Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Author: John Scalzo
Rockstar has shipped more than 75 million copies of GTA5 (and sold most of them)
Even though its been available for more than three years, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V is still selling like… [insert your own joke about prostitutes here].
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick delivered the good news during the company’s quarterly financial report yesterday, where he shared that the publisher has shipped more than 75 million copies of the game. It’s unknown exactly how many copies have been sold through to consumers, but it seems likely that fans have scooped up most of them, especially since The NPD Group certified that Grand Theft Auto V was the sixth-best-selling game of 2016.
In other Grand Theft Auto V news, Zelnick confirmed that Rockstar will continue to support the game’s “Grand Theft Auto Online” mode with additional content in 2017.
FIFA 18 will be “custom built” for Nintendo Switch by EA Canda
Representatives from Electronic Arts took the stage during Nintendo’s Switch Presentation last month to confirm that the FIFA franchise would make its debut on the company’s next console sometime this year.
Secrecy is nothing new for EA or Nintendo, but earlier this week, EA’s Peter Moore told Gamereactor that the FIFA team at EA Canada is hard at work on a “custom-built” version of FIFA 18, which should launch this Fall alongside the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game:
“Well, as we have said, we are custom-building a FIFA version for the Nintendo Switch,” Moore said of the game. “It will be FIFA 18, and it will obviously be later this year when FIFA 18 comes out.”
We also asked whether FIFA for Nintendo Switch would be a slimmed down version of the game we’re getting on PS4 and Xbox One, closer to the old-gen versions still being made for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Moore answered: “What you have will be a custom built version for the Nintendo Switch from the FIFA development team in Vancouver.”
The annual launch of the FIFA franchise typically takes place in late September, so prospective Switch owners should expect to see it on store shelves around then.
Double Fine releases new behind-the-scenes video for Psychonauts 2 as Starbreeze signs on as the publisher
Double Fine Productions has announced they’ll be teaming up with Starbreeze Studios to publish Psychonauts 2. In their role as publisher, Starbreeze Studios will provide additional financial support for Psychonauts 2, alongside the the funds already contributed by backers and investors on Fig, and Double Fine themselves.
To go along with this announcement, Tim Schafer and Project Lead Zak McClendon gave fans a look at an art test for “The Quarry,” an outdoorsy area that’ll serve as the headquarters for the Psychonauts in the game. Because Psychonauts 2 is still in pre-production, the exact layout and construction of “The Quarry” that you see in the video won’t be included in the final game. But this behind-the-scenes video should provide fans with a general idea of the direction the developer wants to take.
An even more in-depth progress report on Psychonauts 2 is currently available in the latest Fig update:
As we went through early discussions about what was important to Psychonauts, we kept coming back to the idea of open exploration and the cycle of curiosity and discovery that people loved in Whispering Rock — the childlike feeling of going off the beaten path and discovering hidden places for the first time. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to fully capture this with just the Psychonauts Headquarters, so we decided to expand our main hub to include a lot of surrounding wilderness full of mysterious new locations and, well, you’ll see later.
The Psychonauts HQ is now going to be nestled in a secret location meant to evoke the lush, damp forests of the Pacific Northwest. In addition to the high-tech spy HQ, you’ll be able to freely explore areas outside the base as well.
Psychonauts 2 is in development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and is expected to be released in Summer 2018.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Psychonauts 2
The Halo Wars 2 Launch Trailer is like every alien invasion movie rolled into one
Developers at 343 Industries love to refer to the Halo franchise as a Star Wars saga for a new generation. I’m not sure if the Master Chief and Cortana will ever be as well known as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, the development certainly knows how to put together a thrilling sci-fi action sequence. Case in point… the new Halo Wars 2 launch trailer.
If you’re not a scholar of Halo lore, don’t worry, Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb offered up a few more details about the trailer, and the real time strategy game’s many feature, on his eponymous blog:
After experiencing a pyrrhic victory following the events of the first Halo Wars, Captain Cutter and the brave crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire wake up after 28 years of cryosleep to discover themselves orbiting a familiar Forerunner construct; Halo 3 fans, you know what it is. After receiving a distress signal and sending down some Spartans to investigate, the crew meets Atriox – an incredibly dangerous Brute who is as intelligent as he is strong. He poses a grave threat to humanity, and it’s up to you to stop him and his Banished.
