Destiny 2 has been out for almost half a decade yet doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Bungie's FPS juggernaut has been able to occupy the mainstream gaming zeitgeist through its constant updates and expansions, and today we're showing off new gameplay from the hotly-anticipated Witch Queen expansion!

Switch owners can finally chill for a minute. The first Nintendo Direct of 2022 has been revealed, and it’s taking place tomorrow, February 9. The lengthy presentation will “mainly” cover games coming out in the first half of the year, so news about Breath of the Wild 2 might be a long shot, but there’s still hope.…

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Dying Light 2 was released last week and quickly became one of the most popular games on Steam, at one point hitting over 240,000 concurrent players. The open-world zombie RPG is the follow-up to the also successful Dying Light, launched back in 2016. And while game critics have had some mixed things to say about …

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It has just been announced that a new Nintendo Direct will be coming tomorrow, Feb. 9. It’ll be airing at 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET and will last about 40 minutes. The Direct will focus on Nintendo Switch releases that are set to come out in the first half of 2022.

The news comes straight from Nintendo’s Twitter account and it outlines what the presentation will be about.

Miyazaki said: "I knew immediately from talking to him, it just became apparent his skill and his passion for the fantasy genre, and for games as well. There was a little bit of a generation gap between us, so I felt a bit apprehensive about going to these talks, but after a lot of these conversations, it was just like speaking with an old friend.

"It just felt so fresh to have those conversations with someone who was so passionate about the same things, and to show that pure joy and sense of curiosity for these fantasy worlds."

Nintendo has announced that a new Nintendo Direct is happening this week, and you won't have to wait too much longer. 

That's because this Direct is happening tomorrow, February 9, at 2 p.m. PT/4 p.m. CT/5 p.m. ET. As for what to expect, Nintendo didn't name any game titles, but there's some straightforward extrapolation to be done. 

Tune in 2/9 at 2 p.m. PT for a #NintendoDirect livestream featuring roughly 40 minutes of information mainly focused on #NintendoSwitch games launching in the first half of 2022.

📺https://t.co/v0A3I7j0EE pic.twitter.com/jifj1aFIBQ

Nintendo announced that the first Nintendo Direct of the year will be held on February 9, 2022. It will take place at 2pm PT/5pm ET/11pm CET. As expected, this will go over Nintendo Switch games we’ll see in 2022 and perhaps beyond. It will only focus on Switch games expected in 2022 and beyond.

Here's the official announcement. It noted this will be one of the longer presentations, as it will be around 40 minutes.

Tune in 2/9 at 2 p.m. PT for a #NintendoDirect livestream featuring roughly 40 minutes of information mainly focused on #NintendoSwitch games launching in the first half of 2022.

https://t.co/v0A3I7j0EE pic.twitter.com/jifj1aFIBQ

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 8, 2022

In addition to North America and Europe, it will be broadcast in Japan as well. Sometimes, the Japanese version of the Directs feature different games.

The latest sales figures show that 2020's Resident Evil 3 remake has shipped over 5m units globally.

Capcom has lauded the remake's ongoing growth, citing a "digital promotion strategy that incorporated ongoing pricing measures and a focus on sales of the PC version" as the key to its success in passing this milestone.

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Today, during a livestream from Japan, Square Enix announced that its popular mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent is coming west.

According to the developers, which hosted the livestream to showcase the upcoming Japanese version 2.0.0, the release for North America and Europe will happen in 2022, with a beta test planned for the spring.

More details will be shared in mid-February, so we should be able to hear more soon. Multiple announcements for the franchise were teased at the end of the year, and this certainly qualifies as a rather exciting one.

Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent is set a few years before the original Octopath Traveler, which incidentally has recently expanded to Xbox on top of Switch and PC.

Considering how popular Octopath Traveler is, it’s certainly not surprising that Square Enix decided to localize this game for North America and Europe. They already have quite a few mobile games in English and some of them are fairly successful.

Nintendo will hold its next Direct broadcast tomorrow, 9th February at 10pm UK time - and we're hoping it's a big one.

The 40-minute briefing will be Nintendo's first of 2022, and the first major presentation of Nintendo Switch games to fans since September last year.

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With The King of Fighters XV officially releasing soon, some people may get a hold of the game earlier than others. This leads to concerns that KOF XV spoilers may begin to show up before the game's actual release date.

