We’ve talked about copycats and scam games on the eShop many times — with a multitude of games using keywords and AI-generated screenshots and key art flooding the eShop, it’s a huge problem for devs.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket players are already having enough trouble with Misty but the incoming Mythical Island expansion could make her even more powerful.
Pokémon TCG Pocket uses mana generation, similar to games such as Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone, at its core, with players able to attach one energy per turn to slowly but surely build up to more and more powerful attacks.
A handful of cards break this one per turn rule, however, by allowing for additional mana generation. Of the four best decks in Pokémon TCG Pocket — Mewtwo ex, Pikachu ex, Charizard ex, and Starmie ex — only one (Pikachu) doesn’t rely on these additional mana generation cards. They’re therefore very powerful.
There is a soft limit to how useful this is, as most cards don’t need more than three or four energy to use their most powerful attacks. but that’s all about to change. A handful of cards including Stage 1 Pokémon Vaporeon were revealed in the Mythical Island trailer, and it’s this card that could turn those several successful coin flip turns into practically an instant win.
Vaporeon has an Ability called Wash out, which lets players move around an unlimited number of water type energy between their Pokémon. This means the several energy created by successful Misty turns are no longer trapped on one Pokémon and can instead be spread around evenly.
At its most extreme, players on Turn 3, the opening player’s first chance to attack, could therefore play a Misty and have a board with Starmie ex and two Articuno ex all capable of unleashing their strongest attacks; players would have, say, eight energy at their disposal instead of the two provided to most.
This exact play will be the exception and not the rule, but it will almost certainly make those already annoyed by Misty even more frustrated.
Vaporeon could still be an incredibly strong card outside of these major Misty moves too, as being able to move around energy freely offers myriad new solutions to old problems.
If an Active Pokémon is near a knock out, for example, players could shift all its energy to another Pokémon so the replacement is immediately ready to fight next turn, or transfer energy the opposite way to allow it to retreat and not damage the player.
It therefore could be enough to bump the Starmie ex above the other meta leaders, though with more than 80 new cards coming to the game in Mythical Island, the entire player versus player scene could be due a mix up.
This huge amount of money comes as Pokémon TCG Pocket follows the standard mobile and free to play game model, flooding players with rewards in the first few days before soon drying up, with spending real world money the only real way to re-experience that early thrill.
At 9 years old, in the plastic seats of a Sega Rally arcade machine, I quickly learned that “automatic” is better than “manual” without understanding why. And now I know: changing gears is a fucking chore. This year, in my mid-thirties, I finally learned to drive. And weirdly, a racing game about destroying clapped-out old bangers helped me along. Thank you Wreckfest, for all the bottled road rage you allowed me to unleash.
FromSoftware titan Elden Ring has now outsold the entire Dark Souls franchise thanks to a sales boost seemingly spurred by expansion Shadow of the Erdtree, though still ahead of spin-off Elden Ring Nightreign launching next year.
Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco announced the open world role-playing game has now sold 28.6 million units, up 3.6 million from the 25 million revealed in June. And as pointed out by @ZhugeEX on X/Twitter, this means its outsold the Dark Souls series’ 27 million.
FromSoftware launched Elden Ring in February 2022, meaning its reached the impressive 28.6 million sales figure in two years and ten months. Dark Souls, meanwhile, arrived in 2011 with follow-ups Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3 arriving in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
Elden Ring enjoyed the lessons learned from the beloved Dark Souls series, of course, and also marked FromSoftware’s first foray into the more accessible open world formula. Players struggling with a challenging boss could step away and spend time on weaker enemies, for example, so Elden Ring gained more mainstream appeal.
The franchise is only growing too, as FromSoftware has just announced co-op spin-off Elden Ring Nightreign, in which up to three players are dropped into a condensed version of Limgrave from the main Elden Ring and simply tasked with surviving. Enemies and structures are procedurally generated to allow for a varied experience, with players encouraged to battle to grow stronger and survive the night, when a boss appears.
Today’s door has a big DO NOT ENTER sign, suggesting your immediate opening of it was in fact prohibited. Banned. Taboo, even. Yet it’s hard to see why, as it swings open to reveal a spectacular sunset view, interrupted only by the roar of a mechanical woolly mammoth.
Over the weekend there’s been a flurry of Switch 2-related activity online, with unsubstantiated details and mock-ups for the officially-not-yet-revealed console doing the rounds on social media.
Following on from accessory makers such as iVolver and Dbrand putting out images and dimensions of the Switch 2, NextHandheld on Reddit claims to have seen and handled (though not played) the final retail hardware and has been fielding questions from curious fans.
