Nintendo showcased much more of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remake during its E3 2019 presentation. While the game looks largely like a faithful reimagining of the classic Game Boy adventure, we learned it will introduce at least one major new feature, a dungeon creator, and we got a glimpse of how that will work during a Treehouse livestream demo.
The dungeon creator feature is accessed from the Chamber Dungeon, a new location in Tal Tal Heights that replaces the Camera Shop from the DX version of Link's Awakening. When you clear a dungeon during the course of your adventure, you'll earn rooms from it (known in-game as Chambers) with which you'll then be able to create your own custom dungeons.
It doesn't appear you'll be able to customize the contents of these Chambers--it seems each is lifted straight from the game's existing dungeons--but you'll be able to rearrange the placement of the rooms in almost any order you please, provided you meet some basic requirements; for example, each dungeon will need to have an entrance, as well as a boss room, and all of the doorways within the dungeon must be connected to another doorway.
Series producer Eiji Aonuma shed a bit more light on the new Chamber Dungeon feature during the Treehouse demo. "I've always wanted to create a way for players to create their own dungeons, but I didn't want to make it anything too hard," he explained through an interpreter. "Just like solving a puzzle, I wanted to make this Chamber Dungeon easy enough for people to play and feel like they're solving a puzzle."
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening launches for Nintendo Switch on September 20. In North America, the game will release in standard and Dreamer editions, the latter of which includes a hardcover art book. In Europe, however, players will be able to pick up an extravagant Limited edition, which comes with an art book as well as a steelbook case that resembles an original Game Boy. You can read more in our Link's Awakening pre-order guide.
Nintendo is also releasing a new Link's Awakening Amiibo alongside the game. When scanned into the game, the figure will add a "plus effect" to the Chamber Dungeon. As Nintendo explained, these plus effects "are layered on top of the Chambers and add a new gameplay variant." The Link's Awakening Amiibo in particular will add Shadow Link, who'll chase you throughout the dungeon. The game will also be compatible with any previous Zelda Amiibo figures, which can unlock additional Chambers.
That wasn't the only big Zelda news to emerge from Nintendo's E3 Direct. The company also announced a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in development for Switch. Nintendo shared an eerie teaser trailer for it to close out the Direct; you can read our trailer breakdown and theories here. The Zelda spin-off Cadence of Hyrule also released on the Switch Eshop this week.
Xur has returned for another weekend in Destiny 2 with a couple of Year Two Exotics you might need to fill out your collection. And with the first Iron Banner of the Season of Opulence kicking off next week, one is especially handy--provided you're not using a sniper rifle to chase the new Crucible Pinnacle weapon like literally everyone else. Here's where to find Xur and a rundown of what he's selling.
Like last week, Xur is once again on Nessus. You'll find him on Calus's golden barge, standing near all those glittering treasure chests filled with Imperials. His big offer is the Forsaken linear fusion rifle The Queenbreaker, which fires powerful bolts of arc energy great for popping the heads of your Guardian adversaries in the Crucible or when invading in Gambit and Gambit Prime.
On the armor side, Warlocks have access to a second Year Two Exotic this week: Geomag Stabilizers, a pair of boots that extend the duration of your Chaos Reach Super when you're dealing damage with it. Sprinting can also top off your Super energy if it's near full to get you blasting away with Chaos Reach more quickly. For Hunters, there's Knucklehead Radar, a helmet that maintains your radar even when aiming down sights. It's very handy for Crucible as well, providing a more detailed radar readout when you crouch. Finally, Titans can snag the ACD/0 Feedback Fence gauntlets, which store energy when you make melee kills and release it in an explosion if you take damage from a melee attack.
Xur Exotics For June 14-18
The Queenbreaker (Exotic linear fusion rifle) -- 29 Legendary Shards
Geomag Stabilizers (Exotic Warlock leg armor) -- 23 Legendary Shards
If Xur's inventory doesn't interest, you can also buy a Fated Engram, if you can afford it. Dropping 97 Legendary Shards on the item will grant you one Year One Exotic you don't already have for that character. Xur also offers the Five of Swords challenge card for free, which allows you to add difficulty modifiers that increase your score in Nightfall runs.
And if you haven't finished all of Xur's Invitations of the Nine from the Season of the Drifter, you can snag one of those as well. The bounty was new in Season of the Drifter, dispensing Powerful gear rewards, a bit of story about the Nine and the Drifter, and a lore drop.
Fan favorite anti-hero Harley Quinn is getting the Black Label treatment with Harleen, a brand new limited series by writer and artist Stjepan Šejić. The book, which will include three oversized, prestige-format issues, will "re-examine" the tragic origin story of Dr. Harleen Quinzel as she sets out to do some good for the world by curing mental illness--only to finally succumb to madness herself under the influence of the Joker.
Take a look at these special preview pages below.
As a part of DC's Black Label imprint, Harleen will be set outside of the main continuity of the DC Universe, which allows it to put its own spin on the familiar origin story. In a recent press release, Šejić described the book as "...a story of a flawed person who meant well, a doctor who fell in love with her patient. It is a story of her road to hell--paved with good intentions--and a smile that cost her her soul. More than anything, it is a tale about good people falling. Falling in love, falling from grace, and falling apart."
The first issue of Harleen will be released on September 25, with issues #2 and #3 following monthly, everywhere comics are sold.
Dutch developer Guerrilla Games has pulled the curtain on some saddening news as E3 2019 comes to a close. The studio announced that its lead producer Patrick Munnik passed away. He was just 44 years old.
The news landed early morning Thursday, June 13. The Horizon Zero Dawn developers took to Twitter to deliver the news, saying Munnik is "no longer with us" and that the studio is "eternally grateful" for his contributions to the team.
It is with great shock and sadness we inform you that our lead producer Patrick Munnik is no longer with us. We are eternally grateful to have had our greatly valued and much loved Patrick on our team. pic.twitter.com/IpeNvSMmht
Herman Hulst, Guerrilla's managing director and co-founder, shared his heartache on Twitter as well, calling Munnik a "reassuring presence" whose great humor and friendship "will be sorely missed by our entire the team."
