@Aneira
I would probably call 1printgames a yellow flag.
My pre-order of Slap City in a triple pack release has been waiting since 2025, and the most that company has done since then was assist a Kickstarter campaign for a download game called Captain Soda.
They appear to be connected to the publisher Leoful Games, that have put out a number of Asia English releases you can find on Play-Asia.

@tseliot
The original terms of the Steam codes provided by Deck13 to FPG customers, would be that if you cancelled your physical pre-order they would revoke the Steam code associated with your item.
Where I ordered two different Switch physical editions of Chained Echoes, one intended as a gift, I received two Steam codes and I gifted one of those codes.

@Freek
Under new management, that explains why they haven't put out one of their "Direct" style announcement reels in a long time.
It sounds like they were too pre-occupied with signing deals to get new releases, and making those reveals, and not putting in enough work to secure sales or get products shipped.

I've been waiting on releases like C.A.R.L., Tadpole Treble, and Curse Crackers, for just too long. Most of these were pre-ordered via Video Games Plus, and are holding up orders as a result.

@Yalloo
Gravity Circuit has had at least three different physical distributions, one of them is Red Art Games, and another is an Asian distributor
Pixn' Love's standard Gravity Circuit physical has been available for much longer, it's just this collector's edition that taken unreasonably long to fulfil.

@Friendly
Do you want to know the most galling part?
They've had the Switch 1 game cards in their possession since December 2024.
They claimed that they "plan to start shipping Chained Echoes for Switch in February/March (2025)", and that came and went with nothing further on official annoucements.
All this because of some slip cases?!

@dskatter
Most of LRG's complaints stem from how they used to operate pre-orders that would sell out in minutes, or their change to the open pre-order system where stock is made to demand; and the reality of long production times are exposed to the customer as a result.
LRG had a few years during the open pre-order system where standard physicals releases without bells and whistles were taking way too long, but they've gotten past that now. Some collector's editions are still taking too long to fulfil, with Sonic x Shadow Generations being a sore enough point that they've launched a weekly updated page.

LRG does manage to maintain a healthy string of standard physical releases, and the turnaround is pretty reasonable now. Their collector's editions you have to accept will take longer, and aren't necessarily worthwhile packages.

@Teksette
FPG still needs to refund me for Good Boy Galaxy, but they never returned my request for a refund.
They're probably operating on so little funds after opening too many pre-orders, that they can't refund anyone.
FPG's major issue was treating every physical release as an over-the-top lavish printing job with collectible coins and slip covers, when most customers probably just want the game card in a standard plastic case, at least as modern systems as concerned.
To be honest, Pixn Love Publishing also suffers this issue; I've been waiting on the collector's edition of Gravity Circuit for waaay too long, but that one is actually supposed to materialise within the next few months.

@kmtrain83
Game-Key Card, let alone Switch 2 did not even exist as a format when Chained Echoes and First Press Games first offered physical pre-orders.

@Farts_Ahoy
I have too many physicals from Premium Edition Games in limbo too, and they're the slated physical publisher for Kickstarter projects like Poglings, SoulQuest, and Atomic Owl.
Poglings is making slow and steady progress and a release is still a ways off.
Soul Quest's digital release is this April, no update on how the physical release is going.
Atomic Owl is nearing its digital release on Switch, and Monster Theater have commented on Premium Edition Games, stating that if they fall through they will go with EastAsiaSoft instead.

Right now, Premium Edition seems to be doing little more than selling off unsold stock from other small publishers like VGNY Soft, Tesura Games, and EastAsiaSoft.

In addition to Kickstarter, back in August 2024, the Chained Echoes publisher Deck13 offered Steam codes to anyone who pre-ordered physical versions of the game through First Press Games (up through to end of July 2024), which would remain valid so long as you kept your pre-order open.

Under the circumstances, I've contacted them to ask what'll become of these Steam codes, and decided to buy the Switch digital version at full price to help support the developers and publisher at this time, since FPG's failings have caused financial difficulties for yet another indie publisher.
Good Boy Galaxy terminated their contract last year, and are making their GBA and Switch physical releases happen through another publisher.

