Month: August 2019

In the wake of two mass shootings over the weekend in the US, which together left more than 30 people dead and over 50 injured, President Trump has blamed social media, mental illness, and video games for the numbers of similar tragedies that have gripped the country in recent months and years.

“We must stop the glorification of violence in our society,” the president said. “This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this, and it has to begin immediately.”

In response, industry body the Entertainment Software Association has disputed the claim that video games contribute to real-world violence. “As we shared at the White House video game meeting in March 2018, numerous scientific studies have established that there is no causal connection between video games and violence,” the organization told GameSpot. “More than 165 million Americans enjoy video games, and billions of people play video games worldwide. Yet other societies, where video games are played as avidly, do not contend with the tragic levels of violence that occur in the US.”

The shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio took place over the weekend. They killed 22 and nine people, respectively. Prior to his attack, which took place in a Walmart store, the suspected Texas shooter Patrick Crusius reportedly wrote: “Don’t attack heavily guarded areas to fulfill your super-soldier CoD fantasy. Attack low-security targets.”

Prior to Trump’s comments, the International Game Developers Association and its affiliated Foundation issued a joint statement distancing video games from the latest attacks. “Our deepest condolences and hearts go out to the victims and families affected by the tragic events in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas,” the two organizations wrote. “Society has endured too many senseless acts of violence and horrific mass shootings. Blaming video games distracts from the broader issues at hand. There is an overwhelming amount of research that finds there is no evidence linking video games to violence. Video games do not cause violence, and we support efforts to discontinue this misguided information.”

As CBS News points out, there have been more mass shootings than days in the US this year, leaving 8,796 people dead from gun wounds in 2019 alone. While Trump was quick to blame social media, mental illness, and video games, all three are found across the world with far fewer shooting incidents elsewhere. More firearms are found per resident in the US–where there are 1.2 guns per person–than in any other country.

It is July 26, 2019. Parisians flock to public fountains and air-conditioned museums. The temperature has just reached 42 degrees Celsius (107 Fahrenheit) and the sidewalks are nearly vacant. It’s the hottest day in Paris history.

In a conference room in Montreuil, a commune on the city’s Eastern side, Benoit Martinez has his work cut out for him. He’s speaking to a group of English-speaking journalists, myself among them, each still glistening with sweat from our walk to Ubisoft Paris. We’re here to see Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Martinez is here to show us Auroa, the fictional world that couldn’t feel farther from the sun-baked streets we just escaped.

“Sense of place is important,” Ubisoft Paris’ art director tells us. “Sense of place is key.”

On the screen behind Martinez, screenshots show a lush, green landscape, speckled with crimson flowers and laid out beneath a layer of clouds. In the distance, a heavy rain falls on sloping hills. It’s hard not to think of New Zealand. But of course, this is not New Zealand. It’s Auroa.

An aerial view of Liberty, Auroa’s largest city

In this sense, Breakpoint marks a turning point in the long-running franchise. Since 2001, every mainline Ghost Recon has taken place in a real-world setting, ranging from Russia, to Mexico, to East Africa, to Russia again. The series has long staked a claim on realism and authenticity, and these digital versions of actual places have only heightened that pride. For Breakpoint to veer into the realm of outright fiction is no small feat.

Nonetheless, after 18 years, the leap feels necessary. In 2017, Ubisoft Paris drew pointed criticism for its depiction of Bolivia in Ghost Recon Wildlands, a game portraying the South American country as a narco-state overtaken by a Mexican drug cartel. The Bolivian government itself threatened legal action–which it has yet to pursue–and Ubisoft, as is now customary, reiterated that Wildlands is a work of fiction, and “imagines a different reality than the one that exists today.”

So, Breakpoint’s imaginary archipelago setting seems well advised. Not only does it let the team take cover, so to speak, behind a thicker layer of fiction, but also opens new creative possibilities.

Concept art depicting Breakpoint’s Auroa archipelago

“We built Auroa from the ground up,” Martinez says. “If there is a building, we asked ourselves, ‘What is its purpose?’ We have breweries, wineries, and houses for everyone who lives and works here. We even thought about their commutes. The thinking was: if you follow any of our roads, you should end up somewhere.”

Auroa is now home to Skell, a corporation focused on developing military drones and artificial intelligence. But Martinez and his team didn’t just think about Auroa’s immediate present. They also imagined its past. Ubisoft Paris scattered the crumbling ruins of an indigenous population, as well as those of an American military occupation, across the islands. Auroa tells its own story, Martinez tells us, and that’s key to developing a fantasy.

Watching Martinez continue his virtual tour of Auroa, from its vast salt marsh to its remote tropical forests, I’m reminded of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, another open-world title developed by a Ubisoft studio. Odyssey introduced Exploration Mode to the series, opting for organic discovery over artificial objective markers. To complete quests in Odyssey’s Ancient Greece, you often had little more than vague geographical directions–“West of those mountains” or “South of that lake,” for instance–making it all the more exciting to stumble upon your next activity.

