Square Enix [5,056 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/square-enix”>Square Enix filed trademarks for “Paranormasight” and “The Portopia Serial Murder Case” on November 10 in Japan, which were made public today.
The Portopia Serial Murder Case is an Adventure [578 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/adventure”>adventure game designed by Dragon Quest [45 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/series/dragon-quest”>Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii and originally released for PC [16,365 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/pc”>PC-6001 in June 1983. The trademark could suggest some sort of remake or remaster is planned.
Koei Tecmo Games [2,876 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/koei-tecmo-games”>Koei Tecmo Games also filed trademarks for “ Meta [24 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/meta”>Metaverse Daikoukai Jidai” (Uncharted Waters) “Metaverse Hadou,” “Metaverse Musou,” (Warriors) “Metaverse Nioh,” “Metaverse Sangokushi” (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), and “Metaverse Suikoden” (Bandit Kings of Ancient [7 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/ancient”>Ancient China) on November 11. These trademarks are likely for protective purposes, as the company filed trademarks for names such as “Isekai Musou” (Other World Warriors), “ Gakuen (tentative) [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/gakuen”>Gakuen Musou” (Academy Warriors), and “Tensei Musou” (Warriors Reincarnation) several years back.
Bandai Namco Studios [17 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/bandai-namco-entertainment/bandai-namco-studios”>Bandai Namco Studios also trademarked names and logos for “Endrays,” “Excycle,” “Hook & Kaiju,” and “Shigeru Planet” on the same date.
While games published by Bandai Namco are usually trademarked by Bandai Namco Entertainment [6,239 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/bandai-namco-entertainment”>Bandai Namco Entertainment, games developed Bandai Namco Studios subsidiary / independent games label GYAAR Studio [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/bandai-namco-entertainment/bandai-namco-studios/gyaar-studio”>GYAAR Studio are usually trademarked by Bandai Namco Studios. That being said, these are likely new independent projects set to come out of GYAAR Studio, which have so far been published by Phoenixx [37 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/phoenixx”>Phoenixx ( Survival Quiz CITY [2 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/survival-quiz-city”>Survival Quiz CITY, Goonect” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/goonect”>Goonect).
Square Enix [5,007 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/square-enix”>Square Enix filed a trademark for “Symbiogenesis” on October 13 in Japan, which was made public today.
Additionally, Bandai Namco Entertainment [6,209 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/bandai-namco-entertainment”>Bandai Namco filed a trademark for “Dream Match” on October 14.
Symbiogenesis, according to Wiktionary, is “the merging of two separate organisms to form a single new organism.” It is the basis for the story of Parasite Eve, which first began as a novel in 1995 before expanding into a video game series developed by Square Enix in 1998.
As for “Dream Match,” Bandai Namco previously released an iOS and Android game called Famista Dream Match, which ended service on June 23, 2016. The new trademark could be related to that—or something new entirely.
Bandai Namco Entertainment, Bandai Namco Filmworks, and Bandai Spirits announced on Tuesday that their Synduality project will also have a television anime. The companies revealed the below teaser visual and cast for the anime.
The cast includes Aoi Koga as Noir, Nagisa Aoyama as Ciel, and M.A.O as Schnee.
The companies also announced on Tuesday the franchise‘s third-person shooter game, which will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Steam) this year.
Sony describes the game:
The year is 2222. It has been years since Tears of the New Moon, a mysterious rain, poured and wiped out almost the entire human race. The poisonous rain gave birth to deformed creatures devouring for humans, and humanity fled from the danger. As means for survival, the humans then build an underground haven; Amasia. In this new built dystopian city, on a pursuit of maintaining their existence, they run into an Artificial Intelligence named Magus. Not knowing how things will work between them, the story of how Humans and AI coinciding and trying to find their truths begin.
Bandai Namco‘s Yōsuke Futami is serving as the game’s producer. neco (Augmented Reality Girls Trinary, “Falslander” character series) is designing the characters and Ippei Gyōbu (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline) is the mecha designer.
Source: Comic Natalie
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings Inc., is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
Publisher Bandai Namco and developer Game Studio [6 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/game-studio”>Game Studio has announced SYNDUALITY [1 article]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/synduality”>SYNDUALITY, a new science-fiction third-person Shooter [3,242 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/shooter”>shooter coming to PS5 [3,413 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation/ps5″>PlayStation 5, Xbox Series [2,684 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/xbox/xbox-series”>Xbox Series, and PC [15,939 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/pc”>PC via Steam in 2023.
