Atlus Wants to Know if You Want its Games on Xbox
Sega and Atlus seem to be much more open to porting the latter's core games to more platforms of late, but while PC and the Nintendo Switch have often come up in conversations about Atlus games, Xbox has mostly been ignored. In its own yearly surveys, when Atlus asks about what platforms players would like to play their games on, Xbox is typically missing from the options. That's changed this year.
In its newest survey (via Persona Central), Atlus asks if players want to see releases from a number of its core franchises on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. These franchises include the likes of Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, Etrian Odyssey, and more. Meanwhile, several questions in the survey also seem to be focused on smartphones, while the survey also asks about older games from several franchises.
Atlus is currently at work on a number of upcoming projects, including Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD, Shin Megami Tensei 5, and Project Re: Fantasy, while the developer also seems to have something planned for Persona's 25th anniversary celebrations this year.
Control Wasn't "A Major Hit", But Remedy is Happy With its Success
Control is probably one of Remedy Entertainment's best games to date, which is high praise indeed, and thankfully, that's been reflected in the commercial success the game has enjoyed as well. Though it may not have been a smash hit selling dozens of millions of copies, Control has still driven impressive revenues for the Finnish developer, and speaking recently with GamesIndustry, Remedy CEO Tero Virtala expressed satisfaction at that success.
Though Virtala acknowledges that the two million copies Control has sold doesn't make it "a major hit", Remedy is still happy with the game's success, especially since it also received widespread praise from critics and audiences alike.
"We're really happy with the success of Control," he said. "It won Game of the Year awards, it has sold over two million units and continues selling — but two million is not yet a major hit in our industry. When we talk about major hit games, we're talking on an industry level — that's what we're aiming at."
Remedy is currently at work on multiple upcoming projects, one of which is will be made in partnership with Epic Games. Meanwhile, the team that made Control is also at work on the studio's next big project, which is set in the same universe as Control and Alan Wake. In total, Remedy Entertainment is currently working on five new games, spread out across four different teams.
Control is currently available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Tales of Arise Receives its First Trailer in Over a Year, More Info Coming This Spring
The development cycle of Tales of Arise has been a curious one. Anticipation surrounding the game has been high since its announcement, not just because it looks quite promising, but also because it's promising to reinvent Bandai Namco's role playing franchise. After being announced at E3 2019 though, other than a trailer at Tokyo Game Show a few months later, there have been next to no updates on the game, a situation made even more frustrating by the game's delay.
Bandai Namco promised recently that more information on the game would be shared soon, and true to their word, they've released a new story trailer for the upcoming RPG. Tales of Arise will see dual protagonists – a man named Alphen and a woman named Shionne – embarking on a journey together. Shionne's home world of Rena is technologically and magically superior, and holds power over the medieval world of Dahna – which is where Alphen hails from – subjecting its people to slavery.
Bandai Namco have also promised that more new information on the game will be shared not long from now, in the Spring. The developer said not too long ago that the RPG was in the final stages of its development, so hopefully we'll be hearing about a release date soon.
Tales of Arise is in development for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. There's no word yet on whether PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions are also in the works. For what it's worth, this newest trailer doesn't mention the new consoles.
Could Umbrella Corporation Still Have a Role to Play In Resident Evil Village?
Even though Umbrella Corporation hasn't been around in the Resident Evil chronology for a long time, the evil, corrupt organization still looms large over the series and everything to do with it. Players fought against Umbrella and its messed up antics for years, and once they were gone, we took up arms either in attempts to clean up the messes they'd left behind, or to quash the even bigger problems that only existed because of Umbrella's own actions.
Of course, Umbrella Corporation were right in the thick of things once again quite recently, with the recent remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, but it's quite possible that the villainous organization could have a role to play in the upcoming Resident Evil Village as well. In fact, I'd say that it's not just quite possible- it's entirely likely. And there are several things that point to that.
