Sonic Frontiers, Sega’s latest (and surprisingly well-received) entry in the speedy hedgehog franchise, received its final free content update on Thursday. It seems this new update is proving to be way more difficult than the base game, as players who once bragged about how easy the game was are getting their generous…
I woke up today hoping to buy a cute plush of Pikachu wearing an outfit inspired by world-renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh, but scalpers got to it the second it went up on the Pokémon Center website. I’m frustrated, and that’s the general sentiment a lot of Pokémon fans are feeling right now, as scalpers and resellers…
Spoiler Warning: The following article features minor spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's fourth main mission: Lucretia My Reflection.
Cyberpunk 2077 players have found a super sneaky reference to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt hidden by CD Projekt inside the Phantom Liberty expansion.
As recorded in IGN's Cyberpunk 2077 Easter Eggs and References Guide, players will encounter a wall-mounted phone in Phantom Liberty's Lucretia My Reflection mission. While this is a one-off encounter where players contact Idris Elba's Solomon Reed for the first time, going back to it and dialling a bunch of different phone numbers will net some interesting results.
Thanks to Cyberpunk 2077 being open-world, players can simply head back to the phone inside Capitan Caliente whenever they like to encounter the Witcher reference. By dialling one of the numbers scribbled on a post-it note nearby, 5745552377, the player will be treated to The Witcher 3's main theme.
Keanu Reeves' Johnny Silverhand smiles and gives a thumbs up at the successful hit, as a crackly version of the song The Trail plays over the phone. You can check out some other fun references found with Capitan Caliente's phone in the video above.
Nijisanji VTuber Mika Melatika released a statement through her social media account sharing that she will be taking a temporary hiatus through the month of October 2023. While she might stream, or sporadically appear in some collabs, the liver will not be making a stable schedule to focus on her health and other personal matters.
While Mika’s streams will be sporadical and unprepared, the liver also shared that she will be communicating through her social media to keep fans updated. Mika described her possible upcoming streams as “guerrilla streams” and said that she will be playing games she’s interested in, or catching up with people when possible.
You can read the official post by Mika Melatika communicating her hiatus here:
This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian and Wes catch up on all the news, including an extended discussion on the leaked emails from Xbox regarding Phil Spencer's interest in acquiring Nintendo. After covering a lot of topics, Brian delivers his thoughts after spending a few hours with the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet expansion, The Teal Mask. Finally, the duo wraps up the show by taking part in the inaugural ATN Draft.
If you'd like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on his Instagram/Threads @BrianPShea or Twitter @BrianPShea. You can follow Wesley on Twitter: @LeBlancWes.
The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry's most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to talk about what's happening in the world of Nintendo. Along the way, they'll share personal stories, uncover hidden gems in the eShop, and even look back on the classics we all grew up with. A new episode hits every Friday!
Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion have a problem with wasting your time. CD Projekt Red’s open-world RPG has a feature where you have to wait an undetermined amount of time for certain quests to activate, and that persists into Phantom Liberty. Even now, after the epic 2.0 update revamped a bunch of the…
Call of Duty’s collaborations this year have cast a wide net, ranging from putting rapper Nicki Minaj in as a playable character to adding cosmetics that are based on the Diablo series. Next month, the series is leaning into all things spooky and hellish, and that includes a tribute to Doom, the landmark 1993…
South African-Canadian immigrant Elon Musk promised on September 27 that he’d test livestreaming on X (you know it as Twitter) “with some silly stuff,” he said, like a Diablo IV speedrun with no powerful Malignant Heart add-ons. On September 28, he decided to livestream the Texas-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, a…
Almost seven years after the release of Skyrim, Elder Scrolls fans were treated to a glimpse of the future back at E3 2018, with Bethesda Game Studios confirming it was officially working on The Elder Scrolls 6. The newest entry in the iconic RPG series was unveiled with a cryptic teaser following the official announcement of Starfield, but since then, we’ve not seen any additional trailers or footage.
