2 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Entertainment

The Verge’s entertainment section collects the latest news from the worlds of pop culture, music, movies, television, and video games. Whether you want to know what to watch on Netflix or how to make the most of your streaming service budget, the entertainment section acts a reliable source. There’s simply too much to read, watch, hear, and play. Let us be your tour guide.

The Units’ Digital Stimulation is synthpunk perfection

The 1980 record from the San Francisco band is raw, infectious, and shockingly modern.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Netflix is making a Diablo animated series.

We’ve got almost no details beyond that, but Blizzard told Variety that “this is only the beginning, with even more taking shape across our universes.” So we might finally get those Overwatch and World of Warcraft series as well.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Preorder the Nopia ‘harmony machine’ synth on September 15th for $650.

We finally got a real look at the viral Nopia in July after more than three years of development. Now the company is preparing to launch a Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday, with super early-bird pricing starting at $650.

Sylvan Esso think you should splurge on good-quality yogurt

The band’s new, organic-sounding record Ow ∞ is out now

Terrence O'Brien
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
A Quibi co-founder and the former boss of Sora are launching an AI video startup.

According to The Information, former DreamWorks co-founder (and co-founder of the quick bites video app) Jeffrey Katzenberg’s latest move is joining up with Bill Peebles, who left OpenAI after it pivoted away from the Sora team he was leading.

The unnamed venture will apparently “train its own video models and try to win over filmmakers,” once it secures enough funding. On the plus side, they already have a long list of things to not do this time around.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
The Justice Department is looking into Steve Ballmer’s jumbotron corruption scandal.

The New York Times reported Thursday that federal prosecutors are in the “early stages” of a criminal investigation into the Clippers’ shady sponsorship arrangements for Kawhi Leonard, using companies like Aspiration, Daktronics (which already revealed an ongoing SEC investigation), and Boingo Wireless.

Pablo Torre obviously chimed in with his take on the proceedings, saying “there is, in fact, more.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Polyarc, known for its VR series starring a mouse, appears to be shutting down.

”After nearly 12 years riding the joyous rollercoaster of emotions that is making video games, our time together has come to an end,” Polyarc, the developer of the Moss franchise, wrote in a LinkedIn post on Friday.

Earlier this year, Polyarc laid off staff after it couldn’t secure funding “following the cancellation of a major project.” It also released a flatscreen collection of the two Moss games, titled Moss: The Forgotten Relic.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Roblox will soon let you play games in your browser.

By the end of 2026, you’ll be able to hop into a Roblox game right from Chrome with support other browsers coming in the future, Roblox announced as part of its developer conference news on Friday. The company also revealed plans to let developers launch their games as apps on other platforms and offer offline modes.

TC Sottek
TC Sottek
NHL 27 will have AI generated announcing.

It’s reportedly with the permission of the human announcers John Buccigross and Darren Pang who do in-game voiceovers. As a long-time player of the series I’m very curious what you think about this. For me, it seems like one of the best possible use cases for AI generation, considering it’s annoying to hear the exact same commentary over and over, and because there’s no possible way humans could record VO for every possible scenario.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Does a streaming series’ absence make your heart grow fonder?

According to a new report from Luminate, lengthy gaps between s treaming shows are one of the reasons people stop watching them. That feels right, but we want to hear from you: does waiting a few years for a series to come back make you more inclined to move on?

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Genius is bringing Open Mic and Verified to Spotify.

The long-running lyrical breakdown and live performance series will now be available to stream on Spotify as it continues to grow its video efforts. Verified first came to Spotify last year as part of a limited rollout, but now archival episodes are being added alongside new installments every week.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Suno admits it scraped audio from YouTube in a court filing.

We already kinda knew that thanks to a hack of the company’s data in July. And Suno admitted to training its models on publicly available music. But this is the first time it has explicitly copped to ripping audio from YouTube, saying in a court filing:

Suno admits that audio data was obtained from YouTube for use as training data using YT-DLP.

Anime reaction YouTubers are at war with copyright enforcers

Content creators say their videos are fair use, but one controversial company begs to differ.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Watch Jimmy Kimmel’s interview with James Talarico.

Kimmel said he couldn’t air his interview with the Democratic Texas Senate candidate on TV after the FCC “threatened” him. Instead, you can watch it on the the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel:

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Valve just launched a big update for SteamVR.

SteamVR 2.17 adds a bunch of new features, including a quick access menu for handy settings on the VR dashboard bar, letting you access Steam achievements and notes in-game in VR, and improvements to Steam Link streaming. Check out Valve’s full patch notes to see everything new.

A screenshot from Valve showing off SteamVR 2.17.
A screenshot from Valve showing SteamVR 2.17.
Image: Valve
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Hit Broadway play ‘Oh, Mary!’ is coming to HBO Max next year.

