Update Patch | March 2023

Unbelievably, a quarter of the year has elapsed already. March saw remakes and remasters, whether it be the crowds of mass bingo players in Resident Evil 4, or ghoulish photo-taking in Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. Original IP also took to the spotlight, whether it be a tribute to New Caledonia in Tchia, or the seduction of vampires in Romacelvania. In short, it was a good month for playing games and there was also plenty of news to go along with it.

1. Microsoft And Activision Blizzard’s Never-Ending Saga May Be Entering The Beginning Of The End

Of course, because it’s 2023, we must continue to hear about Xbox’s Activision acquisition. 

Firstly, the acquisition has reached a truly preposterous point of non-news mixed in with important news and it's hard to keep track of what is what. In the dealings with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Sony continued to fight the acquisition with further documentation. Amongst its arguments in a letter was the idea that Microsoft could produce a version of Call of Duty on PlayStation “where bugs or errors emerge only on the game’s final level or after later updates… the gaming community would have lost confidence in PlayStation as a go-to venue to play Call of Duty”. The CMA has since announced that new evidence would indicate that Microsoft would have no financial incentive to make the Call of Duty franchise exclusive, and has lifted its concerns around the supply of high-end gaming consoles in the UK. The CMA may have been swayed by responses by studios in the industry, which the authority published with six companies, most undisclosed, stating their support or their lack of objection to the deal. However, the authority still holds concerns as to how the merger could affect the emerging cloud gaming market. 

While over in the EU, Reuters has reported that the EC is now likely to approve the acquisition following an investigation of its own concerns. This has followed Microsoft putting together a string of ten-year commitments with various companies to bring Call of Duty to different cloud and console providers, such as Ubitus which powers cloud-based games on Switch, and Ukraine-based company Boosteroid.

One country that has already given its approval for the acquisition is Japan. Japan’s Fair Trade Commision has ruled in favour of the deal, which is important given the country’s position as one of the world’s leading markets for gaming, and it being the home of Sony and Nintendo.

One of the strange side effects in the U.S. has been a report by Axios that 11 members of Congress have raised concerns over Sony’s business practices affecting U.S. based companies’ ability to compete within Japan. These members say this could be in violation of trade deals between the two companies, in particular, a 2019 Digital Trade Agreement which calls for countries to have “non-discriminatory treatment of digital products”.

2. EA Tries To Delist Mirror’s Edge And The Fight To Preserve Games 

As so many live service games find themselves shutting down, a number of stories have cropped up detailing the issue of video game preservation.

Nintendo announced it would close the Wii U and 3DS eShop stores, and did just that as of the 28th of March. This has removed the ability to purchase any games exclusive to these systems digitally. This will mean over 100 games are unavailable to purchase via the storefronts. This does also mean some games from the system may still be available physically but could inflate in price on secondary markets, such as Xenoblade Chronicles X and Yoshi’s Woolly World. YouTuber Jirard “The Completionist” Khalil made news as he bought every game on the stores over the course of over a year. An endeavour which would end up costing just under $23k. He has also confirmed that he will be donating the games to the Video Game History Foundation.

Additionally, EA made a statement this month announcing that a number of Battlefield games would be taken off of digital storefronts on the 28th of April and their online servers would be closed as of the 8th of December. The games in question were Bad Company 1 and Bad Company 2, and the online-only Battlefield 1943. However, a major controversy was stirred when the company’s announcement also stated that the single-player parkour game, Mirror’s Edge, would also be taken off sale. Mirror’s Edge did include online functionality but only in the form of player leaderboards. Thankfully, after a large outcry, EA later retracted the statement and said that the game's inclusion in the post was an “error”.

The stories have seen the familiar issue of preservation in gaming crop up. Whilst archives do exist such as the Embracer Games Archive, the aforementioned Video Game History Foundation and the UK’s National Videogame Museum, the issues continue to crop up with the closure of storefronts and DRM software malfunctions such as last year’s server issues that meant Xbox players couldn’t access digital games they had purchased.

3. Lance Reddick Passes Away

Shocking news came this month in the passing of actor Lance Reddick at the age of 60.

Reddick was a renowned figure on screens both big and small. His biggest legacy is that of Lt. Cedric Daniels in The Wire and as the eloquent concierge, Charon, in the John Wick franchise, including this month’s John Wick Chapter 4. His castmate and star Keanu Reeves described Reddick as a “remarkable artist and a special person with grace and dignity.” 

However, Reddick was a prolific performer in the gaming space. Perhaps his most well-known performance was that of Commander Zavala in the Destiny franchise. Players gathered around the character in the Tower to pay respects in a touching scene, Bungie paid tribute, calling him an “iconic presence” in a blog, stating “the passion Lance brought to the things he loved was reflected in the eyes and hearts of all who loved him.” The blog note he has “performances yet to come in the game” which will go ahead. Reddick also contributed to both the game and TV show for 2016’s Quantum Break and portrayed the mysterious Sylens in both Horizon games.

