Author: Zach Barbieri

Katsuhiro Harada, long-time developer, Executive Producer, and Director of the popular fighting franchise Tekken, has announced that he will be departing from Bandai Namco after having worked across the company for over 30 years. The 55-year-old developer, who has been involved with every Tekken game since the series launched in 1994, has stated in a post made on social media that the death of close friends, along with the retirement or death of senior colleagues, has made him reflect on his time left as a creator He also stated advice from Ken Kutaragi, the “father of playstation”, supported him in…

New studio Chaos Manufacturing has announced its debut title, Sol Shogunate, which looks like it should delight fans of games such as Stellar Blade, Black Myth: Wukong, Ghost of Yotei, and Ninja Gaiden 4, to name a few. In it, you play as a Samurai fighting armies and shoguns through a technologically advanced sci-fi space landscape made up of traditional iconography, mixed with more modern ones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyCZ7nC1ybY In Sol Shogunate, players take the roles of Yuzuki, a lone survivor from a once-powerful samurai family. After a rival clan murders her family, she does the obvious and begins to carve a…

Spry Fox, the developer behind the Cozy Grove series of games, as well as the upcoming Spirit Crossing, will soon return to co-founders Daniel Cook and David Edrery. According to the publication Game File, the move is keeping in line with the changing policies at Netflix, which is additionally evidenced by the shutdown of the internal studio known as Team Blue last year. Unlike that, however, Spry Fox will remain as a studio, with Netflix having reportedly sold the studio back to its original creators, though no details on the deal have been made public yet. The studio was founded…

In a recent interview with Japanese publication Real Sound, Metal Gear series producer Noriaki discussed what is next for the Metal Gear Solid franchise following the strong performance of the Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, a remake of the classic PS2 title, released in August. While Konami had attempted to continue the franchise shortly after the departure of series creator Hideo Kojima with Metal Gear Survive, the series has remained mostly dormant following the fallout between Kojima and Konami, serving both as a strong return for the series as well as Konami, leaving several possibilities open for the studio.…

IO Interactive has a few projects in development, such as the upcoming 007: First Light, set to release next year. Despite branching out, the developer has confirmed that more Hitman is on the horizon, though a timeframe is currently unknown. In an interview with Variety, CEO Hakan Abrak stated in no uncertain words, “Of course there will be more Hitman.” Right now, though, those talks are on hold until after Co-op is added to Hitman: World of Assassins, which continues to receive updates from the developer. Abrak stated in the interview: So, of course, there will be more Hitman, but…

CD Projekt has committed to a plan to release the next three games in the The Witcher series, a Ciri-led trilogy of games starting with The Witcher 4, within a 6-year timeframe. This is an ambitious plan, given the current game development cycles and the size of a traditional Witcher game. This was brought up during a financial call, in which Jjoin CEO Michal Nowakowski, who stated that the company  “should be delivered in a shorter period of time.” This is due in part to the development shift to Unreal Engine 5, which will additionally be used for development on…

When playing Sintopia, the phrase “This is my hell” came to mind. Everybody has probably said that at some point, but I’m guessing one of those times was while behind a desk or a counter, staring at the clock, hoping the last five minutes of work will tick away. This is why the idea of hell being a bureaucratic nightmare seems like such an enticing motif. Television, like Lucy, Daughter of the Devil, Purgatony, and most recently Hazbin Hotel, have all, in some context, depicted the monotony of paper pushing juxtaposed with the brutality of eternal damnation. Have A Nice…

It appears that a PC Version of Game of the Year-nominated Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is set to be announced soon. This is according to a listing that has popped up on the ESRB website. Gematsu has also reported that the publisher listed on the site is Sony Interactive Entertainment. This is interesting as, while SIE was involved with the original title, which was ported to PC eight months after release, 505 Games was the listed publisher on that port. With Kojima Productions having acquired the Death Stranding IP from Sony last year, it might have stood to…

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, for all its flaws upon its release in 2004, is an RPG still celebrated to this day. Unfortunatle, based on the 4/10 I gave it in october, the sequel does not like it will achieve that same status. Part of the issue here is developer The Chinese room, brought in several years into development to take over for original developer Hardsuit Lab, ultimately did not release title that had many RPG elements, besides the fact it didn’t feel much like a sequel to the original title. According to the former Creative Director of The Chinese…

Naughty Dog closed last year’s Video Game Awards by finally showcasing their newest IP, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which they had been hinting at for a few years prior. Heading into the award season again, where announcements and trailers can be expected, some people might be hoping that games like this to get some form of showcase, but it sounds like we will need to wait longer for some official news. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLGy63pt9vA This conversation was kicked off by Journalist Colin Moriarty, who suggested he believed Naughty Dog was aiming for a 2026 release date, a suggestion quickly picked up by…