Here is an overview of the game, via Bandai Namco:
Developed by Game Studio, SYNDUALITY is a science-fiction third-person shooter set in a dystopian futuristic world where humans and AI must co-exist and cooperate to survive.
SYNDUALITY takes place in 2222, years after a mysterious poisonous rain called “The Tears of the New Moon” wiped out most of humanity and birthed deformed creatures that now hunt the population. Amidst the calamity, humans are forced to build an underground haven named Amasia, where they discover and begin to collaborate with forms of artificial intelligence called Magus.
In the game, players will step in the shoes of the Drifters, people who make a living collecting AO crystals, a rare resource available on Earth. In this quest they must face xenomorphic creatures known as Enders, and they will be able to count on Magus, their AI partners, to guide them through their journey, help them in fights, and provide direction, hints, and warning. All the while, they will be developing and strengthening the bond between player and AI. Gameplay and combat in SYNDUALITY centers around Cradle Coffins, armed vehicles in which players will be roaming on the surface and can fully personalize, from appearance to weapon loadouts, to fit their own playstyle. SYNDUALITY will also have multiplayer, with other Drifters joining players to help them in their missions or turn against them, hindering their progress or fighting to loot their precious resources.
“SYNDUALITY is a project we can’t wait for players to put their hands on,” said Bandai Namco producer Yosuke Futami in a press release. “We have been working with famous designers such as Neco for character design and Ippei Gyoubu for mechanical design, as well as the team at Game Studio, to develop a fun shooter with strong core gameplay and a unique focus on the relationship between AI and human, where the bond that develops between players and their Magus impacts game play and story.”
Here are some additional details, via producer Yosuke Futami on PlayStation Blog:
Hello! My name is Yosuke Futami, the producer of SYNDUALITY. On behalf of the team, we are excited to finally reveal our brand-new science-fiction Third-Person Shooter [1,009 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/shooter/tps”>third-person shooter game from Bandai Namco Entertainment [6,198 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/bandai-namco-entertainment”>Bandai Namco Entertainment.
It all started a couple of years back when our team grouped together and passionately discuss how can we break ourselves into—or even break the whole barrier, of the science-fiction genre. With the emergence of technology these days, and how artificial intelligence slowly becoming more prominent in our daily lives, we were particularly interested in how humans and AI would interact with each other in the future. Will they coexist? Do they have the same belief on feelings, or sense of emotion? Can they intertwine? Those were the questions that eventually became an exodus of this project, and hopefully you would join us to figure out together the Adventure [481 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/adventure”>adventures that lies ahead of them.
SYNDUALITY is set in a dystopian future where poisonous rain and deformed creatures wreak havoc on the world, where you and you AI partner must find a way to work together and reclaim lost ground for humanity. Adding to the excitement, we have partnered with prominent designers Neco (for character design) and Gyobu (for mech design) to bring their unique science-fiction style to the game. Please check out the reveal trailer below for a first look at the game.
The World of Amasia
The year is 2222. It has been years since Tears of the New Moon, a mysterious rain, poured and wiped out almost the entire human race. The poisonous rain gave birth to deformed creatures devouring for humans, and humanity fled from the danger. As means for Survival [88 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/survival”>survival, the humans then build an underground haven; Amasia. In this new built dystopian city, on a pursuit of maintaining their existence, they run into an Artificial Intelligence named Magus. Not knowing how things will work between them, the story of how Humans and AI coinciding and trying to find their truths begin.
Search for Scarce Resources in Your Cradle Coffin
In the world of SYNDUALITY, you will take on a role as Drifters—who makes a living by collecting AO Crystals; a rare resource that can only be obtained in dangerous terrestrial environment. You will take on each mission in your Cradle Coffin—an armed vehicle that will get you mobile during the adventure. Players can personalize their Cradle Coffin—not only its appearance, but the weapons equipped as well to make your Cradle Coffin suit your own play style.
Meet Your AI Partner, Magus
You are not alone on this journey. An AI partner called Magus will be there in battle flying alongside your mech to give directions, hints, and warnings so you can safely complete your missions. Discover unique interactions and dialogues with Magus depending on different situations.
Battle Against Enemies and Other Players (PvPvE)
On the vast battlefield, you will encounter xenomorphic creatures known as Enders, trying to stop you from gathering the AO crystals. You can use different types of weaponries attached to the Cradle Coffin to fend off these incoming enemies.
Immerse yourself into an intense PvPvE battle. When playing online, you’ll also encounter other players trying to clear their own missions—be careful, they could potentially hinder your progress.
