Assassin's Creed Valhalla Game Director Joins EA Motive
Assassin's Creed veteran Eric Baptizat has left Ubisoft after sixteen years at the company, and joined EA Motive, the studio behind last year's Star Wars: Squadrons and the single player campaign of Star Wars Battlefront 2. As spotted by Axios, Baptizat joined Motive in April, and is serving as game director on a currently unannounced project. At Ubisoft, Baptizat was most recently game director on Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and before that, also worked on the likes of Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.
Baptizat's arrival in EA Motive is notable not only because of his past work and evident talent, but also because of what he might be working on. Recent rumours have suggested that EA Motive is working on a reimagining of beloved sci-fi survival horror franchise Dead Space, which has been on ice for nearly a decade, and though there's no concrete indication that that's what Baptizat is working on, it's certainly within the realms of possibility.
Where Dead Space is concerned, reports suggest that the game is going to be announced at the EA Play Live event on July 22, so we'll know soon enough what's going on with those rumours. Stay tuned for more updates.
Overwatch 2 Will "Have to Make Some Compromises" on Switch, Developer Says
When Overwatch 2 was first announced in 2019, Blizzard confirmed that the game will also be releasing for the Switch, but a lot of have time will have passed since that announcement when the game finally comes out (whenever that happens). There's also the fact that the shooter is also likely to release for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S day one- so with the developers now having more powerful hardware to work with, what does that mean for the game's release on the significantly weaker Switch?
Blizzard's technical director John Lafleur recently answered that question in a Reddit AMA (via Nintendo Everything), and confirmed that though Overwatch 2 is still coming to the Switch, that version of the game is going to have to make some sacrifices. Lafluer says that Blizzard is going to work on ensuring that all gameplay-related features make it into the Switch version, but when it comes to visual and technical enhancements, there are going to be some compromises that will have to be made.
"As hardware has advanced since the launch of Overwatch, we are extending the OW2 engine with more high-end features," Lafluer wrote. "However, we're also working hard to make sure all of our platforms get the best experience, even in PvE. Switch is a little more challenging than some, and we'll have to make some compromises there. For that reason, some of the higher end visual enhancements might not be visible, there. We'll focus on making sure all of the gameplay-related features get in, first, and then accentuate with additional features as much as possible."
Overwatch 2 is in development for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One, as well as (probably) PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, though the game currently does not have a release date.
Lost Judgment Behind-the-Scenes Video Introduces the Mysterious Kazuki Soma
Lost Judgment is going to bring fan-favourite characters such as Takayuki Yagami and Masaharu Kaito back into the limelight when it launches later this year, but of course, it's also going to introduce several new characters to fans. We recently got a look at one of these, the mysterious handyman Jin Kuwana, and now, another behind-the-scenes video introduces us to Kazuki Soma.
Soma was one a member of a Yakuza clan, but when it was disbanded, Soma decided to form an underground network of thugs and now operates from the shadows. In the video, actor Hiroshi Tamaki talks about the process of bringing Soma to life, and describes his character as a perceptive yet aloof guy, to the extent that at first, you might not even consider him to be all that hostile- though of course, as you play more, that's going to turn out to be… well, not true. Take a look at the video below.
Lost Judgment is due out on September 24 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and Xbox One. Currently, Sega has no plans for a PC launch.
Xbox-Kojima Deal is Close to Being Signed – Rumour
Earlier this year, rumours emerged that Hideo Kojima and his studio Kojima Productions were in talks with Microsoft for developing an Xbox-exclusive title. While those rumours haven't really gone away in the months since then, there hasn't been much development on that front either- though that could change soon enough.
In a recent podcast, GamesBeat's Jeff Grubb – who first broke the aforementioned story – was asked about the Xbox-Kojima deal, to which Grubb replied that the deal is close to being completed, and is now at a stage where it's no longer likely that it will fall through. Meanwhile, Grubb also stated that Xbox recently recruited former Portal and Left 4 Dead developer Kim Swift as a senior director in the Xbox Cloud Gaming team specifically to work with Kojima on his next game.
"Kim Swift, who's worked on Portal and Left 4 Dead, and she's been at [Google] Stadia working as, like, their chief creative person, she's coming in specifically to work with Kojima on his game," Grubb said (via Pure Xbox). "[Xbox] didn't say Kojima, it said in the story it's about working with independent developers, [but] it's Kojima."
