Call of Duty is one of the biggest names in gaming, but it generally avoided Nintendo's latest flagship platforms over the years. While it continues to drop even on the likes of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, it still isn't on the Switch, but that could be about to change.

CoD was originally promised to launch on the Switch before its acquisition by Microsoft, with the plan to come to fruition once the acquisition process had been completed. That took a little longer than anticipated, with regulators weighingthe market implications of such a massive buyout, but it did happen eventually.

Now, a couple of years later, there is still no CoD on the Switch, but new datamining has confirmed that progress is being made as Nintendo has appeared as a platform in CoD HQ's files.

New lines of code have appeared in the files called "PlatformFamily.Nintendo," listed several times. It implies that CoD HQ is being primed for new platforms, which is most likely going to be the Switch 2, where many other AAA publishers have started porting their games.

With these engine-level changes now showing up, it's likely that we'll be seeing CoD on Nintendo's platform in the coming months, or maybe see the first multi-platform CoD drop in late 2026 that'll include the Switch 2 together with the franchise's traditional platforms.

Jez Corden of Microsoft Central previously also said that CoD on Nintendo was imminent, even before these new lines of code had been discovered, while Activision itself made a deal with the company back in 2023 (per Engadget) that solidified the prospects of seeing CoD on Switch.

How this will look is anyone's guess, but I wager it'll be the same old CoD as it is every year, with few improvements and fewer innovations, chock full of microtransactions, weird collaborations, pop culture references, and everything else we've become accustomed to.

Hell, we might even see Mario and Luigi carrying laser weapons while slide-cancelling across Nuketown to the tune of Nicki Minaj's songs. Grim.

The post CoD on Switch 2 is right around the corner, but don’t expect Mario killstreaks appeared first on Destructoid.

As an extraction shooter, it's only natural that ARC Raiders would have a wipe mechanic. Most of the games in the genre do, and while it does it differently, Embark's game very much follows suit. But despite the fact that over a million people participated and wiped their accounts, I still struggle to figure out why you'd even do such a thing.

In other games like ARC Raiders, server wipes are global. A time comes when every player on a given server is Thanos-snapped into oblivion, forced to start from scratch. This resets the game's overall economy and progress, allowing everyone to catch their breath and begin anew. It's an interesting concept, since it removes the massive advantage power users had, putting the entire server on a relatively even playing field.

But ARC Raiders doesn't do that. It asks you to spend a tremendous amount of time gathering resources to be able to wipe, providing you few noteworthy rewards for doing so. Still, over a million people wiped (thanks PC Games N), despite the fact that they're making their overall experience less fun (the quests reset and have to be repeated, most valuable items are lost, etc.).

A lot is lost and not much gained, leaving those who participated at an abject disadvantage compared to everyone else who retained all their skills (now easily reset and redistributed), items, and everything in between.

At least in games like Hunt: Showdown, where the game's money system provides enough incentive to willingly wipe while others do not, there are proper reasons for wiping and "prestiging." That doesn't really exist in ARC Raiders, but Embark has acknowledged this and will introduce more benefits for Expeditions in the future.

I just hope they're tremendous enough that the majority of players will find them interesting, and that they'll start off by not including quest resets. If they do, at least make them different, more rewarding, or cooler for Expedition participants. The repetition ruins the fun.

The post One million ARC Raiders players wiped their accounts with Expeditions, but what’s the point of doing so? appeared first on Destructoid.

ARC Raiders has truly become a breeding ground for innovative ideas with which players aim to maximize their performance topside, both against other players and those evil, mindless ARC drones. Now, some have figured out how to make a functional siege tower, allowing no one to get a shot in.

This seems to have been first discovered (or at least popularized) by streamer TheBurntPeanut (via GamingZar), who managed to somehow assemble several barricades and place them onto a single player, who'd become completely surrounded by walls and essentially immune to incoming damage. It also appears there's enough space for other players to squeeze in, making this the best portable defense system in the game.

In another clip, it's shown that you can mount just one or a couple of these barricades onto yourself, allowing entrance into buildings and ensuring protection follows you everywhere you go. It's the most fun and ridiculous way to exploit the game's systems, but it will unfortunately be patched out pretty soon, or at least I would think so.

