Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Jordan Minor’s “Boss Fight Books: Super Mario Galaxy” is Now Available for Pre-Order
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (2026)
Most Recent: PS4
Activision confirms Skylanders 5, Call of Duty 2015, “unannounced initiatives” during quarterly presentation
Just as the sun rises in the east, Activision uses their first quarterly financial presentation of the year to talk about the next games in the Call of Duty and Skylanders franchises.
Dennis Durkin, the publisher’s Chief Financial Officer, had the task of revealing the non-news that Call of Duty 2015 and Skylanders 5 will be released this Fall. As expected, Call of Duty 2015 will be developed by Treyarch while Skylanders 5 is being described as “innovative.” Durkin finished his remarks by revealing that Activision also has “several unannounced initiatives” in the pipeline that they’ll talk more about “in the months ahead.”
Then the CEO of Activision Publishing, Eric Hirshberg, took the stage to talk about Destiny. He confirmed that the game’s second expansion, House of Wolves, will be released in the Spring. He also said that Destiny 2 is in development, though we won’t see it this year. But Bungie is planning to launch a “major content release” connected to the franchise for this Fall.
Finally, Blizzard’s CEO, Michael Morhaime, said that both StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void and Overwatch will be available for beta testing this year. However, Morhaime would not comment on either game’s final release date, which means that both will probably slip to 2016.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Destiny, Overwatch, Skylanders SuperChargers, Skylanders SuperChargers Racing, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void
Atlus has released a gameplay trailer for Persona 5
It’s been more than a year since Atlus gave us our first taste of Persona 5. Today, they made up for their protracted silence with a new trailer that runs nearly three minutes and is absolutely oozing with style.
I’m not entirely sure I know what’s going on, but the trailer introduced us to the main character and his friends before diving into in-game footage of their school life and a glimpse at a few battles. After dark, these characters turn into masked vigilantes of some sort as they displayed some very Batman-like maneuvers atop a moving train. Also, one of the main characters is a cat… or possibly a little kid in a full-body cat costume. You never can tell with the Persona series.
Persona 5 will be released for the PS3 and PS4 sometime in 2015.
Asher Vollmer’s Close Castles is on hold because it’s not very enjoyable
You might not know Asher Vollmer’s name, but you certainly know his work. Vollmer was one-third of Sirvo, the impromptu development team behind the mobile blockbuster Threes. More recently, Vollmer has been working on Close Castles, a real-time strategy game for the PS4 that he says is for people who hate real-time strategy games. But right now it looks like it’s not for anybody as Vollmer has confirmed (via Twitter) that the development of Close Castles is currently on hold.
Close Castles has been set aside for now because Vollmer believes that the game isn’t very enjoyable in its current state. The developer further states that he’s “designed [himself] into a corner” and that he’ll have to “overhaul the game” before he can release it to bring it up to his standards.
In the meantime, Vollmer has begun work on a brand new mobile game that he’s not ready to talk about yet. Hopefully we’ll learn more about it (and the future of Close Castles) soon.
Posted in Mobile, News, PS4
Tagged Close Castles
Evolve’s “Ready Or Not” live-action trailer is a big game of hide-and-seek
With Evolve‘s launch less than a week away, 2K Games has released the practically de rigueur live-action trailer for the game. Titled “Ready Or Not,” the trailer drops five teenagers into the largest game of hide-and-seek you’ve ever seen. Tack on a haunting vocal track (in this case, “Ready Or Not” by Scala and Kolacny Brothers, a Belgian women’s choir) and you’ve got yourself a trailer. Still, it’s a pretty impressive piece of footage and it definitely evokes the mood that Turtle Rock is striving for with Evolve.
Evolve will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 10.
Kane “Jason Voorhees” Hodder will portray the killer in Summer Camp
Kane Hodder wasn’t the first stuntman to play Jason Voorhees, nor was he the most recent. But he has donned the iconic hockey mask more times than anyone else, and many fans consider him the definitive Jason. So, naturally, he was one of the first people approached by Gun Media when they were looking for an actor to portray the killer in Summer Camp, their video game homage to the Friday the 13th film series.
Hodder will be joined by other icons from the Friday the 13th franchise including Tom Savini and Harry Manfredini. Savini will bring his skills as the Special Effects Supervisor on Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter to his role as a consultant to the development team. Manfredini, who created the “Ch Ch, Ch, Chhh, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ahhh” sound effect, will score the game’s soundtrack.
