Hishouseofhope

Between Obsidian apparently losing 25 percent of its workforce and significant impacts to id Software and ZeniMax, IGN is reporting that The Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer Bethesda has been hit “particularly hard” by recent layoffs.

Studio head Jill Braff allegedly sent out an email to staff, noting that these changes “reflect the realities of our industry and business – and our responsibility to ensure Bethesda is operating from a more stable foundation.”

“To be successful in the future, we need to change course. We must strengthen our business, return to sustainable growth, and ensure we can continue investing in our franchises and our players. I know that doesn’t make a day like today any easier.”

The current plan (until it isn’t the plan, as Xbox CEO Asha Sharma would say) is “to best position Bethesda for future growth.” According to Braff, that apparently means “shifting from a planning model primarily centered on what’s next for each independent studio to one that focuses on our strongest franchises and determining the content roadmap that best serves our players and Bethesda as a whole.”

That would certainly align with rumors that anyone not working on The Elder Scrolls and Fallout is at risk. Of course, there are some exceptions, as Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier noted that work would continue on Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein. The latter reportedly has a TV show and sequel in the works, and seems relatively safe, even having some involvement with Arkane Studios (which is currently undergoing consultations).

With the demand for Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6 (announced over eight years with still no release date), you could argue that Bethesda should have shifted focus years ago. Of course, this seemingly means that Starfield is left in the dust following a disappointing new DLC and the Free Lanes Update, which failed to really reignite player interest, at least going by Steam numbers.

Stay tuned for more updates because, given the scale of layoffs, there are likely to be more changes inbound.

Rockstar Games deciding to forego discs with the physical release of Grand Theft Auto 6 along with PlayStation announcing the end of disc production in January 2028 will end up having larger ramifications on the gaming industry much more rapidly. In a social media post, CI Games founder and CEO Marek Tyminski has expressed the belief that the end of physical discs for games could come as early as 2027. He noted that GTA 6’s skipping out on discs “feels unfair to studios still backing physical.”

“Sony ending physical support from 2028 could slash disc releases as early as 2027 or even sooner,” he wrote. “Physical delivers far less revenue per unit to developers, longer lead times, and unnecessary costs in a demanding industry where many already lose money.”

While he confirmed that CI Games still plans to release Lords of the Fallen 2 on disc, he brought up the fact that the medium is getting “harder to justify” since physical copies account for less than 20 percent of game sales, with the vast majority coming from digital purchases.

“At $69.99, retail margin takes 25-35%, distributors another 10-20%, and physical production ~$10,” he explained in a follow-up post. “That leaves studios with just over $26 per unit — compared to ~$49 on digital at highest margin. It only gets worse as prices drop. Large publishers sit on the better side of the equation, but even they make significantly more per digital sale. From a pure ROI standpoint, the choice is obvious.”

Sony’s recent announcement has been followed up by many in the industry discussing the future of gaming. Among these is former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden, who called the decision a “fairly dramatic” one. While understanding the fact that digital game sales have been overtaking physical sales over the last several years, he noted that he wasn’t part of these discussions since he left the company back in 2019.

“I had no idea it was going to happen. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I don’t work in the business any more. Maybe it’s just too prohibitively expensive to stamp out discs,” he said.

Notable game designer Hideo Kojima has also expressed concerns over Sony’s decision, noting that it might accelerate the process of all art going fully digital. This, in turn, would make it incredibly difficult for people to access things like books or music in case of a sudden emergency that blocks off digital access to these things.

“Eventually, even digital data will no longer be owned by individuals on their own initiative,” he wrote. “Whenever there is a major change or accident in the world, in a country, in a government, in an idea, in a trend, access to it may suddenly be cut off. We will not be able to freely access the movies, books, and music that we have loved. I would be a have-not. That’s what I’m afraid of. This is not greed.”

Interestingly, recent rumors have indicated that PlayStation might allow publishers to re-order discs for games that were released before January 2028 even after the deadline.

GTA6 shipping with no disc feels unfair to studios still backing physical — and it’s accelerating the shift. Sony ending physical support from 2028 could slash disc releases as early as 2027 or even sooner.

Physical delivers far less revenue per unit to developers, longer lead… https://t.co/gLkVTi5bDL

— Marek Tyminski (@tyminski_marek) July 5, 2026

At $69.99, retail margin takes 25-35%, distributors another 10-20%, and physical production ~$10. That leaves studios with just over $26 per unit — compared to ~$49 on digital at highest margin.

It only gets worse as prices drop. Large publishers sit on the better side of the… https://t.co/Tq4vqeNZd2

— Marek Tyminski (@tyminski_marek) July 5, 2026

Brawl Stars studio Supercell has opened applications for a developer grants program for game development studios across Africa.

Announced earlier in the week, Supercell is looking to support “exceptional” studios across Africa with equity-free grants of $20,000 to $200,000 to help them “reach their next stage of growth,” as well as strengthening an emerging ecosystem.

“Some of the most exciting creative energy and distinctive cultural narratives today are emerging from Africa, and we believe this talent will help shape the future of global gaming,” reads the announcement.

Applications officially opened yesterday, and will close on Sunday, August 9. The review period will run from August to October, with successful applicants being notified in October. Grant funding is set to begin in December.

While Supercell is primarily a mobile studio, it is welcoming applications across multiple platforms, genres, and business models. The program is meant to support studios, not individual projects, and said studios must be legally registered as such. “Applications from individual developers, hobby projects, or unregistered teams will not be considered,” Supercell adds.

Related:Xbox CEO amidst layoffs: ‘I think our core has to be healthy’

In addition, the studio’s primary operations and the majority of its team must be based in Africa to be eligible.

Supercell says that its developer grants are non-dilutive grants, meaning the company does not take equity or ownership in a studio or game as part of the program. The studios will retain ownership of their intellectual property.

Lastly, the company is expecting to select approximately three to five studios for the first cohort. Supercell recommends having the following ready before applying: a pitch deck, a gameplay trailer or video, links to previous games, a high-level funding plan and budget, and a playable build, although the latter is optional.

Aside from this grant round, Supercell has been investing in multiple studios throughout the last 10 years. The company invested $5 million in Redemption Games in 2018, picking up a minority stake. In 2021, it invested $2.9 million in Shipyard Games. Then, in May of this year, Supercell went from being a major shareholder of Metacore to acquiring the studio altogether following studio restructuring.

A new social media post by known Ubisoft leaker RogueTx reveals more details about the in-development Far Cry 7. The leaker has described the title as a “high-stakes PvEvP” extraction game where players have to scavenge for loot and survive the harsh maps and other players before they extract. The primary antagonists in the game are a sinister cult known only as the Sons of Truth.

The core gameplay loop is also slated to include a time limit – which was leaked earlier. However, in their latest leak, RogueTx has noted that the time limit has gone up to 72 hours. The main story will seemingly revolve around rescuing six family members. In terms of gameplay, Far Cry 7 will include safe houses where players can change and maintain their gear, with the latter being especially important since weapons will have durability. The map itself is also going to have its own challenges, which include grizzly bears, wolves, foxes, and deer.

The time for the story of Far Cry 7 first came to light when an audio clip from the game surfaced back in May. A core motif throughout the clip, which featured synth-styled music with heavy beats, was a constant ticking, similar to that of a clock. The same RogueTx also shared a picture of what appeared to be key art from the upcoming shooter, showing off its main setting, which will seemingly be in Alaska.

Another report has indicated that the development of Far Cry 7 has been a troubled one. Back in April, Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson went as far as to describe it as “going through hell and back right now”.

Ubisoft itself has been largely silent about the project, aside from CEO Yves Guillemot noting that the Far Cry franchise currently has “two very promising projects” in development. While the more recent rumors seem to indicate that it is the title being developed under the codename of Maverick, thanks to its Alaskan setting and extraction shooter mechanics, another project, codenamed Blackbird, will seemingly take a more story-centric approach.

Things have been quiet when it comes to the Far Cry series since the 2021 release of Far Cry 6. The title, released on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, revolves around the island of Yara in the Caribbean, which is under the rule of the dictator Antón Castillo, who was played by Giancarlo Esposito. Players take on the role of guerrilla fighter Dani Rojas, who, despite initially wanting to escape from the island, finds themselves trapped there, working with other revolutionaries to depose Castillo.

Along with the typical sandbox-style gameplay you would expect from the Far Cry franchise, Far Cry 6 also introduced some new features, including animal companions and a special class of weapons dubbed Resolver Weapons, which gave players more ways to deal with different scenarios. The shooter also introduced a “Rank” system, providing a loose approximation of the challenge level in various parts of the game’s map when compared to the player’s own rank.

FC7

– High-stakes PvEVP scavenge and extract survival loop
– Sons of Truth
– Still Includes the Time limit as shared a while ago up to 72 hours since i last checked
– Rescue up to 6 Family Members
– Safehouse
– Weapon Durability
– Grizzly Bears, wolves, Foxes, Deers

— Rogue I Tx (@AgaiinTx) July 6, 2026

While Ubisoft has remained quiet about its planned Splinter Cell remake, a new rumor courtesy of known leaker RogueTx has revealed a few details about the upcoming title. Among other things, the leaker has said in a social media post that the game will feature quite a few upgrades over the original Splinter Cell, with enhanced visuals thanks to using DirectX 12 APIs and the modern Snowdrop engine, as well as gameplay improvements.

The biggest overall improvement will be the expansion of ways to deal with threats in a non-lethal manner. It is also expected to feature destructible environments, giving players more ways to navigate through its otherwise linear mission structure. Some of the expanded player tools include sticky cameras, gas grenades, and the ability to trigger or disable alarms manually. Player movement will also be expanded thanks to zip lines and the ability to slide down pipes.

Core features of the original Splinter Cell, like a meter to indicate how visible you are in a well-lit or darkened area, will also be returning, which indicates that Ubisoft isn’t moving away from the stealth gameplay roots that made the franchise so popular to begin with.

A recent report has indicated that the Splinter Cell remake’s release has been pushed back to 2027. It is likely being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and back in February, Ubisoft confirmed that development on the game was continuing despite company-wide layoffs happening at the time.

“Following the recent announcement of the final phase of Ubisoft’s global cost-savings plan and the discontinuation of projects, Ubisoft Toronto will be reducing its workforce by 40 roles,” said a spokesperson for the company. “This decision was not taken lightly and does not in any way reflect the talent, dedication, or contributions of the individuals affected. Our priority now is to support them through this transition with comprehensive severance packages and robust career placement assistance.”

“The Toronto studio continues development on the Splinter Cell game and serves as a co-development partner on Rainbow Six, along with supporting additional co-development projects.”

The remake of Splinter Cell will be the first release in the franchise since 2013’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, which came out on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. The original Splinter Cell’s story revolved around series protagonist Sam Fisher joining the National Security Agency’s newly-formed Third Echelon division, with his main mission revolving around the investigation of the disappearance of two CIA officers.

As is typical for a game in the stealth espionage genre, Splinter Cell is packed to the gills with plot twists and turns, with plenty of double crosses and inter-agency drama unfolding over the story. The title was released back in 2002 and served as one of the major competing franchises, going toe-to-toe with Konami’s Metal Gear Solid franchise at the time.

In terms of gameplay, Splinter Cell is beloved for its slow and methodical approach to stealth gameplay. Along with giving players the ability to shoot out light sources, it also included a light meter that would let players know how visible they would be to patrolling guards. Fisher himself was equipped with his iconic night vision goggles to help him navigate the dark environments of the game.

S P L I N T E R C E L L

Stuff

– Non lethal choices expansion
– Linear
– Dynamic Light shooting
– Snow drop
– DirectX 12
– Light & dark Meter
– Sticky cameras & Gas grenades
– Manual Alarm shi
– Destructible Enviromental
– Pipe slide & zip line shi

— Rogue I Tx (@AgaiinTx) July 6, 2026

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wants the company’s core to be healthy, amidst a debacle of 3,200 job cuts and multiple divestments.

In an interview with Fortune published yesterday—the same day as the start of what Microsoft describes as the “most significant restructure in Xbox history“—Sharma outlined a number of steps to regain that “health.” The company will experiment with business models for hardware, such as lowering the barrier to entry with “buy now, pay later” programs, and Sharma emphasized that Xbox must be available on mobile and PC to meet players where they are.

Will this be enough? Even Sharma seemed unsure. “I think our core has to be healthy, and that will be necessary but not sufficient,” she told Fortune.

Yesterday, the CEO told employees in a memo that Xbox’s operating margins are three to 10 times lower than comparable businesses. As such, Sharma said Xbox needs a new business model. She stated the company has been battered by surging component costs, overextending its studio system, underfunding its popular franchises, and relying too heavily on vendors instead of fostering a self-reliant engineering culture.

Related:IO Interactive closing Istanbul studio after regaining control of Project Fantasy

“A healthy Xbox could weather the shock of the hardware crisis. With an unhealthy Xbox, it becomes really challenging, and it accelerates a lot of the changes we need to make,” Sharma said.

The hardware crisis the CEO refers to—which involves a component shortage driven by rampant investment in AI data centers (thanks, Reuters)—has been at the hands of companies like Microsoft. In the memo to employees, Sharma said the company must reset to navigate the crisis, which has dramatically inflated memory prices and by extension console hardware.

The memory crisis isn’t the sole culprit behind Xbox’s current state. Yesterday’s job cuts marked the fifth major round of layoffs announced by Microsoft since the company acquired Activision Blizzard in 2023 for almost $70 billion. Despite taking ownership of major franchises such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft as a result of that merger, Sharma said Xbox’s core business has “weakened” in recent years.

“It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset Xbox, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.”

The layoffs are far from over. Xbox cut 1,600 jobs yesterday, with 1,600 more to follow during the next financial year. Multiple Xbox-owned studios have been caught in redundancies, including Obsidian and idSoftware. Meanwhile, Hitman developer IO Interactive announced the closure of its Istanbul studio, a direct result of Xbox choosing to pull financing for Project Fantasy, which was announced back in 2023. 

Related:Report: Roughly half of the id Software team have been laid off

In the midst of Xbox’s company-wide layoffs, it looks like The Elder Scrolls Online developer Zenimax Online Studios has been one of the hardest-hit studios. According to Kotaku, the layoffs have been bad enough that the studio has had to reconsider its content roadmap for the MMORPG, with community manager Jessica Folsom posting on the title’s forums that “the roadmaps we previously shared will be shifting.”

“Looking beyond Season One, the roadmaps we previously shared will be shifting. We want to take the time to evaluate the work in front of us and then lock down an updated schedule. While we’d love to share concrete details today, stepping back to get our plans straight will let us come back to you with a clear timeline.”

The layoffs at Zenimax Online Studios have been further confirmed thanks to LinkedIn posts by more than 20 now-former employees of the studio. While the total number of jobs affected by these layoffs at the studio is currently unknown, many of those let go had spent more than a decade working there.

The report has noted that Zenimax Online Studios has been hit by layoffs so hard that former employers are now unsure how The Elder Scrolls Online would even continue to function. It is worth noting that the MMORPG has only recently shifted to a seasonal content structure – a change from its previous expansion-based structure. Following last year’s release of the Solstice expansion, the MMO was set to kick off its first season later this week.

This is far from the first time Zenimax Online Studios has been hit with layoffs. Last year also saw job cuts, with a new in-development MMO codenamed Blackbird getting entirely cancelled and its development team being let go. Blackbird was going to be a new sci-fi IP entirely separate from The Elder Scrolls Online, and was noted as being in development since 2018. Much of the time was said to be spent on developing a new game engine to power it.

Due to this, Blackbird hadn’t yet entered full production by the time it was cancelled. Rather, it was expected to have done so “soon”, with Xbox having given the team approval to scale up its development efforts. Interestingly, former Xbox division boss Phil Spencer was rumored to have played early builds of Blackbird and had seemingly enjoyed it.

These job cuts from last year would culminate with many of the former employees of the studio founding their own development teams, including Sackbird Studios and Ironroot Games.

Recent reports have indicated that while the MMORPG team has been hit quite hard, other studios under the Zenimax banner won’t see development stopped on their own projects. This includes Bethesda Game Studios, MachineGames, and id Software.

“ZeniMax will be impacted significantly by the reorganization but will NOT be reduced to only Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, despite rumors over the last few weeks. The publisher will also still work on Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake,” said Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.

For more on the recent layoffs at Xbox, take a look at our report.

007 First Light and Hitman developer IO Interactive (IOI) is closing its Istanbul studio. 

The news is a direct result of Xbox choosing to pull financing for Project Fantasy, an online RPG announced back in 2023. 

Although the Danish studio has regained full ownership of the project, it said it must now “find a new balance” as it charts a path forward. 

IOI had already confirmed it would be laying off an undisclosed number of workers in order to find stable footing, but has now explained it will also be shuttering its studio in Istanbul. 

“Following the end of our external finance partnership on Project Fantasy, IOI has regained full ownership of the project and our IP. We will continue to develop and fund it independently amongst our other projects. With this context, we had to find a new balance for the long-term future of the studio, focused on the success of our main internal core titles instead of external projects and potential mobile game derivatives,” said the studio in a post on X. 

Related:Report: Roughly half of the id Software team have been laid off

“This has meant making changes as well as proposed changes across our studios: the closure of our Istanbul studio and starting a process to part ways with colleagues who have been a meaningful part of what makes IOI what it is.”

IOI Istanbul was formed in 2023 to establish a hub for triple-A development in Turkey. IOI said the studio would play a “significant role” in the development of 007 First Light, Hitman, and Project Fantasy. It’s unclear how many employees worked at the location.

The closure was described as “necessary” by IOI. The company said it remains committed to bringing Project Fantasy to market.

“These are hard, but necessary decisions, in order to retain the long-term future of IO Interactive as one of the very few fully independent AAA developer and publisher, as well as to give Project Fantasy the best possible foundation to succeed under our own passion and direction,” it added. “Project Fantasy is a game, a world, and an IP that we are wholly committed to, and we cannot wait to share the love with you.”

Game Developer has reached out to IOI for comment.

While Xbox might still be thinking about what it wants do with Arkane, the original founder of the studio, Raphael Colantonio, has expressed interest in potentially acquiring Arkane. In a tongue-in-cheek social media response to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s announcement, Colantonio asked the company how much it would cost to acquire Arkane.

“Regarding Arkane… how much? I’m asking for a friend,” wrote Colantonio. While this might give fans of the studio some hope, it is worth noting that Colantonio was likely just joking about potentially buying Arkane. While he has gotten plenty of replies that add in on his joke, with fans asking if they can help the acquisition by sending him money, others have taken his social media post more seriously.

Interestingly, Colantonio has been quite critical of Xbox in the past. In July last year, he had called the company’s Game Pass subscription service an unsustainable business model “that has been increasingly damaging the industry for a decade, subsidized by Microsoft’s ‘infinite money’”.

This criticism came in light of heavy backlash against Microsoft for having cancelled a host of different projects, following quite a few layoffs. Colantonio’s sentiments were shared by Baldur’s Gate 3’s director of publishing, Michael Douse, who said that Microsoft’s “infinite money thing never made any sense.”

As part of Xbox’s recent layoffs, the company has announced that it is cutting approximately 1,600 jobs, with another 1,600 cuts slated to happen before the end of the fiscal year. Sharma also announced that Xbox is releasing four of its studios – Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs. Arkane has also been targeted for some shake-ups. However, Sharma said that the studio was undergoing consultation while the company reviews “potential strategic options” with its Works Council.

“I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building Xbox,” said Sharma. “Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved Xbox. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.”

As for Arkane, the studio has been working on Marvel’s Blade for quite some time. Rumors from last year have indicated that Arkane has also started working on an entirely new AAA game since 2024 after completing its “prototype validation”. This means that the project’s pre-production work had been wrapped up and that the studio had moved on into full production.

Arkane is popular among fans of immersive sims thanks to the studio’s work on games like Dishonored, Dishonored 2, and 2017’s Prey. In April 2025, Colantonio expressed interest in someday working on a new Dishonored game.

“I’d love to,” said Colantonio. “I mean, we’re talking totally hypothetically at this point – I could see myself working on Dishonored 3 right now because it’s been so long that, you know, why not?”

He also noted that developers at the studio had their own ideas for Dishonored 3. Whether the studio would ultimately go with ideas presented by Deathloop director Dinga Bakaba or those of series creator Harvey Smith remains to be seen, since the ideas hadn’t been pitched at the time.

Regarding Arkane… how much? I’m asking for a friend 😝

— Raphael Colantonio (@rafcolantonio) July 6, 2026

Doom: The Dark Ages developer id Software has reportedly been gutted during the latest round of mass layoffs at Xbox. 

Multiple anonymous sources have told Game Developer that around 50 percent of employees at the Texas-based studio have been laid off. One person claimed that equates to over 90 redundancies. 

Another source told Game Developer the studio’s QA department has been decimated by the cuts. One laid off worker posting publicly on Linkedin corroborated those claims and expressed anger at the studio being torn apart in service of “another ‘reorganisation’ of assets.”

It’s currently unclear how many of the 100-plus union members at id Software have been ousted.

The news comes just hours after Xbox confirmed it would be eliminating 3,200 roles across its video game division over the next fiscal year—starting with 1,600 cuts this week. 

In an internal email obtained by IGN, Bethesda president Jill Braff said the company—which is a sibling studio of id Software and others under ZeniMax—is being restructured around its biggest franchises. 

Related:Report: Obsidian losing around one quarter of its staff to ‘Xbox reset’

“To best position Bethesda for future growth, we are shifting from a planning model primarily centered on what’s next for each independent studio to one that focuses on our strongest franchises and determining the content roadmap that best serves our players and Bethesda as a whole,” reads the email.

A source familiar with the situation has corroborated the contents of Braff’s email and explained Bethesda will now be laser focused on Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake. They said Bethesda intends to make it easier for its development teams to collaborate but noted it will not be shuttering any existing studios.

Game Developer has reached out to Microsoft for comment. 

If you’re an Xbox employee impacted by this story and would like to share your views confidentially, you can email our news editor Chris Kerr or contact him on Signal (kerrblimey.43).

It’s official: PlayStation has returned to social media. Well, not the official Twitter account, but rather PlayStation Support US. After the company announced that it would no longer manufacture physical game discs after January 2028, the main account has effectively become a ghost town. No tweets, nothing. A peek at the support profile, which last told players that the PS5 Pro could enhance image quality on PS4 games and how it and the base console could capture gameplay, reveals exactly why.

PlayStation Plus cancellations. Pictures of physical game collections. Expletives. A modified version of PlayStation’s slogan to now say, “Play by our limits.” My favorite is probably the image from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, except the “Colonel’s” dialogue to Raiden reads, “Corporations will abandon physical media, and the individual will own nothing at all.”

And on and on it goes for about 3,000 comments on one tweet.

If it wasn’t clear enough already, the decision to kill physical games has gone down poorly. Polls from different publications show that most readers are fine with the PS5 being their last console. A presidential candidate in France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, lambasted Sony’s decision, stating that “video games are not mere merchandise, they are cultural assets, and the law in force must apply to them.”

Brazilian lawmaker Erika Hilton seeks to investigate Sony if it plans to announce digital-only titles and use them to push digital-only consoles. She also brought up a rather interesting issue in hindsight: how consumers paid more for consoles with disc drives, only to now be faced with a digital-only future. Remember when Sony was pushing for its optional Blu-ray disc drive? How it faced supply shortages and extensive scalping when the PS5 Pro was announced without one? Not even two years later, those who went to pains for the same have essentially been left high and dry.

But regardless, the result is clear: Most people utterly despise PlayStation’s decision. On the one hand, the direction is confusing – and we’ll get into that. On the other, it comes across as tone-deaf, especially with storage costs ever-increasing.

Of course, everyone knows why PlayStation is doing this, and it’s not just because the consumer base has trended more towards digital. This is also apparently far from a snap decision to help bring down the price of its next-gen console (especially because the real costs are tied elsewhere). But it all goes back to greed and the need to control its players’ purchasing power.

Remember that talking point from its last fiscal report about how 85 percent of its software sales for the quarter were full-game digital downloads? And how it was up by five percent year-over-year? When measuring the full-year ratio of downloads to physical sales, it actually turned out to be 78 percent. Furthermore, physical software revenue was actually up from 121.159 billion yen in fiscal year 2024 to 125.106 billion yen in fiscal year 2025 (though that also includes bundles and disc royalties from third parties).

There’s also that recent report by Alinea Analytics about physical sales splits for some of the top-selling PS5 games this year. Resident Evil Requiem reportedly sold 3.5 million copies on the platform, and about 27.8 percent is apparently physical. 007 First Light’s physical sales allegedly make up 21 percent of the two million sold on the platform. Ghost of Yōtei is perhaps the most egregious – a whopping 35.4 percent of the reported 1.2 million sold this year alone is physical.

Again, these are all estimates and not official data, but even if they’re off by five percent (give or take), there are still those out there buying discs in sizable enough quantities to justify their production. But in PlayStation’s eyes, all those physical copies simply represent a market ripe for resale, where they’re effectively cut out from any profits. This has long been a concern for the games industry for decades – who remembers the always-online DRM that Assassin’s Creed 2 had to combat piracy? So why is it taking such drastic steps? Games have become far more expensive and need to generate more sales to guarantee a return.

If Sony can dismantle the current ecosystem to funnel customers towards a digital-only future where it receives all the revenue, ownership be damned, it will go for it. It will even go a step further, as indicated by dynamic pricing on the PlayStation Store, to carefully control how much you save. Because everyone knows that those sales are meant to save the company money, not you. It’s even looking at potentially increasing the price of PlayStation Plus again in the future, presumably to spite all of you who played EA Sports FC 26 through your subscription.

To that end, Sony has also reportedly repurposed its disc manufacturing plant in Thalgau, which now plans to build microlenses instead. By 2028, it’s seemingly going from 300,000 discs daily to 30,000. It wouldn’t be surprising to see that volume drop even further, but if it wasn’t clear already, this has been a years-long plan. The fact that it’s finally set a deadline probably has less to do with the current memory and storage shortages, and more with trying to prop up the PS6 as its main digital tentpole.

How will this affect retailers? PlayStation said it would offer future titles in “digital formats only”…years after it announced it would no longer provide full games via digital codes for PS4. Obviously, this shouldn’t inspire much confidence in said retailers. But they’re effectively fighting to stay relevant, especially with the industry shifting more towards digital delivery, both in games and marketing.

How will it handle its partners and other publishers? Why, by allowing them to re-order discs for existing PlayStation titles after January 2028, according to a new report by Game File. That explains why it hasn’t completely shifted away from disc manufacturing. What about games launched after that date? What if you planned to release a game in Fall 2027 but another major release – say, The Witcher 4 – forces you to delay it to early 2028? Well, we don’t know, and at this point, it wouldn’t be surprising if PlayStation is similarly clueless.

All of this, every single bit, is the consequence of Sony being the market leader. It may dress up these decisions as adapting to “consumer trends” and aligning “more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.” But these decisions, from start to finish, are all for PlayStation’s sake, and nothing more. And its shareholders, lest we forget. After all, the stock price rose by a whopping 3.2 percent after this announcement. Mission accomplished, clearly.

For everyone else who wants to feel a sense of ownership, or just to be assured that their platform holder can’t just take away things on short notice – like PlayStation’s recent announcement to remove more than 500 Studio Canal movies, with no avenue for current owners to access them – well, you can’t. Unlike the forced PSN account linking, this isn’t just something that it can back down from at the slightest hint of backlash. Even if it ultimately delivers a compromise – like special $100 discs for collectors – PlayStation will just keep on keeping on, slowly shifting towards a market that it fully controls. Like an amusement park where you’re welcome to buy a ticket and stay for as long as Sony dictates rather than a product that you own.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Another Crimson Desert patch has officially gone live, and make no mistake – it’s a big one. Okay, maybe “fairly sizable” is a more accurate assessment, but consider for a moment that we’re currently in the fourth month of post-launch support (give it up for day 108). Between boss rematches, difficulty settings, new skills, balance changes, tons of new mounts and pets, re-blockading, and whatnot, how much more could the developer possibly add?

As it turns out, quite a bit. Version 1.13 adds new armor sets, but not just any, and Damiane and Oongka have seen their functionality increased further. New crafting recipes abound – including for items that really tie the room together – and even the dying system has received some enhancements. Without further ado, let’s dive into ten new features you need to know, starting with.

Oongka and Damiane In the Abyss

If you’ve ever played Oongka and/or Damiane, and scoffed because the floating isles of the Abyss were effectively closed off, the latest update fixes that problem. Both characters are now free to enter the previously Kliff-only world – a much-welcome change, especially if you’re using the isles to explore from the sky. Of course, this has resulted in some bosses (like the Clockwork White Horn and Draven, the Crowcaller) having their positions changed when challenging them to a rematch, but it’s worth it.

Boss Armor Sets

Perhaps the biggest new addition with Ver 1.13 is boss armor. Yes, you read that right, and it’s not even just a handful. Gregor’s Knight of Carnage armor, split across five pieces; five pieces of Tarandus the Ashen’s sick outfit (antlers and all); even two pieces from Demeniss’s grand general armor are available to equip for Kliff and Oongka (the latter now able to equip most of the former’s outfits). Lest you think Damiane would be left behind, she gets two outfits and one piece of the Masked Liberator armor. Granted, some sets (like Goyen’s) are remaining, but the developer has made some pretty great progress.

Dozens of New Equipment Pieces

And that’s not all, as 16 new pieces of armor and three pieces of headgear separate from the new boss armor have been added for Kliff and Oongka while Damiane gets eight new pieces. In total, there are 39 new pieces of equipment to hunt down. The developer says you can obtain them through quests, Achievements, shops and “other sources,” and if you’ve progressed enough through the story, some should appear as unlocked rewards. You can even stop by your friendly Back Alley Vendor to find a few pieces. Suffice it to say that the fashion game, aka the true endgame, is even bigger than ever.

Kuku for Kuku Gear

But if you need even more options for Damiane and Oongka, they can now equip Kuku sets previously meant for Kliff. That includes Marni Laser Helm, the Breeze-Step Boots (which means Meteor Kicks for days in your hand-to-hand combat as Damiane) and Rishi’s Boots alongside the Lightning-Resistant, Flame-Resistant, and Ice-Resistant armor sets. Besides more build variety, the inclusion of the latter three means you can shore up any resistances during specific boss fights.

Crafting Recipes for Elemental Armor

Remember the Frostcursed Plate Armor that every YouTuber and their mother was including in Crimson Desert thumbnails for the first month or so (and for good reason because it looks absolutely sick)? You can still run around and find it on your own, but you can now craft it courtesy of a new recipe. In fact, the Scorchflame Plate Armor and Lightning Bolt Plate Armor have also received crafting recipes. While not quite as fashionable, the fact that you can more easily access them for higher resistances, especially when mainlining as Kliff, is a welcome addition.

Hiding the Minimap and Status HUD

Among all the new additions and changes, especially for the user interface – which has come a long way since launch – it’s interesting how the developer never added an option to hide the minimap or your status. It may have taken months, but lo and behold, you can now fully immerse yourself in the boots of Damiane, Oongka and Kliff by turning off both. Head into Settings, then Other and the Gameplay tab to do so. And while it may seem counterintuitive, not all who wander are lost, especially with the sheer amount available to discover in Pywel.

New Special Attacks for Certain Enemies

Of course, if we’re talking about changes that weren’t exactly on the tippy-top of fan requests, there have been new special attacks added for specific enemies. We’re talking about the Flame Knight, the Wyvernflames, the Savage Fangs, and the Goldenscale Bandits. Why? Maybe it’s to provide even more variety when tackling re-blockaded forts, ruins, quarries and whatnot while upping the challenge. Or to surprise those who thought they would have an easy time disposing of them. Either way, be careful.

Bird of Prey (and Gathering)

The Iron Eagle and Phoenix can equip the Sigil of Valor, which means they can now attack your enemies. But even more intriguing is the Hunter’s Sigil. Ever wanted to gather items or retrieve specific prey from afar with your bird? This allows you to do that. Perfect for larping as a hunter on a casual shooting/meat-gathering trip.

Dyeing Disguises, Weapons and Secondaries

Even with its sheer selection of dyes and recoloring elements, Crimson Desert was missing a few notable options. Rejoice, for you can now dye certain disguises, even if it breaks the overarching lore and purpose of not drawing attention. But even better is the majority of weapons and secondaries can also be dyed, further increasing the number of fashion options.

Slideshots with Muskets and Pistols

Beyond the usual fixes – like an issue where you couldn’t use sliding attacks with specific gear loadouts – muskets and pistols have received a much-needed quality of life change. They can now be fired while sliding, and while it might not seem like a massive overhaul, it adds another mobility option for ranged fighters, especially when low on Spirit. Besides, the sheer style of sliding towards enemies while shooting them in slow-motion is tough to deny.

There are so many other improvements, like Oongka now being able to complete puzzles with Scatter Shot, new crafting recipes for four types of carpets, and, perhaps most adorably, summoned pets now resting in bed with your character. You also don’t need to worry about Focused Aerial Roll constituting a crime near NPCs, so if you want to harass the local populace without any consequences, now’s your chance.

However, it’s worth noting that Version 1.13 has affected performance, especially on the base PS5, even if you turn off chromatic aberration, depth of field, and whatnot. It seems to vary during certain sections – exploration seems better than the cities – but Xbox and PC players should also beware of potential performance hits. The issue has yet to be acknowledged, but given the development team’s quick turnaround, it should probably be fixed in the next patch, if not sooner.

It’s a shame given how much the current patch has added, but also somewhat expected, given the sheer number of variables, systems and whatnot. What else could be added, especially since the current roadmap ends in September (besides story improvements)? Your guess is as good as ours, but we’re excited all the same.

You could say that the original Watch Dogs wasted a solid premise thanks to a rather lackluster gameplay loop and story, and we’d have to agree. It was still a fun game, to be sure, but not one that would have us chasing down everything it had to offer. It was only logical, then, that we went into Watch Dogs 2 with mixed expectations, a sentiment we think we’ve probably shared with a lot of you who played the game.

Well, it had its own flaws, but the follow-up to the original title is one that we revisit from a time, a rare feat considering that it’s been a decade since it was released. It had a unique vibe, feeling a lot more energetic and more fun overall than its predecessor, while it cemented the franchise’s identity in many ways. What made that the case? We’re glad you asked.

Join us as we take a look at why Watch Dogs 2 manages to keep us coming back to its take on San Francisco even after all this time.

A New Stage And Actors

That take on San Francisco is our first stop, and we think it’s quite an upgrade from Chicago. The Bay Area was immediately brighter and livelier than the world from the first game, making it automatically feel like a world that was more inviting and explorable. There was more color, a better tech-focused undercurrent to the world you were exploring, and the sense that it was more than just a grim urban sandbox for us to let loose with our hacking skills. For an open-world game like it, this was a world that supported the fantasy it was selling, and even facilitated it in many ways. It made the standard set of activities feel more inviting, as a result.

Speaking of hacking skills, that’s where Marcus Holloway comes in. On the personality front, we found him instantly more likeable than Aiden from the first game, who came across as a little too somber for somebody with a skill set like his. Yes, his frustration at the situation he was in should be considered as a factor, and perhaps a strong narrative pillar for his lack of a sense of humor, but there are ways to add layers to characters like him. Sadly, Watch Dogs used none of them.

Marcus, in comparison, was then a welcome breath of fresh air. He was more willing to make a joke even in serious situations, for starters, and a whole lot more expressive about the situations he was in and how they made him feel. That made him a relatable protagonist who was still shouldering a heavy burden from the narrative, but didn’t let it get him down to the point where he became too much. It was a solid balance which helped him give the story a human center, while being a better flag bearer for the rebellious hacker character that it was hinged on.

Of course, there was DedSec, and his interactions with the hacker organization could feel a tad too exaggerated at times. The game tried too hard to sell a sort of loyal bond between the two parties, akin to Marcus joining a modern-day Assassin Brotherhood, even. Those parts were a little too cringe for our taste, but hey, we did say that the game had flaws right up top, didn’t we? While we’re on the subject of DedSec, we see it as a great way to bring in characters new and old into the story, but boy, was some of the writing around them awkward.

Clashing personalities and a differing sense of humor across a cast of characters working towards a common goal aren’t necessarily a good thing if the way those characters are interacting doesn’t justify that variety. In Watch Dogs 2’s case, that was a problem that came up too frequently with DedSec. There was humor, the hacker culture that they brought to the table, memes, and that undercurrent of youthful rebellion that was a reflection of their ideals and unwavering convictions, all of which didn’t come together well enough for the group to not feel a tad awkward.

But on the other hand, that awkwardness gave the organization a distinct flavor that worked very well to make them an interesting faction in the story and a crucial pillar of Marcus’s adventure. DedSec might have been occasionally cringe, but they definitely weren’t boring, commanding a presence in the game that might not have worked in some instances but rooted the organization as a key player in San Francisco’s hacking scene.

Well, we’ve talked about the stage, the setting, and the people. It’s now time to look at what they got up to in the game and why that’s a factor in keeping it relevant even today.

One Hack At A Time

Marcus didn’t just bring a dash of personality to the table in Watch Dogs 2. He brought a whole damn arsenal of tricks that made our time in San Francisco, his working relationship with DedSec translating to a gameplay loop that gave you a lot of versatility in potential approaches to a variety of situations. It was a hacking/stealth loop at its finest, and it’s one of the reasons we like to boot this one up from time to time and just cut loose in the city.

It worked best when you played it like it was intended, trying to avoid combat or gunplay as much as possible in a gameplay loop that was clearly built around you diving into the hacker fantasy and doubling down on that style of play. Of course, the option to just brawl it out was always there, but it clearly felt like it was merely a tool to try and get out of sticky situations. The combat is the weakest part of another otherwise solid chain, mainly because it clashed with the kind of character Marcus was presented as, while also clashing with the overall tone of the experience the developer was trying to sell.

We couldn’t help but feel like the game should have pushed nonlethal solutions over violent ones harder than it actually did. This was a game that had a brains-over-brawn approach baked into its very foundations, and failing to double down on that certainly cost it dearly in hindsight. With that being said, for those who embraced the nonlethal way, things were infinitely more entertaining than the first game and continue to be so even after subsequent additions to the franchise’s lineup.

The mission design is another aspect that really shines through in certain areas, the open-ended infiltrations being a great example. There were also hacking puzzles, and a fair share of objectives that were creative enough to have us delighted to take a crack at them. However, they were let down by predictable enemy patrols and control zones, more than a bit of repetitive mission structure, and the general feel of checking things off a list that had already begun to be a problem for the developer’s big releases.

The systems in place were strong, but neither the campaign nor the rest of the experience used them to their full potential. The result is a game that could have, and perhaps should have, been greater than it is, but is still a very entertaining experience nonetheless. Despite its flaws that stemmed from a clear lack of balance between its best features, Watch Dogs 2 managed to feel authored, bringing a specific mood that its cast sold very well, and its own cultural identity that was an important part of a world that was fun to exist in.

It’s fun in a way that even current-gen games that are bigger in their ambition and scope and cleaner in their execution fail to be as memorable as San Francisco with Marcus in it. But that’s exactly where the Watch Dogs franchise as a whole might have shot itself in the foot. While the first game felt too serious, this one went another way while paving the path for future titles to further distil the strong identity that the franchise came with and the specific experience that it was trying to sell.

The developer should have looked to double down on what made Watch Dogs click, refining it into a hacker-stealth game that didn’t need clunky melee and ranged combat. Yes, the first game had potential, and we’d say that it crawled so that the rest of the franchise could fly to whatever heights it could manage. Legion did do interesting things with DedSec’s London chapter, although the lack of one protagonist and a muddled approach to parkour and its cover mechanics were drawbacks.

Nevertheless, Watch Dogs 2 stands out as a title that was arguably the cleanest version of that formula. It may not be a masterpiece, with its uneven tone and gameplay not working in its favor, while the combat and dated open-world design further dilute its value proposition.

But look past its flaws, and you see a game with a vision that had a very vibrant energy to it, with systemic freedom and a whole lot of personality that make it stand out today. And that’s an achievement in a gaming world where there have been several takes on hackers that are now at our disposal.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

It’s hard to believe that nearly half of 2026 has flown by already and brought a ton of brilliant games along with it. And while you may think that it’s a relatively slow start to the year, considering how the rest of it is looking crowded in a way that’s frankly a tad overwhelming, that doesn’t mean that we haven’t had a few titles that we won’t forget even as we try to get through the bevy of good ones coming our way.

We sat back and thought about ones that have managed to make us grin to ourselves every time we think about them, and are happy to tell you about them. Without further ado, let’s get started!

10. LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

With a gameplay loop that was straight out of Arkham, a version of Gotham that was absolutely enjoyable to explore, and a lot of wit, charm, and humor thrown in, this one was music to the pointy ears of Batman fans, who’ve been rather starved of a solid take on the Dark Knight ever since Rocksteady’s Arkham Knight.

Everything a Batman fan wanted was right there, from a close look at Bruce’s early days before he became an urban legend that struck fear in the hearts of Gotham’s wrongdoers, to solid takes on the rest of the cast, and a whole lot of references to the character’s long and often complex presence in DC’s stories over the years.

It’s rare to see humor work so well in Gotham, a place where there usually aren’t many laughs to be found unless they’re the maniacal cackle of The Joker, but this one had us chuckling to ourselves even as we were beating criminals to a pulp as the Dark Knight. It’s both Batman and LEGO done right, and balanced so well that it has more than earned a place on this list.

9. Mouse: P.I. For Hire

The next one we’re talking about is another charmer set in a dark and gritty world. Jack Pepper’s investigation into a magician’s disappearance, all set in a stylized version of 1930s America with a population made entirely of rodents and shrews, was a solid tale and a very entertaining shooter packed into one well-animated package.

Intelligent writing, great characters, and a lot of spilled ink were the highlights of our time with this one, and while it could have used a bit of balancing to be just perfect, what was on offer was still quite fun to engage with. We found ourselves making cheese-related puns for quite a while after we rolled the credits on this one, and that’s saying something when you consider that the game itself drops a significant number of those over the course of its runtime.

This noir adventure’s definitely worth undertaking if you’re looking for a fun game to play before the rest of the year’s releases begin to take up your free time.

8. Pragmata

As the latest addition in a long line of bangers this year, Pragmata is definitely a strong addition to a solid lineup of games this year. As a shooter that has you working a hacking minigame almost in parallel, there’s enough innovation to a tried-and-tested formula to make it an interesting proposition right off the bat.

