Welcome back to your monthly report of game news, where I do my best to compile everything into one convenient ad-free place, so you don’t have to worry about the pesky cracks that info can fall through at other publications!
Thanks and credit for the banner image as always goes to the Avocado’s one and only Space Robot!
Xbox Updates
November 8th: As expected from months ago, ABK’s premier esports org Overwatch League has been dissolved after a vote from all teams at the end of this year’s season.
November 10th:
This is what you spent two years and dozens of billions inheriting, Phil. Upon its launch, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has soundly received a drubbing from fans and critics alike due to how deeply sparse it is for a $70 game, with a majority of its content recycled from Warzone or previous Modern Warfares, and a campaign half as long as usual. Ultimately it has actually reviewed worse than 2021’s infamously broken Vanguard, COD’s other big flop of this generation, which itself caused the series‘ first ever delay as discussed below. It’s still very early for sales reporting, but so far sales for MWIII also look to be significantly down from its 2022 blockbuster predecessor. ABK is instead boasting about increased hours played per player. COD also just ended support for a major mode introduced only last year.
Thanks to Jason Schreier’s reporting from the past couple years, we all know exactly why this game has turned out that way: this was a Modern Warfare II DLC made in only 16 months from mid-2022 on, which ABK retrofitted into a premium release after Treyarch’s Black Ops: Gulf War was moved to 2024 after the reception to Vanguard. At launch, MWIII still needed to be booted as an add-on from MWII’s menu.
And now, Schreier has delivered a new report at Bloomberg divulging new behind the scenes details. After shipping Vanguard, Sledgehammer’s pitch for their next COD was a third Advanced Warfare/Infinite Warfare game, but ABK management redirected them into a MWII expansion which was in turn soft rebooted into the final project plan just a few months later. Sledgehammer staff felt betrayed when they had just suffered through the rush and crunch of Vanguard and then were immediately put right back into it here, constantly working nights and weekends to deliver the game in time. Development was additionally dysfunctional thanks to delays for approval and feedback from the main Modern Warfare team, Infinity Ward, and resulting major, unwanted changes.
Everything Else
November 6th: The Escapist game press website and magazine abruptly imploded for the second time in its almost 20 years of existence when editor in chief Nick Calandra was suddenly fired by the site’s new parent company Gamurs Group due to not achieving fiscal goals, and the entire video team, including the infamous and popular Yahtzee Croshaw, immediately quit in protest. They soon announced their post-Escapist independent enterprise, Second Wind, which among other programs will host a replacement for the GG-owned Zero Punctuation. The Escapist’s successful relaunch was overseen by Destructoid’s parent company Enthusiast Gaming for several years before Gamurs Group acquired Enthusiast last September.
November 7th:
Worker co op game developer The Glory Society, founded in 2019 by spouses and surviving Night in the Woods cocreators Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry, sadly and unexpectedly announced that they will be closing down and canceling their new game Revenant Hill after it was just announced earlier this year at the PS Showcase. This decision was made in response to severe health issues for multiple members of the small team impeding their ability to proceed with development. Scott Benson soon revealed that he has been diagnosed with severe heart failure after a year straight of chronic illness that has all but halted his ability to work.
As first reported by Kotaku, Ubisoft announced its latest in a long line of layoffs this past year. It has fired 124 people and eliminated positions across some of many Canadian divisions, primarily Ubisoft Montreal and Montreal-based SFX/VFX studio Hybride, alongside the global IT team. This follows directly from the turmoil caused by a return to office mandate instituted at Ubi Montreal back in September as we covered then, as some of the layoffs were resignations coerced by/in protest to RTO. Ubi Montreal is the publisher’s single largest developer, one of the largest single game studios in the world, and is leading development on two of the corp’s current biggest projects, Far Cry 7 and Assassin’s Creed Hexe.