However, Bethesda hasn’t been entirely silent on it. Whether it's discussing the game’s current stage of development or the potential platforms it’ll release on, the studio has offered several updates on The Elder Scrolls 6. Below, we’ve compiled all the information we currently have about the upcoming sequel, so grab yourself a sweet roll and get ready to recap everything we currently know about Bethesda’s next adventure through the vast realms of Tamriel.
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The official account for Yoshitaka Tamaki announced that the artist has died on July 13, 2023, due to lung cancer. He was 55 years old at the time of death. Tamaki previously worked as an illustrator, character designer, and scenario writer for games such as Shining Force, Landstalker, and Alundra.
Because Tamaki wanted to work until the very end, he had been undergoing treatment for cancer. Though the tweet states that he passed in July 2023, the family only made the news public now. He had a private funeral that only his family members and close friends attended, and the tweet states that they hope people will never forget the works he poured his lifeblood into.
You can read the full Twitter post below:
A Detective Pikachu Returns filter is now available on TikTok. There are two modes you can switch between to make your videos. The first one has you imitate Detective Pikachu’s expressions and motions. The second one lets you make videos while wearing Detective Pikachu’s signature hat. [Thanks, Famitsu!]
The official Pokemon TikTok channel has posted a video showing how you can use the filter. In the video, a woman dances when a detective hat and Detective Pikachu suddenly appear over her head. There are also rosy spots on her cheeks as a result of this filter. The demonstration is simple. But considering TikTok’s past dalliances with organic marketing through absurdist humor, there’s a chance that some users can elevate the Detective Pikachu Returns filter to something more than what it is.
You can watch the full Pokemon TikTok video below:
HoYoVerse is collaborating with a number of restaurants worldwide to promote Honkai: Star Rail. News of this event first came out during the Version 1.4 special program that aired on September 29, 2023. You can check the official website for all the countries and restaurants that will have a collaborative menu and merchandise.
While there are some discrepancies here and there depending on the country or restaurant, they will all mostly start from October 11, 2023, and end sometime in mid-November 2023. In Japan, Wendy’s will have the Honkai: Star Rail menu. You’ll be able to get “designer french fries” for a limited time, as well as receive goods like an acrylic stand or a Gourmet Sailing Series Badge. The acrylic stand will use the visual of Dan Heng and March enjoying some fast food together.
There will also be themed days. If you go to the restaurants during this period, you can purchase a set item to get extra collaboration merchandise. There will also be in-game items that you can get: a Chef Pom-Pom avatar, Conductor’s Treat phone wallpaper, and Pom-Pom’s Fried Fowl recipe. All players will likely have access to these rewards, as the website does not say they’re limited to customers who visit the stores.
After a surprise announcement earlier this year, Valve surprised players once again by suddenly releasing Counter-Strike 2 as an update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Wednesday after a long beta period. Along with several new gameplay aspects, Counter-Strike 2 brings a few major changes, like weapon refunds and overhauled graphics, to the model that helped its predecessor become one of the most-played Steam games of all time.
Unfortunately for quite a few players, though, the original Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was completely replaced by Counter-Strike 2 (aside from being playable as an offline "demo"), which seems to be missing quite a few beloved features from the original game. Now, players caught off guard are taking to Reddit and X/Twitter to share their concerns about the game’s current state.
Moa, the creator of Hatoful Boyfriend, has stated on Twitter that she has not received a single payment from Epic Games since her game appeared on the platform two years ago. She explains that Mediatonic used to own distribution rights for Hatoful Boyfriend, which would give her royalty fees. However, since Epic Games bought Mediatonic after Fall Guys’s success, she has not gotten any payments from the game's sales. Epic Games has responded and stated that it is looking into it.
You can read Moa's full statement below:
Though there's many a huge RPG to play at the moment (recite the littany: Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, Cyberpunk 2077) many of us in the treehouse have retreated to smaller, or at least less garganutan, games for our days off this weekend. Though of course there's something called Counter-Strike 2 happening at the moment. I dunno, doesn't sound like it's important to PC or anything.
