The top five games played on the PlayStation in 2025 by US players were exactly the same as in 2024, according to Circana's Player Engagement Tracker.
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.
The world feels a little quieter today, and the screens we retreat to feel a little colder. On Sunday, December 21, 2025, the heartbeat of the modern shooter stopped. Vince Zampella—the man who spent three decades teaching us that a game could be more than just pixels, that it could be a visceral, heart-pounding extension of our own reflexes—passed away at the age of 55. As reported by Game Informer, this isn’t just the loss of a corporate executive; it feels like losing the captain of the ship. Zampella was the architect of our digital camaraderie, the man who understood that a “game” only works when it respects the player’s time, skill, and passion.
The tragedy that claimed his life is a jarring contrast to the high-octane worlds he built. According to primary reports from NBC4 Los Angeles and the California Highway Patrol, the incident occurred at approximately 12:45 p.m. in the rugged beauty of the San Gabriel Mountains. Zampella was driving a Ferrari 296 GTB on the Angeles Crest Highway when the vehicle veered off the road at mile post 62.70. The car struck a concrete barrier and was consumed by fire almost instantly.
Zampella died at the scene, and a passenger—a soul whose identity remains shielded by the privacy of a grieving family—succumbed to their injuries later at the hospital. The Straits Times notes that while investigations are ongoing, the gaming community is less focused on the mechanics of the accident and more on the massive, hollow space his absence leaves behind. It is a cruel irony that a man who mastered the art of “controlled chaos” on our screens lost his life to the unpredictable reality of a mountain road.
Vince didn’t just make games; he set the tempo for an entire industry. His career began with a refusal to accept the status quo. At 2015, Inc., he gave us the storming of Omaha Beach in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a moment so cinematic it felt like the screen was sweating. But he was just getting started. When he co-founded Infinity Ward, he didn’t just create Call of Duty; he created a language. The “hitmarker,” the snap-to-aim, the prestige system—these weren’t just features; they were the new DNA of interactive entertainment. As The Game Business highlights in their career retrospective, Zampella took the chaos of war and turned it into a finely tuned instrument. If you’ve ever felt the rush of a “Level Up” guitar riff, you were experiencing the mind of Vince Zampella.
Perhaps the most inspiring chapter of his life was his “second act.” After a messy, public split from Activision in 2010 that would have broken a lesser creator, Vince didn’t retreat. He built Respawn Entertainment from the ashes. He gave us Titanfall, reminding us that we could touch the sky, and Apex Legends, a masterclass in surprise and precision. Even when he stepped into the Star Wars universe with the Jedi series, he treated it with the reverence of a fan and the skill of a master.
Most recently, he had become the “fixer” for Battlefield, leading the franchise back to its former glory. Just ten days before his passing, Zampella appeared at The Game Awards 2025, where Battlefield 6 took home the trophy for Best Audio Design—a final, poignant reminder of his obsession with quality. We didn’t know it was a farewell.
To describe Vince’s impact through a clinical table of dates feels insufficient for a man who lived with such intensity. His 55 years were a relentless pursuit of the “perfect feel.” Born in 1970, he spent over thirty years evolving from a developer to the visionary leader of Respawn and the savior of Battlefield. He wasn’t chasing trends; he was the one the trends were trying to catch. His work earned him countless Game of the Year honors, but his real trophy is the muscle memory of millions of players worldwide.
The industry tributes have been a tidal wave of grief. Electronic Arts (EA) confirmed the news to PEOPLE, calling it an “unimaginable loss,” while long-time friend Geoff Keighley spoke of a man who gave developers the “freedom and confidence to be great.” But for the players—the ones who feel the weight of his absence every time they fire up a console—the tribute is simpler. We play on. We defend the points he designed, we master the movement he perfected, and we remember that the light on the gaming horizon is a little dimmer today.
Rest in peace, Vince. You didn’t just change the game; you became the standard.
The post The Light on the Horizon Goes Dark: A Tribute to Vince Zampella (1970–2025) appeared first on Game Reviews, News, Videos & More for Every Gamer – PC, PlayStation, Xbox in 2026.
