Atlus’ 2014 crossover fighting title Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is now available on PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. An expanded version of 2013 ‘s Persona 4 Arena , it includes new characters, new shadow types, and the S-Hold system. With this re-release, players will have access to all DLCs.This includes the Persona 4 arena story, all icons and fighter titles, challenge demos, three additional characters, boss characters, Adachi’s story mode, and additional BGM and Navi voices. Dual audio is also supported with English and Japanese voice overs. In addition, the gameplay is based on the arcade version 2.50, which appears for home consoles for the first time.For more details on Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, check out our PS4 version review. Rollback Netcode for online multiplayer will also be added as a free update for PS4 and PC this summer. Expect a public test and more details in the coming months.

Knights in the Nightmare Remaster gets new release date April 7th in Japan

Knights in the Nightmare Remaster has been given a new release date after being delayed a few months ago. It launches now on April 7, 2022 in Japan on Switch and costs 2860 yen. This is all the information that is currently available about the game, but a teaser website has been launched meaning more details will be revealed soon.

Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.07 will be released on March 17th

Polyphony Digital has released Gran Turismo 7 update 1.07 (PS5 version 1.007) during the game’s maintenance period. This is the second racing sim title update this month and a small download. Read on for the March 17 GT7 patch notes.Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.07 Patch Notes | Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.007 Patch Notes | Gran Turismo 7 March 17 Patch Notes:
Size: 385MB
Polyphony Digital has yet to release the official patch notes, but we’ve included the maintenance schedule below.
[Day & Time]
March 17, 2022 06:00 – 08:00 UTC
March 16, 2022 23:00 – 01:00 PDT
[IMPORTANT]
Please note that only arcade races within World Circuits and Music Rally are playable during this time. Other online services such as sport mode are not available and progress is not saved.
Don’t forget to check out Polyphony’s announcement of post-launch plans and improvements here. If you haven’t gotten the game yet, read our review where we say, “Gran Turismo 7 is a true return to Polyphony Digital form. Despite being the seventh mainline iteration, the team is still able to keep the series fresh with its fresh coat of paint and innovative tech with its new weather system (and even a new AI tech called “Sophy”) . For gran turismo players out there who think this might be half a step, it isn’t; It’s a full-blown experience and then a whole lot more.”

Dragalia Lost – Part Two of Primal Strength, a Platinum Showcase and a Flame Focus Summon Showcase are all live now

Multiple content has been added to Dragalia Lost today in the form of 2 summoning showcases and a main campaign update. The two summoning showcases are a platinum showcase and a flame focus summoning showcase. Both showcases include the adventurers Ayaha & Otoha and Undercover Grace, the only difference is that the Platinum Showcase guarantees a flame-tuned 5-star adventurer. These showcases are both live until March 27, 2022.
Also live now is the second part of Chapter 24 of the main campaign (Primal Strength). This lets players explore Dragon Necropolis to find the truth about Bahamut and an ancient war.

Perfect Dark Departures came about due to “major disagreements” over studio structure – rumor has it

The Perfect Dark Initiative was announced in December 2020, but to say the situation is complicated would be an understatement. It started with design director Drew Murray departing in February 2021. Game director Dan Neuburger left the company last month, according to his LinkedIn page. A report from VideoGamesChronicle would then emerge about how development had been “seriously impacted” by a series of discrepancies.
Reportedly, half of The Initiative’s core development team had left the studio in the past year. In Windows Central’s Checkpoint Podcast with Miles Dompier and Jez Cordon, the latter provided much more information on the current situation in the studio.
Regarding the decision to bring Crystal Dynamics on the project, Cordon says he “would have been worried if they hadn’t.” “It sounds like what ended up happening at The Initiative is a major disagreement over how to go about it, as well as staffing and structure on Perfect Dark .”
Speaking to trusted sources who could not be named, he continued, “The way The Initiative was built, almost in a unique kind of studio format…I don’t want to say ‘flat structure’ but they built it to explore another way of making a game studio. Anti-crunch, which is great…a more democratic structure to the development process…The problem with this is that they spawned two schools of thought about how to develop Perfect Dark .
“One of them was, ‘We’re hiring people.’ The other school of thought was, “We’re going to stay small and build quality indie-level games.” But given the hype surrounding the studio, I don’t think Microsoft wanted The Initiative to be such a small studio. I think expectations got to a point where people wanted them to make bigger games.” The infamous listing about making “quad-A” titles (which was later removed) was set aside and attached to one well-known IP as attached Perfect Dark has also raised many expectations.
Cordon continues, “So the two schools of thought emerged from what I understand is (A) We’re hiring people. That would have taken two to three years. Or the other line of thought was to go for a more traditional structure and involve Crystal Dynamics, with basically Daryl Gallagher running the entire project like he would have done with the Tomb Raider game.
“That sort of clash between the two schools of thought seems to have led to a lot of what we now consider exits. It sounds like The Initiative was originally set up as a sort of rather flat organizational structure, where the core team all had some sort of – almost Valve-like kind of flat organizational structure. And we see how often Valve releases games. It’s not very often, let’s be honest.
“It just got to a point where it wasn’t working for the team in general, or maybe Microsoft itself. They just said, ‘We have to make a plan here.’ As far as I know the people who are still with The Initiative and Microsoft itself prefer this plan and they are happy with this plan. What they have now is that for the first time they are working towards a common goal and the game is actually progressing.
“You can tell that mistakes were clearly made and it kind of… sucks for the people who invested in the original ‘Initiative’ of The Initiative. I mean the fact that the studio is called The Initiative is an indication of what they wanted here. They took the initiative to create a new structure. I felt from the people I spoke to that there was a lot invested in the structure of the studio, in the identity of the studio. When they launched Crystal Dynamics, it sort of impacted that kind of identity, and a lot of people didn’t like that and they left.”
Speaking on the game’s current state, Cordon said, “Ultimately what we care about as Xbox fans and gamers is, ‘Are we going to get a quality game out in time?’ That’s the part I’m not worried about. It sucks that it came to this and that a lot of people left. It sucks that some people feel like maybe they’ve been abused, I don’t know, and feel like they wasted their time and what they saw as their vision for The Initiative just didn’t work out. That sucks and it’s like… it’s a shame that happened, you know. Personally, for customers and Xbox fans, I’m not worried about Perfectly Dark Now.
“It sounds like they have a vision and are all moving towards some sort of common goal. Maybe it was a mess and a bit messy to get to this point but it sounds like they are in a good place now and if we keep going hopefully we will eventually get a game in time that is of a decent quality level . Which I don’t think we would be able to do the other way we try.”
Perfectly Dark is currently in development for Xbox Series X/S and PC. Aside from the possibility that it will be a live service title, not much is known about the project. So stay tuned in the coming months for more details. As it stands, if this is the plan The Initiative and Microsoft are striving for, time will tell if it materializes into something worthwhile.