Dragon Quest Creator Hints At 'That Game' At Anniversary Stream

Dragon Quest series could have some pretty big announcements coming shortly at the 35th-anniversary stream on May 27, according to a tweet from series creator Yuji Horii.

The recently translated Tweet where Horii said that the team "have plenty to announce", but they will have more on "that game". This could be hinting at the arrival of Dragon Quest XII or it could be related to Dragon Quest: The Adventure Of Dai: Infinity Strash. (a game adaptation of the ongoing anime series)

I personally don't play the Dragon Quest games but my family loves the series so I'm hoping something cool is announced on the LiveStream, we won't have to wait long to find out more.

A new Sonic Collection is rumoured to be on the way from Sega

Sega might be launching a new collection of Sonic the Hedgehog games, thanks to a "Sonic Collection' listing appearing on a French retailer's website.

the listing which has since been removed, appeared on Sogamely, which is also the same retailer where a Sonic Colours remaster listing was posted last month.

no details are given on which games will be included in the Collection, but recently an industry insider known as Zippo has previously made claims that this particular collection could include remakes of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and other Sonic games that "have never seen a re-release before" for modern consoles and PC.

I'm one of those Sega kids, so I'm pretty excited to be able to experience these games and be able to share my love of all things Sega with my family.

Final Fantasy Origin Reportedly A PlayStation 5 Exclusive

A brand new Final Fantasy title called Final Fantasy Origin is apparently expected to be revealed at E3 and is being developed exclusively for PS5 by Team Ninja.

the rumored game will be an action RPG similar to Nioh and Dark Souls and could possibly take place in the same universe as the first Final Fantasy game.

The rumored title will also apparently be a PlayStation 5 exclusive, with a PC release "further down the road". Allegedly the game is possibly far enough along that it could also have an alpha demo this summer which is said to be entitled 'Stranger in Paradise.

As of writing, nothing has been confirmed by Square Enix or Team Ninja but E3 is mere weeks away so we'll find out shortly if it's true.

You could always just play Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade instead which is due to release on PlayStation 5 on June 10.

Xbox And Bethesda Possibly Holding A Joint Conference Soon

Xbox and Bethesda Softworks are reportedly holding a joint conference in a few weeks to reveal its current slate of upcoming games.

This report comes from French publication Le Figaro, who apparently spoke to Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty who supposedly said the event would take place in a few weeks.

A joint conference would make sense if Xbox is lacking on titles to show, however, I believe that isn't the case. I think the company will be launching a new Forza game, Halo Infinite, Psychonauts 2, and the possibility of smaller titles like The Gunk showing up in between. They could have a pretty massive E3 this year and adding Bethesda games to that would be absolutely insane.

Overwatch 2 PvP Details Announced

Blizzard held a developer Livestream for Overwatch 2 and with it came some big changes coming to the multiplayer PVP mode.

the studio confirmed that the team size is shrinking down from six players down to five, which will consist of one Tank, two DPS, and two Support heroes. As a tank player, I'm a little worried about the toxicity of the community. I'm really looking forward to being told how I should play my role by damage main in the near future.

The broadcast also included discussed so other changes coming to the squeal that consist of a clearer UI and hero changes such as Mei no longer being able to freeze opponents and Winston's Tesla Coil getting a ranged attack.

Lastly, they showcased three new maps that include New York with its Grand Central Terminal, Rio which hosts a Lucio nightclub, and Monte Carlo which of course has a race track.

I'm personally pretty hopeful for the changes but I'm also worried about how the current community will react to them. Overwatch's player base got more and more toxic as the years went on and I completely understand the anger when the game hasn't really changed in over a year or two. Fingers crossed the players embrace the changes and prove me wrong and Overwatch becomes an enjoyable experience again.

Deep Silver Announce A TimeSplitters Game In Development At Free Radical Design

Deep Silver has announced that TimeSplitters is returning and is being developed by a newly reformed Free Radical Design, the studio responsible for the original game. In Addition to this, two of the original founders will be working on the new project.

In the announcement, Deep Silver said "You asked and we listened. We have been working on plans to bring the TimeSplitters franchise back to life, and are pleased to let you know that we are setting up a new Deep Silver development studio to do just that. Free Radical Design is reforming and will be headed up by industry and TimeSplitters veterans, Steve Ellis and David Doak."

