Xbox One Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Sonic Team has been insistent on referring to its upcoming Sonic Frontiers as being “Open Zone” as opposed to open-world, and now director Morio Kishimoto has specifically clarified the differences between the two terms.“Level-based platformers often have a world map. Our Open Zone is a world map, only we’ve made it entirely playable,” Kishimoto stated in an interview with IGN.

Fall Guys is having a crossover with Halo, as revealed during the 2022 Xbox Games Showcase Extended.READ MORE: Have we had enough of battle royale games yet?The announcement trailer parodies Halo 3’s iconic Believe trailer, and hints at some of the costumes that will be included in the crossover, including a Grunt, Brute Chieftan, and of course, Master Chief.The event is titled Spartan Showdown, and will run from June 30 to July 4. The description reads: “Complete challenges in Spartan Showdown to unlock rewards.” This is likely in celebration of the game releasing on Xbox platforms later this month.This comes following the announcement last month that Fall Guys would not only be coming to more platforms than just PlayStation 4 and PC, but would also be adopting a free-to-play model.

Sigur Rós will be providing music for the upcoming musical adventure game Snufkin: Melody Of Moominvalley.As announced at the Future Games Show 2022, Sigur Rós will be collaborating with developer Hyper Games on music for the studio’s upcoming game Snufkin: Melody Of Moominvalley, which is set to launch next year.“We are over the moon to announce that Snufkin: Melody Of Moominvalley will have music in collaboration with Sigur Rós,” shared Hyper Games on Twitter. “We are honoured to be working in partnership with the group and we hope you’re excited to hear the music of Snufkin.”Sigur Rós aren’t the first Icelandic act to compose music for Moomins.

Outriders Worldslayer showcase from today (June 10) gave players an in-depth look at how the new dungeon, enemies, loot systems and more will work in the upcoming expansion.Worldslayer is set to bring a new campaign, patch trees, apocalypse tiers, ascension points and a plethora of loot to Outriders. Today’s “Endgame” stream also took a deep dive into what players can expect when the Worldslayer content launches later this month.A brand new dungeon, called “The Trial Of Tarya Gratar” is a big piece of endgame content coming to Outriders, with the story of the dungeon rooted into the history of planet Enoch’s mysterious natives, the Pax.The apocalypse tier difficulty won’t just be available in the new Worldslayer content, with players able to go back into the base game and take on a new challenge as well.

Saints Row character creator can be downloaded and played with right now.Called the “Boss Factory,” the character creator demo is playable now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC via the Epic Games Store.The new trailer featuring the character creator can be seen below:NME got a look at the expansive customisation options back in April, and we learned that players can equip layered clothing on their character. This means that you can customise what your character wears right down to their socks.There are even options for asymmetrical face customisation, prosthetics, and lots of makeup and scarring options too in Saints Row.Check out every other Summer Game Fest announcement here, or anything announced during the Summer Of Gaming 2022 here as well.In other news, the Russian author of Metro 2033 has been put on the country’s wanted list after condemning its invasion of Ukraine that began this February.

Microsoft has announced a new program designed to bring demos to Xbox Game Pass, and it’s called Project Moorcroft.The early game demos intended for the Project Moorcroft initiative are meant to replicate the demos played during gaming conferences such as E3 or PAX.“We were sitting around as a team thinking, you remember it used to be you go to E3, you go to PAX, and you would go visit some of your favourite creators and they would have a piece or a level of a game that you could sit there and play, and there would be someone from the studio like right next to you in your ear being like: ‘press that button, go under there, do that stuff,'” said Sarah Bond, corporate vice president of game creator experience and ecosystem at Microsoft Gaming, speaking to press.“And you would get to experience the game, and they would get to generate excitement about what they’re building and what’s coming next.“So we said you know what?” Bond explained, “Why don’t we take Game Pass and make it like the show floor? Why don’t we make it possible for a developer to take a piece, a level of their game, release it into Game Pass, generate excitement for what’s coming, and also get that really valuable feedback as they are tuning and preparing their game for launch?”Bond also added that Microsoft set up the program to not just benefit the player, but it benefits the developers as well by giving them financial compensation for the game. It will also allow developers to receive feedback as well.Project Moorcroft is set to release within the next year and will begin by focusing on indie games.

Fallout 76’s development claims that the game’s disastrous launch led to hours of mandatory crunch, which was further exacerbated by poor management.The report comes from Kotaku, which spoke to 10 former Bethesda employees for the purpose of the rather extensive article. The anonymous workers shared a range of stories that alleged mental and physical exhaustion, unnecessary overtime, and a lack of coherent direction all providing context for the game’s mixed reception at launch.According to the report, 60-hour work weeks in the lead-up to the game’s launch were frequent, with testers being coerced into partaking in additional weekend shifts to work on the game’s downloadable content (DLC). One source claimed, “I remember seeing one of my co-workers stand up, look at the person who was in charge that day, and scream across the room: ‘Why are we here? We gave up our day for this.

