Center of EAttention
Center of EAttention
E74: EA is keeping busy with a pipeline full of projects.
Good morning gamers! Mobile games have seen exponential growth over the last few years and it seems like every publisher is now joining in on the fun. A handful of titles are making their way to mobile devices, so here’s everything new we know.
Wild Arena Survivors is a brand new PvPvE Battle Royale game secretly being tested by Ubisoft in Canada. 40 players are dropped onto an island where they must defeat each other and overcome hostile elements such as natural environments and animals. Players first choose their play-style by selecting a unique survivor that each has their own weapons and abilities. These are customizable throughout the game as players find items scattered across the island. You can watch the trailer here.
Apex Legends Mobile is officially launching on May 17 for iOS and Android devices. The worldwide launch will feature the 9 original legends, the maps World’s Edge and King Canyon and ranked play with a variety of exclusive modes. Additionally, the new launch trailer seems to be teasing a mobile-exclusive legend named Fade.
Need for Speed Mobile is being developed by EA and Tencent (TiMi Studios). Leaked test gameplay footage shows that the game takes place on a revised version of Need for Speed Heat’s map and currently features only 3 cars (McLaren F1, Lamborghini Aventador and the Gallardo). It is being built using Unreal Engine 4 and currently has no campaign details.
Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle Earth has been announced by EA in partnership with Middle-earth Enterprises. It’s an upcoming RPG developed by Capital Games that will feature “immersive storytelling, turn-based combat, deep collection systems, and a wide roster of characters from across the vast universe of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.”
Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, also known as Project Aurora, is in active development and gearing up for private alpha testing but has no official release date. Additionally, COD Mobile has officially surpassed 650 million global downloads since its October 2019 release. The game generated more than $1 Billion in player spending throughout 2021.
Electronic Arts - Keeping Busy
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the new name of the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sequel according to video game insider Jeff Grubb. Grubb mentioned on his podcast (Grubbsnax) that the game will not be released until 2023 and it will be exclusively for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Apex Legends hit an all-time high of 412,556 concurrent players on Steam for the launch of Season 13. The season saw the introduction of new legend Newcastle, his tactical ability is mobile shield, his passive ability is to retrieve the wounded and his ultimate ability is castle wall. Players can now compete in a new ranked season and complete the new battle pass. Season 13 is expected to end sometime in August.
Criterion Games has absorbed Codemasters Cheshire, which has now doubled the size of the Need For Speed studio. Codemasters was acquired by EA in 2021 for $1.2 billion, and the merger of these studios will allow EA to build off an already close relationship with a main focus on Need For Speed.
EA Sports FC will be the new name of EA’s FIFA series. EA says that after 30 years under the FIFA name, the football simulation series will be entering an exciting new era. EA will maintain the relationships with over 300 licensed partners and they will share more info on EA Sports FC in Summer 2023.
Dead Space officially announced that the remake will be released on January 27th, 2023. The game includes improvements to character models, lighting effects, visual effects, immersive environments and more.
EA Sports UFC 5 will reportedly be released in the summer of 2023. According to Tom Henderson, production was paused so EA could focus on the reboot of their “Fight Night” franchise.
Esports Corner
MultiVersus, the upcoming F2P fighting game by WB Games is hosting a 2v2 $100,000 tournament during EVO 2022 in Las Vegas. The game is still in closed alpha but expected to launch in 2022 across all platforms.
The Halo Esports and Viewership Lead at 343 Industries has confirmed that the top 12 placing teams at the HCS Major Orlando will automatically qualify for the group stage at the Halo World Championships while 2 teams from each region will go to the play-in rounds.
Dignitas has moved their entire CS:GO roster to the inactive list, making all of their players available for transfer. The organization said that “they are evaluating their future in CS:GO” which may or may not include some of the members currently on the team. They have not won any major awards since entering CS:GO in 2020 and could ultimately decide to leave the scene.
Riot Games has revealed the date and locations of the final two international Valorant Majors of the year. The VCT Masters 2 will take place between July 10 and July 24 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Valorant Champions 2022 (aka, the Valorant World Championships) will take place in Istanbul and will feature 16 teams across all competitive regions.
Gaming Roundup
Bethesda announced that the release of Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios) and RedFall (Arkane Austin) will be delayed until the first half of 2023.
Dune game developers Funcom and Nukklear are currently hiring for their “open-world survival game”. They acquired the rights to “Dune” in 2019.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s first story DLC has been delayed to September. Despite the delay, the game will still have 5 years of post launch support.
Metal Gear Solid reportedly has a remake in development by Bluepoint Games. Hideo Kojima’s involvement in the project remains unknown.
Square Enix released their earnings report for Fiscal Year 2022, they will continue to invest in blockchain projects and NFTs.
Silent Hill images from a rumoured new game were shared by reputable leaker AestheticGamer. Konami had the images removed via DMCA.
Epic Games and Sony have partnered up to fix input delay on the PS5 fighting games. PS5 has almost double the input delay than Xbox Series X.
Battlefield’s next title is currently in development but according to Tom Henderson, it will likely only be released in 2024.
Dr Disrespect was not allowed to see early footage of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) because of the creation of his new studio Midnight Society.
Gotham Knights has been canceled for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game will still only support 2-player co-op despite having 4 playable characters.
If you enjoyed this week’s edition of the Weekly Recon, please send it to some friends and share it on social media. We strive to be your best source of gaming news.
Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok for more gaming news. To contact us directly email us at gaming@weeklyrecon.com.