Video Game Culture: Last News

Snoop Dogg has left Faze Clan, following a difficult financial year for the esports and gaming lifestyle brand.In a letter filed through the United States Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC), Snoop Dogg stated he was resigning from Faze Clan’s board of directors “effective immediately”.The filing (via Dexerto) clarified that the resignation of Snoop Dogg, real name Calvin Broadus, was “not the result of any disagreement with the company or any of its subsidiaries”.Snoop Dogg joined Faze Clan’s board of directors in March 2022, and his responsibilities included creating content for the org, launching Faze-related merchandise and participating in “key business initiatives”.However, Faze Clan has struggled with tumultuous finances since going public on the stock exchange in July 2022.

Resident Evil 4 remake fan has modded a small mouse onto protagonist Leon Kennedy’s head, in reference to a viral tweet that reimagined the game’s Ashley Graham as a mouse.Since Capcom launched its Resident Evil 4 remake in March, fans have latched onto a Twitter post that asked what they would do if one of the game’s main characters – the president’s kidnapped daughter Ashley Graham – was a mouse.I saw a joke drawing that depicted ashley with big ears and this came to my mind, i never got past the boulder chase scene as a kid.— Mora (@Agrimmora) March 24, 2023The now-viral tweet has amassed over 17million views, and even inspired other Resident Evil 4 players to draw their interpretations of a mousey Ashley – who fans have dubbed “Moushley Graham”.Now, Nexus Mods user Cathroon has brought Moushley Graham to life with the Moushley Graham – Ratatouille Mod (via Gamesradar), which adds a model of Moushley to watch the horror game from Leon’s head.“This is Moushley Graham, she’s cheesed to meet you, and she craves violence,” reads the mod’s description.

Activision Blizzard regarding its handling of salaries in Call Of Duty and Overwatch professional scenes.In the lawsuit, the US Government stated that Activision Blizzard’s Competitive Balance Tax in its Overwatch and Call Of Duty leagues limited competition and “suppressed esports players’ wages”.The Competitive Balance Tax forced competing teams to adhere to a salary cap implemented by Activision, meaning they were fined if any of their players were paid above a certain amount.In October 2021, Activision Blizzard told Call Of Duty and Overwatch teams that the Competitive Balance Tax would no longer be enforced, following an investigation by the DOJ.“The Competitive Balance Tax substantially lessened competition between teams in the Overwatch and Call Of Duty Leagues for esports players and limited the players’ compensation,” alleged the DOJ, who added that teams who used most of their salary cap on more expensive players drove down wages for everyone else.If successful, the lawsuit would hit Activision with a financial penalty and order the company to avoid reimplementing anything like the Competitive Balance Tax again.“Professional esports players – like all workers – deserve the benefits of competition for their services,” said Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

Silent Hill publisher Konami has opened a new studio in Osaka, Japan, to provide “sustainable growth” for the 50-year-old company.The company’s newest branch has been named Konami Osaka Studio, and a press release from Komani has shared that it is equipped with motion capture equipment and sound studios.Konami explained that Osaka Studio will help it “continue sustainable growth in the next 50 years,” following the company celebrating its 50th birthday in March.Elsewhere, construction continues on Konami’s “next-generation R&D centre” in Tokyo, which is scheduled to complete in 2025.In the same press release, Konami also announced that it has “substantially” raised the company’s base salary level. This means an average increase of 50,000JPY (£303) per employee, while the base salary for new starters will be increased by the same amount.“We have taken various steps to promote management emphasized on human capital, improve employee engagement, and enhance its competitiveness,” shared Konami.Over the last year, a number of Japanese game publishers have issued pay rises for its workers.Back in February, Sega announced a 30 per cent pay increase for all workers, which will kick in from July 2023.In the same month, Nintendo confirmed it would be giving its employees a 10 per cent pay rise.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graphic novel The Last Ronin is being turned into a video game.Speaking to Polygon, Paramount Global’s senior vice president for games and emerging media, Doug Rosen, revealed that a third-person action role-playing game (ARPG) adaptation of The Last Ronin is in the works at an unrevealed studio.Rosen shared that the game is a “few years off” from launching, and likened the upcoming single-player game to Sony Santa Monica‘s God Of War series.The Last Ronin is one of the darker Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stories. Set in the distant future, The Last Ronin followed Michelangelo — the lone surviving Ninja Turtle, after his brothers and mentor Master Splinter were killed by Foot Clan.The premise is much darker than last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge; as Michelangelo attempts to murder the Oroku bloodline while haunted by hallucinations of his deceased siblings.Rosen shared that although other characters could still be playable in flashback sequences, the main action would stick to Michelangelo in the game’s present.Looking ahead, Rosen teased that more information about The Last Ronin and other TMNT games would be shared in the next few months and years.It’s a good time to be a TMNT fan, with the likes of The Cowabunga Collection and Shredder’s Revenge launching in 2022.Since its release last June, Shredder’s Revenge has been hugely successful for developer Tribute Games.

