Resident Evil Requiem has all sorts of brilliant lines, especially from iconic protagonist Leon Kennedy – but there could've been even more, had Capcom not cut them.

Leon Kennedy actor Nick Apostolides reveals a few in a new discussion from Play, Watch, Listen+ on YouTube (below), including one that would've come up during the Titan Spinner fight – an arguably hair-raising battle against a huge arachnid.

"The one that they didn't use would have been my favorite," Apostolides explains, admitting that the cut line would've been his most beloved… had Capcom not removed it from the game.

"When you fight the spider, I wanted to say – and we recorded it, 'You know, you've been a real itsy-bitsy pain in my ass,'" the actor recalls, using his legendary Leon Kennedy voice while recalling the line. "It would have been a banger." Indeed, it would've been.

I'm not alone in agreeing with the star, either, as folks over on Twitter lament the cut dialogue. "OMG," exclaims one fan. "This would have been freaking incredible."

Quoted responses (if you click to view post activity) are just as amusing, with somebody shouting, "WE WAS ROBBED!" Another jokes, "Requiem Leon is definitely a father."

The actual video on YouTube has garnered some pretty great attention, too – considering that Apostolides used his Leon Kennedy voice while describing the cut line, folks comment on how it could be modded into the game itself now.

"Well, he just gave us the line right there to mod it into the game," as one person says – and, I mean, they're not wrong.

There are all sorts of Resident Evil Requiem mods out there, from those affecting gameplay to others targeting visuals. What's to say a boss fight line couldn't be the next to go live? I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it, and it seems like the community is already considering the possibility.

Here's hoping we get to hear the "itsy-bitsy" line in-game someday, then – Leon Kennedy can never have enough one-liners, if you ask me.

Yet to play Capcom's latest horror game? Be sure to read our Resident Evil Requiem review. You can also check out our guide to Resident Evil Requiem's safe codes to help you through the game.

Modders have been reanimating classic games inside of other classic games for almost as long as reanimation has been a thing (200 years or so; thanks, Mary Shelley) - from a Morrowind remake built within Elden Ring to, now, a Final Fantasy Tactics mod that plops the strategy game's combat onto Final Fantasy 6's scenarios.

Over the last three years, a modder known as Conman on the FFHacktics forum has been hard at work on a mod called FF6: Tactics, alongside a group of other contributors.

Rather than remaking the entirety of Final Fantasy 6 in Tactics' style, which would probably take much longer than three years, the goal was to "avoid any world map/randoms/stores and just jump from one battle to another."

Conman called this a "battle rush style" with the mod assuming "the player already knows the story." Final Fantasy 6's biggest battles, but in a strategy format, then.

That includes having most of Final Fantasy 6's main cast playable with their own quirks along for the ride: Terra's a scarily powerful magic user, Locke can steal, Cyan can pull off fancy sword moves... You get the idea.

New stages, reworked sprites, and that banger soundtrack filtered through FFT's sound font. After all that hard work, the mod is finally done and out now - you can find it here.

As you might be able to tell from the adorably chunky assets on show and the project's development timeline, the mod is built off the back of the original PS1 version of Final Fantasy Tactics, not the more recently modernized The Ivalice Chronicles remaster, so don't expect its quality-of-life improvements or cleaner graphics to show up in the mod.

And elsewhere in the realm of remakes, Square Enix recently said more traditional and official Final Fantasy remakes could be in the pipeline depending on what "resonates" with fans the most.

Perhaps that sparks hope for that long-rumored Final Fantasy 6 remake, but even if that's a far-flung dream at this point, at least we have the above gorgeous mod that's halfway there.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead thinks a potential Final Fantasy 6 remake would "be in better hands if it went to another creator in Square Enix"

Cult of the Lamb may have launched back in 2022, but the official X (Twitter) profile page announced on July 10, 2026 that a Cult of Lamb Collector's Edition is headed to the PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2.

The £129.99 (Amazon) physical edition is set to launch on March 12, 2027 and includes a boxed version of the Definitive Edition of the game on either platform alongside a smorgasbord of physical goodies, including a 200+ page artbook, double-sided metal poster, a comic book, and my favorite addition of the lot - a 7-inch vinyl record that includes the tracks Praise the Lamb and Start a Cult, composed by the masterful and late game composer, River Boy. Yet, if you want a copy for yourself, this "once-in-a-lifetime release" is limited to UK fans so far.

If Sony's July 1, 2026 announcement had you worrying that publishers like Devolver Digital (alongside developers Massive Monster) would stop releasing physical editions, this upcoming collector's edition should help quell your fears for the interim. However, this specific "once-in-a-lifetime release" wording, as found under the Amazon UK listing for the game, has me worried this could be one of the last few chances fans have to own the game physically. Or at least a version this bursting at the seams with physical merchandise.

If you pre-order the Cult of Lamb Collector's Edition ahead of its March 12, 2027 release, you get all the goodies I mentioned above, including a 44-card Oracle Deck + guide on how to read 'em (which I assume is the developer's version of a Tarot Card deck judging from the name alone), and a steelbook case featuring disturbing yet immensely cool art of The Lamb. Yet as much as I adore the steelbook case, I grabbed my copy for the vinyl record, which includes a green and black splatter effect and The Lamb on the front doing their best 'Midsommar' impression.

I collect and play video game OSTs on vinyl but missed out on owning the limited 2LP Splatter Colored Vinyl release of the soundtrack in the past. I was also moved by the Cult of the Lamb's X (Twitter) thread, which mentioned its inclusion was "dedicated to our beloved friend River Boy" and couldn't not own his work and a little part of indie game history.

If you want a copy of the Cult of the Lamb: Collector's Edition for yourself, so far only the PS5 and Switch pre-orders have been listed in the UK. However, I'll be sure to update this page the moment the US links drop.

Trying to grab what physical game releases you can? Check out the Halloween: The Game Limited Collectors Edition pre-order, which includes a Michael Myers action figure by Trick or Treat Studios.

The true king of the kart racer, Garfield the unendingly hungry cat, is ripping into Nintendo's decision to effectively kill Mario Kart Tour.

This week, Nintendo announced that its seemingly successful mobile spin-off, Mario Kart Tour, would be shutting down after an almost seven-year run. The entire game and all purchases people have made will be scrubbed come late September, and Nintendo doesn't plan to release a version that's playable offline, as they did for Animal Crossing's mobile experiment.

Along with Mondays and going to the vets, Garfield seemingly hates the idea of digital games and purchases simply evaporating into a virtual void at the behest of corporations. And he made that loudly clear on social media.

"This is why Garfield Kart is better," the Garfield Kart Twitter account writes in response to Mario Kart Tour's impending doom, "we will not randomly kill your game license." The orange feline also boldly proclaimed that Garfield Kart is "better" than the red plumber's racing series, too - an opinion I'm sure won't be divisive at all.

Garfield Kart had heat for everyone in the replies, as well. He is a grumpy cat, after all. Responding to one account that took issue with Garfield's trans advocacy, Garfield Kart pointed out that Nintendo has also been pretty queer-friendly as far as big video game publishers go.

The only diss Garfield Kart didn't directly dispute is that Garfield Kart is "ass." All the account could tweet is that people should "please play [Garfield Kart: Furious Racing] and not the original." Amusingly, Furious Racing is well loved and one of the best-rated kart racers on Steam, but it's not even the most recent Garfield Kart game. That honor goes to Garfield Kart 2 - All You Can Drift, a game with mixed user reviews that Garfield himself left out of the debate. Still, his point stands.

Why not check out our ranking of the best Mario Kart games?

Belkin used to be a brand that, for me, felt synonymous with phone accessories. But now I relate the six-letter name solely to providing me with options to manage the Nintendo Switch 2's horrendous battery life.

First, it achieved this with the Belkin Charging Case, one of the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories I've tested to date. It encompasses a case with a 10,000mAh power bank included inside that allows you to carry and charge your handheld on the go. This was followed up by a Pro model, so it felt a bit inevitable that the brand would have its sights set on incorporating its handy charging prowess into a Switch 2 Grip case.

The end result sadly isn't perfect. The aforementioned power bank creates an uncomfortable dynamic. Its weight can add some strain that makes me feel like I'm playing the Steam Deck OLED, a handheld I deliberately don't use as much as I'd like to due to its chonky form factor. That, combined with the fact that this accessory is pretty pricey and not compatible with any of the brand's cases, adds extra layers of annoyance to an otherwise solid piece of Nintendo-compatible tech.

Design

The Belkin Charging Grip is composed of four pieces: two ergonomic handles for either Joy-Con, a section that attaches to the base of the console, and a 30W 10000mAh power bank that magnetically attaches to that.

I was provided with the Olive colorway, so all of these pieces arrived to me in a matcha-green shade, but it's also available in Black and Lilac colors if green isn't your thing. Strangely, Belkin chose not to match the color ranges available to the Belkin Charging Case Pro and the rest of its Switch 2 case lineup, which feels like a missed opportunity. However, I'm thankful to see any variation at all when plain all-black grips, like that as part of the Fastnsnail Switch 2 Protective Case, are all too common.

It also helps the Belkin grip stand out, as no matter the brand, grip cases tend to all look a little similar. You should at least be able to tell Belkin's apart from alternatives besides its unique colorways, as its design is sleeker than I've seen before. When attached, the two Joy-Con handles don't sit across the entirety of the gamepads, and instead start at the mid-way section of the right stick and ABXY buttons on the other side. They then hang to the bottom of the controllers, giving them a more Switch 2 Pro Controller look and feel.

Features

The main section of the Belkin Charging Grip is pretty basic. It's a surprisingly thin piece of plastic that hangs to the back of the handheld's 7.9-inch display, providing cut-out sections to ensure all the vents and ports can be accessed properly. It also allows full use of the handheld's kickstand, which is all pretty run-of-the-mill and what you'd want for one of these case and grip combo accessories.

Yet, it's what's hanging on the back that makes it special, and why it's got that $99.99 / £69.99 price tag. The back of this accessory is designed to host a power bank, which attaches magnetically. If you've ever used MagSafe phone accessories, it's a similar process; however, the case also includes four small recessed cylindrical-shaped modules that match with four small prongs sticking out of the charger to ensure that it stays put when attached.

The 10000mAh power bank in question includes an LCD window which shows you its remaining battery when you press the small button on its side. Additionally, it features a small USB-C cable which is hidden on the side that stays flush with the handheld. You can keep it hidden or connect it to give your console 1.5x worth of extra juice while gaming on the go - or when you're in the main room of your house and can't be bothered to source your AC adapter (a scenario I find myself in fairly often).

Performance

Traditional grip cases (Belkin calls this a "Charging Grip" but it's basically a grip case) are there to give your handheld some added protection, while adding some ergonomic flair to the uncomfortable flat-backs of the Joy-Cons. By incorporating a 30W 10000mAh battery into the mix, things get a little heavy, which is not ideal.

Throughout my weeks of testing, I was playing plenty of Star Fox and later, Rhythm Paradise Groove, and ended up having to play both while leaning the bottom of the Switch 2 against my lap. An experience that's the norm when it comes to playing my Steam Deck, but not one I admire. I normally play my Switch 2 while it's hovering in the air as it's light and comfortable enough to do so, but the weight of the power bank was constantly pulling my hands down. Any attempt to fight against it was not a feeling I wanted to persist on my wrists.

I believe that's exactly why Belkin chose not to have the power bank attached by default, but instead included a magnetic mechanism. With that in tow, it means you don't have to have it attached at all times and give your wrists a break. Which is exactly what I did during my time testing this device.

After the few short 20 minutes it took to take my handheld's power from 60 to 100% charged, I simply pulled it off and set it aside. Much to my chagrin, none of the official Belkin Switch 2 cases are compatible with the Charging Grip and provide a safe place to store the powerbank. However, it was reassuring to know that you don't have to deal with the weight conundrum at all times if you don't want to.

At least the experience of using the Charging Grip when you don't factor in the weight is pretty grand. The handles are very comfortable and felt natural in the palm of my hands. Their textured surface was also grippy enough that it never slipped even during the most intense moments of Rhythm Paradise Groove (onion shaving is no joke) and yet not too grippy that it roughhoused the surface of my hands.

I'm also a huge fan of the fact that you don't need to leave the small USB-C charging cable hanging if you do decide to have the powerbank attached. The underside of the charger includes a hidden section designed to hide the cable, and works just as intended.

Should you buy the Belkin Charging Grip for Nintendo Switch 2?

The Belkin Charging Grip for the Nintendo Switch 2 seems like a pretty basic idea: it's essentially a power bank and grip case combined into one. Yet despite its simplicity, the brand has yet again managed to provide a robust and great-looking solution to dealing with the handheld's measly battery life, though it's definitely far from perfect.

Anyone who loves the Switch 2 for its lightweight experience compared to the best handhelds like the Steam Deck OLED is not going to appreciate how heavy the case can become. And it feels like an oversight to design a Charging Grip which, when attached, is too big to store in any of the existing Belkin Switch 2 cases. If you have the Belkin Charging Case Pro, you have to take off the grips and power bank every time you want to store it away. And even then, the accessory pocket is not equipped to store those pieces.

I assume Belkin has plans to one day release a case that incorporates the best design elements of this Charging Grip and its Charging Case line, especially as review comments on the official Belkin website have consumers referencing the same issue. Belkin's Customer Service has stated at the time of this review that it has "taken note of it" in reply to user Ns2geek, so hopefully it's a sign of a new Grip Case mashup to come.

In the meantime, if you were hunting for a Switch 2 grip case and a way to combat the device's battery woes, the Belkin Charging Grip is an okay choice if you can cope with its uncomfortable weight and uncomfortable $99.99 / £69.99 MSRP. Those purely after a method of creating a Pro Controller-feeling experience in handheld mode are better off picking up the alternative model without the power bank available for $39.99 (Amazon) / £39.62 (Amazon) instead - though you'll still struggle to fit it in any existing Belkin Switch 2 case.

How I tested the Belkin Charging Grip for Nintendo Switch 2

I spent over two weeks with the Belkin Charging Grip, where it became my accessory of choice for the entirety of that testing time. With the Olive version attached to my handheld, I used it while playing a huge range of games, from Star Fox, Rhythm Paradise Groove, Mario Kart World, Pokemon Pokopia, and Donkey Kong Bananza.

By testing a wide range of titles, I got a feel for how the ergonomic handle attachments felt to play in handheld mode, while having ample opportunity to rely on the power bank to power my Switch 2. Additionally, I also took out the Belkin Charging Case Pro to see if the pieces of the Charging Grip were compatible and could be stored within the brand's own case. For more information on how we test accessories for the Nintendo Switch 2, check out our full GamesRadar+ Hardware policy.

Creating the ultimate Switch 2 setup? Check our our guides to the best Nintendo Switch headsets, the best Nintendo Switch 2 cameras, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers too.

Nintendo might be finally working on enhancing your Switch 2 TV visuals, as it's on the hunt for a senior display engineer. The job specifically mentions over five years of experience working with standards like HDMI, DSI, DisplayPort, and EDID (the chip that tells devices what screen they're plugged into), but also alludes to possible plans to finally add full VRR to the console.

Weirdly, Nintendo mentions every console other than the Switch 2 in its job description, but does state the job will involve working on display drivers "for use with current and future products" (thanks, Go Nintendo). That narrows things down to the current gaming handheld and potentially its successor, and it gets more specific by mentioning "knowledge of display technologies such as HDR and VRR" as preferred requirements.

VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate, effectively helps the latest consoles and portables dynamically switch refresh rates to suit frame rates. By doing so, it helps systems like the PS5 and the Switch 2 in handheld mode combat jittery visuals or screen tearing caused by performance fluctuations.

When the Switch 2 landed in June 2025, it arrived with VRR capabilities, but only in handheld mode. That means when you dock the portable and use HDMI output, the feature is disabled, but recent patents suggest the feature was supposed to work even when connected to a TV.

The patent itself breaks down a proposed GPU process that would help integrate VRR, including detecting whether your TV or gaming monitor supports the feature and accommodating the GameCamera's visuals. However, as of yet, the Switch 2 has not received an update enabling the feature, which suggests Ninty is still dealing with some teething problems getting it working.

Originally, VRR in docked mode was listed as a Switch 2 feature, but specs sheets were changed before launch. The new job listing smells like Nintendo is still trying to nail support, and given that the handheld is tasked with running the latest games at 4K, it could need Variable Refresh Rate to combat sporadic frame rates.

A recent patent publication suggests that the Switch 2 System is supposed to support external VRR via HDMI, but for unknown reasons it hasn’t been implemented.Long version: To guarantee stable rendering of System UI and processing of GameChat camera, at the beginning of each frame period …1/

— @ninpatentswatch.bsky.social (@ninpatentswatch.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-10T10:31:11.672Z

I've already extensively covered the fact that the dock situation is a nightmare. That said, the Switch 2 accessory itself is VRR-capable, so it feels Ninty isn't withholding compatibility from us deliberately. The same can't be said for wider docking station support, but I am starting to wonder whether underlying issues influenced the display protocol changes that arrived with the new system.

In any case, if you happen to be a display engineering wiz and you're seeking a new job, maybe you can do us all a solid and fix Nintendo's Switch 2 VRR so that it works with big screens (thank you in advance!)

Swing by the best retro handhelds for ways to play classic capers on the go.

The cost of living crisis lumbers on, and so does the parallel cost of gaming crisis. 2026 has been a rough year for this hobby, with price hikes across all major platforms. PS5 is now AU$250 more expensive than it was at launch. In September, Nintendo Switch 2 will rise from AU$699.95 to AU$769.95.

Traditionally, being patient meant you could buy consoles cheaper. We now live in a new reality, with AI data centres inhaling RAM and storage like kaizo Kirby. If you already own any of these consoles, you probably feel lucky. If you don't? Too bad: things aren't improving any time soon.

At least, that's the conventional logic. This current deal on Nintendo Switch 2 defies it, though: Amazon is currently selling the standalone console for AU$624, down from AU$699.95, and AU$145 cheaper than it'll be come September.

I'm super tempted by this, mainly because I really want to play the forthcoming Ocarina of Time remake. I also probably need to replace my launch day Nintendo Switch, which is surprisingly still going strong albeit despite the very many scratches on the screen, and so many Joy-Con replacements that I've lost track.

That's probably the first must play game on the console for me, though Nintendo has been doling out new software at an admirable rate. The Star Fox remake hit last month, and despite middling reviews, I still want to play Metroid Prime 4.

Looking for more gaming bargains? Amazon Prime Day is currently on in Australia.

A modder has made Grey Fox playable in the original Metal Gear Solid, and it's way more impressive than it sounds.

Despite Snake (and Snake, and Snake, and Snake, and…) being a contender for the greatest video game character of all time, Metal Gear has a variety of side characters that all absolutely rule, and many hope for the chance to play as them. And while there's been the odd opportunity to play as whoever isn't the main protagonist of a given game (Tanker and Snake Tales in MGS2, Ocelot in Metal Gear Online), Metal Gear is pretty strict about having you play as the main character.

One such legendary side character is Grey Fox, who – after appearances in the MSX2 originals – appeared in Metal Gear Solid 1 as the series' first Cyborg Ninja. The character was so popular that he was the selling point and cover star of Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, where he was briefly playable for a couple of missions. And while Hideo Kojima wanted the character to get his own game as a sequel to Metal Gear Rising, it never materialized.

However, Grey Fox is finally getting his day in the cold alaska moon, as YouTube user Perfect Pizza has released a first look at the final version of their "Playable Grey Fox mod" for Metal Gear Solid. On first read this may not sound that impressive, perhaps the thought of "oh they just moved the VR Missions character into the main game," crossed your mind? Well this mod is not nearly that simple.

Watching the trailer, right away you'll notice you have access to Grey Fox's arm cannon, which saw use throughout Metal Gear Solid, but never actually got used in his previous playable appearance. The High Frequency Blade has gotten a buff too with a new trailing effect and the ability to ricochet bullets back at enemies, and there's new movement options with crouch walking introduced. The mod promises a ton of changes, like "automatic open and close face visor upon alert,""custom animations," and "custom codec calls".

On the mods Discord, Perfect Pizza explains "This mod uses the PSX decompilation project’s ability to modify the game’s C code and build a new executable using the developer version of Metal Gear Solid." Adding "At the time of creation, neither the AI Grey Fox boss nor the playable VR Ninja have been fully decompiled. As a result, everything shown so far has been recreated through reverse engineering, existing game code, experimentation, and educated guesses."

They explain, "The goal is to let players experience an expanded version of Grey Fox vs what was given to us in VR missions with as many of his signature abilities and some new ones as the game’s limitations allow, while preserving core gameplay features such as crawling, elevators, weapons, and environmental interaction." and that "This project also lays the groundwork for a future version that could allow players to experience the entire game as Grey Fox."

Perfect Pizza also says "This is not a complete story-mode conversion" but that "A separate project, which I am not affiliated with, is working toward making the full campaign playable by rebuilding all the stage overlays and making the compiled exe shiftable. The future of a complete Grey Fox playthrough depends heavily on that effort."

Regardless it's an impressive mod that actually allows playable Grey Fox found in VR Missions to live up to the version we hoped he would be all along, and even if a full version doesn't show up, it'll be fun to play about with.

After almost 25 years, Metal Gear Solid 2 players are still finding secrets: "This is the kind of stuff somebody posts on an online forum in 2005 and no one believes it"

Xbox studios are hemorrhaging generational talent amid Microsoft's layoff wave, with one Bethesda veteran highlighting the loss of an artist responsible for so much of the studio's history that, "If you've played a BGS game you've had his art on screen 99% of the time."

Ben Carnow, a Bethesda veteran of nearly 20 years himself, puts a spotlight on former lead weapon artist Dane Olds in a Bluesky post.

A LinkedIn post from Olds confirms, "I have been laid off alongside so many passionate and talented colleagues."

Like countless game developers now facing a horrible job market after layoffs, Olds indicates he may leave the games industry altogether, even after 20 years at Bethesda. "I'm now looking for work inside and outside of the game industry. If you can use my expertise in weapon art, character art, team building and management please reach out to me," he says.

Carnow says "Olds is my truest friend" and "an artist of legendary skill." He outlines just some of the key contributions Olds has made over the years, including: "Too many Skyrim weapons to count. All the Dwemer creatures. MUD CRABS. Like half the guns in Fallout 4. Loads of weapons in Starfield."

"Laid off by Microsoft," Carnow concludes.

In 2023, Bethesda ran a developer spotlight featuring Olds and discussing his work. "Fallout 3 was my first big AAA game so that's very special to me," Olds said at the time. "Skyrim was an amazing experience because I got to help define the look and feel of the Dwemer art in the game as well as getting to make all of the steel weapons and many artifacts like the Mace of Molag Bal. Oh! It also features one of the few creatures I've gotten to make – the mudcrab."

Olds was also pivotal in the development of Fallout 4's expanded weapon system. "On that title Todd [Howard] came to me one day and told me he had this crazy idea to make all our weapons moddable and that he wanted it to change the way they looked and played. So, I started in on the pipe weapon set and the rest is history. It was a lot of fun figuring out how to make that system work and I learned a ton working on that game."

Much like Olds, Bethesda also laid off 27-year veteran Christiane Meister, a core artist who made major contributions to Skyrim, especially the Khajiit and Argonian designs, as well as Oblivion, Morrowind, Fallout 4, and Fallout 4.

Cases like these are precisely why remaining Bethesda developers expect work on The Elder Scrolls 6 to be impacted by Microsoft's layoffs, fearing crunch, quality dips, or delays for the already long-awaited game.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is reportedly so desperate for another Fallout game that it's reassigned Fallout: New Vegas maker Obsidian to the series at the expense of a planned Avowed sequel and other projects.

Fallout and Elder Scrolls union says Bethesda layoffs didn't hurt Microsoft's "14 layers of management" – "We lost dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers."

It's no secret that Bethesda Game Studios has felt the impact following Microsoft announcing its plans to cut around 3,200 employees at Xbox over the next fiscal year, with the company's union representatives saying "we lost dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers" following the 1,600 Xbox job cuts earlier this week.

What isn't as clear, however, is the impact these layoffs have had and will continue to have on the production of The Elder Scrolls 6 – an RPG that arguably stands as one of the most hotly anticipated games to date.

In new statements to IGN, however, current Bethesda staff say the impact is evident and worrying. The loss "will have a substantial and cascading effect on the game and morale of this studio," as one developer puts it.

"It's been a mix of every discipline: programmers, artists, and designers," another chimes in. "One person who's been at the company since Morrowind was cut."

They might be referencing 27-year veteran Christiane Meister there, who worked on every Elder Scrolls entry since Morrowind, including Skyrim, and both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

What of new Elder Scrolls games, though – namely the sixth entry?

"There is a fear that we are going to be replaced by cheaper, contracted labor, or we will hire folks to replace them that will need to be onboarded (our tools are proprietary, other devs aren't going to know how they work) resulting in more delays, and we'll need to crunch to make up the time," one dev admits.

Another explains that, concerning The Elder Scrolls 6 in particular, this has all been "crushing" to it the team.

"We've all been very excited and hyped for TES 6, and this has had a crushing effect on morale," they state. "We were already running a tight ship and are worried about this delaying the game (though a final release date was not yet chosen as far as we know)."

That's… concerning, to say the least. Both for the developers and the future of The Elder Scrolls 6 – a game that fans have eagerly been waiting nearly 15 years for now.

It doesn't help that, in terms of updates, the community has received few from Bethesda. The last actual trailer we got was a whopping eight years ago at E3 in 2018, after all. Even Todd Howard himself said to "just pretend we didn't didn't announce it" – so, um, yeah. He also admitted The Elder Scrolls 6 is still "a while" off, which adds another layer of uncertainty to this entire debacle.

Between the layoffs and all this… who knows?

Only time will tell, I suppose. I do just hope the affected developers are able to land on their feet, and Bethesda resurfaces despite the Microsoft upheaval – this is sadly not a rare reality in the industry anymore.

"There's really no one left": Former Elder Scrolls Online dev says the MMO "basically funded other failing projects" as Microsoft guts the studio.

It's the big guy's 45th anniversary, and if that's got you feeling misty-eyed, what better way to celebrate than with a roundup of the best Donkey Kong merch?

My colleagues and I have gone looking for DK's coolest collectibles in honor of the event, and you'll find them all below. These range from t-shirts to contenders for the best toys crown. Crucially, they've been chosen based on our own experience or because they're the coolest-looking, most highly-rated goodies available online. We genuinely think this is some of the best Donkey Kong merch around.

I'd like to think I would know. DK's been one of my favorite Nintendo characters since the early '90s when I played Donkey Kong Country on SNES (it's the first series I actively went out of my way to buy), so I've got some pretty strong feelings about what you should prioritize when it comes to the best Donkey Kong merch. As an example, I'll always point fans toward amiibo first and foremost. These highly detailed figures may be designed to work as Switch/Switch 2 accessories that provide in-game bonuses, but they're gorgeous statuettes in their own right (like my current favorite, the DK and Pauline design you can find at Best Buy). In other words, they're the perfect addition to any shelf even if you never use them with the consoles. Similarly, I adore this heavily themed baseball cap currently on the Nintendo Store. Besides being an eye-catching shade that's reminiscent of DK's jungle home, it features 3D bananas and Kong letter collectibles just like in the game. It's a fun touch that brings back memories, and that's what I think the best Donkey Kong merch should do.

Want more cool gear? If you're hunting down accessories, why not drop in on these very a-peeling Switch 2 accessories based on Donkey Kong?

I've been playing catch-up with Star Fox and Rhythm Paradise Groove, while coming to terms with the fact that Splatoon Raiders, Orbitals, and Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave are on the way, and I want to play them just as much.

That's a lot of Switch 2 games on the horizon, and their prices all add up. But fortunately, Newegg has dropped a new Nintendo gift card deal to make securing them less of a strain on my bank account. Newegg's current Nintendo Switch eShop gift card saves $25 off via a promo code, so I can grab $200 worth of funds for $175 instead. Sign me up!

I wish this deal was available far sooner.

If I were to add up the costs of all my recent Switch 2 pick-ups, which includes that of Star Fox, Rhythm Heaven Groove, Splatoon Raiders, Orbitals, and Fire Emblem's Fortune's Weave, I'd be looking at a combined cost of $249.99, when factoring in their digital MSRPs. Having a $200 Nintendo eShop gift card for only $175 instead could have saved me a chunk off my new and upcoming Switch 2 game library, but alas, this deal only appeared fairly recently.

At least it exists at all, and it's one you can take advantage of too if you want to help minimize the cost of your most anticipated Ninty releases. Just remember that this deal will be emailed to you as a code, which you'll need to redeem within the eShop app on your console. You'll also need to have a US Nintendo account, as this $200 worth of funds won't be valid otherwise.

When you do receive your funds, however, you'll be able to pre-order as many Switch 2 games as your $200 allows, or even pick up some DLC instead. I don't know about you, but I have my eye on the Pokemon Pokopia Bubbly Basin DLC coming this August too.

• View all Nintendo Switch 2 deals at Newegg

We're rounding up all the best Nintendo Switch deals for more console savings, or check out the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories if you want to kit out your brand-new handheld.

Nintendo has finally added Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 to Nintendo Switch Online, and it only took three years.

Nintendo Switch Online's Nintendo Classics lineups are weird. The release schedules are strange; sometimes absolutely essential titles don't appear while the weirdest games possible show up – N64 still doesn't have Super Smash Bros, but we do have Iggy's Reckin' Balls.

However, the absolute weirdest of those is the Game Boy, which got licensed titles like the licensed game of Warner Bros. Quest For Camelot before Super Mario Land or Donkey Kong '94 arrived.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins arrived at launch, while the original – literally the first Game Boy game ever released – took a year and three months. The same goes for Wario Land, the Switch app launched with Wario Land 3 back in February 2023, with the original or its sequel nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, Wario Land 4 hit GBA last year, Wario World arrived on GameCube, and Virtual Boy Wario Land launched alongside the new app this year, making the entire series, barring the first two (and the Wii-exclusive, The Shake Dimension), available.

That changes today however, as almost three-and-a-half years down the line from the Game Boy's introduction to the Switch Online library, Nintendo has confirmed that the first game starring Mario's bulky rival Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is on Switch Online. The game drops alongside Fortified Zone and The Sword of Hope 2, while the GBA app is getting Dr Mario and Puzzle League (two games that are available in multiple forms on other apps, but still a good game regardless).

Nintendo fans have a tendency to accuse Nintendo of having some beef with franchises that are rarely seen – see: Metroid from 2010-2017, Star Fox before 2026, F-Zero, Mother fans who can't accept the series is just over – but Nintendo is so consistently weird with Wario Land that I can't help but wonder how people at the company feel about it. Wario's representation in Super Smash Bros. for example is almost entirely based around the WarioWare series with only his dash attack shoulder barge being from his first series, and it's been almost two decades since the last entry – which released the same year he was added to Smash Bros.

