Black Butler Season 5 Announced for 2025 19 Sept 2024 KITSUNE Anime series 'Black Butler' returns for Season 5 in 2025, after successfully returning this year. It has been officially confirmed that the beloved anime series 'Black Butler' will be returning for a fifth season in 2025, titled "Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc". The announcement was made during Anime Expo 2024, just after the fourth season of the anime concluded. The anime's revival has been a thrilling journey for fans, with Season 4 making a much anticipated comeback after many years. Season 5, titled 'Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc', will introduce the next chapter of Ciel Phantomhive's dark and mysterious adventures in Victorian England. While the exact date has not been announced by Crunchyroll, the season will air sometime in 2025. As fans eagerly await the next chapter, it's clear that the gothic allure of Black Butler shows no sign of fading. Image from Crunchyroll ...
Was 2023 The Best Year In Gaming?
31 DECEMBER 2023
As 2023 draws to an end, we take a look back at the past 12 months best and worst gaming moments.
In retrospect, 2023 stands as a watershed moment for the gaming industry, with ground-breaking releases, court trials, cloud gaming leaps, and heightened community engagement. As the year draws to a close, we will look to see if 2023 was the best year in gaming?
January:
Image courtesy of Google
Back in January, tech-giant Google announced the closure and shut down of its cloud-gaming service Google Stadia. What was dubbed the 'future of gaming' had come to an end after operating for 3 years.
As a user of Stadia myself, this was sad moment in gaming history. Although Stadia closed down, I'm sure Google will make a return in the gaming industry.
February:
February saw the release of one of the most anticipated games of the year. Hogwarts Legacy launched on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and it delivered all the magic of movie series. Although it was the biggest title to be released of 2023, it failed to feature at this years The Game Awards.
March:
Image from Hoyoverse
Entering its 3rd year, Genshin Impact updated to version 3.5 with "Windblume's Breath". The update saw the addition of new weapons, including a 4-star and 5-star claymore sword.
The Japanese-role-playing-game, or J-RPG, released in 2020 by Hoyoverse, isn't shy from large updates, and 2023 saw some of the largest expansions to the game. Travellers were also rewarded in Primogems for updating to version 3.5.
At the 2023 Game Awards, Genshin Impact was nominated again for 'Best Ongoing' game, proving that Anime-style games are here to stay.
April:
Meanwhile in British Courts, the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority, prevented Microsoft's purchase of game studio Activision over concerns that
"the deal would alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market, leading to reduced innovation and less choice for UK gamers over the years to come."
Microsoft entered into a $68.7 billion to buy Activision, one of the most popular video game publishers in the world.
Martin Coleman, Chair of the independent panel of experts conducting the investigation, said
"Cloud gaming needs to be a free, competitive market to drive innovation and choice. The is best achieved by allowing the current competitive dynamics in cloud gaming to continue to do their job."
May:
May saw the release of Nintendo's next instalment of in the Zelda franchise, with 'Zelda: Tear of the Kingdom'. The open-world map and beautiful scenery (like that of Genshin Impact) was expanded, and made players feel that 'Breath of the Wild' was "like beta".
It seems that gaming giant Nintendo still knows how to make a good game!
June:
One of Nintendo's close allies Niantic, the developer behind Pokémon Go, axed its workforce by a quarter.
John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, announced a new round of layoffs posted on the Niantic website.
Mr Hanke said, "I have made the decision to narrow our focus for mobile game investments, coventrating on first party gamers that most strongly embody our core values of location and local social communities."
July:
Image from Bethesda
Gamers rejoiced as The Elder Scrolls Online was made free on Epic (until July 27th).
Apart from Elder Scrolls Online, the Epic Store rewarded players with many other freebies during their Summer Sale.
August:
Image from Stray.game
One of this year's stand-out indie games was 'Stray', the story of a lost cat.... awwww. Developed by BlueTwelve Studio, and published by Annapurna Interactive, the story follows a stray cat that falls into a walled city populated with robots.
Lost and alone in the big city, players must help the tabby cat navigate the mysterious streets. Along the way, the cat meets a drone called 'B-12' and they become the best of friends! With the help of this newfound companion, the duo must find a way out.
September:
Released on September 21st, Payday 3 was released, and with very big boots to fill, especially when Payday 2 is one of the most popular first-person shooter heist games of the last decade.
With updated heists and missions, the Payday Gang is back together! Hoxton, Dallas, Chains, and the crew take on banks and jewellery stores once again.
October:
Photo from Universal Pictures
2023 saw more video games hit the silver-screen. The much anticipated Five Nights at Freddy's Movie dominated the British box-office over the Halloween weekend. The movie, based on the hit 2014 horror game, tells the story of the dilapidated 1980's Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
Creator of the Five Night's at Freddy's series, Scott Cawthon, posted on Reddit that "It was beyond my wildest dreams." and added "Thanks to everyone for making opening weekend such a big success."
November:
Epic Games took gamers back in time to experience the OG Season of Fortnite once again. With the return of the classic map and shopping trollies, no cars and the return of the Pump Shotgun.
Along with the original map, Epic Games brought players an OG Battle Pass. Re-imagined versions of original skins and items were available in the Battle Pass. My personal fav being Peely! While Epic was looking nostalgically back at the original Fortnite, a court case was brewing.
December:
Image from Blizzard Entertainment
Overwatch 2's newest hero Mauga was unleashed this December, shaking up the world of Overwatch. Having made a striking debut during Blizzcon 2023, Mauga, is now officially a firm fan-favourite.
The game also embraced the festive spirit, with the release of new holiday skins and festive themed map remakes, in this year's 'Winter Wonderland'.
Early December saw one of the biggest Video Game trials in living memory, the Epic Games VS Google case. The case gave an insight into the dark realms of the industry, but as with every game made, there can only be one winner.
In Epic VS Google, a jury found that Google violated the antitrust laws in its dealing with developers, potential competitors, and OEMs.
Emails soon emerged that Google planned to buy-out Epic Games to save its cloud-gaming platform Stadia.
On December 11th, Epic Games released a statement about their victory in the courtroom, "Thank you to the jury for their historic decision. The one million game developers who couldn't be here thank you!". This was definitely an epic win.
December '23 also saw the trailer release of the much anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6. Attracting over 161,948,675 views since its December 4th YouTube Premier, the future of gaming looks bright.
Conclusion:
Overall, 2023 was filled with twists and turns in the gaming industry, for both players and developers. While cloud gaming dominated this year, the gaming landscape proved that more work needs to be done. If not the best year for gaming, 2023 served as one of the most memorable! Let's see what 2024 offers...