Game preservation is one of those topics that we keep returning to with greater and greater frequency. In a week like this, and a year like this, it's not hard to see why. Marvel's Avengers, a mega-budget game that still feels relatively fresh, is being delisted, while Hyenas, which looked weird and rather brilliant, has been cancelled before it's even been released. It's heartbreaking, and my thoughts go out to everyone affected. People are losing their jobs and others are seeing their work forgotten. There's also a sense we're going to see more of this and more often. Hollywood is making movies that people will never see and TV shows that people will never binge, while brilliant people are giving huge and valuable chunks of their lives to make games that people will never play. It's terrible stuff.
The question of game preservation should rightly seem small compared to people losing jobs, but while the news has been so bad these past months there have also been a number of game releases which highlight different ways absent games, at least, might live on in memory. It's doubly hard, I think, to preserve games like Marvel's Avengers or Hyenas: games which are always online, multiplayer, social affairs which require servers and deep communities of players to make sense. But game preservation is tricky stuff even with older single-player offline games. Maybe this is why there are so many signs of changes to how people are thinking about game preservation. So many people are asking: what does it mean to preserve a game or at least preserve its memory? This stuff is in flux.
Sony is reportedly "uncomfortable" about outgoing PlayStation boss Jim Ryan's pivot to games as a service.
That's according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who reported yesterday that "even Bungie's expertise has not yet been able to turn PlayStation Studios into a service-game factory".
Just days after announcing its $3.6bn Bungie buyout bid, Sony announced back in April 2022 that it would launch more than 10 new live service games over the next four years, with the hope that Destiny developer Bungie would aid PlayStation in this major expansion of live service game development.
Reviewed on:
Xbox Series X/S
Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher:
EA Sports
Developer:
EA Canada
Release:
Following its split with soccer's governing body, EA Sports’ FIFA series is no more, but make no mistake: EA Sports FC is a solid game with a host of welcome improvements. The bones of this longtime franchise remain sturdy and familiar, like a well-run club. The suite of changes to Ultimate Team makes for a satisfying squad overhaul, and manager and player career modes gain smaller, welcome updates.
Gameplay remains largely the same: solid and familiar. The biggest change is the feel of the ball – it’s loose, with matches tending to have more 50/50 moments, and it’s wonderful. These loose-ball situations add to the storylines of the matches and moments. It’s empowering when cover star Erling Haaland snatches a ball acrobatically out of the air to finish a play. It all feels more true to life and purposeful. There’s a controlled chaos in these situations that makes the game a little more realistic than last year’s. I enjoyed it and the more methodical pace of games, which, in turn, makes star players stand out more.
NetEase recently revealed Project Mugen, an upcoming free-to-play open world RPG with an emphasis on freedom of exploration, combat, and an urban aesthetic. The game is being developed by the recently founded Naked Rain division from NetEase’s ThunderFire studio. To learn more about what Naked Fire aims to achieve with Project Mugen, Siliconera spoke with Producer Ash Qi during TGS 2023 about the upcoming open world RPG.
Daniel Bueno: What will be the focus of the narrative of Project Mugen?
Ash Qi: Project Mugen is an open world RPG with lots of interconnected cities. The role of the player is that of an investigator exploring these cities looking for Chaos. In the process, the player will encounter allies and friends, and will discover the truth of why Chaos is manifesting in the world, as well as the truth about the player character’s identity.
What could you tell me about some of the characters shown so far that hasn’t been shared yet?
"Strategic crafting shooter" United 1944 invites you to try before you buy and participate in its beta playtest.
The beta – which is live now and runs until 7am on 2nd October UK time (midnight PT) – is free to download now on Steam and lets players try out the game's Survivor mode. Just hit "Request access" on the Steam page to get involved.
Survivor mode apparently takes "the scavenging and open construction approach to a whole new level of tension". You can see it in action below:
By now, everyone knows how much time and effort went into Starfield, and it’s clear just how much of that paid off. It’s unabashedly Bethesda, while expanding its scope far beyond the continents of Tamriel or North America and into the stars. However, like all games, there are always going to be some flaws or downsides, so it’s only fair to point out where Starfield was lacking while discussing what it did right.
