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)
Most Recent: Articles
Microsoft unveils first gameplay trailer of Scalebound at Gamescom 2015
Announced during last year’s E3 Expo, Microsoft has finally pulled back a scaly curtain and gave us our first look at Scalebound during their Gamescom 2015 Briefing.
In Scalebound, your dragon is your brother and you’ll be able to customize him in a variety of different ways. Here’s what the Xbox Wire had to say about the game’s story and it’s use of Platinum Games’s trademark action style:
In Scalebound, you will experience the journey of a young loner named Drew, who is pulled into the strange, beautiful, and dangerous world of Draconis – where he is bonded to a fearsome and noble dragon, Thuban, the last of his kind. These two lone-wolf heroes, thrown together by fate, must learn to fight as one to defeat the powerful enemies that threaten Draconis, Earth, and a vast universe of parallel worlds.
You’ll explore the beautiful and dangerous world of Draconis, as you and your dragon companion work to defeat legions of enemy soldiers and epic scale beasts. Scalebound’s accessible-yet-deep (and very stylish and over-the-top!) gameplay gives you the power to fluidly chain attacks with your dragon too, creating devastating combos to unleash upon your foes.
In development under the direction of Hideki Kamiya (Devil May Cry, Bayonetta), Scalebound will be released exclusively for the Xbox One in 2016.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Gamescom 2015, Scalebound
Quantum Break will perform its time travel magic on April 5, 2016
Remedy made their bones with Max Payne‘s “Bullet Time” mechanic, so it’s no surprise that they’re dipping back into temporal trickery with next year’s Quantum Break. During their Gamescom Briefing today, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One-exclusive will be released on April 5, 2016.
The publisher unveiled a brand new trailer for Quantum Break, which highlights a lot of the time-bending powers employed by the game’s main character, Jack Joyce. The trailer also serves as an introduction to the game’s star-studded cast, which features Shawn Ashmore (X-Men‘s Iceman) as Jack and Dominic Monaghan (Lost‘s Charlie) as his brother William. Other cast members include:
- Aidan Gillen as Paul Serene
- Lance Reddick as Martin Hatch
- Marshall Allman as Charlie Wincott
- Patrick Heusinger as Liam Burke
- Mimi Michaels as Fiona Miller
- Amelia Rose Blaire as Amy Ferraro
- Brooke Nevin as Emily Burke
- Courtney Hope as Beth Wilder
- Jacqueline Pinol as Sofia Amaral
- Jeannie Bolet as Kate Ogawa
- Sean Durrie as Nick Marsters
All of these actors will also play a role in Quantum Break’s companion live-action TV series, which will tell the game’s story from the villain’s perspective.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Gamescom 2015, Quantum Break
Video Game Release Calendar Changelog: Pre-Gamescom 2015 Update
Don’t Forget! This is just a changelog of recently announced release dates. Warp Zoned’s complete Video Game Release Calendar includes every title we could find that’s scheduled for release in 2015, 2016, 2017, or beyond.
The 2015 Gamescom expo is kicking off… right about now… in Germany, but first, we’ve got a quick rundown of some of the latest release date announcements from the world’s game publishers. Most companies have been using this lazy Summer to solidify their Fall 2015 calendar, but a few 2016 games have snuck in there as well (and a few have snuck into 2016).
Some of the biggest names that we’ve tracked in this edition of the Video Game Release Calendar Changelog include Disney Infinity: Star Wars on August 30, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 on September 29, and Rise of the Tomb Raider on November 10 (also, it’ll launch for the PC and PS4 in 2016).
Also announced in the weeks since E3 is Dragon Quest XI: In Search of the Departed Time. The next game in Square Enix’s long-running RPG series and the first game to officially be announced for Nintendo’s NX system doesn’t have a release date as of yet, and it may not even come to America. But it is, without a doubt, the biggest recent announcement. Unless the rest of Gamescom bowls us over, which it just might.
Even more new release dates from this edition of the Video Game Release Calendar Changelog can be found after the break. (more…)
Warpback: What We Played in July 2015
Can this lazy Summer get any lazier? Probably… but the Warp Zoned staff is keeping busy with their backlogs and playing a variety of games on their phones. Can’t you just feel the excitement in the air? Maybe you need to know exactly what we’re playing, and you can find that after the break. (more…)
Red Ash anime funded on Kickstarter as game falls well short
As expected, Comcept’s Kickstarter campaign for Red Ash: The Indelible Legend has failed to reach its goal. The project’s $519,999 total fell quite short of the developer’s $800,000 target. The campaign was poorly run from the start, banking on nostalgia for Mega Man Legends, Kenji Inafune’s name recognition, and the success of Mighty No. 9‘s campaign. That’s game recent which was stealth delay probably didn’t help.
