Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
The stories for this week:
- Lucid Games Formed From Wreckage of Bizarre Creations
- Command and Conquer Not Done, Victory Games Developing for EA Now
- Zelda Turned 25 This Week
- Gears of War 3 Officially Coming September 20
- Fight Night Champion Only Major Release This Week
Lucid Games Formed From Wreckage of Bizarre Creations
That didn’t take very long, although there is no word of the exact number of former Bizarre employees who have joined in the Lucid adventure. Also no word on what type of game they’ll be working on. Should be interesting to see what happens.
Source: Joystiq
Command and Conquer Not Done, Victory Games Developing for EA Now
The good news is that the Command and Conquer IP is still be worked on, now with the newly named Victory Games located in the EA LA Studio area much like Visceral Games. Chances are good that Victory is made up of many, if not all, of the people that have been working on the series over the years.
Source: Joystiq
Zelda Turned 25 This Week
Much like Mario before it, Zelda turned 25 this week celebrating its release in Japan. Over here on this side of the pond we still have to wait until next year to celebrate both Zelda and Metroid’s 25 year anniversary. Zelda holds a special place in my heart, moreso than Mario ever did. The original Zelda was the first game I played when I got my NES and I ran out to get every successive Zelda game after that. I always said as long as Nintenod continues to make Zelda games I will pick their systems up. Happy birthday Zelda, let’s hope there’s many more decades ahead of you.
Source: me
Gears of War 3 Officially Coming September 20
This was a quiet week in gaming news, probably because of the upcoming GDC next week where some game announcements may be made. Epic and Microsoft did announce a for sure date for Gears of War 3 this week though: September 20. That would be 5 months after the original release time of April.
Source: me
Fight Night Champion Only Major Release This Week
It is true that Rift is coming out this week, but I really only consider Fight Night Champion to be a somewhat major release this week. It will be interesting to see what makes this game an M-rated one, the first time in the series. Anyone else find it a bit odd that EA is slamming a lot of games with little to no hype/marketing (Dead Space 2 notwithstanding) early this year? I mean, Tiger Woods PGA 12 and Need for Speed: SHIFT Unleashed are coming out soon, well outside of their usual fall release zones. Does that mean bad things for the games? I don’t know, but I do find it quite odd.
Source: me