What’s up, guys? Welcome back to NewsWave. Well, the day is finally here. Engine and The Witcher 4 kind of as a tech demo went live. It was about 15 minutes or so with the overall video and a good portion of that just being visuals and technology being shown off in the world of of Witcher 4. However, it’s not necessarily Witcher 4 itself or even just full-on gameplay. You you can see some of the video here. Now, again, this was shown off as part of Unreal Engine’s event state of Unreal. And here it shows early development for Unreal Engine 5 in Witcher 4. They say it’s showcasing some of the innovative technology and features that will help bring the game’s open world to life. They further clarify, keep in mind, this isn’t gameplay of Witcher 4 itself, but a deep dive in the technological foundation of the new Witcher saga. And I I think it’s very important to note here. While they did say, hey, it’s 60fps ray tracing running on a base PS5, it’s a very controlled tech demo. All right. So, I don’t know if I would immediately go, oh, this is what The Witcher 4 is going to look like. Absolutely. Not necessarily. Vertical slice just to show off what it could look like, say, on the PlayStation 6 or sometime in the future. But I think it is still very very impressive nonetheless just to see how far we’ve come with things like Unreal Engine in the world of Witcher 4. But I will tell you this, the way they’re kind of talking about it sounds like we’re a ways off from this game coming out. And I’m actually thinking now maybe 2027. Who knows? Maybe it’ll come out then the following year we’ll get that PlayStation 6 version since it’ll be out just before next generation launches. Also, we’re going back to the well with Hollow Night Silk Song, mostly because yes, there are many events coming up where it could be completely revealed and then get the release date, but also there is once again movement in the background. You can see several Steam DB listings have been updated, which I mean includes all different game files, achievements, like like everything it feels like here has been updated. It’s even like new images and pictures being uploaded for the profiles and stuff on the store listing. Yeah, it uh kind of feels like we’re we’re there. I I feel like Ra Knight Silks, although I feel like we’ve also said this many times now, but consider the fact that we have I mean we have we’re going to talk about soon a state of play from Sony, right? We have Summer GameFest and we have the Xbox showcase. We know that this is going to be part of like Game Pass and stuff, so maybe they’ll show it there or who knows, maybe we’ll have that dark horse with the Nintendo Direct popping up out of nowhere and it that’s where it is. It’s just there are so many events coming up where you we feel like this should finally be it for a Hollow Night Silk song, but who knows? Again, we’ve said that before and came up uh came up empty. So, here’s hoping this is finally the time for Team Cherry to show up with this long awaited title. Oh, and we do now have a date for when Embargo will lift on Death Stranding 2 because it’s already out to reviewers. Yeah, it seems like there’s quite a bit of confidence in this one getting it out there what, three weeks ahead of its release. And in fact, you can see this is posted up. This is by Shinobi, but this was being shared around by many people. Death String 2 reviews will be live June 23rd, 8 a.m. Eastern time. So, actually a couple days there then before Death String 2 officially releases here at the end of June. And I’m I’m very curious about this game in particular because just based on the previews of like 30 hours or so, people seem blown away by it. And some are describing this maybe as like an 80hour game or something crazy. So, it just seems like there is a lot here. Seems like Cojima, of course, built on the foundation of the first Death Stranding game, but of course being able to develop around specifically the PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 5 Pro. I feel like there’s going to be incredible looking game, but also just I feel like the atmosphere overall they’ll create with this and I’m sure some wacky and out there moments. It’s going to be a very, we’ll say, unique title. One that’s not necessarily going to work for everyone, but for me, I like the first death stringing, so I’m going to be on this one day one. And guys, with some of the quick news out of the way, let’s get into the bigger stuff. Let’s start right away with the Switch 2. Again, it is out officially tomorrow, but tonight I’ll be going to picking it up at midnight, and we’ll check it out here on stream. It should be a lot of fun. That first that first hands-on with a next generation device, and one that is going to be taking the current model of the Switch, that hybrid system to the next level with Nvidia even going out there touting yesterday, it’s like the most advanced mobile chip ever created. It’s kind of what they’re supposed to say. They’re not going to be like, “Wow, this this chip is so dated.” No, they’re going to tell you it’s this cutting edge chipset. And look, based on what it’s doing right now with ray tracing, DLSS, and other other aspects, yeah, it’s a very advanced chip inside of the Switch, too. Still though, the the thing that I think is surprising a lot of people right now, okay, is there’s not a ton of coverage for it going into launch. And a lot of that has to do with Nintendo not really sending out any review units or review units for games or systems, nothing. All right. So, while we heard about that previously, it wasn’t from Nintendo. It was from just press outlets that had been relaying information of, “Yeah, we’re not really getting any review units at all around Nintendo’s next generation with that Switch 2.” Now, we