September 2022

Zynga always had its detractors, being a poster child for the social gaming boom that some traditional developers and players found derivative, exploitive, or just plain evil.

But a decade ago, the social gaming giant had become a punching bag for essentially anyone and everyone. It was already in a precarious spot, suffering from a deflating Facebook social gaming bubble and struggling to build up much of a presence in mobile gaming to offset those losses. But the sentiment around the company got notably worse starting with a handful of developments in the last week of July.

First (and, if we're being honest, foremost), the company stumbled financially. This industry will forgive a lot if you're making money – hello, Activision Blizzard board of directors – but no profit margin means no margin for error.

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In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz today at Gamescom, Bandai Namco Europe's CEO Arnaud Muller addressed the impact of the current acquisition spree in games on smaller publishers.

While acknowledging that Bandai Namco is in a privileged position, Muller said that the company has to implement measures to safeguard its partnerships and IPs, while smaller publishing outfits might suffer more directly from this consolidation trend.

"What I find is that we have to secure the IPs that we create with the studios we partner with," he said. "When we invest in IP creation, when we invest in marketing for these IPs, we also have to keep in mind that we have to get some sort of security towards the future of the studio that develops this IP, if the IP doesn't belong to us.

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French publisher Microids has unveiled its own music label, Microids Records.

The subsidiary aims to collaborate with musicians and composers to release soundtracks from games it has published.

The first two albums to join the label will be the soundtracks from Syberia 2 and Syberia 3 composed by Inon Zur.

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(Editor's note: After publication, we learned the start-up in question is basing its game on blockchain technology. Given our editorial stance on the subject, this is not a story we would normally cover.)

Former staff at Disney, EA and Kabam have formally unveiled a new game company that aims to "take on climate change using the power of play, people and technology."

The studio, named Carbon Counts, was formed in November 2020, but has been operating in stealth while working on its first mobile title, EverForest. As players progress through EverForest's story, the studio says it will plant real trees in return.

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When it comes to a job in video games, game developers often face a choice: Either work for a big AAA game developer on a massive, multi-year project, or join an indie outfit on a smaller, more personal title.

There are pros and cons to both. It’s the bigger companies that work on the big brands and create the more ambitious games (at least technically speaking). But the downside is that they can be a bit more corporate, and you don’t get the same vibe and connection you can get with a smaller outfit.

However, there is a middle ground with developers such as Warp Digital. Warp Digital has fewer than 30 employees, but it teams up with AAA companies on some of the biggest games imaginable. In fact, right now it’s working with legendary developer Funcom on its new survival game set in the world of Dune.

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Sony has increased the recommended retail price of PlayStation 5 in dozens of markets around the world, including the UK, Europe, Canada and the company's home market of Japan.

Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, announced the change in a blog post, attributing it to "the global economic environment."

"We’re seeing high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries. Based on these challenging economic conditions, SIE has made the difficult decision to increase the recommended retail price (RRP) of PlayStation 5 in select markets."

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The second day of Gamescom saw the Future Games Show take place, hosted by 2018's God of War acting talent Danielle Bisutti and Christopher Judge.

The presentation featured new game reveals and release date announcements. The show focused on titles releasing later on during 2022 and well into 2023. Some of the announcements that were made are collected below.

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A Little to the Left is one of these indie games with a niche core idea that only needs a short teaser to convince thousands of players that this is exactly the game they had wanted their whole life.

If the thought of jumbled cutlery items, cupboards left ajar, or frames ever so slightly tilted have you break out in a cold sweat, and you feel great satisfaction fixing these little imperfections, it's likely A Little to the Left is for you.

And the highly awaited indie darling finally has a release date, with developer Max Inferno Games revealing at the Future Games Show today during Gamescom that it will launch on November 8 on PC and Mac, with a Switch and mobile release still on the horizon as well.

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Today, Denuvo has unveiled technology that it says will combat Nintendo Switch video game piracy.

Within the announcement it explained that anyone who intends to play a game must purchase a legitimate copy of the title.

The Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection will run checks into a title's code to stop gameplay on emulators. The sofware maker said that it will not impact gameplay for users.

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Former GTA producer Leslie Benzies debuted his new studio's first project at Gamescom last night, and the project has already stirred some controversy.

In the wake of the announcement of Everywhere, various people pointed out on social media that Benzies' Build A Rocket Boy studio had been hiring for blockchain developers.

While the studio's current website makes no mention of blockchain jobs, an Internet Archive capture of the site's careers page from June shows that blockchain had its own category of postings, alongside groupings for art, animation, audio, design, and others.

