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
Heart Machine will release Hyper Light Drifter on PC in 2015, consoles may slip to 2016
The good folks at ICXM‘s TIC Podcast recently got the chance to speak to Alex Preston of Heart Machine. The ensuing discussion got right to the heart of why everyone’s excited for Hyper Light Drifter, Preston’s retro-styled action RPG.
But Preston also delivered some bad news. Because of the game’s ambitious scope (backers obliterated Hyper Light Drifter’s $27,000 Kickstarter goal with $645,158 in pledges), it may not make it out in 2015 as originally planned. According to the interview, Preston still wants to release the PC version this year, but the console launch of Hyper Light Drifter will likely be pushed into 2016:
TIC Team: With so many games releasing this year, we know it can be hard to find a perfect time to release.
Alex Preston: We have not yet announced the release date. We have only said 2015 for PC first. Consoles take some time so, for example, Xbox One has a certification process that you have to go through. There are hundreds of things on that list you have to make sure are good to go on that system. It takes time. We’re a small team to do that. We want to get it out the door on PC first and we will give ourselves the correct amount of time after. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes it takes much longer depending on the certification process. It’s all about getting it on the platform as quickly as we can, but doing it the right way. That stuff can be really intense and expensive.
TIC Team: It sounds like we will see it on the Xbox One in 2016.
Alex Preston: It’s possible. We’re trying to get it all out as quickly as possible. We can’t rush the certification process. We don’t want to release a broken game. We don’t want to release a bad game. We’ll take the time that we need to. Those are the realities of it and those are the goals.
After its PC release, Hyper Light Drifter will ultimately be released for the PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One. However long the game’s development takes, it’ll probably be worth it. A closed beta was held last year for Kickstarter backers and we loved it.
Battlefield Hardline, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Jamestown+, more added to PS Store
Are you ready to play cops and robbers? I hope so, because EA’s Battlefield Hardline is now available to download through the PlayStation Store for the PS4 and PS3. Developed by Visceral Games, Hardline moves away from international conflicts and instead depicts the ongoing war between criminals and cops.
Also available this week is Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, an action RPG from Square Enix that is making its PS4 debut more than three years after it first appeared on the PSP. But in all that time it never made its way across the Pacific, so Final Fantasy fans definitely have something to celebrate. But those fans also have another reason to be happy about Type-0… it comes packaged with a playable demo of Final Fantasy XV.
Jamestown+, a PS4 shooter that takes place on a “17th-century steampunk Mars,” is this week’s Spring Fever selection. And over on the PS3, NIS America has added the roguelike RPG The Awakened Fate Ultimatum to the PS3 side of the PlayStation Store.
Finally, we have to talk about new entries from two episodic games. This week marks the end of Resident Evil Revelations 2‘s episodic release. Episode 4, Metamorphosis, is now available on the PS4 and PS3. But Telltale’s Tales From the Borderlands is still ramping up as Episode 2, Atlas Mugged, was also released for the PS4 and PS3.
More information about all of these games (as well as a few others) can be found after the break. And a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Joe Montana says Joe Montana Football 16 will use Unreal Engine 4
Joe Montana is still the only person talking about Joe Montana Football 16, but the game is looking more and more likely by the day. First announced in July, Montana followed that up with a tweet showcasing a few seconds of a Montana 16 motion capture session in October. Yesterday, Montana came back to Twitter to confirm that the game will use Unreal Engine 4, which definitely challenges the conventional thinking that this is just a mobile game:
It just got Unreal @unrealengine #joemontanafootball16 pic.twitter.com/yt0WivWFmO
— Joseph Montana (@JoeMontana) March 17, 2015
EA Sports’ exclusivity contract currently prevents any company from creating an NFL-licensed game for the PC or consoles. However, others have tried to take on the football juggernaut using retired (2K’s All-Pro Football 2K8) or fictional players (Midway’s Blitz: The League II and NaturalMotion’s Backbreaker). Perhaps Joe Montana Football 16 will be the one to finally be a hit with fans. Hopefully, we’ll find out soon.
Posted in News
Tagged Joe Montana Football 16
As expected, Sony files new trademark application for The Last Guardian
Sony refuses to give up on The Last Guardian. An “administrative error” forced the publisher to abandon the game’s trademark last month, but the US Patent and Trademark Office has confirmed that a new application for The Last Guardian was filed earlier this week.
Like the last time it happened, these trademark shenanigans don’t mean much for the future of The Last Guardian. The development difficulties experienced by Team Ico have been well documented and rumors of a PS3-to-PS4 conversion have been making the rounds for almost two years. So the status of the game’s trademark application is the least of Sony’s worries at this point.