Sonic Frontiers to receive a delay past this year.This campaign has come from the “#DelaySonicFrontiers” hashtag, which was briefly trending on Twitter recently. At the time of publication, over 13 minutes of footage has been released via IGN’s YouTube channel as part of the IGN First coverage of the game, with the videos receiving ire from fans due to the performance, Sonic’s animations arguably being stiff and unnatural, a seeming lack of momentum, and combat that appears to be sluggish and dull.One YouTuber, LegitimatNoodle, posted on Twitter: “For the sake of Sonic Team I pray to god that it’s just a pre-alpha build”, while another, LonelyGoomba, stated: “Sonic Frontiers looks like they made an open world game automated.

Sims 4 will allow players to transform into a werewolf.Coming June 16, the Werewolf expansion will give players the freedom to be the sort of wolf they want to be.“Transform into a werewolf and embrace (or fight) your animalistic nature,” reads the description from EA. “Beyond rocking a fearsome form, werewolf Sims will have unique temperaments and abilities, be affected by the phase of the moon, and experience wolf-specific life events.”“Were you bitten, or were you born into a werewolf family,” continues the description.

Xbox consoles has changed secret achievements, and it’s quite a handy change for any hunters out there.Xbox users can now view secret achievements natively, as announced via an Xbox Wire post. On how to access the information, the post reads: “From within a game, open the guide and go to Game activity > Achievements.

Halo Infinite, announced on May 25 that he has left 343 Industries.The announcement came via a tweet by Hook, which reads; “Today marks my last day at 343i, Microsoft and Halo. This journey has been filled with creating new worlds, platforms and products from Xbox, Xbox Live to Halo.”This is followed by a subsequent tweet where he expresses his gratitude for being a part of the industry and the Halo community.

The Sims 4 developer Maxis has added customisable pronouns to the game, and has shared a blog outlining how the feature will work.In an article posted yesterday (May 24), Maxis outlined how it has been working to implement customisable pronouns in The Sims 4, a feature that was requested by 22,857 fans last year (via Eurogamer).“We reached out to the It Gets Better Project and GLAAD and worked with them to learn more about how pronouns are used, particularly by trans and nonbinary people. Through this research and through doing a deep dive into the game, we’ve learned about all of the different complex areas that binary gender was present in The Sims 4.

MultiVersus – with the likes of Gandalf, Godzilla, LeBron James and more seemingly in the works.As detailed on Reddit (via PCGamesN), the current MultiVersus build seems to hide the name of several upcoming fighters within backend files.These files include references to a multitude of characters who have not been added to the game just yet, however some of these datamined fighters seem more fleshed out than others.According to the datamine, fans of the fighting game can expect characters such as Gandalf, Godzilla, Rick and Morty, LeBron James and Scooby-Doo to join the MultiVersus roster.Other upcoming characters appear to include The Hound and Daenerys from Game Of Thrones, Gremlins‘ Gizmo and Stripe, Lord Of The Rings‘ Legolas, and DC villain/anti-hero Black Adam.While the existence of these characters’ names in the backend files certainly suggests they will make their way to MultiVersus, nothing has been officially announced by developer Player First Games – so it’s still worth taking the datamined content with a grain of salt.MultiVersus is published by Warner Bros. Games, and the game pulls in characters from all over the publisher’s IP.

Sega has said that it is targeting high review scores for the upcoming Sonic Frontiers, after recent mainline Sonic The Hedgehog games had middling reviews. This goal for the newest entry in the franchise was revealed by Sega in a transcription of its investor question and answer panel for the last fiscal year (from May 20). When asked if Sega is setting target scores for Sonic Frontiers, the company said:“We have set internal targets, as the correlation between the scores of external evaluation organisations and sales is high in Europe and North America.”“If the game gets a high score, it can become a must-buy game, and possibly generate synergy with sales, so we are currently working hard to improve the quality of the game toward its sales for the holiday season,” Sega continued.These comments follow a lack of critical success for the Sonic Team-developed mainline games.

Double Fine Productions, Psychonauts 2, is finally releasing on macOS and Linux in the very near future.A new update on Psychonauts 2’s Fig page states; “Mac and Linux versions will be available on all major storefronts next week.” It’s clarified that “for those of you eager to play these versions, you do not need to ask for an extra game key. Everything will be provided on your Humble Games page.

