Welcome back to your monthly report of game news, where I do my best to compile everything into one convenient ad-free place, so you don’t have to worry about the pesky cracks that info can fall through at other publications.
Thanks and credit for the banner image as always goes to the Avocado’s one and only Space Robot!
February 9th: Only a few months after release but after almost a decade of development, Riot Games is already slashing and burning its new fighting game 2XKO, firing 80 people or half of its development team. The game launched decently competitive with the likes of Marvel Rivals, but this was still regarded as a significant underperformance by Riot. Early autopsies find that the game’s biggest issues are hostile monetization and an insufficient content pipeline: Street Fighter and Tekken launched with 18 and 32 fighters respectively and both release four characters each year, while 2XKO launched with ten and has only released one more so far.
Discord announced a rollout of age verification policies for later this year.
February 10th: The launch of Mewgenics turned into an immediate total success, selling a million copies in its first week after eight years of active development and 14 years since it was originally started. Console ports and DLC have both been greenlit off this success, with a Switch 2 port suggested as first priority.
Capcom confirmed that the series-tradition large paid expansion for Monster Hunter Wilds will be revealed later this year after base game content updates officially ended this month. Performance improvements are expected to continue, and I expect that the heavily leaked Switch 2 port will be revealed either before or alongside the DLC.
A new report out of South Korea suggests that Microsoft/Blizzard and Nexon are partnering on a shooter spinoff of Starcraft that’s completely separate from the internally developed Starcraft FPS already expected to be revealed this year.
February 11th: At least 1200 Ubisoft workers worldwide followed through on the threatened three day strike in response to mass layoffs, studio closures, and return to office.
Embracer Group’s latest financial results announcement included a mention that a long awaited major unannounced game will be coming during the next year from April ’26 to March ’27, which is understood to be the fourth Metro game by 4A Games, after 2024’s VR spinoff and Metro Exodus launched back in 2019.
While commemorating the launch of Romeo is a Dead Man, Suda51 announced that Grasshopper will have another new game out very soon, currently planned for this year, while work on a physical release, a Switch 2 port, and an artbook/soundtrack release all for Romeo are currently progressing. Speaking of Suda, the poorly received Hotel Barcelona from his collaborator Swery65 has now received a major overhaul update.
Jeff Gerstmann speaking on his podcast made some major claims about future Fallout games: a Fallout project was in development at a non-Bethesda first party Xbox studio but he thinks it “is no longer going to see the light of day,” connecting that claim to a statement that Todd Howard prefers creative control over the franchise and would rather keep expanding the size of Bethesda’s development team to meet the needs of making Fallout games rather than letting other teams handle it, outside of outsourcing Fallout 3 and New Vegas Remasters just like Oblivion Remastered was already made by Virtuos.
February 12th: PlayStation State of Play: The presentation began with the reveal for Kena: Scars of Kosmora, a fantasy action-adventure and sequel to Ember Lab’s 2021 debut game Kena: Bridge of Spirits. The trailer doesn’t show signs of the lite-Pikmin elements of the first game, emphasizing combat and the new rideable wolf companion. Scars of Kosmora is scheduled to launch for PC and PS5 in 2026 with Sony handling publishing duties on both platforms this time, but that isn’t stopping the developer from multiplatform support. On March 5th, Ember Lab unexpectedly announced that the complete version of the original game will release for Switch 2 on March 26th 2026. Next, Sony announced that the free Legends multiplayer mode for Ghost of Yotei would release on March 10th, while the PC port for Death Stranding 2 would release on March 19th alongside an update on PS5 featuring new content like a transformative hard difficulty mode. Bad Robot Games had a gameplay deep dive on 4Loop.
Capcom had quick trailers for Pragmata and RE Requiem. Crystal Dynamics and Embracer Group made two announcements for the cult classic Legacy of Kain series: Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered brought the series’ PS2 finale to PC and all three sets of cross-gen consoles on March 2nd, featuring a never before available demo for the game’s canceled sequel, while a brand new entry for the series, a 2D sidescrolling action platformer developed by Bit Bot Media, was also revealed. Legacy of Kain: Ascendance will launch on March 31st for PC, Switch and Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X, featuring several key returning voice actors. Strategy RPG Brigandine Abyss was revealed by Happinet, the latest entry in their series which is scheduled to launch for PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series S|X sometime in 2026. Koei Tecmo unexpectedly announced the return of the Dead or Alive fighting games with both Dead or Alive 6 rereleased for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X on June 25th 2026 and Dead or Alive 7 officially revealed as currently in production, and how else would the series come back after almost a decade then with breasts front and center.
Remedy offered an extended gameplay showcase for Control: Resonant, further elaborating on its huge genre changes with multiple forms to the main melee weapon, traversal abilities like gravity shifts, jumps and flights, and more. Developer ProbablyMonsters revealed their new game Crimson Moon, a run-based co op action RPG coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. Game Freak made another appearance with Beast of Reincarnation where its release date was updated to August 4th 2026. Digital Eclipse and Ubisoft announced and shadowdropped the previously leaked Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition, a remaster collection of every version of the original 2D platformer along with the digital museum and documentary features of other recent Digital Eclipse projects. The game came out for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series S|X, with a physical edition coming this summer, but received criticism for completely replacing the original game’s soundtrack with a drastic remix. Yacht Club Games gave their first update on Mina the Hollower since its last minute delay, updating the release window to Spring 2026 and bringing the same limited time demo from the Switch/2 to the PS5.
