Author: Trafficblast

Oddworld: Soulstorm, the next game in the Oddworld series, is releasing in 2020 – but if you want the PC version, you’ll need to get it through the Epic Games Store. The news was announced through a tweet from the official Oddworld account, which explained that support from the Epic Games Store was important for funding the game’s development. The tweet contains a statement from Lorne Lanning, the original creator of Abe and Oddworld, who still works on the series.

“We’ve been financing Soulstorm 100% ourselves”, the statement from Lorne Lanning reads. “Soulstorm is our most ambitious game ever and we are committed to creating a great game that meets the highest level of quality”. To do so, they needed additional finances, and Epic has supported them with an advance on their sales to help the game’s development in exchange for exclusivity.

Oddworld Soulstorm, which received a lengthy trailer in May, is essentially a reimagining of Abe’s Exodus, the second game in the Oddworld series, but with a greatly expanded scope and story. It is also coming to PS4 and Xbox One in 2020. It’s unclear whether or not Oddworld: Soulstorm will be a timed exclusive, or if it will eventually come to Steam, as is the case with many Epic Games Store exclusives.

The Switch release of the Hotline Miami Collection is the first time that Hotline Miami 2 has been made available in Australia, and fans are wary about whether or not it will remain available indefinitely.

The Collection is available now on Switch with an MA15+ rating, the second-highest in the Australian system. Hotline Miami 2 was previously refused classification upon release, banning it from sale, seemingly on the basis of a scene that implied sexual assault. At the time, it was banned under the reasoning that Australia does not allow games that “depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.”

The local Australian PR representative for Devolver’s releases sent us through a short statement, letting us know that the game had been classified under the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) and that “of course the ratings board can still complain and challenge it, and it could be overturned and banned.” He also noted that “nothing has been removed from the Switch version that was in the original game.” In a follow-up phone call, he clarified that he wasn’t sure if the game would be made available on PC, PS4, or any other systems in Australia yet. It’s likely that Devolver Digital will take a ‘wait and see’ approach here, depending on what happens with the Switch version.

The IARC classification system allows developers and publishers to submit their games for an automated classification process, filling out a questionnaire that determines the game’s age rating. As Kotaku Australia points out, Hotline Miami Collection was recently refused classification after one such submission – but it seems that they resubmitted it again and got through.

Ultimately, it’s not entirely clear how or why Hotline Miami 2 is available in Australia now, after being unavailable for four and a half years, and there’s the possibility that the game’s rating will be challenged or overturned, removing it from sale again. For now, though, Australians are able to buy the Hotline Miami Collection, featuring Hotline Miami 2, through the Australian eShop on their Switch.

Last week, it was announced that the action horror movie The Hunt had been pulled from release schedules by distributors Universal, following the shootings in El Paso and Dayton and criticism from President Donald Trump. Now director Craig Zobel has commented on the film’s cancellation.

The film is a variation on the familiar plot used in movie such as The Most Dangerous Game, Battle Royale, and The Hunger Games, in which humans hunt each other for sport or survival. In an interview with Variety, Zobel explained that the movie had been misrepresented in the press, and that it satirized both sides of the political divide.

This is a great time to be a fan of Masters of the Universe and He-Man. Sony has teamed up with Mattel for a new movies starring Noah Centineo, and over the weekend at Power-Con, it was announced that Mattel TV and Netflix are joining forces for a Masters of the Universe anime series.

Announced at Power-Con, director Kevin Smith surprised audiences and announced this new project. He will serve as showrunner and executive producer of Netflix’s anime series Masters of the Universe: Revelation.

During Gamescom, Sony announced their purchase of Insomniac Games, bringing the developer of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank into the Sony family. The deal makes a lot of sense, as the developer has worked on numerous Sony exclusives in the past, and according to Sony games chairman Shawn Layden it was a matter of Sony wanting to recognize the studio’s value to PlayStation.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Layden dug into why Sony bought the studio. Insomniac Games has mostly worked with Sony on numerous past exclusives, but has remained independent, releasing the multiplatform Fuse in 2013 the Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive in 2014, among other titles that weren’t PlayStation exclusives. According to Layden, Sony decided that Insomniac Games is the “perfect fit” for their worldwide studios, saying that they “bring quality and innovation, the two things that we lean into every time and all the time.”

The success of Marvel’s Spider-Man, which we gave a 9/10 in our review last year, was just one example of how strong the studio is, Layden said. “There are just a clutch of studios in that independent sphere who are at an accomplishment level of something like Insomniac. They are a very rare bird and we felt that this was the time to formalize the relationship.”

Furthermore, Insomniac Games is a good fit for Sony’s commitment to story-driven games. “An acquisition of a studio of that caliber and size was really a way for us to continue our strength in innovation and quality with a heavy leaning towards the power of narrative, the power of storytelling”, Layden explained. “We want to create a place where game developers can bring their vision to life and tell stories that impact the emotions and interests of our gamers. Insomniac fits perfectly into the division that we created at Worldwide Studios here, leaning into first and best.”

Insomniac Games is now one of 14 studios owned by Sony, including Media Molecule, Bend Studio, Guerrilla Games and Santa Monica Studio.

Final Fantasy VIII Remaster has a new trailer out of Gamescom, and it’s finally given us a release date for the upgraded version of Square Enix’s beloved PlayStation RPG. You can watch it above.

The remaster, which was announced during E3 this year, is due out on September 3 – just two weeks away. It’s coming to PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. It’s a substantial polish on the old game, removing a lot of the blur that led to some classic memes.

This is the final PlayStation-originating Final Fantasy game that was yet to be remastered and released in HD, with Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX having already been updated for modern consoles. There’s been speculation that the source code for Final Fantasy VIII was lost, which would also explain why the game’s glow-up is so dramatic.

If you’re a 90s PlayStation fan, prepare yourself for a burst of nostalgia soon.

During Gamescom this week, Sony announced that they had bought Insomniac Games, officially bringing the developers behind Ratchet & Clank and Marvel’s Spider-Man into the Sony fold. The studio, which released Sunset Overdrive as an Xbox One exclusive in 2014 (before the game was eventually ported to PC) will now develop for Sony.

In the wake of this announcement, Sony games studio chairman Shawn Layden spoke to Bloomberg about Sony’s focus on exclusives, stating that they are an important part of the company’s overall strategy. However, he also said that certain titles – especially multiplayer titles – could potentially receive a wider release rather than being kept exclusive to the PlayStation 4 and/or 5.

“We must support the PlayStation platform — that is nonnegotiable…That said, you will see in the future some titles coming out of my collection of studios which may need to lean into a wider installed base,” he told Bloomberg.

Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that PlayStation games will start appearing on Xbox or Switch – we don’t expect Ratchet & Clank to come to Switch in the same way that Xbox’s Ori and the Blind Forest is. What it could mean is that multiplayer titles get PC or mobile releases as well to widen the player base. There’s some precedent for that, with Sony Online Entertainment previously releasing Everquest and Everquest II for PC.

Before E3 earlier this year, Sony committed to continuing to make “story games,” and based on Layden’s wording these would likely remain exclusive to Sony’s platforms. But it sounds like the company is, at least, open to considering the advantages of multiplatform releases for some internally developed games in the future.