February 2024

Composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab won at the Grammy Awards last night for their Star Wars Jedi: Survivor score.

The pair beat out the likes of Austin Wintory and Bear McCreary for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and other Interactive Media.

The other nominees included Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Sarah Schachner); God of War Ragnarök (Bear McCreary); Hogwarts Legacy (Peter Murray, J Scott Rakozy & Chuck E. Myers "Sea"); and Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Montaigne, Tripod & Austin Wintory).

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Tencent was developing a new mobile game for the Nier series but stopped development in December, according to a new report.

As reported by Reuters, sources said the game had been in development for almost two years. There was reportedly a playable internal demo, which showed some of the game's combat and story.

The company is said to have "struggled to find a compelling monetisation model" to offset the high costs of the mobile entry.

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A remake of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was "considered" to be in the pipeline at PlayStation, a new report has claimed.

XboxEra's Nick Baker and Jon Clarke said they both had received "evidence" that Sony has ideas to remake the first Uncharted game from the "ground up".

"It is worth saying that the additional detail I got was that this was, this was quite old - like I am talking a number of years," Clarke warned. "But it wouldn't surprise me, right... as a way to bring the series back into the limelight again and get people hyped."

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The Final Fantasy 14 open beta test for Xbox Series X/S will begin on 21st February.

The test will only be available for new players playing the game for the first time. Players who already have the free trial, or a licence for the game registered to their Square Enix account, will be unable to participate.

The official version of the game will launch on Xbox Series X/S "immediately following the conclusion of the open beta test" according to the official announcement on The Lodestone, though the exact date of this is unknown.

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Anycolor announced the graduation of Nijisanji EN Vtuber Selen Tatsuki via Termination. She is no longer with the agency effective immediately, with the company citing breaches of contract and behavior online as the reasons.

Here’s the official announcement from social media. In the statement, the company alleged it has been warning Selen since May 2023 about violations of the Activity Rules for its Vtubers. It also cited the release of the cover of the song “Last Cup of Coffee” and her behavior after its was privated as one of these violations. It also noted that February 5, 2024 is her official last day, her social media is now private, her YouTube membership is closed, and merchandise sales will gradually end.

Here is the Selen Tatsuki termination announcement.

Naughty Dog's grand panjandrum (co-president) Neil Druckmann has a concept in mind for The Last Of Us: Part 3, following on from the original PlayStation 3 action-adventure's tale of parental love and the PS4 game's theme of "justice at any cost". This isn't confirmation that a third single player Last Of Us game is in development, with Druckmann reiterating comments from this time last year that Naughty Dog feel no obligation to continue the tale. Nonetheless, "it does feel like there's probably one more chapter to this story." Will we ever really see the last of The Last Of Us?

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If there's a sense of burning injustice at Rocksteady Studios, it's probably understandable. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is filled with little moments of brilliance: humour, style, expression, that signature rhythmic, flow-state approach to combat. There's no question - as there rarely is with any video game - that its team was remarkably dedicated to making it as good as it could be. It's just that for each upshot there's a matching, crashing downturn, and in looking for a cause it's difficult to see beyond the ambitions that this game has been asked to juggle.

All at once, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League must be a live service game that pays for its extraordinary, almost nine-year run-up time after 2015's Batman: Arkham Knight, plus the support of those live services beyond launch. It must feature multiple main characters that not one, but two distinct Hollywood films - plus Birds of Prey - have failed to generate any kind of public good will towards (or even mild interest in). And it must deliver, or at least seem to deliver, on its promise of making antagonists out of and subsequently killing the Justice League - a group of beloved, decades-old icons that have in part earned their iconic status from not dying. (And which come with a subsection of fans - emphasis on the subsection - known to be as toxic as they are dedicated). All together, it means the question that arose for most onlookers the moment Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was revealed in 2020 remains the same now, and even well into its perpetual grind of an endgame: why?

