Nintendo Switch Stealth Release is a 2001 Classic

Sony has today revealed the lineup of new games for PS5 and PS4 that will be coming to PlayStation Plus in the month of February 2023. Per usual with PS Plus, the latest slate of titles coming to the "Essential" tier of the service happened to leak just a few days back prior to today's official announcement from Sony. Now, we know that this leak was once again accurate.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe is set to release on Nintendo Switch later this month, offering a remastered take on a beloved Wii game. In addition to the main campaign, the game will feature Merry Magoland, a location that features a mix of new and returning sub-games from past Kirby titles. In total, players will have 10 sub-games that can be played, offering some competitive multiplayer to supplement the co-op of the main campaign. To build hype for the mode, Nintendo released a brand-new trailer showcasing what players can expect.

A new Nintendo Direct presentation is rumored to be taking place during the first week of February 2023. As history has shown us time and time again, Nintendo often ends up holding new Direct events in the early portion of each year. With this in mind, Nintendo fans have already been expecting that a Direct would be announced by the company in the near future. And while no such announcement has yet come about, it sounds like we could hear more very soon.

A new report tied to Nintendo has shed additional light on what the Japanese gaming company might have in store for 2023. At this point in time, Nintendo has a pretty solid slate of games poised to come to Switch before the end of the year. Some of these games include The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, and Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe. And while most of these titles will surely be a hit with Nintendo fans, it sounds like expectations should be lowered when it comes to the rest of the first-party lineup this year.

2023 looks poised to be a massive year for the video game industry, and February is the first taste of what lies ahead. While January had some noteworthy releases, it was a fairly slow month compared to what February has in store. This month players will revisit one of the most iconic worlds in all of entertainment, slay behemoth monsters for hobby, befriend headless cannibals, and be transported to an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union never collapsed but did get usurped by obots.

It is now January 31st in Japan, which means that Final Fantasy VII is officially 26 years old. In that timeframe, the video game has become one of the most beloved of all-time, and Square Enix continues to give players new ways to experience that world. In some cases, that means entirely new games, while in others, it's been through collaborations with existing ones. Soon, Final Fantasy VII fans will be able to clean locations and enemies from the game, thanks to a free DLC collaboration coming to PowerWash Simulator! According to Square Enix, the "Midgar Special Request" DLC will task players with cleaning things like Seventh Heaven and the Guard Scorpion.

Arguably the worst feature seen in the original version of Resident Evil 4 won't be making a prominent comeback in Capcom's upcoming remake. At this point, Resident Evil 4 is a little over a month from finally returning on modern platforms. And while Capcom has already shown off a fair amount of the game in action, fans of the original title have still been wondering just how many changes will be made in this remake. Luckily, based on new information that has now come about, we now know that one of the most divisive aspects of RE4 will be getting left in the past.

A new update has been added for the mobile version of Pokemon Home, adding new compatibility with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Unfortunately, this is not the update that will allow players to import and export Pokemon into Scarlet and Violet on Nintendo Switch. Instead, this one allows users to look at their Ranked Battle results from the game, as long as they've linked Pokemon Home to their Nintendo account. Following the change, the Battle Data screen now features an image of Scarlet and Violet's Ceruledge and Armarouge battling Corviknight and Garchomp. Full patch notes from the App Store can be found below:

Call of Duty: Warzone 2's DMZ mode is getting some new content in the upcoming season 2, but not all of it will be free for everyone. In 2020, Activision began experimenting with a free-to-play Call of Duty game to compliment its mainline releases. Free-to-play was the hot new thing and it also came at the perfect time for the company as it released Call of Duty: Warzone right at the start of the pandemic. As people were stuck inside, they were looking for things to play and latched on to a very well-made, free-to-play battle royale game in the Call of Duty universe. With Call of Duty: Warzone 2, the formula has drastically evolved and even added new modes such as an extraction shooter known as DMZ.

A number of major changes are happening at Xbox developer 343 Industries, and it seems that could extend to the head of Halo transmedia, as well. While no official announcement has been made, it appears that Kiki Wolfkill may no longer be at 343 Industries. She has not publicly addressed that departure, and neither has Xbox, but as reported by Video Games Chronicle, her LinkedIn profile says that she left 343 Industries at some point in the month of January. In addition to working on the Halo games, Wolfkill was also closely involved with the Halo series on Paramount+, serving as a producer.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers can now look forward to getting one of the biggest annualized releases of 2023 on the first day of its launch. Any given calendar year, video game fans can come to expect new versions of games like NBA 2K, Madden, FIFA, and more often than not, Call of Duty. And while Xbox Game Pass hasn't been a stranger to harboring titles like this in the past, this trend is now confirmed to be continuing in the coming year.

