The season for exciting summer gaming shows came to a close this week, with the final show (not counting a couple of extra stragglers, as it were) airing on June 10th in the form of Ubisoft Forward.
Generally speaking, gaming news tends to slow down around this time, as most publishers and big gaming companies have already revealed whatever they’re ready to reveal on their slates.
That doesn’t mean nothing is happening, though, so without further ado, let’s take a look at what’s been going on this week in the world of gaming news.
Ubisoft Forward is solid, but unremarkable
After some of this year’s summer presentations underwhelmed, the onus was on Ubisoft to remind everyone why summer is worth waiting for in the gaming calendar, but the studio disappointed on this front.
We got gameplay trailers for upcoming games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Star Wars Outlaws, as well as a reveal for a new game in the Anno series, but surprises were sadly thin on the ground.
The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, which seems to have been in development hell for a while, is now targeting 2026, which seems like a very long time to wait.
Generally speaking, Ubisoft’s presentation felt more like a whimper than a bang, so let’s hope the games can pick up the slack this year.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 isn’t 300GB
Many concerned Call of Duty players have been suggesting this week that new instalment Black Ops 6 will run up a huge amount of real estate on their storage drives.
This has proven not to be the case, however. According to Activision, Black Ops 6’s file size will be much smaller than this, and the reason is a little odd.
Apparently, the file size listed refers to a system that has Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, Warzone, and Black Ops 6 all installed at the same time, as well as lots of extra content packs.
We’re not really sure why the file size was listed this way, but it’s likely got something to do with some arcane regulations that we’re not aware of.
Arcane’s second season will be its last
Back in 2021, animated show Arcane wowed with its incredible animation, strong character focus, and independence from parent property League of Legends.
A second season was a given, then, and to nobody’s surprise, that second season is on its way this November. However, this week Netflix revealed something rather disappointing for Arcane and League fans.
According to Netflix, Arcane’s second season will, in fact, be its last. Showrunner Christian Linke says this is because he and his team don’t want to make a show that doesn’t “really know when to stop”.
It’s laudable for the team to have this kind of understanding of its scope, but honestly, we’re sad that no third season of Arcane is on the way.
Epic Games Store leak reveals lots of games in development
Sometimes, leaks should be taken with a pinch of salt owing to where they come from; they might originate from a disgruntled former employee, for instance, or just someone with no credibility whatsoever.
However, this week, a leak emerged that it’s pretty safe to take seriously. A website called EpicDB launched this week as a sort of SteamDB-style database crawler, and lo and behold, that database holds tons of unannounced games.
Listings seemingly include the long-rumoured Final Fantasy IX remake, as well as PC ports for The Last of Us 2 and Red Dead Redemption, often clamoured for by fans.
Epic hasn’t confirmed any of these listings to be legitimate and has since closed the loophole allowing sites like EpicDB to access this information, but the cat, as they say, is out of the bag now.
Capcom fans really want a Dino Crisis remake
Capcom held something it called the “Capcom Super Elections” recently, and the results came in this week, showing some pretty fun and nerdy stats about the developer.
According to the election results (no, not those election results), the most popular Capcom character is Devil May Cry’s Dante, and people’s favourite Capcom game is none other than Devil May Cry 5.
However, the original Dino Crisis ranks in at second, and when asked which franchise in which they would like to see a new game, over 80,000 Capcom fans answered Dino Crisis.
Could this mean we’re about to get a new Dino Crisis game? We can only hope, but with Mega Man and Devil May Cry in second and third place respectively, we’ll be eating well regardless.
Bloodborne in Astro Bot doesn’t have any deeper meaning
When is Bloodborne getting a PC port? For that matter, when will it come to current-gen consoles, or even just get an enhanced PS5 port?
These are questions that are asked constantly, and when Sony revealed its 3D platformer Astro Bot, a brief Bloodborne cameo reignited that spark for a moment (not that it ever went out).
Sadly, though, Astro Bot creative director Nicolas Doucet told Eurogamer recently that the Bloodborne costumes up for grabs as a pre-order bonus don’t really mean anything deep.
They’re just “a celebration of the whole PlayStation history”, Doucet says, so even if a Bloodborne remaster is coming, Astro Bot is not its eldritch herald.
Sorry, guys, but a Helldivers 2 story mode isn’t coming
If there’s one question the Helldivers 2 developers seem to field often (other than toxic ones we won’t repeat here for sanity’s sake), it’s whether the game will get a story mode.
Some kind of narrative-based mode for Helldivers 2 has been a talking point for a while, but this week, new Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani shot the notion down once and for all.
Replying to a fan asking about that very thing, Jorjani said unequivocally that a story mode is “not happening”, saying that it would be “like building an entirely new game”.
Looks like you’ll have to go elsewhere for your narrative-based co-op hijinx, but it’s not all bad news; Jorjani did concede that some less ambitious features suggested by that same fan might well make it into the game.