I have a strange relationship with The Last of Us Part II. During its launch in 2020, I was part of a publication dedicated exclusively to highlighting accessible innovations and disabled perspectives in the games industry. As the Mobility Editor of Can I Play That, I edited plenty of features, news posts, and reviews…

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Sanrio revealed that new earrings featuring its characters have appeared in Japan. Officially titled Sanrio Characters Stainless Hoop Pierce, the earrings come etched with small illustrations of iconic characters like Hello Kitty and Cinnamoroll.

Sanrio also revealed that the silver-colored earrings are made of surgical stainless steel with a low probability of causing metallic allergies. The collection features a total of ten characters:

1. Cinnamoroll
2. Pompompurin
3. Kuromi
4. Pochacco
5. Hello Kitty
6. My Melody
7. Hangyodon
8. Little Twin Stars
9. Tuxedosam
10. Bad Badtz-maru

Sunrise has opened the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Series GP2024 poll where fans can vote for their favorite character and Mobile Suit or Armor. The poll features 127 characters and 102 mechs from one of the popular Gundam sub-series. It also includes characters and Mobile Suits that debuted in Gundam SEED Freedom. The latter movie launched in Japanese theaters in late January 2024 and grossed over a billion yen within the first three days.

Despite the numbers mentioned, this poll only features content from the three mainline anime entries: the inaugural 2002 show, the 2004 sequel Gundam SEED Destiny, and the new Gundam SEED Freedom movie. The Cosmic Era universe also has numerous side-story entries, such as the Astray series, the Gundam SEED Eclipse manga, and the 2006 net animation Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer. None of the content from the latter titles appears in this poll.

Square Enix will hold the Final Fantasy VII Remake / Rebirth Fireworks & Music show in Osaka on March 23, 2024. The show will feature a synchronized lighting and fireworks performance timed with tracks from FFVII Remake and its sequel Rebirth. The latter will be already available by the time this show goes live, as Square Enix will release Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for PlayStation 5 on February 29, 2024.

Tickets for the show will be available at ¥8,800 (~$59). Each ticket will come with a leisure sheet mat and have a designated spot in one of the two areas: Dynamic Area and Panorama Area. Each visitor will have to purchase a ticket for themselves, but a child aged up to 6 years old can attend for free if they sit on an adult's lap.

The show will run in the eastern plaza of Osaka Expo '70 Commemorative Park. The venue will be open to the public from 11 AM JST, but the organizers will restrict it to the FFVII Remake / Rebirth Fireworks & Music show ticket holders at 5 PM.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the biggest Xbox exclusives on the horizon. According to a new report, however, Microsoft might be thinking of bringing Indy to other platforms.

The Verge has spoken to an insider familiar with Microsoft’s plans who claims the publisher is considering the idea of bringing several first-party titles to other consoles, like releasing Indiana Jones on the PlayStation 5. The source claims that Bethesda is tentatively targeting a December release for the title and that it will launch as an Xbox/PC title before possibly coming to PlayStation 5 after a short exclusivity window. 

It seems like the crew of the Astral Express has been loitering around the streets of the Xianzhou Luofu forever now. To be fair, there hasn’t been a new planet for Trailblazers to explore since Honkai: Star Rail’s launch back in April of 2023. But after a number of updates that added new characters and side quests to…

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A number of leaks happened over the weekend that seem to have big implications for Microsoft’s Xbox plans moving forward. Reports from The Verge and XboxEra claim that two major Bethesda releases, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Starfield, could both come to PlayStation 5, adding to the pile of Xbox…

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The upcoming Deadpool 3 unexpectedly has a lot riding on it. Not only is it going to serve as the first example of how mutants and more R-rated characters will interact with the MCU, it’s also got to appease those excited by the return of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Unfortunately, it’s also got another expectation it…

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Apex Legends: Breakout, the 20th season of the fast-paced battle royale is due to launch on Tuesday, 13th February and there are a few big changes coming including a new Legend Upgrade system, Shields being removed from ground loot and a ranked reset.

