Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the games that saved our sanity in 2020, but not everyone plays it every day. Maybe you found something else to play on your Switch or just got tired of the daily grind—and that’s okay! But you may notice your island looks a bit different when you come back.
Three years on from its initial release, NieR: Automata is still shifting units. Publisher Square Enix announced that its emotional tale of robo-dystopia has successfully passed the milestone of a recorded five million shipments and digital sales since its launch back in February 2017.
Available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, (though the latter did require a variety of fan fixes to achieve a stable state), NieR: Automata is a spin-off from the Drakengard series and tells the story of a miserable proxy war between alien forces and the dwindling army of human-created androids left defending what remains of the planet. NieR: Automata blends deep RPG mechanics with developer Platinum Games' trademark hack 'n' slash action.
In case you missed it, Famitsu checked in with a ton of high-profile Japanese game developers on what they have planned for the new year (and beyond), and a few of them have a few interesting things to say.
One of the responses that really caught my eye was from Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki "Yoshi P" Yoshida, who is going into 2021 with an "open mind" and a busy schedule. According to Yoshida, "2021 will be the busiest year of [his] career." Yoshida notes, "I'd like to make it a year in which I can deliver surprise and excitement to gamers and players, while also paying attention to my health."
Given how tirelessly he works on Final Fantasy XIV, I'd say that's a good idea. But it's not just XIV that's going to have announcements, as he's also working on Final Fantasy XVI. We can likely expect the new XIV expansion announcement in February, as well as more news about XVI.
So what else is happening at Square? Well, Bravely Default producer Tomoya Asano hopes that Bravely Default II is a success, at which point they can "prepare for the next one," which could be Bravely Default Third/III or something else. FFVII Remake co-lead Yoshinori Kitase says that "developments are in preparation" for the follow-up, but we need to wait a little longer for those details.
On the Talking Games with Reggie & Harold podcast, Former President of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime talked about his brief meeting with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian-West. Apparently, Kanye stopped by the Nintendo booth at E3 many years ago, spent time with the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto, and asked to meet with Reggie. The two visionaries sat down with each other in Kanye West's fashion office in Calabasas, California where the famed rapper-producer would ultimately voice his interest in partnering with Nintendo to create a new video game.
Reggie recalled that the meeting was "interesting" and felt that "Kanye [had] such a passion for the video game space." Despite this praise, Reggie politely declined Kanye's pitch. "We had so many different projects at Nintendo going on, the possibility of doing something with Kanye just wasn't there, and so I had to find a way to politely decline this opportunity to work with him." Reggie remembered telling West that Nintendo would be incredibly difficult to work with because of its commitment to high quality content and West replied enthusiastically stating, "Reggie, you're exactly the type of partner I want because of that reason!"
The Mega Man X Rising Fire model kit we first learned about back in May 2020 will show up in stores in June 2021. It looks pretty hot!
The post You Can Build the Mega Man X Rising Fire Model Kit in June appeared first on Siliconera.
Starlit Season's live performance scenes will be shown in a new live stream set to air on January 17, 2021.
The post The New Idolmaster: Starlit Season Stream Will Show In-game Performances appeared first on Siliconera.
While most Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons are still focusing on European and American locations, some third-party developers are looking at more exotic destinations.
True to their name, the folks at Simulación Extrema enjoy creating locations a bit further off the beaten path, which includes their latest release, Easter Island.
The package includes the island’s airport Mataveri, and is now available on SimMarket priced at $21
You can check out a trailer, a series of screenshots, and an official description below.
Square Enix has been sharing samples from the music of its upcoming NieR mobile game NieR: Re[in]carnation.
The music, which comes from the talented mind of the series’ composer Keeichi Okabe, sounds really lovely, as you would expect.
You can check out four different tracks in the videos below.
From loving submission to the Golden Perfect
Every time my viking hero Eivor dies in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, she returns to life drunk. This is a known bug that the developers appear primed to patch, but in trying to just bear with it last night, I somehow made it worse. Though, in this case, “worse” also means “better.” And now I’m conflicted about whether I…
The stress and upheaval of 2020 has sent all of us searching for different ways to cope. And while there is merit in seeking therapy, or striving to get outside more, or taking up a new hobby, many of have also turned to our devices to help ease the pressure.
