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Roblox has announced two new developer programs aimed at "supporting ambitious and curious creators eager to build and scale" – Roblox Incubator and Roblox Jumpstart. Read more View the full article

Goro Abe, best known for his work on Nintendo's WarioWare series, has left Nintendo after almost 30 years with the Japanese company. Read more View the full article

Sony is seemingly testing dynamic A/B pricing on the PlayStation Store. Read more View the full article

EA has laid off an unknown number of employees across the various teams that make up Battlefield Studios, which recently launched Battlefield 6 last year, IGN reports. According to IGN’s Rebekah Valentine, staff members from Dice, Criterion, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios were let go as part of what EA calls a “realignment.” These teams will remain operational as they continue supporting Battlefield 6, which was the best-selling game of 2025 in the US and the best launch in franchise history. When asked to specify the number of employees and roles affected by these cuts, an EA spokesperson told IGN, “We’ve made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community. Battlefield remains one of our biggest priorities, and we’re continuing to invest in the franchise, guided by player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs." Battlefield 6 Since its launch, Battlefield 6 has received a battle royale mode and other updates, with EA publishing a three-month content roadmap last month following a delay of its Season 2 launch. The layoffs also come a few months after the untimely death of Battlefield head Vince Zampella in a car accident last December. Today's news marks the first instance of mass layoffs at EA this year. 2025 saw the publisher shut down Cliffhanger Games and cancel its in-development Black Panther game, and lay off 100 employees at Apex Legends developer, Respawn Entertainment. In 2024, EA cut over 650 jobs company-wide. EA is currently in the process of being acquired for $55 billion by an investor group comprised of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners that will take the company private. For more on Battlefield 6, check out our review. [Source: IGN] View the full article

GDC will be returning to San Francisco in 2027, despite ongoing concerns over the cost of attendance and widespread anxiety from international visitors over visiting the USA. Read more View the full article

Deponia is free on Steam until March 16! Deponia is a point-and-click game with a unique comic style and challenging puzzles. ... View the full article

IGN Entertainment is the exclusive media partner for this year's Nite to Unite fundraiser. The event supports the ESA Foundation's work to advance diverse and underrepresented voices in the games industry. Read more View the full article

According to a report on IGN, Electronic Arts is laying off an unknown number of employees at four studios that worked on Battlefield 6. Read more View the full article

