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Square Enix, through Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal (the folks you might know from, say, Tomb Raider and Deus Ex), just showed up in the world of Marvel. Yesterday, the company teased a reveal for today; right in line with the company's profile, that reveal showed up on Marvel's Twitter account this morning in the form of a fifty-one-second trailer. In it, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Cap all appear as wrecked versions of their accouterments, with a broken pair of Banner's glasses, Thor's hammer, a discarded arm from Stark's suit, and Rogers' vibranium shield, all in rubble.

The theme of the video is "#reassemble," which implies to me that the plot of whatever game this might be could slot in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe somewhere between last year's Captain America: Civil War and next year's Avengers: Infinity War, but to be honest, I'm a little behind on the MCU movies and given the fact that we have no idea where the game is in development, it could well take place after Infinity War but before the fourth scheduled Avengers movie, or even later. I mean, I'm no insider - maybe it's not MCU at all, but frankly they'd be crazy not to figure it in there somehow.

That's all we know right now, but that's one heck of a teaser - one of the largest game developers in the world working (in theory) with what is probably the hottest global IP in entertainment right now. Pretty wild stuff, speculate away.

Source: Marvel Entertainment Twitter

The last time I had an update on the A New World concert series was ten whole months ago, but today Square Enix announced five new dates for the new year. Three of the shows are new to the series this year.

• Kansas City, Kansas: March 11
• Seattle, Washington: March 25
• Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois: May 21
• Atlanta, Georgia: May 28
• Portland, Oregon: June 3

The new dates will be in Seattle, Atlanta, and Portland, and the concerts will take place in conjunction with local conventions in Kansas City, Rosemont, and Atlanta. Benyamin Nuss is listed as the featured pianist for all but the KCK show, and Eric Roth (Arnie Roth's son) will conduct all five.

Apologies for being so far behind on news again - I've been swallowed up with other projects for most of January so far. I hear that Square Enix have a big announcement planned for tomorrow, though, so I'll be on the lookout for that!

Source: A New World

I must have missed an email earlier today, because I found out via a sponsored post on Facebook that Distant Worlds is coming to my area again, for their first ever show in New Orleans. I've already secured my tickets, so now my daughter will get her first-ever taste of Distant Worlds too!

There are quite a few new shows that have been announced since I last posted about Distant Worlds - here's your list.

• Newark, New Jersey: January 28
• Omaha, Nebraska: February 3
• Montreal, Quebec: February 11
• Seattle, Washington: March 26
• New Orleans, Louisiana: March 31
• Madrid, Spain: April 29
• Barcelona, Spain: April 30
• Amsterdam, Netherlands: May 4
• Dusseldorf, Germany: May 6
• Milan, Italy: May 12
• Zurich, Switzerland: May 13
• Edmonton, Alberta: May 20
• Calgary, Alberta: May 21
• Salt Lake City, Utah: June 3

New Orleans, all of the European dates, both Canadian dates, and Salt Lake City are all new locations never before visited by the Distant Worlds tours. However, Nobuo Uematsu fans will be disappointed by the dates announced so far this year, as he is currently confirmed to attend only Newark.

Is anyone getting a chance to go now thanks to a closer venue? I just commented recently that I was surprised that they'd never come to NOLA before, and I'm glad to have a chance to be there for the local debut!

Source: Distant Worlds

2017 is the 30th anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy in Japan (remember, we didn't get it over here for three more years). While the actual release in Japan didn't take place until December of 1987, for obvious reasons Square Enix are looking to make the entire year a celebration.

We've yet to get any new details regarding exactly what that will entail since that prior news post back in September, but the company has announced that there will be a live event in Tokyo on January 31st that will lay out the timeline for the year. There's been no announcment regarding a livestream for fans not lucky enough to win a ticket to the event, but I would be shocked to find that it is not streamed on Twitch, YouTube, NicoNico, or all three.

There have been rumors about remasters or remakes for every game in the series, but as yet those have been unconfirmed by any reliable source. Perhaps that might await us in a month's time.

Source: Siliconera

It's been out three weeks already! And the standard edition is, today (only?) at the cut-rate cost of $34.99 for both XBox One and PlayStation 4.

http://amzn.to/2gXTPJ6

Yeah, okay, this isn't huge news, perhaps I can get some more of that together today, but it's a pretty sweet sale for a game that is brand new and pretty well-reviewed. I just ordered my copy!

The time has come. If you weren't the beneficiary of someone accidentally providing the game early, today is the day that Final Fantasy XV is on the shelves of your local retailer or arriving in your mailbox from your preorder. What a long, strange trip it's been, to quote someone with whom I share virtually no aspects of my life.

Because this game isn't your run of the mill release, the information hasn't stopped coming just because the game is playable by the public, no sir. There's a new trailer - yes, a trailer for a game that is out now - with a surprising soundtrack and a mysterious mobile phone call, among other impressive sights and sounds. Square Enix Japan also did one final Active Time Report overnight, which Siliconera provides to us with a nice set of English subtitles. It's full of weirdness that is better seen yourself, but suffice to say that Prompto has a blast at a special party for the game's release and that Yosuke Matsuda, Squenix CEO, pops in to say hello.

And how are the reviews? Solid. Of course, that won't matter to anyone who is convinced that there hasn't been an actual Final Fantasy game since the year 2000, but it is what it is, right?