Greetings, and thank you, once again, for tuning in to Replay, WIRED's collection of the week's hottest gaming news. This time around we've got news about Fortnite's latest Marvel tie-in, Epic Store exclusives, and Overwatch modding. Let's get to it.
Fortnite's Newest Marvel Tie-In Gives You a Chance to One-Up the Avengers
It's time for Avengers: Endgame, which means it's also time for Fortnite to throw in another big Avengers tie-in. This time, PC Gamer reports, Thanos is back, and you can take up the weapons of Marvel heroes to fight him in a new game mode. The Avengers didn't fare so well against Thanos the first time, but, y'know what? Forget those nerds. You can handle it. Take up Thor's axe, Captain America's shield, and show them how it's done.
Or, if you find an Infinity Stone, you can become Thanos yourself and bring balance to the universe. For the duration of the match, anyway.
Tim Sweeney Says the Epic Store Will Stop Buying Exclusives, On One Condition
The Epic Store has become a place of controversy since its launch late last year, with Epic's Fortnite money going to secure several exclusives on the platform, including Metro Exodus, Borderlands 3, and The Division 2. For fans of Steam, and for Valve itself, it's been a frustrating series of high-profile victories for the nascent platform. But according to Tim Sweeney, Epic's boss, he'll have his company stop doing it. If Steam agrees to pay more to developers.
As Kotaku reports, Sweeney threw down the gauntlet on Twitter, where he said that, if Steam started giving developers 88 percent of the sales revenue of their games (up from 70 to 80 percent), Epic would back off the exclusives. Whether or not this is a bluff or actual corporate policy, it's a hell of a challenge, and would be great for devs one way or the other.
Overwatch Introduces Modding, Kind of, Which Is Nice
Modding is a somewhat controversial topic in modern PC gaming. While an old hallmark of the platform, giving players open control of creating new content for a game is often at odds with the service-based, tightly managed way many games now present themselves. These are curated experiences, and giving players free reign is anything but. So any time a game introduces modding tools, or something like it, it's worth paying attention to, and being excited about.
Into this fray comes Overwatch, which is set to introduce a Workshop mode. As Variety reports, the new mode, which is currently live in the Public Test Realm server on PC, will let players create custom map modes, changing variables from the way the map functions to how specific heroes use their abilities. Blizzard hopes the move will encourage an active scene of player-created modes. I look forward to seeing what people come up with.
Recommendation of the Week: Final Fantasy X-2 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch
Few Final Fantasy games get a sequel, and none of them get one this good. Final Fantasy X was an epic, melodramatic fantasy game. X-2 is a game about dress up, ancient pop stars from a pre-apocalyptic golden age, and moving on from tragedy with your best friends by your side. It's fun, fluid, and fantastic to play. Now that it's been ported to pretty much every modern platform, you have no excuse not to check it out.