To the displeasure of a number of its fans, Bandai Namco's logo is getting a redesign next year, which the company says will embody the its new purpose to offer 'fun for all into the future'.

In a press statement released by Bandai Namco, the publisher said, "Our current logo expresses the fusion of Bandai and Namco that was created when the two companies integrated. It will be replaced with a new logo that reflects our new Purpose."

While the company is excited about the road ahead, its fans are a little less impressed. Scrolling through social media, it's not hard to find people condemning the new marketing materials. As some fans critiqued its logo's simplified design, others have been a little more direct with their responses:

Bandai Namco is the latest victim of simplification…

Game company logos bout to look like this in the future pic.twitter.com/9IHCj7jKYi

— TheNCSmaster (@TheNCSmaster) October 1, 2021

It isn't just the logo's design that people have taken issue with either. The publisher's new slogan – 'Fun for All into the Future' – came under fire as people questioned how something representing fun could look so plain. Other members of the community took issue with the publisher's word choice itself, with one fan asking whether it had been put together using predictive text.

How does the logo represent "Fun for All into the Future" when it looks so boring?

— Power Jusho (@PowerJusho_KH13) October 1, 2021

Bandai Namco said "we need to come up with a catchy new slogan!!!"

and their marketing department said "Let's start with the word 'fun' and see what predictive text comes out with!!!" pic.twitter.com/EYSiR81rFN

— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) October 1, 2021

Whether or not people will warm to the new logo remains to be decided. However, Bandai Namco says that the logo is purposefully designed. The company talked through a number of its changes to the logo as part of its statement.

"The new logo’s speech bubble motif, “Fukidashi” in Japanese, expresses the potential of the brand to connect
with people around the world and inspire them with amazing ideas," the company says. "The speech bubble also represents Japan’s manga culture that has become so popular everywhere. The logo stands for our determination to communicate with fans worldwide, to connect with our fans, and to create entertainment unique to Bandai Namco. The magenta used as the motif color not only represents diversity, but also creates a bright and fun impression and is easy to reproduce."

Bandai Namco says that its new purpose has been developed based on internal and external surveys as well as through discussions with employees around the world. "Fundamental to our Purpose," the company explains, "is the idea of connecting and working together to create things. Bandai Namco's entertainment connects fans all over the world. By delivering fun to the people everywhere, we put smiles on their faces and help them achieve happiness. That’s why Bandai Namco exists."

While it may seem slightly unfortunate that the company has released a new logo that seems to have had the opposite effect to putting smiles on people's faces, at least there's comfort in knowing that the redesign did, in one way, bring members of its community together. It just wasn't the way Bandai Namco would have wanted.

In other related news, this weekend Bandai Namco will be showcasing some of its latest work during an exhibit at this year's Tokyo Game Show. For all the latest from the event make sure to catch up on our rundown detailing its biggest announcements so far.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Konami is reportedly working on games in the Metal Gear, Castlevania, and Silent Hill series, with both internal and external studios attached.

Anonymous publishing sources told VGC that Konami is refocusing on developing games within its best-loved series. Per those same sources, the first of those games will be a "reimagining" of Castlevania being developed primarily by internal Konami studios.

The report adds that Konami is planning remasters of the original Metal Gear Solid games for new consoles, as well as a potential full remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Many have speculated that remake specialist Bluepoint would work on an MGS remake, but VGC's sources say it is being handled by Singaporean studio Virtuos (which previously worked on the Switch port of Dark Souls Remastered among other projects).

This is backed by game data analyst Millie A (who has correctly called several other announcements ahead of time), Millie A commented after Bluepoint's acquisition by Sony to say that the studio was in fact working on a remake alongside an original game, but that it was not a Metal Gear game.

Finally VGC re-affirms that multiple Silent Hill games are in development, with one at a "prominent" Japanese developer. Many believe that Poland's Bloober Team is at work on another Silent Hill game after a partnership between the two companies was announced.

