Skull and Bones finally launching?

Star Wars Outlaws coming this year, Homeworld 3 delayed and 10 billion downloads from Nexus Mods and 10 billion downloads from Nexus Mods

Skull and Bones)It’s a very big game, and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. It’s a really full, triple… quadruple-A game, that will deliver in the long run. – Yves Guillemot, CEO, Ubisoft

Hey there!

πŸ“£ If you only read one piece of news today πŸ“£

☠️ Ubisoft has priced Skull & Bones at $70, labeling it a "quadruple-A game" due to its expansive scale, which justifies the premium model over a free-to-play approach. The game has an open beta available until February 11, allowing a free trial before its official release (February 16).

πŸ₯· Ubisoft confirms Assassin's Creed Codename Red, set in feudal Japan, is slated for release before the end of March 2025, while Star Wars Outlaws is on track for a 2024 launch, as part of the publisher's robust lineup for the upcoming fiscal years.

πŸŽ‰ But we have so much more:

Spider-Man 2 will finally have New Game+.

This week-end we can play for free a demo for Homeworld 3, a trial for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and the open beta for Skull and Bones.

And Nintendo might actually do something about Palworld.

Now let’s play:

Welcome to The Power-Up #69

Game-Up

πŸ•ΈοΈ Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is set to receive a significant update next month, including the much-anticipated New Game+, an array of new suits, and various upgrades starting March 7.

🌍 A demo for Homeworld 3 is now available on Steam, offering players a taste of its new War Games mode ahead of the game's release. But the full game release was delayed (again), to May 13. 

πŸ”« Activision unveils a free trial for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, offering access to new maps and the full Modern Warfare Zombies mode. The free trial runs from February 8 to 12.

πŸ”ͺ Shift Up estimates that completing the main story of Stellar Blade will take around 25 hours, with a 100% completion requiring between 30 to 50 hours.

πŸ₯· Ubisoft confirms Assassin's Creed Codename Red, set in feudal Japan, is slated for release before the end of March 2025, while Star Wars Outlaws is on track for a 2024 launch, as part of the publisher's robust lineup for the upcoming fiscal years.

☠️ Ubisoft has priced Skull & Bones at $70, labeling it a "quadruple-A game" due to its expansive scale, which justifies the premium model over a free-to-play approach. The game has an open beta available until February 11, allowing a free trial before its official release (February 16).

Round-Up

πŸ‘Ύ Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa hints at taking action against IP infringement when questioned about Palworld, a game speculated to borrow from Pokemon. Palworld sold over 12 million copies.

πŸ”« Helldivers 2 faces mixed Steam reviews due to crashes linked to anti-cheat DRM and criticism over its Battle Passes, suggesting a pay-to-win model, despite a strong initial player count. Developer Arrowhead is working on resolving these issues amid concerns from players who enjoyed the original game.

πŸ”§ Nexus Mods celebrates a landmark achievement of 10 billion downloads today, marking a significant contribution to the gaming community with mods for over 2,683 games from 128,361 mod authors.

Biz-Up

🀯 Disney acquires a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games, initiating a partnership to develop a Fortnite-connected universe featuring Disney's extensive IP portfolio. This collaboration aims to create a dynamic, Unreal Engine-powered environment where users can interact with characters and settings from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Avatar.

βš”οΈ Tencent secures a controlling interest in Wangyuan Shengtang, the studio behind Swords of Legends, as part of a multi-pronged investment. Tencent now owns approximately 94% of Wangyuan. 

πŸ“ˆ Paradox Interactive's revenue surged by 34% in 2023, reaching SEK 2.6 billion ($248 million), despite a 3% dip in year-on-year profits, as the company attracted six million players and achieved record-breaking financial milestones.

πŸ“ˆ The MENA-3 (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt) games market expanded to $1.92 billion in 2023, with a forecast to hit $2.65 billion by 2027. Gamer numbers in the region rose to 68.4 million in 2023, projected to grow to 79.6 million by 2027.

πŸ€‘ Krafton achieved a record $1.4 billion revenue in 2023, with 66% derived from mobile platforms, despite a slight decrease in mobile earnings. The company saw a significant 34.5% increase in mobile revenue in Q4.

πŸ’° Stoke Games, co-founded by veterans from League of Legends and Multiversus, raises $5.5 million for a strategic, "shooter-adjacent" PvP game focusing on slower gameplay and strategic depth.

πŸ“ˆ U.S. consumer spending on video games reached $57.2 billion in 2023.  This increase is attributed to a surge in digital downloads and a strong year for game releases.

Industry Level-Up

πŸ˜” Visual Concepts Austin, the team behind WWE 2K23 and other titles, has experienced layoffs. The exact number of affected employees is unknown.

🀝 Chris Matthews joins 343 Industries as Studio Art Director, bringing a wealth of experience from working on titles like Forza Motorsport and Gears of War. This move comes after reports of a new Halo project in development.

🀝 Kadokawa Corporation acquires Octopath Traveler and Tenchu developer ACQUIRE from GungHo Online Entertainment.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Stay powered-up until next time.

Bobby & Andrei

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Did you know?

Skull and Bones began development in 2013, being initially envisioned as an expansion of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, then an MMO spinoff title under the name Black Flag Infinite, then spun off as an independent project, in part due to its initial technology becoming outdated. 

It was revealed at E3 2017, set to be released in Q3/Q4 2018. The game was later delayed into 2019 then to sometime after March 2020, then pushed back to 2021–2022, then delayed to 2022-2023. It was announced for November 8 2022, pushed to March 9, 2023, delayed to 2023-2024 and finally will release on February 16 2024.

At least we hope so.