SNK has posted new tweets regarding KOF XV spoilers on both of its Japanese and English Twitter accounts. It asked prospective users who may obtain a game copy earlier to refrain from publishing content from the Story and Gallery modes until the game is officially out on February 17, 2022. While missing from the English post, the Japanese tweet also explicitly included "Boss Character" among the prohibited spoilers.

https://twitter.com/SNKPofficial_jp/status/1490958631420174337

KOF XV will launch with 39 playable characters, officially split into 13 teams. Kula Diamond and Elisabeth Blanctorche were the last two characters revealed, wrapping up the launch roster. SNK will add twelve more characters into the game with post-release DLC.

It's remarkable what can be created from so little. It's all the more remarkable for the number of times I've told myself I cannot create something because I don't have time. In only two-and-a-half hours at the weekend, I helped create a world from scratch and played a one-off campaign in it. To be ultra clear: nothing was prepared beforehand. In fact, the only real rule in the game was you cannot prepare beforehand. Otherwise, in You Awaken in a Strange Place, a pen-and-paper RPG, everything is created on the spot.

You establish the entire game world and rules, collaboratively, at the beginning. Individually, the game-master asks you questions that will shape the world. One person thinks of a genre, one person thinks of a place, and one person thinks of an adjective about that place. We think up "a steamy steampunk library" - you can see how on-the-spot it is.

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Last week was all about quarterly financial results for the likes of Activision Blizzard, EA, Nintendo, and PlayStation. Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar, 2K and others, released its own results today and to nobody’s surprise, Grand Theft Auto V is still selling really well. 

You might be asking who doesn’t already own GTA V? The answer is millions. Last November, Game Informer reported that GTA V had sold 5 million copies that quarter, bringing the total up to 155 million units overall. In Take-Two’s latest results, the publisher revealed that Rockstar’s GTA V has now sold 160 million units, representing another quarter where the game sold 5 million copies. 

A new compilation album with all the theme songs from the Date A Live franchise will appear on April 13, 2022. Nippon Columbia will gather songs from prior series titles in this album. It will include tracks from the first three anime seasons, the Mayuri Judgement movie, the Date A Bullet OVA, and the visual novel games.

As a refresher, Compile Heart has made four Date A Live visual novels to date. The third game Rio Reincarnation is immediately available worldwide on PC and PlayStation 4. It also includes the first two titles — Rinne Utopia and Arusu Install. The fourth game, Ren Dystopia, is currently only available on PlayStation 4 in Japan.

Here's the full tracklist for the upcoming Date A Live compilation album:

Troubled release ‘exceeded’ sales expectations Jaws were left agape when Rockstar Games released its much anticipated Grand Theft Auto: The...

The post Despite everything, Grand Theft Auto Trilogy remaster was a massive sales success appeared first on Destructoid.

SINoALICE will feature a Sanrio collaboration, which will see several of its main characters receive inspired designs. Square Enix revealed the collaboration through its official YouTube account. The video featured a short look at several of the character designs that will appear as part of the SINoALICE and Sanrio collaboration. Additionally, players will have the opportunity to receive a Hello Kitty Nightmare. The collaboration will begin on February 8 and last until February 22, 2022. The collaboration is only available to the Japanese version of the game. It has not been announced for the global version. [Thanks, Gamer!]

Players will also receive up to 800 Twilight Crystals currency during the collaboration period as part of a login bonus. Players can obtain more Twilight Crystals and various enhancement materials through collaboration quest completion. Additionally, two types of limited time summon banners will be available. Both feature a 5-step summon. Characters that will receive Sanrio inspired designs include Alice, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Hamelin.

You can see the full designs in the video below.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQsP_yVabuo&ab_channel=SINoALICE%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%8E%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B9%E5%85%AC%E5%BC%8F%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8D%E3%83%AB[/embed]

If you have played Bioshock Infinite's Burial at Sea DLC you will have no doubt witnessed a boy dancing on the Parisian streets as he joyously holds a stick of French bread aloft (he is not exactly hard to miss). While a charming inclusion in its own right, the mastermind behind Bioshock's "Bread Boy" has now revealed more insight into why he is there.

