News:: Take-Two had a surprisingly good quarter because GTA Online brought in a boatload of money

Nearly four years into its life cycle, Grand Theft Auto Online refuses to die. In fact, it's only getting stronger. Its continued success comes to the surprise of almost everyone -- including the parent company that it's practically printing money for.

Take-Two Interactive released its first quarter 2018 investor's report today, and it's GTA Online that's leading the charge. Year-over-year revenue grew 34 percent, up to $418.2 million from $311.6 million. Take-Two points directly at digitally-delivered revenue for the spike, as that segment is up nearly $100 million over 2017's first fiscal quarter. The games responsible for pushing this trend are cited as: GTA Online, Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K17, WWE SuperCard, and WWE 2K17.

It's worth noting that Take-Two neglected to outline any specific sales figures for any individual game, so it's tough to quantify exactly how well GTA Online is doing. (Confusingly, other outlets ran that GTA Online had its "best quarter ever," a claim that can't be substantiated by this report.) But, this statement is telling: "Due to the continued success of Grand Theft Auto Online and other factors, [Take-Two] has determined that it is necessary to extend the life of Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online."

It also feels pertinent to point out that Take-Two didn't release any new games during the last quarter. Despite the lull in launches, it's raising its forecasted annual net revenue by $100 million and net income by $28 million. To everyone's surprise, GTA Online isn't facing the decline that usually impacts aging games. As long as it continues to make money hand over fist, Take-Two has made it clear that GTA Online isn't going anywhere.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Reports Strong Results for Fiscal First Quarter 2018 [Take-Two Interactive]

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News:: Live Show: The GTFOMLG Show - Episode 2.0

To say that last night's episode of the GTFOMLG show was an interesting start would be an understatement. We found out that Panic Restaurant wasn't as amazingly fun and polished as my rose-tinted goggles had me believing, and we also discovered during the post-show, that the NES version of The Family Feud is one of the most diabolical game show titles ever created. Seriously.

Tonight, starting at 7pm PST, we're ready to do it all over again at Dtoid.TV as we jump into Batman: The Video Game. It's sure to kick my ass straight back to the 80s, but I'll be too busy jamming out to the stellar soundtrack to care. We'll give our best shot for a few hours, and then, when we're done being pounded into submission, we'll end the show with something a bit more casual. Hope to see you all there!

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News:: Watch a full playthrough of the lost-to-time Rockman.EXE: Phantom of Network

Way back in the day, the Mega Man Battle Network series was a big money maker for Capcom and was easily the most successful Mega Man spinoff to date. A successful RPG series, merchandising, toys, anime. You name it, it had it. Of course, with any successful franchise on portable consoles comes the worst idea: Entries exclusive to mobile phones. Unfortunately, some of those entries are fully lost to time, with only screenshots to prove they existed.

For Rockman.EXE: Phantom of Network, that was also the case -- until a full playthrough of the game surfaced, which you can find here.

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News:: Rock Band has a new season pass subscription model for DLC

About a year ago, Rock Band leaned into the tendencies of its competitive players. The Rock Band Rivals expansion focused mostly on getting people to form crews, and then pitting those crews against one another in pursuit of high score supremacy. The week-to-week challenges seem to have worked for keeping dedicated players interested.

These challenges serve an ulterior motive, though. Each new set of Spotlight Songs (half the criteria the challenges are graded upon) usually features two tracks that people already have access to and one newly-released DLC song. Those who care the most about the Rivals format and the competition have to buy this track in order to hang. Posting two-thirds the score of your rival crews is a surefire way to face relegation, especially at the higher tiers where only a few percentage points of the total crews will get to land.

Heading into season two of Rock Band Rivals, Harmonix has introduced a slightly cheaper method of playing the new Spotlight Songs. Beginning on August 24, there will be a season pass that's more appropriately named than most video game season passes. For $13.50, the Rock Band Season 2 Spotlight Pass grants permanent access to the DLC track that's featured as a Spotlight Song.

