January 2022

Today Koei Tecmo announced its financial results for the first nine months of the fiscal year that will end on March 31, 2022.

The company announced that it achieved record results for both sales and profits with strong performances of both console and mobile games.

As a result, the profit target of the company’s medium-term management plan (which was expected to take three years) was reached in one year. The full-fiscal year earning forecast has been revised upward, and the medium-term management plan will be revised in April.

For the whole company, net sales were 55,327 million yen, up 25.9% year-on-year. Operating income was 27,127 million yen, up 40.1% year-on-year.

The Entertainment business, which includes both console and mobile games, achieved 52,357 million yen in sales and 26,583 million yen in operating income. Compared to respectively 41,465 million and 19,103 million in the previous year. Sales of console games and mobile games pretty much split that pie in half.

We also learn that Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water achieved 340,000 units shipped worldwide by December 31, while Blue Reflection: Second Light is at 120,000. Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires shipped 150,000 units, but only sales in Japan and Asia are counted.

The official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube account has uploaded a video of a Sonic plush taking a stroll outside. The video is part of a new "A Day in the Life of Sonic" video series where the character visits various real-life locations in Japan. The first video features Sonic visiting a local shrine in Shinagawa, Japan. [Thanks, Gamer!]

The video series started with the idea of putting Sonic the Hedgehog into everyday situations. In its inaugural video, Sonic takes a short visit to a local Japanese shrine as part of the new year ritual. Sega reportedly plans to upload videos regularly throughout the year. Furthermore, the official YouTube account is open to any recommendations or ideas of where to visit next. Users with ideas can comment in the YouTube video's replies for a chance to be selected.

Similarly, the Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account recently posted pictures of a Tails plush during a mountain hike from last year. This could indicate that characters plushes other than Sonic could appear in the video series at a later date.

You can check out the A Day in the Life of Sonic video below:

https://youtu.be/QDIDswLV4A8

UPDATE 3pm UK: A reveal of Final Fantasy 7 Remake part two is due this year.

Yoshinori Kitase was speaking during an anniversary event in Japan. "We are hard at work on Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis, so please look forward to that. In addition, with regards to the long awaited Final Fantasy 7 Remake [Part 2]… there will be more information… this year if we can," he said.

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Pokémon Legends: Arceus has become another big sales success story for the franchise - just two months after last November's Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Indeed, Legends: Arceus shifted more boxed copies in the UK than last year's pair of remakes, and is now the fourth-biggest boxed Pokémon launch in the UK of all time - behind Sun/Moon, Sword/Shield and Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby.

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I've been sucked into Vampire Survivors like a stream of blood pouring into a fanged mouth. I've done well in the game and I've done badly, and what I've come to realise is that every time, I'm playing for one moment. One moment which entirely changes the course of the game: power evolution.

I hope you read that in a dramatic voice.

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Hidetaka Miyazaki loves poison swamps, even if you don't.

The Souls games are notorious for including dark, dank swamp areas filled with toxic enemies: the nightmarish Valley of Defilement in Demon's Souls, or the endless depths of Blighttown in Dark Souls.

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Sony has announced its first State of Play broadcast of 2022 - for this Wednesday, 2nd February at 10pm UK time.

The show will focus specifically on Gran Turismo 7, due for PS4 and PS5 on 4th March. Expect 30 minutes of new PS5 footage and gameplay details this week.

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Intel’s Arc graphics cards are, despite apparent delays, likely to launch this year. And not just with the expectation of being good GPUs, but with the hope that they can fix one of the biggest vexations in PC gaming: a years-long component shortage that’s made all of the best graphics cards nearly impossible to buy at fair prices.

Intel graphics chief Raja Koduri is at least well aware of the pressure, tweeting that the company is “working hard to find a path towards the mission - getting millions of Arc GPUs into the hands of PC gamers every year.” Koduri was responding to an open letter from our friends at PC Gamer, calling on Intel to finally toss an escape rope down the hardware hellmouth we’ve all found ourselves trapped in. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger also responded, claiming “We’re on it.”

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The Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII will be made into a digital clock. Square Enix announced production of this unique piece of merchandise and has slated it for a 2022 release. However, Square Enix did not provide a price for the Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword digital clock. The company did release a single image of the clock, though. It features a look at the stand the clock will potentially arrive with, along with several other details. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

The Buster Sword clock will have the time display set into the blade of the sword, and both Materia slots glow. The stand features a small Final Fantasy VII placard. However, Square Enix states that the design of the clock may change before the final release of the product. You can take a look at the released image below.

