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Today brings new details on the upcoming slate of releases for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game, from upcoming sourcebooks and other products to an update on the game’s approach to organized play. If the line-up is any indication, there are some big things ahead for the game in 2026. Ravenloft: The Horrors Within puts horror-themed D&D campaigns in the spotlight 2025 saw some notable new drops for the game, including an updated Monster Manual and a dedicated set of books for the Forgotten Realms. Moving into this new year, for longtime fans, the biggest news is likely the return of horror-themed role-playing experiences with a new Ravenloft sourcebook. The setting last saw a big push in 2021 with the release of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. 2026 promises to see the Domains of Dread see a significant new push to line content up with the recent 2024 core rulebook refresh, thanks to the newly announced Ravenloft: The Horrors Within sourcebook. Scheduled for release in June at a $59.99 price point, the book promises new horror-oriented subclasses, species, and backgrounds, as well as a selection of “Dark Gift” feats. The book is also set to include details on the Darklords and their domains (a major distinguishing feature of the setting in prior editions), as well as new enemies and allies. Notably, the book is said to include guidance for several horror-themed subgenres, including gothic, dark fantasy, cosmic, and occult, which feels like an expansion of the concept beyond what Ravenloft has offered in the past. In addition to that central Ravenloft book, players and DMs can also look forward to a new version of the Tarokka Deck in June for $24.99, a Tarot-style experience meant to be used in collaboration with storytelling and character creation. That same time window brings a new Ravenloft-themed DM screen for $24.99 and a map pack of content from The Horrors Within ($24.99). The upcoming Arcana Unleashed sourcebook includes rules to let magic items grow in power alongside your character As 2026 continues, the theme shifts notably from horror over to magic with the September release of Arcana Unleashed for $49.99. Described as the “ultimate guide for D&D magic enthusiasts,” the book is said to include both high-magic character creation options as well as a new approach to magic items that will grow in power with your character. That’s a function that many DMs have house-ruled for years, so it will be interesting to see D&D’s new in-rules approach. Like the Ravenloft content, this new magic-themed push also gets some related content, including the new Deadfall adventure expansion for $29.99, also releasing in September. The adventure focuses on the infamous Red Wizards of Thay, a long-established faction in the Forgotten Realms. And for players looking to bring a visual flair to the table’s spellcasting, August 2026 will see the release of decks of D&D spells, monsters, and magic items, updated for the 2024 ruleset. The new Deadfall adventure focuses on the infamous Red Wizards of Thay Beyond individual product launches, the Dungeons & Dragons team is aiming to build organized play and community events around these major launches with a new seasonal content model. Coinciding with Ravenloft’s launch, April through June will be the “Season of Horror,” while July through September will build off the Arcana Unleashed releases for the “Season of Magic.” The team also revealed that the “Season of Champions” is set to run from October through December, but we don’t yet know which anchor products that season will connect to. With that said, the “Champion” is one of the subclasses for Fighters in the recent 2024 Player’s Handbook revision. Coming as it will on the heels of a magic-focused season, it’s a good guess that 2026 may round out in a focus on fighting, weapons, warriors, and martial prowess. We’ll have to wait and see. D&D is moving toward a seasonal model in 2026, with organized play and community events focused around anchor releases like Arcana Unleashed Are you excited by the planned releases for D&D in 2026? Let us know in the comments below. View the full article

Killing Floor developer Tripwire Interactive has conducted layoffs affecting 23 people. Read more View the full article

French publisher and developer Nacon has delayed its game showcase to May 2026 after filing for insolvency. Read more View the full article

The Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise has emerged as one of the unlikeliest of success stories in the video game adaptation space. Originally a laughing stock thanks to its now-infamous original character model of the series' star, the team reworked the character model and doubled down on action, comedy, and heart to deliver one of the biggest ever film franchises based on a video game. Following the success of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which introduced Keanu Reeves as Shadow and grossed nearly $500 million at the worldwide box office, series director Jeff Fowler has shared that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has begun production. Taking to Instagram and X, Fowler shared an image of him holding a clapperboard as well as what appears to be the hammer of Amy Rose, who was revealed in a post-credits scene of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Recently, actress Kristen Bell was confirmed to provide the voice of Amy in the upcoming fourth film. The social media post said, "Ready 4 Action. #SonicMovie4 now filming. In Theaters Worldwide March 2027," and included the photo below. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is slated to arrive in theaters on March 19, 2027. While no other actors have been confirmed, the series' cast includes Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Idris Elba, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Keanu Reeves, Tika Sumpter, Krysten Ritter, Adam Pally, Lee Majdoub, and others. View the full article

Warner Bros. Discovery said 2025 was a "significant" year for the company, but made little mention of its gaming sector beyond claims it is "rebuilding" its video game business in its most recent financial report to investors. Read more View the full article

Resident Evil Requiem players in Japan are complaining of overt censorship of the horror game's goriest scenes. Read more View the full article