The latest N7 Day Mass Effect celebration arrived at a particularly contentious time for Bioware, given the recent layoffs and union expulsion, lawsuit, and now picketing, as well as general increasing concerns about the state of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Yes, that’s right, Bioware Edmonton was physically picketed on the 7th by the former QA testers it recently threw out, which EA attempted to prevent before Alberta’s Labor Board ruled in favor of the protesters. These workers are protesting not just Bioware and EA but also Keywords, where they were also fired in a retaliatory “your union cost us money and this partnership” move. Oh right, there was marketing I have to talk about too conveniently right next to this negative coverage.
The latest Mass Effect 5 teaser trailer arrived in three pieces alongside key flavor text within a larger ARG. Despite both the obfuscation and the brevity, and the general flaws with releasing multiple trailers for a game still in pre-production, this had easily the most concrete information given for the game yet, and indicate in my book the right direction for the series. The main reveal of all this was the Milky Way receiving a distress signal from the Andromeda Galaxy which Liara and someone in N7 armor start to respond to, confirming that the game’s story will involve crossover between the two and take place in the far future of this setting, since the Milky Way colonization team took 600+ lightyears to reach Andromeda. This setting needs meaningful evolution and as much distance as possible from the original trilogy.
Lastly, the latest Nintendo fiscal briefing was modest in some ways and massive in others. Both of its biggest releases since Tears of the Kingdom got their first sales numbers, with Super Mario Bros. Wonder selling more than 4 million copies in its first two weeks as the fastest selling Mario ever, and Pikmin 4 now officially instantly becoming the series’ individual bestseller at 2.6 million copies sold between July and September. That immediately surpassed Pikmin 3 Deluxe’s 2.4 mill, though not the cumulative 3.7 mill of Pikmin 3 across both Wii U and Switch. Slightly over half of Pikmin 4’s sales so far were in Japan.
The publisher also boosted its share price with big multimedia news delivered privately first and announced on social media before the end of the day: a Legend of Zelda blockbuster movie has now been officially confirmed. It will be in development at Sony Pictures as a live action project produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Sony’s Avi Arad, and directed by Wes Ball of The Maze Runner Trilogy and next year’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Nintendo will be co-financing the film with by paying for more than half of its budget. There’s been a lot of surprised reactions over this, but as long as the production value and executed vision come together, this could be a great looking picture, and since Mario and Zelda are just so very different tonally, demographically, etc., diverging from the animated Mario movie does ultimately make a lot of sense.
November 8th: The longest ever actors’ strike officially ended at midnight on Wednesday thanks to a week of new, intensive negotiations, after the writers’ strike previously ended in late September. The new contract provides new protections a $40 million collective annual bonus to compensate for streaming’s , plus increases for salary minimums, pensions, and healthcare , and protections against AI use. The status of the separately threatened actors’ strike against the games industry is unknown.
The latest Embracer Group sacrifices were both revealed during this month by reporting at VideoGamesChronicle. 1. After just two years since it was reestablished with the goal of relaunching the cult classic TimeSplitters series, developer Free Radical Design has seen at least 15 layoffs and will most likely be closed entirely by year’s end. 2. Around 50 people at German developer Fishlabs have been laid off and their next project has been canceled two years after launching their flight game Chorus.
Rockstar Games officially announced that the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 will premiere in early December (now confirmed as December 5th) in conjunction with Rockstar’s 25th anniversary, after Jason Schreier leaked this news the night before in a formal Bloomberg report. The reveal trailer is widely understood to be leading into a Fall 2024 launch for the long-anticipated game. This trailer arrives a little over 10 years after the original launch of GTA5, five years after Red Dead Redemption 2, and more than a year after GTA6 saw extensive footage leaked from the Lapsuss cyberattack.
