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!
Some catchup headlines: Back in late April, Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive fired various employees across both the core DBD team and the mobile/casual partners division. These are accused of being motivated by recent union efforts and pushback to pro-AI policies at the company. On May 12th, Katsuhiro Harada’s new games industry position was officially announced several months after he left Tekken behind: he will lead a brand new internal studio at SNK where he will continue focusing on fighting games; this man really said he’ll work for Saudi Arabia as long as he’s in charge. On May 28th, the Epic-published co op stop motion puzzle platformer Out of Words was delayed to an early 2027 release, when it will come to PC and all current-gen consoles.
June 1st: The Rockstar Game Workers Union has now officially reemerged as part of the larger Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain; the union was supposed to form last year before the now-infamous firing of 30+ employees for their activities in their union Discord server. Union membership has only increased overall compared to where they were before the firings became a lightning rod and an ongoing legal battle. Said legal battle made major progress on June 17th when the UK’s employment tribunal scheduled a trial to take place in September 2026 and rejected Rockstar’s request to narrow the scope of the charges the fired workers can levy against Rockstar in the trial.
Fraser Brown at PCGamer reported that Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2 remakes are greenlit at Wizards of the Coast to sustain the franchise while Baldur’s Gate 4 inevitably takes a long time to come together. Bioware vet Kevin Martens is said to be already working on Baldur’s Gate 2 Remake as his work on Exodus begins to wrap up, and the projects will likely launch simultaneously or as one larger product given they tell one complete story together.
June 2nd: Digital Eclipse and Atari announced three separate licensed retro collections/rereleases coming later this year: Toy Story: Retro Roundup! coming October 15th, Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered coming November 3rd 2026, and Barbie Rewind coming November 12th, with Toy Story 3: Complete Edition also releasing as an individual digital game but part of the Retro Roundup bundle physically. The Toy Story 1 2D platformer, the Toy Story 2 3D platformer, the Buzz Lightyear TV show game, Toy Story Racer, and the A Bug’s Life 3D platformer, in both their home console and handheld iterations, are featured in this collection. The bulk of these games were made by Traveller’s Tales, now known as TT Games of Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman fame. Save states and rewind, cheat codes, assist features, and extensive behind the scenes materials are all included as well. Toy Story 3 Complete Edition is a remaster of the open world 3D platformer made by TERF RPG devs Avalanche. Barbie Rewind contains 16 different Barbie games from the NES to the GBA, mainly 2D and 3D platformers but also including horse racing, minigame collection, pet sim, and other game genres. Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered is a cult classic fighting game rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 with online multiplayer as a current-gen exclusive by its original developer Pipeworks Software.
PlayStation State of Play: The presentation opened with an extended straight gameplay look for Marvel’s Wolverine ahead of its September 15th 2026 launch only on PS5. It looks like a pretty straight bloodier, less acrobatic iteration on Spider-Man’s brawler combat, so the only real headlining news were the major characters shown later in the footage, Jean Grey herself and Sabretooth, and preorders opening right after the show. The Marvel of it all continued as ArcSysWorks revealed three new characters to fill out Dr. Doom’s villain squad in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls: Carnage, Green Goblin, and Magneto. Also Doom is voiced by SungWon Cho who is always nice to see. Ubisoft revealed their heavily leaked project Rayman Legends Retold, an extensive remake of the acclaimed 2D platformer and most recent main entry in an embattled series. Rayman Legends Retold and Rayman Origins Enhanced Edition launch together on October 1st 2026 for PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. The remake features 3D rendering for all assets, several brand new levels including 3D on rails sequences bridging each world, full voice acting and cutscenes to expand the story, new music by Grant Kirkhope and Christophe Héral, and ray-tracing with locked 60fps performance on all consoles.
Mintrocket revealed the latest extension of the Dave the Diver franchise, a prequel spinoff currently only confirmed for PC and PS5 with no release window: Bancho the Chef. After its initial announcement at Game Awards 2023, Ikumi Nakamura and her dev studio Unseen have provided the full gameplay showcase for KEMURI, a stylish co op multiplayer action game that’s coming to PC and PS5 in 2027. Three person teams will traverse all dimensions of an open city as they hunt yokai spirits and acquire their magical powers to use, engaging in melee, ranged, and magic combat. Crystal Dynamics, Amazon, and Embracer Group showed the second trailer for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, announcing that the remake will launch on February 12th 2027 after a delay out of 2026, and that a Switch 2 port has been added to its launch lineup. However, the game was also discovered to have an AI disclosure on its Steam page, revealing that its ugly visual design originated in the use of genAI for concept art. Great Ape Games (former Alien Isolation devs) and Annapurna showcased their first person stealth survival horror game set on a dinosaur island: The Lost Wild is scheduled to launch in 2027 for PC and PS5.
S-Game announced that their wuxia action game Phantom Blade Zero will finally launch on October 29th 2026 for PC and PS5, with separate deep dive presentations during this summer. Funcom announced that their multiplayer survival game Dune Awakening will be coming to PS5 and Xbox Series S|X on September 22nd 2026 alongside its next major update which does include an offline single player mode. Koei Tecmo re-revealed Dynasty Warriors 3 Remastered to announce that it will launch October 1st 2026 as a current-gen exclusive with its Switch 1 version canceled. Capcom shadowdropped a demo for Onimusha: Way of the Sword and announced that it will launch September 25th 2026, but it was then moved up to September 4th in response to the glut of games releasing in September and October. Konami and Screen Burn Interactive announced that Silent Hill: Townfall will launch for PC and PS5 on September 24th 2026. Bandai Namco announced that Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will launch on October 8th 2026.
Moon Studios announced that the 1.0 version of No Rest for the Wicked will release for PC and PS5 in October 2026 with its Switch 2 and Xbox Series S|X ports coming later. But on September 1st, the 1.0 launch was then delayed to March 2027 for further polish, still only the PC and PS5 versions. The studio’s reactionary jackass boss Thomas Mahler decided to insert himself into news headlines a couple more times around that same moment: he insulted the combat in Fable 4 and condescendingly offered to give advice to PlayGround Games, and he launched videogamescritic.com, an “unbiased” user-focused review aggregate to counteract Metacritic and what little is left of the gaming press. He attempts to quantify and rate other websites’ “trustworthiness”, the idiocy of which is best demonstrated by his response to websites that don’t use number scores on game reviews: he made up a nonsense algorithm to assess the accuracy of text-only reviews. It’s not an accident that he’s undermining game reviews in the lead up to launching his first game in seven years which has already had mixed reception so far.
