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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Director of the award-winning Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has once again showered praise onto Hironobu Sakaguchi's Lost Odyssey, an overlooked classic made by the father of Final Fantasy.

Sandfall Interactive's Guillaume Broche recently appeared on an episode of Jeux Vidéo Club, which is kind of like the Criterion Closet for video games, where the director picked a few classic games from the archives and discussed how they influenced his own work.

The Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director has many times cited old-school JRPGs as huge inspirations, but he dived deeper than ever into Lost Odyssey, a stone-cold Xbox 360 classic that came out after Sakaguchi's departure from Square Enix. It was essentially a Final Fantasy game in all but its name, and it didn't quite get the attention it deserved as a genre masterpiece at the time.

"It really was an exceptional game," Broche says. "It's a bit of an old-school game, very linear. There were random battles too, just like in the old Final Fantasy games. Everyone said, 'What is this game from another era?'... So it got torn apart even though the game is exceptional."

"The story is amazing. It's the last game that made me cry. The villain isn't that great. That's the only downside for me. But overall, I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Final Fantasy. It's one of those games that really left a mark on me - not just because it was fun, but emotionally. Every now and then, I think back on it, I listen to the music and immerse myself in it all over again. It's truly one of the most powerful, emotional experiences of my life as a gamer," he adds.

"Something that really stood out to me was that it was one of the last somewhat ambitious turn-based games with realistic graphics. Since then, we've had a lot of turn-based games - there are still plenty, like Octopath Traveler, Persona, even Yakuza - but turn-based games with dramatic, ambitious stories and realistic graphics haven't been around since Lost Odyssey. It was the last one."

It was the last one... until Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, that is. "It holds a special place in my heart because, for me, Clair Obscur is sort of the successor to that in a way - it was my favorite kind of game, and nobody was making them anymore," Broche continues. "So I said to myself, "Let's go." It's one of the best games in the world."

Lost Odyssey discs are still going for pretty cheap, though it's also available digitally on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

"They're usually just really boring" - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says "perfect" games are like people with "no personality"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crimson Desert's one trillionth update is rolling out now and comes with 39 pieces of new gear, plenty of fixes, and a must-have feature for any action game - the ability to snuggle in bed with your pets.

Developer Pearl Abyss released Crimson Desert's 1.13.00 patch earlier today, and the headlining new feature is that Oongka and Damiane can now enter the Abyss as well. "Accordingly, the locations of Memory Fragments for certain rematchable bosses have been changed," the developer writes in its latest page of patch notes.

That's all well and good, but it pales in comparison to a game-changing new addition that should really be an industry standard across all games: "Summoned pets will now rest together with the character when resting in bed." Your fluffy friends will simply teleport next to you whenever you climb onto a bed and curl up into a ball.

Kliff and Oongka now also have 39 new pieces of equipment, including boss gear and complete sets. Damiane just gets 8 pieces of gear. Poor Damiane.

The rest of Crimson Desert's new patch is absolutely packed with smaller but still nice changes, including loads of bug fixes and slight tweaks here and there. "Changed certain disguise outfits that could not be dyed so that they can now be dyed," is one example from the patch notes. "Improved gathering so that up to 3 fireflies can be obtained when gathering from a firefly colony," is another.

Compared to similar single-player open-world games, Crimson Desert's enjoyed a frankly bonkers cadence of near-constant updates. Everything from Pinball to boss rematches have been added in the months since launch, and that's only beginning to tell the full tale. Marketing director Will Powers recently said the updates aren't Pearl Abyss' attempt to sell more copies, however.

Crimson Desert DLC "will be substantively different" to the main game, Pearl Abyss PR lead teases

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche thinks that "games that try to be perfect" often end up "really boring" – and despite his RPG winning countless awards last year, he thinks it includes plenty of "imperfections" that add to its charm.

Speaking in a new episode of Konbini's Video Game Club on YouTube (below), Broche talks about loads of his favorite games and influences, including the Devil May Cry series.

He thinks that the series' first game is "a bit of a mess" when you look at Dante's love interest, Trish (who looks like his own mother), and the "cheesy lines" the protagonist is always saying, but Broche reckons "these games are really endearing" because they're not perfect.

"You see their flaws, and you think to yourself, 'Yeah, it's lame, but I don't care,'" he says, adding: "Games that try to be perfect, that try to fix all their flaws – they're usually just really boring. My theory is that it's just like people. People who try to be perfect are boring because they have no personality. Whereas people who embrace their slightly weird side – in the end – are the interesting ones."

But what about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? It might be a GOTY winner, but when asked about its quirks, Broche has plenty of examples, including its "unbearable" minigames, the fact that "you could get absurdly strong in Act 3," and that some players could "breeze through the whole thing in one go and won't see all the content."

But to that, the devs simply thought: "'Who cares? It's just funny. That's what we love about it.'" And, as Broche says, "the imperfections are part of the charm."

I definitely think Broche has a point – I spent more time in the Only Up-esque Gestral Games climbing minigame than I'd like to admit, and it was agonizing, but looking back on my 70 hours in the RPG, making my way to the top of that ridiculous tower stands out as one of the highlights of the whole experience.

Personality is important, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has plenty of it.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead doesn't "care" if his next game isn't as popular as Sandfall's GOTY RPG, because "we're just going to do what we love again."

As soon as I saw Final Fantasy Resonance sporting a 2.5D pixel art aesthetic, it instantly shot up in my most-anticipated list for this year. The new spin-off, a sort-of remake of a mobile game, is delivering on the retro-inspired ideals I've been hoping to see from the franchise for some time, and it appears the response to this may decide how quickly we see more of them.

During a question-and-answer section of a recent shareholders meeting, Square Enix responds to an inquiry over the scale of its remakes and remasters. Essentially, could we expect more smaller projects like Resonance, with games that update an older title's visuals but retain traditional combat systems, unlike the huge open-world, action-driven Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy? The answer isn't fully committal in either direction.

"As part of our market-in approach, we engage in trial and error to establish what is best for contemporary customers based on current market needs and trends," the company says, per a transcript. "In doing so, it is extremely important to us that we strike the right balance between our approach and the expectations of players who loved the original works."

This all makes sense – the higher-ups are watching what sells, and what kind of feedback any given release garners. "While specific titles may call for specific mechanics, we will continue our development efforts by assessing what truly resonates within the current market environment for both original titles and new remakes," the answer finishes.

If something is popular, they'll make more of it, seems to be the gist here. Resonance isn't the only game to test the market here, we also had Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles last year, which maintained the isometric visuals of the original.

Square Enix has already embraced the beauty of 2.5D with Dragon Quest, where we've seen several of the early entries be remade in this style. They are gorgeous looking, and seem to have successfully allowed the property to find multiple generations of new fans.

The same could be true for the early Final Fantasy games, while the 17th mainline game and whatever other remakes forge forward in terms of triple-A development. Wouldn't that be nice? I know I'll be picking up Resonance to do my part. Will you?

Square Enix doesn't promise to keep games playable forever, but it will "continue to create pathways" for fans to enjoy them "even after service has ended."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

These games to play before Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced are a great way to get ready for the remake of Ubisoft's swashbuckling stealthy adventure.

Whether you're looking to get in the spirit of Edward Kenway by diving right into pirate life, or you're wanting to polish off your hidden blades in some of the best Assassin's Creed games that either have direct ties or similar features to Black Flag, I've brought together a handy list of games I'd recommend playing before Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.

Of course, the new game is arriving on July 9, so you won't have to wait much longer to reunite with Kenway, or meet him for the first time. But if you're planning to hold off on playing the upcoming Assassin's Creed game straight away, the selection I've brought together below can offer up some great alternatives. And even if you are getting the remake on day one, you can also come back to this list if you're in the mood for something similar after you've wrapped up your time in the Caribbean. So, if you're ready to get on board and hoist your pirate flags, read on as I take you through some games to play before Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.

Games to play before Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

Windrose

If you want to step into an open world set during the age of piracy before you navigate the Caribbean seas in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, then Windrose is your answer. With a unique setting made up of procedurally generated biomes that brings to life an alternate take on the 18th century, Kraken Express' adventure sees you become a pirate captain who commands your own ship and crew. As you try to survive the dangers of the high seas, the naval combat will surely prepare you for Kenway's seafaring battles.

When you choose to go from ship to shore and explore the biomes you come across, you can also make the most of the building, crafting, and resource-gathering ingredients at play to establish your very own settlements. With some familiar faces of legend making an appearance – including Blackbeard – you can also take on bosses, delve into dungeons and uncover mysteries. There are all kinds of swashbuckling adventures to be had, and while it's playable solo, you can even share the experience with any pals who want to be pirates in online co-op. If you're looking for some tips to get started, check out our guide to the best ships in Windrose.

Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age

You don't need to be at sea to be a pirate. And no, I'm not talking about landlubbers who've never gone beyond the shore. I'm talking about pirates in the sky! Yes, I'm going a little rogue here (which is in the spirit of things anyway) with Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age. If you're after something a little unique that still captures the spirit of pirate life in a decidedly different and more fantastical way, then this is for you.

Set in the world of Ivalice, which is at war, the story follows Vaan, a young orphan who dreams of someday flying freely in the vast skies above. Enter sky pirate Balthier and his airship Strahl. Before you know it, you're navigating the skies with a ragtag group as you set out on a memorable journey to free your homeland. Being a pirate is all about freedom, so the story marries perfectly, and who wouldn't want to be a sky pirate? Airships are just undeniably cool, after all.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Now, if you're after a single-player pirate experience with a modern-day spin, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a very over-the-top adventure that brings RGG Studio's action to the Pacific Ocean. Playing as Yakuza series mainstay Goro Majima, you find yourself washed up on a remote island with no memories. And when you can't even remember your own name, what else is there to do but reinvent yourself as a pirate? As you commandeer a ship and set sail to try and get your memories back, you'll soon find yourself swept up in a wild, seafaring quest for legendary treasure.

Naturally, you can expect to come to blows against criminals and enemy ships as you explore the open world and its seas. With naval combat, you can also get stuck into some satisfying action that the best Yakuza games are so known for, with Majima boasting his own signature fighting styles that pack a punch. Let's face it: if any Yakuza character was made to become a pirate, it's Majima. I mean, he's already got an eye-patch and a rebellious spirit. For more, you can check out our Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii review.

Sea of Thieves: 2026 Edition

If you want to channel Edward Kenway and become a pirate legend of your own making, then you can't go wrong with Sea of Thieves. With the revised edition that was released in 2026 bringing together all of the permanent additions added to the base game throughout its many seasons since first launching, Rare lets you live out a pirate fantasy that's yours to shape in the shared open world. From exploring islands to delving underwater, you can take on quests, search for treasure, and work to build up your own reputation at sea. And if you're after a challenge, you can even try to take on big oceanic foes like the Kraken, or Megalodons.

Heck, you can even bury the treasure you plunder and create a map to it just like a true pirate. With lots of goals to work towards, side objectives to complete, and the option to create your own private sandbox with the recent Custom Seas feature that gives you the freedom to set your own rules and create the kind of pirate experience you want, Sea of Thieves is also still bringing in fresh features and in-game events. It's definitely a lot of fun sailing with friends, but you can try it solo, too.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Sure, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is quite a change in direction from the pirate-filled antics of Black Flag, but the adventure set in ancient Greece not only boasts a big open world, it also features its fair share of naval combat and seafaring exploration. Yes, if the vast open waters and ship-commanding side of things really puts the wind in your sails, Odyssey will absolutely get you in the mood for Black Flag in that respect.

Resynced is set to be even more action-orientated than the latest mainline entry, Assassin's Creed Shadows, too, with "hit-box based modern combat". Odyssey's real-time system is definitely more action-forward – albeit going more in the direction of an RPG with Spartan moves. But hit boxes also brings to mind the likes of Arno in Assassin's Creed Unity (which I have to give a little honorable mention here). Check out our Assassin's Creed Odyssey review for more.

Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered

Assassin's Creed 3 may not have managed to reach the same kind of heights as the likes of its predecessors, or the games that would follow it, but you can see how the third entry in the stealthy series paved the way for Assassin's Creed Black Flag. Nestled in the Assassin's Creed timeline after the events of Edward Kenway's adventures, Black Flag actually serves as a kind of prequel to Assassin's Creed 3, which takes place during the American Revolution in 1775.

Playing as Connor, a Native American who fights in the name of liberty for his nation, you'll come to meet Haytham Kenway, a member of the Templar Order who's actually the son of Edward. While you don't need to play Connor's adventure to follow Black Flag story-wise, Assassin's Creed 3 does bring to light some interesting ties, and it also introduces naval combat into the series for the first time – which was iterated and vastly expanded on for the sprawling open world of Black Flag.

Our guide on how to play the Assassin's Creed games in order is also here to help if you're looking to tuck into the series either chronologically, or by release date before playing Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After seeing GTA 6's price, I think it's time for me to break up with AAA gaming. Or, to be more specific, it's time to say goodbye to new games with legacy IP and cliff-face system requirements.

It's a heartbreaking thing to admit, because despite 2026 already being one of the most expensive years for gamers thanks to the likes of RAMageddon, I was ready to upgrade my PC and even considered buying a PS5 Pro just to get in on GTA 6 shenanigans. However, as soon as GTA 6 preorders revealed a $80 price tag for the base game and $100 for the Ultimate Edition, I saw a picture of a pricey future that my pockets and I can't ignore.

It's no secret that gaming is getting more expensive, but it's also filled with so much choice. From classic games that still run just fine on current-gen consoles to indie games that don't set your machine on fire, I always have to really justify the long-term investment when upgrading my systems. And I fear GTA 6 has set a new, unsustainable premium price tag for legacy studios that, at the end of the day, isn't cost-effective enough to make me seal the deal anymore.

Looking ahead

I'm not against GTA 6's price by itself. Considering its market power and the level of global anticipation it's created, $80 is actually pretty reasonable and could have been a lot higher. GTA is also not the first game to hit the $80 price tag, with Nintendo jumping on that train back in 2025 with Mario Kart World. However, unlike Nintendo, which exists in its own premium, platform-exclusive bubble, GTA 6 (a multi-platform AAA game) has a lot more sway over the future of game releases as a whole.

Whether you are a PC player, Xbox Series X, PS5, or Switch 2 owner, AAA game prices affect us all. A luxury tier in gaming has been formally established, and while some prices have been high for a while, only a handful have passed the $70 mark. I fear we will see more titles from the likes of EA or Sony pushing an $80 base price to follow GTA's example. Paired with rising console and subscription costs and potentially new-gen machines releasing in 2028, will undoubtedly price many gamers out of their hobby.

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, analyst Neil Barbour points out that "the push to $80 flirts with the same negative feedback loop that engulfed recorded music, cable TV, and film exhibition over the past two decades." He goes on to note that the higher price may result in fewer people buying, which will then "lead to fewer purchases, pushing vendors to offset slower growth with higher prices, which risks further alienating consumers." Higher prices may result in even higher prices. The end result is me looking at my gaming setup, which can run nearly all non-AAA games just fine, and wondering if an upgrade's even worth it?

The golden goose

I hope my bleak vision of the future isn't entirely correct and that other studios recognize that GTA 6 is an outlier that shouldn't be used as a basis for the rest of the industry's costing models. Let's be honest: Call of Duty won't get the same level of pandemonium that GTA 6 has. Rockstar has created a cultural moment in the gaming community, one where the vast majority of us will all be playing the same thing by the end of the year.

People can easily justify the $80 price point for GTA 6. However, asking people to continually justify that price for more and more games is unattainable. I'm very interested to see what 2027 price tags will look like once all the GTA launch buzz dies down and studios can start setting dates on their calendars for their games again. However, right now, my PC and consoles look like they are here to stay, and my bank account is side-eyeing the potential future of the market.

Upgrading my setup will be pricey no matter what if I do, especially if I decide to ignore my gut and do it this year. Of course, I want the best graphics and smoothest gameplay while playing the latest open-world games and best RPGs – who doesn't? But I don't need that if it's going to cost me nearly $100 each time. Especially when there are thousands of games (old and new) that run just fine.

If you want to go back to the classics, check out our list of the best GTA games and the best Rockstar games of all time next.

Turtle Beach has a weird reputation amongst my peers.

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

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

Key specs

Design

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

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

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

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

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

Features

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

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

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

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

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

Performance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Should you buy the Stealth Pro II wireless gaming headset?

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

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

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

How I tested the Stealth Pro II wireless gaming headset

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A new Captain America cosmetic continues Marvel Rivals' hot streak of, urm, hot outfits, but this isn't merely an example of classic gooner bait from developer NetEase – the skin is actually an important historical recreation that just so happens to double as gooner bait, thank you very much.

Even at a quick glance, it's not hard to see why fans are going feral for Captain America's new Seaside Sentinel skin. Our Steve Rogers has his bushy chest and bulky arms out, although, what makes the summery fit exceptionally horny is the skin-tight swimsuit that wildly exaggerates his – ahem – assets and front assets.

"This literally feels like a gooner mod," one fan tweets in reaction to Cap's multiple bulges.

"Marvel Rivals is an equal opportunity gooner game," someone else rightly points out. NetEase stays consistent between its male and female heroes, at least.

Certain emotes and poses emphasize his proportions even further, but that is America's ass, after all, as the MCU and now Marvel Rivals like to constantly remind us.

Captain America's skin comes as part of the game's summer season that welcomes a number of revealing (more so than usual) skins to the game. Seaside Sentinel is particularly interesting because it's actually adapted straight from a 34-year-old comic, 1992's Marvel Swimsuit Special.

Marvel Swimsuit Special was a short-lived limited series that aimed to parody those '90s magazines stuffed with half-nude models, only this time with superheroes bathing in the sun. Marvel's since tried to revive the idea with last year's Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals and this year's Marvel Swimsuit Special: Brand New Beach Day, which looks more focused on the Spideyverse characters.

Marvel Rivals will become a "'moving anime' experience" by 2027, says creative director, as devs evolve past PvP with PvE, Infinity Saga updates, and more game modes.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche is a huge fan of turn-based RPGs (heck, his own multi-award-winning Game of the Year is a stellar example of the genre) – and he won't have any of the chatter that they're "old school."

The lead discusses as much in a new episode of Video Game Club via Konbini on YouTube (below) after sharing why he loves the Persona – a series of some of the best JRPGs (turn-based, of course) out there.

"I don't get this whole 'turn-based is old school' thing," he says. "I've never bought into that; I've always thought it was total nonsense. A lot of people say that, but it's just a game system. I like board games, too."

Those count as turn-based, right? It's not just the fact that all of these games are turn-based that makes Broche enjoy them, however.

"It's not just the turn-based aspect that I like. It's also the part where you prepare your team beforehand," he explains.

As a fan of JRPGs (and consequently, turn-based games) myself, I get where he's coming from – a lot of effort goes into planning before combat sometimes, and it feels great when it pays off.

"It's just that when you come up with a plan, you get into battle, and everything goes pretty much the way you want it to, and you see that all the pieces you've been preparing for 50 hours of gameplay before all fit together perfectly and everything works out great, and you take down the boss right in front of you – it's incredibly satisfying because you feel smart," as Broche puts it.

Other genres just don't offer that same sort of satisfaction.

The director uses Devil May Cry as an example: "Whereas, in an action game like Devil May Cry, I don't feel particularly smart – I just feel like I have quick fingers and good dexterity. But in a turn-based game, it's more your brain that gets rewarded."

I mean… I get it. Both are good for different moods. Devil May Cry is undeniably a stellar series, but you can turn your brain off and enjoy some action-packed (and far less strategic) combat.

Broche concludes that in a turn-based game, "It's kind of like math. You put things together, you work out the equation, you get to the end – x = 2 – that's the right answer, you beat the boss, and you're happy. And I love that." Same, Mr. Broche. Same.

Elden Ring and Dark Souls inspired Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director's approach to the RPG's story – "I didn't want to spoon-feed the player"

As with most things in life, it's hard to pin down an exact singular reason for the downfall of Destiny 2, which had previously been one of the most enduring online first-person shooters in the genre, but Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has seemingly floated what he thinks was a major issue: Bungie and Sony not embracing generative AI enough.

For a player and journalist's perspective, I'll defer to GamesRadar+'s Austin Wood, who cites "unpopular systemic changes, wobbling epilogue narratives, and a severe content drought" as some of Destiny 2's biggest pain points in recent months, and of course Bungie seems to have put all of its eggs into one basket with Marathon, diverting resources that would've otherwise gone into making new Destiny 2 content. But behind closed doors there were other factors at play, according to an anonymous source familiar with the situation speaking to Forbes.

According to the insider, Destiny 2 failed simply because it was "only very rarely profitable during its entire lifespan" due to the "enormous scale of content that had to be produced nonstop, lest fans revolt against its scarcity," and because "when Destiny was profitable, those extra funds were often immediately misused by leadership at the time, funneled into way too many simultaneous incubation projects or ideas like spending tens of millions on a new, unneeded 208,000 square foot headquarters."

Reacting to this report, Sweeney seemingly suggests a solution postmortem to that first outlined problem. "If only some sort of newfangled technology could come along and make it possible to overcome bullet point #1 and enable games like Destiny to thrive!"

The famously outspoken Sweeney has long been, if not a full-blown proponent of AI in games, someone urging developers and publishers to embrace the tech as an inevitability "in nearly all future production." Sweeney has long criticized Valve's policy of displaying AI disclosures for games as "really irresponsible of Valve," arguing these disclosures make it "much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success."

With regards to Destiny 2, however, I don't want to infer too much from what is, after all, Just A Tweet, but Sweeney could be proposing generative AI as a means to accelerate game development, or, much more dubiously, as a tool to actually create content. That distinction is at the heart of the current debate around whether generative AI has any place in game development, and if so, what that role is.

As Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney blasts Valve over Steam AI disclosures, dev makes those disclosures even more noticeable and hides AI-aided games in search results

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League generally isn't remembered as a successful game, critically or commercially, but apparently the trauma of making it was enough to make two of its lead developers nearly quit the games industry.

Of course, I was being exceedingly generous describing Rocksteady's live-service Suicide Squad game as simply unsuccessful. In reality, it was a catastrophic failure that cost publisher Warner Bros. Games a reported $200 million in write-offs and led to multiple rounds of layoffs at Rocksteady, not to mention the reported cancelation of Monolith's Wonder Woman game. Even so, apparently things were even worse behind the scenes during Suicide Squad's seven-year development cycle.

Associate design lead Johnny Armstrong and game director Axel Rydby tell Bloomberg development priorities shifted from the project's early days as repeated delays caused production costs to swell and Warner Bros. executives to gradually push for features that would help them recoup their investment. Questions like, "How many players can we reach with this feature?" and "how can we twist this design into something that can be more replayable?" were allegedly frequently asked in meetings.

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

Armstrong felt a similar feeling of disillusionment following the game's disappointing launch, telling Bloomberg the experience developing the game and the subsequent blowback was bad enough that his joy of making games was temporarily diminished.

"I felt everything drained from me," Armstrong says. "I said, 'I can't do this again. I don't know if I'm done with the industry, but I'm done.' I could feel myself coming apart at the seams."

Of course, Armstrong and Rydby aren't done making games, but they did both leave Rocksteady after Suicide Squad and in fact are joining forces on the indie retro deckbuilder RPG Secret of Circadia, which has racked up $1500 in funding from its Kickstarter. That's obviously peanuts compared to any AAA budget, but if they manage to secure their goal of $11,382, we'll get to see if they're able to put their money to better use than when they were under Warner Bros' umbrella.

