February 2022

Hello, duck wearing a hat

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And you get 30 Gigaton Balls (and Ultra Balls and Jet Balls)

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Pokémon Violet and Pokémon Scarlet coming in late 2022

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Say ‘Alola!’ to some familiar faces from Pokémon Sun and Moon

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From the end of February 2022, Bandai will start selling Animal Crossing: New Horizons snow globes (or water globe) as capsule toy prizes. It will cost 300 JPY (around $2.60) per spin. In total, there are six varieties to collect. These capsule toys will require you to assemble them before you can display them. [Thanks, Hobby Watch!]

Instructions detailing how to put together the water globe will come with the capsule. It only requires putting the sphere onto the stand, then pouring water inside. Aside from key locales, these snow globes focus on the four seasons. These toys are microcosms of what a player's daily life looks like on their island. Each water globe also features a variety of villagers. For example, Beau is at the forefront of the spring one, while Goldie is the featured villager of the winter one.

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Earlier in February 2022, Nintendo announced that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is Japan’s best-selling video game. This means that it sold more units than even the original Super Mario Bros over the course of its two years. Outside of the game, there is plenty of merchandise. For example, Bandai Spirits consistently collaborates with it for Ichiban Kuji, and Nintendo often releases plushes of the villagers.

Streamer Prestige Is Key was looking for a cool gaming souvenir the other day, but when he tried to buy a Game Awards trophy online, he got a lot more than he was originally expecting.

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Today a major new airport was released for Microsoft Flight Simulator, while a freeware aircraft received a small development update.

First of all, REG Designs released Toronto Pearson International Airport (CYYZ) in Canada.

You can purchase the airport on the developer’s own store for $18.95 and on Contrail. Additional stores will follow.

Here’s what you can expect from the package and a trailer.

Last week, Battlefield 2042 developers DICE first offered, then pulled, a limited-release skin that featured a smiling attack helicopter for the game’s Russian faction. They decided that now was not the best time to be giving players such rewards.

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Today Atlus announced that Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will take advantage of rollback netcode, with a couple of caveats.

First of all, according to the video announcement starring producer Kazuhisa Wada, rollback netcode won’t be ready at launch but will be added with an update this summer.

Secondly, it appears that only the PS4 and Steam versions will get it, while the Nintendo Switch version will not, so if you want to enjoy it, your platform choices are a bit more limited.

You can watch the announcement yourself below.

ersona 4 Arena Ultimax is coming for PS4, Switch, and PC on March 17.

Here’s how Atlus officially describes the game:

“The stakes are Ultimate, the tension is Maximum, the fight is… the ULTIMAX!
Experience the latest entry into the beloved Persona 4 series with a thrilling fighting twist.
Join the heroes as they combat an army of Shadows in the P-1 CLIMAX!”

For the past two years, Tokyo Game Show has been hosted mostly online, but the 2022 edition will be different, as a press release Twinfinite received today states.

While the 2021 edition had a small part in-presence for media and business visitors, the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association announced that the 2022 edition will finally open its doors to the general public again at the traditional Makuhari Messe venue in Chiba, near Tokyo.

September 15 and 16 will be business days, open to media and business attendees only as usual, while September 17 and 18 will be public days for everyone. The small difference from the traditional setup is that the general public will also be admitted on September 16 after 2:00 pm local time.

That being said, the event will also bring back the strong online presence it had last year, with most livestreams both in Japanese and English, demos, and the virtual reality tour, for those who cannot attend in person.

In order to comply with Japanese national and local government policies, the number of tickets sold will be limited and children o elementary school age and younger won’t be admitted to the venue.

Below you can read the outline of the event and its theme:

“Nothing Stops Gaming”

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has posted a series of job ads for positions related to growing and evolving the game's free-to-play multiplayer across various live-service initiatives.

One of these is a monetization designer job, posted January 2022, that calls for a person to create "new ongoing experiences" for the game. This person will help create the "next phases of Halo Infinite's free-to-play experience," and it will include designing monetization strategies.

"This role will focus on in-game initiatives to drive player engagement and long-term player progression, as well as a player-first store and monetization model. This role will work closely with our progression, marketing, business, and analytics teams, among others, to curate and understand our player data to ensure your designs deliver on our studio goals," the job ad says.