The first and most obvious reason for that belief is, of course, Resident Evil Village's debut trailer. When Capcom first announced the game in last year, one particular shot from the trailer caught the attention of a lot of Resident Evil fans. The shot in question showed the classic logo of the Umbrella Corporation quite clearly, and Capcom obviously made sure to put that in the very first trailer we saw of the game for a reason. The reason, I think, is that Umbrella is going to be involved in the game's story in a pretty major way.
One thing that's become abundantly clear in all that we've seen of Resident Evil Village so far is that whatever is going on in the game's titular village stems from things that were kicked into motion long before the game's event kick off. The Maiden demo on the PS5, for instance, reveals that Lady Dimitrescu has been around since at least the late 1950s, and has had her vampiric abilities since around that time, if not even earlier.
That's quite a long time before the events of Resident Evil Village, or even RE0, which is the first mainline game in the series' chronology. But as Resident Evil 5 explains, Umbrella's history is much longer than what earlier games in the series suggested. The corporation's experiments with and studies of bioweapons and experimental viruses only began when they found the flower known as Stairway of the Sun in West Africa. That flower led to the creation of the Progenitor Virus, which, as its name suggests, is the root cause of all the countless viruses and bioweapons we've seen throughout the course of the series.
Umbrella discovered that flower in 1966, which, of course, is several years after what we know to be the earlier known indication of Lady Dimitrescu having her powers- but there has to be a very good reason for why Umbrella's logo can be found in the village in such prominent fashion. Someone obviously put it there. The logo itself is surrounded by four other crests, and the whole thing seems to be a very ceremonial vibe to it. And sure, at this point, all we can do is speculate based on very little information, but some theories do seem plausible.
For instance, it's entirely possible that the powers that reign over RE Village's village are Lady Dimitrescu and possibly three other groups, each represented by one of the four crests I mentioned earlier. And it's entirely sure that these four groups together, in some way, shape, or form, were either became involved with Umbrella not long after their work started, or may even have been responsible, in some fashion, for the corporation's existence.
And why would they bother? Well, for obvious reasons. Umbrella co-founder Ozwell Spencer was driven by two primary motivations in all that he did. One was to create a superior form of humans to remake the world in his own village, and the other was to find a way to essentially become immortal and bring an end to the very concept of ageing.
Given the fact that Lady Dimitrescu is a super-powered woman in a position of power who doesn't seem to age – and has been for a while – it's clear that she aligns with Umbrella's goals quite well. We have heard Dimitrescu talking to someone called Mother Miranda in the game's trailers, and she seems to be in charge of the whole operation here- so it is possible that this Mother Miranda, or maybe even some other overseer, has been pulling the strings from behind the shadows for as long as there have been strings to pull?
And it's obvious that Dimitrescu and her "daughters" are far from the only superpowered monstrosities that we're going to be introduced to soon. This village has obviously been living in the shadow of terrifying things for a long time, and we've even seen werewolf-like creatures. Other creatures like massive giants and zombies have also been spotted. So isn't it possible that the four theoretical groups of power we mentioned earlier came together to make this village they seem to reign over a massive lab of sorts for Umbrella? Perhaps Umbrella Corporation experimented with all manner of viruses and bioweapons here over many years, which is why we see all these different kinds of nightmarish creatures everywhere.
Resident Evil Village producer Peter Fabiano did recently state that all the creatures in the game would "it within the context of Resident Evil's world" and that the game's story would "take into account the overall world and history of the series." Maybe this is just confirmation bias and I'm believing what I want to believe, but those statements sure do seem to indicate that Umbrella might have been responsible in some form or another for what we're seeing in Resident Evil Village.
The fact that RE Village is set in Europe is also worth calling out. Starting with CODE – Veronica and most recently with Resident Evil 3's remake, it's been made abundantly clear that many of Umbrella Corporation's most major operations were based in Europe. The close proximity of Umbrella Europe and the village might just be a coincidence, sure- but then again, maybe not.
Speaking of CODE – Veronica, it's possible that Capcom set up a connection to that game back in Resident Evil 7 as well, which explains that the criminal syndicate The Connections that was responsible for the Mold bioweapon originally started working on the virus with the H.C.F. back in 2000. And what exactly was the HCF? That's right- a group of highly trained soldiers led by none other than Albert Wesker himself.
