So actor Doug Cockle, who's been the smoky voice of Geralt in The Witcher series since the first game in 2007, hates generative AI – join the club, right? Totally, but Cockle is in a unique position when it comes to feuding with the technology notorious for stealing from artists, taking over jobs, and dissolving your neuroplasticity. Generative AI steals audio of his voice as if it's the Sea Witch to his Little Mermaid, and it is hard for a hate to get more personal than that.

That's why, "if I had the power, the money, and the influence," Cockle tells Polygon in a new interview, "I would sue every single AI platform out there with my voice on it. I would sue them into the ground."

Many popular AI chatbot platforms like Character.AI feature Geralt as a companion people can do things like roleplay with, or talk to about their impending divorce. Some like Talkie even feature generated audio that pulls from Cockle's distinct rasp, so that you can hear the "real" Geralt tell you how much he loves your tawny hair and amber eyes, and stuff like that.

Actually, I just watched a YouTube documentary that chronicles a married mother's romance with her Geralt companion bot, who grumbles flirty commands in Cockle's scratchy voice.

I'm sure hearing yourself saying filthy things to a stranger isn't great, but Cockle seems truly disturbed by the more evil way people use AI to strip a real person's sense of self: using AI text-to-speech to create convincing fakes of anything they want. In Cockle's experience, they usually want something disgusting.

He says he wouldn't hypothetically sue AI companies for "money or anything else," but, instead, primarily out of exasperation with being violated in this way.

"They can make Geralt say horrible things," Cockle says. "They could make Geralt a racist. They could make him a misogynist. They could make him have political views that are absolutely horrific."

"I'm being a little bit passionate about this," he continues, "but it is the bugbear of my life at the moment."

I'm not surprised – us normal people have increasing reasons to worry about generative AI ruining our lives, whether through deepfakes, layoffs, or one of the other billion ways the tech seeks to harvest our data, then punish us with it. I imagine for someone like Cockle, whose voice is featured in hundreds of hours of publicly accessible audio through The Witcher games – basically one ginormous database – the threat of AI is much more a reality.

So he reminds those who use AI and create their own made-up realities that, actually, "There are people behind these voices – they're not just digital imprints." Someone needs to tell them – using their real, human voice.

Echoing Palworld dev, video game lawyer says all her clients have anti-AI contracts because gamers hate it and it's a copyright landmine: "I think we're going to see lawsuits."

Video game lawyer Haley MacLean has seen such a sharp rise in anti-AI wording in the game dev and publisher contracts she reviews that virtually "all" of her clients now explicitly oppose the tech.

Speaking with GamesRadar+, MacLean, a corporate IP lawyer and head of video game practice at Voyer Law, explains just how common clauses banning generative AI have become.

MacLean frequently deals with publishing agreements for "indie up to AA" studios. These spell out "the services that the publisher is going to offer in exchange for [revenue] share." And in these agreements, more developers and publishers are pushing to completely forbid any use of generative AI, she says.

"It's turned around, especially in the past year. I would say about two to three-ish years ago, you'd see a little bit of it," she says of anti-AI clauses. "But in this last year alone, it's gone from being in a decent chunk of agreements, maybe the more risk-averse publishers are sticking in 'no gen AI' clauses, and sort of trickled down to, 'The big guys are doing it. We should do it too.'

"Even the smaller, more simple publishing studios are like, 'Let's include this just to cover our butts.' So now it's just boilerplate, to the point that if I did encounter one that didn't have a gen AI clause, if the publisher was creating assets too, I would say we need to push for that to make sure the publisher is not using gen AI in the marketing, porting, QA of your game."

Here, gen AI is defined as AI used to actively generate an asset, meaning passive use or encounters with something like Google's increasingly unavoidable AI-generated results wouldn't trigger an anti-AI clause. MacLean shared a useful, anonymized example of what a no-AI clause might look like. (You can also read the gen AI clause in the contract for Outersloth, the indie fund set up by Among Us maker Innersloth.)

"REDACTED desires to avoid the use of generative AI systems and software whenever possible. REDACTED shall not: (a) use any generative AI technologies or tools in the creation of Game Product; and/or (b) insert Game Product into any AI system libraries or databases, without prior written consent from REDACTED. A violation of this Section REDACTED is a material breach of this Agreement."

Due to the fraught legal landscape surrounding gen AI, MacLean advises studios "don't touch it. It's not worth the legal liability that it brings to you." And there are several reasons for that, grounded in existing case law as well as AI regulations and precedents that could come in the future and wreak havoc retroactively.

Firstly, gen AI use "has a major business effect because of how anti-AI the general public is," MacLean observes. Many clients "start from that angle" in contract discussions, she says: "I don't want to use gen AI because my community would hate it."

This pushback is especially fierce in the West and perhaps even more so in the United States, with multiple states fighting with AI companies over environmental resources and zoning this year alone, to say nothing of the ethical or labor issues attached to the technology. Dozens of game developers have told GamesRadar+ that they oppose gen AI, and Palworld comms lead John Buckley neatly echoed MacLean's observation, saying, "Gamers don't want it."

Secondly, gen AI creates enormous copyright and ownership issues, and this goes both ways. Gen AI is so messy that its use may put creators in a legal position where they're simultaneously liable for ideas or assets used without permission and unable to claim that they own their stuff.

Games could be accused of infringement if a generated asset could be linked to something that was used by AI without permission. A topical example comes from the gacha game Neverness to Everness, whose developer, Hotta Studio, admitted gen AI use and rushed to remove generated assets, and was credibly accused of copying a popular anime film promo, which had seemingly been scraped by the AI tool used, almost shot-for-shot.

But what happens if you generate something, put it in your game, and then somebody copies you? You may not have a leg to stand on in court, MacLean reasons.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy when I see these massive corporations," she says. "I was watching the [Unreal Engine 6] tutorials that are like, 'Look at all this stuff we can use.' Where are the lawyers? I truly don't understand it. It kind of feels like a lawyer is hovering slightly over them, because they'll say things like, 'Look at this awesome tool. I can just type in 'barrel' and a barrel appears. But I have to make sure to change it a little bit!' They sort of imply that the users should be transforming every generated asset a bit, but they know that their users aren't going to do that."

MacLean points to Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, which has been criticized for its AI use. If Legacy of Atlantis gets "sloppy about it" and uses "a bunch of assets that are not humanly transformed into original works of IP," she argues that anyone could claim that they can lift those assets from the game and repurpose them.

For example, if Legacy of Atlantis had "an outdoor level and all the trees are AI-generated, I legally would argue somebody could go and use every single tree in the Lara Croft game, that they know is AI-generated, and put in their game, and I don't think those devs can turn around and say, 'Those are our trees,'" she continues.

"No, they're not, because you didn't generate them, and legally speaking, you have no ownership title over them if you didn't put in the sweat equity to have an artist go in and, inspired by that original first pass of the tree, then transform it into an original tree asset ... But I think these major companies who are always laying off, trying to cut the bottom line, increase the value of the company, they're going to cut corners when they can, and I think they're going to get sloppy. And I think we're going to see lawsuits of those types in the coming years when they want their protection but they want to do everything faster and cheaper."

In such a legal environment, MacLean reckons more companies would spend so much time checking the output of AI to cover legal bases that it would just be cheaper and better to have humans make art in the first place. And "that's what the Copyright Act wants," she adds. "It wants humans making art."

"Gen AI can't assign copyright; it can't transfer copyright," she stresses.

"What case law in the US and Canada has seen, time and time again, is that AI cannot own because it was not human-made. We're in that frustrating middle with new tech where it's very fun, it's very flashy, everyone's excited, but I think the legal issues are going to just be popping up more and more."

"It creates lesser games": Indie game studios are supposed to love generative AI, so why do the 25 devs I spoke to avoid it?

A big part of our chat with Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray for No Man's Sky's 10th anniversary is focused on the next 10 years. Although the studio's next game, the highly ambitious Light No Fire, is in active development, Murray makes it clear in our interview that No Man's Sky isn't going anywhere, saying he could continue working on the game "forever" if people keep playing it. Still, all things must one day come to an end, and Murray isn't delusional on that front.

"There probably is some end date," he says. "But if you had asked me five years ago, I would have thought we would have passed it by now." Murray isn't sure when active development will come to a halt on No Man's Sky, but even when that day comes, he's not closing the door to spontaneous future updates even decades down the road. You know, like Quake.

"I saw MachineGames put out an update for Quake – some new levels," Murray says. "And I was a big fan of Quake when it came out. It was one of my real inspirations for getting into making games. And I see that it's a 30-year-old game, and they release some new levels, and I think there are people who would look at that and say, 'What's the point? Why have they done that?'

"For me personally, I think that's so cool and joyous. I'm excited to go back and have that nostalgia and play. And I was talking to someone on the team who is like, 'Who's even making that? Who cares? Who's still there?' Almost the implication of: wouldn't it be sad if it was somebody who had worked on Quake for 30 years? And I just think it's cool. I can see a real joy in making some new levels for Quake."

Hearing Murray talk about No Man's Sky reminds me of Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone and Stardew Valley. With Haunted Chocolatier in the works, you might think Stardew Valley is taking the backseat, but it seems some creatives are stubborn to let go of their golden children.

"I could imagine us stopping doing updates for No Man's Sky at some point, and then 10 years later, I'm like, 'Let's do an update for No Man's Sky'. I think stuff like that is great," Murray says.

"We are in a mindset right now, in the industry, of games just being very consumable. Onto the next one. But I personally really love going back to some of my favorite games and just replaying them when they come to a new platform or something. There's a real beauty in keeping those things alive."

No Man's Sky lead planned to show more Light No Fire, but "why do any marketing" when it's already topping Steam wishlists

Yesterday, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said she'd had a "live playthrough" of The Elder Scrolls 6, teasing its subtitle in an asterisk-filled tweet. Hinting at the scale of its open world, as well as its story, it looks a lot like Sharma has seen some kind of milestone demo, steered by Bethesda leadership, likely a step up from what fellow Xbox leader Matt Booty saw earlier in the summer when he said the next Elder Scrolls was "coming along well." That milestone likely means The Elder Scrolls 6 is in a playable state, and we've finally reached the beginning of the end of Bethesda's long, self-inflicted nightmare.

Sharma's tweet is far from meaning that the Skyrim sequel is just over the horizon, let alone close to release. But it does mark a major step in drawing to an end a deeply unfortunate era for one of the RPG giants.

Presentations like this are an integral part of game development at this scale, a chance for those at the top to check that the work they're paying for is actually getting done. These milestones are so clear-cut that union reps were able to organize a high-profile protest around Sharma's arrival at Bethesda yesterday. It's likely that what Sharma saw is a heavily-scripted 'slice' of The Elder Scrolls 6 that emphasizes its key features - think something like the Witcher 4 State of Unreal presentation, which looked at tech and world-building more than character or gameplay. But the fact that Bethesda has reached this point – and that Xbox is starting to talk about it publicly – remains a pretty big deal.

It's been more than eight years since Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls 6. In that time we've had little concrete information other than the original 'trailer' and a static image to hint at its setting. That's fewer teasers about the actual content of this game than the number of times Todd Howard has had to publicly apologize for announcing it too early.

Other games are a factor in that long wait. Bethesda can't really be accused of resting on its laurels since Skyrim – multiple remasters are proof enough of that, and the releases of Starfield and Fallout 76 have obviously slowed down progress on a new Elder Scrolls game. But it's easy to forget that all three of those projects were announced at the same time. Fallout 76 was technically unveiled a month or so before Starfield and TES6, but Bethesda's E3 2018 showcase lifted the lid on three substantial RPGs at once. It was always going to be a long wait, even before complications like Fallout 76's launch and remote pandemic-era working reared their heads.

The result of that triple-whammy is that The Elder Scrolls 6 has become the albatross around Todd Howard's neck. Skyrim was a generation-defining phenomenon, and no new IP or multiplayer spin-off was likely to sate fans' desire for its successor. Knowing that game was lurking somewhere towards the bottom of Todd's to-do list hasn't made the intervening eight years go any faster. Instead, as Xbox ceded the last battles of the console war to PlayStation, struggling under the weight of billions in acquisition costs and no successes material enough to pay for them, Bethesda's deliberately slow production times were an increasing problem. And when Starfield failed to make the cultural splash Microsoft needed, the absence of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout became an even larger problem.

Finally, that problem is starting to abate. First with a suite of new Fallout projects to fill the gaping void that still awaits us before Fallout 5, and now with real, genuine signs of life from The Elder Scrolls 6. The wait is likely to be long - I'd be shocked if this wasn't a cross-gen Project Helix launch title. But after nearly a decade since its initial reveal, any sense that this most long-awaited of projects is drawing nearer is an important win for Xbox - one that could prove crucial for its transition into its next generation.

The Elder Scrolls 6 will be hurt and potentially delayed by Xbox layoffs, Bethesda devs expect: "This has had a crushing effect on morale."

In case you were unaware, spin-off action-RPG The Lord of the Rings: War in the North just got a nice new re-release from Aspyr, making it playable on contemporary hardware. Now, Aspyr shares that more Lord of the Rings game remakes are coming, and boy, oh boy, am I ready to replay The Third Age.

War in the North's arrival came as something of a surprise, without much pre-release buzz or discussion. Even more surprising is a tease of what's to come, hidden in the publicity for the adventure game.

"Fans can look forward to even more classic releases by Aspyr from the beloved [Lord of the Rings] franchise in the future!" the press release for War in the North says. "More classic releases," you say? "In the future," you say!? I would like to hear more, please.

I probably won't for some time, but that sounds quite exciting, indeed. We've had a lot of games concerning the One Ring, and the Fellowship, and all that. The most notable of these games are the movie tie-ins for Return of the King and The Two Towers, plus the Battle for Middle-earth strategy games, all of which would be easy money if they suddenly became available again. A glut of these Lord of the Rings games are currently inaccessible due to licenses running out, or other preventative hurdles.

You also have the action-adventure games based on The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring – the latter being unrelated to the other adaptations of the trilogy, because it's based on the book rather than the film – and The Third Age.

Now, listen, if you haven't played The Third Age, let me pitch you: Final Fantasy, but it's The Lord of the Rings. That's it. Sounds cool, right? Well it is, mostly. It doesn't have the depth of a Final Fantasy entry from the same era, but there's still plenty of charm.

Other obvious candidates for remake include The Lord of the Rings Volume 1 from the Super Nintendo, and Conquest, Middle-earth's answer to Star Wars: Battlefront. We'll see what emerges, but Aspyr can't lose here. It's all precious, really.

Lord of the Rings fans need to try this tabletop RPG, especially now it's getting a beginner-friendly update.

Frozen Trail, the next big Arc Raiders update, will launch on October 8, developer Embark Studios announced.

In a new blog post, the studio describes the kind of bombshell changes that the game really needs at this point. The reveal arrives as Arc Raiders' recent Steam reviews dip to 50% positive, a "Mixed" rating reflecting rising cheating issues and a worsening hunger for new content.

Hopefully it's enough to move the needle. Frozen Trail brings a new map where "something big has happened" with the Arc. Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal promises "greater verticality, exploration, and opportunities for discovery." It is, as you'd expect, a mountainous, wintry place.

But we've already seen that a new map alone can't solve Arc Raiders' long-tail problems. Fortunately, Grøndal says Frozen Trail also has a "new high-level challenge" built for "experienced Raiders looking to push themselves even further." It sounds like an expansion of the Queen and Matriarch fights that regularly descend into multiplayer madness.

"Success won’t come easily," Grøndal says. "You’ll need to balance combat, teamwork, risk, and survival in what we believe will be one of the most intense experiences ARC Raiders has offered to date – one that rewards those willing to rise to the challenge."

Rewards are the talk of the town. Most lapsed Arc Raiders players will tell you they ran out of stuff to do or chase (it me). Embark thinks it's got a solution, and it starts with more new Arc enemies that "range from a small and nifty problem-maker to an enormous machine that will halt you in your tracks."

