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.

It hit me pretty immediately why folks were mad about FFXIII. The promise of a huge, “next-gen” RPG experience was something the mainstream audience was expecting, putting the power of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to good use. Instead, we got The Hallways. This was the thing I’d heard over and over, that most of the game was railroaded by long corridors. When I was met with this, I thought about it for a bit, and compared the maps to other RPGs I’d played. Dungeons are just…like that, JRPGs were, for the most part, like that. You have a few side paths, but you’re entering an area, going somewhere, then moving on.

A big issue is the utter lack of towns or side content. There’s a monotony to Cocoon, the floating nation where you spend the first half of the game. There’s no real connection to the world these characters live in. Even in the level where Sazh and Vanille go to an amusement park, it’s just that, a place of joy and celebration that doesn’t match the rest of the world. You can never meet others struggling under the grip of the fal’cie, powerful beings that can enthrall humans, and the party members don’t really get a chance to bounce off each other and the world around them. There’s a smidgen of character development here and there, but it’s never complemented by a deeper interaction, and I never felt like I got to know any of the party members beyond a list of events that happened to them.

Once you make it out of Cocoon (after 30 hours!) you reach Gran Pulse, the lower part of the world where the less opulent were not protected from the fal-cie’s wrath. Once you’re there, you’re introduced to a sprawling landscape, full of roaming creatures that are often far too strong to fight. This reminded me immediately of Xenoblade Chronicles, which was released a few months after FFXIII. Xenoblade’s sprawling plains are far better than Gran Pulse, as there’s more character interaction and further layers of combat besides avoiding strong foes. 

I can feel a strong foundation here! The combat, in which you can swiftly swap between assigned roles for each character in battle, is exciting and deep. I fell in love with the soundtrack, and the characters’ designs are memorable and lovable. That’s what kept me coming back, not the world or the story, the gameplay and music! That can carry some games, but not RPGs, not something that’s dozens of hours long. I can’t feel good about a world I’m literally living in that isn’t allowing me to actually experience what’s going on there. 

There’s a codex that does most of the heavy lifting in the story, which is only “heavy” in comparison to what goes on in the cutscenes. Oftentimes events are detailed in writing only, the history of each nation is told by wistfully written mythical texts, and none of those aspects meld with what’s going on with the characters in the moment. Sure, the gods and their creations are the source of our heroes’ woes, but even with them fighting back against their fate, it still doesn’t feel like Lightning and crew are actually doing anything to fight any of the fal’cie besides a specific one that’s antagonizing them. The party changes the world, but they don’t feel a part of the world until the exact final scene. 

Combat is the strongest aspect of the game in my opinion. Paradigm shifting provides a ton of freedom, allowing for each character to specialize in a variety of roles that can be swapped on the fly. Boss battles are far more interesting, as you can basically form a handful of parties that fit into each phase of a fight, and it makes these big fights more like puzzles to unravel instead of button mashing frenzies or just picking the same option in a menu over and over. You can’t lean on a single party, as each character has their specialties and won’t learn certain moves even if they have the same paradigm. Once you hit the late-game, you can even start to dip upgrade points into non-specialized paradigms, meaning a character who can normally only do tanking, healing, and DPS can also do a little debuffing if you really need to lay on the debuffs. 

It’s what I think the ATB system should always be! It’s actually active, as your moves come out in real time instead of just when your turn hits. It’s the perfect balance between RPGs of the past and action RPGs of today, and it’s pretty apparent why Final Fantasy XV plays the way it does after XIII set the course. It’s what I think Final Fantasy should be using all the time! Reject current trends, Square Enix. Bring us back to how it was. A middle ground is more unique than just leaning on real time combat like half of the RPG scene does. 

Due to the combat being as good as it is, I ended up doing nearly everything in the game, since so much of the game is combat. I only skipped on the grind to fully level every character and to get every weapon/accessory. That sort of thing is unnecessary, even as someone who has been enjoying getting all achievements and trophies in games lately. There was challenge and excitement behind getting strong enough to beat the final boss with a five star ranking, not so much in fighting Long Guis over and over until I hit max level in everything and buy every weapon. 

