In this week's gaming news recap, Blizzard announces major balance changes coming in Overwatch 2, while Destiny 2 Guardians compete for the Vault of Glass Raid race. 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 gaming news, Deep Silver announces a decade-old franchise is returning after its long dormancy. In Destiny 2, Guardians competed over the weekend for the coveted World's First Raid race championship belt. Blizzard finally revealed new details on how PvP is changing in Overwatch 2. Microsoft is reportedly holding a joint conference with Bethesda during this year's E3 trade show. Grand Theft Auto 5's release date for PS5 and Xbox Series X has been unveiled for later this year. Twitch addresses the hot tub controversy, as well as an additional inclusivity controversy. All that and more in this week's review of the biggest gaming industry news.
New TimeSplitters Entry in the Works at Free Radical Design
Along with the announcement of a brand new development studio under publisher Deep Silver, Free Radical Design was also confirmed to be working on a new TimeSplitters game. Over 15 years after TimeSplitters: Future Perfect released on March 21, 2005, Deep Silver announced earlier this week that development had just begun on a new project to "bring the TimeSplitters franchise back to life," and that Free Radical Design's return was brought on by fan response for the series.
This news comes in the wake of a TimeSplitters rumor earlier on in April, based on a Twitter interaction between THQ Nordic and Deep Silver after a fan reached out asking about TimeSplitters. Deep Silver had initially responsed with "We have no news to share right now," but apparently right now was quite literal.
Destiny 2's Vault of Glass World's First Raid Race Debut
Back when Season of the Splicer's content roadmap was announced, Destiny 2 fans saw a nice surprise in the form of Destiny's Vault of Glass finally returning. Bungie had teased the return of the iconic Destiny Raid in a developer update leading up to the release of Destiny 2: Beyond Light, as part of the Destiny Content Vault. This week, Vault of Glass returned along with a renewed World's First Raid race, once again pitting Guardian clans against one another to complete the Raid first.
On May 22, Bungie ruled that the World's First winner of the Vault of Glass raid race was the Elysium clan, just four hours after the raid race began. Members of Elysium will be receiving a silver championship belt with the clan name engraved on it, alongside the clan name of the original Destiny's Vault of Glass World's First winners.
Overwatch PvP Transitioning to 5v5 Team Composition, Tank Buffs
After a recently held Q&A livestream detailing the sequel and its changes, Blizzard confirmed Overwatch 2 PvP is transitioning to a 5v5 team composition. The original Overwatch lineup is 6v6: generally meaning two DPS, two Tanks, and two Supports, with some flexibility in between. Now, Overwatch 2's role queue matchmaking system will emphasize groups of two Support, two DPS, and one Tank hero.
In particular, Tanks will be receiving buffs across the board to make up for the change in team composition. That means extra charges for several hero abilities, alongside an overall damage resistance buff for the whole class.
Xbox and Bethesda to Hold Joint-Conference for E3 2021
Microsoft and Bethesda will reportedly be holding a joint conference together, nine months after Microsoft announced the $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda/ZeniMax in 2020. In an interview with Le Figaro, Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty confirmed that the two would hold a conference together to "introduce players to their upcoming projects," all during the timeframe of E3 2021.
GTA 5 is Headed to PS5/Xbox Series X This November
Rockstar Games confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 5 will be releasing on PS5 and Xbox Series X this November, marking the third console the fifth entry will be releasing on since its initial launch in 2013. The PS5 reveal event first announced the immensely popular open-world game would make its way to the current-gen consoles at some point in the latter half of 2021.
Steam's Beta Update Includes Full DualSense Support
A title update for Steam introduced full DualSense support for PC games, specifically on that platform with the latest beta version of Steam. Now, any games with support for the DualSense's haptic feedback, like Horizon Zero Dawn, No Man's Sky, and Metro Exodus, will support the PS5's new controller. Basic support for the DualSense is already present in the publicly available version of Steam, but now players can utilize the trackpad, LED lights, rumble and gyro features.
Twitch Addresses Hot Tub Controversy, Adds Diversity Tags For Creators
After plenty of outcry from fans and streamers alike, Twitch finally broke its silence on hot tub streams and the like. The new "Pools, Hot Tubs, & Beaches" category rolled out to Twitch in response to advertisers requesting the streaming service to pull all ads from creators engaging in the activity prior. Amouranth in particular, one of the first streamers to have their ad revenue pulled from their channel, was hit particularly hard by the demonetization. Ads are now running on her channel, though revenue has been changed significantly compared to prior to the demonetization.
In response to a different controversy from fans and creators, Twitch is also adding hundreds of specific Tags for creators to use. In particular, tags related to diversity and inclusivity (Trans tags, ally tags, other individual LBTQIA+ tags, etc.) are being rolled out to the platform this upcoming week.