This is the weekly round-up of news between 30th March and 5th April.
March 30th - March 31st - April 1st - April 2nd - April 3rd - April 4th - April 5th
March 30th
Valve applies changes to reduce bandwidth usage during the COVID-19 outbreak
With other companies (such as PlayStation, Netflix and Disney+ and more) changing up their services to preserve bandwidth around the globe, Steam has applied various changes themselves as well to reduce bandwidth usage. The team behind Steam explains the changes they made in a post on their community site, going from game updates to giving you an insight of features you can control.
Various sources suggest that Nintendo will release an abundance of Mario games for the Nintendo Switch this year
If you have some Mario games in your backlog that you have yet to play, then you might want to hold off just a little longer. Various sources (Eurogamer, VGC) have claimed that Nintendo will be celebrating Super Mario Bros.' 35th anniversary by remastering most of the Super Mario games for the Nintendo Switch. No official news has been reported on this yet, although various sources seem to confirm some titles such as Mario Galaxy, Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine. A new instalment for the Paper Mario franchise is also in the works and, according to sources, should represent a return to its roots.
Happy 35th, Super Mario Bros.!
March 31st
Gamescom has not been cancelled yet but will put more effort into the digital portion this year
While this year's E3 conference has been cancelled, it seems that Gamescom isn't willing to give in to the current state of the planet. It is uncertain at this point whether the event will be turned into a fully digital-only event or not; that will be determined somewhere in May. As tweeted by the event's official Twitter account, the show will enjoy a significant expansion on its digital part.
April 1st
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered Campaign Officially released
As it was rumoured and leaked before, it finally got an official release by Activision. For now, the game remains exclusive to PlayStation, although for Russian players, we have bad news. It seems that PlayStation Russia will not be releasing it on the Russian store due to the infamous No Russian level, which stirred up quite the controversy back in 2009 when it originally released. Xbox and PC gamers can pre-purchase the title but will have to wait to play it until April 30th. The other modes will not be remastered, as they are planning to bring more multiplayer maps from previous games to the newest Modern Warfare title.
Infinity Ward banned 50k cheaters on Call of Duty: Warzone
With the recent release of Call of Duty: Warzone, their version of Battle Royale, an abundance of cheaters have started ruining the game massively for other players. Specifically, console players have started giving up on cross-play simply out of fear for being thrown into a game with hackers, who mainly come from the PC version. With various people taking their complaints to social media and Reddit, Infinity Ward issued a blog post about the situation, explaining that they have issued more than 50k permanent bans worldwide.
April's PlayStation Plus games are Uncharted 4 and Dirt Rally 2.0
Starting on the 7th of April, PlayStation Plus will swap Shadow of the Colossus and Sonic Forces out and bring in two new titles. This month, Dirt Rally 2.0 and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End will be free for those who have subscribed to the service. Until May 4th, you have the option to add these games to your library for free. We highly advise doing so, even if you are not planning on playing them right away.
April 2nd
Sea of Thieves will soon sail the wild seas of Steam
Though they have not shared a specific date yet, Steam's store page for Sea of Thieves has gone live and the title can be added to your wishlist, which in turn will give you a notification upon availability. The title will support crossplay with the Windows 10 and Xbox One versions. With their mention of reaching the milestone of 10 million unique players, we doubt that you won't find any other players to play with.
You can claim a free copy of Fallout 76 on Steam, alongside Fallout 1, 2 and Fallout Tactics
If you own Fallout 76 on Bethesda.net and want your free copy on Steam, then rush over to the instructions page right now and link your Steam account. Until April 13th, players can link their accounts and they will automatically receive a free copy of the game on Steam. Bethesda states that they will send out Steam codes after the account linking period is over. Once you get your key, activate on Steam as soon as you can, as you will gain access to the other titles for free if you activate your copy between April 14 and April 28.
The Last of Us Part II and Marvel's Iron Man VR delayed due to the current global crisis
Sony has decided to delay these two titles due to the current global crisis, which won't allow them to evenly distribute the game around the world at the same time for a fair launch everywhere. Naughty Dog shared a message as well about The Last of Us Part II's delay, stating that they will update people as soon as possible with new information and that they hope it will not be a long delay. While this news is a big bummer for all of us who loved the first title and cannot wait for the sequel, the good side is that you now have more time to clean up your backlog or replay the first title again.
April 3rd
FDG Entertainment shares details about promising DuckTales game that was pitched but never got made
What started off as a (rather failed) April fools joke, ended up being a disappointing news fact for many players around. FDG Entertainment shared some intriguing screenshots from a game idea that they had pitched to Disney. Sadly enough, they never got the license and thus the game was never made. Whether the idea was to remaster the 1991 SEGA Genesis title "QuackShot starring Donald Duck" or not, remains unknown. Regardless, the screenshots look gorgeous and we have our fingers crossed that Disney comes back on their thoughts and gives them the license. We want to play this game, Disney, it goes perfectly hand in hand with the new DuckTales TV-show!
April 4th
Resident Evil 8 will be first-person, said to release next year
Resident Evil 3 has only just come out and rumours say they are already hard at work on a new instalment of the franchise. The rumours say that Resident Evil 8, previously known in its development as Revelations 3, will be a first-person game and is also stated to be a cross-gen game, meaning it will come to current generation consoles as well as the upcoming ones. "It is first-person, and many purists are going to hate it because it's taking some serious departures in the story/enemies and the like. Hallucinations, Occultism, insanity and not being able to trust others are huge thematics of the game." No official announcements have been made at this point, so take it with a grain of salt.
April 5th
E3 2021 dates have been confirmed
This year's E3 is cancelled but that won't hold them back to start working on next year's edition. The ESA has stated that next year's conference will be a reimagined event, with the dates set for June 15 to 17, 2021. With no current plans being known for a digital E3 this year, we are very curious to see what companies will do this year on their own