Here are some of the week’s highlights in gaming, movies, and other nerd-related news:
Apex Legends, the newest popular “battle-royale” flavored shooter from Titanfalldeveloper Respawn Entertainment has reached 25 million players within its first week of release
Some special Valentine’s Day related cosmetics were released on Wednesday 2/13, and the first season of content updates is planned for March (via Polygon)
The Division 2 will host a public beta from 3/1 – 3/4, open to all platforms with content from the previous private beta (via Ubisoft)
Activision-Blizzard has cut approximately 800 jobs, despite a year of “record-revenue” according to reports (via Polygon)
Along with the reports of record revenue, Activision revealed the existence of a single-player campaign in this year’s Call of Duty during its quarterly earnings call on Tuesday.
Last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 did not feature a single-player campaign, choosing to focus on multiplayer (via Polygon)
Nintendo held its first Nintendo Direct announcement stream of 2019, and it came with a bunch of new game announcements, including:
Super Mario Maker 2 – coming in June 2019
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 will release this summer
Updates to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be coming this Spring, including new character Joker from Persona 5
An updated version of Dragon Quest XI will release this fall on Switch, coming with an updated soundtrack, retro mode, and other new features
Fire Emblem: Three Houses will release on Switch 7/26
A new game from Platinum Games, developers of the Bayonetta series and Nier: Automata, has announced a brand action game IP named Astral Chain
Final Fantasy IX released on the Switch eShop on 2/13, and Final Fantasy VII will release on 3/26
DELTARUNE, the followup to Toby Fox’s hit indie game UNDERTALE, will release for free on 2/28 on the Switch eShop
The game originally released for free on PC last year
A demo for the mech shooter Daemon X Machina was released during the direct on 2/13
Tetris 99, a mutiplayer free-to-play/battle-royale version of the classic puzzle game released on 2/13
A demo for Yohi’s Crafted World announced/released on 2/13
Saving the best for last, Nintendo announced a remake to the classic Game Boy Zelda game, Link’s Awakening, set to release sometime this year on Switch
A full sequel to Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight, titled Hollow Knight: Silksong has been announced. The game is set to release on Nintendo Switch, PC, and MAC
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is set to release on PS4 and Switch this summer
Two new Australian operators, Gridlock and Mozzie, have been announced for Ubisoft’s popular Rainbow Six Siege as part of its latest content update
Director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie) has released a live-action trailer for Bioware’s upcoming loot shooter Anthem
In movie news, Disney released its first full look at the Aladdin live-action remake set to release on May 24; including the first look at Will Smith in blue CGI form as the Genie
A new trailer for Warner Bros. Detective Pikachu movie was released, showing off several new CGI depictions of Pokemon
And now a list of some of this week’s notable releases in games and movies
Games
2/15: Jump Force (PS4, XBONE, PC) – Bandai Namco
2/13: Tetris 99 (Switch) – Nintendo/Tetris Company
2/13:Final Fantasy IX (Switch) – Square-Enix
2/15: Far Cry: New Dawn (PS4, XBONE, PC) – Ubisoft
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