February 2022

Shovel Knight Dev Announces Next Game, Mina The Hollower, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, & PC

2 years 1 month ago

If you’ve been waiting patiently for Yacht Club Games‘ next retro experience, then your prayers have been answered. That’s right, the Shovel Knight developer has announced its next action-adventure game, dubbed Mina The Hollower, and it’s shaping up to be another bounty of nostalgic 8-bit goodness.

Accompanying the recent announcement is a brand new trailer showcasing the old-school, pixel-art caper in action. Go ahead and check out the new footage down below:

Story-wise, Mina The Hollower follows the exploits of the eponymous whip-wielding mouse as she embarks on a quest to save the world of Tenebrous Isle from betrayal and disaster. While there’s currently no concrete release date, the title is in the works for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC.

Author
Dylan Chaundy

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WonHobby 35 Will be Held in February, Black Rock Shooter Anime to Appear

2 years 1 month ago

WonHobby 35

Good Smile Company announced a new date for WonHobby 35. It will now be held in mid-February. The company revealed that the event will take place at the Akiba CO Gallery in Akihabara from February 11 to February 13, 2022. Additionally, limited sales and pre-orders will begin at the same time. However, the official website states that the physical event may be cancelled at any time. While attendees must make reservations to go to the event, price of admission is entirely for free.

WonHobby 35 has several broadcasts scheduled. WonHobby TV will host a total of three programs. The first program will showcase various figures and plastic models. The second program will disclose more information regarding the Black Rock Shooter anime that will release in April 2022. Lastly, the final broadcast will be dedicated to Mecha Smile and PLAMAX plastic models. Links to each program will be provided in the future.

You can check out the full WonHobby TV schedule below.

Author
Kazuma Hashimoto

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Dragon Ball Z Perfect Buu Figure Set Opens for Pre-order

2 years 1 month ago

Dragon Ball Buu Figure Set

Premium Bandai opened pre-orders for the Dragon Ball Z Perfect Buu figure set. The figure collection includes eight different figures of Dragon Ball Z antagonist Majin Buu in various forms. The set will cost a total of ¥12,000 (about $104) and ship sometime in June 2022. [Thanks, Hobby Watch!]

As one of the central antagonists of the Dragon Ball Z series, Majin Buu is capable of absorbing his opponents to gain strength. Buu is also capable of splitting himself into different forms. As such, the figure collection recreates each of Buu's forms from Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super. Each figure varies in height and ranges from 70mm to 110 mm (about 2.7 to 4.3 inches) tall. Kid Buu is the shortest at 70 mm, and Pure Evil Buu is the tallest at 110 mm.

Below is a list of all of the included Majin Buu forms:

  • Kid Buu (Pure)
  • Majin Buu (Gotenks Absorbed)
  • Majin Buu (Innocent)
  • Majin Buu (Piccolo Absorbed)
  • Majin Buu (Pure Evil)
  • Majin Buu (Shape Up)
  • Majin Buu (Ultimate Gohan Absorbed)
  • Super Buu (Evil)

You can get a better look at the figures in the screenshots below:

[gallery columns="5" link="file" ids="914772,914773,914774,914775,914776,914777,914778,914779,914780"]

Author
Andrew Kiya

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Shovel Knight developers announce Mina The Hollower

2 years 1 month ago

The creators of retro platformer Shovel Knight have announced a whole new adventure, drawing inspiration from different classics this time. Mina The Hollower is its name, and retro action-adventure with Zelda and Castlevania influences is its game. Like with Shovel Knight, Yacht Club Games are partially crowdfunding Mina through a Kickstarter campaign, and in less than a day they've already passed the goal. Have a peek in the trailer.

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Author
Alice O'Connor

Guardians of the Galaxy's unclosing fridge door joke inspired by Modern Family, creative director says

2 years 1 month ago

The pesky fridge door in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy that never, ever, closes was inspired by long-running gags from Modern Family and Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, its creative director has now revealed.

While many Marvel fans were likely spending their time hanging out with Groot and co while on board the Milano, others decided to take Star Lord even deeper into the inner workings of the ship. Here, they will have come across a broken fridge door, which in itself is fairly unremarkable. This door can be interacted with, and players can try and close it if they wish, but this would ultimately be to no avail. The fridge door will never remain closed, not matter how often one tries.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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EA seemingly backtracks from earlier NFT enthusiasm

2 years 1 month ago

EA boss Andrew Wilson has said that the FIFA and Apex Legends publisher is not currently looking to get into the NFT business.

