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To kick off today's Pokémon Presents livestream, The Pokémon Company announced a Game Boy-shaped device with swappable cartridges that plays the soundtracks for Pokémon Red and Blue. Each cartridge contains a different song from the soundtrack, as well as an image that slots into the Game Boy replica's display screen to coincide with the audio action. The device contains 45 cartridges to match with the 45 songs included with the purchase. "We took particular care to make the audio sound just like Game Boy, so I hope you enjoy listening while swapping out cartridges," Pokémon Red and Blue composer Junichi Masuda said on the stream. The Pokémon Red and Blue Game Boy Jukebox is available starting today through Pokémon Center. View the full article

Netflix has withdrawn its offer to acquire Warner Bros Discovery after Paramount Skydance increased its all-cash offer to $31 per share. Read more View the full article

World of Warcraft: Midnight launches next week, but early access begins later this evening. Ahead of the MMORPG’s anticipated expansion, we sat down with World of Warcraft’s lead composer, Leo Kaliski, to learn about the making of Midnight’s music and how the team is flexing its creative muscle with new instrumentation. Finally, Kaliski counts himself lucky to make human music in a world obsessed with generative AI. In your journey from composer’s assistant to lead composer, I'm curious how you’ve come to understand the musical identity of World of Warcraft. What does it sound like to you? Some of my understanding comes from being a fan of the game; I've played World of Warcraft since vanilla. It's a pretty broad and diverse musical identity. I worked on Diablo for a few years [...], and it has a much narrower musical identity. It's very dark [with] the 12-string guitar, the synths, and the reverse [effects]. There's a very clear musical language for Diablo. Warcraft is very broad. The list of things that aren't WoW is almost shorter than what is WoW. We don't use sawtooth dance synths. Stuff like that isn’t really WoW. But a couple of years ago, the answer would probably have been, “We don't really use guitar.” But then we did a Goblin Jazz patch that had a bunch of guitar on it, and coming up in Midnight, there's a bunch of distorted guitar in some of the zones, which wasn’t a thing before now. World of Warcraft’s sound is largely dictated by the game’s art. What is the game asking us to do? It's about being in the background. We are there to support the gameplay and the story [...] without overstepping the boundaries, without making it about us — unless it's like a big cinematic moment. It's about being in the background, but trying to find cool ways to do it. Light and dark are major themes in Midnight. How did you channel that overarching theme, and what was its role as you composed music for the expansion’s new zones? The Light-versus-Void [theme] was a top priority when we first started working on the expansion. Those were some of the very early themes we worked on. The Light has a very specific theme, whereas the Void came more about from [looking at] Xal’atath’s army, The Devouring Host. We wrote those themes separately and then combined them into a battle track that has the two weaving into each other. Something great about World of Warcraft is even when there is an overarching story of Xal’atath’s attack, [...] you go into a zone, and there’s still a local story going on. [Characters] have their own local problems they're dealing with, and you're helping them because everyone being on the same footing helps you win this bigger fight versus the Void. Were there any challenges in incorporating new instrumentation styles, like the aforementioned distorted guitars, into what is traditionally a very orchestral sound identity? You're right. World of Warcraft is traditionally orchestral. The reason the distorted guitar felt right here is that we're using it for the new zone, Voidstorm. It's in the void, and it has all these very angry, aggressive beasts. [The zone] has this theme of predation: the strong eating the weak to get stronger. And I remember being on a zone tour with Voidstorm’s lead, and they said they were trying to make the zone feel as metal as possible. And I was like, “That sure sounds like distorted guitars to me.” So it started as an experiment [...] and the challenge became, “How do you get it to blend into the background? How do you make it less distracting for players?” We’ve made sure it has a good amount of reverb and that we’re not using it too often. We’re going back to the home of the Blood Elves, first created two decades ago, in Midnight. Is that legacy reflected in your new work? The first priority was preserving those original themes as much as possible. There's a lot of love for the original Blood Elf music, and we didn't want to erase that with completely new music. So There are a few pieces of music in Midnight that directly quote the original material with a new coat of paint. It’s higher fidelity because we can record higher-quality stuff now than we did back then. But then there's music that's more of an evolution, where we use the same instrumentation — Blood Elves are all about the solo cello and the harp — but we’re not directly quoting original themes. It still feels related and in the same pocket. There are pieces where it's solo violin instead of solo cello, so it still feels similar, but it's a little brighter and less melancholy. And that’s because the zone has changed. It's not the same zone as it was back then, and they’re not the same culture. They’ve progressed as people. The scar down the middle [of the zone] is gone. The Ghostlands are gone. [Quel’Thalas] is much greener and more vibrant. It made sense to honor the original themes while also making them brighter and bigger. Which instruments did you reach for when composing music for Harandar? The new zone seems untamed and steeped in mystery. That one had quite a bit of exploration to start with. [The Haranir] are an all-new culture, an all-new race. But they’re also not totally alien and foreign to WoW. They feel similar to [elves and trolls], in a way. So it wouldn't have made sense to do something that was a complete departure from that. Early on, there was a lot of discussion with Chris Metzen and other story people [to learn] what the Haranir are about. [...] They're very defensive and can be aggressive and primal. They don't like outsiders. But once you earn their trust, they're very kind people. We tried to find a way to incorporate those elements. Looking at the art, there are big mushrooms and bioluminescent areas. I did a first pass at exploring the music, and it was coming along. Some of it felt right: the bowed textures, the percussion, and pluck sounds. It still wasn't quite right, so I handed it off to one of our composers, Adam Burgess, who has always been good at non-orchestral music. He keyed in on this vocal [style], which is super cool, and it’s not one we’ve really used a lot in World of Warcraft. It features chants and pockets [of] vocal interjections. Less of a singing a melody. It feels more primal, [...] almost like using a voice as an instrument rather than someone performing. And it was exactly what the zone needed to make it feel alive and to make the [Haranir] culture feel well represented. You can almost imagine the voices [in the track] are them. [...] That's one of the secret sauces of World of Warcraft: we're not a one-person team. As the lead, I'm not dictating what something should sound like. It's about giving the right assignment to the right person and letting them express themselves. Nine composers contributed to this expansion, each with their own voice. That kind of melting pot is what makes the soundtrack so special. Tech companies are hellbent on disrupting every industry with the rise of generative AI. How has this moment in time affected your experience as a seasoned composer working in video games? I feel lucky that AI in music still feels quite a way off. Sometimes you look at AI photos, and if you don't look closely, you might not know it's AI. Music is not there yet. Usually, you hear it, and you instantly know something is not right about it, or the fidelity isn’t there. So in some ways, it's not as top of mind as it probably is for other artists. I think we here at Blizzard feel very lucky and happy that we're not using generative AI. We're just writing what we think is cool, and are happy to do that. That's my stance. View the full article

