Casey Hudson forms Humanoid Studios

Casey Hudson who previously worked on Mass Effect is now forming a brand new independent studio called Humanoid Studios.

Hudson announced the studio on Twitter by saying the following:#Today we are announcing a new independent videogame company built to unleash the creative freedom of developers – bringing innovation and artistry to players through an all-new IP.”

Little is known on what the new studio will be creating but the website states that the studio is still searching for key development roles such as Senior Gameplay & Level Designers, Environment Artists, and a Senior Creative Director.

It's always exciting to see a new studio’s form of known talent from the industry and I can't wait to see what the folks at Humanoid end up making.

PlayStation Plus Games For June Announced

PlayStation has announced three upcoming games that will be available to PlayStation Plus subscribers during the month of June.

Here's the list of games:

Operation Tango (PS5)

Star Wars: Squadrons (PS4)

Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown (PS4)

All three games will be available on PlayStation Plus from June 1, and Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown will be redeemable for the next two months. However, Operation Tango and Star Wars: Squadrons will both leave the service on July 5.

Warner Bros Interactive Reportedly To Be Split Up After WarnerMedia And Discovery Merger

Warner Bros Interactive will be "broken up somehow" after parent company AT&T's confirmed it will now be merging WarnerMedia with Discovery to create a new "premier, standalone global entertainment company."

The supposed deal is expected to close in mid-2022 and will see AT&T receive $43 billion USD and also getting stock that represents 71% of the new company.

In regards to WB Interactive, a spokesperson apparently told a reporter at Axios (as per journalist Stephen Totilo on Twitter) "Some of the gaming arms will stay with AT&T and some will go with the new company."

details on the split are currently not known, Warner Bros Interactive is home to a ton of prolific studios that includes: NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat), Rocksteady Studios (Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League) , TT Games (Lego Star Wars: A Skywalker Saga), Avalanche Games (Hogwarts Legacy) and Monolith (Shadow of Mordor).

Sadly, this isn’t the first hurdle that WBIE has had to overcome, with reports suggesting that AT&T were possibly looking to sell the games divisions last summer. Interest in making the purchase came from companies such as Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, and EA. However, they apparently changed their minds by September, deeming the business "too valuable to unload during its effort to pay down debt and streamline."

How this turns out is gonna pretty impactful to the gaming industry and I could see AT&T possibly pushing contracts to other companies to create games based on licenses and then just sitting collecting royalties.

Knockout City Is Free At Launch But Only For 10 Days

EA has announced that Knockout City will be going free for ten days from launch as a free trial their calling the Block Party.

the full game will be available on all formats for ten days starting from May 21, allowing players to check out all four of the game's launch modes that include Team KO, Diamond Dash, Party Team KO, and Face-Off. Additionally, every map will be playable and players will be able to start unlocking cosmetics for their character.

if you decide to purchase the game during the Block Party event, you'll get some bonus content and keep everything you've unlocked over the course of the event.

Knockout City Season 1 will launch on May 25, with the theme of "Welcome to Knockout City". It'll add a new location to the game, and a ton of Contracts for both Crew and Weekly Crew list. A new Playlists and League Play will also be unlocked where you can raise your Street Rank and unlock even more cosmetics.

Knockout City will be free for ten days from launch on May 21 until May 30 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.

EA Play Live Announced For July

EA has announced that it will be skipping E3 2021 and will instead be holding EA Play Live showcase on July 22.

No details on what games they'll be showing off but my guess would be a gameplay reveal of Battlefield 6 after showing off a launch trailer at the Xbox E3 show. The Usual EA Sports title will probably make an appearance of some sort and something related to Apex Legends, maybe a tease for Season 10 or a new event.

EA tends to update their players on games they've already announced so it's a possibility that Skate 4, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Squeal, New Mass Effect, and Dragon Age 4 could show up but I think it's unlikely.

EA Teases Battlefield 6 reveal for June

EA and DICE are seemingly teasing a reveal for Battlefield 6 coming next month according to the game's official Twitter account.