It's finally here – Fallout has landed in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and there's plenty to unlock.
The whole event is styled after the Fallout TV show, since season 2 is currently ongoing.
Whether you're after the Power Armor Maximus or The Ghoul Operators, or one of the nifty new weapon skins, this is one event you don't want to miss out on.
So, if you're looking for help on how to unlock all the skins, weapons and more from the CoD BO7 Fallout event, here's what you need to know.
CoD BO7 Season 1 Reloaded brings a bunch of new Fallout content which can be unlocked in free and premium event passes.
Everything in the free pass can be unlocked for, you guessed it, free! The premium pass, however, will cost you 1,100 CoD Points, or £8.39 / $9.99.
There are a total of 20 rewards to unlock, with 10 in each pass. Here's the full list of rewards in the Fallout event:
Free Pass
Premium Pass
There will be a Lucy MacLean Operator coming to the game later down the line, but she will be part of a shop bundle instead.
View Green Video on the source websiteCheck out more of our Gaming coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
We're already well into the first season of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and Season 1 Reloaded is about to arrive.
It's the latest in a slew of huge content updates for BO7, introducing all sorts of new maps, weapons and more to the game.
So, if you're excited for another refresh, here's when CoD BO7 Season 1 Reloaded starts, and what you can look forward to.
CoD BO7 Season 1 Reloaded releases on Thursday 8th January 2026 at 5pm GMT.
If you're elsewhere in the world, and are wondering what time the Season 1 Reloaded will launch for you, here's the start time in your time zone:
Naturally, as with any major content update, there's a huge amount to look forward to in Season 1 Reloaded.
The biggest addition is that we'll be getting three new Multiplayer maps, including one brand-new map and two returning ones:
Zombies will also be getting some updates, with the Zarya Cosmodrome from Ashes of the Damned becoming its own Survival map, and the Astra Malorum map receiving a Directed mode.
In the Campaign, we'll be getting two new world events, though the only one we know about is the Wraith Wing, focused on a Guild aircraft with cloning capabilities.
On the weaponry front, we only know about two new weapons joining the game thus far:
Last but not least, we're also getting a collaboration with Fallout to celebrate the TV show's ongoing season 2.
There isn't much to go on yet, but a short teaser appears to hint that Lucy, Maximus and The Ghoul will all feature.
View Green Video on the source websiteCheck out more of our Gaming coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Thursday letters page wonders if Arc Raiders can continue to outsell Battlefield 6, as one reader wonders what the Final Fantasy 7 trilogy collector’s edition will be like.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Summer dreamin’
I am also resigned to Nintendo’s next big announcements being underwhelming. I’m not sure we’ll even get much this year, since they’ve actually revealed quite a bit already, even if nobody’s that excited about Mario Tennis and that weird Yoshi game they wouldn’t explain.
Add Splatoon and Fire Emblem to that and I don’t think you can really hope for a major annoucement until the summer. Of course, you can’t guarantee anything with Nintendo, but with the Switch 2 selling well and plenty of games on their cards they’re really in no rush.
Still, as a fan, I can’t help but try to imagine what they’ll announce next. I do think it could be a new Zelda. It’s three years now since Tears Of The Kingdom, and they announced that a long time before it came out. Add in the 40th anniversary and I think there’s actually a reasonable chance of a teaser trailer this year. Just to keep the pot boiling, so to speak.
I also notice that that online game they were playtesting a few years ago still hasn’t been announced. I don’t think it’s ever been clear what it is, but a new IP would be a nice thing to hear about right now.
Onibee
Three-way fight
Interesting to see how well Arc Raiders is still doing and that it’s ahead of Battlefield 6, even if that’s also done well. It does seem to me that the hype for Battlefield has cooled pretty quickly though. Redsec didn’t seem to catch on at all and it’s definitely Arc Raiders that was the biggest shooter of last year, with Battelfield second and Call Of Duty a distant third.
I’ll be interested to see how this evolves over the course of the year. Will Arc Raiders be a flash in the pan? Is the race close enough that Battlefield 6 could overtake it? What will happen to this year’s Call Of Duty? Even if it’s good, will there be too much damage to the name that it’s still a flop?