Going independent is helping Rydby rediscover his love for game development, but he has a warning for publishers prioritizing sales potential over the passion of developers: "I think as an industry we are severely losing our way," he says. "It used to be passion projects that you loved and hoped other people loved too. When they did, it was such an amazing feeling. It became less and less of that. It became: 'Let's hope it sells. Let's hope we get money from it.'"

Guess which Rocksteady games made our list of the best Batman games ever made.

On the heels of heavy Bungie layoffs, longtime Destiny 2 community manager Dylan "dmg04" Gafner reiterated the responsibility of game studio leadership in a slightly heated discussion of how the industry got to its current state.

This began with a Game Developer opinion piece examining the many pain points in games at the moment, shared by former Square Enix executive Jacob Navok on Twitter. Navok disagreed with much of the piece and instead centered "the market" as a driving factor, from the job market to user appetite, and dismissed dreams of the Western games industry ever returning to previous growth periods.

Former Bungie studio vice president Mark Noseworthy shared, and nodded along with, Navok's take, which brings us up to speed.

"Feels somewhat disingenuous to place blame purely on the market without asking for accountability from leaders who made multiple years of poor decisions too, but nuance is hard to find on Twitter," Gafner replies.

Gafner's take is neutral and targetless, and quite tame compared to ongoing criticism of Bungie's leadership. Since Destiny 2's abrupt end and the studio's ensuing layoffs, former employees have joined players skewering Bungie's approach to just about everything that isn't a skybox or a raid.

Flip-flopping messaging, fruitless investments, baffling and repeated missteps – for all of Destiny 2 and Marathon's greatness, there's no shortage of Bungie mistakes to interrogate, and Gafner's had to play human shield for a lot of those mistakes over the years despite being responsible for exactly none of them.

Noseworthy said he's "going to assume this is not a veiled personal attack," and Gafner later clarified it is not. Rather, Gafner suggests, the topic touched a nerve.

"Been reading so many posts from former colleagues and others throughout the industry that the subject got to me," he says in a reply. "I know you did all you could for the studio and Destiny for years." And to his credit, Noseworthy's era – he was laid off from Bungie in 2024 after being promoted to VP from general manager and, before that, project lead – is pretty fondly remembered.

Former Destiny 2 boss won't say "Destiny 1 remaster" out loud, but suggests it might not be a good idea: "Studios can only afford so many bets."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche found inspiration in FromSoftware gems like Dark Souls and Elden Ring while developing his own RPG.

And, if you're wondering why, it all boils down to challenge – something FromSoftware just so happens to excel at – but in this case, maybe not in the way you'd first expect. He explains as much in a new episode of Video Game Club via Konbini on YouTube (below), first outlining what makes Elden Ring (and Souls games in general) so special.

"For me, what I love about Elden Ring is the exploration, not understanding everything, and trying to piece the puzzle together," he says. "I've played every single Souls game to death, but it's an obsession." Not a bad one, eh?

"In the Souls games, it's clearly something else entirely from what we're doing in [Clair Obscur: Expedition 33], but there's still that aspect where there's a story," he then notes, describing how most Souls players "finish the game the first time and haven't understood a thing." Yep, that checks out – and he had that same experience himself.

"Even though I loved the game, I didn't understand a thing," as Broche admits.

"Then, when you look into it, the lore is really cool – but you still get the sense that everything is written out, everything is well-crafted, and everything is incredibly coherent. Even if you don't understand it, you can feel it. That's what I love about it, whether it's in movies or games. It's that aspect where you can really put your brain to work to understand everything that's going on."

In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the lead states there's a similar dynamic. Even though it's easier to follow story-wise, folks don't totally get it all unless they truly give it some thought.

"There's still a story, there are cutscenes," Broche describes. "Overall, everyone more or less understands what's going on – but to fully understand it, I really wanted people to rack their brains too and be prompted to think for themselves."

He concludes, "I didn't want to spoon-feed the player all the answers" – which makes sense. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 might not be as "difficult" as the Souls games, per se, but it's not a surface-level ordeal by any means… and that's why I love it.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead doesn't "care" if his next game isn't as popular as Sandfall's GOTY RPG, because "we're just going to do what we love again."

Rockstar developers seeking union recognition claim the company's crunch problem is so entrenched that it's actually been codified in contracts as a way to skirt labor regulations.

Multiple devs spoke to Game Developer about the goals of the Rockstar Game Workers Union – voluntary recognition chief among them. Fighting crunch is also at the top of the list.

"Crunch is prevalent enough that the company built into our contracts, as standard, an opt out of the Working Time Regulations," one developer says, referring to a UK labor regulation which states, among other things and with some exceptions, that people "cannot work more than 48 hours a week on average" and can opt out of an imposed 48-hour week.

However, this employment right can be waived voluntarily, and Rockstar's been accused of countering it with its own opt-out agreement which paves the way for crunch. By accepting the terms – to, you know, get a job – employees can open themselves up to heavy overtime.

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

As GTA 6 approaches its long-delayed launch, crunch at Rockstar is reportedly uneven, with some teams avoiding it while employees in other disciplines "seem to never get out of it."

These developers also allege that Rockstar has enabled and tolerated a culture of unequal pay, with the median gender pay gap reportedly widening at the studio amid canceled pushes to balance it. This pay culture reportedly sees significant portions of employee wages regularly withheld in the form of inconsistent bonuses, with up to 20% of expected pay sometimes vanishing for unclear reasons, including "completely subjective or retroactive criticisms."

This week, Rockstar confirmed it will "arrange to meet" union reps.

Rockstar union rep claims GTA 6 bosses can "easily afford" demands after reportedly generating $3 billion in pre-orders as devs call for "fairer crunch" and "pay transparency."

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is the third and final game in Square Enix's ambitious remake trilogy, but it might not be the true end of the saga. New listings on the Epic Games Store database suggest multiple DLCs are planned for the upcoming game.

Those listings include the pre-order bonuses and Premium Edition goodies you'd expect, plus nine DLCs and an entire "Story Expansion Pass," according to third-party tool EpicDB, a site that tracks everything that happens on The Epic Games Store's backend, similarly to how SteamDB works.

Square Enix has yet to officially share anything about Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's DLC plans, so take these sightings with a fist full of salt. All of these listings could be placeholders, they could simply be item packs or cosmetics, they could be subject to change, or they could be complete bogus.

After EpicDB seemingly leaked a bunch of codenames that weren't supposed to see the light of day two years ago, Epic Games said it "released an update so third-party tools can't surface any new unpublished product titles." That update would theoretically make these listings impossible to view, so make of that what you will.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi has hinted at the possibility of post-launch content before, for what it's worth. As long as fans want it loudly enough, he's said that he's open to making expansions focused on extended universe content.

Square Enix has already set a precedent for such a thing, too. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the first game in the kind of remade trilogy, enjoyed an Intergrade DLC that focused exclusively on loveable ninja Yuffie for a few hours. Perhaps Final Fantasy 7 Revelation could welcome its own Intergrade-sized expansions in the months or years following its own launch next year.

The Final Fantasy 7 universe certainly doesn't stop at the base game - spin-offs such as Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus continued to milk that cow, and fans have come around to those projects in the years since, as well.

"This Final Fantasy 7 Remake series is not simply a recreation of the original work, but rather, our goal is to create a single, new Final Fantasy 7 that incorporates the settings and concepts of all the previous spin-off titles such as Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and Crisis Core," Hamaguchi explained last month.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is due out next year on PC, Xbox, PS5, and Switch 2.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead says "the way we design games also needs to evolve" as streaming over buying becomes more common, even if he does "fully support" content creators

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is revamping the original in many ways. The combat will be deeper, there'll be more secrets to find, and more ways to find them, since the deep sea diving's been expanded to allow you plunge wherever you see fit, allowing you look around for all the extra treasure that's been buried, too.

"We still have those diving bell locations, but in addition, you can dive anywhere in the world now," Jussi Markkanen, technical director for the game, tells GamesRadar+. "We took the feature, obviously it's been in Assassin's Creed since Origins, that you can dive anywhere, and we utilize that, and we built all the underwater locations, there's a lot of new shipwrecks that you can find near the shorelines."

This is definitely the kind of curated expansion that works when revisiting a game like Black Flag. Coming out 13 years ago, the standards for both open-world adventures and Assassin's Creed installments were different at that point.

Sure the team could've just kept the diving as it was – the nostalgia would've hit just as well – but this seems like it'll maintain the feeling while giving Resynced a modern sheen. And finding all the gold and trinkets that are buried at the bottom of the deep, blue sea is the exact kind of treasure hunt I love losing myself in.

Markkanen teases there are other "little secrets," to give "one more dimension for the player to explore." Obviously, there are all sorts of ways that could go, but my mind immediately jumps to Titanic and Jaws. Perhaps we might be able to find a remnant of the unsinkable ship or the sunken boat of Ben Gardner, who fell victim to cinema's most famous great white.

Would these be anachronistic? Yes. Would they also be fun to see? Yes. Even if these aren't involved, the diving alone has me even more ready to hop back into Edward's shoes. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced star once alleged Ubisoft threatened to sue him over his remake tease, but now it's been turned into official promo.

Between the controversy that Rockstar Games has sparked with its upcoming GTA 6 release (one that sees digital download codes in "physical" copies rather than discs) and Sony ending physical disc production for new PlayStation games in 2028, it's been one heck of a week.

It's not looking good for collectors or general fans of physical media, that's for certain. On the one hand, we've got developers like Rockstar moving away from discs. On the other, there are even bigger companies like Sony announcing that it'll cut the production of new game discs for its consoles altogether in just a couple of years. Then, there's Nintendo with its introduction of game-key cards on the Switch 2 – so, yeah.

This, coupled with all of the Stop Killing Games chatter surrounding the end of live-service titles, has made for much discussion regarding consumer rights – so much so, in fact, that preservation experts like Video Game History Foundation director Frank Cifaldi have chimed in on the matter.

Most recently, he has responded to a person on social media asserting that "piracy is the only extant form of media preservation that exists in games right now."

Cifaldi doesn't exactly disagree there, writing, "As the director of a historical video game preservation institution, and someone who has dedicated his entire adult life to this cause, this is accurate. We have attempted to work with the industry's trade organization to find a legal path forward, but they refuse to offer a meaningful alternative."

As the director of a historical video game preservation institution, and someone who has dedicated his entire adult life to this cause, this is accurate. We have attempted to work with the industry's trade organization to find a legal path forward, but they refuse to offer a meaningful alternative.

— @frankcifaldi.bsky.social (@frankcifaldi.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-02T15:26:34.299Z

That certainly makes sense – heck, new games like GTA 6 are only the tip of the iceberg of the problem at hand.

This also lines up with what Cifaldi said yesterday, as Sony announced its plan for physical discs on PlayStation consoles – that downloading GTA 6 with the "hope it'll run in 50 years is not a preservation solution."

He dubbed the entire situation "unfortunate news for those who still prefer buying games on physical media," which, you know, isn't exactly a minor portion of video game consumers. There are quite a few collectors out there, too.

Here's hoping the industry itself takes note of people's reactions – although I doubt it'll be enough to convince companies like Sony to back down on their decision to step away from physical media. Times are changing, after all… I suppose.

Nintendo probably won't ditch physical games just because PlayStation is, analyst predicts: "Nintendo is going to be Nintendo, for better and/or worse."

Obsidian Entertainment, the beloved RPG developer behind several cult classic games, is reportedly not under threat of closure despite fears it was in negotiations with corporate owner Microsoft to avoid shutdown.

Numerous reports have claimed that Xbox is planning to carry out mass layoffs, cancel an undetermined number of games, and close entire game development studios soon. Compulsion Games (South of Midnight), Double Fine (Psychonauts), and Ninja Theory (Hellblade) are a few of the developers reportedly negotiating to stay alive.

A new report from The Game Business stated that Obsidian Entertainment is also part of that list, and is currently in negotiations with Microsoft in order to avoid closure. Fears were that certain developers under Microsoft's gaming division could spin off and become independent, find new buyers, or simply shut down for good, but Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier now reports that Obsidian Entertainment is, in fact, safe from closure.