There really is a lot to love about Starfield. The resources put into making the game what it turned out to be are clearly demonstrated in areas like the environments, smooth fast-travel system and world-building, making the game memorable for years to come. If that’s not enough, the soundscape and soundtrack are both breathtaking, instilling the feeling of adventure in even just the menus.
Arc System Works will release a Bridget outfit for you to put on your VRChat avatar. The release date is October 6, 2023. It will also re-run the May outfit. As a note, the avatar does not actually turn you into Bridget or May. Instead, they’re costumes that you can place on an existing one. [Thanks, Famitsu!]
The Guilty Gear Strive Bridget outfit in VRChat will cost 3000 JPY. You can place it on Moe, Manuka, Kikyo, or Selestia. While the May outfit already came out, an updated version of it will be released on October 6, 2023. The May outfit will cost 2000 JPY, and will now include her weapon and glove. Merino and Kikyo can wear her outfit.
Though not Guilty Gear Strive, there are also avatar costumes you can get of characters from Guilty Gear Xrd. There are outfits of Elphelt, Dizzy, Baiken, and Jam. All of these outfits are for the Kikyo avatar.
PUBG: Battlegrounds' Halloween event is back.
After jumping off the "Ghost Ship" you'll enter a spooky Erangel where you’ll need to "loot the land of the dead, craft ghoulish weapons, grow stronger, and fight to be the last team standing".
Interestingly, though, the mode will be removed by the time actual Halloween rolls around – the Halloween Battle Royale will only be available from now until midnight UK time on 10th October (that's 5pm PT time).
The My Pikachu plush will re-appear in Pokemon Centers around Japan from October 14, 2023. These Pokemon plushes have minute differences in their expressions, ears, and tails to create a unique Pikachu plush. Each My Pikachu plush will cost 1,650 JPY ($11.05).
After you get a plush, you can fill out a memorial tag. You’ll be able to hang the tag off of the Pikachu to serve as a name tag. Aside from the Pikachu’s nickname, you can also record their personality and their Ability. Back when the plush first came out, you were also able to fill out a tag then. However, it doesn’t look like the Pika Pika Tree or Pika Pika Forest attractions will make a return.
Originally, you could pay 1,650 JPY to participate in the Pika Pika Forest or Pika Pika Tree. Instead of choosing a doll on your own, it would recreate the idea of meeting a Pikachu in the forest. While you couldn’t choose the physical traits of the plush you got, you could experience what it’s like to find a wild Pokemon in real life.
The My Pikachu plush will be available again in Pokemon Centers from October 14, 2023. The toy originally came out as part of the Pokemon 25th anniversary and was available from April 22, 2023 to June 30, 2023.
You’re reading the fourth chapter of my eight-day travelog recounting my unbelievable trip to Japan to cover the 2023 Pokémon World Championships.
If you already haven't, be sure to check out the other chapters:
7:45 am - I wake up actually feeling rested for the first time since we got to Japan. The first stop of the day is to Pokémon Center Shibuya, and then we’ll be set free to explore the area, shop, and eat, so I figure I should have a light breakfast. I go to the buffet and grab a Malasada donut, Spanish omelet, croissant, orange slices, berry pastry, chocolate pastry, coffee, orange juice, thin pancakes with berries, and a piping-hot slice of lasagna.
8:25 am - We pile onto the bus and start our journey to Shibuya. It strikes me how this is our fourth day here and the World Championships haven’t even started, yet we’ve seen and done an astounding amount of stuff. We’re getting the full experience, indeed. This feeling continued to strike me for the next two hours.
There’s a moment at the very beginning of El Paso, Elsewhere, where the protagonist James Savage leans over the hood of a car pulled over in the middle of nowhere and makes a plea directly to the player. “I need you to believe…that I’m going to get back into this car, on the count of three, and stop my ex before she destroys us all. I need to know that you believe, so I can too.” He slowly counts to three, and in a blink, he’s in the El Paso hotel where she lies in wait. “Well,” he says, as if pleasantly surprised. “Here’s to believing.”
