She’s an Icon, She’s a Legend, and She Is the Moment

Confirming leeks leaks, Hatsune Miku officially joins Fortnite as the Festival Season 7 Icon.

The virtual singer will not only arrive to the stage with appropriately themed outfits, instruments, and even more songs, but she will also be joining the game at the same as the arrival of a pair of iconic kaiju for an upcoming Godzilla x Kong collaboration.

Ubisoft’s Unending Issues

Ubisoft announced another delay for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The game, originally due out November 15, 2024, was initially pushed to February, and is now rescheduled again to release on March 20, 2025.

Ubisoft also stated that they have “appointed leading advisors to review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders.” This sounds like a good thing a healthy company does (John writes with sarcasm).

Because meanwhile, Indonesian support studio Brandoville Studios, who have been instrumental in Shadows’ development, have been outed by allegations of workplace abuse in a report by People Make Games. The support studio ultimately shuttered in 2024, and an Ubisoft spokesperson otherwise expresses their vague “condem[nation]” of the accounts.

The Los Angeles Wildfires

The ongoing Los Angeles wildfires have destroyed numerous homes and displaced hundreds of thousands of individuals. With LA being a sprawling point of the United States’ entertainment industry, a few celebrity homes and landmarks have been destroyed, and several anticipated events have been postponed.

Located near an evacuation warning zone, Riot Games has closed its Santa Monica office for all but “critical functions”. CEO Dylan Jadeja writes that, “Riot will be ready to stand up for Los Angeles and give back in every way [they] can.”

Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role has also postponed broadcast, with many of its performers based in impacted areas. The company has donated to a wildfire recovery fund.

As the path of the fire continues to be actively monitored, neighboring communities also continue to be subjected to smoke and strong winds, as Insomniac Games senior writer Nick Folkman comments.

This is a list of several funds you can donate to that aim to help support the victims of the fires.

For Californian residents, here’s a spreadsheet compiling numerous resources and local community hubs that are offering free necessities and shelter. Sorted by location, some of these spaces are seeking volunteers as well. The sheet is being updated and maintained by the Mutual Aid LA Network and are receptive to feedback.

Medical suppliers like Planet Halo Health are also taking requests for free respirators and face masks for community-based or individual distribution.

Through 211 LA, Airbnb is also providing temporary housing for those displaced.

In other news…

A remake of The House of the Dead 2 has been announced. Due out in Spring, the latest return to the light gun franchise will release on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and GOG.

Splash Damage’s co-op shooter Transformers: Reactivated has been canceled.

Sony has announced Horizon: Zero Dawn and Helldivers films, which means they’re pretty much just remaking Starship Troopers at this point. The second season of HBO’s The Last of Us series is also starting in April.

RetroRemake has announced the “first affordable FPGA gaming console” with the SS One, a device modeled after the PS One. The console will support PS1 games, memory cards, and controllers, and can also do anything the MiSTer can handle. The first run will cost $149, and future runs will be more expensive, but with a promise it will be at or under $220.

FuturLab, developers of PowerWash Simulator, has announced that support for the VR version of the game is going on indefinite hiatus. In the post announcing this, their CEO Kirsty Rigden said that the VR version wasn’t breaking even, and when job openings for the non-VR version became available, the decision was made to move the VR team over to those jobs so they could have job security.

This year’s Evo lineup has seemingly leaked thanks to an accidentally uploaded YouTube thumbnail. The games this year will be Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Under Night In-Birth 2, Mortal Kombat 1, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and Marvel vs Capcom 2. The thumbnail may have been out of date, so this may not be 100% accurate, but it makes sense.

And finally, bunch more of Switch 2 leaks happened, and Nintendo still hasn’t announced the friggin’ thing. Sources are claiming the console will be announced on the 16th, with a release sometime in May or June.

They did, however, announce that a LEGO Game Boy kit will release in October.

The post The Bulletin: Miku Monday appeared first on Gamesline.

Fortnite Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey was trapped in a giant ice block in Fortnite. She finally broke free from her frozen prison. The Queen of Christmas dropped in for the big holiday in-game event, and she will not be alone, joining her other real life-artist luminaries such as Snoop Dogg.

This is a reference to a bit Carey released last year: surrounded by befuddled, costumed Hallowen figures, Carey breaks out of life-sized, block of ice singing, “It’s time!” Once the turkeys come to pasture right after American Thanksgiving, everyone knows that her hit, classic song, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” dominates anywhere there is a speaker.

