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Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries is getting more help with the development of the next-generation Halo game. San Jose, California-based studio Sperasoft is now working alongside 343 Industries on the game. They are at least the second co-developer on the game, following SkyBox Labs.

On Halo Infinite, Sperasoft is “contributing to the game’s content across multiple development mandates, developing components of the game and experience, working closely with our new partners at 343,” the company said in a blog post.

“It’s an honor to contribute to the most famous FPS series in the world and to support the next generation of the Halo franchise,” Sperasoft’s Denis Larkin said in a statement.

Sperasoft has a lot of experience helping developers on their projects. The studio has also contributed to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Anthem, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Rainbow Six Siege, among many others.

Some people on Twitter wondered if the addition of another co-developer meant that Halo Infinite might be in trouble or that it could lead to a “too many cooks” situation, but this is not the case, according to Halo community manager John Junyszek.

“As a few others have said in the replies, it’s normal for big games these days [to have co-developers] and Sperasoft are pros. Additionally, as noted, they’ve been partnered with us for a while so this isn’t really new news or cause for alarm,” Junyszek said.

The Assassin’s Creed franchise is known for its high co-development counts. This year’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was worked on by 15 different studios. It was also recently reported that 14 studios helped Naughty Dog to complete The Last of Us: Part II.

As for the other co-developer, Skybox Labs has been helping 343 since 2018 on AI, gameplay, networking, and graphics features.

Halo Infinite is a launch title for the Xbox Series X, and it’s also coming to the standard Xbox One as well as PC. Instead of releasing Halo Infinite 2 in a few years, 343 is planning for Halo Infinite to be a platform that grows and evolves over the next 10 years.

Tetris 99 will launch its 16th Maximus Cup next week, starting from August 14, and players who earn enough points will have a chance of unlocking some previous themes that they might have missed out on. These themes, based on some of the biggest Switch games of the last year, can be earned by scoring just 50 points this time–down from the usual 100.

Round 1 (August 14 to 16) will let you earn the Animal Crossing: New Horizons theme. In Round 2 (August 17-19) the Luigi’s Mansion 3 theme returns, and Ring Fit Adventure is back for Round 3 (August 20-22). These allow you to skin your Tetris experience with new looks based on these games.

If you haven’t played in a while, though, prepare for a challenge–the online community has gotten pretty good at Tetris 99.

The most recent Maximus Cup had a Paper Mario: The Origami King theme for players to unlock. Other games to receive themes previously include Xenoblade Chronicles and Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Standout NFL player George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers is a big fan of Halo. He enjoys the sci-fi series so much that he recently got a nice-looking Master Chief tattoo on his arm.

Thankfully, Kittle documented the experience and you can check out his video below. Note that Kittle says he is partnered with Xbox, so this is a promotional video and you can likely expect more Halo-branded content from the tight end in the lead up to Halo Infinite‘s release this year.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer responded to Kittle’s video, saying he’s willing to cheer on this video even though Kittle plays for a rival team because “everyone is welcome on Xbox.”

“We’ve always said that gaming is a great unifier…even with most of Team Xbox in Seahawks territory, everyone is welcome on Xbox,” Spencer said, referencing the Seattle Seahawks that are the home team in Microsoft’s city.

Kittle responded to Spencer’s tweet with another joke about how he believes Master Chief is actually a 49ers fan.

Kittle was drafted by the 49ers in 2017. He has gone on to perform well on the team, earning a spot in the Pro Bowl twice. He had a particularly successful 2018 season where he tallied 1,377 receiving yards to set a new single-season record for a tight end.

With a 98 OVR rating, Kittle is the highest-rated tight end in Madden NFL 21 and among the highest-rated players in the game overall.

When Final Fantasy VII Remake launched in April, it included some DLC that could only be unlocked in the US–and only by players with a penchant for a certain chocolate bar. The game’s somewhat infamous Butterfingers DLC could only be redeemed by purchasing chocolate bars, and fans found that they had to buy a lot of them to get everything.

But now, that DLC is available–and free–for all players around the world. There are five new free pieces of DLC available for the game, all of which were previously made available through Butterfinger.

The items are:

• Corneo’s Armlet
• Mako Crystal
• Midgar Bangle
• Shinra Bangle
• Superstar Belt

Redeem them now and you can outfit Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith with this equipment.

This coincides with a sale that brings Final Fantasy VII Remake down to its lowest price yet. It’s a good time to jump into one of GameSpot’s rare 10/10 games.

In other Final Fantasy VII Remake news, we recently learned that the game’s development team had a grim nickname for Tifa’s dad.

Following the gigantic Warzone Season 5 update, Infinity Ward has now pushed out a smaller update, but it could have big implications.

