Wild Bunch Productions and Yukikaze have announced a “double Kickstarter” campaign for two games, Armed Fantasia: To the End of the Wilderness, and Penny Blood. The former is a spiritual successor to Wild Arms while the latter is one for Shadow Hearts.

Wild Bunch is made of creators behind Wild Arms and Yukikaze consists of former Shadow Hearts creators. The campaign will launch on August 29 and the goal is to create large-scale JRPGs inspired by these classic titles, requesting $750,000 for both games.

Armed Fantasia takes place in the wild west setting of Londenium and follows a young man named Ingram who loses his grandfather. He’s a Pathfinder, an adventurer who wields a weapon called ARM, to fight enemies called Anomalies that infest Londenium.

The game is a turn-based RPG where characters can land successive actions to disrupt enemies’ turn order. It also features a large world map where each party member possesses a unique Gadget that can help overcome obstacles when exploring.

Penny Blood is a dark gothic RPG that takes place during the 1920s during the Roaring Twenties time period and follows a man named Matthew Farrell, a private detective in New York working for the Bureau of Investigation.

An incident leads him to investigate a mental asylum but he finds it filled with monsters. Using transformation abilities he inherited from his father, he takes them down. The story will take Matthew all across the world through Asia and Europe. The game is turn-based as well, but with some reaction-time elements.

Both Kickstarter campaigns will share a “combo meter” that affects the stretch goals of both games. Pledging for one game will also contribute to the other’s stretch goals. Reaching the full funding goal will confirm both games for a PC release. Additional stretch goals will see the games being ported to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo’s most recent hardware at the time of release. No launch window has been revealed yet for either game, should the campaign reach its goal.

The Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes campaign was the most recent high-profile Japanese Kickstarter campaign, in which the game was billed as a successor to Suikoden. The campaign also stated that it would release on whichever Nintendo system was relevant by the time it was released, but a Switch version was recently confirmed this year.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Marvel’s Fantastic Four just got a new director – WandaVision’s Matt Shakman.

The 47-year-old filmmaker helped Marvel launch its MCU offerings on Disney+ and now, it looks as though he’s bringing Marvel’s first family to the big screen.

According to Deadline, Shakman is in early talks to direct the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, with rumors suggesting he might board the upcoming reboot for several weeks.

Marvel fans have been clamoring for a Fantastic Four reboot since Disney acquired Fox back in 2019, effectively regaining film and TV rights to the superhero team as part of the extensive deal.

Earlier this year, Marvel confirmed it would make a new Fantastic Four.

Then, at this year’s San Diego Comic Con, the superhero powerhouse revealed that Fantastic Four would be a big part of its Phase 6 plans, heading to the big screen on November 8, 2024. Sure, it’s a long way off, but the comic book studio is clearly keen to get its signature heroes back in front of an audience.

Although Matt Shakman has now been approached to helm the project, Deadline also says that a formal offer hasn’t yet been made… but early discussions have begun, and they seem to be going in the right direction.

Aside from WandaVision, Shakman is also known for his TV career, helming episodes of popular shows such as The Boys, Fargo, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Six Feet Under. He was also set to direct the next Star Trek film, but Paramount Pictures confirmed that Shakman is no longer attached to that movie.

"Matt Shakman is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and we regret the timing didn’t align for him to direct our upcoming Star Trek film. We are grateful for his many contributions, are excited about the creative vision of this next chapter and look forward to bringing it to audiences all around world," Paramount said in a statement to THR.

Fantastic Four will introduce the iconic superhero team to the MCU, but Marvel boss Kevin Feige asserts that it won’t be an origin story.

“A lot of people know this origin story,” he said. “A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before?”

Following in the footsteps of Jon Watts, who was also once set to direct Fantastic Four, it looks as though the upcoming Fantastic Four film will dive straight into its heroes’ lives – much the same way Spider-Man: Homecoming avoided retreading the origins of Peter Parker.

Want to read more about Marvel’s Fantastic Four? Check out how Marvel might bring Doctor Doom into the MCU and find out what’s the most anticipated Marvel film or TV show.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Marvel’s Fantastic Four just got a new director – WandaVision’s Matt Shakman.

The 47-year-old filmmaker helped Marvel launch its MCU offerings on Disney+ and now, it looks as though he’s bringing Marvel’s first family to the big screen.

According to Deadline, Shakman is in early talks to direct the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, with rumors suggesting he might board the upcoming reboot for several weeks.