Respawn Entertainment is opening a third studio to support the development of Apex Legends, weeks after parent company EA laid off over 200 of the game’s testers.Respawn’s third studio will be located in Madison, Wisconsin, and will initially support the company’s battle royale shooter Apex Legends.As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the studio will be led by Ryan Burnett, who previously worked as Epic Games‘ director of engine production and, prior to that, worked at Call Of Duty developer Raven Software for 14 years.“Wisconsin is quickly becoming a central development hub here,” Burnett told GamesIndustry.biz.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has shared that the organisation’s upcoming FIFA game series will be “the best egame for any girl or boy,” despite moving away from long-time developer Electronic Arts (EA).As noted by The Times‘ chief sports reporter Martyn Ziegler, Infantino confirmed that FIFA still plans to launch its own football game to rival former FIFA developer EA.“The new FIFA game – the FIFA 25, 26, 27 and so on – will always be the best egame for any girl or boy,” stated Infantino, who added that FIFA will “have news on this very soon”.Infantino says FIFA will go head-to-head with EA Sports by launching rival video game (EA Sports refused cash demands to keep FIFA's name)"The new FIFA game – the FIFA 25, 26, 27 and so on – will always be the best egame for any girl or boy, we will have news on this very soon."— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) March 16, 2023The company’s partnership with EA came to an end in May 2022, following reports that negotiations “hit the wall” when FIFA demanded double the money it was receiving from EA in its existing deal.When the partnership ended, Infantino said “the only authentic, real game that has the FIFA name will be the best one available for gamers and football fans”.“The interactive gaming and esports sector is on a path of unrivalled growth and diversification,” he added.

Splash Damage has announced that it will be partnering with content creators Shroud and Sacriel to create an open-world survival game.Codenamed Project Astrid, the upcoming AAA game will be set within an original IP and launch as an open-world survival game.While more details on the game are yet to be announced, Mike ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek has stated he has high hopes for Project Astrid.“This project means everything to me,” said Shroud. “Chris and I have refined a vision for what’s next in the survival genre and with Splash Damage we’re setting out to build it.

Criterion Games general manager Matt Webster has announced the founding of Fuse Games, and has told NME why he stepped away from EA to start a new studio with other Criterion veterans.Announced today (March 16), Fuse Games is based in Guildford, UK, and currently numbers 17 employees.The studio has already started work on a AAA title with “significant funding”, and has claimed its debut game will fuse “uncompromising attention to game-feel with blockbuster spectacle and player-centric innovations in social gameplay, self-expression, and creativity”.Speaking to NME, Webster shared more on the direction that Fuse will take for its first game.“Over the last decade, Fuse’s founding team has had a lot of experience in a variety of genres, with work on games like Battlefield and Battlefront, as well as racers like Burnout and Need For Speed when we were at Criterion,” reflected Webster. “It’s too early to announce what we’re working on at Fuse right now, but we’ll be sticking to the values that have served us well over the years – working fast, rapidly iterating, and letting our team be creative within the genre.”While Webster will serve as the studio’s general manager, he is joined by four other co-founders who worked alongside him at Criterion.

IO Interactive has shared that any “major” new Hitman game is on “a little bit of a hiatus,” as the studio focuses on creating its upcoming James Bond game.Speaking to Eurogamer, Christian Elverdam – the co-owner of IO Interactive and its chief creative officer – suggested that fans may be kept waiting for another Hitman game.“Right now a major, major new Hitman game: that’s a little bit on hiatus as we’re building another agent fantasy that’s also taking up a lot of our time,” said Elverdam. “But obviously we’ll come back to beloved Agent 47.

Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World has confirmed that it’s been the victim of a hack, following claims that “a huge amount of materials” from the game would be leaked if the Ukrainian studio does not apologise to Russian fans.Details of the hack first surfaced on Saturday (March 11) when a user from Russian social media site VK claimed to have “tens of gigabytes” of content taken from Stalker 2, including the game’s story, maps and cutscene information.The statement was accompanied by a number of unreleased screenshots and concept art from the game.In the post, the hacker demanded that GSC Game World “rethink [its] attitude towards players from Belarus and Russia,” remove the ban on the hacker’s account from Stalker 2‘s official Discord, and announce a Russian-localised version of Stalker 2.Currently, Stalker 2 is not available for purchase in Russia.The hacker has threatened to release the stolen Stalker 2 footage if GSC Game World does not comply by March 15 and claimed that “it is not necessary to spoil the game for people because of politics”.Yesterday (March 12) GSC Game World confirmed that although an employee had been hacked, it had no plans to comply with the hacker.A message from GSC Game World team pic.twitter.com/rqRM0tFZmO— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) March 12, 2023“This is not the first attempt to hack and leak our data, including personal information,” wrote the studio.

Dredge, clockwork puzzler Mechinus and Demonschool.The Official Selection was announced today (March 9) and features over 30 games that will be playable during London Games Festival, which will run between March 29 and April 9.The games are spread across five categories: Best Of British, High Energy, Historial Adventure, International Innovators and Pixel Power.You can check out the festival’s Official Selection below.When London Games Festival kicks off, these games will be showcased at the Platform Bar Exhibition.Elsewhere, London Games Festival will also feature partner events with W.A.S.D, the BAFTA Games Awards and Now Play This.

50 Cent has deleted a number of social media posts that fans believed to be teasers for Grand Theft Auto 6.The rapper’s original posts on Twitter and Instagram claimed that something “bigger than Power” was in the works, and featured an image of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City‘s logo.While 50 Cent claimed he would “explain this later”, the posts have since been deleted on both social media channels. However, this snapshot from Wayback Machine shows the Instagram post before it was deleted.The social media posts caused fans to suggest 50 Cent will be involved in Rockstar Games’ upcoming title Grand Theft Auto 6, which is currently in development.

Ubisoft is reportedly shutting down offices across Europe, with the company telling NME it is working on a “strategic reorganisation” of its European subsidiaries.Today (March 3) a Resetera user claimed to have received an email from Ubisoft announcing the closure of an office in Benelux.“As we all know, the market is constantly evolving and as an organization, we need to keep up with it,” reads the supposed email. “At this time, Ubisoft is facing several challenges due to external factors, such as the decline in sales volume of physical games in favor of digital sales, the centralization of marketing by digitizing all our communication channels, the shift from major retail releases to F2P, mobile and seasonal games and less major physical shows.”“To meet the challenges of the future, Ubisoft’s management has decided to close a number of subsidiaries in Europe,” it continues.

Capcom Spotlight has been announced for next week, with the developer telling fans to expect “updates and new information” about its upcoming games.The Capcom Spotlight will take place next Thursday (March 9) at 10:30PM, and Capcom says it will run for approximately 26 minutes.As for what the show will contain, Capcom’s website claims it will feature “updates and new information about our upcoming games,” including its Resident Evil 4 remake and Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection.When the showcase begins, you can watch it through the YouTube video below.Capcom’s next major release is Resident Evil 4, which will launch for PlayStation, Xbox and PC on March 24.Last week, Capcom shared a third trailer for the remake during Sony‘s State Of Play presentation. Besides a new look at the remade 2005 game, the latest trailer also revealed that Resident Evil 4 will bring back the series’ iconic Mercenaries game mode.The developer is “hard at work” creating the mini-game, and plans to launch it as free downloadable content (DLC) after Resident Evil 4 has launched.NME got to preview the Resident Evil 4 remake back in October 2022, and hailed it as a “worthy remix” of the original game.“Things look better, enemies seem smarter and altogether it’s a tougher game, without compromising on the weird humour and slightly clunky combat that made Resident Evil 4 work in the first place,” reads our preview.

