After it first unveiled the game at E3 2019, Ubisoft will finally release Roller Champions on May 25th, the publisher announced today. The free-to-play title will be available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One – as well as Xbox Series X/S and PS5 through backward compatibility – to start, with availability on Nintendo Switch, Stadia and Amazon Luna to follow later. Roller Champions supports both cross-platform play and progression, so you can not only group up with your friends no matter where they download the game, but your progress will also carry over between systems.
Roller Champions pits you and two other players against a competing team of three in a variation on classic roller derby. Going into each match, your goal is to be the first team to score five points. You earn a single point or more by skating around an oval track and maintaining control of a ball before taking a shot at the goal. Complicating things is the fact that the players on the opposing team can tackle you to take possession of the ball. Each match lasts about seven minutes, and there’s an external progression system where you can earn gear for your in-game avatar. Ubisoft will sell premium passes players can complete to earn cosmetics that aren’t available through the game’s item shop.
It's been over a year since Mediatonic confirmed Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockoutwas coming to Xbox and Nintendo Switch. After somedelays, the wait is almost over. The ridiculously fun battle royale platformer is coming to those platforms, as well as Epic Games Store, on June 21st. A dedicated PlayStation 5 version is on the way too. Full cross-play and cross-progression will be available across all platforms as well.
What's more, Fall Guys is going free-to-play. Epic pulled a similar move with Rocket League after snatching up Psyonix. Existing players on PlayStation and Steam will receive a legacy pack, which includes three costumes and some other bonuses. Newcomers who pre-register can claim some swag as well.
— Fall Guys - BIG Announcement TODAY!!!! (@FallGuysGame) May 16, 2022
A new season will also get underway on June 21st. Mediatonic is resetting the counter and calling it season one. It will be the first seasonal update since November and, as ever, there will be new levels and more cosmetics.
For the first time, there will be a premium (i.e. paid) season pass with 100 tiers and extra cosmetic items. Those who receive the legacy pass will get free access to the premium season pass for season one. A free season pass will still be available with other items to unlock.
Crowns will no longer be used for currency to buy items in the store. The crown rank feature will be boosted with more rewards. Unspent crowns will be converted into kudos, which will be the sole in-game currency moving forward. Costumes that are on the way include Ezio from the Assassin's Creed series, along with Mecha Godzilla and Mothra.
There's one more big update on the way: a level creator. This was announced as being "under construction" and, while it won't be arriving any time soon, it's an exciting feature to look forward to.
The game debuted on PS4 and Steam in August 2020 and was an instant hit, racking up millions of players on PC in just a few days and becoming the most-claimed game in the history of PlayStation Plus at the time. It seems player numbers have dropped quite a ways since the early days — having increasingly lengthy seasons likely hasn't helped. However, the arrival of Fall Guys on more platforms, the free-to-play shift and a new season should all bring new and lapsed players into the fold.
Oh my, it might actually be happening. I’ve wanted this for a while, and Apple’s excuses for sticking with its Lightning connector get weaker each year. Now a report from Bloomberg says the company is testing new iPhones and adapters with USB-C — what MacBooks and iPads already use.
An adapter currently in testing could "let future iPhones work with accessories designed for the current Lightning connector" — you may recall the in-box adapters that appeared when Apple nixed the headphone port from its smartphones.
It’s probably not entirely altruistic. The EU has been pushing for a universal phone charging standard for years and recently proposed legislation that would make USB-C the de-facto charging port for all phones.
It’s unlikely to be part of the iPhone 14, though. The report suggests the port change wouldn’t arrive “until 2023 at the earliest." Subsequent comments from reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggest this could be part of a wider move away from Lightning ports, also used on Apple’s AirPods, mice and keyboards.
Peloton’s long-rumored (slightly leaked) rowing machine was the major announcement of this year’s Homecoming fan event. Having said that, we didn’t hear all that much about it. Expect a stylish rower with a huge screen, with a red cord attaching the handle to the machine.
It can’t land soon enough: The company has struggled to adapt to the pandemic recovery as people return to the gym and the office. Peloton revealed a massive $751.1 million loss in its latest quarter.
The iPod's death has been a long time coming. It's already been eight years since Apple discontinued the iconic iPod classic, but the final iPod is bowing out of the company’s stores now. We all know it changed Apple's fortunes and the music industry at large, but the iPod was, eventually, a victim of its own success.
The legendary F1 outfit will acquire the Mercedes-EQ team.
