This week we’re Williamless, but Kaz and Kyle make up for it by playing World of Warcraft, Animal Crossing, Indivisible, Minecraft Dungeons, and more. On the Hype Train, we round up all the latest next gen rumors and news—from Xbox backwards compatability and HDR reconstruction to Sony’s rumored PS5 reveal next week. We close out by talking about Valve’s excursion to China, free Raymonds for the people, the possible return of a long-lost classic and more! Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• The rumor mill says Sony is going to have a PS5 conference on June 3rd https://twitter.com/JeffGrubb/status/1265645230973308929
• Sony had a State of Play about The Last of Us II. It’s definitely The Last of Us 2. Lots of cursing, very… squishy audio. Very pretty, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eML5icfq5VM
• Microsoft put out a big writeup on the backwards compatibility of the Series X. Highlights include that old games will run natively on the SX, HDR reconstruction that applies it to OG Xbox and 360 games, quick resume (game suspension) for old titles, and even special techniques to increase frame rate and resolution on select old games https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/05/28/xbox-series-x-next-generation-backward-compatibility/
• Game Pass has 5x the subscribers of Playstation Now, which could have some big ramifications for the next consoles https://www.businessinsider.com/xbox-game-pass-is-much-bigger-than-playstation-now-2020-5
• A hacker is giving free Raymonds out to everyone in Animal Crossing, which is upsetting the black market https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/21/21266398/animal-crossing-new-horizons-raymond-hacking-nintendo-switch-villager-black-market-free-nook-miles
• Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition got good reviews
• Ubisoft and Brian O’Malley (the author of Scott Pilgrim) are teasing the game’s return. I’m betting Limited Run does a print of it this summer, they’ve been teasing it too. https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-potentially-teasing-return-of-delisted-scott-pilgrim-game
• The 3DS’s OS source code has been leaked and posted online along with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Look forward to near perfect emulation, I guess. https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-leaks-ultimate-3ds-os-source-code-has-been-leaked-and-pok%C3%A9mon-d-p.211467/
• Remember that story about G2A offering to reimburse devs who could prove they sold illegally obtained keys and Wube Software (the Factorio people) took them up on it? Well, turns out they were right and G2A is paying them $40K, 10x the full value of the 200 keys their own internal audit found were illegally obtained/sold. Sounds like they’re trying to clean up their act, though. https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/20/21265275/g2a-confirms-it-sold-stolen-game-keys
• Valve has an alpha of their Chinese Steam client up. IT does things like block users from playing games between 10 PM and 8 AM, hides community content unless it’s been government approved, and shows the user a healthy gaming advisory upon starting any game. Everyone really wants that money. https://win.gg/news/4554/valve-quietly-releases-censored-steam-china-client-to-alpha
• 2K’s marketing spend is slated to be double its usual in 2024. People thought it was for GTA6, but they clarified that Rockstar would be handling those expenses and that these are for ‘commitments to third parties’. Any guesses on what would be this big for them? My money’s on a big Bioshock release or something to do with sports. https://www.ign.com/articles/gta-6-release-date-2023-2024

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Blizzcon got cancelled, will likely have online stuff early next year instead https://blizzcon.com/en-us/news/23434523
• Evo is online only and will now host tourneys for MK11, Them’s Fightin’ Herds, Skullgirls 2nd Encore, and Killer Instinct instead, with ‘special exhibitions and content’ from all the original lineup except for Smash. https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/14/21258675/evo-2020-online-dates-smash-bros-ultimate-lineup
• Amazon’s Crucible released to poor reviews https://opencritic.com/game/9471/crucible

