There’s no denying 2016 was a fantastic year for video games. Honestly, the gaming industry is spoiling us rotten, and we’re thrilled. Want to get hyped for the amazing games 2017 has in store? So do we.
For some, Resident Evil 4 marks the spot where the franchise fell off the map: parts 5 and 6 were its most unremarkable installments. But with a jaw-dropping debut at E3 2016 during Sony’s press conference, Resident Evil 7 rekindled gamers’ desires to find themselves dangerously low on ammo while desperately fleeing shambling horrors and grotesque mutations. This chapter welcomes a new main character to the series, and in its biggest change yet, the game will play entirely first-person. Capcom even promises full virtual reality support, allowing players to play the game from beginning to end in VR.
Get ready for one bloody valentine. With so many alpha gameplay videos on YouTube, it’s easy to forget that For Honor has yet to be officially released. An online hack and slash game, For Honor pits factions of knights, vikings, and samurai against each other in a fight to the death. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, it looks to bring together the best aspects of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, War of the Vikings, and Samurai Warriors in one medieval fantasy setting. Closed beta starts in January (register here), with the official release slated for February 14, 2017.
Halo is one of the biggest video game franchises in history, and in 2017 it’ll return to its real-time strategy roots. It’s been a long time since the original Halo Wars hit shelves—Halo Wars 2 will drop almost exactly seven years after the release of its predecessor—but Total War developer Creative Assembly promises to make it worth the wait, putting the series in the capable hands of RTS masters.
Originality can sometimes feel like it comes at a premium in the game industry. That’s why it’s refreshing to see a game with as bonkers a premise as Horizon Zero Dawn: 1,000 years in the future, mankind has been reduced to a series of caveman-like tribal groups as the world has reverted back to a pre-historic landscape of lush greenery and dangerous wild animals…that are robots. Yep, a world where every animal is a robot. Unraveling that mystery should be as fun to as Horizon Zero Dawn’s gameplay looked in its E3 demo during Sony’s 2016 press conference. Guerrilla Games’ track record with the Killzone series proves they can create engaging gameplay, and they’re not slouching with the story, either, as they’ve brought on the writer of Fallout: New Vegas to pen the script.
It’s hard to blame Nintendo for keeping the Zelda franchise relatively unchanged for so long. If it works, don’t try to fix it; just add and modify and twist into new shapes to deliver new yet familiar experiences. It’s a different story for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which promises a more open and fully exportable world than any Zelda game before it and will be available on both WiiU and Switch. This latest entry shares more in common with Skyrim and Far Cry than traditional entries in the series. Dungeons can be explored in any order; the final boss fight could be fought, and won, at the start of the game, assuming players are crazy (and skilled) enough to pull it off. It’s a Zelda unlike any other: it hands you a controller and truly puts you in control.
The first game presented at the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017, 1 2 Switch is the spiritual successor to the underrated motion-controlled masterpiece WarioWare: Smooth Moves for Nintendo Wii. In a revolutionary twist on the concept of a video game, 1 2 Switch turns the screen into an accessory; players focus on each other’s eyes and faces. It’s a party game about reflexes, psyching your opponent out, and striking silly poses along the way. We can’t wait to try it. A Nintendo Switch launch title, 1 2 Switch hits shelves March 3, 2017.
The Ghost Recon series is taking a cue from Metal Gear Solid 5 and Grand Theft Auto 5 by removing the idea of levels and setting the upcoming Ghost Recon Wildlands in an enormous open world rife with Bolivian drug cartel baddies who are eagerly anticipating being shot in the back of the head as they stand around guarding an abandoned warehouse. Wildlands features a robust single-player campaign that will have gamers exploring every square inch of terrain for dozens of hours. But the online multiplayer co-op is where the game promises to shine, as you and some buddies can go on raids and chase down escaping drug traffickers from the comfort of your own underwear.
Commander Shepard isn’t the only thing the Mass Effect series is leaving behind. It’s abandoning the Milky Way galaxy and setting up shop on the Citadel in our celestial neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. All new planets. All new terrain. All new alien races. Actually, by definition, you will be playing the invading alien race of the series. Set centuries after the events of the original Mass Effect trilogy, the new series has you controlling a new protagonist, named Ryder, whose mission is to discover a new planet for the human race to call home.