The update makes some tuning changes to the Juggernaut crate and the Most Wanted contract for the BR Buy Back Solos mode, while it also changes the drop rate of Juggernaut crates. But perhaps more intriguingly, this new patch activates keypads on the map.

“Keypads…are now active,” Infinity Ward said elusively.

Infinity Ward didn’t share any more details on the keypads that are now active in Verdansk, but this is not uncharted territory for Warzone. Previously, players discovered they could input codes on keypads to unlock special areas of bunkers. Some of these bunkers contained very precious loot, while others provided what appears to be more teases for 2020’s new Call of Duty game.

Activision management said on an earnings call just this week that Warzone will be used more for narrative and storytelling purposes. The success of Warzone has changed how Activision can communicate with players regarding news around the Call of Duty franchise, management said, and this could include, but isn’t limited to, teasing new details about the next premium Call of Duty game.

The new game is confirmed to be in development at Treyarch and Raven Software for a release later this year. Activision said the game–rumored to be Black Ops: Cold War–will be announced “fairly soon.” 2020 marked the first year in a decade that Activision did not announce the year’s new Call of Duty game in May or June.

For more on Season 5, check out GameSpot’s written roundup of everything it includes, while you can watch a video version here. The full patch notes have also been released.

Among the numerous new additions to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone in the Season 5 refresh is a finishing move called “Nevermore.” Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s 1845 poem, “The Raven,” the finishing move sends in a raven to finish off your foe.

As you can see in the gameplay clip below, it is a very brutal finishing move. The raven swoops in and pecks at your foe’s face until they die. Since it’s a finishing move, you won’t see it very often, which is probably for the best–it’s a real stomach-turner.

The Nevermore execution is available at Tier 20 in the Season 5 Battle Pass. It can be used by any character, and you can equip it from the Operator menu.

Nevermore is just the latest animal-themed finishing move in Modern Warfare/Warzone. The “Top Dog” finisher calls in a dog who mauls your foe to finish them off.

Season 5 is another huge update for Modern Warfare and Warzone. It introduces a series of new multiplayer maps, a Mini Royale mode, and lots of new cosmetics and gear from the Battle Pass.

For lots more on Season 5, check out GameSpot’s written roundup of everything it includes, while you can watch a video version here. The full patch notes have also been released.

Call of Duty: Warzone’s Season 5 update made the incredibly powerful Juggernaut suit a bigger part of the game’s regular battle royale modes. The suit, which gives its wearer additional armor, abilities, and a minigun, is no longer restricted to a separate limited-time mode.

“This is such a bad change, no one asked for it or wanted it,” said a Warzone player on Reddit. “Leave this to the limited-time modes. Please don’t add stupidly overpowered things like this into the standard modes.”

The juggernaut suit was first introduced as part of a limited-time mode where players fought over a single suit. It was similar to other modes in that 150 players jumped into Verdansk to fight over one of these powerful suits. They would land as part of a care package, just like regular loadouts would drop at different points throughout the game, somewhere on the map. The team that got one of the suits first became a huge threat to everyone else nearby.

“What were they even thinking?” said another player who had just died from a game that ended with multiple Juggernaut suit-wielding players in the circle. “I don’t agree with juggernauts being in the main mode but IF they had to be, shouldn’t it just be 1 suit for the game?”

Juggernauts are so powerful–and often the reasons that Warzone has great Resident Evil-esque moments–that one can take on an entire team at close range by itself. This has happened in the genre before: Fortnite‘s mech suits (a giant robotic suit that can shoot rockets) gave the wearers an incredible advantage in that battle royale last year.

Warzone’s new Season 5 update brought a lot of big changes to Verdansk. A loot train is now making its way around the map, players can now pick up and throw explosive gas canisters, and the stadium is finally open to enter. There are even secret codes coming out of keypads within the stadium.

The new implementation of Juggernauts, which work similarly to the Fire Sale and Jailbreak events that came to Warzone earlier, is one small part of the update. It’s something that some players desperately wanted changed hours after the update came out.

I’m not sure how Dell can profit, but they’ve reduced prices on their Alienware gaming laptops and gaming desktops yet again. This time, they’re offering a 10% off MPP discount. MPP technically means Member’s Purchase Program, but you can take advantage of this discount even if you’re not a member simply by using guest checkout. Score an Alienware RTX 2070 gaming laptop for under $1400, an Alienware RTX 2080 gaming PC for under $1600, and best of all, an Alienware Area 51m desktop replacement with i7-9700K processor and RTX 2070 graphics for under $1600. You better hurry though, these deals are supposed to end today.

Deals for August 6

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Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out his latest Daily Deals Article and subscribe to his IGN Deals Newsletter.

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