I’m glad I spent the time I did with this game, but I would never tell someone else to do this. It’s a complete experience, but what’s there isn’t a complete world. I now know why FFXIII flopped, and it’s not because of the hallways! It’s the writing, there’s not enough there. And that’s why I’m still interested in the sequels, since there’s a chance to expand on the world and spend more time with the characters. If that’s what the sequels do, I’ll warm up to it. Final Fantasy XIII as a stand-alone title, however, left me expecting and longing for more.

The post Why The Hell Did I (Almost) 100% Final Fantasy XIII? appeared first on Gamesline.

Big Updates from Big Devs

The latest Assassin’s Creed game, set in Japan, has been detailed. Titled Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, the game stars a female shinobi named Naoe and Yasuke, the famous black samurai who was a retainer to Oda Nobunaga. Shadows will be available November 15th, 2024.

Dead by Daylight dev Behaviour Interactive lad out a few updates for the game, including their next two collaborations. Coming next is a Dungeons and Dragons expansion, with playable killer Vecna and playable survivors Aestri Yazar and Baermar Uraz (who are one character, just two people. Like the Ice Climbers I guess?). Their next collab was also teased, a Castlevania expansion with Dracula as the killer. The DnD update will launch June 3rd, and more information about Big Drac will drop August 6th.

Behaviour also detailed other projects, including The Casting of Frank Stone, their collaboration with Until Dawn creator Supermassive Games, their shooter Project T, and a new rougue-lite game called What the Fog.

Sony has announced the new CEOs of PlayStation. Herman Hulst, previously the co-founder of Guerrilla Games, and Hideaki Nishino, previously SVP of Platform Experiences, will take their mantles in June. Hulst will be in charge of the Studio Business Group, the part of the company in charge of first-party games and adaptation of the games in other mediums. Nishino’s job will be running the Platform Business Group, with third-party games and hardware on their docket.

Take-Two has confirmed in a recent earnings call that Grand Theft Auto VI, the game that’ll probably shift the entire economy on launch, is due out in the Fall of 2025.

The Industry Continues to Bleed

In the same earnings call that gave GTAVI a release window, Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick claimed that Roll7 and Intercept Games, two studios that got internal memos informing them of their shuttering, are actually not closed. Take-Two previously put up smoke and mirrors during their closure of 2K Marin, which hasn’t ever been formally confirmed.

Square Enix, after a report stating Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI, and Foamstars were disappointments, announced they would be laying off staff in IT, publishing, and their indie game division Square Enix Collective. Those effected will be informed over the next month.

After Tango Gameworks’ announced closure, the team seemed to have enough time to squeeze out a final hurrah. A final update to Hi-Fi Rush has been released to combat a few final bugs, and the Limited Run release of the physical copy is confirmed to still be releasing.

The previously thought cancelled update to Redfall that would allow for offline play will also be released.

On June 10th, the Switch will no longer allow for direct posting of screenshots and videos to Twitter or the use of Twitter to search for friends thanks to the biggest moron on the planet.

The post The Bulletin: Good Behaviour is Killer appeared first on Gamesline.

“Why would you include things in a game only for them to go away?” I asked myself “What if I started playing later and I want to get the outfit?” I added, like a kid feeling the sinking realisation that the ticket trading economy at arcades might not be in his favour.  I was, of course, completely missing that evoking these fears is a big part of the draw that developers see in including limited-time events in the first place.

Much like being respected by my peers and responsible financial decisions however, my view on limited time events was seismically changed by my impromptu romance with Hoyoverse’s Genshin Impact. Before I knew it, I’d developed traditions and expectations around the many seasonal flavours that the game had gotten me accustomed to. I was genuinely disappointed when, during the game’s third winter, Albedo didn’t show up to be cryptic as shit and hand me a sword like a shady but better looking Santa Claus. And despite going through one of the worst summers of my life at the time, the second visit to the game’s summer islands was a genuinely nostalgic reprieve to me. It even managed to inject into me some summery vibes that I am usually completely incompatible with as one that detests both the heat and the sun.  

Initially, I thought about writing another gushing piece about how one of my favourite games had managed to get my hyper-individualistic, strange, and reclusive ass to go along with such normal things as seasonal celebrations. But, an eternal social outcast coming around to the holiday spirit when it’s presented in a friendly context and allowed to engage in their own time, while listening to obscure Japanese math rock, is hardly surprising or interesting. 

