Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: Wii U
New Releases: Street Fighter V, Fire Emblem Fates, Project X Zone 2, More
This week’s new release report has “Made in Japan” written all over it.
After upgrading and enhancing Street Fighter IV nearly half-a-dozen times, Capcom is finally ready to move on to Street Fighter V this week. The PC and PS4 fighting game will include 16 characters, and the publisher plans to add new characters to the roster every few months as downloadable content. Fans have been waiting for this one for a while, but I’m very interested to see how the Street Fighter franchise will change without the promise of a “Super” or “Ultra” expansion in the future.
Nintendo brings back another long-awaited sequel this week with the release Fire Emblem Fates on the 3DS. To give players a choice in how the story proceeds, the massive game was actually split into two parts, Birthright and Conquest, so players lead a rebellion or smash it. A third path, pitting both sides against an even greater evil, will be available as a downloadable expansion later this Spring. A beautifully-rendered New 3DS XL: Fire Emblem Fates Edition can also be picked up on store shelves, but it won’t include a copy of either Fire Emblem Fates game.
Speaking of complex strategy games on the 3DS, Fire Emblem Fates will get some competition this week from Project X Zone 2, Monolith Soft’s ridiculous quad-company crossover. Beloved characters from games published by Capcom, Bandai Namco, Sega, and Nintendo are joining forces to battle a dimension-hopping foe.
Finally this week, Nintendo will re-release Bayonetta 2 in a single-disc version that drops the Bayonetta bonus disc. If you’ve been waiting to pick up one of the best action games the Wii U has to offer, now’s your chance.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS4, Wii U
Tagged Bayonetta 2, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright/Conquest, Project X Zone 2, Street Fighter V
Splatoon’s first global Splatfest will pit Pokemon Blue fans against Pokemon Red fans
Get ready! Splatoon‘s next Splatfest is going global to celebrate Pokemon’s 20th anniversary.
For the first time ever, players in North America, Europe, and Japan will be asked to make the same choice before the Splatfest begins. And it’s one that will certainly resonate with a big portion of the game-playing public… do you prefer Pokemon Blue or Pokemon Red? Players can pledge their loyalty to either game in Inkopolis Plaza right now, with the Splatfest scheduled to begin on Saturday, February 20, at 1:00 AM (Eastern Time). Like the other Splatfests, the contest will be open for 24 hours and conclude on Sunday, February 21, at 1:00 AM (Eastern Time).
Players will get matched with other players from their region, and a winner will be chosen for each region. So what are you waiting for? Go splat ’em all!
Call of Duty: Black Ops III marches to the top of January 2016’s list of best-selling games
The NPD Group recently delivered their monthly report on the state of retail video game sales, and the market research firm once again crowned Call of Duty: Black Ops III as the best-selling game of the month. The military shooter’s January 2016 victory is its third straight, but the industry as a whole is in a bit of a slump due to last month’s lack of new releases.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, retail sales for new games totaled $212.7 million last month, down from $235.6 million in 2015. The NPD Group speculated that the lack of a highly-anticipated new title like Techland’s Dying Light might be the cause for the dip, which makes sense when you realize that only one new release, Lego Avengers, was able to crack the top ten. Across the entire industry, US consumers spent $605.2 million on games, consoles, and accessories in January 2016, which was slightly down from January 2015’s total of $627.6 million.
Grand Theft Auto V, Fallout 4, Minecraft, and a few others continue to tally impressive sales. And you can find them all in the full top ten list of January 2016’s best-selling games, which is available after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, FIFA 16, Grand Theft Auto V, Lego Avengers, Madden NFL 16, Minecraft, NBA 2K16, NPD, Star Wars: Battlefront, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
Activision confirms Skylanders 6, new Call of Duty from Infinity Ward, Destiny expansion in 2016; Destiny 2 coming in 2017
Activision revealed a first look at their 2016 release slate during today’s quarterly financial report… and you’ll never believe what they announced. Nah, I’m just kidding, even an amateur prognosticator could figure out what Activision has in store for this year.
First up, the publisher confirmed that Infinity Ward will develop the next entry in the Call of Duty franchise, which will be released this Fall. The developer’s most recent game was 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, and right now it’s unknown if they’ll continue with that story or move in a different direction. But we do the currently untitled Call of Duty 2016 will be Infinity Ward’s first in Activision’s new three-developer cycle for the series.
Activision is also aiming to launch the sixth entry in the Skylanders series in Fall 2016. Skylanders 6 is in development at Toys For Bob and will be released alongside Skylanders Academy, a new television series based on the franchise.
Bungie’s Destiny will receive more content in 2016, but don’t expect a full-fledged sequel just yet. Another “large” expansion to the original game will be released this year, and the famed developer announced they’ll launch Destiny 2 in 2017.
Finally, Blizzard got a chance to discuss their plans for 2016, but the developer just reiterated a release schedule that we’ve known for a while. Overwatch, their upcoming hero shooter, is on track for a Spring 2016 release on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. And World of Warcraft: Legion, the sixth expansion to the world’s favorite MMO, will be released this Summer, just after the June premiere of the Warcraft movie.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Destiny, Destiny 2, Overwatch, Skylanders Imaginators, World of Warcraft
Nintendo Download: Oddworld New N Tasty, Big Brain Academy, Polarium Advance, more
Nintendo is bringing some old favorites to the Wii U eShop this week, with one developer upscaling a PlayStation-era classic and Nintendo themselves adding three new titles to the Virtual Console.
