Video Games
New ‘Cronos: Lazarus’ Dev Diary Details The Warden [Video]
Bloober Team has released a new developer diary for the upcoming Cronos: Lazarus DLC for Cronos: The New Dawn. Titled “Becoming the Warden,” the video features members of the dev team chatting it up about (obviously) The Warden, who unlike The Traveler in the main game, will focus more on faster, more aggressive action.
“We came back on the setting of Cronos because we wanted players to experience this super strong character,” says Game Design Director Marc Albinet. “The second reason was that we also wanted to provide a different flavor, a different taste of the original game.”
The DLC also puts greater emphasis on the more “emotional” human side of the story, where players learn of the cost of going up against The Collective. Cronos: Lazarus sees The Warden isolated in the Terminal and severed from the Collective, where he devotes every waking moment to awakening a lost Essence he refuses to let fade. However, his sanctuary, has been compromised. A new kind of hunter has been deployed with one directive: to find and eliminate him.
Scarred and broken by a lifetime of survival in the wasteland, The Warden is not at full strength, but even in his damaged state, he retains the ability to move fast, strike hard and survive against mounting pressure. In addition to being able to deploy a decoy to distract foes and being able to turn invisible to strike against distracted foes, The Warden can also teleport, which fits with the more aggressive playstyle of the DLC. He also has a souped-up version of the Dagger PS-3713 in the Gladius.
Cronos: Lazarus is slated to launch later this fall for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series, and the Nintendo Switch 2.
The rumoured cuts at Xbox have come to fruition, with plans to lay off 3,200 employees. In addition, five studios are also set to be let go, with Double Fine and South of Midnight developer Compulsion breaking off to go independent, while Ninja Theory (Senua) and Undead Labs (State of Decay 3) have been sold.
The fifth studio, Marvel’s Blade and Dishonored studio Arkane Lyon, is set to be divested from Xbox Game Studios, though details are still being kept under wraps.
Per Xbox Wire, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed the layoff and divestment plans at Xbox, but announced no plans for closures or game cancellations.
According to Sharma, Xbox is operating at “margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.” Sharma acknowledged Xbox’s previous pivots to Game Pass, multi-platform, and a “broader portfolio of content” have resulted in “meaningful value”, but it hasn’t been enough.
“Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined,” she said. “We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio.”
As a result, Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions “will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games.” Meanwhile, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs “have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3.” As for Arkane Lyon, the studio’s management “is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.”
The 3,200 cuts will be made throughout Xbox’s financial year across departments, with some areas being more affected than others. This is expected to affect around 20% of the developer’s workforce.
In addition, Bethesda will also undergo “a significant overhaul”, and will pivot to focus on its core franchises: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.
“These changes are about a bigger future for Xbox, not a smaller one,” says Sharma. “The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in Xbox as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making Xbox where the world plays and creates.”