Of course, there is one complication that we need to consider. Resident Evil 7 also introduced Blue Umbrella, a reformed PMC consisting of several former Umbrella members who have now become dedicated to cleaning up the messes left behind by the original corporation, and seem to be all about fighting the scourge of bioterrorism. Hell, even Chris Redfield is willing to work with them, and not in a million years would Chris Redfield, of all people, work with Umbrella Corporation. Based on all appearances, it seems like Blue Umbrella really do have the best of intentions.
But… maybe not? RE7's Not a Hero DLC makes it clear that Chris doesn't trust Blue Umbrella an awful lot, and he only seems to be working with them because they seem to share a common goal. And sure, Chris himself has seemingly turned to the dark side in RE Village, what with him having killed Mia and kidnapped Ethan's daughter and everything, but it's almost guaranteed that there's more going on than meets the eye. Is it possible that Blue Umbrella is just a front for the actual Umbrella to continue its shady activities? Perhaps Chris was only working with them to be able to investigate them more closely? Perhaps he learned about their true intentions after he started working with them, some time between the events of RE7 and 8?
Clearly, there's a lot of dots to connect here. Individually, much of this seems circumstantial at best, and again, it's entirely possible that this is confirmation bias at play- maybe I just really want Umbrella to be back in the limelight again, so I'm reading between the lines and believing what I want to believe. But again, I keep coming back to that Umbrella logo in Resident Evil Village. It's not just there for aesthetic purposes. It's there for story reasons, and one way or another, Umbrella Corporation is going to have a major role to play in RE Village's story. I would be extremely surprised if it didn't.
Marvel's Avengers Hawkeye DLC – 5 Details You Need To Know About It
Marvel's Avengers hasn't immediately enjoyed the sort of post-launch success that Square Enix would have been hoping. The game received at best middling reception from critics and players upon release, while support for it following that has not been the best either. The fact that there has only been one major DLC drop for it in six months has done its ever-dwindling playerbase no favours- but soon, a second major content drop is coming.
A Hawkeye DLC has been announced for Marvel's Avengers for a long time now, and soon, he will be joining the game's roster of playable superheroes, bringing with him new playable content, new story, and more. With Clint Barton's arrival now days away, in this feature, we'll be going over the most crucial details you should know about this DLC.
STORY
Crystal Dynamics set up Clint Barton's arrival a few months ago in the Kate Bishop DLC, giving us an idea of what to expect when he takes centerstage in his own story- but what can we expect from how the story is going to play out in the upcoming DLC, titled Operation: Future Imperfect? Well, fans of the "My Life as a Weapon" and "Old Man Hawkeye" stories will find a lot of familiar stuff here.
Involving time-bending shenanigans, a trip into a darker, alternate reality future, and more, Operation: Future Imperfect is looking like it's going to be quite the eventful affair. Players are going to travel to a new area, a completely new biome called the Wasteland- which, as its name suggests, is a desolate and destroyed location in a post-apocalyptic version of the Earth. Hawkeye, who is on the lookout for none other than Nick Fury, is going to be fighting to ensure that the end of the world he's trudging through never comes to pass in his own reality.
What's most interesting about Operation: Future Imperfect is who's going to take the spotlight as the villain. Maestro, an alternate version of Hulk, who has the intelligence of Bruce Banner but the terrifying brute strength of his big green alter ego, is going to be Hawkeye's primary foe in this new chapter, and we're quite curious to see how that plays out.
FIGHTING STYLE
Given the fact that Hawkeye is a ranged fighter, and one who's significantly less overflowing with innate superpowered abilities than most other Avengers, it goes without saying that his fighting style is going to be a little different. There will be an equal focus on both his abilities as a master archer, as well as his equally impressive abilities as a Ronin for up-close and melee combat.