With the resurgence of Wario-like indie titles like Pizza Tower and Antonblast, hopefully there's some fire to go along with the smoke of a new Wario Land game, of which rumors emerged last month.

WarioWare: Move It is the Smooth Moves spiritual successor I've always wanted

A bloodied Ada Wong screams as a meat hook pierces her shoulder – for the third time this match – and she’s pulled skyward. The Entity, Dead By Daylight's villain above villains, draws her into its claws before she wakes by the bonfire again, ready to start the process over.

In the real world, as the one controlling Ada, I push my chair away from my desk and put my head in my hands, despairing at yet another team letting me down, another killer tunneling me out, my own poor judgement. I stand up to walk out the room – but not before hitting the button to ready up and start the process over.

Little do I know that, not only is Ada’s tragic and repetitive death feeding The Entity, but so am I.

Mixed Emotions

We don’t know much about Dead by Daylight’s mysterious Entity, the ultimate evil presiding over the whole affair, drawing killers and their victims into a sick, cyclical game. In a blog post for the game’s tenth anniversary, though, developer Behaviour Interactive gave fans a bit more insight. It turns out that what feeds The Entity in DBD isn’t death itself, or the dead, but rather the emotions felt by each character, both killer and survivor, during a match.

“Consider the various emotions each victim must experience over the course of a Trial,” the blog reads, “The thrill of the hunt. The highs of escape. A fleeting hope like a surge of electricity. The sick satisfaction whenever the light leaves a Survivor’s eyes. It’s speculated that everything [characters] feel over the course of a Trial somehow sustains The Entity.”

Reading this, it occurs to me that this mirror’s the player’s experience, too.

Whether it’s loading into a killer lobby with a tightness in my chest, anxious about going up against a good team or being abused in the post-game chat, or the buzz of getting a four-man escape from a seemingly impossible situation, the DBD player experience is as much of a rollercoaster of emotions as that of the in-game characters. In fact, playing Dead by Daylight is almost exclusively about highs and lows.

As a solo-queue survivor, these feelings are especially elevated. While it feels good as a killer to outplay a sweaty swf (survive with friends) team, it’s even sweeter when a solo-queue survivor squad beats the odds to get every man out. Especially since there are no comms. When wordless communication, excellent game sense, and solid understanding of the HUD come together to result in a narrow escape from a decent killer, the fleeting high is enough to see me through the devastating lows of the other 90% of the trials. The ones when I’m hooked for the first time and see my three team mates creeping around the edge of the map or hiding in a locker, making no effort to rescue me. The ones where I’m intentionally tunneled out at five gens or slugged until I bleed to death.

Meanwhile, when I’m playing as a killer and can feel my heart in my stomach for the entire trial, it’s worth it for those few occasions that I win or even draw. Even then, I just get a “ggwp” in the post-game chat instead of a “ggez”. So every time I’m teabagged at the exit gates, I still ready up again, masochistically putting myself through the ringer once more in the hopes of a close, fun, but wholesome and friendly match.

In doing so, I'm feeding The Entity as much as Ada and the others. By coming back time and time again, struggling and succeeding, lamenting and celebrating, I keep this deadly power alive. Perhaps this was The Entity’s plan all along.

If you're logging back into the action, make sure you've redeemed the latest DBD codes for free rewards.

The official Star Fox Mousepad felt like a no-brainer purchase.

I've loved barrel-rolling my way through the new game on the Switch 2, and wanted to try out the mouse controls on something other than my sofa cushion. Better yet, it wasn't even technically 'purchased' in the traditional sense like the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories often are, as I only had to spare 500 of my precious Platinum Points to make it mine.

And yet, I wish I had saved up my points for something else, as this is one cheap-feeling mousepad. I can already hear many of you all saying, "Well, it was free, what did you expect?" and that's fair to say. But I was at least expecting something that felt pleasant to "pilot my Joy-Con" across like Nintendo intended, and not what I got.

The Nintendo UK store advertises the mousepad being used alongside a typical PC setup, but I wouldn't recommend that either.

I'm currently using the ASUS TUF Gaming Hatsune Miku Edition Mini Wireless Mouse, which includes a 12,000-dpi optical sensor and glides effortlessly through any gaming mat I've thrown its way. Yet the "rough top" layer of the Star Fox version feels unpleasant and results in plenty of misclicks due to its plastic and slippery surface.

Instead of feeling like my little anime mouse was gliding across the desk like a little ballerina, I constantly felt it slipping out from beneath my grasp. This should have been an indication of things to come, but I decided to remain optimistic that a Star Fox mousepad designed for Star Fox couldn't be all that bad. How wrong I was.

The accessory is made up of a cheap-feeling plastic, like the mouse mats that you used to be able to buy throughout the late 1990's. You remember them, right? They'd often feature Homer Simpson's face and some philosophical quote of his, and were packaged as Father's Day gifts and stocking fillers.

This one feels worse than any of those. It's the opposite of dense and utilizes a paper-thin synthetic rubber underlayer rather than an anti-slip rubber base that you'd typically want in a gaming mat. Which, as you can imagine, does little to stop it from moving around unprompted.

If you thought fighting Team Star Wolf on Venom was tricky with the standard controls, using mouse controls on this cheap mat was something else entirely. The little rubber stops at the bottom of the Switch 2 Joy-Con straps at least helped keep the controller from running amok like my gaming mouse, but it was not a great-feeling experience.

In all fairness, fighting Star Wolf never is. But I had my hopes high that the mousemat would at least add an extra layer of fun to the fight that has haunted my nightmares since my childhood. Instead, it made it all the more headache-inducing, with the thinness of the mat feeling like I was scrolling my Joy-Con across a bare table, and I barely managed to take down Andrew, Leon, or Pigma, never mind Star Wolf.

It at least didn't move too much, which was a blessing. That was, unless I made the grave error of lightly brushing the side of my hand gently across Peppy's printed face, as then the entire thing would start slipping across my desk like it had a mind of its own.

It's a shame, as I really like the idea of the Nintendo Switch Online rewards being accessories that you can actually use alongside new Switch 2 games, rather than boring bits of stationery with Nintendo characters' faces on them. There's also so few new pieces of Star Fox merchandise out there, that this mousemat (and the plushies expected to drop later this year) are pretty much all we've got.

Taking that into account is why I don't judge anyone who reads this and still chooses to spend their hard-earned points on this Star Fox mousepad. When there's little merch out there to grab, securing a free item makes complete sense. However, I recommend keeping this as a display piece and sticking with traditional gaming mats by brands like Razer and SteelSeries, rather than piloting the Airwing across this cheap bit of Star Fox-branded tat.

• View all gaming mousepad deals at Amazon

Check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers, the best Nintendo Switch headsets, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Express Cards for accessories worthy of your Star Fox adventures.

A couple of days ago, Nintendo unveiled its plan to phase out the original Switch in Europe next year – a plan that thankfully apparently does not, in fact, apply to other regions.

Nintendo confirms as much in a new statement to IGN, which asked the company whether or not its announcement regarding a withdrawal from the EU will affect the availability of the OG Switch elsewhere globally.

"We plan to continue selling Nintendo Switch outside of regions where Nintendo of Europe conducts business," its message reads – a reassuring one, at that. After all, its initial words left folks uncertain.

They outlined how the base Nintendo Switch – alongside its Lite and OLED models – will continue to be manufactured throughout 2026 and "should be widely available in Europe all year," but confirmed that production would end in 2027.

"From mid-February 2027, almost 10 years after Nintendo Switch launched in March 2017, Nintendo will no longer sell to retailers hardware in the Nintendo Switch family of systems," Nintendo wrote.

It clarified that "sales of Nintendo Switch hardware on Nintendo Store will also end in mid-February 2027" – but it didn't mention markets outside of the EU (until now, of course).

This news comes after Nintendo's announcement that a new Switch 2 with a replaceable battery is coming early next year "to meet the Regulation" set out for waste reduction in Europe. Both changes – the removal of the Switch from the EU market and the different Switch 2 – from the company come as a result of this regulation.

There's no telling what the future holds for the original Switch, though – Nintendo is shifting its focus to the Switch 2 with software releases, so its life might just be coming to an end.

Searching for something to look forward to? Here are the best new games coming this year and beyond to wishlist now.

Over the weekend, my brother-in-law caught a glimpse of my Switch 2 case, and his interest was piqued. That's not at all surprising, as my family knows I write about and review the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories, and the general thought is that if I'm using something regularly, there must be something intriguing about it. In this case, he and the rest of my family were right to be interested, as I was using the Belkin Charging Case Pro.

It remains the best case I've ever tested, and one of those accessories that I love showing people as its built-in 10,000mAh powerbank always gets a "woah" reaction every time. My brother-in-law had a similar reaction and asked for a full low-down on Belkin's spread of Switch 2 cases to know which was best suited for his needs, and it gave me a thought - I should do a rundown for anyone else who needs it.

There are only three Belkin Switch 2 cases so far, so it won't take too long to go through the lot. Yet, if you were curious as to what separates each case, and whether they suit your budget and playing style, I've included a spread as to what makes each so special down below.

Belkin Carrying Case for the Nintendo Switch 2

Price: $29.99 (Amazon) / £17.99 (Amazon)

The Belkin Carrying Case is the least feature-full of the trio, and yet it's still a robust, high-quality accessory. If you like the look of the Belkin cases but don't need any fancy charging tech, and especially don't have the budget to facilitate it, this is the best option for you as it's only priced at $29.99 and £17.99 in the US and UK. It's prone to plenty of discounts throughout the year too.

This case is available in all three Black, Sage, and Sand colorways as the rest of the line, and includes the same clamshell design with a polyester exterior and the subtle 'Belkin' branding on the front. On the interior, you can find space to store the Nintendo Switch 2, a slab of fabric in the middle to protect the handheld's display and provide storage for up to 12 physical games, and a fabric mesh pocket for smaller accessories.

What separated the case from others upon release was that it included a secret Apple AirTag pocket. You can use this pocket to slip in the GPS tracker, and any other branded one that fits, in order to keep better track of your pricey Ninty tech while traveling - a neat addition that other brands still don't take advantage of.

Read more: Belkin Carrying Case review

Belkin Charging Case for the Nintendo Switch 2

Price: $69.99 (Amazon) / £49.99 (Amazon)

The Belkin Charging Case is where things get a little more interesting. On the outside, it looks practically identical to the Belkin Carrying Case, and even comes in the same range of colors. However, this case is far thicker and that's to make room for the 10,000mAh power bank that lies inside it.

On the bottom of the case, you can find a black power bank, which is designed to hook up to your handheld so you can keep it juiced up on the go. You can actually have the case fully zipped up, and the moulded interior provides ample space for its charging cable to feed into your console, so you can provide an up to 1.5x charge when you need it. The power bank in question is secured in place with a velcro strap, but you can remove it if you want to take it out and use it to charge up other compatible devices - I've used mine plenty to give my phone a boost.

When this case was first unveiled, it felt revolutionary, as the Switch 2's measly battery life is my bigger hindrance with the console. I always pop my handheld back in its case between gaming sessions regardless, yet now I can do that and feel at ease knowing it's getting powered up in the process. The only annoyance is that charging the power bank is a bit fiddly, as you need to physically remove it from the case.

Its $69.99 / £49.99 price might also be hard to stomach for many, as that's a lot to fork out for a case alone. It only gets worse from there, as the Charging Case Pro model costs even more. For that reason alone, I typically still recommend this version over my personal best Nintendo Switch 2 case pick, as this case still gives you access to charging on the go, just at a more digestible price point.

Read more: Belkin Charging Case review

Belkin Charging Case Pro for the Nintendo Switch 2

Price: $99.99 (Amazon) / £69.99 (Amazon)

The Belkin Charging Case Pro immediately sets itself apart as it's the priciest case from Belkin's lineup with its $99.99 / £69.99 MSRP. Why is it such a markup from what we've already looked at?

Well, because it takes what was so neat about the Charging Case and makes it even better. Instead of just plopping a power bank attached by a strap into its bottom interior, Belkin has transformed it into a device that sits into the lower half of the case. Whenever you slip your Switch 2 inside, it will automatically start to charge, no messing around with cables required.

This case also features passthrough charging, which was a major draw for me personally. Remember how I mentioned that charging the previous case's power bank requires you to physically take it out? Well, that process is a lot more simplified, as Belkin has included a small cut-out window on the side of the case which allows you to feed through a USB-C cable straight into the charger. A genius inclusion that makes this Pro model all the more intuitive and easier to use.

However, you can actually remove the power bank as you see fit, which I do almost every night I go to bed. It can be removed and act as a bedside charging stand, which negates the need to buy one separately. So while you're paying $100 in the US for this case, it does at least save you from investing in a charging stand and a spare AC adapter, if I think about it.

Read more: Belkin Charging Case Pro review

Check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers, the best Nintendo Switch headsets, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Express Cards if you want to create the ultimate Switch 2 setup.

Few people are madder at Microsoft for its mishandling of id Software than Michael Maynard, a game developer of over 40 years, and id veteran of 21 years, who was caught up in heavy layoffs which hit the studio as part of widespread Xbox cost-cutting. Maynard's story demonstrates the institutional knowledge that's being sacrificed in the name of spreadsheets, with multiple studios gutted to the point that they're unrecognizable if not outright closed, and his criticism echoes the pain and fury heard around the industry.

"Big day today at Id Software!" begins a LinkedIn post from Maynard (all emphasis caps his). "We produced arguably THE BEST first person action games, in the entire industry. DOOM, DOOM: Eternal, DOOM: The Dark Ages. The [quintessential] modern trilogy of first person action!

"Yet today, Microsoft/XBOX decided half the team was no longer needed and should be let go; despite all the amazing work and effort from every designer, programmer, artist, audio specialist, level designer, fx, tech design, and on and on and on.

"Yes, I was part of the team (roughly 50% of the company) that was let go today," he continues, confirming reports on the scale of layoffs. "(I was there for OVER 20 years! RAGE through DOOM: Dark Ages) Sad but, I've been doing this (video games) for over 40 years so, not a huge surprise to me. Just really sad that this is how Id Software, the PIONEER/INNOVATOR of FPS action games is relegated to just another 'reorganization' of assets."

It really is hard to overstate the fumbling of the bag here. Id is the FPS studio, and the modern Doom trilogy is an exemplar in the genre. In its rush to save money by cutting anyone, irreplaceable knowledge be damned, Microsoft has thrown the treasure overboard just to keep the ship above water for another hour.

Microsoft's mistake in this particular arena is perhaps matched only by Sony and Bungie, which have collectively lost hundreds of the best FPS developers in the business – in their case, by squandering Destiny 2.

Id co-founder and Doom father John Romero addressed the impacted devs online, praising the people who kept the studio's legacy alive and highlighting the "real care, skill, and respect" demonstrated by recent releases.

John Romero has a private collection of "critically important" id Software history "including materials and assets that, as far as I know, id itself no longer has."

Id Software suffered major layoffs under Microsoft's Xbox "reset" plan, which will see 3,200 people cut and multiple studios divested. This sparked commiserations from id co-founder and Doom mastermind John Romero, who also shared that he's personally helped with the studio archival work which he hopes will continue internally.

