Update Patch | September 2022
Usually, my September edition of the Update Patch begins with a Green Day reference, but I won’t be doing that this year. We had a September that featured the small matter of the Queen passing away after a 70-year reign, leading to the gaudiest funeral ever and the most ridiculous queue since the great depression. Meanwhile, in the worlds somehow more believable than the UK, gamers were enraptured with squids again with Splatoon 3 and we were all charmed by definite GOTY contender Trombone Champ. The world continues to spin despite a new British monarch (I know, right?!), so we’ll be covering the month’s gaming news is covered in the month’s Update Patch rather than the crown jewels.
1. Xbox? Playstation? Call Of Duty? Drama!
As Microsoft continue to navigate the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the last month has seen numerous explosive developments.
A diverse cast of characters as always…
The key development at the start of the month was the decision by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to recommend and expand their investigation into a second phase following concerns as to how “control over popular games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft (could) harm rivals, including recent and future rivals in multi-game subscription services and cloud gaming”. This next phase will have an independent panel examine the deal further and the deadline has been set for March 2023.
Following this, Xbox Head Phil Spencer said in a statement to The Verge that Microsoft sent a letter to PlayStation stating that it would keep Call of Duty “for at least several more years beyond the current Sony contract”. This statement prompted PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan to issue his own statement, as “Phil Spencer brought this into the public forum”, Ryan claimed that Xbox guaranteed that COD would appear on PlayStation for three years after the end of the contract and that “their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers”. In a further interview with CNBC, Spencer clarified his position and hit back, stating “our expectation is we'll continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation and other places”.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has also commented on the deal following the CMA’s decision, stating “any acquisition of this size will go through scrutiny, but we feel very, very confident”. Additionally, he did hit back further at Sony’s claims, citing Sony Group Corp as number one and said “let us have competition”.
2. Tokyo Games Show And Livestreams Galore
As the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more in-person events are starting to open up. We saw this in the UK with EGX 2022 (of which we have a write-up of our games of the show) and the Tokyo Game Show being back after several years away.
The physical show had plenty of exhibitors and things to see including and not limited to a T-Rex for Exoprimal, Bomberman, and numerous other sights and sounds. Of course, the show also saw plenty of announcements. Xbox held a showcase presentation in which they confirmed critically acclaimed Deathloop would be available on Game Pass and Xbox on the 20th of September and that Game Pass would see a number of JRPGs, as well as Arc System Works’ fighters Blazblue Cross Tag Battle Special Edition & Guilty Gear Strive being added.
God, I hope Kiryu has this hair cut because he is living a new life as a J-pop idol.
The show also saw a number of big announcements, with confirmation that the famed Yakuza series would be rebranding international versions of the games to its local name of Like A Dragon. Packaged with that were announcements for upcoming titles with samurai-based spin-off Like A Dragon: Ishin!, of which IGN has a preview piece from TGS here, the official announcement of Like A Dragon 8, and a spin-off to bridge the gap between Yakuza 6 and Like A Dragon 8 starring long-time protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. The show also saw confirmation of Street Fighter 6’s 18-character roster at launch, a western release date for One Piece Odyssey, and much more.
If that wasn’t enough, Nintendo had another Direct presentation which was headlined by a trailer and title for the follow-up from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with the latest subtitle being Tears of the Kingdom. That is Tears as in crying buckets at the end of Pixar’s Inside Out. The show also saw the unveiling of the next game in the Fire Emblem franchise, entitled Fire Emblem: Engage, a sequel to OCTOPATH TRAVELLER, and Pikmin 4.
Yo, Link did you give yourself one of those henna tattoos?
Yeah… I’ll play this.
Finally, because that wasn’t enough, PlayStation hosted a State of Play which was rather short at just 20 minutes, but had a few other unique announcements, with further details on its angry dad simulator, God of War: Ragnarok, which showcased a badass fight with Thor amongst other things. New IP was also shown in Bandai Namco’s sci-fi game Synduality and provided a name to the previously discussed Project Eve, which is Stellar Blade, a Korean action game.
