Weekly News Wrap Up (9/07 - 9/11)

Here we are, in the final four months of the year. Once September shows up, it feels like it will be New Year's Eve in the blink of an eye. But that also means we are now in that time of year where we get more news about games and a whole storm of game releases in time for the holidays. As far as news goes, this week has been wild!

Not only did we have two back-to-back Nintendo Directs, but there has been plenty of news coming out lately. BlizzCon is also this weekend, and we are aiming to cover what was announced during the opening ceremony. So without further ado, let's take a look at some of the highlights from this week.

Ocarina of Time Remake & A Storm of Games From Nintendo

It's the Nintendo Direct that everyone was waiting for. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda franchise. While we got a few more details about the upcoming movie next year, the star of the show was the Ocarina of Time Remake. In a previous Weekly News Wrap Up, we speculated that the remake would launch in November, and it turns out our prediction was partially correct!

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (the remake) comes out on November 5th of this year! We also finally got to see some gameplay, and the remake looks absolutely fantastic. While some of the new character models are... unsettling, the visuals have improved a lot. Not only that, but locations that were originally just pre-rendered backgrounds (like Hyrule Castle Town) are now full 3D environments. The difference is night and day, and we look forward to checking it out later this year.

The remake of Ocarina of Time wasn't the only thing revealed this week. In addition to the Switch 2 getting a bunch of ports of previously released games like the remakes of Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4, several new games were announced as well. A few big highlights were Kirby and the World Beyond, Metroid Ravenous, Romancing SaGa 3: Destinies United, and Onyx: The Dark Grip.

Honestly, it is nice to see how much the Nintendo Switch 2 library has expanded over the past year since its release. At the very least, it is far easier to justify the price tag now. Speaking of price tags, Nintendo also revealed the Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition of the Nintendo Switch 2. Good luck getting one, though, as the console has already sold out (thanks for nothing, scalpers).

Sony Tries to Cancel Physint

Sony has been hard at work destroying their reputation this summer, and it doesn't look like they are ready to stop their speedrun anytime soon. Hideo Kojima, the man behind Metal Gear Solid, Death Stranding, and the upcoming horror game OD, recently announced that Sony attempted to pull the plug on Physint.

Rather than letting Physint get tossed into the same bin as Silent Hills, Kojima sought out another publishing partner and found one: XBOX. I'm glad that Kojima and his team were able to quickly find another team. Sure, it will be a while before Physint comes out since we don't even have a release date, but it is odd that Sony would attempt to cancel a game that was supposed to be exclusive to their platform. If anything, this feels like giving XBOX free ammunition.

Bungie Subleases Their HQ

To say that Bungie is one foot in the grave might be a bit of an understatement. Marathon's player base cratered, and that was the game that was supposed to sustain them after putting Destiny 2 into maintenance mode. With the lack of information on the upcoming season and no word about any other games or projects, things are not looking good for Bungie.

With the sheer number of employees laid off, Bungie recently put its colossal office building in Bellevue, Washington, up for sublease. 211,000 square feet is an insane amount of space for anyone, especially after spending 2+ years laying off hundreds of employees. Building a massive office in the middle of an expensive part of Washington was certainly a questionable choice from the get-go, but that is hardly a surprise considering how horrifically mismanaged Bungie is as a company.

Echoes of Mystralia Roadmap

Earlier this summer, we did a preview article about Echoes of Mystralia, a roguelite ARPG. Borealys Games just revealed the early access roadmap for Echoes of Mystralia, which will include some exciting new features like the Memory Vault, new endgame challenges, and enhanced performance on the Steam Deck.

Several of these updates and additions will be added to the game later next year, and I look forward to seeing how this game develops as it continues its early access period.

That's all for now. Stay tuned to see our BlizzCon coverage. Maybe one day I will get to actually go in person. Anything is possible!