Author: Zach Barbieri

Earlier this year, developer The Initiative was closed during the massive lay-offs at Microsoft, which resulted in a reduction of 9,000 positions from the company at large. As part of this, the game The Initiative was structurally set up to develop a reboot of Rare’s Perfect Dark franchise, was canceled. The game had been stated to have had a troubled development since it was announced in 2020, with it largely going dark after that point until it finally reemerged with a trailer at the Xbox Showcase in 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUi9DR9sc4 In a recent report from Bloomberg, however, it was stated that…

IO Interactive showcased the first look at gameplay for their upcoming 007: First Light, their take on the classic James Bond character created by Ian Fleming, during a Sony State of Play. The primary gameplay showcased is set across the opening mission of the game, which features the character serving as tactical support, posing as a Chauffeur, while two more experienced spies infiltrate a chateau during some kind of event in hopes of capturing 009, an ex-agent who has fled and gone into hiding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwRpK8eoLLE This segment of the deep dive showcases three segments of glamplay that start with a…

Sony has announced an upcoming State of Play broadcast set to feature a deep dive into the upcoming James Bond game, 007: First Light, from Hitman developer IO Interactive. The broadcast is set for Wednesday, September 3, at 11 pm Pacific and 2 pm Eastern time. It will be available to watch via PlayStation’s YouTube and Twitch pages. Senior Global Communication Manager of IO Interactive, Yann Roskell, stated via a PlayStation Blog post: In this upcoming State of Play, tune in for over 30 minutes of gameplay featuring a playthrough of Bond’s first mission as an MI6 recruit,” Sony wrote…

Mining has always been a big part of the Story of Seasons franchise, and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar is no different from that. To start, it will help you upgrade your tools, making you better equipped to expand your farm. This is not the only benefit, as the game, for the first time in several iterations, also allows for a significant influx of profit from gems, which can be found in a multitude of ways. Your mining journey starts when Lloyd arrives at your farm during the tutorial and gives you the hatchet, a tool that combines the hammer…

In Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, the player will need to continually improve their tools to meet the needs of their ever-expanding farm. A more improved water can will help you water entire plots of land with minimal effort, an improved sickle will help you clear more, and an improved hoe will help you till more. This gets the player through the tedious farming part, and tackle more, so that they have more to sell come the day of the Bazaar, while giving more freedom to explore or romance to your heart’s content. Leveling your tool features some marked improvements…

CD Projekt Red has confirmed that 75% of the sales of Cyberpunk 2077 they saw on the Nintendo Switch 2 Console were physical sales, with the other 25% being digital. These data were revealed as part of the company’s latest financial results, additionally confirming that the game benefited from its positioning as a day one release for the latest Nintendo system, but also from its physical media featuring the full game rather than that of the game key cartridges that many other games, like Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, were released on. Joint CEO of CD Projekt, Michal Novakovski, stated: We…

Upcoming PlayStation Exclusive title Code Violet has announced a delay to their intended release in November, pushing the date of release to December 12, 2025. Developer TeamKill Media stated that the reason for this delay is to avoid competing directly with the popular FPS Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which was scheduled to release on the same date, with the publisher stating it would be “impossible” for their much smaller title to compete for exposure with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfDxEltKCfg As compensation to all players for this delay, players will receive two Christmas-themed outfits for the lead protagonist, Violet, when the game…

While a multitude of indie games are announcing delays to avoid conflict with the upcoming release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, which was announced for September 4, 2025, Kakehashi Games has announced that they will not be delaying Hirogami, the Bandai Namco Singapore-developed paper-folding platformer. The game is still set to release on September 3rd, only one day prior to that of Hollow Knight: Silksong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddm68CNWP8g In a press release made by the publisher, it was stated that Hirogami “will maintain its September 3rd launch date for PC and PlayStation 5 as announced back in June.” Worldwide Publishing Director Matt Sakuraoka-Gilmkan…

Atari has acquired five smaller titles from publisher Ubisoft that have been dormant for a number of years. These titles include indie RPG Child of Eden, Survival Horror game Cold Fear, quirky Platformer Grow Home, and its sequel Grow Up, as well as earthquake survival game I am Alive. Atari has stated they plan to “reintroduce iconic creations, bringing them to new platforms and renewed publishing frameworks,” and that all these games will be re-released under Atari’s publishing label “on new platforms.” Deborah Papiernik, Ubisoft’s VP of Business, stated: Millions of players have experienced these worlds over the years, and…

Ysbryd Games has announced that the Necrosoft Games-developed RPG game, Demonschool has been delayed for release by two months, originally slated to release on September 3, but now planned to release on November 19. This news was broken via a press release in which it was stated that the decision was reached in part due to the long-awaited title Hollow Knight: Silksong, which announced it would release three days prior to the originally planned date, an announcement made during Gamescom last week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fazy1L9KXFQ In the press release from Ysbryd, Brian Kwek stated, “We have to remind ourselves that gaining visibility…