DC Rises
DC Rises
E70: Discovery completes the $43 Billion merger with Warnermedia.
Good morning gamers! Last week, Discovery completed the $43 Billion merger of Warnermedia from AT&T. The company will now operate as Warner Bros. Discovery with plans of maximizing the content from DC Entertainment. David Zaslav, the CEO of the combined companies says he’s looking for the equivalent of Marvel’s Kevin Feige to manage their combined DC businesses.
Currently, there’s three announced DC games in development, Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League and Wonder Woman. Over the last decade DC has only released titles from their Batman: Arkham and Injustice franchises.
The future is definitely bright for DC video games as they have access to some of the best characters of all-time. The company could capitalize on IPs from the Justice League which includes characters like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Green Lantern. They also have a great group of villains such as Deathstroke, Lex Luther, The Joker, Brainiac, Bane and more.
Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary Event
Square Enix recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of their beloved Kingdom Hearts franchise. The live event took place in Japan and included a mini-concert featuring fan-favorite songs, a Q&A session with franchise leaders and an exciting game announcement trailer. Here’s what you missed,
Kingdom Hearts IV is officially in development. The gameplay trailer said “this glimpse into Sora’s next adventure is just the beginning” and showcased a much older (and more realistic) looking Sora fighting in the Quadratum (a large, and expansive realistic city setting) wielding a Keyblade. Kingdom Hearts IV will mark the beginning of an “epic new storyline” called the Lost Master Arc. It’s a continuation of the plot from the mobile/browser games as well as from the Kingdom Hearts 3 ending. Development will reportedly switch to Unreal Engine 5 but no release date or platforms have been revealed.
Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, a new mobile game for Android and iOS was announced. The storyline takes place sometime between the finale of Kingdom Hearts Union χ and before Kingdom Hearts Dark Road - staying as faithful to the main series as possible. The game will allow up to 6 players to play together, will be action-packed and uses two gameplay systems; a story mode with quests and objectives and then a location-based system allowing players to play within the constraints of the real world (similar to Pokémon Go).
Esports Corner
🥇 Congratulations to OpTic Gaming for winning the FaZe Clan Halo Invitational.
Former pro player Jay “Sinatraa” Won has announced his intention to return to competitive Valorant, starting with tryouts this week. He is still under contract with Sentinels and there is no word whether he will rejoin the team. Sinatraa stepped back from competitive Valorant more than a year ago (due to a 6 month suspension by Riot Games) while he was under investigation for sexual misconduct accusations.
9z have defied history to become the first non-Brazilian team from South America to qualify for a major CS:GO tournament. The team consisting of players from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay join FURIA, MIBR, Imperial, Team Liquid and Complexity as the six teams representing the Americas at The PGL Antwerp Major.
ReKTGlobal, parent company behind the major esports brands Rogue (multidisciplinary) and the London Royal Ravens (Call of Duty League) has been acquired for $470 million by Infinite Reality. ReKTGlobal’s Founder and Chairman Amish Shah said “our journey does not end today. We are beginning the next chapter in our evolution into the Metaverse”.
The greatest League of Legends player of all time, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has reportedly turned down a $20 million per year offer from a Chinese LPL organization in order to stay with T1. The 25-year-old Korean superstar has won the World Championships three times, as well as two Mid-Season Invitationals, an IEM World Championship and 10 LCK titles.
Gaming Roundup
Fortnite released a collaboration with Coachella, the music and arts festival. Until May 16, players will hear music from Coachella artists in-game.
Ghost of Tsushima’s film adaptation by Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions has named Takashi Doscher as its official screenwriter.
Kojima Productions has not been acquired by Sony despite the rumours. It is reported that Hideo Kojima’s project with Xbox is “still on”.
Mass Effect’s newest instalment has left pre-production and has entered into early development, Dragon Age is also being worked on.
QuakeCon will be a digital only event this year from August 18th to 20th. They’re committed to returning to an in-person event in 2023.
Certain Affinity partnership with 343 Industries is moving forward as they’ve been entrusted with evolving Halo Infinite, potentially a Battle Royale mode.
CD Projekt Red has announced that Cyberpunk 2077 sold over 18 million copies since release, making it one of the best selling RPGs ever.
Saints Row is having an Ultimate Customization Showcase on Wednesday, April 20th at 12:15 PM PST/3:15 PM EST/8:15 PM GMT.
Guerrilla Games creative director Mathijs de Jonge has teased a Horizon Forbidden West sequel saying the game's cliffhanger sets up “some things” for the next game.
Microsoft is reportedly developing a program that will allow advertisers to run native ads within select free-to-play Xbox games.
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