Valorant Announced For June 2 Release

Since the debut of Valorant’s closed beta which shipped last month, the approaching 5v5 team shooter has swiftly and continues to pick up a lot of traction in anticipation for the game’s release in the coming month. At the time of the closed beta going live, the game within its first day on Twitch surpassed 1.7 million viewers which certainly showed to be a good sign for the title to say the least. And while the game went on to continue gaining popularity well into May now, Riot Games has emerged to share that Valorant will be officially be releasing on June 2nd. The developer shared the news in a new blog post this week. If you’ve been following along, you probably heard our announcement that VALORANT is launching to most of the world* on June 2 (yes that also includes you OCE!). That’s in a few weeks (we also said that)! Riot Games tells that despite the closed beta officially coming to an end with the release date just shy of being two weeks away, player feedback is still encouraged for fans to continue to the vocal relationship the team has with its player base. The studio emphasizes that communication is what sways big changes to be made for the game and urges it to still be routine to better the overall experience. The team also discloses to have a better understanding of cheaters present in online game lobbies with its in-house anti-cheat protocol Vanguard. “Up to now, while we’ve been able to track and understand the inputs by which we identify cheaters, many of our ban waves have been manually reviewed and implemented by our anti-cheat team (and they’ve still managed to ban thousands so far). Come launch, we will be more aggressive, widespread, and automated in our ability to detect and ban cheaters.” Adding on, the studio shares that Riot Games will be working towards bringing new content such as maps, agents, and other decorative cosmetics to the game following launch. While not much can be said on identifying the DLC, the team did share that “this year’s going to be a fun one.” Are you excited to finally play Valorant next month? Valorant is slated to ship for PC on June 2, 2020. Source: Riot Games

Embracer Group Reveals Over 110+ Titles Currently In Development, Financial Report Tells 69 Titles Still Unannounced

As we can already associate with THQ Nordic and its parent company Embracer Group, there is a plethora of properties that the two firms are in ownership of. Even more, there is plenty of projects that are underway. As we learned around this time last year that THQ Nordic is touching close to a 100 games, more so 80 to be specific, 2020 is already topping its predecessor. According to the latest financial report established by The Embracer Group this week ,the company tells that altogether – there are roughly 120 titles that are being churned out by its acquired, partner development teams. The company goes on to tell that about 70 when rounded up has yet to be announced yet. I genuinely believe that we have one of the industry’s most exciting pipelines of upcoming games, engaging over 3,000 game developers across the world. We believe this will drive significant organic growth in revenue, operational EBIT and cash flow in the Games business area in the coming years.With the acquisition of Saber Interactive, the Group currently has over 118 games under development including 69 still yet to be announced titles. Lars Wingefors, Embracer Group Founder & CEO Taken from the statement, Embracer Group does note the recent acquisition of American developer Saber Interactive. The team also partnered with 2K is currently working on the upcoming WWE Battlegrounds. With that in mind, there are still a myriad of other anticipated projects that are also slated to ship in the coming future as well under Embracer Group. Once being the highly-anticipated and nostalgic Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated which is planned to ship next month in June. Adding on to remade childhood experiences, Destroy All Humans with its respected remake is also scheduled to hit store shelves the following month in July. And while it is still unsure where this project plans to take itself next, Dead Island 2 is still in the works as revealed by a recent job listing. Most excitingly, THQ Nordic shared in a separate financial report elsewhere last August that a new mainline installment for the Saints Row series is on the way after the series being on hold since its fourth entry which shipped in 2013. You can read the full report by heading here. What game are you most excited to see from Embracer Groups armada of development teams? Source: Embracer Group

Next Level Racing Denies “Knowing Any Information Regarding The Launch Of GT7” Following Logo Surfacing

