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Take-Two executives discuss big sales for GTA5 and Red Dead 2 while looking ahead to 2019 lineup

Posted on May 14, 2019 by John Scalzo

Take-Two Interactive delivered another celebratory quarterly financial report last night as the publisher’s latest releases have proven very popular with players.

Leading the charge is Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2. More than 24 million copies of the game have been shipped to stores since its launch last October. Take-Two executives also revealed that they’ve shipped more than nine million copies of NBA 2K19 in a similar timeframe.

But the most surprising reveal from yesterday’s report might be the news that Take-Two shipped more than ten million copies of Grand Theft Auto V during the quarter, bringing its lifetime total to 110 million copies after six years on the market.

While the company was happy with their retail performance in 2018, they’re also looking ahead to 2019 with gusto.

According to CEO Strauss Zelnick, 2K Games has already committed to launching NBA 2K20 and WWE 2K20 this Fall:

Also this Fall, 2K will launch new installments of our highly successful annual sports franchises with the releases of NBA 2K20 and WWE 2K20. As always, the development teams behind these games are hard at work to deliver our trademark array of exciting new features and innovations that keep players coming back year after year. 2K will have more to share about these titles in the coming months.

Zelnick later confirmed that Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds and Patrice Desilets’s Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One sometime this year through their Private Division label:

Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the Outer Worlds marks the reunion of Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the original creators of Fallout, who are introducing an entirely new single player sci-fi RPG experience. The Outer Worlds will be showcased behind closed doors at E3 to select media and influencers, and more details about the game will be revealed over time. Last month, Private Division hosted press events for Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, where attendees got to play the game and meet its creators at Panache Digital Games, including the studio’s co-founder, Patrice Desilets, who was the original creative director of Assassin’s Creed.

More information about Take-Two Interactive’s full lineup for 2019 (including the previously-announced Borderlands 3) will be announced at this year’s E3 Expo in June.

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Nightdive’s Blood re-release is now available for the PC through Steam, GOG, Humble Store, and Discord

Posted on May 9, 2019 by John Scalzo

There were a lot of strange shooters released throughout the 1990s in the wake of Doom, but Monolith Productions’s Blood definitely qualifies as one of the strangest. Originally released in 1997, the game allowed players to take control of an undead gunslinger who does battle with an army of demons and monsters. And at one point, he even takes down the decaying denizens of Hell with a voodoo doll.

Today, publisher Atari and developer Nightdive Studios brought Blood back with an updated re-release for the PC known as Blood: Fresh Supply…

Originally released in 1997, Blood is a First-Person Shooter that helped redefine the genre and introduced many elements now accepted as commonplace. In the original and the updated Blood: Fresh Supply, players jump into the boots of undead gunslinger Caleb as he seeks revenge against the dark god Chernobog. Caleb’s arsenal features a mix of standard and occult weaponry, which he uses to devastating and gore-filled effect. In the game, players visit a terrifying world populated by hordes of bloodthirsty fiends – including cultists, gargoyles, zombies, hellhounds, and an unholy host of other terrors.

The Fresh Supply re-release includes the original game, as well as both expansions (Cryptic Passage and The Plasma Pak), and it’s now available to download through Steam, GOG, the Humble Store, and Discord. Fans will be able to play through the game once more with enhanced visuals (including support for 4K monitors), controller support, completely rewritten netcode for up to eight players, and a new 3D View option.

Blood: Fresh Supply is priced at $9.99 and its Launch Trailer has been embedded above.

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Bithell Games announces the “fight-choreographed chess” of John Wick Hex

Posted on May 8, 2019 by John Scalzo

John Wick will return to theaters on May 17th in the highly-anticipated John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, but Keanu Reeves’s third most-popular character is also thinking of coming back to the world of video games in the not-too-distant future as well.