"It's close [to being signed]. It's at a point where, I think, it's not going to not get signed. They are just figuring out details basically. And I'll have more to say about that soon."
As is always the case with any unverified report, it's best to take this with a grain of salt for now, even though Grubb's track record with unannounced details and leaks certainly speaks for itself.
Not longer after news of Kojima's purported deal with Xbox emerged, a report claimed that he had initially gone to Sony for his next game, who turned him down. Even so, with Death Stranding Director's Cut coming to the PS5, PlayStation fans still have Kojima content to look forward to.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Was Originally Meant to Have Online Multiplayer
The fact that Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be a narrative-drive single player action-adventure game has made a lot of people very optimistic about the game, especially following the disappointment that was (and continues to be) Marvel's Avengers. But originally, that was not the plan. Seemingly, in the earlier stages of the game's development, it was meant to have an online multiplayer component as well.
That's according to details spotted on the LinkedIn profile of Simon Larouche (screencap below), who was Online Gameplay Director at Guardians developer Eidos Montreal for roughly a year before leaving for a second stint at Guerrilla Games in February 2018. During his time at Eidos Montreal, according to his profile, Larouche was the online gameplay director on the now-cancelled multiplayer component of Guardians of the Galaxy.
Since re-joining Guerrilla Games, Larouche has been the game director on a "secret" unannounced project.
As things stand right now, it seems like Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is fully committed to delivering a single player story-driven experience, so it's not too surprising that a multiplayer component was cancelled early in development. Meanwhile, Eidos Montreal has also confirmed that the game isn't going to have any DLC or microtransactions.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy will launch on October 26 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
God of War: Ragnarok Gameplay Will be Shown off at the Next PlayStation Event – Rumour
E3 2021 recently wrapped up, which means that nearly all major publishers in the industry have, by now, confirmed major details on what they have planned for the rest of the year. Of course, Sony was, for the third year in a row, missing from E3 (although everyone was missing last year), which means that their plans for the remainder of 2021 are still somewhat shrouded in mystery.
Reports and speculation about a summer State of Play have been doing the rounds for the last couple of weeks, unsurprisingly, but if it does happen, what can we expect to see there? One that that might end up being shown off is God of War: Ragnarok (or whatever Sony chooses to call the game). That's according to Xbox Era's @Shpeshal_Nick on Twitter, who recently claimed that the next God of War game's gameplay debut is being planned for the rumoured Sony show.
@Shpeshal_Nick has a solid track record with leaks, including with Sony-related news, but even so, seeing as this is a rumour about an event that itself is, at this stage, a rumour, it's best to take it with a grain of salt for now. Here's hoping it's true though. The insider recently also broke the story on a single player standalone Ghost of Tsushima expansion supposedly due out later this year, which might also get announced at that rumoured Sony event.
Recently, it was confirmed (to no one's surprise) that God of War: Ragnarok had been delayed to 2022. It was also confirmed (to nearly everyone's surprise) that it would also launch for PS4.
I'm being told we'll see our first gameplay of the new God of War at Sony's show too. Will be exciting to see.
— Nick (@Shpeshal_Nick) June 26, 2021
No New Witcher Game Will be Announced at WitcherCon
CD Projekt RED have had a rough go of it with Cyberpunk 2077, but with the first person RPG shooter now out, it's soon going to be time for the studio to begin focusing on the next instalment of The Witcher. The developer said last year that they'd begin developing the next The Witcher game after Cyberpunk 2077's launch, and with CDPR and Netflix hosting WitcherCon on July 9, fans are wondering whether an announcement is going to be made soon.
Well, wonder no longer- and don't expect an announcement either. WitcherCon's official webpage explicitly states that while you will get new announcements in the larger franchise, new updates on season 2 of the Netflix series, behind-the-scenes looks at the development of the show and the games, "no new Witcher game will be announced" at the event.
This doesn't come as much of a surprise. Cyberpunk 2077 still has a vast chunk of CD Projekt RED's development force focused on it, who are working on fixes for the game, DLC, expansions, and the next-gen versions, that's likely going to be the case for some time to come. CD Projekt RED suggested recently that they'd be beginning development on multiple major games in 2022, which might mean that The Witcher's next game hasn't quite gotten off the ground yet. Seeing as CD Projekt RED recently stated that they'd be marketing games much closer to launch in the future, it would seem, in turn, that The Witcher 4 – or whatever CDPR ends up calling it – isn't going to be officially unveiled any time soon.