Other exploits, like how players recently discovered the console in ARC Raiders and used commands to tune down various settings to increase visibility and reduce on-screen clutter, have also appeared over the months, but were generally (and quickly) removed by the developers. That isn't enough to prevent players from thinking out of the box, however, and we'll likely continue seeing all sorts of ridiculous contraptions spring up topside.

And I'm honestly all here for it.

The post You can make an actual siege tower in ARC Raiders, and it’s surprisingly effective appeared first on Destructoid.

Spooky season is way past us, and the jollymaxxing hasn't ended yet (at least not in my very archaic Orthodox part of the world), but Phasmophobia never sleeps, and neither do its ghosts. The devs have now announced 2026 will be one of the game's biggest years yet, with the 1.0 release fast approaching.

As announced by the game's developers on X, Phasmophobia will finally launch in full in 2026, bringing its years-long early access program to a satisfying closure. Millions have already played the game, tested it, and helped develop it through their feedback, but more is coming ahead of the official 1.0 release.

This year will have many focuses, but key highlights are increased immersion, modernization, and better graphics. The game desperately needs the latter, and as you could tell from the outdated models, this was probably left for last. The atmosphere of each map and run is already top-notch, and these new finishes will just make the experience even better.

One of the most iconic maps, 6 Tanglewood Drive, is going to be reworked and brought in line with other reworked maps. A much-needed update will be given to the player models, which are frankly immersion-breaking at the moment. The new models will be significantly more realistic and pleasant to look at, which is always a plus.

Animations for both player characters and the first-person camera will be polished, updated, and refined to create a more immersive, grounded experience.

Though it wasn't mentioned in the plans, I sincerely hope some more attention is given to the ghosts and their AI. A lot of the game revolves around communicating with forces unseen, and I've been ghosted (pun intended) way too many times, making me dread a return to a game that doesn't respond. Demonologist drew me away because of that, even if it doesn't have as good a vibe and depth as Phasmophobia. It's just way more reactive, and I pray to see that improved by the time 1.0 comes around.

This update, aimed to release in the first quarter of this year, is a major step toward 1.0. The latter will also include the "reworked Horror update" once it arrives, bringing an end to what's been one of the most popular, fun, and interesting early access programs in the history of indie games.

After 1.0, a lot more could be on the way, given that the devs will have made the game feature-complete and ready for further expansion based on a solid gameplay foundation.

The post Phasmophobia promises that 2026 will be one of its best years—but here I am just hoping the voices in the dark will finally talk back appeared first on Destructoid.

The Steam Machine, announced in late 2025, is yet to make a proper price announcement, with Valve eluding that information since first mentioning the thing. Amid rising RAM costs, it's understandable that waters have been muddled, but recent leaks indicate the company is planning to sell the device at a ludicrous price, even with the current situation.

As per a Jan. 9 Reddit post, which showed a Czech retailer's listing for the Steam Machine, Valve's latest and greatest hardware release is allegedly going to cost between $950 and $1070 for the 512GB and 2TB models, respectively.

Even considering that this figure likely includes VAT (21 percent, indicating a $785 or $885 pre-tax price), this would put it leagues above the base PlayStation 5, which it rivals in terms of raw power, despite its advantages as a PC rather than a specialized console. At this stage, you can get yourself a used PS5 for around $300 in the second-hand market with no extra tax on top, making it more than twice as cheap as the Steam Machine, which can in no way compete even at the usual $499 retail price point.

The increased price is likely due to the steep jump in undiced DRAM prices lately that have affected not only proper RAM, but every single hardware module that uses memory, including storage, motherboards, graphics cards, and everything in between. It's an unprecedented market situation at the moment, worse than even those COVID years when Bitcoin mining ate through the entirety of the global GPU supply.

However, at this price, it's basically dead on arrival. No one who has any other options would settle for purchasing a frankly low-range machine for over a thousand bucks when that same money could be funneled into consoles or even a much better PC in the used (or on-sale retail) market.

You could literally buy a PS5 with two controllers, a 4K OLED, and probably a game to play on them for the same price as just the Steam Machine itself, which is a Linux-based, Steam-oriented PC coming with its own fair share of base limitations.

It just does not make sense to release the Steam Machine at this price, at least not if it's aimed at the average Joe and not corporations and their use cases, where Valve can't expect to make up for a loss leader strategy through game sales. However, as Valve usually sells its hardware through Steam and not retailers, it's safe to say that the price above also includes their cut, somewhat increasing the official listing. Even so, I don't believe it's a big factor, given how large the base price probably is. Soon, we will know for sure.