Saber Interactive revealed Stuntman Hollywood, the third game in that racing series and first in 20 years, coming in the future to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. Unlike its predecessors, all stunt-racing levels featured are licensed from real Hollywood productions like Back to the Future, Fast and Furious, Miami Vice, Knight Rider, Death Race, and more yet to be announced. Team Clout and Mundfish showcased a gnarly story trailer for the survival horror game ILL, which is now scheduled to launch in 2027. Remedy announced that Control: Resonant will launch on September 24th 2026 while showing more of Jesse’s role in the story. Bungie and Sony offered a trailer for Marathon Season 2 followed by the next set of PlayStation Plus additions throughout this summer: PS Classics would receive Gitaroo Man in June, Psi Ops The Mindgate Conspiracy in July, and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams in August, while the co op open world survival game and spinoff Runescape: Dragonwilds will be a day 1 PS Plus game when it launches 1.0 on September 15th 2026. And lastly, the showcase ended with two first party announcements: Until Dawn 2 and God of War: Laufey coming exclusively to PS5 in 2027.
Until Dawn 2 is set on a tropical island while featuring Neil Newbon and a returning Peter Stormare in the main cast. It is developed by internal studio Firesprite rather than original dev Supermassive or defunct remake dev Ballistic Moon, who last launched that PSVR2 Horizon game in 2023 and saw their Twisted Metal reboot canceled. This leaves a sour taste in my mouth considering not only Supermassive and Ballistic Moon’s financial difficulties but also the allegations against Firesprite as a workplace.
Sony Santa Monica’s God of War: Laufey had the first 20-25 minutes of the game showcased uninterrupted to end the presentation; it stars Deborah Ann Woll returning as Faye or Laufey and the new player character, second wife to Kratos, mother of Atreus and God of Giants. It is notably not a prequel: after her passing at the beginning of the 2018 game, she was sent to the pantheistic afterlife of all Gods, where she encounters Sekhmet from Egypt and Begtse from Mongolia. Faye’s combat is far more fast-paced than the aged tank Kratos, resembling the air juggles and other character action tricks from the Greek era games. Later, on July 24th at the San Diego Comic Con, Sony Santa Monica made two more announcements for the God of War series: the next game starring Kratos is in development to release after Laufey, and God of War Laufey will launch for PS5 on February 16th 2027.
June 3rd: PUBG creator Brendan Greene AKA PlayerUnknown announced that his independent studio PlayerUnknown Productions is facing financial difficulties five years since their departure from Krafton and PUBG, leading to layoffs at the developer and ending support for their game Prologue: Go Wayback!, which will be going free to play later this year.
WB Games announced that the Switch 2 port of Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight will release on September 18th 2026.
June 4th: Amazon confirmed that as the owners of the James Bond franchise, it will take over publishing any sequels to IO Interactive’s very successful 007 First Light, instead of allowing the developer to self-publish again. However, after some comments created uncertainty around whether the Hitman makers would keep making the games at all, the company commented again to essentially say that IO is the first choice for any sequels considering the reception to First Light.
Cosmo Machia Games delisted Fantavision 202X from sale on Steam due to Sony ending the game’s licensing agreement, rendering it a retroactive PS5 exclusive in conjunction with the larger move away from PC.
Bandai Namco announced that Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition will finally release on August 28th 2026 for Switch 2 with its new content coming to all existing version of the game at the same time.
A viral library simulator game on Steam has had its success hampered after the game was confirmed to use genAI, and closer examination of the game suggests that the disclosure could be intentionally misleading/understating the amount of genAI usage.
June 5th: Summer Game Fest: The opening trailer was a new rendition of the intro to 2000’s Resident Evil: Code Veronica, the icon Claire Redfield arriving in Paris looking for her brother Chris before being apprehended and imprisoned by Umbrella on an island prison. This is Resident Evil Veronica, a long-leaked remake coming in 2027 to PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. The heavy hitters continued as Studio MDHR emerged from hibernation after four years to announce two brand new sequels in the Cuphead franchise: one hand-animated entry still early in development from the main team, and one being the 8-bit platformer Mighty Cuphead Adventure from a smaller side team, which is coming not only to PC and modern consoles but also the Sega Master System it was designed around.
Next, Sega and Creative Assembly offered a cinematic trailer for Alien Isolation 2, announcing that the survival horror game will take place on a colony planet and is releasing for PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. Shadow of the Colossus creator Fumito Ueda and his studio genDesign, and publisher Epic Games, offered a second trailer for what is formerly known as Project Robot, gen Atlas, an open world adventure about exploring a decaying alien planet, showing its first brief gameplay footage and announcing PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X as its release platforms.To the relief of everyone, Fumito Ueda soon confirmed that genAI will not be used in the making of his new project. Next, NetEase and 24 Entertainment announced their story action game Blood Message. Ryu Ga Gotoku and Sega finally announced the launch date for Stranger Than Heaven, January 15th 2027 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series. The trailer also revealed the most offputting stunt casting yet: the late great Tupac Shakur digitally resurrected. Sega has promised that he is portrayed by a real actor and not genAI mimicry, but I still find it distasteful that Shakur can’t give his own permission for this, especially considering his estate that did give permission is operated by a corrupt executive.
Dead by Daylight announced its 10th anniversary event. An open beta was announced and started immediately for soulslike Mortal Shell 2. Another trailer for AC Black Flag Resynced did premiere. Ben Starr introduced the latest season of Fortnite. Tinybuild announced and almost immediately released their open world multiplayer survival game SAND: Raiders of Sophie. In anticipating of gaining Warner Bros’ video game IPs through the advancing merger on top of the existing game productions under Paramount and Skydance, the new Paramount Games Studio division was officially formed and had its first game reveal here: the action game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin has been rebooted by Platinum Games after the original version by Black Forest and Embracer Group was canceled. Paramount Games’ creative lead Shawn Kittelson, cowriter of Mortal Kombat 11, will be hands-on with the game and has indicated that The Last Ronin will take inspiration from first party PlayStation story focused action games.
Bandai Namco revealed their latest Gundam action game, Gundam: Rogue Orbit coming in 2027 to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. Indie devs Bbear Studio announced their mutliplayer fumblecore puzzle game about ducks carrying their eggs to safety: An Eggstremely Hard Game launched for PC on July 24th. Next announced was That’s No Moon’s narrative co op shooter CrossFire, Smilegate’s next attempt at bringing this franchise international after the failed CrossfireX/Remedy campaign. And speaking of Remedy, another trailer for Control Resonant premiered, narrated by Jesse and featuring an original song by Petri Alanko. Fuse Games and Secret Mode offered a story trailer for Star Wars: Galactic Racer, fleshing out the cast of original characters and recurring antagonist Sebulba. ArenaNet and NCSoft officially revealed the next brand new entry in their signature MMORPG franchise Guild Wars 3, which will be on PS5 as well as PC. The game is narratively set over 1000 years before the original Guild Wars, it brings the scale of multiplayer down from Guild Wars 2 in order to allow a bigger leap in graphical fidelity, its public betas are scheduled to bring in Fall 2027, and it will have no ongoing subscription. Guild Wars 2 annual paid expansion development is paused until GW3’s launch.
