This Week in Games

Sony Sacking, Microsoft CEO Walking, and the US$20 Question

Welcome back, folks! The game industry decided to wake the heck up this past week, with everyone having major news. And it's still not done! By the time this goes live, Nintendo will have hosted a big Pokémon Presents stream. Who knows what awaits us! But for now, let's talk news.

Sony Shutters Bluepoint Studios

This was a rough week for news, and Sony definitely knew how to kick things off. After the stellar State of Play last week, which included news of remakes for the original God of War trilogy, Sony announced the closure of one of the many studios they had acquired: Bluepoint Studios, best known for the stellar Shadow of the Colossus remake and the lesser-regarded-but-still-stunning Demon's Souls remake.

If folks hammer on about Bluepoint and the two remakes, it's because Bluepoint's whole oeuvre was remakes. That shouldn't be taken as dismissal: they were damn good at their job. A quick look at their backlog reveals they worked on Sony remakes as far back as 2009, with God of War Collection for PlayStation 3. They were good at their craft, hence Sony buying them out in 2021 during the rush of acquisitions that Microsoft and Sony alike were pursuing (both transparent attempts to deprive each other of potential talent). And if we hadn't heard from them since Demon's Souls in 2020, that's because they had been working on a live-service God of War title—which was reportedly cancelled back in 2025. For extra salt in the wound, Jason Schreier's reporting was added with statements from Sony that Bluepoint would not close.

Let's be short-sighted for a moment and point out the obvious: this is a significant loss of talent. Bluepoint was the studio of choice for remakes over at Sony, and you could likely think of at least seven franchises that would benefit from their loving care in terms of a remake, without having to mention the elephant in the room that is Bloodborne. You'd think that if Sony wanted to remaster God of War, Bluepoint would be the folks to do it. As Nintendo and Monolith Soft have shown, having people who are just good at optimization can be a huge feather in your cap. There's merit in being the workhorses that serve as pinch-hitters. To underline something: as divisive as the Demon's Souls remake was (I agree with many that the new look really did subtract from Demon's Souls' aesthetic and dream-like tone), there's no denying that that game is an absolute visual stunner. If they can do that with Demon's Souls, there's no telling what they could have done with the original God of War with its cinematography, or even Jak & Daxter or Killzone or Resistance...

The fact that the project they were working on for five years was a live-service God of War is something I'm indifferent to (for reference, Monolith also helped with Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer—no project is too small). That they had to be shut down after the project was cancelled and couldn't even be reallocated to, I dunno, a random Knack remaster really feels like a piss-take. And that's when we have to go into the thing that should be at the forefront of the whole ordeal, that being the loss of talent and all their know-how, and the fact that their lives are now upended by the loss of their jobs in an extremely crowded and unstable market. It might not be any bones to Sony to throw good money after bad in buying a studio, having them spin their wheels for four years on a project doomed to cancellation, then shut the lights off, but people worked at Bluepoint. Actual people.

Chalk one up for Sony, I guess; be it good games, bad games, live-service games, or what-have-you, they can't afford to make games.

Major Leadership Shake-Up at Microsoft

Microsoft's in the news again, and it's not for good reasons: longtime CEO of Microsoft Gaming, is retiring from the company. And that would be a huge enough shake-up as it is, except that it also came with the retirement of Xbox President Sarah Bond, who would've been up next to take Spencer's place. Replacing both of them is Asha Sharma, who has thus far served as the President of Microsoft's CoreAI.

Things haven't been great over at Microsoft concerning their gaming suite. The Xbox Series X|S consoles lag behind their competitors in sales; while that in and of itself wouldn't be the worst thing in the world (Nintendo only managed 13 million Wii U sales worldwide; the Xbox Series has managed at least 21 million), the platform itself is on shaky ground. Microsoft's aggressive acquisitions of major third-party studios like Bethesda, Activision Blizzard, Obsidian, and others haven't translated into sales success. Gamepass, the one-time "best deal in gaming," now has a tiered structure that has disappointed many fans. And the disastrous "Everything is an Xbox" campaign on Microsoft's behalf has only eroded many people's confidence in the console. After all, if my PC is an Xbox, why do I need a dedicated Xbox? While Microsoft insists that things are hunky-dory over at the house Bill Gates built, many people are seeing the writing on the wall. Even if they're planning a new Xbox successor, there isn't much hope in it (especially not now, with the myriad problems the consumer electronics industry is facing). That Phil Spencer, who has been the face of the Xbox brand for so long, is bowing out doesn't help matters.

It also doesn't help is that, in the wake of both Spencer and Bond's departure, figures from Xbox headquarters were quick to insist that the maligned "Everything is an Xbox" campaign was all Bond's fault. The piece has been considered by many to be an attempt at scapegoating Microsoft's current perceived problems by placing them at Sarah Bond's feet. Bond makes a very convenient scapegoat, but many don't buy the attempt to blame her, since Spencer was her superior the whole time. Even if she was responsible for a failed tagline, Spencer's the guy who signed off on it. I dunno, I feel like if you have to be that quick to blame folks walking out the door for what happened, there are bigger problems going on behind the scenes than a bad tagline.