November 9th: After recent reports about further adjustments to the live service strategy, PlayStation’s new President Hiroki Totoki commented in the latest earnings call to confirm that now “only” six live service games are planned to launch in the next three years, down from 12 first announced early last year and recommitted to earlier this year. Of those six, four were formally revealed at this year’s PlayStation Showcase, FairGame$, Concord, Marathon, and Helldivers 2, the last of which is scheduled for a February 2024 launch. The other six are indefinitely delayed for refinement/rescaling, or outright canceled: “So in mid-to-long term, we want to enlarge this [live] service [portfolio], and that’s the unchanged policy of our company. It’s not that we stick to certain titles, but for the gamers, quality should be the most important.”
PC Gamer first reported that Warframe developer Digital Extremes just laid off employees and officially closed its external publishing division less than a year after picking up early access game Wayfinder. Wayfinder was transferred effective immediately back to its developer, Airship Syndicate.
During its first earnings report since the runtime fee fracas and the exit of John Riccitiello, Unity announced that it will “likely” be laying off employees among other cost-cutting measures over the next six months. By the end of November, Unity confirmed that it was imminently firing 265 employees, closing 14 of its offices around the world while reducing office services and ending in-office work mandates, and severing a partnership with Weta FX.
That jackass Jon Blow finally set a public release date for the Braid Anniversary Edition remaster, which is now scheduled to launch April 30th 2024 for PC, mobile via Netflix, PS4/5, and Xbox One/Series, 3.5 years after it was revealed. The Switch port that the original trailer promised wasn’t reconfirmed until the Indie World showcase a week later.
After secretly previewing it for the past week, Valve officially revealed a major new revision to the Steam Deck, the Steam Deck OLED, which officially went on sale November 16th. This revision’s OLED screen is also the first HDR* screen, High Dynamic Range, in gaming handheld history. The revision also offers lighter weight, more efficient heating and battery, and improved WiFi. The Steam Deck lineup going forward will be the old LCD 256GB model at the budget level, followed by the 512GB OLED and the 1T OLED; with the old 64GB and 512GB LCD models both discontinued, all existing stock will be on discount until completely cleared. Valve has been clear that this is not the Steam Deck successor and that will not be ready until late 2025 at the very earliest. I commend this significant refinement of the first generation Deck, this is an unambiguously good revision unlike some others we’ve just had.
November 10th:
One week out from launch, the developer of Super Mario RPG Remake was finally confirmed thanks to the game’s preload credits: Under the supervision of Nintendo leads from Intelligent Systems and EPD, a roughly 35 year old independent Japanese contractor team called ArtePiazza made this project in Unity. ArtePiazza is a longtime partner of Square Enix for ports and rereleases, especially in the Dragon Quest series; their previous most recent projects were two of Square’s SaGa remasters and the pixel/2D mode of Dragon Quest 11S.
November 11th: During the streamer’s regular Geeked Week digital event, Netflix Games brought some news: Modern masterpiece Hades was announced to be the latest classic indie to arrive on mobile via Netflix Games. Braid: Anniversary Edition, Katana Zero, and Death’s Door will also arrive on the service in 2024. And a few new Netflix Original tie-in games were revealed: stealth action game Chicken Run: Eggstraction, narrative adventures Money Heist and Shadow and Bone: Enter the Fold, and a Diablo-like Dragon Prince game.
November 12th: The very last of Tekken 8‘s whopping 32 base roster characters were revealed with two brand new fighters, Victor Chevalier and Reina. Victor is a French spy serving the United ations, and he’s voiced by acclaimed actor Vincent Cassel. Reina is a new main villain who essentially is bringing Heihachi back without Heihachi, his powerful protege and bastard daughter deploying both classic moves and new acrobatic Taido.
November 13th: After 100 layoffs in April, Amazon Games announced that it will fire “just over” 180 additional people in its employ. The company will shut down its Game Growth team and dedicated Crown Twitch channel in the process.
After giving previous updates on upcoming games like the Control sequel and Max Payne Remakes, Remedy also commented on the status of their multiplayer collaboration with Tencent after newly evaluating it with the publisher. The newly renamed Project Kestrel has been rebooted and will no longer be free to play due to the increasing volatility of that market. Some of this project’s developers have been reassigned to other games after this reboot and restart of pre-production, leaving behind a small core team.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook and Tencent have secured an exclusive deal to deliver Meta VR headsets to China starting in late 2024, 15 years after Facebook was banned in the nation.