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandon has told Bloomberg that the deal under which Paramount outbid his firm for control of Warner Bros, including its storied games division, is "dependent on a lot of cost-cutting", which he said would take place following the deal's completion. Read more View the full article

The Call of Duty franchise has long been synonymous with competitive shooting, but in recent years, it's also elevated to become a major player in the ascendant battle-royale genre. Today, Treyarch and Activision announced Black Ops Royale, an original take on the genre inspired by the series' first battle-royale mode, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout. Black Ops Royale serves as a return to the Blackout style of battle royale gameplay within the existing Warzone infrastructure. "There are clear influences from the core Blackout experience — like bullet drop and weapon handling, as well as the armor system and use of the Trauma Kit — capturing the Blackout pacing, traversal, and combat feel in a modern way," the blog post said. "This isn’t a remake; it’s a unique experience that pays homage to the Blackout core gameplay while keeping the flow of a match feeling right for Call of Duty: Warzone players." In Black Ops Royale, 100 players across 25 squads wingsuit in with no loadouts, no gulag, no buy station, and weapon upgrades that are obtained through rarity. The goal is to outlast 24 rival squads on the massive Avalon map. Avalon first appeared as a large-scale Endgame map in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and now serves as the big map in Warzone. Avalon offers connected locations and intentionally designed combat zones, with no hint of the red fog that's present in Endgame. For its appearance in Warzone and Black Ops Royale, Treyarch tinkered with the map, reducing its reliance on water and adding connections between the islands to feed into the larger battle-royale gameplay. Once you arrive, you must scavenge the map to find your weapons with fixed archetypes and five-attachment upgrade paths. As you find and equip attachment kits, you raise your weapon's rarity, which unlocks your preset build, hopefully en route to upgrading your arsenal to Legendary. Speaking of the weapons and gadgets at players' disposal, players also have Blackout-inspired equipment, including grappling hooks, sensor darts, and trauma kits, not to mention Killstreaks and a tiered armor vest system. Players will combine their weapons archetypes with class benefits along with build themes to earn better firepower, with a HUD that follows closely to Warzone's existing UI, but gives players information like enemy health, weapon rarity and archetype, attachment upgrade paths, and more. The original Perk system also comes back, this time, with no fixed slots. Instead, players have five consumable boosts that you can swap on the fly. Each one grants temporary advantages that can be activated on a moment's notice with the aim of providing critical boosts when strategy or the situation at hand demands. Once the match starts, players battle it out over land, sea, and air to keep alive and avoid the encroaching perimeter collapse. Players can also take part in optional activities like hunting bounties, cracking strongboxes, capturing relays, and fighting through guild defenses. These side-objectives offer rewards like armor, UAV sweeps, and other upgrades to your on-the-fly loadout. Black Ops Royale arrives on March 13. Players looking for a Season 2 Reloaded roadmap for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 should look forward to a new blog on March 4. View the full article

World Crafter TD is currently free on Steam until March 5, so now’s the perfect time to add it to ... View the full article

Metacritic has removed a review of Resident Evil Requiem from one of its "highly respected critics" after it was revealed that the author doesn't exist. Read more View the full article

