This Week in Video Games: May 11, 2023

Sometimes news can just get out of control. Sure, you can do everything in your power to read up on what’s happening daily. But, we know it can be frustrating to find every morsel available. Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. 

This past week, we’re dealing with everything from layoffs and studio closures to insight on when to expect some upcoming games and DLC to getting disqualified from a major tournament due to being distracted by the wrong game. Let’s dig in and take a closer look at some of the things you missed for the week of May 11th.

PlayStation shutting down Concrete Genie developer PixelOpus

Sometimes, the news from the game industry isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. It’s painfully common to see game studios get heavy layoffs or, in extreme instances, full studio closures. 

PixelOpus, a Playstation Studios team, announced this past week that they’re, sadly, closing their doors. Previous job listings indicated that they were working on an Unreal Engine 5 game, supported by Sony Animation Pictures.

Check out more details about the closure here on GameCrate.

Hollow Knight: Silksong delayed!

There’s an old quote from Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto about delayed games eventually becoming good. Hollow Knight: Silksong has never given a concrete release date. But it had been assumed that we’d see it in 2023 for a while.

You can read more about Hollow Knight: Silksong’s delayed release and more over on Shacknews.

Valorant pro team disqualified due to Honkai Star Rail mobile game

It’s not often that you read about a pro esports team being disqualified over a completely video game. Valorant fans likely know about the Valorant Champions Tour. During the second split of the Challengers League in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Ghost Commandos had to take an L.

They were set to face off against S2 Esports, but forfeited their game. Apparently, one of the players on GCS didn’t install the VCT client in time for the match. They were too busy playing Honkai Star Rail. That’s a great review: “Our game is so good that we make pro esports players forget about any other game”.

Get more details about the Ghost Commandos and their attention spans over on Gamesradar.

Private Division and Game Freak are working on a project together

Take Two’s Private Division is known for great indie titles like The Outer Worlds, Hades, and Kerbal Space Program. Game Freak is known internationally as the people that bring us Pokémon. They announced a partnership for an untitled action-adventure game that they’ve codenamed “Project Bloom”.

Since Game Freak likes making occasional non-Pokémon games, it’s unlikely that it’ll be related to their monster-catching franchise. This means it’ll likely be a whole new IP. But, the game is scheduled for Take-Two’s 2026 fiscal year.

You can see more details on Private Division’s own website, via their announcement of Project Bloom.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaks ahead of release

Beware leaks and spoilers! The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was leaked super early. Physical copies started showing up on Mercari well over a week ago. People are dumping the entirety of the game’s files online. Discords are full of leaked footage. It’s a madhouse out there.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf seemingly won’t be until 2024

One of the best ways to see what might be coming down the pipeline for a year is to look at a game publisher’s financial earnings reports. EA published theirs and one game was definitely missing from the report. BioWare’s Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was nowhere to be seen. It was expected to release in 2023, but this means we won’t see it until at least 2024.

The previous entry in the Dragon Age franchise, Inquisition, dropped in 2014. It’s been highly anticipated that we’d get Dreadwolf sooner than later. But, alas. Maybe next year.

You can read a little bit more about what is and isn’t currently on EA’s docket for the next year at Eurogamer.

Bungie wins $6.7 million lawsuit against Destiny 2 cheat seller

It’s not often a good thing to root for the game company when lawsuits are involved. A Destiny 2 cheat seller, LaviCheats, was taken to court back in 2021 by Bungie. LaviCheats, based in India, was accused of selling and distributing cheats for Destiny 2 players. If this only affected the single player aspects, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. But, this worked for PvP moves, such as the Trials of Osiris.

After all this time, the operator of LaviCheats, Kunal Bansal, opted to “not participate” in the court hearings. Bungie asked the court to give the default judgment, which it did. Bungie was awarded $6.7 million, in the end.

Read more about the court case over on The Game Post, where they have all of the court documents as well.

FIFA 23 becomes most successful in series

With all of the Call of Dutys and Candy Crushes of the world, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how successful other genres can be. In terms of sports, FIFA is one of the kings of the world. In the same fiscal report that told us that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf wasn’t coming this year, FIFA 23 got a fantastic update.

Check out more information about the top dogs of EA over on GN.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is getting Super Hero movie content, Beast Gohan

It’s always interesting to see Bandai giving DLC and updates to old games. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is nearing 7 years old and is getting a new DLC called “Hero of Justice Pack 2”. This pack gives Gohan and Piccolo from the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, as well as new missions, quests, costumes and more.

May 9th was Goku Day. Yes, that’s a real holiday and it’s celebrated every year. This year, they announced the new Xenoverse DLC. You don’t have to wait long for it, though. It’s due out today.

You can get the entire breakdown of content for the Hero of Justice Pack 2 over on Gematsu. They also have a trailer for the pack.

Ubisoft lays off 60 people

Layoffs aren’t great. Like we said earlier, it’s painfully common to see. Preparing for their fiscal report, they laid off around 60 people this week. According to Social Operations Manager for Ubisoft, Matthew Hayes, on Twitter, it was sudden and without notice.

Ubisoft confirmed the action. They cited that the cuts are from their Customer Relations Center team and they’re working on “evolving its organization”. Their yearly earnings call is May 16th, so it’s assumed this was related.

Gamespot went into a little more detail over on their site about it.

If you don’t have all the time in the world to read the news all day, every day, come by GameCrate each week for our news round-up. We’ll save you the hassle of looking.