Devolver Digital released a Neva Prologue DLC for all of the game’s platforms. Shueisha, Japan’s biggest media conglomerate, and Acquire, the makers of Octopath Traveler who actually got their start in the Tenchu ninja stealth games, announced an isometric co op ninja game called Yakoh Shinobi Ops. It’s scheduled to launch on PC and PS5 in 2027. After being in development since 2022 under the director of Far Cry 3 through 5, Krafton Montreal officially revealed their PS5-exclusive game Project Windless, an open world action RPG based on a Korean fantasy novel series starring a chicken warrior. This game feels like we’re entering the next generation soulslike trends with Wukong-likes. After originally being announced with a cinematic trailer at the Game Awards, Fuse Games offered their proper gameplay reveal for Star Wars: Galactic Racer, a story-driven spiritual successor to the cult classic Star Wars Episode 1 Racer game coming later this year for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. IO Interactive offered another new trailer for 007 First Light ahead of its late May launch.
A dedicated Konami segment offered several different announcements from the publisher while highlighting its developers and leadership, starting with the long-awaited Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 2, a remastered collection which features the narratively essential PSP game Peace Walker returning from the original 2011 HD Collection, more archival contents, and the Game Boy Color game Ghost Babel, but most importantly it does officially include the first ever rerelease of the previously PS3 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Master Collection Volume 2 is scheduled to launch on August 27th 2026 for PC, PS5, Switch and Switch 2, and Xbox Series S|X. The Volume 2 reveal was accompanied by more news both good and bad for the MGS series: a final 3.0 update for Volume 1 was released which provided new upgrades to MGS1 and MGS3 and also Switch 2 upgrades for the game to bring parity with other versions: MGS2 and MGS3 now have 1080p60fps support and MGS1 has 1080p30 support and new control options. On the bad side, Konami elected to delist all previous versions of Metal Gear Solid 4 and Peace Walker ahead of their new modern release.
The next Konami trailer announced a new demo for Darwin’s Paradox!, some MGS homages in the game, a physical release by Limited Run, and a release date of April 2nd 2026. The Switch 2 version of demo had poor technical performance, but GDC attendees reported that the updated Switch 2 version of the game works much better. In what Konami has explicitly said is only the beginning of a slate of 40th Anniversary franchise announcements, the first brand new Castlevania game in 12 years was finally revealed: Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is a very nicely stylized 2.5D sidescrolling Metroidvania developed by Dead Cells/Rogue Prince of Persia developer Evil Empire, scheduled to launch in 2026 for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series S|X. The game takes place in a new era for the franchise following Sonia Belmont, the daughter of Trevor and Sypha. Konami had to repeatedly explicitly clarify that the game is not roguelike and is a direct successor to the series’ ‘Igavanias” due to Evil Empire’s history with roguelikes. Lastly, Konami had a full showcase trailer for Screen Burn Interactive’s long in the works Silent Hill: Townfall, and also announced a brand new IP in Rev NOIR, an early in development JRPG.
Silent Hill Townfall is scheduled to launch in 2026 on PC and PS5 as a timed console exclusive and the series’ third annual release in recent history: it’s a stand-alone spinoff and a first person survival horror game, taking place on the Scottish coast and featuring the series’ first ever Black protagonist. After the Konami slate, Saber Interactive announced yet another current gen exclusive licensed action game with a cinematic trailer: the untitled John Wick game is early in development but does have Keanu onboard with an original script. It could be better written than Ballerina. Anyway, there was also one more extended showcase for Marathon, which has since launched to a better than I expected reception. After Marathon was a sizzle reel for PS Plus additions: Spider-Man 2, Tekken Dark Resurrection for PSP, cult classic lightgun game Time Crisis, and lastly, House House’s Big Walk will be a day 1 PS Plus game and a PS5 version is the game’s first officially confirmed console port. That led into a final series of first party/Sony-published features, starting with the latest trailer for Housemarque’s roguelike shooter Saros which is launching April 30th. The Saros trailer emphasized its story, characters, and even a hubworld.
ArcSys Works premiered a new trailer for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls which confirmed the game’s X-Men team of Storm, Magik, Wolverine, and Danger, an android version of the Danger Room’s AI, and announced that the game will launch on August 6th 2026. Finally, as part of the God of War franchise 20th anniversary, Sony Santa Monica offered two huge announcements that had both been somewhat leaked in the past: there’s a 2D Metroidvania spinoff for the franchise, and one of the major studio’s two current AAA projects is a full fledged God of War (Greek) Trilogy Remake in early development, and who better to introduce it than TC Carson, the original voice of Kratos who’s returning to the character for the first time in 13 years. That Metroidvania spinoff is God of War: Sons of Sparta, which focuses on Kratos’ childhood in Sparta alongside his brother Deimos. It was shadowdropped right after the presentation, was developed by indie dev Mega Cat Studios, and is currently only on PS5.
Soon after Chris Judge discussed this news at a convention where he gave more info than he probably was allowed to: Judge said that although he isn’t in the remake, he is going to be in a different Sony Santa Monica Project and we’ll hear more about that in “late summer.” He also suggested that the remake will have a new fighting system. He of course tried to downplay his comments right after, but I’m more skeptical of his disclaimer than of the original comments based on what else is currently rumored about the future of Sony Santa Monica. I’ve been hearing recently that the developer’s non-remake game is not just making Kratos in a new pantheon game like we’ve been expecting, but it’s not a new IP either, it’s a spinoff with a new gameplay focus and a new protagonist. That much Jason Schreier himself has basically confirmed. And more specifically, the game is rumored to focus on Faye/Laufey, Kratos’ second wife, Atreus’ mother, a mighty character who’s only ever been in posthumous flashbacks so far. So that would explain why Judge could be in the project while occupying a different smaller role.
