News

Arika Announces ‘Fighting EX Layer’

Published

6 years ago

November 15, 2017

Anthony DiMoro

Finally, there is an official announcement regarding developer Arika’s new fighting game, which was originally unveiled on April Fool’s Day and formerly known as the “Mysterious Fighting Game”.

Now, the game has a name and a BETA release date.

Arika founder Akira Nishitani announced the final title, ‘Fighting EX Layer’, in a post penned on the PlayStation Blog.

“There were some troubles during the naming process that caused some delays, but it’s finally settled!” Nishitani said. “(Although there were a lot of people already calling it this whenever we streamed…)”

The Playstation 4 BETA version will be released December 11th and will be available for two weeks for gamers to get their hands on and test.

The game offers a unique twist on the fighting game structure allowing players to choose a number of modifiers and power ups to customize their character including increased movement speed or attack power.

There are also powerup abilities called Hades which grants super armor, and Rage, which gives a fighter infinite super meter.

“For example, in most other fighting games, aside from times where you think, ‘I can win in one more combo,’ ‘I can win if I chip him out,’ and ‘I’m in the corner,’ your battle strategy doesn’t really change that much, right?” Nishitani said. “I wanted to change this on a system level and make a game where matches get crazier and more exciting as they go on.”

Fighting EX Layer will feature fighters from both series’ (Arika’s Street Fighter EX series and 1998’s arcade game Fighting Layer) cast of characters

Business

Patreon Hires Twitch’s Adiya Taylor as New Corporate Communications Lead

Published

1 month ago

March 16, 2024

Anthony DiMoro

Content creation platform Patreon has officially tabbed Adiya Taylor as their new corporate communications lead, effective in February, according to an official announcement.

Taylor worked for Amazon’s video game streaming platform Twitch for three years in a variety of roles, most recently serving as the company’s senior monetization communications manager prior to her departure.

Taylor’s hiring comes after Patreon brought on Brielle Villablanca as Vice President of communications and creator advocacy back in November 2023.

“I’m thrilled to begin crafting and implementing a communications strategy around policy, trust and safety, product and more,” Taylor said during an official post on the networking platform LinkedIn, adding that she believes Patreon is a “true advocate” for creators.

“I’m looking forward to more storytelling around how we’re fostering fandom so that creators own long-lasting businesses built around their artistry,” Taylor added.

Business

Microsoft Bringing Four Games to Rival Consoles

Published

2 months ago

February 15, 2024

Anthony DiMoro

Microsoft has responded to recent reports that there will be changes to it’s first-party strategy and has confirmed that four game titles will be released on rival consoles.

More specifically, Xbox head Phil Spencer said that ‘Starfield’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ will not be among the four titles heading to other platforms. Both games had a number of candidate platforms, per reports, adding that this is “not a change to our fundamental exclusive strategy.”

“We don’t damage Xbox and we can grow our business using what other platforms have to help us with that,” Spencer said, according to GamesIndustry.biz. “Looking forward, I think there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox. We think there’s a good brand value for Xbox there.”

Xbox president Sarah Bond announced that Activision Blizzard games would begin to be added into Game Pass offerings, starting with Diablo 4, which will be added on March 28th.

Additionally, Bond said that Microsoft is still working on hardware for the future and that their focus regarding the future is “delivering the largest technical leap you will ever have seen in a hardware generation.”

Business

Sega’s Revenue See Rise to $27 Billion

Published

3 months ago

February 9, 2024

Anthony DiMoro

Sega Sammy has released its financial report for the nine-month period that officially concluded on December 31st, 2023, and that report that demonstrated a rise in overall sales and profit despite a decrease in sales for Sega’s new titles.

That decline was offset by growth in pachislot and pachinko machines, however Sega had lowered its sales forecasts for the full financial year.

Here is a breakdown, courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz.

Net sales: ¥349.9 billion ($2.3 billion, up 28.7% year-on-year)
Operating income: ¥54.4 billion ($364 million, up 42.4% year-on-year)
Ordinary income: ¥57.2 billion ($383 million, up 42.7% year-on-year)
Net sales were up 130.3% to ¥120.2 billion ($805 million) in this segment
Ordinary income increased by 521.3% at ¥45.7 billion ($306 million).
Entertainment Contents segment, which includes video games, net sales were up 4.2% at ¥219.3 billion
Profit decreased by 52.5% to ¥19.7 billion ($131.8 million) as a result of weak game sales

You can read a breakdown of the entire report at GamesIndustry.biz here.