Here’s another dose of the Biggest Gaming News for the week ending July 7, 2023. (Okay, and a few new headlines, too.)

• A new Black Panther game is coming from EA’s newly announced studio Cliffhanger Games. It’s likely years away, but is a AAA project with talent that’s worked on God of War, Halo Inifite, Call of Duty and more. The director, Kevin Stephens, comes via Shadow of Mordor and Monolith Productions.

• Diablo 4 announced its new Season of the Malignant. The new questline and gameplay is free for everyone. It means starting a new character, which Blizzard, in part, teased is worth separating out and starting fresh for some “stupid” powerful vibes. When the 3 months are up, your seasonal character progress will be saved back in the “Eternal Realm” alongside your old character(s). Launches July 20th with a patch on July 18th.

• Baldur’s Gate 3 is ramping up for its PC launch and will let you have sex with a Druid in bear form…if you decide that’s your thing. Larian Studios showed off new gameplay, including this scene in a big, new livestream exposé. Releases August 3rd on PC, and Sept. 6th on PS5 with Xbox still being sorted out.

• Mortal Kombat 1 has revealed more characters in its new trailer. According to a breakdown from IGN, Smoke and Rain will be part of the cast of playable characters, while Kameo (assist) fighters will also feature Scorpion, Cyrax, Frost, and Sektor. MK1 releases on September 19, 2023.

• Final Fantasy XVI’s motion blur was causing some players to get nauseous, and others just to be frustrated with its 30- and 60-frames-per-second, mixed looks. Square Enix has added “Motion Blur Strength” to the menu settings, which can now be turned down to 0.

• Big Sales: Street Fighter 6 has topped two million copies sold since its June 2nd release, according to Capcom. Battlebit Remastered also sold nearly two million copies (1.8MM) since its recent June launch, via a blog on how to market games.

• EA will reveal the next UFC 5 game this September, as noted by its official Twitter this weekend.

• Hoping for another Deus Ex? Well, the actor (Elias Toufexis) who played Adam Jensen revealed on Twitter: they aren’t under any NDAs and are not part of a Deus Ex sequel or otherwise. It may not be happening anytime soon or not at all.

Diablo 4: Season of the Malignant Revealed

I also did a full breakdown and podcast with Forbes’ Paul Tassi.

Mortal Kombat 1: Lin Kuei Trailer

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster … Wave 5 Coming Soon

Another wave of Mario Kart 8 tracks and “booster” DLC content is on the way on July 12th. It will bring Petey Piranha, the Sunset Wilds course from Game Boy Advance’s Mario Kart Super Circuit, and more.

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