After a ceremonious reveal at the conclusion of The Game Awards 2026, newcomer developer Wildlight Entertainment launched its first-person raid shooter Highguard on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Despite eclipsing 100,000 concurrent Steam players around the game's launch, that number quickly dropped (though Steam concurrents are only a fraction of the total players), with Steam's reviews status for the game sitting at "mixed" today. As a result, Wildlight laid off most of its 100-person staff, roughly two weeks after the game's launch, and according to a new report from Forbes, less than 20 developers remain at the studio – it's those remaining employees that have pushed out two somewhat hefty patches for Highguard since the layoffs on February 11. That same Forbes report also details the game's development, the weeks after its reveal at The Game Awards in December, and the subsequent Highguard fallout since launch last month. Forbes reports that in 2021, a small group of people who worked at developer Respawn Entertainment, owned by EA, quit and started a new studio. After helping Respawn launch Apex Legends in 2019, some at the studio watched the battle royale bring in more than $3 billion in revenue over the next couple of years. However, some of the creatives felt slighted by how little of that $3 billion made its way to the developers behind it. Thus, the idea of starting a new studio, creating a successful surprise-launch live-service shooter, and sharing the profits among employees was born. With Wildlight co-founder and CEO Dusty Welch touting the studio's profit-sharing program, he was able to attract others to join the team and work on what was first a survival game like Rust before it was transformed into the raid shooter that Highguard launched last month, according to the report. Forbes writes that after the transition to a raid shooter, which retained some of the elements of the original Rust-esque prototype, testing began with staff, external players, and Tencent's TiMi Studio Group; it was only recently revealed that China-based company Tencent helped fund Highguard by Stephen Totilo's Game File on February 17. Reception amongst those tests was positive, according to the 10 Highguard developers Forbes spoke to for its report, but some employees were apparently concerned that these tests weren't accurate enough to a real play environment. Developers helped playtesters understand mechanics, in-game communication was encouraged, and more, but these gameplay aspects aren't guaranteed when a game reaches players' hands after launch. To get ahead of that, some employees suggested letting people play Highguard before launch, perhaps in a beta or open playtest, but leadership at Wildlight turned down that suggestion, Forbes reports. The leadership at Wildlight wanted to announce the game and launch it a few weeks later, without letting the public play it beforehand, as those developers had seen work successfully with Respawn's Apex Legends. As a result, Highguard was revealed, the reception soured quickly, and the game became a bit of a meme online before it even launched, with some comparing it to Concord, PlayStation's own live-service shooter that shut down two weeks after launch. Forbes reports that the employees it spoke to said Wildlight was a "healthy, collaborative, transparent" environment they loved working in... until the final two months, when morale tanked following the game's subsequent reception after The Game Awards reveal. Then, the game launched on January 26 and did little to impress both critics and players alike – Game Informer gave it a 7.5 in its review. Despite a strong initial showing, playercounts dropped, and two weeks after launch, Wildlight laid off most of its staff. With Highguard being a free-to-play title, its avenue for revenue is highly dependent on retaining players and getting them to spend money on in-game cosmetics, mounts, and more. Today, Highguard is still live and receiving updates, though it remains unclear how long it can live with so little staff, comparatively, working on the game. For more details, be sure to read the full Forbes report here. Have you played Highguard? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below! View the full article

Stardew Valley turns 10 years old today, marking a huge milestone for one of the most beloved and successful indie games in of the modern era. Despite being far from a live service game, solo developer ConcernedApe (also known as Eric Barone) is still providing content updates to this day, and though they've slowed significantly in recent years, 1.7 is coming soon. Today, Barone premiered a video on YouTube celebrating both the anniversary and upcoming update, taking a trip down memory lane to show off old builds of the farming sim while also providing a sneak peek at 1.7 – specifically, Stardew Valley's first new marriage candidates in years. At the very end of the video, he revealed that players will be able to romance Clint, the blacksmith, and Sandy, a shopkeeper in the desert. Clint is a surprising choice, for a few reasons. For starters, Clint is commonly made fun of by members in the community who dislike his personality. In a cast of beloved characters, he stands out as one of the most commonly disdained. That said, maybe this is Barone's attempt to turn the character's popularity around, since romance quests give characters a lot more depth. Still, there are other characters players have requested to romance for years. The most notable are Robin (she's married when the player arrives to the village, but that fact doesn't do much to quell romantic fans) and the Wizard. Unless they're coming in some massive 1.8 update, fans will have to stick to fanfic and mods. The rest of the video is worth watching as well, since we don't usually get such a detailed behind-the-scenes look at indie games like this, and it's cool to watch the project come together. Stardew Valley's 1.7 update doesn't have release window yet, but will hopefully be out sometime soon. If you haven't played Stardew Valley in a while, you can check out its Switch 2 update, which includes split-screen co-op and mouse controls. As for ConcernedApe's next game, Haunted Chocolatier, we have no idea when to expect its release, but it's one of our most anticipated games right now. View the full article

