Google fully embracing cloud gaming with the Stadia platform has forced not only the hands of home console manufacturers like Sony and Microsoft but companies like Bethesda as well. During its annual E3 2019 conference, Bethesda unveiled a project dedicated to cloud gaming called Orion. It wasn’t presented as a competitor but more as technology that can enhance platforms like Google Stadia.
After a quick rundown of Bethesda’s history within the video game industry, two Bethesda devs unveiled Orion. The developers described Orion as not one platform but as a suite of patented technologies that can be used with any game engine. Google Stadia and Microsoft’s Project Xcloud, the streaming platform described during the Xbox briefing, were mentioned as platforms that can benefit from the use of Orion.
A key benefit that will likely be explored by Sony, Microsoft, Google, and others that decide to invest in cloud gaming is the claim that Orion can lower the bandwidth demand by 40%. An improvement that dramatic or even just a portion of it could be beneficial to players and to the platforms. If Orion can manage it, Bethesda may have just made an early power move within an industry that may be shifting to cloud streaming in a big way.
Using Orion, a tech specialist from Bethesda Software took the stage and showed Doom 2016 being streamed to a mobile device and being controlled using a gamepad. Though we were watching a small screen captured by a camera, the gameplay looked fluid and there didn’t seem to be much of a delay between her input and the gameplay reflected on-screen. It’s a highly-controlled environment, though, so we’ll have to wait to Orion in action in homes.
Bethesda’s reveal of Orion may not be the last of its kind shown during E3 and it surely won’t be the last this year. Google Stadia pushing cloud gaming to the forefront when it launches and companies will be positioning themselves to capitalize if the technology takes off. Sony has already teamed up with Microsoft so that it may utilize the Azure platform and deliver a better streaming option than what it has, so count Orion among a few other significant moves in this direction.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.