Author: Trafficblast

The Outer Worlds is shaping up quite nicely ahead of its release on October 25 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, with a Switch version arriving at a later date. If you want to play its potential sequel, however, you might need an Xbox.

That’s the word from head of Xbox Studios Matt Booty, who revealed during an interview with Game Informer that Microsoft believes The Outer Worlds can be “an enduring franchise” for the company. Microsoft acquired Obsidian, the studio developing The Outer Worlds, back in 2018, adding it to the list of 15 developers that comprise the Xbox Games Studios’ roster alongside the likes of Ninja Theory, Double Fine, and Playground Games.

The Outer Worlds is currently being published by Private Division, the indie-centric publishing arm of Take-Two. But beyond this, Microsoft will likely be handling publishing duties for any potential sequels, which could also mean the franchise becomes a Microsoft exclusive.

This isn’t the case with all of Microsoft’s first-party projects. Booty explains that with an IP like Minecraft, for example, it makes sense to keep the franchise as open and multi-platform as possible, whereas other games will be better supported by the resources Microsoft can put into them. The Outer Worlds falls into the latter category, as Booty expresses Microsoft’s high hopes for the game and its future potential.

“I think that it’s a great universe they’ve created,” he says. “And I think about what are the things that you need for a franchise to kind of bear weight? Like what can it withstand? Is it a narrative, is it a set of characters, is it a universe that’s big enough that you could start to add onto it?”

While PlayStation 4 and Switch owners will be able to get their hands on The Outer Worlds later this year, they might need to invest in an Xbox or PC to continue the interstellar story.

The upcoming action horror movie The Hunt has been pulled from release schedules by distributors Universal. The movie was set to hit theaters next month and had already had its promotional campaign canceled following the shootings in San Jose and Dayton. Now it won’t be released at all.

The Hunt is produced by Blumhouse Films, who also made The Purge series, as well as movies like Get Out, Us, and Paranormal Activity. It’s a satire in which elites hunt people for sport, and was co-written by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. Without naming the movie, President Donald Trump made reference to it in a series of tweets that following the tragic events in San Jose and Dayton last week.

A statement from Universal said: “After thoughtful consideration, the studio has decided to cancel our plans to release the film. We stand by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators, like those associated with this satirical social thriller, but we understand that now is not the right time to release this film.”

The first trailer for The Hunt was released two weeks ago. The basic set-up–humans being hunted for sport–is a familiar one seen in movie such as The Most Dangerous Games, The Hunger Games, and Battle Royale. The movie is directed by Craig Zobel and was originally set hit theaters on September 27, 2019. The cast includes Emma Roberts (American Horror Story), Hilary Swank (Trust), Glen Howerton (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), and Ethan Suplee (The Santa Clarita Diet).

Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, a member of the Sentinels eSports team and recent winner of the Fortnite World Cup Solos Championship, was “swatted” last night while streaming on Twitch.

The pro player was streaming Fortnite when the police arrived in the middle of a game. Bugha is interrupted by his father telling him there are armed police at the door, to which he asks “I got swatted?” This forces the teenager to leave for around 10 minutes before he returns to tell his friends and fellow pros–Ghost Gaming’s Timothy “Bizzle” Miller and FaZe Clan’s Danny “Dubs” Walsh–what happened. “They come in with guns, bro,” he explains. “They literally pulled up, holy s***. That’s scary.”

“Swatting” is a form of criminal harassment whereby a false report is filed with the police in the hopes of dispatching armed officers to a person’s address. The dangerous hoax has gained unfortunate popularity within the gaming community, most notably on streaming platforms where victims like Bugha are targeted.

Fortunately, the 16-year-old World Cup Winner avoided anything serious, thanks in some part to one of the attending officers recognising Bugha due to living in the same neighbourhood.

Others haven’t been quite so lucky. A 2017 dispute over Call of Duty led to a “swatting” incident in which a 28-year-old man was shot and killed by police.

Gris, last year’s tremendous indie darling, is coming to iOS devices later this month. The game will release on the App Store on August 22.

The game, which released on Switch and PC late last year, charmed critics with its extraordinary visuals, smart puzzles and engaging narrative. In his 9/10 review of the PC version, Tom Mc Shea praised the game for its “incredible artistic design”, “freeing sense of movement”, and “razor focus”.

Gris is a game about a young woman who experiences a metaphorical journey through a fractured land. It’s a puzzle platformer without any dialog, and finishing it generally takes between three and five hours.

Now the game is coming to mobile a new audience will be able to play through it. Preorders are now live on the App Store, where the game carries an asking price of $4.99. This is significantly below the $16.99 the game costs on Steam and the Nintendo eShop, although how effectively the game controls with a touch screen remains to be seen.

Gris will run on the iPhone 5S and up, as well as on most iPad models, as long as they’re running iOS 10.0 or later. It weighs in at 2.9GB.

Game of Thrones’ D.B. Weiss and David Benioff’s new deal with Netflix has definitively killed off the next series they were planning for HBO.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Weiss and Benioff’s deal with the streaming giant is worth a whopping $200 million, and ensures that the pair will bring multiple films and TV shows to the streaming giant. This is on top of their upcoming Star Wars film, too.

This is undoubtedly good news for the duo, but it means that their next announced project at HBO definitely isn’t happening. As reported by Vulture, this move to Netflix has effectively killed off Confederate, with sources saying that the pair do not have any projects in development at HBO at this time.

Confederate was to take place in an alternate reality, and show the ramifications of a Confederate victory during the American Civil War. It would have been set in a version of America where slavery had not been abolished.

Back in 2017, the show’s announcement sparked some controversy, with many arguing that Weiss and Benioff were not the right pair to tackle this subject matter. Back in May, HBO programming boss Casey Bloys said that the show was not a priority at the network right now.

Of course, the final season of Game of Thrones was not without controversy too, with some fans petitioning for a different ending. Despite this, the final season went on to earn a record number of Emmy nominations.

In celebration of System Shock 2‘s 20th anniversary, Nightdive Studios, which is currently working on a remake of the original System Shock, has announced that it’s also working on an enhanced edition of its sequel.

“You asked for it and we are working on it,” the developer said in an announcement on Twitter. The reveal doesn’t share much more than this, but Nightdive Studios’ enhanced edition of the first System Shock should give us a good idea of what to expect, with contemporary enhancements such as 4K support, an improved control scheme, and an adjustable field of view all featured in the 2015 re-release.

System Shock 2 has gone on to become a cult classic since its original release back in 1999. A first-person survival horror set aboard a starship in the year 2114, it tasked players with dealing with an infectious outbreak that was more than meets the eye. Ken Levine, who went on to create Bioshock, was the game’s lead designer.

With a remake of System Shock on the horizon, not to mention a full sequel in the shape of System Shock 3, the legacy of SHODAN continues to live on 20 years later.