Gaming News for Week 1 of March 2024. This week many things happened across the Gaming Industry, including many layoffs from large gaming companies including Sony and EA, along with Final Fantasy 16 announcing a new DLC that launches later this month. Find out all the latest Gaming News for Week 1 of March 2024 in our article!
Big news hit the gaming scene this week as Sony, EA and numerous other gaming companies announced some major layoffs recently.
Sony dropped a bombshell by letting go of about 900 employees, which is around 8% of its workforce. This move will affect some big names in the gaming world like Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, and Firesprite. Jim Ryan, the retiring CEO at Sony Interactive Entertainment, called it a tough decision, recognizing the talent and hard work of those affected. But, Sony has stated it’s necessary to take a step back and figure out how to keep up with what gamers want and keep pushing the boundaries of gaming tech.
EA’s not that far behind, announcing they’re trimming down too, cutting out 600 employees, accounting for around 5% of their workforce. CEO Andrew Wilson talked about refocusing on their hits like Madden, Star Wars, Apex Legends, and Battlefield. As a result, Respawn has had to cancel their 1st person Star Wars shooter game, and EA might also be ditching some projects that haven’t hit the mark, with rumours swirling about the fate of the Wild Hearts franchise. Andrew also stated “Lastly, we are streamlining our company operations to deliver deeper, more connected experiences for fans everywhere that build community, shape culture, and grow fandom.” This would seem to imply that EA is aware that some of its games have become disconnected from gamers at large and that they are committed to focusing on better experiences for players in the near future, which sounds like music to our ears. It’s just a shame they had to lay off so many people to do it…
However, these are not the only layoffs happening in the Gaming Industry. Twitch, Playstation, Supermassive, and Deck Nine have all been laying off employees over that past year to the tune of some 2000 people or more. It’s likely these are not the last we will be seeing either based on current trends.
The gaming industry is going through some rough patches. Alot of it seems to be due to post-pandemic effects, since Video game consumer spending and usage both fell last year after the heights of the pandemic, and it makes sense since, to put it crudely, the supply of developers exceeds the demand for games.
While these layoffs might signal rough times ahead, they also show that these companies are trying to stay nimble and adapt to the changes in the gaming industry. We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out.
The ARPG Last Epoch has achieved massive concurrent player numbers during the first week of its full launch with over 264k players following the 1.0 launch.
To put this in context it’s more than the concurrents of Elden Ring and Baldurs Gate combined, and ranks over GTA5 according to Steam Database at the time of this recording.
But this does show the overall popularity of the title which strikes the middle ground between Path of Exile and Diablo 4‘s complexity. It’s also currently sitting as the third best seller on Steam behind Counter-Strike 2 and Helldivers 2.
But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the game’s 1.0 release as the developer Eleventh Hour Games’ servers were overloaded with the mass of players, with over 150k crossing the threshold on day 1 within the first 20 minutes, causing server issues. This seems to be the norm with launches when the floodgates are opened. The developer is continuing to iron out the issues and has been giving out frequent updates on X (formerly Twitter).
Still, the game continues to have quite an active player base with over 218k in the last 24 hours (at the time this article was written). It’s quite an achievement as an indie studio and hopefully, they can continue to provide the best experience for players.
As a thank you the developer has given players a free in-game gift The Autumnal Wrap which is a back-slot item. Make sure to claim in-game.
As for what the actual 1.0 introduced, Its main features include two masteries the Falconer and Warlock. It also introduces a new skills system, resonance system, cycles as well as a full offline mode. You can check out the highlights of the 1.0 Patch Notes here.
If you’re currently playing Last Epoch we have some great guides that will you started with Last Epoch Beginner Guide: Tips I Wish I Knew Before Playing and Last Epoch Beginner Sentinel Build Guide – Void Knight.
Final Fantasy 16 fans are eating good this week as Square Enix will be revealing more about the upcoming DLC The Rising Tide this month on March 22nd.
A panel will be open during PAX East 2024 on Friday, March 22, at 8:30 AM PT or 11:30 AM ET. It will feature producer Naoki Yoshida, the DLC’s director Takeo Kujiraoka, and localization director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox. The event will be live streamed via Twitch so you will be able to watch it live if you aren’t planning on going to PAX.
What’s known so far about The Rising Tide is that it will be a major story DLC set to have a showdown between Clive and the mythic Eikon, Leviathan. It follows the previously released DLC Echoes of the \Fallen which was made available in December of last year. The Rising Tide was also teased to introduce a new field area called Mysidia, which super fans may remember as a recurring area from various Final Fantasy titles.
What’s interesting about this area is that it was showcased to have blue skies, which is a pretty stark contrast to the purple skies you usually see in the main game. It will also introduce a new Eikon that will grant Clive new Feats and Abilities.
Previously, the studio teased a few details in an interview on the official Square Enix website. Director Takeo Kujiraoka hints that “something” will happen once all the powers of Eikons come together.
So far there is no release date for FF16 The Rising Tide but it has a launch window of Spring 2024. The premium DLC will be available as part of the expansion pass or as a standalone.
