Latest news with #AnnapurnaInteractive
The Verge
3 days ago
- Business
- The Verge
Host Geoff Keighley shared a list of
Summer Game Fest might have a lot of games. more than 60 'partners' that will be part of Summer Game Fest, including Annapurna Interactive, CD Projekt Red, Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox. And the list is apparently just 'Round 1.'
The Verge
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Don't expect to hear about the Outer Wilds team's next game for ‘years'
Outer Wilds developer Mobius Digital is working on a new game, but it might be a very long time before we hear anything about it, the studio's head of production tells The Verge. 'It's going to be quite awhile before we have any news or hints about our next game,' says Jackie Kreitzberg. 'Likely on the order of years.' The studio also doesn't plan to share 'public development logs' in order to 'preserve the mystery of the next game.' In 2021, Mobius released the Echoes of the Eye expansion for Outer Wilds, which Kreitzberg says is the game's last. 'We're excited to make something new.' I reached out to Mobius after seeing Outer Wilds patch notes spotted by Rock Paper Shotgun that said the team is 'hard at work on our next game.' But while that was the first I had heard of a new game, Kreitzberg notes that the studio confirmed it was in the works after last year's resignations at Annapurna Interactive. Even if Mobius doesn't want to talk about the new game, it appreciates the recent attention. 'We're thrilled that folks are excited to see what we make next and hope we don't leave everyone hanging forever,' Kreitzberg says.
WIRED
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- WIRED
‘Katamari Damacy' Creator's New Game Is About Teen Angst, Cute Dogs, and Eye Boogers
Mar 28, 2025 7:00 AM Keita Takahashi talks about his latest game, To a T , which lets you navigate teenage hardships while your hands are stuck in a T-pose. Still from to a T. Courtesy of XBOX As a child, beloved Japanese game developer Keita Takahashi was picked on in school, so he never felt like going. His latest game, To a T , emulates some of those challenges. It tells the story of Teen—a kid struggling to fit in, dealing with eye boogers, and finding themselves through song and exploration, all while their arms are inexplicably stuck in a T-pose. To a T, to be released by Annapurna Interactive May 28, follows Takahashi's trajectory of creating colorful, playful games that are undeniably cute but incredibly odd. His best-known game, Katamari Damacy , is about rolling up everything in sight, from pens to people, in an ever-growing ball, featuring an unforgettable soundtrack and the most flamboyant king to ever grace games. Others, like 2019's Wattam , are eccentric, vibrant, and full of poop. Created with the game studio Uvula, To a T follows Teen's struggles navigating the bathroom, getting dressed, and dealing with bullies as their arms are trapped in a T. Fortunately Teen's dog, a shockingly adept creature who puts modern service dogs to shame, is there to help whenever Teen needs an extra set of movable hands. (Annapurna Interactive aptly describes Teen's furry helper as being 'a very cute dog.') The episodic tale opens with an upbeat song about the game (not to be confused with 'The Giraffe Song,' sung in a teaser video by Rebecca Sugar). During a brief demo I played, I guided Teen through washing their face, picking outfits, and getting ready for school. Hoping for some deeper insights into the game, I tracked down Takahashi at an Xbox event in San Francisco during GDC, where he was hiding in a back corner away from the bustle of the day and the bar. But, while he's loath to answer too many questions about his game and what it all means, he'll still gamely, gently troll anyone who comes his way. Below is an abbreviated version of a very puzzling interview. WIRED: Tell me a little bit about what is, generally, going on in this game. Keita Takahashi: [ Laughs ] What's generally going on with this game? We'll start there. It's a game about a teenager who's stuck as a T-pose and trying to figure out where the T-pose is coming from. It's a game about—umm. [ Long pause ] Do I need to explain? [ Another long pause ] No. [ Laughs ] That's fair. Who is this character? How would you describe them? A teenager, 13-years-old, female or male, whatever I mean, I don't care—stuck in a T-pose, for some reason. What makes T the perfect pose? Because it's perfect! You are perfect. I think it's just perfect. What do you think the hardest thing to do when you're T-posed is? Go to the bathroom. That's why the dog helps [with] everything. Changing the clothing, bathroom, washing your face. I've never played a game that had me start by going to the bathroom. Really? Yeah. Why? WIRED: It's an excellent question. Tell me about the decision to— Decision? [ Laughs ] Yeah, decisions, yes. I decided. Because our life could be more fun. What do you think would make life more fun? The path that you had before, then forgot—when you were younger, and there was more fun. People, for some reason—it's easy to forget. What do you think people lose from kids to adulthood? What do you think? How