Asha Sharma, being Spencer's successor, has also been surrounded by controversy, given that Sharma doesn't really have much of a history of playing games. I want to be clear: I don't think this is an issue, especially not for someone who's the CEO of a company. Gamer credentials don't mean you're a good business person (I'd argue Phil Spencer is evidence enough of that). Not to mention, talent comes from anywhere; FromSoft golden-boy Hidetaka Miyazaki (who created the Souls games) didn't dip his toe into the game industry until he was 29 years old, which is inordinately old in this industry. What is an issue is Sharma's passion for Generative AI; over half of game developers would rather quit the industry than use generative AI as part of development. If anything, audiences hate it even more (to the tune of 63%). If Microsoft is already struggling to sell consoles and games, tossing a poison pill in wouldn't help much.

Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen Re-Released on eShop, Folks Lose Their Minds at the Price

With the Pokémon franchise's 30th anniversary incoming, folks are itching with anticipation at the news that's sure to be revealed at today's Pokémon Presents stream. Nintendo wanted to get ahead of the festivities by announcing the release of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen on the Nintendo eShop. While they're up for pre-sale (the games don't go live until February 27), folks could still buy them. And this was all a fiasco because the games were being sold at US$20 a pop.

I want to take a moment to bloviate about the past; back in 2013, Nintendo released Earthbound on the Wii U's Virtual Console. Earthbound is, famously, a beloved cult title with a passionate, vocal online fandom. Said fandom is infamous for their desire for Mother 3 to be localized in America. That same fandom also had a conniption at the news that Earthbound's Virtual Console release would retail for all of 10 of God's U.S. dollars—a whole two dollars over the price of other similar SNES Virtual Console releases. For further reference, loose copies of Earthbound start in the ballpark of US$300, with complete copies (including the box, inserts, instruction manual, and packed-in guidebook) running as "little" as US$3000. "Time is a flat circle," and all that...

Anyway, this has, of course, started a huge discussion online regarding Nintendo "charging people too much for old games." Part of the controversy is that these copies of FireRed/LeafGreen don't have online play; people still have to meet in-person to trade or battle. There was copy on the games' eShop pages discussing Pokémon Home compatibility, but this was deleted shortly after people started seeing the listings; some take this as evidence that the games won't have Home-compatibility; I'm waiting for the Pokémon Presents stream to make my final judgment on that. Some folks argue that these games should have been packed in for free on the Nintendo Switch Online GameBoy Advance service; others have pointed out that a major argument since the introduction of the NSO service has been the desire for people to actually buy copies of these games like with the old Virtual Console, and not have to depend on copies that can't be played offline. Plus, the NSO games have save states, which have been an absolute nonstarter for Pokémon games because it would enable copying Pokémon (even the Virtual Console releases didn't have save states). Nintendo would likely have to completely rework the NSO system to cancel out the save state options... for just two games. Folks have pointed out that the original FireRed/LeafGreen retailed for US$35 back in the day—which translates to about US$60 in today's money.

Stuff's rough for folks, I know for a fact that for some people, US$20 can be a lifesaver (I know, I've been there). But also, I've spent more than US$20 on Uber deliveries in my life when things haven't been bad, and I know people who'll spend twice the cost of FireRed/LeafGreen's eShop copies on gacha skins (some skins in Goddess of Victory: Nikke can potentially run you US$50). I feel like all this time spent bellyaching about games would be better spent actually playing them and not bugging them online.

Yokō Tarō To Pen New Evangelion Series

I want to open this one with a quote from my buddy regarding this news: "From the people who clamored on in video essays about how Evangelion is a show about 'Anno's disdain for the medium' comes Yokō Tarō to make that into reality." Snark aside: 2026 is a big year for a ton of franchises, with many celebrating their 30th or 40th anniversary. On the anime side, this means that Neon Genesis Evangelion is also celebrating its tricennial anniversary. Normally, we wouldn't talk about Evangelion in This Week in Games unless there was a game involved—say, a new appearance in Super Robot Wars or the like. But Studio Khara decided to make a big reveal at the Evangelion:30+ festival on Monday, revealing not only a new Evangelion series... but one penned by everyone's favorite gynoid-lover, Yokō Tarō.

Yokō Tarō, famously a bit of a cynical misanthrope, is an inspired choice for script writing. His games are known, after all, for their sharp writing: dark, dismal worlds that are probably beyond saving, to say nothing of the messed-up people inhabiting them. But all the same, his worlds turn out for the best in some way. Even the end of the world has a way of feeling comforting once you know you're in good company (even if that means making friends with cannibals). While Yokō Tarō has mostly worked in games, he has also worked on one anime: the divisive KamiErabi GOD.app. At the very least, he'll mostly be handling scriptwriting here. We can rest assured that, at the end of the day, Yokō Tarō will be getting paid.

There's some consternation over the announcement, given that the final Rebuild of Evangelion movie, 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, was supposed to be the very definitive final Evangelion movie, ever. The movie even ended on a title card reading, "Goodbye, All of Evangelion." Some folks theorize that the Taro-penned series might instead explore the after-effects of the world of Evangelion, given that the trailer hints at a post-Shinji world and there are plenty of side characters in Evangelion with loose plot threads to tie up.

Music for the series will be composed by NieR composer Keiichi Okabe; while I've yet to play any of the NieR games, I do know the effect the music has on people. So no matter what happens, it's quite guaranteed that at the very least the music will leave you sobbing. No word yet on when this drops, but kudos to Taro-san for nabbing this project, especially considering how many of his proposals have been cancelled.

Let's wrap up with some quick tidbits

That'll do it for this week! A bit of an awkward week, what with the news and the obvious Pokémon Presents stream looming over this column the very day it's meant to go live. But also, a franchise like Pokémon lasting 30 years is no mean feat. I'll be sure to go over that next week. In the meantime, try to have a good weekend. Be good to each other. I'll see you in seven.