According to a GamesIndustry.Biz report, Munnik joined Guerrilla in 2011, holding the role of senior producer for the duration of his time with the company. He worked on both Horizon Zero Dawn and Killzone: Shadow Fall.
It's the end of an era for longtime ThinkGeek fans, as the digital store announced this week that ThinkGeek.com officially is shutting down. Starting July 2, ThinkGeek's curated collection of apparel, collectibles, and other geeky merchandise will be available only in a ThinkGeek section at GameStop, its parent company. The 40 physical ThinkGeek stores across the US will remain open, but ThinkGeek.com will no longer be a place to shop.
This is sad news, as ThinkGeek has had one of the largest collections of high-quality exclusive merch out there, and it's unclear just how much of that product offering will be moved over to GameStop's site. However, there is one thing to soften the blow: ThinkGeek is currently offering 50% off everything sitewide with the promo code MOVINGDAY. All sales are final, and that code excludes free shipping. Due to the high volume of sales, ThinkGeek suggests writing down your confirmation number or taking a screenshot, as you may not receive an order confirmation email.
If you've been saving up Geek Points, ThinkGeek's program that lets you earn points as you shop and later redeem them for free stuff, now's the time to use them. On July 3, all remaining Geek Points will be converted to an email coupon that you'll be able to redeem at GameStop. ThinkGeek will also honor any returns on orders placed before June 13. As stated earlier, anything purchased after June 13 is a final sale. Fortunately, ThinkGeek gift cards will continue to work at ThinkGeek stores and GameStop.
This is a great time to snag any items you've been eyeing at ThinkGeek, as there's no knowing for sure whether it'll be available again. The storewide sale spans every category and interest, so you're sure to find something you want (or that someone you know would appreciate--early Christmas shopping, perhaps?). Check out some of the items that caught our eye below, and browse everything on sale at ThinkGeek. Be warned--we expect their stock to start selling out fast, so grab what you want ASAP.
Mortal Kombat 11 may have another DLC character reveal incoming, thanks to an odd sequence of events surrounding a case of grand theft auto during E3 2019. NetherRealm boss Ed Boon offered to show off a new fighter as a reward for helping a friend find his apparently stolen car, and now that it's been located, the community is waiting to see if it leads to a DLC reveal after all.
Boon first made the offer in a tweet on the afternoon of June 13, seeking help to locate the car of his friend, Shane Satterfield. Satterfield requested help with more details about the make and model of the car with his own tweet, plus a partial license plate number. Satterfield added that he had already checked with the police and the car was not towed. Boon specifically recruited E3 attendees to help out since the car was stolen in Los Angeles.
Hours later, Satterfield announced that the car had been found with a picture of it in a parking garage. He said he found it with his wife, but thanked the community for helping to keep his hopes alive throughout the ordeal.
A lot of people hate on Twitter, but today I saw the good it can do. It is a powerful tool when wielded the right way. It didn't literally find my car, but it kept me motivated to not give up.
Technically, Boon's offer was to reveal a new fighter if E3 attendees helped find the car. It's unclear if fans played any role, but the car was found, and Satterfield was grateful for all the help, so that would seem to fulfill the requirement. Boon didn't specify when or how the reveal would come. He did, however, acknowledge that it had been found on Thursday night, tweeting, "Great news!"
So far NetherRealm has officially revealed Shang Tsung, Spawn, Nightwolf, and Sindel as DLC fighters. The first MK11 Kombat Pack will include 6 DLC fighters in all, plus one-week early access to them.
The Final Fantasy VII remake is one of the biggest games at E3 2019, and now we know it's coming to the two highly anticipated next-generation consoles. Publisher Square Enix has all but confirmed the game will be playable on PlayStation 5.
"I believe that our teams have made it so that the game will support both the next generation and the current generation of consoles," the company's president and CEO, Yosuke Matsuda, told Game Informer. "I believe it is being developed so that it is going to be playable on both, so I'm not really concerned about that and I believe that the fans are also going to be able to enjoy it on both, including the next-generation of consoles."
Matsuda did not confirm, however, whether this will be achieved via backward compatibility--which will be a part of both PS5 and the new Xbox console, Scarlett--or if the game will be released on those consoles. In previous generations, games have come to, for example, both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 as developers attempt to maximize sales and simultaneously take advantage of the new hardware's power. GameSpot has contacted Square Enix for clarification.
Final Fantasy 7 has so far only been confirmed for PS4. We got a much closer look at the game during Square Enix's E3 2019 press conference, with an extended trailer as well as an extended gameplay and combat demonstration. Square Enix also revealed the game will span two Blu-ray discs when it launches on PS4, and the publisher will offer an extravagant $330 collector's edition through its online store. The highly anticipated game will finally launch worldwide on March 3, 2020.
For video game fans, E3 is the most wonderful time of the year. We get to see new games, perhaps some new hardware, and the finest of memes. E3 also sees the internet's more creative types flex their artistic muscles and fill our timelines with incredible art. What better way to celebrate the return of some favorite characters, or welcome new ones, than with fan art? Well, we were blown away by what we saw this year, so we thought we'd share some. If you like what you see, please be sure to show each artist your support, and remember to always credit art when you share it online!
The Legend of Zelda's New Hair
One of the biggest surprises of E3 came right at the end of Nintendo's Direct, with a Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel announced. Fans were of course ecstatic, including pretty much everyone at GameSpot, but some fans were drawn to something else.
The trailer we saw features Link and Zelda, seemingly beneath Hyrule, about to discover (or awaken?) a new evil. Fans were quick to notice Zelda's new look and were just as speedy to pick up their Wacom pens to pay tribute. With any luck this might mean we see Zelda as a playable character in Breath of the Wild 2.
Another character to get a revised look was Final Fantasy VII Remake's Tifa Lockhart. Fans had been eagerly awaiting a glimpse at this favorite character ever since the Remake was announced, and judging by the amount of art we saw popping up on Twitter, people were very pleased indeed.
Tifa will be a playable character in Final Fantasy VII Remake, and our first look at her in action has us pretty excited for March 3, 2020 when the game releases on PS4.
Shortly before E3 kicked off, we were treated to a Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield Direct, which of course led to a flurry of fan art. Nintendo's E3 Direct was no different, as we were introduced to Nessa, the Water-type gym leader.
