Sony says PSVR 2 will have at least 20 games at launch

Along with bolstering production of the PlayStation 5, Sony is will bring another next-gen product to market: an upgraded virtual reality headset. PlayStation VR2 (PSVR 2) may not have a release date yet, but Sony clearly has big plans for it. At an investor briefing, the company revealed that there will be at least 20 “major” PSVR 2 games available at the jump.

There will be a blend of first- and third-party titles. The company didn’t reveal more specifics in its slide deck, but it did include key art for Horizon: Call of the Mountain. That’s a VR spinoff of the Horizon games, but it’s not a confirmed PSVR 2 launch title as yet.

It’s not clear whether any of the games in question will be remasters, upgraded versions of existing titles (such as No Man’s Sky and Tetris Effect) or ports from other VR platforms. In any case, here’s hoping that Sony can bring over Half-Life: Alyx from SteamVR.

One third-party game that will definitely be available when PSVR 2 arrives is Among Us VR, according to Schell Games. Other titles that are coming to the platform include Firmament from Myst developer Cyan Worlds, multiple games from Fracked studio nDreams and one by Coatsink, the team behind Jurassic World Aftermath.

Sony revealed the design of the PSVR 2 back in February. The headset will come with new VR2 Sense controllers and have a display resolution of 2000 x 2040 pixels for each eye, a 110-degree field of view, a maximum framerate of 120Hz and 4K HDR support. Pricing hasn’t been announced.

The studio behind ‘Dream Daddy’ is making a psychological horror game

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Game Grumps, the studio that gave us Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator in 2017. This week, the team announced its latest project. And it couldn’t be more different from its debut effort.Game Grumps describes H…

‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’ will arrive on October 28th

Call of Duty fans might want to start looking into taking some time off around Halloween. The next entry in the franchise, Modern Warfare II, will be released on October 28th. It’s the sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare, which was a reboot of the blockbuster series.

Activision Blizzard released a teaser video that doesn’t show any gameplay. Instead, it reveals artwork for some of the characters who’ll be featured: John “Soap” MacTavish, Simon “Ghost” Riley, Captain John Price, Kyle “Gaz” Garrick and Alejandro Vargas.

A gameplay reveal (if you really need one to know what a modern Call of Duty game looks like) may not be too far away, though. The teaser includes a quick flash of text reading “J-8-22.” That may be hinting toward a broader reveal on June 8th, just ahead of major gaming showcases from Summer Game Fest and Xbox and Bethesda.

It’s Infinity Ward’s turn to release a Call of Duty title and the studio has its hands full, since it’s also responsible for Warzone. A “massive evolution” of the battle royale will take place later this year in line with the release of Modern Warfare II. Both games will have a new engine, for one thing.

Modern Warfare II is arguably the most important Call of Duty title for Activision Blizzard in many years. The series is the company’s crown jewel. While the most recent release, Call of Duty: Vanguard, was the biggest selling game of 2021 by some estimations, it saw “lower premium sales” at launch than the previous year’s entry, Black Ops Cold War.

In the first three months of 2022, the Activision side of the business (which Call of Duty falls under) saw a big drop in engagement year-over-year from 150 million monthly active players to 100 million in the wake of the company’s misconduct scandals. With the Microsoft takeover pending and reports that there may not be a new Call of Duty game in 2023, Activision Blizzard will be hoping that Modern Warfare II performs strongly.

Take-Two’s $12.7 billion purchase of Zynga is complete

One of the biggest takeovers in the history of the gaming industry is complete — Take-Two now owns Zynga. The companies announced the $12.7 billion acquisition in January. The two sides have cut through all the red tape and, after shareholders gave the thumbs up last week, the deal is done.

Zynga has joined the likes of Rockstar Games and 2K under Take-Two’s umbrella. As s result of the deal, Take-Two now has a bigger stable of well-known mobile and casual gaming franchises, including Words with Friends and Farmville. Among the games Zynga is working on is Star Wars: Hunters, a free-to-play arena shooter for mobile and Nintendo Switch that’s supposed to arrive this year.

“As we bring together our exceptional talent, exciting pipelines of games, and industry-leading technologies and capabilities, we believe that we can take our portfolio to another level of creativity, innovation, and quality,” Take-Two chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a statement. “Each of our teams has a strong history of operational execution, and together, we expect that we will enhance our financial profile through greater scale and profitability, paving the way for us to deliver strong shareholder value.”

Take-Two’s buyout of Zynga is part of a major wave of consolidation across the gaming industry. In January, Sony announced it was buying Destiny 2 studio Bungie for $3.6 billion. That news came just days after Microsoft said it planned to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Both takeovers are pending regulatory approval. Activision Blizzard shareholders voted in favor of the Microsoft deal last month.