In this week's recap of news in the games industry, 2021's Call of Duty is finally confirmed after rumors and leaks, while Abandoned sees even more conspiracies and controversy. Game Rant has compiled some of the biggest gaming news stories from this past week together into a concise post for fans and enthusiasts to stay up to date on the most important events in the industry per week. Highlighting the most relevant stories, this list is not inherently and totally objective, and will not contain every news story this week. Rather, this is intended for gaming fans who want a quick rundown on the largest/most impactful stories that occurred in the last week in games.
With this week's roundup of gaming news, Activision has confirmed the existence of Call of Duty: Vanguard with a teaser, promising a full trailer later this week. Blue Box Game Studios contends with additional controversy in the wake of the Abandoned PS5 app disappointing fans, while other continue to discuss rumors/conspiracies. Microsoft announced Xbox's livestream plans and schedule for Gamescom 2021, bringing first and third-party reveals. Twitch responds to #dobettertwitch criticisms from creators on the platform. All that and more in this week's recap of the biggest news in the gaming industry.
RELATED: Call of Duty: Vanguard Leaked Art Weapon Breakdown
In the lead-up to the official tease earlier today, several leaks had seemingly confirmed the existence of Call of Duty: Vanguard, 2021's entry in Activision's long-running shooter. Leaked key art and pre-order bundles confirmed the rumors of a return to WW2, among other things like story details, multiplayer hints, the return of skins and blueprints, as well as a potential reveal date. Activision subsequently confirmed the full reveal date of August 19, paired with an in-game event in Call of Duty: Warzone.
All of this comes in the wake of an ensuing controversy stemming from the State of California suing Activision/Blizzard for a "culture of sexual harassment," which is still ongoing. In relation to Call of Duty, the U.S. Army recently pulled its sponsorship of the CDL due to these issues, and several high-level staff at the company have since left Activision/Blizzard. It's unclear if any of these departures have affected the development of Vanguard at this time.
Many were excited to get the first glimpse at the mysterious Abandoned, which recently launched its interactive experience app on PS5 this past week. However, many fans were quickly disappointed when they found that the Abandoned app solely held the same short teaser that Blue Box Game Studios had already shared on social media previously. There are slots for additional reveal trailers, as well as a playable prologue, but they are not currently available for Abandoned at this time.
Of course, this has once again spurned on conspiracies and rumors that Abandoned is still, somehow, related to Konami and/or Hideo Kojima. Abandoned game director Hasan Kahraman has, an interview with NME, taken the time to further debunk rumors that Abandoned is Silent Hill, or Metal Gear. These conspiracies come in the wake of a new theory regarding Hideo Kojima, and a new Twitter post made on the anniversary of P.T.
Microsoft has announced its plans and schedule for this year's Gamescom trade show, which takes place August 25-27 this year. On August 24, Xbox will be hosting its official Gamescom stream at 10:00 a.m. PT/7:00 p.m. EST, which will have announcements for tons of existing games, and presumably with some surprises as well. Specifically, existing first-party games, upcoming third-party titles, upcoming additions to Xbox Game Pass, as well as other unconfirmed announcements.
Additionally, Bethesda has its own stream starting from August 26 onwards, as well as the potential for additional Xbox announcements to come to Gamescom's Opening Night Live.
RELATED: Pokimane Comments on Twitch Streamers Dating Fans
As criticism mounts against Twitch from streamers on the platform, the company is preparing additional steps to deal with toxicity and "hate raids" from harassers. Many streamers have been using the #dobettertwitch hashtag to report on the many examples of bots, and hate raiding from thousands of accounts targeting LGBT+ and PoC content creators. Twitch has elaborated on efforts the company is making to deter harassment, including improved hate speech filtering and account verification processes.
In the lead-up to the next entry in the franchise, the Life is Strange: Remastered Collection has been delayed to "early 2022." Deck Nine announced on Twitter that, due to complications with the Covid-19 pandemic, the development team wanted to alleviate the pressure of working on Life is Strange: True Colors alongside the remasters. As of right now, Life is Strange: True Colors is still on track to release on September 10, 2021.
This year's EVO 2021 tournament has continued entirely online, as issues with the Covid-19 pandemic prevented the premier Las Vegas tournament from happening in person. However, for next year, the team behind the tournament has announced that EVO 2021 will once again return in-person at the Mandalay Bay Resort next year. There are no specific details of crowd limits, or any other pandemic precautions being made, but the tournament organizers are hopeful enough to make EVO in person next year.
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