Today Sega announced with a press release that it’s exploring a strategic partnership with Microsoft focusing on the use of the Azure cloud platform.

The partnership would allow Sega to “produce large-scale, global games in a next-generation development environment built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform,” moving forward with its objective to launch a “Super Game” mentioned earlier this year.

It’s worth mentioning that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the games created within this partnership would be exclusive to Xbox. Many developers use Azure for multiplatform games, and even Sony has been exploring several endeavors.

Below you can read the full text of the announcement:

“SEGA Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “SEGA”) and Microsoft Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “Microsoft”) have agreed in principal, a strategic alliance that explores ways for SEGA to produce large-scale, global games in a next-generation development environment built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. The alliance would form a key part of SEGA’s mid to long-term strategy, allowing the business to move forward with “Super Game”, a new initiative for developing new and innovative titles where the key focuses are “Global”, “Online”, “Community” and “IP utilization”.

Of the thousands of Fine Art posts we’ve run over the last decade, nearly every single one of them has focused on the digital world, whether they be lavish environmental sketches or 3D models made for a video game. Tonight, I figured we could do with a break, and look at something a little more real.

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I’ve featured the work of Alyson Tabbitha a bunch of times here on Kotaku, because she’s just the best. Her make-up work is transformative, and in the past she has shape-shifted into everyone from Wonder Woman to Jack Sparrow to Leeloo Dallas.

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Today third-party developers had quite a lot of assets to share about upcoming add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

We hear from Aero Dynamics, which is currently working o the McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender and its civilian brother, DC-10, which might actually be released first.

Model: Over the past couple months, the model has had extensive work done to it. We are consistently finding ways to improve the base model, whether it’s tri count, adding detail, or exchanging detail from geometry based, to texture based. The interior model has undergone many changes as well. Many switches, gauges, dials, and much more have all gotten a facelift with much more planned to get a re-work and upgrade. For the exterior, adjustments are having to be made, for the different variants. With our plans on releasing four different exterior models, keeping a baseline model is really important to us.

Textures: As formally stated, textures are consistently getting remapped, and reworked. With new techniques, every texture is being consistently adjusted to increase detail, fix small errors, and just be generally improved. For this aircraft, we are aiming to give an extremely modern authentic look to the aircraft. This means it will roll out with years of use already on it. We believe this enhances the feel and really makes it seem like you are flying an aging aircraft. Not to fear, we are not going to make it look as old as most of the KC-10 aircraft flying today.

‘Tis the season While it’s nice to celebrate Covid cases dropping nationwide, it’s clear that we’re still in the midst...

The post It wouldn’t be Halloween without the silliness of seasonal game events appeared first on Destructoid.

New World’s launch has been plagued by a bunch of weird, sometimes catastrophic bugs, but this latest is one of the strangest I’ve ever seen: it let you kick other players out of the game just by sending them certain messages.

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Beautiful horror? More like beautifully dull! The PlayStation 2 has one of the most iconic game libraries of all time,...

The post Review: Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (2021) appeared first on Destructoid.

As Lady Gaga once said, it’s time to just dance. It’s going to be okay. Da da doo-doo-mmm or something like that. Anyway, Just Dance 2022 is out this week on all major platforms. (Sadly, not the Wii.)

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They are each sold separately while supplies last.

The post Hololive x Don Quijote Merch Includes 31 Mochidoru Dolls appeared first on Siliconera.

Players can dress up White Cat Project characters in Eva pilot plugsuits too.

The post White Cat Project Evangelion Collaboration Adds Playable Pilots appeared first on Siliconera.

Final Fantasy XIV is a very successful MMORPG. As a matter of fact, its story of failure and redemption is probably one of the most uplifting if not the most inspiring in the history of the genre.

It’s not unlikely for MMORPGs in general and Final Fantasy XIV in particular to be played by well-known personalities, but recently, Square Enix’s super-popular (and exceptionally profitable) game has drawn the attention of a very special VIP.

Until about a month ago Hironobu Sakaguchi, who many know as the creator and father of the Final Fantasy series, tweeted mostly about his latest game Fantasian, beautiful illustrations, or pictures of gorgeous vistas.

