Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets 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
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
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
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.
Gran Turismo 7 might be released for PS4 next year
Gran Turismo 6 is barreling towards its December 6 release on the PS3, but Polyphony Digital’s Kazunori Yamauchi is already thinking about Gran Turismo 7.
Back in August, Yamauchi revealed that Polyphony was hard at work on the first GT game for the PS4, Gran Turismo 7, which would likely be a souped-up version of Gran Turismo 6. However, he cautioned that the next-gen conversion wouldn’t be released any time soon, as the development team planned to support Gran Turismo 6 with an extensive amount of post-release DLC. But after speaking with the guys from Top Gear, Yamauchi has confirmed that the “best-case scenario” for Gran Turismo 7’s PS4 debut is next year:
“We don’t want to take too long on Gran Turismo 7,” [Yamauchi] told us. “Best-case scenario? Next year. In GT6 we really had to tune the software 100 percent to maximise the PS3’s architecture, but of course the PS4’s hardware is much better, so I think the overall quality of the game across the board will be boosted when you come to play it.”
While it’s great that Yamauchi is quite keen on the franchise’s future on the PS4, it should be noted that Sony has yet to officially announce Gran Turismo 7.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Gran Turismo 7
XBL Store Today: Xbox One, XCOM: Enemy Within
The big day has finally arrived… the Xbox One is now available! To celebrate, Microsoft has opened the Xbox One section on the Xbox Live Game Store and stocked it with 23 launch games. The full “Day One” launch lineup includes:
- Angry Birds Star Wars
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- Battlefield 4
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Crimson Dragon (Download Only)
- Dead Rising 3
- FIFA 14
- Fighter Within
- Forza Motorsport 5
- Just Dance 2014
- Killer Instinct (Download Only)
- Lego Marvel Super Heroes
- LocoCycle (Download Only)
- Madden NFL 25
- NBA 2K14
- NBA Live 14
- Need For Speed: Rivals
- Powerstar Golf (Download Only)
- Ryse: Son of Rome
- Skylanders Swap Force
- Xbox Fitness (Download Only)
- Zoo Tycoon (Download Only)
- Zumba Fitness: World Party
And if you didn’t camp out all night for an Xbox One, 2K Games’ XCOM: Enemy Within was also added to the Xbox Live Game Store today. It is available to download from the Xbox 360 storefront.
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged XCOM: Enemy Within
Killer Instinct launch trailer reveals Fulgore
The launch of the Xbox One is just hours away and Microsoft has released a Killer Instinct launch trailer that unveils the game’s eighth (and final) character… Fulgore! The cyborg has long been the face of the Killer Instinct franchise and its great that we finally know for sure that he’ll be part of the reboot.
Killer Instinct will be available alongside the launch of the Xbox One as a free-to-play title. Initially, players will have access to a single character, Jago, with additional characters available for $4.99 each. Players can also purchase the “Combo Breaker Edition” (for $19.99) to obtain all eight playable characters or, if they also want an Xbox One-compatible download of the original arcade game, the “Ultra Edition” (for $39.99).
Only six of the first eight characters will be available to download tomorrow. Spinal, the living skeleton, will follow in January and Fulgore will be released in March.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Killer Instinct
EA’s Star Wars deal doesn’t include movie tie-in games
Electronic Arts wasted no time in tasking top men (“TOP. MEN.”) from DICE LA and Visceral to create two games in the Star Wars universe after signing a deal with Disney earlier this year. DICE LA is hard at work on a reboot of Star Wars: Battlefront while the subject of Visceral’s project is still a mystery. But now we know what it won’t be about.
Speaking at the UBS Global Technology Conference earlier this week, Blake Jorgensen, EA’s CFO, has confirmed that the publisher has no plans to release any games based on the upcoming Star Wars movies such as 2015’s Episode VII.
“We’ve done movie games over the years and we wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing a movie game, i.e., game based on the movie,” Jorgensen said.
He continued: “We have [a] team in DICE building some early stages of various games and building them in Frostbite, so it will be a very exciting gameplay and you’ll hear more about it in the years to come. And so, we’re excited and we think that it will be a great 2015 and 2016 when we’ll start to see the emergence of possibly the Star Wars titles along with the Star Wars movies that will start to come out in late calendar 2015 or fiscal 2016.”
Jorgensen also confirmed that EA’s deal with Disney will last for ten years and will include “games in many different genres across multiple types of platforms.”
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Visceral
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare will be released on February 18
Electronic Arts and PopCap Games have announced that Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare will be released for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 on February 18. A PC version will also be available “at a later date.”
Garden Warfare turns the popular tower defense series into a third-person shooter with three distinct modes: Garden & Graveyards, a 12v12 base-capturing mode; Team Vanquish, a 12v12 deathmatch mode; and Garden Ops, a four-player cooperative mode that tasks players with dispatching wave after wave of zombies.
If you plan on getting Garden Warfare for the Xbox One, you’ll open up two new modes including a cooperative splitscreen mode and Boss Mode, a mode that allows players to use their Kinect and/or SmartGlass device to drop health, intel, and airstrikes onto the battlefield.
“Gamers across the world have fallen in love with the Plants vs Zombies characters and now they’ll get to see them in an entirely new light, said Brian Lindley, Producer on Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. “Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare give the series’ fans and shooter players a fun, new experience that they’ll both enjoy as they blast, chomp and laugh their way through co-op and head-to-head online action.”
Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
Nintendo Download: Super Mario 3D World, Zelda: Link Between Worlds, more
The big is almost here! In fact, we’re just one day away! I refer, of course, to the launch of Super Mario 3D World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
What did you think I was talking about?
Anyway, new entries in Nintendo’s biggest franchises will be available in stores tomorrow and digital download versions will land on, respectively, the Wii U eShop and 3DS eShop at the same time. The two massive games will also be joined by Mario Party: Island Tour, the first Mario Party game for the 3DS.
If you’re looking for a new game that’s available today, Wii U owners will also get the chance to download Edge, retro-style platformer, and Coaster Crazy Deluxe, a new coaster sim from the creators of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3.
More information on all of these games (and almost a dozen more) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Mario Party: Island Tour, Super Mario 3D World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Logitech releases the PowerShell, the world’s first iOS 7 controller
Apple added native controller support to iOS devices in September, and now, the world’s first iOS 7 controller-style casing has been released by Logitech. The PowerShell has been priced at $99.99 and can be purchased through BestBuy.com and the Apple Store. Logitech will make the controller add-on available through additional retailers in December.
The PowerShell is compatible with the iPhone 5/5S and the iPod Touch 5th Generation and the controller includes a built-in battery, so players can play for as long as they’d like. Its analog D-Pad, two should triggers, and four face buttons should look very familiar to gamers everywhere and the PowerShell gives your iPhone/iPod a PSP-like look.
Currently, only a handful of iOS games support an iOS 7 controller. Thankfully, Logitech has compiled a list that you can find it right here.