Gaming News – Elden Ring Future DLC, Manor Lords Sales, Dune: Awakening Leaks, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Trailer

Gaming News for Week 1 of May 2024. This week there was big news about future DLC for Elden Ring, leaks for the upcoming Dune MMO and massive success from Manor Lords. Find out all the latest Gaming News for Week 1 of May 2024 in our article!

Gaming News for Week 2 of March 2024

Manor Lords Surpasses 1 Million Copies Sold

Manor Lords has kicked off its early access with a strong start, becoming an undeniable success on its first day, as well as one of the top indie games of 2024.

If you’re not yet familiar with this title, Manor Lords is a city-building and strategy game set in a medieval era, which has been one of the major draws for many users. 

This early success is even more impressive when considering it’s developed by Slavic Magic, a studio that had not released any games until now and is headed by only one developer, making this a solo-project. 

As confirmed by Manor Lords’ publisher Hooded Horse, Manor Lords has managed to reach a peak of 170,000 unique users on Steam, a figure usually only within reach of major IPs and viral hits.

Manor Lords has not yet confirmed a release for other platforms, and for now, it’s only planned for release on PC. However, it wouldn’t be the first title of this kind to make the leap to consoles, and this success could be a significant push in that direction. If it looks interesting, you can find it on Steam, as well as the Microsoft Game Pass.

Hades 2 Has Finished The Technical Test & Seems To Be Ready for Early Access

Developer Supergiant games has stated that they have completed their technical test, which served to correct technical errors and present a better version of Hades 2 for its Early Access release.

According to comments from the development studio Supergiant games, after concluding this testing phase aimed at identifying problems and errors, the game will arrive “relatively shortly” in its Early Access version. Unfortunately, the test is no longer available in the Steam libraries of users who had the opportunity to participate. 

In case you were not clued in, Hades 2 is the sequel to Hades, the critically acclaimed roguelite from 2020. Its protagonist is Melinoë, daughter of Hades and sister of Zagreus, the protagonist from the first game. The original game was praised for its character design, incredible visual effects, and its clever take on the roguelite narrative, and Hades 2 seems to be more of the same. 

For those of you who loved Hades 1 for its overall style and visuals, you can be rest assured that Hades 2 will be bringing all of that back in a fresh light.

Starfield Confirms Expansion Will Arrive In The Second Half Of The Year

Despite the enormous anticipation for Starfield prior to its release, it didn’t achieve the resounding success of other Bethesda games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, only managing to receive one nomination in The Game Awards 2023.

Nevertheless, Bethesda keeps adding content to the game. Now, director Todd Howard confirmed that the game’s first expansion, called Shattered Space, will arrive this Autumn.

The news was announced thanks to an interview with Howard there, the creative director, who also serves as executive producer of Bethesda Game Studios. In the interview, he talked about the future of Starfield and specifically mentioned the Shattered Space expansion.

While Howard did not confirm a specific release date, he did state that it will be released this fall, which begins in late September, after the game’s first anniversary. Details about Shattered Space are still scarce, but last December, Bethesda had mentioned that the expansion will add a new story, new maps, new equipment for the characters, and more.

In addition to Shattered Space, the game continues to receive updates of various sizes. Howard mentioned that the next game update, which will include elements related to shipbuilding, will be announced “in the coming days.” Also, the director talked about an upcoming “major update” that will be released “very soon.”

Starfield is available for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. According to various rumors, Bethesda’s game would be one of those that could potentially lose its exclusivity in the future to arrive on PlayStation 5.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Reveals Gameplay & Story Details In Its New Trailer

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance has a new trailer titled ‘An Ideal World,’ gearing up for the release of the expanded version of the game. Vengeance is coming to PC, Steam Deck, PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Switch in the style of Persona 5 Royal with an expanded version and a new trailer by Atlus and Sega.

This upcoming release in the Shin Megami Tensei saga will add over 75 hours of new content to complete the full vision of the RPG. 

The DLC will explore a completely new route known as the “Canon of Vengeance,” centred on themes of revenge and retribution.

The story is centred on new characters and a group of powerful female demons – the Qadištu – who weave their dark designs apart from the war between defenders of order and those who seek to defy it.

The Vengeance version of Shin Megami Tensei V arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store in June 2024.

Lost Ark Unveils The Second Part Of The Roadmap For 2024

Amazon has shared a new roadmap for the free MMORPG Lost Ark, detailing the most significant updates coming to the game during the months of May, June, and July of 2024.

The current roadmap showcases the new content coming over the next three months, highlighting Thaemine’s Epilogue, the Guardians Assault Trial: Hanumatan, the Chaos Assault, and much more.

Thaemine’s Epilogue is a story that will be available to players who have completed the mission in hard mode; and it recounts the events related to the invasion of Arkesia by that character. In the same month, the prelude of Kurzan also arrives. “Players will have to head to Mount Zágoras, where Chaos has settled, and defeat hordes of enemies by venturing into the distorted chaos rifts that will open on said mountain,” reads the press release.

The second part of the event arrives in June, when the desert region of Kurzan also debuts with the arc of the Red Moon and the possible return of the demon lord Kazeros. Drastically changing the tone to something much more cheerful and summery, we have the Maharaka Festival in July: it takes us to a paradise located in the sea of Gienah, where we will compete in charming swimming races.

