Join us as we say “goodbye” to an old friend, and “hello, again” to some others.
The Game Developer’s Conference is going on this week, and instead of cramming everything into one little weekly roundup, check out what I thought was worth mentioning here!
Goodbye, Maxis Emeryville. The studio that brought us SimCity and Spore, is closing it’s doors. EA confirmed in a statement, “Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne locations as we close our Emeryville location. Maxis continues to support and develop new experiences for 
current Sims and SimCity players, while expanding our franchises to new platforms and developing new cross-platform IP.” This change won’t affect The Sims 4 in any way, and the game’s first expansion is set to come out soon. The news comes 2 years after the tragic release of the rebooted SimCity.
source: Kotaku
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain finally has a release date! For console users, you’ll get to play on September 1st. For PC/Steam users, you’ll have to wait until September 15th. If you wanna take a look at the different editions you can purchase, click here and salivate over all the goodies.
Well, I’m extremely excited about RollerCoaster Tycoon again. No shame. Atari graced us with a trailer for their upcoming RollerCoaster Tycoon World. The Steam page indicates a release sometime “mid 2015.” This will be the first RollerCoaster Tycoon game to come out for PC in nearly a decade.
source: PCGamer
Unfortunately for some PS4 users, Comcast has decided to not allow HBO Go on Sony’s newest console due to decisions that “have not yet been agreed to between the parties.” It’s unknown if HBO Go’s standalone service, HBO Now, will be available for Sony devices when it launches in tandem with the Game of Thrones premiere this April. Those who have Time Warner, AT&T, or Verizon should not be affected. Add that to the short list of reasons why I’m glad I use Time Warner.
source: IGN
Miss rhythm games? FRET NOT! Rock Band is coming back! Harmonix announced Rock Band 4 today. Adding over 2000 songs to playlist, the new Rock Band will be available on PS4 and Xbox One later this year. Harmonix claims fans will be able to use their old instruments, and that songs purchased for previous versions will be available for download at no extra charge. For an in-depth look at all the new info, check out Polygon’s comprehensive overview or Harmonix’s own blog post.
Here are some other things you might want to read about:
- Overwatch gets two new characters
- IGN has some fun facts about your favorite Nintendo characters
- And goes through some of the cool games releasing for Nintendo this year
- Fable Legends cross-play will be entirely blind to platform
