Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game 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
Unlock a Fire Emblem: Three Houses Theme during this weekend’s Tetris 99 Maximus Cup
Tetris 99 players take note… Nintendo has locked in a scheduled time and a new prize for this month’s Maximus Cup event.
To celebrate the recent release of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, players will get the chance to unlock a new Theme based on the game during this weekend’s event. According to Nintendo, the new Theme includes “background art, music, and Tetrimino designs all inspired by the latest Fire Emblem game.”
The sixth Maximus Cup will begin on Friday, August 23, at 3:00 AM (Eastern Time) and conclude on Tuesday, August 27, at 3:00 AM (Eastern Time). As always, players will need to earn 100 points during the event to unlock the new Theme, but Nintendo has decided to be a bit more generous this time around if you finish below 10th Place:
Points Table for Tetris 99 Maximus Cup
1st Place: 100
2nd Place: 50
3rd Place: 30
4th-10th Place: 20
11th–30th Place: 15
31st–50th Place: 10
51st–90th Place: 5
91st–99th Place: 1
Don’t forget, you must be a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber to compete in Tetris 99’s Maximus Cup events.
Mighty Madden NFL 20 was the best-selling game in July 2019
The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter) has delivered the analyst company’s report on the best-selling games from July 2019, and unsurprisingly, EA Sports’s Madden NFL 20 took the top spot.
A sales juggernaut for nearly three decades now, the latest entry in the Madden franchise was able to fend off a major offensive from Nintendo that included two new games and several holdovers from earlier this year. Fire Emblem: Three Houses topped Nintendo’s July output, coming in at #2. It was followed two spots later at #4 by fellow new release Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order. June’s Super Mario Maker 2 was sandwiched in between at #3.
Several other Nintendo-published titles populated the Top 20, including Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (#7), Mario Kart 8 (#9), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (#10), and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (#18). In addition to its software supremacy, the Nintendo Switch was also the best-selling console platform last month.
The entire game industry (hardware, software, and accessories) recorded $762 million in sales last month, a slight increase over July 2018’s total of $759 million.
You can find a full list of best-selling games from July 2019 after the break. (more…)
THQ Nordic announces 2 studio acquisitions, a new developer for Dead Island 2, and Saints Row 5 during a recent financial report
THQ Nordic CEO Lars Wingefors had a lot to share during his company’s most recent quarterly financial report, including a pair of new studio acquisitions, a new developer for Dead Island 2, and the existence of Saints Row 5.
The publisher already owns an extensive portfolio of internal developers, and it recently added two more to its stable: Gunfire Games (developer of Darksiders III) and Milestone (developer of racing titles such as MotoGP and Ride). According to THQ Nordic, Milestone has “five current games under development” while Gunfire is hard at work on Remnant: From the Ashes.
Wingefors also revealed that Dead Island 2 is still in the works within THQ Nordic, however it’s development is no longer being lead by Sump Digital. Instead, Dambuster Studios (the developer behind Homefront: The Revolution) has been assigned to work on the game. No release date was announced, so we’re probably still in for a long wait before we learn more about the sequel.
Finally, the executive confirmed that Volition has begun development on the fifth game in the Saints Row franchise. Again, it might be a while before we learn more about this one.
All told, Wingefors reported that THQ Nordic currently has 81 games in development, 47 of which have yet to announced.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Dead Island 2
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is in development exclusively for the Switch
Inin Games and Taito have announced that the Bubble Bobble franchise will be returning to store shelves for the first time in more than ten years. Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is currently in development at Taito and will be released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch in Europe on November 19. A North American launch will follow in Early 2020.
This new sequel retains the bubble-blasting battles of its predecessors, while also adding in four-player cooperative play for the first time:
One night, a child’s room became enfolded by a miraculous light and every object under its rays suddenly came to life… including the child’s most favourite toy, the little dragon called Bub. Full of jealousy, the wicked magician Baron Von Blubba challenges the friendly dragon to battle.
The adorable first trailer for Bubble Bobble 4 Friends has been embedded above.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Bubble Bobble 4 Friends
Need For Speed Heat heads down to the Miami-like Palm City on November 8
Electronic Arts and Ghost Games unveiled the latest addition to the Need For Speed franchise this morning… Need For Speed Heat.
Need For Speed Heat takes place in the sun-drenched Palm City, an open world locale where players will be able to participate in the Speedhunters Showdown competition during the day. But at night, they can stake their Rep (and their bankroll) on the streets in a series of illegal underground races.
