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"We want to invite people into this big tent with this grimdark setting": Creative Assembly on how they plan to ease strategy newbies into Total War: Warhammer 40,000
I remember once when I was a child, my uncle was visiting and completely unprompted (and kindly) he gave me a copy of one of the Total War games, I think the Rome one, you'll have to forgive my memory. I'd literally never played a strategy game in my life, but I gave it a go anyway, and quickly found myself thinking, "hey, where are the collectibles? Why's there no triple jump?" The onboarding process did not help me much, and after a failure of a battle where I lost everything, I soon gave up after. So it's because of not particularly strategic people like me that makes me understand why developer Creative Assembly want Total War: Warhammer 40,000 "approachable and accessible".
Stylised XCOM-like tactics game Ex Sanguis straps Othercide's obsession with timelines to a leaner roguelike campaign
The nasal greenhorn strategy gamer understands "strategy" to be about mastery of space by means of clanging offensives, shining shieldwalls, and brute attrition, but the true Napoleon of Drag-Select knows that strategy is always, primarily, the mastery of time. I don't think Napoleon would have approved of Ex Sanguis. He would not have liked all the willowy clone women made out of congealed blood and pincers. He would have suspected them of being divorcees and Babouvists. But perhaps he would have appreciated the game's fixation with seizing the initiative. playerbros.org
A month after buying EA, Saudi Arabia is reportedly looking to merge EA into a new mega-corporation
EA's new Saudi Arabia owners are reportedly looking to shuffle the publisher into a new gaming giant that would combine and spearhead the country's gaming strategy.
Bloomberg reports that early considerations at Saudi Arabia, the supermajority owner in a new consortium of investors that took EA private in a deal that closed August 4, would see EA merged with Savvy Games, a group established by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) in 2021 as the bedrock for yet more billions in investment.
EA and PIF representatives evidently declined to comment on the report.
The report stresses that final decisions have not been made and are unlikely to come until, at the very least, Savvy can close the $6 billion acquisition of Chinese studio and Mobile Legends maker Moonton.
On the Public Investment Fund website, Savvy Games' stated goal is "achieving leadership status in the games industry by 2030."
"Savvy has been growing rapidly since being established, with ESL FACEIT Group, the world’s #1 esports company, and Scopely, the #1 mobile games company in the United States, under its portfolio," it adds.
If such a merger goes through, and passes regulatory scrutiny, it would put EA's sports franchises and Scopely's Pokemon Go – not to mention Monopoly Go! – in the same place.
Buying one of the largest game publishers in the US for $55 billion and then almost immediately pushing it into a merger with your other company – which you pumped $38 billion into in order to acquire some of the biggest players in mobile gaming – would, perhaps, raise an eyebrow in an antitrust case.
The considered merger appears mobile-heavy, but the PIF didn't snatch up EA just for phone games, and this move could land it one of the world's biggest gaming companies altogether.
It could also spell the end of EA as we've known it for years, if you generously assume that this takeover hasn't already settled that. The EA deal stoked fears of mass layoffs at the company, even as EA leadership insists "our creative freedom and player-first values will remain intact," and being wholly merged with Saudi Arabia's very own mobile foothold surely wouldn't settle those fears.
Hamilton confirms no rules of engagement at Ferrari despite Monza clash with Leclerc
‘When I was at Mercedes we had written rules’
British driver held positive talks with teammate
Lewis Hamilton has said there remain no rules of engagement between the drivers at Ferrari, despite the 41-year-old calling for the team to employ them after he clashed with his teammate, Charles Leclerc, at the last round in Monza.
Hamilton was forced wide by Leclerc at turn two on the opening lap at the Italian Grand Prix, which he felt had been unacceptable. Speaking before the first meeting for the Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring circuit in Madrid this weekend, Leclerc admitted he had been at fault and Hamilton said the pair had talked frankly and cleared the air in a forthright fashion.
Continue reading...World Rugby float plans for Six Nations match in US but England unlikely to participate
Governing body floating staging Ireland v Italy in US
World Rugby eyes commercial value in American fixtures
World Rugby wants a Six Nations match to be staged in the US and has offered financial incentives to the unions to do so – but England have effectively ruled themselves out on the grounds that fixtures at Twickenham are too lucrative.
The US will stage the 2031 World Cup and World Rugby is seeking to capitalise commercially despite mounting fears over the parlous state of rugby union in the host country. As a result, the governing body is desperate to raise interest in the sport’s profile by staging high-profile matches Stateside, with Baltimore hosting the fourth Test between South Africa and New Zealand on Saturday.
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