Major Updates: Dune Awakening Patch, Warner Bros Restructure, and Splitgate Layoffs

And welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Gaming Brew and I'm your

host Brett

Deister.

Mmm, that's good. Alright, so Dune

Awakening has a patch which was released this week to

remove the ability to damage other players in PvP by ramming them

with their vehicles. Especially specific was the orithopters they called

the Goomba Stomp which was just stomp on you until you died. There's nothing

you could do because there's really no weapons that can actually kill the thing.

So it was a very annoying thing. This changes effects a popular

tactic used by players in the Deep desert. That's the end game. Prior to the

patch players could be knocked down into a revive state by being hit by an

ornithopter leading to repeated attacks while they self revived.

And then one of the creative director acknowledged this issue on Reddit

and indicated that the team was working on a fix. Community reaction to the

patch has been generally positive, which yes, because if you can't really

knock down ornithopter but it can basically knock you

down, it's it's not really fun.

Now some players express a desire for further changes such as vehicle taking damage from

significant impact. I would agree with this. I think that needs to be

something at least for the ornithopter. I think the

land bike I don't think it needs that much because those treads

decay pretty quick. But I think the ornithopter needs some type

of damage taken for that.

If you're going to keep on ramming somebody with it and you're going to be

doing a hard ram, yeah, you should be able

to do that. The article mentions that a large group of ornithopter players will still

pose a threat despite the change. Then there was an

AMA on Reddit about it and the deep desert will remain a PvP

area, but additional PvE content is being developed.

The executive producer stated that the game does not want to exclude solo

casuals or small players and the senior game director confirmed

that players do not have to engage in

PvP but may encounter hostile players

and there are no plans to change the PvP name. Nature

of the Deep Desert Currently the player base is in

the game disappear. If so if your player

base if you haven't really been logging back

in for 25 days then

it it's gone. Your base is gone. So please log

into your game and make sure that your base does not disappear

because if it disappears you're in trouble.

The game is described as a survival MMO PvP and

the community manager mentioned that a roadmap for future

plans will be published after the launch period. So we're still in the

launch period because it's still relatively new and so they're trying to fix issues

instead of actually making newer interesting things. I'm pretty sure they have a

lot of plans in place for things to come out, but this is

where we're at now. I'm glad that they're fixing the issue. I do think there

needs to be a small damage taken if you're going to keep on ramming people

like that to kind of signify that it will eventually just kill your

ornithopter. And that's usually a late game thing to

get anyways. I'm still kind of in the early ish game

where I have to be wary of

quicksand. Almost died four times to quicksand.

Easy fix is to get is to get out, get your

tool that you can pick up your land bike and run away from the quicksand

and don't die from it. But all in all, it's a

pretty fun game. I think the sword play is a little boring, and I think

the combat probably is the least interesting thing of the game.

I think everything else is very interesting except for the combat. It kind of

gets a little stale, a little dry.

But hey, all right. Moving on to

Battlefield 2042 is receiving a Mass Effect bundle

that includes the N7 themed skin for Specialists

and Weapons. The citadel bundle cost 3,000. Battlefield currency

approximately $25, requiring separate purchases of

2400 or 1-1100

VFC. Now

it looks interesting. I just don't play Battlefield

2042 anymore because what is the point anymore?

Because they aren't really updating it anymore. It doesn't really matter to me. So

if you like Mass Effect and you like Battlefield, this is probably the Match Made

in Heaven bundle for you. But for me there really is

no point to it. But that's just my opinion.

All right. Warner Brothers has restructured its leadership team to refocus

on major technical properties including Mortal Kombat,

Harry Potter, D.C. and Game of Thrones. Three studio

heads were promoted to senior vice president position. Sean

Hemrick, Steven Fori, and

yeah, I'm not even say his name. But another guy.

I'm terrible at names. I'm sorry. And if they're hard to pronounce is

Yves La La. I don't.

That's a big butcher right there. But Hemrick will

oversee Mortal Kombat. DC Games Last will

manage Harry Potter and Game of Thrones and Fenor will

handle game of publishing technology, technology customer

service, quality insurance and user research.