But Pragmata’s true beauty lies in how it integrates that innovation into a heartwarming, wholesome story that sees protagonists Hugh and Diana surpass their innate differences as a human and an Android to form a friendship that delivers quite the emotional payoff. That bond was helped along by a story that explored complex themes without delving into too much philosophy, leaving just enough room for a more direct, robust pace that was very welcome indeed.

We’re quite sure we’ll be seeing more of Hugh and Diana in the years to come, and that’s something that makes us quite happy considering that their first outing ended on quite the cliffhanger.

7. Saros

Carcosa is a place no one in their right mind would want to go back to unless the person in question is a fan of Returnal’s take on bullet-hell shooters. But this one took things up a notch on all fronts, and the result was a title that was unsurprisingly awesome while remaining grounded enough to make the story it was trying to sell us not only believable, but quite emotionally resonant as well.

Arjun was a protagonist with layers and issues of his own, trying to work with the rest of the cast to uncover mysteries that tested his resolve and sanity. Getting to go along on such an adventure, and the challenges that we faced at his side along the way, were not just a pleasure, but a test of our own skill and determination to see it through.

The difficulty was always there, and perhaps even an expected part of the experience. But what we didn’t expect was for the entire thing to have us somberly reflecting on the themes it presented, even as we tried to dodge and block attacks that were ethereally beautiful whilst also being efficiently deadly. This one’s quite easy to recommend and a great one from Housemarque.

6. Forza Horizon 6

We’ve always loved to join the Horizon Festival wherever in the world it takes us. But this one’s more than just a great excuse for some arcade racing and a bevy of car-related activities to take on. It’s an authentic take on one of modern gaming’s most popular destinations, and one that takes a lot of effort to nail down in a way that has us constantly ignoring the need for sleep in order to chase the next band that will unlock more of it to enjoy.

This one’s visuals and the weather system were already strong reasons to dive in, but what’s made us stay is how it brings Japan’s many locales to life in ways that make driving around and soaking in the sights as attractive an option as engaging in some high-speed races that can really get the adrenaline flowing.

Forza Horizon 6 is the franchise’s best version of the Festival yet, and it’s going to be quite a challenge for Playground Games to top this one. However, if any studio can achieve that feat, the one behind this masterpiece certainly can.

5. Nioh 3

You were probably waiting for this one if you’ve dived into Team Ninja’s third instalment in a franchise that already had a lot going for it before this one came along. But with two distinct playstyles, the return of the stance-based combat system, a truckload of weapons and builds, and a whole wide world to test it all out in, it’s easy to see why this one has had us returning to it whenever there’s a good bit of downtime to make use of.

The open-worldish approach to its level design works very well with an exploration loop that’s designed around collecting loot, experience, and secrets in a world where even a minute advantage can mean the difference between life and death. Of course, the enemies and bosses you face down are a highlight of the experience, with familiar foes and fresh new ones bringing a level of challenge that would be daunting if not for the plethora of tools you’re given to deal with them.

If you’re looking to cut loose and enjoy a combat system that absolutely slaps, in a world that’s designed to have you in fights more than you’re out of them, Nioh 3 is the best one to pick out of all the titles that have come out so far in 2026.

4. 007 First Light

Well, IO Interactive finally managed to make a Bond game that could top GoldenEye, and we’re glad that it did. Its take on a young, more reckless, yet equally charming version of Bond has landed quite well. The gameplay loop on offer is equally captivating, making good use of the studio’s experience with great combat and stealth gameplay to deliver a title that could have you diving into a new playthrough just to satisfy your own curiosity about how different missions could play out if you were to make varying choices.

Open-ended level design, brutal combat, cool gadgets, and, of course, some very memorable set pieces help this one tell a story about Bond that hasn’t been told before. The gameplay lets you be the man himself in ways that are so darn satisfying they’re hard to describe to somebody who hasn’t joined in on the fun. And best of all is the fact that they work so well together that this one’s a title we can’t get enough of.

The Hitman DNA from IO’s previous work is in there, but it’s been used so well in First Light that it makes the game stand on its own well enough to be a strong addition to what the year has had to offer.

3. Pokémon Pokopia

A life sim and builder that weaves Pokémon into the mix? That’s clearly a recipe for success, but things could always go wrong if the execution falls flat. That isn’t the case with Pokémon Pokopia, and it’s a delightful blend of Animal Crossing and the popular anime, one that’s enough to keep you spending hours in the rather desolate version of Kanto it presents you with.

Joining Ditto in an effort to build the land into one where trainers and Pokémon can live their lives to the fullest was so full of fun and charm that this one grew on us pretty quickly and hasn’t outstayed its welcome even though we’ve been playing it for nearly three months now. There’s always something to do here, and it’s often so endearing that you can’t help but smile as you go about your day in the game’s world.

Pokopia is a great game irrespective of whether the anime and manga were a part of your childhood, and might even get you started on an obsession that many of us have carried all our lives.

2. Crimson Desert

We’re sure you’ve already guessed that, and Crimson Desert definitely ranks high among 2026’s best. Pywel’s a world that we just can’t get enough, as this one’s an evolving experience that’s constantly bringing new ways to engage with everything it has to offer.

Kliff’s fight to unify the land and return the Greymanes to their former glory might not have been released in the best of states, but this one’s managed to go past all of those initial hiccups to become an open-world experience that’s walking the line between single-player and live-service in a way that’s kept us on our toes.

It doesn’t get better than this as far as open worlds are concerned, although GTA 6 could come along and force us to sing a different tune. Nevertheless, Pywel’s a place of many fond memories, and that isn’t going to change even if Rockstar manages to pull us away from it for a while.

1. Resident Evil Requiem

Two protagonists, two different playstyles, and a setting that brought the story right back to where it started were all factors that worked in this one’s favor, to be sure. But it’s in the way that all of that was handled that made this one genuinely feel like a celebration of the genre’s long-running history.

Leon’s amazing fighting style worked well as a contrast to Grace’s sincere vulnerability in a story that could have had better big bads but was nonetheless quite revelatory as far as the franchise’s meta narrative was concerned. It was also a way to set up a future in which its entire cast could, and perhaps should, work together to take on a world that’s been forever changed by the adventure on offer here.

Requiem is Resident Evil at its finest, and there’s no bigger compliment that we can give it than that.

And that’s a wrap on our picks for the first half of 2026. We’re sure that this one’s going to have you nodding at most of the ones we’ve liked even as you think others should have made the cut. Either way, it’s been an exciting year for video games, with a very heavy second half that’s sure to keep us all on our toes. Bring it on, we say!

July is here, which means that there’s only a little over a week before we get to revisit the Caribbean, hopping aboard The Jackdaw, where Edward Kenway’s rise to prominence amongst the Assassins waits to greet us. We can’t help but look back to the time when Black Flag took the world by storm, when it was released around the time the PS4 and Xbox One marked the beginning of a new console generation.

The game was definitely a looker then, and the developer made good use of the hardware on offer to make it an experience that we couldn’t forget. Indeed, the story and gameplay on offer were probably why Resynced has managed to see the light of day amid a slew of other great titles in the franchise’s illustrious history. Of course, things are different now, and it looks like the developer is preparing to replicate the feat it achieved with last-gen hardware by making full use of what the PS5 and PS5 Pro have to offer.

If you’re thinking about sailing the high seas with Edward, Adewale, and the rest of the pirates on your PlayStation, we’ve got a few things you might like to keep in mind before you go ahead and pick up a copy of Resynced.

1. A Bunch of Graphic Modes For All Preferences

Beginning with what you’re going to find with respect to resolutions and frame rates on your consoles, Resynced is bringing quite a bit of flexibility to the table for both the base PS5 and the Pro.

Beginning with the PS5, you’ve got three options. There’s Performance, which targets 60fps with standard ray tracing for a smoother experience that keeps the resolution at an upscale 2160P. That’s a welcome option for those of us who want to make the most of the new combat system, which looks geared towards quick reactions to readable animations, a facet that this mode would serve very well.

There’s also Fidelity and Balanced, which deliver the same resolution as Performance, with extended ray tracing and target frame rates of 30 fps and 40 fps, respectively. We’d say that if you’re not going for Performance, Balanced is the clearly better option, although some of you might still prefer Fidelity despite the same resolution on offer.

The PS5 Pro is where things get interesting, though. We’ve got the same three modes on offer, with the same resolutions and target frame rates, but ray tracing is extended across the board. We’re diving into what that means in just a minute, as the differences are a crucial part of what sets the two consoles apart as far as this one’s concerned.

These are all factors that can work to make Resynced feel like quite a remake of the original version, which was limited by what the consoles it was played on could do back in the day.

2. Differing Approaches to Ray Tracing

It’s also important to know that while the standard ray tracing offers global diffuse lighting for the game world, extended ray tracing covers even reflective surfaces, which is sure to make a huge difference in a variety of locales where water, rain, and other factors necessitate the need for better reflections to make the entire experience more immersive as a result.

Diving deeper into what that means, the developer has elaborated on how ray-traced global illumination is going to work dynamically under the hood, ditching the original Black Flag’s precomputed lighting systems to let the Caribbean’s natural light react appropriately to factors like the weather, time of day, and the environments you’re exploring. Diffuse lighting makes light react more naturally to surfaces for better shading in various environments and once again adds a bit of realistic flavor to the entire game.

Both of these are a part of the PS5’s offerings in Performance Mode, but both Balanced and Fidelity offer Specular Reflections, which influence wet wood, the spray from the ocean, metal, and a whole lot more to make the world feel more alive and responsive to your movements as a result. It’s probably going to be tough choosing between the two approaches, unless you’re on the PS5 Pro, where all of what we’ve outlined is going to be a part of your experience irrespective of the mode you pick.

3. No Compromises on The PS5 Pro

In addition to global illumination, diffuse lighting, and Specular Reflections making up a complete ray-tracing package across all of the three graphical modes on offer, there’s also the fact that Resynced on the PS5 Pro is going to be making full use of Enhanced PSSR, which is sure to make the upscaled image look a lot better than the PS5’s take on it.

The result is that the PS5 Pro could make the choice between Performance and the other modes a whole lot easier, and any differences between them are going to be quite hard to spot unless you’re actively looking for them. Of course, there are going to be a few things in favor of Fidelity Mode in case you’re wondering if there’s any reason to go for it in the first place, thanks to that 30 fps frame rate target. Well, we’ve got something for you to cheer about if that’s been on your mind.

But it’s quite clear that the PS5 Pro’s additional firepower is going to make Resynced feel very different from the Black Flag you know and love, and that’s good news considering how excited we’ve all been to get our hands on this one.

4. Strand-Based Hair

This one’s for the PS5 Pro and is probably a reason for you to choose Fidelity Mode if total immersion means more to you than better frame rates. Strand-Based hair tech is on board in Resynced, and is going to be working its magic on Edward across all three graphical modes on offer. That extends to the cinematics as well, and it’s going to be interesting to see Blackbeard’s take on a Black Flag in action with the new tech in action whenever he takes the stage.

However, Fidelity Mode extends that offering to NPCs in Edward’s vicinity, which could make for an interesting sight in situations where the wind works its magic, which happens quite a lot in this one, considering a significant portion of your time is spent on the Jackdaw’s deck at sea.

5. A More Focused Caribbean Simulation

The Anvil Engine was vastly improved in Shadows, and is set to bring all of what it achieved in that one and more to the table in Resynced. For starters, the weather is going to be quite dynamic this time around in comparison to Black Flag, as the system is going to work with several variables like temperature, humidity, wind, and the density of vapor coming off the ocean, making them play off each other to create the sort of unpredictable conditions that the seas are known for. That makes the seas behave more treacherously as you sail along them, just like they would in the real world.

The winds are going to make things on the shore just as dynamic, affecting the movements of clouds and causing storms both on the sea and land. They’re also going to affect the flora you find around you, which could make exploring dense forests a visual treat, while cloth, particles such as leaves, the sails of your ships, and your character’s hair are all going to be influenced by its passage.

There’s also the ocean to consider, and the developer’s water physics have been drawing a lot of well-deserved praise ever since Odyssey hit the shelves. Well, there’s a lot to like in Resynced as volumetric foam generation, dynamic bubble systems, physics-based water rendering, and new tessellation techniques allow the water to react to the wind, weather, and your own movements through it with a level of realism that the original game simply could not have managed. It’s very interesting stuff, and we can’t wait to see how it all comes together to make the world in Resynced feel as lively as Edward’s personality as he engages with it all.

And that’s about it for this one. While it’s clear that the PS5 Pro is bringing a lot of upgrades over the base console for Resynced, we’d say that even the PS5 is going to bring a new layer of immersion to the Caribbean. We’re certainly going to be diving into the experience on both consoles, and you can be sure we’ll be telling you all about what we find once we set sail on the Jackdaw when Resynced releases on July 9, 2026, for the PS5, PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5 Pro.

Until then, let’s hope that the developer is looking at some favorable winds in what’s been a rather tough few years for it.

In light of Xbox’s recent mass layoffs, there has been plenty of concern regarding the fate of the many projects likely under development at ZeniMax. Previous reports had indicated that anyone not working on either Fallout or The Elder Scrolls would be targeted by the layoffs.

However, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has noted that, while the company is going to be affected, it won’t be reduced to just working on the two franchises.

It is worth noting that there are plenty of studios that operate under the larger ZeniMax umbrella. Along with Bethesda Game Studios itself, the company also includes id Software, MachineGames, and Arkane. In a social media post, Schreier has said that the company will continue to work on its other franchises, including Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake.

“ZeniMax will be impacted significantly by the reorganization but will NOT be reduced to only Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, despite rumors over the last few weeks. The publisher will also still work on Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake,” he posted.

Xbox announced its layoffs through a letter sent to its employees and then published online, titled “Resetting Xbox”. Through it, CEO Asha Sharma announced that Xbox was cutting around 1,600 jobs today, with another 1,600 planned for the rest of the fiscal year. Along with this, she also revealed that Double Fine Productions and Compulsion Games are going independent, while Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are being sold to another company.

“I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building Xbox,” said Sharma. “Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved Xbox. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.”

Along with the four studios listed, Sharma also revealed that Arkane is going into consultation to “review potential strategic options”. What this means for the studio’s current project – Marvel’s Blade – remains to be seen.

Sharma also announced that Xbox is getting a new COO. With the now-former COO Dave McCarthy retiring after a 17-year stint at Xbox, the role is being taken up by Helen Chiang, who previously worked on growing Xbox Live and Minecraft developer Mojang.

“She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results,” said Sharma about Chiang.

The Xbox division as a whole is also undergoing streamlining, with many of the management layers across the company being reduced. Sharma noted that, in some instances, Xbox had 14 layers of management between studios and decision makers. This led to slower decisions and blurred accountability.

Moving forward, the company is aiming to have a maximum of five management layers for its various studios to deal with, and where possible, it will try to go down to only three management layers in a bid to ensure that the process of development is simplified with things like shared services, cleaner code bases, and reduced vendor spend.

ZeniMax will be impacted significantly by the reorganization but will NOT be reduced to only Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, despite rumors over the last few weeks. The publisher will also still work on Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake.

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) 2026-07-06T13:36:37.175Z

With so many games on the market and more coming every day, it’s hard to decide which titles to zero in on. In an effort to get eyes on promising new projects, GameCritics.com is now featuring First Look pieces like this one, which show the opening chunk of a game and share thoughts and impressions on gameplay, narrative, lore, and more.

Want to suggest something for us to check out? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know!

The subject of today’s First Look? Scramble Star Crossing

From the Black Voices in Gaming showcase, I took a look at Scramble Star Crossing by developer and publisher Dusk Sharp. From the trailers, it looks like a mix of Puyo Puyo-style puzzling in a hand-drawn pastel world. On planet Nesson, clearing stars is a job and a professional sport! Players take on the role of Alice, a promising rookie, as they work through the star clearing championship. Check out our first look, and more of the game below!

Steam: Scramble Star Crossing

Eugene grew up playing other people’s videogames. He didn’t have his own console for some time, and has many memories of playing games his friends owned and beating them. Once he saved up enough money, he finally bought a Sega Genesis secondhand and started a gaming library of his own.

While Sonic and Street Fighter were great places to start, his first love was Final Fantasy X when his dad bought a PS2. Ever since, that love for gaming has evolved — there are a number of game worlds out there, and he intends to explore them all. RPG to horror, platformers to casual and everything in between — if it’s available, he’ll play it.

While his time is short between writing reviews, tabletop gaming, and attempting to start a cheesecake business, he has caught all 806 1025 Pokemon and can speedrun Star Fox 64 in less than 40 minutes. He’s always looking for new things to try and new challenges to conquer. You can find him on X by searching @eugene_sax, or on Bluesky at eugenesax.bsky.social.

Latest posts by Eugene Sax (see all)

As part of the recent layoffs at Xbox affecting around 1,200 employees for now, with roughly 3,200 total layoffs planned for the rest of the fiscal year, CEO Asha Sharma has also revealed plans for the future of the division. These plans include resetting the platform as a whole and resetting how the Xbox division operates.

In a post titled “Resetting Xbox”, Sharma has said that the division’s management layers will see reductions to a maximum of five layers, and where possible, the company will only have 3 layers for its various studios. Through this “flatter organization built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved with the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes,” Sharma wants to streamline the company’s overall workflow. This will include having a cleaner code base, shared services, and vendor spend being reduced by 50 percent.

The reasoning behind this was the fact that Xbox sometimes had 14 layers of management between the studios and the decision makers. Along with this, the company also suffered from ballooning team sizes, with platform teams being 40 percent larger than they were when Xbox Series X/S launched, despite a decline in player base and play time. “That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players,” said Sharma. “As we reset Xbox, we will simplify.”

Another core part of the future of Xbox is the appointment of a new chief operating officer (COO), who will have end-to-end profit and loss responsibilities across content, hardware, platform, and services. The role is being taken up by Helen Chiang, who has previously worked on building up Xbox Live and Minecraft developer Mojang. Chiang’s appointment means that former COO Dave McCarthy is retiring after having worked at Xbox for 17 years.

“She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results,” said Sharma about Chaing.

Sharma went on to note that the aim of these changes is to make sure that Xbox has a “bigger future” going forward, and “not a smaller one.”

“The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in Xbox as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making Xbox where the world plays and creates.”

As part of the layoffs hitting Xbox, Sharma had also confirmed that four studios – Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, and Undead Labs – are being released. While Double Fine and Compulsion Games will be going independent, retaining their IP in the process, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are being sold. Microsoft hasn’t yet revealed any details about which company is acquiring the two studios, and whether the games they are working on – Senua and State of Decay 3 – will see the light of day.

Microsoft has commenced what it describes as the “most significant restructure in Xbox history” and confirmed it will be eliminating 3,200 roles across its video game division by the end of the current fiscal year. 

The company has laid off 1,600 workers immediately with more cuts to follow. Four studios are being jettisoned from the Xbox Game Studios ecosystem, with South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games and Psychonauts maker Double Fine both returning to independence with full ownership of their respective IP catalogs. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have agreed to join new ownership with the financing required to bring Senua and State of Decay 3 to market. 

Arkane Lyon has begun a consultation process that Microsoft said will allow the studio to “review potential strategic options.” It’s unclear whether this will result in the closure of the Blade developer or another studio exit.  

In a message sent to Team Xbox employees earlier today (published on Xbox Wire), newly-appointed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said the cuts are required in order to course correct after bets on Xbox Game Pass and multiplatform releases failed to pay off. 

Related:Ingress developer Niantic Spatial shuttering New Zealand office

Notably, Sharma said the company must reset to navigate a “severe hardware crisis” that has dramatically inflated memory prices and by extension console hardware. It’s vital to note that component shortage is driven by rampant investment in AI data centers (thanks, Reuters) at the hands of companies like Microsoft. 

This is the fifth major round of layoffs announced by Microsoft since the company acquired Activision Blizzard in 2023 for almost $70 billion. Despite taking ownerships of major franchises such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft as a result of that merger, Sharma said Xbox’s core business has “weakened” in recent years.

“Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined. We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios,” she wrote. 

“It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset Xbox, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.”

Xbox is not cancelling any publicly announced first-party projects, but confirmed it will be downsizing across a myriad of divisions such as Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, and Mojang. In addition, Minecraft developer Mojang and Candy Crush studio King will now report directly to Sharma, who will also be instating a chief operating officer with end-to-end profit and loss responsibility across content, hardware, platform and services. 

Related:Enginefall developer Red Rover Interactive is making layoffs

Xbox veteran Helen Chiang, who has spent the past decade overseeing the Minecraft franchise, will step into that role and will report directly to Sharma. “[Chiang] will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results,” continued Sharma.

The Xbox boss added that the redundancies will enable the division to streamline operations to meet player expectations.

“Today, in some parts of the company, work passes through as many as 14 layers of management. Our platform teams are 40  percent larger than they were at the start of this generation, even as our player base and playtime have declined. That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players. As we reset Xbox, we will simplify,” continued Sharma. 

Related:Cyberpunk 2077 has sold 40 million copies worldwide

“We will reduce management layers to no more than 5, and where possible, 3. We will deliver success through a flatter organization that is built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved in the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes. And we will streamline how we work across our tools, with a cleaner code base, shared services, and 50 percent reduced vendor spend.”

Game Developer has reached out to Xbox for more information.

As we get closer to the July 9th release of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, a new video has popped up giving us a look at the opening moments of the game. Coming courtesy of IGN, the video gives us a look at the first 18 minutes of gameplay from the title, kicking things off with a black screen letting us know that the story starts at Cape Bonavista in the June of 1715. Check it out below.

Kicking things off with a naval battle, we get to see protagonist Edward Kenway before he dons his iconic assassin robes. Being just a pirate, his ship has come under fire from another ship flying the flag of England. The sequence acts as a tutorial for the ship-to-ship combat in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, with Edward having to take the helm and order his crew to fire cannons at the other ships.

While not much may have changed in gameplay terms for the naval combat, the visuals are quite obviously a major step above the original game, which should come as no surprise since Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag was first released in 2013. The weather effects as well as the frantic and stressful nature of naval battles are shown in all their messy glory, and before long, Edward, along with a mysterious hooded figure, is thrown overboard thanks to an explosion on the ship’s deck.

Once Edward is able to swim to shore, the true beauty of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is shown off in all of its glory. The tropical island he finds himself on is lush, with bright green foliage all over the place.

In terms of story, the opening moments of Black Flag Resynced aren’t really change much from the 2013 original, with the events that would eventually make Edward a prominent member of the Assassins’ Brotherhood largely playing out as you would expect. Tasked by the hooded stranger to deliver a message, Edward agrees on the condition of getting paid for his work. However, he also manages to get his hands on a set of assassin robes and manages to get himself entwined in a seemingly never-ending shadow war between opposing factions.

Ubisoft has revealed quite a few details about Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced as the company gets ready to release it on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. In a recent interview, technical director Jussi Markkanen teased that the title would allow players to dive underwater just about anywhere in the open world. This also means that there will be an entirely new set of secrets for players to discover, including entirely new shipwrecks.

Markkanen has also confirmed that Black Flag Resynced will feature an evolution of the combat system we saw with the most recent entry in the franchise – Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

“We modernized the combat to be more hitbox-based, as modern combat games tend to be, and a little bit more reactive. So, Edward can still use the hidden blades, but as a takedown action in the combat, making the combat more fluid.”

Check out more details about the game’s global release timings. PC players can also take a look at details about its Steam Deck Verified status.

Don’t Play TH-15 Game On Switch, Please!

HIGH A wonderfully imaginative narrative undergirding the whole experience.

LOW The narrative (and its key concepts) might be a bit too mysterious at times.

WTF The entire central conceit, I suppose.

I think it speaks to how much I enjoyed playing TR-49 that I’m still feeling positive about it, despite the fact that I couldn’t even beat my review copy because it kept crashing!!!

I had to watch a playthrough on YouTube in order to see the ending cutscene, because every time I tried to input my solution to the final puzzle, TR-49 would freeze, the ambient audio continuing to run until I gave up and closed the program. This cheesed me off, but honestly I was used to dealing with TR-49’s performance hiccups by that point.

Throughout my entire playthrough, TR-49 would freeze about every minute or so (returning to the Switch’s homescreen and then immediately resuming would solve this, fortunately). For many this would be an intolerable inconvenience. But again, it speaks to the degree to which I was enchanted by the process of uncovering TR-49’s secrets that my brain almost edited these moments out of my playing experience. I treated them like the tiniest little gnats drifting around my head — something to be unconsciously swatted away as I continued, in a trance, to solve puzzle after puzzle.

TR-49 encourages this kind of dedicated, captivated play, I think, by cultivating a sense of true mystery and ambiguity from minute one. The story begins immediately upon booting up for the first time (a favorite trick of mine) and dropping the player into a mysterious subterranean laboratory filled with 1940s technology. The player quickly realizes they are a woman named Abbi, who has seemingly awoken with no memory of who they are or what they’re supposed to be doing.

Abbi is quickly contacted through a radio by an equally mysterious figure named Liam, who convinces them that they must use the big machine in the center of the lab. Abbi then approaches the TR-49 console and begins interacting with it. After this point, the entirety of TR-49 takes place within this single, fixed perspective.

The console, the player discovers, is a piece of souped-up WWII technology, once a codebreaking machine. Nowadays, as Liam helpfully explains, it is used to… devour (?) texts of all kinds, from in-universe pamphlets to real-world texts like the Bible or Pride and Prejudice, storing them within the system under codes in a [Letter][Letter]-[Number[Number] format.

At the point where the story begins, the few texts the player has access to seem to be garbled and corrupted, with the majority of entries missing their titles. The player is then prompted to use the information in these files to obtain codes for other files, allowing them to navigate to those pages in the database. They also need to find the names for the documents, which they must assign to the correct document in order to restore them to full legibility.

This sounds a bit dry, doesn’t it? I promise though, TR-49 manages to coax a humongous amount of intrigue and momentum out of its simple loop!

For one thing, it’s helped along greatly by its aesthetic and approach to player feedback. Take the music for instance — a series of beautiful, low-key arrangements. The music offers a sonic palette that feels familiar, but it’s remarkable how it sustains, throughout TR-49’s entire runtime, an incredibly mournful, mysterious atmosphere, yet always feels on the verge of bursting into a massive crescendo. The player is left with the sense, as they browse through the computer and uncover TR-49’s backstory, that they are exploring a world of tragedy on a grand scale, despite the fact that they are glued to a single screen for the entire runtime!

Speaking of backstory, the story (and overall tone) further increased the hold TR-49’s simple gameplay had over me. I wouldn’t dare offend the good people at Inkle by attempting to fully summarize the plot, but I can say confidently that the story takes place in a world where, somehow, the written word has the power to reshape reality itself. This is largely framed as a scientific phenomenon, but it’s given a certain magical quality as well. Specifically, the TR-49 machine hosts a good number of occult treatises and journals, illustrating a long lineage of eccentric, often tragic truth-seekers.

The tension between science and the supernatural, sustained over a long period of time, creates the truly wondrous feeling that anything could happen. Truly, every element of TR-49 combines beautifully to coax the player (or me, at least) to keep deliriously filling out their code sheet, desperate to see what happens next. Even the tiniest aesthetic choices, such as how the machine hesitates slightly after the player inputs a correct code before zooming out and scrolling across dozens of files to access the new document, create a sense of anticipation and release.

In the end, does TR-49 live up to its promise? I mean… mostly!

The majority of the plot’s movement is related to the protagonist coming to realizations about past events, making a critical decision towards the end using the information they’ve learned, and an inattentive player might completely miss some of these revelations. There is some active, external plot movement, but it mainly takes place off-screen, overheard on the radio. TR-49 does a decent job of painting the picture of a world gone mad, flourishing just out of frame, but I couldn’t blame anyone for feeling that external events of the story just don’t feel fleshed out enough. That said, it’s about the journey, not the destination!

Regardless of its eventual end state, TR-49 is a wonderful toy to poke and prod at, and it evokes the feeling of strolling through a computerized graveyard, the voices of the dead drifting across the static. 

Score: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: this game is developed and published by Inkle. It is currently available on PC, iOS, and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Language, Mild Violence. The mild violence mentioned in this description is contained to descriptions of violence inflicted on characters, which entirely occurs off-screen.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered or resized. Subtitles are provided for all dialogue, and all the puzzles are text-related, with no sound cues required for progression. As such, TR-49 is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. Interacting with the machine on Switch is accomplished mainly through holding down ZR, pointing to the letter/number you want to input with the left analog stick, and inputting the value with the A button. L brings up all relevant logs, with R specifically bringing up the list of document titles and possible codes.

Latest posts by Breton Campbell (see all)

PlayStation’s recently announced initiative to stop disc production for new games from January 2028 onwards has caused no shortage of controversy and questions. For instance, are publishers on board with this? Besides the likes of Capcom and Take-Two Interactive touting their revenue sources as primarily digital, it’s hard to say.

According to Game File’s Stephen Totilo, however, PlayStation has been in touch with partners and publishers and apparently told them of the consumer “shift” when it came to discs. However, it also allegedly provided reassurance that they would “still be able to place re-orders for existing PlayStation disc games” past January 2028.

Of course, there are plenty of other questions that arise. How long would Sony keep this initiative open, especially following reports that its disc production factory is being repurposed to produce one-tenth of its current volume in the future? What happens to developers whose titles face a sudden delay past the deadline?

The fact that PlayStation didn’t publicly announce this is also somewhat intriguing because you would think it’d generate some goodwill. Not a lot, especially since the bigger concerns are around future preservation of titles, Sony monopolizing its storefront in terms of discounts offered, and so on, but still some.

As always, we’ll only know the longer-term impact of its decision to go fully digital in due time. If there’s any silver lining, it’s that Xbox is still offering discs in boxes, as recently announced for Halo: Campaign Evolved.

NEW: Sony’s private message to publisher/dev partners about discs also cited a consumer “shift” But it included more explicit confirmation that, after Jan 2028, partners “will still be able to place re-orders for existing PlayStation disc games”More in item 2 www.gamefile.news/i/204901261/…

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo.bsky.social) 2026-07-03T19:56:15.339Z

Days later, PlayStation’s decision to stop manufacturing physical discs for new titles from January 2028 onwards continues to reverberate through the industry. It’s enough to shock professionals like Hideo Kojima and even former executives, including Shawn Layden, who led PlayStation Worldwide Studios before departing in 2019.

Having spent 32 years in the industry, he told Eurogamer that, “I had no idea it was going to happen. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I don’t work in the business any more. Maybe it’s just too prohibitively expensive to stamp out discs.”

Plans have seemingly been in the works for some time, as a recent report reveals that Sony repurposed its disc factory in Thalgau. While it currently produces about 300,000 discs daily for PlayStation, the plan is to produce only 10 percent by 2028. And despite a sizable portion of consumers still purchasing physical games, Layden believes it’s “a straight spreadsheet decision.”

“What are disc sales compared to digital sales? And I’m old enough to remember when digital sales were like 10 percent – I’m old enough to remember when digital sales were zero percent because we didn’t have a digital market! And that number just grew over time.”

He also noted that while working at Sony, he was questioned about how long the company would continue with discs. “I’ve been asked this question every year for the last 20 years. When are you guys going to just give up on the disc drive? My feeling with that was always: well, when I get to a place where I’m comfortable enough to believe that worldwide, broadband throughput is good enough to support that download experience, good enough to reach the majority of customers.

“Majority does not mean entirety, so there is a point, a tipping point, where if I have 80 percent of the opportunity, which represents 95 percent of the revenue source, what’s my incentive to keep the lights on for the other 20 percent if it’s effectively only 5 percent of the business? See what I’m saying? At some point it just becomes obvious that we can’t keep this whole thing running just for this very small slice of opportunity.”

Of course, Layden argues that the rest of the world may not have the best internet, and, unlike Xbox, Sony has been “pretty good” at taking this into account. “PlayStation had a wider global fanbase, and not just in the numbers, but in the reach, because Sony Corp had reach all over the world.” He cited those on military bases without internet and how “the idea that they could still buy a PlayStation 4 game, throw it in a machine and play was important. You don’t want to leave those people behind.”

At the end of it all, he doesn’t know “what went on in those conversations, but it’s a fairly dramatic decision.” Which is an understatement, considering how much the internet has been dogging Sony ever since, to the point where it’s affecting other social media accounts under the company.

Combined with rumors that the PS6 has a $960 bill of materials, potentially resulting in a $1000 price, the next generation of console gaming is looking dicey. Stay tuned for more details and updates in the meantime.

Pearl Abyss has released a new update for Crimson Desert, and it adds dozens of new armor pieces. For Kliff and Oongka, you can look forward to four brand new armor sets, including the heavily requested (you know the guy) Knight of Carnage armor. That’s on top of 19 separate pieces of equipment, including three new headgear.

Damiane also gets eight new armor pieces alongside two new outfits – Odeck and Dark Marskman – and one piece from the Masked Liberator set. If that wasn’t enough, both Damiane and Oongka can equip Kuku gear like the armor sets, Marni Laser Helm, and more. It’s also possible to craft popular armor sets like the Frostcursed Plate Armor and Scorchflame Plate Armor.

Beyond this, players can now hide the minimap and status UI, equip the new Hunter’s Sigil that enables your pet birds to collect prey in your stead, and even enter the Abyss with Damiane and Oongka. Check out some of the patch notes below and full details here.

Crimson Desert is available on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC with over six million copies sold. Believe it or not, Pearl Abyss isn’t even halfway through its promised roadmap for June to September, with story improvements also coming soon. It’s also working on paid DLC, which will offer a different experience from the updates, though further details remain to be revealed.

Patch Notes Version 1.13.00

Main Improvements

Content

• Changed certain disguise outfits that could not be dyed so that they can now be dyed.
• Improved most weapons and secondary weapons so that they can now be dyed.
• Improved the Iron Eagle and Phoenix so that they can equip the Sigil of Valor.
• Improved gathering so that up to 3 fireflies can be obtained when gathering from a firefly colony.
• [Oongka] Improved puzzles so that they can be completed with Scatter Shot.
• Fixed an issue where the auto-tracked target would switch to another quest in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue where rowboats would briefly sink underwater when used.
• Fixed an issue where the wagon would disappear if it was destroyed during the “A Sack of Pepper” quest.
• Fixed an issue where Moren would disappear when combat started after tracking Moren, the Mistwood Huntmaster.
• Fixed an issue where crimes using tools could be committed without fines during Memory Fragment playbacks.
• Improved the Gate to Advancement’s teleporting device to be usable without a Visione equipped.
• Fixed an issue where, if the player sold furniture that was not being sold at a furniture shop and then repurchased that furniture, all items in the repurchase menu would disappear.
• Fixed an issue where Duane could not travel on horseback during the “Skilled in Archery” quest.
• Fixed an issue where Contribution would increase abnormally in certain situations.
• Changed the Bleed Bandits’ Alchemy Explosive Pack so that its durability decreases each time it summons a bomb.
• Fixed an issue where, during the “Hand of Deliverance” quest, if the injured soldier was rescued first, the previous sub-quest would not be completed.
• Fixed an issue where certain attacks of Antumbra’s Spear would activate from an abnormal position.

With Palworld 1.0 right around the corner and Pocketpair’s publishing director touting around 27 pages of patch notes in its current state, there’s a lot to look forward to beyond the new region and finale. According to a new tweet, players can expect new base structures, parts and even the option to build offshore, bringing their beach base aspirations to life.

And while the prospect of overhauled raid mechanics is nice, that’s only a small part of what players can expect. According to previous tweets, a “series of story-driven missions” will take you through new areas while existing locations have seen improvements to “feel more alive.” Sanctuaries now have unique ecosystems, from dome barriers to drones, and offer distinct materials.

You’ll also happen upon rare Pals, but be warned – “powerful bosses” lie in wait. Speaking of which, the iconic towers and their bosses have also been reworked to be more “dynamic and engaging.” It’s a lot to take in, and once again, that’s on top of the new Pals (including one that transforms into a two-handed sword), firearms and equipment, including the new Wing Suit for flying around unassisted.

Palworld 1.0 goes live on July 10th, marking the title’s exit from early access after 2.5 years, and will be available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. Stay tuned for more details and teases as the countdown to launch continues.

6 days to Palworld 1.0, launching on July 10th!

New base structures, furniture, building parts, and… offshore building!

Raid mechanics also overhauled!

Show off your bases in the replies 👀 pic.twitter.com/UbUMDT99yD

— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) July 4, 2026

🚨 Revamped World & Story!
Unravel the island’s mysteries through a series of story-driven missions!

Vast new areas to explore, and existing areas improved to make them feel more alive!
Get ready for a fresh new adventure on Palpagos!

Palworld 1.0 arrives July 10! pic.twitter.com/NVCzmr6Sk8

— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) June 29, 2026

🚨Wildlife Sanctuary Overhaul!

Sanctuaries have changed, and each has their own unique ecosystem!

Strange barriers and drones have also been spotted…

• Unique landscapes with rare Pals
• Unique materials
• Powerful bosses stalk these areas…

Palworld 1.0 arrives July 10! pic.twitter.com/KrSnk0oPcH

— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) June 28, 2026

🚨 Tower Boss Overhaul!

Bosses and their towers have been reworked and are now much more dynamic and engaging!

To claim victory, you’ll need to completely change up your strategy.

That is not all… even more unseen bosses still await…

Palworld 1.0 arrives July 10! pic.twitter.com/FcOC7N2KWf

— Palworld (@Palworld_EN) June 27, 2026

Aside from the admittedly low-energy investigative gameplay at the start, Rebel Wolves’ The Blood of Dawnwalker is a pretty choice-heavy game. Each choice ripples out in different ways, whether you’re helping the rebels deal with Brencis and his crew, or going on your own feeding frenzy at night. But what if the player ends up in an unwinnable situation?

How does the development team prevent you from entering a so-called fail state by, say, killing all the NPCs? As director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz succinctly explained to Game Informer, “We don’t. The game – this is a role-playing game. It’s about player role. If you want to play like this or if it happens, you decide if you want to reload the game or go with the flow and see what happens.”

While most games would like to keep you along a specific path, Tomaszkiewicz believes that these kinds of results are “really interesting.” “They are changing your experience – you cannot predict them, and if they happen, you need to adjust, to adapt to what happens and to change your strategy to finish the game, and I think that it’s really funny to observe how people play it.”

He also enjoys hearing how people compare their “emotions and experiences” and argue about “what is the best way you know to complete something.” The studio’s goal is to deliver “so many different experiences for people that they can go back, replay it again and have an almost different game than what they think.”

Whether you’re in for a single playthrough or going back to check alternate routes, The Blood of Dawnwalker is a pretty hefty game, requiring around 50 hours on average to complete. It’s also worth noting that the story doesn’t immediately end when the 30 in-game days are up, with Rebel Wolves teasing that the circumstances “will change.”

Launching on September 3rd, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. The development team also has plans for “smaller, free add-ons”, though further details and a roadmap remain to be revealed.

In light of console hardware getting more and more expensive, Sony wants to boost PlayStation revenue through the services it offers. In a recent Q&A from a company meeting, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Hideaki Nishino, along with Studio Business CEO Hermen Hulst and senior vice president of Finance and Corporate Development Lynn Azar, spoke about what this might mean for the PlayStation Plus subscription service in the future.

The three were asked about the potential for price increases of PlayStation Plus subscriptions. In response, they said that the service already makes use of its tiered subscription service that can help it balance value with cost. They noted that the higher tiers account for around 40 percent of all subscribers to the service.

“PS Plus offers strong value to players, and we continually balance that value against customer cost,” they said. “We are using multiple levers to improve profitability, including pricing, tier mix, and content acquisition efficiency. Higher tiers now account for 40% of subscribers, which reflects strong demand for the service. PS Plus remains a key driver of profitability, and we achieved record-high PS Plus profitability in FY2025.”

In the same Q&A, they had also spoken about needing to expand their server infrastructure to make cloud gaming services available in more markets. When asked about how the costs incurred by the move would be recovered, they said, “We expect to recover the costs associated with investments and operations through revenue generated from PS Plus, which provides the streaming service.”

PlayStation Plus price increases wouldn’t be a new move for Sony. The company has raised the service’s prices in the past. Back in January 2025, Nishino had noted that the service had seen growth despite prices having been raised. At the time, he noted that subscribers were opting for the more expensive tiers.

“Subscribers are increasingly choosing our Premium and Extra tiers, which now represent approximately 38% of total subscribers,” said Nishino.

He went on to discuss the value proposition of a PlayStation Plus subscription. At its most basic, it allows players to access online multiplayer features of many games. Even the most basic tier gives players access to new games on a regular basis. Higher tiers, on the other hand, open up new libraries for players, with the highest tier even including a classic games catalogue featuring titles from PS1 and PS2, among others.

“PlayStation Plus is highly valued by our players and continues to drive engagement,” he said. “We’ve already seen a trend toward the option of higher tiers within our service, as evidenced by the subscriber mix we achieved in FY2024, where approximately 38% of players are now subscribed to PlayStation Plus Premium or Extra tiers.”

Vice president of Global Services at PlayStation, Nick Maguire, had also spoken about how the company plans to further build on the value offered by PlayStation Plus’ Premium and Extra tiers. He also went on to reiterate that engagement with the service has been higher than it was in the past.

Extraction shooters have carved out a niche in recent years, but few attempt to fuse their high-stakes loop with outright psychological horror, but that’s exactly what The Mound sets out to do. Developed by ACE Team, this co-op PvE experience blends scavenging, survival, and tense extractions with the creeping dread of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, where the environment itself feels as dangerous as any enemy. With shifting realities, unreliable senses, and teamwork pushed to its limits, it’s shaping up to be a very different kind of jungle expedition. Here are 15 things you should know before you buy.

A Lovecraft-Inspired, Co-op PvE Extraction Shooter

Drawing inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft’s novella of the same name, The Mound plunges you deep into uncharted jungle with up to three fellow explorers in search of artefacts and riches. Except, there’s unknowable danger lurking beneath the canopy. While the extraction genre’s familiar nuts-and-bolts drive the action here – loadout stations, deploying to hostile lands, scavenging loot, and surviving long enough to hightail it outta there – The Mound leans into Lovecraftian cosmic horror to warp the very fabric of reality, testing the trust of your team.

Each Expedition is a Descent Into Madness

Replicating a key theme in Lovecraft’s novella, in The Mound the further you trek into the forest, the more susceptible you become to madness, paranoia, and hallucination. The game presents traps and distractions, making you question what you see and hear. From sensory illusions – footsteps unknown in the undergrowth, to shifting colours and distortion – to unpredictable threats like imaginary trinkets materialising over spike-filled pits, laying invisible to your gaze. Each player perceives reality differently too, so whilst you’re unaware of the doom in front of you, your teammates can step in.