By the way, if you're unfamiliar with Deck13, they're the publisher for CrossCode, and for Lunistice.

Edit: Deck13 responded that they aim to be very "pro customer" and will not deactivate the courtesy Steam keys they've provided to FPG physical pre-orders.

I'm not sure the use of the "I" self-referential gender neutral pronoun is the best example for the argument.
Japanese itself is a highly contextual language, and for the sake of context, English is not short (but also not comprehensive) on gendered pronouns and titles that can help establish someone's identity in the context of a conversation.
There are cases where gender neutral pronouns are also insufficient, with words like "they" and "them" not having equal options compared to "she/her/hers" or "he/him/his", and not differentiating between referring to a person of unknown gender, or a person with known "other" gender such as non-binary.
This can lead to some confusion in conversation when referring to a known non-binary individual, as the more common use of "they" would be to refer to someone whose gender identity you haven't learned or assumed, or even to refer to a collective of people.
Whilst we have gendered words that separate parents and child such as mother and daughter, we don't have gendered words for differentiating male and female cousins, despite having words like neice and nephew, aunt and uncle.

For Japanese, I usually think of examples like "Ken", where this can apparently be a contracted reference to a longer word for Sword, or understood as "Fist" (e.g. Tekken's "Iron Fist Tournament"), but can also refer to terms such as strength, wisdom, health, humility. It depends on the kanji used, where different glyphs may be used for the same spoken sound, so other components are needed to establish a context in spoken or written language.

@MiltonHolmes
Zere Rocks was one of my favourite puns from the Dragon Quest series as a whole.
Localisation that pulls of this kind of wordplay that is very common in Japanese, is always commendable.
One kind of wordplay in Japanese can be to re-arrange syllables.
A couple of examples, Saiyan is rearranged from Yasai, the Japanese word for vegetable, whilst Zonai is rearranged from Nazo, the Japanese word for mystery.

@Automated_Unit_4937
You're missing the part where his union would not offer any of their legal resources or services, because he would effectively waive them by signing a non-union contract.
Unions through collective bargaining power and pooled resources, made legal services accessible and affordable for individuals who could not afford to go it alone, and should not have to.

@Automated_Unit_4937
Of course there's a difference!
If he signs a non-union contract, he can't ask his union for legal protections and assistance if the other side does something to violate the contract or otherwise do him harm.
The union is in place to help enforce contracts that protect members of the union, from historically exploitative large companies.

There's more to this story.
SAG-AFTRA issued a "Do Not Work" order for Mega Man Dual Override, because Capcom refused to work with unions for this project.

Where SAG-AFTRA is taking the hard position of their voice performances not being allowed for AI generative training, and Capcom wanting to sidestep unions, this is a troubling look for Capcom.
Whilst they did offer Ben Diskin an individual protection that his performance would not be used for AI development, that probably means they did not extend that protection to the other potential voice actors and their performances. Actors who likely may also be part of SAG-AFTRA or another union, and may've been willing to do non-union work.

Ben Diskin is right here to refuse this work, this is about more than just his own work, but the work of all other voice actors who are threatened by the industry shifting towards generative AI as a potential replacement for actual people.

Whilst online battles are a part I'm unlikely to play, the Brother Band system (the in-game friends list system) is an essential part of the game if you want to make the most of battles.

As a primer, having more Brothers grants you more Link Power, which lets you equip more customisations, and brother cards appear in your deck pulls during battle. Brother cards either let you assume another transformation from a different version of the game (or combine them in SF2/SF3), or use one of their favourite battle cards.
The further your Brother has progressed in the game, the stronger these effects are.

In the original DS games, you could only have up to 6 Brothers, but the new version lets you have up to 100 per game! I wonder how that works?

@hypercoyote
Apparently so, going by comments mentioning a Twitter post where someone discovered this information themselves.

I hope that makes my initial comment and reaction more understandable. The optics around this are the result of the Pokémon franchise's recent historic of having numerous limited time events, as well as the sources of information like this article or the Pokémon website not clarifying how the events run on your system clock.

It's not reasonable to expect a potential customer to figure this out for themselves.