While recognizing the enormous privilege involved in…
The final UK Charts of 2020 have been released, and see Electronic Arts' football sim FIFA 21 sitting pretty at number one, just missing out on the coveted Christmas Number One position by a mere week. That title belongs to Ubisoft's viking adventure Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Understandably, much of the Top Ten is occupied by December's big sellers, such as Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Sony's Spider-Man Miles Morales, CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077, and Ubisoft's perennial Holiday success Just Dance 2021. Nintendo is represented by Switch releases Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario 3D All-Stars, with the Switch port of the iconic Minecraft rounding out the Top Ten.
2020 has seen physical sales down on all major releases, even from some of the most reputable and reliable franchises. As the industry prepares for another year of uncertainty - along with a brand new generation of gaming consoles - it's an inarguable inevitability that video game buyers will continue to push toward digital purchases into 2021 and beyond.
I'm not sure I would've crossed paths with Solitairica were it not for this whole 15 Days of Free Games promo over on the Epic Games Store, but yeah, I'll take it – a roguelike RPG riff on Solitaire sounds fun.
If you're of a similar mind – or you just like to claim free stuff – the deadline is tomorrow morning.
Solitairica is a spell-casting turn-based strategy game with offensive and defensive maneuvering on top of a familiar card-game foundation, and there are extra progression hooks, including unlockable decks and card upgrades, to lessen the sting of promising runs that just fall apart. We meet again, RNG.
There are only two more PC games left to go in the Epic Store's 2020 holiday giveaway: Torchlight II on December 30, and Jurassic World Evolution on December 31. I hope you got everything you wanted.
Remember Blood & Truth? Well, I don't blame you if you're confused. It came out in the before times, and was a PSVR exclusive: I bet a lot of people missed it. Well, the gist is that it's a British gangster homage with VR gunplay and an action focus.
It was fun, but ultimately held back by the limitations of PSVR and the Move remotes: I felt like it would be better served on a more unchained platform like the Valve Index or the Oculus Rift/Quest. While we likely won't see the Sony studio branch out beyond PSVR, we could get a more advanced VR game on PS5, if their VFX lead's LinkedIn page is anything to go by.
While the listing for the PS5 game is vague (we don't know if it's VR, even though it likely could be), we now know that they're working on a new title. Hiring seems to be a go, for what they are calling the "next big title" from the studio.
I say bring it on. With new tech, VR could push the PSVR further. I just hope Sony does something about the outdated Move remotes at some point if they really want to keep selling VR experiences.
David Skilton [LinkedIn via DualShockers]
Make sure you're sitting down for this news: The PlayStation 5 is off to a tremendous start. This probably won't take you by surprise; it was nearly impossible to find a PS5 (or Xbox Series X for that matter) anytime around launch. Demand was definitely greater than supply.
According to a Digitimes report (which is behind a paywall but was reported on by Gematsu), Sony will be able to significantly up its manufacturing to meet the PS5's considerable demand. It expects to reach upwards of 18 million sales by the end of 2021. A big lift in the manufacturing numbers comes from AMD who will be able to nab additional resources for producing the custom CPU.
Thus far, Sony has managed 3.4 million sales in the first four weeks that the PS5 was on the market. That is certainly the entirety of the available stock, with the lion's share of the sales going to North America and Europe. That's already enough to be deemed "the highest [launch window sales] ever for a PlayStation console," but it would've been a whole lot more without supply chain logistics bottlenecking everything.
PS5 shipments to reach 16.8-18 million units in 2021 [Digitimes via Gematsu]
The Halo Infinite gameplay footage proved to be lackluster to large number of waiting fans. In response to the graphical complants, 343 Industries got to work optimizing their game for next-gen players by delaying the game to Fall 2021. Neill Harrison, director of art management at 343, stated "Much of the feedback we heard from the community aligned with our own views and work we were already committed to doing around things like indirect lighting, material response, foliage and tree rendering, clouds, level-of-detail transitions, and character fidelity." He would go on to say that "the feedback was humbling, and it also pushed us to look at additional opportunities for improvement."
