August 2022

The Games and Online Harassment Hotline has launched a new online resource aimed at content creators so they can protect themselves from hate raids.

The guide can be found on the Hotline's website, and gives a comprehensive overview of what livestreamers can do if they're the victim of a hate raid, but also what measures they can put in place to minimise the risks of it happening, and what steps to take if it has happened already.

Talking to GamesIndustry.biz, the Games and Online Harassment Hotline director Jae Lin commented: "Hate raids have been used to target Black, women, queer, and marginalized streamers for years. With a spike in this tactic over the past year, it's the streamers and community moderators who have created and shared the most effective knowledge and tools for mitigating the harm of hate raids.

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Nintendo suffered declines in the first quarter of its financial year, with net sales dropping almost 5% to $2.3 billion – due largely to a decrease in hardware sales.

3.43 million Switch units were sold to retail during the three months ended June 30, 2022. That’s a year-on-year decline of 22.9%, which Nintendo attributed to “the effects of supply shortages in semiconductors and other components among other factors.”

Net sales: ¥307.5 billion ($2.3 billion), down 4.7% year-on-year Operating profit: ¥101.6 billion ($762.7 million), down 15.1% Ordinary profit: ¥166.7 billion ($1.3 billion), up 29.6% Gross profit: ¥184.5 billion ($1.4 billion), down 4.3%

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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was the best-selling boxed video game in the UK last week, according to charts company GfK.

The game very narrowly beat Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to become the biggest launch in the Xeno series so far, according to data shared by GfK boss Dorian Bloch to GamesIndustry.biz.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 beat its predecessor by just a handful of units in terms of week one physical sales. In fact, all three Xenoblade games on the Nintendo Switch sold roughly the same amount of units at launch, with Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition the No.3 biggest launch.

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Despite a downturn in the financial fortunes of many publishers, Electronic Arts continues to show growth thanks in large part to its sporting efforts.

The company today reported results for the first quarter of its fiscal year (three months ended June 30), showing sales and profit growth driven by its F1 and FIFA franchises.

Revenue: $1.77 billion (up 14% year-on-year) Bookings: $1.3 billion (down 3%) Net income: $311 million (up 52%)

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Google Play has updated its developer program policies with a number of new rules that will be phased in over the coming months, including some new restrictions on how apps use ads.

Beginning September 30, unexpected full-screen interstitial ads that pop up when users have chosen to do something else will not be allowed.

On top of that, users must be able to quit out of full-screen interstitial ads within 15 seconds, unless they specifically opted into it (for an in-game reward, for example) or it doesn't interrupt normal use of the app.

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Video games have brought us an incredible range of memorable and iconic creatures over the decades, from Trico in The Last Guardian, to Creepers in Minecraft, Goombas in the Mario series, Big Daddies from BioShock, Final Fantasy's Chocobos, or Gorons in the Zelda franchise.

In a Develop:Brighton talk entitled 'Bringing Creatures to Life: How to Make Good, Emotionally Appealing Creature Designs', Sam Santala detailed the foundations for making creatures come to life in a way that makes sense for games, whether they're monstrous foes or adorable allies.

Santala has worked as a senior concept artist since 2014, working on games such as Rare's Everwild, Ubisoft's Might & Magic: Elemental Guardians, ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2, or Avatar: Pandora Rising. In 2020, he launched Songhorn, his outsourcing art studio focusing solely on creature design.

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The popularity of game downloads in Germany continued to grow last year, with 59% of all PC and console purchases made digitally.

According to the German games trade body Game, 93% of all PC titles were purchased and downloaded online, while 7% were bought physically.

On the console side however, 36% of game purchases were made digitally, with the majority still preferring to buy boxed copies of games for Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

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It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.

If you have new appointments or transitions in your company that belong here, please send the names of the appointees, new role and company, and prior role and company to newhires@gamesindustry.biz.

Tom Enoki has been appointed as senior managing director and head of corporate planning office at Nintendo of Europe.

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17% of staff were laid off Thursday

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Two tests precede full integration coming at August’s end

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The Neo Geo Pocket Color versions of two arcade Mega Man games, now on Switch

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Chip Theory Games’ latest board game seems to drag on forever

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Booster Course Pass wave 2 update is both a blessing and curse

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It’s great for those looking to up the difficulty of a Pokémon game

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Vantage even gets her own bat and custom rifle

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We’ll have to wait a bit before we see Gaga’s take on Harley Quinn in action

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Brush up on The Sandman before the Netflix series premieres

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Today Bandai Namco announced its financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year, related to the period between April 1 and June 30, 2022.

