One of the highlights of the recent Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase was the announcement of the Collection of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend – celebrating the SaGa series’ 30th anniversary.

The collection – featuring the first three Game Boy games – will arrive on 15th December. In Japan, there’ll also be a limited edition – although, it doesn’t come with a physical copy of the game. This will set fans back 14,500 yen and is exclusive to Square Enix’s store.

Here’s what it does include: a special sleeve case, a SaGa series medal set, a download code to redeem a digital copy of the game, an album soundtrack with music from all three games, and a 600-page SaGa series novel compilation.

There’s been no mention of a local release. Would you like to see Square Enix made something similar available here in the west? What are your thoughts about limited-edition releases that don’t include a physical copy of the game? Share your thoughts down below.

The last major update about Little Nightmares II was at last year’s Gamescom, when developer Tarsier Studios said the puzzle-platform horror adventure would be launching this year.

It seems that’s now changed, as this year’s Gamescom trailer has now revealed it’ll be arriving next year on 11th February. Here’s why it’s been delayed, according to producer Lucas Roussel:

We wanted to spend more time on the game and give it even more love, so we could create the best possible experience to delight our passionate fans.

And here’s what you can expect when it does arrive:

The game will let players take control of Mono, a young boy trapped in a distorted world, who will be accompanied by Six, the protagonist from the first game, who will be computer-controlled. Players will have to bond and work with Six to solve puzzles, discover the world’s grimmest secrets and escape its monstrous inhabitants, such as the horrifying Hunter and the grotesque Teacher.

Take a look at the trailer above and tell us how you feel about this delay? Let us know in the comments.

Since its launch in November 2019, Microsoft HoloLens 2 has helped enterprises in manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and retail onboard employees more quickly, complete tasks faster, and greatly reduce errors and waste. It sets the high-water mark for intelligent edge devices by leveraging a multitude of sensors and a dedicated ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) to allow multiple real-time computer vision workloads to run continuously. In Research Mode, HoloLens 2 is also a potent computer vision research device. (Note: Research Mode is available today to Windows Insiders and soon in an upcoming release of Windows 10 for HoloLens .)

Compared to the previous edition, Research Mode for HoloLens 2 has the following main advantages:

• In addition to sensors exposed in HoloLens 1 Research Mode, we now also provide IMU sensor access (these include an accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer).
• HoloLens 2 provides new capabilities that can be used in conjunction with Research Mode. Specifically, articulated hand-tracking and eye-tracking which can be accessed through APIs while using research mode, allowing for a richer set of experiments.

With Research Mode, application code can not only access video and audio streams, but can also simultaneously leverage the results of built-in computer vision algorithms such as SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) to obtain the motion of the device as well as the spatial-mapping algorithms to obtain 3D meshes of the environment. These capabilities are made possible by several built-in image sensors that complement the color video camera normally accessible to applications.

HoloLens 2 has four grayscale head-tracking cameras and a depth camera to sense its environment and perform articulated hand tracking. It also has two additional infrared cameras and accompanying LEDs that are used for eye tracking and iris recognition. As shown in Figure 1, two of the grayscale cameras are configured as a stereo rig, capturing the area in front of the device so that the absolute depth of tracked visual features can be determined through triangulation. Meanwhile, the two additional grayscale cameras help provide a wider field of view to keep track of features. These synchronized global-shutter cameras are significantly more sensitive to light than the color camera and can be used to capture images at a rate of up to 30 frames per second (FPS).

The depth camera uses active infrared (IR) illumination to determine depth through phase-based time-of-flight. The camera can operate in two modes. The first mode enables high-framerate (45 FPS) near-depth sensing, commonly used for hand tracking, while the other mode is used for lower-framerate (1-5 FPS) far-depth sensing, currently used by spatial mapping. As hands only need to be supported up to 1 meter from the device, HoloLens 2 saves power by reducing the number of illuminations, which results in the depth wrapping around beyond one meter . For example, something at 1.3 meters will appear at 0.3 meters in HoloLens 2 in this case. In addition to depth, this camera also delivers actively illuminated IR images (in both modes) that can be valuable in their own right because they are illuminated from the HoloLens and reasonably unaffected by ambient light. Azure Kinect uses the same sensor package, but with slightly different depth modes.