Communication is Crucial

And this brings us neatly onto the next thing you need to know: in The Mound, communication with your teammates is crucial to survival. The game uses spatialised voice chat, where the volume and direction of your comrade’s voice adjusts depending on their proximity to you. This isn’t just for realism and immersion, but deep inside the jungle there will be times when the figure you’re seeing may-or-may-not be your ally. In these moments, detecting their location through sound might be the only lifeline you’ve got.

Gameplay Follows Established Extraction Formula

Once your expedition begins in earnest, the gameplay loop involves scavenging for riches, food, weapons, and other resources, including mysterious metal ephemera that signals the location of high-value loot with a clang. You’ll also encounter indigenous stragglers and marooned survivors, the latter you may be asked to rescue. Abandoned forts of failed expeditions yield valuable intel, while an overarching objective is to locate the titular Mound. Here, as Lovecraft’s novella explains, is the gateway to a subterranean underworld filled with striking architecture, and abhorrent monsters. Whether the game treads the same narrative path remains to be seen, but the sentiment is that the Mound is an epicentre for wealth and prosperity – hence, your captain and overseer demands you find it.

Your Captain Outfits Your Squad Before Each Run

Before embarking on a treasure hunt, however, you’ll spend time aboard the Tempestad, your home galleon which serves as a base of operations. Across its creaking decks, and amongst its dimly-lit enclaves, you can speak to the ship’s cook who’ll advise on the best foodstuffs to retrieve on-land, request a tune from the resident lute player, and pet the ship’s sleepy dog. As far as hubworlds go, the Tempestad is rife with noxious atmosphere, but it’s the Captain whom you’ll need to address before departing for the coast. He’ll offer a pre-run contract for you to sign, usually revolving around finding specific items or locations, and returning with a minimum loot value. In exchange for your services, he provides weapons, gear, and resources.

Inventory Space is Limited

From the outset at least, you’ll have just six slots in your inventory. That’s room for a flintlock pistol, a machete, some gunpowder, perhaps an item of food, and two spare for whatever you pick up on the mainland. There is, however, an ox cart which trails your expedition’s progress, and there is room in its trunk for collected items plus anything surplus on deck. But, here’s the thing: that pistol? The machete? The Captain doesn’t give you one each. Together with your team, you’ll need to strategise before setting off, deciding who takes the rifle and who gets the sailor’s knife.

Guns Don’t Work in the Rain

And, actually, it rains quite a lot in the jungle. So, if you’ve got a flintlock or matchlock firearm, be prepared for it to malfunction once the heavens open. Balancing firepower with blunt force teamwide is set to be the dominant strategy then, not least because ammo and gunpowder are scarce. What’s more, intense moisture and condensation makes oil lamps flicker nervously, making it harder to see structures through the dense mire. If it wasn’t clear by now, this jungle is not your friend.

Excess Noise Can Wake the Forest

Here’s the other problem with guns: they’re loud. Popping the head off some eldritch stalker might seem like the fastest way to clear the forest’s immediate threat, but it’s a surefire way to cause more trouble for yourself and your team. See, the jungle doesn’t want you there, but the intimation is that it lies dormant unless disturbed. If it’s awoken, a gauntlet of hostile enemies will converge on your location. And, it isn’t just firearms: the clink of sprinting armour, the splash of a river crossing, the echoing horn of a lost ox-cart, these are trade-offs you’ll need to assess moment-to-moment. Sometimes, sneaky, stealthy approaches are the most viable strategies.

The Jungle is a Character

If it wasn’t clear by now, The Mound’s jungle is as fleshed out of an assailant as any of its tentacled zombies. Heck, it’s arguably more characterful than the archetypes you choose to command back on the Tempestad – more on those four next. See, ACE Team has leaned heavily into art direction, atmosphere, and sound design: mist blankets, envelops, and evolves; the rot of mushroom-sprouting wood moans in the breeze; birdcall specific to the region of Chile you’re exploring pierces through the inky-black night. You could go as far to say that the jungle’s aesthetic design grows into mechanical resistance; it has a personality of its own.

Four Character Archetypes

Yep, there are four distinct archetypes which you can choose before entering the fray: Alonso de la Torre is a pacifistic, somewhat nihilistic former soldier who is unmoved by war or riches – he sees wealth, simply, as freedom. Leonor is a fugitive, having fled Spain after a remorseless murder. Don Rodrigo de Medina is a nobleman jaded by war like Alonso. He seeks honour in truth. How their stories pan out remains to be seen, but one thing you need to know is that these archetypes are cosmetic only. They don’t have unique skills or abilities.

Progression Earned is Shared

Completing the Captain’s contract objectives yields currency of your own, plus XP for levelling up, and story progression, and it’s this latter element that is confirmed to be shared across each player across the team. The jungle forces you to work together regardless, but advancing the story together too further incentivises teamwork.

Can Be Played Solo

The Mound can be played solo, with computer-controlled allies joining you on your expeditions. However, ACE Team has deliberately designed the game around co-op, thus venturing into the wilds on your own isn’t just inadvisable but grows increasingly unviable long-term. Contracts reflect the number of human players, though, so if you must set forth solo you’ll be rewarded accordingly.

Release Date, Platforms, and Price

The Mound is scheduled for release on July 15th, with PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam the confirmed platforms. Pricewise, you’re looking at $29.99 for the standard Digital Edition, and $39.99 for the Deluxe. For console players, there is currently a 10% pre-order discount running until launch date. If you’re on PC and fancy giving the game a go before committing to a purchase, there is a free demo available on the game’s Steam page.

Deluxe Edition Overview

Alongside the base game and the Lost Explorers’ Sword Pack, The Mound’s Deluxe Edition includes the Abyssal Gear Pack and Fortune Hunters Character Pack. That’s extra cosmetics, two-more characters, and a dangerous new area to explore for a tenner more.

PC Requirements

As detailed on the game’s Steam page, to run The Mound at a minimum your PC needs to be outfitted with an Intel Core i7-8700k or AMD Ryzen 5 1600x CPU. Graphics-wise, you’ll need a GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB, and AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6GB, or Intel Arc A7700 16GB. Recommended settings list an Intel Core i7-11700k or AMD Ryzen 5 5500 CPU, and an RTX 3070 8GB or AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT 12GB GPU. 16GB RAM is the baseline memory whatever your hardware. Also, as noted on the Steam page, this information is subject to change – it’ll be worth keeping your eye on the details in the lead up to launch.

Nintendo deserves a lot of credit for never quite letting their major IP fall by the wayside. Over time, any IP that they have is fair game for a brand new release. Which is how, in the year 2026, we find ourselves with a new Star Fox release, as a headlining game for the Switch 2. Ten years after the catastrophic last entry, no one expected the IP to ever show signs of life – and yet, here it is, back in style, the missteps and fumbles of Star Fox Zero firmly in the rear view mirror.

“Brand new” is a bit of a misleading adjective for this release. You see, in an attempt to wipe the board clean off the decades of baggage of poorly conceived experiments and entries that never quite resonated with the market, the new Star Fox is pitched as a reboot of the series. And in an attempt to be a reboot, it goes back to the beginning – Star Fox 64, the series’ high watermark, which represents the “first” entry in the chronology (it itself having been a retelling of the SNES Star Fox game).

“Personally, I was never attached enough to the original look of the characters enough to be against a redesign.”

Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2, then, is a remake of Star Fox 64 (and in turn, Star Fox on the SNES). Counting Star Fox 64 3D, which was an earlier remake of the game for Nintendo’s 3DS handheld, and Star Fox Zero on the Wii U, which was a retelling of the same story in a new continuity, this represents the fifth time this story has been told by Nintendo in a major game.

But honestly, it works. The story of Star Fox 64 is straightforward, but allows for a lot of great and frenetic arcade action. It has some great character moments, iconic moments and lines, and enough lore to keep a lot of players busy trying to uncover it all.

But ultimately, no one plays Star Fox for the story. Barely anyone is even playing Star Fox for a straightforward “completion”, in fact. You see, Star Fox is an arcade game. I don’t mean that in the way that the adjective is used today – I mean that it is literally an arcade game, as in, it is designed with the sensibilities that a game played at a physical arcade would be. The game, which is a rail shooter, sees players running quick levels, with the goal being not completion, but maximizing your score. The game, and each level, is designed around being replayed – there are secret routes through many levels, for example, which can unlock new paths through the campaign for you in the form of alternate levels and paths that you can take.

There are sub-objectives and secrets to find, which re usually reserved for players who have a thorough mastery of the level – mastery that comes, mind you, by replaying those levels repeatedly, until you know what enemies, hazards, and impudences to expect, when, where, and how. Running through Star Fox start to finish once takes very little time – probably 2-3 hours for most players – but the game is designed around that not being the point, and instead players continuing to play and replay levels. It works well, and lends itself remarkably well to the Switch’s pick up and play nature, while also allowing for hectic and frenetic longer sessions.

“The game, and each level, is designed around being replayed”

As a remake of Star Fox 64, Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2 is extremely faithful – the changes are all visual and to the storytelling (which we’ll get to in a bit). The actual layout of each level, its structure, encounters, and progression, is pretty much the same as it was in the N64 game. Those visual changes, however, are comprehensive – the game looks nothing like the 64-bit skeleton that it is built on. Developed by Velan Studios, on their in house VIPER Engine, there is actually a convincing case to be made that Star Fox is the best looking game on the Nintendo Switch 2 so far.

In terms of the rendering technologies underlying it, from the lighting, the physics based rendering pipeline, the asset streaming, and the number of stunning transparencies and alpha effects, this is decidedly the most modern a Nintendo game has looked. Most of Nintendo’s games have looked great on the Switch 2, but every single one of them is based on tech and rendering stacks that started out on the original Nintendo Switch, and use their strong art style to compensate. Star Fox is the first time on the Switch 2 that a Nintendo game looks like it is visually a generation apart from what Nintendo was doing on the original Switch.

A lot has been said about the art style this remake uses. The extremely photorealistic look was initially divisive – while it means the environments look gorgeous, the interpretation of the classic and beloved Star Fox cast as realistic looking animals was a big enough departure from the expected aesthetic that there was a bit of a pushback when the game was originally revealed.

Personally, I was never attached enough to the original look of the characters enough to be against a redesign, and the redesign itself seemed, while not necessarily better than the classic designs, still good enough, and fitting with the game’s overall look enough, that I didn’t mind. And certainly, once you are actually playing the game, your screen filled with explosions and particles effects as you try to save the Lylat System from Andross’ evil machinations, those redesigns cease to even register.

Other than the graphics, the other big change over the original game that Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2 brings is the expanded storytelling. Yes, really – the cutscenes and storytelling are a major part of the pitch for this game, and they’re actually really good.

Expanding on the CODEC style conversations of the original game, these cutscenes are now fully animated and fully voiced, expanding upon not just the story of the game, but also some of the lore and backstory behind it, and perhaps best of all for a lot of fans, the inter team dynamics of the various members of the Star Fox team. Getting, for example, an opportunity to see more banter between Fox and Falco, is excellent, and exactly the sort of thing that long time fans of these characters will appreciate (while doing a good job at endearing these characters to any potential new fans).

“The other big change over the original game that Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2 brings is the expanded storytelling.”

These cutscenes are very impressive – not only are they fully voiced, it appears as though they are fully voiced in every language the game supports. Not just that, but the cutscenes (all real-time) also adjust to reflect your path through the story – if, for example, one of your team members was downed in a mission, and is not going to be available to fly for the upcoming one, the cutscenes reflect that. This is the sort of reactivity in storytelling that we have seen go down in games as they have embraced voiced dialog, so it is nice to see Star Fox retain all of it, while expanding on the storytelling in the process.

A big concern people may have with this game is the content to cost ratio. The value it could provide, in other words. It’s far too easy to see the “game can be beaten in 3 hours” number and be scared off. And to be honest, if you are only going to play through it once and then move on, you should probably not buy Star Fox, because it will not be worth the price to you.

But for everyone else, Star Fox more than justifies the cost – the amount of value, across all the replays of a campaign, the secret and alternate paths, the sub-objectives, the new achievements system, the brand new multiplayer mode (which, mercifully, supports online and voice chat – not something that is a given for a new Nintendo game, sadly, but it holds true here), the new cutscenes, new gimmicks such as support for mouse mode, and its overall high production value, certainly make it worth it. It helps, too, that the game is very cheap, which also helps it seem like a better proposition.

While another remake of Star Fox 64 may seem unnecessary, Star Fox on the Nintendo Switch 2 gets a lot of mileage out of the premise. Between the improvements to controls, UI, QoL, storytelling, new multiplayer mode, and of course, the graphics, this is decidedly the definitive edition of this classic tale and game so far. Now let’s hope that this represents a true new beginning, and a new era, for the franchise. If future Star Fox games on the Switch 2 end up being as well done as this one is, fans, both veterans and newcomers alike, are in for a treat.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.

Following Rockstar Games’ confirmation that it will won’t include discs in the physical release of Grand Theft Auto 6, Microsoft has now started marketing Halo: Campaign Evolved by noting that its physical release will come with a disc. Through a social media post, the company presented a list of the game’s features that were revealed through a recently published Q&A, chief among them being the presence of physical discs.

The presence of the disc is the first fact addressed by the Q&A itself. “Yes! Buying the Xbox or PlayStation version of Halo: Campaign Evolved at your local retailer will result in getting the physical game case and disc so that you have tangible items to add to your collections,” it says.

The timing for this confirmation by Xbox and Halo Studios also comes shortly after Rockstar Games started facing some controversy for its decision to not include a disc with the physical release of Grand Theft Auto 6. While there were some rumors that a disc launch is planned for later, more recent reports indicate that there are no such plans in place.

Despite the criticism from fans, however, Circana’s Mat Piscatella even expressed the belief that the lack of an included disc won’t ultimately have any major effect on sales figures for the highly anticipated title. Among other factors, he pointed to the popularity of consoles without disc drives – the PS5 Digital Edition and the Xbox Series S.

The rest of the Q&A goes into detail about various other features of Halo: Campaign Evolved, like the Machinima mode. The mode will essentially allow players to start a free-floating camera that can then be controlled. In this mode, players can also lower their weapons to make it look like a real cutscene, while also maintaining full control of their character regardless of the camera’s position.

“Machinima mode is available to all players just by using input combos and does not need to be unlocked by finding a Skull,” explained Halo Studios. “If you’re looking to create great content, you can leverage Machinima mode, in combination with the Acrophobia & Blind Skulls, and even various personal settings such as disabling your HUD UI, to capture unique videos and screenshots.”

Interestingly, it looks like this Machinima mode is slated to be a replacement for what would have otherwise been a Photo mode. Halo Studios had previously confirmed that, rather than including a Photo mode by itself, such a mode’s features would instead be spread across the game through various skulls. The Blind Skull, for instance, can hide the HUD and UI. The Acrophobia skull, on the other hand, allows players to take flight.

The developer has also confirmed that Halo: Campaign Evolved will have full support for handheld systems. Halo Studios has noted that the title has the Handheld Optimized rating on Windows and the Verified rating on Steam Deck, both of which are the highest ratings on the respective operating systems and hardware.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on July 28th.

While Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League faced quite a bit of criticism following its release, its development wasn’t exactly a walk in the park either. In an interview with Bloomberg, two developers who worked on the title – Axel Rydby and Johnny Armstrong – have spoken about the tumultuous time. They noted that things got bad enough that they considered leaving the games industry altogether.

The duo has also confirmed that many of the game design decisions that went into Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League essentially came down to executives telling the developers how much money could be made from the title. Rydby, who would go on to become the director of the project, mentioned frequent meetings with executives where questions like “How many players can we reach with this feature?” or “How can we twist this design into something that can be more replayable?” were asked. This, he noted, was when he stopped feeling like he was making a game.

“That’s when I started feeling like I wasn’t making games anymore,” he said. “I was following a spreadsheet, some elusive marketing-analysis spreadsheet that no one could present clearly. I kind of felt like this isn’t the gaming industry I wanted to work in.”

Armstrong described a feeling of relief at Rocksteady that the studio wasn’t going to work on yet another Batman game. However, this relief wouldn’t last long.

“There was definitely a sense when we first moved on to it — arrogance is the wrong word, but a confidence,” he said. “We’re coming back off hit after hit. Of course we’ll be able to do this.”

Rocksteady’s lack of experience with multiplayer games also played a major role. Armstrong described a feeling of the team needing “to run to stand still” due to a lack of noticeable improvement in the game despite plenty of hours being spent on it. The number of delays didn’t help either, since they were relatively short-term delays that combined into a longer one. This meant that the developers couldn’t make any plans for introducing major overhauls to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League that could actually improve it.

“Six months isn’t enough to do any fundamental changes,” Rydby said. “That’s just enough to just fix as many bugs as you can and see if you can squeeze in a bit of feature tweaks here and there.”

With the release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and its subsequent negative reception, Warner Bros. ultimately decided to abandon the title. Armstrong noted that this was the moment when he felt “everything drained” from him. “I said, ‘I can’t do this again. I don’t know if I’m done with the industry, but I’m done.’ I could feel myself coming apart at the seams.”

Rydby and Armstrong would ultimately leave Rocksteady, and while catching up with each other, would ultimately decide to make a new game together. This led to the development of a prototype that would then go on to become the Kickstarter project Secret of Circadia. The experience with Suicide Squad as a whole has left a sour taste in Rydby’s mouth, however.

“I think as an industry we are severely losing our way,” Rydby said. “It used to be passion projects that you loved and hoped other people loved too. When they did, it was such an amazing feeling. It became less and less of that. It became: ‘Let’s hope it sells. Let’s hope we get money from it.’”

Steam Machines have started shipping out to those who managed to pre-order before the pre-built PC went out of stock. However, the excitement some may have felt when unboxing their new Linux-based gaming system has been dampened quite a bit due to potential hardware issues. As caught by Digital Foundry, buyers have taken to Reddit to discuss the Steam Machine, with one user reporting that their system has essentially stopped working altogether.

A problem was indicated on the Steam Machine itself with a red light on the LED line in the chassis. It is currently unknown whether this is simply a software problem that can be fixed by flashing the system with a fresh install of SteamOS, or if it’s a hardware failure that would require the user to send it back to Valve. It is also currently unknown whether this is a widespread problem or if it is isolated to just a few users.

The Steam Machine makes use of its LED line to reveal to the user whenever it faces problems. The entire bar being red, for example, means that the system is overheating. According to Steam’s support website, the error seen by the Reddit user – a red LED on the second half of the line – indicates a GPU failure. The support website also notes other possible fault codes: a blinking red LED in the fourth quadrant means that the system isn’t detecting RAM, and a blinking LED in the second quadrant indicates that it isn’t detecting an SSD.

The user was apparently playing No Man’s Sky for a bit on their Steam Machine. After playing, they noted that a firmware update was available. The issue has seemingly persisted since then, with the Steam Machine being entirely unusable.

Users on Reddit have begun referring to the indicator as the “red line of death”. The title is a reference to the infamous red ring of death suffered by early Xbox 360 consoles. The name came about due to the console’s use of four blinking lights around the power button that would indicate hardware problems if they started blinking red. When three of the four red lights were blinking, the console was essentially reporting a “general hardware failure”. The name itself was, in turn, a reference to Windows’ “Blue Screen of Death”.

In the meantime, the Steam Machine has been faced with plenty of criticism concerning its price. Valve revealed just last month that the base model, which comes with only 512 GB of storage, is priced at $1,049. The best model available costs $1,349 and comes with 2 TB of storage.

While some industry insiders had noted that the prices are too high even with the current state of the market, with component shortages going around. Valve has since confirmed that it lacked any real bargaining power when it came to making deals with memory companies.

“Look, there’s no contract; there’s nothing,” explained engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais. “Like, those guys… they give us a price every month, or something, and they say, ‘You can buy that many, and it’s yes or no.’ And if we say no, then they never talk to us again.”

While fighting games thrive on strong mechanics, distinct characters, and competitive depth, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game also looks to style the genre’s regular staples with exhilarating, movement-based action. Blending elemental bending straight outta the anime series with the nuts and bolts of traditional fighting games, studio Gameplay Group International promise a mix of accessibility and depth for both newcomers and veterans alike. Without further ado, here’s fifteen things you need to know before you buy.

A 2D Fighter With Characters From the Avatar Legends Franchise

Set within the storied anime franchise Avatar Legends, where nations are characterised by a certain element – fire, earth, water, air – this upcoming 1v1 2D fighter is hand-drawn, styled to mirror the expressive animation of the series. Set specifically between shows’ The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game mixes classic mechanics with fluid movement and modern control schemes in an experience the devs say is designed for both newcomers, Avatar fans, and fighting game veterans alike.

Combat Revolves Around a Flow Mechanic

At the core of Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game’s combat is the Flow Mechanic, a system designed to showcase your character’s agility through a suite of evasive and defensive counters. So, alongside inputs for light, medium, and heavy, the dedicated Flow button brings a wide range of movement options: from auto guards and auto parries, to extended dashes across the ground and through the air. Character-specific manoeuvres can be chained together with basic inputs, encouraging you to master each fighter’s individual moveset.

Manage Chi to Maximise Flow

So, as you’ll probably have guessed: Flow isn’t an infinite resource – you’ll need to spend Chi to execute its varied manoeuvres, defensive capabilities, and combo extensions. But, unlike other fighting games, Chi doesn’t charge when you deal or take damage. In fact, you’ll begin every round with your Chi meter fully charged, with it regenerating passively throughout each bout. With guarding and evading integral to Flow, the idea with Chi, it seems, is to always make sure you have some in reserve. You don’t want to get caught Chi-less, else you’ll enter an “unbalanced” state whereby you’ll be locked out of Flow Mechanics.

Auto-Combos Welcome Beginners

Flow’s universal auto-parry isn’t the only automatic mechanic available to you, but auto-combos are built into the default four-button control scheme enabling beginners to get to grips with stringing multiple attacks together easily. Fighting game veterans will want to chain combos together manually, as auto-combo damage output is scaled significantly, meaning they deal far less damage than traditional combo chaining. Still, baseline damage is respectable, making auto-combos a worthwhile learning tool.

Twelve Characters in Launch Roster

Yes, on launch, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game features twelve playable characters, each bringing unique bending abilities, personalities, stances, variations, and playstyles – ensuring they feel distinct not just in visuals but in how they control. The devs have poured their knowledge of the franchise into each character’s moveset, basing much of their fighting prowess on their in-show background. Whether you pick your favourite character from the franchise as your main, or you opt to experiment, you’re sure to find a style that suits you.

Certain Characters Bring Multiple Fight Modes

Some fighters add an extra layer of depth through stance or mode switching during bouts. Azula, for instance, can transition between a precise, calculated Focused Mode and a more aggressive Firelord Mode, while Zuko can swap between his specialised firebending and a dual broadsword style. One on hand, these shifts are emblematic of character backgrounds, but in-game they can dramatically change your options for movement, delivering pressure, and strategy.

Primary Fighters Bring a Support Character

Alongside your chosen fighter, you’ll also choose a support character from a pool of three who’ll influence your main’s fighting style whilst also granting distinct special moves. Aang’s support character Gyatso, for instance, offers better Air Scooter speed control, while Korra’s support Raava grants longer Avatar States. These allies, effectively, let you customise your playstyle beyond your chosen character, adding a layer of team synergy without turning the game into a tag fighter.

Benders and Non-Benders Alike Are Balanced

To keep the roster balanced, the dev team imbues non-bending characters with unique skills. Instead of spiritual, elemental abilities, they’re outfitted with weapons, traps, and other tools, as well as specialised “Chakra Arts” that’ll give them distinct advantages over their bending counterparts. Faster Chi recovery is another boon for non-benders, allowing them access the benefits of Flow State more readily, to continue adding pressure while offsetting the power of elemental bending.

Story and Arcade Modes Available

Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game ships with a solid range of modes. A narrative-driven Story Mode sits alongside the more traditional Arcade ladder. Elsewhere, a versus option covers both online and offline play. Training and spectator modes round out your options, ensuring there’s something here whether you’re learning the ropes or just watching high-level matches play out.

Online Supported By Rollback Netcode

It’s a given with modern fighting game standards that online functionality is supported by rollback netcode, and Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is no different. Rollback netcode will keep matches responsive, even across long distances. Meanwhile, full cross-play means you can play against anyone, regardless of platform. Finally, both ranked and casual matches are available, catering to competitive grinders as much as those after a more laid-back brawling session.

Robust Training Mode Included

For both newcomers and those looking to dig deeper, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game ships with a robust training mode which offers a comprehensive suite of practice tools, including visible hitboxes, detailed frame data, and the ability to save set states. Precise practice sessions and experimentation are catered for alike, making it easier to learn and perfect character dynamics, optimise combos, and understand the game’s finer mechanics beyond surface level ease.

An Art Gallery is Also Included

Signalling a deep affiliation with the source material, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game also includes an Art Gallery, celebrating the legacy of the Avatar universe. Featuring original artwork from the show, it offers a more relaxed way for series novices and fandom alike to engage with the world and its characters.

Release Date, Platforms, and Price

After a string of delays and reschedules, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game is set to release on July 23rd, with PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC the official launch platforms. Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 are incoming at a later date. The game’s Standard Edition is priced at $29.99, with a Deluxe Edition retailing at $49.99.

Deluxe Edition and Pre-Order Bonuses Overview

Expanding on the Standard experience, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game’s Deluxe Edition includes a full digital artbook, a digital copy of the soundtrack, and the Year 1 Pass which adds an additional five playable characters at a later date. If you pre-order the game, you’ll receive an exclusive Samurai Appa character skin, exclusive colour variants for a handful of characters, and the offer to vote on which DLC character you’d like to see appear in Year 1.

PC Requirements

To play Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game to a suitable level on your PC, you’ll need the following hardware: an Intel Core i5-7500 or AMD Ryzen 2600 CPU, and an Nvidia GTX 970 or Radeon RX 570 GPU.

Less than a week after announcing that it is ending the concept of physical game releases on PlayStation from January 2028 onwards, Sony has already begun repurposing the factories where physical game releases were produced. As caught by The Verge, the head of Sony DADC (the company’s disc-making operations), Dietmar Tanzer, told Austrian publication ORF Salzburg that Sony’s Thalgau plant will now only produce 10 percent of its previous volume in 2028.

The plant currently produces 600,000 discs on a daily basis, half of which are for PlayStation games. With the rest of the factory getting repurposed over time, the 300 employees working at the plant will be retrained to instead work on the production of microlenses.

While far from a surprising move, the report also confirms that Sony has been working on this strategy for quite some time. Decisions like this, which have major implications for essentially the entire industry, aren’t often made overnight, after all.

Thalgau is also noted as being the base of operations for Sony’s disc production. While the company previously manufactured discs for US release in facilities set up in Terre Haute, Indiana, operations were eventually moved to Thalgau in 2022. The company also had another plant in New Jersey, which was shuttered in 2011. Owing to the long life of the Indiana-based facility, which now works on packaging and assembling automobile parts like headlights, it helped produce 23 billion of the 26.4 billion discs produced by Sony.

In its announcement, Sony had said that the move to entirely digital game releases from 2028 onwards is a response to the industry generally shifting to prefer digital releases over physical copies. The company noted that this has been the case for the entertainment industry as a whole and hasn’t just been limited to games.

“This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” said the company. “This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”

The announcement was seen as a good thing by the Tokyo Stock Exchange, leading to Sony’s stock price going up by around 3.2 percent earlier this week. This rise in stock price was considered especially noteworthy since the market as a whole has been quite “challenging”, with the technology stocks in the Nikkei 225 index falling by 1 percent.

Ampere’s Piers Harding-Rolls believes that this move to an all-digital future gives us a sneak peak at Sony’s plans for its next-gen console hardware. It is likely that the company will be looking forward to cutting costs associated with including a disc drive with the PS6. He also noted that this indicates a 2028 release window for the PS6.

“Almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest. Ampere’s current expectation is a launch at the end of 2028,” he wrote. “At a minimum, the standard version of a PS6 will not include a physical media disc drive.”

Following layoffs affecting 17 employees just last month, developer OtherSide Entertainment has revealed that it has gone through a new round of layoffs. Speaking to Game Developer, a spokesperson from the studio has revealed that it is now made up of “fewer than 10” employees who are working on maintaining co-op stealth title Thick as Thieves.

The spokesperson has confirmed that this new headcount has been quite devastating for OtherSide Entertainment’s future, since there are “currently no plans for the studio to work on any future games.”

The previous layoffs came in light of the studio’s other project, codenamed Argos, getting cancelled. A spokesperson had noted that the project would have been “a huge success in normal times.” However, the current landscape of the industry being “brutally challenging” made Argos “unviable for now.”

“After the cancellation of a game under development, codenamed Argos, OtherSide Entertainment had to sadly say goodbye to 17 team members, effective end of May,” they said.

The layoffs had come after OtherSide Entertainment decided to reduce the scope of Thick as Thieves. The title was originally going to be a PvPvE game that would feature immersive sim elements. However, the studio made the decision to turn it into a smaller-scale co-op game instead, featuring only two maps and priced at $5. In a statement, an OtherSide spokesperson said that the studio in its current shape is “no longer a commercially viable path.”

“OtherSide’s DNA is built on immersive sim games that have lengthy development cycles,” they said. “This, unfortunately, has been an increasingly challenging space to occupy in recent years. Despite the encouraging response to the launch of Thick as Thieves‘ introductory campaign, it has become clear that the continuation of the studio in its current shape is no longer a commercially viable path.”

“We are deeply grateful to the team for their superb work and regret this outcome, having pursued every alternative to find a preferable solution.”

Thick as Thieves was released on PC back in May, launching with two maps – Constables’ Guildhall and Elway Manor. The title placed quite a bit of emphasis on its immersive sim trappings, thanks in large part to its development team, which included industry veterans who had previously worked on classic games like Thief.

Despite being low on content, director Jeff Hickman said that the studio didn’t really want to go with an Early Access release since that would end up putting quite a few constraints on what the studio could do with it in terms of future updates.

“We want to be able to pivot wherever we need to,” Hickman explained. “Do players just love solo and co-op play? Okay, great: no PvP for the future. Do players love solo and co-op, but are screaming about PvP? Oh, maybe we should do PvP. Like, we have a whole bunch of baseline plans, but none of them are set in stone.”

For more details about Thick as Thieves, take a look at our review, where we gave it a score of 7 out of 10 thanks to its compelling gameplay and intricate level design, but criticized its general lack of content.

Thirty years of hurt. Never stopped me dreaming. 

There appears to be a near 1:1 overlap between supporting England during a major football tournament and working in games. Both require a delusional sense of optimism in the face of historic disappointment and disaster. An almost unshakable ability to dream of the impossible during periods of bleak, unrelenting crisis. Despair to euphoria and then back again. 

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

As the industry collectively holds its breath ahead of what is widely expected to be another brutal round of layoffs at Xbox next week, it’s worth remembering why I suspect many of you reading this ventured into video games in the first place. To craft something truly special and imbue the world with meaning. To leave your mark on those players who genuinely adore the artform. To find your community and build lifelong friendships. 

I suspect those words will feel hollow in a week’s time—perhaps they already do—but I implore anybody reading this to cling on to what you love about this space. Rally together. Support your peers. Dare to hope. Maybe one day, video games will come home again.

Related:Union workers establish hardship fund to support devs impacted by layoffs

via Game Developer // Direct-join union UVW-CWA has launched the Game Worker Hardship Fund to provide financial aid to developers struggling in the wake of mass layoffs. It will be possible to request up to $5,000 through the initiative, which aims to help with everything from medical bills and groceries to rent and work expenses.

via Game Developer // Ubisoft continues to make notable hires at the top of its revamped studio ecosystem—or, at least, what’s left of it following massive cuts. This time, the French publisher has recruited former 2K president and Amazon Games boss Christoph Hartmann to lead ‘Creative House 2,’ a new(ish) division that will oversee franchises such as The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell.

via Game Developer // Hold your discs close, because they aren’t long for this world. Yes, as you might have heard, Sony is preparing to completely ditch physical media on PlayStation in January 2028 in response to shifting “consumer trends.” That move has gone down as well as you’d expect.

via Law360 // A federal lawsuit filed in California has accused Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron of coordinating an exit from the “conventional” RAM market to focus on producing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for data centers, driving up the price of components in the process. Coordinated price fixing or simply a sign of the times? We’re about to find out.

Related:Ubisoft taps former 2K president Christoph Hartmann to oversee Tom Clancy franchise

via Bloomberg // Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League designer Johnny Armstrong and director Axel Rydby have spoken candidly about their experience attempting to drag the ill-fated live service shooter out of a gruelling seven-year production cycle. “I was following a spreadsheet, some elusive marketing-analysis spreadsheet that no one could present clearly. I kind of felt like this isn’t the gaming industry I wanted to work in,” said Rydby. It’s hard to imagine anybody dreams of becoming a game developer to acquaint themselves with Excel. Dire stuff.

via Game Developer // Grand Theft Auto VI is poised to become one of the biggest entertainment products in history when it arrives in November, but how is developer Rockstar treating those responsible for crafting the hotly anticipated title? According to multiple employees based in the UK, their reward has been a struggle against pay inequity, bonuses that can be withheld without obvious cause, and in some instances relentless crunch.

Related:Godot to ban (almost all) AI coding contributions

via The Verge // Microsoft is reportedly about to follow in the footsteps of Sony and drop support for physical software on Xbox. To soften the blow, the company is purportedly working on a disc-to-digital feature that will allow Xbox owners to digitize their physical video game collection. It’s claimed, however, that the feature will only be compatible with Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S releases.

via Bloomberg // A protracted legal dispute between the founders of Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds and publisher Krafton has been laid to rest. Krafton has agreed to pay bonuses to the entire Unknown Worlds team after reaching a settlement with studio leaders that will also result in the departure of CEO Ted Gill. The bonuses will be paid in three annual instalments and result in the Subnautica 2 team receiving “significantly more” compensation than first agreed. 

Quantum Meowchanics

HIGH A cute hedgehog ranting about the worthlessness of AI.

LOW Too many cosmetics, somehow.

WTF Why is there so much lore in the codex entries?

A secretive corporation doing some kind of nefarious research while a mysterious quantum ghost cat urges the protagonist forward, and there’s plenty of pseudo-science technobabble to explain how one cat can become two.

The world of Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar is as eccentric as its punny name would imply. It’s got talking animals, cutesy design aesthetics and goofy jokes, all exemplified in the constant exchanges between protagonist Mittens, a literal cat burglar, and her “guy in the chair,” the adorable hedgehog Lazy Susan. 

Mittens finds herself trapped in a giant underground research laboratory filled with robots, a malicious AI and many, many security systems to contend with. Luckily she’s just gained the power to split into two selves after an accident with the “Dual Event Synthesizer.” Therefore we have Schrodinger’s Cat — inspiration for the game’s titular joke and central mechanic.

It’s a third-person puzzle experience first and foremost. Although Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar clearly aligns itself in the tradition of Portal, tight controls and movement are not on offer. Controlling the Mittens (plural) is a methodical affair but for a few extra challenge sections that require timing — players will be wracking their brains here, rather than giving their thumbs a workout. However, the puzzles are engaging and challenging without ever crossing into frustration, many often capable of being completed within 5-10 minutes.

An early puzzle, for instance, requires the player to have one cat hop atop a cart stacked with boxes while the other one pushes it across the room, enabling the cat riding the cart to jump to a higher platform. From there the cat has to move onto another, even more stacked cart to once again be pushed across the room to the prize. Simple enough, right?

But like the best entries in its genre, the puzzles add increasing complexity as the player progresses. First it’s just splitting the cat(s) to press down buttons and open doors, but the devs gradually add more systems like weights, levers, and batteries to keep things interesting. These additions are well-paced, and I never hit a moment where the complexity felt overwhelming.

Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar can also be played solo or co-op. With two players, each player takes control of one cat when Mittens splits up. I played solo and found it easy enough to maneuver the two cats on each of the thumbsticks of my controller and I never encountered any significant platforming difficulty doing so.

As Mittens makes her way through the facility, she’ll pick up money, data chips and quantum fragments. Earning some less-common currency requires taking on more challenging puzzles, but all of it can be used to buy cosmetic upgrades with more sought-after currencies unlocking the bigger and better items. Ultimately, the player can have two very different-looking cats when mittens splits. Developer Abandoned Sheep clearly loves felines and has put a lot of time into crafting customization that’s on par with some RPG character creators. Hats, collars, fur length, fur color, and eyes each have a bevy of options to unlock. If anything, there may be too many cosmetics — it may have been nice if those different currencies opened up some other form of reward.

Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar doesn’t revolutionize the puzzle genre or offer a story of such depth to touch some deep philosophical truth, but its playful personality and well-implemented central mechanic makes it a worthwhile pickup for folks who like a good brain teaser.

Score: 8 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Abandoned Sheep. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the main storyline was not completed. There is a co-op mode that was not played for this review.

Parents: This game has not been rated by the ESRB. However, it does not contain any adult material and could be played by children without supervision.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Game information is communicated purely through text. (See examples above.) There are no audio cues or effects necessary to play. The game is fully accessible.

Controls: The game’s controls are remappable while using either controllers or keyboard and mouse.

Stephen Cook is a Canadian journalist moonlighting as a video games critic. He grew up as the pixel gave way to the polygon and has a long, jaded view of industry fads and failures since. But more than just a grumpy old man, Stephen has a special love for indies, underdogs, and passion projects — games that remind us of the aspirations and possibilities within the medium. He started writing for GameCritics.com in 2021.

Latest posts by Stephen Cook (see all)

Developer Omega Force and publisher Koei Tecmo have released a new trailer for Attack on Titan 3 and have confirmed that the title is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 this winter. The trailer, which you can check out below, clocks in at over 3 minutes in length and showcases how players can use the Survey Corps’ gear to maneuver around titans to get at their weak points.

In the gameplay shown off, the player is able to explore the world of Attack on Titan and even make use of environmental hazards to slow titans down. Along with this, players will also have to strategize with their allies and craft better gear. There also seems to be a buff system in the title that revolves around the kinds of food you eat before setting off on a mission.

Among the highlights of Attack on Titan 3 is the inclusion of Exterior Scouting Missions, where players can freely explore the world outside of the city’s walls. In these missions, players will have to construct supply bases and take on dangerous titans and, in the process, expand humanity’s domain. Exterior Scouting Missions will also have an emphasis on resource management, since players will have to deal with running out of ODM (omni-directional mobility gear) fuel and blades.

Attack on Titan 3 was unveiled in early June with a trailer, and Koei Tecmo has described the title as being a conclusion to its trilogy. Taking on the role of a Scout Regiment member, players will get to experience the major historical events that end up shaping the world of Attack on Titan. Along the way, players will also deal with allied members of the regiment, each of whom has their own unique skills that can help you out in crucial battles.

As a treat for fans of the original Attack on Titan anime, MAPPA – the studio behind the anime’s final season – will be producing a unique opening animation for Attack on Titan 3. This means that action scene animator, storyboard artist, and key animator Arifumi Imai will also be involved in the creation of the opening. More details about the opening animation will be revealed as we get closer to the title’s release.

Koei Tecmo’s series of Attack on Titan adaptations began back in 2016 with the release of the first game. Covering the first season of the anime, the title also included story elements from future episodes that hadn’t yet been aired. It was originally released for PS4, PS3, and PS Vita. A follow-up – Attack on Titan 2 – was released in 2018 and focused on the events of the first two seasons of the anime. It also got an expansion pack, dubbed Final Battle, that brought in events from season 3.

Neither Koei Tecmo nor Omega Force has revealed any details about the story of Attack on Titan 3. However, considering the fact that it is going to conclude the trilogy of games, it will likely involve the events of the anime’s finale.

Sandfall Interactive may have begun work on its next project. However, studio co-founder and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche doesn’t really care if the next project doesn’t do as well as the studio’s debut outing. In an interview with Video Game Club on the Konbini YouTube channel, which you can check out below, Broche spoke about being generally excited to work on a new project. “We’re just going to do what we love again,” he said.

“I don’t really care,” he said about the potential of this new project being a flop. He continued, “It’s weird to say, but we didn’t make the first game to please anyone. And I think that’s why it worked.” This also means that the studio isn’t chasing market appeal, and it might end up making “some drastic decisions too, and maybe people won’t like it. That’s life.”

“Whether people follow us or not is their decision. But that’s how we see the future,” he explained.

This, Broche believes, is a healthier way for developers to approach new projects, especially since it would help them avoid getting “crushed under the pressure” of living up to their previous releases. However, he is still realistic about the outcome and doesn’t want to end up selling zero copies. “Of course, if we sell zero copies, we’ll still have problems. But normally, it’ll be fine.”

Broche had previously spoken about how the runaway success seen by the studio with the release of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won’t really end up changing much at Sandfall Interactive. In an interview from back in December, he noted that the studio wants to continue working on games with “stories that move people”.

“I feel like dramatic changes don’t necessarily mean that we have to change dramatically as human beings,” said Broche. “What we want to do is exactly what we wanted to do when we started the game. It’s just [to] make games that are really honest and true, and write stories that move people and really connect people emotionally, and that’s what we are going to keep doing moving forward.”

When asked about whether this means that Sandfall Interactive might start growing its workforce, Broche confirmed that there are no such plans for the time being. “We don’t want to grow too much as a company,” he said. “We work well as we are now, as a small team, and we want to stay like that, because we are very happy, and why change?”

This matches Broche’s thoughts on the team’s size. Back in May 2025, he had noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 would have taken much longer to develop if it were being made by a big company.

Projects like these—with new IPs, original stories, completely original characters—are super hard to push through in a big company,” he explained. “There are a lot of approval steps, and in general, in big structures, you already have to have proven yourself and be pretty high up in the hierarchy just to have a chance at pitching this kind of project.”

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review.

Sony’s decision to go fully digital by the start of 2028 by ending physical releases on PlayStation altogether might have a major impact on the gaming industry. However, Circana’s Mat Piscatella doesn’t believe that Nintendo will follow in Sony’s footsteps. In an interview with VideoGamesChronicle, he said that Sony’s decision was an inevitability thanks to general market trends that seem to favor digital releases over physical copies.

With Sony’s announcement, as well as reports of Microsoft looking into a way to turn physical game ownership into digital ownership, Piscatella also believes that the PS6 and Project Helix will both end up being digital-only consoles.

