January 2024

Ukrainian studio Frogwares is now the sole publisher of Lovecraft-inspired detective adventure The Sinking City. This follows the conclusion of a legal dispute with publisher Nacon, in which Frogwares accused the company of claiming copyright of The Sinking City after its release, withholding milestone payments, and owing the developer unpaid royalties.

The dispute between the two companies saw Frogwares attempting to remove The Sinking City from PC storefront Steam in a bid to sever its ties to Nacon. In February 2021, Frogwares then told people not to buy its game from Steam and the following month it issued The Sinking City with a DMCA takedown. At this time, it claimed Nacon had "illegally" uploaded a hacked version to Valve's platform.

Now, Frogwares is the sole publisher of The Sinking City across all platforms. In a post appropriately shared on Steam, the studio said it was "happy to put this whole thing behind" it, and is now looking forward to "sharing more news about the future of the franchise down the line".

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Nightmare Forge Games has changed the name of horror game Infestation 88 after speculation that the number in its title was a Neo-Nazi symbol.

Originally titled Infestation 88 and later stylised as '88, the studio has now removed the number entirely from its name. The game, which had its debut trailer earlier this week after the original Steamboat Willie Disney cartoon entered the public domain, is now known as Infestation: Origins.

The studio has since stated the number 88 was originally chosen for its "symmetrical design" and insisted any connection with Neo-Nazi connotations was unintentional.

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In FFVII Ever Crisis, getting items the New Year’s banner for Cloud and young Sephiroth means getting live wallpapers. These can be used on the home screen, and two trailers appeared on social media for the latest additions.

As a reminder, you must pay or use earned gems on the gacha to eventually earn these wallpapers. Once you do, you get the moving image of Cloud or Sephiroth donning and using the new equipment for your main screen. This is a cosmetic change that only features imagery, as the background music is still the typical theme for the game.

The first of the two FFVII Ever Crisis New Year’s wallpapers is one of Cloud. He’s wearing the Official Festive Garb gear and wielding Skysplitter.

Next, here’s the newest young Sephiroth wallpaper. His unique gear for this banner and background is Celebratory Garb. He’s holding his new Radiant Edge sword.

The results of 2023’s Steam Awards are in. Each year, Steam turns to the community to vote on the year’s best games across a wide variety of categories. This year saw Larian Studios’ RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 grab game of the year, while Lethal Company, a first-person cooperative horror game, got the “Better With Friends…

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In 2024, I am learning to do cryptic crosswords. Last year I complained about Puzzmo's crossword clues being very US-centric and Excors commented that US and UK puzzles seem very different, both in their form and in the fact that UK crosswords are often crytpic. Which is true! Often if you see a "quick crossword" in a UK paper that means "crossword with clues that are general knowledge questions and not an archaic set of riddles - you know, for if you're waiting for the kettle to boil, or are an idiot". So I decided to look into how you actually do cryptics. It's way harder than I thought, but at the same time I did not realise it's just smug puns.

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I greet news of the completion of a Unity remaster for The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall with equal parts excitement and horror. Excitement because I have never played Daggerfall and it is one of the weirder, more fantastical Elder Scrolls RPGs - the one with multiple endings which sequels have explained away as somehow all being canon thanks to a metaphysical event called a Dragon Break, whereby timelines branch and reconnect. And horror because I have never played Daggerfall, which is said to be 620,000 square miles in size, and I'm getting to that point in life where I seriously ask myself whether I can finish certain games before I perish.

Still the journey is more important than reaching the destination, right? Perhaps I can treat it like an occasional walking sim.

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It’s a new year, and Xbox is kicking off January with its first batch of new Game Pass titles for 2024. This month is headlined by the additions of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and the remake of Resident Evil 2. As always, when new games enter a few must leave, and one big departure is Grand Theft Auto V in just a couple of days. Check out the full list below and check out the links to our reviews for applicable titles.

What’s Coming

Hell Let Loose (Xbox Series X/S, PC,Cloud) - January 4

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Console, PC, Cloud) - January 9 | Our Review

Figment (Console, PC, Cloud) - January 9

Super Mega Baseball 4 via EA Play (Console, PC, Cloud) - January 11 | Our Review

We Happy Few (Console, PC, Cloud) - January 11 | Our Review

Resident Evil 2 (Console, PC, Cloud) - January 16 | Our Review

Those Who Remain (Console, PC, Cloud) - January 16 

Stray Souls developer Jukai Studio is shutting down. The decision to close was in light of its publisher Versus Evil also shutting down, but the studio additionally cited cyberbullying, Stray Souls' poor reception and bad sales as contributing factors.

