June 2023

Capcom revealed the alternate Street Fighter 6 costumes, known as “Outfit 2” designs for all 18 characters in the initial roster. The alternate looks for returning and classic characters like Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, or Guile feature the original styles of the characters from previous games. Additionally, Director Takayuki Nakayama appeared on the PlayStation Blog to discuss about some of the re-designs and updates to classic characters, like Cammy.

Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama noted on the PlayStation Blog that developing a new numbered entry in the series was the perfect opportunity to give returning characters a significantly different look from their appearance in past entries. Some characters where especially difficult to re-design, like Chun-Li. Nakayama also commented about Cammy’s radical new design, and said that this new outfit would be akin to Cammy’s civilian clothes, while her classic leotard would be her battle outfit.

You can take a better look at the Street Fighter 6 Outfit 2 trailer showing character costumes here:
https://twitter.com/streetfighter/status/1664028982529097728

June 2023's begun, and that means a new set of FFVII Remake calendar images. Square Enix took to Twitter to release the latest batch. This time, only designs from the remake appear. People can choose between a desktop wallpaper image with key art of both Yuffie and Sonon from FFVII Remake, or mobile portrait-style images of each character separately.

Here's the official announcement with all three options. Since no FFVII characters' birthdays fall in June 2023, no dates are highlighted in the June 2023 calendar. (When this does happen, the day of the character's birthday usually appears with a white circle around it. This happened with Tifa's May 3rd birthday.)

今月のPC・スマホ用壁紙カレンダーは、ユフィとソノン！
今月21日は夏至ですね、日の出から日が沈むまでが最も長い日です。
この日を境にだんだんと日が短くなっていきます。
急に暑くなってきて体調を崩しやすいので、「かいふく」を忘れずに！#FF7R #FF7R_inter pic.twitter.com/IHx94y4v4A

— FFVII REMAKE (@FFVIIR_CLOUD) June 1, 2023

As Pride Month begins, Xbox has announced a new long-term partnership with LGBT+ organisation GLAAD.

The aim is to "bring more LGBTQIA+ stories, characters and lived experiences to Xbox in ways that will resonate with gamers around the world", as stated in a new Xbox Wire blog post.

"Our LGBTQIA+ team members and their allies in XGS Publishing have engaged GLAAD with the primary goal of helping our partner studios create games that can offer much-needed visibility, understanding, and support for LGBTQIA+ people for years to come."

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Nintendo no longer employs the company's former boss of Russian operations Yasha Haddaji, Eurogamer can reveal.

Haddaji's final day as a Nintendo staff member was yesterday, 31st May. The news comes a month after it was reported that Haddaji had imported copies of Metroid Prime Remastered into Russia via a side company, skirting Nintendo's own official sales ban.

"Mr Haddaji's contract with Nintendo ended on 31st May," a Nintendo of Europe spokesperson confirmed to Eurogamer after being asked for comment.

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Following a swirl of reports earlier this year, Meta has made its latest consumer VR headset official; the Meta Quest 3 will launch this autumn, starting at a $499.99 USD price point.

Meta describes the Meta Quest 3 - which will be fully compatible with the existing Meta Quest 2 library - as the "first mainstream headset with high-res colour mixed reality", and promises "better displays and resolution", greater comfort, a 40 percent slimmer optic profile, and twice the graphics performance using "next-gen Qualcomm chipset".

Its mixed reality feature set includes "dual 4MP RGB colour cameras, a depth sensor for a more accurate representation of your play space, and 10x more pixels in Passthrough compared to Quest 2". Additionally, Meta has "completely redesigned" Quest 3's Touch Plus controllers, dropping the outer tracking rings and adding "TruTouch haptics".

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With the airing of The Meta Quest Gaming Showcase, you could argue that we are officially in the season formerly known as E3. This morning, ahead of its stream, Meta shared details about its upcoming Meta Quest 3 headset, which included a few teases for games that would be revealed during its stream, which you can find the details for below.

The showcase ended with the reveal of Asgard's Wrath 2. The original Asgard's Wrath is one of VR's biggest, most ambitious (and well-reviewed) games. The sequel picks up where the story of the first game left off while adding all kinds of new mechanics. You can find more on Asgard's Wrath 2 in the upcoming issue of Game Informer's magazine, where we spoke with the game's director. The other exciting element of the sequel is it will be coming to Quest 2.

The 7th Guest VR appears to be a full remake of the original classic puzzle game but in VR. If you're unfamiliar, The 7th Guest was a landmark puzzle game for PCs that was released in 1993 and featured some of the first use of full-motion video in a video game. You can read our oral history on the game here.

