Daily Gaming News: July 1, 2020

Xbox Game Pass adds four new games to lineup for July

Four new games were announced for Xbox Game Pass’ July lineup: Fallout 76 (Xbox/PC), CrossCode (Xbox, but already available for PC), Soulcalibur 6 (Xbox) and Out of the Park Baseball 21 (PC).

Source: Polygon

Sony announces PlayStation Indies initiative to highlight new indie titles

While details are few and far-between, Sony Head of PlayStation Indies (and formerly President of SIE Worldwide Studios) Shuhei Yoshida announced a new initiative today aimed at putting the spotlight on upcoming indie games. PlayStation Now will also feature one new indie title each month (July’s title is Hello Neighbor).

Sony also revealed nine upcoming indie games for PS4 and PS5, though most have already been announced in some fashion (you might remember Haven and Carto from my write-up of the E3 Sony Playstation Event). Here’s the entire list:

• Worms Rumble
• Haven
• Carto
• Recompile
• Where the Heart Is
• Maquette
• F.I.S.T: Forged in Shadow Torch
• Heavenly Bodies
• Creaks

Grab AER Memories of Old and Stranger Things 3: The Game on the Epic Games Store before they’re gone

That’s right: it’s a new week, which means more free games on the Epic Games Store. Last week’s games were AER Memories of Old and Stranger Things 3: The Game – they’re still available for free on the store, but not for much longer.

Next up is Hue, a 2D puzzle-adventure game that looks remarkably similar to Inside.

Apple cancelling contracts with third-party game studios for Apple Arcade

Ever heard of Apple Arcade? It’s Apple’s gaming service that gets you a library of 100+ games for a $4.99 monthly fee, playable across all Apple devices.

What’s interesting is that Apple has been funding third-party game studios to create content for Arcade, and more recently, cancelling contracts with said studios due to changes in its vision for the service. And while this is a pretty sucky move for everyone, Apple will still pay companies that hit “development milestones” for their now-cancelled projects.

Source: Bloomberg

You can now play games wirelessly with the Stadia controller and an Android phone

In a bit of good news for Google’s Stadia service, you can now play games wirelessly on an Android phone with the Stadia controller. You just need to make sure both the phone and controller are on the same wi-fi network with the latest version of the Stadia app installed.

I’ve had mixed opinions on Stadia. While I feel that the whole “games-as-a-service” model is probably the future of gaming (for better or worse), I’ve always thought that the Stadia model was a horrible way to do it: you’re paying retail for each game just to be able to play it on multiple devices. That might be fine if I could use it on, say, a flight, or while waiting on line for so-and-so, but Stadia requires a pretty robust connection. So using it outside of the home is generally out.

It just feels like the use case for Stadia really only fits a small percentage of gamers.