We learn that net sales grew 21.5% year-on-year while operating profit grew 64.3% year-on-year

The publisher also increased the forecast for the first half of the fiscal year from 400,000 to 430,000 million yen in net sales and from 46,000 to 72,000 million yen in operating profit.

All of the company’s businesses have performed well triggering higher-than-expected net sales, and profits grew significantly due to strong repeat sales of high-margin home video games. The weak yen also helped boost profits further.

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: exercise, werewolves, and escape rooms.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

I have now been part of the Eurogamer team for six wonderful months (woo). However, as a result of this new full-time position my physical activity levels have decreased somewhat (boo).

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Genshin Impact contains daily missions called Commissions that players can complete to receive free rewards from the Adventurers’ Guild. If you’re having trouble with Reliable Helper, we’ve got you covered. Here’s how to complete the Reliable Helper Commission in Genshin Impact.

First of all, you’ll need to complete the Every Day a New Adventure quest at Adventure Rank 12 to unlock Daily Commissions. Once you do, you can complete four Commissions each day to earn those guild rewards.

Reliable Helper Commission Guide

Reliable Helper will have you complete a quest for an NPC in Mondstadt named Tsarevich. He’s stuck because monsters are blocking all of the paths that he can possibly take. He’ll give you a choice of which path to clear: mountainside, foot of the mountains, or mountaintop.

The catch here is that Tsarevich gives you specific guidelines for each path.

Rerolling is a key part of a lot of gacha games, and that’s no different in Tower of Fantasy, either. Here’s a complete guide to rerolling in Tower of Fantasy.

Developed by Hotta Studio, Tower of Fantasy is a new shared open-world free-to-play game that lets you explore vast environments while taking on dungeons with other players to obtain loot. You can also farm currencies to pull for special weapons and character skins as well, which is pretty much the bread and butter of these games.

Tower of Fantasy Reroll Guide

First off, do note that this reroll guide is specifically for the global version of the game, and we’ll be referencing the various pre-registration rewards that global players will get when they start playing.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla fans may soon be able to wield the godly powers of Thanos and Tony Stark, according to leaked details found in the game's files.

Dataminer AndyReloads has already filmed himself strutting around like Iron Man in a new suit of armour that lets you wield a chest laser akin to Stark's own arc reactor.

The design of the armour, and especially the colouring, are obviously Iron Man-themed. But - thankfully - you're not actually Iron Man, and the rest of the design bears resemblence to those warn by the series' technological Isu race.

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Square Enix has released its latest financial results, detailing a rise in MMO sales thanks to Final Fantasy 14 despite an overall decline.

However, comments have also emerged from an internal conference call concerning the financial report, courtesy of analyst David Gibson.

The sale of Square Enix's western studios - notably Crystal Dynamics and Eidos - was "driven by concerns that the titles cannibalised sales of the rest of the group", with the company aiming to improve capital efficiency.

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We're still not quite at the 1.0 release for Vampire Survivors, but we are at least now one step closer.

Following on from the recent release of patch 0.9, developer Poncle has now released patch 0.10.0 for the game, or in its words, "The Not One" patch. You can see a teaser for it below.

This patch brings with it a host of new content, such as new characters Cosmo Pavone and Big Trousers. Players will also now be able to get two new achievements, a new Arcana and a new weapon.

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Final Fantasy 14 remains the darling of Square Enix's output as the publisher announces declining financial results in its latest report.

Total net sales from the last financial quarter (April to June) were 74.8bn yen, a drop of almost 16 percent compared to the same period last year, while operating income was 14.4bn yen, a drop of almost 17 percent. Net income actually rose due to foreign exchange gains.

However, while net sales of HD games has declined year on year, sales of MMO games have conversely risen year on year.

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More information has been released regarding Kirby's 30th anniversary live concert, and how fans outside of Japan can take their seat remotely.

First announced in March, the concert will be held at Tokyo Garden Theatre on 11th August at 6pm local time in Japan.

For UK fans that's 10am, and you'll be able to stream it via YouTube and start your Thursday off with some Grammy-worthy tunes.

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Music files found in the latest Mario Kart 8 Deluxe update point to many of the upcoming, unannounced DLC tracks due over the coming 18 months.

