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
Weekly Warp-Up: E3 2016 Countdown Edition
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…
You know that the 2016 E3 Expo is right around the corner, because Microsoft just permanently lowered the price of all Xbox One bundles by $50 earlier this week. But the biggest news from the past seven days doesn’t have much of anything to do with E3.
Mojang announced that more than 100 million copies of Minecraft have been sold for the PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and mobile devices. This sales milestone also makes it one of the most popular games of all time.
Elsewhere on Warp Zoned this, I filed a hands-on report about Perception, Deep End’s upcoming first-person narrative horror game. And the Warp Zoned staff got together to discuss What We Played in May 2016 and The Games of June 2016.
More news from this past week can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Retail Releases: Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Kirby Planet Robobot, Odin Sphere HD, More
You’ve gotta have Faith in this week’s new retail releases, because the star of Mirror’s Edge is back.
Eight years after her first adventure, Faith is back in Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, a prequel/reboot for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Players will return to the city of Glass and use their first-person freerunning skills to climb skyscrapers and battle the oppressive government.
Another underdog is back on store shelves this week as Nintendo plans to release Kirby: Planet Robobot for the 3DS. Standing up to an alien invasion, Kirby will pilot a battle mech and blast his way through dozens of stages to take back Dream Land.
Also this week, Atlus and Vanillaware have teamed up to produce Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, an HD remake of 2007’s Odin Sphere, for the PS4, PS3, and Vita. The side-scrolling action RPG includes five playable characters and a unique take on Norse mythology.
Finally this week, Koei Tecmo will release Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, the 17th game in the Atelier series of RPGs, for the PS4, and Arc System Works will launch Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator, the latest game in the 2D fighting series, for the PS4 and PS3.
A few other games will also make their way onto store shelves this week, and you can find the complete list after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Kirby: Planet Robobot, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, Odin Sphere
Yacht Club reveals a short snippet from Shovel Knight’s King Knight add-on
Yacht Club Games launched the beefy “Plague of Shadows” expansion for Shovel Knight late last year, but they’re not done updating their 2013 debut. The developer is also in the midst of creating add-on campaigns for King Knight and Specter Knight, and the current plan is to release both by the end of the year.
There’s still no ETA on when the King Knight or Specter Knight campaigns will be completed, but Yacht Club recently released this quick glimpse at King Knight in action:
We're creating two new Shovel Knight campaign updates! Specter is cool and King Knight rules. Here he is in action! pic.twitter.com/tkIwxcA2Xy
— Yacht Club Games (@YachtClubGames) June 2, 2016
I love the regal flourishes that have been added to the status bar.
Ed Boon is teasing Injustice: Gods Among Us 2 on Twitter
With the release of Mortal Kombat X last year, NetherRealm Studios is likely planning something new for their new project. But that something new might be a return to the twisted alternate universe of Injustice: Gods Among Us.
For the last few days, Ed Boon, NetherRealm’s Creative Director, has been posting tweet after tweet (and four more after that) about DC’s superheroes. The developer also erased the Mortal Kombat Dragon from his profile picture and replaced it with a “II” symbol.
Boon has a reputation for playful antics on his Twitter feed, and this Injustice 2 tease could just be an elaborate hoax. But the 2016 E3 Expo is less than two weeks away, and it’s just as likely Boon is doing his part to stir up interest in the announcement as NetherRealm’s resident hype man.
Either way, we’ll probably learn more about NetherRealm’s next project soon.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2016, Injustice 2
Xbox Store Today: Dangerous Golf, Among the Sleep, APB Reloaded, more
The Xbox Games Store is getting dangerous today with the addition of Dangerous Golf, which is now available to download for the Xbox One. Dangerous Golf is the debut title from Three Fields Entertainment, a team comprised of a group of developers that broke away from Criterion, and players will live up to its name by using their putting skills to smash through obstacles in a wide variety of locales.
Danger also lurks around every corner in Among the Sleep, which is also now available to download for the Xbox One. Among the Sleep is a psychological horror game where players guide a toddler through an empty and unsettling house… but there’s no mommy to save you from this nightmare.
Finally this week, the the free-to-play APB Reloaded is ready to break the law on the Xbox One.
More information on all of these titles, as well as a few other new releases, can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Among the Sleep, Dangerous Golf
Vans releases their Nintendo-themed shoe and clothing line
As a plumber, Mario usually wears work shoes, but if you’re in the market for some athletic footwear, Vans and Nintendo have announced that their “Vans X Nintendo” collaboration is now available in stores and online.
More than just fancy sneakers, the “Vans X Nintendo” collection will also include Nintendo-themed t-shirts, backpacks, bags, socks, and hats.
The shoes and clothing from the “Vans X Nintendo” collection will feature 8-bit artwork from a quartet of classic titles (Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda), as well as apparel adorned with the iconic NES design.
Head over to Vans.com/Nintendo now to browse the entire collection.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Donkey Kong, Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda
Mafia III’s Collector’s Edition embraces the 60s by including a 2-LP vinyl soundtrack
Mafia III is getting a groovy Collector’s Edition this Fall that includes not one, but two, soundtrack albums on vinyl.
The first album features a small sampling of Mafia III’s full in-game soundtrack, but the inclusion of The Rolling Stones’s “Paint It Black,” Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower,” and The Animals’s “The House of the Rising Sun” is certainly representative of the decade. A complete track listing for the soundtrack can be found after the break. Meanwhile, the second album will present “the flavor” of Mafia III’s New Orleans-like setting to listeners with Jesse Harlin and Jim Bonney’s score.
But don’t worry, even if you’re not a vinyl aficionado, the Mafia III Collector’s Edition will include a large batch of goodies:
Mafia III Collector’s Edition
- Exclusive Two-LP Vinyl Soundtrack and Score Collection: One disc features some of the 60s’ greatest hit makers and the artists that inspired them – and this is just a small sampling of the 100-plus song in-game soundtrack. This eclectic mix of Rock, Rhythm and Blues, and Pop, all colliding against a backdrop of war, civil unrest, and sweeping social changes that defined the 1960s.
- Exclusive Collectible Art Prints: Two frame-worthy prints from Playboy and the Alberto Vargas Estate representing the vast collection of art for players to discover in-game.
- The Art of Mafia III Collectible Art Book: A 56-page book examining the creation of New Bordeaux, the new world fashioned after New Orleans in the summer of 1968.
- Lincoln Clay Replica Dog Tags: 1960’s US military issue replicas, these are the tags of a combat-hardened Vietnam vet fueled by the need for military-grade revenge against the Italian Mafia
- Faux Leather Establishment Drink Coasters: Take a break from your revenge spree with a drink – and park them on these coasters. They represent the Paradiso Casino and Sammy’s in-game criminal establishments.
Mafia III will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 7. (more…)
Minecraft continues its quest for world domination after selling 100 million copies
Two years ago, Microsoft spent $2.5 billion to acquire Mojang and all rights to Minecraft. I think it was a wise investment… as Mojang announced today that more than 100 million copies of Minecraft (106,859,714 to be exact) have been sold since the game’s original release.
According to a nifty infographic on Mojang’s blog, the mobile version of Minecraft appears to be the most popular around the world. But over on the game’s official website, we can see that exactly 23,540,997 have been sold for the PC. That leaves console editions for the PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One to pick up the rest of the slack.
All told, more than 40 million people play Minecraft at least once a month, and that number probably won’t slow down anytime soon… more than 53,000 copies of the game are still sold each and every month.