To celebrate the game's fifth anniversary, maps will be strewn with celebratory confetti and balloons, plus the potential to earn six Legends previously only available through premium currency.

If you're playing Apex on a next-gen console, then you might be pleased to hear that Breakout will be introducing 120Hz for you as well as haptics and adaptive triggers for controllers. This will apply from launch for all PS5 and Xbox Series S/X users.

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Ahead of the 2.0 Honkai: Star Rail launch, HoYoVerse shared a new Black Swan trailer and announced a fan art contest. The trailer shows her alongside the Trailblazer Stelle and in battle, while the fan art contest runs until February 29, 2024 and offers a chance to earn money and Stellar Jades.

First, here’s the new Black Swan Honkai: Star Rail trailer. It features Stelle being chased by an enemy in the Dreamscape. It is there that she runs into Black Swan and hears her discussion of memories.

Square Enix released more details for the upcoming Open Beta for Final Fantasy XIV on Xbox Series X/S. The test is set to begin on February 21, 2024, and will function similarly to the free trial version of the game available on other platforms.

Ahead of the test, Square Enix detailed some setting adjustments that may be necessary for the game to function, including enabling cross-network play. The company also stated that it will only be available to new players, and asks that existing players wait until the official release following the conclusion of this test. While there is nothing to stop an existing player creating a new account, it would require linking Microsoft and Square Enix accounts, which cannot be unlinked. This could mean that when the game is released officially on the service, said player would not be able to then link their main account for playing on console.

The Free login campaign for FFXIV also returned in February 2024, allowing lapsed players to return for four days. Square Enix has also shown off the new emote added as part of the Valentine's Day celebrations, which will begin later this month.

A new manga called Astro Baby just launched in Shonen Jump. Chapter 1 is now available to read in English on MangaPlus and via Viz Media. 

In Astro Baby, the world is faced with a cannibal disease called Couper-29 as the result of a meteorite in the town of North Hill. Those infected become cannibals. A young man named Billy grew up in a town where it started to appear, and only one scientist named Eleanor believed him when he saw it starting to happen. Billy returned as a soldier years later for her sake, especially since she’s now about to be a single mother. Now, he’ll have to help protect her child as well.

This new series comes from Shiro Moriya. The mangaka previously worked on Soloist in a Cage. That story ran for three volumes and also featured dystopian themes. That also appears on MangaPlus.

As for past new series in Shonen Jump, one appeared in January 2024. That was a spin-off of Kaiju No 8called Kaiju no 8: B-Side. 

Apologies if I'm starting to sound like a broken record these days, but here I am, back with another edition of "Have you heard about this cool new roguelike deckbuilder?" I swear I'll find a new/another niche one of these days, but listen, Pyrene is very cool indeed, and I lost a good hour to its free demo last week on Steam. On the surface, this might look like your typical fantasy dungeon crawler, but Pyrene has some neat tricks of its own, combining its own blend of resource gathering and roguelike citybuilding with Inscryption's number-crunching battles and a dash of Foretales' card-based exploration. And it has a lovely piano soundtrack to boot, too.

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Immensely popular sandbox game Roblox has added real-time text translation to its in-game chat, powered by AI. Its developers are already looking at applying the tech to other multilingual elements in the game, including voice chat that mimics the speaker’s tone and expression.

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Veteran trading card game and master of the heavily-kerned, overly-long monster name Yu-Gi-Oh! turns 25 this year. Among the card game’s quarter-century celebrations during an event in the Tokyo Dome this past weekend were a number of announcements, including the reveal of a collection of classic Yu-Gi-Oh! video games headed to Steam.

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The first Steam Next Fest of 2024 is officially upon us, though this year there have been so many demos going live early that you may well have played a bunch of them already without even knowing it. Still, in case you need a helping hand cutting through the many hundreds, if not thousands of free demos that are currently jostling for your eyeballs on Steam, we've put together this shortlist of recommendations to get your started.

