Weekly Knockout | 4th June 2016

This Week’s 5 Biggest Stories

1) Skylanders Imaginators Announced

Activision has announced Skylanders Imaginators, the latest entry in the Skylanders franchise, will release this October. Developed by the original Skylanders team, Toys for Bob, Imaginators will feature an all-new story, and allow players to create their own Skylanders. Players can customise their character’s appearance, powers, abilities, and catch phrase. Imaginators will support the toys from all previous games in the franchise, and feature a new toy type; “Creation Crystal”. The crystal is used to crate and transport player creator characters (Called “Imaginators”) into the game. The toys-to-life game will also include “Senseis” – consisting of twenty new characters and eleven former villains – each of whom is a master of one of ten battle classes, and have the ability to launch Sky Chi.

Skylander Imagniators will support local co-op. The Portal of Power will support up to two Creation Crystals, in addition to usual number of toys. Finally, there is a collector’s edition available, named Skylanders Imaginators Dark Edition Starter Pack Imaginators, and will feature three exlcusive black and silver variant designs of the new Senseis, three Creation Crystals and more. The Dark Edition costs $99.99 and is currently only available for pre-order in the US.  Skylanders Imaginators will release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U on Friday 14^th October in the UK, and the following Sunday (16^th Octboer) in the US of this year.

2) NBA 2K17 Release Date Revealed

2K has announced that NBA 2K17 will release 20^th September 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. As per usual, the cover for the game has also been revealed, featuring a really tall guy, with Tatoo’s, and the number thirteen on his vest. According to the vest he is either called Pacers, or is sponsored by Pacers. Mr 13 had the following to say on the reveal; “I have been playing NBA 2K as long as I can remember, and to be honored as a cover athlete of NBA 2K17 is a blessing and vote of confidence that my hard work on and off the court has paid off.”

In addition to the standard release of NBA 2K17, there are two special editions available for purchase. The Legend Edition which will cost $80, and features alternate cover art, of some other tall dude with tattoos. Mr 24, proudly sponsored by Lakers, will also be featured on a poster, included with the Legend Edition, as well as a Black Mamba controller skin, and in-game items. Finally there will be a Legend Edition Gold ­version available for $100, which will include all the contents of the Legend Edition, in addition to extra virtual currency, Kobe’s Nike shoe collection, and two additional MyTEAM packs.

3) Ready at Dawn Reveals De-formers

Ready at Dawn, the studio behind 2015’s The Order 1886, has revealed its next game, De-Formers. ­­De-Formers is an arena-combat game, described by Ready at Dawn as a “third-person smash ‘em arena combat game”. Players will control “Forms” with up to seven other players either through local co-op or online play, using them to roll, smash, throw, and shoot. “[De-Formers is designed] for those who love to show off their skills, determination, and domination … Games are better when bragging rights are part of the experience.” No release date has been announced as of yet, although the game will release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It’s also worth noting that the game is being published by GameTrust, GameStop’s publishing arm.

4) Fallout 4 Mod Support 50 Times More Popular on Xbox One

Official Mod Support for Fallout 4 on Xbox One released last Wednesday, with reported traffic fifty times higher than seen on PC. It is worth noting that the figure quoted compares official mod support across the two platforms, (Which released on PC in April), but that PC has had unofficial mod support since launch. Bethesda has plans to bring Mod Support to PlayStation 4 within the month, although the studio has struggled with releasing the game on the platform, having to re-release the most recent DLC “Far Harbor” due to performance issues. Bethesda also announced that “New features” will be coming to Fallout 4, although that these new features are remains to be announced.

Xbox traffic was 50x the initial PC mod launch. It's a new world & just the beginning. New features & PS4 support in the works.

— BethesdaGameStudios (@BethesdaStudios)

5) Mafia 3 Collector’s Edition Detailed

2K has detailed the content that will be included in Mafia III Collector’s Edition, set to release 7^th October on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The Collector’s Edition (Pictured below) will include two 180-gram vinyl’s, collectible art prints, art book, Lincoln Clay dog tags, faux leather coasters, and finally the season pass. The vinyl’s feature an assortment of greatest hits from the 1960s, and the original game score, composed by Jesse Harlin and Jim Bonney.

This Weeks Sad News

Gaming for the most part is filled with incredible moments and heart-warming communities. Nevertheless, as events such as Konami’s callous dispute with Kojima have shown, tragedy can often befall the industry we love.

EA Worried Young People Didn’t Know WWI Happened

Ok, so this news isn’t sad for gaming, bur rather tragic for society as a whole. EA’s CFO, Blake Jorgensen revealed that “We [EA] were worried that many of the younger consumers out there didn’t know that there was a World War 2 or Vietnam, so World War 1…” during the process of green lighting Battlefield 1. In happier news, Jorgensen seems excited about Battlefield 1’s potential;-
“I think what people don’t understand about World War 1 is the technology shift that went on during the war. People started the war on horseback and ended the war with airplanes and tanks and battleships and submarines. And that’s a huge opportunity for us to be able to do a video game around.”

This Weeks Financial Report

IT’s NOT AS SCARY AS IT SOUNDS! Here’s the weeks latest sales figures and financials for games, developers, publishers and hardware manufactures.

Gameloft CEO to Resign Following Vivendi Takeover

Vivendi is a French mass media conglomerate, who you may be familiar with as the company who used to own Activision, before Activision bought their ‘own’ stock off of Vivendi, to the tune of $1.1 billion. The company has longed been rumoured to be interested in performing a hostile takeover of Ubisoft, towards which end Vivendi initiated a successful hostile takeover of Gameloft. According to a Bloomberg source, CEO of Gameloft, Michel Guillemot plans to resign in wake of the takeover. Vivendi will now appoint a majority of the directors on Gameloft’s board at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting. Michel is brother to the Guillemots who currently head Ubisoft’s board, and is expected to assist his brothers in defending their company from Vivendi. The Guillemots control 15% of the votes in Ubisoft, with Vivendi owning 18% of its capital and demanding board representation.

Minecraft Sales Surpass 100 Million

Minecraft has sold over 100 million copies during its lifetime – that’s roughly one copy per 70-74 people in the world! In 2016 alone Minecraft is averaging 53,000 copies per day. I’m speechless, so please take a look at the pretty picture below while I recover.

Rocket League Sells $110 Million

Released less than a year ago, Rocket League has surpassed $110 million total sales value. The game only released on Xbox One this past February, and was free for the first month of its release on PlayStation Plus. Total sales have exceeded 5 million copies, with 1 million of those being sold in the first half of 2016. Pysonix is still supporting the game with post release content, most recently revealing that painted items will soon be available.

And that’s a wrap on this weeks’ news, be sure to come back next week for another news round-up and subscribe to the Weekly Knockout on iTunes.