Mike Bithell, the creator of Thomas Was Alone and Subsurface Circular, will bring John Wick Hex to the PC/Mac (exclusively via the Epic Games Store) and consoles. No release date was announced, but the developer describes the game as “fight-choreographed chess,” and players will need to tap into their strategic side if they hope to survive each encounter:

Created in close cooperation with the creative teams behind the films, John Wick Hex is fight-choreographed chess brought to life as a video game, capturing the series’ signature gun fu style while expanding its story universe. Players must choose every action and attack they make, while considering their immediate cost and consequences. Every move in John Wick Hex feels like a scene from the movies, and every fight contributes to your progress on the job and requires precise strategic thinking.

Perform well and progress in the main story mode (which features an original story created for the game) to unlock new weapons, suit options, and locations. Each weapon changes up the tactics you’ll use and the manner in which you’ll play. Ammo is finite and realistically simulated, so time your reloads and make the most of weapons you scavenge on the job.

Ian McShane and Lance Reddick will reprise their roles from the film series in the game, and publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment plans to show off a playable version of John Wick Hex at this year’s E3 Expo.

Employing a “unique graphic noir art design,” the first trailer for John Wick Hex has been embedded above.

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Mojang launches browser-based Minecraft Classic so you can play like it’s 2009

Posted on May 7, 2019 by John Scalzo

Mojang didn’t call it “Early Access” when they first made an unfinished build of Minecraft available to download in the Spring of 2009, but the game’s revolutionary distribution model has certainly changed how many developers release their games and interact with players. As Minecraft’s tenth anniversary approaches, the developer is giving fans a chance to return to those exciting early days with Minecraft Classic.

Minecraft Classic is a browser-based (and free-to-play) version of the game that rolls back all the updates Mojang has applied to Minecraft over the years. Just what does that mean? I’ll let the developer’s official website explain:

You can run Minecraft Classic in your browser and you’ll soon see why. With just 32 blocks to build with, all the original bugs, and an (inter)face only a mother could love, Minecraft 2009 is even more glorious than we remembered! You’re in for a real treat, particularly if you’re really into dyed wool (and who isn’t it?).

Minecraft Classic is now available to play at Minecraft.net, but don’t get too obsessed with it, more tenth anniversary surprises for Minecraft will be revealed on May 17th.

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Bruce Campbell says Evil Dead’s Ash won’t come to Mortal Kombat 11 as DLC fighter

Posted on May 7, 2019 by John Scalzo

The latest game in the long-running Mortal Kombat franchise, Mortal Kombat 11, made its way onto store shelves in late April, but we got a possible peak at the game’s upcoming downloadable characters shortly after it launched thanks to dataminers over at Reddit. At the time, the game’s code pointed towards the addition of series stalwarts Fujin, Nightwolf, Shang Tsung, Sheeva, and Sindel down the road, as well as guest characters The Joker, The Terminator, Spawn, and Evil Dead‘s Ash.

However, Bruce Campbell creatively debunked the rumor on Twitter earlier this week. According to the actor (who has starred in three Evil Dead movies and the recently-concluded Ash Vs Evil Dead cable series), he won’t be appearing in the game as Ash:

This is disappointing news (and it throws the rest of the DLC slate into question), but I guess Evil Dead fans will just have to be content with the character’s recent addition to Dead By Daylight.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to dig out my copy of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and perform a few Fatalities with my Kreate-A-Fighter version of Ash.

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Just Shapes & Beats: Hardcore Edition will be released for PS4 on May 10

Posted on May 6, 2019 by John Scalzo

The PlayStation Store is about to get a little more radical this week, as Berzerk Studio has announced that Just Shapes & Beats: Hardcore Edition will be available to download for the PS4 on May 10.

Just Shapes & Beats originally launched for the PC and Switch in 2018, and it’s probably best described as a “dodge ’em up.” Players are attacked from all sides by a variety of Shapes, but as long as they survive until the end of each level’s chiptune-like Beat, they’ll move on. You could watch the new trailer embedded above, or see how Berzerk’s Mike Ducarme tried to explain it to the PlayStation Blog:

Just Shapes & Beats is a musical bullet-hell-ish? It’s weird to explain… you play a shape, you dodge beats, which are also shapes, you can play with up to three friends, who are also shapes. It’s not a bullet hell in the pure sense of the term since it’s a lot more based on dodging and surviving than attacking. It’s more like a dodge ‘em up I guess?

