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
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.
Kickstart This! The Pre-Christmas Whopper Edition
It’s that time of year again…. When everyone gets anxious about having enough money to afford Christmas presents and keep the heating on… When Z-list celebrities are invited to flick a switch and cast sparkly lights on towns and cities across the globe… When pine trees shudder in fear and reindeer wonder why there are hundreds of cameras pointing at them. But it need not be so glum and terrifying. In the run-up to what has become a period of immense profit for companies, yet an unnecessary burden on the growing number of Scrooges in the world (myself included), it is important to keep everything in check, and offer help to those who need it. Buy gloves for the homeless. Invite your lonely neighbour around for a cup of egg nog or mulled wine. And if you are still in the spirit to bring good tidings, check out the latest Kickstarter game campaigns that need your support.
We have a whopping seven projects to share this month, including the super cute P.A.W.S. – Prime Alien Watch Squad, oddball survival game Dyscourse, the eccentric steampunk detective adventure The Dead Flowers Case, and 2D turn based monster shooter MODUS. Halfway through, things get a little more intense with a throwback to 80s action films in Bullet Bros, tactical FPS assassin title Lonewolf, and finally, the beautifully rendered isometric sci-fi adventure Stasis.
Let’s jingle those bells. (more…)
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