In a surprise turn, a follow-up to 2006 PlayStation 2 game Okami was announced at The Game Awards 2024. A year after his split from PlatinumGames, series creator Hideki Kamiya now heads the newly founded studio Clovers and is workiing on Okami 2 as its director. IGN Japan spoke with Kamiya and Clovers President and CEO Kento Koyama to hear all about about how the company came to be and more.
IGN: Tell us about the founding of Clovers.
Kamiya: I left my former company, PlatinumGames, on October 12, 2023. There were all kinds of restrictions placed on me for the following year, which meant that I couldn’t create games [as reported by IGN in a previous interview]. Now that the year has passed, I have finally been appointed as the studio head of Clovers. I’ll be developing games at this new company with Koyama as president and CEO.
Koyama: Kamiya was under a year-long non-compete agreement. We wanted to have a clean slate when making games, even at Clovers, so we waited until this restriction was over and Kamiya had entered the company before officially going active.
Kamiya: I was genuinely unemployed between quitting PlatinumGames and joining Clovers. But once Clovers was formed and before I could announce anything, I decided to quietly add a “?” to the “Unemployed” description on my X account’s display name!
Koyama: I wonder if anyone truly noticed, haha.
Kamiya: It seems like a number of X users actually did. They were speculating that I’d be starting something new. I really was unemployed around the time of Tokyo Game Show 2024, so I wasn’t lying when I added “unemployed” to my username at the time!
IGN: How many people are working at Clovers at the moment?
Koyama: About 20 people.
Kamiya: The company has bases in Tokyo and Osaka. People from those two cities came to Clovers, and so we started locations in both at the same time. We began in small rental offices, but now they’re so full that they can’t even fit everyone. We’re now working on moving to real offices. The move to the Osaka office is scheduled for February 2025, while the Tokyo office move is slated for spring 2025.
Koyama: We’re thinking of adding new employees together with these moves.
Kamiya: We already have people who say they would like to work at Clovers, so we need to put a system in place to hire some of them. We imagine that hiring is going to become even more active now that we’ve officially announced Clovers’ foundation [in fact, a guide to career applications is now available on the official Clovers website]. The vision that Koyama and I have in mind is to aim for the company to grow to around 70 people in the future.
IGN: Please tell us about what kind of work this new studio will undertake, and what you hope to do in the future.
Koyama: We’re currently focusing on developing a contracted title for a publisher (the sequel to Okami). We’ll be focusing on that one for a while, but we’d like to create our own IP at Clovers in the future. That isn’t to say that making IP is a top priority of ours, though. What’s important is bringing players the most interesting and fun titles that we can.
A message from the director of the project, Hideki Kamiya!
Kamiya: Our strength at Clovers is that we’re a group with a unique sense of creativity. I’ve never been too fixated on creating only original properties, even when I was at PlatinumGames. When I was there, the company also developed IP belonging to other companies, like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. [Kamiya was not directly involved in developing this game.] Whether it’s an existing IP or a new one, our mission at Clovers is to create unique games that only we can make.
IGN: Recently there are quite a few Japanese companies that have been funded by overseas publishers, but has Clovers taken on any investments?
Koyama: We haven’t received any outside investment at the moment. That was a decision we’ve made.
Kamiya: We were fortunate enough to receive a number of offers, but right now we’d like to see just how far we can go on our own. We want to maintain the freedom to do whatever we want. It is true that it’s harder to keep the lights on without taking on investors, but we’re doing our best at Clovers to preserve our independence as a studio.
IGN: Mr Koyama, please tell us about your history in the game industry.
Koyama: I got my start in the game industry at a company called Mario Club [a subsidiary of Nintendo that conducts debugging and more]. I worked there as a debugger, but I never gave up on my dream of being a game designer. I then moved to DeNA where I got to fulfill that dream. After that, I became involved in a smartphone title at PlatinumGames.
Kamiya: Koyama was making the predecessor of what would become World of Demons, released on Apple Arcade. It was being developed as a live service game at first, but changed direction mid-development.
Koyama: I left PlatinumGames once World of Demons was no longer going to be a live service game. After that, I was in charge of the games division at the Kyoto office of a company called Donuts, but after a while there, someone I knew from PlatinumGames contacted me. When we met, they said, “You once mentioned that you wanted to work together with Hideki Kamiya, right?”
Kamiya: I never had the chance to work with Koyama during his first time at PlatinumGames. But the mere sight of how he worked and the quality of his work did impress me. I kept on thinking what a pity it was that he left the company, so when the time came when I wanted to ask for Koyama’s help, I had a mutual acquaintance reach out to him.
