US consumer spending decreased 11% to $4.3 billion this June 2022 compared to the same period last year, NPD reported in its monthly charts.

Analyst Mat Piscatella noted a growth in subscription spending but it "could not offset declines in other areas of content spending, while hardware and accessory spending also dropped."

Overall, spending for the first half of 2022 reached $26.3 billion, a 10% drop year-on-year, with subscription being the only category experiencing growth compared to 2021.

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Prettiness, a strong musical score, and being a very welcome product of Persian myth and literature rather than Mount Olympus or Shakesbore again are good reasons to consider The Tale of Bistun. But I am absolutely shallow enough to be immediately invested in a game that implies my overarching goal will be to team up with Shohreh Aghdashloo. It turns out she's barely in it, but by the time I'd figured that out I was already won over.

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Suzume no Tojimari  (lit. "Suzume's Door-Locking") is the next film from Your Name and Weathering With You director Makoto Shinkai. It's his first film since Weathering With You premiered in 2019. Toho debuted the first full trailer for Suzume no Tojimari on July 15, 2022. A short teaser debuted on April 10, 2022, after Toho confirmed the film's November 11, 2022 opening date in Japan.

Check it out below.  The Suzume no Tojimari trailer is set to the film's theme song, "Suzume," and English translations of the lyrics are available via closed captions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7nQ0VUAOXg

The Suzume no Tojimari trailer opens with footage of the protagonist, 17-year-old Suzume. She's played by actress Nanoka Hara, who rose over 1,700 other audition candidates to secure the role. What's more, Suzume no Tojimari is her first anime voice-acting credit. She also sings the theme song.

Marvel Snap is a new digital card game from Ben Brode and Second Dinner, and while it’s still in its beta phase, the game is already showing a lot of potential.

There are still plenty of little kinks to iron out, and it’s worth noting that the final build will likely launch with a lot more features and quality-of-life improvements later this year. Still, here are five things we’d like to see in Marvel Snap that will make the game even better than it already is.

Wondering how to unlock the Flamey ingredient in Roblox Wacky Wizards? Well, we’ve got you covered. In this guide, we’ll talk you through how to get the latest Wacky Wednesday ingredient so you can get brewing those crazy potions. So, without further delay, let’s dive in, shall we?

How to Unlock Flamey Ingredient in Wacky Wizards

To get your hands on the Flamey ingredient in Roblox Wacky Wizards, you’ll need to solve the Cave of Wisdom. Here are the steps to do so:

Valve recently ramped up production for the Steam Deck, with more and more pre-orders being fulfilled every single day. As a result, a few of us here at the RPS Treehouse have finally received that much anticipated email letting us know that our little handheld baby is ready to be personally delivered by Gabe Newell dressed like a big stork. Editor-in-chief Katharine was the first to receive their shiny new Steam Deck, following hardware editor James who's had a review copy since February, so we were keen to hear her first impressions of the console.

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Today Nintendo had a new reveal to share about the upcoming JRPG by Monolith Soft Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

The commercials include cutscenes and gameplay, providing us another chance to get familiar with the cast of the game and some of its mechanics. They’re also quite epic, which never hurts.

You can watch them below.

If you're someone who likes cats, video games about cats, and taking your cat on adventures in the real world - well, this Stray-branded cat carrier may very well be for you.

Or rather, for your cat.

Stray publisher Annapurna Interactive has announced this limited edition collaboration with pet accessories brand Travel Cat to commemorate the launch of Stray on PC and PlayStation next week.

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When it comes to ranking up in Valorant, game sense is every bit as important as aim training. And while there are no shortcuts to improving your teamwork and knowledge of the game beyond simply playing and watching more of the game, there are a few sneaky tricks you can keep in your back pocket. Here we’re running through 12 Valorant gameplay tricks you might not know but definitely should.

Fake Defuse Step

In a clutch situation in which you have to defuse the spike, baiting out a peek from the enemy is normally the go-to strategy. But did you know that pros don’t fake? Of course, you’ve heard that one before. But did you know about this technique to fool the enemy into thinking you’re not really on the spike?

By jumping onto the spike and hitting the defuse button mid-air, you will start to defuse the spike a few milliseconds before you land. This means the step actually comes just after the defuse noise, and so if the enemy is hiding around a corner waiting to hear you tap the spike they’ll often be fooled into thinking you’re not really defusing. Why? Because the step noise suggests you tapped and then accidentally ran when in fact you have performed a successfully fake defuse step.

The bug-laden Sonic Origins will be improved, Sega has assured fans.

