Capcom veteran Hideaki Itsuno is leaving the company after three decades to develop a new game.

The Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma series director took to X / Twitter to share a statement regarding his leaving the company. Itsuno thanks fans for their long-term support and confirms that he'll be getting to work on a brand new game outside of Capcom.

"From September, I will start developing a new game in a new environment," wrote Itsuno. "I hope to create fun, beautiful games that are as memorable as, or even more memorable than, the ones I have created so far. Please stay tuned for my next creation!"

Itsuno's most recent role in a directorial role was for this year's Dragon's Dogma 2. Despite the game's poor optimization and performance at launch, it would go on to ship over 2.5 million units within its first two weeks on sale. The game also set a record concurrent player count for a Capcom game on Steam on its launch day.

While Itsuno will be known mostly for his work on the Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma series, he also acted as director for some of Capcom's best fighting games including Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, Star Gladiator, Project Justice and the Power Stone series. Some of these names may sound familiar to you, as they'll be appearing on the recently-announced Capcom Fighting Collection 2 which is currently slated to launch sometime in 2025.

You can of course tide yourself over until then with the soon-to-launch Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, which is due to release on September 12 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam.

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If you were hoping for a physical release for the upcoming Nintendo Switch version of Yakuza Kiwami, then we've got some bad news.

As spotted by Nintendo Everything, the official Japanese X / Twitter account of developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio posted that the game will be "download distribution only" (translated from Japanese with X / Twitter's in-built translation tool). The developer's English account posted soon after that Yakuza Kiwami will be available "on the Nintendo eShop", without mention of a physical release.

This is definitely a shame for those hoping to add Yakuza Kiwami to their physical Switch collection. But there is some good news in that the highly-praised remake, which is launching on October 25 for Nintendo Switch, will be priced at around $19.99 / £14.99. If you've yet to properly dive into the Yakuza / Like a Dragon franchise, this is an ideal starting point and a very reasonable price to boot.

Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of the original Yakuza title which came out for the PlayStation 2 all the way back in 2005. The game introduced the world to protagonist Kazuma Kiryu - an officer of the Tojo Clan criminal organization - whom in this initial outing takes the fall for his boss's murder. After a decade in jail, Kiryu must acclimate to modern life in the city of Kamurocho and save the clan from a dark fate.

While certainly rough around the edges, the very first Yakuza title introduced the world to its gripping and heavily political storytelling, balanced out with a gut-busting sense of humor and a wide range of incredible and memorable characters that appear in the series to this day. Having no physical release on Nintendo Switch is definitely a bummer, but we highly recommend the game nonetheless. Especially if you can work your way up to modern releases such as the brilliant Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

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If you're as old as me, there's a decent chance you grew up with a PS1 and a particularly revered 3D platformer: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos.

Now 27 years on from the game's 1997 release, original developer Argonaut has been resurrected, and its first project back from the dead is a remaster of the legendary PS1 title.

The initial teaser trailer shows that the Croc: Legend of the Gobbos remaster is looking much smoother with a higher framerate and resolution. A press release for the remaster seen by Eurogamer states that it's coming to PC and consoles sometime in 2024, and will feature extras such as the 'Crocipedia' which is being described as an "extensive and meticulously curated digital museum". That means you can expect concept art, interviews and the like.

There isn't much else that can be gleaned from the teaser trailer outside of a few short segments of gameplay, but the updates to the game via the remaster appear to be promising. Hopefully, there will also be options for improved control schemes, as the original game's tank-like controls certainly haven't aged well and were pretty ill-suited for a 3D platformer to begin with.

And if you're wondering why this remaster in particular is a bigger deal than usual, a huge part of that is Croc's developer. Argonaut, while founded in the 1980s, really established itself in the following decade on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The developer worked with Nintendo to create the original Star Fox game in 1993. 

And while Star Fox's blocky look is severely dated by today's standards, it was nothing  short of phenomenal for a home console release to look like this in the early 90s. Keep in mind this was before the PS1 was on most folks' radar, too. Argonaut followed up in 1994 with Stunt Race FX, another impressive 3D showcase for the 16-bit console. If that pedigree is any indication of what Argonaut could be capable of now that it's reopened its doors, we'll be keeping a keen eye on the developer.

