Saber Interactive had a breakout hit in the form of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, and you can attribute at least part of its success to the fact that it was not made in North America. The company's chief creative officer, Tim Willits, says it's been dramatically scaling down its operations in the region.

In fact, Saber has "no real development in North America any more," as Willits tells GamesIndustry.biz. The company is headquartered in Florida, and a handful of its subsidiaries are based in the US, but the vast majority of its development wings are spread across Europe.

Why the move? Well, it's gosh-darned expensive to make games in North America, where industry salaries are driven up by their placement in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. Make a game in countries where salary expectations are substantially lower, and the cost of development goes down dramatically.

"The problem is stuff like this: big North American development studios, they run about $2 million+ in burn rate a month," Willits says. "A month. SnowRunner, which has made hundreds of millions of dollars, costs us $6 million to make. That's literally three months of development time in California. So just run the math on that. If it takes [a big studio] five years to make a game, that's 60 months, that's $120 million just in salaries."

Cheaper game development means that publishers are free to take more risks, too. Back in 2024, Willits lamented that there are AAA projects that can't even break even if they don't sell five million copies. Saber seems more keen on building games for (relatively) smaller niches that might actually appreciate them.

"Sometimes I play these games – I won't mention the game – and I can just see the wasted money," Willits continues in the new interview. "I can see dollars falling out of the monitor. But I can tell you that the development cost for [Warhammer 40,000] Space Marine 2 was a third of a major game that just released not too many months ago from a big North American studio. It was a third, and it sold 11 million more copies. You don't need to spend $150 million to make a billion."

Unfortunately, Saber's business bets also include a big emphasis on AI, which came to a head when the publisher finally added an AI disclosure to Rideshare Stimulator amid CEO Matt Karch's public feud with a former writer who claims she was replaced by ChatGPT. Karch is further convinced that "Half-Life 2 of AI" will someday come along change everybody's minds about the tech. Me? I'll be happy if we just get more human hands making games like SnowRunner and Space Marine 2.

The Witcher 4 dev is "still predominantly using people" over AI in development, says CEO, but "everybody has to make those judgments on their own."

Take a deep breath, because Touhou Koumakyou: New Classic - the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil came to Steam on September 9, some 24 years after its original Japanese release. In the days since, it's amassed an impressive 2,958 user reviews sitting at 98% positive, making New Classic (as I'm calling it) one of the highest-rated Steam releases of the entire year. It's also available on PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2.

The original Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was actually the sixth game in the Touhou Project series by creator ZUN, but it was the first one made for Windows after a string of PC-98 releases. It put in a lot of work turning Touhou into an icon of underground doujin games, quickly becoming the series' best-seller and cementing it as a pillar of Japanese shoot-'em-ups and bullet hell.

New Classic is exactly what it sounds like: a more polished version of the original game. Alliance Arts has worked to preserve the original as much as possible – so much so that New Classic "can only be purchased as part of a bundle" on Steam.

"The price is the same, and the Classic version is included," the studio clarifies. Classic doesn't actually have English support on Steam, but it's still a fascinating, fairly navigable trip through time. The base bundle is $17.99 for both games, and the pricier $24.63 bundle also includes the New Classic soundtrack.

The Steam blurb for New Classic reads: "Dodge the barrage, defeat the enemies, and brave the Scarlet Mist Incident. The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil returns with fresh music and graphics. Control the shrine maiden Reimu and the magician Marisa, weaving between bullets that fill up the screen. The soundtrack has been fully remade by ZUN."

Touhou overall is a bit tougher to explain. The layman's evaluation isn't far off: a bunch of magical girls, or anime girls who'd pass as magical girls, fend off supernatural incidents in Gensokyo, sort of a mythological mirror to the real world.

For our purposes, the important thing to know is that Touhou has spawned a bunch of kickass games, several of which are also on Steam. I especially recommend Touhou Luna Nights, a 2D bullet hell Metroidvania from the immaculate Team Ladybug and in the same vein as Rabi-Ribi. I'm less familiar with it, but I believe Touhou Mystia's Izakaya, a cute restaurant sim, is the highest-rated Touhou game on modern platforms (and is only $6 at base on Steam).

Aggregate tools like Steam250 put New Classic among the top seven best-reviewed Steam releases for the past month, and (rapidly rising) in the top 50 for all of 2026. If your company is a modern classic like Valheim (a lovely Viking survival game fresh off its 1.0 update) and a surprise hit like How to Fish (a very normal game about fishing), you're doing pretty well.

Here are the biggest new games of 2026 and beyond.

After the reveal of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, Nintendo has issued an update to the official Zelda timeline that makes an already head-spinning history even more complex. The update appears to confirm a fan theory that's been around since Tears of the Kingdom launched a few years ago: there are, in fact, two different Hyrules.

The official Zelda timeline splits into three different branches from the end of Ocarina of Time. All three branches eventually come to a dead end where Link and Zelda's stories fade into myth. Then comes Breath of the Wild – a unifying tale set amid Hyrule's ruins where a new story begins.

But then we got Tears of the Kingdom, where Zelda is flung back in time to witness the founding of Hyrule. But that set off a question for fans: was this the beginning of the Hyrule we'd known in the previous games, or the foundation of a new Hyrule? In other words, is the kingdom we see in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom entirely disconnected from the one that had come before?

As noted in a new lore video by Zelda specialist Zeltik, there's a revamped version of the timeline on the official Japanese Nintendo website. The broad strokes of the timeline are the same as ever, but there's a notable addition: an entry for the founding of Hyrule just ahead of the events of the flashbacks in Tears of the Kingdom. This is presented entirely separately from the founding of Hyrule in the earlier part of the timeline.

That's probably as close as we're ever going to get to an official confirmation of the refounding theory. So yes, we should probably be operating under the assumption that there are two different Hyrules. But things might actually be even more complicated than that.

In the video above, Zeltik goes on to note that the Ocarina of Time remake is full of minor visual references to the Breath of the Wild era. Some of the Kokiri kids now have tattoos matching those Queen Sonia sports in the Tears of the Kingdom flashbacks. There are also now Sheikah patterns matching those in the modern Switch games.

What's that mean? Heck, man, I don't know. Maybe the Ocarina of Time remake will be subtly altered to fit into the Breath of the Wild era of the timeline. Maybe these are just small design flourishes ensuring that the remake feels in line with the visual language of the modern games. It's fun thing to consider, but I wouldn't expect any concrete answers when the remake launches in November.

Interconnecting lore rarely gets a direct reference in the actual games, and while Nintendo has apparently kept an official timeline since 2003, it was never "that important" to Shigeru Miyamoto. Still, ever since that timeline was made public in 2011, Nintendo has dutifully updated it for each new game, while leaving plenty of room for fans to develop their own theories. It's just as well – the theories are usually more fun than the answers, anyway.

32-year Nintendo and Zelda veteran reacts to the Ocarina of Time remake, suggesting Shigeru Miyamoto's love of puppet shows influenced the art style.

The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary edition of the Switch 2 was pretty and sold out – in other words, a prime target for scalping. But don't let the scalpers win. Nintendo just confirmed it's restocking the fancy Zelda Switch 2 in the UK.

Worldwide, unscrupulous resellers have been driving up the special console's price on sites like eBay up to $850 and more, which is dangerously close to double its $520 sticker at official Nintendo retailers. So the developer has added a banner (spotted by Nintendo Insider) to the Zelda handheld's online listing on at least Nintendo Store United Kingdom and Ireland websites clarifying that, "The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary collection is currently sold out. We will announce when stock is replenished via the Nintendo Store app."

As of writing, Nintendo doesn't include the same reassuring banner on its US site, where the Zelda console is also sold out ahead of its October 29 launch date. This doesn't necessarily mean US fans need to start preparing a nice outfit and getting their hair done before being scalped, though. The Zelda Switch 2 isn't limited edition, and, anyway, it seems Nintendo's physical stores in New York and San Francisco will have it in stock at launch, too. In fact, Nintendo's store locations in New York and San Francisco will be the only places you can purchase the anniversary Switch 2 Pro Controller with its matching display stand in person.

"They're treating it like they did the TOTK OLED console," one sage Reddit commenter says in a related thread. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom OLED console was, like the Zelda anniversary console, a special edition, though plentiful stock made it so you can now purchase the sold-out handheld for under its asking price on certain resale sites – despite some scalpers' best attempts to flip the $360 machine for $600.

So lock your wallet in the freezer. You won't be needing it while you wait for the special Switch 2 to inevitably come back into your life.

Take a look at our list of the best Zelda games of all time.

Nintendo is celebrating a legal win against Switch mod devices. A Dutch court has ruled in the company's favor against an online retailer of Mig Switch Cards in the Netherlands, ordering the seller to stop offering the devices.

"The Defendant operated what is often known as a 'dropshipping' delivery system," Nintendo says in a press release, "where products ordered by consumers on websites targeting European consumers, including those in the Netherlands, are delivered directly from Asia, primarily China. The Court ruled that, by offering and selling circumvention devices marketed as 'MIG Switch Cards' and 'MIG Switch Dumpers' for Nintendo Switch on several websites (r4switch.nl, ther4card.com, and r4switch.co.uk), the Defendant acted unlawfully [and] respectively infringed Nintendo’s copyrights."

Mig products are often listed as a way for players to back up the Switch games they already own. The dumper devices create backup versions of game cartridges, while the main flash cartridge devices allow those backups to be booted on an unmodded console. Of course, Mig cartridges are far more often used as pure piracy devices, since there's nothing preventing you from just downloading game files from the internet and using those on your Switch.

"The District Court of The Hague followed the reasoning set by the highest European Court (Court of Justice of the European Union) closely and recognized that the primary purpose of these circumvention devices is to circumvent the security measures protecting Nintendo video game consoles and authentic video games, thereby enabling the use of unauthorized copies of Nintendo video games," the publisher continues in its press release.

Nintendo adds that its action against these devices is taken "not only on its own behalf, but also on behalf of the many video game developers globally that depend on legitimate sales of Nintendo video games. Nintendo promotes and fosters game development and creativity and strongly supports the game developers who legitimately create new and innovative games."

There are legitimate uses for flash cartridges, like booting homebrew software, but Nintendo's lawyers always seem to come knocking when piracy becomes their primary purpose – especially when it starts to affect a platform that's still a current commercial concern. The company won a similar legal case in the Netherlands against R4 cartridges for the DS back in 2010, and has seemingly even gone to the trouble of bricking consoles for Mig users.

But despite several legal victories against the makers and sellers of R4 devices in courts around the world, similar cartridges are trivially easy to get hold of today. They're even on Amazon at this point. Maybe the same will be true of Mig carts someday in the future, but for now, Nintendo is keen to make it as hard as possible to get ahold of them.

Unfortunately, these sorts of cartridge backup devices are also essential for future game preservation. There are thousands upon thousands of old games that have only been preserved and made accessible to modern players because of a decades-long legacy of piracy devices like the Mig cards. Here's hoping that preservationists get better ways to do their work in the decades to come, but so far the law has not been on their side.

These are the upcoming Switch 2 games you need to know about.

If you've been sitting there feeling sorry for yourself that you missed out on the Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 Pro controller, you'll be happy to know Hori has an Ocarina of Time pad of its own on the horizon.

Hori Japan has unveiled on its official X (Twitter) page that a new official Ocarina of Time remake controller and a batch of Switch 2 accessories inspired by the upcoming game are now available to pre-order in Japan. As a Horipad Turbo, the controller will be missing some of the premium features of Nintendo's first-party pad, like its NFC-reading tech, but the wireless accessory is still a pretty sight to behold. Particularly for Zelda fans who love spying the Hylian crest (and a tiny silhouette of Link and Epona) on all their Ninty peripherals.

As the new 8,980 yen (approx $58.48) controller is a Horipad Turbo device, you'll have TMR sticks at your disposal if you pre-order this pad, along with some mappable back buttons like all existing versions of this wireless accessory. While that's all well and good, the battery is a bit lackluster, especially when compared to the Switch 2 Pro Controller's 40-hours. Instead, Hori states you can manage 10 hours of playtime per charge, which I imagine will be pretty easy to achieve once the Ocarina of Time Remake releases later this year.

