March 2023

Sanrio will open up a shop for a limited time selling merchandise of Cardcaptor Sakura characters posing with iconic Sanrio mascots. Shops will be available until various dates in Osaka, Tokyo, Miyagi, and Aichi. The PremiumShop is to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Cardcaptor Sakura anime.

The Sanrio Cardcaptor Sakura merchandise will become available from March 21, 2023. The websites for the various stores you can find them do not yet have pages for the PremiumShop as of the time of writing. It might be due to the time between now and when you will be able to purchase the items.

Here are the more precise dates and locations of each shop:

• Abeno, Osaka (Abeno Qs Mall): March 21, 2023 to April 20, 2023
• Harajuku, Tokyo (Laforet B1F): March 25, 2023 to April 20, 2023
• Nagoya, Aichi (Nagoya PARCO 3F): April 8, 2023 to April 20, 2023
• Sendai, Miyagi (EBeanS 2F in front of Sendai station): March 25, 2023 to April 23, 2023

Square Enix and Forever Entertainment revealed the Front Mission 2: Remake release date. It will launch on June 12, 2023 for the Nintendo Switch. This will be the first time Front Mission 2 appeared outside of Japan, where it originally launched in 1997. The remake of 2 was confirmed in September 2022, with screenshots released in October. A remake of the third game was also confirmed, though it does not yet have a release window.

Originally made by Square Enix and G-Craft and remade by Forever Entertainment, Front Mission 2: Remake is the sequel to 2022's Front Mission 1st: Remake. The second game boasts improved loading times, modernized sound effects, and a renewed soundtrack. There are also more camouflage options for use on your Wanzers and a new "Free Camera" mode to admire them. Several new languages will also be supported, including Portuguese, Polish, and Italian.

You can see the announcement tweet and the accompanying trailer below. You can also see the trailer on Youtube.

[embed]https://twitter.com/FrontMissionRM/status/1633062049205960706?s=20[/embed]

Reddit is fondly remembering the days of the Nintendo Gamecube for one specific reason – its ultra-cheap price at Walmart. A picture started circulating of Walmart Gamecube’s being priced at $49, a price that sounds like a pipe dream unless you were there to experience it.

People shared all sorts of fun memories, like waking up to a Gamecube on Christmas morning and some of the greatest and rarest games on the console. There were also plenty of people discussing just how cheap video games and consoles used to be.

Microsoft has just dropped a fairly hefty update for its popular online subscription service, Game Pass, adding Cloud, PC, and console support to a handful of new games.

Specifically, here’s the list of titles that are receiving new updates on Game Pass:

• Dead Space 2 – Cloud support
• Dead Space 3 – Cloud support
• Civilisation VI – Cloud, console, and PC support
• Guilty Gear Strive – Cloud, console, and PC support
• Valheim (Game Preview) – Console support
• Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – Console and PC support

The Last of Us was already one of the most successful video game franchises of the last decade before HBO decided to adapt it into a TV series. Now, it’s looking like the adaptation, created by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckman (The Last of Us video game writer), might end up being an even bigger success story than the game.

According to Warner Bros. Discovery, its latest episode, When We Are in Need, was its most viewed ever, boasting an audience of 8.1 million. The premiere episode was seen by 4.7 million people, making this Sunday episode viewership a 74% increase since then.

Since its premiere, The Last of Us has been gaining viewers with almost every new episode, as 5.7 million viewers watched the second episode, and 6.4 million the third. All that led to episode 4, watched by 7.5 million viewers; an amount many didn’t think would be beat for the rest of the season.

There’s a big possibility next week’s chapter, the season finale Look for the Light, might make even bigger numbers than that, even if the episode will be released at the same time the 95th Academy Award Ceremony is being televised.

It was clear from the beginning that Hogwarts Legacy was shaping up to be a mega-hit, based on Steam data. However, no one expected it to sell nearly as well as it did, raking in over $800 million in its first two weeks.

More data has been released about European charts, and GamesIndustry.biz showed that the game had the biggest launch in games’ history with the exception of one series. That series? FIFA. In the past six years, the yearly soccer video game has topped Europe’s charts. It’s worth noting that, as GamesIndustry.biz pointed out, the European charts have only been collecting numbers for six years. 

