African mobile games publisher Carry1st announced it has raised $27 million in funding.
The company said the investment will expand its business operations and game development.
Bitkraft Ventures led the funding, while Andreesen Horowitz, TTV Capital, Alumni Ventures, Lateral Capital, Kepple Ventures, and Konvoy participated.
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HBO's The Last of Us live-action adaptation pulled in 4.7 million US viewers with its first episode.
As reported by Variety, per Nielsen ratings and Warner Bros. Discovery data, the series' debut was second to Game of Thrones: House of Dragons.
Microsoft plans to incorporate artificial intelligence products from ChatGPT and Dall-E 2 maker OpenAI in all of its products, CEO Satya Nadella said in a panel interview with the Wall Street Journal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland today.
"We will incorporate this in our own applications, so you can fully expect us to obviously [use AI]," Nadella said. "Every product of Microsoft will have some of the same AI capabilities to completely transform the product."
Nadella did not mention the Xbox business or give specific examples of how AI would be used in Microsoft's other efforts.
Unity Technologies is laying off 284 people, the company confirmed to the Wall Street Journal today.
In a letter to employees about the cuts, Unity CEO John Riccitiello explained, "We reassessed our objectives, strategies, goals and priorities in light of the current economic conditions. While we remain focused on the same vision, we decided that we need to be more selective in our investments to come out stronger as a company."
He provided a little more information to the Journal directly, telling the outlet, "We're dealing very specifically with overlap and a handful of projects are going in the closet."
French union Solidaires Informatique today called for a half-day strike at Ubisoft Paris in response to a change in strategy Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot articulated last week alongside a number of game cancellations and a slashed financial forecast for the publisher.
The group's call for a strike referenced comments made in a call with investors last week to trim operating costs "through targeted restructuring, divesting some non-core assets and usual natural attrition."
"When Mr. Guillemot speaks of 'attrition' and 'organizational adjustments,' it means: staff reductions, discreet studio closures, salary cuts, disguised layoffs, etc.," Solidaires Informatique said.
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According to tracking firm NPD's latest report, US games sales in 2022 totaled $57 billion; the figure represents a 5% decline compared to 2021, which amassed $60 billion.
Software comprised most of the year's revenue (84%), with game content spending reaching $47.5 billion in 2022.
Benoît Sokal died in May of 2021.
While he was a celebrated comic artist in his own right, the gaming world knew him best as the creative force behind the Syberia adventure game series. At the time of his death, he was working on the fourth installment in the series, Syberia: The World Before, which was still almost a year away from completion.
That final stretch to release would be overseen by Syberia: The World Before game director and lead writer Lucas Lagravatte.
At one point in time – many years ago now – it was probably a shock when print publications were closed down. These days, that is sadly not true.
Over recent years, we’ve seen countless game magazines shutting their doors. Usually, it’s for the same reason: circulation dropping as a result of people preferring to read coverage online or in video form.
The latest print publication to bite the dust is Wireframe. Founded back in 2018 by Raspberry Pi, the magazine managed to release 70 issues – 38 fortnightly, a further 32 monthly – before calling time at the start of the year.
FIFA 23 topped the charts in a very quiet week for UK boxed video games.
GfK data shows FIFA sales dropped 20% week-on-week, but it still jumped to No.1 because God of War Ragnarok's sales fell 38%.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 holds third place (sales down 15%), while Mario Kart 8: Deluxe is still at No.4 (sales down 22%). Rounding off the Top Five is Nintendo Switch Sports, which moved up a spot despite sales falling 26%.
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There is a level of anxiety around the video games market at the moment.
Last year's results were a mixed bag. Console sales fell in some markets sharply, mostly due to stock shortages for PlayStation 5.
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The House of Lords has warned the government that it must not get complacent when it comes to the UK's creative industries, urging better support in order to remain globally competitive.
The House published a new report by its communications committee today, in which it laid out recommendations for ways the government can bolster the growth of games, film, TV, music and other creative business in the UK.
Video game sales dropped 10.3% to 269.5 billion yuan ($39.7 billion) in China in 2022.
It's the first time the market has decreased in the country since figures first started being reported in 2003, the South China Morning Post reported.
The number of players also slightly decreased 0.33% to 664 million, according to figures from analytics firm CNG published by government body Gaming Publishing Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association.
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Activision Blizzard has said it asked NetEase to delay the end of the long-running partnership between the two companies – whereby the handled publishing and operations for key Blizzard titles in China – but NetEase declined.
Reuters reported Blizzard China posted a statement on Chinese social media platform Weibo, in which it said it contacted NetEase last with with a proposal for an extension.