It’s time for another episode of Pause Screen! In this episode, Kaz begins winding down on Animal Crossing, William is still slowly moving through Three Houses, and Kyle’s been playing Code Vein, Bravely Default, and Streets of Rage 4. On board the Hype Train, we talk about the surprise reveal of Paper Mario: The Origami King, Unreal Engine, poorly handled Xbox events, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and more! Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Nintendo unveiled Paper Mario: The Origami King today. Looks pretty good! It has a neat new ring-based battle system, but we don’t know if it has experience points yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX6DTLcWUdY
• Epic showed off Unreal Engine 5, which looks gorgeous. I doubt it’ll be quite as amazing as the tech demo, but I’m still excited for the improvements in the dev pipeline and visual fidelity. On top of that, it’s free until your game hits $1 million in revenue, which is also wild. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC5KtatMcUw
  https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/gj0m4b/unreal_engine_5_revealed_nextgen_realtime_demo/
• Xbox had a big event they touted as the big gameplay reveal for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and other Series X stuff… but it was mostly cinematics that were supposedly ‘in-engine’, and nothing that looked like I’d be holding a controller and playing it. Almost all the games they showed off were pretty meh third party stuff too. In fact, Xbox’s head of marketing even admitted he screwed up.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REwzQraW7K4
  https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1258584474155053058
• Sony has created an umbrella brand of ‘Playstation Studios’ for all their stuff. Makes a lot more sense than the old divisions between Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Santa Monica, etc., especially with their PC ports as of late. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-05-12-sony-unveils-playstation-studios-brand-to-launch-alongside-ps5
• Geoff Keighley announced Summer Games Fest, a thing that runs from May – August and seems to just be an aggregator of everyone’s not-E3 info dumps. https://www.summergamefest.com/
• Speaking of which, Ubisoft announced they’re doing UbiForward, their not-E3 thing, on July 12. https://twitter.com/Ubisoft/status/1259876577506136064
• Activision announced a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake! Looks great. Even has a lot of the original soundtrack. Color me hype. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0mNQxLUHyg
• Sony did an 18 minute Ghost of Tsushima State of Play presentation today. It is definitely a Sony game complete with lots of random resource gathering/crafting and combat that looks very Mordor-ish, but with samurai. Very pretty, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fMlkQy7r28

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Phil Spencer says we’ll see big impacts on the gaming industry from coronavirus starting in early 2021. That first year new console slump is gonna hit hard. https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/video-game-delays-due-to-coronavirus-early-2021-2020-5-1029183430

Join us again at Pause Screen for another episode in quarantine! Starting off, Kyle and William have a rousing debate about Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Bravely Default, and Megaman X 6, while Kaz waits patiently to talk about WoW and Animal Crossing. In the Hype Train, we discuss the Last of Us 2 leaks, the Ghost of Tsushima release date, WWE Battlegrounds, the surprise Indivisible Switch launch, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s reveal trailer, and more! Then, to finish up, we talk about the Nintendo account hacks. Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• The Last of Us 2 had a bunch of its cinematics leak from a dev build of the game, which correlated perfectly with a leak posted to 4chan a few months ago. People aren’t taking the leaks particularly well. Naughty Dog even posted about it on Twitter, encouraging fans to avoid the leaks, which basically confirms them. Also, it has a new release date of June 19th. https://twitter.com/Naughty_Dog/status/1254840504182665219
• Ghost of Tsushima is coming out July 17th
• After the dumpster fire that was WWE 2K20, the 2K21 game has been cancelled. They’re doing an arcadey game called WWE Battlegrounds instead, which looks kinda fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FowI9yms1NE
• Indivisible got a surprise launch on the Switch—even the developer didn’t know about it. They’ve rolled with the punches well, though, and are working to make it less sucky https://twitter.com/MikeZSez/status/1255065719932194816
  https://www.gamesradar.com/abrupt-indivisible-switch-port-was-a-shock-to-its-fans-and-developers/
• Maddy Meyers, the deputy editor at Kotaku, is also leaving
  https://kotaku.com/the-galaxy-is-at-peace-1843128956
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla got revealed. No gameplay yet, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYymfJDuNAM

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• Nintendo had a big hack—about 160,000 users had their info compromised thanks to the old NNID system being compromised. Nintendo has made it so you can no longer log in with NNIDs. They have 2 factor authentication too, so if you haven’t, you should probably go get that set up. https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/g76a3c/nintendo_confirms_about_160000_nintendo_accounts/

Wash your hands, it’s time for another episode of Pause Screen! Over the last two weeks, Kyle’s been playing a lot of games, including Doom Eternal, FFVIIR, Bravely Default, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Contra 4, and more. Meanwhile, Kaz and William have kept their focus more narrow; Kaz with Animal Crossing, and William with the Bravely Default 2 demo. Then for news and discussion, we talk the DualSense controller, Sony’s ‘Play at Home,’ Resident Evil 4 remake rumors, Kotaku, Chex Quest, the Epic of Cooking Mama: Cookstar, and more! Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Sony unveiled the DualSense, the new controller for the PS5. It’s definitely a PlayStation controller https://blog.us.playstation.com/2020/04/07/introducing-dualsense-the-new-wireless-game-controller-for-playstation-5/
• Sony announced the ‘Play at Home’ initiative, where they’re giving away the Nathan Drake Collection and Journey to everyone for free. Not just PS+ members, which is neat. https://blog.us.playstation.com/2020/04/14/announcing-the-play-at-home-initiative/
• The rumor mill says Capcom is working on a Resident Evil 4 Remake https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/resident-evil-4-remake/
• Jason Schrier is leaving Kotaku, meaning they will be useless once again. This continues the brain drain from the new management ever since they fired everyone from Deadspin https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/04/16/jason-schreier-is-leaving-kotaku-citing-go-media-reason/
• The epic of Cooking Mama: Cookstar
• The ESRB is now including a disclaimer for when in-game purchases include randomized items. They’re only like 2 years too late! https://www.esrb.org/blog/in-game-purchases-includes-random-items/
• Chex Quest HD got announced, is coming out this summer and will be free to play https://www.gematsu.com/2020/04/chex-quest-hd-launches-this-summer-is-free-to-play
• Switch update 10.0 – memory transfers and controller remapping!

SAD TRAIN

• John Conway (creator of the Game of Life) and Rick May (voice actor, did the heavy in TF2, Peppy and Andross Star Fox) have died due to coronavirus complications. 🙁
• Blizzard had a non-update about blizzcon. I’m betting it’ll ultimately be cancelled https://blizzcon.com/en-us/news/23371505

This week on Pause Screen, we’re all surviving the quarantine with the help of video games.  Kyle has been playing so many games including Doom Eternal, he has some salty beef with the game. Kaz is happliy stuck in Animal crossing and william has been playing another Fate: Grand order event and Bleach: Immortal Soul.  On the Hype Train we disscuss rumors of big plans for Mario’s 35th anniversary, a random Nintendo Mini Direct, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 9 mistake and more. Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• The rumor mill says Nintendo has big plans for Mario’s 35th anniversary, including remasters of 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy, which are being treated as a Super Mario All-Stars 2 internally. Plus, we’re supposedly due a 3D World remaster and a brand new Paper Mario game that follows in the steps of the original and TTYD. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/super-mario-bros-35th-anniversary/
• In real news, there was a Nintendo Direct Mini that had updates on a few things:

-Xenoblade Definitive Edition trailer and release date 5/29

-Bravely Default 2 trailer and demo

-Other stuff no one cares about, like Borderlands, Pokemon DLC, Ring Fit updates, Panzer Dragoon, and so on

• Square Enix pushed an update to the PC version of Final Fantasy 9 that deleted the game from peoples’ systems, which is hilarious https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/ftlx0o/squareenix_pushed_an_update_for_final_fantasy_ix/
• Square also announced a remake of Nier Replicant, which is the Japanese one with brother Nier instead of Papa Nier. They’re also doing a mobile game, which will probably suck but be vital to the lore a la Kingdom Hearts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sdn1B0N4k0
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqGmbdO3u7o
• Resident Evil 3 comes out tomorrow, got good reviews
• Final Fantasy 7 came out 9 days early in Australia and Europe to make it so people got the game on time
• Rivals of Aether had a little direct, where they announced their Definitive Edition (free upgrade for all prior owners too), a card game, an RPG in 2022, and Rivals of Aether 2 in 2023, complete with 3d models https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7o_cf-sTjs