"A note on digital preservation: id's history is critically important to the history of games," Romero writes on Bluesky. "I've preserved id's complete early history from our start at Softdisk through to August 6, 1996, including materials and assets that, as far as I know, id itself no longer has."

Romero, who was fired from id in 1996, has some experience with the situation now facing many former id employees. He's also plenty familiar with game preservation, dating back to the shareware days of Doom, which laid the bedrock for a game that can now be played on virtually anything with a screen (or, with enough willpower, virtually anything without a screen).

"I hope someone is doing the same for the company's ongoing legacy (the work, code, assets, stories and the people behind them)," Romero adds.

Amid reports that half of the studio was cut, impacted id Software developers have suggested critical disciplines, including the studio's legendary tech team and a platoon of coders, were all but entirely laid off.

Senior gameplay systems programmer Michael Maynard hammered Microsoft in a LinkedIn post.

"Microsoft/XBOX decided half the team was no longer needed and should be let go; despite all the amazing work and effort from every designer, programmer, artist, audio specialist, level designer, fx, tech design, and on and on and on," Maynard says.

Romero's private id archive is a rare blessing. Fallout's Tim Cain said last year that he was "ordered to destroy" his own archive of the formative RPG's development.

Doom legend John Romero says the FPS game's 20 million shareware players "were not 'pirates' by default" and "history is messier than 'pirates killed the companies.'"

If you haven't played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, I highly recommend it, especially if you're going through something stressful. It's a great game for venting your frustrations. Apparently, putting it out was a turning point for developer Saber Interactive, as the studio is now enjoying a prosperous era of development.

That's no exaggeration either, since CCO Tim Willits says Space Marine 2 "literally changed everything" for Saber. "It not only changed the way that the team looks at making games, it changed how people look at us," he tells The Game Business. "I've seen this in my career, when you have a huge hit, when you go to make the next game, everything has to be awesome. It's like, 'This has got to be the most awesome toaster ever.' And it fuels success."

Since it was a licensed project, that opened more doors for the company. Nothing helps land a contract more than a good reputation, leading to Saber having to pick its battles in terms of capabilities. "Because we have a reputation of really doing well with licensed IPs, every major license holder wants to make a video game," Willits says. "It's just the way it is. Everybody. So, we are in a very fortunate position to turn down more than we can accept."

Apparently, there was a particular exciting opportunity Saber had to pass on for just this reason. Willits can't name them, of course, but he knows just how nice of a problem it is to have. "You know you're successful when you've turned down those guys. It's really nice to be in that position," he comments.

Indeed it must be. Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is Saber's last major outstanding release for the year, a first-person nightmare co-written with Barker himself that comes out in October, just in time for Halloween. Then, next year, we have Hitman Classic Trilogy Remastered, and the likes of Turok: Origins and the long-in-the-works Knights of the Old Republic remake to get dated at some point.

That's just a small sampling as well. Willits isn't kidding about how much is going across the myriad studios Saber operates, and it sounds like there may be more to come as well. I think we can rest easy that Space Marine 3 will happen, and when it does, who knows what Saber will do next. All I know is, more Cenobites, please.

Hitman and 007 First Light dev IO Interactive regains "full ownership" of its mysterious online RPG project after Xbox reportedly pulled funding

Minecraft's newest update finally brings more ways to rest your blocky behind, as Cushions and Straw Beds headline the new preview.

On the Minecraft website Mojang details what Minecraft: Bedrock Edition players can expect from update preview 26.40.30, which launches today. While it's not going to introduce any game-changing biomes or new mobs to the game, it does introduce a massive new feature in the form of Straw Beds.

Straw Beds are a new type of bed which allow you to sleep through the night while retaining your previous spawn point, which will be perfect for waiting out the night while you're on an expedition. However, there's a catch, as these beds can only be used one time before being destroyed, and of course you won't be able to use these in the Nether or The End. If you use three Hay Bales you'll get Four Straw Beds to use, so it's not the worst trade for something that's a one-time use, plus you can find them naturally in Abandoned Camps.

The update's focus seems to be to help spruce up the Abandoned Camps that were introduced a few weeks ago in update 26.40.27. The new area will now spawn in the Pale Garden and Flower Forest biomes and boast procedural trees, and an issue which saw loot tables list incorrect potion names has also been fixed.

The other new change is the introduction of the Cushion, which you can craft 16 different colored versions of. These don't exactly have much practical use for your hardcore survival mode run, but they're a new item you can sit on and make your home look that much cuter. These currently aren't found in Abandoned Camps, but Mojang lists this as a "known issue," implying these will find a home there after a while.

Frankly, I'm shocked that it's taken almost 17 years (or 15 years after its official 1.0 launch in 2011) for Minecraft to add a way to sleep through the night without resetting your spawn, now that it's actually in the game, it feels like something that should've been a given on day one, so it's good to finally have the option.

Smaller Minecraft updates like Tiny Takeover and Chaos Cubed "feel more sustainable" for Mojang, says lead: "There's always another one right around the corner."

David Hayter, the striking voice behind the Metal Gear series' various Snake roles, isn't a fan of Sony's decision to end physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028 – and he's certainly not afraid to show it.

The end of physical media as we know it is dominating online discussions following Sony's announcement, which cited how "general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs" – a statement that plenty of folks definitely cannot get behind.

One of them is none other than David Hayter, the iconic voice actor known for his work on Metal Gear Solid games as Solid Snake, Old Snake, Naked Snake… you name it.

In a new online post, Hayter makes this as clear as he possibly can, sharing a picture of all his consoles and games (physical, of course, mind you). Between the Xbox and PlayStation 5 – and various controllers – I see a plethora of gems, including everything from GTA 5 to Red Dead Redemption 2.

As for his caption? "No disc, no buy." And, yes, he tags the official PlayStation account on Twitter, too, so as to catch Sony's attention.

Unsurprisingly, fans are largely in agreement with the actor, who admits in the comments that "this is a fraction of my game collection" as well. Not to mention, "I also have 2500+ DVDs." Physical media, you say? Hayter's no hater in that department.

He's not alone, either, as big developers in the industry themselves have spoken out against the move toward digital-only. Take former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra, for example.

He says "we can't live in a world of fear if our games will work in the future or not," and game preservation experts share in that sentiment, explaining how this will all lead to more piracy.

Just yesterday, CEO of Lords of the Fallen 2 publisher CI Games, Marek Tyminski, also stated that Sony's choice to axe discs and the fact that GTA 6 is going disc-free itself "feels unfair to studios still backing physical" – so, yeah.

There's no telling what the future will bring for physical media enthusiasts, but I'm choosing to remain hopeful that game discs won't do a DVD on us and all but disappear. Something tells me Hayter is, too.

Here's why we think PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not.

It began as a disaster. Fresh off conquering the Continent in peerless fantasy RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Red turned its attention to the neon metropolis of Night City for Cyberpunk 2077.

Instead of being an instant success, Cyberpunk 2077 – in the franchise's parlance – flatlined out of the gate in 2020. Game-ruining glitches, a broken world, and stuttering last-gen ports led to the unprecedented removal of the title from the PlayStation Store.

Far from CD Projekt Red being able to do no wrong, things suddenly looked dire. I, along with plenty of my chooms, dropped Cyberpunk – seemingly never to return.

But it's here where the comeback story begins. Away from the gaze of many who felt burned by one of gaming's biggest modern-day disappointments, the developers clawed back a large chunk of goodwill with 2023's 2.0 update. The dramatic changes overhauled everything from skill trees to chrome upgrades to ensure Cyberpunk 2077 closely matched CD Projekt Red – and fans' – initial expectations for the game.

That same week, the Phantom Liberty DLC, introducing players to a dangerous new section of Night City in Dogtown, and a story revolving around a trapped President and the emergence of Idris Elba's shadowy FIA Agent Solomon Reed. Far from being a desperate last gasp of a dying game, it rejuvenated the series. Phantom Liberty now stands alongside CD Projekt Red's dreamy trip to Touissant in The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine as shorthand for best-in-class expansions.

But that wasn't how I, or others, returned to the Cyberpunk fold. Our way back into Night City's crime-ridden streets was through Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, a joint collaboration between CD Projekt Red and the acclaimed Studio Trigger of Kill La Kill fame.

Chrome sweet chrome

The show charts the rise of David Martinez, a down-on-his-luck kid who, after suffering a family tragedy and in desperate need of 'eddies' to pay the bills, forces his way through the seedy underbelly of Night City to become one of its most prominent Edgerunners.

Ably backed by a crew that includes netrunner and David's love interest Lucy, hot-headed Rebecca, and stoic leader Maine, Edgerunners begins as an effortlessly cool, stylish depiction of how a Robin Hood-style set of mercs could thrive in a world that wants them dead. Then, spoiler alert, most of them do end up dead.

As much as I love Cyberpunk 2077, Edgerunners understands the franchise's message that much more. Because there are no winners and losers in Night City, just the corporations and those crushed underfoot. While the RPG can absolutely have its heart-wrenching moments, it pales in comparison to David's journey. Hell, you probably haven't looked at the moon in the same way since.

Ahead of the Cyberpunk sequel, Edgerunners also gives Night City new life. Where its game counterpart is a joyful futuristic playground once you're kitted out in all the best chrome, Edgerunners' take is close to something like Akira: a wiry, suffocating beast of a city that – as cliche as it sounds – is a character in itself. This is a place that chews people up and spits them out whole; a lethal, kinetic rush is found in every dilapidated alley and brutalist rooftop. Cyberpunk 2077 may have won back favor on its own merits, but Edgerunners kickstarted everything by truly getting what made everyone so eager in the first place.

Back to Night City

But that's not the end of the saga. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2 is coming to Netflix later this year – and first signs are promising.

The early reactions from Anime Expo are incredible, with fans and critics alike praising the premiere as an undoubted step up from the first season. It also speaks to the dedication to the series and its remarkable turnaround that 6000 fans packed into the L.A. event to watch the premiere episode of the second season, and not a single soul leaked footage from the event. There are no gonks here, only those who wish to protect a shared secret, safe in the knowledge that they've just witnessed something very special.

Then you hear the creators talk, and the hype only intensifies. Edgerunners writer Bartosz Sztybor has described the second season as a Scorsese movie in comparison to the first season's explosive Michael Bay-coded offering. That instantly brings to mind something far more narratively brave than what we've seen so far – a path Cyberpunk could do well to walk down between now and the release of the codenamed Orion sequel.

From disaster to delight, Cyberpunk has done what so many have failed to do. As the twin industries of Hollywood and gaming become increasingly littered with failed big-budget projects, layoffs, and a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction, CD Projekt Red should be held aloft as a teaching lesson for many. With time, patience, and a risky side-project, everything can be fixed again. Welcome back to Night City. We can't wait to see where it takes us next.

For more, check out the first Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2 reactions. Then, dive into our collection of the best anime on Netflix.

If Sony's announcement has you gunning for physical games more than ever, then you'll be happy to know that you can grab cheap Nintendo Switch game discounts even on titles that haven't been released yet.

For whatever reason, Switch 2 players have recently been blessed with up to $10 off pre-orders, with titles like Star Fox and Splatoon Raiders both landing at Amazon US for less than full price. Now Orbitals has joined in the discount fun, and you can grab a full physical copy for as little as $39.88 (Amazon), saving you $10 off its $49.99 MSRP.

The digital game is currently sitting on the official Nintendo Store for the same price, so picking up a copy at Amazon feels like a no-brainer. Especially when you factor in that this is not a game-key card release and the full anime-inspired co-op game is on the cartridge. Sign me up!

Switch 2 Star Fox had a similar $10 off discount ahead of launch, where you could grab the remake of the 90s N64 classic for $49.99 instead of its full $59.99 price. However, as the game has come and gone, that discount is no more. In the US, you'll struggle to find Fox McCloud's latest adventure for less than full price when it comes to its physical release, which is why I'm bringing this Orbitals deal news to you sooner rather than later.

If Star Fox is anything to go by, there's every chance that Orbitals will also bounce up to its full price at Amazon after its September 3 release date. That leaves you around 58 days to secure your pre-order and the $10 discount, and be proud that you've added yet another physical release to your collection that's yours to keep until you want to sell, trade, or loan it to a friend.

In the UK, the deals aren't as exciting. A physical copy of Orbtials will cost you £41.99 at Nintendo's online store, meanwhile, it's available for £39.99 at Amazon. I went with the latter as even a saving of £2 is something, but it's not as dramatic a difference, if I'm honest. Either way, I'm happy to get my hands on a game that reminds me so much of the charm of the Macross anime series, while at the same time, being able to add another physical game to my shelf.

There isn't going to be as big a PS5 collection in my gaming room as I once thought after Sony ends physical releases in January 2028. So with that in mind, I have plenty of room to fill up the empty space with new Switch 2 releases instead. Star Fox? Check. Now Orbitals, check!

• View all Nintendo Switch 2 gaming deals at Amazon

If you've already pre-ordered your copy of Orbitals, check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers, the best Nintendo Switch headsets, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 cases to aid you on your upcoming anime co-op adventure.

As Sony announces it is abandoning physical games, Nintendo fans recall comments from former President and CEO Satoru Iwata about this very thing.

In 2009, during an investor meeting (via Kotaku, now resurfaced on Reddit), Iwata – who was president of Nintendo from 2002 until his passing in 2015 – said, "Most radical people even dare to say that retailers will be replaced by digital distribution in no time," adding, "But personally, I think it will still require a significant amount of time."

He explained, "In other words, it will require many years and months for the majority of video game purchase to become digital," predicting that "In short, in 20 years or so, I might say it will have probably changed. But in 5 years or so, I do not totally agree with opinions that no one will purchase titles at retailers by then."

And here we are in 2026, with Rockstar abandoning a proper physical release, leaving only digital or code-in-box options for GTA 6. And then we got the news that, come 2028, Sony will no longer produce physical discs for PS5 games. So Iwata was almost right, just about a year off.

Granted, physical copies will likely still exist in 2029. Xbox hasn't announced plans to abandon physical disks, although the writing is on the wall given recent Xbox physical releases have lacked data on the disk, while rumors say Project Helix may not have a disk drive. Meanwhile, Nintendo introduced the Game-Key Card, which is another fake physical copy as far as preserving the games on them goes, but at the very least, you are able to resell those.

Sony reportedly already has another use for its disc factory after announcing end of physical PlayStation games

It's been nearly seven years now since Activision and Toys for Bob released Spyro: Reignited Trilogy – and there's a reason the well-received three-in-one remake feels so faithful to its old counterparts from the late 90s and early 2000s.

In case you've never played the remade trilogy, it's pretty solid – in fact, it plays exactly as I remember the original few games playing, striking the perfect balance between nostalgia and quality of life (I'm looking at you, OG PlayStation controls).

Toys for Bob studio head Paul Yan explains how and why the developers pulled this off in a new discussion with Kinda Funny on YouTube – and insightful is an understatement here.

According to the lead, the team first tried to find source code in-house so it could "reconstruct it" for the Reignited Trilogy.

So, instead, "one of our engineers took an open- source emulator and then modified that so that we looked at the original game and actually peered into its data, extracted a lot of the models… We extracted the levels. We measured all the metrics. We found the exact placement for every gem."

That's not all, though. "We measured the timing, the speed, and the paths of certain enemies." In other words, they delved deep into the modified emulator. "It gave us a lot of metrics that gave us the authenticity on that side of it," as Yan says.

Obviously, they did change some things so that Spyro: Reignited Trilogy wouldn't feel too "old," so to speak – the controls, as I joked earlier, are one of the bigger things.