However, as is always the case with these officially licensed accessories, the importance is less on specs and more on design, and this is a great-looking Zelda peripheral. The white and gold colorway looks as prestigious as the Princess herself, and I love that the faceplate seems to feature a marbling effect. The small Link and Epona sihoulette, however, is my favorite detail, and it can also be spotted on the back of the Game Card Case. Unlike the controller, this case can be imported for $11.59 via Amazon Japan and includes space for what appears to be up to three physical games.

The Link and Epona motifs don't stop there, as they're also a fixture of all three cases, which make up the rest of this set. It's found on the exterior of the $29.16 (via Amazon) Slim Hard Pouch, alongside a faded version of the map of Hyrule.

The leather-like texture of the case lends itself to this map imagery, as it makes the entire accessory look like a worn-out item from Link's massive arsenal of weapons, rather than a simple Switch 2 case. The interior lining looks just as spectacular, as seen in the photos available on the official Hori online store, it features a Link-tunic green colored fabric that I adore.

There's no clear sign whether this lining is found on the matching $32.43 (Amazon) Shoulder Pouch or the $35.67 (Amazon) All-in-One Storage bag, but one can only hope. Talking of which, there's no sign any of these accessories will officially make their way to the US or UK Amazon storefronts either, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If you're okay with importing, you can expect them to launch on November 30, 2026, a little after the game.

With the hype of the Ocarina of Time Remake growing by the day, I suspect this won't be the only collection of accessories in store for Zelda and Switch 2 fans.

• View all Hori Nintendo Switch 2 accessories at Amazon

Obsessed with Ocarina of Time? Check out Hasbro's new electronic Master Sword and the new Lego Link and Epona set and the best Legend of Zelda merch while you're here.

Among the additions coming in the upcoming The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past DLC is a new kind of weapon for Geralt, a big old chain he uses to whip and lasso enemies. It's a cool, nifty piece of equipment, and something CD Projekt Red has had in its back pocket since making the original game, over a decade ago.

Two developers, Jakub Rokosz, game director on Songs of the Past, and Despoina Anetaki, senior quest designer at CDPR, discussed the subject with BBC News. "We were talking about implementing the chain even during the original The Witcher 3," Rokosz recalls.

"It was impossible to do at the time for various technological reasons and challenges," he continues. "A few things had to click together, and we were able to address those challenges and issues during the remaster, so then we were able to implement a weapon that feels just natural and very fluid."

He says it "realizes a fantasy" you may have if you've read the Witcher books, since Geralt wields a chain regularly in the novels from Andrzej Sapkowski. Further connectivity between the source material and the games is good to see, and having more combat options makes Songs of the Past even more appealing, since this is a real late-game addition.

Anetaki explained a little more about why it made sense to include the chain now. "It fits with the narrative theming of the Songs of the Past," she says. "It fits with all the new enemies that work with the chain. We were able to do crowd control with the swarmions, that swarm you and you have to keep them away from you."

She points out it's a "cool weapon" for people "who might be sick of the crossbow by now." More versatility is always welcome, and considering there are players who'll have put in hundreds of hours over the years, it's especially so here.

The Witcher 3's Songs of the Past expansion wouldn't be "possible" without the RPG's remaster, says CD Projekt Red: "The stars had to align."

Metroid Dread developer MercurySteam has seemingly confirmed that it is the developer behind Metroid Ravenous.

Nintendo has generally been a bit peculiar compared to most major publishers for as long as it has existed. But one of the strangest things the company has done as of late is its complete reluctance to announce who is actually developing its games. You'll typically have to wait until the game releases or, at the very least, reviews release to find out what studio is behind the title; for example, Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft may be behind the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake.

Take Metroid Ravenous, clearly the best announcement from this week's Nintendo Direct. The game looks very similar in style to Metroid Dread, which was developed by MercurySteam and instantly became one of the most beloved games in the franchise, so the idea of this developer returning would clearly excite players, right? Well, the trailer came and went without a mention of MercurySteam, but we may have confirmation that the developer is returning to the series.

Over on Twitter, MercurySteam quoted a post of the trailer with two emojis: a ninja and a heart. Some have taken this as a soft confirmation that the developer is secretly attached to the project, or that it may be related to the group of assassins pursuing Samus throughout the game.

Regardless, it's nice to see MercurySteam is back on Metroid, especially after the studio's latest game, Blades of Fire, seemingly underperformed, resulting in layoffs at the company. But I can't help but think signalling to players explicitly 'hey the team who made the best 2D Metroid game not named Super Metroid are back for this new entry' could've only helped further the hype for this game.

Check our list of the best Metroid games of all time, and catch yourself up before Ravenous comes out.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time only received its pre-order status earlier in the week, but Amazon is already discounting limited-edition textured foil physical versions. Today, the $69.99 MSRP of the full cart and that gorgeous cover dropped to $59.88 when added to cart; that's impressive considering this is a blockbuster Nintendo first-party release.

Those kinds of games barely see any discounts even after launch, so a saving this chunky this early is well worth celebrating. Remember, that textured cover is only up for grabs while initial Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time pre-order stock lasts. Ocarina of Time remake launches on November 5 for Nintendo Switch 2.

Walmart is also taking part in this $10 discount, with both stores launching the promotion seemingly out of nowhere. It's difficult to believe the saving has come from lack of interest, the title has been at the top of the news desk since we received that full gameplay walkthrough in Nintendo's 40th Anniversary Zelda Direct on Tuesday - even if fans are divided on Link's new look. In fact, accompanying Legend of Zelda Switch 2 pre-orders sold out almost immediately when they went on sale this week.

Ocarina of Time has been completely rebuilt for modern consoles for this year's release, with brand new textures, jump and camera systems, and use of the Switch 2's built-in microphone. One of Link's most famous quests to save Hyrule, Ocarina of Time (in its many platforms) currently comes third behind Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for best-selling Zelda titles. In other words, it's firmly on the classics list.

Nintendo is making a big deal of its franchise's 40th anniversary, then, and it's partnered with a number of toy and merch brands to accompany Ocarina of Time Remake. Hasbro's electronic Master Sword pre-orders have also sold in the blink of an eye and we've got a bunch of (frankly) cursed Amiibo heading our way as well.

• See all Legend of Zelda deals at Amazon

We're also rounding up the best Legend of Zelda merch and taking a closer look at the new Lego Link and Epona set. If you're still without a Switch 2, though, take a look at the latest cheap Nintendo Switch bundle deals.

It looks like Final Fantasy 7 Revelation boss Naoki Hamaguchi has plenty on his plate at the moment – not only is he working to get Part 3 of the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy out the door, he's also "pushing" Kingdom Hearts 4 "forward."

As part of the latest media rounds for FF7: Revelation, Hamaguchi has been speaking to the press once more – you can read our own Final Fantasy 7 Revelation hands-on and interview here. As part of all of that chatter, Hamaguchi delves into what next year looks like for Square Enix, and it's a busy one.

"In terms of Square Enix and 2027, our President, Takashi Kiryu, says that next year is the big fight back for us, where everything turns around," he tells Deadline. "And obviously, between Final Fantasy 7 Revelation and Kingdom Hearts 4, those are massive titles that are going to push that. And both are being developed in my own studio, Creative Studio 1. So yeah, I’m really pumped up now for that. That’s really all on my watch now, so I’m going to be the guy who’s pushing all that forward."

Hamaguchi doesn't offer much more than that, though it's interesting to hear that Kingdom Hearts 4 is on his watch and that he's "pushing" it forward. Announced back in 2022, we haven't seen much of the beloved Disney spin-off until recently. The wait was worth it, however. Not only did we get a release window of next year, but Tetsuya Nomura was quite confident it wouldn't be delayed.

Interestingly, it was only recently that Final Fantasy 14 boss Naoki Yoshida praised Hamaguchi at Fan Fest Berlin for his ability to run and organize a team well – no wonder so many fans want him on Final Fantasy 17. Whether or not Hamaguchi's talent for management lends to Nomura's confidence over the Kingdom Hearts 4 release window is hard to say, but the broader picture is encouraging.

Another thing to add that may please fans is that, while researching this article, I came across another interview with Hamaguchi in which he reportedly said he would like Kingdom Hearts 4 to get a physical edition, too.

He doesn't add much there, though he's spoken about physical media a few times lately and his thoughts on it. Back at Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest, actually, I spoke to him about whether Square Enix had plans to offer a physical version of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. We have since learned that they will, though his thoughts given at the time still seem relevant.

"Personally, here at something like Fan Fest or at community events for games that I've worked on, I really think that people bringing up things, asking for autographs – I think that's lovely," he said at the time. "I think it's a wonderful culture and it would be a shame to lose that. I want that to remain."

What a year 2027 might be for Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy fans.

Steam is seemingly responsible for one of the biggest leaks in years: Persona 6, Kingdom Hearts 4, Fable, Metro 2039, and over 70 other games see achievements spill online.

Stellar Blade is coming to Switch 2 on November 5, and it's being released both digitally and physically. Even with the furor over game-key cards dying down while collectors point their anger toward Sony's efforts to end physical games altogether, Shift Up has committed to ensuring that Stellar Blade will offer a complete experience on the cartridge.

Shift Up details what to expect from the Switch 2 version of Stellar Blade: Complete Edition in a new blog post. The package will include all previously released DLC and update content, alongside some minor Complete Edition specific bonuses, which have already appeared on other platforms. The November 5 launch will include four Bayonetta-themed costumes for Eve, which will also come to PC and PS5 in a free update on the same day.

"We also understand the importance of physical media," the devs add, "and so we have made sure that Stellar Blade is 100% on cartridge!" A graphic breaking down the contents of the game even specifies that it's a "32GB game card," which is apparently big enough to hold the game in full. Hopefully that means all the DLC is on the cart, too.

In 2024, Stellar Blade launched on a PS5 disc that also contained a completely playable build, but physical releases on Switch 2 are a whole different ballgame. Rumors have long suggested that the cartridges are substantially more expensive to produce than discs, and that they might not load data fast enough for some games, particularly open-world titles.

But those issues weren't enough to dissuade Shift Up from grabbing the PR win that comes with making sure Stellar Blade hits Switch 2 on a proper cartridge. Now if only the studio would realize the effects its AI use is having on fan goodwill…

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's physical disc still requires a download because Square Enix "didn't want to make any compromises."

It turns out the magic ingredient to having a strong viewership on a developer showcase is to focus on remaking one of the most beloved games ever. Simple enough for Nintendo, whose viewership for the recent Zelda Direct revealing new The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake clips dwarfed Sony's last State of Play, and even showcases from stalwart conventions like Gamescom.

Per The Game Business, figures gleaned from game marketing analyst LevelUp indicate the Zelda Direct focused on the Ocarina of Time remake peaked at 2.1 million viewers. That's a solid amount of fans, and it stands high above several recent showcases of similar weight.

It passes clean over the 2 million viewers who watched Gamescom's Opening Night Live, and it's more than double both the last PlayStation's September State of Play and Nintendo's focused Mario Kart World direct from April 2025, which respectively had 1 million and 930,000 viewers at peak.

But unfortunately, the Master Sword likely can't rise up to the might of GTA 6, since the game's extended look on Netflix preview managed to hit 31.1 million views after four days. After two days, the Zelda Direct only has 6.9 million views on YouTube. It's hard to topple what's projected to be one of the biggest video game releases ever, especially when it's collaborating with the one of the best streaming services, but the Ocarina of Time remake tries its hardest.

Maybe Nintendo should sort out a Netflix deal for the next mainline 3D Mario game next?

32-year Nintendo and Zelda veteran reacts to the Ocarina of Time remake, suggesting Shigeru Miyamoto's love of puppet shows influenced the art style

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will launch on a physical disc, but there's an important caveat in that the game still requires an online download. That's in contrast to the previous two parts of the remake trilogy, which launched with multiple discs containing the entirety of each respective game. Director Naoki Hamaguchi says releasing the entire game on disc would've meant compromising on the RPG's quality.

