Welcome to video games on Engadget every week. Looking forward to a new story every Monday or Tuesday, divided into two parts. The first is a space for short papers and magazines on my video game trends and related topics, and journalist Jess Conditt covers the industry for over 13 years. The second contains the video game stories you need to know about the past week, including some headlines from outside Engadget.
Please enjoy – I will see you next week.
If I ended up reading a story about how wonderful it was Death Stranding 2 yes As long as you skip cutscenesI want to throw it away. In the 10-hour movie, we would put down the controller collectively and say, isn’t this a great game? Not because the game parts are bad, they are actually great – but because a large part of the experience is actually not interactive at all. When will it become more accurate to describe the Hideo Kojima project as a CGI movie with interactive moments rather than as a video game in the first place?
I’m not actually trying to solve the “Theseus’ video game” riddle now, but considering the recent headlines, this is the conversation I’m thinking. Death Stranding 2 Comments are in progress, Neil Druckmann is out at HBO and returns to Naughty Dog full time, with an Emmy nomination adapted from a video game with 18 nods. Meanwhile, layoffs once again shocked the gaming industry, opening fire on Xbox this month and canceling Xbox. One of the most surprising titles to get AX is Blackbird Project Blackbird, the promising MMO for Elder Scrolls Studio Zenimax online. Blackbird reportedly cancelled, supporting the allocation of resources to development Fallout 5series with mainstream influence after Amazon’s success fall out TV shows in 2024.
The fusion of video games and Hollywood is not a new conversation point, and even for me, it just became more relevant over time. Sony has made a special effort to participate in the cross-media strategy, making a well-known investment in the franchise of video games adapted by TV, anime and films, and has just published the work of “Island Production”‘ Death Stranding 2this is the lightning rod for the whole conversation.
Kojima is easy to choose because he has always been candid about his desire to make movies, and, over the years, his games have become more and more movies. Death Stranding Its sequel is stacked with mainstream Hollywood actors (and Kojima’s favorite director) who are in hours of non-interacting cutscenes. His next two projects, OD and physicsare all described as having an A-level cast and “blur the line between movies and games”.
I’m a big fan of experimental horror games and I’m deeply grateful to Kojima for building the nervous and sneaky action sequences, but I don’t want to be excited about it OD and physics. The deeper the island explores the Hollywood world, the more he loses me. I didn’t download, install and launch video games to watch movies, and I wasn’t impressed when defining interactive products through movie terms. The limitations of filmmaking are very different from those of video game development, and talented creators try to force video games to fit the boundaries of movies or TV rather than exploring the mechanics that make interactive art so powerful. I feel like Kojima sees movies as a goal, rather than a dedicated video game, a view that breaks my little pixelated heart.
This is especially painful in an age of instability in the video game industry. It’s hard to see projects that end up feeling more like movies and ultimately feel more like movies, and it’s hard to finally feel more like movies. Video games are not yet seen as an art form – there are more discoveries from mechanical, visual, tactile and immersive interactive systems, and only these specific tools can tell more stories. Watching game development through filmmaking lenses reduces everything that makes this medium so powerful. The Hollywood trait that the gaming industry should imitate is its powerful and powerful union.
I like to define what exists in the gray space between; in fact, I often prefer them. What I don’t like is the misguided simulation, which sells to the audience with innovation. Finally, I think what I really said is…I’m not over yet pt.
news
The King Developer is the architect who perishes himself
One of the most eye-catching details of Microsoft’s overhaul of its employees earlier this month is that King is the studio behind it Candy secret loveshot included. Historically, King was a currency press with high employee returns and often isolated from layoffs, but this time, at least 200 people were released. It turns out that many fired developers have spent the last few years training AI systems to get the job done, which only adds a layer of meanness to an already bad situation.
Best Buy will have more switch 2 units on Thursday
FOMO has arrived? After denying that you want a switch 2 in a few nobles and self-righteous weeks, are you good at and admitting that you really want one? Great – Then on Thursday, July 17th, the company will supply its own switches in all stores for gaming consoles 2. This is with release Donkey Kongbazaalso.
Ken Levine’s small update Judas (Sing like Lady Gaga)
I’m following JudasSince its 2022 release, Ken Levine’s “Bioshocky FPS” and my low-key people like it, we know very little about it today. That said, I was glad to swallow all the information about it Judasthe latest Nuggets comes from Levin himself in an interview with classic game publisher Nightdive Studios. and JudasLevine said the focus of Ghost Story is to “tell stories and transport players to somewhere” rather than building on-site services or microtransaction capabilities. As he said, “You buy the game and you get the whole thing. There is no online component. There is no real-time service.”
There is no release date either Judas However.
Summer games won’t stop raising millions of dollars for charity soon
The crazy kids in the summer game quickly finished the job and raised millions of dollars for doctors without borders one weekend, just playing video games in a stupid way without stopping. SGDQ 2025 ended on Sunday with a total donation pool of $2,436,614. The organization’s next event is another version of Flame Fatales, a fast display cabinet that includes women and women from September 7 to 14. We will see you there.
recall Aquarius 2 Studio Bosses is suing Krafton
well Aquarius 2 The drama is deep. Early July Subnatica 2 Studio Unknown Worlds Entertainment (Charlie Cleveland, Ted Gill and Max McGuire) were ousted by the team’s parent company Krafton, and the game’s early access release was delayed until 2026. And more. Bloomberg The report said that if by the end of the year the studio had reached certain financial targets, the studio had already reached $250 million in bonuses, but those goals were largely dependent on early access releases. Cleveland says on social media Aquarius 2 Already ready to enter early, Crafton responded to Shebang as a whole by accusing the fired developer of giving up the duties of the studio head. Cleveland and others are now apparently filing lawsuits against Crafton. GamesIndustry.biz There is a comprehensive timetable Aquarius 2 The controversy is here.