The post Pricing the Steam Machine at $1,000 would kill it before it even arrived appeared first on Destructoid.

In the midst of increasing AI usage across the board, one publisher is taking a firm stance against the technology, labeling it "cancerous." It has therefore issued a total ban on the use of AI in the games it publishes.

The publisher in question is Hooded Horse, known for supporting countless indie games, some of which are immensely popular and successful. Some of its most notable published games include Manor Lords, Against the Storm, Cataclismo, Endless Legend 2, and Darkwood 2, among others. It's certainly one of the most prominent indie publishers on the market, and it's now using its position to fight against what it perceives as a harmful technology.

In an interview with Kotaku, chief executive Tim Bender said the only thing AI ever did was "[make] our lives more difficult."

"I fucking hate Gen AI art," Bender said, adding that Hooded Horse's publishing contracts include a clause for "no fucking AI assets."

Bender went on to say that the publisher "got to the point" where it communicates to its potential partners that no AI should be used, even as placeholders, because there is always a chance it would "slip through" into the final build.

"Because of that, we’re constantly having to watch and deal with it and try to prevent it from slipping in, because it’s cancerous," he said.

Bender concluded by saying that it'd be a "betrayal" of all the people in the company's marketing team who produce all sorts of promotional art if they were to be forced into working with something that relies on generative AI. "I wouldn’t be able to face them if we had that," he said, indicating that this is more of an ethical stance than a PR-related one.

Enforcing these rules is difficult, but I for one believe it's the right course of action. Sure, some of these devs will use AI and mask it well, especially as the technology gets better, but it's important to have rules in place that openly stand in defiance of this worldwide corporate push toward a reality where things are purely artificial, built on the foundations of millennia of human work and effort just so some CEO somewhere could rake in even more cash than he does now.

At least before that selfsame CEO had to produce something of value, something original and striking enough for people to want to experience, so he could rake in the cash. Now, it's a machine doing everything, regurgitating borderline stolen art into pure slop for the enjoyment of absolutely no one and in the service of exclusively a small portion of people who never cared about art in the first place.

The post Indie publisher Hooded Horse issues total ban on AI in its games because it’s a ‘cancerous’ technology appeared first on Destructoid.

As announced, Larian Studios is hosting an AMA, following a massive controversy over generative AI in its upcoming game, Divinity. The studio's devs, including chief executive Swen Vincke, answered all sorts of questions, including those related to this controversial technology.

In the AMA, held on Jan. 9 on the r/games subreddit, a user asked the studio about its use of generative AI. "What is your opinion on the role of (generative) AI in the game development process, and for your studio in particular," they asked, additionally inquiring if the AI is being used in some departments and not in others.

Vincke first said that "there is not going to be any generative AI art in Divinity," saying that a lot of confusion had been caused in the past over how the tech is used, which led the studio to completely "refrain from using generative AI tools during concept art development." This last caused the greatest amount of controversy in December, with players strongly opposed to AI in art in any capacity.

"That way there can be no discussion about the origin of the art," Vincke added.

However, Larian Studios will not give up on generative AI entirely, as Vincke believes it can "help" with speed, allowing for way more iterations and testing that further leads to better and, apparently, more refined gameplay. "We're trying things out across departments," he said.

"Our hope is that it can aid us to refine ideas faster, leading to a more focused development cycle, less waste, and ultimately, a higher-quality game," Vincke added.

Vincke concluded that creative assets could still be generated by AI, but only by AI trained on data created by Larian itself and fed into its seemingly self-hosted model.

"If we use a GenAI model to create in-game assets, then it’ll be trained on data we own," he said, which does confirm AI will be used in art, but only to iterate on what Larian had already created itself, rather than what Call of Duty recently did with Ghibli-filter AI all over the place.

In the same thread, Divinity's writing director, Adam Smith, also noted that no AI is being used in writing whatsoever. While the studio did apparently try to make the technology work for dialogues and other text, it failed to provide satisfactory results, with even the most random human writing ending up being better, so that department seems to be completely AI-free.

The post Larian Studios will ‘refrain from using Gen AI’ in concept art but won’t give up on the tech entirely appeared first on Destructoid.

