Author: dpugh007

The immense popularity of games like PUBG and Fortnite: Battle Royale is not lost on publishing giant Activision Blizzard, it seems. Investment first Oppenheimer recently met with executives from the video game giant and came away feeling positive, due in part to the company reportedly having its eye on the battle royale genre.

Activision management explained to the research firm that it is “keenly aware” of the popularity of the battle royale trend and how other publishers have benefitted from jumping on board, according to Wall Street Journal writer Sarah Needleman (via IGN).

“The investment firm says Activision is keenly aware of how other game publishers have recently benefited from releasing titles [in the] popular ‘battle royale’ genre,” the report said. According to Needleman, Oppenheimer’s report also noted, “Management reminded investors that the company is a faster follower.”

The suggestion here is that Activision might get involved in the battle royale phenomenon somehow, though there is no word on if Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will have a battle royale mode. Whatever the case, it’s exciting to think about.

It’s no surprise to hear that Activision is keeping an eye on popular video game trends. It would be weird if they weren’t. And for that matter, we would expect all other video game publishers to be keeping tabs on the genre to potentially inform their own future decisions.

Activision isn’t the first major video game publisher to respond to the battle royale phenomenon. Take-Two, which owns Rockstar Games, said it is “really interesting” to see PUBG and Fortnite rise in popularity. But at the same time, Take-Two explained that it wants its studios at Rockstar and 2K to work on original ideas instead of being “derivative” and following a trend.

The success of PUBG and its impact on video games is undeniable. The game has been one of gaming’s biggest success stories of the past year (PUBG launched one year ago this month), and it inspired other popular battle royale games like Fornite and others. It will be interesting to see if other publishers follow along with battle royale modes in their own games, or create new experiences altogether in the battle royale genre.

As for Black Ops 4, the military shooter arrives on October 12 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. That’s about a month earlier than past entries in the series. Activision hasn’t said why it moved the game’s release up, but doing so gets the game a two-week headstart on Red Dead Redemption 2 (October 26).

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The Capital Wasteland Project, a fan project that was attempting to recreate Fallout 3 inside the framework of Fallout 4, has been canceled. The creator says that discussions with Bethesda made them realize that their plan was treading on treacherous legal ground, forcing them to call it off.

The project leader “NafNaf 95” shared a statement on Twitter (via Eurogamer) explaining the decision. “Recently we communicated with Bethesda regarding our planned method to implement the voice acting and other audio from Fallout 3 into the Capital Wasteland. During this conversation it became clear our planned approach would raise serious red flags that we had unfortunately not foreseen.”

The letter goes on to state that the team attempted shifting its methods in various ways, including re-recording dialogue, or requiring Fallout 3 to be owned in conjunction with an audio extractor. Ultimately, though, the team came to the conclusion that there was no legal way they could continue the project as envisioned. The dialogue that was performed by the likes of Liam Neeson and Ron Perlman was seen as too crucial to the experience, so re-recording it with fan-actors was dubbed a non-starter.

In a more personal matter, the project head says that if the team were to continue the project, he would personally be held liable for any copyright infringement or piracy claims.

“Projects like this have always existed in a grey area of the law…” the letter read. “If at any point in the future it becomes fully legal for us to continue working with the blessing of Bethesda and Zenimax, we will.”

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[UPDATE] The 3.3 update has been delayed due to an issue. No new release date has been announced.

The original story is below.

A new update is on the way very soon for Fortnite. On the game’s official Twitter account, developer Epic announced it will deploy patch 3.3 tomorrow, March 14, which will introduce new content for both the free-to-play Battle Royale and the paid early access Save the World modes.

Epic hasn’t detailed exactly what will be available in the new update, but the developer did tease that players will be able to come across a Supply Llama in Battle Royale, which will aid them by dropping helpful items when found. The update may also include remote explosives, a newly revealed item that players will be able to detonate from a distance.

One thing we likely won’t see in update 3.3, however, are jetpacks. The items were originally slated to arrive in Battle Royale last month; however, Epic ultimately delayed them due to a “last minute design issue” that the developer discovered when playtesting the jetpacks internally. There is still no word as of yet about when the jetpack will be added to Battle Royale, but Epic has introduced other items in the meantime, such as the hunting rifle.

Epic says it will reveal exact timing details for the new Fortnite patch “soon.” Until then, players still have a little more time to take part in Battle Royale’s latest limited-time mode, Teams of 20. Like a typical match, the mode features 100 players, except this time they’re divided up into five teams of 20.

Epic recently announced it is bringing Fortnite: Battle Royale to mobile. Those with iOS devices can now sign up for a chance to take part in an exclusive invite event. If you’re curious to see how the game runs on mobile, you can check out the first gameplay footage of Fortnite on iOS here.

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