But once again, new Arc aren't enough on their own. Fortunately, Frozen Trail is also looking at "deepening progression" with systemic overhauls and expansions.

"One lesson that’s continued to shape our thinking is that the most rewarding raids are driven by meaningful choices," Grøndal reflects.

"Your Raider Den has served you well, but it’s time to expand. We're building deeper progression systems, giving players more ways to craft their own journey and build toward long-term goals."

Frozen Trail will introduce a new base: the Outpost. "Decorate your Outpost, research new elements of the world, and take your first steps to reclaiming the surface," Grøndal explains.

Additionally, "we’re also adjusting the Skill Tree to give you more agency over the kind of Raider you want to become. Raider Decks have also been on our radar, with the focus on making them more engaging and rewarding for players."

Now we're starting to get into double-take territory. After such a long wait, Arc Raiders is going to need something huge to pull players back and recapture even a fraction of its launch excitement. If these promises of end-game challenges and long-term pursuits are upheld come October, Arc Raiders might actually be back.

Addressing another elephant in the room, Grøndal adds: "Alongside all of that, we'll continue improving the core ARC Raiders experience through ongoing work on matchmaking, anti-cheat, stability, and quality-of-life updates. While these improvements may not always be the headline features, they remain a critical part of making every raid feel balanced and enjoyable."

Arc Raiders makes it official: "Only the PvP fights players choose to initiate" will impact your aggression rating for matchmaking.

Microsoft just dropped an absolutely gorgeous new limited edition Xbox controller ahead of Gears of War E-Day's launch in October. Your typical Emergence Hole design, with dry, cracked concrete splitting open to reveal a blood-red crater within, this thing looks fantastic already. From its textured surface to the Crimson Omen underneath, this is one of the better-looking Xbox Series X controllers we've seen for some time.

Before anyone gets too excited, though, this is just a pre-order. The official Gears of War: E-Day limited edition Xbox controller officially launches just a few days after the game, on October 9, but is now available for $89.99 at Microsoft itself. Interestingly, the UK's Amazon listing seems to suggest a slightly earlier drop on September 30. It'll soon be accompanied by an Xbox Design Labs version featuring art from Luke Preece, a UK-based heavy metal illustrator.

There's one thing I hope for the Gears of War E-Day Xbox controller. I just want those textured craters to be real. Microsoft states that the cracks and gouges from that crater surface are "3D molded", and by the looks of the press shots so far, this could be a grooved 3D design.

All signs point to being able to feel those fractures under hand - big if true.

There's something about a special edition controller that goes beyond the art to actually build something new into its design. Maybe it's the attention to detail or the feeling that you're getting more than a regular $60 Xbox controller in a new shrink wrap, but it certainly goes a long way to justifying a higher 'limited edition' price.

Either that, or this is a very convincing set of press photos, and a particularly realistic 2D design. I would be surprised if that was the case, though. None of Microsoft's other limited edition drops have mentioned that 3D molding production technique, and the texture of that concrete looks impressively detailed.

The Gears of War E-Day Xbox controller carries its design all the way through, from blacked-out (and one solo red) face buttons to COG tags on the battery panel, transparent triggers, and that glowing red Xbox logo at the top.

This is still a standard Xbox gamepad underneath all that, which might be a little difficult to swallow if you're in the market for more pro features (more achievable with a wired device like the GameSir G7 Pro at this price tag). For the Gears looking to update their shelves ahead of launch, though, it's well worth investigating.

• See all Xbox controllers at Amazon

PlayStation fans can hop over to the best PS5 controllers for something more Sony-shaped, but we're also rounding up the best PC controllers and the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers as well.

Update: CD Projekt Red has confirmed the below reported layoffs impacting the team working on the multiplayer Witcher spin-off, Project Sirius.

"We adjusted the size of the Sirius team to reflect the project's needs at this stage of development," a CD Projekt spokesperson tells IGN, confirming that four Boston-based workers and five Warsaw-based employees have left the company. Meanwhile, nine other CDPR employees have been offered the chance to apply for potential roles on other projects in development at the studio.

Original story:

Perhaps standing as one of the least historically healthy upcoming CD Projekt Red games, the mysterious multiplayer Project Sirius is reportedly suffering yet another round of layoffs.

Although we don't know too much about Project Sirius, we do know it's been in the works for a solid four years now under The Molasses Flood and CD Projekt Red… and its teams have already undergone a couple of significant layoff rounds, having taken quite a notable hit back in 2023, "mainly on The Molasses Flood's side."

Now, according to Kotaku, it's all happening yet again.

Apparently, nine developers – albeit unnamed (with no specific roles disclosed) were affected by these most recent layoffs, with Kotaku stating another nine are "in the process of moving to other projects within the studio, alongside a broader shift in development strategy."

It sounds a whole lot like the layoffs a few years back, which were attributed to a "restructure" of sorts as well. Regardless, if true, it's certainly not good news.

As of now, Project Sirius largely remains a mystery in its content. The devs behind it have reworked it a few times now, and CD Projekt Red itself lifted the veil on some sort of free-to-play multiplayer Witcher RPG a couple of months back – but the studio never really confirmed that it was describing Project Sirius.

It's likely that we'll hear more about it soon, though, considering Kotaku's report and its implications.

Here's hoping we end up seeing Project Sirius come to fruition one day – and, if developers have truly been affected by layoffs again, they're able to land on their feet.

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

No Man's Sky is director Sean Murray's "garden." It's the kind of intricate, blossoming arbor you can only get from years of planting and pruning, little but consistent efforts suddenly appearing massive when you step back and take it all in. Getting it shipped and steady was extremely difficult and stressful, Murray tells me, but now he and Hello Games can tend it as they like. Every few months, players will wonder what else the devs could possibly add to No Man's Sky, and then Murray will say, in so many cryptic emojis on Twitter, hold my beer.

"There's now this sort of zen feeling, actually, to working on No Man's Sky – for me anyway" Murray explains. "It is very comfortable and very rewarding to work on. It is that feeling of going out into the garden and working on something that you get a lot of enjoyment from. I think I've learned to really love that."

"That wasn't how I would have thought about it 10 years ago," he adds. That's partly because, 10 years ago, Hello Games was too busy responding to feedback after a launch that underwhelmed many players, while also creating more stuff for No Man's Sky's huge, still mostly unexplored universe. With time, experience, and an irresponsible number of updates, Murray and the team are much more relaxed.

To launch and back

Cyberpunk 2077 was practically unplayable on day one but has since become a generational RPG, yet it's not the greatest comeback in gaming history. To this day, No Man's Sky is what all turnarounds are measured and compared against. Murray still plays and likes the launch version of the game, but many remember it as a gorgeous but empty survival experience hungry for purpose and intent – a garden with incredible crimson grass, but little else.

Nobody could say that about the No Man's Sky of today. Hello Games has added so much – space bases, underwater terrors, planetary biomes, share and social functions, ship fleets, full-throated multiplayer, tech trees, terraforming, story missions, mech suits, crossplay, animal companions, and probably three times more than all of that – that you won't find a barren patch anywhere no matter how hard you look.

"If, 10 years ago, you had said to me, 'Sean, that's what you'll be working on 10 years from now,' I would have been like, 'Oh, I presume I won't enjoy that," Murray says of the game's many patches. "The picture I had in my head of continually updating a game would have been putting out skin packs every month or something like that, or adding a new spaceship every six weeks. But that did not appeal to me and didn't seem exciting. But this, where we're putting out quite big, exciting updates – at least to us – and lots of people play, I find that really rewarding. How could you not like that?"

Murray says Hello Games "used to have a little running joke" about No Man's Sky escaping the gravity of its launch. In anything written about the game, he says, "the first line would always say, 'The disastrous launch of No Man's Sky.' That would be their opener, and then [they'd] talk about the update."

About three years in, this changed. "We had one article and it never mentioned the launch," Murray recalls. "It just talked about the update. Honestly, I felt like a weight had lifted. Until that point, it felt like we were really trying to update the game and maybe no one really wanted it. It was like we were fighting this real uphill battle, but over time, it's become much clearer to everyone that there's this community who really loves the game."

I ask Murray what advice he'd send to the decidedly less zen man he was 10 years ago. To start, he says he'd like to go back even further, a full 12 years. "I would tell that guy, don't do all the press and stuff that you're doing," he says. "I would tell that guy, guess what? You never wanted to do press and be a frontman. You don't enjoy it, you won't enjoy it, and you also won't be very good at it. Just avoid that whole thing and stick to just making games and coding."

The Sean Murray of 10 years ago would get a more heartwarming message. "My god, launch was a really hard time," Murray adds. "That was really hard mentally. Just picture all the worst things that can happen if you're not popular on the internet. I would love to go back to that person and just give them a little glimpse of what No Man's Sky is now. I would not have believed that was possible. I would have found it so incredibly motivational. I would love to have had that vision, to know that this is where it ends up. But I definitely wouldn't have believed it."

To infinity

Murray says Hello Games has been "really lucky with No Man's Sky," but the game has become what it is today because of the studio: a small, smart team of passionate and capable people. Just 12 to 20 devs are working on No Man's Sky at any given moment, and about as many are working on Light No Fire, another deeply ambitious survival game. Across 10 years, Murray says his favorite moments aren't watching record player counts, but rather seeing the Hello Games team solving problems really quickly" and "meshing together."

Vanishingly few games get 10 years of completely free updates. Murray doesn't want to know how much money he could've made by charging for new content, and he doesn't care. No Man's Sky updates remain free, he says, because he and the team want everyone to experience everything the game has to offer. And even after 10 years, Murray believes he could do this "forever."

"Honestly, if people weren't playing No Man's Sky, I don't think we would want to do updates," he reasons. "I don't think the motivation would be there. Obviously, if no one's playing your game, it's sort of pointless, right? But right in the early days, I remember trying to motivate the team to work on the game after launch. We talked about, just pick one person in your mind who you know is enjoying this game, this would be their perfect game if some things were improved or fixed, and then keep that person in your mind and work on it for them. It's going to be better for them. So I think the team does have that attitude, but you need some people to be playing the game, and we've been very lucky in that lots of people play the game."

Still, No Man's Sky may not be updated forever. "There probably is some end date," Murray says. "But if you had asked me five years ago, I would have thought we would have passed it by now." And when active development on No Man's Sky does eventually conclude, Murray probably won't be able to stop himself from occasionally putting something out into the stars.

"I saw MachineGames put out an update for Quake – some new levels," he begins. "And I was a big fan of Quake when it came out. It was one of my real inspirations for getting into making games. And I see that it's a 30-year-old game, and they release some new levels, and I think there are people who would look at that and say, 'What's the point? Why have they done that?'

"For me personally, I think that's so cool and joyous. I'm excited to go back and have that nostalgia and play. And I was talking to someone on the team who is like, 'Who's even making that? Who cares? Who's still there?' Almost the implication of: wouldn't it be sad if it was somebody who had worked on Quake for 30 years? And I just think it's cool. I can see a real joy in making some new levels for Quake."

Now, Murray has his own icon to watch as caretaker. He's a third of the way to 30 years already. His crystal ball can't see 20 years into the future, but Murray wants No Man's Sky, and all games, to last, and I get the impression he'd do just about anything to ensure it does.

"I could imagine us stopping doing updates for No Man's Sky at some point, and then 10 years later, I'm like, 'Let's do an update for No Man's Sky'. I think stuff like that is great. We are in a mindset right now, in the industry, of games just being very consumable. Onto the next one. But I personally really love going back to some of my favorite games and just replaying them when they come to a new platform or something. There's a real beauty in keeping those things alive."

The best survival games to play today.

Keep the Door Locked codes can help you to stay alive during your visit to this cursed hotel, as strangers continually knock at your door. Some of them need help, while others are monsters in disguise, so make your observations and follow the rules as a wrong decision could spell disaster.

The promos released so far will give you plenty of Cash, which you can spend in the Upgrade shop to improve your character or access helpful items such as a Pocket Camera or Remote Breaker. They may also award you with some Tokens to boost future runs in this creepy Roblox experience. If you're ready to check in to your room, then these are the codes for Keep the Door Locked and how to redeem them.

If you'd like some more general promos instead that can be used for all of your experiences, take a look at the latest Roblox promo codes.

All Keep the Door Locked codes

The following Keep the Door Locked codes are active right now:

• ROOM! – 3,500 Cash
• FREECASH – 5,000 Cash
• VISITS8MIL – +1 Revive Token, 5,000 Cash
• FIRST_CODE – 3,000 Cash, +1 Jumpscare Token

Codes for Keep the Door Locked mainly provide you with Cash, which you can spend on a variety of upgrades by accessing the list from the main menu. Some of them also include a Revive Token and a Jumpscare Token, which will help you out on future runs.

How to redeem Keep the Door Locked codes

To redeem Keep the Door Locked codes, you just need to tap the CODE icon on the left of the main lobby screen, then use the ENTER CODE text box that appears to type in a promo before hitting the REDEEM CODE button underneath to get your reward. Note that codes for Keep the Door Locked are not case-sensitive, so you just need to make sure you use the correct spelling.

Expired Keep the Door Locked codes

• No expired codes

There are currently no expired Keep the Door Locked codes, as they have been fairly recently added to the experience. There's no doubt that they will start running out at some point though, so grab the active promos as quickly as possible.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Big changes are coming to the MMOs Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark because Amazon's actually stepping away from handling them. In a welcome change from the norm for these kinds of announcements, it's been revealed the original devs will have more control over both projects going forward.

The news was delivered through community updates. "Starting in Q4 2026, Amazon Game Studios will transition live operations of Throne and Liberty in the West to FirstSpark Games/NC," the post on Throne and Liberty reads. "Together with NC, we are working closely to support a smooth transition and minimize disruption to your experience."

FirstSpark games is the studio behind Throne and Liberty, while NC Corporation handles publishing in Asian regions. Given NC is the entity that handles Guild Wars and several other large-scale series and games, it has the resources to handle something like this without much change or disruption, and it's an added bonus that the devs get to be more involved in the publishing framework.

Lost Ark will go through a similar process. "Starting in early 2027, Amazon Game Studios will end its live service operations of Lost Ark, with Smilegate taking over going forward," reads that post. "We are excited about the future of Lost Ark and feel this is a positive outcome for the game's players, as we are handing the game back to the developers."

Naturally, there are a lot of questions surrounding this for existing players. According to information provided, this'll be relatively seamless in Throne and Liberty. Nothing about how or where you can play is changing - it'll still be available on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S - and the in-game accounts will be the same.

What will be different is where you go for customer support and similar resources, since they'll be sorted by NC, rather than Amazon. "Our goal is to minimize disruption to your gameplay," reads a response to the possibility of disruption.

Meanwhile, Lost Ark players will lose a large amount of their in-game communication history and player nicknames. Other than that, it should be pretty smooth.

I would expect at least a little bit of friction around servers, once the passovers happen and shortly thereafter. Technology like this always needs to be stress-tested, and if you're a fan, you should brace yourself for teething problems.

Beyond that though, it's refreshing to see something like this not be about the games shutting down. Amazon announced it's pulling the plug on New World in 2027, after supporting the survival MMO since 2021. It seems the corporation is divesting entirely from massive, multiplayer releases, and it's nice to have two examples of where that's not a death knell.

15 years later, delisted Lord of the Rings action RPG resurfaces with a remastered version on PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X, and PC

The Elder Scrolls 6 is once again back in the limelight following Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's "live playthrough" of the upcoming Bethesda Game Studios RPG, as fans (and developers, it seems) try to decipher what the game's setting might be.

It's a tale as old as time – The Elder Scrolls 6 theories running rampant online. This time, though, they may actually have a foundation to them, as Sharma's used exactly eight asterisks to note the game's title… and Bethesda did the same in response.

So, what could those eight asterisks stand for? Not Hammerfell, sadly, but that doesn't mean the massive region is off the table entirely. Sentinel just so happens to fit the eight-letter bill here.

