Xbox One Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Respawn Entertainment has provided an update on the reorganised Kings Canyon map in Apex Legends, as part of the battle royale’s season 14.Called Apex Legends: Hunted, season 14 is set to launch on August 9 and bring with it a new character, changes to the map, and an increased level cap.First up, senior level designer Michael Shannon recently penned a blog post about the changes coming to Kings Canyon next week. The biggest change is the increase in the maps size, as both Skull Town and Thunderdome are back in the game, with the sunken areas refilled with sand.The cage has also undergone a change, as the walls towards the top have been removed, which Shannon says should allow for “additional pressure on the dominant squad” whilst still letting the area be a power position.The hillside point of interest near containment has undergone a similar change, with many of the walls and buildings removed.There’s also been some changes to rotations, as Shannon wrote: “This major rotation in the centre of the map connected Destroyed Bridges, River Center and Hillside.

FIFA 23 will be the first game in the long-running annual sports series to let players choose the likeness of real managers in career mode.Developer EA has highlighted a number of changes coming to FIFA 23’s career mode when it launches this August, with hundreds of managers to choose from.“We’ve seen feedback from players wanting to play as some of their favourite managers, and we’re happy to say FIFA 23 enables you to play as one of the 350 plus authentic football managers, of which 30 plus have star heads, in Career Mode,” wrote EA in the post.“Upon selecting the manager of your choice, you can customize their outfit and decide on the club they’ll be in charge of. You have the option of continuing to build a legacy at an authentic manager’s current club, pick a different club to start at, or even create a new club for the manager to lead to glory.”Career mode will also include the new transfer analyst, who can give a transfer deal a rating between A and F to signify that it makes either the most, or least, financial sense.

Call Of Duty: Warzone have been removed by Activision Blizzard after an artist alleged that the skin was plagiarising their work.Since the accusation, Activision Blizzard has pulled images of the dog skin from its website (via Eurogamer).Artist Sail Lin, who uploaded an image of a similar looking human-dog hybrid to ArtStation in 2019, took to Twitter on July 29 to claim that the skin was plagiarised. “Even though I am also a COD player, I am very disappointed to see my work being plagiarised by a big company like Activision in this way,” they wrote.“I have reached out to Activision for an explanation and/or compensation, and hopefully the situation will be settled soon.”According to Sail Lin they’ve now been contacted by Activision, as they wrote: “Activision has contacted me, and I hope to have a result as soon as possible.

Resident Evil Village update that is releasing alongside the Winters’ Expansion adds welcome accessibility options to the survival horror game.One of the biggest accessibility features being added is the ability to customise the game’s subtitles. The player will be able to change the colour, size and background of Village’s subtitles in the game’s options.

EA has shared a first look at FIFA 23 in action, and detailed all of the new features that are coming to the series. While the game will also be releasing on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the current generation versions of FIFA 23 (including PC and Stadia versions) will have some improvements that won’t appear in the versions for the older hardware.This includes HyperMotion2 technology, which uses advanced 11v11 match capturing and machine learning to create “over 6,000 authentic true-to-football animations, transferred directly from the real world pitch to the game.”The match capturing has resulted in over 9million frames of data for the machine learning algorithm, which is the most motion capture data for a FIFA game yet. As a result, an increased amount of animations will make FIFA 23 look more lifelike than previous titles.The advanced match capturing technology is stated to be the backbone of many of the game’s different aspects.

Strange Scaffold has launched the Bean Bone update for Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, an Among Us crossover which will allow players to “buy the mangled remains of your former crewmates”.The Bean Bone update launched on Monday (July 25), which adds a sizeable slice of free content – including a new “Bean Bone” organ, which is a crew member from Innersloth‘s Among Us that has been chopped in half.“Among us organ traders, the Bean Bone is known as the most delicious organ in the galaxy,” shares the Bean Bone’s in-game description, while Strange Scaffold founder Xalavier Nelson Jr. added that the update will let plays “buy the mangled remains of your former crewmates.”The Among Us crossover also brings a “multitude” of new quests, more character portraits to choose from, and the ability to help Interstellar Influencers “go viral (and make their subsequent apologies) on the galactic stage.”“Their entire role is to make your life while working with them a living hell,” added Nelson in a follow-up post, who also said that the update includes “the most evil quest I’ve ever designed.”BEHOLDTHE STORY OF THE MOST EVIL QUEST I’VE EVER DESIGNED, COURTESY OF THE NEW AMONG US-THEMED UPDATE FOR MY VIDEO GAME, WHICH IS ALSO CURRENTLY ON SALEBUY IT AND JUSTIFY MY MADNESShttps://t.co/aEh6ac49qh pic.twitter.com/pGkl2tP4lA— Xalavier Nelson Jr.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 beta next week as part of the franchise’s Call Of Duty League.Viewers of the Call Of Duty League Championship Weekend in early August will be in with a chance of winning free beta codes. Those that tune into the Sunday event (August 7) on the competition’s YouTube channel will be eligible to receive a free code as a drop.There’s still not confirmed window for the beta, but it’s likely to be in September, before the full Modern Warfare 2 release in October.