Over the weekend, former Halo and Destiny 2 developer Bungie opened up its upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon, to the public with a "Server Slam" that allowed anyone to hop in and try a limited (but extensive) offering of the game. As the Server Slam comes to a close today, with just a few hours to go until it's over, Bungie has posted a feedback recap of how it went. This recap discusses the real-time changes made to Marathon during the Server Slam as well as some of the possible changes the studio is thinking about implementing in light of the feedback it received over the weekend. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Bungie's pedigree and experience in the live-service shooter space, the developer seems quite receptive to feedback and working with the community to improve the upcoming extraction FPS. "We've learned a lot from you, watched from the shadows as you've hit snags or found moments of glory, and taken notes the whole time," Bungie's recap post on X reads. "Your input during this time has given us a lot of items to sort through and we'll be doing just that in the coming days, so thank you." Alrighty, let's break this recap down, starting with the new topics Bungie is looking into following the Marathon Server Slam. Additional Queue Options Right now, you can queue into Marathon as a Solo player (either as the solo-only Rook shell or as a Runner in a solo lobby), or you can queue into a trio match with one friend or two friends. However, Bungie says it has heard the feedback from players requesting "duo dedicated lobbies." The studio says this request has been logged and shared with the wider team. Unbinding Keys Altogether Bungie says that, for players, especially those on console, there's already been a steady feedback loop about the desire not just to rebind a key but also to clear a keybinding option altogether. This desire has been passed along to the wider team as well. Feedback Bungie Is Still Tracking On PvP Feedback: Bungie is reviewing Runner density on non-beginner maps in light of time-to-kill discussions, and player feedback regarding longer duels and more Runner contact.Med and Ammo Economy: Bungie says it is aware that players are using a lot of their early loadout budget on meds, noting that back-to-back fights can chew through meds and ammo reserves quickly, putting players in a tough position for the rest of the run. It says it has also heard from folks both for and against Depleted items, as well as how rewarding (or not) drops from AI enemies are – Bungie says it is keeping a close eye on all of this.UI Feedback: As someone who put many hours into the Server Slam this weekend, tracking what others were saying online, the UI and general organization of the menus are probably the biggest pain points in Marathon. Bungie says to keep the feedback coming, noting that it plans to continue iterating post-launch to ensure players can easily navigate menus, read what's happening mid-fight, manage equipment effectively, and see pings without any noise.PC Performance: Bungie says it is digging into reports of high CPU use, low GPU utilization, FPS ceilings in the 80-100 FPS range, and frame hitches when runs get sweaty.Movement and Heat Generation: Bungie says it is seeing lots of discussion around slide feel, momentum, and heat, which builds up when sprinting or performing certain actions (and slowly cools down, though it can be sped up when crouching). The studio says the common asks are a smoother slide transition that lets downhill speed carry, and lowering heat on core movement for cleaner chases and disengages. It encourages players to keep the feedback coming regarding these topics. Fixes Made During The Marathon Server Slam Below, we'll list the fixes to Marathon that developer Bungie made in real time as the Server Slam ran this weekend. In-Run Voice Chat Bug: Bungie says this is fixed, but if you still have issues hearing other players when you're out on a run (whether that's your party or other players via proximity chat), double-check your in-game input and output devices in the Social options menu.Lobby Size: Early on, players felt fights were too sparse, according to Bungie. It bumped the number of crews loading into Perimeter (Beginner), the easiest map and recommended for new players, to test the higher contact change. Bungie asked for more feedback on this change, adding that it will keep watching non-beginner maps as well.Mouse Input Lag on PC: Early in the Marathon Server Slam, some players using streaming/capture software experienced input lag with their mouse. Bungie says a fix was rolled out via Steam and that if it hasn't been implemented yet, restarting the game should trigger the download.Names Changing to "Redacted": In a bit of an awkward moment this weekend, some players discovered that innocuous terms, like "Arc Raiders," which is Marathon's biggest competition in the extraction shooter space, were censored. Bungie says it believes it found the cause of "normal names being changed and has been working all week to address and update things server-side." That wraps up the Marathon Server Slam feedback recap. In the meantime, check out the rewards you will earn in Marathon when it launches on Thursday if you played in the Server Slam this weekend. If you played this weekend, let us know what you thought of the game in the comments below! View the full article

Nintendo has announced it will hold an Indie World Showcase tomorrow, Tuesday, March 3, beginning at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET. It will feature "roughly 15 minutes of news and updates" on indie games coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch. This Indie World Showcase is one of the shortest in recent memory, and like usual, it will air on Nintendo's YouTube channel here. As for what to expect, that's anybody's guess. We know the live chat won't be exploding with "SILKSONG" anymore as developer Team Cherry finally dropped that long-anticipated sequel to Hollow Knight back in September. However, two months after the launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry revealed Sea of Sorrow, a free nautical expansion coming to the game this year... so we fully expect the live chat to look something like "SEA OF SORROW" during tomorrow's Indie World Showcase. You can watch the Indie World Showcase below when it airs tomorrow morning: In the meantime, read Game Informer's Nintendo Switch 2 review, and then read our Hollow Knight: Silksong review after that. What games do you hope to see during tomorrow's Indie World Showcase? Let us know in the comments below! View the full article