A writing director job ad, also posted in January 2022, asks for a person to join the team who will work alongside the Halo Infinite's creative leads to develop "highly innovative and engaging serial narrative content" for Halo Infinite's free-to-play multiplayer.

"Work closely with the Halo franchise team to ensure Seasonal story content both leverages existing Halo lore and adds exciting new chapters to the larger Halo story," the job ad says.

An Activision Blizzard shareholder is suing the company regarding the Call of Duty publisher's proposed sale to Microsoft for $68.7 billion. Shareholder Kyle Watson filed a lawsuit in California recently, with lawyers saying the proposal is "unfair for a number of reasons," according to Polygon.

Among the claims listed in Watson's lawsuit is that Activision Blizzard's board of directors is trying to obtain "significant and immediate benefits" with the proposed sale to Microsoft instead of considering what might be in the best interest of the company overall.

The lawsuit also claims that Activision Blizzard's statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 18 is "materially misleading and incomplete." It further claims that the Activision Blizzard board "failed to create an independent committee composed of disinterested directors to run the sales process."

The February 18 statement laid out a very specific timeline of how the deal went down and contained many revelations, including how multiple other companies tried to buy Activision Blizzard and that CEO Bobby Kotick is reportedly set to receive a "golden parachute" payout.

The statement goes on to say that Activision Blizzard's proxy statement regarding the deal is "materially deficient, deprives Plaintiff of the information necessary to make an intelligent, informed, and rational decision of whether to vote in favor of the Proposed Transaction, and tis thus in violation of the Exchange Act."

Multiple accounts have come in reporting that Amazon US is sending copies of Sony's Gran Turismo 7 to shoppers well in advance of racing game's March 4 release date.

VGC noticed that people on Twitter, Reddit, and the GTPlanet forum have said they've received copies of the game, or they are sent and on the way. You can see some of the documentation below.

Valve founder and billionaire Gabe Newell has commented on two of the most buzzworthy topics in the tech and gaming space these days: crypto and NFTs. Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, Newell doubled down on his lack of excitement and enthusiasm for the crypto/NFT space, which should come as no surprise given that Valve banned games with crypto and NFT elements back in 2021.

In the new interview, Newell said the underlying technology here is "pretty reasonable," but the implementation of what we've seen so far is not something the executive is interested in.

"You have to separate the underlying technology versus which actors are utilizing that technology," Newell said. "It's like, if you're a chemist, and you're looking at nitrocellulose, you're like, 'Oh, yeah, we can do some really interesting stuff with that.' And then if everybody's buying guns and shooting people with them, you're sort of like, 'Hey, this whole chemistry thing is great, but there are some outcomes that can be negative.' Not to equate NFTs with shooting people, but the underlying technology of distributed ledgers, and the notion of digital ownership, and shared universes, are all pretty reasonable."

People and companies involved with NFT projects these days are "not people you really are wanting to do business with," Newell said, saying NFT technologies give bad actors a chance to rip off customers or take part in money laundering schemes, for example.

"It's much more about the actors than it is about the underlying technology, or the rationale for what we're doing," Newell said.

The list of best-selling games on Steam for the past week has been revealed, and unsurprisingly, From Software's massively anticipated Elden Ring topped the charts, while Destiny 2's Witch Queen expansion also performed well.

Elden Ring claimed the top three positions on Steam for the week ending February 27, 2022. It was able to hold more than one position because, like many other games, it has multiple purchasing options. Steam's own backend lists them as separate games, and this data is pulled and compiled by SteamDB.

Coming in fourth for the eighth week of 2022 was Destiny 2: The Witch Queen's deluxe edition, with the standard version landing in the sixth spot for the week. Steam's own Steam Deck console was No. 7, while Dying Light 2, Total War: Warhammer III, and Cyberpunk 2077 all also made it into the top sales spots.

You can see the full top top list below, as shared by SteamDB on Twitter.

GameSpot's Elden Ring review-in-progress scored the game a rare 10/10. Reviewer Tamoor Hussain said, "Elden Ring takes the shards of what came before and forges them into something that will go down in history as one of the all-time greats: a triumph in design and creativity, and an open-world game that distinguishes itself for what it doesn't do as much as what it does."