Suing Sonic

Crush 40 musician Johnny Gioeli is suing Sega for their use of the Sonic Adventure 2 theme song “Live and Learn”. Crush 40 has produced numerous bops for the Sonic franchise, but Gioeli’s suit alleges that Sega breached contract and that they never had rights to the usage of the whole composition of song and only its lyrics. Gioeli alleges that he was unaware “Live and Learn” was used without the correct licenses in Sonic titles and projects outside of its use in Sonic Adventure 2, ultimately suggesting he has not been properly compensated for numerous, missed royalties.

Meanwhile, while “Live and Learn” continues to be otherwise used in the third movie’s soundtrack, a fourth Sonic the Hedgehog movie is already confirmed to be in the works. Paramount Pictures is hoping for a 2027 release.

In other news…

Joining Starbucks workers alike, this past week, Amazon Teamsters went on strike. While some locations have already ended their strike, workers were attempting to challenge the continuing issues of low wages and meager workplace conditions.

More restricted military material has been leaked on the War Thunder forums—again!

Alert! There’s finally new Team Fortress 2 comic updates!

Voice actor Neil Newbon, known for his most recent role as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3, will be joining the off-Broadway show, Twenty-Sided Tavern, in limited engagement. This run will be joined by the likes of comedian and noted Dropout talent, Ify Nwadiwe, and performer Jack Lepiarz. Felicia Day, Aabria Iyengar, and Erika Ishii have also recently performed on the interactive Dungeons & Dragons show.

After an antitrust investigation by the US Justice department, Tencent hastily pulled two directors from Epic Games’ board.

Following concerns of rumors that Sony was doing a full buyout of Kadokawa, a release has been published to further clarify that Sony and the major conglomerate are forming “a strategic capital and business alliance“. Acquiring thousands of shares, Sony is to become one of Kadokawa’s largest sharesholders.

And if you are interested in figuring out what to do in this season of giving—Palestinian game developer Rasheed Abueideh is currently crowdfunding Dreams on a Pillow, a stealth adventure game based on his experiences through the 1948 Nakba.

The most charitable thing you can do is to continue to inform yourself and give where you can.

The post The Bulletin: IT’S TIIIME! appeared first on Gamesline.

A Leg Up for the Little Guy

Well let’s get to the real meat of why you are here: Who exactly won Game of the Year?

The following are some of big winners of the night:

• EA Sports FC 25 for Best Sports/Racing Game,
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Innovation in Accessibility
• Neva for Games for Impact
• Frostpunk 2 for Best Sim/Strategy Game
• Batman: Arkham Shadow for Best VR/AR Game
• CaseOh, formely known as randomsimplestuf35, for Best Content Creator
• Amazon’s Fallout for Best Adaptation
• Melina Juergens’ performance as the titular Senua for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II for Best Audio Design.
• Baldur’s Gate 3 for Best Community Support
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for Best Score and Music
• Continuing to the butt of many memes, Grand Theft Audio VI is Most Anticipated Game

Tekken 8 wins Best Fighting Game, later coupled with the announcement that Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy XVI will be added to the game.

League of Legends was most represented in all respective Esports categories, winning Best Esports Game, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok  for Best Esports Athlete, and T1 for Best Esports Team.

Helldivers II won Best Mutiplayer Game and Best Ongoing Game.

Black Myth: Wukong won Best Action Game and the vote for Player’s Choice. Developers Game Science went on to complain they didn’t win more.

Balatro won Best Mobile Game, and took the gold for indies winning both Best Debut Game and Best Independent Game. Otherwise, the game’s team is currently at odds with PEGI, the European video game content rating system, for giving the game an 18+ rating.

Metaphor: ReFantazio won Best Roleplaying and Best Art Direction.

In spite of Sony’s recent blunders, Astro Bot won Best Game Direction, Best Family Game, and ultimately took home the gold for Game of the Year.

Laura Carter was recognized as a Global Gaming Citizen, co-founder of TreesPlease Games, a studio aiming to create games and develop initiatives to combat climate change.

Amir Satvat, a game developer and currently Business Development Director at Tencent, wins the new Game Changer award for his ongoing efforts in creating and sharing resources in response to the continuing, astronomical layoffs and job losses that are plaguing the industry—an issue that was surprisingly acknowledged during the show. That said, some have critiqued the introduction of the award in the absence of the Future Class program this year, with some past inductees and alum having raised complaints over the lack of actual support they ended up receiving and several of the program’s shortcomings.

Show Spotlights

We seemingly cannot ever escape anticipating what bombastic moment is going to happen at The Game Awards every year.

While our host Geoff Keighley was getting roasted by puppets for the whole duration, the show was once again mostly peppered with mostly trailers, teases, and showcases over what is to come.