Reviewed on: Switch 2 Platform: Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Koei Tecmo, Game Freak Release: March 5, 2026 Since its inception, the Pokémon franchise has been about checking boxes; after all, the famous tagline is “Gotta Catch ‘em All!” Pokémon Pokopia evolves the checklist concept beyond collecting gym badges and catching Pokémon, stripping conflict of any kind from the experience and instead giving you nearly endless tasks to improve your various towns and the overall happiness of the Pokémon therein. And it does so with a loop that mixes elements from Dragon Quest Builders, Animal Crossing, and Minecraft, resulting in one of the best laid-back simulation titles I’ve played in years. Though it maintains an emphasis on collection, it shifts the focus from battling to revitalizing a post-apocalyptic region and reforging our connections not only to the world, but also each other. And just like when the mainline Pokémon series is at its best, I had a difficult time putting it down. In Pokopia, you control a Ditto, who wakes up with no trace of their trainer, so they turn into a customizable facsimile of a human. As they venture into the surrounding world, they discover humanity has abandoned the Pokémon world. The area feels lonely, barren, and desolate, but one Pokémon, a Tangrowth, is there to hold your hand as you reenter the world of the living. This creature, who adopts the name Professor Tangrowth, serves as the primary driver of the main narrative, handing out tasks that will reinvigorate the area, with the express purpose of not only attracting more Pokémon, but hopefully also the missing humans. After just a couple of hours, the first biome is no longer brown and empty, but green and bustling with recognizable Pokémon. It’s a supremely rewarding gameplay experience, revitalizing an area and watching various species congregate and collaborate to improve their living situation, which is important since it persists through to the end of the narrative. In each environment, you also have important requests, which involve working with your Pokémon friends to accomplish area-specific tasks, like summoning a rainstorm or throwing a party. These are the culmination of each environment and serve as the main way to push the overarching story forward, but the tasks often require specific Pokémon and resources, putting you on rails more than I prefer with cozy games such as this. The story is littered with enthralling mysteries I couldn’t wait to further unravel. What happened to humanity that caused it to flee? Why did this world fall into a state of disrepair? And who are these strange Pokémon who look like special variants of existing creatures? As a Pokémon fan dating back to 1998, pulling these threads, which include fun nods to the series’ past, served as a highlight of my time with Pokopia. As part of the revitalization effort, you need to rebuild each town’s Pokémon Center, which involves using resources and recruiting the area’s Pokémon to fill roles like bulldozing, building, and others. Since each Pokémon has specialties, you need to fill those roles with your befriended Pokémon and gather resources before you can build anything, which pushes you to fully explore the area. This means a lot of running back and forth to complete tasks, but thankfully, you can build rail networks to make traversal easier. Unfortunately, I was often so thorough with my curious exploration that, before I triggered the narrative events, I had often already completed the requests, leading to awkward, extended conversations where a Pokémon asks me to do something I already finished hours ago. Each structure you build – along with other tasks you complete – raises the environment level of the biome, progressing the story and unlocking new items in the shop. This makes each construction project feel more monumental, but since some buildings (like Pokémon Centers) aren’t ready until the next day, I was always frustrated that it throttled my progress. It kicked off several races against the clock, making sure I started “ready next day” construction projects before midnight, so I didn’t have to wait 24 hours for them to be ready. I understand the reasoning for having construction projects take time, and there’s rarely a shortage of tasks to complete while I wait, but it’s frustrating when I just wanted to progress the main story. For an otherwise laid-back game, this element adds layers of stress. Your first biome may be dried and dead, but a mid-game environment gives you a flooded and polluted beachfront to reckon with. Though many of the tasks are similar – recruit Pokémon by recreating habitats they like and then craft, build, and organize your way to getting the area back to life – each sprawling, multi-layered environment presents new challenges and exploration opportunities. I cannot tell you how many times I went exploring for a very specific purpose, only to get sidetracked by myriad offshoots and extra tasks that presented themselves. Though I was sometimes underwhelmed by how Pokémon Pokopia rewards you (or, in some cases, doesn’t) for deviating from the beaten path, exploration was often a reward in and of itself, as I would find a new path through the environment or a vista that let me chart areas I hadn’t yet visited. My favorite incentive for exploration, however, is lore drops, which provide hints about what happened to this ruined world to drive humans away and Pokémon into hiding. When Pokémon join your town, some offer their assistance by following you and using their powers, such as Magmar lighting fires or Piplup spraying bubbles to clean dirt. I loved building a small army of followers and running around the environment, completing tasks and cleaning up together. However, the most impactful Pokémon grant you new abilities for Ditto’s Transform, which allows them to copy another Pokémon’s moves. Even 30 hours deep, I was still earning new abilities that vastly improved my expeditions and opened new parts of areas I previously thought thoroughly investigated. While the main campaign is extraordinarily guided – at times to a fault – Pokopia offers a bonus biome that allows for free-form exploration, construction, and Pokémon-attracting. The main story leans heavily into developer Omega Force’s history with Dragon Quest Builders, but this extra area is more in line with Animal Crossing; you have basic goals, but none of the overarching narrative or hand-holdy progression found in the main game. And since this space is so massive, you can sink dozens of hours into this area alone. The narrative-driven elements are positioned as the main attraction, but this free-form area is an excellent way to decompress from the constant checklist chasing. Long after rolling credits on the main story, I will return to my sprawling island to continue shaping my little Pokémon paradise. Pokémon Pokopia is a game of wonder, exploration, and revitalization, delivering a cozy, satisfying experience with no threat of danger. Despite my minor complaints, Pokopia sticks out as one of the best examples of a third-party developer using the Pokémon license to the fullest extent possible. As a kid, I always wished I could spend time in the Pokémon world, and now, 30 years later, I feel like I have. Score: 9 About Game Informer's review system View the full article

Less than 20 people reportedly remain at Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment following last month's layoffs. Read more View the full article

Resident Evil: Requiem reached an all-time concurrent peak of 334,214 players during its debut weekend, the biggest in the franchise's history. Read more View the full article

