Restructure and Rebirth

Xbox announcement inbound.

The Xbox rumour mill has been working overtime lately. It started with reports that Hi-fi Rush, Starfield, and other games were planned for release on Playstation 5. Now there’s speculation that we could see a complete overhaul of the Xbox business model, maybe even moving away from consoles entirely. On the 5th of February Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft Gaming, posted on Twitter: “We’re listening, and we hear you, we’ve been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned.” While it seems likely they’ll be addressing the rumors, we won’t know for certain until next week so stay tuned!

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

One week after its State of Play showcase, Playstation treated us to a second SoP exclusively about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which won Most Anticipated Game at last year’s game awards. They unveiled a new trailer, eleven minutes of gameplay footage, and plenty of new game details. The standout features being the expansive game map and the intricately detailed graphics.
In the presentation, they also announced a demo, where you can play as both Cloud and Sephiroth. The demo is currently available, and an additional portion will be added before the game’s full release on the 29th of February.

Big Changes coming to Square Enix

Despite the hype around Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, its developer Square Enix has just announced it is changing its approach to production. Takashi Kiry, the company president, shared that the studio intends to reduce its dependence on outsourcing and focus on producing large-scale titles internally. This means fewer games overall but the ability to prioritise quality, which is a damn good thing.

Upcoming Games Releases:

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden releases to PC, PS5, XSX/S on February 13.
Ultros releases to PS4, PS5, PC on February 13
Tomb Raider Remastered releases to Switch, PC, PS, Xbox on February 14
PlateUp! releases to Nintendo Switch on February 15