Classified Sega docs from the 90’s are available to you! Neat!

Earlier this week twitter user MegaDriveShock brought attention to a PDF of classified Sega of America documents which had become available on the Sega Retro wiki. The PDF is 272 pages of documents from the mid-90’s that offer a fascinating peek behind the curtain. They primarily focus on the Saturn console which, while hugely popular in Japan, failed to take off elsewhere in the world.  It’s an absolute bonanza of information including manufacturing costs, retail margins, sales, product strategies, emails, etc and people are pulling out some interesting figures. There’s even this storyboard from a commercial!

If you’d like to read through the pages, you can find them on the Sega Retro Wiki here.

Multi-season wait in store between Overwatch 2 story missions.

During a recent twitch appearance, Jared Neuss (Overwatch 2’s executive producer) revealed that there won’t be additional story missions for at least the next two seasons following the launch of season 6. “It is very much like trying to find that balance between getting [story missions] in front of players quickly because we love story stuff and giving ourselves enough time to make changes or add features.” No exact timeline was given but it seems safe to infer that Blizzard won’t be releasing any further story missions in 2023.

Annapurna Interactive Showcase 2023

At the end of last week Annapurna held a showcase showing off their upcoming games and more. Here’s some of what we saw:

To a T is a game with a premise that sounds delightful but maybe a little shallow – with the story centred around a main character stuck in a T-Pose. Thankfully Annapurna promises there’s depth to this game, and since it’s the newest game by Katamari Damacy director Keita Takahashi, I’m inclined to believe them.

Storyteller, the puzzle game that plays out over a picture book which released earlier this year, is moving to Netflix. As part of their growing catalogue of games Storyteller will be receiving new content & scenarios.

Thirsty Suitors, which has a demo available on steam, now has a release date. The game is a unique mash of turn-based combat, skating, cooking, story, and more. It releases November 2^nd to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S (Game Pass!), Xbox One, PC, and Switch.

Coming later, in 2024, is Ghost Bike, a game set in the afterlife where players must fight against ghosts as they strive to bring back the true spirit of biking back to Wheel World.

Finally, they showed the reveal trailer for their first in-house game BladeRunner 2033. They haven’t shown too much yet, but fans of the series can look forward to exploring a dystopian LA set between the original Blade Runner movie and Blade Runner 2049.

Upcoming game releases:

July 6^th

Gylt coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows

Necrosmith coming to PS5 and Switch

Scarf coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

July 7^th

Feeble Light coming to PS5, Switch, Windows

Garlic coming to PS5 and Switch

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie coming to PS5, PS4, Switch, Windows

July 12th

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals coming to PS5, PS4, Switch, Windows

And that’s all, this week, in gaming news.

Zed Games goes full Pogchamp this week with Hazel, Maylee, and Zahra taking over your podcast primed earholes. This week the team talks the simpler days of the wild west of early gaming experiences, Zahra takes it easy putting their shapes into place in The Shape of Things, then Paul reshapes literary history in The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales.

The Console Wars Have Been Decided!
In a side note to the highly contested Microsoft acquisition of Activision/Blizzard, is that to validate statements made by the parties presented, certain investigations needed to take place. And so, the FTC has made a statement regarding the console wars. Firstly, Nintendo has been removed from contention due to its hybrid nature, reliance on first party games and – and I quote – “underpowered performance.” So, in the US between Xbox and PlayStation, Generation 7 consoles… Xbox 360 beat the PS3, and in Generation 8, Sony beat out with the PlayStation 4!
While the FTC didn’t comment on the current generation, Microsoft has argued that they have consistently ranked third in the console wars.
While Sony has made it quite clear that it doesn’t want the planned merger to go ahead, Sony’s CEO Jim Ryan has stated in response to the exclusivity of titles such as Starfield “I don’t like it” but “I don’t view it as competitive”, and the possibility of losing Call of Duty in the future. “I’d rather this didn’t happen, but we’ll be OK, we’ll be more than OK.”
In other Microsoft news, Xbox Series X and Game Pass are going to receive a price hike, with the console to get a price closer to the PS5 and the Game Pass monthly subscription to increase around the globe. Oh, and Microsoft has missed its quarterly internal target by around US$780,000,000.
And don’t you PC players think you can scoff in your corner watching all this. You better be sure you can run your moddable version of Starfield. With AMD partnering with Bethesda for release, your precious DLSS and RTX features on your new Nvidia GPU may be left to the wayside. Oh, and there won’t be any keyboard and mouse support for the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol.1 coming in October.

AI in Gaming
The rebellion against AI being involved in game development continues with Jennifer Hale, the Voice Actor (VA) of “FemShep” in Mass Effect and David Hayter, the VA for Solid Snake from Metal Gear, voicing their concern of AI in the gaming industry. Hale has come forward emphasizing the importance of protecting voice actors’ work and voicing support of organizations like NAVA that provide contracts for safeguarding VA rights. Hayter, while less concerned about AI technology’s impact on voice acting due to its lack of “soul”, agrees on the need for legal protection. Meanwhile, the introduction of machine-learning platforms, Unity Muse and Unity Sentis, has sparked concerns among developers and artists regarding the generation of AI-created assets and both the copywrite and plagiarism issues now or in the future due to the art, assets, and their datasets that AI have been trained on.

Diablo 4 News; because I’m playing it and I’m doing the news this week.
Over the weekend Blizzard was hit by a DDOS attack, lengthening the already superfluous wait time to play a game most generally play solo. These attacks lasted around 12 hours and roused players online to ask why the game has joined the “always online” generation. Well, this may be due to the online store which has armour sets that can cost more than the base game, or maybe due to item drops with a higher rarity than winning the lotto with only 2 dropped so far since release. Adam Jackson, lead class designer of the game, confirmed last week that there are six top tier unique items in a tweet, all of which have staggering randomised stats (yes, you could still get this with a bad roll), and I join other players in the sentiment that if one dropped for you “it would be financially irresponsible not to sell your account.”
In other secrets revealed, if you are about to finish the game maybe don’t go skipping that credit roll with several different jump scare styled post-credit endings reported so far. These are all tipped to be clues into the gamut of expansions I’m sure are on the way for Diablo in the future. And if you haven’t looked into the secret cow level, the internet is looking… and they’re getting closer.

Now for some Game releases
So, Friday 30^th of June, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, a detective action game from the minds behind Danganronpa, and party game Everybody 1-2-Switch! both come to the Switch. And time traveling puzzle point and click indie game Crime O’Clock is coming to PC, and Switch.
Tuesday July 4^th, break into the subconscious with VA David Hayter on the PSVR2 in Synapse.
And lastly Thursday July 6^th, experience the branching narratives of retro inspired JRPG Alterium Shift, or experience bouldering in the climbing sim New Heights, both coming to PC. Last of all, face your fears in horror puzzler Gylt, coming to PC, PlayStation and Xbox,

Oh! And in Games coming to TV
Sonic Prime’s new season is airing on Netflix and Among Us is getting its own TV series! It is in development at CBS Studios and is reportedly being led by Owen Denis (Infinity Train) and animated by Titmouse (Big Mouth). However, no airdate has been released.

This week Zahra takes control, with Caroline and Peter to talk this weeks Gaming News, a Recap of last week’s Indi Dev Night and all their favs, and lastly Caroline battles through with a review of Knight Crawlers! 

EA Sports No Longer In The Game

Former local game developer and now ruler of all things Electronic Arts, CEO Andrew Wilson, has announced that EA Sports is splitting from EA Games. They’re going to be two completely separate companies competing for your gaming dollar. Not only that, but EA Games is no more, being rebranded as EA Entertainment. It’s a signal that Electronic Arts is
looking beyond video games for future releases, and trying to make everything they make a hit across movies, games and TV. After all, it’s a strategy that’s working for Sony of late.

I’m still waiting for the modern remake and HBO drama based on the best EA game ever made, Skitchin’.

We’re all Barbie Girls, in a Forza World

Look, I know this is a crass commercial cross-promotional ploy to get attention, and as the world’s best independent gaming radio show we should be above it all, but…the Barbie car is coming to Forza Horizon 5! How freakin’ cool is that! I can finally live out my dreams of driving the Barbie car at ridiculous speeds on Hot Wheels tracks without getting in trouble from mum. There’s really not much more to this story than that, I just wanted to share some joy.

