Black Panther is an open-world, Possibility Space closure, Slay the Spire II....
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Hello friends,
Today is April 16th 2024 and I hope you’ve had a great week. It seems like it’s the second time in a row I’m adding movie news to the newsletter 😅. But I hope you can forgive me 🙏
In today’s news:
New details about EA’s Black Panther game
Possibility Space shuts down because of an internal leak
Slay the Spire II announcement
Dead Space 2 shelving is not true according to EA
Marvel sheds some light on Captain America: Brave New World
Fallout “suffering” from a surge of active players
All of this is brought to you in a 5 min format ⏲️
Let’s dig in!
🎮 EA’s Black Panther will be an open-world
Insider Gaming recently discovered through a job posing for the team at Cliffhanger Studios. It is asking for a Principal Sandbox Designer with a focus on:
Dynamic and evolving open-world
Mechanics that contribute to a rich, sandbox environment
Contribute to a living, breathing game world
Considering that the game is being developed with a Shadow of Mordor / Shadow of War veteran at its helm, it all sounds very promising. A rich open world in a Marvel setting? Sign me in!
I hope this world won’t suffer like some recent games and you won’t need to pay to travel the map.
Would you like to explore an open-world Wakanda as Black Panther?
🎮 A studio formed by State of Decay creator shuts down
A lot of news outlets (like Kotaku) are reporting that Possibility Space tragically closed before even shipping their first game. Jeff Strain founded this studio and then dismissed all employees in one day after an internal leak.
Honestly, his email is a bit heartbreaking. It’s the first time I actually sympathise with a corporate figure for the first time. You should read the whole email.
TL;DR:
Seems like several employees leaked to Kotaku reporter some confidential information including “non-public information about Project Vonnegut, disclosure of our publishing partner with details of our business and financial relationship, and details of internal P&L discussions and confidential all-company meetings”. Their publisher expressed major concerns and backed out from the project. Jeff decided to close the studio, leave game dev and focus on his family.
I guess some people didn’t read non-disclosure agreements. Which is sad, considering the consequences. And the “funny” thing is that the people who leaked this information effectively are without a job too. Karma is a b**ch. But a lot of people who did nothing wrong have to suffer for no good reason.
Kind of sad, don’t you think?
🎮 Slay The Spire II Announced
Following the news from Game Informer, last week Mega Crit Studios announced Slay The Spire II. A sequel to a very popular roguelike deckbuilder.
They also shared a reveal trailer as well as the plans for releasing the game. As many other games, it will be in Early Access and it’s going to hit it in 2025.
If it’s going to be something like the first game, it’s going to spend some time in Early Access while the devs are polishing the game, collecting feedback and making it as amazing as possible. With the first instalment, it took around 2 years till the final release. Which is ok, because the result was worth it.
The game and genre are quite praised and received wonderful reviews from both critics and players. IGN named it the Best Strategy Game of 2019, by that time it accumulated about 2 million copies sold and it’s one of the best roguelikes that has ever been developed.
I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to it!
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🎮 Dead Space 2 is not dead at all (according to EA)
Game Informer was closely following the story about Dead Space 2 and last week they shared that EA reached out to IGN to deny the rumours about the project being shelved due to mediocre sales of Dead Space Remake.
This project looks like a bit of a rollercoaster so far. Of course, it’s all due to numerous speculations and a veil of secrecy around it. EA are not known for their openness and people started reading between the lines, trying to find anything to support their beliefs one way or the other.
As EA tactfully put it: "We don't normally comment on rumours but there is no validity to this story."
I think it’s good news. The franchise has a lot of potential either as a game or even a TV Series / Movie. Honestly, if it were a little bit more popular, we would’ve had something live-action a long time ago. But at least they are working in the right direction.
The first remake was rocky at first, but eventually, people got around to it and I hope that the initial reception won’t get them discourage from pursuing it further.
🎬 Marvel shares some details about Captain America: Brave New World
Now, before you do anything, I’m not going to spoil the movie. I just wanted to mention that recently there was a screening of the movie and an interview with Anthony Mackie as the new Captain America.
I’ve been following the story on Game Spot and he shared several interesting facts about the first big Marvel movie of 2025:
This movie will be the opportunity for Sam to really establish himself as a true action star
This is going to be more of a grounded espionage action movie as opposed to aliens and magic
This movie is a clear reset. It really reestablishes the idea of what this universe is and what this universe is going to be
I honestly don’t know how to react. Clearly, Marvel has been taking it on the chin since the end of Infinity Saga. It had some successes with TV series like Loki and even Wanda / Vision. But IMHO, the majority of movies that came after Endgame are less than satisfactory (and for Madame Web's case, a complete and utter disaster).
Anthony Mackie is a great actor and I enjoy his movies, but it’s almost never up to the actors to determine how the movie is going to turn up. But I miss the times when I was excited about going to the movie and seeing amazing superheroes on screen.
I hope they are ready to turn the tide with new movies.
🎬 Fallout games are getting a surge of new players
Understandably, the Fallout series is all the rage right now. That confirms the article on Insider Gaming, claiming that player count got boosted by 200%.
Everybody already saying that the series is great and it’s a major success. But I’ve never been a huge fan of the franchise or Bethesda’s games in general. Not because of the premise, but because of gameplay mechanics.
Some numbers from Steam:
Fallout 4: 43,000 peak from 18,000
Fallout 76: 19,161 peak from 10,000
And now that the series blew up, it’s quite hard not to spoil everything. Youtube has been flooded with the scenes from the series. So, if you haven’t seen it, stay away from this platform.
Have you already seen the new series? Is it worth it?
This is all the news I have for you folks today.
Thanks for making it this far! 🙌
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Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay.
On Fallout. Steam is also hosting an FPS sale right now where the Fallout games are heavily discounted.
I haven't watched the Fallout show, but I still want to return to Fallout 4. Marketing done well, I guess....