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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Telltale Games Goes Into Majority Closure


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The past decade has seen Telltale Games undergo a renaissance with their episodic game series based on properties “The Walking Dead,” “Batman,” “Fables,” “Game of Thrones” and more.

That is coming to an end though with Kotaku receiving a statement from the company confirming that all but 25 employees (down from hundreds) were let go as part of a majority studio closure. The small group that remains will fulfil the company’s obligations to its board and partners. The statement from CEO Pete Hawley adds:

“It’s been an incredibly difficult year for Telltale as we worked to set the company on a new course. Unfortunately, we ran out of time trying to get there. We released some of our best content this year and received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, but ultimately, that did not translate to sales. With a heavy heart, we watch our friends leave today to spread our brand of storytelling across the games industry.”

Regarding what will happen with all of Telltale’s ongoing projects, including the recently announced Netflix collaboration with a “Stranger Things” game series, the studio said it will have “further comments regarding its product portfolio in the coming weeks”.

Telltale released the first episode of “The Walking Dead: The Final Season” in August with the second episode scheduled to arrive next week – if the rest of the season will release as planned is unclear.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Red Dead” Includes Equine Scrotal Physics


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In the creation of the world of “Red Dead Redemption 2,” the developers at Rockstar Games paid incredibly close attention to every detail including the physics of the game. Sunlight, wind, flora and fauna all react and display in as realistic ways as possible – and that includes the genitals of your trusty steed.

Kotaku and numerous other members of the press sampled a section of the game, the studio’s first new title since 2013’s “Grand Theft Auto V”. At the event, some suspicions raised by the trailers for the much-anticipated game have been confirmed – horse testicles will expand and shrink as well as ascend and descend within the game depending upon the ambient temperature and barometric pressure of your surroundings. No word if lead character Arthur Morgan’s gonads boast similar climate-reactive adjustments.

It’s just one of many small details about this world that the staff has paid careful attention to. In fact there’s everything from weight loss/gain from the amount of food consumed, weapon degradation, teaching your horse dressage-style side steps, realistic level of flies from horse droppings and cowpats, and so much more.

Rockstar also confirms the game’s map is enormous, spanning five fictional states and boasting a major city the likes of which the franchise has not previously seen. “Red Dead Redemption 2” comes to PS4 & Xbox One on October 26th.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Sony Has Begun Work On PlayStation 5


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Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the PlayStation 4, Sony president and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida tells The Financial Times it is indeed developing a successor to the console.

Yoshida-san says: “At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware”. He did not name the console nor offer any hint of a release window.

The comment follows ones from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera who in May suggested the next PlayStation is a good three years away and won’t debut until 2021 at the earliest.

Sony has sold more than 81.2 million PS4s worldwide, already surpassing the lifetime sales of the PlayStation 3 in around half the time, and the PlayStation division has been Sony’s top-performing business segment in every full fiscal year for the past five years.

The talk comes as video game executives and writers are tipping that we’ll see the end of the traditional console era in 5-10 years as cloud-based game streaming will become the future. PlayStation was the first console manufacturer to offer such a service in the form of PlayStation Now.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Red Dead” Studio Slammed For Overworked Staff


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Rockstar Games has found itself under some fire this week as video game industry columnists have taken issue with a recent Vulture interview with Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser in regards to their upcoming epic game “Red Dead Redemption 2”.

Houser said in the interview published on the weekend that in order to deliver such a high-quality product, the staff have been working beyond overtime – the group clocking up numerous 100-hour weeks to supply 300,000 animations, 500,000 lines of dialogue, and many more lines of code.

This led to criticism of Rockstar for proudly crowing about the fact it seemed to be overworking its developers and raised discussions about the overall issue of ‘crunch’ in the multi-billion-dollar game industry. In a statement on Monday afternoon to The Verge, Houser wrote that he was speaking about himself and a team of three others and that the company would never expect anyone else to work that way.

“Red Dead Redemption 2” is scheduled to hit stores on October 26th.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
PlayStation Classic Full Games List Revealed


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Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced the full twenty game line-up that will be pre-loaded into its upcoming PlayStation Classic mini-console ahead of its launch in North America on December 3rd.

Following the same plan as Nintendo’s two mini-consoles based on the NES and Super NES, the PlayStation Classic will include the same controllers, button layout and look of the original PS1 but 45% smaller in size and 80% smaller in volume. It also comes with a USB adaptor and HDMI cable. The games to be included are:

Battle Arena Toshinden
Cool Boarders 2
Destruction Derby
Final Fantasy VII
Grand Theft Auto
Intelligent Qube
Jumping Flash
Metal Gear Solid
Mr Driller
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
Rayman
Resident Evil Director’s Cut
Revelations: Persona
Ridge Racer Type 4
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Syphon Filter
Tekken 3
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
Twisted Metal
Wild Arms


That incorporates most of the big ones with the most notable absentee being “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” and the original “Silent Hill”. Not included are “Bushido Blade,” “Chrono Cross,” “Gran Turismo 2,” “Legend of Dragoon,” “Suikoden 2,” “Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2,” “Twisted Metal 2” and “Vagrant Story”. Also not making it but are available elsewhere are the likes of “Final Fantasy IX” which is on PC, “Resident Evil 2” which is about to get a major remaster, and “Crash Bandicoot” which recently received a remaster.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“Red Dead” Sequel Opens To $725 Million


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Rockstar Games’ “Red Dead Redemption 2” has broken records, the highly acclaimed game reportedly pulled in more than $725 million in worldwide retail sales in its first three days – the biggest opening weekend in the history of entertainment. That tops “Avengers: Infinity Wars” which earned more than $640 million worldwide in its opening weekend earlier this year.

However, it’s not the biggest entertainment launch of all time – that remains Rockstar’s previous effort “Grand Theft Auto V” which launched on a Tuesday and earned more than $1 billion in sell-through in its first three days. In addition, the game set records for highest ever pre-orders, highest day one sales and highest sales for the first three days in market on the PlayStation Network.

Its 97/100 Metacritic score make it the best critically reviewed game this year on any platform, and in terms of the current console generation overall it sits equal first with “Grand Theft Auto V” and the Switch’s “Super Mario Odyssey” and “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” (all three at 97), and just ahead of “The Last of Us Remastered” (95), “God of War” (94), “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” (94), “Celeste” (94) and “INSIDE” (93).
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Rocksteady “Superman” Game Rumors Re-Emerge


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We know that next week’s Game Awards on CBS will include the announcement of ten new titles. Now, one of those has been rumored today – “Batman: Arkham” game series developer Rocksteady showing off their “Superman: World’s Finest” title.

The title has popped up in a listing on the Game System Requirements website, the same site which incorporated a “Devil May Cry 5” listing that revealed the game prior to the official announcement.

Additionally, Rocksteady’s official website which has a number of job listings relating to an AAA title on the next generation platforms. Other titles expected to show up during The Game Awards airing December 6th are the announcement of a new “Alien” game, and a new RPG title from Obsidian Entertainment (“Pillars of Eternity,” “South Park: The Stick of Truth,” “Fallout: New Vegas”).
 
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