In this week’s recap of gaming news, Gamescom’s Opening Night Live brought plenty of exciting announcements, whileDestiny 2unveiled The Witch Queen expansion. 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 recap ofgaming news, Gamescom 2021’s Opening Night Live showcase brought with it a ton of new announcements and reveals. Games likeMarvel’s Midnight Suns, as well as the reboot ofSaints Row, were all brand new reveals at the showcase. Additionally, players learned about several new release dates for games likeHorizon Forbidden WestandHalo Infinite. Bungie unveiled its plans forDestiny 2’s upcoming expansion, The Witch Queen, which is launching early next year. All that and more in this week’s recap of the biggest gmaes industry news.
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Biggest Announcements from Gamescom’s Opening Night Live
Of course, the biggest news this week were all the announcements from Gamescom’s Opening Night Live show, which brought a ton of news for AAA games. Compared to last year’s showcase, this year’s Opening Night Live was two hours long, containing announcements from Xbox, PlayStation, as well as numerous third-party titles as well. Here are highlights from the Opening Night Live showcase:
Additionally, several other trailers for existing games likeFar Cry 6,LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga,Sifu,Death Stranding: Director’s Cut, and more.
Destiny 2 Unveils The Witch Queen Expansion Trailer and Gameplay
This week also brought on the reveals for the next year ofDestiny 2content coming with The Witch Queen. After hints throughout Season of the Splicer, as well as previousDestiny 2lore,Savathun is finally making her grand entrance inDestiny 2’s mainline story. Additionally, Season of the Lost has begun, serving as the narrative transition to The Witch Queen’s release, coming on August 02, 2025.
Additionally, outside of the new expansion, Bungie went into detail on the many sandbox changes coming toDestiny 2in general next year. Some of the biggestchanges are coming to Trials of Osiris andDestiny 2’s PvPin general, working to curb the massive cheating issue alongside solving rewards and accessibility issues with the mode. Beyond that, Light subclasses will see overhauls similar to the Stasis subclass changes that came with Beyond Light. New Raids will come toDestiny 2every three months, according to the new roadmap. Even Gjallarhorn is coming back toDestiny 2as well.
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Overwatch’s McCree Receiving Name Change After Lawsuit, Backlash
In the wake of the Activision Blizzard walkout, several employees in the company have since been relased from the publisher. One of those was Jesse McCree, a senior developer at Blizzard who had worked on theDiabloseries previously, and had anOverwatchhero named after them. The titular McCree is set to receive a new name inOverwatchin response to the lawsuit and backlash from fans and employees.
Epic Games and Time Magazine Launching Fortnite MLK Jr. Event
Epic Games is partnering with Time Magazine to produce a “March Through Time,” a playable communityevent inFortnitecreative mode that celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Players can explore pivotal moments in civil rights history, all the while interacting with a reimagined Washington D.C. as MLK Jr. delivers his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. SeveralFortniteemotes were disabled entirely for this event.
Pokemon GO Backlash Over Covid Measures Being Lifted
Niantic is rolling back some of the Covid-19 safety measuresput in place during the pandemic that allowed fans to playPokemon GOsafely during quarantine. Now, players that are used to the doubled radius for interacting with Pokemon Gyms and PokeStops will now have to play the game as it was previously experienced pre-pandemic. Several players have organized a boycott and are protesting Niantic for seemingly removing these quality-of-life features despite rising cases of the Delta Variant in the United States.
Microsoft Bringing Cloud Gaming to Xbox One Consoles
As Microsoft continues to expand its efforts into game streaming technology, soon Xbox Cloud Gaming will bring the next-gen gaming experience to older consoles. This holiday season, Microsoft has announced thatCloud Gaming is coming to all Xbox One consolesas well as Xbox Series X/S. This fall, the program will roll out to Xbox Insider testers, but there has been no concrete release date announced quite yet.