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Not-for-profit Creative Enterprise has joined GI Live: London as a speaker and sponsor.

Creative Enterprise, which is a part of Creative UK, is a series of initiatives that help games companies access connections, training and networks to help grow their business

GI Live: London takes place from Tuesday, September 20 to Thursday, September 22. The first day is a digital-only day, while days two and three will take place at London Excel alongside the EGX consumer show. Tickets are on sale now.

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The Interactive Software Federation of Europe and the European Games Developer Federation today released their Key Facts report, an annual overview of the European market that provides a snapshot of who is playing games, how much they're spending on them, and other such details.

While it's valuable to have such data points, most of the numbers only change modestly year-to-year, making headline takeaways sometimes difficult to find for news organizations. So this year we thought it would be interesting to compare these Europe trade groups' bigger picture report with that of its American counterpart, the Entertainment Software Association's Essential Facts report, normally released around E3 each year.

One area where the two markets were similar was in gender breakdown, with the US having 48% of players identify as female and Europe seeing that figure come in at 47.8%.

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Today, Super Smash Bros series game director Masahiro Sakurai has launched a YouTube channel dedicated to game design.

The Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games video series will be available in Japanese and English.

"I want to try and help make games around the world a little more fun," he said.

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Horizon Forbidden West has spent a third week at the top of the UK physical charts.

While the Sony game has enjoyed another burst of sales fuelled by hardware bundles, Nintendo Switch Sports has moved up to No.2, taking the place of Two Point Campus.

Two Point and Sega's university management game launched last week and soared to second place, but has fallen down the charts to No.14 following a 76% decline in sales.

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The Amazon show’s bad guys are a different beast than in Lord of the Rings

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Coffee Stain’s joke game gets the tiniest bit more serious

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Barry Jenkins’ 2018 romantic drama is among the many great movies coming to Netflix this month

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‘Helena’s Theme’ was written for Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s new ‘adventurous’ character

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Survey says: not quite

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The king comes to stream on HBO Max this weekend

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Survival game from ex-Witcher and 11 bit studios devs seems impressively layered

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[Splits rock in two] What’s better than this? Guys bein’ dwarves

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Depending on how much time you have

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The intro episodes to the show provide few glimpses of Peter Jackson’s movies

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Mimikyu will be the main of yet another Ichiban Kuji collection, called “Ichiban Kuji Pokemon Mimikyu’s Cafe Time.” The lottery will appear across bookstores, game centers, and such across Japan from October 1, 2022. It will cost 650 JPY (approximately $4.60) per spin. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Aside from Mimikyu, Pokemon like Eevee, Dedenne, and Morpeko are on the goods. As one can imagine from the name, the majority of the prizes in this Ichiban Kuji have to do with coffee or tea time. The full list of items you can get from the Mimikyu’s Cafe Time Ichiban Kuji lottery is:

• A Prize: Mimikyu doll
• B Prize: Coffee server
• C Prize: Soft jacquard blanket
• D Prize: Tote bag
• E Prize: Round mug
• F Prize: Tableware
• G Prize: Jacquard hand towel
• H Prize: Acrylic charms
• Last One Prize: Mimikyu doll (Last One Version)

[gallery link="file" ids="934843,934842,934841,934840,934839,934838,934837,934836,934835"]

You can use the coffee server for other drinks, both hot and cold. It will also come with a coffee dripper, so you do not need to have a machine at home in order to use it. For the tableware, you have the option of plates or a spoon. There is also the option of a ramekin.

An official Elden Ring art book is on the way and it's so detailed, you'll have to buy it as two separate 400-page volumes.

While currently only available to pre-order in Japan – sorry; we'll let you know if and when it becomes available in Europe and beyond – the collection is currently up for sale on Amazon.co.jp, with each book priced at ¥4400 - that's approximately £27 or £55 for the pair.

According to Famitsu (thanks, PC Gamer), a collector's edition which includes both books and a framed Godfrey print is also available for ¥17,600, which is £108. It all comes in a "special three-sided box".

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TGS 2022 will have a large booth with demos of many games courtesy of Happinet. The company has updated its Tokyo Game Show webpage with details for the 2022 edition. While the company has two official live stream slots, it will be known more for its lion's share of game demos at its physical booth.