Obsidian Entertainment’s South Park: The Stick of Truth surprised us in 2014. A mechanically sound RPG with a long campaign, enjoyable combat, hilarious writing, and fan service galore, Stick of Truth renewed gamers’ trust in the franchise. (If you played the mediocre South Park games for N64 and Playstation, you know all too well why they might have been skeptical.) A D&D parody, The Stick of Truth contained four classes (Fighter, Mage, Thief, and Jew), while the superhero-themed The Fractured But Whole features twelve (Brutalist, Blaster, Speedster, Elementalist, Gadgeteer, Mystic, Cyborg, Psychic, Assassin, Commander, Netherborn, and Karate Kid). By all accounts, The Fractured But Whole is going to be bigger and better than its predecessor.
Rabid fans of the Persona series—is there are any other kind?—have waited eight excruciating years for the next official installment. The last to see release, Persona 4, came out in 2008 for the PlayStation 2. But 2017 will change all that with another turn-based RPG adventure for the PlayStation 4. In the new installment you’ll spend a year in the shoes of the new kid at Shujin High School as he and his fellow students use their “persona” powers, or manifestations of their psyche, to battle a shadowy group known only as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
Designers who worked on Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country have formed Playtonic Games to develop the upcoming Yooka-Laylee. Funded in 2015 by 80,000 Kickstarter backers, the game aspires to be a “collect-em-up for the modern era.” Note the hyphenated title. That’s no accident. It’s meant to make us nostalgic for the N64’s golden era—and it’s working. April 11 can’t arrive soon enough.
NetherRealm, the makers of Mortal Kombat, shocked the world with Injustice. Finally, we could live out childhood dreams of pitting Superman and Batman against one another in a fight to find out—once and for all—who would win. Or Superman vs. the Flash. Or Doomsday vs. Lex Luthor. Even better, the game was great. Injustice 2 will feature gameplay mechanics similar to the original, like the trait system and the game’s show-stopping super moves, while offering new twists, like a loot-dropping system that allows players to collect gear during fights that offer costume-specific upgrades altering play.
Don’t call Outlast fun; it isn’t fun. It’s stressful, upsetting, haunting, and the best first-person survival horror game this side of Alien: Isolation over the last ten years. Inspired by the Amnesia series, first-time developer Red Barrels’ first game surpassed its forebears in virtually every way, capturing the horror of being trapped among the violently the insane in an asylum. Trading the deranged sanitarium for an upside-down cross-burning, backwoods religious cult, Outlast II should be another not-fun masterpiece of survival horror. It’s already piqued gamers’ interest in unexpected ways: for instance, the original teaser featured a creepy reversed audio clip of a preacher menacingly reading from the Bible.
The Witcher 3 was an astounding game with another great game hidden deep inside, like a Russian nesting doll of video games. This hidden game, a card game called Gwent, was originally made by a couple of designers at CD Projekt Red in their spare time. It impressed the higher-ups and made it into The Witcher 3, where it became something of an obsession among diehard fans, who loved it so much that many made their own standalone versions. Now it’s becoming a standalone title in the style of Hearthstone, but with a twist—this release is a collectable card game with single-player campaigns.
Announced by Kosuke Yabuki at the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017, Arms looks like a mix of Wii Sports’ boxing, shooting, and WiiFit. The motion controls make use of the joycons’ gyroscopic technology. Expect to sweat as you dash and jump around, using jabs, hooks, and special attacks to beat your opponent to a pulp. And it’s all set in a bright, crisp art-style reminiscent of both Splatoon for the Wii U and Ready 2 Rumble: Boxing, a classic of the N64 era. Step into the arena in spring 2017.
Fullbright Company turned some heads after they departed Irrational Games and released Gone Home, a little game about 21-year-old girl who comes home from overseas and is greeted by an empty house she must explore to unravel the mystery of her sister’s coming-of-age story. The studio’s follow-up, Tacoma, takes place on a derelict space station 200,000 miles from Earth. As with Gone Home, players must explore the empty vessel to discover what happened to the crew. Players won’t encounter any actual people; instead, the ship has recorded the voices and movements of its crew members and replays them as holograms that the player must follow to unravel the ship’s mystery.
