Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- 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”
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Author: John Scalzo
Metanet will launch N++ on PS4 in next few months
Metanet’s Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns recently sat down with GamesIndustry International to discuss N++, their upcoming ninja-steals-gold platformer for the PS4. While N++ missed the PS4’s launch, they had a lot to talk about.
Firstly, the developers revealed that N++ made the jump to the PS4 because of Sony’s willingness to help finance the game through their Pub Fund program. N+ originally appeared on the Xbox Live Arcade in 2008 and the duo said that if anyone at Microsoft had offered up a similar deal, they would have considered taking N++ to the Xbox One.
Sheppard and Burns also confirmed that N++ should arrive on the PS4 sometime in the next few months. They’re hopeful for a December release, but admit that “early next year” could be a possibility.
Persona 5 will arrive on PS3 in Winter 2014 (in Japan)
Our long wait is both over and just beginning… Atlus has announced that Persona 5 will be released in Japan next Winter exclusively for the PS3. The US release date is currently unknown, but will surely be announced soon.
Aside from the short teaser trailer above, Atlus is being very quiet about Persona 5. We know that it will be directed by Katsura Hashino with art direction by Shigenori Soejima and a soundtrack composed by Shoji Meguro, but that’s about it.
Lego The Hobbit announced for Spring 2014 release
You didn’t think WB Games and TT Games were going to stop making Lego games did you? The publisher and developer announced the latest Lego adaptation, Lego The Hobbit, today. Based on the first two movies in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, the game will is in development for the 3DS, PC (and Mac), PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
In Lego The Hobbit, players will go on a quest with Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the Grey, Thorin Oakenshield, and many others as they travel to the Dwarven Kingdom of Erebor. Those many others will include all of the Dwarves (Thorin, Fíli, Kíli, Óin, Glóin, Dwalin, Balin Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori and Ori), each of which has their own special ability.
“We are thrilled to depict the characters and environments of Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth in Lego form with the Lego The Hobbit video game,” said Tom Stone, Managing Director, TT Games. “Our family-friendly take on these thrilling adventures will have kids and parents playing and laughing together as they build and explore in Lego Middle-Earth.”
Lego The Hobbit will be released Spring 2014, probably just in time for Blu-ray/DVD release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Weekly Warp-Up: We Now Live in a Next-Gen World
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…
It is November 24 and the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One are both available in stores. Or at least, they have the capacity to be available in stores as both systems are currently sold out. Both Sony and Microsoft have confirmed that their respective next-generation console sold more than one million units.
Hmm, the next generation. With all three “next-generation” systems now available can we start calling this the “current generation” again? Probably not. Especially since the two companies will continue to support the PS3 and Xbox 360 for the foreseeable future. Next-gen, current-gen, whatever. Google made a Doctor Who Doodle yesterday!
Read on for more news from the last seven days. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Ys: Memories of Celceta, Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, Air Conflicts: Vietnam
The new consoles have launched and the Fall gaming avalanche is over, but here’s a quartet of new games that publishers are pushing out in the days before Black Friday:
- The long-running Ys series gets a new entry as XSEED plans to release Ys: Memories of Celceta for the Vita.
- Demonic first person shooter Painkiller: Hell & Damnation comes to the PS3 courtesy of Nordic Games.
And Air Conflicts: Vietnam will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 by Kalypso Media.
See you next week!
Posted in News, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360
Tagged Painkiller Hell & Damnation
Play this timey-wimey Google Doodle game to celebrate 50th anniversary of Doctor Who
We’re just a few minutes away from the worldwide debut of “The Day of the Doctor,” the 50th Anniversary special celebrating Doctor Who, everyone’s favorite two-hearted alien with the delightful British accent. The Doctor’s longevity has also earned him a place in an interactive Google Doodle that is now available on Google’s homepage. The Doodle takes the form of an isometric platform game that allows players to choose their Doctor (choices include David Tennant and ten other guys) and reclaim the letters in “Google” from the Daleks.
After today, the Doodle will be added to the Google Doodle archive soon and “The Day of the Doctor” begins in… checks watch… 18 minutes!
Xbox One sells more than 1 million consoles on launch day
After their cordial congratulations messages through Twitter last week, Sony and Microsoft have gone right back to competing for the hearts and minds of gamers everywhere. After Sony announced that they sold more than one million PS4 consoles in the US and Canada on November 15, Microsoft has done the same, confirming that the Xbox One is a sellout across the globe. The Xbox One launched in 13 countries yesterday and Microsoft announced that more than one million Xbox One consoles were purchased in less than 24 hours. Take that Sony!
“We are humbled and grateful for the excitement of Xbox fans around the world,” said Yusuf Mehdi, the Xbox Division’s Corporate Vice President of Marketing and Strategy. “Seeing thousands of excited fans lined up to get their Xbox One and their love for gaming was truly a special moment for everyone on the Xbox team. We are working hard to create more Xbox One consoles and look forward to fulfilling holiday gift wishes this season.”
If they haven’t already, I’m sure Sony will point out that their million-selling launch required only two countries. To which Microsoft will surely reiterate that it took Sony a whole day to sell more than a million consoles while the Xbox One did it in about 20 hours.
We done? Good. Prepare yourself for at least another ten years of this.
John Carmack leaves id Software
The “Master of Doom” himself, John Carmack, has left id Software. Studio Director Tim Willits announced that Carmack and the studio he helped found in 1991 have parted ways. In a statement to GamesIndustry International, Willits revealed that the split was due to Carmack’s desire to expand his duties as Oculus VR’s Chief Technology Officer:
“John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio. John’s work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete, and his departure will not affect any current projects. We are fortunate to have a brilliant group of programmers at id who worked with John and will carry on id’s tradition of making great games with cutting-edge technology. As colleagues of John for many years, we wish him well.”
Carmack’s tenure at id (alongside co-founders John Romero, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack [curiously, no relation]) was chronicled in the amazing book Masters of Doom. 2010’s Rage will be the final id Software title to carry Carmack’s stamp. It is widely assumed the developer is currently working on Doom 4, but Quake V may also be in the works.