Happy New Year 2023, gamers! As we kick off the start of what should be an exciting year at DualShockers, we get one more chance to reflect on what news the end of 2022 brought to us, and once again, there are big stories regarding all three of the major console developers.
Plans for Nintendo’s mid-generational update, the Switch Pro,have been scrapped, according to reports. That’s bad news for fans of the oldest of the three major console companies, but at least we can cheer ourselves up withthe latest imagesfrom the Super Nintendo World theme park.
Finding victory and defeat in mixed measure, Microsoft has reason to celebrate, as its much anticipated acquisition of Activision-Blizzard has receivedapproval from the regulatory agencyin Chile, joining Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia in offering support for the deal. It may be a mixed bag, however, as one of the development studios under the Activision-Blizzard banner hadannounced its plans to unionizejust one day before Chilean approval came through.
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And Sony celebrates avictory in the console wars, with a new report indicating that its PlayStation 5 started outpacing the Xbox Series X|S by more than one million units sold in the US, according to figures last updated in November.
Two Weeks To Go Until The Last Of Us
No franchise generated news this past week quite like The Last of Us, which is a trend that’s likely to keep going next week, as the HBO adaptation of what one showrunner considers the greatest story ever told in gaming is just 14 days away. The premiere looks to be huge, with aruntime of nearly and hour and a half, and it’ll feature Bella Ramsey as, in Craig Mazin’s educated opinion,the best Ellie ever.If you’re a fan of the games, you can expect tosee less violencethan you have previously, as well as the introduction of anentirely new type of zombie.
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And in a different bit of game-centric television, Doug Cockle, the voice of Geralt from The Witcher video games,seems united in supportwith soon-to-be-former-Witcher Henry Cavill that the Netflix series of the same name shouldn’t have deviated so much from its source material. And if you’re a fan of both anime and gaming, you might be excited for thepremiere of the Nier: Automata animein less than a week.
You Win Some, You Lose Some
If you were looking forward to the fan remakes of some classic Resident Evil games, we’ve got bad news for you, as Capcom hasissued a cease-and-desistto have them shut down. That counterbalances the news that the official Resident Evil 4 Remakeis nearing completionand should be with us shortly.
Gamers in China definitely had a big win this past week, as that nation’s regulatory agency hasapproved 45 foreign and 84 domestic gamesfor its citizens to devour. We’ll give Christopher Judge a win too, as the Kratos voice actor’seight-minute acceptance speechin early December has been recognized as setting the record for the longest in The Game Awards' history.
There’s few people in the world of gaming who could be considered losing more this week than Sonic the Hedgehog developer Yuji Naka, as we reported this past week that he wasofficially indicted for insider trading.But if you’re one of the many who lost all yourMadden 23 online franchise dataover downtime issues, you might be feeling the same level of loss.
And as we enter boldly into 2023, there’s been announcements aplenty for new games on the horizon, includinga new action RPG from Koei Tecmo, a television show-structuredtitle from Naughty Dog, anda big revealfrom Shadow of the Colossus developer genDesign. That’s a win for all of us
NEXT:DualShockers Week in Review: The Top News Stories From December 19-25
