League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced its venture into video game publishing via a new publishing arm called Riot Forge. The goal of Riot Forge is to partner with experienced studios outside of Riot Games to create single-player, story-driven games set in League of Legends’ Runeterra universe.
Greg Street, Riot’s vice president of IP and entertainment, took to Twitter to celebrate the announcement, tweeting, “Riot Forge is something I am proud to have helped create. We are now an indie game publisher! The story-based games you want in the League universe are coming!”
Riot Forge will provide localization, research, marketing, voiceovers, QA, and other kinds of support to its development partners, and is currently searching for new studios to work with. The publishing arm’s first game is already in development, however, as The Game Awards has confirmed that the first Riot Forge developer will be revealing its new League of Legends game at the show on December 12.
It’s been a busy few months for Riot Games. This news follows last month’s announcement that the studio is also working on a first-person shooter and a fighting game. Riot’s company culture is also being overhauled in the aftermath of a $10 million gender discrimination lawsuit.
The 2019 edition of The Game Awards takes place next week at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The annual event will hand out plenty of awards commemorating the year’s best games, content creators, and Esports personalities, alongside a host of new game reveals and surprise announcements. Show organiser Geoff Keighley has promised there will be 10 reveals during the show, saying that none of them have leaked thus far, so it’s sure to be worth tuning in for.
Death Stranding leads the way with nine total nominations–including those for Mads Mikkelsen and Norman Reedus in the Performance category. Control follows with seven nominations, while Sekiro has five, Resident Evil 2 and Apex Legends both have four, and The Outer Worlds, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Gears 5, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Outer Wilds all have three each. Other categories include Narrative, Score and Music, Ongoing Game, Games for Impact, and a plethora of Esports awards. You can see everything in the full list of awards and nominees.
The show also promises to be full of new game reveals and announcements. WolfEye Studios–which is helmed by ex-Arkane developers–has confirmed it will be showing its first game at the show. League of Legends developer Riot’s new publishing division, Riot Forge, is also confirmed to be showing a new game at the event next week.
Other than this, however, everything else has been kept under wraps. A new Batman game is reportedly on the way, and it’s been speculated that it will be revealed during the show, but nothing has been confirmed and no footage or art has leaked yet. We also know that the rumored Resident Evil 3 remake will not be at The Game Awards, according to Geoff Keighley. Aside from new game announcements, there will also be live performances from Chvrches and Green Day, and there are sure to be celebrity appearances as well.
When Is The Game Awards?
The 2019 Game Awards takes place on Thursday, December 12, in the United States.
US East Coast: 8:30 PM ET
US West Coast: 5:30 PM PT
US Central: 7:30 PM CST
London: 1:30 AM GMT (Friday)
Syndey: 11:30 PM AET (Friday)
Where Can I Watch The Game Awards?
The Game Awards will be streaming live right here on GameSpot, but it will also be available on a wide range of other platforms. Those include:
Borderlands 3 is getting its first paid story DLC soon, with Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot due to release on December 19 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It will send you into a massive casino formerly owned by Handsome Jack, the antagonist of Borderlands 2, to pull off a heist while also fending away the various patrons who have been trapped there in the years after his death seven years prior.
The official Borderlands YouTube account has uploaded a video of the first 13-odd minutes after you enter the casino, showing what to expect when your vault hunter stages their own heist later this month. It’s embedded below.
The footage sees the return of Handsome Jack, albeit in talking hologram form. Naturally, there’s also a whole heap of combat within moments of the DLC starting. As it turns out, you’re there to snatch the casino because Jack promised to bankroll Moxxi’s own den of gambling when they were an item–so this will be, on some level, a revenge narrative.
Borderlands 3 has received several free updates since it launched. This DLC is part of the game’s paid season pass, and is the first of four campaign DLC packages.
Maybe you’re building a new Ryzen Threadripper rig, or it’s just time to upgrade. Whatever the motivation, if you’re going mid-tower you’ll want to give these five cases a long, hard look.
There’s not much going on with video games at the moment so this week Cardy, Joe and Matt talk all about them movies. There’s new Bond and Black Widow trailers to dissect, plus Matt has seen 1917 and tells us why its an absolute banger. Joe got the chance to speak with Joker director Todd Phillips which inspired us to come up with our own pitches for DC movies, the directors we’d like to see make them and why Shaun Williamson aka Barry from Eastenders should play every role in the DC universe.
The Endless Search is a verified nail biter this week as we take on a new game. Please enjoy.
The upcoming Venom sequel has added to its cast. Collider reports that English actor Stephen Graham, who most recently appeared in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, has been tapped for a role in the upcoming action movie starring Tom Hardy.
This won’t be the first time Graham and Hardy have worked together, as they both star in the FX TV series Taboo.
Graham plays the character Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano in The Irishman. Some of his other notable credits included portraying Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire and a role in the Oscar-nominated movie Gangs of New York.
Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis is directing Venom 2, taking over for Ruben Fleischer who directed the 2018 Venom. Michelle Williams returns in the sequel, alongside Woody Harrelson and Naomie Harris.
Venom 1 writer Kelly Marcel (Fifty Shades of Grey, Saving Mr. Banks) is coming back to write screenplay for the sequel, which is slated to hit theatres in October 2020.
Concrete Genie is getting into the holiday spirit with a free DLC pack that will let you paint the town with Christmas cheer. The game’s creative director Dominic Robilliard has announced on the PlayStation Blog that today’s new 1.06 update–available to download now–comes with the Holiday Brush Design Pack. When you load up the game after the patch you’ll be asked if you want to activate the pack, and if you opt in your in-game painting designs will have a festive touch added to them.
You’ll be able to toggle the holiday brushes on or off from the top menu, so once December 26 rolls around you can keep playing without a Christmas theme if you so desire.
According to Robilliard, these brushes have been added to give back to the community after a successful launch, and is inspired by the families who are playing the game together. “We designed the game and its story to appeal to all ages but, in particular, we hoped that families could benefit from the universal themes and creative gameplay,” he says. “This has been so rewarding to watch! We hope that many more families over the holiday period (and beyond) continue to enjoy everything that Concrete Genie has to offer.”
Concrete Genie received a 7/10 in our review. Reviewer Hope Corrigan wrote that “most of what Concrete Genie has to offer is fun and beautiful in a sort of childlike way.”