"When we had an internal discussion with the development team about how we wanted to approach the physical discs and the physical releases of FFVII Revelation," Hamaguchi tells IGN, "initially there were conversations about using the same disc size as we did for, say, FFVII Rebirth. But if we were to do that, it would mean that we would have to make a compromise in terms of the fidelity and the quality of the game. So as a development team, we didn't want to do that. We didn't want to make any compromises for the game."

I very much wish that Hamaguchi had gone into more technical details here, because it feels like the answer is obvious: just put more discs in the box. The physical versions of Rebirth and the original PS4 release of Remake each featured two discs, after all. Would Revelation's file size have stretched it out to three discs, or more? Would three discs have been too expensive for Square Enix to justify manufacturing? Is there some technical limitation on the console making a three disc version impossible? Hamaguchi doesn't elaborate.

"Realistically, the only choice that we had was to release this physical disc, but with certain sections of the game being a digital download format through the physical disc," he concludes. "With that being said, I completely understand that not all players might be happy with this decision, but at the same time, I am happy that we were still able to release a physical format of the game. So I am quite satisfied with the end results as well. I would hope that our fans and players would be able to share that as well."

There are two primary benefits to physical games. One is that you have a physical object that you can lend, trade, give away, or sell whenever you want to. The other is that – in theory – you've got a permanent archive of that game which you can continue to play long after patching servers shut down. I'd take having one of those things over getting neither of them, but I wish I wasn't having to compromise at all.

Tired of digital everything, more people are buying physical media: CD sales are up 58% and vinyl records jumped 17%, according to new report.

Metroid Ravenous pre-orders dropped this week, and 'ravenous' seems the apt word to describe fans of the classic Nintendo series, as the Switch 2 game's special edition is already sold out across US and UK retailers.

The $119.99 / £99.99 version of the game includes a physical Switch 2 copy, a steelbook case, and an exclusive amiibo showcasing Samus's slime-green colored Metroid suit. So far, that appears to be the only way to grab that amiibo, though there is also a Chozo Statue and another Samus NFC figure up for grabs. For amiibo completionists like me, the lack of stock is a bummer, but Very did just unload its Special Edition stock for its full £99.99 price if you're based in the UK.

In the meantime, you can alternatively grab the game digitally or physically for $69.99 / £58.99 straight from Nintendo and a myriad of US and UK retailers, all of which I've gathered below. Sure, you won't get an amiibo just by sticking to the physical copy, but there are no signs of that hideous game-key banner on the box, which is something. No matter which copy you pick, you can dine with Samus when the Switch 2 exclusive launches on January 28 next year.

Pre-order Metroid Ravenous in the US

Pre-order Metroid Ravenous in the UK

FAQ

Check out our Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake pre-orders and Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave pre-order pages while you're here.

A couple of weeks ago, Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 provided us with our first look at both The Witcher 3 Remastered and CD Projekt Red's brand-new expansion for the RPG, Songs of the Past – an expansion that wouldn't have happened without the remaster.

Or, at least, that's what CD Projekt Red says in a recent interview with BBC News over on YouTube.

As Jakub Rokosz, game director behind both The Witcher 3 and now Songs of the Past, recalls, "the stars had to align and the conditions had to be just right to make this [the new expansion] happen." And right they became, as "the story of Dandelion's past and homeland came into our spotlight" at the perfect time.

Right when "CD Projekt Red started talking to us about about doing it," other "work on the remaster" was underway – "and those two things are intertwined in a way that the realization of Letten, Dandelion's hometown, wouldn't be possible without the remaster upgrades."

As Rokosz concludes, "there are a few things that had to click together" to make Songs of the Past "possible." And, thankfully, those things did indeed click.

Considering the sheer scope of Songs of the Past, I'm honestly not too surprised to hear Rokosz say that The Witcher 3 Remastered was practically necessary to make the expansion work.

After all, the original RPG from CD Projekt Red launched way back in 2015, leaving over a decade of technological advancements between then and now. Plus, it sounds like the remaster will be quite the overhaul, also.

We've got everything from "improved combat" to massively reworked visuals to look forward to, at times making it sound more like a remake than a remaster, honestly.

It's one heck of an undertaking for developers, undoubtedly, anyway, considering all of the other upcoming CD Projekt Red games, too. Coupled with Songs of the Past – which Rokosz makes seem huge as well – we Witcher stans have a lot to be excited about.

After 20 years voicing Geralt, The Witcher 3 star Doug Cockle says revisiting his character for Songs of the Past is "like slipping into a warm bath"

Nintendo announced Switch 2's $450 price tag with the threat of looming tariffs under US President Donald Trump. That price tag held after the tariffs were implemented, and still remained the same once they were declared illegal. Nintendo got $300 million back in refunds on those tariffs, but it's been very clear that it has no plans on passing the cash back to consumers. Instead, the company is offering a two-week-long Customer Appreciation sale.

"The Customer Appreciation Sale is our way of saying thank you to Nintendo players for their continued support and is made possible in part by tariff-related refunds," the company says in its announcement. "While Nintendo absorbed most tariff-related costs, the refunds helped make promotions like this one possible."

The sale, which will be available at the online Nintendo Store and the company's retail locations, runs from September 12 at 9pm PT until September 26 at 8:59pm PT. Nintendo calls it "one of our largest promotions ever," and promises "30% off dozens of Nintendo Switch digital games and bundles, plus savings on select physical games, downloadable content, accessories, amiibo, and apparel."

There are no more specific details on which items will be discounted, but official first-party Nintendo sales are pretty rare things, and this will be a unique opportunity to get Nintendo products at less than MSRP. Still, I doubt that giving more money to Nintendo is going to take the sting out of the Switch 2 costing so much.

The Switch 2's high price compared to previous Nintendo consoles is only partly due to the tariffs. Certainly, you can more directly attribute the recent price hike to $500 to the global RAM shortage being caused by AI data centers. But those tariffs are a factor, and despite threats of class action lawsuits, Nintendo has resolutely refused – just like Sony and Microsoft – to offer direct refunds to consumers.

If you missed yesterday's showcase, here's everything announced at the Nintendo Direct for September 2026.

It's finally here – Final Fantasy 14 just got the very exciting Patch 7.56 earlier this week, and the star of the show is most definitely the MMO's new limited job: the Beastmaster.

In case you've not had the chance to experience the class yourself just yet, it plays a whole lot like Pokemon or Palworld in concept.

You capture creatures from all over Eorzea (yes, old A Realm Reborn regions are finally coming back to life), whip 'em out in combat and use all sorts of deadly combos and actions, try to catch more beasts, and… rinse and repeat. There's a handy little bestiary to help you on the way, too.

Put simply, you've gotta (and will wanna) catch them all – and it's genuinely good fun. I've spent hours grinding away in Central Shroud myself, looking forward to the Crucible, in all its painful roguelike-ish glory… and, of course, the glittery Tourmaline Golem mount you can nab by making the duty's official rankings.

I'm not the only loving Beastmaster, though. Discussions over on Reddit prove as much, with one thread dubbing the job "really fun!"

Its poster exclaims, "This content is great," adding that the achievements tied to the new job "are really cool" as well.

A separate post on the Beastmaster sees fans sharing a similar sentiment, with folks writing that they "wish it was a standard job" rather than a limited one – and, honestly, I agree. Another person chimes in that they've "been having a blast" with the job, with a plethora of replies backing their take up.

My favorite conversation so far stems from a screenshot of somebody's Warrior of Light dressed like Ash Ketchum from Pokemon, personally.

"Had to use the appropriate glam," its accompanying words read – and I love it. I also stand with the responses declaring that "the Pokemon vibe is honestly perfect." What else does Beastmaster carry with it, if not a nice old Pokemon vibe? And, that vibe is why so many of us adore the job already.

Obviously, however, not everyone likes it. There are comments here and there about how Square Enix could improve the Beastmaster (and, of course, fears that it might end up a bit… forgotten, like the Blue Mage).

Overall, though, spirits seem high when it comes to the limited job, and I can't say I've found much else to want out of it aside from, well, more levels and more utility in other parts of Final Fantasy 14.

I'm excited to see what Square Enix does with Beastmaster and how it evolves over time. Fingers crossed it's more memorable than Blue Mage – although, for me, it already is.

Final Fantasy 14 fans spot Evercold character in the MMO's Patch 7.56 screenshots, immediately theorize the expansion's new DPS class: "Is that a crossbow?"

The CRKD Nitro Deck 2 has finally begun shipping worldwide, and my wrists are rejoicing. As much as I adore the Nintendo Switch 2, the flat backs of the Joy-Cons love to induce bouts of aches and pains in my wrists. However, the ergonomic form factor of the Nitro Deck 2 looks like a wrist-pain-saving blessing packaged up as a handy-dandy Switch 2 controller.

I was fully expecting the $99.99 (via Amazon) Switch 2 gamepad to come and take the pressure off my aging millennial bones earlier this Spring, but multiple delays prevented that from becoming a reality. Yet now the long wait is finally over, as CRKD announced that the gamepad (alongside the ATOM+) is shipping globally as I type these very words. Look out joint pain, your end is nigh.

It's not like I haven't had plenty of the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers at my disposal to provide a more comfortable alternative to the official Joy-Cons in the meantime. Yet as someone who plays handheld mode each and every night, the upgraded sculpted contours and optimized thumb placement for the Nitro Deck 2 seem to be levels ahead of all the accessories I've tested to date.

Not to mention, I'm not just excited for the enhanced grips on the back of the Nitro Deck 2, but for the entire package it brings to the table. The controller is also equipped with the brand's CaptiStick-branded Capacitor Sticks to help prevent any dreaded cases of stick drift. Not only are they built to fend off your sticks from having a mind of their own, but CRKD also boasts that these new advanced capacitor sensors allow for an ultra-responsive experience. Something I'm particularly looking forward to testing alongside the new content for Mario Kart World and in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. If it's responsive enough to help take down my friends with greater ease, it'll be a win in my book.

One of my absolute favorite features of this incoming accessory is that it also doubles up as a Pro-style gamepad. I missed out on securing the Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 Pro controller this week, but realising I can simply transform the Nitro Deck 2 into a Pro pad in its stead when using docked mode was a nice realisation. Especially when you factor in that it should arrive at my door far sooner than the Zelda alternative.

If you're still in that tentative phase of wondering whether to invest in the newer Switch 2, there's good news on that front too. CRKD has included a retractable locking dial to keep the display securely in place with the Nitro Deck 2, and it also allows compatibility with the OG and OLED Switch models.

That means you could grab a Nitro Deck 2 pre-order and still use the $100 accessory for your newer handheld when you're ready to make the upgrade. I'll be sure to test it alongside both the OLED Switch and the Switch 2 when my review sample arrives at my door, if you want to wait for our review. While I'll have two weeks of testing under my belt, my full thoughts shouldn't take long, with global shipping underway.

• View all Nintendo Switch 2 controllers at Amazon

On the hunt for more Switch 2 accessories? Check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch 2 headsets, the best Nintendo Switch 2 cases, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Express Cards.

Nintendo finally just gave the Switch 2 a boost in TV mode by adding VRR (variable refresh rate) support to its dock. It's a feature that should have shipped with the handheld last June before being quietly removed at launch, but it looks like Ninty finally nailed the HDMI 2.1 perk just in time for the Zelda Ocarina of Time remake.

Switch 2 dock VVR support officially arrives as part of system update 23.0.0 today in Japan. In the patch notes, Nintendo says, "When both the software and the TV support it, the video will be output at a refresh rate that matches the game's processing speed." That theoretically means you can switch on variable refresh rate and dynamically sync things up to match frame rates, but it'll only kick in on games that are specifically optimized.

Unlike with the PS5, it seems you can't just force VRR in games that aren't specifically optimised on the developer side of things. Instead, the Switch 2 will use a whitelist to confirm whether support is officially present, and at this time, the only release that's compatible is the Switch 2 Welcome Tour.

Naturally, a bunch of Switch 2 games should be added to the whitelist soon, as it's easily days for docked VRR. Again, Japan is getting the update first, so by the time it reaches other markets, some of the biggies on the gaming handheld should benefit from the frame rate-syncing tech.

