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Electronic Arts considered developing a Mario Party-style Simpsons game, but it was too ambitious and it was ultimately canceled. The news comes from an E3 2019 Coliseum livestream where series producers Matt Selman and J. Stewart Burns spoke about it for what appears to be the first time. Selman mentioned the game after host Aaron Bleyaert asked the panel which Simpsons game was their favorite to work on.

“My favourite game to work on was the Simpsons party game that never came out that we just got paid for,” Selman said with a laugh. “At the time there was a trendy kind of, Mario Party, lots of mini-games … we briefly discussed getting on that bandwagon.”

Burns said the Simpsons party game was going to span around 20 different party games, but he estimated it would take a year to make each one, and that was simply not possible.

“It looked like it was going to be a 20-year project or longer because I don’t think we were going to get one of the party games done in a year,” he said. “That was not my favorite thing to work on. It was great when we heard it was not going forward. That was our fault, not EA’s.”

Burns added that he felt like the Simpsons production team owed Electronic Arts the mobile game Tapped Out after the unannounced party game fell apart.

Tapped Out went on to become very popular and lucrative, and it’s still operating today more than six years after its initial release in 2013. The game continues to receive new updates, the latest of which is called “Royale.” Its new content pokes fun at battle royale games like Fortnite.

It’s unclear what developer was tasked with working on the unannounced and unreleased Simpsons party game, and it’s also unknown if any actual development was done on the title or if it was only conceived in the planning stage.

Whatever the case, it’s almost always exciting to hear about unannounced games and think about what they could have been. This is also true for the Simpsons party game. There are seemingly countless opportunities for fun and silly Simpsons-style mini-games. You could imagine something about Homer eating donuts, Bart skateboarding, or Barney drinking as many beers as possible. The possibilities are pretty much endless.

Also during the livestream, Selman talked about how much he enjoyed 2007’s The Simpsons Video Game for its meta-narrative in particular, even if the gameplay wasn’t all that great. He also enjoyed how God was the final boss.

It’s no surprise that EA would want to try to make its own Mario Party-style game, as Nintendo’s franchise is enduringly popular. The latest instalment, Super Mario Party, has sold more than 6.4 million copies which makes it one of the Switch’s most successful games.

The Simpsons Video Game in 2007 was the latest Simpsons console/PC game. During the livestream, Burns said the producers are always thinking about how they could make more Simpsons titles, but, sorry, there is no word yet on if Hit & Run 2 will ever happen.

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Infinity Ward’s Co-Founder Weighs In On The Modern Warfare Reboot At E3 2019

Infinity Ward created one of the most successful and influential shooters of all time with 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The studio is rebooting the game this year, but not everyone involved with the original Modern Warfare is still with the team.

Activision fired Infinity Ward co-founders Vince Zampella and Jason West in 2010 for insubordination. Zampella went on to create Respawn Entertainment, which enjoyed success with the Titanfall series and more recently the battle royale game Apex Legends (West has since joined Epic Games). But what does Zampella think of Activision deciding to reboot Modern Warfare? Speaking on GameSpot sister site Giant Bomb’s E3 2019 livestream, Zampella said he has mixed feelings about Modern Warfare coming back.

“There’s a part of it where it’s humbling. It’s like somebody that I was involved in is worthy of being rebooted. It’s got so much history that people want to see it grow and evolve. There’s a little bit of that, ‘Wow, that legacy is huge.’ That’s humbling,” Zampella said.

At the same time, however, Zampella said he is “a little bit emotional.” Specifically, he said he wonders about Captain Price and how the new game will carry his legacy forward. Zampella said he’s also thinking about how the legacy of the Modern Warfare series could change depending on the response and reception to the Modern Warfare reboot. Overall, Zampella said his feelings swing back and forth when he thinks about the new game, but overall he said he has confidence that Infinity Ward is “in it right for the right reasons.”

“They wanted to do something great in the Modern Warfare space,” he said.

The new Modern Warfare retains some elements of 2007’s game in that it will tell war stories from different perspectives in a fictional Middle East setting. Price is indeed returning as a mentor character of sorts, but he has a new voice actor.

When Zampella and West were fired, a number of Infinity Ward developers left to join them at Respawn on the team that would go on to create Titanfall. One of those developers was Drew McCoy, who is now the executive producer of the wildly successful Apex Legends.