February 13th: Sega’s latest financial results announcement had two major details: the publisher has taken a near $200 million loss on the acquisition of Rovio so far and is not likely to make another major acquisition soon because of that, and the publisher has four main games in core IPs on track to release during the next fiscal year, which I believe will include both Persona 4 Revival and the next new 3D Sonic, which has already been rumored for this year.
Warhorse Studios and Embracer Group officially announced and shadowdropped the long-leaked native PS5/Xbox Series upgrade for the original Kingdom Come Deliverance, with a physical edition coming in May.
February 14th: Developer 10 Chambers announced a large amount of layoffs including multiple cofounders while still having no release window for their co op FPS Den of Wolves.
After a months-long online countdown, Bloober Team officially revealed the current gen exclusive Layers of Fear 3 with few details.
February 15th: Shutaro Iida has tragically passed from cancer at 52 years old. His cancer diagnosis in 2024 led to him stepping down from production leadership on Bloodstained 2 after directing the original, and he had a storied career prior, taking lead roles on almost every 2000s 2D Castlevania as well as Metal Gear Solid 5.
February 16th: Developer CyberConnect2 and Bandai Namco announced .hack/Z.E.R.O., the first brand new entry for the cult classic isekai action RPG series in 20 years. There is no current public release window or platforms, but CyberConnect2 has already revealed two intriguing details: the game has actually been in various stages of development for a decade already, and they are fully self-publishing the game with permission from Bandai Namco to have more creative freedom.
February 17th: Respected professional fighting game community member Ludovic Mbock was apprehended by ICE in Baltimore while renewing his work visa, and has since been moved for imprisonment in both Louisiana and Georgia. His family and loved ones are mobilizing right now to prevent his deportation, where he could be put in danger not just in general but especially as an openly gay man. On March 13th after weeks of detention, a Maryland court officially granted bond to Ludovic thanks to that massive outpouring of support. He is expected to be freed soon where he can await a May hearing in safety.
Unity proudly announced that it is introducing a new GenAI coding tool into its engine which will be released in beta during GDC 2026 which is currently ongoing. Godot, an indie engine that has seen increasing popularity in part due to Unity’s recent blunders, has their own AI problem but not by choice: Godot is an open source engine and its dev team has started being overwhelmed by the number of outside contributions made with genAI code, they are desperate to hire more people to sort out and clean up this problem.
The Escapist and all other outlets under Clickout Media have fired nearly all editorial staff and cut ties with freelancers in favor of using genAI for future published content.
Sega unfortunately announced that it was delisting and discontinuing the excellent Christian Whitehead Sonic 1 and 2 mobile ports.
Bethesda released a new update for Skyrim on Switch 2, finally adding a 60fps mode and restoring the 1440p quality mode like it should’ve been at launch.
After an outlandish rumor of a Kingdom Hearts 1 Remake began spreading online, the images that inspired the rumor were discovered and proven to be genAI fakes.
Ubisoft dated the Switch 2 release for the Assassins Creed Shadows paid DLC as March 10th.
February 19th: As first reported by Jason Schreier, Sony and PlayStation are shutting down the acclaimed rerelease specialists BluePoint Games and firing roughly 70 workers at the studio after never greenlighting a new project from the devs since canceling the God of War live service spinoff a year ago, leaving the dev with its final project being 2020’s Demon’s Souls Remake and the publisher with the latest black mark on its acquisition spree. In a second article a week later, Schreier divulged many new details about the problems inside BluePoint, from the incoherent vision for said God of War game to some equally flawed or limp pitches like a PS5 refresh for the Shadow of the Colossus Remake. The pitch Sony saw the best potential in was a Bloodborne Remake, but that was shot down by FromSoftware themselves, likely because Miyazaki would rather update the game himself after hardcore fans’ negative reception to the Demon’s Souls Remake. It’s become clear that Sony had truly lost confidence in BluePoint’s quality control of top of being callously unwilling to foot a bill that amounts to a rounding error for their massive business.
Ubisoft announced that it has fired 40 workers from the Toronto studio, one of the publisher’s largest, mainly affecting the dev team for the Splinter Cell Remake.
Nintendo announced and shadowdropped another new first party Switch 2 Edition upgrade: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition received a $5 upgrade enhancing the game to 4K60fps along with further improvements to textures and loadtimes. It will then receive a physical edition on April 16th.
February 20th: Ryan McCaffrey broke a huge story at IGN that forced the official announcement to go live that Friday instead of the next Monday it was originally planned for: Phil Spencer has retired effective immediately from Microsoft and Xbox after 38 years total and 18 years since he first became main leadership at Xbox. But that’s not all: Spencer’s obvious successor and protégé Sarah Bond has also completely left Xbox, and the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming is now Asha Sharma, who was previously leading Microsoft’s CoreAI division.
It feels like the latest and severest nail in the coffin for Xbox yet. It quickly became clear Sarah Bond was effectively forced out on short notice and was being thrown under the bus at the same as her incompetent and arrogant mentor was lionized. I was similarly suspicious of Spencer’s retirement at first, and I still think it would have occurred differently if Xbox was in a better state, staying on through a 25th anniversary cycle with lots of major releases would’ve made all the sense in the world. I’m not going to give you the final word on any of this though, not with lots of other news to cover, and most importantly not with someone already having done it: I highly recommend you read On Phil by my best friend and esteemed colleague Wolfman Jew.