Marvel fans have been clamoring for a Fantastic Four reboot since Disney acquired Fox back in 2019, effectively regaining film and TV rights to the superhero team as part of the extensive deal.

Earlier this year, Marvel confirmed it would make a new Fantastic Four.

Then, at this year’s San Diego Comic Con, the superhero powerhouse revealed that Fantastic Four would be a big part of its Phase 6 plans, heading to the big screen on November 8, 2024. Sure, it’s a long way off, but the comic book studio is clearly keen to get its signature heroes back in front of an audience.

Although Matt Shakman has now been approached to helm the project, Deadline also says that a formal offer hasn’t yet been made… but early discussions have begun, and they seem to be going in the right direction.

Aside from WandaVision, Shakman is also known for his TV career, helming episodes of popular shows such as The Boys, Fargo, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Six Feet Under. He’s also set to direct the upcoming Star Trek 4 – the next film in the rebooted Star Trek series.

Fantastic Four will introduce the iconic superhero team to the MCU, but Marvel boss Kevin Feige asserts that it won’t be an origin story.

“A lot of people know this origin story,” he said. “A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before?”

Following in the footsteps of Jon Watts, who was also once set to direct Fantastic Four, it looks as though the upcoming Fantastic Four film will dive straight into its heroes’ lives – much the same way Spider-Man: Homecoming avoided retreading the origins of Peter Parker.

Want to read more about Marvel’s Fantastic Four? Check out how Marvel might bring Doctor Doom into the MCU and find out what’s the most anticipated Marvel film or TV show.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

In the months following the Steam Deck's launch, demand for the handheld gaming PC drastically outperformed Valve's expectations. In response, the company has now revealed that it's definitely thinking about creating a successor to the original Steam Deck.

Yesterday, Valve released a 50-page booklet about the Steam Deck. As pointed out by @Wario64, in a section of the booklet titled "The Future: more Steam Decks, more SteamOS," Valve reveals its plans to support the Steam Deck for years through both new hardware and software versions.

"In the future, Valve will follow up on this product with improvements and iterations to hardware and software, bringing new versions of Steam Deck to market," the booklet reads.

The company is also looking to incorporate community feedback in building the next Steam Deck, allowing for a more well-rounded experience.

"This is a multi-generational product line. Valve will support Steam Deck and SteamOS well into the foreseeable future. We will learn from the Steam community about new uses for our hardware that we haven’t thought of yet, and we will build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been."

Valve says Steam Deck is a multi-generational product line and that the Steam Deck and SteamOS will be supported well into the foreseeable future.

"we will build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been." pic.twitter.com/msMSnST3z5

— Wario64 (@Wario64) August 25, 2022

Previously, Valve president Gabe Newell spoke to IGN on the Steam Deck's launch, revealing that the product's high demand at launch pushed the team to explore more options for the future of the Steam Deck.

We gave the Steam Deck a 7 in our review, saying that it's amazing when working at its full potential, but can be frustrating at times. Though the gaming device was initially a bit tricky to acquire, it's now becoming more accessible as Valve works out supply chain issues.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they've contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

In the months following the Steam Deck's launch, demand for the handheld gaming PC drastically outperformed Valve's expectations. In response, the company has now revealed that it's definitely thinking about creating a successor to the original Steam Deck.

Yesterday, Valve released a 50-page booklet about the Steam Deck. As pointed out by @Wario64, in a section of the booklet titled "The Future: more Steam Decks, more SteamOS," Valve reveals its plans to support the Steam Deck for years through both new hardware and software versions.

"In the future, Valve will follow up on this product with improvements and iterations to hardware and software, bringing new versions of Steam Deck to market," the booklet reads.

The company is also looking to incorporate community feedback in building the next Steam Deck, allowing for a more well-rounded experience.

"This is a multi-generational product line. Valve will support Steam Deck and SteamOS well into the foreseeable future. We will learn from the Steam community about new uses for our hardware that we haven’t thought of yet, and we will build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been."

Valve says Steam Deck is a multi-generational product line and that the Steam Deck and SteamOS will be supported well into the foreseeable future.

"we will build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been." pic.twitter.com/msMSnST3z5

— Wario64 (@Wario64) August 25, 2022

Previously, Valve president Gabe Newell spoke to IGN on the Steam Deck's launch, revealing that the product's high demand at launch pushed the team to explore more options for the future of the Steam Deck.

