This week saw the airing of the annual Game Awards ceremony, and it was a doozy of a show this year, with plenty of new announcements and surprises to sink our teeth into.
Whether it’s revivals of classic Capcom franchises, PC ports of critically-acclaimed PlayStation games, or unexpected followups to top-selling action RPGs you’re after, this year’s Game Awards had plenty for you.
Other things have been happening this week, of course, but the Game Awards have dominated the discourse, so without further ado, let’s take a look at what’s been going on in the gaming world!
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is going offline
In what might be the week’s least unexpected piece of news, Rocksteady and Warner Bros are finally killing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League…after a fashion.
Announcing the news on the game’s website, Warner Bros and Rocksteady say that the game’s fourth season, which starts in January, will be its last.
All is not lost, though; the new Offline Mode means you’ll be able to play Suicide Squad without an internet connection, so if for some reason you want to play it and you still haven’t picked it up, you can still do so.
Itch.io gets into a fight with Funko
This week, indie site Itch.io was taken down for several hours thanks to a phishing claim apparently made by software used by the collectible company Funko.
As Itch owner Leaf Corcoran tells it, Funko works with an AI-powered brand protection company called BrandShield, and it was that very company that issued the phishing claim on Funko’s behalf.
Interestingly, both Funko and BrandShield have denied wanting to take down the Itch.io domain as a whole; instead, they say they issued a takedown notice for a specific Funko Fusion fan page on the site.
December’s PlayStation Plus Extra games revealed
Sony revealed which games PlayStation Plus subscribers can expect to enjoy in December this week, and there are some big names on the list.
Extra subscribers can look forward to games like Forspoken, Jurassic World Evolution 2, and Sonic Frontiers this month, as well as smaller titles like Coffee Talk and F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch.
Premium members, meanwhile, can enjoy the likes of classic PS2 platformer Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and two of Sucker Punch’s classic Sly Cooper titles.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and The Last of Us Part 2 get PC release dates
In the first of this week’s Game Awards roundup stories, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and The Last of Us Part 2 both got PC release dates during this year’s ceremony.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be arriving on PC on January 23rd, which really isn’t too far away at all, while The Last of Us Part 2 will be getting its PC launch on April 3rd.
In the case of Final Fantasy, publisher Square Enix is doubtless hoping that the PC release will shore up some sales, given that the game apparently underperformed on its native PS5.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a multiplayer co-op survival game coming in 2025
FromSoftware announced Elden Ring Nightreign during the Game Awards, directly contradicting something the studio’s head Hidetaka Miyazaki had said just days before.
Miyazaki had claimed that there would be no new Elden Ring game anytime soon, but Nightreign proves him wrong, although it doesn’t seem like a bona fide Elden Ring 2.
Instead, it’s a multiplayer-focused co-op game that also looks like it’ll be drawing in enemies and influences from previous Souls games, and it’s due out sometime next year, apparently.
The Witcher 4 will star Geralt’s adoptive daughter Ciri
CD Projekt Red revealed a trailer for The Witcher 4 at the Game Awards, and it’ll shift its protagonist from longtime main character Geralt to his adoptive daughter Ciri.
In the trailer, we see Ciri dealing with a monster that appears to be demanding sacrifices from a nearby village, and many of the villagers aren’t happy with Ciri’s interference.
It’s probably going to be quite some time before The Witcher 4 is released, but the trailer promises more of what we loved about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, so we’re excited.
Onimusha and Okami are getting new games
The PlayStation Plus lineup isn’t the only reason to feel nostalgic if you’re a gamer from the PS2 days this week, because the Game Awards held two new Capcom surprises in that department.
First up, hack and slash franchise Onimusha is getting a new game in Way of the Sword, which looks exactly like what you’d expect from an Onimusha game (in the best possible way).
In somewhat more unexpected news, Hideki Kamiya’s wonderful Okami is also getting a sequel, and Kamiya himself will also be returning to direct.
Final Fantasy 16’s Clive is coming to Tekken 8
New DLC was revealed for Tekken 8 during this year’s Game Awards in the form of Final Fantasy 16’s protagonist Clive, who’ll be joining the game’s roster soon.
Clive will serve as the last character in Tekken 8’s first season pass, which also brought fighters like Eddy Gordo and Lidia into the mix.
He’s not the first Final Fantasy character to battle Tekken fighters, either; Tekken 7 also offered up Final Fantasy 15’s protagonist Noctis as one of its own downloadable combatants.
Naughty Dog’s next game is a sci-fi action-adventure
In what is perhaps an understandable break from where its collective head has been for the last couple of years, Naughty Dog announced its new project at the Game Awards, and it doesn’t look like The Last of Us at all.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, as well as sporting the kind of title that wouldn’t look out of place on PS1 box art, is a sci-fi adventure with an all-new protagonist and what appears to be hack-and-slash-style gameplay.
The game will see you exploring a distant planet on which communications have gone dark. It’ll be up to you to find out what happened on this planet and try to find a means of escape.