Square Enix announced that Nier Automata has reached 10 million copies sold and finally explicitly declared after many teases that “Nier Automata will be continued.” Nier 3 is understood to be in early development already.
February 22nd: Stephen Totilo reported that Tencent has closed another development studio and fired all affected workers: TiMi Montreal was founded in 2021 as a AAA studio and never released a game. One of those fired was Ashraf Ismail, one of the many lead developers who Ubisoft fired for misconduct back in 2020.
February 24th: Square Enix elected to delist the 2013 Steam release for the original Final Fantasy 7 and replace it with a new “upgraded” edition which has received widespread criticism for numerous technical issues.
February 25th: Andy Robinson broke the story of a major internal Ubisoft announcement: as part of the same leadership upheaval that’s resulted in a lawsuit from Marc Alexis-Coté, one of their biggest creative voices is gone and Clint Hocking has left the publisher for the second time after directing several of the company’s most acclaimed or at least unique games. Hocking was the director on the next major new Assassin’s Creed game, Hexe, which is far into development and has been billed as a new direction focused on horror and witchcraft. He’s been replaced by new franchise “head of content” Jean Gudeson, who also made some other new announcements: support is already starting to end for AC Shadows, AC Unity will receive a long-requested 60fps update on PS5 and Xbox Series, the multiplayer Project Invictus is still in progress despite the previous cancelation rumors which turned out to be a different multiplayer entry, and most notably, he did at long long last officially announce one of the industry’s worst-kept recent secrets: Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced.
EA and skate. developer Full Circle announced that some members of the Skate 4 team are being fired.
Amazon Gaming cuts continued as the publisher cut ties with a brand new studio from Forza Horizon vets after four years. Maverick Games is hoping to find a new publishing partner and continue development.
Konami and Limited Run Games revealed the Marvel MaXimum Collection coming on March 27th to PC, Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X, featuring multiple versions of six more major licensed games, including the iconic X-Men Arcade beatemup and Maximum Carnage.
February 26th: After months of escalation in financial and regulatory pressure from competitor Paramount Skydance and the Trump administration putting its thumb on the scale, a historical moment occurred when Netflix officially backed out of its plan to buy Warner Bros, refusing to issue a new higher bid and allowing the former to move ahead as the presumed new owner after WB repeatedly brushed it off at first. However, the Ellison family’s media empire ambitions are still far from out of the woods: massive debt is being used to finance the deal and could put them in new jeopardy, which could be exacerbated further depending on how long the deal takes to finalize. Even a friendly regulatory environment will still take a minimum amount of time to complete the acquisition, and that’s a problem when Paramount already committed to additional quarterly $650 million payouts if the deal isn’t finished by the end of this year. Those abandoning ship on WBD are potentially the only ones who are making it out of this happy and rich.
Parent company Ziff Davis engaged in yet more layoffs for its various games press outlets, including Eurogamer and Outside Xbox. Eurogamer’s entire video team were fired while editorial lost most of its most experienced members.
New York state’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against Valve for underage gambling via lootboxes in their first party games.
Tales of Kenzera developer Surgent Studios has announced their third game and already released it in early access for PC as of March 12th 2026: FixForce is a co op party platformer taking some extraction shooter inspiration.
A casting call has leaked some small information about Wolfenstein 3 after it recently began development at MachineGames, including story details and suggesting that performance capture production will begin as soon as April.
February 27th: Developer MostlyGames announced that their acclaimed story-driven sidescroller Peppered: An Existential Platformer will launch for Switch, PS4/5, and Xbox One/Series on April 7th 2026, one year after the PC release.
Super Meat Boy 3D was announced to be launching on Switch 2 alongside all other versions when it comes on what is now announced to be April 1st 2026, with extended footage of the port then being released by IGN.
Pokémon Day Presents: Commemorating the franchise’s 30th anniversary, this presentation featured various announcements, not just the usual mobile updates but also a final trailer for Pokopia, a new trailer for Pokémon Champions announcing that it will launch on Switch in April 2026 and later this year for mobile, the launch of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen on the Switch eShop, and lastly, inevitably, the official reveal of the mainline tenth generation games, Pokémon Winds and Waves launching in 2027 exclusively on Switch 2.
If you read my report about these games last year, then you already know most of what was confirmed by this first trailer: They are Switch 2 exclusive, they take place on a tropical island archipelago based on Southeast Asia, they already look to be visually ambitious and they’re planned to be mechanically ambitious as well, they’re releasing with the longest ever gap between new gens, and as seen in the trailer’s final scene, underwater exploration returns for the first time since the 2014 Ruby and Sapphire remakes. They also star a cute fire puppy, an angry grass bird, and a sleek water gecko as the starters. However, the launch being in Holiday 2026 was evidently outdated, they’re taking even longer to make it which is promising after how unbearably rushed Scarlet and Violet were. I’m not yet convinced this game is all the way in Holiday 2027 just yet, but we’ll have to wait and see.
March 2nd: BIT.TRIP developer Choice Provisions released a crowdfunding campaign to bring the remake Bit.Trip Rerunner to Switch 2.
March 3rd: Wildlight Entertainment announced the inevitable for their free live service shooter Highguard, it will permanently shut down on March 12th 2026, only 45 days after an unsuccessful late January launch, a generally mixed reception, and a reactionary backlash. Most of the team were already fired by mid-February, leaving a self-described skeleton crew crunching to complete the game’s final content updates. Like virtually every new live service, the game was dependent on having a massive audience out of the gate with almost no dropoff, something virtually none of them are capable of achieving. We got some major behind the scenes reports about the game, one by Jason Schreier, and one by Stephen Totilo where we found out the game was being secretly funded by Tencent.
