Hi friends,

This week saw the launch of some of 2023's biggest games, so there's been a tidal wave of headlines around them — but don't worry, we're also here to cover all that's been going on underneath the currents. Even if it is cutting into our time hanging out with our very real friends, Mario, Peter, and Miles.

Before we get into the industry news, take note! The theme and date for our third annual 24-hour VGG anniversary celebration has been announced! Catch our reveal video right here! Thanks again to Rincs for providing the art for the video. We had a blast collaborating to make it.

What games are you playing in preparation for the spooky season? Let us know on Discord!

Take care,

Fern and Nate

October 16 - October 23 | VGG Gaming News Roundup

Pete Hines, head of publishing for Bethesda Softworks, announced his retirement from the company following the success of Starfield (the best-selling game in September). Pete has overseen the launch of over 80+ games under the Bethesda label in his 24 years with their marketing department.

Vincent Valentine is here! With the reveal that the internet-favorite Final Fantasy 7 vampire would be appearing in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, people wondered who would bring the iconic heartthrob to life. Critical Role's Matthew Mercer will voice the role, fresh off of voicing Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom.

In gaming sales news, Lies of P has sold over 1 million copies. Spider-Man 2 sold over 2.5 million copies in its first 24 hours. And Mat Piscatella reveals that consumer spending on video game hardware and software has gone up 10% since last year, totaling $4.5 billion for September 2023.

Epic Games continues to be an enigma as it swaps between making business decisions that both hurt then help the industry. Their latest announcement comes in the form of the "Now on Epic" program that encourages developers to release older games on the platform, promising devs 100% of the revenue for the first six months of sales.

A new worst game of 2023 has dropped. Skull Island: Rise of Kong, published by GameMill, is the first King Kong game developed in over 20 years and has been openly mocked by the internet for PNG-ridden cutscenes and stiff combat. Unsurprisingly, GameMill tasked an indie team out of Chile with developing the game in just one year. They provided little info throughout development and asked them to crunch all throughout.

The BioShock film is still in the writing phase, but murmuring from the teams around Netflix say they "love it." Michael Green, who wrote Logan and Blade Runner 2049, is penning the screenplay. And he's teaming up with Francis Lawrence, the director of multiple Hunger Games films and Constantine.

Alan Wake 2 is around the corner. Here's how to get ready. First, Remedy Games released the PC requirements and... they're rough. 30 series NVIDIA cards can get you Recommended (Medium) settings with DLSS turned on, and a 40 series card is basically necessary for High settings. In less PC-melting news though, Fortnite and Remedy have teamed up to provide an interactive recap of the first game to prepare gamers for the release.

The PS5 Slim will initially launch on Nov. 8 with a special Spider-Man 2 bundle and then standalone just two days later on Nov. 10, according to a reliable leaker on French site Dealabs.

Super Rare Mixtape returns with a special horror mixtape! The anthology collection of indie games comes with yet another physical release, this time bundling 30 horror games and demos with special behind-the-scenes footage and more.

Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser refused to comment on rumors of a Switch successor in a recent interview about the future of Nintendo. But he mentioned that Nintendo Accounts will help 'ease players in' with any future transitions to a new platform; many people see this as more confirmation the Nintendo Switch 2 will have backwards compatibility.

Peanut Butter the dog will be a speedrunner at Awesome Games Done Quick 2024. Having previously completed the NES game Gyromite in 24 minutes, with the assistance of his human, speedrunner JSR_, Peanut Butter will be attempting to be the first canine to complete a full run at the speedrunning event.

CEO Dan Clancy made a few exciting announcements at TwitchCon 2023, showing they're ready to evolve in the face of competing platforms. Streamers on the platform can now simulcast on all platforms, anonymously warn chatters of issues before escalating to a timeout or ban, and a ton of other stream-level upgrades.

New Game Releases

Events

A new Xbox Partner showcase will take place Oct. 25. Catch it at 10 a.m. on Xbox's YouTube or Twitch! There will be no Activision-Blizzard news, but the event will include updates from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (Yakuza series), Remedy Entertainment (Alan Wake, Max Payne), Studio Wildcard (ARK: Survival Evolved), and other studios.

New On VGG This Week

» ANNOUNCING: 2023 VGG Campout theme revealed

» Stay tuned! Wizard With a Gun, Jackbox Party Pack 10, and Ghostrunner 2 reviews coming soon.