GTA 6 inbound

Good Morning. The holiday shopping season is coming up quickly, and Amazon announced that their Black Friday deals will start next Friday, November 17th. Expect tons of gaming deals this holiday season, not just on Amazon, but across all the big retailers, especially with the PS5 Slim releasing this week.

— Tim Rhyne, Derek Neville, Jason Liu

MAIN QUEST: GTA 6 inbound — a decade in the making

Rockstar Games has announced that a trailer for the next installment of the Grand Theft Auto franchise will be released in early December. This comes as no surprise, as rumors of a new GTA game have been circulating for quite some time, with Rockstar suggesting that investors should expect a strong 2024. The game is likely to feature the first female protagonist of the GTA franchise.

It's been over a decade since the release of Grand Theft Auto V, which has gone on to sell over 185 million copies worldwide. Despite the age of the current game, Rockstar has continued to support it with updates and ports to newer consoles. A big boost to the popularity of GTA V has been the vibrant modding community, which has been the center of innovation and controversy related to AI usage.

HUD

• 🔎 Epic executive Steve Allison took the stand as a witness in the company’s case against Google. He disclosed that the Epic Games Store is not yet profitable, 5 years after its launch. The case is centered around the cut Google takes from apps in the Google Play Store, such as Epic’s Fortnite.

• 📱 Sony-owned Crunchyroll has added mobile games without adverts or micro-transactions to its subscriptions. On top of their existing benefits, Android subscribers have this available today with iOS support soon. This is similar to Netflix’s approach to mobile gaming.

• 😿 Indie studio The Glory Society is halting development on its first title Revenant Hill and closing its doors following co-founders Scott Benson and his wife Bethany being unable to continue working in the capacity the team requires. Scott announced he had been diagnosed with severe heart failure shortly after the news went public.

MAJOR W

• Nintendo and Arad Productions will be partnering to develop a live-action Zelda movie. The project will be produced by Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto as well as Avi Arad. Arad has produced video game film adaptions including Uncharted and the upcoming Borderlands.

• Fans believe the hidden binary code in Bioware’s latest blog post points to Mass Effect 5 being titled Epsilon.

• 🎲 Baldur’s Gate 3 may soon feature an “Honour Mode” with fan speculation suggesting that if your party is wiped, so is your save file. Similar vibes to Diablo’s ‘Hardcore’ mode.

F IN THE CHAT

• 🍁 Ubisoft Montreal laid off 98 people from its business administrative services and IT team.

• 🤦 CoD fans are review bombing Modern Warfare 3. Only it’s the 2011 MW3, not the one with its global launch on Thursday.

CAREER CORNER

• Lead Narrative Designer, Digital D&D — Wizards of the Coast (Remote)

• Development Manager, The Sims — EA (Multiple, US/Canada)

• Junior Accountant — KRAFTON (Santa Monica, CA)

HIVE MIND

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