All this news really tells us is that Sony wants to retain their trademark on The Last Guardian. At the very least, that’s a good sign for the game’s future as it indicates that Sony doesn’t want anyone else to make a claim on the name. But until Sony makes an official announcement about the game’s future, this is just another non-story in the eight-years-in-the-making saga that has been the development of The Last Guardian.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4
Tagged The Last Guardian
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions will double in size with free “Evolved” expansion
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is already the biggest Geometry Wars game by far, but it’s about to get a whole lot bigger. Sierra and Lucid Games have announced the game will receive a free expansion on March 31 that’ll add 40 Adventure Mode stages, a 20-stage Hardcore Mode that eliminates Drones and Supers, and an expanded Classic Mode. A new Drone (Sweeper), a new Super (Detonator), and improvements to the level progression system in Adventure Mode will also be added to the game.
The Evolved expansion will nearly double the amount of content currently available in Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions when it is released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One players.
Appropriately enough, the update will expand the game’s title to Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved after March 31 as new players will be able to purchase the expansion and the original game as a single download. Its $14.99 pricetag will remain the same.
Nintendo confirms development of the NX “dedicated game system”
Nintendo has had a very busy morning. As a coda to the announcement that they’ve partnered with DeNA to produce mobile games based on Nintendo characters, the company also confirmed it is not leaving consoles and handhelds in the past by announcing the “NX,” their next “dedicated game system.”
Details about the NX are currently pretty sparse. At this point, we don’t even know if it’ll be a handheld system, a home console, or some hybrid of the two. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata confirmed the NX’s existence during a press conference this morning (which is archived on Nintendo’s Investor Relations page) and said that Nintendo will talk more about the system, which uses a “brand-new concept,” next year:
As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename “NX.” It is too early to elaborate on the details of this project, but we hope to share more information with you next year.
The NX will also be built to take advantage of the new online membership service that DeNA will produce for Nintendo:
Nintendo, together with DeNA, will jointly develop a new membership service which encompasses the existing Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems, the new hardware system with a brand-new concept, NX, and smart devices and PCs, and Nintendo will be the primary party to operate this new membership service. Unlike the Club Nintendo membership service that Nintendo has been operating, the new membership service will include multiple devices and create a connection between Nintendo and each individual consumer regardless of the device the consumer uses. This membership will form one of the core elements of the new Nintendo platform that I just mentioned.
If you ignore the Virtual Boy (and everybody does), the NX would be Nintendo’s tenth platform, making its codename rather appropriate. Personally, I hope they keep it, it has a nice ring to it.
Nintendo partners with DeNA to produce mobile games and unified network
Nintendo and mobile devices have had a shaky relationship for years now. Investment analysts called out the company for ignoring the market (and thus, forgoing the giant piles of money they’d surely make from mobile games), while Nintendo executives reiterated that the time wasn’t right for a mobile move. I guess today’s the day as Nintendo has announced a partnership with Japanese developer DeNA to produce original mobile games based on existing Nintendo characters.
The word “original” is key here as DeNA and Nintendo will definitely not be producing mobile ports of existing 3DS and Wii U games. All Nintendo-branded mobile games will be built from the ground up exclusively for mobile devices and no characters will be off-limits. That means franchises as varied as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, Mario Kart, or even Pikmin could soon appear on your iPhone or Android device. Who knows, something as niche as Earthbound could even be on its way to an app store near you.
Leveraging the strength of Nintendo’s intellectual property (IP) and game development skills in combination with DeNA’s world-class expertise in mobile games, both companies will develop and operate new game apps based on Nintendo’s IP, including its iconic game characters, for smart devices. The alliance is intended to complement Nintendo’s dedicated video game systems business and extend Nintendo’s reach into the vast market of smart device users worldwide.
To support this move into the mobile market, Nintendo and DeNA will also collaborate on a unified online membership service that will accessible from mobile devices, PCs, the 3DS, and the Wii U. It’s unknown if this service will replace the existing Nintendo Network as details are currently scarce, but we know it will launch in Fall 2015.
Nintendo and DeNA will announce the first titles for their mobile initiative soon.
EA Sports confirms Rory McIlroy PGA Tour will tee off in June
After nearly a year without a title, EA Sports has announced that this year’s PGA Tour game will officially be known as Rory McIlroy PGA Tour. The game, which will star the top-ranked golfer in the world right now, will tee off for the PS4 and Xbox One in June.
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is being developed by EA Tiburon and will be the first EA Sports game to use the Frostbite engine popularized by the Battlefield franchise:
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour truly delivers “Golf Without Limits,” opening up the experience like never before. Gorgeous real-world courses and epic fantasy tracks provide players with not only the most realistic representations of their favorite locales, but the opportunity to explore brand-new locations. Full course loading offers limitless options when attacking the green and zero wait times when moving from one hole to the next. Experience the next generation of golf and play where you want, when you want, how you want.
According to EA, the use of Frostbite will also enable Rory McIlroy PGA Tour to process the entire course at once, eliminating load times between holes. Take that, Tiger Woods!
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Rory McIlroy PGA Tour