Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: Xbox 360
Call of Duty: Black Ops III marches to the top of January 2016’s list of best-selling games
The NPD Group recently delivered their monthly report on the state of retail video game sales, and the market research firm once again crowned Call of Duty: Black Ops III as the best-selling game of the month. The military shooter’s January 2016 victory is its third straight, but the industry as a whole is in a bit of a slump due to last month’s lack of new releases.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, retail sales for new games totaled $212.7 million last month, down from $235.6 million in 2015. The NPD Group speculated that the lack of a highly-anticipated new title like Techland’s Dying Light might be the cause for the dip, which makes sense when you realize that only one new release, Lego Avengers, was able to crack the top ten. Across the entire industry, US consumers spent $605.2 million on games, consoles, and accessories in January 2016, which was slightly down from January 2015’s total of $627.6 million.
Grand Theft Auto V, Fallout 4, Minecraft, and a few others continue to tally impressive sales. And you can find them all in the full top ten list of January 2016’s best-selling games, which is available after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, FIFA 16, Grand Theft Auto V, Lego Avengers, Madden NFL 16, Minecraft, NBA 2K16, NPD, Star Wars: Battlefront, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
Activision confirms Skylanders 6, new Call of Duty from Infinity Ward, Destiny expansion in 2016; Destiny 2 coming in 2017
Activision revealed a first look at their 2016 release slate during today’s quarterly financial report… and you’ll never believe what they announced. Nah, I’m just kidding, even an amateur prognosticator could figure out what Activision has in store for this year.
First up, the publisher confirmed that Infinity Ward will develop the next entry in the Call of Duty franchise, which will be released this Fall. The developer’s most recent game was 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, and right now it’s unknown if they’ll continue with that story or move in a different direction. But we do the currently untitled Call of Duty 2016 will be Infinity Ward’s first in Activision’s new three-developer cycle for the series.
Activision is also aiming to launch the sixth entry in the Skylanders series in Fall 2016. Skylanders 6 is in development at Toys For Bob and will be released alongside Skylanders Academy, a new television series based on the franchise.
Bungie’s Destiny will receive more content in 2016, but don’t expect a full-fledged sequel just yet. Another “large” expansion to the original game will be released this year, and the famed developer announced they’ll launch Destiny 2 in 2017.
Finally, Blizzard got a chance to discuss their plans for 2016, but the developer just reiterated a release schedule that we’ve known for a while. Overwatch, their upcoming hero shooter, is on track for a Spring 2016 release on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. And World of Warcraft: Legion, the sixth expansion to the world’s favorite MMO, will be released this Summer, just after the June premiere of the Warcraft movie.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Destiny, Destiny 2, Overwatch, Skylanders Imaginators, World of Warcraft
Quantum Break getting PC version, Xbox One System Bundle, and free copy of Alan Wake
Microsoft will continue to support gaming on Windows 10 this Spring with a simultaneous Xbox One/PC launch for Remedy’s Quantum Break on April 5. Best of all, everyone who digitally pre-orders the time-bending action game through the Xbox Games Store will receive a token to download the PC version for free.
Players who purchase Quantum Break on the Xbox One will also receive a download code for the Xbox 360 version of Remedy’s previous game, Alan Wake, and both of its downloadable expansions (The Signal and The Writer). Pre-ordering Quantum Break from participating retailers will also entitle players to an Xbox 360 download code for the action-oriented Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.
But what if you don’t own an Xbox One and your PC isn’t up to snuff? Then you might want to consider a Quantum Break System Bundle ($349), which will include a 500GB “Cirrus White” console, matching wireless controller, and full-game downloads of Quantum Break and Alan Wake.
Finally, Microsoft and Remedy also unveiled a new live-action trailer for Quantum Break today. In “The Cemetery,” protagonist Jack Joyce (Shawn Ashmore) begins to learn about the full extent of his powers as he mourns his brother (Dominic Monaghan). You can check out the video, along with game’s minimum and recommended system requirements, after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alan Wake, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Quantum Break
A Day-By-Day Guide to All of 2016’s New Video Games (April – September)
The Spring and Summer months are currently less dense with new releases than the first three months of the year, but that should change fairly soon, especially since publishers have staked a claim to every week from the beginning of April to the end of June with at least one big new release dropping every seven days.