On September 27, 2021, Sakaguchi-san installed the free trial of Final Fantasy XIV, likely to prepare for an upcoming panel with the game’s producer and director Naoki Yoshida at Tokyo Game Show.

He picked his server and created a character, a lalafell. Since then, Sakaguchi-san’s Twitter timeline has never been the same.

Do keep in mind that below you may find spoilers if you have not finished the story of Final Fantasy XIV up to this point.

These Banjo-Kazooie remixes are so playful I’ve been listening to new takes on classic Banjo-Kazooie tunes from Grant Kirkhope, and...

The post Grant Kirkhope just put out a fun new Banjo Kazooie: Re-Jiggyed album appeared first on Destructoid.

Sure, we still don’t have a PC port of Bloodborne, but next year folks will finally be able to play Bloodborne PSX, a fan-made demake of the first section of Bloodborne, complete with boss fights and more. A new trailer released today revealed it’s out for free on January 31, 2022.

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If there is no Mario-in-a-painting piece then what’s the point The partnership between LEGO and Nintendo seems to be a...

The post LEGO Super Mario to expand with Luigi’s Mansion inspired sets appeared first on Destructoid.

Instead of playing this game, your time is better spent watching the movies that influenced it.

The post The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes Takes Itself Way Too Seriously appeared first on Siliconera.

The anime adaptation is coming next year

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Nintendo has revealed it's partnered with Lego to bring us three new Lego Nintendo-themed sets and this time, they're based upon everyone's favourite sidekick and his spooky adventures in Luigi's Mansion.

"Snap on your Poltergust and get ready for some fun!" teases the trailer's description. "Defeat ghostly enemies, solve puzzles, and discover new ways to play. Join the adventure with Lego Super Mario Luigi's Mansion Sets coming soon!"

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ArtPlay has confirmed it is deviating from its "previously released roadmap" for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night to bring a new character "NOT from the world of Bloodstained" to the acclaimed 2019 Castlevania spiritual successor from Koji Igarashi.

After acknowledging that "some technical issues have slowed down [its] production timetable", Artplay apologised for "the long delay between updates" and detailed what's coming next for fans of the Metroidvania adventure.

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The Ganyu (Plenilune Gaze Vers.) figure will ship out in 2023.

The post Genshin Impact Ganyu Figure Has Her Cryo Pearl appeared first on Siliconera.

Cblogs of 10/23 to 10/29/2021 –Kerrik52 reviews Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented as part of his Traveler in Playtime reviews...

The post Are you playing any Halloween favorites today? appeared first on Destructoid.

I don’t expect much from licensed video games. So I was shocked when I came across the soundtrack for Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights, a 2002 PS2 game based on the popular ‘70s cartoon. Turns out this game’s music slaps.

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Amazon's new MMO, New World, has reportedly lost more than half its playerbase just a month after its launch on PC.

Despite hitting an impressive all-time concurrent peak of just shy of a million players on 3rd October, Forbes spotted that the numbers on SteamCharts have taken something of a dip, with its concurrent rate falling around 135,000 players every week since launch.

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A full month of streaming recommendations, from horror movies to Halloween specials and weird videos

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“You can get to the fun stuff sooner.”

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Well, it seems a lot of people don’t like Nintendo’s new Switch Online Expansion Pack based on the reveal trailer’s likes and dislikes. The video, which revealed the pricing details for the plan, now has 104k dislikes on YouTube, overtaking the previously most hated video on Nintendo’s channel: A trailer for Metroid…

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The new Atlus shop will also sell an unannounced Persona 25th anniversary collector's product.

The post Shop Atlus Store Official Launch Date Announced appeared first on Siliconera.

A most American nightmare

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Nintendo's Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack overview trailer is now the most disliked video on Nintendo's YouTube channel ever.

As spotted by our pals at VGC, with 104K downvotes (it was 103K when I started writing this) to just 17K likes, the Expansion Pack trailer took just a fortnight to eclipse that Metroid Prime: Federation Force trailer from E3 2015, which sports just 11K likes to an eyewatering 96K dislikes.