The game does seem to be in its early stage of development, with the statement continuing by saying "This is an exciting first step in the process; development on a new game has not yet started and we will update you when we have more news to share."

I remember playing this game on split-screen with some friends and I have fond memories of it, however, I don't see how the gameplay of the previous game stacks up in the modern day. Unless it's an Overwatch-style shooter and then I'm all in.

Gearbox Could Be Developing A New Franchise Releasing By April 2022 According To Take-Two

Take-Two has revealed some interesting details in its latest financial results earnings call and how it has plans to launch a new franchise from Gearbox Software during the next fiscal year.

the company announced it hopes to release 21 games during the current financial year from April 1, 2021, through until March 31, 2022. Out of the 21 games, there will be four "immersive core" games with two of them from already existing franchises. The other two games are completely new IP and CEO Strauss Zelnick comments seem to confirm that one of them is from Gearbox.

No more details were given on the project sadly, hopefully, we'll find out some more details shortly at E3 2021.

I'm personally not a huge fan of Gearbox games but I do hope they end up making some new and fresh and not another Battleborn or Borderlands spin-off game.

Saints Row: The Third Remastered Getting Xbox Series X|S And PS5 Upgrades

Saints Row: The Third Remastered will be coming to Xbox Series X | S and PlayStation 5 on May 25. The new next-generation version will be free to all current owners of the game and will equal the ultra settings on PC.

Some of the Improvements coming to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 version include a framerate boost to 60 FPS and dynamic 4K resolution, with Xbox Series X players being able to choose between Performance mode that will run 60 FPS at 1080p or beauty which runs 30FPS at 4K. The new version will get faster load times thanks to the SSD. Lastly, the most important update is the PS5 DualSense controller will glow in the signature Saints Purple.

Look Saints Row: The Third Remastered is great and all but I've personally played this game to completion around three times, hopefully, we'll get that Saints Row 5 announcement soon as I'm starting to lose hope.

Next Batch Xbox Game Pass Games Announced For May

Xbox has announced the next batch of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in the next few weeks and there are some pretty great additions.

Here's the list of upcoming games:

May 18

SnowRunner - (console, PC, cloud)

May 20

Peggle 2 - (cloud)

Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville - (cloud)

Secret Neighbor - (PC)

The Wild at Heart - (console and PC)

May 21

Knockout City - (console and PC)

The Catch: Carp and Coarse Fishing - (console, PC, cloud)

May 25

Maneater - (console, PC, cloud)

May 27

Conan Exiles - (console, cloud)

Fuzion Frenzy - (cloud)

Joy Ride Turbo - (cloud)

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries - (console)

Slime Rancher - (PC)

Solasta: Crown of the Magister - (PC)

Spellforce 3: Soul Harvest - (PC)

Games Adding Xbox Touch Controls:

Banjo-Tooie

Call of the Sea

Genesis Noir

Narita Boy

Nier: Automata Become As Gods Edition

Rain on Your Parade

Two Point Hospital

Sadly there will be some games Leaving the Xbox Game Pass service on May 31 and they go as followed:

Assetto Corsa - (Cloud and Console)

Broforce - (PC)

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 Remix - (Console)

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue - (Console)

Surviving Mars - (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Void Bastards - (Cloud, Console, and PC)

I'm looking forward to checking out Maneater and Knockout City again, other than that I'd highly suggest playing Void Bastards before it leaves the service. It's a fantastic FPS Metroidvania-style game set in space,, it's pretty funny and the gameplay is awesome.

GTA 5 Release Date For PS5 And Xbox Series X|S Announced

Rockstar has announced that Grand Theft Auto V is coming to Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on November 11. also the standalone edition of GTA Online for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will release the same day with PlayStation users are getting a special bonus.

As announced previously, GTA Online is free on PS5 for three months, ending in February 2022. PlayStation Plus users on PS4 will be able to claim GTA $1,000,000 every month until GTA Online comes to PS5.

The new versions of GTA V and GTA Online for next-gen have "new features and more," but Rockstar has yet to give many details on how it will take advantage of the next-gen hardware for the game.

Rockstar recently said the following while discussing the possibility of the new enhancements coming thanks to next-generation tech.

