The price of top-end AAA games is going up for the first time in over a decade, increasing by $10 from the $60 standard that has been in place since the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation. NPD analyst Mat Piscatella says that gamers will pay $70, if not happily, due to the demand for next-gen games.
Piscatella broached the subject on the Virtual Economy podcast last weekend, as reported by Gamesindustry.biz. “Game prices have stayed the same since 2005, when Call of Duty 2 first went to $59.99 on Xbox 360 and we’ve basically stayed there ever since,” he explained. “Now, a lot of people will say a rise in base prices for the higher tier, premium games is needed to offset development costs, inflation or whatever, and all those arguments seem to fall flat. But what doesn’t fall flat is that for some of these premium games, if the $10 increase was implemented, people would happily pay it.”
Various industry figures have spoken about the increased cost of next-gen production throughout the new consoles’ release cycles. Back in June, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan warned that more technologically demanding games would “become slightly more human intensive and capital intensive to produce,” but the new norm in game pricing wasn’t revealed until 2K Sports announced its next-gen edition of NBA 2K21 for $70.
Piscatella doesn’t assume gamers are going to welcome the price increase, of course. “They might grumble about it,” he predicted. “But they would certainly pay it. The price sensitivity, particularly on day-one, suggests that.”
He also suggested that prices would go back down if players balked at the new prices enough to impact sales figures, echoing an earlier statement from Xbox head Phil Spencer on game pricing. “As an industry, we can price things whatever we want to price them, and the customer will decide what the right price is for them,” Spencer said in a July interview.
Founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to create the digital effects for Heavenly Creatures, Weta Digital is perhaps best known for its work on Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now, the New Zealand studio is coming under fire for an allegedly toxic and sexist workplace culture, triggering the launch of an independent investigation.
Allegations about Weta Digital’s workplace culture have emerged due to a months-long investigation by local news team TVNZ. New Zealand’s workplace relations minister Andrew Little has spoken up on the allegations, urging the company to carry out an independent review of the claims.
The stories from current and former staff include a culture of sharing pornographic imagery among the workplace, with staffers describing explicit mailing lists hosted on Weta Digital’s own intranet. “There was a tradition at the time called Porn Friday,” one employee told TVNZ anonymously. “Every Friday staff members would email round porn images to the whole team.”
Though the pornographic mailing lists were eventually shut down by the company, workers say the move resulted in backlash from those who benefited from that culture.
There are also allegations of sexual harassment and bullying, which wasn’t taken seriously by management–or in some cases were perpetuated by members of management.
“It’s a known fact that the film industry treats its workers like s***,” one former employee said. “Weta Digital is no exception. They work people until they burn out or quit. The culture is a mixture of boys club mentality, bullying gone wild, and casual sexism … I wouldn’t recommend anyone work there.”
In an official statement, Weta Digital has said that the allegations “do not reflect the Weta Digital of today.” A statement sent to The Guardian added that “the owners have commissioned a QC (Queen’s Counsel) to carry out an independent review.”
A separate investigation is already underway at Weta Workshop, the branch of the Weta Group responsible for physical props, costumes, and practical effects. The investigation at Weta Workshop is being carried out by Hive Consulting.
Sunday’s all-virtual Emmy awards were not a hit for the TV audience, the final viewer count has confirmed. The 2020 awards attracted a total of 6.1 million viewers on ABC, down from 6.9 million when it aired on Fox last year, as reported by The Wrap.
This year’s numbers are part of a continuing downward trend, however–this year saw a decline of 29% on last year’s numbers, while last year also saw a 32% drop from the previous year. The show still attracted relatively big numbers for ABC, representing the channel’s largest audience on a Sunday since an episode of American Idol on April 5.
While the TV numbers were less than encouraging, this year’s Emmys were a hit on social media, seeing a total of 11.9 million social interactions for an increase of 108% from last year. The show’s isolation-based gags may have helped with that, including a team of tuxedo hazmat-suited people who were charged with hand delivering trophies to the winners–and apparently gloating at the losers.
For a full list of the 2020 awards winners, check out our list here. Or for the short version–the big winners of the night were Watchmen, Schitt’s Creek and Succession, with each taking home plenty of awards in their respective categories. The night also saw Zendaya become the youngest person to win best actress in a drama series for her role in Euphoria.
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With Microsoft’s recent acquisition of ZeniMax Media–parent company for eight studios, including Bethesda–it feels like another step towards reclaiming an old identity for Xbox. Back in the days of the original Xbox and Xbox 360, the Xbox brand was known as the home for console ports of western RPGs. It’s an association that was lost with Xbox One, but thanks to the many acquisitions that Microsoft has made since 2018, it may be one that returns with Xbox Series X/S. And that association will only help Microsoft in this coming console generation, both in moving Xbox Series X/S units as well as selling Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions.