Koyama: Through that connection, I returned to PlatinumGames and ended up working under Kamiya for the next three years.
IGN: What did you think when you heard that Mr Kamiya would be leaving PlatinumGames?
Koyama: I felt that his leaving was a loss for the game industry. Had his games not been fun, perhaps I wouldn’t have thought about it. We can look back on it and laugh now, but at the time, Kamiya looked unusually serious.
Kamiya: It’s not as if I was feeling sad about my own future. I felt bad for the company’s staff I would be leaving behind by exiting the company and my team, and by leaving my positions as game director and vice president. This may sound conceited, but I was in a position where I shouldered quite a lot at PlatinumGames. From my perspective, I left the company based on my own convictions as a creator, but I’m sure that others also saw it as a selfish act. I felt very sorry about that.
Koyama: Kamiya didn’t have any plans at all following his departure from PlatinumGames. He was saying things like, “Maybe I’ll go back to my family’s home and wipe down the floors there.” So I said, “If you ever want to make another game, please contact me. I come from a farming family, so let’s make games in your free time outside of planting and harvesting rice. I might not be able to pay you a salary, but I can at least send you some rice!”
Kamiya: I was happy when Koyama told me he’d send me rice. I mean, I was thinking, “How could there possibly be a company that’d take in an industry troublemaker who’s constantly spewing venom on X like me?” But maybe this unemployable guy would still be able to make ends meet if Koyama sent me rice. Of course, it wasn’t rice he ended up making for me, but rather a company!
How could there possibly be a company that’d take in an industry troublemaker who’s constantly spewing venom on X like me?
IGN: Mr Koyama, will you mainly be working as a manager as the CEO of Clovers, or will you still be involved in game development?
Koyama: Yes, I will be working as the company’s president, but I’ll continue to be a game designer as well. While I am new to being a company president, I feel like I’ve been able to do a good job thanks to the help of the other members of the company around me.
Kamiya: I don’t know what I’d do without Koyama’s ability to handle that kind of work. I’m clueless when it comes to the management side, so my primary job will be creating games. I’m able to let him handle the parts of running a business that I’m not capable of doing myself. I’ve never once felt concerned. I’m very grateful to have someone like him with talents that even stretch outside of game development. I’d like to rely on him as the company’s president, and I also highly value his abilities as a creator, so I have high hopes for his future as a game designer.
IGN: Your studio’s name, Clovers, brings to mind Clover Studio, which was responsible for the original Okami and other titles and where Kmaiya used to work. Can you tell us how you decided on this name?
Koyama: As I mentioned earlier, I come from a family of farmers, so I first thought about a company name that had to do with agriculture. It seemed that Kamiya had some concerns about my ability to come up with a good name, though.
Kamiya: His sense for names is rather unique, you see… That’s when I proposed that we name the company Clovers.
Koyama: We ended up going with his very first suggestion as-is. At first, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Clover Studio, which Kamiya was previously a part of. We were going out of our way to create a new company, so I was reluctant to have a company name that looked back to the past.
Kamiya: I may have some fond feelings for Clover Studio because of titles like Okami, but Koyama doesn’t have that history.
Koyama: I was able to empathize with Kamiya’s explanation for the name, though. If you break down the name Clovers you get “C” and “lovers.” The C in Clovers stands in part for “creativity,” something that all of us love. Also, when thinking about the company’s philosophy, in reference to a four-leaf clover, we began to talk about being a group with four guiding Cs, as in “C-lovers.” Our company’s logo is four interconnected Cs in the shape of a clover, as I think you can tell by looking at it.
Kamiya: We decided on three of the four Cs right away: Challenge, Creativity and Craftsmanship.
Kamiya: While things went smoothly up to here, we had trouble figuring out the fourth and last C. Too many positive words that begin with the letter C, so we didn’t know which to pick. That’s when Koyama had the idea, “How about we don’t decide on the fourth C, and leave it up to each of our new members to decide what the final C means to them personally?”
Koyama: That’s why we share three of the Cs as a company, while the fourth is thought up by each of our employees when they join the company, and we have them write down their reasons. Clovers now has a system where new hires choose their own fourth C the day they join the company. [The fourth C is also discussed in this way on Clovers’ website.]
IGN: What words did the two of you choose for that fourth C?
Kamiya: I’ve made my fourth C “Curiosity.” It’s always been what has driven me forward in my game design.
Koyama: I made my fourth C “Cleanness,” to show my desire to always be sincere in my work and towards business partners. Within the company, you have everything from people who make their fourth C “Century,” striving to create titles that will last for a hundred years, to stylish types who made theirs “Coffee Break.”
