The Verge’s gaming section brings the latest video game news, reviews of the most exciting releases, and interviews with the industry’s biggest names. We cover everything from PlayStation and Xbox blockbusters, to quirky Nintendo games, to the cool indie gems on PC and Android that you might otherwise miss.
While we all await a return to Hyrule next week, Nintendo held its latest indie game showcase, which included everything from Game Boy-style adventures to a co-op raccoon simulator. We also finally got a release date for one of my most-anticipated games: My Arms Are Longer Now. You can catch up on the full event here.
I love the idea of waking up to a The Legend of Zelda themed alarm clock, but I’m less in love with the idea of silencing an alarm by handling a tiny pointed replica of the Master Sword when I’m still half asleep. The alarm clock, and a collection of other Zelda-themed items, will be available as part of an upcoming Banpresto merch lottery in Japan.
Just in time for its launch on the iPhone — which is out today — the space exploration game is getting its fifth major update of the year. It’s called “Forsaken” and tasks players with searching for “rare haunted tech or biological horrors.” As always, the update is totally free.
If you’re as excited as we are for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for the Nintendo Switch 2, you can pick up a copy at Best Buy at midnight ET on November 5th. The retailer also announced that physical locations will have limited quantities of Nintendo’s special edition console and Switch 2 Pro Controller on release day as well.
Discord acknowledges that long-form conversations that can be popular on message boards, like help posts and theory crafting, have moved to Discord where they’re “inaccessible to the wider internet.”
The option to make the websites already existed, but turning them on for all Discoverable Servers, a change set for November 16th, could make some information buried inside Discord easier to find. Admins can opt channels out from showing up.
The union vote will take place from November 12th through November 26th, according to an emailed press release from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB). GTA VI is scheduled to release on November 19th.
If the staffers vote in favor, “the Rockstar Game Workers Union will become the biggest recognised union in the UK games sector,” the IWGB says.
We have mixed feelings about AI, but 0:22 in this video made my inner kid jump for joy! This is what I hoped Magic Leap would be. Instead, it’s game reverse engineering bringing all my childhood dreams to life. This one’s based on the full open-source Mario64 decomp, says creator Lucas Martinic, with assist from Claude Opus 5.5. He says he’ll release a repo so people can try.
While all of the attention right now is on the upcoming remake of Ocarina of Time, Nintendo announced that it’s going to stream an indie-focused showcase tomorrow. It’ll be around 15 minutes long and air starting at 10AM ET.
Service for both the mobile and Nintendo Switch versions of the free-to-play Pokémon-themed MOBA will end on March 23rd, 2027, just after the previously announced Aeos Crown 2027 Tokyo competitive tournament is scheduled to conclude. New memberships are no longer being accepted starting today.
[Pokémon UNITE]
Wintory, the composer for Journey, some songs in Hades II, and many other games, shared tracks he had recorded with a full orchestra as part of “conversations” to potentially be part of the now-canceled next game in the Mass Effect franchise.
After hearing this music and seeing the game’s leaked trailer, I think I’ll always wonder what could have been.
The Ghost of Yōtei developer is laying off 24 people, Aftermath reports.
Update: Aftermath now says 24 staffers, not 26, were let go.
Sega recently pulled the recently-launched Complete Edition of the game, which was made in part by an external developer, after users found bugs and upscaling seemingly done by AI.
“At Creative Assembly we do not use generative AI to create game assets, including AI-generated art,” Creative Assembly’s VP of Total War Roger Collum, said in a big post on Reddit. “We demand the same of any external developers we work with.”
Using a flexible OLED display salvaged from a Royole FlexPai phone, a talented modder has created a folding PS2 handheld (they’ve called the PlayStation 2 Duo) by miniaturing the motherboard inside the original console, adding their own controller hardware, and wrapping it all in an custom enclosure you can 3D print yourself.
The so-called “Father of the PlayStation” told VGC that while he understands why users are upset about Sony phasing out game discs, he thinks it’s the right decision. But I’m also not sure he understands what a “metaphor” is.
“I understand that physical discs have become a metaphor for ‘owning’ games. I really understand that mentality… But nobody thinks [physical media] is necessary for a networked device like a smartphone, for example, because people feel that they will keep their content. So it’s a mentality.
“I really understand [why some people are upset], but I don’t think it’s economically reasonable. Maybe it’s a mentality issue.”
About a year after Valve introduced the feature, which recommends new and upcoming games you might be interested in and even shows some on an actual calendar, it’s now considered a “full feature” of the Steam Store, Valve says.