I gotta admit, when it comes to Call Of Duty I am a bit of a hater, so I’d be very happy to see it knocked down a peg or three.
Josh
Radioactive bugs
For me the problem with a Fallout remaster, whether it’s 3 or New Vegas, is that Oblivion is still in an absolute state, with no sign of it being properly fixed, and I’d bet large sums of money that any future game will be as well. Bethesda are just incapable of making a game that’s not a janky mess. Which is really annoying when otherwise they’re really good.
Nothing’s going to stop them from releasing Fallout remasters, not with the Amazon show being so popular, but please just wait for it to be finished first. The amount of time we’ve been waiting for New Vegas in particular, it’s just ridiculous to put it out and it’s a buggy mess that needs six months of updates to work properly.
Focus
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Deluxe celebration
I wonder what Square Enix will do once all three Final Fantasy 7 remake games are out? Obviously, they’ll try and bundle them up into one purchase but how much would they charge for it? Surely not £180 or anything close to it, and yet if it was much cheaper it’s going to really upset anyone that bought the originals at full price.
A part of me can’t help but hope they go whole hog though, with a collector’s edition that includes new content and characters and comes in some kind of crazy box with a statue and merch.
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And before you peg me for a money wasting loony, I would say that I’d never usually buy that sort of thing. But I love Final Fantasy 7 and the first two remakes have been fantastic, so I’d really like to celebrate the end of it all in style. Somehow, I feel that Square Enix will be happy to take my money.
Coyotemac
Expensive year
40% of the world’s DRAM (RAM) output being bought Is frightening. Apparently, that will double the price of what remains and that’s how much will it cost now, as less is available; as the year goes on the price can only increase.
I can’t see, on a practical level, how the next gen consoles are not delayed but because the problem is that it’s needed for AI, the need for RAM will only increase. Just crazy times.
TWO MACKS
Technical limitations
I think the worst game I ever bought was Donkey Kong on Atari 2600. It was about £30, which was a lot back then! I saved up and sent my cheque/postal order to a mail order company, then had to endure the two week wait until it arrived. I was bitterly disappointed.
It only had two of the screens, the arcade version had four. Graphics and gameplay were pretty awful too. I should have read a review first but had to have it, as it might have taken magazines up to two months to review it! I listened to a podcast recently, where they interviewed the programmer. Turns out he had a 4K cartridge to fit it all into, which is a tiny amount of memory!
If the software company had given him 8K, he could have fit all four levels in, but more memory meant less profit for them. Also, he had to make it in about two months so they could get the game on the shelves ready for Christmas. I now understand how it turned out like it did.
Tim Keeling
PS: I’ve played Mario Kart World for 270 hours so far! That’s mainly on online Battle Mode, which is crazy addictive!
Eternal regret
RE: Badgerman. The worst game I ever bought was Eternal Darkness for the GameCube.
Despite the good reviews I really disliked it due to the instant high difficulty, confusing storyline, and frustrating gameplay. There is nothing worse than developers making your character limp and shuffle around when you are low on health, as you just become an even easier target for enemies!
The game was exchanged soon after, using GAME’s useful exchange or refund policy back in the day.
Adams6legend
Interestingly bad
It’s questionable whether it counts as the worst game I’ve ever bought, as it was hardly the main reason I bought the collection, but I recently played Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero on the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, and if anything N64 Magazine were being generous awarding it 9%.
Pretty much every decision was baffling. It’s a platform game where you press up to jump and left trigger to turn around. As you move forward your character is positioned about 80% of the way along the screen, so you can’t see what’s ahead.
Half the traps are unavoidable unless you’ve been hit by them already and memorised where they are, and there are points where the necessary way forward looks identical to one of several instant kill holes in the same area. Also, despite starring Sub-Zero, most of the bosses are completely immune to ice attacks.
At least the live action cut scenes were entertainingly camp. I also played Special Forces but that was just incredibly boring rather than even interestingly bad.