“Through a combination of consumer preference and manufacturer strategic decisions, we are now seeing Sony announce it will cease production of physical discs in January 2028,” Piscatella explained. “This will result in lower sales of video game software at retail (although publishers will still certainly sell code in box or special editions in physical boxes at retail for as long as it makes sense to do so), and it is now safe to assume that both PlayStation 6 and Project Helix will be digital-only devices.”

Despite these trends, however, Piscatella believes that Nintendo will be the last console manufacturer that still focuses on releasing physical media, at least until the end of the Nintendo Switch 2 console cycle. Nintendo is “going to be Nintendo,” said Piscatella.

“My gut says Nintendo does what Nintendo wants to do, and I don’t see them changing anything in their plans based on what Sony or Microsoft do on anything, really,” he said. “Nintendo is going to be Nintendo, for better and/or worse.”

Part of this may also be the fact that retail outlets have been relying on Nintendo to a greater degree over the last few years, likely thanks to the company’s strong share of software and hardware sales. The Nintendo Switch 2, in particular, is noted for seeing great sales since its launch.

“It’s not like boxes on shelves will go away entirely with this change,” he said. “There will be more codes in box, more merch, maybe more special editions with swag included, that kind of thing. But the change should also result in the continued decline in physical game retail spend.”

When it comes to long-term effects, even Piscatella doesn’t quite know what is going to happen. Sony’s announcement came just this week, and the industry might see more upheaval in the coming days.

“But yeah, we’re kind of in dartboard territory when it comes to things,” he concluded. “The day is young (in the US at least). Anything could still happen today, tomorrow, surely Monday. It’s madness.”

Sony’s announcement has worked out quite well for the company, at least for now, with its stock price having risen by around 3.2 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. On the other hand, even prolific game creator Hideo Kojima has expressed his fears about media going completely digital. Analysts have also noted that this move gives us a look at Sony’s next-generation console plans.

Sony’s recent announcement about essentially ending the idea of physical game releases on PlayStation starting from January 2028 has led to Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima talking about his own fears about the idea of ownership of data. In a couple of social media posts, Kojima spoke about how Sony’s decision will lead to even digital data to be owned by corporations, rather than by individuals.

He also brings up the idea that, in case of a major catastrophe, access to the digital data can instantly be blocked for users.

“Eventually, even digital data will no longer be owned by individuals on their own initiative,” he wrote. “Whenever there is a major change or accident in the world, in a country, in a government, in an idea, in a trend, access to it may suddenly be cut off. We will not be able to freely access the movies, books, and music that we have loved. I would be a have-not. That’s what I’m afraid of. This is not greed.”

Aside from allusions to potential class-based inequity that this might intensify, Kojima is no stranger to his work essentially disappearing due to the fact that it was digital in nature. One just has to look at P.T., which was released on PS4 back in 2014. Meant to be a demo for the then-in-development Silent Hills when Kojima was still working at Konami, the demo was not only delisted from the PlayStation Store. It was also removed from servers entirely, which meant that not even PS4 users who already had the game could re-download it.

It is also worth noting that Kojima’s works have had a tendency to predict major world-changing events well before they actually happened. An infamous codec conversation from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, for example, predicted how the growth of Internet usage would eventually lead to users being stuck in their own small communities with a lack of new ideas forming. We can see this in action with social media platforms today. Similarly, Death Stranding was able to predict the importance of couriers just a few months before a worldwide pandemic would keep everyone locked indoors, forcing them to rely on couriers of their own for essential supplies.

While we never really got to see the Silent Hills that was teased by P.T., Kojima has decided to return to the horror genre with the development of OD at Kojima Productions. While few details about the project have been revealed aside from the Knock trailer, Kojima has spoken about having an in-game system to aid players who might be too scared to continue.

“I wanted to go beyond the limit of the ‘scariness’ that other games had reached,” he said about OD. “It’s a single-player game, and I wanted to make it as scary as possible. But for those that might stop playing when it gets too scary, I have thought of a system that will allow them to keep going. I can’t say much more, because it’ll give too much of a hint on the system, and I could get in trouble for saying too much!”

OD is being developed for PC and Xbox Series X/S. While the industry at large braces for major layoffs, studio closures, and project cancellations at Xbox, rumors indicate that work on OD will remain unaffected.

2/2
We will not be able to freely access the movies, books, and music that we have loved. I would be a have-not. That’s what I’m afraid of. This is not greed.

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) August 5, 2021

This week, Kitfox Games founder and CEO Tanya Short swings by the studio to unveil the latest output from game design retreat Polaris: an expert-led list of the 100 most influential video games of all time.

Any such list is purely subjective, but unlike those made by sites like IGN, this one is assembled from the perspective of professional game designers like Brenda Romero, Derek Yu, Soren Johnson, and more. Today Short discusses the process of assembling the list, the influence of each game on the list, and Polaris’ mission to document the ethereal truths and processes of designing games.

Speaking of those ethereal truths, Short set out to explain how these games are a great tool for designers to improve their craft and grow to make influential games of their own.

For your convenience, read the full list below:

Process & Errata

Ties are listed chronologically (oldest first).

Some typos were corrected (there is no such game as Super Smash Bros 64 or Mario 64).

Related:The art of game writing in ‘non-narrative’ games ft. Emma Kidwell and Harrison Pink

When games were released multi-platform in the same year, they were counted as the same entry (for example, Catherine for PS3 or Xbox).

If someone wrote ‘series’, it was included in the most-populated entry in that series. If an exact entry couldn’t be discerned, it was combined with its most populated version (for example, Spelunky was assumed to be the most-populated, Spelunky (2008)).

In cases where there were ties between two entries in a series as ‘most-populated’, the oldest version ‘won’ the tie (this only happened once).

Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow were counted as a single entry.

Despite only videogames being allowed, 6 people wrote in Magic: The Gathering, so we interpreted that as Magic: The Gathering Online.

About the Game Developer Podcast

The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling the triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between of game development, sharing lessons and strategies fellow developers can use to hone their craft. The Game Developer Podcast is hosted by Bryant Francis, edited by Pierre Landriau, and features music by Mike Meehan.

Follow Game Developer on Bluesky or on LinkedIn.

It looks like Square Enix may have accidentally revealed its plans for the post-launch support of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. Database updates to the Epic Games Store (via EpicDB) indicate that the title will be getting plenty of DLCs, with up to seven releases seemingly being planned.

Some of the DLC likely corresponds with in-game items that will likely be part of a supposed Premium Plus Edition of the title. Interestingly, there are also mentions of a Story Expansion Pass, which indicates that some of the DLC will continue the story of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

While the scale of these DLCs remains unknown – many of them are likely to essentially be extra gear or costume options – there might also be plans for an expansion that is similar in scale to Episode INTERmission for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which essentially added an entirely new story to the game, introducing the Remake trilogy audience to the character of Yuffie and her unique combat style.

Since director Naoki Hamaguchi has previously spoken about wanting to integrate stories, characters, and content from Final Fantasy 7’s various spin-offs and follow-ups, we might even see versions of Dirge of Cerberus or Advent Children recreated in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation in some form.

Hamaguchi had spoken about this during a Q&A in Shanghai. At the time, he was responding to a question about whether Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 character Cissnei would be showing up in Revelation following her appearance in Rebirth.

“Well, at this time it’s best not to say whether Cissnei will appear or not, but there is one thing I can tell you,” said Hamaguchi. “This Final Fantasy 7 Remake series is not simply a recreation of the original work, but rather, our goal is to create a single, new Final Fantasy 7 that incorporates the settings and concepts of all the previous spin-off titles, such as Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core. Therefore, the appearance of Cissnei and the inclusion of Dirge of Cerberus Soldiers in the DLC, all have that meaning.”

“So, since that concept will of course carry over into Revelation as well, not limited to Cissnei, for the last entry, there will be characters that have appeared in the various FF7 compilation games that I think will be there, and each of these characters has a large and dedicated fanbase, so we want to create a work that can satisfy the feelings of those people.”

It is worth noting that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy has done an admirable job of introducing characters and story concepts from games that were previously only spin-offs. A notable example of this is the inclusion of Leslie Kyle in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The character was previously only mentioned in Final Fantasy VII The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story. Similarly, the title also included references to Dirge of Cerberus in the form of its antagonists – Wiess and Nero – being available as VR mission boss fights in Episode INTERmission.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2, and is slated for a Spring 2027 release.

Well, it’s the end of a wait that’s felt longer than it has been in reality, but the Steam Machine is finally on the shelves. It’s quite an interesting machine (pun intended), to be sure. It plugs into your TV, plays a massive library of games, has an SD card slot out front for easy switching from your Steam Deck to your living room, and functions well as a SteamOS-based console even though it could be considered quite the opposite.

However, its price tag puts it at a premium over even the PS5 Pro, and that’s a cause for concern. At $1049 for a 512GB variant that functions on par with the base PS5 and Xbox Series X, it’s made our thoughts wander to what the next generation of gaming hardware could bring to the table and has us wondering what such offerings could cost. As always, there’s more to the issue than meets the eye, and we’re going to come at this from multiple angles. Let’s get started.

Leaving Traditions Behind

The old console model is the first thing that comes to mind, as it’s what the Steam Machine aimed to tackle before component shortages and the subsequent increase in prices forced Valve to pass on additional costs to its players. When you put that against how consoles have often absorbed losses they take on expensive hardware only to earn that back via game sales, subscriptions, peripherals, and platform fees, the Steam Machine’s disruptive potential becomes a little clearer.

However, that isn’t the only variable to consider. The PlayStation and Xbox have traditionally been closed-off ecosystems, with both Sony and Microsoft using all the factors we’ve mentioned above to try to surge ahead of their rivals. Throw in other gaming systems like the Switch into the mix, and the pattern becomes clearer. Big brands have used exclusivity and their unique USPs to ensure consumer loyalty and recoup the losses from discounted entry points over the duration of a console generation.

That means it can be hard for gamers to switch over to a rival, considering that they’ve had around seven years to build a library of games that would then become redundant if they were to give another system a try. Valve’s arguing against that route with the Steam Machine, bringing a PC/console hybrid that’s about as open-ended as they come thanks to a Linux-based operating system with a SteamOS overlay.

Yes, you’re paying a premium, but you also get the flexibility of a PC in a machine that gels pretty well with your living room setup thanks to its compact size and an approach to heat management that we must tip our hat to. That’s a more open-ended alternative to the PS5 or Xbox that could also run as a reasonably powerful PC if the need arises, since you could even run Windows on it and plug in a keyboard and mouse to get some work done from the comfort of your couch.

There’s value in both approaches, no arguments there, but there is the pressing concern that both Sony and Microsoft must now think long and hard about what they’re going to do about pricing their next-gen offerings. Absorbing hardware costs heavily in the interest of subsidization, both companies risk losing out on profit margins. Not doing so could raise prices, which isn’t going to make a lot of console gamers happy. It’s a frying pan and fire kind of situation that needs careful navigation if the next generation of consoles is to sustain the value that they offer to gamers.

The Rising Tide Of Prices

It’s probably a good idea to think about the price hikes on Sony’s PS5 lineup at this point. As of March 2026, the PS5 Disc Edition now sits at $649.99, while the PS5 Digital is at $599.99, and the PS5 Pro is pushing dangerously close to the thousand-dollar mark, with its retail price at $899.99. While it’s all well and good to support Sony, a manufacturer known for its quality gaming hardware over many years, and say that there was no choice but to hike up prices, that still doesn’t address worries about what the PS6’s price could be when it comes out.

Things are equally troubling with the Xbox Series. The Xbox Series S is now $100 dearer if you’re looking at a 512GB model, while the 1TB versions of both the S and X are now $150 more expensive. What’s worse, the 2TB models are now discontinued. Heck, even Lenovo has stated that memory prices may never return to normalcy.

Microsoft might be facing a tricky situation, all things considered, as Project Helix seems to be shaping up quite well, although it’s deep in development. However, as it’s being built to play both Xbox and PC games, that could put its value proposition quite close to what the Steam Machine is currently offering, and that’s without considering the promise of “leading performance” from the brand’s upcoming next-gen powerhouse.

With plans to ship out alpha hardware to developers in early 2027, it’s clearly getting closer to its final launch, as is the PS6. In the case of Project Helix, the PC/console hybrid angle could likely be a very justifiable reason for a higher price, especially for enthusiasts, but we’re concerned that such a situation could affect the mass-market relevance that it so clearly needs if it’s to take on the PS6. Exclusive games are a great way to get that going, but are they going to be enough to justify paying a high price for them? That’s something that remains to be seen. Either way, it’s a possibility that Project Helix’s goals may come into conflict with each other and be an obstacle to its success.

We’re aware that all of this is a tad speculative at this stage, but the Steam Machine has given us valid reasons for our concerns thanks to its price. But what could be done about them?

A Smart Way Forward

Well, you might not like what’s on our mind, but allow us to explain. We think delaying both the PS6 and Project Helix could be a smart choice for Sony and Microsoft. It isn’t because we think none of us are ready for a generational leap that could make modern gaming even better than it is today, not in the slightest. But at this point, with hardware prices and supply being what they are, it’s going to be a tall order to match retail prices with the value that’s on offer.

Both the PS6 and Project Helix need to come in at a time when a higher price tag is justified by an undeniable value proposition. Without it, we don’t see too many people looking to buy new consoles since their PS5s and Series X consoles, along with handhelds, the Switch 2, cloud gaming and other libraries, let them enjoy the best of whatever gaming is offering, albeit at a slightly lower performance that still works just fine since it’s what they’re already used to.

It’s going to be very easy to just wait out an upgrade, forcing Sony and Microsoft to either lower prices or weather low demand for new consoles. For the past few generations of consoles, upgrading to whatever next-gen offerings were available was a matter of better graphics, improved loading times, better frame rates, ray tracing in the case of the PS5 and Xbox Series, and bigger, more ambitious worlds that pushed the boundaries of what a modern gaming experience could achieve.

That’s the way it should be if you ask us, with each iteration of the PlayStation and Xbox working to give gamers a solid reason for an upgrade that goes past being an enthusiast, for whom a new console is a must-have, day-one purchase. Nothing wrong with that per se, but there’s a risk of alienating gamers who would like nothing more than a shiny new console but are priced out of joining in on the fun when the PS6 and Project Helix come along.

The Steam Machine has shed light on a facet of gaming hardware that console owners aren’t fully aware of yet, but the current situation has shown us all what those hidden bills look like. It brought the question of price and affordability to next-gen consoles, and we worry that launching either or both models too soon runs the risk of turning console gaming into a luxury purchase instead of a convenient, mass-market solution. It isn’t going to be entirely on the manufacturers, given the current cost-component environment, but it’s sure as hell going to be a factor if the prices are too high for the average gamer to make the leap to next-gen consoles.

We’re hoping to tell you that we were wrong to worry at some point, but all the evidence now points to a late 2027 to early 2028 launch for the PS6 and Project Helix. And while it’s certainly going to be interesting to see how Sony and Microsoft try to offset price increases, it’s going to be pretty saddening to know that so many of us won’t be playing the best games of the next few years in the best possible ways that they’re meant to be enjoyed.

And that would definitely be a disappointment all around.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organizati

Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad invites you, for the first time, into its world away from the narrative beats of series protagonist Kirito. The ARPG blends real-time combat with party-driven synergy, with layered progression evolving with every new corner of the colossal, sprawling castle. Promising a new take on the Sword Art Online formula, here are fifteen key things you need to know about Echoes of Aincrad.

Experience Your Own Sword Art Online Season

Unlike earlier SAO games, in Echoes of Aincrad you won’t take command of series mainstay Kirito but one of the other ten-thousand souls trapped inside the massive virtual reality castle. It’s a fantasy satiating many Sword Art Online fans: the chance to forge your own destiny and survive the brutal digital world away from the main narrative. An expansive avatar customisation system gives you tools to tailor your hero, then you’re thrust into the game’s chaotic early moments, after you realise you’ve been locked in. From there, your own story runs parallel to Sword Art Online’s original Aincrad death game arc.

Aincrad Castle is Sprawling

On par with Sword Art Online, Aincrad Castle is a sprawling collective of biomes and open zones, replete with splendour and beauty that fans of the anime series will be expecting. The game won’t span all one-hundred of the floating castle’s floors; just a mere two stories, although mere is used here in jest. The game is still a massive undertaking, where each floor contains urban centres, wilderness, caves, dungeons, and more, each loaded with quests, challenges, and narrative beats to fulfil.

Sword Art Online Knowledge Isn’t Required

As vast and complex as SAO lore is, newcomers to the franchise won’t need to brush up on characters or terminology before donning their Nerve Gear headset. Echoes of Aincrad, instead, offers a prologue before beginning the story proper; a generic, tutorial level – a “Beta”, admittedly in keeping with the series’ narrative but not something you necessarily need to be aware of – where you can freely explore, engage with NPCs, and practice specific manoeuvres and motions. Pre-knowledge won’t hinder the experience, of course, but whether you’re in need of a refresher or if you’re a complete series unfaithful, the prologue’s training will be useful.

Action Mixes Real-Time Combat with Party Synergy

Combat in Echoes of Aincrad unfolds in real-time, with a heavy reliance on an AI-controlled companion system. Success, in fact, hinges on how well you coordinate with your two-character party, weaving together attacks, consistently re-positioning, and maintaining pressure. Combat here is more Soulslike than hack n’ slash, and you can command your partner to divert attention, utilise their healing abilities and defensive barriers, and combine your skills to unleash high-damage dual-special manoeuvres.

Stamina and SP are Interlocked Resources

Every strike, dodge, and guard in Echoes of Aincrad’s combat drains your Stamina, limiting how long you can stay on the offensive. Meanwhile, powerful, weapon-specific Sword Skills consumes SP, which is a meter charged by attacking and parrying. Managing both resources simultaneously is crucial; burning through Stamina quickly leaves you exposed, whereas maximising SP relies on finding that balance between maintaining the front foot without finding yourself exposed.

Six Weapon Types Define Your Playstyle

From agile short swords, to defensive maces and heavy-hitting, two-handed axes, Echoes of Aincrad brings six distinct weapon types to the fray, each with their own criteria, identity, and utility upon which you can anchor your playstyle. What’s more, attack speed, range, combo potential, and defensive prowess all vary, encouraging experimentation. Whether you want a weapon which allows you to equip a shield, or you want to sacrifice protection for gung-ho power, your weapon choice will fundamentally shape how you approach each combat encounter.

Your Character Evolves With Your Build

In Echoes of Aincrad, your character’s progression isn’t locked from the outset. Instead, your avatar can be continually reshaped through equipment choices, stat scaling, and skill collection offering a degree of flexibility in how you adapt to new challenges and refine your preferred playstyle. Much like your weapon choice, there’s scope for experimentation here, with increasing proficiency unlocking unique Sword Skills as you utilise each weapon type. Only three Sword Skills can be equipped at a time, encouraging you to synergise specific skills, skewing them toward a defined combat style.

Your Partner is Crucial for Progression

As already alluded, you won’t be fighting through Aincrad Castle alone. Your AI-controlled partner plays a central role in both combat encounters and overall progression. See, each companion brings their own tactics, Support Skills, and Combination Skills, meaning synergy is essential. Learning how your partner operates, and how to complement their strengths and offset their weakness, will turn difficult battles into manageable encounters.

Switch Mode and Free Mode Changes Combat Flow

Echoes of Aincrad brings two distinct combat approaches: Switch Mode and Free Mode. The first, Switch Mode, emphasises synchronicity, where your partner matches your manoeuvres to focus together on a single target. Well-timed dodges will also “switch” an enemy’s attention to your partner, freeing you up to counter. And Free Mode, instead, eschews coordination by giving your partner free-reign on their own combat encounters, enabling you both to tackle enemies independently.

Boss Battles are Inescapable Encounters

In Echoes of Aincrad, boss battles are treated as major milestones, and once they begin there’s no backing out. So, to succeed, you’ll need to be prepared, thereby it’d be wise to restock supplies, upgrade gear, and all-together recover fully before stepping into the arena. Echoes of Aincrad designs boss battles as tests of your build as much as your ability to work in sync with your partner.

Each Floor Offers Its Own Story and Challenges

If it wasn’t clear by now, Aincrad isn’t just a backdrop; the castle is a living, layered world, where each floor introduces its own narrative arc, unique quests, enemies, and boss encounters. This structure ensures progression always feels fresh and meaningful, as every new zone introduces different themes, mechanical demands, and challenges to overcome.

Towns Act as Progression Hubs

Acting as relatively safe communes, Aincrad’s towns and urban areas also serve as progression hubs where you can strengthen your character between expeditions. Inside city walls, Growth Points – earned from levelling up – can be spent to strengthen and enhance your stats.

Col Fuels the In-Game Economy

Echoes of Aincrad’s in-game currency Col can be spent at item sellers to purchase potions and numerous other essential items. While collecting Col is integral, the game also includes a crafting system which allows you to create your own supplies. Meanwhile, blacksmiths can forge upgrades for your weapons, enabling your gear to keep pace as difficulty increases.

EX-MODS Enable Build Customisation

While blacksmiths grow your weapon’s baseline stats, EX-MODs give you opportunity to fine-tune your loadout. See, these randomised modifiers, including unique perks which minimise stamina cost, increase attack speed, and more, can be fused to your weaponry. Furthermore, they can be transferred and combined at blacksmiths, opening the door to highly specialised builds that work harmoniously with your character’s stat build.

A Demo is Available

If you’re unsure about committing, a free demo is currently available across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. What’s more, if you decide you want to experience the full game then your demo progression will carry over, making it a risk-free way to get a feel for the game’s combat, systems, synergy potential, and open zone structure before diving in for real.

Ubisoft has appointed former 2K president and co-founder Christoph Hartmann to lead its internal, shooter-centric division ‘Creative House 2.’

The French publisher restructured around five internal ‘Creative Houses’ earlier this year, each of which is dedicated to a unique collection of franchises and studios. 

Creative House 2 is primarily focused on competitive and cooperative shooter experiences and oversees notable brands including The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. It also houses internal studios such as Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Paris, and Ubisoft Toronto. 

Hartmann represents an experienced external hire for Ubisoft, with the veteran exec having previously served as Amazon Games vice president and Take-Two Interactive vice president of international marketing.

“For nearly four decades, Ubisoft has created some of the industry’s most iconic franchises and earned a reputation for building ambitious AAA experiences that have entertained millions of players around the world. It has long been a company I’ve admired for its creativity, the strength of its franchises, and, above all, the talented people behind them,” said Hartmann in a post on LinkedIn.

Related:Union workers establish hardship fund to support devs impacted by layoffs

“I’m looking forward to working with the teams across Creative House 2, supporting an incredible portfolio of AAA tactical, competitive, and multiplayer experiences, including Tom Clancy’s The Division, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and March of Giants. My goal is simple: create an environment where talented teams can do their best work and continue building games that players love.”

Ubisoft’s decision to restructure its entire studio ecosystem has come at a significant cost. When announcing the move in January 2026, the publisher said it expects to make €200 million in cuts over the next two years. 

Since then, Ubisoft has proposed 200 voluntary redundancies at its headquarters in France, closed its studios in Winnipeg and Belgrade, eliminated roles at its studio in Barcelona, made further cuts within its global publishing team, and made over 100 employees redundant at Ubisoft Red Storm.

Those layoffs followed a sizeable investment from Chinese conglomerate Tencent, which sunk €1.16 billion into Creative House 1—known as Vantage Studios—to secure a 26 percent stake in the division. 

Union members at United Videogame Workers-CWA (UVW-CWA) have established the Game Worker Hardship Fund to provide a financial lifeline to struggling developers impacted by layoffs.

The fund will support game workers across the United States and Canada who have lost their jobs (or been impacted in other ways) as a result of the wave of job cuts that has swept across the video game industry in recent years.

Eligible applicants can request either a small cash sum of up to $1,000 or a larger amount ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. Funds can be requested for a range of reasons, including for basic life expenses such as groceries, medical bills, and rent.

UVW-CWA stressed that applicants do not need to be a member of the union to seek financial assistance through the fund. Those who wish to support the initiative financially must join the union, however, as the fund is being financed via membership dues.

Related:Ubisoft taps former 2K president Christoph Hartmann to oversee Tom Clancy franchise

Proceeds from an itch.io charity bundle being organized by Demonschool developer Necrosoft Games will also be used to bolster the hardship fund.

“In order to apply for this fund, fill out the application form. A team of volunteers from UVW-CWA will review your application and prioritize it based on need. If an application requires further clarification, we will reach out to you,” reads a post on the UVW-CWA website, explaining how to request support. 

“You may be asked to provide additional supporting evidence and to chat with an application reviewer. You will receive an email confirming whether or not you have been approved for funds. After receiving funds, we will reach out in order to document your experiences for an impact report we will make public towards the end of the year.”

UVW-CWA intends to reply to applicants based on the urgency of their request, but cannot guarantee that any individual application will be approved. You can find out more about the initiative, including how to apply, on the UVW-CWA website. 

It’s been a while since Ubisoft shook things up with its restructuring efforts, and it seems like things are beginning to stabilize for the publisher. In a bit of good news, Christoph Hartmann, the co-founder and former president of 2K Games, has joined its Creative House 2 as its general manager and is slated to oversee Tom Clancy-based franchises like The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell.

Hartmann’s impressive track record speaks for itself, with his involvement in hit franchises like Borderlands, Bioshock, and Mafia allowing him to make a name for himself in modern gaming. Ubisoft is thrilled about his decision to take over one of its Creative Houses, with CEO Yves Guillemot issuing a statement commending his past work while expressing excitement for a new chapter.

“Christoph is exactly the kind of leader we needed for Creative House 2 – a passionate gamer with a proven ability to bring out the best in creative teams and build franchises that last.”

Hartmann is similarly excited to be a part of Creative House 2, giving us a glimpse of his plans to take everything the studio is working on forward.

“The talented teams at March of Giants, Massive, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Paris, and Ubisoft Toronto have always known how to create worlds that players lose themselves in. With Creative House 2, we are giving them the structure, support, and vision to go further, to build the kind of intense, unforgettable experiences that remind players why they fell in love with games in the first place. That is what great games have always been about, and that is what we are here to make.”

It might be an uphill climb for Ubisoft (especially when projects like Splinter Cell Remake have seemingly stalled), but things could definitely improve with Hartmann’s leadership. Of course, there’s also the potential success of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced setting up the embattled publisher for a comeback when it launches on July 9th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

It’s no secret that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, Ubisoft Singapore’s long-awaited remake of the 2013 classic, reinvents as much as it updates. Nowhere is that more obvious than with the combat, which focuses on reading your enemies, correctly timing parries and then taking them down in spectacular style.

It’s also more fluid, especially when transitioning between different tools, like pistols, swords, the rope dart and more. As tech director Jussi Markkanen told GamesRadar, “We modernized the combat to be more hitbox-based, as modern combat games tend to be, and a little bit more reactive. So, Edward can still use the hidden blades, but as a takedown action in the combat, making the combat more fluid.” As previously confirmed, you can’t equip the Hidden Blades as a separate weapon in the remake – a facet which bummed out most players.

But on the bright side, despite using Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ combat as its base, the development team opted for more action-heavy fights. “We have a parry system now, so you time your parries, but it’s free movement and hitbox, so it’s still physically based and built on top of the fight system we had on Shadows. But instead of doing what Shadows did in the skill-tree-based or RPG-style fights, we went more to the action-oriented fights,” said Markkanen.

So while it’s technically “reimagining” the original’s combat, it still maintains that swashbuckling flow and mastery that lets Edward capably take on crowds of foes while emerging unscathed. “Skill-based in a way that it’s skills in your hands. How do you move? How do you position yourself? How do you use your tools that you have?” Based on everything we’ve seen so far, Resynced will offer plenty of unique options to find your flow.

It launches on July 9th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Aside from the combat, there have been several other changes and new additions, including freshly recorded lines by actor Matt Ryan and the Observe mechanic. Head here for all the latest and learn more about how it runs on base PS5 and PS5 Pro here.

Sony’s recent announcement that it is essentially ending the concept of physical PlayStation game releases in 2028 will undoubtedly have larger ripple effects in the gaming industry. Analysts also believe that this gives us a good indicator of what we can expect from the PS6.

Among these is Ampere’s Piers Harding-Rolls, who believes that the January 2028 window indicates that Sony won’t be releasing its next-gen console until that year. Along with this, he also believes that the console won’t feature a disc drive for physical media.

“Almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest. Ampere’s current expectation is a launch at the end of 2028,” he wrote. “At a minimum, the standard version of a PS6 will not include a physical media disc drive.”

In a lengthier blog post, Harding-Rolls has discussed how Sony might be doing this in order to further cut down on the PS6’s manufacturing costs. Disc drives, while not individually expensive, also come with other costs, like licensing for Blu-ray capabilities. He doesn’t, however, discount the idea of a separate disc drive being sold that could plug into the PS6. This way, the company can still offer assurances to PS4 and PS5 users who have plenty of physical copies of games collected that the next-generation console will also support their pre-existing libraries.

“Sony will be looking for all the ways it can reduce the cost of its next-gen console, and this is an easy win,” he wrote. “It’s possible that an add-on disc drive could be made available to play older PS4 and PS5 games on disc. Removing the drive will upset some gamers that don’t want to pay for an add-on disc drive (if available) and that want to access their game collections on disc. It may be too impractical or too complex, but some process of transferral for older physical media to a digital license could alleviate some of these issues.”

Along with cutting down on its own costs, Sony might also be looking for ways in which publishers have to spend less money to release their games on its consoles. Right now, third-party publishers that want to release physical copies of their games have to pay Sony the associated licensing costs to certify their titles for PlayStation, as well as fees for the production of physical copies, which include costs for the disc itself, the case, and the cover.

“These costs are normally bundled into a single charge,” Harding-Rolls explained. “Under this model, publishers have a significant amount of financial risk in terms of paying for production and the royalty fee before any payments are received for sales into retailers.”

“Removing the costs associated with the production of physical media reduces publishers’ exposure to this inventory risk but also enables them to potentially realise better margins on sales of games through retail.”

In light of Harding-Rolls’ belief that the launch of the PS6 might be getting pushed back to 2028, it is worth noting that rumors have indicated that Sony is already working with AMD to validate the chips powering the next-gen console. There have also been reports about the PS6’s bill of materials costs having gone up by $200.

Think this tells us quite a lot about the PS6

Almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest. Ampere’s current expectation is a launch at the end of 2028

– At a minimum, the standard version of a PS6 will not include a physical media disc drive https://t.co/4yRjrB81qP

— Piers Harding-Rolls (@PiersHR) July 1, 2026

After a winding controversy that went to court, Unknown Worlds Entertainment will finally receive its promised bonuses from parent company Krafton following the success of Subnautica 2. In the midst of this, studio CEO Ted Gill will be stepping down as part of this settlement, Bloomberg reports.

“We mutually agreed to part ways. New leadership is the best way for the studio to move forward,” he said, with both entities seeking a replacement from the outside.

Krafton subsequently told IGN that, “Krafton, Inc., Unknown Worlds Entertainment and Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire have reached a mutual settlement and agreed to dismiss all pending legal proceedings. Unknown Worlds and Krafton are focused on supporting Subnautica 2, its Early Access journey to the full 1.0 release and the global community that has made the franchise so special. Unknown Worlds will continue leading development, with Krafton providing support for the success of the game.”

The bonuses, amounting over $250 million, were decided when Krafton acquired Unknown Worlds in 2001 for $500 million. However, following delays to Subnautica 2, the company suddenly fired Gill (alongside co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire). The case went to court, and the judge ruled in Gill’s favor, reinstating him as CEO while upholding Krafton’s commitment to bonuses.

The best part is that all employees will receive compensation rather than just the top brass and those working at the studio since 2021. While doled out over three annual installments, Gill noted that the studio will be “compensated significantly more” alongside “further incentives.”

After all, Subnautica 2 crossed four million copies sold within five days of its early access launch in May. That total is likely to be even higher now, especially as Unknown Worlds continues releasing updates.

What can players expect in the future? The ability to sprint for one alongside a storage cache, voice chat, player trading, additional slots for passive Biomods, and more. You can also expect improvements to Blight Encounters, wrecks, pinned recipes, the PDA databank and more.

It’s even listening to player requests for additional means to deal with hostile sea-life, though you shouldn’t expect to slay them, Sons of the Forest-style, anytime soon. Stay tuned for more details and check out our review for early access here.

With fears that the next generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft might end up being quite expensive, with some even expecting $1,000 price tags, a developer has spoken out against the idea. In a social media post, former artist and art director at Naughty Dog and Rocksteady, Del Walker, has said that making more expensive consoles won’t necessarily result in better games.

He brought up a variety of problems facing the gaming industry these days, including ballooning budgets thanks to additional complexity and development time required to develop for modern gaming hardware. He then questioned whether these recent advances in hardware have led to games being more enjoyable.

“The next generation of consoles will cause more bloodshed. The cost of game development has never gone down when a new console arises; it always just adds complexity, cost, and dev time, but are the games truly more enjoyable? Debatable,” he wrote.

Walker also brought up the idea that artistic endeavors like game development tend to thrive when there are plenty of constraints placed on the artists. This also leads to development teams working more efficiently in order to reduce wasted effort and hardware resources. As things currently stand, game development budgets will likely go even higher, and when a game doesn’t sell well enough to justify its costs, layoffs are inevitable.

“Limitations are where the best magic happens when making a game, and less of it causes waste. When costs go up, you get less winners and more layoffs. I genuinely, with all my heart, wished the PS6 and Xbox Project Helix never steps foot into this decade,” he concluded.

In the replies, he then brought up an interesting point about the stagnation of game design in recent times. Since big-budget games need to hit as wide an audience as possible, Walker believes that this has led to games even simplifying their puzzles, with sidekicks giving players the solutions.

Walker’s statement comes just a couple of days after rumors indicated that the PS6’s bill of materials has gone up by around $200 since March. Back then, it was already at around $760. This new bill of materials might lead to Sony needing to charge over $1,000 if it wants to make a profit on the console. The previous costs would have allowed the company to absorb a bit of the cost and price the console at around $699.

Whether Sony will actually eat some of the costs in favor of a more reasonable price tag remains to be seen. Earlier this week, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Hideaki Nishino spoke about how it was “not realistic” for the company to absorb prices in light of growing component costs.

“As for pricing, it is not realistic for us to absorb all component cost increases, and we have already implemented some price increases outside Japan,” he said. “At present, however, sales are proceeding as planned, and we do not believe this has led to a decline in customer demand.”

As for Project Helix, Microsoft is apparently rethinking its approach when it comes to console hardware thanks to its high expected price tag.

The next generation of consoles will cause more bloodshed. The cost of game development has never gone down when a new console arises, it always just adds complexity, cost, and dev time, but are the games truly more enjoyable? Debatable.

Limitations are where the best magic… https://t.co/0WmHPHcEIy

— Del (@TheCartelDel) June 29, 2026

Exactly. I made a whole YouTube video that came to same conclusion. If your meal must cater to everyone, it cannot be spicy, it cannot be sweet, it can only be “inoffensive”. We can’t even have puzzles without a sidekick character blurting out the answers now because of this.

— Del (@TheCartelDel) June 29, 2026

PlayStation has announced it will be closing the PlayStation Store on PlayStation 3 and Vita starting this year.

In a blog post published today, Sid Shuman, senior director of Sony Interactive Entertainment content communications says the PlayStation Store on PS3 will close starting August 2026 for select markets: Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Then, “additional Latin American and Middle Eastern countries” will follow suit starting late 2026. In all other countries, PlayStation Store on both PS3 and PS Vita will close in July 2027.

As Shuman notes, new content purchases will no longer be possible once the store closes. “To ease the transition, players will still be able to download previously purchased content after the closing date for the foreseeable future,” he adds.

As for the reason behind the decision, the senior director says that as the PlayStation Store continues to “evolve to support modern commerce systems,” including updated payment processing standards, the PS3 and PS Vita are “no longer able to support these updates at the level required.”

Related:Godot to ban (almost all) AI coding contributions

Looking ahead, Shuman says PlayStation needs to “focus more resources” on newer devices that most of its users are playing on today.

“We know this news may be disappointing to PS3 and PS Vita players who hold a special place in their hearts for this generation of gaming,” he says. “PS3 and PS Vita represent an important era in our PlayStation history, so this was not an easy decision for us to make.”

Accompanying the news was the announcement that Sony will no longer be releasing PlayStation software on physical discs from January 2028.

The pivot, according to the post on the PlayStation Blog, will mark an end to physical disc production for “all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles.”

The decision reflects changing consumer preferences and a broader entertainment industry shift away from physical software, Sony says.

“This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”

It’s a rare occasion to see a studio simultaneously announce an end to physical media while promising support for digital stores, to simultaneously then announce the closure of digital stores.

We say it every year, in some form or fashion, but 2025 was absolutely jam-packed with releases. So packed, in fact, that some were bound to be forgotten, like id Software’s DOOM: The Dark Ages. But if the more grounded combat with slower movement and focus on parrying didn’t quite feed into your personal Slayer power fantasy, good news – Revelations aims to up the ante in many ways.

Launching on July 7th for $19.99 on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, it’s absolutely massive in scope. Even if you’re not here for the story or how the once and future Slayer manages to escape this latest predicament, there’s no denying that a lot of work has gone into Revelations. Here are 15 new things we learned, starting with…

Playtime and Size

Remember the two DOOM Eternal DLCs? Two parts of a single cohesive story that you had to wait for? It was ultimately worth it, but Revelations is like both combined. Director Hugo Martin confirmed that it’s about 10 to 12 hours long depending on the difficulty. Considering that the base game’s story took about 14 hours to complete on average, this expansion is a pretty sizable addition, especially considering the price.

A Year’s Worth of Polish

Of course, the one question that’s bound to be on every player’s mind, sooner or later, is, “Why did it take so long?” Besides the free updates and improvements to the base game, id Software actually spent a year polishing Revelations. Everything you see – the encounters, bosses, secrets, and yes, even the new weapon – has been finely honed. Whether that’s up to everyone’s standards remains to be seen, but the development team clearly wanted to get it right, especially when it comes to…

Higher Difficulty

The Dark Ages wasn’t necessarily the most difficult experience in the Slayer trilogy, especially for those fresh off Eternal’s high-speed gauntlet of horrors. So you’ll be pleased to learn that Revelations’ difficulty is higher than the base game, even though id worked to ensure it remains balanced. If it still proves too easy, you can still play around with the difficulty sliders to tweak the challenge to your preference.

The Chain Spear

Without a doubt, the star of the show is the new Chain Spear. It packs a whole array of movement options, from dashing to grappling, and much of the expansion’s progression revolves around it. In fact, you’ll require the entire campaign to fully upgrade it and truly unlock some of the more “meta” tactics. The Shield Saw is still here, though, and quick-swapping between it and the Spear lends to some pretty combinations.

Slam, Stab, Throw, and Much More

Dashing, grappling, and stabbing are just a few of the Chain Spear’s unique properties. There are multiple abilities with dedicated upgrade trees, whether you want to hone in on the Sentinel Hammer-like ground slam, throw it like a projectile or play ring around the rosie with the grappling hook. It’s also aces for slashing through weaker enemies, breaking armor, and parrying melee strikes and projectiles. The goal of the Chain Spear is to elevate the amount of counters available, not unlike DOOM Eternal’s gameplay loop. Unfortunately, that does come at a cost…

Unchanged Guns and Repairing Your Armor

That’s right – no new guns (at least none that id is revealing at this time), and those from the base game remain largely the same. You’ll also need to upgrade the Slayer’s armor from scratch, increasing the max armor, health and ammo, one node at a time. It makes sense in the story, but if your skills are rusty, you might need to work that much harder to survive.

New, Returning and Upgraded Enemies

Thankfully, there are new enemies to tackle, like the Wizard, who buffs his allies and evades, which means using the Chain Spear’s enhanced mobility to catch up and put it down before things get out of hand. The Arch-Vile and Pain Elemental from Eternal also return, while the Whiplash Spectre has upgraded AI. The Hell Knights are also worth keeping an eye on, as they pack a purple glow and can detonate to deal massive damage. Managing all of these threats while staying on the move will be key, and the new bosses, including a dual-sword-wielding warrior, should prove a worthy challenge.

Maze-Like Levels That Are id’s “Best Work Yet”

In terms of level design, Revelations has a pretty impressive slate, from towering structures to desolate battlegrounds comprised of bones big and small. Id describes these as its “best work yet”, with every level offering maze-like layouts housing numerous secrets and upgrades. But don’t think you’ll just be going from one level to the next and then rolling credits.

A Brand New Structure

Revelations represents something new for the developer and Slayer trilogy as a whole. Instead of a simple campaign with optional side content and secrets, it’s divided into two separate overlays: Base Game and End Game. The former encompasses 60 percent of the total experience, including the story, but the latter makes up the rest and is where you go for a greater challenge.

End Game Activities and Challenges

And make no mistake – you’ll be challenged in all kinds of ways. When selecting the End Game overlay, levels offer new original paths, puzzles and end game resources. You’ll have to tackle challenges at Master difficulty, and new activities open up, like Praetor Suit Encounters, which involve competing in unique “extra-hard” arenas. If you’re looking for something more arcade-like, there are Slayer Trials, which have some scoring mechanics, thus challenging you to optimize your killing for the best result.

Classic Levels

You may have spotted this briefly in the reveal trailer, but progress enough through the end-game, and you’ll discover Classic levels. These are revamped versions of levels from classic titles, with vastly upgraded visuals. Not quite the retro aesthetic that such levels offered from DOOM (2016), but it’s a welcome twist all the same.

Uber Boss and Master Arenas

Once you’ve cleared the other end-game activities, you’ll receive the Astral Key, which allows you to face an Uber Boss, one of the greatest challenges in the game yet. We say “one of” because defeating it grants the Master Arena Key. This will unlock four “super-intense” Master Arenas that serve as the pinnacle of the game’s combat challenge. Complete these, and you’ll have well and truly mastered Revelations.

New Ripatorium Arenas, Enemies and More

But don’t worry – there’s still more, because finishing the Master Arenas will unlock three new arenas (including one that calls back to the classic Doom aesthetic) in the Ripatorium. All the enemies also carry over alongside the fully upgraded Chain Spear. Considering how much id Software has updated and built upon it over the past year and change, we’re excited to see how these options will change up the community-made presets.