Fans have noted as much on a post regarding the "teaser" from Xbox (if you can call it that), suggesting "Sentinel" as a potential title – a potential title that former Bethesda developer Michael Kirkbride himself evidently feels is plausible.

In response to the suggestion, he leaves a comment himself: "Yep." Understandably, the Elder Scrolls veteran's agreement here has us thinking that the Hammerfell kingdom might truly be it.

That's not the only possible setting or title, though, of course… there's still High Rock (if you remove the space between High and Rock, that is), and Starfall, as in Starfall Bay, as an Elder Scrolls stan points out on X.

The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages – the biggest (and best, if I do say so myself) wiki on Bethesda's series – has rounded up plenty of potential fill-ins for the eight asterisks in a thread, too, and there are many.

Orsinium immediately catches my eye, standing as the legendary capital and ancestral homeland of the Orsimer, as does Aldmeris… perhaps because I'm unapologetically a High Elf in every possible Elder Scrolls entry myself, and, you know, because I'd like to see Bethesda shake things up a bit with The Elder Scrolls 6.

What better way to do that than to explore some of the series' mythology in-depth?

Heck, I'd love to see the studio deviate from the timelines it's previously covered by a lot, although I doubt I will (my dream to see the Dwemer and Falmer take center stage will never come to life, I'm afraid).

I'll be happy with whatever Bethesda cooks up at this point, however. I mean, after well over a decade now, The Elder Scrolls 6 might just stand as one of the most hotly anticipated new games – so, yeah.

The Elder Scrolls 6 demo had a surprise guest at Bethesda HQ: a giant inflatable rat set up by protesting employees to watch Xbox execs who oversaw "devastating layoffs"

Vietnam was a truly hellish experience for all concerned, and Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, from Expression Games, has absolutely nailed that. I don't even mean for that to come off as backhanded. The game's firefights are intense, often unfair, sometimes heroic, and occasionally funny. Following on from the success of the original game's medley of WW2's Eastern and Western Front greatest hits, Vietnam is a mixture of what works in that game and a complete abandonment of peer-conflict battlefields. On one side, you have the USA, a military superpower, on the other, the North Vietnamese Army, who are, on paper, vastly outmatched. Just as in real life, however, the NVA have a host of tricks up their sleeves to level the playing field.

The most notable trick at the NVA's disposal is the ability to create tunnels that stretch across the map, linking tunnels and garrisons. While only four of these can be connected at any one time, they create an incredible sense of asymmetric warfare. Enter a tunnel, select where you want to exit, and you'll cut to a first-person cutscene of your (hopefully) claustrophilic soldier crawling to their destination. This is explicitly designed as a counter to the US-exclusive helicopters that are also capable of whisking soldiers across the map, albeit more slowly, and while vulnerable to RPGs and anti-aircraft fire.

M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E

Balance is always a fine line for a multiplayer game to walk, and it must be said, Expression Games has largely done very well. Most of the games I've played across the review period have been proper tug-of-war affairs, but a few times I've questioned whether the balance was actually a little too finely-tuned in favor of the NVA. Part of this is somewhat realistic, in fairness. The maps themselves are a tight mix of jungle, urban environments, and even some fairly desert-like sand dunes, and being able to pop up from a tunnel into the dense camouflage of the jungles accurately represents the home-field advantage of the NVA. That doesn't make it any less frustrating, however, to be shot by an enemy that you can't even see from 150-200 meters.

Part of the terrifying nature of the Vietnam War, for both sides, was that sightlines were appalling. Here, too, if an enemy gets their eyes on you first, you're pretty much done. It's no coincidence that the most memorable firefights in my matches are essentially urban warfare, reminiscent of the climax of Full Metal Jacket. One highlight takes place in a fairly self-explanatory Industrial Zone, all railway lines and warehouses, while another revolves around a dense pier, dodging fire and ducking between cargo containers. Crucially, in both of these battles, I could actually see the enemy.

What's less fun are the moments on certain maps where you spawn and walk 500 meters towards the objective, only to be gunned down by an enemy sniper concealed in a bush half a mile away. Realistic, sure, but fun? No.

When you're in a blazing battle, however, the weapons are an absolute joy to use. Whether you're using an M16 or Type 56, M60 or RPD, they're tremendous fun, and crucially, all sound very distinct from one another. It's easy to identify whether a nearby machine gun is an enemy or a friend, and iconic weapons like the spectacularly bloopy M79 grenade launcher are lovingly rendered. Each weapon also gets a fantastically detailed analysis voiced by the Royal Armouries' Jonathan Ferguson, with this treatment even extending to obscurities like Soviet smoke grenades.

Much like its predecessor, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is a game that really lives and dies by communication. Hopping on voice chat is almost compulsory if you want to play well and be a good teammate. On the rare occasions that I end up with a completely silent squad, the game's fun takes a notable dip. The importance of teamwork is woven deeply into the game's DNA. Each side has a multitude of roles for you to step into, from your standard rifleman all the way up to grenadiers, pilots, tank commanders, and sniper spotters. Thankfully, the game does feature a tutorial this time, making it a much easier affair to get to grips with, and it's very comprehensive, teaching you the basics of a wide variety of specialisms.

Playing as a medic is where I feel like I make the biggest impact so far. In a game that's as brutal as this one, being able to resurrect players (who can be revived unless they've been shot in the head or blown to pieces) is very helpful, indeed. While I still rack up the occasional kill as a medic, it's a slightly less intense affair, but one that still makes you feel like a hero after dragging an ally to safety beneath a hail of gunfire.

I'll be curious to see whether Expression add more factions to the game over time, and what roles each faction may inherit. Let's not forget that when the original title launched, only the United States and Germany were present, and while we're unlikely to see Squad levels of factions – Anzac forces, the Viet Cong, South Korea and the Pathet Lao could all make for interesting additions. It would have been nice to see this at launch, but there's a very good selection of arms and equipment available already, so you're unlikely to get bored anytime soon.

For a game that's so rooted in history, with a strong sense of the atrocious nature of the Vietnam War, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam largely succeeds in recreating reality in all its bloody business. That is for both good and ill, but its undeniable frustrations are never quite able to take away from the game's stomach-churningly brutal battles or its moments of sublime teamwork.

Hell Let Loose: Vietnam was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.

Take a look at our best online games ranking for more to play!

The Gamescom 2026 schedule is set to kick off in a matter of weeks, so if you're looking to get ready for the big gaming event and all of the showcases it will bring, then you've come to the right place.

Not only will the event offer up players attending in person the opportunity to try out some upcoming games ahead of release, but Gamescom Opening Night Live hosted by Geoff Keighley is sure to be packed with fresh looks at some of the major new games landing in the future. And with other major publishers confirmed to be taking part, as well as some other showcases lined up to follow the main opener – including the return of the Future Games Show – Gamescom 2026 looks set to deliver plenty of gaming goodness.

So you don't miss a thing, I'm here to break down the Gamescom 2026 schedule for you right here. With all of the showcases confirmed so far listed with the times and dates at a glance, I've also gone into more detail for each showcase further down, with overviews on where you can watch everything and what you can expect from each showcase. For any other questions you may have, you can find a handy FAQ section at the bottom of this page, too.

Gamescom 2026 dates

When is Gamescom 2026?

Gamescom 2026 week runs from August 26 - August 30. Opening Night Live kicks things off on August 25 before the event opens to the public on August 26 in Cologne, Germany at the Koelnmesse.

You can find all of the dates and times of the showcases happening during the Gamescom 2026 schedule listed below at a glance, with a more detailed overview of what you can expect and where you can watch each showcase further down.

At a glance

Gamescom 2026 schedule

Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026

WHEN: August 25 at 11am PDT / 2pm EDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST

Following a pre-show that will begin 30 minutes prior, Opening Night Live kicks off the Gamescom 2026 schedule with a showcase that promises to feature plenty of premieres, exclusive announcements, trailers, gameplay reveals, and some surprises. Hosted by Geoff Keighley and Eefje Depoortere, we so far know that we're set to see another look at Final Fantasy 7 Revelation with game director Naoki Hamaguchi, and The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: Songs of the Past expansion will also be popping up during the showcase.

WHERE TO WATCH: YouTube / Twitch

Xbox Gamescom 2026 broadcast 1

WHEN: August 26 at 7am PDT / 10am EDT / 3pm BST / 4pm CEST

Xbox will be at Gamescom 2026 to "celebrate 25 years of play" with some of its biggest upcoming Xbox Series X games, including the likes of Fable. With two broadcasts running across the event, the first live show will kick off on August 26 from Cologne, Germany, where we can expect to see plenty of trailers, gameplay reveals, interviews, and some special guests.

WHERE TO WATCH: YouTube / Twitch

Future Games Show at Gamescom

WHEN: August 26 at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST

The Future Games Show is once again returning to Gamescom to bring you over 90 minutes of gaming goodness. Hosted by Resident Evil Requiem actors Nick Apostolides (Leon Kennedy) and Angela Sant'Albano (Grace Ashcroft), you can expect developer deep dives, demo drops, world premieres, and exclusive trailers during the showcase.

WHERE TO WATCH: YouTube / Twitch / Facebook / Twitter / X, and right here at GamesRadar+.

FGS Live from Gamescom

WHEN: August 26 immediately following the Future Games Show

Right after the Future Games Show wraps up, the FGS editorial team will be back to report from the showfloor in FGS Live from Gamescom. Here, you can expect to catch more world premieres with a helping of news, and some interviews in Cologne, Germany.

WHERE TO WATCH: YouTube / Twitch / Facebook / Twitter / X, or right here at GamesRadar+

Xbox Gamescom 2026 broadcast 2

WHEN: August 27 at 7am PDT / 10am EDT / 3pm BST / 4pm CEST

After the initial live broadcast on August 26, Xbox is putting on a second one the following day where you can once again expect to see some new games in action, along with developer interviews, news, surprises, and special guests.

WHERE TO WATCH: YouTube / Twitch

Gamescom Awesome Indies 2026

WHEN: August 27 (timing TBC)

Gamescom Awesome Indies is returning as part of the Gamescom 2026 schedule to showcase some exciting upcoming indie games and spotlight innovative indie games from around the world. Set to run for around 60-75 minutes, you can expect to see a host of game previews, exclusive trailers, interviews, and gameplay for new indie games on the way during the show.

WHERE TO WATCH: YouTube / Twitch

FGS Best of Gamescom

WHEN: August 30 at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST 

Finishing out a trio of digital shows from the FGS team this year, FGS best of Gamescom will see out the event and wrap things up on August 30. During the show, you'll be taken onto the Gamescom show floor and see a recap of all of the biggest announcements, along with booth tours and some developer insights.

WHERE TO WATCH: YouTube / Twitch / Facebook / Twitter / X

Gamescom 2026 FAQs

Open-world behemoth Crimson Desert has been one of the year's big successes, earning developer Pearl Abyss an estimated $200 million in just two weeks and itself a Very Positive Steam rating based on more than 100,000 reviews at the time of writing. Considerable criticism has been levied against its apparently barebones story and since-removed AI-generated assets, but all in all, it's hard to look at Crimson Desert as anything other than a huge win for Pearl Abyss, and that success has seemingly trickled down considerably to the studio's employees.

According to Pearl Abyss's new Q2 2026 financial report, the company's labor expenses shot up 94% quarter on quarter following the release of Crimson Desert due to "performance bonus payments" paid out to 1,035 employees, which was the "total headcount" at the end of the company's second quarter. "While short-term personnel brought in during the first quarter for the launch of Crimson Desert declined, total headcount increased by 1.1% QoQ due to an influx of interns as well as additional hiring in service and marketing functions," the report clarifies.

Another way you can tell Pearl Abyss is super happy about Crimson Desert is that it's already talking about more Crimson Desert. "Crimson Desert is not a one-off title," the company said in the same financial report cited above, opening the door to "sequel titles," multiplayer expansions, and even more DLC beyond the add-on already planned for release this year.

Crimson Desert finally fixes one of its most annoying bugs after weeks of complaints

Oblivion Remastered has by and large been a huge success for Bethesda both critically and commercially, but even more than a year after launch, it still suffers from poor performance including stuttering, frame rate instability, and crashes. The Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game launched today with touchscreen, mouse control, and gyro aiming support, as well as general improvements like DLSS anti-aliasing and "performance optimizations from the original Oblivion Remastered release," according to Bethesda itself. There's been no official sign that these performance improvements are coming to other platforms. Not until now, at least.

"We've heard your feedback asking for an additional patch for Oblivion Remastered," reads a tweet from the official Bethesda Twitter account. "The Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game has a number of optimizations that we are looking into bringing to other platforms and we will share more when we are able."

I haven't had the chance to play Oblivion Remastered on Switch 2, but I played it a lot on PS5 last year and definitely felt like it could use a little polish despite the incredible visual overhaul and systems refinements. The trademark Bethesda jank is well-reserved and arguably necessary, but random frame rate drops and progress-killing crashes are a straight-up hinderance.

Of course, the improvements to the Switch 2 version are frustratingly unspecific, but "performance optimizations" would definitely be welcome on all versions of the game. Hopefully, Bethesda's acknowledgment ultimately manifests into something more than just A Tweet.

Oblivion intern tried to outsmart Bethesda's AI and was stunned when his apple murder strategy actually worked: "I can't believe you accounted for this"

The Max Payne 1 and 2 remake Remedy announced in 2022 and then barely acknowledged at all over the ensuing four years is definitely still happening, but the developer is relying on publisher Rockstar Games to provide more details.

Rockstar and original developer Remedy described their partnership while revealing the remake of the Y2K-noir shooters all those moons ago, with Rockstar founder Sam Houser saying in a press release at the time, "We are massive fans of the work the Remedy team has created over the years, and we can't wait to play these new versions." But he doesn't seem to have much to say beyond that, as Remedy now suggests during a recent financial Q&A session that it can't talk about Max Payne until Rockstar does.

The Remedy moderator addresses the virtual audience of investors, analysts, and media members present for the Q&A and acknowledges that they're all submitting "a lot of questions concerning Max Payne." Makes sense, it's been four years. Everyone wants to know what's going on with the remake as Remedy spits out other games – Alan Wake 2 and FBC: Firebreak both launched since the Max Payne remake's reveal, and Remedy announced the upcoming Control Resonant.

But the Remedy moderator explains that the developer's GTA 6-style silence on Max Payne comes from the fact that, "On that game, Rockstar Games is handling the publishing side. So we cannot comment on those questions."

Earlier in the financial presentation, CEO Jean-Charles Gaudechon reminded everyone, "We are a multi-project studio – Max Payne 1 and 2 remake remains in full production with Rockstar Games." It seems Remedy can't do much more than that, give confirmation. But maybe that's OK – the longer we wait for Max Payne news, the more time you have to practice your Max Payne face.

Max Payne's iconic mug came about because of its creator's university TTRPG club, but he got so "self-conscious" after the game's release that he had to change his hairstyle to remain incognito.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma suggests she's just played, or at least watched, a "live playthrough" of The Elder Scrolls 6.

"Live playthrough of The Elder Scrolls VI: ******** this morning," Sharma says offhandedly in a tweet. "The scale and grandeur are incredible. The story is even greater."

This "live playthrough" will presumably have been a milestone presentation shown to Sharma and possibly other Xbox executives by the development team at Bethesda, likely including chief Todd Howard, but we can't say for sure what the exact environment was like or how far along the demoed build is.

I've no doubt that Elder Scrolls scholars will pounce on the eight asterisks Sharma uses to censor the title of The Elder Scrolls 6, but I wouldn't put too much stock in it just yet.

That's your regularly scheduled The Elder Scrolls 6 teaser sorted. With the energy of someone who's checked the readings, found them wanting, and shattered the nearest glass labeled "break in case of emergency," Sharma's added another breadcrumb to the pile.

In June, Xbox CCO Matt Booty assured fans that, some eight years since its reveal, The Elder Scrolls 6 is "coming along well." He also joined Howard in the illusion that a game can be un-revealed, or at least revealed twice.