Fans attending E3 were lucky enough to challenge Nessa in an all-new Dynamax battle, where Pokemon grow to the size of houses, which makes for quite the spectacle. Something in the demo that went a little under the radar was two new Pokemon--that is until fans took to Photoshop and Procreate to celebrate them. First up we have Yamper, an Electric Corgi Pokemon.
Pokemon Sword and Shield is set in the Galar region, which is inspired by the United Kingdom. Fitting, really, seeing as the Queen herself is famous for her love of Corgis. We're not quite sure how this next one fits in, but we love it all the same. Impidimp looks like it is going to cause some mischief, and we are here for it.
Nintendo didn't stop inspiring artists there, as its E3 Direct finally delivered on something fans had been looking forward to since last E3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons was finally revealed, albeit delayed to 2020. The next game in the much-loved Animal Crossing series will see us starting over on a deserted island, thanks to entrepreneur and noted loan shark Tom Nook. At least he has dressed for the occasion.
— LittleRedBean Art 🌱 (@LittleRedBean23) June 12, 2019
While some are looking forward to the truly fantastical idea of interest-free loans and affordable housing, others are already picturing what life will be like on the island.
It wasn't just video game characters to be immortalised with art though; no, it was the hosts, too! Keanu Reeves stole the show at Microsoft's E3 Briefing, as it was revealed he would be starring in Cyberpunk 2077 as Johnny Silverhand. It gets better though, as Keanu walked out on stage to stunned fans, which led to this wholesome interaction.
Keanu wasn't the only host to get fan art love, as Tango Gameworks creative director Ikumi Nakamura gave us one of the most honest and enthusiastic presentations yet. Here we see her joining Keanu and Jon Bernthal's dog Bam Bam, who won our hearts before we saw more of Ghost Recon Breakpoint. What a good dog!
Nakamura's fan art doesn't stop there, and it's safe to say she has single-handedly sold us on GhostWire: Tokyo.
I couldn't help but smile watching the charismatic and adorable developer, #IkumiNakamura eagerly presenting her upcoming game during E3 😊 pic.twitter.com/zlo6OSTCWe
Looking forward to GhostWire: Tokyo! #E32019 Also: @nakamura193 is so precious! ＼＼\٩(๑`^´๑)۶//／／ I just played Okami for the first time recently and was very happy to see that she had worked on it. pic.twitter.com/SkZzIvo7LQ
And last but not least, it may not be the Year of Luigi (good times), but 2019 could be the Year of Gooigi, with the release of Luigi's Mansion 3 later this year and a new slimy version of our favorite green Mario brother.
Do you have some favorite fan art from E3 2019? Be sure to share it in the comments below, as there's only so much we could fit in this article. If you enjoyed this, you can read more about the unexpected stars of E3, and be sure to check out our early impressions and gameplay from all the games featured at E3.
Epic's Fortnite is a massive, worldwide phenomenon that's achieved a level of popularity that few could have ever imagined. The free-to-play game almost didn't even exist, however, it's been revealed this week at E3 2019.
Rod Fergusson, the former director of production at Epic Games, has revealed that he wanted to cancel Fortnite when he was at the company. At the time, the project did not have its battle royale component (which has driven the game's success), and it was facing some challenges.
"If I stayed at Epic, I would have canceled Fortnite. Absolutely," Fergusson told Game Informer. "Before I left I tried to cancel Fortnite. When it was just Save the World, that was a project that had some challenges. As the director of production at the time, that game would not have passed my bar for something we should have continued to keep going."
Fergusson did not elaborate as to what the difficulties were with Fortnite at the time. He left Epic in 2012, going on to join Irrational Games to help close out the development of BioShock Infinite. He then joined Microsoft when the company bought the Gears of War franchise from Epic, and he now heads up Gears 5 studio The Coalition.
Fergusson said he doesn't lose sleep over leaving Epic before Fortnite exploded in popularity. "I'm super happy for their success," he said.
He again reminded people that Fortnite might not exist if he stayed at Epic. "That game you love, the worldwide sensation, it would not exist had I stayed at Epic," he said.
Fortnite's battle royale mode was released in September 2017, following the initial Save the World mode. This is when the game really took off.
Fergusson likely had no idea Epic wanted to make Fortnite a battle royale game, as he left the company a half-decade before the game was even released.
This week at E3, Dark Souls developer From Software officially announced its next big game, Elden Ring, which it worked on with A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin. But just how involved was Martin the creation of the game?
Speaking to IGN, director Hidetaka Miyazaki explained that he himself wrote Elden Ring's main story, with Martin contributing to the wider mythology and lore. Miyazaki said Martin did not contribute to the game's story because he felt that the format of video games was too limiting for Martin's ambitious storytelling.
"Thanks to Martin's lore, Elden Ring's world and characters naturally have a lot more depth and personality," Miyazaki said.
Miyazaki went on to say that Martin probably will not release a novelization of his contributions to Elden Ring, and that's on purpose because doing so would mean that "all the secrets and mystery that is hidden in our game would be revealed."
Martin himself has always said that he had a support role for Elden Ring. Prior to the game's announcement, Martin said he did some "consulting" work on the game.
Elden Ring sees you travel throughout a massive open world, exploring multiple kingdoms that are each ruled by a powerful entity. Defeating said rulers gifts you with their power. The pre-rendered trailer shown at E3 doesn't reveal much else, but it establishes the game's bleak and mysterious tone, which is essential to any From Software game.
CD Projekt Red made one of the biggest splashes during E3 2019. During Microsoft's E3 press conference, the developer released a new trailer for its upcoming RPG Cyberpunk 2077. Said trailer ended with the reveal that the character Johnny Silverhand is voiced and mo-cap performed by Keanu Reeves. The acclaimed actor then came out on stage to confirm Reeves' involvement.
We sat down with Cyberpunk 2077 lead quest designer Paweł Sasko to talk about Keanu Reeves involvement in the game and how the character of Johnny Silverhand evolved through his involvement. Turns out Johnny is Cyberpunk 2077's second most important character, only following main protagonist, V. The full interview has been transcribed below, with edits made for coherency. Cyberpunk 2077 is scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on April 16, 2020.
Why Keanu Reeves?
