February brings with it Nintendo’s big Direct for the first half of the year, while Microsoft reaffirms its multiplatform promise with Activision Blizzard, in this week’s gaming news. Game Rant has compiled some of the biggest gaming news stories from this past week together into a concise post for fans and enthusiasts to stay up to date on the most important events in the industry per week. Highlighting the most relevant stories, this list is not inherently and totally objective, and will not contain every news story this week. Rather, this is intended for gaming fans who want a quick rundown on the largest/most impactful stories that occurred in the last week in games.
In this week’sgaming news, a new Nintendo Direct brought reveals for already-announced games likeKirby and the Forgotten Land, as well as brand-new announcements for upcoming titles likeFire Emblem Warriors: Three HopesandXenoblade Chronicles 3. PlatinumGames makes a public plea to Microsoft in an effort to potentially reviveScalebound. Meanwhile, Microsoft reaffirmed its multiplatform promise in the wake of the Activision Blizzard acquisition, all while Activision has confirmed details about 2022’sCall of Dutytitle. All this and more in this week’s roundup of the biggest news in the gaming industry.
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Highlights From February’s Nintendo Direct Showcase
This week broughtFebruary’s big Nintendo Direct showcase, bringing with it several reveals for Switch games coming in the first half of 2022. While some things were leaked beforehand, there were certainly plenty of surprises as well. Whether it was the additionalKirby and the Forgotten Landgameplay, the announcement of new DLC coming toMario Kart 8 Deluxe, or the reveal ofXenoblade Chronicles 3, there were some big announcements from the latest Nintendo Direct. Some of the highlights from February’s Direct include:
PlatinumGames Wants To Bring Back Scalebound With Xbox
A little over a year after the Xbox One was revealed, PlatinumGames had announced a partnership with Microsoft to produceScalebound, the studio’s first action-RPG. However, as the years past, fans would eventually learn thattheScaleboundproject had been canceled in 2017after it had been delayed from a 2016 release window. Both Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and PlatinumGames president Atsushi Inaba have lamented the game’s cancellation publicly, but Inaba and PlatinumGames vice president Hideki Kamiya have recently expressed a desire to return to the fantasy ARPG.
In an interview with IGN Japan, both Inaba and Kamiya expressed a sincere desire to revisit the game, imploring Microsoft to open conversation aboutbringing backScalebound. “Kamiya has always wanted to doScalebound. So we’d like to have a proper discussion with Microsoft,” stated Inaba. Kamiya also jumped in enthusiastically, stating “Phil! Let’s do it together!” It’s unclear what state of developmentScaleboundwas in prior to its cancellation.
Microsoft Reaffirms Multiplatform Promise With ABK, MW2 and New Warzone Coming In 2022
While there were some initial fears among fans after Microsoft announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer helped quell those concerns. In a statement by Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith, the company would honor existing content exclusivity and release plans for franchises on PlayStation. Additionally,Microsoft “will also make them available on PlayStationbeyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love.” Microsoft also made a similar comment in relation to Nintendo, though the platform difference Switch vs. Xbox/PlayStation is more defined.
That being said, Activision was surprisingly candid with announcing the upcomingplans for the nextCall of Dutygame, as well asCall of Duty:Warzone’s future. In a blog post, Activision confirmed that the next entry in theCall of Dutyfranchise would be a sequel to 2019’sModern Warfare. Additionally, “a newWarzoneexperience,” as well as the upcoming sequel, will be designed on a new game engined by Infinity Ward. No release date/window was provided yet.
Lost Ark Becomes Second Most-Played Game On Steam In 24 Hours
Upon its free-to-play release in the west,Lost Arkhas quickly become the second most-played game on Steamfor concurrent players. The Amazon Games-published,Diablo-like ARPG was originally developed by Smilegate RPG and released for the Asian market in 2019. With its North American and European release,Lost Arkhas surpassed Valve’sDota 2andCounter Strike: Global Offensivefor the most concurrent players on record of release. As of this writing,Lost Arkhas an all-time peak of 1,324,761 concurrent players, only behindPUBG’s record of 3,257,248 concurrent players.
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Grand Theft Auto Sales Exceeded Expectations For Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive’s most recent investor presentation remarked on the continued success of Rockstar Games’Grand Theft Autofranchise.Lifetime sales for the entireGTAseries has sold over 370 million units, whileGrand Theft Auto 5andGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — Definitive Editionsold around 160 million and 10 million units, respectively. Exact sales of theGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogywere not provided, but did note that around 10 million units of non-GTAVsales were accounted for in the sales numbers.
Nintendo Hacker Sentenced To Over Three Years In Prison
Notable hacker and ironically named Gary Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison after they pled guilty to piracy-related charges last Friday. Bowser was a key member of Team Xecuter, a group of hackers that produced and soldmodded hardware that allowed players to play pirated Nintendo Switch games(among other devices the group supported). Nintendo openly thanked the U.S. government’s efforts in sentencing Bowser and others in the hacking group, as they “curb illegal activities on a global scale that cause serious harm to Nintendo and the video game industry.”
Battlefield 2042 Refund Petition Reaching Nearly 200,000 Signatures
Halo Composers Suing Microsoft For Unpaid Royalties
Composers of theHaloseries, Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, are alleging thatMicrosoft has neglected to pay adequate royalties to them both. Both composers and their joint company (O’Donnell Salvatori Inc.) enacted a lawsuit in June of last year, and will move to mediation with Microsoft at some point in February, according to an interview with Eurogamer. O’Donnell and Salvatori are alleging the royalties date back 20 years, when the two were composing for Bungie as freelance employees, prior to Microsoft acquiring the studio and O’Donnell becoming a full-time Bungie employee.
