I got about four hours with the Gears of War: E-Day beta this past Sunday, and I spent almost all of it in Siege mode. I’ve loved Horde since it dropped in Gears of War 2, so the second I got in, I knew where I was headed. E-Day lands October 6th, and after this weekend I’m all in.

Let’s start with the thing every Gears player is going to notice first. The roadie run is gone. Completely gone. When I started playing, not doing it felt strange, almost like muscle memory misfiring. But getting around the map felt more natural without it. The old roadie run made you feel like a hulking mass slamming into walls. This just felt like moving. It felt easier to control, and I stopped missing the old way pretty fast.

What they added in its place is the ability to vault and climb onto different levels of the map, and that verticality is something Gears has needed for a long time. It opens up angles you never had before. Even in multiplayer, where I am admittedly not good, I kept trying to climb up and catch someone from a spot they weren’t watching. I wasn’t successful, but it made people play differently than the old slam-to-cover routine.

The new control scheme leans modern. You click the left stick to run now, and jumping and vaulting got moved over to Y. You can flip run back to A in the settings, and I almost bailed to Legacy mode, but I forced myself to stay on modern so I’d actually learn it instead of clinging to old habits. The one thing I miss is vaulting over cover by hitting A again. That took some rewiring. There’s also a slide now that reminds me of Call of Duty or Halo Infinite, and I abused the mess out of it in Siege. Run, hit A again, slide right into a grub, and get some dope kills in the process.

The weapons are where E-Day really got me. Every gun felt like it should. The Retro Lancer, the Mark 1, the prototype Lancer, all of them felt natural in the hand. The Gnasher felt amazing the whole way through. I keep thinking about Halo: Campaign Evolved, where the guns felt a little off to me, just kind of there, no weight to the gunplay. E-Day is the opposite. Everything felt tight. I didn’t get to every weapon, but I got my hands on the Mauler, the human Gatling gun, and had a blast with it.

One small change I loved more than I expected: the active reload moved from up top by your ammo count down closer to your character. You’re not pulling your eyes off the action to hit a perfect reload anymore. It took a second to break the old habit of glancing up, but it feels great, and it’s the kind of little detail that tells you the people making this actually play it. Cue Gary Jules singing “Mad World” in the background, because this is the Gears feeling I fell in love with.

Now to the reason I’m writing this at all. Siege mode. This is not the old locked-off Horde where it’s just you and your squad holding one arena. E-Day drops you into the actual city, and there are four different teams running different missions across the map at the same time. King Ravens overhead, multiple companies pushing to quell this unknown force that just emerged. It feels like what Gears is supposed to be, a mad dash against an unstoppable enemy, and there’s real history baked into these places. Sera, Jacinto, all of it carries weight.

Those other companies aren’t just set dressing either. You see their markers, you can interact with them, and you can get roped into side quests. Take down a target, destroy some intel, that kind of thing. Do them, and your long-form run gets easier because you earn upgrades to buy at the stations. The upgrades are random and different every match, so you’re not grinding the same loop over and over. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes your whole team wanders off to the other side of the map chasing objectives and you’re left doing everything yourself. That happened to me more than once, usually with a pack of Boomers bearing down while I tried to make it to exfil so we could all go home together.

The deployable side of Horde shifted too. There’s less emphasis on fortifying one spot with barbed wire and decoys. You still get decoys and traps that slow enemies down, but Siege is more about surviving the waves as they come than turtling in a corner. When you down enemies they drop energy, and you spend that energy on ammo, deployables, and those side-quest upgrades.

The progression is where I got hooked. Every weapon starts with a mod called Full Metal Jacket, so a perfect reload gives you perfect ammo and a damage boost. As you earn weapon parts from successful runs and side quests, you unlock more, accuracy, faster reloads, whatever fits the gun. What I like is that you’re not just racking up points to hit wave 50 in a single run. You’re building a better gear over time so that when you do go for a crazy endless wave push, and there is a mode for exactly that, you can actually handle it.

There are four classes: assault, breacher, marksman, and medic. I opened with medic, which is usually my lane, and it just would not gel with my Gears playstyle. I swapped to breacher, the shotgun and Mark 1 Lancer combo, and had a way more interesting time. Breacher also gets a cooldown stim that snaps you back to full health right before you die, and I hit that thing more times than I’d like to admit. Reviving teammates is quicker than it’s ever been too, which keeps the pace up.

Underneath all that is a full gear system. The more you play, the more you level and unlock. You get tactical gear with three slots and twelve mods to slot in, plus armor mods on top. The one I ran was spray and pray, which tightens your accuracy and cuts recoil while you’re in cover, and it made a real difference. I’d honestly forgotten how much damage you can do firing from cover in Gears until this reminded me. It let me pin down the smarter enemies, the ones that don’t just rush you, and buy time to move my crew around. In one fight it was basically me and a squad of AI bots that were doing nothing, so I dumped every slow trap I had, bogged down the whole wave, and clawed out a win.

That’s the Siege loop, and I love it. Getting a real group together, pushing wave after wave through the city, tuning your tactical gear and armor mods and weapon upgrades to fit how you actually want to play, that’s going to be a lot of fun to sink into.

I did hop over to multiplayer, and I’ll say it again plainly: I am bad at Gears multiplayer. It’s not my thing. I ran a few Team Deathmatch rounds and got halfway through one Team Conquest. The maps are pulled from parts of the game you’ll see later, full of good lanes and mixed terrain, and the new climbing and vaulting adds tactical options we didn’t have. You can close distance on someone fast, hop over a staircase instead of running the long way, come at them from a direction they don’t expect. The one I played most was a farmers market map with groceries everywhere, and it was pure chaos. I got wrecked. Still had a good time watching how the new movement changes the flow.

There are rough edges. Enemies clipped through geometry, I clipped through trying to curb stomp somebody, small stuff like that. None of it worried me. That’s what a beta is for, and there’s time to clean it up before October 6th. What matters is that the core feels right. The movement, the guns, the little UI touches, and above all Siege mode, all of it points at a game that understands what made Gears great in the first place. Siege sealed the deal for me, and I have zero doubt they’re going to knock the campaign out of the park. You can play it through Game Pass, which is exactly how I got into the beta this weekend.

Did you get into the beta? Are you counting down to the 6th? Let me know.

Some weeks the news is all new games and trailers. This was not that week. This week was corporate speak. Acquisitions, deadlines, crunch, ad boss interviews, streaming deals. We got a little sprinkle of actual video game talk, but mostly we were back to watching the business side of this industry do what it does.

So let’s talk about the money.

EA Went Private for $55 Billion, and In-Game Ads Are Coming

Electronic Arts is no longer a publicly traded company. The acquisition by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners, the group EA keeps calling the Consortium, officially closed. PIF is the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia. Silver Lake is a multi-billion dollar tech investment firm. Affinity Partners is the Miami firm run by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump. Together they bought EA for fifty-five billion dollars, the largest all-cash take-private deal in history. Shareholders got $210 per share, and the stock has been delisted from Nasdaq.

Andrew Wilson came out with all the buzzwords. Accelerate creativity. Invest boldly. Build the next generation of games and experiences. You know what that actually means. More microtransactions, more invasive, and then more on top of that.

Here’s the part nobody’s putting in a headline. Employees are already bracing for mass layoffs, because that’s what happens when someone spends fifty-five billion dollars on a company. They want a return, and the fastest way to get a return is to cut staff. Microsoft bought Activision for sixty-nine billion and we watched what came after. The Battlefield team already lost around 150 people. When you get acquired, you run into redundancies. Two people doing the same job in HR becomes one. I would not be shocked if we’re talking about EA layoffs on this show within the month.

But the thing that really got my attention was an interview Christopher Dring did over at The Game Business with EA’s ad boss, Alexander Dao. It’s about in-game advertising, and if you’ve listened to me for five minutes you know how I feel about that. EA has been pushing ads in sports and racing games for years. The question Dring asked was what this looks like outside of sports. Dao’s answer was the Coach activation in The Sims:

The Sims is not a sports game, but we understood that the Sims community wanted it. We did some surveys to understand what type of brands they actually want to see in the game. With Coach, we democratized access to their products. Coach didn’t want it to be a paid product in the game. They wanted to drop their entire product line, put it in front of the community, and surprise and delight them. When we did that, the socials blew up.

Now here’s the uncomfortable truth. That worked. A Coach bag runs you somewhere north of two hundred dollars in real life. Drop the whole line into The Sims for free, and every time somebody boots up the game their Sim is styling in Coach. That’s touchpoint after touchpoint with an audience that would probably never buy Coach otherwise, and all Coach had to do was hand over some digital assets. People love The Sims. People love free stuff. That is a mountain of goodwill for pennies on the dollar.

So this is where we’re headed. Brands are going to pay out the wazoo. Fortnite already gets paid every single time a movie character or a game crossover shows up, because that is advertising. Soon it won’t just be Taco Bell Live playing in the corner of a sports game. It’ll be “this replay is brought to you by Dr Pepper.” And I promise you, the day I fire up the next Star Wars Jedi game and see a Star Destroyer sponsored by Spirit Airlines, I will burn EA to the ground myself.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do this. The right way is the Coach move, where players get something and it feels like a gift. The wrong way is what EA already pulled with Battlefront II loot boxes, and the even dumber wrong way is Ubisoft’s inevitable “buy the ultimate edition to remove the ads.” This is a video game, not YouTube Premium. Do I want any of this? No. I want video games to be video games. Call me a communist for it. I’ve been called worse this week.

Halo: Campaign Evolved Had a Troubled Development, and It Shows

According to a report from Halo insider Rebs Gaming, whose reporting other journalists have corroborated, Halo: Campaign Evolved went through a rough development. A studio called Abstraction was brought in around 2023 to help move the original game onto Unreal Engine 5 and make new features like sprinting and four-player co-op feel organic. The catch is the original Halo ran on an ancient engine called Blam!, and you can’t just copy and paste a game from one engine into another.

Abstraction was reportedly kicked off the project early after Halo Studios set unrealistic deadlines on a technically complex job. Their work got thrown out and redone in a hurry, which is believed to have caused bugs and AI problems. The team was told they could port assets straight into Unreal. Instead, 100 percent of those assets had to be rebuilt. A multiplayer Halo project got cancelled so the Campaign Evolved team could pull staff and resources. The final year was crunch, and the real-time cutscenes that would have let you see your custom armor got scrapped because the outside cinematics team barely made it in time for release.

None of this surprises me. We brought up last week how the new prequel missions with Sergeant Johnson and Master Chief felt like they were written by the current crop of MCU writers, and this is why. When you rush, great writing is the first thing you sacrifice. And I hate seeing an outside team treated like this. I get that they’re contractors and you might never work with them again, but you don’t set these expectations on people who are helping remake the franchise that put your entire company on the map twenty-five years ago.

The reviews reflect it. Metacritic sits at 81 with a user score around 5.7. The gameplay just doesn’t feel tight, and you’ve played this story before. For context on why the remake matters, Combat Evolved Anniversary sold 2.43 million copies, the original Combat Evolved moved 5.5 million, the Master Chief Collection is past 8.13 million, Reach hit 9.87 million, and Halo 3 is the king at 14.5 million. You had to finish the fight. But with the whole cloud of layoffs and resets hanging over Xbox right now, I think this is where the remake train stops. I don’t see Halo 2 getting the same treatment unless this thing does gangbusters, and it won’t.

GTA VI’s “Extended Look” Is Premiering on Netflix, Which Makes No Sense

Rockstar announced that a GTA VI extended look will premiere on Netflix on Thursday, August 27th at 3:00 PM Eastern. No Netflix subscription? It’ll be on YouTube six hours later. Netflix called it a first-of-its-kind partnership and leaned hard into the fact that GTA V came out thirteen years ago, the same year Netflix started pushing original programming. Their VP of nonfiction series, Brandon Riegg, called the anticipation around GTA VI unprecedented.

The callback is a little much. Put some ChapStick on, your lips look rough. This whole thing feels like a glorified Netflix documentary, Rockstar sitting down for its extended first look. And I get it. If Netflix walked up to me with a dump truck of money, I’d say less too. More cash to fund GTA Online, cool.

But it makes no sense for anybody watching. They shot themselves in the foot the second they announced YouTube gets it six hours later. In the age of people working nine to five, of course they’ll wait a few hours and watch it free instead of paying for a subscription. And the second it goes live, people are ripping it and reuploading it before that six-hour window is even up. Netflix might make a couple hundred grand off new signups. They paid millions for this. That’s stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. And after they don’t make what they hoped, they’ll raise subscription prices again. Netflix is going to Netflix.