New leadership will report to the CEO of games and global streaming at Warner Brothers

Discovery and all teams under Warner Brothers will direct report directly to

the new vice presidents. No layoffs have associated with

a leadership change. Warner Brother Games recently closed three studios

Model Player First Games and Warner Brothers Games San

Diego citing a strategic change in direction.

A sequel to Hogwarts Legacy is confirmed. A new game

titled Game of Thrones War of Westeros was announced to set to launch

next year as a real time strategy game.

So another restructuring going to be interesting to see

if it's actually going to do anything, if it's actually going

to help. But right now the

biggest problem with this is

that they just have no games. They're like making games but they have

no games coming out in the foreseeable future.

They're making the Game of Thrones RTS. They already came out with Mortal

Kombat 1 and that's probably going to be updated for a little bit longer.

And they came out a few years ago with Harry Potter game

Hogwarts Legacy, which was a great game. They did have

a DC game called and Suicide Squad did not do

very, very well. They were going to do Wonder Woman

game. Excuse me, a Wonder Woman game. But

that did not do that didn't even come out at all.

Apparently it was so bad that they didn't even do it. They just basically

shuttered Monolith, which I think

the biggest problem right now is they already had a really great game that

they probably should have finished and let Monolith actually finish that one, which was

the Lord of the Rings game with

Talion. But yeah, that's never gonna see the light of day it seems like because

they're gonna focus on these instead of Lord of the Rings, which is another

really great franchise and they already had a really great franchise game that they could

have actually kept on doing, but they didn't do it for whatever

reason. And they came out with the Nemesis

system through the Shadows of War and

the Shadows of Mordor series game.

So we could have seen like them

using their patent on that technology. But yeah,

we're not going to see that at all. It just is.

All right, so the developer

of Splitgate 2 has announced announced layoffs, undisclosed number of

employees. The company announced the layoffs via a LinkedIn post. Stated

they parted ways with a small group of team members and the studio

is redirecting resources to improve the Split Gate 2 gameplay experience.

Based on community feedback early June Yeah, he made the Make

FPS games great again at the summer fest, which caused

controversy. No, it didn't. It caused controversy for like five people.

There was really no controversy. I

saw it. I'm like, okay, that's cool. I agree with the statement.

If you have a problem with that statement, you're either an idiot

or you need help because there is nothing wrong with that

statement. Don't you want things to be great? I do. A lot of

people do. So having a a

concern because it may be aligned with

Trump is the funniest crap I've ever seen. It

basically displays Trump derangement syndromes to the

max. And it's the funniest thing. You cannot get over it.

You hate a person so much that anybody else that uses a phrase that

makes something great again cannot use it because it will

invoke isms like

racism, xeno. Well, and. And BS too.

Xenophobia. All these things

that make no sense. But no, we can't say make something

great again because that would entail

Trump. It's the dumbest thing.

All right. Embracer Group has reduced its workforce by over 1800 people in the

past year. The company and annual release report was released detailing

internal headcounts. The PC console games

segment decreased from 6,404 employees to

4,901 18, a reduction of

1,486, just over a quarter. So that's three

months. That's a pretty heavy reduction.

The mobile Segment reduced from 1,081 to

743 employees. Entertainment Service segment

decreased from 771 to 738 employees. Total

workforce reduction amount to 1,857

people. Embracer turnover rate was 20%

with 560 voluntary departures and 517

dismissals. The restructuring program began in June

2023 as a proposed 2 billion partnership collapsed

with Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Fund. The

previous report indicated a headcount reduction of

4532 people and the cancellation of 80

in development projects. The female workforce decreased from 30

to 27% because that's the most important thing.

The organizational changes related to

Asmondi spinoff. Embracer CEO

Lars is stepping down but will become the executive chair of the

board. Embracer has 464 IP

rights and is working on 108 game development projects.

The company plans to release 76 different games in the

financial year of 2025-2026, including

new IPs, sequels and remasters. GOG has implemented a new

system. Oh, never mind it's the next story.