In an extremely brief teaser, they tweeted "Words that rhyme with Soon: June. Boom." My guess would be that the game will show up at E3 2021 and i think it'll be available on Xbox Game Pass. Notable the EA Play addition on Game Pass Ultimate shows on the app to claim by 02/06/2021 which could mean when EA Play leaves the service but that's speculation. Hopefully, I'm wrong on that one but it wouldn't surprise me if EA Play was removed from Game Pass Ultimate and then Ubisoft Plus is added.

Knockout City coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate And EA Play

EA has confirmed that the upcoming dodgeball game Knockout City will be available via EA Play and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at launch in May.

in a post where EA celebrates the beta hitting one million downloads for the recent open beta weekend. They confirmed the game will be coming to EA Play and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier subscription, this also means it'll be available for players on PlayStation and PC via a standard EA Play membership as well.

I played the recent demo and I came away from it lukewarm, I enjoyed aspects of the game but I also found the matchmaking overly frustrating. Every match I played over the course of the beta weekend had one team with fewer players than the other which made it extremely one-sided.

Knockout City will be available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC on May 21.

Additionally, the game will have access to cross-play across all platforms.

Respawn Entertainment Reveals it's working on a brand new IP

Respawn Entertainment has announced that it's working on a new IP according to a job listing that appeared online over the weekend.

studio head Vince Zampella went on to retweeted the job listing for an 'Incubation Team Software Engineer' and states that the studio is looking to add to a currently-five person team and join a "compact incubation team currently developing a new IP" with Zampella calling it an "exciting new opportunity."

Sadly there's not much more known about the new project but it’s exciting regardless. Respawn created some of the best games from the Xbox One and PS4 generation and I can't wait to see what they'll achieve in the near future.

Apex Legends Nintendo Switch Release Date Announced

EA and Respawn have announced that Apex Legends will finally be dropping onto Nintendo Switch on March 9.

game director Chad Grenier revealed the game will support cross-play on console, as well as the latest season and full feature parity with the other versions of the game. The Nintendo Switch version is being ported by the studio known as Panic Button.

Those who buy the Season 8 Battle Pass on Nintendo Switch will also get the first 30 levels plus XP earned will be doubled for the first two weeks after launch.

I jumped into the new season on launch and I'm currently enjoying most of the content, I still however do not like Kings Canyon. Fuse is pretty fantastic but his concussion ability is a little on the loud side. It's definitely an improvement on Season 7 and hopefully, with a little time and some patches, it'll be awesome.

The next Battlefield Game will be revealed this Spring

EA's Andrew Wilson has confirmed that the next Battlefield game will be revealed this Spring, and is still on course for a Holiday 2021 release.

The announcement came from the latest EA's investor call, where he said of the latest entry in the FPS series: "We will reveal the game in the spring and deliver defined Battlefield experience for our players in the 2021 holiday season."

Wilson also said during the call that the next Battlefield would "mark a return to all-out military warfare" and boasted that the upcoming sequel "takes full advantage of the power of next-generation platforms to bring massive immersive battles to life with more players than ever before" thanks to maps with "unprecedented scale."

Mass Effect Legendary Edition New Release Date is May 14

EA has announced that Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be launch on May 14 in a newly released trailer showing off some of the upgrades.

The collection will include all three games from the original trilogy, alongside 40 pieces of DLC content including weapons, armors, and packs which have all been remastered and "optimised" for 4K. The game will feature improved visual effects such as enhanced models, shaders, FX, lighting, and depth of field. There'll also be "targeted enhancements" for the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 that include full HDR across the trilogy and options for "Favor Quality" and "Favour Framerate" modes to boost resolution or FPS.

They also have added New customization options for your Shepard that include improved hair, makeup, eye colour, and skin tones. the character creator is confirmed to also allow all options across all three games in the trilogy. Lastly, there are also plans to make some gameplay enhancements specifically for the first game which is said to include "improved aiming and weapons balance, SFX, input/controls, squad behaviour, cover behaviour, and gameplay cameras."

Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC from May 14, 2021.