November 14th: The parent company of B-list publisher 505 Games announced that it will cut a whole 30% of its overall workforce. The Italian publisher and its parent Digital Bros haven’t always behaved well, but it has still been a boon to smaller teams in this tumultuous industry, and its partnership with Remedy for Control blossomed into full on co-development for the sequel.
Indie World Showcase
The presentation began with the next entry in Wayforward’s signature platformer, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, which was first announced at the dedicated Limited Run Games event this summer, but here saw a full gameplay trailer and further console versions confirmed beyond the native GBA cartridge. It will release for PC, Switch, and PS4/5 in 2024. Core Keeper followed, a top down 2D survival sandbox game making its 1.0 launch in Summer 2024 on PC, Switch, PS4/5, and Xbox One/Series after two years of PC Early Access. Two of the coolest games are up next. A new timed exclusive for Switch was fully revealed in On Your Tail by Memorable Games, which was truly made for my dear LibraryLass: a fully 3D narrative adventure and life sim with a mystery story, cute Furry characters, and a gorgeous Mediterranean setting. A turn based tactics RPG in a unique living ink artstyle, Howl tells the story of a deaf prophet battling a sound-based plague sweeping the land. It was revealed and shadowdropped on PC, Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X.
The Star Named EOS by Silver Lining Games appeared next, a first person narrative adventure with a photography and puzzle emphasis, it’s set for Spring 2024 on PC and Switch. Kickstarter project Backpack Hero is a roguelike with an inventory management emphasis and it shadowdrop 1.0 launched on PC and Switch after a period of Steam Early Access; it has PlayStation and Xbox ports in development. Side-scrolling action game Blade Chimera was newly revealed, coming Spring 2024 as a timed console exclusive for Switch, and featuring a signature weapon called the Lumina Sword for not only combat, but also traversal. The latest from Overboard!’s Inkle, full Switch exclusive and dynamic narrative platformer A Highland Song, finally saw its release date announced as December 5th. Creature collecting game Moonstone Island will arrive as a timed Switch exclusive in Spring 2024 after its PC launch this year.
Here’s the last big reveals! Small Chinese team Misty Mountain Studio revealed their second project, Death Trick: Double Blind, a detective adventure game set in a carnival, coming first to Switch in 2024. Almost three full years after the port was first announced in February 2021, the Outer Wilds Switch port returned here finally ready to release December 7th, complete with the Echoes of the Eye expansion. A physical release of Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition for Switch was also confirmed for 2024. Finally, the sizzle reel: Planet of Lana will come to Switch and PlayStation in Spring 2024 after timed Xbox exclusivity, Braid Anniversary Edition as aforementioned, Enjoy the Diner and Passpartout 2 shadowdropped for Switch and PC, acclaimed experimental game Heavenly Bodies coming to Switch February 2024 after its past releases, 3D puzzle platformer The Gecko Gods coming Spring 2024 to PC, Switch, Xbox, and PS, and Japanese X Files adventure game Urban Myth Dissolution Center coming to Switch in 2024.
November 15th:
Sega of America workers filed a labor complaint to the Communication Workers of America, accusing the Sonic publisher of attempted retaliation and refusal to negotiate in good faith: on November 6th, SoA leadership proposed internally that all workers classified as temporary be phased out by February 2024 in favor of outsourcing to Japan and Europe. That would disproportionately affect AEGIS as roughly 40%/80 members are contractors in QA, localization, etc. This proposal was delivered directly to all employees in a mandatory meeting instead of brought for bargaining with AEGIS.
Indies have been disproportionately affected by increasing consumer and publisher belt-tightening. Devolver has discussed this already. And now Humble Games has been affected as well, enacting major layoffs after financial difficulties, as was first reported by, of all places, Sports Illustrated.