It was a simple fan post from Twitter user Pocklecool that once more brought "Bread Boy" back to the fore of our minds, commenting on the fact that the game's shorthand for being in Paris was a small boy delightedly twirling a baguette in his arms. The tweet, perhaps understandably, blew up, catching the attention of Gwen Frey.

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Rockstar Games has confirmed that development on GTA 6--or whatever the next entry in the series is called--is "well underway," prompting a lot of discussion and excitement in the gaming world. Strauss Zelnick, the head of Rockstar's parent company Take-Two, has now shed a little more light on the project, or at least the environment surrounding it.

Speaking to GI.biz, Zelnick was asked if there was any concern that a new GTA could negatively impact GTA V, which continues to sell incredibly well so long into its lifecycle. Not only that, but Rockstar is re-releasing the game, again, for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in March. But Zelnick said a new GTA is warranted because it's what fans are asking for.

"You always have to be willing to be fresh," Zelnick said. "You always have to be willing to bring consumers what they want. The minute you try to protect the past, you become irrelevant."

Zelnick also said he expects GTA V will continue to perform well in the market even when the next new GTA game comes out.

"I'm thrilled Rockstar's working on the next iteration of Grand Theft Auto. I have no doubt it will be just great, and there's every evidence to believe from the past that the Grand Theft Auto catalog will also continue to perform," he said.

Bandai Namco and Sunrise announced an organizational change that will take effect on April 1, 2022. The holding company will merge its movie-producing subsidiaries — including Sunrise — to form a new company named Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. While Sunrise will lose its name, Bandai Namco promised that it will retain its individuality as a brand.

This merger will be part of a larger reorganization that produces two new companies. Bandai Namco Rights Marketing and Bandai Namco Arts' movie division will also merge into Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. At the same time, the holding company will combine Sunrise Music with Bandai Namco Music Creative and Bandai Namco Arts' music division to form Bandai Namco Music Live Inc.

Sunrise is a Japanese anime studio best known for creating the Gundam, Code Geass, and Love Live! franchises. It originally appeared as a standalone limited company named Sunrise Studio in 1972. It then became a Bandai subsidiary in April 1994. After fully acquiring Sotsu in March 2020, Bandai Namco now has complete ownership of the Gundam franchise.

Since its debut in 1995, Neon Genesis Evangelion has spawned piles and piles of merch. Figures, t-shirts, stickers, coffee cups—you name it. An endless supply of stuff like that is normal. But Evangelion also has other things, like wedding rings.

Last fall, wedding rings inspired by the Spear of Cassius from Evangelion…

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The official video game of the US Army, used in part for recruiting efforts, is coming to a close. America's Army: Proving Grounds will shut down on May 5, after eight years of ongoing support, the Army has announced in a post on the game's forums.

In its announcement, the Army said the free-to-play game was the first large-scale use of video game technology for recruitment and communication when it launched years ago. The franchise has three main installments and reached more than 20 million players; the latest version, Proving Grounds, was released in 2013.

But the game has now "fulfilled its mission" and is winding down. Going forward, the Army said it will shift its focus to "other new and innovative ways" to communicate and recruit would-be soldiers.

"None of this would have been possible without our players, so thank you for your dedication and continued support throughout these years," the Army said. "We look forward to what the future could hold for AA, and encourage you to stay tuned for future announcements on the series."

Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games, has announced new sales numbers for Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption II, and both games continue to soar.

As part of Take-Two's latest earnings briefing, the company announced that GTA V has now sold a breathtaking 160 million copies since it originally launched in 2013. The entire franchise, meanwhile, has surpassed 370 million units sold.

Take-Two boasted that GTA V reached $1 billion in retail sales faster than any entertainment release--across gaming or any other industry--in history. It's also the best-selling game of the past decade in the US for both unit and dollar sales.

GTA V will keep growing, as Rockstar is releasing the game on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 15. Recently, Rockstar began to discuss what fans can expect from the new version, including 4K/60fps support.

The base game is just one factor in GTA V's success. The game's popular and lucrative GTA Online multiplayer mode is still thriving, and Take-Two said Rockstar's commitment to regularly updating the game to keep things fresh has been one of the reasons for its ongoing success.

A standalone version of GTA Online will be available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 15 as well, and PlayStation players can download it free for the first three months.

