Rumor Hill
Twitter gets the ball rolling with some alleged Silent Hill leaks. These coming from user @the_marmolade and verified by noteworthy leaker Dusk Golem (who previously leaked Silent Hill images from 2020). Golem states the new pics are from a “no-budget proof of concept thing.” In other words a pitch. In this case coming from Polish developer Bloober Team best known for horror games The Medium, Layers of Fear and The Blair Witch Project. Adding fuel to the fire was a second wave of purported pics titled Silent Hill: Sakura which circulated alongside a translated copy of what can be described as an IP roadmap. Of note were talks of a Silent Hill 2 remake by Bloober to be followed by a numbered sequel and collaborations with indie developers. PlayStation was also namedropped as far as timed exclusivity goes. No comment from Konami or Bloober at this time.

Cyberpunk’d
Speaking of Polish developers, CD Projekt Red of Witcher fame announced the first (and final) major expansion for Cyberpunk: 2077 titled Phantom Liberty. Announced during a livestream and followed up on by IGN, the project will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC in 2023. Featuring the return of Keanu Reeves’ character Johnny Silverhand, the story is set to introduce a new set of characters involving a newly reborn USA. Of note, there is no planned release for last gen consoles which leaves some early adopters out in the dark. Others applauded the move, citing last gen difficulty in even running the game. The 1.6 update will be last gen’s last major update, leaving any chance of proper trophy migration unlikely as well. For more things Cyberpunk, check out Diary of a Manual: Part Two.

Tencent $trike$ again
CNBC reports that shares of Ubisoft dropped over 17% this week after big-tech Tencent put down 300 million euros for a significant 49.9% stake in the company. CNBC also notes that despite this, Tencent will only contribute 5% of voting rights. Nonetheless the move comes as news to many as according to Arjun Kharpal “The Guillemot brothers have fought hard to keep the company independent and protected from a takeover.” Namely Vivendi who pursued the company from 2015 – 2018. This move essentially makes it so that a full sale is now very unlikely, ruling out a “complete takeover” by any buyers. As Ubisoft shares dropped, Tencent continued its rise since tough Chinese regulations forced the giant to expand overseas.

Forward and upward
Ubisoft Forward livestream Saturday Sept 10 at 12pm PT/3pm ET/8pm BST. Headlined by an Assassin’s Creed Showcase, new games in the franchise and Ubisoft IP in general will be featured including rumors of Assassin’s Creed codename Red/Jade/Hexe. AC: Mirage has been confirmed. Pre-show begins at 11:35am PT/2:35pm ET/7:35pm BST according to Ubisoft and IGN.

The corporate cacophony of Jim and Phil
Last but certainly not least, the headline of the week comes courtesy of gamesindustry.biz. Christopher Dring reports that PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan provided a statement to gamesindustry regarding Microsoft’s offer to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for only three years beyond the current agreement. Ryan states the offer is “inadequate on many levels.” He goes on to say “I hadn’t intended to comment on what I understood to be a private business discussion, but I feel the need to set the record straight because Phil Spencer brought this into the public forum. Microsoft has only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends. After almost 20 years of Call of Duty on PlayStation, their proposal was inadequate on many levels and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers. We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality Call of Duty experience, and Microsoft’s proposal undermines this principle.”

Earlier this year, Microsoft offered to buy Activision Blizzard for almost $69 billion dollars in an all cash deal. The deal is currently being investigated by regulators with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority concerned over Microsoft possibly withholding content from other consoles. This on the heels of a report that PlayStation was in fact Activision Blizzard’s largest customer in 2020 accounting for 17% of it sales or $1.37 billion. Microsoft by comparison was only Activision Blizzard’s 4th largest (ranking behind Apple and Google). The new deal from Phil Spencer effectively cuts off COD’s largest income stream on console. Reactions have reached fever pitch yet remain mixed, with fans criticizing both sides (and each other) for their part in propagating the ongoing war over exclusives.