April 7th - April 15th
Nintendo was this week’s heavy hitter with news with a Nintendo Indie World and a new switch color announced! A new character was also added to the Fortnite roster.
New Nintendo Switch Lite Color Option Announced
Nintendo announced a new color for the Switch Lite. The color is “blue” and is reminiscent of the original GameCube purple. The Switch Lite is currently available in gray, yellow, turquoise, and coral. This color joins coral as the only two color options announced post-launch. The blue Switch Lite will be releasing on May 21st, the same day as Miitopia launches! The blue Switch Lite will also be priced at the standard $199.99.
Nintendo Indie World Showcase
Nintendo has an indie showcase yesterday! The show was reasonably steady with exciting announcements, ending the show with Oxenfree 2. See the list below for a full list of everything announced:
Road 96
Never Yield
Last Stop
OlliOlli World
The Longing
There Is No Game
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw8BhXyc2aQ[/embed]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
CrisTales
GetsFumaDen: Undying Moon
Aztech: Forgotten Gods
Skul: The Hero Slayer
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K1mDwQ-zr4[/embed]
Art of Rally
KeyWe
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Weaving Tides
The House of the Dead: Remake
Ender Lillies: Quietus of the Knights
Beast of Maravilla Island
Fez
Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3-C5cjEoLg&t=2s[/embed]
Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn) Coming to Fortnite
Aloy, the main character in Guerrilla Games’ 2017 open-world masterpiece, is coming to Fortnite! Aloy will be available on April 15th in the item shop. Aloy is not the first character from another franchise to join Fortnite, with Master Chief, Kratos, Lara Croft, and Ellen Ripley already available in the game. Fortnite’s current theme this season also puts primal elements, such as dinosaurs, into the game making Aloy’s introduction to the battle royale even more apt.
April 15th - April 21st
This week was FULL of gaming news from every side of the industry. New game announcements, cancellations, and departures happened this week.
Jeff Kaplan Leaving Blizzard Entertainment
Jeff Kaplan, Overwatch director, announced yesterday that he was leaving Blizzard Entertainment. Jeff Kaplan has 19 years of service with Blizzard. His role as director of Overwatch 2 will be filled by Aaron Keller. Keller has been with the company for 18 years and has worked on other titles, like World of Warcraft, as well as being an original member of the Overwatch team. Some fans have expressed nervousness about the change in overhead so far into Overwatch 2’s development.
Celeste Developer Reveals Next Game
Extremely OK Games, the developers of Celeste showed off a teaser for their new game on Twitter. The game is titled Earthblade. The reveal was said to be a “vibe reveal,” with the game’s title, a song from the soundtrack, and a poster revealed within the tweet. Extremely OK Games was very transparent about the development time for this game, saying “The truth is that we don't know how long it will take, just that it will take as long as it takes (and that it will take a long time),” in their announcement blog post.
[embed]https://twitter.com/exok_games/status/1384182598507778052?s=20[/embed]
xCloud Beta Comes to iOS and PC This Week
Xbox’s Cloud Gaming has officially come to PC and iOS! Select Xbox Gamepass Ultimate subscribers received invites to beta test the service, which will be available via browser at www.xbox.com/play. Beta testers will have more than 100 games to choose from, and compatible Bluetooth and USB controllers will be supported.
PlayStation’s Online Stores Will Not Shut Down
After the announcement of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita’s online stores closing many fans expressed frustration at the thought of losing their digital content. PlayStation has reversed its decision to close these platforms with an announcement Monday.
Horizon Zero Dawn Free on PS4 and PS5
PlayStation is giving away Horizon Zero Dawn for free from now until May 14th. The download will be the complete edition of the game, meaning the Frozen Wilds expansion and DLC outfits and weapon packs will be included. A PlayStation Plus subscription will not be required to download the game.
Amazon Cancels Lord of the Rings Game After Dispute
Amazon has stopped production on their Lord of the Rings game following Tencent Holding’s acquisition of Leyou Technologies, the developers of Amazon’s game. The game was first announced two years ago and not many updates on its progress had been given prior to its cancellation.
