Author: Trafficblast

It appears Blizzard Entertainment has canceled a project that was in development for at least two years. Game developer David Gibson, who was a senior animator on Overwatch, started working on a mysterious unannounced Blizzard project in July 2017, according to his LinkedIn page. He worked on this game for about two years before announcing his departure from Blizzard this week.

Whatever this project was, it’s reportedly no longer happening. “Unfortunately, you’ll never see what we made over the past two years–that’s [game development],” he said on Twitter.

Game development is a highly iterative, fluid process. It is not uncommon for projects to get canceled midway through development, for a variety of reasons. Gibson did not offer any specifics on why this project was seemingly axed or if his departure from Blizzard is related.

According to Blizzard executive producer Allen Adham, roughly 50 percent of Blizzard’s games are canceled before release. “The truth is, behind the curtain, it’s a horror show. But most people outside of Blizzard don’t realize around half of our titles don’t see the light of day,” he explained to Game Informer. “So, people who think we’re a consistent company, we’re only consistent in that we only release the really amazing games.”

GameSpot has contacted Blizzard in an attempt to get more details.

Gibson didn’t say if he was let go or if he is leaving voluntarily. Whatever the case, Gibson says he has already lined up a new gig.

Blizzard’s new president, J. Allen Brack, has said that Blizzard currently has more projects in development than ever before in the company’s history. It seems it has one fewer now. Recently, Brack teased that Blizzard might be working on some kind of Overwatch spinoff or sequel.

If Blizzard does have new projects to announce, that could happen at the BlizzCon 2019 event in November. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

Battlefield V is getting lots more content this year, including four new maps coming to the game with the Chapter 4: Defying the Odds update that launches on June 27. These maps, like all the ones released already, are completely free as part of Battlefield V’s free expansion campaign. More details on all the new maps are coming at E3 2019 this weekend.

The first of the new maps is Al Sundan, which is based on the Under No Flag single-player mission. It’s set in the North African desert, and it’s a large-scale map supporting 64 players. Next up is the 64-player Marita map, which launches in July. It’s the second map set in Greece, following Mercury that was released at the end of May.

“Marita transports players to a gorgeous mountainside with cobblestone roads overlooking a river, and features infantry-focused combat where Allied forces are making a last stand to halt the Axis army,” reads its description.

The other two maps, Lofoten Island and Provence, are smaller in scale; they’re designed around close-quarters combat. Both of these maps will be released sometime in summer.

Moving ahead, DICE will launch a new map called Operation Underground in October. The map is inspired by Battlefield 3‘s Operation Metro map, and it features a number of different areas such as streets, courtyards, and train platforms.

You can see a glimpse of all the new maps in the video embedded above. All of the new maps for Battlefield V will be shown off during publisher Electronic Arts’ EA Play event this weekend in Los Angeles.

Battlefield V launched in October 2018 and it sold more than 7 million copies in under two months; that was below EA’s commercial expectations.

Lots of zombie games have pockets of survivors, but Dying Light 2 is aiming to make a richer experience surrounding them. The survivor camps that largely manifest around the safety of rooftops play into your gameplay, as your decisions will be reflected in the communities. A new piece of concept art shows a rooftop farm.

As described by Techland, your choices will help uncover new areas and impact how they thrive. The studio suggests that helping survivors will often come at some personal cost, so you’ll need to choose between putting your own needs or those of the community first. The studio promises that each player’s city will be a reflection of their own personality and choices.

“You will be shaping the world around you using resources you collect and steps you choose to take,” creative director Adrian Ciszewski said. “The path to achieving your goal will at times take unexpected turns, but you can always get back on track, at a certain cost. The thriving rooftops are visible proof of a path once taken by the protagonist–the more he helps the survivors, putting his own needs aside, the more life and hope can spread throughout the city. Players will have their own cities that entirely reflect them in Dying Light 2.”

Dying Light 2 was confirmed in 2018, but got a shot in the arm recently with the announcement that Square Enix is partnering with Techland to distribute the game. It will be a part of Square Enix’s E3 2019 press conference, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, June 10 at 6 PM ET / 9 PM PT. Other games appearing at that event will be Marvel’s Avengers, new game Outriders, and very likely the remake of Final Fantasy VII.

For more on Dying Light 2, check out what we know and what we’d like to see.

There’s no denying that Death Stranding looks like Hideo Kojima’s typical brand of perplexing. While it has elements of modern game design, what we’ve seen from the game doesn’t seem to fit into any one specific genre. According to Kojima himself, that’s because he has invented something new with this one.

The Japanese auteur took to Twitter to break down exactly what he’s set out to do with the new PS4 exclusive. Death Stranding is an action game, as evidenced by the release date trailer above, but Kojima says the game is creating a hybrid of something entirely new. He calls Death Stranding an “action game/strand game(social strand system),” a project that’s not quite a stealth game but not quite a first-person shooter either.

There are elements of both featured in Death Stranding, with protagonist Sam Porter Bridges (portrayed by The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus) shooting and stealthing his way through the dilapidated world Kojima has conjured up, but Kojima seems more interested in the “strand” part of Death Stranding. He says the game is “incorporating the concept of connection(strand)” to create a “totally brand new genre.”

Genre creation isn’t new for the prolific developer. With the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Kojima coined the term transfarring, a portmanteau of transfer and sharing in which a save file could be moved between the PSP, PS Vita, PS3, or PS4, allowing for seamless, continuous play. The Tactical Espionage Action of the Metal Gear franchise also falls into Kojima’s genre-blending/creation ethos.

Kojima managed to get some big name actors to appear in Death Stranding. Along with longtime collaborators Guillermo del Toro and Norman Reedus, Death Stranding will star Lea Seydoux (The Lobster, Spectre), Lindsay Wagner (Grey’s Anatomy, The Bionic Woman), Mads Mikkelsen (Doctor Strange, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Margaret Qualley (Death Note, The Leftovers), director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Valhalla Rising), Tommie Earl Jenkins (The Bourne Identity, Gambit), and Troy Baker (Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, The Last of Us).

Death Stranding releases for PS4 on November 8.