The Nintendo Switch has become the best selling console of all time in France.
According to French publication Le Figaro, the Switch has sold 7.09 million units in the country since its launch in 2017, taking over the record previously held by the Nintendo Wii.
The latter had been the record holder for the past decade, having sold 6.3 million units. Le Figaro clarified that handheld consoles were excluded from the breakdown.
A group of 44 Indian game developers and esports companies are objecting to a government plan that would combine traditional video games and real-money gambling games into the same regulatory category, a move that say inappropriate meshes two entirely separate industries.
The group was organized by Outlier Games, and counted executives, founders, and board members of Gametion, Nodding Head Games, Ncore, Loco, Lila Games, and SuperGaming among its members.
"The business model, consumer engagement behaviour, legal environment and peripheral operations of the two industries are totally different between video games and online games played for stakes," the letter says. "Thus, it is neither accurate nor fair for the two to be clubbed together under the same regulatory framework as it calls for distinct measures rather than blanket measures to address the unique circumstances of the respective industries."
Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries is reportedly switching from its own internal Slipspace Engine to Unreal Engine for some games in the future.
This news comes from a Bloomberg report stating that the switch from Slipspace to Unreal will begin with a new game under the codename Tatanka, according to the publication's sources who are familiar with 343's plans. According to Bloomberg, 343 is developing Tatanka with Certain Affinity, who has helped develop various Halo games for more than 15 years. The project reportedly started off as a battle royale but has potentially evolved in different directions.
As part of Final Fantasy VII Day, Square Enix announced an array of merchandise, with some of the items being a jigsaw puzzle collection. This is a collection of three designed to also be suitable for framing after completion. Each one costs 2,750円/$29.99. In Japan, they’ll debut in July 2023. They are set to appear in North America in October 2023. Each one features a scene with Aerith, Cloud, or Tifa from Final Fantasy VII.
All three of the possible jigsaw puzzles feature a piece of Final Fantasy VII Remake key art of Aerith, Cloud, or Tifa. These are recreations of the original art shared for the initial PlayStation release. In Aerith’s, she is starring up at the sky. Cloud’s features him in Midgar looking at a reactor with the Buster Sword on his back. Tifa’s shows her sitting on the Nibelheim water tower. Each one consists of 500 pieces.
Here’s a closer look at all three jigsaw puzzles.
[gallery columns="2" size="full" ids="949140,949141,949138,949139,949143,949142" link="file"]
These aren’t the first jigsaw puzzles featuring the characters to appear. Square Enix also sells 1,000 piece “premium” ones of Cloud with Sephiroth, Midgar, and Sephiroth. A Cloud one of him on the Hardy Daytona that consists of 1,000 pieces has been around since 2020. There’s also a 500 piece one based on the original PlayStation version’s character designs.
If you’re thinking about an anime game, especially on the Switch, odds are Bandai Namco is behind it. The company is well known for handling adaptations of titles. Especially if it is based on a Shonen Jump series. This can also mean there are a lot of games from each one on different systems. As part of Siliconera’s ongoing chronicling of games people should play, as they may have overlooked them, this week we’re focusing on the Switch anime ones worth some attention.
Yes, Digimon qualifies as an anime series. (Why? I said so.) Especially since we’re recommending Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition here today. This is quite possibly a compilation of the two best Digimon games ever made. These RPGs are exceptional, and you can get them together for a ridiculous price.
However, a close second is Digimon Survive, which turned out to be way better than expected!
Takara Tomy announced the release of two new figures of Koraidon and Miraidon, the legendary Pokemon from Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, the latest entries in the franchise available for the Switch. Both figures will be 10cm tall, or about 4 inches. Each one of them will cost 1,650 yen (about $12). The Koraidon and Miraidon figures are now available for pre-order on Amazon Japan, and they are scheduled for a release date of March 25, 2023. [Thanks, Dengeki Hobby!]
https://twitter.com/hobby_magazine/status/1620406600078086145
Both legendaries vaguely resemble Cyclizar, the Dragon/Normal type pokemon that can be seen all around the Paldea Region. Koraidon is a Dragon/Fighting legendary pokemon and the flagship creature of Pokemon Scarlet. It is known as the “Winged King” in old myths of the region, and it is said to be able to split the land in half with its bare fists.
Meanwhile, Miraidon is a Dragon/Electric type legendary pokemon in Pokemon Violet. Similar to its counterpart, Miraidon is known as the “Iron Serpent,” a creature capable of turning the land to ashes with its powerful lightning.
