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New World Delayed to September 28th

Amazon Game Studios' New World has been delayed. Instead of releasing on August 31st for PC, it's now slated for September 28th. The game's official Twitter notes the feedback received from the recent closed beta and how it will be used to make the experience "even better."

"We want New World's launch to be a smooth and fun experience for all players, and that means some improvements based on what you encountered during closed beta." The next few weeks will be used to quash any bugs, improve stability and provide more polish. Though this isn't the first time the title has been delayed – which the development team acknowledges – it wants to deliver the "highest quality game possible at launch."

New World had proven fairly popular during its closed beta, crossing 200,000 concurrent players at launch. However, there were complaints of various bugs, not to mention issues with the combat that still need to be sorted out. Whether all of this can be addressed in the coming weeks remains to be seen so stay tuned.

Announced in September 2016, New World is an MMORPG set on the fictitious island of Aeternum which players end up ship-wrecked on. There are three factions to join – Marauders, Syndicate and Covenant, each vying for control of various territories (which players can subsequently wage war over). Along the way, more details on the island and the civilization that resided on it, known as The Ancients, will be revealed.

Cruis'n Blast Trailer Showcases Tracks With Dinosaurs, UFOs and More

Among all of the big releases in September, Raw Thrills' Cruis'n Blast stands out. Originally released for arcades back in January 2017, it will be making its way to the Nintendo Switch and continuing the series' legacy of racing. A new trailer showcases some of the more bizarre tracks that players will race on. Check it out below.

Tracks are broken up into different Tours. You have HK 2089, Wild Safari and Night Riders in the Night Tour; Oxford Circuit, Neon Tsunami and Typhoon Alley in the Storm Tour; and Dangerous Dinos, Dino Star and Dino Janeiro in Dino Tour. Each track has its own unique spin, whether it's dinosaurs or rampaging UFOs. There are over 30 in total, which means plenty of chaos and thrills.

Cruis'n Blast releases on September 14th for the Switch. It features 23 custom vehicles ranging from Lamborghini and Chevrolet cars to unicorns, dinosaurs and helicopters. Multiplayer for up to four players is also supported. Stay tuned for more gameplay leading up to its release.

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends Receiving Standalone Release, New Rivals Mode on September 3rd

Sucker Punch Productions teased a brand new mode for Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, the multiplayer component for Ghost of Tsushima that launched last year (and was a huge success). However, it's also confirmed that the mode will be receiving a standalone release on September 3rd. This will cost $19.99 for PS4 and PS5 with cross-platform play and cross-progression supported, regardless if one owns the Director's Cut or not. One can also purchase the standalone version and upgrade to the Director's Cut for $40 on PS4 and $50 on PS5.

As for the new mode, it's called Rivals and is completely free. It's a 2v2 mode where players battle waves of enemies and garner Magatama. The resource can be used to hinder the opposing team like activating Curses to drain their health, block their purchases and so on. Spending enough Magatama will unlock the final wave and the first team to complete this can claim victory.

A new Gear Mastery system is also being added which lets players activate Mastery Challenges on 110 Ki level gear that's bound to a class. Along with allowing it to be upgraded to 120 Ki level, it can also provide a second perk slot, a new ability and new Techniques. The system will go live alongside Rivals.

As for August 20th, which is when Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut launches, Legends will receive an update to re-balance Survival mode for shorter sessions. There will also be new weekly Survival Nightmare challenges and more cosmetics for players who cleared the base and New Game Plus. If that weren't enough, from September 10th to October 1st, there will be new content added each week.

This includes a new Rivals map, Trials of Iyo which is a tougher version of the raid with challenges, new online leaderboards and new Survival maps based on the Iki Island expansion and Iyo's realm. For more information on the Director's Cut, head here.

Far Cry 5 Is Going Free-To-Play For The Weekend, Starts This Thursday

Ubisoft has recently announced that Far Cry 5 will be going free-to-play, starting from 5 August, 2021 17:00 UTC to 9 August, 2021 20:00 UTC. The game will be free-to-play across all available platforms during this time period, Ubisoft confirmed in an official blog post.

A point worth noting is that fans on the Xbox side of things will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play the game, while PlayStation players only require PS Plus for online functionality. Ubisoft recently unveiled the gameplay trailer for Far Cry 6, and this free-to-play weekend seems to be an effort to build up more hype for the October release.

Interested fans should definitely check it out, plus there's a fan-made Goldeneye 007 remake on Far Cry Arcade that should also prove to be a fun time for the free period. The game is already cheap enough on most platforms, so it might be worth a try before fans decide to plop the asking price.

Activision Confirms A New Unannounced Call of Duty Mobile Game In Development

In a recent Activision earnings call, Activision president Rob Kostich has confirmed that a new mobile game in the Call of Duty franchise is in development at its internal mobile studio. The studio will also be recieving support from Activision Shangai and Beenox for development.

Activision seems pretty keen on expanding into the mobile space, which isn't a surprise since Call of Duty Mobile has been an incredible success for the publishing giant. The sentiment is reflective to Rob Kotisch's statements during the earnings call, wherein he said(as transcribed by VGC):

"We've created our own internal mobile studio and are driving a major recruiting effort, across Beenox and Activision Shanghai to support as well, and together these teams are leading an unannounced new mobile project in the Call of Duty franchise which we're very excited about."

