Upcoming anime-MMORPG Blue Protocol: Star Resonance is getting ready to host its first English closed beta test, and players can sign up now for a chance to play.

From July 24 through August 14, players can fill out a closed beta application for an opportunity to play. Those selected will be notified from August 15-20. In a press release, publisher A Plus Japan doesn't actually list the dates for the beta test itself, but it will presumably begin sometime in late August.

Progress from the beta won't carry over to the free-to-play MMO's full launch, which is still slated for sometime later this year. However, players can make in-game purchases during the test, with purchases converted to in-game currency at a rebate rate come the game's full launch.

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Next year, Bandai Namco will return to the post-apocalyptical world of Code Vein, which is overrun by vampire-like Revenants. Code Vein 2 will have an even bigger area to explore than its predecessor. And as revealed in the production video below, players won't have to transverse all of that distance by foot. Instead, they can ride in style with a supernatural motorcycle.

In the video, producer Keita Iizuka explains that the Revenant Hunter's motorcycle isn't actually a motorcycle at all. It's a spell used to manifest a physical vehicle as needed. That means it won't need any conventional fuel or spare parts. However, it's unclear if players will need to provide anything to keep the motorcycle powered.

Iizuka added that when the player is accompanied by a companion character, they will ride on the back of the motorcycle with the Revenant Hunter. The motorcycle itself is being used to promote Code Vein 2 at San Diego Comic-Con this week with a recreation of the game's supernaturally charged vehicle. Fans will be able to take pictures with it there, or catch it at PAX West and New York Comic Con later this year.

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The Switch 2 launched in early June and put up massive sales numbers, but it remains to be seen if the system will be a long-term success, according to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella.

Piscatella told The Game Business that "launch sales of hardware doesn’t often correlate to the lifetime sales." He said there have been systems that have had "incredible early sales" but later fell off, while other systems started slow and became huge hits later.

"It's just tough right now to come away with any long-term conclusions or projections, although this is a hell of a good early read," Piscatella said.

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As part of its "strategic partnership" with Bandai Namco, Sony will acquire 16 million shares in the company, giving it 2.5% ownership over it. The deal is valued at 68 billion Yen, which works out to approximately $463 million. Bandai Namco has several major gaming franchises under its umbrella--including Elden Ring, Tekken, and Pac-Man--and it also owns the licenses to popular Japanese IP like Gundam and Shonen Jump, making it a giant in multiple fields of entertainment.

"Through this business alliance and Sony's investment in Bandai Namco, as two of the leading Japanese entertainment companies, Bandai Namco and Sony will focus on expanding the fan community for IP such as anime and manga around the world and strengthening engagement, particularly in the anime field where rapid market growth is anticipated," Sony and Bandai Namco said in a joint statement.

Sony has made several moves lately to diversify its portfolio, as back in 2020, it invested $250 million in Fortnite developer Epic Games. The company--alongside KIRKBI, the owners of The Lego Group--invested another $2 billion into Epic in 2022 as part of its plans to create a metaverse.

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To help promote the upcoming launch of Grounded 2, Microsoft has announced a giant 10-foot red ant plush that one lucky fan can win. As you can see in the image below, the red ant plush is based on the Red Ant Buggy from Grounded 2. A new feature for Grounded 2 is the "Buggy" system, which allows players to ride insects as they traverse the hostile world.

"That's right. We turned the in-game Red Ant Buggy into a real-world, mountable, ultra-soft, totally bonkers gaming plush," Xbox said. "It's part furniture, part Buggy, and all awesome."

Do you want this?

To win the plush, you need to follow follow Xbox on X and re-share this post. Alternatively, fans can follow Xbox on Instagram and comment on the post "#Grounded2Sweepstakes."

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Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy was a very popular expansion to the three-decades-old card game, and based on its current sold-out status in most local game stores and big-box retailers, that popularity is still going strong. During Hasbro's recent quarterly investor call for Q2 2025, the company revealed that the set has already become the best-selling set in the game's history--and it only took one day to get there.

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks revealed during the call that Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy sold $200 million worth of product in a single day. For reference, the previous MTG collaboration set--2023's The Lord Of The Rings--needed six months to reach the $200 million milestone. Cocks went on to say that the set could have made even more on day one, but the company "left demand on the table."

Zidane, Tantalus Thief

"We couldn’t produce enough," Cocks said. "I think we increased production runs on it four times pre-release. It was substantially--by many, many very high double-digit percentages--ahead of any other production run we’ve ever done, and we left the market wanting more.”

