You’re as cold as ice, you’re willing to sacrifice
Success rarely comes for free. We’re not necessarily talking about money – although, as we send this issue of Edge off to print, Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media, and therefore Bethesda, is the talk of the industry. The Xbox maker now owns an entire publisher. With this huge outlay, presumably, comes a number of what Xbox spent all of last generation failing to secure: exclusives.
Yes, it’s concerning that in this capitalist nightmare we all live in, the size of someone’s chequebook might be able to decide a console generation. But it’s not just the money. It’s the manners. Xbox has spent the last seven years humbled, building an ecosystem and a next-gen strategy designed to win people over by offering great value. Sony, riding high on last gen’s win, is taking a very different approach, and might be in for some trouble. Either way, things just got interesting.
Meanwhile, Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman are looking to the future by voluntarily dissolving their beloved studio. Vlambeer is closing its doors after ten years as one of the indie scene’s leading lights, its founders confident the project has now served its purpose. In Going Dutch, you’ll find their last-ever interview as Vlambeer, a fond – and hilariously honest – look back on the road they’ve travelled together as unlikely collaborators.
But perhaps nobody knows sacrifice better than our cover star. Calling Destiny 2: Beyond Light an expansion doesn’t feel quite right: with this update, Bungie will cut away swathes of its multiplayer FPS, ‘vaulting’ them temporarily while adding new Stasis subclasses, customisable powers, quests to chase and gear to earn, as well as finding ways to bring back much-loved parts of Destiny’s past. It’s a gamble – but with this highly unorthodox FPS only ever getting bigger, and the next generation right around the corner, its makers have to do something drastic to ensure its sustainability. If Bungie can pull this off, the future looks bright indeed, and all the stress will have been worth it. The story begins on p54.