“When you name something, you start to care about it. We want you to care about Auroa, so we named as much of it as we could.”

In a similar vein, Breakpoint will rarely show you exactly where your next target is. You’re behind enemy lines, in unfamiliar territory, being hunted by skilled fighters. A lack of information feels natural here. To facilitate this process of exploration and discovery, Martinez and his team have taken pains to actually name as many places as they can: at present, there are 365 individually named landmarks in Auroa.

These include cities and outposts, yes, but also lakes, valleys, and lagoons. Later this day, I’ll get hands-on time with Breakpoint, in a demo that tasks us with finding a hostage “near the Devil’s Forest.”

“When you name something, you start to care about it,” Martinez tells us. “We want you to care about Auroa, so we named as much of it as we could.”

As a global collective of AAA studios, Ubisoft has built its legacy on the back of its worldbuilding–not only in the historical sandboxes of Assassin’s Creed, but the tech-laced cities of Watch Dogs and the rural swaths of Far Cry. Breakpoint, like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey before it, feels as if it could be the accumulation of decades of worldbuilding experience.

And in this day and age, a game’s initial release is only a small part of the story. Wildlands, for its part, improved immeasurably in the two years after it launched, adding new modes, missions, and quality-of-life updates. When looking for good examples of games-as-services, or “lifestyle games,” one need look no further than Ubisoft’s portfolio.

In keeping with that trend, Martinez and his team have built their archipelago not just as a complete world in itself, but as a foundation for future expansions. They’ve taken pains to create a past and present for Auroa–soon, they’ll turn their attention to its future.

Gamescom 2019 kicks off in Cologne, Germany, later this month. Before the convention proper begins, The Game Awards producer Geoff Keighley will be hosting an Opening Night Live broadcast that promises to give viewers an exclusive look at a number of upcoming titles, including the anticipated PS4 exclusive Death Stranding.

Keighley revealed that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima will make an appearance during the Gamescom: Opening Night Live broadcast, which will air on Monday, August 19. Kojima will premiere an “exclusive new look” at his enigmatic PS4 game during the show, which will mark the first new footage we’ve seen of it since the release date trailer that dropped back in May.

Kojima won’t be the only developer premiering exclusive footage during the Gamescom: Opening Night Live stream; more than 15 of the industry’s biggest publishers will also make announcements and debut “world premiere content” during the broadcast, in addition to a number of indie studios. Specific games and announcements will be detailed ahead of the broadcast, but some of the publishers that will be participating in the show include:

• 2K
• Activision
• Bandai Namco
• Bungie
• Capcom
• EA
• Epic Games
• Google Stadia
• Deep Silver
• Private Division
• Sega
• Square Enix
• Sony
• THQ Nordic
• Ubisoft
• Xbox Game Studios

Gamescom: Opening Night Live begins at 11 AM PT / 2 PM PT / 8 PM CEST on August 19, while Gamescom proper takes place from August 21-24. The broadcast will air on “all major game streaming platforms” and will be presented in English with translations in more than eight languages.

Death Stranding launches for PS4 on November 8. The title will be available in standard and collector’s editions, the latter of which runs for $200 and includes a life-sized BB Pod statue. You can read more about the game and its various editions and pre-order bonuses in our Death Stranding pre-order guide.

Google has announced another Stadia Connect livestream for later this month, right before Gamescom 2019 kicks off. The show will begin on August 19 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST (3 AM AET on August 20).

We don’t yet know much about what will be shown during the conference. Google has only said this stream will be “all about the games” and that it will be “revealing brand-new titles [and] going behind-the-scenes with our partners.” The company also said members of the public can get hands-on time with Stadia at Gamescom, which kicks off on August 21.

Stadia boss Phil Harrison has previously said Google is working with “hundreds” of publishers and developers to bring their titles to the platform. They include EA, 2K, Rockstar, Sega, Warner Bros., Capcom, and Square Enix, among other partners.

We may also discover a final release date for the streaming service, which at present is simply listed for a “November 2019” launch. The version that’s coming then, the Founder’s Edition, comes with a Chromecast Ultra, a limited-edition Night Blue controller, and early dibs on your Stadia account name. It also includes three months of the Stadia Pro service, and a three-month Buddy Pass to gift Stadia Pro to a friend. That bundle costs $130 / £120 and is coming to the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

Stadia Pro, the online service itself, will cost $10 / £9 a month, but it will only be available with Founder’s Editions to start. It includes 4K and 60 FPS with 5.1 surround sound, access to free games, and discounts on full game purchases. The free Stadia Base service, meanwhile, launches in 2020.