This article was originally published on December 4, 2017 The Resident Evil franchise has a storied and well-documented history, but here’s something that you might not know: development on Capcom’s campy horror game originally began on the Super NES. While visiting Capcom for our recent cover story on Mega Man 11, we chatted with director Koji Oda, who was originally hired to work at Capcom in 1991 on games like Super Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts and The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse. “Honestly, I feel like I joined the game industry at the best time,” says Oda. “Typically, games would take half a year and no longer than a year to develop, so I feel like I was able to take part in a lot of different projects. It’s not that well known, but before Resident Evil went to the PlayStation, I was working on it for the Super NES.” Resident Evil originally began development as a spiritual sequel to the NES horror game Sweet Home, which many consider to be the original survival horror game. However, when Sony’s PlayStation released in late 1994, it became a quick success, and Capcom’s management deiced to take advantage of the new console’s power. “This was back before the name Resident Evil had even been assigned to it,” says Oda. “The codename for this was literally just ‘horror game.’ On the SNES, we were working with limited hard drive space, so it’s not like we could dump a movie in there. If we had actually completed it on the SNES, I’m sure it would have been considerably different. For example, it was originally set in a place that had nothing to do with reality – more of a hellish place.” For more on the history of Resident Evil, read our retrospective on the development of Sweet Home. View the full article

It was a busy week here at Game Informer, which I admit is a sentence I could write to introduce this article every Friday. We revealed a new cover with Invincible VS, reviewed Resident Evil Requiem and God of War Sons of Sparta, and Pokémon announced its next generation. 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: Cover Reveal – Invincible VSInterview: World of Warcraft Lead Composer On Making Of Midnight’s Human-Made MusicResident Evil Requiem Review - A Sublime SepulchreEverything Announced At The February 2026 Pokémon PresentsGame Boy-Shaped Pokémon Soundtrack Player AnnouncedYou Can Marry Clint And Sandy In The 1.7 Update For Stardew Valley, ConcernedApe AnnouncesCheck Out These Steam Next Fest Demos Picked By The Game Informer Staff Resident Evil Requiem Kyle Hilliard I am having a blast with Resident Evil Requiem and I understand why Wesley gave it such a positive review. The pitch is simple, but effective: what if Capcom merged the two personalities of Resident Evil – action and survival horror – into one experience. And it works! My fear going into the game was that the two parts would feel so distinct that neither would feel as good as the games that inspired them. That Leon's sections and Grace's sections would be held back by one trying to please the other. Ultimately, the two parts of the game do feel quite different, but the way it affects the pace is excellent. Grace's sections (so far) are intense and slow-paced, and when the pressure becomes too much, Leon sprints in to relieve all the stress that has been building up to that point. The two parts just work incredibly well together. I also really like the fonts. Pokémon LeafGreen & FireRed Charles Harte My first Pokémon game was LeafGreen. I still have the cartridge, given to me by a friend in second grade who didn't really understand the gameplay – when her Pokémon took poison damage out of combat and the screen shook, she would immediately pop the cartridge out (without saving!) and blow on it, assuming it was a visual glitch. She was 8, so cut her some slack. That said, it's maybe my most nostalgic game of all time, since it formed my relationship with a series I've been a fan of for decades now. It's also a fitting game to do so – older generations were introduced to the game with the Kanto region, and so was I, albeit in a more modern interpretation. The remakes span all of Kanto, plus the added Sevii Islands. If you've never played before, I'm not sure how friendly it will feel compared to modern games, as quality of life improvements have made a massive difference in recent years. That said, it's key gaming history, and if you feel like shelling out the $20 per edition, it'll be an interesting trip into the franchise's past. Despite playing for hundreds and hundreds of hours, I've only actually beat it once. I just have too much fun starting a fresh save, picking a new starter, and battling through the first few gyms. Now that it's on Switch 2, I'm excited to do it all over again. Resident Evil 2 (2019) Charles Harte After playing Resident Evil 7 and 8 over the holidays, I was very excited for Requiem, with one caveat; I don't really know who this Leon guy is! Luckily, the game's first half mostly focuses on Grace, so it doesn't matter all that much. After hitting a certain point in the game, however, Leon has a brief flashback to something that happens in Resident Evil 2, and I felt like I needed more context to really appreciate what was going on. The next morning, a copy of Resident Evil 2 Remake on PS5 was delivered to my doorstep. It turned out to be a surprisingly awesome way to experience Requiem's story. Leon is a relatively mysterious figure in RE9, swooping in to help Grace with little explanation. By the time I got to this certain point in the game, Leon's backstory is basically begging to be retold, and it ended up making perfect narrative sense. I had a great time with RE2 , knocking it out in six and a half hours (I appreciate its brevity) and spending some time with a younger, more nervous Leon. It makes his gruff one-liners carry a surprising amount of weight in Requiem, and I really appreciated how far he's come in the grand scheme of things. After rolling credits on RE2 last night, I'm excited to come back to Requiem this weekend and finish it off. Marathon Wesley LeBlanc There is a new Bungie game upon us, and if its previously released Halo and Destiny games are any indication, it’d be quite silly to outright ignore it. I mention that because, unlike Halo and Destiny, understanding what Marathon is attempting to do in the shooter genre is tougher to parse (and easy to ignore as a result). It’s an extraction live-service shooter, a niche variant in a genre that a lot of people turn their noses up to by default. That’s all well and good (and understandable if you already know this isn’t for you), but if you’re interested in seeing what one of the industry’s best shooter-makers is doing in the extraction genre, which itself is on the rise thanks to games like Arc Raiders, I recommend checking out Marathon – for free! – via this weekend’s Server Slam. Download the Marathon Server Slam Client and hop in. That’s what I did last night, and I’ll be honest, I really struggled to parse through its UI, menus, and in-game action, but the visual-audio experience of Marathon is worth checking out alone. It is a gorgeously mixed soundscape of alien sci-fi rumbles, instruments, and tech-based beeps and boops that sounds great in a headset. And visually, it’s one of the most distinct games I’ve played in some time. As for the gameplay itself, you drop into a map, collect as much valuable loot as possible, and exfil from the map to secure said loot and reap the rewards for doing so. Moment to moment, that means you’re going to be searching around cyberpunk-esque environments for things to scavenge while avoiding (or seeking out) enemy AI and other players for firefights that play out via Bungie’s best-in-class first-person shooting. I’m not so sure that Marathon is shaping up to be Bungie’s next Halo or Destiny, but it is, at the very least, something unique, and I’m excited to see if this extraction shooter clicks into place as I play more over the weekend. If it doesn’t, well, at least the Server Slam is free. View the full article

