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Sony Shares Details On The New PlayStation VR 2

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Finally, Sony has revealed the first details about the next-gen PlayStation VR 2. Although there were a few specifics announced including its release date and official name, Sony confirmed that everything remains under wraps.

The first PlayStation VR was released back in 2016, and, as of 2018, became the bestselling VR unit on the market. Fans of the technology have long waited for the tech giant to play catch up, however, considering how outdated the device now feels when compared to newer headsets from other hardware manufacturers.

In spite of the PlayStation VR’s apparently decreasing popularity, and the scarcity of new games that have launched of late, Sony made its promise to the technology certain while ago. This said promise has since been proven in the sheer number of patents that continue to make rounds, which tease at what the tech giant‘s R&D team might be planning on the virtual reality front.

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One of the latest patents suggests that the PlayStation VR 2 will incorporate audience participation that allows the viewers to augment in-game situations for headset users. Another from last summer noted Sony’s interest in considerably decreasing motion sickness.

A post from the PlayStation Blog by Hideaki Nishino, Sony’s Senior VP of Platform Planning and Management, reveals the company’s future plans for the next-generation PlayStation VR on the PlayStation 5.

The new PlayStation VR, which still lacks a name, aspires to improve field of view, input, resolution, and tracking. Sony is streamlining the setup attribute of the experience as well, by making sure that the device connects to the PlayStation 5 with only a single cord.

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According to Nishino, PS Move controllers are being changed with a new VR controller that integrates some of the DualSense controller’s important features. The new VR controller will further “focus on great ergonomics.”

Nishino also mentioned that the development of the new PlayStation VR is still in progress; thus, a 2021 release date is not in the cards. Speaking to GQ magazine, PlayStation President and CEO Jim Ryan announced that dev kits “are about to go out” to be released to developers.

Taking everything into consideration, it’s safe to say that the PlayStation VR’s general design has not been finalized by Sony just yet. Therefore, a first look at the new device might not be coming out for quite some time. When Sony plans to reveal more is anyone’s guess at this point as well, but the information recently shared appears remarkable enough.

Wraith No Longer Considered as Most Popular Apex Legends Character After Nerf

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It may have been expected, but it’s still unfortunate nonetheless. With the release of Apex Legends Season 8, Respawn Entertainment has greatly nerfed the once popular Wraith. In fact, this decision is the reason why the legend is no longer as popular as she once was. The game’s eighth season was launched early in the month, which saw the addition of the new character Fuse, new weapons like the 30-30 Repeater, and a lot more.

While a new season and everything it has to offer is a cause for celebration, this latest update also brought in sad news. Specifically, Respawn Entertainment has also implemented a bunch of nerfs to different parts of the game, from the weapons to legends themselves.

As such, we wouldn’t be surprised if the EVA-8 shotgun drops in popularity in the following months, since the developer removed its Double Tap Trigger hop-up. When it comes to the legends, the character Wraith also received a decrease in power level. Ever since 2019, Wraith was an incredibly popular Apex Legends character, and it was all thanks to her abilities which allowed her to rip open dimensional rifts.

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Not only that, Wraith also had a small hitbox and a Voices from the Void ability, which allowed her and her team members to know when an enemy is near. Given what an incredible fighter she is, it’s no surprise that non-Wraith users would want Respawn to change her.

Daniel Klein, Respawn Entertainment’s lead game designer, replied to a Reddit thread a few days ago. He said that after nerfing Wraith by increasing her hitbox size, her pick rates drastically changed. As a matter of fact, Wraith—who used to have the highest pick rate—is now at the fourth place in terms of popularity. Although Klein didn’t mention who took Wraith’s place in the first spot, he did say that she’s still more used and more popular than Caustic, who happens to be on the fifth spot.

Some time in mid-December of last year, Caustic has been steadily rising in popularity. In fact, the developer said that he’s “now arrived at super strong.” As such, Respawn Entertainment may nerf the legend “[to] see where that puts him.” This information doesn’t really come as a surprise, though. In a previous Reddit thread, Respawn Entertainment’s live balance designer John Larson also mentioned that the developer had plans to possibly nerf Caustic in a later update.

This information just goes to show that Caustic’s increasing pick rate makes sense now that other legends such as Wraith received significant changes in this newest season. Seeing as Respawn Entertainment may be making some changes to Caustic some time soon, fans are now wondering if Wraith will be receiving some kind of boost as well.

In any case, we’re quite curious to see how Apex Legends fans will react to the changes Respawn Entertainment has made to Season 8. While the nerfing of Wraith has been rumored about for a while now, we’re sure that many fans didn’t take this change lightly.