VRR in Switch 2 docked mode has been a long time coming, as Nintendo started hunting for an engineer to solve its output woes back in July. Update 23.0.0 confirms that the console maker has managed to iron out those prior quirks, and as I've already alluded to, I can't help but feel like it was racing to sort it out before Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake lands.

That's not to say the new Ocarina of Time will make the Switch 2 sweat, as Nintendo's engine will be heavily optimized for the handheld. But, that's not to say there won't be frame rate dips in specific scenarios, as while outings like Breath of the Wild run at a solid 60fps, dense textures or extra fancy ray-traced lighting effects could take things up a notch.

Even if the Ocarina of Time remake features stable frame rates, VRR is a "nice to have" feature that will help smooth over slight dips. It's also going to benefit some the demanding third-party romps announced during the latest Nintendo Direct, including Final Fantasy 7 Revelations.

Even if you're not too fussed about display tech, VRR in docked mode has been a long time coming. Technically speaking, alternatives like the SIWIQU Switch 2 dock should support variable refresh rate provided you use an HDMI 2.1 cable and the right screen port, but I'll confirm that once I'm at my test bench.

• Switch 2 consoles at Amazon
• Switch 2 docks at Amazon

Swing by the best retro handhelds if you'd rather play classic capers on the go.

SEGA announced last June during the Sonic the Hedgehog 35th Anniversary festivities that two game collections were heading to the Nintendo Switch, and now they're finally available to pre-order.

The Classic Sonic Collection and Modern Sonic Collection are available for $49.99 / $49.99 at Best Buy each, and are expected to launch in October later this year. The collections provide exactly what they say on the tin - a collection of old-school and modern Sonic games in two physical releases, something that can please both types of fans. Though don't expect them to include every game in Sonic's massive 35-year lifespan.

Most notably, my personal 'modern' favorites, Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, are missing from the Modern Sonic Collection, which is a bit of a bummer. Instead, modern fans can find Sonic Forces, Sonic Colors Ultimate, and Sonic Frontiers all on one cartridge. Meanwhile, old-school fans can take Sonic Mania, Sonic Origins, and Sonic Superstars for a spin, and you can find the best pre-order links for these below.

While these collections aren't as complete as they could be, Sega has thrown in a 35th Anniversary Logo Patch and reversible coversheet. There's no sign of what these actually look like, as we've only got the small mention of them on both games' box art to go off on. However, I'm always going to be an avid supporter of finding physical extras with my physical games.

As you've also likely surmised, these collections are for the Nintendo Switch and aren't exclusive to the Switch 2, so you'll still be able to play them even if you haven't invested in Nintendo's newest handheld. However, if you have forked out the now $499.99 MSRP for the console, it's worth noting that you can also grab the new Sonic Frontiers Definitive Edition.

It's also available for $49.99 at Best Buy today and doesn't just include the base game, as found in the Modern Sonic Collection. Instead, you've also got the extra 'The Final Horizon' story campaign and extra content updates, alongside a digital art book and mini soundtrack to enjoy. The only thing better than Sonic the Hedgehog is even more Sonic the Hedgehog.

View all upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 games at Best Buy

Love physical Switch games? Check out our Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake pre-order and Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave pre-order pages while you're here.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi has apologized for what happens to Aerith in Rebirth, but if you're still upset about it, he insists you stick around to the end of the remake trilogy, because you might just "change your opinion."

Before we get into it, please take this as your final – very obvious – spoiler warning for the events of Final Fantasy 7 and Rebirth's ending. I'd be shocked if you didn't know what we were about to get into by now, but don't say I didn't warn you if you didn't.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth might have gone about things slightly differently to the OG 1997 JRPG, but one unfortunate fact remains – Aerith dies at the hands of Sephiroth. Ouch. It's arguably made even worse by the fact that, for a brief moment, it looks like things are about to pan out very differently, but alas.

Speaking to Hamaguchi in an interview at Gamescom 2026, GamesRadar+'s James Daly tells the lead how upset he still is about what happened to Aerith, prompting a big laugh. "I hope you have some expectations towards what the final outcome is, though, and I hope you can look forward to seeing what actually happened," Hamaguchi first teases, via interpreter.

He then directly offers an apology himself: "So sorry!" Gotta be honest, though, I'm not sure how sorry he is based on how hard he's laughing.

This comes up again towards the end of the interview, at which point Hamaguchi suggests something rather interesting. After another laugh, he hints: "I mean, really, you need to experience what happens in the very end. You may change your opinion."

Obviously, he's not going to elaborate on what he's referring to at this point, but could there be a glimmer of hope there for Aerith fans? Perhaps, or perhaps not. All will be revealed when Final Fantasy 7 Revelation launches on April 8 next year.

Square Enix's "graphical goal" for Final Fantasy 7 remakes was 2005 spin-off film Advent Children as it's the "ideal version" of the 29-year-old JRPG.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation might have "even more content" than Rebirth, director Naoki Hamaguchi says, who reckons that's "part of what makes the game so appealing." But if you're already feeling overwhelmed, don't stress – the devs really wanted to give you "the choice" this time over what you want to spend your time on.

Depending on how many games you play a year and how much free time you have in your life to spend on them, you might have a very different opinion on the concept of playing an enormous, content-packed JRPG. It's hard to argue that it's a bad thing for a game to be big, but it sure can be overwhelming, and potentially off-putting for those who don't have a spare hundred hours or so lying about.

Speaking to Hamaguchi at Gamescom 2026, we ask about the scale of Revelation compared to Rebirth – a JRPG he acknowledges "had a lot of content in it as well," and Square Enix hasn't slowed down since. "I'm pretty sure that Revelation has at least the same, and probably actually even more content in it than Rebirth had," he tells us. "But it's all good content. It's all going to be really appealing to play."

Hamaguchi knows, however, that for some players, bigger isn't always better. "I am aware that there is a number of players of [Rebirth] who said that the content was just too much and that they felt they were overwhelmed by it. I do understand there are people out there who felt that," he admits.

However, this hasn't put him off from the idea of making Revelation a behemoth, too: "I feel that having that huge amount of content is part of what makes the game so appealing. I don't think it's that kind of game, so I'm very confident in what it is because of that."

With that said, though, Hamaguchi says that "what's important is not how much content there is, it's how you make that interesting and accessible and enjoyable for players to interact with." He tells us that he's learned from fans' feedback following the release of Rebirth, and going into Revelation, not only is its content "all quite different," but he's taken on board the importance of communicating with players "what kind of rewards you can expect, and what kind of experience you're going to get when you take it on."

Hopefully, then, you can expect clearer signposting of what's worth it to you if you're not someone who wants to take on everything the game offers. He notes that we can now expect rewards to be split up across different types of content accordingly, with character upgrades locked behind the battle-focused content, while minigame rewards will be customization options within that specific minigame, for example.

This comes in direct response to Rebirth, where "all of the side content was tied to the Materia development system. So if you wanted that Materia, you had to do all of the content, regardless whether it was something that you would be interested in otherwise or not," he continues. "So I really wanted to address that and maybe improve it for people who felt that, like, feeling of obligation that they had to do it, but they didn't really want to."

Ultimately, the devs wanted to pay attention to the "idea of allowing the player the choice of which content they want to engage with and which they don't," he concludes.

So then, no pressure if you don't want to experience everything Revelation has to offer. Unless you're a hardcore completionist, of course, in which case it sounds like you're going to have your work cut out for you come its release in April.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director says "open-world fatigue" is real, and since "the world is even bigger than it was in Rebirth," Square Enix specially focused on guiding players.

We'll be back gallivanting with our favorite dragon early next year when Spyro: A Realm Beyond comes out. To celebrate the character's anniversary this year, we've gotten a little tease of what's coming.

Toys For Bob is handling the game, having previously worked on Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash 4. Since the namesake scaly mascot first arrived in the US on September 9, the studio decided that day would be a solid choice for another snippet of his upcoming return.

Sadly, there's no new trailer yet, but we do get a better look at one of the areas, Arcadian Vale, a lush blend of old crumbling ruins, hills, and rivers. There are two pieces of concept art provided: one showing the landscape more broadly, and the other depicting a point of interest sitting on a cliff.

They tease the kind of place you'll spend a while just hopping around, having fun, picking up gems, and taking out enemies. "Arcadian Vale captures the charm and wonder that defines Spyro’s new adventure," reads the description.

"Made up of a calm, serene atmosphere, Arcadian Vale is a vibrant landscape filled with natural beauty," the studio continues. "Across the scene are cascading waterfalls tumbling down from towering cliffs. Ancient stone structures and weathered monuments rise from the terrain while lush greenery blankets the valley floor, creating a destination that feels magical and alive."

Sounds delightful, and exactly what I'm looking for from a new Spyro sequel. This is his first full new game since The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon in 2008. That's almost 20 years ago! Hopefully this can live up to the wait - going by what we see here, I'd say so.

Physint goes from PlayStation to Xbox as Sony "unexpectedly" drops Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid spiritual successor

An important piece of gaming history has been preserved today, as a leaker has released the ROM files for Project Dream, a canceled proof-of-concept for a Rare-developed pirate RPG that would eventually become the basis for the beloved Banjo-Kazooie series.

You can check out a video of the alpha footage below, and if you do, you'll probably find it hard to believe that this game was originally intended to release on the 16-bit Super Nintendo. The sole character model and jungle environments look more advanced than anything that released on the SNES, and it was only a prototype for the full game, which was canceled and reworked by Rare in 1997 after 16 months in development, largely due to technical problems.

To be clear, Rare itself hasn't been shy to talk about or even show footage of Project Dream, but this is the first time it's been made widely available online. The leaker, who only says they obtained the prototype "from someone who got it from someone, who got it from somewhere," says in a manifesto-style writeup that they chose now to release everything to help offset all of the evils of the world.

"With the current state of the industry and Microsoft's current heartless gutting and mismanagement of Rare and other companies it controls, plus with how long it's been, I feel it's more important to make sure this is properly preserved, and the ROM dissected by people with far more knowledge on how to do such things," says the leaker.

"I hope by releasing this, that it also inspires other people to release what they have as well. I know the Twelve Tales Conker 64 prototype is out there somewhere, but sadly, this is the only thing that I have."

It's hard to get much more explicit than that, but the uploader, who goes by FvckAsha&Phil online – an apparent reference to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and her predecessor, Phil Spencer – goes even further to explain why Project Dream is surfacing online now of all times.

"There is little joy left in the industry, as it relentlessly marches towards AI, layoffs, l anti-preservation and ownership tactics, and, in Microsoft’s case, the support and approval of literal genocide in Gaza.

"Let's get the last beautiful things hiding on our hard drives out there for everyone. That's all we have left," says the leaker, imploring readers to "Please delete Microsoft and Sony from your lives, install Linux, boycott Switch Game Key Cards and buy Nintendo Switch 2 titles that still come with the full game on the cartridge.

"Your dollar is the only thing that counts in our late stage capitalist hellscape."

Rare was heavily impacted by Microsoft's unprecedented downsizing that began in July with the gutting of 1,600 jobs and which will result in a further 1,600 redundancies by the end of the company's 2027 fiscal year. Rare's would-be next game, Everwild, was canceled in the blitz after six years of development. This is amid a seemingly endless era of downsizing in the games industry that saw an estimated 45,000 cut jobs between 2022 and 2025.

We'll never know if Project Dream would've joined the ranks of the best SNES games of all time.

Even if you don't know Takaya Imamura's name, you're likely to know his work. He was, after all, the artist who designed the Star Fox characters, and the one who gave The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask its signature dark look. Imamura collaborated with Shigeru Miyamoto regularly over the course of his 32-year career at Nintendo, and he believes that divisive art style of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is reflective of Miyamoto's love of puppet theater.

Retweeting an image of the new Link design, Imamura says (via DeepL translation), "Looking at this model, I felt that… Mr. Miyamoto’s love of puppet shows really comes through here, too."

