No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
Ding dong! The witch is dead! Which old witch? The Bubble Witch! Look at that, it even scans correctly! King, the developer behind Candy Crush Saga has given up their crusade to trademark the word “Candy.” While I’d love to celebrate, the mobile game behemoth is still attempting to put a stranglehold on the word “Saga” (which is used in all of their other games such as Bubble Witch Saga and Pet Rescue Saga). Playing Tetris until you see the shapes in your dreams is worthy of the word “Saga,” matching three peppermints is not.
Also this week, UK Correspondent Andrew Rainnie has rooted out another group of crowdfunding projects that show some promise in the latest edition of Kickstart This! And Nicole Kline has reviewed the latest Borderlands tie-in novel, Borderlands: Gunsight. Spoiler alert, it stinks!
We’ve got more news from the week that was after the break.
New Game Announcements
- Atlus will bring Shin Megami Tensei, which has never been available before in North America, to the iOS App Store in March.
- Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition will be released for the PS4 on March 4.
- Anomaly 2 is in development for the PS4.
- Deus Ex: The Fall will be released on the PC in March.
- Threaks has confirmed that Beatbuddy will be released for consoles and tablets soon.
- Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes will let you defuse bombs with an Oculus Rift.
- Atlus will release Persona 5 (and three other Persona games) in North America over the next two years.
- Activision is working on a new Tony Hawk game. And it’s probably going to be exclusive to mobile devices.
- Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate – Deluxe Edition descends on the PC, PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360 on April 1.
More News
- Microsoft and 343 Industries have make kind of Halo-related announcement at E3 2014.
- The first expansion for Outlast, “The Whistleblower,” will be released in April.
- Sony Santa Monica has laid off about 50 developers and canceled an unannounced game.
- Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes will include special DLC for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
- Microsoft has added 65 new developers to their ID@Xbox program.
- The Walking Dead Season 2: A House Divided will be released on March 4.
- Trials Fusion will be released on April 16.
- The Batman: Arkham Origins expnansion “Cold, Cold Heart” will be available on April 22.
- Microsoft will add Twitch streaming to the Xbox One on March 11.
- Dean Hall, the man behind DayZ, will leave Bohemia Interactive and form his own studio by the end of the year.
- The six games that will be included in the PAX East 2014 Indie Showcase have been selected.
- Due to a component shortage, Oculus VR will temporarily suspend production of their Oculus Rift headset.
- Octodad: Dadliest Catch will be released for the PS4 in April and an Xbox One version might be in the works.
- Someone is making a first person version of The Legend of Zelda for the Oculus Rift. Sure, why not?
- 3D Realms sold the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise four years ago. So Gearbox (the current rights holder) isn’t happy that they teamed up with Interceptor to release Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction.
- An Xbox One/TitanFall console bundle will be released on March 11.
New Videos
- Deep Down – Latest Trailer
- Dark Souls II – “Hollow Lullaby”
New Release Round-Up
- Retail Releases: Thief, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, and more
- Nintendo Download: Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy and more
- PlayStation Store: Thief, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, and more
- XBL Store (Wednesday): Thief, Castlevania: Lord of Shadows 2, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, Pac-Man Museum
- Next Week’s Retail Releases: South Park: The Stick of Truth
Gaming Etc.
- Warner Bros. is making a Minecraft movie. That’s neat, but how?
- Sony is turning Console Wars, a book based on the Nintendo vs Sega battle, into a movie.
- Cryptozoic will release Portal: The Board Game this Summer.
- Harold Ramis died this week and, though he had only a slight connection to the game industry, we remember one of Hollywood’s greatest comic minds.