My personal calendar page has me pretty dead to rights; among other games, it recommends Final Fantasy Resonance, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, both of which I reviewed and really liked, and some indie games I already had my eye on.
[Steam News]
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and team countered by asking for $800 million, and Netflix has pulled its offer, Puck reports in an article discussing the new leadership at Netflix.
Xbox launched an “XP” division this month that will work on adaptations of its games, and Xbox is already working with Netflix on a Diablo animated series.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer was available to stream on Luna at no extra cost to Prime subscribers the same day it launched on other platforms, and in a post celebrating the one-year anniversary of Luna’s relaunch, Amazon says it plans to bring more “major” day-and-date releases to Prime members.
Luna’s user base has also grown “fivefold” since the relaunch, Amazon’s gaming GM, Jeff Gattis, says in the post. I spoke to Gattis earlier this year about Amazon’s plan for games.
[Amazon Game Studios]
Late yesterday, I laid out five ways Microsoft can try to make lemonade out of RAMageddon, but one feels likelier to me now readers have weighed in: the cell phone subsidy model. In the K-shaped economy, wealthier buyers could buy an “unlocked” Xbox, but most could get it “free” with 36-month (or longer!) subscription.
But I also think many will reject that and stick with what they already have.
If you’ve got one of the Microsoft/Asus collab handhelds, let me know if this is game-changing? You can find the update in Command Center > Armory Crate SE > Update Center > Preview Updates. Asus does warn “it may still contain bugs or instability, designed for those who can’t live without the latest and greatest.”
In 2024, Hallmark added a tiny version of the original Xbox to its holiday ornament collection and then followed up last year with a miniature Xbox 360. For 2026 it’s returning to Microsoft’s first console, but the translucent green Halo special edition version. It will be available at the end of the month for $27.99 and includes a glowing greed LED and sound effects.
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A quick peek at eBay reveals that just the manual for the US version of Jaleco’s Avenging Spirit currently sells for over $150. The game (with its coveted artwork) has just been added to Nintendo Switch Online’s Game Boy library along with the Shigeru Miyamoto-produced Mole Mania and Pinball: Revenge of the ‘Gator.
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A rise in AI-powered decomps, recomps, and ports has thrust the community into chaos.
And a red pill meme. You can see the post on X here.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said last week that the company is undergoing a “huge pivot” to “retool for maximum AI acceleration,” and it announced a “vibe coded” update to its PC launcher last week in preview that had some issues on the first day.
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort (thumb wrestling), and Final Fantasy Resonance (random battles to mash through) are both out today. They’re great, and they should help you stay busy ahead of the Ocarina of Time remake and GTA VI next month.
I feel like this is not how we would learn about such a thing — maybe he meant to say “Half-Life Alyx” — but you never know. Last year, Tyler McVicker (below) suggested the entire game was already playable end-to-end. Sounds like he’ll have extra scuttlebutt to share soon!
World Quest and Save My Demonic World have run for over a decade, but they’re built on older tech that the developers say can’t be updated to patch the apocalyptic PHP exploit disclosed this week. Because the vulnerability affects almost 20 years of PHP, big chunks of internet history are in danger of being lost. Per Kotaku:
Many old websites and services that are no longer being actively updated (or may simply be too old to receive the update, as was the case for these two games) are now at risk of permanently going offline. Such an event would lock swathes of the old internet from public view, including bits that were already beginning to break down and become inaccessible.
The breach was discovered on October 19th. That’s a lot of exposed Capcom ID email addresses, but thankfully the hackers didn’t leak much else: 196 passwords were changed (but no existing passwords were leaked), and 43 cases involved date of birth, gender, country, and nicknames being revealed.
The court-ordered change takes effect from March 1st 2027, following similar rulings in the EU, Japan, and Brazil. Apple will have to let Fortnite back in the App Store too — one of the last holdouts after a global return — and allow developers to offer alternative payment methods. Apple told Reuters it plans to appeal.
[Yahoo News Australia]
Even though Mass Effect developer BioWare has been shut down, IGN reports that Amazon is still working on the Prime Video series, citing “sources inside Prime Video.”
I asked both EA and Amazon about the status of the show today, and both companies declined to comment.
Humble is now offering the Sci-Fi Exposure bundle at its site, with pledges for all eight games costing $25. You’ll get Bungie’s 2026 version of Marathon (great game), all three remastered Crysis games, RoboCop: Rogue City, and both Ghostrunner games, to name the most notable inclusions. Proceeds are split between Humble, the publishers, and the charity.water non-profit organization.
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