We already had the role of Johnny Silverhand created and prepared in the demo, in this story and we knew this character would be very important from the very beginning throughout the end of the game. And the thing is that throughout your interactions with Johnny Silverhand, you can actually craft this relationship in various different ways. Now we knew that, and we were looking for an actor that could actually play this role. And yeah, we had a few options, but very, very early, it was almost a year ago there was an idea to just try [for Keanu].
Because the thing is that Keanu's known for playing strong characters that are fighting for something. I think that's a key thing. Let's say, John Wick, right? There, he's fighting for survival. Before that, you have Matrix, where he was fighting to be freed, for freedom. And before that you had Johnny Mnemonic. So all those characters were always strong characters that were fighting for something. Thing is, Johnny Silverhand is very similar because he is a fighter for something, he's of a Samurai band. And the Samurai is this rock band, and [Johnny] is a very charismatic guy that just goes in and acts with a gun in hand.
And so we were looking for an actor that would fit that. And our business branch of CD Projekt Red, they suggested, "Okay, let's try [Keanu]." Because [he fit], but we said, "No, that will never work out. That's just impossible." But we decided to go for it. So our business branch contacted him and we started talking to him and we sent a few people to his office to show him what [Cyberpunk 2077] is, what the role of Johnny Silverhand is. We were actually surprised because he picked up on that character fairly quickly, and he even started suggesting, "Okay, maybe I could act like this or that." And we saw that he was getting into the role, really getting into it. So, of course, we nailed down all the details regarding contract and so on. Our business branch took care of it, thankfully, they managed to do that.
So we got Keanu on the set. We had him suit up. Put him into the animation studio just to see how he looks. We scanned him completely to recreate him in the game, and he approved the model of Johnny Silverhand--the one that we showed in the [E3 2019 trailer] and also the one that is in the [private E3 2019 demo]. In the longer version, you see the role that Johnny's playing in the game, because he's very important. He's actually the one that is leading V throughout many different encounters. He has his own agenda, he's not always really nice and he's not always your friend. He's this digital ghost, and you are seeing him while others are not.
Johnny Silverhand was killed in 2020. He was killed by Adam Smasher in Arasaca Towers and suddenly he's appearing here [in 2077] and he has a very strong connection with the chip that V is trying to steal. That CGI trailer is a part of the game, actually. You can play it as a quest in the game. And [the trailer is] basically the relationship between V and Johnny throughout the game. Now when we started recording Keanu, he was getting into the character and we're like, "Wow, okay, he's already picking it up." And he was actually interested in how it works out. [Keanu is] not really a guy that is a gamer, but he's actually really interested in games. And he's super clever and very open. He's very humble. That's another thing that I can talk about in a moment, but he's very open, you know? And when we started talking about and looking for [Johnny's mannerisms] Keanu had a lot of suggestions for lines.
And then we gave him lines, and our adaptation director introduced him to the scene--explaining what happens like the director for a movie--Keanu started acting and said, "I would like to suggest this thing or that thing, or I would actually play it like this or that." And he's also the guy who can take feedback very well, you know, I think he's used to it, being directed, but also trying to look for his own vision for the character. And very, very often he was suggesting, "Okay, yeah we should change this because that sounds more natural, that will be better," and so on.
And so he was a really good asset in the team. So we recorded the lines and then put together the demo where you can actually see Johnny Silverhand with the body, with the voice, and it actually turned out really well. I mean, it wasn't perfect that first time and we had to do some tweaks on both his side and our side. But there were things that worked out almost instantly. And we started really liking this character. And the thing is, at the very beginning we had this vision for Johnny Silverhand, but it was a different vision. It was not completely different, but the Johnny Silverhand that we have in the game, it's the version that Keanu saw, or thought of, or felt that would fit.
So [Johnny] is a bit different than how we originally imagined, but it's great. I think it's just because [Keanu is] a good help for us. We appreciate all the Hollywood experience he has. Because it's a rare thing. Another thing is, all the other high key actors like this, they really are hard to work with. We worked with a lot of stars in the past for [some of the Witcher games] and for Cyberpunk, but working with Keanu is way better. Because he can take feedback. He's humble. He's not trying to be a star or be someone of a huge caliber. It's just really good to work with him.
I think he was interviewed by IGN and they asked him, if he anticipated such a reaction on the [E3 stage]. And one of the things he said was, "Nah, it's not me. It's CD Projekt and Cyberpunk. People love them." And I mean, I know that people like CD Projekt. I know that people like Cyberpunk and I really appreciate it, but he got that reaction. I think he's really the only human on the earth that can walk onto a stage and do absolutely nothing but look at the people and just make everyone absolutely lose their shit.
Honestly, I thought I would be the first guy that got up when he walked out on a stage, but I was probably the last one. The whole crowd was already standing.
Our office exploded during that moment. I don't know if you're willing to talk about it, but could you describe what about Johnny's characterization has transformed since Keanu's involvement?
I mean I could, but I probably shouldn't.
Totally fine. You spoke before about how Johnny is this digital ghost. So, is he along for the ride inside V? And is he there for the majority of the game, like from beginning to end, or is Johnny introduced closer to halfway through the story?
No, no, no, it's not halfway. [Johnny's introduction] happens at the end of the prologue--which is long. It's a substantial part of the game, but it is still very early. It's not right away, but it's after the events from the CGI trailer. Like that trailer is actually a part of the game. You actually play through it in first person and play through the events that lead to that moment when V wakes up in the landfill and see Johnny Silverhand in front of you saying, "Hey, wake up Samurai, we have a city to burn."
So Keanu is in a band. Johnny was a part of a band in Cyberpunk 2020. Are we going to hear Keanu sing in Cyberpunk 2077?
Oh, I can't talk about it at this point.
Figured I would try. Was it always the plan to have Keanu be a part of that E3 reveal?
Oh yeah. When we knew we had him in the game, we knew we were going to use him in a way that would really show how much we are investing in this project and its characters… So the [E3 idea] came about fairly early from our marketing team. Just have him walk on the stage with a really huge bang to just make a gigantic impression. And to be honest, our marketing team, they are wizards. Like, I don't know how they did it. I would not have come up with that idea.
