Hello everyone. Welcome to another issue of Emmen Weekly, our new twist on gaming news. 

It’s been another hectic week of updates and surprises. 

Before we begin, we would like to note that we are well aware of the situation in Ukraine and will be posting a look at how the games industry and community is responding later this week.

For now, this is an update on what else has been going on in the games industry last week.

Apex Legends Mobile Revealed

EA has revealed a new mobile version of Apex Legends dubbed, Apex Legends Mobile. 

According to the company, the game was specifically designed for mobile and will unfortunately not feature cross-play with its counterpart on other consoles and PC.

That being said, the game will have its own selection of cosmetics, battle passes, and more.

The regional beta tests for the game will be starting at the end of the month on Android devices. 

The game will be free-to-play but only time will tell how fair its economy is to free players.

Valve Willing to Bring Game Pass to Steam

Valve CEO Game Newell recently spoke to PC Gamer and said that there is nothing holding back Game Pass from coming to Steam.

As things are, players need to use a Microsoft app to access Game Pass on PC. But if Game Pass comes to Steam, that need not be the case anymore.

Newell also said that Valve was not interested in creating their own subscription service.

While we are on the topic, it is worth noting that Steam has integrated other subscription services into itself in the past. It integrated EA’s EA Play service in 2020.

On Microsoft’s side, Phil Spencer has said that they are not interested in bringing Game Pass to closed platforms such as the Nintendo Switch, but that there were more open platforms out there for them. He name-checked the web, PC, and mobile as examples of such platforms.

So is Game Pass coming to Steam? Maybe? 

Let’s just say that the possibility isn’t low.

BioWare Releases Update on Next Dragon Age Game

BioWare has released a blogpost updating its fans about the next Dragon Age game.

Though short, the blogpost did reveal some information about the state of the game.

According to BioWare, the team is in the middle of production right now. 

It also said that “the blueprint for the game is well-understood and the team is focused”, which is positive enough to be encouraging while vague enough to not reveal anything. Typical.

BioWare also noted that there were some staff changes. 

Lastly, it also said that the team working on the game will reveal more information later this year in the form of blog posts and social media posts.

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a Dragon Age game and the last one, Dragon Age: Inquisition was a decent enough game but had its share of tedious busywork to pad out its length.

We look forward to seeing what the next Dragon Age game looks like. Hopefully, we’ll see a more story-focused game with plenty of quirky and fantastic romance options characters.

Horizon Devs Slow Down Load Times for Forbidden West on PS5 

Now here’s a funny story. It seems that Guerilla Games, the developers of Horizon: Zero Dawn and now Horizon: Forbidden West, had to slow down load times for Forbidden West on the PS5.

The Director of the game, Mathijs de Jonge spoke in an interview and said that the load times on the PS5 were so fast that the team worried that players couldn’t read the game tips and tricks they put there.

The team added a simple feature to the game where the loading screens linger just long enough for players to read what’s on them.

This feature is optional and can be turned off in the settings, which is great for veteran players who may not need the added help.

We’ve recently streamed the game and loved it. We hope that you are enjoying it as well.

Ubisoft Reveals Content Roadmap for Rainbow Six: Siege Year Seven 

Ubisoft has revealed the content roadmap for the seventh year of Rainbow Six: Siege. 

The roadmap showed some of the expected content such as four new operators. 

However, it also revealed that there will be three new maps added to the game, along with cross-play and cross-progression being added to the game. 

Out of the four operators, we know the identity of Azami, a Japanese defender. She was revealed with the start of season 1. 

The rest of the operators have only been teased. A Belgian operator will be revealed with season two, a Singaporean operator will be revealed in season three, and a Colombian operator will be introduced in season four.

We will be seeing a new competitive map midway through season 1. This map is based in Ireland and is called Emerald Plains. 

The second map comes with the second season and will be for the new Team Deathmatch mode only. This map is said to be set in Greece.

The last map arrives with season 3 and the game will also be adding a shooting range to test out weapons in season 2. 

 The ranked competitive mode will also see an overhaul with Ranked 2.0 coming in season 3.

This and many other updates are available in the original post, which can be found here.

You can check out the roadmap below.