As it turns out, Marvel's Iron Man had another canceled video game that predates the would-be project from Just Cause studio Avalanche.This newly revealed project would have come courtesy of the now-defunct studio Genepool Software. According to then-programmer Kevin Edwards, the developer was working on the title following the release of X2: Wolverine's Revenge in 2003.Interestingly, this game's primary armor was based on Iron Man's suit from the Ultimate Marvel comics. Had it come out, it would've joined 2005's Ultimate Spider-Man in bringing Marvel's alternate reality to a wider audience.To Edwards' knowledge, what was then The Invincible Iron Man was never shown before this point in time. Along with his screenshots of the project, he explained th…
Galvanic Games founder Patrick Morgan has announced the studio will be shutting down.On Twitter, Morgan explained that the sales of the studio's most recent project, Wizard with a Gun, weren't enough to keep it afloat. The developer had "encouraging conversations" at GDC and DICE recently, but its new projects take it doesn't have to make them."There's a certain bittersweetness to knowing that we accomplished all the things we set out to do when we founded Galvanic in 2015," he wrote. "However…I may never get over the irony of spending a decade building my ideal team, only for it to end after our most productive year."After its founding, Galvanic emerged onto the scene with The Rust Belt. Tools and the pipeline from that title would then …
Nearly a full year after leaving Xbox, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has found a new position at Unity.As he revealed on social media, Hryb will serve as director of the engine maker's community team. "Building on my long history as a developer advocate at Xbox," he wrote, "I'm excited to collaborate again with developers, harnessing our collective creativity to shape the future of real-time gaming and experiences."During his 20-year Xbox tenure, Hryb served as a senior programming director and help guided Xbox Live's evolution on both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, and the development of Kinect peripherals.He was also one of the console brand's biggest faces, which puts some extra weight behind his new Unity job. As he called it on LinkedIn, this …
Paradox Interactive has closed Paradox Tectonic following the cancellation of Life by You.Life By You was scrapped after Paradox claimed the project would not be able to meet expectations. The Swedish publisher said writing down the life sim, which was slated to launch in early access on June 4 but was subsequently delayed, will cost SEK 208 million ($19.8 million)."For a long time, we've held hopes for Life by You and the potential we saw in it, but it is now clear that the game will not be able to meet our expectations," said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive, in a press release."A version that we'd be satisfied with is too far away, and therefore we are taking the difficult decision to cancel the release. Moving forward, we should perform at a much high…
Meta has laid off an unknown number of Reality Labs employees.As reported by The Verge, the Facebook and Meta Quest owner is currently restructuring Reality Labs into two groups: a 'Metaverse' organization that includes its Quest business and a 'Wearables' group that will house other hardware initiatives.The company has made some employees redundant as part of that restructure. The Verge claims a "relatively small number" of staffers were laid off, including some leaders within Reality Labs. Meta has laid off more than 20,000 workers since November 2022.An internal memo sent out by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth (reprinted by The Verge) claims the shake-up will enable Meta to create a "more integrated product experiences across hardware, software, and experienc…
Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty has described the closure of Hi-Fi Rush developer as a "forward-thinking" decision.Speaking on Variety's Strictly Business podcast (as spotted by Kotaku senior reporter Ethan Gach), Booty said Hi-Fi Rush "did well" for Microsoft and Xbox, but implied leadership changes within Tango Gameworks were a factor when deciding to shutter the studio."There are a lot of people and processes and oversight to make sure we're making a good decision [to close a studio]," said Booty. "I won't get into the real nitty gritty details of what went into the decision, mostly out of respect for the people there. Just because there was a lot of work that went into delivering Hi-Fi Rush, which was a great game and did well for us.…
Asobo Studio's Microsoft Flight Simulator has now reached 15 million players pilots.The last we heard of the 2020 game, it had amassed 10 million players as 2022 was winding down. As it did back then, this new milestone covers the community across PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox Cloud.Sadly, Asobo was lacking in fun player metrics this time, such as the number of trips around Earth (or the sun) that equals 15 million players."Thanks to each and every one of you for filling the skies with your adventures!" wrote Asobo. "Blue skies and tailwinds."Microsoft Flight Simulator has been quietly running as a powerful niche game for Xbox and Game Pass in particular. This past weekend, Asobo brought the game to the annual FlightSim Expo for fans of all kinds of fligh…
Last week, Digital Cybercherries' Hypercharge: Unboxed launched on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, and it's now garnered 50,000 sales.The developer posted the news on Twitter, noting the toy shooter achieved 40,000 sales in just three days. Cybercherries called the game's success "surreal. We are a small team of six indie devs who brought our childhood dream game onto Xbox."Hypercharge debuted as an Early Access Steam game in 2017, then transitioned to a full Nintendo Switch launch in 2020. That same year, it released on Steam.Two years ago, the game went viral. Part of that can be owed to being a shooter where you play as toy characters going to war in toy stores, home kitchens and childhood rooms, but targeted marketing toward Xbox players also plays a factor into …
Mark Cerny has been a part of PlayStation for years, and led development on the PlayStation 4 and 5. And in his eyes, the two consoles have been key in helping games evolve technologically.Talking to GamesIndustry, he expressed surprise in how developers honed in on the PS5's capabilities. Before studios prioritized 60 frames per second, he'd figured games would stick with 30 frames since it offered more detail to a game's art style.Likewise, he didn't think raytracing would get much use, but it was a key tech feature for several PS5 launch games. Adding it was a "rather late" decision, and one he was unsure about given his work on "difficult" consoles like the PlayStation 3.While that took him off guard, he was fine with being "totally wrong&qu…
NotE3 season is in full swing. Despite the demise of the once-unmissable trade show, June remains chock full of video game announcements. Over the weekend, Microsoft followed Geoff Keighley's annual Summer Game Fest bonanza with its own 2024 Xbox Game Showcase.As was the case last year, the company stuffed its digital expo with trailers and reveals spotlighting the work of its first-party Xbox Game Studios family. Notably, this was the first Xbox Game Showcase following Microsoft's merger with Activision Blizzard, and that allowed the company to unveil Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on its own terms and tout the fact it'll be heading to "select Xbox Game Pass plans" on day one.The company pitched other first-party projects like Avowed, Age of Mythology: Retold, Doom: Th…