Man of the hour, Josef Fares, once again was in attendance of the show with much vigor and foul-mouthed enthusiasm. Founder of Hazelight Studios, he took the stage to introduce another co-op game in the works, titled Split Fiction.

A new Indiana Jones game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is slated to arrive Spring 2025. In introducing the game, performer Troy Baker and Todd Howard were joined by Harrison Ford, transitioning into the Best Performance category.

Keighley also gave dedicated spotlight on a new sci-fi IP in the works called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. While showing a tease of potentially impressive graphics, the big reveal (unfortunately) is that the game is being developed by Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann. Further details about the game’s plot, relayed from Druckmann himself, already has us apprehensive about it. We already were annoyed hearing about The Last of Us getting “remastered” for the upteenth time.

Snoop Dogg was also hyped as the big climatic musical performance of the night, a tie-in with his appearance now added to the next season of Fortnite Festival. He will be joining musical likes such as Lady Gaga and The Weeknd. Leaks suggest Vocaloid superstar Hatsune Miku will be dropping in come next year.

But most importantly, flute guy makes his return to the fray once more.

Following much pomp and circumstance, Swen Vincke, founder and CEO of Larian Studios, was presenter for this year’s Game of the Year, after Baldur’s Gate 3’s Game of the Year win in 2023. Before ultimately passing on the torch to Astro Bot, Vincke took his time to make a scathing joke at being told, among others, to “wrap it up” last year.

Sequels and Reboots Galore

But overall, the nostalgia cycle is in full force!

While there was a sliver of some potential new, original hits that are expected to land in gamers’ hands next year, teases of releases were mostly updates to ongoing games, sequels, and reboots, and revisits of IPs new and old.

Koei Tecmo is putting out a new Ninja Gaiden title, to be called Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound.

While RGG Studios is working on a new title, Project Century, they’re taking the lead with handling a new Virtua Fighter.

There will be yet another Double Dragon game, a new installment to the Onimusha franchise slated for 2026, and the big drop of the night: Hideki Kamiya jumping off the burning ship that is Platinum Games to make a sequel to beloved PS2/Wii Classic Okami! (But never mind all that, we also got a new Turok game baby!!!)

Apart from just full on reboots, tonight also showcased some more current continuations: CD Projekt Red unveiled The Witcher 4 with a full focus on Ciri as the protagonist.

Enemy of the site Randy Pitchford also pulled up to announce Borderlands 4, a shocker to those of us who wanted to forget Borderlands 3 was out in the world. Potentially, there might be less “toilet humor.”

Both The Outer Worlds and Slay the Spire are getting sequels.

We also got a surprise taste of what is going to be a new Sonic Racing game!

Tales of the Shire, a cozy-looking Lord of the Rings game that seems to focus on peaceful Hobbit life is coming for the Switch.

There are also two new games in the works set within the Dungeon & Fighter universe: teased earlier last year, the gristly, bloody, and dark The First Berserker: Khazan, and the more lighthearted-looking, anime-stylized open RPG, ARAD.

Highly anticipated is Mafia: The Old World, the newest installment in the Mafia franchise set in 1900s Sicily.

Oh yeah, and there was also this cat game that most obviously looks like it is some suspicious AI-generated shlock. The developers have hastily thrown up a “gameplay” trailer in defense of the game’s first impressions

Movements in Mobilization

Studio People Can Fly, known for Outriders, goes through its second wave of layoffs this year.

Developer of Gotham Knights and additional support to Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad, WB Games Montreal lays off 99 developers.

Meanwhile, ZeniMax Online Studios, have officially unionized with the CWA.

Workers at 2K’s Motion Capture Studio, with numerous games credits such as the NBA 2K and WWE 2K games, have voted to unionize. The shop will be represented under IATSE. This is the first successful unionization of a motion capture studio in the video games industry.

In other news…

Video game-inspired anthology series Secret Level is renewed for another season.

itch.io was briefly down due to a AI tool used by Funko Inc. falsely reporting their domain to their registrar for phishing. itch.io’s domain has since been reinstated, but the issue also escalated to the point that a Funko representative allegedly went as far as calling itch.io’s founder’s mother.

Shuhei Yoshida is leaving his post at Sony come January of next year. He joined the company in 1993 at the height of the first PlayStation’s development.

Tencent is ending Nintendo Switch eShop services to the Chinese version of the console in 2026. This most likely does not mean it will be down forever, the current agreement the two companies had will lapse, and Nintendo may go with another avenue for Switch and Switch 2 in China.

And yes, Skibidi Toilet is coming to Fortnite.

The post The Bulletin: The Game Awards 2024 appeared first on Gamesline.

