This Week in Games

Give Game Developers Their Flowers

Congratulations, reader, you've made it to another Friday. It's crazy to believe this week would be busting at the seams with video game news outside of Geoff Keigley's not-E3 event, The Game Awards (we'll get to that!). But Supreme Kai as my witness, there was a lot of gaming news that happened before Friday's live-streamed festivities. Arguably, the biggest nugget of news was the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer leaking a day before its official reveal by a random crypto bro before Rockstar Games subsequently broke the internet by releasing its 90-second trailer early. Spoilers: the trailer kind of rocks unequivocally. But we're not here to talk about 2025's early candidate for Game of the Year. Without further ado, here's a beefy rundown of the biggest gaming stories of the week.

On Tuesday, the popular video game streaming platform Twitch announced it will end its services in South Korea on February 27, 2024. In an official blog post, Twitch CEO Daniel Clancy revealed the platform decided to save on “prohibitively expensive” operation costs in the region. For context, the South Korean government recently made a motion to start charging foreign businesses like Google, Apple, and Twitch owner Amazon taxes for operating in the country through The Corporate Tax Act, according to The New York Times. Until now, South Korea hasn't demanded the aforementioned companies pay additional fees through taxes for operating in the country. The previous iteration of The Corporate Tax Act was a source of ire for domestic competitors, claiming the legislation led to “an uneven playing field” for years, according to The Korea Times.

According to the blog post, Twitch made efforts to cut costs in South Korea by adjusting video streaming quality to 720p; however, Twitch claims South Korea asked them to pay “10 times more” than other countries are charging them. Clancy continued saying Twitch's “significant loss” led to the decision to no longer operate in the country.

Ultimately, this whole situation sucks not just for Twitch as a platform but for the many viewers and Streamers in South Korea who'll have to migrate to alternative platforms to watch and stream video games. The repercussions of this decision ostensibly mean South Korean Twitch streamers can no longer make money through the platform. Toward the end of the blog post, Clancy promised Twitch would aid in this process, saying:

“Twitch streamers in Korea have devoted significant time and effort into building their communities, and we plan to help these communities find new homes—even if it's regrettably not on Twitch. We will work to help Twitch streamers in Korea move their communities to alternative livestreaming services in Korea. We are also reaching out to several of these services to help with the transition and will communicate with impacted streamers as those discussions progress. I want to reiterate that this was a very difficult decision and one we are very disappointed we had to make. Korea has always and will continue to play a special role in the international esports community and we are incredibly grateful for the communities they built on Twitch.”

Hopefully, Twitch will stay true to its word in helping Twitch content creators and viewers find alternative means to live stream video games (and pocket some cash) once Twitch terminates its services next year.

Capcom and Wit Studio stunned anime and fighting game players by releasing an animated short depicting a bout between Street Fighter 6's Chun-Li and Spy x Family's Thorn Princess Yor Forger. The fight, which saw both ladies finish in a draw as most cross-over events are wont to do, was made to promote Spy x Family's upcoming film, Spy x Family: Code White. Although the video drop seemingly came out of the blue, TOHO animation announced the crossover in July at Anime Expo.

Wit Studio and Capcom dove-tailed its slick animated short teasing fans with Spy x Family items coming to Street Fighter 6 in January. If the Spy x Family x Street Fighter collab is anything like its crossover with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the forthcoming items will cost players an arm and a leg to procure in Street Fighter 6's in-game store.

Much to the players' chagrin, the total cost for all four of the TMNT's skins (glorified recolors of the titular characters) was $60. That's the retail price for Street Fighter 6, by the way. I'm sure diehard Spy x Family fans will see whatever price tag for a prospective Yor Forger Chun-Li costume as just another drop in the bucket toward assisting Loid Forger's perilous Operation Strix mission. In other Spy x Family news, Code White will hit Japanese theaters on December 22.

Speaking of movies, The Legend of Zelda's live-action film director Wes Ball raised some eyebrows with a comment that his forthcoming adaptation will evoke the “wonder and whimsy” of a Studio Ghibli film.

“It's going to be awesome," Ball told EW. "My whole life has led up to this moment. I grew up on Zelda, and it is the most important property, I think, that's untapped IP, if you will. So we very much are working hard to do something. We're not just trying to do it because we can. We want to make something really special.”

While there's nothing overly wrong with Ball aspiring to make his film elicit Studio Ghibli's magic, it does call into question why Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment were so deadset on making the movie live-action instead of an animated feature film. Naturally, Ball's comments led folks online to ask why the Zelda movie isn't animated in the first place.

As much as I'd like to see Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer as Princess Zelda (this hasn't been confirmed, but an enby can dream), I'm on the internet's side on this bit of video game discourse. While Ball's well-meaning promise that his Zelda film will be more like a Hayao Miyazaki flick than a derivative of The Lord of the Rings, it's hard not to wonder why Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment wouldn't opt to make another animated film like the Super Mario Bros. Movie to achieve this lofty goal. A huge component of Studio Ghibli's whimsy is thanks to beloved films like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke being animated in the first place. Plus, Sony Pictures Entertainment proved general audiences will come out in droves to watch animated films like Across the Spider-Verse. I guess we'll have to wait and see if a live-action adaptation of yet another adored video game series will be up to the herculean task of feeling like a Ghibli movie. Should it fail, we'll always have that awesome fan-made Studio Ghibli x The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time video.