Technically, the latest installment of the Tekken series has already been out since February 2015…but only in Japan, where it had a limited arcade release. In 2017 it’ll finally reach western shores, and it’ll finally be playable on everything that can play video games, except the Wii U. According to its E3 2016 trailer, the seventh chapter of the long-running series will include a new addition to the roaster of classic Tekken characters: Street Fighter’s Akuma. Sadly, it’s rumored that he may be the only Street Fighter character making a cameo.
The segment on Splatoon 2 at the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017 was one of our favorite highlights. Nintendo’s clever, family-friendly take on ruthless hardcore shooters, the squid ink-spattered Splatoon was a notable high-point of the Wii U’s short life span. New arenas, game modes, special weapons, and new types of inklings mean the turf war will be even crazier the second time around. The next one promises network play and local multiplayer, as well as multiple control schemes. Join the turf war this summer.
Inspired by old Mickey Mouse cartoons, Cuphead in Don’t Deal with the Devil aspires to be a playable old-timey cartoon with side-scrolling, platforming, retro charm. In development for several years, it’s the brainchild of first-time indie developer Studio MDHR. Rumor has it the designers are putting their finishing touches on the co-op mode. No further delays are anticipated—which is good news for Disney and Rayman Legends fans alike.
The long-awaited third installment in the Shenmue franchise will finally, mercifully be released in 2017. Yi Syzuki’s series, which began way back in the Dreamcast days, was years ahead of its time. Sadly, despite mounds of critical praise, it proved a commercial failure—which is why the gaming community was blown away when Sony announced during its 2015 E3 presser that a Kickstarter fundraiser had been started to gauge interest in a possible Shenmue 3. Within nine hours its $2 million goal had been surpassed; all in all, $6.6 million was raised, making it the most heavily funded game in Kickstarter history.
We know a lot more than we once did about Super Mario Odyssey. The game takes place in strange worlds beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, including one similar to our own. Mario wears a sentient cap with googly eyes on it. He uses the cap to perform special jumps. In combat, he makes like Oddjob from the Bond movies–or Kung Lao from Mortal Kombat–and flings it at his enemies. He also flies around in a tugboat-spaceship because of course he does. The gameplay looks even smoother than Super Mario Galaxy’s. Look for Mario’s familiar face this holiday season.
Suda51 is an oddball, but he makes compelling games. The No More Heroes games were blood-spattered reasons to get a Wii and a Wii U. Killer is Dead puts a purple-drenched, psychedelic spin on Seijun Suzuki’s already nonsensical–and just as brilliant–hit man movies. Whatever Suda51 is working on for Nintendo Switch, you can trust it will be both weird and worth a look.
Volition is taking a breaking from the wild and ridiculous Saints Row series to bring us…a Saints Row spinoff! Set sometime after the events of Saint’s Row: Gat out of Hell, Agents of Mayhem is an open world third-person action game that revolves around an anti-terrorist organization known as—you guessed it—Agents of Mayhem, who are trying to stop the evil terrorist organization Legion from destroying the world. Players can swap between one of three characters on the fly in the midst of battle. Perform a stun maneuver to freeze all enemies on the battlefield, and instantly swap in another character that can kill them all with a well-placed grenade. It may not be Saints Row, but for now it’ll do just fine.
Atlus’s Megami Tensei series, and its multiple spin-off series–such as the Persona games about teenagers who fight demons–are a lot of fun. These turn-based JRPGs have amassed a devoted following for being a weirder, headier alternative to the Final Fantasy series. A Shin Megami Tensei is early in development for Nintendo Switch.
Since we’re on the subject of Saints Row, why not mention a game similar in terms of tone and gameplay? By the time Crackdown 3 comes out, it’ll have been six years since its predecessor debuted. What has Ruffian Games been up to all this time? Well, truthfully, no one really knows. Not much has been revealed about Crackdown 3. But what we do know is exciting: it’ll feature an open world sandbox like the previous games in the series, for sure, and judging from the trailer shown off at Microsoft’s 2015 Gamescom presentation, gamers will be transported to a massively destructive city that you can level with your god-like powers.