actually have a response from Nintendo. This we can see is posted up. This is by VGC saying, “According to a company spokesperson, Nintendo decided not to send Switch to review units to press ahead of launch because important features and updates will only be available via a system update on the day of the conso’s official release on June 5th.” Okay, side note here. I assume the day one update is live today. Okay, like June 4th, because it’ be very awkward if if we go and pick this thing up at midnight and the update is not available. That is gonna be very strange. So, I assume even at the time of this recording right now, maybe it’s live on their servers or even hopefully hours ahead of midnight. Well, hey, we’ll we’ll find out tonight. Anyway, they go on to say it did not say what these updates entail or explain why the media wasn’t offered the opportunity to review its launch games like Mario Kart World and Switch 2 Welcome Tour at in-person events instead like it did with previous console launches such as Wii. Neither did it explain why critics can’t be trusted to cover products with knowledge that additional functionality would patch later as they’re frequently used to. I like the framing of that. Why can’t you trust these these critics? Why don’t you go and explain that, Nintendo? Now, I will say when you get some review codes for different games, you’ll get notes sent over where it’ll tell you what’s going to be fixed in a day one update. So, you can kind of then look at that and say, “Well, I can tell people in this video review I’m going to do of an obvious issue, but they say it’s going to be fixed.” Or some will just, I assume, gloss right over to walk right past it because it’s going to be fixed anyway. Who cares? but backwards compatibility, which I think is a a big aspect of of the Switch 2 right now, especially with some of those free updates that we’re seeing or upgrades for current Switch One games like uh like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet or like uh the different Legend of Zelda games, Links Awakening, Echoes of Wisdom, and just curiosity around things like Mario Odyssey with HDR and even just better performance in general there. But aside from that, you have a lot of games for the Switch 2 that just are not going to have reviews or like independent coverage. Right now, Mario Kart World and Welcome Tour did get coverage. And that comes from preview events that once again were very controlled under sort of the the the watchful eye of Nintendo representatives. It’s not like, oh yeah, we’re going to send you the Switch 2 system a week in advance and you can play these games and then you can write coverage and put all the information out there because there’s still a lot of questions around the Switch 2 right now, you know, 12 hours or so a day before the the system is out. Now, I will say from my perspective, I don’t get stuff from Nintendo anyway. So, it’s actually great for me because it’s like the it’s an even playing field in general. So, tonight when I come back with the system and I start opening up, we check it out. But it’s literally going to be the first time for pretty much everyone. Well, most. I know some already have it, but like in general for everyone for the most part. We’re all getting it at the same time. So, it does work out for me. But it is also just less information for the end end consumer here. And Nintendo not sending out review units is kind of odd and some have called it as like red flags. I think Nintendo’s just thinking they don’t really need to. People are going to buy this thing anyway. And in fact, they are. And just based on the fact that there are still a ton of stock that seems to be getting getting put into different stores for launch day, I feel like this is going to be massive in terms of sales. So, at the end of the day, Nintendo is still going to sell a ton of these systems and it won’t necessarily matter. But, it would have just been nice to have more information rather than no information at all. Well, basically none from independent uh outlets or reviewers or anything going into its release. But, hey, again, we’ll check it out later on tonight. And I’m going to tell you now, rip to your sub feed because there is going to be so many videos that myself and many people be putting out there, just information around the Switch 2 itself, its functionality, um different aspects maybe around the eShop, these different upgrades for SIS for these older games, and then of course new titles like uh like Mario Kart World or um or Fast Racing Fusion and and many others. So, it should be a lot of fun, but it’s also be very very busy. Next up, let’s talk about Sony and their State of Play event that was indeed announced yesterday. We were talking about uh Shinobi mentioning on Reset Era, kind of hinting towards it, but yeah, it was a thing. And in fact, it’s happening later on today. We can see this posted up. This is over on PlayStation blog. They say State of Play returns June 4th. Watch live for news and updates on mustplay games coming to PS5. The show highlights a selection of great games from creators across the globe. The 40 plus minute show begins June 4th. 2 pm Pacific, 5:00 p p.m. Eastern time. Of course, YouTube and Twitch will both have streams live. And after this was announced, stuff started to kind of leak out of it. Now, Res Evil 9 appears to have been rumored already before the State of Play was announced, and we were looking towards Summer Gamefest as the most likely place, but I mean, we’ve seen Sony and Capcom work handinhand with these different Resident Evil announcements and releases. So, I wouldn’t be shocked, I’ll say this, if RE9 was actually at the state of play later on today. Not necessarily confirm anything, but I like it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s