Part of the big hook of Genshin Impact is that the wonderful world of Teyvat is little more than an Earth coated in its own mythology. Whatever isn’t actually based in the real world is usually borrowed from the myths of the areas it’s drawn inspiration from.  That’s what makes it so appealing to history nerds like myself, and it’s what allows it to use its flavour text to make poignant statements about the real world, while allowing the more explicit storytelling to retain a veneer of lightheartedness and complete fictitiousness.

Given this, it’s also somewhat of a foregone conclusion that if you enjoy Genshin Impact’s core, you will likely enjoy the events. What makes the limited-time events enjoyable in Teyvat is what makes events enjoyable in the real world. It’s a change of pace, an opportunity to visit locales you don’t get to as often as you would like, and to participate in fun and silly activities with people you like for its own sake. And though they do occasionally fumble on the implementation, they are generally a complement to the aesthetic and theming of each area. With the Chinese area being almost entirely  defined by its world-famous new year’s celebration, and the Japanese area having celebrations based on traditional kabuki plays and cultural icons like the Rokkasen. 

But not every game is Genshin Impact and other titles wouldn’t benefit as much for such a simple approach to the idea. Games such as WoW that follow a similar approach of simply replicating real world holidays with a few new ones sprinkled in, Azaroth not being Earth in any kind of explicit or strongly allegorical way does take away some of that charm, and makes the whole idea feel a little bit more like an invasion of the real world into a virtual space, rather than an enrichment of the same. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does exist in a different aesthetic wavelength. Sort of like having the characters of star wars celebrate Halloween –and no I did not mention that other holiday because I didn’t want to load in negative connotations thank you very much. 

The other dominant flavour of time-limited events is the promotional tie-in. This is how I first ran into the idea in a tangible way (video games aren’t actually tangible but you know what I mean) with the Devil May Cry outfits in Monster Hunter: World. The idea is quite simple really, two things you really like in the best of cases, or a thing you like and a thing you hate in the worst of them, briefly come together in the forms of outfits, playable characters, special consumables or other goodies. Examples of this are as plentiful as they are variable in quality: Ranging From the Yo-kai Watch and Final Fantasy XIV collaboration, to Cup Noodles and Final Fantasy XV, Hatsune Miku in Fall Guys, and Asuka Langley Shikinami in Honkai Impact 3^rd.

If you look at games from a more product-like approach as opposed to my pansy artistic lens it could be argued this is the true and original form of the limited time event, taking inspiration from the likes of limited-edition Coke cans and movie-inspired popcorn flavours. And they even share a lineage within video games themselves, as crossovers have been the basis of venerable series such as Super Smash Bros. and Super Robot Wars, as well as a tradition within series like Street Fighter and Soul Calibur.

In the best of cases these, just like the holiday themed events, are a short bit of light-hearted fun that can unite fanbases and introduce new people to both of the participant series. The fact that they often introduce continuity issues and can violate some rules of the setting, timeline, and characterisation of the participating stories often makes rotating them out a sensible option to retain a sense of cohesion within the game at hand. Taking after TV crossovers and non-canonical anime movies, they are best enjoyed as a bit of fun for dyed-in-the-wool fans, but unessential for the casual, and often prejudicial to the work at large should you take them too seriously. 

In all of these situations, I still think it’s quite —to use an academic term— sucky, if event-themed rewards and goodies are impossible to attain going forward. It’s especially atrocious if event plotlines or gameplay mechanics are removed entirely to never be seen again. Though this is a problem with all aspects of ongoing games, in a virtual world with no scarcity or shelf space to worry about, there is little excuse to not make these events return during the appropriate season, or at specific times of the year dedicated for event reruns. And titles like Honkai: Star Rail show how easy it is to allow you to simply access events from a menu when you so choose.

Though the permanent loss of any of these events would be a great fault, at least with tie-in events there is an argument to be made that many games would be made less effective and overall worse in their storytelling were the events freely accessible all the time alongside the normal story. Plus brand management being what it is, and contracts of collaboration being so complicated often cause keeping these around to be unfeasible from a legal standpoint.