Platform: PlayStation 5, PC Publisher: Panic Inc. Developer: House House Confetti, friends, paint and noisemakers; a sunset over the ocean after solving a series of puzzles. Big Walk is filled with little bits of interactivity, interspersed throughout a wide landmass of structures and mysteries. It is a world you want to trek across, stopping and pausing along the way, with a good group of friends. I spent some time exploring Big Walk in a preview session at publisher Panic's Portland offices, as a preview of the team's plans to eventually open the same playtest up to the public. After a brief introduction, I sat down at a computer terminal – complete with immersive hood and lights – and spent around the next 90 minutes or so trying to figure out Big Walk with three pals. Big Walk is, as developer House House describes it, a "walker talker." (I did ask about the overused term "friendslop," though its inception postdates the start of development on Big Walk; they like the friend part, but not so much the slop.) You and up to 11 friends are spawned into a room on an island and let loose. From there, the world is yours to explore. A jungle gym-like area taught us basics like sliding, lifting, and pointing, and then we could go wherever our hearts collectively desired. House House tells me the concept of Big Walk actually came from a desire to spend time together during a time when most couldn't: the COVID-19 lockdowns. "So this is 2020. We're all stuck inside our houses, not seeing each other," game developer Nico Disseldorp says. "And the way that we're connecting most is by playing video games with each other a couple times a week, and getting this kind of sense of togetherness from that." As House House wrapped up production on the two-player mode for its previous project, Untitled Goose Game, Big Walk felt natural. It spoke to the yearning they felt for connection and togetherness. Setting out, my avatar – which we dubbed birds, though there's no confirmation whether or not they are birds – jogged alongside my three friends, and we came across a giant crane with a clamped object and button at the top. After a few earnest attempts at knocking the object down with whatever makeshift projectiles we could find, we stacked up and made a bird-tower, letting the top bird tap the button and un-clamp our objective: a gourd-like item. Some confetti shot out, and we celebrated. This was an instructive puzzle for understanding how House House plans to scale Big Walk. There are three "modes" that groups can play in: two-player, three-player, and four-or-more, up to a maximum of 12 players. For two players, the crane might be a lower height than it would be for four or more. Broadly, you can expect a similar experience across the game, but puzzles might be altered to accommodate the player count for duos or trios. As for why groups are capped out at four players? Well, on the one hand, House House says coordinating five or more people started to get unwieldy. But with a big group, players could start to split up and go off on their own. They could have jobs, or some could simply watch others complete a task, helping from the sidelines. Groups could splinter off, complete a challenge, then come back with the reward and a story to tell the other. House House says the team even wants to encourage splitting up. Some challenges require players to form small groups and complete puzzles across vast expanses, and some tools naturally encourage splitting up by letting players keep in contact. A whiteboard or fireworks, for example, could help with nonverbal communication across vast distances. Comms were surprisingly expressive and adaptive in my playtest, too. While proximity voice chat was the natural option, the text chat and other communication options – even just pointing and gesturing with your avatar – worked incredibly well, and added physicality to our vocal discussions, as we could point things out to friends while talking about them. Some puzzles even revolve around limited communications, where players might not be able to talk to each other and have to gesture, or use alternative means. "Once you have this rich way to communicate with each other, taking away limited aspects of that and making you use the others is actually a really good way to get you thinking creatively and get you kind of playing and having fun, and like exploring the boundaries of those puppets," game developer Stuart Gillespie-Cook says. Also, you'll need to bring your own friends. While House House and Panic are planning a launch later this year for PC and PlayStation 5, with cross-play between the platforms, you won't be able to matchmake into other people. You'll have to invite friends to play with you. House House says they imagined Big Walk as a group game, similar to a recurring Dungeons & Dragons session, that you might play for a few hours at a time over several sessions. My time in Big Walk flitted by in what felt like minutes. The little interactive bits, like music stations or fiddly tools, were a blast. The puzzles were pitch-perfect, often requiring us to group up, discuss, and collaborate for a solution. Just as often, though, I loved the little moments of talking and walking. We'd start making jokes, or discussing what we thought we'd need to do next, or even just making funny noises and singing. It really did feel like a Big Walk with some pals in a virtual space. "The walk's not there for no reason," Disseldorp says. "That's the negative space, that's the space for you to have your own fun and do your own thing in. So everything's nicely far away, and it's enough time for in between for you to kind of get a break, catch your breath, start talking to each other again, rather than this kind of unrelenting, 'okay, what's the next challenge?'" Big Walk carries forward a lot of the interactivity and playfulness you might expect from the makers of Untitled Goose Game, but it understands the desire for a collaborative game so well. It's not just about the shared achievements and challenges, but about the virtual third space you can share together. It's easily become one of my most anticipated releases, and I'm eager to take a Big Walk with some friends later on this year. View the full article

Mega Crit's deck-building sequel Slay the Spire 2 hit a peak of 574,638 concurrent players on Sunday according to SteamDB, almost equalling the high of 587,150 concurrent players set by Hollow Knight: Silksong in 2025. Read more View the full article

NetEase will stop funding Gang of Dragon developer Nagoshi Studio in May 2026. Read more View the full article

Nintendo of America has filed a lawsuit against the US government over the "initiation and administration of unlawful trade measures" last year. Read more View the full article

Score The Assault: Survivor for free via Epic Games Store! The Assault: Survivor is an indie action game that takes ... View the full article

This week on The Game Informer Show, Alex, Brian, and Kyle sit down to discuss the latest crossover in the Poké-verse, Pokémon Pokopia. Before that, though, the trio takes a little bit of time to discuss the recent Nintendo Indie World showcase, and some of the exciting announcements there. After the break, Kyle takes the mic to declare his feelings on Scott Pilgrim EX. Does the beat 'em up hold up enough for an encore? It's a short but sweet episode, so grab a cold drink and enjoy! Watch the video version: Listen to "Pokémon Pokopia + Scott Pilgrim EX Reviews" on Spreaker.Follow our hosts:Alex Van Aken (@itsvanaken)Brian Shea (@brianpshea)Kyle Hilliard (@kylehilliard)Jump to a specific segment:00:00 - Intro03:02 - Nintendo Indie World Discussion07:42 - Pokémon Pokopia40:08 - Scott Pilgrim EX View the full article