Indie World Showcase: Another presentation premiered with a focus on third party releases for Switch and Switch 2, opening with a new trailer for the exceptionally cool train skateboard action platformer Denshattack!, showcasing its boss fights and announcing that it will launch on June 17th 2026 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series S|X, and yes, Switch 2. After previously releasing in 2025 for PC and PS5, Dreamotion’s afterlife adventure game My Little Puppy was announced to be releasing for Switch 1 on May 29th. Le Cartel Studio and Devolver Digital newly revealed Heave Ho 2, a cooperative fumblecore party game about forming living chains with your teammates to reach the end of courses. The sequel adds online play and GameShare after its predecessor was local only. It’s launching for PC, Switch, and Switch 2 in Summer 2026. Moonlighter 2 was confirmed to be coming to Switch 2 later this year alongside the 1.0 version and other current gen console ports.
Diorama puzzle game Woodo was announced by developer Tiny Monks Tales to be coming in Summer 2026 for Switch 2 alongside its PC, PS, Xbox, and Switch 1 versions. Twin stick shooter Minishoot Adventures was shadowdropped for Switch 1 and Switch 2. Moonhood announced that their previously PS5-exclusive acclaimed gothic stop motion adventure game The Midnight Walk will launch for Switch 2 on March 26th 2026. The latest game by Don’t Starve makers Klei Entertainment’s is stylish beatemup Rotwood, which launched right after the show as a timed Switch 2 exclusive. Beethoven & Dinosaur announced that their narrative adventure Mixtape will be launching May 7th 2026 for Switch 2 alongside previously confirmed platforms. Guacamelee makers Drinkbox announced that their gothic Metroidvania Blighted will launch for Switch 2 in Fall 2026. Roguelike FPS Deadzone: Rogue was announced to be imminently launching on Switch 2 with mousecon support.
Whisper of the House, Ooo by the developer of Elechead, Little Witch in the Woods, Schrodinger’s Call, Japanese Rural Life Adventure, Magical Girl Witch Trials, and Homura Hime, were all exclusively featured in the Japanese version of the showcase, even though half of these games are already not Japan-exclusive. The sizzle reel featured: Grave Seasons – Summer 2026 and Switch 1, Unrailed 2 – May 2026 and Switch 1/2, Toem 2 – Summer 2026 and Switch 1, inKonbini – April 30th and Switch 1/2, Outbound – April 23rd and Switch 1/2, and Ratatan – July 16th and Switch 2. One more thing: Blue Prince shadowdropped for Switch 2 with a physical release coming later this year.
March 4th: After Google and Epic first reached a surprise settlement late last year, the two evil megacorps had to keep waiting for legal review and approval. However, they’re done waiting even though the settlement is still in formal limbo, as Google just began independently rolling out the major policy changes described in the settlement, reducing Android appstore fees from 30% to 20% or less, detailing a rollout for a program to accept third party appstores, separating service and billing fees while allowing app devs to offer their own billing systems, and more. The Verge’s reporting fully detailing these events also includes a notable small wrinkle that is equally disturbing and hilarious from different angles: as part of the settlement terms, Tim Sweeney and his company are now contractually bound to not publicly criticize or sue Google any further, they are now in fact obligated to defend and advocate for the deal and Google’s new policies, in the public eye and especially in any courts where the settlement remains under review.
Jason Schreier released a full Bloomberg report elaborating on a provocative subject he previously commented on in a podcast, claiming that PlayStation Studios is reversing course on PC releases for its core first party single player games, saying that live services like Marathon and Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls will continue with multiplatform support while apparently both Ghost of Yotei and the upcoming Saros very recently had their PC ports canceled. This is said to be motivated by several factors including apparently poor sales for most Sony games on Steam, concern that the PC ports would undermine console business, and concern about their games being on more directly competitive hardware like the Steam Machine and the line of Xbox-PCs. I am slightly skeptical of this reporting, at least the idea that this is a company-wide strategic initiative, specifically because we saw in the 2023 Insomniac cyberattack leaks that Disney had a contractual mandate for PC releases for Sony’s various Marvel games. Disney-licensed games are generally either multiplatform from the start or timed exclusive at most, and renegotiating that contract would likely be expensive and challenging.
Infinity Ward cofounder/COD cocreator Chance Glasco responded to the Trump administration’s use of COD in its abominable online propaganda memes, revealing that Activision had attempted to pressure Infinity Ward after the acquisition into making a game about Iran invading Israel. He says there was enough internal pushback for the pitch to be dropped, but it’s hard not to wonder if this is related to the famous unlawful firings of IW’s founding members like the late Vince Zampella.
Capcom announced that Resident Evil Requiem has sold 5 million copies in its first week after launch, making it the fastest selling Resident Evil game yet. It then reached six million copies two weeks later. Capcom took this moment of success to confirm that the game will receive a major paid story expansion as has become series tradition, while a photo mode and mini game will be added for free later this Spring. While the game has definitely sold most on PS5 and PC, early data indicates that the Switch 2 port has done well enough to payoff production costs and Nintendo’s massive co-marketing campaign: the Switch 2 version sold out across Japan, and for that country the port’s week 1 sales matched those of the PS5 version of Village back in 2021.
