Posts By Mat Growcott

EA are dropping the FIFA name after decades of what sounds like a difficult partnership. It’s a chance to show that gameplay and good brand managem… who am I kidding? It’s in The Name. Genuinely. You know what happens in 2023, when EA Sports FC becomes the new name of this year’s biggest football game? The new officially sanctioned game, thrown roughly together by two coders in six weeks, still outsells it. And EA really only have ...

Square Enix might be bought by Sony. That’s what the insiders are whispering about. And, what’s more, the Final Fantasy publisher is selling off all its Western studios too. Unsurprising, possibly, but still strange news. Its strangeness comes from the fact that these titans of gaming should be popular enough to stand alone. Tomb Raider should be a banner franchise, not some expense that doesn’t seem to ever click. Square’s Japanese ...

In many ways, slots might seem quaint in 2022. When video games have progressed to the state they have and there are millions of gambling games to try out, the humble slot might not have the appeal that it used to. That’s not to say that they don’t most definitely have their place. They’re still a perennial favourite of gamblers around the world, and will likely remain so for as long as gambling is a thing. Slots have become increasingly…

Cricket is one of the biggest games in the world. It should be no surprise that it’s also got a big gambling following too. It often comes as a surprise to people – especially Americans – when they discover that cricket is the second most popular game in the world. Yes, after soccer. More than 2.5 billion people watch it every single year, with fans in Asia, Australia and the UK. It draws more than five times as many people…

Thanks to the internet, it is easier than ever to be able to gamble in your own currency, at casinos hosted on local servers. That’s true in New Zealand, and around the world. Playing in online casinos with NZ$ is simpler than ever. Finding the best casinos for you takes a little longer, but it’s worth the extra effort to get exactly the service you want. In just a few clicks, you could find a new casino that suits your…

Every publisher wants to re-release remasters of their game and sell a billion more copies. Extra points if it’s to people who’ve already bought it multiple times before. But sometimes there are relics of the past that might not make the trip… I’m talking butt shots, off-colour jokes and dated satire. The latest example of this involves Rockstar and the Grand Theft Auto V remaster. It supposedly removes a character model for “drag ...

My first reaction to the news that Microsoft were experimenting with in-game adverts for free-to-play titles was a resounding meh. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not thrilled, but come on. They won’t be the first ones, and they won’t be the last. Let’s face it, advertising is pretty sparse within the world of video games. If the people behind television had been in charge of the gaming industry, there’d have been banner ads ...

It’s rapidly becoming as popular as some of the biggest sports in the world. eSports are the next big thing – but how do you watch them? How do you figure out who to support? The truth is that there haven’t been many chances to get in on the ground floor of a new sport for a very long time. Our most popular physical pastimes – football, cricket, hockey and tennis – predate anybody living today. You’re not going to…

Kingdom Hearts 4 is officially official and while there isn’t much in the way of information so far, just confirmation that development is going ahead is good news. With a world totally unlike anything we’ve seen in Kingdom Hearts before, this latest entry is the start of a new storyline called the Lost Master Arc. If it lives up to the graphical prowess on display – great. Kingdom Hearts 3 had its issues. That was extra disappointing because ...

There’s a rumour that Sony may be about to announce another acquisition. Naturally, everybody is naming names – but some of the names are a bit too big. From Ubisoft to Warner Brothers and even the likes of Take Two, the list of fan acquisitions are wide and varied. This just isn’t likely. I’m not going to get into massive detail on what Sony can and can’t afford. That’s mostly because I think most major companies will find ...