As you might have guessed from the new subtitle, Just Shapes & Beats’s PS4 debut will introduce Hardcore Mode, which ratchets the difficulty up to “dog owners not cleaning up behind their animal” level. Again, I’ll let Ducarme explain:

Of course, my good sir, you’ll be happy to know that the PS4 release also introduces HARDCORE MODE. We made our designer watch videos of things that anger him, like people cutting in line at the coffee shop because they know the staff, and dog owners not cleaning up behind their animal, and then let him loose in the wild. Every stage has been redesigned in some form or another to give you a whole new experience that will make even seasoned Souls-like players weep, longing for their mother’s warm embrace.

According to Berzerk, Hardcore Mode will be coming to the PS4 “first,” so PC and Switch owners will (hopefully) be able to try it out sometime soon.

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Platinum Games plans to self-publish two unannounced games so they can control the sequel rights

Posted on May 6, 2019 by John Scalzo

Platinum Games rose from the ashes of Capcom’s beloved Clover Studio, and the developer has gained quite the large following over the years thanks to a game catalog built on unique ideas and wild concepts. But the vast majority of those titles were produced in collaboration with larger publishers, and even though Platinum has been interested in revisiting those worlds in sequels and spinoffs, the contracts they signed have prevented them from doing so on their own.

This conundrum was on Executive Director Atsushi Inaba’s mind when he recently sat down for an interview with Video Games Chronicle. According to Inaba, Platinum Games has decided to begin self-publishing some of their future projects so they retain control over the sequel rights:

“It’s absolutely the truth that there are cases where you want to do a sequel but if you don’t own the IP, you can’t do it,” Inaba explained.

“It’s that simple, and quite frankly in the case of Bayonetta it took a lot of time and energy to get it to the point where sequels could be made. It wasn’t as simple as picking up the phone and asking, ‘hey, can we do this?’ There were a lot of pieces that needed to fall into place and a lot of negotiating that had to occur.

“That’s a pain. That’s a hassle. For us as creators, we want to get to the point where self-publishing allows us to own our IP and do what we want with it, including making sequels. So the faster we can have that freedom, the better if will be for all the creators here.”

Platinum Games is currently developing Astral Chain for Nintendo as a Switch exclusive, but Inaba confirmed that the company also plans to self-publish two unannounced games at some point in the future. The veteran developer later said that one of these titles goes beyond the typical Platinum weirdness and is “unlike anything else”:

“Right now we’re in the middle of designing something that has never been done before. I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else,” he said.

“Even for our varied history of veteran game developers, this is something that has never been designed before. So from a game design perspective, we’re very excited right now.”

Hopefully we’ll learn more about Platinum’s upcoming projects very soon.

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One |

Call of Duty 2019 will be announced sometime in the next two months

Posted on May 3, 2019 by John Scalzo

After dropping support for Destiny 2 in January and later laying off a significant portion of their staff in February, Activision has spent the majority of this year attempting to shift their efforts towards a new “franchise-focused approach.”

Naturally, a big part of that approach will include a new entry in the Call of Duty franchise this Fall, and CEO Bobby Kotick recently teased a few tidbits about that game (which is currently known as Call of Duty 2019) during the megapublisher’s latest quarterly financial report. According to Kotick, Call of Duty 2019 is in development at Infinity Ward, and Activision will announce it sometime within the next two months. With the E3 Expo scheduled for mid-June, this timetable shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

Kotick also believes that after the announcement, it’ll be “really clear” why the company is so excited for Call of Duty 2019:

So we continue to feel incredibly good about this year’s game coming from Infinity Ward. The game’s going to be revealed later this quarter. I think it’s going to be really clear then why we’re really so excited about the release.

Combining a “franchise-focused approach” with Infinity Ward means it seems very likely that Call of Duty 2019 will eventually be revealed as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 in the coming weeks. But while we don’t know that for sure at this point, we do know that the next entry in the Call of Duty franchise will be released sometime this Fall.

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