Bringing you the latest in the anime and gaming worlds, RB Weekly News is here, and boy, we’ve got a lot going on to look forward to!
Anime News
A Second Trailer for Attack on Titan!
Released this past Friday on Pony Canyon’s Youtube channel, was the second official trailer for Attack on Titan’s second season! Building up the hype even more for the season 2 premiere this Saturday, April 2nd, the trailer gave us another look, another reminder, that there’s some new titans to watch out for next season. With the gigantic, intelligent Beast Titan, and a smaller, more acrobatic one that is unknown to watchers of the anime, the trailer lets us know that there’s gonna be a lot more to come.
Personally, this is something I’m EXTREMELY hyped for. Perhaps it’s quite mainstream, the anime that is on everyone’s minds, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’ll probably be exceedingly entertaining to watch. For all of us who’ve read the manga, let’s hope that characterization is better, and that it’s just as thrilling as the first season! And for those of you guys who haven’t read the manga…oh man, hope you enjoy those plot twists. You’re gonna enjoy it, promise!
A Godzilla Anime Film Trilogy!
On the 26th, last Sunday, it was announced at AnimeJapan 2017 that the upcoming Godzilla anime will be a trio of films! The actual release date, however, remains unknown: all that is confirmed is that we’ll receive the first film in 2017 at some point. Speaking of, the name of the first film in the anime trilogy is Godzilla: Kaijū Wakusei, or Godzilla: Monster Planet.
The synopsis of the series is as sick as it sounds: the film is centered around Haruo Sakaki and a band of “Earth Returnists,” who originally left Earth to escape the wrath of the Kaijus. However, the planet they were escaping to was not deemed inhabitable by humans, leaving Haruo and the other survivors stranded, in a situation that was rapidly deteriorating. Haruo, leading a group that wished to return to Earth and fight, ultimately won out, and so, the survivors head back, only to find a mysterious planet, essentially ruled by the force of nature that is Godzilla.
I don’t know about you, but that actually sounds like a SICK concept for a Godzilla movie. Being the first anime adaptation of the famed franchise, I personally have very high hopes, even with such an early announcement. I’ve never been quite a fan of the series, as I think it had huge potential that was simply not realized. With this anime adaptation, who knows? Maybe this medium could give Godzilla the push he needs to become something truly amazing.
Gaming News
Gamestop To Close 225 Stores Worldwide?
A few weeks ago, we talked about the controversy behind GameStop’s Circle of Life program, and how that was negatively affecting the reputations of the company. With some more recent news, it appears that Gamestop hasn’t been doing so well from an economic standpoint too, as shown by their recent sales report. Reporting that they are anticipating the closure of
“between 2% to 3% of its global store footprint,” presumably as a result of stocks having fallen 31%, and a 13.6% drop in profit, GameStop isn’t looking too good: at least, as far as video game sales are concerned.
The company reported that, due to a lack of sales in video games, particularly for specific AAA titles, their profits suffered. They claim two reasons for this- one, that Sony and Microsoft haven’t been updating their consoles, leading to decreased sales, and two, that other retailers had aggressive console promotions around Thanksgiving and Black Friday. As discussed before though, there may very well be a link behind the Circle of Life controversy, and decreased sales in recent times- maybe, maybe not. However, on the flip-side, their non-video game operations have been doing alright, prompting anticipation for the opening of 35 new Collectibles stores, and 65 new Technology Brand stores.
This is simply an interesting trend to note about one part of the gaming industry in general. Commercially speaking, GameStop is the only store dedicated to the market of gamers, and only gamers, and as such, the closure of some parts of their company could certainly affect people in certain areas, who depend on that GameStop for most of their gaming needs. Perhaps this was just a trend for the Holidays, but I guess we’ll see how GameStop continues to do in the coming year.
A Remastered, Free-To-Play Starcraft!
Blizzard, being the gaming behemoth that they are, announced something that, for many people, is simply unbelievable. Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard, announced at the I <3 Starcraft event in South Korea, that they would be releasing a Remastered version of the original Starcraft game sometime this summer! What’s more, this new release will be COMPLETELY FREE. Featuring updated 4K graphics, audio, and updated online play on battle.net, all while keeping the same gameplay as the original, this release will undoubtedly make waves upon its release.
This move by Blizzard felt very, very ballsy, to say the least. It was like an E3 mic drop, announcing such blatant support for a game that many consider the most prominent in eSports history. I believe this goes to show Blizzard’s strength as a game company- the recognition that there is a benefit to remastering a game that has done so much for the industry as a whole. Now if only other companies would do the same…looking at you, Nintendo. We need that Melee HD! But honestly, just mad kudos to Blizzard for this- I’ll be looking forward to the release of this new and improved Starcraft!
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