Plus Marvel Rivals devs are laid off despite popularity and Walkthrough celebrates 150 episodes
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia and Apple 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 Hobbit cosy sim Tales of the Shire is delayed, Marvel Rivals despite its success can’t avoid staff redundancies, and could there be hints to a new Tony Hawk game in Call of Duty?
Here is the news for Sunday 23rd of February. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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FIONA: Kiwi developed cosy game Tales of the Shire has been delayed to at least the middle of the year, it was announced this week, now releasing on the 29th July.
This is the second time The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit game has been delayed.
It was originally due to release late last year, then pushed to March before it was delayed again on Friday.
KYLE: Things aren’t going great for Weta Workshop Games, the developer that’s directly tied to the film studio that made the movies.
In October and November a large number of staff were made redundant, not a great sign before your game even launches.
It included people like lead producer Calliope Ryder and Executive Producer Morgan Jaffit, and at least three other developers that SIFTER was able to independently confirm.
FIONA: Tales of the Shire was originally supposed to be published by Private Division, that was shut down by parent company Take-Two.
Tales of the Shire was then picked up another company called Haveli Investments with former staff from Annapurna Interactive which also spectacularly imploded.
All in all it’s going to be a hard run for this game to come out, but we’ve got fingers crossed that it does.
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KYLE: Keeping those good times rolling, despite its massive success Marvel Rivals has been hit with a bunch of layoffs.
Marvel Rivals game director Thaddeus Sasser shared on LinkedIn that NetEase had laid off his entire US-based team despite the game’s success.
Former level designer Garry McGee also wrote on InkedIn saying his team helped develop and launch Marvel Rivals but were also laid off.
FIONA: NetEase has since sent GamesRadar+ a statement which confirmed that a number of US-based Marvel Rivals staff, specifically a design team in Seattle, had been hit with layoffs.
However its core development team in China are still fully committed to delivering an exceptional experience.
In Sasser’s post he wrote “This is such a weird industry…” which honestly is true, I feel like we’re often seeing devs of popular games in the firing line even when it does well.
And according to Bloomberg, the game was almost cancelled entirely, because of a reluctance to rely on a third party franchise. It’s an interesting read, we’ll chuck that in the shownotes too.
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FIONA: Looks like we may be getting a new Tony Hawk Pro Skater game soon thanks to an Easter egg in Black Ops 6.
Black Ops 6 Season 2 Reloaded update went live this week with new weapons, features and the return of the fan-favourite skate-themed map Grid.
However, Call of Duty outlet CharlieIntel spotted a TV screen with a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-looking logo and a date of March 4, 2025.
KYLE: Fans are understandably excited because we haven’t had a new game since 2015 or any remakes since 2020.
This isn’t the only bit of info floating around either, because earlier this week skater Tyshawn Jones let it slip that he would soon be featured in an upcoming Tony Hawk video game.
Guess we’ll be waiting until March to see if we’ll playing another Tony Hawk game.
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KYLE: Nintendo has announced the end of an era, closing its My Nintendo Gold Points program in March.
The program allowed users to gain gold points for both digital and physical games, which you could then use as credits towards future purchases on the Nintendo eShop.
The program will start winding down on March 24 or 25, depending on your region, meaning points will no longer be earned after that date but you will still be able to use what you currently have.
FIONA: The only exception to the cut off date are pre-orders. So if you have a preorder game that releases after March 25th you’ll still be able to receive your gold points.
However you’ll have 12 months to use points before they expire, so if your eyes are on any games make sure you grab them sooner rather than later.
KYLE: The Nintendo Switch Online two for one voucher scheme is also going in the bin.
It was an incentive to get people to buy digital copies of games, but that’s now well and truly established.
It’s a little bit sad to be losing these little bonus discounts, especially on first party Nintendo games which almost never go on sale, but hey maybe the Switch 2 has some good deals coming as well.
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FIONA: But overall the biggest news of the week is our podcast, Walkthrough celebrates its 150th episode!
Around three years ago the idea of a quick news show started development, the third show in the SIFTER roster.
It was kicked off by Kyle and has been so much fun recording every single week.
KYLE: Back then it was just me by myself, it was quite lonely, and then Fi was kind enough to join us and the rest is history.
Thanks to everyone who has hosted the show over the years, Omi Koulas, Courtney Smith, Gianni Di Giovanni, Adam Christou and the team that makes it happen each week.
A big thank you to Mitch Loh as well for editing these episodes every single week. A huge effort and we very very much appreciate you.
It’s a team effort, and I love being a part of it.
FIONA: And thanks to our listeners who tune in every week, we couldn’t do this without all of you!
KYLE: Here’s to the next 150!
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KYLE: That’s it for the headlines, here are the handful of games coming out this week.
KYLE: This coming Thursday the N64 classic 3D platformer Glover is coming to modern consoles. That is out on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One on the 27th.
FIONA: Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection is a collection of the original Gameboy and Gameboy Advance games, some of these were absolute bangers, there is something cool about the limitations of these early card adaptations. Pick that up on PC and Switch on the 27th
KYLE: Monster Hunter Wilds is out Friday. After a really well received open beta last year, the latest in the popular action RPG series will release on PC, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series S and X on the 28th
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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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: As we reach episode 150 of Walkthrough, we’d love it if you could share the show with a friend, take the time today to send them the link either on your favourite podcast player or send them a video on YouTube.
That sort of recommendation makes a difference, it’s a small thing but it helps us find more audience across all of SIFTER. Share the show, tell your friends in person and keep listening for the next 150 eps.
KYLE: SIFTER is produced by myself, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. The episode is edited by both Senior Producer Mitch Loh and Gianni Di Giovanni who is SIFTER’s Executive Producer and also Walkthrough’s script editor.
FIONA: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
KYLE: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday.