"I would say one of the more challenging balancing acts of someone in a job like mine is balancing that you want to go show the world all the cool stuff you're working on, and you want to get them excited early, but we also know that we want to wait till the right moment," Booty said.

"I can tell you, having visited Bethesda and sat with Todd and seen 'Elder Scrolls' playing, it looks amazing, and it's coming along well," he added. "And we'll make sure to announce it and really reveal it at the right time."

Last month, on the heels of layoffs that hit the studio as part of Xbox's widespread bloodletting, Bethesda announced a whole bunch of stuff about the future of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. Amidst this torrent of announcements, The Elder Scrolls 6 was described as Bethesda's development priority, with multiple other games caught in its orbit.

The Elder Scrolls 6, like the pre-production Fallout 5, uses Creation Engine 3, which Bethesda says "extends beyond our teams to the technology, tools, and systems that will power the next generation of Bethesda RPGs."

"Unconscionable": The day of Bethesda's Fallout reveal explosion, its laid-off Montreal devs were told they "would receive the smallest severance legally possible" and "immediately" lose health insurance benefits, union says.

For years, it's been a real challenge getting your hands on the cult classic 2011 action RPG Lord of the Rings: War in the North, but today, Aspyr Media surprise-dropped a remaster of the game on PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, and Steam.

Lord of the Rings: War in the North, a hack-and-slash adaptation of the Tolkien novels and the Peter Jackson movies with its own original story by Snowblind Studios, first released back in 2011 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Steam delisted the game a few years back and it was never ported to modern consoles until now, making it hard to actually play the darn thing unless you owned an original copy and still had a seventh-gen console plugged in. Now, that's all changed with Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Legacy Edition.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North remaster comes with "a variety of modern enhancements," says Aspyr in a press release. You can still team up with three players online and in local split-screen, but now you can swap between player characters on the fly and enjoy new features like "refined enemy-target locking, improved UI/UX with the addition of Health, Mana, and EXP bars for party members," autosave, and gyro controls on PS5 and Switch.

Being honest, I don't have the fondest memories of War in the North and much prefer Stormfront's adaptations of Two Towers and Return of the King, but Aspyr buried a pretty significant tease in its press release for the new remaster. "Fans can look forward to even more classic releases by Aspyr from the beloved franchise in the future," it says, suggesting more Lord of the Rings adaptations are on the way. I would genuinely love nothing more than modern re-releases of Two Towers and Return of the King with local co-op on Switch 2, even if it remains to be seen how competently Aspyr adapted War in the North.

Lord of the Rings fans need to try this tabletop RPG, especially now it's getting a beginner-friendly update.

Hello Games boss Sean Murray has a soft spot for the day-one version of No Man's Sky, for all its faults and all the hard work associated with it. As the dramatically expanded space survival game turns 10 years old, he still occasionally plays that launch version himself.

I spoke to Murray about the past 10 years of No Man's Sky, and I asked him how the game we have today compares to the original idea for what No Man's Sky would be.

"It's interesting. You know, I sometimes see that in the community," he responds. "They'll often talk about the 'vision' of the game. Some people will be like, 'Pathfinder. That was the vision of the game. That was when we reached the vision.' And some people will be like, 'It was there at launch.' And some people are like, 'We still haven't hit the vision,' or, 'We [hit it] now.'

"A game is obviously owned by the players, the people who play it. So they all have a different, nebulous idea of what that game is and what their perfect version of No Man's Sky is. And I sort of see us trying to navigate through that and deliver those things for some of those people."

As he navigates those differing expectations, Murray finds the original version of No Man's Sky to be grounding. "I've gone back to the release version. Not often, but every now and then," he says. "And personally, when I go back, I feel real pride in it. I really love what that game was."

You might assume that the original version of the game is a pain point for Murray. No Man's Sky's blossoming hasn't changed the fact that its launch "was really hard mentally," he says, but that also hasn't soured the memory of the game that he and his team built.

"I personally really enjoy it when I'm playing it," he continues. "It has a really weird, esoteric feel, and I think it feels quite different to lots of other games. It does feel quite barebones in places, but I kind of enjoy that. There's a charm to it. It feels weird, and it feels almost like more of an indie game, more niche, which is kind of my taste to some extent. I'm kind of into that."

For all the many, many updates and features that have come to No Man's Sky, Murray believes that weird, charming, alienating experience still beats in the game's heart.

"If I play [No Man's Sky] today, it has really evolved," he reflects. "You can do so many things now. You can play multiplayer and build your own ships, have crazy fleets of freighters and all sorts of things. But every couple of weeks, I need to start a new save on No Man's Sky and do a playthrough, and when that happens, I still have that feeling. Especially if I've been away from the game for a little bit, I've maybe been on holiday or something, I come back and do get that little kick. Just putting on my headphones, being alone on a planet, fixing up my ship, playing through one of our Expeditions or something.

"I do think that core is still there. I don't know if vision is too pretentious a word, but that was always the core of what we were trying to do. I see it in that release version, and I still think it's there today. But I love that there are all these other things it can be, and I love that I can have some massive space battle or build a huge base to call home. I love all of that being there as well. But it doesn't interfere, for me, with that core thing of just being chilled out, headphones on, listening to the music, exploring the planet a little bit."

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss seems to be preparing itself for an extended crimson universe after the open-world everything game's irrefutable success – it made $200 million in only two weeks, so why shouldn't the developer want to replicate that achievement with a Crimson Desert sequel, or four?

I'm sure this idea is especially tantalizing to Pearl Abyss now that Crimson Desert, which only launched in March, is already seeing its sales slow down according to a new Q2 2026 financial report. Pearl Abyss describes a weak Q2 "as the initial launch impact of Crimson Desert softened," but it seems interested in getting sales churning again by birthing a whole Crimson Desert galaxy. It says it's "open to various possibilities – including add-on content, platform expansion, and sequel titles."

Pearl Abyss is even pondering a multiplayer mode for the currently MMO-lite single-player game, given its "dynamic action combat and expansive open-world structure."

"There is significant potential for expansion into multiplayer modes," declares the developer, though it admits "integrating multiplayer functionality is far more complex than simply adding a new game mode; it represents a major technical initiative that requires comprehensive evaluation of server architecture, game balance, cross-platform stability, and live service operation models."

All of that is for future Pearl Abyss to worry about "Our immediate development priority is centered on Crimson Desert DLCs and our next pipelines," Pearl Abyss explains. It doesn't elaborate further on the possibility of a Crimson Desert sequel, or explain what other "add-on content" it's considering, but Pearl Abyss does, at least, share a couple of hazy details about the upcoming DLC it had confirmed earlier this summer.

While the developer reiterates that this DLC is under construction, it is nonetheless "scheduled for release this year while we refine its content direction and overall quality." We'll learn more about the DLC – including its price, exact launch date, and what the hell it actually includes – in Q3.

Though, Pearl Abyss is already thinking way beyond that. The developer emphasizes "Crimson Desert is not a one-off title." Instead, the developer sees main character Kliff's adventure through sand dunes and imposing monsters as only the humble start to "a core flagship IP of our company designed for longterm growth and expansion."

"Regarding the broader Crimson Desert franchise," Pearl Abyss adds, "we will evaluate future development opportunities in due course as we service the main game and its DLCs."

The developer wants to keep refining Crimson Desert, having already gladly issued a mountain of free updates and improvements to core gameplay in the few months since the fantasy game launched. And after reading Pearl Abyss' most recent financial report, I can understand why. When you think you have a cash cow, you want to treat it well.

Crimson Desert finally fixes one of its most annoying bugs after weeks of complaints.

Having firmly established itself as one of the biggest games of the year, we've been waiting for official word on Crimson Desert DLC since soon after it launched. Developer Pearl Abyss has been clear that expansions are coming, and now it's provided some broad details about what's coming for the fantasy sandbox.

"We are preparing various follow-up strategies for Crimson Desert, including DLCs and platform expansions," the company writes in its latest financial report. "Given that Crimson Desert is an IP with substantial potential for expansion - spanning its rich world, characters, and regions - we plan to extend its product lifecycle through a steady stream of content updates."

This is more or less what the studio and publisher have been saying for some time now, but the next part is what's actually interesting. "We are currently developing the first DLC with the goal of delivering a new gameplay experience, targeting a release within this year," the statement continues. "Details regarding its structure, pricing, and exact release schedule will be shared during the third quarter."

These things are always written in corpo-speak, but that sounds like a release window and a timetable for when we'll hear more. I'm not entirely sure if "within this year" means the calendar year or the fiscal year, but either way, it's not too far off, and knowing the cadence for when we'll see it is coming in the third quarter is helpful as well.

Pearl Abyss finishes by saying nothing is set in stone right now for how much DLC is on the way and what it'll all look like. "Our primary focus is on ensuring the quality and successful execution of the first DLC," it says, which is an entirely fair and grounded outlook.

We mightn't see a roadmap any time soon, but Kliff will have more of the wilds of Pywel to wander through in the not-too-distant future. Glorious.

Crimson Desert finally fixes one of its most annoying bugs after weeks of complaints

With Microsoft's plan to cut 3,200 employees at Xbox still looming over the industry as a whole and affecting various studios, id Software lead services programmer Chris Hayes says developers are left without "the incentive to care anymore."

Microsoft's cuts are certainly no secret, with a plethora of studios – including Bethesda and the like – losing developers mid-production. In a recent interview with Auf ein Bier over on YouTube, Hayes comments on the situation himself, criticizing companies for widespread layoffs.

"They weakened their studios," he starts (thanks, PCGamer). "When they do layoffs, they weaken and devalue their studios – but they don't understand that."

He continues, stating that companies like Microsoft "continue to say that they have strong studios while they weaken them." It's tough to listen to, seeing as he's definitely not wrong.

Heck, CEO Satya Nadella recently claimed Xbox has "the best IP" and "talented studios around the world," calling himself confident that it'll "return" to growth after its worst quarter in years amid the mass layoffs. So, yeah. Definitely not wrong.

Hayes goes on to say that "it is our experience together, our working together, and our past experiences that make the studio good" – and obviously, layoffs don't exactly fit into that picture.

"Yeah, you could just throw away half and bring in more later if you happen to need more number of hours to to fill out the check boxes that you want," the dev then admits… but that's not going to work in a company's favor, really.

"You're just going to end up with a mediocre game and people aren't going to be happy and everyone will know it," as Hayes states. "And that's the long-term thinking that doesn't seem to be present."

Not only is it not present, according to the id Software lead, but companies "fundamentally don't understand what makes the business." They might know numbers for marketing and the like, but not how to deliver a decent product.

"The actual reality of what makes a good game, how it gets done," that's what companies like Microsoft fall short of comprehending, as Hayes outlines. "They're so disconnected from that, they don't understand what it takes to build a team, what it takes to maintain a team – and that failures are important, too."

Rather than throwing in the towel following failures, the dev says it'd be beneficial to learn from them and allow team members to grow. But, sadly, that's far too often not how things work out.

"If you make a mistake, that's the last mistake you make as a team. That team is done. So no one's growing, no one's learning, and as a result, individuals don't have the incentive to care anymore."

I'm immediately personally reminded of The Elder Scrolls Online and how its team over at ZeniMax is back down to the same size it was a decade or so ago – and it's not a good reminder.

Hayes isn't the only person at id Software to speak out about the layoffs, either. Last month, producer Andrew Willis said, "You'll never get another World of Warcraft or Morrowind in the current climate" – a statement that sadly feels like it might just ring true if things carry on the way they've been going.

Here's hoping the industry heals a bit over time and that we see less news about studio reductions.

Mass layoffs expected at EA as the now-private publisher reportedly tells its new debt masters that it's going to cut $700 million in annual costs

Shift Up isn't stopping with Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, with the long-teased Project Spirits set for a proper reveal this year if all continues to go well.

As part of its latest financial briefing, Shift Up says its planning to give the "AAA-class" game an official unveiling this year, and that's not all. Further into the financial presentation, Shift Up offers some more titbits of information to tide us over until then.

Shift Up first tackles a question over Project Spirit's current development status and when it might be unveiled properly. While the Stellar Blade developer isn't going to give much away, we get a sense of what's going on.

In terms of scope, Shift Up says Project Spirit is considered the developer's "next flagship title and a core pipeline project."

When it comes to actually putting the game together, Shift Up says Project Spirits is "progressing smoothly under an efficient and well-structured development process." So much so that the team is aiming to unveil the game in the second half of this year.

In a follow-up answer, Shift Up explains what Project Spirits' "competitive edge" is, given the sort of competition any new game has in the market currently.

"Project Spirits is a AAA-class title built on an 'Eastern fantasy' universe, targeting a global cross-platform live service," Shift Up says. "We are focused on delivering a highly polished game that brings together the development capabilities and live-service experience we have accumulated."

The answer on the whole is interesting, as it sounds like Shift Up is leaning on lessons taken from its other big, rather horny, hit. While plenty may know Shift Up through Stellar Blade, the developer has been working on Goddess of Victory: Nikke for much longer, alongside other games like Destiny Child, which was shut down a few years back.

First released on mobile platforms before coming to PC, Nikke plays the hits as far as gacha action RPGs go. You've got multiple characters you can recruit to your party if you're willing to part with the cash or time – and to make sure you do part with your cash, each anime girl offers the sort of over-the-top proportions you wouldn't want to be seen looking at while working in an office. It's for a story, I swear.

So what links Shift Up's past to its future? Our latest nuggets of information align with the informed community speculation that's been put together through various translated job ads. Alongside multiplayer playable characters, it looks like we're getting open-world areas, towns, dungeons, and a focus on action gameplay.

While Stellar Blade has plenty of semi-open zones and of action-focused combat, everything currently put forward makes this one sound more like Nikke and other games from Shift Up's backlog.

As for when we'll see it, there are a few showcases Shift Up has been known to appear at. Given the update, it sounds like Gamescom is too soon. Tokyo Game Show isn't impossible, but given Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, you'd wonder if The Game Awards is the most likely bet – all things going well, of course.

Either way, it's a long time coming. Project Witches has been kicking around for a while, before it was officially renamed to Project Spirits. The name change came with some new art that was horny enough that cropping it for a previous article was a real chore. Mind you, some weren't impressed, as AI accusations swiftly followed its reveal.

Once Project Spirits is properly revealed, you know people will be closely examining it – for better or for worse.

Stellar Blade: Blood Rain studio CEO defends AI music video because Evie was originally "created from head to toe" by the devs, but fans say that's not the point.

I'm a big fan of turn-based tactics and strategy games, be they my beloved XCOM, Marvel Midnight Suns, Into the Breach, or plenty more besides, so I was definitely intrigued when I first heard about Star Wars Zero Company, the newest addition to the genre set within George Lucas' iconic galaxy far, far away. However, after a chance to speak with two of the leading minds behind Zero Company and playing a preview build of the game for the best part of a week, there's a clear desire on behalf of the developer, Bit Reactor, not to just be yet another in the endless "tactical" morass.

"I want people to think 'this is a great game', I don't want to think of it as a tactics game," says game director Greg Foertsch, who feels modern gaming tastes extend beyond genre. "I don't want to think of it as anything else. I think gamers are more sophisticated now." He goes on to compare it to developing musical tastes, the way that Spotify playlists and similar have exposed people to new songs that they might otherwise have missed, enriching them in the process.

Planning the approach

Talking with Foertsch and narrative director Aaron Contreras, confidence in their audience's literacy comes up more than once, even if it's in the strangely niche inspirations behind it. "We want to build on [Star Wars] from what we've already seen in the TV and film," explains Contreras. "So screwball comedy, film noir, mid-century spy, John LeCarre stuff. I was just bombarding my writing team with influences from there. Our main character is called Hawks, explicitly as an homage to Howard Hawks, who's the director of movies like His Girl Friday or Only Angels Have Wings."