While Hogwarts Legacy might not have been able to topple FIFA’s massive yearly sales, it did overcome titles like Elden Ring and Call of Duty (at least since 2017). This included physical sales of the game as well as digital sales across all platforms. 

Despite the incredibly high sales for Hogwarts Legacy in the past three months it’s been out, GamesIndustry.biz explained that overall game sales declined in Europe through February. 

Unfortunately, players on last-generation consoles are still waiting for the game to be released, as the release date for the PS4 and Xbox One were unfortunately just recently delayed yet again. While you wait, be sure to check out all of our related content for the game below.

We’re only three months into 2023 and Riot Games has already whipped up a storm of new Valorant content. Following the launch of Lotus earlier this year, a new Agent has arrived in the form of Gekko. The Mexican/American initiator looks to shake up the meta with a very unusual belt of utility that more closely resembles a Pokemon Trainer than a Valorant Agent.

Over the past two days, Twinfinite was given the opportunity to check out what Gekko brings to the roster, and though not have enough time to get a full picture of how strong his impact is likely to be I’m pretty certain of one thing: Gekko feels as though he’s going to prove strong in pro play, but not so much in ranked.

First, for those who haven’t checked out our detailed overview of all Gekko’s different abilities, let’s run through what exactly his band of bizarre little creatures actually all do. Put simply, Gekko has a molly, stun, flash, and the ability to detain people in the same fashion as Killjoy using his ult.

He’s closest to Breach in terms of how his abilities perform, but Skye is probably more similar in terms of how he plays. That’s because instead of the point-and-click nature of Breach’s utility, Gekko is like Skye in the sense that his little creatures need to be thrown on piloted onto the target. Here’s a look at the Ultimate, Thrash:

That makes him quite clunky to use and better suited to setting up teammates, rather than punishing enemies solo — save for the example above! Of course, this all makes sense given that he’s an initiator, but he’s definitely not the same package as KAY/O, Skye, or even Sova in terms of how fluidly he can frag out for his team after laying down utility.

Destiny 2’s Lightfall DLC has received a lot of controversy and disappointment regarding how the story played out. Still, if there’s anything to take away from it, it would be the fantastic final boss fight. While it wasn’t anything special regarding cinematics, it was an overall tough fight, which made it all the more enjoyable. Let’s break it down.

***Destiny 2 Lightfall Campaign Spoilers***

The Believer Company, a new studio founded by Riot Games veterans, has emerged from stealth today and announced it raised $55 million in Series A financing.

The $55 million round was led by Lightspeed, with additional funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Riot Games, Bitkraft Ventures, 1up Ventures, Dan Thompson's Cleveland Avenue, Michael D. Eisner's Tornante Company and other unnamed venture partners.

The studio was first formed in April 2022 and is led by CEO Michael Chow, who previously served as vice president at League of Legends creator Riot Games and co-founded Words With Friends developer Newtoy in 2008.

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At a glance

Hogwarts Legacy had the sixth biggest launch for a video game since the European charts started six years ago.

The only games ahead of it are FIFA titles. That means Hogwarts Legacy had a bigger launch than every Call of Duty game released since 2017, plus other breakout hits such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Elden Ring.

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Rovio has provided a few more details about the delisting of Angry Birds, saying the game could come back on Android if renaming it is successful on iOS.

Talking to Axios, Rovio’s head of Angry Birds strategy Ben Mattes said that the company delisted the game because it was making other Angry Birds titles more difficult to find in search results.

Mattes explained that players would reportedly look for Angry Birds titles on app stores, find the original Angry Birds as the top result but wouldn't want to spend $0.99 to buy it, and would end up not downloading anything.

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The average amount of money spent on a video game in the UK last year was £36.47, a rise of 6.7%.

This is data from GfK, courtesy of the Entertainment Retailer’s Association Yearbook, and based on physical retail sales. In terms of full-game downloads, data firm Omdia estimates that the average selling price was £15.19 last year, which is a rise of 7.3% year-on-year.

The rise is a little below the inflation rate in the UK of just over 10%.

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Niantic - the developer behind the likes of Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom, and the recently released NBA All-World - has confirmed its latest stab at augmented-reality gaming, Peridot, is launching for iOS and Android on 9th May.

