Several Ex-Stadia Developers Join Jade Raymond’s New Game Studio

Several game developers who were previously working in Google’s now-shuttered internal Stadia development division have joined Haven Entertainment Studios, founded by former Stadia studio head Jade Raymond. They include the former lead writer for the Assassin’s Creed series, Corey May, who also worked at Ubisoft during Raymond’s tenure.

May will be Haven Entertainment Studio’s world and IP director, which appears to be a similar sort of position that he held at Ubisoft–he’ll likely be responsible for the overarching narrative of the studio’s projects.

In between Ubisoft and Google, Corey May worked in narrative design roles at both Certain Affinity and 2K Games. He also co-wrote Batman: Arkham Origins. Because he was a narrative director at Stadia Games and Entertainment for only about eight months and internal development has been shut down, it doesn’t appear we’ll see the fruits of his labor during this time.

Stadia Games GM Sebastien Puel also joined the company as a co-founder, and staff UX researcher Jonathan Dankoff has joined as “insights director.” Concept artists Erwann Le Rouzic and Francis Denoncourt joined, as well, as did software engineer Pierre-Marc Bérubé.

With Google already laying off many of its Stadia developers as the service moves to only offering third-party games, its head of product John Justice also left the company. However, it doesn’t appear he joined Haven with the other departing employees.

One key Stadia figure who remains at Google is Phil Harrison. Joining the company in January 2018, Harrison also had roles at Microsoft during the early Xbox One era and was at PlayStation from 1992 until 2008.

Now Playing: The Rise And Fall Of Stadia Games And Entertainment

Blizzard Loses Millions Of Monthly Players But Is Making More Money

Activision Blizzard’s latest earnings report was an overall positive story for the mega-publisher, with the company making more revenue and profit than last year. Not all of the numbers were moving in a positive direction, however, as the number of monthly active users for Blizzard dropped substantially compared to the same period last year.

Blizzard had 27 million monthly active users for the January-March period this year. This compares to 32 million in Q1 2020, 32 million in Q1 2019, and 38 million in Q1 2018.

Despite the downturn in players, Blizzard’s operating results were strong. Revenue grew 7% year-over-year, thanks primarily to Warcraft and specifically WoW’s Shadowlands expansion.

“World of Warcraft saw strong reach, engagement, and participation in value added services, along with a particularly high number of new players joining the community for the first time, boosted by initiatives to enhance the onboarding experience,” Activision Blizzard said.

Activision Blizzard defines monthly active users as the number of people who played a particular game in a given month. The number is calculated by adding the total number of monthly active users in each of the months in a period, and dividing it by three.

“For Blizzard, an individual who accesses the same game on two platforms or devices in the relevant period would generally be counted as a single user,” Activision Blizzard said.

This differs for Activision and King. Due to “technical limitations,” a player who plays the same game on two platforms or devices is counted as two users. Activision Blizzard also cautioned that some of its data comes from third-parties.

While Blizzard’s total number of players might be down year-over-year, it’s not altogether very surprising. Q1 2020 marked the beginning of the pandemic, which led to a surge in people playing games, so a comparison to that quarter was always going to be difficult to match. Blizzard is seemingly poised for a lot of growth in the future, as the company is releasing Diablo II: Resurrected and WoW: Classic – The Burning Crusade this year. The mobile game Diablo Immortal is also releasing in 2021 and could make a huge impact.

Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 won’t make it out until 2022 at the soonest, but they should be big growth-drivers when they release.

Outside of the new Blizzard numbers, the Activision Blizzard report revealed massive new numbers for Call of Duty and news that 2021’s game will be developed by Sledgehammer Games and will feature integration with Warzone.

Now Playing: Diablo IV Rogue Breakdown and Open World Features | Blizzcon 2021

Hitman 3’s Next DLC Focuses On The Deadly Sin Of Pride

Right on schedule, IO Interactive has detailed the next DLC for Hitman 3. The second act of the game’s Seven Deadly Sins DLC is focused on “Pride,” and it launches May 10, IO Interactive announced as part of a livestream.

The DLC comes with “sin-themed” weapons, such as the The Proud Swashbuckler sword and the Majestic rifle. There is also a special new Narcissus suit for Agent 47. A new Escalation in Chongqing is also included with the new DLC. Check out the announcement trailer below to get a peek at some of the new content coming in the Pride DLC.

The first act of the 7 Deadly Sins DLC was focused on Greed. After Pride comes Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, and Envy, so Hitman 3 fans have a lot more to look forward to.

The paid content for each season individually costs $5. Otherwise, all of the seasonal content comes as part of the Seven Deadly Sins DLC, which costs $30 total.

