A huge potential "leak" from Nvidia GeForce Now may have revealed a ton of new games, while Toby Fox surprisingly drops Deltarune's second chapter for free. 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.
In this week's roundup of gaming news, a list of game titles was datamined from GeForce Now, but it's hard to believe any portion of the leak is true. THQ Nordic's showcase brought several new game announcements, including a new SpongeBob SquarePants game. Toby Fox surprisingly announced Deltarune's next chapter during an anniversary stream for Undertale. All Nintendo Switch consoles getting a surprising feature update that's been much-requested since the system's release. A couple of AAA game releases were delayed; one by a month, the next into 2021. All this and more in this week's recap of the biggest gaming industry news.
Nvidia GeForce Now 'Leak' Lists Several Announced/Unannounced Games
A recent datamine of the GeForce Now service seems to have yielded a massive list of leaked games potentially coming to GeForce Now. Nvidia has since responded to inquiries regarding the leak, stating that the list is real and many of the titles are "speculative," likely meant for Nvidia's own internal testing. No internal developer builds or otherwise compromising information was datamined, but the list of games on this supposedly real list is the most interesting part of this news.
The list of games on the Nvidia GeForce Now leak is fascinating, even if every title on this list is "neither confirmation nor an announcement of any game," currently. Among the leaks were God of War on PC via Steam, Kingdom Hearts 4, classic Grand Theft Auto remasters, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 9 Remake, among many other games leaked on the full list.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake Announced, Other Big THQ announcements
THQ Nordic held its big games showcase this past Friday, announcing several games from the publisher's biggest franchises, like Destroy All Humans and MX vs. ATV. Perhaps the biggest announcement was the reveal of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, the first true sequel to the SpongeBob platformer series after Battle for Bikini Bottom — Rehydrated released last year, and even longer for the series as a whole.
Beyond The Cosmic Shake, THQ Nordic also announced another Destroy All Humans! remaster for the second game, Destroy All Humans 2 - Reprobed. Beyond that, a few cult-classic series are receiving sequels in the near future: Outcast 2, Jagged Alliance 3, and Superpower 3. Additionally, Elex 2 is a sequel to the 2017 sci-fi action RPG by Piranha Bytes. Lastly, another CRPG by Logic Artists is on the way, entitled Expeditions: Rome.
Deltarune Chapter 2 Surprise-Dropped On Undertale's Sixth Anniversary
During a livestream celebration of the sixth anniversary of Undertale, Toby Fox surprisingly announced the release date of Deltarune Chapter 2, just two days after the livestream. Yet another free chapter, Deltarune's second chapter is available now on PC, as of September 17. Players are able to start straight from Chapter 2, as Deltarune does not require previous save data, so long as players are aware of what happens in the first chapter, which initially released back in 2018.
While the previous chapter also released on PlayStation systems and Nintendo Switch, no release date for Deltarune's Chapter 2 has been announced for those systems at this time. In terms of future chapters, Toby Fox did confirm that future chapters (Chapters 3, 4, and 5, specifically) would not be free, as opposed to the first two chapters of Deltarune.
Iconic Video Game Artist Mick McGinty Passes Away
Famous 90s artist Mick McGinty passed away this past week after battling cancer. Notable for crafting numerous iconic examples of cover art for games in the 90s, McGinty is most known for his cover art on several western versions of Street Fighter 2 on SNES, several Streets of Rage entries, as well as Kid Chameleon. Mick's son, Jobey, posted a heartfelt letter sharing various memories of his father: "My Dad was an incredible artist, as everyone knows," said Jobey. "And in true artist fashion, he was also never satisfied with his final work."
Nintendo Switch Update Adds Bluetooth Audio Functionality
One much requested feature for the Nintendo Switch was finally added this week, after many assumed it would have to wait until another hardware revision or major change. All Nintendo Switch consoles are now capable of pairing bluetooth audio devices, thanks to update 13.0.0, without the use of external or third-party hardware. The only major caveat is that bluetooth audio connection limits the amount of connected wireless controllers to two at a time, instead of the usual 8 (or four Joy-Con pairs).
Dying Light 2 and Battlefield 2042 Delayed
This week also brought a few significant game delays from this holiday. The first of which was Dying Light 2, which was pushed out of 2021 to its new February 4, 2022 release date. A day later, EA announced that Battlefield 2042 would be delayed until November 19, pushing the game forward from its initial October 22, 2021 release date.
First Persona 25th Anniversary Announcements Made
This past weekend brought the first announcement as part of Persona's 25th anniversary celebration by Atlus. While this was just an introductory announcement, Atlus' announcement does bode well for future announcements. For now, September's announcements included: All Persona anime would be added to streaming services in Japan (no mention of international re-release), a Persona orchestral concert is planned for Tokyo Opera City Hall on November 21, Persona 5's vocalist is planning a performance for Tokyo Game Show, as well as a new round of anniversary-themed merchandise is coming. The next anniversary announcement is coming in December.
Sega Teasing New Smartphone RPG for Tokyo Game Show
Aside from Persona, Sega is also teasing an entirely new RPG IP, supposedly coming exclusively to smartphones. At the moment there's only a teaser website available with more information, but Sega is preparing to unveil the game fully during this year's Tokyo Game Show. As for what the project could be, it's clearly not related to Persona or any existing Sega/Atlus RPG, and doesn't appear to be Atlus' Project Re Fantasy RPG in development either.