The final box art for Grand Tehft Auto V has been revealed. All three playable characters seem to have made the cut, and it’s a safe bet the girl with iPhone knock-off probably won’t be found anywhere in the game. Launch is scheduled for September 17, 2013.
Telltale Games seems to be taking a short break from their fantastic success with adventure games and releasing a sequel to their 2010 poker title. Poker Night 2 for PSN and XBLA will have an all-star cast, including Portal‘s GlaDOS dealing the cards. Player characters will include the Venture Bros.‘ Brock Samson, Borderlands‘ Claptrap, Army of Darkness‘ Ash Williams, and others. The game will have Bounty Unlocks for meeting in-game goals that will net you a range of rewards (heads in Borderlands 2, PS3 themes, 360 Avatar items, etc.). Release is scheduled for later this month.
There’s been a quite a bit of bad news for the industry this week. First, of course, is the virtual closing of LucasArts by Disney. That resulted in layoff of around 150 employees. But they aren’t the only ones. Activision-owned High Moon Studios (two recent Transformers titles, Deadpool in development) also suffered layoffs, 40 or so. Square Enix is also restructuring after the resignation of Yoichi Wada, resulting in “a number” of layoffs in the Los Angeles area.
On a somewhat related topic, Rage 2 has been cancelled after poor performance of the first game (which also had its planned DLC cut). Layoffs are not expected with this decision, however. Instead, those employees have been transferred to working on Doom 4, a title that was reportedly delayed indefinitely back in 2011. Turns out, despite having already been in development for several years, it was determined the best course of action was to scrap it all start over for next-gen consoles. Which means this is also an announcement of a next-gen Doom 4, though no word on when it’s coming, as “games are done when they are done” according to Bethesda’s Pete Hines.