We would like to officially welcome you to the world of SYNDUALITY. Please stay tuned for more information!
Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery. Visit the official Japanese website here.
Bandai Namco has shared just a glimpse of an upcoming Tekken project.
On stage at EVO 2022, after the Tekken 7 Grand Finals, Bandai Namco shared a trailer for its next Tekken 7 update. At the conclusion of a trailer, they showed the iconic Tekken cutscene of Kazuya Mishima throwing his father, Heihachi Mishima off a cliff.
At the point when the cutscene zooms in on Kazuya’s face, it instantly swaps from 1994’s PlayStation version of Kazuya to a very modern-looking version of the character. “Get Ready” then appears on the screen, before the trailer fades to black. You can skip to the 1:40 mark in the video below to watch the teaser.
Ready your fists for more 👊
📣 A free update with battle balance adjustments will be implemented in #TEKKEN 7
🗓 The Global Finals of the #TWT2023 will be held on February 4-5, 2023 in Amsterdam
…watch until the end! pic.twitter.com/47cMCc0VXI— TEKKEN (@TEKKEN) August 8, 2022
Series director Katsuhiro Harada briefly showed up on the official EVO stream, but didn’t elaborate at all on the tease. While we don’t know for sure just yet, it’s probably safe to assume that this teaser is pointing towards Tekken 8. However, the teaser explicitly used footage from the original Tekken, so there’s a chance it could be a remake or reboot of the series. There’s nothing official from Bandai Namco just yet on what this project is, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Tekken 7 originally released in 2017, and has received a ton of DLC support since launch. We gave the game a 9.5 in our Tekken 7 review, saying the game, “strikes a fine balance between accessibility to series newcomers and retaining much of its technical traditions.
For more fighting game news from EVO, check out SNK’s announcement of a brand new Fatal Fury game, rollback netcode coming to Dragon Ball FighterZ, and PlayStation’s EVO survey about NFTs.
Update [Sat 23rd Jul, 2022 02:45 BST]: It seems this demo has already gone live on the Japanese Switch eShop. Provided you have access to a Nintendo account in this region, you can download it right now and play it with English subtitles. Enjoy!
Original article [Fri 22nd Jul, 2022 01:55 BST]: Following on from the news in May that SD Gundam Battle Alliance would be receiving a worldwide release for Switch on 25th August 2022, Bandai Namco has now announced a free demo. It’s releasing on 28th/29th July, but the Switch version will follow at a later date.
This demo will allow players to try out ‘Directory 1: Mission “Tekkadan”!’ and players will also be able to transfer across the demo’s save data to the full version of the game when it is released.
Here’s a bit about what to expect from this upcoming release, along with the original release date announcement trailer:
“After strange incidents known as “Breaks” occur across the Gundam universe, it’s your job to find out what’s going on and restore the proper timeline. You’ll do this by leading three mobile suits into battle – with this entry featuring over 20 different mobile suit Gundam series. There’ll also be the ability to battle alongside friends in online co-op multiplayer.”
Will you be giving this demo a go? Leave a comment down below.
Bandai Namco, the Japanese publisher behind the Ace Combat, Dragon Ball Z, and Dark Souls games, appears to be the latest major gaming company to suffer a major hack. The ransomware group BlackCat added the Elden Ring publisher to its list of victims earlier today, though it’s not yet clear the extent of the damage or how much money the group is demanding.
“ALPHV ransomware group (alternatively referred to as BlackCat ransomware group) claims to have ransomed Bandai Namco,” vx-underground, a group that monitors malware source code on the web, posted on Twitter Monday. Attached was a screenshot of the ALPHV ransomware blog where the group tracks its targets, with Bandai Namco listed under the threat of “data soon” as of July 11.
Bandai Namco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Vx-underground has previously reported on other hacks, including the infamous Lapsu$ one, before the companies themselves have confirmed them. The ransomware watch group DarkFeed also shared a screenshot of BlackCat’s claimed hack earlier today. Vx-underground and DarkFeed didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment either.
BlackCat, members of which were believed to also be involved in the Colonial Pipeline hack last year, have been ramping up ransomware attacks, according to some computer security analysts as well as the FBI. Most recently, the hacks have resulted in BlackCat posting private employee data online if the victims refuse to pay up. In the past, the group has demanded millions, and targeted school districts and other public entities in addition to for-profit companies.