Female Call of Duty Mobile Competitive Player Murdered In Brazil

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A Call of Duty Mobile competitive player has been murdered. Based on reports, Ingrid “Sol” Oliviera Bueno da Silva has been killed by Guilherme Alves “Flashlight” Costa in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Sol was a female and was only nineteen years old.

Reported originally on Twitter by Rod Breslau, an eSports insider and consultant, that a recent investigation found that the killing was planned. The details of the killing of the young Call of Duty Mobile pro player are disturbing.

Based on the report, Costa and the victim met online. Costa confessed to planning the crime weeks ahead of time, but he surrendered and admitted to the authorities 30 minutes after the horrifying act that Costa stabbed Sol to death.

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According to the investigation performed by the NBI, Costa claims that he is perfectly sane and that he really wanted to do the crime. Costa not only performed the heinous crime, but he also video recorded and took images to share it with his friends.

This story has stretched far beyond the video gaming world. ESPN has an eSports department as well, as it has performed some comprehensive reporting on the issue and has been able to verify the FBI investigation, for instance.

According to Breslau, Costa had more attacks planned. Costa had sent an email out with the title “A Commendable Act,” and in it, he pledged more chaos and contained the video of him murdering Sol.

It is worth mentioning that there have been studies on video game violence, and most discover that there is no relation between violence in games and reality. Gruesome and unreasonable killings such as of Guilherme Alves Costa are beyond the realm of gaming.

The most critical thing to take note of in any of this is that Sol is the victim. Her life is gone and at a really young age, with much of her life in front of her. While playing Call of Duty Mobile competitively appeared to be part of her journey, at just 19 years old, she had so many opportunities. What’s more, her family and friends will not be able to witness her become the woman that she had the potential to be.

A spokesperson for  VPEsports described Sol as an extraordinary lady who will not soon be forgotten. At times of loss, it is not easy to find peace. In Portuguese, Sol means Sun, and the spokesperson suggested looking at the rising sun every morning in remembrance of Ingrid “Sol” Oliviera Bueno da Silva.

Riot Games Currently Hiring for Upcoming League of Legends MMORPG

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Aspiring developers will be thrilled to know that Riot Games is currently hiring for its new MMORPG. Back in December 2020, Greg Street—former World of Warcraft lead designer and the studio’s current VP of IP and entertainment—announced that he is developing a massively multiplayer online game set in League of Legends’ Runeterra.

This particular announcement was made through a tweet which explained what his work in the franchise currently is. While this is wonderful news for League of Legends fans worldwide, it’s not altogether that surprising that Riot Games is working on an MMO. After all, the studio previously revealed that it’s making an effort to step outside of its comfort zone, refusing for its popular franchise to remain boxed inside the MOBA genre forever.

And it makes sense too—League of Legends is a big franchise with various characters, and its universe is interesting enough for the franchise to branch out and try new things. This could further expand on the game’s lore and world as well.

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The studio has already started on this mission too, what with the release of the virtual card game Legends of Runeterra, an upcoming animated series Arcane, and an upcoming turn-based RPG Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, among other forms of media.

According to Riot Games’ official website, the studio is currently looking to hire roles to help with the development of the upcoming MMO, namely gameplay engineering, game design, UX design, game art (all sub-disciplines), and game production. While Street’s tweet last year wasn’t super clear, these job postings officially confirm what fans were hoping for.

Riot games states on its website that “we’re working on an MMORPG based in the League universe! We know MMOs take a lot of people to create, and we’ll need a pretty big raid team if we want to bring Runeterra to life.”

Over the last how many years, Riot Games has slowly been building up the League of Legends universe and adding more characters. At the moment, there are now over 150 champions in the game for players to pick and choose from. In the past, the developer usually only posts cinematics for League of Legends, but over the years, fans have been wanting more.

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Eventually, Riot Games introduced Riot Forge to the public, which is a publishing label that’s focused on releasing League of Legends games. Thanks to this, third-party developers have been making an effort to help Riot Games create new and interesting stories from Runeterra and the general universe of League of Legends.

Compared to the original way League of Legends conveyed its stories, it’s definitely a major difference. Riot Games has definitely evolved past the iconic Journal of Justice newspaper comic series. Speaking of comics, the studio is actually collaborating with Marvel, and is also in the process of creating music videos in partnership with popular artists in an effort to showcase the different areas of Runeterra.

