Plus the highlights from Annapurna Interactive's showcase and the Wonder Woman game is cancelled as studio shuts down
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER.
KYLE: Hi I’m Kyle Pauletto
FIONA: and I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
KYLE: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
FIONA: This week a bunch of Warner Brothers game studios get the axe, Balatro bets big and wins a lower age rating in Europe and a first look at Pokémon ZA gameplay.
Here is the news for Sunday 2nd of March. Let’s go!
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KYLE: One of our least favourite recurring segments is back this week, it’s studio closure announcement time!
This time, Warner Bros. has made the call to shut down not one, not two, but three of their games studios.
On the chopping block we have the newly formed WB Games’ San Diego, which was apparently working on a big AAA title.
Player First, who recently released then shut down the Warner Bros. Smash clone MultiVersus.
And Monolith Production, best known for the Middle-earth Shadows series, as well as a now canceled Wonder Woman game.
FIONA: The news was delivered in an email to employees from CEO and president of global streaming and games for Warner Bros. Discovery JB Perrette.
Polygon got their hands on this email, and say it cites a disappointing 2024 for the studios as the main reason for the closures
It also read that moving forward Warner Bros. gaming overall will be focusing primarily on Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, DC, and Mortal Kombat.
Which is interesting given two of their biggest 2024 flops were Suicide Squad and Harry Potter: Quidditch.
KYLE: Aside from the obvious job losses and canceled games, there are also creative casualties in this decision, most notably the highly regarded nemesis system from the Middle Earth franchise.
The nemesis system allowed enemies to remember you tried to kill them, remember that they were able to kill you, hold grudges, and backstab each other in the pursuit of power.
That series was essentially Assassin's Creed in Middle Earth, but that nemesis system really made it stand on its own, and was rumoured to be built into the now cancelled Wonder Woman game.
FIONA: Sadly, due to the shutdown of Monolith Studios, that system can’t be emulated by other studios any time in the near future due to being patented in 2021.
The patent, titled “Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games”, will sit gathering dust in the Warner Bros. basement until 2036.
Sad news all around. Let’s just hope Warner Bros. either gets cracking on a new game to use the system in, or lets it free into the world in 11 years time.
But honestly, I'm not holding my breath for either of those outcomes.
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FIONA: It was Pokémon Day this week and as always we got a stack of new announcements to celebrate.
One of the biggest announcements is probably the more details we got on the previously announced Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the next title in the series.
We got more of a look of Lumiose city which is being given a high tech upgrade to help people and Pokémon coexist. Like the previous game you’ll be helping people in the city and catching Pokémon in the wild zones.
This new game is a departure from the historical Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which is a bit of a shame, one of the best things about Arceus was that it took the series to a time setting we haven’t seen before.
It’s slated for release later this year.
KYLE: The latest multiplayer game coming from the company is called Pokémon Champions.
It’s inspired by the core series games and will let trainers from around the world challenge each other in matches across mobile and Nintendo Switch. It even connects with Pokémon Home so you can bring your favourite Pokémon over from other games.
There isn’t much more info on how it will all work just yet or when it will be released, but we will probably see more about it soon enough.
There were also a few updates for their live-service games like Pokémon TCG Pocket, Pokémon Unite, and Pokémon Sleep, so you can check them all out in our show notes.
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KYLE: Finally after a long appeal, the roguelite game Balatro, has had its game rating downgraded in Europe.
When it was released last year it was given a PEGI 18 rating because of ‘prominent gambling imagery and material that instructs about gambling’. However the game actually only had poker imagery and no gambling whatsoever.
The appeal was submitted by the team at Fireshine Games which published Balatro’s physical editions, which resulted in the game being changed to a PEGI 12 rating.
FIONA: PEGI has said that while the game explains the various hands of poker, the deck-building game contained fantastical elements that warranted a PEGI 12 rating.
It’s not the only good news, they’re also changing the PEGI 18 rating for ‘Luck Be A Landlord’ which is a roguelike with slot machine mechanics but again, had no real-world gambling.
Thanks to both of these appeals PEGI is going to update their classification criteria to address games with gambling imagery but may not need that 18 rating. Sounds like a win in our books.
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FIONA: Annapurna Interactive held their showcase this week and there are a stack of new games on the way.
Faraway is a chill looking game where you play as a shooting star. The star is constantly in the process of vanishing but to stay alive you get energy by forming constellations.
This one is out sometime this year.
KYLE: Wanderstop is a narrative-based cozy game about change and tea.
Grow and harvest the ingredients needed for a variety of tea while observing people going through changes they don’t want to go through, but there seems to be something darker going on too.
That’s out on March 11 on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series S and X, and there’s already a new demo on Steam.
FIONA: And finally Keita Takahashi, creator of Katamari Damacy, is bringing out a new weird game, I mean that is his shtick and we love him for it, called To a T about a kid that’s stuck in T-pose and has to try to live a normal life. It’s very strange and charming and it’s out in late May.
If you want to find out what else was announced you can find them all in the show notes.
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KYLE: If you’re fan of 90s arcades and 90s sci fi films boy do I have a game for you, the newly announced Terminator 2D: No Fate.
It’s a side scrolling retro game which takes the plot of the second film but expands on it with deleted scenes and a couple of different endings,
For example you can fight out in the robot apocalypse as John Connor which never appeared in that movie and feels incredibly nineties to be honest, they always used to chuck this sort of thing into game tie-ins.
FIONA: Developers bit bureau describe it as the sort of game they wished was around when the movies came out and it looks pretty cool with some modern pixel art graphics.
And yes you can play as naked Arnie beating up bikers after teleporting in from the future.
You can pick that up on everything but it’s going to be a bit of a wait for this one, it’s scheduled for September 2025 at this stage.
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KYLE: That’s it for the headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
FIONA: Australian made reboot Carmen Sandiego arrives on the 4th, this 3D action game has you taking on the role of the master thief who teams up with the normal good guys to take down a greater foe VILE. This is another one for the nineties kids, you can find it on Netflix games as well as on console and PC on Tuesday.
KYLE: Split Fiction is out this week. It’s the latest co-op story by Hazelight Studios. The team behind A Way Out and It Takes Two brings us a new adventure, this time jumping between sci-fi and fantasy. That's out on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X on the 5th, and keep an eye on SIFTER.com.au for our full review coming Wednesday.
FIONA: The legendary JRPG classics Suikoden 1 and 2 are being remastered. Updated art and audio, as well as quality of life upgrades breathe new life into these 90’s fan favourites. Grab them on all platforms this Thursday.
KYLE: Dragonkin: The Banished is a new action rpg in the vein of a Diablo or V Rising, where you must fight enemies, collect loot and build up your fortress. You know pretty standard ARPG sort of stuff, but if that’s your thing be sure to check it out on the 6th
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KYLE: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Kyle Pauletto.
FIONA: And my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus, thank you so much for listening.
KYLE: Hey if you’ve been watching and enjoying episodes make sure you subscribe and hit the little notification bell, particularly on YouTube, that’ll let you know when we put out a new episode. You can also follow our shows in audio format on your favourite podcast player as well - so you don’t miss a thing.
FIONA: SIFTER is produced by myself, Kyle Pauletto, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. The episode is edited by both Senior Producer Mitch Loh and Gianni Di Giovanni who is SIFTER’s Executive Producer and also Walkthrough’s script editor.
KYLE: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
FIONA: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday.