Peridot, which was announced last April, is Niantic's spin on Tamagotchi-like virtual pets, tasking players with caring for and breeding their colourful digital charges into adulthood.

"Our team has been hard at work making Peridots real," creative director David Hollin explained in a blog post announcing today's release date news. "They are immersive, amazing magical creatures that eat, sleep, play with toys, explore their environment, get bored, develop unique personalities, and are always in need of a loving adopter like you."

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Playdate - the dinky yellow gaming handheld with a crank and some nifty games - is getting an on-device store known as Catalog and an imminent $20 USD price increase.

Catalog, which Playdate creator Panic describes as a "boutique digital on-device and web based storefront", arrives today and marks something of a departure for the company, which has so far only distributed Playdate games through a seasonal release model.

With the arrival of Catalog, however, players can purchase individual titles on-demand either directly from their Playdate or via the Catalog website. 16 games and apps will be available at launch - 11 of which are brand-new - and Panic says it'll be expanding the curated selection over time. It also assures owners it'll remain possible to sideload and purchase Playdate games and apps from other storefronts such as Itch.io and Gumroad.

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Twitch has addressed the livestreaming of explicit deepfake content on its platform in a new safety blog post.

It follows an incident in January in which explicit fake content of female streamers was live streamed on Twitch.

"This moment caused immense distress to those whose images were used without their consent, and set off a wave of conversations about the dangers that AI-generated explicit imagery can pose," reads the blog post from Twitch.

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The average amount of money spent on a single video game last year in the UK rose by 6.7 percent to £36.47.

That's based on physical retail sales, per data from GfK courtesy of the Entertainment Retailer's Association Yearbook (thanks GamesIndustry.biz). For digital downloads, the average selling price was £15.19, a rise of 7.3 percent over last year (from data firm Omdia).

Since 2017, the average selling price of games has risen by 12 percent.

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I don't like cheaters, and I am sure you don't like them either. I am always happy to see video game developers doing what is necessary to get cheaters out of our games. It just makes the whole experience that bit better.

However, not content with just booting the offending parties out of their games, the Escape from Tarkov team has taken things one step further and compiled a spreadsheet of all the cheaters it has booted out. It has then shared this document with the public (if you want to scroll through it for yourself, here it is).

As reported by TechCrunch (via PC Gamer), Battlestate Games said it recently banned 6700 cheaters and added all of their nicknames to this document.

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Microsoft has promised more "consistency" with Halo Infinite seasonal updates, as its third season launches today.

As shared on Xbox Wire, 343 Industries' head of live performance Sean Baron discussed the future of seasonal updates.

"In our preview of Season 3, I said that this is the beginning of what seasonality is for Halo Infinite. But 'seasonality' is restrictive. To me, seasonality is really about consistency - we need to be consistent in everything. I feel very confident with where we've gone with Season 3, and I have very strong confidence that we're going to be able to keep improving that consistency, and avoid, completely, the long seasons of the past," he said.

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The Resident Evil 4 remake is set to release in just a few short weeks (24th March, to be precise). Ahead of this launch, a mysterious new ARG website has appeared online.

An ARG is an augmented reality game, and this one in particular covers the events just before Resident Evil 4 begins. It serves as a little bite size prequel, if you will.

Known as "Baby Eagle Is Missing", this ARG tasks players with solving a handful of puzzles that will help locate the US President's daughter, Ashley Graham (who is codenamed "Baby Eagle").

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The next wave of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in March has now been announced.

Sid Meier's Civilization 6 is a big new addition, with the strategy game arriving on 16th March for Cloud, console and PC.

Valheim is another major addition, arriving as a game preview on 14th March for consoles only - it's still in Early Access on PC.

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There was a bit of confusion last week, when it was announced that The Super Mario Bros. Movie would be released two days earlier than previously expected in the US and "60 other markets". At this point, it was unclear whether the UK fell into the "other markets" category.

Now, however, Universal has cleared that up, and stated The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be released on 5th April in the UK. This is the same as in the US.

If you've been struggling to keep track of when The Super Mario Bros. Movie is due to arrive, you are not alone. After all, Universal has shunted its release date around the calendar on numerous occasions.

