The past week in game news saw some contradictions in initial RollerCoaster Tycoon World plans, Steam controller 3D print customization, Battleborn's beta, and Hyper Light Drifter's launch. Big news in various segments of the gaming market, all covered in our weekly recap that's embedded below.

RollerCoaster Tycoon World is up first (RCTW) – an easy topic, given our extensive coverage history of the game's tumultuous development pipeline. Developers nvizzio and publisher Atari have given in to the Early Access model, making available RCTW for $50 pre-purchases. More on this and other weekly news topics in this video:

Our initial coverage of RollerCoaster Tycoon World blew-up when we were at PAX Prime 2015. It was the first time anyone had seen real gameplay footage of the tumultuously-made title, which was (at the time) on its third development team. The game seemed like it had promise and, as we learned in a later meeting, was slated for a December launch with two pre-launch betas in the pipe.

Only one of those betas happened -- the other was canceled, and the December launch target got moved. Again. We're now looking at "Early 2016" for RollerCoaster Tycoon World, which will soon be threatened by newcomer "Planet Coaster" (4Q16 launch date). RCTW's got the name and recognition, but has to pull together its development faster than might be feasible. Even just the framerates, as you'll see in the video below, are completely inexcusable for a PC game. Here's hoping things look up for the globally loved title.

In the meantime, Atari has re-re-announced its modding plans. It feels like we're stuck on loop, here -- we talked about modding at PAX Prime ('15) and, based on Atari's newest video, not much has changed -- but they want to make sure everyone remembers that the game exists and has modding support.

This week's news cycle was, unsurprisingly, dominated by the two major releases: Fallout 4 and Black Ops III, shipping within a few days of each other. We're anticipating a similar story to be true for next week's blockbuster Battlefront launch.

Big items for the week mostly include Fallout 4's concurrent user record on Steam, alongside its $750 million generated in 24 hours, and Black Ops III's $550 million 72-hour generation, a game which is expected to surpass $1B by the end of the year. Other items, for Battlefield players – not Front, but Field – the “Legacy Operations” DLC will release a free-to-download Dragon Valley remake, updated from Battlefield 2. Outside of the shooter world, Roller Coaster Tycoon World has been delayed into 2016, citing performance and usability/mechanical bugs, and Legacy of the Void has finally shipped to PCs globally.

The video recap, with a bit more detail, is available below:

Publisher Atari and developers Nvizzio today announced the release date for RollerCoaster Tycoon World, its price, and its planned beta phases.

The game is targeted for a December 10, 2015 release date, priced at $50 ($60 for “Deluxe Edition”), and will include two pre-launch beta phases. We're told that the Deluxe Edition includes “two unique building maps, terrain additions, a digital art book, and the classic Panda mascot,” the last of which will be deployable to parks for guest interaction.

1999. That’s the year. I spent most of our meeting with Atari and Nvizzio trying to remember when I last went deep with Roller Coaster Tycoon – more than a decade ago. Yikes.

RCT was the product of an era infatuated with city builders, civilization management, and RTS games. The industry ebbs in cycles of these almost-episodic fascinations – it’s MOBAs today, it was MMOs in the early-to-mid years of the century, and it was isometric builders in the late 90s.

Enough of that.

Today, we’re looking at Roller Coaster Tycoon World – which I’m truncating to RCTW, for the sake of these PAX-worn fingers – the series’ first PC release since 2004. RCTW continues the game’s iconic theme park construction, management, roller coaster design, and visitor torture, introducing a number of era-appropriate features along the way. The game is developed by Nvizzio, published by Atari, and is confirmed for a 4Q15 release at price-points undisclosed.