And so there was this moment when we really had to be very careful, and make these details wouldn't slip to the press in any way because if they had leaked in any way, everybody would have just said, "Cool, it's Keanu. We already knew he was coming."
And you somehow kept it completely secret.
Yeah. We kept it for almost a year. And it was just at a conspiracy level for us.
Considering everything that did leak prior to E3 2019, it's impressive.
Yeah, we were using code names and all kinds of things to just make sure that nobody ever leaked it. We had strict rules in how to refer to him just to make sure that nobody heard about this, because it was just such a huge thing. And yeah, it actually worked out.
With Johnny in your head, Cyberpunk 2077 sort of feels like a few other games, like Portal with GLaDOS or Halo with Cortana. Is Johnny a static passenger who's only along for the ride or does he regularly interact with and evolve alongside V?
No. I understand from where these comparisons are coming from and they're probably justified, but in the game, John Silverhand plays a completely different role. He's a protagonist and antagonist at the same time. He has his own agenda. There are things he wants from life. Like he was a guy who was a freedom fighter, but from the perspective of the corporations in 2020 he is probably seen as a terrorist. And the fire in him, like the line that he says--"Wake up Samurai, we have a city to burn." Yeah. He's fucking serious. He is dedicated and he has his own goals and the thing is that he's not this passenger that is accompanying you, he tries to control you, he tries to impact you in very different ways and it's really the player's decision when it comes to what extent.
I don't want to say more here because I would have to spoil that main story and this is an extremely important bit of the game, but basically the way that V relates to Johnny, what they do together, what they decide on together, that's a really important part of the game and depending on your choices you'll have different consequences and this relationship will develop slightly differently. And at the end, the epilogue of the game, the outcome of your story depends on what you have done with [that relationship].
So because of that, I don't think the Cortana reference or the GLaDOS one is justified. I don't want to tell you more. I want to explain how Johnny is different, but then I would have to tell you exactly what happens. I'd destroy the fun of the game for you in two minutes.
I'd have to sign an NDA before I left here.
Exactly.
So is Johnny just another side character in V's story or something more?
Johnny Silverhand is one of the primary characters. I would say someone like Jackie is a secondary character in comparison to Johnny Silverhand. Johnny Silverhand is absolutely one of the biggest characters in the game. Like the only one bigger is V, the main character of the game. Like Johnny Silverhand is a second [main character], and the really important one. He is there throughout most of the game; visible and present and interacting with the player in a really meaningful way. So yeah, I think you guys will be surprised actually what we have done with [V and Johnny's] relationships. I'm really happy about it, because I'm working on the quests that are allowing the player to deepen the relationship between Johnny and V in some special ways.
So yeah, those are the quests that I designed and am implementing myself. I just loved them. So I just hope the players will be glad.
Is Johnny something that only V sees and interacts with or will we see Johnny having an outward effect on other characters and events in the game?
So, yes and no. The thing is that Johnny as a digital ghost is seen only by V. But it does not mean that he doesn't have an impact on other characters. But to tell you how, I would have to disclose the main storyline. So, yes, he's big in the game and he's important and he has an impact on the other characters and on the world around him, but that is as much as I can say. But yes, he is seen only by V. But through V he can do way more things and that's a part of their relationship. I would call it a play, they're each pushing the other, you know, creating a bit of conflict in their relationship. What you will do with that is up to you.
So like two psyches in one body, sort of way?
You could say so, yeah. But I don't want to say more.
Square Enix officially revealed its new Avengers game this week at E3 2019, and the reaction was mixed. Specifically, people on the internet were upset about the new character designs for main characters Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner. The designs are new for the game, with some criticizing them for being bland. Others have taken issue with the fact that they are not based on the actors' likenesses from the MCU films; they also feature different voice actors.
Given the outcry, will Square Enix change the character designs in the wake of the criticism, like what's happening with the Sonic the Hedgehog movie? No. Square Enix is committed to the character designs it's created for the game, according to lead creative director Shaun Escayg of developer Crystal Dynamics.
"We are always listening to, and welcome feedback from our community. There are currently no plans to change our character designs," he said.
While the character designs are not going to change for the Avengers game, Escayg reminded fans that the footage shown so far is from a very early, pre-alpha version of the title. As such, the game should look better and better over time.
"The level of detail and overall polish of the character models will absolutely continue to improve as we get closer to launch," he said.
Escayg told The Hollywood Reporter that the development team never considered using the likenesses of the actors from the MCU movies. "We wanted to clearly show that this was our spin on the Avengers," Escayg says.
The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red could have developed The Witcher 3.5 and made a quick buck. However, the studio opted instead to make Cyberpunk 2077 because churning out a sequel runs counter to the company's ambition to always push the boundaries and try new things. That's according to founder Marcin Iwinski, who said at E3 this week that CD Projekt Red is "not a games factory."
"We would love at a certain point to tell more stories about The Witcher, but when and how I cannot tell you now," he explained at the E3 Coliseum. "We are not a games factory. We treat games as an art."
Iwinski said CD Projekt Red's ambition is to "push the bar higher" with every new release. As such, while the Polish studio theoretically could have made The Witcher 3.5, it decided to try something completely new with Cyberpunk 2077 instead.
"We want to push the bar higher with every single game release. It's not about getting The Witcher 3.5 out there which would be fairly easy--of course it's very difficult. Using the same engine, telling the same stories; the technology is established. And making a quick dollar. But that's not [what we do]," he explained.
In working on Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red will learn a lot about making new games, and some of these learnings could be applied to a new Witcher game potentially, Iwinski suggested. Overall, Iwinski said CD Projekt Red's vision to always develop "new amazing gaming experiences."
Also in the interview, Iwinski said CD Projekt Red wanted to create two main development teams inside the company after The Witcher 3 so it could be working on multiple big projects simultaneously. However, this proved too difficult for a variety of reasons and it didn't happen. As such, the team that worked on The Witcher 3 shifted over to Cyberpunk 2077, Iwinski said.
Iwinski's comments on The Witcher 3.5 are similar to what Halo studio head Bonnie Ross said recently. She spoke about how Microsoft considered developing Halo 5.5, but abandoned those ideas and instead pursued a much more ambitious game with Halo Infinite.
