Good morning gamers. We are in the middle of the summer which means there’s not a lot happening in the gaming world right now. With that said, game publishers and industry insiders are doing a good job at keeping gamers entertained with some new and exciting information. Last week SEGA and Nintendo celebrated some major anniversaries, while Halo Infinite and EA also put smiles on some faces. Make sure your controller batteries are charged and enjoy this weeks Weekly Recon.
Halo Infinite - Season One
Last week, 343 Industries released their monthly blogpost called “Inside Infinite,” where the developers talk about the game building process and share updates on the status of the game.
Halo Infinite’s Season 1 multiplayer will be called “Heroes of Reach,” and it will feature characters from Halo Reach. Halo Reach was released in 2010, developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios.
Halo Infinite will kick-off a new season every three months, which will offer players several updates including: in-game events, new gameplay content, new progressions and new customizations. 343 Industries chose the three month rotation cycle because “it gives players a good amount of time to experience and explore seasonal content”.
Chris Blohm and 343 Industries wants “players having fun in Halo, not grind it like it’s a job”. Therefore, Halo Infinite will have a permanent battle pass, as well as a design that doesn’t require players to play tons of hours every week. Players will be able to complete the battle pass for free or opt for a paid premium tier of rewards.
The Halo TV Series is losing their showrunner once again. After Kyle Killen left the project last year due to being unable to devote himself full-time, Steven Kane has now announced that he will not stay on for Season 2. Despite the news, the show is still expected to be released in 2022 on Paramount+.
EA Motive Studio - IP Revival
Motive Studios is a Canadian game developer and studio for Electronic Arts based out of Montreal. They are behind popular EA titles such as Star Wars: Squadrons and Star Wars Battlefront II.
According to Jeff Grubb on the Gamebeats YouTube show, EA is going to be rebooting an already established IP. The reveal is set to take place at the EA Play event on July 22. Star Wars: Squadrons was the first complete game released by Motive Studios, however, they have also collaborated on DICE’s Battlefront 2. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla director Eric Baptizat joined the studio earlier this year.
VGC is reporting that the EA revival will be for the Dead Space series. The Dead Space series was first released in 2008 but there has not been a new release since 2013. The reboot is set to be a reimagining of the Dead Space IP with a focus on pushing the boundaries of what players expect now and in the future.
Dead Space is a survival horror video game series created by Glen Schofield that was inspired by Resident Evil 4. The series is based in the year 2058, where a deep-space mining ship goes dark and engineer Isaac Clarke embarks on a repair mission. Dead Space, like any great game, sees the survival of mankind coming under fire.
It’s a SEG-TENDO Birthday Party and You’re all Invited!
June 23rd was a big day for Nintendo and Sega as they each celebrated the anniversaries of some of their most important and beloved creations.
Nintendo celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo 64 console and Super Mario 64.
The N64 was originally released in Japan on June 23 1996 and is known for being one of the first game systems to include an analogue controller as well as multiple ports supporting up to four players. Time Magazine named it the “Machine of the Year” in 1996 and it went on to sell more than 32 million units worldwide.
Super Mario 64 launched alongside the N64 and is the first platform Mario game to feature 3D graphics and gameplay. It is recognized as one of the greatest video games of all time and sold more than 11 million copies.
Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA’s flagship video game franchise, celebrated its 30th anniversary. The little blue speedster is one of the most recognizable characters in videogame history, selling more than 140 million games. This is how they celebrated,
Sonic's 30th Anniversary Symphony, a 2-hour performance of music from all the Sonic games is now live on YouTube.
Sonic the Hedgehog was introduced in Minecraft with a new DLC pack. The crossover content includes a series of levels and characters from the Sonic franchise and an infinite runner game mode.
Epic Games Store is giving away Sonic Turbo and Horizon Chase Turbo.
According to Sonic video game artist Kazuyuki Hoshino, there might be plans to “turn Sonic into a VTuber” and maybe even have a Sonic theme park.
Esports Corner
🥇Congratulations to Atlanta Faze for winning the Call of Duty League 2021 Major IV.
Valorant Esports is Here to Stay
Riot Games is in the early stages of developing an “Act Based Tournament System” for Valorant. Senior Competitive Designer EvrMoar took to twitter saying that this system is currently a work-in-progress and hopes to implement it for future events. In this system, if a team wins a tournament during an act, they will get invited to a bigger “End Of Act'' tournament where winners will battle each other. Team sizes of 5 to 7 players will be permitted, and this will allow teams to make substitutions between rounds. This system is similar to the League of Legends Clash Tournaments.
The International 10 Has Hit A Roadblock
Valve has announced that their major Dota 2 Championship event The International 10, which is scheduled to take place in early August, may no longer be able to be hosted in Stockholm, Sweden. Their official statement says that despite constant reassurance from various Swedish Tourism Boards, the Swedish Sports Federation voted against accepting esports into the sports federation. Their request to reclassify The International 10 as an “elite sporting event” was also denied. This means that anybody trying to get a visa to enter Sweden for the event (including players, staff and talent) would be immediately denied. Valve remains optimistic that a solution will be found but they are committed to hosting the event this year and are looking at alternative options.
Esports x Fashion
Back in April the Esports Fashion Week pilot event was announced. The founding organization is set on converging esports with fashion and “showcasing the stunning diversity of styles and aesthetics” across the industry. The Esports Fashion Council includes many industry experts and currently both H4X and We Are Nations have joined the event scheduled for Q3 2021. Above all that, there were multiple major fashion brand partnerships announced, including;
Takashi Murakami partners with FaZe Clan to design new merchandise and esports jerseys.
PUMA partners with Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) to assist on the design of brand-new jerseys.
Ralph Lauren partners with G2 Esports to become their exclusive fashion outfitter.
Raven and Footpatrol partner with the Call of Duty League to launch select CDL team collections.
Game Review - Scarlet Nexus
Scarlet Nexus is a new action role playing game developped by Bandai Namco Studios and Tose. It is considered one of the best looking anime games so far with an emphasis on the amazing character designs. Similar to other anime games already released, Scarlet Nexus has an amazing storyline; as if you are watching an anime and actually playing. The unique part about this game is that 90% of the cutscenes are digital graphic manga-style scenes. The soundtrack is great which is typical for these kinds of games and the combat system feels good too. We recommend feeling out the game for a couple of hours to really grasp all of the great aspects. We give Scarlet Nexus a score of B+.
Gaming Roundup
Ghost of Tsushima standalone single-player expansion titled Ghost of Ikishima is rumoured to be released later this year. The announcement is expected to happen at an upcoming Sony State of Play event.
Kim Swift, the lead designer behind Valve’s Portal series has joined Xbox Game Studios as Cloud Gaming Senior Director. Her goal will be to “accelerate [their] innovation and collaborate with independent studios to build games for the cloud”. She is rumoured to be helping Kojima Productions produce their next game for Xbox.
Space Jam: A New Legacy is coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on July 1, and then available as a free-to-play title on July 15. The game is a retro-style beat’em up created by fans and developed by Digital Eclipse.
TiMi is developing a AAA live-service multiplayer shooter at their Seattle-based office. The studio will be led by Halo 4 lead designer Scott Warner and former head of development and operations at EA DICE Rosi Zagorcheva.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite will release on August 24 for all active Xbox and PlayStation consoles, and PC. The game is being developed by Cold Iron Studios and takes place 23 years after the events in the original Alien Trilogy.
Notch, the creator of Minecraft and co-founder of Mojang had some interesting words to say about Minecraft over Twitter. In his opinion, Minecraft is “a little bit dead”.
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