SEGA Sammy Holdings reported its FY2026 results: record revenue of 487.5 billion yen ($3.1B, +13.7％ YoY) was wiped out by 58.8 billion yen in special losses tied to Rovio Entertainment (Angry Birds) and Stakelogic, producing the company's first net loss in 11 years. We unpack the impairment, the international community's skepticism about the 776 million-dollar Rovio acquisition, the deprioritization of F2P, the redeployment of 100＋ developers onto full-game projects, and SEGA's bet on four new mainstay-IP titles ahead of Sonic's 35th anniversary.
Koei Tecmo Holdings reports record-breaking FY2026 results with revenue of ¥88.3B and ordinary profit of ¥57.0B. Of that, roughly ¥16.4 billion ($105M) came from financial market operations—an investment income stream that rivals many companies' core business profits. Nioh 3 (now at 10M cumulative series sales), Pokémon's hidden hit Pokopia, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment drove the gaming side. Yet the company forecasts a 27.6% net income decline next year due to expanded human capital investment.
MAGES. has officially announced no streaming or let's plays will be permitted for STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT, launching August 20, 2026. Console share features are restricted to private use only. What Western streamers and visual novel fans need to know — including the 2023 case where Japan's first arrest over a game stream was for a Steins;Gate game.
EVO Japan 2026 drew a record 34,000 attendees, with Street Fighter 6 setting a Guinness World Record at 7,168 entrants and ZETA DIVISION's Yamaguchi becoming the first Japanese SF6 champion. Full international FGC report including MenaRD's Kemonomichi context, the Hokuto no Ken sidebracket pulling 10K viewers, and what r/FGC was actually saying.
Konami Group reports record-breaking FY2026 results—revenue ¥493.6B, net income ¥100B, third consecutive year of record highs—and unveils a stacked 2026 lineup: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Silent Hill Townfall, Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 2, Suikoden revival, and aggressive Switch 2 deployment.
Nintendo sold 19.86 million Switch 2 units in about ten months, the fastest start of any hardware it has made. On the same day, it announced a 10,000 yen price hike for Japan effective May 25, plus $50 increases in the US and Canada from September 1. Japan's 20% jump beats the 11% in the US and lands nearly four months sooner. Why Japan went first and hardest: AI-driven memory prices, a weak yen, and an arbitrage gap that made the domestic model a reseller target.
SEGA and RGG Studio just dropped the theme song for STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, and the lineup is wild: Snoop Dogg, Ado, Official Hige Dandism's Satoshi Fujihara, and Tori Kelly on a single track. We break down Ado's record-breaking Hibana world tour (500,000 fans across 33 cities), Higedan's anime-fueled global rise via Spy x Family and Tokyo Revengers, Snoop Dogg's long history of collaborating with Japanese artists, and how international gaming and music communities are reacting to this Pacific-spanning collision.
MAGES. has set August 20, 2026 as the release date for STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT, launching simultaneously on PS4/PS5/Xbox Series X|S/Switch/Switch 2/PC. The remake adds new worldlines, new endings, fully redrawn CG, and re-recorded voices, and Western VN fans are already debating how it stacks up against ELITE.
Nintendo's surprise May 7 Star Fox Direct validated months of insider leaks. The next big rumored title, a Zelda: Ocarina of Time major remake, had three competing scenarios in international gaming communities: a 2026 launch, a sync with the May 2027 live-action movie, or no remake at all. Nintendo confirmed the remake for Switch 2 at its June 9 Direct with a 2026 window and no date attached. Here is the full record of the debate and how it resolved.
SEGA and RGG Studio have set STRANGER THAN HEAVEN for January 15, 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass day one. The 50-year saga follows half-Japanese, half-American Makoto Daito across five cities and five eras from 1915 to 1965, with Snoop Dogg, Ado, Yu Shirota, and Dean Fujioka in the cast. Here's the full breakdown of the new dual-side combat system, the Tojo Clan tease, and how the international Like a Dragon community is reacting.
A Crank-in! interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri reveals the inside story of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie: how Miyamoto lobbied Nintendo's internal teams to break the company's long-standing rule against mixing IPs so Fox McCloud could appear, Glen Powell's cold call asking to voice Fox, similar approaches from Brie Larson and Donald Glover, and why the Japanese script was rewritten from scratch rather than localized.