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Nintendo has officially ended repair support for the New Nintendo 3DS.

In a new X / Twitter post shared today to the Japanese Nintendo account, which has been machine translated, the company announced that repair services for the New Nintendo 3DS have now ended due to a lack of parts required to maintain the handheld console.

Earlier this year, Nintendo announced that when replacement parts for the Nintendo 2DS, Nintendo 2DS XL, and the New Nintendo 3DS were gone, its repair services would end. 

Support for the Nintendo 3DS XL and standard Nintendo 3DS has already ended and now it's the New Nintendo 3DS's turn to lose the service. 

"We are now discontinuing repair services for the Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, and New Nintendo 3DS LL systems as the period for retaining repair parts as stipulated in the repair service regulations for each product has expired," Nintendo explained in a support post at the time.

"As a result, we will end repair services for the Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, and New Nintendo 3DS LL systems as soon as our current stock of parts is depleted."

The company has now amended the post with an updated notice, which reads: "We have run out of parts necessary for repairs, so we are no longer accepting repairs for the New Nintendo 3DS system."

The only consoles part of the DS family that are still available for repair support are the Nintendo 2DS and Nintendo 2DS XL, but given the notice it's likely services will come to an end for both soon.

In July, Nintendo also ended repair support for the Wii U, explaining that it had "run out of parts necessary for repairs" and "will no longer be accepting repairs for Wii U consoles and peripherals".

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Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy will finally make its Nintendo Switch debut later this year.

Announced during the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, GSC Game World has revealed that the Legends of the Zone Trilogy, which includes all three games that make up the original Stalker series, including Shadow of Chornobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Prypiat will be coming to Nintendo Switch on November 14.

These three versions have been optimized for Switch, featuring support for TV docked, handheld, and tabletop mode, as well as gyroscope integration and touchscreen controls.

"Thanks to these changes, the experience in the Chornobyl Anomalous Zone will feel authentic for all players - both for those who want to refresh their memories and for new stalkers," GSC Game World said.

The Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy was first announced and released earlier this year on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, as well as for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PlayStation 5 via backward compatibility.

Before this, the three classic Stalker games were only available on PC and were also "refined" for a console.

GSC Game World is also set to release Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl on November 20, for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, and day one on Xbox Game Pass.

The upcoming game was set to release on September 5 but was hit by a two-month delay so the studio could smooth out some emergency bugs. Stalker 2 was also delayed back in January from its original Q1 2024 release date for similar reasons.

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CD Projekt Red has provided an update on the development of The Witcher 4 and the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel.

In a new press release looking back on the studio's financial report for the first half of the year, joint CEO Michał Nowakowski said that CD Projekt Red is now "gearing up to begin the full-fledged production phase" of the next major Witcher game - aka Project Polaris - and that its Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, Project Orion, is now in the planning phase.

"Work on Polaris is progressing – its development team is nearing a major milestone which will mark the end of the preproduction phase," Nowakowski said. 

"The first half of the year was also a busy period for our Boston studio, which is laying the groundwork for Project Orion – a new game set in the Cyberpunk universe."

In a separate earnings call covered by VGC, Nowakowski reaffirmed that work on the studio's ongoing projects is "pretty stable" and that they "have been progressing at a consistent pace."

"The Polaris team is maintaining the right scale to enter the production phase very soon, while our work on both announced and unannounced projects is steadily progressing," the CEO added.

Polaris was announced in March 2022 and will kick off a new saga for the role-playing game (RPG) series. As of July 31, 2024, it's now being worked on by 410 developers, which was predicted by CDPR CEO Adam Kiciński last year. 

As for Project Orion, the next Cyberpunk game will be made by the developers responsible for fine-tuning Cyberpunk 2077 and designing Phantom Liberty team and was said to be in the conceptual design phase during October 2023. 

Cyberpunk 2077's quest director Paweł Sasko, now associate game director of the sequel, revealed this summer that the game is being worked on by former modders.

"Half of the quest team [on the next Cyberpunk] - this is the team that builds the quests which is at 24 people right now - are former modders," Sasko said. "[They come] from Witcher, Cyberpunk, and other games."

