This Week's Top Gaming News Stories

Preorders for Sony’s high-priced mid-gen upgrade the PS5 Pro have officially begun and despite the shocking price tag, those looking for a next-gen gaming experience don’t seem to mind. Retailers worldwide are reporting a surprising demand for Sony’s mid-gen refresh as pre-order sales for the console have dominated sites such as Amazon in the US, UK and Japan. While only the 30th Anniversary Edition of the PS5 Pro has sold out so far, with only a month to go until release, it would seem the wallet weeping price tag isn’t as much of a concern as it initially seemed after the console’s reveal.

Disco Elysium almost immediately became just as famous for its award winning writing and approach to role playing games as it did for all the turmoil the studio suffered after its release. With nearly the entire development team leaving, we now have news that not one, but three new studios are currently working on “spiritual successors” to the monumental title. First there was Longdue, then Dark Math Games, and now Summer Eternal, all composed of former Disco Elysium devs at various stages of development for their own interpretation of the next step for a Disco Elysium style follow-up.

So far only Dark Math Games has anything to show for their upcoming game currently titled XXX Nightshift and the game clearly shares quite a few similarities with their previous work. With Disco Elysium recently celebrating its five year anniversary, we wish all these devs the best of luck with their future RPGs and we can’t wait to see their new takes on the Disco Elysium formula.

The recently released remake of the iconic and classic Silent Hill 2 from Bloober Team has ended up being a surprisingly faithful recreation of the beloved entry in the horror franchise. As fans both new and old appreciate the many updates and quality of life improvements the studio implemented, Bloober Team has hinted this could only be the beginning of a larger partnership with Konami.

As of late Konami has been making a comeback with numerous collections of classic and beloved games including the upcoming remake of Metal Gear Solid 3. Bloober Team's comments could be hinting not only at further remakes, but possibly new entries into classic franchises. Only time will tell, but the remake of Silent Hill 2 is a strong showing for what the studio could produce in the future.

Following up the recent remasters of the classic PS1 Tomb Raider Trilogy, Aspyr and Crystal Dynamics is giving old school Tomb Raider fans even more to get nostalgic about. Tomb Raider 4-6 Remaster will include Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: Chronicles, and most interestingly, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, the only PS2 entry from the original creators of Tomb Raider, Core Design. All games will feature updated graphics, controls, and trophies/achievements. These newly remastered titles are releasing exactly a year to the day as the original trilogy remaster, on February 14, 2025.

Following the release of the widely unnecessary remake, the Until Dawn movie based on the game has completed filming and is currently scheduled for release on April 25, 2025. Directed by Lights Out and Shazam’s David F Sandberg, the plot is being kept under wraps but will likely follow the game’s narrative of a group of teens attempting to survive a masked killer as well as supernatural elements. The cast includes Peter Stormare reprising his role of Dr Hill from the game with the remaining cast being filled out by Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Odessa A’zion, and Maia Mitchell. Given the impending release date, it’s likely we’ll see a teaser or a full trailer soon.

Analogue, the company most well known for the modern updates to retro consoles, specifically NES, SNES, Genesis, and Game Boy announced their newest console the Analogue 3D, specifically designed to play N64 titles on modern screens. Using real N64 cartridges, the Analogue 3D will mimic the look and feel of playing on a CRTV while also upscaling the games to 4K.

Given the high demand recently for retro games not only by collectors but fans wanting to relive their childhood, Analogue is doing the lord's work when Nintendo won’t. Tentatively scheduled for release in early 2025 and priced at a moderate $249.99, preorders will begin on October 21st. Even though the Analogue 3D uses Nintendo’s own N64 cartridges instead of emulation, we’re sure Nintendo is currently scrambling to put together a patent claim to later sue for “infringement” somehow.

NetEase has announced back-to-back big name mobile properties players will soon be able to play on the go. First is Bungie’s highly influential Destiny series making its mobile debut with Destiny: Rising, a free-to-play PvP and PvE shooter set in an alternate timeline from the base game.

Destiny: Rising will offer players numerous heroes to choose from all with their own special abilities and stories that can be experienced either through single player or multiplayer. The game looks quite impressive, almost matching the base game in terms of graphics and gameplay. A limited closed alpha test is currently scheduled for November with no solid release date as of yet.

