Episode 64 – Review Embargos for Death Stranding Lifted, EA Origin Access

recorded on 2019-11-01

Headliners

Review embargos for Death Stranding have lifted and they are interesting; 84 on MetaCritic

Little Bits

EA plans to bring its games back to Steam with its Origin Access in new partnership (TheVerge)

• EA Access on Steam is not the same thing as having Origin Access on PC
  • It will be more similar to EA Access on consoles rather than the PC version
  • The cost of EA Access on Steam will be the same as on consoles at $5/month
  • EA games will roll out over time on Steam and the starting ones will be:
    • The Sims 4 
    • FIFA 2020
    • Unravel 2 
    • Apex Legends
    • Battlefield V 
    • Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Xbox introduces Xbox All Access which is basically a cell phone plan for Xbox consoles (Xbox)

• Get an Xbox One, One S, or One X with 24 months of XGPU and upgrade option
• The plan pricing varies depending on console as does the upgrade option
• Xbox One S All Digital Edition: $20/month with 18 month console upgrade option
• Xbox One S: $23/month with 18 month console upgrade option
• Xbox One X: $31/month with 12 month console upgrade option

Death Stranding is coming to PC in Summer 2020 after it launches on PS4 (Hideo Kojima)

Rapid Fire

Ubisoft says that the games they have delayed will now be cross-generational titles (Ubisoft)

• Watch Dogs: Legion, Rainbow Six: Quarantine, and Gods and Monsters
• Skull and Bones (Ubisoft’s response to Sea of Thieves) has been delayed indefinitely

Ubisoft also says that they will implement crossplay in all their PvP games (EuroGamer)

Nintendo Switch sold over 41 million units over its less than three year lifespan (VentureBeat)

EA confirms the next Battlefield game will ship during the 2022 fiscal year (Daniel Ahmad)

NBA LIve 20 will not ship in 2020 EA confirms in recent earnings call (USGamer)

EA says in recent earnings report that exciting remasters of fan favorites will be released in the upcoming year and before the end of its next fiscal year in March 2021 (PushSquare)

• EA also said that the next Battlefield will launch after April 2021 and Dragon Age 4 will not release before 2022

BioWare’s Head of Live Service Chad Robertson has left the company after 14 years (Forbes)

COD: Modern Warfare made over 600 million dollars its opening weekend (Activision)

Sony’s PS4 is now the second best selling home console of all time behind the PS2 (engadget)

• The PS4 has currently sold 102.8 million units and is behind the PS2 155 million units

Sony to shut down PlayStation Vue on January 30, 2020 due to overbearing competition (Sony)

Sony trademarks names PS6 through PS10 (TweakTown)

A HD collection of the Kingdom Hearts series could be in the works for some reason (Gematsu) 

GameStop has closed all stores in the Scandinavia region (resetera, gamer.no)

Upcoming Releases and Deals

Xbox games with gold November: The Final Station and Sherlock Holmes: The Devils Daughter

PS Plus games for November are Outlast 2 and Nioh (Sony)

Nioh 2 open beta runs from November 1st to November 10 with a March 13, 2020 release date

Rumor Mill

“Leaked” images of what could be the PS5 have surfaced from whathifi.com

Let’s Argue

Will the Nintendo Switch outsell the PS4 in lifetime sales?