Plus GOD OF WAR RAGNARÖK takes home half a dozen awards and Microsoft promises to bring CALL OF DUTY to Nintendo
NEWS THIS WEEK
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Daniel Ang & Adam Christou. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Omny Studio for their support of SIFTER.
FIONA: Hi I'm Fiona Bartholomaeus
KYLE: and I’m Kyle Pauletto
FIONA: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
KYLE: This week all the winners and big announcements from the Game Awards, Elden Ring gets new DLC and Microsoft promises 10 years of Call of Duty on Nintendo
Here is the news for Sunday 11th of December. Let’s go!
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FIONA: Elden Ring is officially the Game of the Year according to the judges of the Game Awards which were held on Friday in Australia.
Here is Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki accepting the award.
"Thank you so much, I would like to share this great appreciation with our entire Elden Ring team members, everybody at From Software our partner Bandai Namco all collaborators and last but not least Mr George R.R. Martin who created the great mythos for this game."
"We have faced so many difficulties while developing this game so as a director I'm really relieved, and this might not be the right thing to say on the occassion of receiving the GOTY award but I have made up my mind to make even more interesting games than this one."
FromSoftware’s RPG took home four awards, including best for Game Direction, Art Direction and Best RPG.
God of War RAGNAROK was the big winner on the night though winning six awards for Best Narrative, Score or Music, Audio Design, Accessibility, Action Adventure game, and best performance for Christopher Judge as Kratos.
Stray picked up best independent and debut indie awards.
There were a lot of announcements as well, frankly the show was mostly ads for other games but there were some cool games in there.
Hades 2 is in development by Supergiant Games, featuring a new protagonist in this new rogue-like, in early access next year.
Street Fighter 6 got a release date, those beefy people beat each other into mince in June 2023
Bioshock creator Ken Levine’s new studio announced Judas which looks like Bioschock in a sci-fi setting.
Death Stranding is getting a sequel called DS2 at this stage and it looks like Kojima is taking the weirdness up a notch.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza (sir-ee-za) and the Lost demon is a top down prequel game, arriving on March 17th
Celeste studio Extremely Ok Games announced Earthblade another side scrolling platformer but it’ll be a while before you can play that it’s out in 2024
Diablo 4 will arrive on the 6th of June, Idris Elba will be in Cyberpunk 2077 DLC Phantom Liberty, Armored Core: Fires of Rubicon was announced and Final Fantasy 16 launches on June 22 next year.
You can check out a full list of winners as well as the other game announcements in the show notes.
KYLE: Good to see Elden Ring getting the love it deserves, but the biggest take away for me was that Earthblade trailer. I loved Celeste so much, and earthblade looks like it’s going to be worth wait. Oh and bring on Judas, I am dying for some new bioshock action.
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KYLE: Rise tarnished, and rejoice, because alongside its game awards wins, one of Elden Ring’s biggest mysteries has finally been revealed.
If you’re like me, you spent way too long trying to figure out how to get into the locked doors of the coliseum behind the Great Jar in Caelid. Only to realize that you just can’t.
Well like many speculated, From Software was saving these structures for DLC, and that DLC dropped this week, for free, and it looks awesome.
Players will be able to duke it out in the Limgrave, Leyndell, and Caelid coliseums in duels, teams and free for all battles.
FIONA: Just when you think it’s over, there’s more in store for Elden Ring. Can’t wait to see how those DLC’s do especially with the hype of the game awards. Maybe there will be more game mysteries solved with future DLCs.
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FIONA: Microsoft has rocked the boat again this week, with a surprise twist in the ongoing Call of Duty exclusivity saga, announcing the shooter franchise will be coming to Nintendo consoles.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer took to twitter to announce that the company has entered into a 10 year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo.
He followed up with another tweet confirming that PC players have nothing to worry about, and COD will continue to be on steam into the future.
The US FTC officially launched their lawsuit against the acquisition of Activision Blizzard so this feels pretty pointed tactically
Now Kyle, why does it feel like something is missing from these announcements?
KYLE: You’re not wrong Fi, because what’s missing is any kind of reassurance for PlayStation users. Spencer has previously said that Microsoft will continue to release COD to PlayStation, but so far no formal agreements have been reached.
Sassy move I think, and a risky one given how much scrutiny the company is under right now.
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KYLE: Sticking with Microsoft, earlier this year we were warned that the company wouldn’t be able to hold its standard game prices for much longer, and we’re about to hit that increase.
Starting in early 2023 major first-party titles for Xbox Series X and S will rise from $60 USD to $70, but as usual, pricing will vary depending on the country, so it could potentially be even more for Australians.
Xbox isn’t the first company to raise its prices, with Sony Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive announcing $70 price points for specific games.
Like all game developers, price raises like this reflects the current market, but also the content, tech and workforce behind the game so it’s to be expected. Sadly it just means more damage to our wallets every year.
FIONA: Look at this point with every generation of console I’ve just resigned myself that it’ll get more and more expensive ever year. I guess in some way though it’s making me pick and choose specific games I want to pay for rather than just buying a bunch a year.
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FIONA: That’s it for news, here are the games releasing this coming week.
KYLE: Out on the thirteenth is High On Life, developed by Rick and Morty Creator Justin Roilands company Squanch Games. It’s a comedic sci-fi shooter and It’s out on Xbox this Tuesday.
FIONA: Also coming on Tuesday is Crisis Core: Final Fantasy Seven Reunion. This remake of the 2007 hit PSP title will feature brand new 3D models, a newly arranged soundtrack, and full voice acting. It’s out on all platforms on the 13th.
KYLE: Another old game getting a shiny new coat of paint this week is The Witcher 3, which has now been optimized for current generation consoles. The free update will be available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation on Wednesday.
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FIONA: This has been Walkthrough by Sifter, my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus
KYLE: And my name is Kyle Pauletto, thank you so much for listening.
FIONA: We know you love listening to SIFTER so why not show your support by backing us on Ko-Fi. Your help lets us keep making our shows so head to sifter.com.au/support that address again is sifter.com.au/support
KYLE: SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus (Bar-tholo-may-US), Daniel Ang & Adam Christou (CHRIS-TOO). Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer.
FIONA: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune.
Thanks to both Audio Technica Australia and Omny Studio for their support of SIFTER’s three podcasts.
KYLE: Thanks again for listening, we’ll be back with more news next Sunday.