"The new generation versions of GTAV will feature a range of technical improvements, visual upgrades and performance enhancements to take full advantage of the latest hardware, making the game more beautiful and more responsive than ever,"

Lastly, Rockstar is celebrating the 20th anniversary of GTA III with "even more fun surprises," with some of them being specifically for GTA Online. Fingers crossed there'll also have something more like maybe a GTA III remaster or remake, that's how it works right? put it into the universe and then a mega-corporation will start developing it.

Here's the full quote from the Rockstar blog post: "In honor of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the genre-defining Grand Theft Auto III, we'll have even more fun surprises to share--including some specifically for GTA Online players."

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.

Starfield Possibly Exclusive to Xbox & PC

Bethesda's Starfield will apparently be an Xbox and PC exclusive, and won't be coming to the PlayStation according to recent reporting.

This comes from VentureBeat journalist Jeff Grubb, who said via Twitter that "Starfield is exclusive to Xbox and PC. Period. This is me confirming that."

Jeff Grubb later quote tweeted the following "@BlessingJr

You are right about Starfield release date." this is in reference to Blessing saying it would most likely release in Q1 of 2022, which in my opinion makes a ton of sense when you think about their game lineup for the next year.

My guess would be that Forza Horizon 5 drops in September/October followed by Halo Infinite in November and then have Starfield to kick-off 2022. They could also shadow drop Psychonaunts 2 around E3, that's a ton of Xbox games on Game Pass day and date and that's not including the possibility of third-party deals.

Jeff Grubb has a pretty great track record of being correct with these rumors though, where he previously reported on the Perfect Dark reboot and Mass Effect Legendary Edition before they were officially revealed.

Lastly, Grubb mentioned we should see more on Starfield during E3 2021 next month, hopefully, we'll get a confirmation of the release window and see some gameplay.

Xbox Will Celebrate 20 Year Anniversary With Virtual Fanfest Event

Xbox is celebrating its 20th anniversary and has announced it will be hosting a virtual Fanfest.

Announced via the Xbox Wire, the original Xbox was launched on November 15, 2001, in North America, so Xbox will be celebrating with the community via social media with the hashtag #Xbox20 and also launching a themed merch line.

Xbox Fanfest makes a return and will run between now and November but sadly details are a little slim. It'll probably include similar events and sweepstakes like last year which had chats with key Xbox members and developers, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S competitions and so much more.

In addition to this, Xbox has some Halo anniversary-themed wallpapers to download, a special 20 Year gamerpic, an Original Xbox Gamertag background, and The Original Xbox dynamic theme available in the Personalisation menu of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Lastly there's a curated list of Xbox games called ‘20 Year Collection’ currently on the Xbox Store.

PlayStation Adds In-Game Content To It's Play at Home Program

PlayStation is adding more value to their Stay At Home program with the addition of a ton of cool in-game content for free on May 17.

the following content will be added to the PlayStation Store and it will be available for free.

Rocket League PlayStation Plus Pack - includes four unique customization items including Blue Notch Wheels, Blue Smoke Boost, Blue Rocks Trail, and the Trimpact BL Player Banner.

Brawlhalla: Play at Home Pack – includes the Rayman Legend Unlock, Sir Rayelot Skin with Axe and Gauntlet Weapon Skins, Shrug Emote, and Grimm Sidekick.

Destruction AllStars - 1100 Destruction Points

MLB The Show 21 - 10 The Show Packs

NBA 2K21 The Play at Home Pack – includes MyTEAM Series 2 Amethyst Damian Lillard, 5,000 MyTEAM Points, and more.

Rogue Company: Play at Home Pack – includes the Kyoto Undercover Ronin Outfit and 200 Rogue Bucks.

World of Tanks/World of Warships Twice the Courage Pack - includes five x1.5 Silver Boosters, five x2 XP Boosters, 7 days of Premium Account, and more. For World of Warships: Legends, this bundle includes Tier III battleship Arkansas, 7 days of Premium Account, and 5x Rare Boosters of all five types.

Warframe: Starter Bundle – includes 100 Platinum, 100,000 Credits, 7 Day Affinity Booster, Essential Base Damage Mod Bundle, and more.

Lastly, on May 20th, Players can get five 60-minute Double XP tokens for Call of Duty: Warzone for Season Three. The Double XP tokens are accessed exclusively in-game through the Message of The Day.