It's a gamble to pre-purchase eight weeks worth of songs without knowing what they are, but that's not really the point for the people this is geared toward. Those players want to be able to post a score every week, regardless of how much they actually like the music. And, this season pass technically represents a savings over a eight-week period. (Add-on tracks are usually priced at $2, which means that buying them individually would cost $16; the $13.50 season pass will save players $2.50 over the course of two months.)

It's kind of a niche product for the most competitive of players, but Harmonix is likely aiming wider than that. Rock Band DLC has always lent itself to compulsive purchasing, an easy way to spend two bucks on a song you want to play right now. The developer likely has its sights set on that consumer mindset mixed with the boon of blind box subscription services in recent years.

Honestly, that seems fine. Season passes are a wart on the video game industry in the sense that it's foolish to pre-order content that might be bad. In this case, we know exactly how the in-game product will perform; there is literally a decade's worth of Rock Band DLC to point to. Anyone who buys the Rock Band season pass and finds it lacking can only really blame personal preference in musical tastes as the reason why. That and their spontaneous tendencies.

Introducing the Rock Band Season 2 Spotlight Pass [Harmonix]

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News:: Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 VR update incoming for Asia region release

These days, importing games is not quite the chore it used to be. With quite a few releases having a general release for the rest of the Asian market outside of Japan, oftentimes with an English translation in tow we are able to experience games that would otherwise be impossible to enjoy due to the language barrier.

But boobs are a universal language, let's be honest. And now if you own an import Asia region copy of Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, you can experience them in 3D reality with your PSVR headset.

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News:: PUBG can be such an oddly relaxing game

For once, I wasn't directly responsible for the Dumb Driving Moment in our PUBG session. Thank you, Ray. I'll cherish this feeling forever! (Until I invariably screw up real bad next episode.)

Today's video has nearly an hour of footage so, rest assured, we get up to some nonsense. No matter how productive our looting or well-fortified our position, we just have to get antsy. That's what we do.

I've heard some of you say D-Team shenanigans have sparked your interest in the game and that's what this show is all about. That, and hearing Steven call his back-to-back sneezes "sneezies."

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News:: Yakuza Kiwami's free DLC gets outlined, lets you rock Majima's jacket

Similar to Yakuza 0 earlier this year, Yakuza Kiwami will be receiving a bunch of free DLC following its release at the end of this month. There will be four packs, in total, that each bring about costumes for Kiryu to change into as well as some items to help you along in the story. While I'm not sure why Sega doesn't just include all of this on release (since all of the costumes are finished and released in Japan), at least they aren't charging for any of this stuff.

The different packs will come in the form of patches to the game and will be released weekly. You'll need to find Bob Utsunomiya, the series' iconic clown character, in Kamurocho to redeem these items. Starting on September 5, we'll receive the Kiwami Fun Pack 1 and 2 along with the Kiwami Street Pack 1 and 2. These will include the following:

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News:: A PC RPG 22 years in the works has missed release day...again

Grimoire: Herald of the Winged Exemplar has to go down in history alongside Duke Nukem Forever and others as having one of the longest development cycles for any video game, ever. Headed by Cleve Blakemore of Golden Era Games, ex Sir-Tech employee, a company responsible for the Wizardry series of computer RPGs, and eccentric madman with an extensive history of software development under his belt, Grimoire in Cleve's opinion is going to be the "best RPG ever made." Inspired by the Wizardry games of old, including other dungeon crawling "blobber" first-person PC RPGs, the art style and presentation is not made intentionally to reflect the look of those old games; it IS those old games, having started development in the late nineties, enduring a troubled Indiegogo campaign several years ago that raised over ten thousand dollars, and being announced as completed several times over the span of a decade much to the disappointment of backers and fans when the game ultimately failed to be released.