That is despite comments - again, from Wilson - as recently as last November where he described NFTs as "an important part of... the future of our industry".

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Author
Tom Phillips

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New York Game Awards 2022 Winners Announced

2 years 1 month ago

The winners of the New York Game Awards 2022 have been announced, with Psychonauts 2 scoring the top honor after triumphing in the Best Game of the Year category.

The 11th annual New York Game Awards took place overnight, with a virtual event that celebrated the best games, actors, journalists, and esports athletes of the past year. Psychonauts 2 emerged as one of the big winners of the night after being named Best Game of the Year while also receiving the Statue of Liberty Award for Best World.

Shedworks' Sable took home two trophies on the night, one for Best Music and the other for Best Indie Game, having been nominated alongside Death's Door, Genesis Noir, and several others. Capcom's Resident Evil franchise was also celebrated at the event, with Maggie Robertson being recognized for her role as Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village.

IGN is also thrilled to announce that investigative reporter Rebekah Valentine became the recipient of the Knickerbocker Award for Best Games Journalism, where she had been nominated amongst a top list of creative people for her distinguished contributions in the field during the most recent awards year.

The full list of winners from the New York Game Awards 2022 follows:

Author
Adele Ankers

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PS5 Outsold Wii U's Lifetime Numbers in a Year

2 years 1 month ago

Sony's PlayStation 5 has already outsold Nintendo's Wii U, despite only being available for just over a year.

Announced in the company's most recent earnings releases, Sony revealed that over 17.3 million PS5s were sold as of December 31. 2021. The Wii U reached just 13.56 million sales in its lifetime.

The PS5 had a stellar year financially, outselling the PS4 in its first fiscal year, breaking the Nintendo Switch's 33-month streak at the top of US hardware sales, and being the fastest-selling console in U.S. history in both unit and dollar sales.

Its sales have also been restricted by the ongoing chip shortage that will remain very tight until at least September. Both Sony and Microsoft have suffered from a lack of chips that are found in graphics cards, gaming consoles, and more.

The PS5 still has a ways to go before it enters the best-selling consoles of all time list, of course. The PS4 has sold 116.9 million units (which will continue to rise), the Game Boy and Game Boy Color sold 118.69 million, the Nintendo DS reached 154.02 million units and the PlayStation 2 remains in first place with 159 million units sold.

Author
Ryan Dinsdale

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Fire Emblem Heroes 5th Anniversary Memorial Box Pre-Orders Are Open

2 years 1 month ago

Fire Emblem Heroes 5th Anniversary Memorial Box contents

Intelligent Systems opened pre-orders for the Fire Emblem Heroes 5th Anniversary memorial box in Japan. Those who purchase the box will receive compilations of music and art from the mobile game at 16,500 yen (~$145). The company will close pre-orders on March 31, 2022. It will produce the boxes based on the number of orders received and release the finished products on August 31, 2022.

The original soundtrack will consist of three CDs and a bonus DVD. The CDs will contain a total number of 78 original tracks implemented in the mobile game up until March 2022. Meanwhile, the DVD will include a plethora of tracks from other Fire Emblem titles, with a total duration of over ten hours.

The memorial box will have a physical collection of key visual art drawn by from all six Books available so far. Yusuke Kozaki will draw a new illustration for the collection, bringing the total number to seven. The package will also include a set of 19 sticker sheets containing sprites of around 900 characters.

A smartphone stand modeled after the Fire Emblem Heroes mascot Feh will complete the 5th Anniversary box. The player will be able to place their phone on Feh's head while playing the mobile game. They can also detach the wing on its back, as it doubles as a smartphone screen cleaner.

[gallery columns="5" ids="914808,914809,914810,914811,914812" link="file"]

Author
Kite Stenbuck

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A New Receptionist will Appear in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

2 years 1 month ago

Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak Receptionist

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Director Yoshitake Suzuki teased the inclusion of a new receptionist character through the official Monster Hunter Twitter account. While little information is known about the character, Suzuki posted a pair of glasses. Previous information revealed players would be heading to an entirely new area in the expansion. So, it makes sense that players will be introduced to new characters in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak like a new guild receptionist.

