Author: Trafficblast

Although the Tomb Raider trilogy that began with 2013’s Tomb Raider and ended with last year’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider has wrapped up, it sounds like more Tomb Raider games could be on the way. Producer Jonathan Dahan told USGamer that he would be “extremely surprised” if the franchise ended with Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

“I’d be extremely surprised if we didn’t see more of it,” Dahan said. “We’re not able to say anything about what’s happening next, but I’d be very surprised if we didn’t hear more about the franchise.”

The Tomb Raider franchise is one of the biggest and best-known in all of gaming and beyond with the movie series that recently rebooted with Alicia Vikander in the title role.

Dahan also said in the interview that he’s excited to see “what’s next in terms of technological advances.” This line is notable given Microsoft is rumoured to talk about its next-gen plans at E3 this year, while Sony, too, is reportedly cooking up a PlayStation 5.

The Xbox One and PS4 launched in 2013, so that generation might soon be ending. For its part, retailer GameStop believes new consoles may be revealed soon.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s latest expansion, The Grand Caiman, is out now. It introduces a “ferocious deity” that players must defeat to say the innocent San Juan villagers.

Where would you like to see the Tomb Raider series go next? Let us know in the comments below!

Battlefield V‘s battle royale mode, Firestorm, has introduced new way to play. Developer DICE today added Duos, which as its name suggests, lets you play with one other person.

Duos joins the exisiting Solo (1 player) and Squads (4 players) mode that are already available in Firestorm.

“It’s our first time putting Duo out into the wild having started work on the mode much later in Firestorms development. We love it, and we think it’s a great addition to the game, but we recognize best that we’re better hearing that from you, and we’d appreciate your support in helping to make it a strong addition to Firestorm, and Battlefield V,” DICE said in a forum post.

Duos will be available in Firestorm until 10 AM UTC on Monday, April 15. At that time, DICE will go over fan feedback and and its own telemetry, and later report back about what they saw and learned. It appears Duos is launching as part of a test of sorts.

In other Battlefield V news, the World War II shooter recently introduced a microtransaction system that allows players to purchase various cosmetic items–here’s how it works.

Apex Legends developer Respawn is aware of the interest among fans in a Nintendo Switch version of the battle royale game, but it might not happen — or it might. Respawn isn’t ready to say just yet. Project lead Drew McCoy told Wired that the studio is working on “a lot of things” right now, but there is nothing to announce yet about a Switch edition.

“If Switch was coming, we would tell you, and we would blast it across the world. We are hearing all the Switch players who say they want the game,” he said. “I can’t make any promises right now. We have a lot of things that we’re working on, so stay tuned for anything in the future. But currently we don’t have anything to announce.”

McCoy’s wording is interesting. He never outright says it won’t happen, or even that there are no plans. He’s saying that Respawn has nothing to announce right now. This is very far from a confirmation that Apex Legends is coming to Switch, however.

Apex Legends is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Switch players aren’t without any battle royale games, of course, as Epic’s Fortnite is available on the console. Tetris 99 is also on Switch, while Crazy Justice has been announced for Switch.

In addition to ongoing support for Apex Legends, Respawn is just about to reveal its Star Wars game, Jedi Fallen Order, this weekend at Star Wars Celebration. The studio is also working on a new Titanfall experience to launch this year, while the team has an Oculus Rift game also in development.

Would you like to see Apex Legends come to Switch? Let us know in the comments below!

Wizards of the Coast is debuting a set of new cards coming to Magic the Gathering, both in its Arena digital version and the classic tabletop game. We have the exclusive reveal of one of the upcoming cards, Finale of Promise.

Finale of Promise is a versatile red card, allowing you to cast target cards from your graveyard. The strongest effect comes if the attribute is 10 or more, which then lets you copy the spells twice with new targets. You can check the full card text, and the artwork from illustrator Jaime Jones, below.

These cards are meant to signify major story moments in Magic lore. Finale of Promise shows Niv-Mizzet being reborn through the use of the Elderspell.

Magic: The Gathering Arena is the latest digital incarnation of the classic collectible card game, built to be a faster-moving version of the game than previous video game adaptations. Wizards of the Coast also made it more easily expandable to keep up with its steady stream of new card additions, so that it could receive expansions and other additions right alongside the physical game.

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Disney has finally what its new streaming service, Disney+, looks like. During the company’s Investor Day presentation today, the company provided a first look at the UI–and it bears a strong resemblance to Netflix. Check out some images of the UI in the gallery below.

As you can see, there are tabs for Disney brands like Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and others. In terms of specific content, Disney back catalog shows and films will be available, alongside new original shows like a Falcon & Winter Soldier show from Marvel the Star Wars show The Mandalorian from Jon Favreau.

All content on Disney+ can be downloaded. The service will available on pretty much every screen you can imagine, including game consoles like PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Disney+ is just the latest paid subscription service from Disney. The company’s ESPN division has its own streaming package called ESPN+, while Hulu, which Disney owns 60 percent of, is also a paid streaming catalog. During the investor briefing, Disney management said it will likely offer a bundle for all three, but specifics haven’t been announced yet.

Disney+ launches in the US on November 12 for $7/month.

An Xbox executive has responded to Google Stadia, the new streaming service, claiming the platform may not have enough compelling content to get people to sign up. Xbox chief marketing officer Mike Nichols told The Telegraph Google may be technically capable of offering a enticing streaming service, but they “don’t have the content.”

“Emerging competitors like Google have a cloud infrastructure, a community with YouTube, but they don’t have the content,” Nichols said.

According to the site, Nichols also said Google might have a hard time with Stadia because it hasn’t been involved in games for very long. That may be true, but Google brought on industry veteran Phil Harrison–who formerly held high-level positions at both Microsoft and Sony–to lead the Stadia team. Additionally, Google just hired Assassin’s Creed producer Jade Raymond to head up Google’s new internal game development studio, Stadia Games.

Google brought Bethesda to the Stadia reveal event to showcase Doom Eternal running on the cloud platform. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has also been shown running on Stadia with good results. Q Games’ Dylan Cuthbert is also working on a game for Stadia, while Luz Sancho from Tequila Works also appeared on stage during the reveal event. That’s a few partners, but some were hoping for more.

Harrison told Polygon that Google intentionally focused on announcing the Stadia platform and explaining its platform features during the reveal event instead of talking much about development partners. “Don’t read too much into why so-and-so was there and why so-and-so wasn’t there,” Harrison said.

“We’ve had deep conversations over a number of years now. We’ve shipped over a hundred development kits already. We’ve got thousands of creatives already underway. So you’ll see a pretty amazing lineup come June.”

The reference to June might be teasing a bigger games lineup reveal at E3, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Microsoft itself is working on a game-streaming service under the working title xCloud. It enters public trials later this year. Going back to Nichols and The Telegraph interview, he said there might be a time in the future when streaming without local hardware is the best experience, but it’s not there yet.

“You won’t necessarily need a device over time, but you’ll get the best experience with local processing power [available on a console or computer],” he explained.

Google’s Stadia announcement came with a jab at traditional consoles like the ones Microsoft makes. The platform’s website states “the future of gaming is not a box.”

Microsoft released a statement to IGN regarding Nichols’ comments and cloud gaming in general.

“It’s a great time to be a gamer. At Xbox, we’re putting players at the center of our vision for the future of gaming by delivering blockbuster content from Xbox Game Studios and our partners, growing the thriving Xbox community and giving them choice and opportunity in how they play across devices and through Project xCloud.”

What do you think about cloud gaming? Let us know in the comments below! You can also read GameSpot’s cloud gaming primer to find out everything you need to know.

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