With the newest Windows Insider release of Windows 10 for HoloLens, researchers now have the option to enable Research Mode on their HoloLens devices to gain access to all of these external facing raw image sensors streams. Research Mode for HoloLens 2 also provides researchers with access to the accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer readings. To protect users’ privacy, raw eye-tracking camera images are not available through Research Mode. Researchers can access eye-gaze direction through existing APIs.

For other sensor streams, researchers can also still use the results of the built-in computer vision algorithms and can now also choose to use the raw sensor data for their own algorithms.

The sensors’ streams can either be processed or stored on device or transferred wirelessly to another PC or to the cloud for more computationally demanding tasks. This opens a wide range of new computer vision applications for HoloLens 2. HoloLens 2 is particularly well suited as a platform for egocentric vision research as it can be used to analyze the world from the perspective of a user wearing the device. For these applications, HoloLens devices’ abilities to visualize results of the algorithms in the 3D world in front of the user can be a key advantage. HoloLens sensing capabilities can also be very valuable for robotics where these can, for example, enable a robot to navigate its environment.

These new HoloLens capabilities will be demonstrated at a tutorial on August 28th, 2020, at the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV). An initial set of sample apps is being made available showcasing computer vision use cases on GitHub, and you can check out the Research Mode documentation for further technical details.

This week at Bungie, we gave a chilling new look at Stasis.

It feels like just yesterday you were getting your first look at Stasis. Today during a virtual gamescom, we took a deeper look, introducing you to the Hunter Revenant, Titan Behemoth, and Warlock Shadebinder subclasses. There’s quite a bit to chew on. How do the new grenades work? What about melee attacks? What are those things that the Hunter just threw? This is just the start.

An Early Patch Note Preview

Solstice of Heroes: Ornament Glows

Shortly after Solstice went live, we became aware of a difference between how the universal armor glow bundle icon was depicted and how it visually performed in the game. After investigating the issue, we felt the difference between them was too vast. We have revisited the glow intensity of these ornaments and enhanced the in-game appearance to match the icon as closely as possible.

Sleeper Nodes

Due to the way that the Sleeper Nodes were created, we are unable to completely remove the possibility of receiving duplicate Override Frequencies, but we are making some improvements to greatly reduce the odds of receiving a duplicate. The following tips will help you avoid duplicates and acquire those final elusive nodes.

In different terms, the team has created a form of “bad luck protection” for Sleeper Nodes, but the tracking is starting fresh. Get hunting, and you’ll be unlocking a unique emblem before you know it.

Assorted Fixes and Changes

We have a few more general bug fixes slated for this update as well. Player Support will have a final preview of bugs to be resolved next week, followed by the full list of patch notes when the update goes live.

See you in two weeks!

Resolution

Over the last week, Destiny Player Support has been working with various teams at Bungie to resolve a few high priority issues. First up, dishing out some rightly earned Bright Dust to players who completed Solstice bounties. Second, a fix for one of our more notorious error codes. Read on for details!

Solstice Bounties

In Hotfix 2.9.1.3, we resolved an issue where weekly and repeatable Solstice of Heroes bounties did not grant Bright Dust rewards upon completion. We have since granted Bright Dust to the first wave of affected players, and will be sending out a second grant in the near future.

Error Code TAPIR

We have resolved an issue causing players to encounter error code TAPIR when they try to launch Destiny 1 while they have a Twitch account linked to their Bungie.net account.

Current Known Issues

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

Sound and String

It’s come to our attention that we issued a duplicate Honorable Mention last week for a showcase of Tex Mechanica weaponry. While you can hardly blame us for celebrating awesome content like that, we need to make up for it this week. We have a few extra winners to show. Top of the list, we’ve got some great musical talents on display. Hope you enjoy!

Movie of the Week: Journey – Violin Cover

Honorable Mention: Curse of Osiris Meets Metal

Honorable Mention: Fall Guardians

Honorable Mention: The complete opposite of the previous Honorable Mention

Honorable Mention: POP THE BUBBLES

If one of these videos belongs to you, congrats! Now make sure you have your Bungie.net profile in the description of said video so we can send out your prize emblem.

Summer is fading. The days are getting shorter and even a bit darker in our neck of the woods. An evening chill is beginning to creep into the air. It’s the perfect mood for Stasis subclasses to enter the realm of Destiny 2, and for our first steps on Europa in November. Just a few short months stand between you and Beyond Light.