Platform: PC Publisher: Liquid Swords Developer: Liquid Swords Have you ever walked through a run-down part of town and imagined the potential that exists? For Samson, who grew up in the roughest part of his hometown of Tyndalston called The Ditch, that is his day-to-day life. However, as someone who got his hands on Liquid Swords' Samson, it ended up being my experience for more than an hour as I fell completely into the enthralling gameplay loop, but was left to imagine how great the experience could be if it were a bit more polished. As Samson, you return home to The Ditch with a mountain of debt to repay. To keep the debt collectors off his back, he hooks up with an old friend who happens to be a major player in the streets of Tyndalston, Carter, to take on some jobs around the city. These range from beating down the door of a local business and roughing up the owner who owes him money to chasing down some rival gang members who just robbed a gas station that Carter oversees. The gameplay is varied and kept me on my toes; one sequence had me brawling through a warehouse, while another had me engaging in vehicular combat, while another, still, tasked me with helping an ally escape the cops after robbing a pharmacy. It's safe to say you're not playing a hero in Samson, but each mission I played delivered excitement in spades. The gameplay typically felt great as I tested out the various mission types on offer. My favorite missions involved heavy hand-to-hand combat; Samson squares up against various enemies with light and heavy attacks at his disposal, as well as the ability to parry and smash enemies with environmental objects. Though this is very much a brawler, you can't just swing for the fences. Instead, I approached each encounter with caution and intentionality. Light punches, heavy punches, parries, and grabs often sufficed in my early-game encounters, but using the Adrenaline Rush meter, I could wail on rivals with slowed-down time and increased damage. I got myself out of more than a couple of sticky situations thanks to effective managing of Samson's Adrenaline meter. It's a brawler at heart, but it's far from the only style of gameplay players can expect. Several of the missions also involve Samson getting into the driver seat, whether to help an ally flee the scene of a crime or to take down rivals who just robbed your friends. Escaping from the police involves leaving their patrol circumference and laying low until they call off the search, while taking down enemies on the mean streets of Tyndalston requires you to ram them using some rudimentary vehicular combat mechanics. I was less sold on this part of the game, as Samson's vehicle is also highly susceptible to damage, and when I smashed my rivals into the rails or even oncoming traffic, the enemies often drove away after sustaining less damage than I expected, while Samson's car took on more than I thought he would. I assume this will be fine-tuned for the final release, but it led to some frustrating restarts. Perhaps the most novel part of my hands-on session presented itself in the game's structure. Rather than having unlimited time in The Ditch, Samson must effectively watch his calendar. Each day is split into three portions: morning, evening, and night. Each of these three times of day has a set number of Action Points (AP), and each job requires AP to attempt; if you fail a job, you can retry it, but if you end up abandoning it, you lose those Action Points and your day moves on without profit or experience. Each day, you need to earn and pay a set amount of money towards your overall debt, or else debt collectors will wait for you by your car or apartment to try and beat the money out of you. Because of this structure, I needed to be judicious about which jobs I selected and when. Some jobs, like one where I stole a stash from a rival gang, can be completed any time, while others, like a story mission that takes place at a bar, can only happen at certain times of day. As someone who loves calendar-based RPGs like Persona and Metaphor, as well as action-crime games like GTA and Saints Row, this feels like a beautiful melding of the genres' conventions. But it's also important to note that, despite my positive thoughts on the gameplay loop, this is not a triple-A game, despite the triple-A inspiration. Liquid Swords is a smaller team with a smaller budget, and while Samson will draw inevitable comparisons to Grand Theft Auto, it is not the multi-billion dollar franchise that Rockstar has under its belt. Samson is a much more focused experience by design, a way to navigate the seedy underbelly of an East Coast-inspired fictional city, set in the '90s, with intentionally designed areas that are meant to push you forward not only in the level, but the story as well. And though much of your spare time in Samson is spent doing side-missions to raise money to pay off the main character's debts, this is not some massive game full of padding and activities to take part in. Each GTA feels like an action-packed season of prestige television, while Samson – though I only played the first segment of the campaign – feels more like a movie with far less padding that you can sit down and enjoy in a much quicker fashion. Sadly, much of my experience was hindered by glitches. While this is common in pre-release builds, when Liquid Swords told me that Samson is set to release in just over a month from this publication, it made me a bit more nervous. Games come together at the last minute all the time, but nearly every mission I played had a different type of noticeable bug, ranging from the annoying audio and visual bugs to glitches that required me to exit and re-launch the game. Hopefully, this is just a symptom of playing an outdated build, and that a more recent version of Samson is a lot more stable, but I can only preview what was put in front of me. There is absolutely still time for developer Liquid Swords to shore up the core experience of Samson, but we're coming up on launch in just over a month, so we are coming down to the wire soon. But ignoring the lack of polish, my time with Samson was a ton of fun, with a compelling loop that I could see myself engaging with for hours. My greatest hope for Samson is that, when it launches on PC on April 8, we won't be talking about the game's potential, but rather that the hooks that grabbed me during my gameplay session do the same to the wider player base, uninhibited. View the full article