Miyamoto's love of puppetry is well known, and it's particularly well evidenced in Star Fox, which both Imamura and Miyamoto were deeply involved in. The original Star Fox was marketed with puppets, and that old influence seemed to come back on its own modern Switch 2 revival, another new art treatment that got the cold shoulder from some fans.

But while the Star Fox designs are reminiscent of muppets, the new Zelda look has more in common with marionettes. And, in fact, there's some pretty compelling comparison shots showing the new Link and Japanese TV marionettes side-by-side – frankly, it's more than enough to convince me that puppetry was indeed a big inspiration here.

Either way, Imamura is excited to simply play a classic Zelda game again. "I haven't played Ocarina of Time since the 3DS version, so I'm really looking forward to it," he says in another tweet (again, DeepL translated). "The color palette and lighting are great... As expected!"

For more upcoming Switch 2 games, you know where to click.

Elden Ring streamer Bushy has put more time into FromSoftware games than almost anyone on the planet. After roughly 4,000 hours of Elden Ring, he wants to beat Elden Ring another 726 times, and he's spun up a custom mod to do it.

On August 3, Bushy began a journey to beat Elden Ring using every weapon (and shield), totaling 447 runs. On August 26, he officially expanded this to every weapon, Ash of War, staff, seal, and spell in the game, bringing the run total to 726.

The idea, he suggests, is to create a full video library that shows how every possible attack style deals with all of the bosses in Elden Ring. With that in mind, Bushy's enlisted some help to speed things up.

In a video showcasing the Black Flame spell, Bushy explains, "I've commissioned a mod to make this series even bigger and better." This mod essentially condenses the exploration and progression of each Elden Ring playthrough, making it a lot easier to unlock items like flask upgrades, DLC Scadutree fragments, merchant upgrades, collectible talismans, and so on. If it's just lying around on the ground, it can now be found at a special menu or automatically obtained by beating story bosses which lead to new chunks of the world.

"In order to skip the tedium of picking up all of the same stuff over and over for 726 runs, this is the solution that we have," Bushy says. The mod doesn't affect the experience of fighting bosses, which is the stated point of this challenge, but it does make it a lot easier to get to those bosses over 700 times.

Even with this mod's help, each run still takes several hours, so Bushy will probably be pushing 7,000 hours of Elden Ring if he actually finishes every last playthrough. So far, he's done about 20 by my count.

Bushy's behind many of the strangest and most difficult Elden Ring runs you can find online – from randomizers to a billion Malenias to deathless NG+7 – so I don't begrudge him a little time save. This challenge does feel like a pretty obvious infinite stream content generator, but on the other hand, I've never seen a man kill everything in Elden Ring with the heavy crossbow.

"While I will miss the extra running around content, I fully understand how much better this will be for you to streamline this series even just a little bit," reads one YouTube comment.

"Might actually have another fromsoft game by the time this is done," says another. And they might be right.

Deep in FromSoftware's sicko arc, Elden Ring and Dark Souls boss Hidetaka Miyazaki says "you can't make anything that's as fun" just by following the same old rules.

One of the reasons Leon Kennedy is such a great horror protagonist is that he carries himself with an unshakeable sense of humor despite always being faced with the most unimaginable atrocities. Even after barely escaping the clutches of a giant, mutant alligator with his life, Leon still manages enough levity to quip, "Chew on that, you overgrown son of a" you-know-what.

For me, Leon being an absolute himbo genuinely breaks up the tension I feel while playing a Resident Evil game, and this contrast was put to especially good use in this year's Resident Evil Requiem, which features some of the scariest sequences I've ever experienced in my 30-plus years playing horror games. But as it turns out, some of Leon's funniest lines were actually left on the chopping block, as proven by newly leaked cut voice lines from Requiem and Resident Evil 4 Remake.

Two separate videos, one that lets you hear close to 400 cut voice lines from Resident Evil Requiem, and another with more than 600 cut lines from Resident Evil 4 Remake, were recently posted to YouTube by prominent modder Keff0 (via PC Gamer). As a longtime Resident Evil diehard, it was fascinating hearing all of Leon's bad puns, Grace Ashcroft's panicked breathing, and even lines from less central characters like RE4's Merchant and Requiem's Chef Zombie, that Capcom for whatever reason decided didn't cut the mustard. As for the Leon one-liners, I'm disappointed they were left out, because some of them sound like they could've been genuinely great in the right context.

"Shucks, no time for an encore."

"Someone needs to work on their parallel parking."

"Eight legs, no brains."

"That again? You're a bit of a one-trick spider."

Naturally, longtime Leon actor Nick Apostolides delivers his lines beautifully, but I would love to see the exact scenarios onscreen that would've triggered them. Unfortunately we'll probably never know, and Leon's not the only one with some gems in the vault. I mentioned RE4's Merchant, and he's another that had some lines cut that I would've loved to see in the actual game.

"This'll perk you up," he says in one cut line. "Relax mate – it's not that kind of herb." I think all Resident Evil fans can imagine the exact situation that would've prompted that line, and I can understand why Capcom ultimately decided against including it, but man, what a loss.

"It's important to stay young at 'eart. Especially at times like these," is another line from the Merchant I would've smiled at in the game.

At this point, I feel like I'm spoiling these gems for fans, so I'll leave the rest for you to uncover on your own. There's even a cut line from RE4 Remake that seems to reference Resident Evil Village, which is completely unnecessary but fun nonetheless.

Lies of P director says Resident Evil Requiem is one of the games he enjoyed most this year because Leon is "still as cool and tough as ever."

It's almost become tradition at this point: the announcement of a new release with massive historical significance gets buried within a sizzle reel in a Nintendo Direct. Today, we got a shadowdrop for Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko's Mystery Dungeon Classic HD. This Super Famicom roguelike went untranslated for 33 years, despite building a massive following in Japan and laying the blueprint for the expansive Mystery Dungeon series.

Torneko's Mystery Dungeon is available today for $25 across Switch, Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. It is a roguelike in the most traditional sense – as in, it's a lot like the original Rogue. This is a top-down dungeon crawler where every step you take is a turn. You delve into a massive dungeon, grab as much treasure as you can carry, and build up your experience to survive into the deepest levels. If you die, you start back at the very beginning.

That concept will be intimately familiar to modern gamers, but the roguelike boom was decades away when this game was first released. Developer Chunsoft took the bones of a fiddly PC game, stuck a familiar Dragon Quest character into the role of protagonist, and suddenly had a hit on its hands. But with the then-limited success of JRPGs in general and Dragon Quest in particular outside of Japan, an English release never actually happened.

Despite that, the Mystery Dungeon series would ultimately develop a global legacy. Chunsoft would spin it off into an original IP with Shiren the Wanderer, and we'd eventually get other licensed takes like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Chocobo Mystery Dungeon, which themselves would spin off into entire series of their own.

The Classic HD version of Torneko's Mystery Dungeon seems to mostly stay true to the original's old-school sensibilities, with a lightly upgraded look putting it in line with Square Enix's modern HD-2D games. But the devs do have one big modern tweak in mind – at least for the Steam version. This edition offers a free bit of streamer-focused DLC that allows viewers to influence "mysterious events" that occur throughout the dungeon. It's not a feature that the vast majority of players will ever engage with, but I'm at least interested to see what kind of chaos it adds to the adventure.

Here are the upcoming Switch 2 games you need to know about.

There's a lovely new limited edition The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Switch 2 console on the way to commemorate the upcoming remake's November 5 launch. The handheld has got some nice detailing and colors, but if you haven't already pre-ordered it, your odds of getting one are shrinking. Scalpers were unfortunately first to the scene with Nintendo's new hardware.

The special edition Switch 2 only went on sale yesterday, after its reveal during Nintendo's 40th Anniversary Zelda Direct previewing the Ocarina of Time remake, a total redo of the N64 classic.

Already, many retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are sold out of the $520 console, which is to be expected. Not only is this console related to Zelda, but Ocarina of Time? Every collector and fan wants it in their possession, and sadly, the vultures know that.

You can find many Ocarina of Time remake Switch 2 consoles listed on eBay right now for around $850 and upwards. Plenty of scalpers managed to get this hardware for reselling purposes, it seems.

Though scalping almost always happens with exclusive game releases, it's still disappointing each and every time – because it could mean a true fan is losing an opportunity to someone who wants to make a quick buck. But if the FOMO is getting to you, please don't indulge in these Zelda Switch 2 listings. There might be more stock coming to official retail websites and in-person Nintendo stores once the special Switch 2 launches October 29.

Walmart is our highest recommendation for purchasing the console itself, while Best Buy is good for the Pro Controller, and old reliable Amazon has you covered for the Ocarina of Time remake itself.

The best reaction to scalping is always just not engaging, even if it means missing out on a collectible you have your eyes on.

Young Link has a face only a mother could love in Zelda Ocarina of Time remake, and even the series' most dedicated fans are struggling: "They did him dirty."

It always feels a bit bizarre to experience Lara Croft's adventures on anything but PlayStation hardware, but the upcoming Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis is coming to the Switch 2.

As unveiled during the latest Nintendo Direct, you can take on this reimagining of the original 1996 classic and pre-order it for $59.99 (GameStop) physically (game-key card release) or digitally via the Nintendo eShop once listings go live.

It's great to finally get confirmation that it's making its way to the Ninty console, especially if it means I can get my dual pistol-wielding hands on that Collector's Edition. Announced on June 2 earlier this year, the snazzy Collector's Edition from Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild includes the game and some physical goodies, including an incredibly detailed statue of Lara taking on the T-Rex.

I maybe would have preferred to see a real-life replica of the Hand of Midas as found in the OG Tomb Raider so I could turn my Switch 2 into gold. However, the statue is just as impressive, and it's available to pre-order for $199.99 at GameStop today. So far GameStop is the only place to find it, but I'll be using my Lara Croft skills of discovery to update you on the best places to find the Collector's Edition and all Legacy of Atlantis Switch 2 pre-order links as and when I find them before February comes around.

Where to pre-order Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis

FAQ

Want more Switch 2 games? Check out our Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake pre-order and Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave pre-order pages.

A long running sort of ironic Xenoblade theory has finally been laid to rest thanks to today's Nintendo Direct. The canon child of one of Xenoblade 2's main heroes has been unveiled, and it's not the crusty villain that much of the fanbase had been willing it to be.

A fresh trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles 3's Nintendo Switch 2 Edition was shown off today, highlighting more of the Heroes' Vault mode, which sees you take on waves of enemies while grabbing upgrades as you go, be it for your abilities or to bring new allies into the fray.

More excitingly, though, we've been given our first glimpse of the JRPG's upcoming new Hero. Her name is Shimmer – she's got blonde hair, a white outfit, and the Foresight ability… sound familiar?

We're going to get into some spoilers now for a revelation that comes at the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 – as well as a rather obvious observation about its Future Redeemed DLC – so proceed with caution.

At the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, we see a photo of an aged-up Xenoblade 2 cast, including protagonist Rex standing behind Pyra, Mythra, and Nia – each holding a child, with the implication that he's the father of all three. We meet Pyra and Rex's daughter, Glimmer, in the Future Redeemed DLC, and it's quite widely accepted that 3's co-lead Mio is most likely Nia's daughter, too. But what about the remaining blonde baby we see Mythra holding?

Well, with no concrete answers up to this point, fans have been… creative, with their theories. Perhaps the most common – though how seriously it's believed varies from person to person – is that it's one of Xenoblade 3's villains, Dirk, otherwise known as Consul D. He's, uh, not a nice guy. Even before becoming one of the Moebius (you know, the bad guys you're fighting for the entire game), he was a twisted, sadistic soldier. So what's the evidence of him being related to good guys Rex and Mythra?

He's blonde, I guess? There is a bit more to it than that, actually – folks have also pointed out before that he and Rex share similar ear shapes and facial hair, and have names with comparable meanings. Dirk is also lacking a significantly expanded backstory unlike many of the other baddies in the JRPG, leaving some to wonder if it connected to this larger plot point. For many, it's been more of a meme than anything – after all, he's hardly a likeable character, so willing it to be true is more funny than anything else.