It's still unclear when the game will be out, but it's rather an interesting prospect to speculate on. Given how massively successful Call of Duty Mobile has been, it seems quite obnoxious that Activision would try to release another product in the same space to compete with its own product which itself recieves regular content updates.

SEGA Confirms Beat From Jet Set Radio As A Playable Character In Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

Publishing giant SEGA recently confirmed the existence of Beat from Jet Set radio as a playable character in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania. SEGA took to Twitter to announce this with a short teaser trailer for the same, and fans seem quite elated to have a fan-favourite character from another franchise making a return.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania was recently unveiled during Nintendo Direct at E3 2021, alongside other highly-anticipated titles such as Metroid Dread and the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a combination of the original three games in the franchise – Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2, and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe in a souped up package for next-gen consoles.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania releases for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch on October 5th later this year.

Ghost of Tsushima Devs Talk About PS5 Functionality In Director's Cut

In a recent interview with IGN, Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut high-ranking officials revealed some new and interesting insights about the game, and what the devs have in store for fans in the PS5 functionality department. In addition to a number of obvious graphical improvements, there seems to be a great focus on utilizing the controller and the console's audio capabilities to the fullest extent.

Creative and art director Jason Connell talked about how PS5's haptic feedback allowed them to simulate individual rain drops touching the ground, and how it also helped giving a sense of direction to the guiding winds by feedback alone. Of course, there could be a lot more in store but fans will have to wait for the whole release to see that.

"There's this thing that you come to find out, which is whenever I heard the [Guiding Wind] before, I would hear it. maybe. left to right, but I wouldn't ever really hear it over my head, or going from way behind me to way in front of me," Connell said.

"Or when a rainstorm comes in, you just hear a general pitter patter [in the original version]. But now, it feels like the pitter patter is happening at my feet, like it's hitting the actual ground. The immersion level just goes up a notch."

The PS5's DualSense controller is definitely one of the most enticing pieces of next-gen hardware, and a plethora of games have made great use of the controller's capabilities – including the recent first-party titles such as Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Returnal.

The Ascent Leads Curve Digital to Highest Ever Opening Weekend Sales Revenue

Neon Giant's The Ascent has been a bonafide success, especially for Curve Digital. The publisher reported over $5 million in revenue, which is its largest ever for an opening weekend. It noted that the title being on top of the Steam Global Charts positioned it as a "AAA competitor."

Other noteworthy stats include over 10 million views across 1700 channels on YouTube and Twitch and 90 percent of coverage from "global Tier One publications." As Curve CEO John Clark stated, "The Ascent is the first game out of Curve where our new team has been able to substantially make their mark, working closely with the developer and our platform partners. This success is the result of a genuine team effort throughout the company, the arrival of new leadership and talent and is truly reflective of our new approach of being developer and player focused in all that we do."

The developer stated that it was "overwhelmed" by the response from its players. "As a small team of twelve, creating The Ascent has taken a monumental effort, and we cannot express how grateful we are to everyone who has played the game and given us feedback."

Featuring a cyberpunk setting, The Ascent takes place on Veles, particularly the arcology run by The Ascent Group. When the group suddenly declares bankruptcy and goes dark, it's all-out chaos as rival mega-corps and syndicates rush in to make their claims. As an indentured worker, the player must push back against these threats and uncover the group's fate.

The Ascent is available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC along with Xbox Game Pass. Check out our review here for more details.

Gamescom Opening Night Live 2021 Will be Two Hours Long

With E3 2021 done and dusted with, it's time to look forward to Gamescom, the second biggest games expo of the year. Much like last year, it will be a completely digital event and kick off with Gamescom Opening Night Live, hosted by The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley. On Twitter, Keighley teased the show, noting that it would be a live two hour showcase.

Even more interesting is that it will provide a look at "this holiday's biggest upcoming video games and what lies beyond." With titles like Call of Duty: Vanguard yet to be revealed, could it make an appearance at the show (especially since Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War appeared last year)? Other titles that could be showcased include Dying Light 2 which releases in December this year.

Gamescom Opening Night Live takes place on August 25th at 11 AM PT. Companies that have been confirmed for the main expo include Microsoft, 505 Games, Activision, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Bethesda Softworks and many more. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

PS5 Consoles Are No Longer Being Sold at a Loss, Sony Confirms

It's no secret that consoles are often sold at a loss, especially in the first few years after they come out, with their manufacturers generating most of their profits from other avenues, such as software sales. The PS5 was no exception to that rule, of course, and Sony was taking a hit on each PS5 unit that it was selling- though that didn't last very long, as it turns out.

As reported by Bloomberg, during Sony's recent quarterly earnings call, CFO Hiroki Totoki confirmed that the PS5 model that comes with a disc drive – which is sold for $499 – is no longer being sold at a lost. Meanwhile, the PS5 Digital Edition – which retails for $399 – is still incurring losses, but Totoki says that these are being offset by other hardware sales, such as the PS4 and peripherals.

Given that the PS5 only just launched last November, it's quite impressive (and more than a little surprising) that it's already overcome the initial hump of being sold at a loss. The PS5 has shipped 10.1 million units worldwide, and Sony is hoping to ship a total of 14.8 million units of the console by the end of the current fiscal year, out of which 2.3 million have already been shipped.

During the earnings call, Totoki also said that Sony has already secured enough semiconductor chips to be able to meet that target, so the company isn't too worried and supply and manufacturing constrains. Read more on that through here.