In an industry as large as video games there is bound to be scuttlebutt and hearsay. Most of the time we ignore such rumors, but sometimes there are so many that we wonder if at least one will turn out to be true. With so many secrets traded around this week we figured we’d share some of the bigger rumors we’ve found. Remember that these are just rumors, nothing official, and have a greater chance of being wrong or greatly misinformed. Take all of this with a grain of salt.
Superman Video Game?:
WB Montreal was created to work on Batman games. After Arkham Origins they’ve been waiting in line for Rocksteady to finish their trilogy so Montreal could put the cowl back on, or so we assumed. Then VGFGamers tweeted out a supposed photo of an upcoming Superman game in development by the Warner Bros. studio. Eventually, we also saw a video of the same screenshot that featuring Superman modelling a ‘New 52’ costume with an accompanying description. There has been little else to the rumor and the Comic Sans font seems to give away how fake this image just might be. Still, it wouldn’t surprise too many people if Montreal was revealed to have started work on a Superman game. Details from superman comics and lore litter the recent Arkham Knight release and the upcoming Batman vs. Superman game would be great co-marketing material for an eventual Superman game.
Here’s hoping this game is more Arkham and less Superman 64, a game that still haunts my dreams. Feel free to check out the screenshot and judge for yourself.
Oculus Rift on Xbox One:
Oculus and Microsoft’s partnership is still pretty fresh news, but there may be more than just a controller bundle. Sometime during E3 an upcoming virtual reality movie tie-in game for Paranormal Activity was announced and was given a 2016 release date. Among the announced platforms were the Xbox One and PS4. Now the PS4 has a VR headset but the Xbox One does not, and Microsoft’s announced partnership only showed streaming games to a Windows 10 PC that could then use VR. When contacted to clarify the situation by hardcoregamer.com the developer, VRWERX, gave a series of replies which clarified some of the confusion, and created a bit more. The Paranormal Activity game will have a VR and non-VR version, both of which will be available for both PS4 and Xbox One. After that the emails are all clarifications and it takes several responses to say just that, which leads hardcoregamer and others to believe there is more hinted at in those responses.
That could mean VR on the Xbox One, not just streaming, but supported natively by the console. This would be a pretty big boon if true, and would suddenly place the Xbox One as the possible de-facto leader in the VR race. It’s hard to trust a third party source like VRWREX though and their statements aren’t clear cut for or against VR on Xbox. I don’t think any of us care about a Paranormal Activity game, VR or not, but the sudden appearance of the major VR headset on either console, assuming exclusivity, would be major. Let’s see what Gamescom brings in August.
Star Citizen Breaking Up In Orbit:
While it may be the model that all crowd funding efforts strive to attain, life isn’t all gold bricks and spaceships for Star Citizen developer CIG. Recently we saw news that their first person shooter module, a major prerelease release for the game, was going to be put on hold after it didn’t live up to internal expectations. That’s not something you’d hope to hear from a game that’s raised over $84 million. Then PC Invasion noticed something about the game’s executive producers LinkedIn page, he no longer listed himself at his own job. Alex Mayberry, the producer in question, changed his work date to end in June 2015. This change has to be done manually and isn’t likely to be a mistake or a bug.
Since then, the same site claims Alex has confirmed his departure and have been told a lot of his responsibilities have been handed off. However, at the time of this article we’re not seeing any tweets, blogs, emails, statements, or anything else link-able or official that could confirm or deny Alex’s employment. An executive producer’s departure would be impactful on development but I don’t understand CIG’s unwillingness to be upfront about it. Especially when you consider the game’s development is on the shoulders of crowd funding. They have a responsibility to be honest to all those who’ve already paid their money.
