Yes, it’s that time of the week again: time to take a look at what’s been going on in gaming, if only to distract ourselves from whatever happens to be going on elsewhere in the world.
Whether it’s Steam reaching new highs or yet more layoffs and reported studio closures (sorry), this week has once again yielded a bumper crop of gaming news.
Without further ado, pull up a chair and let’s take a look at what’s been going on in the gaming world this week!
Steam hits an all-new player count high
Over the weekend of March 1st and 2nd, Steam hit an all-new player count high, with more people than ever being simultaneously logged into the platform.
More than 40 million people were on Steam over that particular weekend, with a high of over 12 million playing games on the platform at the same time (and the others presumably just idling or exploring Steam’s other features).
It’s a figure that will doubtless reassure Valve when it comes to going up against its competitors, although we doubt Valve is particularly worried on that front anyway, given its PC gaming market dominance.
Suikoden is getting a new game, but it’s a mobile RPG
If you’re one of the people who’s waited on tenterhooks for many years for a new Suikoden game to be released, we’ve got some good news and some bad news for you this week.
The good news is that there will, indeed, be a new Suikoden game in the future. The bad news is that it’s a mobile RPG, and that it’ll be free-to-play, so presumably, it’ll come with all the usual microtransaction nonsense.
Suikoden Star Leap does, at least, look the part; it’s got gorgeous pixel art like the first couple of games in the series, as well as an HD-2D-style look that suits it well.
90s and 00s publisher Acclaim is coming back
Acclaim, the publisher responsible for games like BMX XXX and Turok, is making a return in a new and refreshed form, it was revealed this week.
The publisher will focus on bringing indie games to market, but it’s also looking to “reignite” some of the classic portfolio of IPs from its extensive back catalogue.
What that means remains to be seen, given that many of those IPs may not be under Acclaim’s control anymore, but it’s exciting to think about what might lie in the studio’s future.
Dead by Daylight is losing its Hellraiser DLC
This week, it was announced that multiplayer scare-’em-up Dead by Daylight will be losing one of its most intriguing crossover characters’ DLC packs.
Pinhead, also known as the Cenobite, will be disappearing from the game in April, but until then, the character and all of his associated additional DLC will be available at a pretty hefty discount.
If you’ve already bought him, don’t worry; you’ll still be able to play as him, so nothing should be changing as far as you’re concerned.
More layoffs and closures
Sadly, this week also brought news (and reports) of more staff layoffs and studio closures, because it wouldn’t be a week in the modern gaming industry without someone being let go.
Former Sumo subsidiary Secret Mode confirmed this week that a “small number” of employees had been laid off owing to a recent move to go independent.
Additionally, a report emerged this week stating that Until Dawn remake developer Ballistic Moon is “effectively closed”, with most staff having been let go. The studio is apparently also not currently actively working on any projects.
RoboCop: Rogue City is getting a standalone sequel
Nacon held its annual Nacon Connect showcase this week, and we learned that RoboCop: Rogue City is getting a standalone sequel by the name of Unfinished Business.
The game will feature new enemy types, new weapons for RoboCop to use, and sequences in which you’ll get to play as the iconic hero’s human alter-ego Alex Murphy.
We also learned that two new Lovecraft-themed horror games are on the way from the publisher, so it looks like Nacon is going to have a busy few months ahead of it.
The Sinking City 2 has already been crowdfunded
This week saw The Sinking City and Sherlock Holmes developer Frogwares launching a Kickstarter campaign for The Sinking City 2 (which is yet another Lovecraft-themed horror game!).
If the studio was worried the demand wouldn’t be there for it to finish the game, then it needn’t have been, because the campaign reached its funding goal within a 24-hour period.
At time of writing, The Sinking City 2 has raised over £250,000 against a goal of around £84,000, so it looks like the sequel is definitely moving ahead, which is exciting news for fans of freeform investigative horror.
Apex Legends developer Respawn reportedly cancels shooter
Apex Legends and Titanfall developer Respawn reportedly cancelled an in-development shooter this week, according to a report that cited a former employee’s LinkedIn post.
While the employee didn’t specify which “unannounced incubation project” she was referring to, Respawn had been hiring for a project that asked for experience with multiplayer shooters for some time.
It’s believed that this shooter, which would presumably have been another live-service game to add to EA’s lineup, is the game to which former employee Emilee Evans is referring.
The career mode in the upcoming Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 remaster will be different
Bad news if you’ve got good memories of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 career and were hoping to revisit it in the upcoming remaster: Activision has confirmed it’ll be different from the original.
The studio says that instead of the original freeform career, in which you could explore levels and complete challenges at your leisure, the remaster will simply task you with completing a series of challenges within a time limit on each level.
That’s effectively the same way in which the original Pro Skater games worked, but it’s disappointing to see a unique element of the original game replaced with something more generic.
