Category: News

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PlayStation Classic support added to the Brook Universal Fighting Board

Brook’s Universal Fighting Board is arguably the most versatile custom PCB controller for arcade sticks, with support for a wide range of consoles. Now, another “console” joins the list of hardware that the UFB works with: the PlayStation Classic.

Firmware version 2.6 for the Universal Fighting Board was released on Christmas Day. This new firmware allows players to have the UFB work with Sony’s mini-console by simply holding down the square and triangle buttons when plugging it in.

This update means that players can now use arcade sticks for the fighting games included in the PlayStation Classic, such as Tekken 3. Of course, there’s still the PAL vs. NTSC issue –however a solution for that has already been found.

Interested players can download the new firmware here.

Source: Brook

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The patch notes for The King of Fighter XIV’s Christmas update are now available

There’s a new patch out for The King of Fighters XIV for PlayStation 4 and PC. This latest patch is meant to adjust the balance of the game, focusing on character-specific tweaks. For those interested in how their characters have changed in the new patch, SNK has now released the patch notes for the update.

As is usual with patch notes for The King of Fighters XIV, this one is pretty huge at 25 pages long, too long to fit in this post, or any web page really: SNK has put it all in a downloadable PDF file. This is despite there being barely any system changes, save for the adjustment of the reversal window on  knockdown.

Regarding the character changes, in addition to the tweaks to their moves, character life values have also been adjusted. As for the characters themselves, it seems that aside from the expected nerfs, a number of characters have also received substantial buffs. It looks like SNK really wants to shake up the game’s meta with this update. You can check and download out the complete patch notes here.

Source: SNK

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Omni Arcade Stick White Gold now available from etokki

For those with a bit of holiday cash in hand who’re thinking of buying a new arcade stick, here’s something that might pique your interest. Korean arcade shop etokki has just released a new variant of their vaunted Omni Arcade Stick.

Called the Omni Arcade Stick White Gold, this new arcade stick features the same steel casing and universal joystick lever mount as the regular Omni. The White Gold version however has been powder-coated white and fitted with gold Sanwa Denshi parts.

Powering the Omni Arcade Stick White Gold is a Brook Universal Fighting Board, allowing for compatibility with the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch, Wii U, NEO GEO Mini, and PC.

For those interested, the Omni Arcade Stick White Gold is now available for purchase exclusively at etokki’s online store for $349.95.

Source: etokki

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Maximilian speaks out on Dragon Ball FighterZ’s alleged copyright issues and tournament woes

Popular fighting game streamer and content creator Maximilian has addressed the issues surrounding Dragon Ball FighterZ’s current licensing debacle, hoping for a brighter future in light of Toei’s probable restrictions.

Max uploaded a video to YouTube on December 22 speaking out on the matter, noting that the game has been pulled from major tournaments such as DreamHack Atlanta and Anime Ascension, and is not making an appearance at the next Evo Japan. Max went on to speculate that developers ArcSys and publishers Bandai Namco were unlikely to have anything to do with the restrictions, citing Toei’s noted history of being “difficult to work with” as a likely culprit.

Despite the community’s concern during what Max called the “worst case scenario” for competitive players, he hopes for an eventual change of pace, calling back to Nintendo’s cease and desist order toward the Evolution Championship Series in 2013 in regards to Melee.

“It worked itself out, and I can only hope that’s what happens now because I feel bad for Bandai Namco,” Max said of the matter. “They’ve put a lot of time into making Dragon Ball a big, competitive thing.”

Max likewise hopes for a change to the game’s overall composition for the upcoming announcement at Jump Festa 2019, calling for a big tweak to its superdash mechanic among predictions for new characters.

Dragon Ball FighterZ has been at the center of controversy since its cancellation from DreamHack Atlanta in November of 2018. Since then, the game has been pulled from SoCal’s Anime Ascension tournament due to what organizers referred to as “unforeseen circumstances,” leaving players to cancel their flights and refund their registration fees.

With the game not making an appearance at the upcoming Evo Japan despite being a massively popular fighting game title, the FGC is at odds with Toei’s alleged licensing restrictions, calling for big changes to the company’s current agenda; although the reasons for why the game is being pulled from these esports events — and if it is indeed Toei responsible — are still unconfirmed.

Source: Maximilian Dood

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Tekken 7 shortlisted as part of next year’s Southeast Asian Games

Next year’s Southeast Asian games will be the first to host competitive video games. As part of this, Tekken 7 has been shortlisted as one of the games involved.

The announcement was made by the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc), alongside their official partner Razer. Tekken 7 is one of 5 games that have been shortlisted for the event. It’s also the only console game named so far — though a second game is currently under evaluation.

The 2019 SEA Games will be the first time that esports will be medal events. Prior to this, esports were a demonstration event at the 2018 Asian Games.

The other shortlisted games are StarCraft II and DOTA 2 for PC, as well as Arena of Valor and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang for mobile.

Source: Rappler

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Capcom Cup 2018’s viewer stats are now up on Esports Charts

Esports livestream analytics site Esports Chart has released their numbers for Capcom Cup 2018 and it paints an interesting picture when compared with their 2017 report.

In terms of total views on all Twitch channels, the numbers are somewhat down with this year only getting 2,193,770 views versus 2,778,496 for 2017. Total time watched however was up at 1,710,803 hours versus 1,216,536 from last year. This factors in viewers from China, since Capcom Cup 2018 was streamed on Panda.tv. Without them however, the numbers are still up at 1,588,747 hours watched compared to 1,192,743 for last year.