Developer Section 9 and publisher Epic Games announced that their sci fi horror Metroidvania/twin stick shooter End of Abyss will launch on October 1st. Hello Neighbor makers tinyBuild announced their newest project Last Harbor, an open world survival game where a boat is the base you build for surviving the zombie apocalypse. Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku gave their biggest look yet at Virtua Fighter 6, now officially revealed as Virtua Fighter Crossroads coming in 2027 with its first story mode footage shown. Runescape: Dragonwilds appeared again. Warframe makers Digital Extremes had a new trailer for their fantasy MMO Soulframe, which has yet to launch on Steam or consoles. Xbox and Obsidian showed the next major update for Grounded 2, which then released August 11th. Hangar 13 and Take-Two revealed the Man of Honor expansion DLC coming to Mafia: The Old Country on August 14th, later announcing that a current-gen upgrade for Mafia: Definitive Edition would release alongside it. Bloober Team announced one of multiple new games for this year, Saw Genesis, the latest licensed asymmetric multiplayer horror game, but with a very odd twist on a notoriously lore-focused series: the game is a prequel set in the aftermath of WWI, where a predecessor serial killed called the Judge who “inspired” Jigsaw is active.
Assassins’ Creed creator Patrice Désilet and his studio Panache Digital Games revealed their brand new original project 1666 Amsterdam, which launched in Early Access for PC on August 25th after starting with a “prologue” demo released alongside this trailer in June. The story-driven action adventure jumps between 1666 and 1999 to follow a witch and her cat companion evading hunters while trying to stop true hidden evils, you play as both the witch and the cat. The game was originally in development at THQ’s Montreal subsidiary back in the early 2010s, but THQ’s bankruptcy led to Ubisoft buying the Montreal studio and immediately firing Desilet while retaining the game’s IP ownership, before agreeing to sell him the rights in 2016. Much more recently, it hit a roadbump when Xbox froze its partners program, abruptly dropping the game after committing to publishing it. The prologue demo was found to be using genAI art.
Lords of the Fallen 2 announced that it’s not an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC. BitReactor and EA announced that Srar Wars: Zero Company would launch on August 27th 2026, and the trailer ended on Anakin Skywalker himself. Rebel Wolves and Bandai Namco offered a story trailer for their RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker and committed to its September 3rd launch date. Innersloth shadowdropped the first season of the Paramount+ Among US TV show, which I will reiterate is from a master of TV animation, Owen Dennis. But they also revealed a brand new game for PC and Switch 1/Switch 2: Among Us Story: On Guard, a single player narrative adventure about a security guard proving their innocence.
IO Interactive announced that a new story mission featuring the return of Lenny Kravitz’s character is coming to 007 First Light, while announcing Wiz Khalifa as the next Elusive Target update for Hitman. NCSoft announced that their MMO Aion 2 will launch October 5th 2026. A Cyberpunk Edgerunners crossover DLC was announced and released for Wuthering Waves. Aurogon had a new trailer for the newest entry in their GuJian series, the action RPG Sword of Legends. Hot Wheels Infinite Rush was revealed by Milestone as the current-gen exclusive sequel to their previous Hot Wheels racing games, coming to PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series S|X on September 10th, originally September 24th. Sega announced Godzilla and Neon Genesis Evangelion DLCs for Sonic Racing Crossworlds, and revealed Sonic Pico Park, a full third entry in the co op puzzle series, now with a Sonic the Hedgehog theme. Koei Tecmo revealed the third and final entry in their hack n slash series based on a foremost fascist anime: Attack on Titan 3 will launch December 10th 2026 for PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series S|X. Chronicles: Medieval reappeared with its gameplay reveal and a 2027 launch window for PC. After a brief showcase only three days earlier, ex-Forza devs Maverick Games officially revealed their hotly anticipated new original game published by Focus Entertainment: Clutch is an open world story-focused racing game set in Monaco and scheduled to launch as a current-gen exclusive in 2027.
Capcom offered the long-promised reveal trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds’ traditional paid expansion: Ascendance is coming in 2027. In a separate random press release for some reason, Capcom also officially announced that Monster Hunter Wilds is in development for Switch 2, long after the port first leaked. Pocketpair announced that Palworld 1.0 would launch on July 10th. NetEase had another trailer for their oceanic open world RPG Sea of Remnants, showing gameplay and confirming an Xbox Series port. Telltale Games and Trick Studios once again re-revealed The Wolf Among Us 2 after it was first announced back in 2019, offering some real footage at long last and scheduling a 2027 release window for PC, PS5, Switch 1/Switch 2, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X. The original Wolf Among Us Remastered will also be releasing on October 29th for all of the same platforms. Wolf Among Us 2 will be using a revised version of the script produced by Dispatch makers AdHoc Studio before their departure from the project. Wolf Among Us 2’s final director has now been confirmed to be Zak Gariss, whose previous tenure for the Life is Strange games at Deck Nine has become infamous thanks to 2024 reporting by Rebekah Valentine. Zak Gariss is a reactionary who engaged in inappropriate conduct with female employees.
Capcom announced Street Fighter 6’s Year 4 slate of DLC characters, primarily consisting of newcomers along with one big widely leaked crossover appearance: Filipina karambit specialist Yasmine will release first on August 3rd, followed by Indian Yoga fighter Arjun on October 13th, SF6’s story mode rival character Bosch will launch in Spring 2027, but in early 2027 comes the Italian Senate’s favorite Brawler of all: Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy 7! Square is working closely with Capcom to bring unique Final Fantasy Abilities to Tifa’s moveset. And lastly, as reported and expected, Naoki Hamaguchi and Square Enix officially unveiled Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the conclusion to the FF7 Remake Trilogy coming in Spring 2027 to PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X simultaneously. Square had tons of gameplay footage and info to show, with a new traditional jobs system being introduced, seamless skydiving from the Highwind airship into the larger than last time open world below, and Cid and Vincent Valentine joining the party.
During the later iO Interactive Showcase, the company announced that it is releasing Hitman Classic Trilogy Remastered in collaboration with Saber Interactive, coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X in 2027. It features updated versions of Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, and Hitman: Contracts, the latter two games were formative experiences for me and my brother on Xbox as kids.