There are 15 picks here, covering everything from citybuilders to horror games - and a lot of these are games we've never written about before, either. But, in case you are looking for demos of more well-known PC games, we've also listed some of the big obvious choices you might want to check out as well (and all the other demos we've written about over the last couple of weeks). You know, because we're nice like that. So come and join us for 15 (plus!) Next Fest demos to get you going.

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I've never been a true "Football Enjoyer". I'll weirdly get into it at certain times, like when the World Cup is on and I get suckered into the belief that, "It's actually coming home this time". But maybe I could be a football enjoyer, now that there's a roguelike out there that combines football skills with room-clearing. I'd give Footgun Underground's demo at least 90 minutes of your time.

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Like many Titanfall enjoyers, I look at the gleaming success of battle royale spinoff Apex Legends with both a smidge of pride and a gutful of sadness that I haven’t had any wall-running, mech-dropping FPS adventures since. Indeed, an unannounced single-player Titanfall game was quietly shelved last year, and if there’s any burning sense of unfinished business among series devs Respawn Entertainment, it wasn’t evident during my recent visit to try out Apex Legends’ Season 20 update.

Even so, it turns out some still carry the fire, at least as source of inspiration for Apex lore and mechanics. I asked Respawn’s narrative lead Ashley Reed whether Titanfall was keeping in anyone’s minds, and was told that if anything, the references need reining in.

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If there’s a secret to how Apex Legends has endured the past five years, an era marked by as many FPS failures as successes, then it might be this: there are no sacred cows in live service. Since its surprise launch in February 2019, developers Respawn Entertainment have chopped and changed everything from hitbox-shrinking Naruto run animations to entire character designs and ability kits, gutting and reworking gear and class mechanics along the way. The incoming Season 20 update, titled Breakout, represents the latest large-scale rejig, adding upgradeable skill tress for its playable Legends that promise MOBA-esque progression and the maddest fights yet.

I’ve played Apex Legends Season 20, and it might be the fastest and fiercest that the battle royale FPS has ever been – while also being the richest in tactical opportunities and metagame theorycrafting. It's all thanks to a drastically expanded Evo experience system, one that now not only boosts your shield capacity, but unlocks the branches of a MOBA-style skill tree that permanently buffs your character for the duration of a match. Even for a season with no new playable Legend to headline, it’s an update that feels exciting and genuinely game-changing – if a little scary at the same time.

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Modern Warfare III and Warzone Season 2 drops on February 7, and with it a chunk of new content and a new battle pass. With four brand new 6v6 maps, a new War map, new guns, and much more, things ought to feel quite fresh come Wednesday. So if you’re itching for some more team deathmatch action or are looking for a…

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Apex Legends is celebrating its fifth anniversary in style, with major changes coming to the battle royale across the loot pool, armor system, and Legend abilities later this month. During a two-day presentation and hands-on media preview, developer Respawn also outlined extensive plans to rework Apex Legends Ranked…

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Those looking to up their catch rate in Palworld can now reliably seek out Lifmunk Effigies once more. Patch v0.1.4.1 includes a number of fixes for the smash hit survival/animal-catching game, including a bug that prevented catch rates from increasing. The patch is now live on both Steam and Xbox.

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Five years after its surprise-launch and subsequent success, the team behind Apex Legends is not afraid to change up its formula. So when season 20 aka Breakout debuts later this month, developer Respawn will dramatically adjust aspects of the battle royale’s gameplay in the hopes that these changes will both nurture A…

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Roblox is today introducing a new AI feature that will translate a user's real-time text into other languages. Following this, the Roblox team has plans for a feature which will translate voices into different languages with the use of its AI tech.

Today's addition to Roblox will allow users to type a message in their own language, to then see it translated into other languages supported by the gaming environment instantaneously.

This feature will available within all Roblox experiences that leverage TextChatService.