The 2024 US Elections

Both the primary Democrat and Republican camps in the running have proposed rhetorical technological legislation in some way, or utilized games to reach their prospective voters.

The Trump campaign proposed a series of tariffs on Chinese imports, which would end up putting a higher price on electronics and technological devices integral to the gaming supply chain, and in turn would hit gamers’ wallets. Harris’s supports a stronger Federal Trade Commission, perpetuated by the Click to Cancel rule in Kamala Harris’ vice presidency. In a rare moment of unity, both parties support the Right to Repair, endowing any consumer the legal right to freely modify and repair their equipment with wider, non-limiting accesses to services.

Harris has also vocally backed the Biden administration’s AI Bill of Rights, which highlighted the need to protections against unsafe and potentially abusive AI use. On the other hand, the Trump campaign vows to repeal it. And in another high strung effort to get gamers to Pokémon GO to the polls, the Harris campaign also developed a map in Fortnite. Tim Walz also streamed with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Making Way to Mobilization

Meanwhile, The New York Times tech workers went on strike. Members of the Times Tech Guild are asking subscribers to honor the picket line by not playing any of the paper’s games. The strike strategically comes ahead of the 2024 US elections, in which the Times is often noted for its live election tracking that is typically supported infrastructurally by those participating in the strike.

According to co-founder Austin Kelmore, the UK chapter of the IWGB Game Workers has expanded to over 1,500 members. Hitting this milestone, IWGB has also updated its manifesto.

Interesting Updates

Nintendo released a new music app to play and download soundtracks from the company’s extensive library.

Caves of Qud 1.0 will be hitting December.

Stardew Valley is getting a huge 1.6 update.

In the year of our Lord 2024, a new Death Note video game was recently released.

The Steam version of Killer 7 also apparently has some updates.

Guilty Gear -Strive- gets its first character for the Season 4 Pass with Queen Dizzy.

The developer behind Nightmare Kart is working to get an arcade cabinet of the game made.

In other news…

The Russian government is attempting to fine Google for an insurmountable $2.5 decillion for refusing to restore pro-Kremlin and state-run accounts that were on YouTube. That amount of money currently does not even exist on Earth.

Arm Holdings is ending a contract with Qualcomm that allows Snapdragon chip production.

NVIDIA GeForce users are being advised to update their GPU drivers due to high-risk vulnerabilities.

The developers purport Dragon Age: The Veilguard won’t get DLC.

Netflix plans on delisting most of its interactive series by December.

And unfortunately, Sony shuts down Firewalk Studios, the developer behind Concord.

The post The Bulletin: Ahead of the Vote appeared first on Gamesline.

Sony fandom has been in a constant flip-flop of joy and despair. Astro-Bot released to rave reviews, but then the excitement was tempered with the announcement of new hardware.

The PS5 Pro has finally been confirmed after much speculation. Most aren’t excited by its barely noticeable upscaling, and its $700 price tag is a steep ask for middling upgrades, especially when the vertical stand and the disc drive are sold separately.. A 30th Anniversary version was also announced, but only the most hardcore of hardcore graphics-heads should even consider this one.

Freedom Wars, a Monster Hunter-like that was trapped on the Vita, is getting a remaster for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC. A good amount of the original developers are working on this port, and they’ve expressed interest in making a sequel if the remaster does well.

To round out Sony’s roller-coaster of emotions and to drag us back into mediocrity, a remaster of Horizon: Zero Dawn, a game that already has patches to run in 4k 60FPS on PS5, was rated by the ESRB. There has also been some talk of a remaster of snoozefest Days Gone, reminding us all that Sony only wants to remember its classic, fun IPs for brownie points instead of making new games.

Nintendo’s Crazy Week

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have filed a lawsuit against PocketPair, the developers of Palworld. While Palworld often skirted copyright and good taste, this lawsuit is focused on patents Nintendo have filed, meaning this is less about Palworld‘s aping of Pokemon and more about Nintendo having the money to buy up patents for game mechanics.

The next Nintendo console’s announcement is seemingly near. So close, in fact, that the specs and design of the device are getting leaked out, with some folks 3D printing what the “Switch 2” looks like.

The next Nintendo console is due for a reveal by the end of this fiscal year, so any time between now and March 2025.

The Unfortunately Regular Industry Issues Section

All the staff at Annapurna Interactive resigned. Megan Ellison, owner of both the indie publisher and the Annapurna Pictures film division, walked out of negotiations where Annapurna Interactive staff expressed a desire to become independent from their parent company. Annapurna plans to continue to honor their previous publishing deals and plans to hire new staff.