In the meantime, be sure to check out our Final Fantasy XVI Review as well as our Beginner Guide on our channel.
Remnant 2 Crossplay is now available! The survival action shooter from Gunfire Games has released a surprise update featuring cross-platform multiplayer, and is celebrating it by bringing back a special event that allows all players to gather special corrupted weapons.
Remnant 2 is the kind of game that really shines thanks to its multiplayer features, so this feature release is a massive step for the player base and community. Players will now be able to find each other and coop across PC, Xbox Series X|S and Playstation 5, starting right now.
Crossplay has been one of the most player-requested features for REMNANT II, and our community has been so awesome waiting patiently for this feature to roll out,” said David Adams, President of Gunfire Games and REMNANT II Game Director. “We’re so excited to launch this update today as the team has been working hard to make it a reality. There’s even more REMNANT II content to come, including the second DLC
In more good news for the fans, Gearbox has once again confirmed that there’s more paid DLC coming to the game, expanding the content further than the November 14th Awakened King release. Since there’s no release date announced for that content yet, the launch of Crossplay will be celebrated by bringing back a fan favorite: The Aberration Domination Event.
From February 29th to March 5th Only!
The event brings numerous new aberrations into the game that randomly spawn while exploring the worlds of Remnant 2. During the limited time event, the spawn rate of these new aberrations is dramatically increased, but they will continue to spawn after the event concludes. Not all of the aberrations are currently known but this page will go under the assumption that the new aberrations were equally divided amongst the 3 major explorable worlds: Yaesha, N’Erud, and Losomn.
Players can once again obtain 5 new Corrupted versions of weapons already available on the base game:
Each one of this weapons comes armed with their own unique Weapon Mod, not found in their original versions.
If you haven’t played Remnant 2 yet, this is likely a great time to jump in as you can expect to find a lot more action when doing multiplayer. You can check out our Remnant 2 Review, and use our many guides for the game, including our Remnant 2 Beginner Guide, and our many remnant 2 builds.
Dune Awakening: Direct is scheduled for March 4th at 18:00 CET / 12:00 ET / 09:00 PT, and will be broadcasted on the company’s official YouTube channel.
The event is going to showcase a first glimpse into the gameplay via a trailer. Previous information was limited to a short trailer which mainly included cinematics and engine videos, so this is going to be our first good look at how the game plays and what to expect. The game is set to an MMO centering around players building their homes in the middle of the desert on the ruthless sands of Arrakis, the most dangerous planet in the universe.
Funcom has emphasised that Dune: Awakening is, above all, a survival game. Players have to stay alert to seize opportunities to collect water, seek shelter from the sun, and gather spice, the most valuable substance in the universe, in a server shared by thousands of players. You will follow your story throughout Dune, creating your own character, meeting characters from the movies and books and exploiting your relationships to uncover the mystery that lies beneath the surface of the sands.
You can customise your character further as the game progresses with skills and abilities that develop the more you use them.
The actual environment of Arrakis where you play seems to be have been well thought out, with deep canyons pockmarked with caves, ancient underground Ecology Labs, boundless rolling dunes, bustling villages and bandits seeking easy prey. It’s also dynamic, with massive Coriolis storms regularly changing the landscape and unveiling new secrets, from valuable natural resources to crashed ships and ancient testing stations.
At the moment, Funcom has not specified whether the release date or more beta details for Dune: Awakening will be announced during the event, but here’s hoping we will be seeing something.
No Rest For The Wicked just got a release date into Early Access of April 18th, 2024 and if you’re not familiar with this game, this is the new action RPG being developed by Moon Studios, makers of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the will of the wisps. Those were 2D Metroidvania side scroller type games that had vibrant, beautiful art and No Rest for the Wicked has an amazing art style as well which will catch your eye immediately when you see the gameplay.
In No Rest For the Wicked, players will create their character using a basic character creator in the defined art style of Moon Studios. Players will then create a realm and you will go into that realm to play. It’s likely this method of “realm creation” was intended for the game’s upcoming addition of 4 player co-op that will be added some time during the Early Access period, but coop won’t be available on April 18th.
The realms of No Rest For the Wicked are static, that is to say, they are not procedurally generated, they are handcrafted. However, loot spawns are randomised so you won’t always get the same drops in each playthrough, and there is a rarity system not unlike other games of the same genre.
Combat is soulslike in nature with a stamina bar, parries, dodges, blocking and using Weapon Skills and Spells with Focus, which builds up as you engage in combat and is not regulated by flasks. Players can heal using consumable items that they craft, and these are not guaranteed upon death. Additionally, enemies do not respawn upon death, so once you kill an enemy they are removed from the game world.
All in all, we really enjoyed our time playing the pre-release build and cannot wait for early access in April! That said, with the current road map published by Moon Studios, I can totally understand if players want to wait until core features are added, such as multiplayer.
So thats about it for this weeks news, some bad news from the layoffs but overall a pretty good week. If you’re interested in supporting a channel, be sure to leave a like, let us know what you think about all the news in the comments below, and check out our VIP supscription on the website for some exclusive supporter benefits. We will be seeing you next week!
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