Nintendo has announced their new Spirit Board event for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, this time round we have the Fire Emblem characters making a return for part 2 of their Fire Emblem Fest.

If you remember back to the end of December, the first Fire Emblem Fest was held and featured Legend-class spirits such as Caeda, Azura, Eliwood, Eirika and more. This time round on the Fire Emblem characters second adventure, Caeda and Azura will return for round two but this time with a bunch of Ace-class level spirits.

Players that are unsure about what these spirit events are should note that each week Nintendo release a new Spirit Board event. Each event is usually based around a certain franchise of characters, e.g Fire Emblem for this week. Last week's event was different though and rewarded players double spirit experience and spirit points. If you are collecting spirits in Smash Bros. Ultimate I would advise you to keep on top of Nintendo's weekly Spirit Board events as they can net you some quite exclusive rewards.

We know the sales for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate were legendary, but how legendary exactly? With limited sales figures and only whispers here and there at the success, we now have a better idea where the game is sitting at.

There is no doubt that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the most popular Super Smash Bros. game in the franchise. Nintendo has even claimed this themselves, with the announcement that Ultimate is the "Best pre-selling Super Smash Bros. game". How many copies of Ultimate has been moved though? First reports suggested that 3 million copies were sold within the first 11 days of launch.

Now we have some news that is slightly more updated, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has spoken to Japanese newspaer Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun and revealed that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has actually sold 5 million copies just within its first week of release. Furukawa also shined some light on the software sales of the Nintendo Switch, saying that the Switch now holds the record for most software sales of any Nintendo console. We should get a much better idea how Nintendo are doing both console and game-wise on January 31st when they release their earnings release.

Just yesterday we heard about Metal Gear Solid Director, Hideo Kojima bringing his secretive project 'Death Stranding' to Horizon Zero Dawn developers Guerilla Games. More news has unravelled about that event.

Yesterday I reported on the images that was released from the event between Hideo Kojima and Guerilla Games. To give a little quick synopsis of why this has all happened, Kojima decided to develop his Death Stranding on the Horizon Zero Dawn engine, Decima. The decima source code was given to Kojima in the above picture of a box, Kojima returned yesterday to Guerilla with the demo of Death Stranding in the same box.

The story has now deepened as Kojima Studio's Head of Marketing and Communications, Aki Saito tweeted the above image showcasing a close up of the box. The caption to the image reads, "Showed the first 2 hours of gameplay to our Guerrilla brothers. Yes, Hideo was demonstrating it! (The game is not fully completed...yet)" This statement from Saito confirms that the first 2 hours of Death Stranding is complete.

Epic's global sensation Fortnite amasses a new yearly record in global game revenues.

Fortnite continues its skyrocketing success with $2.4 billion earned in 2018 across consoles, mobiles and PC, analyst firm SuperData reports. With these revenues Fortnite towered above all other free-to-play games like League of Legends, Dungeon Fighter Online, and Pokemon GO, and was a substantial driving force in the $87.84 billion free-to-play market. With this numbers Fortnite has grabbed more than 2% of total F2P digital earnings, which is pretty big given the market is typically ruled by Asian dominance.

The game's success hasn't gone unnoticed and major publishers aim to mimic the titan with battle royale games of their own; Call of Duty's new Blackout mode is faring extremely well, and Rockstar even added two BR modes to Red Dead Online. EA's Battlefield V will also get its own 64-player battle royale mode called Firestorm.

Driven by popular games like Fortnite, Dungeon Fighter Online, and League of Legends, the free-to-play sector made a whopping 80% of 2018's total digital game revenues, analyst firm SuperData reports.

Thanks to lucrative monetization, successful engagement strategies, and easy smartphone accessibility, free-to-play continues its long-standing reign on the industry. The F2P segment managed to rake in a whopping $87.84 billion across all platforms in 2018, or 80% of total digital game revenues for the year.