Happinet has two live streams scheduled on the Tokyo Game Show 2022 official channel. The first one on Saturday, September 17, 2022, will have Gorgeous—a Japanese celebrity known for his pirate-like attire—introduce Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories, Little Witch Nobeta, and NeverAwake. The second stream on Sunday, September 18, 2022, will be dedicated to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

However, Happinet's main highlight will be its physical booth at Makuhari Messe. It will include demos of more than thirty games from various publishers that work with the company. Some of the highlights include Monochrome Mobius—the new entry in the Utawarerumono series, Inti Creates' Azure Striker Gunvolt 3, PlatinumGames' Sol Cresta, Needy Streamer Overload, and the Hololive VTuber Minato Aqua's visual novel Aquarium.

Here's the full title lineup that is available on Happinet's TGS 2022 webpage as of this writing:

TGS 2022 will have a large booth with demos of many games courtesy of Happinet. The company has updated its Tokyo Game Show webpage with details for the 2022 edition. While the company has two official live stream slots, it will be known more for its lion's share of game demos at its physical booth.

Happinet has two live streams scheduled on the Tokyo Game Show 2022 official channel. The first one on Saturday, September 17, 2022, will have Gorgeous—a Japanese celebrity known for his pirate-like attire—introduce Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories, Little Witch Nobeta, and NeverAwake. The second stream on Sunday, September 18, 2022, will be dedicated to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

However, Happinet's main highlight will be its physical booth at Makuhari Messe. It will include demos of more than thirty games from various publishers that work with the company. Some of the highlights include Monochrome Mobius—the new entry in the Utawarerumono series, Inti Creates' Azure Striker Gunvolt 3, PlatinumGames' Sol Cresta, Needy Streamer Overload, and the Hololive VTuber Minato Aqua's visual novel Aquarium.

Here's the full title lineup that is available on Happinet's TGS 2022 webpage as of this writing:

I've spent the last week playing Saints Row on last-gen PS4 and Xbox One systems - and honestly? It's really not that bad. The fundamental technological issues remain: the glaring shadow pop-in is back - and actually a bit worse here. The buggy NPC animations and physics return too. And lastly of course, the 60fps target of the PS5 and Series X versions gives way to something lower on last-gen machines - a sub-40fps frame-rate or even sub-30 in stress-test scenarios. Performance is still unlocked too, when a 30fps cap really would have made a positive difference, but I went into this one with low expectations, which the last-gen versions comfortably exceed.

Similar to Xbox Series S, the wealth of performance mode variations seen in the Series X and PS5 releases are gone. There are no graphics toggles of any kind. On top of that, ray tracing features are absent, of course, but that's fine. There seem to be fixed pixel counts on all systems with no obvious dynamic resolution scaling, but what is interesting is how the HUD overlay actually does seem to change res. It's very, very odd. In-game DRS can't be entirely ruled out, but the game looks consistent in terms of image quality, with only the flickering HUD giving any sense of a resolution change.

The Mortuary Assistant is the latest video game to be getting the silver screen treatment.

The indie horror - which has been a huge hit since it launched at the beginning of August - was reportedly plucked for an adaptation before the full game released earlier this month.

Director Jeremiah Kipp says the film will be a "companion piece" to the game, and Kipp hopes to "retain the minimalist setting in and around the mortuary, the fascination with the process of embalming, and the nerve-shredding terror of the gameplay".

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Another day, another alleged Silent Hill leak. This one purports to be of Bloober Team's alleged Silent Hill 2 remake.

They're incredibly small and incredibly bad quality, which means they're impossible to confirm either way with any credible veracity, but the poster shared the images with the legend: "First leaked image of Silent Hill 2 Remake supposedly developed by Bloober Team".

As for what they show? We seem to be looking at a third-person POV with the camera behind the left shoulder rather than a fixed angle. The third is the most compelling - it appears to be a bubble head nurse and reminds me of Brookhaven Hospital, when the nurse jumps out from near the elevator - whereas the top is reminiscent of the leaked concept art images we saw a few months back.

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The next installment of the Azure Striker Gunvolt series will arrive on PlayStation platforms before the year's end. Inti Creates announced on September 2 that Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 PS4 and PS5 will arrive on December 15, 2022. The date comes a little less than months after the game launched on Nintendo Switch in late July 2022 and Xbox. The PC version is set to launch in "Winter 2022", but does not have a specific release date there yet.

