This Week's Top 5 Biggest Gaming News Stories

The undisputed surprise hit of the year so far, players might be getting their chance for even more Black Myth Wukong according to recent leaks. Rumors are that the game’s developer Game Science wants to release two possible DLC expansions in celebration of the Chinese New Year on or around January 29th, 2025. While this of course has yet to be confirmed, the runaway success of the developer’s first major title has fans eager for any news on DLC or even a potential sequel. To date, it has been reported Black Myth Wukong has sold over 20 million units in only one month, making it one of the most successful launches of the year and one of the fastest selling games of all time.

Skate fans have been waiting years for their chance to play the long in development reboot of the Skate franchise, and their patience has paid off. EA recently announced that Skate, or more appropriately Skate 4, will launch in early access at the start of 2025. This will mark the first time the general public will get a chance to go hands on with the title as many playtesters have already had the game for well over two years now. The Skate series had long been the more realistic option as opposed to the Tony Hawk’s series over-the-top skateboarding antics. Skate has developed a loyal following who have been begging EA for a sequel for over a decade. The devs have also promised Skate 4 won’t include any loot boxes and everything within the game can be unlocked through regular gameplay.

Brick and mortar game stores have been struggling in a quickly advancing digital medium and one of the few still barely surviving is suffering even more upcoming closures. GameStop announced they would be shutting down even more locations after closing 287 stores just earlier this year. Citing lackluster earnings, GameStop has been struggling for years to keep up with digital sales and the majority of players ordering games online. GameStop recently began experimenting with some locations offering retro games and systems (which arguably is what they should have been focusing on years ago) amidst other recent attempts to capitalize on popular trends like NFTs in order to boost sales outside of the regular gaming market.

In a generation dying for new games, a remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn has been rated by the ESRB, because why waste resources on new projects when you can just re-release the same game over and over again, right Sony? Long rumored to be in development, original leaks pointed to the game getting a full remake rather than a remaster, but with the recent rating, that no longer seems to be the case. Reportedly the remaster will include improved lighting, overhauled textures and updated character and machine models as well as updates to interactions and conversations to match those of Forbidden West. Although unconfirmed, the game will likely be revealed at the long rumored upcoming State of Play at the end of the month. It remains unknown if this will receive a full release or a small upgrade fee like the The Last of Us Part II Remastered earlier this year.

Hot off their big announcement of the outrageously priced PS5 Pro last week, recent rumors and leaks seem to point to Sony already making plans for their next major console, the PlayStation 6. According to a new report from Reuters, AMD has won the contract for their chips to power Sony’s next generation of consoles, narrowly beating out Intel, which could have seen the manufacturer gain billions in revenue. Reportedly, the choice to stay with AMD, which also powers the PS5 and PS5 Pro, largely came down to the process of switching to Intel risking backwards compatibility in the future hardware. However, before you get too excited about the mere mention of backwards compatibility, this most likely refers to the PlayStation 6 being able to play PS5 and possibly PS4 games rather than anything from PlayStation’s extensive retro catalog. While both Sony and AMD have yet to comment on these rumors, Sony has stated that the PS5 is in the later stages of its console lifecycle, so Sony already planning for the next-next generation makes a lot of sense. Let’s just hope the PS6 isn’t another $700 upgrade.

While we already know that Nintendo’s follow-up to their insanely successful Switch is coming in the near future, and from Nintendo themselves no less, not much else is known about the upcoming hardware. However, according to some recently leaked images and information, which we encourage everyone to take with a big heaping helping of salt, we might have gotten our first look at the next generation of the Switch.