So yeah, it's just battle round for

Embracer Group. Remember when they kept on like buying a bunch of studios and stuff

and it's like, oh, this is going to be cool. It's going to be new

games and stuff. And then, well, their

first few games out the door were just not good. And everybody's like, what is

this? And there were some that were okay, but for the most part they were

not good. And then you see the partnership fail with Saudi Arabia's

savvy games fund, which I don't know why they were banking on something like that.

That's why they had a huge spending spree. Because they're like, look, we'll get money

from the Arabs. And it's like, nope, you will not. Because you actually

have to make good games and you have to stop doing this

woke BS to actually make good games. So

good luck to you. I'll be interested to see. I'm still

really wanting to play Titanfall 2. Titanfall 2? No, Titan Quest.

There was Titan in there somewhere. Titan Quest 2. Titanfall

2 came out years ago. My bad. Titan Quest

2 I'm interested in. I'm still interested in Titanfall 2. To be honest with you,

I'm more interested in Titanfall 3. But that will never happen. EA.

But anyways, we'll see what

Racer Group does if there's actually a turnaround or there's going to be more layoffs

and there probably will be more unless they get their

act together.

All right, moving on to. GOG has implemented a new system that allows

users to donate when purchasing games. The donation system

offers users the option to contribute

preset amounts of any amount they choose. Donations are linked to

GOG's preservation program, which aims to keep older

games running on new hardware. The donation option applies to both new

and old games. So if

you want another reason why we hate tipping so much, here's another

reason why we hate tipping so much. I get it. And it's.

It's a valiant effort to keep games, especially old games, from

running on new systems. But we're inundated with

here's a donation, here's a tip, here's something or other

and nobody wants it anymore. I'm just gonna say nobody

wants this. The only people that want this are the businesses

and, or maybe some creators. But

I mean, we're buying the game, we're buying

games from your store that should be good enough for it. But I mean, at

least it's voluntary now. How pushy the voluntary is,

is Another question, But at least it's voluntary. That's the best thing I got

for that. All right. Xbox is reportedly collaborating with

Xena Canary development team. The collaboration

aims to create a classic program to bring original Xbox and

Xbox360 games to current consoles PC

and Game Pass. The program is expected to include visual and performance

enhancements for games. The launch of this program is anticipated to

coincide with Xbox 25th anniversary.

The information was shared by a known Xbox Game Pass leaker.

So this might be a good thing if they're done. Well,

no, Microsoft has done a pretty good job with their remasters. I mean, the

Halo Master Chief collection was pretty good. The Age of the Empire 2 kind

of thing where they did was pretty good. Their Age of Mythology remake

was good, and even the remaster, I think they did a Remaster two was

pretty good. So they have a pretty good track record doing it. I'm not quite

sure about the game Gears of War,

but we'll see. We'll see what they actually do with this. Oh, and

Skyrim. No, Oblivion. Sorry. Oblivion remake

was pretty, pretty good. Body

type A and body type B was stupid, but beyond that it was good

all right. New updates for Battlefield

6 so a new update of Battlefield Labs released on June 19,

2025. This includes support for Nvidia DLSS4 and the option to

disable the border around the capture zone. Interesting.

The watermark in the game has changed from pre alpha to

Alpha, so they've moved on and files related to the

Battle royale mode have been added in this update. There is an

expectation of news regarding the class system coming soon. The

next entry in the Battlefield series is scheduled for an official announcement this

summer. The game will feature a single player mode developed by

Motive Studios, influenced by TV shows and movies such as

Lioness and Civil War. Some footage from

Battlefield Labs have been shared online despite it not being intended for public

viewing. A short clip from the single player campaign of the Battlefield game

has been leaked, discovered by Dana Minor Temporal

Temporal Data Minor. The

footage is identified as a work in progress and is not gameplay

for a play for a playtest lacking traditional watermarks

from such tests. The clip reportedly shows a mission to destroy a

dam and tarish

a country that is far away. The campaign

is said to consist of eight missions plus a prologue set

in locations such as the one I Tried, I Butchered, Egypt,

the US and Gibraltar. There is currently no official release

date or title for the next Battlefield game. EA has announced a summer

reveal for the game, but the exact timing is unspecified.