When it comes to Hitman VR, IO Interactive owes a lot to the game Firewall: Zero Hour, the PlayStation VR game from First Contact Entertainment.
As Eksil Møhl, a senior game designer at IO, tells it, the studio's interest in VR started two years ago with his coworker Oliver Winding, a senior writer at the company. One day, Winding approached Møhl, asking him to come over. He wanted Møhl to try out his new PlayStation VR. Møhl was taken with the system, going out and buying his own as a Christmas present to himself. And that's when he played Firewall. Like Winding, Møhl wanted to show off the PlayStation VR headset. He took it to the IO office, showing his coworkers, and having them play Firewall. As luck would have it, people at IO Interactive shared his enthusiasm, including lead game designer Sidsel Hermansen, who recalls that people at the office "couldn’t stop playing."
"We just had to play, play, play," Hermansen says.
This past August, IO announced it was bringing the World of Assassination trilogy to the PlayStation VR, updating the first two games, Hitman 1 and 2, to support the technology, as well as developing the upcoming Hitman 3 with VR in mind. According to Møhl and Hermansen, it was the excitement the studio had over games like Firewall that led the team to making its own VR mode for Hitman.
The Resident Evil movie reboot is one step closer to being ready for its 2021 premiere. In a tweet posted on the official Resident Evil movie page, the filming has finally been completed. The reboot was announced in 2017, and despite 2020 being an unprecedented year (and particularly harsh on both the cinema and video games industries), the Resident Evil movie is still going strong. In previous months the ensemble cast was announced and exciting set photos emerged. Additionally, a release date was revealed with the movie slated for a Fall 2021 launch.
That’s a wrap in Raccoon City. 🎬
diREcted by Johannes Roberts pic.twitter.com/9HdIf7shs2
Geese, Terry, and other notable Fatal Fury fighters arrive on the Nintendo Switch in an almost perfect port.
The post Fatal Fury First Contact Is an Almost Perfect Port of the Classic appeared first on Siliconera.
miHoYo shared how many Genshin Impact slimes and hilichurls have been beaten by players so far, as well as discussed some notable Oceanid fights.
The post People Killed 14 Billion Genshin Impact Slimes (So Far) appeared first on Siliconera.
2020 was a shit year for a lot of things, but a bunch of really good games came out during it. And not just your run-of-the-mill, extremely playable, very good games, but a ton of truly special ones.
Respawn Entertainment is keeping busy as of late. As it should be! This is a studio that has proven itself time and time again in recent years, cementing itself as one of EA's most valuable development teams thanks to the success of games like Titanfall 2, Apex Legends, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Thanks to a job listing, we know that one of Respawn's newest projects won't be something we're already familiar with. A role for a software engineer mentions that Respawn is looking for someone to "join a small new team being formed to develop a brand new IP." That could mean absolutely anything. The sky's the limit.
As for Respawn's current affairs, Apex Legends became so successful that EA opened a Canadian branch specifically to focus on that battle royale. Also, it seems as though more Star Wars Jedi titles are in the works, and that a new Titanfall isn't an imminent priority. This new IP will be, at a minimum, the third thing that Respawn is tackling all at once.
Generalist Software Engineer -- New IP Incubation Team [Respawn Entertainment]
We're at the point in 2020 where we're celebrating the best of the best (or the worst of the worst!). It's an interesting time for takes, and that includes this recent, and interesting, "Best of 2020" award from Famitsu.
The outlet, using their influence, managed to corral 132 game developers, as well as gaming celebrities ("voice actors" is a descriptor used, but a few illustrators and entertainers voted) to choose the best titles of 2020. As they point out, Death Stranding took 2019's top honors, with Marvel's Spider-Man nabbing the award in 2018: so the winner doesn't have to be a Japanese studio.
This year, interestingly enough, a game about Japan by a western studio took it: Ghost of Tsushima. In second place was Animal Crossing: New Horizons, followed by Final Fantasy VII Remake, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout.
You can check out the full rundown here, which publicly lists the folks involved with the process (with studios from Arc System Works to Square Enix participating).