Dave Bautista Might Be Kratos, and I’m Torn

Amazon’s live-action God of War series halted last month after Kratos actor Ryan Hurst tore his bicep filming. He needs months of rehab, so Amazon is recasting, and Variety reports Dave Bautista is in talks for the role. Bautista is best known as Drax, with real roles in Dune, Blade Runner 2049, and Glass Onion, and he’s no stranger to games after playing a Marcus Fenix model swap in Gears 5. Four episodes were reportedly already filmed before the injury. First, prayers to Ryan Hurst for a speedy recovery.

I’m genuinely mixed on Bautista. The physique is not the question. One of the biggest knocks on Hurst was his age, and Bautista has the build and the dad bod that Norse-era Kratos actually calls for. When I made the thumbnail for tonight’s show, he looked pretty boss. What I don’t know is whether he can deliver the emotion. I’ve mostly seen him play the big lovable idiot, and Kratos is the opposite of comedy.

Then again, how many times have we watched a comedic actor get handed a serious role and knock it out of the park? Robin Williams. Jim Carrey. Michael Keaton was doing Mr. Mom stuff before he became Batman and set the template for superhero movies for the next twenty years. So maybe Bautista surprises everyone. What I’d really love is Christopher Judge, who already has the voice and the presence, but Hollywood never does the obvious thing we want.

My real fear is another Halo show situation. That series was trash. Amazon has money to burn and already proved with Fallout that they can nail a game adaptation with unknowns and a Walton Goggins. So do that again. Give me a Last of Us, not an Assassin’s Creed. Only time will tell.

That was the week. Corporate money moves, rushed remakes, streaming deals, and a recast we didn’t see coming. Some of it worries me and some of it might actually be good, and the only way to sort it out is to keep watching it play out in real time. That’s what we’re here for.

Every week it feels like gaming asks you to trust it a little less and pay it a little more. This week gave us all of it in one shot. Xbox groveled over an outage that barely lasted a day. Steam Deck sales fell off a cliff after Valve got greedy with pricing. And in the middle of all that doom, Sony Santa Monica dropped a release date that actually made me excited to be a gamer again.

Xbox’s apology tour is getting a little much

Xbox had a rough weekend. Sign-ins failed, game libraries wouldn’t load, and titles refused to launch for a big chunk of Sunday night into Monday. Xbox’s chief technology officer, Scott Van Vliet, came out and explained that the failure came from a licensing service outside of Xbox that Xbox depends on, an internal Microsoft system shared across multiple products. He called the whole thing unacceptable and promised the company would do better.

Here’s the thing. PlayStation had its own outage recently too, and PlayStation outages have basically become a once-a-generation tradition at this point. Nobody loves it, but nobody’s shocked by it either. The reason Xbox’s outage got so much attention is because Xbox has been taking hit after hit lately, and this was one more punch to a company that’s already stumbling. Van Vliet’s statement read less like a routine incident report and more like someone apologizing for forgetting to pay a bill. The system was down for barely 24 hours. The scale of the apology made it feel bigger than it was, and I think that’s a direct result of Microsoft’s fiscal earnings coming out rough and Xbox’s Asha Sharma publicly saying the division needs to do better. When your CEO is under that kind of pressure, every outage becomes a referendum on the whole platform.

What actually matters here isn’t the apology, it’s the pattern. Both Xbox and PlayStation had outages right around the time Sony announced it’s killing physical discs. Xbox is leaning harder into cloud and Game Pass. Both companies are betting the future on you staying signed in and connected at all times. And if that’s the future, the bare minimum they owe you is a service that’s actually up when you want to play. Ownership already took a hit when everything went digital. Reliability can’t be the next thing on the chopping block.

Steam Deck sales are cratering, and Valve did this to itself

The Steam Deck used to be the budget all-star of PC handhelds. Now, according to numbers circulating from Boiling Steam via Gizmodo, it’s selling up to 82% fewer units than it did last year. The device has slipped from a near-permanent fifth place on Steam’s top sellers chart down to around fourteenth, which lines up with a massive drop in revenue. Valve isn’t going to confirm exact numbers, but the trend is obvious to anyone paying attention.

This isn’t some mystery. Valve raised the price of the Steam Deck by more than $300, and people responded exactly how you’d expect. That’s not a subtle increase, that’s Darth Vader telling Lando he’s altering the deal and to pray he doesn’t alter it again. When you jack the price up that aggressively, you can’t act surprised when the sales chart tanks.

There’s more going on underneath it too. Valve just launched the Steam Machine on June 29th, and there’s been chatter about a next-gen Steam Deck already in early planning. If people know a more powerful option is coming, or already out, why would they drop full price on the current handheld? And honestly, the broader handheld market has gotten a lot more competitive. Devices like the AYN4 are putting up real specs for $259, with the maxed-out version still landing under $600. When something that price-competitive exists, the Steam Deck’s premium pricing looks even worse by comparison.

Zoom out further and this is really about affordability. Gaming keeps creeping toward luxury-item territory. Consoles are approaching or sitting at the $1,000 mark. Handhelds are following the same path. Meanwhile people are modding old PSPs and Vitas, buying secondhand on Facebook Marketplace, and leaning hard into retro gaming because it’s the only version of this hobby that still makes financial sense. If Xbox and PlayStation actually launch new consoles next year at rumored price points, I think we see the same story play out at an even bigger scale. Nobody’s paying $1,500 for a console and then trying to scalp it for $3,000. The margins for that kind of flipping just aren’t there anymore, and the audience willing to pay that much up front is shrinking fast.

Intergalactic might land in 2027, but I’m not betting on it

Leaker natethehate2 claims Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is targeting a 2027 release, though Naughty Dog hasn’t confirmed anything officially. This tracks with earlier reporting from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that the game wasn’t coming in 2026, despite some speculation it could land by the end of this year.

I want to believe it. If Sony opens 2027 with God of War: Laufey and closes it with Intergalactic, that’s basically a repeat of 2022, when Horizon Forbidden West kicked off the year and God of War Ragnarok closed it out. That would be a genuinely great year to be a PlayStation fan. But Naughty Dog has never been a studio that rushes. They take their time on every detail, and historically that’s been the right call. I’d rather wait an extra year for something that’s actually finished and polished than watch another ambitious PlayStation project get gutted or canceled the way Last of Us multiplayer did. Whatever the timeline ends up being, I want them to take it.

God of War: Laufey finally has a release date, and it’s a good one

Laufey is coming out February 16th of next year. Sony confirmed it at the God of War: Laufey panel during San Diego Comic-Con, and it lines up with earlier confirmation that the game will ship on disc despite Sony’s plan to stop producing PlayStation discs starting in 2028.

Santa Monica Studio’s head of creative, Cory Barlog, also confirmed that the next Kratos-led God of War game is already coming after Laufey, and that it connects directly to her story. Barlog said the Laufey game is meant to expand the world in a way that sets up what comes next, and that everything happening in it ties back to what came before.

I trust Cory on release dates. We made a bet on Ragnarok’s release timing a while back, and I was right to trust him then, so I’m trusting him again now. Getting an actual, specific date out of Sony, especially with how tight-lipped they’ve been on dates lately, feels like a real signal of confidence. And the fact that they’re already confirming a next Kratos entry, directly tied into Laufey’s story, tells me they know exactly where this saga is headed. Laufey picks up right after the original 2018 God of War, and given how time works differently in the underworld, I think her story eventually catches up to the present timeline, right around the events after Ragnarok. If that’s the plan, it’s a smart one, and it means the next few years of God of War are going to be more connected than anything we’ve gotten from this franchise before.

Between the outages, the price hikes, and the industry bracing for consoles nobody can actually afford, it’s easy to feel like gaming is trying to squeeze you dry from every direction. But then something like a confirmed Laufey release date shows up, and it’s a reminder that the actual games are still worth showing up for. That’s the part worth holding onto.

Watch The Episode

Titles stay as they are. Here’s the post without the anime section.

Bethesda dumped its entire future slate into a studio letter this week, and my first reaction was that we have done this dance before. This is the same studio that walked onto an E3 stage in 2018, showed a title card and a camera pan for The Elder Scrolls VI, and then went quiet for eight years. So when a wall of announcements lands right on the back of 1,600 layoffs at Xbox with another round waiting in the wings, I start watching what the other hand is doing.

That was the shape of the whole week honestly. Nintendo telling customers the tariff money is not theirs. Ryan Cohen telling GameStop customers that games are irrelevant. Hasbro quietly writing off $56 million. A lot of very loud talking about money.

Bethesda announced everything and shipped nothing

The letter covers a lot of ground. Fallout 5 is in pre-production on Creation Engine 3 and still sits behind The Elder Scrolls VI. Remasters of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are confirmed with no release windows attached. Fallout 76 gets an expansion called Ravenrock in 2027, a prequel to Fallout 3. Fallout Shelter keeps getting seasons, and the unscripted Amazon adaptation is still alive. Obsidian is building a new Fallout game, which is why the Avowed sequel got shelved. And The Elder Scrolls VI is, in Bethesda’s words:

our primary development focus today

Cool. It has been the primary focus for years. What I want is a screenshot. Concept art. A single scrap of bread, sir, please.

Xbox is trying to over-communicate right now, and I understand why. When you have gutted ZeniMax and id, closed studios, and raised your console price three separate times in under a year, you dangle the keys so the baby stops crying. Gears of War is coming. Halo: Campaign Evolved is here. Look over here, not over there. The thing is that this letter did not even get the Marvel treatment with a stage and a crowd losing its mind over Phase Three. It got the old DC slate treatment, which is to say a document that went out with no fanfare and no roadmap.

Here is my actual prediction. Obsidian passes Bethesda in the pecking order. Obsidian put out Avowed, Grounded 2, and The Outer Worlds 2 in a single calendar year. Not one of those is a home run, and I do not care. They were doubles, they came out on time, and Asha Sharma is running Xbox now with a very clear preference for teams that finish things. Bethesda is going to fight that pace because slow is their whole identity, and when a studio digs in on a creative process that has not fully worked in twenty years, leadership changes follow.

The Fallout Shelter piece is the part that made me laugh. On Steam it sits somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 concurrent players against a peak of 42,500. An unscripted show for that game in 2026 has the same energy as the Among Us show. You missed the window.

As for Starfield year three and the Starborn content in 2027, I will say this. There is a PC mod called Star Wars Genesis that reskins the entire game into the Star Wars universe. You pick your character, you go to Coruscant, you learn the Force or you take bounty work. I watched a video on the 8.3 version and immediately started thinking about buying Starfield again. A mod team is doing more for that game than three years of official support has, and I am amazed Disney has not dropped a cease and desist on it yet.

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Nintendo keeps the tariff refund, and this is the wrong lawsuit

The Supreme Court ruled the tariffs illegal, businesses are getting refunds out of a collective $160 billion, and a proposed class action wants Nintendo to pass some of that money back to the people who paid inflated prices on Switch accessories and the original Switch. Nintendo has moved to dismiss, arguing customers got what they agreed to buy.

Those who bought Nintendo’s products received exactly what they bargained and paid for

I am pro-consumer to my bones and Nintendo is right here. There is no leg to stand on. Nobody filed a class action when eggs were absurd. Nobody is going after the oil companies for a rebate after the fact. Scalpers charge triple during a shortage, people pay it, and those buyers do not get to demand the difference back six months later. A video game console is a luxury item, the price was on the box, and you decided it was worth it.

Nintendo also raised prices for reasons beyond tariffs, including memory and labor and shipping, and it ate the tariff cost on the Switch 2 entirely. That console has held its launch price for over a year, which is more than Microsoft managed while raising the Xbox price three times. The increase coming in September is a different conversation.

The other problem is that no number fixes this. A $15 store credit is an insult, $50 is an insult, $100 is an insult. So why bend the knee at all? A judge is going to toss this, because ruling the other way sets a precedent that reaches every company that ever adjusted a price during the tariff mess.

I get the frustration underneath it. Games are $80, the next consoles are creeping toward $1,000, studios keep closing after profitable launches. Everything is boiling over and people want somewhere to put it. Put it somewhere that can actually change. Xbox’s decision-making, industry-wide layoffs, the $80 price floor. This particular hill has no juice in it worth the squeeze.

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Ryan Cohen says games are irrelevant to GameStop

Our favorite half cash, half stock guy is back. Ryan Cohen said physical game sales are irrelevant to GameStop’s business, that software is under 12% of revenue, and that collectibles make up over half.

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all.

When a man says it twice in a row, he is trying to convince himself.

The pivot to collectibles makes sense on paper. GameStop saw the digital shift coming back in the PS4 and Xbox One era and knew trade-ins were going to dry up. What is tone deaf is saying it out loud to the people who still walk into those stores for games. The sign says GameStop. It does not say CollectibleStop or Trading Card Stop.