And, honestly, I'm grateful that they did. As associate creative director Lou Studdert chimes in, after all, players tend to have "rose-tinted glasses" on when approaching retro games like Spyro.

You imagine them looking and playing a whole lot differently than they actually did – but the devs took that into account with Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, and it's better for it. I do wonder, though… how will Spyro: A Realm Beyond feel, in contrast?

We have some very exciting features – like free flight and such – to look forward to, but also the same colorful visuals that made the original games so comforting. Personally, I can't wait to give it a go… a new entry has been a long time coming.

"Going independent meant taking a massive, massive risk": How Toys for Bob split off from Activision and Xbox to help guide Spyro to A Realm Beyond

Razer's new Espeon and Umbreon Collection is fresh on my mind as it dropped on July 6. It's a new line-up of PC gaming accessories decked out in imagery of the two iconic Eevee evolutions, and I assumed the love for the Gen 2 Pokemon would stop there. Still, a brand-new Umbreon and Espeon Switch 2 controller from Hori has been spotted.

Originally shared by the X (Twitter) account Pokémon Deals, Restock and Alerts, the new controller hasn't officially been announced yet on Hori's official social media channels. However, its listing is live at Amazon US, which showcases a new version of the Wireless HORIPAD Turbo gamepad draped in a dark purple colorway and gold star details. Sadly, you can't buy it quite yet, but the moment it goes live, I'll be sure to let you know, so you can complete your hybrid Razer and Hori Espeon and Umbreon gaming setup.

I believe I've stumbled on this new Pokemon version of the controller a little early. It's currently listed as "Temporarily out of stock" despite never being in stock at all. This is very likely just a temporary state while Hori prepares to get its announcement in order, which could hopefully include even more Switch 2 accessories featuring this stunning Espeon and Umbreon artwork.

Hori is known to release accessories in waves, so I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up seeing this design on a Switch 2 case, a game card case, and even a wired headset. If you take the Kirby and Waddle Dee Collection by the brand as an example, it launched its own Wireless HORIPAD Turbo controller, alongside a Puff Pouch and Vault Case in the US. I'd be surprised if these weren't also on the cards for Umbreon and Espeon.

Regardless of what else might come of this new Hori and Pokemon collaboration, I'm glad we're getting a wireless pad over the alternative. As much as I adore the Hori Gengar and Mimikyu controller, its cute design does little to distract from the fact that its wired-only connectivity (over the HORIPAD Turbo's 33 ft wireless compatibility) feels very limiting.

Of course, this wireless support typically comes at a higher cost. While there isn't one listed alongside the new controller quite yet, judging from past officially licensed Wireless HORIPAD Turbo releases, you'll likely be looking at $64.99 for this stunning pad. But for that price, you should also be getting stick-drift-dying TMR sticks, and 10 hours of playback, which isn't too shabby.

So far, this stunning new Umbreon and Espeon controller has not appeared at Amazon UK or other retailers. However, the moment it does, I'll sound the alarm as I feel it's my duty to ensure Nintendo players have the cutest accessories possible. In the meantime, Pokemon fans can pre-order the Ditto Wireless HORIPAD Turbo for £54.99 at Amazon instead. It's not Eevee-related, but it's at least a purple Pokemon pad.

• View all Hori Switch 2 accessories at Amazon

Check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers, the best Nintendo Switch headsets, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 cases if you want to complete your new Ninty gaming setup.

In the wake of Pragmata's success, Bayonetta and Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya credits Capcom's success to its willingness to create new franchises.

After the last decade, I don't think it's a stretch to say Capcom has become one of the best AAA publishers on the planet. Since the release of Resident Evil 7 in 2017, the publisher has effectively been releasing a game of the year contender every single year – or multiple games, in the case of 2019, 2021, 2023, and, so far, 2026.

This has translated to sales success: every single game in the company's all-time top 10 best-selling games list was released since 2017. 2012's Resident Evil 6 is the first pre-2017 entry and comes in at 12th place.

Kamiya – who is now working with Capcom on Okami 2 after leaving the company back in 2007 – was asked by a fan on Twitter how Capcom is able to release hit after hit. Kamiya says (via machine translation) Capcom has a lot of talented staff under its banner. However, he also notes that Capcom management has a proactive approach to creating new series, like Pragmata is leading to good results.

While other new IP attempts like Exoprimal or Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess haven't exactly set the world on fire, Pragmata was a hit for Capcom receiving critical acclaim and positive fan reception, as well as selling over two million copies within 16 days of launch.

Capcom has also said it will "consider the possibility" of developing the sci-fi shooter into a series going forward, as well as saying it will continue making new IP.

Pragmata director Yonghee Cho told us in May that he would "of course" love to make a sequel to the game.

In a games industry dominated by safe bets, Capcom keeps getting weird with it.

I'm not one of those collectors who needs to have their amiibo as pristine as possible, but sometimes I just appreciate how they look in the box.

The only issue that can arise from keeping them looking brand-new is that Nintendo's packaging tends to weather pretty fast. I have plenty of unopened amiibo that have been sitting untouched for years, and yet the packaging has started to degrade and curl. So you can bet I was over the moon to discover that plastic box protectors, like the ones I see stacked up amongst Funko Pops at my local comic book shop, exist but for Nintendo amiibo instead.

I cannot lie that I felt a bit like Comic Book Guy's 'The Collector's alter ego from The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror as I slide poor plastic Sora from Kingdom Hearts into his plastic protector prison, but it's for a good cause. Sora's Super Smash Bros amiibo release is one of my favorite additions to the amiibo line-up to date, as I adore Kingdom Hearts with all my heart. Please excuse the pun. And I want to keep him and his packaging looking as good as I can for as long as I can.

Fortunately, the protectors are pretty easy to set up, so this shouldn't be an issue when I start to bag up more than just Sora. The protector (or at least the one I bought) arrived flat through the post, and all I had to do was fold along the lines and slide Sora inside, where he'll inevitably remain for the future. Sorry, pal. Donald Duck's likely going to have a harder time attempting to cure you now.

The protector was so easy to put together that I'm already eyeing the rest of my boxed amiibo that could do with some extra protection. At the moment, my figures like the Super Smash Bros Joker amiibo and Shovel Knight are sitting in their boxes, being subject to general wear and tear and the worst property of damage of all, dust. Yet hopefully, by picking up more of these plastic put-it-together-yourself boxes, I should be able to keep them safe and sound.

If you're considering grabbing some for yourself and are worried about the costly investment of buying multiples for your many amiibo, don't be. While I purchased mine for £6 from eBay Store Gaming Crave, and I've listed a 10-pack above for $20, multiple stores on AliExpress list them for as low as 99cents /99p per protector.

I have a feeling that these AliExpress listings could be where a bulk of other stores are sourcing their protectors, so grabbing them from the source yourself is going to be the cheapest option. These sellers also list larger protectors for any of you with the Pyra & Mythra amiibo double pack or the Alterna Set (Callie & Marie) double pack, so you've got more options than you'll find at mainstream retailers like Amazon, alongside the lower prices.

Before I go to inevitably pick up more for myself, do be aware that those protectors are still dependent on how well you look after them. They're pretty thin and are best for combating against dust and little knicks and abrasions. If your amiibo were to fall from a great height, it could still be subject to damage. So please don't start using them as an excuse to hurl your Nintendo toys around the room. I don't think any of you hurl amiibo in your free time, but you can never be too sure.

If you're on the hunt for more amiibo, I've pulled together all the upcoming 2026 amiibo releases in one handy dandy place.

I'm no stranger to Stardew Valley and all of the cozy farming sims it's inspired since its 2016 release – but Moonlight Peaks might just be my favorite in concept yet.

In case you've not heard of it yet, Moonlight Peaks is a wholesome farming and life sim that takes everything I love about games like Stardew Valley and gives it a Monster High-esque twist. It ticks all of the genre boxes – bug-catching, cooking, farming, fishing, questing, and, of course, romance – but also adds a bit of morbid magic. There are vampires (whom you play as yourself), mermaids, werewolves, witches… what more could a girl want?

The town itself follows a unique nighttime schedule, too. You don't wake up in the early morning to farm through the day in Moonlight Peaks. Instead, you rise out of your coffin at the turn of the night and take care of your daily tasks before sunrise… because, well, you are a vampire.

Visually, it's appealing, to say the least – but it also adds an extra "cozy" layer to the game, in my opinion, with all of the purple-y blue visuals.

Moonlight Peaks boasts an adorable aesthetic overall, honestly. I'm sold thanks to the Animal Crossing: New Horizons-esque designs and cute itty-bitty beasts (is that a three-eyed cat?) – it's a nice cartoon-y change of pace from the pixel-y style other recent genre gems like Fields of Mistria have opted for.

The whole mystical, magical side of the game from indie developer Little Chicken is what really has me hooked, though. From potion-making to spell-casting, there's no shortage of witchy, whimsical vibes to be found in Moonlight Peaks. The devs even tease mystical crops – whatever that might mean. It's spooktacular, but not in a legitimately frightening way that would break the cozier immersion we farming sim stans crave. The game is, as Little Chicken so aptly puts it, "a sweet and spooky journey."

If you're just as obsessed with cute monster people and farming games as I am, you can grab the game over on Steam, Nintendo Switch, or Switch 2 when it unlocks tomorrow.

Searching for more to look forward to? Browse through our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond for other great titles to wishlist.

I'm not sure I've ever had more fun listening to a game developer than when I watch Kenji Kanno introduce Crazy Taxi: World Tour to a small room full of journalists and content creators at Summer Game Fest. He's rocking long, gray hair that paints him as a rock star graced by the wisdom of age, and he speaks with such enthusiasm about the game that it's tough not to get on board with him.

Sega's reasons for bringing back Crazy Taxi are fairly boring – part of an effort to revitalize legacy IP to bring in a new generation of fans. For Kanno? "My biggest personal reason," he tells us via translator, "is that I really wanted to put out a game that can make people happy, that can make people smile as they play and express themselves in their own way."

Time to make some crazy money

Kanno softly sings "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah" – the line from the opening of The Offspring's All I Want that's burned into so many Crazy Taxi fans' heads – as he demonstrates the basics of World Tour. It instantly looks familiar, offering the same blue skies and wild stunts that made Sega's arcade classic so memorable in the first place.

It looks doubly familiar since the map I'm seeing is a recreation of the original game's vaguely defined west coast city area. The Crazy Rush mode offers the classic experience of trying to deliver as many passengers to their destinations as you can in as short a time as possible. But there's a whole campaign this time, too, and the map is populated with all sorts of additional activities.

In one mission, you'll drive a pizza chef (confusingly named Cheeseburger) on deliveries, while trying to avoid disturbing the comically huge stack of pies. There's even a fishing mini-game, where you cast out a line from your cab and do a backdash to reel it in. It's all delightful stuff, especially with the promise that we'll be visiting five different countries over the course of the game – though Kanno laughs that "some of the marketing people will get mad at me if I say what countries they are."

I'm desperate to love Crazy Taxi: World Tour, both because Kanno's enthusiasm is infectious and because I'm always going to root for an old-school revival to succeed. But there's a lot here squarely in 'too early to tell' territory. There are clearly some changes to the core gameplay, especially in how you can just power through oncoming traffic and take advantage of a newly-introduced nitrous boost. It's also not immediately clear how old techniques like the backdash and drift work. In the original game, you had to master shifting between drive and reverse in order to pull these techniques off, but just watching somebody else play the game makes these techniques look much simpler than that.

Kanno offered a brief Q&A after the demonstration, but he responded to many of the questions posed by nervously glancing at the PR reps in the room and apologizing profusely for the fact that he couldn't actually answer just yet.

We saw Axel in the demo, but are there other playable characters? Can't say anything beyond "we won't betray your expectation." Does the soundtrack vary between locations? "Sorry," he can't say. There were an array of licensed shops and restaurants in the demo, just like the original game, but Sega emailed me shortly after to ask me not to publish any of them because they're "not yet final."

Most of my time at Summer Game Fest was spent on the ground, so I didn't have much time to see the internet's reaction to the event's announcements – including the revelation that World Tour was built, in part, using generative AI. The difference in vibe between the room where I watched series creator Kenji Kanno pledge to make the world a happier place and the community's actual reaction to the game has been pretty stark, and I've been having a hard time reconciling my own feelings in the month since I've seen the game. The goofy vibes and retro arcade sensibilities speak deeply to my tastes, but without actually playing it I have no idea how good it's going to feel with controller in hand.

What does Kanno have to say to fans who've been desperate for a return to Crazy Taxi for years? "Sorry to keep you waiting," is his simple message. "Crazy Taxi has a very special place in my heart as well. The fact that so many old fans are waiting for it – and so many people know about it right now, and even within the company so many people are very excited and want a new Crazy Taxi – it makes me feel very happy."

Final Fantasy Resonance is almost my dream FF game, but its link to Square Enix's mobile games leaves me cold

Overwatch has had a turbulent history on Steam, launching as the storefront's lowest-rated game in 2023 and only rising out of the "Overwhelmingly Negative" depths a couple of times – but now, things might just be turning around for Blizzard's hero shooter.

It's no secret that Overwatch hasn't performed well review-wise over on Valve's platform. Heck, even game director Aaron Keller himself has commented on the negative reception, stating earlier this year that he's "not sure what it would take for us to move up to a positive score at this point" – but, what do you know, Overwatch no longer has a negative rating attached to it on Steam at all. Now, it's actually "Mixed."

This applies to both its recent and overall reviews, as a new influx of more positive feedback has seen the previously "Mostly Negative" rating rise.

Sure, there are still plenty of comments on the game being disappointing. One amusing review (with 1,467 hours in-game, mind you) describes its writer's time in Overwatch as a "toxic relationship that needs to end." Others criticize performance, gameplay, and, yes, microtransactions.

Folks bring up microtransactions and in-game purchases quite a few times, unsurprisingly – I mean, we are talking about that game that recently charged nearly $100 for a cosmetic bundle that introduced a new skin rarity, after all.

As for the more positive reception the game has received recently, reviews range from amusing ("hot girls," y'all… hot girls) to informative, with some players feeling that Overwatch has made a comeback this year.

"In 2026, we finally got back to just Overwatch," reads one such review. "The new characters are fun with interesting kits, the battle pass is good value, there's a lot of chances to get loot boxes, which means free cosmetics, the paid cosmetics have been really good, and overall the game has a lot to offer everyone."

Another adds, "I never thought I'd be writing a positive Overwatch review again, but here we are. Character development, apparently."

Character development, indeed. This does beg the question, could Overwatch rise up even more on the Steam ladder and perhaps see some variation of a positive review rating? I'm not keeping my fingers crossed for "Overwhelmingly Positive" or anything, but I do wonder…

Uncharted 3 co-director and The Dragon Prince co-creator joins the Overwatch team, once again reigniting hopes for an animated show.

Nintendo has confirmed that production of original Nintendo Switch consoles will end in February 2027, just under a decade after the original version launched.

In a post about the upcoming European revision of the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo confirmed details about the console and various accessories that will be affected by this revision. While there's not too much to report, aside from some weight differences and a 16% smaller battery for the Pro Controller, the big news was hidden at the bottom in a FAQ titled "What does that mean for Nintendo Switch consoles in Europe?"

While Nintendo says the Nintendo Switch – alongside the Lite and OLED models – will continue to be manufactured throughout 2026 and "should be widely available in Europe all year," production will end in 2027. The post reads, "From mid-February 2027, almost ten years after Nintendo Switch launched in March 2017, Nintendo will no longer sell to retailers hardware in the Nintendo Switch family of systems – specifically Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch – OLED Model. Sales of Nintendo Switch hardware on Nintendo Store will also end in mid-February 2027."

