Nintendo may have inadvertently revealed the names and logos for a new pair of Pokémon games, Pokémon Sun and Moon, Thursday, ahead of the games’ scheduled reveal. The publisher filed trademarks for the two games in the European Union Thursday, which featured what appear to be logos for each.
Meanwhile, Nintendo announced it will broadcast a Pokémon-themed Nintendo Direct livestream Friday morning. The announcement said fans should “be sure” to visit Pokemon.com after the event.
Catch the new Pokémon Direct on Feb. 26 at 7 a.m. PT! https://t.co/sVsqDLWp43 pic.twitter.com/N4PoQgwU5Z
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 24, 2016
A Nintendo of America parody Twitter account with similar name and image tweeted that Sun and Moon would be released in 2016, causing some media outlets to incorrectly report that Nintendo confirmed the game ahead of schedule. (The parody account has been suspended.)
The broadcast comes just a day ahead of the original Pokémon’s 20th anniversary. Nintendo has rolled out a long list of promotions to commemorate the anniversary, including a Pokémon-themed New 3DS console, and upcoming ports of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow coming the 3DS eShop Saturday, Feburary 27.
Rumors that Nintendo would announce new Pokémon sequels in 2016 intensified earlier this month when the design for a new Pokémon called Magiana was published in Japanese magazine Coro Coro. According to Eurogamer, the magazine article said Magiana would appear in an upcoming Pokémon film, Volcanion and the Exquisite Magiana, but would not appear as DLC in the latest Pokémon games, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. While past reports have referred to the upcoming sequel as “Pokémon Z,” a presumptive sequel to 2013 game Pokémon X and Y, the new trademarks make Sun and Moon a more viable possibility.
We’ll find out what the new Pokémon games are called when (and if) they’re announced at the February, 2016, Nintendo Direct, which begins Friday at 10am Eastern. You can check out the livestream on the Nintendo website.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.