@Hal9001
Victimhood complex feels demeaning.
What I'm seeing is people getting fed up with games demanding more of your time and using dark patterns to manipulate them, to the point the game feels like an obligation and a responsibility, rather than an opportunity for activity.
People want to play games on their time and on their terms, and at their own pace. Not on a big company's terms and schedules.

@Willo567
Understanding that now, where it's a real-time event built into the game rather than an online-controlled limited time event, that's fine.
The optics however, were not good. The event was announced through social media channels like it were the latter, and FOMO has become the expectation when anything like this is announced.

You know, theoretically there may already be a calendar year's worth of events built into the launch title, and a time traveller could check each day for what events are available in advance.
They will probably be seasonal events involving ghost types in late October, or ice types in late December.

It's these sorts of seasonal events that lets social media managers remind you that the game is available to purchase and play on a regular basis, and is their financial incentive to design that kind of content.

At this stage, Pokémon and FOMO feel inseparable.
This event in Pokémon Pokopia goes beyond "added content" like a downloadable Pokémon, but seems to have meaningful impact on in-game activity.
This is becoming overly prevalent and I'm not okay with it, with FOMO being used to strong-arm potential players to drop what they're doing and give THIS game attention NOW or ELSE, they can't get a 100% complete save file or whatever.
Legends Z-A was already attrocious with restricting access to new Mega Pokémon behind online ranked matches, and Scarlet and Violet with them constantly running tera raid battles; the notorious Tera Mewtwo raids come to mind.
It's the bread and butter of mobile games like Pokémon Go too.

I wonder how they've approached the Wave Command Cards for Star Force 2 in particular.
That game is notorious for having a code that let you assume your full power "Tribe King" form at the start of battles, which extended to online multiplayer matches.
The form is greatly overpowered and under normal play, should take a few turns of play to attain, and required having at least two friends from different tribes from your own. Tribes being Zerker, Ninja, and Saurian.

By the way, for first time players of Star Force 2 I'd recommend starting with the Zerker tribe.

@AussieMcBucket
They're modelling it after the display of the Game Boy Pocket, which was available the same year that Pokémon Red and Green launched in Japan.

I saw today that the Pokémon Center website's home page had greyscale graphics modelled after the Game Boy Pocket's screen too, whilst there's new merchandise modelled after the olive screen of the original DMG model Game Boy.

With the buzz around this one, I might give the digital download a look.
Unfortunately I just don't see a reason to get the Game-Key release, as it's neither the convenience of a digital installation, nor the preservation and distribution of a physical item.

@chucksneed
Localisation doesn't necessary mean adapting everything to be 100% the same language as the target territory.
Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres are a good example of this. Their names are compounded from both English and Spanish.

Generation one naming was also pretty hit and miss.
Some names were really well thought compound words out that identify just what that Pokémon is, others are compound words that leave out something important, and some are just straight up single words with a spelling change, or maybe not at all!
Clefairy for example, that would be Clef and Fairy, so that'd be a singing fairy right? Although Jigglypuff is better known for singing, that's also what Clefairy does.
Rapidash is, well you don't exactly get "fire" or "horse" out of that, just "run fast", which lots of Pokémon can do lol.
And then there's Golem, Gloom, Electrode. Those are JUST single words.

The Switch 2's first year of indie support has been hit and miss; a back catalogue of Switch 1 games not having Switch 2 versions available, especially stuff built in Unity engine or Game Maker (excluding Deltarune, which got special treatment).

I'm hoping to see that turn around in this Indie World presentation, it's important that all developers get proper, full access to the Switch 2 hardware now, and opportunities to upgrade their older releases as either Switch 2 Edition upgrade packs, or new releases (like Balatro recently).

Vampire Survivors for example, the Switch 1 version runs very well on Switch 2, the performance is improved but the visuals take a hit in handheld mode due to scaling a 720p image to 1080p, instead of rendering natively at 1080p.

The disappointment is palpable, as nice as the idea is it was never going to live up to an actual playable Game Boy Mini.

Watch someone mod this to make it just that.

The power of a PSD template file and access to over a thousand well designed standardised assets.
Some of them are specially made though, like Ditto!