When Avengers: Age of Ultron hit theaters this past May, it marked the release of Marvel’s biggest film yet—in more ways than one. Not only was the scale of Age of Ultron massive, but the ensemble itself was stacked with brief appearances by fan favorite MCU characters, ranging from Idris Elba to Hayley Atwell. The ability to include so many different characters—from various worlds and time periods—was made possible by a series of dream sequences thanks to one Scarlet Witch. It added a wonderfully strange flavor to the Age of Ultron proceedings, and gave Joss Whedon the opportunity to have some fun with the headspace of his various Avengers.
But quite possibly the most popular MCU character of all was also supposed to be included, only to have his cameo nixed in post-production. We learned earlier this year that the Thor dream sequence initially had Tom Hiddleston’s Loki in the mix, but his character doesn’t appear in the final film. Speaking with Digital Spy recently, Hiddleston explains why:
“I was part of the dream sequence for the character of Thor. I shot for a day and enjoyed it very much, and then I received a phone call from Kevin Feige [who] said that in test screenings, audiences had overemphasized Loki’s role. They thought that because I was in it, I was controlling Ultron, and it was actually imbalancing people’s expectations so Joss and Kevin were like, ‘Let’s cut it because it’s confusing people.’… It made sense to me when I saw that film.”
Indeed it does make sense. Loki is really the only genuinely good villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is quite possibly the most popular character aside from Iron Man. So it makes sense that the arrival of such a beloved character would elicit expectations that he was somehow involved in the film’s overarching proceedings. But we’ll get to see Hiddleston’s Loki in all his glory return for Thor: Ragnarok, which recently landed a director in Taika Waititi. The Dark World sequel opens in theaters November 2017.
Pokémon Go may have already overtaken Tinder and be creeping up on Twitter, but look up from catching that Dratini for just a second and pay attention! If you think finding a dead body during a stroll is bad, here are 12 Pokémon conspiracies that might just ruin your childhood – from mass genocide to possessed PokéBalls, the Pokémon fans sure have a warped mind when it comes to the cute pocket monsters. Whilst we patiently await Pokémon Sun & Moon, here is a run down of some of the craziest theories to come out of the long grass in the past 20 years…tin foil hats at the ready!
1. War Of The Worlds
Wow, there sure are a lot of children wandering around here, maybe it is because adults playing with anthropomorphic monsters is a bit weird, or maybe it is something all together more sinister! There is a theory that our heroes are left to potter around unsupervised because there simply aren’t enough adults around following a ‘Great War’. In fact, this one is so widely accepted, the theory has theories about the theory! It all comes from what Lt. Surge says to you way back when:
Hey kid! What do you think you’re doing here? You won’t live long in combat! That’s for sure! I tell you what kid, electric Pokèmon saved me during the war!
Are Surge’s words just a coincidence? Well, let’s look at the facts. In the original games you play Red (you have no father), and your rival is an orphan. Most of the adults you meet are either very old, gym leaders, or have a military background. At this point, you realise there was the Great Kanto War, where the majority of adults were killed off! This would also explain the alarming amount of nurses and hospitals, plus why everyone is constantly battle-ready.
2. Bones
No, this isn’t a case for David Boreanaz, this is the rather grim tale of Cubone and its rather unusual headwear. When a mother Kangaskhan dies, the poor orphan is left to fend for itself. The orphan wears its mothers skull and becomes Cubone – when Cubone evolves into Marowak, the skull fuses with the head. Female (and only female) Marowaks can later evolve into Kangaskhans and the cycle starts again. The morbid theory hypothesises that as Pokémon is a kid’s game, this story was too much to take and so Kangaskhan was separated into its own form. You can go on to back up the theory with the fact that Kangaskhan relates to the word ‘kangaroo’ and Cubone knows the move ‘boomerang’…struth Sheila! There in a nine -minute video here for those who want to go into greater depth!
