People are already drawing comparisons to Square’s The World Ends With You. That’s probably not the case, however, as this is a Sony Japan Studio game. The studio is already hard at work on Rain and Puppeteer for the PS3 so it will be interesting to see if this is a PS3 or a PS4 launch game. I’m willing to bet on the latter as Sony Japan Studio has typically always had a game out at or near the launch of a new console.

Either way, we’ll find out more on May 21. I’m excited to find out more, and the buzz on the Internet seems to indicate I’m not alone.

Tweets about “panopticon”

Bethesda posted the following Vine teaser on its Twitter account today:

vine.co/v/bFPjjheVnau

— Bethesda Softworks (@Bethblog) April 16, 2013

As you can see, there’s no explanation. Many are assuming it’s a teaser for Bethesda’s next game which many first assumed was an impending announcement for Fallout 4 or whatever Bethesda Game Studios is working on next. For Fallout fans, that’s unfortunately not the case as Bethesda’s Pete Hines put that assumption to rest:

@aegies You talking about the Vine thing? Guess again

— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) April 16, 2013

Of course, it’s easy to forget that Bethesda is also a publisher, and the publisher has two games on the horizon. One is codenamed Zwei, a new survival horror game from Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. The other is an unnamed project from MachineGames, a developer made up of ex-Starbreeze staff. Some are saying that their title is a new entry in id’s celebrated Wolfenstein series.

The funny thing is that the Vine teaser could fit both scenarios. The record is playing Bach’s music, and Bach was German. Zwei is a German term and the creepy mood of the Vine teaser fits a horror-themed game quite well. On the other hand, Wolfenstein traditionally takes place during World War II and has the player fighting nazis in Germany.

Bestheda hasn’t said anything else since the Vine teaser, but we’ll probably learn what the mystery game is soon enough. Besthesda generally doesn’t keep fans guessing for long so we should be seeing a proper announcement before the end of the month.

Well, some genius has looped that little tease for 10 hours.

We know that Daft Punk’s new album is slated to launch in May on Columbia Records. For now, enjoy 10 hours of the same (amazing) four bars of music. Because, really, what’s better?

The game’s tentative release date has been set for “early 2014,” though it’s not uncommon for dates of that sort to be pushed back. Soul Suspect will definitely be coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. No word yet on whether the title will also show up on next-generation consoles, which are expected to go on sale this holiday season.

Earlier this week, gamers and ARG fans sifted through clues to uncover a short teaser trailer for the game. It seems that players will be tasked with solving “the hardest case of all…their own murder.” Whether this means the game detective work or ghostly gunplay, as the trailer suggests, but the preview does seem to indicate the game will have will have a noir styling and flavor.

After numerous leaks and a suggestion that the reveal would happen in May, Sony is now teasing that the official unveiling of the next PlayStation will happen sooner than anybody thought.

In a blog post simply titled “See the Future,” Sony posted the following video teasing an announcement for February 20:

Of course, we could all be looking far too much into this. Maybe this is the future of the PlayStation 3, or Sony will announce some kind of reboot for the Vita to make up for struggling sales. That doesn’t appear to be the case, however, as the Wall Street Journal reports that Sony will indeed be unveiling the successor to the PlayStation 3 at the conference.

Sony is also sending out invites for the event with many industry figures placing their bets on a console reveal:

Follow @michaelpachter

Michael Pachter
@michaelpachter

Sony is inviting investors and media to the Feb 20 event; that means console announcement. I’m genuinely excited, although I will be in LA

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
14 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @geoffkeighley

Geoff Keighley
@geoffkeighley

Just got my invite. PlayStation Meeting, February 20 NYC. #IThinkIKnowWhat‘sComing

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
14 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® · powered by @socialditto

Follow @crecenteb

Brian Crecente
@crecenteb

PlayStation just dropped the mic on January 2013, the most batshit crazy month in gaming history.

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
14 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

The event will reportedly be live streamed as well so Sony fans will be able to see the future of the PlayStation brand first hand. Expect new hardware and a few new games to go along with it. Don’t hold your breath for a price or launch date. Those will come closer to or at E3 in June.

Every since the teaser image of George Washington sitting on a throne with scepter in-hand and an eagle-themed crown adorning his head, gamers have been excited for the upcoming “The Tyranny of King Washington” DLC. The content will feature an alternate-history timeline in which General Washington has claimed the monarchy of the colonies as his own.

The release date for the DLC has still not been revealed, but Ubisoft today released another teaser for it, this time in the form of a teaser trailer. In truth, the short teaser isn’t much different than the static image released back in October, but it does give gamers a chance to see the detailed royal accoutrements and how King Washington might look in-game.

