There’s were so many big news drops this week, so this is but a sliver of what was announced. Oh, and non-show things did happen too.

Games Done Quick (GDQ) has withdrawn and canceled what would have been their upcoming in-person event in Orlando, Florida, making a hardline stance against the state’s recent legislative policies. GDQ representatives have spoken against the Florida’s lax COVID-19 policies and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric present in local legislation that they feel would endanger their group and attendees.

Bonnie Ross officially resigned and left 343 Industries and Microsoft. 343 Industries has worked on several Halo titles since 2007. Pierre Hintze will take over as studio head immediately. 

Square Enix recently partnered with Oasys, a blockchain company, now becoming one of the largest games publishers to invest heavily in blockchain technology.

Genshin Impact is getting some sort of animated project. The adaptation will be developed under Ufotable, who is known for their work on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and the Tales and Fate series.

In the tabletop gaming world, Wizards of the Coast has finally filed an injunction against NuTSR for using Wizards trademarks to publish “blatantly racist and transphobic content”. This long-winded legal saga has been going on for years.

Babylon’s Fall will be ending service in February 2023. The game has been online for less than a year.

Also having been active for less than a year, the relaunched G4TV has been hit with huge staff layoffs.

A huge portion of Fanbyte’s staff have also been laid off. The publication has been under Tencent since 2020.

And getting into all of the major show news…

A majority of the announcements made in the latest Ubisoft’s Foward event was all about Assassin’s Creed.

D23 Expo

Huge hardcore Disney heads and investors making bills rain know the D23 Expo is a huge deal, and this year features a substantial amount of games-related announcements from the House of Mouse.

Return to Monkey Island releases on September 19 for the Nintendo Switch and PC. The game will be published by Devolver Digital in will be in coordination with Lucasfilm Games, the latter acquired by the Walt Disney Company back in 2012.

The Sega Genesis Gargoyles game from 1995 is getting remastered. No release date has been determined, but it is slated for release on consoles and the PC.

Disney Illusion Island will be a multiplayer co-op platformer that will release exclusively on the Nintendo Switch. The game is a revisit to a previously canceled title that would have been Metroidvania-like.

Indie studio Bithell Games has been given the green light to help develop TRON: Identity, an adventure-mystery visual novel set to release next year in 2023. The game seems to take place in a new setting that has yet to be explored in the rest of the franchise.

Disney Dreamlight Valley, Disney’s newest online roleplaying game, will have its first major content update revolving around the universe of Toy Story. Dreamlight Valley’s character creator is available and free to try,  in which the character you produce can be imported into the full game.

Somehow, we’re still getting Avatar content in the year 2022, so trust us, Avatar: Reckoning will be coming out eventually. Reckoning is intended to be an online MOBA for mobile devices.

Nintendo Direct

The rumor of the rumor was true: The latest Nintendo Direct wasn’t delayed, but it wasn’t shown live in the UK. Speculation believes it might possibly be due to the The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s sequel subtitle in relation to the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II—

And after much waiting, “Breath of the Wild 2” is officially now known as Tears of the Kingdom. The game will be released in May 2023.

Previous leaks have proven that the stark, red-blue character design of the main character in the upcoming Fire Emblem Engage is apparently real. The game revolves around a mechanic in which you can summon past Fire Emblem characters to aid you in battle.

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is getting a remake. The game will be billed under the official Story of Seasons localization trademark for its English-language release. A remake of the GameCube game that came out in 2003, the game will not only feature a significant graphics overhaul, but will now allow you to play a male, female, or non-binary protagonist on top of flexibly being able to woo any of the game’s marriage candidates regardless of gender.

Various Nintendo 64 games are coming to Nintendo Switch Online. Titles like the first Mario Party, Pokémon Stadium, and GoldenEye 007 are included in this lineup.

Tales of Symphonia is getting remastered. The remaster seems to be based on an older PC port and will run at 30 FPS, much to the chagrin of fans who played it at 60 on GameCube.

John is ready to be hurt again because Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE is the new game from Tookyo Games and Spike Chunsoft. Yeah, the Danganronpa team is bringing the band back together for a new mystery solving game. It launches Spring 2023.

Splatoon 3 is having its first Splatfest near the end of this month!

Nintendo Switch Sports will now have golf. But you have to wait.

Pikmin 4 has been confirmed as the next mainline game in the respective series.

And a little more of Bayonetta 3 has been shown.

You can watch the entire Direct below.

Sony Playstation’s State of Play

God of War: Ragnarok now has a story trailer.

Tekken 8 has been officially announced. The game is currently being built from the ground up using the Unreal Engine.

Bandai Namco is debuting a new IP called Synduality.

Pacific Drive, the debut game by Ironwood Studios, has now dropped a reveal trailer. Ironwood Studios is based in Seattle, Washington, comprising of a team of developers who have previously worked in AAA.

The entire State of Play is can be watched below.

Accompanying the State of Play’s showcase was the RGG Summit, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s own showcase regarding their studio’s IP, announcing that:

The previously unreleased in the West Yakuza spin-off Yakuza: Ishin is set to release as a remake titled Like a Dragon: Ishin!

Judgment and Lost Judgment are now officially available for the PC.

And finally, Like a Dragon 8 is set to release in 2024. It seems as though that Yakuza series is set to drop the “Yakuza” moniker here on out, following Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Like the seventh game in the series, the game will remain a turn-based RPG. Protagonists Ichiban Kasuga and veteran Kiryu Kazuma are to return.

The post The Bulletin: Directs and Drops appeared first on Gamesline.