much time you got? What do you think? Hmm. I don't know why it's easy for other people to forget more innocent or pure [times.] I don't know why! Did making this game help you rediscover innocence for yourself? I'm not a teacher. [ Laughs ] I don't want to push my soul to the people. I just want people to get some perspective on what a video game can do, rather than fighting or RPG stuff. This is for the next generation of game devs. They don't need to stick to a platformer or something. They can make a new genre or category of game. What genre would you call To a T ? No. [ Laughs ] I hate the concept of a genre. It's just a marketing tool. You know, what Beyoncé said. ['I believe genres are traps that box us in and separate us,' Beyoncé said in a GQ interview.] The concept of the genre is kind of funny. That's right! It's hard to define your games, but I'm curious how you, when forced into a corner by a red-headed journalist from WIRED, define your video games. That's part of the reason why I'm making this game. What's the definition of a video game? It's—no wait, no, this is an interview of you. [ Laughs ] What do you think is a video game? At least interactivity. That's it. I just realized, what I want to do is make people smile and have fun. It doesn't need to be interactivity, or it doesn't need to be video game video games. I can make a cartoon or animation to make people have fun and laugh. This time, I just don't care about the genre or what the video game is. This is just what I want to make. I had another question but … I forgot. That's OK. Just forget.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
There's A Lot Of Cool Dinosaur Games To Be Excited About
A decade ago, in a poorly written post on my terrible old blog that I won't link to here, I pondered why we didn't have more dinosaur games. At the time I blamed it on technical limitations and a focus on zombie-filled wastelands, and the lack of good dinosaur games made me really sad. So I'm happy to report that in 2025 we have a bunch of new dinosaur games to get excited about, and not all of them are Jurassic Park-related. Just yesterday, during the Spring Future Games Show, another new dinosaur game was announced: Deathground, a co-op survival horror game featuring dangerous dinos. And it's just one of many upcoming games that look to be trying to fill the creepy, Dino Crisis-shaped void that currently exists because Capcom won't remake or develop a new entry in the franchise. So let's take a look at some of the potentially awesome dinosaur games coming to a video game console or PC near you. (Oh and spoilers, but none of the games listed in here have release dates, so who knows how long we'll have to wait to play them.) Announced back in 2023, Jurassic Park: Survival is an upcoming first-person survival horror game being developed by Saber Interactive. Since its announcement we've not heard or seen much else about the project, but we know it's still in the works. Let's hope this game is better than Trespasser. Set to be published by Annapurna Interactive, The Lost Wild is also a first-person survival horror game set on a jungle-covered island filled with hungry dinosaurs and abandoned science facilities. The trailers we've seen for this upcoming dino game look amazing, and if it plays as well as it looks we might be in for a terrifying treat. Stop me if you've heard this before. Compound Fracture is a spooky first-person game featuring dinosaurs and dilapidated facilities where questionable science took place. However, unlike the other games on this list, Compound Fracture is designed to look and play more like a 1990s game, complete with some lovely looking low res textures. I'm very excited to see more of this indie game in the future. This is the most recently announced game on our list and while it has some similarities to the other dinosaur games we've looked at, including its FPS perspective and focus on horror, Deathground will support online co-op. Also, the dinosaurs in this upcoming survival horror multiplayer game have feathers. I'll let you decide how you feel about that. While many of the games on this list are directly inspired by Jurassic Park and its lush tropical jungles, Paleophage is clearly riffing on recent Resident Evil remakes with its more urban setting and third-person camera. That sounds great to me! If this game is half as good as the recent RE4 remake and also has dinosaurs in it, I'll be perfectly satisfied. Not every upcoming dinosaur game is a survival horror adventure. Take Turok Origins, which was announced in December 2024 and looks to be a co-op third-person shooter set in the strange prehistoric alien universe of Turok. It's being developed by the company behind Space Marine 2. Published by TinyBuild, Ferocious is described by its devs as an old-school, action-packed FPS set on a tropical island inhabited by dangerous mercs and even more dangerous dinos. Simple premise, but the game basically looks like Far Cry + dinosaurs and that's a formula that has me excited to play. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wanderstop review: why I found Ivy Road's de-stressing tea-making game surprisingly intricate