Welcome to Friday! Between responding to all my LinkedIn notifications from folks congratulating me on my one-year anniversary at Game Informer, I have put together our weekly posting of weekend games to play. Of course, I have been with Game Informer since 2011, but it’s a complicated story, and I appreciate all the friendly, if not entirely accurate, well-wishes. Also, the important detail is that it has been a year since our grand return last year, and we’re feeling good! Which all leads us to this. It's time for the weekend and our usual recommendation of games and things you should check out! But before that, here's a recap of the biggest stories of the week: Nirvanna The Band And Wii Shop Update Day Co-Creator Matt Johnson On How Video Games Are His ‘Single Greatest Influence’Pokémon Pokopia Review – A Pleasant ParadiseScott Pilgrim EX Review – Genre AptitudeNew Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Discusses Next Gen Console Codenamed Project HelixUbisoft Gives Updates On Assassin's Creed Franchise, Including Hexe And Invictus, Alongside Black Flag Remake TeaseHighguard Is Shutting Down For Good Next Week Slay the Spire 2 Eric Van Allen Mega Crit's Slay the Spire didn't invent the roguelite genre, but it quickly became a banner-bearer for the genre. With years of people climbing the Spire, you might wonder, how would Mega Crit follow it up with a sequel? Slay the Spire 2 has only been out for a little while now, but already seems to have found several ways to build upon the solid framework of its predecessor. Between new cards and old cards, relics familiar and strange, and a structure that feels just like the original, Mega Crit hasn't fixed what isn't broken. Instead, the studio's turned towards interesting new avenues of progression. Quests reward commitment to short-term risks for long-term boons. Floor rewards offer interesting choices, with some clever run-shifting mechanics. New bosses throw both big numbers and surprising puzzles at the player. And the two new characters add some great variety to the roster; I already love playing as the skeletal Necrobinder and her handy pal Osty. I put dozens upon dozens of hours into the first Slay the Spire, and I feel the same pull here in the sequel. Pokémon Pokopia Marcus Stewart I’m what you would call a lapsed Pokémon fan. I was 10 when Pokémon Red and Blue first hit the U.S., and I was absolutely obsessed with the franchise during that magical first generation as a kid who also wanted to be the very best. However, I fell off the franchise hard during Gen 2 (partially because my GBA with my in-progress copy of Gold was stolen) and never fully got back into it, save for sporadic check-ins like the 2016 Pokémon Go craze. Still, I’ve retained a soft spot for the franchise despite watching it grow from afar and have waited for it to offer something more interesting and, frankly, weirder than the standard RPGs to draw me back in. When I first laid eyes on Pokémon Pokopia and its derpy-faced Ditto protagonist, I was charmed from the get-go. I enjoyed what I played of the Dragon Quest Builders games and had fun with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so a Pokémon-themed amalgamation of those experiences sounded super appealing. Plus, again, the premise of a Ditto masquerading as a barely passable human is delightfully stupid. I’m still very early in the game, but I’m drawn to its low-key post-apocalyptic world (humanity is dead missing!), and I can already feel its cozy hooks digging into me as my to-do list starts to populate. Plus, with the real world seemingly falling apart in various ways, it feels good to put a different one back together. The lesson: be the Ditto that copies the person you want to see in this world. For more on Pokémon Pokopia, you can read Brian Shea's full review right here or watch the video review below. Marathon Eric Van Allen My first drop on Tau Ceti IV was tense. We crept through cobbled-together stations and outposts, scavenging and scurrying like rats trying to fill our packs before we made off in the night with our hard-earned goods. A few robots tried to stop us, but it was easy enough to clear them out and move on. The second run, though, got a little more tense; an eerily quiet trek for faction quests and collectibles erupted into chaos when human players tried to pick us off in a moment of calm. My trio fled down a chasm, stopping and shooting all the way like the infamous heist scene from Heat, until we realized that we'd managed to force the other team into a funnel. When they tried to chase us out of the chasm's opening into the open air, the runners in the chasm were like fish in a barrel. I'm unsure what the long-term health of Marathon is, or whether an extraction shooter can really sustain constant interest for that long. It's a genre with a goldfish's attention span, always looking for the next big thing. But Bungie's graphic maximalism, what my friend and Restart.run associate editor Jesse Vitelli has dubbed "techno-sludge", beautifully underpins the pitch-perfect shooting and chaos. Marathon is already far from the tenuous truces of Arc Raiders – everything on Tau Ceti IV feels designed to send you back to the main menu with a lot less loot. It's a good time. Scott Pilgrim EX Kyle Hilliard This week saw the release of Scott Pilgrim EX, the third in developer Tribute's unofficial trilogy of well-executed, nostalgic beat 'em ups after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Unlike those previous two games which were primarily inspired by arcade classics (like the TMNT and Marvel beat 'em ups of the past, unsurprisingly), Scott Pilgrim EX is more closely modeled after River City Ransom. That means it has a sort of open world that you can walk around in and explore while getting into fights and collecting coins. It makes it stand apart from Tribute's previous games and pretty handily makes it, mechanically, my favorite of those three. It also has great Scott Pilgrim vibes thanks to the participation of Scott Pilgrim's creator, Bryan Lee O'Malley (read our interview with O'Malley about the game right here), and an excellent new Anamanguchi soundtrack (they did the music for the first Scott Pilgrim game and the recent Scott Pilgrim Netflix anime). If you are looking to participate in some classic co-op beat 'em up action with up to three other friends, you really can't go wrong with Scott Pilgrim EX. For more on Scott Pilgrim EX, you can read Kyle Hilliard's full review right here, or watch the video review below. View the full article