In a statement posted to Twitter last night, a Sega community manager stated that the publisher had heard fan feedback and was working on various fixes.

"Hey! Thanks for the patience!" Sega wrote. "The team's been listening and is working on fixing a variety of issues right now. We'll make sure to get some more official messaging out once we have more info for everyone."

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Good Smile Company has released the next set of Fire Emblem: Three Houses Pop Up Parade figures, with Dimitri and Felix taking the spotlight this time. Like the previous Edelgard and Bernadetta figures, they will appear as they do in the Academy chapters when they are students at the monastery. Both figures are available for pre-order until August 17, 2022. They will come out in Japan in November 2022 and in North America in February 2023.

Like other Pop Up Parade figures, you will not be able to change the pose or face plates. Both stand at approximately 18 centimeters in height. The Fire Emblem: Three Houses Dimitri figure has him standing with his legs somewhat apart. His blue cape billows behind him, either from his own movement or the wind. He will cost 4,800 JPY/$35.99.

[gallery columns="4" ids="932210,932209,932208,932207" link="file"]

It’s been more than two years since EA announced their next Skate game, but the devs at Full Circle have sat down to share some more info on what to expect from it. Annoyingly for folks like us who have to write about it, they’ve decided to drop the capital S and add a completely unnecessary full stop to its new name. Yep, it's no longer Skate 4, but "skate.". At least it’s going free-to-play.

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Online puzzle phenomenon Wordle is being turned into physical game.

Wordle owner The New York Times is partnering with Hasbro to release "Wordle: The Party Game" this October, priced $20 (around £17).

The project has been one of Hasbro's fastest ever launches, the company told CNN, with development, production and release set to be completed in less than a year.

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A new trailer for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is now available online. It is just under a minute long and gives a look at the art style and animation, as well as some of the characters. There is little dialogue in the trailer, focusing mostly on teasing who will show up and how it will look.

The text that appears in both the trailer and the announcement tweet can be translated to “The witch will spur on the Gundam.”

You can watch the trailer here:

https://twitter.com/G_Witch_M/status/1547554048056111105

Hiroshi Kobayashi (Spriggan) and Ryo Ando (One Punch Man) are on the project as directors. Meanwhile, Naohiro Ogata (Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt) is the producer and Ichiro Okouchi (Devilman Crybaby) is the writer. Takashi Ohmama (Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation) provides the music.

Yet another indie publisher has emerged, but this one comes from a company that has a considerable track record. 33 years in the business, in fact.

Hook is the new indie-focused publishing label from Italy-based Digital Bros Group, GamesIndustry.biz can reveal. The group has already enjoyed a number of indie hits over the years thanks to its subsidiary 505 Games, which has contributed to the success of Stardew Valley, Human Fall Flat and No Man's Sky. But in recent years, the publisher has been focused on AAA products such as Control and Death Stranding, as well as investing in high-end indie endeavours such as Ghostrunner.

"505 Games is becoming more and more of an established publisher, having some nice successes with very established studios," Digital Bros co-founder and CEO Raffaele 'Raffi' Galante tells us ahead of Hook's official unveiling today. "At Hook, we'd like to give the opportunity to other, emerging talent that haven't yet had the chance."

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Destiny 2's Solstice event returns on July 19, and like previous years, there'll be some shiny new gear to obtain. One big difference this year is that upgrading the armor sets will be done in a new way as Bungie has streamlined the process.

As detailed in this week's Bungie blog post, armor upgrading is focused on actively improving the gear through new player actions and incentivizing players to chase armor rolls for the duration of Solstice. This in turn will allow players to craft armor that suits their needs by creating stat-specific builds that can shine in specific activities such as Gambit, Nightfall Strikes, and the Crucible.

The Fall Guys Idol Games event has kicked off, bringing a new set of challenges for players to complete, and rewards up for grabs for doing so. In this guide, we’ll give you the complete breakdown on all of the Idol Games challenges, and every reward you can get for completing them, as well as when the Idol Games event ends.

Unity boss and former EA exec John Riccitiello has been slammed for his comments regarding mobile developers who don't seek to squeeze monetisation from their smartphone games.

Riccitiello raised eyebrows when discussing developers who don't prioritise monetisation as part of their creative process.

"It's a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way," Riccitiello told PocketGamer.biz, "and some of these people are my favorite people in the world to fight with - they're the most beautiful and pure, brilliant people. They're also some of the biggest fucking idiots."