Microsoft did another round of layoffs, firing 650 people in their gaming division. These were mostly corporate and support roles, and no games or studios were hit in totality.

Flappy Bird, the famous simple mobile game that was removed from app stores, is returning. However, the original creator, Dong Nguyen, isn’t involved. A group called The Flappy Bird Foundation has seemingly scooped up the rights to the game and have stuffed it full of Web3 bullshit and microtransactions.

Avast, Me Hearties!

The latest Like a Dragon game has been announced ahead of Tokyo Game Show, and it’s the Majima-focused game many have been waiting for. This time, Majima washes up in Hawaii without his memory, and gets brought into a clash between pirates. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is due out February 28th, 2025 for all the expected consoles.

Takashi Takeuchi, co-founder of Type-Moon and one of the original artists for Fate, Witch on the Holy Night, and Tsukihime, had stated he had based Tsukihime heroine Arcueid Brunestud’s design off of a model he had seen in a fashion magazine. Reddit user u/ali94127 searched for this model, and finally found her. Her name is Amanda Dyer and she’s still modeling to this day. If you’re wondering what Arc would look like as a non-vampire, adult mom, here she is.

Atlus has pulled another Atlus, accidentally updating the Shin Megami Tensei III Remaster SteamDB files with achievements pointing to an unannounced remaster of the Raidou Kuzunoha games.

The achievements seem to specify Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army, so it’s unknown if this will be a single remaster or if we’ll get it in a bundle with Raidou Kuzunoha vs King Abaddon. It would make more sense to bundle them, but who knows. Signs point to the official announcement taking place at Tokyo Game Show in a few days.

The post The Bulletin: Pirate Yakuza appeared first on Gamesline.

Losses of All Kinds

Tencent and NetEase have both expressed intention to pull out of Japanese game development, and NetEase has taken the first step out. Ouka Studios, developer of the just released Visions of Mana, is reportedly getting shut down by the Chinese holdings corporation. Tencent has reportedly backed out of multiple new funding ventures as well.

Take This, a nonprofit focused on mental health in the games industry, is in danger of closing. They are currently reporting that they are underfunded, and would need to raise $80k by the end of September or will have to cease operations.

The global version of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius will be shutting down. The Japanese version will stay online for the foreseeable future.

Hideaki Itsuno, director of Devil May Cry 2-5, both Dragon’s Dogma titles, Project Justice, Capcom vs SNK 2, and contributor to many more classic Capcom games, is leaving the company. Itsuno says he will be “developing a new game in a new environment,” which means he’ll still be in the industry.

Co-Creator of Wizardry, Andrew Greenberg, has passed away. Wizardry is considered the origin of the RPG genre, and was the direct inspiration to Dragon Quest and Megami Tensei.

Ports and Remasters, As Usual

Guilty Gear Strive is getting a Switch port. Releasing January 23rd, it’ll have rollback netcode, but will not be crossplay with the other versions of the game.

Naoki Yoshida, also known as Yoshi P, has said that the Final Fantasy XIV team is working on a version “for Nintendo consoles”. He isn’t saying it outright, but he is most likely referring to a version of the game for Nintendo’s next platform.

Long-running children’s MMO Wizard 101 is getting ported to current consoles.

Argonaut Games, joint developer of the original Star Fox games, has been revived after closing in 2004. To coincide with their rebirth, they will be releasing a remaster of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, which is due out this year for consoles and PC.

The post The Bulletin: Croc Of Shit appeared first on Gamesline.

First was an Indie World!

Witcher 3, Vampire Survivors, Dave the Diver, and Among Us crossover cards are all coming to Balatro in a free update later today.

The creators of GRIS have a new game, Neva, and it’s out October 15th.

Moth Kubit, a unique RPG starring a moth working in a bizarre office, drops Spring 2025.

Toge, devs of Coffee Talk, are making a new Coffee Talk game, Coffee Talk Tokyo. It’ll be ready for tasting in 2025.

Sea of Stars is getting a DLC, adding a new carnival area, new classes for the main characters, and a new character who is just Robo from Chrono Trigger. It’s out next Spring, and it’s free.

PowerWash Simulator is getting a paid DLC where you get to clean up locations from the Shrek series. It’s dropping in Fall.

Morsels, a rougelike shooter with gorgeous pixel art and strange character designs, got announced. Its release date is February 2025.

Date Everything!, a game where you can date everything in a house by Team 17, launches October 24th, 2024.

Peglin, a game based on a game jam experiment from 2019, is fully realized. You play as a lil goblin and play pachinko to do damage to enemies. It’ll be out today on Switch as a timed console exclusive.

