Angry birds cash in

Happy Monday. Did you know that in its entire history, the Mona Lisa has only ever been stolen once? On this day in 1911, a Louvre employee successfully stole the Mona Lisa. It was found 2 years later in Italy.

He must have rolled a natural 20 on Sleight of Hand dexterity check.

— Jason Liu, Derek Neville, Tim Rhyne

HEADLINES

Sonic spends his rings. SEGA announced on Friday that they closed their acquisition of Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds for $776M. With Rovio assets, Sega seeks to establish a stronger presence in mobile gaming. Will we be seeing more of Sonic coming to mobile?

Overwatch 2 Director responds to review bombing. In a recent blog, Aaron Keller, Director for Overwatch responded to the OW2 communities’ review bombing campaign over the apparent slashing of a major PvE campaign. Keller mentions that it’s unfortunate that they could not deliver on such an ambitious program but that it was good to see the surge of new interest in OW2. No such thing as bad press?

Call of Duty veteran dev calls it quits. After nearly 2 decades with Treyarch, a key development studio in the CoD franchise, designer David Vonderhaar has decided to seek new opportunities. Vonderhaar has helped to ship 8 titles, including the Black Ops series.

HUD

• 💧 Starfield is a leaky bucket. Tons of reviewer leaks are hitting the internet as it sounds like Bethesda was very liberal in providing review codes.

• 🔫 Indie hit Slime Rancher is being made into a movie with studio led by John Wick creator.

• 🗺️ Valve added all previously shipped maps into one playlist on the Counter-Strike 2 Closed Beta, giving players hope the full launch is coming soon.

THIS DAY IN GAMING HISTORY

• 🌈 Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six (1998) was released by Red Storm Entertainment, the first game in the Tom Clancy’s universe

• ☣️ BioShock (2007) was released by 2K, going on to win several Game of the Year awards

• 🔫 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released by Valve in 2012 as the 4th installment in the Counter-Strike series, which has resulted in one of the most popular esports scenes

PATCH NOTES

• 💣 Latest Escape from Tarkov patch adjusted the reaction of Kaban’s guards to grenades

• 🌌 Destiny 2 Season 22 is scheduled to drop tomorrow at 1pm ET

• 🥇 Remnant 2’s patch late last week addressed a number of bugs, including issues with progression

INDIE CORNER

Taking a Look Behind the Scenes

Sea of Stars is an upcoming RPG from Sabotage Studio set to release next week. While we have covered Sea of Stars in previous editions, last week Sabotage Studio and The Escapist teamed up to release a 30-minute documentary titled The Making of Sea of Stars. While the documentary is free of any Sea of Stars story spoilers, it does cover the founding of Sabotage Studio, the story behind their first game, award-winning The Messenger, and of course, a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming Sea of Stars. With so many AAA titles coming out in the coming months, this documentary is a great look into what it takes for an indie studio to put out a major release. It’s definitely worth the 30 minutes, especially if you plan on picking up Sea of Stars on August 29th.

HIVE MIND

MAJOR W

• 🤿 Dave the Diver adds significant quality-of-life improvements, removing need to button mash.

• 🧛‍♀️ Vampire Survivors now on new engine with couch co-op enabled.

• 🏴‍☠️ Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones is set to have another Closed Beta August 25-28. There will be no streaming restrictions, so we should get a good look at the game, despite its lack of a release date.

F IN THE CHAT

• ☠ Which gaming ‘traditions’ should die already? Redditors discuss in lively post — escort missions with slow subjects currently at the top.

• 😤 Bethesda Head of Publishing chews out tweet aimed at criticizing Starfield leaked menu design.

CREATOR SPOTLIGHT

TCaptainX: In-game killer, IRL hero

Tyler, aka TCaptainX, is a Call of Duty Warzone creator and a Registered Nurse. If those late-game clutches are making your heart skip a beat, TCaptainX has you covered!

If you want to improve your Warzone skills, you’re going to want to make your way over to his YouTube channel, where you’re going to find a video on every setting, loadout, and gameplay tip you could possibly need to go from being a bot to carrying your friends, family, and loved ones to win after win in Al Mazrah (or Ashika. Or Vondel.).

If high-level gameplay highlights are more your jam, then you’re going to want to check out TCaptainX’s TikTok, where he posts commentary over his game clips, along with the tips you can expect from his long-form content.

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