And the collectible business is standing on a trapdoor. Funko is one of the biggest sellers in those stores, and reporting last year suggested Funko might not have the cash to survive another year. The T-shirts are generic and the figures are mostly available elsewhere for the same money or less. Take away Funko and I would love to know what that half of the business actually looks like.

He also said the more efficient you get, the easier it is to grow. GameStop is one of the least efficient operations in American retail. This is a company that ran a trade-anything day where employees were told to prepare for taxidermied animals coming through the door.

Here is the free idea. If GameStop wants to be relevant in digital, go the GOG route and sell DRM-free games that people actually own. No activation, no sign-in, no launcher. I picked up the full Arkham bundle over there recently for about $16, including Origins, which Steam does not carry. There is real room for a reputable third storefront. It will not happen, because Cohen is busy buying up eBay stock and telling them they will be his one way or another, which is a strange play for a man who just said secondhand physical media does not matter to him. An analyst pegged the global secondhand game market at $7.2 billion, so somebody over there can do math.

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Hasbro burned $56 million chasing another Baldur’s Gate

Hasbro’s latest earnings report lists a $56 million impairment on what it calls a:

refocused digital games portfolio for 2028 and beyond

More unannounced games got canceled. Back in 2022 Hasbro was spinning up G.I. Joe projects, Forgotten Realms games, and Exodus at Archetype Entertainment with former BioWare leadership. That is a lot of teams to keep alive while you wait, and big public companies hate waiting more than anything.

The part everyone forgets is that Hasbro does not own Larian. Baldur’s Gate 3 won Game of the Year for a studio Hasbro licensed to, and Larian has already said they are not making Baldur’s Gate 4 because they are off building something of their own. So the plan became build it yourself, and now you are $56 million lighter with a canceled slate and people about to lose jobs.

Take the Disney route. Stop running studios and start licensing your IP to people who know how to make games. And nobody is buying a standalone G.I. Joe game in 2026. You call Epic, you put G.I. Joe in Fortnite, and suddenly a whole generation knows who Snake Eyes is. That costs you a phone call instead of a studio.

Not every release has to be a grand slam either. EA can afford to make an Unravel because FIFA prints money. You can hit a double, market it properly, and still come out fine. Banking on a Baldur’s Gate every time is how you end up closing studios. And while we are here, Wizards of the Coast has been charging premium money for increasingly thin D&D books. Do better.

Two other things stuck with me from the week. Jennifer English is stepping back from her role in Tides of Annihilation for health reasons while staying on in an advisory capacity, and she already helped pick her replacement, which is a class move from someone who just won Best Performance for Maelle. And Cliff Bleszinski opened up about his struggle with alcoholism and wants back into game development. LawBreakers was a dud, sure, but the man gave me Gears of War and set the 360 on fire doing it. I hope he gets what he needs and then gets back to work, because this industry keeps proving it is a machine, and the only reason any of us care about it is the people inside it.

Watch the Full Episode Here

The news has been nothing but negative since the Xbox showcase ended. Developer layoffs, Xbox studio closures, Xbox’s third price increase, PlayStation getting rid of physical disc printing, GTA 6 making the full version of their game $100.

I love covering gaming, and games are my way of decompressing and recharging. I feel like we are seeing the collapse of gaming to the whims of shareholders. Art is not valued by these corporations, and live services have put the nail in the coffin of the future of gaming.

I am not saying we won’t have games. I am saying we are at the point comic books were at in the 90s, and of course gaming in the early 80s.

We will see a lot more of these types of headlines until we have a much smaller gaming industry. A lot of devs will leave and go to something less volatile. Piracy will flourish, and the hardware will only get more expensive.

GTA VI will be huge, but it will bloat the numbers for the industry this year. More publishers will charge $80 for their games, they will sell less, they will complain that these games were bad, and they will close more studios. Fortnite and Warzone will continue to slowly bleed out players.

The negatives are so visible that it is hard to see the potential silver lining. We will see smaller studios that make more games like Expedition 33.

I want to see AA games make a comeback. 8 to 12 hour games with tight gameplay and stories made up a ton of what I played when I was younger. I would love to see more of these games. I don’t need 20 games that are 120+ hours.

This was the best run of showcases we’ve had in years. I mean since before the pandemic gutted the entire release calendar and left these summer streams limping for half a decade. Summer Game Fest actually paced itself. Xbox came out swinging. Even Nintendo found a few minutes of magic at the very end. For the first time in a long time, it felt like the industry had recovered.

And then two of the biggest names in the room reminded everyone that a trailer reel doesn’t pay anybody’s rent. You can nail a showcase and still spend that same week telling hundreds of people they no longer have a job. That’s the gaming industry in June 2026, and it’s the whole reason this week is worth writing about.

Summer Game Fest finally shook off COVID

Geoff Keighley has Game Awards locked down, and it looks like he’s finally cracked the code on Summer Game Fest too. This was the tightest, best-paced SGF he’s done. Fast and dense, with almost no fluff dragging it down.

Blood Message was my favorite of the bunch. It’s a gritty, blood-soaked battlefield game from an Eastern studio, and the trailer kept evoking Helm’s Deep and the Battle of the Bastards, ladders going up and bodies coming down. That whole wave of non-Japanese Eastern developers keeps cooking. Black Myth: Wukong, Crimson Desert, and now this. They’re delivering some of the best-looking action games on the market, and I want a lot more of it.

Remedy showed up with Control Resonant, and at this point they’ve basically usurped Housemarque as my favorite mid-size studio. They’re hitting on every cylinder after Alan Wake 2. The catch is the date. September 24 is a bloodbath. There are five or six massive games stacked on top of each other that week, and Control feels like one of the sacrificial lambs that ends up delayed into December or 2027. Cyberpunk went gold and still got pushed. Three months out guarantees nothing.

The rest of the show kept hitting. 1666: Amsterdam looks gorgeous and comes from the original creator of Assassin’s Creed, with a prologue already on Steam. Resident Evil Code: Veronica got remade and confirmed for third person, which tells you how locked in Capcom is right now. They went from “Crapcom” to a genuine goat, and Resident Evil cannot miss. Wolf Among Us 2 finally showed real footage, and Telltale is dropping the whole thing at once instead of dragging it out episode by episode for six months at a time like the old days. That model ran its course years ago. Good riddance.

They closed on Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the conclusion of the remake trilogy, and buried the real headline at the bottom of the slide. It’s launching on every platform at once, Switch 2 included. Square Enix spent years tethered to PlayStation and watched games like Final Fantasy XVI underperform because of it. Now they’re done. Get the games out, get the bag, stop making people wait.

Nintendo’s Direct was a mess held together by its last five minutes

Here’s where I split from the crowd. People are out here calling this Direct an eight out of ten, and I hope someone did a wellness check on them.

Most of this thing could’ve been a blog post. Half of it could’ve been an email. It played like a third-party showcase with Nintendo’s name slapped on top, full of updates, expansions, and ports of games we already own. They burned dedicated stage time on a Devil May Cry 5 port that’s almost a decade old. A clip in a quick montage would have covered it.

I’ll give the counterpoint its due, because it’s real. For Switch 2 owners still burned by the Wii U’s third-party drought, seeing Stellar Blade, Space Marine 2, and a stack of current-gen games confirmed for the platform matters. It’s reassurance that the support is actually there this time. I get it.

But as a casual fan watching for new games, the first fifty minutes did nothing for me. The last stretch is what saved it. Kingdom Hearts 4 showing up at a Nintendo Direct, after that series basically lived on PlayStation forever, was a huge get. Final Fantasy Resonance, the HD-2D remake of the original Final Fantasy, looks stunning and landed an October 22, 2026 date. And the Ocarina of Time remake closed the show with a beautiful teaser that had zero gameplay and no date, even though it’s apparently coming this year. If you’re going to end on your crown jewel and stamp a current-year window on it, show me Link riding across Hyrule Field. Don’t make me beg.

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Xbox came out like it was game seven

Xbox treated the opening of their showcase like a tied game seven where the loser goes home. Gears of War: E-Day, Fable, A Plague Tale, Halo. Boom, boom, boom, boom. That’s the strongest opening I’ve seen from any showcase in five years.

Gears: E-Day finally showed gameplay, and it looks practically perfect. The cover system got rebuilt, the active reload moved down by your character where you can actually see it, and the movement is fluid in a way Gears has never been. It’s four-player co-op across three brutal days in one city, October 6, and I’m already taking that week off work.

Fable was the surprise. I’ve played every one, and every trailer up to now sold me cheeky British humor and not a single reason to care. This one finally showed a story. Hayley Atwell as a villain who thinks she’s above everyone, giving off straight Hela-from-Ragnarok energy, and then Jack of Blades from the original game at the end. That’s the best Fable footage we’ve ever gotten, and it’s the first time I’ve actually been excited.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is the other one I’m locked in on. Three prequel missions with Sergeant Johnson set before Reach, fifty bucks in a world where games cost eighty, and yes, it’s coming to PS5. There’s a whole book about Johnson fighting the Covenant for the first time, and I would love for this to be the start of Xbox filling in that history.

A Plague Tale: Legacy from Asobo didn’t even look like a Plague Tale game until the rats poured in at the end. The combat is free-flowing now, the setting looks like ancient Greece, and the story might be a prequel to how the whole plague started. Clockwork Revolution is BioShock crossed with Deathloop and a heavy dose of Outer Worlds, and inXile clearly needed the extra time to make all that time-travel level-warping actually work. Doom: The Dark Ages already has DLC dropping July 7. Spyro is back from Toys for Bob and you finally get to fly. Metro 2039 nailed the tension that series is built on. Vivarium is a Ghibli-soaked indie I’ll happily let leave me empty inside in 2027.

Somebody buy these developers a thesaurus, though. Resonance, Resonant, Revelation, Revolution, Requiem. As Nate put it in chat, how many more Revelations can John the Beloved write?

Ubisoft keeps closing studios it can’t afford to lose

Ubisoft was strangely absent from all of this, and then the reason showed up in my feed. Another wave of restructuring, with Ubisoft Winnipeg and Ubisoft Belgrade both shut down. Winnipeg had supported Far Cry 6 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Belgrade had been working on the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake. In an internal message to staff, the company framed it as a way to simplify how it operates, cut its cost base, and strengthen itself for the long term.

Roughly 380 employees may be affected across those closures plus layoffs at Barcelona and San Francisco. It’s the same playbook they’ve run since 2024, complete with a new subsidiary in Vantage, another “reset” back in January, and a pile of cancelled projects including the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake.

Ubisoft got too big for its britches, ballooned to too many studios, and now it can’t stop bleeding. They posted a record loss of around 1.3 billion euros. Nobody’s buying that whole company unless it’s dirt cheap, so the realistic path is selling off the IPs. Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six bundled together would have suitors lined up. Rayman by itself does not. And honestly, the Black Flag remake will probably crush, because when you remake the best Assassin’s Creed ever made, it’s hard to fumble it.

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Xbox squandered its own showcase in a week

Then the company that won the weekend went and shot itself in the foot.

Xbox is planning July layoffs and marketing cuts, with Asha Sharma laying out a plan to reset the business. Bloomberg reported she also pulled the Halo: Campaign Evolved trailer from Sony’s State of Play, partly because the footage had been captured on a PS5 Pro, and Gears: E-Day flipped to console-exclusive at the last minute after Walmart leaked PS5 decals for it.

Sharma’s memo is the part everyone should read. It’s transparent in a way Xbox almost never is, written in plain English with real grace, and she never throws Phil Spencer or anyone else under the bus. She just says where the company is and what it has to do.

We don’t succeed by hiding hard truths, nor will we succeed by doing the same thing and expecting different results.

The five realities she lays out all land. Revenue can’t keep declining. The studio system got overextended. The hardware component crisis is brutal, with storage costs already double what they were last fall and projected to hit five times the planned price by holiday 2027 for the next console, Project Helix. And the big one for me, after years of saying it: a reliable pipeline of first and third-party exclusives is non-negotiable. She also pulled Copilot off Xbox almost immediately, which is the opposite of what I expected from someone who came up running AI products.

Here’s my problem. Everything in that memo is correct, and I still hate the cost of it. The showcase made me believe in the whole Xbox brand again, for the first time in years. Then days later the people who build those games are getting cut to make the numbers work. Transparency is good. Squandering a week of hard-earned goodwill on the backs of laid-off employees is a tough thing to sit with, even when the strategy underneath it makes sense.

The exclusivity reversal is the right move. Why would anyone buy an Xbox when every game also ran on PlayStation, Steam, and Switch? My Xbox isn’t even on my desk. My PlayStation is behind my monitor because that’s where the games are. You sell the box by giving people a reason to want the box. Helix is going to be at least fifteen hundred dollars, and Xbox has to make people want it.

The best showcase season in years just happened, and the people who made it possible spent that same week clearing out their desks. That contradiction is the whole industry right now, and until someone solves it, every great June is going to come with a bill in July.