Most recently it was announced for release on Steam back in June after being on Steam Greenlight and has since missed the mark several times since its original release date of July 7 of this year. Cleve continuously cites bug fixes as the reason for this, stating that he wants the game to be "perfect" upon release. But frequently announcing firm dates and then announcing that more bugs have been found, or that the game has to go through the Steam approval process again is making people anxious and frustrated.

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News:: NBA 2K18's physical launch for Switch is behind schedule

Take-Two hasn't had much to show or even say about the Nintendo Switch version of NBA 2K18, and that silence has led some to understandably assume the worst about the port. I mean, just look at this barren landing page for the game. Not a video or screenshot in sight!

The digital Switch edition is still on track for September 19, just like the other versions, but the physical copy? That's been pushed back to "fall 2017," as disclosed today in Take-Two's fiscal first quarter 2018 earnings report. The company didn't provide an explanation for the delayed retail release.

NBA 2K isn't my particular jam, but I do hope major publishers do right by Switch-owning sports fans.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Reports Strong Results for Fiscal First Quarter 2018 [Take-Two Interactive via Nintendo Everything]

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News:: Hitman is starting to get into player-curated contracts

This month's Hitman update schedule is mostly more of the same, but the fact that IO is still finding ways to support the game makes me happy. First up, on August 11, the game will have 10 new Featured Contracts to unravel and another Challenge Pack -- the sixth to date -- for Hokkaido. Completing the latter set will award all you stone-cold killers out there with a unique item.

And later this month, the studio will launch the first of its player-curated Featured Contracts.

"These player-curated contracts will offer a fresh twist to the style of contracts that will be featured in the game and give all players a chance to get an insight into how some of the prominent members of the Hitman community play the game." The first curator? Brazilian streamer Mendietinha.

This stuff sounds intimidating to a wannabe professional like me, but it makes sense that IO would want to keep the hardcore folks engaged. They're the ones still putting in time, after all.

IO says "there is no game update in the pipeline for this month but we are working towards future game updates. Looking ahead, the September Content Schedule will be similar to this one, with a focus on Contracts Mode and a new Challenge Pack. That relative calm will give us time to prepare for some exciting announcements."

HITMAN – August Content Schedule [IO Interactive]

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News:: Dragon Quest XI's gargantuan launch also makes console sales soar in Japan

Last week it was Splatoon 2, this week it's Dragon Quest XI (and still Splatoon 2) pushing console sales. If you weren't aware, Dragon Quest is the game series in Japan, so much so that each new entry only releases on Saturday to avoid kids and adults calling in sick to school and work.

In just two days Dragon Quest XI eclipsed two million sales on 3DS and PlayStation 4 combined in Japan alone, while the Switch version is still to come. The release rocketed the New 2DS XL (LL in Japan) sales to over 100,000 for the week. Likewise, PS4 sales nearly quadrupled and New 3DS XL figures doubled from the previous week. The Nintendo Switch stayed at around 90,000 from last week likely due to the continued popularity of Splatoon 2.

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News:: Where did all the skateboard games go?

This is a question I've had stuck in my mind recently, but can't quite put my finger on the exact reasons behind it, as there are a number of them that I'll go over. As someone who considers themselves an extreme digital influencer, growing up on skater culture and skateboard video games, I never imagined that they would suddenly become as scarce as they are.

Having access to the latest skateboard or extreme sport-based game on the latest hardware was something that was always the norm to me. It wasn't until this console generation that I began to notice their absence and question where they went or what exactly had happened.

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News:: The Dark Tower is the latest blockbuster to be filled with production problems

Based on reports from some inside sources Variety is reporting that The Dark Tower had a very rock production. This might not come as a surprise since the entire process of bringing Stephen King's book series to any size screen has taken more than 10 years, but evidently post-production got pretty complex with the film as director Nikolaj Arcel turned in an early edit that was confusing and hard to follow. 