If legitimate, this would be just the latest in a longline of recent hacks at major gaming companies. Capcom was hit in late 2020, with several of its upcoming unannounced releases like Dragon’s Dogma 2 leaking at the time. A now famous hack of graphics chip manufacturer Nvidia ended up leaking tons of other big gaming projects like Kingdom Hearts 4. CD Projekt Red, the Polish studio behind The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, had employee data and the source code for one of its games stolen in early 2021. Even FIFA publisher Electronic Arts was hit, with the alleged perpetrators trying to get media outlet Vice to blackmail the company on its behalf.
It’s unclear how much of the seeming uptick in security breaches is due to new techniques deployed by hackers vs. the greater challenges companies faced when moving to working from home during the global pandemic. Capcom blamed part of its vulnerability on remote work. At the same time, the blockchain network hosting crypto gaming juggernaut Axie Infinity suffered one of the most expensive hacks in history earlier this year, reportedly all because an employee fell for an elaborate phishing scheme.
Earlier this year, Bandai Namco took the servers for Dark Souls I, II, and III offline after a dangerous remote code execution (RCE) exploit was discovered.
Bandai Namco is currently hiring staff to work on a remaster commissioned by Nintendo, recent job listings have revealed.
Originally pointed out on Resetera, one observant user noticed that Bandai Namco Studios is hiring for a few roles at its Tokyo studio. All of the job listings feature the phrases “3D action game”, “commissioned by Nintendo”, with one of them also featuring the words “HD remaster.”
Unfortunately, these are the only clues we have so far as to what Bandai Namco could be working on for Nintendo as the rest of the job listings don’t mention anything else that could be a clue.
The fact Bandai Namco is working on a Nintendo IP isn’t actually that surprising. A quick look at their past works on the Bandai Namco Studios website reveals that the developer/publisher has previously also worked on a number of Nintendo games including New Pokemon Snap, Mario Kart Tour, ARMS, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and even Mario Kart 8.
We could spend all day guessing what game Nintendo wants remastered and still not be any closer to finding out the truth. So at least for now, we’ll have to settle on speculating.
This is exactly what other users have done on the same Resetera thread. According to the comments, fans are thinking it could perhaps be something to do with Starfox, Metroid Prime, Kid Icarus, and even The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – but nothing is for certain right now.
In other Nintendo news, the Super Mario studio has recently announced plans for a new office located in Kyoto, Japan, conveniently right next to Nintendo’s current headquarters. In a press release sent out yesterday, Nintendo said that the new building will work as a development center with 12 floors inside of it. It’s expected to be ready for employees by December 2027.
Curious about what Nintendo definitely has on the way? Take a look at our upcoming Switch games list.
Bandai Namco – the Japanese company behind series like Tekken and Pac-Man – appears to have a new project in the works, contracted by Nintendo.
According to multiple job listings on Bandai Namco’s Japanese website (via ResetEra), it’s believed to be a remaster/remake of a ‘3D action game’ by Nintendo. Bandai Namco is currently seeking planners to get the project up and running as well as visual artists to perform “HD remastering” of 3D backgrounds.
Here’s a rough Google translation of one of these job descriptions:
“As a visual artist for a 3D action game project on a Nintendo contract, You will be required to perform HD remastering of the 3D background.”
Bandai Namco has helped out Nintendo on all sorts of games in the past. One of the highlights of the Switch generation so far has been Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – featuring characters like Pac-Man and Kazuya.
What 3D action Nintendo game do you think Bandai Namco could be reviving? Leave a comment below.
A few interesting job listings recently popped up on Bandai Namco’s website involving what appears to be a remaster or remake of a 3D action game in collaboration with Nintendo.
The first posting is for a planner, which explicitly mentions how the project is a 3D action game contracted by Nintendo. Similar language is then brought up on a page regarding Bandai Namco’s search for a visual artist. For the final listing, we see the first mention of the title being a remaster / remake, with the staffer required to work on HD remastering of 3D backgrounds.
Bandai Namco and Nintendo have maintained a close relationship over the years. Most notably, the two came together for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U / 3DS as well as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The company also had contributions for Mario Kart 8 and ARMS. Finally, Bandai Namco developed Pokken Tournament and New Pokemon Snap.
If the upcoming project is a simple remaster, we could see the game visuals spruced up and perhaps a few extra features. A proper remake could involve a more extensive overhaul.
Due to how little information we have, it’d be tough to speculate what 3D action game remaster / remake Bandai Namco could be working on in partnership with Nintendo. Still, if you’d like to throw out a guess, feel free to do so in the comments.
