NetEase has announced its latest game studio opening, Bad Brain Games. The studio, located in Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec, is developing “an ambitious new franchise based on a story-driven, action-adventure game,” according toNetEase. The game will be an open world, multi-platform experience built with Unreal Engine 5 and is inspired by cult 1980s movies, mixing elements of adventure and horror, it said. The studio is led by fromWatch Dogs: Legion and Driver: San Francisco producer Sean Crooks, and NetEase claims it’s already recruited a team of veteran developers who previously worked on the Watch Dogs trilogy,Far Cry2, Driver: San Francisco,Child of Light, Just Dance, Army of Two,Splinter Cell: Conviction and Blacklist....

Epic used its ‘State of Unreal’ GDC keynote to announce that a number of new and older games are headed to its Epic Games store, including upcoming exclusives such as Remedy’s Control. Set for release this summer,Controlis a supernatural third-person action-adventure game from the studio behind Quantum Break and Alan Wake. It’ll be available onPCexclusively via Epic’s digital store, while it’ll also be released onPS4andXbox One. Epic has also partnered with newTake-Twopublishing labelPrivate Division....

Early comparisons of loading times on thenew Nintendo Switch modeland the launch hardware would appear to show there’s a “negligible difference” in performance, however download times could be faster. YouTube channelGameXplaincompared the time it took to loadSuper Mario Odysseyversion 1.3 running from the internal memory of both systems. From boot, it took about 20 seconds to get to the main menu on both consoles – the new system was actually just under a second slower....

Nintendo has released three previously Japan-only Game Boy Advance games for its Nintendo Switch Online service. Three Densetsu no Starfy games (‘Legend of Starfy’) are now available to play for the first time officially in the West. As shown byNintendo’s official announcement video, the games remain in Japanese with no localisation. Developed by Kyoto-based Nintendo support studio Tose, Densetsu no Starfy are colourful platformer games in which players control the Prince of Pufftop Kingdom, a “golden-hearted (and slightly clumsy) hero” and frequent aquatic explorer....

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is set to release on April 8th 2022, according to the eShop. AlthoughNintendohas yet to publicly announce the new date, when delaying the game it did announce that the game would release in “Spring 2022”. While the desktop version of the eShop and Nintendo’s official website both still list the game as releasing in “Spring”, searching the game on theNintendo Switchconsole will reveal the new date, as seen in VGC’s screenshot below....

Nintendo has announced the formation of a new subsidiary company with DeNA Co Ltd, the Japanese firm behind many of its mobile games. The new company,NintendoSystems Co Ltd, will open in April 2023 in Tokyo, owned 80% by Nintendo, and focus on “the development and operation of services to strengthen the digitalization of Nintendo’s business.” Nintendo first partnered with the Japanese mobile firm in 2015 and acquired 15% of the overall company....

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour’s price has been revealed. The game, which was announced duringWednesday’s Nintendo Switch 2 Direct,will essentially act as a digital manual for the system, which will let players explore theSwitch2’s functionality via minigames while explaining in detail how everything works. While it was announced during the broadcast that the game would be a paid experience,Nintendohas yet to confirm the price for the title, except for in Japan....

A new game based on the Nintendo World Championships appears to have been rated by the ESRB. Nintendo World Championships: NES Editionhas received an E rating on the site. According to its description: “This is a collection of 2D challenges and platformer games in which players traverse through various modes (e.g. speedrun, survival). “Several challenges involve reaching specific points, while others prompt players to defeat small enemies or survive brief battles....

No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacture has been acquired by Chinese publisher NetEase Games. NetEase, which is the second largest games company in China behindTencent, signed an equity transfer agreement in May, and the deal will now go ahead. In a statement issued today, Grasshopper CEOGoichi Suda(aka Suda 51) said the deal will lead to “even higher quality” games from the studio going forward. “NetEase Games has developed many excellent games in the past, and I have long been aware of NetEase’s creative capabilities,” Suda said....

Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that November’s PlayStation Plus games will include three bonus PlayStation VR titles. These will be in addition to the service’s regular monthly offering, with full details on November’s PS Plus titles set to be confirmed later this month. The bonus games are being offered to coincide with PS VR’s fifth birthday today. In aPlayStation Blogpost which also includes “a trip down memory lane” with PS VR developers,Sonyrevealed the most popular games for the platform to date, based on playtime, excluding free title The Playroom VR....

Paramount is reportedly “delighted” with Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s opening weekend, which saw the movie top several overseas markets. Sonic 2 opened in Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand this weekend and grossed $25.5 million from 31 markets, according toDeadline. The movie isn’t set to debut in North America until Friday, April 8. The markets reportedly represent around half of the movie’s overseas footprint, and Paramount is said to be “delighted” with the results, which are 2% above the original movie in like-for-likes....

Activision Blizzard’s games could return to the Chinese market soon, it’s been claimed. According to Chinese market analyst CN Wire, it’s expected that a formal announcement will be made on Wednesday, reintroducingPCtitles, such asWorld of WarcraftandOverwatch 2, to the Chinese market. An image has also emerged on social media of Netease CEO Ding Lei meeting withActivision BlizzardCEO Johanna Faries, adding to the speculation. Update10th Apr 2024 / 3:51 pm Blizzard’s titles will be made available again in China,Microsoft and NetEase have confirmed....

The PlayStation Portal is getting cloud streaming, with a beta for the service launching today in select countries. The streaming service will allowPlayStationPlus Premium members to play a selection of 120 PS5 games including Dave the Diver,Ghost of Tsushima,Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales,Monster Hunter Rise, andRatchet & Clank: Rift Apart. The streaming games playable on PS Portal are limited toPlayStation 5games, withPS3andPS4games not currently supported. It’s not clear if this will change when the feature comes out of its beta test period and gets a full release....