If you're into Halo and looking to spruce up your kitchen and impress your friends, the Halo Gear store has announced a new Master Chief-themed decanter set.

Created by Ukonic, the six-piece set includes an epic-looking decanter inspired by Master Chief's helmet, along with four whiskey glasses inscribed with the UNSC name and logos. The decanter holds 56 ounces of liquid and also comes with a stopper. The whiskey glasses can hold 11 ounces. Ukonic also made the Xbox Mini-Fridge in partnership with Microsoft.

The organizers of the Evo tournament have announced that Super Smash Bros. will not be part of the upcoming Evo 2022 tournament in March because Nintendo apparently shut it down.

In a statement, Evo said, "Since 2007, we've seen historic Super Smash Bros. moments created at Evo's events. We are saddened that Nintendo has chosen not to continue that legacy with us this year."

It added: "In the future, we hope to once again celebrate the Super Smash Bros. community alongside them."

Even so, Evo 2022 is still going ahead, as a live, in-person event this year in Las Vegas. It's scheduled for March 8, starting at 5 PM PT. The full lineup of games is yet to be confirmed.

Sony announced in March 2021 that it was buying Evo, and Nintendo confirmed plans to work with Panda Global for its own Smash tournaments. Whether or not any of these moves played a role in the decision to drop Smash from Evo remains to be seen.

Veteran third-party developer FlyTampa announced that its own rendition of Toronto Pearson International Airport (CYYZ) will be released soon for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

To be precise, the developer announced today on Facebook that the airport will be released in “a day or two.”

This comes just a few hours after REG Designs released its version of the airport, which means customers will have to weigh their options and see which rendition of the major airport they want.

The post was accompanied by a gallery of screenshots, which you can see below and perhaps may help you with the choice.

According to the announcement, Boston Logan International Airport (KBOS) is “getting there” as well. They shared a single screenshot of Boston as a cherry on top.

There's something truly special about SNK games. I've spent hours transfixed by the likes of The Last Blade, Metal Slug and The King of Fighters '98, my face almost pushed against an Astro City's 29-inch monitor drinking in their beauty - it's that boldness, that style and all that colour served up in chunky 2D that ensures these things are timeless in their beauty.

So it's something of a privilege to talk to a pivotal part of all that: Eisuke Ogura, an artist who's been with SNK - on and off, given the somewhat turbulent history of the company in the early 00s - for over 25 years, and who's at the forefront of their recent revival. He's been a key part of the fighting games that have defined the company - and it's the fighting games that first drew him there.

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If you mixed together Disney's "It's a Small World" theme park ride with Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings, you might end up with something resembling the dungeons of Lost Ark. It's a game punctuated by set pieces where players roll through enemies like butter, gliding from one room to the next, all with gorgeous special effects and slick combat.

There's nothing subtle or particularly original about Lost Ark's settings - it combines nearly every MMO and fantasy trope into one leviathan campaign - but that's not the point. It's a game about flashy action, power fantasies, and stomping on dozens of enemies.

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Though many Fate/Grand Order players are awaiting the next phase of their main story adventure in Olympus, there's plenty of Greek action to go around in the meantime. The game's latest limited-time event is Fate/Grand Order's The Aeaean Spring Breeze: The Witch, Delightful Companions, and a New Adventure and adds Odysseus.

The Fate/Grand Order Aeaean Spring Breeze event takes place on the titular Greek island. It's a mythical place said to be where the hero Odysseus spent time on his journey home. It's also the home of Circe, a powerful witch who can turn men into animals. With both Circe and Odysseus present in Fate/Grand Order proper as Servants, the event promises a new take on a key segment of the Odyssey.

Aeaean Spring Breeze is also the Fate/Grand Order White Day event. In Japan, Valentine's Day is typically seen as a day for women to give gifts to men, and White Day was invented to give men a chance to reciprocate. To that end, playable male Servants (and a number of non-binary ones, besides) will gain an attack bonus during the event. Special commemorative "Chaldea Boys Collection" craft essence items are also available via the premium summoning banner.

Aniplex opened up pre-orders for a Fate/Grand Order watch that draws inspiration from Jeanne d’Arc Alter. Pre-orders are open from February 27, 2022 to May 1, 2022, and it will ship out in mid-August 2022. The watch will cost 45,000 JPY ($388.35) for the watch alone, while the set with the watch stand will cost 48,000 JPY ($414.25).