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The first DLC for Koei Tecmo and Omega Force's Fate/Samurai Remnant is set to launch on February 9, 2024, unleashing Gilgamesh and his Keian Command Championship on the masters of Edo. The DLC was originally announced back in late December 2023.

Gilgamesh is a staple in the Fate franchise and shows up as a supporting character in Fate/Samurai Remnant, though he first appeared all the way back in the original Fate/Stay Night. Details are light on the new DLC, but what we do know is that the King of Heroes is holding a tournament of his own and will be compelling the masters and servants of the Waxing Moon ritual to take part. A certain amount of story progress will be required to play the DLC, but how much exactly is unknown.

The DLC is the first of 3 included with the game's season pass, with the other two expected in July and September 2024. The season pass is also included with the game's deluxe edition, although Koei Tecmo stated that the DLC episodes will be available for purchase individually at a later date, minus the season pass bonuses.

Imagine you are reborn into a world as an adventurer and end up forming a party with a dumb goddess who drinks too much, an explosion-happy wizard who complains about being flat-chested, and a noble warrior who gets turned on by the idea of being eaten by monsters. What sort of hijinks would you think you’d end up stumbling into while adventuring with an eccentric party like that? Konosuba: Love for These Clothes of Desire answers that question by giving Konosuba fans a wacky dress-up visual novel filled with sexy, salacious outfits to dress the Konosuba women in, producing some interesting storylines that range from humorous to straight up raunchy. 

As part of our Apex Legends magazine cover story, we interviewed several key Apex Legends developers – Steven Ferreira, Evan Nikolich, Josh Mohan, and John Larson – about how Respawn Entertainment is shaking up its battle royale with a new Legend Upgrade System in the game's twentieth season. We learn how the team has gradually been auditing the core systems in Apex to trim the fat accumulated since the battle royale entered the scene five years ago and how exactly those gameplay changes affect the core player base.

How Respawn Designed Apex Legends' New Upgrade System:

Looking for more information about Apex Legends Season 20? Read our full cover story right here.

Yu-Gi-Oh is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and Konami held a special event in Tokyo to commemorate the occasion. In addition to touting an AI learning opponent feature for Master Duel and VR experience with Duel Links, a collection of classic Yu-Gi-Oh titles served as the big new game announcement.

Dubbed Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, this compilation consists of the very first Yu-Gi-Oh games ever released, including titles only available in Japan. Konami only revealed one game in the collection: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelists for the Game Boy Color, which launched in Japan in 2000 and never came to the West. 

Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection has no release window, but it will be available for Switch and PC via Steam. Konami plans to announce the other titles in the collection in the future, so you can start building your wishlist now. There are a ton of Yu-Gi-Oh games (to say the least), but as a long-time fan, I’ll be happy if Forbidden Memories, The Eternal Duelist Soul, or (perhaps less likely) The Duelists of the Roses make the cut.

It’s taken over a decade, but Final Fantasy XIV is finally coming to Xbox in 2024. Square Enix announced on February 2 that a beta test for the Xbox Series version of the game will start on February 21 and can be accessed by players who are new to the MMO. However, the blog post announcing the beta test also contained…

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Daisy Ridley is back in the Star Wars business, with Lucasfilm announcing a new movie about Rey set 15 years after Rise Of Skywalker at the Star Wars Celebration event in London over the summer, and that means she once again must take on the thankless task of being an ambassador for a franchise with some of the most…

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Persona 3 Reload is by no means a definitive remake of the 2006 original. It’s missing the Portable release’s female protagonist as well as FES’s epilogue The Answer (although maybe not for long). That said, Reload has a lot going for it. A graphical update, new social link content that fleshes out characters, and…

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Recent reports suggest that Xbox Studios games like Starfield, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Hi-Fi Rush are coming to PlayStation 5 (and Switch, in Hi-Fi Rush’s case). Though some old quotes from Xbox’s big boss Phil Spencer made it clear this was always a possibility, the notion that Xbox’s in-house games…

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