News
XBox Admits Announcing Crackdown 3 Too Early Was ‘a mistake’
XBox is admitting it made a major mistake when it prematurely announced Crackdown 3 at E3 2014, four years before the game would launch.
Shannon Loftis, general manager for Microsoft Studios Publishing, regrets that terrible decision.
“I think we probably announced Crackdown too early,” Loftis told Polygon in an interview this week.
The team underestimated the time that would be needed to fine-tune the game, with a lot of time being dedicated to the three distinct game modes.
Crackdown 3 is due out next year for Xbox One and Windows PC.
Reagent Games, Sumo Digital and Cloudgine all contributed to the development, but XBox later came to the realization that the game needed to be a better experience, which took a priority over ensuring they released the game on time.
“We definitely underestimated the challenge of making sure the quality bar of all three of those modes was high and it delivers on what we need to deliver on,” Loftis said.
“So we had to take the extra time, [and] make sure that we’re delivering the game the Crackdown fans want. It was a super hard decision to do that, and it was made harder because we announced the game.”
Loftis says the team is learning from their mistakes as they develop a handful of new exclusives.
“I think in the past we have made the mistake of announcing some exclusives a little bit too early,” Loftis explained.
“We’re trying to learn from that mistake and do better, so we have a bit that’s in development now that we’re not talking about. We’re in this for the long haul, and we wanna make sure that not just in the spring of 2018, but in the summer, and in the fall, and the spring of 2019 that we’ll have great, unique, fun experiences for Xbox gamers.”
Capcom has officially announced that Free Title Update 4 will be arriving for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak on February 7th which will include new foes alongside new Anomaly Research content, Event Quests and a new paid DLC.
Velkhana, the elusive Elder Dragon, has been spotted by the scouts of Elgado Outpost and poses a chilly challenge as it can freeze hunters in an attack, and will join the arrival of Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax when the new update drops.
New Anomaly Research will be available, Afflicted Chaotic Gore Magala joining the A8 Quests, and the Anomaly Investigation cap will be upped to 220.
More is in the works for Free Title Update 5, which is currently slated to arrive in April
News
Overwatch 2 Aims to Penalize Players Who Are Friends with Cheaters, Increased Voice Comms Monitoring
Blizzard is leveling up their efforts to thwart cheaters and misconduct within Overwatch 2, as the company aims to penalize players who are friends with cheaters and will amp up their monitoring of voice communications.
The company detailed this in the brand new update for its Defense Matrix Initiative, which is focused on curbing “gameplay sabotage, abusive chat, and cheating” stating their plan to come down on players who team up with cheaters, and more.
Blizzard admitted that cheating in Overwatch 2 is a problem and has “actioned over 50,000 accounts” since the game launched and starting in Season 3 they will be actively identifying players that purposely team up with players who are regularly flagged as cheaters, and will also face potential discipline.
Overwatch 2 will also have improved protection for streamers, as the issue of Stream sniping continues to be a problem, and in Season 3 they will be “introducing new streaming protection features that should be a huge step toward enabling content creators to share Overwatch 2 with their fans safely.”
Blizzard is encouraging players to report any disruptive or problematic behaviour in their matches.
EA and Respawn Entertainment is shutting down their Apex Legends mobile game with the company announced that they will be sunsetting the title this May with EA adding that they have also stopped development on a mobile Battlefield title.
According to Respawn Entertainment, the decision to sunset Apex Legends was not an easy one to make but the company said that “factors” beyond its control have prevented it from “maintaining the high-quality experience and content” players deserve and expect.
Despite the game having a rather strong start, Respawn said that the content pipeline for the game began to “fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence.”
EA announced that they made the decision to halt the Battlefield mobile title as they wish to create “deeply connected Battlefield ecosystem” which made them arrive at the decision to “pivot from the current direction”
“We remain highly committed to unlocking Battlefield’s enormous potential,” the company said in the statement. “We’re hard at work at evolving Battlefield 2042 and are in pre-production on our future Battlefield experiences at our studios across the globe.”
-
News5 years agoAssassin’s Creed Odyssey Patch 1.0.7 Is Here
-
News6 years agoNo Man’s Sky Update 1.55 Is Out
-
News6 years agoBungie Outlines Infamy, Gambit Ranking System for Destiny 2: Forsaken
-
News5 years agoPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Appears on Playstation Store, Out in December
-
News6 years agoFind the ‘GhostBusters’ Firehouse in Spider-Man
- News6 years ago
Ghost Recon Wildlands’ Rainbow Six Siege Crossover Mission Now Available
-
News5 years agoThe Division 2: Clan System Breakdown
-
News5 years agoNew Patch Arrives for Darksiders 3
You must be logged in to post a comment Login