Catch the full episode of Nerd Cave Newz right here:
Xbox Had the Best Showcase in Years, Then Ruined It

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This Was A No-Brainer

Let me lay this out, because the timeline matters. After Sony acquired Bluepoint in 2021, the studio helped finish God of War Ragnarok and then moved onto a live service God of War spinoff where Atreus falls into Hades. That project got canceled in January 2025. So Bluepoint went looking for its next thing and pitched what everyone assumed was inevitable: a Bloodborne remake.

Sony was on board. The business case checked out. Bloodborne is still one of Sony’s top ten best-selling first-party titles in the US by full dollar sales. The studio that made the Demon’s Souls remake, one of the best launch titles in PlayStation history, wanted to do the same thing for Bloodborne. This should have been the easiest yes in gaming.

But FromSoftware blocked it.

Former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida (full of grace) has a theory. He believes Hidetaka Miyazaki loves Bloodborne too much to let anyone else touch it. He’s too busy to do it himself, but he doesn’t want another studio handling it either. And Sony just rolled over and accepted it.

FromSoftware’s Baby

I respect Miyazaki immensely. The man is responsible for some of the greatest games ever made. I understand the instinct to protect something you love, something you created from the ground up. Bloodborne is his baby.

But the thing that I keep coming back to is that this is Bluepoint we’re talking about. Not some random startup. Not some unproven studio. They are the team for remakes. They have proven themselves with Demon’s Souls. They have proven themselves with Shadow of the Colossus. Time and time again, they have shown the pedigree that it takes to make a faithful remake.

Miyazaki could have taken an oversight role. He could have set the creative boundaries. He could have been as hands-on or hands-off as he wanted while Bluepoint did what they do best. There was a deal to be made here that would have kept 70 people employed, given fans the game they’ve been screaming for since the PS5 launched, and still protected the integrity of the Bloodborne vision.

Instead, we got nothing. Well, more than nothing, we got a talented studio shut down and seventy developers out of work.

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Sony Is To Blame As Well

FromSoftware blocking the remake is one thing, but Sony should have had the best intentions for Bluepoint. They should have done what a publisher is meant to do and guide their developers, help them along the way to make the best possible games. Sony did nothing but put roadblocks and dig holes for them to fall into.

After the Bloodborne pitch was rejected, Bluepoint tried everything. They pitched an updated version of Shadow of the Colossus, the game they had already remade in 2018. Rejected. A Ghost of Tsushima spinoff. Nothing. Other pitches to other internal Sony studios. Nothing got greenlit. For over a year, Bluepoint sat without a project. And then, to really twist the knife, Sony announced the God of War remake trilogy without Bluepoint’s involvement. A week later, the closure was official.

Think about that for a second. You buy a studio known as the best remake developer in the industry. You have them work on God of War Ragnarok. Then force them to make a live service game that no one wants. Then you cancel that project. Follow that up with blocking their most obvious next move. You reject everything they pitch. Then, you announce a massive remake project that is perfect for them and give it to someone else. Finally, you shut them down and make it feel like it was their fault.

At what point does Sony look in the mirror and ask whether they failed Bluepoint, not the other way around? Because from where I’m sitting, Bluepoint did everything right. They pitched smart projects that played to their strengths. They were willing to work within existing PlayStation franchises. The system around them failed. And I’m curious how Sony justifies that internally, because from the outside, it looks indefensible.

This Isn’t Just A Bluepoint Problem

This isn’t an isolated incident. This is a norm for the gaming industry. We are watching both Sony and Microsoft mismanage acquired studios in real time.

Xbox has closed multiple studios after acquiring them, including Tango Gameworks, the team behind Hi-Fi Rush, one of the most celebrated games of its year. Sony shut down Firewalk Studios after Concord’s disastrous launch. Now Bluepoint. The playbook is becoming disturbingly familiar: acquire talented teams, fail to set them up for success, and close them when the spreadsheet stops looking good. Rinse and repeat.

The talent at these studios didn’t suddenly become less talented. The people who made Demon’s Souls, Shadow of the Colossus, and some of the most technically impressive remakes in gaming history didn’t forget how to make games. They were put in impossible positions by the companies that were supposed to support them.

We’re two months into 2026 and we’ve already seen more studio closures and layoffs than anyone should be comfortable with. At some point, the conversation has to shift from “why did this studio fail?” to “why do these publishers keep failing their studios?”

The Future Of Bloodborne

As for the Bloodborne remake itself, we’re probably further away from it now than we were before this report dropped. FromSoftware surveyed fans about interest in more Bloodborne content during the Elden Ring: Nightreign network test last year, so the desire is clearly on their radar. But desire and action are two very different things.

Brandon Sheffield from Necrosoft Games said he could find ten companies that have pitched a Bloodborne sequel, spinoff, or remake, including his own. It’s just not going to happen unless FromSoftware decides they want to do it. And right now, they’re too busy to do it themselves and won’t let anyone else try.

Meanwhile, one of the best games of the PS4 generation remains locked to hardware that’s increasingly outdated, with no PC port and no modern version in sight. The fans lose. The developers who could have made it lose. The only people who seem satisfied are the ones who said no.

Where Do We Go From Here?

I don’t want to end on despair because that’s not useful. But I do want to be honest about how this makes me feel. This was a situation where everybody could have won. Fans get the remake they’ve been begging for. Bluepoint gets to do what they’re best at. FromSoftware gets to protect the vision with an oversight role. Sony gets a guaranteed hit. Every concession should have been on the table to make this happen.

And the fact that it didn’t, the fact that we lost an incredible studio and still don’t have a Bloodborne remake, is one of the most frustrating outcomes I can think of in recent gaming history.

What I’m watching for now is whether Sony learns anything from this. Whether the next time they acquire a studio, they have a real plan for what that studio does when the first project doesn’t work out. Because the acquire-and-abandon cycle has to stop. These are people’s careers. These are people’s lives. And I’m curious whether anyone at PlayStation leadership is willing to own that.

Shout out to the team at Bluepoint. You deserved better than this. The work you did mattered, and the games you made will outlast the decisions that ended your studio. I hope every single one of you lands somewhere that values what you bring to the table.

And to FromSoftware: I love your games. I respect the craft. But sitting on Bloodborne forever while the people who could have honored it lose their jobs? That’s a choice that’s hard to defend.

Gamers have a right to be mad. And the industry as a whole needs to do better.

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As we get toward the end of January, I’m still hopeful that good things are coming for gaming. The news about Ubisoft essentially creating “creative houses” to work on specific types of games like shooters, larger flagship titles, live services and more, along with their renewed focus on open world games, is honestly shocking. Canceling six games and postponing seven is a huge move.

I agree with the general consensus that they’re preparing for some kind of sale and promoting themselves to other companies. Even so, I’m hoping that moving forward we’ll see a shift toward a healthier industry overall.

The reason for my hope is yesterday’s developer direct, where we saw Double Fine show off a new game called Kiln.

This game is not going to be for everybody. When I first saw it, I was pretty resistant to be honest. As Tim Schafer talked about the “Fortnight Amnesia” project they do every year, it really clicked for me. At the beginning of each year, they take two weeks away from whatever projects they’re currently working on. During that time the entire team pitches new game ideas, they vote, and then they choose one concept to actually try to make. Kiln was the winner of Fortnight Amnesia. I think this is awesome because Double Fine is pushing their developers to think outside the box. It’s not just leadership coming up with ideas. Everyone in the company gets a real chance to create something.

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We saw the developer who came up with the idea for Kiln, and as they showed it off, I found myself thinking, “This is actually a really cool idea”, but again, it’s not for everyone. Yet, the depth of the creation tools really stood out; like actual pottery mechanics, working a pottery wheel, shaping forms, glazing, and designing patterns on the outside.

The creativity on display was incredible. I was honestly kind of awestruck by how strong the culture at Double Fine seems to be, and a lot of that comes down to Tim Schafer and the people surrounding him. A working environment like that genuinely excites me about the future of the gaming industry.

Now is every studio like that? Absolutely not. But I really hope more studios, indie and even larger mainstream ones, start taking notes from that kind of culture. If more developers worked this way, think about how incredible gaming could be as an industry. We’d get more Hollow Knights. We’d get more Expedition 33s. We’d get more games that take risks and think outside the box instead of regurgitating the same formulaic nonsense we keep seeing from big triple-A studios. And yes, I’m looking right at you, Ubisoft… You keep putting out the same game over and over again.

So shout out to Double Fine. Shout out to the leadership there. I love the Fortnight Amnesia project, and I’m genuinely looking forward to playing Kiln. It’s not really my typical game choice, but I’m going to try it. I’m going to support it, because I want to see more of this work. Studios listening to developers, encouraging experimentation, and trying new things. That’s awesome! That’s what I hope for the rest of 2026: creativity actually being celebrated.

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According to a statement from Frédérick Duguet to IGN:

“We went through a thorough review of projects across December [and] January, with the current market evolution in mind — which is consistently more selective. You’ve seen the last quarter showing a never-before-seen level of competition. Competition and selection are here to stay.”

“When you are coming in number one, number two, with great content quality in a given segment, then you can have a very strong reward in terms of player reception and financial performance. That’s what really informed our pipeline review. We selected what would be the best projects to put the Creative Houses in the best position to succeed in that market.”

Ubisoft will be splitting its franchises across five “Creative Houses”:

Creative House 1 – Vantage Studios (Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six)

Creative House 2 – The Division, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell

Creative House 3 – For Honor, The Crew, Riders Republic, Brawlhalla, Skull & Bones

Creative House 4 – Anno, Might & Magic, Rayman, Prince of Persia, Beyond Good & Evil

Creative House 5 – Just Dance, Uno, Hasbro, Idle Miner Tycoon, Ketchapp, Hungry Shark, Invincible: Guarding the Globe

My take on all of this is that Ubisoft continues to be behind the ball on what gamers want. They keep missing the mark or developing games that fans wanted ten years ago. Yves Guillemot and his family have led the company in the wrong direction, and I feel like it’s time for someone with their ear to the ground to take charge.

The Sands of Time remake being canceled is a slight shock, since they’ve been dangling it for years. I hope the restructuring helps the company, but I hate seeing developers lose their jobs. Ultimately, this feels like a way to cut costs and secure a hefty tax write-off.

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What I’ve Been Playing (and What’s Worth Your Time)

Short version: some absolute bangers and a couple of games that demand full attention. If you like deep single-player stories that stick with you, check these out.

• Ghost of Yotei — Rolled credits and loved it. The story lands in a big way, and the endgame has some memorable set pieces. I expected a tragic turn in the final act, and the pacing did pick up fast in acts two and three. There’s a satisfying epilogue that opens new story options, and I’m hopeful for more DLC or a Legends mode down the line.

• Expedition 33 — A strong contender on my backlog. From what I’ve seen, the narrative weight is stacking up and the world-building is compelling. Planning to start it live soon.

Ghost of Yotei: The Ending, Boss Fights, and Character Work

The final act throws everything at you — hordes of enemies at certain set pieces, some fights that feel more punishing than others, and a couple of big boss surprises. I leaned into ranged gear for some encounters, which helped when the melee fights got overwhelming.

Two things stood out for me: the quality of the set pieces and the emotional weight behind the protagonist’s choices. The character development, especially for Atsu, felt more layered than some recent protagonists in similar games. The epilogue opens up new narrative branches that make revisiting the world worth it.

• Act pacing: Act one builds beautifully. Acts two and three feel rushed, but still satisfying.

• Boss design: Some fights are deceptive in their mechanics — expect surprises like unexpected weapon swaps and unorthodox movesets.

• After-credits content: A short vignette after the credits hints at further stories to explore.

Industry Watch: Franchise Fatigue and the Kotick Question

There’s a growing narrative that some tentpole franchises are getting stale. Throw a stick and hit a copy of the same thing — that’s the criticism leveled at long-running annual franchises. A few thoughts on the broader picture:

• Franchise fatigue is real. Releasing iterations every year without meaningful innovation burns players out. Examples: the Call of Duty treadmill versus the occasional break-and-return success stories like Assassin’s Creed post-Unity.

• Take time off when needed. Battlefield took a hard reset after a misfire and saw a much better reception afterward. Giving teams breathing room can reignite excitement.

• Who’s running the show matters. Leadership decisions and how companies treat their talent shape long-term creative health. Big acquisitions and personality-driven PR can mask deeper issues.

There’s also the ongoing conversation about the executives who preside over these franchises. Names get tossed around, lawsuits appear in headlines, and the public keeps asking whether ownership and management are aligned with the people making the games. Those answers will shape whether big franchises stay relevant.