Another free-to-play title, Marvel Mystic Mayhem pits everyone’s favorite Marvel heroes against Nightmare in a tactical team based RPG. Featuring familiar heroes such as Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, and Spider-Man, the teaser trailer didn’t show much in terms of gameplay besides a couple snippets, but the turn-based combat looks appropriately stylized to match the comic-book aesthetic of the title. Between battles, players will guide their teams of heroes through Nightmare’s numerous dungeons full of various challenges and traps to overcome. No release date or beta test has been announced.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 made a splash earlier this year with their debut trailer showcasing a gorgeous art style, an intriguing premise and a fresh take on turn based combat. While anticipation was already high for the upcoming title, developer Sanfall Interactive announced the cast for the game, and not only are there some major industry heavyweights, but some surprisingly big names involved as well.

With some having already been announced such as Final Fantasy 16’s Ben Starr, the addition of the world renowned motion capture king Andy Serkis and Daredevil himself Charlie Cox joining the cast was a pretty shocking reveal for this seemingly small team. The game follows a group as they attempt to stop an entity simply known as “the Paintress” who paints a new number each year resulting in anyone that age then dying. The developer has been dropping new information regularly about the game since its reveal and thankfully gamers won’t have to wait long to get their hands on the title as it was also revealed Expedition 33 will release in Spring 2025.

The video game community, particularly Final Fantasy fans, expressed shock and disappointment as Nobuo Uematsu, the legendary composer of many titles in the Final Fantasy franchise, announced his retirement. Uematsu quickly followed this news up with the clarification he wasn’t retiring from composing entirely, simply that Fantasian Neo Dimension, created alongside Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, would be the last complete video game score he composed and that he would still be composing music but “cutting back a bit”.

Uematsu had hinted at his true retirement earlier this year stating he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to compose an entire game’s soundtrack again. He cited the fact it can take two to three years of constant work to compose an entire game’s original soundtrack and he doesn’t feel he can physically continue with that demand any further. Uematsu recently composed the main themes for both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth and stated he would love to compose the theme for the third entry as well. After nearly 40 years in the industry and some of the most iconic soundtracks and compositions of all time, we’d agree Uematsu has earned some well deserved time off to focus on what he loves.

Game Freak has suffered a massive hack and data breach resulting in decades of unreleased behind the scenes development diaries such as concept art, lore bibles, and codenames for upcoming projects being leaked. With the hack supposedly taking place back in August, the stolen documents have only recently made their way online, unfortunately also including many employees personal information. While we really don’t encourage anyone to look too deeply into some of the leaked documents, seriously don’t do it, there has been some interesting information about not only the future of the Pokemon franchise, but also other media as well.

According to the leaks, there are various pitches for Detective Pikachu 2, as well as another Pokemon movie under the working title “ Game Boy”. The next generation of Pokemon games were also leaked including versions codenamed “K” and “N”, as well as an unannounced Splatoon-style game, and the complete source code for Pokemon SoulSilver/HeartGold. The documents also include information on Nintendo’s Switch follow-up, apparently codenamed “Ounce”. According to the documents, the Switch 2 was originally slated to release in Winter 2024 but had been postponed for unknown reasons with its current projected release date before the end of March 2025. Fans have also taken notice of numerous versions of Pokemon lore which don’t exactly fit with the child friendly nature of the series and the less said about those, the better.

The gaming industry continues its downward spiral. Despite Dragon Ball Sparking Zero posting record sales numbers with 3 million units sold in only 24 hours, Bandai Namco has announced numerous layoffs and unannounced video game cancellations. Some of the titles included were based on the popular Naruto and One Piece franchises, while another was commissioned by Nintendo but would not be moving forward.

The company is also laying off 200 developers, but not in the traditional western sense. Instead, these employees and developers are moved to what are referred to as “expulsion rooms” in which they are given nothing to do and are shunned by the rest of the employees until they finally quit on their own. This is due to Japan’s strict labor protection laws that make it more difficult for companies to fire their employees, instead preferring them to leave out of their own boredom and accept severance packages.

Bandai Namco also recently announced they would be shutting down their long running mobile Tales of Rays game and their MMO Blue Protocol in January. Bandai Namco cited “lackluster demand” as reasons for the cancellations and layoffs.