TGN Professor
GC: We’d say that counts, especially as it is genuinely one of the worst games ever.
Inbox also-rans
That Detroit: Become Human story is really weird. I get that the game’s cheap, but £3.40 isn’t nothing. Did people really not have anything better to spend their money on than that?
Joffers
I was ready to call that Red Dead Redemption 2 ‘mystery’ a stupid fan conspiracy but that is actually pretty wild. Strange it’s not been noticed before. I definitely didn’t know there was similar stuff in GTA 5 as well.
Gordo
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New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
The Wednesday letters page asks when the next PS5 State of Play will be, as one reader sticks up for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Bad idea
I’m always fascinated to read about really bad games but the problem is that, unlike a bad movie, most people never really get to play them. You can play games you don’t like, sure, but you’ve really got to be skipping your homework to end up buying the video equivalent of The Room by accident.
I don’t think even GC or most reviewers play the absolute worst games, because what would be the point? It’d just be some hentai rubbish on the Switch eShop or a broken indie game on Steam. Never anything as interesting as MindsEye, which I’d have to pay real money to experience, before presumably finding out that the reviews are truthful.
I’ve been trying to think of the worst game I’ve actually paid any money for and I think it must be The Good Life, which I bought because I really liked Deadly Premonition. I was hoping it would at least be so bad it’s good, but it was just boring and broken. There was nothing entertaining about it at all, which I guess is probably true of MindsEye too… but that thought still fascinates me.
Badgerman
One to go
Never mind about the first Nintendo Direct of 2026, I’m waiting to see the first State of Play. We know that Xbox has something planned for the early year but it’s always more of a mystery with Sony.
Although at least we have something to look forward with them this year, in Saros and Wolverine. Considering who’s making them I’m pretty certain they’re going to turn out good, which is instantly a far better line-up for the year, than Sony has had for a long time.
It’s probably just a hiccup, and I doubt Saros will sell that well, but two or three quality first party games a year is all I ask. Announce one more before the spring and this year’s quota will already be I the bag!
Purple Ranger
Shadow drop
Why are so many people saying the Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time remake is going to come out on January 16? I’ve seen that date so many times now and everyone seems to think it’s real, but as far as I can work out Ubisoft has said nothing.
I’ll be absolutely shocked if it comes out that soon, considering we haven’t ever seen anything proper of this version of it. I’d be much less shocked if the remake never happened though. It’s been so long and I’m not sure there’s really that much demand for it.
But Ubisoft did finally get Skull And Bones out, so maybe they just like to see an idea through to its end. Here’s hoping (I think, I’m a bit worried what they’ll do to it).
Demmo
GC: There was a rumour of that date before The Game Awards in December, but nothing was announced. Some people still seem to believe it though, despite the fact that it would be commerical suicide to release it in nine days, without any prior marketing.
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Hallucinating madness
I feel like the world has gone mad at the moment, when it comes to AI. Am I really the only one that notices that it doesn’t work? Sure, it can spit you out a picture of something, with gibberish language and three-armed people, but so what? Who actually wants that? Especially as it’s so obvious it is AI.
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Searching on Google is now much less reliable than it used to be and ChatGPT lies and hallucinates like a drunk politician. But because it’s making some fat cats rich (it doesn’t make money itself, it’s all about the investment) we suddenly have to use it for everything.
This Sony patent about having AI watch TikTok videos to ‘learn’ how to play game is madness. Ignoring the fact that it’s clearly not going to work, why doesn’t the developer just record a run themselves and use that. It’d take them what, a few hours at most? And they’d be doing it anyway for playtesting.
It’s exactly what Nintendo did for their system which, as you rightly point out, they got bored of very quickly, presumably because nobody used it. Because why buy a game just to have the console play it for you?
The Bishop
Each to their own
I see Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is next to bottom on Metacritic’s list of Switch 2 games.
Personally, I enjoyed the delve into the detailed workings of the Switch 2.
Yes, you do need the camera to fully explore but I had that anyway.
As a great lover of the incredible build instructions of Nintendo Labo I see Welcome Tour as a very well made insight to the Switch 2.