While the headline "What does that mean for Nintendo Switch consoles in Europe?" does only mention Europe, however, the answer doesn't mention Europe. It's unclear if production of the Nintendo Switch and its other models will come to an end worldwide at this time. We have reached out to Nintendo Europe for comment and will update if we get a response.

While this could be seen as Nintendo cutting its losses instead of creating unique Switch hardware to comply with EU laws, it also could just be a situation where it's no longer worth producing the console thanks to the ongoing global RAM shortages compounded by AI slop farms, which have seen the prices of tech skyrocket over the last year or so.

Still, what a run the Nintendo Switch had. Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its first year was enough to cement it as an all-timer, but since then it's blown up and made people forget just how dire things were for Nintendo in the first half of the 2010s by comparison.

For now, it looks like Rhythm Heaven Groove is set to be the console's final first-party game too, which would be an excellent way to go out – unless any of those rumored things we've been hearing about forever like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD, Kirby: Planet Robobot, or Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War remake emerge in the next year.

And now, Nintendo has just over half a year to sell about 5 million consoles for the Switch to beat the PS2 to become the best-selling console of all time. Although the Switch doesn't have God Hand, so can it ever truly beat the PS2?

Nintendo promises to keep "aiming for unique entertainment that only we could produce" as it shouts out its continued "originality" following recent fan vote

Donkey Kong is turning 45 this week. As an old-age gaming pensioner, I'm trying to comprehend that bananas news, but July 9, 2026 marks 45 years since our favorite tie-wielding ape first landed in arcades and changed the scope of gaming as we see it. Of course, he didn't have a tie back then and was more concerned with hurling barrels at Jumpman (aka Mario) than looking sharp, but he's come a long way.

There's been a hoard of DK-flavored goodies released in those 45 years, including the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories, which feature Donkey Kong and friends. From a lenticular 'moving' Switch 2 case, plenty of amiibo, and Switch 2 Joy-Con covers, it's not too difficult to show off your love for the 45-year-old ape with your handheld, and I've gathered these a-peel-ing accessories down below.

With the Switch 2 still being pretty new, there aren't as many DK-themed Switch 2 goodies as I had hoped. With that in mind, I've thrown in some older amiibo and accessories that are compatible with the new handheld, so you've got plenty plenty of choices which are ripe for picking.

My personal top Donkey Kong Switch 2 accessory picks

Donkey Kong Turtle Beach PlayTrek Switch 2 Travel Case

The Donkey Kong Switch 2 Case remains one of the best Nintendo Switch 2 cases available today as far as design goes. I reviewed the 'Mario Bricks' version earlier this year and was instantly swayed by its lenticular design, which is also featured on this model. Instead of a piece of hidden Super Mario art that reveals itself depending on your view angle, glancing at this Donkey Kong version makes the foliage behind DK and Diddy Kong's silhouettes appear to be moving.

The design is much more subtle on this version, and the case includes all the same amenities that I adored in the Mario version. You've got space for your Nintendo Switch 2 console, a small fabric mesh pocket for small accessories, and a dedicated space for storing up to 12 physical games, all for $29.99 (Amazon), and even less when there are sales inbound.

Donkey Kong and Pauline amiibo

I love a good amiibo and have almost 200 of the Nintendo toys-to-life figures in my collection. Yet, the Donkey Kong and Pauline amiibo remain one of my favorites from the entire line due to the sheer detail that's on display. For one, the $29.99 (Best Buy) collectible has one of the most unique bases out there, featuring a smashed-up terrain that feels entirely on brand for Donkey Kong Bananza.

Secondly, the amiibo is of a much higher quality than your run-of-the-mill figures. A closer inspection of little Pauline will reveal her tiny painted freckles, and even the denim texture of her jeans has been sculpted for this release. Talking of Pauline, tapping it on your right Switch 2 Joy-Con also unlocks one of her cutest outfits in the game (Pauline's Diva Dress) early, alongside destructible KONG letters which come in handy when you need to destroy a bunch of terrain at a pinch.

Check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers, the best Nintendo Switch headsets, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 cases if you want to make your Ninty setup completely bananas.

Nintendo has responded to being voted the favorite developer of readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu, speaking of its past and future.

Famitsu celebrated its 40th anniversary last month, and to mark the milestone, the magazine published the results of a massive survey (thanks, Nintendo Everything) of readers which saw over 5,000 people vote on a ton of topics about games.

These included people's first ever game, which unsurprisingly saw Super Mario Bros. in first, with Mario also being people's favorite character (just above Cloud and Tifa from Final Fantasy 7). Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won out in the "game to play again if you lost your memory" and "favorite game to recommend to others" categories. Kirby and Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai was dubbed "favorite creator" while Nintendo itself was voted "favorite developer."

After being voted the top developer, Nintendo shared a message to its fans (via Nintendo Everything, with translation provided by SatsumaFS and Simon Griffin). "Thank you for choosing Nintendo as the No. 1 'Game Developer I Like,'" the message reads, adding: "We are also extremely happy that Mario and The Legend of Zelda have been received favorably."

Nintendo adds, "Ever since the Famicom (NES) was released in 1983, we have created chances for many to give video games a try, and we are grateful to Famitsu for keeping customers excited and supporting us across those 40 years.

"During these 40 years, technology related to game development has evolved, and the environment has changed as well, but we have continued to keep 'originality' as our central theme going through trial and error and learning many things while creating entertainment with the goal of putting smiles on customers' faces." The company says: "If this 40-year-long path has become a part of everyone's memories, there is nothing that would make us happier."

Looking forward, Nintendo says it will "continue to challenge various things, aiming for unique entertainment that only we could produce, and work hard towards that goal. We shall continue to be in your care from now on." And, given the absolute scenes we're seeing at Microsoft and Sony right now, hopefully Nintendo continues to focus on what makes games good. Even if there are some missteps here and there, we're thankfully not seeing layoffs out of Nintendo every other week.

Super Smash Bros creator Masahiro Sakurai sometimes "sounds exactly like Goku," ex-Tekken boss says: "A Saiyan who genuinely believes he's just another ordinary human."

If anyone deserves a nice, safe retirement away from the horrors inflicted by a variety of viruses, it's Leon Kennedy. To say the poor guy has really been through it in the Resident Evil series over the years is an understatement. When he's not being attacked by infected dogs, stalked by a hulking, hat-wearing tyrant, or dealing with men wielding chainsaws, he's rescuing the president's daughter, uncovering a conspiracy, and returning to a place of great trauma.

Isn't it high time that after all that, he gets to kick back and take it easy? This isn't me saying I want the iconic action man to step away from the limelight after Resident Evil Requiem. On the contrary, I want to experience the retirement Kennedy deserves, and to do that, I need Resident Evil 2 director Hideki Kamiya's joke conceptual pitch to be anything but a joke. The pitch in question? A cozy life sim starring a retired Leon fishing, baking, and having barbecues with old pals. Now that idea is in my head, I can't let it go. And as a scaredy cat who loves Resident Evil from a safe distance, I'd give just about anything for Capcom to actually make it into a reality.

Home over horror

Just like Kamiya, I'm definitely not a horror fan. Even so, I've always had a great fondness for Resident Evil. I love the over-the-top silliness, corny one-liners, and lore of the infected world, but I'll be the first to admit I still find it too scary to play myself. So how do I enjoy it if I'm not playing? Well, the way in which my relationship began with the series kickstarted how I would go on to experience it from then on: by watching others play.

Witnessing my dad play through Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube way back when is one of my favorite gaming memories. I loved Resident Evil 4 (and its bingo line) so much I even attempted to try it for myself, but I quickly came to the conclusion I just couldn't handle the creepy zombie villagers and scary atmosphere upfront. By watching someone else play, I could enjoy the story and action and put some distance between myself and the horror.

But what Kamiya jokingly pitched would deservedly put some distance between the horror for Leon, too, and better yet, it would bring to life a game set in the Resident Evil universe I could actually play. In the words of Kamiya, "it'd be a game where a retired Leon spends his days in the countryside fishing, gathering wild vegetables, baking bread, walking his dog, tending to his garden, driving 50 kilometers to the nearest general store, inviting his old friends over for barbecues, fixing his elderly neighbour's oven, and selling homemade lemonade at the local festival."

The sweet concept sounds like a laidback life sim with ingredients plucked right out of games like Stardew Valley, and as an avid player in the cozy game scene, that's really speaking my language. Not only could it bring a whole new audience into the world of Resident Evil, but Capcom could tap into the genre in such a novel way for longtime fans by bringing to life a cozy life sim experience led by an established character with such a rich history.

Handy man

Just think of all of the references they could pack in, with framed pictures and belongings dotted around Leon's retired abode in the countryside that nod to past encounters and meaningful moments. Not to mention cameos from other familiar faces who pop over for barbecues. I also love how the pitch so perfectly captures Leon Kennedy. He'd never be content to rest on his laurels completely, and I could see him getting very involved with the little neighboring communities. It's easy to picture quests, for example, that make him go out of his way to help others in more day-to-day ways.

After all, you don't have to fight zombies and put a stop to the schemes of a dastardly corporation to be a hero. I'm sure Leon is just as much of a hero to the elderly neighbor whose oven gets fixed as he is to Ashley Graham in Resident Evil 4.

Kennedy is easily my favorite character in the Resident Evil universe, and imagining him stepping into one of my favorite game genres sets my heart on fire. I mean, who wouldn't want to kick back in the countryside with the retired action man and sink into a relaxed routine of dog walking and bread baking?

I know I'm letting my imagination run away from me, and this is just a joke from Kamiya. Even so… what I wouldn't give for it to be made into a reality. Sure, Resident Evil has brought us many of the best survival horror games over the years (and will no doubt continue to do so with the likes of Resident Evil Veronica on the way), but I would love to see a spin-off that goes in a wildly different direction. And when it comes to a cozy life sim, there's undoubtedly a market for it. So, this is my open letter to Capcom: please bring to life an idyllic retirement for Leon Kennedy so we can both get a break from the scares.

Look back over the series' highlights with our ranking of the best Resident Evil games.

Former Tekken series lead Katsuhiro Harada says FromSoftware boss and Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki is a "unique" developer with a "'mad scientist' side," thanks to his "deeply serious, obsessive approach to creativity." However, when it comes to Dark Souls, it's not the notorious difficulty that makes Miyazaki's creation stand out – it's the world.

Harada and Miyazaki are both legendary games industry veterans in their own right, but asked about the Dark Souls mastermind on Twitter, the ex-Bandai Namco dev has plenty of thoughts to share.

"Miyazaki is a rather unique, yet extremely serious game developer," Harada begins, noting that the FromSoftware lead "didn't become a game developer until he was almost thirty years old," meaning he wasn't even in the industry for "the dawn of the polygon era" – making his impact on the scene "remarkable." It's that latter part that makes Miyazaki's career path "exceptionally unusual," Harada adds.

As for Dark Souls, it's not the difficulty of the game that stands out to him – in fact, Harada actually hits us with a 'skill issue' midway through his essay, as he notes his belief that "Dark Souls has fairly simple action mechanics, and I don't actually consider it to be an especially difficult game." Damn, OK. Rather, Harada says, "Miyazaki's true creativity shines through in the world he created."

To be fair, I'm sure Harada's not the only one who thinks this. The Dark Souls games aren't just notoriously difficult; they're also famously complex when it comes to their world-building and storytelling. As Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead Guillaume Broche discussed recently, the majority of Souls players will "finish the game the first time and haven't understood a thing." However, look a little closer under the surface, and you can uncover deep, fascinating lore and cleverly built locations full of details.

It's no doubt partly thanks to this that the series has cemented itself as such a firm favorite amongst fans, especially over time. Speaking from his experience "overseeing both production and marketing" of the Dark Souls games and Elden Ring, Harada says: "Dark Souls didn't suddenly become a massive success overnight. It was the result of everything Miyazaki and his team had built up through their previous titles."

In fact, there were times when "his team were struggling," which Harada looks back to now that Miyazaki "receives offers from all over the world," making him feel like some folks have had "complete reversals in attitude" to FromSoftware's work since it's become so successful.

Reminiscing about Miyazaki's approach to game development, Harada also looks back to the creation of the VR game Summer Lesson (which was released in 2016, and sees you take on the role of a tutor for a high school student), when the Dark Souls lead tried an early build of the game.

"While everyone else was laughing, chatting, and having fun with it, Miyazaki alone played it with incredible seriousness," Harada recalls. "Then, after everyone had finished and started discussing their impressions, he remained completely silent, staring intently at the preview monitor, deep in thought.

"Everyone became curious and finally asked him, 'Miyazaki, what are you thinking about?' He suddenly smiled and said, 'Oh… I got completely absorbed in thinking about what I would do if I were making this, and what kind of game I'd create,'" he continues. "What he talked about after that was, in the best possible sense, completely insane. It was one of those rare moments when I caught a glimpse of what I'd call his 'mad scientist' side – his deeply serious, obsessive approach to creativity."

The former Tekken boss wraps up by discussing why Miyazaki tends to avoid appearing in live streams and video interviews, and it might not be the reason you'd expect. As well as disliking seeing "himself moving around on video," which any camera-shy person can understand, Miyazaki apparently thinks there are "many people in this industry who know games far better than he does," which makes him believe "his own understanding is still shallow," so "he's not yet in a position to be the one talking about games."

This is, of course, a wildly modest thing for the creator of Dark Souls to think, which Harada acknowledges. "I mean… it's common for well-known developers to say, 'I still have a long way to go.' But whenever someone like him says that, my reaction is always, 'Come on… if you say you're still not there yet, then the rest of us won't feel qualified to talk about games at all.' (laugh)"

In the same enormous post, Harada also speaks about Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai, who he clearly also has immense respect for. In what might be the best form of compliment, he compares him to a Dragon Ball Saiyan "who genuinely believes he's just another ordinary human" – and apparently sometimes says things that make him sound "exactly like Goku."

Hideo Kojima and Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki's games have something other AAA titles don't, former PlayStation boss says: "You can tell it's their visions."

There are a few moments strewn across Final Fantasy 7 that seem expressly made to engineer a lump in your throat. So far, the remake trilogy has delivered several of its own, and one of the main voice actors believes that the third part will be the most emotional of the lot.

At KawaCon, Cody Christian, the voice of Cloud Strife for the Final Fantasy 7 redux, gives a little hint of what's to come in the climactic finale of the blockbuster RPG. "There's so much emotionality, there's so much vulnerability," he tells Ally B.

"There are moments in this that if you haven't cried in the first two yet, I guarantee you'll be sobbing in this third one," he adds. That's a rather large claim to make, but then, I'm not expecting much less.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will cap off almost a decade's worth of storytelling, after Square Enix took the original JRPG and expanded it in just about every way imaginable. There have been many narrative alterations too, making what happens difficult to predict, leaving those of us who know the source material well vulnerable to having our heartstrings played just like anyone else.

Christian finishes by saying, "It's a payoff," and it truly will be. Development on this project has been going on for well over a decade by now, and it'll be a seven-year journey once Revelation lands on shelves. Even just having Cloud and Sephiroth face off for the last time is going to feel like the end of an era.

For me, at least, the most bittersweet part will be the epilogue. Nanaki and his cubs looking at an overgrown Midgar hundreds of years later is just such a poetic climax. All things fade, and all things heal, given enough time and energy. It's beautiful. Is it 2027, yet?

