Outlaws, Dragons and Assassins
Plus the 2024 Spiel des Jahres nominees
Ubisoft and BioWare closed out Summer Game Fest week with their press conferences that included some in-depth gameplay trailers. Also, the German Spiel des Jahres committee shared their nominations for board game of the year. Those stories plus the latest news. Let’s go!
Ubisoft dives deep at Summer Game Fest
Ubisoft was one of the last of the big developers to hold their press conference at Summer Game Fest. The studio spent extensive time on two of their upcoming games, taking deep dives into game play. Here are the highlights:
Star Wars Outlaws
The game where you play as a bounty hunter in the Star Wars world got a detailed look at gameplay.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Ubisoft also showed an extended look at the latest Assassin's Creed game, which takes place in feudal Japan.
Other announcements included an update to The Rogue Prince of Persia, details on XDefiant’s first season, details on Anno 117: Pax Romana (which is planned to release in 2025) and a teaser trailer for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Not to be outdone by Ubisoft’s long trailers, BioWare released a 15 minute gameplay trailer of their upcoming Dragon Age game, The Veilguard. The game was first teased in 2018, and will release this fall.
The 2024 Spiel des Jahres nominees
The Spiel des Jahres are one of the most prestigious awards for board games. Germany’s “game of the year” primarily focuses on family games, for those who are more casual board players. The 2024 nominees include:
In the Footsteps of Darwin: Players are junior naturalists helping Charles Darwin finish his book On the Origin of Species.
Captain Flip: Take to the sea as pirates, and try to accumulate the most gold.
Sky Team: A two-player cooperative game where you try to land your airplane safely at different airports around the world.
The jury also recommended the following six games: Harmonies, Passt nicht!, Phantom Ink, Schätz it if you can, Trekking Through History, and Trio.
The committee nominated games for two other awards. They include:
Kinderspiel des Jahres (best kid’s game)
Kennerspiel des Jahres (enthusiast's game of the year)
The winners will be announced July 21.
Side quests (more stories worth reading)
🎮 Check out our piece on 20 games you may have missed from Summer Game Fest week.
🏈 San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey is the 2025 Madden cover athlete.
✖️ All three game console makers have now abandoned X (Twitter) integration.
🤦🏻♀️ A woman was caught smuggling 350 Nintendo Switch games in her bra.
♞ A new Shovel Knight game is coming, along with an update to the original game.
🎸 Metallica is coming to Fortnite.
🐉 Classic competitive board game Talisman is getting a cooperative expansion.
😢 Could board game publication Dicebreaker be shuttered soon?
⚖️ Valve is facing a £656 million UK lawsuit for “overcharging 14 million PC players.”
👋🏽 Warcraft general manager John Hight leaves Blizzard after 12 years.
📈 Elden Ring sold over 25 million copies.
👍 Jackbox announces “Megapicker,” a way to unify all its games.
☎️ Sony is improving Discord on the PlayStation 5, allowing users to join calls directly from their console.
🖥️ An Epic Games database leak potentially shows a number of unannounced PC games.
⚁ Helldivers 2 is hiring a second game master.
⛔ Wizard With a Gun developer Galvanic Games is closing down.
⚔️ The head of From Software says they would “love more players to be able to enjoy Bloodborne.”
🏎️ Lamborghini is releasing a limited-edition PC case.
New Releases this week:
Check out our article on 12 New Games to Play in June.
6/18: Still Wakes the Deep (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
6/19: Glyphs of Gitzan (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
6/19: Republic of Pirates (PC)
6/20: Drug Dealer Simulator 2 (PC)
6/20: ASKA (PC)
6/21: Dystopika (PC)
6/21: Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
6/21: Times & Galaxy (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
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