"Despite a report this morning, I can confirm that Obsidian is *not* in negotiations to avoid shutting down," Schreier writes on Bluesky. "Plenty of details are still up in the air surrounding the layoffs (picture will be clear on Monday) but Xbox is keeping Obsidian, according to people familiar with the situation."

Obsidian Entertainment itself has been an absolute powerhouse in the RPG genre for over two decades. The developer first made a name for itself by working on sequels that sometimes eclipsed their older siblings – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Fallout: New Vegas.

After being acquired by Xbox in 2018, the iconic developer's been building out its own franchises with Pillars of Eternity and Avowed, The Outer Worlds and its sequel, Pentiment, and the Grounded duology. Every game publisher under the sun has been chasing bonafide multiplayer hits, and Obsidian arguably made two of them with its survival game series – in one console generation, no less. Needless to say, its closure would have been a huge loss.

Elsewhere, the potential Xbox closures and internal turmoil come amid what CEO Asha Sharma calls a "reset" for the business. "We're not in a healthy spot, so the next 100 days is going to be about resetting the business," she said last month.

Recent reports also claimed Sharma was looking to move faster on The Elder Scrolls, Halo, and Fallout games. Microsoft's fiscal year ended on June 30, 2026, so we should likely learn more about what that reset entails in the coming days and weeks.

We've also reached out to Xbox for comment on the Obsidian rumors, and will update this article if we receive a response.

Obsidian veteran Josh Sawyer thinks RPG choices are best when they're not "purely" good or evil, and Greek plays "knocked it out of the park 1000s of years ago."

Obsidian Entertainment design director and veteran developer Josh Sawyer likes his RPG choices best when they fall outside of the good versus evil moral binary, and thinks games could learn a thing or two from those Ancient Greek tragedies from thousands of years ago.

In a new YouTube video talking about where his inspirations and influences come from, Sawyer says he takes "a lot from plays, actually," since he originally went to school to study theater before switching to the history department. That background probably makes more sense when you consider some of the games he's directed, gorgeous whodunnit Pentiment and Fallout: New Vegas included.

"This will sound corny, but especially because of the games that Obsidian works on, I think a lot about Greek plays," he explains, pointing to Antigone and The Oresteia. "You have a lot of moral and ethical decisions that are extremely difficult [in those plays]. Characters are put in situations that are truly, in the literal sense, agonizing and they're forced to make terrible decisions and those decisions are never purely good or they're never purely bad... I think a lot about that when we think about our moral and ethical choices in games."

The long-time RPG developer isn't on a mission to make every player choice as "agonizing" as what Ancient Greek protagonists go through, but Sawyer reckons it's more interesting to have players "sit and think about it," even if those choices lead to uncomfortable feelings, "because it does force us to think about our values."

Strictly good and evil choices aren't totally off the table, he adds, but players don't really ponder those decisions for quite as long. Sawyer's theory is that many players will decide to build either a good or evil character, and then make choices that align with that moral stance for the rest of the game. To him, RPG decisions are best when "individual choices are just not that clear-cut." Again, choosing who to pass the blame onto in Pentiment is a really good example of this, and Sawyer is right to pat himself on the back for that one.

"So Greek plays, they knocked it out of the park thousands of years ago," he says. "Why not look at them?"

Modern RPGs have largely moved past that moral binary in recent times. Games like The Witcher 3 and Baldur's Gate 3 don't have a bar that goes from red to blue depending on who you smooch or smother, for example. And even Fable, a series that was famous for its totally good and totally evil choices, is ditching that black and white thinking in favor of a reputation system where your actions are subjective. Times are a-changing.

How a parchment of ideas evolved into the RPG work of art that is Pentiment.

As Bethesda Game Studios plans for the Switch 2 release of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, it reassures fans that the RPG remake will indeed be "available on a physical game card" – an assertion that catches the eye, to say the least.

In case you're out of the loop, fans of physical media have had a heck of a week. Yesterday, Sony announced that it's ending physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028, stating "general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs" – and, boy, did that cause a stir.

Unsurprisingly, folks aren't thrilled… and it's not too difficult to see why. The move away from discs and cartridges has been a hot topic. Bethesda, however, isn't dipping out of producing physical copies of its games just yet – and it's reassuring players that Oblivion Remastered on Switch 2 is no exception in that regard.

A new post from the company (which, mind you, went live mere hours after Sony announced its plan to axe physical disc production for PlayStation) reads that "The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered Deluxe Edition is available on a physical game card."

You know, "for those seeking to add to their collection!" The attached video shows the cartridge itself being waved around front and center, just to get the message across. That's totally just a conveniently timed coincidence and most definitely not a jab at Sony… right? Well, it's not like Bethesda names any names here or anything – but it does appear the community finds the timing amusing.

"This after Sony announces that they'll end disc production in 2028," as one fan's reply puts it. Another jests, "Alright, Bethesda. You got my attention!"

Honestly, I'm glad – joke or not – that Bethesda is still letting fans choose between going digital or physical. It's not as though Sony is the only big name to make moves away from the latter, anyway, with Nintendo having sparked similar controversy with its introduction of game-key cards on the Switch 2 last year.

That wasn't a complete wipe of physical copies for Nintendo's console, however, but it shows that times are certainly changing.

As someone who enjoys collecting games myself, I do hope more companies follow suit here and let consumers choose whether or not they want digital or physical releases. Choice is the key here, I'd say – and stripping that away is the core of the contention.

"Pretend we kept patching Oblivion. What would we have done if we kept supporting it?" – Todd Howard explains the "thought exercise" Bethesda went through for its remaster.

I hope that Clockwork Revolution doesn't mark the end of an era for Xbox. Every time I see it in action, I feel like I'm getting a glimpse into the future of role-playing games.

inXile Entertainment is showcasing an experience built on a foundation of depth and flexibility; an RPG where you're charged with changing the past to take control of your future. Expressive combat and detailed customization combining with a spiraling approach to choice and consequence. If Clockwork Revolution delivers on its potential, it'll show what can be achieved when a talented team is afforded six years to raise its creative ambitions.

Following the Xbox Games Showcase, CEO Asha Sharma announced an internal reset. While she stated that "a reliable pipeline of first- and third-party exclusives and new IP are critical to our success", it was also acknowledged that Xbox has "over extended" itself after expanding too rapidly under old leadership. Rumors of widespread layoffs and studio closures have followed.

I suspect the version of Xbox that exists by 2027 will be one that prioritizes shorter development cycles, less creative risktaking, and a pivoting of resources to support faster deployment of "industry-defining franchises" like Fallout, Forza, Gears, and Halo. Which is to say, it won't necessarily be an environment where something like a Clockwork Revolution is possible.

Clockwork has this neat system built around the lives of companions. As you reach into the past, pulling at threads to reshape the steampunk city of Avalon, the worlds of your favorite characters can change in unexpected ways. "The crew you come back to might not be the same one you left," teases game director Chad Moore. It's a big creative concept layered atop wild time manipulation / displacement powers, and storytelling split across different timelines.

There's a reason Clockwork has been selected as the first Xbox console-exclusive of 2027. It could be a genuine system-seller, the sort the Series X desperately needs. There's also a chance it'll be the last of its kind. Clockwork Revolution will technically mark the first inXile release for Xbox. The team was acquired in 2018, and spent its first two years in the XGS ecosystem shipping Wasteland 3. Six years later, the most ambitious RPG in inXile's history is almost here.

In an era where development is more complicated, expensive, and time intensive than ever, it's going to take that sort of timeframe to create something capable of pushing genre boundaries. My fear is that a changing Xbox, one more brutally responsive to industry pressures, may no longer burden the risk of producing new IP in this way. Clockwork Revolution is among my most anticipated games, I just fear it'll mark the end of Xbox's acquisition misadventure.

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PATCH NOTES: v02.09.2026 – Project Fantasy is in turmoil after a publishing partner, which sources corroborate to be Xbox Game Studios Publishing, pulled funding of the online fantasy RPG from developer IO Interactive.

What's going on with IOI's Project Fantasy?

• IOI announced that its relationship with an "external partner" had ended.
• Losing the backing of this partner has forced IOI to restructure
• Development of Project Fantasy continues as IOI remains "100% committed" to the project

Why is this happening now?

• Xbox is recalibrating its entire business model
• New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is assessing how and where it invests
• Xbox changes are impacting the industry beyond its first-party studios

Developer Comment

Meta Shift:

• IOI has been on a victory lap since the release of 007: First Light.

The studio has had a lot to celebrate right now. First Light is the best Bond game since Goldeneye, Hitman: World of Assassination continues to grow, and there's a remaster of the original Hitman trilogy moves into production with Saber Interactive. The news highlights just how quickly things can change in this industry.

This is another example of Xbox's changing priorities as CEO Asha Sharma attempts to recalibrate the business. Microsoft says that it's "taking a fresh look" at where it invests to ensure it is "focusing on our highest priorities."

For independent studios like IOI, this means the funding thought to be once secure can slip away in an instant – impacting game development timelines and prompting studio layoffs.

Known Issue:

• Very little is known about Project Fantasy, which was first announced in 2023, and that is now unlikely to change any time soon.

When I spoke with IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak in June 2026, he told me that development of this new adventure – an online fantasy RPG, one that draws creative inspiration from the 'Fighting Fantasy' books – was progressing well. "Hopefully the world will see the original IP that we're working on, we're going to reveal that soon."

"It might be revealed sooner than you think," Abrak told me a few weeks ago, adding that the prospect was "pretty damn exciting" with IOI finally establishing itself as a studio capable of maintaining multiple projects at once. "I acknowledge that IO Interactive has always been known as the Hitman studio, but I think that's about to change… Who knows what the future of Hitman, Bond, Project Fantasy, and the other exciting things we're working on is going to bring, but our confidence is pretty high right now."

When reached for clarification on whether the studio's plans to reveal Project Fantasy "soon" have changed following recent developments, IOI has no comment beyond the statement it made to the public.

Patch Notes Summary:

• Project Fantasy hasn't been canceled, but it has lost its publisher.

While sources tell GamesRadar+ that the game was due to be revealed soon after years of development and investment, it's likely that the next update we receive on the project will surround who is funding it rather than gameplay details.

IOI could (in theory) support Project Fantasy as an independent studio, or it could seek outside investment in an effort to bring its ambitious multiplayer game to life. For now, it seems like IO's fantasy of becoming a developer who can support multiple IPs at once has become more of a nightmare.

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Capcom's pulled an old switcharoo on us. After announcing a release date for Onimusha: Way of the Sword and then pinkie promising that release date would definitely hold, Capcom's actually moved the samurai action game forward by a few weeks. Sike!

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is now coming out on September 4, 2026 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2. "Experience the beginning of Musashi's journey with the demo and pre-order for bonus items when the full game arrives." the publisher writes. That's three weeks earlier than its original September 25 launch, mind you.

What makes this reverse-delay somewhat curious is that a retailer listing recently suggested the new Onimusha game would, in fact, come out earlier than intended on September 4. Even more curiously, Capcom was very quick to shut down the speculation and double down on the original date, despite seemingly changing its mind a week later.

Capcom's road to this new release date has been slightly strange, but the decision makes total sense if you take even a cursory glance at the upcoming games calendar. Spoilers: Seemingly every publisher and their parents are rushing to launch games ahead of the inevitable behemoth that is GTA 6.

Late September and early October is absolutely jam-packed with heavy-hitting games, from Marvel's Wolverine and Gears of War: E-Day to Control Resonant and Silent Hill: Townfall – no one wants to be sucked up by Rockstar Games' black hole, which is set to start its rampage this November. Not only will GTA 6 dominate sales charts, but online discussion will also be dominated by the game, potentially making it tricky for other developers to break through the noise.

Mind you, Onimusha's new release date is also pretty tightly-packed, but there should be a tad more breathing room for the action series that's been dormant for years.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword brings God of War's blockbuster action to horror-tinged feudal Japan.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche is aware that Sandfall Interactive's next game might not be as big a hit as its award-winning 2025 gem – but that's totally fine.