Kamiya: By having everyone choose their own fourth C, it makes them even more aware of themselves as creators. I think Clovers is a good name for the company we want to become, as it stands for our desire to be a group that loves that fourth C.
IGN: Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami often talks about wanting to focus on helping young talent to bloom. Mr Kamiya, as someone who came up under Mikami, how do you feel about that idea?
Kamiya: I was able to work as a director for the first time on Resident Evil 2 thanks to Mr Mikami’s guidance. The offer shocked me because it was only my second year after joining Capcom, but within a fraction of a second I told him I’d do it. There’s no question that I’ve also inherited what you might call this kind of “Mikami-ism,” and at PlatinumGames I’d actively give direction work to promising young employees even if they didn’t have experience as a director. That’s why I’d like to continue to give opportunities to young talent at Clovers.
IGN: Your new website mentions that you are recruiting, but what kind of staff are you looking for?
Koyama: We believe that people who can relate to our three Cs – Challenge, Creativity and Craftsmanship – will be a good fit for Clovers.
Kamiya: I think that things like taking on a challenge, being creative or having a craftsmanlike mentality are not things you only do because you’re told to do them. I feel that people who naturally have that kind of mindset and passion for creativity are the ones who fit in with us. In fact, the members who have joined Clovers so far are exactly like that. I hope to maintain that concentration and expand it even further.
I can’t do anything alone. We have team members who draw artwork, others who turn it into 3D models, or who add movement, or who add sound and music, and people who program and finalize the output. Thanks to this combination of people, a game can grow into a wonderful work that exceeds my imagination; miracles are born, and players can enjoy the end result. Just like with game development, as we start a company from scratch this time, I really feel the importance of people’s support. The current staff also came to Clovers without knowing what would happen, and I am so grateful to them for that. I wanted to leave that feeling of gratitude in a tangible form, so we took a group photo of all the Clovers staff. It was a sobering feeling once again. I’m sure they are not without anxiety, but they seem to be enjoying the process of building something from scratch, and that makes me feel really confident. I would be happy to create something with people who can enjoy taking on this challenge together.
This interview was conducted by Daniel Robson, Chief Editor of IGN Japan, and the article was written by Ryuchi Kataoka, a freelance writer for IGN Japan. It was translated by Ko Ransom.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Hi everyone! Hope you have been having good holiday season so far!
We are happy to share the Holiday Sale in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam that will feature discounts on PlayStation peripherals (e.g.: PS VR2 and DualSense wireless controller) and select blockbuster PS5 titles (e.g.: ASTRO BOT and Stellar Blade).
Holiday Sale 2024 promotion starts from December 19th 2024 till January 1st 2025, just in time for holiday gifting season, in participating retailers: https://www.playstation.com/local/retailers/.
Please see below for full details of Holiday Sale 2024 in in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Singapore
Peripherals
Original SRP
Promotion SRP
PlayStation VR2
SGD 869
SGD 599
Pulse Elite Wireless Headset
SGD 199.90
SGD 173.90
Pulse Explore Wireless Earbuds
SGD 295.90
SGD 256.90
PS5 Game Titles
Original SRP
Promotion SRP
ASTRO BOT
SGD 79.90
SGD 67.90
Gran Turismo® 7
SGD 97.90
SGD 40.90
God of War™ Ragnarök
SGD 97.90
SGD 40.90
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
SGD 97.90
SGD 54.90
Rise of the Ronin™
SGD 97.90
SGD 54.90
The Last of Us™ Part II Remastered
SGD 67.90
SGD 54.90
Stellar Blade
SGD 97.90
SGD 67.90
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut
SGD 97.90
SGD 40.90
Helldivers 2
SGD 54.90
SGD 40.90
LEGO Horizon Adventures
SGD 79.90
SGD 54.90
Malaysia
Peripherals
Original SRP
Promotion SRP
PlayStation VR2
MYR 2,799
MYR 1,859
Pulse Elite Wireless Headset
MYR 699
MYR 609
Pulse Explore Wireless Earbuds
MYR 999
MYR 869
PS5 Game Titles
Original SRP
Promotion SRP
ASTRO BOT
MYR 249
MYR 209
Gran Turismo® 7
MYR 299
MYR 129
God of War™ Ragnarök
MYR 299
MYR 129
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
MYR 299
MYR 169
Rise of the Ronin™
MYR 299
MYR 169
The Last of Us™ Part II Remastered
MYR 209
MYR 169
Stellar Blade
MYR 299
MYR 209
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut
MYR 299
MYR 129
Helldivers 2
MYR 169
MYR 129
LEGO Horizon Adventures
MYR 249
MYR 169
Thailand
Peripherals
Original SRP
Promotion SRP
PlayStation VR2
THB 22,190
THB 14,890
Pulse Elite Wireless Headset
THB 5,190
THB 4,490
Pulse Explore Wireless Earbuds
THB 7,790
THB 6,790
PS5 Game Titles
Original SRP
Promotion SRP
ASTRO BOT
THB 1,990
THB 1,690
Gran Turismo® 7
THB 2,290
THB 990