Nintendo Life’s review of Welcome Tour is similar to what mine would be.
Happy New Year to all.
Goldenlay
Direct excitement
Nintendo hasn’t had a Direct in February for the last two years, but I think that was just because the Switch 2 was coming. They had it pretty consistently before that, so I’m hopeful they’ll do one again this year.
The reader on Tuesday was right that Mario Kart World is a very sensible and suitable launch game, but I think most long term Nintendo fans would still say that it’s a bit of a disappointment and missing that classic Nintendo magic, even if it is still ‘good’.
My hope for the Direct is not anything specific, just that it not be the minimum effort we’ve seen so far. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza felt like the only reveals at the Switch 2 unveil, even though they weren’t. Because who ever cared about Drag x Drive or Kirby Air Riders?
We need more games to get pumped about, to make the console seem like it’s worth it, but I’m afraid we’ll just get that new single-player Splatoon game and a few more unwanted spin-offs and special editions. I realise games take longer to make nowadays but I thought Nintendo were clever enough to work around that.
I’m beginning to worry that they’re not and that this is going to be a very underwhelming generation for them.
Koffey
PS: I just remembered that new Fire Emblem game. They’ll probably talk about that too, which doesn’t seem very exciting either.
Noisy neighbours
He didn’t knock my door down, but I did have the neighbour asking if I was ‘all right’ after getting a bit overexcited with Call Of Duty a few years ago.
I hadn’t really thought of how much noise I was making, since I had my headphones on, but apparently I was ‘cussing and cursing’ and they were worried some kind of fight was going on or that I was generally just a wrong ‘un. To be honest, they were probably right.
Tez
The big five
Well, you weren’t lying about the list of top games being a depressing one. I wasn’t sure what to expect but having the exact five games be the most popular, in almost exactly the same order, from one year to the next is very worrying. What’s worse is that I doubt that it was any different going back at least… five years? Maybe more?
Even worse than that, I doubt it’ll be any different for at least that length of time in the future. Video games aren’t like movies anymore. They’re not something you do where you’re always looking for something new you haven’t played before. Now they’re just these five games, and maybe a few others, that have existed for a decade or more and will go on for so long as anyone of us can imagine.
Other games sill exist alongside them, obviously, but I worry that for younger gamers that fact is going to be increasingly ignored and that for a more casual younger person there’s absolutely no reason to bother seeking out other games that aren’t just one of the ones in the list.
And then to add another problem on top, you’ve got the fact that if something new does come along, it’s still a very similar type of game. Arc Raiders is probably the biggest new title in a while but it’s still an online shooter (and I don’t think anywhere close to Call Of Duty or anything).
It’s a very worrying state of affairs that I cannot see changing for any reason in the future.
Cranston
Inbox also-rans
I never upset a neighbour while playing a game but more than once I’ve managed to startle my cat two foot into the air when failing to beat a boss in Elden Ring. She still loves me though.
Rendel
Since Konami is trying to bring back its old games, I wish they’d do a new Yie Ar Kung-Fu. No one else ever seems to have heard of it but I have very fond memories of that on the Commodore 64.
Focus
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New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.
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Any studio looking to release a new live service game in 2026 needs to take a long hard look at what the most played games in the US were last year.
The start of a new year should instil everyone with a sense of anticipation and the thought of new possibilities. But for the games industry at least, the last few years have brought more worries than excitement.
As we laid out in our end of year review, 2025 belonged to indie studios, thanks to successes like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hollow Knight: Silksong. And in an ideal world, larger publishers would learn a thing or two from these smaller developers.
At the very least, it’d be nice to see publishers stop pinning all their hopes on live service games and becoming the next Fortnite, because it’s simply not going to happen. If you need further evidence of that, just take a look at what most people in the US were playing last year.
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella took to Bluesky to share the top five most played video games in the US, on both PlayStation and Xbox consoles, according to a survey of ‘active’ gamers.
On PlayStation, the top five were Fortnite, Call Of Duty, GTA 5, Minecraft, and Roblox. And on Xbox, it’s the exact same list, with the only difference being Roblox and Minecraft’s positions are swapped.