June 6th: Some highlights from the latest Wholesome Direct include: the since well received farm sim Fields of Mistria, In the Drift from the cocreator of Sable Daniel Fineberg, where you explore the cosmos to rebuild online infrastructure, and the adventure game Capy Castaway, where a baby capybara and a crow solve puzzles to find their way home. Highlights for the Southeast Asian Games Showcase include: TCG Card Shop Simulator will release 1.0 and come to PS5 and Switch 1/2 in Fall 2026, Sunset Visitor had another trailer for Prove You’re Human, and 3D puzzle game Hoa 2 was shown for a 2026 launch on all current gen consoles. Story Rich Showcase highlights include: Switch 2 upgrades for both Citizen Sleeper games were confirmed, Demonschool had a Switch 2 port and DLC announced, the horror farm sim Grave Seasons, Truth Scrapper appeared from the makers of In Stars and Time, a visual novel where you have to choose memories to keep or sacrifice each day, the makers of Duck Detective revealed Apple Crumble, a mystery adventure coming this year about protecting your grandma at her birthday party, SFB Games showed off another mystery adventure in The Mermaid Mask, the sequel to Tangle Tower which since released to acclaim in July, and the makers of Umurangi Generation revealed Penguin Colony, in which you play a penguin observing Lovecraftian nightmares in the Antarctic, launching October 8th.
Future Games Show Highlights: A non-VR remake of zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine is coming to PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series S|X in 2026, a Little Nightmares 3 DLC was announced and released June 12th, Halloween: The Game’s full single player story mode was shown, 3D action platformer Duskfade was shown ahead of it launching in August to great acclaim, a paid DLC for story based climbing game Cairn was announced to be releasing in August, musical horror game Don’t Fret was announced to be releasing October 1st, a major free DLC was announced and released for Blasphemous 2, and My Cannibal Family, a multiplayer sim game about a cannibal family operating a rest stop attraction coming in 2027 to PC/PS5/Xbox.
June 7th: Some highlights from the latest PC Gaming show include: Bytten’s monster catcher sequel Cassette Beasts 2002 coming to all current-gen consoles, Wispfire revealed Cold War vampire RPG Red Kiss, Planet Zoo 2 had its gameplay reveal, the since launched and acclaimed deckbuilder Shroom and Gloom had a trailer, Nightdive’s Thief: The Dark Project Remastered, coming to PC, Switch/Switch 2, PS4/PS5, and Xbox Series S|X in Winter 2026, Strange Scaffold revealed El Paso Elsewhere 2, and Bloom and Gloom Games revealed their airplane postal delivery game Into the Wind.
Xbox Games Showcase: One of the worst, most wide-reachingly corrosive corporations in the world, a tech giant proudly boiling our planet, aiding oppressive militaries, cannibalizing other megacorps, and committing more crimes on top of that, had its latest presentation to announce video game products. It started with “Thank you for 25 years and here’s to 25 more”, a threatening phrase if I’ve ever heard one. The hollowness of this celebratory tone and that underlying threat were made textual just three days later as Xbox CEO Asha Sharma declared “This Cannot Continue”. She and Matt Booty issued a company-wide email and a public memo bluntly stating that Xbox is not financially stable, due to declining sales and revenue combined with massive expenses between the entire arm of the games industry it’s acquired over the past ten years and the rapid inflation of component costs that shows no end in sight.
This directly foreshadowed the massive amount of layoffs and asset cuts that would be heavily reported beforehand and officially announced in early July which I will discuss at great length in the next Roundup, but it can be summarized thusly: thousands of people fired, several game developer studios fully removed from Xbox, all major third party publishing/Game Pass partnerships were frozen, affecting 1666 Amsterdam as previously mentioned and also IO Interactive’s Project Fantasy, leading directly to IO firing some workers and closing its Istanbul branch as it tries to suffer the extra costs of fully funding and publishing the RPG by itself.
The presentation opened with the gameplay reveal for Gears of War: E-Day, which reappeared at the end of the show with a longer dedicated presentation like the ones COD or Starfield have previously gotten. E-Day will launch on October 6th 2026 for PC and as a full first party console exclusive for Xbox Series S|X, something which was not true mere days earlier. As seen from retailers, promotional materials and journalists alike, a PS5 port was complete and ready to list for sale and it was canceled at the last possible minute by Asha Sharma in order to send another misbegotten message to the rabid and dwindling hardcore Xbox fanbase that hated the full-scale multiplatform strategy Microsoft started employing in 2024. Never mind that when you already can’t sell hardware this is just willfully wasting money already spent and making less money in sales, never mind the total inconsistency of this new initiative, never mind that Halo still went ahead and released for PS5, Fable’s still coming to PS5, even though those are both more core to Xbox history and they’re single player games with less to lose than their next extremely expensive multiplayer game in Gears. Pandering to losers, that’s what will save this 25 year old millstone. Another Fable 4 trailer, guest starring Haley Atwell, was up next, followed by Halo Campaign Evolved, which announced that its three new prologue missions are focused on teaming up with meme character Sergeant Johnson.
The first third party trailer was for Asobo’s Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, which launched August 27th 2026. Asobo confirmed that they don’t use genAI whatsoever in interviews after their trailer was released. That was followed by a full reveal trailer for Persona 4 Revival after its infuriating teaser last year. Now that we’ve fully seen it, the remake is proving to be extremely unambitious and less compelling than its predecessor, it basically is just P4 Golden again with prettier graphics (for the dungeons, the town looks bad to me) even though that game is already on all modern hardware. Atlus is simply unwilling to do the hard work to update these games in less superficial, more meaningful ways. Much like with not implementing the woman protagonist in Persona 3 Reload, Atlus confirmed that it will not be restoring the gay romance cut from the original game, saying it was considered but then they’d have to make romances for all of the male party members, and that’s just too much work. The internalized homophobia and other queer themes of P4 will continue to have no true payoff. I’m going to jump ahead real quick just to get Atlus’ two trailers together: yes, 10 entire years after Persona 5 launched, Persona 6 was finally unveiled with its own vague teaser, featuring a graveyard, a green color motif, horror movie editing, and nothing else. It’s got potential at least. The current-gen exclusive RPG doesn’t officially have a release window, and it could easily get delayed, but all signs point to it targeting Holiday 2027.
State of Decay 3 announced a 2027 release window and a PS5 port, A Custom Seas update was announced for Sea of Thieves coming June 18th. Metro 2039 reappeared to announce a February 2027 release and show a longer look at gameplay. Indie dev Milktooth revealed Bad Magpie for PC and Xbox coming in 2027: it’s a narrative adventure about a chaotic corvid exploring a sandbox to collect trinkets from open-ended puzzles. Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo revealed soulslike sequel Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember, coming early 2027 to PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series S|X, with its predecessor also coming to Switch 2 in August. Multiplayer open world cultist survival game Join Us had a March 2027 release announced for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X from debut dev Wolf Haus Games. Ninja Theory revealed a surprise third entry in the Hellblade franchise, simply titled Senua and coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X in 2027; after the weak reception to Hellblade 2, the game is far more action gameplay focused and is narratively standalone, seeing Senua trying to escape Purgatory. Ninja Theory announced after the event that they previously canceled their experimental horror game Project Mara and devoted every staffmember to Senua‘s production afterwards. Microsoft put this trailer in the showcase after it had already decided to cut Ninja Theory, it was used to help promote the studio to potential buyers.