Kojima’s in Space

Certified nutjob and the only man to escape working for Konami alive, Hideo Kojima, has announced that he’d like to go to space. Speaking to former Doritos spokesperson Geoff
Kieghley, he said ““I want to go to outer space. I want to go to outer space and create a game you can play In space… So please someone send me up to space.” As of press time
it’s not known if someone has volunteered to launch him up there or if he could fit the entire dev team on the International Space Station. It’s not the first time he’s spearheaded a game
that requires players to put themselves in unusual situations, as his Game Boy Advance game Boktai needed to be played outside in the sunlight.

NINTENDO DIRECT!!!!!!!!!

Anyway who cares about any of that other news Nintendo just dropped a new Direct! Among the highlights are the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, new DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and
Violet which, yep I just checked, has lots of Pokemon in it so that’s good. Palia is a free to play multiplayer mix of the relaxed life of Animal Crossing and the adventuring aspect of Zelda which looks charming as all heck, Fae Farm is pretty much the exact same concept but you pay money for it, Mythforce is a four player first person roguelike adventure that resembles an ‘80s Saturday morning cartoon, and there’s a new Detective Pikachu!

And now exciting news for those of us who love buying games we already own – SUPER MARIO RPG REMAKE!!!!! Finally Australian gamers will be legally allowed to play this game
without breaking the warranty on their Super Nintendo.

Speaking of re-releases, Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 1! Vampire Survivors is coming to Switch, surprising nobody. All of the Batman Arkham games are coming to the
Switch soon too. (I think Batman’s kind of stupid and I will not apologise)

Rounding out the release announcements are Pikmin 4 which looks cute as all heck and there’s a little Pikmin dog that you can teach tricks to and ohhh it’s so cute, it’s SO CUTE! A
new Wario Ware game! Some other stuff I wasn’t paying attention to because it was so late in the evening! I’m hyperventilating from HYPE!

Continuing the Mario mania, there’s a new Princess Peach game coming, a Switch remake of the 3DS Luigi’s Mansion, and a brand new 2D Mario game, Super Mario Bros Wonder! My
wife described it as if Jeff Minter made a Mario game, which is the best recommendation I could imagine. BEST DIRECT EVER!

And now here’s some upcoming releases!

Today sees the release of

Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine [PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch]
Final Fantasy 16 [PS5]
Dragon’n Princess (C64)

Tomorrow sees the release of C-Smash VRS [PSVR 2]

And on June 27

Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed Single Player Edition [PS4, XBO]
Little Friends: Puppy Island [PC, Switch]

In case you missed it, we hosted an Indie Dev Night at Netherworld in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley on Thursday (June 15th). The event allowed local indie developers to bring demos of their upcoming games for the public to try out and get a first look at. Check out all the games below. Catch us at the 10th Queensland Games Festival (formerly known as GO423) at the Brisbane Powerhouse on July 22, we’d love to see you there!

Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar
https://abandonedsheep.com/
Join Mittens, cat burglar extraordinaire, as she ventures into a secret research facility and gains incredible quantum powers. Test your problem solving skills in devious puzzles, avoid detection by security robots and infiltrate top secret laboratories as you discover the truth behind an earth-shaking conspiracy.
Developer: Abandoned Sheep
Platforms: PC / Nintendo Switch
Release date: 2023

Asiramyth
https://asiramyth.com/
An upcoming expandable JRPG-inspired strategy card game.
Developer: Brenton Finkel
Platforms: Physical Card Game
Release date: TBA

Sea of Survivors
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2347940/Sea_of_Survivors/
In Sea of Survivors, you can sail in any direction but you can never stop moving. Dodge and destroy hordes of pirates and sea monsters to gain experience, level up, and upgrade your weapons and abilities. Earn gold and hire new crew members with every run. Discover mysterious curses, and unlock unique treasures as you fight for your survival.
Developer: Nah Yeah Games
Platforms: PC (Steam)
Release date: 2023

The Thief, the Witch, the Toad and the Mushroom
https://www.ashtowngames.com/thief-witch-toad-mushroom
You’re curled up in front of the fire reading a folk tale on a cold winter’s night. Something about it seems so familiar. Have you read this before? A Visual Novel of strange magic and lost secrets.
Developer: Jack McNamee, Ashtown Games
Platforms: PC (Steam, Itch)
Release date: TBA