These are all long-running games with a heavy emphasis on multiplayer and have been consistently updated over the years – with only Call Of Duty being a traditional yearly release.
What’s especially telling is that, according to Piscatella, these lists are unchanged compared to 2024. The order’s slightly different for Xbox, but it’s still the same five games.
2025's top 5 most played games on US Xbox ranked by % of active panel that played:1 – Fortnite2 – Call of Duty3 – GTAV4 – Minecraft5 – RobloxSame list for 2024:1 – Call of Duty2 – Fortnite3 – Minecraft4 – GTAV5 – RobloxSource: Circana Player Engagement Tracker
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T15:20:42.099Z
Fortnite is the youngest of the bunch, having launched in 2017, which means no other games, live service ones or otherwise, have managed to come close to this list’s level of popularity in the last eight years.
Knowing this, it’s hard to imagine things being any different this time next year. Call Of Duty may drop a couple of places thanks to Black Ops 7, which only launched two months ago and has been a relative flop, at least by the series’ standards.
While there are no public figures on console, SteamDB’s data shows Call Of Duty has been bleeding players for years on PC, with even 2024’s well received Black Ops 6 bucking the trend.
Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders may be the go-to multiplayer shooters for the moment but Call Of Duty clearly has a tight stranglehold on the gaming community when it’s still among the most played games in the US despite its online reputation.
This knowledge should be a turn-off for any studio hoping to break into the live service games market, but comments from Ubisoft suggest it’s unperturbed (even after multiple failures) and the big closure of The Game Awards 2025 was a new live service shooter from the Apex Legends creators called Highguard, that’s set to launch later this month.
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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.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's first event pass is set to hit this afternoon to coincide with the Season One Reloaded update, and its Fallout TV show theme has players quite excited and impressed with what it offers.
Yes, the premium track of the pass costs 1,100 CoD Points (about $10), but even the free rewards are pretty awesome. Players can unlock a total of 10 items simply by playing the game without putting in any investment.
The free track of the event pass includes two Vault Dweller operator skins, a Vault Boy weapon charm, Vault-Tec weapon camo, and the new Sturmwolf 45 SMG. So, if you're even remotely interested in BO7 at this point, it'll definitely be worth playing to unlock everything.
But the premium track is also quite nice, especially for the price compared to other store bundles that clock in at around $20 or more. It has operators and skins for both The Ghoul and Maximus, three weapon blueprints and other cosmetics. And CoD fans are genuinely digging what they see so far.
"That one is ACTUALLY worth spending the money on the premium track... nice!" said one player on X/Twitter, while another remarked that it's "100 times better than any of the garbage BO6 event passes we had." A lot of the same sentiment can be seen across multiple social media channels.
CoD Points are given as part of the battle pass each season on top of being able to purchase them with real money, so if you play BO7, this seems like about as good a value as you'll find. While many others and I rightfully scoff at the pricing of some bundles (the Lucy MacLean Fallout bundle is not included in any of the freebies or event pass), this event seems like it's worthwhile if you're a CoD player in 2026.
The Fallout collab is also introducing multiple limited-time modes and even a reskin of Nuketown called Vault Town, where the iconic location is decked out in Vault-Tec scenery. But personally, I'm most looking forward to the Zombies mode, where you can fight the Bethesda franchise's terrifying Deathclaws.
I have some CoD Points accrued in my account that I'll probably be using for this event pass, but even if I end up deciding against that, the free rewards will have me in the game for the first time in weeks. Oh, and Fallout season two is currently airing on Prime Video and is quite good, too, so the vibes around everything in this update (at least so far) are positive.
The post CoD players have a lot of praise for Black Ops 7’s Fallout event: ‘Actually worth spending the money on’ appeared first on Destructoid.
Welcome back from the CODMAS holiday. Did you get your rest? Good, because it's time to sweat again.
Black Ops 7's newest update, Season One Reloaded, is ready to re-load the game with content across all modes, including multiplayer, Zombies, Endgame, and even Warzone, as Treyarch's live-service season kicks back into gear after the holiday break.