Resident Evil: Village’s upcoming Winters’ Expansion has received a trailer, featuring a playable Lady Dimitrescu.Announced last month, the Winters’ Expansion is adding a ton of new features and content to Resident Evil: Village. The biggest addition to the expansion is the Shadows of Rose story content, which continues the story of Rose Winters 16 years after the events of the base game.

Ubisoft has shared that the development of Splinter Cell VR, Ghost Recon: Frontline and two other unannounced titles have been cancelled.This was revealed during Ubisoft’s recent earnings call, where chief financial officer Frederick Duguet revealed Ubisoft would be undergoing “sizeable cost optimisation” in the upcoming fiscal year. With this in mind, Ghost Recon: Frontline, Splinter Cell VR and the two unannounced games have been cancelled so Ubisoft can put more resources into the company’s “biggest development opportunities” (via PC Gamer).Splinter Cell VR was announced in late 2020 for release on Oculus devices.

EA has announced that FIFA 23 will not feature Russia’s national team or any Russian clubs, due to the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.In a statement provided to Eurogamer, the FIFA 23 developer has shared that “In line with our partners at FIFA and UEFA, EA Sports will not include the Russian national team or Russian clubs in FIFA 23.”“EA Sports stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and like so many voices across the world of football, calls for peace and an end to the invasion of Ukraine,” added EA.The message is a repeat of a statement issued by EA in March 2022. Weeks after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, EA Sports joined the games industry’s condemnation of the military action by removing all Russian players and clubs from FIFA 22.However, EA did not go as far as UEFA in removing Russian sponsors from advertising.

No Man’s Sky‘s latest update Endurance went live today (July 20) and Hello Games have shared a trailer showing players what to expect.Described by developers as the “biggest update of the year”, Endurance is set to completely rework the way freighters and fleets operate within the game.Hello Games’ Sean Murray explained: “Endurance brings a complete overhaul of freighters and fleets, allowing players to live and work aboard their home in the stars, together with their own crew.”No Man's Sky Endurance

Dead By Daylight has launched its first exclusive anime crossover with a 10-outfit collection inspired by Attack on Titan.Today (July 19), Behaviour Interactive officially released its previously announced Attack On Titan collaboration in the form of downloadable content (DLC) collection.The collection features eight Very Rare Outfits for Survivors and two Ultra Rare Outfits for Killers inspired by the massively popular anime and manga series.Players will be able to dress Survivors to look like the main cast, including Dwight Fairfield in Eren’s uniform, Yui Kimura in Mikasa’s, Felix Richter in Armin’s and Jake Park in Levi’s. Annie’s outfit is also available for Meg Thomas, Zarina Kassir will have Hange’s, Kate Denson will have  Historia’s and Kenny’s will be available for Ace Visconti.For the Killers, The Armored Titan Outfit will be available for The Oni, while The War Hammer Titan Outfit can be equipped for The Spirit.“The anime’s visuals and narrative had a significant, lasting effect on many of us.

Player First Games’ crossover fighting game MultiVersus will enter open beta on July 26.The open beta will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Additionally, the beta will have full cross-platform functionality including cross-progression, meaning your progress will save even if you play on two different platforms.

Xbox livestream on Twitch may have accidentally revealed that She-Hulk is the next hero joining the team on Marvel’s Avengers.The stream saw Marvel’s Avengers’ lead designer Brian Waggoner playing alongside streamer Techniq, with the pair discussing the recent inclusion of Jane Foster AKA The Mighty Thor in the game.From there, Techniq started talking about his foray into the world of acting before revealing that “my acting coach is actually the voice of She-Hulk. I won’t say her name because I don’t think that’s public knowledge yet but I think it was announced,” he says with Waggoner replying “Nope.

Xbox Games with Gold service will no longer be offering Xbox 360 games starting in October.Games with Gold is a service available to subscribers of Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It’s essentially a few freely downloadable games that Microsoft chooses every month.

