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.
It’s also restructuring Ubisoft Barcelona to focus just on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege and making cuts to its global publishing division, The Game Business says. The closures put 380 jobs “at risk.”
[The Game Business]
Russia banned Roblox last year over “LGBT propaganda” and “extremist” content, but the platform “has fully complied with Russian legislation on ensuring user safety,” according to a statement from the country’s Digital Development Ministry reported on by Interfax.
Like previous Halo titles, unlockable skulls in Halo: Campaign Evolved will allow you crank up explosions, turn down gravity, or celebrate every grunt headshot with confetti and fanfare. You can even mimic the gameplay of the classic Halo: Combat Evolved, or enable remixes of skulls for randomized choas.
Microsoft just shared half an hour of new gameplay footage from the upcoming Fable reboot. Why wasn’t this in Sunday’s Xbox showcase?
The game comes out on February 23rd, 2027, following a recent delay.
If you can’t start your day without the sounds of a simian rampage, Nintendo has added a new Donkey Kong theme to its Alarmo clock as well as 7 new alarm sounds from the Switch 2’s Donkey Kong Bananza. You can preview a few samples of them on Nintendo Japan’s website.
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I’m downloading it right now on my console. I grabbed it from the Switch 2’s eShop.
During an interview with The Game Business at Summer Game Fest, Xbox strategy chief Matthew Ball admitted to “underestimating” the RAM crisis, saying that demand for Xbox consoles “exceeds supply.” It’s pushing Xbox to re-evaluate its plans for its next-gen Helix console:
“We are working very hard to rethink everything that we can about Helix, which is a console we are committed to shipping, and we are very cognisant of the ways in which we need to change as a company to make sure it is affordable, to make sure that it’s flexible.”
Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball acknowledged during a The Game Business Live interview at Summer Game Fest that the wave of cancellations happened over just a few months after the October price hike. Ball also admitted that “the value of the offering has now changed,” since Call of Duty games won’t be available day-one on Game Pass anymore.
[GameSpot]
The first single-player Splatoon game launches in July, and Nintendo shared a bunch of details on the weapons and other tools you’ll be using during the game. More details are coming in a Splatoon Raiders-focused Direct on June 30th.
Just in time for Splatoon Raiders, Nintendo is launching some new tones for its controllers.
It launches on June 24th, and will be a free update. The first four chapters were excellent, so I can’t wait to jump into Chapter 5.
We still don’t know much about the multiplayer title, but sometime soon, it’s getting some kind of test. It’s going to be an exclusive game for the Switch 2, and it’s set to launch this year.
I promise that string of letters and numbers makes sense. Square Enix just announced the first FF game to utilize its distinct HD-2D graphics. It’s called Final Fantasy Resonance, and it launches on the Switch 2 on October 22nd.
The game, a remake of Star Fox 64, launches for Switch 2 on June 25th, but if you want a teaser, try the free demo that will be available today.
According to Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, a new sports game from Nintendo, it is. The game also includes sports like tennis, table tennis, archery, volleyball, golf, skateboarding, and, of course, bowling. It’s launching on October 22nd for Nintendo Switch 2.
In addition to teasing the next game in the sci-fi RPG series — called Xenoblade Genesis, and launching in 2027 — Nintendo also announced that three past Xenoblade titles are getting enhanced Switch 2 editions. The first is available today, XC2 launches on July 30th, and XC3 is out on December 3rd.
If you’re a Nintendo Switch Online member, try them out starting today. They’ll be available through September 1st.
One of the best action games of the last decade is coming to the Switch 2 on June 23rd.
After being announced last September, Nintendo will finally release the next mainline Fire Emblem game on September 17th for Switch 2. In a new trailer, Nintendo also went into detail on the four main characters and teased some of the game’s story.
One Piece: Grand Gourmet has you cooking and managing a restaurant with the help of the Straw Hats. I’m not caught up on all 1,000-plus episodes of One Piece, but I think Sanji will forgive me. It’ll be available on the Switch and Switch 2 on October 23rd.
Pokopia is getting a free update in August that introduces underwater spaces to explore and build in. Meanwhile, Nintendo is also launching a multipart expansion pass of paid updates, the first of which also drops in August.
Based on my demo I got to play earlier this year, the proximity chat-based co-op multiplayer game from the makers of Untitled Goose Game should be a good time. It will also launch on PS5 and Steam on the same day.
Dragon’s Dogma 2, a Capcom game designed for complete sickos (complimentary), is out on Nintendo hardware on October 9th.
Nintendo showed a bunch of new footage of Rhythm Heaven Groove, including a mode where you play RPG-like battles as well as some multiplayer games. Looks great. It launches on July 2nd for Nintendo Switch, and it’s playable on Switch 2 as well.
Ahead of this morning’s Nintendo Direct, Square Enix announced some unexpected news: The remaster of Final Fantasy X / X-2 is on the way to the Switch 2, launching on July 23rd.
It’s almost time for Nintendo to tell us just what’s up with the Switch 2 over the second half of the year. You can tune in live at 10AM ET.
An even messier return to console wars than we thought: As spotted by ResetEra, Microsoft’s own Xbox Podcast seems to have inadvertently revealed proof that Gears of War: E-Day was coming to PS5 before Xbox locked it down. The podcast episode has been pulled, presumably to fix the goof.
Xbox has just released a new Halo: Campaign Evolved trailer, and the footage was captured on Sony’s PS5 Pro console. The trailer comes a day after Microsoft brought Xbox exclusives back at its Xbox Games Showcase, with Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution both skipping PlayStation.
The National Gallery of Art’s social videos are outrageously Gen Z — and excellent. (They even won a Webby.)