Reddick was a richly talented performer and capable of adding so much texture to characters that bubbled just under the surface, and the world of film and gaming has lost a tremendous talent.

4. E3 And Gamescom Updates

In the least surprising news, E3 2023 has been officially cancelled as confirmed in a statement by the ESA and Reedpop.

The announcement came days after Ubisoft, who had been one of the few publishers to commit to participating in the event, announced it was pulling out to host its own Ubisoft Forward event in LA on the 12th of June. IGN also reported in the intermediate time that both Sega and Tencent would not have a presence at the show either. In the report, individuals told of a lack of communication from the ESA and Reedpop and plans not being finalised by March as would be usual.

Instead of this, numerous publishers will be holding their own events around LA in the second week of June. Amongst these events is Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest event on the 8th of June. Of the cancellation, Keighley tweeted “Four years ago, I realised that E3 wasn't evolving as it needed to compete in a global, digital world. So we started building what’s next.” Other events around this time include an Xbox Games Showcase on June 11th which will be followed by an Xbox Developer Direct event focusing on Starfield.

With E3’s cancellation, the only major convention this year seems to be Gamescom 2023, set for the 23rd - 27th of August. The organisers at the Koelnmesse have been touting news that registrations from exhibitors are up 10% from the same time last year and have said a “major company that was not present last year” would be at the show. This could potentially be Nintendo or Sony, who was not on hand last year.

5. Capcom Announcements

Capcom also had a showcase this month, with a number of developments on upcoming games. Whilst the show did end with a quick update on Resident Evil 4, it had a number of intriguing smaller announcements.

Firstly, Exoprimal received a trailer confirming a 14th July release date with plenty of third-person mech action gameplay and some wonderfully melodramatic story cutscenes. The game was also confirmed to be available on day one on Xbox Game Pass.

The other big trailer (at least in my nostalgic eyes) was for a remaster of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. This remaster will be available via Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Steam and will feature rearranged versions of all of the game’s tracks, improved resolution and frame rate options, and plenty of the puzzles and fate-changing players will be familiar with.

Plenty of other updates were provided including a quick look at the Sunbreak expansion for Monster Hunter Rise, as well as a teaser for the animated movie Resident Evil: Death Island with confirmation that Jill Valentine will be a central character in the film.

Patch Notes:

• A Twitter user has claimed that Microsoft is planning an Xbox Series S Toaster with a graphic they allege they received. 

• One project that is confirmed is a cinematic adaptation of Dead by Daylight, with the project being developed by film studios Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Productions, alongside the game’s developers, Behaviour Interactive. 

• Another month sees another shutdown, as time-based tactical FPS Lemnis Gate will be closed after 11th July 2023.

• As one game shuts down, another carries on. Rocket League launched Season 10 on the 8th March, adding the iconic Volkswagen Golf II GTI along with a new arena and plenty more skins.

• Speaking of updates, rhythm-based FPS Metal: Hellsinger launched its first DLC entitled Dream of the Beast on 29th March, with two new tracks sitting along with a new machine gun weapon and three outfits. Additionally, a new song selection mode will allow players to mix songs with new levels.

• A second wave of job cuts is taking place at Meta, with 10,000 jobs to be made redundant with another 5,000 vacancies to remain unfilled.

• Chucklefish has announced Wargroove 2, a sequel to the 2019 turn-based tactical game. A trailer revealed a return to the Advanced Wars-esque combat along with a new fantastical setting with pirate ships, treasure hunts and sea creatures.

• New games are sure to pop up thanks to the founding of new studios all over the place, whether it be Creative Assembly opening its Newcastle-based studios, or the completely new Fuse Studios set up by former devs at EA Criterion. IO Interactive has also opened a fourth studio to work on its multiple projects, based in Turkey.

• Its also been a month with some ill-judged decisions. NHK has reported that co-creator of Sonic The Hedgehog, Yuji Naka, has admitted there is “no doubt” he had been involved in insider training for a mobile Dragon Quest game.

• In a Reddit post, Obsidian have apologised following performance issues with The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice edition on all platforms.

• Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier is reporting Warner Bros. and Rocksteady have made the decision to delay Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League following its recent gameplay reveal. Neither developer nor publisher have officially confirmed this news.

• Finally, the actual factual Olympics has announced its own esports series, with the finals to take place in June 2023. The games included in the line up of official  Olympic Sports esports include Tic Tac Bow for Archery, Gran Turismo for Motor Sport, and Just Dance for Cycling. Just kidding, it's for Dance.