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You’d be hard-pressed trying to find a writer-director as hit and miss as Roland Emmerich. Yes, the German filmmaker, who is widely known for his work in the disaster movie sub-genre, is synonymous with big budget blockbuster spectacle. But for every Independence Day, Stargate, and The Day After Tomorrow, the helmsman manages to drop a handful of lousy lead balloons like 10,000 BC, Stonewall, and Independence Day: Resurgence.

Today, Emmerich’s most recent box office bomb has managed to crack Amazon Prime’s Top 10. Specifically, the film in question is Moonfall, which only just left theaters earlier this year. According to FlixPatrol, the apocalyptic sci-fi film has nabbed a Top 10 spot in at number 9. From the looks of things, it would seem that its poor box office reception has led Lionsgate to fast track the pic to streaming services, which has been fairly common amongst film production companies, especially during the pandemic.

Boasting a modest 37% Rotten Tomatoes score and a 41% rating on Metacritic, it’s safe to say that critics were pretty nonplussed by Moonfall. Box office-wise, the film made a paltry $59.1 million off of a $145 million budget. Ouch!

Sales for Resident Evil 2 Remake have, as of July 14, 2022, reached over 10 million units worldwide. This number includes digital and physical copies over the various platforms the game is on. The game debuted on January 25, 2019, which means that it achieved this milestone in a little over three years. This also means that, with 10 million sales, Resident Evil 2 Remake has sold more copies than the original game.

https://twitter.com/dev1_official/status/1547446134385176577

The tweet announcing the sales for Resident Evil 2 Remake looks like the results screen after finishing the campaign. It also includes thanks to the Resident Evil fans who supported the game and series the entire way. At the bottom of the screen, where a letter grade for how well the player performed during their run appears, Capcom has graded this achievement an “SSS.”

Resident Evil 2 originally came out in 1998, following then-rookie cop Leon Kennedy and the first game’s protagonist’s sister Clair Redfield in Raccoon City after a viral outbreak transformed the city’s human and animal population. The remake boasts improved graphics and controls and is a relatively faithful retelling of the original game. It was well-received, earning honors such as being nominated for Game of the Year in 2019.

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: demons, nuking solar systems, and slackers versus zombies.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

Was I hard on Diablo Immortal? I keep thinking about this because I've gone back to it and started a new character and now I'm playing it fairly regularly every day. I really like it. And the things I worried about - the shop and spending money? I still haven't done that. What's more, I still haven't felt even remotely tempted to do that. I'm playing this game like a Diablo game and it's fulfilling everything I want from it.

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Multiplayer free-to-play brawler MultiVersus is barrelling into open beta on July 26th, with an early access period beginning July 15th for those who played the closed alpha. Warner Bros. Interactive confirmed that progression and unlocks earned in the beta will carry forward when the game launches, so that’s nice. Marvel, not DC, at Norville ‘Shaggy’ Rogers implausibly battling the Man Of Steel in the trailer below.

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The PC market has experienced its "sharpest decline in nine years" during Q2 2022, according to the latest report from research firm Gartner.

As reported by Eurogamer, PC shipments declined 12.6% during Q2 2022 compared to the same period last year, for a total of 72 million units shipped.

Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner, explained the geopolitical and economic reasons behind this drop:

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Pre-orders are now open for the many different editions of God of War Ragnarök - the most expensive of which, the Jotnar Edition, is priced at £230. This includes lots of fancy physical items and a digital code for the game - but no disc.

As detailed last week, Ragnarök will be available in four separate editions upon launch in November.

Slightly less expensive, and also without a disc, the God of War Ragnarök Collector's Edition costs £180. The Digital Deluxe edition costs £80 - as you might expect from the name, there's no disc there either. Finally, a standard digital/disc copy of the game costs £70 on PS5, or £60 on PS4 (where there's a £10 upgrade option).

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What do Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Cyberpunk 2077 have in common? The answer is obvious, you might reply: they are both video games. That is correct, but there is another, less obvious, answer which is that they both represent Realism. Specifically, the artistic movement of Realism that began in France in the mid-1800s and has, in one form or another, continued to evolve to this day.

The painter who first coined this expression was Gustave Courbet. He presented paintings that shocked the artistic elite of the time. His painting, ‘A Burial at Ornans’ (1850-51), was a portrayal of the funeral of Courbet’s great uncle; a peasant funeral and on a scale deemed excessive for such lowly subjects. The 315 x 668cm canvas was all encompassing, immersing the viewer in the hidden reality of the peasantry, which the art-viewing aristocracy would have never normally have acknowledged. Placing such an importance to the lives of the impoverished and rural populations unsettled and threatened the upper classes in post-revolutionary France.