The parallels between this specific moment of James’ opening monologue and the story told to me by Strange Scaffold studio head Xalavier Nelson Jr. of the game’s development aren’t lost on me. He’s worked on over 80 projects in the past eight years, he tells me over a video call, across video games, comics, and tabletop, AAA and indie, licensed and original IP. His studio, Strange Scaffold, was founded out of a “deep passion for advocating to make games better, faster, cheaper, and healthier because our players deserve it.” As he speaks to me, Nelson walks Aristotelian laps around the brightly-painted living room, kitchen, and hallway of his house. Occasionally, he sprints to the PC to check a fact, then resumes his peripateticism.
Disney Tsum Tsum Land will end service on January 31, 2024. Colopl apologized on its official website for how it wasn’t able to meet player expectations and thanked everyone for enjoying the game over the years. The site also has a schedule for the days leading up to the end of service.
As of September 29, 2023, you will no longer be able to purchase new Diamonds or invite people through Line. There will also be an event and a campaign from October 2, 2023 to thank all of the players for their patronage. Colopl has not yet uploaded details on that event. More information on it will come out soon. Finally, service will end on January 31, 2024. Colopl will announce its plans for how it’ll handle any leftover premium currency players may still have at this time.
Disney Tsum Tsum Land came out in November 2017 as a puzzle game in which you have to shoot Tsum Tsums at other Tsum Tsums to delete them. It’s similar to Puzzle Bobble in that sense. Tsum Tsums include Disney characters from its past animations and movies, as well as characters from Disney properties such as Star Wars.
Disney Tsum Tsum Land is available on mobile devices. Its service will end on January 31, 2024.
Obsessed with – or need more practice at – Starfield's lockpicking mini-game? Then I have good news – you can now Digipick to your heart's content courtesy of a new Digipick simulator browser game.
"An open-source recreation of the digipick/lockpicking minigame from Bethesda's Starfield", Digipick Simulator lets you "pick virtual locks whenever you want" from the comfort of your internet browser.
"This is a recreation of the lock-picking 'digipick' minigame from Bethesda's Starfield," explains developer BB-Dev. "Bethesda games always have great lockpicking minigames for some reason, and Starfield is no exception to that rule" (thanks, Polygon).
Techland has pulled back the cover on what's coming up for its zombie shooter, Dying Light 2 Stay Human.
In a new trailer outlining its content roadmap, the studio vowed to keep supporting the game with more activities, including co-op missions, Tower Raid, replayable GRE anomalies, and the return of Tolga and Fatin.
Players can also expect more graphic options, such as the ability to turn the bloom effect on and off, an FOV slider for Xbox Series S, and quality of life improvements to things like weapon repairing, gear and mod dismantling, and a host of new cosmetics and customisations, as well as new enemy variants.
The Pokémon Company has apologised to fans after scalpers besieged the Van Gogh Museum earlier this week, buying up most of the Pokémon Center x Van Gogh special edition products and almost immediately selling them for heavily inflated prices on online auction sites.
The Pokémon exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam opened earlier this week, where a load of new Pokemon x Van Gogh merch was available, including a free trading card of a Van Gogh Pikachu designed to look like he was painted by the Dutch master himself.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, scalpers were quick to descend on the Van Gogh Museum, leaving many fans disappointed.
13 (real-world and in-game) years have passed since we left Alan Wake in the Dark Place. The 2010 action game/psychological thriller gained a cult following thanks to a compelling narrative that blends Stephen King-esque psychological mystery with the quirky charm and evocative surrealism of Twin Peaks. In the decade-plus since, Remedy has grown to become one of the industry’s premier development studios, and now it’s writing an all-new chapter with its first survival-horror game, Alan Wake 2.
Ahead of the sequel’s upcoming release, we’ve compiled this comprehensive overview of everything we know about Alan Wake 2, including a release date, platforms, price, gameplay updates, story details, and more.
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Alan Wake 2 will be released on October 27 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Epic Games Store). The survival-horror game will cost $60 USD on console and $50 on PC.
Alan Wake 2 will only be released digitally.
The latest Alan Wake 2 trailer, titled The Dark Place, was released at gamescom in August. Check out the hybrid live action-gameplay video below:
Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am honored to be your host as we look back at the best community creations from the previous week. Welcome to the last day of September!
