Sony’s Woes and Occasional Successes
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.
