In the midst of numerous problems with Anthem, a recent article by Kotaku’s Jason Schreier on the game’s development and how everything went wrong painted a dismal picture of BioWare’s inner workings. Despite first being teased in mid-2012, Anthem would only be built in the 18 months leading up to its release. Given the reception, there’s now concern that Dragon Age 4 will suffer the same production woes.

However, it seems BioWare is learning from Anthem’s development failings. With Anthem, instead of choosing to use the work BioWare had done on the problematic Frostbite engine previously with Dragon Age: Inquisition, they instead decided to start from scratch, partly because they felt the same work would not fit with an online games, and partly because they wanted to set Anthem apart from their previous games.

Predictably enough, that led to tons of problems- but with Dragon Age 4, BioWare won’t be repeating the same mistake. Instead of starting from scratch, it seems Dragon Age 4 is being built on the same codebase, under GM Casey Hudson. Schreier reports that this is part of a new strategy, and that more information would be shared on that game in the “near future”.

A former BioWare staff member also noted, “I think Anthem might be the kick in the butt that BioWare leadership needed to see that how you develop games has changed dearly. You can’t just start fresh and fumble your way forward until you find the fun. That doesn’t work anymore.” Though Anthem may be wrought with problems, there’s some hope that ideating and improving on the current codebase could lead to smoother development overall for Dragon Age 4.

Currently, the next Dragon Age doesn’t have a release date. It was teased at The Game Awards 2018, and the accompanying “trailer” wasn’t even supposed to happen. Read more on that through here.

BioWare announced a new Dragon Age game last year, during The Game Awards. It was… not really much of an announcement. It was more of a tease, which didn’t even technically name the game Dragon Age 4, or anything like that. The whole announcement felt a bit rushed, almost as though it was thrown together at the last minute.

Which is because it was. GamesBeat reports that Casey Hudson’s famous “tease” for a new Dragon Age related announcement was made without approval from EA—Hudson just went ahead and made it as a power play, to allay fan fears. The promise he made ended up EA scrambling in the eleventh hour to throw together anything that they would be able to show.

Allegedly, Andrew Wilson, the CEO of EA, was not at all happy with Hudson’s move, and EA remains skeptical on how Dragon Age 4 is even progressing (they have good reason to be, given the failure of Anthem, and how it seems to represent systemic failures at BioWare). I have no love lost for corporate politics, but I just hope that Dragon Age 4 won’t suffer as a result of them.

The Game Awards this year was an incredible event, with a whole bunch of great announcements, and some fantastic production values. Thankfully, it looks like producer Geoff Keighley’s efforts into making the event the premier awards ceremony for the gaming industry every year are beginning to pay off.

Speaking on Twitter, Keighley revealed that total viewership of The Game Awards hit a staggering 26 million this year, which is double of what it achieved last year. Keighley notes that viewership was up on every major platform the event aired on, and on Twitch, it reached an eye watering 1.13 million concurrent viewers, which makes it one of the largest streams in Twitch’s history.

Hopefully these numbers help Keighley make the awards show get even better next year, with some even more outstanding new announcements and reveals. Although I struggle to think what, if anything, will outdo the sheer shock I felt at “Joker in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate”.

Viewership was up across the board on most major platforms – and on @Twitch the show reached a peak of 1.13 million concurrent viewers, one of the largest streams in history on that platform. On @youtube viewership doubled YOY, plus our expanded distribution in China.

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) December 12, 2018

The Game Awards ceremony this year was very well put together- it was well rehearsed, it was well paced, and it had some really good reveals and announcements. One of the highlights of the show came near the very beginning of the show, when Shawn Layden (head of PlayStation), Reggie Fils-Aime (head of Nintendo of America), and Phil Spencer (head of Xbox) came together on a single stage to talk about being better and stronger together. It was an excellent moment that unified the entire industry for a few brief minutes, and the show’s producer Geoff Keighley deserves a lot of credit for putting it together.

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, head of Xbox Games Marketing, obviously feels the same way. Recently, he posted a couple of tweets, in which he talked about the aforementioned moment, saying that it was something he never imaged would happen. He went on to call it his personal highlight of the show, before praising Keighley for making sure that it did indeed happen.

As I mentioned, it was a really cool moment, and served to remind us that the primary passion and purpose of these three rivals, at the end of the day, is the very same- to make great games and consoles. You can watch it below for yourself, in case you missed it (or want to watch it again).

https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1071482671207899136

https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1070982028051410944

Last night, Nintendo made arguably the biggest announcement at The Game Awards, when they confirmed that Joker from Persona 5 will be joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster as the very first DLC character for the game.

It was something that, if you will excuse my saying so, no one saw coming. After all, Persona 5, indeed any mainline Persona game, is not on Nintendo Switch. Why would Nintendo choose to include Joker over any number of Nintendo or Nintendo associated characters?

Because that’s exactly what they are going for with the DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, according to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. Speaking to IGN, he confirmed that Nintendo views Joker as “emblematic” of the kinds of inclusions fans can expect from Smash Bros.’s DLC going forward

“It’s emblematic of the approach that [series creator and director Masahiro] Sakurai and the team are taking with the DLC,” Fils-Aime told IGN. “He wants characters that are unique, different, to bring them into the Smash Bros. environment. So it’s going to be tremendously exciting.”

He also talked about how, going forward, a character not being associated with Nintendo is not a barrier to their inclusion in Smash Bros.

“Mr. Sakurai, he’s not only a student of Nintendo franchises, and obviously he’s had his hand in a few, but he’s a student of video games from a total perspective,” Fils-Aime said. “And so he’s been the driver in really thinking about what type of character coming into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would bring just a whole different level of fun and enjoyment for the player. That’s been the approach. That’s the thinking.”