Famitsu Game Awards 2020 [Famitsu]
Curious about the Crash Team Racing Switch version? Nintendo Switch Online subscribers can test it out for a week.
The post Crash Team Racing Nintendo Switch Online Free Trial Announced appeared first on Siliconera.
In related news, you will also be able to make and sell your own Idolmaster merchandise through BOOTH.
The post The Idolmaster: P Greeting Kit Will Let You Make a Producer Card appeared first on Siliconera.
It didn’t feel like it, what with a major pandemic and massive financial crisis, but 2020 was actually an incredible year for gadgets. For companies like Apple and Microsoft, this could have been a landmark year were it not for everything else going on. While the competition for our attention this year was steep,…
In today's contest you can win a copy of Wingspan for Nintendo Switch!
Apparently, Wingspan was a pretty big hit in the realm of board games. Who'da thunk that a game about collecting birds would wind up as such a banger? It's wild.
Anyway, enough stallin' -- we've got some Switch copies of the official video game adaptation to give away!
Nintendo highlighted the best-selling indie games of 2020 on Nintendo Switch, and not to guilt-trip you or anything, but I'm curious: how many of these did you manage to play? Anything slip by? Any to-dos?
Here's the list of games, in order of appearance:
We could get into which of these games are truly "indie" in spirit, but they're all keepers.
I left Spiritfarer hanging somewhere in the middle of the story, and I still feel bad about it. (Don't worry, I'm planning to return.) Of the stuff I haven't checked out yet but am open to playing, the mind-bending puzzles of Superliminal and the soothing ARPG vibes of CrossCode are speaking to me the most.
Otherwise, there's a little bit of everything on this list – Castlevania-style platforming, calm rice farming, party-game hijinks, a goofy sports game and a comparatively serious one, and the untouchable Hades.
Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! sales keep chugging along.
The post Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! Sales Reach 1.5 Million appeared first on Siliconera.
Click here to watch embedded media
If you play Apex Legends, then you know Pathfinder. He's a high-mobility character with incredibly cheery voice lines. Even when he obliterates entire teams, it's hard to get mad at the lovable oaf. Despite being one of the game's most popular personalities, Respawn has never released an official backstory description for him. Based on in-game loading screens as well as his boxing glove heirloom, many fans suspected that Pathfinder was a ring fighter long before he took part in the Apex games. Today, however, these speculations were finally laid to rest. It turns out that Pathfinder worked as a custodian and waiter in his early years.
In a new "Stories from the Outlands" cinematic, Pathfinder gets in trouble with the local mafia and somehow ends up fighting a multitude of Spectre robots atop a high-speed shuttle in the pouring rain - I mean, what did you expect? Pathfinder not only helps a retired cop make strides in his investigation of the legendary criminal, Caustic, he also discovers that he's no ordinary robot (we already knew this, of course). Watch the ridiculous trailer above.
Look, considering the “Skywalker Saga” (to be clear, you’re absolutely a narc if you call it that) came to a close last December, 2020 was still a banner year when it comes to Star Wars merchandise. Between The Mandalorian merch finally hitting in full force after a slight delay, a whole bunch of killer releases to…
2021 is just around the corner, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons is ringing in the new year with a couple of new seasonal items. Four New Year-themed food items have now been added to the Nook Shopping catalog, but you only have a few days to grab them.
From now until December 31, you can order the sparkling cider (1,000 Bells), Twelve-grape dish (1,200 Bells), Berliner (1,200 Bells), and New Year's noodles (1,300 Bells). Like other limited-time items, these can be found in the Seasonal tab of the Nook Shopping catalog.
Hi, everyone! If you're looking for fun ways to ring in the new year, I hear that Nook Shopping is offering all kinds of neat items from around the world right now. I'm personally looking forward to some New Year's noodles. Yum! Get those orders in ASAP! pic.twitter.com/wlmBTiegga
— Isabelle (@animalcrossing) December 26, 2020
On top of the New Year's foods, you also still have a few more days to claim this month's other seasonal items: the Aurora wall and the Midwinter sweater. Both will be available to purchase from the Seasonal tab until December 31. The Aurora wall costs 7,000 Bells, while the Midwinter sweater runs for 1,200 Bells.