Steam Next Fest has arrived once again. Hundreds upon hundreds of demos for upcoming games are now at players' fingertips, and we're downloading and playing many demos ourselves based on personal excitement, curiosity, and positive word-of-mouth. With so many demos to consider, you may be struggling to decide which ones may be worth your time; that's where we come in. Some GI editors are sharing their favorite Next Fest demos so far and why we think they're worth a look. Keep checking back to this list, as we'll be updating it over the week until Steam Next Fest concludes on Monday, March 2. SoulQuestDeveloper: SoulBlade Studio I adore stylish action games, but it’s not often I see this slick form of combat successfully translated in 2D. SoulQuest, an upcoming indie game by SoulBlade Studio, does a hell of a job of pulling this off. Players control Alys, a warrior on a quest to slay the Celtic gods holding her husband captive. Armed with her trusty blade, combat consists of nailing hyper-fast combos, popping skeletons and other mythical beasts airborne, and juggling them with flashy offense that feels smooth and satisfying. Although the level design is basic and the dialogue leaves a bit to be desired, the action feels very good so far, and I look forward to seeing how much more polished it can become before arriving sometime this year. – Marcus Stewart Check out the demo here. ArkheronDeveloper: Bonfire Studios Arkheron is a game I recently spent two and a half hours playing for a preview, and though its battle royale description didn’t inspire much excitement in me, I finished my gameplay ready for more. This PvP isometric action game pits 15 trios against each other and looks like Diablo, with dark fantasy dungeons to loot and creatures to destroy, but despite what its POV would have you believe, it actually plays a lot like a shooter. Because the camera rotates around your character as the focal point, aiming your on-screen reticle requires the accuracy and precision of a game like Valorant. What I especially enjoyed in my preview was discovering new weapons and loot as my trio attempted to climb to the top of the tower through vicious PvP arena fights. Most of the gear, save for healing items and the like, is that of 10 Eternals, god-like beings that rotate in and out of the loot pool. Collect two of an Eternals’ item, and you gain a set bonus – collect all four, and you transform into them for some wild combative effects. There is a lot more that impressed me in Arkheron, and you can read my full thoughts here in my preview, but I say all this to recommend that you check it out on PC! As part of Steam Next Fest, developer Bonfire Studios has turned its servers on for 24/7 access to Arkheron from today through March 2. – Wesley LeBlanc Check out the demo here Titanium CourtDeveloper: AP Thomson To call this a match-3 game would be insufficient, at best. The core mechanics of sliding tiles and erasing lines, then sending out automated troops from your keep to battle other enemy forts, should be easy enough to grasp in a round or two. It's the surreal style and tone surrounding Titanium Court that makes developer AP Thomson's game so intriguing, though. Between the ebbing High and Low Tides of war, you're led through a dreamlike narrative, where you flit between new conversations and rooms as the stage lifts and reassembles itself around you. The overt nods towards A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the titular faerie court and one of your assistants, Puck, keep things joyful, strange, and altogether mesmerizing. There's some magic at work here, and I'm eager to see it play out. - Eric Van Allen Check out the demo here. Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire SurvivorsDeveloper: Poncle Vampire Survivors developer Poncle essentially upended Steam in 2022, becoming the namesake for an entire subgenre. It's fitting, then, that as Steam Next Fest is flooded with Survivor-likes, Poncle returns with a new spin on its own formula, trading hordes and timers for first-person dungeon-crawling action in Vampire Crawlers. Everything is wonderfully nostalgic, from the framed UI to the arrow controls for turning your facing. While the implements of Survivors are still here – Whips, Knives, and Holy Bibles alike – what matters more is sequencing, upgrading, and linking them together into devastating combos. Death returns you to a town for some cross-run upgrades, and then you're back to it. If the demo's any indication, I can see myself losing quite a few hours in commutes and late nights within these new dungeons. – Eric Van Allen Check out the demo here. Wild Blue SkiesDeveloper: Chuhai Labs Wild Blue Skies falls squarely into the very specific but effective subgenre of games I like to call the “Fine, I’ll Do It Myselfs.” That’s to say it’s an indie-developed project heavily inspired by a beloved but dormant franchise – in this case, Star Fox. I have fond memories of Star Fox 64, specifically, and I enjoyed how Wild Blue Skies’ brief demo captured the on-rails shooting fun and cheesy vibes of the N64 classic. The cartoon-esque art direction looks good, flying and shooting feel smooth, and the comms chatter is delightfully dorky. It remains to be seen if Wild Blue Skies offers other twists to make it more than a faithful homage to Fox McCloud, but if you’re tired of waiting for Nintendo to deliver a new Star Fox, you should absolutely give this demo a look. – Marcus Stewart Check out the demo here. Call of the Elder GodsDeveloper: Out of the Blue Games I really liked 2020’s Call of the Sea (check out my review), so I’m very much on board with this upcoming sequel, based on its entertaining demo. Set roughly 20 years later, players control Evangeline Drayton, a university student haunted by strange dreams of a mysterious artifact. Her plight is interwoven with the similarly supernatural struggles of Professor Harry Everhart, the husband of Call of the Sea protagonist, Norah. The meaty Steam demo lets players experience the game’s prologue and first chapter, which largely unfolds within a mysterious manor filled with fun puzzles to unravel. I quickly fell into a cozy zen of collecting clues and connecting dots, to the point I was disappointed when the “Thanks for playing!” graphic appeared to signal the demo’s conclusion. I’m looking forward to diving headfirst into another intriguing mystery in this universe. – Marcus Stewart Check out the demo here. Zero Parades: For Dead SpiesDeveloper: ZA/UM The splintering of ZA/UM after its critically acclaimed debut Disco Elysium has been the subject of many, many stories that would be too much to get into in a single blurb. Suffice to say, numerous games and studios have been born from the ashes of Disco Elysium, and so has Zero Parades, still made by ZA/UM. Centered on a spy brought out of soft retirement, only for her first mission to go absolutely haywire right from the start, it's a little more espionage thriller than pulp detective story. It works though, and the developers at current ZA/UM found a clever evolution of Elysium's tabletop-akin mechanics in its system of perks and stressors; the push-and-pull of exerting your abilities to force successful dice rolls, all the while accruing anxiety or fatigue that will force you to de-skill one of your perks once it maxes out, places the power structure of Zero Parades on a knife's edge of long-term risk versus immediate reward. The demo is worth playing, even just academically, to see where the new ZA/UM is heading. – Eric Van Allen Check out the demo here. Esoteric EbbDeveloper: Christoffer Bodegård Another Disco Elysium-like, Esoteric Ebb takes many framing cues from ZA/UM's seminal work, but paints those colors within the lines of high fantasy, namely Dungeons & Dragons. As a Cleric sent to find out why a tea shop exploded several days before a major election, your inner monologue is dominated by the likes of Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom rather than Volition or Esprit De Corps. Perhaps too dominated, to be frank. In my early playtime, I seemed to be having very long diatribes in my head, as nearly every voice wanted to hop in and say something. Esoteric Ebb's writing is excellent, though, and I always enjoy a smart twist on a classic setting. This is a game where the likely endpoint of charisma-maxxing is becoming an apolitical people-pleaser, and that kind of sharp direction is enough to lock me in. – Eric Van Allen Check out the demo here. View the full article

