It’s time for our second news roundup of the month, and as is usually the case, there’s plenty to chew on. The gaming industry never sleeps, after all, so neither must we!
If you want to know everything that’s been going on in the world of gaming over the last seven days or so, then you’ve very much come to the right place, so grab a chair and a drink and let’s begin our roundup!
Three major Tekken series characters are returning for Tekken 8 Season 3
It’s almost time for Tekken 8’s third season, and as part of that season’s DLC offerings, three major franchise characters will be making a triumphant return (although you will, of course, have to buy them).
In spring, ninja kunoichi character Kunimitsu will be joining Tekken 8’s roster, and she’ll be joined by rotund fighter Bob in summer and buff kangaroo Roger Jr. in autumn.
Finally, in winter, there will be a fourth surprise fighter being added to Tekken 8’s lineup, along with a brand new stage. It’s probably going to be a while before we know who that is, though.
Cairn has sold an impressive number of copies
Have you heard of Cairn, The Game Bakers’ new climbing sim? Perhaps you’ve picked it up and you’re currently happily playing it. If you are, then you’re far from alone, as the developer revealed this week.
Within Cairn’s first week on sale, the game managed to sell 300,000 copies, which is a pretty good figure to reach if you’re an indie game that hasn’t got the same level of marketing behind it as the typical triple-A behemoth.
We’re hoping Cairn goes from strength to strength from here. You hear that, Game Bakers? We’re rooting for you!
The Switch is now Nintendo’s best-selling console ever
The Nintendo Switch has officially overtaken the DS in order to become the gaming company’s best-selling console of all time, a result that we all perhaps expected.
That’s according to Nintendo’s latest financial results presentation, which covers the period between March and December and which reveals that the Switch has now surpassed the DS’ lifetime sales.
The Switch hasn’t been discontinued yet, either, despite the appearance of the Switch 2, so there’s every chance that the console will continue going from strength to strength, even as its successor dominates the landscape.
Epic has released its yearly Epic Games Store review
It’s been a good week for stats nerds, as Epic released its yearly Epic Games Store review this week, and it contains some fascinating statistics about how the store is being used by gamers.
Epic says that more than 317 million users accessed the store this year, and that players spent a total of 6.65 billion hours playing games via EGS.
It should be noted, however, that Fortnite is only playable if you’re using the Epic Games Store on PC, so that’s almost certainly inflating Epic’s numbers a little bit on this front.
Suda51 says he doesn’t use AI
Legendary gaming auteur Suda51 told Eurogamer this week that he and his studio Grasshopper Manufacture don’t use AI during the course of development.
Suda51, whose real name is Goichi Suda, told the publication that he always feels “off” when he sees images or video generated by AI, and so he and his company aren’t interested in it for game creation.
He also made a claim about parent company NetEase mandating a lack of AI on the part of its developers, but that claim was sadly later debunked by NetEase itself.
Both Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 didn’t do so well
According to a report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier this week, Obsidian Entertainment’s RPGs Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 didn’t do so well for the studio, and one of those franchises is probably dead from here on out.
Studio head Feargus Urquhart told Schreier that the studio wasn’t interested in working on any more Outer Worlds games for the time being, although there will be more games in the Avowed universe.
One game that did prove a big hit for Obsidian, however, was Grounded 2, so you can very much expect development on that to continue, and a Grounded 3 seems like an inevitability to us as well.
Borderlands 4 probably isn’t coming to Switch 2 at all
It’s unlikely that first-person shooter Borderlands 4 will be making its way to the Switch 2 anytime soon, developer Gearbox and parent company Take-Two have revealed.
Development on the Switch 2 version has been indefinitely paused so that Gearbox can focus on adding new content to the existing releases, according to a Take-Two spokesperson.
That decision makes a lot of sense to us; given Borderlands 4’s poor performance on other systems, the Switch 2 would almost certainly struggle to run the game from a technical standpoint.
Nintendo holds a Partner Direct with a bunch of new Switch 2 and Switch games
Lots and lots of games are coming to Switch 2 and Switch in the near future, it turns out, which we learned thanks to a Nintendo Direct presentation this week.
The show featured new looks at projects like Pragmata and Resident Evil Requiem on Switch 2, as well as reveals for a host of other titles, including Bethesda hits Fallout 4 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
There wasn’t much in the way of completely new announcements, but the Switch 2 will almost certainly benefit from the ports revealed during the show.
Horizon Hunters Gathering is a brand new Horizon spinoff
If you wish Horizon and Monster Hunter would finally put their long-awaited (and sadly not yet actually announced) crossover into action, then Horizon Hunters Gathering should tide you over.
It’s a new spinoff from developer Guerrilla Games, and it focuses on a series of more bite-sized and replayable missions in which you and your team will take down big ol’ robot enemies.
The game won’t be coming out for a while, we expect, but there should at least be a few opportunities to take part in some beta tests between now and release.