The Stay At Home program is a fantastic way to reward your player base during a really tough time, it's been nice to have a company give back while everyone been stuck at home and possibly struggling. I know for sure if it wasn't for the constant string on Yakuza games being added to Xbox Game Pass. I would have struggled so much more than i did.

Xbox To Add Party Chat Transcription And Text-To-Speech

Xbox has announced that it will be introducing more useful accessibility options in its next dashboard update that include Party Chat Speech Transcription and Synthesis.

Announced on the Xbox blog, the Xbox currently already has the ability to transcribe in-game speech to text and reading similar to a screen reader, however, they will be adding this functionality to Party Chats with the next update. This will allow words spoken in Parties to be written on-screen on an adjustable overlay that can be placed in various places to make it more usable during gameplay.

Speech synthesis will allow users to type into Party Text Chat, and have the written text read out to the rest of the party in a synthetic voice. It will also have multiple voices to choose from per language.

As a disabled gamer myself, I get pretty hyped about the addition of new accessibility options and it's something Xbox has been championing over the past few years. I do hope more companies will add more inclusive accessibility options in the future.

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.

Sony Has 25 New PlayStation 5 Games In Development

PlayStation has confirmed there are currently 25 first-party games in development for the PlayStation 5 and more than half of them are possibly brand new IP.

PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst was talking to Wired for a feature about the PS5's first six months: "There’s an incredible amount of variety originating from different regions," which, he claims, include "big, small, different genres."

The games we know that are coming to PlayStation 5 are Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, God of War: Ragnarok, and Horizon: Forbidden West. PlayStation also has two partnerships with other studios that include Haven Studio which is Jade Raymond's new studio and a multiplayer project from Firewalk, a studio founded by Bungie developers.

Later on in the feature, PlayStation's CEO Jim Ryan went on to try and play down previous reports of PlayStation 5 stock issues for the foreseeable future, saying "We’re working as hard as we can to ameliorate that situation. We see production ramping up over the summer and certainly into the second half of the year, and we would hope to see some sort of return to normality in terms of the balance between supply and demand during that period."

The interesting note is if this generation lasts along long as the previous generation, 25 games only works out to be 3 games a year. The fact that almost half are new IP which would mean they would need more development time than say a squeal is somewhat telling that these games are for the entire generation. If that is so, it's kinda lackluster with Microsoft owning 23 studios with each studio working on multiple projects. That is all speculation though, Hopefully, the 25 games are not including already known titles and we'll see a ton of cool games coming to PS5 in the future.

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.

Overwatch 2 PvP Gameplay Coming Next Month

Blizzard has announced they will showcase two hours of Overwatch 2 player versus player gameplay on May 20.

In a new development update, the new game director Aaron Keller announced an upcoming Livestream that will be on May 20 at 12 pm Pacific, 3 pm Eastern, or 8 pm UK.

The details on the Livestream itself are pretty slim but it will finally go into the bread and butter of Overwatch which is PvP and whatever changes that ate made should be coming to both Overwatch and Overwatch 2. They did say that "we’re reinvigorating the core Overwatch experience."

I really hope this is the case because Overwatch in 2021 is in a pretty terrible place, I played the game before launch and the game has just gotten stale. It's gonna take a lot to get me back to playing daily and I don't think I'm the only one in that boat.

Skull & Bones Is Delayed Into 2022-2023

During Ubisoft most recent earnings results last night, the publisher revealed that "Skull & Bones will now be released in 2022-2023" with the chief financial officer Frederick Duget elaborating on it further by saying: "We strongly believe in the team’s creative vision and they have been given an increasingly ambitious mandate for the game. Production led by [Ubisoft] Singapore has been advancing well over the past 12 months and the promise is better than ever. The additional time will allow the team to fully deliver on its vision."

on a positive note, Ubisoft seems to still be confident in the project, with CEO Yves Guilletmot saying: "What we have been doing to make sure they could really come strongly with Skull & Bones is we increased the associate studios that are working with them at the moment so there’s a good and big team now working on the game and the last 12 months have really been good in terms of the way things were coming along, so we are confident they can really bring something really exceptional for the market."

As someone who found the pirating aspect of Assassin's Creed Black Flag the worst part of the game, I'm personally not really interested in the game but it makes sense to continue development, especially after the success of Sea of Thieves. It shows there is a demand for this type of game, it's just not my cup of tea.