The Jeanne d’Arc Alter Fate/Grand Order watch features motifs from the character and her design. Its color scheme matches her armor, with lots of black, red, and dark indigo. The red on the bottom of the watch face looks like fire. According to the website, this is supposed to bring to mind her flames of revenge, as well as her Noble Phantasm. The watch face also has the dragon from her flag. As for the hands, they look like her swords.

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Previous Fate/Grand Order watches from Seiko and Aniplex included ones that draw inspiration from Artoria Caster and Sengo Muramasa. The site also teased that the next watch will be one that looks like Katsushika Hokusai. These past watches are no longer available via the Aniplex website.

Fate/Grand Order is readily available worldwide on mobile devices. The Jeanne d’Arc Alter watch is open for pre-order until May 1, 2022, and it has a release window of mid-August 2022.

As part of the White Day Spectacle, the Japanese version of Fate/Grand Order will run a new limited-time event starring Arjuna Alter. “The Fifteen Bespectacled Intellectuals” will start on March 2, 2022, and completing it will allow you to obtain up to thirteen new Spiritron Dresses for your Servant.

The Servants who will be eligible for a new Spiritron Dress are:

• Arjuna Alter
• Charles Henri Sanson
• Cu Chulainn Alter
• Enkidu
• Gawain
• Karna (Lancer)
• Medusa
• Merlin
• Mordred (Saber)
• Nemo
• Oda Nobukatsu
• Paracelsus von Hohenheim
• Saito Hajime

In the case of Arjuna Alter and Mordred, their voice lines will change along with their appearances. As for the others, only their combat sprites change. Arjuna Alter is the only one with a whole brand-new outfit, as he is the poster boy for the event. According to the story description, the reason why the Servants are wearing glasses is because they are fighting enemies that are invisible to the naked eye.

During every White Day event, there are limited time Craft Essences that you can obtain through an event ticket or naturally through the gacha or battles. This year will be no exception. So far, Lasengle teased a Craft Essence starring Merlin and Oberon, as well as one of Mandricardo, Caenis, and Mori Nagayoshi.

It's official: Pokémon generation nine is on the way.

Announced at the Pokémon Direct at the weekend, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will be released later this year.

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Elden Ring has predictably topped the UK all-format boxed game chart this week, with the best launch sales of any FromSoftware game to date.

Its sales total was just shy of the amount PlayStation exclusive Horizon Forbidden West managed last week. Sony's blockbuster now sits in second place.

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Tokyo Games Show will be back in 2022 as a physical event for both business and general visitors.

As ever, the annual show will be held at Makuhari Messe, one of Japan's largest convention centres. TGS will start on 15th September for business visitors and will then be open to the public from the 17th, until the show's conclusion on the 18th of September.

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Pokémon Go's next in-game season begins tomorrow, 1st March, and focuses on the Hawaii-inspired region of Alola.

This is the area featured in the seventh generation 3DS games Pokémon Sun and Moon, which saw players explore an archipelago of islands and snaffle up a suitably sun-drenched menagerie of creatures.

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Super Smash Bros. won't be appearing at this year's Evo fighting game championship.

Nintendo's fighter has been a mainstay of the Evolution Championship Series, but in a statement on Twitter the organiser confirmed the game will not be returning.

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For the first time in three years, this September’s Tokyo Game Show will open its doors to the public, offering an in-person event at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.

In fall 2019, things were business as usual for the Tokyo Game Show. Once the pandemic broke out, the event shifted to a digital-only event in 2020.…

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One of the most visible anti-mask and anti-vax demonstrator in Japan was a cosplayer named Rengoku Kazuaki. Dressed as Kyojuro Rengoku from Demon Slayer, he stood out with his spiky wig, flowing cape, and protest signs.

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Platinum Games' online action-RPG Babylon's Fall is almost here, which may come as a bit of surprise to those of us living and breathing Elden Ring at the moment. But one thing that may draw your attention away from spectral steeds are spectral weapons, something called gut strings, and an upcoming collaboration with NieR Automata. Yeah, take that Elden Ring. Babylon's Fall will let me carve up sad androids with the aid of my innards, and it looks fun.

