Sega Unveils Judgment Coming To PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Stadia This Coming April

As 2020 came to a close, RGG Studio is best recognized for its release in both Japan and later in the west with Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon. Most notably, the game sits to be its most successful as the title is reported to be the top grossing in franchise history on the digital frontier. But dialing back to 2019, the Japanese studio was then recognized for a spin-off experience – Judgment. The game while still true to the core mechanics of its preceding Yakuza installments with its brawler charm follows the path of an undercover cop investigating one of the bands of crime-organizing clans. But rather than the title being recognized primarily for its merit in the overall game, its controversy overshadowed that. It was reported that voice actor Pierre Taki was arrested for in possession of narcotics and Sega responded with a complete pull of the game and later returned to store shelves in Japan the following June. But, of course, the game alike previous RGG Studio-developer titles are unique to PlayStation systems. However, alike those same experiences, now Judgment is coming to Xbox as well. Even more, this is being orchestrated through a reworking of the title for next-generation consoles exclusively. You can watch the announcement trailer in the video below: “Judgment arrives on next gen in 2021, now with a smooth 60fps frame rate and refined visuals,” the synopsis on the game’s website reads. “Dive into the dramatic tale of a disgraced lawyer seeking redemption in a world rife with corruption and despair, starring one of Japan’s most prominent actors, Takuya Kimura.” Alike previous Yakuza titles that released on Xbox in recent months, it is unclear if there will be yet another marketing deal with Microsoft upon its arrival. In the past, we witnessed a similar behavior with the titles coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch. Most recently, Yakuza 3 – 5 arrived to the service as of this month. As per IGN, the game is told not to support cross-generation buy unfortunately. In relevance to RGG Studio stranding away from its main yakuza brand, it is referenced that more of the same spin-off games unique to Japan could arrive to the west finally. In an interview with Rocket Beans Gaming, Sega commented that its aware of the missing title from the series and is actively working to fill the gaps. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you excited to see Judgment on next-gen machines? Judgment comes to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Stadia on April 23, 2021.

Brawlhalla Esports Year Six Will Feature A $1,000,000 Prize Pool

Brawlhalla Esports has been growing over the last few years and in 2021, Blue Mammoth Games is elevating the esport again. Brawlhalla Esports Year Six will feature a total prize pool of $1,000,000. During the year you will see less events as opposed to 2020 where you saw often saw events a lot more often. The good news from that is the production for the live streams will be a level higher and that the prize pools for each event will have more on the line making the events more critical for players and teams. “We are making major improvements to the  tournament stream viewing experience, and will be featuring more “pro-focused” events through the year. There will also be brand new smash.gg features that will make registering and competing a smoother experience for competitors.” Stay tuned for more Brawlhalla news. Source

Google Officially Closes First-Party Stadia Developer, Stadia Games And Entertainment

As Google continue to turn its wheels in regards for its video game streaming platform Stadia, the tech giant is putting an end to one operation internally. While the platform is still continuing to grow, its first-party label is closing its doors. In a new blog post issued today, Stadia Games and Entertainment will cease to be this week. The announcement comes as a surprise following the amount of investment already entertained for the internal developer for Stadia. Prior to the news, Google announced its second studio based in California with former Santa Monica Studio head Shannon Studstill now helming the team. Already, former Ubisoft Toronto & EA Motive lead Jade Raymond helms the operation in Montreal, Canada. It is told that Raymond has already departed for Stadia Games and Entertainment, but her new endeavors is not disclosed in the post. Stadia will continue to operate as a service as Google pursues bringing its expertise in cloud streaming to other developers instead. In 2021, we’re expanding our efforts to help game developers and publishers take advantage of our platform technology and deliver games directly to their players. We see an important opportunity to work with partners seeking a gaming solution all built on Stadia’s advanced technical infrastructure and platform tools. We believe this is the best path to building Stadia into a long-term, sustainable business that helps grow the industry. Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially. Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we’ve decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games. Phil Harrison, Google Stadia Vice President and General Manager In regards to the current projects that were underway at Stadia Games and Entertainment, all are expected to close shop as well. This includes its three studio partnership with Supermassive Games, Harmonix, and Uppercut Games. The pursuit for unique, first-party releases never advanced outside of the announcement as each project respectively was never presented. Additionally, this is also a big turn of events for developer Typhoon Games. The Journey to the Savage Planet developer revealed to be facing an acquisition by Stadia Games and Entertainment back in December 2019, however, work to feed the platform’s lack of first-party content was not featured since. You can read the initial report by heading here. What are your thoughts on the move to shut down Stadia Games and Entertainment? Source: Google

