Month: May 2020

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has commented on the impact of COVID-19 on Microsoft’s plans to launch the Xbox Series X and new games on schedule.

Speaking to CNBC, Spencer said he feels confident that the Xbox Series X hardware will be able to launch on time this Holiday period. He said there was “some impact to schedules” for the hardware, but his team has been able to overcome those. Overall, Spencer said Microsoft is in line with its expectations for where it would be at this point in the year as it relates to the Xbox Series X hardware.

As for games, however, that’s a different story. Spencer said the nature of large-scale game development means that the work-from-home setup may lead to production slowdown.

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Within the wave of news amid the official announcement of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, developers at Ubisoft did their own breakdown of the reveal trailer. The four-minute cinematic trailer showcases the game’s Viking era setting, story premise, and what’s to come from gameplay. However, there are plenty of key details that the trailer doesn’t spell out.

In the video below, you can watch creative director Ashraf Ismail and narrative director Darby McDevitt talking through the trailer with Ubisoft news editor Youssef Maguid. They gave broader context for specific scenes and spoke about the approach for depicting Vikings with their culture and history in mind, and how the trailer also contains gameplay details. There’s also a hint as to how the new protagonist Eivor might be connected to the Assassins.

We have this next game in the storied franchise covered from all angles; be sure to read our own interview with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla narrative director Darby McDevitt for an even deeper dive into the game’s story. While a male protagonist is portrayed in the trailer, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will let players choose between a male and female lead. There are also a few details on how Assassin’s Creed Valhalla uses next-gen console features.

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The sequel to the 1996 basketball and Looney Tunes film, Space Jam, has finally been given a title. In an Instagram post on Thursday, LeBron James revealed that the title for the long-awaited next installment will be called “Space Jam: A New Legacy”.

The original film came out over 25 years ago and starred Bill Murray, Wayne Knight, Theresa Randle, and also featured cameos by Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Muggsy Bouges, Larry Johnson, and Shawn Bradley. The plot centered around Micheal Jordan during his brief period of retirement during the 90s, with the cast of the Looney Tunes desperately trying to rope Jordan into a basketball match against a team of aliens for the Earth.

Space Jam: A New Legacy is rumored to have a full cast of famous basketball players like the original, including a mix of players from the NBA and WNBA.

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Darkborn, the exciting-looking monster game from Battlefield and Payday developer David Goldberg’s new studio, has been put on hold. The game’s developer, The Outsiders, announced the change on Twitter, writing that the team may eventually return to the project, but probably not soon.

“In spite of our best efforts to continue, ultimately we had to make the difficult decision to halt development on the project,” reads a line from the studio’s statement. “Perhaps one day we will return to it: we all hope so and genuinely appreciate the support of everyone who followed us over the years.”

The Outsiders is moving on to a new project that’s described as “something new, something awesome, something we really love.” Whatever this game is, it will be revealed “very very soon,” the studio said.

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The chubby Pikachu and long Meowth variants were introduced as Gigantamax forms in Pokemon Sword and Shield. The plushies represent the original fatter Pikachu from the early versions of the series and Meowth as a longer version of itself, like the longcat meme. While the Sword and Shield games released back in November of last year, Japan has just released large plush forms of these big Pokemon to take home.

The Pikachu is 31 inches tall, 24 inches wide, weighs almost 10 pounds, and costs a hefty $411 (44,000 yen). The Meowth is about five feet and five inches tall and costs $308 (33,000 yen).

Both plushies are available for pre-order from the Japanese Pokemon Center’s online store. These plushies are made to order and will only be manufactured in limited supply. Pre-ordered plushies are estimated to be shipped by October 2020. A worldwide release in other region Pokemon centers has not been announced as of yet.

A new month in Animal Crossing: New Horizons doesn’t just mean new fish and bugs to catch, but also a handful of fish and bugs that are going away. You can hit up last month’s list to see what’s missing now that April is over, but if you want to look ahead and focus on what’s going away in June, we have you covered. Whether you have a Northern or Southern Hemisphere island, here’s every fish and bug leaving Animal Crossing at the end of May.

Fish And Bugs Leaving After May

Fish are first spotted in bodies of water as shadows, which come in a variety of sizes. We have a fish shadow size guide you’ll want to use to get a better idea of what the shadow sizes (which we label 1-6) look like in-game. All fish listed below have their corresponding shadow size next to them for easier identification.

Northern Hemisphere

The golden trout is among the most valuable fish in the game–it’s also new to the Animal Crossing series! It only spawns in clifftop rivers, just like the rare stringfish, so if you’re going to focus your efforts on fishing this month, you might want to grab your ladder and be on the lookout for this one. One of the best ways to catch rare fish is on a deserted island that has the right layout, since fish spawn more rapidly on Mystery Tours than on your own island–better spawn rates means less time crafting fish bait, though that is certainly recommended as well.

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While the Last of Us Part II has finally gotten an official release date, many of the details surrounding the HBO Last of Us TV show are still unknown. Back on March 6, Sony and Naughty Dog revealed that they would be teaming up with HBO to create an adaption of the popular series. In a recent interview with Fandom, Troy Baker has shared some news about the show.

Baker voiced and performed as the main character Joel in both the first game and the upcoming sequel. While the actor revealed that he hasn’t had much to do with the adaptation, he has a close friendship with Neil Druckmann, writer and executive producer of the TV and game series. Baker is also a massive fan of Craig Mazin, the head writer of HBO’s Chernobyl, who is writing The Last of Us TV show with Druckmann.

“I’ve been a huge fan of Craig Mazin for a while now,” Baker said. “So I was a massive fan [of the HBO series] going into it, not just because of Chernobyl, but because of [Craig] as a writer … he’s like the band that the bands listen to – everybody likes Craig! So I started following him on Twitter and he follows me back and I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m a massive fan of yours’, and he’s like, ‘I’m a massive fan of YOURS!’ We had this great Twitter DM love going back and forth.”

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Epic Games has announced some major changes to its Fortnite competitive game series for 2020, including the cancellation of its marquee event. The studio announced that all of the remaining Fortnite competitive events that were scheduled to take place in person, will now be conducted online. However, the Fortnite World Cup will not go forward as a digital event–or at all.

Epic said it’s cancelling the event outright “due to the limitations of cross-region online competition.”

Epic went on to say that it doesn’t know just when it will be able to bring back its in-person Fortnite tournaments, though the company is hoping for a return to normal operation by 2021.

Continue Reading at GameSpotThe first-ever Fortnite World Cup took place in New York City in July. The event had a prize pool of $30 million, and 16-year-old pro gamer Bugha (whose real name is Kyle Giersdorf) ended up winning the series and claiming a $3 million prize. He then