Labor, Lawsuits, and Rockstar

The labor story to watch involves Rockstar and recent legal actions that call out workplace treatment and the company’s culture. When unions and government bodies start poking in, it tends to mean the dispute will be persistent and visible. That visibility can pressure companies to settle or to face significant scrutiny.

Some practical realities:

• Government involvement could lead to fines or mandated reforms if wrongdoing is found.

• Workers waiting on the outcome may struggle financially during drawn-out legal battles — this is a real human cost.

• Companies can stall with deep legal coffers, so public pressure and solidarity matter when trying to balance the scales.

Retail Collapse: GameStop’s Shrinking Footprint

GameStop keeps closing stores and the trend isn’t surprising. Physical game sales are down, digital distribution is king, and the consoles are a few years into their life cycle so many gamers already own them. Throw in declining collectibles revenue and clumsy trade-in strategies, and you get a company that looks increasingly like a nostalgia brand keeping the lights on.

Why this matters:

• Digital convenience wins. People prefer buying direct from stores or platforms rather than wandering into a mall kiosk.

• Retail consolidation. Multiple stores in a tight radius made sense years ago, but it doesn’t today, and closures are often a way to massage financial statements.

• Collector market shifts. When Funko and similar revenue streams slip, it hits the bottom line hard.

What You Should Care About

If you’re a player, here are the practical takeaways:

• Buy what you enjoy. Big brands aren’t immune to fatigue — prioritize games that push ideas or deliver unforgettable stories.

• Support developers who treat their people well. Company culture impacts game quality long-term.

• Embrace digital when it makes sense, but keep an eye on physical editions if you value collectibles or resale.

Community and Extras

There’s a lot more happening beyond games: podcast feeds are back across major platforms, indie streams are bubbling up, and anime seasons are fueling weekly conversations. If you want deeper dives, there are live streams and community spaces where people play new releases, dissect story beats, and debate industry news.

Final note: gaming isn’t dying — it’s evolving. The medium is bigger and more diverse than ever, but that growth brings growing pains. Franchises will falter, stores will close, and studios will face accountability. The best response is to stay curious, support the creators and companies doing right, and keep playing the games that make you feel something.

Quick Recap

• Ghost of Yotei is a must-play for story fans, even if the last acts feel rushed.

• Franchise fatigue is real; breaks and meaningful innovation reset excitement.

• Labor and legal battles at major studios deserve attention — they affect the people who make games.

• GameStop’s struggles reflect the larger shift to digital and changing consumer habits.

Play more good stuff, complain loudly about corporate nonsense, and keep supporting creators who actually care about making memorable games.

If you care about games, your job, or your creative work, this stuff matters. It is not just gossip. It is a live demo of how power, money, and tech collide in real time.

Let’s unpack the chaos.

Congress Vs AI In Call Of Duty

A U.S. congressman publicly called out Activision Blizzard for using generative AI in Call of Duty Black Ops 7 and demanded tighter guardrails. The core idea was simple. Protect workers. Make sure they share in the gains. Tax mass displacement if companies use AI to kill jobs instead of support people.

On paper, that sounds nice. “AI is patriotic if it serves people.” “Workers should share in productivity gains.” It all reads like a modern tech labor manifesto.

Here is where I land.

AI in games is not the villain by default. AI can speed up boring work, help with iteration, or let a small team punch above its weight. The problem is not the tool. The problem is incentives. If a studio is under pressure to cut headcount and hit a 30 percent margin, they will use whatever they can to justify layoffs.

We have already watched big companies slash thousands of jobs while reporting record revenue. That is not “innovation.” That is cost cutting.

So what actually helps here?

I do not think the answer is “ban AI in games.” I also do not trust the government to micromanage game development. What I do believe in is incentive design. Reward studios that hire displaced workers. Reward studios that bring on new grads instead of replacing everyone with tools and contractors. Reward studios that allow unions to exist instead of quietly crushing them behind “performance issues.”

You want a practical filter? Look at what a company does right before the holidays. Are they building teams or gutting them.

For us as players, there is only one real lever. Vote with your wallet. If you say you care about workers but still pre order every game from studios that treat people as disposable, your money is louder than your tweets.

Subnautica 2 And The Cost Of Corporate Greed

Then there is Subnautica 2. This one feels like a case study in how to torch trust.

Court filings claim that Krafton’s CEO and the newly appointed CFO brainstormed on Slack about how to avoid paying out a 250 million dollar earn out to the founders of Unknown Worlds. At one point, the CEO allegedly even used ChatGPT to look for ways to wiggle out of the deal. A literal “how do I not pay my people” prompt to an AI.

The result. The leadership of the studio was fired. A “Project X” task force was allegedly spun up to either force a new deal or execute a takeover. Internal experts reportedly said Subnautica 2 was on track for launch. The parent company still hit the brakes, then tried to frame it as “we only care about quality for players.”

I called nonsense on that on the show and I still do.

This is what happens when you treat a studio like a spreadsheet instead of a team. Subnautica is not a random B tier IP. It is a beloved series with a passionate fanbase. People were ready for the sequel. Instead of trusting the team they bought, Krafton allegedly went looking for loopholes and shortcuts.

As a player, that means delays, uncertainty, and the risk that a great series gets kneecapped by boardroom games.

As a creator or business owner, there is a lesson here too. If you promise big upside to your partners, you cannot flip into “how do I not pay this” mode the second the math looks painful. That mindset always leaks into the product. It makes you stingy with quality, stingy with people, and stingy with trust.

You can be hungry for profit without being allergic to keeping your word.

GameStop’s “Trade Everything” Panic Button

On top of that, GameStop is apparently in full “throw ideas at the wall” mode. We talked about their upcoming “trade everything” promotion where customers can bring in almost anything and trade it for store credit, with proceeds routed through a charity for tax benefits. Employees were reportedly told to be ready for wild items, even to keep hazmat suits handy.

It sounds like a Black Friday fever dream mixed with a pawn shop and a write off strategy.

From the outside, it looks desperate. When your business model is shaky and one of your major vendors (Funko) is struggling, you start doing weird stuff to generate cash, impressions, or both. The problem is that every “stunt” like this lands on the backs of the people in the stores.

For workers, it means chaos, confusion, and dealing with customers who want to “see what they can get away with” on camera. For the brand, it sends a loud signal. We do not know what we are anymore.

If you run any kind of business, here is the takeaway. Do not use your front line people as human shields for bad strategy. If your big idea requires your team to absorb all the risk, all the backlash, and all the headaches while leadership gets a write off, it is not a smart play. It is a sign you waited too long to fix the real problem.

If you made it this far, you’re my kind of person. You care about games, business, and how all the behind the scenes decisions actually affect real people. If you want more breakdowns like this without fighting an algorithm, subscribe to the Substack. You’ll get honest takes, deeper dives, and practical lessons you can use in your own work, straight to your inbox.

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Xbox Partner Preview: Cool Trailers — Weak Show

The Xbox Partner Preview should have been an easy win. On paper, you had Tides of Annihilation, Reanimal, Zoo Punk, and a new peek at IO Interactive’s 007 project. Instead, it felt like a padded out YouTube playlist.

We got some absolute bangers. Tides of Annihilation looked incredible with its dimension shifting combat and Arthurian twist. Zoo Punk had strong Kena plus Ratchet and Clank vibes with great movement and character design. Reanimal hit that Inside plus Little Nightmares horror lane and landed a date and a demo.

Those three alone were worth talking about. The problem was everything around them.

Xbox anchored the marketing on 007, then showed… the car. The Aston Martin. That was basically it. Then we got more time on a Slim Shady Hitman contract than on the actual James Bond game. The show ended on Raji instead of one of the clear heavy hitters. The pacing felt off, like someone built a great middle and sandwiched it between two “uh, we need something here” decisions.

My score on the show was a five out of ten. A few strong standouts, dragged down by expectations and structure.

There is a broader lesson here too. When you tease a big name like 007, you set a bar. If you are not ready to show something meaningful, do not put it in the headline. Your marketing should never promise more than your content delivers. That is how you train your audience not to trust you.

Game Awards 2025 Nominees: Hype, Snubs, And Tough Calls

Then you have the Game Awards 2025 nominees themselves. This list hit and immediately sparked the usual arguments. Who got robbed. Who is overhyped. Who is getting a sympathy nod.

You have games like Claire Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hollow Knight Silksong showing up across categories. Best Independent Game is basically an all star bracket with Expedition 33, Hades 2, Silksong, and more. Performance is stacked with Troy Baker as Indiana Jones, Erica Ishii as Atsu from Ghost of Yote, and multiple Expedition 33 roles.

Here is how I think about it.

First, this really has been one of the best years in gaming in a long time. When “did not get nominated” is not an insult but a capacity issue, that is a good problem to have. Some great games were always going to get left off.

Second, the categories expose what we value. Do we reward the game that surprised us, like Expedition 33. Or the game we have been begging for that actually delivered, like Silksong. Do we reward a sequel that refined a formula, like Hades 2. Or do we make room for new IP that took a swing.

There is no perfect answer. But there is a useful question you can ask yourself. “What kinds of creative risks do I want the industry to keep taking?” Vote for those.

What You Can Actually Do With All This

It is easy to read all this and just feel tired. Congress yelling about Call of Duty AI. Executives trying to dodge earn outs with an AI chat box. Retail chains flailing. Showcases that promise big and deliver mid. Awards that cannot honor everything.

Here is how I try to turn this from noise into something useful.

As a player, decide what your money stands for. You cannot boycott everyone. You can be intentional though. If a studio treats workers like humans and ships great work, support them. If a company keeps pulling slimy moves, do not reward them just because the logo hits your nostalgia button.

As a creator, pay attention to the patterns. The studios and platforms that keep people over the long term. The ones that invest in new IP instead of just squeezing the old ones dry. The companies that incentivize good behavior instead of hiding behind PR when they get caught.

As a business owner or leader, ask yourself a blunt question. “If my team heard everything I said about profit, would they still trust me?” Because that is the gap we keep seeing on the headlines. People saying “we care about players” or “we care about workers” while doing the exact opposite with their actions.

The Bottom Line

This week was a reminder that the games industry is not just trailers and trophies. It is politics, contracts, layoffs, weird promos, and a lot of people trying to survive inside systems they do not control.

You cannot fix all of that. I cannot either. But you can choose what you support, what you tolerate, and what you walk away from.

Start there. Pick one game, one company, or one creator you want to back more intentionally this year. Then ask yourself why. The answer to that question will tell you a lot about the future you are actually voting for.

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TLDR

• Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is delayed beyond early 2026 as Skydance refines an ambitious project.

• Destiny 2 / Bungie is underperforming against Sony’s expectations, prompting impairment charges and real questions about Bungie’s future.

• Valve revealed three new hardware items: the Steam Controller, the Steam Machine (a cube-shaped PC-console hybrid), and the Steam Frame VR headset — all heading to early 2026.

• Horizon Steel Frontiers is a mobile-first MMO co-developed by NCSoft and Guerrilla that leans Monster Hunter in structure and is currently PC/mobile focused without an immediate PlayStation release.

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Marvel 1943: Delay Equals Breathing Room — or Concern?

Skydance Games announced that Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra will not make the early 2026 window. They framed it as a quality-first decision:

“Marvel 1943 Rise of Hydra is an ambitious project and we are committed to ensuring it meets the level of quality that our team, players, and fans expect.”

Delays in AAA have become the industry norm, and while delays can protect teams from crunch and poor launches, they also raise investor concerns and public skepticism when multiple postponements pile up. The title has big names attached and high expectations; more time could polish it, but it also increases the risk that momentum stalls or expectations rise unhealthily high.

Why This Matters

• Ambitious licensed projects are costly; more time typically means more spend.

• Repeated delays can shift public perception: “late” can turn into “overhyped.”

• For creators with strong legacies, a mediocre release can feel damaging to reputation — something the industry notices sharply.

Bungie And Destiny 2: From Cash Cow To Cautionary Tale

Sony publicly recorded a roughly ¥31.5 billion impairment (about $204 million) tied to Bungie after Destiny 2’s sales and engagement fell short of post-acquisition expectations. Sony’s CFO attributed this to competitive changes and lower-than-expected user engagement, and the numbers back that up: concurrent Steam peak counts are drastically down compared to last year.

“Regarding Destiny 2, partially due to the changes in the competitive environment, the level of sales and user engagement have not reached the expectations we had at the time of the acquisition of Bungie.”

The studio’s longer-term plan—handing the baton to the new extraction shooter Marathon—has hit legal delays and uncertainty. Meanwhile, Destiny 2 remains the day-to-day product and it’s showing signs of fatigue. Sony is now revising financial projections and taking material accounting steps to reflect the underperformance.

Key Implications

• This is a reminder that live service games require steady, visible roadmaps and frequent reasons for players to stay engaged.