[embed]https://twitter.com/SQEX_MD_GOODS/status/1488074580820377600[/embed]

According to a message from Final Fantasy VII Remake Creative Director Tetsuya Nomura, and Producer Yoshinori Kitase, Square Enix has plans to release other Final Fantasy VII related projects in the future. However, information as to what these projects could entail has not been revealed. That said, Square Enix will be releasing more Final Fantasy VII related projects alongside already announced titles like Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis.

Nihon Falcom has delayed the release of the The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel anime. Originally scheduled for 2022 release, the anime will instead arrive in 2023. Additionally, the anime now has a full title. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War will be produced by Tatsunoko Production. Hidekazu Sato will serve as Director on the project. His past works include Aquarion Logos and Last Hope. There is no word on a potential English release at this time. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel anime will star an original protagonist, a girl by the name of Lavie. The anime will take place in North Ambria, which is located in the northwestern part of the Zemuria continent. The story will focus on the narrative of the original Trails of Cold Steel series. However, it will be told from the perspective of Lavie. More information about the anime will appear in the future.

In March 2021, Nihon Falcom announced The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel would receive an animated adaptation. Details regarding the adaptation were scarce outside of the several production companies involved.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War is in production. It will release sometime in 2023.

During the Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia 4th anniversary livestream, Square Enix revealed Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin protagonist Jack Garland will appear in the mobile game. However, a release date for the character has yet to appear. That said, during the Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia livestream, Producer Jin Fujiwara mentions that Jack won't be the only Stranger of Paradise character to potentially appear in the title. An archived version of the livestream is immediately available to view through Twitch. The announcement appears on screen around the 25 minute mark.

In an interview, Fujiwara teased that Jack could potentially appear as a global first character in Opera Omnia. However, more information as to when Jack will appear, and if he'll be a global first character, will arrive at a later date. Other global first characters have included Cor Leonis from Final Fantasy XV and Beatrix from Final Fantasy IX.

Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia is a mobile game set within the established Dissidia universe. Characters from a wide variety of Final Fantasy games appear throughout the story. Players can obtain characters through Lost Chapters, story progression, or by obtaining their weapon.

Square Enix announced a FFXIV Letter from the Producer LIVE, which will discuss the future of the MMO. It will air on February 18, 2022 at 6pm PT/9pm ET/3am CET. Viewers in Japan can watch the broadcast on February 19, 2022 at 11am. The broadcast will be held over Twitch, YouTube, and Japanese streaming platform NicoNico. Additionally, it will feature live Japanese to English interpretation.

As mentioned previously, the FFXIV Letter from the Producer LIVE will detail the next 10 years of the MMO, or at least what the developers will potentially have in store for the future. The broadcast will have roughly two parts. The first part will focus on the future of Final Fantasy XIV. The second part will be a Q&A segment with the developers. The segment will answer questions users have about the Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker expansion, which they can submit through the official forums.

YouTuber Handy Geng noticed that all his buddies had bigger power banks than his. “I’m not so happy with that,” he writes. It bothered him! In the video below, he claims he could not sleep. So Handy Geng decided to change that by building the biggest power bank of all.

Handy Geng put his D.I.Y. skills to the test,…

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Japan’s pachinko industry, a bulwark in the country’s amusement industry, has been hit hard during the pandemic.

According to pachinko news site Green Belt, nearly 640 pachinko parlors closed in 2021. As of December 2021, there were 7,637 pachinko parlors affiliated with the Japan Amusement Business Cooperation.

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A tweet from last week asked developers: "What's in your game graveyard? Games that were cancelled or no one can play anymore?" What followed was a wonderful, melancholic list of delights we will never get to play again, or never had the chance to play at all. Battleborn came up, and a Disney Infinity sequel. But also beloved XNA games and YA interactive fictions. The deeper you go, the more thrilling these games start to sound, the richness and imagination that is forever out of reach. I read and read and it was like descending through coral - all this brightness and life swimming past untouchable.

Games that are no longer available - and games that never made it to release - are a unique sadness to creators, I imagine, and a uniquely tantalising vision to players like me. I hope it's not wrong that those two responses coexist. And that idea - the game graveyard - is just perfect. We need a game graveyard, I think. Somewhere to wander amongst the stones and read the names, to be alone with thoughts of what might have been and how much work went into something that is now out of reach.