Continue Reading at GameSpotAs threatened earlier in December, CD Projekt S.A. is being taken to court in the United States over claims that the bug-ridden state of Cyberpunk 2077's PS4 and Xbox One releases were hidden from investors, causing them to incur losses. Now the company has responded to acknowledge the class action suit, with a brief statement saying it will defend itself vigorously.
The class action refers to Cyberpunk 2077's release on PS4 and Xbox One, which ranged from incredibly buggy to literally unplayable. The issues encountered by players on these consoles led to CD Projekt Red putting out a statement that invited unhappy players to seek a refund, and later caused Sony to remove the game from the PlayStation store in a rare move. These issues caused CD Projekt stock prices to plummet, with the company's founders losing approximately $1 billion in value off their joint share.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the game we needed in 2020, providing a cute world to escape to with friends as the world was shutting down due to the global pandemic. Now, Nintendo is releasing the snazzy Dodo Airlines Pilot Jacket as a real piece of merchandise that you can wear to match your Animal Crossing character.
Number 11 on our #12DayCountDown: stay warm and stylish with this #AnimalCrossing Dodo Pilot Jacket now available at #NintendoNYC! pic.twitter.com/QG9Il7vbQC
— Nintendo NY (@NintendoNYC) December 23, 2020
While the real-life Dodo Pilot Jacket was announced by the brick and mortar Nintendo store in New York City, it's also available from the online Nintendo store at a price of $80. The jacket is entirely based off the in-game DAL Pilot Jacket, with patches on the front and right sleeves, a zipper pouch in the left sleeve and a large Dodo applique on the back. It joins a Dodo Airlines t-shirt and cap, as well as a handful of similar Nook Inc. merchandise.
Following the reveal of Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation’s new girl Lobelia, Koei Tecmo released a full trailer introducing her.
Lobelia is an aristocratic heiress acquainted with Fiona. She has come to the island to pursue her own mischievous plans, and now it’s the owner’s turn to deal with her.
You can check her out in the trailer below.
Do keep in mind that Lobelia’s introduction doesn’t mean that you can unlock her immediately unless you’re willing to pay cold hard cash for the opportunity.
The new character is already available exclusively via a paid gacha with the usual ridiculous 0.78% chance to get the SSR you need, and she likely won’t be available in non-paid gacha for several months.
The good news is that the previously-released bookish girl Tsukushi is now very likely to appear for the first time in a free gacha. It didn’t happen with the New Year event, but it should be soon.
Today Capcom released two TV commercials of the upcoming Monster Hunter game Monster Hunter Rise.
The commercials come in the standard Japanese commercial durations, which are usually thirty and fifteen seconds, showing off plenty of monsters and the game’s world.
You can check them out below.
Monster Hunter Rise will release exclusively for Nintendo Switch on March 26, 2021.
Editor's note: Take a breath. We're almost there. 2020's been quite the year, and it's very nearly over. Across the festive break, members of the Eurogamer team and our contributors will be running down their personal top five games of 2020, before we announce our game of the year - and before, of course, we hand over to you for the annual Reader's Top 50. Thanks for being with us this year, and see you on the other side.
In this unnaturally long year, I found myself seeking out games whose worlds were filled with quiet, relaxing, magic. It's the kind of magic that, rather than bombarding you with rules and consequences, slowly envelopes you until the barrier between it and what might be considered normal has dissolved entirely. These games helped me forget what was happening around the world for a while, transporting me instead to places where the wonderfully bizarre is commonplace.
In Spiritfarer I found the magic of discovery; nearly every island has something you need hidden away somewhere on its shores and I started keeping notes on which lands I hadn't been able to fully explore, so that I wouldn't forget to revisit them. Even the sea has its own secrets - I love sailing through the patches of endless night, because the music and change in atmosphere create the idea that, for a short while, you're gazing upon the true nature of this world. My favourite part of Spiritfarer, however, was, in a year where I've spent six months in the same room, it made me feel helpful. You're not just ferrying the dead, you're healing their wounds, soothing their demons and finding the perfect way to help their souls finally rest.