Cheers,

-dmg04

This October sees the return of the Wii U title, Pikmin 3, in ‘Deluxe‘ form on the Nintendo Switch. To help build up the excitement for this release and teach players a bit more about this particular entry, Nintendo has uploaded a new video on its Japanese YouTube account featuring more than three minutes of gameplay footage and some lovely animations.

As previously revealed, this newer version of Pikmin 3 comes packed with all of the DLC from the original game and even includes some brand new side-story missions featuring Olimar and Louie. There are also plenty of pre-order deals on offer. Fancy a Pikmin 3 coffee cup or microfibre cloth with your copy of the game? Then check out our guide.

Will you be adding Pikmin 3 Deluxe to your Switch collection when it arrives this October? Tell us down below.

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Location: Austin, Texas

Windwalk Games is a YC-backed gaming startup founded by an ex-Rioter that is dedicated to building the next generation of huge, online, social games. We are building games that are fun to play and can support vibrant, dedicated communities of diehard fans. Our current focus is building THE genre defining game in the Social Deception genre. If you love games like Mafia, One Night Ultimate Werewolf then keep reading.

Our game, Enemy on Board, is an action packed take on social deception. Enemy on Board is currently in open alpha.

We are currently on the hunt for a lead artist. Someone who can work closely with our team and own the visual direction of Enemy on Board and our future games.  We are a small studio so we are looking for someone who is excited to wear multiple hats and just get stuff done. You will be helping build and manage a squad of contractors AND create kickass art as an IC. We are looking primarily for candidates based in Austin, Texas but are open to exceptional remote candidates.

Requirements

• Excited to join a small, dynamic, fast growing startup

• 4+ years as an Art Lead or Contributing Creative Director

• Has shipped 2+ games in the above roles. (Or similiar live service experience)

• Kickass IC skills in one or more of the following areas: UI Art/Design, Character Concepting, Environment Concepting, 3D Modelling, 3D Animation

• Ability to get the best out of contractors in the following disciplines: Animation, Character Art, Prop/Environment Art, UI Art, 2D Marketing and VFX

Responsibilities

• Drive the artistic vision and provide feedback and direction to implement that vision

• Direct the creation of art both internally and by third parties

• Evaluate, hire, and work with contractors across all art disciplines. Emphasis on Concepting, 3D Modelling, Animation, 2D Asset/UI

Things that make you a better fit

• Experience owning the creative direction on small teams

• Experience working at a startup or directly with entrepreneurship

• Experience working and managing remote art teams

• Experience with live service structure and deadlines

Please submit a cover letter, resume and link to your portfolio. Applications without these materials will be ignored.

Interested? Apply now.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

Looking for a new job? Get started here. Are you a recruiter looking for talent? Post jobs here.

The maw of Cthulhu, though vast and unknowing, must still bow before the might of a publishing dispute. French developer Frogwares announced today that it has requested that The Sinking City be removed from most game stores after a dispute over the game’s publishing deal with Nacon (formerly known as Bigben Interactive).

In a statement on its website, Frogwares claimed that Nacon took multiple steps to both deny payments to the developers and act as though it was the IP-owner for the game. Frogwares states that their original deal was for Nacon to publish the game on Xbox One, PS4, Steam, and the Epic Game Store, but after its launch in June of 2019, the company began allegedly reneging on promised payments and claiming that certain stores weren’t paying royalties.

During this time, copies of the game were allegedly sold without Frogwares’ logo on the front or back of the case, and the studio’s name was removed from marketing materials. Nacon (under its former name Bigben) apparently also published a tabletop RPG without Frogwares’ involvement that claimed it was the copyright holder of The Sinking City. 

On April 20th, after a year of back-and-forth on these issues, Frogwares says it moved to terminate its contract with Nacon. This opened up a new legal minefield, one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. After the pandemic began, France passed emergency laws meant to protect companies during the pandemic, and Bigben claimed that because of these laws, Frogwares could not terminate its contract.

Frogwares, for its part, says that a Force Majeure clause in the contract still allows them to initiate the termination. They also say that Nacon has refused to pay 1 million euros worth of royalties.

This finally led Frogwares to request the game be removed from the Steam, Epic, Xbox One, and PS4 game stores. The game is still available on platforms where Frogwares has published the game itself. These include Origin, Gamesplanet, and on Nintendo Switch.

This is an unusual reversal for Frogwares, which endured another publishing dispute with Focus Home Interactive in 2019. In that case, Focus Home had allegedly “wrongfully delisted” Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes games.

We’ve reached out to Nacon for more information, and will update this article when they respond.