Splash Damage has acquired Scum developer Gamepires from Runescape developer Jagex, in a transaction backed by Emona Capital. Read more View the full article

Epic Games Store is back with another weekly giveaway. This time, you can score Boxes: Lost Fragments for free, a ... View the full article

Grab My Night Job for free on the Epic Games Store, a fun retro-style 2D arcade game. Don´t miss ... View the full article

Quarter Up has revealed the next fighter to join the Invincible VS roster. Up next is Powerplex, the electric-charged and mentally unhinged nemesis of Mark Grayson, who brings his warped sense of justice to the 3v3 tag team fighter. Powerplex lights up foes with his barrage of lightning-based offense, including an Ultimate attack that, like many moves in the game, is a big nod to one of his memorable battles against Invincible. In the animated series, Powerplex is voiced by Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul, but Quarter Up has not confirmed if Paul is reprising the role in Invincible VS. The in-game performance sounds identical (especially when Powerplex hits the “He can’t keep getting away with this!”), so it would be somewhat surprising if someone else took over the role. Powerplex joins a roster that includes Invincible himself, Omni-Man, Rex Splode, Atom Eve, Battle Beast, Bulletproof, Cecil, Thula, Monster Girl, Robot, Anissa, Lucan, and new character Ella Mental. He is the 14th confirmed fighter for a roster that will feature 18 characters at launch, so there are only four more spots left to fill before the game's April launch. We recently announced that Invincible VS is Game Informer’s next cover story! Subscribe today to read the digital edition of the magazine when it launches on March 3 and to receive the print edition in late March. You'll also be able to pick up the issue in bookstores and newsstands around that same window. Invincible VS launches on April 30 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. View the full article

Bungie's extraction FPS, Marathon, is right around the corner, launching next week on March 5 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Ahead of its launch, the studio is holding a "Server Slam," essentially an open playtest for anyone to hop into and get a feel for the game. The slam begins in just a few hours, and ahead of it, Marathon game director Joe Ziegler has shared 11 tips for beginners to keep in mind, as spotted by Forbes. Here's what they are, edited by Game Informer for clarity: Gear comes and goes – don't be too precious about it, but learn to use what you go and it will serve you.Remember to bring enough ammo and consumables to survive a couple of fights. If you don't have much, then use a sponsored kit or play as Rook [one of the game's six Runner shells designed for solo players looking to scavenge the battlefield and stay out of trouble] and focus your runs on getting gear and creds or stocking up on resources.If you're learning, don't rush your contract objectives; playing slowly can help you avoid getting overwhelmed.Keep your ears open. You will often hear threats before you see them.Try to take the fight you think you can win – you don't need to fight everything. Greed and ambition can lead to a quick downfall.Don't sleep on battery weapons – in the right hands, they are strong, but remember that if you reload with them before they're empty, you will lose the battery.A friend who plays Triage (another Runner shell that is basically a medic for your trio) is a keeper. Be kind to them.If you want to win a fight, use what your opponent wants against them. Patience and cunning are powerful allies.Stray Rooks are unpredictable and can either be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you treat them.Don't get tilted – cooler heads make smarter decisions.If all else fails, beg for mercy in proximity chat and hope someone listens. I'm sure we'll all learn plenty more as we head to the Tau Ceti planet that Marathon's maps are set on, but for now, Ziegler's tips seem like a great foundation of tricks to build on. The Marathon Server Slam begins today, February 26, at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, and ends on Monday, March 2, at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. Read about the exclusive details you can earn by playing this weekend here. Marathon launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on Thursday, March 5. Are you hopping into the Marathon Server Slam today or this weekend? Let us know in the comments below! View the full article