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Rovio could reverse its decision to de-list Angry Birds from the Google Play store.

At the end of February, the mobile publisher removed the original Angry Birds game from the store due to its business "impact" on the publisher's other games. On iOS, the game was renamed to Red's First Flight.

Now, in a statement to Axios from a senior executive at the publisher, Rovio could reverse its decision to remove the game - or if the change is successful it could remove it from iOS too.

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The most recent episode of The Last of Us broke another viewership record for the series.

As reported by HBO, episode eight was watched by 8.1 million viewers on its debut across "HBO Max and linear telecasts".

For those keeping track, that is a 74 percent increase from the show's pilot episode.

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Microsoft has claimed the UK's Competition and Markets Authority has significantly overcounted the potential impact of Call of Duty going exclusive to Xbox and PC.

The CMA has been sceptical about Microsoft's $68.7bn bid to purchase Activision Blizzard, most recently stating it could harm UK gamers, resulting in "higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation". It believes players would abandon PlayStation for Xbox.

However, based on a YouGov survey commissioned by Microsoft back in January and shared with Axios, just three percent of all PlayStation users would switch to Xbox if Call of Duty became exclusive.

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The middle eight, a component of songwriting I really love, is sometimes referred to as being a "meanwhile, back at the ranch" moment for a piece of music. The song has established a structure by this point, and we've followed that for a pleasant few minutes. We know the verses and we know the chorus. We know what to expect in general - or we think we do. And then, suddenly we're somewhere else. Choirs. Angels. Elvis is drying the tears from our eyes. A familiar theme, but now it's strange and inverted. Slowed, sped up, twisted in on itself. Meanwhile? Oh yes, this is what's happening back at the ranch.

I love this description of middle eights almost as much as I love a good middle eight by itself. I love it because it suggests that a song is a journey, that as we listen to it unfold we are covering ground alongside it, within it. And when the middle eight arrives, the ground we're covering shifts and we get a bit of a surprise.

Not every song has a middle eight, and not every song needs one. But I thought of them often when playing Rytmos, a game in which each piece of music is a path that you draw across the landscape. These paths are mazes, really. Often, these mazes take the form of figure eights, which is a nice bit of accidental harmony, I reckon. The "eight" itself isn't important though. What is important - or what feels important when I'm in the grips of this magical, transporting, mind-expanding game - is the loops in the figure eight. It's the fact that the song starts somewhere and ends up back where it started - but it arrives back at the start from an unexpected direction.

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Blizzard is going full anime for Overwatch 2’s first major crossover

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Daredevil will be born again, and the Punisher is coming with him

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Where to find the gems in Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, and the rest of Disney’s ‘package films’

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And change your oil, and ask out your crush, and ...

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This $64.99 controller is giving off serious Nickelodeon vibes

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Help these bunnies out every day for sweet exclusive rewards

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Explore the new deep dungeon in Mor Dhona

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Okay, I’ll admit that there’s a reason Castti the apothecary is the last Octopath Traveler 2 character I wrote about. It’s because she’s one of my second string team members. She’s not a bad ally by any means. It’s just there are a number of other characters I preferred to use for support or healing. But still, she can be very useful, and here’s what you need to know about her.

How Do You Recruit Castti in Octopath Traveler 2

If you didn’t start with Castti in Octopath Traveler 2, you’ll find her in Canalbrine.

How Does Castti Work in Octopath Traveler 2

Castti is essentially a healer and supporter. However, unlike Temenos the cleric, a lot of her non-Concoct job skills hit a single target instead of everyone. It has its uses, to be sure. She’s also the only person with regen and immunity effects, which can prove very useful in specific battles. But she’s essentially a different sort of healer.

Here is the full list of apothecary skills Castti can learn in Octopath Traveler 2.

It was announced on March 7, 2023, via the official Monster Hunter Twitter account, that the iOS and Android mobile versions of Monster Hunter Stories are on sale. Both will be available for a discounted price of $4.99, down from their normal price of $19.99, until March 22, 2023.

Monster Hunter Stories is a monster-raising RPG spin-off of Monster Hunter. It was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016. Then was later ported to mobile platforms in 2018. It sees the player become a youth who can tame and fight alongside monsters. The player must find the origin of a disease known as the Black Blight that is driving monsters into a frenzy.