Anyway, today, all of that has been debunked, and fans are mixed on the outcome. "Dirk Mythra kid truthers it's so over," one writes on Twitter, as another responds: "We fought hard it was a good run."

Others, however, are more welcoming of Shimmer's existence: "Finally that fuckass theory of dirk as mythra kid is disproven," one says. Another writes: "Thank God Shimmer finally exists because I was tired of the whole Dirk is Mythra kid BS Theory."

I, for one, am also accepting of Shimmer as our official Mythra Kid. Honestly, my only real problem is with her name. You're telling me that Rex really looked at two of his newborn children and said, "Yeah, that one can be called Glimmer and the other can be Shimmer"? …Actually, yeah, that tracks.

Xenoblade Genesis is coming in 2027, and it looks very different to Monolith Soft's last JRPG trilogy.

PowerA has come to the rescue for those who don't put Ocarina of Time on a pedestal. The accessories brand has announced two new Nintendo Switch 2 accessories via its Twitter (X) account, but rather than plastering them with artwork taken from the upcoming Ocarina of Time Remake, they instead take inspiration from Tears of the Kingdom.

The officially licensed goodies are live at Amazon Japan starting from 3,530 yen (approx $23) and show off a wireless gamepad and a Switch 2 case. The controller isn't draped in green and gold like the new first-party Switch 2 Pro pad, but instead features a black chassis with gold Zonai-like embellishments and the game's fractured Master Sword front and center. If you aren't on the hunt for a new controller, the brand is also launching a leather-like bound case that features the Hylian crest, with both expected to drop on October 9 later this year.

Yet, while these Switch 2 accessories are newly announced, they're already available at Amazon US. You can grab the controller and case for $64.88 and $24.99 respectively, without having to wait for the spooky season to come around. There's every chance that these new versions could include updated features, but if you're in the market for new Switch 2 Zelda goodies and Ocarina isn't your jam, you have the option of not waiting around.

The Switch 2 pad shown off at Amazon Japan looks to be the exact same PowerA Advantage Wireless Controller available for $64.88 at Amazon US. That's not a bad thing, as this controller is packed with Hall effect sticks to help prevent any dreaded drift issues, motion controls, up to a 30-hour battery, and mappable back buttons.

If you're thinking of picking this up over the newly unveiled Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 Pro controller, it's already far easier to find in stock, but there is a caveat. This controller, while being an officially licensed Zelda accessory, is missing the HD rumble and NFC-reading tech of Nintendo's first-party alternative. That means you're not going to have the full gamut of features on display with this, as you could with the premium option.

The PowerA Protection Case for Nintendo Switch 2 is also already up at Amazon US, and it is the cheaper accessory of the two with its $24.99 (Amazon) MSRP. It's also based on Tears of the Kingdom, which is unmistakable from the Zonai-pattern creeping in the corners of the exterior of the case, and the little green and gold tag on the inside.

Much like the best Nintendo Switch 2 cases, this accessory includes space for the handheld, smaller accessories via a fabric mesh pocket, and space to store up to 10 physical games. While I haven't tested it myself, I'd honestly recommend it over the new $39.99 (via Nintendo) 40th Anniversary case that's available via the official Nintendo online store.

The new 40th edition case looks to be based on the official Nintendo Switch 2 Carrying Case, which is one of my biggest Switch 2 shopping regrets since the console's conception. Unlike this PowerA option, it doesn't have a hardened exterior, and never felt like it could give my pricey bit of Ninty tech the protection it deserves. If you want to keep your pricey handheld safe and protected (and have ample storage for extras), this PowerA option looks far sturdier.

Better yet, you won't have to wrestle with any pre-order queues to grab it, as it's readily in stock and ready to ship. Though anyone based in Japan will still have to wait a few weeks - though that's nothing a quick rendition of the Song of Double Time on the ocarina can't fix.

• View all PowerA Nintendo Switch 2 accessories at Amazon

Check out Hasbro's new Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom toys if you're a fan of Link's Switch adventures.

Nintendo just announced a new Metroid game in Metroid Ravenous! While it may seem a little soon (Metroid Prime 4: Beyond only released last year, after all) there's far more to this story.

Metroid Ravenous is set to be the first new 2D Metroid game in over five years, with the Metroid Dread release date passing us by way back on October 8, 2021. Thankfully, it looks like this new collaboration between MercurySteam and Nintendo EPD will pick up right in the aftermath of planet ZDR.

Metroid Ravenous was revealed during the September 2026 Nintendo Direct, with a reveal trailer showing cinematics, gameplay, and highlighting a few new powers for a returning Samus Aran to play with in the new game. Thankfully, we won't have long to wait to play it for ourselves, with Nintendo setting the Metroid Ravenous release date for early next year among the line up of upcoming Switch 2 games.

You'll learn more about the new 2D Metroid game below as we walk you through everything we know so far.

Metroid Ravenous release date

Nintendo has officially confirmed the Metroid Ravenous release date for January 28, 2027.

This was announced on September 9 as part of a Nintendo Direct presentation. Metroid Ravenous is set to be one of the most prominent upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 games of next year, and a key platform-exclusive alongside Pokemon Winds & Waves. Metroid Ravenous will land over five years since the last 2D Metroid game landed on Switch – as you can recap in my 2021 Metroid Dread review, a fun adventure that was let down by its frustrating boss battles.

Metroid Ravenous platforms

Metroid Ravenous will be a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. This means it won't be available to play on the original Switch family of systems. This is unlikely to change in the future, with the vast majority of new first-party games published by Nintendo developed to take advantage of the increased power of the improved system. If you're looking to buy a console to play Metroid Ravenous (as well as some of the best Switch 2 games already out in the wild) then we're tracking the best Nintendo Switch 2 deals here.

Metroid Ravenous trailer

The first Metroid Ravenous trailer landed on September 9, 2026. It was positioned as part of the Nintendo Direct September 2026 showcase. While there were rumors that the game was in development, this first look was an official confirmation that the game is coming to Switch 2. You can watch the new Metroid trailer above.

Metroid Ravenous developer

While Nintendo is yet to officially confirm who is developing Metroid Ravenous, it's expected that it'll be MercurySteam once again taking on lead production duties. If you aren't familiar with the name, MercurySteam is an independent studio who has partnered with Nintendo in the past – collaborating to deliver Metroid Dread (2021) for Nintendo Switch and Metroid: Samus Returns (2017), which was a rather delightful remake of the Game Boy's Metroid 2: Return of Samus for 3DS. Basically, to cut a long story short: 2D Metroid is in exceptionally good hands here.

Metroid Ravenous pre-orders aren't live yet

Nintendo is yet to make Metroid Ravenous pre-orders live in the US or UK. However, we do know what to expect when they do eventually launch. The publisher announced that there will be both a regular and a special edition of the game available from January 28, 2027, with the limited release featuring a Steel Book, copy of the game, and a special Amiibo depicting Samus in a green Metroid Suit. And speaking of Amiibos, there will also be new products sold separately in the form of a Samus figure and a Chozo Statue.

Metroid Ravenous screenshots

Nintendo has released a bunch of new Metroid Ravenous screenshots. You'll see some of the more story focused snapshots on this page, but you'll want to click through this gallery to see over 20 direct-feed Metroid Ravenous gameplay screenshots which showcase some of Samus' returning abilities, new powers, and hint towards some of the threats we'll face this time around.

Metroid Ravenous gameplay

Metroid Ravenous is a 2D Metroid game with side-scrolling action, leaving you to forge a path forward through a labyrinthian maze of a world. While Nintendo is yet to officially detail what we're seeing in the reveal footage, it does look clear that this 2027 release is picking up in the immediate aftermath of Metroid Dread .

Which, spoilers, saw Samus able to directly absorb energy through her hands as a result of the Metroid DNA within her. It looks and sounds pretty clear that Ravenous will see Samus grapple with the fact that she's slowly transforming into a Metroid, an effect which will unlock a new suite of powers and abilities – alongside some returning classics. We'll likely learn more in the weeks ahead.

Have your say on Metroid Ravenous

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Changes are coming in The Witcher 3 remaster and Songs of the Past, and your trusty steed, Roach, is among the areas where you might notice some alterations. The mighty horse definitely has a distinct personality in the original game, and aspects of that have been upgraded for this update and the Songs of the Past DLC - but you can turn that all off if you prefer.

In an interview with Fall Damage, Karolina Kuzia, the design director at Fool's Theory, the studio that helped make Songs of the Past, addressed whether Roach's bugs had been fixed. "When it comes to Roach and her shenanigans, why take something that is light?" she asks.

She then passes the question to her colleague, Miles Tost, the level design lead at CD Projekt Red, who elaborates. "I don't know of any Roach bugs, I think she's perfect," he says. "Having said that, one cool thing about the remaster update is that we have updates to Roach's movement behavior, so on that count, that may be disappointing to you."

Yes, that is a little disconcerting, because Roach is truly a singular equestrian companion, even if she has a tendency to get in doorways you need to get through and other impossible places. She's a mess, but she's our mess, and we've grown to love and accept her in all her multitudes.

CD Projekt Red anticipated this by adding a toggle for the older and newer behavioral patterns. "You can turn that off," Tost adds. "If you prefer legacy Roach, the way you have grown to know her, be my guest."

Be your guest I shall be, Mr. Tost. I do enjoy keeping some aspects like these in remasters, because they become indelible to my nostalgia. Roach reminds you you're in a big, goofy fantasy game, and in a world like Geralt's you need that sometimes.

After 20 years voicing Geralt, The Witcher 3 star Doug Cockle says revisiting his character for Songs of the Past is "like slipping into a warm bath"

After 24 years, Star Fox Adventures is back. Rare's 2002 GameCube title turned Nintendo's beloved rail shooter into a Zelda-style action-adventure game, and while my nostalgic love for it runs deep, it's always had a controversial legacy among series fans. Now, we're all getting a chance to revisit it on Switch 2, as announced during today's Nintendo Direct.

Star Fox Adventures joins the GameCube library on Nintendo Switch Online today, September 9. As with all the recent GameCube re-releases, it will only be available on Switch 2, and only with the premium Expansion Pack version of the NSO subscription.

I used to earnestly assert that Star Fox Adventures was the only good Star Fox game, but, well, I played it when I was 12, and I liked Zelda a lot more than I liked Star Fox. I doubt that opinion fully holds up, but I do think Adventures was given a lot more guff than it deserved by hardcore Star Fox fans over the years.

It's a solid action-adventure game, it was graphically astounding in its day, and it has dinosaurs, after all. It famously started life at developer Rare as an original game titled Dinosaur Planet. Shigeru Miyamoto himself eventually proposed that it should be a Star Fox game and the rest, as they say, is history.

Here's hoping that Star Fox Adventures lives up to my memories of it at least a little bit. I'm gonna need something to fill the void until I can get my Zelda nostalgia fix with that Ocarina of Time remake.

Kirby and the World Beyond looks like the first open-world Kirby game, and it's coming to Switch 2 in spring 2027.

Today's Nintendo Direct showcase gave us a sneak peek at some exciting new games underway for the Switch 2, including none other than Kirby and the World Beyond.

It looks like a stunning little entry to Nintendo's 34-year-old series, standing as its second 3D entry after Kirby and the Forgotten Land – a title that itself launched a few years back in 2022 for the original Switch console.

Not only is it as visually vibrant and cozy as you'd expect a Kirby title to be (especially a 3D one after Forgotten Land's colorful debut), but Kirby and the World Beyond is also seemingly an open-world game. As per its trailer, it allows players to "freely explore" – so, yeah... I'm thinking it is indeed an open-world Kirby experience.

If so, it'll be the first of its kind. Sure, Kirby and the Forgotten Land had "open" areas that definitely felt more free than those in past platformers, but this would take it up a notch... and then some. And the gameplay? It looks as adorably action-packed as always, with inspired 'fit swaps for Kirby and more.

There's not too long left to wait to experience it, either. Kirby and the World Beyond is set to release sometime in the spring of 2027, which is just months away now (yes, time is passing that quickly). After all, the end of 2026 is approaching.

