The latest on Modern Warfare III

Activison outlined details of their latest Call of Duty game, which will likely be their first under their new owners, Microsoft. Plus, the latest on Cyberpunk and plenty of other news from the past week. Here we go.

Modern Warfare III details revealed

Activision held an online event to promote their latest Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare III. The game comes out Nov. 10 and the event offered additional details about the game. 

Campaign

MW3 will have a full campaign mode, picking up the story where MW2 left off. However, players will have more control over how they approach missions in the latest game. Use stealth, a frontal approach or just run your enemies over with vehicles. Enemies will adapt and adjust to whatever playstyle you use. 

Multiplayer

Activision released new details about the Multiplayer mode in MW3. According to a report by Game Informer:

The game will feature sixteen maps from 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which will now be compatible with newer game modes, like Hardpoint and Kill Confirmed. Additionally, large-scale maps will be added to accommodate Ground War modes, which allow you to play with more players in wider areas.

Zombies

The popular Zombie Mode, where players fight hordes of the undead, is back for MW3. However, this time, it’s an open world battle against a menagerie of monsters. Check out the video for more details.

Warzone

MW3 will feature a new Warzone map called Urzikstan. This  free-to-play battle royale portion of MW3 launches in December as part of Season 1 for the game. From Activision developers: “Players will descend on Urzikstan, a brand-new big map where the Middle East meets Eastern Europe, designed with 11 memorable main points of interest alongside many other smaller areas.” Check out the developer blog for more on Urzikstan.

Watch the entire Call Of Duty Next presentation or read the developer blog for more info about the upcoming game.

A Cyberpunk redemption story?

After a rough launch in 2020 plagued by issues, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally becoming the game most players wanted it to be, three years later. 

With its 2.0 patch and first DLC, Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk recently passed 25 million copies sold. Phantom Liberty, which was released less than one month ago, already sold 3 million copies.

According to reports, CD Projekt Red spent roughly $125 million since the game's original launch turning the game around. $80 million of that was spent on Phantom Liberty. Many seem pleased with the updates, and last week CD Projekt Red announced a new Cyberpunk live-action project is in the works.

Not all fun and games

Despite 2023 being a brilliant year of video games, the business side of the industry had a rough week marked by layoffs, hacks and arrests. The top stories:

• French police arrested five former Ubisoft executives in connection with a sexual assault and harassment investigation.
• Telltale Games laid off “most” of their staff. This is the second time in five years that the studio has gutted its workforce.
• Employees laid off from BioWare are suing for better severance pay.
• Meanwhile, after three rounds of layoffs in three months, CD Projekt Red developers unionized.
• Venture capital funding for video games fell to its lowest level in three years last quarter. This has led to some of the layoffs.
• The developer of the game Hatoful Boyfriend accused Epic Games of not paying royalties for the past two years.
• The Sony data breach we mentioned last week exposed employee information for 6,800 current and former employees of the company.

Here’s hoping the industry has a better time this week. 

Side quests (more stories worth reading)

✖️ After winning their case against the FTC and transferring European streaming rights to Ubisoft, Microsoft will complete their acquisition of Activision Blizzard on Friday, October 13 for $68 billion.

🏆 The Florida Mayhem won the 2023 Overwatch League grand championship. Blizzard says it plans to ‘revitalize’ the esports league for next year. 

🐉 You can now show your love of Dungeons & Dragons with furniture, candles and even booze.

📴 Nintendo plans to shut down online services for 3DS and Wii U in April 2024. 

🚀 Planet Unknown wins one of Germany’s biggest board game awards. 

💸 Following Unity’s price increase, Epic plans to increase Unreal engine prices for non-game developers.

🔨 A sound designer for Baldur’s Gate 3 studied blacksmithing and made a pair of metal shoes to record the armor sound for the game. 

🍞 A bakery in San Francisco made a sculpture out of bread of a Last of Us Clicker.

🧟 Speaking of Last of Us, is Naughty Dog working on a remastered version of the Last of Us Part 2? 

⚕️ Magic: The Gathering’s Doctor Who decks will be broken into four eras. Check out all the Doctors. 

💵 Over the past three years, 41,000 games were released on the PC game store Steam. Half of those made less than $500.  

🧛🏼‍♀️ Redfall finally got its promised 60 FPS mode on Xbox in its latest update. However, there aren’t enough concurrent players on Steam to make a full team. Read our Redfall review.

🐁 Wired ranked the best mouse for every kind of gamer. 

🐺 Sega recently canceled Hyenas, a game in production that was their biggest budget game ever. 

🎬 PlayStation Plus Premium and Deluxe members will be able to stream select movies for free.  

🎵 Stray Gods won Game of the Year at the Australian Game Developer Awards.

🧱 Nintendo announced Lego is working on Animal Crossing sets.

🤼‍♂️ WWE star Randy Orton paid someone $1,000 to level up his Elden Ring character. 

🙂 A story about a kid who received Pokémon cards for his seventh birthday and became one of the best players in the world by age 11. 

New Releases this week: 

Check out our 13 new games to play in October.

10/10: Forza Motorsport (Xbox and PC)
10/10: Wild Card Football (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
10/11: Total War: Pharaoh (PC)
10/12: Haunted House (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
10/12: Star Trek: Infinite (PC)
10/13: Lords of the Fallen (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
10/13: The Grinch: Christmas Adventures (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
10/13: Transformers: Earthspark - Expedition (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)

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