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Daily Briefing: Wednesday 3rd March
🕑 Added 2021-03-03 12:25:52 +0000 UTCFall Guys developer purchased by Epic Games
The as-yet undetailed acquisition deal means that Epic Games now own the entire Tonic Games Group, which includes Fall Guys studio Mediatonic. In an official statement, Mediatonic have called the deal "a huge move for Fall Guys" and will allow them to accelerate their plans to improve and expand the game.
- Further down the line, Mediatonic reportedly hope to see some of the features seen in Epic games like Fortnite and Rocket League - like account systems and cross-play - head to Fall Guys. The question is, will we also see Fall Guys going free-to-play in the future? Plus crossovers...so many crossovers.
Hardsuit Labs hit by layoffs
Several employees at the Seattle-based studio have confirmed via Twitter that they were let go. It looks like the entire narrative department were laid off, including lead narrative designer Samantha Wallschlaeger who was only hired back in October in the wake of Bloodlines 2's then-latest staffing fallout.
- This comes after last week's news that the studio had been dropped as the developer of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, with publisher Paradox Interactive confirming that the much-maligned sequel will now be completed by a new development partner. The full extent of the redundancies is still unclear.
The Sinking City has been removed from Steam
The detective title has been removed from Valve's marketplace following a DMCA takedown request from developer Frogwares, who have now-repeatedly alleged that publisher Nacon illegally uploaded a hacked version of the game to Steam.
- This is just the latest turn in an increasingly messy dispute between the two parties. Frogwares has accused Nacon of attempting to "steal and pirate" The Sinking City for their own interests but leaving "giant digital footprints." Nacon have responded by accusing Frogwares of trying to "revise" the terms of their agreement. So, yes, it's all very messy.
Neil Druckmann has teased some future Naughty Dog projects, kind of
It's no surprise that Naughty Dog, which released The Last of Us Part 2 back in June, is working on a new project - we've even seen footage of TLOU2's upcoming standalone multiplayer expansion. But this week Druckmann tweeted that there are "several" projects in the works at the studio, which is all kinds of intriguing.
- Sadly, that's about it as far as information goes. Druckmann asked fans to be patient on Twitter and assured them that he "can't say anything" about future projects. Naughty Dog are notoriously tight-lipped about their new projects and, seeing as how TLOU2 was devastated by leaks, things will likely only be tighter in the future.