Finally, Iwinski said CD Projekt Red is currently in the polishing phase for Cyberpunk 2077. This is the most challenging part of the development process, Iwinski said, adding that he expects the team to be able to deliver "some amazing bells and whistles graphically" when the process is finished.
Marvel's Avengers, the ambitious new superhero game from Square Enix, will feature microtransactions like many other AAA games do. Crystal Dynamics lead Shaun Escayg confirmed this to IGN at E3 2019. He said, "There will be custom outfits that you can purchase in microtransactions."
Lead combat designer Vincent Napoli told IGN that players will be able to purchase customization extras, though "there is nothing that affects the gameplay" that you can buy. As of yet there is no word on what these customization options will be, but you can imagine different skins or emotes or things like that.
In an effort to keep the Avengers game community together, Crystal Dynamics will offer the game's post-release characters and locations for free. It's unclear what will be added, but there's a wide range of characters in the Marvel universe to consider.
The character that The Matrix and John Wick actor Keanu Reeves plays in Cyberpunk 2077, Johnny Silverhand, is key to the story. This much we already knew. But now CD Projekt Red founder Marcin Iwinski has shared some insight into just how big a role Silverhand plays in the game this week during E3 2019.
Appearing on the E3 Coliseum stage this week, Iwinski said he wants fans to know that Reeves has much more than a cameo role in the game. In fact, only one character speaks more lines than Silverhand does (that's presumably the main character, V).
"He's the No. 2 character in terms of lines of spoken text across the entire game," Iwinski said. He added that Reeves spent 15 days recording voice lines for Cyberpunk 2077.
"You will see a lot of Keanu and hear even more of Keanu," Iwinski said.
He added that CD Projekt Red approached Reeves about a year ago for the role. After some back and forth with his representation, Reeves read the game's script and he "immediately" got into it and wanted to be a part.
Silverhand appears as a hologram in your character's head, and he is a key character in the story. "He's a primary character in the game," lead quest designer Pawel Sasko told GameSpot.
The Entertainment Software Association, which organizes E3, announced that this year's show featured more than 200 exhibitors, and about a fourth of them--or around 50--were attending for the first time.
For comparison, the ESA said E3 2018 also featured more than 200 exhibitors, and it said 85 of them were attending for the first time. Around 3,250 different products were shown off at E3 2018, but the ESA did not say how many were displayed this year.
One major difference for E3 2019 is that Sony did not attend for the first time in the event's history. Activision also decided to bow out again. According to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, E3 is worse off without them.
E3 2020 returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center June 9-11. That means the show is expected to actually begins on or around June 6 if EA again decides to start its show at the weekend, with Microsoft, Bethesda and others following with their own press conferences before the show floor opens on the Tuesday of E3 week.
One of Microsoft's major reveals at its E3 2019 press conference was the announcement that it had acquired Double Fine Productions, the development studio founded by Tim Schafer. Double Fine joins Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground Games, Compulsion Games, and a few others on the list of acquisitions.
It begs the question: Why is Microsoft spending so much money on bolstering its roster of developers? The obvious answer is that it wants more exclusives to make Xbox platforms more attractive to customers, but, actually, there's more to the strategy than meets the eye. Following the Xbox press conference, we caught up with Matt Booty, head of studios at Xbox, to discuss this and more.
How much are you aware of the audience you're trying to engage when you come onto the stage and you talk about Microsoft's portfolio of studios and games? Obviously you want to hype up or appeal to the core gamers but, when you've got a new platform, you also need to flex for the mainstream press, right?
So in the last 20 years, the number of people playing games has tripled. So I remember in the 90's doing talks and saying, oh some games will be as big as music. And then, someday games will be as big as movies. And we've completely eclipsed both of those. And so now it's just crazy to see just how many people are playing games. And with our goal of reaching all two billion people that are playing games on the planet today, your point about reaching to a broader range of gamers you know really thinking about a whole bunch of games that people want to play with the community and friends that they want.
We've all got different groups of people that we play games with and then anywhere they are. It's so important to us. Because games have become just a part of society now. I mean Phil had those words, Phil talks about how it can become kind of a unifying force for the world. But it's only possible because games have just become part of the fabric of life.
Really we start planning for this show pretty early in the year and there's a lot of work by the teams that go into getting us here. And I can say that almost all the decisions that we make and everything that we end up putting on stage has more to do with the players and the fans than anything else. It's great if we just wind back a year or so. Last year I was talking about how [Xbox boss Phil Spencer] became part of our CEO's leadership team and the importance of gaming inside Microsoft. But given that, it's not like somebody comes in and says, "Make sure you hit these key points." And we have an amazing amount of support and with that support comes latitude to really talk about the games that we think are important to the players and share the things that are important.
So between last E3 and this E3 you've been on kind of like studio acquisition run. What's the thinking behind that? Why are you guys out there looking to acquire studios?
Yeah, so you heard a lot about what we're doing today in the briefing if we just kind of recap it. We start with games, sixty games. We have 14 first party games, 30 of those will be available in game pass and then we've talked about streaming and so we've hit that point, being home streaming, the cloud streaming. Then we showed a new console and there's a lot of stuff that we covered.
Game Pass is the center of gravity for everything for us. The fans and the players inside Game Pass want content, they want games. So my job, really my goal, is to make sure that we're providing a steady stream of great new games into Game Pass. Right? So that if you become a Game Pass subscriber, you know that on a regular beat you're going to be getting great new games.
And with the development time for games, I think it's a lot longer to make a game than it does even a full season of some TV shows, right? We need lead time. So it turns out that if we're going to keep that cadence going we just need a lot of people creating content. And that's really what's been driving it for us.
Game Pass is still fairly new and the industry as a whole is still used to selling boxes. When you acquire a studio or when you speak to a development team how do you tell them what they're going to create this game, spend years on it, and you're basically going to give it away for free. Or we're going to give it away for a subscription fee, which feels nominal compared to the time and effort that goes in. How do you convince them that there's still value in that?
It's a great question from the developer point of view. I love you're looking at that way. Let's go to something like, so you are the director of Game of Thrones and you've been making Game of Thrones and people watch through and HBO subscription and you aren't talking about ticket sales. You're not talking about movie theater opening box office, but clearly Game of Thrones has had a huge impact on pop culture, right?