Slayer Hub

Last but certainly not least is the new Slayer Hub. If you’re reminded of the Fortress of Doom from Eternal, id actually describe that as a “stepping stone” for this new hub. Packed with puzzles, hidden corridors, and of course, new lore, it’s a great way to decompress and explore. The campaign also offers plenty of lore and collectibles that shine more light on what’s going on, providing even more incentive to revisit levels.

The Godot Foundation has announced a series of upcoming contribution policy updates regarding the use of generative AI (genAI) on the free, open-source engine Godot, banning almost all use cases for code contributions, also known as pull requests (PR).

In a blog post published yesterday, the Godot Foundation recognizes a recent increase in AI-generated contributions, both by AI agents and by humans submitting AI-generated code. “AI contributions have the added pain of being demoralizing,” the post reads, referring to the maintainers who are fielding the PRs.

Godot’s policy updates come amidst studios continuing to toot the genAI horn, despite the fact that it has garnered a largely negative reception from developers in recent years, with many arguing that it is having a corrosive effect on the industry.

As for the engine, the foundation’s focus will be on ensuring all contributions “are made by humans who can take responsibility for their code,” and be able and willing to fix it when needed.

Related:Krafton and Unknown Worlds founders settle Subnautica 2 legal dispute

“AI cannot take responsibility, and we can’t trust heavy users of AI to understand their code enough to fix it,” the foundation says.

Looking ahead, the foundation wants to amend Godot’s contributing policy to band autonomous AI agent use or “vibe coding,” use of AI to generate substantial pieces of code, and AI-generated text in human-to-human communication.

However, the foundation outlines some exceptions. While it requires all code to be human authored, AI should “should be limited to menial things,” including code completion, regex, or find and replace. If someone uses AI in some capacity to author code, the person must disclose it in the PR discussion.

Regarding communication, the foundation says that maintainers volunteer their time to review a user’s issue, PR, or proposal they do not want to talk to a machine. “This is a basic principle of respect,” the post reads. Yet, machine translations “are still acceptable” as long as the original content was written by a human.

The announcement of upcoming policy updates comes weeks after Godot confirmed that it tolerates “some AI assistance,” while also rejecting the “vibe coded” tag. Back in February, Godot veteran Rémi Verschelde expressed dismay at the number of “AI slop” PRs being generated for the engine.

“Things change every day with respect to the current suite of AI tools available. We will continue taking a conservative approach in our policies towards them, but we will re-evaluate as things evolve,” the announcement by the Godot Foundation concludes.

Related:OtherSide Entertainment lays off 18 from Thick as Thieves team

College Football 27 doesn’t reinvent the series outright, but it does introduce plenty of meaningful improvements across almost every facet of the experience. Whether you’re building a dynasty, creating your dream athlete, or soaking up the pageantry and atmosphere on game day, this year’s entry authentically pushes beyond last year’s offering with confidence. Here are fifteen of the biggest differences EA Sports College Football 27 is bringing over last year.

Dynasty Places Greater Emphasis on Coach’s Role

Like last year’s iteration, Dynasty Mode remains built around your coaching decisions, but College Football 27 asks you to mould your program around each school’s expectations and values. See, each school now has a clearer identity, shaped by organisational priorities, how much patience the board has for your process, and what the fans believe is important – winning a championship or getting one-over on your rivals, for instance. Your role as the coach is still central, yet College Football 27 brings new levels of external pressure.

Expectations Evolve as Your Program Progresses

And, your chosen school’s expectations aren’t set in stone. No, as your program progresses, so does their expectation of you, with evolutions determined by both the fanbase and the Athletic Director. Of course, if you’re doing well, projections rise, but if you’re underperforming then patience wanes. Yet, College Football 27 brings more nuance than a simple, binary up-or-down. Each success becomes a new baseline, yes, but each school’s demeanor dictates how responsive they are to success or failure too. For example, priorities can shift from winning championships to becoming a class-leader in recruitment. Furthermore, you can forge an elite team, but if you keep losing to your state rivals the fans will demand change.

All-New Dynasty Blueprints Finetune Program Control

While the Athletic Director’s expectations shape what success means at your school, College Football 27 introduces Dynasty Blueprints to put you in greater control of how you achieve this success. Here, Dynasty Points can be spent across three areas: coaching staff, school facilities, and Name, Image, Likeness (NIL). Investing in backroom staff streamlines your program’s efficiency, while spending on facilities supports long-term player development. Focusing on NIL gives you greater leverage to compete for the strongest talent, but no-two schools are the same. Blueprints are part of a wider program-building puzzle, but taken in isolation they highlight obstacles standing between your program and the Athletic Director’s expectations.

Scholarships No Longer Available in Pre-Season

As NIL has grown into a more significant roster-building, decision-making process with this year’s iteration, scholarships can no longer be offered during pre-season. See, real-life College Football has seen a rise in prospects who understand the terms they can command even before arriving on campus, with anticipated NIL influenced by star rating, position, school prestige, and so on. Mirroring this in-game, NIL is more of a long-term commitment, with scholarships now tied to your program’s ever-shifting expectations. For this reason, pre-season is now entirely focused on scouting, with the aim being for you to better identify targets that fit your program and then shaping NIL around your budgets and expectations.

My School Sees Expansion

Like last year, My School grades in College Football 27 continue to define your program’s potential, impacting recruitment, player management, and more. However, this year’s iteration expands and updates several My School grades in three key areas: Brand Exposure now tracks a school’s progress over a rolling five-year timeframe, while Championship Contender assesses your rank and rating to outline how likely you are to reach the championship finals in your present guise. Proximity to Home better calculates a precise distance between a recruit’s home and your school, giving you a major recruitment advantage for home-state players.

Weekly Practice Plans Bring Finer Control Over Wear and Tear

While College Football 26 allows you to test out plays and evaluate squad depth via Free Practice, College Football 27 brings more structured control to managing your roster. Weekly Practice Plans govern recovery times and practice limits, and can be customised player-by-player. And because you can adjust each individual player’s practice plan, College Football 27 allows you to carefully manage wear and tear, reducing the risk of injury.

Two New Coaching Archetypes

Coaching in earlier College Football games was built around the premise that no coach can be great at everything. And, while that philosophy still underpins your program’s progress in College Football 27, this year’s version introduces two new coaching archetypes: Visionary and Rainmaker. Available with pre-orders of College Football 27 or Madden NFL 27, Visionary tracks long-term career growth and professional potential through exclusive abilities that let you maximise practice sessions through deeper control over players preparation, recovery, and development. Rainmaker, available to MVP+ Members, hones in on Dynasty Blueprints, focusing on NIL, Dynasty Points, and making the most from your school’s resources.

College Football 27 Introduces Major Presentation Overhauls

As we mentioned in our already published “15 Things to Know” feature, one of the overarching improvements EA Sports is focusing on is more authenticity. This year, they’re ramping up the pageantry, atmosphere, and pre-match traditions, embellishing the individual personality of each school. Unique entrances, mascots, lighting, runout pyros, band tunnels, detailed traditions, crowd chants – College Football 27 brings plentiful updates to game-day atmosphere, ensuring that the presentation is more authentic and immersive compared to last year.

Rivalries Have Been Enhanced

College Football 27 understands that big games hold a certain gravitas, and a school playing against their rival is one-such event. This year, the energy, the tension, and the atmosphere of a rivalry matchup has been intensified: commentary describes their history, rival trophies become available for winning a big game, and more aggressive, tempestuous animations support the rival games’ greater emotional weight.

Road to Glory Brings a New Presentation Style

A standout addition to College Football 27’s Road to Glory mode is an all-new presentation style which gives you a player’s eye-view of the action direct from the sideline. You’ll still experience the runout, the pageantry, traditions, and fan atmosphere, but for those moments you’re on the sideline you can observe the play, adjusting camera angles to get as immersive a view of the game as possible.

College Football 27 Features a New Broadcast Package

To make College Football 27’s TV broadcast match a real-life telecast, this year’s version features an all-new package. New visuals, banners, action shots, and playcall panels offer new ways to support the game’s emerging stories, while halftime show overhauls, commentary support, and refined camera framing boost authenticity. The broadcast team now includes ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe, who’ll provide updates on injuries, weather, individual performances, and more. Elsewhere, Joel Klatt joins the commentary team, with the booth on-the-whole bringing a stronger awareness of the on-field action.

Max Potential Redefines Custom Athlete Growth

In College Football 26, Player Potential was divided into three tiers – low, medium, and high – with each determining your player’s long-term ceiling. This year, that system has been replaced by Max Potential, giving you direct control over how high each of your custom athlete’s attributes can realistically develop. Working in tandem with Physique customisation, your chosen physical attributes establish a theoretical upper limit while Max Potential determines how much of that limit your player can eventually reach. Because raising attributes consumes a limited pool of points – and elite ratings become increasingly expensive to obtain – you’ll need to make meaningful trade-offs when shaping your build, creating a far more flexible and personalised progression system compared to last year. However, the real innovation over College Football 26’s more rigid archetype structure is Max Potential allows your player’s identity to emerge naturally from your investment decisions rather than being locked in from the outset.

Legends Templates are New Preset Player Builders

Yet, if you want to hit the ground running with an established foundation for your custom athlete, you can select an all-new Legend Template. These are preset player builds derived from the physical traits, archetypes, playstyles, and attributes of real-life College Football icons. Each Legend Template outlines a Max Potential allocation, so the long-term development strategies born out of wholly custom athletes are still replicated. In other words: you can shape a legendary athlete into the type of player you want them to become.

Mental Abilities Now Tied to Off-Field Decisions

College Football 26’s mental abilities functioned as fixed gameplay perks, remaining static throughout a career. College Football 27 now ties mental abilities to off-field activities, making the decisions you make during the week far more impactful on gameday. They’re upgradeable too, beginning at bronze tier, all the way through to platinum, with you progressing through each level by completing gameplay goals and objectives.

Coach Mode is a New Way to Play

An altogether different type of simulation, College Football 27’s new Coach Mode allows you to experience the action from the perspective of the person managing on the sideline. When enabled, the CPU handles the post-snap gameplay, leaving you to focus on the pre-snap decisions real coaches make and experience the pressure that goes with it. It’s a mode that places far less emphasis on stick skill and more about planning, strategising, and sequencing your squad, and it’s a mode EA Sports is looking to support post-release with new camera angles and immersive tools.

Krafton has reached a legal settlement over the long running dispute with subsidiary Unknown Worlds Entertainment, best known for the Subnautica series.

“Krafton, Inc., Unknown Worlds Entertainment, and Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire have reached a mutual settlement and agreed to dismiss all pending legal proceedings,” reads a statement from Krafton sent to Game Developer.

Unknown Worlds will continue to lead development on Subnautica 2, while Krafton is set to provide support “for the success of the game.”

The executives Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire have been in a legal dispute with Krafton since July 2025. Back then, the group alleged the parent company intentionally delayed Subnautica 2, as well as other misdeeds, to avoid an extra $250 million payout.

Krafton disputed the claim, filing its own countersuit and claiming the Unknown Worlds leader ship had abandoned the game and stole Subnautica 2 materials and documents.

Related:OtherSide Entertainment lays off 18 from Thick as Thieves team

This led to an ever increasing back-and-forth conflict that had seemingly come to an end in March when Krafton lost the lawsuit and was ordered to reinstate Gill after being ousted. It wasn’t until today, after Subnautica 2 went on to sale more than four million copies, that both parties reached a settlement.

According to Bloomberg’s interview with Gill, Krafton has agreed to pay bonuses to the entire Subnautica 2 staff.

Meanwhile, the CEO has mutually agreed to part ways. “New leadership is the best way for the studio to move forward,” he told the publication.

Gill said the developers of Subnautica 2 will be “compensated significantly more” than called for under the original acquisition agreement. Moreover, the staff is set to receive “further incentives” as the game continues to be updated.

Initially, the bonus was meant to compensate the aforementioned three top executives, as well as staff who were at the company during the 2021 acquisition. Now, Gill says everyone at the studio will receive a payout, including those who joined more recently. Said bonuses will be paid in three annual installments.

Now, Krafton and Unknown Worlds will search for a new CEO for the studio from outside of both companies, Gill said.

“We’re all super excited about Subnautica 2 and its tremendous success.”

While Pragmata might be Capcom’s latest hit, its development wasn’t all fun and games. As caught by Automaton Media, the game’s developers revealed some of the scathing feedback they got during its early development during a recent Japanese livestream. Work on the project started all the way back in 2019, with Capcom Development Division 1 boss Jun Takeuchi wanting the company’s younger developers to make “a game on the Moon.”

This early period was marked with quite a few problems, however, including pitches and concepts that didn’t end up going anywhere. Eventually, we would get an official announcement trailer in 2020. Despite this, the developers were facing quite a bit of criticism for the test stages that they had developed, each one getting rejected.

According to the developers, they got internal feedback noting that they were “unable to make compelling puzzles” and “unable to make compelling action”, which meant that they were “incompetent at level design.” This feedback would then lead to the creation of Pragmata’s signature hacking system, which led to its own variety of problems.

Some of the negative reviews they got during testing included the game logic being “completely broken”. One review said that the developers should “Give me back the 2 months I lost working alongside the team. Is this what you’re trying to entertain your players with?” Another believed that the hacking system “has fundamentally worsened the game.” Yet another said that it “feels like you’re just aimlessly moving forward – so boring.”

Despite the harsh nature of this feedback, the development team would then rush to make a new build of Pragmata that could be presented to the company’s upper management, with the goal of the meeting being to decide whether the project is worth taking forward or if it should be cancelled. In a fortunate turn of events, Capcom decided to go ahead with it, giving the team the chance to restart development.

Interestingly, director Yonghee Cho has expressed some regret at having unveiled Pragmata so early. While the title was originally slated for a 2022 release, Capcom had to push it back several times before it finally came out earlier this year on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

“When we made that initial announcement trailer, we honestly did not expect user interest to be as high as it was,” said Cho. “Of course, the dev team wanted to make a good, fun game. But when we saw the player reaction and expectations, we realized making just a good game is now no longer enough. We have to make something that’s even better than we initially imagined.”

Thanks to its overall success, with more than 2 million copies being sold in just 16 days of release, Capcom has expressed some interest in a potential sequel to Pragmata. In its recent earnings report, the company said that the project worked out well thanks to its younger developers working alongside more experienced ones. “Based on this strong start, we will continue our analysis and consider the possibility of developing it into a series,” noted the company.

For more on Pragmata, take a look at our review.

Ubisoft Barcelona initiated strikes yesterday, which are set to last until July 17, running on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, over the proposed layoffs that could affect 51 workers at the studio.

The news comes from a bulletin sent to local media such as Hobby Consolas, penned by Spanish union Confederación General del Trabajo, which is organizing the strikes. (The original source is in Spanish, but Insider Gaming has published the info in English.)

The layoffs were proposed by Ubisoft earlier in the month as it shuttered its Winnipeg and Belgrade subsidiaries. A source familiar with the situation told Game Developer the company was taking action to reduce costs and focus on new strategic priorities. At the time, the layoffs were pending consultation.

Unlike Winnipeg and Belgrade, Ubisoft Barcelona is expected to remain open but will be restructured to focus solely on the Rainbow Six franchise.

Related:OtherSide Entertainment lays off 18 from Thick as Thieves team

Starting yesterday, June 30, staff at the Barcelona branch is beginning its series of strikes, demanding continuity through a binding negotiation for a new studio mandate that ensures the 51 staff are retained.

The workers are also demanding a firm commitment to shield the workforce against future collective dismissal processes for a minimum of five years, strict and immediate compliance with agreed-upon internal promotions (which were “unilaterally paralyzed by the company”), and the unblocking and formal review of the salary improvement plan, as well as the workforce’s social benefits package.

The staff is also demanding an unconditional return to the remote work model with 60 percent monthly working from home to ensure effective work-life balance. This is in reference of a widespread return-to-office mandate instated in the restructuring program announced early in the year, making it so all teams are required to work on-site five days a week.

The initiative, poised as a cost-reduction decision, was announced shortly after the company secured a $1.25 billion investment from Tencent, which acquired a stake in Vantage Studios, one of Ubisoft’s new creative houses. Then, a number of French unions that include Ubisoft workers responded to the news by staging an international strike in February.

Since then, Ubisoft Toronto laid off 40 employees, Ubisoft subsidiary Red Storm ended game development and laid off 105 workers, and 93 roles in the San Francisco branch have been on the chopping block. The company also reported its net bookings were down 54 percent year-on-year in May.

Related:PlayStation ending production of physical software in January 2028

This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Sumerian Six on the So Videogames Podcast, Episode 494.

BRAD: It’s been a pretty light week for me in terms of games, but most of my game time this week has gone into Sumerian six. I’ve talked about this before and this will be the final time I talk about it on the show until the end of the year. You can be sure you’ll hear about it again in December, but for right now I just rolled credits on it. And this is going to be the official SVG review, so I’ve got to talk about it one more time.

For those of you who might have missed it before. Sumerian six is a… I don’t even know what this genre is called. It’s like top down, quasi turn based, quasi real time action where you take a group of six operatives and each one has special abilities, and you go to fight the Nazis in World War Two. They are trying to resurrect an ancient demon. And so you’ve got to stop them from helping Hitler win. Win the war through sorcery and black magic. Cool idea. Cool theme. Like it. seen from the top down or isometric perspective. And you can take turns with your character. So like, what happens basically is you go into this map and all the maps are fucking gargantuan.

There’s like a million enemies on each map, lots of buildings, elevation changes, all sorts of stuff. You’ve got objectives on every map. kill certain people, get an item, get to a place. And sometimes you have like multiple levels of objectives, a lot of things you got to check out first before you can do your real objective.

And so the map is populated with enemies. Enemies are just walking around in real time on their own. They all have routines. They all have their paths. They’re walking. They’re all covering each other, keeping sight lines on each other. It’s all very complicated and layered. So you’re in this map where people are just walking around in real time. You’ve got your your team of six. You can move any of them at once. You can move them as a group. And then the trick to this is you can also assign them actions that happen when you kick them off. So let’s say for example, you’ve got, uh, your main operative who is kind of like he can dash, he’s got a gun, he’s got a couple other things you want him to go like attack a guy on the left, but he can’t attack that guy because his guy watching him on the right. If you kill the guy on the left, the guy on the right is going to sound the alarm. The whole thing’s going to go south. So then you have another guy, maybe the guy. There’s one guy that turns into a werebear, uh, and he also has a submachine gun. Submachine gun. Werebear. I mean, that sounds pretty impressive to me. You send that guy over to the right. And so you can key things in a certain way. You can assign actions before they happen. So you can say, okay, guy on the left, I want you to kill this guy. When I push triangle guy on the right, I want you to kill that guy when I push triangle, and then you get everything ready, you get the pieces in place, you make sure everybody’s where they need to be. And then once you’re ready to go, you hit triangle. Everybody does their thing at the same time. And then you can accomplish really challenging tasks. Uh, that would be impossible to just have one person doing at once. And sometimes you can have like three, four, five, even six people doing six different things at the same time. As long as you have planned it out ahead of time, put people in a position and told them what to do. It all goes down. Very nuanced, very, very entertaining. If this all sounds familiar, that’s because this is a literal carbon copy of the formula that was mastered by Mimimi studios who I will eternally be a fan of.

Now, I’ve heard some people say, and I cannot confirm this, but I will be able to, but I’ve heard some people say that a game series called commandos did this before, or at least did kind of part of it before. Mimimi did. I didn’t have any experience with commandos. It was PC only for a really long time, which is probably why I never got around to it. It is on console now and I bought it for PlayStation, I believe. There’s like commandos, there’s a re remake and some DLC. So I’m going to crack into that soon, maybe even this afternoon. And I’ll find out what’s what, because commandos was certainly the earlier game, the first game. But I don’t know how similar it is to what made me me was doing and how similar it is to Sumerian Six. But we’ll find out.

But regardless, um, I think my first experience with this exact kind of gameplay was mimimi’s first one. Um, gosh, what is it? Shadow. No. Shadow of the. Oh, Jesus. Okay. Hold on. I gotta look it up. This is I can’t I can’t misquote it because I love that game. Shadow tactics is what it was. And that had a group of samurai and ninja. That was great game. Loved it. They went on to do Desperados three, which was the same formula but with Cowboys. Loved it. And then they went on to do Shadow Gambit, which was the same formula but with Pirates.

Loved it. Shadow gambit. It’s like the best. It is fucking amazing. In fact, I need to go back and do the DLC. So mimimi did these three games, which are… they’re all like banging masterpieces. If you like this type of gameplay, they are like the absolute tops. They are the best. I love all these games. And then they dissolve their studio. They said making these games is really hard. And they were tired and they needed a break and they quit and they just walked away. I still can’t get over that. I still it still breaks my brain. Take a vacation. Y’all make a different game for a while. come back in six months or something. But like, nope, they bounced. Um, and I don’t blame them. Kind of because making a game like this is really difficult. As we saw with Sumerian six.

I got this game in… I think I got Sumerian six in like February and I liked it a lot. I instantly recognized it as, and I’m literally not even joking, A carbon copy of the mimimi formula. Everything about it is basically essentially the same. I don’t know if anybody from mimimi is on this team. I tried to find out. I put in some requests with PR, but like the results were inconclusive. I don’t know whether they don’t know or didn’t want to say, but if there were people from the mimimi team on Sumerian six, that wouldn’t surprise me a bit because it seems like exactly that. Literally. I’m not even joking. I’m not. It’s exactly same controls, same UI, same systems, same color coding, literally everything same. But since mimimi doesn’t exist anymore, I can’t get mad about it because I love these games and I’m glad that somebody is picking up the torch. So I’m, I’m not going to get mad about it in this case.

Anyway, when I got this game in February, it was pretty buggy, like a lot of animation problems. Um, I had some weird, weird things happening, but more than that, I had a couple of game breaking bugs where some of the abilities of the characters were not able to be used. And if you can’t use the character abilities, then you just really can’t play the game because you need them to do all sorts of things. specifically, there was one part where I would walk into like a power dampening field that was set up by the Nazis to protect their base, and it fucked up the whole game. And I couldn’t keep playing after that. And there’s this other part where, uh, one of the ladies has a bomb that’s really useful because you can take out a bunch of guys at once, you can take out a whole group. And something about the game, like disabled her bomb. I could not activate it.

And so I was down a character and that didn’t work for me. So I put it aside for a while and then PR said they patched it. They weren’t able to like fully reproduce the bug that I had, but they think that it was, I don’t know, something to do something. They figured it out partially and I went back to it like I think a couple weeks ago and it was fixed. It was fixed, the bomb worked. I got the powers back. I could go through the dampening field, no problem. Again, it was all great. So I jump back in. I have now finished the game, rolled credits this morning and I gotta say it’s just Excellent. It is just excellent. I think the mimimi formula is fully intact. And if you’re going to steal, steal from the best and mimimi was the best. and stealing is part and parcel is totally fine because the studio is not there. And I think this kind of gameplay is awesome. I really enjoy it. The levels are huge. It’s really detailed and slow and methodical, but it’s super rewarding when you do pull it off. Like when you see something that looks impossible. Multiple guards covering, multiple guards, covering multiple guards, monsters on the field. Everybody’s looking every way.

How the fuck are you going to get through this? You just don’t know. And then you see an opening. You have an idea. You put your team together, you get the timing right. You pull it off. It just feels amazing. love that feeling. You’re going to have a lot of failures, that is for sure. Um, luckily they have implemented the same fast, quick save system that mimimi had. And if it wasn’t for that system, I think this game would be unplayable because you die so often and you make so many little mistakes. And sometimes it’s just the matter of one pixel or even a fraction of a second. And if you’re off, the whole thing goes down. and so being able to quick save and reload quickly, it just really makes the whole game playable. It makes the experience happen. And I’m glad that they did that. I’ve seen some people who try to get away from the quick saving, and I think it’s a real, real mistake. Uh, the most notable example in my mind is Stone of madness, which I, I, I really am fascinated and intrigued and drawn to the Stone of madness. it’s about a bunch of insane asylum prisoners who are trying to break out of the asylum. And it’s this large level where you have to, like, do these multi-stage escape maneuvers with various things. So I got to play it. I got to play it, I got to get back to it. But they have gotten rid of the quick save on principle. And it just it makes the game so unplayable at times. It makes it so hard to get through and so frustrating. I think they really made a mistake and they did themselves a disservice by getting rid of the quick save. Because if you don’t want to Kwik Save, then don’t. Nothing’s making you do it. But if you want to, if you need it to manage your blood pressure, then I think it’s a good thing. So I’ll come back to the Stone of madness. That’s one of my white whales, I think. Um, but it’s just so fucking frustrating to play.

but again, I think having the Kwik Save here makes it super playable so you can die, retry, die, retry, die retry, and just try many, many different iterations of things. And it really works well. Like the characters, the writing is pretty good, keeps it going. Like this little tale of like World War Two intrigue. I think the characters are fun. I like the Werebear. You have a Laura Croft type character who can fully turn invisible. There is a mad scientist lady who can paralyze people and dissolve their bodies. You’ve got a guy who uses electricity and he can stun whole groups of people. You’ve got a guy who has a arrow that he can fire infinitely, and he can also astral project to, like, confuse people or take control of their minds.

And with all these people together, this wide range of abilities, wide range of powers and wide range of scenarios, it’s a really, really, really rewarding experience. If you like this kind of like incredibly dense, incredibly slow, incredibly methodical and large and difficult process, even on the easiest difficulty, still incredibly hard. Um, but I like it. I think it’s really rewarding. I think it works well and I’m really super happy that they patched it and that I was able to come back to it and finish it. I felt like it was a great experience. I really enjoyed playing it and I just really couldn’t stop once it was in functioning order. So very good stuff.

So time for the review now. Absolutely a recommendation. I think if you like the mimimi formula, you like this type of real time, turn based kind of, I don’t even know actiony blend of stuff. There’s really nothing else quite like it out on the market. So I think it’s good. Um, it still is a little bit buggy. I will say I had a few problems. Nothing game breaking, nothing nearly as bad as as it was before, but it’s a little bit a little bit buggy. But again, these games are incredibly hard to produce, more so than other types of games, I believe because of all the moving parts and all the things you need to take care of here.

So I I’m going to give them some slack. So considering they have really nailed the mimimi formula, which I consider to be pretty close to perfection, they’ve nailed the level of content, they’ve nailed the interesting team dynamics, the writing, the subject, the themes. It’s all pretty great stuff. Sumerian Six doesn’t reinvent the wheel and essentially copies the top-of-class Mimimi formula. However, don’t fix it if it isn’t broken, and the devs do offer some off-the-hook, crazy strong powers. These are a big plus, and I had a ton of fun using them to destroy Nazis. So that’s not a minus to me at all. While it’s not really new in concept or execution, Sumerian Six is done exceptionally well and I had a great time with it — it brings the heat where it needs to bring it, and fans of the genre can consider it a must-play. I’m going to give it an 8.5 with that representing itself as like basically like a high point of its genre.

Sumerian Six is an excellent example of its genre. It is what it wants to be, it does what it needs to do, and it does everything it attempts quite well. It’s a fantastic experience. So for me, a very rock solid 8.5 out of ten for Sumerian six.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Artificer and published by Devolver Digital. It is currently available on PC, PS and XB. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Language, Use of Drugs, and Violence. The player will inevitably kill hundreds of literal Nazis during the game, but the characters are generally quite small and seen from an overhead perspective, so there’s not much detail or gore. There is some salty language, but as far as I can tell, the only drug use that I noticed was when the scientist, Rosa, uses an ability to stun enemies with an injected chemical. In my view the “M” seems a bit harsh — I’d probably slot it for teens and above.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has voice acting but also offers subtitles for all dialogue. Subs can be adjusted and resized. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay, so this title is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. The controls require a bit more finger gymnastics than usual. the L1 brings up the ability selection menu, while the R1 brings up the character selection menu. The d-pad sees heavy use, with each direction handling important functions such as toggling enemy view cones, assigning actions, using the map and — crucially — toggling camera view modes. Otherwise, abilities are triggered with the face buttons. Camera is mapped to the R stick and character movemement is on the L stick. To make a long story short, basically every button on the PS controller is used and some have multiple functions, so there’s a lot to manage.

Senior Editor of GameCritics.com and host of the So Videogames Podcast.
Transformers fan. MOTU stan. Black Lives Matter, pro-LGBTQIA. Anti-fascist.

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Sony has announced that, starting in 2028, PS5 games will only be sold digitally through retailers and PlayStation Store. In a statement, the company said that this decision was made after taking into account the recent changes in consumer preferences as well as trends in the overall entertainment industry.

In the year and a half leading up to the January 2028 cutoff date, however, we will continue seeing PS5 games coming to discs, depending on publishers. After the date, however, even retail copies will just be codes sold in boxes rather than including any disc.

“This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” said the company. “This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”

This might also end up being an indicator that future PlayStation consoles might not feature disc drives at all. While the rumored PS6 handheld would likely have no physical room for a disc drive, next-generation home consoles in the future will likely only be available in SKUs similar to the PS5’s Digital Edition.

Sony’s announcement comes just days after Rockstar Games’ controversial decision not to include any discs with the physical release of Grand Theft Auto 6. While there have been rumors that the company might end up releasing a disc version at a later date, more recent reports have indicated that this may not be the plan. Citing a “source with knowledge of the plans, The Hollywood Reporter has claimed that no disc-based physical release is planned in the “following months” after the game’s release.

In light of this, Circana’s Mat Piscatella has said that the decision won’t really lead to any major effect on Grand Theft Auto 6’s sales. He pointed to the popularity of modern consoles without disc drives, like the PS5 Digital Edition and the Xbox Series S, along with a number of retailers that don’t deal in used games.

“Anyways, devil’s advocate here, but given the % of PS5/XBS consoles out there without a disc drive, one could argue code in box may provide a better opportunity for retailers, particularly those that don’t sell used,” he wrote. “In any case, can’t say this changes anything regarding total sales expectations.”

Rockstar Games opened up pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 just last week, and while we haven’t yet seen any official numbers about how many copies may have already been sold, a glance at the PlayStation Store’s “All games” section reveals that it has been topping sales charts across all regions, be it the US, UK, Canada, or even Japan and South Korea.

Interestingly, the best-selling version of Grand Theft Auto 6 right now seems to be the $100 Ultimate Edition, rather than its $80 standard edition. The Ultimate Edition includes an “exclusive collection of premium vehicles, weapons, apparel, and action around every corner.” Some of the included customization options will be available through unique in-game shops, like Sara’s Unisex Salon, Rideout Customs, and Electric Fang Tattoo.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is being developed for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for a November 19th release.

Multiple Rockstar developers have accused the company of failing to address gender-based pay inequity, actively striving to facilitate crunch in the United Kingdom, and weaponizing bonus payments against employees.

In a wide-ranging interview with Game Developer, three members of the Rockstar Game Workers Union (RGWU)—who chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal—claimed the studio is failing the people responsible for crafting Grand Theft Auto VI, which is expected become one of the most lucrative video games in history when it launches in November 2026. 

Those who spoke with Game Developer are not part of the cohort of fired workers currently embroiled in a legal dispute with the Take-Two Interactive subsidiary over allegations of union busting. They are, however, all union members (currently seeking voluntary recognition) who feel Rockstar is letting them down. 

Discussing the state of compensation at the company, they explained how a lack of transparency around pay and bonuses can leave staff in the lurch. They claimed that, as it stands, a considerable portion of most employees’ compensation package comes in the form of bonuses that fluctuate wildly, often without obvious justification. 

Related:Grand Theft Auto developers seek union recognition at Rockstar

They claimed that lack of consistency often means the compensation received by Rockstar workers falls below the market rate when compared with adjacent industry work. 

“When the bonus is particularly good, it can be a windfall, but often the bonus is disappointing and one can end up being paid considerably less than expected for the year. The reasoning given for this is often nebulous, inconsistent between departments, even inconsistent between team members within the same department, and sometimes hinges on completely subjective or retroactive criticisms,” said one source. 

Game Developer was also told that promotions are difficult to secure at Rockstar because the studio regularly shifts the goalposts when career progression is discussed. 

“The main problem is that [bonuses and progression are] all completely discretionary for the company, and they are under no obligation to show their working,” continued one source. “Employees want good pay, and if literally anything they do that year could affect it, they will naturally feel they have to be as pliable as possible to their boss’s whims. Imagine [how you might feel if] a fifth of your salary could be withheld without any justification or based on a single surprise factor.”

On the subject of compensation, we were told the gap between median wages for different genders has actually widened at Rockstar and that initiatives aimed to address that imbalance have been scrapped. It was also claimed that nightshift workers no longer receive any extra benefits to offset their unsociable hours. 

Related:Returnal director will be ‘responsibly ambitious’ to ensure his new studio prospers

Union workers at the company said all of the above has coalesced to create a sense of imbalance and injustice within the studio. They feel some Rockstar employees are not being adequately compensated for their role in building a industry-leading title in Grand Theft Auto VI, which Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick recently described as “arguably the most anticipated entertainment property of all time.” 

“There are those [within Rockstar and Take-Two] with hundreds of millions of pounds, there are those receiving excellent pay for their work and are grateful, and there are certainly those that are woefully underpaid for their effort and the incredible profits gained. Especially when you consider that the company gets hundreds of millions in tax breaks for their UK workers,” added one source. 

“It seems the company thinks that offering specific and limited compensation as an incentive for overtime means it no longer qualifies as crunch.”

Notably, we were informed that Rockstar attempts to normalize crunch—the widely-criticized practice of forcing employees work extraordinary amounts of overtime to bring a video game to market—by essentially baking it into the contracts of UK workers. 

Related:Telltale Games is back, but can it learn from its past mistakes?

“Crunch is prevalent enough that the company built into our contracts, as standard, an opt out of the Working Time Regulations [a UK employment right that can be vountairly relinquished by employees] that stops your employer being able to ask you to do more than about 10 hours extra each week,” explained one source. 

“The union successfully ran a campaign to inform people they could opt back in to the regulations at any time, which resulted in Rockstar management simplifying the process and removing the obligation to meet with HR.  Part of the problem with crunch is that there is not an agreed definition, and now it seems the company thinks that offering specific and limited compensation as an incentive for overtime means it no longer qualifies as crunch.”

Game Developer was told that while there are teams within Rockstar that never crunch, there are also departments that “seem to never get out of it—and often colleagues do not realize the opposite group exists.” It’s an accusation the studio has faced before.

A lack of remote working provisions is another point of contention for union members, who claim the ability to work flexibly between their homes and the office—introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—enabled staff (and especially those with families) to strike a better work-life balance. Sources told Game Developer that Rockstar had “promised” full-time office work would not return, before reneging on that pledge in order to “stimulate collaboration.” 

Despite that pivot, we were informed company leaders are still able to work flexibility if they wish. Of course, the rub here is that it’s now up to those same Rockstar and Take-Two leaders accused of cultivating a sense of disparity to liaise with union members to help create better, more equitable working conditions. 

“For us workers, we have no say in who our superiors are. We must try to work with them regardless and hope that they are more interested in engaging with their employees to build some mutual trust moving forward,” explained one source. 

For better or worse, union members feel there will only be meaningful change if Rockstar and Take-Two leaders are willing to accept accountability for their alleged failings—although there’s hope that formally unionizing will perhaps encourage some welcome introspection at the top of the executive totem pole. 

Collective action, we’re told, feels like a small risk that could yield big rewards in the current industry landscape. 

“If it seems like a big risk to unionize, it is worth remembering that plenty of non-union members lose their jobs unfairly every year, the difference is that it happens with no scrutiny. And if you think organizing will not make a difference, it already has,” said one source. 

“Since October, there have been unprecedented average wage increases in represented studios, for the first time ever there is actually some financial incentive for crunch, and several other policies are changing after years of frustration. The timing is not coincidental—organizing works.”

A Take-Two Interactive spokesperson provided the following statement when approached for comment:

“We strive to make the best games possible by giving our talented teams world-class work environments and ongoing career opportunities. We have fostered a culture which is focused on teamwork, excellence, and kindness, and where we support and reward the team across all levels of the business through competitive compensation and benefits policies.  We are proud that as a result, our employee retention is well above the industry standard. We have received a request from a union seeking to discuss voluntary recognition. We value an open and constructive dialogue with all stakeholders and will arrange to meet.”

With memory prices hitting incredibly high levels, the three biggest RAM manufacturers in the world – SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron – are now being targeted by a class-action lawsuit alleging that they have been engaging in price fixing for components together while also limiting constraints on supply. According to Law360 (via VGC), the lawsuit has been filed by a class of individual and business consumers.

The lawsuit is alleging that the three companies have been working together to lower the supply of DDR3 and DDR4 RAM in the market, which in turn has led to price hikes across those segments as well, with much of the production efforts across the companies focused on HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) modules that are being sold for use in AI data centres.

“The DRAM oligopolists have simultaneously cut production, coordinated a pivot to HBM and exit from DDR3 and DDR4, and otherwise decreased and locked up conventional DRAM supply while prices charged up with mind-blowing scale and rapidity,” alleges the lawsuit.

Despite prices rising, “Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron continued to squeeze conventional DRAM supply, simultaneously and publicly directing their resources toward less-profitable-per-die HBM – or in some cases, simply junking conventional DRAM supply channels altogether.”

The lawsuit notes that these moves by the three companies have led to consumer purchases suffering “the impacts of a distorted market crippled by the behavior of DRAM oligopolists.” Noting that, in a typical market, prices that are climbing at a higher rate would “pull supply toward them,” the lawsuit notes that “That did not happen.”

As for whether a new company can pop up to offer an underserved market, the lawsuit notes that it would be an uphill battle due to Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix having accumulated “decades” of trade secrets. Global policy, like export controls set by the United States, also hampers the potential for more competition. “The practical consequence is that when the three firms restrict supply, no outsider can expand output to undercut them.”

Interestingly, the lawsuit has pointed to a past instance of the companies being sued for price-fixing DRAM modules, with Samsung pleading guilty to charges in 2005 and paying a $300 million fine. At the time, the US Department of Justice called the action “an international conspiracy to fix prices in the DRAM market.” SK Hynix also pleaded guilty at the time, paying $185 million in fines, while Micron managed to avoid penalties by working with prosecutors.

The skyrocketing prices of memory have led to many consequences in the consumer market. From price hikes for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch 2, to the high price tag for the Steam Machine, and even Apple’s lineup of devices getting more expensive, the fault has largely been placed on the price of memory in the current market. More specifically, on the gaming side of things, there have also been reports of Microsoft and Sony potentially delaying the launch of their next-gen consoles – the PlayStation 6 and Project Helix, respectively – in order to avoid high price tags.

As publisher Bandai Namco and developer Project Aces get ready for the October 2nd release date for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, through a video on PlayStation Access, the companies have confirmed that the previous game, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, has sold 7.5 million copies since launch.

More detailed charts of Ace Combat 7’s sales have been discovered by social media fan account Ace Combat Fan, giving us a closer look at how well the game has done in the seven years since its release. Having originally come out on PC, PS4, and Xbox One back in 2019, the title took a little over a year to hit the 2 million sales mark, and went on to sell 2.5 million units by the start of 2021. Since then, sales have seemingly been progressing at a steady state.

The 2024 release of the Nintendo Switch port may also have played a large role in selling more copies of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. The title had sold 5.5 million at the time. By the start of 2025, however, it had sold 6 million copies. The 7 million barrier had been reached at the start of this year, and trends indicate that it might even go on to hit 8 million by the time 2026 ends.

Taking a wider look at the franchise as a whole, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the best-selling game so far, accounting for 34.9 percent of the 21.5 million total franchise sales. The original Ace Combat trilogy on PlayStation sold 4.48 million copies, while the PS2-era trilogy sold 5.232 million.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve was officially unveiled back in December 2025 during The Game Awards. The trailer revealed that the player will take on the role of a pilot on the Endurance – a ship full of refugees from the attack on the Federation of Central Usea. As the eponymous Wings of Theve, the player will partake in epic aerial dogfights to take back the nation from the Republic of Sotoa.

Its release date was announced earlier this month with a brand-new trailer that gave us a deeper look at the story. Among other things, it introduced implications that there might be an imposter pretending to be the Wings of Theve involved in the story, with all of the geopolitical and interpersonal drama that such an event would likely lead to.

More recently, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve got a new trailer giving us a look at how it is changing up the gameplay, and how players will get to take on superweapons. These superweapons – incredibly massive aircraft with multiple parts to take down – tend to be boss fights in the Ace Combat franchise. Among the changes introduced in the upcoming title is the fact that the superweapons can also take damage from attacks made to parts that aren’t the typical target boxes. Destroyed enemy aircrafts will also damage nearby targets, giving players more ways to deal with larger squadrons.

Pre-ordering Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will reward players with a copy of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, as well as the F-14A to use in-game.

Panache Digital Games unveiled 1666: Amsterdam – a new dark narrative action game – earlier this month. According to Game File’s Stephen Totilo, the title was at some point slated to be published by Xbox. In a social media post, Totilo has reported that Microsoft eventually cut funding for 1666: Amsterdam, leading the studio to go with self-publishing.

“As I reported in Game File, 1666: Amsterdam, the new game led by the lead creator of Assassin’s Creed, was going to be Xbox-published, before [Microsoft] cut funding,” wrote Totilo. He went on to draw comparisons with other projects that were slated to be published by Xbox, like an unnamed project by Romero Games.

“We have some difficult news to share,” posted CEO Brenda Romero last year. “Last night, we learned that our publisher has canceled funding for our game along with several other unannounced projects at other studios. This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher, well above our visibility or control. We deeply wish there had been something, anything, we could have done to prevent this outcome.”

Totilo went on to discuss Kojima Productions’ horror project, OD. While last year’s layoffs at Microsoft had raised questions about whether the title would be going forward, Microsoft confirmed back in August that it was still in the works. Whether or not the latest round of expected layoffs and studio closures will impact the deal signed between Xbox and Kojima Productions remains to be seen.

Director Hideo Kojima has already confirmed that his studio is focusing all of its efforts on the development of OD and espionage game Physint this year. Describing it as the company’s “second phase”, where he would be “staying grounded and laying solid foundations” for future projects by the studio.

“Unlike last year, like I was traveling all over the world, this year will be about staying grounded and laying solid foundations. We will continue development on the horror game ‘OD’ and move forward with preparations for the espionage action title ‘Physint.’ This includes casting actors, scanning, and performance capture shoots,” he explained.

As for 1666: Amsterdam, the project is going to feature dark fantasy aesthetics, with players taking on the role of Noa Brooklyn – a Collector who has been raised by the Zaindaris to drive back malevolent forces working for entities known only as “the Originals”.

