Making the best of a not-wonderful situation Some people who helped crowdfund theWonderful 101Kickstarter campaignare going to find themselves with one more copy of the game than they intended. It’s a make-good for Platinum — through no fault of its own — not quite being able to deliver on its promise. Platinum has announced that the physical release ofThe Wonderful 101: Remasteredhas been delayed because of manufacturing difficulties raised by COVID-19....

How are those ‘surprise mechanics’ working out? Video game players are expected to have spent an approximate $20 billion on in-game loot boxes by 2025. That’s the finding of a new report from the number-crunchers at Juniper Research. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Juniper Research ascertains that around 230 million players – or roughly 5% of the entire gaming community – will have laid down dollar for some form of “mystery” microtransaction, with the institute predicting an average loot box revenue growth of around 5% each year – though the report does suggest that sales will inevitably fall with players growing weary of the mechanic, as well as the ever-increasing likelihood of global government legislation....

Alpha 15 brings new support for community mods Prison Architectwas one of the first games to appear on Steam’s Early Access category and I think it’s the game that’s been best suited for the service. There’s been a steady stream of updates since April and Alpha 15 is one of the best so far. There’s been a big improvement in the performance of the game, specifically when it’s a large map with a lot of prisoners present....

Sony has been granted a temporary injunction against the new PS3 mod known as PS Jailbreak in Australia. The ban Down Under is through the end of August, which gives Sony a bit of time to get their case together for a permanent ban on the chip. It looks like Sony is already hard at work trying to keep the piracy at bay. For now, Aussies, there’s a no-go on chips for you, as the import and sale of the PS Jailbreak is totally shut down....

3D entertainment was all the rage in the nineties, and it gave rise to some shamelessly obvious 3D movies likeFreddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, where things needlessly flew at the screen in an embarrassingly contrived manner. If you want to relive those memories of blatant gimmickry, know that Sonyis working onmaking it happen by 2009. According to Neil Schneider, CEO of “3D advocacy group” Meant to be Seen, Sony “fully intends” on integrating stereoscopic 3D visuals into its games and Blu-ray movies over the course of the next year....

Mine fallen giants At the PlayStation gamescom 2014 conference, Dylan Cuthbert ofPixelJunkmaker Q-Games announced his return to 3D games “with a bit of a bang.” The studio is collaborating with SCEE Worldwide Studios onThe Tomorrow Children, an “experience that’s a little bit outside of the box.” In another future, the human race is trapped and it’ll need to work together to fight against giant spiders and monsters. That’ll be accomplished through resource gathering and base building, played from a third-person perspective....

Not a redemption; that’s the game’s title Creative Bytes Studioshas announcedtheir next game,Return to Grace, a sci-fi adventure about restoring an AI. It’s set to release on June 04, 2025. What’s that? You don’t want to save an AI because they might steal someone’s job? Understandable. But what if it’s a ‘60s interpretation of an AI? If that’s more your speed, then step into the boots of Adamari “Adie” Ito, and get ready for a retro-futuristic adventure....

Gotta go fast With theOmega Collection, Sony has assembledWipEout HD(PS3),WipEout Fury(the expansion toHD), andWipEout 2048(PS Vita), touching them up to feel more at home on PlayStation 4. You probably don’t need me to tell you that it’s a must-play for long-time fans, so I’ll just add that even if you have little to no nostalgia for these anti-gravity racers, this is a tremendously good value. WipEout Omega Collection(PS4 [reviewed on PS4 Pro])Developer: Clever Beans, EPOS Game StudiosPublisher: Sony Interactive EntertainmentReleased: June 6, 2017MSRP: $39....

SNK’s blood-gushing classics return Retro-game enthusiasts Hamster have launched the latest title’s in their ongoing range of classic Neo Geo titles. This week sees the sword and sorcery ofSamurai Shodown IIavailable for the Nintendo Switch, while PS4 and Xbox One owners can pick up its direct sequel,Samurai Shodown III. Samurai Shodown IIoriginally launched in the arcades and on the Neo Geo platform in 1994. Overhauling almost every element of the original title’s gameplay, SSII include new evasive movement and a new meter system, as well as popularising both the Hop and Parry elements we still see in many fighters today....

Wring ’em out THQ is totally bankrupt, but Sega is still suing them for $941,710.93, to be exact. That is money from Steam pre-orders ofCompany of Heroes 2. If you’re curious,these Delaware court documents lay it all out.Almost 21,000 pre-orders for this RTS game were purchased via Steam. After Valve took their cut, there was about $1 million left over. Now Sega, as owners of developer Relic Entertainment, are filing a claim to get their money....

Crying symbol of Europe WhenSouth Parkcreators Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided they wanted to make a game, Obsidian was on their list. “We got this phone call about ‘hey do we want to talk to the South Park guys?’ and we were like, ‘Yeah,right,'” Feargus Urquhart explains in a lengthy interview withEurogamer. “I call back and it was, ‘No, no, we’reactuallySouth Park.'” This was 2009.The Stick of Truthhas been a long time coming, what with THQ going under, Ubisoft buying the rights, and a general air of concern about the game’s development....

Lots of hostess club talk The PlayStation team visited Tokyo earlier this year to chat with a pair ofYakuzadevelopers (General Director Toshihiro Nagoshi and Producer Masayoshi Yokoyama), in anticipation forYakuza 5‘s digital worldwide release later this year. This episode focuses in on combat, hostess clubs, and specific character designs. Man I love this series, and can’t wait to playYakuza 5— I hope it does well enough to see moreYakuzain the west from here on out....

But it could’ve done better The Nintendo Switch is sill red hot, nearly doubling it’s sales the previous week reaching 73,231 sales. There is a large gap between first and second place as the PlayStation 4, sitting at number two, moved 22,822 units. I’m curious to see just how much the Switch sales surge whenMario Odysseyreleases. On the software end,The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IIIlaunched on top of the charts with 87,261....