Gaming News July 12: New PS Plus Games, BioShock Hiring, Game Pass Price Hike & More

News Roundup July 12

Welcome to MojoPlays News Roundup, where we bring you the most noteworthy gaming stories of the week!

PS Plus Games Releases

PlayStation Plus might not have the catalog that Xbox’s GamePass does, but Sony has continued to support the service with new games every month. For July, longtime Sony fans have got some welcome surprises to look forward to. For those with a PS Plus Extra account, the 3rd person shooter soulslike Remnant 2, Zack Fair’s origin story Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, combat simulator Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, Ubisoft’s extreme sports title Steep, along with a handful of others, will be available for members starting on Tuesday July 16th.

Those looking for something a bit more nostalgic and have the PSPlus Premium membership will get to relive classic PSP titles such as Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters as well as beloved tactical role-playing game Jeanne d’Arc. For the few of you with a PSVR2, you can experience work life from the comfort of your home with Job Simulator 2. And in a truly classic throwback, the PS2 action role playing launch title Summoner rounds out July’s PS Plus catalog.

Bioshock Recruitment

Bioshock fans have been waiting a long, long time for any new information on the newest entry in the critically acclaimed series. After being confirmed to be in production by newly formed studio Cloud Chamber, fans might finally have some more news to look forward to. Consisting of a number of Bioshock veterans, Cloud Chamber is openly recruiting for new positions for everything from writing and art to cinematics. This does, however, dispel any rumors the game might receive a surprise unveiling anytime soon. The game seems to only now be ramping up full production making its likely release closer to 2028 at the earliest.

While not much is known about the title, some interesting tidbits have been confirmed, such as the game taking place in Antarctica and having an open world concept planned. Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite director Ken Levine is busy working on his own “Bioshock-esque” project “Judas” which should satisfy longtime Bioshock fans when the game likely releases sometime in 2025.

Game Pass Price Hike

The “best deal in gaming” is about to get a bit more expensive. Microsoft announced they’re raising the price for existing memberships from $16.99 a month to $19.99 after already raising prices less than a year ago. Microsoft also announced the addition of a new tier dubbed “Game Pass Standard” for $14.99 a month, which will give players limited access to Game Pass’ massive library of titles, but not Xbox’s biggest Day 1 releases. Those are reserved exclusively for the Game Pass Ultimate tier.

With big new titles such as Indian Jones and the Great Circle and Avowed coming to Game Pass later in the year, alongside arguably the biggest title of the year with Call of Duty Black Ops 6, those wanting access to these major properties will need to pay up starting September 12, 2024. There’s still time to stack those memberships at their current rate, so those wanting to avoid the price increase only have a couple months to do so.

Palworld Multimedia

The “Pokemon with guns” game looks to be taking another page from the Pocketmonsters playbook and could soon see an anime as well as many other multimedia projects following the surprise success of Pocket Pair’s Palworld. Despite being an Xbox and PC exclusive, with no PlayStation release as of the time of writing, Pocket Pair has teamed up with Sony Music Entertainment and Sony’s anime branch, Aniplex, while also announcing the formation of Palworld Entertainment.

This new partnership is for “the purpose of accelerating the multifaceted global development of Palworld and its further expansion. The new collaboration will lead to Palworld merchandise and, alongside Sony’s Aniplex, even the possibility of an anime series in the future. Developer Pocket Pair has made no misconceptions about their inspiration for their surprise mega hit. Given the title’s success, it makes sense for the series to branch out the way Pokemon did after the success of Pokemon Red and Blue back in 1996, with the wildly popular anime launching a year later.

Another Embracer Casualty

Quickly becoming more despised than EA, Embracer has shut down another long-standing studio, Piranha Bites, the studio responsible for Gothic, Risen and the Elex series. After being acquired by Embracer in 2019, the studio struggled, and rumors of the studio’s closure began back in January 2024. One of the longest running role-playing studios in the industry, Piranha Bites was founded back in 1997 and had great success with their Gothic and Risen series.

This news comes as Embracer, well known for purchasing many game developers in recent years, has shut down 7 studios within 6 months. This resulted in the layoffs of over 1400 employees and at least 29 games that we know of. Longtime industry mainstays such as Volition and Free Radical didn’t survive their short tenure with Embracer either. Even major studios such as Crystal Dynamics have suffered major cuts. Embracer claims all of these closures and cancellations are due to a massive “restructuring” within the company. They also say there are still many big titles in development, but unfortunately, they seem to come at the cost of hard-working developers’ jobs.