“It’s been a long time coming, and I couldn’t be prouder of our team of nearly 70 talented developers in Montreal,” said creative director Patrice Désilets when the game was announced. “For the past six years, we’ve focused on one thing above all else: the game itself. No fake footage, no vertical slices, just a playable experience evolving build after build, day after day.”

More recently, Panache Digital Games also released a brand-new trailer for 1666: Amsterdam, giving us a deeper look at the lore of the game and how the Collector will play into the dynamics between the enigmatic Originals and the Zaindaris tribe.

1666: Amsterdam is being developed for PC, and a free demo is currently available.

As I reported in Game File, 1666: Amsterdam, the new game led by the lead creator of Assassin’s Creed, was going to be Xbox-published, before MS cut fundingThat means, in recent years, Xbox was backing games from him, the Romeros, and Kojma. Not every game pans out, but quite a set of partners

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo.bsky.social) 2026-06-29T15:35:23.433Z

With layoffs around almost every corner in the industry these days, it’s now IO Interactive’s turn to announce the same. But this isn’t the result of 007 First Light failing – on the contrary, it’s due to Project Fantasy and the conclusion of a partnership with an “external partner.”

“This means we have to adapt to this new reality and its short-term consequences, including staffing decisions, which is what is happening as we write this update, and we are fully committed to supporting those affected through this challenging transition,” it said on Twitter.

“Project Fantasy is a game, a world, and an IP that we absolutely love and remain 100% committed to, now and in the future. This wonderful universe will see the light of day.”

If you’ll remember, however, leaked documents from the FTC’s case against Microsoft indicated that the latter was the partner in question. In an intriguing twist, it actually confirmed the same to Bloomberg while reassuring that its gaming investment isn’t “reducing.”

“We’re not reducing our overall investment in games. We expect to invest about the same in content as we did last year. What’s changing is where we’re investing and the kinds of projects we’re backing,” a spokesperson told Jason Schreier.

This is far from the first time that Xbox backed out of major projects, causing untold upheaval. Avalanche suspended development on Contraband after the last round of mass layoffs at Microsoft, and the project has effectively been cancelled. Romero Games faced a similar dilemma with its upcoming shooter – although it was saved, it’s since been “completely redesigned.”

For what it’s worth, Project Fantasy – announced in February 2023 as an online fantasy role-playing game – isn’t dead, and IO Interactive remains committed to it. The real question is whether finding a new publisher is necessary for it to “see the light of day.” As always, stay tuned for more updates in the coming days, especially as we near alleged record layoffs at Xbox.

Dear gaming community,

For a good while, it has been all positive news from IO Interactive. We remain humbled and honored by the response to our latest outing with a young, unproven Bond. A bold new story and a take on one of the most famous characters in entertainment, which…

— IO Interactive (@IOInteractive) June 30, 2026

“Do you think things will be better this year?”

It was February 2026, at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. I was in the Aria hotel lobby, checking a map so I could find a friend on the labyrinthine casino floor. Out of the blue, a tall man—the owner of a small studio—approached me with this question.

This was one of three questions that have dogged at me for the last several months. Three questions that you yourself might be frustrated that you can’t give a satisfying answer to. Three questions that, in such literally unprecedented times, are the best compass I can give you to find your way.

This man seemed to hope that as a journalist, I’d have some useful forecast about the game industry’s financial woes. I didn’t answer right away—instead I racked my brain for any clue that 2026 wouldn’t be another dire year for people who make games.

But nothing came. And as I write this in late June in the shadow of mass layoffs at Destiny 2 and Marathon developer Bungie (with reported major cuts at Xbox looming in the distance), I’m glad that the answer I gave was “I don’t know.”

Related:IO Interactive to lay off employees after Xbox pulls support for untitled fantasy game

Had I said “yes,” that would have been a foolish promise desperately drawn from the conception that surely things couldn’t get any worse. Had I said “no,” that would have been hubris. Pretending I could predict how brutal June would be and how dire things could still get.

The headlines tell us of studio closures and multimillion dollar game sales and tales of how AI will replace labor in the same 24-hour periods. Does this also make your head spin? Does it make you turn the problem over and over in your head, searching for solutions or trying to grasp the doom we all face?

If you do, then stop with me and breathe for a moment. As I said, this was the first of three questions—the brass casing that defines our compass. Help me answer the other two, and we shall have a device that can help us deal with the moment.

So few people have caused so much suffering

“Why is the game industry still struggling?”

This question came from one of my colleagues here at Informa Festivals during a December 2025 offsite. My coworker here was still new to the ins and outs of the game industry. I proceeded to monologue for 10 minutes about inflation, AI-driven memory shortages, boom-or-bust development cycles—all the very-real conditions that have harmed our industry.

But what I wanted to say was “a group of fewer than 1,000 people made a series of horrible decisions, and the whole industry is paying for it.”

Seasoned developers and decently-sourced journalists must hold three truths in their head simultaneously: First, that economic and political factors beyond the industry’s control have created conditions that depress consumer spending and expand risk for large companies.

Related:Memory manufacturers sued in class action suit alleging price and supply fixing

Second, executives and studio higher-ups at Embracer Group, Xbox, PlayStation, EA, Epic Games, Ubisoft, WB Games, and beyond gambled on infinitely increasing player spending and left their companies vulnerable to weak game launches and investor withdrawals.

And third—it’s not just the bad decisions that devastated the industry. It’s their terrible behavior. The tale of the game industry’s hard times is not just one of mismanagement, but allegations of verbal abuse, sexual harassment, fraud, retaliation, and a litany of other abuses of power. Some have made public, but most proliferate in off-the-record conversations, whisper networks, and hushed conversations around industry events.

Not all of those who doomed their companies behaved in this way—but for those who did, the connection is obvious. If you’re in a position of power and have no regard for the people around you, why would you care what happens to the hundreds or thousands of people you’re responsible for?

To hold these truths in your mind is to know sorrow and anger, especially if you’ve lived them firsthand. It’s traumatic for some, and an overdose of information for those not as close to the blast zone.

Related:Report: Xbox considering sale or closure of Arkane, other studios, as layoffs loom

It’s natural to try and escape or overcome this pain, but when it is so relenting, so incessant—what can anyone do to stop it? How can anyone predict when it will end?

That leads us to our final question, one which shall be the glass casing that completes our compass.

We are all struggling to handle the pain

“How do you handle all the bad news?”

This question—posed to me by a developer at a Boston-area game dev meetup—was the most surprising of the three. It’s one each person will have their own way of answering, but I suspect too many struggle to answer this question.

That’s because this years-long crisis has either destroyed the few coping mechanisms developers had for small batches of layoffs or exposed how unprepared we were for this kind of economic destruction. And when you spend your days analyzing how we got to this mess over and over again, you risk losing sight of other people’s pain.

If it helps, I’ll bare my soul a little and share my response. I unconsciously use a visualization technique to assign images to the problems at hand, to make them somewhat tangible and hence, possible to contextualize. Ever since childhood I’ve come to affiliate all sorts of emotions with different visual scenarios in my head.

Even as I write, the rumored impending layoffs conjure the image of thunder rumbling in the distance. Every layoff announcement feels like artillery crashing down around me. And when I try to make sense of all the industry’s problems, the visual of standing around a war table of some sort puts distance between me and the terrors.

Being able to recontextualize the horrors that could otherwise drive me to despair has kept me from giving up all hope.

It is not a universal solution. But as someone professionally required to expose themselves to the unending torrent of bad news, I’ve realized this habit is my personal means—my own compass—of managing my emotions around the industry’s woes. Not everyone has found such a coping mechanism. 

The pain and complexity of our situation has left many in our community wrangling with a situation too complex for any one human mind, driving predictions of doom or manic rants about how the industry can be fixed. 

Everything hurts. No one knows when the pain will end.

I write this not just as a grim admission, but to identify the magnetic force that pulls the needle of our metaphorical compass. 

It is as much a calibration point as it is a destination, a notion that can be navigated even if it can’t be escaped. 

Hopefully acknowledging just how bad the current tides are—and neither bending towards doom nor projecting unearned optimism—can help us avoid making the callous, cruel mistakes that brought us here in the first place. 

The extraction shooter has been the genre of choice for developers—large scale and small—that have been looking to tap into the multiplayer market. We’ve seen just about every kind of studio try its hand at it so far, in a variety of different ways, and many of these games tend to bring something new to the genre in the hopes of offering something novel enough to grow its multiplayer audience. Hologryph and TowerHaus have decided to team up to introduce their own twist on the genre: what if instead of you jumping into an expedition to scavenge for resources, you instead had an entire mech?

SAND: Raiders of Sophie is set on a fallen desert-like planet named Sophie. As a scavenger, you, along with your custom-built war machine—referred to in the game as a Trampler—set off on expeditions to the planet in order to get your hands on a variety of resources. These can range from new weapons and ammo to raw materials that can be used to build out your Trampler, and even entire cannons that can then be bolted on to your machine. As is the case with many other games in the genre, your efforts to find loot are made more complicated by the presence of other players in the same map.

While SAND doesn’t really stray much from genre conventions when it comes to its overall structure, the presence of the Trampler introduces a massive wrinkle to the gameplay loop. The Trampler is a loud, bulky machine, and leaving the main engine on constantly emits a black smoke that can be seen by just about anyone that cares to look over at the horizon with their binoculars. This means that players that want to avoid encounters with other players will have to jump through a few hoops to remain hidden, like constantly switching their engines off if they suspect someone’s nearby.

Conceptually, the Trampler feels like a phenomenal idea, and it even ends up giving SAND similar vibes to Sea of Thieves. Since it’s fairly large, it’s difficult to handle the entire thing as a single player. This means that bringing along friends is outright encouraged by the game. This way, all players in a group can take on individual responsibility, from using, maintaining, and reloading weapons, to figuring out navigation, and even driving the Trampler itself. If you can find someone to join you on your expedition, SAND: Raiders of Sophie can end up being a lot of fun.

However, on the flipside, this is where one of its biggest issues becomes clear; SAND simply isn’t built for solo players. Sure, there might be a matchmaking option for it, and with enough time and energy, you can certainly build yourself a solo-able Trampler that doesn’t need you to run around as often for simple maintenance tasks. However, doing so requires more resources than you start out with, which means that you’ll have to head into at least a couple of expeditions with Tramplers that are designed around 3 or more players running around.

The Tramplers are clearly meant to be the core feature that the rest of SAND: Raiders of Sophie has been built around. The menu where you can build out your own Trampler is quite detailed and gives you plenty of options for how and where you might want to place certain components. However, players that don’t find much joy in customizing their machines and would rather just take one of the pre-built Tramplers and jump into a mission might want to look elsewhere. While there are a few Tramplers readily available for your early expeditions, the game feels like it has been designed around the idea that you will be making constant tweaks and adjustments to your machine between expeditions to better match your playing style.

Speaking of expeditions, the ones in SAND: Raiders of Sophie tend to be quite long. Even the very first one I did took almost an entire hour, and while there is an element of exhilaration that can be found when you narrowly manage to extract from the map with plenty of spoils, the general gameplay pacing for SAND doesn’t really support this idea much.

Since Tramplers are theoretically able to cover incredible distances in a short amount of time, especially if you get some engine upgrades, the map in SAND is quite huge. However, vast stretches of this map don’t really have anything interesting. Sure, you might get lucky while traveling between various points of interest and maybe spot a PvP battle taking place in the distance, or you might even find yourself entering one. However, these moments tend to be few and far between. Much of your time is going to be spent either staring at the horizon, looking around with your binoculars to try and spot anything interesting, or staring at a map.

Visually, the mech-based extraction shooter is a mixed bag. While there are certainly some gorgeous visuals to be found, especially with the gigantic planet Jupiter occupying much of the northern skybox, the developers’ decision to make Sophie a desert planet might come back to haunt them later on. There simply isn’t much in the way of variety in the game’s environments, and over the span of a run or two, I came away with the feeling that “if you’ve seen one sand location, you’ve seen them all.”

Polish is also quite lacking across a variety of aspects in SAND, from visuals to gameplay. On the visual side of things, the standard AI enemies you fight, called Upiórs, have janky animations that don’t really evoke the creepiness that a zombie should as much as they just feel shoddy in general. Even on-foot navigation can often feel difficult since you can never really tell whether any given ledge is low enough to jump to. On the gameplay side of things, the weapons never really felt good to shoot, and SAND: Raiders of Sophie even did a poor job of letting me know just how wide the recoil on my guns would be.

Several other issues also popped up quite often. The biggest of these that I noticed was the lack of consistency behind fall damage. I spent much of my time with the game thinking that fall damage doesn’t really exist, since I was able to freely jump off my Trampler, and could even leap off a fort I found. However, one tower was seemingly just too high for me to do this, resulting in a quick and shocking death, since this was the only instance of fall damage I had faced in the game. As for smaller instances of a lack of polish, I could see through the seams of some buildings, and even faced Upiórs that were stuck in the texture of a door in their attempts to get at me.

It is worth noting that SAND: Raiders of Sophie is an Early Access title, and the developers have plenty of content planned for future updates. For the time being, however, the extraction shooter feels shockingly dull, despite its excellent idea of incorporating hulking mechs. Between the technical jank and general lack of polish, the in-game map also suffers from an utter lack of any interesting sights or activities. While piloting a Trampler initially sounds like a good time, the lack of content makes this a difficult game to recommend in its current state.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Memory manufacturers, namely Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, are being sued for allegedly fixing component prices while reducing supply.

As reported by Law360, a federal lawsuit filed last Thursday alleges the chip-making companies have exacerbated the so-called ‘RAMpocalypse’ by fixing memory supply and prices.

For context, the memory crisis has been largely attributed to rampant investment in artificial intelligence data centers (thanks, Reuters). The likes of Valve, Xbox, and Nintendo all increased hardware pricing in recent times, noting the memory shortage as a main or prevalent factor for the hike.

Now, the class, which is represented by antitrust specialist Bathaee Dunne LLP, is alleging the three companies coordinated their exit from DDR3 and DDR4 RAM production, and pivoted to producing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for data centers.

The claim alleges the trio cut “conventional” RAM in defiance of “all economic and business logic.” Prices have risen by around 700 percent over the last four years. The lawyers particularly point to Micron’s 2025 shutdown of its consumer-facing Crucial business at its “most profitable point in its history.”

Related:Report: Xbox considering sale or closure of Arkane, other studios, as layoffs loom

The lawyers are alleging that—due to the massive amount of capital required to set up RAM fabrication, estimated to be $15 to $20 billion, as well as the time involvement—it’s hard for new competitors to penetrate the market and “discipline” the existing three companies.

Companies (like console manufacturers) are trying to navigate the memory crisis to uneven results. In its latest financial report, Sony said it plans to base FY26 hardware forecasts on the volume of memory it can procure at “reasonable prices” amid an ongoing component shortage.

“Unfortunately, the recent surge in memory and other component prices, and the changes in the market environment, including trends in the foreign exchange market and the price of oil, are all factors that we anticipate will continue over the medium to long term,” Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said during a Q&A session, in which he explained the decision to increase the price of Switch 2 hardware after less than a year on shelves.

“As a result, we felt that the profitability of our hardware would suffer significantly if we maintained our existing pricing, potentially impacting our business operations over this time frame. For the sustained growth of our dedicated video game platform business, it is important to maintain a healthy earnings structure for our overall business.”

Double O Heaven

HIGH Earning the number.

LOW Some awkward controls.

WTF Is that Lenny Kravitz?

Videogames owe more to James Bond than we often realize.

In August 1997, Rare released GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. A runaway success, it proved not only that home consoles were viable platforms for first-person shooters, but that Bond could thrive in pixelated form as readily as he did at the pictures. The result was a digital gold rush, as developers and publishers scrambled to capitalize on the license. That momentum produced several more entries based on the franchise until Bond went to ground after 2012’s 007 Legends, a greatest-hits first-person shooter.

Thirteen years later and with new developer IO Interactive in charge – the acclaimed Danish studio behind the Hitman series – expectations couldn’t be higher. Thankfully, after decades spent refining their own elite international operative, they’re arguably better placed than anyone to deliver the definitive Bond game.

007: First Light puts players in the suave and sophisticated shoes of the youngest Bond we’ve seen to date. Following a compelling introduction, players are deployed into the field fresh from training, ready to schmooze, mingle, and manipulate their way through the world as they – and Bond – see fit.

As fans of Io’s World of Assassination will no doubt recognize, missions unfold in dense, puzzle-box environments that reward observation, intuition, and cunning. Unlike Agent 47 though, Bond is not bound by a rigid code of conduct. Where Hitman rarely allows for anything less than the perfect silent assassin, First Light encourages improvisation.

When discovered, the new ‘bluff’ mechanic allows Bond to talk his way out of trouble with a hastily assembled excuse, buying players time to slip back into the thronging masses to plan their next move. While it’s essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card, it’s one that feels perfectly aligned to the character that the player inhabits. More importantly than that, it’s cool as heck.

Of course, when words fail, fists are a viable replacement. First Light’s brutal melee combat lets Bond swiftly overwhelm his accusers with a flurry of savage blows, wince-inducing throws, and more than a few bottles to the head. And when diplomacy and discretion are no longer options, ‘licence to kill’ status grants me carte blanche to eliminate my pursuers with lethal force.

By affording players this hierarchy of responses – from bluffing to brawling to bloodshed – missions feel faster, messier, and more unpredictable than those of Hitman. In other words, it feels more like Bond. But First Light isn’t solely concerned with social stealth and sandbox problem-solving. When the situation calls for it, IO is more than willing to hand over the keys to a full-blown action spectacle, delivering the kind of bombastic set-pieces fans of the films will instantly recognize.

This blend of IO Interactive’s sandbox design and cinematic spectacle feels like a natural fit. Add in the gadgets, glamour, and guile filmgoers will expect, and everything is in place for a 00-fantasy worthy of the number.

It’s all delivered with the utmost confidence, and this extends to the story. Without spoiling anything, I came away genuinely impressed by how deftly IO revitalizes the world of 007 for modern audiences. Familiar faces return, but each has been reimagined in a way that makes them feel grounded, lived-in, and believable.

 That confidence also extends to Bond himself, who is brought to life effortlessly by Patrick Gibson. While certain incarnations of 007 haven’t aged gracefully, First Light presents the character at his most appealing. Gibson’s Bond is charming without feeling antiquated, funny without becoming a caricature, and charismatic enough to win over even the skeptics – no small achievement given that I’ve always found the character to be more than a little bit corny.

First Light also looks every bit the blockbuster. Whether navigating a dingy London nightclub or checking into a lavish Slovakian hotel, the experience is consistently striking, often filling the screen with dense, bustling crowds for players to lose themselves (and their enemies) in. Bond games have long excelled at this kind of digital tourism, but First Light takes it to another level, making each location feel rich and worth lingering in.

If it looks the part, it also sounds it. IO’s commitment to the Bond legacy extends to its audio design, with a score from The Flight and a title track penned by Bond veteran David Arnold and performed by Lana Del Rey. The result is smooth, sultry, and unmistakably cinematic, reinforcing the sense that I wasn’t just playing a game, but inhabiting the role of 007.

My only real criticism lies in the controls. Despite spending time in the settings to tune the gun feel, I could never get things to feel quite right. The default sensitivity is overly loose, often sending my aim drifting off target with even the slightest input.

There’s also the cover system, which never feels quite as dependable as it should. Rather than adopting the rigid stick-and-snap approach of something like Gears of War, First Light maps both cover actions to the right bumper — tap it and Bond snaps into cover, hold it and he’ll dash to a new position. When it works, it feels fluid and intuitive. When it doesn’t, it can leave the player exposed at precisely the wrong moment, a flaw which becomes particularly apparent during chaotic late-game encounters. However, these amount to minor quibbles when weighed against the scale of IO’s achievements elsewhere.

For decades, Bond games have lived in the shadow of GoldenEye 007. Some chased its success directly, while others borrowed from the trends of the day. First Light succeeds by going its own way. Through its blend of social stealth, player freedom, blockbuster spectacle, and a genuinely compelling take on the character, IO Interactive has supplanted the 1997 classic as the definitive Bond experience. The thirteen-year wait was more than worth it.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

— Jack Bray

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by IO Interactive. It is currently available on PC, PS5, and XBX/S. This copy was obtained via paid download and played on PS5. Approximately 12 hours of play were devoted to the game and it was completed.

Parents: 007 First Light is rated T for Teen by the ESRB with Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, and Violence. Also includes In-Game Purchases. The site reads: This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the role of an international spy (James Bond) during his time as a young recruit. From a third-person perspective, players use pistols, machine guns, rifles, melee attacks, and gadgets (e.g., smoke devices, dart phones, hacking watches) to stun and defeat enemies. During an interrogation sequence, a character is depicted tied to a chair and hit repeatedly. Cutscenes also depict instances of violence and/or blood: characters stabbed and shot; a character stabbed in the eye; a man impaled—blood-splatter effects sometimes accompany these scenes. One cutscene depicts a couple kissing then lowering to a desk surface—the sequence cuts to the woman in bed; one female character wears a somewhat revealing swimsuit (e.g., partially exposed buttocks). The words “sh*t” and “a*shole” appear in the game.

Colorblind modes: This game does not offer colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game provides subtitles, with options to change size, background opacity, background color, and subtitle text color. There are no audio cues required for successful gameplay. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game’s controls are remappable.

In a new campaign brief video, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has revealed the new objective for Helldivers 2 players – to take on more Terminids. The narrative for this new war waged against the bugs revolves around the construction of TCS 2.0 – a large wall that will block Terminid advances. The video describes TCS 2.0 as being “bigger, better, and safer than Termicide 1 ever was.”

Successfully aiding in the construction of TCS 2.0 will reward players with a new gun – the R-4 Hyena Marksman Rifle.

“The Ministry of Defense has approved a bold new initiative to make the galaxy safe again,” explains the video’s narrator. “Protecting our citizens from fascism behind an impenetrable barrier of democratic resilience. Construction is already underway on the new TCS 2.0. Bigger. Better. And safer than Termicide 1 ever was.”

Fans of Helldivers 2 will recall the Terminid outbreak during the Second Galactic War, which led to the engagement of the Terminid Control System (TCS) – a bug extermination network revolving around the use of Termicide-dispensing towers across entire planets. At the time, players were tasked with pushing the Terminid advance back to the Umlaut Sector, where the towers would then be built by S.E.A.F. engineers.

The result was the total extermination of every Terminid on planets where TCS was successfully built. Unfortunately, however, the Helldivers weren’t successful at first, with large Terminid swarms forcing a retreat for S.E.A.F. engineers. Eventually, the TCS would be activated, wiping the Terminid forces off those planets.

Interestingly, the original TCS would end up failing, with the same planets seeing new Terminid population surges, with some planets even seeing exponential population growth. In the story, this was linked to Termicide exposure, which seemingly mutated Terminids to bolster their numbers further. TCS would eventually be decommissioned, since the Terminids on those planets were also growing more resistant to it.

This latest story beat follows up on the massive update Helldivers 2 got earlier this month. Among other things, the update brought in a new Galactic Campaigns system that has been described by Arrowhead Game Studios as “the next evolution of Major Orders.” Rather than focusing on single orders, the new system now revolves around campaigns over the course of between 1 and 3 weeks. It also offers players more clarity about their objectives, giving them a better idea of the stakes of the current story and the rewards they will earn for participating.

“We want to make these rewards special because we also think players should earn more than just medals,” explained game director Mikael Eriksson.

The update also introduced a new Control Center terminal in the players’ ships where they could better manage their Galactic Campaign efforts and any Major Orders they were working towards. Along with this, it brought in a new Forest (Fall) biome and a series of balancing changes to weapons, armors, Stratagems, and enemies.

Helldivers 2 is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Last month, the studio also unveiled its collaboration with Games Workshop to work on a new Legendary Warbond featuring weapons and gear from Warhammer 40,000.

A cohort of UK-based employees at Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar Games have asked the studio to voluntarily recognize their union. 

The Rockstar Game Workers Union (RGWU) was established under the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) earlier this year. 

Workers in the United Kingdom have the right to organize and join a union without interference, but the IWGB has stressed that formal recognition will give members additional protections and rights while opening formal channels for collective bargaining with management.

RGWU intends to bargain over crucial issues including pay transparency, flexible working, and crunch.

The push for recognition comes amid an ongoing legal despite between the IWGB and Rockstar, which has been accused of firing 31 employees in direct retaliation for engaging in trade union activity. Rockstar denies those allegations and claims it fired those workers for leaking confidential information.

Related:Returnal director will be ‘responsibly ambitious’ to ensure his new studio prospers

An IWGB spokesperson told Game Developer that Rockstar now has 10 working days to respond to the union’s request for voluntary recognition. 

If successful, the move would make Rockstar the second UK studio with a recognized union—following in the footsteps of Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM. Rockstar employees have explained they unionized to “protect” the company and its workforce. 

“Rockstar leads the industry in the games we create. We believe it can also lead the industry in how it treats the people who make them,” said Josh Walter, a Senior QA tester at Rockstar’s office in Lincoln.

“There is so much that is special about the studio and the work we put out. We want to protect that. When people are confronted with pay disparities, excessive overtime or a lack of flexibility in arrangements, they are not in the best position to do their best work. We want to sit down with management and build a future where both the games and the conditions of the people who make them are as strong as possible.”

With so many games on the market and more coming every day, it’s hard to decide which titles to zero in on. In an effort to get eyes on promising new projects, GameCritics.com is now featuring First Look pieces like this one, which show the opening chunk of a game and share thoughts and impressions on gameplay, narrative, lore, and more.

Want to suggest something for us to check out? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know!

The subject of today’s First Look? T.W.I.R.L.

From the Latin American Games Showcase, T.W.I.R.L. from Genie Boy Games really stood out. From the retro PS1 aesthetic blended with a hand-drawn sketch style and couched in the horror genre, I wanted to take a closer look. This one does have some sensitive topics (childhood trauma, fear, and gender dysphoria) so please view with caution. What we get here feels like a slow burn, as the demo does a lot of setup for the full experience without revealing too much.

Steam: T.W.I.R.L.

Eugene grew up playing other people’s videogames. He didn’t have his own console for some time, and has many memories of playing games his friends owned and beating them. Once he saved up enough money, he finally bought a Sega Genesis secondhand and started a gaming library of his own.

While Sonic and Street Fighter were great places to start, his first love was Final Fantasy X when his dad bought a PS2. Ever since, that love for gaming has evolved — there are a number of game worlds out there, and he intends to explore them all. RPG to horror, platformers to casual and everything in between — if it’s available, he’ll play it.

While his time is short between writing reviews, tabletop gaming, and attempting to start a cheesecake business, he has caught all 806 1025 Pokemon and can speedrun Star Fox 64 in less than 40 minutes. He’s always looking for new things to try and new challenges to conquer. You can find him on X by searching @eugene_sax, or on Bluesky at eugenesax.bsky.social.

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With Microsoft’s fiscal year ending today, the company is reportedly going ahead with its plans for mass layoffs and studio closures across its Xbox division. According to co-founder of 3D Realms and Apogee, George Broussard, the company is expected to finalize its decisions today, with the job cuts officially kicking off on July 6th.

Lending further credence to the report, Broussard also made note of the fact that Microsoft has done mass layoffs in the past, pointing to company-wide layoffs affecting around 9,000 jobs in July 2025.

In a follow-up post, Broussard has indicated that these new layoffs are going to be massive. Alluding to a list of studio closures that he hasn’t disclosed, he has said that “this will likely be the largest single layoff event in gaming history.” Studios that aren’t getting shut down are also expected to face quite a few job cuts.

“I just got word of a list of Xbox studio closures (no, not posting them),” he wrote. “If it’s even close to true (and it’s from inside), this will likely be the largest single layoff event in gaming history. Xbox is going to be supremely unpopular for a very long time, and the devastation is going to reverberate like the meteor that took out the dinosaurs. On top of all that, there will also be layoffs at the studios that remain.”

Recent reports have indicated that even State of Decay 3 developer Undead Labs wasn’t going to be safe from these closures. Despite having showcased gameplay from the zombie survival title earlier this month, Xbox has seemingly decided that the studio will join others like Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory on the chopping block.

The report has indicated that there will be around 435 layoffs from across these studios, along with “percentage layoffs” at larger companies under Xbox, like Blizzard Entertainment and Bethesda.

Ahead of these impending layoffs and studio closures, which have been described by some as a “bloodbath”, former Xbox employees have warned those currently still working at the company about potential retaliation from the leadership teams at various studios. Former art director at Halo Studios, Glenn Israel, along with three other former Xbox employees who wished to remain anonymous, noted that Microsoft’s studios have a culture of poor treatment of subordinates by leadership and retaliation against those who speak out against this poor treatment.

“Make yourself aware of state and federal statutes of limitations for reporting such actions to relevant regulatory organizations, which vary from 60 to 300 days by location,” warned Israel. “If you are laid off, consult an attorney before signing anything and, at the very least, secure a document retention agreement.”

Reports have indicated that Compulsion Games, known for We Happy Few and South of Midnight, has already been hit by “mass layoffs”, with many now-former employees taking to LinkedIn to reveal that they had been let go. Industry journalist Jason Schreier, in a video about the state of Xbox, said that the company is essentially punishing its development teams for following orders that were given to them by Microsoft.

Xbox layoffs are imminent?

According to insiders, Microsoft is finalizing its major Xbox layoff decisions by Tuesday (6/30), with cuts set to begin Monday (7/6).

The July timing is not a coincidence. Microsoft’s fiscal year closes June 30, making early July a standard window…

— George Broussard (@georgebsocial) June 29, 2026

jfc, I just got word of a list of Xbox studio closures (no, not posting them). If it’s even close to true (and it’s from inside) this will likely be the largest single layoff event in gaming history.

Xbox is going to be supremely unpopular for a very long time and the… https://t.co/F13yU1Vj2K

— George Broussard (@georgebsocial) June 30, 2026

Entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal is mulling over a move into the video game industry following a proposed spinoff from Comcast.

That’s according to a report from Reuters, which claims the company is contemplating whether a pivot into the game sector could drive growth after its planned separation. 

Michael Cavanagh, who will lead NBCUniversal following the split, told Reuters the company will soon have the freedom to “explore adjacent businesses where we have the right to play.” 

Comcast has already explored partnerships within the video game industry through NBCUniversal, with the company having partnered with Nintendo and Illumination to turn Super Mario Bros. into a lucrative animated movie franchise.

Investors were informed of plans to split Comcast and NBCUniversal into two independent, publicly-traded entities earlier this week. 

Comcast said the move will position NBCUniversal as a dedicated “global media and entertainment company” that includes a growing theme park division, Universal film and television studios, NBC and Telemundo networks, the Peacock streaming platform, and European media business Sky.

Related:nDreams co-founder launches indie game and music studio Atmospheric

“Together, these businesses will be powered by a portfolio of world-class intellectual property, a deep content library, extraordinary content creation capabilities, and exceptional strength across sports, news and entertainment,” reads a press release announcing the move. 

“With iconic brands, valuable intellectual property, global distribution and leading creative talent, NBCUniversal will be strongly positioned to compete and grow in an evolving media landscape.”

Comcast chairman and co-CEO Brian L. Roberts said the move will “open up a multitude of new opportunities” for each business. Roberts will continue to be actively involved in the leadership of both companies. 

The spinoff is expected to conclude in around one year. Comcast shareholders will own shares in both Comcast and NBCUniversal upon completion.

June may have been rather quiet for new game releases, but after all the showcases, the road to Grand Theft Auto 6 is pretty much set. That means almost every single month leading up to November is jam-packed with releases. So without further ado, let’s dive into the 15 biggest games launching in July, starting with…

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

The tale of Edward Kenway, seemingly lost to time (or at least 2013), is reborn at long last. Launching on July 9th, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is a remake of the original, maintaining the same story and characters while expanding on everything else. Overhauled visuals, a denser world map, faster combat, expanded naval battles, a deeper end-game – the list goes on and on. Sure, some parts like the modern-day Abstergo segments and equipping the Hidden Blade in combat are absent (alongside the DLC and multiplayer). But it’s otherwise a faithful retelling of our favorite assassin/pirate’s legend with so much more to offer.

EA Sports College Football 27

College Football’s resurgence and success means a new yearly sports franchise for EA, for better or worse. But at least College Football 27 is trying a few new things when it launches on July 9th, starting with a PC debut for the series. Long-time fans can expect Dynasty improvements, new customization options in Road to Glory, and more. Perhaps the most intriguing new addition is Mascot Mashup, where teams of mascots can clash in games.

Echoes of Aincrad

Somehow, Sword Art Online returned, but instead of playing as well-known characters like Kirito or Asuna, you’ll experience the first season’s death game as an original character. Customize their appearance, learn unique skills, venture through dungeons, and try not to die. But for those who want that authentic experience, there’s Death Game Mode, where your save is deleted upon death. Echoes of Aincrad looks the part visually, so we’ll give it a shot, but a revamp of the tutorial certainly wouldn’t hurt before its July 10th launch.

Palworld 1.0

Pocketpair’s creature-collecting, open-world, survival crafting title exploded when early access debuted in 2024, and it’s come a long way since. While storming the World Tree is the end-game, 1.0 is going all out in terms of new gameplay features. A Wing Pack for flying around on your lonesome; a Pal that transforms into a two-handed sword with a unique move-set; and those mysterious floating islands that developers seem to be fans of. Touted as the biggest update for Palworld yet, we can’t wait to see how 1.0 changes the game when it goes live on July 10th.

The Alters: Last Variable

Remember when you left Jan Scientist behind at the end of The Alters? If the answer is, “I didn’t play The Alters,” well…don’t worry about it. All you need to know is that cloning yourself is back on the menu, as you explore new regions, expand a new base underground and learn the truth about something called the Oasis. With cryo-sleep enabling longer-term consequences, Last Variable could feed into the survival drama that helped the base game thrive when it launches on July 13th.

Moss: The Forgotten Relic

PlayStation VR titles have been less common over the years, but thankfully, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2 players will have a chance to experience Polyarc’s Moss series without the need for a headset. Alongside both games and DLC, it promises a new Smart Follow camera and the option to skip combat. There are also new cutscenes to go with the improved performance. So if you’ve never experienced the journey of Quill, a mouse who ventures through the ruins of a kingdom, there’s no better day than July 16th when Moss: The Forgotten Relic launches.

Gothic Classic (PlayStation and Xbox)

With how well-received Gothic 1 Remake has been, PlayStation and Xbox players will finally get the chance to experience the 2001 original on July 28th. And it’s about as untainted as you’d expect, preserving the unforgiving challenge and janky gameplay that made the original such a treat.

Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game

A good Avatar video game is about as rare as an enjoyable live-action adaptation, but Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game could fill those shoes. It’s 1v1, featuring hand-drawn animation and packs 12 playable characters, from Aang and Korra to Azula and Kyoshi. Along with Training and Spectator modes, you have the requisite Versus with rollback netcode and cross-play support. Best of all, single-player fans have Story Mode, which offers an original tale, and Arcade Mode. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game lands on July 23rd for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and PC.

Splatoon Raiders

Instead of competitive modes like its predecessors, Splatoon Raiders leans fully into single-player but with a fresh gameplay loop. As the Mechanic, you’ll explore the Spirhalite Islands with Deep Cut, unearthing relics and fighting the Salmonids. By mining Spirhalite Shards, you can develop Gadgets for additional combat options. With optional local and online co-op, it looks intriguing, if nothing else, and arrives on July 23rd for Nintendo Switch 2.

Halo: Campaign Evolved

The campaign that started it all, but evolved. Halo Studios may not have the most sterling reputation, but we have to admit that its remake of Halo 1 has looked good in recent showings, whether it’s the visuals or revamping levels to facilitate four-player co-op. The prospect of over 40 Skulls, including one that adds a third-person perspective, and a Campaign Remix option means heaps of replay value. Just try not to focus too much on the lack of Theater Mode or post-launch content plans when Halo: Campaign Evolved arrives on July 28th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Mistfall Hunter

We’ve already seen a Souls-like battle royale-style game in Nightreign, so why not an extraction title in the same vein? Announced in October 2024, Mistfall Hunter will finally launch this month on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC, offering six playable Gyldhunters who venture into the titular mist to take on various monstrosities. And while there’s a very “end of the world” style scenario, it’s still all about finding loot, either solo or in teams of three, and surviving against enemies and other players long enough to extract it. Enjoyable or tedious? We’ll find out on July 29th.

The Relic: First Guardian

Of course, if we’re talking about Souls-likes that have been a long time coming, The Relic: First Guardian is out on July 31st for PS5 and PC after first being announced five years ago. Suffice to say that the setting and prospect of venturing into the ruined world of Arsiltus to help save it is enticing. The fact that you don’t lose stamina from attacking also means a more aggressive playstyle, and while we’ll need to wait and see how the bosses pan out, The Relic could make for a nice diversion.

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu

If you’re not in the Souls-like mood and just want a more co-op-focused experience with plenty of the same oppression, The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu may be worth playing. The premise is simple – you and up to three other players venture into a jungle in the hopes of finding the Mound. However, there’s the Madness system, similar to the Sanity system from Eternal Darkness, which can mess with your senses in a variety of ways, from making allies appear hostile to creating truly horrific sights. In other words, a fun ol’ time with friends when it launches on July 15th.

Backyard Baseball

The original Backyard Baseball is a classic in many ways, but for those who wanted a more contemporary version, there’s good news. Mega Cat Studios is reimagining it for consoles and PC with completely revamped visuals. The Backyard roster returns in full force with 30 choices, and you can duke it out across 11 stadiums and six modes. With a range of options for both casual and competitive players, it promises to capture the magic of the original – with some modern quality of life – when it launches on July 9th.

Dinoblade

So there’s one more game to look forward to in July, and yes, it’s another Souls-like. The twist? Dinosaurs. In a post-cataclysm, you take up a Great Sword as a Spinosaurus and embark on a journey for…something, taking on all kinds of hostile dinos. These include Alphas who may have their own weapons and skills. As ridiculous as it sounds, there’s no denying how cool it looks. Dinoblade launches on July 23rd for PC.

Anybody who’s played College Football over the years knows that Dynasty Mode has always been the living, breathing soul of the franchise over the years. Yes, Road to Glory lets you take a personal journey to fame and fortune while Ultimate Team gives you a nice live-service model to play with and possibly exploit, and there’s always online play if you want to just get together with your buddies and battle it out on the field.

But the fantasy of managing a college football team, which is arguably the crux of a simulator aimed at recreating the real-life experience in a digestible, digital format has always been Dynasty Mode. It’s the home of college football, and we’re quite eager to get started with it in College Football 27. That’s because EA seems to have gone beyond merely recruiting players to play games and then have you simulating seasons.

Things are different this time around, and the latest iteration of Dynasty Mode after two years of tweaks and modifications looks like it’s the real deal, with the entire experience coming close to managing an entire program. That includes managing expectations, dealing with spreading limited resources across the board, staffing challenges, negotiating NIL deals, facing the pressures that a coach would face, trying to retain players who would rather take their talents elsewhere, and establishing a team’s long-term identity one step at a time.

That’s a long list of things to do, but that’s precisely why we think this year’s iteration of Dynasty Mode might be the real main event in this year’s take on College Football. Join us as we take you through what’s made us so optimistic about it.

The Third Time’s The Charm

If CF 25 was the comeback after a very long hiatus for the franchise, CF 26 was a title that brought in a lot of refinements that proved quite popular. Based off of that trajectory and everything we’ve seen of CF 27 so far, it’s certainly looking like a big swing from EA, going past incremental improvements to present a bold, confident take on the sports sim that could easily find fame and glory thanks to what it’s bringing to the table.

EA is positioning College Football 27 as the third step in its rebuilt Dynasty roadmap, following the comeback foundation of 25 and the refinements of 26. And from what we’re seeing, it isn’t just about adding in new features and calling it a day. That would be too easy, and a potentially lazy solution to the vision it has presented. Its latest deep dive into Dynasty Mode showcases how it’s clearly being pitched as a deeper program-management experience rather than just another recruiting-and-season sim loop.

Instead, we’re looking at a program management mode that feels akin to what it would be like to manage an evolving landscape of players with many variables for us to control. Or at least, try as life attempts to wrest that very control out of our hands in a take on franchise management that’s bringing all of the chaos from the real world to our screens.

Where Road to Glory is about a single player and Ultimate Team puts you on a hamster wheel where you’re collecting players and grinding out levels, and Road to CFP is about simulating the competition, Dynasty brings all of that into one place, putting you right at the center of the broader fantasy of a college football simulator. It isn’t about a single season, but about building a lasting legacy within the framework of the game.

Athletic Director Expectations are the clearest example of that shift. Instead of treating every job like the same climb with different uniforms, CF 27 gives each program its own pressure points, patience level, and definition of success. A powerhouse could expect you to put them front and center of playoff runs, and perhaps not take too kindly to a decision to hold them back. A school that’s still trying to make a name for itself might give you a bit of breathing room as you try to help it get on the map. One job might hinge on rivalry wins, another on owning a recruiting pipeline, another on building an offensive or defensive identity, and another on keeping facilities or rankings at a required standard.

All of these parameters become part of an ever-changing landscape that you’re then expected to manage, just as a talented coach would have to do in the real world. A solid record may buy patience at one school and still feel like underachievement at another, depending on what the program believes it should be competing for. The new Dynasty isn’t just about winning, but doing so in a way that serves your school’s interests and expectations.

Of course, that can get chaotic without the game’s systems giving you a bit of control over the chaos. That’s where Dynasty Blueprint comes in, turning those expectations into an annual resource puzzle rather than just a list of objectives. You could choose to allocate a significant amount of funds to secure NIL rights for a recruit, or perhaps use that money to create facilities that secure your team’s long-term growth. You could also invest in staff to better support your team, or perhaps spend it all on ensuring a win-now season if that’s what your school really wants. Because Dynasty Points operate as a yearly, use-it-or-lose-it budget, the mode pushes you to make short-term calls instead of hoarding resources forever.

It’s about handling pressure, and handling it well enough to cement your own position within growing teams. And that’s just scratching the surface on systems that go a lot deeper.

A More Hands-On Approach

There’s a reason we mentioned NIL when talking about using your Dynasty Points as effectively as you can. In the real world, it’s a factor that gives players a fair bit of control over the trajectories of their football careers, and CF 27 is making that a factor of the experience by ensuring that the onus of retaining them or letting them move on to greener pastures is on you. Recruiting was already a major part of the experience in previous titles, and making retention become a factor makes things all the more authentic.