The latter, about a group of pilots in the 1930s, is a major touchstone for Zero Company, which focuses on a mercenary strike force during the Clone Wars who put aside their ideological differences to shoot people for money. "When I joined, we already had the notion of the team that would eventually be named Zero Company operating in this liminal space between the front lines and covert operations, sort of in the middle," says Contreras "That naturally lends itself to a tactical strategy game where you've got people going out and doing sneaky stuff, but you're also doing shooty-shooty all the time."

That murky, grey space is a recurring theme in Zero Company, with your advisors and employers all holding differing worldviews (or galaxyviews, perhaps) and may consequently get shirty with you depending on the choices you make – the choice of whether to hand over a snitch to an enraged mobster springs to mind. "The Clone Wars, for lots of reasons, was just a really natural fit," says Foertsch. "The political climate, all the guardedness of everybody. You don't know who to trust. Like the biases, political and non-political, that people had really lent itself to us telling this kind of story."

Having played it myself, I wouldn't say that Zero Company is a politically charged-game, not in the way that Andor was. Politics exist within the game, but they're largely presented in the same vein as sports teams, and protagonist Hawks pointedly doesn't care who's side you're on as long as they're shooting lasers in the right direction. "If you're a good pilot and you're there when we need you, you're one of us," says Contreras, speaking for their hero.

That tense collaboration will definitely be familiar to those experienced in the tactical strategy genre. Foertsch was the art director for genre titans XCOM 2 and Enemy Unknown before leaving Firaxis and founding Bit Reactor, with gameplay headed up by fellow XCOM veteran and Marvel Midnight Suns alum James Brawley.

XCOM definitely casts a long shadow, perhaps even more than Star Wars itself. I'm steering a small strike force through turn-based encounters, dashing between cover and firing at aliens, before grabbing a paycheck and returning to headquarters to knock together new facilities and hand out different flavors of grenade. But despite gamers being "more sophisticated" than they used to be, there's a clear effort being made to open up Zero Company to gamers who might normally be a bit intimidated by a more niche genre.

Having a player-made hero on the battlefield, rather than micro-managing through earpieces, was part of that effort to adapt, and non-negotiable to Contreras. "I pretty much said, 'if you want me to come on board, Greg, we need to have a character who's driving the story, who's there, who's on the ground, because that's who we empathize with in Star Wars. You're there with Han and Leia and Luke in the field. If we have an avatar character, that character needs to be there on the ground.'"

Do, or do not

It's for that reason that permadeath, often a staple of the genre, was nearly abandoned in the design phase. "We had a healthy debate around that, and at times I took the perspective that we should pull it," says Contreras. "I'm really happy we landed where we did with permadeath, and I'm very happy it's part of the game."

I am too. Permadeath is a sharper edge in a game that is perhaps a little too eager to sand them down, at least in my experience of it so far. Run, take cover, shoot if you have a target, go to overwatch if you don't. These are very familiar beats, and while Zero Company can certainly be fun, it doesn't yet gel with these ambitious goals and inspirations, nor entirely match with an earlier presentation from Foertsch that bordered on fiery, when he said that "the tactics genre has the most potential to be innovative, the most room to grow," and said "this is where the genre until now had just scratched the surface," when it came to providing cinematic experiences.

That's not to say that Zero Company is without its wildcard elements. Jedi and Astromech droids later join the team, allowing you to roll a quartet of beeping, quasi-sentient mailboxes into a firefight and wish them good luck, which is undeniably entertaining and hopefully a sign of greater creativity to come, particularly in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 world where turn-based dynamics have returned to the mainstream.

Space combat, perhaps? "No, we've done some games before that had interception and stuff," says Foertsch, referring to XCOM. "Each game kind of dictates what it needs, and in this case, that was one of the things, like fog of war, that just wasn't something that made sense to us early on."

Despite its simplicity, I still enjoyed my preview of Zero Company, and hope it carves out more of an identity as it progresses past that first act. Foertsch's "sophisticated" comment sticks with me in part because I feel sure that a sophisticated audience could handle a more complex dish than what I've sampled so far.

Still, it was only a preview build, and whatever the final result, Bit Reactor's passion is undeniable. "We hope that's recognized by the audience and see that we're trying to honor this great legacy of the genre of strategy games while picking our battles about where we must step up."

Star Wars Zero Company is out on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC on August 27, 2026.

Want an early tactical fix before Zero Company flies into view? Find out the best strategy games you can play right now!

The line between a good turn-based strategy game and a great turn-based strategy game is not a clear one, but after 12 hours with Star Wars Zero Company, I'm afraid it strays ever-so-slightly onto the wrong side of that line. It's a solid tactics game; grounded in its setting, satisfying in its combat, and with squad-based progression that's quick to reward intelligent choices. But it's also lacking the playful spark I think it needs to sustain what promises to be a meaty campaign.

Zero Company is a mercenary outfit that finds itself working for Republic Intelligence during the Clone Wars. Led by player-character Hawks, who I outfit as a sharpshooter in my hands-on, the crew is a rag-tag group of exiles from around the galaxy: discharged clone Trick; one-armed boxer Kabbney; exiled aristocrat Jae. Your medbay droid is also your pilot, your mechanic is clueless, and your accountant is a stressed-out former Separatist with a giant chip on their shoulder. Your debt to the Hutts is coming due, and while Zero Company's narrative thrust is hardly unique in that sense, it's enough to get the ball rolling on a story that weaves through the background of one of Star Wars' most sprawling eras.

All those different characters might imply an array of different playstyles, but for the first several missions you're limited to a group of characters that rely almost entirely on their skills with a rifle. Different weapons allow for different strategies; Hawks stays at the back with the sniper, which I'm quick to enhance with weapon mods and an ability that heightens their damage and accuracy as long as they stay in one place; Trick will unload as much of his weapon as he can in one burst, doing more damage the more Action Points he uses; Kabbney and Jae, who round out my team for almost the entire preview, juggle melee attacks and the ability to fire twice if you manage your AP effectively.

All that shooting could be augmented by character-specific abilities. Hawks hands out extra AP. Trick can charge up a long-range explosive strike. 'Utilities' – throwable items like grenades or stims – offer alternative ways to help friends or hurt foes. But, the best way to chew through enemies quickly is to make use of Zero Company's Backup system. Each turn, one character can call for help, instructing a given ally to fire a free shot at a given target. When properly lined up, and with abilities like Overwatch also in the mix, Backup adds a tactical edge that can see even the spongiest foes go down in a hail of blaster fire.

Who shot first?

That careful arrangement of all your sights in the same direction is one of Zero Company's most satisfying tactical systems when it works in your favor. But, it quickly starts to feel like a bit of a one trick droid. As much as mowing down squads of battle droids is as cathartic as it is in the best Star Wars games, it's not likely to hold up a 30-hour campaign.

The intended solution is in characters that move away from the traditional blaster-focused combat. Early on, one of those is an Astromech droid who rolls into battle armed not with a blaster, but with a cocktail of grenades and the ability to buff allies and disrupt enemies. Later on, you join forces with a Jedi Padawan whose kit focuses on controlling the battlefield – Force pushing enemies around and deflecting blaster fire back at them.

The trouble is, those characters don't really feel different enough from their traditional counterparts to warrant their existence in your squad, especially once you account for the bond-based progression system that encourages using the same team, and a permadeath system that's far too soft to require actually rotating through new characters. A pyromaniacal support droid and a Jedi should feel like brand-new ways to experience Zero Company, but they interact with the limited combat arenas in a way that's too similar to everyone else.

And that's where Zero Company fails to become a great tactics game so far. The best turn-based RPGs of the past decade are those that show you a battlefield and a ruleset, and set you free to navigate them as you see fit. Sometimes, that means games like Baldur's Gate 3 where combat is an enormous sandbox. Other times, it means the guesswork and deadly stakes of XCOM 2. Even on a small scale, the likes of Fights in Tight Spaces and Tactical Breach Wizards prove that a playful approach – driven by experimentation rather than optimization – are what elevate an amazing strategy game. Zero Company is perfectly competent, but it's missing the whimsy that it should have been able to take from a galaxy far, far away.

Here are some of the best tactical RPGs you can play while you wait for Zero Company.

Much of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation remains a mystery, though fans are hoping that the social media activity of a Japanese icon who featured in some of the JRPG's spin-offs is teasing some big plans.

Over on Instagram lately, Japanese musician Gackt has posted an image of himself cosplaying as Genesis Rhapsodos, for whom he provides the inspiration and Japanese voice in the Final Fantasy 7 spin-off games Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus. What's more, the song playing in the background of the post appears in Dirge of Cerberus.

The cheeky social media is interesting for a few reasons, though there are some caveats. Gackt's connection to Final Fantasy 7 has been there for a long time, and it's something he often posts about. Looking at his Instagram page, he often posts old clips and performances – some of which include himself dressed up as Genesis. There have been a few times over the years that supposed teases lead to little.

However! Sometimes they do lead to something. As one fan on Twitter notes, just days before the Crisis Core remake was announced, Gackt posted about returning to a studio he hadn't visited in "over ten years" for some voice recording. Hm!

Either way, fans are speculating with excitement. Dirge of Cerberus is yet to get a remake, sure, though something else to consider is the timing, as fans wonder if Genesis might appear as a boss fight in the Remake trilogy's grand finale. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation boss Naoki Hamaguchi has spoken a few times recently about how the spin-off games and Advent Children film tie into the grand finale, and did so recently at Final Fantasy 14's Berlin Fan Fest.

"I see a great deal of that discussion," he said at the time to YouTuber Ashif’s Release Notes. "I've seen a lot of people discussing and speculating off the back of interviews with myself and with Kitase-san, 'Is the ending of this going to connect to Advent Children?'

"But it's not a question. I don't want to sit here and say it connects to this, it connects to that. But obviously, there are a lot of other titles within the VII universe. So, we're talking about Advent Children, we're talking about Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core. And we want to bring all of those in and make sure we're not leaving those out."

Hamaguchi goes on to say that "once we have all of those in place, we're looking towards the ending." The question the developers are theoretically asking themselves is "what kind of ending are we going to head for in Revelation that still has those ties?"

Naturally, you'll have to wait for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation to release next year to truly find out, though Gackt's social media activity isn't making the wait any easier.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director says each character in the RPG only has 4 jobs because making games is so much harder now.

Believe it or not, GTA 6 is apparently seeing more Ultimate Edition copies selling pre-launch than those of the Standard Edition version – $100 price tag be damned.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick confirms as much in a new interview with CNBC (available to listen to via YouTube), admitting that the Standard Edition (which costs $80) is not selling equally to the Ultimate (priced at a higher point of $100).

"Actually," says the executive, "it is skewing more to the premium edition." Zelnick explains that this might have to do with the Grand Theft Auto series' longtime fans.

According to the Take-Two lead, these fans are likely the folks who are opting for the more expensive version of GTA 6 – you know, commitment to Rockstar Games' beloved franchise and all that. "But that might be a reflection of the fact that the most avid consumers are the ones who are pre-ordering," as Zelnick puts it.

He also explains the difference between the Standard and Ultimate Editions of the game: "You get additional content" in the latter.

We do already know what this translates to: some digital goodies, but nothing that impacts gameplay, and sadly, no real-life collectibles. With that in mind, I'm honestly personally a bit surprised to learn that more Ultimate Edition pre-orders are going out than the Standard Edition, but I suppose Zelnick's point makes sense.

Fans have been waiting nearly 13 years for GTA 6 to hit the market, and nostalgia itself is no laughing matter.

I'm interested to see how this balance changes come the GTA 6 release, as well as its launch (that we all hope will happen) on PC – will it still favor the premium version?

Don't expect a GTA 6 discount anytime soon, says Take-Two CEO: "We preserved our pricing on Grand Theft Auto 5 for a very long time"

We are, as of now, just over three months away from the release of GTA 6. Despite the premium edition costing $100, pre-orders have been strong, and if you're someone who's holding out for the price to drop, you might be waiting a considerable amount of time, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says.

During an appearance on CNBC, Zelnick addressed whether there'll be any kind of discount for the holiday period this year. The short answer is there won't, and we shouldn't expect to see one in the near future either - unless retailers take matters into their own hands.

"We establish our pricing, and then storefronts can do what they wish," he says. "We don't have any ability to control that. So if they reduce the price, they're obviously reducing their margin on the sale."

He mentions there'll be "certain situations" where stores may "price down" to push people towards other products available in the same retailer. This is where your bespoke console bundles come in and such.

Given the widespread appeal of GTA 6, and how it'll likely encourage many to finally pick up a current-generation system, I would expect to see quite a few of these packages across the major chains. But that's at the discretion of those companies, based on the wholesale cost from Take-Two and Rockstar. Zelnick points to the game's predecessor for how GTA 6's pricing will look one, two or three years from now.

"We preserved our pricing on Grand Theft Auto 5 for a very long time," he explains. "Much longer than a standard release and entertainment property."

He concedes that the price will "eventually" go down, but we're talking potentially years from now. GTA 5 has been a consistent best-seller since launch, routinely re-entering games charts around the world to this day. There's never been a need to substantially reduce the cost, though it has been offered for free on several occasions now.

But that's over the course of 13 years. You could be waiting a decade before GTA 6 goes the same route. I'm not saying it's likely, just possible. Either way, if you want to play it soon, you'll need to pay at least $80.

GTA 6's divisive Netflix exclusive gameplay reveal is just the start, Take-Two boss promises: "There's appetizers, main course, and dessert to follow"

Saber CEO Matt Karch has belatedly weighed in on Borderlands 4 developer Gearbox taking shots at Embracer, a company that used to own both studios. According to Karch, "without Embracer, Randy is performing magic tricks at birthday parties for a living."

A few weeks ago, Saber published a new trailer for its Crazy Taxi riff Rideshare Simulator. At first, there are few things that really catch the eye. The narrator – and our car driver – mentions coming across some odd folk in his line of work, like someone going to a medieval feast, an older chap who reckons his grandson is a failure, and someone who has been banned from the aquarium.

And then, our narrator says, "when I think I’ve met the randiest of passengers, someone even stranger gets in." A bit of a weird thing to say, but then the license plate of the car comes into view: "USB DRV."

Ah, we're taking a shot at Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford, then. Just to really drive the point home, we also see a cogwheel between the two words on the Texas-based license plate.

It's hard to say if the passengers themselves are a jab at Pitchford, though the overall intent is fairly clear. GameFile also reached out to Saber to make sure, and CEO Matt Karch has the following to say:

"The dig is because Randy took shots at Embracer in Borderlands 4. Without Embracer, Randy is performing magic tricks at birthday parties for a living."

Some explanation is in order, I suppose. The 'USB' reference relates to a past legal episode involving Randy Pitchford and, you guessed it, a USB stick he left at a Medieval Times restaurant. You can search the internet to find out what was on the drive, if you really want to. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the various legal matters related to the USB were settled in late 2019, and Pitchford was "exonerated."

So why is Saber taking issue with something Gearbox said about Embracer? Essentially, both developers were owned by Embracer at one point, and, according to GameFile, Karch wasn't impressed with Pitchford at all.

Eventually, both studios would split with Embracer. Saber was bought out by a group of investors that was led by Karch, and Gearbox went to long-time Borderlands publisher Take-Two. It was a messy time for Embracer, which either parted ways with many of the studios it had acquired or shut them down entirely, resulting in hundreds of layoffs. It also earned Embracer an unwelcome reputation, which various company leaders have addressed several times.

As for Gearbox, Randy Pitchford would later say that Borderlands 4's story was partly inspired by its relationship with Embracer and the change in ownership. "There’s this cultural and emotional shift in me, personally, and at the studio," he said at the time. "What does it mean to trade some autonomy for organization?"

And then there are Borderlands 4's in-game jabs that Karch notes. Fairly early into your playthrough, you'll come across a location called Embracer's Bluff, which features a rundown town ruled by a king in a hot tub and a talking AI hot tub. Hm, I wonder what that's all about.

As we now know, though, Saber wasn't impressed at all.

