GYGO: State of Play, Pokémon Day, More Bans at Bay

It is another week, and it is time for another Get Your Game On Wednesday!

Sony Has a Slate of Game Announcements in Their Latest State of Play

Sony wrapped up another State of Play presentation, showcasing a whole slate of game announcements and teasers.

Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League gets an extended trailer featuring more gameplay and some plot exposition.

Street Fighter 6 showcases more additions to their roster, including returning cast members Zangief and Cammy, with the addition of newcomer Lily.

Goodbye Volcano High will be arriving all the PS4 and PS5 on June 15, 2023.

Baldur’s Gate 3 will be launching on August 31 of the same year.

The Resident Evil 4 remake also teased gameplay footage, including other characters who will be tagging along with Leon Kennedy.

Pokémon Day 2023 Presents a Whole Batch of Pokémon News

February 27 was Pokémon Day, and the Pokémon Company commemorated the occasion with a special presentation about a whole carousel of updates to various titles in the franchise, as well as revealing new projects.

Players of Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet will face even more new encounters in Raid battles, and the games are now able to connect with Pokémon GO. They will also be receiving a two-parter DLC, The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, this year.

The sleep tracking app, Pokémon Sleep, is also slated to be released this year, and it too will feature compatibility to accompany some features with Pokémon GO. This coincides with the release of a new peripheral, Pokémon GO Plus.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game will be releasing a special premium “Classic” set and playing board commemorating the original Base Set cards.

And finally, dates for the 2023 Pokémon World Championships have been confirmed for August 11–13, 2023, at PACIFICO Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan.

But one of the biggest news items is the teaser for an all new project, a stop-motion animated series called Pokémon Concierge, which is destined for Netflix… “soon.”

Atomic Heart Is Surrounded by Controversy and Criticism

In the midst of the ongoing Russo-Ukraine War, Mundfish Games’ Atomic Heart is facing controversy due to what some claim are the game’s pro-Russian connections and security issues.

Other critics further question if the game is harvesting data for Russian security forces. Atomic Heart has also come under scrutiny due to its release close to the anniversary of Russia’s official invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Ukraine’s Digital Ministry has requested that Steam, Microsoft, and Sony remove the game from platforms.

Mundfish has denied all of these allegations, but has otherwise recently apologized for the presence of a racist cartoon that appears in the game without context or disclaimer.

The game’s composer, Mick Gordon, has donated his payment for the game.

In other news…

Chaosium Inc, publisher of tabletop roleplaying titles such as Call of Cthulu and RuneQuest, has banned the use of AI-generated artwork in all of its community content programs.

Games Done Quick has officially banned not only Hogwarts Legacy, but also every other Harry Potter video game adaptation from future events. A full list of GDQ’s currently banned games can be referenced and found on their submission guide.

Rovio Entertainment Oyj, best known for the Angry Birds franchise, de-listed the original game from mobile platforms—because it is negatively “impacting” their other games.

Shinji Mikami, the head of Xbox Game Studios’ Tango Gameworks, is leaving the company. Mikami founded the company back in 2010. One of his last projects with the studio was Hi-Fi Rush.

Meanwhile, shakeups at Ubisoft continue as the managing director of Beyond Good And Evil 2 has left the team, and as Ubisoft is investigated over an alarming number of reports of employee burnout.

And even more unscrupulously, EA laid off over 200 Apex Legends QA workers over a Zoom call.