A new video shared by Sega brings more information about the new collaboration event featuring Nijisanji VTubers in Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. The Virtual Liver collab will come with the next content update for PSO2: New Genesis in February 1, 2023. The game will be decorated with cutouts of Nijisanji members, and players will be able to obtain Nijisanji-themed equipment, accessories, hairstyles, and more.
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is preparing to welcome some of the members of the Vtuber group company into its world. Life-size cutouts of Kaida Haru, Hakase Fuyuki, Hoshikawa Sara, and Shu Yamino will appear in Central City. Region Mags in the game will be decorated for the duration of the event, as well. As a login bonus, players can obtain stickers of logos and autographs of the Vtubers to decorate their equipment.
The event also brings new AC Scratch Ticket rewards, under the “Virtual Liver Style” line. Again, new outfits, accessories, hairstyles, and voices inspired by Kaida Haru, Hakase Fuyuki, Hoshikawa Sara, and Shu Yamino will be distributed to players through AC Scratch Tickets, a lottery system in which players use ARKS Cash to obtain items and cosmetics.
You can check out some of the items included as AC Scratch rewards below:
[gallery columns="4" link="file" ids="949160,949164,949165,949166,949167,949168,949169,949170"]
Square Enix seems to have taken action against members Team UNNAMED, the team of FFXIV Omega World First raiders. According to a tweet posted by member Haruka Setsuna, Square Enix is invalidating the achievement for members of the team and removing associated titles, gear, and items connected with the initial win.
https://twitter.com/Haruka_Setsuna_/status/1620502206645669888
The tweet from Haruka Setsuna consists of an apology to the members of the Final Fantasy XIV community and their friends who supported them. They also reported that they received a punishment in-game, posting screenshots of a chat exchange with FFXIV Game Master (GM) "G.X."
The exchange showed the GM stating that Square Enix confirmed that Haruka Setsuna was "involved with a captured video from The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) that included cheating." Although the player themselves did not directly commit the concerned act, the cheats used worked to their advantage, causing them to "profit from cheating." The GM stated that since the player did not commit fraudulent activity, an account warning would not be issued. However, the achievements and title obtained from clearing The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) would be removed from their character. They were also instructed to manually discard the weapon received from the clear immediately.
The Japanese Netflix Twitter account has announced that Misato Morita will play Kaori Makimura in the live-action adaptation of City Hunter. She will star alongside Ryohei Suzuki, who plays protagonist Ryo Saeba. The Tweet also includes a photo of how Misato looks like in Kaori’s costume.
You can check out how the live-action version of Kaori in City Hunter will look here:
https://twitter.com/netflixjp/status/1620180185172647937
Morita is a live-action actress who debuted in 2011 as a commercial actress. Her talents include figure skating and classic ballet. However, it is unlikely that she will use these skills in her role as Kaori. Other roles that Misato played in the past include Chihara Koyama in She Loves to Cook And She Loves to Eat and Okuni in Shogun’s Samurai.
City Hunter is a manga series that ran from 1985 to 1991. It has received several anime and live-action adaptations in its native Japan. Its popularity has also led foreign countries such as Hong Kong and France to produce their own versions of City Hunter movies and shows. It focuses on Ryo Saeba, who is a private detective and womanizer in Tokyo. “City Hunter” is the name of his underground organization. Ryo’s partner was Hideyuki Makimura, but with his death, Ryo takes care of Kaori. Kaori is Hideyuki's sister and she soon becomes his new partner.
Chilla’s Art announced that its newest title, The Karaoke, will come out on February 3, 2023. It is already available on Steam for those who want to Wishlist it. The Karaoke will be a J-Horror game about a high school girl at a karaoke. From screenshots, it looks like it will have a similar aesthetic and play style to many of Chilla’s Art’s past games.
As it is a J-Horror game, The Karaoke will only have Japanese audio. However, it will support a total of ten languages for its interface and subtitles. These languages include English, Korean, German, Simplified Chinese, Russian, and more. Outside of exploration and mystery-solving that is common in Chilla’s Art games, there will also be basketball and karaoke mini-games.
To commemorate the establishment of January 31st as the official “Final Fantasy VII Day” by the Japan Anniversary Association, Square Enix released a series of Spotify playlists with original music from Final Fantasy VII associated with emblematic characters from the franchise. You can find all eight Spotify playlists in the official Final Fantasy VII portal.
https://twitter.com/sem_sep/status/1620256554774839299
Each one of the characters' playlists includes between 8 to 10 songs from the original Final Fantasy VII, FFVII Remake, Jazz albums, and acoustic arrangements, among others. These tracks include songs closely associated to the characters the playlists are named after, and include classics such as “One-Winged Angel” in Sephiroth’s playlist, or “Those Who Fight” in Cloud’s playlist. The playlists only include characters that have made an appearance in FF7 Remake so far, which leaves fan favorites Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind out of songs for the time being.
