Video Games Weekly: Who Put All These Videos In My Games?

Welcome to Video Games Weekly connected Engadget. Expect a caller communicative each Monday aliases Tuesday, surgery into 2 parts. The first is simply a abstraction for short essays and ramblings astir video crippled trends and related topics from me, Jess Conditt, a newsman who's covered nan manufacture for much than 13 years. The 2nd contains nan video crippled stories from nan past week that you request to cognize about, including immoderate headlines from extracurricular of Engadget.

Please bask — and I'll spot you adjacent week.

If I extremity up reference 1 much communicative astir really awesome Death Stranding 2 is so agelong arsenic you skip nan cutscenes, I’m gonna hurl. At what constituent during 10 hours of cinematic interstitials do we collectively put nan controller down and say, actually, this isn’t a awesome game? Not because nan crippled parts aren’t immoderate bully — they’re beautiful fabulous, successful truth — but because a important information of nan acquisition isn’t really interactive astatine all. When does it go much meticulous to picture a Hideo Kojima task arsenic a CGI movie pinch moments of interactivity, alternatively than arsenic a video crippled first?

I’m not really attempting to lick nan “video crippled of Theseus” riddle correct now, but it’s a speech that’s been connected my mind, fixed caller headlines. Death Stranding 2 reviews are in, Neil Druckmann is retired astatine HBO and returning to Naughty Dog full-time, and Emmy nominations arrived pinch 18 nods for video crippled adaptations. Meanwhile, layoffs are rocking nan gaming manufacture yet again, pinch thousands fired astatine Xbox this month, alongside aggregate workplace closures and crippled cancellations. One of nan astir astonishing titles to get nan ax was Project Blackbird, a promising-sounding MMO from Elder Scrolls workplace ZeniMax Online. Blackbird was reportedly canceled successful favour of allocating resources to nan improvement of Fallout 5, a bid pinch mainstream clout pursuing nan occurrence of Amazon’s Fallout TV show successful 2024.

The convergence of video games and Hollywood is not a caller talking constituent — even for me — but it’s only grown much applicable pinch time. Sony successful peculiar is leaning difficult into a cross-media strategy pinch notable investments successful television, anime and film adaptations of its video crippled franchises, and it conscionable published Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding 2, which serves arsenic a lightning rod for this full conversation.

Kojima is easy to prime connected because he’s been truthful vocal astir his desire to make movies, and fittingly, his games person only grown much cinematic complete nan years. Death Stranding and its sequel are stacked pinch mainstream Hollywood actors (and Kojima’s favourite directors) crossed hours of drawn-out, non-interactive cutscenes. His adjacent 2 projects, OD and Physint, are some described arsenic having A-list casts and “blurring nan boundaries betwixt movie and games.”

I’m a large instrumentality of experimental scary games, and I profoundly admit Kojima’s oculus for building hostility and sneaky action sequences, but I’m hesitant to get excited astir OD and Physint. The deeper Kojima dives into nan world of Hollywood, nan much he loses me. I don’t download, instal and footwear up a video crippled to watch a movie instead, and I don’t find it awesome erstwhile an interactive merchandise is defined by cinematic terms. The constraints of filmmaking are vastly different than those of video crippled development, and it sucks to watch a talented creator effort to unit video games to conform to nan boundaries of movies aliases TV, alternatively than exploring nan mechanics that make interactive creation truthful uniquely powerful. I consciousness for illustration Kojima sees cinema arsenic nan goal, not video games specifically, and this position breaks my small pixelated heart.

It’s peculiarly achy successful an era of raging instability for nan video crippled industry. It’s difficult to spot truthful overmuch money and imaginative talent being thrown astatine projects that extremity up emotion much for illustration movies than games, astatine a clip erstwhile it’s progressively difficult for caller and original AAA projects to make it to market. Video games person not been maxed retired arsenic an creation shape — there’s acold much to observe successful position of mechanics, visuals, haptics and immersive relationship systems, and location are much stories that tin only beryllium told pinch these circumstantial tools. Viewing crippled improvement done nan lens of filmmaking diminishes everything that makes this mean truthful powerful. The only Hollywood trait nan games manufacture should imitate is its powerful and functional unions.