You can pre-order Kirby and the World Beyond now over on the Nintendo Store – if you can get through the Ocarina of Time remake queue, that is.

Searching for more to look forward to? Browse through our quick roundup of the best upcoming Switch 2 games arriving this year and beyond to wishlist.

Silent Hill 2 Remake studio and Cronos: The New Dawn creator Bloober Team has officially announced Onyx: The Dark Grip for Switch 2 – formerly known as Project M – at Nintendo Direct September 2026.

Earlier this year, fans had passed whispers about how the developer applied to trademark the title in 2024.

But no one dared to start a rumor ambitious enough to explain how unusual Onyx: The Dark Grip really is – the psychological horror game steeped in fluffy mist is playable exclusively in Switch 2 handheld mode.

The Dark Grip initially looks like a 2.5D Silent Hill game in its Nintendo Direct trailer. Protagonist Holden seems like a tired and unremarkable man, with his face peppered in 8 o'clock shadow and a sensible suede coat on his back, but even mundane aspects of his life are being manipulated by a supernatural force slowly eating all his sanity.

This sounds like it could be Silent Hill 2 and its unhelpful hero James Sunderland all over again – but, this time, the player is that supernatural force. That's right, we've all been offered a new job as Pyramid Head without abs.

"Survive as a vessel and interfere as a god," instructs a Nintendo press release. Onyx: The Dark Grip's trailer disclaims that the game can only be played in the Switch 2's handheld mode, since players will have to use the console's touch screen to perform interventions like unlocking doors, reading NPC minds, and moving objects.

But when you interfere with Holden's reality, he perceives you as a poltergeist, and the world starts to fuzz in shades of gray as he goes fully crazy.

"Play as the mysterious Entity," Nintendo continues, "guiding the actions of a lone traveler who arrives in a desolate ghost town. Manipulate the environment with your supernatural powers, solve puzzles, confront terrifying creatures and don't let your puppet descend into the depths of madness. Blur the line between the game world and reality."

Bloober is good at that – from its 2016 breakout game Layers of Fear to its work on the Silent Hill franchise, the developer favors horror narratives that grab a candlestick to melt the line between art and real, deep-breathing life.

And, while The Dark Grip will be the first Nintendo exclusive for the developer, Bloober CEO Piotr Babieno is a noted fan of Nintendo's few horror games.

"This is a vision that could only exist on Nintendo hardware," Babieno said about Onyx: The Dark Grip in 2025, when the game was known as Project M. He also assured fans of games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and 2002 GameCube exclusive Eternal Darkness that they "will immediately feel at home" playing Onyx: The Dark Grip.

Well, let me start packing my things.

Prepare yourself for even more upcoming horror games in 2026 and beyond.

The brand-new Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time amiibo may feel pretty cursed to some, at least where their unlocks are concerned, but I'm absolutely smitten with these new collectibles.

The $24.99-each (GameStop) amiibo aren't just adorable little replicas of Young Link and Young Zelda as they appear in the upcoming Ocarina of Time Remake, but they also pay homage to some of my most beloved game artwork, at least for Link. The image of the little Hero of Time glancing at Navi the fairy as she's about to perch on his hand was used alongside the release of the original 1998 N64 game. Illustrated by artist Yusuke Nakano, the iconic art graced everything from Nintendo magazines of the era to the official Ocarina of Time Player's Guide by Nintendo Power (via Internet Archive), and it's incredible to see it in toy form all these years later.

Young Zelda appears to be rocking out her own unique pose, but as a pair, they're still undoubtedly detailed and adorable figures I can't wait to add to my collection. As it stands, I'll have to be a bit more patient to pre-order them myself, as both Young Link and Young Zelda have yet to appear on UK retailers. However, I've still gathered the links you'll need below once they drop, alongside which retailers you can visit to secure your new amiibo today if you're on the US side of the Lake Hylia fishing pond

I instantly clocked the classic art homage of the Young Link amiibo when it was first unveiled during the Nintendo Direct held yesterday. As a 90s kid and a hardened Zelda fan, the image of Link looking at Navi has been long etched in my brain for decades. While I'll have to get used to this new version of Link with his busy-looking tunic, I'm pretty excited to add this iconic pose to my Zelda merch collection - but I can't help but wish they chose different artwork as inspiration.

One of the most standout classic pieces of Ocarina of Time artwork features Young Link and Zelda sitting side by side. That would have been more fitting, particularly as Nintendo could have designed it so that the amiibo bases could fit together to get the pose just right. Ninty recently showed with its Splatoon Raiders amiibo that it can release figures that connect together, so it could have been a possibility for these two. But alas, I'm happy with any new Ocarina of Time amiibo, particularly as we've only had two so far - one of Young Link and one of Adult Link holding the ocarina, which is now in the Princess's hands this time around.

If you aren't an Ocarina of Time fan, the recent Nintendo Direct also included a reminder that the Mineru's Construct amiibo pre-orders are up for grabs. This figure is the first of the line-up to be articulated, which makes it one of the most unique amiibo in the Legend of Zelda line-up.

• View all Legend of Zelda amiibo at GameStop

Check out our Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake pre-order page and where to buy the Legend of Zelda Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch 2 Pro controller while you're here.

Mario Kart World is getting yet another free content update today, this time adding our first batch of new tracks.

Specifically, courses from Super Mario Kart are being added to the VS Race mode. We see SNES Choco Island 1 and Choco Island 2 now available as options under the standard Choco Mountain track, for example. Vanilla Lake and Ghost Valley are also coming, amongst others, for a total of 10.

Another neat Super Mario Kart nod comes in the form of the ? Panels on the road, which you can drive over to get items.

In addition, two extra Knockout Tour routes are being added, named Propeller Rally and Turnip Rally. There's clearly still more to come, as footage from today's Nintendo Direct still shows four further routes hidden behind question marks, so the devs aren't done supporting the mode.

Although it wasn't mentioned in the Direct itself, Nintendo also states via a press release that a new Spectator Mode has been added for when you're playing with friends online or through LAN play, and now that I'm saying that out loud, I can't believe it wasn't an option from the start. Better late than never, though.

Honestly, though, it's the new tracks that make 1.8.0 Mario Kart World's best update yet. It was always going to be hard for the Switch 2 racer to compete with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which simply has so many more courses to race around, especially with all its DLC, and this thankfully gives World a bit of a boost in the right direction. Hopefully we can expect more in the future.

Be sure to keep up with our Nintendo Direct September 2026 live blog to see everything announced during the show.

After five years, we're finally getting a new 2D Metroid game. Metroid Ravenous was announced as part of today's Nintendo Direct, it looks like a direct follow-up to Dread, and it's set to launch very soon: January 28.

The first trailer teases plenty, but the key bit seems to be some sort of feeding mechanic. We see Samus repeatedly absorbing energy from her enemies like, well, a Metroid, and the idea of hunger would certainly explain the title. The energy Samus drains from enemies appears to fill a meter in the upper left of the screen, but it's not immediately clear whether that's a health bar or some other sort of power meter.

The story sees Samus attacked and trapped on a mysterious moon by an unknown group of enemies wearing sick space samurai gear. Which, honestly, sounds like a solid setup for a Metroid game. And it's equally fun and terrifying to see Samus's fusion with the Metroids back on the GBA manifest in some new powers.

Nintendo did not confirm the developer in today's announcement, but this sure looks like another MercurySteam joint, as the counter-heavy gameplay of the studio's last effort looks to be very much intact here.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond's ill-fitting open-world structure left a poor taste in my mouth last year, but I loved Dread, and I'm hopeful that Ravenous can offer a proper feast. We don't have to wait long to find out, either way.

Mario Kart World's best free update yet adds 10 retro tracks from Super Mario Kart today.

I've got a theory about why people enjoy playing survival games. From Minecraft (or Unreal World if you're cool) all the way through to Valheim's 1.0 launch today after five years in Early Access, they all have something in common. Starting with nothing and building up to a mighty fortress is great, but what these games really offer is a sense of discovery – a journey into an unfamiliar world.

It's something Welsh poet Dylan Thomas explores in his poem Fern Hill. Here, he writes about being "green and carefree, famous among the barns" in "the sun that was young once only". That pretty much sums up my first few hours of Valheim: it's a game that nurtures and encourages a childlike sense of wonder.

Waxing poetical

Valheim's epic wonder is there from the jump. You arrive into the Tenth World in the clutches of a Valkyrie, with only a raven named Hugin for amenable company. Hugin provides you with some helpful tips as a new arrival in the peaceful Meadows – a world away from the moody, stormy lands you saw during your flight.

With almost nothing to your name, like a child angry about a lost kite, you start punching trees only to realize with sore hands that you're actually meant to gather branches from the ground.

From there, Valheim flows into the usual routine you'd expect from a survival game. I spend most of the time foraging rocks, flint, and becoming a kind of Genghis Khan figure to local wildlife. If the survival game loop was all that there was to Valheim, it'd be a fun, if somewhat disposable slice of Viking life. But one aspect that really makes the game stand apart is the sensory experience.

Valheim's late-PS1/early-PS2 aesthetic has some modern flourish hidden beneath its horned helmet. The lighting is one standout aspect, with night skies seeing countless stars spill across a firmament of pure black. Meanwhile the Meadows biome is underscored by a bucolic clarinet melody, caught somewhere between folk and soft jazz, that never fails to soothe. And it all links back to that poetic sense of expanse and wonder as penned by Thomas.

There's some entertainingly bouncy physics, too. My first death on day 1 isn't attributed to one of the goblin-like Greylings or an aggressive boar, but to gravity, a tree, and my own hubris. Chopping down a tree makes it fall. It's a very tricky concept to grasp, I know, and it turns out that chopping up a huge trunk also splits it in two. I'm standing downhill from one of the large logs as it falls to the ground, and thus begins my first corpse run.

Valheim is also a full-on RPG, which is a point I have used to sell it to my survival-skeptic friends. There are skills ranging from magic to cooking to wood-chopping, as well as a shockingly competent combat system, complete with a parry mechanic. All of these hang together to make exploration extremely fun, my character taking shape alongside the world around them as I learn more about myself and this strange new land.

Man of the land

Tracing the shoreline, venturing out on your first raft, building a simple homestead – it's easy to forget that there is more to this game than simply existing within it, green and carefree. And there is so much more, with each major biome culminating in a boss fight against a suitably fantastical enemy. After each boss, you move on to the next biome, building forward bases and exploring – ever exploring, like a true Erik the Red.

Despite my generally wonderful time with Valheim 1.0, my one sticking point is the building mechanics. Level ground prime for building is hard to come by in the Tenth World, even after setting-to it with a newly-crafted hoe.

This means that making your homestead look like a building rather than a load of panels that have been chucked together is a matter of some genuine skill. I was left with huge gaps that, if nothing else, let smoke trail out beautifully from my campfire. It holds some of the game's creative potential hostage, and I can't truly feel like the author of my own pastoral poem as a consequence.

Still, I have to hand it to developer Iron Gate Studios. The sun may be young once only, but if you ever want to wander, Valheim's near-endless scope for epic journeys is hard to beat. What a fantastic synchronicity there is to the fact that 1992's Unreal World, one of the first survival games ever, doubled as an RPG about surviving the Far North. Valheim 1.0's addition of the Deep North biome echoes it beautifully, calling forth the bravest souls who wish to venture further and marrying the RPG and survival genres in a genuinely fantastic way.

These games like Valheim offer stunning worlds to explore and survive, if you dare...

No Man's Sky Cosmos is Hello Games' latest update, and it's making enormous changes to space itself after 10 years.

Cosmos is out for free today, September 9, hot on the heels of the big 10th anniversary blowout.

"No Man’s Sky is often referred to as 'a Space Game', it’s a huge part of our game, but we’ve never really updated space since release," Hello Games says of the update.

Space has certainly changed now. Cosmos is headlined by space station ownership, which Hello Games says "must be our most requested feature since launch."

"Finally players can buy the space station for themselves! Build and decorate it both inside and externally, and some wild creativity is possible. You can create your own themed Station as your own clubhouse and have friends come and visit."