Ahead of Formula E’s Gen3 debut next season, McLaren Racing announced its move to Formula E for season nine, committing to prepping a team when the series’ new spec makes its first competitive laps. McLaren will acquire the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team — the world championship team. Driver Nyck de Vries also won the individual series title in 2021 to complete the double trophy season.
Battle interdimensional monsters in 'Zenless Zone Zero.'
On Friday, games studio HoYoverse shared the first trailer for Zenless Zone Zero, an action RPG in a modern urban setting. The game pits players against Ethereal, monstrous creatures borne from another dimension. HoYoverse hasn’t explicitly said how it plans to monetize Zenless Zone Zero, but it sounds like the game will employ a similar system to the one in Genshin Impact —one of the biggest free-to-play hits in recent years, which has also made money at the same time.
The Ford F-150 is an insanely popular truck, so the debut of the electric version is an important moment for the US automaker. Our colleagues at Autoblog went behind the wheel for some initial impressions of the F-150 Lightning.
Part two of the story behind the iconic Windows start up sounds continues with the company's decision to retire the audio in Windows 8. If you missed the first episode, former Microsoft lead UI designer Jensen Harris and sound designer Matthew Bennett discuss the clips. That episode covers the "Ta-da!" from Windows 3.1 through Windows 7, including the chime Brian Eno created for Windows 95.
The final FIFA-branded soccer game from EA Sports will be FIFA 23 as the two parties will part ways after working together to build the iconic series. The Athletic explains why FIFA's decision to make its own games (yes, plural) could prove to be a costly mistake.
Team news is starting heat up ahead Formula E’s Gen3 debut next season, and today one of the bigger expected announcements was made official. Ahead of the Berlin E-Prix, McLaren Racing announced its move to Formula E for season nine, committing to fielding a team when the series’ new spec makes its first competitive laps. Rumors began to swirl weeks ago that the company was coming to the all-electric racing series.
True to the reports, McLaren will acquire the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team. Current team principal Ian James will remain to ensure "a smooth transition." Mercedes-EQ is the current world championship team and driver Nyck de Vries won the individual series title in 2021 to complete the double trophy season. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown explained that it was "satisfying" to provide a new home for the "class-leading" Formula E team that Mercedes has built. No word on a driver line-up just yet, but de Vries' stablemate Stoffel Vandoorne will move to DS Penske next season.
“McLaren Racing always seeks to compete against the best and on the leading edge of technology, providing our fans, partners and people with new ways to be excited, entertained and inspired,” Brown said in a statement. “Formula E, like all our racing series, fulfills all those criteria."
McLaren is certainly no stranger to Formula racing. As the second-oldest active team in F1, the constructor made its debut in 1966 at Monaco. It amassed eight constructors championships in the 70s, 80s and 90s with 12 individual drivers championships. Its most recent trophy-winning season was 2008 when Lewis Hamilton won his first championship (and did so in quite dramatic fashion).
McLaren also has experience racing EVs as it competes in the off-road Extreme E series. The racing series is still in its infancy after it first debuted in 2021, however, like Formula E and Formula 1, Extreme E is also sanctioned by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile). McLaren also fields two cars in IndyCar as Arrow McLaren SP, an open-wheel series it returned to in 2021 after a 40-year break. The team is a joint effort between Arrow Electronics, McLaren Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
McLaren joins Maserati as a major manufacturer entering Formula E next season. Maserati announced in January that it would participate in the series, and in April it revealed a partnership with the Monaco-based ROKiT Venturi Racing. Nissan also recently took full ownership of the e.dams team it has partnered with since 2018. In the lead up to this weekend's Berlin E-Prix, German team ABT Sportsline revealed plans to return to Formula E next season and Avalanche Andretti announced it would run Porsche powertrains starting in 2023.
Spotify has promoted The Ringer’s Bill Simmons to a new role as head of global sports strategy, reported Deadline. Simmons has worked under the streaming service’s umbrella since it bought his sports and culture podcast network The Ringer back in 2020. In his new role, we’ll likely see Simmons expand upon the current lineup of NBA, MLB and NFL-focused podcasts and dive into international territory. We’ve already gotten a hint of that with shows like The Rugby Podwith Andy Goode, Big Jim Hamilton and host Andy Rowe.
Spotify’s non-US audience is getting larger — the service is currently available in 178 countries. Its number of subscribers actually grew by 2 million in the first quarter of 2022 (despite losing all of its Russian subscribers), which it pinned on "outperformance in Latin America and Europe". Last year, the streaming service expanded to 86 new countries, with the goal of eventually streaming to over 1 billion users. Earlier this year, Spotify announced it was going to become the main partner of FC Barcelona, as well as its official audio streaming partner. Given the fact that no global sports coverage would be complete without soccer, we’re likely to see even more from this space. There’s no doubt an appetite amongst Spotify’s global audience for shows focused on the Premier League, FIFA and the World Cup, as well as other international sports topics.
