Games news

• Splatoon Raiders Is A Bold Rethink Of What Makes A Splatoon Game

  30-06-2026 16:00 via gamespot.com
  
  Splatoon has always featured single-player campaigns, but they've never been the focus. Often they're glorified tutorials, and even when they venture into more clever puzzle-platformer territory, it's been a relatively short side dish to the competitive-multiplayer main course. Splatoon Raiders looks to address this by putting the single-player focus front and center. Multiplayer is here, but it's deemphasized and co-op only. In some ways, that makes Raiders the mirror image of most Splatoon gam
  
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• Unlock The Potential Of Your Steam Deck/Machine With Decky Loader

  30-06-2026 22:46 via gamespot.com
  
  What makes SteamOS so great is the fact that it is a console-like experience for a PC, which means you can turn it on and everything is instantly available to you from the comfort of your couch. However, it's still a PC, which means for those of you interested in going further, you can customize it with pretty much anything you can imagine that runs on Linux, which unlocks the potential of it far more than any other console will allow.Because the Steam Deck has been out for several years now, pe
  
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• Fortnite’s Player Count Is Way Up In Chapter 7 Season 3, And Here’s Why

  30-06-2026 22:38 via gamespot.com
  
  After a slow start to Chapter 7 in December, Fortnite has had a significant bump in its player count since the start of Season 3 in early June. The average number of concurrent players in Battle Royale nearly doubled month over month, going from 228,000 in May to over 433,000 in June, according to public data that was collected and aggregated by fortnite.gg. It appears as though Battle Royale's new brainrot-inspired sprite-collection gameplay is working about as well as Epic could have hoped, be
  
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• Minecraft, Call Of Duty Community Servers Are “Illegal,” Claims ESA Rep

  30-06-2026 22:26 via gamespot.com
  
  The Protect Our Games Act--a piece of legislation endorsed by the Stop Killing Games movement--has been voted down at the California State Senate. However, one of the most noteworthy incidents from this legislative battle was a comment made by an Entertainment Software Association lobbyist who claimed that Minecraft and Call of Duty private community servers are "illegal."Jennifer Gibbons, the ESA's vice president of state government affairs, told lawmakers that community servers for Minecraft a
  
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• GTA 6 Fans Are Convinced The Game Has A Bodybuilding System, And Here’s Why

  30-06-2026 22:02 via gamespot.com
  
  As the wait for GTA 6's next trailer continues, fans are poring over all the little details from the new batch of screenshots that recently went live. One piece of information that fans are now obsessing about is what they believe will be a system in the game that lets you get swoll.As relayed by GamesRadar, fans are convinced that a newly released image that shows main character Jason being less jacked than he was in a previous image is evidence that the game will have some kind of fitness/body
  
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• Hideo Kojima’s OD Is Reportedly Safe From Upcoming Xbox Cuts

  30-06-2026 21:30 via gamespot.com
  
  Hideo Kojima's Xbox console-exclusive horror game, OD, is reportedly safe amidst reports and rumors of studio closures, layoffs, and game cancellations at Xbox loom.According to a report from IGN, a source familiar with Microsoft's Xbox plans has stated OD remains in development at Kojima Productions and will still be published by Xbox.Not much is known about OD, but it was announced during an Xbox showcase in June 2022, with only a few brief glimpses since. It is set to star three actors-- Soph
  
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• Xbox Focusing On “Highest Priorities,” Claims It’s Not Cutting Back Overall Spending On Games

  30-06-2026 20:48 via gamespot.com
  
  Microsoft has confirmed that it pulled out of funding Hitman developer IO Interactive's new fantasy game, and it's because the company is re-focusing its spending on the "highest priorities" for the business.
  Speaking to Bloomberg, a Microsoft spokesperson said Xbox is "taking a fresh look at where we invest so we're focusing on our highest priorities."Major changes are afoot at Xbox.The statement went on to claim that Microsoft is "not reducing our overall investment in games," adding that the
  
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• Hitman, 007 First Light Studio Begins Layoffs As Its Fantasy RPG Project Suffers Setbacks