3. Koff It Up
Team Rocket’s Pokémon choices were never going to be the best of the bunch, but a big purple ballooon…really?!? Both Koffing/Weezing can only be found in the Pokémon Mansion – an abandoned lab from the original games, so what was T.R. up to in there? Reddit tells us that evil Team rocket were trying to recreate a ghost-type Pokémon by cloning their gaseous forms. Whatever they were cooking up in there, it looks like they ballsed it up, ending up with two gaseous fart bags instead of the intended ghost-type. Also, if you look at the skull and cross-bones on the Pokémon’s chests, it would suggest man-made. The symbol is the universal mark for toxic, so unless Koffing/Weezing have some pretty clever birth marks, it looks like someone made them this way!
4. Million Dollar Bill
Think before you heal! Ever wonder how the Poké-Center will heal your Pokémon and let you go on your way without so much as a dime? Sure, we have Obamacare, but what pays to keep the lights running and the Nurse Joys joyful? You may just be a child, so you aren’t going to foot the bill, but someone has to! Enter mommy dearest. As you trot around having the adventure of your life, your mom waits at home as the bills pile up. Now not only a widow, but in over her head with hospital bills!
5. Ground Zero
WhilstPokémon Go is currently getting itself into hot water for people collecting at the 9/11 memorial, this isn’t first time the games have caused controversy at Ground Zero. If great wars and bankrupting your mother weren’t bad enough, how about a Poké-world where 9/11 still happened, thanks to the twisted theory sets the Black and white games in a post-9/11 aftermath. The theory is so controversial, Cracked did an article including it in ‘The 9 Most Offensive 9/11 References in Pop Culture’. Director Junichi Masuda even revealed that the Unova was based on New York City, but was the mistake intentional? You can clearly see Unova’s pond match up to Central Park, but what about that desolate wasteland in the middle…is this Ground Zero?
6. Mew Gotta Be Kidding Me?
What would you rather be, a wobbly blob of jelly, or the rarest Pokémon of them all? Sure, Ditto can mimic the other 721 Pokémon, but by all accounts this little sludge monster is a failed clone of Mew. Mew contains the DNA of all other Pokémon and can reproduce asexually…you know who else can do that?!? Ditto! If you still aren’t convinced, both share nearly identical colour palettes, have a common weight of 8.8.lbs and are the only two Pokémon who can learn the transform move naturally. The difference is that Mew in incredibly rare, whilst Ditto is in abundance on Cinnabar island, could the experiments have escaped the lab? Ditto isn’t exactly a positive case for cloning – it is Dolly the Sheep all over again.
7. Clefable The Friendly Ghost
The ghost Pokémon have always provided us with more questions than answers, like are they just other Pokémon in dead form? There are some pretty great theories, like that Voltorb is simply a possessed Poké-ball after a Haunter became trapped inside, however, our favourite ghost theory is Clefable and Gengar. Ever noticed how Gengar and Clefable look oddly similar? Well Creepypasta has cracked the mystery – your angry Gengar is just a Clefable shadow! Known as the shadow Pokémon has lead people to ask, “Just what is Gengar the shadow of?” Not quite as simple as Peter Pan and his shadow, but Gengar bears more than a slight resemblance to the giant Kirby wannabe. To put the icing on the cake, before the release of Pokémon X and Y, both Gengar and Clefable were unable to hit each other with STAB attack…have you ever tried to stab your shadow?
8. The Missingno-Link
An abbreviation of ‘missing number’, Missingno was the more than helpful glitch in the original games. Aside from the joy of getting one over on the game and giving you unlimited Master Balls or Rare Candy, Nintendo actually acknowledged the existence of the mystery Pokémon. It is believed that Missingno was an underdeveloped Pokémon that creators tried to remove from the game, but ultimately got stuck in the code. A more disturbing theory is that a Missingo is what happens to a Pokémon when it spends an extended amount of time trapped in its Pokéball, which would also explain why Pikachu is so reluctant to go inside.
9. Fly Me To The Moon
Of all the places to visit in the Pokémon world, Mt. Moon is one of the strangest, but also most rewarding locations in the Kanto region. Who can pass up on finding a Helix Fossil, or grabbing a Moon Stone, but where did it all come from? Some people hold that Mt. Moon was once an active volcano, hence all the Pompeii style fossils. However, I always prefer the theory that Clefairies came from space and populated the mountain. The Clefairies landed in their spaceship and brought their precious Moon Stones with them to feel more like home.