We've contacted for Konami for comment. The developer has made small moves towards developing new console games recently, alongside setting up a western publishing division. The company also restructured its gaming division earlier this year to make it more efficient. Konami released a collection of much-loved Castlevania games last week, which may also be an attempt to test the waters for the series.

Konami also recently rebranded its long-running PES series as eFootball, swapping to a free-to play structure. Unfortunately, that game's suffering a very shaky launch.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

The Addams Family 2 opens in theaters on Friday, Oct 1.

The animated adventures of The Addams Family are back with a sequel that creates a confounding amount of noise, unleashes a plot that doesn't make sense within the realm of the Addams, and fails to make the iconic kooky family feel notably different from their surrounding world.

Let's face it, when Cousin Itt (Snoop Dogg, reprising his 2019 role) is a jet-setting playboy performer who can be a headlining act at any music festival in the country, the Addams family are no longer outliers. They are the machine.

There's nothing inherently wrong with transitioning The Addams Family into animation. An argument can be made that the two big movie adaptations (of the famous '60s TV series) from the '90s — The Addams Family and (the truly great) Addams Family Values — were crafted by director Barry Sonnenfeld to be live-action cartoons in a way. The action was heightened and absurd, but also clever. And though the "normal" world that the Addams lived in was elevated to satirical levels, especially the cheeriness of the sequel's Camp Chippewa, the Addams clan still felt giddily ghoulish and awesomely "other."

But The Addams Family 2 makes the central characters feel bland by having them exist in a swirl of over-the-top animated action where they just feel like another spoke in the wheel. When everyone dances to the same pop music (tracks by Snoop Dogg, Megan Thee Stallion, Christina Aguilera, etc.) and gets swept up in the same kinetic craziness, it creates a sameness throughout. In the end, the spare straight-arrow citizens feel like the plagued outcasts in a world that's been usurped by the Addams' bonkers vibes.

The top-shelf voice cast from the first film — Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Nick Kroll — is back, with the only notable change being Euphoria's Javon Walton replacing Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard as Pugsley. They're still all very fun, particularly Kroll who goes full-tilt frantic as Fester, but the story itself just doesn't work.

It's a very cut-and-paste animated sequel plot, as franchise follow-ups very often rely on one of the major characters feeling like they don't fit in (see: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Shrek 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, etc.). But in the case of The Addams Family, it just doesn't gel to have one of characters — in this case, Wednesday — feel like they don't belong in the Addams family.

Ultimately, Wednesday, feeling embarrassed by her family (which is, again, just weird), makes Gomez go all Clark Griswold and demand a family cross-country bonding trip — a sight-seeing tour of America's spookiest locales (Salem, Sleepy Hollow, Death Valley, you get the point). At the same time, a wealthy scientist, voiced by Bill Hader, sees his opportunity to sow discord within the Addams' ranks so that he can tap Wednesday's genius for his own gain. Hader is good here, but it's very much a role that doesn't benefit one way or the other from him doing the voice.

There are sentimental parts of The Addams Family 2 that occasionally work, but mostly if you pull them out and place them in an all-together different animated film. Some of the gags are fine too, as The Addams Family, as a franchise, never met a low-hanging pun or joke it didn't like, but nothing here is clever enough to justify the overall effort. It very much feels like an uninspired excuse to distract kids with a press release-ready soundtrack and fast-moving, physics-bending antics.

Veteran voice actor Hiroki Yasumoto kicked off Square Enix’s Tokyo Game Show presentation by reiterating that there would be no new news about Final Fantasy 16 – but went onto show off plenty of other trailers, and even a new RPG which is out in just two weeks.

To ensure sure you don't miss anything, we've included all the big news from the showcase (which you can watch below):

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Gets Release Date and Demo

A new demo is coming today for the Final Fantasy spin-off being developed by Team Ninja. The demo builds off feedback from the trial released earlier this year and will feature both a new stage and give players a chance to try out the game’s multiplayer elements.