  30-06-2026 19:59 via gamespot.com
  
  Hitman and 007 First Light developer IO Interactive is the latest in a growing list of studios suffering layoffs, this time, this time in relation to a franchise that it hasn't even launched yet.Project Fantasy, IO Interactive's first attempt at crafting a fantasy RPG, is still in development, but the end of a recent external partner relationship has forced the studio to make some cuts to its team. In a statement, IO says that these are short-term consequences, and that the proposed layoffs are
  
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• Helldivers 2 Gets Closer To Modern Politics With Campaign To Build A Wall

  30-06-2026 19:41 via gamespot.com
  
  Helldivers 2's latest campaign calls for Super Earth's finest to aid in the construction of a "Celestial Fence" to keep out the ongoing Terminid menace.It's up to the Helldivers community to help deploy what Super Earth Command has billed as a "flawless, updated, and entirely safe Terminid Control System wall" that will "permanently quarantine" the "fascist" Terminids. The Helldivers are tasked with defending construction sites, gathering necessary resources for the campaign, and holding th
  
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• Microsoft Could Cancel Marvel’s Blade And Close Its Developer

  30-06-2026 19:32 via gamespot.com
  
  A new report claims that Microsoft is considering cancelling the upcoming Marvel's Blade game and closing its developer.
  According to The Verge, Microsoft is considering closing at least five studios, one of which is Arkane, the developer of the upcoming Blade game. The report said Blade was originally set to launch in 2026, but was delayed to late 2027 and is over budget.
  Earlier in June, a report said Marvel's Blade was not canceled, despite it being a no-show at the Xbox Games Showcase. The g
  
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• I Thought Matching Colors Would Be Relaxing, But I Was Wrong

  30-06-2026 19:05 via gamespot.com
  
  Think fast!You might think that you've got the memory of a vengeful elephant, but according to science, your ability to recall colors isn't so hot. Research has claimed that humans are terrible at remembering certain shades of color, and that's where this new timesink of a game is aiming to improve things. The goal is simple: Look at the Pantone swatch shown on your screen, try to match it as closely as possible, and see how well you do over a run. It's a concept that can easily g
  
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• The RAM Crisis Is One Big Price-Fixing Monopoly, New Lawsuit Claims

  30-06-2026 18:46 via gamespot.com
  A class-action lawsuit has accused the three biggest memory manufacturers of colluding to fix pricing in the midst of an unprecedented increase of consumer RAM and storage pricing.Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix has been targeted in the lawsuit, filed on June 25 at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit claims that the three manufacturer form a monopoly and accuses them of undertaking "concerted anticompetitive behavior." It goes on to detail how all
  
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• Splatoon Raiders Takes A Page From Monster Hunter To Boost Your Co-Op Chances

  30-06-2026 17:29 via gamespot.com
  
  The Splatoon Raiders Direct outlined the structure of the upcoming single-player-focused title, and it looks packed with challenging encounters against hordes of Salmonids. If any raids get a little too punishing, an online feature will lend solo players support in a way that recalls modern Monster Hunter games.As detailed in Nintendo's video presentation, you can send out a call for help before beginning a raid--other players can select a "Go Help" option on the map to be matched with another p
  
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• Amid Xbox “Reset,” Microsoft Is Having Its Worst Month In 26 Years

  30-06-2026 17:27 via gamespot.com
  
  Microsoft's stock price is currently down bad, but just how much have shares slid lately? A lot. So much so that June 2026 is expected to be Microsoft's worst month since December 2000 based on percent decline in a single month. The stock is down about 20% in June, which would be the worst since the 24% decline in December 2000.This is happening at the same time that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is implementing a "reset" of the Xbox business that may include mass layoffs and studio closures.A year ago,
  
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• GTA 6 Preorders Include Auto-Renewing Membership To Something You Might Not Actually Want

  30-06-2026 16:45 via gamespot.com
  
  GTA 6 preorders are now available, and anyone placing an order might have noticed that they also get a free month of GTA+ with their purchase.The fine print states that this membership auto-renews, so if it's not something you want to keep, you should be sure to cancel it prior to the end of the first month. Otherwise, you'd be on the hook for paying $8 for another month.It's not immediately clear, however, when the clock begins ticking on the first month. These details should become more clear
  
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• Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced PS5 Upgrades Include Dedicated Hair-Rendering Tech