3. Ubisoft Problems And Assassin’s Creed Updates
Ubisoft has had a busy public month with a Forward video presentation which has detailed the coming future for the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
The next game in the series will be entitled Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. This entry will be set in Baghdad and will see players visiting four districts within the city as well as Alamut Castle, an ancient fortress dating back to 865 AD. Players will take control of Basim Ibn Ishaq, a character who may be familiar to some players of the viking-based adventure Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. The smaller setting will see the game return to its more familiar stealth-based roots.
Ok, but I still haven’t been able to find anyone that can explain what Infinity is going to be…
Whilst that should be an exciting return to the series’ focused gameplay with an interesting setting and potential for a fun origin story, the series has other games being developed with codenames galore. Codename Red will see an AC game in feudal Japan with this title taking the RPG format of recent entries, and development on this will be led by Ubisoft Quebec. The other is Codename Hexe, which is teased in a 30-second trailer and is described as a “very different type of Assassin’s Creed game” by franchise head Marc-Alexis Cote and is rumoured to be set amongst the Witch Trials in the 1500s.
Of course, Ubisoft has been dealing with sexual harassment claims being rife at their studios, and a new report via Axios has seen developers feeling the issues haven’t been fully solved - one developer was quoted as saying “Morale is highly variable from team to team”. This September, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in an interview said “Yes, we stumbled and we have acknowledged that. We learned a lot along the way and have made meaningful progress.”
However, it doesn’t help that in an interview with French outlet La Presse, Guillemot was quoted as saying “To create, you need a little bit of friction, because everyone has to succeed in getting their idea across. It's a job that brings a lot of rewards when you succeed, but it's difficult.” Guillemot did clarify this with Stephen Totilo, stating “I was thinking of the creative tension that is common and vital in innovative companies like ours… To prevent this tension from becoming negative or to address it if it does, that's where strong policies, values, and corresponding procedures are essential.”
4. Cyberpunk Rises From The Dead
Much was made of the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077 and the chaos after with refunds. However, with the additional post-launch work and updates with the most recent 1.6 patch, CD Projekt Red has started to see some positive news.
Some would say Cyberpunk 2077 would have been better as anything but a game…
The work has seen players going back to the tale of hanging out with Keanu Reeves and solving conspiracies with over a million players a day for a week ending September 21st as confirmed by the Polish company on Twitter.
The popularity and update coincided with the launch of Netflix anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, a standalone series based in the world of the game. The series has received acclaim from many corners with Kambole Campbell from Polygon praising it as "the most exciting thing to come out of the game’s redemption arc” and Matt Kim from IGN said in his verdict that “It’s a wild ride, but worth every blistering second”.
5. Further PQube Allegations From Corecell
In our August edition of the Update Patch, we covered the dispute between Toge Productions (Coffee Talk) and publisher PQube Games as the developer alleged the misuse of funds by the publisher.
This is just getting embarrassing from PQube at this point.
Another developer has made an allegation against the publisher. This time, it's Corecell (AeternoBlade 2) who has claimed that PQube has withheld funds after agreeing a minimum payment with the developers that hasn’t been fully paid. Corecell further says that “We have been trying to resolve this issue…but were unable to reach a solution, leading us to terminate the publishing agreement around September 2020. However, PQube has refused to return the publishing control on the console platforms back to us”.
PQube has retorted saying they “enjoyed working with Corecell on our first project together” and that since March 2020, the publisher “proposed and sent numerous proposals and supporting agreements to revert rights to Corecell… but these were not acknowledged” and that “PQube released its rights to the console versions… well before the end of the agreement term.”
Corecell has responded further to PQube’s statement pointing out that on Xbox, the game still has PQube listed as its publisher and disputes a number of points made in PQube’s statement.
6. Halo Infinite Has Yet Another Tumultuous Month
Fair to say that the last month has not been kind on the PR front for Halo Infinite. On a personal note, I finally gave up playing it with this month’s news confirming what many fans feared.
everyonedislikedthat.jpg
The beginning of the month saw 343 Industries give details of the roadmap, with announcements that online co-op for the Campaign and the much-anticipated Forge mode would arrive in November. This would be with two new maps, Season 3 starting on March 7th, and new events & modes in between.