In addition to its ongoing development on Hitman 3’s DLC, IO Interactive is making a new James Bond game with an original story. Additionally, it was recently reported that IO is making a fantasy game with dragons as an Xbox exclusive.

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CS:GO Now Offers Subscription Service, And Some Fans Aren’t Happy About It

Valve recently released a new stats tool for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (aka CS:GO). The service costs $1 per month and includes match stats from your Competitive, Premier, and Wingman game modes. But some fans have expressed disappointment with the feature, arguing that basic stat tracking should be free.

The stats feature was introduced in an update this week at the end of Operation Broken Fang. Purchasing Operation Broken Fang would give you a personal career stats page. When the operation ended, Valve introduced this new stats tracking feature for a nominal fee.

According to a CS:GO 360 Stats FAQ, the price (which is technically 99 cents) is the launch price, suggesting it could change in the future. After you subscribe, renewals will occur automatically every month on the date you signed up. Stats are only recorded while you’re a subscriber, so any matches you play without a subscription won’t count toward the tracking. The tracker doesn’t record Casual and Scrimmage game mode stats.

But some fans replied to the announcement tweet arguing that stat-tracking should be free or that third-party stat-trackers already exist.

CS:GO launched in 2012 but has remained among the top-grossing games on Steam as recently as 2020.

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CW’s The Flash Loses Tom Cavanaugh And Carlos Valdes Ahead of Season 8

The Flash is still running full-steam ahead in its seventh season, renewed for Season 8, but two of the show’s original cast members won’t be along for the ride. Tom Cavanaugh and Carlos Valdes will depart during The Flash Season 7, Deadline reports.

Carlos Valdes, who has played the part of tech genius Cisco Ramon–and his super-powered alter ego Vibe–will reportedly end his run with the Season 7 finale.

Tom Cavanaugh has played a variety of characters in the show. He has to be in the running for most characters portrayed in a live-action series, right? He began as Reverse-Flash/Eobard Thawne, disguised as scientist Harrison Wells. Upon Thawne’s initial defeat, Cavanaugh returned as Harry Wells, H.R. Wells, Sherloque Wells, and Nash Wells–not to mention a whole host of silly one-shot Wells variants. Cavanaugh’s departure is a bit muddier. The actor was reportedly set to end his run with the Season 6 finale, but The Flash’s season was cut short like so many others.

The show gave what looked like a send-off to Cavanaugh’s character in Season 7, Episode 3, when a sort of cosmic-ghost version of the original Harrison Wells disappeared into the time stream. Showrunners have said that Cavanaugh will be back yet this season, but his final appearance is still under wraps.

“Tom and Carlos have been an integral part of our show for seven seasons, and will be greatly missed,” said showrunner Eric Wallace in a statement to Deadline. “Both are incredible talents who created beloved characters that fans and audiences around the world have come to love. Which is why we are happily keeping the door open for return appearances.”

Harrison Wells never truly dies, and it sounds like Cisco won’t be gasping out his final words on the show, either. According to Deadline, while actor Grant Gustin is already set to return in Season 8, Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost), and presumably Jesse L. Martin (Joe West) are currently re-negotiating their contracts. The Flash Season 7, Episode 8, “The People vs. Killer Frost,” airs tonight on the CW.

Apex Legends Season 9 Launch Has A Rocky Start, Dev Promises Fixes Coming Soon

Apex Legends Season 9 launched to an enthusiastic response from players–but developer Respawn’s servers weren’t prepared for just how enthusiastic they would be. Since the season’s release earlier today, players have faced an array of problems with Apex Legends due to overloaded infrastructure, including extreme difficulty getting into matches.

Respawn has been sharing its progress on rolling out fixes all day today on Twitter, but it has yet to fully squash the issues plaguing its servers. In its latest tweet, Respawn stated that unlocked characters and marketplace services should be returned to normal soon. In addition, some players have increasingly had success joining matches, but the problems seem to persist for others.

It’s always a shame when server issues pester a game during a launch window like this, but scaling server infrastructure is always extremely hard and Respawn has committed to focusing on regaining stability. We’ll update this story when all of the issues are resolved.

Season 9, titled Legacy, brings with it a host of changes and additions, most notably a permeant team deathmatch mode called Arenas and a compound bow weapon. The Season 9 patch also overhauls the Lifeline character. For the whole list of changes, check out the Apex Legends Season 9 patch notes.

Now Playing: Apex Legends Season 9: Arenas Tips & Details

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Call Of Duty Mobile Has Been Downloaded 500 Million Times And Made A Ton Of Money

Call of Duty: Mobile may not capture all of the headlines that the full Call of Duty releases do, but it nonetheless has accumulated a huge audience. Activision has announced that the game has passed 500 million downloads across mobile platforms since its launch in October 2019.

