Good Smile Company started streaming a trailer for it and developer Chime Corporation‘s Patlabor the Case Files, a new 3D action game based on the Patlabor franchise, on Monday. The video reveals the game’s September 17 release date.

The game will launch for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. It will be available in Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean languages, and will be available for international pre-orders.

The game’s Steam page describes the story:

Labors. The generic term for robots developed for industrial use. Widely adopted in construction and civil engineering, crimes involving Labors rapidly increased. The Metropolitan Police Department established the Special Vehicle Section 2 Patrol Labor Squadron to counter this threat. Thus the “Patlabor” was born.

The game features multiple missions and side missions from hero and adversary perspectives, with scenes based on the anime. There are over 20 Labors.

The developers credit three members of the franchise‘s creative unit Headgear for supervising three elements of the game: Yutaka Izubuchi for mechanics, Kazunori Itō for the script, and Akemi Takada for character animation.

The Patlabor franchise‘s original concept of police officers piloting robotic mecha (patrol labors or “Patlabors”) was developed by HEADGEAR, a group consisting of director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Sky Crawlers), script writer Kazunori Itō (.hack, Dirty Pair), mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi (Eureka Seven, Mobile Suit Gundam franchise), character designer Akemi Takada (Kimagure Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura, Fancy Lala), and manga creator Masami Yuuki (Birdy the Mighty). The franchise spawned two original video anime, a television anime series, and three anime films. The last anime film, Patlabor WXIII, opened in theaters in Japan in 2002.

Maiden Japan has licensed the Patlabor OVA series, Patlabor the Mobile Police: The New Files OVA, Patlabor: The Movie, Patlabor 2: The Movie, and Patlabor WXIII.

The franchise‘s new Patlabor EZY anime project will consist of eight episodes, and will debut theatrically as three films on May 15, August 14, and in March 2027. “File 1” and “File 2,” which debuted on May 15 and August 14,  consist of the anime’s first six episodes, are in an omnibus format with stand-alone stories. “File 3,” debuting in March 2027, will contain the last two episodes, and will tell a two-part story.

Source: Press release

Series about noble who dies, gets put in cyborg body debuted in October 2023

The sixth volume of Toryumon Takeda‘s DOGA manga announced on July 24 the series will end in the seventh volume, which will ship in winter 2026.

An early promotional image for the series described the story:

Yote is as high-ranked as he is unaware of the reality of the world. As a new lord, he gets the opportunity to leave his castle for the first time of his life to explore the free city of Leoure. But as Yote just starts to get a glimpse of what kindness and freedom look like, he is killed by street robbers. The young man is saved by a mysterious woman who happens to be a talented inventor. She transfers his mind into a cyborg body, allowing him to survive… for a year or two.

Yote is now a robot hardly able to move around by himself. But whatever, for him it’s the first day of a new life! But to have a life, he needs to become human again. Only the legendary mermaids are said to have the magical powers to achieve such miracles. To help him on his hazardous journey, he hires Doga, a strong and witty street orphan ready to do anything to get out of Leoure and see the world. For both of them, this is the beginning of a road-trip full of surprises!

Takeda launched the series on Futabasha‘s Web Action manga website in October 2023. Futabasha shipped the sixth compiled book volume on July 24.

Alien Books will publish Takeda’s Badducks manga in English this fall.

Kadokawa published Takeda’s One More Step, Come Stand by My Side collection of manga one-shots in April 2022. Yen Press licensed the book and released it in November 2023.

Source: DOGA volume 6

The D23 event’s “Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts” panel presented an extended four-minute trailer for the Kingdom Hearts IV game on Saturday. This trailer expands upon the 90-second version shown at D23 on Friday evening, and it highlights the Coco world, as well as familiar and new faces:

The trailer introduces a new world in which a paper version of Mickey Mouse is playable. Franchise creator Tetsuya Nomura made a surprise appearance at the panel, and he and co-director Tai Yasue added that the staff is “100%” certain that they will meet the announced late 2027 release window.

Actor Benjamin Bratt confirmed on Friday that he will reprise his role as Ernesto de la Cruz in the game.

The game will launch simultaneously for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Microsoft Store, Steam, and Epic Games Store.

D23 announced on Friday that the franchise will have an “anime” series which will run on the Disney Channel and Disney Plus. Disney Games had stated on Thursday that the Kingdom Hearts game series is one of nine billion-dollar game franchises for the company.

Square Enix revealed the Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link and Kingdom Hearts IV games in April 2022, but had not revealed much information about Kingdom Hearts IV since then before releasing a new trailer in June. Square Enix canceled development on Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link in May 2025.

Square Enix had also announced in early June that it will release Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] — a collection of Kingdom Hearts – HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind (DLC) — for Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Microsoft Store.

Square Enix released the Kingdom Hearts III game in January 2019 in Japan and the West for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game had shipped more than 5 million copies worldwide, including digital sales, as of February 2019, and is the fastest-selling title in the history of the franchise. The “Re Mind” DLC launched in January 2020.

Square Enix‘s Kingdom Hearts Union χ [Cross] and Kingdom Hearts Dark Road smartphone games were both originally supposed to end service in May 2021, but Kingdom Hearts Union χ [Cross] released its final story in June 2021 instead and both games switched to offline mode in the same month. Both games are available in one app.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, the first rhythm action game in the franchise, launched for the Switch, PS4, and Xbox One in the West and in Japan in November 2020, and was previously the only title in the series available for Switch.

The franchise also includes manga and light novel adaptations of the games. Yen Press released some of these in English.

Source: D23 event’s “Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts” panel, IGN’s YouTube channel