The final variant of limited time events are those that by their very construction would be detrimental as a permanent fixture. These can be anything from XP bonuses which would mess up progression; to the addition of game modes that the developers have no intention of keeping for a brief time, like the spontaneous inclusion of Grifball in older Halo titles; and anything else you can come up with. These often tend to be pretty insubstantial and for the most part function as a way for hardcore players to get some extra goodies and catch-up mechanics for more casual players, or a way to have casual fun within the game’s mechanics without committing to long-term maintenance and balance. Though it can sound cynical, they can actually make a gaming experience a lot more fun. Not all player-retention strategies are macabre. 

When I first started playing Dead by Daylight somewhat actively, it was undergoing its fifth anniversary celebrations and as a result, I got stocked on a bunch of diverse perks for all the killers I wanted to try right away. Consumables that would have taken me weeks or months to get at my low level were in plentiful supply, which allowed me to play the game with a lot more freedom than I otherwise would have. 

Due to how light on substance these events can be, there are often no requests to keep them around, and no pain is felt once they disappear. Though it does avoid the bad feelings associated with more engaging limited time events, they also rarely tend to be that curated or memorable to begin with.

Like all art, the best way to make a limited-time event is by asking yourself how the format of your work enhances the experience. In this case, what sort of experiences can your games deliver that would be improved by being tied to a temporal component? 

Shaking up the status quo of your title for a while only to bring it back once the timer expires is a simple solution. Small, mould-breaking changes and additions that won’t upset anyone due to being temporary are an easy and intuitive response. If you don’t want to see Yo-kai in your Eorzea, fret not because soon enough they’ll largely disappear from the world again. 

The seasons, meant to pass by definition, bringing specific celebrations and activities with them just makes sense. There is a reason why every culture on earth has seasonal celebrations and why it was one of the first things we thought to include into our video games once we could actually spend meaningful amounts of time in virtual worlds. 

Working in time as a limitation seems like the other immediate answer. Giving players a limited amount of time to reach an objective as a collective or allocating specific time slots during which the missions of an event can be undertaken to give appropriate pacing.  However, this approach would double down on all the downsides of a time-limited event as a gamble on the potential for a more powerful experience, and I just don’t think most developers would want to risk it going wrong. 

Pokemon Sun and Moon actually tried making time a mechanic for its events, albeit with very low stakes, by implementing “global missions”. However, the first two ended in failure and saw plenty of headlines calling attention to that. A little bit more research taught me that they were eventually tuned and from the third global mission onwards they were all a success, but I still find it a difficult gamble for a developer to take. If nothing else it shows that pulling it off requires a lot of finesse and careful consideration of players’ behaviour. 

The impermanence of events also makes them colour the experience in a way that other kinds of activities simply don’t. While there are those wild souls that will ignore anything but the options that catch their interest, most of us will see ourselves drawn to the little icons with a clock ticking down and at least allow it to inform our use of time in-game even if it’s not an active pursuit. And there is something kind of sad and annoying about allowing these hectic time-constraints to become ever more present in a medium that used to run almost completely on the consumer’s clock and not the provider’s.

I also do worry, like always, about events becoming an accepted patch to failures of a game at launch. While Genshin Impact’s story can be understood perfectly without all the events that are lost, the reality is that more than a few members of the cast remain ancillary additions without the characterisation provided by events. Which just makes it feel inelegant and more rough around the edges than it really should when that creative work has already been done and released. What is more, getting accustomed to a lack of permanency in our games does open the gate to more developers simply locking away entire pieces of their game once they decide the time has come like Bungie has with Destiny. Which has left us in a ridiculous reality where content that people have actually paid for before is just not around anymore on the whims of the developers.

But I would like to temper my criticisms somewhat. Games-preservation is important. I believe that wholeheartedly. And though I felt tempted to write sentences like “it is inexcusable when events can’t be replayed” the reality of the matter is that, though important, they are still just games. While my beloved Genshin Impact has a bad habit of making incredibly important elements of the setting only available in time-limited events, it remains a coherent experience without them. And though preserving our cherished memories and making gaming history available to all remains a meaningful endeavour, there is not that much that is actually lost when you aren’t able to partake in time-limited events long gone. 

While we have a voice and a way to make developers hear us, we should keep asking for ways to preserve these experiences if they are valuable to us. But just like spending an entire season in the hospital, or skipping out on Halloween during a year when you didn’t feel up to it, life continues on unimpeded without them. Games, like holidays, and like the colours of leaves in autumn, can make our lives a lot more enjoyable even if they aren’t permanent. Let’s not forget that even our very earth won’t be around forever. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun while it lasts.