Given that you only have a limited number of Dynasty Points to reflect your budgets, you’re going to be smarter with resources in smaller ones while having to manage high expectations on powerhouse programs. It makes retaining your best players as important as recruiting new ones, and it’s a great way to link factors like prestige, deal breakers and school strength in a way that’s both comprehensive and cohesive all at once. The new approach to NIL makes Dynasty less predictable, which is something the mode has needed.

Factor in facilities and staff, and the NIL system’s unpredictability gets amplified, its scope extending beyond your team’s potential on the field. Once again, it’s a showcase of how the entire management experience is more all-encompassing this time around as your facilities and staff become long-term investments that can shape your program’s identity while making coordinators matter a whole lot more. Program grades then become a part of the long-term loop, making rebuilds feel different from merely stepping in to take over a well-established program for a national contender.

Those differences are a welcome addition, and a fine way to ensure that the coaching carousel actually has an impact on how things go for you and your team. You’re not just grinding out levels, which was something we couldn’t help but notice in previous iterations, but building a resume that gives you as much negotiating power as your powerhouses. It’s an effective way of making successes or failures work both ways between players and a coach, tying job openings to school expectations in a way that gives you a lot of choices, but with enough tradeoffs to make those decisions feel as agonizing as they might be in the real world.

Of course, all of that feeds very well into the new Dynasty storytelling engine, that brings in dynamic weekly recaps, Heisman Watch updates alongside a fully animated ceremony, and so much more. They’re all great ways to give a season context and flavor while making you feel like your decisions and hard work actually matter, being as impactful to your team’s journey as they can be. If everything else we’ve talked about lets you manage numbers to achieve the best possible advantage, or perhaps even a compromise between your school’s expectations and your team’s potential, this is where the drama comes in, presenting it all in a way that gets you immersed in the spectacle and realism of it all.

It’s all shaping up to look like this could be the most personal take on College Football’s Dynasty Mode, and the Team Builder now bringing in customisable elements like unique backgrounds and signature accents is a great touch. It lets you imagine yourself in the thick of the action at a stadium, your personal attachment to a program you’ve built represented well in the atmosphere around the games you’re a part of.

Building Balance

You’re probably wondering if everything we’ve said so far makes things look like they’re too good to be true. Believe us when we tell you that the thought has crossed our mind. Ambitious changes like the ones we’ve been talking about so far come with a lot of risk. The new NIL systems could become an unending maelstrom that sucks in your limited budget leaving you at the mercy of a treacherous sea of unpredictability.

The Athletic Director systems could be seen as too random, running the risk of generating expectations that seem unfair thanks to how unrealistic they are perceived to be. The logic between the Coaching Carousel and recruitment and retention must land as perfectly as it can in order for it to be believable, holding up across multiple seasons in a way that makes sense to us all. There needs to be a balance, and it has to be one that holds up under the duress of multiple concurrent seasons for the entire simulation to work.

All of these are reasons to be wary of getting too invested in what’s coming before we get to try it out. But they’re also a great showcase of how EA hasn’t just added new things to Dynasty and called it a day. It’s evolving what the mode is supposed to be in the modern era of college football. If it manages to get things right, it could make Dynasty go from being just another mode to indulge yourself in, and become the one that defines the entire game.

We’re rooting for that to be the case, if only for the selfish reason that it would mean hours upon hours of entertainment. But hey, that’s what we’re all tuning in for, right?

Thankfully, we don’t have to wait too long to find out!

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Existential Hell Awaits

HIGH A beautiful sci-gothic fantasy with a good story and tight gameplay!

LOW The abrupt ending.

WTF I would’ve liked to see more by this creative team.

Playing Luna Abyss feels like being injected with hope amid the darkest sunset. In an industry that seems to be on the verge of imploding on a weekly basis, this is the sort of game that reminds me why I write about games. Deeply personal and handmade by a talented team of human beings, Kwalee has crafted a modern masterpiece. It’s something that everyone should be talking about.

It bears mentioning that I’ve been looking forward to Luna Abyss for years after an impressive early demo, and the final work greatly exceeds my expectations by deftly weaving first-person shooting, bullet hell projectile dodging, 3D platforming, exploration, and even a pinch of branching dialogue to form something uniquely its own.

The inspirations it draws from are as vast as its art direction is richly detailed. I scaled gothic cathedrals, delved through Giger-esque abandoned factories, and met surreal dieselpunk beings. From the score to the sharp impact of a shotgun blast, the soundscape is absolutely wonderful. Every member of the cast delivers a pitch-perfect performance. Whether it’s the starring lead, Fawkes, or a one-off character encountered along the way, Kwalee Labs captures a raw humanity that defies the abstracted nature of its post-humanist apocalypse.

The story is complicated in presentation and lore. I ravenously gathered text logs, and was richly rewarded — and Luna Abyss expects players to pay attention. Yet at its core, it’s a human tale of a young person caught in the machinations of dying gods. In the wake of climate change on Earth, humanity took to the moon for salvation, terraforming the interior. Unfortunately, they also found powerful beings lurking beneath, and made deals that cost everything.

Fawkes is a poor soul born with red eyes, which means has they have the ability to pilot post-human “Warden” shells, their physical body staying in one place while using these automatons to explore and fight. Players can pilot an array of Wardens, some boasting interesting secondary abilities, like wall-climbing or towering shoulder cannons. They’re good pace-breakers, further differentiating a brilliantly varied set of levels, the attention to which can’t be overstated.

Each biome offers its own striking features — infested gardens with a commune of rogue Wardens hiding out, scaling a miles high prison to fight a god in stark artificial lights, and plunging into depths so dark it’s as though I was in the bowels of Hell itself. All the while, the story unfurls gradually. The supporting cast are all equally delightful, though my favorite is Ellie the elevator and train operator, with a tender heart and a love for silly poetry. There are achievements for seeing through each story, and I endorse doing so as they’re worth the effort despite Luna Abyss not having many happy ones to offer.

As far as combat is concerned, there are only four weapons to wield. However, they all serve at least two purposes. The Scout Rifle is the basic starter energy weapon, perfect for weakening enemies so Fawkes can drain them for health or make them explode. The Shieldbreaker shotgun breaks barriers mid-traversal and in combat, while devastating vulnerable enemies. The Marksman Rifle breaks tougher shields and can one-shot weaker opponents. Finally, the rocket launcher locks on to opponents and triggers that unlock doors.

This design ethos of utility suffuses Luna Abyss to its core, and movement abilities are just as crucial in combat as they when scaling impossible architecture. A given sequence might include chaining between possessing different inert shells in the air, double-jumping and dashing to close impossibly long gaps, and then hurtling along rails to the next destination. It’s like someone took elements from my favorite platformers and put them all in one experience.

Skirmishes aren’t overwhelming though, save for a few boss fights, as players dodge incoming attacks while locking on to enemies. It’s far more about how players position themselves in each area than simply being the best shot. That said, platforming in Luna Abyss is the real crown jewel. That aforementioned ascent through the hanging pillars in particular was spectacular, requiring I use every skill in my arsenal to survive. It’s the closest I’ve seen someone get to balancing linear setpiece design with genuine challenge in a long time. I still remember pulling off one long chain of moves across a gap large enough to stir my fear of heights, only to reach safety at the last second. If I’d died, I’d just be sent back to a checkpoint with a slight health deduction, but the sense of agency and risk felt so much more tangible than what’s typically on offer in AAA titles.

However, all of these elements that Luna Abyss boasts do sometimes conflict. Because I hadn’t found the shotgun upgrade at a certain point, I couldn’t hit a target that was spewing projectiles while I had to dodge them and navigate platforms that would vanish in seconds while dashing past a rotating laser while also triggering and hopping across a second set of limited-time platforms, and all of that needing to be done before I could blast just one enemy.

However, in light of demands like these, Kwalee Labs have gone above and beyond for accessibility. There are visual adjustments for epilepsy, the ability to simplify or disable more complex timing and platforming sections, toggles for controls and visual effects — I wish more developers put this much effort in.

While the gameplay has been fully dialed in, I’m disappointed to say that Kwalee Labs’ focus on subverting narrative expectations goes a step too far. At the very end, after going out of their way to frame things in a highly specific way, there’s an abrupt twist that raises far too many questions. This is, as one can imagine, sub-optimal for an experience that is so story-focused.

I’m keeping the narrative details light here to avoid spoilers as discovering lore is part of the core loop, and its story and gameplay are woven together together deliberately. Sadly, the skill shown in earlier hours are what put me off of the end so strongly. If it had felt earned I could abide it, but I’m not sure whether it ended up a a sequel tease or perhaps an attempt at a Poe-esque tragedy? It’s not an adaptation, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t some literary inspiration at play. Given how carefully considered the rest of the experience is, it’s frustrating to have it all culminate so strangely. 

While it’s not perfect, Luna Abyss gets so much right and the attention it pays to details in nearly every aspect is outstanding. As such, it’s something well worth experiencing — just be ready for a finish that might not land.

Final Score: 9.5 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game is developed by Kwalee Labs and published by Kwalee. It is currently available on PC, PS5, and XBX/S. This copy of Luna Abyss was provided by the publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 9 hours were dedicated to the single-player campaign and bonus modes, and it was completed.

Parents: This game is rated M by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence. Let me be abundantly clear — between the spooky visuals, depictions of gore, eldritch enemies, otherworldly story about gods, torture, and plagues? This is not a game for children. In both terms of content and themes, this is for mature audiences.

Colorblind modes: There are no colorblind modes available. Enemy shields are color-coded, though there is a visual prompt if players use the wrong attack for the wrong kind of shield.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are multiple visual prompts doubling for audio prompts. There are also additional accessibility modifiers for those with limited motor control. The options are impressive for an indie game. It’s a reasonable experience to play without sound, and I would say that it’s fully accessible.

Remappable controls: No, the controls are not remappable on console. They are as follows: L1 – Weapon Wheel, R1 – Drift Kill, L2 – Lock On, R2 – Fire Weapon, L3 – Sprint, R3 – Crouch / Slide, LS – Movement / Menu Navigation, RS – Manual Aim, Touchpad/Options – Pause Menu, D-Pad – Weapon Swap / Menu Navigation, Triangle – Bubble Shield, Square – Interact/Possess Warden, Cross – Jump, Circle – Dash

Elijah is a raving madman from the backwoods of Pennsylvania who loves Dead Space a bit too much for his own good. Has lived the stream, pounded the news beat, and currently reviews (see: rants politely) on YouTube.

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Even as rumors continue to circulate about the PlayStation 6 and the challenges it could face at launch due to rising memory and storage costs, Sony is at least somewhat upbeat about the possibilities. While it has yet to acknowledge launch timing, price or specifications, Sony Interactive Entertainment president/CEO Hideaki Nishino provided the first tease yet of a potential handheld.

“PlayStation has long been strongly associated with the idea of playing in the living room. However, in recent years, more users globally have been using personal monitors. In response, we are selling peripherals such as monitors and speakers to break away from the fixed perception that ‘PlayStation equals the living room’ and to broaden usage scenarios,” he said during a Q&A segment earlier this month at the Game and Network Services Segment Small Meeting.

“For the next-generation platform, rather than simply serving as an alternative to PCs, we aim to deliver value that is unique to PlayStation. This includes not only technological advancements but also an expansion of usage styles, enabling a seamless experience that can be enjoyed naturally beyond the living room.”

That last part sure sounds like a handheld but one more akin to the Nintendo Switch 2, which also functions as a home console when docked. There have been rumors about the same for quite some time now, starting with Sony’s push for Power Saver Mode support on its titles, reportedly for the sake of the alleged PS6 handheld.

Last we heard, the alleged SKU, alongside the “regular” PS6, was reportedly on track to launch in Holiday 2027. It’s also seemingly faster than the Xbox Series S, especially in ray tracing and path tracing.

However, things have taken a turn lately, as leaker Kepler_L2 reported that the alleged Bill of Materials for the PS6 had gone up by almost $200. How this would affect the handheld version remains unknown, but delaying it would apparently be pointless, since the specs have been locked in. With Sony unwilling to sell PlayStation consoles at a “significant” loss, the possibility of a $999 console looms ever closer.

Would you believe it’s been seven years since the last Ghost Recon? Granted, that was Breakpoint, which had such a disastrous launch that its publisher outright said it performed “significantly below expectations” (that too in a year with The Division 2). And while you could list every property we haven’t seen in that interval – how many decades and change for the next Beyond Good and Evil now? – Ghost Recon at least had some hope. After all, a new title was officially confirmed to be in development last August, and surely nothing short of a major internal shakeup to its parent company could distort things. Right?

Oh wait.

This year, it feels like every project from the house of Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Splinter Cell is having problems or cutting back to meet deadlines – including new entries in those very same properties. Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe has apparently pulled back and laid off 50 members from its team. Far Cry 7 is reportedly in a stage of development referred to as “Hell,” where things reportedly change every single month. And the less said about that fabled Splinter Cell Remake, which may as well be the stuff of legend at this point, the better.

So what about Ghost Recon, reportedly codenamed Project Ovr? A first-person shooter that seemingly takes after Ready or Not, reportedly promising a darker experience against the backdrop of a fictional war, where squad-based tactics are more prominent than ever? You know, everything that hardcore fans of the series have wanted? Well, sources previously told Insider Gaming that an internal alpha was scheduled for last Fall and if everything went well, it could launch this year.

Fast forward to this month, post-reshuffle and things have taken a rather drastic turn. Insider Gaming first reported that the alpha didn’t meet expectations. “Unrealistic deadlines,” “poor planning and management,” and “directors not listening to feedback” were apparently some of the things thrown around. Unfortunately, the head office has seemingly rejected any other arrangements, aside from reportedly bringing in VP of global creative Julien Sansalone and VP of production Jean-Baptiste Duval. Not to really change how the development team actually works, mind you. Just to oversee things. Presumably, they’re to be the eyes and ears for upper management, providing information on actual progress rather than going simply by whatever the studio says.

Then there’s the most recent report. What’s been done to bring the project back on track? A “cut and greatly reduced” scope, for starters, with “many features stripped.” The sources in question didn’t go into much detail on what exactly was removed, but they apparently vary in overall scale (and potential significance).

Furthermore, details on an internal alpha held last Spring have emerged. Ovr is apparently not “stable at all,” and the game is in a “terrible” state. What about last year’s internal alpha, and plans to shift to the final game within 12 months? I’m theorizing here, but it’s possible that after its organizational overhaul, upper management took one look at the game’s state and decided it was far from satisfactory.

It likely gave the developer time to shape up for another alpha test, and well, these are seemingly the results. Based on that, it’s made changes to ensure no roadblocks in deliverables.

Going back to Insider Gaming’s latest report, a beta is now apparently targeting November. Unfortunately, there’s another problem. Recent layoffs have hit multiple studios under the publisher’s umbrella, including this one, which means those remaining will purportedly have more work on hand. Which apparently means “long days of crunching” for the beta. So if it wasn’t bad enough that the team is working to get the game rolling, that too after abandoning several features, it has even less resources to do it and is under more pressure. Keep in mind that before these changes, some developers apparently expected the project to be outright cancelled.

Why? Because the studio’s management seemingly has no idea what it was doing. This was a concern that emerged with how much freedom these individual Creative Houses would have. But you should think of this as more of the old way of doing things meeting a new approach by management that’s more concerned with cutting costs and actually taking steps to ship the product rather than dilly-dallying.

And while it’s easy to blame the executives in charge at the top, you have to remember that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced was reportedly meant for March before facing a delay. How that extra time would have helped the remake is anyone’s guess, but based on relatively positive impressions from both fans and media outlets, we’ll default to it being the correct choice.

But this is this, and that is that. One Creative House won’t necessarily operate like the others, and that goes double for its studios. It is the same as handling Splinter Cell and The Division, however – the former waffling about with its remake while the latter has yet to provide updates on The Division 3 for almost three years. Aside from executive producer Julian Gerighty, who had a key role in both titles, leaving the company, of course.

As for Ghost Recon, really, what can you say at this point? As much as this new studio structure ensures that projects actually get going rather than end up mired, it feels like the company as a whole has no clue what it wants to do with the franchise. When Wildlands embraced the open-world approach, there was significant blowback from long-time fans, and its launch state didn’t help matters either. Nevertheless, after strong sales, the company stuck with it, improving and introducing significant new features while showcasing how much fun it could be. It may not have been the true blue Ghost Recon that the hardcore fan wanted, but it was certainly getting there.

Then Breakpoint stripped most of that away, including AI squadmates and introduced a poorly implemented survival theme. The real goal? Taking Wildlands formula and trying to create a looter shooter, complete with a social hub. As noted earlier, this went down horribly and even with massive overhauls, it’s far from the ideal experience.

So what was the plan after that? Of all things, Ghost Recon Frontline, a first-person shooter battle royale that looked to embrace the Fortnite style of building walls. Except you were actually air-dropping them in with a laser pointer. The reception to this was so bad that the publisher ultimately just scrapped it months later. Good riddance.

By comparison, Ovr looked like it was going back to what made the series great while leaning into more grounded, realistic tactical play. Yet again, however, we don’t know where it fell short as to warrant so many changes. Was the squad management terrible? Did the gunplay disappoint? If there’s an open world, did it not have enough checklists of activities? We don’t know, but whatever its problems, the publisher isn’t keen to sit on the sidelines and wait for the development team to suddenly strike gold. And it’s not going to be lenient on them either, even with reduced manpower.

While it’s nice to hope that everything will work out, the past decade or so hasn’t been kind to Ghost Recon. And at this point, wistfully hoping that those in charge just “get it” and deliver an experience that will satisfy both the hardcore and the more contemporary fans feels like a pipe dream.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

There were years of speculation and rumours, but Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is real, and we’re onto our second feature highlighting the differences between the upcoming remake and the 2013 original. While previously, we shone the spotlight mostly on visual overhauls and combat improvements, this feature scrutinises the deeper layers of systemic change that are set to reshape how the game plays. From frictionless sailing, to combat readability and advanced tools to customise your own immersion, here are fifteen more differences that set Resynced apart from the original Black Flag.

New Jackdaw Navigation Tools Streamline Sailing

In the original Black Flag, naval traversal was an active mechanic where you’d steer the ship across the Caribbean’s open waters while relying on the map for navigation. As Black Flag Resynced introduces seamless transitions between ocean and harbour, so too a couple of new navigation tools remove Jackdaw friction further: the Pathfinder highlights optimal routes across the ocean, while Follow Sea acts as an autopilot system. Together, they’ll allow you to soak in the experience of hightailing it across the seas, keeping extra think-work optional.

New Sea Shanties Are Tied to Activities

Sea Shanties in the original game were largely collectible flavour, scattered across the world, adding to your crew’s repertoire once found. In Resynced, ten newly produced Sea Shanties not only imbue your crew’s personality further, but tie directly to quests and activities. This greater context makes their acquisition feel more meaningful, while subtle UI changes make selecting your favourite shanty a breeze.

A Cleaner, More Contextual HUD

Simpler inputs to trigger Sea Shanties are just the tip of the iceberg: Black Flag Resynced has reworked the interface into a clear, more contextual system, moving away from the original’s functional yet cluttered layout. Now, fully customisable with multiple presets, you’re able to tailor how much information is displayed on screen, grouping settings for minimal display yet maximum immersion, to overloaded clarity with clear guidance and feedback.

Expanded VFX and UI Control

And, underlining your ability to find the ideal balance between gameplay clarity and cinematic immersion is Resynced’s deeper VFX and UI customisation options. Whereas the original offered limited control over presentation, now you can tweak the appearance of visual effects like blood, or go granular with a slate of toggleable interface elements, from widgets, meters, ammo counters, and reticles, to general info, hints, and more.

Combat Readability is Fully Customisable

Combat readability can be tailored to your preferences in Resynced too, adding to the original’s visual prompts and UI indicators with animation-based tells. So, while enemy health and defence bars are visible when using Resynced’s default HUD, these can be disabled to shift your focus toward timing, spacing, and animations, with the latter hurling your enemy’s hat or headpiece off their head once their defensive capability is broken. Even health and defence bars were optional in Black Flag – the original didn’t make it as feasible to fight on observation and instinct alone.

New Enemy Behaviours Encourage Adaption

Where enemy encounters often grew predictable in Black Flag, Resynced is introducing all-new enemy archetypes and defensive behaviours that will react to repeated tactics. If you spam parries, for instance, enemies will begin striking with unblockable attacks, so you’ll need to consistently adapt and vary your approach, mixing attacking and defensive manoeuvres with weapons and combos to confuse enemies.

Group Combat Is More Layered

And, continuing with Resynced’s new, advanced enemy archetypes, multi-enemy encounters are now more layered as a result of different enemy roles. While fights in the original Black Flag often boiled down to managing groups efficiently, in Resynced you’ll need to place extra priority on harder-to-down targets, such as the new Demolitionist, as these archetypes possess firmer defence and a more punishing, often unblockable, attack when compared to regular soldiers.

Observe Brings Cinematic Recon

Exploration in the original Black Flag relied on Edward’s Eagle Vision for environmental awareness. Resynced, instead, borrows from Assassin’s Creed Shadows by introducing the Observe feature, a more finely tuned tool which allows you to scan Edward’s surroundings for clues and objectives alongside tagging guards and other targets. Furthermore, Observe tightens the camera into Edward’s line of sight, bringing a more cinematic, immersive framing as you survey the landscape for minute detail.

Fort Infiltration Uses a Morale System

In Black Flag, conquering forts typically meant eliminating enough enemies to trigger a surrender. In Resynced, this scenario is replaced with a dynamic morale system, requiring you to destabilise a fort’s defenses enough to lower their resolve enough to draw their commander out for a final confrontation. The end result is the same, you’ll claim the fort as your own, but the process of killing its commander makes each stronghold in your collection feel more earned.

Boarding Brings More Risk Versus Reward

Whilst bringing more control and precision over the act of getting your boots onto enemy decks, Resynced also eschews the original Black Flag’s largely straightforward boarding process by introducing deeper risk versus reward scenarios. Now, enemy crew numbers and aggression varies between vessels, while more lucrative rewards are found in the new Captain’s Lockbox, located exclusively aboard larger ships like Frigates and Man O’ Wars. Opting to pillage the Captain’s private stash forgoes the option to repair your ship or lower your wanted level, and you’ll also want to consider the knock-on effect on your own crew numbers and future opportunities too.

Some Ship Management Has Moved On Shore

Originally, many ship-related functions were handled directly from the Jackdaw’s Captain’s Cabin. However, in Resynced, many of these systems have moved on shore to the Harbourmasters. Purchasing upgrades, restocking weapons, and trading cargo must now be handled in port, shifting your resource management decisions toward something more strategic.

Harbours Take On Greater Gameplay Significance

And, with more systems now tied to them, harbours in Black Flag Resynced are no longer simple stop-off points. Their increased importance changes how you plan voyages, influencing how often you return to port, and how to structure the pace of your naval expeditions.

Exploration Is More Guided Than Ever Before

While the original Black Flag encouraged a more organic approach to discovery, often leaving you to stumble upon points of interest, Resynced leans into a more guided exploration structure. The thinking behind this, presumably,is to increase your efficiency if you so choose – through Observe and the enhanced UI tools outlined in this feature, you should be more easily able to identify objectives and opportunities. Although, as we’ve already pointed out, the UI can be customised to loosen Resynced’s more structured approach if you desire.

Systems Feel More Interconnected

Resynced’s suite of expanded systems interlock more tightly than Black Flag, where its mechanics often felt like they operated independently. These expansions, encompassing morale-based encounters to adaptive enemies and customisable HUDs, are interwoven to present a more cohesive gameplay loop.

Immersion Is In Your Control

Ultimately, where Assassin’s Creed 4: Blag Flag brought a fixed balance between cinematic presentation and gameplay clarity, Black Flag Resynced gives you that control instead. Through all the various customisation options and systemic changes highlighted throughout this feature, there is one key takeaway: in Resynced, you can shape your own experience. Be it in true, uninterrupted immersion, or a guided adventure, the remake gives you the tools to choose your degree of realism, readability, and cinematic flair.

In light of recent price hikes for PS5 consoles, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Hideaki Nishino was asked during a Q&A session (via IGN) about whether the company will continue to prioritize hardware profitability with its next-generation console as well. In response, Nishino laid out how the console hardware tends to act as a base for PlayStation to build an ecosystem around, with more products like the PlayStation Portal.

When it comes to price, however, he said that it’s “not realistic” for Sony to absorb the increases it is facing in component costs. This ultimately led to the console’s price going up in global markets. Despite the price hikes, Nishino has said that he doesn’t expect it to lead to a decline in customer demand.

“First, we regard hardware as the base for providing the gaming experience, and by offering products such as the PlayStation Portal Remote Player (PS Portal), we aim to provide experiences tailored to users’ play styles beyond the living room, which has traditionally been considered the primary usage environment.

“As for pricing, it is not realistic for us to absorb all component cost increases, and we have already implemented some price increases outside Japan. At present, however, sales are proceeding as planned, and we do not believe this has led to a decline in customer demand.

“As a principle, we do not intend to sell hardware at significant losses. At the same time, we are carefully monitoring the market and continuing to evaluate our approach. We believe it is important for us to make every effort to ensure that customers fully understand the value we provide in relation to pricing.”

A couple of decades ago, companies like Sony, Sega, and Microsoft opted to sell their consoles at a minor loss, relying instead on the revenue from every game sold on their systems to make up for these losses. However, Nintendo is known for not really selling its hardware at a loss since at least the launch of the Wii, and the same became true of Sony and Microsoft with the launches of the PS4 and Xbox One, respectively. Since then, all three of the console makers have sold hardware at a profit, relying on thorough R&D efforts and use of custom hardware to keep prices down.

Nishino’s statement about the prices not leading to a decline in customer demand is especially interesting in light of the company’s hardware sales in the US marking May 2026 as the worst May faced by PlayStation since 2000. Analysts believe that this is largely due to current socio-economic conditions and the overall rise in costs associated with gaming hardware.

In a recent interview, Nishino had also said that the company plans to make more live service games in the future in a bid to “revitalize the market through both first-party and third-party content.” He pointed to the upcoming fighting game Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls as an example of this and went on to discuss how the company could do the same for some of its older games in the medium to long term as well.

Following the launch of Directive 8020, Supermassive Games CEO Robert Henrysson has announced he’s stepping down. He assumed the role in January 2024, though he first joined Nordisk Games, Supermassive’s parent company, in August 2022.

Henrysson revealed the news on LinkedIn, stating he had a “fantastic time” and that his time at the studio saw “revenue and profit triple.” “As the CEO of Supermassive Games, I was honoured to guide the studio through intense industry change, broadening its client base and establishing a culture of consistent quality across all aspects of the game development process.

“Leading a studio is never a one-man job — it is the entire team’s effort. Our commitment to continuous improvement was, and continues to be, central to everything we do.” He expressed his gratefulness to the developer, calling it the “greatest storytelling game studio on Earth” and revealed plans to take a vacation (and manage his “own small portfolio of investments”).

While there’s no correlation between Directive 8020’s sales performance and Henrysson stepping down, his tenure has seen its share of ups and downs. He was appointed in the aftermath of co-founders Pete and Joe Samuels departing from Supermassive. A few weeks later, significant layoffs were announced, with about 90 employees reportedly affected. Supermassive would also allegedly cancel an unannounced Blade Runner title called Time to Live. Directive 8020 was also hit by a significant delay months after, coupled with more layoffs.

It’s unknown who will take over for Henrysson, but the studio is forging ahead with its next game. Teased in Directive 8020 if you followed these exact steps, it showcases a heavy dose of the supernatural and may be The Craven Man or Intercession – two other IPs trademarked alongside the sci-fi horror back in 2022. Supermassive has yet to confirm which, much less a release date, so stay tuned for updates in the future.

Bandai Namco has released a brand-new trailer for Tekken 8’s newest roster addition, Bob. The trailer gives us our first real look at how the character will play in the fighting game, showcasing how well he is able to make use of his speed and agility despite his size to lock opponents in long combos that will keep them guessing about whether he will be attacking them with highs or lows. Check it out below.

Described as the “Onigiri Saviour”, Bob was unveiled as the second character part of Tekken 8’s Season 3 during EVO 2026 in Las Vegas. The character makes use of three of his aspects: speed, power, and a unique martial arts style that also takes his weight into account. In story terms, Bob is coming back after last being defeated by Bryan during the events of Tekken 7. Frustrated with bland meals during his hospitalization, Bob decided to create his own fast-food chain that has gone on to become “wildly successful”, which then sparked the introduction of “Bob’s Onigiri”.

His personal antagonist for the story in Tekken 8 seems to be Kazuya Mishima. To counter his aspirations for world domination, Bob has been using his fast-food chain to help feed the hungry in crisis-afflicted areas, thus earning the “Onigiri Saviour” nickname. However, to accomplish his long-term goals, Bob will have to defeat Kazuya during the King of Iron Fist Tournament.

Bob is coming to Tekken 8 on August 20th for those who own Season Pass 3. Everyone else will be able to get their hands on the character on August 25th.

He is the second playable character that has been released for Season 3 so far, following the release of Kunimitsu earlier this month. The kunoichi brought in her own mix of ninjutsu, martial arts, and high levels of agility to shake up the dynamics of the fighting game. Interestingly, her story implications indicate that she knows Reina and is familiar with Raven, the latter of whom trained under her father.

A third character for Season 3 has already been unveiled – Yujiro Hanma from Baki the Grappler – and is slated for release in early 2027. The character is the father of Baki Hanma and serves as one of the primary antagonists of the manga. Yujiro’s addition will also bring in further wrinkles in the overarching Tekken storyline, since the franchise is known for largely revolving around father-son drama, sparked by Heihachi first throwing Kazuya into a volcano in the original Tekken.

Yujiro also marks the second major crossover character coming to Tekken 8, following season 1’s addition of Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive Rosfield.

Season 3’s next character will be Roger Jr., who is slated for release between October and December this year. In total, the season pass will include 4 characters, along with something called Subsea Lockdown, which is set for release around the same time as Yujiro Hanma.

Tekken 8 is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. The title recently lost its chief producer and director, Kohei Ikeda, just half a year after the previous director, Katsuhiro Harada, left the company.

With hardware hitting high price points in recent times, be it the Xbox Series X, Valve’s Steam Machine, or even Apple’s MacBooks and iPads, Lenovo believes that these trends are permanent and that memory prices might not go back down. As caught by ComputerBase (via VGC), Lenovo executive director Martin Hiegl went as far as to say that DRAM and NAND – components integral to the fabrication of memory and storage – will “never” go back down in price.

However, Hiegl’s use of the word “never” during a talk at ISC 2026 has been reported as being an exaggeration, and the executive was apparently talking about the state of the hardware industry for the next five years.

Recent surges in memory pricing largely come down to the fact that the major companies that make memory, like SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron, have signed large deals with AI companies to fabricate components and sell directly to them. This has left the rest of the world that relies on computer hardware in the lurch, with even Apple recently having announced a price hike for several of its devices.

Interestingly, just as the memory shortages had started ramping up, Micron had announced that it was pulling out of the consumer market entirely, and essentially shuttered its consumer line-up of storage and memory components sold under the Crucial brand. More recently, Micron’s chief business officer, Sumit Sadana, blamed companies like Apple for the current situation due to their aggressive pricing practices when sourcing components. “A lot of the industry investments got shut down in 2023 because of really poor pricing and really poor margins,” said Sadana.

In the meantime, Microsoft recently announced that its Xbox Series X/S consoles will be getting another price hike. Kicking on from August 1st onwards, the Xbox Series S 512 GB model will be priced at $499.99, compared to its previous $399.99 price tag. The digital version of the Xbox Series X is going up from $599.99 to $749.99, while the disc drive version of the console is going up from $649.99 to $799.99. The Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black is being discontinued entirely.

“The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles,” said the company when it announced these latest price hikes. “Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make.”

In an effort to soften the blow for potential customers, Microsoft is also introducing a “Buy Now, Pay Later” option that gives buyers the ability to purchase an Xbox console and pay it off in interest-free monthly instalments.

Valve recently also admitted to not quite having the bargaining power it needed to negotiate better prices for the Steam Machine’s components. Engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat spoke about how they “would love to be able to make the Steam Machine more affordable and reach more people.” However, they noted that a price drop isn’t likely to happen soon.

Nintendo isn’t immune to these market conditions either, with price hikes hitting the Switch 2 in August.

Nintendo is raising the price of the Switch 2 in South Korea by around 15 percent.

From September 1, 2026, the suggested retail price of the console will increase to 758,000 won ($491) from 648,000 won ($420) in the region.

In a brief note to investors (via Google Translate), Nintendo said it has reviewed the price of hardware in South Korea in response to “changes in various market conditions.” 

“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers and stakeholders due to this price change. We ask for your understanding,” added the company.

Earlier this year, Nintendo confirmed it would be raising the price of the Switch 2 to in key markets such as Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States. Those price hikes came into effect in Japan on May 25, and will be rolled out in other regions on September 1. 

The decision was made a few months after Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa warned that an ongoing memory crisis driven by rampant investment in AI data centres might “put pressure on profitability.”

Related:Inside Skybound’s video game strategy ft. David ‘DA’ Alpert and Jon Goldman

In May, Furukawa confirmed Nintendo was rethinking hardware pricing in direct response to the war on Iran (which caused oil prices to surge) and the aforementioned component shortage. Notably, he acknowledged the move would price some consumers out of its hardware ecosystem.

“Unfortunately, the recent surge in memory and other component prices, and the changes in the market environment, including trends in the foreign exchange market and the price of oil, are all factors that we anticipate will continue over the medium to long term,” he told investors in May.

“As a result, we felt that the profitability of our hardware would suffer significantly if we maintained our existing pricing, potentially impacting our business operations over this time frame. For the sustained growth of our dedicated video game platform business, it is important to maintain a healthy earnings structure for our overall business.”

The Switch 2 sold almost 20 million units worldwide during the previous fiscal year to surpass Nintendo’s initial estimates. 

Among all the studios looking to make an impact in 2027, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is first up, with its newest IP, Stranger Than Heaven. We’ve seen a lot from the action-adventure title, from the many eras that it spans to the combat system and even the shocking inclusion of the late Tupac in a role.

All in all, it’s shaping up to be a large game. In fact, studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama notes that the story ended up longer as the team continued development. Speaking to Automaton Media (translation via DeepL) about the overall scope, he said, “We haven’t measured it precisely, but I think it’s turned out to be quite substantial. The main story, in particular, is very extensive. It just ended up getting longer as we were developing it.”

However, when compared directly to the Yakuza series, he said the maps are “roughly the same scale.” “We didn’t artificially make the maps for each historical era larger or smaller, so they each have their own distinct size. The number of buildings with interior spaces you can actually enter has increased compared to the Yakuza series. However, given the historical setting, there are no skyscrapers or similar structures. Therefore, I believe the overall scale remains comparable.”

However, he reinforced that Stranger Than Heaven is a “completely new title” with UI, controls, and combat that are “entirely different.” That also extends to the kind of experience fans would typically be used to. For instance, side stories will play out differently, perhaps hinting at their more serious nature.

Play Spots return, but once again, they’re rooted in the specific era. “Elements like ‘Play Spots’ are fewer in number, reflecting the historical setting. After all, we haven’t done any corporate tie-ins like in the Yakuza series,” says Masayoshi, laughing.

Launching on January 15th, 2027 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, Stranger Than Heaven is about Makoto Daito, who stows away on a ship to Japan after the death of his mother. Along the way, he meets the likes of Orpheus (played by Snoop Dogg) and Yu Shinjo, whom he’ll have continued run-ins with throughout the era, especially when they get into the music business together.

When we first heard that Virtua Fighter Crossroads had Game of the Year aspirations, it felt like reasonable but altogether difficult, especially given how long the series has been dormant. With recent gameplay showings, however, RGG Studio has shown that it’s cooking and could deliver the premier fighting game of 2027 (and maybe even match up to the juggernaut that is Street Fighter 6).

However, when you look at the single-player campaign, it looks much closer to a Yakuza, Like a Dragon or Judgment (albeit with fights adhering to the series’ usual format). That’s because producer Riichiro Yamada considers it an “open sandbox RPG” instead. Speaking to GamesRadar, he revealed that many were “kind of against” a Virtua Fighter revival when he pitched it.

As for the narrative, it seems he says that newcomer Cielo’s story, described as a “kung-fu movie,” isn’t the be-all, end-all. There are other protagonists (which you can likely spot here) with their own unique narratives, from “very dark and gritty” to investigative. Of course, there’s also a “lot of side content,” including “side quests with the legendary old cast,” and mini-games, though these won’t be as over-the-top as Yakuza.

For Crossroads, the development team “wanted to really ground it in this world,” noting IP like Watchmen as an inspiration. Yamada “really felt and loved about Watchmen was how the world – even if they’re dressed as superheroes – it feels so believable.”

But don’t be fooled into thinking the studio is developing another Yakuza with the Virtua Fighter name. Yamada said that “player choice really matters” with different decisions influencing the story. Rather than something like, say, Yakuza: Like a Dragon with its linear narrative, he likens it more to Detroit: Become Human “and stuff that, where you really change the story. Depending on how you play, it becomes a whole different game.”

It’s definitely an alluring prospect and could open up the title to an audience that favors a strong single-player component. Granted, we still need to see much more of Virtua Fighter Crossroads – and learn about its platforms – but RGG Studio is seemingly on the right path.

While Sony faced quite a few setbacks with its push for live-service games over the last few years, leading to several project cancellations, studio closures, and the much-mocked release of Concord, the company hasn’t given up on these aspirations just yet. In an interview with Famitsu, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Hideaki Nishino said that there is still interest at the company for more live-service releases.

He said that, along with looking at what kinds of live-service games it can release by working with first-party and third-party studios, PlayStation has also been looking into what it can do with some of the older live-service titles under its banner, like Helldivers 2. As for new releases, Nishino is excited about the upcoming release of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls on August 6th.

“We believe that live service games are content that attracts users on a global level, so we want to continue to revitalize the market through both first-party and third-party content,” said Nishino. “We are not only focusing on promoting new releases, but also considering what we can do with older titles in the medium to long term. Also, this year we are planning to release our own live service title, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, and we hope everyone will enjoy it.”

When it comes to whether PlayStation has any plans to slow down or reconsider its live-service efforts, Nishino said that the company finds it “important to continuously provide something.”

“The genre itself is relatively new, and I think many people are trying various things, so we also want to continue to take on challenges within that context.”

Nishino also provided some more clarity on PlayStation’s plans for multi-platform releases for its first-party games. He said that the decision of whether or not a release should be exclusive to PS5 largely comes down to a few characteristics, like how many players need to be in the game for it to be considered a success. With this in mind, single-player games will largely be exclusive to PlayStation consoles, while multiplayer games, which need larger audiences, will come to PC as well.

“Originally, platform selection is determined based on the characteristics of each title,” explained Nishino. “If releasing on PC can maximize the gaming experience of a title, we will continue to consider it. Our main policy at the moment is that for single-player games developed as a first party, we will further refine the value of the gaming experience that we can provide on PlayStation, while for live service games, we believe it is also important to have more people play through online multiplayer, so we are considering PS5 and PC as the basic platforms for release.”

Discussing the future of PlayStation, Nishino explained that the company wants to “develop new game console experiences” by making use of new technologies that can “be used in various forms”. Interestingly, he also vaguely hinted at the possibility of the rumored handheld PS6 being in the works.

“PlayStation is strongly associated with playing on a living room TV, but we plan to release monitors and speakers so that it can be played comfortably in other locations as well,” he said. “The PlayStation Portal was developed as part of this effort. We want to continue thinking and challenging ourselves to provide game experiences that suit increasingly diverse lifestyles.”

It’s always great to go back to a character whose story inspires you to be better. Edward Kenway certainly fits that bill, but he’s only one of the reasons that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced has us eager to set sail into the Caribbean. The original game was among our favorite titles in the franchise and continues to hold a special place in our hearts because the world was a stage for adventures that only a pirate-assassin hybrid could have.

We’re eager to chase storms, take on forts, transform our ship from a modest brig into the scourge of the high seas, discover new islands and the treasures they hold, board ships, and generally lose ourselves in a gameplay loop that brought the best of what the Caribbean had to offer. Resynced is more than a normal remake. It’s an opportunity to bring a fresh new take on one of the most naturally exploreable worlds that the franchise has given us, with a new engine, dynamic weather, new content, and more to spice up the experience.

It’s a chance to remind people about what made Assassin’s Creed so popular in the first place. Let’s examine why.

The Allure of The Sea

One of Black Flag’s best features was its ability to simulate life on the high seas as a crew of folks who treated the law as a set of guidelines rather than hard and fast rules. You were encouraged to make your mark on the places you visited, and the story just happened to unfold along the way. Saw a ship that was carrying some much-needed resources for your own vessel’s next upgrade on the horizon? Or a fort guarding a route to a hidden cove or jungle path that you really wanted to explore? Well, it was time to take up battle positions and let your cannons loose!

Perhaps there was a whale that you were really interested in hunting, or a storm that you could either try to avoid or sail right through like the reckless pirate you were encouraged to be. Edward was a focal point for all of this and more; his own nature blended seamlessly with the gameplay loop to make the whole adventure feel like it was a world that you were meant to engage with.

The detours you took along the path to becoming one of the Assassin Brotherhood’s finest warriors were a part of the journey, not a distraction from your goals. And that lent Black Flag a kind of beauty that we worried the franchise had left behind. It’s also why we think Resynced brings more than upgraded graphics to the table. It’s also bringing better open-world streaming, improved sailing, better weather systems, and more environmental detail while removing the friction between land and sea that was an unfortunate side effect of hardware limitations when the original game hit the shelves. There’s also the fact that enemy ships now have factional alliances and feuds, which could be a new layer that immediately makes sailing the seas more treacherous for everybody involved, as opposed to the Jackdaw drawing the fire of every other ship in the vicinity.

The absence of that friction is what we’re most excited about, as the Caribbean isn’t just going to look sharper, but feel more alive and responsive as a result. We’re expecting that setting sail could lead to more chaos on turbulent waters, and we’re all for it. The reduction in interruptions is going to make an already immersive world feel more convincing as a result.

The Pirate Versus The Viking

It’s a good time to compare Resynced to Valhalla, another Assassin’s Creed title that featured a protagonist who wasn’t really an Assassin, and who also viewed the laws of the land as ones that could be twisted to serve nobler purposes. Eivor’s romp through England was a ginormous undertaking, coming with tons of ambition as the first title in the franchise to make use of current-gen systems, and finding success in the effort.

