No Man's Sky Delayed

Kotaku reports that the highly anticipated video game No Man’s Sky is not going to make their June 2016 release date. GameStop has confirmed that they have yet to receive any promotional material for the game with the June release date and have instead been told to tell people that it’s “coming soon”. This isn’t the first time the game has reported delays but it’s still disappointing.

Tetris Movie in development

According to Deadline the Tetris movie project is eyed as an $80 million China-U.S. co-production under Threshold Global Studios,Threshold Global Studios, a new banner formed by Bruno Wu and producer Larry Kasanoff. Threshold has been working with The Tetris Company for over a year, presumably to flesh out story details and really make sure they were nailing the deep, rich mythology of blocks falling into rows.

Nintendo pushes new Console to 2017

With flagging WiiU sales everyone suspected that Nintendo was working on a new console. Turns out everyone is correct, just not for this year.

TechCrunch reports that in the company’s latest financial forecasts, Nintendo formally announced that it “is currently developing a gaming platform codenamed ‘NX’ with a brand-new concept. NX will be launched in March 2017 globally.”

Along with that announcement came word that the next Legend of Zelda game will be a launch title for the NX while simultaneously being released for the Wii U in March 2017. No other details about the NX or its launch titles have been officially released.

Final Fantasy XV, finally!

This week the release date for Final Fantasy XV was leaked ahead of the official Square Enix press release but they also had a ton of other news about the game too.

·       Release Date September 30th, 2016.

o   Game trailer: https://youtu.be/C05PC_dGjsw

·       Final Fantasy XV is getting its own anime series. Dubbed Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV, the series is somewhat of a prequel, telling the story of main character Noctis and how he came to be friends with the three characters that he'll be traveling with in the game.

o   Episode 1 https://youtu.be/fsVhwsUFaDE

·       CGI Final Fantasy Movie Coming This Year, Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV

o   Movie Trailer: https://youtu.be/otB3zq6ppwc

The Microsoft-Sony Crossover

Microsoft announced it is opening up network gaming to allow players of games on Windows and Xbox to compete against players on other platforms. Rocket League will take advantage of the feature with Xbox One/PC network play allowed later this spring. This means that PlayStation players could in the future face off against Xbox One players online.

Sony responded that they’d be open to a conversation ‘with anyone’ about cross platform online play. Please note that Sony has allowed online play between PC and PlayStation since it first came out.

Fable Legends Canceled

In a press statement this week Microsoft announced that is has cancelled the latest Fable game ‘Fable Legends’ and has announced plans to close Lionhead. Founded in 1996 by Peter Molyneux and bought by Microsoft in 2006, the game studio has produced such iconic game franchises as Fable, Black & White, and The Movies. However, in recent years the studio has struggled with overhyped products and poor game sales.

Disney Infinity Next

Disney released a video this week outlining their plans for the upcoming expansion of the Disney Infinity 3.0 line.

Disney plans to release four new Play Sets that are compatible with Disney Infinity 3.0 in 2016 – including Zootopia, and The Jungle Book.

Disney introduced three new characters: Black Panther, Ant-Man and Vision.

Disney is also introducing four-player local co-op gameplay to Disney Infinity called Marvel Battlegrounds. The system will also support all the Disney 2.0 characters.

Sword Art Online: The Beginning, Game or PR project?

It’s been widely reported this week IBM and Namco Bandai have partnered up to create a VR game using Sword Art Online as it’s that the recently announced Sword Art Online: The Beginning is an actual virtual reality MMO game that’s in development, sponsored by IBM Watson, and that 208 lucky people selected to participate in an event in Tokyo in March will see a glimpse of the game’s “Alpha”.

Road to VR, a major source of VR news, wrote an op-ed piece examining the announcement made about the new collaboration between IBM and Namco Bandai. They point out several facts that lead them to concluded that Sword Art Online: The Beginning as a 20 minute VR marketing demo. It is a neat marketing stunt for both IBM Watson and the Sword Art Online anime/manga/movie.

1) Sword Art Online: The Beginning was announced as an ‘Alpha’ that is referenced is not an ‘Alpha’ in the game design sense. It is an “Alpha” in the fictional sense since the Manga and Light Novel set the fictional characters in a 'Beta' Version of the SAO world.

2)It is said that a certain Dr. Akihiko Kayaba has met with an IBM Researcher who, through Watson, have made the ‘Alpha’ possible. Dr. Kayaba, however is not a real person, he is a character in Sword Art Online who, inside the show, creates Sword Art World and the fictional NerveGear VR system.

3) The experience is not being created by a game design studio, but instead it’s being developed by an independent creative agency (with the very confusing name of 1→10), which has previously created a VR marketing experience for Pepsi.

4) Road to VR spoke with Shun Kubota, Editor in Chief of Mogura VR, the leading virtual reality publication in Japan. He confirmed that the marketing concept behind Sword Art Online: The Beginning is to show “what it would be like when the cognitive computing IBM is developing is used in future gaming technology.”

“So it is not actually a real game in development, it is just a marketing experience to show off VR, Watson, and Sword Art Online?” I asked. “Exactly,” Kubota told Road to VR.

We at GeekBytesPodcast are disappointed to too.

Amazon Prime now offers 20 % off new game releases

Amazon is making it cheaper for Prime members to play the latest video games. As part of a new benefit of Amazon Prime, the company is offering those with a subscription a 20 percent discount on new game releases. The deal covers any physical game (i.e. no digital downloads) and is available from the time the game is available to preorder through two weeks after it launches.