Along with League of Legends, Riot Games’ first-person shooter Valorant has also been at the top of the video game charts since its initial launch last year. It just goes to show that the studio is definitely on the right track.

Pokemon Go Season 7 Battle League Shinies and Rewards Announced

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Niantic, the developer of the hit AR-game Pokemon Go, has revealed some information about its upcoming Season 7 Battle League. Pokemon Go recently ended the Season 6 Battle League’s Ultra League Premiere Cup, where players were restricted to only using Pokemon with 2500 CP or lower. And as a further restriction particularly for the Premiere Cup, Legendary and Mythical Pokemon were also banned from the contest.

The Pokemon Go Battle League was released at the start of last year to give players a new way to competitively enjoy the game. And while the developer has made changes to the Battle League every season as it attempts to find the best balance for its competitive game mode, the currently running Season 6  witnessed some of the biggest improvements thus far.

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Some of these improvements include more than doubling the game mode’s ranks from 10 to 24, renaming the top ranks of the league, and giving new rewards for every rank. The current season also added a few unique events throughout its runs such as the abovementioned Premiere Cup, Love Cup, and the Kanto Cup.

Niantic announced some information for Battle League Season 7 in a new blog post. When Pokemon Go Battle League Season 7 starts on March 1, 2021, trainers will be able to claim their Season 6 rewards, such as an Elite Fast TM for those who attained rank 19 or higher.

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While trainer ranks will be reset and the rank structure will be retained for Season 7, the development team revealed a few adjustments to the game for the new season. Trainers will now be able to encounter and capture specific Pokemon such as shinies, depending on their rank. And capturing specific Pokemon including Pupitar, Flaaffy, and Poliwhirl, during Battle League reward encounters will also reward more Candy XL.

Several of the rewards for Season 7 were also revealed, such as the Pikachu Libre avatar items for those who reach rank 10. Players that are able to attain rank 19 will obtain an Elite Charge TM and an Elite Fast TM at the end of the season. Lastly, players who are able to reach rank 24 will be rewarded with avatar items and a pose inspired by Elsa, the gym leader of Nimbasa from Pokemon Black and White.

PlayStation State of Play Announced Coming This Week

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Rounding out a huge day of news for PlayStation is an update from Sony about the next State of Play showcase, which will be live this Thursday, February 25. The event will exclusively feature deep dives about upcoming games as well as new game announcements.

The State of Play format has been utilized since 2019, efficiently serving as Sony’s Nintendo Direct equivalent. A Destruction AllStars-focused stream essentially counts as the most recent State of Play, having released in the lead up to the online game’s launch on the PlayStation Plus.

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Provided all of the PlayStation buzzes that made the rounds throughout the day, the announcement of a new State of Play showcase seems rather fitting. After a few months of patent-related rumors and speculations, Sony started the day with the first details about its next-gen PlayStation VR device. Shortly thereafter, the tech giant shared the delay of Gran Turismo 7 to an unspecific date in 2022, news that’s sort of taken a backseat to Days Gone’s imminent arrival on the PC.

A recent PlayStation Blog post hints at plans for the next State of Play showcase, which will be aired this Thursday, February 25 at 2 PM PST. The 30-minute stream will feature updates and deep dives on 10 upcoming PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games.

According to the blog post, such details will comprise of new game announcements, in addition to new details on third-party titles and indie projects featured during the PlayStation reveal showcase last June 2020.

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What the audience should not expect are updates about the PlayStation hardware and the business side of the company. This upcoming State of Play, which Sony plans to host on its official YouTube and Twitch channels, will exclusively focus on “great games set to come out in the months ahead.”

What new game announcements PlayStation may have in store is anyone’s guess, but it appears a chunk of this week’s broadcast will revolve around revealing updated details on known titles. Considering its late April due date, Returnal, A PlayStation 5 exclusive being developed by Housemarque, might get a deep dive footage. More details regarding Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, Kena Bridge of Spirits, and Deathloop can be expected as well.

Since Horizon Forbidden West won’t be releasing until later this year, the much-anticipated sequel probably sits out during this round. And though PlayStation fans are crazy to receive even a bit of news about God of War Ragnarok, that endeavor might also sit on the sidelines during this week’s upcoming State of Play.

Sakurai Shares New Super Smash Bros. Ultimate In-Game Screenshots of Pyra and Mythra

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Fans of Nintendo—or gamers who are simply active in the gaming community—most likely know who Masahiro Sakurai is. As the creator of the highly popular crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he’s perhaps one of the most active developers on social media.