@kal_el_07241
Serebii is still a site I check out regularly, usually for specific main series game information, it's not one I use as much for Pokémon Go however.

Each Pokémon spin-off game has its own sites and subreddits anyway, such as Raenonx, a popular wiki and calculator tool for Pokémon Sleep.

@kevinm360
Familiarity with Farfetch'd. Understanding the link goes both directions IMO.
Their infographics are so prevalent that they're pretty well known, as well as their Raid Now service, and their very well put together events pages for learning about current upcoming events.
Their resources are better than Niantic's own official blog posts and social media infographics, that Niantic themselves started doing infographics.

In the interest of providing fair feedback, resources like Pokémon Go Hub, Leekduck, and Silph Road on Reddit have been firmly established as go-to sources for Pokémon Go information, so One More Catch will need to prove itself to get traction; especially 10 years into the game's service.

The name isn't great though, there's nothing distinctly "Pokémon" about it like the sites I just mentioned, since catching is a very broad action that could describe many things.

@Vyacheslav333
I don't think laziness is the issue here, so much as ambition.
FFVII Rebirth was developed for much more powerful consoles than the Switch 2, so some sacrifices have to be made and the work is in figuring out which ones they can make whilst maintaining a good user experience.

These Pokémon Presents directs have a reputation for having way too many mobile ads for people to care about, and a bunch of motivational self-pomp about people enjoying the games since their childhood.
But considering it's the 30th they hopefully have something a lot more exciting, like a 10th generation announcement.

Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition was a game I played nearly exclusively docked for my 100% playthrough. Some games are better suited to docked or handheld play, and that comes down to personal preference.
So whilst this wouldn't affect me if I were to play XCX DE's Switch 2 Edition, it's not cool that they opted for such a bad rendering/upscaling solution when playing in handheld mode.

@Bizzyb
From what I've seen, there's a noticeable "smearing" of pixels in a swirling fashion, that makes it look like viewing a poor quality digital camera photo. Normally you have to really zoom into digital photos on a phone screen to notice those patterns, but the patterns are perceptible and very noticeable on the Switch 2's large 1080p display.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_Chronicles/comments/1rc12xx/comment/o6wsxk6/
This isn't some small problem, it's genuinely worse than playing the Switch 1 version on Switch 2.

@KayFiOS
I recall that some of the attractions use mouse mode to place support blocks wherever you point, similar to how there was the GamePad gimmick in the Wii U version of New Super Mario Bros. U.

I'm not sure what they can really showcase for Mario Wonder, I guess just the new multiplayer Bellabel Park content?
Pokopia on the other hand, is an opportunity to really reveal something new to the audience, since this one's really surprising hands-on players.

I see your £90 animatronic Pikachu, and raise this ¥38,500 (~£183-195) genuine leather "Run Run! Desert" Pikachu.

@DarkTron
It would be a very simple thing to do.
On first boot, the software asks you what language you want to play in, and warns you that you can't change the language after starting the game. Your selection then boots the corresponding ROM file every time afterward.
What would complicate things would be deleting an existing save game to create a new one, where you might then want to change the language.

The language of origin is tracked in the third generation, and therefore is still relevant to Pokémon Home support, as well as having foreign language Pokédex entries in the third generation games.

Where Switch games support multiple saves on one system via multiple accounts, a multi-language release would mean one user with multiple accounts gets access to multiple language-origin Pokémon from one account.
Which, I guess was always already possible with every other Pokémon Switch title to date, really.

Why does it always have to feel weighed down by corporate bureaucracy? They couldn't go a little further get online trading and battling supported?

This seems to be an extremely barebones (<40MB) release of the two games, if they're selling the different langauge versions as individual downloads.
The real reason for that is probably them wanting to charge one purchase per save game, as opposed to having one title with multiple languages; and multiple save games as a result.
Also because of how a Pokémon's language of origin having meaningful gameplay impacts on Pokédex entries and breeding; aka the "Masuda Method".

I completed 100% of my Mira adventure, doing absolutely everything it had to offer, so as much as I want to check out the Switch 2 Edition upgrade it would only be to go and roam around the beautiful planet.