That said, seeing as The Witcher 3 is also getting PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions soon, series fans will have at least something to look forward to in the near future.
Tales of Arise, Final Fantasy 16 Top Famitsu Most Wanted Charts Again
Famitsu has released its weekly charts for the most highly anticipated upcoming games, as voted by their readers, with the top 10 showing rather predictable results. In first place is Tales of Arise, which has been close to the top of these charts for a long time now. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 16 takes second place, trialing by less than 200 votes.
Much of the top 10 is dominated by Switch games. Other than the two aforementioned games, Samurai Warriors 5 for the PS4 is the only other non-Switch exclusive in the charts. Two Zelda games figure in the top 10, with the sequel to Breath of the Wild and the upcoming Switch remaster of Skyward Sword taking the fourth and eighth spots respectively.
Meanwhile, Mario Golf: Super Rush, which hadn't yet launched when voting for these charts took place, is in tenth place. The likes of Bayonetta 3 (in third place), Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (at No. 5), and Splatoon 3 (taking the sixth spot) also figure in the top 10, as they have been doing for a number of weeks running at this point.
You can check out the full top 10 below. All votes were cast by Famitsu readers between June 3 and June 9.
1. [PS4] Tales of Arise – 705 votes
2. [PS5] Final Fantasy 16 – 548 votes
3. [NSW] Bayonetta 3 – 480 votes
4. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 – 427 votes
5. [NSW] Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl – 323 votes
6. [NSW] Splatoon 3 – 307 votes
7. [PS4] Samurai Warriors 5 – 289 votes
8. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD – 281 votes
9. [NSW] Ushiro – 276 votes
10. [NSW] Mario Golf: Super Rush – 268 votes
[Via Nintendo Everything]
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora "Will Only Appear with Ray Tracing"
Ubisoft Massive have made it pretty clear that with their upcoming open world game Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, they're looking to leverage the hardware of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S to deliver an incredibly immersive experience, and that given the things they're trying to accomplish, they couldn't have made the game work on the PS4 and Xbox One. One of the things that the game is going to do on a visual level is dedicate itself to ray tracing completely.
Speaking with German site Gamestar, technical director of programming Nikolay Stefanov said that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is essentially going to make ray tracing compulsory, in that on each platform the game is playable on, it will always have ray tracing on. "Avatar will be a title that will only appear with ray tracing," Stefanov said, before adding that the developers are also taking measures to ensure that the quality and performance of the game are "scalable" depending on the hardware it's running on.
And what if you're playing it on a PC that doesn't have a card capable of hardware-based ray tracing? In those cases, the game is instead going to resort to a software ray tracing solution. While Stefanov didn't go into what exactly the performance data is going to be like in those cases, he did say that the software ray tracing calculations in the game are "surprisingly fast."
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is due out next year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Stadia.
We're almost halfway through the year, which means we are now nearing the all important Fall and Holiday seasons, which are the critical games shopping season, traditionally. This is also the crucial period where Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo stack their lineups for their platforms to maximize their appeal and get the bulk of their annual sales. A lot of the times, we get major first party games from all three in the second half of the year to have compelling exclusives to prompt shoppers to pick up their consoles.
This year is especially important on this front for Sony and Microsoft because they both have new consoles out, and they want to be able to put their best feet forward for those machines. For Nintendo, of course, it is paramount to be able to keep the now four year old Switch in the conversation, and not let it be lost in the hype surrounding the shiny new tech of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, and the easiest way to do that is by getting some killer games out. What this means is that the onus is on all three platform holders to actually get some impressive first party lineups stacked up for the remainder of this year.
Which is what makes it surprising that Sony's is curiously muted for the remainder of 2021. Sony is the company that has truly started to stand out because of its high quality first party offerings in the last few years, and the PS5's insane sales success can be attributed to the reputation for first party excellence Sony enjoys. So it's really curious to see that they only have one game slated for the remainder of the year – Horizon Forbidden West – and that they aren't even committing to that game actually being able to hit the 2021 release.
Now, to be fair to Sony, their original plans were to have Horizon, Gran Turismo 7, and God of War Ragnarok all hit in 2021 (on top of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, and Destruction All-Stars, all of which are already out). That they have been hit by delays – in an era where every industry and workplace across the world is struggling with the delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – is not something I can hold against them, particularly given that they have actually had an amazing run of first party releases in the last year so far, even while their competition stumbled.