He’s known to post a variety of updates on his social media platforms, and many often keep tabs on his posts just to get a glimpse of what he’s currently working on, or to simply read up on any possible updates. Last week, the next DLC fighters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate were revealed, namely Pyra and Mythra.

This time around, it appears that Sakurai has shared a couple of new in-game screenshots featuring the new additions. Fans of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 most likely know who Pyra and Mythra are and what their roles are in this Nintendo Switch RPG game. However, here’s a little bit of background information for those who may not know:

Without revealing too much, Pyra and Mythra have deep connections to Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s legendary blades. As such, this is why both characters utilize swords in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

On Sakurai’s Twitter account, he recently posted new screenshots from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, giving fans an idea of what Pyra and Mythra—or the 3D renders of them—would look like in the game. Some of the screenshots depict familiar scenes that took place in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, while the other screenshots simply put a spotlight on each character along with different poses.

It’s clear to see that Sakurai really went to town with these action shots. In fact, the developer even posted a screenshot of Pyra battling against Shulk, the main hero of the first Xenoblade Chronicles games, who also uses a sword in combat.

We’re definitely curious to see how the characters’ move sets will affect one another, seeing as they’re from the same game or franchise. We also want to know if the characters’ moves will benefit them even more if they’re on the same side.

There’s also another screenshot of Mythra posing with Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s main character, Rex. Despite his important role in the Xenoblade series, it was an interesting decision of Nintendo’s not to add him as a main fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Although, now fans are wondering if the developer will add him as a unit in the Spirit Board instead.

Without a doubt, Nintendo adding Pyra and Mythra as DLC fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has fans excited for what or who is coming next. Only more or less 2 months have passed since Nintendo revealed that Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7 was joining the fighting game’s roster of playable characters, and there are still so many franchises out there that could be taking the coveted spot in the roster.

At this rate, fans can definitely expect more content to be announced as months pass by. While there have been leaks in the past, there’s no guarantee that it’s accurate enough to predict who the next DLC fighter will be. As such, it’s best to cross our fingers and wait for the next reveal.

Fall Guys Teases Futuristic Season 4 Theme

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Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is currently one of the most popular video games in the industry right now. Released only last year, Mediatonic’s platformer battle royale is already gearing to launch its fourth season next month. Through the official Fall Guys Twitter account, the developer has been teasing a big reveal recently. And now, the cat’s out of the bag.

Fall Guys has officially confirmed what the theme of Season 4 is going to be, and it appears that it’s going to be a futuristic one, as the upcoming season has been dubbed “Fall Guys 4041.” Along with the announcement, the Twitter account also shared a short teaser trailer to mark the occasion.

However, it doesn’t really reveal that much information about what fans can expect. What it does showcase, though, are bright and vibrant neon colors, spaceships, planets, and even robots. These really cement the futuristic vibe that Mediatonic was most likely aiming for.

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Fall Guys Season 3 launched back in December 2020, which had a theme that aptly revolved around Christmas and the snowy holiday season. It had a winter theme all throughout, including its stages, skins, and obstacles. The highly popular game even released a Santa Claus skin during that time, which made the adorable Fall Guys beans wear a cloud-like beard and a lot of red.

Following that, Mediatonic released Season 3.5, which is basically a mini-season with important updates like quality of life improvements that made already-existing levels even better than before. Other than that, the update also introduced brand-new crossover skins, like The Doom Slayer from the classic Doom.

Fall Guys and its developers have always been known for their silly sense of humor. As such, this Season 3.5 is called “Stop With The Yeets Name It Anything Else Just Don’t Include the Word Yeet Please I’m Begging You,” which was a suggestion from an aggrieved fan.

With Season 4’s release being just around the corner, Mediatonic is once again hosting a contest for fans. Interested participants simply have to retweet the announcement made by the developer and finish this sentence: #FallGuysSeason4 is…

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There will be 20 winners overall, all of whom will receive 20 crown each. This is an impressive sum already. Crowns are the currency used in Fall Guys, and fans can use them to purchase cosmetic items like the recently announced Cuphead skins. Most of the time, Fall Guys players have to really grind in-game to accumulate a lot of Crowns, so the lucky winners will have a blast with their reward.

After only a few minutes, there are already hundreds of entries for the competition. We’re definitely interested to see which entry caught the eyes of Mediatonic. As for Fall Guys Season 4, the developer has yet to reveal what fans can expect from it. Some fans speculate that the new Season will probably bring in space-themed skins, like an E.T. skin maybe or perhaps a skin of Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian.

Recently, Mediatonic shared concept art of Daft Punk skins following the sad announcement that the musical duo has disbanded. Given Daft Punk’s techno aesthetic, this might be a good fit for Season 4’s theme as well.

