Author: Zach Barbieri

Announced as part of the Pokemon Presents event for Pokemon Day, the next major release in the Pokemon series will be Pokemon Legends Z-A, and it is scheduled to release at some point in 2025. This will be the first major title from the Pokemon Company and Game Freak since 2022 saw the release of the well-liked Legends Arceus earlier that year, and the next mainline entries Scarlet and Violet ending the year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXyVd6Ly_h0 The trailer itself offers very little information to go off of about the game. The trailer begins with papers in the in-universe language being translated for…

The long-awaited expansion to Elden Ring, entitled Shadow of The Erdtree, has finally received a trailer thanks to its developer FromSoftware, as well as publisher Namco Bandai. The trailer is 3 minutes long and showcases both narrative elements as well as gameplay elements to be featured in the expansion to 2022’s Game of The Year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLZenOn7WUo In the opening moments of the trailer, we are told of an enemy who uses love to “shrive clean the hearts of men,” and that “There is nothing more terrifying.” Since the world of Elden Ring is already dark, the idea that love is…

As pointed out by Phil Spencer during Xbox’s business update, four previously exclusive Xbox titles will be coming to other platforms. He was unable to name them that day, having stated that announcement deals were previously put in place. Around the same time, a rumored Nintendo Direct was stated to have been pushed which seemed to line up with the idea that Nintendo would announce some. As it turns out, Nintendo has confirmed two of the rumored titles during the direct, though not necessarily the two we all thought. Starting the event, Nintendo showcased Grounded a live-service-esque RPG from developer…

Industry analysts have suggested that a more powerful version of the PlayStation 5, expected to continue the naming trend as the PlayStation 5 Pro, can be expected later this year. This news comes through CNBC which quoted Tokyo-based games analyst Serkan Toto as saying there is a “broad consensus in the game industry that Sony is indeed preparing a launch of a PS5 Pro in the second half of 2024.” The report cautions that Sony is not likely to see an uptick in PS5 sales year-on-year, as a result of a potential Pro model launching. Additionally, there is little expectation…

After several outlets reported that Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM was planning to lay off several staff members, the company has now confirmed that they will indeed be laying off staff. These reports stated that the company planned to fire a quarter of the staff, which will affect around 24 employees overall. In an interview with Insider Gaming, the undisclosed number of lay-offs at the studio were addressed by stating: As with all studios, we adapt the size of our team to the work underway, growing when we start a new project and shrinking if one is cancelled. It is always…

One of the most welcomed shocks to come from last year’s Video Game Awards was a weird, nostalgia trailer from Sega boasting the retooling of several titles from the company’s past. These games included classic Genisis titles Shinobi and Golden Axe, as well as Dreamcast titles Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VHYLJR9pNg In a recent Japan Times interview, we finally got a sense of the scope of these projects, originally announced as remakes using the latest graphics. It was also announced as part of this interview that Sega’s relatively new Sapporo Studio is part of this project, only having…

After seven long years of waiting, Skull And Bones has finally arrived on modern consoles, and like any game that managed to escape development hell it is hard to know where to begin. The game was described as the first “AAAA” game by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot so let’s start there, it is not. Skull And Bones as a base experience is a generic live service game that struggles to do even that, but going even further it’s also not a very fun game. Since the number of A’s attached to a project is a designation of budget and not…

The strategy of Embracer Group to aggressively acquire studios and IPs has yet to yield major payoffs, but the negative effects continue to pile up. In the Summer 2023 the company announced a plan to restructure, a decision that has so far resulted in a large number of layoffs, studio closers such as Saints Row developer Volition after 30 years, as well as multiple game cancelations. During the first fiscal quarter, which ended June 2023 the company had 153 unannounced games in development, a number that dropped to 138 games by the end of its second fiscal quarter and shrunk…

One of my most anticipated games of this year, Ys X: Nordics has finally received a window for release in the West. The game has already been released in Japan and Asia, dropping September 28th of last year. While the title was expected to be released this year, there was very little information released on a release outside of Asia until now. With Falcom and Nis similarly behind the Trails series as developer and publisher respectively, and with those titles notorious for their long localization time, it isn’t unfair to have been concerned about a longer wait. Despite this, the…

Due in part to the PlayStation 5 failing to meet sales expectations due to the previous holiday season, Sony has now stated that the system is “Entering the latter stage of its life cycle.” Sony had set an arguably ambitious sales goal for their platform, aiming for 25 million units sold by the end of this financial year in March 2024, but the company has since revised that to only 21 million units. This is due to sales during the 2023 Holiday period coming in lower than Sony expected despite the company aggressively promoting it. Sony had managed to sell…