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Don't lose hope, Metal Gear fans! Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots may still come to PC and current-gen consoles. 

Last year, Konami released the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, featuring the first five games in the popular action-stealth franchise, including Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Ever since, fans have been eager for the studio to re-release Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid 4 next, which has lived on the PlayStation 3 since its launch in 2008. 

They're also hoping for a Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, considering the fact that they discovered placeholder buttons for Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the official website in June last year.

Now, in a new interview with IGN, Konami producer Noriaki Okamura has strongly suggested that the company is planning to do just that. 

"We definitely are aware of this situation with MGS4," Okamura said, when asked whether Metal Gear Solid 4 could potentially see a modern release. 

"Unfortunately we can't really say too much at the moment with Vol. 1 containing MGS 1-3 dot dot dot… you can probably connect the dots!

"Right now we still are internally concerned about what we should be doing for the future of the series. So sorry, we can't really reveal anything at the moment. But stay tuned!"

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is currently available to play on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S, which means that a potential Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 could see Metal Gear Solid 4 make its multi-platform jump for the first time in 16 years. 

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A new Star Wars Outlaws patch released specifically for PlayStation 5 has affected some players' save files.

Last night, Ubisoft sent out an email to certain PS5 players and informed them that they are required to install the latest patch intended to address a series of bugs, as well as implement a 40FPS mode, which seemingly wasn't present in some copies at launch.

However, the publisher noted that Patch 1.000.002 may cause save files to become corrupted and advised players to start fresh otherwise they'll be faced with game-progression issues.

"To best experience the Outer Rim, we rolled out a maintenance to make sure everyone is playing the latest version of the game," the email reads (via IGN). "As one of the players affected who had access to an older version of the game, we are aware you might be encountering some issues after this recent patch. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. 

"Once you’ve confirmed you have the latest version, please start a new save to fully enjoy Star Wars Outlaws as our team intended. If you continue on a prior save you will unfortunately face issues and progression blockers."

Massive Entertainment's open-world Star Wars game is now available three days ahead of its official August 30 release date for those who purchased the Gold Edition for $109.99 / £94.99 or the Ultimate Edition for $129.99 / £114.99.

Players affected by the latest patch, and put in hours of game time during the access period, will now be forced to begin their adventure all over again.

"Bit of a bummer because I spent several hours in it last night and restarting would kill a lot of hype for the game for me," one Reddit user wrote. 

Another said, "I’m disgusted. Paid $110 and played all night, 12 hour stretch. This is how Ubi thanks us??"

Ubisoft has since released another statement (via GamesRadar) that provides some additional context into the matter, as well as offered compensation rewards for PS5 players affected by the issue, including a trinket for their ship and Ubisoft Connect Units.

"On August 27, our teams identified an issue where some PS5 players were playing on a previous version of the game," a Ubisoft spokesperson said. "We quickly deployed an update and informed affected players to ensure their game was updated to the latest version (1.000.002) and advised that they begin a new save to avoid additional issues and progression blockers. 

"We've followed up with affected PS5 players today to inform them we have provided them an in-game Trailblazer trinket as well as 100 Ubisoft Connect Units (to redeem for in-game rewards, for example) to make their return to the Outer Rim a little more special."

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Sorry, PSVR 2 owners. It looks like Astro Bot won't be getting any support for the VR headset.

This was confirmed in an interview with the upcoming game's creative director, Nicolas Doucet. MinnMax's Ben Hanson posed the question as to whether Astro Bot will make it to PSVR 2, to which Doucet replied: "no chance," adding that "it would be a different game."

While this is probably not the answer many PSVR 2 owners would've wanted to hear, it's understandable. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission for the original PlayStation VR was designed from the ground up for the headset, meaning many of its gameplay elements could only work in VR. Much like Astro's Playroom before it, Team Asobi seems set on developing the best console experience that it can.

In better news, Doucet doesn't shut down the possibility of a PC version of Astro Bot somewhere down the line. When asked if he has a message for PC players who'd like to play the game, Doucet replies: "Well, we want to hear from you. Absolutely, we want to hear from you." Not a concrete yes, then, but at least the door is open there.