God of War™ Ragnarök
THB 2,290
THB 990
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
THB 2,290
THB 1,290
Rise of the Ronin™
THB 2,290
THB 1,290
The Last of Us™ Part II Remastered
THB 1,690
THB 1,290
Stellar Blade
THB 2,290
THB 1,690
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut
THB 2,290
THB 990
Helldivers 2
THB 1,290
THB 990
LEGO Horizon Adventures
THB 1,990
THB 1,290
Indonesia
Peripherals
Original SRP
Promotion SRP
PlayStation VR2
IDR 10,599,000
IDR 7,319,000
PlayStation®VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle
The weekend is officially here, and we’ve rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for Sunday, December 15, below:
LEGO Horizon Adventures for $39.99
Lego Horizon Adventures is the latest game in the Horizon series, and it marks the first time a Horizon game has been playable on Nintendo Switch. In our review, we wrote, “Lego Horizon Adventures reimagines Horizon Zero Dawn with a playful Lego twist, simplifying the story while keeping the heart of its key moments and characters.”
Cowboy Bebop – The Complete Series for $17.99
Cowboy Bebop is one of the best anime series ever. Following the adventures of Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, and Ein, this series is one any anime fan needs to see at least once. We have the series ranked as the #2 best anime of all time, writing “Cowboy Bebop has had an indelible impact that reaches far beyond anime; everyone from Orson Scott Card to Rian Johnson to Robin Williams have praised the series and cited its influence on their work.”
Alan Wake II for $59.99
Alan Wake II never received a physical release at launch last year, but Remedy has fixed that as of last month with the Alan Wake II Deluxe Edition. This release bundles in Alan Wake II and its two expansions, Night Springs and The Lake House. If you’re a fan of survival horror, this is one of the best games available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Astro Bot for $49.97
Selected as Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024, Astro Bot is on sale this weekend, and there has never been a better time to pick up one of the PlayStation 5’s best games. Building off Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot features many new abilities and bosses to fight, with over 300 bots to rescue across the galaxy. You’ll find planets modeled after beloved PlayStation games like Ape Escape and Uncharted, and even surprise third-party bots like Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 2.
Super Mario RPG for $29.99
This weekend, you can save $30 off Super Mario RPG, the Nintendo Switch remake of the SNES title. The beloved game returns with a fresh coat of paint and the combat we all love, with even Yoko Shimomura returning to compose a remade soundtrack! Super Mario RPG is incredibly beginner-friendly, so you don’t need to have any RPG experience to dive right in and enjoy this classic.
Save on ROG Ally at Best Buy
This weekend at Best Buy, you can save on the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme model, where it’s priced at $499.99. This handheld device is perfect for exploring your Steam library on the go, with PC Game Pass support also easily accessible. If you’re planning to travel anytime soon, the ROG Ally will be your best friend.
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven for $39.99
Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is arguably the best entry point into the SaGa series at this time. Acting as a full 3D remake of the 1993 release, this game features English and Japanese voiceovers, rearranged music, retooled gameplay, and more. If you’re still unsure about Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, you can check out the free demo across all platforms!
Stellar Blade for $49.99
You can grab Stellar Blade for just $50 this weekend. This action game from Shift Up has been one of the most popular games of the year. Just a few weeks ago, new Nier: Automata DLC was released, which included new outfits inspired by A2, 2B, and Emil. In our 7/10 review, we stated “Stellar Blade stands out as a gorgeous and well-crafted action game with very impressive strengths and very clear weaknesses.”
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection for $29.99
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection brought both Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit in one package, with Prosecutor’s Gambit releasing in English for the very first time. This release features updated visuals, new animations, gallery mode, conversation history, and more. You can even switch between the old and new sprites!
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for $39.99
Finally, you can score Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for only $39.99 this weekend at Amazon. This collection packs in seven different titles, including the beloved Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. At last, you can play these classic titles on modern platforms.
Can one sleep on a bookshelf? I’m going to find out. See you in the new year. Or, probably next Sunday with another minimum effort column entry. Book for now!