However, Comcept also had a second Kickstarter campaign related to Red Ash in the works at the same time. Red Ash: Magicicada is an anime short film produced by Studio 4°C, and unlike the game’s campaign, the anime has been fully funded, surpassing its $150,000 goal. The production company is proud of Magicicada and call it “a fast-paced, entertaining film in which unique characters explore various stages.” The anime won’t be released until 2017, to coincide with the release of the Red Ash video game.
Red Ash, the game, will continue development with Chinese publisher Fuze holding the purse strings. However, coupled with the announcement of the Might No. 9 delay days before the end of Red Ash’s Kickstarter deadline, and Comcept announcing they secured a publisher well into funding, they’re going to have to do a lot to win back consumer trust.
Star Wars: Battlefront has captured the most nominations at 2015 Gamescom Awards
Germany’s Digital Gaming Culture Foundation (Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur) has announced the nominees for this year’s Gamescom Awards… and Star Wars: Battlefront has Force Pushed its way to the top of the pack. DICE’s shooter sequel was able to collection four nominations including “Best Console Game – PlayStation 4,” “Best PC Game,” “Best Action Game,” and “Best Online Multiplayer Game.”
Battlefront was able to move slightly ahead of the pack, as a small handful of games received three nominations apiece. Final Fantasy XV, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Super Mario Maker, Skylanders SuperChargers, and Guitar Hero Live are all up for three awards.
Even if you’re not one of the jury members for the Gamescom Awards, you can have an influence on the results. The general public can vote for any game on display at the expo for a Most Wanted Consumer Award using the Gamescom app.
The winners of this year’s Gamescom Awards will be announced on August 7. The full list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Dark Souls III, Final Fantasy XV, Forza Motorsport 6, Gamescom 2015, Guitar Hero Live, Lego Dimensions, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Pro Evolution Soccer 2016, Skylanders SuperChargers, Star Wars: Battlefront, Super Mario Maker, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, Unravel
Splatoon’s third North American Splatfest pits Hot Dog lovers against Marshmallow fans
In the tradition of history’s great fights — Rocky versus The Big Russian, Ali versus Frazier, Arnold versus The Predator — comes the next Nintendo-sponsored Splatoon Splatfest this weekend. The third North American event hopes to put to rest the great debate over Hot Dogs versus Marshmallows as the best thing to roast over an open fire. Previous bouts have settled Dogs and Roller Coasters as superior to Cats and Water Slides, respectively.
The next North American Splatfest runs for 24 hours and is scheduled to start on Saturday, August 8th at 12:00 AM (Eastern Time) and will end when the clock strikes midnight (Eastern Time) on August 9th.
Behind-the-scenes article paints Konami executives as Orwellian dictators
UPDATE: Nikkei has released an official English translation of the article.
Nikkei, a Japanese financial newspaper, recently published an article that delves into the struggles and horrible working conditions of employees at Konami. Basically, it is not pretty, and if anything, Hideo Kojima’s rumored departure can only be seen as a good thing.
The article is entirely in Japanese, and the website requires a subscription to fully access it, but volunteer translators have been working on the article and released some highlights this morning through NeoGAF. Additional translations are available at GamesIndustry.biz and Kotaku.
A number of anonymous employees spoke to Nikkei about life at Konami, describing a prison-like environment. Employees who are deemed “useless” are either sent to the assembly line to work on pachinko machines, or are reassigned to become security officers. Some are even forced to clean up the gym located in Konami’s headquarters. And this punishment isn’t just limited to low-level workers, producers and other prominent creators have also had this type of grunt work hoisted on them.
Lunch breaks are said to be regulated via time cards, and any employee who runs late is “outed” from the company. Konami’s employees are also said to be under heavy surveillance at all times. Even Solid Snake himself couldn’t dodge all the security cameras and punch clocks that line the company’s halls.
All these measures allegedly stem from the success Konami had with a mobile game known as Dragon Collection, which has made far more money and was much cheaper to develop than any console game the company produced in years. This news is certainly in line with Konami’s recent attitude, which has led to the cancellation of the majority of their console projects, including Silent Hills.
Nikkei’s report also states that, as of April 2015, Konami had spent $80 million on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Coupled with the publisher’s desire to move towards mobile games, this astronomical budget likely had something to do with Konami’s rift with Kojima.
Konami has already stated they plan on continuing with the Metal Gear series, as well as Pro Evolution Soccer, but beyond that, much of the company’s plans remain a mystery.