Astro Bot is slated to launch exclusively on PlayStation 5 on September 6. A full-fledged 3D platformer that celebrates PlayStation's rich history while also making full use of the DualSense wireless controller's functionality. 

The game is also set to feature more than 150 PlayStation character cameos. Like previous games in the series, such as Astro's Playroom, we're expecting plenty of deep cuts here - which has us excited.

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The latest reports on a potential PS5 Pro are stating that the mid-gen refresh console is still on track for a release this year and yes, it'll likely cost you an arm and a leg.

As reported by GameSpot, the reports come from reporter Jeff Grubb, who spoke about the PS5 Pro in a recent episode of the Game Mess Mornings podcast. During the episode, Grubb stated that: "The last I heard, this thing [PS5 Pro] is still coming out this year."

Grubb also remarks that a State of Play presentation could be airing soon: "More recently, what I've heard is there is probably going to be a State of Play, not a Showcase, by the end of September," he says.

To be clear, Grubb does not specify whether or not the PS5 Pro will make its debut at this potential State of Play presentation. But there is certainly a possibility of it if the PS5 Pro is set to launch in the coming months; most likely over the Holiday season. Lastly, Grubb estimates that the PS5 Pro could cost around $600, but isn't ruling out a price as high as $700 for the upgraded hardware.

If Sony is set to launch a PS5 Pro this year, it would have beaten Microsoft to the punch in terms of mid-range refresh releases. Team Green does have new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S hardware on the way, including an all-digital Xbox Series X, a white variant of the 1TB Xbox Series S, and a special edition Series X with 2TB of storage and a unique galaxy pattern. We've even got a new Xbox console pre-order guide for those machines due to launch in October if you're keen to get one of those new models.

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Amazon Prime Gaming members can now claim three Lord of the Rings games free of charge. 

To celebrate the upcoming release of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 on August 29, Amazon is now offering subscribers the chance to add three games inspired by the Tolkien universe to their collections. 

The exclusive offer is running from today through September 30, 2024, with each title being offered a code for either GOG or access via Amazon Luna.

Those subscribed to Amazon Prime, which automatically unlocks the Prime Gaming benefit, can head over to PrimeGaming.com, log in to their account, and simply claim the three following games at no extra cost.

• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition - GOG
• LEGO The Lord of the Rings - GOG 
• Middle-earth: Shadow of War - Amazon Luna in supported countries

While Lego The Lord of the Rings is inspired by the popular film trilogy, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War are spin-off action-adventure role-playing games (RPG) featuring an original narrative. 

If you're not already a Prime member, you can currently claim a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime to get access to these games. Just like a regular membership, you'll get access to a ton of discounts, including savings on free delivery and access to other Amazon services like Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Gaming, and more.

You can see the very best prices on an Amazon Prime subscription or claim your free trial below.

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LocalThunk has released a free update for its roguelike card game Balatro, featuring decks inspired by The Witcher, Vampire Survivors, Dave The Diver, and Among Us.

The announcement kicked off today's Nintendo Direct IndieWorld Partner Showcase, where it was revealed that the free Balatro: Friends of Jimbo update is now available across all platforms, which includes PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. 

From the gameplay trailer, which you can see below, it looks like each new deck included in the free update will feature themed cards inspired by their respective collaborations.

For instance, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt deck includes cards with designs based on the series' main characters, Geralt of Rivia and Yennefer of Vengerberg. It seems that the Vampire Survivors, Dave The Diver, and Among Us decks will also feature characters and locations drawn from their games, too.

LocalThunk also seemed to tease that additional Balatro collaborations will arrive in the future, as the end of the trailer hints, "That will do... for now", suggesting even more to come.

Balatro launched earlier this year and is a roguelike card game inspired by poker with satisfying deckbuilding mechanics, boss battles, an in-depth campaign mode with eight difficulties, as well as challenge and seeded runs. 

"Combine valid poker hands with unique Joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds," the description reads. "Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncovering hidden bonus hands and decks as you progress. You’re going to need every edge you can get in order to reach the boss blind, beat the final ante, and secure victory."

It's among Steam's most popular games of 2024 and is sitting at an "Overwhelming Positive" rating with over 41,140 reviews.

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