Xbox has announced its plans for Pride 2023, and they include a “long-term” partnership with media-monitoring organization GLAAD, the option for players to donate Microsoft Rewards points to several LGBTQIA+ organizations, and a curated list of games that are made by queer-identifying developers, feature inclusive…

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Facebook, I mean, Meta, has officially announced the long-rumored Quest 3, its next virtual reality headset. The Quest 3, the successor to the most popular VR headset so far, will be out later this year starting at $500.

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Did you think Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta was done with its soon-to-be old virtual reality headset? Think again. The company formerly known as Facebook announced the popular Oculus Quest 2 will get an upgrade and see its price slashed by $100, bringing it back down to where it was a year ago before Meta took the…

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While Diablo IV “officially” comes out next week, an early access period for it begins tonight, June 1, or maybe tomorrow, June 2. See, exactly when it launches depends on your location and, of course, whether or not you’ve pre-ordered certain versions of the game.

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can be overwhelming with all the choice it gives you. It gives you so little guided direction when you fall to Hyrule’s surface that you can straight up miss crucial tools like the paraglider if you wander off on your own. If you find yourself trapped by your own indecision…

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EPOS make some of the best gaming headsets in the business, so it's great to see a deep discount on one of their best Sennheiser co-creations. The GSP 600 offers extremely good build quality, great audio and incredible noise isolation too.

Its list price is a faintly ridiculous $219, but right now you can pick up a brand new set of these headphones for $54.99 at Woot. That's a solid $15 off the same set on Amazon, and a great price for headphones of this level of quality.

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Intel's mid-range Core i5 processors have long been some of the best choices for gaming PCs, versus Core i7 and Core i9 models that require much more cooling while not providing much more performance in GPU-limited scenarios. Their 13th-gen models are a particular favourite, and today we have a US deal on perhaps the best value gaming CPU in that lineup: the Core i5 13400F is now down to $164.99 at Best Buy following a $50 discount.

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Somehow we’re already in June, which makes me both cosmically confused about the passage of time and quite happy because it’s now Pride Month. That also means that queer indie developers have once again banded together and organised the third annual Queer Games Bundle on Itch.io, offering over 450 video games, board games, zines, books, soundtracks, and other creative stuff for the price of one AAA game: $60. All proceeds are split between the participating developers, and there’s some very cool stuff included.

“Purchasing the Queer Games Bundle is a direct action that you can take right now to support queer people in a life-changing way,” reads the bundle's description, “and in exchange, you get over 450 amazing, heartfelt, fun, and radical games and artworks.”

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Mere spec sheets? Old news, friend. This Steam Deck vs Asus ROG Ally comparison is new and improved with actual testing results, both hard data (I may even borrow some benchmark graphs from the ROG Ally review) and those of the observational/anecdotal/downright take-y variety. Hopefully, by the end of it, these will give you a far better idea of which handheld gaming PC will suit your travelling needs, performance preferences, or even specific games to play on the go.

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The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum turned out to be a hot mess. Who knew? The Electronic Wireless Show podcast is on hand to do a dramatic reading of the developer apology post, and talk about the reception to the game - plus our favourite Lord Of The Rings Games, and our favourite apologies. In a shocking twist, James turns out to not be a LotR fan. He is useless to me. I will let you know when we discover things he does like.

We've also been playing some video games this week, how about that! Including the click-fest game of the moment, the remake game of the moment, and a whole other thing I hadn't heard of. So actually James does have a use after all. Plus: he finally got hold of a ROG Ally!

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Front Mission 1st Remake is heading to more platforms. It is set to release on Steam, GOG and Epic for PC soon, according to developer Forever Entertainment. Front Mission 1st Remake will also be launching for PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. Forever Entertainment will be offering a release discount on the new platforms. While the game is normally priced at $34.99, a 10% discount will be applied from June 30, 2023 to July 12, 2023. All versions will release worldwide on June 30, 2023.

Here's the first trailer for the ports:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfNhYqgGPLE

In addition to the wider release, a demo of Front Mission 1st Remake is now available on PC through Steam, allowing players an opportunity to try the game out before release. Save game data from the demo will carry over to the full game. The demo has not been confirmed for any other platforms, including other PC storefronts.

Front Mission 1st Remake previously released on Switch in 2022. It’s a remake of the first game in the Front Mission series of mech tactics games, originally released for the Super Famicom. Remakes of both Front Mission 2 and Front Mission 3 have also been confirmed, although no release date is currently known.

Another Samba de Amigo game is in development, as Sega announced a VR entry during the Meta Quest Showcase. It will launch in Fall 2023. It will be available on both the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro for $29.99. There will also be a cosmetic pre-order bonus that makes it look like Samba is wearing a Meta Quest 2 VR headset and holding its controllers instead of maracas.