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In his trailer, Ouyamatsumi completely annihilates the Nahobino and his party.

The post SMT V Juxtaposes Ouyamatsumi With Pyro Jack appeared first on Siliconera.

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon.

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Nintendo has shuttered offices in California, USA, and Toronto, Canada.

A report by Kotaku states that Friday, 29th October 2021, was the last operating day for employees in Nintendo's Redwood City location, one of three main Nintendo offices for Nintendo of America. Around 100 employees are thought to be affected by the closure in California, although it's unclear how many staff at the Canadian office have been forced to relocate or lose their jobs.

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Do they have Twizzlers in Hyrule? Trick-or-treating: a time-honored tradition of showing up to strangers’ houses and demanding candy. Of...

The post Seven video game neighborhoods I want to go trick-or-treating in appeared first on Destructoid.

His older Soldier 2nd Class costume is also on offer for a limited time.

The post Dissidia FFOO’s Shirtless Zack Fair is $37 appeared first on Siliconera.

There will also be two new events starting in November.

The post Hu Tao Will Return in Genshin Impact 2.2 Phase II appeared first on Siliconera.

Roblox is back online. After an outage that lasted multiple days, Roblox is up and running once again. "Thank you for your continued patience as we get back to normal," the developer said.

The studio has not, however, provided an accounting for what happened in the first place to bring the servers offline, though it was connected to a backend bug and a growth in the number of servers at Roblox's datacenters. The full breakdown of what went wrong will come later as part of a post-mortem report.

The original story is below.

One of the most popular games on Earth, Roblox, has been offline for days, with the outage stretching past 60 hours and counting. The developer first reported the issue on October 29, and as of October 31, the game is still down due to an unknown reason. However, we do know it's not related to free burritos (more on that later) or a hack.

A statement posted on October 30 says the studio has "identified the underlying internal cause of the outage" and teams are now doing engineering and maintenance work to bring the game back online. "Thanks for your patience," the studio said.

id Software is currently advertising a dozen job openings at its Texas studio, sparking speculation that a new Quake instalment might be on the way.

Let's face it - a development studio advertising for developers isn't particularly newsworthy. In this instance, however, Zenimax stated several times that the new hires will be contributing to "the development of a long-running iconic action FPS", and makes mention of "sci-fi and fantasy environments" - and that's the bit that's got everyone a little excited.

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Bugsnax developer Young Horses has announced that the game's upcoming Isle of Bigsnax DLC will be receiving additional trophies on PlayStation.

Originally, the new update for Bugsnax wasn't going to come with any new trophies. However, following some community feedback on Twitter, the developer decided to add them in.

A fan had first asked if new trophies were going to be added, but Young Horses said that they weren't at the time. Not giving up, the unnamed fan jokingly offer to come with a trophy list for free for the developer. Surprisingly, the studio relented and now new trophies for the Bigsnax DLC is coming.

"We saw these tweets and about 20 minutes later in team chat the sentiment was, 'I guess we’re adding new trophies,'" says Young Horses co-founder and president Philip Tibotoski.

The Isle of Bigsnax was announced earlier this week during PlayStation's State of Play presentation. Its story will still take place on Snaktooth island, a place with prehistoric species preserved in the ocean until now. It will have brand new places and Snax to discover. The Isle of Bigsnax launches sometime in 2022 on PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.

Atlus is releasing a massive sequence of trailers dedicated to Shin Megami Tensei V’s demons, but today’s video has been delivered with perfect timing to celebrate Halloween.

This time around we get to see Pyro Jack, known in Japan as Jack O’Lantern, inspired by Irish folklore and traditionally tied to Halloween. It has been part of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise since Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II in 1990.

You can watch it in action below.

Slender Man is making unexpected appearances in Phasmophobia.

The ghosthunting game's latest update, Nightmare, rolled out earlier this week, although developer Kinetic Games didn't give away much about the new adventure beyond the fact it involved camping in the wilderness with the new map, Maple Lodge campsite.

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