ARC Raiders, being a modern online game, has loads of settings you can tweak, but reserves the fine-tuning only for the developers, given how much impact this could have on the overall experience.

However, in one of the latest patches, players discovered a console was added, allowing players to carefully tune each and every aspect of the game, chiefly the graphics, providing new ways to optimize for performance.

So, here's how you can enable it.

How to enable the console in ARC Raiders

To get the console in ARC Raiders, you'll have to do a few steps. This is chiefly for the Steam version of the game, as there is apparently no way to enable the console on, well, consoles at the moment.

Here's what you should do:

• Open Steam, go to Library.
• Right click on ARC Raiders and go to Properties.
• Under General, in the Launch Options bar, type in: "-newconsole -log"
• Open the game, which should launch a console alongside it.
• Click on the arrow in the top-right to open up the text bar.
• Type in your commands.

The exact list of commands is still relatively unknown, so we won't be including them here. Using console commands to disable certain aspects of the graphics has also been labeled as cheating by some players and is likely to be targeted by the developers in the coming patches and hotfixes. Therefore, we'll include a list of ethical commands once Embark has cleared things up.

In the meantime, you can try to tweak the settings yourself.

The post How to use console commands in ARC Raiders appeared first on Destructoid.

Call of Duty is one of the biggest names in gaming, but it generally avoided Nintendo's latest flagship platforms over the years. While it continues to drop even on the likes of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, it still isn't on the Switch, but that could be about to change.

CoD was originally promised to launch on the Switch before its acquisition by Microsoft, with the plan to come to fruition once the acquisition process had been completed. That took a little longer than anticipated, with regulators weighingthe market implications of such a massive buyout, but it did happen eventually.

Now, a couple of years later, there is still no CoD on the Switch, but new datamining has confirmed that progress is being made as Nintendo has appeared as a platform in CoD HQ's files.

New lines of code have appeared in the files called "PlatformFamily.Nintendo," listed several times. It implies that CoD HQ is being primed for new platforms, which is most likely going to be the Switch 2, where many other AAA publishers have started porting their games.

With these engine-level changes now showing up, it's likely that we'll be seeing CoD on Nintendo's platform in the coming months, or maybe see the first multi-platform CoD drop in late 2026 that'll include the Switch 2 together with the franchise's traditional platforms.

Jez Corden of Microsoft Central previously also said that CoD on Nintendo was imminent, even before these new lines of code had been discovered, while Activision itself made a deal with the company back in 2023 (per Engadget) that solidified the prospects of seeing CoD on Switch.

How this will look is anyone's guess, but I wager it'll be the same old CoD as it is every year, with few improvements and fewer innovations, chock full of microtransactions, weird collaborations, pop culture references, and everything else we've become accustomed to.

Hell, we might even see Mario and Luigi carrying laser weapons while slide-cancelling across Nuketown to the tune of Nicki Minaj's songs. Grim.

The post CoD on Switch 2 is right around the corner, but don’t expect Mario killstreaks appeared first on Destructoid.

As an extraction shooter, it's only natural that ARC Raiders would have a wipe mechanic. Most of the games in the genre do, and while it does it differently, Embark's game very much follows suit. But despite the fact that over a million people participated and wiped their accounts, I still struggle to figure out why you'd even do such a thing.

In other games like ARC Raiders, server wipes are global. A time comes when every player on a given server is Thanos-snapped into oblivion, forced to start from scratch. This resets the game's overall economy and progress, allowing everyone to catch their breath and begin anew. It's an interesting concept, since it removes the massive advantage power users had, putting the entire server on a relatively even playing field.

But ARC Raiders doesn't do that. It asks you to spend a tremendous amount of time gathering resources to be able to wipe, providing you few noteworthy rewards for doing so. Still, over a million people wiped (thanks PC Games N), despite the fact that they're making their overall experience less fun (the quests reset and have to be repeated, most valuable items are lost, etc.).

A lot is lost and not much gained, leaving those who participated at an abject disadvantage compared to everyone else who retained all their skills (now easily reset and redistributed), items, and everything in between.

At least in games like Hunt: Showdown, where the game's money system provides enough incentive to willingly wipe while others do not, there are proper reasons for wiping and "prestiging." That doesn't really exist in ARC Raiders, but Embark has acknowledged this and will introduce more benefits for Expeditions in the future.