In terms of programming, Jan announced that the Thursday Night Throwdown for Team Fortress 2, which is quickly becoming the most cursed planned piece of Giant bomb content ever, has been rescheduled to this week on October 5th.
The Giant Bomb Discord moderation team is looking for new moderators and they have an application form. If you think you would make for a great Discord mod, fill out the application!
In terms of updates for bug reports, Dylan reiterated during this week's monthly Fandom meeting that updates are coming out for the video player and podcast feed at least weekly. However, he did note that the engineering team is planning to address the site search engine issues next. The site's forum search being broken has been reported and updates should be coming soon. If you experience any issues that you are incredibly frustrated about or suspect an update may have done more damage than good, remember your options are:
Back in 2022, Square Enix started releasing Final Fantasy XIV Eorzea Academy, an alternate reality manga placing familiar heroes and villains in a high school setting. It was a brief tale spanning only seven chapters. Now that it’s available worldwide in English, I can’t help but wish it was longer. It’s so fun and packed with personality, and the characters translate over to their new roles quite well.
The stars of Final Fantasy XIV Eorzea Academy are primarily Alisaie and Alphinaud Leveilleur, with other Scions of the Seventh Dawn, Garlean Empire, and side characters like Ryne and Tataru also playing fairly large parts. Depending on characters’ ages or personalities, they end up being students or faculty. So, for example, Alisaie and Alphinaud are first-year students who are living away from home, so they’re staying in the same place as teachers Y’shtola, Thancred, and Urianger.
Viz Media often releases these “catch up” DVDs and Blu-rays. They’re a way to bring older series back. Think of it as a means of ensuring certain things aren’t lost to time. Ranma 1/2 Ova and Movies Collection is essentially that. It’s a simple release that keeps 14 items and ensures they’re more easily accessible in a pleasant way.
In terms of what you get on the discs, the Ranma 1/2 Ova and Movies Collection is a rather robust selection. It’s a complete compilation of these 14 additional stories in an easily accessible format. So you get the following to watch at your leisure:
"Boomer shooter" is a recent video game genre term used to describe contemporary games that exist as throwbacks to the Doom-inspired era of first-person shooters where speed and firepower are everything. Phantom Fury is not the first game to explore this playground, and it likely won't be the last, but playing the demo left a good first impression. The visuals are cool, the shooting feels good, and protagonist Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison is not afraid to throw out a good one-liner when the mood strikes her.
Phantom Fury is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC sometime this year.
Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Today right here.
Ark: Survival Evolved's official servers will switch off later today, at midnight UTC on September 30th (1am BST October 1st). The closure is part of paving the way for the piecemeal remake Ark: Survival Ascended, which will release in Steam Early Access in October.
My love of '90s first-person shooters is not matched by my enthusiasm for modern throwback 'boomer shooters'. Of all the recent gib-fanciers, I lasted longest with Prodeus. It looked stunning, it felt great to play, and it ran niftily on my Steam Deck.
Now there's a new mini-campaign expansion on the way. The Elder Veil adds a spear, a grappling hook, and a new mini-campaign.
Hunt: Showdown is one of our favourite multiplayer games. If you love dying in bushes, it might be one of yours, too. Developers Crytek have now outlined their roadmap of coming updates between now and the middle of 2024, and it includes an engine upgrade and new minimum specs.
At the end of September 2023, VShojo began teasing a new Vtuber. It then confirmed shortly after this would be an entirely new person, rather than an existing personality joining the company. Now, there’s another revelation. Kuro debuted on September 30, 2023 and was revealed to be the first male VShojo Vtuber. The company is also selling debut merchandise like a shirt, keychain, and acrylic stand.
The first Kuro stream as a VShojo Vtuber appeared on his Twitch account at 6pm PT/9pm ET on September 30, 2023. He’s a British individual and appeared wearing a hoodie with ears that resembled his mascot. During his initial debut appearance, he noted that most of his streams will be solo streams. He will participate in collaboration sometimes, but most will only feature him. He also said a 3D model is already being made for him.