Dark Souls II looks to have everything fans of the original game could want. The teaser trailer has been released and it features bleak landscapes, dark caverns, fierce battle, and dragons.

The only thing that can’t be conveyed in a teaser trailer is whether the game will be as difficult as its predecessor. Dark Souls was infamous for its difficulty curve, which caused many a rage quit. Namco knows that this was part of the game’s appeal, though, and will almost certainly use Dark Souls II try to challenge players on a level not seen since the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

So, what does it say that it’s becoming a trend for game companies to release a teaser trailer for an upcoming trailer. Sure, THQ’s teaser for the Company of Heroes gameplay trailer might have been a nod to the fans that have been waiting the better part of a decade for the title. But Naughty Dog today released a teaser trailer for an upcoming story trailer for The Last of Us, a game that, as promising as it looks, hasn’t yet established a fan base.

The buzz about The Last of Us is loud, though. The game was one of the more impressive titles Sony previewed during its E3 presentation. It was also one of the more violent previews in an E3 that was filled with broken bones, dirt, and death. The game depicted desperate violence in an extremely realistic, disturbing way that most games aren’t able to.

Most everything seen about the title so far has revolved around a demo of the game where Joel and Ellie – the game’s protagonists – make their way past some bandits in an abandoned hotel. The E3 footage of the game showed the frontal assault style of gameplay, and the PAX Prime footage later showed the same scenario with a more stealthy approach. The new trailer, to be released on December 10, will be a “story trailer.” Hopefully it will reveal a bit about how the world ended and why there a roving bands of angry men everywhere.

Nintendo fans who visited the Wii U Facebook page today were greeted with this rather unique tease:

Wii U 1 hour ago

Guess what the initial game releases will be for Nintendo’s new home console, Wii U? Soon we’ll scratch off to reveal the names! ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒. Powered by socialditto  967 likes · 479 comments

Note how Nintendo uses the plural form “names.” They are revealing more than one game and it looks like they will actually be revealing up to three titles if the spaces between gray areas are to be believed. The post has already generated over 500 comments from fans making rabid and rather uneducated guesses as to the identity of the games.

While fans can speculate to their hearts content, it’s another indication of a new Nintendo doing things that they have never done before. I can’t remember anytime during my life when Nintendo teased titles for their new home console. They tend to not even confirm launch titles until a few months before the launch. That’s how secretive the company used to be.

With Nintendo’s stocks slipping and them needing a hit on their hands, it seems that the company is taking to actions that are very unlike the Kyoto-based developer. Not that I or the fans are complaining. A more open Nintendo means that we get to see more games which is only a good thing.

Unfortunately, Nintendo still doesn’t have this Facebook thing down just yet. Most developers usually challenge the community to like a post a certain number of times before they reveal something, but this one just says says, “Soon we’ll scratch off to reveal the names!” We can assume that Nintendo will reveal the titles during their E3 press conference on June 5.

As an aside, what would a Nintendo E3 article be without a little speculation? It seems that many in the Facebook thread seem to think that each block is representative of one character. That means that we have three titles with names that take up 34, 27 and 20 characters respectively. I was hoping for that Metroid Star Fox crossover to be real just for the laughs, but Paul Gale has now confirmed that title to be no longer in consideration.

I’ll leave the speculation up to the fans that love to spend their hours at a computer earning an online degree in cryptology to solve the puzzles of the newest games. I’ll just be happy to see a new Metroid game within the next five years.

The Web site has the simple URL of TheDragonReturns.com with a date of May 31. It’s pretty innocuous, but it looks very Castlevania-like. The real proof comes from looking at the source code. Under og: site_name it says “CLOS Teaser Page.” Unless I’m missing something, CLOS obviously stands for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

The source code also comes with a description that is not visible on the main page:

“Dare you face the evil darkness? It is written that the creatures behind that door will return very soon to claim the souls of your loved ones, and send you straight to hell! Be aware!”

Not only does that sound exactly like Castlevania, but it’s also a call back to the story of the first Lords of Shadow. In it, Gabriel Belmont is fighting to resurrect his dead wife. Needless to say, he fails in that quest, but the sequel could see Gabriel fighting for another chance.

The previous rumor pointed to Lords of Shadow 2 seeing release on the PS3, Xbox 360, Vita and Wii U. The Wii U version is of more interest since it’s rumored to connect in some way with the new 3DS Castlevania game being developed.

We don’t have many details on either game yet, but the confirmation of this new teaser site verifies at least one part of the rumor. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a dual announcement for both games at E3 this year.

As a final word to Web site designers, keep telling us what the game is in the source code for teaser pages. It makes our jobs so much easier.

[h/t: TrendyGamers]