The post The Number Won’t Stop Ticking Down! – Limited Time Events in Games appeared first on Gamesline.

Directly to You, The Mario Section

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is being remade. It’s unknown what exactly will be changed (besides the graphics, which are quite divisive) in this version, but there seem to be fully animated cutscenes! We can all see Mallow and Geno again on November 17th 2023.

Princess Peach will be starring in her own game next year. Nothing besides a teaser was shown, but it seems to take place on a stage? Hopefully this one isn’t as sexist as the last time Peach was the star of the show.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s next wave will include three new racers and some new tracks. The racers are Kamek, Petey Piranha, and Wiggler, and the tracks include a brand new course set in The Bathroom called Squeaky Clean Spring.

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, the most mid Luigi’s Mansion game, is getting ported to Switch next year. (Please put the first Luigi’s Mansion on something that isn’t 3DS thank you!)

The final Mario announcement was the series’ return to 2D with Super Mario Bros. Wonder. With a gorgeous art style, playable Daisy, and an elephant power up, Wonder seems like the kick in the pants 2D Mario has needed for many years. It’s due out October 20th.

The Rest of the Direct

It’s related to Mario but not fully so it’s not in the section above: We’re getting a new Warioware game that’s specifically a sequel to Smooth Moves on the Wii, which was arguably the best in the series. Warioware: Move It! will release November 6th and promises over 200 new microgames.

Pikmin 4 got a new trailer, showcasing new modes such as Dandori Battle, in which you fight plant based foes to show off your Pikmin prowess. There’s also nighttime missions, which task you with gathering resources from glowing mounds and teaming up with new Glow Pikmin. Pikmin 4 sprouts July 21st.

Pikmin 1 and 2 are also now released on Switch digitally. Physical copies will release September 22nd.

We got a new look at Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s DLCs. Not too much new info but there’s a handful of returning Pokemon confirmed for each set. Game Freak claims “The Teal Mask” will be out in the fall and “The Indigo Disk” will release in winter.

Detective Pikachu Returns sees our favorite Ryan Reynolds character not played by Ryan Reynolds solving new mysteries with his…are they going to have the same twist as the movie in this? Like, we all saw the movie already, it’ll be pretty deflated if they’re just building up to the same thing, right? Whatever, new game on October 6th.

The Rocksteady Batman trilogy is coming to Switch in the Fall.

A new Dragon Quest Monsters game, The Dark Prince, has been announced. It seems to take place around the events of Dragon Quest IV, since Solo shows up at the end of the trailer.

Star Ocean: The Second Story is getting a remake too. This will be yet another 2DHD Square Enix game, and will be releasing on PS5, PS4, and Steam as well.

The Switch version of the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol 1 will include the NES version of Metal Gear as well as the non-canon second NES game Snake’s Revenge.

Penny’s Big Breakaway is a new 3D platformer by the folks at Evening Star, who previously worked on Sonic Mania. You play as a girl named Penny who uses a yo-yo to traverse a colorful and bouncy world.

An adaptation of tabletop roleplaying game Gloomhaven is coming to Switch September 18th. (Let’s hope they fix the frame rate by then though—because yeesh.)

Vampire Survivors is dropping on Switch August 17th with a new four player couch co-op mode.

Mythforce is a new melee-focused roguelike that’s stylized after He-Man era cartoons. It’s due later this year.

Splatoon 3‘s next splatfest will have you choosing between vanilla, strawberry, or mint chocolate chip ice cream. I know my allegiance.

Palia will allow you to build a “cozy life” in its free to play multiplayer adventuring world. It releases this winter.

Don’t worry folks, there’s another farm RPG. Fae Farm is that. September 8th. Have at it.

Silent Hope is a new XSEED RPG set in the same universe as Rune Factory. Seven silent heroes are tasked with reclaiming the power of speech through dungeon crawling. It’s due out October 3rd.

There’s a few more things in the Direct, so if you want to peruse at your leisure, here’s the full video:

What Else Do We Got?

Following up on the previously discussed Metal Gear Solid Master Collection, at least some of the contents of the next volume seem to have surfaced. Twitter user Nitroid found some evidence on the website for the collection pointing towards Metal Gear Solid 4, 5, and Peace Walker being included in the future release, with IGN later corroborating this. Let’s all hope we get Metal Gear Ac!d, Portable Ops, Revengence, and Ghost Babel in there to truly complete the series.