Several examples of both have also been detailed by Crystal Dynamics. Quickdraw Reflex, for instance, will allow Clint to sidestep an incoming move and instantly respond with his own shot, staggering the enemy. Using Ranger's Momentum, he can instantly snap to targets and focus on their weak points for increased damage. Then there's his Dead Eye Skill, which enables him to focus on and single out a single enemy and increase damage on it with razor arrows.
All in all, players can expect Hawkeye to be quite different from the other playable characters. While his skillset will be similar to that of Kate Bishop, the two will control quite differently. While Kate is much more mobile and quick, Hawkeye is going to be a lot more impactful even when he's standing his ground against enemies.
ARROW TYPES
Of course, ranged combat is the bread and butter of anything and everything to do with Clint Barton, which means players can expect to find several different kinds of arrows to use when playing as him, each with their own unique effects and advantages. Grapple Arrows allow you to traverse environments, but can also be used in combat to pull yourself in closer to enemies and then attack them with your sword. Rocket Arrows can attach to enemies and then send them flying, literally so.
Implosion Arrows pull groups of enemies in on each other, making them a great crowd control tool. Pulsar Arrows can be attached to surfaces, and build up energy before exploding, with the explosion being bigger and deadlier the longer the arrows are allowed to build up energy. Tripwire Arrows, as the name suggests, are perfect for staggering, and can even be used to push back larger, more formidable foes. Again, this seems like a good crowd control weapon. Finally, there's Boomerang Arrows- which is pretty self-explanatory.
But that's not all. Even when it comes to Heroic Abilities, Clint Barton seems to have plenty of stuff up his sleeve.
HEROIC ABILITIES
Each character in Marvel's Avengers also comes, of course, with their own unique abilities, called Heroic Abilities, that can be used on a cooldown. So what can players expect from Hawkeye in this area? Well, there seems to be a good balance here. The Assault Heroic, called Nightstorm Arrows, sees Clint shooting explosive arrows into the air, after which they land down on enemies below in clusters to deal AoE damage.
His Support Heroic ability is something that a lot of Avengers players will be glad to see. Called Recovery Arrow, as its name suggests, Hawkeye's Support Heroic will allow him to shoot nanobots through arrows at his allies and heal them up in the midst of combat. In a game that hasn't put a lot of emphasis on support classes or healer classes so far, that's a welcome addition.
Finally, there's his Ultimate Heroic, called Hunter's Arrow. Once fired, it will be guided by an AI and will flit through the battlefield on its own, piercing through enemies as long as it is activated. Players can also upgrade the Hunter's Arrow in several ways to make it more effective, from being able to fire two of them at a time, to commanding it to target specific foes, to even adding explosive charges to it in order to deal greater damage.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
With a new playable character, new story content, a new biome to explore and traverse, and new abilities to master, it's clear that Operation: Future Imperfect looks like a pretty meaty content drop- which is long overdue for this game, honestly. But as you'd expect, that's not all either. The DLC is also going to bring some other stuff. For starters, where the actual content is concerned, in addition to the main story missions, you can also obviously expect new side missions and villain sectors and what have you.
In addition to that, there will also be some new cosmetic content. Hawkeye will, of course, have his own set of outfits for you to look through. Crystal Dynamics have already shown glimpses of a few of the many outfits they're going to add for the characters, and there seems to be plenty of variety, pulling in various different looks for the character from across years of appearances. Finally, there will also be new emotes for players to unlock and make use of.
Anthem Next Cancelled – What This Means for Dragon Age 4
It's official – Anthem Next, BioWare's much-anticipated revamp for Anthem, is dead. Executive producer Christian Dailey recently broke the news and revealed that the events of last year impacted the developer's productivity. As such, resources will be going towards the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect along with Star Wars: The Old Republic updates. Anthem services will remain online for the time being, even if the player base is beyond dead.
There's a lot you could say about this. For many fans, it felt like an inevitability. Anthem was a fundamentally flawed game at launch, from its story-telling, loot and combat to its lackluster endgame and multiplayer. Despite being shifted to BioWare Austin, which has done very well with improving Star Wars: The Old Republic over the years, the Anthem Next team was only composed of some 30 people. A report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier indicated that overhauling the project and adding new content would require a team three times that size. EA clearly decided it wasn't worth the cost.
