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Game Developers Conference postponed amid fears of coronavirus
The organizers of the Game Developers Conference have announced that this year’s edition of the annual gathering has been postponed.
While the announcement on their official website doesn’t name the coronavirus (more formally known as COVID-19) as the cause, it comes after dozens of exhibitors and media outlets (including Sony, Microsoft, and Activision) dropped out of the show to protect their employees from coming into contact with the disease during travel:
After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March.
Having spent the past year preparing for the show with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors, and event partners, we’re genuinely upset and disappointed not to be able to host you at this time.
We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support, open discussions and encouragement. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at GDC. For this reason, we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer. We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.
GDC 2020 will now take place sometime this Summer, but in an FAQ posted alongside the announcement, the organizers confirmed that the Twitch livestreams for the Independent Games Festival Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards will still happen as planned in March.
See the first Gameplay Trailer for Alien Hominid Invasion
PAX East kicked off this morning, and The Behemoth has used the annual game expo to give fans a chance to try out their next project, Alien Hominid Invasion. But for those of us who couldn’t make the trek to Boston, they also uploaded a brand new Gameplay Trailer for the game, which has been embedded above.
The short clip gives us a nice peak at the developer’s commitment to “reimagine” Alien Hominid for a new generation of players. In addition to showcasing a variety of new ways to beat the dreaded Agents, Alien Hominid Invasion will include four-player cooperative play, a non-linear world map, procedurally-generated levels, and customizable alien mutations that grant superpowers such as speed, healing, and flight:
Alien Hominid Invasion is packed with chaos, mayhem, and a whole lot of explosions. Unlock and equip an arsenal of weapons and boosts, level up, then beam down to invade Earth with up to three other friends. Abduct intel from your enemies to sabotage their plans, observe the oddities of human life, blow up bosses, and mutate into a variety of powerful Alien forms in order to take down the not-so-secret Agents that are dead set on ruining your day.
Alien Hominid Invasion doesn’t have a release date, but it’s currently in development for the PC, Switch, and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PC, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Alien Hominid Invasion, PAX East 2020
Sumo Digital will bring arcade-inspired Hotshot Racing to PC and consoles this Spring
From 2004’s OutRun 2 all the way up to last year’s Team Sonic Racing, developer Sumo Digital has spent the majority of their long history producing some of the best arcade-style racing games in existence. And today, the UK-based studio announced their next major project… the retro-inspired Hotshot Racing.
Previously known as “Racing Apex,” Hotshot Racing will be co-developed by Lucky Mountain Games and published by Curve Digital. The game will feature multiple racers, as well as online multiplayer for up to eight players, four-player local splitscreen, and an amazing polygonal style that’ll pop off the screen at 60 frames per second:
Curve Digital is delighted to unveil the colourful retro-inspired racing game, Hotshot Racing, from Lucky Mountain Games and experienced racing genre stalwarts, Sumo Digital. Hotshot Racing channels classic arcade racers sporting colorful polygonal visuals, boost-fueled drift gameplay and a silky smooth 60 frames per second in the game’s single-player modes regardless of platform.
Hotshot Racing is set to emulate and expand upon the classic ‘90s arcade racing game formula featuring eight different hotshot drivers to choose from (each with their own personality and multiple varied four-wheeled rides), 16 personality-filled sun-baked tracks from across the globe, and multiple game modes for players to prove their driving prowess.
Hotshot Racing will be released this Spring for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. And be sure to peek a glimpse at the Announcement Trailer embedded above.
Control leads the way with seven nominations at the 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards
The SXSW Gaming Awards will once again play a big role in the annual Austin arts festival, and this year’s nominees were announced earlier this week.
Remedy’s Control and Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding lead the way with seven nominations apiece, but Kojima’s latest mindbender won’t be competing for “Video Game of the Year.” Instead, Control will do battle with Capcom’s Devil May Cry 5, ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for the coveted award.
Winners at the 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards will be determined by a split vote between the festival’s advisory board and a public poll, which is now open at SXSW.com through Sunday, February 23.
This year’s ceremony will be held on on Sunday, March 15, and it’ll be hosted by Wil Wheaton and Star Wars: Battlefront II‘s Janina Gavankar. All SXSW registrants will be able to attend the ceremony as part of their festival ticket, and the rest of us will be able to tune in to the festivities via SXSW’s Twitch channel.