There was an action-packed new trailer as well, announcing a release date of March 18, 2022. The trailer showed off more elements of the story, new characters and some flashy fight scenes. It ended with a scene of Chaos and a voiceover saying, “my name is Jack Garland" – given that the lead character is Jack, and the antagonist is FF1's Garland, there's clearly a connection between the two.

New RPG Dungeon Encounters Revealed

Hiroyuki Ito, who directed Final Fantasy VI, IX, XII and is the man behind the Active Time Battle System, revealed the latest game he is working on – a “dungeon exploration RPG,” called Dungeon Encounters, his first new project in some time. “It had been a while since I was directly involved in development, so I was trying to remember how I did it for a while there,” Ito said during the presentation.

The trailer showed characters walking on a grid, unlocking ability points for reaching certain sections. A bar at the top left of the screen shows what floor the player is on, their position and how many steps have been taken. Players occasionally have to fight monsters and the trailer also hints there are a number of characters to choose from.

You won’t have to wait long to play this unique-looking title. It will be released on October 14, and we already have a hands-on preview.

New Story Trailer for Triangle Strategy

Square Enix’s upcoming tactical RPG got a new trailer that showed off more of the game's characters and backstory. Each character was introduced with a brief gameplay scene, followed by a description of the game's backstory and its soon-to-be warring factions.

The game features a twisting plot in which the decision you make effect how the rest of the game plays out. The title, which releases March 4, 2022, is a game in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics and graphically looks like Octopath Traveler.

Plenty of Trailers for Other Upcoming Games

Alongside trailers we've already seen for Forspoken, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Life Is Strange, we also got new looks at Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, the company’s mobile battle royale title, and kart-racing spin-off Chocobo GP.

There was also a trailer for Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars, the peculiar RPG from Yoko Taro that takes place completely as a card game. That game arrives on October 28 and there is currently a demo available.

Jason Coskrey is a writer based in Tokyo. Find him on Twitter at @JCoskrey.

Square Enix has revealed a new "dungeon exploration RPG" called Dungeon Encounters, and announced it will be released in just two weeks on October 14, for PlayStation 4, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.

During a special video presentation at Tokyo Game Show 2021, Square Enix producer Hiroaki Kato and director Hiroyuki Ito revealed a game that does not resemble the JRPG format which Square Enix helped make famous worldwide. Players march along a narrow grid, as if they are exploring a dungeon map rather than the dungeon itself. On-screen counters indicate players' coordinates in the dungeon, as well as how many squares they have uncovered. Exploring a complete floor unlocks the next one and grants the character additional "ability points."

We've already gone hands-on with Dungeon Encounters, saying that some will be turned off by the low frills looks, but "if you are the type of player drawn to battling it out in simple yet deep ways, you should definitely give this one a try."

Movement through the dungeon is not necessarily linear, as characters can use abilities to jump off the path. The trailer showed one character leap two squares to the left across a gap, while another could move like a knight does on a chessboard, ignoring walls and jumping in an "L" shape.

Naturally, the dungeons are not bereft of hazards. Pitfalls can drop characters to lower floors, select spaces can drain heroes' pockets of gold, and of course monsters lie in wait to do battle. Combat looks to be turn-based but with limited animations: both hero and enemy alike were shown as simple portraits, and attacks took the shape of colored arrows and overlays on screen. There seem to be a large variety of characters in the game both good and evil, with quite a few less-than-humanoid figures shown amongst the "allies" lineup in the trailer.

Kato described Ito, a Square Enix veteran whose career dates back to the 16-bit era, as a "game system design expert" and the trailer emphasized strategy above all else. As the on-screen titles put it: "Don't feel. Think."

Diamond Feit is a writer/podcaster in Osaka, Japan who uses Twitter and Twitch as feitclub.