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Wanderstop details Publisher Annapurna Interactive Developer Ivy Road Release date 11 March 2025 Format PC (reviewed), PS5 Platform Unreal Engine What do you do when you've met with personal failure? Do you mope in despair, try to talk about it with someone, dust yourself off and put all your energy into getting back on the saddle? Or maybe before any of that, you just put the kettle on first. That is to some extent what Wanderstop is built around. Centred on celebrated arena fighter Alta who one day loses her undefeated streak, her quest to find a mysterious master who can train her back to her best leads her to waking up in a forest clearing, the site of a tea shop run by a gentle giant named Boro. Unable to leave this clearing without quickly collapsing from exhaustion again, and lacking the strength to even pick up her own sword, her goal instead is to rest. But knowing that to do nothing would have you feeling excruciatingly restless, she decides to grudgingly help run the titular tea shop, trying to make the most of it. Wanderstop is a cosy game where the protagonist doesn't want to be there, the kind of narrative twist you would expect from the creator of The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide. But in between its story beats, it's also arguably quite conventional as it commits to the bit of being a cosy game. (For more background, read my interview with the Wanderstop dev.) Wanderstop will feel familiar to other cosy management sim games that have grown in popularity in recent years. Running the tea shop involves taking requests from the quirky customers who randomly also find their way into this clearing. But the actual tea-making process is quite deliberate in its many intricate steps. You have to collect enough tea leaves with a basket then wait for them to dry, while you'll also learn to plant multicoloured seeds in different patterns that result in hybrid plants that grow different fruits that can be used to flavour the tea. Once you have the ingredients, you have to operate the large tea machine in the centre of the shop itself, which you can conveniently navigate with a ladder that swivels around it. That involves heating the water just right by manually stoking the fire with bellows, before tossing in your ingredients, and then pouring the results into a clean cup. A lot of busywork just to make a brew, and yet it's all the care that goes into these small interactions that makes the process feel rewarding in its own way, especially as you watch different ingredients change the colour of the tea. You'll even realise that there's a right timing to ensure you pour just the right amount without any of it spilling over. It's not all just about tea-making, as you also have tools to keep the clearing tidy, from trimming weeds to cleaning dirt piles with a broom. Over time, you may also notice other elements, such as the strange mushrooms you can pluck and use to modify your plants or pulpy action novellas that come through the mailbox you can happily leaf through. You might even want to decorate the shop by taking pictures with a camera and framing them, or fill the pots with plants. But they're all simply suggestions rather than objectives you have to tick off, though will undoubtedly play into the psychology of trophy hunters. Perhaps due its cosy trappings of taking your time, Wanderstop's story is also a slow brew that requires patience to develop, especially when compared with writer and director Davey Wreden's previous games, which had much shorter playtimes and therefore never outstayed their welcome. Without going into spoilers, as you fulfil your customers' requests, something strange happens that means all your hard work will routinely reset as a new cycle begins, also changing the clearing's colour palettes as well as the customers you encounter. In between these cycles, narration and illustrations also piece out the internal conflict Alta is experiencing. Wreden had already spoken explicitly about how the game has a personal story based on his own feelings of burnout that comes from obsession and perfectionism, and knowing that, those parallels with Alta's struggles are pretty direct. But I also found myself relating to her impatience, questioning why I'm making all these teas for people, some of whom you borderline have to force into making a request for tea, when it's also impermanent and inconsequential before the story moves onto its next beat. Perhaps I'm just in denial of my own sense of encroaching burnout, with the need to always be on, searching for the next game to cover, the next work assignment, the next pay cheque. In other words, Wanderstop is a game I needed to play to get myself to slow down, but it's also better to describe it as meditative medicine rather than a must-play you can't put down. While it may drip-feed its story for longer than necessary and doesn't really go out of its way to subvert the cosy game, those who are looking for a way to relax will find comfort in the intricate and charming processes of making tea to pass the time. What do you think of Wanderstop and it's art direction? Let us know in the comments below.