We gave the Steam Deck a 7 in our review, saying that it's amazing when working at its full potential, but can be frustrating at times. Though the gaming device was initially a bit tricky to acquire, it's now becoming more accessible as Valve works out supply chain issues.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they've contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Update 08/26/2022, 09:00: USA Today's report claiming that Amazon would today make an offer to buy Electronic Arts (EA) has been retracted, with the journalist behind the article also expressing doubt over its accuracy.

The original report was updated multiple times in the hours after CNBC disputed its reporting, slowly but surely stepping away from its fairly explicit declaration that Amazon would make EA an offer.

"Earlier today, GLHF - a gaming/e-sports outlet and content partner of [USA Today's] For The Win - ran a version of this story on our website that violated our editorial standards regarding the use of unnamed and unvetted sources," the page now reads.

Kirk McKeand, the journalist behind the article, also said on Twitter: "If you get something wrong in games journalism, it's a bit like when you work behind a bar and drop a pint glass, and everyone cheers. Except, instead of cheering, they chuck more pint glasses at you."

He continued: "Also, CNBC said 'it isn't happening today', which isn't the same as 'it isn't happening'. And if I turn out to be wrong, then I was wrong. It happens. It's the first time it's happened to me with a report like this, but it was bound to happen eventually."

Original Story: Video game industry media was sent into a tailspin earlier today, August 26, after a USA Today report claimed Amazon was planning to make an offer to purchase publishing giant EA. Conflicting reports have now emerged from CNBC, however, that say there are no acquisition plans in place.

USA Today's report arrived from Swedish press agency Good Luck Have Fun, who claimed its sources were aware of an imminent formal offer from Amazon to acquire the FIFA 23 and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order publisher.

Not long after, however, CNBC anchor David Faber said on air (below) that there are currently no plans from Amazon to acquire EA. "I have talked to some people who would actually know if there was something going on, and they say there's nothing going on," Faber said. "These are people who would be involved."

Amazon is not going to make a bid for Electronic Arts, sources tell CNBC's @DavidFaber. Shares of $EA surged earlier on a report citing a "rumor." pic.twitter.com/k7wk0Fy7xv

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) August 26, 2022

EA shares had climbed 15% in premarket trading following the USA Today report but have since lowered, and at time of writing are up around 6%.

EA have been at the centre of several acquisition rumours in recent months as the video game industry overall has seen them become commonplace. EA CEO Andrew Wilson said earlier in August that the company would be open to the possibility of being acquired but it also that EA couldn't be "in a stronger position as a standalone company".

Amazon has told IGN that it does not comment on speculation, while EA is yet to respond to our request for comment.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

It's been a while, but development on adorable social sim Mineko's Night Market is still chugging away, with the cat-filled game getting a new trailer this week at Gamescom.

Mineko's Night market follows Mineko, a young girl who has just arrived on the struggling Mount Fugu Island, where villagers have begun to catch sight of the mysterious Sun Cat Abe, who they worship. Mineko must work to restore the village to its former glory through daily activities, quests, crafting, and participation in the weekly Night Market where she can buy, barter, befriend the townsfolk, and play games.

For those following Mineko's Night Market, it's been a long wait. The game was first announced as far back as 2015 and at one point was planned for a 2019 release, but was pushed back repeatedly. It's made by a very small team, but has since picked up a publisher in Humble Bundle and a number of other partners, including A Shell in the Pit for audio. Currently, it has no planned release date still, but is anticipated for Nintendo Switch and PC when the time comes.

Even if its actual release date has been hazy for a long time, every time Mineko's Night Market has resurfaced it's looked better and better. Hopefully this latest trailer means we might finally get to visit the night market sooner rather than later.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

It's been a while, but development on adorable social sim Mineko's Night Market is still chugging away, with the cat-filled game getting a new trailer this week at Gamescom.

Mineko's Night market follows Mineko, a young girl who has just arrived on the struggling Mount Fugu Island, where villagers have begun to catch sight of the mysterious Sun Cat Abe, who they worship. Mineko must work to restore the village to its former glory through daily activities, quests, crafting, and participation in the weekly Night Market where she can buy, barter, befriend the townsfolk, and play games.