McCoy said he’s been excited to experience the new Modern Warfare reboot this time as a fan and not a developer. He also mentioned that it was a “classy” move on Activision’s part to put the original developers’ names in the opening credits to the 2016 Modern Warfare remaster.

The defections from Infinity Ward were so numerous that Activision reportedly had to bring in Sledgehammer Games to help finish Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Zampella and West settled their lawsuit with Activision in 2012. Activision reportedly paid dozens of millions of dollars to former Infinity Ward developers in the case.

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Fortnite v9.21 Patch Notes

Full patch notes for Fortnite v9.21!

Nintendo Direct E3 2019 Review

Nintendo has long been known as a master of the unexpected, and every direct has included one surprise or another. I feel like Nintendo outdid themselves this time, though — both for better and worse. Animal Crossing getting delayed into next year was a gut punch I thought I’d never recover from, but once I was dazzled by Banjo-Kazooie’s fakeout reveal for Smash Bros., and the bombshell of a Breath of the Wild sequel, I was floored.

Nintendo has stuck with a recent trend of teasing expectations with a bunch of quick looks and trailers to get you interested, while luring you into watching deeper dives into select games shown on their Treehouse livestream right after the direct. The result is either awesome or a bit frustrating, depending on your schedule. With the big spread on Pokemon Sword and Shield covered last week, the direct was free to focus on many more titles than we could have possibly expected, and we even got a nice (and funny) introduction to the new President of Nintendo of America, Doug Bowser.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order Hands-On: Damn it Feels Good to Be a Jedi

We finally had the question of “What does Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order look like?” answered at EA Play on Saturday. And then our own Miranda Sanchez got to see an extended version of that demo shortly thereafter. Now I can also answer the obvious follow-up question, “How does Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order play?”

To set expectations up front, I didn’t see anything new that Miranda didn’t. I simply got to play the back half of the extended demo; basically, I played what EA first aired on their livestream. Read Miranda’s preview to get the full rundown of that presentation. I took the controls after warming up in a combat tutorial.

Microsoft Went To Great Lengths To Keep Keanu Reeves A Secret At Its E3 2019 Press Conference

The appearance of Keanu Reeves at the Microsoft Xbox E3 2019 briefing where he announced the release date for Cyberpunk 2077 was unquestionably one of the most memorable events of the entire show (at least so far). Now, it’s revealed that Microsoft went to great lengths to ensure that Reeves’ appearance was kept a secret.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer explained to Variety that Microsoft used a stand-in for Reeves during rehearsals. Not only that, but Reeves was referred to with a codename. The report goes on to say that Reeves didn’t set foot inside the Microsoft Theatre until the morning of his appearance.

Also in the interview, Spencer acknowledged that he wasn’t sure how it would all go down. He said he’s seen some celebrity endorsements fall flat over years. But after seeing a brief from developer CD Projekt Red–which had the idea for Reeves’ appearance–Microsoft was convinced that it was going to be “very authentic,” Spencer said.

CD Projekt Red spoke to GameSpot at E3 this week regarding how they got Reeves involved. They approached him about a year ago for the role, and the studio said the part he plays–Johnny Silverhand–would only work with Reeves. “It was always him or no one else for the role,” CD Projekt Red’s Miles Tost explained, adding that he was happy the news didn’t leak.

Check out the video embedded above to learn more about how CD Projekt Red brought Keanu Reeves on board for Cyberpunk 2077. You can also read the GameSpot story linked below to learn more about the role Reeves plays in Cyberpunk 2077.

After years of development, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally releasing on April 16, 2020 across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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Marvel’s Avengers E3 Gameplay Demo Looks Like You’re Playing the Movie

Square Enix showed off Marvel’s Avengers on its E3 2019 stage, but the footage only offered a brief glimpse of actual gameplay. IGN attended a behind-closed-doors extended gameplay demo where we got a much better look via 25 minutes of honest-to-goodness Marvel’s Avengers gameplay.

The demo started in the same way as the E3 footage: with an attack on the Golden Gate Bridge during the A-Day celebration. While we weren’t told if this was the opening of the game, we can assume it’s the beginning, or at least early on. It felt very much like a tutorial area as a little time was spent controlling each hero. Gameplay automatically switched from one Avenger to the next as the events of the story dictated. Here’s a description of what it’s like to play as each Avenger.