Across November 14th, 15th, and 30th, Larian finally gave their biggest updates yet on further releases for Baldur’s Gate 3, even while exact dates will have to wait for another month: the game’s long awaited (digital) launch for Xbox Series S and X will finally arrive in December 2023, with an exact date announced during the Game Awards where BG3 is positioned to sweep. I can’t help but suspect* that it will be a shadowdrop for maximum marketability.
Better yet, a proper physical release for was also detailed. Baldur’s Gate 3 Deluxe Edition will launch in Early 2024 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X, console editions featuring the entire massive game fully playable on disc from two PS5 discs or three Xbox discs. All previous Digital Deluxe content is included, and many physical goodies are added for preorders through Larian’s website, including the complete soundtrack on CD, a map, a poster, two separate cases for the game, and more. And this is not a limited release, it will remain available over time with new stock produced, and Larian promising that initial supply is holding steady with multiple waves planned throughout the launch window to prevent sellouts and scalping. Lastly, the massively expansive Patch 5 just released, and even that is confirmed to be on-disc for the physical Xbox release, currently undecided for PS5 discs.
Larian’s Michael Douse, per IGN: “This experiment is what we feel the future of physical media looks like, at least for us at Larian, We spent the last few months learning how to do it from scratch, and put everything we learned from the Collector’s Edition into what we hope is unbeatable value for what we’re considering our standard physical version going forward. If it works out, we’ll keep doing it this way.
“We understand the value of physical media, and while there are clearly increasingly significant challenges when it comes to the archiving of games, we truly believe it’s worth experimenting, even if it means a fuck ton of discs.”
*This Roundup will be published Monday December 4th, leaving my full Game Awards announcements coverage as usual to the December Roundup published in January. Hope my gamble pays off!
Sega’s Atlus has announced salary increases for the second time this year, with a 15% raise for the starting salary and new performance bonuses in response to its major success, on top of the previous 5% raise.
November 16th: During Embracer Group’s quarterly earnings report, it declared a success of the initial implementation of mass worker bloodletting after losing a planned influx of Saudi Royal cash. The publisher has now confirmed that between July and September, it cut 900 workers, 5% of its previous total workforce, and wrote down 15 projects, with further layoffs, studio closures, and buyouts/divestments planned. CEO Lars Wingefors refused to comment on the status of the Star Wars KOTOR Remake at Embracer subsidiary Saber Interactive, followed by Jeff Grubb saying the game’s development is halted entirely and PlayStation is cutting all ties with the project. Jason Schreier soon countered that multiple people at Saber just told him they’re still currently working on the project. But there’s no confidence on its greater viability, both actually releasing at all and exactly what its condition will be if it does release. If Disney cares enough to, it seems to me the only way to save the project is to start over anywhere other than Embracer Group.
Annapurna Interactive announced its first ever acquisition, longtime support dev 24 Bit Games, the largest dev in South Africa.
NetEase Games established yet another new internal vet-led development studio, this one called Worlds Unknown and fronted by Mac Walters, who was a lead creative at Bioware on the Mass Effect series before departing early this year. Worlds Untold will be a fully remote Vancouver-based developer.
After initially setting console dates for November, Wildcard’s remake Ark: Survival Ascended has been repeatedly, persistently delayed for both PS5 and Xbox Series S|X, until finally hitting Xbox before the end of the month. In brief, this is due to this “early access version” being so janky as hell that it cannot pass console certification, joining Ubisoft’s XDefiant for this very rare dubious honor.
November 17th: Much like last year’s remake, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered saw early leaks, then an extensive leak via an accidental early PSN update, before an emergency reveal a few hours later. Launching January 19th 2024 for PS5, this new native PS5 edition will provide DualSense integration, two brand new modes, Lost Levels and roguelike survival No Return, developer commentary, plus new graphical updates and native 4K support on top of the existing back compat 60fps support. All existing owners will be able to transfer saves and upgrade their game for $10. There will be a single limited deluxe physical edition.