However, this feels like the latest in a long line of failures for Electronic Arts' live service model. The publisher got off to a rocky start (and that's being kind) with Star Wars: Battlefront 2 in 2017. Though things would improve for it in 2018 and beyond, Battlefield 5 would then face backlash for the lack of content at launch, delay for modes like Firestorm, questionable balance changes and yes, halting further development to work on its next project.
Anthem would release in February 2019 and further salt the earth. Flawed launch aside, all kinds of new features and story content on its content roadmap were subsequently pulled. The game then shifted to a seasonal approach with updates like the Cataclysm (which was also a far cry from the E3 2017 reveal). For many people, this feels like the epitome of live service gone wrong – promise the moon before launch, provide a "roadmap" to assuage fans and then subsequently renege on everything.
For BioWare itself, however, this feels like a long time coming. The studio has been struggling with issues like crunch and poor management decisions, relying on the now-routinely mocked "BioWare Magic" to get things done. This overall style of thinking could be seen impeding the likes of Dragon Age 2. Anthem was the breaking point though – it began development in 2012 as Dylan and floundered for years until properly beginning development in 2017. Taking everything together, BioWare's credibility as a studio should be at its lowest.
Of course, the operative word is should. Following Anthem's release, BioWare has been steadily working towards other efforts like the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect. There's also Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, a long-requested remastered trilogy which will likely serve to ease new fans into the franchise for the upcoming sequel while also reconciling with older fans. The departure of studio general manager Casey Hudson, known for his work on the Mass Effect trilogy, and executive producer Mark Darrah, who worked on the next Dragon Age, along with the promotion of Dailey indicates a more forward-thinking direction for the company.
After all, if Dailey and his team were doing good work on Anthem Next, why not allocate those resources and talent to a future project, that too one with a more positive outlook? From EA's perspective, Dragon Age is going to be a much bigger deal than Anthem in the coming years. It will likely release before the next Mass Effect and serve as not only a showcase for Frostbite on next-gen consoles but also as proof that BioWare can still deliver high-quality story-telling.
There is another dimension to all of this. At first, it seemed that Dragon Age 4 would incorporate live service elements (according to Kotaku's report on the past and present of Dragon Age 4). However, in a follow-up report by Schreier, it seems that it will now only be a single-player RPG. Anthem's failure is one factor but so is the success of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order – a single-player title which ended up selling over 10 million units since launch.
And while this recent report may sound too good to be true, it makes sense in a way. Why devote resources to having BioWare work on a multiplayer title that's long-past dead? Why repeat those same mistakes? Why not have it return to its roots and create single-player RPGs, something it excelled at? It should seem so obvious and yet, it's taken a high profile failure like this to truly pivot in that direction.
At this point, the BioWare of Baldur's Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect fame is long gone. Whether it's the talent and founders who helped put it on the map or the individuals who had a hand in some of its biggest titles. You could lament the BioWare of old and how it will never return. However, with the moves made over the past several months, coupled with a renewed focus on its best IPs, BioWare is seemingly moving away from the pall that's followed it since the days of Mass Effect 3's ending controversy.
We'll never truly know what's going on internally – how many times Dragon Age 4 has changed or even how many iterations Mass Effect 4 had to go through before being green-lit. We may never know the extent to which EA is now involved with BioWare, especially following Anthem's failure, and whether it has any checks and balances in place to prevent the same mistakes.
But for those who aren't sure whether to trust BioWare, EA or either going forward, there are plenty of good reasons. Despite what seems to be big changes at the studio, it's still without a general manager (Gary McKay is currently acting as interim GM). EA's chief studios officer Laura Miele said the search was underway back in December but there's been no update since. Those who purchased Anthem for full price at launch won't be compensated for its terrible launch. There may be hype for the next Mass Effect and Dragon Age but we've seen no gameplay from either. And given that Anthem's initial demo was largely faked, one couldn't be blamed for not believing everything they see.
