Category: News

Icebrood Saga Comes To Guild Wars 2 Next Week


Guild Wars 2 is set to release the first episode in the Icebrood Saga on November 19. The episode is titled Whisper in the Dark and introduces new gameplay systems and activities for players to cut their teeth on.

  • A new map, the Bjora Marches
  • Four new multi-tier Mastery tracks fueled by norn spirit magic: Essence Manipulation and Raven Attunement
  • Three new Strike Mission bosses, including the grim and sinister Boneskinner, that rotate weekly and provide unique rewards for players who defeat them
  • A new two-tier upgradable Ancient Boreal weapon set
  • A new Raven-inspired exotic scepter skin
  • A campfire s’mores roasting kit

Check out the trailer below.

Funcom Quarterly Report Notes 10 Active Projects


Funcom has released their third quarter financial performance and the results are up and down. Revenue is down from $7.5 million last year to $5.4 million this year which can be blamed on Conan Exiles having a strong launch in Q2 and Q3 of 2018. Funcom did not launch a title in Q3 2019, however they did admit that Conan Unconquered has underperformed to Funcom’s expectations.

Funcom’s MMO library has been relegated to a tiny corner of their report, simply mentioning “community events” for activities encompassing Age of Conan, Secret Worlds Legends, and Anarchy Online (The Secret World isn’t referenced at all). The financial report also notes that Tencent recent acquired a 29% stake in Funcom over the quarter, offering no cash infusion to Funcom itself as the stocks were purchased from KGJ Capital AS.

“We are very pleased to see Tencent come in as the largest shareholder of Funcom. Tencent has a reputation for being a responsible long-term investor, and for its renowned operational capabilities in online games. The insight, experience, and knowledge that Tencent will bring is of great value to us and we look forward to working closely with them as we continue to develop great games and build a successful future for Funcom.“ Rui Casais

After quarter activities so far have included the launch of 2015’s The Park on Nintendo Switch, as well as the release of Moons of Madness on Steam. The report does not discuss sales figures, however Steamspy estimates 20,000 to 50,000 total sales and Steam charts show the game peaking at 519.

Funcom’s upcoming titles include a Dune open world title that is currently in pre-production, a cooperative shooter set in the Mutant: World Zero IP, Conan Chop Chop set for launch in Q1 2020, Moons of Madness releasing on consoles in January, and two unnamed titles in development by Games Farm and The Outsiders, a studio created by former Battlefield developers.

Source: Funcom

Google Finally Announces Stadia Launch Titles, There Are Twelve


No need to hold your breaths any longer, as Google has finally unveiled the launch titles for Google Stadia and a whole week before the service launches.

Google Stadia goes live on November 19, but you can feast your eyes on the games that will be available on launch day right now. All twelve of them in fact. The launch slate is a pretty recent list of games with a bunch of titles from 2019 and a lot of Tomb Raider in case you’ve been really slow on keeping up with that trilogy.

  • Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (2018)
  • Destiny 2: The Collection (2017)
  • Gylt (2019)
  • Just Dance 2020 (2019)
  • Kine (2019)
  • Mortal Kombat 11 (2019)
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 (2019)
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015)
  • Samurai Shodown (2019)
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (2018)
  • Thumper (2016)
  • Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (2013)

Also releasing before the end of 2019:

  • Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle
  • Borderlands 3
  • Darksiders Genesis
  • Dragonball Xenoverse 2
  • Farming Simulator 19
  • Final Fantasy 15
  • Football Manager 2020
  • Ghost Recon Breakpoint
  • Grid
  • Metro Exodus
  • NBA 2K20
  • Rage 2
  • Trials Rising
  • Wolfenstein Youngblood

All of this is of course meaningless if you do not live in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United States, or the United Kingdom, because those are the only countries that Stadia is launching in this month. Sorry! Also, you might want to hold off on pre-ordering if you were going to wait until the last minute since Google has announced that late orders likely won’t get their unit on day one.

Also you will need to buy the games on top of the founder’s pre-order and subscription.

Pre-Reg For Black Desert Mobile, Get Free Copy On PC/Console


Following a successful pre-registration campaign, Black Desert Mobile is set to launch globally on December 11. Currently soft launched in seven countries, Black Desert Mobile is hitting iOS and Android at the end of the year and bringing with it new gameplay features in nine languages.

To celebrate the campaign, all pre-registrations through the official website will come with an added bonus: Black Desert not-mobile. You’ll be able to redeem a coupon upon registering for the mobile game for a copy of the PC, Xbox, or PS4 version. You technically don’t even have to play the mobile game when it comes out. Supplies are apparently limited, so grab your copy before they run out.

Black Desert Mobile will launch with support for English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Thai, Indonesian, Chinese and Chinese Traditional languages. For more information, check out the link above.

Source: Black Desert press release

PSA: Need For Speed: Heat Will Be (Almost) 50% Off This Month


Need For Speed: Heat is the latest title in the popular Need for Speed franchise, and those of you who went out of your way to buy it on day one are set to be rewarded by paying a $30 premium for a couple of weeks head start. Need for Speed is going on heavy discount this Black Friday.