PlayStation shut down Bluepoint Games, the developer behind the Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus remakes, earlier this month. Amongst general sadness at the news amongst players, there was also a feeling that the studio would have been the one to (finally) do something with Bloodborne, ideally a remake, considering Bluepoint's pedigree. Now, according to a new Bloomberg report, it turns out Bluepoint did pitch a Bloodborne remake in early 2025, but it was rejected by PlayStation due to FromSoftware's desires. Bloomberg says its sources told it that Bluepoint "was told that the numbers made sense [to remake Bloodborne] but FromSoftware didn't want it to happen." As the report notes, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida theorized during a Kinda Funny interview last year that FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki, who directed Bloodborne, was interested in remaking the 2015 action game himself but was too busy to do so; Yoshida said he "doesn't want anyone else to touch it" and that if that's true, he believes PlayStation would respect Miyazaki's wishes, even though PlayStation owns the Bloodborne IP. As previously reported, Bluepoint was working on a live-service spinoff of Santa Monica Studios' God of War series (which recently got the side-scroller treatment in God of War Sons of Sparta). Bloomberg reports that Bluepoint's spinoff was a game in which Kratos' son, Atreus, one of the main protagonists of God of War Ragnarök, fell into Hades (hell). "A loose idea was for players to control different versions or aspects of Atreus as they battled through Greek hell, and to have some sort of cooperative gameplay and ongoing support," the report reads. However, PlayStation canceled this project in January of 2025. Tasked with figuring out its next project, something PlayStation helped with, Bluepoint eventually pitched the aforementioned (rejected) Bloodborne remake. After that rejection, Bluepoint reportedly pitched an updated version of Shadow of the Colossus, which the studio already remade for PlayStation 4 in 2018, and it was also turned down. Other pitched projects include a Ghost of Tsushima spinoff, among other games set within pre-existing PlayStation franchises, according to Bloomberg, which also reports that employees at the studio began to fear for the company's existence when the God of War trilogy remake was announced earlier this month, on February 12, without their involvement. A week later, on February 19, PlayStation shut down Bluepoint, just five years after it acquired the beloved studio in 2021. [Source: Bloomberg] What are your thoughts on PlayStation's closure of Bluepoint Games? Let us know in the comments below! View the full article

In our latest and sanest episode of The Game Informer Show, it's time for the crew to dodge zombies, mix herbs, and slot gemstones into strange doors. It's Resident Evil Requiem week, and everyone's been playing it in some fashion, so Marcus, Wes, Charles, and Eric spend the first half of the show talking through all of it. After the break, we get into our favorite Steam Next Fest demos, from Star Fox-alikes and Disco Elysium-alikes to a game where an egg is mightier than the gourd. And we close things out with Marcus teaching us all a little bit about wrestling, WWE 2K26, and why you should always get your athletic performer contracts in writing. The Game Informer Show is a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Friday for chats about video game reviews, news, and exclusive reveals alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry. Watch the video podcast: Listen to "Resident Evil Requiem + Our Favorite Steam Next Fest Demos" on Spreaker.Follow our hosts on social media:Marcus Stewart (@marcusstewart7)Wesley LeBlanc (@wesleyleblanc)Charles Harte (@chuckduck365)Eric Van Allen (@seamoosi)Jump ahead using these timestamps:00:00 - Intro04:05 - Resident Evil Requiem51:38 - Steam Next Fest Demos1:31:29 - WWE 2K26 Preview View the full article

