🕹 Please wrap it up

Good Morning. A bit tardy on this last edition of the week, but better late than never, right?

Did you watch the Game Awards this week? We’ll catch you up below.

— Tim Rhyne, Derek Neville, Jason Liu

MAIN QUEST: Game Awards — Ads, controversy, and “please wrap it up”

The Game Awards aired earlier this week with an eventful three-hour broadcast. This year has been hailed as one of the best in terms of video game releases in the past ten years, in part due to the delays of the COVID era. However, it also marks a challenging time for the gaming industry, with several thousand job losses reported across numerous gaming companies

Overall, the results were somewhat predictable given the year's standout titles. Notably, "Alan Wake 2" and "Baldur’s Gate" received high praise, dominating several categories. Meanwhile, some beloved games like "Zelda" managed to secure only minor category wins (whomp, whomp).

Here’s a recap of a major wins:

• Game of the Year: Baldur’s Gate 3

• Best Game Direction: Alan Wake 2

• Best Adaptation: Last of Us 2

• Best Narrative: Alan Wake 2

• Best Art Direction: Alan Wake 2

• Best Score and Music: Final Fantasy XVI

If you caught it live, then you probably saw that things were super rushed at some parts of the show to keep things on schedule. The “Please wrap it up” prompter has become a bit of an unfortunate meme.

HUD

• 👷‍♂️ Fortnite’s new LEGO collaboration has been a major success, with millions of people playing the survival game mode similar to Minecraft. Alongside the survival mode, the latest season of Fortnite also introduced an arcade racing game and a Guitar Hero-like music game.

• 🟩 Baldur’s Gate 3, 2023’s GOTY, has finally been released on Xbox Series X|S. Technical blockers originally prevented the hit RPG from being available to Xbox players, as the Series S was not powerful enough to run some of the features. The Series S version will not include a split-screen co-op.

• 🗺️ Verdansk, the original battle royale map from Call of Duty Warzone, is set to return to the game by the end of 2024, according to several reports. The map was removed in 2021 with Season 1 of Call of Duty Vanguard.

MAJOR W

• 🐟 Dave the Diver and Dredge are collaborating on a Dave the Diver DLC which will be available on Switch and PC on December 15th.

• 🪓 God of War Ragnarök is getting a free DLC next week. God of War Ragnarök Valhalla will see Kratos battling through Valhalla in a roguelike gameplay.

• 🚕 Sega will be bringing back a handful of its older IPs with new games, including Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio. The new games are currently in development and will start arriving in a couple of years.

F IN THE CHAT

• 🏴‍☠️ Ubisoft’s upcoming Skull and Bones has been delayed again, this time until February 16th, 2024. At this point, the game is best known for its numerous delays, but the new release date’s reveal at the Game Awards feels like it could stick.

• 🧟 The Day Before, one of Steam’s most wish-listed games of 2023, has finally been released and things have not gone smoothly for the controversy-ridden survival game. The influx of negative reviews has led to the game’s official Discord server being shut down by its moderators.

CAREER CORNER

• Data Pipeline Architect — Big Fish Games (Remote, Canada)

• Brand Marketing Manager, Apex — EA (Remote, UK)

• Senior Manager, Brand Marketing New IP — KRAFTON Americas (Santa Monica, CA)

HIVE MIND

WEEKLY CHECKPOINT

Have you been keeping up with this week’s headlines? Welcome to the weekly checkpoint, where we test your knowledge of the biggest gaming stories from the past week. Do you have what it takes to ace this quiz?

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