Target this past week released their Black Friday ad which runs from November 28-30 and Need For Speed is about to get a substantial discount. $35 in fact, down from its current asking price of $59.99. The $35 sale includes “over 10 games” and also contains recent releases like Borderlands 3, NHL 20, and Monster Hunter with Iceborne. We do not know what the other titles are that are included in the sale.

Need For Speed: Heat launched on November 8 and notably released with no microtransactions.

Sony’s Cartridge Patent May Mean Absolutely Nothing


With Disney Plus launching on Tuesday and Google Stadia not out for over a week, it’s time to set our sights on 2020 and that can only mean one thing; Next gen console speculation. Letsgodigital is reporting that Sony has filed a patent for a game cartridge in Brazil. Not a whole lot about the cartridge is known; in fact, nothing is known outside of a flat image of its design. The patent was filed by Yujin Morisawa who is the senior art director of Sony Interactive Entertainment and is listed as the inventor.

The internet of course has gone into full-blown speculation mode. Could this be a feature of the Playstation 5? Is Sony working on a Vita 2? Or some other handheld? What if this is for a standalone wireless VR system? Maybe it’s an expansion pack like the Nintendo 64 had. Maybe it will boost the ram of the system.

Or maybe it’s nothing. Honestly you could pick out any of the major game companies and fill a book with the number of things that they have patented and never ultimately created a product out of. Sony has stated on several occasions that a new handheld system just isn’t in the books thanks to the fantastic support that the Vita received, but there is also nothing to say that Sony hasn’t looked at the success of the Switch and given a second thought to a portable successor. On another side, it would seem odd to imagine that there is a time where Sony isn’t actively thinking about coming back into the portable world.

Or it could be for another kid computer toy like the Toio.

Call of Duty, WoW Classic Make Activision Blizzard Mucho Dinero


The success of World of Warcraft Classic could only come as a shock to J. Allen “You think you do but you don’t” Brack, but to the rest of the world the idea that the classic servers brought back a lot of players isn’t surprising in the least.

Activision released their third quarter statements for 2019 and the results are pretty great for them. With sales from Call of Duty BLOPS 4 and WWII still strong and World of Warcraft Classic leading the way, Activision hauled in $1.28 billion dollars compared to $1.51 billion in 2018. World of Warcraft Classic drove subscriptions to its highest quarterly increase in franchise history while Candy Crush somehow continues to grow in revenue. In addition, the launch of Call of Duty Mobile has been a major success in terms of downloads and revenue.

Despite recent controversy, Blizzard has created a good amount of hype with the announcement of Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV at this year’s Blizzcon.

The quarter ends on September 30 and does not reflect any potential consumer reaction to the Blitzchung Hearthstone controversy, nor does it include sales from the latest Modern Warfare title.

Source: Activision report

Pearl Abyss Announces Three New MMOs


Pearl Abyss today has dropped a surprise ahead of the annual Pearl Abyss Connect event in the form of three new games under development.

  • PLAN 8 is an exosuit MMO shooter.
  • DokeV is a collectible MMORPG for all ages.
  • Crimson Desert is an open-world MMORPG set in an epic-fantasy world.

Pulling no punches, Pearl Abyss announced that PLAN 8 is being spearheaded by Minh Le serving as technical director. You may recognize that name as one of the co-creators of Counter Strike. DokeV has brought on a couple of former directors from Black Desert Online including Sang-young Kim and Suh Won Choi.

All three games will be featured at next week’s Connect event. In the meantime you can sign up at the links above to be notified of the trailers when they go live.

Source: Pearl Abyss press release

China Clamps Down On Child Spending, Adult Gambling In Games


Sorry industry!

China, a country famous for its friendliness toward entertainment media, has officially begun cracking down on the gaming industry in the name of protecting vulnerable citizens. As reported by NPR, the move outlines six initiatives to prevent minors from indulging in online games. Minors are restricted to playing 90 minutes of video games every day except national holidays when that limit goes up to three hours. In addition, minors will be limited to spending $28 or $57 per month depending on age and can not game between the hours of 10p.m. and 8:00a.m.

But the restrictions don’t just apply to kids. All Chinese gamers will be prohibited from enjoying games depicting sex, gore, violence, and gambling.

China’s new directives implicate adult gamers too. A state spokesperson says that everyone, regardless of age, is prohibited from playing games that depict “sexual explicitness, goriness, violence and gambling.”

No word on how loot boxes fit into the depiction of gambling.

Source: NPR via MassivelyOP

Striker/Tamer Out Now On Black Desert (PS4)


Today marks the launch of two new classes in Black Desert on the Playstation 4; the Striker and Tamer.

The Striker class is a melee fighting class that specializes in hand-to-hand attacks to bring down his enemies. The Tamer as you might expect is joined by her animal companion and utilizes powerful area of effect attacks while evading counterattacks. In addition to the two classes, Black Desert on Playstation 4 sees the addition of a new world boss in the form of Karanda The Queen of Harpies. Karanda has a chance of dropping the dandelion weapon box which contains the most powerful awakening weapon in Black Desert.

Information on the classes can be found here with Karanda and a new world boss schedule here. Black Desert is currently 25% off on the Playstation Store and 50% off for plus members as part of the ongoing Double Discount sale.