Final Fantasy racing game Chocobo GP has been re-released as a $50 game that allows for access to all the previous microtransaction content. All content can now be unlocked in game without paying extra. If you downloaded the demo version, Chocobo GP Lite, you can buy an upgrade DLC so you can keep your progress.

The original version of Call of Duty: Warzone, “Caldera“, is going offline on September 21st. This version lasted three years, with the current 2.0 version attached to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

And finally, according to information pulled from a recent meeting report of the Los Angeles Tourism Board of Commissioners, E3 is possibly canceled in 2024 and 2025 as well. Long may Keighley reign.

The post The Bulletin: Remakes and Returns at the Nintendo Direct appeared first on Gamesline.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has blocked the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger. The CMA cited concerns about Microsoft having too much of an authority in “cloud gaming” as the primary reason for their interception. Brad Smith, CEO of Microsoft, has stated that the company intends on appealing the decision.

Waypoint, launched in 2016 as Vice Media’s dedicated games section, will be shutting down on June 2. Vice is also shuttering its Vice News Tonight program as part of a series of other major cuts in midst of the restructuring of the company.

I'm not sure where to begin, except to say, with equal parts fury and sadness, that Waypoint is over. The team, myself included, have been terminated by VICE, and our final day running the website, the podcasts, and streams, will come to an end on June 2nd.

— Patrick Klepek 🎃 (@patrickklepek) April 27, 2023

Sega of America unionizes as the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA (AEGIS) with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). AEGIS-CWA will be the first union in the video games industry that encompasses several departments, comprising of members from the departments of marketing, games as a service, localization, product development, and quality assurance.

Powerhouse Animation Studios, the studio behind the Netflix, animated adaptation of Castlevania, its upcoming sequel, and an anticipated adaption to Tomb Raider, has also announced their unionization with the Animation Guild.

Great news! Congrats to #animation workers at Powerhouse in #Texas for unionizing with the #AnimationGuild! Let's show our support for this historic effort as they seek voluntary recognion. #Power2Powerhouse#WeAre839 #WePowerAnimation@LATimes @AustinChronicle @Variety @THR pic.twitter.com/3uPRYwkxnH

— The Animation Guild // #WeAre839 (@animationguild) April 24, 2023

Nintendo will be exhibiting at Gamescom 2023. This will be the company’s first big, in-person appearance at a major games trade show since E3 2012. Gamescom is set for August 23 to 27 in Cologne, Germany.

Square Enix’s attempts as remaking The Portopia Serial Murder Case as an “AI tech preview” has been met with scrutiny across the board. The game relies on a machine learning text input system that has been quickly found to be incredibly faulty, rendering progress difficult and nearly unplayable. The game is free to download, and currently has an over 90% “Very Negative” reviews on Steam.

the portopia serial murder case is an excellent example of why stapling "AI" to your game doesn't in fact guarantee your game will work pic.twitter.com/WX9v6VZrGD

— Aura (MOOMANIBE@Cohost) (@MOOMANiBE) April 24, 2023

Developer Young Horses has made their early catalog of games free to play, such as the original version of Octodad.

A new entry to the Armored Core series has been announced, and Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is set to be released around late August.

The Guinness World Record of the most people playing Dungeons & Dragons at a time was broken in a mall in Provo, Utah. Over 1,200 aspiring adventurers took place in the nerdy gathering crowding the Provo Towne Centre mall.

On the other hand, Wizards of the Coast continues to be off their rocks and hired and sent security agents to a YouTuber’s home to shut down a leak of their latest Magic: The Gathering set, “March of the Machine: The Aftermath.”

YouTuber Oldschoolmtg cooperated with the agents to hand over the set, and explains that the set was mistakenly sent to him. WotC has yet to release a statement about the incident, and is currently unclear if Oldschoolmtg will be compensated for the goods they have had to turn in.

The post The Bulletin: Shut It Down appeared first on Gamesline.

Actor Lance Reddick has passed away. Although primarily known for many of his on-screen roles, such as Cedric Daniels in The Wire, Charon in the John Wick franchise, and a recent portrayal of Albert Wesker in a 2022 Netflix series adaptation of Resident Evil, Reddick contributed his talents to various other mediums, such as providing his voice to the Destiny games series as the character Commander Zavala.