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The Mafia series has long been a contemporary of franchises like GTA and Saints Row, but its focus has always been much more narrow than those sprawling games. From the very first Mafia game, the goal was to deliver a playable classic mob movie, making for a familiar pastiche of themes and characters. The first game was technically an open world in that you drove between mission hubs, but it was largely focused on its narrative. For its latest game, Mafia: The Old Country, 2K is similarly focused. GameSpot spoke with executive producer Devin Hitch and game director Alex Cox about the change in setting and a renewed focus on making combat feel intimate and personal.

The previous games have slowly become more modern, starting in the 1930s and then venturing into the 1940s and 1950s in Mafia 2 and finally the 1960s in Mafia 3. Aside from brief interstitial stories, they've also all taken place across a fictionalized United States. That makes this setting, 1900s Sicily, a significant change for the series, but one that won't be unfamiliar to fans of organized-crime fiction.

"When we [begin a] project, as we usually do, we go back to the drawing board, we look at the 'Mafia' DNA," Cox said. We go back to the project, the franchise pillars to figure out what would make for a new 'Mafia' game, what we want it to be different about this one. And in some ways, what we want about it to be the same. And when we look at Mafia, the Mafia series and what was done in the previous three games, they start to become this story of organized crime in the 20th century. Visiting different historical eras that are very iconic, very familiar to a mainstream audience. Players will have seen Godfather, 'Goodfellas', Untouchables, all of the kinds of movies that define very iconic eras in organized-crime history."

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The first trailer for Battlefield 6 has arrived, and it's impressive. This trailer spotlights the game's campaign, which is being made at Motive Studio, opening with the President of the US speaking to the American people about a "monstrous, unprovoked attack" and how "no country is safe."

The developers previously spoke about how Alex Garland's war movie Civil War was an inspiration for the game, and it's not hard to see the influence of that film in this trailer. The trailer shows off a variety of locations around the world, including New York City, and also features the iconic Battlefield music, which is nice to hear. Of course, Battlefield's trademark destruction is on display in the trailer as well.

"The trailer offers a first look at Pax Armata, a Private Military Corporation bankrolled by former NATO states whose agenda threatens to throw the world into global conflict," reads a line from the game's description. "This sets the scene for what players can expect on the battlefield--both in multiplayer and the return of the series' single player campaign. In Battlefield 6, the series' incredible blend of visceral combat, epic warfare, and player freedom returns. Blow through walls and bring down buildings for a tactical advantage or take to the skies in white-knuckle dogfights. Take part in a war filled with tanks, fighter jets, and sweeping combat at a grand scale but remember: the deadliest weapon is your squad."

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WWE's latest, WWE 2K25, is finally out on Nintendo Switch 2, but it's missing one of the franchise's key elements. For any hardcore wrestling fan, creating--as well as downloading--custom superstars is one of the biggest draws. However, players quickly noticed that the Switch 2 version of the game doesn't have the image-uploader feature.

As frustrating as that is, there's a good reason: WWE 2K25 isn’t compatible with cross-platform community creations. While the latest DLC pack features the late ECW legend New Jack, recent acquisition Penta, and Japanese women's wrestling icon Bull Nakano, players who want to import logos or textures from wrestlers that aren't in the game won't be able to on Switch 2. That means Switch 2 players will be left with the default images featured in the game.

It might not be a dealbreaker for some, but it feels like the game is at a disadvantage if you want the full experience.

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The first trailer for Five Nights at Freddy's 2 has been revealed, giving fans of the horror franchise a fresh look at the murderous animatronic animals as they bust out of their fast-food prison and hit the streets. Directed by Emma Tammi--who directed the first movie--the film is scheduled to hit theaters on December 5.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 once again stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, who barely survived the events of the 2023 movie. The film also sees Elizabeth Lail and Mathew Lilard reprise their roles as Vanessa and Willaim Afton, respectively, and some of the new faces for the sequel include Mckenna Grace, Teo Briones, Skeet Ulrich, and Wayne Knight.

"One year has passed since the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza," the official plot synopsis reads. "The stories about what transpired there have been twisted into a campy local legend, inspiring the town’s first-ever Fazfest. Former security guard Mike and police officer Vanessa have kept the truth from Mike's 11-year-old sister, Abby, concerning the fate of her animatronic friends. But when Abby sneaks out to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, it will set into motion a terrifying series of events, revealing dark secrets about the true origin of Freddy's, and unleashing a long-forgotten horror hidden away for decades."

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The Switch 2 has had some impressive early sales numbers, quickly proving to be one of the biggest console launches of all time, but one of its sales figures is particularly notable. Purchases of the premium-priced Pro Controller have been surprisingly high, with almost one-third of all early Switch 2 purchasers also picking up the $85 accessory.

