A Mini Direct
E81: Nintendo held a Mini Direct event to showcase games from their third-party partners.
Good morning gamers. Last week Nintendo uploaded a pre-recorded Nintendo Direct Mini that highlighted some upcoming games from their third-party partners.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope by Ubisoft Paris got a gameplay overview trailer which showcased Bowser as a playable character. It’s a turn-based strategy game where players explore the galaxy and collect Sparks to defeat the Cursa. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is set to release for Nintendo Switch on October 20.
Persona 3, 4 and 5 are coming to the Nintendo Switch. Persona 5 Royal will debut on October 21 while Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable will arrive soon after. The highly popular JRPGs were originally released for PlayStation.
Nier Automata: The End of Yorha Edition is officially releasing for the Nintendo Switch alongside some exclusive costumes on October 6. The End of Yorha Edition includes all previously released DLC content.
Some other notable announcements include,
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection includes 10 MegaMan Battle Network games originally released on the GameBoy Advance. Coming in 2023.
Return to Monkey Island is launching in 2022 as a Nintendo Switch timed exclusive.
Disney Dreamlight Valley, the life simulator featuring Disney and Pixar characters, releases on September 6.
Sonic Frontiers revealed a brand new gameplay trailer featuring a sneak peek at some of the new levels and its more traditional graphics. The game is set to launch this holiday season.
Harvestella is a new fantastical RPG by Square Enix set to release on November 4. It’s a lifestyle-sim game where players collect and grow resources while trying to survive the season of death.
Gaming Industry Controversy
Québec, Canada is the home of several major video game developers, including Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Games, Behaviour, Gameloft and Eidos Montreal. According to Eurogamer, there’s 11,000 people employed in Quebec, which generates $1.75 billion in revenue each year.
Recently, Bill 96 was approved in Québec which aims to strengthen the province’s language laws by creating new rules for businesses, harsher penalties for violations and limiting those who can access government services in English. These video game developers mainly communicate in English as they have several different studios across the world.
According to CBC, an anonymous video game industry source says developers are considering leaving the province. Christopher Chancey, the chairman of the board of the Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec says a message is being sent out that Québec is “not inclusive to other cultures”. The inability to attract new talent may hurt the developers abilities to create amazing new games.
Esports Corner
🥇Congratulations to Acend Club for winning the HCS Valencia 2022 and to Movistar Riders for winning the ESL Challenger Valencia 2022.
Envy Gaming, one of the world’s longest standing and best known esports organizations have officially retired their brand and will now take on the OpTic name across all esports teams and events. This decision comes six months after OpTic Gaming and Envy merged operations under the same company.
The Shopify Rebellion have officially joined Valorant esports by acquiring the former Luminosity Gaming roster. All five players, their coach and their manager will now represent new colors heading into the NA VCT Last Chance Qualifier.
In-person LEC events are finally making a comeback after nearly a three year hiatus. The 2022 LEC Summer Finals will be held in Malmö, Sweden from September 10 to 11. More than 10,000 fans will get the chance to attend the event at the Malmö Arena.
The BLAST Premier World Final will officially be hosted in Abu Dhabi and CS:GO fans have been strongly condemning the decision due to human rights issues. The event will reportedly feature 8 teams fighting for a $1 million prize pool in December.
Sony has partnered with the Evolution Championship Series (2022 and 2023), the Valorant Champions Tour and PGL Arlington 2022 as an official hardware sponsor with their new “INZONE” brand of premium gaming monitors and headsets.
Gaming Roundup
Electronic Arts took to twitter to bash single-player games in an attempt to be funny, but the negative feedback on social media resulted in an apology.
Bethesda has hired a developer behind the Fallout 4 mod, Fallout: London. Ryan Johnson is now an associate level designer at Bethesda
Sony’s Santa Monica creative director Cory Barlog urges fans to treat everyone with respect during their development of God of War Ragnarök.
SEGA wants to turn video games developed by Atlus into live action shows or movies. The decision to expand is part of their business strategy.
Fall Guys has partnered up with Halo. Players can log in to Halo 3 on the Master Chief Collection to claim a free Fall Guys back attachment.
Matt Booty, the Head of Microsoft Studios says that Bethesda’s “crunch culture,” is now a thing of the past after Xbox’s internal employee surveys.
Sony officially announced their new gaming gear brand called “INZONE,” which includes a small selection of monitors and headsets.
Blizzard Entertainment plans to acquire Proletariat. The acquisition will allow Blizzard to add one hundred staff members to its World of Warcraft team.
Electronic Arts is reportedly working on a new Marvel game. Industry Insider Nick Shpeshal doesn’t have more intel at this time.
Sucker Punch has revealed they have no plans to revisit inFAMOUS or Sly Cooper right now, and no other studio is currently working on projects related to those franchises either.
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