Game Control: Exciting Nintendo Direct, “Zenless Zone Zero” Launch, Epic Games Fighting Apple
Console: June’s Nintendo Direct gave gamers major updates, announcements, and excitement. Announcements included The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (September 26, 2024) which finally features Zelda as the protagonist in the series, updates on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (2025), Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Nintendo Switch, November 7, 2024), remakes of Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D (November 15, 2024), and Dragon Quest 1-2 HD-2D (2025) hitting Switch soon, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Nintendo Switch, January 16, 2025), a new Mario Party game titled Super Mario Party Jamboree (Nintendo Switch, October, 17, 2024), a collection of seven Marvel vs Capcom games heading to Nintendo Switch sometime this year, and sneak peeks at other highly anticipated titles like Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. Despite all of these great announcements, Nintendo did not update its fans on the status of the sequel to the Nintendo Switch, the highly anticipated Switch 2.
The Sims 4 dropped the trailer for its newest expansion pack. The “Lovestruck” expansion pack retails at $39.99 and releases on July 25, 2024. Featuring new dating app gameplay, a system with romantic turn-ons and turn-offs, and the typical expansion pack additions of a new town, new career, new build items, and new Create-A-Sim features, romantic Simmers have much to look forward to.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be released on November 15, 2024. The new installment in the Assassin's Creed series will be playable three days early for gamers who preorder any of Shadows’ three premium editions or those who subscribe to Ubisoft+ Premium on PC. New details about the game’s map, story, and characters, have been released across new trailers. The two protagonists of Shadows are a shinobi assassin named Naoe, the fictional daughter of the real Fujibayashi Nagato, and a samurai named Yasuke, based on the real 16th-century Black samurai.
Arc System Works debuted the world premiere teaser trailer for Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers at the Anime Expo. Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers is a 3D CG anime adaptation of the fighting game Guilty Gear. The animation studio behind the show is SANZIGEN which stylized the anime similarly to the game’s cut scenes. Though the trailer did not give much away, fans of Guilty Gear are sure to recognize central characters like Sol Badguy and Sin Kiske.
Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Horizon Zero Dawn has reportedly been canceled. Originally slating Steve Blackman of The Umbrella Academy fame to show run, Blackman’s hostile workplace behavior was alluded to as the reasoning behind the cancellation. Though Netflix is no longer connected to this specific project, there is still hope for a live-action adaptation of Horizon Zero Dawn. In January of this year, Sony confirmed that writing was underway for the project.
Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield: Hardline will be delisted from various digital stores this month. On July 31, EA will delist the games from both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 digital marketplaces. This delisting comes ahead of these stores’ servers for all three games being shut down on November 7, 2024. Players who already own the games physically or digitally will still be able to enjoy single-player play. However, all multiplayer modes will be unplayable after the delisting. Additional downloadable content (DLC) for the games will also be removed from both storefronts on July 31.
Mobile: HoYoverse, the studio behind giants Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, released its newest game Zenless Zone Zero on July 4. The trailer for the game originally premiered during the 2024 Gamer Awards. Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) is an action apocalypse game set against a sprawling urban backdrop. Gamers can take their team of three into monster-filled zones before heading back to the city to complete side quests, interact with other characters, and grab treats like a cup of coffee or a bowl of ramen. In the same vein as Genshin and Honkai, ZZZ focuses on its stylish characters with combat specializations. The game also garnered the same mass appeal as its predecessors. Only 72 hours after launch, ZZZ officially passed 50 million downloads. Additionally, AppMagic estimates that the game has generated $24.6 million between Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store within its first five days. Zenless Zone Zero had big shoes to fill and it certainly filled them with revenue.
A mobile edition of Final Fantasy XIV is reportedly in development. Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix has been in a long partnership with mobile gaming giant Tencent since 2018. Though no games from this alliance have been released, long-time gaming industry leaker Kurakasis reported on eXputer forums that the two companies may be releasing a mobile edition of Final Fantasy XIV.
According to Epic Games, Apple rejected Epic Games Store notarization submission twice due to similarities between the Epic Game Store’s “Install” and “In-app purchases” buttons to Apple’s “Get” and “In-App Purchases” buttons. Epic went on to argue that Apple’s rejection violated the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Epic’s pushback against Apple likely has to do with an announcement earlier this year where the company said it would bring its digital storefront and Fortnite back to iOS in Europe. After taking to X to report the issue publicly, Epic updated its followers on July 5, confirming that Apple would not accept the previously rejected notarization submission. Apple has asked to fix the appearance similarity issue for future submissions.
Two new trailers for the Marvel Contest of Champions have been released. The mobile arcade fighting game was developed by Kabam and Raw Thrills. The first deep dive trailer introduces The Leader as a playable character while the second deep dive trailer introduces Patriot as a playable character.
As part of its exclusive roster of subscriber-only games, Netflix has released Minesweeper for Android and iOS devices. Introduced to the world by Windows Entertainment Pack in 1990, Netflix’s edition of the game proves that it’s attempting to create a concrete catalog of games.