Disco Elysium has added a photo mode feature to the game called Collage Mode, which many have rushed to point out was announced in the midst of a lawsuit between ZA/UM’s original founders and the studio’s current leadership. Some reports are indicating that the dispute with former poducer Kaur Kender has officially settled, but there is argument that these reports are misleading and that the legal battle is not quite over yet.

Create the Disco scenes of your dreams.

Introducing Collage Mode: the new functionality that gives you the creative freedom to stage just about anything in-game.

Available now for PC and Mac players, with console rolling out soon: https://t.co/PTkM4PBmLy pic.twitter.com/3dCZGmGzyQ

— Disco Elysium – The Final Cut (@discoelysium) March 16, 2023

Emmett Shear is stepping down as Twitch CEO. Dan Clancy will be taking over the role.

Meta is continuing to fall apart, and the predicted 10,000 layoffs that some analysts have foreseen has come to fruition. In the middle of restructuring, NFTs seem to no longer be a priority in Meta’s pipeline, in which many of these roles were tied to.

Meanwhile, Square Enix continues to insist NFTs are part of its future, releasing a new trailer for its NFT game, Symbiogenesis.

The FTC has fined Epic Games for what it has charged as misleading tactics to trick Fortnite players into making unintended purchases.

IO Interactive is expanding their horizons and opening up shop in Turkey. That said, the region is still in the midst of reeling and recovering from a fatal earthquake.

Former Blizzard leaders have come together to form a new games studio called Magic Soup.

The UK government is increasing tax relief support for video games.

The next Guilty Gear Strive DLC character is Delilah and “Bedman?”, a pair that will function as a single unit.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is coming to Steam on April 6.

Everyone here is pretty hyped for the release of Dokapon Kingdom: Connect, and the game now officially has a release date for North America on May 9.

The post The Bulletin: Pink(o)washing appeared first on Gamesline.

The Capcom Spotlight Event

The Capcom Spotlight Event showcased a handful of more news and announcements of the publisher’s upcoming games:

The Resident Evil 4 Remake now has a special demo that is now available to play, called Resident Evil 4: Chainsaw Demo. The demo puts players in the beginning of what might potentially be in the final game.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak will be coming to Playstation and Xbox consoles this April.

The official Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective remaster will arrive to all current-gen platforms this summer in June.

The Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection continues to add new content, officially compiling 10 titles of the series into a two-parter digital release.

Street Fighter 6 continues to build up hype towards its release by closing in on its roster of commentators part of the Real-Time Commentary Feature that can be enabled in-game, with Japanese actress Hikaru Takahashi being the last to be included in the base game upon launch. Takahashi will be joining Jeremy “Vicious” Lopez, Ryutaro “Aru” Noda, Kosuke Hiraiwa, and Steve “TastySteve” Scott, Thea Trinidad, H.E. Demon Kakka, and James “jchensor” Chen.

In other news…

Square Enix has been facing some hurdles recently, especially in regards to the lackluster outcome of Forspoken, and has further commented that their smaller and mid-sized titles overall are not meeting their performance numbers as expected.

Discord is experimenting to potentially integrate more AI on its platform. The first tests will be a putting forth a new version of the Clyde bot in community servers, allowing it to be able to function as a chatbot with users. Other tests with AI aim to further assist AutoMod. These settings are already enabled by default with Discord’s latest update, so users are being cautioned to check their own settings.

PSA: Turn these off ASAP. Discord are doing dumb shit. https://t.co/aKSk18RaDo pic.twitter.com/1zJWvYKscw

— Lorcan0c (@Lorcan0c) March 9, 2023

The original Atelier Marie Plus: The Alchemist of Salburg is releasing in English for the first time.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie had a dedicated Nintendo Direct special to debut the final trailers before the movie’s nearing theatrical release. The Direct featured appearances with the movie’s main cast, such as Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jack Black. The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be releasing in USA theaters on April 5.

The post The Bulletin: Give That Boy Another Knife appeared first on Gamesline.