The Division 2 Expects 4K/60 FPS Support On February 2 For Xbox Series X|S & PlayStation 5, Ubisoft Confirms

Turning back a few pages on the calendar to this past October, Ubisoft issued a blog post on the transition of its games in relevance to the then-coming next-generation consoles. Just less than two weeks away until both the Xbox Series X|S & PlayStation 5 both prepare for its release, the publisher revealed some of the advantages its games will perform on the latest console systems. In that, more than a handful of its published releases were featured introducing new benchmarks for how the listed games are expected to operate on the newest hardware. Projects like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, For honor, and Rainbow Six Siege all illustrate better performance alongside a higher resolution output as well from both Xbox & PlayStation. However, Ubisoft did leave out one game – The Division 2. But thankfully, the game is expected to receive next-generation enhancements this week according to Community Developer Johan Lindholm who confirmed it to take place this Tuesday, February 2nd. As part of Title Update 12.1, The Division 2 is also expecting a limited-time, partner event. In collaboration with Capcom, Massive Entertainment announced that it will be incorporating Resident Evil content for players exploring D.C. to earn when participating. In-game items primarily centered around Raccoon City Police Department and other cosmetics are found to be included. For players unfamiliar with The Division 2, but might following the coming update this week, we highly suggest you read our full review for the game. Rectify Gaming’s Adam Fererro told his time with the game to be “a fantastic action-shooter that invites players to take their own approach to a beautifully ruined Washington D.C. You can read the piece in its entirety by heading here. Are you planning to play The Division 2 after the next-gen update? The Division 2 is out now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Stadia; supported on Xbox Series X|S & PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility.

Nintendo Switch Now Sits At 79.87 Million Units Sold, Overtaking The Nintendo 3DS

Last speaking of the Nintendo Switch consolidated unit count predates back to November 2020. Upon reading the financial highlight spreadsheet issued by the Japanese firm, it reveals that the latest console machine sits comfortably over 68 million units sold. And to be considered, that is just collecting the system’s forecast performance for that year. It does not include the then-approaching 2020 holiday season ahead. Now with yet another commercial season coming to a close as we are now welcoming the second month for 2021, Nintendo is prepared to issue its next financial report as the fiscal years is close to concluding. In its latest earning release on Monday, Nintendo shares that the Nintendo Switch now sits at 79.87 million units sold. The firm also updated its top 10 selling titles, and, of course, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to remain the number one selling game on the platform. You can view the full list below: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 33.41 million Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 31.18 million Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 22.85 million The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 21.45 million Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield – 20.35 million Super Mario Odyssey – 20.23 million Super Mario Party – 13.82 million Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/ Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee – 13.00 million Splatoon 2 – 11.90 million New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 9.82 million Most interesting about the new sales metric for the Nintendo Switch is its performance in contrast to previous hardware. Upon reviewing the dedicated video game sales units through the firm’s financial data, it shares that the Nintendo Switch now overtakes the Nintendo 3DS. That now marks another system outed by Nintendo Switch as the handheld hybrid most impressively exceeded sales of the Xbox One previously. In a separate report that was issued by gamesindustry.biz lead Christopher Dring on Twitter, he disclosed that the Nintendo Switch still surpasses the sales of the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 combined this past holiday season. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you surprised by the Nintendo Switch’s continued performance lately? Source: Nintendo, (1)

