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Find every seed in Fallen Order with this guide.

The roster of big game releases for 2020 recently grew when Valve, out of nowhere, announced Half-Life: Alyx for launch in March 2020 as a virtual reality-exclusive title. Given that it’s been so long since the release of a new Half-Life title, there will surely be pent-up demand that could scare other developers launching games close to it.

CD Projekt Red isn’t scared about launching Cyberpunk 2077 in April 2020, however, because the two games are going for different markets. Half-Life: Alyx is designed for virtual reality while Cyberpunk 2077 is going after a bigger audience of players on console and PC.

Management for CD Projekt Red said on an earnings call recently that the company isn’t shaking in its boots over Half-Life: Alyx because VR is an incredibly niche market.

“Of course we’ve seen the Half-Life VR announcement. I think it was a surprise for everybody … VR remains an extremely niche-y niche of the market,” the company said. “It’s very, very small.”

The only reason why Valve would make Half-Life: Alyx exclusive to VR is because they want VR as an industry to grow. The hope is people will be so excited for a new Half-Life that they’ll go buy a headset, according to CD Projekt Red.

“The only reason I can think of why Valve has decided to actually put this title on the market is because they actually have a cooperation on the hardware side of the things and I assume they are planning … this is probably a big effort for them to try to expand that niche,” CD Projekt Red said. “That niche is very, very, very–and I could add a few verys here–small. So, from the market perspective, are we afraid? No. It is a very different niche.”

Whereas Valve is trying to specifically improve VR hardware sales by making Half-Life: Alyx, at least according to CD Projekt Red, the Polish studio is trying to appeal to more people. VR as a business sector remains unproven and not profitable, according to CD Projekt Red.

“[Half-Life: Alyx] is an endeavor to try to push the hardware while we are really targeting the mass market where it is–which is major consoles and PCs without the need to have the VR gear,” the company said. “I know there are a few titles here and there that usually showcase [VR] but I have not heard of anybody building an actual valid business on VR so far.”

One day, VR might become a viable business, and CD Projekt Red acknowledged that Half-Life: Alyx could be the game to help drive interest in VR. Still, the company doesn’t think it will happen soon–if it ever does–so it has no plans to adapt its games for VR right now.

“Perhaps Half-Life will become this first stone that is going to turn into something larger [for VR] as we go, but that’s definitely not going to be the case come first half of the next year; I dare say it’s probably not going to be next year,” CD Projekt Red said. “I don’t dare to venture any further because things may change. At some point VR may be a mass market entertainment that will validate the business model behind it but it is not the case, at least not for us, right now.”

Half-Life: Alyx is a prequel to Half-Life 2 in which players control Alyx Vance. The game is reportedly a big undertaking for Valve, and among the developers contributing to the project are members of the Campo Santo team that Valve acquired in 2018. The voice actress for Alyx is Ozioma Akagha, who replaces Merle Dandridge from the earlier Half-Life games. New Zealand-based actor Rhys Darby (Jumanji, Flight of the Conchords) is joining the game as a new character.

Half-Life: Alyx is free on Valve Index for those who buy a headset before the end of 2019. The game is also playable on other PC VR headsets made by companies other than Valve.

Warning: Full spoilers for The Walking Dead’s Season 10 midseason finale follow…

With last week’s episode, “Open Your Eyes,” showcasing Season 10’s best efforts to date, it was unlikely the midseason finale was going to top it. And it didn’t. But it sure seemed like it was trying during the first 20 minutes or so, when we got all our questions about Dante answered, Rosita took him down (and saved Coco from a zombified Siddiq), and Gabriel went nuts and murdered Dante in his cell.

Those were all very interesting and intense moments. And I mentioned last week how I hoped Rosita would get to be the one to take that Dante out. I was just afraid things wouldn’t come to a head as quickly as they did. Like, that the episode would take its sweet-ass time with the full reveal of Dante’s betrayal. But we got it right out of the gate, so “The World Before” gets some solid points for digging into it right quick.

Continue reading…

After months of speculation and waiting, we finally know the name of the third television series in The Walking Dead franchise. AMC aired the first teaser for the series during the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead Season 10.

The series will be called The Walking Dead: World Beyond. The series is the third in the franchise and the second spinoff, after the original series and Fear the Walking Dead. World Beyond doesn’t have a release date yet, but the teaser trailer promises the show will debut in 2020.