We can talk about Stranger Things going into Netflix. Same thing. For us, Game Pass in that conversation becomes much more about discovery and it becomes about how you can open up your game to a broader audience. It becomes about really delivering players to the game that those developers have made and a much broader audience.
You know that is part of the equation that we acquire the studio and hopefully by doing that we remove some of the financial pressure on the studio. Tim Schafer, right after the briefing posted a video and he talks about how when he comes up with a game idea now, he doesn't have to go and spend all his time shopping it around to all the publishers looking for somebody to fund that.
So hopefully we can take all the time that the developers used to spend having to do that and put that back into creativity. And if that's what Game Pass enables then I think that's great from a creative standpoint. We know for example that game pass can bring a lot of new people. We can tell just by looking at some of the information that we get that a lot of the people that are playing State of Decay 2 have really were never on Xbox before. So the fact that they can get in easily through Game Pass and ended up playing … I just love that.
So I think it is certainly the case over the last 20-30 years you know as long as I've been in games. Everything used to be based on units right? How many units is that? And then we kind of got into this world where things like Metacritic and review scores started to matter. And I think now, it's really just, it's more about audience, it's about audience reach and how can you connect with the most number of people that are going to play your game? I think Game Pass is a fantastic place for putting your name in front of your players.
I guess there's certain types of games where Game Pass is very obviously beneficial. Do you generally lean towards certain types of games that fit the bill for the service? You take a look at Bleeding Edge for example and something like Game Pass is perfect for it because it gets people to it and then they're engaged in a service based model with the game.
One of the more satisfying things about Game Pass that we've seen is that games like Forza Horizon 4, that are in Game Pass and could be a traditional game with a pretty traditional structure, is doing fantastic in game pass in terms of people playing it and enjoying it. All the way through to Minecraft, which is also doing well. Same with Sea of Thieves. We've got State of Decay in there. So those games are all getting a lot of usage inside Game Pass which is great.
For that reason we don't really prescribe what kind of game somebody should make. What we try to do is try to give them information, here's what we see in game pass, here's what we see doing well, here's kind of the way we think about it. And then we let the studios go after that. Again, I think for them, they're North Star more comes down to how I connect with players. How do get this in front of a bigger audience?
So when you're making a studio acquisition, what exactly is it that you're looking for? Because you've made, recently, between Obsidian, Ninja Theory, and Double Fine. These are beloved studios that make fantastic games but seem like they've had a bit of tumultuous period of late. From an outsider's perspective, it may seem these acquisitions are a bit of a rescue effort.
When we look at a studio, it's what I said on stage today, we really look at people, teams, and ideas. And in terms of people, we are attracted to and tend to have relationships with studios who share our vision of where gaming can go.
So they see gaming as something growing in global popularity, they understand that gaming can be a unifying force that bring people together, and they are very player and fan driven. So when you think about just even when Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Double Fine they are all very very connected to their fans. So in terms of the people. In teams it is important to us, and one of the things that I really value is that studio like Ninja Theory, a studio like Double Fine, it's not that they just had one hit game, they have really stuck with it through success and through adversity.
I think that says a lot about the character of the studio and also is a great indicator that they know how to run a studio. That they know how, they've got cohesiveness that they know how to stay together. It's a really different challenge and a different approach when you've got a game that maybe didn't do so well but yet you manage to keep your studio together and kind of dive in and get back at it.
So to me that just talks a lot about character. And you look at Ninja Theory it's been around for 10-15 years you look at Double Fine for 20 years I mean Obsidian goes all the way back to the Interplay days. So these are studios that kind of been through it all and that idea is if you kind of connect the dots on the studios we've got and you'll see that we really are attracted to studios that have had multiple ideas. Because did somebody come up with a good idea? Or did they just get lucky?
When I look at what Tim Schafer's done with, excuse me, Double Fine, it's clear that he knows how to create process to generate new ideas. So he's not sort of the one song wonder kind of thing. Same thing with Ninja Theory, look at the consistent games that they've put out.
So that's really how we think about these studios. People, great people, share our vision, teams that have stuck together through highs and lows and then they've made more than one game. They've had many ideas.
Now to your question about their financial situation. I think that is a reflection of some economic things that have happened in the games industry where we're seeing that there's a ton of activity and fantastic help at the level of our ID@Xbox program where you've got smaller teams making smaller games and I love that our ID program is a place where that stuff can come in and then we are very fortunate to have big franchises like Halo, Gears, Minecraft. There's this place in the middle that it turns out it's really hard to run a studio that's got 60-100 people. Now what you end up doing is having to put together a lot of different publishing deals, maybe having to take on work that isn't about games.
You end up kind of having to really think about dovetailing and overlapping the resources in the studio, all of which, really at the end of the day, takes up time. So our approach is, hey if we can come in with a Tim Schafer, Nina Kristensen Ninja Theory, and if we can say, however much time you were spending meeting with publishers at GDC, however much time you were spending on other projects to help pay the bills we can make all that go away. And you can take all that energy and put it back into the games and the creativity.
And I think we can unlock some things, right? So just like Undead Labs that we acquired last year, State of Decay 2, great games but you know that game started out for probably closer to the AA, indie, side of things and it's fantastic to think about Undead Labs being part of Xbox games studio. Because I think that we can give them the resources we can give them access to the other studios and we can help them take that next leap forward to what needs to happen to make their next game really big. That's really... we were just this morning having some conversations with some of the folks at Ninja Theory you know. How's it going? Go over and visit there this summer and we hear quite a bit about how we've managed to unlock the ability to hire key people. We've managed to bring a sense of security so some more senior people are willing to go work there. We've given them just resources to go take that next step. Now whatever that next step is, I think the production value on Hellblade was amazing.
I mean that game was basically a AAA production value in a AA scoped game. But if you think about what can Ninja Theory do with more resources that's amazing to think about.
This is a weird perspective to come at it from but how much of giving these developers unlimited resource, so to speak, changes the way they make games and the games they make? Hellblade is what is because of the restraints that were placed on Ninja Theory. It is a reflection of the limitations they had. How do you approach changing the ethos of the developer and the creators energy by bringing almost anything they want to the table? Does it change?