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• The Last of Us 2 got indefinitely delayed (as did Iron Man VR, but no one cares) https://kotaku.com/the-last-of-us-ii-delayed-indefinitely-1842646231
• Bethesda is not having a digital showcase this summer, even in the absence of E3 https://twitter.com/DCDeacon/status/1245353441435811841
• Gamestop is closing 320 stores, though many of them are close geographically from the EB Games and Funcoland purchases back in the day https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/360247/GameStop_to_close_at_least_320_stores_in_2020.php

We return with Pause Screen: Quarantine Edition. It’s been an interesting month and we’ve played a lot of video games. William’s still playing Three Houses and FGO, but his dreams have come true in the Trials of Mana remake demo. Kaz has finished up Warcraft 3 Reforged to move into some Fire Emblem of her own and finally started WoW raiding again. Kyle was able to play Ori and the Will of the Wisps before falling to games obscure and/or terrible. Then, finishing up with discussion and news, we talk about the Sonic movie’s performance, the newly revealed upcoming console specs, new game releases, upcoming Square JRPG remakes, cancelled events, and more! Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• The Sonic movie is the highest-grossing video game movie of all time
• PS5 and Xbox Series X had their specs revealed. Xbox is more powerful (and the presentation was a lot more entertaining), but we’re in for a good generation on both sides. Those decreased load times have me all hot and bothered.
• The digital version of Animal Crossing got released today (a whole day early) because fans whined a lot on the internet. It works sometimes!
  • But at the same time, physical copies ordered through Amazon aren’t being delivered until the 24th
  • It also got really good reviews
• Doom Eternal comes out tomorrow and also got some pretty great reviews
• Sabotage Studio (the The Messenger guys) announced a prequel JRPG called Sea of Stars. It looks pretty good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VJ8Zm648C8
• We aren’t all dead yet
• Razer is repurposing some of its manufacturing lines to make surgical masks; aims to make and donate at least a million of them https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3075994/keyboards-surgical-masks-razer-converts-production-lines-amid-covid-19
• The FF7 demo came out and was pretty well received. https://rpgamer.com/2020/03/final-fantasy-vii-remake-demo-now-available/
• The Trials of Mana remake has been getting tons of new info about battle skills and post game content as well as a demo as of yesterday! https://rpgamer.com/2020/03/trials-of-mana-gets-new-japanese-trailer-demo-classes/

SAD TRAIN *womp womp*

• You know that video games event you were looking forward to? It’s cancelled
  • Will E3 be able to come back from this?
• Gamestop is remaining open despite failing to provide locations with sanitizer or instructions on cleaning stores. They claim they’re an ‘essential business’ and plan to stay open until ordered otherwise—I suspect because they’re scared they’ll never open doors again if they close. https://kotaku.com/gamestop-we-can-stay-open-during-lockdowns-because-wer-1842415962