The announcement included some details about how the VR rhythm game will work. Players will hold the Meta Quest controllers like maracas and move in time with the indicators they see in the headset to “play” through its songs. The base game will include 40 tracks. Sega did confirm additional music will appear as DLC. In addition to the single player mode, there will be a World Party option. This allows someone to go online and play through songs with up to seven other people. However, even if you don’t opt to play with others, you can check online leaderboards to compare your scores on songs to others’.

Here's the first batch of screenshots showing at how the VR version of Samba de Amigo will look:
[gallery columns="5" size="full" ids="966047,966048,966049,966051,966052" link="file"]

As a reminder, a new Switch installment in the series is also on the way. Party Central will come to the console in August 2023.

Samba de Amigo will come to the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro in Fall 2023.

It's been a good day for VR fans eager for something new to shove in their goggles. Meta has aired its latest Meta Quest Gaming Showcase, featuring a whole bunch of reveals for VR games heading to Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and the newly unveiled Meta Quest 3 in the coming months - including some very nice surprises. FuturLab's splendid PowerWash Simulator is getting the VR treatment, for instance, as are a whole bunch of other familiar favourites, including Samba de Amigo, Bulletstorm, and even cult-classic CD-ROM puzzler The 7th Guest.

For a full rundown of everything revealed during tonight's Meta Quest Gaming Showcase, along with a couple of promising additions that popped up during its pre-show, read on.

Samba de Amigo

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As we teeter on the edge of Summer Game Fest and the Season of Big Announcements, Ubisoft is revving up for June's Ubisoft Forward showcase with a new trailer highlighting at least some of the games that'll feature - and one vague tease that may or may not be Star Wars.

Ubisoft Forward, which is being broadcast live from Los Angeles - as good an excuse as any to resurrect that old Just Dance dance number, if you ask me - takes place on Monday, 12th June, at 6pm BST/10am PDT. A pre-show of undisclosed content will begin a quarter of an hour earlier.

The main event will feature a closer look at the publisher's upcoming slate of releases, with Assassin's Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and The Crew Motorfest all now confirmed for a showing. We'll probably also get at least some updates on Ubisoft's raft of other lingering titles, including its free-to-play games and the perpetually delayed Skull and Bones - but not, as we recently heard, the now-rebooted Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake.

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Assassin's Creed VR is Officially Named Assassin's Creed Nexus VR

Assassin's Creed VR has been renamed Assassin's Creed Nexus VR, and it will launch later this year for Meta Quest VR headsets. Ubisoft announced this project back in 2021, and while we did not get much in the form of information outside of the new subtitle for this VR Assasin's Creed game, we can get a full reveal of Nexus VR later this month at Ubisoft Forward.

Final Fantasy XVI’s decades-spanning story takes protagonist Clive Rosfield all across the continent of Valisthea. With so much space to play in, developer Creative Business Unit III created five main nations at the center of the game's story and wars. 

As a primer, let's break down the key things to know about each of these kingdoms and their place in Valisthea as it relates to the heavily protected and highly sought-after Mothercrystals. 

In this week's episode, we're unpacking Street Fighter 6 with the expert who reviewed the game for us, special guest Elijah Gonzalez. For the rest of the show, we go around the horn to make our wild predictions for Summer Game Fest and all of the adjacent showcases with some humorous (and harmonious) stakes on the line before diving into a couple of listener questions. 

Prefer to watch the video version of the podcast? Find it below: 

Follow us on social media: Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), Charles Harte (@chuckduck365), Elijah Gonzalez (@eli_gonzalez11)

The developers of the upcoming PlayStation 5 sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 say that the game will try to strike a balance between humor and heart while respectfully depicting the darker tones of Peter Parker when he is using his Venom symbiote suit.

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When RPS awarded Kentucky Route Zero the title of Game Of The Year in 2013, only two episodes out of an eventual five had been released. If this sounds like a bland statement of fact, just think about it for a second. I can't recall any other time an episodic adventure game has received GOTY-level praise before it was even concluded, let alone only 40% done.

Episodes three through five arrived sporadically: in spring 2014, summer 2016, and — after what must have been an agonising hiatus — the start of 2020. Having bypassed this wait to play the game for the first time only recently, I feel wistfully as though I'll never share quite the same fond feelings for it as contemporary fans (like our own reviews ranger Rachel, who recently named KRZ one of her all-time favourite indie games). But I'm also quite relieved that I didn't have to exercise that kind of patience. I mean, I'm very good at neglecting to carry on with games for years at a time despite thoroughly enjoying what I've played so far. But I like doing it on my terms, you know?

As usual, HoYoVerse shared its Genshin Impact calendar for June 2023 once the month began. Each month, the company shares a portrait-style calendar image people could use on mobile devices. This features one character whose birthday falls in that month, as well as marked dates showing other birthdays so you know to log-in and collect gifts. This month, the five-star Electro character Cyno is Genshin Impact's featured one.