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UPDATE 1.45pm UK: Eurogamer understands that several teams within Team17 had no knowledge of its controversial plans to launch a range of collectible Worms NFTs prior to the project's public announcement this morning.

Others within Team17 were aware of the NFT collaboration after the deal was signed and voiced their disapproval of it - only for it to be announced anyway.

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Square Enix first launched Final Fantasy VII 25 years ago today, introducing a new generation to big-sword bishies. In celebration, both the director of the original JRPG and the creative director of the recent FF7 Remake have posted messages looking back and forward. Along with several FF7 mobile games kicking about, they tease that more new FF7 things we don't know about are coming. Hopefully this means we'll hear more about efforts to complete the remake, but I guess they could also be talking about merch or new movies.

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It wouldn’t work without the sounds. The thwop of your whip, the thwick of your dagger. The electronic twinkle of health-restoring chicken, which sounds uncannily like the shield’s up sound from 1999 classic 3D Astro Blaster. The ‘boo boo de boo, boo boo de boop’ of the chest-opening jingle, to which my shoulders cannot help but shimmy. Best of all: the plink of picking up an XP-granting gem - at first a sporadic treat, soon a near constant hum as the tide of enemies grows from a trickle into a flood.

Vampire Survivors is a simple, early access, arcade-style game about dodging an ever-growing horde of monsters while acquiring spells that fire automatically. You can (and should) play it with one hand while eating a bag of crisps. It’s a very good way to spend £2.

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Gwent was a fan-favourite minigame included in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but evolved into a standalone multiplayer game in 2016. In turn, Gwent got its own spin-off two years later with the excellent The Witcher Tales: Thronebreaker.

Project Golden Nekker will be something else entirely according to Gwent Comms Lead Paweł Burza: “It’s not another Witcher Tales [game] but something different,” he said. “We’re aiming to provide a captivating single-player for players who prefer it over competitive multiplayer Gwent.”

Square Enix announced new content that will appear in Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier during a commemorative broadcast. When FFVII The First Soldier Season 2 begins, the Dragoon Job will be added into the game alongside Bahamut. The iconic boss and summon will be available to challenge on the field. The Teleport Materia will arrive alongside the update too. Players will also be able to obtain "classic skins" of FFVII characters in The First Soldier sometime soon.

The skins will be of Barret, Tifa, Aerith, and Cloud. Red XIII will appear as a backpack. Players can get a "classic" version of the chocobo as well. The FFVII The First Soldier classic skins resemble the original polygonal models from the original game.

The Dragoon Job will have access to two unique abilities in FFVII The First Soldier. They are High Jump and Air Ride. High Jump will allow players to take to the skies and dive into their foes. Air Ride will allow you to temporarily to fly at a low distance around the map.

The broadcast then went on to detail how the Teleport Materia will function. Players will be able to create two points on the map to teleport to. One point will serve as a gateway to the location they've anchored the second teleport location to. However, the distance between these gates won't be too big.

Alim announced that it will shut down all three Brave Frontier mobile games in Japan on April 25, 2022. The series consists of the original 2013 title, the 2018 sequel, and the new 2021 title Brave Frontier ReXona. The company will also close its Alim Account service, where players connect their accounts from the games mentioned above, after refunds for all titles end on June 30, 2022.

Brave Frontier is a free-to-play mobile RPG that first appeared in 2013. The title used to receive crossover characters from many notable franchises, such as Secret of Mana, The King of Fighters, and My Hero Academia. It also has a global version released in the same year. As of this writing, gumi Asia is still actively managing the global release with regular maintenances.

Koei Tecmo has published its financial report for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2022. The report revealed that the Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water remaster has sold 340,000 units on all platforms worldwide as of December 2021.

The document also revealed sales numbers for Koei Tecmo's other console games released in the same quarter. Blue Reflection: Second Light had 120,000 units sold on all platforms worldwide. Meanwhile, Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires -- currently available in Japan and Asia -- recorded 150,000 units sold ahead of its Western release in February 2022. The company concluded that its console games in general still performed well.

Koei Tecmo released ports of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary. In an interview with Siliconera, the series producer Keisuke Kikuchi revealed that the company does not have any plans for other Fatal Frame releases and remasters. However, he noted that it received more positive responses than expected. As of October 2021, the company is still working on a live-action movie adaptation based on the franchise.