Inti Creates also unveiled a trailer for the 2nd Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 DLC pack, which is available now and is free until September 15, 2022. The pack adds the EX Image Pulses Elise and Asroc from the first two Gunvolt games. Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 PS4 and PS5 will launch with this DLC packed in, as well as all previous updates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb-o87ThzX4

Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 will launch on PlayStation platforms on December 15, but all versions will receive the "Epilogue ATEMS" update on the same day. Epilogue ATEMS is a free story update set after the game's main campaign. The character Zed Omega (ZedΩ) is a brand-new playable character that will be added for Epilogue ATEMS. ZedΩ is the leader of the ATEMS organization, and controls the power of the sun with his Septima "Golden Trillion".

Fan-favourite League of Legends animated spin-off Arcane has won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.

The show beat The Simpsons, Rick and Morty, What If…?, and Bob's Burgers to secure the award. It is the first streaming series to win in that category.

"Honoured doesn’t even begin to describe how we feel about winning the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program," the show's official Twitter account posted earlier today.

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Wizards of the Coast has apologised for a Dungeons & Dragons update that included "offensive material" and racial stereotypes about a race called Hadozee.

The company said it had "failed you, our players and our fans", would remove the offensive material "effective immediately", and stated that it was "truly sorry".

"We wanted to acknowledge and own the inclusion of offensive material within our recent Spelljammer: Adventures in Space content. We failed you, our players and our fans, and we are truly sorry," the company said in a statement.

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As Bandai Namco likes to say in its DLC trailers, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 keeps expanding. The company teased the next addition to the game on Friday, and it's based on the latest movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. In fact, Bandai Namco is adding an entire Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero DLC Pack set to the game. The set consists of two Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Super Hero DLC packs. The first pack releases in Fall 2022, and adds three characters.

So far only one character from the Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Super Hero DLC has been revealed, and it's Gamma 2, one of the Red Ribbon Army's "Super Heroes". Check out his trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aytm2r8EYpk

Between its art style, writing, and controls, Lair Land Story feels like a game retrieved from a time capsule to the late 2000s. That makes sense, as this is a remake of a game that was originally released back in 2007. It is quaint in a way that is reminiscent of watching old-school anime. Unfortunately like watching old anime or playing retro games, this PC port has the same sorts of issues that come with engaging with dated media. They range from audio issues (everyone sounds sort of muffled) to more fraught writing and narrative bumps. Things that would scarcely raise a brow back then simply don't stand up to scrutiny today.

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The setup of Lair Land Story is very simple. You play as Herod, a Baron who rescues a mysterious amnesiac girl named Chilia. She does not remember anything, so your task is to teach her how to be a functional and beneficial member of society. The narrative does not really explicitly say it, but you have a time limit of four in-game years. You can have Chilia take lessons, work, and help out with rebuilding the city (which was destroyed in a war). These will boost various parameters, such as her charisma or humanity. Every turn, you can do things like conduct research or go on outings, as well as set Chilia's schedule for the week. In other words, it's a "raising game" in the classical template.

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Konami's much-talked about "unannounced game" could be a new Suikoden title.

A renewed trademark for the game – filed back in July, but only recently spotted by SegmentNext – has popped up in Mexico, leading some to speculate that if Konami's upcoming TGS spot doesn't involve Castlevania, Metal Geat Solid, or Silent Hill, then it just may be about a new installment of the classic RPG series.

The filing – spotted by posters on Reddit and shared at ResetEra – tells us that the filing was made at the end of July and… well, not much else, actually. But it's certainly coincidental timing, isn't it, particularly as the last main Suikoden title released way back in 2006.

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Earlier this week, 343 Industries confirmed that split-screen local co-op in Halo Infinite has been cancelled outright - so players are now doing it themselves.

"In order to improve and accelerate ongoing live service development - and to better address player feedback and quality of life updates - we have reallocated studio resources and are no longer working on local campaign split-screen co-op," 343 said at the time, dashing the hopes of players who'd been patiently waiting to couch co-op the campaign with pals.

Now, however, it seems that players have found a menu glitch that permits them to add up to three additional local co-op players to their system; all you need is an Xbox Series S or X and a pal online, and this helpful walkthrough.

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2K Games and Firaxis Games released another trailer for the upcoming turn-based tactical game Marvel’s Midnight Suns, dedicated to its playable protagonist.

This video provides more details about the Hunter, which is the customizable hero that serves as the main character of the game. Unlike the previous introduction trailer, this goes a bit more in-depth about who the hunter is and what you can do with them.

This includes visual and power customization, which is very relevant because the Hunter is the very first customizable hero in the Marvel universe.

On top of this, we also hear about their history and the fact that they’re the offspring of Lilith, the mother of demons.

They even have a dog… ahem, a Hellhound, named Charlie, which you can bet. Because of course, you can. You can check the trailer out below.