Elder Scrolls 25th Anniversary

Bethesda Game Studio recently released a video celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls franchise. The video is a sincere celebration of one of Bethesda’s flagship franchises, and shows some self-awareness we haven’t really seen in the gaming industry recently. It chronicles the history of the Elder Scrolls, from the first game in the series, Arena, to the optimism that Bethesda has for Elder Scrolls 6.

  Bethesda also spent a lot of time thanking and featuring the work of fans in the video; most notably the famous ‘Skyrim Grandma,’ a 82 year old Youtuber who’s real name is Shirley Curry, and who features videos of her playing Skyrim on her Youtube channel. She will be immortalized in the next Elder Scrolls game, with her voice and appearance being used for an NPC (non player character).

   No Man’s Sky Beyond Brings VR Support

  No Man’s Sky has been steadily improving since it’s launch several years ago, with the massive July 2018 update, called ‘NEXT’, rocketing the game back into the mainstream. Now, Hello Games, the developers behind the game, is showing features that will be included in the next huge update, called ‘No Man’s Sky: Beyond’. One of the features is an ‘radical new’ multiplayer experience, with Hello Games saying it will expand multiplayer and social elements. But the feature that has been dominating gaming outlets is the VR mode.

  At the Game Developers Conference, Sean Murray, the creator of No Man’s Sky, personally lead some gaming journalists through a 30-minute demo. Hello Games has been emphasizing that this isn’t some VR exhibition of the game; any old saves will work in VR, and the whole game can be played start to finish. And after the demo, many game journalists have been praising the demo; specifically, the scale of the universe and the way gameplay mechanics have been translated to VR.

   Snapchat Launches Game Service

  Snapchat has entered the gaming industry, with six games that can be played with friends on the app. There’s Bitmoji Party, which has your custom avatar participating in various minigames with friends, and two different royale games; Snake Squad appears to be similar to Slither.io, and the appropriately named Tiny Royale. This follows announcements of other gaming services from big tech companies, like Apple Arcade and Google Stadia. With a small game library, it’s hard to tell how this service will pan out, so only time will tell.