The Revelations paid expansion for Doom: The Dark Ages was announced and released on July 7th. Sega formally unveiled their Crazy Taxi reboot as Crazy Taxi: World Tour, coming in 2027 for PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series S|X. The trailer emphasized the nostalgia of effectively remaking the original game, complete with The Offspring playing, before Sega started detailing the game’s newer content in later events. However, the publisher also confirmed that genAI was used during the game’s production, with conflicting PR messages over whether it was used for non-final reference materials or for background art in the final game. Translucent 25th anniversary special edition Xbox consoles and controllers were announced, which just can’t compete with the translucent N64s and Game Boys of days gone by.
Double Eleven and Mojang announced that Minecraft Dungeons 2 will launch September 29th 2026. Uppercut Games revealed their magical FPS Magicians: The Devil’s Deal, coming in 2027. After Highguard and Immortals of Aveum, I really want someone to actually pull one of these off! First person horror soulslike Valor Mortis was shown again with a September release, but it was later delayed to October 13th to avoid the glut of games in September avoiding GTA6. A new Thieves Guild focused free story update was announced for Elder Scrolls Online, releasing July 8th. Microsoft Flight Simulator announced a US national parks update releasing July 4th for the country’s Semiquincentennial/250th anniversary, which I don’t like but I’ll just move on from out of respect for anyone who does still have some emotional attachment to this country.
Everstone and NetEase shadowdropped an Xbox port for their action RPG Where Winds Meet, announcing a new paid expansion for it as well. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse was announced to be launching October 15th for all platforms, it took longer for the Switch 1 version to be confirmed as day and date but it eventually was, but it unfortunately doesn’t run great and I really wish it had a Switch 2 port. A multiplayer COD Modern Warfare 4 trailer was the actual final trailer of the main show, but I’m moving it behind two relatively more interesting first party projects. Crash 4 developer Toys for Bob finally revealed their new project that they secured to keep working on after going independent from Xbox, and it’s the most important game of the year if you’re my wife: Spyro: A Realm Beyond, the series’ first new mainline platformer since 2008, and one the dev had to fight hard for despite the Reignited Trilogy’s huge success. It features Tom Kenny returning again, it’s coming in Spring 2027 to PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X, and it introduces full free flight to the series to complement platforming and exploration. I forget if I ever said publicly that Toys for Bob was making Spyro 4, but I had told some people about it privately in advance of the announcement. Lastly, InXile once again showed their RPG Clockwork Revolution, coming in 2027 now officially branded as an Xbox Console Exclusive even though it’s gonna need all the help it can get to sell decently.
June 8th: Sabotage Studio announced that a final Sunset Edition and a free Switch 2 upgrade would both immediately release for their debut game Sea of Stars.
June 9th: Nintendo Direct: The presentation opened with a long-awaited deep dive on Rhythm Heaven Groove as Nintendo’s only upcoming Switch 1 first party game, announcing that it features over 80 minigames, including a more elaborate RPG one, and over 30 dedicated multiplayer minigames. Capcom had three different major announcements in the Direct’s third party headlines on top of separately confirming that Monster Hunter Wilds is coming to Switch 2 in the future: Onimusha: Way of the Sword will be launching day 1 on Switch 2 alongside its other versions and it features motion controls, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen edition will be releasing for Switch 2 on October 9th 2026 as a bundle with the newly revealed expansion DLC featuring a new region with new quests and mechanics, and Devil May Cry 5: Devil Hunter Edition was basically shadowdropped with a June 23 release date and 60 to 120fps performance confirmed. Shapefarm and Kepler finally announced that the exclusive co op game Orbitals will be launching September 3rd 2026. Rayman Legends Retold appeared again.
On the heels of revealing the sequel, Shift Up announced that 2024’s Stellar Blade will be releasing for Switch 2 later this year. Shift Up later revealed that the Switch 2 port is layering FSR3 Frame Generation on top of DLSS in order to boost the game from 30fps to 60fp: framegen is an immature technology that famously increases input latency, going directly against the benefit of higher framerates. Shift Up has somehow managed to minimize the input latency in this port through careful optimization, but it does still significantly worsen the image quality on top of the effects of using DLSS at low internal resolutions.
Goose Game creators House House confirmed that their new game Big Walk will be on Switch 2 Day 1, and announced it would launch August 4th 2026. Bandai Namco and developer Kairosoft revealed One Piece: Grand Gourmet, an expansive cooking sim themed to the iconic shonen and releasing for PC, mobile, and Switch 1/Switch 2 on October 23rd 2026. Pokémon Pokopia’s leaked expansion pass and major post launch content was officially announced, starting with a free update adding Dive as an ability for full underwater exploration and activities. This free update and the first part of the paid DLC both release on August 5th, with the latter adding a full new underwater town with many new water-type Pokémon to add to your community. Part 2 of the paid DLC will release in late 2026 and will offer accessories to customize appearances for Ditto and their Pokémon neighbors. The DLC’s Part 3 is scheduled to release in 2027 and will feature another full new town/area added to the game, but with no further details currently announced.
GungHo revealed Ninjala 2: The Uncharted Planet coming exclusively to Switch 2 in Spring 2027. It will feature an open world and a more expanded story alongside the series’ previous multiplayer action. Vampire Survivors creators Poncle announced their new collaborative project: Jujutsu Kaisen Rumble Survivaton, a competitive battle royale in the VS format and themed after the titular popular shonen series. It’s coming later this year to PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X.Nintendo announced a brand new kind of special event for Nintendo Switch Online: The DK Challenge, setting quests to complete within the series’ NES, SNES, and Game Boy games as well as DK Bananza for digital achievements and a special physical card pack for completing all 39 challenges. The DK Challenge ran from June 9th to September 1st, while a Mario 40th Anniversary themed event for Emerald Rush was announced for the same timeframe. CI Games, who have a very reactionary CEO, announced that Lords of the Fallen 2 will arrive on Switch 2 day 1 alongside PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X when it launches in Early 2027. It was originally announced for Fall 2026 before being delayed for polish and avoiding GTA6.
Epic Games and Nintendo were confirmed to be directly contributing to the port’s development for maximal Unreal 5 optimization. Nough and Neowiz announced that Lies of P Complete Edition will release for Switch 2 on August 6th, featuring the game’s Overture expansion and 60fps performance and with a proper physical release coming later. Vanillaware and Marvelous revealed Muramasa: Revenant Blades, a remake of the cult classic Wii-exclusive 2D action RPG featuring all new content from the previous PS Vita rerelease and a new dub and localization, coming to PC, Switch 1/Switch 2, and PS5 in 2027.
