A fighting game security breach, a new Victorian steampunk detective action anime game, and a game-breaking action RPG exploit: all on this week’s gaming news and culture recap.

The Big Picture

SNK CEO Kenji Matsubara has stepped down from CEO to an advisory role, following the release of Fatal Fury: City of The Wolves which has been heavily marketed the past few months. 

While there are no official sales numbers for the game, there has been a lot of evidence to suggest that the game has not performed as SNK had hoped. For comparison’s sake, Street Fighter 6’s peak PC Steam numbers are 32,000+ players even after 2 years of being online. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ peak is at 4,674 players. 

This is a shame, considering the game’s quality is not in question, but rather its target audience and marketing tactics. While it’s nice to see the legacy game entry being on WWE’s Wrestlemania this year, a number of pay-per-view boxing matches, and getting the backing from Saudi Arabia (since they own SNK), it’s clear as day the title is meant for hardcore SNK fans. The ones who stuck around even through the company’s bad times, like the bankruptcy and its merging with Playmore back in the aughts. 

These fans aren’t going to care much about what the public masses want. On the flip side, the majority aren’t even sure what a Fatal Fury is unless it’s a popular genre like a battle royale or a military shooter. 

We have done our fair share of promoting our YouTube videos on different social media platforms, with various degrees of success. While the optics are great on the platform, it doesn’t translate to people watching & engaging with the video most of the time. The only difference here is that we’re not spending billions, much less a single dime, on promoting that one video. 

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves may be a great game, but it is still in its fighting game niche that clearly isn’t jiving with the masses. All the mass promotion in the world and eyeballs aren’t going to translate to actual sales. 

Short Beats

Indonesian developer Digital Happiness Games and Singapore-based publisher Soft Source have announced Dreadout 3, the next sequel in the former’s survival horror franchise. You play as Linda as she has to sort out evil spirits haunting her and her domicile, using your camera and phone to detect and spot evil Indonesian spirits & demons. 

Malaysian esports group Flash Vision has announced its upcoming fighting game tournament series FV Major 2025, featuring titles such as Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, The King of Fighters XV, and the recently-released Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. 

For reasons unexplained, the source code for Arc System Works’ big fighting game Guilty Gear Strive has been leaked illegally to the public during EVO Japan 2025. The recent build revealed an alleged Season 5 character pass in the works. 

The Stardew Valley Festival of Seasons concert will stop in Malaysia this 6th September; tickets are on sale right now. 

Chinese publisher Elementa and developer Silver Studio have announced its latest game Silver Palace. The action RPG is set in a Victorian steampunk fantasy world and features high-flying and weighty combat and action setpieces, as well as detective and interrogation work set in an open world. No release date has been announced, but you can pre-register for the game on the website. 

Team Ninja and Xbox has shown off new gameplay of their upcoming action title Ninja Gaiden 4, featuring recurring lead Ryu Hayabusa and new Raven clan ninja Yakumo doing what they do best. 

Wizards of the Coast has teamed up with Square Enix to create a Magic: The Gathering set based on the legendary Final Fantasy series. The companies have previewed a good number of cards during the past few days. 

Op-Eds

We talk about all the references and cameos of the latest digital release of A Minecraft Movie, based on the hit Mojang-made game Minecraft. 

We also bring up 8 games that prove that mobile gaming isn’t dead. 

Games Out This Week

Doom: The Dark Ages is the latest first-person shooter from Bethesda and id Software featuring your main character the Doom Slayer killing hordes of monsters and hellish denizens in the titular timeline. 

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 features a bundle of 8 games from Capcom’s fighting game library, all remastered and fine-tuned for 2025 with features like online play. The games in the collection are Capcom vs SNK 1 and 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3 UPPER, Power Stone 1 and 2, Project Justice, Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein, and Capcom Fighting Evolution. 

Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade is a new isometric roguelite action game where you control ninjas and samurais to defeat demons in feudal Japan, anime style. 

Recommended Viewing

Sega just released a behind-the-scenes studio look at Lizardcube, the folks who are making the upcoming Shinobi: Art of Vengeance action game.

This week’s game news recap has us talking about some horror games, Doom: The Dark Ages, and a messload of news.