Here's the June 2023 Genshin Impact calendar. The highlighted birthdays for the month include Itto and Paimon on June 1st, Lisa on June 9th, Venti on June 16th, Yoimiya on June 21st, Cyno on June 23rd, Raiden Shogun on June 26th, and Yae Miko on June 27th.

【カレンダー配布】
旅人さんに日頃の感謝を込めて、2023年6月のカレンダーを配布します！
ぜひスマホ壁紙としてお使いください！#原神 #Genshin pic.twitter.com/HTXXglSjn5

— 原神（Genshin）公式 (@Genshin_7) June 1, 2023

PlatinumGames revealed that the idea of Bayonetta 3’s multiverse concept existed since the first game's creation. Speaking as part of the latest Bayonetta 3 developer diary, Creator Hideki Kamiya revealed that the multiverse was always in the background of the games.

Kamiya and the rest of the team revealed further behind the scenes details around the multiverse concept. The team wanted to see Bayonetta travel the world, with each country being the equivalent of its own movie.

They also discussed the choices behind some of the locations. The Tokyo setting of the first segment of the game was designed to give a striking first impression of seeing Bayonetta in Shibuya. The China setting was originally planned to have large scale battles with entire armies on the Great Wall. They also shared some concept art for the Egypt and France settings.

Kamiya also assured fans that Bayonetta 3 is not the end of the series. He mentioned that he has ideas that could stretch to Bayonetta 9, which is something he has discussed before.

Here's "Developer Diary Episode 3: The Bayonetta 3 Universe."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJaJ16_ZppU&ab_channel=PlatinumGames%E5%85%AC%E5%BC%8F%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8D%E3%83%AB

Developer Ponos announced a new collaboration event between free-to-play mobile game The Battle Cats and the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. The new event is available for the smartphone version of The Battle Cats. It started in Japan on June 1, 2023 and will be available until June 15, 2023. Popular Evangelion characters will appear as playable units in the game. [Thanks, PR Times!]

Additionally, cat versions of some of these characters will also be available. Some of the characters available in the collaboration include several EVA Units, like Unit-01, Unit-13, Unit-02, and Unit-08, various Angels, and even a cat-variant of the AAA Wunder. That one is called the “Neko Wunder.”

You can take a look at some of the units included in The Battle Cats x Neon Genesis Evangelion collaboration event here:

[gallery columns="1" size="medium" ids="966015" link="file"]

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure will inspire its first ever stage play adaptation, and it will be a musical focused on Part 1, Phantom Blood. The musical will premiere at the Imperial Theater in Tokyo in February 2024. Information about the casting will be announced at a later date. Ney Hasegawa will be the director, with Motoyoshi Tsuneyasu as the writer, and French producer Dove Attia being in charge of the music for the play. [Thanks, Oricon!]

Ney Hasegawa will direct the stage play. He has previously worked in adapting Under Execution, Under Jailbreak, another of Hirohiko Araki’s works to the stage. Additionally, the script is being written by Motoyoshi Tsuneyasu, who also worked on the stage adaptation of the My Hero Academia manga.

Dove Attia is a French-Tunisian musical producer and French television personality, and he will be in charge of the music for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure stage play. Attia is also in charge of the music for the upcoming Lupin: The Mystery of the Countess of Cagliostro musical, that will premiere in November 2023.

You can take a look at the poster for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure musical stage play here:

[gallery columns="1" size="medium" ids="966028" link="file"]

Ukrainian developer GSC Game World has asked fans not to share an early test build of Stalker 2, stolen and leaked online by Russian hackers as part of what it calls a "year and a half" attack.

GSC Game World - which relocated from Kyiv to Prague last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine - first confirmed it was the target of Russian hackers back in March, when it revealed an employee's accounts was hacked and that the studio had been threatened with blackmail.

"We are a Ukrainian company," it wrote at the time, "and like most Ukrainians, we have experienced many things that are much more terrifying: destroyed houses, ruined lives, and the deaths of our loved ones. Attempts to blackmail or intimidate us are completely futile".

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Last week, the massively popular gaming esports and content creator group called FaZe Clan signed Stranger Things season four actor Grace Van Dien. Its community has been in shambles ever since, once again exposing the misogynistic underbelly of some of the organization’s fandom. Now Van Dien has locked her Twitter…

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In 2021, shortly after Facebook rebranded itself as Meta, the company announced a new virtual reality port of Rockstar’s open-world classic, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the Quest 2. Now, after its most recent gaming presentation, it seems Facebook and Rockstar have forgotten about this VR port.

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The Overwatch 2 Pride event is now live, and along with the confirmation that two more heroes are queer and a collection of themed player banners and icons, Blizzard has reskinned an NYC-based map so that it looks like it’s set in the middle of a Pride parade.

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