Oddworld Inhabitants has been hard at work on Oddworld: New N Tasty since it made its PS4 debut in 2014. Since then, the Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee remake has launched on the PC, Xbox One, PS3, Vita, and now the Wii U. Retaining all the wacky charm of the original release, Oddworld: New N Tasty will give a new generation of gamers the chance to experience the cutting edge of 1997 game design as filtered through a 21st century production.
Nintendo will also add three titles to the Wii U’s Virtual Console this week including Big Brain Academy, a collection of brain training mind games originally released for the DS; Kuru Kuru Kururin, a maze puzzler originally released for the GBA (and available in America for the first time); and Polarium Advance, a tile-flipping puzzler also originally released for the GBA.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
A Day-By-Day Guide to All of 2016’s New Video Games (April – September)
The Spring and Summer months are currently less dense with new releases than the first three months of the year, but that should change fairly soon, especially since publishers have staked a claim to every week from the beginning of April to the end of June with at least one big new release dropping every seven days.
Are you ready? Because here… we… go… (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Features, Mobile, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Top Story, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Ark: Survival Evolved, Battleborn, Bravely Second: End Layer, Dark Souls III, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Dishonored 2, Doom (2016), Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, Fable Legends, FIFA 17, Gears of War, Homefront: The Revolution, Hyper Light Drifter, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Madden NFL 17, Mighty No. 9, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, NBA 2K17, NHL 17, No Man's Sky, Odin Sphere, Overwatch, Pikmin 4, Quantum Break, Ratchet & Clank, Star Fox Zero, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Umbrella Corps, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, World of Warcraft, Zero Escape Volume 3
Amazon launches Lumberyard, a free-to-use game development engine for PC and consoles
Amazon has been trying to break into the video game industry for years. First with their Fire Tablet, and then later with the Fire TV and the formation of Amazon Game Studios. But today the web retailer is going one step further with the launch of Lumberyard, a free-to-use 3D game engine that will attempt to compete with Unreal Engine 4 and Unity. Amazon also gave the green light to GameLift today, a paid service that offers assistance with “deploying, operating, and scaling session-based multiplayer games.”
Lumberyard is currently compatible with PC and console game development, and Amazon hopes to add support for mobile games and virtual reality experiences in a future update. In addition to a development environment that includes easy access to Amazon Web Services, the engine will be closely integrated with Twitch, the world-famous game streaming service that also happens to be owned by Amazon.
Some of Lumberyard’s other features include:
Create the Highest-Quality Games — Amazon Lumberyard helps developers build rich, engaging, world-class games—from a full-featured editor, to native code performance and stunning visuals, and hundreds of other features like performant networking, cloth physics, character and animation editors, particle editor, UI editor, audio tools, weather effects, vehicle systems, flocking AI, perception handling, camera frameworks, path finding, and more. Developers also have full access to Amazon Lumberyard source code, making it easy to customize the technology to create differentiated gameplay.
Build Live, Online Features in Minutes — Live, online games enjoy higher engagement and retention than offline games. Amazon Lumberyard’s visual scripting tool, with its drag-and-drop graphical user interface, makes it easy to build connected game features that access AWS, such as DynamoDB, Lambda, and S3. In minutes, game designers can create features such as granting a daily gift or sending in-game notifications without having to write a single line of code. Amazon Lumberyard also comes integrated with AWS’s C++ SDK to provide developers access to dozens of AWS services through native C++ code, the most common language used to make games.
Reach and Engage Fans on Twitch — Amazon Lumberyard is integrated with Twitch so that developers can build gameplay features that engage the more than 1.7 million monthly broadcasters, and more than 100 million monthly viewers on Twitch. With Amazon Lumberyard’s Twitch ChatPlay, developers can use a drag-and-drop visual scripting interface to create gameplay features that let Twitch viewers use chat to directly impact the game they are watching in real-time. For example, with Twitch ChatPlay within Amazon Lumberyard, a developer could build a game that lets viewers on Twitch control a character or vote on game outcomes using chat commands like “up,” “down,” “live,” or “die.” And, the Twitch JoinIn feature within Amazon Lumberyard helps developers build games that allow Twitch broadcasters to instantly invite their live audiences to join them side-by-side in the game, with a single click, while others continue to watch.
More information about Lumberyard and GameLift can be found at Amazon.com.
Insert Quarter: A Brief History of Platinum Games
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Platinum Games plans to release Star Fox Zero, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, and Nier: Automata in 2016. That’s a lot of games for one studio to handle, but after celebrating their tenth anniversary this year, they’ve clearly earned our trust.
Eurogamer’s Rich Stanton goes a step further and makes the case that Platinum Games might be the best Japanese developer working today. He believes the company’s unbroken string of classics (including MadWorld, Vanquish, Bayonetta, and The Wonderful 101) is nearly unmatched and that their fierce independent streak will always produce interesting results. You gotta admit, it’s kind of hard to argue with him:
[I]n recent years, Platinum Games has positioned itself as a standard-bearer for the Japanese industry, adopting the slogan: “Taking on the World as the Representative of Japan.” President and CEO Tatsuya Minami unpacked this, in a post to celebrate 10 years of Platinum Games. “Japan used to lead the worldwide video game industry, but we can’t help but feel that it has lost some of its vitality in recent years. Yet we are using this state of affairs to motivate and inspire ourselves […] We will keep up our fighting stance.”
The full article is available for your perusal at Eurogamer.