Google Stadia has set a release date of November 19, but you may not be able to play it right away–even if you ordered a Founder’s Edition. Google says that the units will be shipped out on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you ordered yours closer to its sell-out date, you may have to wait as long as December to start streaming.

The Verge reports that while Stadia officially launches at 9 AM PT on November 19, the company says not everyone who ordered one will have received theirs. The news was sparked by the announcement that Founder’s Editions had sold out, and Google shifted to instead selling a new “Premiere Edition.”

This led to questioning if Premiere Editions would also arrive in time for the November 19 launch. The answer is no, they won’t, since Premiere Editions won’t ship by that date, but Google paired that with clarifying that Founder’s Editions wouldn’t necessarily have shipped either. They are instead set to “start arriving” on November 19, so you’ll only get to jump in immediately if you were one of the first to pre-order.

That said, the wait won’t be too long. Google expects both Founder’s and Premiere units to be delivered within two weeks from launch, so the latest yours should arrive would be early December.

The Premiere Edition is mostly similar to the Founder’s Edition. It costs the same price, $130, but it comes with a white controller instead of the exclusive Founder’s blue, and doesn’t include the Founder’s Badge on your account or the gift Buddy Pass for a friend. Plus by jumping in later you won’t necessarily get to grab your unique Stadia username, which Google has promoted as a perk for early adopters. Check out our pre-order guide for more details.

This is the second piece of surprising Stadia news recently, after Google revealed that at launch the Stadia controller will only work wirelessly with the Chromecast Ultra. A Chromecast comes with the Founder’s and Premiere Editions, but that also means you can’t just swap to a phone or tablet with ease.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/google-stadia-players-who-preordered-might-not-be-/1100-6470805/

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out this Friday on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, but those in Russia won’t be able to purchase the latest big-budget blockbuster on the PlayStation Store, Activision has said.

Despite being available digitally on both Xbox One and PC, Sony has decided to delist the game on Russia’s PlayStation Store. A tweet from the Sony Russia Twitter account broke the news, and Activision has since issued a statement to Eurogamer confirming Sony’s decision to remove the first-person shooter from sale.

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a fictional game that has been thoughtfully created to entertain fans and tell a compelling narrative,” Activision’s statement says. “Sony Interactive Entertainment has decided not to sell Modern Warfare on the PlayStation Store in Russia at this time. We look forward to launching Modern Warfare digitally in Russia on 25 October on PC via Battle.net and on console via Xbox.”

Sony has yet to give its own reason, and all digital pre-orders have been cancelled, though, presumably, physical copies will still make their way to store shelves as planned.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a soft reboot for the franchise, but it harkens back to earlier entries in the series by painting Russians as cold-war era villains. Activision’s blog says to “expect no compromises as Modern Warfare takes you on an engaging narrative, featuring military operations across the globe, where morality is sure to be tested.”

Farah Ahmed Karim is one of the key characters in Modern Warfare’s story, with her tale beginning 20 years before the rest of the game’s events as Russian soldiers kill her parents in a harrowing attack on the fictional Middle-Eastern country of Urzikstan. Now she’s the leader of the Urzikstan Liberation Force, “labeled a terrorist organization by the Russian government for their long-standing resistance, Russian soldiers are ordered to make no distinction between the terror group Al-Qatala and the liberation fighters under Farah’s command. AQ terrorists pursue Farah and the ULF with a mandate to kill.”

Call of Duty is no stranger to Russian villains so it’s odd for Sony to pull one of the biggest games of the year from sale a few days before its release, especially when other platforms have no qualms releasing it digitally in the country.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC this Friday, October 25.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sony-goes-no-russian-and-pulls-call-of-duty-modern/1100-6470801/

One of 2019’s wackier and more wonderfully whimsical games, Untitled Goose Game, is only available on one console platform: Nintendo Switch. We don’t know why developer House House hasn’t released it on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, but now the studio has shared a little insight into why the Switch was the right fit.

Jacob Strasser of House House told Time that the Switch has an aura of “friendliness” about it that makes it the “right emotional fit” for the game where you play as a rude goose.

“It’s the nice, friendly console. Its whole aura is one of friendliness, and it feels more inviting to non-gamers, or non-traditional gamers or players. When it came down to the decision of where we would launch, it felt like the right emotional fit,” Strasser said.

Strasser previously said that PlayStation and Xbox are a “less good place to be an indie at the moment.” Despite that, House House is reportedly bringing Untitled Goose Game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at some point in the future.

Untitled Goose Game is also available on PC where it is currently exclusive to the Epic Games Store. House House took Epic’s money to help the studio “ensure continued sustainability.”

GameSpot’s Untitled Goose Game review scored it an 8/10. We praised it for, among other things, its inclusion of a dedicated “honk” button.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/untitled-goose-game-chose-nintendo-switch-because-/1100-6470796/

The stable of EA Sports games once included numerous college sports games, but for a variety of reasons–including lawsuits from former players–EA stopped making them. Now, EA’s CEO has said the company might return to college sports games thanks in part to a new law that will affect certain collegiate athletes and endorsement deals.

Speaking at the WSJ Tech Live conference this week, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said EA would “jump for the opportunity” to make more college sports video games if the NCAA can come up with a system to pay players.

Wilson added that he receives lots of emails to his personal account from fans asking for EA to bring back college sports games. “I think there are many, many–maybe even millions–of players who hope that’s the case,” he said.

California governor Gavin Newsom signed a law in September that allows student-athletes to make money from endorsement deals while in school. The law doesn’t take effect until 2023, however, so it remains to be seen how it will all shake out.

EA used to develop college football and basketball games, but the final college basketball game was NCAA Basketball 10 and the final football title was NCAA Football 14.

Video games based on professional sports, meanwhile, continue to be very big business for EA. The company makes NBA, NHL, NFL, and FIFA games, with their Ultimate Team modes bringing in lots of cash from microtransactions.

Fans, including Snoop Dogg, have been calling on EA to return to the college sports game business for years. Fans got a little treat with Madden NFL 20, as the game’s story mode featured 10 different college football teams, though no player likenesses or names were used.

EA and the NCAA ended their licensing deal in 2013. In 2015, EA was ordered to pay $60 million to former college players following a lawsuit over likenesses.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ea-wants-to-make-college-sports-games-again/1100-6470794/