What you missed this long weekend

Seeing as the international gaming industry does not hold its major announcements until after us South Africans have enjoyed a well-earned long weekend, we bring you a highlight package of big news from the past three-days in the world of video games.

Madden 15 is coming

It’s game time baby, whoooooo!

Madden 15, which is the next installment in EA’s American football series (despite following Madden 25), will be touching down in Europe on 29 August 2014. As we follow the European release schedule, expect the title to be arriving in a store near you around the same date.

Madden 15 will be available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, and PS4.

EA Sports will be partnering with ESPN on a poll which will allow the public to vote for which player will be featured on the game’s cover. More details will be released during the NFL Draft on 8 May 2014.

Source: Eurogamer

eSports will feature at the X-Games

ESPN’s X Games is allowing eSports players to join in the competition and compete for medals.

eSports organisation Major League Gaming (MLG) has teamed up with ESPN to allow competitive video games to be featured alongside physical extreme sports like skateboarding, BMX riding, and Super Truck driving.

To kick off this new event, MLG is inviting the five top Call of Duty: Ghosts players on its roster to the new competition, the MLG X Games Invitational. The three-day event will take place between 6 and 8 June 2014 and will be broadcast via MLG.tv.

“This collaboration with X Games will help further bring MLG to the mainstream while we provide advertisers with quality exposure and deep engagement with our fan base on MLG.tv across all platforms,” said MLG head of sales, Don Reilley.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Source: Eurogamer

Video game stadium to be built

Sticking with competitive eSports, MLG president Mike Sepso has announced that a 15,000-seat gaming stadium will be built on Hengqin Island, just off the coast of Macau, China. The stadium is expected to be completed in 2017, and will be dubbed the “MLG Arena”.

“This development on Hengquin Island is a true stadium and the first of its kind,” said Sepso. “This is a massive development in one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. Additionally, the China gaming market is enormous and the fastest growing on earth.”

The arena will be part of a a bigger “V-Zone” which will also feature expo areas for game developers to show off new titles, game-themed restaurants, and retails stores.

MLG

Source: Gamespot

Bungie explains why Destiny is not coming to PC

Destiny will launch for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360,and Xbox One on 9 September 2014, but there are still no plans to release a PC version of the game.

Destiny design lead Lars Bakken said releasing a PC version would require the studio to work beyond its current limits. Currently, 500 people are working on the title to ensure it will be ready come September.

Bungie’s chief operating officer, Pete Parsons, said that all the staff at the studio were “hardcore PC players”, and they “cared a lot” about the PC.

“Just getting it on one console would be a momentous challenge. Getting it on four on the same day is something we’ve never even tried before. We wanted to get it right, and we didn’t want to add in tonnes more risk,” he said.