Just Move: Clean City Messy Battle is free on Steam until March 4! Just Move: Clean City Messy Battle is a 2... View the full article

Amazon Prime has been on a streak of adapting popular video games into live-action TV series, and the biggest project in the news this year has been its upcoming take on God of War. After weeks of casting announcements, the service revealed the first look at what leads Ryan Hurst and Callum Vinson will look like as Kratos and Atreus, respectively. Take a look for yourself below. Kratos watches his son Atreus aim a bow. Kratos has a sort of "baseball coach dad" stance, leaning forward with his hands on his knees. The image was posted on social media with the caption, "Father and Son. Behold your first look at Kratos and Atreus in the God of War series now in production. Their journey to the highest peak begins." The show aims to retell the events of 2018's God of War, a soft reboot that sees the series' vicious protagonist travel to a new land and take a second swing at fatherhood. In addition to the main cast of the 2018 game, Amazon has already cast major players from the sequel, Ragnarök, like Thor and Odin. Here's the full cast list so far. Ryan Hurst - KratosCallum Vinson - AtreusEd Skrein - BaldurMax Parker - HeimdallÓlafur Darri Ólafsson - ThorMandy Patinkin - OdinAlastair Duncan - MimirDanny Woodburn - BrokJeff Gulka - SindriAmazon has already made a two-season order for God of War, which is currently in pre-production in Vancouver, Canada. The series is being led by showrunner, writer, and executive producer Ronald D. Moore (Outlander, Battlestar Galactica). It is being co-produced by Sony Pictures Television, Amazon MGM Studios, PlayStation Productions, and Tall Boy Productions. For more God of War, read our reviews for the 2018 game and its sequel, Ragnarök. For more on Amazon Prime's video game adaptations, you can read our review of the second season of the Fallout show or see how Sophie Turner looks as Lara Croft. How do you feel about this look for Kratos and Atreus? Let us know in the comments! View the full article

Another year, another Pokémon Presents. Today, the Pokémon Company hosted a stream to spotlight numerous updates arriving for its many live services and titles surrounding the long-running Pokémon franchise. It is the series' 30th anniversary, marking three decades since the first generation of games took us to Kanto, and the makers of Pokémon are leaning heavily into our shared nostalgia for it. Here's everything we saw at today's February 2026 Pokémon Presents presentation. Game Music CollectionThe stream kicked off with a Game Music Collection jukebox for Pokémon Red and Blue, with 45 songs on 45 cartridges for the standalone music player. It basically looks like a HitClips for classic Pokémon music. Remember HitClips? Anyways, that's available starting on February 27 (today). Pokémon World Championships and XP 2026The Pokémon XP and World Championships are headed to San Francisco on August 28 through 30, and today The Pokémon Company confirmed all the activities happening there. It's not just competition and fighting for the crown; the Pokémon XP expo will host several different events and places for families and friends to hang out and celebrate Pokémon. Plus, we got some new artwork today, commemorating the event. Pokémon Trading Card GameWe got a look at the "future" of Pokémon Trading Card Game with a set celebrating the series' 30th anniversary releasing sometime in 2026. The stream showed off everything from classic cards to Tag Teams and more, so look forward to that if you're a fan of cracking Pokémon packs. Pokémon GoNumerous Pokémon that have appeared in past Pokémon Go events will return, as part of the game's 10th anniversary alongside the series' 30th. (Can you believe it's been a decade since that blissful, wonderful Pokémon Go summer?) The anniversary event runs in early March, and Pokémon Go Tour: Kalos starts tomorrow on Saturday, February 28. Make sure to grab the promotion with promo code GOTOURKALOS, valid until Monday, March 2. Pokémon Masters EXRed (1996) & Pikachu are out today, with two more Trainers joining soon too: Florian & Ogerpon (Anniversary 2026) on February 28, and Juliana & Terapagos (Anniversary 2026) on March 2. It's the 6.5 Year Celebration for Pokémon Masters EX (it's a real anniversary, I swear), and you can also pick up 3,000 gems for logging in sometime between now and March 31. Pokémon Cafe RemixA roundup event featuring all partner Pokémon starts today, with the first set being the original three from Kanto - Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Pokémon SleepMew Missions are coming to Pokémon Sleep, starting tonight. Look forward to trying to grab a Mew while you snooze! Pokémon UniteArticuno, Zapdos, and Moltres are coming to Pokémon Unite today, with a special event featuring the birds kicking off as well. Meganium, Typholosion, and Feraligatr are also on their way to the PokéMOBA, and an Electrode volleyball world tour was teased for the game as well. Pokémon Trading Card Game PocketThe next set coming to Pokémon TCG Pocket is Paldean Wonders, premiering now with numerous daily log-in bonuses starting today. You can pick up a bunch of booster packs to celebrate the 30th anniversary, as well as some special playmats and coins for in-game card dueling too. Nintendo Switch OnlinePokémon XD Gale of Darkness, a lesser-known spin-off, is finally coming to Nintendo Switch Online's GameCube selection in March 2026. Honestly, this is huge news for anyone who's wanted to see what this odd side game is about, but doesn't want to pay exorbitant sums for a physical GameCube copy. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreenAs previously confirmed, the Game Boy Advance remakes of Pokémon Gen 1 are coming to Nintendo Switch. They're out today, and feature Pokémon Home integration as part of their modern Switch release. Pokémon Champions Arrives In AprilThe battle-focused Pokémon experience comes to Switch in April, with a mobile version expected to arrive later this year. This is a client focused solely on facing off against other trainers, as shown by the trailer today, but might be a pretty cool thing for the competitive Pokémon players out there. Pokémon Legends Z-A Gets More MegaThe latest Pokémon Legends entry arrived last year with Z-A, and it's getting a fresh crop of content in 2026. Mega Garchomp Z will be available for owners of the Mega Dimension DLC for Pokémon Legends Z-A today. Interesting that it's tied to owning both the game and DLC, but the new Garchomp does look pretty cool. Pokémon Pokopia Pokopia is just days away now, but there's still some news to show off before the cozy Poké-life sim goes live. DJ Rotom is a special stereo-focused form of the techno-Pokémon, able to play CDs that the player-Ditto finds. We also got a look at a culinary master Greedent named Chef Dente, who might be my new favorite Pokémon ever. The stream also showed off the four-player multiplayer town visits and other facets of Pokémon Pokopia. The new building-and-living sim arrives on March 5 for Switch 2, and honestly looks delightful. Pokémon Winds and WavesThe 10th generation of Pokémon has been confirmed as Pokémon Winds and Waves, in a yet-unnamed but seemingly tropical region. We got glimpses of many different biomes and the Pokémon that will inhabit them, as well as a resort-like structure and towns built on the water. Plus, our three new apparent starters: the little bird Browt, the fire puppy Pombon, and water amphibian Gecqua. Also, possibly a tease for diving and underwater activities? This generation of Pokémon will aim for a global release in 2027 on the Switch 2, and we'll likely learn more about it later. How did you feel about this year's Pokémon Day Pokémon Presents livestreams? Did you have a favorite announcement? Which starter are you choosing in Winds and Waves? View the full article