Even better - for those of us who like peeking inside our Christmas presents a little early - these files line up with a previous leak which appeared to identify the specific platforms for each upcoming DLC course.

Now, fans have put together what they think is a schedule for the remaining DLC cups, including all of the tracks from Wave 3, expected later this year.

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Tactics Ogre: Reborn will be sold in both digital and physical forms overseas. However, it seems that Japanese buyers will have some extra goodies, like a Tactics Ogre Reborn Collector's Edition. They'll also have a chance at a special pre-order lottery.

The Tactics Ogre Reborn Collector's Edition is exclusive to the Square Enix e-Store. As a physical package, it's also exclusive to the console editions of the game (PS4, PS5, and Switch). The package comes with the game itself, and several exclusive items. These include an art book with illustrations by Akihiko Yoshida and Tsubasa Masao, among others. There's also a three-volume script book set, containing dialog lines from all the story routes. Finally, a mini-soundtrack CD and set of tarot cards with a special bag and mat round out the offering. The package costs 22,000 Yen (about $165 USD).

Check out some shots of the Tactics Ogre Reborn Collector's Edition in the gallery.

[gallery columns="5" ids="933208,933209,933210,933211,933212" link="file"]

It’s fair to say that Liam Neeson is fast becoming the go-to actor for middling action-thrillers. Don’t get me wrong, the Northern Irish Hollywood star has spearheaded some genuinely terrific pics, like 2008’s Taken and 2012’s The Grey for instance, but his sheer prolificacy in the genre has led to a seeming downturn in quality over recent years.

His latest forgettable thriller, Memory, which hit theaters earlier this year, has somehow risen from the ashes and managed to enter the Amazon Prime’s most-watched movies chart. That’s right, according to FlixPatrol, the 2022 suspense-driven action pic has managed to nab the number 9 spot in Amazon Prime’s Top 10 today.

Helmed by GoldenEye and Casino Royale director Martin Campbell, it’s clear that Memory has a lot of action genre chops behind the camera. In addition, the film is based upon Belgian author Jef Geeraerts’ novel De Zaak Alzeimer (which translates to The Alzheimer’s Case), while also doubling as a remake of the Belgian filmic adaptation of the novel of the same name.

Narratively, Neeson plays an assassin who is suffering from early onset dementia. However, Neeson’s bounty hunter-esque character is tasked with eliminating a young girl, which is just a bridge too far for him. As a result, he goes on the run with a bunch of nasty guns-for-hire hot on his heels. Alongside Neeson stars Memento and Prometheus‘s Guy Pearce, who portrays an FBI agent on the hunt for sex traffickers, who inextricably becomes linked with the movie’s spider’s web-like drama that unfolds.

Valorant’s North American Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) tournament got underway last night, and as expected the opening game between Sentinels and The Guard absolutely smashed domestic viewership records. The Masters 1 2021 champions’ already sizeable fanbase has evidently swollen in recent months after the unexpected signing of former CS:GO and popular streamer Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek.

According to escharts, Sentinels vs. The Guard was watched by over 600,000 concurrent viewers, which is over four times the viewership of last year’s tournament. In fact, the numbers actually exceed the majority of most games played during the recent Masters 2 Copenhagen international event.

Sentinels have always been a popular team after its dominant run of form throughout most of 2021, but the combination of new signings like Shroud and Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro, as well as the intrigue of watching them duke it out one last time for a spot at Champions later this year, has raised the interest to even greater heights. Watch parties hosted by popular streamers such as Tarik had over 160,000 viewers at times.

Unfortunately for those bleeding Sentinels red, the team lost 1-2 in a nail-biting series that went right down to the wire. Both the first and third maps went to overtime, and Sentinels absolutely had the chance to win the whole thing in the first overtime of map 3. Instead, it was The Guard that came out on top and move on to the next stage of the upper bracket. As for Sentinels, they drop to the lower bracket and await a game versus either Cloud9 Blue or Shopify Rebellion (previously Luminosity) in a second round that won’t be any easier.

A few years ago I had to be on very strong painkillers to help me sleep, and while I didn't have more nightmares than usual, the quality of the ones I did have was markedly more weird than what I was used to. Enter Saturnalia, "a fever dream inspired in equal parts by authentic Sardinian culture and classic Italian giallo horror films". Announced a year ago and "coming soon" in 2022 to the Epic Games Store, this extremely unsettling slice of nope - but also yes - just got a new trailer. If Stanley Tucci visited this town on his quest to eat nice ravioli, his final piece to camera would be from inside an imminently-afire wicker effigy.

