2024 has been a massive year for the video game industry so far, and if you’ve been having trouble keeping up with all the news, here’s our breakdown of the biggest news from the week of July 21, including some major union efforts, layoffs, and release date delays.
The Biggest Gaming Headlines for the Week of July 21
Bethesda Game Studios employees and World of Warcraft devs officially announced that they’d be unionizing with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The news follows an unprecedented wave of layoffs in 2023 and 2024 that saw numerous people in the video game industry losing their jobs.
Developers aren’t the only ones banding together, though. SAG-AFTRA has officially called a strike against several major video game publishers in an attempt to protect actors against AI.
These instances of labor action don’t mean the problems have stopped, though. IGN parent company Ziff Davis let go the staff of Humble Games, only days after the release of Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus. The layoffs were described as “restructuring.” However, it seems that all 36 people on staff were laid off and that the company will continue only in name, with a third-party group taking over operations, according to Aftermath.
Outside of that major industry news, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been delayed until November 20 to undergo more polishing. This is far from the first delay for the game, which was announced in 2010 for release in 2012.
Fallout: London, a massive mod that brings the post-apocalyptic action-RPG to England, dropped on July 25. I’ve had the chance to play a few hours of the game, and I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit, so if you need something to play this weekend, I can definitely recommend it.
Some Other News
There are a few other pretty cool announcements that were made the week of July 21, so here’s a quick hits list of them.
- Helldivers 2‘s “Escalation of Freedom” update will arrive on August 6, and it’ll include a new difficulty level, mission objectives, bugs, bots, and environmental hazards.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is officially on Xbox Game Pass.
- The cast for Dragon Age: The Veilguard was revealed, and it includes the likes of Erika Ishii, Brian Bloom, and Miranda Raison.
- Lucy from Cyberpunk Edgerunners is coming to Guilty Gear Strive at some point in Season 4. At the time of writing, exactly when she’ll appear in the game hasn’t been confirmed.
- Heihachi Mishima is set to join Tekken 8 at some point in Fall 2024.
What’s Coming Next Week?
Although the start of July had some pretty major titles coming out, the last week is noticeably sparser. Stormgate, an RTS by several former Blizzard developers, is going to release on July 30. As a big fan of a lot of classic RTSes (New Warcraft RTS when? Never? Yeah, that sounds right.), it feels like a game that I’m likely to enjoy.
Otherwise, there’s nothing that looks particularly major to me in terms of new releases. My recommendation is that, if you’re looking for something new, you take the time to try out one of the extremely cool games that’s released in the last month, such as Cataclismo or Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, both of which we reviewed positively.
If there’s anything we missed or that you’re excited to play, sound off in the comments!
Published: Jul 26, 2024 04:00 pm