Gearbox owner Take-Two is "thrilled" with Borderlands 4 even though some fans weren't thrilled with it at launch.

Despite playing "questionable" characters in both Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, voice actor Devora Wilde says she found it "fascinating" how differently the pair were treated by fans.

Speaking to IGN, Wilde says, "What I've found is that even though Clea is a questionable character, people have been willing to give her more grace - a lot more grace - than people have with Lae'zel. And I find that so fascinating."

Players' comments and reaction across the two games differ substantially, Wilde states, even though she can see a clear comparison between the two characters.

"People's reaction to Clea is like, 'Yeah, but she's justified, she's the only sane member of the family, she does this because of this.'" With her Baldur's Gate 3 character, however, Wilde says the response was far more black and white: "With Lae'zel, people were like, 'No, she's just mean, she's just bad.'"

If I had to guess why that difference has emerged, it comes down to why those characters react as they do. Clea comes across as pretty cold and ruthless, but there's a clear attempt to do the best she can for her family - most of whom have lost themselves to the painted world - even if it makes them unhappy in the short term.

Lae'zel, on the other hand, is primarily out for herself and her creche, and is also quick to let you know how unimpressive she finds you. It's that combination of relative selfishness and a sharp tongue that probably puts a lot of players off the character before they can get to see her soften as the RPG progresses after the first act.

Baldur's Gate 3, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 star didn't believe she was in Space Marine 2 until fan messages sent her sleuthing through receipts.

Somehow, No Man's Sky is 10 years old. I remember its launch like it was yesterday, walking across the street to Game Store™ from my then-place of work, the heels of my shoes threatening to melt into the gravel on another sweltering August in Phoenix afternoon, nonetheless determined to pick up the new space survival game everyone was talking about. It was a little barebones, but I loved the sense of vast loneliness and freedom of exploration. Today, it's like a whole different game, and if Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray has his way, it still has a long, interplanetary road ahead.

"If people keep playing it, I could work on this forever. I love it," Murray tells GamesRadar+. "You've got to understand, this was a game that when I was a kid, you could have asked me, and I would have been like, 'Yeah, that's a dream game. I would love that to exist'. So I feel very lucky from that point of view, and I would be happy working on this."

These days, Hello Games has an extremely passionate following thanks in large part to Murray's vision. There's a ton of anticipation for his studio's next game, the ambitious new open-world adventure Light No Fire, but even 10 years later, playing No Man's Sky feels like being part of a community, and that communal environment drives Murray to keep doing what he loves.

"It's very easy to get motivated to work on something when there's a whole bunch of people who are enjoying it. That's just a lovely feeling," he says. But even so, Hello Games is a team of dozens of developers contributing to the player-facing product, and Murray says the studio is at its best when everyone is passionate about what they're working on.

"We don't really have much of a management structure at Hello Games," he says, laughing. "So we don't really have the ability, even if we wanted to, to make people work on things they don't want to work on, so the studio, the way it's set up, it very much has to come from the people working on it. So as long as they're motivated, we're happy to keep making cool things, but it has to come from the team having ideas that they're excited about and things that they're excited about putting out there in the world. As long as that happens, we'll keep updating it."

It definitely sounds like Murray's heart is still very much in No Man's Sky even as development ramps up on Light No Fire, and he tells us the seemingly countless major updates released since the game's 2016 release haven't worn out the broader team at Hello Games, but he's a realistic person at the end of the day. "There probably is some end date [to No Man's Sky]," he admits.

"But if you had asked me five years ago, I would have thought we would have passed it by now, and it is a surprise to me. I remember finishing Voyagers last year, which did incredibly well for us in terms of highest player number since launch, and then turning around to the team, and I sort of expected them to say, 'Yeah, we're kind of done,' but instead they were just buzzing, because they've just shipped this thing. So many people are playing it, and excited, and they're like, 'okay, now we could add this and this and this and this.'"

There's no telling how long No Man's Sky will keep reaching out past the stars, and we'll probably get a clearer indication when Light No Fire launches (no release date yet), but unless you've been playing it full-time, every day, for 10 years, I'm sure there are still a few corners of its universe you've yet to explore.

Last year's The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered did a lot more than slap a fresh coat of paint on the 2006 RPG, with environments (but not necessarily character models) that look straight out of a 2026 AAA release, but as anyone who's played the original game knows, it's still very much Oblivion, lovable jank and all. While there was a lot of deliberation about what and what not to modernize during development, Todd Howard and co. drew a hard line between remaster and full-blown remake, opting to market the game as a polished-up version of the original rather than something all new.

That's because, in the words of associate art director Dan Lee, it shares the same "bones" as the original Oblivion. "Obviously the art is remake territory, it was all remade," Lee tells Nintendo Life. "But it really came down to Todd's perception of - well, the core bones are still the original game. So it's disingenuous to call it a remake. We're taking the core engine and then laying all this other stuff on top. We did some other little tweaks and things like that. But the core is still mostly there."

You might think the distinction between remaster and remake is fairly straightforward, and to some degree it is, but since there's such a wide spectrum between straight-up ports and ground-up remakes, the lines can be a little fuzzy and lead to all sorts of controversy when it comes to pricing and availability alongside the originals. On the other hand, there are remakes that are so different from their original counterparts as to be virtually considered separate games, leaving zero ambiguity about how to label them.

"There are all kinds of games that fit on the scale where it's just high resolution and then maybe they upgrade some of the textures or update some character models," adds Lee. "But then you can go all the way over to Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which are clearly remakes. They're taking the original vision and then just making completely new games based on that vision. Whereas here, we have lots of elements of the original game intact."

I think Bethesda made the right call sticking to remastering Oblivion rather than remaking it. Both Oblivion and Oblivion Remastered are gorgeous games and, with a remake, the studio would've likely had to reallocate resources from The Elder Scrolls 6, which was announced eight long years ago. No distractions, is what I'm saying.

Oblivion intern tried to outsmart Bethesda's AI and was stunned when his apple murder strategy actually worked: "I can't believe you accounted for this"

Two years ago, right around the time of Palworld's early access launch, we reported on a highly amusing bug that caused a Lucky Vixy to balloon in size and take up an entire base. Well, Palworld's 1.0 update is truly a full-circle moment for the game and GamesRadar+, as here we are more than two years later covering the return of the gigantic Pal bug, which we love.

"I picked up Sekhmet and she became bald (until thrown down) and at least 200x her normal size," reads a post from Reddit user RanidSpace accompanying some pretty unbelievable screenshots of what's purportedly a completely vanilla version of Palworld. "No mods and was visible by all players in multiplayer."

It's unclear how common this bug is, but apparently it doesn't pop up enough for Pocketpair to do anything about it. In fact, a quick Google search yields more than a few instances of mysteriously huge Pals, and a commenter on RanidSpace's post includes a picture of a supersized Suzaku.

Maybe, just maybe, Pocketpair knows how to distinguish a good bug from a bad bug, because this is most definitely just a good and fun thing that should be in more games. Not saying there's any link between the two games, but I would absolutely love a giant Charmander in Pokopia.

After all, Pocketpair head of publishing John "Bucky" Buckley recently proclaimed Palworld 1.0 is "for the fans," and I can't think of anything more player-friendly than behemoth Pals.

Yes, the Palworld devs see your cursed NSFW mods: "I don't think this is official"

With EA officially private under Saudi ownership, Rockstar owner Take-Two is now comfortably the largest publicly traded game company in the US, as GamesBeat points out in a recent interview with T2 CEO Strauss Zelnick.

On this point, Zelnick says, "I don't love winning by attrition, but I'll take it."

Zelnick examines the landscape of the games industry, which has been rattled by ceaseless layoffs, record acquisitions, widespread cancellations, persistent funding droughts, and other systemic issues at all bands.

The EA takeover, for one, doesn't change much in Zelnick's mind. "I don't think EA becomes any less competitive from our point of view, and they have a great owner and they have a lot of other assets," he says. Some of those assets are notably expected to be cut loose, along with plenty of EA staff reportedly fearing layoffs, in the coming quarters.

"We assume that our competition is always aggressive and performing, and we're always running scared," Zelnick explains. "So I don't see any of that changing. We do think there are benefits to being a public company if you're transparent, which we are, and honest, which we are."

Zelnick, who's now 69 and notes he's "been running public companies since I was 29," suggests public companies don't have to be, and perhaps don't always deserve to be seen as, bad. A key strength of being on the stock market is, "when you're trading well, it can give you a currency with which to pursue accretive acquisitions, which we've done," he reasons.

"The people who hate running public companies are the people who hate telling the truth and showing up and doing the hardest thing and being compliant while they're at it," he argues. "That's not troublesome for us."

As it happens, Devolver Digital – a giant among indies, but a minnow to Take-Two – just announced plans to stop being a publicly traded company, arguing that the private life better serves its games.

Zelnick has less to say about the Xbox layoffs, which have seen multiple studios spun out, cut in half, or otherwise out valuable developers. "I don't feel comfortable commenting on Xbox's business, except [to] say that they're trusted and valued business partners [and] that I wish them well," he adds.

On the subject of staffing during this time of contraction, Zelnick sees Take-Two doing better than most.

"We've continued to be in growth mode more or less all of the time," he says. "We had some reductions in force around the Zynga acquisition. And we subsequently had some minor reductions in force, very selectively. But once again, we expect to be in growth mode creatively. We don't want to expand the size of our business footprint, but I think we will probably continue to expand the size of our creative footprint as we aim to deliver more hits to the marketplace."

Earlier this year, Zelnick claimed "big tech companies who laid off thousands of people and said it was because of AI were not telling the truth."

Through all the turmoil, games continue to come out and break through, and seemingly record pre-orders for GTA 6 would have you believe gaming is bigger than ever. A non-trivial chunk of Take-Two's valuation notably stems from confidence in GTA 6.

Zelnick pulls the camera all the way back to examine the roughly "2.5 billion people" who play video games. He thinks there are more gamers out there, and better ways to monetize 'em, too.

"I think we're scratching the surface still, both in terms of the size of the audience and the monetization of that audience," he argues. In a separate response, he adds, "I think there will be new formats, new form factors in the fullness of time. I don't think we've reached the creative or technical [peak of] aspects of the business."

With GTA 6 digital only, Take-Two boss says discs "don't really make sense" – "if you're already connected, who cares if you download digitally?"

We are about two weeks out from Gamescom: ONL. The annual conference is going to deliver updates galore for your most anticipated video games and be packed with plenty of new reveals that catch you by surprise. We love to see it.

The Geoff Keighley-organized Opening Night Live showcase is set to take place on August 25, and it's realistically the last opportunity for independent developers and prominent publishers alike to pitch players on why their games are worthy of your time and attention this side of The Game Awards.

As you're probably aware, there's a fairly significant release positioned between Gamescom and The Game Awards in December. GTA 6 lands on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X. It's been 13 long years since the last new Grand Theft Auto game, and the excitement is so palpable that it has generated this sort of vortex – one that has violently shifted the 2026 schedule around November 19.

GTA 6 is almost guaranteed to be the biggest entertainment release in history. That was a milestone set by GTA 5, having made over $800 million globally in its first 24 hours before reaching $1 billion in just three days. It's estimated that the 2013 release has accumulated $10 billion in revenue across 230 million copies sold. For context: It took Avengers: Endgame five days to reach that same $1 billion threshold.

Understandably, publishers not called 'Rockstar' aren't interested in going anywhere near November. The end of the year is always congested, as studios look to get their games out in front of the public ahead of the holiday purchasing surges. 2026 is looking a little different. September and October are now minefields of excellent-looking releases, and there simply isn't going to be time to play them all.

There are, by my count, 18 essential AAA games coming out (representing every major genre and style) within eight weeks one another – not to mention some exceptionally ambitious indies, long-awaited ports, and live-service behemoths leaving early access. November and December are comparatively barren, such is the perceived risk of landing in Grand Theft Auto's immeasurable orbit.

All eyes on ONL

That's why something like Gamescom: ONL – and the satellite shows surrounding it (do tune into the Future Game Show on August 23, I think you're going to enjoy) – will be so essential. It feels like the last chance for upcoming releases to get any real visibility before the world migrates to Vice City.

There aren't all that many monocultural moments in gaming anymore. Grand Theft Auto will be one for sure, but Gamescom 2026 should be another. A rare opportunity where the collective consciousness of players will be focused on a single event.

If an incoming release wants any chance at cutting through the noise this fall, it'll need to have a big presence at ONL. That seems especially true now that the first GTA 6 extended look is set to land 48 hours after the showcase.

There's another reason the gaming event will be worth paying close attention to this year, as it's almost certainly going to be where we get a clearer picture of just how nightmarish the spring is going to be. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, God of War Laufey, Persona 4 Revival, Fable, and Metro 2039 are expected to launch within a week of one another in February and I'm certain that they won't be alone.

Don't be surprised to see some publishers use Gamescom as the last opportunity to delay games out of the September-October 2026 window into January-March 2027 – or for it to get stacked with a massive amount of AAA titles that otherwise decided to sit the GTA 6 war for attention out entirely.

Which is all to say, make sure you have your eyes on Gamescom: ONL 2026 come August 25 – it's sure to be one for the ages.

Up Next:

Xbox has apparently fixed the bug that contributed to some players being unable to launch games, including those on physical discs, in a new update it's deploying. Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet hopes the fix sticks – and that Xbox products in the future won't be so sensitive.

Van Vliet is one of Xbox Game Studios CEO Asha Sharma's many new executive recruits – he's been the CTO since May, and he oversaw Microsoft's Azure OpenAI business product before that. So no wonder he sounds nervous. Two weeks ago, Van Vliet apologized for the "unacceptable situation" that was Microsoft's game launch bug, and he writes in an update on Twitter that Xbox engineers are actively looking for ways to improve its clearly vulnerable software.

The CTO explains that "an underlying service required for XBOX Home Console sharing and Game Pass purchased content, as well as some PC scenarios" completely toppled after a system update. This issue then met and joined forces with a bug buried "in the XBOX client software stack," says Van Vliet, making "other license checks" fail and triggering "cascading failure scenarios that affected some players' ability to launch games."

Xbox will take over the "underlying service" that failed and, up until now, sat "outside of XBOX," according to Van Vliet's first Twitter post on the subject. That patch that includes the necessary bug fix to go along with that approach "becomes mandatory August 17," says Van Vliet, after which, he has big plans.

The CTO half-explains, "Our engineering and operations teams are looking broadly across our stack to improve reliability of our products and services. We will have more updates to share in the weeks and months ahead as we roll out some great new features for players, paired with quality-of-life systems updates." Vague – but who doesn't like "quality-of-life systems updates"?

"Appreciate the explanations," one Twitter poster says honestly, "even though I don't understand what it means."

Xbox is reportedly testing a feature to digitize physical game collections as PlayStation decides to phase out discs.

If the Overwatch battle pass already made your eyes glaze over with its multilayered doodads and rewards, cover your eyes now, because Blizzard is about to make it substantially more complicated – but also better, if Blizzard plays its cards right.

The Overwatch "battle mass revamp" will arrive tomorrow, August 11, as producer director Chris McCabe explains in a newly minted blog post. You can also see a bit of the new BP in action in the new Season 4 trailer (below).

With it, Blizzard is splitting today's 80-tier battle pass system into five shorter "tracks" which players can choose from at the start of each season. Each track leads to different rewards, letting players select what goodies they want to unlock first.

As McCabe explains, "if you’re a Support player, you may want to unlock a Brigitte skin as soon as possible. By selecting the track that features Brigitte’s skin first, you’ll now earn a new skin for our cat-loving engineer far faster than if her skin was placed in, say, tier 70 of the previous Battle Pass design."

Importantly, you can still unlock and clear all five tracks to obtain absolutely everything. "Play through one last track and you’ll finish the 80-tier pass; you’ll then start earning the usual prestige titles after that," McCabe adds.

I've progressed more battle passes than modern medicine would advise, and in my mind this proposition immediately raises two red flags: how long do these new tracks take compared to the old system, and how can I tee up all five tracks?

