Massive Layoffs At EA

Now its not uncommon for gaming companies to layoff staff when they “realign their resources” but recently there have been reports of EA-owned studios closing with huge amount of staff being laid off.

It is also stated by Gameinformer that the partners that were responsible for publishing Rock band, Portal 2 and Crysis not to mention Insomniac but this is not the only front there is also reports of layoffs from PopCap Vancouver and Quicklime Games who have also been shutdown.

EA issued this statement

“In recent weeks, EA has aligned all elements of its organizational structure behind priorities in new technologies and mobile.  This has led to some difficult decisions to reduce the workforce in some locations.  We are extremely grateful for the contributions made by each of our employees – those that are leaving EA will be missed by their colleagues and friends.

These are hard but essential changes as we focus on delivering great games and showing players around the world why to spend their time with us.”

They have not released the specific numbers yet but we hope that this is the last of the EA layoffs.

Dualshock 4

Whilst we wait to see the actual PS4 we can now see the remote that we will use for many hours and i don’t know if you noticed but it looks different slightly.

Out of the many features that this remote has the more interesting ones are the “light bar” which seem like it will replicate the functionality of the PS Move. The light bar will track where the player is seated and who is holding it and then it will adjust it for better split-screen action at home. No more telling your friends where to sit on the couch.

There is also a teeny tiny speaker built in to the remote that is a first for the DualShock remote series but is not the first in the world if you remember the worlds best con the Wii that sneaky little devil that the world bought in to played for a month and left in the corner, well anyway its still pretty cool and can’t wait to see what it does.

2K announces The Bureau Xcom Declassified

Recently 2K showed off the live action trailer for The Bureau you can see it HERE. And from this we finally get the news lots of us have been waiting on.

Joystiq posted plenty of details you can see the their post HERE there are plenty of details from 2K. The Bureau starts out in 1962, and tells the story of the XCOM initiative and how it became. The Player will take the role of Special agent William Carter as he commands a squad of customizable agents who assist him in the field. But like a XCOM game and with real life when they are dead, they are dead but unlike a XCOM game, the action will unfold in real-time which is important in a shooter.

Alyssa Finley, VP of 2K games product development explains the premise of the games story.

“The Bureau’s initial charter was to investigate a series of incidents that the government thought were all Soviet infiltration and maybe a precursor to a nuclear war. Turns out, those incidents were of a far more extraterrestrial origin. The Bureau has to quickly adapt from their original charter to become the kind of organization that could identify alien threats, find ways to turn the alien technology against them and cover up evidence of what happened so that the American public could go on with their lives and not go into a panic about being invaded by aliens.”

Sounds great!

A quote from Morgan Gray the creative director from 2K Marin explains the role of tactics in the game.

“The team has been working hard to leverage core XCOM elements like tactical decision-making and permanent death of squad mates in a purposeful way that makes this a unique tactical shooter. To that end, The Bureau will challenge players unlike any other third-person tactical shooter.”

From the video i have not only jizzed my pants but also shed a tear a bit because i know what happens to games when they are delayed since the mid-2000’s. So hopefully its going to be as good as it looks.

And now some Pics.

Kevin Conroy will not be voicing Batman in Arkham Origins

If you have read my last Gaming News post you will know that i am waiting on the edge of my seat for Batman Arkham Origins even though its not being developed by Rocksteady Studios.

But the real tragedy is that Kevin conroy the man who voiced the original Batman in the cartoons and recently Batman in Injustice will not be doing the voice of our favorite caped crusader.

This news comes from Kotaku which points the report to NAG a South African gaming magazine where it is stated that WB Montreal is going “to use a new younger actor because the game features Batman in his early years” This sounds good and all but WAIIIIIII. Yes the new game will feature a younger Batman but he is an actor and i’m pretty sure if he wants to he can be a younger Batman.

But after all this fanboy rage going on in the house it is not a deal breaker i’m not pleased but i won’t say no.

Watch_Dogs release date revealed

So after what seems to be eternity we now know when we can get our hands on it NOVEMBER 19 is when we will be able to hack, shoot and jump through the city and it will be coming to the PS3,PS4,Xbox 360, (INSERT NEW CONSOLE NAME HERE), Wii U and PC.

With this release there’s a little trailer watch it HERE and yes he sounds like Batman so how do you like it and i cannot wait for this game I WANT IT NAW!!!! MUST BUY.

Rockstar revels character trailers

Rockstar on the 31 of april released 3 new trailers showing off the backstory of all the new characters and you can see.

Michael HERE

Franklin HERE

Trevor HERE

So will it’s story be better then bioshock infinite but Rockstar is known for releasing awesome games so it should be good.

Law suit against Sega and Gearbox over aliens colonial maries

Yep angry gamers are suing gearbox over the recent aliens game because it did not look like the 2012 demos that were released this news came from Polygon which the report says.

“Each of the ‘actual gameplay’ demonstrations purported to show consumers exactly what they would be buying: a cutting edge video game with very specific features and qualities. Unfortunately for their fans, Defendants [Sega and Gearbox] never told anyone — consumers, industry critics, reviewers, or reporters — that their ‘actual gameplay’ demonstration advertising campaign bore little resemblance to the retail product that would eventually be sold to a large community of unwitting purchasers.”

This is not the first time that a game has shown off a demo that has not lived up to expectations. In the UK Sega has been forced to put a disclaimer to its advertising that states the demo footage is not representative to the actual gameplay.

Hints of Robin in Arkham Origins

Ever since WB Montreal announced the new Batman game there has always been a possibility that cooperative multiplayer making me hope that there will be some team up action.

A post on GameInformer show that there may be a role for the boy wonder in the game Creative director Eric Holmes said:

“One thing I can say to partly answer that is there’s no Robin at this part of the continuity. There’s no concept of Robin. Batman works alone…who knows, perhaps the first egg may be laid…”

Does this mean that WB Montreal may develop all DC future games? Like Flash, Superman and god forbid a Aquaman game? So what does that say about Rocksteady and their future involvement in DC games.