Invincible has a long history in comics, as do its co-creators Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker. We talked with the makers of Invincible Vs. about how the series finally got its own fighting game as part of our cover story on Quarter Up's new tag fighter. View the full article

Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony is currently free on Steam until March 9, so now’s the perfect time to ... View the full article

March is Women's History month, and it's only natural for us at Game Informer to look at the event with a video game-centric lens. While it's always helpful to know your history (check out this interview with Roberta Williams to learn more about a particularly influential developer), the easiest way to support women in video games today is simple – buy their games. With the 2026 Women's Day sale, which starts today, you can do exactly that. It runs on Steam from March 6-15, and you can find all the games included right here. The sale focuses on promoting games made by women and other gender-marginalized developers. Games like Sticky Business, Overcooked 2, Signalis, and Dredge will be on sale, while games like Don't Stop, Girlypop, Let's Build a Dungeon, and Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth will all have public demos. All told, over 600 games are participating in the event. Alongside the event, a spring showcase hosted by Dames 4 Games will air today at 11 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. ET to show off some of the games on sale and the demos that will be available. There will also be developer spotlights and "behind-the-scenes conversations that celebrate talent shaping gaming today," according to a press release. The 2026 Women's Day sale runs from today until March 15. To read more about some of the games featured, check out our thoughts on Signalis, Dredge, and Overcooked 2. View the full article

Industry event Game Republic New Horizons has established a new international advisory board to help shape its 2026 conference. Read more View the full article

Nintendo has announced that the final trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will air on Monday as part of a special Direct presentation. This last look at the film comes ahead of its April 1 premiere. The Direct airs Monday, March 9, starting at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET on Nintendo's YouTube channel and the Nintendo Today app. Nintendo also revealed a new poster for the film that shows off the main cast and newcomers, including Birdo and Wart(!) from Super Mario Bros. 2 (the US version). The Super Mario Galaxy Movie features returning stars like Chris Pratt (Mario), Charlie Day (Luigi), Anya Taylor-Joy (Peach), and Jack Black (Bowser), alongside newcomers Benny Safdie (Bowser Jr.) and Brie Larson (Rosalina). The movie also introduces Yoshi. If you haven’t seen Mario's latest theatrical adventure in action yet, you can check out the film’s first and second trailers now. View the full article

Bandai Namco teased the announcement of a new RPG earlier this week, and it paid that off yesterday with the reveal of Echoes of Aincrad. The title arrives this July and is tied to the popular Sword Art Online franchise. The game unfolds in the floating castle of Aincrad, with players controlling a customizable hero who is one of thousands of trapped souls there. “What seemed to be a dream adventure has now become a fight for survival. Among thousands of trapped souls, your journey is yours alone; will you rise, endure, and forge bonds that define your destiny? Or will you perish while facing enemies stronger, faster, and more ruthless than you imagined?” reads the game’s official synopsis. To conquer Aincrad, players must build and master a character capable of utilizing different combat styles and weapons in a system that encourages flexible progression. You’ll also have an AI partner (this is a single-player game) to build synergy with and adapt their skills and gear to your advantage, but Bandai does not specify how this system works as of yet. Echoes of Aincrad’s world features diverse cities, dungeons, and other environments. The trailer shows the players roaming open plains, a cave, and a small village. Echoes of Aincrad is coming on July 10 to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. View the full article

Following a Bloomberg report that Sony will no longer be publishing first-party PS5 games on PC, which suggested the decision was driven in part by poor sales for recent titles released on a platform, an analysis by Newzoo for GamesIndustry.biz has suggested the company's release strategy limited its reach on PC. Read more View the full article

Organisers of the Game Developers Choice Awards have revealed the recipients for this year's Lifetime Achievement and Ambassador accolades. Read more View the full article

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has confirmed its next-gen console, codenamed Project Helix, will play both Xbox and PC games. Read more View the full article

The UKIE Game Awards 2026 took place last night, with Battlefield 6 winning UK Game of the Year and best PC game. Read more View the full article