Record Breaker
E102: God of War Ragnarök breaks PlayStation Studios' record.
Good morning gamers! Weekly Recon is holding its second annual Video Game Awards recognizing some of the best achievements across gaming in 2022. We’ve got a total of 9 unique categories filled with incredible nominees so please make sure to cast your votes here before December 3rd.
God of War Ragnarök
According to Hermen Hulst, the Head of PlayStation Studios, God of War Ragnarök was the fastest selling first-party launch in PlayStation history. The game sold 5.1 million copies during release week, which is a record for the God of War franchise. In comparison, God of War 2018 sold 3.1 million copies in its first 3 days.
In an interview on the Kinda Funny Games’ spoilercast, Santa Monica Studios Game Director Eric Williams said it’s unlikely that there’s going to be God of War Ragnarök DLC. Williams stated “I dunno man, [God of War Ragnarok] is big. I think we put everything we had into it, so I wouldn't count on it". However, there is some hope that God of War Ragnarök could release a smaller project similar to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales or a paid expansion like Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Zero Dawn.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Last week CD Projekt Red showcased some of the newest features and enhancements coming to the next-gen update of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The discussion came via a special episode of REDstream featuring Amelia Kołat (Senior Community Manager), Alicja Kozera (Community Manager), Philipp Weber (Acting Narrative Director) and Charles Tremblay (Engineering Director). ICYMI, here’s some of the biggest changes,
The next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is coming to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on December 14th, 2022. It is free for players who already own the game and includes cross-progression across all next-gen consoles and PC.
Includes enhanced graphic settings allowing for a 60FPS performance mode and a 30FPS quality mode with Ray-Tracing. The visual update also includes better overall graphics, higher quality textures and global illumination.
New DLC based on Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ series will be expanded with new quests and new armor inspired by Dandelion and Henry Cavill’s Geralt.
A new camera angle has been added (over the shoulder) that will bring players closer to the action. Additionally, a new photo mode feature is also available.
Various controller layout changes and haptic feedback integration for PlayStation 5. This also includes automatic sprint capability for all consoles.
Features a more dynamic mini-map that will disappear during combat or while on horseback.
Inclusion of some community-made mods in addition to CDPR’s own modifications (PC only).
Multiple other graphics, quality of life, gameplay/combat and bug fixes.
Esports Corner
🥇Congratulations to HEROIC for winning the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2022.
The Valorant Champions Tour 2022: Game Changers Championship set multiple records within the female esports scene. The $500,000 event already held the largest prize pool in female-only esports history but it also became the number one event by total hours watched (5.49 million hours) and second in peak viewers (239,000). The entire event averaged roughly 115,000 viewers making it more viewed than some Tier 2 male-only events.
Riot Games have announced that they are no longer supporting League of Legends: Wild Rift competitions outside of Asia. This surprising development comes less than a year after the MOBA’s first official season was launched, leaving esport organizations in the West confused and furious about the decision. Riot will instead focus on launching a new Wild Rift League in Asia featuring 12 teams from China and 8 teams from other regions in Asia. Riot did not close the door on expanding Wild Rift outside of these regions in the future, and have allowed third-party tournaments organizers to host Wild Rift events moving forward.
EA and the NHL have rebranded their competitive NHL series to the EA SPORTS NHL 23 World Championships. Additionally, the format has been drastically changed to involve participation from all 32 NHL clubs, where each will host their own esports tournament and the winners will receive prize money and an automatic bid into the EA SPORTS™ NHL 23 North American Championship knockout round. The NHL will also host various online tournaments in North America and Europe leading to Championship qualification.
Gaming Roundup
Microsoft has reportedly offered Sony a 10-year deal for Call of Duty to stay on PlayStation consoles, Sony reportedly rejected the deal.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s release date and trailer will reportedly be featured at Geoff Keighley’s “The Game Awards” on December 8th.
Grasshopper Manufacturer is reportedly developing a new AAA survival-horror “Alien” game codenamed “Marathon,” set to release Holiday 2023.
Grand Theft Auto VI will be released by Rockstar Games in 2024 according to Microsoft’s estimation in their responses to the CMA.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sold 10 million units in 3 days making it the fastest selling Pokémon game, Nintendo Switch game and Nintendo game.
Far Cry 6's Lost Between Worlds DLC will reportedly be released “soon” as both PlayStation and Xbox have updated their gaming store pages.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 reached 25 million players in just 5 days after being released while Warzone Caldara reached 30 million players in 10 days.
IO Interactive is hiring a Monetization Designer which means their next game can potentially include micro-transactions and multiplayer.
Riot Games is reportedly looking to bring Valorant to console-based platforms. They’re hiring a senior designer and design manager with console experience.
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