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The Steam Deck is out! Technically! Or at least it’s finally begun shipping to those who got their preorders in the earliest. In any case, PC gamesdom at large is getting its hands on the handheld PC – and while it can comfortably run a good chunk of the Steam library, creators Valve aren’t anticipating future games to get Deck-specific features, control setups or performance optimisations.

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In a crowded mobile market full of fleeting successes, Puzzle & Dragons has endured. Why? It’s because it’s more than a color-matching puzzle game. It offers team customization for interesting and varied strategies. Its enemies often force you to approach your matching differently. And perhaps most notably, it offers huge combos if you work hard enough for them!

It’s disappointing, then, to see just how much trouble the franchise has encountered adapting to a console market. Especially after multiple promising 3DS entries! But like Puzzle & Dragons Gold before it, Puzzle & Dragons Nintendo Switch Edition fully misunderstands its own appeal.

Let’s start with that team-building. Crafting squads turns the game from a matching game that sort of plays itself into something more calculated! So… why take that out? That’s a weird move, huh? But Nintendo Switch Edition does just that, instead offering a pre-built team that gradually upgrades as you progress and additional pre-set teams through its gacha system. (Yep, gacha. We’ll get to that later.)

A Persona 25th anniversary festival will be held from May 28 to June 10, 2022. The event will take place at Tokorozawa Sakura Town in Saitama, Japan. Tickets are immediately available to purchase. The event will include exhibitions, with exclusive merchandise available to purchase at the venue. Additionally, those looking to extend their stay at the event will be able to rent Persona-themed hotel rooms. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Tickets to the event will cost 2,000 yen ($17) if purchased on the day of attendance. Tickets including special festival goods will cost 4,500 yen ($38). However, those who pre-purchase tickets will be able to obtain tickets for 1,800 yen ($15). And pre-purchased tickets with the 25th anniversary festival goods will cost 4,300 yen ($37). Goods that come with special ticket purchases include a special "graffiti" towel.

Alongside a 1:1 scale statue of Arsene from Persona 5, Atlus will reveal a Thanatos and Izanagi statue at the event. Consumers will be able to purchase exclusive Persona 25th anniversary festival goods at the Da Vinci Store in Tokoroazawa Sakura Town. Exclusive items include illustrations of main characters of the Persona series dressed as Da Vinci Store employees. Details regarding the event can be found through the official website.

The official website of Tokyo Game Show 2022 shared new information about this year's show. The event will be held at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. While the event will have a physical location, information will still be distributed online. The first two days of the event will be business days. This means that game developers and other individuals within the industry will be able to enter the physical event at Makuhari Messe. The general public can attend the final two days. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

The official website reveals that it will be a "hybrid event." This means that consumers will still have the opportunity to view major announcements online. As part of the announcement of the event, Tokyo Game Show will still continue to host presentations from its official YouTube channel. However, this will include booths as well as general presentations. TGS said that this will create a more immersive experience for the online viewer.

Additionally, Steam will host a special page for TGS 2022. Consumers will be able to download demos from TGS 2022 through the dedicated Steam page. TGS will also host a VR event. The show will announce more information regarding the specifics of the event in the future.

Tokyo Game Show 2022 will take place from September 15 to September 18, 2022.

In nearly six years, I don't think I've ever been busier playing Pokémon Go. This weekend's ticketed Johto Tour event offered an eye-opening checklist of things to hunt down, battle and trade - so much so, some fans have said the event should have lasted two days, or had better signposting for some of its more obscure challenges.

Johto Tour was a celebration of the series' Gold and Silver game region, and in that it was a success. Its questline saw you choosing between those game's Starter Pokémon, while its rotating hourly creature spawns were themed around key in-game areas. As with last year's Kanto Tour, the region's full Pokédex of creatures was available to catch, trade for or evolve.

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Valve boss Gabe Newell would happily help Microsoft get Game Pass on Steam, he's said.

During an interview with PC Gamer, Newell was asked about the option of creating a subscription service such as Microsoft's Game Pass for the Steam Deck. In response, Newell said: "I don't think it's something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time.

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The developers of Celeste have been reunited with their Game Awards trophy after it turned up on eBay.

Spotted by PC Gamer, YouTuber PrestigeIsKey is a big fan of Geoff Keighley's award show and was looking for a replica trophy.

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