To celebrate the first iteration of Final Fantasy VII Day, Square Enix and FuturLab also announced free FFVII themed downloadable content for PowerWash Simulator, where players will be able to clean familiar items from the game and locales from Midgar.
Street Fighter: Duel, a mobile game based on the series from Tencent, TopJoy, and Capcom, is finally about to appear worldwide. In 2021 at the Capcom Pro-Tour, a localization was teased. Now, Crunchyroll and Capcom confirmed it will appear in February 2023. It also opened pre-registration for the game.
Here’s the latest Street Fighter: Duel trailer. It doesn’t show any gameplay. Rather, it features series regulars like Ryu, Cammy, Guile, Akuma, Juri, Blanka, Chun-Li, and Ken.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH9evri9ezo&ab_channel=CrunchyrollCollection
The full game not only features these returning characters. It also adds new ones original to the game.
As for how it works, people take characters they’ve acquired and bring them into stages. They then beat up foes by tapping the character icons on the right side of the screen to unleash special attacks. It is an RPG, rather than a traditional fighting game. People will also be able to earn special skins for members of the cast.
Here are the pre-registration rewards for the game. As of 1pm ET on January 31, 2023, potential players only hit tier one.
These days, the Evercade game library’s depth and variety are starting to rival many of the full libraries of the consoles the platform emulates. The latest cart, Indie Heroes 2, is a great example of that, showcasing creativity and variety from a slate of hobbyist developers. Want to know more? Hey, great! Conveniently we have more article to read if you just keep scrolling a little bit.
The Evercade Indie Heroes Collection 2 cartridge compiles games that appeared on the Evercade VS as monthly bonuses. While that was a nice little digital treat, Evercade fans (and the games’ developers) probably appreciate the more permanent physical nature of a cartridge release. (Also, it’s entirely possible that this was the plan all along? In which case the Game of the Month thing seems like savvy marketing.)
Our favorite title in the bunch might be Lowtek Games’ Tapeworm Disco Puzzle. In this game, you’re extending and maneuvering a worm to collect various items. It felt a lot like Blazing Rangers without the time pressure. And in a compilation with nearly a dozen options for action? It was nice to catch our breath and think through solutions.
Microsoft announced a wave of delistings for the Xbox 360 Marketplace, and a number of RPGs like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey are about to disappear. The two were added to the store in September 2016. The company shared PDF lists for each region on its official support site. Both games appear on the lists for the US and UK. So do other notable titles like Dark Souls, Jet Set Radio, Mass Effect 2, Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds, and The Witcher 2.
Here is the full list of games that will start to be delisted from the Xbox 360 Marketplace as of February 7, 2023. Microsoft didn’t say exactly when all of them could be removed.
There’s a new trailer for part one of the Sailor Moon Cosmos movie, and it features a theme song by Daoko. The video shows major moments from the initial part of the two part presentation. All of this is set to Daoko’s “Tsuki no Hana.” [Thanks, Crunchyroll!]
Here’s the new Sailor Moon Cosmos part one movie trailer. It begins with Usagi revisiting past events, before showing the Starlights and Chibi-Chibi. Just after the 40 second mark, the Daoko song “Tsuki no Hana” begins playing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEescksRBDs&ab_channel=sailormoon-official
Here is the official key art and poster for this first part of the film.
[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="949130" link="file"]
This is the second Sailor Moon Cosmos movie trailer to show up in January 2023. Another one focused on the Sailor Starlights. We also learned that Kotono Mitsuishi would play Chibi-Chibi in the films.
Marvelous delayed the Japanese release of Loop8 from March 16, 2023 to June 1, 2023. The North American and European versions will appear on June 6, 2023. On its Twitter account, Marvelous has issued an apology to both fans and those involved with the work. According to the announcement, this delay is to improve on the overall quality of the game. [Thanks, Famitsu!]
Loop8 is not the only game that has had to delay its initial release because the development team wanted to polish up the gameplay. Granblue Fantasy Relink has had to push back its release window several times due to this exact same reason.
Marvelous first announced Loop8 during the February 2022 Nintendo Direct presentation. It is an RPG with multiple endings dependent on your dialog choices. The characters’ relationships and moods are always in flux thanks to the “Kareru System” and so you have to pick your dialog based on what they feel or want at the moment. Loop8 will also have a time management system, as you only have a month before the Kegai destroy the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1WkVaIpVDQ
Loop8 will come out in Japan on June 1, 2023 and worldwide on June 6, 2023 for the Nintendo Switch.