The total reach that Microsoft has over prominent western RPG developers can technically be extended to include BioWare as well. BioWare’s publisher is Electronic Arts, and EA’s games appear on EA Play at a discount (and sometimes early) for subscribers. And though it currently exists as a separate subscription, EA Play will be bundled into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at no additional cost. At this point, the only major western RPG developer that Microsoft doesn’t have an official partnership with is CD Projekt Red. But if we’re willing to put on our tinfoil hats and theorize for a moment, there does seem to be some sort of connection between the two that maybe could become an official partnership. CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher series first came to consoles through Xbox (The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings on Xbox 360), and the developer has participated in Microsoft’s press conference for both E3 2018 and E3 2019 in order to advertise Cyberpunk 2077. Really makes you think.
But even ignoring that intriguing possibility, Microsoft’s recent acquisitions equate to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers being able to access some of the most prominent upcoming RPGs for less than their total retail cost. And with game prices seemingly set to rise–Sony is already selling a few of the titles in its PS5 launch line-up at a higher retail cost than what most PS4 games are priced–the savings on a per game basis could be significant.
I don’t think this is going to have any bearing on the first year of the Xbox Series X/S lifecycle–hell, I’m not even convinced we’ll see the impact within two years. But provided these games are well-received, I could see Xbox being regarded as the console to choose if you’re a fan of RPGs, especially those made in the west. Sure, RPGs are still going to appear on PS5 and Nintendo Switch, but I assume both consoles are going to continue dominating the Japanese space.
This gives Xbox something that it has long since lacked in terms of its first-party exclusives: an identity. Everyone knows you go to PlayStation for those single-player, blockbuster movie-like experiences, while Nintendo prioritizes making enjoyable complexity out of simple mechanics. Through Playground, inXile, Obsidian, Bethesda, and, in some part, EA and BioWare, I think Xbox can establish itself as a platform for different types of role-playing games. If your favorite thing to do in a video game is create a character and then live their life, it’s looking like Xbox is where a lot of the biggest names in the business are going to be.
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Xbox Series S VERSUS Series X: Which Is Right For You?
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And creating a space where RPGs thrive is only going to attract more of them. It’s a position that has worked for Xbox in the past–you had to own an Xbox or Xbox 360 in order to play Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (for a year–it eventually made its way to PS3), both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 (for a period of time), Deus Ex: Invisible War, The Witcher 2, and the Fable trilogy on consoles. The Xbox and Xbox 360 made it possible to play a type of game that was previously exclusively made for PC, and Microsoft can do the same now with Xbox Series X/S and the studios it’s acquired.
The fact that all of these RPG studios are making games that will be available via Xbox Game Pass is a huge boon for Microsoft. Xbox Game Pass already has a fairly impressive line-up of games for its price–there’s a reason we’ve repeatedly called it the best deal in gaming–but it doesn’t change that a lot of the best first-party studio games on the service (Sea of Thieves, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, State of Decay 2, Gears 5) are game-as-a-service titles or multiplayer-focused games with relatively short single-player campaigns. Getting a few over-40-hour RPGs increases the overall value of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, both in terms of just giving you more actual game to play for the same relatively cheap monthly subscription fee, and in fulfilling a market that is currently a bit lacking on the service.
Reminding players that Microsoft is investing in RPGs again is a smart move to make ahead of Xbox Series X/S preorders going live. Of course, acquiring ZeniMax Media does include studios and genres beyond Bethesda Game Studios and RPGs, but I think it’s Bethesda’s prominence in the genre that will help move Xbox Series X/S units during the platform’s lifecycle, especially when Microsoft’s other RPG-focused studios are taken into account. We’ll have to wait and see how all of these upcoming games turn out, but I for one would welcome the return of the association between “Xbox” and “role-playing games.”
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Unexpected news means an unexpected bonus episode of Generation Next. Microsoft has purchased ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda. This landmark acquisition is going to have a significant impact on the future of video games so, just moments after the announcement, Lucy, Tamoor, and Jordan sat down to talk about the implications.
For context, this is one of Microsoft’s most expensive recent acquisitions, with the company spending more on Bethesda than it did on Minecraft. The $7.5 billion is even more than Disney spent on Marvel and Lucasfilm, which really drives home the value it sees in ZeniMax Media’s subsidiary studios.
For those unaware, the acquisition means Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog join the Xbox family, bringing with them franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Dishonored, and Wolfenstein, among many others.
So, what does it all mean? Watch this episode of Generation Next and find out. The gang covers everything from the particulars of the acquisition to the impact it’ll have on Game Pass, and what it means for existing exclusivity deals with PlayStation, as well as how these studio purchases align with Xbox boss Phil Spencer’s ethos of making gaming available to anyone and everyone.
One of the biggest gaming news stories of 2020 broke this week when Microsoft announced it would buy ZeniMax for $7.5 billion. People understandably have a lot of questions about the deal, and in particular, what it might mean for the future of ZeniMax and its subsidiary, Fallout and Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently appeared on CNBC to discuss the deal. Asked directly if Microsoft would make any cuts to the company, Spencer replied, “Our plan is to leave it alone.”