The RPG lead admits he doesn't mind how well his studio's upcoming game does in a new episode of Video Game Club via Konbini on YouTube (below), first saying, "We're just going to do what we love again."

If that project – the one the developers pour this "love" into – flops a bit… Well, "I don't really care," states Broche. "It's weird to say, but we didn't make the first game to please anyone. And I think that's why it worked."

That's why, "for the next game," Sandfall will "make some drastic decisions too, and maybe people won't like it. That's life. Whether people follow us or not is their decision. But that's how we see the future."

Broche sees this as the better way for devs to approach their game releases. Otherwise, there'd be quite a lot of stress surrounding them. "I think that's the healthy way to approach it – at least if we don't want to be crushed under the pressure."

He's still realistic about launches. As the director concludes, "Of course, if we sell zero copies, we'll still have problems. But normally, it'll be fine." Honestly, something tells me that Sandfall Interactive will be fine come its next project, whatever that might be.

A quick look at the short but impressive history of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 supports this, although its success definitely does make it more difficult for future titles to make as much of a splash.

The turn-based RPG won various awards, after all, standing beside Baldur's Gate 3 as the second game ever to win all five major Game of the Year awards: Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards, D.I.C.E. Awards, GDC Awards, and BAFTA Games Awards.

It still stands on Steam with a perfect five-star rating, too, earning "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews to boot. In other words, it's one heck of a game.

Here's hoping that whatever Sandfall Interactive does next finds similar success – and that even if it doesn't, the studio carries on with its stellar work.

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

To call the state of the games industry "turbulent" is a drastic understatement in July 2026, with layoffs, studio closures, and game cancelations showing no signs of slowing down, but even in that dire context, Destiny 2 and Marathon developer Bungie is having a rough go of it lately.

After seemingly putting all of its eggs into Marathon's basket, Bungie's new sci-fi FPS – although critically well-received – hasn't reached the commercial success needed to supplant the enduring popularity of Destiny 2, which ended active development last month. Meanwhile, massive layoffs at Bungie have impacted "most" of the Destiny team as well as a portion of the Marathon crew, with the studio admitting the MMO "fell short of expectations these past several years."

That said, Destiny 2 is still playable and presumably will be for the foreseeable future – and in fact experienced a post-mortem surge in players last month – which of course means players continue to report issues with performance and bugs. Although the feedback isn't falling on deaf ears, the skeleton crew at Bungie working on Destiny is scrambling to push out updates at a comparable cadence to before the mass layoffs.

Shortly after news of Bungie's downsizing broke last week, the developer took to Twitter to announce the delay of Destiny 2's new patch, originally scheduled to go live this week. "We will provide more information when we can," the studio said. The Destiny community reacted with skepticism on Reddit, with the top comment reading: "I have a rather unfortunate suspicion that this will be one of those 'delays' that last forever."

However, in a response from the official Destiny 2 Team Reddit account, Bungie assures the patch will eventually be released and asks for grace as some members of the dev team who were working on it have since been laid off.

"Not a forever delay. We will get this out when possible. Handful of fixes in this delayed patch were from impacted team members.

"When this ships, please show love to the team, past and present," the studio implores fans.

In a separate Reddit thread reporting issues with PC performance, the Destiny account responds by requesting "videos or examples" of specific problems, adding, "While we can't promise a fix, we'll see what we can do."

Cyberpunk 2 lead says "some days I feel our industry is imploding" as Destiny 2 studio Bungie is hit with mass layoffs: "Teams and game projects are getting slaughtered"

2026 marks Sonic the Hedgehog's 35th anniversary, and at Summer Game Fest, I got the chance to play maybe the most unusual part of Sega's celebrations: Sonic Pico Park, a co-op puzzle platformer that once again puts Sega's iconic blue blur in the hands of beloved indie devs. It's a sign of an evolving game industry, and the developers bringing Sonic Pico Park to life know that Sonic's continued evolution is key to the character's long-term survival.

My hands-on time with Sonic Pico Park is equal parts delightful and frustrating – pretty much as you'd expect for an indie couch co-op game. Just like the rest of developer Tecopark's puzzle platformer series, you and your fellow players take control of an array of boxy little characters and cooperate to work your way through challenges custom-built to ruin relationships.

Co-op for devs and players alike

The difference here is that there are now Sonic-influenced twists to all the levels. You can spin dash through cracked walls, run through big loops, and bounce off of strategically placed springs. Naturally, these elements play into the puzzle design, too. You can collect rings which, in true Sonic fashion, will save you from a single hit – which means you need to strategically choose who takes each ring to survive the death traps that'll follow.

In one instance, you need to build a wall that one player can spin dash their way up. In another, you'll need a Tails player to fly the whole group across a big gap. The joy is in the discovery, so I won't spoil too many specific puzzle solutions, but it's all great fun. Of course, you'll already know the basics if you've played any of the Pico Park games before, but Tecopark sought out this collaboration in part because it wants to bring in new fans.

Pico Park is already wildly popular on its own merits, having sold some 8 million units. Creator Shunsuke "Teco" Miyake wanted to expand even further, however, and in 2021 formed a company to help the property reach the next level. "We really wanted to start expanding on Pico Park as an IP," as producer Shintaro Shimazu tells me via translator. "It was really popular with casual gamers, but we wanted to reach out and get even hardcore gamers and other people excited."

Shimazu explains that "we really thought we need to start collabing with IP," and since Miyake once worked at Sega, it was an obvious first choice. "Sonic is a great IP to collab with. It's got tons of appeal. People love it worldwide. Let's go to Sega. I doubt they'll ever let us even do this, but let's at least pitch it to them and see what they have to say. Maybe we'll get a skin or something small. To all of our disbelief, Sega was like, 'Actually, this is a great idea. Let me introduce you to the Sonic team, and let's start talking about doing a Sonic and Pico Park collab game together.'"

For Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka, seeing the beloved hedgehog and pals take on such a different type of gameplay was something of a shock, but Sega's previous big indie collaboration gave him confidence that it would work out.

"When I first saw the concept and the whole idea, I was kind of like, 'Is this gonna be a Sonic game?'" Iizuka tells me. "Like, 'I don't know how this collab is going to work.' But our experience working with the Sonic Mania team – they were also an indie developer, and they also had these ideas and kind of core beliefs that they wanted to execute on creatively."

While an eight-player co-op game was "something we on the Sonic Team side had never made before," that type of gameplay "was something that the team at Pico Park was really passionate about making." Iizuka did have at least one big suggestion for Tecopark, however: all the Sonic characters should have unique abilities. "It totally breaks the core game design of Pico Park," Iizuka admits, "but the team at Pico Park were really skilled at understanding the request, and then building around it."

Sonic madness meets Sonic Mania

Sega has now let indie developers make their own Sonic game multiple times, and it's not alone. We've gotten games like Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, The Rogue Prince of Persia, Cadence of Hyrule, and even the upcoming Castlevania: Belmont's Curse thanks to established publishers being open to allowing other developers to use their IP, and the results have largely been excellent. What's made it possible for these sorts of collaborations to happen in the modern era?

"I can't really speak for the other companies and maybe what they're thinking, but you know, from a Sega perspective, we do realize that making our big titles, it takes a lot of time, a lot of money," Iizuka explains. "It's a huge investment of, you know, the staff and the resources that we have, and then once you've invested all that time and energy into something, you really need to sell a lot of units in order to survive in the industry."

Indie developers, meanwhile, "have an idea, and they'll very quickly create that idea – that game experience – and then they'll continue moving forward and making more stuff. That's one thing that larger companies really can learn from the indie development scene – just how quickly they can take an idea, capture that, and put that into a game experience. It's really stimulating working with those indie developers." Iizuka believes this is a lesson Hollywood is already learning, and that AAA game studios should follow suit.

Partnering with indie studios also gives companies like Sega a chance to work with the very people whose love of video games was sparked by their characters. "I grew up in a household where we had a Super Famicom, but I was asking for a Mega Drive," Shimazu says. "My brother wanted a PlayStation, and I wanted to play Virtua Fighter. So I've always been that Sega fan at heart."

Of course, Shimazu was a Sonic fan, too, and has watched the character grow from a platformer protagonist to a multimedia mascot just like many of us have. "It was this really cool, unique character that I got to play with, and I really appreciated and enjoyed that time with the games," he says. "But when we look historically at what Sonic has been and where Sonic is going – Sonic's in movies, Sonic's in lots of different media. All these different ways of presenting Sonic to lots of people, I think, has been one of those ways to help Sonic survive."

Sonic's survival wasn't always assured. A decade ago, Sega had the character on the chopping block. But Iizuka thanks the fans for keeping the series alive even now, 35 years later – not to mention making sure that Sega stays on the right path.

"I'm sure you guys remember the Sonic 1 movie trailer that went out there. The fans really said, 'We don't like this, and we want things changed.' The teams listened to that, and they changed the design of Sonic for the movie. We're always constantly listening to the fans when we're thinking about the next game we want to make. Because the fans are there and they have been supporting us so much, we want to take the time – for the past 35 years – and really listen to what they want and deliver something that they're going to enjoy."

Gotta go fast to our list of the best Sonic games of all time.

Xbox is reportedly testing a feature that would let users turn their physical game collections into digital game libraries amid a wider industry shift away from video games on disc.

Today, PlayStation became the first of the big three console makers to unveil a plan to completely stop producing disc-based games in 2028, but the writing's been on the wall for many years now as publishers increasingly choose digital-only releases over the hybrid digital/physical launches that have been the norm for several console generations. Meanwhile, Nintendo's shift toward digital releases and embrace of game-key cards, as well as PlayStation's plan to kill discs entirely and Take-Two's decision to make GTA 6 a digital-only release foretell a bleak future for physical game collectors, but Xbox reportedly has a plan which, in theory, could be a genuine boon for players choosing to embrace all-digital consoles in the future.

The Verge reports that an Xbox disc-to-digital feature is in the testing phase weeks after it found references to "enable Disc2Digital" buried in the Xbox PC app's code. The way it works seems pretty simple. If the version in testing is implemented, owners of a compatible physical game will obtain a digital entitlement by inserting the disc into an Xbox console and installing it.

Digital ownership of the game will be tied to the physical disc and will be transferable from one account to another, meaning you'd be able to trade games with friends and switch profiles just like you would with an actual disc. Naturally, you'll need a Microsoft account to register your disc-to-digital games, but there seem to be relatively few caveats to Xbox's disc-to-digital plan from this limited reporting. The Verge reports that Game Pass subscribers will be able to stream their physical-to-digital games as long as those games are available on Xbox Cloud Gaming, and likewise, if a game is supported by Xbox's Play Anywhere deal, physical Xbox games will be playable on PC via this new system.

As manufacturers seemingly move toward discless consoles – although it's currently unconfirmed whether Xbox's next-gen Project Helix will be digital only – and with older generations of hardware succumbing to inevitable decay, there's a real threat that physical games will become harder and harder to actually play on first-party systems. Microsoft's apparent solution, however, is reportedly in the works for Xbox Series X and Xbox One consoles and won't be available for Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, many of which are compatible with current-gen Xbox hardware.

There's a good chance we'll get the full details from Microsoft itself on Xbox's reported disc-to-digital feature shortly, but in the meantime, I'm more curious to hear if PlayStation has a plan in place for physical collectors considering Sony's the only manufacturer to actually confirm it's ditching discs for the next generation.

PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not

After claiming Steam's fees cost Valve some of the biggest games around, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney doubled down, insisting that "lower fees and more openness might increase Steam profit." Sweeney pointed to companies "like Epic, Riot, and MiHoYo" as notable Steam skippers, and was swiftly reminded that Genshin Impact maker MiHoYo, now more commonly known by its HoYoverse or Cognosphere arms, has a growing presence on Steam.

