TGO Daily | February 19, 2021 | Bungie Bulks Up
February 19, 2021
Hey everyone. Have a pretty bad headache today, so trying to expedite my workflow as easily as possible. No images or extra links this time around.
Will definitely be back in full force next Monday. Have a great weekend :)
Adrian
Bungie Bulks Up
Destiny 2 developer Bungie is going to be dramatically expanding their business. Last month, they began construction on a new expansion for their headquarters, bringing it from 84,000 square feet to 208,000. It’s expected to complete next year. They are also establishing their first international office in Amsterdam, which will be the home of their publishing and marketing divisions. That’s something they’ve had to work on ever since splitting with Activision in 2019.
The growth will help them support Destiny long term (including potential new releases), as well as release a new IP some time before 2025.
Crusader Kings II Subscription Service
In late 2019, Paradox Interactive made Crusader Kings II free to play. It had been out for six years, and they were about to release the highly successful Crusader Kings III. The base game of II has plenty of content to dip your feet into, but the real meat of the game comes from it’s DLC. There are over a dozen major expansions, as well as various smaller content packs that had been released over the years, and which they were counting on people to buy.
Unfortunately, all those DLC together costs quite a bit of money. Hundreds of dollars, in fact. So today, they launched a subscription service allowing you to get all of the DLC for $5 USD/month. From their forum:
With so much additional content available, the cost for new Crusader Kings II players can seem prohibitive or intimidating. This is an affordable way for players to experience the entire Crusader Kings II catalog without having to weigh which items they would prefer to purchase.
This does not mean it is the only way to get DLC moving forward. The Subscription service is entirely optional and purchasing a single or multiple DLC packs without the Subscription is still an option.
Happy to see them experimenting with new revenue streams. Also, considering some people are still spending hundreds of hours playing this game…it’s probably worth it.
EA Acquires Codemasters
EA’s acquisition of racing game developer Codemasters has now completed, getting the studio for $1.2 billion — swooping in to take it from Take Two, who were offering around $900 million. Arguably, it’s a better fit with EA, who already have Need for Speed and Burnout in their catalogue. Codemasters’ F1, GRID, DiRT, and Project CARS will be in good company.
Fall Guys on Xbox
Yesterday it was announced that Fall Guys would be making its way to the Nintendo Switch. Today, we found out that it’s going to Xbox as well! It’ll arrive this summer:
Free Games
The Epic Games Store continues to give away games every week (even if I’m not talking about them, but I try to get the notable ones).
This week, it’s a driving game called Absolute Drift (where you drift your way across racing tracks — it’s got a cool art style) and RAGE 2 (developers of DOOM in collab with developers of Mad Max — and you can tell. Decent game). Next week, it’s Sunless Sea, a very cool Lovecraftian indie game about sailing the high seas in “Fallen London.”