First it came for our intellectual property, then it came for our workers, and now it's after our Steam Decks!
Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has announced his retirement from Microsoft after nearly 40 years, amid a major leadership shakeup for the gaming brand that'll see Microsoft's current president of CoreAI, Asha Sharma, take over the role. Additionally, Xbox president Sarah Bond will depart the company.
God of War actor Christopher Judge, the rumbling voice behind beardy Kratos, has suggested more news on the series' future could arrive "late summer".
If you're anything like me, the second Nintendo announced it'd be giving select Switch 1 titles a fancy Switch 2 makeover, you probably immediately starting compiling a wish list. The Xenoblade series was high on mine, but remained persistently unloved. Until now that is! Out of nowhere, Nintendo just released an upgrade for last year's Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition - and better still, it's available now.
Match of the Day football commentator Guy Mowbray has revealed he gave EA permission to create an AI voice clone of himself in order to assist with some of the more onerous aspects of recording commentary for EA Sports FC.
Is there a more terrifying sound in video games than the roar of a Reaper Leviathan or the irritated gurgle of a Crashfish as it suddenly torpedoes toward you from shadows unseen? I mean, yes, probably - but that's not the point. Every time I slip the word "horror" into conversations about Subnautica, it's usually met with dismissals and frowns. And sure, developer Unknown Worlds' sublime underwater survival adventure isn't technically horror, but I can think of few games capable of instilling such an ominous sense of dread in me, such a suffocating fear of the watery unknown, as this one. And with Subnautica's free Switch 2 update now here, what better time for reminiscences and to make myself unreasonably anxious all over again?
An advert released to promote Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been banned after the UK's Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints that it "trivialised sexual violence" following an investigation.
Classic arena shooter Unreal Tournament 2004 has risen from the grave and is now available to download for free, all thanks to a dedicated group of fans working with developer Epic Games' blessing. And the upshot of all this is the much-loved arena FPS has received its first patch "in over 20 years".
Unity CEO Matthew Bromberg has touted generative AI advancements in its game engine that'll soon enable users to "prompt full casual games into existence" just by using natural language.
As the tech giants' escalating AI arms race continues to impact RAM supplies, Valve has confirmed Steam Deck is the latest machine to face availability issues as a result of memory and storage shortages.
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Silence. Two crouched shapes silhouetted in the moonlight, breath held tight as something stirs. A torch beam slices through the shadows; strange grasping limbs slide into view; tension mounts, hearts pound, and then suddenly a voice cuts in, "Hang on a minute, I'm just gonna run to the loo."
If we're plotting out the year based on unexpected obsessions, mine were (in no particular order) weird Italian genre cinema of the 60s and 70s, an unhealthy appetite for unnecessarily elaborate physical media collector's editions, folk horror in literally any form I could consume, and, apparently, No Man's Sky. According to Steam's usual end-of-year thing, the exploratory space sim is by far my most played game of 2025, accounting for - somewhat incredibly - nearly 20 percent of my total playtime.
Saturnalia developer Santa Ragione's first-person narrative horror Horses has received a last-minute ban from the Epic Games Store. Epic was one of several storefronts confirmed to have approved a build for release when news of Horses' ban from Steam emerged, but it has now reversed its decision, citing what Santa Ragione calls "broad and demonstrably incorrect claims".
Well-received horror game No Players Online has returned to Steam after nearly three weeks of unavailability, which its developer Beeswax Games has blamed on an "unfounded" DMCA takedown notice filed by a "former friend".
One thing that's probably got a bit lost in all the controversy preceding Horses' release is the fact it's surprisingly funny. Its humour is pitch black, yes, and its comedic moments often dance on a knife's edge between laughter and revulsion, but writer and director Andrea Lucco Borlera's first-person narrative horror - his debut game, created in close collaboration with Saturnalia developer Santa Ragione - is a fascinatingly singular vision. It's singular enough, in fact, that it's not an easy thing to effectively describe, but if you can imagine a sort of thematic reinterpretation of Animal Farm by way of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo on one side, and a meme-able Garry's Mod video on the other, then Horses gleefully oscillates between them, landing somewhere in the middle.
Hideo Kojima is certainly a busy guy. Death Stranding 2 might be out the way, but the famed game designer still has his plate full with Xbox horror OD, and beyond that, Metal Gear spiritual successor Physint. Then there's his spirited social media presence, his regular phone calls with Geoff Keighley, and now it, turns out, a swerve into Disney voice acting as he takes on the role of a mole.
Remakes, you either love 'em or hate 'em! Or, more probably, you like some of 'em, aren't too keen on others, and are largely ambivalent to the rest. Whatever your perspective, it's obvious remakes - beloved of risk-averse publishers across the industry - aren't going anywhere. They offer the perfect maelstrom of nostalgia bait and brand recognition, meaning they're an easier sell compared to entirely new games, and if players love them, why stop now? But not all remakes are created equally; for every Resident Evil 2 or Silent Hill 2, there's an XIII - a remake so bad its publisher was forced to remake it. Which raises the question - you might call it the Big Question - what makes a remake great?
I realise I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't love Bluepoint's approach to remakes. Sure, they're pretty, they're technically accomplished, and mechanically faithful to the originals, but the studio's artistic liberties too often rankle. I admit I'm a purist and grumpy old man in the making who hates change, but I still think remakes should, fundamentally, play within the boundaries of the original's creative vision. A colour palette shift - swapping the bleached-out ethereal hues of Shadow of the Colossus on PS2 for a more natural lighting, say - might add a bit of beautification, but it can radically alter the intended tone. More egregiously, Bluepoint's decision to redesign chunks of Demon's Souls using a completely different architectural style isn't just an artistic choice, it has significant ramifications for world-building.
