It’s been a varied week, some good news, some bad news, and some completely off the goop. Let’s dive right in.
Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI has had its release blocked in Saudi Arabia due to “the publisher’s unwillingness to make the necessary changes to the game”. The offending content? A reported gay party member, who is rumored to have an “explicit” scene in the game.
Gacha game and anime powerhouse Cygames has opened North American and European subsidiaries. It’s unclear what these wings of the company will do exactly, but we did recently get what seems to be the confirmation of the extremely popular mobage Uma Musume: Pretty Derby outside Japan a while ago.
Nintendo-focused video game history site Forest of Illusion shut down on April 28th due to its curator’s inability to devote enough time to the project. Luckily, all of their previous discoveries and archived content has been backed up on Archive.org.
Activision and Sony have released data that says the $69.99 price point for games has led to fewer game sales. Please pretend to be shocked.
Following the announcement of the end of their Waypoint vertical, Vice as a company is reportedly nearing bankruptcy if they cannot find a buyer soon.
The Writers’ Guild of America is officially on strike. Concerns with residuals from the rise and fall of streaming and the looming threat of AI brought the union into picket formation. While this doesn’t fully involve games, there’s plenty of video game shows that will be impacted, and the WGA has expressed frustration that more games writers haven’t joined in the past.
The first trailer for the Gran Turismo movie has dropped.
👨🚀🔫👨🚀 always has been