A recent Twitter post from Sweeney wades into discussion of his comments regarding Steam. He responded to a user who sarcastically said "it is Steam's fault that Epic won't put their game on there apparently."

In full, Sweeney replied, "Here’s what’s happening economically: Steam charges such high fees that developers with strong brands and big enough audiences, like Epic, Riot, and MiHoYo find it more profitable to go it alone. Ironically, lower fees and more openness might increase Steam profit."

This quickly earned Sweeney a Twitter community note which clarifies that MiHoYo has had games on Steam since the 2021 relaunch of Honkai Impact 3rd, and, just weeks ago, released its action RPG Zenless Zone Zero on Steam to great success and reviews.

Additionally, new files spotted in the HoYoverse launcher suggest a Steam version of Genshin Impact may be on the way. However, this could also be a consequence of shared code that's not indicative of future changes.

Zenless Zone Zero came to Steam alongside the release of its big 3.0 update, a major season-like milestone. Genshin Impact is six weeks away from a similar milestone, update 7.0, which would be a tidy anchor for a Steam release. Speculation whirls that HoYoverse will push to reach more players with the final known chapter of Genshin's current regional storyline, which will begin with the release of the Snezhnaya area in update 7.0, perhaps by entreating the Steam audience.

There are a few other factors in the mix here. Zenless Zone Zero is the smallest of the modern HoYoverse games, trailing Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail in virtually all known metrics. A relevant counterpoint here is the game's presence on PC and PlayStation, with Sony showering partner awards on ZZZ amid chart-topping results, making mobile-only comparisons less useful. Zenless' seemingly much smaller audience may have made it a more appealing test for a Steam version. Importantly, Zenless also allowed account linking, letting existing players move to the Steam ecosystem and bring their account and potential purchases with them.

Sweeney doesn't specify it, but Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail are available on the Epic Games Store, which takes a smaller cut of sales than Steam. HoYoverse made a big show of its Epic partnership back in 2021, and it's unclear what terms Epic offered the company.

The latest Epic Games Store annual report confirms that fellow gacha RPG Wuthering Waves, Honkai: Star Rail, and Genshin Impact are, in that order, all among the store's top five "Mythic" PC games. Zenless Zone Zero, meanwhile, is in Epic's "Legendary" game tier alongside Grand Theft Auto 5, Infinity Nikki (another gacha game), Dead by Daylight, and EA Sports FC 26 (a gacha game in disguise).

By Sweeney's own logic of fees versus reach, revenue split alone may not explain HoYoverse's decision to skip Steam until recently. The Epic Games Store only attracts a small portion of the PC audience, and only 16 to 18% of users brought in by free games actually buy games on the store afterward, so with the Epic partnership, HoYo surely would've done some math on what it stood to gain when you put additional players on the scale with migrating players and third-party fees.

"My goal on PC isn't to topple Steam": Epic Games Store boss says beating Valve isn't the plan – just getting "enough market share on PC that you have to be here no matter what."

It's no secret that Final Fantasy 14 had one of the biggest comebacks of any MMO (heck, any game) when director Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida stepped in for A Realm Reborn – even Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead Guillaume Broche thinks so.

The RPG's creative director says as much in a new episode of Video Game Club via Konbini on YouTube (below), first saying that Final Fantasy 14 is "in the top three games I've played the most in my life."

He then recalls A Realm Reborn, and how "Square Enix pulled off the best thing in the history of video games when it comes to relaunching a game." Broche explains why he thinks so, going over how the MMO's developers did it.

"Basically, they released a first version, and it was a disaster. Everyone was playing it, and it was terrible. And what they did was, after a year, they released an in-game cutscene showing the end of the world. An eight-minute cutscene with Bahamut arriving and blowing up the world."

Indeed, they did – I still go back and watch that scene online myself. The public chat was filled with countdowns and excitement… there's nothing quite like it.

Broche agrees, saying "everyone had seen that cutscene" – even folks who had never actually played the game. That didn't stop them from asking, "'What's going on at Square Enix?'" Then came A Realm Reborn.

"They relaunched it a year later," as the Clair: Obscur Expedition 33 lead puts it. "They reworked everything, relaunched the game, and it was truly exceptional. So it's still a huge hit today." That it is.

I'm a hardened Warrior of Light myself, and I'm still not done with the MMO after pouring in thousands of hours – nor will I be any time soon, with new expansion Evercold underway.

"Rebuilding an MMO in one year – I don't know how they did it. It's impossible," Broche continues. "To do that, and then, after a year, relaunch it and have it work. I think that's just too good to be true."

Perhaps my affinity for the game has to do with how Square Enix takes "more creative risks," in the words of Broche, but he's certainly right about one thing: "The game is exceptional. It still has its expansions, and there's still a super active community."

He praises everything from its music (massive shoutout to Masayoshi Soken) to its bosses, amusingly even admitting he played as a Lalafell – which I can't get over, honestly.

Should you be a Final Fantasy 14 fan yourself, I'd genuinely suggest giving the interview with the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director a deeper watch for more.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says Zelda: Breath of the Wild was "the first open-world game that actually delivered on the promise of an open world."

Every so often, comparisons between The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 break out, as fans compare and contrast the two mammoth RPGs from CD Projekt Red. On the back of the latest round, a lead developer decided to shed some light on what makes the latter the more impressive project, at least when it comes to cinematics.

In this case, people are convinced Cyberpunk 2077 would've been better with some third-person cutscenes. Igor Sarzyński, cinematic director on the sci-fi RPG and senior cinematic designer on The Witcher 3, delivers an impassioned response on Bluesky.

"Doing third person cutscenes only sometimes would've been jarring af, I guarantee it," he writes. "And third person cutscenes for each scene is just, like, a completely different game."

He then points out that not having the power to use different angles in the way third-person allows is actually harder to implement. "Doing interactive, non-linear, real-time scenes with no cuts but camera, and often movement freedom is [three times] as difficult and expensive as doing old school cutscenes," he explains. "If we wanted to cut scope we would do [The Witcher 3] style scenes."

That's a bold statement, but then he shares a comparison between the editing bay of the largest scene in Geralt's third adventure, and the same for Cyberpunk 2077, and you can immediately see how much more complex it is. I'm a hobbyist video editor, and the layers and layers of effects and footage and whatever else in the Cyberpunk 2077 image would melt my brain.

btw

— @srznsk.bsky.social (@srznsk.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-01T16:10:05.008Z

This all really just goes to highlight how hard it is to understand the craft involved when you're simply looking at the finished product. Oftentimes, what might look simple to you is far from it behind-the-scenes, but the right people can make it look effortless. Whatever you may think, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 were huge endeavors, and the devs deserve some respect for that.

The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs put "a considerable amount of effort into side stories," Cyberpunk 2 lead says: "Quality in those was a must."

It's no secret that CD Projekt Red put a lot of work into Cyberpunk 2077 (before and after its shaky launch, that is) – but some of what we now commend as brilliant detail in-game stems from the studio's limited resources, believe it or not.

This story contains spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 – read on at your own risk.

According to lead quest designer Paweł Sasko, anyway, that's the case with Meredith Stout and her dead body, which players can find underwater at the bottom of the bay north of Watson – should they make the decisions that lead to her brutal death, anyway.

You might notice that, if you do come across her corpse, her hair has been shaved off and her feet are cemented in a concrete block. It's (as grim as it is) a pretty cool detail. Fans seem to think so, too, with one's post about it prompting a response from Sasko himself. In it, he explains Stout's appearance there – and a little more about his design process in general.

"I love packing details like this into my quests," he writes. "It often takes time for the players to discover, but the thrill and satisfaction are unforgettable. It shows nobody is safe in Night City, there is always a bigger fish, and stakes are everywhere."

Sasko then gets into the nitty-gritty of Stout's hair (or lack thereof), saying, "Her head is shaved because rigging and animating hair to gently move underwater was out of available budget." In turn, he had to make something work.

"I had to be scrappy with my design, so I turned it into part of the story. Anthropologically, I liked it, because shaving hair is associated with losing honor, face, and being overshadowed by shame."

He concludes that it's just "one of the examples how limitation sparks creativity." That it certainly is.

It's nothing new for CD Projekt Red, either. I'm immediately reminded of what Sasko previously stated about The Witcher 3 and how the studio faced various setbacks while developing the legendary RPG – it's similar to the Stout situation, if you ask me… and it speaks to the team's resilience.

If something works, it works, and in this case, it worked out pretty dang well.

The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs put "a considerable amount of effort into side stories," Cyberpunk 2 lead says: "Quality in those was a must."

Subnautica 2's protracted legal battle has come to an end. Publisher Krafton will now pay the developers at studio Unknown Worlds even more than what was previously planned.

As Bloomberg reports after speaking with fired-then-reinstated CEO Ted Gill, Krafton has agreed to a legal settlement with Gill and fellow ousted co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire. The entire development team at Unknown Worlds, riding high on a huge Steam early access launch that has utterly eclipsed the original Subnautica, are also in for a big payday.

Gill says the Subnautica 2 team will be "compensated significantly more" than specified in the terms of Krafton's original acquisition agreement, with "further incentives" to come. Additionally, this bonus will now be paid to everyone at the studio, not just Gill, Cleveland, McGuire, and the devs who were at Unknown Worlds at the time of the acquisition in 2021.

In other words, after all that noise, the devs get their bonus and the founders get a settlement.

This whole mess orbited a $250 million earnout payment which would have seen Krafton award Unknown Worlds large bonuses if it hit certain revenue milestones by a specific deadline. With over four million copies sold in just launch week, Subnautica 2 has been a smashing success and certainly looked poised to hit those milestones.

The ousted executives, accused by Krafton of neglecting their duties, in turn accused Krafton of firing them and sabotaging Subnautica 2's launch to avoid paying the bonus. A judge later said that Krafton CEO Changhan Kim had repeatedly asked ChatGPT how to dodge the bonus.

However, Gill is still leaving Unknown Worlds. "We mutually agreed to part ways," he says. "New leadership is the best way for the studio to move forward." A new CEO not tied to the developer or publisher will be appointed. So ends one of the most colorful legal circuits in recent memory.

Subnautica 2's first major update "brings back one of the most requested player experiences" and will be "the scariest the game has been yet".

After Ubisoft allegedly threatened to sue Edward Keyway actor Matt Ryan due to an Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced leak, the company is now using the slip up as part of its marketing for the remake.

It's no stretch to say that the Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake is potentially the worst-kept secret in gaming history, with leaks for the game being pretty widespread even as far back as a year ago. One of the biggest, however, happened when a fan met Ryan at the Nightmare Weekend convention last May, with Ryan asking them if they'd beaten the game, before adding: "Well you might have to beat it again." About a month later, another fan asked about it, and Ryan revealed he was unaware he was being recorded on the previous occasion and alleged that "the company threatened to sue me."

However, Ubisoft can't be too upset about it now, as the official Ubi-AssassinsCreed account on Reddit has now posted a short video featuring Ryan once again signing something and asking, "Have you beat the game?" This time, though, after saying "you might have to beat it again," he shows the release date of Resynced, while doubling down: "You're gonna have to beat it again."

Matt Ryan helped us Resync a moment from a year ago today. Remember what it was? Comment below for a chance to win one of the signed cards from the video. from r/assassinscreed

Granted, this isn't the first time Ubisoft has joked about its own leaks. As we entered 2026, the company went all in on the fact everyone already knew, using the San Andreas classic "Ah, shit, here we go again" in response to a new leak. And, when it was finally time to announce the game, they dubbed it its worst-kept secret.

Replay's July theme is Assassin's Creed: send us clips for a chance to win a £/$250 Amazon voucher!

Pragmata developers have shared stories of the game's tumultuous development, with some particularly brutal internal criticism coming to light.

Pragmata was one of the first games unveiled for the PS5 back in 2020, and considering it only released a couple of months ago, it's safe to say that development was a bit troubled. Thankfully, it was all for the best as Pragmata is one of the most beloved games of 2026 so far and has gone down a hit with players, enough that Capcom is already considering moving forward with it as a series.