The statistic was picked up by Circana industry analyst Mat Piscatella, who reported that the Switch 2 Pro Controller saw a 32% attach rate during the Switch 2's launch month--that is to say, 32% of people buying a Switch 2 also picked up the $85 premium controller. Piscatella also reports that the Switch 2 Pro Controller was June's best-selling accessory in dollars.

Game File reports that an estimated 512,000 Pro Controllers were sold in the US in the first month of the Switch 2's release, which is a huge number considering the luxury controller isn't necessary for playing the console or any of its launch games, and the original Switch's Pro Controller is also compatible. It's also worth noting that the Pro Controller saw a $5 price hike after its announcement, likely due to concerns around Trump's import tariffs.

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Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is out now, and it's having a big start on Steam. The $50 game reached more than 115,000 peak concurrent players, according to Steam's publicly available statistics.

That sounds like a big start, but any comparison to other Steam games would be inexact, incomplete, and unfair. What we do know is that the numbers on Steam represent just a portion of the game's total possible audience, as the title is also available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, as well as the Epic Games Store. Further, it's available on Game Pass, which in theory would help boost the game's player numbers. However, user reviews haven't been glowing thus far.

Regarding the poor reviews on Steam, many people are citing performance issues in their reviews. The game's social media pages have not yet addressed the reported performance issues.

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After successfully getting Fortnite reinstated on iOS through the App Store in the US and the Epic Games Store in the European Union, Epic Games' plans to follow either of these paths in the UK has hit a regulatory dead end.

Epic has posted a blog update expressing disappointment with the CMA, the competition regulator for the UK, after its roadmap included no plan to open the mobile landscape for alternative app stores like the Epic Game Store. "Four years after concluding that the App Store and Google Play Store are parallel monopolies the CMA has done nothing to allow competing stores," Epic says.

According to Epic, the CMA has "deprioritized store competition entirely, to be considered sometime in 2026." It references the EU's Digital Markets Act as a benchmark for allowing alternative app stores on mobile devices, citing a number of alternative stores that have sprung up in Europe including AltStore, Aptoide, and its own Epic Games Store.

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Retro gaming fans might have to make a difficult choice soon, as ModRetro has revealed that its modern-day tribute to the Nintendo 64 console will cost $200. First teased last year, this could make it a viable alternative to the Analogue 3D, which costs $250.

ModRetro's newest product is M64. The best and most authentic way to play your favorite N64 games, bar none. Prepare your wallet and brace your mind.

Launches at the same price as the original Nintendo 64. Inflation isn't nostalgic. pic.twitter.com/LYDyiBBx2O

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) July 24, 2025

Like the Analogue 3D, the M64 is also an FPGA console that aims to replicate the experience of using an N64 at a hardware level. This is the same direction that ModRetro took for the ModRetro Chromatic, a well-designed Game Boy successor that combines several modern conveniences with an authentic handheld gaming experience that can easily run all of your original Game Boy cartridges. The handheld also feels great to use, thanks to all of the premium materials incorporated into its design.

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Set in the chaotic final years of the Ming Dynasty, WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers is an exploration of the hauntingly beautiful landscapes of imperial China and the battle against mysterious forces that transform a grim reality to supernatural horror.

Welcome to Miami, the city of sun, sand, and luxurious neon-lit hotels! In this hotel management simulator, you and your friends can team up to renovate and maintain a hotel, and keep your customers happy. With the multiplayer feature, you can manage the same hotel together, chat, delegate tasks, and work as a team to make your hotel successful. You've just purchased an old hotel, and it's up to you to bring it back to life. To make the most profit, you'll need to provide exceptional service and create a welcoming environment that keeps customers coming back. In Miami Hotel Sim, customers will come and stay in your hotel for a few days. As they wander around, they'll spend money on your slot machines, restaurant, bar, and vending machine, allowing you to improve your hotel and make even more profit. To attract more customers and make more money, you'll need to upgrade and beautify your hotel, making it a heavenly retreat in the heart of Miami. However, with more customers comes more responsibility. Customers can be messy, leaving garbage on the floor, clogging toilets, and messing up their beds. You'll need to clean out the rooms before handing over the keys to the next customer. As co-managers, you'll need to work together to keep your customers satisfied and your business profitable. Miami Hotel Sim features a range of customization options, allowing you to design and decorate your hotel to your liking. With the multiplayer mode, you can work together with your friends to grow your business as a team, achieving common goals and creating a thriving hotel in Miami. So gather your friends and embark on the exciting challenge of managing your own hotel in the neon-lit paradise of Miami today!