The promotion of Simmons is a part of a broader shake-up in Spotify’s exec structure. Parcast founder Max Cutler will become Spotify’s head of creator content and partnerships, overseeing originals and heading an entirely new division of “creator-focused” content. Julie McNamara will oversee studio partnerships and Hollywood-produced works.
In Spotify’s latest earnings call, it announced it reached a record 422 million global monthly active users. But despite its strong growth, the initial concerns that Spotify may have bitten off more than it can chew with its $1 billion investment in podcasts hasn’t faded. While podcast listening hours skyrocketed during the pandemic, there’s no guarantee that Spotify will be able to hold on to that momentum in the future.
Warner Bros. Discovery will soon be operating a massive sports programming platform for the UK and Ireland. The merged WarnerMedia and Discovery company already owns the Eurosport network, and now it's also making BT Sport its wholly owned subsidiary. This joint venture will bring together the sports programming of Eurosport and BT, which include the UEFA leagues, the Premier League, Premiership Rugby, UFC, the Olympic Games, tennis Grand Slams such as the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, as well as cycling tours such as Tour de France.
Sports streaming service DAZN was on the cusp of acquiring BT Sport for $800 million back in February, but BT Group ultimately decided on going on a 50:50 joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery. Initially, Eurosport and BT Sport will retain separate brands, but they will be brought together under a single brand in the future. The BT Group will receive £93 million ($113.3 million) within three years following the transaction completion and up to £540 million ($658 million) of additional payment based on how the business performs during the earn-out period.
While the joint sports venture is set to become a massive competition for Sky Sports, it will enter a new agreement with Sky for the distribution of their combined sports programming beyond 2030. BT TV and BT Sport subscribers will also also get access to the discovery+ streaming service, which serves as home to Eurosport's live and on-demand videos in the UK and Ireland.
Electronic Arts is calling it quits with FIFA after nearly 30 years of using the soccer governing body's name in the titles of its games. FIFA 23 will be the last EA game with that branding when it arrives later this year. Starting in 2023, the annual soccer games will use the moniker "EA Sports FC" instead. More info about the first title in the revamped series will be revealed in July 2023.
Other than the rebranding, the EA Sports FC games may not be vastly different from what fans are used to in the long run. EA still holds licenses for more than 300 soccer partners and has exclusive agreements with the likes of the Premier League, MLS, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A.
You can expect next year's title to still have more than 19,000 players, 700+ teams, north of 100 stadiums and 30 leagues. Features such as career mode, Ultimate Team and VOLTA Football will still be present too. It's unclear, however, what the move will mean for the inclusion of FIFA-operated competitions such as the World Cup and Women’s World Cup in future titles.
In the meantime, EA Sports and Racing executive vice-president Cam Weber said his team and FIFA "are excited to deliver the greatest, most expansive EA Sports FIFA ever later this fall." He said there will be more teams, players, competitions, leagues and game modes than in any previous games. These updates will not only be present in FIFA 23, but also in FIFA Mobile, FIFA Online 4 and esports.
“We’re thankful for our many years of great partnership with FIFA," EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in a statement. "The future of global football is very bright, and fandom around the world has never been stronger. We have an incredible opportunity to put EA Sports FC at the heart of the sport, and to bring even more innovative and authentic experiences to the growing football audience.”
The end of the partnership isn't too surprising. FIFA expressed concern last fall about one entity (i.e. EA) having too much of the soccer gaming pie. It was talking with developers and other parties about how to "widen" the scope of its gaming and esports offerings. EA, on the other hand, said soon after the launch of FIFA 22 that it was "reviewing our naming rights agreement with FIFA" ahead of a possible rebranding. It filed a trademark application for "EA Sports FC" around the same time.
There are, of course, financial considerations at play. The New York Times reported in October that FIFA makes around $150 million per year through its licensing agreement with EA. In negotiations with the publisher, FIFA is said to have asked for a payment of over $1 billion for each World Cup cycle of four years. The two sides were also reportedly at odds over the scope of the partnership as well, including aspects like exclusivity.
Paramount+ has released the first trailer for Players, its long-awaited League of Legends mockumentary from American Vandal creators Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda. Set to debut on June 16th, the series centers on Fugitive Gaming, a fictionalpro team that, after years of disappointment, hopes to win League’s most prestigious prize but must first overcome infighting between two of its star players.