where it was. Otherwise, I guess look towards Summer GameFest for that one. However, there are two announcements that seem very, very likely. Okay, one kind of came out of nowhere for me. We can see this from Tom Henderson saying, “Hearing a lot of scuttlebutt about the 2.5D Metroid Vania game or whatever it will be.” Yeah, seems to be much smaller in scale than what I initially thought. This is uh in response to Godavore returning to the Greek saga. So, we’d get a 2.5D Godavore Metroid Vania style game as a a prequel, I guess, for like the more recent God of War games, even before that. I actually like that idea mostly because the way with God of War, right? So, we have God of War 1, two, and three, and they started to feel very si like similar, right? We had kind of the same thing going there. Got to change it up. Okay, here’s 2018. Here’s Ragnarok. Again, we get to end of Ragnarok. Okay. I I feel like we’ve kind of like seen the course for this. What else we got? 2.5D Metroid Vania Stall. I like it. All right. So, this is smaller scale. That’s fine. All right. And uh well, I guess it’s something we we should see later on today at this state of play. We keep an eye out for that. But here’s the other one. And this is one that Oh, Final Fantasy Tactics. Okay. So, the original director first off retweeted the state of play, deleted their their retweet very, very quickly, by the way. And then here comes Jason Shrier on his social media account just saying, I’m just saying Final Fantasy Tactics, one of the greatest games ever made. You know, just randomly putting that out there. Oh, okay. And then he follows up and says, “Oh, yeah, remaster.” Not not like a remake. It’s a remaster. And look, we’ve heard about this for a while. We figured it was going to get announced at at some point in time, maybe even during this uh this run of E39 E3 season. I guess we’re going to look towards this state of play later on today for some sort of Final Fantasy Tactics remaster. Very, very exciting. Something to at least keep in mind. Don’t know if it’s going to actually happen, but I I’m crossing my fingers especially for Final Fantasy Tactics see some kind of uh some kind of resurgence here. Okay, Venom. There of course was that game that was leaked out in the Insomniac files. seems like a good spot for it here for the holiday season. Who knows about Wolverine? It’s been forever. It would be nice to see that here as well. And I you know what I’m interested Games or Marathon? Will either show up here because I’m kind of thinking no. And again I fair games I’d be shocked if we ever see it again to be honest. Also keep in mind Naughty Dog does have some other game that they’ve been working on for years now. That would be a good one more thing kind of announcement, but uh I mean they’re working on Intergalactic as well and maybe want to keep all the attention for a United specific game on that, but if it’s not till 2027, is the other game going to end up being a PlayStation 6 title? So, it’s it’s kind of tough to figure out how exactly you navigate those announcements there. But seems like we’ll have some pretty cool stuff to look forward to later on today. Again, 5:00 p. p.m. Eastern time for the Sony State of Play. Next up, let’s talk about the very strange situation that is Mind’s Eye, which I did the preview for it. It was hands-off. We just kind of watched people play the game, and it wasn’t wasn’t the best preview. The game itself techno, like from a technical side, didn’t really look like it was necessarily ready. It was pretty buggy, and even the gameplay itself looked looked okay. Looked like a game from the early Xbox One, PS4 days, I guess, like an action style game like that. Um, but something seems to be happening there when it comes to the the executives and the personnel, which we can see this is posted up. This is over on Eurogamer says the chief legal officer and chief financial officer at Minds Eye developer build Rocket Boy have left the company a week before the games release. Writing on LinkedIn, former CLO Riley Gravenner said he was proud of what the team has accomplished during his time there, stating that during his tenure, the company had doubled in size to over 450 employees. Gravener did not give a reason for his departure. In addition, build a rocket boy CFO Paul Bland has also left the company after two years. So, at it’s usually not great when hireups like this just start leaving, especially before a game comes out. I mean, Mind’s Eye is out June 10th. There’s an IO, like there’s an IO interactive uh showcase, I think what, Friday evening, and this game is supposed to be there alongside of that 007 game. I’m I’m curious what we see there because it again, it seems very shaky right now this game is even going to come out on June, although we’re a week out. You you feel like if they were going to delay it, they would have already done so. So, I’m still just curious about this game in general and the state that it’s in when it does release. Who knows? Maybe it shocks the internet and it comes out and is actually really good. It’s of high quality and this is just a very weird buildup for a game like this. I don’t know if if I had to take a if I had to place a bet though. I’m thinking this game comes out it’s uh it it’s sketchy. But, uh apparently there’s no no review codes going out early for it. I guess on release day they’ll send some out or not at all. pulling the Nintendo uh strategy there just with a very unknown game at least with Nintendo. I mean, you know, Mario Kart at this point. People have played the game. Haven’t really played Mind’s Eye yet. So, it’s just I it’s not looking great right now before this game for Build a Rocket Boy. But here’s the good news. We’ll find out here pretty soon in 5 days what