Code Geass Genesic ReCODE will terminate service on April 27, 2023. The game started on October 4, 2021, which means it lasted for under two years. There is no information on why the game will end. However, Sunrise deeply thanks fans who have played the game.
As of January 31, 2023, players will no longer be able to purchase items such as the Daily Pass. As well, if you are playing the game from outside of Japan, you will not be able to access the server. There is no information as to when non-Japanese players can log in again.
Throughout February to early April 2023, Sunrise will release the last few chapters of the main story. It will then end service and start refunds from April 27. Sunrise will publish more detailed instructions on its website closer to that date. In order to get a refund, you will need your Player ID and Secret Code. The Secret Code will appear on the title screen after the game ends.
Code Geass Genesic ReCODE is a free-to-play mobile game that features characters from the entire Code Geass series. This includes the main Lelouch saga, along with stories such as Akito the Exiled and Oz the Reflection. You can watch an introduction trailer for Code Geass Genesic ReCODE here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUI7AZESZ-I
Code Geass Genesic ReCODE is readily available for iOS and Android devices. Service for it will terminate on April 27, 2023.
The Chaldea stream on January 31, 2023 introduced two new playable Servants who will debut in the Japanese version of Fate/Grand Order: Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc. Tezcatlipoca will be an SSR Assassin. Meanwhile, Tlaloc will be an SR Pretender. Both Servants are available in the gacha until February 14, 2023.
Because they just appeared in Fate/Grand Order, we have little information on how Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc will work in-game. During the stream, Lasengle showed off their Noble Phantasm animations. It seems that Tezcatlipoca’s Noble Phantasm will hit all enemies, whereas Tlaloc’s is single target.
You can watch the Noble Phantasms for Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc in Fate/Grand Order here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ETr9sYLV0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLqdODoo73c
Both Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc have already appeared in Lostbelt 7 Part 1 as NPCs. During Part 1, Tlaloc was a Ruler and a boss that Chaldea had to fight. As for in reality, both of them are part of Aztec religion. Tezcatlipoca was a major deity and the god of providence for the Aztecs. As for Tlaloc, he is the god of rain.
Fate/Grand Order is readily available for mobile devices, and Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc are in the gacha until February 14, 2023. They are only on the Japanese server. Lostbelt 7 Part 2 will be delayed, and Lasengle has not yet given a date for when it will come out.
One of the most interesting developments in the emulation and coding scenes in recent years has been the increasing trend in taking classic old video games and completely reverse-engineering their code.
I had three weeks off work over Christmas last year, and while I’d love to tell you I spent the whole time at the beach, relaxing with friends, sipping beers on a breezy summer’s evening, the truth is I spent loads of that time indoors. Hunched in front of my TV. Playing Ghost of Tsushima.
In August 2022, Epic Games—developers of Fortnite, custodians of the Epic Games Store, creators of the Unreal Engine, rich as God—published a melee-based battle royale game called Rumbleverse. It is now January 2023 (February already for me here in Australia), and the game is already being killed off.
A substantial update for The Sims 4 dropped on PC and consoles today, and with it comes a new suite of control schemes and customization options. This involves things like hearing aids and shapewear, but one addition is expressly targeted at trans Simmers in an effort to make them feel included and visible.
Apex Legends Mobile, the mobile port of EA and Respawn’s popular battle royale shooter, is not long for this world. EA confirmed today, just eight months after the game’s launch, that the free-to-play offshoot will be shutting down on May 1, 2023. What’s more, EA plans to sunset Battlefield Mobile as well.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor got a March 17 release date just last month and it’s already blowing past it. Electronic Arts announced the game will now come out at the end of April instead as developer Respawn Entertainment focuses on bug fixes, performance issues, and generally making sure the game doesn’t come out busted…
Yesterday, Twitch streamer Brandon “Atrioc” Ewing issued a tearful apology during his livestream after he accidentally revealed that he had deepfake pornography of popular female Twitch streamers open on his computer. The video of his apology—in which he claims to have clicked an ad on PornHub because he was…
Final Fantasy VII first released in Japan 26 years ago today, on January 31, 1997. And in case you haven’t been doom-scrolling through Twitter all day, Square Enix has announced an assortment of stuff to mark the occasion. Square E’s announcements range from neat to niche in terms of their coolness factor; here are…
Today’s big Marvel Snap update added the much-requested (and much-delayed) battle mode for friends. But it also made some changes to a few cards, including a surprise buff for Wolverine and a much-needed nerf to The Leader, a card many claimed was too OP and unfair in its previous state.