Yoshitaka Amano, the Japanese artist best known for his works in the Final Fantasy series, is involved in the development of Resident Evil Survival Unit. The official website for the upcoming mobile game revealed that the artist designed an original creature named Mortem.

This collaboration is made possible by another familiar name to the Final Fantasy community: Shinji Hashimoto. As a reminder, Hashimoto is no longer affiliated with Square Enix after he reached the mandatory retirement age in May 2022. However, that did not mark a complete end to his career, as he joined Sony Music Entertainment's ForwardWorks right after in June 2022.

In October 2024, Hashimoto moved to Aniplex, which is also another subsidiary of Sony Music. This eventually led to his appearance in the Resident Evil Survival Unit announcement video as the mobile game's executive producer. Aniplex is primarily working together with the Korean company JoyCity to develop this title, with Capcom supervising the whole process. This video also showcased JoyCity's finalized render of Yoshitaka Amano's original creature, Mortem.

Shinji Hashimoto explained the involvement of Yoshitaka Amano in Resident Evil Survival Unit via an interview with Famitsu. The former noted in the interview that the two had been long acquainted since his previous tenure, without even directly mentioning Square Enix and Final Fantasy. Hashimoto also stated his desire to make a surprise by asking Amano to design a pure villain for this Resident Evil mobile game.

The interview also revealed that Amano gave JoyCity much freedom to convert his creature design. Hashimoto added that Amano eventually approved the final render with a "that's cool" statement. The executive producer is also preparing another surprising collaboration for the mobile game, which will appear in 2026 or later.

Resident Evil Survival Unit will launch worldwide for Android and iOS mobile devices in 2025.

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Columbus Circle has revealed 16-bit Compact HD, a game console that lets people play Super Famicom and SNES games in a 720p resolution. The company has also opened pre-orders for the console, which will be available in late August 2025, on Amazon Japan.

This console will support cartridges from not only the Japanese Super Famicom but also the Western SNES. Players will also be able to switch between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, as well as NTSC and PAL modes.

The package will contain the console along with two controllers, an AC adapter, an HDMI cable, and an AV cable set. While the player can opt to use either cable, there will be a notable difference in the pixel output.

Columbus Circle has also shared a comparison image between the AV and HDMI outputs from the 16-bit Compact HD console:

Columbus Circle has been known for making new consoles compatible with classic console games. The company has also previously released an SNES-compatible DIY kit in 2022. But while the latter was made in Japan, the company disclosed that this console is being manufactured in China. It also noted that this console is not officially licensed by Nintendo and cautioned that some games may not have optimal video and/or audio outputs.

16-bit Compact HD will be available on August 28, 2025. The console will cost ¥12,980 (~$88.75), and Amazon Japan also supports international shipping for this product.

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Dragami Games has revealed that it will release LoveR Kiss Endless Memories for Nintendo Switch and PC in late November 2025. The newly upgraded version of the Japanese dating simulator game will also be available worldwide with additional language support in English and Simplified Chinese.

For the record, LoveR originally appeared for PlayStation 4 in Japan in March 2019. It is the latest iteration of a long-running dating sim game series that launched with the 1996 PS1 entry True Love Story and also comprises KimiKiss, Amagami, PhotoKano, and RecoLove. LoveR Kiss, an upgrade to the original LoveR, appeared on the PS4 and Switch in February 2020.

Endless Memories will bring even more updates to LoveR. There will be a new Pro Photo Session mode, where the player can immediately access additional photography and decoration features like frames and stamps.

In addition, the English localization for Endless Memories will be human-translated. Frontline Gaming Japan's Johann C.K. revealed that he had provided translations of the game's scripts that contain around 750,000 Japanese letters.

Dragami Games has also uploaded an announcement trailer for LoveR Kiss Endless Memories in Japanese on its YouTube channel:

LoveR Kiss Endless Memories will be available worldwide for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam on November 27, 2025.

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Atlus revealed that Cerevo has renewed the official webpage for its Persona 3 Reload SEES Evoker replica gun. The two companies also announced that they will hold a physical promotion event for the product in Japan on July 12-13, 2025.

The event will take place on the 6th floor of Volks Akihabara Hobby Paradise 2. It will allow people to get a hands-on trial of the gun replica toy before making a purchase.

As a refresher, this replica has been available for purchase in Japan since March 2025. It costs ¥110,000, which is around $750 based on the exchange rate in early July 2025. The toy gun will play various sound effects and voices from the game when its trigger is pulled.

The renewed webpage is available in not only Japanese but also English. The latter has exclusive fine print stating that Atlus and Cerevo are working to make the replica available internationally, but with North America excepted.