I bask things that beryllium successful nan grey abstraction betwixt definitions; successful fact, I often for illustration them. What I don’t bask is misguided emulation that’s sold to an assemblage arsenic innovation. In nan end, I conjecture what I’m really saying is… I’m still not complete PT.

The news

King developers were nan architects of their ain demise

One of nan astir eyebrow-raising specifications of Microsoft’s sweeping layoffs earlier this period was nan truth that King, nan workplace down Candy Crush, was included successful nan firings. King is historically a money-printing instrumentality pinch precocious per-employee returns, which tends to insulate it from layoffs, but this clip astir astatine slightest 200 group were fto spell from nan studio. As it turns out, a number of fired developers spent nan past fewer years training AI systems to do their jobs, which conscionable adds a furniture of shittiness to an already crappy situation.

Best Buy will person much Switch 2 units connected Thursday

Has nan FOMO gotten to you yet? After denying that you wanted a Switch 2 for a fewer noble and self-righteous weeks, person you cracked and admitted that you actually, really want one? Great — past get yourself to Best Buy connected Thursday, July 17, erstwhile nan institution will restock its proviso of Switch 2 consoles successful each stores. This coincides pinch nan merchandise of Donkey Kong Banaza, too.

A mini update connected Ken Levine’s Judas (sung for illustration Lady Gaga)

I’ve had my oculus connected Judas, nan BioShocky FPS from Ken Levine’s Ghost Story Games, since it was revealed successful 2022, and I lowkey emotion really small we still cognize astir it today. That said, I’m happily devouring each spot of accusation astir Judas, and nan latest nugget comes from Levine himself successful an question and reply pinch classical crippled patient Nightdive Studios. With Judas, Ghost Story is focused connected "telling nan communicative and transporting nan subordinate somewhere," alternatively than building live-service aliases microtransaction features, Levine said. As he put it, “You bargain nan crippled and you get nan full thing. There's nary online component. There's nary unrecorded service.”

There’s besides nary merchandise day for Judas yet.

Summer Games Done Quick can’t extremity raising millions for charity

The crazy kids astatine Summer Games Done Quick person done it erstwhile again and raised literal millions of dollars for Doctors Without Borders successful a azygous weekend, simply by playing video games successful silly ways without stopping. SGDQ 2025 wrapped up connected Sunday pinch a full aid excavation of $2,436,614. The organization's adjacent arena is another version of Flame Fatales, a speedrunning showcase featuring women and femmes that runs from September 7 to 14. We’ll spot you there.

Ousted Subnautica 2 workplace bosses are suing Krafton

The good of Subnautica 2 play runs deep. Earlier successful July nan heads of Subnatica 2 workplace Unknown Worlds Entertainment — Charlie Cleveland, Ted Gill and Max McGuire — were ousted by nan team’s genitor company, Krafton, and nan game’s early entree merchandise was delayed to 2026. What’s more, Bloomberg reported that nan workplace had been successful statement for a $250 cardinal prize if it had met definite financial goals by nan extremity of nan year, but those mostly hinged connected an early entree release. Cleveland said connected societal media that Subnautica 2 was fresh for early access, and Krafton responded to nan full shebang by accusing nan fired developers of abandoning their responsibilities arsenic workplace heads. Cleveland and others are now apparently filing a suit against Krafton. GamesIndustry.biz has a broad timeline of nan Subnautica 2 contention right here.

Additional reading

• Kris Holt’s play indie crippled roundup

• Ghost of Yōtei's lo-fi thumps mode sums up nan very champion and very worst of this very weird series by Chris Tapsell astatine Eurogamer