Here is the announcement:

Author
Kazuma Hashimoto

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PlayStation 5 Shipments Have Reached 17.2 Million Units Worldwide

2 years 1 month ago

PlayStation 5 Shipments

Sony announced through its third quarter financial report that shipments for the PlayStation 5 have reached 17.2 million units worldwide as of December 31, 2021. The supplemental information from the financial report revealed that approximately 3.9 million PlayStation 5 consoles were shipped during the third quarter.  However, Sony has lowered its expected revenue for the Game and Service forecast. This is due to the low amount of PlayStation 5's Sony has been able to produce. Despite the on-going chip shortage, Sony stated that it will continue to try and meet the demand for the PlayStation 5. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

The report also revealed shipment numbers for the PlayStation 4, which has shipped 116.8 million units worldwide. However, while the PlayStation 4 continues to sell, it only sold roughly 200,000 units during this period. Operating profit for the company rose by 15% during this period. Additionally, the total number of PlayStation Network users has risen. In comparison to the second quarter, which saw 47.2 million users subscribed, the third quarter reveals that a total of 48 million subscribed users.

Author
Kazuma Hashimoto

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Sonic and Yakuza Characters Appear on Omamori Amulet Wallpapers

2 years 1 month ago

Sonic Yakuza Omamori Wallpapers

Sega released several omamori amulet wallpapers, which feature characters from series such as Yakuza, Sonic, and Virtua Fighter. A total of seven wallpapers are available to download through the official SNS Sega Japanese website. It's important to note that these wallpapers were made explicitly for mobile devices, so landscape versions are not available. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

Sega characters that appear on the omamori amulet wallpapers includes Kazuma Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga from the Yakuza series, Dr. Eggman from the Sonic series, Akira Yui from Virtua Fighter, and the Puyos from Puyo Puyo. Each amulet features an encouraging phrase that is meant to lift the spirits of the holder. For example, the Kazuma Kiryu omamori amulet wallpaper reads "Do your best." Traditionally, omamori amulets are meant to bring good luck to the holder.

Leading into the new year, Sega posted a video featuring Sonic the Hedgehog visiting a local shrine in Shinagawa, Japan. This part of an on-going "A Day in the Life of Sonic” video series. The series will feature Sonic in every day locations. Sega plans to upload more videos in this series to the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel periodically throughout the year. Viewers can also make suggestions as to where they would like Sonic to go.

Author
Kazuma Hashimoto

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EA’s Last Quarter Was One Of Its Biggest Ever Thanks To Apex Legends, Fifa, And Madden

2 years 1 month ago

EA Q3 Results Apex Legends Fifa, Madden

EA’s quarterly results for Q3, which was the three months that ended with December 2021, were released late yesterday and it turns out, it was one of the company’s biggest ever. 

That’s due to steady growth in long-running franchises like Fifa, Madden, and Apex Legends. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, EA’s revenues were up 7% in Q3, which equates to $1.79 billion and net bookings were also up 7%, to $2.58 billion. However, net income was down 69%, dropping to $66 million. 

Click here to watch embedded media

“Q3 was the largest quarter in the company’s history for net bookings, underlying profitability, and cash generations,” EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said in regards to the quarterly results. “Our portfolio approach will enable us to deliver organic growth in the double digits this year, continue to deliver strong cash flow, and provides a strong foundation for growth as we look to the future.” 

Author
Wesley LeBlanc

Ex-Skyrim, Journey, Spider-Man Developers Reveal Gardens, A New Remote-First Studio

2 years 1 month ago

New Studio Gardens Concept Art Unannounced Games

Gardens is a new studio revealed today made up of former Skyrim, Journey, and Marvel’s Spider-Man developers that is designed to be remote-first, prioritizing studio transparency, sustainability, and empowerment amongst employees. 

The co-founders are Chris Bell (Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch, Sky: Children of the Light), Lexie Dostal (Dustforce), and Stephen Bell (Blaseball, What Remains of Edith Finch), but Gardens is already home to developers who have worked on projects like Marvel’s Spider-Man, the Ratchet & Clank series, the Fallout series, and more. While Gardens does not have a new game to formally announce just yet, it does say its “core mission is to create vibrant online games that foster meaningful multiplayer moments and relationships between players around the world.” 