The studio announced it was closing in December, the same day Versus Evil closed, via a social media post (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). "We are aware you had high expectations for Stray Souls, but we never informed you that only two core individuals, along with contracted personnel, were working on the game," it said.

"We did everything in our power to bring the project to completion in the best possible form, but throughout the entire duration we, our publisher staff, other publisher dev teams and our close ones were constantly attacked by a cyber persecutor, and some of you, as our community, were also tormented with unwanted messages and emails."

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Microsoft has revealed its first batch of Game Pass titles for January.

Headlining this collection is Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Cloud, Console, and PC), which will be available from 9th January. In this instalment of Ubisoft's assassin series, players take on the role of Viking raider Eivor Varinsdottir.

Another highlight from this wave is Capcom's remake of Resident Evil 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC), which arrives on 16th January. Nothing says new year's cheer like fighting off waves of flesh-eating zombies.

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Microsoft announced the first round of new Xbox Game Pass games for January 2024, which includes Resident Evil 2 Remake. It’s one of eight games joining the service in the first half of January, including one game releasing via the EA Play service.

Here are all the initial Game Pass releases for January 2024:

• January 3, 2024: Close to the Sun (cloud, console and PC)
• January 4, 2024: Hell Let Loose (cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S)
• January 9, 2024: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (cloud, console and PC)
• January 9, 2024: Figment (cloud, console and PC)
• January 11, 2024: Super Mega Baseball 4 (cloud, console and PC – via EA Play)
• January 11, 2024: We Happy Few (cloud, console and PC – returning)
• January 16, 2024: Resident Evil 2 Remake (cloud, console and PC)
• January 16, 2024: Those Who Remain (cloud, console and PC)

AYANEO announced that it opened the Indiegogo page for its upcoming AYANEO FLIP KB and DS Windows handheld PCs. Each one has a flip up screen, with one of the two devices having a second screen like a Nintendo DS or 3DS.

At the moment, the AYANEO FLIP KB and DS page is mainly informative. It shows the two latest Windows handhelds, offering a look at how they will function and details about their specs. It also offers an option to supply an email address to be notified about other updates.

The two handhelds feature similar specs, but different bottom halves servicing different purposes. The FLIP KB model has a full keyboard, in addition to Hall joysticks, controller-style buttons, and an optical finger mouse. The FLIP DS model is the AYANEO system that more greatly resembles a Nintendo DS or 3DS. It features a second touch screen and a controller. 

As for the insides and other functions, they remain the same for both. Each one has a 120Hz, 1080p screen that is seven inches. With the DS model, its touch screen is 3.5 inches. Both use an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U. There’s also a six-axis gyroscope built into it. Both versions have 120, 150, and 180 degree positions for the screen. 

Kuro Kurenai, the only VShojo male Vtuber, is currently on a brief break. He noted that he will return to streaming as usual on January 8, 2024.

Kuro did not offer an explanation for the brief absence. However, he did note in his statement that he’ll explain upon returning. Note that this announcement also came around the 2023-2024 holiday season and happened on New Year’s Day. 

While the VShojo member is on a streaming break, it seems it isn’t a complete content blackout. On January 2, 2024, he took to social media to tweet and check in with his fanbase.

If you’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto V or GTA Online via Game Pass lately, you might need to pony up and buy a copy to sustain your criminal enterprise. Rockstar’s crime saga is expected to leave Xbox Game Pass in about two weeks.

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It’s the first month of 2024, which means it’s time for a new crop of Xbox Game Pass titles to satiate your growing appetite for games. And January’s offerings are solid, serving up everything from hundred-hour-long RPGs to survival horror remakes to quaint action-adventures and more. If you’re a Game Pass member,…

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Zack Snyder’s homage-a-thon Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire came out with a bang for Netflix, but as of today it’s barely clinging to the streamer’s top 10. If you’ve been holding out on watching (maybe you’re waiting for a binge when Part Two: The Scargiver releases April 19?), here are 10 other Netflix sci-fi…

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Persona 3 Reload, the from-the-ground-up remake of Atlus’ beloved PlayStation 2 role-playing game, is coming out on February 2. But while the 2006 classic is getting a modern retouching very soon, it won’t include everything added to the original in the updated Persona 3 Portable and Persona 3 FES editions, the former…

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On January 1, Steamboat Willie, the cartoon that introduced the world to Mickey Mouse, entered the public domain, meaning the first version of Disney’s iconic mascot is (mostly) free to use by anyone. And just like when the film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey took advantage of that whimsical character entering the public domain, someone has already started making a twisted, horrifying version of Mickey. In this case, it’s a video game.