I just hope they're tremendous enough that the majority of players will find them interesting, and that they'll start off by not including quest resets. If they do, at least make them different, more rewarding, or cooler for Expedition participants. The repetition ruins the fun.

The post One million ARC Raiders players wiped their accounts with Expeditions, but what’s the point of doing so? appeared first on Destructoid.

ARC Raiders has truly become a breeding ground for innovative ideas with which players aim to maximize their performance topside, both against other players and those evil, mindless ARC drones. Now, some have figured out how to make a functional siege tower, allowing no one to get a shot in.

This seems to have been first discovered (or at least popularized) by streamer TheBurntPeanut (via GamingZar), who managed to somehow assemble several barricades and place them onto a single player, who'd become completely surrounded by walls and essentially immune to incoming damage. It also appears there's enough space for other players to squeeze in, making this the best portable defense system in the game.

In another clip, it's shown that you can mount just one or a couple of these barricades onto yourself, allowing entrance into buildings and ensuring protection follows you everywhere you go. It's the most fun and ridiculous way to exploit the game's systems, but it will unfortunately be patched out pretty soon, or at least I would think so.

Other exploits, like how players recently discovered the console in ARC Raiders and used commands to tune down various settings to increase visibility and reduce on-screen clutter, have also appeared over the months, but were generally (and quickly) removed by the developers. That isn't enough to prevent players from thinking out of the box, however, and we'll likely continue seeing all sorts of ridiculous contraptions spring up topside.

And I'm honestly all here for it.

The post You can make an actual siege tower in ARC Raiders, and it’s surprisingly effective appeared first on Destructoid.

Spooky season is way past us, and the jollymaxxing hasn't ended yet (at least not in my very archaic Orthodox part of the world), but Phasmophobia never sleeps, and neither do its ghosts. The devs have now announced 2026 will be one of the game's biggest years yet, with the 1.0 release fast approaching.

As announced by the game's developers on X, Phasmophobia will finally launch in full in 2026, bringing its years-long early access program to a satisfying closure. Millions have already played the game, tested it, and helped develop it through their feedback, but more is coming ahead of the official 1.0 release.

This year will have many focuses, but key highlights are increased immersion, modernization, and better graphics. The game desperately needs the latter, and as you could tell from the outdated models, this was probably left for last. The atmosphere of each map and run is already top-notch, and these new finishes will just make the experience even better.

One of the most iconic maps, 6 Tanglewood Drive, is going to be reworked and brought in line with other reworked maps. A much-needed update will be given to the player models, which are frankly immersion-breaking at the moment. The new models will be significantly more realistic and pleasant to look at, which is always a plus.

Animations for both player characters and the first-person camera will be polished, updated, and refined to create a more immersive, grounded experience.

Though it wasn't mentioned in the plans, I sincerely hope some more attention is given to the ghosts and their AI. A lot of the game revolves around communicating with forces unseen, and I've been ghosted (pun intended) way too many times, making me dread a return to a game that doesn't respond. Demonologist drew me away because of that, even if it doesn't have as good a vibe and depth as Phasmophobia. It's just way more reactive, and I pray to see that improved by the time 1.0 comes around.

This update, aimed to release in the first quarter of this year, is a major step toward 1.0. The latter will also include the "reworked Horror update" once it arrives, bringing an end to what's been one of the most popular, fun, and interesting early access programs in the history of indie games.

After 1.0, a lot more could be on the way, given that the devs will have made the game feature-complete and ready for further expansion based on a solid gameplay foundation.

The post Phasmophobia promises that 2026 will be one of its best years—but here I am just hoping the voices in the dark will finally talk back appeared first on Destructoid.

In the midst of increasing AI usage across the board, one publisher is taking a firm stance against the technology, labeling it "cancerous." It has therefore issued a total ban on the use of AI in the games it publishes.

The publisher in question is Hooded Horse, known for supporting countless indie games, some of which are immensely popular and successful. Some of its most notable published games include Manor Lords, Against the Storm, Cataclismo, Endless Legend 2, and Darkwood 2, among others. It's certainly one of the most prominent indie publishers on the market, and it's now using its position to fight against what it perceives as a harmful technology.

In an interview with Kotaku, chief executive Tim Bender said the only thing AI ever did was "[make] our lives more difficult."

