Game News Round-Up

First-ever official Shovel Knight concert announced

• Tickets are now on sale for two US performance in early 2025

Lego Fortnite heads into uncharted territory with huge Lost Isles expansion

• This is only the second Lego Fortnite expansion that includes a battle pass (the first being Star Wars in May).

Netflix's latest animated Witcher movie delayed into 2025

• Sirens of the Deep features Doug Cockle
• Now releases "11th February 2025"

The Sims 5 not happening as EA moves "beyond linear, sequential Sims releases"

• Sims 4 will receive "new expansions, updates, fixes and modernizations"
• Project Rene has not been cancelled but will now site alongside Sims 4
• Community creators (packs made with community made assets) will also be provided for Sims 4
• The Sims 4's release schedule continues this Thursday, 19th September, with the launch of its Artist Studio and Storybook Nursery DLC, while the still-mysterious Life and Death Expansion Pack arrives on 31st October. Additionally, EA previously confirmed MySims and MySims Kingdom are heading to Switch as a two-game bundle on 19th November

EA's free-to-play Skate revival is heading into early access next year

• Skate will be available on PlayStation, Xbox, PC (including Steam), and mobile devices when its early access begins in 2025

Epic Game Store (and Fortnite and Fall Guys) now available in EU on iPad

Dead by Daylight spin-off Project T has been cancelled

• The co-op PVE shooter was announced in May
• The game was in early development at Midwinter Entertainment, which was acquired by Behaviour Interactive in 2022 following the release of its debut title, Scavengers.

Games leaving PS+ "Soon"

• Ultra Street Fighter 4
• Gotham Knights
• LittleBigPlanet 3
• Dragon Quest XI S
• Dragon Quest Builders 2
• Dragon Quest Builders
• Dragon Quest Heroes 2
• Dragon Quest Heroes
• Toukiden: Kiwami
• The Evil Within

September’s PlayStation Plus Game Catalogue and Classics titles are now live

• Plus Extra and Premium
• The Plucky Squire | PS5
• Under The Waves | PS4/5
• Night in the Woods | PS4/5
• Chernobylite | PS4/5
• Wild Card Football | PS4/5
• Space Engineers | PS4/5
• Road 96 | PS4/5
• Ben 10 | PS4
• Far Cry 5 | PS4
• Premium
• Pistol Whip | PS VR2
• Secret Agent Clank | PS4/5
• Sky Gunner | PS4/5
• Mister Mosquito | PS4/5

More Xbox Game Pass titles for September revealed

• Wargroove 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – September 19 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Frostpunk 2 (PC) – September 20 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Ara: History Untold (PC) – September 24 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

Scopely cancels unannounced project, begins transitioning team to other work

• Scopely says it has "every intention" of keeping on employees from the project.
• In a statement to Game Developer, a Scopely spokesperson indicated no staff had been laid off at time of writing, and said it intends to move impacted developers to other teams within the studio
• The statement claims employees on the project will be moved onto Scopely's version of "The Bench"

Former Capcom, Ubisoft, WayForward, and Riot devs form Pahdo Labs

• First project, co-op roguelike action RPG Starlight Re:Volver, is set to debut next year

TouchArcade to shut down

• Lack of financial support cited as reason for closure
• The website ran for 16 years

Lighthouse Games moves to new office in Leamington Spa

• Developer will occupy a new 20,000 square office space across four floors

Team17 H1 Results

• Revenue: £80.6 million, up 11% year-on-year
• Gross profit: £32.9 million, up 9% year-on-year