• Acquisitions are not automatic growth engines; high expectations plus underdelivery equals write-downs and strategic reevaluation.

• Bungie’s brand still matters, but corporate oversight and profitability pressures will shape its next chapter.

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Valve’s Unexpected Announcement: Steam Controller, Steam Machine, Steam Frame

Valve dropped a surprising hardware lineup that reads like a full ecosystem play. Each product connects back to Steam OS and the Steam Deck DNA, but targets different spaces.

Steam Controller

A modern rethinking of the controller with magnetic thumbsticks, capacitive sensors, gyro aiming, back buttons, and a magnetic charging/adapter puck for low-latency wireless pairing. Designed to make any Steam game playable with refined input options.

Steam Machine

A compact, quiet cube-shaped PC built to sit under the TV and run Steam OS. Valve claims roughly 6x Steam Deck performance, 4K/60 target with FSR, and a plug-and-play living-room experience while remaining a full PC (OS installs allowed).

Steam Frame (VR)

A lightweight, wireless, streaming-first VR headset. It supports both VR and non-VR titles, uses camera-based tracking and foveated streaming (prioritizes rendering where your eyes look), and includes unique controllers. The headset can also run games standalone and expand storage via microSD.

Big Takeaways

• Steam Machine positions Valve directly against console ecosystems: a Steam-first living-room device that keeps PC freedom.

• Steam Frame combines portability and high-fidelity streaming, narrowing the gap between standalone headsets and PC VR setups.

• Pricing is the critical variable. Valve can win market share with competitive price points or be boxed out if positioned as a luxury product.

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Horizon Steel Frontiers: Guerrilla + NCSoft = Mobile MMO

Guerrilla and NCSoft announced Horizon Steel Frontiers, a mobile-first MMORPG set in the Horizon universe. Gameplay footage leans heavily into Monster Hunter-style PvE: character customization, raid bosses, resource competition, and big machine fights.

What’s Unusual

• It’s built primarily for mobile and PC (through NCSoft’s Purple platform), with no immediate PlayStation launch announced.

• NCSoft brings MMO expertise; Guerrilla appears to act as IP custodian to protect franchise authenticity.

• The design looks tuned for co-op monster hunts rather than single-player narrative beats.

Why Sony/Guerrilla Might Do This

Mobile first means massive addressable audience. If the title hooks players on phones, it can funnel people into console/PC Horizon experiences and expand the franchise’s reach. But mobile monetization models matter: a Genshin-like approach could pay huge dividends or alienate players if the game tilts too heavily into gacha mechanics.

Patreon Quick Hits

• World of Warcraft heading to consoles.

• Square Enix aims to use generative AI for QA/debugging within two years; layoffs accompany a big reorg.

• Pokemon Legends: Arceus expansion, new DLC and Switch 2 dates trending.

• Sonic Racing Crossworlds Switch 2 release set for Dec 4 (digital); physical to follow.

• Ghost of Yote sold 3.3 million copies in its first month.

• Sony reports 119 million monthly active PSN users and teases multiple PlayStation hardware/software moves.

• Multiple studio and industry updates: layoffs, raises, DLC drops, TV adaptations, and more.

Final Thoughts And What To Watch For

The industry is in a transitional phase: big acquisitions are under scrutiny, live service economics are being tested, and hardware makers are doubling down on ecosystems that blur the lines between PC, console, handheld, and headset. Valve’s move is the boldest ecosystem play this week — if pricing and supply line up, it can meaningfully reshape how people think about Steam outside of traditional PCs.

On the content side, the Marvel and Horizon stories show two different strategies: longer development cycles to protect AAA quality, and platform diversification to expand IP reach. Bungie’s struggles are a reminder that high-profile studios must continuously prove their live service models deliver measurable engagement and revenue.

Share Your Take

Which announcement surprised you the most: Valve’s hardware push, Horizon going mobile-MMORPG, or Sony’s public write-down on Bungie? Consider what each move says about platform strategy and how you like your modern games delivered.

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Enjoyed this roundup? Support Nerd Cave on Patreon for early access, bonus quick hits, and community perks.

Watch The Episode

Quick personal update — what we are playing

Before we get into the big Rockstar news, quick life update: Derek has been deep in Ghost of Yotei, pushing through side quests, finishing the Kitsune fight, grabbing the Odachi and hand-to-hand weapons, and moving into Act 2 with the Spider and Dragon storylines. He’s in the final coastal area and loving the new long-range toys without spoiling anything.

I’ve been wrestling through vertigo but managed a few good sessions of Death Stranding, mainly building roads and infrastructure. Oddly satisfying. I’m somewhere in Chapter 5 and I can’t understate how much better the world feels when you can stick to roads to avoid mules and BTs. I’ve also dabbled in solo leveling and a few books — Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter made for a solid spooky reread.

GTA VI delayed—official details

Rockstar and Take-Two have pushed GTA VI out again. The new release date is November 19, 2026. This follows an earlier announcement that moved the game from fall 2025 to May 2026, and now to November 2026. Take-Two framed the delay as a quality move:

"Giving the team some additional time to finish the game with the high level of polish players expect and deserve."

On the company call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doubled down on the reasoning and expressed confidence in the new date, calling himself "highly confident" while also acknowledging there are limited circumstances where more time has been required to make a title spectacular.

Context and numbers

Take-Two reported a strong quarter — net bookings of $1.96 billion, their best second quarter ever — thanks to NBA 2K26, Mafia: The Old Country, and Borderlands 4. GTA V continues to sell steadily, now topping over 220 million units lifetime. So while fans are disappointed, Rockstar isn’t hurting for cash.

Why the delay is not surprising

Rockstar has a history of shifting release windows when they feel a title needs more work. GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 were both pushed back during development, and the studio has repeatedly prioritized polish. That track record suggests the delay is part of Rockstar's playbook: they prefer to take the extra months if it means shipping something that meets their bar.

That said, delays can create a ripple effect across the release calendar. Big titles currently targeted for 2026 include:

• Marvel's Wolverine

• Call of Duty (annual release cycle)

• Halo (anniversary period in November)

• Fable

• Forza Horizon (typically a fall slot)

• Nintendo and the usual late-year Pokémon release

If GTA VI plants a November flag, other publishers either risk getting steamrolled by Rockstar's attention and marketing or they shift release windows, possibly into 2027. Developers cannot simply push major games forward in time; moving a launch earlier is usually much harder.

Could it slip again?

There is always a nonzero chance. Zelnick sounded confident but left room for the usual caveats about needing more polish. We all saw the Cyberpunk lesson: even "going gold" is not a flawless guarantee. Rockstar will likely protect its long-term online cash cow by ensuring the live service side is ready, or at least in shape to support players shortly after launch.

Stock market and financial impact

Following the announcement, Take-Two shares dipped as some investors reacted to the new timeline. From a long-term perspective, Rockstar and Take-Two are in a strong position: GTA V continues generating revenue and the company has other big titles in the pipeline. The delay mostly shifts when big revenue hits arrive rather than whether they will arrive at all.

Rockstar layoffs and union controversy

While GTA VI news dominated headlines, Rockstar also faced accusations that it engaged in union busting. The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) claimed Rockstar fired between 30 and 40 employees across its UK and Canadian offices. IWGB accused Rockstar of targeting employees who were either union members or organizing a union, calling the move "one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the games industry."

Take-Two and Rockstar pushed back, saying the dismissals were due to "gross misconduct" and specifically for "distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum," not for union activities.

IWGB: "Rockstar continues to deflect from the real reason for these dismissals... They are afraid of hardworking staff privately discussing exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice."

The IWGB also noted that the only non-Rockstar people in the private Discord group were union organizers. Take-Two claims the action was a response to leaks of confidential materials.

Why this is messy

The story raises several thorny questions:

1. Was confidential information being widely shared in a private channel? If so, that violates company policy and is grounds for termination in many places.

2. If the fired employees were primarily attempting to organize, then the timing and motives warrant serious scrutiny.

3. How did the company learn about a private Discord group? That suggests there may have been an informant or other internal leak.

Both union organizing and protecting proprietary information are real concerns, and the two can overlap in strange ways. These cases rarely resolve quickly; expect more reporting and possibly legal action in the months ahead. Either way, this incident underscores persistent tensions in game development around workplace conditions, crunch culture, and employee rights.

Red Dead Redemption 3? Dan Houser weighs in

Dan Houser, who helped shape Rockstar narratives for years, said another Red Dead entry "probably will happen" but suggested the franchise works best as a cohesive two-game arc — referencing John Marston and Arthur Morgan as a satisfying pair. Houser notes he does not own the IP and has no direct say in whether the series continues, but he expects Rockstar to return to the franchise eventually.

This is sensible: Red Dead enjoyed a deeply emotional two-part arc. A third game could either continue that tone or tell a wholly new tale in the same historical space. If Rockstar returns, they can craft a fresh protagonist and setting while leveraging the mechanics and storytelling strengths that made Red Dead Redemption 2 a hit.

Patreon Quick Hits — news roundup

Here are the smaller stories and headlines we covered in our quick hits segment. Short bullets so you can scan fast.

• Halo 2 and 3 remakes are in development, but only campaign modes are planned.

• The Call of Duty movie ramps up with Peter Berg and Taylor Sheridan involved.

• 6-1 Publishing's first game is Blue Ridge Hunting, a co-op Appalachian horror adventure.

• Ark Raiders is one of the biggest extraction shooters on Steam and has a November/December roadmap with a new map and events.

• Silent Hill 2 remake shows up on the ESRB listing for Xbox.

• Fortnite sidekicks are here; you can customize your pet's appearance one time permanently.

• Pokemon Legends Z-A ranked battle megastone rewards are getting easier to obtain.

• Dan Houser reiterates Rockstar does not rush games, which helps generate excitement for each entry.

• Rockstar's Agent never launched; Dan Houser thought spy games did not fit open-world design.

• Trevor DLC for GTA V was reportedly about half done before being abandoned.

• Just Cause 5 is reportedly off the table according to Avalanche Studios co-founder.

• There are rumblings of a Saints Row reboot pitch to Embracer Group.

• Mike Pondsmith wants Keanu Reeves back for Cyberpunk 2.

• Pillars of Eternity gets a surprise patch adding turn-based mode over a decade after release.

• Stalker 2 is leaving Xbox Game Pass this month.

• Uk House of Commons debates game consumer protection and preservation; Concord was cited in the discussion.

• EA says it will maintain creative control and values after a planned buyout by private investors.

• Research finds consumers spend twice as much on remakes compared to remasters.

• Dispatch sold 1 million copies in 10 days.

• Terminator 2D, No Fate is pushed to December 12.

• Battlefield 6 reportedly sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

• PlayStation Portal adds cloud streaming for PS5 digital games.

• Rumors that Sony is planning PS5 and PC cross-buy show up after a PlayStation Store leak.

• Dragon Quest VII reimagined will include a brand new ending.

• Warhammer Survivors mixes Space Marines into a Vampire Survivors-like format.

• Fantastic Pixel Castle, led by former World of Warcraft lead, faces closure after NetEase split.

• Switch 2 sales pass 10 million units.

• Nintendo Store app tracks play activity back to the 3DS era.

• Battlefield 6 devs plan to revert aim assist changes after PC players edited files to disable crossplay.

• Chicken Chicken is a party game where every player is literally a chicken.

• Nintendo plans a consistent release cadence for video game movies following Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda films.

• Obsidian loves making original IP and sequels; Fallout New Vegas 2 remains a popular request.

• Fortnite sees a player spike around Simpsons season crossovers; Season 7 teases Kill Bill and a USA setting.

• An Overcooked reality TV show is reportedly in the works.

• US Patent Office orders re-examination of Nintendo's summon character patent in a dispute over Power World.

• Marvel Games praises Insomniac as the perfect developer for Wolverine and hints at a continued partnership.

Final thoughts

The GTA VI delay is a bummer for those waiting, but it is not unprecedented for Rockstar and likely reflects a desire to ship polished work. The union and firing controversy casts a darker shadow over the studio, though facts are still emerging about what happened in that private Discord channel. Red Dead might return someday, and in the meantime, the rest of the industry will be juggling release calendars around Rockstar's new November 2026 date.

Games take time. Some delays are healthy, others flag trouble. For now, expect more updates and a long build-up to what will almost certainly be one of the biggest launches in recent memory.

Watch The Stream!

Summer Game Fest 2025 brought a tidal wave of new trailers, release dates, and announcements that shook the gaming world. From the electrifying reveals at SGF to the Xbox Games Showcase, there was plenty to unpack. I’m Zach Dykes from Nerd Cave, joined by Derek Daniel and Beau Knows Gaming, and we’re diving deep into the best trailers and news from these showcases. Whether you missed the streams or want a solid spoiler-free recap, here’s everything you need to know about the hottest games and hardware making waves right now.

