recorded on 3/15/2019

Headliners

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 standard edition launches today with the other versions released earlier

• Reviews are not in yet but early review impressions are pretty positive

Jade Raymond becomes a VP at Google likely to head future gaming division (Engadget, Polygon)

• Raymond has been around since the PS1 era when she got her start at Sony in 1998, eventually going on to establish Sony Online’s R&D department.
• She previously worked at Ubisoft, where she served as executive producer and co-creator of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and later general manager of Ubisoft Toronto. While at Ubisoft Toronto she oversaw multiple AAA games like Far Cry and Splinter Cell:  Blacklist. Raymond then worked at Electronic Arts, where she oversaw EA’s Motive Studio, PopCap Studio, and Star Wars portfolio. She left EA in October 2018
• Jade will join other former game executives at Google, including Phil Harrison, formerly of PlayStation and Xbox, and Jack Buser, previously the director of PlayStation Now and PlayStation Home.

Little Bits

Respawn Entertainment bans 355,000+ players since its launch for cheating on PC (BBC News)

• Respawn has since put a statement and it reads below:
  • “The service works but the fight against cheaters is an ongoing war that we’ll need to continue to adapt to and be very vigilant about fighting,” it said.
  • “We take cheating very seriously and care deeply about the health of Apex Legends for all players.”
• Respawn said they would be adding a report button in the next update
• New character Octane and Battle Pass leaked, Respawn has acknowledged this (GameSpot)
  • Battle Pass possibly priced at 950 Apex Points or about $10

The Master Chief Collection is heading to Steam this year to great fan desire (The Verge)

• The Master Chief Collection includes Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), Halo 4, and now Halo: Reach.
• This does mean the collection won’t be available immediately, The collection will appear in stages. Halo: Reach will appear first, followed by the rest in chronological order: Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), and Halo 4.

Google teases gaming entrance w/ retail version of Project Stream and controller to be at GDC

• Speculate on what this means for gaming and how Google can make a splash

Microsoft now allows PC users to stream games to their Xbox One with updated app (The Verge)

• Microsoft is now letting Xbox One owners stream their PC games to the console and use a controller to play them. A newly updated app, Wireless Display app, from Microsoft enables the support so you can play Steam games or other titles directly on an Xbox One. You can use a regular Xbox controller to control the remote PC, enabling game play or even the ability to use an Xbox for presentations.

Epic Games has released their plan for the new Epic Games store for the next 6-ish months (PCGAMER)

• Taken from Trello
• Additions to come: user reviews, wish lists, mod support, playtime tracking, better search options (genres/tags), fixes to the Offline Mode, UI redesign
• So basically it’s getting everything Steam has

New Sniper Elite games announced recently (PCGAMER)

• Sniper Elite 5 is confirmed to be in development
• Sniper Elite V2 will be getting a remaster (2012 title with solid reviews)
• Sniper Elite will be getting a standalone VR title

Microsoft is bringing Xbox Live to Android and iOS devices with new kit for developers (The Verge)

Borderlands 3 tease from Gearbox is imminent in Boston at PAX East……are you excited for another??

Fallout 76 got new free content called Wild Appalachia that released on March 13 (Variety)

DayZ is leaving Xbox Game Preview on March 27 and is headed for a full release soon (wccftech)

Hollow Knight gets physical release and is available at Best Buy and FanGamer (GameSpot)

Dead Cells first free expansion Rise of the Giants is out on PC Mar. 28 on consoles later (GameSpot)

Netflix is getting a new Anime series based on CAPCOM’s Dragon’s Dogma game series (IGN)

EA reportedly paid Ninja around $1,000,000 to promote Apex Legends a day after release (Kotaku)

WB and Turtle Rock announce “Back 4 Blood” a Left 4 Dead like co-op game (IGN)…..cool!

A new DOOM movie is in the works. Hopefully it turns out better than the Dwayne Johnson movie. (COMICBOOK.COM)

Apex Legends leak reveals new “night mode” (COMICBOOK.COM)

Nintendo Switch players will no longer be matched with Xbox One and PS4 players after the recent 8.10 patch

• According to Epic: performance limitations with the Switch version (caps at 30 FPS) make it too unbalanced when competing with other console players.
• Switch players will now be paired with mobile players which (according to Epic) will result in a better experience for everyone

Snoop Dogg’s gaming league “Gangst Gaming League” had its debut Madden 19’ tournament last night (PCGAMER)

• Tournament ends with the winner having to go against the “Top Dogg” (which is Snoop Dogg)
• Prize is $11,000 and is a closed tournament mostly between Snoop’s friends and acquaintances
• Can be seen Twich, Mixer, YouTube, and the Merry Jane Facebook page
• Warning: There’s drug-use and drug reference (obviously…it’s fucking Snoop Dogg)

Upcoming Releases and Deals

Remedy Studio’s new supernatural sci-fi action thriller Control is slated to launch this Summer (VG24/7)

Crackdown 2 is now free and backwards compatible on XBone

Xbox Phantom White Controller announced and looks super cool, available soon

Radeon RX 590, AMD’s newest mid-tier graphics card on sale on NewEgg for $219.99 (normal price 240-260) (PCGAMER)

• 1560 Mhz boost clock
• 8GB of GDDR5 memory
• 2100Mhz memory clock
• “Dual-X” cooler and (2) 95mm fans
• RGB included
• Includes (3) new games for free: Division 2, DMC5, and Redesident Evil 2

Rumor Mill

We could be seeing multiplayer in DMC5 (first ever for a Devil May Cry game)

• Dataminers find some assets in the code that could used for multiplayer
• Multiplayers is allegedly used in Bloody Palace (a fan-favorite “challenge mode” that will be coming in an update April 1st)

Recent PS5 spec leak show the same 8 core Zen 2 CPU but with ~12 Teraflops of GPU power

• This will not outpower the Xbox Anaconda only match it at best but is still very powerful
• I am not sure about this because of how Sony wants to keep the price advantage over Microsoft

Recent talk about Sony showing something PS5 related around E3 time has been growing

Rumors on MarketWatch suggested Sony is in high level board talks to purchase publisher Take Two  

• This is not truth and came from a random note scribbled on a desk…..still is unsubstantiated

Whispers of a Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) series being worked on for Disney’s streaming service Disney+……THIS WOULD BE SO HYPE!!!