Here we are at the end of week thirteen of our league, a quarter of the way through the year, and I am clearly flirting with Betteridge’s law of headlines by asking a question up above.

So we let off last week with the scoreboard looking like this.

The Standings for Week 12

There were no releases in week 13, but there were some updates.  Up first, some scores and score changes.

• South of Midnight
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Now has a score of 82

Slated to launch this coming week, South of Midnight already has enough pre-launch reviews to be on the board.  But then there were updates.

• Rift of the NecroDancer
  • [Picked by Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 82.3 to 81.2
• South of Midnight
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 82.0 to 78.1

That left the standings looking like this.

The Standings for Week 13

No change to the rankings, just a minor score shift.  The projections put Potshot back in first place however, swapping with Shintar again.  I remain projected to come in last.  We’ll see how that looks when Half-Life 3 lands later this year.  You watch!

There were also some ship date changes that came over the course of the week.

• Galaxy Highways
  • [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
  • Release date changed from ‘April 2025’ to ‘Monday, May 12, 2025’.
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Estimated release date changed from ‘TBA’ to ‘2025’.
• Mario Kart World
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Game name changed from Untitled Next Mario Kart (Switch 2) to Mario Kart World.
  • Release date changed from ‘TBA’ to ‘Thursday, June 05, 2025’.
  • Note removed: ‘Maybe slightly controversial, but we decided that today’s trailer counts this as announced.’.
• Unannounced Mainline 3D Mario Platformer
  • [Picked by Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)]
  • Note added: ‘The lack of news on this front does not constitute a “will not release” for this game.’.

Some good news for Shintar in there, especially around Mario Kart World.  We heard early last week about the upcoming Switch 2 and Mario Kart World being a launch title.  Some people were flustered at the proposed $449 price tag for the new console, but everybody seemed to want more power and that doesn’t come for free.

Of course, that was before the insane Trump tariffs which promise to drive up inflation crash the economy, and make everything objectively worse, after which Nintendo put off the idea of pre-orders.  It could be a $700 console here before the Republican party gets through with it.

But I digress… sorry, Fascist America is much on my mind these days.  We are now the baddies.  Don’t buy stuff from the US and don’t come visit or you’ll end up in a detention center.

That leaves us with the following for upcoming titles.

Upcoming for Week 14

Week fourteen will see Shintar and Bhagpuss with new titles launching, after which we will have another quiet week unless dates change.

Finally, we did have some bids this week.

• Marvel Cosmic Invasion
  • Won by Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane) with a bid of $12
• PowerWash Simulator 2
  • Won by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar) with a bid of $5

Those look like a couple of decent picks.  I was tempted when news popped up about PowerWash Simulator 2, but was out of town all week.  But I figure I’ll have some chances yet.

Anyway, I suppose the answer to the question in the title was arguably “no,” so Betteridge remains correct.

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