It brought conflicts to the table, alongside having to navigate fragile alliances that rooted Eivor in the political landscape of England just as much as the Order of the Ancients. The game was framed around its advanced RPG mechanics, but that came with a pitfall: progression felt tied to exploration. You visited a new region, made a few friends, collected some gear, and resolved things before moving on to another one.

In perfect contrast, Black Flag and Resynced, by extension, are less tied to conquering new regions and more about chasing a horizon that always has something new to offer. You’re going to have to beef up to take on dangerous threats, yes, but it’s also entirely possible to have a jolly good time just soaking in the atmosphere and the sense of discovery that abhors a more checklist-based approach.

Where Valhalla was framed around visiting new places because an icon indicated there was something that was clearly demarcated by its color, Resynced brings back an approach that continues to be fresh even among modern games that are obsessed with scale, leveraging multiple systems, and the sheer volume of content they offer. That’s not to say that these things aren’t a part of Edward’s journey, but they’re spread out so well, and arranged in a way that makes engaging with them feel more natural.

It’s more about chasing something that caught your eye, and using the world map as a way to reach new discoveries instead of that very map telling you where to go and what you can expect to find there. There’s an air of mystery that pervades the Caribbean, and it was absent in England thanks to an approach that was enjoyable, but certainly not as immersive.

The best example of this is the new dynamic weather system. The sea in Black Flag wasn’t just an empty space you had to navigate between missions, acting as a sort of connecting thread between the story and exploration. Resynced has the opportunity to make it come alive with water cycles, lightning, waterspouts, and hazards to present a modernized ocean experience. We’ve already seen how the Anvil Engine made the weather a crucial part of the experience in Shadows. We’ve all dived into ice from viewpoints during our time in Japan, after all. In our case, it was on purpose just to see if the developer had been paying attention.

But modernization does come with risks.

A Balance Between Risks And Rewards

We’re being cautious about how better stealth, less frustrating mission designs, improved sailing and navigation, and quality-of-life improvements could change Black Flag in ways that take away something from the original experience by making things too easy. It’s a matter of the added convenience weakening the adventure.

However, when you consider how these features all work to present a world that’s free of stealth-focused course corrections, elements that strayed pretty close to live-service territory, a general air of franchise fatigue, and massive RPG worlds, Resynced is an opportunity for a return to what worked before all of the above came into play. It’s a chance to show players who might not have engaged with the franchise before Origins how things were done back in the day, and the way in which the franchise had been a pillar for the developer’s success.

Its modernization doesn’t take away from the simplicity of having a pirate aboard his ship, and a world that has a sea full of troubles that calls to you, making you go off course in ways that feel organic and natural, instead of forced. It could turn out to be the Assassin’s Creed game we’ve been wanting for a while, and one that we deserve for sticking with the franchise through thick and thin, building on the forward momentum that Naoe and Yasuke set up for it. That Black Tides’ mission could be a bridge that lets us get back to being Assassins first, and RPG characters second.

It isn’t merely nostalgia for an era of gaming that many believed was now lost to Davy Jones’s locker. It’s the possibility of getting to play (or replay) an Assassin’s Creed game that made exploring the world feel like a natural extension of its protagonist’s rise to infamy, and his eventual transformation into a man who looked beyond his own interests.

Like Edward, who went in search of fame and fortune only to find a higher calling, Resynced could be a game that builds on its own fame to become something more, and in the process be a signal fire for the future of Assassin’s Creed. It could become a beacon for future titles, being a template for what makes a title built around ancient civilizations and a never-ending war feel like it’s still fun to play, and actually enjoyable to engage with.

Well, with only weeks to go before we get to find out, we’re going to be on our decks and at the wheel of our ships, just waiting for the winds to hit our sails before we embark on an adventure that’s both nostalgically appealing and mechanically fascinating. And of course, you can bet we’re going to sing along to those shanties at the top of our voices when we do.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

We’ve already spoken at length about all the cool stuff that’s coming to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, and how excited we are to play it thanks to how it’s bringing meaningful updates to the combat, exploration, and traversal mechanics.

But there are so many other little touches that have gone under the radar, and we think they’re equally important to the experience given how they could change things up from the game we remember from back in the day. We’re here to tell you all about them, so let’s get started.

1. Reworked Playas

Remember those little islands and beaches that you could stop by in the original game? Well, they’re called playas in Spanish, and we remember them as red herrings in the original experience, being nothing more than ways to get off your ship and explore them only to find that all they had to offer was the view.

Well, they’re going to be a source of new rewards and unique encounters, giving you more reasons to stop by at every bit of land you see. It’s a nice touch that makes each piece of land have more purpose, and it’s sure to add a bit of nuance to exploring the world with the Jackdaw.

2. Brand New Lines From Matt Ryan

If you’re like us, you’ve probably played Black Flag more than once and loved every second of it. However, the side effect of that is that you probably know each of Edward’s lines before he even gets to say them thanks to what a memorable character he is.

But Matt Ryan has since told the lot of us that he’s recorded new lines for Edward this time around. He’s the original voice actor for our favorite video game pirate, and his return is a fine addition from a production perspective, and a great way to add authenticity to the remake.

3. The Shanties Are Not The Only New Music

We’ve talked a lot about how we’re looking forward to breaking into a song with our crew as we patrol the seas looking for our next mark. But we’re equally excited to hear the new track from Woodkid, a reimagining of “Leave her Johnny, Leave Her” that’s bringing his signature style to the popular song.

It’s supposed to mark Edward’s return, and is quite a good choice considering the pirate-turned-Assassin’s complicated personal life.

4. The Main Campaign Is Playable Offline After a One-Time Connection

You’re going to have to be online to download or install Resynced, but the entire campaign can be played offline if you so choose once the initial setup is out of the way. That’s very welcome for those of us who prefer to play offline, or people whose consoles or PCs might be placed where the internet is spotty, which could lead to frequent interruptions if things don’t go according to plan.

Well, that’s not the case with this one, and you can sail, pillage, plunder, and of course, indulge Edward’s kind-hearted noble side as much as you’d like.

5. Achievements Are Completionist-Friendly

We’re pretty stoked to score that Platinum on Resynced, and the good news is that none of the achievements (or Trophies, if you’re working with PlayStation’s terminology) are missable. Moreover, they’re not tied to the game’s difficulty and of course, are entirely obtainable offline. It’s good news for all you pirates who want to leave no corner of the Caribbean unexplored and is excellent from a quality-of-life perspective as well.

6. Special Goodies On The Collector’s Edition

Although the Collector’s Edition of Resynced is sold out at the time of writing, it’s worth looking out for since it comes with a very accurate figurine of Edward, a steelbook with exclusive artwork, a cloth map of the game’s world, sheet music for its Shanties in case you want to try them out on your instrument of choice, a metal insignia for you to wear if Assassin pride is your thing, and a leather logbook that’s been designed to resemble the one Edward uses to keep track of his travels.

That’s quite a bit of loot for a pirate, and we’d love to have that brooch to wear while we’re out and about to show any Templars out there that we’re not to be trifled with.

7. Movement Has More Momentum-Preserving Details

A new Parkour system is great and all, but it wouldn’t have been as cool if it wasn’t backed up by animations and speed boosts that allow you to sustain your forward momentum when chasing down a target or one of those runaway song sheets for new Shanties. Edward recovers faster from a drop, for starters, while he also gets a small burst of speed when he mantles after a wall run. Landing rolls are also a part of the deal, allowing you to smoothly transition from a jump into a quick jaunt.

These are all changes that could help the new traversal mechanics land well, and also make the moment-to-moment gameplay feel more fluid as a result.

8. Disable Advanced Parkour

Change is always a good thing unless it’s in a video game whose controls you’ve committed to muscle memory. If the new Parkour system keeps throwing you off, you’re probably going to be happy to know that you can disable it altogether, keeping the original game’s animations and movement to let you enjoy a more familiar experience.

That’s not really a downgrade either, as that one was quite adept at making Edward feel more agile than anyone else in the Caribbean, and in line with what we knew the Assassins were capable of back when Black Flag first hit the shelves.

9. Climbable Flora In Jungles

We already know that cities get ziplines to help make getting around them easier, and we’ve previously commented on what a welcome addition that is. But a lot of Edward’s time on land is spent in dense jungles as he hunts down either treasures or Templars when he isn’t deftly piloting the Jackdaw across the open seas.

Well, there’s going to be flora that helps make those forays into the wilderness a whole lot smoother, allowing you to keep the same momentum you’d have in a more urban setting even when you’re far away from civilization. Wow, they really thought of everything with this one, didn’t they?

10. Observe Does Not Replace Eagle Vision

If you were worried that the new Observe mechanic is going to either replace Edward’s Eagle Vision or make it redundant, we’re happy to tell you that it isn’t the case. You’re still going to be able to sense your enemies’ presence when you’re hidden away in a haystack or around a corner, tagging them through walls.

The Observe mechanic is here to assist you with identifying important points of interest or people, and is designed to function alongside Eagle Vision to ensure that nothing slips past one of the Brotherhood’s most prolific and cunning Assassins.

11. Edward’s Classic Tools Still Have Specific Uses

We really liked Edward’s versatility when he was trying to infiltrate enemy strongholds, and nothing’s changed on that front. He’s still got his Smoke Bombs, which you can drop to get some free assassinations when the numbers aren’t on your side, or to make a quick getaway when you think that thinning the herd from stealth is a better strategy.

Additionally, Sleep and Berserk darts are also a part of your toolkit, letting you manipulate enemy patrols or take out a lone guard who’s between you and your objective. We’ve been fans of the blowpipe for years now, and we’re glad to see them returning in all their glory in the remake. Oh, and Edward can toggle his hood on and off depending on the situation, a detail that we really liked in Valhalla and one that’s very welcome in Resynced.

12. An Expensive Option For A Quick Escape

Aside from Smoke Bombs obscuring your escape, another way to gain some distance from pursuing foes is to throw money on the ground. However, you might want to use that only as a last resort since you drop 10 Reales every time you do so, which might seem like a small amount but quickly adds up if that’s your preferred method of causing mayhem to hide your escape route.

It also comes with a bit of a cooldown, so it isn’t the safest way to make your enemies lose sight of you in a crowd but it’s certainly handy to have in a pinch.

13. Walls, Grounded Enemies, And Weapon-Specific Heavy Attacks Matter More

Walls can become deadly killing surfaces if you manage to get one of your foes pinned down, giving you an opportunity for a brutal finisher. The same applies to enemies who you manage to knock off their feet with the new sweep kick, or ones who happen to be near an explosion you cause. Aside from that, heavy attacks come with different animations and hit boxes based on your weapon of choice. Rapiers, for instance, come with piercing stabs, while cutlasses come with a sweeping slash capable of hitting multiple enemies and pistol-swords fire off two shots that you can use to target two different enemies with.

Speaking of shots, Edward’s pistols can be deadly once you’re progressed enough, allowing you to show off your Gun Kata skills with style and deadly precision.

14. Soldiers Coordinate Attacks

The enemy AI in the original Black Flag might have been a tad dull in comparison to what’s on offer in Resynced. The remake could have you fighting to fend off multiple enemies as they now attack together instead of hanging back to watch you skewer their fellow comrades. Look out for moments like these, as you’re going to have to parry consecutive attacks before launching a counterattack that lets you regain the advantage in a fight.

15. The PC Version Uses Denuvo

On PC, Resynced uses Denuvo Anti-tamper and requires an official account. The Steam version also lists a five-machine-per-day activation limit, though the main campaign can still be played offline after the initial setup, and you’re probably not even going to remember that it’s running in the background.

And there you have it, lads. There’s a lot to like about Resynced outside of all the flagship features that are being pushed as highlights of the new experience that the developer is offering us this time around. We’re excited to steer the Jackdaw into all kinds of trouble, and even more so when we think about how many of you fellow pirate-Assassins are embarking on the journey with us.

Industry analyst Mat Piscatella has revealed monthly sales figures for games in the US. In a series of posts, he has confirmed that 007 First Light was the best-selling game in the country in May 2026. It was followed by Forza Horizon 6 in second place, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight in third place, and Subnautica 2 in fourth place. The only other brand-new release in the top 10 charts is Yoshi and the Mysterious Book at eighth place.

While half of the top 10 list in the US were new releases for the month, the other half was made up of older games, like Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, MLB: The Show 26, Crimson Desert, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and Mario Kart World.

When taking the whole year into account, Resident Evil Requiem continues to take the top spot for game sales in the US. It is followed by Crimson Desert in second place and MLB: The Show 26 in third place. Despite being a relatively new release, 007 First Light has managed to do incredibly well by taking the fourth spot for the entire year so far, followed by Forza Horizon 6 in fifth. LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is the only new release to have broken through the top 10 sales for the year, coming in at 7th place.

007 First Light ended up getting quite a few accolades for its performance in May 2026, being the best-selling PlayStation game for the month, as well as the highest “full game dollar sales” of any James Bond game in history.

All in all, Piscatella has reported that total video game spending in the US for May 2026 hit $4.2 billion, which marks a 3 percent increase over May 2025. By the time the month was over, the year-to-date spending was 4 percent higher than last year, coming in at $23 billion.

Interestingly, Piscatella has noted that consoles served as the primary platform for game spending in May 2026 in the US, with total spending having gone up by 25 percent compared to last year. When taking year-to-date figures, console content spending is 13 percent higher. PC and subscriptions haven’t fallen behind either, coming in at 15 percent and 11 percent year-on-year increases, respectively.

Piscatella has also revealed details about console hardware sales in the US for May 2026, noting that both PlayStation and Xbox haven’t been doing too well. While it was the first May faced by PlayStation since 2000, Piscatella has confirmed that May 2026 was the worst May for Xbox since Microsoft launched the division. While there are likely many reasons for console sales falling in this regard, Piscatella also brought up the fact that price hikes have led to consoles simply getting too expensive. Xbox, for example, saw a 22 percent increase in average hardware price since 2025. PlayStation, on the other hand, saw an increase of 33 percent year-on-year.

“Xbox is currently tracking a distant third in hardware sales among the major manufacturers. But they are getting more revenue from each unit sold, enough to make dollar sales grow in May despite the unit drop,” said Piscatella. “If that fits the definition of ‘working’ or not, I don’t know.”

May 2026 U.S. Projected Top 10 Best-Selling Games Ranked on Physical & Full Game Digital Dollar Sales (Excludes Mobile and Digital Add-On Content)

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-06-26T13:00:03.576Z

YTD 2026 U.S. Projected Top 10 Best-Selling Games Ranked on Physical & Full Game Digital Dollar Sales (Excludes Mobile and Digital Add-On Content)

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-06-26T13:00:03.577Z

Content – Console drove content spending growth in May. Total spending on console content increased by 25% compared to a year ago and is now 13% higher year-to-date. PC content (+15% versus a year ago) and subscription spending (+11%) also grew in May.

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-06-26T13:00:03.585Z

Content – 007 First Light was May’s leader in full game dollar sales, debuting as the 4th best-seller of 2026 year-to-date. It also led all titles in full game dollar sales on PlayStation platforms in the month.

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-06-26T13:00:03.586Z

While Codemasters and EA may have decided to skip a year when it comes to an entirely new game in the F1 series, it doesn’t mean that they didn’t have something cooking. Codemasters has released the seasonal content for the 2026 F1 racing season in F1 25, while it continues to work on the next entry in the franchise, F1 27. The studio was kind enough to answer some of our questions about the release.

EA and Codemasters announced last year that F1 25 would be expanded with 2026 season content instead of receiving a traditional standalone F1 26 release. What ultimately led to that decision? And how did the idea of a 2026 Season Pack fit into the broader strategic reset for the F1 franchise, especially with the next full game now planned for 2027?

Both of these questions really come back to the same thing. Formula 1 has changed significantly over the last few years. The audience is larger, more diverse, and engages with the sport in different ways than it did even a few years ago. We felt it was important that the F1 franchise evolves alongside those changes.

As part of our long-term plans for the series, we made the decision to support F1 25 with a premium 2026 Season Pack rather than release a traditional standalone F1 26 title. We believe this approach allows players to keep enjoying F1 25 while experiencing the new teams, drivers, regulations and MADRING that will define the 2026 season.

It also allows us to take a longer-term approach to what comes next. While we’re continuing to support F1 25, we’re also able to focus on delivering the next major step for the franchise.

“It also allows us to take a longer-term approach to what comes next.”

The 2026 season represents a major reset for Formula 1 itself, with new cars, new regulations, new teams, and new racing systems. From a development perspective, what was the biggest challenge in translating that into F1 25?

The new regulations for 2026 are the biggest overhaul the sport has had in quite some time. It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity, but yes, that certainly represented some sizable development challenges. The first of which was to understand what to expect from the racing experience and capturing that within the game. We kept a very close eye on the official paperwork, really making sure we understood the changes to ensure we could achieve the level of authenticity we wanted. The next aspect was communicating these changes to players. Some of the terminology now has drastically different meanings. For example in 2026, Boost mode is more akin to what was previously known as Overtake mode. The functionality of Overtake has a very different strategic effect in 2026.

Beyond the updated teams, drivers, cars, and sporting regulations, what would you say are the biggest additions players should expect from the 2026 Season Pack?

The driving itself. You as the driver must operate very differently from what you’re used to. To some players, the driving can be described ‘restricted’ but others call it strategic and we have managed to capture the essence of this in game. Smart driving and circuit knowledge is way more rewarding in these regulations.

The 2026 update introduces Audi and Cadillac to the grid. How much work went into representing these new teams authentically in terms of car identity, presentation, performance, and overall feel?

Representing a team in the game is a combination of close collaboration with the F1 teams and attention to detail from the Dev side, making sure every detail from the model to the performance accurately represents the sport.

MADRING is being introduced as a new Madrid-based circuit built for the 2026 season. What can players expect from its layout, rhythm, and racing style compared to the existing tracks in F1 25?

This year players will be able to experience the MADRING circuit before the real drivers will, before it’s even built. That took an incredible effort from our environment art team, digesting the CAD data we were provided and bringing it to life, so credit to them for making it happen.

To drive, the circuit itself is a high speed street circuit, but what sets it apart is the flowing nature and elevation changes. With the barriers nearby it’s a real driver’s circuit. It rewards accuracy and bravery. The fastest laps come from carrying speed through the flowing sections while remaining accurate enough to stay clear of the walls, which should make it both rewarding to master and exciting to race on.

“This year players will be able to experience the MADRING circuit before the real drivers will, before it’s even built.”

The 2026 cars are lighter, smaller, and more responsive, with active aerodynamics playing a major role. How significantly does that change the handling model and moment-to-moment driving experience?

Those are all important factors, as are the slightly narrower tyre widths. Although the lap times are only around a second slower than the previous generation of cars, they achieve that performance in a very different way.

At times, the acceleration can feel incredibly intense, but the cars carry less speed through corners, particularly the faster ones, due to the relative reduction in downforce. One of the first things players are likely to notice is that the cars don’t feel quite as planted as the 2025-spec cars, which were comparatively stable and predictable.

Active aerodynamics and the new Overtake Mode appear to be among the biggest gameplay changes in the Season Pack. How do these systems alter race strategy, especially when it comes to attacking, defending, and energy management?

The racing they produce is also quite different thanks to the introduction of Active Aero, the revised Overtake Mode and the highly powerful Boost Mode. Wheel-to-wheel racing becomes more strategic, with drivers constantly balancing energy management against opportunities to attack or defend. There are often multiple ways to approach a battle, which creates a lot of interesting tactical choices throughout a race.

Of course, we were mindful that these new systems add complexity. That’s why we’ve included assists that can help manage elements such as energy deployment, allowing players to tailor the experience to their preferred level of involvement while still enjoying the unique character of the 2026 regulations.

Overtake Mode offers a major electrical boost when players are within range of the car ahead. How did the team approach balancing that so it feels powerful without becoming too easy to exploit?

Overtake Mode can be a powerful addition, but its effectiveness is tied to the same constraints and opportunities seen in Formula 1. We’ve replicated the key characteristics of the system, including the one-second activation window, the increased harvesting allowance and the revised deployment behaviour that enables greater electrical deployment at higher speeds.

As a result, it far from guarantees an overtake. Players still need to think carefully about when to use their available energy and how to position the car to maximise the benefit. That strategic element is a big part of what makes racing under the 2026 regulations so engaging.

“Overtake Mode can be a powerful addition, but its effectiveness is tied to the same constraints and opportunities seen in Formula 1.”

The 2026 Season Pack requires fresh 2026 saves for Driver Career and My Team. Why was it important to separate 2025 and 2026 career progression rather than allow existing saves to carry over?

As with everything in game development, it’s about making the decisions that deliver the best overall experience for players. Throughout development we’re constantly making decisions about where our effort is best spent and what will have the biggest impact.

Supporting existing Driver Career and My Team saves is a much bigger piece of work than it might first appear, so for this release we made the decision to focus our effort on delivering the best possible 2026 Season Pack experience.

It’s always about making the right trade-offs to deliver the best experience for players.

In My Team, players now enter as the twelfth team on the grid because the official F1 grid expands to eleven teams in 2026. How does that change the structure and feel of the mode?

Honestly depends on what type of player you are. If you’re the type of player that enjoys a challenge and likes to fight their way from the back, catching one or two cars every lap, then this is a great season for you. Then on the other hand if you’re the type of player that likes to fight at the front, then beyond the new racing style and the first turns chaos, you won’t feel much different, but your focus will shift on how to defend while managing your energy.

Which modes will benefit the most from the 2026 Season Pack, and how different should players expect the experience to feel across Driver Career, My Team, Grand Prix, Time Trial, split-screen, and unranked multiplayer?

Any mode that is supported in the season back was selected because they had a unique experience to offer to our players.

Will the 2026 Season Pack include any platform-specific visual, performance, or technical improvements, or is the focus primarily on content, rules, handling, and gameplay systems?

We introduced PSSR 2 on the PlayStation 5 Pro, Updated to XeSS 3 for Intel GPUs on PC and included bug fixes and quality improvements to the F1 25 EGO Engine across rasterised, ray traced and path traced lighting.

In a world where companies lock base game content behind $100 Ultimate Editions (cough, Rockstar, cough), it’s interesting to note anomalies like Crimson Desert. Sure, it retails for $70, but Pearl Abyss has been releasing weekly updates that offer more than fixes, adding brand-new game systems, armor sets, and even new abilities. And best of all, they’re completely free.

Marketing and strategic planning expert Will Powers previously explained that the studio won’t stop with the free updates as long as there’s demand. Heck, there’s also a plan to release more until September, not to mention DLC at some point in the future. But it’s about more than just increasing sales.

“A new IP selling five million copies in a month should be celebrated. There’s too many layoffs and studio closures, and bad news that I think that we all could benefit from spending some time around the good news,” said Powers to CG Mag.

“This should be a celebration in general, because Pearl Abyss isn’t taking a victory lap in the sense of ‘All right, how can we sell more?’ It’s ‘How can we give more back to the community?’”

Instead, the development team’s post-launch focus is more on “what we can do to reward the players that have been there from day one and continue to make the game this living, breathing experience.”

Story improvements are one such endeavor and while the core structure of the campaign won’t change, you can expect cutscene improvements to “clarify” certain elements and provide a “better onboarding experience.” New players are rewarded for sure, but Pearl Abyss isn’t disrespecting the time that current players have already put in.

And while details on DLC remain a mystery, Powers clarified that it will be “different from all the updates” released thus far. He also noted that there’s a “good reason why we’re calling it a DLC,” perhaps hinting at the overall scope.

As always, time will tell, but whether you agree with Pearl Abyss’s motives or not, there’s no denying the impressive post-launch support. Crimson Desert is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC – check out everything you should know about the latest update, which adds 58 new house items and allows Oongka and Damiane to ride Blackstar.

The stand-up striking aspect of UFC 6 is a significant improvement on previous iterations in the series, with a lot more fluidity to movement as well. However, mindlessly mashing the various strike buttons will not win you most matches, at least not unless you combine it with evasive head movement, parry blocks, and defensive countering.

This guide for UFC 6 is all about mastering the stand-up striking game while conserving stamina and health.

Movement And Striking

The basics of striking are as straightforward as they can be, with the real edge coming from your ability to move in and out of striking range when required. Curb your instinct to always push the stick forward into your opponent, which has a negative effect on the striking power of some moves, as well as limits which ones are available.

It is also okay to simply stand still once you have a good range on your opponent, and deliver strikes at their maximum damage potential. Just avoid that tendency to bear forward headlong into the striking range of your opponent.

Defense And Countering

Practice reflexive and consistent head movement which is performed by pushing the right stick in the cardinal directions. Head strikes are all about damage, and handing your fighter’s head on a platter for a consistent target will needlessly lose you fights.

Timing a combination of the right trigger to block, while flicking the right stick towards the rear of your fighter, i.e. a lean back or pull in the opposite direction of your opponent, will allow you to perform a parry block that reduces damage. This is useful in situations where your block meter is running low, and costs practically nothing in terms of stamina. These are also visually distinct between several fighters.

Lunges are done by holding the left bumper and pushing on the left stick in the desired cardinal direction, with the exception of some fighters. When timed correctly, it can be combined with the parry block for greater mitigation of damage if the attack connected.

Steps are performed by lightly flicking the left stick in a cardinal direction. These are good for quickly evading attacks without too much effort, and open up unexpected angles of offense.

Critical Settings

It is recommended that you turn off Strike Assist, as it will lead to an inconsistent experience between your online and offline fights.

While Time Dilation is unavailable in multiplayer matches, it can be very useful to at least practice with, as you will get a much wider timing window within which to react.

Combined with the Frame Timing Meter, you will have a clear visual representation of strike timing windows to test and observe.

That is everything there is to know about proper striking and defense in UFC 6.

As part of the collaboration efforts between Koei Tecmo and Konami for their Japanese-themed horror games, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake and Silent Hill f, respectively, the latter has now gotten a free update bringing with it cosmetics from the former. Players can now pick the Crimson Butterfly costume option in Silent Hill f to make protagonist Hinako look like Fatal Frame 2 protagonist Mio Amakura.

Players can access the new costume through an in-game Hokara, where a Change Costume button is available. It is available to all Silent Hill f players for free, as long as their game has been updated to 1.20 or later. Celebrating the release of the costume is a new trailer that shows off how Hinako looks as she makes her way through the dangerous streets of Ebisugaoka. Check it out below.

A similar set of costumes was released for free for Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake back in February, giving players access to Hinako’s Navy Sailor School Uniform and Fox Mask that can then be equipped on Mio and Mayu Akamura. It is worth keeping in mind that these are simply cosmetic outfit choices and have no effect on gameplay.

Silent Hill f tells the story of young schoolgirl Shimizu Hinako, who faces plenty of issues at home thanks to the expectations of Japanese society as well as her abusive father. The title is set in the 1960s, and one day, after getting into a fight with her parents, Hinako heads into town to hang out with her friends. Unfortunately, however, this hangout session turns into a nightmare, with Ebisugaoka getting engulfed in a strange fog and spider lilies blooming everywhere. If things weren’t bad enough, strange monsters also pop up and start prowling around town.

Silent Hill f was released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on September 25th. The title was the first mainline entry in the franchise since 2012’s Silent Hill: Downpour. Konami has confirmed that the title has been quite successful, and as of April 22nd, has sold more than 2 million copies.

Lead level designer Kaiyu Chang had previously spoken about the challenges in bringing the town of Ebisugaoka to life. She spoke about the story resonating with her quite strongly thanks to its core themes about the constraints that women face in society.

“I first read the initial draft of the script a few years ago,” she said. “At the time, I was pregnant, which made the story’s depiction of the expectations and constraints placed on women by traditional society resonate with me even more deeply. Many scenes struck a strong emotional chord.”

For more details about Silent Hill f, take a look at our review, where we gave it a score of 9 out of 10 thanks to its exceptional atmosphere, sound design, visuals, and execution of psychological horror. The only real complaints we had about the title were the fact that its combat system was too simplistic, and some of its combat animations were quite strange.

While Microsoft undoubtedly wishes that Bethesda could speed up the development of its next games in the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises, former Bethesda developer and lead designer of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Bruce Nesmith, believes that rushing development could risk “disappointing fans” of the franchises. In an interview with FRVR, Nesmith spoke about the difficulties of game development and what Bethesda is likely facing despite the long time it’s taking to make its games.

“There is an old adage in software development about the process having three corners: resources, time, and quality,” Nesmith explained. “The studio decides two of them, which determines the third. If you lock down the resources and the schedule, that decides the quality you will achieve. If you lock down the quality and the schedule, that determines the resources you will need to complete the project.”

“A less well-known aspect of this is a rule of diminishing returns. The three corners need to be roughly balanced. You can’t ask the project to be done in a month by throwing a million people on it. Over-committing to any one of the corners increases friction and becomes less effective. Allowing ten years for a project creates a cycle of endless reinvention and ultimate failure.”

To reduce development times would mean “either increasing resources or reducing features, or both,” explained Nesmith, who went on to say that “resources in most big studios are already quite large, and it takes time to onboard them.” However, while shorter development times may have benefits, such as more frequent releases, they can lead to lower-quality sequels, resulting in fan disappointment.

“In my opinion, the biggest risks of shortened schedules are quality, reduced features, polish, or bugs,” he said. “The things that are done last end up getting set aside to complete the game on time. And of course, faster dev times would result in faster sequels. But that’s the wrong question. Those sequels risk disappointing fans.”

As for whether Bethesda could potentially mitigate these issues by getting other studios involved in the development of The Elder Scrolls 6 or Fallout 5, Nesmith didn’t want to make any blanket statement on the matter, since he doesn’t work at the company anymore. He did, however, note that “you can’t just hand it to anyone. I also think that it serves a franchise well to let the ground fallow for a while. A franchise that releases too many titles too quickly risks fan fatigue. Of course, too much time between releases can also be a problem.”

Ultimately, Nesmith believes that “the industry has painted itself into a bit of a corner” due to its emphasis on expanding on its games with bigger sequels rather than refining what it already has. “Each new release has to be bigger, better, and more,” he says. “Which requires more time, resources, and features. Publishers demand it. The fans demand it. But bigger isn’t linearly harder to make. It’s geometrically harder. To put it more simply, you get diminishing returns by adding staff and time. Twenty percent more staff or time gets you less than a twenty percent improvement.”

In the meantime, Bethesda employees who aren’t currently working on The Elder Scrolls or Fallout are rumored to be at risk of impending layoffs at Xbox.

The prompt arrival of a (rather slick) bladeless fan that barely takes the edge of a blistering UK heatwave was the unequivocal highlight of my week, and that should tell you everything you need to know about the headlines nestled below. 

It all started so well. A weekday BBQ to watch England absolutely smash Ghana to secure their place in the World Cup knockout round and continue a wildly positive start on the biggest stage in football under Thomas Tuchel. It was the stuff of dreams—until it wasn’t. 

A tepid draw against a stubborn opponent provided a reality check and set the tone for a week in which the newsbeat largely consisted of incredulous pricing announcements and even more layoffs. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but as every single football fan our there will know, it really is the hope that kills you. 

On the plus side, at least we can rest easy knowing GTA VI will only cost $80. That’s a silver lining, right? 

Related:Meccha Chameleon sells 7M copies in first two weeks

via Game Developer // Sticker shock reigned supreme this week after Valve confirmed the Steam Machine—a console/PC hybrid that plugs straight into your TV—will cost a minimum of $1,049 if you opt for the entry level 512GB model. A 2TB unit will retail for $1,349, meaning gaming has now officially joined the ranks of deliriously bourgeois hobbies including padel, water polo, and croquet.

via Game Developer // A WARN notice filed in California shows Ubisoft has laid off 93 workers at its office on 300 Mission Street. The news comes shortly after Game Developer learned the French publisher is closing down its studios in Winnipeg and Belgrade as part of another major round of cuts. 

via Business Wire // If you’re after a teeny cuboid console that connects to your TV but can’t quite afford the Steam Machine (join the club), then you’ll be thrilled to hear the Nex Playground—a ditty controller-free device reminiscent of the Xbox Kinect—is finally available outside the United States.

via Game Developer // Grand Theft Auto won’t be retailing for triple figures, unless you want to splash out on the Ultimate Edition. After months of speculation as to how much the hotly-anticipated sequel would cost, Take-Two has confirmed the standard edition of Grand Theft Auto 6 will be priced at $79.99 when it arrives in November. Perhaps the real story here is that physical editions of the game will contain download codes instead of discs, so you can treat yourself to what for all intents and purposes is an empty box.

Related:VR dev Combat Waffle Studios lays off staff

via Deep Silver // A sales newsflash straight out of Czechia. Warhorse Studios award-winning sequel Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has sold more than 6 million units worldwide in around 16 months. The open-world RPG launched in February 2025.

via Bloomberg // Tencent is reportedly looking to scale back its investments in Japan—even if that means selling stakes in some studios at a loss—to refocus its portfolio around UGC platforms like Minecraft and Roblox. The pivot could mean companies such as Story of Seasons developer Marvelous might soon be cut adrift by the Chinese conglomerate. 

via Game Developer // Microsoft is once again raising the price of Xbox hardware as a direct result of a storage and memory crisis caused by AI-obsessed companies like Microsoft. “The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis,” said Microsoft, without even a shred of irony. The cheapest Xbox console (the 512GB Xbox Series S) will now cost $499. Terrific. 

Related:Sony is laying off ‘most’ of the Destiny team and ‘some’ Marathon devs

Well, people, the Steam Machine is finally close to launch. We must admit we’ve been pretty curious about Valve’s latest offering, given its compact size and potential to be a stylish addition to our living room setups. But with all the hype surrounding this one, you might be wondering if it’s worth dropping an admittedly significant amount of cash on.

We’re here to give you a few details to consider that could help you make up your mind. Let’s get right to it!

1. An Eye-Watering Price Tag

Let’s begin with the elephant in the room. You’ve got four options if you’re looking to pick this one up, with the lowest option being a 512GB console at $1,049, while adding in a bundled Steam Controller sets you back by $1,128. A 2TB standalone unit costs $1,349, and getting that with a controller jacks the price up to $1,428.

That’s a steep asking price for a machine that sits somewhere between a traditional console and a compact gaming PC, and you could understandably be thinking about building or buying a small-form-factor PC instead. There is an explanation for those gargantuan numbers, though, and we’re getting to it in just a minute.

2. Regional Pricing Confirmed

Although we’d like to be the bearers of good news, that sadly isn’t the case here. The 512GB standalone model comes in at €1,039 / £879, and adding a controller to that takes it up to €1,108 / £938. On the 2TB variant, that goes up to €1,359 / £1,149, and €1,428 / £1,208 respectively. If you’re in either the UK or Europe, you know that those asking prices are quite steep, and the Steam Machine carries quite the premium price tag for a console.

3. Extra Faceplates

If you’re the type who likes to add a bit of style to their gaming setups, you might be disappointed to learn that the 512GB model doesn’t come with extra faceplates. Those are reserved for the 2TB models, which include both red fabric and solid walnut faceplates. That’s a tad limited, although we’re pretty sure there are going to be third-party options cropping up fairly quickly. It’s still quite disheartening to see the lower-end models not get the option to spruce things up, though.

4. What’s Behind Those Price Tags?

If you’re a regular, you probably already know the answer to this one, as we touched upon it less than twenty-four hours ago. But for those of you who might have missed that bit of news, know that Valve’s explanation is simple: RAM and storage costs rose sharply, and the company says that made its original pricing target impossible. As a result, the Steam Machine is launching at a much higher price than many buyers expected. RAM and storage prices have pushed costs up across the board, and you might want to hurry up getting your new unit since Valve has also confirmed that its launch inventory isn’t where it would have liked to be.

5. Still A PC (Sort Of)

The Steam Machine sits at a unique position between a console and a PC, with Valve treating it like an open PC and not a locked console despite its spec sheet matching the PS5 and Xbox Series instead of a premium PC at that price. Of course, the original $750 price tag it was rumoured to be mulling would have made sense in this context, but alas, it’s been forced to deal with some harsh realities. As per The Verge, Valve is not treating this like a subsidized console, though. Its argument is that the Steam Machine should remain part of the open PC hardware space rather than a locked-down ecosystem, even if that makes the upfront price harder to swallow.

6. Potentially Different RAM Configurations

A shortage of RAM has Valve scrambling to maintain uniform configurations across the board for the Steam Machine. Units might ship with either single-channel or dual-channel 16GB RAM, and while in an article on The Verge, Valve argues that the difference is negligible in terms of real-world gaming impact, it’s still an important detail that we think matters to someone choosing to splurge on a console that’s as expensive as it is.

7. The TDP Figures

Aside from RAM, the Steam Machine packs a 30W semi-custom Zen 4 CPU alongside a 110W semi-custom RDNA 3 GPU, 16GB of DDR5 system RAM, and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. That configuration explains its compact form factor and its performance ceiling. The concern here is not really whether the system can stay cool, but whether that 110W RDNA 3 GPU and 8GB of VRAM will have enough headroom for demanding games over the next few years.

8. Resolution and Frame Rate Targets

If you’re expecting 4K/60 fps across the board, you might want to know that achieving that target usually requires lowering settings and leaning on FSR upscaling. As per LTT Labs, for demanding modern games, 1080p or 1440p is the safer target, while 4K is more realistic in older titles, lighter games, or scenarios where you are willing to make compromises. Your mileage might vary depending on the game you’re playing, but we’d pick a more consistent experience anytime, anywhere.

9. How Does It Fare Against The PS5?

Digital Foundry has weighed in on this all-important question, and the verdict is that the Steam Machine achieves largely similar results to what the base PS5 offers. The PS5 even beat it in games like Black Myth Wukong and Alan Wake 2, although the margins were quite tight. With that being said, the Steam Machine did pull ahead in some CPU-limited scenarios, but again, the difference was quite negligible. Considering the lower price tag on one of its biggest rivals, this is something you’re going to have to think about, because the choice between an open PC-style setup and a traditional console is a big one.

10. Storage Upgrades

512GB might seem like a lot, but we do know that the file sizes on some current-gen experiences are enormous. You might want to account for an SSD upgrade a little later down the line, once your budget allows for it, if you’re thinking about going for the 512GB variant, although the good news is that you can easily get to and replace the M.2 SSD that’s on board. As per Tom’s Hardware, just be sure you’ve got the right tools to work with a Torx screw, and you’re golden.

11. Suspend/Resume Is A Tad Unreliable

Valve did take a while to get this all-important feature right on the Steam Deck, and it looks like that might be the case here. Early reviews like the one from The Verge have pointed out that leaving a game suspended worked well enough, but there were still a few kinks to be ironed out as sessions sometimes vanished into the digital ether while TVs would suddenly turn on in other instances. That’s probably going to be fixed as the days go by, but we’d advise you not to expect a perfect suspend function right off the bat with this one.

12. Support For 3D Printable Faceplates

Yes, the lack of customization options out of the box on the 512GB model is a bummer, but Valve is at least leaving the door open for user-made alternatives. It’s releasing CAD files to make 3D printing your own faceplates possible, which means custom and third-party faceplates could be closer than we think. It’s still not as cool as having more official options available separately, but it is a step in the right direction. We can’t wait to see what players come up with as they spruce up their units over the next few months.

13. FSR4 Support Is On The Way

Valve has confirmed that FSR 4 support is being worked on for the Steam Machine in partnership with AMD. That should eventually give the system a better upscaling option than the FSR version available to reviewers right now, though buyers should treat it as a future improvement rather than a day-one guarantee.

14. The Growth Of SteamOS Desktop Support

If you’re still on the fence about the Steam Machine, you might want to hold off on picking it up until we see what SteamOS 3.8.10 has to offer, since it’s slated to bring improved support for Intel/AMD CPUs while Valve works with NVIDIA to ensure better GPU compatibility across the board. That’s important since you could ideally build your own Steam Machine at some point, although the official one is still likely to be the most unobtrusive and console-like option if you’re planning on a gaming system for your living room.

15. The Front Plate Attaches Magnetically

If the thought of customizing your unit has you drooling with anticipation, as per LTT Labs, the front plate can be removed quite easily and swapped out for something that’s more aesthetically pleasing to you.
That’s a great option to have since this one is meant to blend into your living room, and having the option to switch things up helps the Steam Machine integrate into a variety of setups without sticking out like a sore thumb. We’re still quite liking the no-nonsense design it ships with, though.

And there you have it! The Steam Machine has been a long time coming, and while things might not have gone entirely to plan for Valve in this particular instance, we’d like to believe that things can, and perhaps will, get better over time. But if you’ve decided you’re picking one up, we’d like to say congrats on the new addition to your gaming setups, and happy gaming!

Microsoft has announced another round of worldwide price increases for its Xbox console line, the Xbox Series X|S. Starting August 1, 2026, the price of 512GB models of the Xbox Series S will increase by $100, and the price of 1TB models of both models will increase by $150. The 2TB Xbox Series X will be discontinued.

This means the cheapest Xbox (a 512GB Xbox Series S) will cost $499.99, and the Xbox Series X will cost $749.99.

This is the latest wave of console price hikes for Microsoft—though Sony and Nintendo have also increased the price of their flagship consoles. In its previous announcements, Microsoft attributed the increase due to vague “macroeconomic conditions.” This time however, it’s being direct about the price hike: the global memory hardware shortage driven by generative AI companies’ exclusive deals with major manufacturers of DRAM fabricators.

“We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options,” the company said in a post explaining the price increase. “Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make.”

Related:Grand Theft Auto 6’s $80 price settles the $100 question

Xbox isn’t the only manufacturer to point to memory manufacturers’ supply shortage as the cause of its pricing woes. As Valve prepares to launch the Steam Machine, it’s been candid about how memory price increases drove them to crank up the price of the Steam OS-based device. In an interview with Gamer’s Nexus, it explained that it can’t even secure a fixed contract with memory manufacturers, who will apparently alter the price and quantity of memory chips on a monthly basis.

CEO Asha Sharma has already warned  Microsoft’s investors that the shortage could force the company to rethink its approach to its next generation console, called Project Helix. It’s one of many issues that are driving her “reset” of the video game vertical, which will reportedly be accompanied by mass layoffs.

Though it’s worth remembering that one of the biggest companies driving the push for widespread adoption of generative AI is, as we’ve noted before, Microsoft.

Can’t Stop The Feeling!

HIGH Infinite disco allowing custom songs.

LOW Lacking story content.

WTF The sassy German skull.

Disclaimer: This coverage is based on Early Access content.