In a Pragmata livestream earlier this month (translated by Automaton), the developers revealed that the project started in 2019 when Capcom head Jun Takeuchi tasked a team of young developers with making "a game on the moon." However, shortly after the trailer debuted in 2020, the team ran into trouble as test stages were being rejected, with the team being told they were "unable to make compelling puzzles," "unable to make compelling action," and "incompetent at level design" in internal feedback.

This led to the creation of the hacking system that the game we know now features. Unfortunately, the hacking wasn't taken well at first, either, as the team shared more of the criticism it faced, like, "The game logic we worked so hard on building is completely broken," "This has fundamentally worsened the game, I am deeply disappointed," and "Give me back the two months I lost working alongside the team. Is this what you're trying to entertain your players with?"

However in the next presentation – the one where it would be decided whether the game would be canceled or not – it was a hit. And in the end it all worked out, as Pragmata hit two million copies sold within the first month.

Akihiro Togawa, a developer on the equally troubled The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, responds to this presentation on Twitter, saying: "Even though it's someone else's problem, I couldn't view it as such, seeing this made my stomach hurt."

He follows this up, saying: "When you're making games, unfair things and problems happen on a daily basis, and I think on most days it makes you feel completely beat down and exhausted." He adds: "If you keep facing those challenges honestly, you'll eventually be able to finish the game and release it to the world so that players can enjoy it. Let's keep that in mind and keep doing our best. We are all the next Pragmata."

Capcom had "no idea" how Pragmata would be received, Hugh actor says, but now the star of the 'Space dad' banger is getting touching messages from people considering their own relationship with family.

As GTA 6 quickly approaches, it's hard not to see Rockstar Games just about everywhere on the web – but its new Grand Theft Auto game isn't the only reason it's in the limelight.

Rockstar developers in the United Kingdom are seeking official union recognition from the studio's leads currently, hoping to join ZA/UM as part of one of the region's first formally acknowledged unions in the video game industry, and the company has now put out a statement in response.

Admittedly, the entire situation is a lot, coming after Rockstar was accused of union-busting in 2025 when the company fired 31 workers. These devs were all either current union members or folks planning to organize one.

Within the current request to unionize, devs hope for executives to acknowledge "our key objectives of pay transparency, fairer crunch practices, and better flexible working arrangements," dubbing it "a landmark moment for the Rockstar Game Workers Union, and hopefully for the industry as a whole" – and now, the company's heads have responded. As per a statement sent to IGN, they're apparently willing to meet with the union representatives.

"We strive to make the best games possible by giving our talented teams world-class work environments and ongoing career opportunities," Rockstar writes, first seeming to outline its company values.

"We have fostered a culture which is focused on teamwork, excellence, and kindness, and where we support and reward the team across all levels of the business through competitive compensation and benefits policies."

The studio then states, "We are proud that as a result, our employee retention is well above the industry standard" – a notable assertion considering the situation at hand. Rockstar's concluding words here are what really stand out, though: "We have received a request from a union seeking to discuss voluntary recognition. We value an open and constructive dialogue with all stakeholders and will arrange to meet."

That's certainly good to hear.

Here's hoping that the outcome is just as good. As it stands now, Rockstar's legal dispute with the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain is also ongoing.

Fired GTA 6 developer accusing Rockstar Games of union busting says playing the blockbuster will "probably just bring back too much."

July sees the release of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, so we're making this month's Replay theme all about the Assassin's Creed series. You can send in clips of any game for a chance to win a $/£250 Amazon voucher, with one prize for the best Assassin's clip, and a second general prize for any game full stop.

GamesRadar+ Replay is our community video series where you can submit gaming clips of anything you've been playing for a chance to win $/£250 in Amazon vouchers - one for the best clip overall, and one for the best Assassin's Creed video. If you've got something you think is cool, unusual, or just worth showing off, send it our way.

For a chance of winning, all you need to do is to submit your clips via the big orange button below. The winners will then be chosen by the GamesRadar+ team at the end of the month.

So, if you get a clip of anything amazing, interesting, or just plain weird, send it to GamesRadar and you could win a $/£250 Amazon voucher to spend on whatever you want.

By submitting your clip, you agree to the Terms and Conditions.

If you need a helping hand, here's how to record gameplay on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch/Switch 2 to save your highlights.

If we like your clip then we'll post it and share it, so you can join the Replay ranks like the videos you can see below.

When Batman: Arkham Asylum came out in 2009, I was over the moon to see my love of Batman and video games finally combined. I pre-ordered the game instantly with money I'd saved up, ecstatic that it launched the day before my birthday, which meant I could spend the entire time playing it and nobody could tell me to stop.

Straight away, I wasn't just blown away by the visuals and voice acting (though Mark Hamill reprising his role as The Joker was a most beautiful birthday gift). Straight out the gate, the game introduced a villain that was never particularly popular: Killer Croc. With a new look, and a voice that to this day makes me giddy with joy, it was amazing to see him within the first five-or-so minutes of the game.

But this was just the tip of the iceberg for a fan like myself. The references and characters portrayed in Batman Arkham go so much deeper than Killer Croc.

Riddle me this

When I was thirteen I was that stereotypical "nerd" in school. Fandom became a full-fledged hobby, with posters littering my bedroom walls and a huge shrine with artwork, collectables and vintage merch taking center stage. Every convention I went to, I cosplayed a character from a very particular series, and I remember drifting off to sleep every night with the animated TV show playing on my tiny television.

That series was Batman. Not just the titular hero, but the huge roster of corny villains. I found myself getting particularly invested in The Joker and Harley Quinn, and I even remember asking my parents for a Harley Quinn #1 comic that was signed by her creator Paul Dini for my birthday. The Batman series was my lifeblood, something I found great comfort in as an awkward teenager. Arkham Asylum took that comfort and crystallized it in one perfect place.

One of, if not my absolute favorite things in the game, are the Batman: Arkham Asylum Riddler challenges. After your first main beat-up-the-goons mission, you get a phone call from The Riddler telling you to solve some puzzles for him to prove you're smart. The Riddler is voiced by the wonderful Wally Wingert, and I swear a clip of him portraying The Riddler could wake me from a coma. I genuinely love this version of the character, and it’s a standout performance against the likes of Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin.

These Riddler challenges were not only a fun add-on to the game, reminiscent of the old style of ‘Collect all the X to get 100% completion’ challenges from older games, but they also served a purpose of delving deeper into Batman lore and showcasing that, yes, this is a game for hardcore Batman fans above all else. There are several types of Riddler challenges in the game, ranging from collecting Riddler Trophies, smashing wind-up teeth, collecting patient interview tapes, and a bunch of others. But I mainly want to focus on the actual riddles themselves.

Some of the riddles you solve are pretty easy. The first one for example is meant to be completed by anyone and everyone so you understand how this addition to the game works. “Don't cut yourself on this Sharply observed portrait,” The Riddler chimes in my ear. Well, we’re right next to a portrait of Quincy Sharp, the warden of Arkham Asylum. Scan that, and boom: riddle complete.

However, some of my favorite riddles in this game reference incredibly obscure Batman villains that casual Batman movie lovers might not get. These are the kind of riddles that actually make you scratch your head because who the hell is Riddler babbling about?

Say hello to my little friend

I knew Batman: Arkham Asylum was going to be one of my favorite games of all time when a specific riddle popped up on my screen: "You don't know Jack about Gotham. Tune in to find out." At that moment, thirteen year old me realized that developer Rocksteady actually cared about Batman fans and wanted to really immerse us in the world of Gotham City.

Jack Ryder, also known as The Creeper, was one of my favorite obscure Batman characters. To save me going on a long fangirl-ish rant, Jack Ryder was a journalist who had some weird science done on him and he became a villain or hero depending on the story. A simple reference to him within the first hour of the game literally made me flap my hands around and grin like the Joker had just poisoned me with his laughing gas.

But it wasn't just niche characters like The Creeper mentioned in riddles. There's also references to the likes of Ventriloquist and Scarface, Mad Hatter, Calendar Man, Killer Moth, Humpty Dumpty, and even goddamn Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee.

And yes, you heard me right, Humpty Dumpty is a Batman villain whose legal name is Humphry Dumpler, and no, we're not going to discuss it any further.

Arkham Asylum packs in so many references that to this day, having completed the game at least 10 times on several different platforms, I get giddy with excitement when I see them. Sure, Batman might not be my special interest anymore, but all that knowledge and love never truly goes away.

I was sitting on my sofa this week re-playing the game and it finally hit me that this was a game made by fans, for fans. Every Easter egg and reference was meticulously crafted for that special someone, somewhere in the world, who might be happy to see a nod to their favorite obscure character in it. Mine was The Creeper, but I know there's probably a person out there who was excited to see even a reference to Prometheus, or Great White Shark.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is the closest we'll ever get to truly feeling like The Dark Knight himself, and I don't think even its sister games come as close to fleshing out the massive lore of Gotham City's world the way Asylum does. Some of these villains may be long gone in recent renditions of Batman, but luckily, they will never ever be forgotten because of this game.

Arkham Asylum is undoubtedly one of the best Batman games ever made, but how do the others measure up?

It was love at first sight. I knew I was meant to play cozy horror farming sim Grave Seasons as soon as I learned about its unconventional story of an ex-convict restoring the dark fairytale town Ashenridge, where handsome farmers, werewolves, and other serial killers exist in bloody disharmony.

"Grave Seasons is really special in that we don't hold back on the horror elements," developer Perfect Garbage co-founder and narrative director Emmett Nahil tells me during a Summer Game Fest 2026 interview, where I was happy to discover the game seems just as bold as I'd hoped.

I got to play a bit of Grave Seasons' introduction, where I wander a farm and dig up some plots for carrot plants, but I arrive in Ashenridge in a conspicuous prison jumpsuit. From just this experience, it's easy for me to determine the pastoral town isn't your typical, green suburbia, where khaki shorts neighbors smirk privately at those they think dress a little funny, and it isn't your Animal Crossing island, either, where you suppress feelings of hatred for community members because their little piggy noses are pretty cute. Developer Perfect Garbage's eerie countryside is different: there's death and emotional challenges as you define your new life as a reformed criminal, which makes my interest swell – like a diseased artery!

You have one in-game year to learn who's the supernatural murderer terrorizing Ashenridge, whether or not they're the love of your life, and what you should do with that information. Save the world and prove that you've changed? Or keep filling up your watering can like nothing's wrong?

It'll probably be tougher than you think. Nahil says, "I always want to see more moral ambiguity, generally" in story narratives, and Grave Seasons has no easy answers.

Nahil continues, "I find a lot of game writing, when done to the broadest audience possible, can fall into a sort of good-versus-bad binary. Some of the games that I like most have really embraced the middle area, embrace that moral grayness, embrace the complicated repercussions of player decisions."

Putting players into the trudging shoes of protagonist Dara – whose appearance is customizable, but who begins Grave Seasons in that sickly orange jumpsuit no matter what – is the perfect way to force a nuanced mindset from the beginning. Nahil says he wants players to "embrace the fun, roguish nature of Dara. I really want them to feel like they can experiment with their choices and have fun, and also experience the consequences of maybe not-so-savory reactions."

This is the kind of daring narrative ambition I always crave in horror, specifically, which I think has a duty to be visceral, itchy, and extra-impactful on an innocent audience member's sense of self. More specifically, Nahil says, "I want players to learn that it's worthwhile to get to know the people around you, to really learn deeply about the people that are in your community, no matter what kind of person you are. That's what Grave Seasons does best."

Maybe I should switch to rollercoasters, or a glass of wine, but I've always had the desperate need for art to encourage me toward emotional places I never thought of going before. With its unique premise and magnanimous thoughts about community, it seems like Grave Seasons can do that with only a few bite marks and bags of carrot seeds.

I can't wait. Grave Seasons' original August 14 release date has been delayed to this fall, but I'll sit around until its new launch time is announced. Not patiently!