Wobbly Life from Rubber Band Games lets you live a goofy lil life as a yellow guy. It’s out in December.

Pico Park 2 is a puzzle game where you have to stack and aim up to eight players to clear rooms. It’s out later today.

Montage time. Shovel Knight Shovel of Hope DX (2025), Europa (October 11th, demo out now), Cuisineer (January 28th, 2025), On Your Tail (November 21st), Metal Slug Tactics (Fall), The Plucky Squire (September 17th).

To round out the Indie World, Pizza Tower is finally coming to Switch. It’s out today.

Fangamer will also release a physical version of Pizza Tower.

Now onto the Partner Showcase!

For the 40th anniversary of Tetris, Digital Eclipse is putting together a Tetris collection called Tetris Forever. It has Tetris Battle Gaiden! And Hatris, which is hilarious. It’ll be out this year, and Tetris will be on Switch Online this Winter.

Star Overdrive is a third person adventure game where you surf around a desert planet on a hoverboard. It’s out in 2025.

Goat Simulator 3 will let you harass an entire island with you friends on Switch digitally today. The physical release will be in November.

Another montage. Trails in the Sky 1st (2025), Star Wars: Hunters Season 3 (September 26th), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Legends of the Zone Trilogy (November), Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition (September 26th), and a new event for Disney Dreamloft Valley.

SpongeBob Squarepants: The Patrick Star Game, is confirmed. You play as Patrick and flop around Bikini Bottom, as the game is focused on physics and interacting with the environment. Out October 4th.

Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer, is coming soon. I don’t know why we need this, as we have the Miku and Fist of the North Star versions, but I guess some people have NO TASTE. You can get this lesser edition on December 5th.

Capcom Fighting Collection 2, including Capcom vs SNK 1 and 2, Project Justice, Capcom Fighting Evolution, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, Power Stone 1 and 2, and Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein. It’s out next year, and that rules.

The Marvel vs Capcom Collection is out September 12th, with a physical out November 22nd.

There’s a new Atelier game, and they got a dragon voiced by Kiryu’s VA in this one. It’s called Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Envisioned Land, and it’s out in 2025.

The Suikoden remasters are still happening! The first two games will be released in a bundle March 6th, 2025.

The Dragon Quest III remake will have a new Monster Wrangler class. It’s out November 14th.

The DS Castlevanias are getting a compilation, and it also includes Haunted Castle and a reimagining of the notably rough arcade game. It’s out later today.

Civilization VII will be on Switch. It’ll be out February 11th.

Tales of Graces f is getting a remaster for the series’ 30th anniversary. It’ll have combat options and all the DLC from the original release. Out January 17th.

MySims returns, in a bundle containing the first game and the Kingdom sequel. It’s out November 19th.

Five Nights at Freddy’s…..They’ve got a new Help Wanted coming, and you have to help those robots run the show. Out Holiday 2024. There’s also a new DLC for Security Breach this Holiday.

Montage again. Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed (September 24th), Tales of the Shire (Holiday), Just Dance 2025 (October 2024), Funko Fusion (Holiday), EA Sports FC 2025 (September 27th), Lego Horizon (Holiday).

Rune Factory‘s got a new style, where you play as an “Earth Dancer” and use magic to grow crops super fast, and also kick some ass. Guardians of Azuma is out next Spring.

Yakuza Kiwami is getting a Switch port. Looks like it’ll be a pretty straight port, but hey, Kiwami‘s great. Out October 24th.

The post Bulletin+: Indie World and Partner Showcase 8/27/24 appeared first on Gamesline.

While gamescom has overtaken the crux of major video announcements, several other sudden surprises and unsurprising slops have also taken space on the newspaper stand.

Gamescom Big Gains

gamescom 2024 is still ongoing into the weekend, and you can catch up with our roundup of opening night’s announcements here! But a big crux of the annual convention’s major programming has reached its climax with its award show with the following winners:

• Monster Hunter Wilds for Best Trailer, Most Epic, Most Entertaining, and Best PlayStation Game
• Little Nightmares 3 for Audio, Visuals, and Best Xbox Game
• Genshin Impact for Best Mobile Game
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for Best PC Game
• Frostpunk 2 for Gameplay
• Tavern Talk for Most Wholesome
• Creatures of Ava for Games for Impact
• Microsoft / Xbox / Bethesda / Blizzard for Best of Show Floor

Tango Gameworks Dances Again

In a sudden turn of events, games studio Tango Gameworks has been taken over by publisher of PUBG: Battlegrounds, Krafton, with full intent on resuming all work activities as norm and ambition to further continue the Hi-Fi Rush IP.