We’re back, and this week John is joined by Rose and Spencer to talk about the week in games. John’s been playing Signalis, Pizza Tower, and had a lot of fun at the arcade playing that Melty Blood. Spencer’s been playing Destiny 2: Lightfall, the System Shock demo, and Atomic Heart. Rose has been playing a ton of games with Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line, the Dead Space remake, Limbus Company, Wild Hearts, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. In the news we go over Square Enix replacing their president, Yuji Naka pleading guilty to insider trading and the discussion surrounding the term JRPG. Oh yeah, and Elden Ring is also getting an expansion.

As always, you can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @VGChooChoo,  @john_michonski, @SolaireHazard and @horngal

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at videogamechoochoo.tumblr.com/ask.

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The post VGCC Episode 429: Lu Bu’s Insider Trading Special appeared first on Gamesline.

Humble Bundle launched a fund to aid the victims of the recent earthquake disasters in Turkey and Syria. The bundle includes a mixture of both tabletop and video games, alongside comics. It also features some work by Turkish creators.

To help support Turkiye-Syria earthquake relief efforts, we’ve joined forces with our industry friends for a bundle of games & books to lend aid to the people of the region.

100% of proceeds will go to @DirectRelief, @IMC_worldwide, and @SaveTheChildren.https://t.co/unv9sLdRCE pic.twitter.com/SA1nmjio0b

— Humble Bundle (@humble) March 1, 2023

Elden Ring will be getting its first expansion, “Shadow of the Erdtree”, hinted to be possibly taking place before the main events of the game. The expansion is currently still in development and developer FromSoftware’s announcement has not elaborated on much more beyond a shiny piece of new concept art that has Elden Ring players rabidly speculating. Elden Ring has sold about 20 million copies since its initial release.

God of War Ragnarök finds itself sweeping claim on many nomination categories in this year’s BAFTA Games Awards. The other games nominated include Cult of the Lamb, Stray, Olliolli World, and A Plague Tale: Requiem.

Blumhouse Productions is reportedly in talks of doing a Dead by Daylight movie adaptation. Blumhouse is known for producing primarily horror films, such as the Paranormal Activity franchise, The Purge, Get Out, and M3GAN.

The FTC officially rejects Sony’s motion to quash the Microsoft-Activision merger. Microsoft maintains that its merger would not impact competition in the industry, and has allowed the subpoenaing of Sony to gain access to internal documents to review during the initial lawsuit. Microsoft has been meanwhile maintaining leverage by conducting deals with other companies, ensuring that games like their Call of Duty franchise are to remain unaffected on their respective platforms and storefronts. Just last week, Nintendo has negotiated with the company to now allow Xbox games on Nintendo consoles.

But once again, Activision Blizzard is possibly in trouble for what the Communication Workers of America (CWA) has set forth in filing as an unfair labor practice in the recent, unprecedented firing of two QA workers. The employees in question had to undergo a series of disciplinary meetings that resulted in their termination, due to what management testifies as their use of “strong language” in response to Activision’s recent attempts to bring workers back to an in-person schedule, the CWA reports.

Meanwhile, Electronic Arts abruptly laid off more than 200 QA testers for Apex Legends. Workers allege the sudden move was retaliatory against slowly growing unionization efforts.

The Wolf Among Us 2 has been delayed and will not foresee a 2023 release. According to Telltale Games, the team had wanted to avoid burnout, and the game’s development is also now taking a pivot to using the Unreal 5 system. No new release date has been given.  The original Telltale Games was forced to shutter back in 2018, assigning their assets to LCG Entertainment, who has since been working under their name.

Babylon’s Fall has officially ended service this week. The co-op RPG developed by PlatinumGames was unfortunately considered a commercial failure, and has barely lasted half a year in service.

Hot off the presses and on top of Forspoken developer Luminous Productions being disbanded to merge with the company, Yosuke Matsuda will no longer be President of Square Enix. He will be succeeded by Takashi Kiryu, rising from his position as the Chief Strategy Officer. Matsuda was President of the company since 2013.

And finally, enemy of the site Yuji Naka has come around to fully admit that he has indeed, committed crimes. He has acknowledged he was fully aware of unreleased information that enabled him to engage in insider trading. Yuji Naka was one of three former Square Enix employees who were arrested and indicted for insider trading around the tail end of last year in 2022. Naka spared no breath in getting arrested a second time, not that long after for the same offenses.

The post The Bulletin: Fool Me Once appeared first on Gamesline.