exactly is going on here with Mind’s Eye when they release it and somebody takes the plunge for 60 bucks to see what it’s all about. And in our last bit of news, let’s talk about Ubisoft and the potential for a Ubisoft Forward event, which doesn’t really look like it’s going to happen at this time. We can see this posted up. This is by Steven Datillo over on their social media account saying Ubisoft Forward, which has been a digital and in-person showcase for the company’s games just about every June, isn’t happening this year. A company rep tells me Ubisoft will participate in IGN Live, so June 7th, June 8th, and PC gaming show June 8th. And we’ll also be at Gamescom. Company rep says, “We are always eager to connect with our players and showcase our games. We are continuing to explore opportunities to share updates and we look forward to providing more information at a later date.” Now, as I mentioned, some of the games that I was curious to see from Ubisoft were mostly remakes. So, Splinter Cell remake, right? That that was a big one there that I I would like to see something about there. And then we have Black Flag that getting a remake. And then we have Prince Persian Sands Dime. Those like the big three that I’m thinking of. And okay, for them, I guess in this case, they can participate in other events, PC gaming show, they can do the IGN live stuff, they can do Gamescom and just kind of sprinkle these remakes throughout depending on when their release timing is. Like, I don’t think Splintercell’s coming out until next year. So, they could show that at Gamescom and it would be fine. Although, Prince of Persia needs to come out before the end of this current fiscal year. So, it has to come out before what, the end of March 2026. That might be one they they maybe show here soon. IGN Live as an example. And then Black Flag remake is another one that I think is going to have similar timing as well. Some were wondering if come out by the end of this year. So that you feel like would be another one that they would show here pretty soon. But if that’s what they have, then yeah, you can kind of sprinkle it in through other events. I was just a little surprised to not see them at something like Summer GameFest. Seems like a good spot for them to showcase one of these titles with a firm release date. But I guess in their mind, they got to wait until they have some big new titles maybe ready to go alongside of stuff like uh these different remakes. And it seems like right now at least uh Ubisoft forward event isn’t in the cards for June, at least not a dedicated one that can be held up by uh so many games at this point. So maybe next year they’ll have something ready to go, but at least for now, we’ll look towards IGN Live or even Gamescom for hopefully something like a Black Flag remake. And before we go to the comments of the day, we’ll take a look at the poll that I posted up yesterday where I ask, “Have you played Final Fantasy Tactics before?” 65% say no. 35% say yes. I saw some comments saying a lot of you are missing out on this. The story of War of the Lions, one of the best told in Final Fantasy history. And I know that there are many people are like, you know what, the tactics based gameplay, it’s not really for me. Hey, some said that, hey, I played the advanced one and that was great. But, you know, there’s not really a I know you can look I know you can emulate these games and stuff, but if you put it on the newer systems, especially with trophies or achievements or just being able to play it on something like the Switch or Switch 2, um it’s just it’s going to be, I think, more accepted and picked up by people at that point as opposed to, hey, set up this emulator or or come up with this retro gaming handheld device or set it up on your phone. It’s just people want to sit back on their couch, not have to think too much about it, and load it up. So, I I really do hope that this is a thing, this remaster. And Square, I’m telling you now, if you do this, you got to give us a physical copy, and it Don’t give us that game key. If if it’s a game key on the Switch 2, but it’s like a it’s an actual cartridge on the Switch. I’m just buying the Switch One version. I mean, like, I know. I’m sure it’ll look really sharp and clean and everything on the Switch 2. I It’s got to be on the cartridge. Come on, Square. And we’ll finish up with the comments of the day. As you can see here, this is from Doom Ray who says, “Another filler video.” What a coincidence. Another filler comment. Fia here says, “If you’ve never been to any retailer in Japan, systems are already front and center and highly pushed. There’s no need for Nintendo to do this at all. It doesn’t make sense.” Yeah, if you have if you have Switch 2 in stock, if you just put a sign out, I’m sure in Japan, you’re going to get foot traffic into the store. And that that’s generally the the main idea of having these newer systems on or around release day, week, month, whatever. Especially as restocks come in, you’re just going to get more and more people to come into the store and you hope buy things outside of just the Switch 2 system. So like the margins on systems are generally low to non-existent. And that’s why you go, hey, do you need a a an extra controller with that? Do you need a headset with that? Do you want to look at the used games? Switch to no used games. probably just Yeah, you get the idea. Like you want to look at the high margin stuff to go along with just your Switch 2 system. So that I’m sure the Switch 2 in general in Japan, yeah, it’s going to be sought after quite a bit. So you just put that out there, a sign we got Switch 2 systems in. I’m sure you have plenty of people lining up either way. And ladies and gentlemen, that’s going to do it here for Newsweave. If you enjoyed this