Of course, the increased watch time could simply be from this years tournament running much longer at 29 hours, versus 19 hours (as measured by Esports Charts). Indeed, average concurrent views are down at 60,028 views (including Chinese viewers) for this year, compared to 75,250 for 2017.

Chinese viewership does seem to help the numbers though. This years overall peak viewership was higher at 124,549 viewers, with 8,098 from China, compared to last year’s 121,951 viewers. Without Chinese viewers, the numbers are closer at 117,812  for this year, and 119,741 for last year.

Aside from the increased number of Chinese viewers, the most interesting bit here is that viewership from Twitch alone is down, at 91,210 for 2018 compared to 121,277 from last year. With more places to watch Capcom Cup this year, including Facebook Live, OpenRec.tv, and the previously mentioned Panda.tv, it seems that other services may be starting to make a dent on Twitch’s massive lead.

Source: Esports Charts

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Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament cancelled at Anime Ascension due to “unforeseen circumstances”

Aksys Games released a concerning statement regarding their upcoming, annual Anime Ascension tournament. Unfortunately, the February 2019 event won’t be running Dragon Ball FighterZ, despite earlier promises. If you’ve been aiming to compete in, you might have to change your itinerary.

The publisher did not disclose the reason, however, the community overwhelmingly points to Toei Animation, who owns the rights to the series, and is notorious for being very protective of their intellectual property.

The decision is a controversial one for fighting game fans for at least two counts: for one, many players, such as top player Yohosie, were set to compete in DBFZ at the event:

Secondarily, this seems to be setting a concerning precedent for DBFZ players: they are worried that the game will only be allowed to play at the World Tour tournaments. The title failed to make it into Evo Japan despite it’s enormous popularity, and was pulled in November at DreamHack Atlanta.

We will update the story if an official statement regarding this situation appears.

Source: Aksys Games Twitter; Yohosie

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Bandai Namco Entertainment to reveal new trailers for Jump Force and Dragon Ball FighterZ at Jump Festa 2019 this weekend

Could a Season 2 announcement be on the horizon?

Last week, Bandai Namco Entertainment revealed its full lineup of console and smartphone games that will be playable and on display at this weekend’s Jump Festa 2019, which takes place December 22nd and 23rd in Chiba, Japan.

Jump Festa is a yearly event for Weekly Shonen Jump, where the latest merchandise, games, manga, and anime for their various franchises is on display. Most notably for Bamco, is their upcoming 3D 3V3 are fighter Jump Force, which is set to be playable at the event and have a new trailer revealed at the expo. With the game’s February 15th release date fast-approaching, we’ve been treated to several big reveals, with Black Clover’s Asta, Dragon Ball’s Trunks, One Piece’s Boa Hancock, Bleach’s Renji Abarai, and My Hero Academia’s Izuku “Deku” Midoriya, all recently being revealed, on top of a brand new story trailer. YonkouProductions recently Tweeted that, “we aren’t even close” to the end of the roster, so it will be exciting to see which new heroes and villains join the fray.

Dragon Ball FighterZ will also be playable at the event with a new trailer also set to be released. With the Dragon Ball FighterZ  World Tour entering its final stretch, it’s highly likely that we could be seeing the announcement of a second Season of characters. Last year, we saw the reveal of Goku Black, Hit, and Beerus at the event.

Prominent fighting game leaker Dasvergeben made some posts on GameFAQS two months ago about a possible Season 2 lineup, stating, “Jiren is part of it. Ultra Instinct Goku apparently is too,” and that, “prior to the announcement of the Super Dragon Ball Heroes anime, I heard that Super Saiyan 4 Goku would be part of Season 2, and Gogeta would as well. Aside from those four characters, I heard that Season 2 is going to be bigger than Season 1. Probably means ten characters instead of eight this time.” He also notes that he hasn’t spoken to a previous source that informed him that Raditz and Zarbon would be part of Season 1, but wouldn’t be surprised if they were eventually pushed out for Android 17 and Cooler, and could show up in this next batch of characters, as there would be less of a chance for people to bemoan them taking up space.

It certainly seems like we’ll be in for some big news soon, with Dragon Ball FighterZ set to go even further beyond to the next level of power. (Hopefully we can also get a Tournament of Power stage, too.)

Would you be happy to see Jiren, Ultra Instinct Goku, Super Saiyan 4 Goku, Gogeta, Raditz, and Zarbon, potentially join DBFZ in a second FighterZ Pass, or would you prefer other mighty warriors? Give us your wishlists in the comments below, and stay tuned to Shoryuken, for full coverage of all the Jump Festa news.

Source: Gematsu; GameFAQS; YonkouProductions (Twitter)

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World War 3 Updated with New Maps & the US Expeditionary Corps.

World War 3 has received a big new update just in time for vacation-time gameplay. The update includes new maps called prototype Smolensk and TDM Berlin. In addition, players will find a new battle tank, battle rifle, the USMC uniform, USMC camouflages, new weapon / vehicle skins and a host of improvements on the technical side.

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Voluntary Exit of Over 100 Blizzard EU Customer Service Agents Sparks Concerns

Over 100 employees of the Customer Service center in Cork, Ireland are voluntarily leaving Blizzard at the end of December, a move that has sparked concerns with EU customers. According to Eurogamer, the employees leveraged a voluntary program “that offers staff money to leave Blizzard”. According to their inside sources, the offer was made several times over the past few months with the amount offered increasing each time.