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against Valve, alleging that loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 unlawfully encourage minors to gamble. Read more View the full article

Skate developer Full Circle is changing its team structure, leading to an undisclosed number of layoffs. Read more View the full article

Limited Run Games and Konami have revealed Marvel Maximum Collection, a game that bundles six classic Marvel 8- and 16-bit arcade games into one package. The bundle includes several fan-favorites across arcade, Sega Genesis, NES, and Super Nintendo. Marvel Maximum Collection includes the beloved X-Men Arcade Game, the two-player Spider-Man/Venom games, and even the infamously difficult Silver Surfer. Here’s the full list of games, as well as the various versions of each that will be available: X-Men: The Arcade Game (Arcade)Captain America and The Avengers (Arcade, Sega Genesis, NES)Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis)Spider-Man/Venom: Separation Anxiety (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis)Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear)Silver Surfer (NES) Although some of these titles are co-op brawlers, Limited Run only confirms that X-Men: The Arcade Game supports 6-player online co-op with rollback netcode. Each game in the Marvel Maximum Collection will also include save states and the ability to rewind. The collection also features various display options to make the games look better on modern displays or to replicate the classic CRT look. A music player will let players enjoy the soundtracks from each title, and a digital archive features high-resolution scans of original box arts, instruction manuals, and original advertisements. Marvel Maximum Collection is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC via Steam. Unfortunately, Limited Run Games did not provide a release window, only stating the game is "coming soon." In the meantime, you can check out our review of the most recent Marvel arcade beat 'em up, Marvel Cosmic Invasion. View the full article

Digital intelligence and analytics firm Sensor Tower has released its State of Gaming 2026 report, revealing flat growth in mobile game revenue, double-digit growth for PC and console gaming, and another record year for PC, with more games sold on Steam than ever before. Read more View the full article

Ninja Gaiden 4’s challenging adventure is being bolstered by new DLC next week. On March 4, a content update called The Two Masters will arrive and will add three new chapters to the main campaign. This DLC takes place after the conclusion of the base campaign. A brief trailer for The Two Masters shows Yakumo and Ryu battling new threats, with each ninja wielding a new weapon: a massive scythe called Solitaire for Yakumo and a pair of bladed gauntlets called Jakotsumon for Ryu. These weapons can be unlocked and used even if you're in the middle of finishing the original campaign. The Two Masters will introduce new stages, enemies, and trials along with the Abyssal Road, an endurance-based challenge mode. This challenge features 100 unique combat encounters from the base game and the DLC and introduces new enemy mechanics called Special Blood Essence and Frenzied. The new Trials and Abyssal Road can only be unlocked by completing the DLC's story missions at any diffculty. The Two Masters will also add quality-of-life improvements, balancing adjustments, bug fixes to elements such as combat responsiveness, and new weapon set customization options. Downloading The Two Masters will set you back $14.99 and is a free upgrade for owners of the Deluxe Edition. It will be available for all versions of Ninja Gaiden 4 across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. In the meantime, be sure to check out our review of Ninja Gaiden 4 here. Subscribers can also read our Ninja Gaiden 4 cover story to learn more about the game's development history. View the full article

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5 Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment Developer: Mega Cat Studios, Santa Monica Studio Release: February 12, 2026 Rating: Teen I’ve been following the exploits of Kratos and his terrible, no good, very bad life since 2005. The God of War franchise has maintained an impressive level of action game quality for over 20 years while delivering an engaging, often emotional story. Sons of Sparta doesn’t fill in any important narrative gaps. It does offer a worthwhile look at a point in Kratos’ life before the gods decided to put him through hell (often literally), but the gameplay is frustrating and competing in a genre where it is simply not up to the task. Sons of Sparta is framed during a time of relative peace in Kratos’ life. His first family is still alive, and he decides to tell his daughter, Calliope, a story from his childhood. An adventure he took with his brother Deimos. Greek-era Kratos is back, with his original voice actor, and for a longtime God of War fan, Calliope and Deimos are characters I have always wanted to spend more time with. Seeing a young Kratos, wholly devoted to the idea of being a good Spartan soldier when his anger and resentment were only simmering and had not yet reached full boil, is a treat. The narrative and characterizations are where Sons of Sparta shines. Catching little glimpses of the character Kratos will become is charming (he doesn’t think music serves any purpose beyond helping soldiers stay in step, for example). The stakes of the plot are low compared to other God of War games, but I was moved by the ending and learning how Kratos’ Spartan upbringing made him the god he eventually becomes. However, playing the game to get to those story moments is far less compelling. Sons of Sparta is a Metroidvania – an accurate definition even if you don’t like the term. It’s a genre I love, but also one with incredibly stiff competition. Kratos builds out a map of the world neighboring his home while collecting upgrades as he and Deimos try to track down a lost young Spartan cohort against the wishes of his superiors. Every element of the genre in the game is achieved at a base level or lower. Movement is a little stiff, making platforming feel mediocre. Combat is underwhelming and rarely moves beyond the strategy of getting behind an enemy and hitting them in the back. Alternate weapon upgrades are just fine, but don’t reward experimentation beyond using your standard spear. Fast travel is unwieldy, and though you do get a better option eventually, it is way too late in a game that is simply too long. It does not maintain a consistent pace across its approximate 35 hours (more if you’re going for 100 percent). When I finally got the improved fast travel, I was annoyed that it took so long and did not feel rewarded. Perhaps my biggest annoyance, though, is the general layout and placement of enemies on platforms. When trying to simply climb up a ledge, enemies would often stand at its corner, making it difficult to even get in place to fight them. I spent so much time yelling, “Back up so I can get up there and fight you!” that it made me truly understand why Kratos is such an angry character on a personal level This adventure also feels cheap in ways that thankfully don’t make gameplay worse, but this is a series known for its impressive production value and attention to detail. I love the pixelated visuals, impressive backgrounds, and seeing familiar God of War elements in a new style, but when Kratos falls into water and simply blinks back into existence or gets stuck in a corner in a looping animation because of bad enemy placement, it just isn’t up to the God of War standard. For the God of War completionist, there is a story incentive to play through Sons of Sparta. It builds on Kratos’ character well, shows a part of his life we have not had the chance to experience, and there is at least one small detail related to modern Kratos and his son that I am glad I learned. But it underwhelms on nearly every aspect of Metroid-inspired design without outright failing. Controlling Kratos, fighting, and exploring just isn’t particularly fun on a basic level. A just below perfunctory genre experience alongside characters and in a setting I admit I like spending time with. Score: 6.5 About Game Informer's review system View the full article