We are really taking the approach wherever possible to leave them the way they were. And to really get in and do as little to that studio as possible post acquisition. And part of that does come down to sort of how they were operating and how they were working right?
It is a little bit of a balance because I do want everybody in those studios to feel secure and I think that we can look at what we've done with Mojang as a proof point. We will come up this fall on the five year anniversary of the acquisition of Mojang and that studio is going as strong as ever. You saw Minecraft Dungeons that are in pre stage, we just announce Minecraft Earth a couple weeks ago. And the Minecraft team on stage at Apple WWDC. I think that that really is where some of my job and some of the studio head leadership job comes into, is how do we balance giving them the resource, now I can go get those four technical animators I wanted. Or you know now we can go do this crazy mo-cap session we wanted to do. Balance the new resources with... You know we don't want to lose that creative edge.
I think that's a good question and it gets to the heart of what the job of the studio heads is, what my job is. I don't think it would be accurate to say that they've just got a blank check but your point is really well made. I think that really what I'm banking on to make sure that that doesn't happen is that there's so much stored creative energy that it's going to be a while before that starts to slow down.
So one of the interesting things about these acquisitions is a rather gracious approach from Microsoft to allow these developers to still publish games multi-platform and fulfill existing arrangements.
I really, I mean it starts and ends with the players. I would just feel horrible if I got excited and even in the case of something like Psychonauts 2 was a Kickstarter backer for game and then I found out that I wake up one morning and suddenly it's not playable on the thing I thought it was going to be playable on. We took that principle of player first in what we did with Minecraft. Minecraft ships on 21 platforms. Now that isn't to say we haven't done a lot of things just taking advantage of Xbox and taking advantage of things that only exits at Microsoft like HoloLens in the work that we've done there.
But it really just comes down to the players and player choice. Whenever one of these happens it's like one of the first discussions that we have with somebody is yeah of course, if you've already got your PlayStation version in the way, we're going to let you keep making that. Or your kick starter fans expect this thing to show up on the Switch then we're going to go ahead and do that.
How much does that factor into future games? Once Obsidian's existing agreements, same for Double Fine, are taken care of, is it like, "Okay this is a Microsoft game studio now and you're going to be making exclusively Microsoft games." If a developer comes to you and says, "Hey, I've got this idea for a game, I want it to be multi-platform." Is that something you'd consider?
I think we would first of all look at everything on a case by case basis. It is, to be clear, the goal with these studios is to provide content for game pass and to provide support for all the new things that we talked about today. Everything from Mixer to Xbox live gold to Xbox... we've got the Game Pass Ultimate with streaming and everything. Our job as first-party is really to be there first with all of that. At the same time we have a great relationship with Nintendo, a great relationship with Sony, and if it made sense I don't want to rule that out but to be clear, our main mission is going to support game pass.
Is there a studio out there that you would love to acquire and which one would it be?
[Laughs] I can't answer that. When I talked about like people, teams, that idea is that so much of this does come down to relationships that we've built and people that we've worked with and I don't want to say that means it's somebody we've had to have worked with before in the past or something. And I'll also say that there's not some kind of, there's not like a list on my wall and I'm kind of checking them off one by one.
That's kind of disappointing. I wanted a dartboard situation.
[Laughs] I'm not just throwing darts. It really more because a lot of work and effort goes into getting to meet the studios, meeting the employees, spending time with the employees. We have a whole team of people that make sure that they've got everything they need. Somebody like [Ninja Theory founder Tameem Antoniades] building this studio ... Like that's kind of a big deal to then turn around and sell it.
To me it's really more about let's focus on what needs to happen on that person to person relationship and let's focus on you know what we need to do to get everybody in the studio comfortable and to me that's a lot more important than thinking about what the next one might be.
How much of a focus are you mandating these studios place on content for current systems versus content for Scarlett going forward? Is it, like, "Ok, start developing things for the next hardware and finish up what you're doing here?"
So we really in that case again it's just about player choice. We want to make sure that we are hitting a broad audience and we want our fans to be able to play up and down four generations of consoles. So we want to have Xbox one support. But the advantage of being first party is that we have direct access to team working on project Scarlett. You know I sit in meetings, I'm part of those meetings. You know we can... One of the first things we did when we started working with Double Fine is send team down to Double Fine to go disclose them on everything we're doing with project Scarlett.
So they've got a front row seat to what that's going to be and how it's going to work and how that's going to come together. So we absolutely want to take advantage of that so I think it's about supporting the family of Xbox devices while making sure that things play best on Scarlett.
Nintendo had another strong showing at E3 2019, sharing exciting details about upcoming Animal Crossing, Pokemon, and Zelda games, among others, during the Nintendo Direct presentation. If all of the upcoming offerings inspired you to finally bite the bullet and buy a Nintendo Switch, Best Buy is here to help you get set up right by throwing in a free SanDisk 128GB microSDXC memory card with every Switch purchase. Simply add one of the basic Switches to your cart (note that the deal does not encompass bundles) and the memory card, listed as a $68 value, will be automatically added. There is no end date listed on the sale, so get in on it while supplies last.
A new version of the Switch didn't make an official appearance at E3, like many suspected it would, but a report released during the show suggested that new Switch models are entering production. Nintendo didn't need new hardware to make its fans happy, however, with reveals like The Witcher 3 coming to Switch, Banjo-Kazooie coming to Smash Bros., and--probably the most exciting--the first tease of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2.
Tesla is getting another video game. In an E3 Coliseum panel at E3 2019, Todd Howard announced that the management sim Fallout Shelter will be coming to Tesla autos. No release date was mentioned in the announcement.
The word came from a panel with Bethesda's Todd Howard and Tesla's Elon Musk. The conversation was wide-ranging and often esoteric or even odd, but Howard slipped a comment about their partnership in the midst of it.
"We are actually working together," Howard said. "We are working on Fallout Shelter for Tesla. So you'll have your little dwellers on the screen and they live in the car."
Responding to a call-out from a member of the audience suggesting Skyrim on Tesla, Howard joked, "We're going to start a little smaller."
Similarly, StudioMDHR recently announced that Cuphead would be appearing in Tesla autos.
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