Here’s the first poster for the series:

The Walking Dead World Beyond Announcement Poster

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Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding released on PlayStation 4 this month, earning a 9/10 in our review and marking a new era for director Hideo Kojima, four years after his split with Konami. Before Death Stranding, Kojima was working on a new Silent Hill game called Silent Hills. A much-loved demo, P.T., was released, but Konami ultimately cancelled the game much to the chagrin of fans. Now, years later, it’s starting to look like Kojima is thinking about horror again.

On Twitter, Kojima has made reference to making “the scariest horror game,” and he’s watching horror movies to prepare. The film in question, The Eye, is not actually a Thai film, as Kojima claims–it’s the work of Hong Kong directors the Pang brothers. Part of the film is, however, set in Thailand.

From this, it’s not clear whether Kojima is actually moving ahead with a horror game development, or just exploring the possibility. In 2017, Kojima said that he did not plan on returning to horror, but P.T. continues to be relevant, despite having been delisted years ago. Earlier this month actor Norman Reedus said that he was okay with Silent Hills not going ahead, as it meant that he was able to work with Kojima or Death Stranding instead. But since Konami holds the rights to Silent Hill, any horror game Kojima works on now would have to be different anyway.

Kojima has not tweeted about the movie again since, so it’s not clear whether he got through The Eye or not, and whether it has inspired him to return to horror, or awakened “his horror soul.”

CD Projekt Red continues to speak about the unannounced Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer game. As part of an earnings presentation, management confirmed that the game is only in the “relatively early stage” of development and that it will feature some form of microtransactions, though the company isn’t ready just yet to confirm specifics.

“We believe right now it is definitely too early to share any details on that or give guidance [as] the project is in the relatively early stage,” management said about the Cyberpunk multiplayer game’s microtransactions.

The company added that it is continually experimenting with the Cyberpunk multiplayer game, which is in fact the first multiplayer game made by CD Projekt Red. For the business model specifically, the analyst who asked about it suggested it would be a free-to-play title supported by microtransactions. However, management wasn’t ready to say one way or the other.

That being said, CD Projekt Red wants to make sure it continues to be a consumer-friendly company as it relates to delivering content that feels valuable to players. The Polish studio is known for being relatively generous with its post-release content releases. For The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the studio offered up more than a dozen pieces of free DLC.

“We keep experimenting. It’s our first multiplayer game. We check different options and possibilities, and it’s definitely not the time to point you to a specific direction on that. But you can expect that we won’t change our general policy toward deals with gamers. So expect wise monetization and always value for money,” the company said.

Also in the presentation, CD Projekt Red said the Cyberpunk multiplayer game is a “smaller project” with “smaller staffing” compared to the main team working on the Cyberpunk 2077 single-player game.

Cyberpunk 2077, which features Keanu Reeves in a big role, is set to launch in April 2020 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The multiplayer title would presumably follow thereafter, though no official announcements have been made at this stage.

Another hot-button topic touched on in the presentation was next-generation consoles. Management was asked if the company plans to support the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett, in the wake of rumours that Cyberpunk 2077 will come to these systems.

“Of course we do have insight into what’s around the corner; what’s happening with PlayStation and Xbox. We’re watching it closely,” CD Projekt Red said. “And one may safely assume that at some point we’re going to do something with the next-gen [consoles]. However, we cannot really be very specific; what that might be, when exactly that might be. I would only safely assume that it’s not going to be around the launch timeframe of those consoles.”

The company went on to say that CD Projekt Red is known for making games that play best on high-end PCs. And in that regard, the company is technically more prepared for the upcoming release of the PS5 and Scarlett, which have improved specs.

In October, a CD Projekt Red developer said the studio might consider releasing Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5 and Xbox Scarlett, but those consoles aren’t a focus currently. Another developer, John Mamais, spoke about how excited he is about the prospect of new consoles.

“It’s going to be awesome. It’s always cool to have new consoles coming out and I can’t wait to work on those things,” Mamais said. “We’ll see what we can do with those. It’s fun watching games evolve; they’re looking more and more realistic, which is–I like working on games like that. The more powerful the technology, or the consoles, the more it is [good] for me as a game developer.”

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