The Persona 3 Reload SEES Evoker replica gun is readily available for purchase in Japan. It is based on the Persona 3 remake that Atlus had released worldwide in February 2024 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC.

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Intermestic revealed the new Zoff collaboration glasses and merchandise based on Square Enix's Final Fantasy IX to help celebrate the game's 25th anniversary. Each character-inspired design features imagery from their design. The company has also opened online pre-orders for the FFIX glasses on the brand's official website.

The Final Fantasy IX Zoff glasses will be available in three different models. The first two will be respectively based on Zidane and Vivi, with each frame incorporating elements from the characters' attire. So Zidane's references his tail, dagger, and belt. Vivi's references his eyes in a notable way. Both of them will have the same price tag, which is ¥13,300 (~$91.45).

There is also a third Premium Model that will be available at a higher cost of ¥14,400 (~$98.90). While this model's design is still not completely finalized yet, it will feature elements from the game's world, such as the Two Moons, the Crystal, and the Iifa Tree.

Here's how those Final Fantasy XI Zoff glasses designs look:

Other than the primary glasses products, Zoff will also sell more related merchandise. A Moogle-shaped cleaner mascot will be available at ¥1,500 (~$10.30). The brand will also sell a set of 7 random cleaner clothes out of the 9 available designs that will cost ¥3,500 (~$24.05). The latter will also be available via physical capsule toys at 6 select Zoff outlets for ¥500.

In addition, Zoff is holding a social media follow-and-repost sweepstake, where five lucky people in Japan who participated by July 14, 2025, can win a multipurpose cotton case with Zidane's artwork.

Pre-orders for the Final Fantasy IX glasses and merchandise by Zoff are available online until August 3, 2025, with shipments expected to begin in late February 2026. While Zoff does not formally handle international shipping, it suggests people residing outside Japan use a forwarding service, such as Tenso or Goyokikiya.

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Uniqlo has revealed that it will sell a collection of T-shirts themed after Ai Yazawa's manga works. The Ai Yazawa Collection will appear in Japan on July 11, 2025.

The brand is launching this new collection to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ai Yazawa's career, after she debuted in 1985. In addition to Nana, this collection will feature three other titles from the same manga artist: Tenshi Nanka ja Nai (1991), Neighborhood Story (1995), and Paradise Kiss (1999).

There will be a total of five T-shirt designs themed after the aforementioned manga titles. Nana will particularly have two designs, with the first one focusing on Nana Osaki and the other featuring the Black Stones band.

In addition, Uniqlo will temporarily add a stamp featuring Nana's Hachiko on the Uniqlo UTme! webpage. People have until May 31, 2026, to apply the stamp to their own shirt and tote bag designs.

This new Uniqlo collection will also add more entries to the list of Nana-themed merchandise. Libroaria released perfumes themed after Nana and Hachi in March 2025. Good Smile Company also worked on a Nendoroid figure of Nana Osaki.

The Ai Yazawa Collection shirts will be sold in Uniqlo outlets across Japan on July 11, 2025. The Nana Hachiko stamp will be available on Uniqlo UTme! for a limited time until May 31, 2026.

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Bandai Namco has announced that it will start scaling down its operations for The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage. There will be no more new songs, idol costumes, and dialogues added after the game's 10th anniversary on September 3, 2025. In addition, Bandai Namco and DMM Games will take down the PC version on August 21, 2025.

Bandai Namco had also added crossover content to the long-running game alternatively known as DereSute, such as cover songs from Key's visual novels in 2020 and the appearance of Hololive's Hoshimachi Suisei in 2024. However, this content will also be gradually phased out. Haruhi Suzumiya's songs will be the first to be removed on July 31, 2025. All other cover songs will follow suit the month after, on August 31, 2025.

But even though Bandai Namco is gradually scaling down Starlight Stage, the company promises that it will continue producing new songs that feature Cinderella Girls idols. It is also planning to hold new xR live concerts in the near future.

The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage will remain playable for Android and iOS devices for the foreseeable future, although there will be no more new content added after September 3, 2025. The game's PC version on DMM Games will only be available until August 21, 2025.

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LINE Yahoo revealed that it has added the Kingdom Hearts characters Roxas and Xion to the Japanese release of LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum. Players on the server can get a chance to obtain the two voiced Tsums from Premium Boxes throughout the entirety of July 2025. There are also increased chances to get them for the first four days until July 4, 2025.

The Tsum Tsum plush-based mobile game has been featuring numerous Kingdom Hearts characters prior to Roxas and Xion. Some of the characters who have appeared previously include Sora, Riku, Kairi, Ventus, Terra, Aqua, Namine, Axel, Xemnas, Ansem, and Young Xehanort.

