The march toward E3 continues. How is Beyond Good & Evil 2 coming? When will Cyberpunk 2077 release? What awkward press conference moment will become a gif that lives forever?
We’ll have the answers to those vital questions soon, we hope, but in the meantime, there’s plenty of pre-E3 bustle to catch up on. Here’s your weekly PC gaming digest:
• Censorship, Steam, and the explosive rise of PC gaming in China
Steven brings us a deep dive into China’s PC gaming scene: how it started, why Steam is somehow allowed to operate outside the law (though no one really knows), and how everything may change soon.
• The next Call of Duty is just called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
It’s not official yet, but it’s looking really likely we’ve got a reboot on our hands, this time without the 4.
• Apex Legends roadmap: What’s coming in 2019
Four Battle Passes are planned for the rest of 2019, plus new weapons and Legends.
• The Steam Spring Cleaning Event has begun
Is you backlog starting to weigh on you? Do you want a Steam badge? Then Valve has the event for you!
• US loot box ban bill gains bipartisan support in the Senate
The push to legislate in-game purchases in the US is strengthening.
• Valve won’t count Assassin’s Creed Unity’s ‘reverse review bomb’ against it
Valve deliberated about this choice far more than anyone else probably did. In fact, we’d forgotten the whole thing had even happened.
• Cyberpunk 2077 won’t be playable at E3 2019, CD Projekt Red confirms
But there will be a demo shown to the public. Will we finally get a release date?
• George R.R. Martin has consulted on a Japanese game
Rumor has it that it’s an open world From Software game. That is mildly exciting, isn’t it?
• 25 MMOs that lived and died since World of Warcraft launched
Wes and James teamed up to illustrate just how strong WoW’s roots have been over the years. RIP, Marvel Heroes.
More things that happened this week
• Overwatch is finally adding game replays
• Rainbow Six Siege’s new defender looks like your dad cosplaying James Bond
• Chex Quest 3 is now official General Mills canon
• All Telltale games on GOG are being delisted
• Steam’s best-selling new releases for April revealed
• Some AMD Ryzen systems are refusing to install the Windows 10 update
• Sonic movie delayed so they can make Sonic look less hellishly weird
• Faze owner admits that Tfue’s original contract is ‘trash’
• Valve is making a standalone version of Dota Auto Chess
Tweet of the week
Arma 3’s next expansion was announced this week. It involves extraterrestrials, which is fun, but the passive aggressive public call out that came before it was equally a delight:
We’re ready to announce our upcoming #Arma3 expansion, but have been unable to make contact with @steam_games so far (which means we’re unable to publish the store page). We’ll let you know as soon as we receive a sign of life from the Valve offices. Please stand by! #o7May 23, 2019
Around the (virtual) office
Chris, Andy C, Wes, and Tyler did some normal pirate things in Sea of Thieves this week. After chasing invaders off their ship, Andy and Tyler decided that, instead of tracking them down on foot, they would attempt to Speed 2: Cruise Control them using the new harpoon guns. It went great!
When not attempting to beach galleons, there’s work to be done at PC Gamer, and to help do that work we’re currently looking for a managing editor to oversee the magazine in the UK. Sound like something you or someone you know would be good at? Head here for more details.
Back to that work: Sam wrote about the Twitter friends he made along his Sekiro journey, a few of us contemplated whether or not WoW Vanilla should add expansions, and Fraser got really into being diplomatic in Total War: Three Kingdoms.
Finally, Chris hit an important topic by imagining what PC gaming would be like if we all had crank controllers. Thanks a lot, Chris: Now we know how much we’ve been missing out on by not having cranks.
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