According to Riot Games writer Kien Lam, the studio put in “a lot of hard work” to make the series authentic, and not feel cringe or campy. “I think you have every right to be skeptical given other gaming shows, but have some faith here,” Lam said. With Players, Riot clearly hopes to replicate at least some of the success it saw with Arcane. The Netflix animated series was both a critical and commercial success for Riot, and even managed to draw new players to the studio’s now decade-old MOBA.
For the 2022 season, Formula 1 has entered a new era. The sport introduced a new car spec for this year, complete with a new set of regulations that govern how it can be used. There’s a new circuit in the United States as well as a continuation of the sprint race format that’s still in its infancy. Big changes for teams at the start of the season led EA-owned Codemasters to redesign the latest entry in the F1 game series to match the real-life updates on the track.
As studios typically do for games like this, Codemasters is touting F1 22as the “biggest overhaul” to the title in years. And with the debut of a new generation car, it’s not hyperbole. Specifically, the company says the handling is “better than ever” with upgrades to the aerodynamic and suspension simulation, plus changes to tires per the real-life regulations. Codemasters says it was in contact with both F1 and teams on how the new generation of cars would drive so it could completely overhaul mechanics and the physics of the game to mirror IRL racing.
In an effort to increase the realism of the game, Codemasters has swapped out the voice of the race engineer on your team for Marc Preistley, a former member of McLaren Racing’s F1 crew. The studio even went so far as to record Preistley’s guidance through a Formula 1-spec headset so the audio is as authentic as possible. Further changes to race day include Formation Lap and AR-guided grid lineup. Pit stops have been updated for the speed of real life and there’s a timed pit box entry mechanic that impacts the efficiency of your stop.
Practice sessions now include an AR projection on the track to help both experienced drivers refine their lines and rookies to learn circuits. What’s more, both Formation Lap and safety car sequences give you the option of actively participating or watching a more broadcast-like cinematic version of the process. Codemasters says this gives users who crave authenticity the ability to go through every motion of a race, but it also offers more casual gamers the choice of something more relaxed. Pit stops are another area where things can be as active as you want them to be. You can either manually hit your pit box with the timing mechanic or watch from a TV-style perspective.
EA/Codemasters
For beginners, there’s a new Adaptive AI feature. Codemasters says this is built for users who are fans of F1 but may not be skilled at racing games just yet. Essentially, the game’s AI plays more closely alongside the user so that even a novice driver can participate in the race rather than struggle to keep up with the pack. There are two levels to Adaptive AI: standard and a more aggressive mode that slows down the game even more.
F1 22 will also add the sprint race format that Formula 1 adopted for select weekends in 2021 and has continued this season. A short dash determines the starting grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix at these circuits rather than traditional qualifying (quali is used to set the grid for the sprint). Sprint races will be part of the season at Imola, Austria and Brazil and they’re part of the game at those locales as well. F1 added a second race in the US this year in Miami, and that circuit will also feature in the game. Codemasters made changes to Australia, Spain and Abu Dhabi in line with the updates to the actual tracks that better accommodate the new cars.
There are changes for the career or My Team mode as well. First, you can choose between three entry levels: newcomer, midfield challenger or title contender. You can begin with a team that already has established operations and a great driver, or you can make things more challenging. There are things like the option of skipping an interview or not dealing with a facilities problem, issues that real team bosses face, that can impact how your season goes if you don’t handle them properly.
EA/Codemasters
In My Team, you’ve had the ability to customize your livery before, but Codemasters has expanded this area. There are more finishes for the car (gloss, metallic, matte, satin) and there are more places on the car that are available to change. Interface updates here allow you to copy and paste livery color schemes to places like your engineering facility so that you have a cohesive identity for your team.
With F1 Life, the game’s new central hub, you’re able to see the supercars you unlock from playing (that are driveable in secondary game modes), browse your trophy case and customize your driver’s style. There’s a closet here where you can update both casual and race wear – right down to the helmet and gloves. F1 Life also serves as the lobby for multiplayer racing, where your driver and their personal style will show up for everyone to see. You even have the ability to customize your “space” or living area where furniture, lighting, art and more can all be swapped out as you see fit.
Lastly, there’s a VR component for PC. With this game mode, you’ll be able to race from the perspective of the driver, taking in the entire race from the cockpit. If you’ve ever seen a driver cam during a race, that should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect here. You can still race against friends even if they don’t have a VR headset since online play is still available for players who opt for the more immersive virtual reality option.
F1 22 will be available June 28th as a digital Champions Edition on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC (Epic, Origin and Steam). The “regular” version will follow on July 1st.