Monolith Soft and Nintendo offered a huge payoff to patient Xenoblade fans: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 are all receiving Switch 2 Editions with 4K60 support and brand new content added: Xenoblade 1 was shadowdropped, Xenoblade 2 released July 30th, and Xenoblade 3 will release December 3rd 2026. The first two got delayed physical releases while the latter will simul-release on the single date. These feature far better upscaling and performance compared to the Xenoblade X Switch 2 Edition, and their new content includes a vehicle for open world traversal and full voice acting for support scenes in Xenoblade 1, Xenoblade 2 receiving Xenosaga’s Momo as a new Rare Blade and the new Merc Assault mode for directly controlling Blades on their missions, and additional voice acting, a new Hero, and a new sidequest in Xenoblade 3. Additionally, Xenoblade Genesis was officially revealed as the next brand new mainline entry in the series, a Switch 2 exclusive coming in 2027. It’s seemingly a prequel taking place at a military academy, featuring a more painterly visual style and a fully open world within a medieval fantasy ringworld or Dyson Sphere type setting.
The second main trailer for Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave finally debuted, followed by a full dedicated Direct on August 4th. The June trailer announced that the game launches on September 17th 2026 and mostly just more clearly explains what was shown in the first trailer, playing as four protagonists competing in the Heroic Games in Dagda, and ending with a tease of some greater demonic conflict and the intervention of a mysterious angelic hero. The August 4th Direct provided much more new info: the game starts five years after the end of the Heroic Games, when Dagda has been destroyed and left an apocalyptic wasteland by the Demon God Balor and the four heroes are dead or vanished. The angelic hero is a fifth core and fully customizable player character, Eshmel the Pale Raven sent by Sothis to save the world by rewinding time, saving the four heroes, and bringing them and their allies to fight back against Balor’s army. The player controls all four heroes simultaneously during Act 1, guiding them as Eshmel and building support with them through Bird Time, the funniest possible successor to Tea Time. During downtime between battles, a full city is explorable with activities new and old to enjoy, the larger overworld continent has Dungeons to explore in more traditional JRPG turn based combat, but time and energy remain limited and are even affected by travel time in the overworld.
The four heroes’ curses give them magic abilities called Blaze Arts which consume HP upon use: Cai casts fireballs, Dietrich teleports through shadows, Leda uses her instrument to cast buffs and summon monsters, and Theodora throws chunks of earth at enemies. All four also have a unique ability that helps during downtime sequences. Weapon durability is now only affected by Combat Arts and not normal attacks. After being spotted in a freeze frame of the first trailer last year, guns are confirmed to be useable weapons in the game under the Gauntlet category. The class system has been carefully redesigned yet again.
Runescape Dragonwilds was confirmed to be Day 1 on Switch 2. Sanrio announced a crossover Mario Party competitor, Hello Kitty Party Land, coming to Switch 1 and 2 on October 29th 2026. Indie dev Sectordub and Devolver Digital revealed Pikiniku 2, a fully 3D successor to the staunchly anti capitalist puzzle adventure. Square Enix had two more announcements: a full showcase for Dragon Quest Monsters 4: The Withered World, which launches December 4th 2026 and focuses on Dragon Quest 5 characters, and Final Fantasy Resonance, an extensive offline HD2D remake of the heavily monetized and recently shutdown mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, coming October 22nd 2026 to PC, Switch 1/2, PS5, and Xbox Series. This is Final Fantasy’s first ever HD2D game and first fully turn based entry in decades. Resonance sadly will not bring back Ariana Grande. Deltarune Chapter 5 was announced to be releasing June 24th 2026. Sega and Atlus announced that Metaphor ReFantazio will release for Switch 2 on November 12th 2026. Xbox and Mojang announced that Minecraft will come natively to Switch 2 on October 27th 2026: it supports the Vibrant Visuals update, 120fps, and a digital upgrade path for existing owners will be available.
Next, Nintendo announced Switch Sports Resort coming exclusively to Switch 2 on October 22nd 2026. The game offers Wuhu Island finally returning as a central setting after almost two decades, and many new sports: Archery, Boxing, Table Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball, Bowling, Basketball, Golf, Power Cruising, Prop Plane Flight, Skateboarding, Jump Rope, and Thumb Wrestling. A full and not entirely successful Thumb Wrestling showcase was given by Yoshiaki Koizumi. A demo was dropped for the Star Fox Remake. A Splatoon Raiders Direct was announced for June 30th alongside blue and yellow Splatoon Joycon 2 controllers. The Duskbloods was reconfirmed for a 2026 launch and a closed network test was announced, which ultimately ran from August 21st to August 24th alongside new previews which further detailed the game.
Each session of The Duskbloods has several rounds taking place on one of three large sandbox maps, starting with a focus purely exploration and resource-collecting/character building while fighting classic From monsters, followed by instilling that activity with player-to-player interactions, both cooperative and antagonistic, culminating in battle royales between the top players in either singles or duos, or team-ups against a greater boss fight a la the final night in Elden Ring Nightreign, except permadeath only applies for that climactic round. All player to player interactions can be handled offline in single player against bots, bots that I can personally attest from playing the network test are way more sophisticated than From’s previous NPC invasions, they’re erratic the way real people are. Characters and lore are fleshed out across sessions in order to provide a kind of story progression.
Sizzle Reel time: Atelier Karia is coming from Gust and Koei Tecmo in early 2027, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 from Saber Interactive is coming Holiday 2026 (and Space Marine 1 Remastered is leaked to be coming), Bloober Team released Observer: System Redux for Switch 2 on June 17th, DayZ Cool Edition was announced for Switch 2 coming August 20th, Tales of Eternia Remastered was announced for October 16th, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Snowrunner were shadowdropped for Switch 2, Fitness Boxing 3 Switch 2 Edition coming July 16th, Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 2 and Final Fantasy 14 coming in August were shown again, and farm sim Everbloom was announced for 2027. The now standard third party One More Thing segment began by revealing Kingdom Hearts Collection, a native current-gen refresh of the main series coming on October 8th 2026, featuring Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 Remix, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts 3 Complete, coming to PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. 1.5+2.5 (KH1, KH2, Birth by Sleep, Re:Chain of Memories, and cutscenes from Re:coded and 358/2 Days) is also natively coming to Switch 1 at the same time, going to show part of why we got the cloud versions back in 2021. After the cover art for Kingdom Arts Collection was accused of being made with genAI, it was replaced with a different version.
Bringing the back catalog to Switch 2 led into the real announcement, the second trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 shown exclusively here, announcing that the game will be Day 1 on Switch 2. It showed new gameplay and story footage from the modern Quadratum hubworld Sora is trapped in at first. Later, at Disney’s D23 convention on August 14th, as part of a much larger showcase, a Holiday 2027 release window was announced for KH4. Co-directors Tetsuya Nomura and Tai Yasue have adamantly said that the game is already in its final stages of production and will not be delayed, in turn committing to a proper physical release for the game. They also said the game has the fewest total worlds in the series, trading off quantity for size and level of detail in each world.
