Human Head Studios (creators of Rune 2)
All these studios will either be absorbed by a different studio inside Xbox’s portfolio or will be shut down completely. Press F to our laid-off fellow professionals 🫡
The main reasons (at least according to the email) are “reprioritization of titles and resources” and to focus on “high-impact” games.
Personally, I think it’s just another case of corporate mismanagement and an example of when people, who have no idea what an entertainment/cultural industry is, are given the reigns to make decisions. Even when we talk about Redfall, I don’t think that the failure of the game was quite up to the devs. But what do I know, right?
🎮 Hades 2 was worth the wait
This a good example of a proper sequel (so far). Kotaku reports that the series' player count for the second instalment already surpasses its predecessor.
In terms of the actual numbers, an all-time high for Hades is 37,749 (when the game’s 1.0 version was released) concurrent players. With Hades 2 being Early Access and all, within 24 hours of the launch, it reached around 80,000 players and this number continues to climb. Wow!
Even from the initial reactions, it’s already clear that the devs managed to preserve everything that made this game so great and added a lot of interesting mechanics, interactions and systems on top of that. Which is something you don’t see every day. I’m excited just thinking about it. Unfortunately, I’ll need to wait some more before I can start actually enjoying the game, but it’s ok. Seems like the game is not going anywhere in the foreseeable future 🙌
🎮 Assassin’s Creed: Red gameplay reveal is almost here
Insider Gaming reports that a source inside Ubisoft has confirmed that the gameplay will be revealed, and an informational blockade will be lifted from this title at this year’s Ubisoft Forward (June 10).
For those of you who don’t know, Red will be set in a feudal Japan with reportedly male and female protagonists. Also, with this instalment, the series will be moving to one unified engine named the ‘Anvil Pipeline’, which will allow development between games to run more smoothly.
So, I’m guessing more AC games should be expected in the foreseeable future, provided the engine will prove itself useful and without major hitches.
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🎮 Nintendo is planning to reveal Switch 2
Straight from Insider Gaming, the President of Nintendo, Shuntaro Furukawa, shared an update on one of the most talked about topics this year on X:
“This is Furukawa, the president of Nintendo. We will be announcing the successor to the Switch during this fiscal year for the first time in nine years since we announced the existence of the Nintendo Switch in March 2015. We will also be holding a Nintendo Direct in June to announce the Switch software lineup for the second half of 2024, but this will not include the successor model. Please do not misunderstand.”
One note though, Nintendo, along with a lot of companies, are following a fiscal year that’s different from a calendar one (from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025). So, any day now 😆
🎮 Dragon Age: Dreadwolf to be released by March 2025
This is the news that I’ve been waiting for years. Eurogamer reports that the latest game in the Dragon Age franchise is planned to be revealed somewhere this year (probably summer) and the game is scheduled to be released before the fiscal year is through (Arp-2024 to Mar-2025).
After all the years of leaks, unconfirmed rumours and teasers, I can’t believe there is a light on the horizon. I know that Bioware and EA in particular had their own share of problems and failed games. But I’ve been a huge fan of Bioware games for years and I can’t wait for this project to see the light of day.
Fun fact how big of a fan I am: I have my whole arm dedicated to Dragon Age 😅. It’s been a really long journey of making it and it doesn’t look as good as it once used to, but here’s the proof:
🎮 Arena Breakout: Infinite closed beta gameplay
Another exciting news, this time about a multiplayer extraction shooter that I’m looking forward to playing.
Arena Breakout PC port just went into closed beta testing, but the gameplay looks exactly the same as it was on the mobile version of the game. This is a good thing. The only concern I have so far is the size of the map. There was quite enough space on the mobile version (even more than enough on some maps), so I’m hoping that they will maintain the same proportions for the PC release.
Also, it seems like they are either adding more stuff or I just haven’t played this game in a while. I’ve never seen thermal goggles in the mobile version, but I bet that they would be expensive as hell.
This is all the news I have for you folks today.
Thanks for making it this far! 🙌
If you are enjoying the journey, you might as well subscribe to start getting all of this goodness right to your mailbox ✉️
Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay.
Wow, that tattoo! I'm fan of the series as well, especially the Origins. I wonder what Dreadwolf will be like... I try not to get my hopes up.
Apparently, Microsoft wants to be the next EA...