EasySpeezy recently undertook the challenge of speedrunning Cuphead while simultaneously climbing a mountain.By duct-taping a gaming laptop to a backpack, EasySpeezy was able to play Cuphead with a wired controller by closely following behind an accomplice wearing the backpack.The team’s strategy included Easy’s brother calling out obstacles in the speedrunner’s path so he wouldn’t have to look away from Cuphead while climbing. If a particularly challenging climbing section was ahead then Easy would pause the game to focus on climbing and continue after the section had been passed.The mountain in question is Mount Mansfield, the largest mountain in the state of Vermont.

Yakuza franchise is currently on Xbox Game Pass as three titles have made a return to the service.All of the games from the main series – not including spin-offs like Judgment – are currently on Game Pass, from the remake of the original Yakuza in 2005 to 2019’s Like A Dragon.The three titles that have been reintroduced to Game Pass are 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 (via Wario64).All of the franchisetitles on Game Pass are listed below:Whilst some of these are technically prequels or remakes of classictitles, it now means that as of publication every entry in the main franchise is on Game Pass, and this goes for all versions including PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.Back in Februaryfranchise creator Toshihiro Nagoshi explained how his new team at Nagoshi Studio wants to approach making video games.“Well, when the team and I decided to start a new studio, we knew we’d be leaving the content we had previously been working on behind,” Nagoshi said.“But I also have a strong mental attitude and a lot of ideas I would like to try, which could even surpass my previous work, so I was confident that leaving the old series behind will afford the chance to try new things.”There’s still no confirmation as to what Nagoshi Studio’s first game will be, but Nagoshi himself said it will include “a high level of human drama.”In other news, it’s been confirmed that a remake of 2012 cult-classic Lollipop Chainsaw is on the way next year.

Cyberpunk 2077, has denied allegations of mismanagement following whistleblower claims.Last week (June 25), the YouTube channel Upper Echelon Gamers published a video which featured claims from a whistleblower, alleging that Quantic Labs were the reason for Cyberpunk 2077‘s bugs.According to the whistleblower, Quantic Lab promised the developer CD Projekt Red a veteran team of testers for the game but instead gave the work to junior employees with less than a year of experience.It was also claimed, among other things, that the studio told staff to report a set number of bugs per day. This resulted in CD Projekt being bombarded with reports of minor performance glitches that distracted from work on more serious bugs.In a new statement to PCGamesN, Quantic Labs’ CEO Stefan Seicarescu said that the claims made by the whistleblower are incorrect.“The video published on social media starts with incorrect statements about Quantic Lab’s history.

Maxis has announced the High School Years expansion pack for The Sims 4, which will allow teenage Sims characters to “experience all the ups and downs of high school”.Announced yesterday (June 30), the High School Years expansion pack will flesh out the school lives of characters in The Sims 4.As detailed in the expansion pack’s page, this means that Sims will be able to attend classes and after-school teams, socialise with friends in the cafeteria, and decorate their lockers. The expansion pack will also explore teenagers’ lives outside the walls of school, as students will be able to spend time with their friends after school, go on dates, or get up to some mischief.“High school is a time of self-discovery! Find the confidence to ask your crush out or the guts to skip class,” says EA.

Overwatch 2’s community manager Andy Belford has taken to the official forums to defend the game’s “support a streamer” promotion after backlash from the community.To promote the launch of the second Overwatch 2 beta, Blizzard has partnered with 150 streamers to give away an exclusive Brigitte skin. Players will need to donate three subscriptions to any of the Twitch channels on the list, while they’re actively streaming Overwatch.

Striking Distance Studios founder and CEO Glen Schofield has talked about how Dead Space spiritual successor The Callisto Protocol will be even more intense than that title.Schofield talked about The Callisto Protocol in a new interview with Eurogamer yesterday (June 28), addressing how this year’s horror title will go a step behind his previous game in Dead Space.“It’s got some pretty horrific moments, it really does. We have a gore engine – we built Gore technology.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection seems to be getting microtransactions within the future that allows players to purchase “Spartan Points”.The news comes from a recent Halo Community Update and was reported on by Windows Central. The post clarifies that Spartan Points are the rebranding of Season Points, which can be earned by completing challenges and levelling up and spent on various items and cosmetics.The potential inclusion of microtransactions is for “players who are new to the MCC, or who may not have dedicated much time specifically to unlocking items during the seasonal updates”, or “completionists looking to catch the last outstanding items they need”.

