Good Morning Gamers! For the first time in nearly two decades the Call of Duty franchise might be skipping a release year. Jason Schreier from Bloomberg reported that Activision executives have decided to delay the 2023 Call of Duty game to 2024. Sources say that this decision was made completely independent from Microsoft and that the poor performance by Call of Duty Vanguard raised cannibalization concerns and influenced this decision.
In response, Activision promptly released a statement that neither confirmed nor denied these reports. They said, "We have an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond. Reports of anything otherwise are incorrect. We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right."
How will they fill the gap year? Activision will likely rely on this year's upcoming Call of Duty Modern Warfare II title for two years, effectively giving Treyarch an extra year to develop their game. Modern Warfare 2 will reportedly feature a heavy injection of DLC content throughout 2023, in addition to some other major content releases such as,
Warzone 2: The sequel to Call of Duty’s free-to-play Battle Royale is expected to release in 2023. The game is being built on an entirely new engine and might be next-gen hardware exclusive.
Standalone Zombies Game: According to Tom Henderson, this is a separate project that is not currently connected to any existing titles and could potentially be free-to-play.
BioWare - Be Patient
BioWare, the Edmonton based Canadian video game developer owned by Electronic Arts shared some exciting game updates in a blogpost last week.
Dragon Age 4 is currently in the Production phase, which means they’re executing on their blueprint: taking their ideas and turning them into a working game. The last instalment in the series was Dragon Age: Inquisition, which launched on November 18, 2014. The Dragon Age team will begin communicating more with their community starting later this year.
Mass Effect is currently in the works led by Mike Gamble and a team of veteran developers. According to the blogpost, the team is working on new and exciting ideas. Unfortunately, AAA next-gen games take longer to make and their focus remains on releasing a quality product when the time is right.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is a free-to-play MMORPG that allows you to play as a Jedi, Sith, Bounty Hunter and more. Originally released in 2011, BioWare recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary as they continue to tell amazing stories and release new expansions.
Esports Corner
🥇Congratulations to FaZe Clan for being crowned IEM Katowice 2022 Champions!
Esports World Championships
The International Esports Federations has revealed that Dota 2, CS:GO, Tekken 7, PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and eFootball will be the six video games featured at the 2022 World Esports Championships in Bali, Indonisia. The event will run from November 27th to December 9th and more than 120 nations are expected to participate for the $500,000 prize pool.
Wake up, Ubisoft!
The conclusion of last weekend’s The Six Invitational, Ubisoft’s biggest Rainbow Six Siege event, was quickly overshadowed by the company’s shocking announcement to host the 2022 Stage Two Major in Abu Dhabi. The announcement was met with disappointment and outrage by various LGBTQ+ members of the R6 casting team and community because they would not be able to safely travel within the UAE. Ubisoft quickly responded, noting that their decision to host the event there was due to the emergence of the R6 scene. They ultimately decided to relocate the major to “another region” since the safety of their talent and players is their biggest concern.
Overwatch 2 Beta
In last week's Weekly Recon edition we covered the Overwatch League’s Season 5 announcement details. New sources now suggest that Blizzard has told their Overwatch League teams to expect Overwatch 2 Beta access within the coming weeks. This new information further corroborates statements by former Overwatch League head Jon Spector who confirmed via Twitter (back in September 2021) that the 2022 Overwatch competitive season would operate on an early build of Overwatch 2.
Gaming Roundup
Street Fighter 6 was announced after the Capcom Pro Tour 2021. Capcom says additional news on the game will only come this summer.
Nintendo revealed the next chapter in the Pokémon series, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, coming late 2022.
PlayStation will reportedly hold a major State of Play in March. PlayStation titles primed for 2022 releases include God of War: Ragnarok and Forspoken.
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson told employees that the FIFA brand is only “four letters on a box”. The 30-year licensing deal with FIFA could be over.
Apex Legends Mobile limited launch begins in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and Colombia.
Xbox and Twitch are teaming up to make live streaming easier from your Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One with better integration and navigation.
2K Games is partnering with LEGO to produce a new line of sports games. The first game will be a LEGO soccer game by Sumo Digital (Sackboy).
Bethesda is shutting down its PC game launcher this year. Starting in April, players will be able to migrate their games and wallet to their Steam account.
Machine Gun Kelly, the American musician and actor will be a playable character in WWE 2K22. MGK will also serve as the Executive Soundtrack Producer.
The Last of Us projects are nearing completion and could be released by the end of 2022 or start of 2023 according to Tom Henderson.
Game Review - Elden Ring
FromSoftware has taken the world by storm with Elden Ring. It is a genre-defining masterpiece that perfectly packages all of the best elements from past FromSoftware games into one beautifully dark adventure. It rewards exploration and curiosity, offering players unforgettable quests, nail-biting combat and mysterious environments. The realm of the Lands Between is by far one of the biggest, magical and most terrifying worlds we’ve ever explored.
Elden Ring is one of the few games from the last decade that we consider a must-play for any and every video game lover. Whether you’re a fan of action-RPGs or not, Elden Ring will captivate your attention right from the start and never let it go. That said, playing the game is no easy feat - be prepared to replay many of the major moments. Bosses can be extremely challenging and there are unexpected surprises around every corner. It does suffer from some technical performance stability issues but all of that is fixable with a few simple updates.
It is with great pleasure that we give Elden Ring a score of A+.
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