This week, a group of high-level competitive Splatoon 3 players raised concerns about whether or not Nintendo should ban the game's new special weapon in tournaments because of the sensory overload it's reportedly causing for players. According to the official North American Splatoon X/Twitter account, the Splattercolor Screen is a throwable canister that reveals a giant ink wall that slowly creeps across a map, causing anyone it touches to “take damage” and “lose the ability to see color.” Players' issue with the Splattercolor Screen is that the “ocular monochromatic enhancement” players affected by the Splattercolor Screen comes after a bright flash of light that has players experiencing nausea and lightheadedness. This link explains the phenomenon and is safe to click:

While players have yet to come to a consensus on whether Nintendo should remove the Splattercolor Screen outright from tournament play, players like Reddit user mysecondaccountanon think Nintendo should release an update that tweaks its visual effects so folks don't get sick playing Splatoon 3.

Anime News Network reached out to Nintendo for comment.

Ryu Ga Gotoku announced that Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name will soon receive an English dub patch. Yong Yea, the new English voice actor for protagonist Kiryu Kazuma, revealed the delay of the English dub track back in November. At the time, Yea said the English dub would be released “as a post-launch patch.” Like A Dragon Gaiden, which takes place after and in tandem with the events of Yakuza 6 and Like A Dragon, follows series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma as he works under the not-so-secret agent alias Joryu to keep his orphan children out of harm's way. Ryu Ga Gotoku released the game on November 9 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.

Yakuza games with an English dub are a fairly new concept for longtime players like me. Only recently have players been able to experience the game with an English dub, with the release of Yakuza spin-offs Judgment and Lost Judgment, and Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the next mainline Yakuza game will have an English dub with Kaiji Tang (Gojo Satoru's English voice actor in Jujutsu Kaisen) reprising his role as protagonist Ichiban Kasuga.

Although Yakuza fans have made their opinions known about Yea not sounding like a good fit for the English voice of Kiryu by circulating out-of-context clips of his vocal performance online, I'm still willing to give the guy a shot when I get around to playing Like A Dragon: Gaiden and Infinite Wealth. Even if his performance isn't to my liking, it's not like its mere existence will prevent me from playing the games with the Japanese dub.

This year's Game Awards was more concerned with letting its cavalcade of celebrity guests and advertisements hog the limelight from the hard-working devs. No joke, each award winner was given 30 seconds to say their acceptance speeches before a teleprompter told them to “wrap it up.” It was somewhat painful to watch, especially considering some award winners, like Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios, were given the signal to cut their speech short while dedicating their win to Jim Southworth, a lead cinematic artist who passed away during the game's development. Meanwhile, celebs like Simu Liu and game developer (and Geoff Keighley's bestie) Hideo Kojima were allowed to speak uninterrupted onstage for a huge chunk of the show. Make it make sense.

Be that as it may, The Game Awards was one of the better events in recent memory. We got trailers for a new Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi game, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI DLC, a new Monster Hunter game, Ikumi Nakamura's new game, and a teaser for new Sega games! I just hope next time it will do a better job of letting the winners say their peace. Here's a quick rundown of the night's winners.

• Game of the Year - Baldur's Gate 3
• Best Game Direction - Alan Wake II
• Best Adaptation - The Last of Us
• Best Narrative - Alan Wake II
• Best Art Direction - Alan Wake II
• Best Score and Music - Final Fantasy XVI
• Best Audio Design - Hi-Fi Rush
• Best Performance - Neil Newbon (Baldur's Gate 3)
• Innovation in Accessibility- Forza Motorsport
• Games for Impact - Tchia
• Best Ongoing Game - Cyberpunk 2077
• Best Community Support - Baldur's Gate 3
• Best Independent Game - Sea of Stars
• Best Debut Indie Game - Cocoon
• Best Mobile Game - Honkai: Star Rail
• Best VR/AR Game - Resident Evil Village VR Mode
• Best Action Game - Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
• Best Action/Adventure Game - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• Best RPG - Baldur's Gate 3
• Best Fighting Game - Street Fighter 6
• Best Family Game - Super Mario Bros. Wonder
• Best Sim/Strategy Game - Pikmin 4
• Best Sports/Racing - Forza Motorsport
• Best Multiplayer - Baldur's Gate 3
• Most Anticipated Game - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
• Content Creator of the Year - IronMouse
• Best Esports Game - Valorant
• Best Esports Athlete - Lee “Faker” Sang-hook (League of Legends)
• Best Esports Team - JD Gaming (League of Legends)
• Best Esports Coach - Christine “Potter” Chi (Evil Geniuses - Valorant)
• Best Esports Event - 2023 League of Legends World Championship

This concludes This Week in Games column. You may now rest your weary thumbs and computer mouse-holding hand from all the scrolling I just subjected you to. Good workout today, chaps. I'll see you next week for another rep of gaming news!