This Week's TOP 7 Gaming News Stories

Admittedly, the industry quieted down a bit this week as it gears up for another wave of big releases over the 2024 holiday season. Still, there are some lighter stories worth keeping an eye on over the foreseeable future. For starters, Bandai Namco Entertainment, after recently suffering from layoffs, announced their partnership with Rebel Wolves, a studio consisting of developers who had previously worked on the “Witcher” series. Bandai Namco will publish Rebel Wolves’s first game: an M-rated fantasy action-RPG built on Unreal Engine 5. Speaking of fantasy and action RPGs, “Vampire Survivors” is getting a brand new expansion in the form of “Castlevania”. Just about every character in the “Castlevania” franchise makes an appearance here, and you’ll be able to get your hands on it this Halloween. In other DLC news, or lack thereof, Insomniac celebrated the one-year anniversary of “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2”, which launched on October 23, 2023. Unfortunately, this celebration came with news that frustrated some fans: while the game is making its way to PC in January 2025, “Spider-Man 2” will not be getting any DLC. To be fair, this is most likely because of the often-teased “Venom” spin-off, which, according to the 2023 Insomniac leak, is scheduled to release in 2025. Lastly, “Monster Hunter” fans got a surprise announcement from Capcom in regards to the next game in the franchise. On October 28, PlayStation Plus members will be able to play the open beta for “Monster Hunter Wilds” with everyone else gaining access on October 31. Cross-play will be supported on all platforms, the character creation will be completely accessible, and you’ll get access to the Doshaguma Hunt and a slice of the campaign.

Television adaptations for video games have continued rolling out with no end in sight, but lately, it’s been a tad concerning. “Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft” made its long-awaited debut on Netflix on October 10. Alas, reviews have not been kind to the show, which has some folks worried about the imminent “Devil May Cry” series Netflix has lined up. The “God of War” TV show that’s bound for Amazon Prime is already showing some signs of trouble as the project has restarted its pre-production process with a whole new team of writers. On a lighter note, we did get some news regarding the second season of Amazon Prime’s “Fallout” series. According to Leslie Uggams, the actress for Vault 33’s Betty Pearson, production for the second season begins in November 2024.

On October 22, 2024, Masahiro Sakurai, the famed creator of “Kirby” and “Super Smash Bros.”, uploaded his final video on his channel, Masahiro Sakurai On Creating Games. In a 46-minute presentation, Sakurai not only detailed the production of the channel, he also announced he is working on a brand new video game. The pitch was made almost immediately after Sora capped off the DLC for “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” in October 2021, and Sakurai states, “...assuming we’re able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later.” This news comes at a rather interesting time as Nintendo recently began a closed playtest for a mysterious game, which leads into our next news story.

In early October 2024, Nintendo allowed players to sign up for a playtest involving an unannounced game. Well, someone was bound to leak information as to what the game is, and sure enough, we have details. A user by the name of “Sky” datamined the game and leaked information earlier this week. Assets discovered varied from what appeared to be mechs and vehicles as well as various flavor texts that signify a character creation system. Some files even hinted at the inclusion of PvP and PvE game modes. Given Sakurai’s unconventional marketing methods with previous games like “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” and the timing of Sakurai’s final video, we wouldn’t be surprised if the mysterious game turns out to be his next project.

As game preservation and ownership continues to be spoken about at loud volumes from YouTubers and collectors, sales data indicate a losing battle. Mat Piscatella of Circana (formerly known as NPD) revealed sales data involving PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch games in the US. According to Piscatella, the ratio between physical and digital sales has been skewered even more with Nintendo Switch seeing 53% of game sales being made digitally and PlayStation 5 seeing 78%. In 2023, Nintendo Switch saw 52% of games sales being made digitally while PS5 saw 75%. As Sammy Barker from PushSquare points out, this uneven ratio could be the reason why the soon-to-be released PlayStation 5 Pro does not come with a disc drive. Christopher Dring from GamesIndustry.Biz also added sales data seen in Europe; PlayStation 5 saw only 32% of its sales were made from physical, though Nintendo Switch saw 65%, a staggering difference to its US stats.

Netflix has continued its trek into the game-streaming market with a beta launch of its small catalog of games now being playable on smart TVs. However, this push forward has come with a major loss. On October 22, 2024, Stephen Totilo of Game File broke the news that Netflix had shut down Team Blue, its own supposed “AAA” studio. Team Blue was conceived to be one of Netflix's first big forays into the video game market with key talent like Joseph Staten and Rafael Grassetti at the helm. Prior to this, Staten had served as creative director for “Sunset Overdrive”, “State of Decay 2”, and a number of “Halo” games. Grassetti, on the other hand, had served as art director for “God of War: Ragnarok” at Sony Santa Monica. Netflix has yet to clarify why Team Blue was shuttered, though Netflix’s co-CEO Gregory Peters did state in July 2024 that user engagement with Netflix’s games catalog “is still quite small”. Regardless, Netflix supposedly has more than eighty games in development.

This week, PlayStation fans saw even more disappointing news as we approach the launch of “Lego Horizon Adventures”. Earlier this week, Guerrilla Games announced that the game had gone gold, meaning development has been finished and is full steam ahead on marketing and release. With this news came the tease of Sylens’s new voice actor. As many fans are aware, Sylens’s original voice actor, Lance Reddick, passed away in March 2023. Guerrilla will share the news at a later date. But the news that PlayStation fans latched onto was an interview with Gene Park of The Washington Post. When speaking with Park, art director Roy Postma had some choice words regarding Guerrilla’s first breakout franchise, Killzone, and why the studio has no desire to revisit the IP. Postma stated, “We were done with it as a team. As a studio, we needed to refresh the palette. It was, by choice, the opposite of ‘Killzone’.” Guess that means we’re just never getting a collection of those games, huh?

Fall 2024 isn’t even over yet, and Ubisoft continues to be embroiled in controversy this season. Following weeks of lawsuits, strikes, and talks of selling to Tencent, Ubisoft disbanded the team behind “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown” according to Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson. Launching in January 2024, “The Lost Crown” saw critical success, but has been labeled a commercial disappointment by Ubisoft as the conglomerate expected it to sell millions of copies, not just one million copies. As a result, various developers behind “The Lost Crown” have been relocated to other projects. While most of the team has been pushed to work on the never-ending development of “Beyond Good & Evil 2”, roughly a dozen were placed onto the next “Ghost Recon” game. Interestingly enough, another dozen were moved to Ubisoft Milan to work on something called “Project Steambot”, a yet-to-be-announced “Rayman” remake. However, this shift has not pleased everyone as some Ubisoft Milan staff have come forward to voice their concerns over Michel Ancel, the creator of “Rayman”. Despite only being brought on as a consultant, some staff have problems with Ancel’s involvement due to allegations made against him in 2020 over “toxic leadership”. Ancel had left Ubisoft mere days before the allegations had gone public.