“I hope the fans are excited by the announcement of Joker. I hope they’re looking forward to the future announcements,” he added. “I hope it gives them confidence to just go buy the Fighter Pass. That way they can get the latest fighter as soon as it’s available and continue building out their roster for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.”

Smash was always going to have my attention, but the announcement of Joker joining the cast is certainly the most energizing Smash Bros. announcement I can remember in years. Hopefully the upcoming picks are just as unexpected. Meanwhile, head on over here to find out what Reggie had to say about the possibility of Persona 5 on Switch in light of this announcement.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is out now, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.

Sony’s been extremely quiet lately. They didn’t hold a PlayStation Experience event this year. They’ve announced they are not going to be at E3 next year. Last night, at The Game Awards, Microsoft and Nintendo both made new announcements, but Sony didn’t. What’s going on? Why are they so quiet?

While there is an argument to be made that the catch-22 situation they find themselves in right now is a problem of their own making, that’s not of any comfort to their fans, who are probably eagerly waiting for the company to make some new announcements and share some information.

In response to one such fan, who lamented the lack of any major Sony news last night on Twitter, PlayStation’s America boss Shawn Layden said simply, “see you next year”, which seems to indicate that they are lining up some announcements and events that will quell fans.

Of course, that’s pretty obvious—if they weren’t doing that, we’d be seeing a year plus of blackout from Sony, and I don’t think they would do that. But still, for many fans, I suppose this confirmation is good to have nonetheless.

https://twitter.com/shawnlayden/status/1071065843692331010?s=21

Suffice it to say, 2018 actually went by reasonably okay for Microsoft. While 2017 mostly saw Xbox at its nadir as a console brand right until the end of the year, when the Xbox One X launched and revitalized the console family, this year benefitted from the strong momentum the Xbox One X gave the brand, as well as a few exclusive game releases over the year.

However, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, who is the head of the Xbox division,  thinks that that 2019 will be an even better year for the brand, citing upcoming eagerly anticipated exclusives such as Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Crackdown 3, and of course, Gears 5.

“We’ve got Crackdown 3, we’re going to be launching that,” Spencer said, speaking at The Game Awards last night. “We’ve got Gears 5, which will just be incredible. One of my favorite franchises that has come out this generation for us, Ori… We’ll see the next Ori come out.”

He also took this opportunity to have a dig at rival Sony, who will not be attending E3 next year.

“We’re gonna be back here at E3, which will be incredible, right here in this theater,” he said, referencing the Microsoft Theater where The Game Awards was held, and where Microsoft will have their E3 keynote next year. “This year was an awesome year for gamers, and I look at next year and I think that it’s just lined up to be another better year.”

It sounds like the Xbox brand is in good hands with Spencer, and I personally hope that he actually lives up to his promise next year, and delivers an even better 12 months for Xbox gamers than this year proved to be.

Of the many titles announced at The Game Awards 2018, including Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds and NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 11, you’d think some games would struggle to maintain a presence. Giant Squid, better known for creating the incredible ABZU, didn’t face that problem though. It debuted The Pathless, a new adventure title with a stunning art style.

The trailer below showcases the spell-binding aesthetic quite well. Whether it’s moving through the world or simply standing still and taking in the surroundings, The Pathless looks incredible. The story focuses on a hunter who travels to a mystical island with her eagle to hunt some corrupt creatures. The hunter’s relationship with the eagle is paramount to their survival.

The Pathless is slated to release in 2019 for PS4 and PC. Like Supergiant’s Hades and A44’s Ashen, it will be available through the Epic Games Store. Whether it eventually comes to Steam or even Nintendo Switch remains to be seen, but we’re certainly hopeful.

Though there was plenty of speculation that Death Stranding would receive a trailer at The Game Awards this year, Hideo Kojima dashed those hopes when he confirmed that he wouldn’t be at the event. Regardless, given his famous friendship with The Game Awards producer Geoff Keighley and the fact that Death Stranding has historically been a major presence at awards show in the past, some people were still hoping for a trailer. 

That didn’t happen, however. Recently, Kojima Productions sent out a tweet mentioning their absence at The Game Awards show yesterday, before going on to say that the development team was “working hard on development” of the game. 

The question is- how far along in the development process are they? According to a recent report, they’re pretty far along. Actor Norman Reedus, who’s also playing the protagonist in Death Stranding, recently suggested that the game is coming along nicely, and will be launching in early 2019. Read more on that through here.

Congratulations to all of those at #TGA2018!! Unfortunately this year Kojima Productions and DEATH STRANDING weren’t able to be part of this fantastic show. At the moment, Hideo Kojima and the team are all working hard on the development of DEATH STRANDING, so look forward to it! pic.twitter.com/waYT10eVFh

— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Eng) (@KojiPro2015_EN) December 7, 2018

If you’ve enjoyed Capcom’s Monster Hunter World, it’s hard to fault it for pretty much anything. The gameplay is incredible, the mechanics are solid, there’s plenty of content to play through, and the hunts can be fairly varied. However, after Behemoth launched several months ago, we haven’t been seeing much by way of new monsters (aside from Arch-Tempered Elder Dragons).

Whether producer Ryozo Tsujimoto senses this concern among the fan base or not, he apparently has positive news coming up. At The Game Awards 2018 when accepting the award for Best RPG, Tsujimoto said, “Soon we will make an announcement that will make everyone happy.” This announcement will be revealed in a “few days”.

What could it be? A new region with several new monsters to battle? New mechanics? New gear and weapons? The long-awaited arrival of G-Rank for players to grind even further into the end-game? It’s hard to say. Monster Hunter World’s first anniversary is coming up in January 2019, so an announcement in the coming days and a release next month wouldn’t be too strange.