All the more reason that the Xenoblade core trilogy needs Switch 2 Edition upgrades, really.
Maybe that KOS-MOS leak recently will amount to a planned XBC2 Switch 2 edition, with some new content after all?

You've got to be very careful about consenting to having your voice reproduced.
James Earl Jones possibly did not anticipate that his AI voice model was going to used in a live game service, and his character Darth Vader was going to be tricked into saying offensive things.

In a business context of where voice actors need to provide time to provide performances, and the developers may suddenly need additional lines, this seems like a fair one-off permission to produce lines without the person needing to schedule time for a performance, especially if the person is not usually a voice actor (like a sports broadcaster).

@Sylamp
Ah, no it didn't, I'd forgotten about that somehow.
At some point it felt like a mental disconnect because it's the Pokémon Company, which is practically its own entity.

Does this mark the first Switch 2 Edition from Nintendo, that's strictly just a performance and graphical upgrade?
No exclusive content, no extra features like mouse mode, GameChat, camera functionality?

I don't mind nominal upgrade costs like this mind you, but it suggests we've seen the last of the free updates to Switch 1 software like we did with Link's Awakening or ARMS.

@JohnnyMind
A large part of is that Nintendo wants strict control over how you can play their games, like modern Nintendo consoles being the only place that you can play Mario games (excluding a handful of mobile games).
That's without going into the early home computer releases of Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, and licensed educational games on SNES and PC.

It's probably why Nintendo issued a DMCA takedown on a Commodore 64 port of Super Mario Bros., which was featured in MVG's recent video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFBj6PfrnMk

They also absolutely hate it when you mod their games.

@a1904
One of the big incentives to emulate Switch games is that they provide better user experiences than original hardware.
You run them on more powerful hardware, affording better performance and graphics, and are moddable with greater control scheme options.

The current Switch emulator developers insist that you must use your own modded Switch system to legally dump your own Switch software and firmware, for private use of emulation; no file-sharing of any kind.
Though "legally dump" may depend on where you live in the world, and Nintendo's legal argument has been focused on "bypassing security measures" such as the encryption on Switch software itself.
That argument hasn't been tested in court and no precedent has been set, because Tropic Haze, the developers of Yuzu, settled out of court.

I cannot deny that piracy is a serious issue here though, but the means to play the pirated content is something else.
You can use a modded Switch to play pirated content all the same.

@Jack_Goetz
News sites write articles that bring traffic, the kind that might generate a lot of comments, or even those that generate few at all but still find traffic through Google's services.

@Dee123
Nah Yoshi talks, it's just a language barrier.

Heh, they go all in with the generation one Kanto anime aesthetic, especially with that Pokédex Red you used to see on all the early western merchandise.
But then there's a random Bidoof up the top there.
I spotted a Pichu too, you might get away with that for the Johto Journeys portion.

The irony of pushing Virtual Boy merchandise in Europe, where the device famously was never available.
Much like the e-Reader.

I get that it's cross-promoting the actual accessories and subscription service they're launching next week, but still.

It looks fantastic, but it's also something I won't get the chance to play what with it being co-op only.

Whilst the Switch 2 launch got the Switch 1 updates off to a good start, more work is needed.
Really obvious candidates like Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity, didn't get a performance or graphical update, and only perform better due to how the compatibility layer works.
And there's a huge selection of games that could really stand to benefit from a Switch 2 update, two of my most wanted updates are for Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, and Mario & Luigi Brothership; games currently capped at 30 FPS, where the latter really struggles with that due to how fast the animations and how reaction-based the battles are.

Jigglypuff performing the half-time show at the Superbowl?

Maybe not the best idea.

That depends which Ultra Beasts we're talking about, anyway.
Buzzwole (as featured in the headline image) and Guzzlord were designed by James Turner.
As were Poipole and Naganadel, which were introduced in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

I'm glad that they took a chance on the Ultra Beasts in Sun and Moon, since they really explored what Pokémon could be outside of a normal environment.
Something that culminated in Eternatus, an ancient alien skeletal neon dragon of sorts, and is possibly the least-Pokémon looking Pokémon in the franchise by a wide margin, yet fits in well narratively and stylistically.