However, this mobile game is also known for having staggered releases between the Japanese and global servers. When Sora and Riku debuted in the game, they appeared first in Japan in April 2017, before making their way to the global server in September 2017.

The staggered releases also have something to do with Japan-exclusive social media sweepstakes. In the same press release, LINE Yahoo also announced that Japanese social media users have until July 5, 2025, to follow and repost its campaign tweet, where three lucky winners can get a Kingdom Hearts-themed vanity pouch.

LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum is available worldwide on iOS and Android devices. As of July 2025, Roxas and Xion are only available in the mobile game's Japanese server.

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June 30, 2025, marks the 30th anniversary day of the Ace Combat game series. Bandai Namco celebrates the occasion by revealing multiple celebration projects through a rehaul of the series' official website.

One of the announcements made here is the confirmation of a new orchestra concert. After being previously held in October 2021, the Ace Combat/S The Symphony concert will take place again at the Saitama Kaikan Grand Hall on January 31, 2026.

In addition, Bandai Namco is working with other companies to release new Ace Combat merchandise in Japan to mark its 30th anniversary. Amnibus has opened pre-orders for Ace Combat Zero-themed merchandise, ranging from T-shirts to canvas boards. Meanwhile, Type II is producing a gaming controller designed after the Ace Combat 7 protagonist Trigger, which will be compatible with PC, Switch, and Switch 2.

Bandai Namco has also published a memorial movie on the series' official YouTube channel. Besides compiling the above reveals, it also includes Nugget's sneak peek of the development scene for the next Ace Combat game. Bandai Namco has been working on it with ILCA since 2021, and the companies have also since set up Bandai Namco Aces as a new studio for the upcoming game.

The Ace Combat series began with the release of the first game for PlayStation in Japan on June 30, 1995. The latest entry as of 2025 is Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, which is readily available worldwide on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

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Atlus has revealed that it will hold the Persona 5 Special Big Band Concert in early December 2025. The concert will take place at two Japanese venues in Tokyo and Kobe, and it will feature tracks from the RPG that first appeared in Japan for the PS3 and PS4 in September 2016.

This concert will have around 30 musicians from Japan and the US, with the original Persona 5 series singer Lyn Inaizumi included among them. The whole band will be led by Charlie Rosen, whose arrangement of Persona 5's battle song "Last Surprise" with The 8-Bit Big Band received a Best Arrangement, Instrument and Vocals nomination in the 2025 Grammy Awards. The Hawaii-born trumpeter Eric Miyashiro will also bring members of his own band in Japan to participate in this concert.

Atlus will open the first ticket sales for physical attendance at the concert on eplus from July 16, 2025, until August 3, 2025. Prices will range from 11,000 yen (~$76.20) for a regular seating to 16,500 yen (~$114.30) for a set with bonus goods. The latter will have two different sets available, with the exact content to be announced at a later date.

The Persona 5 Special Big Band Concert will take place at the Shinjuku Bunka Center in Tokyo on December 2-4, 2025, and at the Kobe International House on December 5, 2025.

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Masahiro Sakurai talked about the usage of generative AI in the video game development scene. The game director and designer, best known for his works on the Kirby and Super Smash Bros series, brought up the topic in a Japanese interview with ITmedia Business Online. [Thanks, Yahoo! Japan!]

At the end of the interview, ITmedia noted how the game development scene has been growing ever larger and more detailed. When it asked about the future of the gaming market, Sakurai stated that not even himself knows what lies ahead. He added that creating large-scale games in recent times would be unsustainable due to the sheer amount of work required.

This was where Masahiro Sakurai brought up generative AI as an effective solution to improve work efficiency. He also added that only companies that could adapt and change their development schemes would be able to survive.

ITmedia also noted the market growth of indie games made by small groups and solo developers. When it asked about the possibilities in this market, Sakurai noted that there have been more than 10,000 indie titles released in a year, which makes it very difficult for a game to stand out. In addition to the effort needed to complete the development, Sakurai included luck as an essential factor for an indie game to successfully stand out in the market. He concluded that both large-scale projects and indie games have unpredictable futures in their own ways.

When this Japanese interview was published in June 2025, Masahiro Sakurai was still working on a new unspecified game project, as he revealed at the finale of his "Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games" channel in late October 2024. He also received an Art Encouragement Prize award from the Japanese government in March 2025 for his work on the YouTube channel.

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Universal Studios Japan has announced that it will add an expansion to its Minion Park on July 11, 2025. It will primarily add Illumination's Villain-Con Minion Blast, which will be known in Japanese as Minion Hachamecha Mission ~Path to the Supervillain~.