In addition to the robust campaign, Halo Wars 2 is packed with a full suite of multiplayer modes that are suited to players of all skill levels and familiarity with real time strategy (RTS). Build your base, assemble your army and battle for control of the map in Domination, test your strategies solo or with a friend against AI in Skirmish, fight to hold more bases than your opponent in a timed Strongholds match, duke it out until you’re the last one standing in Deathmatch, or jump straight into the action with the all-new deck building multiplayer experience, Blitz.
Halo Wars 2 will be available for the PC and Xbox One on February 21. As an Xbox Play Anywhere title, players who opt for the digital edition of the game will receive access to it on both platforms for no extra charge.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Halo Wars 2
SpellTower creator Zach Gage partners with Merriam-Webster for new word game
Mobile developer Zach Gage burst onto the scene in 2011 with SpellTower, a puzzle game that combined concepts from Tetris and Boggle into a new experience. After multiple updates, and an unlikely appearance in Stephen King’s End of Watch, SpellTower is still going strong on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.
Even though it was released almost six years, Gage announced last week that SpellTower will receive another major update on February 9. SpellTower’s upcoming update will add an improved dictionary powered by Merriam-Webster, along with Zen Mode (a mode “without those pesky length requirements”), online multiplayer, an update visual design, and a Super Tower mode exclusive to the iPad Pro 12″.
In addition to improving SpellTower, Gage also revealed (via Twitter) that his partnership with Merriam-Webster will include a brand new word game. The developer wasn’t willing to share any additional details on this mystery project, but hopefully we’ll learn more about it soon.
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged SpellTower, Typeshift
Side-scrolling shooter Graceful Explosion Machine is also in development for the Switch
I guess we missed this one a few weeks ago, but Vertex Pop has announced that Graceful Explosion Machine, their colorful side-scrolling shooter that earned a spot on our Best of PAX East 2016 list, is also in development for the Nintendo Switch.
Promising four unique weapons and a bevy of bad guys to blast, Graceful Explosion Machine will also be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in Spring 2017. A brand new trailer has been embedded above.
Tom Brady made Madden NFL 17’s Super Bowl LI prediction come true in spectacular fashion
After falling behind 21-3, things were looking grim for the New England Patriots last night in Super Bowl LI. However, you can’t count out quarterback Tom Brady, who rallied his team and tied the game 28-28 at the end of regulation. For the first time in history, the winner of the Super Bowl would be decided in sudden-death.
The annual Super Bowl prediction from EA Sports didn’t account for this unprecedented event, but when James White scored a touchdown for the Patriots early in overtime, the Madden NFL 17 simulation was proven correct once more. The final score wasn’t exactly the same (EA predicted a 27-24 win for New England) and Julian Edelman didn’t make a game-winning catch (though his receiving skills did help the Patriots send the game to overtime), but EA Sports correctly surmised that Brady would earn MVP honors for the fourth time.
With yet another correct prediction, Madden’s Super Bowl simulation has correctly picked the Super Bowl winner in ten out of the last 14 years.
Conan plays For Honor with Tom Brady, Dwight Freeney, and a severed head on a stick
As much as some people don’t want to admit it, Super Bowl Sunday is an American institution. The cultural behemoth has even birthed its own batch of spinoff traditions (Commercials! The Puppy Bowl! Clogged Pipes at Halftime!), but none is as enjoyable as Conan O’Brien’s annual trip to the Super Bowl for a football-themed episode of Clueless Gamer.
In “Clueless Gamer at the Super Bowl III,” Conan invited Erin Andrews to serve as the sideline reporter in an epic clash between New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Atlanta Falcons defensive end Dwight Freeney. The two athletes crossed swords in Ubisoft’s For Honor, and the button-mashing brawler was perfect for two guys who clearly don’t play a lot of games. Thankfully, Conan called up a few ringers and got Marshawn Lynch, Rob Gronkowski, and LeGarrette Blount to liven up the action.
So who won this battle of the titans? You’ll have to watch the video to find out, but I’m sure the similarities between For Honor’s “Knights Vs Vikings Vs Samurai” storyline and all the gladiator imagery from Any Given Sunday didn’t go unnoticed by Conan’s crew.
However, who wins the For Honor fight might be in for a disappointment because Conan’s Clueless Gamer has become something of a reverse-predictor of Super Bowl glory. In 2015, Lynch beat Gronkowski in Mortal Kombat X, but the Seahawks went home empty-handed from Super Bowl. A year later, Josh Norman of the Carolina Panthers out-Doomed Von Miller of the Denver Broncos, but it was Miller who won the MVP award and Super Bowl 50.
For Honor will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 14.