“Gardens’ upcoming, yet unnamed game, builds upon the special ways members of the team have designed shared online experiences in the past (Journey, Sky: Children of the Light, Ashen, Baseball, Way), with players crossing paths in a mysterious and magical world driven by the concept art of ma-ko, art direction by Leighton Milne (Ashen, The Hobbit), and an art team led by Ryan Benno (Marvel’s Spider-Man, Ratchet & Clank),” the press release reads. 

Here’s a look at some of the concept art for this unnamed game: 

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

Author
Wesley LeBlanc

Bloodborne PSX is a smart demake of a FromSoft classic

2 years 1 month ago

February has finally arrived and that means it's FromSoftware month, baby. Elden Ring is almost here, so you best limber up, do your stretches, have a bath. Do what you need to do to prepare yourself for a colossal undertaking. One thing that might help get you in a Soulsborne headspace is Bloodborne PSX, a free PlayStation 1-esque demake of FromSoft's gothic action-RPG.

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Author
Ed Thorn

Iconic Internet monster SCP-173 is losing its look

2 years 1 month ago

One of the most popular Internet monsters, a grotesque neck-snapping concrete figure codenamed SCP-173, is losing its face. SCP-173 is part of the SCP Foundation, a collaborative online horror writing project which most famously inspired Remedy's Control, and has appeared in several SCP fan games, too. But as SCP's administrators wrestle with copyright and morality issues, they're preparing to remove that iconic image, which actually is a photo of a sculpture by a Japanese artist.

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Author
Alice O'Connor

Dying Light 2: Stay Human review: polished sequel lacks bite

2 years 1 month ago

No, Dying Light 2 doesn’t take 500 hours to complete. Call it closer to 30 and change, although my map still swarms with chores and requests to deal with post-campaign. Plenty of words have been written about Techland’s backfiring boast of a three week runtime, so no need to relitigate that here. Going in, the only time value I was interested in was how long - if ever - the game takes to sink its teeth into you.

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Author
Matthew Castle

Dying Light 2: The Kotaku Review

2 years 1 month ago

The idea of being excited about yet another zombie video game in this, the year of our lord two-thousand and twenty-two, might seem ridiculous to some. Even I, a die-hard fan of the undead, understand how tired people are of zombies. They really are everywhere, from Back 4 Blood to Project Zomboid. But Dying Light 2

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Author
Zack Zwiezen

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Dying Light 2 review - brutal blockbuster that's inelegant but hugely entertaining

2 years 1 month ago

Dying Light 2 is an ugly game. Taking place some 15 years after Techland's parkour-fuelled 2015 open world original, it's set against a world completely ravaged by the viral outbreak that began back in Harran, where disputes are solved with a rusty iron pipe to the head and the people holed up in the small number of mediaeval settlements barricaded against the breakout are well beyond hope (this is a grimly prescient thing in more ways than one).

With its streets lined by crumbled concrete, patrolled by renegades in hockey masks and spiked leather jackets and where the surly survivor's wardrobes seems to come entirely from Wickes, Dying Light 2 has an aesthetic that's straight out of a second tier Xbox 360 game. It's light on innovation but Dying Light 2 has the scope and breadth of your modern triple-A, rippling with systems and overwhelming in size. It looks and feels like the most ambitious Xbox 360 game ever made, and I'm fairly certain I mean that as high praise.

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Author
Martin Robinson

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Journey, Skyrim and Spider-Man developers announce new studio Gardens

2 years 1 month ago

A new studio named Gardens has been announced from the developers of Journey, Skyrim and Spider-Man.

Gardens was founded by Chris Bell, Lexie Dostal, and Stephen Bell. Each has a wealth of experience within the video games industry, with collective works of Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch, Sky: Children of the Light, and Dustforce between them.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Sony Forced to Cut Its PS5 Sales Forecast By Millions of Units

2 years 1 month ago

Sony is expecting to sell fewer PlayStation 5 units in the current financial year than previously forecasted. The company slashed its forecasts by millions of units due to ongoing component shortages.

Sony had previously expected to sell more than 14.8 million PS5s by March 2022 – a number that would have seen the console exceed PS4's on sales in its second financial year on the market. The company is now no longer expecting to be able to reach that level of supply, and is now forecasting 11.5 million sales for the year.