Netflix Officially Unveils New Sonic The Hedgehog 3D Series Coming In 2022, Sonic Prime

In memory, Sonic the Hedgehog when breaking from its traditional video game medium into television did happen to grab many avid fans of the Sega-published series at the time. However, the video game franchise as of late did not seem to reel in its following alike previous productions with Sonic Boom on Cartoon Network not engrossing fans for more episodes. But as we begin to see more successful video game projects come from streaming services like Netflix as of the past year or two, it was inevitable before Sonic the Hedgehog made his way to the market. Already, the Blue Blur already blew the box office away with its titular theatrical release in February 2020, so Netflix is anticipated to be its next destination. Back in December, for a short time Netflix announced a coming Sonic the Hedgehog series is underway. Scheduled for 2022, the production will be a 3D television series with WildBrain and Man of Action Entertainment involved in the project. Now on Monday this week, Netflix officially unveils the Sonic show – Sonic Prime. Sonic is a beloved character and holds a special place in everyone’s heart including my own. I spent many hours with the blue blur as a kid and it’s a privilege to be able to bring this character everyone knows and loves on a brand new adventure with Netflix — one that a generation of loyal fans and brand new fans around the world can enjoy. Dominique Bazay, Netflix Director of Original Animation “The 24-episode animated adventure for kids, families, and long-time fans draws upon the keystones of the brand and features the ‘Blue Blur’ of video game fame in a high-octane adventure where the fate of a strange new multiverse rests in his gloved hands,” more details in the press release reads. “Sonic’s adventure is about more than a race to save the universe, it’s a journey of self-discovery and redemption.” Dissecting the involvement of the two aforementioned production firms for Sonic Prime, WildBrain is told to be animated from its Vancouver-based studio. Man of Action Entertainment is told to be showrunning the series alongside host as Executive Producers for the show. Details on the production itself is left unclear such as casting. This past weekend, it was revealed that after a decade of voicing Sonic the Hedgehog, Roger Craig Smith will be stepping away from the role. At the time of reporting, it was presumed Smith would not be involved in the leaked production as the series is said to arrive in the coming year. You can read the full report by heading here. Are you planning to watch Sonic Prime next year? Source: Netflix

MLB The Show 21 Ships April 20 For PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S & Xbox One Versions Confirmed

For the past week or so, whispers continued to rise in regards to SIE San Diego’s MLB The Show. As you might expect, the next installment is on the horizon for an announcement followed by a later release presumably sometime this spring. The title first appeared in Brazil through a rating for PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 5. However, versions for Xbox or other systems did not make the cut at the time of the discovery. But, it wasn’t until this past weekend that one Instagram user shared new information on the game. In that, poster anerdydad offered the first glimpse at the box art for MLB The Show 21. Of course, the most evident difference is the cover athlete – San Diego Padres’ shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. However, the more interesting is the leak also shared an Xbox version as well. That followed by a brief promo from Complex and First We Feast’s Hot Ones issued a teaser at the cover art which holds some similarity to the leak. Now on Monday, Sony Interactive Entertainment finally announces MLB The Show 21. You can watch the teaser trailer in the video below: “We’re also excited to share that, with our announced extension with MLB and MLB Players, MLB The Show 21 will be available — for the first time ever — on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One,” Ramone Russell, San Diego Studio Product Development Communications writes on Xbox Wire. “This is a very exciting moment for all of us as the storied franchise will be accessible to more gamers than ever before.” Cross-play support is also told to be paved for launch as well. In addition to the game scheduled for mid April, MLB The Show 21 is currently told to not be supporting next-gen upgrades. “If you are interested in having access to the game on both platforms, please wait for more info about the collector’s edition,” which is scheduled for more details on February 3rd. Also, the game is to be priced more on next-generation systems ($69.99). Are you planning to play MLB The Show 21 on Xbox or PlayStation? MLB The Show 21 launches on April 20, 2021 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Source: PlayStation Blog