Written By: Max Mitchelson
Edited By: Mary Joaquin
Welcome to the Weekly Gaming Round-Up,
Among all courtroom drama, a slew of games were announced this week, with new releases on the horizon. Discord is coming to PSN, Apple v. Epic lawsuit brings private documents and communications to light, and popular anime and manga series Made in Abyss is getting action RPG.
Additionally, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance re-released this week, and Yakuza spin-off, Judgment, is getting a sequel.
Monday, May 3
Discord, the popular communication app, is coming to the Playstation Network, stated Jim Ryan, President, and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), in a press release.
Though exact plans are somewhat hazy, the announcement states that both Discord and Sony are working together to bring the "Discord experience" to console. Ryan promises the partnership will allow players to chat and interact with “friends, groups, and communities” in and out of games early next year.
To seal the partnership on the project, Ryan ended, announcing that SIE also made a minority investment in Discord.
The partnership could act as a replacement for the Communities App removed from PS4 back in April. The PS5 currently has no direct replacement for the feature.
Tuesday, May 4
As part of the ongoing Apple v. Epic trial, many previously private sales figures, investments, and bits of contract information are now publicly available.
These include specific entitlements and the initial buyouts the Epic Games Store paid for its weekly free games, as well as how much its free games cost per user download. The documents also reveal startling but expected exclusivity deals as in the case of Borderlands 3's six months of PC exclusivity. This had cost the company $146 million.
Yesterday, on the first day of the trial, Tim Sweeney, Epic CEO, also stated the terms stipulated by Sony to enable cross-play, including the fees charged under certain circumstances.
Epic's lawsuits against Apple began last year after it blocked updates. Apple eventually removed the Fortnite App after they tried to get around the App Store’s 30% revenue cut on in-app purchases with Fortnite’s virtual currency. Epic is now arguing that Apple is a monopoly.
Wednesday, May 5
The popular anime and manga series, Made in Abyss, is getting an action RPG adaptation, releasing sometime in 2022.
Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness, developed by Spike Chunsoft, sticks to the initial premise of the story. Riko, a young orphan, leaves her home to find her mother in the Abyss with the assistance of an android named Reg.
The game picks up a couple of days into their journey, with creator Akihito Tsukushi overseeing its story and cutscenes. Voice actors from the anime reprise their roles for the cutscenes and dialogue.
Thursday, May 6
The action RPG classic Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance is coming to all consoles on Friday.
Twenty years after its original release, the game is available for purchase on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. The new release comes with 4K support and the return of the game’s cooperative mode.
During its initial release, the game was a graphical achievement featuring stunning environmental effects, including realistic water physics which remain impressive to this day.
Unlike the PC originals, Dark Alliance lacks the story focus, Dungeon and Dragons influenced combat, and the open-ended design of the originals, in favor of hack-and-slash dungeon crawling.
Friday, May 7
The beat-em-up RPG Yakuza spin-off Judgement is getting a sequel, Lost Judgement coming to current and last generation Xbox, and PlayStation on Sept 24.
Judgment first released in 2018 as a new spin on the franchise with players fighting on the other side of crime as a private detective, Takayuki Yagami. Along with new characters, Judgement also introduced an investigation mode and parkour movement, which will hopefully return to the sequel. From the new trailer, it looks like Yagami is set to solve a new murder case in the port city of Yokohama.
According to IGN, the mainline Yakuza games will continue with the slower-paced turn-based action of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, with the Judgement spin-offs sticking closer to the series’ brawler roots.
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