For the record, an attraction with the same name has also been available at Universal Orlando Resort. Participants will get to blast things with the E-Liminator X blaster as they strive to get the highest points to join the Vicious 6. But while the minimum height requirement of 122 cm (48") is applied universally, the Japanese theme park does not seem to have a restriction for hand-held infants as opposed to Orlando.

The Minion Park has been available in Universal Studios Japan for quite some time. The area has been primarily represented by two attractions: Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem (alternatively known in Japanese as Minion Hachamecha Ride) and Freeze Ray Sliders (Minion Hachamecha Ice). The aforementioned addition of the third attraction will expand the area size of Minion Park by around 1.4x.

Universal Studios Japan has also been known for hosting attractions themed after famous Japanese anime and game franchises. A Spy x Family VR roller coaster and an interactive attraction themed after The Apothecary Diaries will simultaneously appear temporarily from July 1, 2025, until January 4, 2026.

The Minion Park in Osaka's Universal Studios Japan will newly get Illumination's Villain-Con Minion Blast attraction on July 11, 2025.

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The Japanese company Empty Co., Ltd. has revealed new Danganronpa character plushies designed by the Pop Team Epic creator Bkub Okawa. It will release these plushies in physical stores across Japan in late June 2025.

The lineup will feature a total of 12 characters. Other than the series mascots Monokuma and Monomi, it will include key characters from the game series, such as Hajime Hinata, Kyoko Kirigiri, Junko Enoshima, Nagito Komaeda, and Kaede Akamatsu.

These plushies will be available in four physical stores across Tokyo, Japan. The stores in question will be AmiAmi's Akihabara and Ikebukuro stores, as well as Kotobukiya's Akihabara and Tachikawa stores. In addition, people residing in Osaka will be able to find the same products in Kotobukiya's Nipponbashi outlet.

The Japanese official reveal tweet, which includes more images of the plushies, is also available to view right below:

This is not the first time Spike Chunsoft and Empty collaborated with Bkub Okawa to design Danganronpa character merchandise. In early April 2025, the companies revealed how they turned Bkub's designs into various kinds of merchandise, ranging from badges to acrylic stands and keychains. These items are also slated for release in June 2025.

The new chibi Danganronpa character plushies will be available in Japan on Friday, June 27, 2025.

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Phoenixx and Bandai Namco Studio confirmed the release date for the Nintendo Switch version of Doronko Wanko, which involves a full version of the game with additional dogs to use. The exact date the dirty dog action game will be available on the popular console will be July 24, 2025.

As a reminder, Doronko Wanko was made as one of the training projects for Bandai Namco's new recruits in 2023. This game lets players control a dog, which aims to cause as much mess as possible in its owner's house.

The initial PC release has been available for free since March 2024, but it only features the Pomeranian. The upcoming Nintendo Switch release of Doronko Wanko will be a paid game that costs 500 yen (~$3.45), but it will add five more playable dogs: Shiba Inu, Corgi, Jack Russell Terrier, Toy Poodle, and Bulldog. These dogs will also be available for the PC version via a DLC pack at the same price tag.

As a side note, Bandai Namco Studio had previously announced in December 2024 that the Switch release and the DLC set for PC would be available in Spring 2025. The studio ended up missing the promised window, since July 24, 2025, falls in the Summer season instead. However, it compensated for the delay by adding five new dogs instead of just three.

Doronko Wanko will be available as a paid game for Nintendo Switch at 500 yen on July 24, 2025. The game is also readily available for free on PC via Steam.

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Jankara has launched a new collaboration campaign featuring Capcom's Street Fighter 6. The Japanese karaoke outlet chain opens karaoke rooms temporarily themed after the game while offering character stickers with specific meal purchases.

The special rooms feature Street Fighter 6 posters and stickers plastered all over the walls. The tables also feature stage art from the fighting game. Each person who has used the rooms can also receive a card sleeve modeled after the Buckler's Boot Camp Training Course ID Card from the actual game. These rooms are exclusively available in the chain's 13 outlets: six in Osaka, two in Kyoto, and one each in Sapporo, Nagoya, Kobe, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka.

In addition, Jankara is offering random stickers featuring ten Street Fighter 6 characters singing. The illustrations are drawn by Kangyaku. The same artist also drew the You've Got This, Juri! manga series and prior Street Fighter crossover products, such as the Clear Men shampoo bottles.

These stickers are available by purchasing one of the following five meals priced at 1,300 yen (~$9): Deep-fried meat udon, Tartare yangnyeom chicken don, Margherita pizza, Juicy chicken karaage, and Sweet potato churros. Jankara will make these stickers obtainable in more outlets besides the above 13.

The Street Fighter 6-themed rooms are available at select Jankara karaoke outlets across Japan until Tuesday, September 30, 2025.

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