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
Daily Scoop: March 17, 2015 – Jamestown+ is out!
It’s a gorgeous day, both in terms of weather, and because Final Form released Jamestown+ on PlayStation 4 today! This is something wonderful to celebrate, and I can’t wait to enjoy the beautiful weather on the way home until I get there and download the game and play it all night. Oh, and maybe stop to get some takeout or something. All in all it’s shaping up to be an awesome night!
There’s a brand new bundle at Humble right now – the Humble PC & Android Bundle 12! Pay what you want for Tetrobot and Co, Titan Attacks!, The Inner World, and VVVVVV. Beat the average to get Costume Quest and Ironclad Tactics. Pay $10 or more to unlock Shadowrun Returns.
At Steam, the Midweek Madness is a big Cyberpunk Sale! Save on tons of games, like Mirror’s Edge ($4.99), Transistor ($6.79), and Deus Ex: Human Revolution ($3.99), among many others. There’s a new Daily Deal as well, which is Ship Simulator Extremes, on sale today for just $3.99.
There are a TON of t-shirts today, so I hope you’re ready! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop
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.
The PAXpocalypse List: The Best of PAX East 2015
Most of the big publishers chose to skip the 2015 edition of PAX East and even those that did attend (like Nintendo and Microsoft) kept their most anticipated projects home. But that didn’t stop a wide variety of indie developers from setting up shop in the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center to wow the assembled masses. These developers set the tone for this year’s expo, which featured a heavy focus on games that attempted to reinterpret classic gameplay concepts for a new generation of players. And the crazy thing is that many of the developers hyping these games looked like they would have been in diapers the first time I fired up an SNES.
It was a welcome sight with the rest of the industry pivoting away from those types of games and towards a competition to see who can push the most polygons. So if you were a fan of gaming in the NES, Super NES, and Genesis days, this PAXpocalypse List is for you. Because these are the games we would have played over and over again if some horrible snow storm had trapped us inside the convention center beyond the last day of the expo. (more…)
Posted in Features, Mobile, PC, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged 20XX, Axiom Verge, Extreme Exorcism, Gigantic, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Just Shapes and Beats, Knight Squad, PAX East 2015, Pit People, Rive, Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, Tabletop Games, Tumblestone, We Are Doomed
Daily Scoop: March 16, 2015 – Sick edition
Well, it seems all of the excitement has caught up with me. After launching a Kickstarter, exhibiting to PAX East, and then spending a full week working and talking, my laryngitis turned into a full-blown infection. I’m home today not talking at all and sipping tea with honey. We also finally set up the humidifier, which I’ve been napping next to. Hopefully this infection goes away quickly! I miss talking.
Let’s talk a bit about deals, shall we? There are quite a few new games on sale at the Humble Store this week. You can pick up TRI for $7.47, Zombie Kill of the Week – Reborn for $5.94, and get early access to Coffin Dodgers for $12.99.
At Steam, there are 125 new Weeklong Deals. Get Tabletop Simulator for $10.49, AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity for $4.99, and The Wonderful End of the World for $3.39. They’ve also got a new Daily Deal today, which is Magicite for $4.99.
How about some t-shirts? (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop