Pokémon Company statement on Palworld copyright allegations sounds a lot like “please leave us the hell alone”

The august representatives of the Pokémon Company have descended from their hilltop PokéMansion, approached the hushed masses of PokéFans with their flaming Torchics and shocked Pichaku placards, and asked everybody to please, please, please, please, please stop yelling at them about Palworld potentially breaching Pokémon’s copyright. Or at least, that’s what it sounds like they’re saying between the lines of a statement published a few hours ago, in which the Pokémon Company acknowledges messages sent by the concerned PokéFaithful about “another company’s game released in January 2024”.

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Random: It’s Been 5 Years Since Metroid Prime 4 Was Rebooted

And nearly 7 since its first announcement.

In recent years, Nintendo has become extremely efficient when it comes to announcing and releasing its games. Tears of the Kingdom aside, there has mostly been only a handful of months between the initial announcement and the release of many of the company’s major software titles.

The same, however, cannot be said for Metroid Prime 4. Initially announced on June 13th, 2017 (nearly 7 years ago), the game’s development was rebooted exactly 5 years ago, with an announcement posted on Nintendo’s YouTube channel on January 25th, 2019 from Nintendo EPD’s Shinya Takahashi (thanks, Stealth).

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PS5 Update Appears to Block Controversial Cronus Zen Device

This week’s PlayStation 5 firmware update appears to have blocked the Cronus Zen device, which lets gamers use macros and modify their controllers.

It is a controversial product, which some say gives players an unfair advantage. While the Zen is used in many competitive multiplayer games, it’s perhaps most prominent in Call of Duty, which has crossplay across PC and console. According to its website, Zen is used by over half a million people.

Call of Duty players have used unauthorised third-party hardware such as XIM and Cronus Zen to benefit from the likes of aim assist and reduced recoil while using mouse and keyboard for years. Activision said in 2023 its anti-cheat tech, Ricochet, would detect their use and bans would follow for repeat offenders.

Now, following the release of PS5 firmware update 24.01-08.60.00, Cronus has issued a statement addressing the block, and warned users not to update their console while it works on a fix.

“We’re aware of an issue with Zen and the PS5,” the statement reads. “As of January 24, the console is prompting everyone to update to Version: 24.01-08.60.00, and if you do, Zen will no longer connect to the PS5 without disconnecting. However, this update is not mandatory. Simply skip it and everything should still work with the Zen 2.2.2 update as expected.

“There is currently no timetable on a fix so please don’t be offended if you’re directed to check this notice when asking for any kind of estimated time of arrival. It could be 24 hours, 24 days, 24 months, we won’t know until we’ve dug into it.”

While Sony did not reference Cronus Zen in its update patch notes, it seems clear the firmware has targeted the product. It’s a move widely welcomed by the gaming community. The top post on the Modern Warfare 3 subreddit praised Sony: “To all Cronus users, what a bad investment huh?” SnooTigers8974 wrote. “To everyone else, have fun playing with legitimate players for once!!” “A step in the right direction,” added Individual_Plant_843.

In October 2023, Xbox banned “unauthorized” controllers and accessories. Fortnite developer Epic, Destiny developer Bungie, and Rainbow Six Seige developer Ubisoft have all done the same.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

I’m extremely here for the rise of the Golden Idol-like

Graham remarked the other day about how strange it can be to see which indie megahits spawn waves of homages and which ones don’t, noting that Lucas Pope’s Papers, Please has surprisingly few immitators. His post reminded me of Pope’s other hit, Return Of The Obra Dinn. The closest we’ve come to a “Dinn-like” is probably 2022’s outstanding The Case Of The Golden Idol, though as I said in my review, its fill-in-the-blanks murder tableaus felt just about distinct enough to be their own separate thing.

Happily, the “Golden Idol-like” appears to be having a bit of a moment of its own right now, as Playstack, the publishers of Golden Idol, have just announced the delightful-looking Little Problems, a detective game that turns its word-shuffling problem-solving to the altogether more relatable conundrums of everyday life. And I couldn’t be more here for it.

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The Pokémon Company Releases Official Statement About Palworld

“We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures”.

Palworld has been the talk of the video game space since last week and its popularity continues to rise with over eight million sales now. It’s admittedly drawn a lot of comparisons to the Pokémon series in this short time, and now it seems The Pokémon Company has issued an official statement in response.

While ‘Palworld’ isn’t directly named, The Pokémon Company notes in this statement issued on 25th January 2024 how it does not permit any use of the Pokémon IP in this game and “intends to investigate” any infringement of IP rights related to Pokémon. Here’s the statement in full:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

The Pokemon Company Makes an Official Statement on Palworld: ‘We Intend to Investigate’

The Pokemon Company has finally made an official statement regarding Palworld, saying, “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon.”

While The Pokemon Company doesn’t specifically mention Palworld by name, it is very clear this statement is in response to the incredible success the survival game is experiencing (8 million copies sold in less than six days!) and the claims that many of Palworld’s Pals are way too close to existing Pokemon.

“We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024,” The Pokemon Company wrote. “We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game. We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon. We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future.”

Prior to this statement, Palworld developer Pocketpair has insisted its game is much closer to games like Ark Survival Evolved and Vanaheim than Pokemon. Additionally, the team revealed they have been receiving death threats ever since the game went live on January 19.

In an interview with Automaton, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe shared the team cleared legal reviewing and there had been no action taken against the company for infringement.

“We make our games very seriously, and we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies,” Mizobe said.

Developing…

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Everything We Know About Capcom’s Fantasy RPG Sequel

In March, Capcom will release Dragon’s Dogma 2, the long-awaited sequel to its inventive 2012 action RPG. It’ll be the first mainline release in the open-world fantasy series in 12 years, and fans are eager to see what Capcom will bring to the table after a decade-plus of advancement in technical innovation and open-world game design.

With its release just a couple of months away and a trove of new details revealed as part of January’s IGN First coverage, we’ve put together this breakdown of everything you need to know about Dragon’s Dogma 2.

Jump to:

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Release Date

Barring a delay, Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be released on March 22, 2024.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Platforms and Price

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Steam). It is the first Capcom game to cost $70 USD.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Special Editions, Pre-Order Bonuses

In addition to the standard edition, Capcom is offering a Deluxe Edition of Dragon’s Dogma 2 for $80. It includes the following:

  • Dragon’s Dogma 2 base game
  • Explorer’s Camping Kit
  • 1,500 rift crystals (used to hire pawns or purchase special items)
  • Dragon’s Dogma Music & Sound Collection (option to “change some in-game music and sound effects to those of the original Dragon’s Dogma”)
  • Six in-game items: Wakestone, Art of Metamorphosis, Harpysnare Smoke Beacons, Ambivalent Rift Incense, Heartfelt Pendant, and Makeshift Gaol Key

Pre-ordering the standard edition of Dragon’s Dogma 2 will net you the Superior Weapons quartet: a sword, daggers, staff, and bow.

Preordering the Deluxe Edition will net you the Superior Weapons Quartet and the Ring of Assurance.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Story

The story begins in an underground gaol where the Dragon’s voice echoes in the fog of lost memories.

Ascend, Arisen, and best me, in accordance with the dogma of this world.

Betwixt the domains of human and beastren, A hero must fulfill their forgotten destiny.

What dogma does your heart see through your eyes?

‘Tis a tale of one who shall slay the Dragon and claim the throne.

Thus reads the story synopsis for Dragon’s Dogma 2, a sequel set in a parallel world that “mirrors the world setting of the original game.” Like the first game, the sequel’s story revolves around the Arisen, who embarks on a perilous journey to reclaim their stolen heart from the Dragon.

“That’s why the story of constant rebirth that’s focused around dragons,” game director Hideaki Itsuno told IGN,” as well as the various elements of the world shown in the previous game have all carried over to this one as well. That said, it does take place in a different parallel world, which is why I think there will be parts that are similar yet different.”

The world consists of two prosperous nations: Vermund, the human kingdom, where the player becomes entangled in a power struggle for the throne; and Battahl, a “rugged canyon nation” that’s home to the beastren (humanoid cats, à la The Elder Scrolls’ Khajiit) led by the preistess Nadinia. The player finds themselves caught between these two nations and their differing cultures and philosophies.

Character Creation and NPCs

In Dragon’s Dogma 2, you play as a fully customizable Arisen. Players can choose to create a human, elf, or beastren — each of which has two body types, nine base bodies per type, and countless heads on which facial features can be tweaked.

“The first idea we had was to scan nearly a hundred human faces,” said Itsuno, “then use those as a base for creating characters. This real-life data acting as our base meant that it would be easy to create realistic faces so long as you don’t apply absolutely ridiculous values to them.”

Players will encounter “a ridiculous number” of NPCs, who can give sidequests to and build relationships with your Arisen. Itsuno told IGN he wanted to create “properly details NPCs” who move throughout the world and their lives irrespective of what the player is doing.

As in the original game, NPCs in Dragon’s Dogma 2 can grow to like or dislike your playable character depending on your actions. What’s new, however, is the added layer of NPCs liking or disliking you based on your behavior toward other NPCs in their orbit. Itsuno provided the following example: “If you find a pair of friends, hitting one will cause the other to get mad at you too. Or if you do something nice for a child, the parent might thank you and like you more as well. That’s what I mean by relationships between NPCs.”

Itsuno added NPCs may also get into fights with each other if another NPCs relationship with the player threatens theirs. He noted this feature is still being finalize. If added to the final game, it may work something like this: “A character who grows close to you might come over to your house to play,” said Itsuno, “but if they meet another character there who’s done the same thing, a fight might break out. Personally, we just made the system because we wanted to be able to say, ‘Stop, don’t fight over me!’ It might be best if your readers play through the game while trying to avoid that kind of outcome.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Gameplay

Vocations and Combat

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an action-heavy RPG built around player choice and third-person combat. Combat in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is dependent on the player character’s vocation (the game’s term for what are generally known as classes). Players will start by choosing from four vocations:

  • Thief: Equipped with daggers, Thiefs are agile fighters who thrive at close range.
  • Mage: A ranged specialist, Mages can cast attack, healing, and support spells.
  • Fighter: True to its name, a Fighter is a melee specialist, equipped with a one-handed sword and shield.
  • Archer: Effective at long range, Archers are equipped with a bow and arrows with varying effects.

Should you grow wary of your vocation, or should you encounter a boss fight that requires a specific approach, you can change it throughout the game at Vocation Guilds.

As the story progresses, players will unlock Advanced Vocations:

  • Mystic Spearhead: A vocation that blends short-ranged weaponry and long-ranged magic.
  • Magick Archer: An archer equipped with magic arrows and healer/support abilities.
  • Warrior: A melee specialist that can wield powerful, two-handed weapons.
  • Sorcerer: A magic user that casts more powerful spells with their two-handed staff.
  • Trickster: A one-of-a-kind vocation, Tricksters are equipped with a ceremonial Censer and specialize in illusion-based methods of distraction.

Pawns

Returning from the original game is Dragon’s Dogma’s pawn system. Pawns are AI-controlled companions designed to make the single-player adventure feel shared. You’ll be able to travel with one player-created pawn and up to two others created by others. These downloaded pawns will come with all of their experiences from the other player’s adventure, meaning they may come equipped with gear you’ve yet to find or provide useful information about quests they’ve been through that you’ve yet to complete.

During our hands-on time with Dragon’s Dogma 2, we noted pawns (and NPCs in general) “are much better this time around at guiding the player to a quest, or pointing out areas of interest, basically themselves acting as replacements for UI elements like markers or arrows.”

A new twist on pawns in the sequel is specializations, or special abilities. For example, a pawn may have the Woodland Wordsmith specialization if their Arisen possesses that ability, allowing them, and therefore you, to translate Elvish speech or text. (The Elvish spoken/written in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an orignal language created by the game’s story writer.)

Itsuno noted the negative feedback from the first game around pawns repeating dialogue. “We’ve done whatever we can to keep pawns from repeating the same lines multiple times,” he said.

Map Size

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set in a high-fantasy world inspired by classical paintings and medieval art. Players will explore a map roughly four times larger than the original. Despite the massive size of the map, Itsuno claims there isn’t much wasted space:

“I don’t want to go too far and make people think I’m exaggerating, but we’ve placed items on the map and figured out ways to guide the player’s eye so that there aren’t any moments when they feel bored,” he said. “This is something that other action games often do as well, and one of the basic elements in such games is the ability to see your destination while being unsure of how to get there, moving from scene to scene.”

The game director likens the exploration to climbing a mountain, which he and his team did in preparation for making Dragon’s Dogma 2:

“When we climbed mountains, there were times when the closest way to the summit was a straight line there, but nobody takes those routes,” he said. “Everyone takes paths that circle around the mountain, so we’d talk about why they did that instead of using some other route, and the answer is that it looks so tough. It’s not that you want to go but can’t, it’s that you don’t even consider taking that route to begin with. That’s why there’s a number of different paths to the top, and we all take different routes to the summit.

“Nobody thinks of that as a lack of choice, right? That’s the kind of thing we talked about, saying that instead of creating a map that lets you go anywhere you want, placing areas that players won’t want to visit on it will let us decide where we want to focus on while not making the map feel any less free because users will avoid those other places, just like the mountain we were climbing.”

As far as traversing the map, players won’t be able to rely on unrestricted fast travel in Dragon’s Dogma 2. While the addition of Oxcarts, which enable travel along specific paths, adds a new wrinkle to traversal, the game is designed to be explored on foot.

“Just give it a try,” said Itsuno. “Travel is boring? That’s not true. It’s only an issue because your game is boring. All you have to do is make travel fun. That’s why you place things in the right location for players to discover, or come up with enemy appearance methods that create different experiences each time, or force players into blind situations where they don’t know whether it’s safe or not ten meters in front of them.”

In our hands-on preview of Dragon’s Dogma 2, IGN’s Mitchell Saltzman said Capcom has successfully doubled down on what made the original action RPG so unique, improving combat, exploration, and the functon of pawns. However, he noted, “After an hour of killing the usual Dragon’s Dogma rogue’s gallery of goblins, cyclops, saurians, harpies, bandits, and attempting occasional Griffin, I couldn’t help but wish that I experienced something that truly felt new in this sequel.”

That being said, our hands-on time was limited to one hour, so stay tuned for IGN’s final review to see how these pros and cons play out in the context of the full game.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Development

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is developed and published by Capcom. It’s again directed by Hideaki Itsuno, who directed the original game back in 2012. He most recently directed Devil May Cry 5 for Capcom.

The sequel was created in RE Engine “to provide an all-too-real world of fantasy, intricately crafted with gorgeous visuals,” according to Capcom. The engine has been used to develop most of Capcom’s major titles since Resident Evil 7 in 2017.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 was officially announced in 2022, though it was first spotted in a massive data breach at Capcom back in 2020.

How to Play Dragon’s Dogma 1

Let’s answer the big question up front: No, you do not have to play Dragon’s Dogma to understand or enjoy the sequel. However, Itsuno says playing the first game will help with a player’s understanding of the world and how to effectively utilize the pawn system.

The first game was initially released on PS3 and Xbox 360. However, you won’t need to dust off your old hardware to play it. An expanded version of the original, titled Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, is available on those original consoles as well as Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. This expanded edition adds 10-15 hours of content, according to our Dark Arisen review, making it the recommended way to play through the original.

Dedicated fans may also remember the Japan-exclusive MMO, Dragon’s Dogma Online, though those servers were shut down in 2019.

Those interested in more from the franchise ahead of the sequel can check out the Dragon’s Dogma anime adaptation on Netflix. IGN’s review of Netflix’s Dragon’s Dogma praised its action and visuals while knocking its “meandering plot.”

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

Review: UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes (Switch) – A Deep, Addictive Anime Fighter

EXS to impress.

Japanese developer Frenchbread’s phenomenal anime fighter, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, impressed the heck out of us when it dropped in its final revised form on Switch back in 2020. Nabbing a 9/10 score in our review, it quickly became one of those very special games that we just straight-up refuse to ever delete off our SD cards. Still easily one of the console’s best fighters, it’s a slick and addictive work of indie art that only missed out on a perfect score due to some very disappointing online issues. And hey, now it’s got a sequel!

Yep, UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes (herein referred to as ‘UNI2’ because we’re down with the kids) sees you return to a world where humans ravaged by the ‘Hollow Night’ (scary void monsters) become In-Births. In-Births gain the ability to control a power known as EXS, and that’s how…well, that’s how they fight so good. We don’t understand much more of the story in all honesty, beyond this and the fact there’s a 500-year-old girl named Linne knocking about, we’re just happy that we understand what the franchise’s crazy name is all about now.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Legendary Nintendo Composer Koji Kondo To Be Inducted To AIAS Hall Of Fame

“I am extremely humbled”.

Koji Kondo, Nintendo’s in-house composer one of the most renowned names in the video game composers industry, is to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame, the Academy has announced.

Kondo will be honoured during the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards ceremony, which takes place on 15th February. The composer of many games in the Mario and Zelda series, Kondo joins the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hideo Kojima, Todd Howard, and Sid Meier, among many other industry titans, in the Hall of Fame.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com