A new entry in Capcom's Street Fighter franchise has been revealed, but this one is a whole lot different from past games! Releasing on mobile devices next month, Street Fighter: Duel is an RPG featuring iconic characters such as Ryu, Chun-Li, Blanka, and Ken; at launch, the game will have more than 40 in total. According to IGN, the game will allow players "to choose between real-time RPG combat or auto-battling." The real-time combat will feature actual combos and moves from the main series, which will be pulled off via taps on the screen. Street Fighter: Duel is being developed in collaboration with Crunchyroll Games. Speaking to IGN, Crunchyroll Games general manager Terry Li discussed working on the game with Capcom.

The Witcher 3 players have known for a while now that another update for the game was on the way, and this week, that update released. For PC players who've been asking about this update while hoping that it'd resolve some of the issues that they'd been experiencing on that platform, the patch notes for the February 2nd update include changes specifically targeting the PC version of the game as well as some that are only for console players.

The Pokemon Company has announced that Pokemon TCG Online will no longer receive new card sets effective March 1st. The final set incorporated into the game will be Crown Zenith, as resources are shifted towards Pokemon TCG Live. A set shutdown date has not been revealed for TCG Online, but this is certainly a sign that things are winding down, as The Pokemon Company attempts to get all players to shift over to TCG Live. The global beta for TCG Live began back in November, and is available on PC, as well as Android and iOS devices.

A new report tied to Xbox's Halo franchise has shed more light on what is happening behind the scenes at developer 343 Industries. Earlier this month, Microsoft suffered substantial layoffs across multiple segments of the company. Some of these layoffs ended up hitting 343 Industries, which led to speculation from fans about what would happen with Halo in the future. And while 343 itself has already said that it will continue working on Xbox's flagship franchise, it sounds like there are still major changes transpiring.

PlayStation and Discord announced this week that voice support has finally come to the PS5 so that console players can chat with their friends in Discord calls regardless of what platform everyone else is on. This update comes around two years after the two companies first announced their partnership and comes almost exactly a year after PlayStation and Discord integration first began. The feature is limited to the PS5 platform and is only available to beta testers ahead of its wider release.

Knockout City will meet its end later this year. For as much flack as EA has rightfully gotten over the last decade, the publisher has been quietly reforming its reputation in key areas. At the start of the last generation, the publisher made an effort to lean far more into online games thinking single player games were going the way of the dodo. Once that proved to not be the case, EA went back to investing in more single-player games and has also been branching out into new IP, both story driven and online-focused. One of those great new IPs was Knockout City, a PVP dodgeball game that was both incredibly unique and super fun.

Hogwarts Legacy has just over a week left to go until it's fully out and playable, and ahead of that release, the game got its official launch trailer this week. It's got spells, creatures from the Harry Potter world, students participating in classes, and naturally, peril. The game itself is scheduled to be released on February 10th, though those who got certain special editions of the game will be able to play it a bit earlier.

Move aside, Eminem. Jack White is the superstar of this week's top 10 list (again)! Fret not. Eminem and Spidey are still holding strong. Meanwhile, the force is strong in the high republic, as the debut of new characters sends it flying to the top ten. The alien symbiote isn't far behind in a savage silhouette cover. Another planetary adventure lands on our list as the series waits for more news from Amazon. The debut of a new team of turtles is also seeing a tremendous amount of interest, along with a beautifully illustrated Power Girl cover by Warren Louw. The Marvel speculation market brings back some repeats in the form of Red Hulk, Adam Warlock, and the Phoenix. Read on below to find out why these books soared in sales this past week!

An official LEGO set based on The Legend of Zelda has seemingly leaked online. The set apparently appeared in a paid marketing survey, alongside several other licensed sets currently in development. The set features the Great Deku Tree, which can be built in a style resembling its appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, or as it appears in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Three Mini-figs will come with the set, including versions of Link based on both games, as well as a Zelda based on her BotW appearance. As with any leak, readers should take this with a grain of salt pending official confirmation!