Aliens: Fireteam Elite was the last game that was released under the Aliens franchise. The latest game Fireteam Elite comes at us from both Tindalos Interactive and Focus Entertainment and brings us into the world of real-time strategy. A great approach for the franchise since we can get a full-on overhead battle against hordes while building and upgrading along the way. Fans of XCOM I&2 should be excited. While they should be excited they also know that this game is entirely a permadeath experience. That adds a whole lof of stress to the battles since you would have to start all over again if you did in fact die.

The synopsis for Aliens: Fireteam Elite

Recruit, level up, and command your squad of Colonial Marines in real time as one unit with intuitive controls on both keyboard and mouse or controller. Watch how commands issued over comms are swiftly obeyed by the marine best equipped for the situation according to their abilities and equipment. Players will need to use their wits to navigate expansive, persistent and reactive levels and complete objectives. But be cautious and monitor each marine’s vitals – death is permanent for any who fall in combat.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite launches worldwide on June 20, 2023, for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.

Troma is bringing back Toxie and the gang for a second round of Toxic Crusaders mayhem. This time around the mutant team is in a beat ’em-up multiplayer game from Retrowave. Toxic Crusaders game is based on a very unexpected 90s cartoon of the same name that was based in Troma’s very violent, sexual, and over-the-top Toxic Avenger.

Toxic Avenger is still a very popular franchise of films from Troma. In fact, at the moment there is a Toxic Avenger film reboot in the works that stars Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon Julia, Davis, and Elijah Wood. We are excited to see what Macon Blair has in store for us with this big-budget version of the franchise.

Toxic Crusaders also received a video game release date for Nintendo and Sega back in 1992. The games also followed the Troma cartoon narrative.

The synopsis for Toxic Crusaders goes like this:

The hottest heroes of 1991 return for a radical, radioactive romp for a new era, featuring awesome action, crushing combos and more toxic waste than you’ll know what to do with! Developer and publisher Retroware has teamed up with Troma Entertainment to bring the Toxic Crusaders back, for an all-new, all-action beat ’em up for one to four players. Grab your mop, tutu, and attitude, and get ready to clean up the mean streets of Tromaville, one radioactive goon at a time.

Toxic Crusaders arrives on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Funko Pop! collectors know that the figurine trade is a daily volley of supply and demand. One day you have a Pop! worth $100 dollars and the next it’s worth $50. But that’s the name of the game in the trading market. As far as the corporate realm, that could spell disaster and unfortunately, Funko has been flatlining since their 2022 fourth quarter. According to CNN that means the company is literally going to trash about $30 million of product.

At the end of 2022 Funko had a surplus of merch that was worth about $246.4 million. Last year they only had half of that. That means it’s costing the company more to store the collectibles than what they are all worth.

In order to cut down on the cost, they are going to “eliminate” the excess early this year, “to reduce fulfillment costs by managing inventory levels to align with the operating capacity of our distribution center,” Funko said in a statement Wednesday. “This is expected to result in a write down in the first half of 2023 of approximately $30 to $36 million.”

In the latter part of February, investors got a call from Funko CEO Brian Mariotti. He said that the Arizona distribution center was so overstocked that he had to rent out additional storage units in order to accommodate the collectibles. The company also is reportedly reducing its workforce by 10 percent.

It wasn’t long ago when Funko was actually in the green. During the pandemic, the collectible trade was in high gear. In fact, the company made $1 billion in 2021. Compare that to the $47 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, and you can see the trouble they are in.

Funko has been struggling to gain more points on the stock market. They took a big hit last November and are still working to right themselves. Hopefully, their new clothing line and other accessories will boost sales beyond that of what the vinyl figurines bring in.