Claim your free Blade and Soul NEO Anniversary Weapon Skin Key to unlock a Hot Pink Illusion Weapon Chest and ... View the full article

Clint Hocking, the veteran who had been leading development of the new Assassin's Creed game, has left Ubisoft following the company's recent restructuring. Read more View the full article

In the immortal words of CM Punk, it’s clobberin’ time! Join editors Marcus Stewart and Eric Van Allen as they take a tour of WWE 2K26. You’ll get hands-on impressions of the game’s four new match types (Inferno, I Quit, Dumpster, and 3 Stages of Hell), plus quick looks at modes such as Showcase, MyRise, and The Island. We also show off the game’s new battle pass-style Ringside Pass, and, of course, gawk at some Superstar entrances. After checking out the episode, you can read our full hands-on impressions of WWE 2K26 in this preview. View the full article

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Capcom Developer: Capcom Release: February 27, 2026 Rating: Mature Resident Evil Requiem is about two people whose lives are forever altered by the worst day of work ever. Those same people then risk it all to save someone. This act is unfeigned, full of the corny sincerity that is a staple of this series, and it is the heartbeat the hordes of undead they will maim are missing. Resident Evil Requiem is also a game about roundhouse-kicking zombies, physics-defying motorcycle chases, and a story that requires years of crisscrossed history to fully understand what transpires. It is fantastic, a revelatory mix of terrifying survival-horror and action that stops just short of being too over the top to dip back into the sentimental humanity of these seemingly everlasting characters. It is goofy, schlocky, and excessive, but it is also a masterclass in refinement, a tour de force of gameplay that arrives only after 30 years of lessons learned. Requiem is Resident Evil at its finest. Grace Ashcroft is the daughter of a woman murdered for mysterious but significant reasons. When she is called to yet another murder on a case she’s tracking for the FBI, she returns to the hotel where she watched her mom die. Thus begins a dreadful day in which the comfort of her office computer is a far cry from her journey to the heart of Raccoon City to fight both true evil and rotting corpses whose innocent slumber has been invaded by a virus. Leon S. Kennedy, who might view Grace’s adventure as just another day at work, is ill, racing against the clock to find a cure for something he doesn’t understand. Fatefully, their paths cross, and together, they must save themselves, a girl, and the world – they don’t know who’s pulling what strings, not really, but that only encourages them to keep fighting. That hotel, the Rhodes Hill Care Center, sterile-white labs, Raccoon City itself, and the dormant secrets they hold are the labyrinthian playgrounds for what is the new pinnacle of survival-horror. Absurd puzzles involving sparkling gems, search-action gauntlets, and a scavenger hunt for detonator parts, and more color the pages of Capcom’s playbook in Requiem. It is familiar, sometimes to a fault, but it is always exhilarating. The shakiness of Grace’s hands in first-person matches the hushed breaths I try to contain on my couch, as if the undead hulking chef, with his machete-sized kitchen knife, will hear me if I’m too loud. The copious one-liners that Leon can’t help saying are the capstones to my laughter after watching a pustulating, walking blister explode into a fountain of blood after I plunge a hatchet into its skull in third-person. Whether my walk has slowed to a crawl as I inch closer to a zombie I have to sneak around, or I’m sprinting forward into the horde because I am finally in control of a chainsaw that has haunted me for years, I am in heaven (or maybe hell). Just barely surviving the hallways of the aforementioned care center as Grace, desperate to save a girl who could have been her in a different universe, provides the scares and tension I crave from Resident Evil. I don’t care that zombies explode into reborn festering amalgamations of blood and thickened muscle before my eyes. I don’t care that a gigantic woman whose eyes verge on popping like the world’s most disgusting boba relentlessly searches for me. Well, that’s not true, actually. I do care, and Grace does too, of course, but for the sake of this girl, and both her survival and mine, we cannot care – these are our circumstances, and there is no other choice. Instead of ramping up Grace’s adventures to a comical level of silliness and heroism – an issue I have with the series’ past – her time on screen remains a dreadful march of atrocity, agony, and heart. And just as it starts to feel overindulgent, in steps Leon, just the man for extravagant set pieces with mortar-firing zombies, motorcycle chases, and monstrous boss fights. It’s nothing new for him, after all. Capcom masterfully weaves Leon and Grace’s stories together to ensure her horrors never persist for too long and that Leon’s ditzy drive never overextends its enjoyment. I would have welcomed another dozen hours of this back-and-forth with joy, and I am looking forward to optimizing my route through this nightmare to achieve a cleaner, faster completion time. That myriad post-game rewards and unlockables remain after the first playthrough demonstrates Capcom's confidence: it knows I will be playing it again, and again. There is such a simple change in the ever-present virus of Requiem, which has plagued Raccoon City and its surrounding mountains for nearly three decades: those who succumb to it retain their memories. Gone are the shambling, decomposed bodies that just want to taste the next living thing their eyes spot. No, these zombies are the soldiers who died with a machine gun in hand but still have a mission to accomplish, the doctors performing surgery who will use their scalpel prowess on you, and the lone police chief still looking for a donut, I assume. This viral change breathes new life into zombies we’ve killed countless times before, as there is a semblance of life within, and every bullet fired is the chance for mercy, finally. It also means some custodial zombies aren’t interested in killing you but rather are desperate to turn off the light you just switched on, and I’m thankful for that, too. There is little room to breathe in Requiem. Grace cannot stop – she is not Leon and her survival depends on her ability to march forward toward an eventual but unknown escape, even when every cell in her body is screaming for her to turn the other way. Leon will not stop – he has a mission after all, and nothing will prevent him from completing it, not even the threat of returning foes he has long thought dead. Those returning foes, and even the return of Raccoon City itself decades after its nuclear fallout, might come across as fan service, and to an extent, they are, by the very nature of their existence. But a delicate hand elevates these encounters and characters to be more. They are reminders of where someone like Leon has been and where he is today; they are callbacks that tease, through history, where Grace’s story can go; they are prompts to inspect internally what Resident Evil means to you. Is it the horror? Is it the action? Is it the characters? Is it the ridiculous lore? Is it Leon’s sculpted jaw and always perfect hair? It is all of these things, and Requiem is in commanding conversation with that mixture throughout its runtime. Just as I mix various resources in the crafting menu to see what I get, so too does Requiem combine its various gameplay types, from claustrophobic horror to bombastic action and everything in between. Sometimes the result is familiar – mixing three green herbs still gives you an item that fully recovers your health – but sometimes the outcome is a new thrill of adrenaline and terror Capcom somehow hadn’t yet delivered. Requiem is a repose for characters, corpses, and the chronicles of Raccoon City. Requiem is also the name of the laughably large pistol I used to kill yet another mutated nemesis, itself a deformed manifestation of man’s hubris. That duality of the word “Requiem” here speaks to Capcom’s success and the ways in which Resident Evil is finally harmonizing the disparate parts of its past to create a perfectly refined melody. And now, with its secrets exposed to me and its mazes awaiting my mastery of them, Requiem is also the name of my favorite Resident Evil. Score: 9.75 About Game Informer's review system View the full article

