In the grand tradition of starting these roundups by talking about the weather, it’s been a rather wet and miserable end to the week, especially after a brief Indian summer.
Thankfully, we’re here with our weekly gaming news summary, so you can grab a hot drink and a blanket and read through what’s been happening in the gaming world for the last seven days or so.
Here’s our roundup of the best stories you need to know about in the gaming world from the last week!
Splatoon 3 isn’t getting any more updates
It looks like Nintendo might be about to move on to the next era of Splatoon, because Splatoon 3 isn’t getting any more major updates, according to a tweet (sorry, “post”) by the company this week.
Regular events will still continue, though, and you’ll still be able to take part in things like the Big Run and Monthly Challenges. Servers will also remain available.
This is likely happening ahead of Nintendo ramping up development on the next Splatoon instalment, which will almost certainly be made for the upcoming Switch 2 rather than the original Switch.
EA’s Skate reboot finally gets a release…window
EA has been working on its Skate reboot alongside development studio Full Circle for some time now, and this week, we finally got some news about when we can expect it to arrive.
Full Circle and EA say that Skate will arrive sometime next year, and that it’ll be an Early Access title as well, so you shouldn’t expect it to be a complete release when it does come along.
To be honest, we’re a little disappointed that a game which has been in the works for so long needs to be Early Access, but we understand the demands of modern game development.
The Sims 5 isn’t happening
In more EA news, the company confirmed this week that there won’t be a Sims 5, at least not as you might expect there to be. Instead, EA is ditching sequential Sims releases in favour of a more fluid live-service model.
Instead of creating a new Sims game, EA will update The Sims 4 with new features and content, and it’ll also introduce major initiatives like the mysterious “Project Rene”, which, it seems, will be a Sims 4 feature rather than The Sims 5.
It truly is a sign of the times that we’re not getting numbered Sims games anymore, but honestly, we’ve been expecting a change like this ever since The Sims went free-to-play.
Square Enix says Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth sales didn’t “meet expectations”
In an announcement that we’re sure many have been expecting for some time, Square Enix admitted this week that sales of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 didn’t “meet expectations”.
The news comes from a briefing that was released to the public this week, but that actually happened back in May, and during that briefing, CEO Takashi Kiryu admitted that the two games fell short of the company’s hopes.
He didn’t go into much more detail than that, though, so we don’t know exactly why the two games weren’t up to snuff sales-wise, nor do we know what Square Enix’s expectations for the games actually were.
Switch 2 designs supposedly leaked
You should, as always, take this one with a big grain of salt, but supposedly, designs for Nintendo’s upcoming and hotly-anticipated Switch 2 were leaked this week.
The designs seem to show a console that – surprise surprise – looks very similar to the original Switch, although it does have a bigger screen and a seemingly magnetic attachment for the Joy-Con controllers.
Hopefully, the new Switch will be backwards compatible with original Switch games, because if it isn’t, we can’t imagine Nintendo will be able to gain much of a foothold.
Nintendo is suing Palworld’s Pocketpair
In other Nintendo news, the company announced this week that it is filing a lawsuit against the developer of creature-focused survival game Palworld.
The company’s statement says that the lawsuit is over the infringement of “multiple patent rights”, with Nintendo seeking “an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages”.
Pocketpair subsequently responded to the lawsuit, pledging to fight against Nintendo even if it took up valuable company resources that could otherwise be used for development.
Concord’s director has reportedly stepped down
Remember Concord, the infamous live-service flop that died a death the same week Sony’s joyous platformer Astro Bot was due to be released?
Well, according to a new report, Ryan Ellis, the director of that game, has stepped down amid doubt regarding what exactly lies in store for Concord in the future.
It seems that nobody knows exactly what’s waiting for Concord around the corner, but given that the game reportedly cost somewhere in the region of $400 million, we can’t imagine its failure bodes well for Sony or developer Firewalk.
God of War Ragnarok finally lets you tone down your companions
One of God of War Ragnarok’s biggest problems, in our opinion, was its overreliance on companions telling you exactly how to solve puzzles that weren’t exactly brainteasers.
Well, in the game’s new PC release, it’s possible to tone down Atreus and Mimir’s comments about how to solve puzzles thanks to a new option in the settings menu. That option is also coming to console at some point.
We can’t tell you how excited we are to finally be allowed to get on with God of War Ragnarok on our own, although we’re dismayed to find that you can’t tell them to shut up completely.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii announced
To close out the week, Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio announced its newest project, which stars series regular Goro Majima.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii will give Majima command of his very own pirate ship and crew; it’s essentially Like a Dragon: Black Flag.
If the idea of Majima causing chaos on the high seas with Devil May Cry-style combat doesn’t get your blood pumping, then we don’t know what will.