The digital market pulled in $109.8 billion throughout 2018, up a strong 11% year-over-year and sending clear signals to publishers like EA, Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft, Tencent and Nexon that their live service plans are working. Asian territories fueled these billions and the region generated the lion's share of earnings for the segment. Conversely, areas like North America and Europe prefer bigger buy-to-play games like Red Dead Redemption 2, PUBG, and Black Ops 4.

Danish games dev IO Interactive has opened up a brand new studio in Malmo, Sweden that will help co-ordinate on the studio's projects.

Like any game developer, IO Interactive is likely working on multiple games at the same time. Games development is a collaborative effort that sees multiple teams synergizing and combining their strengths to make new games and big-name companies typically have multiple worldwide branches. Now IO Interactive, who's best known for the Hitman series, has launched a new studio.

According to IO CEO Akan Habrak, the Malmo studio will help the main Copenhagen headquarters develop Hitman games along with new franchises. We've recently reported IO is working on a brand new IP, however details have been light following the studio's split with Square Enix.

The Dragon Ball franchise shows no signs of slowing down and will continue spirit-bombing the industry with a new game in 2019, Bandai Namco confirms.

Today the devs at Bandai Namco announced Project Z, a new action RPG set in the Dragon Ball Z series. Other than the confirmation, official details are light but more information will be announced later this month during the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals starting on January 25.

A new DBZ game makes a lot of sense considering Dragon Ball makes a good portion of the publisher's revenues. 2018's big marquee fighter, Dragon Ball FighterZ from ARC System Works, was a big success worldwide and became the fastest-selling franchised game with 2 million units sold in a week's time. No developer details were announced, neither was an actual title for the new action game.

Capcom's Resident Evil 2 Remake demo is one of the best slices of survival horror I've played yet. Here are some quick impressions that underline why I'm excited about the final game.

Any good horror game makes you feel like you're in another dimension. We're transported to the Twilight Zone, the Outer Limits, to a dark pocket of reality where our worst nightmares come true. As players we surrender to the whims of the developers and are taken on a thrill ride where we can experience terror without the real-life ramifications. With their gritty style, claustrophobic environments, and dire feel, Resident Evil games have always done this--well the early ones anyway--and the RE2make brings back those old-school sentiments in droves.

Built on the new proprietary REngine that powered Resident Evil 7, the RE2make looks beautiful in its hallowed glory. High-quality atmospheric and lighting effects bring a new sense of realism and add another layer to that choking fear of impending doom, and the sound direction is absolutely amazing. This brings me to another point: if you play the Resident Evil 2 Remake 1-Shot Demo, make sure you do so with headphones on and in the dead of night. Turn out all the lights, put your headphones on, and be whisked away to a creepy, haunting slice of gameplay.

After many, many long years of waiting, fans of the original Ghostbusters films are finally getting a direct sequel.

Ghostbusters 3 is currently being developed in preparation of a Summer 2020 theatrical release with Jason Reitman, son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, directing the third chapter. The movie will take place after Ghostbusters 2 and ignore the hotly-contested 2016 reboot.

A new Ghostbusters 3 teaser trailer dropped today, revealing the original Ecto-1 will be in the movie. The footage also brings back that creepy 1980s vibe with the old-school musical theme and supernatural look and feel. Ghostbusters 3 will also have lots of new characters and "surprises" for old fans, Reitman says.

EA actually cancelled its new Star Wars game to preserve the release slate timeline and fill in gaps, not disrupt it.

EA Vancouver's open-world Star Wars game was cancelled so the studio could work on a smaller, more condensed project that releases sooner, sources tell Kotaku.

The plan is to shift focus from EA Vancouver's previous project, a big galactic bounty hunter affair called Project Orca, into a more streamlined and self-contained game. This would allow the Vancouver studio to release a game sooner and fill in obvious gaps in the original Star Wars timeline of games. It's possible this new project will utilize and iterate key elements, assets, and content from Project Orca while depending less on live services, as online-driven games with microtransactions and digital economies typically take years upon years to make. How Kotaku frames Orca makes it seem like a live-based experience with a wide content roadmap.