Gaming News #127 – Take-Two Buying Codemasters, New Cyberpunk Gameplay, Horizon Forbidden West Release Date

Fresh news on Take-Two purchasing Codemasters, Horizon Forbidden West release window reveal, new Cyberpunk gameplay on both old and new hardware, Oxford video games mental health study, and more.

KeenGamer gaming news is a series of articles designed to bring you the hottest gaming and pop culture related news. Each news is presented in a bite-sized format and will lead you to the original source of the news if you want to find out more details.

Take-Two Interactive is buying Codemasters for just under $1BN

Take-Two Interactive Buying Codemasters for just under $1BN

Take-Two is taking the racing genre by storm

Codemasters, the racing studio behind the official Formula 1 game, Dirt and Grid are being acquired by Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two. Besides having some of the most lucrative franchises already under their name, this $1BN deal will turn Take-Two into a racing juggernaut as well. As part of the deal, Codemasters will take advantage of Take-Two’s global distribution and marketing infrastructure. The British studio can therefore put more time and resources into their games and hopefully overall providing a better product. What might be somewhat worrisome is that Codemasters franchises are being used to expand Take-Two’s sports portfolio – a notoriously monetized series of games with insanely low user scores. Hopefully, some of our favorite racing franchises won’t become a microtransaction breeding ground but will instead find room to grow. We’ll have to wait and see. For more information on the deal as well as official statements from both Take-Two and Codemasters, check out our original news coverage.

Horizon Forbidden West Releasing in the second half od 2021

Horizon Forbidden West Releasing in the second half od 2021

Probably less than a year away

Horizon Zero Dawn was one of the best games on the now last-gen PlayStation 4 so it’s no wonder everyone’s excited about the sequel. Well, Sony decided to treat us with a trailer showcasing their upcoming games and their approximate release windows. The trailer showcased Grand Turismo 7Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Returnal, all of which are supposedly coming in the first half of 2021 while Horizon Forbidden West is left for the second part, along with God of War Ragnarok, presumably. All in all, Sony has got one heck of a year planned for PlayStation 5 owners and we honestly can’t wait to play most of what they showcased ourselves. For the full trailer and more information on Sony’s upcoming releases, check out our original news coverage.

Producer of Yakuza games wants to make a Sonic game

Producer of Yakuza games wants to make a Sonic game

Sonic really slowed down over the years

There’s someone out there that shares our opinion that we haven’t had a good Sonic game in forever. In an official SEGA interview in honor of the company’s 60th-anniversary celebration, Daisuke Sato, credited on various Yakuza titles throughout the franchise and its current producer, also expressed his interest in making Sonic the Hedgehog game. He went on record to say that he would completely reinvent the franchise and bring about a new Sonic and something that hasn’t been seen previously.  While Daisuke didn’t elaborate on that, he thinks that Sonic is the most recognizable franchise for SEGA that he’d like to get involved with at least once. I say, give this man a chance and let us have a Sonic game we all deserve! For more on what he had to say as well as the full interview, check out our original news coverage.

Study Shows that Playing Video Games can be good for mental health

Study Shows that Playing Video Games can be good for mental health

Playing for 20 hours straight is probably still bad for you

If you are a gamer, chances are you’ve been told that video games are bad for you at least once in your life. Well, here is a study that says just the opposite so feel free to rub it into the face of all the haters. The study in question was done by the University of Oxford and involved over 3000 gamers and their time with two different games – Animal Crossing from Nintendo and Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville by EA. Without going into too many details, the researchers discovered that gaming had a significant positive impact on people’s mental health. They managed to investigate the relation between actual gameplay behavior and subjective wellbeing. The results will be used to support the efforts of health policymakers to create a healthy and nurturing environment for the childer in the UK. For more details on the study, be sure to check out our original news coverage.

New Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay shown on both the old-gen and current-gen Xbox

New Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay shown on both the old-gen and current-gen Xbox

Can’t wait to team up with the one and only Keanu

If you were wondering how Cyberpunk 2077 is going to look on the now old-gen hardware when compared to the current-gen – CDPR delivers with the answer. The Polish developer released a video today showing off the game running on the Xbox Series X and One X. The Series X version notably had sharper textures, better lighting, and smoother framerate but the One X version looked great too. The footage switched seamlessly between Series X and One X with an indicator at the corner to let you know what you are watching. We got to see plenty of driving, action, and character interaction that made us even more excited to finally play it in just a few short weeks. To get hyped and check how the game looks and plays on the old and current generations of hardware, check out our original news coverage.

Microsoft Will Not Be Disclosing Xbox Series X/S Sales Figures

Microsoft Will Not Be Disclosing Xbox Series X/S Sales Figures

Focusing more on the Microsoft ecosystem instead of console sale numbers

While the power of new consoles is all about numbers, the sales figures aren’t going to be as Phil Spencer revealed that Xbox will not be disclosing the sales figures of the Series X/S. Spencer went on to say that he finds the idea of attracting people to their ecosystem more important than the number of consoles sold. He went on to explain that “there are 3 billion people who play games on the planet today, but maybe [only] 200 million households that have a video game console”. Xbox is going to focus more on the number of players inside their ecosystem that’s becoming increasingly more connected and intertwined. To someone considering if he should buy a new multiplayer game, the number of players is infinitely more useful info than how much consoles have been sold. We have to admit, the man has a point. Be sure to read our full news coverage to see what else Spencer had to say about the future of Xbox.

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