Today during a Pokémon Presents presentation, which is also coinciding with the franchise's 30th anniversary, Game Freak revealed the next proper Pokémon games and they are called Pokémon Winds and Waves. They arrive in 2027. Alongside showing off the tropical environment that game will take place in, we also got a look at the new starters. Browt appers to be a grass bird-like Pokémon, Gecqua is a water-type gecko, and Pombon is a fire dog-inspired Pokémon. The footage for the game also showed off the trainers, and teased underwater exploration, which is not a first for the Pokémon series, but is an activity we haven't done in some time. Other than Browt, Gecqua, and Pombon, no other new Pokémon were shown or teased. It's safe to assume that mechanically, the game will function similarly to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and the hints at gameplay appear to confirm as much. Pokémon Winds and Waves is coming to Switch 2 (no Switch 1 logos were shown in the trailer) in 2027. View the full article

The Pokémon Company has revealed that Pokémon Champions, its battle-focused game, will launch on Nintendo Switch in April. The mobile version, playable on iOS and Android devices, will be released later this year. Similar to older Pokémon games, like Pokémon Stadium back in the Nintendo 64 era, Pokémon Champions will allow players around the world to battle each other with all kinds of pocket monsters. It will "feature familiar mechanics such as Pokémon types, Abilities, and moves, creating an environment conducive to rich and varied strategies for new and experienced Trainers alike," according to the game's description. Revealed during the Pokémon Day Presents showcase held in February of last year, we finally know that we can play Pokémon Champions on Switch (and Switch 2, though a Switch 2 Edition hasn't been announced) in April, before it comes to mobile devices later this year. You can check out an overview of Pokémon Champions in the trailer below: Are you excited for Pokémon Champions? Let us know your party in the comments below! View the full article

It's not just any Pokémon Day – today is Pokémon's 30th anniversary. To celebrate, The Pokémon Company held its annual Pokémon Presents livestream, which includes news about new games and looks back on the series history. Midway through, it made an announcement that checks both those boxes: Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness is coming to Nintendo Switch Online. The game was first revealed as coming to the service during Nintendo's April 2025 Nintendo Switch 2 reveal Direct, but we haven't heard any news about its arrival in the GameCube library since. Gale of Darkness is a GameCube exclusive, and like other games on the system, it's been notoriously hard to play legitimately, with physical copies going for insanely high prices online. Now, it will be available to play on the Nintendo Switch Online expansion pack, alongside games like Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance or The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Like other GameCube games in the expansion back, it'll be exclusive to Switch 2. The current release date hasn't been fully nailed down, but today's livestream said Gale of Darkness will come it the service in March, so it should be right around the corner. For more Pokémon news, check out the bizarre new music player the company announced. View the full article