PC: A new trailer for Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail features Rhys Darby of Our Flag Means Death and Flight of the Conchords fame. The new DLC expansion for Final Fantasy XIV launched on July 2 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, macOS and PC.
According to a leak, EA Sports FC 25 will reportedly be released this September. The leak comes to the Internet via Dealabs and reliable leaker Billbil-kun. Their report goes on to say that fans will have two purchasing options: Standard and Ultimate. Standard, the base mode, is said to retail at $69.99 while Ultimate gives players seven days of early access on September 20 for $99.99. EA Play subscribers will allegedly also have a 10-hour trial of early access to the game.
With such a dedicated fanbase, it's no wonder that gamers found cut dialogue from Elden Ring’s DLC. The lines in question belong to the big boss of Shadow of the Erdtree. One gamer took to Reddit to discover their findings, which they discovered after digging through the DLC’s game files.
The newest entry in the Transformers series will be a combat-racing roguelite. Transformers: Galactic Trials allows single players to enter battle-race circuits that feature combat and driving challenges. Gamers can play as a variety of Autobots and Decepticons such as Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Arcee, Wheeljack, Elita-1, Megatron, Shockwave, and Soundwave. The game will be released on Steam on October 11, 2024.
Virtual Reality: Meta is laying off Reality Labs employees. The current number of employees laid off during this round is unknown. However, Meta has laid off over 20,000 workers since November 2022. These layoffs seem to coincide with the restructuring of Reality Labs into two groups: a “Metaverse” organization that includes Quest business and a “Wearables” group that will focus on hardware. Despite the layoffs, Reality Labs continues to lose billions of dollars. The company lost $3.8 billion during the first quarter of this fiscal year and reported losses of $16.1 billion and $13.7 billion during 2023 and 2022, respectively.
The Meta Quest 3S is now listed on the Quest Store and other retailers. Supposedly a lighter version of the Meta Quest 3, the headset has not officially been announced by Meta despite the device's appearance online. However, the best bet for an official announcement of the Meta Quest 3S would be in September during Meta Connect. Since the device is supposedly a lighter and cheaper alternative to Quest 3, analysts guess that the 3S will range between $349-$399 compared to the $499 retail price of Quest 3.
Sony is decreasing its investments in virtual reality gaming. According to Android Central, Sony is cutting funding for VR games by the company itself. The report also claims that only two first-party games for the PlayStation VR2 are in development. Sony is not the only company cutting ties with VR gaming. In February, Ubisoft’s CEO announced that the publisher would not increase investment in VR gaming following the disappointing performance of Assassin's Creed Nexus VR.
The Apple Vision Pro will get controllers for VR gaming. Designed similarly to the Meta Quest Touch Pro Handsets that come with Meta Quest Pro, the Surreal Touch controllers will enhance the experience of VR gamers using the Apple Vision Pro. The headset was originally designed without controllers, focusing exclusively on hand and eye-tracking to interact with virtual games and apps. Thanks to Surreal Interactive, not associated with Apple or the Apple Vision Pro, gamers can now have an easier experience with the headset.
At the low price of $5, you can buy early access to Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable on July 23rd. Officially announced by UNIVRS in late 2022, the full 1.0 release of the game is slated for late 2024. Wish listing the game is available on Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro.
Industry: The Esports World Cup will be available to stream online for free through DAZN. Featuring over 1,500 players from around the globe, over twenty titles will be played over the eight-week event including League of Legends, Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, and Fortnite. The event started on July 5 and will continue through August 24, 2024. DAZN offers a 30-day free trial while a paid subscription costs $19.99 monthly.
Nintendo has confirmed its stance on Generative AI. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa was asked about the company’s stance during a Q&A with investors. In his own words, Nintendo has “decades of know-how in creating optimal gaming experiences for our customers (. . .) We hope to continue to deliver value that is unique to us and cannot be achieved through technology alone.”
Roblox appointed a new CMO. Jerret West is now taking on the role after being CMO at Xbox for almost five years and working as Vice President and Head of Marketing for various regions of Netflix’s content for seven years.
YouTube and LinkedIn have added games to their platforms. Following Netflix’s move towards gaming, Youtube has integrated several arcade-style games under a feature called “Playables”. The minigames were previously available only to Premium subscribers but are now available for all users. The shift to gaming makes sense for YouTube, which hosts not only plenty of popular video gaming content creators through videos but also plenty of gaming streamers. LinkedIn has primarily added puzzle games to its platforms. The three games are a Sudoku-style game titled Queens, trivia game Crossclimb, and Pinpoint which is similar to Connections by the New York Times. Games can only be played once a day, and scores are shared with connections within a user’s network.
Blumhouse Games is considered a video game adaptation of M3GAN, Get Out, and other famous Blumhouse properties. The new indie company announced its first six projects in June of 2024, all of which were brand-new titles. Shying away from brand recognition, Blumhouse Games wants to develop itself before relying on its intellectual property. President Zach Wood says that working with IP comes down to timing. With Blumhouse Games being such a fresh face, straying away from the beaten path could be a worthwhile risk.
