Morning DLC: Video Game News & Rumors 2/10/2016

"Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Ernie Cline sci-fi novel, has backed away from Star Wars: Episode VIII.Warner Bros., the studio behind the tentpole, has moved the movie from Dec. 15, 2017, to March 30, 2018.Earlier this month, Disney moved Star Wars from Memorial Day weekend in 2017 to Dec. 15 of that year, pitting the box-office franchise behemoth against what is expected to be a grand Spielberg sci-fi extravaganza.Hollywood Reporter"

Though delays of any kind are disappointing, the move is certainly for the best. Ready Player One is a story about a teenager in a virtual MMO-like utopia called OASIS, and his quest to solve the clues hidden by its creator. It’s stuffed with nerdy pop culture references, and is targeting much of the same group of moviegoers as Star Wars. While a wise choice, it stinks that a smaller film gets punted just because a major one shuffles onto its debut date. On the bright side, it doesn’t seem to have much competition in March of 2018.

"In a surprise move, Square Enix today released Final Fantasy IX for iOS and Android devices. We knew the 2000 RPG was coming to smartphones, but until today, we didn’t know when it would be released or if it was coming to North America at all. You can download it today from iTunes and Google Play for $17.GameSpot"

Yay. More potentially-bad mobile ports. I guess more Final Fantasy on more devices is hardly a bad thing, but it does make you wonder where the January 2016 PC release is, exactly. Let’s hope they don’t mess this up and bring a bad mobile version to Steam like they did with certain other Final Fantasy titles.

"After announcing a major management shakeup yesterday that involved the company’s CEO resigning, Mad Catz today posted earnings for the latest quarter–and they were up and down. First, Mad Catz announced a restructuring effort that includes a reduction of around 37 percent of the company’s total workforce. This includes the senior management board members that recently left the company.GameSpot"

Yikes, that’s no good. Rock Band 4 (though successful) clearly did not have quite the intended impact–it’s already clear that the Guitar Hero/Rock Band craze isn’t coming back the way it did several years ago. This overhaul of the company comes along with a promise to “refocus” and a lot of corporate-speak that doesn’t tell us much about what Mad Catz intends to do, though the promise to continue delivering Rock Band content was reiterated. They called it a “multiple-year product”, with new DLC weekly. Best of luck to those affected by the shake-ups at Mad Catz.