  30-06-2026 16:44 via gamespot.com
  
  Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced sets sail for PC and consoles in July, and so far, it's looking visually impressive. How well will a trip to the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy look on PS5? Pretty well if you're planning to play it on the $900 PS5 Pro, while the base PS5 version also looks like it'll offer a solid selection of graphical modes to choose from.Both PS5 consoles will allow users to play the game in Performance (60fps), Fidelity (30fps), and Balanced modes (40fps)&nbs
  
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• Exclusive: New Track From Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy’s Authentic Greek-Cypriot Score

  30-06-2026 16:00 via gamespot.com
  
  Ahead of the game's release on August 27, GameSpot can exclusively premiere the track "Patera" from Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, by Olivier Deriviere.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOz444jbArY
  You might recognize Deriviere thanks to his past musical work on games such as Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, Streets of Rage 4, South of Midnight, Dying Light 2, and more. Now, he's turned his hand to the Plague Tale series. The Greek-Cypriot score follows Sophia's journey to the Minotaur Island in s
  
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• Resident Evil Director’s Dream Ending For Leon Kennedy Sounds A Lot Like Stardew Valley

  30-06-2026 15:55 via gamespot.com
  
  Resident Evil Requiem saw its co-protagonist Leon S. Kennedy deal with yet another zombie outbreak, but will he ever get a happy ending? Resident Evil 2 game director Hideki Kamiya certainly hopes so, and he has an idea for a retirement game that would be radically different from the survival-action adventures that starred Kennedy.Kamiya--who directed the first Resident Evil game to star Kennedy and recently mused about a non-scary game mode in Requiem--elaborated on his idea after one of his fo
  
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• After Plotting Buyouts Of EA And Activision, This Media Giant Could Again Try To Push Into Gaming

  30-06-2026 15:44 via gamespot.com
  
  NBC Universal and Comcast are splitting into two companies, and when that happens, NBC Universal could go after gaming assets as it looks to grow. This is according to a report from Reuters, which clarified that nothing is locked down as of yet, and any potential transaction would not happen until Comcast and NBC Universal officially split in about a year.
  In any event, the report reminded everyone that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has been interested in gaming for a long time, previously pondering
  
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• A Developer Said No To Baldur’s Gate 4 Because Following BG3 Would Be “Insanity”

  30-06-2026 15:04 via gamespot.com
  
  Following the enormous critical and commercial success of Larian's Baldur's Gate 3, the studio passed on making Baldur's Gate 4 to produce a new Divinity instead. A fourth Baldur's Gate game is as close to a sure thing as possible, but who will make it? That remains to be seen, but Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast pitched one of its studios, Archetype Entertainment--and they said no as well.Archetype is headed by James Ohlen and Kevin Martens, both of whom were co-lead designers on Baldur's Gate
  
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• Cyberpunk 2077 Is Having A Moment Again, And It’s For One Simple Reason

  30-06-2026 14:00 via gamespot.com
  
  Cyberpunk 2077 is enjoying another resurgence in popularity, with the game's player count on Steam being at its highest level in over two years. While the game has averaged around 30,000 concurrent players per day (via SteamDB) over the last month, currently, that number has spiked over the last week and has peaked at over 87,000 players so far. What's the driving force behind this increase in chooms headed to Night City? A simple answer: It's dirt-cheap to buy right now.With the Steam Summer Sa
  
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• GTA 6 Might Normalize $80 Games, But Analysts Say Only A Few Can Pull It Off

  30-06-2026 13:59 via gamespot.com
  
  With GTA 6 setting its price point at $80, the general consensus is that it may be a trendsetter that will encourage more publishers to sell their games at this new baseline MSRP. According to analysts, while this new sticker price baseline is possible, only a handful of games might be able to get away with it.Speaking to GamesRadar, DFC Intelligence's David Cole believes that $80 games will become more commonplace over time, thanks partly to GTA 6 and Nintendo being the first company to wade in
  
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• How To Build Nekomancer Wonder Weapon In BO7 Zombies

