Greetings readers and welcome to another issue of Emmen Weekly. It’s our collection of gaming news that caught our eye during the past week.
This past week has been quite busy for the gaming industry and for games in general. We’ve got all kinds of news this time like when MK 12 getting casually announced over a phone call to MihoYo getting ready to take on Twitter.
So with no further ado, let’s begin.
Mortal Kombat 12 Casually Announced Over a Phone Call
Mortal Kombat 12 has been casually announced over an earnings call by Warner Bros. Discovery.
The following clip, which is making rounds on Twitter, includes a confirmation by Warner Bros. Discovery’s VP of Global Investor Strategy, Andrew Slabin, that Mortal Kombat 12 is slated for 2023.
Slabin is quoted to have said, “And there’s lots more to come, including the highly-anticipated Mortal Kombat 12 and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, games also set for release this year with ambitious launch projections.
This is the first we’ve heard of MK12. Due to the nature of the reveal, there is no trailer or promotional images or any further details to speak of.
All we know is that it apparently exists and is coming out this year?! We look forward to seeing more from this game, if and when it makes its presence officially known.
Microsoft Signs 10-Year Deal with Nintendo
Microsoft has signed a 10-year deal with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to its platforms on the same day as the Xbox, with full feature and content priority.
The reveal first came from Microsoft President Brad Smith, who posted a now-deleted tweet which read:
“We’ve now signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers. This is just part of our commitment to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty to more players on more platforms.”
The tweet was then deleted and replaced with the following:
This deal was first announced to have been struck back in December 2022, but it seems that it is now signed and legally binding.
This deal will bring Call of Duty back to Nintendo consoles for the first time since Call of Duty: Ghosts for the WiiU in 2013.
Bungie Wins USD 4.3 Million Anti-Cheating Lawsuit
The developers of Destiny 2, Bungie, have achieved a victory in its lawsuit against AimJunkies, a company that creates cheating software such as aimbots.
A judge ruled that AimJunkies violated Bungie’s copyright through creating its aimbots and must pay Bungie a total of USD 4,396,222 in damages and legal fees.
This case first surfaced two years ago when Bungie filed against AimJunkies in April 2021. The case was originally dismissed in May 2021 when a US District Court Judge ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Bungie’s claim. Bungie went on to file new complaints weeks later.
This saga got its next update when AimJunkie’s parent company, Phoenix Digital Group LLC released a very aggressive statement against Bungie. This happened last August.
After this victory against AimJunkies, Bungie is looking to sue LaviCheats for USD 6.7 million. This will make it the next step in Bungie’s ongoing crusade against cheaters and cheating.
This crusade has netted the company USD 13.5 million in damages from other cheats companies.
Genshin Impact Creators Subpoena Twitter
The creator of popular gacha game, Genshin Impact, MihoYo has subpoenaed Twitter in order to find the identities of three prevalent leakers.
The subpoenas were issued on behalf of hoYoverse by the US District Court of the Northern District of California and concern the individuals behind the accounts, XWides, Merlin Impact, and Genshin World.
The leaked documents reveal that Twitter is being demanded to hand over the telephone numbers, emails, names of the leakers, their IP address, and real world address.
This news follows one from earlier this month when hoYoverse’s Cognosphere division requested that Twitter delete posts from said accounts for copyright infringement. The tweets were not deleted at the time.
This move by hoYoverse is just the latest battle in the ongoing war between leakers and developers that has long since become common in the modern gaming industry.
Twitter has yet to issue any sort of response to this subpoena.
Valve Bans 40,000 Dota 2 Cheaters
Valve has permanently banned 40,000 Dota 2 cheaters that use third-party software to cheat.
These players were using software that allowed them to view data that was not normally viewable through the Dota 2 client.
In a statement released by Valve, it said that its biggest priority is to prevent cheating in the first place but added that it took the extra step of finding existing cheaters and banning them.
To catch these cheaters, Valve created a “honeypot”; a section of data that would not be read during normal gameplay, but would be read if the cheating software is used to see beyond the normal client of Dota 2.
The cheaters using said software all ended up reading this secret data, which allowed Valve to identify them and perma-ban them.
At the time of writing, some of them seem to be making an effort to crawl back onto Dota 2 with new fake accounts but considering that they have to start from scratch, it remains to be seen how many cheaters actually commit to it.
Nintendo Confirms that its Skipping E3 2023
Japanese game developer and publisher Nintendo has officially confirmed that it would be skipping E3 2023.
While it was previously known that Xbox, Sony, and Nintendo would not formally take part in E3, this is an official confirmation.
Nintendo said to IGN in an interview, “We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis and are always considering various ways to engage with our fans. Since this year’s E3 show didn’t fit into our plans, we have made the decision to not participate. However, we have been and continue to be a strong supporter of the ESA and E3.”
As E3 approaches, many publishers are deciding whether they wants to be part of the event or not. Ubisoft, for instance, has said that it would attend E3 if the event continues.
E3 2023 is currently slated for June 13 to June 16 at the Los Angeles convention center.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Art Book Leaks Online
Speaking of Nintendo, the art book that comes with the collectors edition of the upcoming and highly anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
This is more of a PSA to Zelda fans who might want to play the new game unspoiled.
While we won’t describe the spoilers with any detail, it is worth noting that they are just images and don’t have any context to them. But these do count as spoilers for enemy designs, locations, outfits, and other items.
Those wishing to keep safe from spoilers might want to mute keywords on social media such as “Zelda”, “Link”, “Ganon”, “Tears of the Kingdom”.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes out for the Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023.
Hogwarts: Legacy TV Series Reportedly in Development at HBO Max
A Hogwarts: Legacy TV series is reportedly in development at Warner’s HBO Max.
The source of the information comes from sources cited by Great Freakin Robot, which is an online media platform with some credibility.
The report states that the show is still in its early stages of development. If it is based on the game, it will probably be set before the Harry Potter series and the Fantastic Beasts series.
As of this writing, Warner has not yet responded to news outlets’ requests for more details.
That being said, if this news does pan out, we might see the Wizarding World join the Last of Us in HBO Max’s video game adaptation library. And if the latter show’s quality is any indication, it could be an interesting watch.
However, at this stage, it is best to consider this a rumor with some possibility.
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