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Idea Factory is establishing an outpost in California. The Tokyo-based publisher announced the creation of Idea Factory International today, which expressly aims to strengthen the company’s brands around the globe. Former NIS America president Harusato Akenaga will act as CEO. Players might be familiar with the group’s otaku-centric franchises, which include theRecord of Agarest War,Hyperdimension Neptunia,andHakuokiseries. Until now Idea Factory and its subsidiary Compile Heart have relied on studios such as Aksys Games and NIS America to localize its titles for Western audiences, a practice that figures to change moving forward once Idea Factory International gets off the ground....

This has been taking me a while. But after many attempts that got lost in the fog, perhaps I now know how to approach this. Let’s keep it simple for starters:Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrellis a great book, worthy of all the plaudits it has received over the years. Two magicians appear in England in the Napoleonic era, with something otherworldly in the mist behind their backs amid a flock of ravens....

Anime fighter plots its course for summer Namco Bandai has revealed one of a selection of characters headed to the roster of the comprehensive-but-not-great anime fighting gameJump Force. Yu-Gi-Oh!’sSeto Kaiba will join the game alongside two further mystery characters in May. The publisher has also taken the opportunity to lay out the calendar forJump Force’DLC and other updates going forward. Next month will add clans, avatar costumes and the “Vertex Effect”....

Peruse while eating your Octorok Like the legendary Triforce itself, the trifecta is complete, as Dark Horse Publishing have announced the third tome in their acclaimed series ofZeldabooks,The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia. This 320-page volume will be a go-to guide to the land of Hyrule and beyond, with pages dedicated to characters, enemies, items, maps and many more of the wonderful places and people that have made theZeldaseries beloved by millions of fans worldwide....

[Tune in toSaturday Morning Hangoverevery Saturday at 10am Pacific for the latest Xbox Live Indie Games, co-op play and assorted hijinks. Hosted byConrad Zimmerman,Jordan Devoreand the lovelyKatrina. We have a couch! Come join us live onDestructoid’s Twitch.tv channel!] Oh, it’s gonna be a good one today, folks. See, Katrina came staggering in at nearly five in the morning, which is later than she’s ever been awake. That means she’s either going to be extra punchy or totally delirious, which is going to make all of those Xbox Live Indie Games demos much more tolerable....

‘STARTERSTYLES’ A newMagic: Arenaupdate is in town and almost entirely deals with cosmetics. The gist is that cosmetics have come to the game in spades, not by way of a gradual rollout, in the form of card sleeves (backs), stylized cards, new avatars, and expensive bundles that contain a combo of all three. Sleeves are semi-reasonably priced at 600 gems (less than $5) and two new avatars can be purchased with gold (in-game currency), but the community isn’t quite as happy about forced bundles (the same conceptHeroes of the Stormintroduced in its 2....

Well, that was unexpected ThoughHitman: Absolutionhas been out for over a year, new missions for the title have been added to the game’s “Contracts” mode with seemingly no warning whatsoever. New missions have launched on all three platforms the game is available for. PC players will skulk through a haunted house, the Xbox 360 version has a donut shop to kill in, and on PS3 there’s something to do with a pyromaniac ice cream seller, which seems like an odd combination of career choice and psychological disorder....

Also, Flying Warriors Nintendo is getting creative with its Nintendo Download announcements, filling out entries with events and apps. One such event is the “Choose your Legends” promotion, whichlets fans voteon who they want to appear in the upcomingFire Emblem Heroesmobile game. Another addition is the Pokemon Bank update, which can now interact withSunandMoon. On the Wii U we have mostly Virtual Console stuff, includingFlying Warriors, Kung-Fu Heroes,andLittle Ninja Brothers. For 3DS, you can choose betweenCandy, Please!...

Compliments of Arc System Works One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseumis set for a release in Japan on September 21 on 3DS, and this new development makes the news that there’s no planned localization even tougher. Arc System Works has announced thatGrand Piratewill be getting a cross-versus update along withDragon Ball Z: Extreme Butodento allow for cross-game play in “early November.” Yep, you’ll be able to play both locally and online, and have Luffy and Goku (and crew) brawl it out just like they did inJ-Stars Victory Vs....

Onee Chanbaragames are a lot like school in the summertime- no class. Yet, the “cowboy ninja girl vs zombie horde” centered game series, birthed on the PS2 in 2004, has seen releases on everything from cell phones to the Xbox 360 to eventhe big screen. Somebody out there must be buying these games, and starting sometime in 2009, Wii owning fans of flesh (of both the pink female and rotten corpse varieties) will finally get their chance to be “a somebody”....

Before it was even officially out a full day Nexon’s absurdist, highly enjoyable fighting titleDNF Duellaunched yesterday, and it wasn’t even 24 hours before modders were already adding popular anime and gaming heroes into the PC edition of fast-paced fighter — such is the way of the FGC and its incredibly talented modding community. The first that caught my eye was this wonderful skin ofPersona 5‘s button-down bookworm Makoto Nijima, whose skin fits like a glove overDNF‘s martial arts cutie-pie, Striker....

Blizzard has announced a new mode forWorld of Warcraftthat mixes the traditional gameplay of the popular MMO with the Battle Royale genre. Available later today, Plunderstorm isWorld of Warcraft‘s pirate-themed take onFortnite. 60 players will drop into an all-out fight with this new mode, which is separate from the main game. These aren’t going to be your normal geared-and-tieredWoWcharacters participating in this. You’ll make a unique base character without classes and racial abilities....

What would you combine? Well you’ve seen hours of gameplay by now, but what about the story premise? The opening cutscene shows a young tech-capable inventor working on what looks like augmented reality glasses that can combine any two items to make a new one. As she leaves the room and her glasses unintended, the Rabbids teleport into her game-themed room with a washing machine. They proceed to do crazy Rabbid things, including combining each other with the girl’s Mario merchandise using the glasses....