As we all know, I like vampire stories, and I like different takes on vampire stories. Yesterday Edwin dangled an upcoming visual novel called Vampire Therapist in front of my nose. I am intrigued, also because I appreciate a Ronseal approach to titles. In Vampire Therapist, out on Steam this June 17th, you play Sam, a vampire who becomes a therapist to other vampires. So the title works twice!
With the acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, Microsoft can now be a “good publisher” across all platforms, including rival consoles, the boss of the company has said.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said: “We love gaming. In fact, Flight Simulator was created before even Windows. But, we were number three, number four. And now with Activision, I think we have a chance of being a good publisher — quite frankly — on Sony and Nintendo and PCs and Xbox. We’re excited about that acquisition closing and I’m glad we’ve got it through.”
Nadella’s comments echo those he made last month, when he similarly said Microsoft plans to release games across all platforms: “We think that now we have the ability to do what we always set out to do, which is build great games and deliver them to folks across all platforms, which is Xbox and consoles, the PCs, and now even including mobile gaming and cloud gaming,” he said at the time.
This comes amid reports Microsoft plans to release some of its exclusives on the Switch and PlayStation 5. Both Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush and Rare’s Sea of Thieves are said to be considered for launch on Nintendo and Sony consoles after a period of exclusivity across Xbox consoles and PC. Microsoft has yet to comment on the reports.
Last year, Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart set the cat among the pigeons by suggesting Microsoft planned to launch its Game Pass subscription service on rival consoles, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer denied that was the case.
Stuart did, however, strongly indicate Microsoft’s cross-platform publishing plans: “It’s a bit of a change of strategy,” he said. “Not announcing anything broadly here, but our mission is to bring our first-party experiences [and] our subscription services to every screen that can play games. That means smart TVs, that means mobile devices, that means what we would have thought of as competitors in the past like PlayStation and Nintendo.”
It’s worth noting Microsoft has committed to releasing Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles as part of a decade-long deal, as well as promised to bring the shooter to Nintendo consoles. Question marks remain over other Activision Blizzard games, however.
This week, IGN sought to answer the question of whether Microsoft was leaving Xbox exclusives behind in the report, How Xbox is changing the nature of exclusivity.
Meanwhile, Microsoft will host Xbox Developer_Direct January 2024 today, January 18. Expect a first look at MachineGames’ Indiana Jones game as well as Obsidian’s Avowed, among other reveals. The recently announced Marvel’s Blade is in development at the Microsoft and Bethesda-owned Arkane Lyon, but platforms are yet to be confirmed.
Image credit: Bloomberg Live
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Readers may remember how much I liked Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, principally because of how funny it was. It was an intelligent and somewhat loving take on a Zelda-y RPG – a small town hero gets a sword and goes on a rampage fighting some bosses – except the main character is a turnip. And also he tears up any paperwork handed to him. Turnip Boy Robs A Bank follows directly on from his Tax Evasion, and it’s not quite as funny or as focused, but it’s also an entirely different genre of game, and I have a huge amount respect for that.
Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has said it’s “well aware” fans still “aren’t satisfied” with the heist shooter so have created an internal team dedicated to turning things around.
Revealed in a blog post, Starbreeze said this “strike team” is currently planning and deciding which changes are necessary to create the experience fans expected. This dedicated team arrives almost four months after Payday 3 launched with several issues.
“We’re well aware that many of you aren’t satisfied with the game the way it is in its current state,” Starbreeze said. “Since launch, we’ve been reading your valuable feedback in forums, social media, and in video comments in addition to the Feature Upvote page. This helps us massively and is crucial to the continued development of Payday 3.
“In order to turn your feedback into action, we’ve put together a strike team of veteran developers from the design, community, communication and production teams with the focus on bringing Payday 3 up to where it will meet your expectations.”
Starbreeze will reveal its plan in February, saying it wants “to be careful to not simply react, and deal with any possible improvements one by one with the care, thought and planning they deserve.”
Payday 3’s launch was plagued with server issues that forced Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren to apologise. “We are so sorry that the infrastructure didn’t hold up as expected, and although it’s impossible to prepare for every scenario — we should be able to do better,” he said.
Almost a month after its launch and Starbreeze apologised again for its lack of communication, and then just a week later said sorry one more time for not delivering a promised patch and again going quiet.
Starbreeze boasted Payday 3 had 3.1 million players as of October 2, but this number has dwindled, at least on Steam, as more players are currently playing Payday 2 than its sequel. According to SteamDB, Payday 3 has a 24 hour peak of just 713 compared to Payday 2’s 33,550, despite the latter launching over a decade ago.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Another chance.
Our first big Switch exclusive of 2024 arrives nice and early and, rather than assuming the form of one of Nintendo’s bigger franchises — we got Fire Emblem Engage this time last year — we are instead winding the clock back to 2005 and 2009 respectively, to dive into swish remakes of a pair of cult classic adventures from the DS and Wii.
Another Code: Two Memories (Trace Memory in the US — which you can find reviewed here) and its sequel, Another Code R: A Journey Into Lost Memories, may not have been the most obvious of ways to kickstart a new year, but they are a deep cult cut that have deservedly garnered a following over the years.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Puzzle game classic Threes is getting a Steam PC launch to celebrate its 10th anniversary, developer Asher Vollmer has announced. The release date is 6th February, and here’s the Steam page. The new version adds controller and Steam cloud support together with achievements and leaderboards. Given its mobile origins, it should scrub up nicely on Steam Deck.
Intel’s Core i3 12100F is a surprisingly viable gaming CPU, with four Golden Cove P-cores and eight threads with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support, all for under £100. Don’t be put off by ‘Core i3’ either – this model is similar in speed to the last-gen Core i5 11600K and not too far behind the Core i7 10700K, such is the leap forward Intel made with its 12th-gen CPU architecture. Today this processor is even cheaper than normal too, with prices dropping to £88 at Ebuyer in the UK.
“It all starts with a book”.
The “library battle simulator” Library of Ruina, which was previously released on the Xbox and PC, will finally be getting a worldwide release on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 this Spring. Arc System Works will publish the ProjectMoon developed title and it will be available for $39.99 (or your regional equivalent).
In this title, you take control of a library director who welcomes guests, battles them and when they’re defeated are turned into books. According to the trailer description, there are over 100 hours of gameplay as well as music and art collections to enjoy.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
“We’re excited about that acquisition closing”.
Following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, there’s been a lot of debate about Xbox published titles on other platforms, so what’s the latest?
Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella has told Bloomberg this week how he feels Xbox has a better chance of being a “good publisher” for all platforms (including Nintendo), now that the deal with Activision and Blizzard has closed.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Run and gun.
Hamster Corporation has revealed the next game for its Arcade Archive collection on Switch is Konami’s release Super Contra.
It’s available across all regions on 18th January 2024. Here’s a bit more about this version of the game, along with a look:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