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Back in 2018, Belgium declared loot boxes in games were a form of gambling and therefore illegal, but it appears this law isn't being enforced.

Loot box researcher Leon Y Xiao has written a report stating the country's gambling law regulation of video game loot boxes has been ineffective, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz.

Despite the ban, paid loot boxes remained widespread in the top 100 grossing iPhone games in Belgium from 2021, with 82 percent including some form of random monetisation mechanic.

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A new game development kit (GDK) for the Xbox Series S will "optimise" the console's memory allocation, Microsoft has revealed.

"Hundreds of additional megabytes of memory are now available to Xbox Series S developers," explained the game dev team in a new video (see below) all about the GDK's updates (thanks, The Verge).

Microsoft says this will give developers "more control over memory", and as such will allow for "[improved] graphics performance in memory-constrained conditions." So, good news indeed.

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In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war... and if Games Workshop has its way, plenty of Warhammer 40,000 video games to play.

The sci-fi tabletop universe is enjoying a video game boom, with a handful of great games set within its very grim and very dark universe launched in recent years. Where there was nothing but an endless stream of mediocre Warhammer 40,000 games to play, like the terrifying Tyranids, the genre has adapted, improved and launched yet another wave, better than what came before.

Below you can find our recommendations for the best Warhammer 40,000 games!

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Overwatch 2 will not hold any more public betas before its full release in two months.

Blizzard exec Jon Spector tweeted the news last night, in response to questions from fans on whether another test period would take place.

"While we will continue testing OW2 daily internally, we're not planning any additional public beta tests," Spector wrote. "With all the valuable feedback we received from our alpha and two public beta tests, we will be focusing our efforts on launching the best game possible on 4th Oct."

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The Life is Strange series will not return to its original episodic model, developer Deck Nine has suggested.

Speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, senior narrative designer Philip Lawrence said the decision to launch last year's entry True Colors as a complete experience was "the right decision", and one the studio wanted to stick with.

"I can't imagine we'd go back to the episodic model," Lawrence said. "The reaction has been very positive."

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Ahead of its release this September, Naughty Dog has been slowly sharing little snippets from The Last of Us Part 1 for PlayStation 5 and comparing it to the PS4 Remastered edition of the game.

The latest example of this sees Joel on horseback, as the screen slides between the PS4 and PS5 versions of the same scene.

"Get ready to hit the dusty trail for a beautiful - and dangerous - journey across America in The Last of Us Part 1," Naughty Dog proclaimed in its tweet with the footage, which you can see below.

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Yesterday Square Enix officially announced the forthcoming release of Tactics Ogre: Reborn, a remaster of the PSP remake of SNES game Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.

However, some fans are unhappy with both graphical changes and the cost of the remake.

The pixel art of the original has been smoothed out which gives a rounded effect, while the text has been sharpened with a new font.

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Toho Animation announced it is producing an anime adaptation of Kaiju No 8. A new teaser trailer gives fans a brief glimpse at how the anime adaptation may look and feel. Furthermore, a new official website, as well as an English Twitter account for the anime adaptation, has appeared. Toho Animation has not confirmed the animation studio for the adaptation.

Kaiju No 8, also known as Monster #8, is a popular science-fiction kaiju manga series in Japan. The story follows Kafka Hibino, a member of a kaiju clean-up crew of sorts, who dreams of becoming a part of the Third Division defense force. After gaining the ability to shape-shift into a Kaiju, Kafka is determined to join the Third Division with the help of one of his childhood friends.

https://twitter.com/KaijuNo8_O_EN/status/1555206933447163909?s=20&t=3dvOm-aP-3xfDqOZ-jxzDg

The teaser trailer doesn't show any footage of the actual anime. Instead, it's a collection of black and white photos and animations of various streets in Tokyo, with audio hinting at some sort of Kaiju attack. The final seconds of the video reveal smoke clouds and a creature in the distance, before cutting to black.

The manga series first appeared on the Shonen Jump + app for free in July 2020. As of writing, Kaiju No 8 has seven volumes in publication. The author of the series, Naoya Matsumoto, is a Shonen Jump veteran and has had his works serialized in the magazine since 2009.