November 19th: The LinkedIn of a contractor developer for Gearbox was discovered, featuring some of the first public mentions for brand new projects he was formerly working on: Borderlands 4, Wonderlands 2, and a new mainline Brothers in Arms.
November 20th: After nearly 15 years at Finnish shmup developer and first party PlayStation team Housemarque, Returnal’s director Harry Krueger departed.
Following from a rushed and very technically shoddy launch, Cities: Skylines 2 has seen multiple DLCs delayed further into 2024 in order to focus on polishing the base PC game first.
Valve marked the 25th anniversary of the original Half-Life with new updates on Steam, featuring Steam Deck support, multiplayer maps, restored content, and graphics options, plus another new behind the scenes feature.
November 21st:
With time for 2023 running out, publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Saber finally, formally delayed Space Marine 2 out of 2023 to H2 2024 for further polish, with an exact, allegedly final, date set to be announced at the Game Awards.
After being previously teased and leaked, Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition was officially announced for a December 5th launch, providing a first time physical release a for the game’s native current-gen editions and Phantom Liberty expansion. Bizarrely, Phantom Liberty is only on-disc for the Xbox version, not PS5, which in turn makes Cyberpunk Ultimate the first three-disc Xbox Series game to release, just narrowly pulling ahead of BG3.
Nintendo suddenly announced December’s Nintendo 64 game for NSO as 1999’s Jet Force Gemini from Rare, a sci fi third person shooter which was N64-exclusive until it arrived as part of the Rare Replay collection on Xbox One in 2015. In Japan, it will arrive on November 30th alongside Goldeneye within a new dedicated 18+ only app for the subscription service due to both games’ age rating in the country.
November 22nd: Former Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeji began blogging about his experiences working at the company for 14 years, most notably discussing what happened to their infamously long disappeared project, PS3 exclusive spy game and vaporware Agent. In short, Agent was already suffering from unsatisfying progress, it was nowhere near finished when it ran up against what actually killed it: the entire team being pulled off to focus on Grand Theft Auto 5. Obbe Vermeji has since deleted these posts at the request of Rockstar.
A second trailer premiered for Embracer Group and Question Games’ multiplayer South Park: Snow Day, showcasing further gameplay and setting a March 2024 release window.
November 23rd: Coffee Talk’s Toge Productions announced that they acquired Mojiken Studio after “years of working together”, merging two of Indonesia’s most prominent game developers. This professional relationship came to a head earlier this year as Toge salvaged and published Mojiken’s A Space for the Unbound following mistreatment of the dev by first publisher PQube.
November 24th: Former My Little Pony fangame and modern indie hit Them’s Fightin Herds unexpectedly brought much ire when its developer abruptly announced the end of post-launch development, canceling the planned completion of its story mode and ending character additions after the two final DLC fighters, expanding the character roster to only 10, release together in 2024. The game’s story will perpetually consist of just a single starter chapter out of a promised 6, and fans are not happy about that.
November 26th: Tiktok parent company ByteDance confirmed to Reuters in a new report that it is divesting from its gaming business and subsidiary Nuverse, ending in-progress game development by the end of this year, hoping to sell off titles already launched, and laying off hundreds of workers. Nuverse most notably publishes Marvel Snap, which according to Reuters, ByteDance considers not commercially successful enough. Developer Second Dinner attempted to reassure fans on social media, but we don’t currently know anything official about a sale to a new parent company/publisher.
November 27th: After the delay from February to June 2024 was reported by Jason Schreier back in October, Bungie finally confirmed the delay for Destiny 2’s The Final Shape expansion.
November 28th
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Showcase: The new event offered an extended look at new gameplay and new monsters, and the release date. As indicated by multiple recent leaks, Dragon’s Dogma 2 was revealed to be launching March 22nd 2024 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series as Capcom’s last title for the fiscal year, its first $70 game, and its first full current-gen exclusive.