You can find a complete list of this year’s nominees in all categories after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Control, Death Stranding, Devil May Cry 5, Disco Elysium, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Tabletop Games
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is the best-selling game of January 2020
We’re less than 12 months away from the launch of next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft, and consumers have started to react accordingly. According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), consumers spent $678 million on video games, consoles, and accessories in January 2020, about a 26% drop versus January 2019.
But there were still a few big moneymakers in the first month of the year, starting with Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, which was the best-selling game of the month. It was followed by some of 2019’s most popular titles, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (#2), Madden NFL 20 (#3), and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (#4).
While none of these games are available for the Switch, Nintendo’s newest console held on as the best-selling console platform during the month, besting the aging PS4 and Xbox One.
Another highlight for Nintendo from the January 2020 sales report was Ring Fit Adventure, which broke into the Top 10 for the first time (at #9). That’s impressive, but it’ll be a very long time before it catches Grand Theft Auto V, which continued to sell well in its 196th month of availability (it appeared on the list at #5).
You can find the full list of best-selling games from January 2020 after the break. (more…)
House House’s Untitled Goose Game wins “Game of the Year” at 2020 DICE Awards
I guess The Goose can cross “Win a Few Major Awards” off of its To-Do List. And that’s because House House’s Untitled Goose Game won “Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game,” “Outstanding Achievement in Character,” and “Game of the Year” at this year’s DICE Awards.
While the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’s voting body (which is comprised of more than 30,000 members) loves The Goose, it was Remedy’s Control that took home the most statuettes last night. Predictably, the outstanding action game won “Action Game of the Year,” as well as “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction,” “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction.” Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding was the only other game to win multiple awards, with the AIAS honoring it with “Outstanding Technical Achievement” and “Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design.”
A nice array of other games were also big winners at the 2020 DICE Awards, including Sayonara Wild Hearts (“Portable Game of the Year”), Apex Legends (“Online Game of the Year”), Super Mario Maker 2 (“Family Game of the Year”), Mortal Kombat 11 (“Fighting Game of the Year”), Baba Is You (“Outstanding Achievement in Game Design”), and more.
The complete list of winners and nominees for the 2020 DICE Awards can be found after the break. (more…)
Co-founder Dan Houser will leave Rockstar Games in March
Dan Houser co-founded Rockstar Games in 1998 alongside Terry Donovan, Jamie King, and his brother Sam. Currently serving as Vice President of their Creative division, he has lent his writing talents to almost all of the publisher’s most popular and well-received games, including the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2, Max Payne 3, and Bully.
But after an illustrious career, Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, has announced that Houser will be leaving the company in March.
This is definitely a huge blow to the creative side of Rockstar Games, which is widely believed to be hard at work on Grand Theft Auto VI. How this news will affect the sequel’s development remains to be seen, but Take-Two said the rest of the development team “remains focused on current and future projects”:
After an extended break beginning in the spring of 2019, Dan Houser, Vice President, Creative at Rockstar Games, will be leaving the company. Dan Houser’s last day will be March 11, 2020. We are extremely grateful for his contributions. Rockstar Games has built some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful game worlds, a global community of passionate fans and an incredibly talented team, which remains focused on current and future projects.
While it’s a few years old now, the most extensive look back at Houser’s career can be found in David Kushner’s excellent behind-the-scenes investigation into Rockstar Games, Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto.
Posted in News, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2
NIS America will bring five playable demos (including one secret game) to PAX East 2020
NIS America has announced that they’re bringing five playable demos to this year’s PAX East convention… including one secret game.
The ones that we know about include a pair of compilations coming in March (Langrisser I & II and La-Mulana 1 & 2), a survival adventure set to launch this April (Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories), and the Switch debut of a popular RPG series (The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III).
But because everyone loves a secret, it’s that fifth game that’s sure to get attendees (and everyone else) excited. NIS America isn’t offering any hints as to what else they’re bringing to Boston, but it will be playable at their booth.
This year’s PAX East convention will take place from February 27th through March 1, and you can learn more about NIS America’s game lineup after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, PAX East 2020