For those following Mineko's Night Market, it's been a long wait. The game was first announced as far back as 2015 and at one point was planned for a 2019 release, but was pushed back repeatedly. It's made by a very small team, but has since picked up a publisher in Humble Bundle and a number of other partners, including A Shell in the Pit for audio. Currently, it has no planned release date still, but is anticipated for Nintendo Switch and PC when the time comes.

Even if its actual release date has been hazy for a long time, every time Mineko's Night Market has resurfaced it's looked better and better. Hopefully this latest trailer means we might finally get to visit the night market sooner rather than later.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Understandably, a lot of the talk about upcoming ‘adventure-strategy’ game Gord has focused on debut developer Covenant’s connection to The Witcher. Made up of a variety of Polish AAA developers, some of which moved on from CD Projekt Red to set up the studio, Covenant isn’t running far from its roots - like much of The Witcher, Gord takes place in a grim, pastoral fantasy world inspired by Slavic folklore. But when I saw it at Gamescom, Covenant CEO Stan Just made a different comparison that reveals Gord’s promise - Rimworld.

Like Rimworld, Gord begins by giving you a smattering of generated villagers, each with individual personality traits that can affect their working and personal lives. Like Rimworld, you task those villagers with building a colony from scratch, erecting a temple to their gods, building a palisade wall to keep out the various threats lurking in the dark, and collecting the resources needed to do so. And, like Rimworld, Gord wants to help turn tiny moments into unexpected, personal stories that emerge naturally.

It’s a great set-up, building in elements of real-time strategy (on first glance, this presents itself like a classic top-down unit control game) and survival games to see you grow attached to your townsfolk over time as they build your village. Success is measured by the townsfolk’s sanity (happiness isn’t really measurable in a world as miserable as this) as well as how much progress you make in creating a functioning settlement.

Your villagers can be naturally gifted at certain things (building, using specific weaponry, and more), and they may bring with them unique items that will help them survive. They may also have personalities that mean they simply won’t do certain tasks, forcing you to be creative with how you assign the village’s many roles. In the demo I watch, a baby is unexpectedly born as we play, giving a hint at how this isn’t just about helping a single set of villagers, but perhaps a whole lineage of them. And of course, all of this is being done to make it really devastating when they die.

Because Gord isn’t just a strategy game, or even simply a game about defending the settlement. It’s also a small-scale strategy game, allowing you to arm your strongest villagers and take them out into the wider world, whether to kill off threats, prevent raids, loot treasures, or more. Sometimes, your village itself will offer quests that take you out, but there’s also a full story campaign mode that will see major objectives offered throughout your time in the wilderness.

The pre-beta version I see isn’t exactly pretty, with some fairly basic animations making combat feel a little less than dynamic, but there’s a lot going on under the hood. Villagers can be armed in different ways, and assigned to different groups, even allowing you to add some light automation (you can assign stronger axe-wielding warriors to move and protect weaker bow users, for example). Location is important, too, as both you and your enemies can get buffs or debuffs for the terrain around them.

On top of that, you can use Faith - a currency of sorts generated by having your villagers worship at a temple - to call on the gods to offer protective or offensive spells. The damaging spells are a highlight - these gods don’t seem to be all that merciful, with one spell sending worms to infest a target, and another getting them to hover in the air as their bones are twisted into unnatural positions.

Enemies themselves come in many forms, from natural beasts, twisted humanoids and, most excitingly, the Horrors. Horrors are underworld demons of various shapes and sizes that have been placed across Gord’s world, and represent the most threatening figures you can find. Brilliantly, these aren’t just totally hostile bosses - a Horror could visit your village and ask for a gift. That could be your gold, your crops… or your children. In the early stages, you might just have to take that deal - reject them, and they may curse your village, infesting it with insects, summoning a tornado, or worse.

But crucially, these more traditional adventure sections tie back into that Rimworld-like set up. A death while out on patrol could devastate your villagers - especially if you can’t recover and bury the corpse. Sustain an injury or lose sanity, and a warrior might suddenly have a physical ailment or mental affliction that affects them back home. Avoid those things, and your villagers will gain experience in their assigned professions over time - perhaps, after enough training, you’ll be able to send out a force and exact revenge on the Horror that took your kids.

Gord feels built to tell endless stories, and Covenant is accounting for that by including a full custom scenarios mode alongside the campaign. Here, you can micromanage what kind of a world you’re placed into, including the kinds of objectives you want to complete (or simply have no objective, and see how long you can survive) - and those seeds can be shared among players to allow for people to take up the exact same challenge.