Sound is one of the most important aspects of gaming, whether you need a competitive edge in shooters like CSGO or Valorant, or want to be fully immersed in the latest RPG. A good headset can let you hear every footstep or listen to the wind blow between the trees, but it also needs to be comfortable so you can game for hours on end without getting a headache. Finding a headset with great sound and comfort can be expensive, but luckily for you, we've rounded up the best deals on some of the top gaming headsets out there.

Okay, £95 might not be the cheapest headset option out there, but the SteelSeries Arctis 7 is the cream of the crop when it comes to gaming. It has a super solid low latency 2.4ghz wireless connection, surround sound, one of the best microphones you can get on a headset, and the adjustable band makes it really comfortable to wear over a long time. It's compatible with both PS4 and PS5, and is £60 cheaper than the new Arctis 7X/7P, which are made for the new consoles. Note, you'll need to apply the code FNDDGAMING and select free delivery at the checkout to get it for this price.

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Over on the Eurogamer YouTube channel we've carved out quite the niche for ourselves when it comes to yelping our way through co-operative horror games.

With all the practice we've had, it stands to reason that we'd be pretty good at surviving a spirit-based onslaught by now, but how did we fare as a team of ghost hunters when we were pitted against actual players in the role of vengeful ghosts, rather than some clunky AI?

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Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is right around the corner – it hits PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and PC, on March 25 – and Gearbox Software has been doling out new information about classes, locations, and more. Today, that stream of information continues with a new trailer that reveals the final two classes in the game. 

We learned about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands’ Stabbomancer and Brr-Zerker classes back in October. Then, in December, we learned about the Spellshot and Clawbringer classes. Now, the final two classes, Spore Warden and Graveborn, have been revealed in a new trailer detailing how each works. 

“Graveborn are death-touched acolytes who sacrifice health to unleash devastating Dark Magic attacks and become the phantasmal Reaper of Bones,” a Gearbox press release reads. “They use their Demi-Lich Companion and sacrificial Action Skills to enact suffering upon their enemies, even at the cost of their own life force.”

CD Projekt Red is developing a single player, standalone Gwent game and it’s coming this year. 

Revealed by IGN, this Gwent game, which is based on the popular card game of the same name in the studio’s Witcher titles, is codenamed Project Golden Nekker. CDPR says Golden Nekker will be different from previous iterations of its Gwent titles, instead aiming to provide a “captivating single-player experience,” according to IGN. 

Because it’s a standalone game, players will not need to own other versions of CDPR’s Gwent games to play it. Once you boot up Golden Nekker, you’re all set to play. 

“It’s not another Witcher Tales game, but something different,” Gwent communications head Pawel Burza told IGN. “We’re aiming to provide a captivating single-player experience for players who prefer it over competitive multiplayer Gwent.” 

If you’re a fan of CDPR’s competitive multiplayer Gwent game, though, don’t fret – development is set to continue on that title at least through 2022, as the studio has released a 2022 roadmap that features new card drops in April, July, October, and December. When Golden Nekker is released, it will be the first CDPR game since the release of Cyberpunk 2077 back in 2020.

PlayStation has announced that it will air a State of Play this week all about Gran Turismo 7. 

The first State of Play of 2022, this one promises more than 30 minutes of new PlayStation 5 footage of the upcoming Polyphony Digital simulation racing game. It will also feature new details about GT7, which is slated to arrive on PS5 and PlayStation 4 on March 4. 

“The first 2022 State of Play arrives later this week, and we’re all revved up for just over 30 minutes of new PS5 footage and gameplay details for Gran Turismo 7,” a PlayStation Blog post reads. “Watch live February 2 on Twitch or YouTube starting 2 p.m. Pacific/ 5 p.m. Eastern/ 11 p.m. CET.” 

And that’s all that PlayStation had to say about the State of Play. Usually, PlayStation will mention that viewers shouldn’t expect this or that, but because it’s being dubbed a GT7 State of Play, there’s probably no reason for the company to give any caution in that regard. Basically, we don’t recommend going in this expecting PlayStation to surprise reveal a game or talk about Horizon Forbidden West in the showcase’s final few minutes. 

This State of Play will be the first in-depth look at GT7 in a while. It’s been a sure bet that we’ll see a trailer in recent PlayStation first-party showcases but beyond that, not much about GT7 is known. 

