This week in gaming news – New Pokemon, Anthem gets axed, Japan Studio shuttered
It’s been a pretty busy week in gaming news. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to tackle all these stories individually, and there’s certainly a lot of big ones to cover. Here’s all the big things that happened in gaming this week.
Pokemon Company releases remakes of Diamond and Pearl, teases open world game
The Pokemon Company held their big 25th anniversary presentation this week. It’s certainly hard to believe the franchise has been with us for a quarter of a century now. Certainly one of those revelations that’s going to make a lot of gamers feel old.
Their first big announcement was a remake of Diamond and Pearl, titled Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The original DS games have been updated to feature a chibi art style similar to that used for Link’s Awakening. Something which will undoubtedly polarize fans. Battles however use the same 3D anime style as Sword and Shield. The games will feature a lot of the quality-of-life improvements that have been featured in more recent Pokemon titles. Both are due out for Holiday 2021.
Perhaps the bigger announcement though was Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The game is set in the Sinnoh region’s distant past, acting as a sort of prequel for Diamond and Pearl. The key difference here is this will be an open world game. Something which a lot of Pokemon fans have been dreaming us for decades.
Very little gameplay was shown in the trailer. We do know that you’ll be able to find packs of roaming Pokemon to catch or battle, rather than the random JRPG encounters of the traditional games. It looks a lot like Breath of the Wild, and appears to be using the same game engine. The game is also set in a style reminiscent of Edo Japan, which looks great and is something we haven’t seen since Gold and Silver. However, graphics still look a bit rough around the edges. It’s hard to tell if this is just an experimental spinoff, or if it will end up being Pokemon’s next big title. But we’re ready for something fresh, and taking a cautiously optimistic approach.
EA and BioWare kill Anthem overhaul, will let the game die off
Anthem was BioWare’s attempt at capitalizing on the looter shooter and live service craze. Unfortunately, the game didn’t exactly pan out as planned. It was criticized at launch for being a tedious mess with no real sense of purpose to its gameplay. It was also plagued with numerous technical issues, including one that was causing low level corruption to PS4 hard drives. Anthem was named one of our biggest disappointments for 2019.
BioWare had planned a complete overhaul to the game, called Anthem NEXT, due out in early 2020. However, thanks to global events, that got pushed on the back burner. Now EA has officially announced that NEXT has been cancelled. While they will not shut down Anthem completely, it appears it will receive no further updates to fix its numerous issues.
“In the spirit of transparency and closure we wanted to share that we’ve made the difficult decision to stop our new development work on Anthem (aka Anthem NEXT). We will, however, continue to keep the Anthem live service running as it exists today“, the company said in a press release.
There’s no word on how many active players Anthem still has, but this news is sure to disappoint fans who did buy into it. Though given EA and BioWare’s recent track record, it will undoubtedly surprise nobody.
PlayStation State of Play disappoints
Sony had their first State of Play for 2021, unveiling some upcoming games for the PlayStation 5. Several new games were highlighted including Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Returnal, Sifu, Knockout City, Solar Ash, yet another FNAF game, and Cana Bridge of Spirits.
So far, most people are saying that Cana appears to be the bright spot in the presentation, showcasing the PS5’s graphical power with Pixar like story and design. However, very little in the way of new content was on display. Overall, fans have mixed feelings on the presentation, with comments calling it a bit lackluster. Not so much because of the games, but rather because it was mostly games we’ve already seen before.
The Xbox Series of course has been suffering from similar issues over the lack of “killer app” content. Given ongoing development difficulties caused by the CCPVirus, it’s likely we won’t see many major releases this year.
Sony Shutters Japan Studio, leaves questions about its future in its homeland
Sony has announced that they’ll be winding down development at their first party Japan Studio. Many developers have already been laid off, with only Team Asobi remaining.
The studio is mostly known for high concept games like Shadow of the Colossus and Gravity Rush. However, they’ve also had some more mainstream hits like Ape Escape and Patapon.
Sony is calling this move a restructuring, noting that Japan Studio’s existing IP and projects will be merged within the global functions of Western based PlayStation Studios. However, the news has reignited concerns that the company is abandoning Japanese gaming. Gamers in the land of the rising sun have been growing increasingly discontented with the platform. Especially since the company moved it’s headquarters to California, and started to put more focus on Western audiences. Censorship of Eastern games, allegedly to cater to American left-wing political sensibilities, has proved to be a particularly hot button issue.
PlayStation fans online have been critical of the move, accusing the company of focusing too much on cookie-cutter Western releases. It’ll be interesting to see what the long term ramifications of PlayStation’s continued alleged alienation of Japan will have on their business. Nintendo’s Switch is currently outselling the PS5 by nearly 5:1 in the country.