Why This Matters

With the gaming industry in constant flux, events like Summer Game Fest and the Xbox Showcase set the stage for what’s next. New consoles, fresh IPs, and bold innovations shape what we’ll be playing in the coming years. This year, Xbox made a serious statement with hardware and software announcements, while SGF had a mixed bag of indie gems and major titles. Understanding these reveals helps gamers decide where to invest time and money, and spot trends shaping the industry’s future.

Breaking Down the Big Reveals

Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver - A Kung Fu Hip-Hop Mashup

First up, Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver caught our attention with its unique blend of kung fu aesthetics and hip-hop culture. As a massive Wu-Tang Clan fan, I was stoked to see this IP come to life in video game form. The trailer teased robot samurai and ninjas, with a striking stop-motion art style reminiscent of Spider-Verse or Hi-Fi Rush. The music was on point, and seeing Ghostface Killah’s name pop up gave me hope for authentic representation of the group.

Derek wondered if players would be fighting the Wu-Tang Clan themselves or teaming up, much like the concept of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Beau, who admittedly knows little about Wu-Tang, thought the art style looked promising but noted the game seemed early in development. We’re all eager to see more, especially how the game will blend music, martial arts, and storytelling.

Stranger Than Heaven - Dark Detective Drama in an Alternate 1943

Next was Stranger Than Heaven, a gritty noir set in 1943 Japan with a twist of neon-lit alternate reality. This game comes from Ryo Gotoku Studio, known for the Yakuza series, but it’s taking a more brutal, street brawl approach mixed with detective work. The choice to show mercy or not adds a layer of moral complexity, something we’re excited about.

Both Derek and Beau praised the atmospheric design and combat style, noting it’s a departure from typical Yakuza fare. The setting intrigued us — 1943 feels late for the neon aesthetic, but the blend of historical and alternate universe vibes works. We’re curious if this will be a narrative-heavy game or lean into action more.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword - Samurai Action Returns

Onimusha’s new trailer delivered slashy combat with zombie samurais and mythical creatures reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean’s Davy Jones crew. The combat looked fluid and fast-paced, with Platinum Games’ signature style shining through.

Beau admitted this was more his style than the previous two games, but he’s waiting to see more gameplay. The mix of horror and action, combined with a potentially challenging combat system, could make this a standout. I’m cautiously optimistic, especially if the combat balances depth with accessibility.

Dying Light: The Beast - Zombie Parkour Returns in August

Dying Light’s latest installment, The Beast, has a release date set for August, and the new gameplay trailer showed off gruesome zombies, parkour, and some serious weapon variety. The return of the main character from the first game adds continuity fans will appreciate.

Derek highlighted the graphical improvements and the grotesque details on zombies, especially the berserker class. Beau, not a fan of horror games, admitted it’s not his cup of tea but acknowledged the series’ strong atmosphere. I’m personally looking forward to revisiting the series, especially with the promise of expanded vehicles and combat mechanics.

Resident Evil Requiem - A Cinematic Horror Experience

Resident Evil Requiem’s trailer leaned heavily into atmosphere, with tense walking sequences through haunted hallways and a mysterious analyst forced to confront past trauma. The subtle audio design, like the echo effect during the case briefing, showed Capcom’s attention to detail.

Beau, who prefers action-oriented Resident Evil titles like RE4, found this trailer intriguing but acknowledged the horror elements might be too intense for some. The connection to Raccoon City and Mister X hints at a strong link to classic series lore. If you’re a fan of slow-burn horror with narrative depth, this one’s for you.

SGF Overall: A Mixed Bag

Now, let’s talk about Summer Game Fest as a whole. Derek and Beau both rated it a solid C to C-, citing a lack of standout content and a somewhat scattered presentation. While there were gems like Mina the Hollower and some intriguing indie titles, the show felt like it played it safe compared to previous years.

The timing also didn’t help — with PlayStation and Xbox holding their own showcases around the same time, SGF seemed to lack big exclusive reveals. However, the indie spotlight and some unique concepts still made it worth watching for hardcore fans.

Xbox Showcase: Hardware and Heavy Hitters

ROG Ally X - Xbox’s Answer to Steam Deck?

Xbox’s hardware flex came in the form of the ROG Ally X, a Windows-based handheld promising solid 720p performance and Xbox integration. The design leans toward comfort over aesthetics, with noticeable improvements like hollow thumbsticks to combat stick drift issues that plagued the Switch.

Price-wise, expect this to be a premium device, with the high-end black model possibly hitting $900 or more. The white model is cheaper but specs are closer to the original Steam Deck. Beau and Derek noted that if you already have a Steam library, this device offers more versatility than a Switch, since it’s not locked into one ecosystem.

Streaming Game Pass games via xCloud on devices like the Steam Deck is possible, but native support on the ROG Ally X could be a game-changer for portable PC gaming. If you’re weighing options between the Switch 2 and ROG Ally X, consider your gaming habits and budget carefully.

There Are No Ghosts at the Grand - A Genre-Bending Surprise

This indie surprise combines hotel renovation, ghost hunting, and British humor in a charming, genre-bending package that reminded us of Ghostbusters meets PowerWash Simulator. The colorful art style and quirky cast add personality and mystery.

Derek loved the originality and mashup of genres, while Beau cracked up at the protagonist’s brash behavior. The game’s musical elements and supernatural twists promise a fresh take on adventure games, making it one to watch for 2026.

Beast of Reincarnation - Game Freak’s New Frontier

Game Freak, best known for Pokémon, is branching out with Beast of Reincarnation, a visually stunning action game with Princess Mononoke vibes and vertical combat mechanics. The game’s verticality and rich environments signal a creative departure for the studio.

Beau was genuinely excited about this one, praising the quality compared to recent Pokémon titles. The game is built on Unreal Engine by an in-house team, indicating Game Freak’s commitment to innovation. This could be a major hit in 2026, blending familiar anime aesthetics with fresh gameplay.

Aphelion is Calling - Don’t Nod’s Space Adventure

From the team behind Banishers, Don’t Nod’s Aphelion is a chilling, narrative-driven space exploration game with platforming and possible combat elements. The environments look stunning, though character models received mixed reviews for quality.

The gameplay seems focused on exploration and story, with hints of environmental dangers like storms. Derek and Beau were intrigued but wanted to see more before fully committing. Don’t Nod’s storytelling pedigree suggests this will be an emotional journey through space.

Ninja Gaiden 4 - Platinum Games’ Return to Action

October brings Ninja Gaiden 4, blending classic hack-and-slash with Platinum Games’ signature fluid combat. The trailer showcased fast-paced ninja star throws and a new character who might share the spotlight with Ryu Hayabusa.

Beau expressed some hesitation about the new protagonist but praised the combat. Derek sees October as “the month of ninjas,” with multiple ninja-themed games releasing. If you loved Ninja Gaiden Black, this is a must-watch.

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy - Expanding the Universe

The beloved A Plague Tale series returns with Resonance, a prequel focusing on the origin of the plague, set in Italy and possibly other European locations. The trailer showed more combat and cinematic moments, promising a deeper dive into the lore.

We’re excited for the 2026 release and the chance to revisit this dark, emotional world. Beau and Derek both recommend playing the previous games if you haven’t yet, as they set a high bar for storytelling and atmosphere.

Keeper - Double Fine’s Surreal New Adventure

Double Fine’s Keeper introduces a walking lighthouse and a quirky bird companion in a Tim Burton-esque world. The trailer was a psychedelic acid trip of surreal visuals and oddball charm, fitting perfectly with Double Fine’s style.

October’s already stacked, and this adds a much-needed dose of whimsy and creativity. We’re curious about the gameplay loop and story, but the art direction alone makes it stand out.

Indiana Jones: The Order of the Giants DLC - More Adventure Awaits

Fans of the recent Indiana Jones game have a reason to celebrate with a new DLC dropping in September. The Order of the Giants explores biblical giants and ancient mysteries beneath Rome, promising more of the cinematic puzzle-solving and exploration that made the base game shine.

Both Beau and Derek are eager to return to this world, though time management remains a struggle for many gamers with busy schedules. The game’s VR potential was also discussed, hinting at untapped possibilities.

Call of Duty Black Ops 7 - Continuing the Cycle

Call of Duty Black Ops 7 was officially announced with a trailer blending cerebral themes and classic shooter action. The campaign promises a story-driven experience, with zombies returning as a staple mode.

Despite some excitement, we’re cautious. The series has become formulaic, and we wonder if the campaign will live up to the hype or fall flat. The rumored return of wall-running and futuristic mechanics could freshen things up, but only time will tell.

Clockwork Revolution - A Time-Bending RPG

One of the most exciting reveals was Clockwork Revolution, a time-manipulation RPG blending BioShock Infinite’s style with Deathloop’s rewind mechanics. The trailer showed rich dialogue, weapon customization, and a gritty steampunk world.

Derek called it his new “South of Midnight,” praising the unique gameplay loop and narrative potential. Beau suspects a 2027 release, but the game’s polish suggests it won’t be long before we dive into this world. Time manipulation mechanics could make or break the experience, so fingers crossed.

The Outer Worlds 2 - Capitalism and Chaos Return

Rounding out the night was The Outer Worlds 2, set for October. The trailer showcased the series’ signature satirical take on capitalism, with explosive combat and a colorful cast.

Beau enjoyed the first game’s impactful choices and hopes the sequel maintains that depth. The trailer leaned more into spectacle than story, but it looks like a fun, expanded experience that fans of sci-fi RPGs will want to watch closely.

Xbox’s Momentum and SGF’s Challenges

Xbox’s showcase felt tight, polished, and packed with exciting hardware and software announcements. The ROG Ally X handheld and games like Clockwork Revolution and Ninja Gaiden 4 showcased Xbox’s commitment to diverse experiences and innovation.

SGF, meanwhile, felt a bit scattered and cautious, perhaps constrained by the timing of PlayStation and Xbox’s own events. While there were interesting indie and mid-tier games, the overall impression was that SGF played it safe this year.

For gamers, this means Xbox is looking strong heading into 2026, with a solid slate of exclusives and hardware aiming to capture portable and core gaming markets. Meanwhile, SGF remains a valuable platform for indie discovery but may need to rethink its approach to reclaim the spotlight.

What’s Next?

With so much coming in late 2025 and 2026, gamers have a stacked calendar ahead. From Don’t Nod’s space adventure to Game Freak’s ambitious new title and the inevitable waves of DLCs and sequels, there’s no shortage of excitement.

Are you ready to dive into time-bending RPGs, ninja action, and surreal indie worlds? Or will you be holding out for next-gen consoles and blockbuster exclusives? Let us know which games you’re most hyped for this year, and stay tuned for more deep dives and reactions from Nerd Cave.

And don’t forget to check out Beau Knows Gaming for more gaming insights and lively discussions. You can find him on YouTube and X for regular content and podcasts covering the latest in gaming culture.

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Season 1 ditched them for tendrils, which, let’s be real, were nightmare fuel. That Tess scene? Horrifying. But spores were a huge deal in the game. Walk into a spore-filled area, slap on a gas mask, instant tension. The show skipped that, probably so Pedro Pascal wasn’t masked up 24/7 like Disney+’s The Mandalorian.

Now? Spores are back. Druckmann says there’s an “escalation” in the infected and how the infection spreads. Mazin kept it simple: “Spores are back.”

Also, Part 2’s story is too big for one season. They’re doing seven episodes with a major breakpoint, so Season 3 is basically locked in.

More infected, airborne spores, bigger stakes? Yeah, that’s gonna be dope.

Alright, y’all—PlayStation’s latest State of Play dropped, and we need to talk about it. Was it everything we wanted? Did it leave us hyped, or was it another case of Sony fumbling the bag? The event was packed with game announcements, release dates, and a few surprises. But was it enough to get PlayStation fans excited for what’s ahead?

Let’s break it all down—the good, the bad, and the straight-up questionable.

Sony’s Strategy Is… Interesting

Before we get into the games, let’s talk about what Sony is doing here. They’re rolling out their fall lineup EARLY. We’re in February, and we already know about releases coming in August, September, and even October. That’s not something we usually see this far in advance.

And let’s be real—it feels intentional. With PlayStation struggling to match the hype of past years, they need to show that big games are coming. But does announcing them this early make a difference?

It’s a bold move. But as we’ve seen before, PlayStation’s biggest challenge isn’t announcing games—it’s keeping up the momentum.

The Heavy Hitters: What Got Us Hyped

1. Metal Gear Solid Δ (Delta): Snake Eater – Official Release Date

Sony finally locked in the August 28th release date for Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, and honestly? It looks fantastic. This is one of the most beloved games in the series, and while Konami has a lot to prove without Kojima, the early footage is promising.