Here's what CoD players can look forward to in January 2026 as part of BO7's Season One Reloaded update's patch notes.
Two new weapons, the Hawker HX sniper rifle (BO2 Ballista) and Sturmwolf 45 SMG (reminiscent of the UMP 45) will be added as event rewards for all players to unlock for free.
The Hawker HX is unlocked in the Quantum Exchange limited time event, while the Sturmwolf 45 is available as part of the Call of Duty x Fallout event pass as a free reward.
New weapons need new locations to play in, including some remasters of classic maps.
Along with the guns, there's new content to play with in Zombies mode.
Additions to the PvE Endgame mode include new world events and a new skill track based on melee attacks.
A bunch of loadout equipment from Black Ops 6 is making its way into BO7 via this update, including:
The collaboration with the Fallout TV show on Prime Video will include operator skins, an event pass, store bundles, a Nuketown map variant, and more. Operator skins include Lucy MacLean, Maximus, and The Ghoul, but there are also limited time modes in Warzone, Zombies, and multiplayer, too.
Additional weekly challenges will come every Thursday throughout the end of season one, along with limited-time events where players can unlock much of the free content, like weapons and more.
Additional updates are coming for Warzone, including weapon balancing and more. But there are also two limited time modes:
Meanwhile, there's been a slew of weapon balancing changes, including a big buff for the Mid-Range Barrel for BO7 assault rifles. The full list of changes for Warzone in the update can be found here.
For all of the BO7-specific bug fixes and changes in multiplayer, Zombies, and Endgame, see here.
The post Black Ops 7 Season 1 Reloaded patch notes – Fallout collab, new guns, new maps, and more appeared first on Destructoid.
I like a good isolated gaming experience as much as anybody, but sometimes, the real joy is the friends you make along the way.
That's where multiplayer games come in, and in 2025, there were plenty of awesome ones across the gamut of genres available. Whether you like co-op or competitive, FPS or third-person shooters, or maybe climbing a mountain with friends, there was a lot to choose from.
Here's what we think were some of the best multiplayer games in 2025.
We may look back on this as the game that really ignited the extraction shooter genre. There have been plenty of similar titles before it, but ARC Raiders' ability to capture a wide berth of players, both hardcore and casual, is an achievement by Embark Studios. Now, the game begins its live-service schedule with updates coming to add more content and keep players engaged.
Each match is an adventure. Do I go solo? Do I group up with others? Do I betray them? Do I try to fight the massive spider robot? Do I leave once I completed a task? Do I stay and try to get more loot? It's all part of the excitement that is ARC Raiders.
Monster Hunter is simply one of the best co-op experiences out there. Grouping up with buddies to hack, hammer, and slash away at giant creatures so you can chunk away their body parts to build new gear sounds morbid, but it's always a blast.
The Battlefield series' triumphant return offers some incredible multiplayer gaming experiences, and the free-to-play REDSEC battle royale component only extended that just a few weeks after launch. Tons of vehicles, big maps, and large squad counts create a hectic experience that is the series' expertise in the FPS genre.
Josef Fares' Hazelight Studios has perfected the two-player co-op experience in Split Fiction with wild setpieces and varied gameplay sequences, and the Friends Pass that allows you to enjoy it with someone who doesn't have to buy the game themselves. The concept is amazing, and the execution was even better.
Whether it's the campaign, new Endgame mode, Nuketown pub-stomping, or new Zombies maps, the entirety of Black Ops 7 is multiplayer-enabled and chock full of content for players to enjoy.
What do you get when you combine From Software's iconic Soulslike gameplay, friends, and a battle royale-like experience? A good amount of fun. Nightreign is far from perfect, but still a very enjoyable game and a likely indication of where the studio's direction is heading. And it already got its first of presumably multiple expansions to continue the journey.
One of 2025's biggest surprise successes, PEAK is the peak of the "friendslop" genre that's popped up over the past few years. Whether you want to work together or just troll your pals, it's always a good time. And it's just $8 on Steam, which is wild.
The post The best multiplayer games in 2025 appeared first on Destructoid.
