The Weekly Round-Up: $650 Pokémon Lego, MindsEye misery and a Mega Man myth debunked
Our light-hearted recap of the week’s most interesting video game news
Chris Scullion
This is a blog post, where VGC writers post irreverent and (occasionally) entertaining coverage of video game culture.
Welcome to the second of our weekly game news round-ups. In case you missed last week’s, this is our way of winding up the past week by recapping its more interesting stories, with a bad dad joke at the end.
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Online fan theories kicked off earlier this year, noting the similarities between the design of Pragmata’s robotic girl sidekick, Diana, and Capcom’s Mega Man, as well as thematic connections, like the game taking place on a moonbase taken over by evil machines infected by a virus.
However, Capcom has now officially debunked the rumour, after VGC quizzed Pragmata producer Naoto Oyama about the theory.
“Pragmata is not a Mega Man game,” he laughed. “It is a completely new game from Capcom.
“I was actually one of the producers on the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection as well, so I’m happy to see that people who love Mega Man are passionate about Pragmata too. From my standpoint, it’s nice to see people are being so positive about it.”
Remember this quote when it turns out that Pragamata isn’t a secret Mega Man game after all, but is instead a secret Mega Man Battle Network game.
In an interview with Nikkei which was held in May but published on the site last weekend, Haruhito Tsujimoto was asked about the release of Monster Hunter Wilds and its initial sales of 10 million units in its first month of release.
Tsujimoto said the goal of 10 million units in the first month was an internal one at Capcom, so in that respect the sales were on track, but he also noted that continuing to build on these sales could be trickier given the price of buying current-gen hardware.
Replying to a question about having to build on that initial 10 million, Tsujimoto replied (via machine translation): “That’s correct. However, we also found that the ‘barriers to the PS5‘ are unexpectedly large.
“The console costs around ¥80,000 ($540). Factoring in the cost of software and monthly subscriptions, it comes to around ¥100,000 ($675) at the time of purchase. This is not an easily affordable price, especially for younger generations. This situation is not limited to Japan, but is similar overseas.”
VGC understands that when asked if buying the game for Xbox Series S could solve that problem, Tsujimoto laughed and said “this is Japan, mate”.
In an interview with VGC, Wade Rosen was explaining how, when it comes to re-releasing or remastering retro games, there has to be a balance between choosing games that are expected to sell well, and ‘passion projects’ that may not sell so well but have a cult audience who love those particular games.
Citing his own three choices, Rosen told us: “Life’s too short, you know? I’ve got mine too, right? If we ever had a chance to work on Panzer Dragoon Saga or Ogre Battle or Snatcher or something like that… I mean, I don’t know if it would do well, but I’d probably push it through and make sure we did it just because I would love to work on one of those.
“But it all has to be in a balance. If this company just became like ‘what games does Wade want to work on?’ we would not be around too long.”
Rosen’s choice was music to the ears of VGC’s Chris Scullion, who has Snatcher in his list of all-time favourite games and once – and this is real – collected his child from school while wearing a t-shirt that said ‘Snatcher’ on it and didn’t understand why the other parents were looking at him funny.
In July, some fans believed Nintendo had accidentally revealed its slate of upcoming Nintendo 64 games planned for NSO, after they dissected blurry box images featured in an official Nintendo video.
The blurred box images appeared to include cover art for Donkey Kong 64, Glover, Super Smash Bros, and Forsaken 64.
Forsaken 64 was officially added to Switch Online on Thursday, potentially adding credence to the theory that the other games will also be coming soon to the Switch’s N64 library.
Great news for fans of Donkey Kong 64 and Super Smash Bros, but an all-too familiar letdown for that one guy, somewhere in the world, who’s still waiting for an official re-release of Elmo’s Letter Adventure.
In 2024 the company announced IOI Partners, a new venture that would see it publishing games from other developers. The first game published under the IOI Partners label was MindsEye, the debut game from former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies‘ new studio Build a Rocket Boy.
However, when MindsEye was released on June 10, social media became flooded with videos of the game’s technical issues and bugs, and reviews – which came late due to review code not being supplied to publications – resulted in a Metacritic score of just 37 on PC and 28 on PS5.
In a new interview with IGN, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak said the initial talks it had with Build a Rocket Boy were “to support them”, explaining: “We thought they had some great ideas and a great world in the background that they were building, and hopefully they’ll get the opportunity to show more of that in the future. And we just wanted to help them distribute the game.”
VGC understands the main learning Abrak took from the situation was that when he was told the studio was called Build a Rocket Boy, he didn’t double-check to make sure the rocket being built wasn’t Apollo 13.
In March it was announced by The Pokémon Company and the Lego Group that Lego Pokémon sets are coming soon, with the first sets from the collaboration expected in 2026.
Now a new report claims the first wave of Lego Pokémon sets will include a 587-piece set costing $59.99 and a 2,050 piece set costing $199.99.
However, the news that will raise most fans’ eyebrows is the claim that the third set will contain 6,838 pieces and cost $649.99, making it one of the most expensive Lego sets ever (and the seventh-largest).
Fans have been speculating as to what could possibly justify a set of that size and cost, with theories ranging from a set containing Lego versions of all 151 original Pokémon, to a full Pallet Town replica.
VGC has been in touch with our insiders, and we can exclusively reveal that the set will be an enormous, foot-high empty wallet with a winking Pikachu leaning out of it.
As part of the agreement, Paramount will produce and distribute a live-action film set inside the Call of Duty universe, though it’s not clear which of the more than 30 games it will be based on, if any.
According to Variety, while the deal is for a single Call of Duty movie, it “encompasses the potential” for Paramount to expand the Call of Duty universe across film and TV.
“As a lifelong fan of Call of Duty this is truly a dream come true,” said Paramount’s chairman and CEO, David Ellison, in a statement. “From the first Allied campaigns in the original ‘Call of Duty,’ through ‘Modern Warfare’ and ‘Black Ops,’ I’ve spent countless hours playing this franchise that I absolutely love.
“Being entrusted by Activision and players worldwide to bring this extraordinary storytelling universe to the big screen is both an honor and a responsibility that we don’t take lightly.”
The movie’s cast has yet to be chosen, but VGC understands that The Wolverine co-star Svetlana Khodchenkova has been banned from auditioning, because Ellison – keen to make as authentic a Call of Duty movie as possible – has instructed his casting director: “Remember, no Russians.”
According to Sega, the 260-piece set includes the controller and a display stand, as well as “regional stickers for customisation”, which presumably means it can say either ‘Genesis’ or ‘Mega Drive’ on the controller.
When the controller is turned around, the back reveals a hidden microscale Green Hill Zone scene, paying tribute to the original Sonic the Hedgehog game.
However, the controller is being sold as a “gift with purchase”, meaning customers will only be able to get one as a ‘free’ promotional gift when buying something else on the official Lego website.
One insider believes the deal will begin on September 8, and that customers will only get it if they spend at least $130 on the Lego store.
Don’t worry, though. If it’s really as authentic as it looks, Lego will end up releasing a better six-button one in a few years when it gets the Street Fighter licence.
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