Fans of the dark comedy starring Cole Escola as Mrs. Lincoln won’t have to wait as long to stream it as Hamilton fans did. The version on HBO and HBO Max will be the filming of the July 28, 2026 performance at London’s Trafalgar Theatre. You might be able to see Oh, Mary! sooner in person, as its North American tour starts this month.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Hasbro disavows DHS Transformers posts.

Posts from the official DHS account on X marked “Made with AI” show Optimus Prime with “ICE” and a DHS logo on him, along with the Transformers logo above “Age of Deportation.” Hasbro’s response says they were “done without permission” but didn’t mention any specific action to take them down.

A Hasbro Instagram post reading: “Optimus Prime is a beloved character who represents humility, leadership, compassion and justice. Hasbro is aware of the recent posts using his likeness. These posts were done without permission and do not represent the Transformers brand or Hasbro.”
Image: Hasbro
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Prime Video’s ‘Shop the Scene’ feature finds Amazon products matching what’s on your screen.

The new AI feature is supposed to help you track down stuff like your favorite character’s outfit, which could come in handy assuming it doesn’t just pull up random knockoffs. Amazon’s also making it easier to shop in the middle of your shows and movies with a new “Shop” tab in its X-Ray menu.

Three screenshots of Amazon’s Shop the Scene feture
Image: Amazon
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Saudi Arabia might merge EA and Savvy Games.

The potential move was reported on by Bloomberg. Savvy, Saudi Arabia’s gaming arm of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), owns Scopely (behind mobile games like Monopoly Go and Pokémon Go), and the PIF led the recent take-private deal for EA.

Wolverine on the PS5 goes back to a simpler (and bloodier) style of action game

The next few months are packed with new games, and PlayStation goes old-school to cut through the noise.

Andrew Webster
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Ubisoft’s letting some Steam users skip its Connect app.

In an update on Steam, Ubisoft said it’s testing a new tool that keeps game features like cross-play “without requiring the Ubisoft Connect PC launcher to be installed or launched.” It’s coming to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown first, and will “roll out to more Ubisoft games on Steam in the future.”

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Ubisoft Connect Services: a simpler launch experience on Steam

[Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - Steam News Hub]

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Valve is testing a Steam screensaver feature.

The default one shows art from games you’ve played recently, but there’s also a “retro inspired” screensaver that features a bouncing Steam logo, lol.

Valve is also testing a “Big Art Mode” for your home screen that more prominently features art from your games. There are a bunch of other new features, too: read about them all in the new Steam beta update notes.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

When will it get in the corner??
When will it get in the corner??
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
A new season of Playdate games.

You may have missed it, sandwiched in between a Nintendo Direct and Apple event, but Panic just showed off the third season of games coming to its handheld, which kicks off on October 8th. There’s some promising stuff, too, including a Soulslike action RPG and a Mac-style point-and-click adventure.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Disclosure Day is coming to Peacock.

If you missed Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day while it was in theaters, you’ll be able to catch it on Peacock when its makes its streaming premiere on October 9th.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
A whole new world.

The Direct ended with the reveal of an all-new Kirby game that launches in 2027, in which the adorable pink ball seems to discover that the world is much larger than he realizes. He also gets a pretty big sword this time around.

Kallie Plagge
Kallie Plagge
Time for some Slayhem.

Danganronpa 2x2 comes to Switch and Switch 2 on January 14th, 2027. It includes the original story from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair as well as a new story in what’s called “Slayhem” mode. I cannot wait to find out what Slayhem entails.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Persona 6 is coming to the Switch 2.

We still know basically nothing about the game, but we do know it’ll be on Nintendo’s handheld console at some point.

Kallie Plagge
Kallie Plagge
Mario Kart World gets a new update later today.

The free update adds 10 courses based on ones from the original Super Mario Kart, including Choco Island 1, Vanilla Lake 1, and Ghost Valley 1. There are also two new routes coming to Knockout Tour.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
The spirit of Wii Sports lives on.

Nintendo’s next sports title hits the Switch 2 in October, and it continues to look like a blast. The new trailer also details some surprisingly deep Mii customization.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Return to Resident Evil remakes.

Resident Evil 2: Deluxe Edition, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 4: Gold Edition are all coming to Switch 2 on October 16th. And don’t forget that the new Resident Evil movie is out next week.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Pikmin 4 is getting a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.

The upgraded version of the game lets you talk to the dog-like Oatchi character with voice commands and has a new a Dandori Academy mode to play extra challenges (72 will be released over time). It launches on November 12th.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
A true gentleman leaves no puzzle unsolved.

The latest Professor Layton brings a steampunk vibe, and it boasts “the biggest collection of puzzles in series history.” It launches on the Switch 2 on December 10th.