"I fucking hate Gen AI art," Bender said, adding that Hooded Horse's publishing contracts include a clause for "no fucking AI assets."

Bender went on to say that the publisher "got to the point" where it communicates to its potential partners that no AI should be used, even as placeholders, because there is always a chance it would "slip through" into the final build.

"Because of that, we’re constantly having to watch and deal with it and try to prevent it from slipping in, because it’s cancerous," he said.

Bender concluded by saying that it'd be a "betrayal" of all the people in the company's marketing team who produce all sorts of promotional art if they were to be forced into working with something that relies on generative AI. "I wouldn’t be able to face them if we had that," he said, indicating that this is more of an ethical stance than a PR-related one.

Enforcing these rules is difficult, but I for one believe it's the right course of action. Sure, some of these devs will use AI and mask it well, especially as the technology gets better, but it's important to have rules in place that openly stand in defiance of this worldwide corporate push toward a reality where things are purely artificial, built on the foundations of millennia of human work and effort just so some CEO somewhere could rake in even more cash than he does now.

At least before that selfsame CEO had to produce something of value, something original and striking enough for people to want to experience, so he could rake in the cash. Now, it's a machine doing everything, regurgitating borderline stolen art into pure slop for the enjoyment of absolutely no one and in the service of exclusively a small portion of people who never cared about art in the first place.

The post Indie publisher Hooded Horse issues total ban on AI in its games because it’s a ‘cancerous’ technology appeared first on Destructoid.

As announced, Larian Studios is hosting an AMA, following a massive controversy over generative AI in its upcoming game, Divinity. The studio's devs, including chief executive Swen Vincke, answered all sorts of questions, including those related to this controversial technology.

In the AMA, held on Jan. 9 on the r/games subreddit, a user asked the studio about its use of generative AI. "What is your opinion on the role of (generative) AI in the game development process, and for your studio in particular," they asked, additionally inquiring if the AI is being used in some departments and not in others.

Vincke first said that "there is not going to be any generative AI art in Divinity," saying that a lot of confusion had been caused in the past over how the tech is used, which led the studio to completely "refrain from using generative AI tools during concept art development." This last caused the greatest amount of controversy in December, with players strongly opposed to AI in art in any capacity.

"That way there can be no discussion about the origin of the art," Vincke added.

However, Larian Studios will not give up on generative AI entirely, as Vincke believes it can "help" with speed, allowing for way more iterations and testing that further leads to better and, apparently, more refined gameplay. "We're trying things out across departments," he said.

"Our hope is that it can aid us to refine ideas faster, leading to a more focused development cycle, less waste, and ultimately, a higher-quality game," Vincke added.

Vincke concluded that creative assets could still be generated by AI, but only by AI trained on data created by Larian itself and fed into its seemingly self-hosted model.

"If we use a GenAI model to create in-game assets, then it’ll be trained on data we own," he said, which does confirm AI will be used in art, but only to iterate on what Larian had already created itself, rather than what Call of Duty recently did with Ghibli-filter AI all over the place.

In the same thread, Divinity's writing director, Adam Smith, also noted that no AI is being used in writing whatsoever. While the studio did apparently try to make the technology work for dialogues and other text, it failed to provide satisfactory results, with even the most random human writing ending up being better, so that department seems to be completely AI-free.

The post Larian Studios will ‘refrain from using Gen AI’ in concept art but won’t give up on the tech entirely appeared first on Destructoid.

Embark Studios is one of the most community-oriented development teams out there, focusing on what the general player base wants instead of only listening to so-called "authority" figures.

Streamer Ninja, who in some other live-service circles would be considered as one such figure, is now fully advocating for ARC Raiders' continued "casual" focus.

"Cater to the f**king casuals, pro play is secondary," Ninja said in a recent stream (thanks CDL Hater Central). He highlighted how the game is primarily casual in nature, and stated that it's these players who are "spending money and playing the game," whereas pros are in the minority. He added that he formerly advocated for more focus on professional play, which he thought would lead to more balance overall, but has since changed his mind.

I think ARC Raiders and any online shooter out there should genuinely always focus on the casual side of things. Professional play is entirely separate and exists on a plane far removed from the one everyone else is on. The builds are never the same, neither are the strats and tactics, and no matter how much casuals try to mimic pro players in casual environments, it'll never result in the same kind of gameplay.