Whatever Happened to Ruth MacArthur
https://changeling-interactive.itch.io/whrm
An interactive narrative experience where you are in search of a missing woman who left only a trail of audiotapes behind her.
Developer: Ivan Randall, Changeling Interactive
Platforms: PC (Itch, Gamejolt)
Release date: 24th of October 2019

Bears in Space
https://www.broadside.games/games/
Stranded and alone on a strange planet after a scientific experiment went wrong, Maxwell Atoms must come to terms with his new found abilities and embrace the power of the Bear. Now surrounded by enemy robots and armed with only his wits, paws and an abundance of weapons, he must blast his way out, find a way home and if there’s time… save his crew.
Developer: Broadside Games
Platforms: PC (Steam)
Release date: 2023

Sumorbit
https://www.sumorbit.com/
A physics based fighting game where planets sumo wrestle. Grab, throw, bounce and spin opponents out of the solar system.
Developer: Jett Williams, Tournameta
Platforms: PC (Steam)
Release date: TBA

Cosy Kingdom
A casual adventure game with puzzle elements.
Developer: Made By Fraser

SURPRISE EARLY PODCAST!
In celebration of our collaboration with Netherworld for the Indie Dev Night we’re releasing this weeks podcast EARLY! So listen in as Maylee, Hazel, & Paul talk gaming news, this years not E3 announcements and Hazel does a special In Memoriam for the online phenomenon Blazeball.
So gather your salutes, gird your tear ducts, and open your ear holes.

This past week was video game conference season and as such was packed to the brim with video game announcements and news.  Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

Summer Game Fest

Sumer Game fest kicked off the week’s activities with gameplay for Mortal Kombat 1 taking place in a new canon created at the end of the last game. Alan Wake 2 showed off its pulpy scares and we saw a big chunk of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Marvels Spider-Man 2 got a firm release date of October 20 this year. Capcom announced the upcoming Exoprimal will have cross over content with Street Fighter 6 so you’ll finally be about to throw a hadouken at a t-rex. A zombie shooting and driving game called Toxic Commando is coming from legendary film director John Carpenter built on the same engine as Snowrunner so you can expect some serious vehicle physics.

Perhaps the most exciting of all was this (and many of the other events) had a stage and a crowd which we haven’t seen since before the pandemic. Which means a return of awkward presenters and surprise celebrities. Nicholas Cage graced the stage to wild applause to help announce that he is an upcoming character in the horror game Dead By Daylight.

Xbox

Microsoft was the only platform holder to hold an event this year and they had a lot to prove after securing so many developers under their belt in recent years.  The show started with footage from the new Fable which showed very little that could be considered gameplay but did feature comedian Richard Ayoade as a giant you will be fighting in the final game.

Compulsion games of We Happy Few fame revealed South of Midnight a heavily stylised game exploring folklore of the American deep south. RPG studios Obsidian and inXile showed off Avowed and Clockwork Revolution respectively. Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG where you play a powerful magic wielder and is described as closer in scope to The Outer Worlds than Elder Scrolls while Clockwork Revolution is a departure from inXile’s usual rpg style and shares many similarities with Bioshock infinite.

The new Forza Motorsport is on its way with a release date of the 10^th of October and Microsoft Flight Simulator is adding a slew of new features for it’s 2024 update including content based on the modern Dune films.

Atlus was represented heavily at Xbox’s showcase showing off 3 games that will all come to gamepass on day one. A remake of Persona 3 subtitled Reload, a tactics game Persona 5 Tactica and a new IP Metaphor: ReFantazio which looks to share many similarities with the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series.

Sea of Thieves is getting a new campaign based on Monkey Island!  It features many of the series characters and voices as well as recreated locations. The Legend of Monkey Island comes to Sea of Thieves on July 20^th

The show ended with a 45 minute deep dive into the incredibly ambitious Bethesda Sci Fi RPG Starfield.

Ubisoft

Ubisoft came out swinging with some big titles this year.  Star Wars Outlaws is a new open world 3^rd person action game based in the period between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora based in James Cameron’s Avatar universe is a canon story that will fit in with the movies. You and a friend in co op can explore the world of pandora in first person, fighting the RDA and riding animals of the planet. It only looks a little bit like Far Cry.