Rise of the Ronin Surpassed The Nioh Saga In Sales During Its First Months of Release

Koei Tecmo alongside Team Ninja, the development studio behind Rise of the Ronin, announced that the title is managing to perform better in sales than Nioh and Nioh 2.

Recently launched in March and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the PlayStation 5 exclusive game is experiencing a faster sales pace than the first two games in the Nioh saga, although specific numbers were not provided.

This comes as a shock, as Rise of the Ronin was released in the midst of the highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and is also an exclusive to PS5.

The Nioh franchise reached 7 million units sold in October 2022. However, Team Ninja did not clarify the figures for each game in the series, and they didn’t share the numbers for the remaster of the first installment.

All in all though, thanks to its design, gameplay, and the open world, Rise of the Ronin was generally well-received both by critics and fans as a great game. Speculation has begun about the possible arrival of the title on PC in the medium or short term to reach the PC audience interested in getting the game.

Square Enix Suffered Financial Losses

Square Enix has recently revealed that they suffered losses of $140 million due to “content abandonment” when making adjustments to products that were already in progress, and even last-minute cancellations in game design.

As a result, the company intends to be more selective with its projects in the future. Square Enix has been one of the publishers with the most releases each year in recent years, including some of the best RPGs in history. 

When the new CEO Takashi Kiryu took the office, he confirmed that he wanted to make fewer video games to better concentrate on their quality. Unfortunately, it seems that this sentiment has cost the company several million dollars. 

We learned about this through a recent news release sent to Square Enix investors. “The company expects to recognize approximately 22.1 billion yen in losses due to abandoned content for the fiscal year ended in March 2024”. Unfortunately, we don’t have much information about which projects have been canceled. 

As confirmed, the sales of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are slightly lower than those of Remake, but it doesn’t end there. Final Fantasy XVI itself did not sell as expected, and other small projects also fell below expectations.

Hidetaka Miyazaki Confirms That Shadow Of The Erdtree Will Be The Only DLC

Even though it may be hard to believe, Elden Ring, the popular game from FromSoftware, has been out for over two years. Since its release in February 2022, Hidetaka Miyazaki’s game firmly established itself as one of the industry’s best titles. After winning several awards, including Game of the Year at The Game Awards, many are eagerly anticipating the game’s first expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree. However, this week, Miyazaki confirmed that this will be the only expansion for Elden Ring.

The news came from an interview with Miyazaki from a Chinese media outlet. There, Miyazaki spoke about Elden Ring and its future expansion, where he was very clear about the game’s downloadable content: “Shadow of the Erdtree is the first and last DLC, and we have no plans to add more content to Elden Ring.” As justification, Miyazaki explained clearly what led the team to make this decision: “Elden Ring emphasizes exploration and adventure in a vast world. To provide that experience, a large and expansive setting is inevitably needed. So, instead of dividing it into several parts, it was simply better to create a large expansion. If sold separately, the freedom of exploration and the sense of adventure would be diminished.”

However, Miyazaki did not rule out returning to the Elden Ring universe in another game. In the interview, he was asked about the future of the title as a franchise, and Miyazaki simply stated that the studio intentionally leaves the endings of its games open-ended. In March, in another interview with a North American media outlet, the director left the door open for a possible sequel, stating: “We don’t want to say that this is the end of the Elden Ring saga for now.” FromSoftware’s relationship with DLC content varies from game to game, and it seems to depend entirely on the project and what the team wishes to develop with it. Dark Souls 3, for example, had two  expansions, while Dark Souls 2 had a trilogy. Dark Souls and Bloodborne, like Elden Ring, only had a single expansion.

So, it looks like we may be in for one of the biggest expansions we have seen in recent gaming. We will definitely be covering it, so keep on the lookout!

Dune: Awakening UI & Real Gameplay Images Got Leaked

Dune: Awakening is the new MMO which is scheduled to be released later this year on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC. Funcom showcased its gameplay a few weeks ago, and now four images of the interface and gameplay have been leaked in a post on Reddit.

What we know is that it is in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, using Unreal Engine 5 technology, and furthermore, it will not be tied to Warner Bros.’ cinematic IP. It will be some time before we receive official updates about Dune Awakening. However, new images of the game have been leaked on Reddit.

Three of them belong to the character creator, one revealing over 20 hairstyle options, and another showing all the options for nose design, from height to angle to bridge or width. Since these are leaked images, they are not in high resolution, but at least we can see what the user interface and gameplay of Dune Awakening look like.

The third image refers to the character class and defines the characteristics of the Mentats Order, humans trained in the Mentat art who function as computers.

Their adepts are capable of storing and analyzing large amounts of information at superhuman speed. By choosing it in the game, the character will be able to scan enemies and nearby objects to gather information about them.

The last leaked image corresponds to building construction and shows part of the interface, specifically the walls. Comments on the Reddit post suggest that these images come from what the press could see at PAX East and GDC.

We don’t know when the game will be released, but these UI leaks are somewhat promising as we can see that they are definitely far along the development line. We will just have to wait and see. 

So that’s about it for this week’s news, if you’re interested in supporting a channel, be sure to leave a comment, let us know what you think about all the news, and check out our VIP subscription on the website for some exclusive supporter benefits. We will be seeing you next week!