After testing incredibly poorly with audiences who couldn't follow the plot or the complex mythos that the story takes place in Modi Wiczyk, co-founder of Media Rights Capital, and Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman considered bringing in another director to finish the film off. Rotham evidently spent hours in the editing bay with Arcel trying to get the film to work. Reshoots brought in an entirely new part of the film that helped explain the world and reinforce why Roland (Idris Elba) hates the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey). The sources say the only reason Arcel wasn't replaced was because of costs.

Of course the producers and Arcel deny this all, saying that they worked happily together. Arcel even states that if anyone had come into his editing room he'd have walked. 

“On a film with two studios and powerful producers, obviously there is much passionate creative debate on how to work certain ideas or beats,” he said. “But I felt supported throughout, and they all looked to me for answers. If someone had jumped into my editing room and taken over — I would have left instantly.”

Honestly, The Dark Tower is an incredibly hard series to adapt. Since King (who got veto power over everything, adding another layer of approval to the film) wrote the series over so many years it often wanders into itself. It's a brilliant series, but it can vary in quality and only gains complexity with each novel as world jumping, time travel, and trips down memory lane occur. It's also insanely meta, having a lot to do with King's own creative process and the worlds he's created. There's a high bar of entry here and Arcel has never directed anything this complex. So all of this could just be what happens when you try to adapt something that no one could adapt for 10 straight years. 

‘The Dark Tower’: Clashing Visions, Brutal Test Screenings Plagued Journey to Big Screen (Variety)

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News:: Grab a drink and get comfy with VA-11 HALL-A's unused song

Ever since I laid my eyes on VA-11 HALL-A, I fell in love with its bartending elements and characters. This wonderful relationship resulted in it becoming one of my favorite games of 2016. As a person who jams out to its soundtrack, I was surprised to hear about its unused vocal version of "Your Love is a Drug."

YouTube Vocal Cover Singer SabrinaValenzuela worked on the song in 2015 when Michael Kelly wanted her to sing and create lyrics for the original tune. In the end, the game's composer went with the track's instrumental version.

While we missed out on seeing this tune in the final product, it's nice that Kelly was cool with Valenzuela uploading her vocal cover on her channel. Since the two of them made a great combo, I'd be down with seeing them work together again. Until then, I'm happy about having a new way to enjoy one of VA-11 HALL-A's amazing tracks.

Sabi [Twitter]

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News:: Hey, JRPG fans! Trails of Cold Steel is out on PC

Nihon Falcom's beloved PS3 and PS Vita RPG The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel made its way to Steam and GOG today. It's going to be $40 normally, but for launch week, it's down to $36.

The early sales are encouraging (it's charting at number two on the top-sellers list, right below the nigh-unstoppable PUBG), and by the looks of it, XSEED and Peter "Durante" Thoman nailed the port.

"Trails of Cold Steel follows a lot of classic JRPG conventions, and as a result, it doesn't do a whole lot of things that haven't been done before, and better elsewhere," Chris wrote in his review. "But the combat system still holds up, and the characters are charming enough to see the story through until the end.

If you're a JRPG-loving PC gamer, you ought to look into this one (after clearing your schedule).

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel [Steam] [GOG]

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News:: This Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild themed cooking episode is making me hungry

Binging with Babish, one of YouTube's most popular cooking shows, just took on Zelda: Breath of the Wild and his concoctions look delicious. He starts with mushroom risotto over a campfire, a la Breath, followed by baked apples (with goat butter), and monster cake (white modeling chocolate, ume extract).

My wife and I cook nearly every day together, so we can't get enough of stuff like this. Our most recent concoction was a surprisingly amazing lentil meatloaf by way of a family recipe, which looks just like the real thing if you glaze it.

For my next adventure I want to craft a unique stir fry that utilizes bird's eye chilis to their fullest without being too overpowering for folks who don't like spice (a local farmer's market is getting Carolina Reapers soon, which will be my next person quest). I'm thinking of going with glass noodles to start? It's still a work in progress!

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News:: Microsoft is bringing out more Xbox One controllers and a smaller wireless adapter

I'm here to tell you that "Volcano Shadow" is a good-ass name for a controller.