There are a few differences between the 3DS and mobile versions of Monster Hunter Stories. The 3DS version features amiibo support. Meanwhile, the mobile port boasts some DLC content that the 3DS version of never got.

A sequel was released in 2021 called Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. Released for the Nintendo Switch and PC, Wings of Ruin features more monster-raising adventures alongside some new features like multiplayer co-op battles.

You can play Monster Hunter Stories on Android and iOS mobile devices via App Store, Google Play, with the sale running until March 22, 2023. It is also available on the 3DS.

NIS America announced Switch, PS4, and PS5 owners can now try a GrimGrimoire OnceMore demo before buying it. The trial is available on the eShop and PlayStation Store in North America and Europe. It also shared a trailer and details about the rerelease of the PS2 classic's sample.

When people go through the GrimGrimoire OnceMore, they’ll play through the start of the game. This means they’ll see new magic student Lillet’s arrival at the Tower of Silver Star school. They’ll meet their teachers and classmates, getting a chance to experience the full first week. Then, they’ll get pulled into the time loop and start the second. You can save throughout, and that file can carry over to the full game.

There’s also a GrimGrimoire OnceMore trailer offering a peek at what to expect from the demo. It mainly sets up the premise for the game. It doesn’t show too much gameplay, rather introducing the time loop nature of it instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrLNsphVTPE&ab_channel=NISAmerica

The GrimGrimoire OnceMore demo is available on the PS4, PS5, and Switch now. The full game will launch in North America on April 4, 2023 and in Europe on April 7, 2023. It is already available in Japan. It first showed up on the PS2 in Japan in 2007.

Reviewed on: PC
Platform: Switch, PC
Publisher: Floppy Club
Developer: Floppy Club
Release: February 28, 2023
Rating: Everyone

Anyone who makes or writes music knows that the path to a complete track isn’t a linear one. It’s a process where instruments weave in and out of the composition on the whim of the person making it. And even when the vision is clear, and you know exactly where you want to take the song, be it behind a drum set, a keyboard, a loop track, or even a computer, things can get in the way. Rytmos, developer Floppy Club’s first non-mobile game, nails that feeling. It uses puzzles to extract the joy, escalation, triumphs, and trials of making music, and it does so with great success. 

Loot boxes have been a thorn in gamers’ sides for as long as they’ve been around, with lawsuits and players deriding them as exploitative gambling mechanics. EA has been a prominent example of publishers using loot boxes, and its massively popular soccer game FIFA is no exception. FIFA’s Ultimate Team, or FUT, card…

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Take-Two is laying off some employees at its Private Division label and across other divisions of the company, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported today.

A company spokesperson confirmed the news for GamesIndustry.biz, saying, "We can confirm that there have been targeted reductions in our US teams, primarily in corporate operations and label publishing, which will better align our organization with our long-term priorities. We continue to make strategic investments in our talent and technology to deliver our long-term pipeline, and the impact of these changes on our US development teams has been minimal.

"Outside of the US, we have begun procedures in compliance with local law that we anticipate may result in similar reductions. Take-Two has experienced exponential growth in recent years, and we are taking these necessary steps to position the company for another extended period of success.”

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When I first experienced the glorious journey of Road 96, it was unlike anything I’d seen before due to its multifarious gameplay, heavy politically driven narrative, and enthralling characters. So, now that the game has received a prequel, I was thrilled to see what the chaotic nation of Petria would be like from a different point of view as you take on the roles of Zoe and Kaito.

Those who played the original will remember Zoe as the teenage drifter who leaves her home to escape the country’s oppressive corruption. However, unlike Road 96: Mile 0’s predecessor, you’ll predominantly experience the story through her eyes instead of multiple anonymous runaways, making it feel more personal. Besides this character, you’ll also take control of Kaito, a character from DigixArt’s musical skateboarding game Lost in Harmony.

Considering that this project was released in 2018, it may be surprising to learn that Road 96: Mile 0 features an individual from a separate narrative, yet it just goes to show how massive Road 96’s universe truly is and how it’s all connected. Fortunately, even if you are a beginner to the franchise, the storyline is relatively simple to follow, given that it provides enough information to help you understand the authoritarian state of the world.