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation DLC includes "Story Expansion Pass," according to Epic Games Store database listings

Former Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada likens Masahiro Sakurai to a Dragon Ball Saiyan, saying the Super Smash Bros. and Kirby creator is simply on another level.

In a lengthy Twitter post in which he also speaks in detail about Dark Souls and Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki, the VS Studio founder speaks fondly of Sakurai. "If you ask me, he's basically: 'A Saiyan who genuinely believes he's just another ordinary human,'" he begins, referring to the super-powered beings from the Dragon Ball series.

Harada continues, "Every now and then, when the rest of us are struggling with some problem, he'll say something that sounds exactly like Goku saying, 'Well… why don't you just fly?' And I'll reply, 'Because we humans can't use Flight Technique.' Then he just stares at me with a completely puzzled look."

While Harada did not work on the series directly, Bandai Namco has been the primary developer of the Super Smash Bros. series alongside Sakurai's company Sora Ltd since the Wii U and 3DS entries. However, when Tekken's Kazuya Mishima was added as the penultimate DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the duo did work together. Harada's recollection of that only backs up his claims.

In 2022, Harada told IGN: "We were also surprised when it came time to make Kazuya for Smash Brothers, because we thought since we're the experts at Tekken, maybe he was going to ask about the points he needed to definitely get right to make it feel like Tekken."

However when Sakurai met with the team, he reportedly had a different approach, as Harada recalled: "He came in and didn't ask questions, but said, 'I've played a lot of Tekken and studied it, and this is what I feel is important for the game,' right off the bat. So that was quite a shock, I mean in a positive way."

While the Smash community certainly have their own thoughts on Kazuya in the game, he's undoubtedly an incredible representative of Tekken through his unique playstyle.

Masahiro Sakurai is definitely thinking of Super Smash Bros as he asserts "it would be utterly impossible to grant every request" from fans in Kirby Air Riders.

Mere days after celebrating 40 million sales overall, CD Projekt Red reveals the RPG has hit its highest Steam player peak in three years.

That's right – CD Projekt Red just can't seem to stop winning. The neon light-laden gem has officially hit over 1,000 players on Steam (101,558, to be exact, as per SteamDB), which just so happens to be the highest number CD Projekt Red has seen for its game since 2023.

It isn't quite toppling the 274,526 player peak it saw then… but it's nonetheless an impressive figure, and the studio can't help but celebrate the milestone.

Lead quest designer and Cyberpunk 2 associate game director Paweł Sasko is thrilled, for one – and he's thanking the recent first look at Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2 and collab event with Wuthering Waves for the influx of new fans.

"Tons of new chooms seem to be discovering Cyberpunk 2077, thanks to Edgerunners and our collab with Wuwa," he writes. "Have fun, my dears, hope it’s going to keep you hooked, entertained, and inspired."

Global PR director Radek Grabowski notes the influx himself in a separate post, saying, "Today's peak player count on Steam surpassed 100k – the highest it's been since 2023. This is crazy! Thank you all for playing Cyberpunk 2077!"

He includes a screenshot of the Steam charts, highlighting this month's new peak. Joint CD Projekt Red CEO Michał Nowakowski then chimes in with a reply, dubbing it a "crazy player peak today."

He concludes: "So happy to see you all. Come and check out Night City. It's a really nice and cozy place to visit!" And, you know what? I'm inclined to agree, even if it's obviously a joke.

With the hundreds of hours you can sink into Cyberpunk 2077, it does oddly become cozy in a way – the same way The Witcher 3 does, I suppose. CD Projekt Red's fantasy RPG isn't struggling with some 30,000 players over a decade on, either.

Here's hoping Cyberpunk 2 – and other upcoming CD Projekt Red games, such as The Witcher 4 – impress as much as the studio's current RPGs clearly have.

Cyberpunk 2077 lead proves the RPG's "biggest scene" is so much more complex than The Witcher 3's that you can barely compare them

Koei Tecmo recently pulled the curtain back on Attack on Titan 3, the company's upcoming action game, with almost an hour of new footage, and boy oh boy, this looks like one of the most ambitious anime tie-in games in years.

Despite its name, Attack on Titan 3 isn't exactly a continuation of the previous two games in the series. It instead retells and makes playable the entire epic anime, from the first season's humble beginnings with our characters in training to the final season's all-out war.

Publisher Koei Tecmo this week released a new trailer and almost an hour of gameplay, showing off some of the things you'd expect (grappling action and titan takedowns) to things you might not (character customization, equipment upgrades, seemingly wide open environments).

Pulling rubble down on a naked titan's head before grappling around its ankles like it's an AT-AT obviously looks like a fun time, but glimpses at Attack on Titan 3's progression is what gets me really excited. Rather than simply recreating the anime's most memorable moments, as tie-in games often do, Attack on Titan 3 seems like it's really trying to fulfil the fantasy of being a Survey Corps grunt who's eventually promoted to a squad leader. People you save out in the field can then be recruited into your squad, adding an exciting layer of management to what could've been an otherwise straight forward staby-stabby game.

"Engage in pulse-pounding battles against the Nine Titans—making their first appearance in the game series—and immerse yourself in brand-new story arcs," the game's Steam page reveals. "Iconic moments from previous titles have been completely reimagined to deliver a fresh experience, with the narrative carried all the way through to its dramatic climax."

Attack on Titan 3 launches sometime this winter on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Here's how to watch the Attack on Titan anime in order and the very best anime games to tide you over until then.

Looking for something excellent to read this weekend? We published over 400 articles on GamesRadar+ this week, but here's my pick of the six stories that you absolutely need to read.

1. Final Fantasy 14 is leaning the right lessons from Dawntrail as it enters the Evercold era

Final Fantasy 14 may be one of the longest-running MMOs still in active service, but that doesn't mean there isn't still room for improvement. Square Enix is honest about the challenges it faces as it prepares to deploy the new Evercold expansion next year, with assistant director Tsuyoshi Yokozawa explaining that there's "much to learn from missteps" made with the eight-player raid series in Dawntrail. This exclusive interview outlines how the Evercold team is drawing on past experience to outline a "firm guideline for our future battle content development."

2. Milestone Reached: Cyberpunk 2077 hits a sales record as CDPR clears up its brand heritage

CD Projekt RED is hard at work on The Witcher 4, a new IP, and a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, but that doesn't mean the studio doesn't have time to take a little victory lap. It was confirmed this week that over 40 million players have visited Night City, quite the turnaround given how hostile the RPG was to tourists during the 2020 launch window. CDPR took this opportunity to also clear up some confusion between CD Projekt and CD Projekt RED, opting to combine the two entities under one banner.

3. PlayStation readies for a digital-only future, on the same day it closes down two online storefronts

The video game industry has been gradually shifting towards a digital-only future for some time now. Rockstar Games opting to ship a code in a box for GTA 6's physical edition felt like a sign of the changing times, and now Sony has confirmed it: "Physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028." The news arrived on the same day that Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Store on PS3 and Vita will shut down, highlighting the perils of a digital-only future.

4. Fantasy meets reality: Why turmoil at Xbox is impacting IO Interactive and Project Fantasy

IO Interactive has been on a victory lap in recent weeks, celebrating the release of 007: First Light and a smattering of new Hitman and World of Assassination content. Speaking with me back in June, CEO Hakan Abrak said that Project Fantasy – a new online fantasy RPG – would be revealed "soon", although IOI has since found itself caught in the crosshairs of a Microsoft restructure. Xbox was due to fund the game but, with that support now pulled, the future of Project Fantasy is mired in uncertainty. Get caught up on the situation here.

5. The team responsible for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has no plans to play it safe

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is undoubtedly one of the biggest success stories of the current generation, with the turn-based RPG surpassing all expectations when it launched early last year. Does that mean that developer Sandfall Interactive is going to play it safe with its next game? Absolutely not. In fact, game director Guillaume Broche says he "doesn't really care" if players like whatever comes next as much as they did Expedition 33. It's a candid conversation, one which highlights the creative struggle that Sandfall will undoubtedly face as it works to build on such solid foundations.

Update: Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has clarified that these administrative changes “happened a few months ago and went into effect today.” Jerk Gustafsson has seemingly been managing both MachineGames and Arkane since last summer. “I do not know what Arkane’s future looks like - we’ll find out Monday,” Schreier writes.
Original Story: Major behind-the-scenes shake-ups are underway at several Xbox subsidiaries, but one acclaimed Xbox studio has seemingly gotten a new leader from another acclaimed Xbox studio.

Arkane Lyon (of Dishonored, Deathloop, and Marvel's Blade fame) now seems to be under the leadership of Jerk Gustafsson, the former co-founder and studio head of MachineGames.

As spotted by Timur222 and Windows Central, MachineGames' ex-studio director appears to have been promoted to the head of Arkane Studios, replacing outgoing company president Leonard Bendel. A legal notice about the leadership shift was posted to French enterprise site Pappers only a few days ago - June 30, to be exact.

Of course, MachineGames is the beloved developer behind the modern Wolfenstein reboots and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The studio's next game is a mystery for now, though higher ups have teased that an ending to its Wolfenstein trilogy would come at some point eventually.

On the other hand, Arkane has been hammering away at Marvel's Blade, the superhero game we haven't seen much of since its brief 2023 reveal trailer.

The Verge recently reported the game was at risk of cancelation and Arkane was at risk of outright shutting down amid Xbox's corporate "reset" of the business. A sudden change in leadership is perhaps a sign of life for the company - why restructure a team that's not going to be around in a few days, after all? Xbox's plans are said to go public next week, so we'll see how it all shakes out. Multiple Xbox-owned studios are reportedly negotiating to avoid closure, however.

After Wolfenstein, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle felt "very natural" to MachineGames since it involved even more punching Nazis

A Nintendo Switch 2 port of Final Fantasy 15 isn't totally off the table, according to publisher Square Enix. Squeezing the massive, open-world, boys-on-the-road game onto the handheld console might be tricky, sure, but it's not impossible.

Square Enix has been one of the most active publishers since the Switch 2's launch last summer, with everything from its Dragon Quest remakes to The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales hitting the console. More notably, the company's also ported a number of Final Fantasy games onto the system between Final Fantasy 7 Remake, a native version of Final Fantasy 10/10-2, and the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

In a recent shareholder's meeting, questions naturally came up about other Final Fantasies potentially getting on-the-go Switch 2 versions as well. If a game as ambitious and scarily big as Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth can fit, why not others?

Asked specifically about a Final Fantasy 15 port, Square Enix says "while there are certain hardware constraints when it comes to faithfully replicating the exact experience of Final Fantasy 15, we can say that it is not entirely impossible."

As for whether the company will actually take the time to make a Final Fantasy 15 Switch 2 version, "we will pass along your input to the development team as a valuable perspective on marketing and future platform options," Square Enix slyly leaves. Alright, then, keep your secrets.

Final Fantasy 15 first came out in 2016 (20 years ago!) and quickly became one of the best-selling games in the entire series, even if it was clear the endearing RPG needed a little more time in the oven. Square Enix has since beefed the game up with various DLC packs and a Royal Edition that added new content, features, and tech improvements to the already handsome world.

More traditional Final Fantasy remakes could happen, as Square Enix says it'll follow what "truly resonates" with fans, even if that's not open-world action

As beloved as the MMO is itself, the Final Fantasy 14 community is certainly no stranger to controversy… especially when it comes to in-game stalking, sadly.

If you've been playing the Square Enix gem for a while, you'll probably recall some of the conversations surrounding stalking over the years. From issues with the built-in blacklist system and complaints about it not being protective enough of users to contention stemming from some, erm, questionable mods that enable harassment, it's not as though there's exactly a shortage of discussion about it – and this continues to be the case.

Most recently, a plug-in (yes, the ever-eternal third-party tool controversy and what have you) known as "Memoria" has taken the limelight as the latest Final Fantasy 14 mod to essentially allow for… well, in-game stalking.

In case you haven't seen ads – or, more likely, posts about the add-on – Memoria's creator described it as a "free" plug-in that "tracks every player you encounter automatically and builds a history over time" on GitHub.

As for what it "remembers," they said, "Memoria captures what the game already exposes to nearby players, then adds public Lodestone data on top." So, think everything from a player's name and world history to their appearance changes and progression.

It's not hard to see why this wouldn't be welcomed by most Warriors of Light, as it tracks everything and lets others see it. Should you want to get away from someone, it becomes virtually impossible.

Players immediately took note of Memoria and shared it on forums like Reddit, calling for the takedown of the mod and attention from Square Enix.

A new stalking plugin emerges, post everywhere to get the devs attention. from r/ffxiv

As one user's post reads, "Plug-in developers will continue to push the line further and further with the development team's lack of action against them. Cheating, botting, harassment, and stalking continue to be amplified with the continued advancement of plug-in development."

The conversations over on Twitter showcased similar worries, with one fan asking, "Why is no one talking about the new stalking plug-in? That thing shows your frequent areas, your character models, and they have now just disabled the fact that they can see your alts?"

They clarify that, as per Memoria's creator, people would have to contact them via Discord to remove their data – not that the modder was very receptive to those requests, either, it's alleged.

Well, thankfully, Memoria is no longer up for download (although it was available for a good few months, seeing as it first went live in April) – but its creator's farewell message isn't any less controversial than the plug-in itself.

"Memoria set out to remember the people you crossed paths with in Eorzea: every sprout you helped, every static that drifted apart, every stranger you could swear you had partied with before," it begins.

"The service is now closed, and all collected player data has been permanently deleted," the takedown notice continues, assuring fans their data isn't up anymore. "To everyone who installed it, tested it, and helped make it better: thank you. You made a solo project feel like a team."

Admittedly, it leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, too – as much as I'd like to think the mod came about with good intentions, the implications are hard to ignore here, regardless of what its creator had in mind.

As the player sharing the post from Memoria's creator puts it, the add-on "infringed on people's privacy and could've caused a lot of potential harm with its location tracker."

It's a tale as old as time with Final Fantasy 14 at this point, sadly, and I'm sure it'll continue to be so long as plug-ins exist. It'd be nice for Square Enix to crack down on problematic mods like Memoria more hastily in the future.

With new Final Fantasy 14 expansion Evercold also approaching, the topic of stalking and blacklist functions is sure to come up again – here's hoping the devs are prepared.

Final Fantasy 14 devs pulled off the best relaunch "in the history of video games," Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says.

Sony may be leaving the world of physical games behind in 2028, but I'm taking full advantage of my PS5's disc-reading ways and picking up all the physical titles I can, while I can.

If this week's Sony announcement has riled you up to do the same, I want to let you know that this will not be a cheap endeavour. Which is exactly why I recommend taking full advantage of every sales event you can until January 2028, like this weekend's 4th of July gaming deals. As friends and family prepare for the firework-driven festivities, plenty of physical PS5 games have returned to record low prices, like High on Life, which is now $39.99 (Amazon).

If you're after another 2026 release, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined has returned to $44.99 (Amazon), and the Until Dawn remake has dropped to its lowest ever price of $29.99 at Amazon to get you in the Summerween mood. No matter what you're after, there are quite a lot of deals afoot this July 4. And as much as I know Sony's recent announcement is a huge bummer, nothing feels quite like telling them how you feel than picking purely physical deals.

• View all 4th of July PS5 game deals at Amazon

If you've got plenty to play during this weekend's celebrations, why not pick up one of the best PS5 controllers, the best SSDs for PS5, or one of the best monitors for PS5 to light up your Sony setup.