These two categories are so separate that they should never mix, and some developers understand this well. Pros play on standalone servers, have tight-knit queues and environments to operate in, and are kept largely separated from casuals, who make up the vast majority of each game.

What's more, ARC Raiders is an extraction shooter, and its potential as a huge esport isn't so great. Sure, you can form a competitive scene around the game, but it's not a team-based title like Counter-Strike 2 or League of Legends, which serves to drive the "casual" point further. Casual play is at the very heart of the experience, and so it would make no sense as to why Embark should ever cater to this small minority of so-called professionals.

A lot of voices are, unfortunately, advocating for the latter, but Embark has maintained good communication with the broader community so far, catering to its needs and woes, instead of ignoring them and only listening to a gatekept clique of streamers and pros.

The post ARC Raiders is right to focus on casual rather than professional players—even Ninja agrees appeared first on Destructoid.

For the first time in seven years, a new mystery has been discovered in Red Dead Redemption 2. Full of all sorts of threads to be followed, RDR2 players worked diligently over these past seven years to uncover everything it hid in its vast world, but one seems to have been missed.

As per Synth Potato on X, this newly-discovered mystery, which the players are working around the clock to solve, had to do with a certain telegraph pole. Located near Dewberry Creek, the pole had a spider symbol etched on it, which, when transposed over the full RDR2 map, illustrates branching paths that lead to eight other poles around the game. Every pole had that same spider symbol and a feather attached to them that can be taken off with a well-placed shot.

As Synth Potato explains, there also appeared to be a web-covered tree in the middle of the transposed symbol, indicating that players should go North and find more poles. Further inquisitions showed more directions like NW and S, leading players down a true rabbit hole, or rather, a webway.

The final pole shows a guitar and an NW direction that takes players to Fort Wallace, though, per Synth Potato, no one has yet figured out what the encampment has to do with the mystery, if anything. Guitars are in the location, but their connection to the easter egg doesn't seem evident at the moment.

This is, as we said above, a mystery that has avoided the player base for over seven years. Easter eggs and mysteries like this one are a staple of Rockstar's game design, and there are countless of them spread out throughout each of the studio's games, especially those released after GTA 4. GTA 5 itself might be the most robust in this respect, though Red Dead Redemption 2 by all means has a ton of them as well.

The ultimate outcome of the mystery is pending further investigation, and I eagerly await the players' discovery.

The post Red Dead Redemption 2 players are on the hunt to solve a new mystery, discovered 7 years after release appeared first on Destructoid.

The Blood of Dawnwalker, an upcoming RPG developed by Rebel Wolves (itself founded by former The Witcher 3 developers) is coming out in 2026. In a New Year special, the developers gave this huge announcement, promising more would be unveiled leading up to launch.

All this and more was shown in a Jan. 3 "Launch Year Special," where Rebel Wolves' global community lead Dominika Burza and game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz recapped 2025 and gave us information about what's to come this year. The two finally revealed when The Blood of Dawnwalker would come out, saying it'd launch sometime in 2026, though they did not give us an exact date.

"We won't reveal the release date today, but you can expect to start hearing from us more and more," Burza said. We can expect to see more gameplay, content, characters, and other features of the game as the devs strive toward including the community and its feedback the game's creative process.

At Gamescom 2025, we spoke to Rebel Wolves and inquired about the game's development and ideas, some of which are akin to RPGs like Persona. The Blood of Dawnwalker seeks to be an innovative iteration on the RPG genre, implementing a time-passing mechanic that puts pressure on everything you do in the game. All of your actions have a "time cost," that you'll have to spend wisely, lest you fail the main quest by not reaching it... in time.

It's one of the most exciting RPGs that are coming out in 2026, and I cannot wait to see more of it.

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As is tradition by now, Valve hosted the annual Steam Awards, which ran for a couple months near the end of last year. Entirely player-based, the Awards are granted by Steam users alone, who, believe it or not, did not pick the undisputed king of gaming, Expedition 33.

Instead, the ultimate Game of the Year among Steam users was none other than Hollow Knight: Silksong, a game so wildly popular it crashed the platform upon its launch. Enjoyed by millions and highly-anticipated, it's no surprise Silksong won, given just how long players had waited for its release since the first game in the series blew everyone away back in early 2017.

