Month: May 2019

Ubisoft is planning to increase the pace of its content updates for its upcoming slate of games. Asked if content drops are rapid enough to compete with Fortnite during an investor Q&A, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the company is ramping up its efforts. He specifically named Rainbow Six Siege and the upcoming Ghost Recon Breakpoint as examples, but signaled this is a broader strategy going forward.

“It is something we have been working on in the last 24 months. Our teams are getting organized to come more regularly with content and lots of our games are going to come with drops of content and events on a more regular basis,” Guillemot said. “Rainbow Six is increasing its content drop speed a lot already and you will see that this year. Ghost Recon Breakpoint will see content drops on a regular basis because they will also have the PVP, the co-op, and the campaign.

“So you can expect all the products, and not only Rainbow Six, having content drops regularly. It’s the new trend now in the industry and those drops are making lots of people come back to the games and also spend money in them.”

Guillemot didn’t go into further detail, but that may be that some of Ubisoft’s release plans are still under wraps. The financial statements and investor call also revealed three more triple-A games are in development, all releasing by March 31, 2020. Those are said to represent a broad range of game types, as Ubisoft said they’re each “unique experiences.” Ubisoft also announced that its pirate ship combat game, Skull and Bones, is delayed past the March of 2020 and won’t be shown at E3.

Rainbow Six Siege is known for making a dramatic turnaround with live content after a somewhat rocky launch. Ghost Recon Breakpoint appears to be adopting the strategy of regular content updates as well, after Wildlands continued introducing special episodes long after launch. Even single-player games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey have become notable for their wealth of post-launch content.

Ubisoft has been shifting towards a live game model for some time, and Guillemot’s comments didn’t necessarily commit to updating with the frequency of Fortnite. The studio behind Apex Legends, a battle royale competitor with Fortnite, has explicitly stated it isn’t aiming for weekly content drops to maintain a healthy studio culture. It isn’t clear exactly how frequent Ubisoft intends to update its games, but it will be some degree more than the current pace of Siege.

From nowhere, The Pokemon Company has announced and released a new mobile game. Named Pokemon Rumble Rush, the free-to-play title is available now in Australia and is “coming soon” to the rest of the world.

Rumble Rush is a mobile entry into the brawler-focused Pokemon Rumble series. It was previously announced in 2017 under a different name–Pokeland–before disappearing into the abyss. The Pokemon Company has now re-revealed it and launched it simultaneously.

It appears Rumble Rush will include live updates, with the game’s official Play Store description stating, “The islands and seas explored during your adventures change every two weeks.” The mobile game is available to download now on Android in Australia; a worldwide release and an iOS version are listed as “coming soon” on the game’s official website.

Rumble Rush is developed by Ambrella, the same studio behind the four previous titles in the Rumble series. This means Rumble Rush is not the same Pokemon mobile game teased by DeNA just recently.

Pokemon Sword and Shield for Nintendo Switch are also due to launch in the next few months; no release date has been announced, but they’re scheduled to be released in 2019. We might learn more during Nintendo’s E3 2019 Direct presentation, which kicks off on June 11 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM BST (2 AM AET on June 12).

Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills was canceled in March 2015 due to conflicts between Kojima’s team and publisher Konami. While most of the high-profile individuals involved have since offered their two cents on the matter–including filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim), who’s had some choice words for the Japanese publisher–horror manga artist Junji Ito recently discussed his role with the project.

Ito, while at the Toronto Comics Art Festival this past weekend, was asked about his involvement with Silent Hills. His responses come via translation thanks to Twitter user MinovskyArticle.

Though he may not have had the opportunity to contribute his signature brand of body horror to the project, Ito got to see Pacific Rim (for free) and sang his heart out with both del Toro and Kojima.

Silent Hills was announced through 2014’s P.T., a short, free PS4 playable teaser that confirmed Kojima was directing a new Silent Hill entry alongside del Toro and starring Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct) in the lead role. Kojima has since left Konami, pursuing game development under his independent studio Kojima Productions, which he founded in 2005 while still under Konami’s umbrella.

Since publicly splitting from Konami in 2015, Kojima has announced the studio’s first game, Death Stranding. “I’m embarking on a new challenge with a fresh slate,” Kojima said of the split. “But I intend to keep pushing the creative envelope until the day I die.”

The oldest video game company in India, Dhruva Interactive, has been purchased by Rockstar Games from Starbreeze Studios for $7.9 million. According to a post on the company’s official website, Dhruva, which was founded by Rajesh Rao in Bangalore in 1997, “was India’s first ever game development studio.” Starting as a five-man team, the company grew to over 300 employees “specializing in every aspect of art and design.” Since then, Dhruva has contributed to a number of high-profile, AAA games, including Arkane Studios’ Prey, Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man, Rare’s Sea of Thieves, SIE Bend Studio’s Days Gone, and many more.

Dhruva will now get folded into Rockstar India, which houses approximately 500 employees “already working in Bangalore on Rockstar’s ground-breaking games.”

“Dhruva Interactive has been a beacon of Indian game development for decades and we are excited to bring them into the Rockstar family,” said Rockstar India’s studio manager Daniel Smith. “The addition of the Dhruva team to the existing talent at Rockstar India will expand the studio’s capabilities and reinforces our belief in and commitment to the local development community.”

Rao, who serves as the company’s CEO, shares Smith’s sentiment and is excited about the acquisition. “Rockstar Games are the undisputed leaders of innovation and creativity in modern game development,” Rao said. “Dhruva Interactive was founded with the aim of creating a world-class game development community in India, and so bringing the Dhruva team under the Rockstar Games label is further proof that we have succeeded in creating a talented team that can contribute to the best games in the world while helping to create a thriving local game developer community in India.”

Prior to the purchase, Dhruva was acquired by Starbreeze in 2016. Starbreeze is most well-known for 2007’s The Darkness, 2013’s Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and Payday 2, and last year’s OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead.

While the sale is “expected to close in the coming weeks,” whatever projects Dhruva is currently working on will remain unchanged and proceed uninterrupted.

Black Mirror Season 5 is coming very soon. Netflix has announced that the latest season of the highly acclaimed sci-fi anthology series will be released on June 5. The first trailer has been released.

The trailer reveals that the new season will consist of just three episodes. Among the stars we can expect to see in the new season are Marvel star Anthony Mackie, Andrew Scott, who is best known for his role in Sherlock and recent Bond movies, and pop star Miley Cyrus. It looks like another sinister, visually stunning exploration of the dangers of technology, with some crazy-looking imagery in there. Watch it above, then check out our full trailer breakdown.

This will be the first release from the show since the interactive special Bandersnatch, which hit the service in December 2018. Prior to that, Season 4 was released in December 2017. For more on Black Mirror, check out our look at the most WTF moments in Season 4 and all the Season 4 Easter Eggs.