10. You Rock My World
So, in Reddit’s warped world, gym leader/travelling companion Brock is in fact Pokémon’s very own Medusa – cursed with the mystic eyes of a Gorgon. If you have ever wondered why Brock’s eyes always appear closed, it is because he has the ability to turn you to stone. The wacky doesn’t stop there – ‘Medusa Brock’ also explains why he is the owner of the rock gym and would imply that Onix was never actually a rock-type.
The theory does tend to lose traction though, as on several occasions you see Brock open his eyes. Just like above, Officer Jenny manages to escape rock free. Another joker says that maybe Brock’s eyes always look closed because he is constantly being maced for his advances on women!
11. R.I.P Raticate
Finally, these last two take the conspiracies to an all together darker area of the Poké-world (you have been warned). Back to the original games and oh, this guy again! Blue/Gary Oak was a pain in the backside of the Pokémon games, always popping up with a Bulbasaur to whip your Squirtle just when you least expected it. With some cunning tactics and a well stocked Poké-army, Blue wasn’t that hard to defeat. Blue’s Ratatta is at the forefront of his battle team all the way up until your fight on the S.S. Anne, where it becomes a Lv.16, newly evolved, Raticate – think of the pride on your rival’s face with his sparkly new Raticate.
You (obviously) kick his ass and carry on with your luxury cruise. The next time Blue pops up, where is Raticate? When you meet after the S.S. Anne it is in Lavender Town, the last resting place for dead Pokémon – in the madness of the cruise and overcrowding, Blue/Gary couldn’t get Raticate to a Pokémon Center in time and he passed away. Why the S.S. Anne wouldn’t have somewhere to heal on board is beyond me, but if it didn’t, and Raticate really did die, are you the game’s ultimate douchebag?!? Redditor WideEyedEspurr has since gone on to debunk the popular theory, mainly pointing out a kids game is unlikely to paint the main hero as a rat-squashing killer!
12. Grey’s Ashatomy
The first rule of storytelling is that it is never just a dream. Finally, for the biggest mindf**k of all theories and one that is pulled straight from the pages of some St. Elsewhere storyline – the whole series is taking place in Ash’s coma. After Ash is attacked by a group of Spearows, then struck by lightning during Ep. 1, he is rushed to the nearest hospital, but never wakes up. All those he meets on his travels represent a part of his life. Brock is his repressed sexuality, Pikachu his humanity and Team Rocket the parts of himself that he doesn’t like. Like the constants from LOST, Jenny and Joy were two women he knew before his accident, helping him remain grounded as he travels further into his own coma psyche.
Mewtwo, everyone’s favourite psychic cat, is an electronic impulse that the doctors apply to Ash’s brain to help bring him from the coma – this is how Mewtwo is able to ‘talk’. Coma theory also nicely explains why all the Jenny and Joy’s are all the same, as well as why Ash never ages, or accomplishes becoming a Pokémon master. Probably the most easily debunked of all the theories, but the one which ties up the lose ends that the other theories leave as question marks Maybe all of Pokémon takes place inside a young boy’s snow globe?
Aside from the may ghosts and goblins, the world of Pokémon can be a pretty scary place – it appears you can’t go for a cycle without ending up locked in a coma, or fighting a great war. Why can’t everyone just go back to swapping shiny Charizards and trying to train an unruly Pikachu. Ok, article over, back to discovering Dugtrios in the maternity ward and Sandshrews down your pants in Pokémon Go.
If you’re old enough to remember the original PlayStation launching, then you’ll know how big of a deal switching to optical media was. Rather than shipping an expensive cartridge full of chips, games were burnt on to cheap spinning discs. It didn’t take long for other home consoles to follow and discs have been the preferred media for home consoles ever since.
With the launch of the Switch$299.99 at Amazon, Nintendo is reverting back to cartridge media for a home console. Nintendo handhelds have stuck with cartridges ever since the Game Boy launched, but there wasn’t really any alternative. For a home console, though, it poses a big problem in the form of pricing.
Inevitably, cross platform games will be released targeting the Xbox One$296.88 at Amazon, PS4, and Switch. You only have to look at listings for Puyo Puyo Tetris to see the challenge Switch developers (and Nintendo) face. On PS4 the game costs $29.99, but on Switch it’s $39.99.
The reason, as highlighted by Eurogamer, is one of manufacturing cost. Optical media, even Blu-ray discs, are very cheap to mass produce. Cartridges are relatively-speaking much more expensive. They also aren’t a set cost.
Regardless of whether you burn 5GB or 40GB to a Blu-ray disc the media costs the same. Switch cartridges on the other hand, escalate in price depending on whether you need 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of storage. They also get more expensive per cartridge the smaller the batch ordered.
If you only own a Switch, then the price difference doesn’t really matter as you are stuck paying $39.99. However, many gamers will own, or plan to own, a PS4 and a Switch, much like many have owned a home console and a 3DS. In that case, Nintendo will lose out on cross-platform game sales to the PS4 or Xbox One due to the price differential. The PS4/Xbox One are significantly more powerful than Switch meaning the same game will inevitably look better and run faster while also being cheaper.
The pricing issue is compounded by the fact Nintendo insists that digital versions of a game offered through the eShop must be priced the same as physical versions. So opting to invest in a large SD card and only downloading games won’t save you any cash.
With time and the continued success of the Switch, economies of scale should see manufacturing costs fall. But for the foreseeable future, Switch games are going to be more expensive than the same game on another platform. In fact, manufacturing costs will mean they are always more expensive to produce than the optical disc equivalent.
Will this impact a publisher’s decision to release games on Switch. Potentially, yes. But Switch sales will be key. If Nintendo continues to sell millions of units then the market exists to make releasing on the platform viable. And the more Switch sold, the bigger the cartridge orders can be, and therefore the cheaper they become.
Steven Spielberg changed the game 22 years ago when he released the dinosaur epic Jurassic Park, which remains one of the most successful and popular movies Hollywood has ever seen. Among those featured in the movie were kid actors Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards, who played the forever-traumatized grandchildren of Richard Attenborough. In the two decades since becoming famous for running from velociraptors, where are they now? We dug up some pretty interesting facts to catch you up to (carbon) date.
Now, here’s something that’ll make you feel super-old: Richards, now 36 (!) tied the knot with her hubby, Mark Bolton, in 2013, and is currently expecting her first child, due in November 2015. “My husband and I are thrilled,” Richards told PEOPLE in June. “This is really a wonderful moment for us. It’s super exciting.”
According to PEOPLE, over the years Richards shifted from acting to painting, which is now her main professional focus. “I love to work with people in the art and express their story on canvas and my impression of them and what they want to express and use oils, brushes, canvas to create something that will last the generation,” she revealed. Now reportedly in South America for her art tour, Richards says she’s living a “much quieter” but “still very rich” life compared to her days in the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. “My life story these days, I still experience the red carpet as an artist,” she said. “But on a day-to-day basis I live kind of a country life.”
According to a 2011 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Richards sent Spielberg a watercolor self portrait of herself that was inspired by one of the scenes in Jurassic Park, which now hangs in Spielberg’s office. For his part, Spielberg is a pretty good gift-giver, too. “He never fails to send me something around Christmas,” Richards said. “When he finds people he likes, he’s really good at keeping in touch.” And here we thought we couldn’t love Spielberg more than we do already.
Richards’ movie career pretty much began and ended with the Jurassic Park franchise. She last appeared in a movie in the 1997 sequel, The Lost World. Subsequent acting gigs were on an incredibly smaller scale; TV movies like Broken Silence: A Moment of Truth Movie (1998) and Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001) are among the titles. No, we’ve never heard of them either.
Also in her interview with The Wall Street Journal, Richards—who graduated from Skidmore college in 2011—admitted she hasn’t altogether ruled out a return to acting. “Sometimes I’m on the the pulse of what’s happening in Hollywood,” she said, “but other times, I’m just totally absorbed by what I’m creating on the easel.” Adding to PEOPLE, she said: “If some great role or project finds me, absolutely that could be a nice thing to do, for sure.” Here’s hoping she paid attention to Jurassic World’s record-breaking box office returns…