Gears Of War franchise could be getting a remastered collection in the near future.That’s according to Xbox Era journalist Nick Baker, who said on the Xbox Era podcast on May 14 that a “Master Chief Collection-type treatment” is in the works for the Gears Of War series (via VGC).“A while back I said there is another Microsoft franchise that’s getting the Master Chief Collection-type treatment, I am of the belief that that is coming this year,” said Baker on the podcast, adding “everyone has guessed it.”Last year, The Coalition, the main studio behind the Gears Of War franchise, had reportedly started work on an original game series, targeted for the Xbox Series X|S using Unreal Engine 5.However, VGC reports that the studio is rather in the early stages of developing the next Gears Of War title.The collection could be revealed at the Xbox and Bethesda showcase due next month, where there may also be the first gameplay footage of Starfield, although it was delayed last week.The Coalition’s last game, Gears 5, was released on Xbox One and PC in 2019.The original Gears Of War was released back in 2006 for the Xbox 360 and received critical acclaim. It was then remastered as Gears Of War: Ultimate Edition for PC and Xbox One in 2015.However, the subsequent sequels: Gears Of War 2 and Gears Of War 3, never received the same treatment and are only available through modern Xbox consoles via backwards compatibility.

Sega says it has multiple new titles, remasters, remakes and spin-offs planned for the next fiscal year ending in March 2023.The company talked about its upcoming strategy in a fiscal year results presentation for the last year (published on May 13), which also looked forward to what Sega has planned over the next 12 months (via VGC).In a segment about prolonging product life cycles, Sega said it has a series of “remake/remaster, spin-off [and] change of theme[s]” planned for its franchises. The company adds that last year these approaches netted it 4million unit sales, with it expecting 5million in the next fiscal year.Sega also provides examples of the types of games it is talking about, referring to remaster Sonic Colours: Ultimate, remastered collection Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania and Yakuza spin-off Lost Judgment.Whilst Sega doesn’t directly reference what this upcoming year’s games will be, it’s safe to assume that Sonic Origins – a collection of the original Sonic The Hedgehog games remastered for modern consoles – is part of this strategy.Particular mention is also made of expanding Sonic’s brand awareness, which has happened over the last couple of years thanks to the films, the character’s 30th anniversary, and the upcoming Sonic Frontiers game.Not all is going well for the hedgehog, however, as recently Sonic content creators have found YouTube marking their work as “made for kids”, which is greatly hindering the work’s reach, regardless of any themes or imagery inappropriate for children aged 13 or below.“Your video is tossed into a pool of other Made for Kids labelled content that is of poor quality, so you’re made irrelevant,” explained channel Balena Productions’ Steven Page.

Ubisoft has confirmed that three of its big upcoming releases will launch by the end of the financial year, 31 March 2023.The titles mentioned are Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2017 Switch exclusive; Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, a new game set within the universe of James Cameron’s movie franchise, developed by Massive Entertainment (Tom Clancy’s The Division); and Skull and Bones, the ever-elusive pirate ship battling multiplayer title which has been incubating in development since 2013, originally being conceived as an expansion and then a spin-off of that year’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.Skull and Bones was originally revealed as far back as Ubisoft’s 2017 E3 press conference, and last publicly seen at the publisher’s 2018 E3 event. Kotaku reported last year that the lengthy development cycle was due to a string of directorial changes.

Ubisoft has announced that The Division 2 is getting a brand new season, the first in almost two years, this week.Season nine, titled Hidden Alliance, will feature a new episodic narrative within The Division and will go live this week on May 12.Instead of exploring the multiple districts of Washington, the season’s focus will shift to the smaller areas of the map, and provide “more contained, concentrated stories, and to avoid repetition from season to season.” You can check out the Season Nine launch trailer below:Hidden Alliance will also introduce a new antagonist, named Captain Lewis, as well as four new mini-bosses for players to challenge that will release across multiple months. Starting on May 12, players can take on Major Castillo, with Sergeant Daniels following on May 31.

The Sims 4 developer Maxis has teased more downloadable content (DLC) for the game, which looks set to include a host of night-themed content – including werewolves.In a Twitter video posted yesterday (via PC Gamer), Maxis teased that players will be able to “seize the night” with one game pack and two kits set to arrive in May and June 2022.The video features an in-game Sim flicking through several TV channels, with one in particular depicting a night-time landscape with a full moon.

Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida has implemented a new list of rules to combat what he calls “uncooperative behaviour”.Following the launch of Final Fantasy 14’s new 5v5 player versus player (PvP) mode, Crystalline Conflict, Yoshida has reported an “unprecedented number of reports concerning uncooperative/lethargic or taunting behaviour during matches”.In a new blog post, he explained how “all PvP content, including Crystalline Conflict, is intended to be a battle/contest of skill between players. Participants must bring their best to the fight, and for this reason uncooperative or lethargic behaviour is prohibited.

Saints Row reboot has detailed all of the ways in which players will be able to customise different aspects of the game, and has revealed a wide variety of personalisation available for cars, characters, and weapons.Today (April 20), Saints Row developer Volition shared an Ultimate Customisation Showcase to give fans a look at how they will be able to customise their characters in the game.The Showcase touched on all aspects of customisation in the game, including a character creation screen that allows for asymmetrical face customisation, prosthetics, and an in-depth array of makeup and scarring options.For dressing characters up, the upcoming Saints Row game will mark the return of layered clothing, meaning players will be able to layer their clothing choices and choose what their character wears – right down to their socks.The Showcase also touched on how players will be able to tweak their cars. Volition has confirmed that there will be over 80 vehicles to find in Saints Row, and these can be changed in all manner of ways.

Sega has officially confirmed the release date of Sonic Origins, a multi-game collection that will feature digital remasters of the original Sonic The Hedgehog game and its direct sequel. The collection will also include Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic CD.Sonic Origins will feature two different play modes; Classic Mode and Anniversary Mode.Classic allows players to “experience the multi-game collection of legacy Sonic games in their retro form with classic challenges.

Rainbow Six Siege update Y7 S1.2 is set to go live today (April 19), alongside a brand new map, balance changes, and more.Ahead of the update’s release, Ubisoft has published the patch notes detailing everything players can expect from Year 7 Season 1.

FromSoftware game modder and dataminer Lance McDonald has uncovered a cut non-player character (NPC) questline in Elden Ring.Spotted by PC Gamer, the NPC was to be located at the Stormhill Shack (formerly known as Scavenger’s Shack), where the player meets NPC Roderika in the final release of the game. However, during the game’s network test late last year, the shack was empty.McDonald was able to bring back the NPC that was initially intended to live there, someone called Monk Jigo.According to PC Gamer, Jigo had been “seduced by the good lady alcohol” and requests the player help them in securing the ingredients of the “Dreambrew,” a legendary liquor with magical properties.McDonald suggests that the Dreambrew was intended to be used by players to unlock additional dialogue with NPCs.

Nintendo Switch, No More Heroes 3 is coming to the other major platforms later this year. As confirmed by publisher Xseed Games on April 15 (via Eurogamer), Travis Touchdown will be making his way to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC later this year.According to Xseed, No More Heroes 3 will come to these platforms this autumn, likely putting the release between September and November of this year.Our favorite otaku assassin returns! Travis Touchdown has been forced out of retirement to defend not only Santa Destroy, but Earth itself! Bring on the beam katana and take on Travis' toughest challenge yet in #NoMoreHeroes3, coming this fall to PS4, PS5, Xbox, and PC! pic.twitter.com/kdEJnonUd5— XSEED Games (@XSEEDGames) April 15, 2022When No More Heroes 3 was initially released in August of last year, it was published by Grasshopper Manufacture and came out on Nintendo Switch, but now the game is coming to all other major platforms. However, it’s currently unclear what PC store the game will arrive on.Series creator and director Goichi “Suda51” Suda said earlier in the year that he’s had a few meetings with Marvel, with him possibly making a game with some of the superhero characters in the future.“I think that will depend on the discussions we have with Marvel Studios.

Elden Ring player was able to figure out how big the game’s Erdtree is, discovering that it’s taller than the Alps.Those familiar with Elden Ring know that the Lands Between is occupied by a massive tree named the Erdtree, which towers over the majority of the game’s map. One player wondered how tall the Erdree actually is, so they tasked themselves with finding out the exact scale of the set-piece (via PC Gamer).In a new YouTube video titled ‘How big is the Erdtree?’ by Zullie the Witch, the player calculated the scale of the glowing tree by measuring where it meets the ground, the width of its trunk, as well as how its branches extend upwards.

Call Of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone Season 3 will begin later this month, as confirmed by a new trailer.Called “Classified Arms,” an announcement yesterday (April 13) confirmed that Season 3 will launch on April 27. The official cinematic trailer for Vanguard and Warzone Season 3 can be watched below.Whilst nothing has been confirmed just yet, many players think Season 3 will include a crossover with Legendary’s MonsterVerse – which includes the likes of Godzilla and King Kong – thanks to a noise heard at the end of the trailer.At the 1:14 mark in the trailer, a noise that’s nearly identical to the Orca from the MonsterVerse movies can be heard.