Finally, lest we forget, even if BioWare is back to making single-player RPGs, it's the flawed development processes, crunch and mismanagement that ultimately led to its decline. We could debate on whether having an open world will be the game's downfall or not. But if the development process behind it is still reliant on "BioWare Magic", hoping that things will magically come together at the last minute while churning and burning developers, it's already doomed.
Whether Bioware can live up to its past legacy, forge a new one or regress to its old ways remains to be seen. The studio is decidedly not the same as the one of years past – time will tell if this is ultimately for better or for worse.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
Remedy Entertainment Currently Has 5 Games In Development Among 4 Teams
Remedy Entertainment may have delivered their best game yet in 2019 with Control, but the developer has been around for quite some time. They have always been a very active studio, and they may very well be entering their most active period yet, as they have a lot of projects in the works.
It's been known for awhile that Remedy has multiple projects ongoing, but now we have some more exact numbers. As reported via GamesIndustry, the company has 4 active teams going right now according to CEO Tero Virtala. The main team that worked on Control, in addition to working on more ports of that game, has started work on their next big title. They have another team tackling a multiplayer title being referred to as Vanguard, while a third team is working on two unannounced projects that will be part of the partnership with Epic Games. Finally, the last team is the one working on the CrossfireX campaign that is set to release sometime this year. No details were given about the unannounced projects.
Thanks in large part to the success of Control, 2020 was a record year for Remedy. It sounds like they aren't slowing down either. Hopefully, we'll start hearing about some of these projects soon.
Quantum Error Gets Creepy Gameplay Tease Ahead Of Future Games Spring Showcase
An early game that was announced to be coming to next gen consoles was Quantum Error. The developer once had hoped to get the game out by the launch of the PS5, but it was not to be. Since then we got confirmation of Xbox versions of the title also coming, and a wait for when we could get through the horrors of a hellish space station. Well, we may not have to wait too long, as a new tease for gameplay is here.
The developer released a very brief teaser ahead of a bigger reveal that will happen at this year's Future Games Spring Showcase. There's not a lot there, but it manages to make quite an impression as it's filled with mutated spiders, several humanoid monsters, and some gooey, blood flesh bags.
As of now Quantum Error has no release date, but it will come to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Xbox Series X/S. The next time we're expected to see the game is the Future Games Spring Showcase, which will occur March 25th.
Kena: Bridge Of Spirits Will Have Free PS4 To PS5 Upgrade
This new generation of consoles has brought about a lot of new titles to look forward to. One of those that was unveiled alongside the PS5 was Kena: Bridge of Spirits. The game has looked stunning from pretty much the beginning, and we now know when we can expect to get it in our hands. The game is also a cross-gen title for those many who will not manage to get a PS5 for awhile, and don't worry, the upgrade will be there.
On their official Twitter, developer Ember Lab was asked about whether or not you'd get a free upgrade from the PS4 version to the PS5. They responded with a pretty enthusiastic yes, confirming for the first time that you will be able to get a free upgrade from PS4 to PS5.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is set now to release on August 24th. In addition to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, the game will also be coming to PC via the Epic Games Store.
Indeed, you do!
— Kena: Bridge of Spirits (@emberlab) March 5, 2021
NBA 2K21 And DiRT 5 Will Be Free To Play On Steam Until March 8
It's been another hard week for most people, no doubt. Those who are lucky enough to not have to work on the weekend use it as a time to relax and rewind, and one of the best ways to do that is by playing some video games. This weekend will also give you a chance to play two different types of games free of charge on your PC.
From today until the beginning of next week, you'll be able to try out DiRT 5 on Steam. The game is the latest in the off road based racing simulator. If you're interested in a different type of drive, more of a drive to take a ball to its respective basket, NBA 2K21 is also free on the service. It's also the newest entry in 2K's flagship sports title. Both titles are also on sale if you decide they are to your liking.
Both DiRT 5 and NBA 2K21 will be free to download and try out up until March 8th. You can check out DiRT 5's Steam page through here, and NBA 2K21 through here.