This week in gaming: Google Stadia enters the gaming ring, Apex Legends made a buttload of money, Unity partners with Havok, and more!
In the spirit of keeping our readers up to date with what’s happening in the video game industry, the Doublejump Digest is a brief collection of the major news stories from the past week. Keep an eye out for the Digest every Sunday night, and head on into the archive for news from weeks gone by!
FROM DOUBLEJUMP:
- In the first instalment of Press X to Adapt, John explores how the original Mortal Kombat movie gave the game series a shot in the arm story-wise that NetherRealm has capitalised on since.
- In a special Spotlight, Abir recapped the major announcements from the Google Stadia reveal event.
- Following his fun session streaming the game on Twitch, Cai rewound time to discuss what makes Thimbleweed Park such an authentic homage to adventure games of yesteryear – warts and all.
MAJOR NEWS:
Google reveals its take on cloud gaming, Stadia:
Early this week, Google dropped a bombshell by finally unveiling its cloud-based game streaming service, Google Stadia. As Abir covered in his Spotlight, the technology giant is leveraging its existing server infrastructure and custom AMD hardware to allow users around the world to begin playing a game within seconds. Google has focussed on accessibility by designing Google Stadia to work on mobile devices, low-powered PCs, Google Chromecast Ultra, and the Chrome browser
Apex Legends’ enjoys most-successful free-to-play launch ever:
According to SuperData Research, Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends earned more than US$92 million from in-game purchases in its release month in February. If this figure is accurate, it would mean that the game brought in more revenue than Fortnite Battle Royale did in its launch month.
Unity Engine will soon feature Havok physics:
At the Game Developers Conference last week, Unity Technologies announced that its popular Unity game engine will soon support two Havok-powered physics systems: a default one (Unity Physics) and a “high-end” one (Havok Physics). Unity VP Product Andrew Bowell told Gamasutra that his company will not force developers currently working on Unity-based projects to transition its new physics solutions since they will be part of a new data-oriented technology stack (DOTS) framework. However, Unity will provide “converters and upgrade paths” for developers to integrate these two new physics simulation systems to their existing projects.
Epic Games “wholeheartedly” supports key-selling, will use human moderators:
Epic Games has announced that it has secured Remedy Entertainment’s Control and Quantic Dreams’ Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human as one-year Epic Game Store exclusives when they are released on PC. The announcements come in the wake of Epic Games Store Head Steve Allison revealing that Metro: Exodus outsold its predecessor by 150 percent despite not being released on Steam. Speaking at GDC, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney also committed to using a “human process” for screening what games will be released on his company’s growing storefront.
NOTABLE GAME RELEASES:
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PC, PS4, and Xbox One)
- SNK 40th Anniversary Collection (PS4)
- The Messenger (PS4)
VIDEOS AND TRAILERS:
Persona 5 The Royal – Teaser Trailer:
Atlus has revealed a potential add-on to its popular JRPG, and it looks like players will play as a new female protagonist.
Mortal Kombat 11 – Official Noob Saibot Reveal Trailer:
The original Sub Zero returns to face his brother one more.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 – Announcement Trailer:
This long-awaited sequel is heading to PC, PS4, and Xbox One next year!
Mortal Kombat 11 – Beta Trailer:
March 29 (Aussie time) can’t come soon enough!
Overwatch – Baptiste is out now:
Everyone’s favourite hunky medic is now available for all to play as.
System Shock 3 – Unity Keynote Teaser:
SHODAN sure can still scare the shit out of us!
INDIE SPOTLIGHT:
Nintendo held a special Nindies-focussed Direct:
Cuphead, My Friend Pedro, Nuclear Throne, and a Crypt of the Necrodancer–Zelda crossover? Why not?!
OTHER NEWS:
- Shang Tsung will be Mortal Kombat 11’s first premium character: GameSpot
- 343 Industries isn’t planning on bringing Halo 5: Guardians to PC: DualShockers
- Bungie is opting to double-down on the Enhancement Core grind instead of fixing Destiny 2’s gear upgrading system: Bungie
- Former Valve and Riot Games senior staffers have formed a new studio: Eurogamer
- Disney has resurrected the Lucasfilm Games brand for some new projects: Engadget
- NVIDIA is opening up RTX ray tracing support to selected GeForce GTX cards: Polygon
- NVIDIA is also expanding GeForce Now to more countries: GamesIndustry.biz
- Casey Hudson has apologised for Anthem’s messy launch: BioWare
- SEGA is working on a new Sonic game: Eurogamer
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