Yesterday spawned a lot of noise and chatter surrounding product manufacturer Next Level Racing. The Australian license holder for PlayStation recently shared an image on its social media lines displaying an image of approaching racing-focused properties like Codemasters’ Dirt 5 and Reiza Studios’ Automobilista 2. The post then reading “What racing game are you most looking forward to in 2020?” However, what stood out is that the photo shared logos for already announced titles alongside on for Gran Turismo 7 – this has yet to be properly announced. Developer Polyphony Digital nor publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio has yet to disclose that a seventh entry is on the horizon. With that being clear after the post was published, Next Level Racing retracted the image. Follow suit, the firm went on to leave a statement on the matter that quickly picked up traction for fans excited to learn there is a new Gran Turismo title on the way. Our team has recognized that a recent post by us using a logo has been misinterpreted by media and it does not reflect any information from our end, and we deny knowing any information regarding the launch of GT7. There have been assumptions made in the media that are quite simply untrue. Due to this, we have decided to take down our previous social post. Our Graphic Design Department used the mock logo that is circulated on the internet. As said that the graphic designers hired under Next Level Racing used a doctored logo for Gran Turismo 7, that same design cannot be found online as of reporting. The only conclusion that can be made is that either the logo show happens to be legitimate for the new title which has yet to take the spotlight or was an in-house design by the graphic designers at the company. For the time being, it does look to be more of the latter especially with how close Sony is to unleashing that approaching PlayStation 5 console. Perhaps the company is planning to showcase Gran Turismo 7 for the upcoming console later on if this does happen to be accurate later on. Currently, it is speculated that Sony will host a PlayStation 5 press conference/event sometime in early June. You can read the full report by heading here. What do you want to see about Gran Turismo 7 if it happens to be announced later on? Source: Next Level Racing

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Could Face A Return To New Platforms Speculation Entails From Ubisoft’s Response To Author

For fans who have read the six-part books series penned by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim turns ten years old. Well the movie does: dubbed ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’ taken after the second book, the film adaptation directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead will officially be turning a decade old later this August. And while movie buffs celebrate the anniversary of the movie’ box office debut, fans of the titular brawler also partake in the party. Around the same time the film broke out, a video game based off the events of the book series released shortly before that. Developed by Assassin’s Creed studio Ubisoft Montreal, the title interprets the sprite-based art style that is evident in the books and the film into a full experience. While also following the formula of the continuous fighting encounters that Scott Pilgrim faces throughout the story, it all comes together as one big well-thought game. Now this week, Bryan Lee O’Malley himself tweeted that he wants the game to return. Typing “bring back the scott pilgrim game” where Ubisoft went on to responded with a singular thinking emoji that instantly grasped attention for fans to speculate this could actually become a reality. While it is unsure if O’Malley’s post actually sprouted Ubisoft’s curiosity to possibly return the title to new systems, it is exciting that this could possibly be on the table. Perhaps Ubisoft already had it in mind since the anniversary isn’t until later this summer, it would be a welcomed addition to the storefronts on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and even PC. During the game’s debut previously, the title only saw the light of day for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. So if this supposed return for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World does come to fruition, this would be the inauguration for both PC alongside the Nintendo platforms as well. Even more, perhaps there could be some added content to the game like more playable characters or new stages would be a possibility if this does happen. As for now, take this report simply as conjecture until properly disclosed by Ubisoft since nothing has been set in stone. Would you like to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World return to newer systems? Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is currently available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Latest Take-Two Interactive Financial Report Shares More Content Planned For GTA Online & Red Dead Online

