Video Games
‘Cellular Harvest’ is ‘Pokémon Snap’ For an Alien World
With EEK3 2020 having come and gone, and with the recent announcement that Pokémon Snap is being revived for the Switch, it seems like a good time to mention that one of the games presented at EEK3 2020, Redact Games’ Cellular Harvest, is now out in the wild. Think Pokémon Snap with a horror twist, where instead of taking photographs of animals, you take pictures of aliens.
The story has you as an Auditor. An AI embedded in your suit evaluates the value of every being you encounter for the corporate interests that direct humanity’s journey into a wider universe. You must now track alien creatures and catalogue their existence with your camera.
It’s a relatively short but relaxed photography game, and it’ll keep you busy with having to fill out an entire album. Plus, you’ll need to get multiple photos of each creature in order to fulfil the requirements.
Cellular Harvest is available now for $6.99, and comes in a pack that gives you either a green sky or a purple version.
Overshadowing the announcement of Ninja Theory’s third entry in the Hellblade series earlier this month were reports that the developer was facing possible closure by Microsoft, alongside South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games and Double Fine. Now according to a new story by GamesBeat, another developer under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella is potentially facing closure in Undead Labs, who are currently working on State of Decay 3.
Earlier this month, new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had announced that Microsoft was in the process of ‘resetting’ Xbox. That resulted in a report by Bloomberg during Summer Game Fest that revealed that multiple developers were negotiating with Microsoft to spin off of Xbox to avoid closing down. Now, according to the GamesBeat report, Undead Labs is now part of that group of developers negotiating to be bought to avoid layoffs.
The article states that Undead Labs could lose 110 jobs if it were shut down, while Compulsion could lose 90 jobs, Ninja Theory could lose 135 jobs, and Double Fine Productions could lose 100 jobs.
Other developers and publishers at Microsoft also reportedly face cuts, including Blizzard, id Software and Bethesda.
Undead Labs was acquired by Microsoft back in 2018, with State of Decay 3 being announced in 2020. News on the development of the game was quiet until 2024, when a new trailer was released. Updates on the game again were hard to come by until last January when then-Xbox Game Studios lead Craig Duncan revealed that development was still very much alive. That was followed up this month with an official announcement that State of Decay 3 would be coming next year to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store.