This week on Pause Screen: Kaz continues her journey back through Warcraft III: reforged and her Night Elf Hate knows no bounds.  Kyle give his review of Darksiders Genesis sans the Leviathan maze (screw that part), dabbles in the Bleeding Edge beta and shares his story on how he (almost) beat Hungrybox at Smash Ultimate.  William got to spend some quality time with Fire Emblem 3 Houses and he is very happy about it!  In the news we talk about the record breaking Sonic movie opening, the Animal Crossing Direct, Star Craft: Ghost leaked footage and more. Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Sonic movie is now the biggest opening ever for a video game movie. https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2490463/sonic-the-hedgehogs-director-cant-stop-wont-stop-celebrating-its-record-breaking-opening
• Nintendo had an Animal Crossing direct today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcsiD3nNzA4
• Half-Life Alyx has an official release date of 3/23/2020
• System Shock 3 is effectively dead, which is sad https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-02-09-report-system-shock-3-development-team-is-no-longer-employed
• A playable build of Starcraft: Ghost leaked, and it looks like it would’ve been half decent. Still a shame it died. https://kotaku.com/it-seems-an-playable-xbox-build-of-starcraft-ghost-has-1841731450
• Rumor mill says the PS5 costs $450 to manufacture, which puts Sony in a difficult pricing position https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-14/sony-is-struggling-with-playstation-5-price-due-to-costly-parts
• The Anthem team is officially going full development mode and reworking the core of the game. Maybe it’ll be good this time? https://blog.bioware.com/2020/02/10/anthem-update-february-10/
• Outriders got a full gameplay reveal and flew a bunch of people out to do some preview coverage. Looks decent, it’s basically Gears of War + Destiny, but without the never-ending loot treadmill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbC6GgCwFoA

It’s another episode of Pause Screen! Over the last two weeks Kyle’s been playing Children of Morta, The Surge 2, and MegaMan classic, William has barely progressed in Three Houses and Fate/Grand Order, and Kaz continues to build up her handheld collection. She’s also been playing Warcraft III Reforged, and we take some time to discuss the situation surrounding that game and Blizzard in general. As a twist, we finish up with the Hype Train, where we talk Final Fantasy VII, Platinum kickstarters, EVO lineups, shady mobile game practices, and more! Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• W-FF7 got another trailer, showing even more bosses, Red XIII, and more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkXG08_WVsY
• KYLE-Platinum launched a Kickstarter for The Wonderful 101 on Switch/PS4/PC, and has raised almost $1.5mm in 3 days. I’d say that’s pretty successful. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/platinumgames/the-wonderful-101-remastered
  • It’s part of #Platinum4, which is a group of 4 announcements they teased shortly before the Kickstarter announcement. Can’t wait to see what else they have in store.
• KAZ-EVO announced their 2020 lineup, and it includes Marvel 2 https://twitter.com/EVO/status/1224896898827309056
• KYLE-Ori and the Will of the Wisps has gone gold! Woooooooooo https://twitter.com/OriTheGame/status/1222236350608371713
• W-FEH
• KAZ- Sega Europe is getting rid of plastic packaging, opting for recycled paper instead https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-01-30-sega-europe-rolls-out-fully-recyclable-packaging-for-all-pc-titles
• KYLE-Dan Houser is leaving Rockstar Games. For reference, he’s one of the founders and has headed up writing on all their games so far. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-02-06-take-two-stock-slumps-following-dan-housers-departure-from-rockstar
• KAZ-Rod Fergusson the studio head of The Coalition developing Gears of War is leaving for a job with Blizzard to oversee the Diablo Franchise https://twitter.com/GearsViking/status/1225198634112704512 

Discussion:

Warcraft 3 Reforged happened.

• Not everyone got the memo that they changed direction from a full remake like in the announcement to a remaster instead, which disappointed a lot of folks. Their advertising didn’t help with that perception either.
• They also updated the Warcraft 3 OG client, which broke its dedicated scene pretty badly by removing ladders, clans, various community tools, and even old saves from custom games by changing battle.net tag references
• Also, they changed the ToS to make all custom maps their sole property, including authorship (technical term is ‘moral’) rights. They didn’t want another DotA situation.
• They’re now offering automated no questions asked refunds within 72 hours of purchase, even if you’ve played it
•  I’ve heard it’s great if you want to play through the campaign again with a shiny coat of paint though!