Before the official start of this current console generation, the industry already acknowledged that Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V would become one of the most successful titles to hit the market back in 2013. Following the game’s initial release, the title continued to keep relevance in sales charts and broke records almost instantly. Then with the game’s re-release for the newer systems alongside PC later on only helped prosper the sales figures even more. And following this past January, we finally witnessed the result of how influential the latest entry became in the last decade. In a report conducted by NPD Games, Grand Theft Auto V stood to be the top selling title in the 2010s. While Activision’s Call of Duty franchise held ten spots on the top 20 list, the franchise could not topple Rockstar Games’ singular release. Now according to the parent company, Take-Two Interactive, the firm’s recent financial report for fiscal year 2019 shares that Grand Theft Auto V has sold 130,000,000 units since its original September 2013 release. On the latter of entries for Rockstar Games, Take-Two also reports that 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2 stood at 31 million sold units as well. Following the success of both properties, Take-Two Interactive notes that the respected online portion of both titles are expected to receive more content throughout the course of the ongoing fiscal year. Throughout fiscal year 2020, we will continue to support our titles with innovative post-launch content that drives engagement and recurrent consumer spending, including many more updates for Red Dead Online and Grand Theft Auto Online. Surprisingly, Red Dead Redemption 2 has really swept up traction in the market with the game accumulating roughly a quarter of Grand Theft Auto V’s sales shy of two years of being a retail release. Even when reflecting on the NPD Games report, the game stood as seventh on the chart toppling five Call of Duty titles that are on that list. Take-Two Interactive reiterates on previous reports sharing that the continued traction through multiplayer on the two titles continues to sway more content to be shoveled out. Stepping back to late January, Rockstar Games shared that GTA Online alongside Red Dead Online has faced a new record high player count which even exceeds previous record highs made when the game was still new to the market. You can read the full report by heading here. Have you been busy in the online lobbies for GTA Online or Red Dead Online? Source: Take-Two Interactive

PlatinumGames Denounce Previous Claims Of Microsoft’s Pursuit To Acquire The Studio

Dating back to February of this year, PlatinumGames began to take a prolific stance as the team established a very vocal standing in the industry at the time. This happened to spruce from the ongoing Platinum4 initiative which the team shared to be the first stepping stone towards becoming a self-publishing studio. However, the team has then went on to spun into potentially returning to other beloved series without the initial publishers controlling development or where the respected sequels will land. One being Bayonetta: PlatinumGames’ head Atsuhi Inaba told IGN Japan that the team if managing to establish a new entry without Nintendo on its back, the team developer would have to resort to yet another Kickstarter campaign with an even higher benchmark to reach as well. Elsewhere, the studio went on to tell that it would again like to break off its leash for Astral Chain also with Nintendo. However, the team is afraid that only Nintendo can make that decision. Around that time, there also happened to be claims which suggested that Microsoft at one point approached PlatinumGames to join the Xbox Game Studios family. And it made sense – the team did initially work on the platform exclusive Scalebound earlier this generation before its cancellation. However, that is not the case at all Atsushi and studio Director Hideki Kamiya tell in a new interview. Speaking with Video Game Chronicles, the two spare that the rumors that circulated at the time are purely fabricated as they were not aware of them until reading the headlines as well. I did read some rumours about Xbox wanting to purchase PlatinumGames, and I thought, “people on the internet write the craziest stuff”, because that conversation has not come to our doorstep at all. Atsushi Inaba, PlatinumGames’ Head Adding on, Kamiya went to share that perhaps the rumors only surfaced due to the fact that he still worked at PlatinumGames which could have sparked the reports to hit the internet. “Maybe somebody reminded them that I’m still at the studio, and they were like, ‘right then, forget that! We’re not going to acquire them!’” While it still is unsure for Microsoft’s stance on the issue since only one side of the coin has been cleaned, we will have to wait if Phil Spencer or other Xbox executives comment on the matter. The firm has shown to be rather eager into bringing more projects from Japanese developers to its platforms either through marketing campaigns or developing an agreement to release titles only on PlayStation to launch later on for Xbox. On the discussion between Microsoft and PlatinumGames, Inaba told Eurogamer Portugal that the team would like to acquire the publishing rights for Scalebound. Especially since the game never properly picked off, this looked to be the easiest task of the three previous projects to come to fruition for the developer. You can read the full report by heading here. What is your opinion if Microsoft actually acquired PlatinumGames? Source: Video Game Chronicles