Devon Pritchard made her first public appearance as Nintendo of America’s new President to introduce the Treehouse livestream at the end of the Direct, and I’m saying that first ahead of the final reveal because it’ll flow better. A widely speculated and then strongly rumored idea proved to be true: after shipping a remastered port and marketing it as a remake on the 3DS 15 years ago, Nintendo is officially launching a brand new Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake as a Switch 2 exclusive in Holiday 2026. The game was revealed with a cinematic teaser emphasizing the game’s beginning and its story and its massively updated visuals, a narrated tapestry followed by a brief glimpse of Young Link sleeping in Kokiri Forest.
June 10th: Ubisoft announced that it is firing up to 380 people and closing its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios, while also downsizing the Barcelona subsidiary and transitioning it exclusively to Rainbow Six franchise support. The now departed Belgrade team was dedicated to developing and maintaining Ubisoft’s proprietary Anvil and Snowdrop game engines. 51 people are being fired at Ubi Barcelona, and staff went on strike to protest these layoffs and issue union demands: all 51 employees must be retained, a contract must be established agreeing to not attempt mass layoffs at the studio again for at least five years, promotions and raises must be unfrozen, 60% work from home schedules must be allowed, and more. These protests escalated after Assassins’ Creed: Black Flag Resynced launched to a massive success, 3 million copies sold in its first two weeks, right before the layoffs were actively initiated when Ubi Barcelona made a massive contribution to working on that remake. Poor severance pay was added to the list of issues to address by the striking workers.
Developer Day4Night secured the French company Focus Entertainment as publisher and distributor for their hotly anticipated 3D action platformer Bradley the Badger. Focus’ biggest series as a game publisher is A Plague Tale.
June 11th: IGN’s writers has been battling with management for many years, and the official recognition of their union in early 2024 did not stop those conflicts. In the latest incident, the IGN Creators Guild protested against parent company Ziff Davis’ bad faith contract negotiations/refusal rto provide raises by writing numerous pro-union chalk messages outside the IGN Live office being used for SGF2026 coverage. The company proceeded to erase all of the chalk messages and fire six members of the union immediately, severely affecting the engineering team that handles fixes for the IGN and Humble Bundle websites.
June 12th: The Trump Administration officially approved the Paramount-Skydance-Warner Bros Discovery merger that it’s been pushing to help intensify its propaganda machine. However, between July and August the merger has been significantly slowed and delayed by 12 state attorneys general filing a lawsuit to block it, followed by a federal judge agreeing to halt the acquisition and set a full antitrust trial to review the case, scheduled for March 2nd 2027. The delays put Paramount-Skydance in a precarious position since it is legally committed to pay 7 million dollars per day to WBD for as long as it takes to complete the acquisition after September 30th. On September 11th, a different judge scheduled settlement talks between state governments, the Writers Guild of America, and Paramount/Skydance/Warner Bros, to occur in October and potentially head off the full trial.
Kadokawa and Gotcha Gotcha Games announced that they are shutting down the official RPG Maker Forum on December 11th 2026 without any official archiving for the information it contains. This is regarded as a devastating event for the RPG Maker development community as the forum contains numerous exclusive tutorials, guides, and exclusive scripts and plugins needed to make the most of the engine and make it easier to use, as well as containing valuable production history info from games made with the engine like Omori, OFF, Yume Nikki, and more.
Le Cartel and Devolver Digital announced that Heave Ho 2 is launching on July 16th for PC and Switch 1/Switch 2.
June 15th: Jackbox announced that Trivia Murder Party 3 will launch in 2027 for PC, PS4/PS5, Switch 1/Switch 2, and Xbox Series S|X; the expanded standalone game is planned to receive ongoing content support and to feature traditional online multiplayer and matchmaking for the first time in Jackbox history.
June 16th: After launching the acclaimed bullet hell FPS Luna Abyss on May 21st, developer Kwalee Labs is already shutting down with all team members fired by parent company Kwalee.
Alongside their announcements and demos at Summer Game Fest, Saber Interactive announced the launch date for Hellraiser: Revival with a new trailer, coming October 8th 2026 as a current-gen exclusive. Its previously leaked day and date Switch 2 port was finally confirmed on August 19th.
June 17th: Thick as Thieves developer OtherSide Entertainment announced that they were canceling a major project and firing 17 workers working on it. Two weeks later, they fired 18 more employees from the Thick as Thieves team, leaving fewer than 10 total employees. Finally, on July 25th, they announced that they were already ending support for Thick as Thieves after two months as the money and manpower for live service production just isn’t there. They don’t even know how long they can afford to keep servers up, so they are preparing the game for a transition to peer-to-peer fan servers when necessary while offline single player will remain intact.
Epic Games hosted the latest State of Unreal event, detailing the extensive integration of genAI into Unreal Engine 6 and into development for Fortnite. Vampire Survivors was one of the future Fortnite crossover partners announced, but after learning of all the AI usage at the same time as the rest of us, Poncle immediately responded in protest. The developer began reviewing the partnership and indicated that it is likely to be quickly canceled, saying there’ll be an announcement “if anything moves forward.”
Months after the controversial launch, AdHoc Studio has finally released the censorship correction update for Dispatch on Switch and Switch 2, formatted as a free optional DLC called the HR Violations Pack available in regions outside Japan. This update uncensors profanity, middle fingers, and breasts and asses in the game, leaving genitalia and sex scene audio as the only permanently censored content in these ports of the game due to Nintendo’s rules. They also added less intrusive censorship visual options, using pixelation or added clothes instead of the giant black boxes used in the 1.0 version.
Activision and Iron Galaxy Studios abruptly announced what had previously leaked, that they are porting the original 2010s COD Black Ops and Black Ops 2 to PS4 and PS5. These rereleases are pitiful: the PS5 versions have no upgrades over the PS4 versions, making you wonder why they exist at all, the games are $40 each for just the original base games, it’s actually $70 to get one 15 year old game and all of its DLC with minimal enhancement.
June 19th: Bobby Prince III, the composer of the soundtracks for early classic games like Wolfenstein and Doom, has passed at the age of 81.
Two Point Studio and Sega announced a current-gen upgraded complete edition for their first sim project Two Point Hospital: Full Health edition is coming in the future to Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X in the future after Two Point Museum’s recent release. Sega also announced that a Switch 2 port of Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is releasing digitally and physically on September 24th 2026. One more thing from Sega: the widely leaked Switch 2 port of Sonic Frontiers was finally shadowdropped on June 23rd, yet another release with no upgrade path from Sega, and one that has been largely panned as a shoddy rush job.