  30-06-2026 13:02 via gamespot.com
  
  Call of Duty Season 4 Reloaded is live in Black Ops 7, bringing the brand-new Kowakujo map to Zombies. This map is set at Takeo's family castle, and the Japanese setting includes a Wonder Weapon themed around the Legend of the Nekomata, which is a two-tailed cat spirit. Yes, your Wonder Weapon for Kowakujo is an actual cat. In this guide, we'll show you how to complete all the steps to gain access to this unique Nekomancer Wonder Weapon in Kowakujo.Kowakujo mapNekomancer Wonder WeaponThe Nekoman
  
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• GTA 6 Early Access Is Not Real, But The Scam Sites Are

  30-06-2026 12:55 via gamespot.com
  
  With GTA 6 only a few months away and shaping up to be the biggest entertainment launch of the year, scam websites aren't wasting any time attempting to fleece people of their cash. Building on the game's hype and the eagerness of some people to play it early, some sites are offering "VIP" access to GTA 6 ahead of launch, all for the low price of several hundred dollars. The only part of GTA 6 that will be available early is the option to preload it, which might account for some of the confusion
  
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• The Biggest New Game Releases Of July 2026

  30-06-2026 02:00 via gamespot.com
  
  We’re officially in the second half of 2026, and what a year it has been so far. With dozens of great games having already been released, July is kicking things off with a selection of interesting indies, a Lovecraftian co-op game where you will get stabbed in the back, and more Doom–the good kind from Id Software, not the pervasive feeling you get whenever you turn on the news.As usual, we’ve rounded up all of the games we have our eyes on in July, as well as the correct relea
  
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• State Of Decay Studio Undead Labs Reportedly At Risk Of Closure

  30-06-2026 01:58 via gamespot.com
  
  Amid reports that Microsoft is planning massive layoffs in its Xbox gaming division, first-party studios like Double Fine, Compulsion Games, and Ninja Theory have been rumored to be in talks to avoid total closure. Now, State of Decay developer Undead Labs is said to be facing the same fate if a potential buyer can't be found.According to GamesBeat and Windows Central, Undead Labs is one if the studios that Microsoft may unload following the end of its current fiscal year on June 30. What makes
  
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• Persona Netflix Adaptation Reportedly In The Works

  30-06-2026 00:30 via gamespot.com
  
  Atlus's globally beloved Persona series is no stranger to mixed media: numerous games in the series have been adapted into anime, manga, novels and more. But, if a recent report is correct, the Persona franchise may find itself expanding to many more screens across the globe.Variety reports that, according to various sources, Netflix has inked a deal to adapt Persona into some form to be broadcast on its streaming platform. Christopher Monfette will serve as writer, producer, and showrunner, whi
  
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• Xbox Devs Call For Worker Protections Ahead Of Likely Layoffs

  29-06-2026 21:49 via gamespot.com
  
  Earlier this month, rumors began to spread about potentially massive layoffs coming to Microsoft's Xbox gaming division this summer. While the majority of those those cuts don't appear to have happened yet, game developers under Xbox have come together to push for more layoff protections for their members.Members of the United Video Game Workers and representatives from workers at Microsoft's first-party studios--including Bethesda's parent company Zenimax, as well as Activision Blizzard--were p
  
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• CFB 27 Launch Times For Early Access And Global Release

  29-06-2026 21:39 via gamespot.com
  
  The new college football season begins soon, and ahead of that, EA's College Football 27 is launching this week, at least for early access. In this post we're rounding up the key details on how to play early, and when you can get in.The official global release date for CFB 27 is July 9, but MVP+ subscribers can jump in starting July 2. People who own the deluxe edition or the MVP bundle can begin playing on July 6. Everyone else can play on July 9.
  See at Amazon
  EA Sports CFB 27 early access rel
  
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• Activision Promotes Call Of Duty: MW4 By Telling You It’s Not On Game Pass

  29-06-2026 20:50 via gamespot.com
  
  For the first time in two years, the annual Call of Duty release, Modern Warfare 4, will not come to Xbox Game Pass at launch. To help hammer that point home, Activision is rolling out a new ad campaign reminding people they need to buy the game outright to play it at launch.
  The ad (see below) informs people they can preorder the game to "lock in" early access to the campaign. Right below that is a line that states, "Not on Xbox Game Pass this year."
  MW4 is not coming to Game Pass at launch.202
  
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