Microsoft is rolling out a trio of new designs over the next month and a revised Xbox wireless adapter for Windows 10 that's 66 percent smaller than the existing one. My cramped USB ports thank you!

Two of the controllers -- Green/Gray and Volcano Shadow, priced at $65 and $70 respectively -- are due out August 3. The third design, Patrol Tech, is $70 and set for an October 17 release.

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News:: Dank Tomb and the PICO-8 Fantasy Console

A few months ago, a surprise landed in my mail called the PocketCHIP. It was a surprise because I had forgotten I had pre-ordered it, and it ended up getting lost in translation for the better part of four months. A handheld micro-computer using a board similar to that of the Raspberry Pi, it was more built for enthusiasts developing projects, but the real appeal behind it for me was integration with the PICO-8 Fantasy Console by Lexaloffle Games, an engine meant to hearken back to the days of the BASIC programming language on older computers, specifically made to program and modify games.

PICO-8 is mainly interesting because of the intense restrictions it places on programmers. You are limited to a space of 128 X 128 pixels, 32k of virtual “cartridge space,” and 4-channel sound. The benefit is that the PICO-8 system provides all the base tools necessary to program a game from scratch including a sprite and sound editor, though it will test your coding chops -- using the Lua scripting language means that you will be primarily messing around with code. This is not an engine like RPG Maker that handles most of the hard work for you and requires some programming knowledge.

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News:: Battlefield 1's test environment has come to consoles

Do you ever mess with the Public Test Realm in Blizzard games like Overwatch or WoW or drop by DICE's Community Test Environment for a sneak peek at upcoming work-in-progress Battlefield content? It's a fairly common practice for PC developers, but on consoles? Not so much.

As of this week, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 users can participate too. DICE has brought the Community Test Environment to Battlefield 1 on consoles, and so long as you own the game and its Premium Pass, you'll be able to download it in-game by clicking "More" on the main menu. You might need to clear up some storage, though. The CTE is its own, not-exactly-small thing. (I'm hearing 40GB.)

DICE says it'll use this space for "testing and ensuring stability of Battlefield 1 updates, maps, and other content." It's a niche addition, to be sure, but I'm sure some folks will dig this.

Battlefield 1 Community Test Environment Coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One [Battlefield]

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News:: Dissidia Final Fantasy is getting yet another mystery character soon

Square Enix won't stop making Dissidia arcade characters. They just won't.

They've been at it for over a year now adding DLC to the arcade edition of the game, steadily increasing its roster of heroes and villains. How much of that will translate into the PS4 version that's coming later this year is unknown, but in the meantime, all of you Japanese residents can reap the benefits.

So what's next? The publisher is teasing a set of characters actually, four in all. One new fighter will be unveiled from August through November, with the first to be announced on August 7 at 20:00 JST.

Want to take some guesses? Golbez seems like a given, but there's buzz about Jecht and Ultimecia.

Dissidia [Famitsu via Gematsu]

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News:: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds lead explains mixed messaging for Early Access loot crates

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is taking Steam by storm, and people are loving the lack of microtransactions in favor of in-game currency earned loot crates -- well, for now at least. While creator Brendan "Playerunknown" Greene promised that there would be no microtransactions in early access, an upcoming test of a "crate and key" system has people worried.

In a blog post on Steam Playerunknown says not to fear however, as this rollout is mainly due to the necessity of requiring a test before the final version. Like any developer who is gunning for microtransations he assures fans that they'll help fund the ongoing development of the game, but since it's a $29.99 purchase already, some of the same people who were upset at Overwatch are already pointing fingers.

Playerunknown has already apologized for the confusing messaging though, and explains the crate system in full in the blog post as follows: "Like the current free-to-open system, you will be limited in the number of crates you can receive each week, with the crate prices being reset each Monday. Currently, this limit is set to 6 crates per week, and you are free to trade them on the Steam Marketplace. I also want to point out that the full cosmetic system is still being discussed internally, and we are taking your concerns into consideration when it comes to the ability to get free cosmetics by playing the game."