Are you ready? Because here… we… go… (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Features, Mobile, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Top Story, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Ark: Survival Evolved, Battleborn, Bravely Second: End Layer, Dark Souls III, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Dishonored 2, Doom (2016), Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, Fable Legends, FIFA 17, Gears of War, Homefront: The Revolution, Hyper Light Drifter, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Madden NFL 17, Mighty No. 9, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, NBA 2K17, NHL 17, No Man's Sky, Odin Sphere, Overwatch, Pikmin 4, Quantum Break, Ratchet & Clank, Star Fox Zero, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Umbrella Corps, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, World of Warcraft, Zero Escape Volume 3
Telltale will release first episode of The Walking Dead: Michonne on February 23
Telltale Games has announced that The Walking Dead: Michonne will kick off on February 23 with the release of the first episode, “In Too Deep.” The three-part miniseries will be available for $14.99 and subsequent episodes will launch in March (“Give No Shelter“) and April (“What We Deserve“).
In this premiere episode, “In Too Deep,” Michonne joins Pete and his crew on the sailing ship The Companion as they cruise the coast for survivors and supplies. When a desperate signal for help draws them to a scene of horrific massacre, Michonne and the crew are lead further to the floating survivors’ colony of Monroe, which may just be harboring the person responsible for the carnage.
The Walking Dead: Michonne will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and mobile devices, but you won’t have to wait until the 23rd to get a look at the game in action. Telltale Games will host an extended preview event on their YouTube page this Sunday, February 14, at 8:30 PM (Eastern Time).
Blizzard celebrates their 25th anniversary with a message from co-founders Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce
In 1991, Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce launched Silicon & Synapse, a game development studio that would go on to obtain global recognition under its current name, Blizzard Entertainment. Morhaime and Pearce (along with Allen Adham, who is no longer with the company) started small, developing puzzle platformer The Lost Vikings and racing game Rock N Roll Racing before moving on to the first game in the Warcraft series, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.
Blizzard’s take on the real-time strategy genre helped shape the future of the company (and the video game industry as a whole) in ways that no one could have imagined. You can draw a direct line between that game and all of Blizzard’s subsequent projects including Diablo, StarCraft, World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone.
So to celebrate all of the monumental things the company has done in the last 25 years, Morhaime and Pearce recently sat down to narrate a thank you to their fans. They reminisce about the past, they’re proud of the present, and they look to the future and the next 25 years.
Blizzard’s next game, the hero shooter Overwatch, will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One this Spring. The developer will also release World of Warcraft’s sixth expansion, World of Warcraft: Legion, sometime this Summer.
Insert Quarter: A Brief History of Platinum Games
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Platinum Games plans to release Star Fox Zero, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, and Nier: Automata in 2016. That’s a lot of games for one studio to handle, but after celebrating their tenth anniversary this year, they’ve clearly earned our trust.
Eurogamer’s Rich Stanton goes a step further and makes the case that Platinum Games might be the best Japanese developer working today. He believes the company’s unbroken string of classics (including MadWorld, Vanquish, Bayonetta, and The Wonderful 101) is nearly unmatched and that their fierce independent streak will always produce interesting results. You gotta admit, it’s kind of hard to argue with him:
[I]n recent years, Platinum Games has positioned itself as a standard-bearer for the Japanese industry, adopting the slogan: “Taking on the World as the Representative of Japan.” President and CEO Tatsuya Minami unpacked this, in a post to celebrate 10 years of Platinum Games. “Japan used to lead the worldwide video game industry, but we can’t help but feel that it has lost some of its vitality in recent years. Yet we are using this state of affairs to motivate and inspire ourselves […] We will keep up our fighting stance.”
The full article is available for your perusal at Eurogamer.
Broncos defy Madden NFL 16’s prediction with a win over Panthers in Super Bowl 50
The number 13 is definitely unlucky for EA Sports as the publisher’s annual Super Bowl prediction (their 13th) came up short once again.
A Madden NFL 16 simulation held a week ago predicted that the Carolina Panthers would beat the Denver Broncos in the final seconds of Super Bowl 50. However, Denver’s Von Miller had other plans. The linebacker, and Doom enthusiast, tallied 2.5 sacks and forced Cam Newton to fumble twice. His defensive prowess earned him Super Bowl MVP honors.
Even though his team won in real life, Peyton Manning’s digital doppelganger put up considerably better numbers than the actual quarterback. It seems likely that the insurance pitchman (I’ll probably never be able to eat Chicken Parm without humming that stupid song) will announce his retirement in the next few months.
Better luck next year EA, and congratulations to the Denver Broncos on their 24-10 win over the Carolina Panthers. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to spend the morning watching the new Captain America: Civil War commercial over and over again.