Weird West, and publisher Devolver Digital has outlined a roadmap in a brief trailer.Available now to play for a limited time, players can currently partake in a plague community event in Weird West. “Reports are rolling in from across the Weird West of a plague of undead rising from the grave,” reads the description of the announcement trailer.

Raven Software has temporarily disabled all vehicles in Call Of Duty: Warzone, with many attributing the loss to a popular glitch.In a tweet yesterday (April 11), Raven Software said it has “temporarily disabled vehicles on Rebirth Island while we investigate an issue”. At present the developer hasn’t been clear on what the issue is, but many think the removal of vehicles is linked to a glitch that sees players getting into the game’s golden vaults.Before golden vaults were widely accessible in Warzone, one player figured out how to wedge themselves between a golden vault’s door and another player’s vehicle, with the force from the vehicle pushing them into the golden vault itself.The video below shows a player using the glitch to get into one of the golden vaults, and this was achieved before the golden vaults were open – meaning the player couldn’t get out once they found a way in.Got into the vault pic.twitter.com/tKvWm6vmAA— bob.

eFootball 2022’s 1.0 update, Konami has detailed why it launched the game in an unfavourable state and how it intends to address player feedback.eFootball 2022’s first major update is releasing on April 14 and will bring improvements to the game that received a very negative response when it launched into Early Access last year. Speaking to VGC, a representative from Konami discussed some of the issues.“It’s hard to point to one deciding aspect.

Certain Affinity has highlighted Xbox development experience in a job listing, after it was reported the studio is working on an exclusive for the console.The job requirement was spotted by Klobrille on Twitter (thanks, VGC), who shared the Certain Affinity job listing for a senior graphics engineer. Under the requirements, it’s stated that whoever fills the role must have “development experience on Xbox consoles,” as the studio also says it is “working on our own new original IP.”This follows a report from earlier in the year that claimed Certain Affinity was working on a Monster Hunter-inspired Xbox-exclusive title.

Elden Ring speedrunner has beaten the game in only 12 minutes 32 seconds and defeated only one boss.Elden Ring’s speedrunners have slowly whittled down the time it takes to clear the massive game, and many different categories have been created to allow for different styles of run. The any per cent unrestricted category has recently seen Mitchriz take the top spot with the world’s first sub-13-minute run.

Sea of Thieves will see the addition of a new quest called Legend of the Veil, which brings in randomised story elements.First mentioned in Sea of Thieves’ roadmap from January, Legend of the Veil is a new three chapter long quest that will be available from April 21, and has now been detailed in both a blog post and a new video. The quest will be available for pirate legends, though in the deep dive where the quest is detailed, Rare staff did note that anyone can take part in the quest as long as a pirate legend is leading the voyage.In the new Sea of Thieves quest, players will be assisting the Pirate Lord, where you will have to gather special veil stones to further the plot.Legend of the Veil’s first two chapters are designed to be randomised, with some quests more puzzle oriented, and others featuring more combat.

Konami has confirmed that eFootball version 1.0 will be launching later this month, which brings a number of updates to the game.The free-to-play football gamewill receive its 1.0 update April 14, as announced through the game’s official Twitter account. A thread from the account also detailed what players can expect from the update.“Driven by feedback received from our users, we have worked on fixing bugs, adjusting the game balance, and adding new elements to the game to make it even more enjoyable for our users,” reads one tweet in the thread.This update for eFootball will also introduce the “Dream Team” mode which was previously introduced as “Creative Team.”In a post on the official eFootball website, the “Dream Team” mode is described as a one where you can “Build your one and only Dream Team, with your favourite players as well as players you have developed, and bring your own style of football to life.” Players will be able to compete against other “Dream Teams” from around the world.We are pleased to announce that the update (version 1.0.0) for eFootball™ 2022 will be released on 14th April 2022.— eFootball (@play_eFootball) April 6, 2022A number of gameplay changes have also been implemented for this update of eFootball.

Microsoft is apparently working on a group family pass for Xbox Game Pass, as the subscription service currently only offers individual memberships.As outlined in a Windows Central article from yesterday (March 31), trusted sources have said that a family plan – where one account can pay more to share Xbox Game Pass across a household’s accounts – is in the works and set to release sometime this year.The higher payment tier will apparently grant access to Xbox Game Pass for five different players, and be “far cheaper” than paying for each Xbox Game Pass account separately. Currently, Xbox Game Pass retails at £7.99 a month for console and PC, or £10.99 for Game Pass Ultimate, which includes game streaming and extra perks.This means that at present a regular subscription would cost five players £39.95, or Ultimate subscribers £54.95 a month.