Call of Duty and Battlefield may finally reignite the age-old argument, and Google Stadia sees significant changes, with what's happened in the gaming industry this week. Game Rant has compiled some of the biggest gaming news stories from this past week together into a concise post for fans and enthusiasts to stay up to date on the most important events in the industry per week. Highlighting the most relevant stories, this list is not inherently and totally objective, and will not contain every news story this week. Rather, this is intended for gaming fans who want a quick rundown on the largest/most impactful stories that occurred in the last week in games.
In this week's roundup of gaming news, both EA and Activision have announced sequels to Call of Duty and Battlefield coming in 2021. Users and moderators on the r/wallstreetbets subreddit are dealing with drama, while investors continue to sell huge profits on GameStop. Sony's PS5 meets its short-term sales goal, but may not reach its long-term fiscal year sales goal due to a recurring issue in 2021. Google's Stadia branch enacts several pretty significant internal changes as the company refocuses its gaming strategy. Here's a recap of all the biggest news from the video game industry last week.
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Likely to the surprise of zero fans, it seems another title Call of Duty entry is on the way this year. During a recent investor call with Acitivision, Call of Duty's publisher has confirmed another entry in the evergreen first-person shooter is coming in 2021. Activision has also not confirmed which developer from Call of Duty's rotational development schedule is working on the game.
However, what is confirmed, is 2021's Call of Duty will similarly launch/integrate alongside Warzone as well. Many have predicted the upcoming Call of Duty 2021 is being developed by Sledgehammer Games, based on the studio hiring 150 new developers in 2020.
From the other side of the first-person shooter pond, EA is planning to make a resurgence with Battlefield this year. Battlefield 6, or whatever the next Battlefield game is called, was similarly announced back in early 2020 during an EA investor call. From a more recent EA investor call this week, EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed that the next Battlefield entry is planned to release this holiday.
As for what the next Battlefield game may look like, it's tough to say. There's been a slew of rumors surrounding the upcoming Battlefield game, ranging from the destructibility of entire cities, to the game being inspired by the excellent Battlefield 3. Granted, if that's true, Battlefield 6 may serve the comeback the series needs.
As GameStop stock crumbles under multiple sellers, it seems all sorts of drama is ensuing in the r/wallstreetbets subreddit. Moderators are shifting and taking drastic measures as the formerly obscure subreddit now boasts millions of users. Many users are trying to mislead and attract media attention, while writers and Hollywood directors are already looking into recreating the success of films like The Big Short.
Speaking of which, Michael Burry (the central real-life figure at the center of The Big Short's plot) also saw significant gains from GameStop's surging stock. Burry made over $270 million from the surging stock price, cashing in on millions of shares that the Scion Capital hedge fund had acquired back in 2019.
After the tumultuous release of the PS5, Sony's finally unveiled how many consoles actually shipped in 2021 alone. In the month and a half following the console's release, Sony shipped 4.5 million consoles during the holidays. Despite a continued momentum, finding a PS5 will continue to be difficult moving into 2021.
According to Sony's quarterly financial results, the PS5 is on track for its 7.6 million sales for March, but may miss its yearly sales goal. Due to a shortage of hardware components necessary to build the PS5, it's possible that a continued shortage will occur throughout mid-2021.
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While it's certainly no deathblow to Stadia, Google is making some big changes as it restructures its game-streaming strategy. This week, Google announced the shuttering of its in-house Stadia development studios, with all relevant projects cancelled. Instead, Google will be strictly partnering with third-party publishers and game makers to boost its service in the wake of Stadia's disappointing reception since launch.
Additionally, this also marks the departure of industry veteran Jade Raymond from Stadia Games and Entertainment. Google Stadia still stands firm as a solid option for game streaming, but it's unclear how the shuttering of its first-party studios will affect the Stadia platform moving forward.
As the release date for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition inches closer, tons of new information what's changing in the remaster has come out. Some good things, some bad things, Legendary Edition may end up being the definitive way to play the original trilogy.
Tons of mechanical/graphical changes are on the way for Legendary Edition, including improvements to AI, combat, player control, weapon balance, visual fidelity, and more. However, due to unfortunate circumstances and corrupted source code, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will not include the Pinnacle Station DLC.
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In the wake of the game's massive success, recent Twitch stats reflect how Among Us quickly became a cultural zeitgeist during of 2020. Among Us streamers contributed to 1.2 billion overall views, over 221 million hours watched, and over a million unique broadcasters. The game itself was streamed over 4 million separate times, with 4.32 million hours broadcasted of the game overall.
After rumors and leaks, Sony has confirmed that one of its biggest franchise exclusives is now releasing cross-platform. MLB The Show 21 will be releasing on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X, as well as PS4/PS5, on April 20th. This will be MLB The Show's debut title on a Xbox platform, after years of exclusivity with PlayStation. The long-running licensed baseball franchise has been going strong annually since its release in 2006 on PS2.
Lastly, Warner Bros. Entertainment has finally patented the iconic Nemesis System used in the Middle Earth series. The Nemesis System was a gameplay mechanic developed by Monolith Productions for use in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which contextualized the organization of the Orc army in-game. Initially filing a patent back in 2015, Warner Bros. has struggled to establish the patent due to several rejections, all related to being too similar to other game-related patents.