Awards season has come and gone and with it,Elden Ring reins supremein 2022, bringing with it the Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2022. What was supposed to asignificantly shorter showthan is previous years was extended a bit by a lengthy acceptance speech from the voice of Kratos, Christopher Judge, as well as a brief but unexpected appearance by a prankster name-droppingformer U.S. President Bill Clinton.
In all, we’ve counted close to three dozen announcements coming out of this year’s show, and a single wrap-up article isn’t going to do them all justice. Luckily, we’ve been hard at work catching up on the action over the past few days, including — but certainly not limited to — the first footage ofHideo Kojima’s Death Stranding 2, the surprise announcement ofFromSoftware’s newest Metal Core game, an officialHide N Seek mode for Among Us, and officialrelease dates for Diablo 4,Baldur’s Gate 3,Star Wars Jedi: SurvivorandFinal Fantasy 16, all coming in 2023.
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With star-studded guest appearances from actor Al Pacino and singer Halsey, this year’s Game Awards looked more mainstream than ever, and the big-name appearances are extended to games as well, with the announcements of legendary filmmartial artist Chuck Norrisin Crime Boss: Rockay City andaward-winning Actor Idris Elbamaking his entrance into Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. We can’t wait to see how Geoff Keighley attempts to top himself in 2023.
Rough Times For Xbox?
With all the excitement over awards season and the new first peeks at the biggest games of the future, it’s easy to lose focus on the present. Thursday wasn’t just awards day, it was also the day the United States Federal Trade Commissionfiled a lawsuitin an attempt to block Xbox’s parent company from acquiring Activision Blizzard and its intellectual properties, with concerns that it could damage competition in the console, subscription gaming, and cloud gaming markets. It’s the latest stumbling block for Microsoft, which has been rather successful in garnering support around the world for its business plan. From the sound of Xbox marketing headAaron Greenburg’s commentsthis week, the legal debacle is responsible for his company’s lack of reveals at The Game Awards, but he promises there’s plenty of good things coming in 2023, naming titles like Starfield, Perfect Dark, and Fable.
Meanwhile, Xbox’s head honcho, Phil Spencer, has beencriticizing main competitor PlayStationfor hyper-focussing on the exclusivity of the Call of Duty franchise despite his repeated promises to keep it open across the console market for years to come.
Objection!
Xbox isn’t the only one with legal battles ahead, as the gaming scene this week has started to look like a courtroom drama. Riot Games is heading to the courtroom too, suing Chinese publishing company Netease for what its heads believe is ablatant mobile rip-off of Valorant. The original minds behind Disco Elysium havedismissed a suit against Studio ZA/UMregarding an alleged hostile takeover that led to several creators leaving the company involuntarily, although both sides are claiming the high ground and more lawsuits may be pending.
And stepping away from civil suits and into the world of white-collar crime, Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Nakahas been arrestedonce again for insider trading, this time in connect with him allegedly buying up shares of the developer of a Final Fantasy mobile game.
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