Sparkers Blog

News Mash-Up - Week # 43

Written by Sparkers | Thursday, 4 November 2021

 

 

Top News Items

    • With the current rebranding of Facebook to Meta, the Oculus VR business has also been rebranded under the Meta umbrella. “Starting in early 2022, you'll start to see the shift from Oculus Quest from Facebook to Meta Quest and Oculus App to Meta Quest App over time" stated Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth. In a surprise decision, a Facebook account will no longer be a prerequisite to using the VR headset. “Meta is working on new ways to log into Quest that won't require a Facebook account”.

    • Intel has warned chip shortages could last until 2023. "We're in the worst of it now, every quarter next year we'll get incrementally better, but they're not going to have supply-demand balance until 2023," said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger.

    • The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) which investigates commercial national security issues has added Tencent’s acquisition of UK game developer Sumo Group to its list. Tencent will pay almost £1 billion to acquire the company which is famed for making PlayStation first party games Sack Boy and Crackdown 3.

    • Last week news broke that God of War will be launched on Steam on 14th January 2022 for €49.99. This week details emerged that Sack Boy, another PlayStation darling, will be heading to PC. Sony launched a new label for all the first party PlayStation games that will come to the PC, 'PlayStation PC LLC'. With the availability of Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone and Death Stranding on the PC and the release of Uncharted Trilogy of games, God of War and Sack Boy coming to PC, it should be expected that future exclusive first party games for the PlayStation platform could be timed exclusives only.

    • Stadia has created a Free Trails Test mode in its O/S allowing for 30 minutes of free time to play games on the platform.

    • Similar to Sony closing down server support for PS3 games earlier this year, 343 Industries confirmed that Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo 4, Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Spartan Assault, and Halo Wars will no longer be supported on the Xbox 360 console from February 2022.

New games

Week commencing Monday 1 Nov. 2021 

Date Title Platform(s) Genre(s) Developer(s) Publisher(s)
2 Nov. Cupid Parasite NS Visual novel Idea Factory Idea Factory International
  Knockout City PS5, XSX Sports Velan Studios Electronic Arts
  World War Z NS Third-person shooter Saber Interactive Mad Dog Games
4 Nov. A Boy and His Blob NS Puzzle-platform WayForward Ziggurat Interactive
  The Binding of Isaac: Repentance NS, PS4, PS5 Roguelike Nicalis Nicalis
  Just Dance 2022 NS, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX, Stadia Rhythm Ubisoft Paris Ubisoft
  Tales of Luminaria iOS, Android Action role-playing Bandai Namco Studios Bandai Namco Entertainment
  Mr. Driller Drill Land PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX Puzzle Bandai Namco Entertainment Bandai Namco Entertainment
  Where Cards Fall Win, NS Puzzle The Game Band Snowman
5 Nov. Call of Duty: Vanguard Win, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX First-person shooter Sledgehammer Games Activision
  Kid A Mnesia Exhibition Win, Mac, PS5 Adventure, puzzle Namethemachine, Arbitrarily Good Productions Epic Games