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Pre-registration opens for Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent closed beta
Testing begins on March 22nd
Octopath Traveler is a popular Square Enix RPG that made waves on the Nintendo Switch back in 2018, later ported to Stadia, PC, and Xbox One in the following years. It's a game that pulls on the old nostalgia strings thanks to its scrumptious HD-2D art that mimics the look of Square's '90s RPGs, all while still offering modern 3D graphics. Seeing that Octopath Traveler was a success across multiple platforms, Square decided to capitalize on the brand's polarity with a mobile game. This mobile game has been exclusive to Japan since its release in 2020, known as Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. Well, during a recent streaming event in Japan, Square has announced that Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent is coming to the US and Europe this summer, with a beta planned for spring.
The Official Pokémon YouTube channel has announced a new Pokémon game for Android, iOS, and the Nintendo Switch. It's called Pokémon Unite, and it's a MOBA. As you would expect, you'll be tasked with collecting Pokémon as part of the MOBA's team-based online-multiplayer battle arena gameplay. Unsurprisingly, Pokémon Unite is being developed in partnership with Tencent, so I fully expect the game to land as a blatant cash grab, just like Pokémon Café Mix. Clearly, The Pokemon Company is intent on running this franchise through the mud, just so long as it can make a quick buck with lazy clones on mobile. As expected, there is no release date, no talk of target regions, and of course, nobody's mentioned anything about monetization.
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Last week we learned that Microsoft would be releasing an augmented reality game based on the Minecraft franchise, and today it has been revealed that Minecraft Earth is the name of that title, and that it will be coming to Android as a closed beta sometime this summer. Supposedly it will take everything you know and love from the Bedrock Edition to then repackage it as an AR game. What this means is that you'll be able to play what is essentially the full game in the real world through the lens of you phone's screen, which actually sounds pretty cool.