Games Are Coming

E65: PlayStation and Valve have some great projects in the pipeline.

Good Morning Gamers! PlayStation held a State of Play presentation last week. The event ran for about 20 minutes, where PlayStation made some announcements regarding new upcoming games and expansions.

Exoprimal is the brand-new team based action game from Capcom. The game is set to be released in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.

Returnal: Ascension is getting a free update later this month which is adding online co-op, Tower of Sisyphus Endless mode, a new boss, new items and more.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is an action-adventure game developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks releasing on March 22nd.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection is thirteen classic games from Konami in one package and it is releasing later in 2022.

Gundam Evolution is the world’s first free-to-play multiplayer shooter set in the Gundam universe coming to the PS5 & PS4 in 2022.

Square Enix is a Japanese entertainment conglomerate and video game developer that is best known for the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises. 

Forspoken is the isekai RPG developed by Luminous Productions. Square Enix released some new gameplay ahead of the October 11th launch.

The DioField Chronicle is a new tactical RPG that has a deep and engaging story brought to life through the soundtrack, cast and RTTB system.

Valkyrie Elysium is a new entry in the Valkyrie series. The fantasy RPG takes place in Ragnarok and is scheduled to be released in 2022.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an action RPG game developed by Koei Tecmo’s Team Ninja releasing on March 15th.

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Valve - A Stacked (Potential) Pipeline

Long-time Valve reporter Tyler McVicker datamined Valve’s Aperture Desk Job, a free playable Steam Deck tech demo set in the Portal universe. He was able to uncover the hidden files on four major unannounced games, most of which were for a game codenamed Citadel. 

Citadel, a Combines vs. Rebels team-based and class-based RTS/FPS hybrid that also appears to have a single-player campaign. Two major systems are in play across the game, abilities and bots. 

• Abilities are items that can be attached to the player's body like weapons. You can either start the game with pre-selected abilities or find new ones on the map

• Bots are deployable teammates with different classes and abilities that can be controlled as either a group or individually. Bots are ultimately deployed and controlled by the Commander, a player who is overlooking the map from a top-down perspective. Bots also have a dynamic behavior system that allows them to alter their actions towards other NPCs or players based on certain moods/emotions

• The Commander can control the game by overlooking the map or by fighting on the map in the first-person perspective

Additional references for the following games were also found, 

• Some sort of Half-Life: Alyx follow-up

• CS:GO Source 2 port

• A remake of the canceled Portal sequel codenamed F-Stop 

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Esports Corner

Put em’ Up! 

The Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world's premier fighting game esports tournament is back with the 2022 edition set to take place in August. The event will see the return of Street Fighter V, Mortal Kombat 11, Tekken 7, and Dragon Ball FighterZ in addition to five new fighting games. There will unfortunately be no Super Smash Bros representation at EVO 2022 since Nintendo pulled the game earlier this year but the Smash World Tour is also officially making its return and will feature global circuits for both Ultimate and Melee. There will be more than 35 events held across the world with at least $250,000 up for grabs. 

Valorant 🤝 Iceland

The Valorant Stage 1 Masters is returning to Reykjavik, Iceland for the games first International LAN of the 2022 season. Riot Games has said that familiarity with Iceland and their government restrictions, as well as the convenient time zone makes the country a favorable location to host international LAN events with a live audience. Only 12 teams across seven major competitive regions will qualify for the Stage 1 Masters. This season’s VCT Points structure has been updated to better reward International performances so qualifying for any of the Valorant Masters events is a huge step towards VCT qualification. 

All-In On Global Mobile Esports

ESL Gaming and Qualcomm Technologies have announced the Snapdragon Pro Series, a brand-new mobile esports ecosystem spanning multiple mobile games and regions. The series is set to begin in April 2022 and will feature a total prize pool of $2m. It will reportedly replace ESLs current mobile esports structure and will offer multiple tiers of competitive events at the “Open”, “Challenger” and “Master” levels. Details surrounding which titles are included in the Pro Series and the tournament structure have yet to be revealed. 

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Gaming Roundup

• Dr Disrespect announced that his legal dispute with Twitch has been resolved. However, the Doc will not return to streaming on the platform.

• Forspoken has been delayed to October 11th. Luminous Productions, the development studio, says they will use the time to polish the game.

• Gotham Knights, the action RPG by WB Games Montreal where you can play as Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin and Red Hood will release on October 25th. 

• WWE 2K22 announced their DLC roadmap which will include Rob Van Dam, Machine Gun Kelly, Logan Paul, Mr. T and more.

• Dead Space remake will reportedly be released in early 2023. Electronic Arts and Motive originally had October 2022 as a release date target. 

• Overwatch 2’s PVP 5v5 multiplayer beta starts in late April. The beta will include new heroes, maps, modes and more. 

• Amazon Studios and Sony are reportedly in discussion to produce a God of War live-action TV series. No details have been officially revealed yet.

• E3 is a yearly trade event for the video game industry. According to several insider reports, it will once again be a digital-only event this year.  

• Call of Duty: Warzone for mobile is being worked on by Solid State Studios, Digital Legends, Beenox, Activision Shanghai and Demonware.

• Activision Blizzard is being investigated by US regulators for insider trading as three investors look to make a $60 million profit on the deal with Microsoft. 

• Sea of Thieves launched Season Six which helps expand their universe through the addition of Sea Forts, new voyages, new rewards and more. 

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