GYGO: Some Good, Some Bad, Some Ugly

Hello and welcome to Get Your Game On! My name is Maddi and I cannot believe we are almost at the end of September. It feels like we were just in the middle of the summer heatwave but here we are, with the shorter days of fall (at least in the northeastern U.S.) encroaching. Are you playing any games that emulate those fall vibes? If so, let me know what you’re playing in the comments! Or, if you support our Patreon at the Sega Genesis tier or higher, tell us about it in our Discord. Now, let’s get to the news.

The Good

Legend of Zelda fans, rejoice. The much-hyped sequel to 2017’s Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has not just a name, but a release date. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is planned for release on May 12, 2023. Nintendo showed the name and release date, along with a new teaser trailer, during last week’s Nintendo Direct.

Other highlights from the direct include Octopath Traveler II, Fire Emblem Engage, It Takes Two for the Nintendo Switch, and a remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life titled Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, due out summer 2023.

During Sony’s most recent State of Play presentation, Sega announced a worldwide release and remake of 2014’s Like a Dragon: Ishin in February 2023. The Yakuza series spinoff took protagonist Kazuma Kiryu through a historical adventure in a fictionalized 19th century Kyoto. The title was previously only available in Japan.

Bandai Namco also announced Tekken 8 during the State of Play Stream.

Lastly, Butterfly Soup, Brianna Lei’s 2017 visual novel about “gay Asian girls playing baseball and falling in love” just celebrated its fifth anniversary. It’s also getting a sequel, Butterfly Soup 2, on October 29.

The Bad

Tencent, the biggest gaming company in the world and parent to gaming site Fanbyte, laid off most of Fanbyte’s editorial staff last week. With no warning. Over the course of several hours. (You know, as if it wasn’t agonizing enough.) Fanbyte has housed some wonderful criticism, and it’s sad to see Tencent layoff some of the industry’s most talented writers to (seemingly) bolster its bottom line.

In the UK, media company Future also laid off staff across several publications. Though no numbers have been confirmed, the layoffs reportedly affected editorial staff at TechRadar Gaming, Android Central, and more.

And finally, the future of G4TV may be in jeopardy less than a year after it made its splashy return. According to Kotaku, parent company Comcast cut up to 30 staff members over the past week.

The Ugly

One of the weirder things to resurface in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing (bear with me) is that she allegedly had a talent for Wii Bowling and once almost became the owner of a 24 karat gold-plated Nintendo Wii. THQ originally offered the gift in 2009, but was turned down. (Perhaps she already had enough gold bricks cluttering the halls of Buckingham Palace?)

After a decade of private ownership, the item went up for auction earlier this year.

In other news…

Bridget from Guilty Gear Strive is trans. No, seriously.

Lil Nas X is the president of League of Legends. Not sure what that means actually, but good for him.

Babylons Fall has fallen. The game will terminate service on February 28, 2023.

Here is an ice cold eulogy from Twitter user Cheap Ass Gamer.