That isn't to say that Expedition 33 won nothing. It, indeed, did carry home one award, the one for Best Soundtrack, and I wholeheartedly believe it deserved it. We can argue about how much E33 deserved the many awards it got, especially in some categories at the TGA (cough, Best Direction over Death Stranding 2, cough), but the soundtrack is so phenomenal and outstanding that no number of awards would do it justice.

Silksong also won the Best Game You Suck At Award, again no surprise due to its overall difficulty, as is only natural for a Soulslike title.

Dispatch, too, was awarded here even if it was snubbed at last year's award shows, primarily because its episodes started coming out after most shows had cemented their nominees. We should see Dispatch considered in the 2026 window, though, but it's nice to see the Steam community recognize the game on such short notice, and in a category as prestigious as they come: Outstanding Story-Rich Game.

Other categories and winners include:

• ARC Raiders - Most Innovative Gameplay
• The Midnight Walk - VR GOTY
• Baldur's Gate 3 - Labor of Love
• Hades 2 - Best Game on Steam Deck
• Peak - Better With Friends
• Silent Hill f - Outstanding Visual Style
• RV There Yet? - Sit Back and Relax

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Yesterday, on Dec. 27, Rainbow Six Siege X was hit by a massive security breach, which enabled hackers to give out literal trillions in premium currency, as well as to unlock any skin, including developer ones, for all players. However, that could've just been a front for something far more sinister.

According to Taison TV, a Spanish-language news source, the Rainbow Six Siege X breach was allegedly a "Trojan horse," used to distract Ubisoft while the hackers stole valuable and "classified" information from the company. The hacker group, allegedly named Arctic, seemingly bragged about the hack on a private Telegram channel, saying it had covered its tracks enough to allow them to hack the company again.

Ubisoft sources reportedly told Taison TV that the personal data of players wasn't affected by the breach. The group seemingly plans to release certain information it had acquired in the hack, and will do so if Ubisoft does not contact them. From a screenshot shared by Taison TV, it seems the group wishes to sell the information to potential buyers, but will first redact information to avoid harming Siege players.

So far, Ubisoft has released very little official information about the hack, but its silence could indicate a much bigger problem than was first anticipated. A few hours after the Siege hack, Ubisoft apparently cut not only Siege's servers but most of its game servers, taking games like For Honor completely offline. This could've been done to assess all the damage done by the breach, which may have included servers and services not related to Siege itself.

Ubisoft only confirmed the Siege server cut, but did not provide information about its other games.

For Honor has been brought back since last night, but Siege's servers remain offline across all relevant platforms.

The above should be taken as an allegation, nothing more, since we do not have official information from Ubisoft or relevant developer teams at the time of writing, which only makes sense given the potential severity of this security breach.

If it does turn out to be true, it's anyone's guess what the hackers might have gotten their hands on, though initial theories include leaks of Ubisoft's dev builds, source code, planned and cancelled games, among other things.

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Just in time for the end of the amazing (relatively) 2025, Pokémon Go players are being treated to their Shinies disappearing inexplicably. These super-rare variations of Pokémon are the crown jewels of some players' collections, and many now report that they've just vanished into thin air.

The most common reports come from players claiming their Shiny Cetitans (evolved Cetoddles) disappeared from their collections for no particular reason. They logged on and bam, no rare Cetitan to be found. And it seems this isn't the only Pokémon that's been going MIA these past few days, as other players claimed their Shiny Shundo and other Pokémon disappeared, too.

However, these rare Pokémon variants came back for some players after a few days of vacationing in the void of the internet, pretending as if nothing had even happened. This could just be a minor issue with the back end, which one player indicated could have to do with the favorite marker, as Pokémon marked with the star could end up suddenly disappearing.

There are good odds that players would mark their rare Shinies as favorites, leading to this age-old bug triggering and kidnapping their prize Pokémon. Whether this is truly what caused the issue is as of yet unknown, but it's quite a parting gift for the end of 2025.

Hell, maybe the Pokémon just wanted to chillax and make good use of the holidays and spend some time on a nice warm beach in the southern hemisphere. Or it's just regular mobile game shenanigans. Probably the latter.

In other news, Pokémon Go is currently going through its new Precious Paths season, which kicked off on Dec. 2. Two new Pokémon, Clobbopus and Grapploct, have been added to the game, alongside costumed Pokémon like Charjabug and Dedenne and a whole lot more new and exciting content.

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