March 5th: In the wake of the massive shakeups covered earlier, Microsoft and Xbox went ahead with randomly giving the next announcement about the upcoming fifth generation of Xbox hardware: the Project Helix codename and logo were announced, the device was announced to support both Xbox and PC games, at least confirming the many rumors about it being more PC-oriented, and Microsoft was confirmed to be discussing the hardware with partners at GDC this month. Microsoft’s GDC presentation was soon publicly disclosed, featuring lots of hardware details but most notably saying that “alpha devkits” will start being sent to devs in 2027. Already announcing and detailing the fifth gen Xbox now would have implied a prototypical pre-launch schedule with a release in holiday 2027, but the devkits being in such an incomplete state makes it far more likely the hardware won’t be ready to release in that timeframe and has still been delayed as we were expecting.
The GDC presentation emphasized the aforementioned PC-console integration and advancements in ray tracing and FSR upscaling technology, but also included the announcement that the backwards compatibility program has been revived with “new ways to play iconic games” for the 25th anniversary. At best this is most likely to amount to the expected rollout of Xbox-PC versions of existing back compat games, at worst this could entail abominations like the barely functional genAI “Quake Remake.”
At a later GDC panel, after previous threats Microsoft also announced that the controversial genAI Gaming Copilot “Assistant” will be integrated into Xbox Series S and X consoles by the end of this year after previous testing on PC and mobile.
Bandai Namco announced a brand new action RPG scheduled to launch for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X on July 10th 2026: Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online, the newest entry in the isekai franchise.
March 6th: On February 25th, the French games publisher Nacon announced that it was delaying its games showcase from March to May and more importantly filing for financial insolvency and facing potential closure due to its majority shareholder defaulting on a bond loan. Nacon has also accidentally leaked its own unannounced Hunter: The Reckoning game, that was probably going to have originally been announced by now, by pushing a Steam update to RoboCop: Rogue City that accidentally replaced it with the new Hunter game.
In the wake of the US Supreme Court ruling that most of the Trump administration’s new tariffs are illegal from how they were implemented, Nintendo of America (alongside many US states and other large corporations) officially filed a lawsuit against the US government seeking massive refunds for the previously implemented tariffs due to their effects on shipping and manufacturing costs, and challenging the new tariffs already threatened. However, Nintendo’s lawsuit among others were paused pending the results of a separate Supreme Court tariff case by the Court of International Trade.
MindsEye studio Build a Rocket Boy announced yet more layoffs.
March 7th: Games publisher NetEase continued its culling of its international partnerships, announcing that it is pulling funding from both Anchor Point and the Yakuza creator’s Nagoshi Studio, forcing both to go independent and attempt to stay financially afloat on their own. Nagoshi Studio and their project Gang of Dragon are facing shutdown as they will run out of money by May and estimate they need just over $40 million more to complete and release the game.
March 9th: Despite a massive launch immediately making Battlefield 6 one of EA’s biggest successes in a long time, the publisher went ahead and initiated significant layoffs across its Battlefield development studios. The game is said to have had issues with the reception to its post-launch support, the trap laying in plain sight that every live service still stumbles into.
Sony has been caught using dynamic pricing on the PlayStation Store in non-US regions, with different players in the same place at the same time receiving different prices for first party games based on their purchase history.
March 10th: Hyper Light/Possessor(s) developer Heart Machine voluntarily recognized their new union after the recent layoffs. This is a wall-to-wall union consisting of 13 workers.
Nintendo had some announcements timed for Mario Day, starting with the final Mario Galaxy Movie Direct/trailer the day before. A lot of castmembers were brought out to present for full fanfare this time around, and three new ones were announced: Yoshisaur T Munchakoopa himself is voiced by none other than the renaissance man Donald Glover, while my favorite obscure Mario villain Wart is appearing as played by character actor Luis Guzman. Virtual Boy games Mario Clash and Mario’s Tennis, and the original GBA Mario vs Donkey Kong that was remade two years earlier, were also added to Nintendo Switch Online.
Two new game trailers were also released, a final overview trailer for Super Mario Bros Wonder Switch 2 Edition, which is launching on March 26th 2026, and the second trailer for the next Switch 2 exclusive, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Yoshi’s gameplay was further detailed and it was announced to be launching on May 21st 2026. The Mario Wonder trailer was a kind inclusion considering I fucking forgot to cover the last Mario Wonder Switch 2 Edition trailer that came out back on January 22nd. Anyway yeah it is still multiplayer focused but there
March 11th: The VO/mocap section of the SAG Aftra union has issued a do not work order for members against Capcom for Mega Man: Dual Override after Capcom asked Mega Man actor Ben Diskin to return without union protections and insisted that Mega Man 12 will under no circumstances be a union project. Diskin says he offered to take a lower salary in exchange for a union contract for the security that comes with enforceable protections.
Matthias Linda, indie developer behind the 2022 RPG Chained Echoes, announced that he is cutting ties with First Press Games and suing the publisher for failing to deliver physical editions for his game.
Nintendo and TPC announced that Pokémon Pokopia has sold 2.2 million copies in its first four days of release while also selling out at numerous retailers US and abroad, cementing its status as a Switch 2 exclusive blockbuster. It only needs to reach six million copies to become the franchise’s biggest spinoff ever and to start directly competing with mainline games.
March 12th: Some highlights from the latest Future Games Showcase: Dave the Diver’s In the Jungle expansion was officially announced to be releasing on June 18th 2026, and physical releases for PS5 and Switch 2 were also announced for this year. Two major cult classic PC games got remakes announced: Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns and The 7th Guest Remake are both coming to PC, Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X later this year, the former based on the 80s medieval strategy game famous for its advanced and stylistic visuals, and the latter is a legendary horror adventure game which has previously been remastered and redone in VR. There Are No Ghosts at the Grand made a new appearance with a musical performance.