June 22nd: Valve finally opened preorders and officially announced prices for their console form factor PC the Steam Machine, complete with an extensive outline of how they got to the final pricing thanks to the component pricing crisis and their policy to not subsidize hardware costs, even directly saying what price they originally wanted. The Steam Machine starts at $1050 with no controller and only 512GB of storage, followed by $1128 with a controller and the same storage (amounting to a $20 discount on the $100 Steam Controller), then $1350 for 2TB model without controller, $1428 with controller. A minimum of over $1000 for a machine that is overall still less powerful than a base PS5. Valve originally wanted the base model Steam Machine to be $750, so still costing more and offering less than its most direct competitor in the living room, the base PS5 presently being $600-$650. Valve also became the first of now multiple companies publicly accusing the three main RAM manufacturers of acting as a cartel, saying they can’t lock in a contract, prices are being changed month to month, and there’s no room to negotiate on prices without being cut off by all three, who have a 99% market share together. The AI boom is being used as a cover by Samsung, Micron, and Hynix colluding together to intentionally create shortages and continually fix prices.
Preeminent French gaming union SJTV began calling for a national strike against the games industry for mass layoffs and other harmful actions. Their strike began with a picket outside Quantic Dream headquarters due to the studio’s plans to fire over 100 people to make up for the financial failure of their inexplicable MOBA. Unionmembers who are also Quantic Dream employees have stated that the studio and its slowly gestating Star Wars Eclipse project could not actually survive losing that many workers at once despite its claims otherwise, and point to the production progress already lost just by putting those 115 people on probation pending termination, while surviving employees are being harmed with new mandated overtime/crunch. The union’s attention is also once again on Don’t Nod, who’s reported to also be planning layoffs again in the midst of dire finances: as confirmed by the company auditor, majority shareholder Tencent has recently denied the narrative-focused developer a cash injection, they haven’t found any other sources of funding, and they could completely run out of money before the end of this year. As of September 7th, Don’t Nod reconfirmed that it lacks the support to continue much longer and that it could fire up to 90 more people to stave off closure.
Rebekah Valentine and Ethan Gach reported for Kotaku that EA is engaging in further layoffs ahead of the expected completion of its acquisition by the Saudi Arabian monarchy. An unknown number of people were fired across customer support, IT, and trust and safety teams.
June 23rd: The Frenchie indie developer Douze Dixiémes is reported to be shutting down due to financial instability. The creators of Shady Part of Me and this year’s acclaimed Metroidvania MIO: Memories in Orbit are believed to have taken a loss on the ambitious latter project.
Italian game developer 34BigThings bought themselves out from Embracer Group and went fully independent again after launching Carmageddon: Rogue Shift earlier this year.
After firing some devs at the team last year, Netflix and Oxenfree creators Night School Studio announced their newest game for a June 30th launch: Unhinged is a a short first person horror-adventure game featuring dual-screen gameplay using both your phone and the TV in the vein of a Wii U exclusive. It stars actors Sadie Sink, Zoe Kravitz, and Troy Baker.
June 24th: With Grand Theft Auto 6 preorders finally officially opening at midnight on June 25th to lock in its November 19th 2026 launch date, Rockstar released major information about the game as well as many screenshots, though it saved the gameplay reveal footage until all the way at the end of August. As had been speculated and rumored for months or in some cases years, it was now finally confirmed that GTA6 will launch at a base price of $80 USD and it will be completely digital-only, the physical release will be a one-use download code printed inside a plastic case, a code-in-box or CIAB. Though the initial leaks that the game would launch digital-only included a claim that a delayed physical release was already planned and scheduled to arrive later, as has been the case for previous AAA digital-only launches like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Alan Wake 2, as of my date of publication September 14th, Rockstar’s official stance is that GTA6 will never get a disc release.
“Activist investor” group Oasis Management tried and failed to vote out Kadokawa CEO Takeshi Natsuno. Oasis is Kadokawa’s new majority shareholder at 15% and was pressuring Kadokawa into focusing on self-publishing, saying that relying on Bandai Namco for releasing the smash hit Elden Ring was a failure of leadership. Oasis engages in these kinds of shenanigans all across Japan, but is most infamous for once proposing that Nintendo charge microtransactions to make Mario jump higher.
June 25th: Sony officially announced the previously reported mass layoffs at Bungie following the end of support for Destiny 2: “most” of the Destiny 2 team and some Marathon devs are all being fired. The current estimate is at least 300 people affected thanks to Washington state’s rules about layoff reporting. Bungie’s studio head Justin Truman is also stepping down only a year after replacing Pete Parsons. The cinematics team was affected even though Marathon could presumably use more, and the final hotfix for Destiny 2 was delayed because some of the people working on that patch were among those fired.
Alongside the release Deltarune Chapter 5, the game’s Steam FAQ was updated by Toby Fox’s team to announce that Chapter 6 is on track for a 2027 release and Chapter 7 development could start by the end of this year.
Developer Doraccoon and publisher PlayStack announced that their hit game Raccoin is coming to Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X in Fall 2026. PlayStack also announced that Unbeatable from D-Cell will be getting a Switch 2 port and DLC on July 27th, and physical releases for PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series will be coming this year from iam8bit.
Microsoft announced the third price hike for the Xbox Series S and X consoles since May 2025 while also completely discontinuing the 2TB Xbox Series X model, all due to the continued spikes in cost for RAM for these consoles that are already barely moving units and being manufactured at much smaller scale compared to the PS5 and Switch 2. The 512GB Xbox Series S will now be $500, $200 over its launch price, the same as the Series X’s launch price and the same as the Switch 2’s imminent new price, the 1TB Series S will now be $600, and the 1TB Series X will be $750 for digital-only and $800 for disc drive. Microsoft also states that it expects another doubling of RAM prices by Fall 2027, further showing just how far from over this problem is.
If it weren’t clear enough by now with these persistent price increases, that explicit confirmation of how much manufacturing costs will continue to increase through next year is enough to call it on what I’ve been already saying for months: a next-gen console is not coming in under $1000 anytime soon. Sony’s only options are to ship exorbitant hardware or delay launch when sales are already slowing, and the likelihood that Microsoft’s Project Helix is scrapped entirely is increasing by the day.
June 26th: After StudioCanal ended its licensing deal with Sony, the PlayStation Store is deleting 551 movies from sale and from all digital purchase accounts.
June 28th: At the latest EVO tournament, announcements included: DLC for Dead or Alive 6 Last Round, Mina the Hollower as a guest character was among the announcements for Rivals of Aether 2, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising had a Switch 2 port announced, Virtua Fighter Crossroads revealed a masked mystery character, Marvel Tokon announced its final base game characters as Blade, Loki, and Deadpool, SNK announced a remaster of Art of Fighting 3 featuring two new characters added 30 years later, and Tekken 8 confirmed that its fan favorite Bob is finally returning on August 19th.
Phasmophobia developers Kinetic Games announced upcoming updates for this year while delaying the game’s 1.0 launch and overhaul to 2027 for further polish and expansion.
You can look forward to July and August News Roundups arriving consecutively over the next two weeks and the September Roundup being published soon after, catching us back up after this hiatus! I am very proud to reach this point in the face of serious work and life obstacles. Thank you so much for your patience everybody!
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!