November 29th:
After a previous ratings board leak and the Ubisoft+ service leaking it earlier the same morning, Ubisoft went ahead and confirmed that Beyond Good & Evil: 20th Anniversary Edition will be launching in Early 2024. The initial ESRB leak listed the game as a full cross platform release for PC, Switch, PS4/5, and Xbox Series. The build briefly playable on Ubisoft+ was torn apart online for being visually much worse than the original or the previous remaster that’s already on Xbox, though Ubisoft insists that wasn’t the final build and it will be improved.
Skunkape Games gave a new update on Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered, the final rerelease in the seminal adventure game series. Release was delayed from 2023 to Spring 2024, but first screenshots and new details were given in its stead. The game will be available for PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One with BC support on current-gen.
Sons of the Forest will leave early access for 1.0 launch on February 22nd 2024, with Shawn Ashmore joining the voice cast in the 1.0 update.
As previously rumored, Netflix Games has announced an attempt to beef up its third party offerings by securing a Grand Theft Auto, namely the Trilogy Definitive Edition remasters coming December 14th two years after their very troubled launch.
Level-5 Vision: After its 25th anniversary last month, Level 5 streamed a presentation focused on new gameplay and launch windows for their upcoming slate of games announced earlier this year and delayed out of it, starting with Megaton Musashi: Wired. The mecha action RPG is now set for April 25th 2024 on PC, Switch, and PS4/5. The new Fantasy Life i was rescheduled for Summer 2024; its newly enhanced character creator was shown off, along with new options for traversal, jobs, and more. Mysteriously, Level 5 says it has a specific date already scheduled for Fantasy Life, but for “strategic” reasons, it cannot be announced yet. Soccer game Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road will have a worldwide beta test in March 2024 ahead of launch. DecaPolice was delayed to 2024.
Professor Layton and the New Word of Steam saw a full gameplay reveal, story info, and a 2025 launch window for Switch(es). The game is a direct sequel to Unwound Future set in the American steampunk city of Steam Bison, where Layton reunites with his protege Luke who’s now an independent detective of his own. Point and click adventure gameplay and extensive stylus/touchscreen usage are featured. Lastly, another Level-5 Vision presentation was announced for April 2024 with further updates on the aforementioned forthcoming games, and a brand new game reveal, which is understood to be Yo-Kai Watch 5, the series’ first entry to release outside Asia since 2019.
November 30th: The latest PC Gaming Show (Most Wanted edition) featured two of the most anticipated games, Hades 2 and Silksong, but in the most fannish non-entity way possible. However, it still had plenty of announcements, and here’s a few notable ones. After debuting at this year’s PlayStation Showcase, stylized sci fi Metroidvania Ultros had its launch date announced as February 13th 2024 for PC and PS4/5. Another PlayStation featured/timed exclusive game we’ve seen was Pacific Drive, a first person driving-based horror game which will now launch February 22nd 2024 for PS5 and PC. Action RPG Flintlock from the developers of Ashen is scheduled for Summer 2024 on PC, Xbox One/Series, and PS4/5 after it debuted at the 2022 Xbox Showcase. Two especially long-awaited titles reappeared: RTS Homeworld 3 saw preorders open alongside the announcement of its new March 2024 launch date, while stop motion narrative adventure Harold Halibut is almost here with an Early 2024 window for PC, PS4/5, and Xbox One/Series.
December 3rd: Epic Games followed up its massively successful “Fortnite OG” event with major new updates for the start of the Chapter 5 overhaul, all on the heels of admitting that it’s operating at a loss. LEGO Fortnite (open world survival game with thousands of Lego-ised cosmetics), Rocket Racing, an arcade racer by Rocket League’s Psyonix, and Fortnite Festival (a full rhythm game based on past in-game festivals, its first “Icon” is The Weeknd) by Harmonix, were all revealed and set to release consecutively between December 7th and December 9th.
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