I'm convinced this farming sim horror demo is better than anything you'll play during Steam Next Fest.

While the organizers behind Stop Killing Games remain optimistic about the movement's future, they've been dealt another blow from lawmakers. The Protect Our Games Act failed to reach the required committee votes to move forward in California, but what's really gotten the gaming world's attention is the argument made by the Entertainment Software Association during the hearing. According to the lobbying group, private Minecraft servers are illegal.

"They're illegal, and they're not in any way affiliated with Microsoft," according to Jennifer Gibbons, vice president for state government affairs at the ESA (thanks, PC Gamer). "Microsoft, for Minecraft, has gotten a lot of criticism because of those community servers not employing the same safety standards that Microsoft does on their Minecraft servers."

That statement – and Gibbons' later assertion that private servers are tantamount to "piracy" – might seem like a bizarre thing to say, considering that you can download the tools to create your own private server directly from the official Minecraft website. But, unfortunately, that's simply a right that Microsoft is offering to players, and one that it's free to revoke at any time.

"Private servers infringe on the intellectual property (IP) rights of game publishers," the ESA says in a statement to PC Gamer. "Publishers reserve the right to exercise their rights against them." That is, indeed, the law as it stands, and one of the key points that Stop Killing Games is trying to change, hoping to require publishers to provide tools to create community servers after an online game shuts down.

According to the ESA, the provision in the Protect Our Games Act "that proposed these servers as a legitimate alternative to keep games running raises concerns about a publisher's ability to enforce their IP rights. In addition, private servers operate with no oversight from the publisher and do not uphold the same trust and safety standards. This could create an unsafe environment for players and be counter to the industry's commitment to fostering safe and fun game play for all players."

This is the second major decision against Stop Killing Games this month, as the EU Commission decided against introducing new legislation in response to the campaign. Yet, Stop Killing Games founder Ross Scott believes that the campaign has made such significant inroads with members of the EU parliament that legislation will likely happen regardless of the Commission's decision.

"We are not stopping," according to a similarly optimistic message from Stop Killing Games responding to the California decision. "Not even close. Next session, we come back with an in-person lobbying presence, the funding to do this properly, and a long list of organizations and developers signed on in support. We are not limiting this to California. We intend to introduce versions of this in other state legislatures, and we are seriously looking at the federal level. The ESA is about to learn what it is like to fight on many fronts at once. They have to win every single time to keep things the way they are. We only have to win once to change them."

These are the new games for 2026 (and beyond) you need to know about.

Xbox is reportedly considering closing or selling Arkane Studios and canceling the developer's next game, Marvel's Blade, as part of a widely reported, impending tsunami of July layoffs bookending Microsoft's fiscal year.

The Verge reports that Arkane is one of at least five studios on the chopping block. With Marvel's Blade reportedly over budget and unable to meet a planned 2026 release date, it and Arkane may be caught up in Microsoft's extremely aggressive cost-cutting measures.

Arkane's Jean-Luc Monnet said just this month that Marvel's Blade is not canceled, as fears circulated around Summer Game Fest. "Let us cook," he said.

However, just as reports indicated that Xbox studios like Double Fine or Ninja Theory may be spun off or sold to buyers, The Verge reports Microsoft is also "exploring options" to sell Arkane rather than shutter it outright.

Xbox has a history of acquiring and swiftly closing studios, often before they're able to release even two games, which has spoiled attempted rebrands and soured some opinions of the company. This expected July bloodbath comes years after the company's, and the games industry's, biggest-ever acquisition in Activision Blizzard, which has not reversed the struggling Xbox platform's fortunes.

In 2024, Xbox closed Arkane Austin after the predictably disastrous release of live service game Redfall, which Xbox leadership reportedly dumped on the studio despite its history of single-player hits. Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio called the decision "stupid."

Compulsion Games, also part of Xbox and maker of award-winning action game South of Midnight, seems to be struggling to find its own buyer and advised employees to look for work elsewhere.

Amid what new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has called a "reset" for the brand, reports suggest the company's latest attempt at reducing costs may, at the very least, see some studios survive independently or under new owners. Even then, layoffs at the affected studios are likely as they adjust to their new environment and reconfirm funds.

Last week, Xbox announced yet another console price hike, making the disc drive-equipped Xbox Series X an eye-watering $800 at a baseline. Macro economic pressures on the games industry have only compounded rising costs in the space and at Microsoft, which has been forced to rethink its new-gen console Project Helix.

PS5 is reportedly so far ahead of Xbox Series X that it gets up to 80% of launch sales for AAA single-player console games, though Xbox denies a huge split on GTA 6 pre-orders.

Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios recently pulled back the curtain on the data pipeline it uses to track what players are doing and make adjustments based on their behavior, revealing a staggering bit of tech that can, within seconds, tell the devs about every single bullet fired in the game.

Speaking at the developer conference held by publisher Nexon, data engineer Mattias Andersson examines the structure and purpose of Embark's intense data tracking. This covers the studio's previous game, The Finals, as well, but Arc Raiders is the focus.

"We track every bullet in these games," Andersson says. "We track where the players are. We track whenever a bullet hits something. We have miniguns in our game, at least in The Finals, so this is a lot of bullets to keep track of.

"We're tracking more than 1,000 different event types," he continues. "We were tracking more than 100 billion events per day when Arc Raiders was at its peak. That is 30 terabytes of data per day. And we do all this with less than two second latency into [the data tool] BigQuery. So as soon as you fire a bullet, two seconds later, I can run a query in BigQuery and find out if you hit or not."

That peak would've been around November 2025 to February 2026, when Arc Raiders was regularly pulling over 400,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. The game is averaging far fewer than that today, with some players simply moving on or perhaps waiting for the big October update, but Arc Raiders is still hanging out in or around the top 50 most-played games on Steam.

Embark tracks this stuff so granularly, Andersson explains, for anti-cheat purposes, bug detection, improving elements like weapon balancing based on accuracy and damage, and to tune the behavior-driven matchmaking system of Arc Raiders in particular.

"We try to find out how aggressive a player you are," he says of Arc Raiders matchmaking. "We want to know who shot first in any encounter. Who was the one who started shooting at the other player? And then we try to make sure that people who want to PvP a lot get matchmade who PvP a lot, and the people who never initiate fights, the friendly players, get moved in together with the more friendly players."

This gives us a closer look at something Arc Raiders designer director Virgil Watkins told us about earlier this year. "We can track who shoots first and who takes damage and who [does] whatever," Watkins said at the time. "But the one thing the system does not do is attempt to assume intent. If I'm a very bad player and you're a good player, and I'm the aggressor and I just miss all my shots and you defend yourself, the game doesn't know what the intent was. They just saw you kill me because I'm terrible."

The data pipeline underpinning this approach is, from the outside, a dizzying labyrinth of dashboards, printouts, and applications. But some of it is pretty intuitive. For example, Embark has access to a custom "round viewer" that can replay player actions, including a "map replay" that shows where people move throughout a round. Heatmaps showing where players move, where they die, and clusters of other actions function similarly. An in-engine voxel heatmap of Arc Raiders' Stella Montis map confirms a few unsurprising death boxes.

Arc Raiders devs have "completed our rollout of Denuvo Anti-Cheat to all players," but Embark isn't done yet with "a more extensive update" striving for fair play.

The internet gets a little funny about highly-anticipated games we know almost nothing about. I once covered an fan modding a made-up "elden ring" into Skyrim before Elden Ring came out, since people were going stir crazy for the next trailer. Fans are having similar reactions to GTA 6, and now they're analyzing protagonist Jason's muscles.

Jason's a pretty fit man, it seems based on Rockstar's two existing GTA 6 trailers. That should be inconsequential, but since it's been months and months of fans waiting for trailer three, minutiae is starting to look more interesting. People started making gameplay presumptions based on how Jason looks in two choice moments.

"Do these two screenshots essentially confirm that fitness/bodybuilding is in the game?" says an account on Twitter sharing a pair of images showing off Jason's back. "Jason looks noticeably more muscular in one image than the other, particularly in his back, shoulders, and arms."

This observation resulted in a windfall of other fans' analysis over what a stronger Jason might mean for the sprawling open-world game. Could there be gyms you need to actively go to? Body modification's been a facet of the series for ages now – but could Grand Theft Auto 6 require you to actually keep a routine and watch your macros? I wouldn't hate that, because I love when games include minor, immersive details that really build the overall atmosphere.

Another user points out in a reply that one of the images of fit Jason could actually be the character after a strenuous mission, thus all tense and rigid, where the other is him much more chilled.

But to me, Occam's razor dictates these screenshots of Jason are probably disparate, unrelated moments that don't mean much of anything. We only have until November to find out for sure, but if Rockstar could drop that next GTA 6 trailer to help confirm sooner, that'd be grand.

It's not just Sony, even Rockstar says GTA 6 "plays best on PS5," with Xbox omitted entirely from one new ad.

The pirate's life is brought to the modern day with Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, wherein the classic installment has been remade to contemporary standards. That includes the combat, which is now more in line with what you'd get in current action games, but it's not just a copy-and-paste from other installments in the series.

"We modernized the combat to be more hitbox-based, as modern combat games tend to be, and a little bit more reactive," Jussi Markkanen, tech director on Resynced, tells GamesRadar+. "So, Edward can still use the hidden blades, but as a takedown action in the combat, so making the combat more fluid."

The goal was always to find balance between how the original Black Flag plays and these modern expectations. After all, we're jumping back into Edward's time on the seven seas in part to revisit the past - literally and figuratively - and that includes the mechanics, even if they may feel a little disjointed now.

"We have a parry system now, so you time your parries, but it's free movement and hitbox, so it's still physically based and built on top of the fight system we had on [Assassin's Creed] Shadows," Markkanen adds. "But instead of doing what Shadows did in the skill-tree based or RPG-style fights, we went more to the action-oriented fights."

The term he uses is "reimagining," a re-molding of Black Flag's structure that keeps the flow and intent but allows for more polish. "Skill-based in a way that it's skills in your hands," he says. "How do you move? How do you position yourself? How do you use your tools that you have?"

These are all pertinent questions to any encounter when you're a roving master of open water. You'll be able to test this all out for yourself when Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced arrives on July 9.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has great news for completionists: "no achievement can be missed," and none are tied to a difficulty setting, either.

Bethesda has finally confirmed the release date for the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, but it's not inspiring a huge amount of confidence based on Skyrim on Switch 2 and Oblivion Remastered everywhere else.

Bethesda Game Studios closed out the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase earlier this year with news about its library coming to Switch 2, including the announcement of Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition and news about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but the big finale was that Oblivion Remastered would also be coming. And despite a Nintendo Direct no-show earlier this month, Bethesda has released a new trailer confirming the port will release on August 11, and despite word it would be a game-key card release, it will release on a proper cartridge after all.

The trailer is mostly a live-action segment showing the iconic Adoring Fan NPC from the 2006 classic following a man around, before showing a teeny-tiny bit of gameplay from the port at the end. Now, considering Skyrim's Switch 2 port was described as running "like wet ass" at launch (which, surely a wet ass would be smooth… Not important…) before getting a fix a few months later, the lack of gameplay isn't exactly inspiring confidence.

That's not to mention the fact that Skyrim is a game from 2011 with minimal improvements, whereas the remastered overhaul of Oblivion still has pretty terrible performance on PC, so how will the handheld handle it? "Will it actually work though?" one YouTube commenter asks, as another speculates: "There is a reason 80% of this video doesn't show any gameplay at all."

On top of Oblivion Remastered running poorly on other platforms, it hasn't been updated in some time, so some are hoping this new port will result in love for other versions. The YouTube comments on the trailer focus on this, with one user saying, "Please fix the performance issues on other consoles first," while another asks: "Does this mean it’ll get some patches for other consoles? I was bummed by how little post-launch support this got."

As Fallout 3 and New Vegas remake hopes and rumors persist, Bethesda's Todd Howard says he's actually "anti-remake" and prefers remasters like Oblivion's instead.