Weekly Games Patch 03/12/2019

After a week off, due to a lack of actual releases, we’re back! It’s time for yet another Weekly Games Patch.

PlayStation celebrates it’s 25th birthday today! On December 3rd 1994, the very first PlayStation debuted in Japan. It went on to sell 100,000 units in its first day and was the first ever home console to surpass 100 million units sold globally. The hashtag #25YearsOfPlay is trending worldwide.

After an illustrated version of the PS5 dev-kit leaked online back in August, speculation about the console has been rife. This reached a climax this week as a photo of the physical dev-kit was posted to Twitter by @Alcoholikaust, reported on by Eurogamer and seemingly confirmed by Tom Warren, editor of The Verge. He went on to explain the odd shape saying, “the reason it’s large and v-shaped is to make them more easily stackable for devs who are running multiple stress tests. The cooling is optimised to push air out of the sides and centre.”

There’s no indication that the dev-kit will even remotely resemble this design once the consumer model hits the market next year. Historically dev-kits are vastly different externally than the one sold to the public.

Codemasters has acquired Project Cars developer, Slightly Mad Studios, for £152.2m. “The acquisition will cement Codemasters’ position as a world-leading games developer and publisher of racing video games and expands its portfolio to include the award-winning Project Cars, together with an unannounced Hollywood blockbuster title,” explained a press release from the studio. The acquisition sees Codemasters’ employment roster swell to 700 people globally, with offices in London, Southam, Runcorn and Birmingham.

Finally, another piece of acquisition news, Facebook have bought Beat Games; the studio behind VR hit, Beat Saber. Beat Games will now join Oculus Studios as an independently run development house and will begin by expanding on the flagship title they spawned, before working on new IP within the Facebook umbrella.

Now, for this week’s releases and I personally can’t wait to get my hands on Halo: Reach for the PC via Game Pass!

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Tuesday

• Blair Witch (PS4)
• Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition (Xbox One)
• Life is Strange 2: Episode 5 (PS4, Xbox One & PC)
• Tools Up (Xbox One, PS4, PC & Switch)
• Arise: A Simple Story (Xbox One, PS4 & PC)
• Halo: Reach (Xbox One & PC)
• Trover Saves The Universe (Xbox One)
• Jigsaw Solace (PS4 & Switch)
• Heroland (Switch, PS4)
• Farming Simulator 20 (Switch)
• Phoenix Point (PC)

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Wednesday

• Everreach: Project Eden (Xbox One, PC)
• Big Pharma (Xbox One)

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Thursday

• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Steam)
• Darksiders Genesis (PC & Stadia)
• Paranoia: Happiness Is Mandatory (PC)
• Big Pharma (PS4 & Switch)
• Space Blaze (PS4 & Switch)
• Winter Sports Games (PS4)
• Kerbal Space Program—Breaking Ground (Xbox One)
• Alien: Isolation (Switch)

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Friday

• Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey (PS4 & Xbox One)
• Classic Snake Adventures (PS4)
• Hatsune Miku VR (PS VR)
• Immortal Planet (PS4, Xbox One & Switch)
• Space Pioneer (Switch)
• Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection (Switch)

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