The Hi-Fi Rush developer was founded by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami and went on to be acquired by ZeniMax Media, in turn, later getting folded over into Microsoft. News that Tango Gameworks was to be shuttered erupted back in late spring.

Packing Up Camp

Meanwhile, the bell tolls for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp—and certainly not those kinds of Bells—and it has been announced that services for the mobile game will end November this year.

That said, Nintendo has further elaborated they intend on releasing a paid, offline version of the game, and Pocket Camp players will be able to transfer their data from the original game.

In other news…

Steam now has a new feature in reviews to indicated if a reviewer has played the title extensively on the Steam Deck.

While among several of the lineup of announcements made at gamescom 2024, developer Warhorse Studios emphasizes that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will not be released until the first quarter of next year on February 11, 2025.

In the midst of another wave of SAG-AFTRA strikes that has now evoked a rally for video game actors, Amazon Games CEO Christopher Hartmann claims that games “don’t really have acting“.

The Backyard Sports video game franchise is being rebooted.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has unveiled a 60-day plan to address player complaints.

John Carpenter is reportedly heavily involved in the production of a new Halloween game, to be developed on Unreal Engine 5.

Final Fantasy XVI is now up for preorder on both the Epic Games Store and Steam. The game is due out September 17th, and a demo is available now. Meanwhile, a rumor also suggests that game will also soon find itself on the Xbox.

To no one’s shock, the Borderlands movie flopped at the box office. You can still get the Claptrap popcorn bucket watching something else though! (while supplies last)

And finally, United States Vice President candidate for the Democratic party Tim Walz was apparently a huge Dreamcast gamer, to the point his wife had to hide the console away from him.

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Big IPs

Superheroes of all fits are jumping into the fray by billing new video game titles.

The countdown begins for a Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, the first entry in the Budokai Tenkaichi fighting game series for almost two decades.

Unsurprisingly, the next Call of Duty is on its way with Black Ops 6, but more surprisingly, a new Indiana Jones game has been revealed. Meanwhile, people are still worming their way along for Dune.

Marvel Rivals confirms a release date for near the end of the year, but more significantly, confirms that all heroes will be free to play upon launch.

More has been shown on the Mercenary companions that will be in Diablo IV’s “Vessel of Hatred” expansion.

There will also be a new entry to the Batman: Arkham series of games—but alas, exclusively for the Meta Quest 3.

Big Returns

A new Sid Meier’s Civilization boasts new major changes such as a variety of more combinations players can explore and a mechanic to the gameplay that now divides up the development of a world into three different Ages.

Street Fighter 6 and Fatal Fury are throwing some punches with more content, dropping gameplay trailers for Terry and Mai Shiranui respectively.

Capcom had even more to show off with additional footage for Monster Hunter Wilds.

After long anticipation since the first game, a sequel to Kingdom Come: Deliverance has also been revealed.

Little Nightmares 3 will be a new standalone sequel to the original series, the first entry without the original developer’s involvement, Tarsier Studios, and instead entirely developed by Supermassive Games.

A new Dying Light game will also serve as a standalone sequel against the original series.

One of the last reveals of opening night was the highly anticipated sequel to the Mafia, now revealed to officially be Mafia: The Old Country, taking place in 1900s Sicily.

And yet while the Borderlands movie has been spectacularly bombing, much to our chagrin, there is going to be another Borderlands game.

And Some New Faces

An interesting slew of various new original projects have also been welcomed into the mix of announcements, such as We Harvest Shadows, a strange hybrid between farming simulator and horror.

While Tarsier Studios is hands-off with Little Nightmares 3, they have moved on to announced a new game of similar cut with Reanimal, a horror co-op.

Science fiction and tech have been a recurring genre across these slate of games:

ARC Raiders is marketing itself as a new, PvPvE action survival shooter set in a future, ravaged Earth, while Revenge of the Savage Planet brings in a more cartoonish, tongue-in-cheek perspective while you travel your way across aliens world. A.I.L.A. a first person horror game, will be unmistakably tapping into today’s fears around AI.

Although aligning itself with the The Dark Pictures anthology, Directive 8020 will be attempting to explore another multi-linear tale within science fiction horror.

On anthologies—a new animated anthology series called Secret Level, created by Love, Death & Robots showrunner Tim Miller, will be exploring stories based on video games. Several IPs, teased in the trailer included The Outer Worlds, SIFU, and Mega Man.

While Sims fans still eagerly wait for further updates on Electronic Arts’ next big title, inZoi is a new character creation and life simulation game.

Although also emerging from already existing games series—albeit relatively niche—The First Berserker: Khazan will be a new action roleplaying game set in the Dungeon & Fighter universe.