Soak in the same neon vibes that you might find in Miami Vice and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City with the Reveal Trailer embedded above, and learn more about the game direct from the publisher:
Need For Speed Heat sends fans to Palm City, a brand-new open world where street racers have gathered to make their names known. By day, players compete in the Speedhunters Showdown, a sanctioned competition where they earn Bank to customize and upgrade their garage of high-performance cars. At night, players risk it all to build their Rep in underground races where a rogue police task force roams the streets, ready to take racers down and swipe all their earnings. The roads, the risks, and the rides never end in this street racer where a player can roll deep with their crew, build their garage full of hot cars, and make the city their nonstop playground.
“We’re delivering more options than ever before for players to be unique and make themselves known,” said Riley Cooper, the Creative Director at Ghost Games. “Our fans have been clear that they want more cars, more customization, and more challenges, and we’re tuning up on every aspect. From your character’s style to your car’s performance and your driving style, we’re fuelling everyone’s creativity with this new game.”
Electronic Arts will offer up an extensive Gameplay Reveal for Need For Speed Heat during the Geoff Keighley-hosted Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 19. Fans not in attendance at this year’s Gamescom will be able to tune in to a livestream of the reveal through their favorite streaming platform.
Need For Speed Heat will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November 8.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Gamescom 2019
New trailer introduces Threaks’s top-down shooter Battle Planet: Judgement Day
Threaks is hard at work on a twin-stick shooter known as Battle Planet: Judgement Day, and the developer shared a closer look at the game today in a new trailer. Similar to Geometry Wars 3, Battle Planet: Judgement Day drops players down onto small planetoids and asks them to survive against a seemingly neverending alien force:
Your goal in Battle Planet: Judgement Day is simple: survive! Touch down on planets infested with deadly aliens intent on cutting your life short and blast your way around its rotating surface, taking out anything in your path quickly… or suffer a devastating demise. Team up with comrades-in-arms for some local-co-op split-screen action to make fast work of foes. Finish all the planets in a star system and jump to another with ever-more deadly foes. Lucky for you, your ship receives a steady stream of upgrades, making it more devastating and durable.
Battle Planet: Judgement Day will be released for the PC this September, with a PS4 and Switch launch to follow sometime this Fall.
Nintendo will add Vice: Project Doom and Kung-Fu Heroes to Nintendo Switch Online collection on August 21
Nintendo is dipping into the more obscure corners of the NES library for the next update to the Nintendo Switch Online collection.
According to the consolemaker, subscribers will be able to download Vice: Project Doom (a platformer/driving hybrid from Sammy) and Kung-Fu Heroes (a beat ’em up from Culture Brain) beginning on August 21:
Vice: Project Doom – There exists a group of undercover detectives who dare stand up to the evil in the world… They are known as Vice. Officer Quinn Hart, a member of Vice, is on the case and after the truth. High-speed car chases, action-packed battles employing three types of weapons and a mode with three 3D rail-shooting stages all bring this cyberpunk world to life.
Kung-Fu Heroes – Monsters have taken Princess Min-Min and the ten treasures of the land, and the people have fallen into sorrow. Only Kung-Fu Masters Jacky and Lee can save the princess and retrieve the treasures! Their journey will take them to eight different castles filled with hosts of traps and obstacles. Use punches and the Miracle Kick to defeat the enemies. You will need quick wits and lightning reflexes to make it to the last castle!
A new trailer featuring clips from both games has been embedded above.
2K is adding all 12 WNBA teams to NBA 2K20
2K Games has announced that all 12 teams from the WNBA will suit up in the NBA 2K franchise for the first time this year in NBA 2K20. WNBA matchups will be available in Play Now and Season modes, and players will be able to experience “gameplay animations, play styles, and visuals built exclusively around the women’s game.”
“Growing up, I always remembered watching male athletes on TV and playing as them in video games. Now, to have the WNBA be in the position we are and to have women featured prominently in NBA 2K20, we are allowing young girls and boys to have female athletes as role models,” said Candace Parker, a player for the Los Angeles Sparks. “The 2K team has done an amazing job of making sure to not just put women into the game playing men’s basketball, but I’ve seen first-hand the hard work they’re doing to make this as real and authentic as possible to women’s basketball. I’m proud to be a part of this team paving the way for the future.”
“For years, fans have requested the ability to play as some of their favorite WNBA stars,” said Jeff Thomas, the Senior Vice President of Development at Visual Concepts. “We’ve been working with the WNBA and their top players to modify our basketball simulation engine to replicate the WNBA on-court experience. We’re excited to roll out this new feature in NBA 2K20 because we know how important the WNBA is to the world of basketball.”
NBA 2K20 is currently in development for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, and it’ll be released on September 6. The first trailer for the game featuring WNBA players has been embedded above.