Weekly News Round Up 12-15-2015

Bethesda opens new Montreal studio

Bethesda has opened up a new studio in Montreal with a team of at least 40 devs headed by Yves Lachance, the former head of Behaviour Interactive.

A thread discussing this subject has been can be found here.

Final Fantasy VI is coming to Steam

Final Fantasy VI will be releasing on Steam tomorrow, it isn't pretty but for anyone who has missed the game on other platforms or who wants to own a PC version here is your chance.

System Shock 3 Is Coming

System Shock and its sequel System Shock 2 were hugely influential, particularly because System Shock 2 was the blueprint for the more widely known game BioShock. As with a lot of old games, the rights spent many years in limbo; it was impossible to even buy them, let alone develop a sequel. Last month, though, a company called Night Dive Studios announced that it had acquired the rights. It's currently planning a full remake of the original System Shock, but it also mentioned plans to continue the series — plans that, if this announcement pans out, will be realized by OtherSide.

I would love to see a well made sequel to System Shock 2 so I hope this turns out well. A thread discussing this subject can be found here.

Cyberpunk 2077 2016 release rumor false

CD Projekt says that rumor of Cyberpunk 2077 releasing at the end of 2016 is false and that they will be focused on The Witcher 3 for 2016.

77,000 Steam Accounts Hacked Every Month, New Security Measures Deployed

In the end, Valve ultimately decided that the three major changes would serve Steam best as it relates to hacking. These changes have now been deployed and include the following:

• Anyone losing items in a trade will need to have a Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator enabled on their account for at least 7 days and have trade confirmations turned on. Otherwise, items will be held by Steam for up to 3 days before delivery.
  
• If you've been friends for at least 1 year, items will be held by Steam for up to 1 day before delivery.
  
• Accounts with a Mobile Authenticator enabled for at least 7 days are no longer restricted from trading or using the Market when using a new device since trades on the new device will be protected by the Mobile Authenticator.
  

Three XCOM 2 Expansions Announced, Detailed

• Anarchy's Children: featuring rebellion-themed content with more dramatic soldier customizations (releasing spring 2016);
  
• Alien Hunters: introducing new gameplay surrounding XCOM as an elite alien hunting unit tracking down “Ruler” aliens, along with a new mission, soldier customization options, and more powerful weapons and armor (releasing summer 2016);
  
• Shen's Last Gift: offering a brand new soldier class with unique upgradeable weapons, armor, and customization features, as well as an additional narrative-driven mission and map (releasing summer 2016).
  

It sounds like buying these individually as they release will cost $20 while buying the Digital Deluxe Version of the game will cost $75 adding $15 to the price (of course, you could buy it from Green Man Gaming and get the Deluxe Version for under $60 right now). Some people have said the first is just customization options but it does say rebellion-themed content so it could be more than that. I'm interested in seeing what the final class in the base game and what this new DLC class will be.

Lucasfilm Still Looking At George Lucas’ Live Action Star Wars TV Show And Star Wars 1313

I wasn’t expecting her to bring up Star Wars 1313, a highly anticipated video game that was seemingly canceled after the Disney purchase. I interjected that “The concept art for that looked amazing!”

Kathleen Kennedy continued

Unbelievable. So our attitude is, we don’t want to throw any of that stuff away. It’s gold. And it’s something we’re spending a lot of time looking at, pouring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further. We definitely want to.

While we probably won't see the exact game brought back, maybe we will see something similar in the future using a similar concept and style.

Irrational Games hiring for 'narrative first-person shooter' project

Among the requirements for the systems designer position is experience with open-world games, with the post citing the Borderlands series and Middle-earth: Shadows of Mordor specifically.

Irrational is hiring a quality assurance manager, and asks that applicants for that role similarly have an interest in shooters with stories. The QA manager should also have experience with Windows PC games, and especially those that launch on Steam. That bullet point gives fans their first hint at what platform the team is developing for.

This news comes after the team was restructured and had a large number of layoffs back in 2014, with the focused changed to working on smaller projects.

Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 Launches As Crowdfunding Approaches $100 Million

A bunch of little playable things becomes several massive playable things in Star Citizen alpha 2.0. Players basically get a sector of space to explore, bringing with it the first taste of things like multi-crew ships, first-person combat and wandering outside in space without one of those pricey ships.

League of Legends 2015 World Championship broke a bunch of records

36 million total unique viewers, with a peak of 14 million concurrent viewers tuned into the 2015 World Championship.

The Final Fantasy VII Remake Will Be Episodic

Square has been quoted as saying

It means instead of concluding in one entry, multiple entries are being considered in development. Each entry will have its own unique story. As a gaming experience, each entry will have the volume of content equal to a full-sized game

A thread discussing this topic has been posted here.

Kojima Leaves Konami, Enters Talks With Sony for Debut Game

Kojima has officially left Konami today, having worked with them since 1986. It was first reported that Kojima would be joining a Sony studio or forming a studio under Sony but it appears he will be heading his own team with other former Kojima Productions members and is in talks to have their game debut on the Playstation.

A thread discussing this has been posted here.

Ark: Survival Evolved Xbox One Getting Two-Player Local Split-Screen

Wildstar has announced that the Xbox One version of Ark will feature split screen local co-op, this feature will not launch with the game but will be added in early 2016 with an update.

Activision sued for patent infringement over fantasy sports software

Texas-based Virtual Gaming Technologies, LLC, filed the case yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, claiming Activision is infringing on patents it owns for "real-time interaction systems" most used in fantasy sports games

I remember

The Push To Make Halo 5 the Next Big eSport

Holmes recently told the gaming site Polygon that they are ready to “fully [embrace] that legacy with the biggest investment in Xbox eSports history.” And Microsoft, the game’s publisher, is putting its money where its mouth is. The company has invested $1 million in prize money for the world championships, with an additional $700,000 raised through crowdfunding, positioning the tournament as a huge event. But funding and throwing a successful tournament with lots of players is only the first step toward transforming a popular game into a successful eSport.

An article about Microsoft's desire to make Halo 5 the next big eSport game and the issues that can prevent that from happening.