The PEGI European ratings board has announced an overhaul of their ratings system, introducing a minimum age ratings system pushing games with lootboxes and online games with no moderation features into higher age ratings. Effectively targeting real gambling instead of making Balatro adults only is nice to see.
Square Enix shadowdropped Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster on PC and Xbox Series S|X after nine months of Switch 2 exclusivity.
A new content update was released for Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered on all platforms, and the collection newly released for mobile and Switch 2 as well. The Switch 2 version will become a free upgrade for existing owners on March 18th. The update was poorly received for being buggy and allegedly using genAI to make new costumes without the main dev’s involvement.
Former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan announced his studio’s new game The Legend of California, a multiplayer survival FPS set in Gold Rush California. Kaplan has also started to openly discuss how Activision’s relentless profiteering pushed him away from Overwatch.
Konami announced that Silent Hill 2 Remake has reached now 5 million copies sold, after it previously surpassed 2.5 million copies in October 2025 which was shortly before its Xbox Series S|X launch.
March 13th: Speculative Agency, the indie developer behind the upcoming All Will Rise, a courtroom-narrative deckbuilder about taking down the rich for destroying the environment, has announced that they are formally joining the boycott against Microsoft for its partnership with the IDF, meaning that they are canceling an already in development Xbox port, skipping the Windows store, and returning all funding they received from Microsoft last year for its indie support program. For a brand new studio who was self-funding at first, this was a genuinely high stakes and risky decision but that didn’t stop them from taking a stand. They already launched a now-successful Kickstarter to soften the blow.
The studio consists of veteran developers including several who worked at Guerrilla on Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, as well as both the composer and narrative designer from my beloved Thirsty Suitors. The latter, Meghna Jayanth, spoke openly about both the costs and personal significance of this moral stand as a Desi who opposes India’s own extensive partnership with the Israeli military.
Off moderate success for Slitterhead, Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama and his development studio have started early development and begun recruiting for their second game project, which is already suggested to be bigger and more ambitious.
A new interview with Patrick Soderlund, former EA executive, now Nexon executive and head of Arc Raiders studio Embark, has revealed that much of the controversial genAI dialogue featured in Arc Raiders has been rerecorded and replaced with real voice actors in the months since its massively successful October 2025 launch. Shortly after, Embark Studios announced that it was firing cofounder and CCO Rob Runesson for sexual harassment of a streamer partnered with the dev.
Slay the Spire 2 has sold 3 million copies in its first week of PC early access.
March 16th: The now infamous legal battle between Korean games publisher Krafton and Subnautica’s fired creators has reached a genuinely stunning result: Judge Lori W. Will ruled that CEO Ted Gill must be reinstated as Unknown Worlds CEO and given back control over Subnautica 2, as Krafton failed to justify the firings, based their argument on evidence found after the firings, and clearly documented their true motivation for said firings, avoiding the massive payout which is now due to the studio founders by September 15th 2026. A new May 2026 early access release date for Subnautica 2 was announced almost immediately after this development. I had assumed this was from Ted Gill’s team, until his lawyers filed against Krafton again, revealing that the company (and their interim head of Unknown Worlds Steve Papoutsis) made the announcement without his knowledge or decision, disregarding the ruling that Gill is in charge of the game and its release.
The official reveal of DLSS5 by Nvidia proved to be incredibly controversial, disliked by the public and by game developers alike, due to two main factors. The first is the emphasis on a genAI-powered FaceApp esque filter that changes characters’ appearances far outside the original intended art direction, reminiscent of yassified Aloy and other reactionary pornified imagery. The second is how intentionally misleading Nvidia was in pitching the product publicly, baldly lying about what the tech is and isn’t doing by both trying to make it seem far more advanced than a post-processing filter and downplaying how much it’s changing the image away from the source, while also being misleading about how many devs were actually hands-on or approving of the demos based on their games featured in the reveal presentation.
Nintendo rolled out the 22.0 OS update for Switch 2 consoles, making many quality of life improvements including to GameChat, but most notably introducing the Handheld Boost Mode setting, a heavily requested improvement to backwards compatibility: this system-wide mode leverages the Switch 2’s power so that docked mode performance be emulated in handheld mode for a majority of Switch 1 games both first and third party. Thousands of back compat games can now have maxed out visuals and performance in handheld mode, significantly reducing the need for native Switch 2 upgrades for older and smaller titles that are hard to financially justify porting. The tradeoff is that this docked mode emulation does extend to touchscreen controls being fully disabled, gyro controls not translating correctly, and the battery being depleted faster. Games depending on touchscreen or motion controls like Mario Maker 2, Skyward Sword HD, and Super Mario 3D All Stars don’t support the mode.
March 17th: Bethesda finally confirmed the inevitable and much-leaked fact that Starfield is coming to PS5 (with PS5 Pro support) on April 7th 2026, and it’s arriving alongside both a second paid expansion and a large free update for the polarizing RPG. The $10 Terran Armada DLC is focused on defeating a robot army sweeping across the galaxy. The Free Lanes update will include various quality of features especially to space travel as well as new content. The game has also received a permanent price cut to $50. A Switch 2 port has not been announced alongside the PS5 port: Oblivion Remastered is just as if not more demanding than Starfield, so if there really isn’t a port coming, I think that comes more down to cost-benefit analysis for a less popular game than anything.
IO Interactive officially killed their publishing contract for MindsEye and canceled the Hitman crossover DLC after the game’s failure and its developers’ questionable behavior.