As the wait for Cyberpunk 2 continues, CD Projekt Red continues to celebrate wins with its 2020 RPG – in fact, Cyberpunk 2077 now boasts over 40 million sales.

That's a solid five million more than CD Projekt Red unveiled in November last year, when Cyberpunk 2077 outpaced The Witcher 3 in its five-year success with 35 million copies sold.

For just eight months or so (not to mention the fact that it's been a good six years since the game launched), jumping up to 40 million sales is worthy of celebration – and the developers are doing just that, sharing their excitement online.

CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michał Nowakowski stands as one of the folks celebrating, calling this "another big milestone for Cyberpunk 2077 sales" in a thread on Twitter. "Thank you for your continuous support! Night City welcomes all travelers."

He's not alone, though, with lead quest designer – and Cyberpunk 2 associate game director, might I add – Paweł Sasko chiming in with his own celebratory post on the website.

"Incredibly thankful for your amazing support, my chooms," writes Sasko. "You are the reason we can do all this work, entertain and delight you."

All of this speaks to the grand comeback Cyberpunk 2077 made, honestly. After an initially disastrous release, CD Projekt Red clearly put in the work to ensure the RPG's quality matched that of its other titles, like The Witcher 3… not to mention its incredible Phantom Liberty expansion.

Here's hoping Cyberpunk 2 – and other upcoming CD Projekt Red games, such as The Witcher 4 – impress as much as Cyberpunk 2077 clearly has now.

"Limitation sparks creativity": Cyberpunk 2077 quest lead turned one character's appearance into "part of the story" because CD Projekt Red couldn't afford the alternative.

Turtle Beach has a weird reputation amongst my peers.

Whenever the brand is brought up in conversation, it's often followed up with stories reminiscing about how "Turtle Beach headsets are cheap", but I don't think those people have touched a Turtle Beach headset since they were teenagers. For the sake of not troubling the waters of friendship, I usually just smile and nod whenever I hear those remarks, rather than spew the usual neurodivergent-fueled rhetoric that I've tested plenty of Turtle Beach-branded cups and had a pretty great time with them.

Now I have the Stealth Pro II to bring up as a straightforward example that the brand's quality is almost on par with some of the best gaming headsets on the market today.

Key specs

Design

The Stealth Pro II is one of those headsets that doesn't stand out too much against a sea of similarly looking black pairs, but it doesn't look horrendous either. On close inspection, there are some sleek design choices, like the recessed curves and metal earcups, that give it a more "premium" aesthetic. Ideally, for a pair that's $349.99 / £299.99, those premium vibes are exactly what you want.

The Pro II has the same headband as the brand's Atlas 200, which includes two plastic pieces connected via a swatch of stretched mesh fabric. The fabric underhangs below the headband, and it's this that sits across your noggin' while you're playing your favorite games. The pair's yokes are pretty unique and connect to the earcups via a simple S-shape design, which can then be adjusted by just pulling down and away from the headband.

Talking of the earcups, this pair went the oval route for its earcushions instead of opting for circular ones that you can spot on the older Stealth Pro. These oval-shaped earcushions are made from plush memory foam, which is coated in a breathable black fabric, and are attached to rounded cups, which are cluttered with on-board controls.

The best design element of this pair comes down to that Charging Dock. Rather than including a large Game Hub like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni, Turtle Beach included a small cylindrical pad that looks like someone sliced the bottom off a Pringles tube.

It doesn't include all the bells and whistles that come with SteelSeries' charging gadget (more on that in a bit), but it requires far less desk real estate - a plus if you're like me and have plenty of figures and merch that have a home amongst your PC setup.

Features

The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II wireless gaming headset is decked out with Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio, a 9mm flip-to-mute microphone, ANC, and 60mm Eclipse Dual audio drivers, but the real meat of the pair for me comes down to that Charging Dock. It doesn't just charge spare batteries, but it doubles up as a wireless receiver. While the headset includes a 2.4 wireless dongle within its accompanying hard case, you can simply plug the Charging Dock into your PC to have a low-latency wireless experience.

The accessory also includes a button that pops batteries out for easy access. This was a major draw for me, as I have joint issues in my hands as a result of a chronic illness. Having fiddly controls in tech can be a literally painful experience, but this simple button makes swapping the batteries a breeze. Each battery has an up to 80-hour battery life, so I never needed to do that too often, if I'm honest. Alas, the accessibility remains a huge bonus.

The battery can be swapped for the one sitting by default in the left earcup. If that battery tech sounds awfully familiar to the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, that's not just where the similarities end. While SteelSeries provides the ability to hook up to multiple platforms at once via its GameHub device, the Stealth Pro II is equipped with Crossplay 2.0 and can achieve console switching whether or not the consoles in question are in the same room.

It doesn't have an integrated screen that allows you to adjust volume and EQ settings, so it's not as bursting at the seams with integration as the Game Hub. However, with Crossplay 2.0, one device (like your gaming PC) can be hooked up to the Charging Dock receiver, and your PS5 in another room can be attached to the 2.4GHz wireless dongle. From then on, all you need to do is press the Crossplay button on the headset to switch between platforms. Turtle Beach actually boasts that you can wirelessly connect to "up to 4 Audio Sources" at a time, but there's a little bit of a catch.

If you want to be able to switch between up to 4 gaming platforms at a time, you'll need to purchase additional wireless dongles, which cost $34.99 ( Turtle Beach) / £29.99 (Turtle Beach) each. As of writing this review, the Xbox model USB Wireless Transmitter (which would be the one I'd need as I was given the Xbox model to review) is currently out of stock, so you'll have to take availability into account too.

Performance

Testing the Stealth Pro II was a more streamlined experience with the brand's Crossplay 2.0 tech, at least, as I was able to leave the Charging Dock transmitter on my PC desk while having the 2.4GHz dongle plugged into my chonky ol' PS5. So often when I'm testing headsets that are built around multi-platform support, I have to pick up and move around gadgets from room to room, but Turtle Beach made facilitating my detached PC and console setup more straightforward.

To begin with, I donned the pair when playing my PS5 as I was still taking my time with Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight. The brick-built version of Gotham is surprisingly atmospheric, and on its default settings, I was able to hear the stud-laden streets come to life. Dialogue had a slight echo, which was not to my preference, but I was still able to hear Robin's incredible (and not at all cringeworthy) quips crystal clear.

There's not a whole lot of music in the game, which is why I'm glad that Deltarune Chapter 5 happened to drop during my time with the headset. I'm a huge fan of Deltarune, especially when it comes to the game's music. Toby Fox's works are hugely inspirational to me, so I put a lot of onus onto the headset that I use to hear the latest tracks for the first time, and the Stealth Pro II didn't disappoint. Mastering the new platforming mechanics as Fox's 'Sunset of the Seven Suns' played in the background was a memorable experience. The moment the full percussion kicked in, it felt almost euphoric as the Stealth Pro II had the power to level out the game's soundstage and help bring Chapter 5's new Dark World to life.

It sounded even better once I had the Turtle Beach Swarm II app at my disposal. The headset supports dual audio, so I was able to have it connected to both the PS5 and my phone at the same time. On the app, I selected the 'Bass and Treble Boost' audio preset to give it more of a kick, and it added even more vibrancy to the underlying bass of the track. I kept this preset toggled on when switching to PC, and it helped boost the score to everything I threw its way, from Marvel Rivals, Mina the Hollower, and even the dramatic sounds of Peak. The app's audio settings are one of the reasons I know I'm going to resort back to this headset time and time again, as you can actually update the firmware wirelessly through it - no wires required.

So often there have been moments where I've had to update the firmware on a headset or a piece of tech, and it's required me to have multiple cables attached to my PC, despite how limited my desktop is when it comes to ports. Turtle Beach must've known of my frustrations, as so long as it was hooked up to my phone, the app did the job on its own.

In fact, the app was even better in my experience than the official Swarm II software. When trying to do a firmware update on the PC, it kept refusing to show any progress on updating the Charging Dock transmitter. I tried multiple times and reset my PC, only to resort to updating both through my phone, where it did it the first time. This is one of the rare occasions where I don't mind having a headset app taking up the valuable storage space on my Samsung S26.

On this very app, you can also adjust your microphone settings, selecting between audio presets and toggling the AI Noise Reduction setting on and off. This was pretty useful when it came to testing the mic out while playing games like Peak and Meccha Chameleon with my partner. I didn't have to switch between windows when my phone had all the same settings, which resulted in a less intrusive experience.

I've provided a little sample of the microphone above, so you can hear for yourself. There are some plosives, but I did not have the 'Noise Gate' setting turned on when recording this sample. Through my own experience of many hours playing Peak, Marvel Rivals and just chatting to my partner through Discord, this was far less noticable with the setting on. Additionally, you can actually turn down the sensitivity of the microphone through the Swarm II app, which can also lessen the harshness of certain sounds.

Yet overall, this microphone is pretty impressive. My only issue is, is that it adds an extra bit of weight to the wireless headset. The pair is 393g with the microphone attached, and 382g without, and even that small difference is noticeable as I found the Stealth Pro II got a little sore pretty fast. I believe it's not just the weight that's at fault but a combination of it and the design of the headband, as the fabric mesh didn't do enough to suspend the plastic band above my head.

Should you buy the Stealth Pro II wireless gaming headset?

As much as I herald the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni as the best headset on the market right now, its reliance on assuming you have a combined gaming setup doesn't mesh well with my personal gaming layout. I have my gaming PC in my home office, and my PS5 and Switch 2 in another room entirely, and so I can never truly take advantage of one of the pair's biggest draws.

The Stealth Pro II changes things with its Crossplay 2.0 system. I left the Charging Dock on my desk and had the 2.4GHz wireless dongle attached to my PS5, and it only took the literal press of a button to switch to my platform of choice on any given day. Ideally, I would have preferred that Turtle Beach provided an additional dongle for its $349.99 / £299.99 price tag so I could have incorporated my Nintendo Switch 2 into the Crossplay ecosystem, which is why I'd recommend waiting for a discount before grabbing the Stealth Pro II for yourself.

I'd definitely recommend the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II for those with a split-room gaming setup looking for an alternative to SteelSeries' flagship headset, but I'd recommend ensuring you've got space on your phone for the app to bring out the pair's best sound possible. By default, it sounds fine, but it wasn't until I was able to give the bass and treble a little boost that it felt truly on par with the sound conjured up by other premium pairs on the market.

How I tested the Stealth Pro II wireless gaming headset

I've been testing the Stealth Pro II for a little under a month, switching it between my PC and main-room split PS5 and Nintendo Switch setup. During the testing process, I played through titles like Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, Marvel Rivals, Doom Eternal, and Deltarune on the PS5. On the Nintendo Switch 2, the brand-new Star Fox remake was my game of choice, but I also made sure to see how the Pro II handled Mario Kart World, Pokemon Pokopia, and Donkey Kong Bananza compared to other high-end headsets I've tested so far.

Meanwhile, on PC I was playing Counter-Strike 2, Mina the Hollower, Marvel Rivals, Peak, and Meccha Chameleon, the latter of which was played with friends over Discord to put the microphone through its paces. When not gaming, I was also listening to a huge variety of music, from Ariana Grande's new single, Ninajirachi, Placebo, and the Deltarune Chapter 5 soundtrack, as playing through the chapter was not enough to satiate my Deltarune fandom. For more information on how we test gaming headsets, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

Check out our best PS5 headset, best PC headset for gaming, and best Nintendo Switch headset guides to see how we rank the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II against the best cups on the market today.

Game preservation is a hot topic right now, on the back of Sony's decision to end physical discs for new PlayStation games come 2028. It came up during a recent shareholders' meeting at Square Enix, where the company stated it has ways and means of keeping releases available to some extent, even if they aren't necessarily what fans would like.

A questioner raised how, although Square Enix is publishing a lot of remakes and such at the moment, much of the original software is unavailable on modern systems. Likewise, a number of live-service and phone-only games, which are often very difficult to preserve meaningfully without publisher help, have been shut down. The question finished by asking what the general policy is towards keeping media available.

"How we enable customers to enjoy a game after service has ended depends on the nature of a title," Square Enix's response starts. "For instance, for the Nier series, we share information through official livestreams. For other titles, we preserve cutscenes on video streaming platforms."

Square Enix then gives a broad platitude about finding ways to maintain availability. "We will continue to create pathways befitting each title to ensure that players are able to enjoy them even after service has ended or the story has reached its end," the answer finishes.

To be blunt, as nice as it is that cutscenes are uploaded to YouTube, I don't believe this constitutes a meaningful effort when compared to making the actual game playable. Even for Nier, a huge series that's been involved in a long list of crossovers, you can only get the remastered first entry on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S or PC, not the original.

There are multiple other examples here. Kingdom Hearts itself is littered with them. The Game Boy Advance version of Chain of Memories is still relegated to those cartridges, as only Re:Chain of Memories, the PlayStation 2 remake, was included in 1.5 Remix.

Two entries in the franchise, 358/2 Days and the mobile game X, are only included in the Kingdom Hearts collections as extended films stitched together from their cutscenes. There are allowances here, since 358/2 is a DS release, making it difficult to port anywhere else, but given the evidence that Kingdom Hearts 4's first trailer directly references X, there's room for improvement in making sure fans can go back to these games.

As the industry pushes towards digital distribution, it's important to remind companies like Square Enix that preservation and physical media matter. Buy discs where you can, and where you can't, don't be afraid to demand the option. Your favorite game's future may depend on it.

Just one generation ago, PlayStation couldn't shut up about how great physical games are: "Keep it forever."

I always chuckle a bit to myself as I look back at my fears that Nintendo would forget amiibo for this generation. The reality is that I can't remember a time when I've had to keep up with so many restocks of older releases and brand new ones like the Chef Kawasaki and Hop Star amiibo.

We've known that Nintendo has been cooking up Chef Kawaki for a while, but the official Nintendo Japan website has now confirmed that the amiibo is expected to launch on September 3, 2026. There was no word on whether that release date pertained to just Japan. But I can confirm that the new Kirby Air Riders collectible has already appeared for $44.99 at Amazon, with that same September 3 release date.

How to use amiibo in Kirby Air Riders on Nintendo Switch 2

• Load up Kirby Air Riders on your Nintendo Switch 2
• Select 'Extras' from the main menu
• Navigate to 'Amiibo' and select
• Select 'OK'
• Tap Kirby Air Riders amiibo over the right Switch 2 Joy-Con stick

If you aren't a big Chef Kawasaki fan, there are a lot more Kirby Air Riders amiibo where he came from. As of writing, the King Dedede & Tank Star figure is available for $54.99 at Best Buy, and you won't have to wait around for months for him to arrive at your door either.

You can also get your hands on the Kirby & Warp Star amiibo for $49.99 (Best Buy), the Meta Knight & Shadow Star amiibo for $44.99 (Best Buy), and the Bandana Waddle Dee & Winged Star amiibo for $49.99 (Best Buy), all of which are compatible with one another.

If you like the look of Waddle Dee's Winged Star vehicle, and happen to own the Kirby figure too, you can have the pink puffball sit inside it instead. Just beware that these are some of the priciest individual releases in the entire Nintendo NFC lineup, so collecting them all in order to mix and match their vehicles is not going to come cheap. It's why, despite having a 150+ amiibo collection, I haven't yet picked any of these up so far. Although it's getting harder and harder to resist the cuter they get.

Check out our guides to the best Nintendo gifts and the best Lego sets for more Ninty-themed merch and collectibles.