The real question is: Will it stick to the original story, or will they make changes? Some remakes take creative liberties (cough Final Fantasy VII Remake cough), but I don’t see that happening here. Konami is playing it safe, and honestly? That might be the smartest move.

2. Housemarque’s Next Game: Saros

Housemarque is back, and they’re leaning into what they do best—fast-paced, bullet-hell action. If you played Returnal, you already know they nailed the roguelike shooter formula.

From the trailer, Saros looks like it’s doubling down on that signature Housemarque gameplay. But will it be another roguelike, or are they shaking things up? Either way, this one’s on my radar.

3. Tides of Annihilation – Arthurian Legends Meet Dark Fantasy

A post-apocalyptic King Arthur-inspired game? Say less.

Tides of Annihilation looks like a mix of Nier: Automata, Shadow of the Colossus, and Dark Souls. You’re fighting these massive, otherworldly creatures while unraveling a world tied to Arthurian legend. If done right, this could be an instant classic.

The Wildcards: Could Go Either Way

4. Lost Soul Aside – The Final Fantasy Vibes Are Strong

We finally got a release date for Lost Soul Aside—May 30th—but here’s the thing: This game has been in development forever.

It looks great, combat is flashy, and the traversal mechanics are slick. But will it stand out, or will it feel like a budget Final Fantasy XV? We’ll find out soon.

5. Hell is Us – Is This Just Alan Wake Meets Death Stranding?

We saw Hell is Us again, and while it has big potential, it also feels like a mix of every weird, atmospheric game of the past decade. A little Death Stranding, a little Jedi Survivor, a little Division—but is there anything truly unique here?

Right now, it looks cool but not mind-blowing. If the story delivers, I’ll be interested.

The Lows: What Didn’t Hit

6. Days Gone Remastered – Why?

Look, Days Gone has its fans, and that’s great. But do we really need a remaster? This isn’t The Last of Us. This isn’t God of War. It’s Days Gone.

It’s coming April 25th, with upgraded visuals and new modes, but unless you’re a hardcore fan, this feels unnecessary.

7. Metal Eden – Another Forgettable Shooter?

Another fast-paced sci-fi FPS that looks like it’s trying way too hard to stand out. With so many shooters flooding the market, this one didn’t do anything to grab my attention.

If you’re into the genre, maybe it’ll be worth a shot, but personally? Hard pass.

Other Notable Mentions

• Borderlands 4 is coming September 23rd (and getting its own State of Play later this year).

• Lies of P: Overture, a prequel DLC, is dropping this summer. If you loved Lies of P, this could be great—but how do you tell a prequel story in a world that was already on the edge of collapse?

• A new Sonic racing game, Sonic Cross Worlds, was announced. They’re leaning into the movie’s “multiverse” idea, but we’ll see if it holds up.

• Directive 8020 (The Dark Pictures Anthology) is set in space and launching October 2nd.

Final Thoughts: Was This a Win?

Overall, this State of Play wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing either. It had some solid reveals (MGS Delta, Saros, Tides of Annihilation), but also some forgettable moments (Days Gone Remastered, Metal Eden).

The biggest win for Sony was getting ahead of their fall lineup early. It shows confidence—but now they need to deliver. With Ghost of Tsushima: Yote and Death Stranding 2 on the horizon, PlayStation still has a lot to prove.

But what do you think? Did this State of Play impress you, or was it a letdown? Drop your thoughts in the comments!

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Xbox Goes Multi-Platform: The End of Exclusivity?

Phil Spencer has been making moves—big ones. Xbox has been slowly stepping away from the traditional console war, instead embracing a strategy of putting its games on as many platforms as possible. The latest hint? Starfield might not stay an Xbox exclusive for long. Spencer recently said there are “no limits” to where Xbox games can go, which means we could see Starfield, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Microsoft Flight Simulator land on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch 2.

This is a huge shift for Xbox. We’ve already seen Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush jump over to PlayStation, and it’s looking more and more like Xbox is focusing on services rather than hardware. But here’s the big question: If all Xbox games are coming to other platforms, what’s the point of owning an Xbox?

It’s a fair concern, but Xbox seems to be betting big on Game Pass and cloud gaming instead of pushing console sales. The idea is that your phone, tablet, PC, or TV can be an Xbox—meaning you don’t need to own a console to be in the Xbox ecosystem. It’s a bold move, but is it the right one? Only time will tell.

And let’s be real—if Halo hits the Switch, imagine high schoolers playing Halo 3 multiplayer on a lunch break. That’s insane, and it could breathe new life into the franchise.

BioWare’s Big Shake-Up: What’s Next for Dragon Age and Mass Effect?

Another week, another restructuring at BioWare. EA is shifting the studio’s focus entirely to the next Mass Effect game, moving many developers to other projects and, unfortunately, laying off several members of the Dragon Age team. This comes after Dragon Age: The Veilguard underperformed, missing EA’s player expectations by a whopping 50%.

Now, let’s be honest—1.5 million players in the first few weeks for a game from a “dormant” franchise isn’t terrible. But EA expected 3 million, which seems overly ambitious considering Dragon Age hasn’t had a major release in ten years.

What went wrong?

First, Veilguard was positioned as both a sequel and a reboot, which left it in a weird spot. It didn’t fully continue the Dragon Age story in a way fans expected, and it also lacked the deep RPG choices BioWare is known for. Players couldn’t be true renegades or rogues, which made choices feel watered down. BioWare’s signature moral dilemmas and character depth weren’t as strong, and that hurt the game’s appeal.

On top of that, BioWare has lost a lot of senior talent over the years due to projects like Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda failing to deliver. Now, they’re shifting everything toward the next Mass Effect—but let’s be real, if Mass Effect doesn’t succeed, this could be BioWare’s last game.

If EA wants Mass Effect to be a hit, they need to bring back the best talent, writers, and designers to craft a compelling sci-fi RPG that doesn’t just feel like another space game. Otherwise, BioWare might not survive another failure.

Ubisoft’s Animus Hub: A Game-Changer for Assassin’s Creed?

For years, Assassin’s Creed has been all over the place when it comes to its modern-day storylines. Desmond’s arc was amazing, but after his story ended, the modern elements of the series felt disconnected. Now, Ubisoft is trying to bring it all together with the Animus Hub, a launcher for all future Assassin’s Creed games.

Think of it like Call of Duty’s Warzone hub—one place where you can access all the games, new missions, rewards, and an ongoing story involving Abstergo. It starts with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but it looks like Ubisoft might eventually add older Assassin’s Creed titles to the hub.

Could this work? Absolutely. A Master Chief Collection style approach for Assassin’s Creed would be huge, allowing players to jump between different games while keeping everything connected. It’s the kind of long-term strategy Ubisoft needs, especially since recent AC games have struggled with identity.

Whatcha Been Playin

Let’s take a quick break from the news—what have we been playing?

Ghost of Tsushima: Iki Island

Derek finally jumped into the Iki Island DLC, and it’s been a ride. From new enemy types like Shamans (who buff enemies in battle) to a horse charge ability, the DLC adds layers to combat that make things more challenging. The story is also deeply personal, tying into Jin’s past and giving more emotional weight to his journey.

Oh, and the PlayStation-themed armor sets? Amazing. Derek found the Horizon armor, but he’s on a mission to collect the God of War set, which, let’s be real, is chef’s kiss.

Pokémon TCG Pocket

Zach has been grinding the new update for Pokémon TCG Pocket, collecting new decks and figuring out the best way to crush the competition. Some of these new cards are from generations way past his time, but hey, new decks mean new strategies!

The Bottom Line: Gaming is Changing—Are We Ready?

Between Xbox’s multi-platform push, BioWare’s restructuring, and Ubisoft’s Animus Hub, the gaming industry is in the middle of massive shifts.

• Xbox is moving away from exclusives and focusing on services.

• BioWare is on its last leg, and the next Mass Effect has to be a hit.

• Ubisoft is trying to reinvent Assassin’s Creed with a more connected world.

It’s exciting but also a little scary—big companies are making big bets, and not all of them will pay off.

What do you think? Is Xbox making the right move? Will Mass Effect bring BioWare back to life? And is Assassin’s Creed better off with a hub system? Let us know in the comments!

And, as always, don’t forget to subscribe for more Nerd Cave Newz. We’ll be back next week with more gaming updates, spicy takes, and, of course, some epic gaming discussions.

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When it comes to video games, few titles carry the weight of Grand Theft Auto 6. Fans have been waiting for years to see what Rockstar has up their sleeve after the insane success of GTA 5. But here’s the big question on everyone’s mind: should GTA 6 cost $80 or more?

Let’s be real—this isn’t just about whether the game is worth it. It’s about what this price tag means for the gaming industry as a whole. So, let’s break it down.

The Case for $80

First off, let’s admit something. If there’s any game that could pull off an $80 price tag, it’s GTA 6. Rockstar knows how to make quality games. From the sprawling cityscapes to the detailed stories, they’ve set the bar high. People trust that whatever they deliver will be top-notch.

And honestly, the amount of money they’ve already made from GTA 5 proves that. We’re talking billions here—yes, with a “B.” That’s partly thanks to GTA Online, which has been printing money for Rockstar since 2013. Even if GTA 6 costs $80 upfront, they know players will spend way more on in-game purchases like Shark Cards.

This isn’t just about making money—it’s about resetting the market. Think about it: when a big star in the NFL gets a huge contract, it “resets” what other players can ask for. GTA 6 could be doing the same thing for video game prices, especially with inflation and rising development costs.

Why $80 Feels Like a Gut Punch

But here’s the flip side—just because Rockstar can charge $80 doesn’t mean they should. Video games are already expensive. For a lot of people, $70 feels like a stretch. Adding another $10 might push some fans away, even if they’re hyped for the game.

And let’s be honest: the cost of making games has gone up, but so has the money these companies make. Games like GTA 5 and free-to-play titles like Fortnite rake in billions through microtransactions. That’s why some people feel like an $80 price tag is just Rockstar being greedy.

It’s also worth mentioning the potential ripple effect. If GTA 6 sells well at $80, other game developers might jump on the bandwagon. Suddenly, $80 becomes the new standard for “AAA” games, and before you know it, even smaller studios might feel pressure to follow suit.

The Power of Voting with Your Wallet

At the end of the day, though, the power lies with us—the players. If people buy GTA 6 at $80 without hesitation, it sends a message to the industry: “Hey, we’re okay with this.” On the other hand, if enough people refuse to pay that much, Rockstar might think twice.

It’s a classic case of “vote with your wallet.” If you don’t like the price, don’t buy the game. But let’s be real—plenty of fans will still line up to grab GTA 6, no matter what it costs. This game has been hyped for years, and the anticipation alone will drive record-breaking sales.

Comparing GTA 6 to Other Games

Here’s where things get interesting. If a brand-new IP like South of Midnight tried to charge $80, it probably wouldn’t sell nearly as well. Why? Because it doesn’t have the same legacy as GTA. Rockstar knows their games are seen as a safe bet. They’ve built trust with their fans over decades of killer releases.

But that doesn’t mean people won’t complain. Remember when game consoles were being scalped for thousands of dollars during the pandemic? Sure, it was frustrating, but people still bought them. The same goes for GTA 6. Fans might grumble about the price, but most of them will still pay up.

Is $80 the Future of Gaming?

If GTA 6 does sell at $80, it could set a precedent for other developers. Games like Star Wars Outlaws could claim to be “Quadruple A” titles and charge a premium price. But does a higher price guarantee a better game? Not necessarily.

For many gamers, the extra cost doesn’t feel justified, especially when so much of a game’s revenue comes from in-game purchases. Look at Fortnite or Genshin Impact. They’re free to play, yet they make billions from cosmetics and other extras. GTA 6 could easily go this route, but Rockstar knows they can get away with charging for both the game and the add-ons.

What Rockstar Needs to Do

If Rockstar wants to charge $80, they need to deliver. That means launching GTA 6 with its online component ready to go. They can’t repeat what happened with Red Dead Redemption 2, where the online mode came out later and struggled to find its footing.

Fans are expecting GTA 6 to break records—not just in sales but in quality. The game needs to feel like it’s worth every penny of that $80 price tag. Otherwise, the backlash could be brutal.

Final Thoughts

So, should GTA 6 cost $80? That’s up for debate. On one hand, it’s Rockstar—they’ve earned their reputation as one of the best in the business. On the other hand, gaming is already an expensive hobby, and this price hike could make it harder for some fans to justify the purchase.

One thing’s for sure: whether it’s $70, $80, or even more, GTA 6 is going to sell like crazy. The hype is too strong, and fans have been waiting too long. But let’s not forget the bigger picture. This isn’t just about one game—it’s about what this price tag means for the future of gaming.

So, what do you think? Is $80 too much, or is it just the price we pay for quality? Let us know in the comments below!