Facebook announced that the flagship Horizon Worlds metaverse will be immediately delisted on Meta Quest stores and that signature VR version of the metaverse will be completely shut down in June, leaving only the non-VR mobile version left after many billions wasted on what was only ever a whim of an asshole and not a complete idea, let alone a compelling product.
Nintendo released Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness for Nintendo Classics Gamecube on Switch 2. For interested newbies, keep in mind this is a direct sequel in this cult classic spinoff series and the original, Colosseum, hasn’t been added to NSO yet. Also, alongside this addition the Gamecube emulation was patched to significantly improve thumbstick sensitivity.
March 18th: Devolver Digital and first party studio Doinksoft (Gunbrella/Gato Roboto) revealed Dark Scrolls, a roguelike shootemup sidescrolling platformer launching for PC and Switch sometime in 2026.
Remedy released what is officially the final update for failed live service FBC: Firebreak, pledging to keep the game playable for years even as content support quickly ended. The game also received a permanent price cut to $20 and a Friend’s Pass for owners to share the game for free.
PlayStation announced that it was shutting down first party PSVR2 shooter Firewall Ultra as of September 17th 2026, three years after it launched and had its developer closed in the same year. The game has now already been delisted from sale as well. This is one out of only two first party PSVR2 games. Only, Sony didn’t properly announce this in a more public-facing way, it just updated the game’s three year old launch blog post with the new information, a pretty underhanded move to say the least.
Archetype Entertainment and Hasbro released a gameplay trailer for the action RPG Exodus showing a first look at combat and exploration.
Sega announced that its DLC for Shinobi: Art of Vengeance featuring crossover battles with Eggman, Death Adder from Golden Axe, and Majima from Yakuza/LaD will release on April 3rd.
Embracer Group abruptly announced that some of its back catalog of games from Purple Lamp Studios and Black Forest Games, Epic Mickey Rebrushed (October 6th) and Destroy All Humans 1 (June 23rd) and 2 Reprobed (September 15th), are all getting Switch 2 ports, bringing the latter to Nintendo for the first time after four years. Spongebob Squarepants: Titans of the Tide is also being backported to Switch 1 on October 13th 2026. Mouse controls are confirmed for Epic Mickey and 1440p resolution is confirmed for Destroy All Humans 1.
Double Fine and Microsoft announced that Kiln will launch on April 23rd 2026 as previously leaked.
Toby Fox gave another update on his dev team’s progress with Deltarune: Chapter 5 is almost finished and firmly in the post-production polish, translation, and certification phase, guaranteeing it will launch this year. I would estimate September 2026 based on this info. In the meantime, the majority of the dev team has already moved on to Chapter 6.
March 19th: Ubisoft announced that it was firing 105 people at Tom Clancy franchise development studio Red Storm Entertainment and converting the team from dedicated projects to support development.
Crystal Dynamics/Embracer Group announced that they will be firing 20 more people from their dev team, the fourth time it’s happened in the past year.
Darkwood cocreator Gustaw Stachaszewski and dev team Byzel announced the horror game Hoarder for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X.
Poncle announced that Vampire Crawlers will launch on April 21st 2026 for PC, Switch, PS5, and XBox Series S|X, with mobile versions coming later.
A full trailer for Shenmue 3 Enhanced announced that it will be launching in Late 2026 and will support a physical release including a proper Switch 2 cartridge.
In anticipation of the sequel’s launch later this year and the series’ tenth anniversary, Human Fall Flat Switch 2 Edition was shadowdropped.
March 20th: I have compiled all of the most recent moves made in games by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and related operations: After Sony offloaded its ownership of the EVO fighting game tournament to partner company Nodwin Gaming last year, Nodwin has now also exited and left the Saudi-owned RTS company with full control of the signature esports event. Then, right after RE9 became the bestselling game of the year so far, Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s MiSK foundation bought up a percent of stock in Capcom. Lastly, after exploring a deal throughout early 2026, the prince’s Savvy Games group has now agreed to buy mobile game developer Moonton Games from Tiktok owner ByteDance for $6 billion. Moonton is best known for the MOBA Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and the recently launched Acecraft.
A new report by the Nikkei confirms what had been suspected by those watching the state of EU hardware regulations closely: Due to new laws requiring electronics to allow consumers to access and replace batteries themselves as used to be the standard, Nintendo is preparing a Switch 2 revision that complies with that standard, and it will release in Europe by February 2027 at the latest. Nintendo is likely to consider expanding the model to other regions depending on the public demand and awareness of it.
Crimson Desert launched to financial success and mixed critical reception, and soon saw complaints about several instances of genAI art in the base game, as well as anonymous accusations of a messy production and toxic workplace environment.
Warframe saw a minor cyberattack incident where malicious in-game spam messages started being sent out as hacks of normal squad invites, but Digital Extremes was able to confirm that no personal accounts and info were accessed by the attack so players are safe as long as they ignore the messages.
Saber Interactive’s Hellraiser: Revival was rated by the ESRB, indicating it’s closer to launch while also revealing an unannounced Switch 2 port.
March 21st: Developer Double Eleven and publisher Microsoft suddenly announced a sequel to a 2020 dungeon crawler spinoff: Minecraft Dungeons 2 for a 2026 launch on PC, PS5, Switch/Switch 2, and Xbox Series S|X.
Thank you to everyone for your support over the years, in all its forms. I am incredibly grateful for you, all of you, for your enthusiasm, kindness, inspiration, and generosity. I will no longer be asking for your financial support, only for your shining presence in my comments. I am proud to say that this train can keep right on rolling!