However, the decision was announced in the same update to cancel split-screen co-op for the campaign, a much-requested feature. In the video, 343 creative lead Joseph Staten explains that the development time has been committed to increasing multiplayer stability and sorting cheaters. The company originally promised the return of split-screen co-op at launch, leading to criticism as to the removal of promised features. It also doesn’t help that players have been able to glitch in the menus to get local co-op working almost seamlessly.
It has been a chastening month for 343 who have seen a poor response coupled with departures from the studio, including long-time Microsoft member Bonnie Ross who left the studio to deal with a family medical issue. In a statement on Twitter, she described her pride in “the work everyone at 343 Industries has done with Halo Infinite, the Master Chief Collection, the Halo television series and so much more.
7. Quantic Dream Becomes The Lastest Acquisition
It’s been nearly every month this year that we've discussed an acquisition as companies continue to consolidate and another one has been acquired, this time it is Quantic Dream.
The company behind origami-based mystery Heavy Rain and the world’s most subtle critique on racism, Detroit: Become Human, has been acquired in an undisclosed deal by NetEase, a Chinese company with publishing credits on Naraka: Bladepoint and a company that assists Blizzard Entertainment on development of universally beloved by all Diablo: Immortal.
How do you say “vapor-ware” in French?
In a blog on its website, QD gave further details, stating its rationale as wanting to "continue our development and presence in the world, but also to fund other studios and become an international publisher". Quantic Dream also stated in the blog that it will "operate independently, maintain the ability to create and self-publish our video games on all platforms" and there will be no change in leadership.
The French studio is currently working on Star Wars: Eclipse with Lucasfilm Games which has no current release date.
8. Massive Rockstar Leak
To conclude, we don't usually discuss leaks as it often isn't worth discussing unfinished development footage and leaks in general can hurt developers.
LOL, yeah no way are we going to host one of those videos or even an image on the site. You can Google it yourself.
However, the leak of 90 videos of developmental footage of Grand Theft Auto VI was impossible to ignore. Footage leaked in mid-September and the person responsible claimed to have access to source code and a playable demo.
Rockstar Games released a statement on its social media channels, stating the footage came as a result of "unauthorized third party (access)", called it "extremely disappointing" and that work would "continue as planned".
No official statement has been given with regards to an arrest in connection. However, an individual from Oxfordshire was arrested on suspicion of hacking as announced by City of London Police. Eurogamer reported that the suspect appeared in court to plead not guilty to computer misuse but did plead guilty to breaching bail conditions after a statement by the aforementioned police department's Cyber Crime Unit to Eurogamer which can be read here.
The tech-debt is behind you!
Patch Notes:
Discord and Microsoft have launched a new project allowing voice chats that are used in Discord to be transferred to Xbox.
EVGA, a manufacturer of graphics cards, has terminated its long-term business relationship with Nvidia owing to frustrations with the company.
1047 Games' excellent surprise shooter Splitgate will receive no further updates as the team will be "going all-in… on a new game in the Splitgate universe".
2K Games' development studio, Hangar Games, has confirmed that a new game in the Mafia series is in development.
EA Motive, the studio behind Star Wars: Squadrons, has announced it is working on a new AAA Iron Man game.
Arkane Games founder Raphaël Colantonio recently discussed in an interview how frustrated he was with his claim that the title of 2017's Prey was pushed by Bethesda despite his objections.
Microsoft revealed a long-rumoured Family & Friends Plan that allows Game Pass users to share their subscription with four other users, launching in Ireland and Colombia this month.
The TV show based on Twisted Metal has finished filming as announced by the executive producer of the show Michael Jonathan Smith.
Netflix has unveiled a teaser trailer for the latest animated show in the Sonic franchise, Sonic Prime.
FIFA 23 has announced that AFC Richmond players and its titular manager from the TV series Ted Lasso will be included.
David Harbour (Stranger Things, Black Widow) has joined Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings) in the cast of a Gran Turismo adaptation directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium).