Nacon, the publisher behind the upcoming GreedFall: The Dying World and other games like Hell Is Us and RoboCop: Rogue City, has filed for insolvency. In other words, Nacon is out of money; as such, the publisher has requested the initiation of judicial reorganization proceedings. Insolvency, in this instance, means Nacon is unable to pay the debts it owes to a debtor. Insolvency typically involves companies that have assets with value – publishing rights, IP, and the like, in this case – but lack the hard cash needed to make payments it owes. And because the debtor is seeking payment, non-cash assets that might otherwise be up for sale have little leverage if they don't add up to the funds owed, which is likely the situation Nacon is in. "In a video game sector marked by long investment cycles and significant transformations, on [February 20, 2026], Nacon announced that the situation of is majority shareholder, Bigben Interactive, which, following an unexpected and late refusal by its banking pool, was unable to make the partial repayment of its bond loan to its bondholders, was significantly affecting its own operations," the filing reads. "The Company indicated on this occasion that its liquidity situation required the rapid implementation of a financial restructuring with its creditors in order to ensure the continuity of its operations, and that it was considering procedures intended to facilitate the restructuring of its debt under the supervision of the Court," the filing continues. "To date, the Company reports that its available assets do not allow it to meet its due liabilities. In this context, the Company will, as of today, file for [insolvency]." As for what this means for upcoming games like GreedFall: The Dying World, which launches into 1.0 on March 12 after years of Early Access, it probably means nothing – GreedFall: The Dying World, which is a sequel to Spiders Studios' 2019 GreedFall, will likely launch as planned next month. In the longer term, Nacon's filing says the aim of insolvency is to "assess all possible solutions to ensure the sustainability of the Company's activity under the best possible conditions, protect employees, and preserve jobs, while renegotiating with its creditors in a calm and constructive framework. This procedure will enable the Company to continue its business, renegotiate its debts, and develop a credible and effective continuation plan." Another wrinkle to this insolvency filing is that Nacon is set to hold its Nintendo Direct-style showcase – Nacon Connect – next week on March 4. That's likely to still happen, though, similar to GreedFall: The Dying World's launch the following week. Nacon also just launched Styx: Blades of Greed, the third game in the stealth series that started in 2014 with Styx: Master of Shadows, last week on February 19. Game Informer will update this story if it learns more about Nacon's ongoing insolvency efforts. In the meantime, read Game Informer's RoboCop: Rogue City review, and then check out our thoughts on the first GreedFall. After that, read Game Informer's GreedFall: The Dying World preview. Are you picking up GreedFall: The Dying World next month? Let us know in the comments below! View the full article

Amazon Game Studios has ended its publishing agreement with Maverick Games as it "focuses on projects that leverage Amazon's unique strengths and scale." Read more View the full article

French AA publisher and developer Nacon has filed for insolvency. Read more View the full article