It's also important to note that even while Sony's first party lineup for the PS5 may stumble in the back half of 2021, the PS5 still has a fair few notable exclusives coming out thanks to third parties and independent developers. Deathloop is supposed to come out this year, as an example, and that's a major PS5 exclusive. We have a whole lot of great indie titles, such as Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Solar Ash, Sifu, and Stray. A new Ghost of Tsushima on the same scale as Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Uncharted: Lost Legacy is rumoured to hit this year on the PS5 as well. Death Stranding is getting a PS5 exclusive re-release. Plus, unlike Microsoft or Nintendo, Sony hasn't had a mid-year show yet – they skipped E3, after all, and their analog show to it is rumoured to be in early July. So far all we know, the situation gets significantly better for the PS5's back half of the year lineup.
Even if it doesn't, though, the PS5 is well-placed: it has a lot of hype as the hottest gadget at the moment, it's already received a steady stream of great exclusives, and even in the absence of big Sony first party games (which isn't a given, since Horizon and probably Ghost are both likely to come out this year), there is enough coming out to keep the PS5 going.
Which makes it a good thing that Microsoft is now, finally, beginning to put out exclusives for the Xbox Series X too. A lot of what Microsoft showed off at their E3 show earlier this year was focusing on titles that will hit PS5 too, or will come a ways down the line, but there is still an impressive variety of games hitting Xbox from here on out. Halo Infinite is Microsoft's big Holiday title (though, much like Horizon, it hasn't committed to a firm date yet). After a rather dismal showing last year, it actually seems to be coming along really well now, so that's going to be a big win for Microsoft if they can get it out this year. Microsoft Flight Simulator finally hits consoles with an Xbox port in late July. And, of course, Microsoft also has the latest entry in its by now indisputably best franchise, Forza Horizon 5, due out later this year. That's three big new first party releases, not counting exclusives for the Xbox ecosystem from third party and independent developer partners, such as Tunic, Sable, and 12 Minutes.
In the here and now, if we are to only compare the first party lineups, Microsoft would take it (though of course, if Ghost of Ikishima is real, and actually confirmed for this year, I think the scales tip over to Sony); taking into account the availability of other major exclusives on both systems, as well as the fact that Sony has already gotten a half-dozen first party releases out on the PS5, versus… one for the Xbox Series X, it becomes a lot more even. That said, neither Sony nor Microsoft really compare to Nintendo's first party lineup, predictably enough.
For the remainder of the year, Nintendo has Mario Golf Super Rush, Advance Wars: ReBoot Camp, WarioWare: Get It Together, Mario Party Superstars, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and, of course, the long awaited Metroid Dread. That's a fantastic lineup of some pretty great new games in major or fan-favourite franchises all hitting in a six month period, and it doesn't count re-releases such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, or exclusives for the Switch from third party partners, of which there are a shocking many at this point – the long awaited No More Heroes 3, the even longer awaited Shin Megami Tensei 5, the surprising Monster Hunter Stories 2, or major indie titles such as Oxenfree 2.
The Switch's standing gets even stronger when you consider that Nintendo has been releasing major first party exclusives for the console this year so far (we've gotten Super Mario 3D World and New Pokemon Snap this year so far, most notably), in addition to major third party exclusives it has also received (titles such as Monster Hunter Rise and Bravely Default 2).
Now to be fair, this comparison is between a mature platform with a thriving ecosystem of software versus two just launched ones; the Switch should come out ahead, because something would have to have gone terrifyingly wrong for Nintendo for it not to. And yes, it is ahead; but that is, at this point, to be expected (it's also something that has been generally true ever since the Switch launched, barring 2020, where Sony's amazing showing with the PS4's final year put them ahead). But as a straight answer to the question of which platform has the best and most exciting exclusives lined up for the remainder of this year, the answer is the Switch – even more so if we were to limit it to just first party games, in which case the entire competition becomes almost unfair.
Any and all of this could change; any and all games slated for this year could be delayed; we could get another game announced with a short reveal to release window, like we did Age of Calamity last year; third parties could announce some games assumed to be exclusive will actually be Multiplatform. Any number of things could happen to change how we stand right now. But in the here and now, if we were to look at what console will have the best exclusives lineup for the remainder of the year, I'd give it to Nintendo and the Switch, with Xbox and Microsoft taking second place, and Sony and PS5 coming in at third.
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.