It’s called Infestation: Origins, and it’s the debut title by Nightmare Forge Games. The game is an episodic four-player co-op survival adventure in which players control exterminators tasked with killing mutated vermin – and one of them happens to be a terrifying, person-sized monster modeled after Mickey. Similar to games like Phasmophobia and Lethal Company, you’ll rely on various tools and surveillance equipment to track the source of the infestations before neutralizing them. You’ll also have to maintain power for certain pieces of equipment while evading the giant, murderous rodents.  

Aniplex uploaded a promotional YouTube video from Aniplex promoting the sequel to the anime series The Irregular at Magic High School, and towards the end of the video, it reveals that the popular Japanese artist LiSA has been chosen to sing the opening theme song.

Back in January 2014, LiSA was announced as the artist to sing the first opening theme song of The Irregular at Magic High School. That song was her fifth single “Rising Hope.” A preview of this song is played for most of the promotional video.

Now, she has once again been chosen to sing for the anime’s second opening. A brief preview of the new song plays at the end of the video. It only comes in at about the 1:38 second mark, if you want to skip ahead and hear the new track.

You can watch the video teasing the new LiSA song for the The Irregular at Magic High School sequel below:

It isn’t uncommon for HoYoVerse to offer Honkai: Star Rail players morally dubious characters as allies. I mean, consider Kafka, Silver Wolf, Blade, Jingliu, and Luocha. There’s even a hint that Duke Inferno, who is head of the villainous Annihilation Gang and appears in recent 1.6 missions, could be playable after 2.0. But with Ruan Mei we have a new playable person in Honkai: Star Rail who is constantly questionable and doing things that are wrong, which I hate, but also became my favorite and most beloved support.

Editor’s Note: There will be Honkai: Star Rail spoilers for the 1.6 Trailblaze Continuance Missions storylines.

Gloriously grim stealth game A Plague Tale: Innocence - you know, that game with the rats - is currently free to keep over on the Epic Games Store. If you’ve somehow missed it before now, it’s well worth playing in my opinion - especially for the low price of nothing.

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Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt makers CD Projekt Red have said in no uncertain terms that they “are not interested” in being acquired by another company, while still leaving the door open for the studio to potentially acquire others in the future.

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Last year (wahey), you narrowly decided that giving items to other players is better than throwing grenades back. I feel glad for your family and friends, who doubtless received wonderful gifts for Christmas rather than regifted junk. You're a little sweetie. Well, 55% of you are little sweeties. The rest... best not to dwell. Let's open this new year with a question of beginnings. What's better: a fresh new MMO server, or Viscera Cleanup Detail's Sniffer tool?

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Den Of Wolves developers 10 Chambers have Thoughts about open betas, and whether they are genuinely designed to test for technical difficulties or are simply there to boost pre-orders. That's in addition to a grab bag of new details about the forthcoming meatpunk shooter's missions and possible map fixtures such as in-game augmented reality devices.

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Just two months after the third-person action-horror game Stray Souls came out, developer Jukai Studio abruptly shuttered its doors, citing myriad issues including poor game sales and multiple cyberattacks from an unknown perpetrator.The developer took to X/Twitter on December 22 to announce the sudden closure. Part…

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Before Starfield, before Skyrim, before Fallout 3 and Oblivion, before your parents even knew how to make you, there was The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. It was, and remains, Bethesda’s biggest-ever game, and now a fan-made rebuilding of the entire vast world in Unity has reached its 1.0 release. Oh, and it’s…

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The days of walking into a store and spending hours slowly exploring aisles of movies new and old are ending, as Best Buy’s previously reported plans to stop selling physical media begin in 2024.