Horizon Forbidden West Will Still Release This Year

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Since last year, video game development studios have been greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Employees had no choice but to work from home, which has significantly hindered in the development of games. Even big companies like Sony have been affected, with the company seeing a decrease in terms of productivity.

This can even be exemplified in the way the PlayStation 5 gets quickly sold out, as stock is low and demand is incredibly high. Sony has been having a difficult time creating a sufficient amount of consoles in order to keep up with the demand partly because of the limited working conditions it is currently in.

Because of this, gamers have begun to wonder what this means for PlayStation 5 games that are still in development but are scheduled to release this year. Fortunately, GQ Magazine recently had an interview with PlayStation Boss Jim Ryan concerning these highly anticipated titles, and he says that things are looking good for Horizon: Forbidden West, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and Returnal in terms of their release dates.

Although, Ryan didn’t specifically mention what made him so confident about the schedule. However, he did mention that if ever developers need even more time to work on a game, Sony would be more than willing to grant them more time. This can be seen in the way Returnal’s launch date was delayed.

Ryan even went so far as to fire shots at Cyberpunk 2077 and CD Projekt RED when explaining why Sony is okay with games getting pushed back. He said that “you can either hold the date and put out the game irrespective of quality or you can ship it when it’s right.” Sony decided to go for the latter.

Overall, what we’ve gleaned from the interview is that Sony is comfortable with where Horizon: Forbidden West and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart are in their development, so this is definitely good news to hear. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart announced its release date earlier in the month, so it would be disappointing and unfortunate if it suddenly got pushed back.

Although it’s highly likely that Sony already took delays into consideration before announcing Rachet and Clank’s release date, seeing how recent the announcement was. As for Horizon: Forbidden West, though, the game is scheduled to launch some time in the later half of 2021. If Sony decides to delay it, the game could be pushed back all the way to 2022.

From what we know, developer Guerrilla Games has begun to focus on the development of Horizon: Forbidden West instead of the PC port of Zero Dawn, so fans might get a release date soon—that is if the game won’t be delayed. There’s not a lot of information about Horizon: Forbidden West at the moment, so excited fans have been thriving off of speculation and rumors.

Other than an estimated release date, it would be great if either Guerilla Games or Sony shares a little more details about the upcoming game, and how it stands out from the other entries in the franchise.

Apex Legends Anniversary Event Extended Because of Login Issues

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Respawn Entertainment’s hit battle royale Apex Legends celebrates its second anniversary this month, and festivities started with the Apex Legends Anniversary Collection Event last February 9. Players have been able to obtain time-limited cosmetics including 12 Legendary skins, and the event was set to end today, February 23. However, the development team announced a few hours ago that the event will now run until March 2, 2021.

A post on the official Twitter account of Apex Legends states, “We heard some of you need more time to collect your Anniversary rewards,” so the development team is keeping the festivities going for another week.

However, Twitter account Apex Legends News; the battle royale-focused branch of news site Dexerto; implies this event extension might be more directly linked to login problems currently being investigated.

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A few hours ago, Respawn Entertainment’s official Twitter account shared that it rolled out an update for Apex Legends fixing stability problems and the emergence of “grey, untextured hand models” on various consoles.

However, the post says the developers are still investigating problems that are stopping some players from logging in. Given reports of the game suffering connection issues and server lag since the beginning of Season 8, this isn’t really surprising.

Login and connectivity problems are not the only issues that have haunted Apex legends in the past few weeks. Another update was released last February 10 to address an issue with the Anniversary Collection Event’s heirloom pack resetting. Players who were afflicted by the glitch were given Apex Packs as compensation the following week.

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There are other rampant issues in the battle royale not directly related to the second-anniversary celebrations, too. Another massively reported bug has been preventing players from looting death boxes from dead enemies, meaning players cannot obtain items as a reward for their efforts. Game balance is also a long-running issue for the development team, as lead game designer Daniel Klein recently talked about the challenges of balancing the Legend Caustic.

In spite of these existing issues, a lot of players will certainly be excited to get another week’s worth of time to possibly unlock more Anniversary Collection Event cosmetics. Such an event literally comes once a year, after all, and the diversity of skins for weapons and characters provide a nice way to show one’s loyalty to Respawn Entertainment’s battle royale.

However, Apex Legends will be launching on the Nintendo Switch after this event ends even with this extension, so anyone wanting to play the game on the hybrid console will have to wait another year to get any anniversary item.

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