Even with a bunch of post-launch performance improvements, Microsoft Flight Simulator is still the kind of game that can make most PCs sweat. Good news, then, for frequent flyers who happen to own an Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card: Flight Sim is getting DLSS support this year.

Specifically, DLSS will be available when running the sim in DirectX 12, as part of a handful of upcoming DX12 enhancements that also include optimisations for playing on multiple monitors. Developers Asobo Studio confirmed the DLSS addition in a recent devstream, which you can watch in full below, though the feature is still being tested so there’s no specific date beyond 2022.

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Back in the beginning of January 2022, Bandai Namco announced Ufotable would create an anime style video for Tales of Arise. Now it is available. The video is dubbed the Tales of Arise Introduction Animation. It features major characters and hints about the plot. However, people who haven't played the game should be aware that some spoilers come up.

The video begins with looks at Dahna. It shows the Rena ships descending there and explains why Renans came to the world. Then, some major Dahnans and Renans appear. Most notably, Alphen and Shionne. After that, the other party members show up. There are then teasers about the battles to come.

Note that the whole video is in Japanese with English subtitles.

Preserve the future of Dahna by challenging the unfortunate fates of our heroes.

Discover – or rediscover – the origin of #TalesofArise in this new Introduction Animation by ufotable! pic.twitter.com/Ek2oVRoylI

— Tales of Arise (@TalesofSeries) January 31, 2022

It seems we could learn more about what’s next for part 2 of the FFVII Remake in 2022. In honor of the series’ 25th anniversary, a live stream aired in Japan on January 31, 2022. Yoshinori Kitase, who directed the original game and produced the first part of the remake, appeared. While there, he teased that news about the next portion of the game will come up sometime in 2022. [Thanks, Audrey and Video Game Chronicle!]

When the topic of the next entry came up, Kitase noted that more details about it will appear in 2022. He noted that sometime later in the year it could come up.

The whole of the FFVII story is being broken up for the remake. The first portion of the game only covered Cloud’s time in Midgar. It ended once he left the city with Aerith, Barret, Red XIII, and Tifa. No details about FFVII Remake Part 2 came up since its launch in 2020.

This could be one of the new FFVII "projects" teased by Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura. In honor of the anniversary, both shared messages. In each one, the developers teased new developments.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is available for the PS4, PS5, and PC. FFVII Remake Part 2 is in development.

Welcome to the latest edition of DF Direct Weekly, where finally - finally! - I get the opportunity to share my thoughts on the Microsoft/Activision deal. Readers of this column will know that the biggest industry news unerringly occurs the moment I dare to leave my station and go on holiday - and so it was with this one. Since the deal was revealed, there has been plenty of speculation on the fate of the Call of Duty franchise and whether PlayStation support will continue. On the face of it, Phil Spencer's tweet looks encouraging, but reporting from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier suggests that after the next two CODs and the next Warzone, Microsoft is free of its obligations. So what happens then?

It's not entirely clear based on existing precedents - because we have two of them. Minecraft continues to be supported on all platforms, however, Bethesda's multi-platform run looks to be coming to and end, meaning that hit franchises such as Doom, The Elder Scrolls and the eagerly anticipated Starfield will not appear on PlayStation. COD support for PlayStation could go either way then, but for me, the real question is this: can Call of Duty titles appear day one on Xbox Game Pass even with the current Sony content deals in place? If so, I'd venture to suggest that the Xbox vs PlayStation console 'war' becomes far less relevant compared to the continuing evolution of the prevailing business model in the games business, where deals like this strongly suggest that subscription is the future and securing the best content becomes of paramount importance.

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red is aiming to release a new standalone Gwent title at some point in 2022.

It is being designed as a single-player experience, CD Projekt told IGN, rather than having a focus on competitive multiplayer.

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According to a new report, Dwayne Johnson's new video game film will be Call of Duty.

Earlier this month, in an interview with Men's Journal, Johnson briefly mentioned he was working on bringing "one of the biggest, most badass games to the screen".

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Prolific video game voice actor Troy Baker, star of The Last of Us, BioShock Infinite and Fortnite, has abandoned his plans to partner with a controversial voice NFT company.

In a short statement issued via Twitter today, Baker also apologised for "accusing anyone of 'hating' just by simply disagreeing with me".

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