"Unfortunately," said CFO Hiroki Totoki in a Q3 earnings call, "due to limitations on the supply of components – especially semiconductiors – and an increase in delivery times resulting from the disruption of the global distribution supply chain, we have revised our FY21 unit sales forecast for PS5 hardware to 11.5 million units."

Totoki added that the supply constraints are likely to continue: "Limitations on the supply of components are expected to continue going forward, but we are continuing to exert every effort to meet the strong demand for PS5."

Author
Joe Skrebels

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Dying Light 2 Stay Human Review

2 years 1 month ago

The weird, surreal tone of Dying Light 2 Stay Human combines very serious end-of-days themes with silly characters and minigames that have you smacking zombies off a skyscraper with a cricket bat is bizarre, but somehow it works extremely well. This zombie-smashing action game is a strong post-apocalyptic adventure with top-tier parkour movement, an expansive open world in which to put them to good use, and lots of great characters. What doesn’t work so well is how it combines a near-lethal case of bugs with a story centered around a protagonist so uninteresting that he’s all but (un)dead on arrival. I’m sure that when the developers at Techland set out to make this sequel they had no idea that they’d end up releasing a game about a global pandemic two years into a global pandemic, but it’s clear that trying to finish such an ambitious game under these conditions didn’t do it any favors.

Sticking largely to the plan laid out by its surprise-hit predecessor in 2015, Dying Light 2 takes place in an excellent, highly explorable city where the rooftops are home to eccentric survivors who have become masters of parkour, scavenging, and chopping zombie heads off with assorted sporting equipment. By day the zombies swarms crowd into buildings to hide from the sun, and by night they pour into the streets in daunting masses, but the real tension comes from managing the terrifying meter that counts down to you transforming into a brainless shambler. Like nearly everyone else you’re infected with the zombie virus, and staying in near-constant contact with UV rays is the only thing delaying the inevitable. The ever-present need to recharge that meter – which will deplete in a matter of minutes if you’re inside a building away from the light – is an excellent addition to Dying Light’s moment-to-moment gameplay that keeps up the pressure on every step of your journey.

Author
Dan Stapleton

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Gardens, a New Studio Focused on Employee Wellbeing, Has Already Attracted AAA Developers to Join

2 years 1 month ago

A new, remote-first games studio aims to build a company built on the health of its employees and the world. This philosophy has attracted talent from across the industry including veterans who’ve worked on games like Marvel’s Spider-Man, What Remains of Edith Finch, Journey, Fallout 4, and more.

The studio is called Gardens and is co-founded by Chris Bell (Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch), Lexie Dostal (Dustforce), and Stephen Bell (Blaseball, What Remains of Edith Finch.). Gardens already has plans for its first game, which is set to be an online game where players will interact with each other within a mysterious and magical world. It will build upon the online games the team has built in the past including Journey, Ashen, and Blaseball.

Check out the concept art below.

This remote studio, with employees primarily based out of Portland, OR and Los Angeles, CA, was named after the kind of games the team is looking to create which are “artfully-crafted, living environments” primarily focused on online multiplayer experiences.

“With Gardens, we wanted to create a studio that cares as much about the health, happiness, and wellbeing of its team members as we do the craftsmanship of the games we create together,” says Bell in a statement on the studio’s founding.

Author
Matt Kim

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PlayStation to Launch 'More Than 10' Live Service Games By 2026

2 years 1 month ago

PlayStation plans to release "more than 10" live service games by March 2026, a feat that will be helped by its acquisition of Bungie.

Speaking during Sony's latest earnings call, CFO Hiroki Totoki said, "Through close collaboration with Bungie and the PlayStation Studios, we aim to launch more than 10 live service games by the fiscal year ending March 31 2026."

Live service games are games that are updated with new content over time, often making the majority of their money through in-game purchases, rather than initial sales. Totoki pointed to a huge jump in revenue from these kinds of games as part of the reason for Sony pursuing the model:

"From calendar year 2014 to calendar year 2021, the size of the global game content market doubled, driven by add-on content revenue from live game services, which grew at an average annual rate of 15% during this period. We expect this trend to continue going forward."

Bungie's early investment into live service games with the launch of Destiny in 2014 allowed it to accumulate "a wealth of experience and superb technology in the space," Totoki said, something Sony sees as a major asset in acquiring the studio.