FromSoftware (Elden Ring, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Dark Souls) has announced that it is hiring staff for several new projects, one of which is in the “final stages” of development.The announcement comes via FromSoftware’s Twitter account in a post that reads (via Twitter’s translation): “We have started recruiting staff for a wide range of occupations for multiple new projects. We look forward to working with you on making games with FromSoftware.” The post also links to a Japanese careers page.複数の新プロジェクトに向けて、幅広い職種のスタッフ募集を開始いたしました。フロム・ソフトウェアで一緒にゲームを作ってくださる皆さんを、お待ちしています。よろしければぜひ、特設サイトをご確認ください。https://t.co/p9FvoxnB9T pic.twitter.com/rvDKkipjQA— FROMSOFTWARE (@fromsoftware_pr) June 24, 2022While there is currently no confirmation as to what FromSoftware is working on, a recent interview from 4gamer with FromSoftware president and game director Hidetaka Miyazaki sheds some insight into what we can expect.When asked if an unannounced title created alongside Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was still on the way, Miyazaki responded by stating: “Yes.

Square Enix has announced that Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor is coming to Marvel’s Avengers next week.Sharing the news yesterday on Twitter (June 22), the publisher revealed that the Mighty Thor will be headed to the game as part of the previously announced free 2.5 update on June 28.“Jane’s Mighty Thor is an unstoppable force of nature that new players and seasoned vets alike will want to experience,” said Marvel’s Avengers art director, Jeff Adams. “We hope that you enjoy the assortment of awesome outfits created for her.”Gaze upon the glory of the Mighty Thor!Art Director Jeff Adams is here to discuss the design philosophy in some of the Mighty Thor's iconic comic-inspired Outfits.⛈️ https://t.co/cAOSAbTgJC pic.twitter.com/HPAzD4iq7r— Marvel's Avengers (@PlayAvengers) June 22, 2022As the new developer blog further explains, Jane Foster will also receive four outfits after her release.

EA Dice has confirmed it isn’t working on any game that isn’t Battlefield-related, as it has “no time” for anything else.Speaking to GamesIndustryBiz, Dice’s recently appointed general manager Rebecka Coutaz said the team aren’t even thinking about their other IPs, like Mirror’s Edge.“We are only focusing on Battlefield 2042. There is no time for anything else and this is what we want to do.

Hunt: Showdown developer Crytek is aware of a bug with the LeMat revolver and has warned players against exploiting it, threatening consequences for those who do so.Hunt: Showdown is a multiplayer first-person shooter, with both a cooperative mode and a battle royale mode. An easily repeatable exploit involving the LeMat Mark 2 Revolver has been discovered which gives those using it an unfair advantage.As reported by PC Gamer, the bug involves the weapon mode switching mechanic of the LeMat.

Raven Software has announced that players will no longer be able to edit their loadouts in Call Of Duty: Warzone under certain circumstances. The developer made the announcement on Twitter yesterday (June 20), where it told player’s that they will no longer be able to change their loadouts when matchmaking or in a party.“Due to an unforeseen situation, we’ve disabled the ability to edit loadouts when joining to or matchmaking with another player’s party,” wrote Raven Software.❗️ Due to an unforeseen situation, we've disabled the ability to edit Loadouts when joining to or matchmaking with another Player's party.— Raven Software (@RavenSoftware) June 20, 2022The ability to edit loadouts in pre-game lobbies was a highly requested feature for some time, with it being introduced to Warzone at the start of Season 4 last year.This was removed at the time as Raven Software quickly realised that players could use it to get infinite Dead Silence – a field upgrade that completely silences a players movement and running – during matches.Last week the Mercenaries Of Fortune roadmap for Warzone and Vanguard was also revealed, which you can check out in full here.

PC and consoles, developer Mediatonic recently announced that Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout will soon be going free-to-play.The time for players to get their hands on the adorable battle royale at no extra cost is almost here, as well as brand new content to celebrate the occasion. To help you understand when exactly Fall Guys releases as a free-to-play game, we’ve put together a handy guide for everything you need to know.Fall Guys Season 1: Free For All is expected to release on June 21 worldwide.

Focus Entertainment’s upcoming action game Evil West has had around ten minutes of new uninterrupted footage ahead of its release.The third-person action game is out later this year, and it sees players take control of a vampire hunter in the Wild West who’s tasked with eliminating the bloodsucking menace. The footage shows a boss fight, a number of lush terrains, and the fast-paced combat players will be engaging in when it releases.You can see the ten minutes of uninterrupted in-game footage (released today, June 20) below:Players will be able to fight their way through a narrative-driven campaign whilst upgrading their weapons and tools, all whilst getting new combat perks too.“A dark menace consumes the Old West,” reads the Steam page. “In solo or coop, fight with style in visceral, explosive combat against bloodthirsty monstrosities.