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We all have our favorite franchises and one-and-done games, be it classics like Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, Tetris, or more modern series like The Last of Us, Halo, or Uncharted Others we happily play, but they don’t become go-to favorites. And then there are those games that we’re just so definitely, clearly,…

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As the games industry continues to consolidate itself through a combination of developer acquisitions and studio closures, CD Projekt Red, the beloved studio behind Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher, wants to keep the independence it has had for almost 30 years now.

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It rather beggars belief that there hasn’t been a Minecraft movie already. The Microsoft-owned behemoth is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, and seems ripe for a guaranteed $1 billion+ box office. However, despite rumors dating back as far as 2014, it wasn’t until 2022 that details seemed to…

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Twitch has updated its attire policy to prohibit implied nudity on the streaming platform, which goes into effect today.

The update is in response to a recent wave of streamers using black censor bars or items to block their bodies, implying full or partial nudity.

Twitch notes, in a new blog post on the change, "while most streamers have labelled this content appropriately with the Sexual Themes label and are wearing clothing behind the object or outside the camera frame, for many users, the thumbnails of this content can be disruptive to their experience on Twitch."

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Platform: PlayStation 5
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Release: February 29, 2024
Rating: Teen

Final Fantasy VII Remake gave fans of the original game quite a shock as Cloud and the party exited Midgar. Zack, the protagonist of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and a key figure in Cloud, Aerith, and Sephiroth's past, appears to be alive, and helped an injured Cloud reach Midgar. This stands in stark contrast to his fate in the original continuity, where he was killed and his Buster Sword was handed over to Cloud. 

Given how relaxing Netflix and Dwarf Studios’ Rilakkuma and Kaoru was, it seemed like Pokemon Concierge could be ready to also fill a cozy spot showing what life could be like with Pokemon. Now that it’s streaming on Netflix, it is truly an example of what everyday situations would be like in a world where Pokemon are all around us.

Editor's Note: There will be no Pokemon Concierge spoilers below.

Things start out in a very relatable way. Following a string of bad luck in her personal and professional life, Haru decides to start over as a concierge at a Pokemon Resort. It is a place where we see people visiting and trainers dropping of their Pokemon to relax. 

In a recent conversation with Hobonichi’s Shigesato Itoi, Shigeru Miyamoto said that he feels like he “couldn’t do anything anymore” when working in games and recalled the process which led him to him becoming a producer at Nintendo.

When Itoi asked Miyamoto for the tentative title of this talk, Miyamoto submitted the title of "I couldn't do anything, so I became a producer." Both Itoi and Miyamoto recalled their work days during the Famicom and Super Famicom era, when developing games required fewer people and smaller teams.

The developer said that it was during his late 30s and early 40s that he felt like he was unable to do any game work without a team anymore, and at the age of 60 he became a producer. However, since projects require high-level experts nowadays, Miyamoto feels like he can’t replace or provide support at the same level, even as a producer. Miyamoto said his way of leaving his mark on a project is to help and make people think “I’m glad he was there” or “I’d like to work with him next time.”

I wasn’t sure this day would ever come: Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, the once wildly popular mobile RPG in which players had to climb the Tinseltown ranks from the E-list to A-list, is shutting down. 10 years ago, this Android and iOS title dominated each store’s download charts, made gamers out of regular ol’ people,…

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Pokémon Concierge is concentrated delight and whimsy cutting through Netflix’s rancid vibes. While the streaming service has been more than willing to cut jobs within its animation branch and has opted to use AI to fill in the gaps it’s created while raising its subscription price, Concierge is such an entertaining…

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2023 felt off. Something was wrong with the vibes. And now I know what cursed the year to be so awful: Nintendo forgot about Waluigi.

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German peripherals manufacturer Roccat has made some great keyboards and mice over the years, although they're not as well known in the US as they are in their native Europe. Today that could change in a small way, as Roccat's excellent Pyro mechanical keyboard is down to $40 at Amazon US. That's 50% off its original price and a solid $10 off its usual going price, making it well worth picking up.

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Electric standing desks continue to drop in price, with this deal on the Sanodesk EP1 offering a 110x60cm maple desk and matching white frame for £76. This is an awesome price for a standing desk, even a relatively compact one like this.

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Definitely-not-an-indie-game Dave the Diver has reeled in an impressive sales milestone, just six months after the mix of fishing sim, restaurant management game and slice-of-life RPG exited Early Access.

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