February may be the shortest month of the year, but it certainly was not short on video game news and releases this year. Among other things, a new challenger entered the ring to be crowed best Battle Royale, Xbox Live is seemingly branching out, Nintendo blessed us with TWO Directs, a veritable mountain of awaited games released, an icon announced he was hanging up his hat, and a studio that used to be on top of the world may be finding themselves a victim of their own success.
And another company forgot how to use Google.
With the amount of news this month, The Wrap will be in officially in two parts! Read on for the second half of this month’s news, quick hits, and if you missed part one, that’s right here.
Nintendo Offers Up Juicy Tidbits
The folks at Nintendo offered up a whole lot of news to spice up the summer months during their latest presentation on the 13th of the month.
21 different games were showcased in one way or another, with Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition being the featured games of the Direct. The eagerly awaited Three Houses, the first Fire Emblem game on a console since 2007, will release on July 26th, and the Switch version of Dragon Quest X! will launch in the fall, boasting new stories, and the ability to switch between HD and 16-bit visuals among other new changes.
Other notable stories from the Direct included the announcement of Super Mario Maker 2 heading to the Switch in June, a free co-op update (and paid DLC) for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker in March, a demo for Yoshi’s Crafted World, and Zelda: Link’s Awakening, the 1993 Game Boy classic, is being released for the Switch.
Two PlayStation 4/Xbox One games will also be making their way to the Nintendo platform this year; the 4 vs 1 horror game Dead by Daylight, and the critically acclaimed Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.
An Icon Rides Off Into the Sunset
On February 21st, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Amie announced that he would be hanging up his hat to spend more time with friends and family.
He became a household name in 2004, when, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo that year, he took the stage for Nintendo, introducing himself by saying “My name is Reggie. I’m about kicking ass. I’m about taking names. And we’re about making games.” He would inspire many a meme after that (https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/02/23/best-reggie-fils-aime-moments), and arguably helped user Nintendo into a new renaissance period.
In a heartfelt message, Fils-Amie said that “Nintendo owns a part of my heart forever,” and calls out the community at large with appreciation. “It’s a part that is filled with gratitude – for the incredibly talented people I’ve worked with, for the opportunity to represent such a wonderful brand, and most of all, to feel like a member of the world’s most positive and enduring gamer community. As I look forward to departing in both good health and good humor, this is not ‘game over’ for me, but instead ‘leveling up’ to more time with my wife, family and friends.”
Doug Bowser, NOA’s current Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will then succeed Reggie as President of Nintendo of America, and he had nothing but love for his outgoing boss. “It has been my great fortune to work with and be mentored by Reggie for four years at Nintendo of America, and rest assured, we will continue to build on his work to evolve and expand our brand, furthering Nintendo’s global mission of creating smiles. There are millions more of those to come.”
We still have a month with Reggie gracing our Nintendo Directs; his last day will be April 15th.
THQ Goes Around The Bend?
When a big title releases from a studio, it’s common to see developers reach out on sites like Twitter and Reddit to engage fans and hype the new release, which is what THQ Nordic had in mind when sister studio Deep Silver (they’re both owned by Koch Media) released Metro Exodus earlier in the month. However, in news of the strange and head-scratching, the PR team at THQ Nordic decided it would be a good idea to hold an AMA (Ask Me Anything)…on 8chan of all places.
You may be asking, ‘WTF is 8chan?’ If it’s any indication as to its place on the gross-meter, the website won’t even appear on a Google search. It has played host to a series of controversies, including linking to child pornography, Gamergate, being actively involved in the practice of swatting, and even attempting to smear Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reputation in the 2016 Presidential Election.
So, yeah. Just the place to give legitimacy to!
When asked by Gamesindustry.biz if there was a reason they continued with the AMA after the backlash on Twitter began, Philipp Brock, THQ Nordic’s Public Relations and Marketing Director, answered “I was fucking overwhelmed with a plethora of different emotions to be honest.”
Sobble! Scorbunny! Grookey!
Nintendo held a second Direct in the month of February, officially announcing the eighth generation of Pokemon games; Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. The RPG is slated for release in late 2019, and introduces a new region to the game, Galar.
Not much in the way of real, hard information was offered during the Direct, but enough to keep Poke fans thirsting for more. Your starter will be one of three equally adorable Pokemon; the grass-type Grookey, the fire-type Scorbunny, and the (most adorable) water-type Sobble. Sword and Shield look to retain the animation style of of the Let’s Go games that released last year, Pokemon and environments will be rendered in 3D.
Most importantly, this will be a return to the mainline Pokemon games of old. “It is not an entry game,” Tzunekazu Ishihara told Famitsu magazine, “but a game that we want long term fans of the Pokemon series to look forward to.”
Quick Hits
- Epic Games and the Marshmello threw a party in Fortnite the first weekend in February, featuring a set from the EDM producer/DJ. Held at the Pleasant Park location on the Battle Royale map, according to a Tweet from Marshmello himself, 10 million players watched.
- Overwatch players will find themselves going to Europe again as Blizzard rolled out a new map. An assault map, it marks the first new map to the game since Busan in late September of 2018, and it’s the first new Assault map since June 2017, when Blizzard released the Horizon Lunar Colony map.
- Ubisoft hosted a private beta for their upcoming online shooter The Division 2 in February, with the full game due out on March 15th
- October 2018 was a competitive month for video games, and EA’s Battlefield V seemed to fall victim to it. CEO Andrew Wilson said the company sold 7.3 million copies; about a million fewer than they had expected in an earnings call in early February. The game, which launched without a Battle Royale mode, faced stiff competition from Fortnite, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Blackout, and the long-awaited Red Dead Redemption 2.
- EA also announced they’re not done with certain IP’s in their portfolio. On the same earnings call when they announced Battlefield V had not met expectations, EA’s Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen broke the news that at least three sequels will make an appearance this year; a “Titanfall experience,” as well as a new Plants vs. Zombies and a new entry in the Need for Speed franchise.
- A team of four Telltale Games alumni founded their own studio in February, called AdHoc Studio. According to Variety, the team isn’t ready to talk about its first project, they have hinted that they’ll carry on Telltale’s legacy with an interactive experience.
- Gearbox Software, developers of the Borderlands series, as well as that one game no one talks about anymore, is teasing a reveal at PAX East. After several years and several events where rumors ran rampant we were getting a Borderlands 3 reveal, we’ll see.
On Tap: March
March has a few notable releases, including Dead or Alive 6, Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn, The Division 2, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Yoshi’s Crafted World. There are also a few events happening as well, including GDC (Game Developers Conference) 2019 in San Francisco, and the yearly South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. PAX East will also be sweeping into Boston at the end of the month!
What was your favorite bit of gaming news for the month? Are you becoming a Legend in Apex Legends, destroying everything in your path in Crackdown 3, exploring post-apocalyptic Russia in Metro Exodus, or still rocking out Kingdom Hearts or Resident Evil from last month? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter!