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It’s been a long old week, we’re all hot and tired, and we really don’t want to have to go out and hunt for the news. So, in times like these, when you need a helping hand, it’s good to have a handy guide for all the biggest stories of the week. Oh, and what’s this!? Well, it’s our weekly news roundup – how fortuitous… Anyway, why don’t you make yourself a cup of tea, treat yourself to a pastry, get back into bed, and let the news come to you.
When Two Become One: Microsoft and Nintendo Agree Cross-play Partnership for Minecraft
The writing seemed to be on the wall since that Minecraft reveal at E3 2017 when we saw the first signs of cross-play coming into action. And even though it took a lot longer than that reveal last year seemed to suggest, both Microsoft and Nintendo have agreed to cross-play for the – still somehow popular – game.
Obviously, the notable bit of this story is that Sony are still playing the lone wolf when it comes to sharing their toys, and surely leaving PlayStation players feeling like the rich kids with no friends for the time being.
At the moment, the cross-play function only seems to extend to Minecraft, with players able to enjoy all the same online benefits across PC, Xbox One, and the Switch. There’s no word yet as to if an agreement for other third-party titles would come into play in the future, but the news shows another move by Microsoft that’s sure to soften their image in the eyes of the industry – and sour our view of Sony just a little bit more once again.
Get Back to the Bay: Life is Stange 2’s First Episode Announced
We all knew that Life is Strange 2 was on the way, but with Vampyr having just been released, and Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit set to arrive on Monday, it seemed like DONTNOD had earned themselves a little bit of rest. Apparently, this isn’t the case, because their Twitter account teased the first episode of Life is Strange 2, which is now set to arrive on September 27.
The information we have at the moment is sparse, to say the least, with the teaser only showing the game’s logo being stitched on to a backpack and confirmation that the sequel will be made up of five episodes. We’ve been promised more information in August, leading VideoGamer to suggest that we’ll learn more at Gamescom.
Stop Everything: There’s an actual (sort of) Update for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake
In a recent interview with Gematsu, Tetsuya Nomura suggested that the remake of the iconic RPG would focus far more on character development in the original, especially for the AVALANCHE members.
The interview seemed far more like a ‘don’t worry, it’s definitely still a thing’ rather than delivering anything too substantial, but the confirmation that surrounding characters would be getting a bit more love in the remake will be news that hopefully makes up for the game’s total absence at E3 this year.
Along with the morsel of information on characters, Nomura also said that the game’s development was going well, with the team now looking ahead for a good time to release a bit more information, but the likelihood of a release date for the first portion of the game is still most likely a long way off.
A New Challenger Has Entered the Ring: Street Fighter 5 Introduces Loot Boxes
Ah, loot boxes, the feature that never stops giving us things to write about. And it seems that Capcom have found a way to clumsily smoosh the much-loathed system into Street Fighter 5.
Arriving in the next update for the game, which is scheduled for June 25, the loot boxes will appear under the guise of a fortune telling sequence, where Manet will read your fortune and deliver gifts wrapped up in the name “Fighting Chance.”
According to VideoGamer, the feature only offers items that give you a helping hand in Survival Mode or items that are purely cosmetic, so there doesn’t seem to be any danger of competitive matches becoming unbalanced.
The Fighting Chance goodies include things called Battle Goods, which will be used as boosts for the Survival mode, along with sprays, Street Fighter art from across the series, and outfits that are only available from the loot boxes.
It’ll be interesting to see how fans take this news, being only useful to a small portion of players, most will probably find them to be a non-sensical add-on, but the simple fact that the system exists in the game is one that’s sure to irk a few players.
And Finally… Bethesda Joins in the Suing Game
It looks like Bethesda are joining in the recent legal fun that PUBG has been heaping on other recently, as they filed a suit against both Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive. Their argument is that the recent mobile game “Westworld” which released earlier this week, is a blatant rip-off of their own Fallout Shelter.
Now, it does seem that Bethesda’s case is far more grounded in actual legislation and reason compared to the fairly petty actions of PUBG, with the publisher saying that both Warner and Behaviour Interactive have extracted the code used for Fallout Shelter and simply changed the design, with the Westworld game actually containing an identical bug that appeared in an early version of Fallout Shelter.
There’s no word yet of when a settlement or decision will be reached, but from the outside looking in, it seems like a fairly simple case.
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