On the more saccharine side of things, Infinity Nikki will be the first foray of Nikki, the dress-up, roleplaying mobile game franchise into a fully 3D rendered, open world setting.

And finally, Peter Molyneux still has more to say, attempting to bring back players to the world of Fable with Masters of Albion.

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Workers’ Rights Issues

Bethesda‘s US branches and the World of Warcraft development teams have announced that they have unionized. Microsoft has confirmed that they are open to beginning negotiations with both unions.

SAG-AFTRA, the union that had previously enacted a strike for actors in Hollywood, have now begun a new strike, this time focused on video game voice actors. The strikers are asking for protection against misuse of AI technology, specifically compensation for using their likeness and voice for AI generation. The strike will effect games that began production after August 2023, meaning big releases such as Grand Theft Auto VI are most likely in the clear, but if further voice clips are needed, union members may decline to contribute work to games.

Ziff Davis has shuttered Humble Games, the publishing arm of Humble Bundle. The entire team was laid off on the 23rd, with reports that leadership had no idea what the process of publishing games entailed. It is unknown how this will change the release of currently scheduled games under the Humble Games branding.

Fights in the Future

EVO was this past weekend, so a variety of new characters were announced for a good amount of games. San Diego Comic Con is also happening, so there’s a few announcements from there, as well.

Guilty Gear Strive‘s next season was detailed at Evo. The roster sees returning favorites Dizzy and Venom, new character from the recently confirmed anime Unika, and the first guest character in the series, Lucy from Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners. A new three-versus-three mode will also be added, with an open beta for the mode happening as this is posted.

Multiversus has announced two of their season two characters, with Samurai Jack available now and Beetlejuice available later. Warner Bros. also acquired Player First Games, developers of Multiversus.

SNK had a big showing this week. The studio announced two new DLC characters for The King of Fighters XV, Vice and Mature (due out in December), then revealed that they are working on both a new Art of Fighters and a Samurai Shodown action RPG.

Later, they released a port of SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos on Steam, with console versions available later. The port adds rollback netcode.

Finally from SNK, two new characters were confirmed for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Kevin Rian, a SWAT team member in South Town, and Billy Kane, former Geese crony and new leader of the Howard Connection, will be in the launch roster.

The last two season one DLC characters for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising were announced. Versusia will release August 20th alongside a large 1.50 update to the game, and Vikala is due out in October. A second season of DLC was also confirmed, starting with Sandalphon.

Somehow, Heihachi has returned, and he’s the next DLC character for Tekken 8. He’s due to be added to the game some time this Autumn.

Mortal Kombat 1 had to wait for Comic Con to announce their next round of DLC, alongside a story expansion and the return of Anamalities. Noob Saibot, Cyrax, and Sektor are returning, and three new guest characters will be added. Ghostface from Scream, Conan the Barbarian (as portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger), and the T-1000 from Terminator 2 are the new action figures you can slam against Omniman and Homelander. The story expansion and returning MK characters will be added September 24th, and the guests’ release will be announced later.

Other Assorted Announcements Abound

The first teaser for the Like a Dragon/Yakuza live action show has been released.

Former Skip Ltd. developers have announced a crowdfunding campaign to make a spiritual successor to Chibi-Robo. Titled koROBO, the Kickstarter has already reached about two-thirds of its initial goal.

Katawa Shoujo, the visual novel developed by Four Leaf studio about romance at a school for disabled girls, is coming to Steam and Itch after twelve years on August 16th.

A remaster collection of the first two Legacy of Kain games has seemingly been confirmed by a logo shown with Legacy of Kain action figures revealed at Comic Con.

A remaster of Tales of Xillia has seemingly been leaked through Czech and Slovak retailer listings. If the listings are real, the remaster will release on all major platforms.

The entire catalog of The Behemoth’s games will be getting updates:

• Alien Hominid: Invasion and Alien Hominid HD will be released on PS5 and PS4.
• A quality of life update for the Steam version of Battleblock Theater will release, as well as ports of the game to modern consoles.
• Castle Crashers is getting a new DLC called Painterboss Paradise, in which players can create their own skins for the playable characters and upload them to Steam Workshop. All of the games’ sprites have been redrawn as well, and a new character, Paint Jr., will be added.
• Pit People will also get a quality of life update, and their next title is confirmed to be in the prototype phase.

And finally. Michael Bay, of live-action Transformers and the first two Bad Boys films fame, is currently in talks to direct some form of Skibidi Toilet movie or television series. No word on if the Half-Life characters’ faces will be used for these ventures.

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