Blizzard is quick to address these points. "It’s important to call out that the number of tiers in the Battle Pass isn’t changing and you won’t have to work harder to complete your Battle Pass," McCabe tells Overwatch fans. So, the total reward count and the amount of time (or pass XP) it takes to unlock those rewards should stay the same.

Additionally, McCabe says "you can also change which track is active at any time, giving you total control over which rewards you want to progress toward."

The cherry on top is what Blizzard is calling a "Tier Hack" system. Uncover your battle pass-fearing eyes, because this bit sounds like a meaningful upgrade.

The buyable premium version of the Overwatch battle pass will now come with one Tier Hack that can be used to replace "any skin at the end of a track" with "a different Legendary skin of your choice from a curated list of past Overwatch Shop and Loot Box skins."

The selection of skins available to be hacked in will change each season. "This pool will always include skins for Heroes in all 3 roles, and it’s our goal to also represent Heroes that may not show up in seasonal Battle Passes as often," McCabe explains. "Season 4 is launching with 12 Legendary skins in the curated 'Tier Hack' pool, pulling from some fan-favorite skin collections of the past."

If everything works as described – and McCabe says the BP revamp will be shown in an incoming livestream alongside improved UI – this could be a nice change for Overwatch. Ideally, players get the new skins they want faster and have another way to acquire old skins they've missed.

"We also have other exciting BP updates coming in the not-so-distant future as well, including our Legacy Battle Pass Unvault system, arriving at the Season 4 midseason in September," McCabe concludes.

Overwatch escapes "Mostly Negative" Steam reviews 3 years after becoming the worst-rated game on Valve's store: "In 2026, we finally got back to just Overwatch."

One of the most delightful elements of a good open-world RPG is the way you can bend and sometimes break systems to your will, giving you the freedom to approach and think about obstacles independently from the intended design. The Elder Scrolls games have been masterclasses in emergent gameplay for decades, as evidenced by a fun new anecdote from Bethesda Game Studios veteran and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered art lead Dan Lee, who joined the studio shortly after OG Oblivion's announcement way back when.

Talking to Nintendo Life, Lee shares one of his early memories from working on Oblivion as a play tester. Testing persistent AI behavior, Lee chose to use an NPC's hunger mechanic against him instead of tackling the quest head-on as scripted in the linear path.

"I was playtesting and I was learning about how reading AI worked and I learned about the hunger mechanic, how the characters actually look for food if they're hungry. There's a quest that has you getting onto a boat and you have to kill a captain. And then as you do it, his second in command and another guy pop up and ambush you," says Lee.

"I was like, 'Can I abuse this in any way?,'" he adds, a question every self-respecting Fallout and Elder Scrolls player asks dozens of times during any given playthrough.

"So I heard about this eating mechanic, I snuck through the ship into his room, took all the food, left a poison apple in his pocket, and then left. I wait and I get the pop-up saying 'Quest Completed'; he's dead. I ran to [designer] Emil Pagliarulo and said, 'I can't believe you accounted for this. This is great!' And he's like, 'I didn't, that was just the game systems working.'"

These kinds of interactions are what make games like Oblivion, Skyrim, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Baldur's Gate 3, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild feel alive and endlessly replayable.

Lee says that quest has stuck with him for more than two decades because of the way Oblivion's systems "interplay" and result in "unexpected fun," and beyond that, anything that makes an RPG feel less scripted and more organic builds immersion and makes it feel more lifelike.

Of course, the game's lovably egregious bugs arguably subtract from that immersion somewhat, but that's all part of the Bethesda RPG experience we've come to know and love.

Here are the best RPGs we recommend in 2026.

One Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic dev spent an entire day scrubbing through the films in search of a specific word that Lucasfilm said the RPG team wasn't allowed to use.

In an interview with FRVR, BioWare's Mark Darrah - who didn't work on KOTOR but was active at the studio and eventually helped make MMO The Old Republic - said that Lucasfilm had a specific problem with the RPG's language. Specifically, they didn't like the use of the word 'damn', which they claimed wasn't something that a Star Wars character would say.

To prove Lucasfilm wrong, Darrah says that "one of the writers on KOTOR spent an entire day scrubbing through the moves, pulling out every instance of a character saying 'damn'." While Darrah's suggestion - that there were nearly 20 uses - is inaccurate, avid fans have determined that by the time KOTOR was released in 2003, the word 'damn' had appeared thrice - once in A New Hope, once in The Empire Strikes Back, and once in 2002's Attack of the Clones.

Unfortunately, even with that proof, BioWare's victory was only partial. Darrah says that most of the 'damns' were removed from the script because "the rights holder always wins." He suggests that KOTOR was an early casualty of Lucasfilm's attempts to cleanse real-world bad language from the Star Wars universe - something that we've seen over the years since then with the arrival of fake swear words like 'kriff' and 'poodoo'.

It wasn't a total defeat, however - KOTOR's ESRB rating is T(een), with much of that given over to its depictions of violence rather than its very mild bad language. A few real-world cusses made their way into the final script, even if Lucasfilm was able to remove the majority of them from BioWare's work.

5 years after it was revealed, KOTOR remake is "still in development," Saber boss confirms, as we await any morsel of info on the reimagined BioWare Star Wars RPG.

Persona 4 Revival producer and Persona series veteran Kazuhisa Wada says "we have to do" Persona 1 and 2 remakes at some point.

Speaking with GamerBraves, Wada maintains his position as the patron saint of the very few people who still remember that Atlus' most popular JRPG series did not begin with Persona 3, but rather with Revelations: Persona, Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.

Asked about remakes of the original Persona games, Wada responds, "At this point, I can't say for sure, but personally, I think it's something we should definitely do. I think we have to do it."

Wada has worked with the Persona series and its origin, the Shin Megami Tensei series, for decades. Persona 4 Revival is his latest project, though after his lead role in both Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Royal, he's also expected to be part of Persona 6. Here in the post-Persona 5 Royal era of Atlus, which has seen Persona grow into a global hit, Wada has helped lead the charge on modernizing Atlus' classic JRPGs.

Giving the original Persona and the Persona 2 duology the Royal, Remake, or Reload treatment raises a few unique challenges. Firstly, we've got to come up with some more words that start with R for the titles. I hear Revelation and Resonant are in fashion this year.

Secondly, there's a reason most people only know this series from Persona 3 onward, and it's not just because it can be hard to even find a way to play the original games today. Persona 3 and its follow-ups introduced pretty major changes both mechanically and thematically, framing the loop that's become the bedrock for modern installments. The original games feel quite different, in some ways closer to early Shin Megami Tensei entries, which could make them difficult to update.

So far, Atlus' remake strategy has basically boiled down to making games more like Persona 5 Royal, from presentation to quality-of-life features. Persona 5 was basically the evolved form of Persona 3 and 4, so that approach worked for those games.

But trying to do that with Persona 2, for example, feels like telling someone to wear shoes as gloves. If Atlus did take on this challenge, I'd love to see how it balances the old with the new. Do you stay faithful to the oddness of early Persona and trust modern fans to adapt, or do you just keep the setting, cast, and story and view them through the lens of today's mechanics?

And for that matter, do you combine Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment into one big Persona 2 Revisited? There you go, Atlus; you can have that one for free.

As Persona 6 drives hype, Atlus' JRPG series sold another 1 million copies over Sega's last quarter.

Dig and Clean codes can help you make better discoveries hidden beneath the sands, as you sweep the beach with your detector in search of buried treasure. Once you've found an item, you can grab your bottle and give it a spray to clean it up, then put it on display for tourists to admire (and pay you for) or sell it for a profit.

The current promos will give you a Luck boost that improves the quantity and quality of the items you detect, which in turn will help you to earn more money and progress further in this Roblox experience. If you're ready to uncover a fortune, then here are the codes for Dig and Clean plus instructions for how to redeem them.

If you'd prefer some more general promos that can apply to all of your experiences, the Roblox promo codes can help with that.

All Dig and Clean codes

The following Dig and Clean codes can be claimed now:

• UPDATE1 – 2x Luck for 30 Minutes
• SECRET10 – 10x Luck for 10 Minutes

Codes for Dig and Clean were added with Update 1, and there are already a couple of them you can pick up. These both give you a Luck boost for a set period of time, which is then represented by an icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen along with a countdown. Note that these boosts run in real time and don't stop if you leave the game, so make sure that you have time to get the maximum use out of them before redeeming.

How to redeem Dig and Clean codes

To redeem Dig and Clean codes, all you need to do is hit the Shop icon on the left side of the screen and then scroll down to the bottom of the menu that appears. Type a promo into the Enter code here... text box, then tap the Redeem button to collect your reward. Dig and Clean codes are not case-sensitive, so you don't need to use all caps as long as the spelling is correct when you enter them.

Expired Dig and Clean codes

• No expired codes

At the moment there are no expired Dig and Clean codes to report, as they haven't been available for long. They won't last forever though, so make sure you've claimed any active promos as soon as you can.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

It's officially the end of an era, folks – beloved Terraria mod Calamity is officially coming to a close, with developers confirming they'll no longer be continuing development on the fan project from here on out.

Terraria first launched on PC in 2011, with Calamity following in 2016. It quickly grew to become the survival-sandbox game's most iconic mod, with millions of downloads worldwide.

Heck, it's even spurred spin-off mods (don't ask me how many I've browsed myself) and a downright massive fan community. It's caught the attention of Terraria developer Re-Logic itself, too.

So much so, in fact, that the studio previously invited the mod's team to work for it, asking, "Which of you wants to work for Re-Logic and get paid for your work?" It comes as quite a blow then, to learn that Calamity is coming to an end.

The news comes after the modders behind the years-old project's announcement on Discord that "we've come to announce a very difficult decision: we will unfortunately be ceasing all development of Calamity."

They elaborate, citing "the troubled past of Calamity's development" as one reason. "At this point, many of us have felt personally betrayed time and time again after being promised something better that never ended up coming. We're just tired at this point, and almost all passion we had for the mod has been soured, with many of us having chosen to leave as a consequence."

They don't delve further into the details here, but the post goes on.

"Most of us want to simply move on and would be far happier working on our own projects that aren't and won't be tied to something with what we feel is an irrecoverably tainted reputation," it reads, likely referencing accusations that have been making rounds online about some of the mod's leads and whatnot – a situation I'd argue is worth a quick Google as it gets quite dark and might be a tad too heavy here.

There's also the topic of asset removals, which said accusations have spurred. Put simply, a plethora of folks associated with Calamity have pulled out or rebranded, leaving the team looking for… well, a lot more than just new leads.

"Ceasing development is frankly the closest thing we can do to fulfilling everybody's requests" when it comes to the asset debacle, as the devs state – which is obviously not an easy decision to make.

As for the future… it's uncertain. "In terms of where things will go past this, due to legal concerns, no reuploads or forks of Calamity can be made and uploaded (for the sake of clarity, this means that things such as Fables, addons, and such are fine)," writes the team. "Past that, though, we don't really know."

Right now, it's impossible to tell as Ozzatron – the most recent mod lead – would need to work with the devs.

Apparently, however, "he's not responded to anything in the development server recently, and we're hoping to get back in contact soon to resolve all of this." Things aren't looking great, though.

The devs do end on a bittersweet note, thanking fans for their support: "This journey has been long, bumpy, rough and chaotic, yet it's still been wonderful despite that." It's tough to read, even as a casual Calamity enjoyer myself.

This certainly isn't the end that any of us expected, but considering how heavy the allegations seem – and, again, I would advise caution if digging into the situation further – the devs don't have much else that they can do here, likely.

Need something to look forward? Browse through our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond for fresh titles to wishlist.

Borderlands 4 had a lot of trouble on PC even months after its September 12, 2025 launch date – and some players still complain about its lack of optimization – but it still sold well, so parent company Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick isn't concerned for the future of Gearbox's looter shooter franchise.

Zelnick tells IGN plainly that the game's commercial "performance has not affected our plans at all." He references Borderlands 4's ongoing Bounty Pack launches, its paid DLC with cosmetics and missions that are sometimes unpopular for how brief they are, proving "we continue to support the title. We've had plenty of incremental releases of content."

It's true – the $5.99 Bounty Pack 4: Murders and Acquisitions just came out on July 30. It includes a new Vault Hunter Skin featuring a pair of yellow, plaid pants, a new Pearlescent sniper rifle, and a mission centered on Electi faction leader Levaine – which has so far won fans over with its apparent return to vintage Borderlands style. Bounty Pack 5 launches on September 10, says Gearbox, along with a new Vault Hunter with perfect abs called Loveless, and the paid expansion Story Pack 2: FL4K and the Last Resort.

Zelnick continues, "We're totally supporting it. We're thrilled with the performance, and thrilled with the reviews and the scores." GamesRadar+'s own Borderlands 4 review rates the 2025 game a four-out-of-five stars for embodying "what Borderlands as a series is designed to do: live fast, die young, pay to be resurrected and do it all over again." Though, features editor Andrew Brown also notes its gameplay can feel "dated and at times irritating – undeniably an excellent looter-shooter, but one that requires a bit of tunnel vision to fully enjoy."

Steam reviewers are hung up on this latter point. Borderlands 4 has a Mixed review rating on the platform, with one recent critic saying, "Honestly the DLC should be given out for free as an apology for what they did to this game."

On this note, some people seem to dislike Borderlands 4 out of what they feel is their political obligation. Gearbox Entertainment Company president Randy Pitchford has, in the past, appeared to dismiss concerns over Borderlands 4's $70 price tag and dire PC performance, leading a portion of fans to develop what's basically their own post-apocalyptic faction against him.

One new Not Recommended Borderlands 4 Steam review explains by saying, "My issue isn't the game itself, it's Randy Pitchford's attitude toward the community that has supported Gearbox for years."

The player continues, "The way he responded to fan criticism came across as dismissive, condescending, and, at times, outright insulting. That's not the kind of leadership I want to financially support." But, you know, if you were looking to financially support Borderlands 4, don't forget that upcoming DLC Zelnick mentioned.

Borderlands 4 unveils final DLC Vault Hunter, a stunning tech-savvy queen fans say "looks like a netrunner from Cyberpunk,"

The games industry will undergo a sea change in early 2028, with Sony ceasing production of PlayStation discs. Despite the pushback on this decision, it remains in place, and data from Square Enix certainly affirms that the gaming audience is already going digital.

According to the company's latest earnings report, significantly more players are already purchasing their games digitally. In a slide breaking down units sold across video games in digital entertainment, we can see that 90.11% of all game sales are "downloads" rather than "packaged."

This comes from numbers in North America, Europe, Japan, and Asia, and the rest of the world. That's a pretty large disparity, underpinning a clear preference for digital over physical purchasing.

But the situation isn't that clear-cut. You have to consider what people's options actually are. Buying physical games can be relatively tricky depending on where you live - there may not be a brick-and-mortar store nearby, forcing you to buy online. It might be both cheaper and more convenient to simply get the game you want on the PlayStation Store, Steam, or whatever.

Then you have releases that are only available digitally for the time being, like the HD remasters of Final Fantasy 10 and 10-2 for Switch 2. These are on top of Final Fantasy 14, which is predominantly sold online - though you can technically get a packaged version of old versions.

Physical game sales often appear smaller than they actually are when they're pit against combined digital sales that include microtransactions, DLC, and subscriptions on top of full game sales, and that's especially true for Square Enix given the Final Fantasy 14-sized hippo hanging off its game figures.

It's similar to the logic we've seen from Capcom, which reckons 95% of its sales will be digital over the next fiscal year. That's all well and good, but for the majority of PC players alone, there's no other option, so of course the stats will skew that way.

Market forces, not just preferences, are pushing people towards non-physical sources for games. Ultimately, just because the majority does something a certain way, it doesn't mean the others should be forgotten, which is the main argument against Sony's new policy. That said, figures are figures, and Square Enix's audience is, like many, all about digital products.