This is an enormous number of players in comparison with the console entries, which generally top out around 30 million in sales. Unlocking that many more players is likely a huge reason why Activision pursued a mobile Call of Duty at all, as it has undoubtedly brought in millions of new people to the series.

It’s also been very lucrative for the company. As Activision revealed in its earnings call, the free-to-play game has brought in over $1 billion since its launch from in-game transactions. Its rate of growth may actually be accelerating, too. It took a year for the game to cross 250 million downloads and reach $500 million in revenue; it took just six months to double those numbers again to their current values.

2021 is shaping up to be a banner year for the game, in spite of COVID-19 posing unforeseen challenges for Call of Duty: Mobile development. China-based developer TiMi Games has been extraordinarily successful beyond Call of Duty Mobile, too, raking in $10 billion in 2020 across its games.

In addition, we are–not surprisingly–getting another full release this year. Although next to nothing is know about it, Activision confirmed a new Call of Duty is coming to consoles and PC later this year. It’s in development at Sledgehammer Games and will have integration with Warzone.

Now Playing: Call Of Duty Mobile – Full Match On Crash

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Netflix’s Castlevania Season 4 Images Show A World On The Edge

Hot on the heels of their Castlevania Season 4 trailer, Netflix has released a collection of new images for the gothic action-horror show ahead of its release next week.

The images show us most of the show’s principal characters, from Trevor and Sypha getting ready to fight, to series antagonist Carmilla wielding a blood-red blade. Plot details are light. Here’s the synopsis offered up by Netfilx:

“Wallachia collapses into chaos as factions clash: some attempting to take control, others attempting to bring Dracula back from the dead. Nobody is who they seem, and nobody can be trusted. These are the end times.”

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The series is based very roughly on the plot of 1989 Nintendo Entertainment System game Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. It follows Trevor Belmont and his vampire-killing whip as he befriends young sorcerer Sypha and Dracula’s wayward son Alucard. The trio works with them to defeat the legendary vampire in his teleporting castle. With the big man out of the way, vampires like Carmilla and other powerful magic users like Isaac have their own designs on seizing power.

Castlevania is hitting just a couple weeks after Netflix’s bloody anime Yasuke, telling an (almost entiretly) fictionalized version of the historical figure’s life. Castlevania Season 4 was written by Warren Ellis before the sexual misconduct accusations came out against him last summer. As a result of Ellis’ departure, Netflix has decided to end the series with Season 4, but has a spin-off in pre-production.

Castlevania Season 4 brings the series to an end when it hits Netflix on May 13.

Treasure Your Star Wars Memories With These May The 4th Instant Camera Deals

May the 4th is about celebrating treasured Star Wars memories, some of which you might want to capture in the future with deals on two Star Wars-themed instant cameras. From both Fujifilm and Polaroid, these instant cameras give you a new way to personalize your pictures with instant exposure film with Star Wars borders or keep it sleek and subtle with camera designs that pay homage to the film series without projecting that love out to everyone around you. The Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 Star Wars camera is on sale for $61 (down from $116) while the Mandalorian-themed Polaroid camera is down to $85 from $120. If you’ve got a Star Wars fan in your life, either of these would make a great gift as well–don’t forget Mother’s Day is coming up this weekend.

$61 (was $116)

The Fujifilm Instax is one of the most recognizable instant cameras on the market today, with the company’s Star Wars-branded model on sale at Amazon. The cream and blue coloring of the Instax Mini 9 doesn’t immediately scream a galaxy from far, far away, but the BB-8 and Rebel Alliance embellishments really drive it home if you somehow miss the iconic title font on the front of the camera. This bundle also comes with two packs of film, each of which features Star Wars borders on the credit card-sized pictures. This is a great gift to capture any future Star Wars memories.

$85 (was $120)

The Polaroid Originals Now I-Type camera is quite different to the Instax, featuring a far more nostalgic design that includes autofocus, double exposure, and an accurate flash. In that sense, it’s a far more accomplished camera in this market, but what makes this one special is the subtle Mandalorian styling that will make it stand out from the rest of the colorful range. The camera features the series’ title on the front, as well as The Mandalorian’s signet on the top. With the gunmetal and brown finish, it looks the part, too. This model doesn’t come with any film, but Polaroid also sells The Mandalorian-styled film packs separately.

Both deals are in celebration of May the 4th, which has already been bursting with great Star Wars deals for all sorts of gadgets. There’s a R2-D2 mini projector that even makes the same sound effects as the droid did in A New Hope, a great chance to save on Star Wars: Squadrons and Star Wars JedI: Fallen Order, and even the chance to grab your own Tauntaun sleeping bag that thankfully doesn’t smell like the real thing. I’m sure Han Solo would’ve preferred that at the time.