"The strategic significance of this acquisition lies not only in obtaining the highly successful Destiny franchise as well as major new IP that Bungie is currently developing," explained Totoki, "but also in incorporating into the Sony group the expertise and technologies that Bungie has developed in the live game services space.

"We intend to utilize these strengths when developing game IP at the PlayStation Studios, as we expand into the live game services area."

Author
Ryan Dinsdale

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Nintendo Has Removed Thousands of Music Tracks From YouTube in Recent Weeks

2 years 1 month ago

Nintendo has suddenly removed thousands of videos from a YouTube channel that uploads soundtracks from franchises like Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Kirby.

YouTuber GilvaSunner, who has over 469,000 subscribers, tweeted that they will be deleting the channel on February 4 after Nintendo removed 3,500 videos from the channel, as reported by Nintendo Life.

It is not permitted to upload copyrighted music to YouTube even if a credit is supplied but GilvaSunner has been posting Nintendo tracks for over a decade and does not monetize the videos. There is currently no way to legally listen to much Nintendo music outside of occasionally released original game soundtracks.

In the Twitter post, GilvaSunner said: "After thinking about this a lot over the past few days, I've decided that at this point it's not really worth it to keep the channel up any longer, and will therefore delete the GlivaSunner YouTube channel (or what's left of it) this coming Friday.

"There are many different opinions over what is happening and that's fine! I can understand pretty much all the sides. I know this is disappointing to read for a lot of you, but I hope you can respect my decision to want to move on."

1,300 videos were removed last week and a further 2,200 were taken down on February 1, and GilvaSunner said they expected more to follow. It's unclear what's spurred Nintendo into action on this recently – we've contacted the company for comment.

Author
Ryan Dinsdale

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Mina the Hollower is the Shovel Knight Developer’s New Game

2 years 1 month ago

Shovel Knight Developer New Game is Mina the Hollower

Yacht Club Games, the developer best known for the Shovel Knight series, announced its next title will be Mina the Hollower. It took to Kickstarter to raise $311,503 to fund the Game Boy Color-style The Legend of Zelda-like action RPG. Within 24 hours, it met its funding goal. The game is expected to appear in December 2023 on consoles and PCs.

Mina is a mouse and inventor. However, after Spark Generators she designed stop working, she’s called to return to Tenebrous Isle to find out what’s going on. In addition to using her whip to attack and burrowing into the ground, she’ll eventually get sidearms that grant additional attack options and trinket equipment that give her extra abilities. For example, one trinket involves a spider creating webs you can use to cross over gaps.

Here’s the first trailer.

Author
Jenni Lada

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Rock Howard, Gato, and B. Jenet KOF XV Screenshots Shared

2 years 1 month ago

Rock Howard, Gato, and B. Jenet KOF XV Screenshots Shared

SNK announced some of its KOF XV DLC characters would include Garou: Mark of the Wolves fighters B. Jenet, Gato, and Rock Howard. Following the trailer reveal, the company offered a better look at how they’ll all look. There are now sets of screenshots for each one.

Rock Howard officially debuted as a playable character in Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Since then, he’s shown up in a few KOF installments. For example, he was a part of both KOF Maximum Impact installments. As for mainline games, he tends to show up as DLC. That’s what happened with both KOF XIV and XV.

Here are the four screenshots of Rock Howard.
[gallery columns="4" ids="914829,914830,914831,914832" link="file"]

Like Rock, B. Jenet debuted in Garou: Mark of the Wolves before heading into games like KOF XV. The pirate hasn’t appeared in as many games as Rock. One of B. Jenet’s last major appearances before KOF XV was in Maximum Impact 2.

Here’s how she looks in-game.
[gallery columns="4" ids="914835,914833,914834,914828" link="file"]

Author
Jenni Lada

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Netflix One Piece Live-Action Series Begins Filming

2 years 1 month ago

One Piece Netflix

Netflix confirmed that its live-action adaptation of One Piece has begun production. A tweet from the Netflix Geeked account showed off photos of the cast and crew heading to the set. Netflix first announced its plans to create a One Piece adaptation back in 2017, but development took a while. The previous major announcement concerning the series was a confirmation of the official cast list back in November 2021.

https://twitter.com/NetflixGeeked/status/1488610641032142853

The photos showed actress Emily Rudd (who plays Nami) as well as from-behind shots of Jacob Romero Gibson (who plays Usopp), Taz Skylar (who plays Sanji), and Iñaki Godoy (who plays Luffy). Mackenyu was not pictured, but will play Zoro. Set chairs for executive producers Matt Owens (who is writing the series) and Steve Maeda were also shown. One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda is also an executive producer.