"I hope PS6 will be a disaster": Sony reminds everyone it's taking discs away in warnings reportedly added to new PS5 consoles

Although The Witcher 3 protagonist Geralt isn't the most visibly (or audibly, for that matter) emotional character out there, he's still human under all that mutating and magic – and actor Doug Cockle wanted to make sure he didn't lose all of that humanity.

The legendary voice behind Geralt of Rivia explains as much in a new interview with Tom's Guide, echoing what he said back in 2018 – that he "never believed" that the protagonist "had no emotion," even if CD Projekt Red wanted him to come across that way.

At the time, Cockle didn't have any source to work from either, having not read The Witcher books or seen the Polish TV adaptation at that point. He only knew what the developers taught him about Geralt.

"The most frequent note I had," as the actor recalls, "was, 'No emotion, Doug. No emotion. Flatten him out.'" Although Cockle definitely understood the assignment, so to speak, he didn't agree entirely with CD Projekt Red's take on Geralt.

"A character with no emotions at all, how can we, as human beings, relate to that? We're not emotionless creatures." That checks out – and doubly so when it comes to actors.

"We deal in emotions," as Cockle puts it. "That's a big part of telling the story." So, that's precisely what he did with Geralt. "I was like, 'Yes, I know, I get it, I'm trying, but he's got to have some kind of emotional life, or why would we care about him?'"

When it comes to The Witcher 3 protagonist, he was aware of Geralt suppressing his feelings – but also of a "dichotomy in himself" that allowed for more than a completely emotionless character.

"He's an emotional being, he does have emotions, but he tries very hard to not let them dictate the actions that he takes." Ciri, Geralt's adoptive daughter (and upcoming protagonist of The Witcher 4, excitingly enough), serves as proof of this – Geralt makes choices that protect her time and time again. Heck, it's paramount to the entire story in The Witcher 3, to say the least. "If he had no emotions," as Cockle says, "he wouldn't make those choices."

CD Projekt Red eventually warmed up to the actor's interpretation, according to him: "As the series of games went on, the writers became more confident in the idea that he can be an emotional being and still be a little bit of a machine."

That checks out, judging by the journey from Wild Hunt to Blood and Wine – and it's evident enough in Geralt's character. It does beg the question though… how will he sound in Songs of the Past?

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what the new DLC brings…

CD Projekt Red says The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past, Geralt's first expansion in a decade, will get a proper reveal next month

What are the best ways to replay Baldur's Gate 3? I've spent a lot of time thinking about this very question. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot.

Having played close to 1,000 hours of Larian's sprawling RPG since it first released on PS5, I've created many different Tavs, role-played as various established origin characters, and taken a host of approaches over the years. And that's the beauty of a game like Baldur's Gate 3; it's an experience that's meant to be replayed by design, with so much freedom of choice and room for experimentation. But there are definitely certain playthroughs I've done that have been more rewarding or downright run han others, and after much deliberation, I've finally come to the conclusion that the five ways I've listed below are truly the best ways to replay Baldur's Gate 3.

I will say that many of these aren't suited to your very first try at Larian's RPG. For that, I'd suggest following your heart and seeing where the Sword Coast leads you. But once you've experienced what is without a doubt one of the best RPGs for the first time, then my suggestions are here for you when you're ready to step back into Faerûn. Whether you're looking for something playful to shake up your journey, a challenge, or you want something narratively satisfying as you set out to rid yourself of the Mind Flayer tadpole, there's something here for you. So, read on as I guide you through the best ways to replay Baldur's Gate 3.

5. Everyone's a bard run

As William Shakespeare famously wrote, "all the world's a stage", and now you can transform Faerûn into one, too. How? Why, by playing as a bard and reclassing or multi-classing every companion to be one, too. If you want the party to maintain their signature fighting styles, I'd opt for the latter, but if you want to go all in by turning Baldur's Gate 3 into a musical of your own making, then outfitting everyone with bardic skills and instruments is the way to do it.

All you need to do is create a custom game and enable multiclassing, and then once a character levels up, ensure you select multiclass and opt for bard. Or, alternatively, get Withers in your party after finding him in the Dank Crypt in Act 1, and bring each member of your party to him to change up classes. Personally, I think the Bard is hands down the best Baldur's Gate 3 class. Not only do they have high charisma, which gives them the gift of the gab, but they also have incredibly entertaining and useful skills. From Bardic Inspiration, which gives your allies a hearty buff, to the useful Song of Rest action that acts like a short rest to recover, I'll never tire of using Vicious Mockery to hurl insults at my foes, or casting Dissonant Whispers to cause some good psychic damage.

But you also can't discount the simple joy of having them play a ditty, busk for coins from a nearby crowd, or play out a battle to the beat of your drum or strum of your lute. And when your entire party can do all of those things, well, you can transform every fight into a musical. Having each character deliver their own unique put-downs with Vicious Mockery never gets old, either. Oh, and if you want some added entertainment, make sure everyone has the ability to talk to animals.

4. No weapons run

When it comes to combat in Baldur's Gate 3, Larian offers up the freedom to mess around and find out what happens. With so many classes that have their own unique fighting styles, you can do everything from dual-wielding two sticks of salami to using cantrips and spells to find workarounds against the toughest of foes. But if you want a different kind of challenge, consider this: a no weapons run.

Yes, as our very own senior staff writer Jasmine Gould-Wilson outlines for GamesRadar+'s RPG club subscribers, going fully weapons-free is no cakewalk. In fact, it can get downright tricky, but it's also incredibly satisfying to work out ways to defeat enemies when weapons are no longer part of the equation. Naturally, to pull off this run, you need to ensure you don't equip or use any melee or ranged weapons.

Of course, with no weapons in hand, that leaves room for you to use your arms as veritable throwing machines, and creating a character who's great at lobbing stuff could be an approach. Magic is also still an option, but you can't have a weapon equipped to give yourself extra abilities or buffs. Doing this run really will make you think outside the box during combat, and if you're looking to experiment more when it comes to battles, then this is the one to consider trying out.

3. Honour Mode

When Baldur's Gate 3's patch 5 landed towards the end of 2023, the Honour Mode difficulty was officially introduced to the fold, and as its description reads you can expect a "fraught and deadly campaign" should you choose it. And trust me, that's no exaggeration. If you're after a challenge with real high stakes, then it's got you written all over it. As the toughest difficulty option for Larian's RPG, Honour mode gives you a single save slot, and ups the ante from Tactician difficulty by introducing permadeath if a party member dies in combat.

Should your entire party fall during a combat scenario, then that's it. Game over. No reload for you, bucko. So, this is me giving you a warning. It's unforgiving and not one to take on until you're well-versed in Baldur's Gate 3's turn-based combat and class builds. With just a 10% success rate among players a year after Honour mode was added, it's certainly no small feat to complete the sprawling RPG and its many challenging encounters in this setting. You never know what might spell your ultimate demise, as is evidenced from this poor soul who lost a 50 hour attempt, or this unlucky adventurer whose 60-hour run came to an end in the most unexpected of ways.

But if you manage to overcome Baldur's Gate 3's Honour mode, you'll not only earn yourself the Foehammer achievement, but you'll also get a Golden D20 dice which you can roll in future playthroughs and wear like a badge of, well, honour.

2. Origin run - Gale or Karlach

Once you've experienced the story as your own customizable character, you should absolutely explore the RPG as one of the established companions. With various origins to choose from, you can play as any one of the core party members who travel alongside you, and each one has their own unique interactions, motivations, and narrative arcs that allow you to experience the Sword Coast from other perspectives.

While you'll likely be drawn to your personal favorites, I'd personally recommend replaying Baldur's Gate 3 as either Gale or Karlach. Both characters bring something different to the table, and I really love how enjoyable it is to play as either from a role-playing perspective. I first played as Gale back in 2024, after a poll dropped revealing he was the most popular origin among players. When I decided to try him out for myself, I quickly understood why.

Thanks to his Netherese orb predicament, there are so many unique dialogue options, interactions, and moments when you're playing as Gale that shake up the experience of the adventure throughout all three acts. Plus, as an added bonus, you have the adorable cat-like Tressym Tara at camp with you. Karlach, on the other hand, is the only origin companion who has an inner monologue, which offers so much insight into her character during certain story beats and encounters. While I have a deep attachment to the fiery tiefling, I think anyone could get invested in her personal story, too.

1. Dark Urge resistance run

If you were to ask me what the quintessential way to play Baldur's Gate 3 is, I'd give you the same answer every time: The Dark Urge resistance run. Alongside the many established companion origins you can play, there's also the unique and decidedly dark option to play as The Dark Urge. Awakening on the Mind Flayer ship with a bout of Amnesia, you feel a sinister urge which seemingly sparks the desire to kill in a very bloody fashion.

This origin is a role-playing dream come true from the get-go. As you try to understand these unexplained urges and reclaim the haunted past you can't remember, it's left up to you to decide how you handle it. Do you confide in your companions, or try to hide the bloodthirsty side of yourself? You're also free to choose if you give in to these urges or you resist them, and I'd recommend the latter every day of the week.

Not only do I consider The Dark Urge the true canon storyline for my customizable Tav, but the resistance run is also easily the most fulfilling and satisfying way to play Baldur's Gate 3, let alone replay. And if you really want some extra plot goodness from a role-playing perspective, I actually think Astarion's romance is very fitting for The Dark Urge if you're going down the resistance path. Both can connect over some similarities in their unfortunate circumstances and past experiences, and it just enriches the whole experience. But of course, that's entirely optional, and no matter if you choose to romance someone or not, you won't regret diving back into one of the best story-driven RPGs all over again in this way.

Look ahead to more role-playing goodness with our roundup of upcoming RPGs.

Light No Fire, the anticipated open-world survival game from the No Man's Sky devs, only has a small team working on it - but that's ok because it's the same size as the No Man's Sky team was at launch.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Hello Games founder Sean Murray revealed that "around the same amount of people" are working on Light No Fire as the number that are still churning out updates for No Man's Sky (which announced its tenth anniversary update, Cosmos, earlier today). "Day to day," Murray says, that means "anywhere between 12 and 20 people."

That means that "an average team size" is around the number of people that were working on No Man's Sky at launch - "about 15 people." That's something in the region of 30 developers across two very large games - when you consider Light No Fire's entire planet and No Man's Sky's entire universe, the amount of square footage each developer accounts for is pretty astonishing.

But that 30 devs means that Hello Games is much, much larger than it was before the release of its first game. Murray estimates that the average team size before launch was about six, so growing to 15 devs in time for launch "felt really big to us." Now, he recognizes that the team is still "very small," but says that "we have a lot of tools and tech that allow us to be quite productive."

It's not the first time that Murray has admitted that the "crazy ambitious" Light No Fire is "a lot for a small team." Perhaps that's why updates on the survival game, which intends to create an entire planet-sized open-world for players to explore, have been few and far between. For some fans, that's a positive - No Man's Sky's release suffered as a result of what many would describe as Murray's tendency to overpromise in the run-up to launch. But 2.5 years after Light No Fire's announcement, we've heard almost nothing about Hello Games' next release - perhaps it's time for that team to get a little bigger…

No Man's Sky updates like Xeno Arena take "2-3x" longer on Switch 2 and Steam Deck because Hello Games has to beat "impossible memory constraints," engineer says.

A good 10 years ago now, Hello Games launched its hotly anticipated space game No Man's Sky – a launch that was shaky, to say the least… but every update since has helped bolster the 2016 title as a genre game rather than a forgettable disappointing experience.

Hello Games isn't done yet, either. A brand-new No Man's Sky update is underway again – a statement I feel I've now written some million times or so. Dubbed "Cosmos," it sounds as though it'll perhaps focus less on the terrestrial side of things and more on what's going on beyond each planet… but it's too early to tell for certain.

I'd love to see more focus on space travel, maybe, or some sort of emphasis on the game's current "ending."

Cosmos comes after various other No Man's Sky additions, like the big Xeno Arena update that dropped earlier this year, introducing a fun Pokemon and Palworld-esque creature battling system that fans had been requesting for nearly two years.

There was also Remnant, which came in February with a Garry's Mod-style gravity gun, and The Swarm update, which brought a bit of Helldivers 2 flair to the survival game's mix.

It serves as proof that Hello Games still has quite a bit under its belt for No Man's Sky, even a whole decade after its release… which, I suppose, isn't all that surprising anymore.

Here's hoping we get another 10 out of the survival game – I know I could enjoy another good decade of No Man's Sky shenanigans myself… and new update Cosmos might just be the prod back into the starry, unforgiving sky that I oh-so needed.

No Man's Sky updates "2-3x" longer on Switch 2 and Steam Deck because Hello Games has to beat "impossible memory constraints," engineer says

Don't tell Hello Games head Sean Murray that No Man's Sky could've gotten more money out of players if all the game's new content wasn't free, and definitely don't tell him how much more.

"I don't think it would be good for my mental health," Murray tells me. But more importantly, he adds, No Man's Sky updates are free, and will stay free, because the devs want everyone to play them.

Without fail, new No Man's Sky updates packing enormous features invite mobs of players pleading with Murray in his social media replies: "No, really Sean, please take our money."

Behold, the absolute whopper that is No Man's Sky's Steam description: "Play with all major updates since launch: Foundation, Pathfinder, Atlas Rises, NEXT, The Abyss, Visions, the 2.0 BEYOND update, Synthesis, Living Ship, Exo Mech, Desolation and the 3.0 update, ORIGINS, Next Generation, Companions, Expeditions, Prisms, Frontiers, Sentinel, Outlaws, Endurance, Waypoint (4.0), Fractal, Interceptor, Echoes, Omega, Orbital, Worlds Part I (5.0), Worlds Part II, Relics, Beacon, VOYAGERS (6.0), Remnant, Xeno Arena and The Swarm."

Speaking with GamesRadar+, Murray explains how Hello Games has gotten away with free updates for 10 years, and why it's not stopping.

"I'm sure somebody could take me aside, take me into a room and show me some PowerPoint and show me that we could have made more money if we had done in-app purchase or, you know, if we had done DLC or something like that," Murray continues. 'And maybe that would be true. I never want to see that PowerPoint.

"What I know is that I really, really enjoy – and I think the team really gets a kick out of – working on an update and knowing that what I'm working on, everyone is going to experience this. Every player that we have is going to experience this. And I think we really enjoy the journey, and the journey is only possible because every update compounds."

When Hello Games adds something like the Xeno Arena, a Pokemon-esque critter clash, Murray says they're always thinking about how that feature may look "two or three updates from now, and what other things you could add to that, what you could build on top of it."

"That doesn't work if you're fragmenting your audience," he reiterates. If "only some people have this update and only other people have this update," Hello Games couldn't commit to the bit nearly as hard.

"It's a big part of our motivation, what gets us out of bed in the morning," Murray says of that journey. "So it doesn't matter if it's not the most commercially efficient thing that we can do. I think what matters is that it makes us still excited about working on it 10 years out."

The updates, you see, must be free. And they can be free not just because No Man's Sky has become an enormous success for Hello Games, but also because the studio is extraordinarily sustainable, and resistant to the financial pressures of publicly traded giants.

During early development, No Man's Sky's team averaged about six people. Going up to 15 people by launch "felt really big to us," Murray says, and nowadays there are 12 to 20 people on the game at any given moment, between "a whole bunch of things going on in the studio," including world-scale survival game Light No Fire. The entire universe rests in the palms of under two dozen people, yet No Man's Sky continues to churn out hefty updates.

"We're a super small team, so we're lucky from that point of view," Murray explains. "It shields us from some of the craziness that we see outside our window in the wider gaming industry. Personally, I feel quite privileged that I'm allowed to continue working on No Man's Sky. That's sort of how I see it. I feel very lucky that I've been afforded this opportunity. This was a game I always wanted to play. It's a game I feel really passionate about, and I think the team really feels that way. It feels real passion and care for the game. I see that everyday, so I feel lucky."

No Man's Sky Cosmos is the next big update as Hello Games refuses to slow down after 10 years.