This week on Pause Screen: In a shocking twist William admits he’s ready to uninstall Fire Emblem Heroes and sinks some serious time into grinding Fate/Grand Order. Kaz has been bitten by the retro collection bug and has a serious score in her new Gameboy collection. Kyle gives his review of several games he played this week: Moonlighter,  Slain: Back from Hell, and Children of Morta. He is also on a Megaman kick again and surprised us all by playing more Archero. In the News we talk about Byleth coming to smash, the xbox Series X and Left 4 Dead 3 VR leaks, Pokemon Go’s success and more.  We then hopped on the Sad Train to talk about all the major games that have been delayed so far in 2020.  For our thing of the week we talk about the weirdness around video game genres and how it got to be that way.  Come pause with us!

Discussion topics

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Byleth is coming to Fire Emblem Fighters Super Smash Bros Ultimate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aqVlLlKkcg
• The Xbox Series X got ‘leaked’ on Twitter. Looks pretty nice. https://twitter.com/Doug_DragoX/status/1219794270518947840
• Warcraft III reforged releases soon!
• HTC ‘leaked’ Left 4 Dead 3 for VR, Valve quickly clarified and said it’s not a thing https://www.ign.com/articles/left-4-dead-3-is-absolutely-not-currently-in-the-works-valve-says
• Pokemon Go made $900mm in 2019, the best year in the game’s history https://sensortower.com/blog/pokemon-go-has-best-year-ever-in-2019-catching-nearly-900m-usd-in-player-spending
• All Half-Life games are free to play on Steam until Half-Life: Alyx comes out in March

SAD TRAIN – *womp womp*

• Every video game coming out in the future got delayed
  • Final Fantasy 7 is now 4/10/2020
  • Avengers is now 9/4/2020
  • Cyberpunk 2077 is now 9/17/2020
  • Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 is now ‘later 2020’
  • Dying Light 2 is now ‘eventually’ https://twitter.com/DyingLightGame/status/1219288598920470529 
• Sony won’t be at E3 2020 https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-01-11-playstation-will-not-participate-in-e3-2020

THING OF THE WEEK

Video game genres. What do you think about the way we describe game Genres?

It’s a new year, and Pause Screen is here! It’s been a long winter break, so both Kaz and Kyle have played tons of games, and William’s thought about games, or something, but there’s a lot to catch up on! In the Hype Train we talk about the ongoing AGDQ, the Pokemon direct, Platinum’s dealings with Tencent, and games workers unions. Then we talk about the interesting legal situation revolving around Star Citizen, and finish up with a couple of gaming resolutions for the new year. Come pause with us!

HYPE TRAIN – *toot toot*

• Nintendo had a Pokemon direct today that announced DLC for SwSh, the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra. Plus they’re remastering The OG Mystery Dungeon games as Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX, and it looks great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5afasEAiN0
• AGDQ is happening right now. The Mega Man 4-6 relay last night and the Zelda 1-3 relay the night before were a lot of fun!Also, that blindfolded co-op Punch-Out run was wild
• Continuing our China train of thought from a few weeks ago, Tencent has invested in Platinum, though the studio is continuing to operate independently. They’re using it to push into self-publishing! https://www.platinumgames.com/news-january-7-2020/
• A big union company is starting an initiative to unionize games workers, which seems past due https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-01-07/major-union-launches-campaign-to-organize-video-game-and-tech-workers

Discussion:

Star Citizen continues to be a dumpster fire. 

We had some interesting news this week courtesy of an ongoing lawsuit between CryTek and Cloud Imperium Games (CIG, the SC guys) over them breaching copyright and making two games with on CryEngine while only licensed for one—the single player thing they were doing and then SC proper. However, CryTek is filing to drop their lawsuit without prejudice, meaning they can re-litigate later if they want, and also meaning that the single player game Squadron 42 probably isn’t coming out before the court trial date of 10/13/2020. Also, the initial steps of this case forced CIG to admit it hasn’t switched engines to Lumberyard as they’d previously claimed.

Tl;dr: Star Citizen is still an amazing waste of money and time that people throw cash at for some reason

THING OF THE WEEK

Gaming New Year’s resolutions? Or even NYR in general?