While everyone’s favorite creature-collecting franchise commemorated its anniversary with its annual showcase, layoffs have no reason to stop in the midst of celebration, while continue to find some in trying to hang on by.
Happy Pokémon Day, You Freaks
The latest Pokémon Presents happened on the 27th, with most of the shown updates focusing on mobile titles.
- Pokémon Go will get a crossover event with the latest season of the anime to coincide with its release outside Japan.
- Pokémon Sleep adds the Legendary Beasts to the roster of napping monsters, starting with Raikou in March, with Entei and Suicune coming later.
- Pokémon Masters will add two new pairs: Silver and Shiny Mega Tyranitar and Geeta and Glimmora, plus reruns of older powerful characters and a new photo editor.
- Pokémon Cafe Remix gives the Paldean starters new outfits, new chances to add either Koraidon or Miraidon to your cafe, and the ability to collect Gimmighoul coins for a chance to get Gimmighoul and Gholdengo on your team.
- Pokémon Unite adds Miraidon to its roster, with Falinks and Ceruledge debuting in the coming months.
The final two announcements were the big ones: First, Pokémon TCG Online game gets a new mobile client. They swear it is not going to be NFT-related.
Finally, the next mainline Pokémon title, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, was announced. Players return to Generation 6’s Kalos region for a game supposedly all set in Lumiose City, X/Y‘s central hub. Mega Evolution will also return. Z-A is scheduled to launch in 2025.
So Back to the Bad
Playstation plans to lay off around 900 people. These cuts include staff at Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerilla Games, and the complete shuttering of their London studio. Firesprite, another subsidiary of Playstation that saw cuts, cancelled the production of live service Twisted Metal game.
EA has also laid off a large swath of their employees: five percent of their workforce in total. Battlefield studio Ridgeline Games folded into another Battlefield focused team, Ripple Effect, and a rumored Mandalorian game from Respawn was cancelled.
Embracer Group continues to shed weight across their properties. Saber Interactive, developers of the continuously in question Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, reportedly will be sold to private investors for $500 million. There is also talk that Gearbox will be sold as well, with an official announcement due in the coming days. Gearbox recently shifted focus purely to Borderlands games, with a fourth mainline entry and a sequel to Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands still in development.
Maybe Some Good?
Toys for Bob, previously downsized by Microsoft after the Activision acquisition, is going independent. No reports on what this fully entails, but they are attempting to keep an active relationship with Microsoft, potentially meaning they will continue to work on Crash, Spyro, and potentially Tony Hawk titles.
Alan Wake creators Remedy have acquired full control of…Control. The studio purchased the rights to the franchise from 505 Games ahead of the eventual sequel that is still in development. as well as another project codenamed “Condor“, which is a multiplayer PvE spin-off of Control.
In other news…
Stardew Valley also has its own anniversary to celebrate, and ConcernedApe confirm that a 1.6 update to the PC version of the game will be coming March 16.
Critical Role is holding a public open beta playtest of their tabletop roleplaying game, Daggerheart, and playtest packets will be available on March 12.
Terminator: Survivors, an open-world survival game, is set to release this fall.
Nintendo sues the creators of Yuzu, a popular Switch emulator. While emulators have been proven to be legal, Nintendo’s case focuses on Yuzu’s circumvention of Switch game encryption as well as promotion of piracy, as the emulator’s Patreon saw a doubling of profits once Tears of the Kingdom leaked online.
Jen Cohn, the voice actor for Overwatch character Pharah, came under hot water when she called for Palestine to be “freed from Hamas” on a livestream. Her statement, which sidelines the very real genocide being perpetrated by Israel, has led to Overwatch fans calling for the character’s recasting.