Also during the call, Take-Two announced that Rockstar's other big game, Red Dead Redemption II, has now sold about 43 million copies. The entire series has moved 65 million units, which means the original Red Dead Redemption sold around 22 million copies.

In other news, Rockstar just recently confirmed that GTA 6 is in development and is "well underway."

Capcom announced sales for the Resident Evil 3 remake have surpassed 5 million copies worldwide. The sales figure was announced through the official Japanese Resident Evil Twitter account. The developer also thanked those who have continued to support the Resident Evil series. In April 2020, Capcom revealed that worldwide sales for the Resident Evil 3 remake had surpassed 2 million copies just five days after its release. It appears as though the remake continues to sell, albeit far slower than other recent entries in the series.

That said, the remake has well surpassed the amount of total copies shipped for the original release of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis sold roughly 3.5 million units during its lifetime. However, the Resident Evil series has recently seen a resurgence. For example, Resident Evil 7 has sold over 10 million units worldwide since its January 2017 release. The most recent entry, Resident Evil Village, has sold approximately 5.7 million units as of February 2022.

Nintendo's hugely-successful Fire Emblem Heroes is close to a spending total of $1bn, five years on from its launch in February 2017.

Sales data provided to Eurogamer by app-tracking firm Sensor Tower shows the game has racked up more than $959m in global sales across the iPhone App Store and Google Play to date.

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There will be a The Quintessential Quintuplets collaboration event at The Capcom Cafe Ikebukuro, Tokyo location. The collaboration will begin on February 25, 2022 and will include exclusive merchandise and menu items. In commemoration of this event, there is a new main visual featuring the Nakano quintuplets. This key visual shows the five girls in classic waitress outfits.

Capcom Cafe's The Quintessential Quintuplets event will run from February 25, 2022 to April 14, 2022. This means that it will start right after the Haikyuu!! collaboration event that is ongoing at the time of writing. It is possible to make online reservations to guarantee a table at the cafe, though it is not mandatory. Booking a table in advance may help the store’s precautionary efforts against COVID-19, however.

Many Fortnite fans may be left disappointed, as it has been revealed that Epic's battle royale will not be making a showing on Valve's Steam Deck.

Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, was recently asked by Twitter user Stormy178 if there were "any plans to update [Fortnite] to make Proton/Wine be compatible with EAC and BattleEye anti-cheat on Linux?". To this, Sweeney replied with a swift no. He did, however, reiterate there is a "big effort underway to maximize Easy Anti Cheat compatibility with Steam Deck" (via PC Gamer).

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Yet another hololive VTuber is ready to make her way into the physical world, as Good Smile Company opened up pre-orders for a Nendoroid of Shirakami Fubuki. Pre-orders will close on March 17, 2022. She will cost ¥7,299 for those in Japan and ship out in August 2022. Meanwhile, those in North America can buy her for $72.99 and receive her some time in October 2022.

Similar to most Nendoroid figures, the Shirakami Fubuki Nendoroid will have three face plates. These include a standard expression, a smiling expression, and a happy blushing expression. Optional parts include Fubuchun, a cob of corn, a bottle of tea, and Oruyanke. Fubuchun and Oruyanke are both Shirakami Fubuki’s mascots. The Nendoroid will also come with ears and tail parts for you to better express her different emotions. Lastly, she will have her own unique stand for you to display her on.

Here are some more pictures of the Shirakami Fubuki Nendoroid:

[gallery columns="5" link="file" ids="915369,915370,915371,915372,915373"]

Founded in 1972, Sunrise Inc. is one of Japan’s most famous anime studios. The studio’s corporate name will be no more starting this spring.

IT Media reports that Sunrise will become Bandai Namco Filmworks as of April 1st 2022. Bandai Namco Arts and Bandai Namco Marketing will merge with Sunrise to form the new entity.…

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“I’ve made it,” monologues a goblin, donning chainmail and spiked shoulderpads in the changing rooms. “Finally. After all these years of hardship. After everything they told me. I will show them that even I can be the best player.”

The pitch suitably set for bathos, no series fan will be surprised by what happens next. No sooner has our protagonist left the tunnel than he’s launched skyward by a backhand from an ogre. In the match’s opening moments, he sees more airtime than the ball. And shortly afterwards, he’s a footnote, prone in the grass as much larger - and better armed - humanoids pound the earth around his limp form.

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