Apparently named the “Switch 2” because if ain’t broke don’t fix it, the images show that Nintendo seems to be iterating on the original Switch rather than innovating. Beyond some minimal surface level changes, the majority of upgrades seems to be under the hood. The Switch 2 will reportedly have an 8 inch display, a whopping 256Gb of storage (far surpassing the current Switch’s standard 32GB), and will support HDMI 2.1 allowing the Switch 2 to offer 4K display when docked and 1080p in handheld mode. The Switch 2 has also reportedly been developed with backwards compatibility in mind, so all you physical copy fanatics out there won’t need to leave your library behind to upgrade. Nintendo naturally has yet to comment on any of these recent leaks, but we likely won’t have to wait long for the Switch 2’s reveal as Nintendo is reportedly looking to launch their successor sometime in early 2025. Really missed out on the opportunity to call it the Super Switch there Nintendo.

There’s no denying the once beloved shooter series Battlefield has been struggling in recent years, particularly after the abysmal launch and reception of Battlefield 2042. However, at a recent Investor Day 2024, Respawn CEO and current head of Battlefield Vince Zampella revealed the series is looking back to its glory days for its next iteration. Citing the wildly popular Battlefield 3 and 4, Zampella announced that the series would be returning to a modern day setting along with revealing the numerous studios currently working on the upcoming title.

With the main Battlefield team at DICE developing multiplayer, Criterion games is working on the single player and support for multiplayer, while EA Motive is working solely on the single player campaign. Zampella also revealed that Ripple Effect, a sub-studio of DICE, would be working on a “new experience” in the Battlefield universe. During the stage presentation alongside a piece of concept art, Zampella conveyed his desire to get back to “peak” Battlefield with 64 player maps and classes as well as the return of the massive destruction the series was known for.

This wasn’t the only major announcement to come out of EA’s Investor Day as Respawn announced they were currently developing the “final chapter” in their Star Wars Jedi series. According to EA, the single player focused Star Wars series has sold over 40 million copies and is considered a surprise hit for the publisher, who notoriously canceled numerous single player focused Star Wars projects including Amy Hennig’s “Project Ragtag” game. While no further information is known at this time, creative director of both Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor Stig Asmussen, who left the studio last year, previously revealed Cal’s story was always planned as a trilogy from the start and the team had the series’ timeline fleshed out.

You might not immediately know the publisher by name, but you will undoubtedly recognize the games they helped bring to players everywhere. Annapurna Interactive is responsible for releasing some of the most critically acclaimed and inventive indie titles of the last decade. Games such as Stray, Neon White, What Remains of Edith Finch, and most recently Cocoon have all received widespread acclaim from both critics and gamers.

However, earlier this week, the entire staff of roughly 25 employees resigned after negotiations for the studio to spin off from Annapurna to become an independent studio fell through. The former staff released a statement that their decision to resign was “not taken lightly” and although Annapurna has reassured the many developers who were working with the gaming subsidiary that there would be no interruptions for their games’ releases, the studio is understandably scrambling to fill the many empty roles at the publisher.

At a time when the industry is posting record profits but continuing to lay off developers and staff, things are shifting in a different direction, focusing more on shareholders and profits to the detriment of developers and gamers. The gaming industry is in desperate need of an overhaul. From ballooning game budgets to overworked and underpaid developers, it seems like things will continue to get worse before they get better.

It would seem that the “Pokemon with guns” game Palworld has finally caught the attention of Nintendo’s legal team, who are now suing developer Pocketpair for patent infringement. Long compared to the worldwide phenomenon Pokemon, Pocketpair has remained steadfas that they never willingly infringed on anyone else’s character designs, but Nintendo doesn’t feel the same.

As pointed out by many Pokemon enthusiasts ever since Palworld’s launch in January of this year, some of the designs skewed a bit too close to Game Freak’s designs to be just a coincidence. Some die hard Pokemon fans even took to comparing the wire frames of Palworld’s Pals and their Pokemon counterparts, and the similarities are oftentimes striking.

Nintendo has a long history of using legal means to protect their intellectual properties and most recently won a record breaking $15 million dollar suit against the developers of the mobile title Pocket Monster Reissue which “blatantly plagiarized” numerous Pokemon and character designs. While Pocketpair has yet to comment on the lawsuit, given Nintendo’s track record, things don’t look good for the developers and their Pals.