Given that it's all cosmetic it seems reasonable enough, but again, there's a lot of people out there who don't think there should be any paid transactions in any premium games, so there's going to be pushback over the coming months while I sit back and play the game.

Early Access Month 4 Update [Steam]

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News:: Nintendo Switch firmware update fixes unfortunate battery indicator issue with some extra legwork

While I like the Switch as a whole, there's no denying that it's had an uphill battle when it comes to hardware issues from the get-go.

In addition to that confirmed left Joy-Con issue the OS was fairly base level at launch, and tiny little problems have been popping up left and right -- like the battery indicator problem. Apparently for some, the battery symbol does not correctly display an accurate reading, whether it's a false deceleration of 0% or any power level above.

Enough users experienced that the battery icon was incorrect that Nintendo issued a full-on system update in 3.0.1 to fix it. You just...might need to go through the below seven step process to actually finally fix your system, as the firmware doesn't magically make it better.

Ah, modern systems.

The Battery Charge Indicator Displays Incorrectly [Nintendo]

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News:: Three new 'Persona' spin-offs are coming, including 'Q2'

Atlus has just announced a trio of new Persona spin-offs. Following on from the 2015 PS Vita rhythm game Persona 4: Dancing All Night are a pair of new Dancing titles based on Persona 3 and Persona 5. A pair of trailers show Aigis and co. bopping to the Persona 3 soundtrack in Dancing Moon Night, while the Persona 5 team shows of its moves in Dancing Star Night. Both games will come to the PlayStation 4 as well as Vita.

Via: Polygon

Source: Persona Dance, Persona Q2

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News:: Review: Dino Frontier

Any game that sincerely and repeatedly refers to you as "Big Mayor" is my kinda game.

Following its PlayStation VR launch title Wayward Sky, Uber Entertainment is back with another virtual reality romp -- one that's just as charming if not more so -- and has cowboys and dinosaurs, to boot. I was so into this Wild West settlement-building sim that the first time I played it, I kept going until 2:00am and only took a break to send Chris a hyped-up "It's real good" email. I hardly ever do that!

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News:: The Witcher colouring book being published by Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics have collaborated with CD Projekt RED to produce an adult colouring book featuring characters and scenes from the intense, sexy and action-packed Witcher series.

Unfortunately adult colouring book appears to refer to the fact that the book is of the modern, stress-relieving kind, popular among post-pubescent folk in recent years, as opposed to it referring to "adult" in the X-rated sense.

Regardless, two images have been released from the upcoming activity book, one depicting protagonist Geralt doing his arm-removing, monster-hunting thing, whilst another is a representation of his famous bathtub-chillin' scene from the critically acclaimed Witcher 3.

The colouring book is set for release on November 1, priced at around $15. Try to stay within the lines. Actually, screw it, go outside of the lines, there's no rules to art, man.

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News:: Do you have a collectors/rare gaming item support system?

Every so often people ask me how I'm able to spot deals or get items that sell out instantly. Given that publishers typically aren't sending collector's editions or rare items out for review I have to sort of make it on my own, but over the years I've developed a support system of sorts that's really helped me out.

The whole amiibo craze really boosted my network, because for a while there, it was pretty dicey to get any figure, much less the store exclusives and anything in Wave 4. Even people here at Destructoid, both staff and reader alike joined in at various points in the hunt. But since then, Discord servers, subreddits, and various other public-facing networks have popped up to help.

It seems like it's us against the world for the SNES Classic though. Nintendo has been dancing this thing around like a puppet on strings, only to pull the puppeteer rod out when we're just in grasp. It'll be a team effort, and that entire concept got me thinking -- how many people just wing it, employ the same types of networks I've built, or just don't care at all.

Feel free to share your thoughts, especially if it's "I ignore all of this madness to keep my sanity intact."

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