While the remake of Prince of Persia Sands of time is still missing in action a new game in the series was revealed. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown takes the series back to its side scrolling routes but also moves to a metroidvania style structure with a focus on combat, fast action and time based magic.

Being Ubisoft they also had not one, not two but three  Assassin’s Creed games present! Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the more traditional title set for release later this year. Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR is a new title being made for the meta quest and promises a full Assassin’s creed experience in VR. You must provide your own straw. Lastly the free to play title Assassin’s Creed Codename Jade will take players to China on their mobile device. You can register to be part of the playtest on the official website.

This is only a small amount of the games shown in the last week. If only there was a way to share more of them in a short time…

Game releases

Crime Boss: Rockay City (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S), Layers of Fear (2023) (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC) – June 16

F1 23 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), Park Beyond (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC) – June 17

Aliens: Dark Descent (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), Crash Team Rumble (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One) – June 21

That was some news I guess!

Grab your Master Sword, don your fused shield , & come listen to this weeks special Zelda themed episode with Paul taking the reigns. This weeks 4 person team talks The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and all things Hyrule.

Apple Vision Pro is Vision… Oh…

Apple has unveiled their newest creation, their first spatial computer! What does this mean? Well, it’s a headset much like your typical VR headsets that is supposed to seamlessly blend digital content with the world around you. Imagine, being able to project your workspace onto a wall, while still being totally aware of the world around you thanks to the ability to see through the headset. It features 23 million pixels across two displays, and it tracks your eyes, hands, and voice.

Your monitor and keyboard can be set up anywhere, at any time, effortlessly, so you can partake in hustle culture for the low price of $5,250 or so for Aussies.

Speaking of Corporate Greed…

Eric Covington, a former Activision Blizzard designer, wrote a few cheeky lines for a World of Warcraft Venture Co. loot goblin. The lines were approved and implemented into the game, and the jokes were promoted on the official World of Warcraft Twitter account, but uhh, that doesn’t stop you from getting fired for allegedly “inserting inappropriate non-game related content into a game”.

The lines this Venture Co. loot goblin had? “Let’s call this a cost of living adjustment.” “No profit sharing!” and “Looks like another yacht for me!”

Blaseball is Done

Blaseball, best described as a ‘cultural event’, was a game that looks like a baseball stat-tracking page. You could pick your favourite team, such as “Kansas City Breath Mints”, bet with fake money, and even partake in voting for rule changes.

With weather events such as ‘jazz’, players being able to die and be resurrected, and something about a peanut god, it is clear that Blaseball will be missed. Unfortunately it was just too costly in terms of finances, time, and resources, meaning that the developer The Game Band has had to make the difficult decision to bring it to a close after 3 years of joy, heartbreak, and absurdity.

Duke Nukem Remastered: AI Art

Blaze Entertainment has revealed a remaster for Duke Nukem 1 and 2, including some album art with some… weirdness going on with the fingers, a typical sign that it was generated using an AI tool.

AI generated art has been facing a lot of controversy recently, as the tools often use original artists’ works to train, and are considered ‘lazy’ and ‘cheap’, whilst AI artists claim that it is nothing more than utilising a unique set of skills to create something ‘new’.

Blaze Entertainment initially double-downed, but has posted a statement acknowledging that the original image was AI-generated, and that they would be commissioning a new piece of art to replace it.

Gays? In My Overwatch?

Not if you’re in countries with intolerant laws towards the LGBT+ community. All Pride content will be opt-in, giving players control over how they want to express themselves, or if they’re rather not express themselves at all.

In selected countries, the option won’t be available at all, with Pride content being blocked.

“Our values are to protect players… You can equip a cosmetic in one country and travel to somewhere else with different rules and get in trouble. So we feel like it’s our responsibility to help protect people like that” says Aaron Keller, an Overwatch 2 developer.

And now for some upcoming games!

June 8

• Harmony: The Fall of Reverie (PC, PS5, XSX, Switch)
• Mask of the Rose (PC, Switch)
• Pro Cycling Manager 2023 (PC)
• Speed Crew (Switch)
• Tour de France 2023 (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)

June 9

• Greyhill Incident (PC, PS5, PS4)

June 14

• Black Desert Online: Land of the Morning Light expansion (PC)
• WWE 2K23: Race to NXT Pack DLC (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)