The Simpsons: Hit & Run lead game designer Joe McGinn has said that he wants to see a remake of the 2003 classic, joining a growing list of the game’s developers who are calling for its return.Speaking to GamesRadar, McGinn shared that although he doesn’t know how likely it is, he “would love” to see a new revival of the cult classic driving game based on the animated Springfield family.While fans of the game have made their own Hit And Run remake using Unreal Engine 5, developer Radical Entertainment has never revisited its version of Springfield in an official capacity.However, McGinn isn’t the only one of Hit And Run‘s creators hoping for a remake. Back in 2021, The Simpsons co-showrunner Matt Selman admitted that a Hit And Run remake would be a “complicated corporate octopus,” but said he would “love” for it to happen.Prior to that, producer Vlad Ceraldi said it would be “wonderful” to update the game for modern audiences.As for Hit And Run‘s enduring legacy, McGinn told GamesRadar that he remains “proud” of what Radical Entertainment created.“I am very surprised and pleased that people still love the game,” shared McGinn.

Microsoft president Brad Smith has said the company doesn’t “see a viable path” to buying Activision Blizzard without its Call Of Duty series, warning regulators that any concessions of the like could “kill” the deal.Currently, the proposed £50billion acquisition is facing resistance from European, US and UK regulators, with a number of watchdogs pushing for Microsoft to make concessions for the deal to pass. One concession suggested by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was for Microsoft to sell the Call Of Duty series to another buyer.As reported by Eurogamer, Smith attended a press briefing in Brussels yesterday (February 21), where Microsoft defended its attempts at acquiring Activision Blizzard.“We just don’t see a viable path to sell the Activision studio or Call Of Duty game to someone else,” Smith told press.

Double Fine and 2 Player Productions have released a 22-hour documentary series that charts the making of Psychonauts 2.Titled Double Fine PsychOdyssey, the 32-part series follows Double Fine as it works on platform-adventure game Psychonauts 2, which was released in 2021. The series is a follow-up to Double Fine Adventure, which documented the creation of Broken Age.“Ten years after the release of their flagship video game Psychonauts, Double Fine Productions returns to its most celebrated franchise with Psychonauts 2,” reads the documentary’s description.

Netflix has announced that it will be launching a new game development studio which will be led by Overwatch executive producer, Chacko Sonny.During the TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 event yesterday (October 18), Netflix’s vice president of games Mike Verdu shared the news of the new California studio, which is currently unnamed (via VGC).“We are starting another organic new studio in Southern California, this time around Chacko Sonny, who oversaw production on God of War Ascension for Santa Monica and oversaw a portfolio of their games, and then was executive producer of a little game franchise called Overwatch,” Verdu said.“He could have gone anywhere, he could have raised money, he could have done anything and he chose to come here. We are building a team around him and looking to him to reinvent what games can be.”Chacko Sonny left Blizzard Entertainment in September 2021 in order “to take some time off.” He worked at the company for five years from 2016 but didn’t become an executive producer on the Overwatch franchise until 2018.

Capcom and Laced Records have announced a limited edition vinyl release for 1996’s Resident Evil game, which will launch later this month.‘Resident Evil (1996 Original Soundtrack) + Resident Evil Original Soundtrack Remix’ is a triple-vinyl set that will launch with standard and limited editions.Pre-orders for both editions will go live at 2PM BST tomorrow (October 20), and will be available through Laced Records.The standard edition will come with “traditional heavyweight black discs,” with “a widespined outer sleeve with Cerberus front cover and obi strip, and three spined inner sleeves.”As for the limited edition set, Laced Records has shared that it will come with a rigid board lift-off lid box with an exclusive Spencer Mansion atrium cover, and a 12-inch art print of this iconic moment from the first game. The set will also include “Heavyweight ‘brain matter’ colour LPs (grey & red A-side/B-side effect)” with spined inner sleeves, along with an Umbrella Corporation felt slipmat.The vinyl’s first disc features the original 1996 soundtrack by Koichi Hiroki, Masami Ueda, and Makoto Tomozawa.

Apex Legends in the form of Catalyst, who confirms herself that she is transgender in the clip.With only a short while until season 14 ends on November 8, Apex Legends has begun teasing upcoming new additions to the game. By crafting a golden ticket in-game, players will get access to the “A New Home” teaser tomorrow (October 18).