“ZeniMax has an amazing track record of building great games. Our goal is to make ZeniMax the best ZeniMax they can be,” Spencer added. “Working individually with their studios on the great platform technology that we have and getting their creators’ feedback into the things we need to go build, that’s just a critical flywheel for us.”
“The commitments we’ve already made with the gamers out there, for games people know about, we will continue with those commitments,” Spencer said.
Microsoft’s blockbuster acquisition of ZeniMax came out of nowhere. With the deal, Microsoft gets all of ZeniMax’s properties, including Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Doom, as well as every studio. You can check out GameSpot’s roundup of all the games and studios that Microsoft now owns.
In the first Little Nightmares, we followed a little girl in a yellow raincoat named Six as she made her escape from the Maw, an underwater resort inhabited by terrifying, ravenous creates. The upcoming sequel Little Nightmares II will explore the world outside the Maw, and it seems to be just as dangerous. Releasing February 11, 2021 on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC, Little Nightmares II will also be playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X, with free next-gen upgrades releasing later next year.
Set after Six’s escape from the Maw, Little Nightmares II sees her team up with a new protagonist, a boy with a brown paper bag over his head named Mono. Together, the two must work together to survive the lands outside the Maw, which are occupied by a new cast of monstrous residents, including the bloodthirsty Hunter, the sadistic Teacher, creepy Mannequins, and more.
The pair is headed for a giant Signal Tower in the distance, which is emitting a strange signal and seems tied to the fate of Six, who is “fading from this world,” according to the official website. Throughout Little Nightmares II, Six and Mono are also stalked by the Thin Man, a terrifying Slender Man-esque creature who first appeared at the end of the first game’s DLC and seems connected to the TVs found throughout the game.
Though we’ll have to wait a little while longer for the release of Little Nightmares II, which was originally scheduled to release in 2020, the suspenseful horror-platformer is available to preorder now. Plus, check out our early impressions of Little Nightmares II after spending some time hands-on with it ahead of Gamescom 2020.
Little Nightmares 2 preorder bonus
Little Nightmares 2 preorder bonus
There’s a small bonus for preordering Little Nightmares II: a mask for Mono inspired by Mokujin from Tekken. It’s described as “a mask carved from a 2000-year-old tree, but its power won’t protect you from what awaits Mono in the Pale City.”
There’s also an exclusive Mono keychain available for preordering from the Bandai Namco Store, but this appears to be exclusive to Europe.
Physical copies of Little Nightmares II are available to preorder now on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. The PS4 and Xbox One versions are both $10 cheaper and include free next-gen upgrades for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, respectively. These next-gen upgrades release sometime next year, but in the meantime, you’ll be able to play your physical PS4 or Xbox One copy on the corresponding next-gen console due to backward-compatibility. Digital preorders aren’t available just yet.
The Day One edition comes with the Mokujin Mask preorder bonus and the base game. It also grants access to the Nomes’ Attic exclusive DLC along with a mini soundtrack.
Sadly, the coolest edition of Little Nightmares II is exclusive to Europe for now. It comes with everything in the Day One edition plus additional goodies.
Collector’s TV box
Escape diorama (detailed figurine of Mono and Six traveling through TVs)
Full game soundtrack (CD and digital)
56-page art book
Steelbook case
Exclusive stickers
3D lenticular art (exclusive to Bandai Namco Store)
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Forza Horizon 3, the series entry that took the race to Australia, will soon be delisted. The digital version of the game will no longer be available for purchase from September 27, meaning that if you want it, you’ll need to act fast.
The Xbox One/PC game is hugely discounted right now, and if you don’t buy it now, your only hope will be a physical copy–and it’ll likely be second-hand. The game will also be playable on Xbox Series X, but only if you buy it before September 27. If you own the game, you’ll still be able to download it after this date, but it won’t be available for purchase anymore.
This applies to the DLC too, so if you want to experience the wild Hot Wheels expansion you’ll need to hurry.
Forza Horizon 3 released in September 2016, and earned strong reviews, including GameSpot’s own. It has since been followed by Forza Horizon 4, which transported the action to the UK. Unlike 4, Forza Horizon 3 has never been on Game Pass.
The first two Forza Horizon games have also been delisted, as have the Forza Motorsport games up to Forza Motorsport 6.
Earlier today reports emerged that claimed some Call of Duty Accounts were compromised, but this is not the case, a spokesperson for Activision tells GameSpot.
“Activision Call of Duty accounts have not been compromised. Reports suggesting otherwise are not accurate,” the spokesperson said.
Activision also stressed that it takes privacy seriously and it investigates security issues. The company also advised players to use these various methods to make sure their accounts stay secure. As always, it’s never a good idea to use the same password for different services, and it’s smart to change your password often anyway.
The Call of Duty franchise is currently riding high thanks to the free-to-play battle royale game Warzone that has reached millions of players. The mainline series is also enjoying success with Modern Warfare, and potentially more in November with Black Ops Cold War. Cold War is a direct sequel to the original Black Ops, taking place in 1981. In addition to multiplayer and campaign, the game brings back the fan-favorite Zombies mode.
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