We’re back once again to take another look at what’s been happening in the gaming world this week, and as always, it’s been a very eventful one indeed.
From future plans for now-independent studios through to compensation for the weekend’s rather strange PlayStation Network outage, you’re likely to have been rather entertained indeed if you were paying attention to the gaming news this week.
Without further ado, here’s our roundup of the week between February 10th and February 16th when it comes to gaming news!
PlayStation’s compensation for its PSN outage is…not great
Over the weekend of the 8th and 9th, PlayStation players found themselves unable to access the console’s online services, including the PlayStation Store and online gaming.
The outage was fixed in a relatively short space of time, but PlayStation’s compensation for affected users was perhaps a little lacking: five days of extra PlayStation Plus service for members.
It’s worth remembering here that not every game on PlayStation requires a PS Plus membership to play, and that not everyone who was affected by the outage was a Plus member, although the outage itself lasted for less than 48 hours.
Company of Heroes’ Relic Entertainment sets out what’s next
This week, Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War studio Relic Entertainment outlined what lies in its future after its split from former parent company Sega last year.
Those plans include pursuing big triple-A real-time strategy games (the genre for which the studio is known), as well as developing smaller-scale projects that won’t take quite as much time and money to make.
Thirdly, Relic is looking to remaster or revisit some of its past glories, which means that remastered versions of games like Dawn of War or the original Company of Heroes may well be in the offing.
Alan Wake 2 is finally making Remedy some money
It’s been over a year, but at last, the survival horror sequel Alan Wake 2 is finally making its developer Remedy Entertainment some money.
In its latest financial release, Remedy says that Alan Wake 2 had sold two million units by the end of 2024, and that it had also started to accrue royalties after recouping its marketing and development costs at that point as well.
Production on the studio’s future games is also apparently progressing smoothly, including the upcoming Max Payne remakes and Control 2.
PlayStation’s latest State of Play felt a little underwhelming
After many rumours and much speculation, PlayStation finally held a State of Play presentation this week, and honestly, continuing a theme of somewhat disappointing moves by the company, it was…a little meh.
Don’t get us wrong; we got new looks at games like Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, as well as new games from the folks behind Returnal and Until Dawn.
The much-anticipated Bloodborne remaster failed to materialise, however, and in its place we got a remastered version of Days Gone, a game that is, at the time of writing this roundup, less than six years old. Hey ho.
February’s PlayStation Plus lineup revealed
If you are a PS4 or PS5 gamer, however, all is not lost; we also found out which games are coming to PlayStation Plus in February, and some of the games on offer this month are very solid indeed.
February’s PS Plus lineup includes the likes of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 (at launch, no less!), and Mordhau for Extra and Premium members.
As for Premium-only games this month, you’re getting Patapon 3 and Dropship: United Peace Force, but Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Bloom & Rage should give you more than enough to be getting on with anyway.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is now nearing two million units sold
It’s a good month to be a fan of financials; not only did we get Remedy’s statement this week, but we also got to find out what’s going on in the financial world of Embracer Group.
The company revealed its third-quarter statement this week, and it revealed that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has sold almost two million units, “significantly” outperforming the company’s expectations.
We’ll likely find out that it’s crossed that particular threshold and more when the studio reveals its 2024-25 financials later this year.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows preorders are “solid”, apparently
If you’ve been wondering whether the ongoing controversy surrounding Assassin’s Creed Shadows has done the game any harm, you may want to look to Ubisoft’s assessment of how the game’s pre-orders are going.
The studio says that Shadows pre-orders are “solid”, and that they’re roughly in step with pre-order numbers for the series’ second-biggest launch, namely that of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in 2018.
Incidentally, the most successful Assassin’s Creed launch was 2020’s Valhalla, so if you needed any proof that the large-scale open-world RPG approach is here to stay, look no further than that.
Elden Ring Nightreign’s first network test didn’t exactly go great
This week, FromSoftware began its network test for the upcoming survival spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign, and it’s a bit of an understatement to say that the test didn’t exactly go brilliantly.
While these issues were largely fixed for subsequent tests, the first session, which was held between 11am and 2pm GMT, saw players unable to connect to the servers or find buddies for matchmaking.
Some players reported success through using passwords to matchmake with one another, but others said this approach didn’t work, so it wasn’t exactly an auspicious start for the game, although future sessions went smoothly.
Call of Duty is getting a Ninja Turtles crossover
Last but not least this week, Activision revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be playing host to a crossover with everyone’s favourite reptiles.
The crossover admittedly doesn’t reveal much; it simply shows the turtles emerging from a manhole cover in a street after a little characteristic banter.
Like Transformers before it, we have to question whether TMNT is a great fit for the adult-oriented Call of Duty franchise, but hey, it’s happening, so we’d better get used to it.
