Hmmm Pokopia wasn't even on my radar. Now I'm interested in possibly buying it.

I really enjoyed Bayonetta 1, 2, and 3 so I’m definitely interested in a new one. Never played the prequel though.

Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online announced by Bandai Namco

06.03.26 - Bandai Namco announces that Game Studio is developing the action RPG Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online (PS5, Xbox Series, PC).

Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online takes players to the floating castle of Aincrad, a world full of beauty and danger, where every battle can be the difference between life and death. In this JRPG, they design their own avatar, choose equipment, and form an individual hero.

Progress comes from leveling up, stronger stats, and new special abilities. At the same time, they build a close synergy with a partner and adapt their tactics to their fighting style. The game world includes cities, open landscapes and dangerous dungeons with secrets and powerful enemies.

Quests, rare loot and real-time battles drive the adventure forward. As the story progresses, the map expands step by step, opening up new areas, challenges, and opportunities to evolve your character. Release: 10.07.26 (Europe)

Mega Man Star Force: Legacy Collection: Details of the online features

06.03.26 - Capcom has unveiled the online features for the Mega Man Star Force: Legacy Collection (PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) game collection, which will be released in Europe on 27.03.26.

The Preferences menu allows players to select saved data, edit decks, and browse multiple titles at once for online matches. This allows you to speed up matchmaking across all three games included.

The "Casual Match" mode allows online duels without scoring. Beginners can use so-called "rental decks". In the "Ranked Match" mode, players compete against each other online and collect rank points; as the number of points increases, the strength of the opponents increases. In addition, "Friend Match" allows direct battles with invited contacts.

Exchange functions are also integrated. Players can choose cards and trade with partners to get missing content. Expansions also affect the social component: While the original versions only allowed six so-called Brothers, the limit in the collection increases to up to 100 per title. Contacts can be added directly to the list after online matches.

Ubisoft veteran blames incompetence and mismanagement for weak game releases

06.03.26 - A long-time employee of Ubisoft describes to GameFile profound structural problems that, in his estimation, have been hampering the development of new games for several years.

The veteran, who wishes to remain anonymous, explains that good intentions within the company are often not enough to compensate for organizational weaknesses and management errors. Even well-started projects could get out of balance as a result.

The development of modern video games is fundamentally complex and prone to disruptions. If internal processes are not organized in a stable way, even small problems can have a big impact. According to the employee, Ubisoft lacked the conditions under which particularly high-quality games can be created for a long time.

The report also points to a number of projects that have had difficulties in recent years. The pirate game Skull & Bones took about a decade to develop and was released in 2024 with restrained reviews. A remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was announced in 2020, moved between studios several times, and finally canceled this year. Several other projects were also stopped or terminated after a short time, including a battle royale game and a multiplayer project that was planned to compete with Call of Duty.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake shows weak performance with an unstable 30 fps

06.03.26 - Technical analysis Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake Demo (PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, PC) shows that performance is currently unstable on all platforms.

A frame rate of 30 fps is actually planned on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch and PC. In the demo, however, the frame rate fluctuates noticeably, which makes the gaming experience seem inconsistent. The remake currently offers only a single display mode, without separate performance or resolution options, as is common in many modern releases.

The analysis also highlights differences in graphical representation between the platforms: The Xbox Series S and Switch 2 show significant reductions in graphics, such as the density of vegetation and shadow quality. The Switch 2 lags slightly behind the more powerful systems in this analysis. Despite these limitations, the game's overall graphical design is rated as high-quality.

The results of the demo suggest that there is still some optimization work needed before release to stabilize performance consistently. Release: 12.03.26 (Europe)

PS6 should be able to run most games in 4K and 120 fps with ray tracing

06.03.26 - According to hardware insider Moore's Law Is Dead, the PlayStation 6 should be able to run most games in 4K resolution at 120 frames per second and active ray tracing.

The basis is a tailor-made AMD graphics unit with 54 compute units and a clock speed of almost 3 GHz. This could result in a computing power of around 40 teraflops, about four times as much as the PlayStation 5's graphics unit.

Eight Zen 6C cores for games and two energy-efficient Zen 6 cores for the operating system and background tasks are named as processors. This split is intended to ensure that the more powerful cores remain fully available for game calculations. In combination with higher clocks and a new architecture, the CPU performance could be three to four times higher than the Zen 2 CPU of the PlayStation 5, according to Moore's Law Is Dead.

The insider also assumes that Sony is using the increasing spread of 4K TVs with 120 Hz refresh rate as a technical benchmark: The console should stably achieve this level of performance even with graphically complex effects such as ray tracing. The ray tracing calculations could be three to six times faster than the PlayStation 5 Pro and up to twelve times faster than the base model.

Despite discussions about possible supply chain problems or rising memory prices, Moore's Law Is Dead still considers a market launch likely for the end of 2027. The beginning of 2028 is considered an alternative time period; Sony is reportedly already planning production capacities at TSMC for production in the 3-nanometer process from 2027.

Microsoft's Project Helix reportedly 25 percent faster than PS6

06.03.26 - Insider Moore's Law is Dead compares technical details of PlayStation 6 and the next-gen Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, in a new report. Both consoles are said to be based on new processors from AMD, but differ significantly in architecture and chip size.

According to Moore's Law is Dead, the PlayStation 6 will use the AMD Orion chip. This is reportedly manufactured in TSMC's 3-nanometer process and achieves a chip area of around 280 square millimeters. Project Helix relies on the AMD Magnus chip with a significantly larger area of about 408 square millimeters. The combination of a system-on-a-chip with 144 square millimeters and a 264 square millimeter graphics unit is likely to make production more expensive.

The processor architecture also differs: 54 RDNA 5 cores and eight Zen 6c cores are expected for the PS6, supplemented by two energy-saving Zen 6 cores for the operating system. According to the report, this could provide around 20 percent more CPU power for games than the PlayStation 5, whose processor does not have separate cores for system tasks. Project Helix combines up to three Zen 6 cores with eight Zen 6c cores and uses 68 RDNA 5 graphics units

GPU clock speeds of around 3 GHz are expected for Sony's system, which could enable around 40 TFLOPS. Compared to the PS5, about three times the rasterization performance and up to twelve times higher ray tracing performance are being discussed. Project Helix's Magnus system could be around 25 percent faster on paper, although practical performance differences remain open.

Bloomberg: Memory bottlenecks dampen demand for Switch 2 games

05.03.26 - Demand for games for the Switch 2 is coming under pressure as the cost of NAND memory rises sharply worldwide. This is reported by the business service Bloomberg.

The price of flash memory could rise by as much as 90 percent in the current quarter, having already risen by more than 30% in the previous three months. percent, which has a negative impact on the purchase of new games. The Switch 2 sells quickly, but the average number of games purchased per console is 2.18 - well below the original Switch's value of 3.88 games.

Higher file sizes of current games such as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth with around 102.5% GB quickly fill up the 256GB storage. Nintendo is trying to curb costs via its own MicroSD Express cards, which cost around half the market price with discounts from retailers.

Despite this, the prices for memory expansions continue to rise, partly due to US tariffs and limited availability. Backward compatibility with the original Switch and game key cards further increases the memory requirement. According to Bloomberg, experts warn that rising costs could reduce the attractiveness of third-party providers in the long term and further weigh on demand.