StudioMDHR’s executive producer has said that the upcoming Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course downloadable content (DLC) could have been released as a standalone title.Maja Moldenhauer spoke with Nintendo Everything in an article published today (June 19), and they responded to a question about whether or not The Delicious Last Course was ever going to be a standalone game, instead of a DLC for the original Cuphead.“Yeah! There was a discussion – it was a brief discussion at the beginning of the development in 2019 when we actually put pencil to paper,” explained Moldenhauer. “But ultimately at the end of the day, it fit this chapter of the Cuphead story.

Studio MDHR has talked about how the delays and long development time for Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course have been vital for the team’s health.In an IGN interview from earlier this week (June 16) the studio’s Maja Moldenhauer talked about how it’s been vitally important to look after the around 18 developers on the team.“It’s hard to find people. The number one thing, especially through COVID was keeping everybody happy. This is video games.

Call Of Duty Ricochet Anti-Cheat has updated how it works, with cheaters now having their guns (and fists) taken from them.In a blog post from earlier this week (June 16), the Ricochet team laid out the progress in the system, with the “ebb and flow” of cheaters still to be expected in each of the games (via Eurogamer).“Today we’re sharing another mitigation technique from our toolbox: Disarm.” said the Anti-Cheat team. “Like the name implies, when cheaters are detected, we simply take their weapons away from them (including their fists).“We don’t expect many clips of this to find their way online, but we have seen it in action and the reactions from cheaters are always priceless.”The blog post also endeavours to answer community questions around cheating, as well as the news that Ricochet will be active in both Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2 the day each game releases.“Will you encounter cheaters? Sadly, perhaps yes, but we are working endlessly to be faster and better to get them out of the game (by force or by annoyance) and let you focus on fun,” adds the post.Warzone and Vanguard’s upcoming fourth season is also set to launch on June 22, with the roadmap highlighting what players can expect when it releases.

Destiny 2 cheat site Elite Boss Tech have agreed to pay Bungie £10.7million ($13.5million) to end their ongoing lawsuit with the company.Earlier this month (June 9) Elite Boss Tech owner Robert James Duthie Nelson and other defendants, agreed that their cheating software injects third-party code into Bungie’s copyrighted code which constitutes  “unauthorised, derivative work.”They admitted they did this wilfully. According to court documents (via Torrentfreak), the cheat software was downloaded 6765 times, with every download a separate infringement earning the defendants a £1588 ($2000) fine.As part of this agreement, the cheat makers had to agree to never create or distribute any kind of software that infringes upon Bungie’s copyrighted works again.“This permanent injunction is binding against Defendants worldwide, without regard to the territorial scope of the specific intellectual property rights asserted in the Complaint and may be enforced in any court of competent jurisdiction wherever Defendants or their assets may be found,” the motion reads.“Any violations of this order by Defendants will subject them to the full scope of this Court’s contempt authority, including punitive, coercive, and monetary sanctions.”In April, ​​Bungie had its legal case against cheat site AimJunkies dismissed.“Notably, Bungie has not pleaded any facts explaining how the cheat software constitutes an unauthorized copy of any of the copyrighted works identified in the complaint.

Blizzard Entertainment has shared an Overwatch 2 roadmap that reveals how many new heroes and maps will be available at launch, along with what fans can expect from the shooter’s first year.In a tweet shared yesterday (June 16), Blizzard revealed that when Overwatch 2 launches with its first season on October 4, it will bring three new heroes, six extra maps, and over 30 skins. Season one will also include a battle pass, a mythic skin, and a new game mode.#Overwatch2 arrives October 4, ushering in a new era for the franchise as a free-to-play live service game!Learn more about the game and our commitment to deliver frequent seasonal content updates that expand the game to ensure there’s always something new to play.

Raven Software has shared new details on what the Fortune’s Keep map update will bring to Warzone, including improved visibility and the return of Storage Town as a point of interest.Yesterday (June 15), the official Call Of Duty Twitter account revealed several of the changes coming to Warzone‘s Caldera map.One of the biggest changes mentioned involves a tweak to Caldera’s flora, which will bring “50 per cent less vegetation and better visibility”. While this may not seem exciting, it addresses issues with visibility that the Warzone community has complained about since the launch of Caldera.The updated map will also include several new “micro” points of interest, which Raven Software says will mean more places for players to find loot.

The Sims 4 has added an innocuous small telescope that can also cause the untimely death of the Sims’ using it. The pocket-sized telescope is small enough to fit into a Sims’ pocket and is useful for stargazing among other things. The catch is that the user will be susceptible to being crushed by a flaming meteorite, although there will at least be a warning before it lands, giving the player a chance to move the character inside and out of harm’s way.