To help build your space station, you might want to pay a visit to "space hulks," which are basically big clusters of resources floating in space. With help from a gravity gun and "a new tractor beam fitted to your ship," you can strip these hulks for materials. The kicker is that too much structural damage to a hulk will cause it to melt down and explode, so you'll need to prioritize and work quickly.

These space hulks also show off "our new volumetric lighting tech," says Hello Games boss Sean Murray.

Luckily, you can enlist the help of new player alliances for the job. "As an alliance, you can work together to build a networked empire of different stations and rise the new leaderboards to compete for the largest, richest or most prominent alliance," Hello Games says.

That network will be easier to navigate thanks to a new star map that reveals points of interest, including "whole new strands of missions and exploration," whenever you warp to a system.

New points of interest introduced in Cosmos include outposts where you can trade with aliens, bio-wrecks to be "cleared out and reclaimed," asteroid belts with rare crystals, and orbital bases that "can be built ANYWHERE in space." You can even put a star base on a "rare" large asteroid if you want.

And you know what, screw it, while we're at it, go to the sun. "Finally players can try to undertake a perilous journey to reach the center of their own star system!" says Hello Games.

This is all bookended by a new Expedition that packs 10 years of No Man's Sky updates – a whopping 40 of 'em – into a playable museum. "It’s been a real joy to revisit some of those moments for us," the studio adds.

"This has been a wild undertaking for our team," Murray says in a Cosmos deep dive video. "So many things that we never thought we'd do. Having alliances of tens of thousands of players, real communities working together, claiming space stations. It's pretty cool, but it's been a lot of work."

A typically enthusiastic Murray says Cosmos "creates foundations for the future," making good on his threat to release free No Man's Sky content forever.

10 years of No Man's Sky: How Hello Games and Sean Murray keep getting away with it.

Oh Link, you've met with a terrible fate. You might not be a Deku Scrub, but you are absolutely lost in the uncanny valley thanks to Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake.

Link's younger self stands out among all the other re-modeled characters for many of the wrong reasons. His chubby, babyface cheeks and big round eyes contribute to the feeling that we're looking at someone just slightly too inhuman for their own good.

In reaction to Nintendo showcasing the remake, people have been quick to gawk at the choices made regarding our protagonist. One popular tweet compares a picture of Hyrule's hero and that cursed hellspawn Renesmee animatronic baby from the Twilight film franchise.

I'm sorry to say, but there's a clear resemblance. It's in the eyes and how the air gets a little colder whenever you're looking into them. One of many photoshops doing the rounds hammers this home.

Speaking of hammers, another post makes it clear violence would've been employed in another time for the intrepid adventurer. "Me and my friends would have killed Young Link with hammers I can tell you that much," says a post, and going by the numbers, I think a few would've joined them.

In a crossover within the same franchise, one Twitter user points out Link's resemblance to Malo, the infant-looking Ordonian from Twilight Princess. A reminder Nintendo has form for this, however cursed.

"They did him dirty," one fan proclaims, and, well, yeah.

One huge change in the Ocarina of Time remake: full voice-acted cutscenes for everyone, except Link of course.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time pre-orders have landed across the web, with both the physical and digital edition now available in the US and listings popping up across the UK as well. The remake was shown off in Nintendo's dedicated Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct, where we also learned of the title's November 5 release date and $69.99 / £54.99 launch price (though that's $59.99 for the digital edition). With copies popping up all over the web, it's time to lock in your early order - here's where to find the fastest shipping options and all the latest stock.

In the US, Amazon has both physical and digital copies up for grabs, and the Switch 2 exclusive even has a discount just days after pre-orders went live. You can now save $10 off the physical release at Amazon and Walmart, as it's down to $59.88 instead of its full $69.99 price.

Meanwhile, in the UK Smyths Toys was the fastest out of the gate with its pre-orders, but you can grab the game everywhere from UK Amazon, Currys and Argos now.

Not only will the physical version grant you the full physical game with no game-key card in sight, but you'll also get access to that shiny foil cover in the process. While there's no fancy collector's edition to pick up today, Nintendo did make sure to provide a pre-order bonus box of 3D replicas of the Spiritual Stones - but that is exclusive to the Nintendo UK online store while supplies last. Of course, if you're after a heavier set of goodies, Legend of Zelda Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders are alive and kicking as well.

So you're not left feeling like a stray Kokiri in the Lost Woods, I've gathered all the US and UK retailers you can use to secure your copy of the game ahead of November. I'll be updating this along the way, so check back later if you aren't quite ready to splash out all your rupees on the upcoming Switch 2 remake.

Ocarina of Time pre-orders in the US

Ocarina of Time Remake UK pre-orders

FAQ

Want more Ocarina of Time Remake goodies? Check out Hasbro's new electronic Master Sword and the new Lego Link and Epona set and the best Legend of Zelda merch while you're here.

Various new games – and I mean various – have reportedly suffered countless spoilers thanks to a Steam leak that's seen their achievements go entirely public.

From Kingdom Hearts 4 to Persona 6 to Silent Hill: Townfall to… well, you name it, there's a downright plethora of titles seemingly affected by the massive leak on Valve's platform.

You can find lists of every game (and their achievements, be warned) on online forums and websites like Twitter – and it's all so big it's nearly mind-blowing. They're all live on achievement tracker site Exophase, too, but I'd once again caution checking anything out in too much detail.

Not only does the leak apparently expose a load of upcoming games' achievements, but it also lifts the veil on many "unannounced" titles, as users point out in a social media thread on the whole debacle.

There's an "unannounced Dune game" in there, an "unannounced Twin Peaks game," and even a dang "unannounced Shrek 2 Remaster" mentioned, y'all… and, erm… Penis Bird? Put simply, it's one heck of a leak – and not just of games we knew about.

So, how did this all happen in the first place? Well, it seems to boil down to an API error that isn't exactly new to Steam. For anyone who might not know what that means (because I certainly didn't), API stands for application programming interface, and it's essentially a set of rules that allows software programs to communicate.

Exophase owner "x3sphere" has described it a bit over on ResetEra, confirming what happened.

"I am the owner of the site and this is what appears to have happened," he writes. "Seems like a possible screw up on Valve's end, a bunch of games with achievements that should be private are accessible through the API right now and that's why they got scanned into the site. I usually never see games without an actual name pop up with achievements, yet over the past hour or so a bunch have."

Oof.

Valve has yet to respond itself, but I'm not sure it will aside from remedying the apparent private information from each game. As for studios like Sega and Square Enix which have seemingly seen their unreleased games go a bit more public, I doubt we'll hear anything, either.

So, there you have it – you can go explore the findings yourself if you're interested it, but after taking a peek at the alleged Persona 6 achievements myself, I can say I sort of wish I hadn't.

Spoilers, spoilers everywhere… and I shan't be sharing them here.

Kingdom Hearts 4 script "almost twice as big" as KH3's, Tetsuya Nomura says: "There were more parts that I wanted to include, but I was already pushing it."

Nintendo just unveiled the Legend of Zelda special edition Nintendo Switch 2 console during the brand's 40th Anniversary Direct. With a release date set for October 29, pre-orders have kicked off in Australia. Us early buyers are all lamenting the fact those gorgeous dark green Joy-Con and that sparkly dock aren't available separately, but those holding out for a special edition console will want to get their pre-order gameplan in order.

So far, JB Hi-Fi and EB Games have both opened pre-orders for the limited edition console.

Where can I pre-order the Legend of Zelda Nintendo Switch 2 in Australia?

Of course, Nintendo itself is going to be a front runner in many bookmark lists here. It's typically harder to get yourself in line here, though. The Switch 2 was locked behind playtime quotas and membership lengths, and even then Nintendo operated on an invite-only system for the first few waves of stock.

We're out of the woods with that original launch yes, but the special edition Zelda Switch 2 is likely to move fast still.

How to plan for your Legend of Zelda Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order

Nintendo also dropped news of Hasbro's new electronic Master Sword and the new Lego Link and Epona set in its Direct, but you can also check out all the best Legend of Zelda merch we've found so far.

Elden Ring players were happy to discover there was a glitch that made the game's new $5 Tarnished Pack DLC appear in their multiplayer kingdom, even if they hadn't paid for it. But developer FromSoftware has speedily issued a patch stopping players in their path.

"Patch 1.17.1 has been released for #ELDENRING," says the official Elden Ring account on Twitter. "This update fixes an issue in multiplayer where, under specific conditions, DLC-specific items could be obtained when not normally eligible. No additional content is included. Thank you for your support, Tarnished."

After Patch 1.17 introduced new, paid content that comes included with Elden Ring's fresh Switch 2 edition – the $5 pack contains the Idus Knight and Heavy Knight starting classes, plus more weapons and glamorous horse armor – a helpful bug made it so players with DLC items would automatically spawn copies of those items as pick-ups when entering a multiplayer game with someone who didn't have the DLC. It was the Lands Between's equivalent of dollar bills raining from the sky.

But Patch 1.17.1 smacks players' wrists and tells them to get their own $5. While Elden Ring fans can still trade DLC items with each other, including with people who don't own the Tarnished Pack, they can no longer enjoy a bounty of doubles. And they are not happy.

One exasperated Twitter reply says to the official Patch 1.17.1, "In other words someone found out how to get the $5 Tarnished DLC stuff for free. It should have been free anyway, guys. Charging $5 for a few pieces of gear is the biggest L From Soft has taken in a long time."

"I'll get downvoted for this, but it's crazy they released a whole patch for something as harmless as this," another player reacts in a Reddit thread on the topic, "but they can't bother to give us more balance or QoL changes. You know stuff that would actually improve the game's experience?"

"People love to claim that From soft is somehow beyond criticism," says another Reddit comment in the same thread, "but this was clearly a financial decision. They want more money from people. Simple as that."

As much as it pains me to agree as a hardcore FromSoftware fan (I've played all the games more than once, I've watched a total of at least 100 hours of lore videos), I do. The Tarnished Pack DLC is the developer's first experiment with something close to "microtransactions," and I have to try hard not to see it as the first ember in a house fire. Usually, I fail. But it's clear from Patch 1.17.1 that FromSoftware has the opposite reaction – if $5 DLC is an ember, it wants to keep it glowing.

Deep in FromSoftware's sicko arc, Elden Ring and Dark Souls boss Hidetaka Miyazaki says "you can't make anything that's as fun" just by following the same old rules.

Pokemon can't stop outdoing itself. It keeps setting new records across its profit, having already made $3.4 billion in net sales so far in 2026.

That number is a 29% increase from last year, according to a June report from Japan game industry consultant Dr. Serkan Toto. The figure was recently republished by Japanese news site Denfaminico Gamer, which game update account Genki translated for a September 8 post that explains, "The Pokémon Company sales revenue has increased by 4.4 times in the last 5 years."

"In fiscal year 2026 sales reached 531 billion yen ($3.4 billion) up from 120 billion yen ($769M) in fiscal year 2021," Genki says based on Denfaminico Gamer's report. Machine translation suggests Denfaminico Gamer also notes that The Pokemon Company has increased its net income by 13.6 times since 2018, and it's projected to earn more than 120 billion yen (about $770 million) at the end of the 2026 fiscal year – an explosive increase from 8.8 million yen in 2018.

These money bags are probably at least partly a gift from major 2026 hits like Pokemon Pokopia, which sold five million copies only five months after its launch, and Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen re-releases for Switch, whose four million sold copies solidified the GBA classic as one of the best-selling Pokemon games ever.

It's all flattering, but Toto says on Twitter that The Pokemon Company is "very likely not happy [these stats] are out there." Kanpō, the Japanese government's gazette, reports them automatically, despite The Pokemon Company being privately held. "Ironically," Toto adds, "we would not get this data if TPC was integrated into Nintendo as a studio (like Kadokawa does not reveal From's data separately)."

But The Pokemon Company has nothing to be shy about. It's consistently growing with every new release – which will hopefully include Pokemon Winds and Waves one day. Though, The Pokemon Company has earned the right to take too long.

Pokemon Center cancels countless reseller orders, but TCG fans seem to have been burned as well.