August 30, 2024: Hello World, It's Siliconera!

Welcome to “Siliconera Speaks Up,” our new newsletter for the site! This’ll be a summary of the past week’s anime or gaming news, as well as a little reminder of things to come. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

Top 10 Stories From the Past Week

1. Review: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Isekai Chronicles Feels Like Tales

2. FFXIV Gil Coin Collection Set For Sale via Square Enix

3. Persona 3 Reload Puma Sneakers Are Stylish

4. Voice Actress Atsuko Tanaka Died

5. Bandai Namco to Announce More Armored Core Model Kits

6. My Hero Academia Handles Deku’s Romance Better Than Other Manga

7. HoYoVerse Lets Players Link Their Discord to Genshin Impact

8. Minato Aqua Aquarium Game Streaming Guidelines Temporarily Lifted

9. Naruto to Boruto Shinobi Striker PS4 Maintenance is Ongoing

10. Pocketpair Shares How to Get Palworld Pal Skin Twitch Drops

Notable Mentions

• Yu Yu Hakusho Sunglasses Being Sold

• Civilization VII Release Date and Gameplay Revealed

• Black Myth Wukong Banned in Taiwan

• Beetlejuice Bishoujo Figure Turns Him Into a Girl Again

• NIKKE GunGirl Weapons Will Appear as Scaled Model Kits

Speak Up Sesh

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to go to ANYC 2024 for the first time and it was an absolutely amazing experience. There were lots of great people, awesome panels, beautiful merchandise, and delicious food. It was only during the convention that I heard about its positive reputation, and it more than earned it with how pleasant and organized everything felt. Now that it’s over though, there’s an issue that kind of dominated my TL: the presence of VTubers.

Personally, denying VTuber’s rights to be at a convention for Japanese media (and auxiliary interests) seems counter-intuitive. Like it or not, they’re part of that world. But I do admit that I wish the hololive booth in the artist alley wasn’t situated right at the entrance. Entering the artist alley wasn’t too bad, but exiting could be slow due to foot traffic and the audience around the booth. Then, factor in the booming speakers coupled with the higher-pitched voice registers of some of the talents and yeah, it wasn’t a great combination. VTuber fans have such incredible energy though, and they certainly bring the love for their oshis to the site. Hopefully, feedback from this year can improve on that front next year.

Considering how new VTubing is as an industry, it’s not surprising that there’s this sort of experimental phase where people aren’t sure where they fit, both literally and figuratively. Even the companies seem to have trouble knowing what positions they need to hire for. I wonder if other people who remember when content creators like Kizuna Ai first appeared, before the concept of VTubing became mainstream or anything more than a gimmick, were also as stunned at how quickly this new streaming method grew in popularity or prominence.

ANYC was only a weekend. Before that, there was Gamescom and lots of other news! Gamescom coverage was competitive, of course, due to the sheer size of that event. But Siliconera’s core audience showed plenty of interest in franchise or games that didn’t get covered. Armored Core fans will be getting some cool new stuff in the future and the Tensura game shows lots of promise.

The saddest news goes without saying: the passing of the iconic Atsuko Tanaka. Aside from her lasting legacy and influence on generations of fans through roles like Motoko Kusanagi, Medea (Caster), Lisa Lisa, Kyrie Ushiromiya, and Bayonetta, she also seemed like such a vibrant person in life. She was one of the people who named Yuihin and Saihin, the giant pandas at Adventure World, and had a passion for dancing. May she rest in peace.

Recent Releases

• Core Keeper (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, XSX, PC) - August 27th

• Dead by Daylight Castlevania DLC (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, XSX, PC, mobile) - August 27th

• Genshin Impact 5.0 (PS4, PS5, PC, mobile) - August 28th

• Emio the Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club (Switch) - August 29th

• Gundam Breaker 4 (PS4, PS5, Switch, PC) - August 29th

• Visions of Mana (PS4, PS5, XSX, PC) - August 29th