Realism is an art movement term that can easily applied to triple-A video game titles with their advanced graphics and commitment to mimicking human nature and experiences and, in particular, to their photorealistic, visual excellence. Nonetheless, Realism elements can also be found in video games that are not celebrated for any photorealistic qualities.

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John Riccitiello, CEO of game engine and service provider Unity, has said developers that shun monetisation practises or leave them to later in the development cycle are "fucking idiots."

The exec spoke to PocketGamer.biz in the wake of Wednesday's news that monetisation tools provider IronSource is merging with Unity during the fourth quarter of this year.

When asked about the pushback from developers against working out how to get users spending early in the development process, Riccitiello said: "It's a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way, and some of these people are my favourite people in the world to fight with -- they're the most beautiful and pure, brilliant people. They're also some of the biggest fucking idiots.

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Today Square Enix revealed a new trailer of the first DLC expansion for its popular action RPG Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, titled “Trials of the Dragon King.”

As mentioned in the original reveal, it will mark the first addition of content as part of the season pass, including a new job (Evoker), a new weapon class (staves), areas, stories, and challenges. There will also be the addition of a new “accessories” category for gear.

As the title will likely tell you, the trailer also shows the battle against the king of the dragons, Bahamut, and we’ll even get to face off against the original Warrior of Light.

The DLC will release on July 20, 2022 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.

We already know the titles of the following DLC that will be released within the season pass, “Wanderer of the Rift” and “different future.”

Below you can watch the trailer, both in English and in Japanese, providing you with both voice-over options for your listening pleasure.

The Fatui has been constantly seen or heard about throughout Genshin Impact because of their evil-doings across the land. However, when analyzing its members, the lieutenants stand out the most as the frightful warriors of the faction. If you are interested in learning about these leaders, here’s a list of all Fatui Harbinger members in Genshin Impact. But, first, let’s explain who the Fatui are as a whole.

Who Are the Fatui in Genshin Impact?

In case you aren’t familiar with the Fatui, we will first discuss their role in Genshin Impact and their overall significance to the story.

As one of the game’s main antagonists, the sinister group has plotted many evil schemes and used their mighty army to enforce their superiority. For instance, in Archon Quest Chapter I: Act III, “A New Star Approaches,” the Traveler goes against Childe, a member of the Fatui that betrays them to gain the location of the Golden House.

This diplomatic faction also stems from the Zapolyarny Palace of Snezhnaya, under the rule of Tsaritsa, the Cyro Archon. Although her true intentions remain a mystery, players can glean a few hints about her mission throughout the game, including one of her narrations about a selected item.

When looking at the Shivada Jade Gemstone description, Tsaritsa says, “Then, burn away the old world for me.” So, this statement could indicate her quest for a perfect universe, even if it means sacrificing the lives of others.

***Spoilers for a significant character’s death down below***

Bandai Namco released a new trailer if its upcoming action game SD Gundam Battle Alliance.

This time around, the trailer focuses on showing off the opening cutscene of the game, which features epic battles between beloved mobile suits from various Gundam eras and anime.

The trailer also allows us to enjoy the theme song, which certainly adds to the classic mecha anime atmosphere.

Interestingly, the composition of the final scene reproduces closely the key artwork of the game.

You can watch it below, alongside a smaller trailer featuring the Gundam Astray Red Frame Kai and Lowe Guele.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance is coming for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC and will release ons August 25, 2022.

Developed by Shift Up, NIKKE: Goddess of Victory is a new mobile game that’s set to release later this year, or so we think. The game was announced months ago, it had a closed beta test, but there’s still no word on when exactly it’ll be coming out.

However, for those wanting to get a taste of the gameplay and its daily routines, Shift Up has just announced that registration for the upcoming Global Closed Beta Test is now open, and you can sign up at the game’s official website.

Of course, signing up doesn’t guarantee you access to the CBT, as participants will be selected at random. In addition to that, the CBT is only open to players from the following countries: USA, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and the UK.

Today Capcom provided another extended look at its upcoming dinosaur shooter Exoprimal.

The gameplay is split in two videos. The first breaks down the gameplay, explaining pretty much everything we see, from character selection to the various enemies we encounter. Unfortunately, the explanation is entirely in Japanese.

The second video showcases a co-op mission without interrupting.

The gameplay was recorded from the closed beta build, which still has two sessions to go on July 25 and August 7.

Exoprimal is coming for PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2023. if you’d like to see more, you can check out more gameplay from a few weeks ago, this time in English, on top of an earlier gameplay trailer.