The Mess at EA
The Mess at EA
E110: Electronic Arts had a troubling week of announcements.
Good morning gamers! Electronic Arts announced last week that they’re shutting down, canceling and delaying several fan favourite games. The announcements came after EA decided to lower their Q4 forecasts following a challenging Q3. They now expect their net revenue for the full fiscal year to be between $7.3 billion and $7.4 billion.
Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile have both ended development. According to EA, it was a strategic decision to shut down Apex Legends Mobile as they were unable to meet the expectations of their players, but their love for the Apex universe remains unchanged. EA also said that the decision to stop development of the Battlefield mobile game is a result of a shift in the industry and a need to pivot from their current direction.
Titanfall Legends was a single-player game in development at Respawn Entertainment. The project was codenamed “TFL" and was reportedly set between the Apex Legends and Titanfall worlds. The development was led by veteran designer Mohammed Alavi who left his role in 2022. According to Jason Schreier, the development team will now be moved to other projects or laid off.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has been delayed by six weeks to April 28th. Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games say the game is complete, but they need time to "achieve the level of polish our fans deserve". The developer says they’ve poured their heart and soul into the game and working together has made them a better team.
Marvel’s Wolverine Update
Insomniac Games has a reputation of being one of PlayStation’s best game studios (alongside Naughty Dog and Sony Santa Monica, of course). Over the last five years they’ve released multiple major titles including Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Marvel’s Spider Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. To keep their streak going, all signs point to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 being released in the Fall of 2023.
Another major Marvel game currently in development at Insomniac is Marvel’s Wolverine. It was initially revealed at the 2021 PlayStation Showcase with a small teaser and described as being in the early stages of development. Game details since then have been few and far between but last week Giant Bomb reporter Jeff Grubb emerged with some new game details. According to Grubb,
Marvel’s Wolverine could release “as early as Fall 2024” but the internal date that he’s consistently heard thrown around is 2025.
Insomniac is targeting a “Hard-R” rating due to dismemberment and other extreme violence. It will definitely be a mature rated game.
The game’s world and how events unfold is inspired by semi open-world games like God of War. It won’t be as big as Insomniac’s Spider-Man games though.
The game has a unique take on Wolverine, separate from Hugh Jackman’s character and separate from the Fox movies. The setting starts before he joins the X-Men and aims to be a standalone experience.
The emotional narrative and cutting-edge gameplay will be something “truly special”.
Esports Corner
🥇Congratulations to TSM for winning the ALGS Year 3 Split 1 Playoffs and to the Atlanta FaZe for winning the Call of Duty League Major II.
ESL’s three-year streaming exclusivity with Twitch has officially ended. The esports organizer will now stream their events simultaneously on YouTube and Twitch, including all the Intel Extreme Masters and ESL Pro League events. This change also applies to DreamHack since they’re an ESL Gaming brand.
The Halo Championship Series (HCS) has announced its roadmap for the 2023 competitive Halo Infinite season. This season will award more than $2,000,000 in prizing, with three Majors (Charlotte, Arlington hosted by OpTic Gaming and Fort Worth), two Global Invitationals (one of which is part of DreamHack and the other hosted by Spacestation Gaming), weekly online events including some hosted by FaZe Clan and Quadrant, and a concluding World Championships. Each event this season will be considered a “global event” with teams from each region guaranteed representation.
Four of the top-10 most viewed esport games in 2022 were mobile games (Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Free Fire, PUBG Mobile/Battlegrounds Mobile India and Arena of Valor). Mobile esports see the most success outside of North America and leading into 2023, two major mobile ecosystems announced some big changes,
PUBG Mobile developer Krafton announced the eight founding partner teams for the 2023 esports season including Four Angry Men, 17Gaming, FaZe Clan, Gen.G, NAVI, Patrichor, Road, Soniqs and Twisted Minds.
Supercell’s 2023 Clash Royale League is bringing back monthly competitions, and the season will conclude with a World Finals. The season’s total prize pool allocation is $1.3 million.
Gaming Roundup
The Last of Us Part I for PC has been delayed from March 3rd to March 28th. The delay is to ensure it lives up to the high standard set by Naughty Dog.
It Takes Two has sold over ten million copies. Hazelight Studios says that potentially twice as many players have played their game.
Square Enix released their financial results revealing that sales were down 6.6% and their operating income was down 17.6% year-over-year.
The Coalition is working on the next entry in the Gears of War series after the studio canceled two other games that were in active development.
Back 4 Blood development has come to an end at Turtle Rock Studios. The studio will now be focusing their efforts on a new game.
343 Industries is switching to Unreal Engine for the Halo franchise. At least 95 people were let go as the franchise is reportedly “all but starting from scratch”.
Alan Wake II is reportedly Remedy Entertainment’s biggest project to date. The developer wants to make a mark on the survival horror game genre.
Wild Hearts, EA and Tecmo’s monster hunting game will have free post-launch content and no microtransactions according to the game’s executive producer.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf details leaked revealing that the game is going to be single-layer only, has a hack and slash style and will unlikely release in 2023.
Game Review - Dead Space Remake
Dead Space was originally developed by EA Redwood Shores and released in 2008 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. EA’s Motive Studio was able to stay true to the ultimate horror from the original game while making all around improvements. The Dead Space Remake should be the gold standard that future remakes aspire to be.
When the remake was initially announced, we were optimistic but skeptical. However, the great revamped story and amazing sounds deliver a truly unique horror game experience. The updated story, the ability to free roam and the optional side quests allow for the players to develop a deeper connection that they did not have in the original game.
The impactful changes and improvements are enough to incentivize veteran Dead Space players to play the remake. Players shouldn’t consider the remake as a replacement but instead as a new experience with a better atmosphere, visuals, balance and story. If this is the future of remakes for EA, gamers are in for some fun.
As fans of the original game, we give the Dead Space Remake a rating of A-.
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