And then so that this is what you have. We actually

may have a single player campaign that

it's going to be closely linked to Lioness and Civil War.

So it could be good, could be bad, could be gay and good game bad

because Lioness season two was all about that for some odd reason.

Not really quite sure why it was, but it was

anyways. Moving on to Kristal Theater of Idols is

a first person shooter game influenced by Bioshock and cult horror elements

from Resident Evil 4. The game requires players to

sacrifice their own blood to reload their guns, which affects their

health. Crystal is developed by Vermillion

Studios, which was acquired by embracer group in 2020 and is

published by Blumhouse Games. The game protagonist

is Gabriel, the captain of the Tess Del Sol,

who is sent to an island with a sea of

with a sea religion called

Tormentosa

to confront living Idol ST statues.

The game features a gothic nautical

setting, includes mechanics such as

harvesting blood from dead animals and finding health restoring

syringes. The game art development consists of around 20

people have worked on it for 5 years.

Looks interesting, looks good. I'm quite interested to see what they're going to

do with that with you have to reload using your

own blood. I think that brings an interesting dynamic that we haven't really seen in

first person shooter games. So this could be good.

All right, so the downfall of Bungie and or Marathon so Bungie

Marathon reboot has been delayed from its original release date

of September 2023 to an unspecified featured date. The

delay is attributed to feedback received from alpha

playtests that conclude in early May.

No release date has been announced, but Bungie plans to provide an update

later this fall fall regarding the game's progress and new release

date. Bungie aims to enhance the game by improving

survival elements, AI encounters and loot

rewards and combat strategy. The development team is

also focused on enhancing visual fidelity, narrative storytelling and

social experiences, including the addition of proximity chat.

Despite challenges, PlayStation previously reported strong early engagement with

Marathon. All right, what what we're seeing here is that this game was

just awful. No one was talking about this in a good way.

Everybody was like this game is okay. The AIM botting

is a little overhanded, the art direction

is weird and it's just an

okay arc. Raiders was talked about in a way more positive light

and played more than this game. This game

has have had issues.

It has a ton of issues of stolen

assets of stolen art, stuff from players with

with no monetary or even a hey

we got this ID visual idea from this person type of the thing

these stole assets and they tried to like make

it off as their own. Did not work very well. And this

is why where we're at the game is just not

appealing at all. They really just need to

redo the whole game, redo the whole art direction and just

make a good game. But they don't know how to do it

anymore. Seems

like Destiny 2 was kind of the last hurrah of Bungie

cuz they don't know what they're doing besides stealing stuff,

passing off on their own work. Big no, no.

We need to figure it out again. Probably should just drop all the woke

and look, look how good we are because every time a development team does that,

you know they've bled talent, you know they can't really make a game and

you know it's going to be awful when everything's about

image and not about the substance of the game. There

are problems with the game and we see seen it in real time

time and time again. Happened with Dragon Age, Veil Guard,

happened with Assassin's Creed Shadows. Now it's happening with this game, happened

with Concord and so on and so forth until

they figure out that hiring talent is better than

hiring for their black, Asian women or

whatever. Hire for hire the best person you can

to do the job, not higher whatever it is for

the diversity report that makes no sense

and it actually does not add any value to your bottom line.

Let's get back to common sense. The common sense is

care more about making a great game. You care more about look how much

statistics we have on who's working at our office and our

development team because it's stupid and nobody cares.

All I care about is you make a great game. Don't care how many women

are working there, don't care how many black people are working here, don't care about

how many white people, gay people, lesbians, non

existent, non binary people because you don't exist.

Just make a good game. That's all you have to do.

All right. Anyways, if you agree or disagree,

let me know with the comments below. But thank you once again for joining Digital

Coffee Gaming Brew. I really do appreciate it and join me next week as to

talk about what's going on in the gaming industry. All right guys, stay safe, get

to playing the games you want to play that actually are fun and see you

next week later.