Summer Camp is currently without a release date, but it’ll be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One when it’s ready.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Friday the 13th
Kickstart This! Elventales, Threshold, Maestros of the Anthymn
After an extended Christmas break, Kickstart This! is back with a vengeance, sifting through the crowdfunding projects of early 2015 to find those few that stand out from the digital masses. And even better, Kickstarter has now dropped Amazon payments in favour of payment system Stripe, which means not only is it easier for developers to set up payments, but there are also fewer steps for players to make them. Everyone wins.
This week there is top-down RPG Elventales: A Path Foreseen, beautiful hand-painted 2D platformer Threshold, and finally, episodic fantasy adventure tale Maestros of the Anthymn.
Let the adventure begin! (more…)
CoD: Advanced Warfare Havoc Pack will be released for PC, PS3, PS4 on February 26
Activision has announced that the Havoc DLC Pack will be released for PC, PS3, and PS4 owners of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on February 26. The Havoc DLC Pack will include four new competitive maps as well as the first episode of the cooperative Exo Zombies mode. In case you missed it, here’s what you can expect from Havoc’s four competitive maps:
Core: Deploy to the Gobi desert where the ravaged ruins of a nuclear fusion plant set the stage for a high-octane warzone. Take down enemies through the wreckage in long-range combat or get up-close and personal in the tunnels surrounding the central turbine. Activate decontamination drones using the map-based scorestreak to help clean out the competition.
Urban: Prepare yourself for brutal, high-speed combat in Dallas Ward 3, a future mega structure, funneling players into a close-quarters free-for-all. This modular compound’s verticality unleashes the exoskeleton’s capabilities. Stay focused during the timed event as blast doors alter the map’s flow and sightlines.
Sideshow: In the shadow of Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, this abandoned inn’s open layout amplifies its creep factor. Blast your way through the clown inn with close-quarters battles or use long-range site-lines from the mining facilities and natural terrain. Use the map-based scorestreak to activate the lights, music, and magic of the clown marquee and rain down a barrage of rainbow smoke-trailed cannonballs.
Drift: An idyllic ski resort high in the Rocky Mountains is transformed into a festive high-altitude playground, perfect for an all-out firefight. Make your way to the highly contested over watch in the glass observation deck or take a ride on the carousel to deliver 360 degrees of carnage. Players can use the map-altering timed event to their advantage as an avalanche of snow and debris disorients players, intensifying the battle.
The Havoc DLC Pack will be priced at $14.99 on the PC, PS3, and PS4. It’s also part of the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Season Pass, which will include access to all four DLC Packs for $49.99.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4
Tagged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
2K Tidbits: Borderlands 3 only on PS4/Xbox One, GTA5 ships 45 million, Battleborn still on track for late 2015/early 2016 launch
Take-Two Interactive held their quarterly financial presentation yesterday and it looks the publisher is in a better position than ever before. In addition to reporting “strong financial results” for the quarter, Take-Two raised their yearly fiscal forecast due to the pending release of Evolve, Grand Theft Auto V on the PC, and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection.
Speaking of Grand Theft Auto V, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick announced that the company has shipped more than 45 million copies of the game to stores since its release last year, including more than ten million copies of the remastered PS4/Xbox One edition.
Zelnick didn’t discuss Rockstar’s future during the presentation or the question-and-answer period that followed, but he did say that Take-Two doesn’t believe in annualizing their big franchises. Specifically, he said, “[W]e think big tentpole releases should not be annualized except for sports titles because we think it’s valuable to build anticipation and because it takes some time to make the highest quality products in the business.”
To that end, Take-Two’s President, Karl Slatoff, reconfirmed that Borderlands 3 is in development at Gearbox. According to Slatoff, the game currently has no release date and it is being developed “specifically for next-gen consoles.” With the PS4 and Xbox One launching in 2013, this probably shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.
However, one thing we do know about Gearbox is that their team-based shooter, Battleborn, is still on track for a “Fiscal 2016” release. That means it’ll launch sometime between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016… but it’s safe to assume that a late 2015/early 2016 release is much more likely.
Finally, Slatoff revealed that the publisher has numerous unannounced games in development. More details about those games will be released over the course of the year.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Battleborn, Borderlands 3, Grand Theft Auto V