According to comments from the initial announcement, the series will begin based on the East Blue story arc, and move outward from that point. East Blue is the introductory arc, and sees aspiring pirate Luffy first setting off for the Grand Line and meeting his crewmates Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji. Tomorrow Studios, the same studio that produced the live-action Cowboy Bebop series adaptation, is handling One Piece. Though the Netflix series has only just begun production, the anime adaptation aired its 1,000th episode in November 2021, while the source manga published its thousandth chapter in early 2021. An upcoming film, One Piece Film Red, is also scheduled for an August 2022 premiere.

Author
Josh Tolentino

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Dying Light 2 Has A Day One Patch, Techland Urges People With Early Retail Copies To Wait For It Before Playing

2 years 1 month ago

After years and years of waiting, Dying Light 2 Stay Human is almost out and in the hands of players. In fact, it’s already in the hands of some players who have received early retail copies of the zombie parkour sequel. 

If you’re one of those people, Techland really wants you to resist the urge and wait until the game’s proper release on February 4 to play the game. That’s because there’s a Day One patch that will make the experience better. 

Click here to watch embedded media

Author
Wesley LeBlanc

Enter For Your Chance To Win Game Informer Gold!

2 years 1 month ago

High-gloss paper. Gold-foil covers. Uniquely-numbered issues. Ridiculously-low print runs. This is Game Informer Gold, an ultra-rare collectible that one of you can win through this sweepstakes. You need to get your hands on Game Informer Gold to truly understand how big of an upgrade it is over our standard edition. From its increased thickness to the gold shine on the cover, this is as high-end as magazines get.

This month, the copy of Game Informer Gold that is up for grabs is our Elden Ring issue. On the cover is The Knight of Scar, a mysterious figure that likely plays a role in the tale of Elden Ring, but we're not really sure exactly how yet. As always, this edition of Game Informer Gold is an extremely limited print run. The winner of this sweepstakes will get one of these issues. Only one person will win.

For more info on Game Informer Gold, watch this short video featuring our first Game Informer Gold issue #340:

Click here to watch embedded media

Author
Game Informer Contests

WD Black SN770 review: just short of SSD greatness

2 years 1 month ago

Western Digital are continuing their charge into high-speed PCIe 4.0 SSDs with the WD Black SN770. This is pretty straight down the middle as far as Gen 4 SSDs go: the 1TB model I’ve tested claims sequential speeds up to 5150MB/s for reads and 4900MB/s for writes, enough to embarrass any PCIe 3.0 SSD without veering into mega-enthusiast territory. There’s a broad range of capacities too, starting at 250GB and ending at a roomy 2TB.

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Author
James Archer

Does Dying Light 2 deliver on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles?

2 years 1 month ago

Developer Techland has a reputation for delivering exceptional visuals via its own in-house technology - the C-Engine, taking centre-stage in Dying Light 2. With a focus of straddling the console generations while utilising cutting-edge visuals on the latest hardware, the studio promises us a rich density in detail, seamless streaming, upgraded physics, animation and AI. Our first impression? Dying Light 2 can look astonishing - but it's no secret that it's exceptionally heavy on the GPU.

Three different rendering modes are on offer on PS5 and Series X consoles, all of them delivering something desirable - but the horsepower simply isn't there to offer them all in combination. For that, you'll need a high-end PC (where Dying Light 2 offers even more visual features) and we'll be talking about that in our next piece.

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Author
Thomas Morgan

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Valheim dev talks Steam Deck support and biome progress as it celebrates first birthday

2 years 1 month ago

Valheim developer Iron Gate Studios has shared a first look at its early access Viking survival game running on Steam Deck - saying it's hopping to get it "running smoothly" on Valve's platform for launch - as part of a look ahead at its plans for 2022 and beyond.

Writing in a post to mark Valheim's first birthday - and a phenomenal 12 months for the game - Iron Gate said it "would of course like to have Valheim running smoothly on [Steam Deck] from the start, so that's something we're working on at the moment."

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Author
Matt Wales

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