Covenant isn’t aiming low. The games the team is aiming to invoke are beloved by their fanbases, but with Gord it’s looking to create something that may earn its own following, on its own terms. I’m more than intrigued to see if it can manage that feat.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Understandably, a lot of the talk about upcoming ‘adventure-strategy’ game Gord has focused on debut developer Covenant’s connection to The Witcher. Made up of a variety of Polish AAA developers, some of which moved on from CD Projekt Red to set up the studio, Covenant isn’t running far from its roots - like much of The Witcher, Gord takes place in a grim, pastoral fantasy world inspired by Slavic folklore. But when I saw it at Gamescom, Covenant CEO Stan Just made a different comparison that reveals Gord’s promise - Rimworld.

Like Rimworld, Gord begins by giving you a smattering of generated villagers, each with individual personality traits that can affect their working and personal lives. Like Rimworld, you task those villagers with building a colony from scratch, erecting a temple to their gods, building a palisade wall to keep out the various threats lurking in the dark, and collecting the resources needed to do so. And, like Rimworld, Gord wants to help turn tiny moments into unexpected, personal stories that emerge naturally.

It’s a great set-up, building in elements of real-time strategy (on first glance, this presents itself like a classic top-down unit control game) and survival games to see you grow attached to your townsfolk over time as they build your village. Success is measured by the townsfolk’s sanity (happiness isn’t really measurable in a world as miserable as this) as well as how much progress you make in creating a functioning settlement.

Your villagers can be naturally gifted at certain things (building, using specific weaponry, and more), and they may bring with them unique items that will help them survive. They may also have personalities that mean they simply won’t do certain tasks, forcing you to be creative with how you assign the village’s many roles. In the demo I watch, a baby is unexpectedly born as we play, giving a hint at how this isn’t just about helping a single set of villagers, but perhaps a whole lineage of them. And of course, all of this is being done to make it really devastating when they die.

Because Gord isn’t just a strategy game, or even simply a game about defending the settlement. It’s also a small-scale strategy game, allowing you to arm your strongest villagers and take them out into the wider world, whether to kill off threats, prevent raids, loot treasures, or more. Sometimes, your village itself will offer quests that take you out, but there’s also a full story campaign mode that will see major objectives offered throughout your time in the wilderness.

The pre-beta version I see isn’t exactly pretty, with some fairly basic animations making combat feel a little less than dynamic, but there’s a lot going on under the hood. Villagers can be armed in different ways, and assigned to different groups, even allowing you to add some light automation (you can assign stronger axe-wielding warriors to move and protect weaker bow users, for example). Location is important, too, as both you and your enemies can get buffs or debuffs for the terrain around them.

On top of that, you can use Faith - a currency of sorts generated by having your villagers worship at a temple - to call on the gods to offer protective or offensive spells. The damaging spells are a highlight - these gods don’t seem to be all that merciful, with one spell sending worms to infest a target, and another getting them to hover in the air as their bones are twisted into unnatural positions.

Enemies themselves come in many forms, from natural beasts, twisted humanoids and, most excitingly, the Horrors. Horrors are underworld demons of various shapes and sizes that have been placed across Gord’s world, and represent the most threatening figures you can find. Brilliantly, these aren’t just totally hostile bosses - a Horror could visit your village and ask for a gift. That could be your gold, your crops… or your children. In the early stages, you might just have to take that deal - reject them, and they may curse your village, infesting it with insects, summoning a tornado, or worse.

But crucially, these more traditional adventure sections tie back into that Rimworld-like set up. A death while out on patrol could devastate your villagers - especially if you can’t recover and bury the corpse. Sustain an injury or lose sanity, and a warrior might suddenly have a physical ailment or mental affliction that affects them back home. Avoid those things, and your villagers will gain experience in their assigned professions over time - perhaps, after enough training, you’ll be able to send out a force and exact revenge on the Horror that took your kids.

Gord feels built to tell endless stories, and Covenant is accounting for that by including a full custom scenarios mode alongside the campaign. Here, you can micromanage what kind of a world you’re placed into, including the kinds of objectives you want to complete (or simply have no objective, and see how long you can survive) - and those seeds can be shared among players to allow for people to take up the exact same challenge.

Covenant isn’t aiming low. The games the team is aiming to invoke are beloved by their fanbases, but with Gord it’s looking to create something that may earn its own following, on its own terms. I’m more than intrigued to see if it can manage that feat.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.